Kathryn Pryde never considered herself a fast runner. Her evaluations in the Danger Room and grades in PE would also agree with that assessment. Sure the ninjitsu training with Logan helped her petite frame became a flowing force to be reckoned with, but it still didn’t make her a fast runner. It just made her an efficient one. Not a single wasted breath or step, each in synch with other. Of course it was all a metaphor for life, especially here at Xavier’s Institute for Higher Learning, but again, this was not the time for lofty ideas. Amazing how she never became this profound when she was teaching. She had to fight her own wondering mind just to scratch her own lesson plans.

Again, this was not helping her current predicament.

“Kitty? Common, can’t you move faster? I mean, this can’t be good. Where did it come from?”

“Jimmy, I could move through walls but a certain newly eighteen year old insisted on coming with me.”

The young man had grown up right under everyone’s nose. There was no doubt about his intentions. After his stint as a involuntary genocidal mutant cure, he immediately took to life at Xavier’s, even without the comforting psychic embrace of its name stake. Unlike other students and adults, Jimmy’s family had welcomed him back, five years ago, with open arms, but there was no way he would go back to the people who sold him in the first place. He had made a last minute decision to take his chances with this open group of strangers.

He had grown up right then and there, or so he thought.

Both he and his first friend, Kitty, had thought that Xavier’s was a safe place. Even after Stryker’s initial attack.

That was the first time guns had ever been brought onto the grounds. It was also supposed to be a once in a lifetime fluke. No guns, there was never a need for them. It was just an unspoken rule.

That was what everyone thought, until this morning, just a few minutes ago.

The sharp pop broke the hectic and lively morning routine. The sound was recognizable instantly. Everyone spread out into defensive formations trying to find the source. Without Logan’s sensitive nose, it was a more difficult task then it seemed.

From the way it sounded, it seemed muffled, and like it came from above them.

The thought seemed to click simultaneously in both Jimmy and Kitty’s mind.

*The attic!*

And so, they ran.

They ran towards the room that had become its occupant’s recent haven. A place in which, they thought, she had finally come home to be happy and whole.

When they reached the last flight of spiral stairs, both whispered a vain prayer to please let the woman they both love like family to be safe.

The eerie quiet should have been a giveaway of what lied beyond her closed door. Kitty was peering through the exotic greenery and ferns that partially shielded the light. As she lifted a palm leaf out of the way, her worse fears were confirmed. Silent tears rolled down her frozen face.

Jimmy raced forward and bent down towards the body. There was no need to ask who. The shock of fashionable forward white hair and lengthy dark toned body made her easy to see by a blind person.

He didn’t hesitate to turn her over, although he wished he had. He thought he had seen the worse life had to offer during a fight of ideals five years ago. He was wrong.

The whole in the side of her head from the self inflicted wound had to have been the ugliest thing he’d ever seen. Even as he brushed the hair away from her face, she still had managed to be serenely beautiful.

“Oh my god,” Kitty said, as she finally managed to move forward. “There’s so much blood.”

Jimmy furrowed his brows. There was barely any blood on her. Then he looked up at her vanity. The mirror’s center had a huge splatter on it. As odd as it was everything else was spotless.

It looked as if she cleaned before…no! Jimmy refused to believe that.

He didn’t even know he was cradling her torso until Kitty had pulled him away.

“We have to let them know,” she said with a quiet authority.

Jimmy looked at her as if she had lost her mind. She was beginning to think like her already. Always of other people first. Always them, their happiness, them them them. This time she would come first.

“No Kit. First we tell Aya. I know that know five year old deserves to wake up with this kind of news, but that’s her only kin.”

“We could find…” She stopped her train of thought when she saw Jimmy’s intense glare. She began to look through the rolodex to find the number to the Academy of Tomorrow.

“Hello? No. I need to speak to…alright. Fine. Yes, it’s an emergency. Look Emma, don’t play around. Where’s Aya? What do you mean, you don’t know who? Kendall. She’s the only Kendall there. I know she’s in class, dammit. Didn’t I ask you not to play around? You want to be a bitch, fine be a bitch, and while your at it you can tell that poor girl that her mother is dead.” She slammed the phone down.

She took her shirt tale and wiped away a lone drop of blood. What the hell happened to make her mentor, Ororo a self-made goddess, do this?

A last minute decision with such irresponsible consequences was totally out of character for her. Both protégées swore to help their friend out.

Even when Emma heard the slam of the phone, she still was left holding the receiver to her ear. The news hadn’t yet hit home for her. It was only when the loud buzzer came on to indicate the end of a call, did she finally place the phone down. Even as one of the world’s most adept psychics, she had a hard time understanding this.

What had happened?

The Academy had its field agents just as Xavier’s did. When one had a mission the other always went on call. Backup was never far behind. If Ororo went down in a field mission…Emma rubbed her temple. Why wasn’t she called? Sure she didn’t get along with anyone, and ok, yes she was an arch-rival of the X-men for quite some time, but that was then. Xavier gave her a second chance, and her own school. There wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for his cause. They all knew that she was there for them. Emma slammed her fist down on her desk cracking the thick mahogany with her diamond shell.

There was only one excuse. Ororo hadn’t died on a mission.

Emma closed her eyes and took in a long deep breath. She used her mind to reply the conversation she just had with Kitty very slowly. Colorful psychic waves wrapped themselves around Kitty’s words and told Emma more than her abrupt manner had.

Violent sharp purple spikes, shock.

Rolling green waves, grief and sadness.

Short staccato yellow burst and red crested waves, fear and anger.

Emma noticed the anger most of all. She first assumed that it was directed at her, but then the movement of the waves changed. They doubled up and reversed themselves…inward. Why was Kitty angry at herself?

Finally the red and green waves started to dance around each other and flow to the right and swirl around. The cuddly Kitten was conflicted, confused and very close to a deep maddening depression.

This hurt. Everyone was feeling this pain. It was cancerous too. Constantly spreading and weakening vital parts.

Emma walked as slow as she could towards Aya’s room. This wasn’t how the little girl was supposed to spend this fine bright summer day. Children don’t go to summer camp, even a psychic one, to come home early to the death of their only known parent.

But this particular child was different, even by mutant standards.

As Emma raised her hand on the door to knock she heard faint scuttling and a small voice welcoming her in.

Inside was what used to be a pink lovers paradise, but the little one inside had taken down posters, books, and other paraphernalia and began to organize and pack them in boxes and child size luggage.

“Hello, Ms. Frost.”

Emma was taken back a bit as she usually was with Aya. Precocious would be a gross understatement when it came to this little girl. Her unique mutation compounded the wisdom that made this child so special and often intimidating.

Aya stopped what she was doing and came to look up at Emma head one with her head silently asking a question.

“Aya, what on earth are you doing?”

“Packing.”

Emma couldn’t help the small smile that escaped her. The response was innocent enough despite its smart-allacky tone. She sat on the immaculate bed and beckoned the girl to sit next to her. “Why are you packing, honey?”

“You know why. Mama’s dead.”

Emma tucked a white strand of hair behind her ear, “how long did you know?”

Aya just raised a brow at her. Even though she had yet to enter first grade, she knew redundancy when she heard it.

Her ability made it painful sometimes. Emma couldn’t believe her luck when Ororo had brought her to the Academy. Kendall-Aya was a psychic. Oh, but not the normal run of the mill mind reading, thought controlling, telekinetic. No not quiet.

Aya had the ability of precognition and empathy. Her precognition was spectacular. Not even Destiny could “see” like Aya could.

Aya could see time, itself, very much like psychic patterns. To her time looked like patterns of dissected white light. Red, oranges, blues, greens all the colors represented choices, decisions, what if’s, alternate realities, past, futures all clearly seen by a five year old girl. Combined with her empathy, Kendall-Aya was reading time and people like Encyclopedia Britannica for children. Eventually with enough training, Emma knew that Ororo’s daughter could, one day, control or become active in other timelines instead of being an observer. The girl’s potential was boundless

Emma was going to miss her partner in crime. She and the girl had managed to not hate each other, even eventually becoming odd friends in their short time training together.

“Ay, how long have you known your mother was going to die?”

“For a while.”

Emma gave her a stern look.

“Ms. Frost, I couldn’t tell anyone. No one could have stopped her. It was just one of those things…that was going to happen. I can’t describe it any other way. At least I don’t think I can.” She scrunched up her tiny face as if in deep thought about a situation that should be totally out of her small hands.

“Aya, please understand I’m so sorry.”

“It’s ok. I’m not. I knew she was. That’s why I called her last night and told her the funniest story I knew just to hear her laugh.” Even then the unshakable girl started to waver.

“Oh sweetie, you knew it would be the last time you’d hear that.”

“I should go.”

“Alright, I’ll take you myself. Lets get your things in the Lexus.”

As they walked, hand in hand, down to the garage, the silence became deafening.

“Go ahead, and ask,” Aya encouraged.

“Do you know where your…”

“Yes, I know where he is. Yes, I know what he’s doing. No, he doesn’t know, and no I don’t care if he come’s back or not.”

“Will he?”

Aya just looked at Emma with a blank expression.

“So I take it that no one else knew.”

“Nah, Mama didn’t even know. I don’t think she would have if she did.”

Emma picked Aya up and hugged her. She knew that the girl could sense her genuine sorrow. There once was a time when she did this with her own sister, a very long time ago.

“Ay, you would have been a great big sister.”

“I know.”

~Eight months prior~

“Mommy, I don’t want to leave.”

“Well, we won’t be able to stay for too long. I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“Can’t we go back?”

“Do you want to live in a school?” Ororo watched as her daughter opened her mouth to answer quickly, but then shut it to consider the question carefully. “Little One, you may know what will happen, but you forget, I know you. Besides, you were so young when we left. I’m shocked that you remember.” She winked playfully at her daughter who in returned squeezed her hand.

Aya decided to test her Mommy’s knowledge. “If you think you know me then…what am I thinking of right now.”

Ororo quieted down the winds and ran her hands through her hair and waited, sure enough there was a small growl of a tummy. “Apparently, you’re thinking about lunch.”

Aya smacked her own forehead, “that was easy.”

“Common sweatheart, why don’t we go to that café at the corner, and I can give you a lesson while we’re there.”

“We get to sit outside too, right?”

“Of course.”

Ororo let her daughter pull her down the cobblestone street towards the authentic lunch café that had beautifully decorated wrought iron furniture.

“So, Mommy, what are you gonna get?”

“I’m not sure. Here’s an idea, why don’t you order for the both of us.”

“Mooooommy, I’m no good with Italian.”

“We’ve been here for two months, and this is our third town. Certainly you’ve must have picked up something.”

“Um…cappuccino, tortellini, tiramisu, latte and that’s it.”

“You stink.”

“Mom!”

After Ororo had ordered lightly pan fried eggplant sandwiches, she unfolded a map she carried around that was full of wrinkles and pointed to a small island shaped like a backwards “c” that wasn’t far from Crete.

“I think we should head there next.”

Aya looked at the map and pronounced the name slowly so wouldn’t butcher it. “San- - to- - rini. Wait a minute? Why does that sound familiar?”

Ororo innocently shrugged.

“MOM! That place was on the news for volcanoes.”

“Oh, stop being such a wet blanket. Look at this,” she said as she pulled out a brochure that was full of beautiful white beaches, grand views of the Mediterranean, and lush green valleys and farms. “Besides it isn’t like you or I won’t be able to tell seismic activity long before the radar picks it up. We will be just fine.”

“Ok, ok, you win. Santorini it is, Mom.”

“Excellent. I know this great little pastry shop that needed an experienced cake decorator.”

“What, you planned this?”

“And you didn’t see it coming. Looks like your slipping up, Kido.”

“That’s it, Mom. No more Kill Bill for you.”

Ororo smiled and stuck her tongue out. She was just glad that Aya didn’t ask so many questions this time. Aya probably didn’t know that she already knew the answers. Ororo thought that she would regret her decision to just pack up and not look back.

She didn’t even think about it.

Irony rolled its ugly head again.

The four biggest decisions in her life were spur of the moment and very, well, last minute.

The choice to run when her parents were killed.

The choice to declare the tip of Kilimanjaro as her own person domain. (The memory of that made her smile ruefully.)

The choice to join the American Bald Man and his dream of a better tomorrow.

The choice to sleep with a man who never said her first name, and thought better of elevator music. A man who didn’t even see through her because he would have look in her general

She knew that she was having sex with him, but he was not in any way having sex with her.

She hated thinking about that because as awful as her childhood had been, and utterly lonely her adolescence was, she had never felt so embarrassed and crucified as when they were finished.

“Mom…mommy….mama…MOM!”

“Hmm, what is it?”

“Where did you go just then?”

“Not too far. What were you saying?”

“I said, ‘are you ready to go?”

Ororo knew that she was beyond ready to leave the past far far behind her.


~Somewhere in the Canadian Outback~

“Hey solider, am I gonna have to get ya a taxi. That’s beer number eight.” Suzanne looked at the rugged man wrapped in tight denim and a flannel that desperately needed to be ripped off.

“Don’t cha worry, love. I ain’t drivin’ anywhere. In fact, I’m walkin’.”

“Aw poor you. All alone too?”

“I think I’ll be ok.”

Logan headed out the old style double shutter door and got hit by an artic wind. He missed his leather coat, but realized that it wasn’t worth going back for. Nothing really was.

As he continued to walk he could that’s when he heard it again. The searing wind was pleading with him, and then came the screams in his mind. It was constant.

The Phoenix still haunted him. She wanted him, she hated him, she needed him, she should have wasted him.

That was the usual sensations he got. But this new one that he’s had for ever since his departure from New York was scaring him.

It was Jean. Just Jean. The voice he yearned for finally called to him. But it wasn’t the coy playful one that he dreamed of. She was angry with him.

He wanted to tell her that she wasn’t the only one. Logan would never forgive himself.

Just as he opened his eyes, the snow in the night sky stopped mid flow. The breeze that blew the evergreens suddenly froze. Everything around him did. Not trusting anything he turned around very slowly and was amazed by the sight that greeted him.

He saw a bright light open up and it formed an image of a room that he had only seen once. Full of bright open sky lights, ferns, hibiscuses, flowers of every shape and palms it had a warm and friendly tone. Its embrace had welcomed him as did its owner. He snorted. If only he had stopped to smell the roses.

The light in the image flicked as a little girl in pink flannel pajamas with footies ran and bounced on the bed swinging a pillow wildly in an offensive manner. Her opponent was a dark skinned snowy-haired petite woman who was dressed similarly but in a what tang lifted her pillow and swung hitting her spitfire target. Both pillows burst and exploded in goose down and fell gently on the giggling pair.

Logan was confused. This was not what he thought he was going to see. He thought he would get to see Jean finally at peace and happy. Right? Wasn’t that what he wanted?

The image began to fade slowly, but not before the little girl looked up from the hug she was giving her mother, and glared directly at him.

“Oh shit.”