Disclaimer: Some of these characters belong to Marvel and they are being used for entertainment purposes only. No money is being made off their use. The other characters, and the story belong to me, Magik, the author.

    The night was black and still. The girl in the shadows wrapped her arms tightly around her and watched the streets. She stood still, waiting, watching for someone.

    "How long have you been here?" an eerie voice cut across the blackness.

    "I don't know," the girl replied. "A long time, I know that."

    "Who are you waiting for?"

    "Don't know that either."

    "What do you know child?" he questioned as he stepped into the light. The owner of the voice was a tall, gaunt man. He had long white hair and a face that seemed chiseled in stone. Bright blue eyes peered out at her and held her attention.

    "Not much," the girl reported as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I know Algebra and I know World History. I could tell you the French verbs that are conjugated with etre and I could conjugate them but I am afraid that in truth I know very little."

    The man smiled at her honestly and took a step towards her. "Now you know more," he whispered and blew her a kiss. The kiss touched her forehead and the girl reeled backwards into oblivion, her mind filled to bursting with information. The man stood there, in his red and purple outfit, he stood there and a small smile crossed his face. Then with a frown he flew away into the nights sky.

    Sara woke up all but screaming from the dream. She touched her forehead then leaped from the rumpled covers and ran to the mirror. On her forehead, where the stranger's kiss had landed, was a tiny black X.

    Sixteen-year old Sara Ticker pushed a lock of her black hair off her face and stared at the chalkboard again. English class was the pits!

    "Hey, Sara," a voice whispered behind her.

    Sara rolled her light blue eyes heavenward and turned around to face the owner of the voice. Julian Matthew smiled his strange, whimsical smile at her and his green eyes danced. He pushed a hand through his blond hair and then opened his mouth to speak.

    Sara cut him off. "What do you want, Jules?" she snapped. "I don't really have much free time at the moment. Maybe you could check in with me later."

    The layer of sarcasm made him cringe. "Just wondering what you got as an answer for question eight, kiddo," he responded. Sara's eyes traveled back to the worksheet in front of her. It was blank. With a sigh she turned back to the older boy

    "Nothin'."

    Julian nodded and then looked down at his paper. Tapping her fingers on her desk, Sara watched him for a moment longer before she rolled her eyes and began to work on her worksheet. The seventeen year old Julian had been causing her problems all year. He just wouldn't leave her alone.

    From her seat across the aisle, Sara's only friend, Jessica handed her a note. As Sara read the note a dangerous smile passed over her face. The red-haired Jessica Waldon watched her friend's reaction, a similar yet more subdued smile on her face.

    "`Just ignore the jerk, Sara. He only bothers you `cause he likes you.'" the note read in Jessica's flowing script.

    Folding up the note and putting it in her pocket, Sara caught Jessica's eyes and nodded slightly then signed something to her. Julian caught a little of it but he didn't know enough sign language to put it all together. The girls both broke out into laughter that was not quieted until the teacher gave them a reproachful glance and even then they continued to giggle.

    As the two girls walked out of English class, Julian caught up with them. He tapped Sara on the shoulder. "What do you want now, Jules?" she inquire, making sure Jessica could see her lips.

    "What were you two signing about?" he asked worriedly.

    "That for us to know and you to find out," Jessica said her voice flat and monotone. The girls laughed and then continued down the hall, signing back and forth.

    Julain stood in the middle of the hall thinking until..."Hey Jules!" someone down the hall cried.

    "Yeah?" he called back turning around and disappearing into the crowd.

    Sara waved goodbye to Jessica as the red-head dashed into her next class. With a sigh she continued to walk the nearly deserted halls. Her next class was Health and she was in no mood to appear there. Talk about your lame classes!

    A small movement at the end of the hall caught Sara's eye and she went running off toward it. With her luck it would be a dreaded hall monitor to assign her detention. That would not please Nelsy. Not one bit.

    One of the first things Nelsy had said when Sara walked through the door was, "I don't like troublemakers. I don't like them one bit. While you're here, you'll be a good girl or I'll let your next suicide attempt be successful." You did not want to piss off Nelsy.

    When she turned the corner she collided with an old man. "Sorry about that," Sara hurriedly began then she got a good look at the man. Ice blue eyes, long white hair, and a face that looked as if it had been chiseled from stone. It was the man from her dream! Sara's hand flew to the spot on her forehead where the X had been. "It's you..." she started.

    "Hello, Ms. Tucker," the man said and then he touched a finger to her forehead. "Now you know more." Sara once again found herself pitched headfirst into the oblivion of knowledgefullness.

    Julian closed the door to his locker and started back to his math class the long way. In a secluded part of the upstairs he heard someone groan. Narrowing his eyes slightly, he tucked the book under his arm and went to investigate.

    Lying on the floor like some fallen angel was Sara Tucker. Her black hair strewn around her head like a pillow. He ran to her side to see what had happened.

    "Hey Sara?" he questioned as she moved restlessly. "Hey!" He shook her and her eyes fluttered open slightly.

    "What now, Jules?" she muttered as she sat up.

    "You tell me," he replied looking into her sky blue eyes.

    "Don't catch your drift, boy. Shouldn't you be in class?"

    "Shouldn't you?"

    "I have Health, Jules."

    "Well I have math."

    "Touche," Sara admitted and looked around puzzled. She turned to look at Jules, who had sat down next to her and was flipping through his math book.

    "Hey, Jules, why're we sitting in the hallway?"

    "I should be asking that of you, Sara."

    "Please elaborate."

    "I found you lying in the middle of the hall catching up on your beauty sleep. I wanted to make sure you were okay," he reported.

    "My hero," Sara marvelled sarcastically.

    "Now what the hell were you doing sleeping in the hall?"

    "You ask me as though I should know."

    "Don't you?"

    "No! Last thing I remember I was waving goodbye to Jessica as she went into her French class. After that everything's a blank," she announced as she brushed her black hair off her face.

    "What's that?" Julian asked as he leaned towards her, examining her forehead.

    "Like I can see what you're looking at," she retorted.

    "Looks like you've got a big, black X on your forehead here, Sara. Could it be you were knocked out by someone, then dragged over here and marked with an X?"

    "Jules, please, this is Washington state not the country's capital. Don't mix them up again."

    "I'm just saying, Sara, that..."

    "You two should be in class. If you're not careful I'll tell," a whiny little voice carried over to them.

    Both Sara and Julian looked over to where a bleached blond cheerleader named Ginger was standing. She twined a lock of damaged hair around her finger and looked at the two carefully. "Eww. You guys are goths!" With that she walked off.

    "Gee, you think!" Jules called after her as he helped Sara up. The pair were dressed in black from head to toe and each wore silver necklaces. Sara had a silver ankh on a black silk chain around her neck and Julain wore a simple silver star on a silver chain.

    "Bye," Sara whispered and took off.

    For the second time that day, Julian stood in the hallway looking clueless. Then he started on to math class.

    Magneto sat on a throne made of clay. He surveyed the scene before him with a pair of bored, blue eyes. Out of the shadows walked a young girl with light brown hair and black eyes. "I can fly," she whispered to herself. "I can fly."

    "Pixie," Magneto said and the girl looked up at him. She was a small child with long, lean fingers and rounded ears.

    She looked up at him, her black eyes filled with childish adoration. "Yes, Master?"

    A quiet sympathy filled Magneto's eyes as he looked at the child. This thirteen year old had been gifted with a power to twist people's minds like the worst hallucinogenic drug on the market. It was quite a power. A power that could be used in many different ways. The only problem was that before she had gained control of her powers they had destroyed her mind. This meant that Pixie was extremely unstable.

    "You don't have to call me that, child."

    "Of course not, Master."

    Magneto sighed and motioned for her to come closer. The child skipped up the steps to his throne and stood directly in front of him. "Pixie, my dear, thanks to your power I have been able to begin the process of putting Sara Tucker under my control."

    "Goodie! I'll have a new toy to play with," the girl exclaimed. "All the old ones are broken." A twisted smile covered Pixie's face and Magneto looked deep into the darkness where over a dozen bodies lay. Each one's mind had been twisted and turned and exploded into the realms of the nether worlds. Each one was dead.

    "Pixie!" he said sternly so she'd listen to him. "Sara is not going to be one of your toys! She's going to be a friend. A big sister of sorts."

    "That's fine, Master. That's fine," Pixie answered him a smile on her delicate face once again. "When can I have a new toy?"

    "Soon, my dear. Soon."

    "Whee!" the girl cried as she ran back into the dark corner to where her discarded toys lay.

    And as Magneto watched her with worried blue eyes he thought he heard her whisper, "I can fly." to one of the corpses.

    Remy LeBeau picked up a chuck of rock and then continued walking. He pitched the rock up into the air and watched as the kinetic energy he had filled it with cause it to blow up. For Remy was no ordinary man, no ordinary hitch-hiker, he was the X-Man Gambit. Or, most likely, the ex-X-Man Gambit. Ever since his friends and team mates had found out his deepest, darkest secret he was sure that they would no longer want him back in their fold.

    He wiped one tear from his eye as his thoughts turned back to Rogue. Rogue, the only woman he could say that he truly loved and now he had gone and ruined it. Or rather what he had done in the past had ruined it. His past sins.

    Remy remembered hearing as a child that the past was best left forgotten. This was something he had always followed. Better to leave the past rotting behind you then let it screw up the present or the future. Now, thanks to his past sins, he was stuck in the middle of nowhere. He had no future and perhaps not even a present.

    It was all Sinister's fault anyhow. Remy'd had no idea as to what he was doing exactly. All he knew was that he was going his last job for Sinister ever. After the simple job of recruiting a gang of ruthless killers and leading them into the sewers he would be free. Damnit, he should have known. He should've sensed that something was wrong. After all, a man doesn't gather a gang of mercenaries around him if he doesn't want someone dead.

    With a sigh he picked up another rock and continued his journey north. He was on his way to Canada. A few friends of his still dwelled in the icy lands and he needed their help. To get to Canada he had to go through Washington state. He wouldn't have any problems. Who ever heard of anything happening in Washington state?

    Sara looked around the shadow drenched landscape. Another night, another dream. This time she was standing in the middle of a field. Stars shone in the cloudless sky above her and cast strange shadows on the most innocent of things. In the darkness, something moved.

    "Hello?" Sara called out as she peered into the shadows. "Who's there?"

    The old man stepped out of the shadows and into the light of the stars. "What have you learned, Sara?" he asked.

    For a moment the girl stood silent, studying the man in front of her. He looked so familiar. Almost real. "I have learned lots."

    "Like what?"

    "That...I don't seem to remember," she confessed looking at her feet.

    "Don't worry, child. When the time is important then you will remember everything. For now, learn more," the man assured her and then blew her a kiss. The kiss landed on her forehead and sent her spinning into blackness.

    In the blackness Sara saw things. Things she had never thought of before. Things she had never dreamed were possible. She saw the truth and she learned the reasons. However, as the waking world called, everything faded away and she no longer saw the secrets. Again they were lost to her.

    When Sara woke up she looked around her room and saw strange things in the shadows. There was a nagging at the back of her mind. It told her that once, long ago, she knew how things fit together. Once she had known what and who she was. But she knew no longer and that bothered her.

    Nelsy sat in the kitchen a cup of cold coffee on the table in front of her, her pale blue eyes staring into nothingness. If Sara had once known the secrets of shadows then Nelsy had once known the secrets of magic. Now she was an old woman trying to remember the secret of living.

    Sara came down the steps, pausing on the last step to gaze at Nelsy for a minute. Then she walked over and sat down at the table. "Hello, grandmother," she said.

    Nelsy turned to her granddaughter, fire in those old eyes. She patted the gray braids piled on her head and then pushed her glasses up. "Don't call me that, child. I don't like thinking that I'm old. You hear me? Call me Nelsy."

    "Okay," Sara mumbled looking away from the old woman.

    Nelsy watched Sara and saw bits and pieces of herself in the girl. Luckily though none of the disagreeable elements were present or at least she didn't think they were. With a slightly shaking hand, Nelsy brushed the hair off Sara's right ear.

    The girl spun around. "What are you doing?"

    "Making sure you're clean," the woman lied and sighed as the girl jumped up and left the room. Thank God, she thought. The child shows no sign of her fairy origins. Not like me. Nelsy touched her sharply pointed ears. Thank God.

    Julian sat in his room surrounded by posted of demons, dragons, vampires, and stacks of heavy metal music. He stared out the window. The seventeen-year-old goth had learned early on that there was something special about him. He could "hear" what people were thinking, he could "see" what was in their minds, and if he really tried, tried very hard, he could make them "hear" him.

    Even though he loved to look, he didn't much. This was because he believed the entering someone's mind without a reason was wrong. The boy held himself to very high standards. Higher standards than most parents would. After all, Julian was the only one there to set the standards.

    Julian looked around the room on the fourth floor of an abandoned warehouse and thought how much better this was then the orphanage he had been in. The awful orphanage in Canada run by Department H. The place for "special" children. Julian had hated it there. As soon as he could come up with a plan he had run away. Run as far as possible. Run until he felt safe.

    With a sigh he continued to surf the astral plane. He had felt a dark cloud in the mental world and was now checking it out.

    Sara quickly started getting dressed for school. She knew she was going to be late and being late meant detention and detention mean the Nelsy'd be mad. Without a second thought she pulled on a pair of fishnet stockings, a black shirt, and a short sleeved black top. After pulling on and lacing her black boots, Sara went to stand by the mirror and pick out jewelry.

    As she stood there gazing at the necklaces, something in the mirror caught her attention. Sara focused her light blue eyes on the mirror. Something began to unfold before her. The secrets she had forgotten were becoming clear. The mirror was calling to her. Sara reached out her hand to touch the mirror...

    "Sara!" Nelsy called up the stairs startling the girl from her daze. "Some guy named Julian is here to drive you to school."

    "Coming," Sara yelled as she grabbed a necklace and threw it over her head. No time for makeup today.

    Just before she darted out the door she gazed back at the mirror. It seemed to say. I'll be here later, there's no escape. A shiver ran up Sara's spine, then she grabbed her bag and ran down the stairs.

    Julian sat in the kitchen talking to Nelsy. It was such a strange sight that Sara had to stop and stare for a moment. Her grandmother seemed to like Jules. She couldn't hear what they were talking about but she was sure it wasn't anything she'd be interested in.

    Nelsy looked up and saw the girl standing on the bottom step gazing at them. "Aren't you going to brush your hair?" she snapped.

    Sara nearly scream as Julian turned towards her inquizitivly. "`Bout time, kiddo," he said.

    "Just let me brush my hair and I'll be ready to go," Sara replied through clenched teeth. In the downstairs bathroom, Sara ran a brush through her thick, black hair. She glanced at the mirror once and felt lost inside the world of reflections. Inside the mirror was a world of swirling colors and the secrets of life. It called to her, longed to have her as it's own and again she reached for the colors...

    "Sara, you ready yet!" Jules called to her from the kitchen.

    "Yeah. I'm coming," the girl called back and ran out to the kitchen where he was waiting for her. Julian was in his leather mood today, black leather jeans, boots, and a ripped black T under his leather jacket. Nelsy had left the room.

    "It's cold out," he mentioned.

    "I don't have time to find my coat," she added.

    "Here, take mine," Julian said and handed her the leather jacket.

    Sara put it on and followed him out to his car. "Thanks," she muttered as they pulled away from her house.

    "Thanks for driving you to school or thanks for the jacket?" he asked with one of his smiles.

    Sara looked at him with her pale blue eyes. She studied the thin, tall boy for a minute. There was something strange about him. "Both and thanks for getting me away from the mirrors." Then she was silent.

    Julian looked at her for a moment puzzled out od his wits, then he kept on driving. Something about the silence between them was wrong but he had no idea how to solve the problem. No idea at all.

    In his throne room, Magneto smiled a cold smile. "Her powers have started to show themselves. It won't be too much longer now, Pixie."

    From the shadows, Pixie strode out. Her light brown hair short and her eyes ablaze with psychopathic fire. "I like when new people come to see us, Master. I like it a lot."

    "I know you do, child. I know you do."

    The girl just looked at him. A flicker of sanity crossed her face. "Where am I? Who are you? I want my mom!" the child screamed.

    Magneto shook his head. Pixie kept getting caught in these memory spots where she was still the thirteen year old without mutant powers. The child she had been before all this happened. It would do away in a few minutes. It always did. Until it did he just had to block out the screaming. Just block it out.

    Hidden in the darkness of an abandoned warehouse, a pair of silver eyes peered out into the world of the living. It was a world he could only gaze at and wish to be a part of. No one wanted him. No one. He was eternally alone and so, with a sigh, he turned back into the darkness that had become his life.

    The mercenary for hire, Sabertooth, strode into the office of the Hounds director. The Hounds were a group of mutant hunters who went out looking for other mutants so they too could be recruited into the Hounds program. Just when Victor Creed thought he had gotten himself out of this business of play nicey-nice for the dips in the suits there was "just one last assignment." Right!

    "I see you've made it on time today, Creed," the director said as Victor walked in.

    "Yeah, well, I'm a little anxious to see who I'm fetching for my last gig wit' your smucks," Creed growled.

    "Oh, I'm scared," the director said as the chair behind the desk slowly turned around. There, sitting behind the desk, was a fair haired woman with green eyes.

    "Never thought I'd see you again, Birdie," Victor laughed and the woman smiled.

    "You know that I'm not really here, Mr. Creed. I'm dead. You killed me," the image of Birdie replied as she started to fade away.

    "Birdie! No! You can't leave me now!" he yelled as his former friend, in the very smallest sense of the word, faded from view.

    "Be seeing you, Vic. After all, even you can't escape Death."

    Victor Creed screamed as the fragile form of Birdie turned into a flaming skull and then dove at him. He woke up in his own bed covered with sweat and shaking. Just a bleeding nightmare, Vic. Get over it, he told himself.

    It had seemed so real though. He could smell the scent of Birdie's shampoo mixed with the constant aura of fear that had surrounded her. That scent had always be so intoxicating. The scent that had drove him to kill her when she threatened to walk out because...because he couldn't stand the thought of losing that scent.

    The man called Sabertooth got out of bed and walked to the window of his little motel room. He stood there, staring out at lights of this small town in Washington state. Out there somewhere was Sara Tucker, his last assignment. Somewhere out in that town and he would fine her. Yes, he would find her.

    Sara sat staring out the windshield her pale blue eyes focused on nothing. Julian stopped at a red light and looked over to see tears streaming soundlessly down her cheeks.

    "What's wrong?" he asked.

    "Nothing, Jules. Nothing. Just...just leave me alone," she murmured.

    "There's something wrong. Now what is it," he pressed and watched as the girl brushed her black hair off her face and averted her eyes.

    "It's nothing. Nothing you'd understand anyway."

    "What wouldn't I understand? Try me. I just bet you that what I've lived through in my life is worse than what you're upset about now," Julain prodded.

    "No. Nothing's worse than this. I think I'm going insane," Sara admitted.

    An angry fire flashed through Julian's eyes. "We all think we're going insane sometimes. I've been through a lot. Damnit, Sara, I've seen things that would make your heart stop! Don't talk to me about unimaginable problems `cause what I can imagine is pretty horrid.

    "Now what's wrong with you?" he asked again as the light changed and he drove the car forward.

"Mirrors. I think something in the mirrors wants me. They call to me. God, I hear them in my head. I think I'm going insane just like my mother did. I think I'm crazy," she sighed and then wiped the tears away and looked out the window again.

    Julain sighed. He knew he had felt the stirrings of a mutant mind this morning. If it was Sara then...well shouldn't he tell her...but what if she really was crazy. He shook his head and then said, "Sorry if I snapped. I didn't mean to. I was just concerned."

    "I know. It's okay." Then they continued on in silence.