A/N: Hello! This is my first Fanfiction so please don't be too hard on me :) Sorry if the characters seem OOC, I tried my best

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men or any of the characters. All copyright and ownership goes to Marvel and the creators. I make no profit from this little adventure of mine and this is purely for entertainment purposes.

Prologue: A Tattered Past

A lone girl sat at the back of the class with music blaring in her ears. That was the only way she would be able to drown out her thoughts, her emotions, and most importantly, the voices. It had all started when that pathetic excuse for a doctor had injected her with what she had called 'vaccinations' back at the base she was trying so hard to bury into the depths of her mind. It felt so real, the voices, as if there truly was someone – or something – talking to her. She had thought she had gone insane. Ever since she had left the team, the voices had grown louder, calling her, questioning her actions. She ignored it most of the time but then it would creep up on her when she was asleep, showing itself in a corporal form by way of nightmares. She must be going insane. She knew they were here for her. She had seen the all-too familiar black van in the school parking lot when she was walking to class. Two years down the road and it still seemed apparent that she would not be able to shake them off her back. Reluctantly, she pulled her headphones off her head and shoved them in her bag. Her teachers never bothered about her anymore, so long as she produced the grades they wanted. Looking at her watch, she knew she could not wait anymore. If she were to leave only when the teacher was done droning, there was no doubt that she would not be able to get to her next class in the other block. It was simply too far away. Yes, her plan was better than sitting here waiting to be picked off. She laid her head on her desk, putting up a facade. She had 1 hour to convince her teacher and peers that she was not well and get out of the school.

Half an hour later, she was walking pitifully slowly to her car in the lot. She thanked the Heavens that she had parked at the opposite parking lot in the morning. They would not realise her departure, not that soon anyway. She quickly put the keys in the lock and yanked the car door open. Sliding in, she quickly locked all the doors and started the ignition. The car jolted to life. Within seconds, Emily Blackburn was blazing down the road, leaving her school and possibly her life behind her.

It did not take long before the van showed up behind her. As the distance between them slowly grew smaller, Emily focused slightly causing the van to slow to a crawl before stopping completely. She allowed herself a small smile before diverting her attention back to the road. A black man in a cowboy hat suddenly appeared in front of her. Emily resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she gently nudged the accelerator, itching for more speed just to prove her point. The gap between them quickly shrunk as Emily shot forward. Then, at the very last second, the man vanished in a puff of smoke, millimetres away from becoming collateral damage on the tar. Emily smirked. She did not need to check to know that the man had returned to his own vehicle. It had been in expectancy of the very same situation that had driven her to tint all the windows black. That was the flaw of teleporters - they simply had to know where they were going. Moments ticked by before with a heavy sigh, Emily spotted the van appear once more behind her. Her powers had worn off when she got too far away from it and they had taken no delay in going to all means to catch up with her.

Two gunshots and a lot of screeching later, Emily had jerked her car to a thankfully safe stop at the side of the road. With a resounding sigh, she stepped out of her vehicle and leaned against it, staring at the van with pure hatred in her eyes. It slowed to a stop before the doors slowly swung open.

The katana-wielder was the first one out, grinning as usual.

"I'm not going back Wade. You know what that place did to me."

"Aww, what didn't you like about it Em? You gotta admit that you absolutely loved living in a crammed space with 7 guys going around killing people right? I mean, what's not to love?"

"You know you can't beat me Wade, you and the whole lot of you. I'll burn you all down to the ground if I have to."

Emily deliberately raised her voice a decibel when she reached "whole lot of you" just to ensure that the group of men still in the van could hear her.

"Cranky Em, just the way I like it."

Emily rolled her eyes.

"We aren't here to fight you Emily. Stryker just wants you to reconsider your decision." John murmured as he stepped out of the vehicle.

"Why can't you people get it? I hate it! I hate killing! It makes me sick! Why can't you all just accept that I hate that wretched place and get on with your lives already?!"

"And all this proclaimed hate about killing from the person who just threatened to burn us all down to the ground. You're kinda shooting yourself in the foot here Em". Wade chided her, shaking his head dramatically.

"Hey brat, you best come with us quietly or I'll just have to make you." Victor almost cooed as he stepped out of the van.

Emily knew he was itching for a chase. He was a predator, he was programmed to chase and hunt down his prey. "Going quietly" was simply "not fun enough".

"Nice to see you too, Victor."

Emily sighed as she was once again greeted with the sight of her old team. Wade, the mercenary that just would not shut up, Victor, the feral that enjoyed "playing with his food", James, the only person Emily felt could relate to her hatred for killing, Chris, the silent electropath, Fred, the strong and invulnerable one, Zero, Stryker's loyal attack dog and John, the fairly sympathetic teleporter that she almost ran down just a few moments before.

Emily turned to James and gave him a pleading look.

"You understand don't you? You never liked it either."

Victor sauntered forward.

"Enough of this. Are you coming or am I going to have to make you."

Emily turned to face him, sending him a glare that could have been lethal.

"Correction Vicky, it's 'try to make me'."

Wade let out a short laugh as the tension in the little segment of the road grew to an all-time high. Victor let out a feral growl before lunging forward. Almost lazily, Emily swung her hand sideways as she upped the air resistance, sending Victor flying out of sight. Zero was next to try his hand at hitting her, failing miserably when she once again toggled the air resistance, sending both him and his bullets joining Victor off in the distance. A puff of smoke appeared behind her as John ported and grabbed her. Unfazed, Emily gave him a swift elbow to the gut which rewarded her with a loud groan of pain from John before she swung around and gave him a twist kick to the face, upping the force as she did so. As foot connected with jaw, Emily was rewarded with a satisfying crunch as John staggered backwards and fell to the ground.

Fred decided it was his turn to try and take her down and charged forward. There was no going around for the invulnerable man as Emily focused and turned up the gravity forcing him on the ground.

James and Wade were up next with Chris providing backup with a handgun. The bullets and Chris were dealt with easily enough with a few swings of her hand while James required a few good hits to the gut before he was out. With only one man standing, Wade drew his blades and lunged forward. Emily focused on his hands and upped the friction. It did not take long to force him to disarm himself.

"Oww! No fair Em! You didn't try to burn off the others' hands! And here I thought you liked me."

"I'm tired of this." Emily declared before she closed her eyes and focused. The effect was instantaneous; everyone immediately fell on their faces, unable to fight the all-powerful force of gravity. Especially gravity that was more than 10 times its usual force.

"Not this again! Oh come on! It's been like 2 years Em! Couldn't you have come up with something new?"

Emily rolled her eyes as she started back to her car. The door of the van swung open ominously, stopping Emily in her tracks. She turned around slowly, sighing.

"Blackburn."

"Stryker."

"You know you never belonged here. You're a mutant, a very powerful one at that. Come back with us and we'll ensure that you'll be rewarded handsomely. After all, how are you going to take care of your sister without money? Surely you would do it for her?"

"You know something Stryker? The money thing was exhausted a long time ago. It isn't going to work anymore."

"Your sister gets off school two hours from now doesn't she? How would she like a visit?"

"Go to hell."

Emily focused on the van before it crumpled and crushed itself into a giant ball of scrap metal. Then without bothering to look back, Emily walked back to her car, toggled the magnetism to lift it off the ground before getting in and disappearing down the road.

The door burst open as Emily ran inside on a mission. She raced to her room in record time, throwing all her belongings into a luggage before running over to her sister's room and repeating the process. Dragging both luggage down the stairs and into the garage, Emily glanced at the clock on the wall. 1pm. She had an hour to get everything into the back of the car and rush down to her sister's school. Dumping the baggage in the garage, Emily spun back around and pulled out yet another suitcase before beginning her frenzy of throwing all the items in the house into the bag.

1.45pm. Emily was blazing down the road with four bags sliding about in the trunk of the car. She was starting to panic. If they found out that her sister was a - She could not phantom what they would do to her. No, she would not allow this. Her sister was all she had left. Emily choked back a sob as tears threatened to overflow. This was all her fault. She should never have accepted that deal. But then again, knowing Stryker, she doubted that it would have made a difference.

The school bell rang just as Emily pulled up on the curb. She scanned the area for signs of danger before getting out of the car. She stared at the main gate, looking for the little girl that meant so much to her. It was only when the familiar face of her sister appeared that Emily exhaled the breath she had not realised she was holding. Her sister's eyes lit up when she spotted her and immediately made a quick dash toward her.

"Hey sis, I'm sorry but we're going to have to leave again. They found us."

"Oh… … Okay."

Emily could see the hidden despair in her sister's eyes. She was 12 years old - 6 years her junior - she did not deserve this life. She knew her sister had grown to like the little town and to be honest, Emily did too. Giving her younger sister a swift hug and a kiss to the forehead, the two quickly got into the car, leaving their lives behind them.

It had been almost a week since the Blackburn sisters had left their comfortable little home. Their disappearance from the town had spread gossip amongst their friends and teachers but everyone knew the sisters were odd. It was later assumed that the sisters were not coming back and just as their appearance had been a great mystery, their disappearance was labelled as so and the town returned to its usual state.

Emily awoke with a start, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She had to admit that as much as she liked the car, it was definitely not a favourable place to sleep. Stretching, Emily looked behind her at the sleeping form of her sister. She was so peaceful in her sleep. Emily supposed that it was in dreams and only in dreams that one could escape the cruel grasps of reality. But then again, there were nightmares. Emily let out a soft sigh. She remembered the day she first left the cursed team.

"Hey sis!"

"You're back!"

Her little sister was overjoyed to see her and immediately ran over and pulled her into a hug. Emily smiled for the first time in a long while. It killed her to know she had to leave her sister. Since their parents died in the car crash, they had been inter-dependent. They didn't have anyone else left.

"Listen to me, I did something very wrong by joining that team. They are going to send people after me, bad people. I can't risk you being with me, it's too dangerous."

Her sister looked up at her in shock.

"What - what do you mean? Please don't leave me... I'll - I'll come with you. I'm - I'm not scared of bad people. Just-just don't leave me, please."

Her voice cracked on the last word. Emily looked into her sister's eyes as tears welled up and threatened to overflow. She felt crushed. Of course she did not want to leave. But if her old team was going to hunt her down like Stryker promised, then she would be putting her sister in danger. While she believed that James, Chris and John had almost zero possibility of hurting her (and probably Wade too as strange as that thought seemed), she knew that Stryker had plenty of mindless minions. There was Zero and Fred and of course there was ... Victor. The man was an animal. Actually, that would have been an understatement. Victor would gladly rip her sister into shreds if Stryker let go of the leash. The idea scared her, almost as much as the idea of leaving her sister behind. As she looked at her sister, shaking as the tears began to fall, Emily knew she would not allow this. She was not going to let this come between them. Stryker already knew she had a sister. Leaving her would not keep her safe. After all, where would she go? Emily bent over her sister and embraced her.

"I'm not going to leave you. But you must promise me that if I ever fail to protect us, if I ever fail to keep us safe, you will run. You will run and not look back. You will go to the police. You will never try to find me again. If anyone asks, you never knew me and unless I return to you, you will never tell anyone about me. You never had a sister. Do you understand?"

"But – but, I — I…"

"Promise me!"

Without saying another word, her sister nodded before hugging her again. They had given up their lives on that day and had been on the run ever since.

Her sister's groan pulled her out of her reverie. Emily turned and stared at her, worried that she had woken her. When her sister simply turned over, Emily sighed in relief. She ran a hand through her long chocolate-brown hair before gently opening the car door and stepping out in the morning breeze. The sun was just beginning to rise. Emily looked around. She had eventually given in to her fatigue and had parked on an isolated stretch of road sometime after midnight just a few hours before. The place was deserted. She would need to drive to a nearby town or settlement to get food. She sighed and let the gentle rays of the morning sun warm her. She did not even realise that her sister had came out of the car and settled next to her. The pair simply sat in a comfortable silence as they watched the sun rise. Emily was the first to break the silence.

"Remember that promise you made me when we first left?"

"Yeah..."

Emily gave her a sad smile.

"It still stands you know? You'll run right?"

Her sister nodded reluctantly.

"If anything happens, will I ever see you again?"

Emily shot her a bitter smile before caressing her sister's cheek.

"I'll find you, when I'm able to."

If I'm able to, Emily corrected mentally. She was fairly convinced that if Stryker managed to catch her, it would be next to impossible to escape again. The pair sat silently for a few more moments before they got into the car and drove off.

[Does anyone have a visual on the target?]

Stryker's voice rang from the ear piece as the team took their positions.

[Does anyone have a visual on the target?!]

[No, Sir.]

[Nope.]

[Nothing, Sir.]

[No visual, Sir.]

[Not here, Sir.]

[No, Sir.]

The line had gone silent before one final voice spoke.

[Sir, I have a visual on the target. She's heading in the direction of an abandoned settlement.]

[Good. Move in.]

Emily had driven in the direction of what had looked like a settlement. What she had not expected - but had picked up as she got closer to it - however, was that it was abandoned.

Emily slowed down as she drove through the streets. If they were lucky, they might be able to find some food in a store. The area was still relatively clean and Emily figured that the settlement had only recently been abandoned. After about 20 minutes of eerie silence, Emily heard something that scared her more than the silence - a vehicle. The muscles in Emily's body immediately tensed as the sound grew louder. She moved slowly, hoping that they would not hear her. When she came near to the exit of the town, she jammed the accelerator down with all her strength, removed the friction and air resistance and shot forward at lightning speed. It came as no surprise then that the people in the van heard her and immediately gave chase. As the distance grew, a puff of smoke appeared at the back of the car as John warped. Emily put the friction back on as she slammed the brakes down. John flew forward, smashing into the ground before rolling. Emily started the engine again but it would not start - it was stalling. She jammed the accelerator down again but to no avail. The van pulled over in front of the car almost sluggishly, mocking her. Emily turned around and pulled her sister over to the front seat. She slurred over her words.

"If anything happens, I'll remove the friction and air resistance and hit the car forward. You remember how to steer?"

Her sister nodded quickly.

"Take care of yourself. I love you."

With that, Emily stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut.

Emily leaned casually against her car, a habit of hers to mask her inevitable fear. Inside the car, her sister was desperately trying to start the car in hopes that Emily would not have to fight. It was futile.

"Sorry we took so long to catch up with you Blackburn. You see, we had to pick someone up along the way."

Stryker announced as he got out of the vehicle. Emily's heart clenched. Stryker never came out first. He would never risk his own life.

"What part of 'leave me alone' do you not understand?"

The rest of the team were starting to get off the van. When the last one, James, came out, he did not shut the door. Emily could feel the pounding of her heart in her chest as the fear of the unknown gripped her.

"Emily, I would like you to meet my son, Jason." Stryker announced as James took his position behind him. Wade was silent for once.

After what felt like an eternity, a little boy who looked to be about 13 or 14 stepped out of the van. He had mismatched eyes and a gaze that reminded her of a machine.

"Attack."

Stryker ordered as everyone else lunged towards Emily. She flung most of them off using air resistance but they simply repeatedly got back up and lunged again. It took a while but Emily soon realised that their purpose was not to take her down but to distract her while Jason - probably - worked whatever voojoo it was that he was capable of.

Stryker leaned down to his son before whispering in his ear, "Make me proud."

It must have been some signal because Jason's eyes widened and stared at Emily as she continued to fling her attackers off.

Then everything disappeared. Emily was home again, with her sister and her parents. She was happy again; she was a teenager once more, without a whole world of problems on her shoulders. The vision faded as Emily snapped back into reality. Realisation hit her like a blow to the stomach - she would not be winning this fight. Instinctively, she turned around and slammed the car with all her might, upping the force and removing the friction and air resistance. It shot forward, disappearing down the road. She then turned back to face her enemies, resigned to her fate.

The car had jerked forward. Her sister had lost. The little girl suddenly felt as if a boulder had been dropped on her as the tears immediately welled up. The car was flying forward while she struggled to control it at that speed. The tears were starting to fall now, forming little streams as they made their way down her face. She never realised it before. She had known that losing her sister was a possibility but she never really considered that it would come true. After about an hour, a town was coming into view. The little girl looked behind her as if willing the familiar form of her sister to appear, smiling, telling her that everything would be alright. Then as if it were a slap to her face, the girl realised the car slowing before slowly, painfully coming to a stop.

Tell me what you think :)