"They made you for me." He stated, a sadistic grin forming on his face. "That makes you mine." A hand reached up to lovingly brush away a stray strand of her hair away from her face and behind her ear. "You belong to me."

"I belong to me." Tilting her head away from his hand, Emma's voice betrayed her, as her mind began to give into doubt.

"My own." He refuted her claim, gripping her arm and tipping her forward so she lost her balance and fell into his waiting arms. Leaning his head towards hers, he whispered one word into her mouth. "Mine."

Her body jolted and Emma opened her eyes to the overwhelming darkness, exhaling a sigh of relief when she realized it had been a dream. Recounting the events that had transpired in her dream, the relief slowly dissipated as she counted the number of reoccurring nightmares she had had in the past two weeks.

Flipping the small switch on the lamp to her right, Emma got up and looked longingly at her bed. Sleep would not come easy to her now, and through past experiences she knew it would be better for her to work off the anxiety in a positive manner.

Wearing a black tank top and a pair of dark gray sweat shorts, she toddled to her door through the dark eerily silent hallways of the sanctuary to make her way towards the elevated dojo.
Silently so as not to disturb the quiet and wake the other occupants, Emma kicked into the air again and again, trying to diffuse an explosion of questions that would drive her crazy. This night had been the most disturbing dream she had had up to date. They were all too real, and beginning to haunt her during the day.

Mindlessly kicking and punching the air, she continued to try and empty her head of all thoughts, failing to notice the new presence of mind at the foot of the stairs that had been silently watching her for the past ten minutes.

"Need a partner?"

Emma was already antsy and the voice slicing so abruptly through the deafening silence made her jump up in alarm.

His bare feet made no noise as he climbed up the stairs with both hands raised in front of him to show he meant no harm.

"You look a little preoccupied. Is something wrong."

Looking at his earnest face Emma was tempted to tell him. "I'm-" She hesitated, they were only dreams she argued with herself. There was no sense in getting the other's involved. She didn't want them to think she was weak, besides, dreams couldn't hurt her.

"I'm fine." She finished, her voice faltering as she thought of those dark eyes watching her from the confines of her mind.

"You sure?" Jesse asked, his brows furrowed in worry.

Sending him a wry grin she nodded. "I couldn't sleep." Shrugging she plopped on the stairwell. "My mind has been a whir of activity, thought I would try to find a way to calm it down."

Returning her grin with a smile of his own, he sat himself down next to her. "I couldn't sleep either. I'm still worried about our growth spurts."

"Why?"

Jesse ran a hand helplessly through his blonde hair. "I'm scared that out of the blue I'll get another spurt that I won't be able to handle. I might hurt someone."

Emma placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Hey, you've done well so far. I can't tell you that you won't get a new abilities, but I can tell you that I believe you will do anything possible to keep yourself from harming innocent people." Leaning back on her elbows she looked up at the ceiling into the empty void of the darkness. "We're all trying to get a handle on our new abilities, I guess the only thing we can really do is keep trying."

Glancing back at Jesse's downtrodden face, Emma sprinted up and held out a hand to him. "Come on."
Looking up at her in surprise, he stared questioningly at her outstretched hand. "What?"

"I told you I'd help you out with your new powers."

"Now?" He asked in disbelief.

"C'mon Jess, do you have anything better to do?"

"Apparently not." Gripping her small hand in his as she helped him up, the innocent skin on skin contact caused a brief flutter in his stomach. Ignoring his body's response to the close proximity of Emma, he looked around in the darkness, small safety night lights barely lighting the expansive cavern.

"Should I go turn on the lights?"

Emma followed his gaze around the room and gave him a small smile. "I kinda like the dark."

Jesse looked at the girl before him and agreed. "I like it too."

After that night Emma began to see Jesse in the dark hallways more often then not. It became their time spent together, often resulting in sparring matches that led to Emma's increased physical prowess. In turn, they practiced with Jesse's new found abilities, helping him to not only phase, but harden inanimate objects.

She began to look forward to these quiet moments in the dark. They never mentioned their moments in the day with each other or any one else. It was almost a secret and it seemed that they became two different people in the night. Two people that were beginning to share the start of an interesting relationship.

Leaning in to her exposed collar bone, Emma struggled against his tight grip as his lips brushed across her skin. "Get off me." She spat out as his teeth scraped across her neck. Frantic she tried to ignore the pleasant sensation his mouth made as it latched on to the bare skin between her neck and shoulder. "Stop." She pleaded, trying furiously to free her arm from his painful grip while his mouth sucked hungrily on the nook of her neck.

Closing her eyes a strangled whimper escaped her mouth as he continued his pleasurable assault on her senses.

Her eyes opened to darkness when she felt someone shaking her. She was now lying down and in the dark she could not form the face of the person holding onto both her arms.

"Let go." She began to shout, blindly pushing into the air to get the assailant off of her.

"Emma." A familiar voice tried to call out to her as she continued. "Emma it's me Jesse."

She felt a hand leave one arm and a moment later her room flooded with light. Taking a moment to let her eye's adjust to the light, she focused her gaze on the worried face of Jesse.

"It was a dream?" She asked in small voice, his heart tightening painfully as large brown eyes looked up at him in forlorn confusion.

"Yeah, it was a dream." He answered, scooping her into his arms to hold her close to him so she wouldn't see the panic in his face.

He had been walking past her room as he did most nights when he didn't see her, when he heard her murmuring in her sleep. Slightly alarmed from the struggle he heard from her room, he quickly entered and saw her writhing in bed pleading to an invisible assailant. She had called out stop and it was then he tried to wake her, ignoring the twinge of desire he felt as she gave a whimper and continued to struggle in her bed, the covers thrown off in her fight, her shirt rising up to bare a large expanse of smooth pale skin. Shaking all thoughts, except the one to wake her, out of his head, he began to gently try and pry her out of her sleep as she continued to fight against him. When she woke up he realized she thought he was her phantom attacker, and he quickly turned on the lights so she could see it was him. He couldn't help but pull her into his arms as he saw the traces of panic from her dream in her face.

After several minutes passed and he felt her heart beat steady, he pulled her away from his arms to study her face in the glaring light. Giving her a once over he frowned as he saw the beginnings of a bruise in the shape of a hand, imprinted on one arm.

"Did I do that to you?" He asked alarmed, wincing at the nasty purple yellowish color it was quickly turning. Following his gaze to her arm, her neck was exposed for Jesse to see and his frown grew deeper as he noticed what looked very much like the beginnings of a large hickey marring her perfect skin.

Emma felt a burst of jealousy emanating from Jesse and looked up startled, feeling his gaze burn a hole into her neck. Unconsciously as she studied his face, she brought her hand to cover the bruise. It was then the dream crashed down and with a sudden burst of clarity she jumped out of her bed to a mirror with a sickening fear growing in the pit of her stomach.

"I didn't know you were seeing anyone." Jess tried to make his voice casual as he watched Emma stare at her neck in the mirror.

"I'm not." She answered, panic creeping into her voice.

"I see."

Emma felt another burst of emotion coming from Jesse. Turning her head to face him, he looked so calm and collected she would never have known what turmoil his head was in if she was not psionic. Looking at the mark on her neck she felt guilty. As though she had betrayed Jesse somehow, and from his tone of voice it seemed he agreed.

"No, you don't. I haven't met anyone, period. This," She pointed to the bruise, "wasn't here when I went to sleep. I've been having these dreams-" She paused, unsure of how she should continue the sentence without seeming like an insane child.

"What are these dreams about?" Jesse asked, urging her to continue.

"I'm alone, and someone is watching me. Sometimes I see him, sometimes I don't but lately, he's-"

Closing her eyes, Emma decided it would be easier to send Jesse a mental image of her latest dream. Opening her eyes, she watched Jesse jerk with surprise, quickly his eyes searched hers out.

"You think that those," He pointed to her bruises, "are from you dream?" His voice was tinged with a bit of disbelief.

"It sounds crazy. I know that." Emma ran both hands through her hair, "But it's the only explanation I have."
Jesse studied her for a minute before asking a question that was weighing heavily on his mind.

"You said dreams."

Emma looked down at her hands, which were nervously playing with the fringe of her top.

"Have you had many of these dreams?" He asked, keeping his voice steady and comforting. Without looking up she slowly nodded.

"Do you know when they started?"

"Three weeks ago when we were all at the club, and you and Brennan were talking to the brunette sisters while Shalimar was on the dance floor with that really cute blonde."

Jesse tried to block the slight resentfulness of her tone as she mentioned the girl Brennan had roped him into talking to. Briefly he wondered why he felt guilty.

"I was outside to get some fresh air and a guy came up to me."

"A guy?" Jesse asked, forcing his voice to seem mildly interested.

"Not just any guy." Her voice became soft. "It was the new mutant."

"A new mutant."

Her head lifted, her eyes meeting his. "It was Gabriel Ashlocke."

"Adam." The pounding on Adam's door was frantic, pulling him out of his peaceful slumber. "Adam open up." The voice continued to call him. Getting out of bed, he quickly went to his door and let the night caller in. Jesse spilled through the door with Emma in tow.

"Tell him Emma." He commanded. Adam watched Emma look nervously back and forth from Jesse to himself.

"What the hell is going on?" A sharp voice called out from the doorway. All three turned their heads at the new intrusion to find Shalimar lounging in the doorway, her hair mussed and her eyes half open. Making her way to the trio, they saw Brennan just behind her.

"Who was pounding on the wall?" He demanded, staring at the occupants in Adam's room with a disgruntled look. "It makes it kind of hard to sleep."

Jesse looked at Emma pointedly.

"Now?" She asked him apprehensively. "You said just Adam." Both Brennan and Shalimar immediately perked up as they heard Emma's soft voice pleading with Jesse.

"What's going on?"

Emma shifted nervously as all eyes swiveled towards her waiting for an explanation.

"I met Gabriel three weeks ago and he kissed me but nothing happened and then he left and I've had dreams of him and me doing things and when I woke up there was a bruise on my arm and neck from where he grabbed me and yeah." She blurted out quickly in one breath, hoping they wouldn't understand half of the things she had said.

"What?" Nearly all the voice demanded in unison as her words sunk in.

"You saw Gabriel?"

"And you didn't tell us?"

"When was this?"

"Where were we?"

"Why didn't you tell us."

"I'm going to kill him."

The room broke out into pandemonium and Emma could barely understand much less answer all the questions that were being furiously pelted at her.

"Why don't you tell us what happened." An authoritative voice cut in, interrupting the questions of those around him.

Glancing thankfully at Adam, Emma took a deep calming breath and prepared to explain herself to the watchful eyes of those around her.