Erik Lehnsherr, that was the name of the man who had rescued her, although he preferred the name Magneto. He was a mutant, like her, and he understood her pain, her suffering. He was nice enough to her, but Sarah wasn't stupid, she knew that he hadn't just saved her because she was a mutant. He was building an army, the Brotherhood, and he wanted her to join. Whether she truly wanted to or not didn't matter, because Magneto had saved her life, so she was in debt to him, and what better way to repay it then fighting for his cause?

He quickly bestowed a new name upon her. Sarah didn't exactly want one, she was happy enough being Sarah, but Magneto told her that it wasn't her true name, her mutant name, it was the name they gave her. So, he called her Mercury. She wasn't sure why, she didn't understand how it connected to her power, or even its significance, not yet. But it could have been worse, so she became Mercury.

But that wasn't the only new name she was known by. Many people in the Brotherhood had begun calling her Lehnsherr rather than Orville. She wasn't sure why, seeing as there was no relation between herself and Magneto. At least, not as far as she could tell. But she assumed that they would rather give her the name of another mutant than another name given to her by them, similar to the reason they gave her the name Mercury, so she let them.

Sarah supposed that life could have been worse with Magneto, she certainly preferred it to the orphanage or the lab he had saved her from. But something had always felt, off, while she was with him, or just with the Brotherhood in general. The kind of off you feel when you think people are staring at you or whispering about you, almost as if they all know something about you that you don't.

Said feeling quickly caused Sarah to try and find any files he might have on her, like they did back in the orphanage, like the one she remembered taking before. But she had misjudged her chances. With them it was easy, they were too stupid, too slow. But here, she was surrounded by mutants, and they were harder to get passed, so she didn't find out the secret. That was something that would have to wait as well.

Magneto took her training very seriously. He pushed Sarah harder than she ever remembered pushing herself. Then again, she supposed that before she was always being told to stop, to slow down, and was mostly just doing using her powers because she wanted to, because they must have been given to her for a reason, to be used. But he wanted so much more out of her, he needed her to be ready to fight people, humans. But not just humans, mutants, a much more frightening prospect. But she couldn't back out, she owed him her life, after all.

So, she trained. She ran until she couldn't run anymore, and got faster and faster and faster until she wasn't sure if she even had a maximum speed. But she had more powers than just that, ones she hadn't even known. But Magneto seemed to know them all. Sarah had no idea how, but he refused to answer when she asked, so she soon stopped. There was no point trying to get anything out of him if he didn't want to answer, he would just get angry. So very angry…

Molecular combustion was one thing she could do, by vibrating her muscles. The biggest thing she had managed to blow up was a wall, although it took a long time. She liked doing it with glass, though, it was much easier.

But she trained more than just her powers. It wasn't something that she had been asked to do, seeing as Magneto seemed to only care about her learning to fully control her mutation so she could use it to its full capability. But Sarah wanted to get stronger physically as well, because of the numbers. They would be on her arm forever, a constant reminder of how she was too weak, how she had let herself be captured and tortured by them, and by those numbers Sarah swore to herself that she would never be that weak again.

So she became stronger. At first it wasn't that noticeable, but she soon began to grow more muscular, more physically fit. It seemed to improve her running as well, so Magneto never complained. Although soon she didn't have as much time to train, in anything, because soon he said that she was ready, and she finally began earning her keep.

They were their main targets, much to Sarah's delight. Or Mercury, she supposed, as she was mostly known by now. But sometimes, they fought against other mutants too. They called themselves the X Men, and seemed to be convinced that mutants could live with them in peace.

But Sarah had first-hand experience to prove that wasn't true. They would never truly accept them. To them they were just freaks. If they had approached her with this notion a few years ago then she might have eventually believed it, as foolish and naïve as she had been. But Erik had shown her the truth. Mutants were the next step in evolution, they were now the weaker race, the weak link. The world would be so much better off without them. Soon, the X Men would see this as well.

They never did.

There was only one time that Sarah ever stood up to Magneto, or, at least only one that stood out, that she remembered clearly.

They had captured some of them, humans. Usually she would have no qualm with this, using them to make a point. It was what they deserved, usually.

But these? They were just kids! Sarah doubted any of them had even hit ten yet! They may be naïve but, could they really be blamed? Surely they didn't know any better? Even if they didn't, how much harm could they really cause? She raised these concerns with Magneto. It didn't end well.

"Magneto."

"Yes, Mercury?"

"The children-"

"What about them?"

"I, I don't think we should hurt them." A pregnant pause.

"And why not?" Ominous, slow, he was thinking. It wasn't a good sign.

"T-they're just kids, they haven't done anything-"

"But they will!" Metal began floating at the yell. Definitely not a good sign.

"W-what do you mean?" Magneto seemed to calm down at that, taking a deep breath and lowering the metal objects back to their original places.

"Children are raised by adults, and while they grow up, what do you think they're taught?" Sarah wondered if she should answer or not. Not was the answer. "They're taught their parent's values, their opinions, their prejudice. In the end, they are no better than the swine that raise them. Do you understand?" She didn't, but she nodded anyway. "Good."

Sarah didn't question him again after that, but those children would forever haunt her memories. That day, she swore she would never hurt a child, one of them or not. Magneto had a point, but for once, Sarah was sure she knew better. Because not all children looked up to their parents, not all children grew up to be like them.

Not all children had them.

They had always been a strange term in Sarah's mind. She used it for a lot of people, people that weren't like her, that didn't understand, that ridiculed people like her for something so completely out of their own control. Perhaps out of jealousy, perhaps out of spite. Sarah never quite understood, but it was probably different with each of them.

However, it wasn't something she had ever thought about enough to be able to give them a better name. She knew the difference between species, between humans and animals, and humans and mutants. They was a term she usually bestowed onto humans, since she hadn't really known any mutants until the Brotherhood, and her mutation didn't allow her to communicate with animals, so she didn't know what they thought or said. But she had never truly believed that all humans could be a part of them. Surely some could see the light?

Magneto had shown her how wrong she had been, how naïve. All of humans were them, they were the human race. A people tainted by their hate of change, their fear of being lower on the food chain than the top.

Some mutants were a part of them too, the mutants that couldn't accept their own abilities, that couldn't be mutant and proud, the ones that hid themselves from the world because they were ashamed of who they were, what they were. But the worst of all? Mutants who believed humans their equals, who believed they could all live together peacefully, like the X Men.

Magneto had been trying to show them the light since they first formed, but they never listened. They were so persistent, it was like the humans had tainted their minds too. It was such a waste, but it had to be done.

For the world to more forward, to evolve, all of them had to perish. The Brotherhood would cleanse the world, and Mercury would gladly help, debt or no.

Magneto had shown her the light, and she would not return to the darkness. Not again. Never again.

Alright, so again, any constructive criticism would be appreciated and thanks for reading!

Although, side note, this is technically the end of this arc of Mercury, if you will. This is because what you've currently read is what happens to Sarah in the post-DOFP timeline, the next is going to show what happened differently in the original timeline.

So look out for it, and I hope you enjoyed reading!