Ch 7

In her room Autumn was washing up from the crying spell that had been inevitable. Stopping to look at her reflection she gave up on erasing the evidence. With her puffy eyes and red nose Autumn turned to her IPOD shuffle and began her dance list. After turning up the volume to cover the sounds of the student making their way to their rooms Autumn stopped in the middle of the room as the first cords began to play. Wanting nothing more than to escape her past in the music, Autumn muted her powers and let the music take her.

Before the first strings began to fill the room Autumn spun on her toes to face the balcony. As the tempo began she started to spin and rock her hips to the bass.

We kiss
The Stars
We writhe
We are

With her arms spread out beside her head she began to mimic the words. Kissing the air in front of her and continued with the slow arm and hip movements.

Your name
Desire
Your flesh
We are

When the louder and fast chorus began though the moves she pulled were much wilder and fit to the speed of the song, while staying very beautiful.

Cold
We're so cold
We are so
Cold
We're so cold (X2)

When the chorus ended her movements went straight back to the slow and methodical belly dancing movements. Lost in the music trying to erase the memories and emotions with them Autumn didn't realize that she had an audience standing in the doorway.

Your mouth
These words
Silence
It turns
Humming
We laugh
My head
Falls back

The three members of the X-Men that had come to escort her to the Professor's office now stood transfixed by her dance. They had come in during the chorus and were amazed at the ordered chaos of her movements to the harsh bass. They were just as amazed at her much slower moves to the spoken verses. Just as they were about to announce themselves Autumn spun facing the door with her eyes closed. Still moving to the beat to the song she didn't notice them and just as the chorus began she opened her mouth and her fangs shot out making the team members jump. Her movements became fast and wild through the chorus till the last beat of the bass.

Cold
We're so cold
We are so
Cold
We're so cold (X4) "Cold" by Static X

As the last beats of the song pulsed through her Autumn opened her eyes. To say that she was surprised to see them standing there was an understatement. Looking at them each in turn she waited for one of the team to speak. Remy, Rogue and Logan weren't sure what to say. They all knew that they had invaded her privacy by not knocking before opening the door. Taking the first step Autumn ended the uncomfortable silence.

"Hey. Is dinner over already?"

The team chuckled as they tried to process what they had seen. Rogue wanted lessons; Logan wanted to see the results of her lessons, while Remy wanted a private performance. Smiling they exited the room and began their trek back to the Professor's office. Rogue and Autumn walked ahead of the guys talking about different music for Rogue's lesson. Remy and Logan shared a smirk as they watched the girls walk down the hall and stairs.

Once the Professor's office came into sight all of their moods shifted. Sadness and anger perfumed the air as they entered the room. Autumn could already feel the effects of their emotions and tries harder to block her empathic abilities. Everyone retook their seats while Autumn remained standing. With a nod from the Professor's she continued.

"I lived for years in the wild always running from people, stealing what I needed to survive. Luckily during those times computers weren't as advanced as they are now and I was able to stay hidden. Unfortunately the craving for human contact became unbearable, so I started to sneak into towns. I stuck the alleys and shadows and watched. Just watched the people go about their lives, young lovers holding hands in the streets and old men joking on their stoops. Mothers walking with their children to the store, whole loving families fussing before they entered the church for Sunday mass."

The team could see Autumn's gentle smile as she relived these memories. They also remembered that she would have only been only a girl at the time. Autumn could feel their sadness but shook it off and continued.

"For all the lovely things I saw I also saw the things that make grown men quake in their boots. Men being robbed on the street, women raped and assaulted in the alleys not far fro me. I wanted to help them so badly but I knew that if I did I would be discovered and that fear kept me frozen." A look of rage crossed her face and the red seeped back into her eyes and glowed. "Until the day I was spotted by Otto Gautier, the lowest piece of shit to ever be spawned. He was the town bully, robber, and rapist. He came at me and paid the ultimate price."

Autumn stopped as that day unfolded in her mind. She had been standing in the alley next to the butcher shop watching the parade, enjoying the decorated cars and marching bands the same as the rest of the people. She didn't feel as alone but in her excitement she had been careless and had been spotted by a man in the back of the crowd. One man she had made a point to hide from; she knew who he was Otto Gautier. The second he had spotted her she tried to hide in the alley. Otto found her and grabbed her by the hair dragging her out of her hiding spot. Scared and afraid, not really of him but of herself she had frozen. Right up to the moment that he had tried to pull her pants off. The second she had felt his thick hands in her waistband she flew into a rage.

"I had to run again. I left that night before anyone found what was left of his body. I knew that I couldn't take that risk again, I stayed away form towns. I didn't have contact again with people again for years. During that time I learned how to trap small game, find shelter and only went to the outskirts of towns to steal food and clothes. I picked up Sasha during that time; he helped to keep me sane." Laughter filled that room replacing some of the melancholy. "Then about twenty five years ago I was approached by a man who said he could help me, he used me as a guinea pig is more like it. His name was William Striker, he said that he could help me control my powers and become a member of society. I was so lonely I believed him. He took me to his island and seemed like he was telling the truth, but that all changed the day that I found them. Mutants of all ages filled cages. Hundreds of them some had come of their own free will; others were captured and brought there to be experimented on."

The team held their breathe they had all known that Striker had experimented on mutants but to know that at one time he had held that many was a shock. Professor Xavier remembered when he had picked up those mutants and saved them from that island so long ago, one of them being Scott Summers. The pain of remembering the student and then leader if his team. From that day when he had helped Scott to escape with the other mutants, to the day that he died not so long ago.

"For a while before I found the mutants I was enjoying the experience. Striker taught me to fight without killing a person with my mutation. Being around other mutants was fun as well; Striker's team consisted of a couple of mutants. They each let me feed off of them before missions. I remember one well he looked so out of place on the team just like me. His name was Chris he was a technopath and he could manipulate electricity." Autumn smiled as she remembered the smallest guy on the team. He was always so nice to her, making her laugh when she was nervous. "His favorite thing to do was play pranks on the others mostly turning off and on the lights in their rooms at the worst times. I wish I knew whatever happened to him. There was another guy Wade Wilson on the team he was such a smart ass. Every time he opened his mouth he pissed someone off but he had the moves to back it up. There were others Fred J. Dukes the nicest and most charming guy I ever met but has indestructible skin and could manipulate his own gravity field, John Wraith could teleport in a small area as long as he could see were he was going."

Logan was staring off into space, faces were flashing in his mind. The faces of the men that Autumn was mentioning swam through his mind as he listened to her story. Memories of a man that could pilot a plane from the hold and move an elevator that had been disabled. Logan remembered a man that couldn't shut his mouth and could slice a bullet in half with a sword. The others were there to but more fragmented. Shaking his head Logan concentrated on Autumn's story.

"I didn't realize at the time that I was helping Striker to abduct mutants, we would go in as a team and 'rescue' mutants that were a danger to themselves and those that were in holding areas. I was told that we were taking them with us to treat them for injuries and to help them with their powers. I was a fool." Autumn took a seat and stared down at her hands seeing the blood of the people she had killed. "I was always used as a decoy so that my team could sneak in a grab the mutants but almost every time someone on the team would get spotted and I would have to fight to get away. So many times that I got my code name Blood Lust because every time that I fought blood ran and I would feed. I didn't realize it but that is exactly what Striker wanted. He wanted the monster to be unleashed and for it to kill everyone. So that I wouldn't try to leave thinking that I was a danger to myself and everyone else."

Autumn stopped and looked at Logan feeling the pain that he was experiencing. It seemed that her story was triggering memories and they were causing an information overload for him. The pain was building up again and Autumn knew it was only a matter of time before the seizures started again.

"I think we might need to take another break. Logan you might need to go to the infirmary and have Dr. McCoy have a look at you."

At her announcement the team looked at Logan and could see him starting to shake and twitch in his seat. Remy and Rogue recognized the signs of more memories being retrieved. Logan nodded and followed Beast out of the office. Knowing that once the memories had fully integrated he was going to have one massive head ache and need to sleep. Professor Xavier watched as the two men left his office and waited for the door to close before addressing the rest of team.

"I think that Ms. Muhn has the right idea and seeing how it's after one o'clock in the morning I think it would be best if we continue the rest of this later today. So everyone I think it best if we all head to bed and I'll see you all later."

As the meeting broke up Rogue followed Logan and Beast to the infirmary, while Storm and Xavier went to their rooms. Leaving only Autumn and Remy in the office both of them lost in their own thoughts. Remy remembered Stryker's Island and all the mutants that were kept there for experimenting but he didn't remember seeing Autumn there. Thinking back he didn't remember any of the mutants that had caught him being a female it had been an all male team and they'd quite literally caught him with his pants down.

Autumn was remembering how after she found out about all of the mutants being experimented on and how she'd tried to save them how she had been the next one strapped to a table. Stryker had wanted to see if he could duplicate her powers like all the rest but there was one other thing he had wanted from her that he hadn't tried on any of the other mutants. Experimenting with her healing powers he'd tried to see what she could recover from and through all those tries her heart would start beating every time they had killed her but the worst of all was the last experiment that he had succeeded in trying.

Second generation mutants.