"I don't want to." I said, almost timidly. It drew a glare from Mystique, but Magneto gave me an intense look, which I couldn't help but refuse to meet. "I don't want to attack children."

"What troubles you? They are your age, about seventeen." I gave him a confused look.

"I'm twenty-eight." I commented. "And they are still children, even if they are anti-mutant." I remembered when I had woken among the scorched ruins.

"Killer." Judgement whispered from behind me. I shivered.

"They'd kill you if they could." Magneto said, his first response to everything. But I just shrugged. "They'd kill other teenagers, young mutants." He made me look at him, gripping my chin. The mist around me flared in warning. "They would gladly torture and kill Emma." That had me jerking out of his grip.

"Emma is dead." I spat back. "Nothing will bring her back." But if she lived, they'd want to have hurt her. "Where?" Maybe this would prove to Emma's ghost that it had truly been an accident.

Mystique smiled. "Follow me." She shifted forms as the two of us left the building, shifting into a slighter male form. "Get in." It didn't surprise me she knew how to fly a helicopter. I sat passively down, ignoring the little demon gnawing on my boot.

"You make me sick." Emma's voice whispered. I turned my head to see her bloody ghost next to me. "You're just a killer." I didn't disagree with her.

She was right, after all.

Bright red flames where devouring the building below the Blackbird as Scott began to land, Ororo making the landing easier buffering the plane with the winds. Jean was already telepathically doing a head count of the students below.

"Logan, deal with Mystique. We'll deal with Magneto." Scott didn't need to say that they were leaving Demon to Emma. Alex was her lover, and they would let her do what she thought she should.

Only Jean could sense that barest flutter of dread.

"She'll listen Emma." Jean said before they parted ways, Jean towards Magneto and Emma towards where Alex was.

"Go away!" I flung another textbook at David, who smiled and laughed at me.

"You've always been useful kid. You're a born killer." I screamed and threw a pile of papers at him, the papers incinerating when they touched the wall of flames that ate at the building around me.

"Stop haunting me!" I shouted.

"You deserve this. You killed me." Emma stepped from the flames, untouched and unwounded. I trembled at the sight of her. "I let you into my life and you murdered me."

"I didn't mean to!" The fist to my jaw was expected, as was the diamond knee in my gut. I wheezed, on all fours on the ground. A glittering foot shoved me over.

"Of course you did. You impaled me didn't you?" Blood started to seep from the spots on her chest, where my horns had slid through her ribs. The stain grew bigger. "I never loved you, mongrel. You're just a fuck up." David laughed with Emma.

"I like you girl." I had to turn away as he kissed Emma, disgusted with the nightmare that was my life.

"Alex, don't listen to them, they just use you!" The demoness implored to me from the wall of flames, barely away from the wall. David appeared and shoved her back into the flames.

"Go away! I'll burn myself alive if you'll just leave me alone!" I screamed at him, the flames reaching the roof.

"You wouldn't have the guts." Emma snapped. I didn't know her anymore. I didn't even know the twisted figure that was my mother and David.

"Just leave me alone!" My veins glowed for a moment, red against my skin.

"Murderer." I screamed and I heard screams echoing my own as the ground shook and the fires spread.

"Alex!" Emma was trying to see Alex among the wreckage, part of the building already collapsing around her. "Alex!" She shouted again.

"Get away! I'm sorry! Why won't you leave me alone!" Alex's pained, panicked voice came from circle of fire. A chair was thrown at her and she moved, the chair landing harmlessly in the ashes. "I killed them! I killed my mother, David, Emma, everyone! Just let me pay my debt!" Emma was force into her diamond form as she pushed through the flames.

"Alex, stop this insanity, you're hurting people! You're killing innocent people!" Emma snapped.

"I was innocent too. And you killed me." Her form blocked her sight of Alex, moving to slap the demon mutant. "Murderer." The image of herself said.

"Emma! Save her." The demoness was dropped to the ground, her head in an unnatural position.

"Commander! The Demon is attacking again. Only the Rock Mutant is with her right now." The man stood.

"Eliminate her."

The flames burned hotter. I was going to burn this place to the ground, burn it until it was less than ash. I let out another anguished scream and the inferno leapt, the roof creaking.

"Alex, stop!" I lowered pained eyes to an Emma, her diamond form glittering in the flames. There was no blood on her, and there was determination in her eyes.

"Too late to stop her, Mutie! Kid here will burn the world. Starting with you. One down." A shove to my shoulders made me stumble.

"One down." It rang in my head and I turned to stare at David for a moment.

"One down?" I looked at Emma. "I killed you."

"No you didn't." There was a whisper in my mind, almost filling the hole that was gapping in my mind. The Emma in front of me had shifted, almost as though trying to reach me. It just wasn't real.

"You're dead!" I shouted.

"Oh I'll do it." David laughed, his smile warped as he flexed four arms. He gripped Emma before I had a chance to blink. She struggled to move in his grasp, barely moving an inch. "Ghosts are so useless and fickle." He turned. "Say goodbye." He raised his third hand with obvious delight, slowly placing it on Emma's head.

"Emma!" I couldn't bear to see another Emma die. Her blood already stained my hands. I couldn't let her die again.

David lost his grip when I slammed into him. He vanished as I slammed a veined spike where his head had been. I began yanking it free, cracking sounds above me. I looked up automatically, only to catch a face full of embers and a wooden beam.

Emma could feel the telepathic confusion of her team mates as some of their opponents simply vanished. The red flames continued but she noticed that the mutated figures that seemed to hover in them were gone.

"Alex?" She called, levering herself off the ground and moving towards where Alex and the demon from her dream where flung through the wall of flame. "Alex?" she called again, shifting to her diamond form to slip through the flames. Once she was through, she quickly shifted back to her normal form, searching for Alex's consciousness.

The still form under the beam froze Emma, her mind frantically searching for their connection. She found it, but Alex's mind was splintered, and fractured into nightmares and dreams.

"Shit!" She shifted into diamond form, the reassurance of their connection disappearing as she moved the beam off her lover. She brushed Alex's short hair away, noticing immediately the blood seeping gently from the gash in her head. "Alex, hold on okay? Hold on!" She gathered Alex into her arms, the flames causing her skin to glitter. She rose and ran, trying to avoid the fires. Alex woke as her footsteps led her to a doorway.

"Emma?" Alex whispered, her eyes glazed and unfocused. "I'm sorry Emma. I didn't mean to… to kill you. I'm sorry." She seemed to look closer as Emma kicked the door open. "I love yo…" Emma stumbled, jolting Alex enough that her eyes rolled back into her head.

"Hold on Alex, I'll get you out of here." She tried to run faster when her words didn't illicit any response.

"Emma." I heard whispers. I just wanted them to stop. I missed my lover. I just wanted Emma to be alive and well. Breathing. The warmth of her mind caressing my own. "Emma." I knew I was weeping, I could feel the tears trickling down my cheeks. But I didn't want to open my eyes. I didn't want the delusion of Emma to fade away. Not this one. I didn't want the warmth to go away. "Emma."

Alex. I wept into the fabric beneath my hand. I'm here Alex. She was gone and it was my fault. All my fault.

"Alex open your eyes. Look at me." It was automatic to obey. I stared up into blue eyes. Pale blue eyes that I thought gone.

"You're dead. Am I dead too?" I whispered. I wished it so. Only I'd go to hell.

"Murderer."

"We're not dead. I'm alive." And well, I might add, though you're escapades make it difficult not to worry. You've lost weight. It sounded so much like Emma. That's because it is Emma. A retort came in my head. A familiar hand gripped my own and placed it against her heart. I felt the soft beat of her heart, felt the heat of her skin, cooler than my own. Unlike the delusions, which were always too hot or unable to be touched at all.

"Emma?" I whispered, lifting my hand to caress her cheek. She turned her head into my palm, her eyes glued on my own. A footstep caused me to jerk and turn, but it was Dr McCoy, entering the outer room of the med lab. I blinked. There was sound proofing between the two rooms.

Emma caressed my arm, tracing the red veins that I saw there. There were spirals on my nails and when I checked my spike, red veins traced through the ivory. Now that I thought about it, I could hear Emma's heartbeat.

"Emma?" She reached and caresses my forehead, tucking strands behind my horns.

"You're in your demon form." Emma caressed her jaw. "It shuts off your dreamwalker abilities, just as my telepathy goes dormant when I am in my diamond form." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "You won't be able to shift back."

"What?" I said dropping my hand to grips hers.

"Henry agrees. We think that your dreamwalker abilities where bleeding into your primary ability. Thus your nightmares becoming reality." She kissed my forehead. "I'm sorry, I didn't have a choice."

"No, don't be." I leaned upwards, grimacing a bit. "I got to see you again. That's better than any delusion." I gasped and put my head back down, a bit dizzy. "I spend far too much in here."

She smiled. "I know." She sent a wave of love and affection along our bond, which caused me to smile as well.

"I love you too."

The End?

This story has too much stuff shoved into it. You can see my later efforts to fix it, and a sequel may or may not happen that will help with those patches. But don't count on a sequel anytime soon, if ever.