A/N: Two updates for today! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, I hope you like it as much as I do! :)

"Ouch," she moaned, even though it didn't really hurt.

She was sitting in a corner of the danger room. Hank was in a crouched position in front of her, applying a bandage on her knee. Behind him were standing the rest of the X-men, all trying their best not to laugh. Even the very charitable Kurt was biting his cheeks to hide his toothy smile.

"Sit still," Hank scolded her. "So explain to me what happened?"

Thea sighed, anticipating her fellow students' mockery.

"I was working on my levitation skills with Professor Xavier. I was supposed to go up a couple feet, for a start, but I couldn't do it. After an hour of trying, I got a little upset. I guess getting pissed kick started my powers somehow cause I finally took off. Except instead of levitating a couple feet above the floor, I ended up hitting the ceiling. Like, really fast."

Thankfully, the floor and walls of the danger room were made of a cushioning material, precisely to avoid this kind of incident. However the fall could have been pretty bad since the gigantic room was at least 60 feet tall but despite her surprise, Thea had instinctively activated her powers to break her fall. But not enough to avoid a couple bruises and a scratched knee.

"I see," Hank said with a shaky voice as the young mutants behind him couldn't hide their hilarity any longer. He cleared his throat. "Well, at least now we know you can basically fly. Which is pretty cool, right?"

"I guess" Thea mumbled, starting to giggle as well now that the scare of the moment was gone. When she felt something was going to go wrong, that's not exactly what she had in mind.

"All right everyone, take five. Raven will be here any minute," Hank shouted, clapping his hands.

The little group slowly scattered. Thea decided that the floor was very comfortable after all and didn't move, her knee and back still aching. A draught moved her hair and when she turned her head, Peter was sitting next to her.

"Let me stop you right there" Thea said as Peter was already opening his mouth. "One more comment about what just happened and you'll be the one going through that roof."

He laughed and raised his hands in sign of peace.

"I was just going to say your landing wasn't that catastrophic. You know, considering."

She laughed and bumped his shoulder.

"Jerk. I thought these were supposed to protect us anyway?" she said, pointing at the tight silver and blue suits they were both wearing.

"I think they're mostly here to make us look bad ass. But then again, no one had ever tried to go through a wall to test them before."

"Oh my God. I'm so done with you."

They were still bickering when Raven entered the room. Her rosy complexion had turned blue, her hair was bright red and her eyes completely yellow. Thea gasped, surprised by the odd and yet beautiful apparition.

"Uh oh," Peter said. "When Mystique gets here, that's when shit hits the fan."

He got up and offered his hand to help Thea up.

"Are you sure you can handle that little witch? I mean, you're already hurt and this wasn't even the dangerous stuff."

Thea grabbed his hand and quickly got up.

"Bring it on."

...

Only a few minutes later, she regretted ever saying that. Because at this very moment, she felt like hell was breaking out. Raven –or Mystique, rather- had sent 7 enormous human-like robots after them and the room had transformed into a battlefield with destroyed buildings, debris, dirt and explosions everywhere. All the mutants were fast and precise and attacked the robots with confidence, but Thea who barely even knew what her powers were let alone how to control them was mostly trying to run away from them. She noticed that her new friends were doing everything they could to protect her, trying to focus the attackers' attention on them. Yay, teamwork.

As she was safely -and cowardly, she admitted to herself- hiding behind a busted brick wall, she saw Ororo being attacked by two robots at the same time. Taking a deep breath, she carefully got out of her shelter and focused. Noticing a 15 feet long metal bar on the floor, she levitated it and threw it right in one of the metal men's head, saving Ororo from a hit she wouldn't have seen coming. The robot crumbled on the grown with a loud metallic noise. Ororo turned and smiled at Thea, mouthing a "thank you". But before Thea could nod back, she heard a cry of pain right behind her. Scott had just been seriously hit and had violently landed on a pile of debris. Before Thea could do anything, Jean came to help him, putting herself between the two opponents and attacking the robot.

And then it all happened really fast.

Thea ran to Scott's side to check on the young man, but before she could get to him, he tried to get up and looked at Jean. What he apparently failed to notice is that his red lenses had been broken during his fall. Fearing for Jean's life, Thea put a hand in front of her.

"No!" she screamed at Scott.

She felt a weird energy leaving her body, like a shock, and everything stopped.

The fake buildings and scenery flickered and disappeared. The 4 remaining robots stumbled and fell to the ground. The mutants were staring at each other, unable to understand what just happened. But the most surprised of them all was Scott. Because his glasses were gone. His eyes were wide open. And nothing was coming out of them.

"What the-" he started, stunned. "Thea, are you doing this?"

The young woman hadn't put her hand down and was trying really hard not to lose her focus. She had no idea how, but somehow she had negated Scott's power, and apparently stopped everything else in the room at the same time. A strange red shiny smoke was seeping out of her finger towards Scott. The others carefully gathered around them, just as astonished.

"Yes," she eventually said, gritting her teeth. "And I don't know how much longer I can hold it, so if you could please close your eyes I'd really appreciate it."

Scott nodded and quickly closed his eyes. With a sigh of relief, she let go. She was out of breath and suddenly felt as if she hadn't slept in days, her whole body aching and shaking. She stumbled, unable to stand on her two feet, but in a gust of wind Peter slid under her shoulder, supporting her.

"You ok?" he asked, a worried look on his face.

"I'm fine," she whispered.

But she really wasn't. Clinging to Peter, she was shivering and struggling not to pass out. Suddenly, a door behind them burst open. Raven and Hank ran to them; Charles wasn't far behind them.

"Sorry guys" Raven said when she got to the group. "Something fried the system that opens the doors, we couldn't get in."

Hank handed a new pair of glasses to Scott.

"Yeah" Peter answered, still holding Thea close. "That something would be Thea. She pretty much destroyed everything in here."

Charles, who had just joined them, stared at Thea with a smile on his face.

"You have made great progress today, Thea. You can be proud of yourself."

"I lost control, how is that progress?" Thea mumbled, glancing at the still smoking equipment around them.

"You didn't lose control, you let go. There's a difference."

Hank moved closer to her and put his hand on her forehead.

"She's freezing. This must have taken a lot from her, she needs to rest," he kindly smiled at her. "We'll get you to the infirmary, you're done for the day."

"I got it" Peter said as he put his free arm behind her legs and lifted her up.

They disappeared in a whoosh. Thea barely had time to realise Peter had brought her to her own room and gently put her on her bed. She deeply fell asleep before she could even say thank you.

...

Sore. That's the first word that came into her mind when she woke up. Feeling very cold, she tried to move her arm to pull back her blanket on her shoulders but she couldn't even get it up to her chest. She groaned and opened her eyes. She was in her room. She heard the soothing sound of fire slowly munching on wood in her fireplace. The shutters were opened but it was pitch black outside. She slowly turned her head to see Peter sitting in her chair, playing on his Gameboy. Again.

"We have to stop meeting like that," he scoffed.

"What time… what day is it?" she asked, feeling like she slept for months.

"It's 3 am. You've been sleeping all day since your little show this morning."

"And what are you doing here?"

He put his game down and stretched his arms upwards.

"I insisted they didn't take you to the infirmary, figured you already spent enough time in there. So we had to take turn looking after you. I volunteered for the night."

What he didn't say was how relieved he was to finally see her awake.

"You kinda scared us, little witch," he smiled, bending over and resting his elbows on his knees.

She smiled and pushed herself up to sit. Despite the warm temperature in the room and her heavy blanket, her weakened body was still shivering. Without a word, Peter got up and wrapped his silver jacket around her shoulders. Their glances met for a second and they both looked away, embarrassed. Peter sat back down. Thea stared at the fire, suddenly hit by how fast everything was happening to her. In the past couple days, she had discovered that her parents might still be alive, she now knew who was after her, she had lost the trust of someone she loved, discovered powers she never suspected having and met a whole bunch of people like her.

And then there was Peter. She was warming up to the sassy silver-haired boy. At first, she didn't care for the man's attitude, which she found almost insulting given the desperate state she was in. But she soon realised it was a defense mechanism, Peter complex mind's trick to hide his hurt soul. In the middle of the storm that was his mind, she could hear and feel all the pain and self-disgust, although she didn't really know what could have possibly caused him to feel this way. Besides, ever since she got here, he had always been there for her. She never really thanked him, but now she knew how.

"I lost it," she whispered, still staring at the blaze.

"What?"

"Back in the infirmary, when I came here for the first time. You asked me what happened at Ellie's old school back in LA."

Peter didn't say anything, peering at her.

"It was the day of the fifth anniversary of our parents' loss. I was picking her up. The moment she saw me, she started crying, letting out what she probably had been holding in all day. I hugged her and when I got up, a bunch of kids were making fun of her because she had no parents to pick her up and because her only family was white. They started calling her all sorts of names."

Thea clenched her fists, reliving the fury she had felt at this moment. She shook her head.

"So young, and already so cruel. Ellie did her best to stay stoic but I saw tears running down her cheeks again. I could feel her sorrow like a knife being shoved right in my heart. And that's when I lost it. I was just staring at those kids and I suddenly felt my fingers burning. Next thing I know, the whole freaking building is on fire, and there's screaming and sirens everywhere."

She put her head down.

"I could have killed someone. A kid. I've been called a monster before, but that was the first time I actually felt like that's what I was." she whispered, avoiding Peter's stare.

For once in his life, Peter didn't know what to say. He was looking at this beautiful woman, her mesmerizing blue eyes shining with tears, her strawberry blonde hair ruffled by the hours of sleeping. He felt the urge to hug her, tell her everything was going to be alright, but he wasn't good with affection. Instead, he just sat there, his brain completely frozen.

"Magneto is my father," he eventually said without thinking, practically shouting.

Thea jumped at the raise of voice and finally looked at him.

"What?" she said in a sob, wiping her tears.

"Magneto. Erik Lensherr. The guy who destroyed half the city? Yeah he's my dad."

Thea blinked. Her crying had suddenly stopped, but now she was wondering if she had blacked out again and missed a part of the conversation.

"I never told him," he continued. "I went back for him, during the whole Apocalypse thing. But I never told him. And then he saved my life, I moved in here and I thought he would too. But he left. Again."

He had a sad laugh.

"You know for the fastest man alive, I can be pretty slow on the uptake. If I'd understood he wasn't coming back, I would have said something. Anything to make him stay."

Thea had trouble comprehending what she had just heard.

"Why are you telling me this?" she finally asked.

He laughed again.

"I dunno. We were having a moment and you were telling me all this super dark stuff and I kinda felt bad but I didn't know what to say sooo… I said the first thing that popped into my mind."

Thea started laughing at the ridicule of the situation. Peter quickly joined her. Something was different between them now. They had shared something dark and deep, a weird bond had formed; something some would call trust, but it was more than that. It was like finally letting go of a heavy burden and accepting to share it with someone else. And the weirdest part was they'd only met a couple days ago.

He finally got on his feet with a sigh.

"Well, that was weird. I'll let you get some rest. Call me if you need anything. Oh and I want that jacket back, it's kinda the only one I own."

But talking about all of this had dug up some painful feelings and memories in Thea's mind. She didn't feel like sleeping alone.

"Wait" Thea said without even thinking about it.

He stopped.

"Stay- I mean… if you want," she stuttered. She sighed and tried again.

"Will you please stay with me?"

He faked an annoyed look and rolled his eyes.

"Ok I know we kinda bonded but don't get too needy."

She laughed and moved to make him some room. He jumped on the bed next to her and put his arm around her shoulders. She let her head rest against him.

"G'night little witch."

"Good night Speedy."

There was a world of danger waiting for her outside that door. And yet she had never felt safer.