Warning: this chapter contains violence and flashbacks of child abuse.

Also, to avoid confusion, in this story Gaara is 14, but because he's short (4'7", its cannon hight for pre-shippuden) and small, people think he's allot younger then he is. So until he tells them, the X-men assume he is around 9 or 10.

Kopy Kat has officially begun betaing this story, so feel free to go check out her one story.

Enjoy, please review. On with the story.

Sincerly, Darth-In-Training

Gaara glared hatefully at the figure in the wheelchair. Why was this person smiling at him, with a smile that didn't have a dark undertone, with a smile that was genuine. It confused Gaara, no one ever smiled at him like that.

"Stay away from me, you old creep." he growled.

"I'm not going to hurt you child, you are safe here." The man's voice was soothing. The sand user scowled darkly, he didn't want to be soothed.

"Liar, let me go!" He knew this man was lying, he wasn't safe anywhere! If other people were around, they would hurt him, they always hurt him.

Sand started pouring from his gourd, which lay several feet away. At the professor's mental command, Bobby utilized his ice immobilize the sand. They'd already had one close shave with the sand while Gaara was unconscious.

Gaara inwardly panicked. They were going to hurt him, just like father did! He started thrashing. He needed his sand, why wouldn't it respond, why couldn't it break free of the ice.

'Brother! Brother, help me!' the sand user shouted mentally. For the first time since he could remember, there was no other voice in his head. He was alone, he had become so useless that even 'brother' had deserted him. The teen froze in his struggles, his face betraying his panic. He wasn't quite convinced that 'brother' had deserted him, these humans must have done something to him.

"What did you do to Brother?" He demanded, his voice sounded so child-like it made the other mutants wonder how old he truly was.

"Are you referring to the hostile intelligence that has infested your mind?" Charles's voice was gentle.

"Brother isn't hostile! He kept me alive, he taught me how to survive. What did you do with him?" Gaara's voice became so cold it caused shivers to skate up and down the spines' of the adults in the room.

"That entity you call 'brother' ain't a friend, kid. He's a parasite, using your body to keep him alive. He's full of evil and pain, and wants nothing more than to drive you mad and use your powers as a weapon against the world. He only wants to help himself, and he really doesn't care if you get hurt in the process. We can't remove it, not without damaging your mind. For the time being we cut off his influence on you." Bobby sounded slightly annoyed with Gaara's insistence.

Gaara's brain froze, and replayed those words over and over.

'He really doesn't care if you get hurt'

Liar

'wants nothing more then to drive you insane'

no

'He's a parasite'

'They were lying, they had to be. Brother loves me, he would never hurt me. Brother's the only one who saved me from father. No one else ever cared what he did to me.

But even as he thought those words, Gaara's mind chose that moment to replay a long buried memory.

"I'm sorry father, please don't hurt me again. I don't understand, what did I do wrong?" A seven year old Gaara pleaded with an angry man, towering above him.

He was answered by a swift kick to the stomach, and a fist to the nose.

"You worthless brat! You almost hurt Kankuro with your freakishness. He has a game tomorrow, is that why you tried to hurt him?! Are you jealous because he's not a freak like you?!" Gaara's eyes watered. Why did his father hate him? Why didn't his siblings help him? He didn't want to be a freak, he didn't ask for the sand to obey him.

'Brother please help me, he's hurting me again, please make him stop' Gaara mentally begged the other occupant of his mind. But there was no response. Even as his ribs fractured and broke under the blows.

Only later, after Gaara was shoved down the stairs to his room in the basement, bleeding and broken, crying from the pain and his father's harsh words, did brother speak. Mocking his weakness, hissing poison in his ear, 'you must fight back, destroy your father. Let me have your body, let me take our revenge on him!'

Gaara had refused, how could he hurt his own father? He remembered 'brother' growling at him, spitting upon him in his rage. 'Until you are ready to kill, you are of no use to me. Suffer in solitude, you useless brat!'

He had not heard from 'brother' the rest of the night.

The mutant shook himself from his dark memories, just in time to notice a needle being plunged into his veins. As he slipped away, his final thoughts were a desperate, anguished question, resonating and pounding in his mind. 'Why, why didn't brother help me that time? Is there a chance they are right? Could it be that brother is using me, just like everyone else?'

The red headed boy slipped into a drugged sleep to find the nightmarish memories patiently waiting for him. It would not be a good night for the young mutant.

~Elsewhere~

The brunette man smiled darkly at the two figures in front of him. One was tall, a deadly aura surround him like a cloak. He carried various weapons; some in plain sight, such as the knife on his belt, and the sword on his back. The other was shorter, with long raven hair. Nothing could be seen of their faces, for the taller's face was swathed in bandages and the shorter wore a white mask with red markings: four wavy lines set in rows of two at the center of the mask.

"And remember, there will be no pay until that freak's head is on my desk."

The taller man smirked underneath the layers of bandages, fingering the handle of his sword.

"That won't be a issue, just make sure you have the money when we return with your son's carcass."

He turned to jump out the window. "Haku, follow." The raven haired one nodded and they both disappeared in a poof of smoke.

The brunette smirked.

"There will be no escaping your fate now Gaara. Your death is long over due. Finally, I can be rid of this terrible mistake tainting my honor."

Only the moon was witness to his crazed laughter ringing through the open window.

Please review. If anyone has a pairing they would like, please comment and I shall take it into consideration. Right now I don't have any pairings in mind.