A/N: I'm slowly working on rewriting this story since it's been so long. I realize that some of you absolutely love my story, while others ran into a problem due to set up and a couple dramatized problems with my character. By doing this, I hope to make it better while accommodating what's been pointed out to me by others. I hope you enjoy the new chapters. Some things will stay the same, while others will be scrapped. Please, let me know what you think as I go so I can continue to improve. Thanks everyone!

Combusting Hearts

Rewritten

Chapter 1

They Call Me Freak

I hated playing this little game every day. I absolutely hated it. Every day was the same old bullshit, a dance with my sanity as I tried keeping my emotions in check. Everyone else had it easy, living their normal lives and going to school. I tried doing the same, forcing a smile on my face every time that I passed my foster mother or the students at school, but it just kept getting harder. It's been the same thing since I was 12 years old. That was when I found out how truly different and out of place I was. How truly dangerous I was.

"Elaine!"

I winced as my foster mom yelled at me from down stairs. I already knew what she wanted, but opened my door anyway out of frustration.

"What!?" I yelled.

"I want you out of this house now! Otherwise you'll be late for school!" she shouted.

I sighed, slipping my shoes on, and grabbing my bag. I through my jacket on quickly, and then ran down stairs, and out the door.

You'd think that she'd take me to school, but no, I had to walk. The lady wouldn't even consider letting me in her car, in fear that it may explode or catch fire. Yeah, that's right, she knows about my powers. Heck, if she had it her way, I wouldn't even be in her house. We basically got stuck with each other, much to her dismay. I was actually surprised when I had been placed in her care. I actually figured that someone would have tried to lock me up by now, but apparently, there must have been someone seeing to it that I wasn't thrown into confinement.

Normally, mutants like me don't last long in humane society. Most of the time, we're locked up, and put away out of sight of the 'sane' community. As far as I go, let's just say I've near been in any one particular foster home for longer than 6 months. Most times, it's even less than that. Finding people to take me in is even harder, and half of them really didn't even have a choice, they were forced to. To them, I was their worst nightmare, and ultimate fear. They were always afraid that I'd end up burning the house down or that they'd end up dead and burnt to a crisp. I mean, it's not my fault that I can't control my powers. Trust me, I've tried. Even other mutants that were in homes around me were terrified of me, so that basically shot down any ideas I ever had of trying to makes friends.

I let out a long sigh as I looked up, standing in front of the place that I considered a daily hell, besides my life that is. Rolland High School, one of my worst nightmares. Luckily, when I turned 18 in a couple months, I was free. They could release me from the system and it'd be my choice if I wanted to continue school. It didn't help that I'd been held back a year, leaving me at Junior status due to problems with being moved around so much. A couple of times, the family I was with would try home schooling me to keep me out of the public eye. That only worked so well. Currently, it was mandated that I go to school, but that wasn't saying much. If I really wanted to, I could probably just run off somewhere and no one would even care.

I was almost passed the fronts gates when it hit me, a hard leather pigskin colliding with the back of my head. The thing had nearly knocked me on my ass, before tumbling down to the ground at my feet, a few passersby snickering as they went.

"Hey, watch it!" I yelled, holding the back of my head that had just come in contact with the thrown football.

I turned to find one of the jocks standing there, a look of amusement on his face as his buddies laughed. It was like they didn't have anything better to do other than torment people. Normally, it was the nerds that they picked on, but today they decided to broaden their horizons. They probably did it on purpose too, which meant that their ball was going to be a hunk of purposely melted leather too, my hands lighting up in irritation.

"My football!" the largest one yelled, completely outraged at what I had just done.

"I could say the same about my head buddy," I said irritably.

He just glared at me as I tossed the ruined heap back at him, before shouting, anger in his voice.

"Freak!"

I froze on the spot, my brows furrowing faintly, a hint of water building at the corner of my eyes in irritation. Freak. That's what they always seemed to call me. I'm a freak of nature and I knew that. I was a freak with powers that they can't control, the oddity normally confusing me while simultaneously scaring the ever living shit out of me as well. God, why couldn't I just be expelled from this school like the last one? At least then I'd be done. I didn't want to be around people anyway as it pressed at my anxiety and overall self esteem.

"I wish I could just leave this place," I whispered to myself as I watched everyone else enter the school.

I soon followed everyone else, entering the building, and going to my class room. The moment that I walked into the room, all eyes were on me, and me alone. I'd been gone for a week and everyone knew why. I'd gotten into a fight with someone the previous week and apparently, the teachers didn't care for it very much. Sad part is, it wasn't even over me. I'd found a couple of the jocks ganging up on another mutant and I'd just snapped. No one in this school liked me at all to begin with really and I'd just gone and made things worse once again.

I could hear the whispers as I sat down in my seat, trying to ignore everything, and pretend that it didn't bother me. It would always bother me though because I felt like I didn't belong. I didn't actually have a place to be like everyone else.

"There's the freak again. Ugh, she's so weird," a blonde muttered, trying to whisper to one of her friends while picking at her nails.

"Yeah, you'd think she'd have enough brains not to come around here. She should have just been expelled altogether for what she did. They're all freaks anyway, no matter how you look at it."

"I know. I mean, and that hair? Seriously? You'd think she'd know not to try and draw further attention to herself. Then again, I'd like to know how she got it so bright. Is that natural for them?"

I just sat there, my hands balling up as I tried to contain myself. I was actually glad when the teacher walked in, silencing everyone. He was a little more lenient toward people like me, but only a little. There was only so much that he could do as a teacher. Especially, when he was the only one that cared to try and make things fair. There was a lot of people that didn't really care for people like me. Most were scared because they didn't understand us. It was also the reason that I had to wear colored contacts. There no way that anyone would let me walk around the school if they knew what I really looked like. Funny enough, it had been a recommendation by one of my tutors in middle school, the idea sticking with me to this very day.

"Sorry I'm late everyone. I had trouble getting my car started this morning," Mr. Kenton said, placing his planner and teachers book on his desk. "Now, today we're going to be pairing up in partners to begin our review for tomorrows test. I want you to partner up with the person beside you and start with the flash cards that all of you should have made last night. Now, get started," he said, sitting down in his chair, quickly going to work at trying to grade papers.

I watched as the girl that was supposed to be my partner raised her hand after a few moments of silence, her eyes darting around the room as she poked one of her friends in the arm.

"Mr. Kenton?" she asked, earning his attention.

"What is it Angela?" he questioned, glancing back down at his papers for a moment as he tried to organize them.

"Can I please go use the restroom?" she asked sweetly.

"You should have used it before coming to class," he said.

I grinned at his answer, biting down on the edge of my lip. I mean, did she really think that he would fall for that line of shit?

"But it's that time of month again, sir," she said.

My face fell as I watched him shift uncomfortably. The one response that no male teacher can say no to and she had to go and pull it. I knew for a fact that she'd had her last period almost a week and a half ago because her and her little friends could never shut up.

Shifting and pulling at the collar of his shirt, Mr. Kenton coughed into his hand, before holding out a bathroom pass that he'd pulled from his drawer. He didn't even try to dispute her answer, too uncomfortable to even try.

"Please hurry up then," he said.

She simply turned to me with a sly smile as she got up and snatched the pass from him. She also took her purse, which was the only thing of hers in the room. I sighed, knowing that she wasn't going to be coming back any time soon.

Minutes later, I saw one of her friends texting oh so discretely underneath her desk. She looked down at her phone and stifled a laugh, turning to her partner and speaking in a hushed tone.

"She's so not coming back to class. I swear, that was absolute pure genius," she laughed, making sure that Mr. Kenton didn't hear her. "She's probably going to fake a stomach ache so she can go home."

I groaned as I placed my head in my arms. I give up on even trying this class today as a result. What was even the point if I didn't even have anyone to study with? I didn't even have any flash cards because I'd been gone from class for several days. Yeah, I knew most of the material, but that didn't mean that testing results would be perfect.

I don't even think that 5 minutes passed, before I felt something hit me in the back of the head, the object bouncing off and onto my desk. I looked down to find a crumpled up piece of paper with writing on it, picking it up and pealing it apart. My eyes narrowed as I read what it said, irritation washing over me within mere seconds.

Hey Freak, how's studying coming!

I let out a small growl of annoyance, before tearing it into tiny pieces upon my desk, glaring back at the one that I knew had likely thrown it. They were trying to pretend like nothing happened, the moron biting down on their finger to keep from laughing. Deciding to just pull a book out of my bag I went about reading instead. I didn't feel like putting with the crap. I knew that all they wanted was a reaction out of me, so I tried not to give them what they were looking for. Even then, I still continued to get things thrown at me discreetly, only ending up in torn up shreds at the foot of my desk. Such a waste of a tree, it really is a crime.

By the time that class was over, I'd managed to read the first two chapters of my book. It was a compilation of short stories from different authors. All of them were fantasy oriented though and that's all that truly mattered to me. The moment I heard the bell, I grabbed up my stuff, and exited the room. I was reminded of the only good thing about me being a mutant. It was the fact that in the hallway, most people move out of my way.

It was normally always like this. No one wanted to be anywhere near me at all because they were too scared of me. Well, not all of them were scared. A good portion were just disgruntled and unsure. They didn't like people that were different than them. I had absolutely no friends as a result and no one wanted to be my friend, no matter what. No one was here for me, no one stood up for me, no one cared about me. I could die tomorrow and no one would ever shed a tear or whisper a bittersweet word or verse of sorrow. There was absolutely nothing here for me at all. They were in their own little worlds, their own little cliques and that's all that really mattered to them. If I could just reign in my emotions, I might have been okay, but over the years, people had seen too many things. As a result, once something happened, the image stuck. That was why I was moved around so much.

A few hours later, the same thoughts were going through my head. The end of the day was no exception to those thoughts. In fact, it just made them worse because I was surrounded by a crowd, people lumping themselves together outside of the school building. It made me uncomfortable, watching everyone milling around. It made me feel claustrophobic almost.

"Watch it freak," one guy said as he shoved passed me.

"Miss Connors!"

I nearly jumped as I turned around. I was kind of surprised to find Mr. Kenton standing there. The guy looked a little out of place, his tie being pulled loose since the school day was over.

"Do you mind if we talk for a moment?" he asked, his messenger bag in hand as he held it by the handle.

"Um, sure?"

"I just wanted to let you know that what you did last week was admirable," he said, shifting his bag onto his shoulder. "You also have a lot of potential for your future Miss Connors."

I scoffed when he said this, trying not to roll my eyes.

"Now, don't give me that look," he chastised. "I know what other people think, but that doesn't matter."

"Look, I'm a freak and I know it, okay?" I sighed. "I have no future. Every time I turn around, something happens and I either end up in a new school or a new home. I don't even know what the point of this is anymore."

"Look, Elaine," he sighed, running his hand through his hair as he tried to make a point. "You have options," he told me. "I've seen your grades and they're far from average. You're a smart kid despite what you have to go through. If you really wanted to, you could still go to college and make something for yourself."

"What's the point though? They'd never take me anyway. I'm a liability," I reminded him.

"That's not true. Look," he sighed. "I have to go, but keep what I said in mind. If you really wanted to, you could test out of Junior year and get through Senior. There's ways of getting around it. If you change your mind, let me know and I'll see what I can do."

With that, I watched as he walked away, a frown on my face. How could he be so positive when everyone else was so negative and degrading? How was it even possible?

Shaking my head, I pushed the thoughts from my mind and started home, a faint feeling of dread washing over me. It was going to be one of those days.

†

Charles was going about his usual rounds as he wheeled around the basement. He'd already been upstairs, the school day finished for the day's session. As a result, he didn't have any classes at the moment. His ethics class had finished up earlier that morning, the students trailing to their next class once the bell had sounded. Slowly, he came to a stop outside of Cerebro. The gears inside whirred around, a panel opening. Carefully, he lined himself up, blinking momentarily as a small light shot forward and over his eye. It was a retinal scan that he had set in place to keep wandering students at bay.

"Hello, Professor."

"Thank you Cerebro," he voiced quietly, allowing the doors to close behind him as he wheeled inside. "Now, why don't we take a look at things."

The moment the metal helmet when on, lights exploded in front of him. Before him was a giant map spanning the Earth. It was a mess of white and red lights, the colors signifying humans and mutants alike. Slowly, he pushed away the human, the white lights disappearing. It allowed him to concentrate on locating the mutants. There seemed to be just as many in numbers, his mind narrowing in on different states as he concentrated a little closer to home. He'd been looking in on several mutants recently, keeping an eye on things.

He'd found a shifter up in Maine recently, a young man of around 22. His name was Hal Davidson. He seemed to have a decent hold on his powers, experimenting with the different shapes he could take. Charles was thinking of sending someone out to him next week to talk to him. Perhaps even bring him back to the mansion.

Charles had found another mutant just last week. This one was up around Michigan, living at the water's edge. She had an affinity to water, her ability changing her genetic makeup and allowing her to breathe under water among other things. She was around 17, also coming to have a rather decent grip on her power, but had a penchant for pulling pranks. She'd gotten into trouble several times with her parents as a result of this.

Milling around, Charles skimmed the rest of the states. He was about half way through when a bright light had suddenly exploded in front of him. The red light hadn't been as apparent before, the intensity making him wince. It was in Oklahoma, the image becoming far larger as he pushed his concentration. He was suddenly filled with a wave of fear and sadness, pain radiating through him. The image of the young girl before him was terrified, her emotions were sporadic, shooting off all over the place as her mind screamed out to anyone that might hear her. There were so many insecurities rushing out from her that it too was painful, her emotions manifesting into a tremor of lethal power, one for which he was positive she couldn't control.

Help me! Please!? Anyone!

The image was almost static like as her energy levels spiked. He had to help her before something terrible happened that couldn't be reversed.

Logan, Storm, Scott.

Charles reached out with his mind as he pulled the helmet from his head, placing it back onto its pedestal.

Meet me in the hanger and have the jet ready, we're leaving now.

He spoke through his mind as he wheeled out of the room quickly and down the hall, throwing out a few more orders. He knew that he had to hurry, otherwise, people were going to get killed.

†

It was all blur as I sat there trying to process everything. I'd finished things with Mr. Kenton and headed on my way, not wanting to bother with anything else. I appreciated his words, I really did, but I didn't feel like that kind of life was possible for me. I've done too much to warrant something as simple and normal as that. The idea itself scared me, grating at my anxiety. I didn't know if I could even do something like that.

Before I realized what had happened though, I was being pushed to the ground, the cement biting at my hands and knees as I caught myself. My head had touched the ground though and I felt the blood welling at the very edge of my skin.

"You're payin' for a new one!"

I was confused until something thudded in front of me. Letting my eyes focus, I saw that it was the football from earlier. I felt the color drain from my face momentarily, before gasping for air. I'd been sent onto my back, arms curled around my abdomen. Pain erupted there from where one of them had kicked me, my muscles twitching something awful. They just laughed.

"Guys, is it really worth it?"

I let my eyes trail toward the voice. It was one of the younger boys of the group. I think his name was Steve. He was a freshman that I'd seen in passing along with in my gym class. The mere thought of that class made me cringe.

"Shut up, pipsqueak! This is between me and her!"

"Johnathon, just stop it!" Steve snapped, watching as the other kicked me again.

The other two laughed as they apparently got some sort of sick amusement out of it, before one of them joined in, catching my chin in the process. I saw starts for a moment as my head snapped to the side. The taste of blood filled my mouth. My mind was screaming at me, screaming out as I looked for help. I found none.

"She's a freak, its what she gets. Just like that little shit from last week!"

I felt something snap inside of me as I heard this, anger slowly bubbling up inside of me as he kicked me again. He did it again and again, foot colliding with my stomach and chasing the air from my lungs. It didn't bother me anymore as my heart began pounding painfully in my ears. My chest hurt and I could feel my hands shake. A strange warmth was slowly rolling over me, the tips of my fingers tingling. For a moment, I thought I was seeing red, blinking my eyes as I tried to pull myself together. I couldn't think straight as I looked down at my hands. They were glowing red, sparking static almost.

"Guys, stop it!" Steve yelled.

They almost didn't stop, not until they saw what was happening.

Make it stop!

I was reminded of that day almost 6 years ago, my eyes watering. It had taken everything away. Everything had been taken away from me and it had been my fault.

Please?

Tears ran down my face. It felt like I couldn't breathe, the group in front of me moving away as the strange warmth began making its way up my arm.

Stop!

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think. I couldn't speak. I couldn't do anything.

T

"Scott, do you have it in view?"

"Yes, Sir," he nodded, scanning the area. "They'd go her surrounded."

"Damnit!" Logan hissed. "Just land this thing already!"

T

"We're gonna ask one more time kid," the officer in front of me said, gun raised and positioned to shoot. "Put the fire out!"

Make it stop! Just make it stop!

My heart continued hammering in my chest as the ground around me began to tremble, a crackle in the air as sections began breaking along with the wall behind me. I screamed as a section suddenly exploded, the force of its power tossing me to the ground as a result. Again, I was seeing black, something warm sliding down the side of my face.

"The whole building is gonna come down!" someone yelled.

I could feel the building slowly beginning to crumble around me, stones and bricks rolling away from its structure.

Just make everything stop…

My mind was on a never ending reel, body trembling as I tried to right myself, heat spreading through me. My hands were radiating some sort of energy. It would always be the same. Nothing would ever change.

That's when I heard it, the shot ringing out. My body froze and I curled in on myself, hands gripping my head as I waited for the pain to come. It never did. The initial shot buried itself in the wall beside me as the building continued to crumble. Shockingly enough, there was no second shot. My powers had seemed to nullify, my mind going blank. I was in shock.

"It's alright now my dear," a voice said.

I looked around frantically, my eyes falling upon a man in a wheel chair as he rolled forward from behind the several cops standing there. They looked like frozen statues, they're bodies still and unmoving. I'd never seen anything like it.

The man had 3 other people standing behind him. Two men and one woman. The woman looked to be of African descent, with long white hair, that flowed down her back. Her attire was mostly white, with an 'X' on the front. To her right, stood a man with short brown, almost coppery hair. He had a strange looking visor over his eyes that reflected red, and stood there with a menacing look about him. Then there was the last one. He was a well built man, with broad shoulders, and a strange hair cut. He kind of reminded me of a wild animal of sorts, something akin to a wolf or similar with the way that wild 'mane' and facial hair sat.

I looked back at the man in the wheel chair, unsure of what to do. I became scared and started to move away from them, scooting back on my hands and knees. I was shaking.

"Wh-who are you?" I asked, my eyes never staying on one person in particular.

The man just sported a kind smile, extending his hand out a bit as if to coax me forward into submission.

"We, we are the X-Men," he said, gesturing to those around him. "We're here to help," he told me. "And we're mutants just like you are Elaine," his mouth never moved, though his voice was definitely in my head.

I watched as he wheeled closer to me, before coming to rest in front of me. He just smiled down at me, a warm, genuine smile.

"Now, if you'll let me, I'd like to take away your fear Elaine," he said, staring down at me. "Let me help you…let me put your mind at ease child," he spoke into my mind.

I never even noticed as his hands came to rest on either side of my head, his warm eyes never leaving mine.

"I'd like that…" I whispered in my head, feeling a gentle warmth wash over my mind.

I could feel it calm my raging thoughts, and sooth my fearful mind. It put me at ease as I felt my eyes close, and my head slowly fall to rest on a small portion of his lap as I left consciousness. I'd never felt so at piece before.

†

"Logan, if you would?" he said, gesturing to the feral man.

Logan nodded his head, coming over, and kneeling down beside him. He carefully picked the girl up, sweeping one arm around behind her back, and the other under her legs. Upon finding how light she was, he knew that she didn't eat much. In fact, she seemed a bit malnourished now that he could take a better look at things, and that bothered him. After Logan had successfully picked her up, Charles turned to the other two.

"Scott, Storm, I'm sure you can handle things from here?" he asked, watching as they gave him a nod in response.

"Yes, we'll be with you in a few minutes Professor," Scott assured him. "Just make sure the two of you are settled in and ready to go when I get there. Got that Logan?"

Logan growled at him.

"Yeah, I got ya. Right here," he said, making an obscene hand gesture.

Scott just glared at him in response.

"Come Logan, let's get her on board," the Professor said, trying to relieve the tension.

Logan just grunted, but followed the Professor nonetheless. He did not see the cocky smirk on Scott's face as he left, otherwise, Logan would have let him have it real good.