Hello again to all my friends. I don't own X-men, but regardless the original characters that I'll be using in here do belong to me.

Chapter 6

She fell off the chair and onto the floor of her room beside the bed. She lay there gasping for a moment then touched the shoulder Storm had grabbed, the shirt was beginning to soak up blood. The stitches had held very well. She grimaced and just continued to lay there in the shadow of the bed. Even after hearing them calling her name though out the house. Her head was pounding in rhythm with her shoulder. The opening across her nose twitched slightly making her nose itch but she didn't want to move.

The sliding glass door came open to her room. She looked up at Storm from the corner of her eye then went back to staring at the baseboard of the wall until it blurred out of focus and the world went white.

The world was white still when she opened her eyes again, there was a murmur of voices off to her left and to her right a machine was beeping.

Naomi blinked a few times until she could make out the white tiles on the ceiling. She rolled her head to the side to see Storm and two others she didn't know speaking to each other. She watched for a moment before rolling her head back again.

"You should of told someone you were hurt." Said someone, Naomi blinked and looked around again. The voice had sounded like it was right in her ear but there was no one else in the room. "You had quite the nasty staph infection, probably from that needle your mom used to sew you together." the image flashed before her eyes of the needle passing in and out of her skin. Naomi shook her head vigorously.

"Leave me alone..." She muttered. "Where are you?"

"One room over from you." the voice, distinctly female stated, "I'm a telepath, the kids upstairs call me Nightmare." Storm called Naomi's name and came over to the side of the bed, "None of them like to come down and see me so I haunt them on occasion."

"Emily leave her alone for now," Storm stated, "I'll bring her over and introduce the two of you when she's feeling better alright?"

"I guess I'll see you later then." Emily said in her mind, "We have a lot in common." the last words faded away in her mind.

"Are you feeling better?" Storm asked, "You can sit up if you want."

Naomi did so, slowly. She touched the bridge of her nose, the skin was still split and the blackness was cold to the touch, she immediately dropped her hand. "Where are we?"

"We're still in the school, we're in the lower levels." Storm pulled up a seat, "Naomi this is Ian and Paul." The two older young men walked over to the bed. They looked eerily similar, except one of them had his eyes closed.

"Pleasure to meet you." This one said, the other one said nothing.

"Ian's blind, but he can read his brother's mind. Paul can sense what a person's power is, but he has no voice." Storm explained. "He has to touch you to do so though."

Naomi scooted away slightly. "Then I'd rather not find out."

"He already did it." Ian stated. "When you were unconscious, he just touched the back of your hand." Paul took his brother's wrist and brushed his fingers across his hand softly, "Like that, there was no harm."

She looked from one to the other, "Then... what can I do?"

"My brother says you have a power over shadows, he also called them betweens." Ian stated, "He does not understand what Storm told us about your skin though, it could be because you're powers matured faster than your body could handle and because you do not use your powers this blackness under your skin is simply a reaction to the sudden use of your power."

She pulled her knees up to her chest, she bit her lip remembering what her dad had said once when he was painting in the windows of her room. "Without light, there would be no shadow." She looked up at Storm when she realized she said it aloud. "So not darkness, just shadows?" She didn't even try to ask what a between was. Paul and Ian both nodded. "Do they live at the school too?" The question was posed to Storm.

"No, they live nearby though, they teach some of the classes here." Naomi leaned forward and felt a tug at her skin under the white shirt that wasn't hers. "Careful, the glue may come undone if you move too much. It works just as well as stitches, just with less scarring."

Paul and Ian moved to leave, "Um," they paused when Naomi spoke, "Thank you." They both smiled at the same time then nodded and left the room. "What did Uncle Hank tell you about my family?" She asked cautiously.

"Only what he'd guessed." Storm leaned on the bed, "Would you like to tell me about them?" The girl bit her lip.

Rune closed the door behind the brothers as they left the house. He hadn't asked any questions but they'd all made bets as to what Naomi's power would be when the two had shown up at the door.

"Well?" Curse asked coming up behind him, "What did they say?"

"Didn't ask," he said simply. "I prefer to ask the person actually. Secondhand information is so unreliable."

Hart sighed, "You just don't want to owe us all money."

Rune smirked at the empath, "No, I'm pretty sure no one will be giving up money. Especially after that display in the kitchen."