Disclaimer: All characters belong to Marvel Comics. The story belongs to the author.

The day did not start off good. Illyana couldn't find the ability to sleep and maybe forget, just for a little while, all the tragedy that had been occurring in her life.

Only a week ago, Doug had been killed by the Annilahator. Kitty Pryde had been seriously injured and was now in England with Kurt. The two of them were now the only two surviving X-Men. Her brother,Piotr...,was dead.... She had nothing left to hold her here, except she had nowhere else she could go.

She felt Lockheed, Kitty's dragon, nuzzle against her back. He missed Kitty as much as she did, but she was glad he had decided to stay with her her for a little while.

She sighed and sat up, throwing off the covers that seemed to provide her no warmth. The room was dark and the mansion silent, telling her that it was well before dawn. She pulled an old faded t-shirt of Kitty's over her head and pulled on some faded jeans. She laced up her sneakers, ignoring the yellow and black unform that was thrown forlornly over a chair. She slipped quietly from the room and stole down the hall to the stairs.

As she walked down the stairs she shivered at the unnatural silence of the mansion. She heard Lockheed's wings flapping in the near distance and turned around to watch him fly up. "Finally decided you couldn't sleep, hmmm?" He nodded as he landed on her shoulder.

"Me neither." She opened the door and walked outside, ignoring the snowflakes that fell in her sun-blonde hair, ignoring the  cold flakes that fell and melted on her bare arms and face.

"Does life ever get any easier than ths Lockheed? I feel like this is all my fault. If I would have been a moment earlier, I could have saved Doug. Doug, he was the sweetest and most courageous of us, a true hero. My own brother, I delivered him to his own death. If I would been with Kitty when she needed me most, she wouldn't be hurt." She sown to the snow covered ground in helplessness.

"There's no place to hide, no place for me to go. I stay here in this place because of that. Limbo only reminds me of what I am. But who am I?" She wailed and begain to sob, tears streaking down her face.

"Don't cry little SnowFlake, it can't be that bad can it?" An ice cold hand lifted her chin to look in a face much like her own.

Ice blue eyes, sad and serious, but warm stared back into her own ice blue eyes that were so often cold.

"Who're you?" She whispered, almost afraid of the answer.

"I am the Ice Queen, much like yourself. An Outsider... Come, let me show you my kingdom." The Ice Queen took Illyana's hand and smiled warmly at Lockheed. In moments they were in a world filled with ice,snow, and cold blowing Northern winds. For all that she should have been cold, she was not.

"Let me hear your story, childe, and then I will decide if you have no help.'

Illyana told the Ice Queen about how she felt about herself and how nothing was left for her. The Ice Queen had remained silent during her whole story, only growng more solemn with each word.

"You're worse off than I thought. Come, I'll show you my kingdom and maybe you'll change your mind about evil and not having anything left to keep you to the earth." The Ice Queen called the winds to take them on the journey across the kingdom of ice.

On the journey Illyana saw many things and it made her heart weep.

(Sorry, I just can't keep my mind on this story. The Spitting Dragon)

(TO be continued...)