A/N: Hello! Sorry for the late update, my life has been a little hectic lately. I want to thank my reviewers; they give me the will to keep going with my story.

NikitaFuryaHaywire: thank you very much.

StarlightShivers: she was originally there to kill them, but they asked her to join and she saw a chance to (hopefully) get away from her father.

Thank you so much to everyone else. Also the word "chto" is Russian for "what." Now on with the chapter!

Athena dropped onto her bed and spread her arms. She felt bad for what just happened between her and the team. Closing her eyes, the scene just replayed itself:

*Flashback*

Everyone was eating lunch in the rec room. Charles and Eric had left the night before for Russia to catch Shaw, which left them with nothing to do. She was sitting on one of the couches, while Raven and Angel sat across from her. Sean, Darwin and Alex were at one of the tables eating and talking, while Hank sat in one of the chairs listening to Raven and Angel's conversation.

Athena was still thinking about what Charles had said to her. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts; she didn't hear her name being called.

"Hello, Athena, anyone in there?" Alex asked waving a hand in front of her face. She jumped slightly and looked up at him.

"Chto (What)?" she asked.

"We were saying your name, but you didn't answer," Angel told her. "Are you okay?"

Athena put on a small smile. "Of course, I was just thinking."

"Well, you must have been deep in your thoughts," Alex said as he took the seat next to her. "We were worried."

She looked at him and smiled. "I guess so."

"Can I ask you a question Athena?" Raven asked and she nodded. "Why did Erik ask for you to follow him?" Athena only looked at her as she felt a knot form in her stomach. She wasn't confident enough at the moment to tell them.

"I've been wondering that too," Darwin said. "Weren't we all recruited to take down Shaw? So, why did he only want you?"

Everyone looked at her, waiting for an answer; only the knot grew more as she started to panic, and looked at her hands. She fought back and forth with herself in her head about what she should do, but she ended up backing out of telling them.

She stood up quickly, keeping her head down. "I'm sorry, I need to go," she said before she bolted from the room. Once in her own room, she locked the door.

*End Flashback*

Now, she just sat on her bed, staring at the ceiling.

Athena let out a heavy sigh. She could just hear her father's voice lecturing her about how caring about what anyone thought of her was a sign of weakness; right before she would get a beating. Yet, she couldn't help but wonder about what they might think about her. Would they reject her? Hate her? Or would they accept her?

All these thoughts floated around in her head and gave Athena a headache. She turned her head to her nightstand and the picture she placed there. The picture was the last time her mother would look healthy. It was of her and her parents, a year before her mother died. Athena was seven and sat in front as her mother braided her hair.

Zaria, her mother, was smiling, and her crystal blue eyes held warmth and love in them. Her curly scarlet hair hung around her shoulders. Enzo, Athena's father, was sitting next to Zaria, his arm around her shoulders and a smile on his face. Athena sighed as she sat up and picked up the picture.

'The last time father's eyes were kind,' she thought. She ran her thumb over her mother's face. 'Mother, I wish you were here. I need your advice.'

A knock at the door brought Athena out of her thoughts. She put the frame down and walked up to the door. When she opened the door, it revealed Alex standing there with his hands in his pockets.

"Hey," he said.

"Hi." There was an awkward silence. "Is everything okay?"

Alex looked away from her. "Yeah, everything's fine. I just wanted to… you know…"

He seemed to have a hard time actually saying what he wanted to. Athena thought that she could see a light blush on his cheeks as she motioned for him to continue. She thought it was really cute the way he was getting all embarrassed.

"Well, I wanted to make sure that you doing okay," he finally said after a long pause. She gave him a confused look and he sighed. "You ran out of the rec room so fast, I wanted to make sure that we didn't upset you. We shouldn't have pushed you like that. I'm sorry."

Athena just stood there stunned. She had never had someone apologize to her before. For her father and the other soldiers, it was a sign of weakness to apologize. She snapped out of her thoughts when a hand waved in front of her face. Athena looked at Alex who was giving her a concerned look.

"You okay?"

Athena nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." She shook her head a little to clear it, and gave a light laugh to herself.

Alex gave her a confused look. "I can be nice you know," he defended.

She giggled. "No, it's not that. I've just never had someone apologize to me before. So, I was surprised, that's all."

"You've never had someone apologize to you before?" he repeated, as if he didn't understand.

Athena nodded. "My father was pretty strict, and apologizing was seen as a sign of weakness. If you did something wrong, you had to do it right. If you made a mistake, you fixed it. No complaining."

"Wow, sounds harsh," Alex told her. He couldn't even begin to imagine living that way. She seemed like a sweet girl, but you could tell that there was a hard, tough layer mixed in. 'I guess that's what would happen with her father.' He thought.

She laughed a little. "Yeah, I guess it—"

Athena cut herself off when her ear twitched. She looked down the hall to listen closely. It was a strange noise followed by a thumping noise, but strangely familiar. Then it hit her, and she silently began to panic. Athena closed her door quickly, grabbed Alex's hand and took off down the hall to the rec room. Alex followed her without question, which told her that he heard it too; and that wasn't a good sign.

When Athena and Alex burst through the double doors, they found the others all standing in front of the glass window that lead out to the court yard. The two joined them, trying to see if they could spot the source of the noise. Then the body of an agent dropped in front of the window with a loud thud. Raven jumped with a scream and grabbed Athena's arm, which wrapped around her in comfort.

Then everything was in chaos.

Agents and swat members swamped the court yard, telling them to get away from the window. They all saw a man with red skin, wearing a red suit and had a spaded tail cut down multiple agents by teleporting to different locations, which caused the window to shatter from bullets being fired. Raven shrunk into Athena's shoulder and Angel clung to Athena's other side, the situation making Athena call out her dragon scales to cover her body.

Their attention was then drawn to the opposite window, which faced the satellite. There was a huge tornado on the grounds, and tore the satellite apart. When they were thrown back into the rec room after trying to help, Athena looked towards the court yard where Azazel was killing the agents. The red mutant met her eyes and smirked before teleporting again. Athena's grip on the two other girls tightened, and she let her powers drain into her eyes, which she only let happen when she was furious.

Hearing a low rumble from Athena, Angel looked at Athena. She saw her eyes had changed; her pupils turned to slits and a gold color seemed to bleed into the silver iris. Angel was shocked to say the least, but she didn't dwell on it long for the body of an agent came flying through the other window.

The group watched in shock and fear as a Hispanic man with medium black hair and dark eyes walk through the opening, while straightening the jacket of his light gray suit. They turned to the other opening in time to see the red mutant walk in with two bladed tonfa. Hearing gunfire and yelling, they turned to the double doors. One of the agents gave them up to be let go, only to be killed.

The man that walked in make Athena's stomach drop. 'Shaw.'