Chapter One

Kidnap

Valkyrie's Point Of View...

Fall Out Boy's Save Rock And Roll was playing through my headphones as I sat in the empty white room, looking dully at the wheelchair-bound man in front of me.

I knew who he was, of course I did; everyone did...I think...and I also knew why I was here.

Mutants sticking together and all that...but I really did do better on my own, so I was merely waiting for him to make his request so I could politely turn him down and then book it back home as quickly as I could.

Becoming an X-Man...X-Woman...whatever, becoming part of a team, being under someone's control again...the very idea made me shudder in pure disgust. Never again, even if Charles Xavier was nothing like my uncle. I would never follow any command that I didn't agree with whole-heartedly, never again.

No matter how well-meant this commands were...or whether they were given out with the intent to hurt: I would never carry them out when I didn't want to just because they came from someone higher up than me in the chain of command.

Screw what they what told me to do.

I was my own person...finally.

Smiling at me politely, Charles Xavier finally spoke up in a congenial tone: "Miss Lodbrok."

Lagertha Hervor Lodbrok...it's no wonder I go by Valkyrie now days, I thought darkly as Charles Xavier looked me up and down appraisingly. Not as if he was checking me out: more as if he was trying to get an angle into my head. But then...he didn't need that: not with his 'gifts'.

" ." I responded, keeping my voice neutral and my expression closed-off. No need to give him false hope, after all.

"Miss Lodbrok. You are a mutant: correct?" he asked, his tone now blunt and to the point.

I nodded curtly in response.

"I have a proposition for you: join my team, live here at the school and act as instructor for the younger children when you are not acting as part of the X-Men and earn a rather large monthly wage. Along with the wage, you will have a new friends, if not family, and the satisfaction of not allowing others to go through what you went through as a child. What do you say?"

I waited for him to finish speaking before I myself spoke in my politest but firmest voice: "No, thank you."

He looked a little taken aback: "Excuse me?"

"I said 'no, thank you'. I do not want to be part of your team - or anyone's, for that matter, so although I'm very flattered: I'm going to have to turn down your request."

"Miss Lodbrok, we know of your past with your- "

Suddenly – although not unexpectedly – the lights in the room exploded with my temper as all the furniture – with the exception of Xavier's wheelchair - flew away from me where I was now standing and smashing into the walls: "No! You know nothing of me, my abilities or my past and stop pretending that you do! I will not be sucked into any of this shit again - not now, not next year, not ever. So back off and let me leave!"

Xavier looked taken aback, but slowly he nodded: "I see the damage has not yet taken time to heal, maybe in a few years - "

"Not now, not next year, not in a few years, not ever." I repeated, my voice dead as I turned and walked to the door: "Now let me out."

"Miss Lodbrok - "

"Let. Me. Out!" I screamed, causing the glass fragments from the broken lights to turn to almost dust at the pitch of my voice. The door was opened and I rushed out, practically running out and up onto the cold air of the December night in the dark New York streets.

I ran as fast as I could: wanting to get away, get away right now and get away as far away as I possibly could. If they knew who I was, then who were to say that they were the only ones? What if the F.B.I., or the C.I.A., or even S.H.I.E.L.D. came after me next? Charles Xavier may be human enough to let me go...but I had a feeling that whoever ran those government agency wouldn't have the same level of humanity.

They'd drag me in, kicking and screaming, whether I consented or not.

I needed to move: ditch my phone and grab my things, disappear before they came and got me. But even as I let myself into my crappy apartment I felt someone grab me from behind as my world went black.

I was too late.

They'd found me.