A/N: In the previous chapter I said Andie survived on stolen food as she made her was from Bayville to Santa Fe, but as I was writing this chapter I remembered Andie doesn't need to eat while time is paused, so just ignore that error.

WARNING: This chapter briefly mentions sex.

Andie reached Santa Fe within the hour. She walked down the main strip until she found an ATM. What really struck Andie about Santa Fe was how flat and pale and yellow the terrain and buildings were. She booked into a cheap, clean hotel for the day, and the following night. She figured that one day and night stopped in Santa Fe wouldn't be an issue. Santa Fe was a nice city, but quite ordinary. Andie wasn't sure what she had expected, she was fairly certain she would have been disappointed no matter what.

After dumping her stuff in her hotel room, Andie bought herself some yoghurt and muesli bars for breakfast. She realised that though she had slept whilst time was paused, she hadn't once eaten in the entirety of her trip from Bayville to New Mexico. For a moment, her mind was in a spin as to how she had survived so long without food, when she realised that her trip had really taken less than an instant. That's right, she thought, what I've really survived is an hour long walk without food, after meeting Magneto. She felt so boring, so human, buying food instead of stealing it, but she just didn't have the energy to use her mutation. She just wanted to meander slowly down the street, maybe see a movie, go to the park, buy some shoes, and (if the wary looks on the local's faces were anything to go by), lose the hat. She realised that people were looking at her glittery sombrero very dubiously.

She went back to her hotel room to try to locate a better hat, but realised her only other options were metal bowl head, or no hat, as she had never located her beanie back at the Institute. It looks like I'll be letting my thoughts run wild in their natural state, she groaned to herself, because I do NOT want to go all mini-Magneto and don the bowl. Now that Andie's secret was out at the Institute, she knew she didn't have much to worry about, but still, she didn't understand what Cerebro was, as she only knew how it extended Charles's reach. Anxiety clouded the edges of her thoughts. Fuck you Charles, she added for good measure.

Later:

Andie was in a great mood. She had been walking past an ice-cream shop when she noticed a sign on the window, "Employee wanted. Enquire within". The manager took an immediate liking to Andie, and of course, Andie now had the job, and an ice-cream. Calm down Andie, anyone can serve ice-cream. It's not like you blew the manager away, you didn't even have a resume, she chided herself for her excitement.

Andie purchased herself some cute black shirts and skirts for under the red frilly apron at her new job. I suppose I might be staying in Santa Fe for a while, smiled Andie. As she was walking through the mall, a strip of shimmering sapphire caught her eye. She spun around to see that the sapphire was attached to a dark, fitted jumpsuit in an outdoor-wear store. She walked into the shop and was immediately sprung upon by an over-enthusiastic sales lady.
"How can I help you?" the lady practically sang.
"Um, Hi, what are these suits usually used for?" asked Andie.
"Well, we sell them to rock climbers mainly, because there isn't any lose fabric to interfere with their climbing, and the fabric is very sturdy. It's practically bullet-proof".
Andie turned over the price tag on the suit.
"At that price" sneered Andie, "it better be".

Andie dragged the suit into the change room and tried it on. The suit hugged her curves perfectly, and emphasised her assets very nicely. It was much the same style of suit that the X-Men wore, a slim-fit jumpsuit with long arms and legs. The sapphire panels on the suit formed an intricate pattern in a colour that perfectly matched the time energy in Andie's mind, and in turn, the blue of her eyes. She hadn't thought about her powers or the X-Men for hours, which was unusual for her. With her strong resurgence of thoughts on her mutation, she couldn't help but reach into the swirling time energy in her mind and turn back time to before she had entered the camping shop. From there, she paused time, and slipped back into the camping store and stole the jumpsuit. It's like I was never there, mused Andie, but, really, I never was. It was in and out and not a millisecond passed.

The suit in Andie's hand glittered with the promise of hero-dom and victory, defeat of all enemies and the crushing of all obstacles in her path. Soon Andie's somewhat manic and theatrical tendencies had taken over- she was on a spree. She paused time and stole an expensive silver watch that told the date and time, so she would never get lost on her time-travels. She also stole a sleek silver gun that matched the watch, as well as a silver belt on which to holster it. She stood on the side of the road, surrounded by her newly acquired belongings, and considered what else she needed. She stole some sturdy black boots, tough leather gloves, as well as a sleek silver helmet with a visor. Andie began to contemplate the powers of other mutants she had met, and began suffering a bout of crippling paranoia. She could see the immense powers of other mutants, and felt the need to armour herself further. She strapped steel-capped pads to the knees and elbows of the suit, and stole a slim-fitting Kevlar vest that protected her heart. Andie figured that with her head and heart protected, she was unlikely to be dealt a blow that killed her so quickly she was unable to reverse time and avoid it. Here's hoping no-one ever saws me in half, Andie groaned.

Andie stole a duffle-bag and filled it with her new loot, along with a few other everyday essentials. In case I ever need to leave in a hurry, Andie assured herself. But Andie knew her idea of a hurry was very different to everyone else's. But that wasn't saying much. Because of her mutation, her entire life was different to everyone else's. She stowed the duffle-bag near the door of her room. Just in case.

Andie's excitement faded, as life became routine.

The Next 3 Months in Andie's Life:

Two weeks after her stealing-spree, with a little money saved from her Ice-Creamery job, Andie could afford the bond on an apartment, and finally leave the hotel. She lived alone. One month passed, she had no friends outside of the few other people that worked at the ice-cream shop. She was growing restless with her life. She felt stable, and decided to give education another try. Another month went by, Andie hadn't used her powers. She attended night-school five times a week, and worked for seven. Now that she was out of reach of her abusive brother, she was handling schooling much better. She went to the gym every second day. She practiced her gymnastics skills in the park on every other. She had enough money saved to buy a car. Blue, of course, with dark tinted windows. A third month passed. The boy at the gym asked her on a date. She said yes. She was tired of being a virgin, of being 'inexperienced' and 'innocent', so purchased some condoms, and had sex with the boy on the first (and only) date. He 'came' far too early, she didn't 'come' at all. For her, the experience had been almost entirely pain, coupled with the degradation of being naked.

Andie often wondered if her life was going well. She had a job, a car, she was finally completing her High School Diploma, and was in good shape.
She had no friends.
Some days she wondered if her depression was better or if she had simply pared her life down to such a structured routine that there was no time for sadness. Andie hadn't even found time to remember Kurt. She felt like she had lived in Santa Fe for years, and wondered if her perception of time was altered by her mutation, or if it had been altered by her monotonous life.

Andie picked up her phone. She hadn't had a call or a message in 3 months and 2 days. No one from her human life had tried to contact her at the Institute, and no one at the Institute knew her phone number. The calendar icon on her phone flashed. 3 Month anniversary of "Living in Santa Fe", her calendar said. 3 months was a long time. Why am I still here she asked herself, but she knew the answer.

Where else would she possibly go?

The Same 3 Months in Kurt's Life:

Kurt had been left shell-shocked by Andie's sudden disappearance from the Institute. It had seemed one moment they were lying together in bed, and the next she had left for good. The entire mansion was thrown into chaos when it became known that Andie had been lying about her powers. The students and teachers weren't angry at her for hiding her powers, because they'd all done that. They were angry because she had lied and betrayed the trusting sanctuary of the Institute, and faked different powers, whilst hiding her thoughts from Charles and Jean.

Within a few weeks, calm had once again settled over the mansion. The worried look Charles had acquired from the 'Andie-Incident' slowly faded from his face. Life continued as normal. Kurt missed Andie, but he had to agree with Kitty's advice. Andie wasn't coming back. He had to move on.

The Present:

On that particular day, exactly 3 months after Andie had left the Mansion, the X-Men were seated in the Planning Room for a mission briefing.
"X-Men" began Charles, "our mission today is to rescue some of our fellow mutants from a laboratory in Denver, which has been illegally keeping them and using them for testing. We've been receiving mutant distress signals through Cerebro for a few days now, and we have finally deciphered their meaning, so we must move quickly to save them. We leave immediately."
"Ok, time to suit up, meet at the Blackbird in five" declared Scott, "and with any luck, we'll be there within 3 hours".

Later that day:

Andie sat on the couch in her apartment. Today was the last day of her lease, and she wasn't yet decided on whether or not to stay in Santa Fe. She simply wasn't inspired to do anything particularly. Andie flicked through the channels on the television.
Nope, *click*, nope, *click*, nope, *click*, what the hell is that? she thought, sitting bolt upright on the couch as she watched the live news channel. The screen was filled with the image of an isolated concrete building, shrouded in dust and peppered with debris. A shot of red light erupted from the top of the building, as a thick frost-covering appeared on the front wall. A small figure passed straight through the front wall of the building, from the top floor, and began falling to the ground, arms flailing. A small tornado appeared below the falling figure, sweeping it up and onto the roof of the building.
"It is unclear yet as to what has occurred at this research facility. The military and local fire-fighters has been called in to control the situation. Over the course of its short life, this Denver Laboratory has sparked much controversy, with its audit from the Human Rights Commission ending only 9 days ago", recited a sullen-faced new reporter.

Andie's interest was piqued by the news story. She packed her red carpet-bag full of her belongings, leaving her ice-creamery uniforms, her glittery sombrero and metal-bowl hat on her bed. She didn't need them anymore. She grabbed the black duffel bag next to her door and suited up. She zipped the Kevlar vest over her bra, exhaling sharply.
I'm not gonna get hurt, she reassured herself. I'm just being silly, that's not the X-Men at that lab. No one will hurt me, I'll just be checking it out. She pulled the suit up her legs, over her hips, and pushed her arms into the sleeves. She turned and looked at herself in the mirror, sighing before strapping on knee and elbow pads. She fastened the belt around her hips, attaching her holstered gun, and a pouch of extra ammo to the belt. She strapped a knife to her arm, for self-defence, and less-than-mortal wounding, she reasoned.

Andie was glad she hadn't signed the new lease. Seeing the story on the news had reignited her passion for travel and using her powers. I'm returning to the mutant world, she marvelled, as she pushed the snug-fitting helmet down onto her head and flipped the visor down. She reached into her mind and watched the time energy flowing through it. She hadn't used her powers, her gifts, in so long. She cut the flow of time energy, grabbed her red bag, and ran down to the car. She'd never tried starting the car with time paused before. After a good push in 'neutral', the car's engine spluttered to life and Andie was off to Denver.

About half way to Denver, the car ran out of fuel. Andie gave an exasperated sigh and made a mental note to bring a Jerry Can on her next trip, because she didn't think she could get a fuel pump to work while time was paused. She dragged her feet along the road, leaving clouds of dust that hovered mid-air, and wouldn't settle until she un-paused time. She scanned through the time energy in her mind, assessing all of the possibilities for the future. As usual, most ended with death, both hers and the death of others. This didn't worry Andie. She knew there were many more ways to die than there were to live, and that so many futures ended in death due to the multitude of possibilities, as opposed to a higher probability of it coming to pass. Andie had always found reading the future to be fickle. She couldn't really predict an outcome, rather, she could see the series of events needed for a certain outcome to be achieved. Often many series of events led to the same outcome, and trying to follow a particular series of events took painstaking accuracy, down to the millisecond, or your desired outcome could be lost.

After a long walk of deep contemplation, Andie reached Denver. She had at first feared it would be very difficult to locate the laboratory because the news report hadn't given an address, but the frozen pillar of smoke, reaching high into the clouds, gave Andie a good indication of where it was. Destruction and burning buildings seemed to be a fairly good way of finding where a large group of mutants was, or had recently been.

Author's Note: I'm not sure if anyone has read this far, or even if they've enjoyed it, so, I might just be talking to myself here. I know this is a little needy, but I would love some feedback on this story, since it is my first. Please Review! Also, if you notice any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, please mention them too.