Like the plane ride, the boat ride seemed to take forever. And though I could handle the motion of the helicopter, I wasn't doing too hot with seasickness. The constant rolling of the ship was making my stomach churn. At least, what was left in my stomach. Thinking of my stomach reminded me of the look of disgust on Sabertooth's face when I had thrown up on him. It was hard not to give a toothy smile at that moment. I find the smallest things funny when I'm scared or nervous. Gives you something else to think about besides what might be coming at you next. Like death.

Rogue was trying to free her hands, constantly looking around her before trying again, and her uneasiness spread to me. I started to chew on the metal chain around my neck when Magneto or any of the others weren't paying attention to us. Gave me something to do besides getting myself in trouble and getting strangled like a dog on a choke chain. I still found it humiliating to be treated as such.

A few minutes later, Magneto reappeared and he looked almost immediately over at Rogue, who was staring at the body of one the men who had been on the boat in the first place, pulling half-heartedly at her restraints. I wisely didn't make a sound, licking at my paws instead out of boredom. Magneto looked out one of the windows, at a large green statue of a woman holding a torch.

I frown slightly, looking at the statue. It seemed familiar, but why? I felt like I had seen it before, but something was...off about it. What was it?

"Magnificent, isn't she?" Magneto asked suddenly, still looking at the green lady statue, pulling me out of my jumbled thoughts.

Rogue gave him a death stare before replying, "I've seen it."

"And so have I," Magneto started, and I ignored what he was saying after that, starting to discreetly chew on the chain again. He'd given enough old man speeches so far to age me another ten years.

"Are you going to kill me?" Rogue asked softly, sounding like she was trying to control the panic that was in her voice. It was that tone that caught my attention, making me drop the chain from my mouth and look over at her.

"Yes," Magneto whispered, turning his attention back Rogue.

"Why?" Rogue hissed, her eyes still holding the death stare, though I could smell the fear that rolled off of her in waves.

"Sacrifices must be made," he replied simply, as though commenting on the weather before Sabertooth entered, glaring down at Rogue and me. I glared back, but Rogue couldn't manage to hold his gaze for more than a few moments.

"Put her in the machine," Magneto told Sabertooth, turning back to face the statue, mostly staring at the torch that the green lady held. "I'll raise it."

I cocked my head slightly. What machine? What was Magneto planning to do with Rogue? Rogue seemed to be asking herself the same thing.

"Ahh, that's right. I haven't told you what I plan to do yet, have I?" Magneto asked, turning once more to face us. "You see, that machine back there was created by a good friend of mine. His name isn't up for grabs at the moment, though. Back to the point, that machine changes the DNA of normal people so that they have the X-gene through a large amount of radiation. It works, of that I am positive. Dear Senator Kelly proved that for me."

I looked over at Rogue to see if she knew who this Senator Kelly was. Guessing by the widening of her eyes, she did.

"What I am going to do though includes you, my dear," Magneto continued, nodding towards Rogue. "With your mutation, I can give you my powers so that you may power the machine. I plan to make the whole of New York into mutants. We are the superior race, not them."

Once done with his "mutants-are-more-superior-than-humans speech", Magneto motioned to Sabertooth to take Rogue back to the machine.

I snarled as Sabertooth got close to her, starting to pull against my chain. I could feel that it wasn't as strong as before due to the chewing I'd been doing on it, but it was still strong enough to hold me. My snarl turned into a growl and I continued to struggle, trying to get to Rogue.

Sabertooth just planted a harsh kick to my ribs and I gave a screaming yelp as I felt multiple ribs crack before they started to slide back into place and heal over.

"I'll kill the wolf. I have no use for her now that we are here," Magneto added, almost sadly, as he looked over at me.

Rogue's eyes went wide at that and she lashed out at Sabertooth, clawing at his face with her nails. Not that it would have done much damage, but it did catch the other mutant off guard for a few moments. Rogue ripped herself free and tried to quickly undo the chain around my neck. I knew that it was pointless, but I tried to help the best I could, clawing and biting at the chain. My air was suddenly cut off as the collar tightened from Magneto's doing. As I writhed on the ground, Sabertooth reclaimed Rogue and took her out back, still kicking and screaming for all she was worth.

"No! Spirit!" Rogue screamed, thrashing helplessly in Sabertooth's grasp as he dragged her to towards the machine in the back of the boat.

Magneto watched me carefully, mostly watching the light start to fade out of my eyes as my body started to shut down from the lack of air.

I went limp and closed my eyes, conserving what little air was left in my lungs. Flailing around wasn't going to do much, but speed up my demise. Not that Magneto or Sabertooth or anyone would be able to kill me. My healing powers took care of that problem, but it wasn't fun to die and I didn't want to push my luck on what my healing factor could heal and what it couldn't.

Even as I "died", Magneto continued to tighten the metal collar around my neck, probably to make sure I was actually dead. I would have laughed at how easy it was to deceive him that I was dead, but that would have given me away. I even forced my bowls to relax, releasing what had been in my system at the time. I heard swearing from Sabertooth as some of my urine got on his feet. Guess he had returned from putting Rogue in the machine. I closed my eyes and allowed my heart to stop, but I hung onto consciousness. Barely, at least.

I sensed the vibrations from someone walking towards me and felt rough hands against my throat as the chain was taken off. I felt my head being lifted before Sabertooth twisted it, snapping my neck clean in two, and then he tossed my seemingly lifeless body into the ground. I was almost glad Sabertooth had broken my neck. At least now, I couldn't feel anything.

"Dump the body," Magneto said, going over to the window. His eyes seemed to widen slightly before saying, "Toad, Mystique, stay sharp. We're no longer alone. After I give my powers to the girl, I'll be temporarily weakened. You'll be my only line of defense."

Sabertooth picked up my limp form and threw it overboard. The water instantly tried to suck me down, tugging and pulling at my fur. I purposely allowed myself to sink at that time and allow my healing factor to finish, well, healing my neck and throat. I was surprised by the fact that Sabertooth hadn't ripped open my throat or anything. I believed that he would have wanted to see blood being spilt, especially my blood. Even more so after throwing up on him and getting urine on his feet. But now wasn't the time to dwell on such things. I had managed to stay conscious for this long, which was a miracle all it's own, but now I was in desperate need of air.

I thought of a creature that would swim, but also go up on land. Something that had good vision underwater. Like all the other creatures I now knew about, I had read about this one in one of the Professor's books; it was covered in murky colored scales with poisonous yellow eyes, a long snout filled with long teeth, webbed feet...

The alligator was very painful to change into; it was also the first water creature I had ever done. Once the transformation was complete, I surfaced, holding my body just above the surface so only my nose, my eyes, and the ridges of my back were visible. While I sucked in large lungfuls of air, resupplying my body with oxygen, I looked around at my surroundings. A thick layer of fog covered the top of the lake, obscuring everything from view. Wait, fog?

I scented the air again and a bubbling hiss erupted from my throat in happiness. I only knew of one person who could create fog like this and that was Storm. And if Storm was here, then the others must be! I started to eagerly swim towards the shore of where the green lady stood, my cylinder-shaped body easily cutting through the dreary water. This day, or night, had just gotten a whole lot better!

I would right my wrongs and help Rogue get away from Magneto and his plans for her. And I would find the others before Magneto found them.

Almost to the end of the first part! I'm excited and I hope you guys are, too! I have plans for Spirit and I hope you guys can help me. After X-Men, she will be traveling around to different movies. If you have any movies, TV shows, or books that you would like to see Spirit appear in, all you need to do is press that little blue button that says "Review This Chapter" at the bottom of the page. And if I have read/seen what you have suggested, she will appear in those books, movies, etc.

Anyways, please review! The more reviews, the faster I post! Thanks!

ML