It was the same girl who had stolen the file off of Cerebro two weeks earlier, and then had escaped. She had left the files she took on the bed in her room, the door had even been locked, yet she escaped. They had searched the whole of the mansion top to bottom trying to find her, and to make sure she hadn't taken anything. And now here she was on the front porch, with her hand out for Jean to shake and an uncertain smile on her lips.

When it became obviously that Jean wasn't going to shake her hand, Lizzie dropped it to her side. She was getting a little more nervous as the older woman just continued to stare at her. "Um... I'm also here to see Professor Charles Xavier. He requested a meeting with someone in my organization, and... well, um, since I've already been here, they... uh, sent me." She was nervous. It showed in her speech and on her face, even though Jean couldn't even feel her mind, let alone read her thoughts. "I- I'm not here to take anything if that's what you're thinking." She gave another shy little smile, "I'm just here doing my job."

Jean looked the girl over. She was a little thing, the same height as Jean, but much thinner. She looked to be no more then a child, was this the same girl who had been fighting with them only two weeks ago? The one who had broken into the X-Mansion, and who had stolen files off of Cerebro? This girl looked shy and timid. That other girl had been bold and resourceful, she had even managed to knock Wolverine on his butt twice in one night. Could that have been this girl who stood before Jean now? Could she re-

Did she say her name was LeBeau? And she was looking for her... father?

Before Jean could say anything to her, Scott walked up behind them. "Who's- " He started before seeing Lizzie standing on the porch. When he did see her his eyes grew wide under his ruby glasses and he reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her inside. "You," was all he said as he dragged her up the stairs to Xavier's office, with Jean trailing behind them.

This wasn't going as Lizzie had hoped. She thought she would see Xavier, get her business over and done with, and then spend some time with Remy. And she had wanted to walk to Xavier, not be dragged. But she didn't try to pull her arm away from Cyclops, she had a feeling that if she did she wouldn't be aloud to keep her feet on the ground.

She was right.

Going up the stairs so fast, she tripped. Scott took this as some kind of an attempt to escape, so he grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder.

Well, Lizzie wasn't having any of that, so she screamed and touched the collar of his shirt witch began to glow red. By this time they where at the top of the staircase, and as soon as Scott felt the heat at his neck he dropped her. She started to fall down the stairs when an arm reached out and grabbed her, pulling her to their chest. She was shaking, remembering a time when Sinister had thrown her down a set of stairs when she hadn't done as he had ordered her. Her whole body was shaking and it slowly began to grown hot, so that who ever had grabbed hold of her had to let go. She dropped to the floor and brought her knees up to her chest.

All of the X-Men were in the hall now, staring wildly at the girl who sat shaking on the floor. Gambit, who had caught her before she fell, knelt beside her. "What you do to her, homey?" He angrily asked Cyclops who was still slapping at the collar of his shirt. "It okay, Petite Belle." Gambit said returning his attention on Lizzie before Scott could answer. He reached out to her and drew his hand back with a hiss. She was hot, like fire.

This eyes were beginning to tern red on black, and as they did the mental barrier she had rapped her mind up in began to deteriorate, and her thoughts began to seep though, as well as her powers.

Jean screamed and dropped to her knees as Lizzie's thoughts came suddenly to her mind. Psylocke was having as much trouble as Jean, only she managed to keep her footing as she held fast to Warren who had no idea what was wrong with her. Xavier managed only slightly to keep from crying out in pain, but before too long he had a barrier around his mind and the minds of his two telepathic students. But now they had an insight on the girls mind.

Gambit, in the mean while had gotten Bobby to put a thin layer of ice around Lizzie, witch melted almost instantly, but with the steady flow of ice coming from Bobby, he was at least able to touch Lizzie without being burned. When he did touch her she screamed in pain, and backed away from him.

******

Lizzie wasn't aware of what was going on around her. All she saw was herself at nine-years-old being held over a flight of stairs and then being thrown down them. She couldn't see the X-Men, all she saw was Sinister. He was everywhere. There were fourteen Sinisters around her all closing in, trying to grab her for more tests, more experiments. There was a Sinister in a wheelchair, one with blue fur growing out of Him, one with ice coming from His finger tips, one down on His knees in pain, and the one closes to her with the eyes like her poppa's.

He was coming at her again. The one with her poppa's eyes. Eyes that were kind, with the look of worry and fright in them. But it wasn't real. She knew that if He got near her, He would bring her back to the lab. He would poke her with those incredibly long needles, that always threatened to brake in her arm, again. He would put her into His machine, and the red light would surround her, and again the pain would come. He had many ways of hurting her. If He got close to her, He would throw her down the stairs again, or He would throw her into the rat pit like He had so many times, where the hungry rodents would begin to bite at her if she didn't try to protect herself with her powers. She still had marks on her feet from when she couldn't fend them all of. And He would stand above her and laugh as He watched. She couldn't let that happen, not again.

******

She opened her eyes and looked right at Gambit. He was surprised at what he saw, pure hatred and terror. A red light flashed from her eyes and he was thrown back against the wall. After a moment, he shook himself, and started toward her again, slower this time, saying soothing words in French. He didn't know why she had attacked him, or even how, but he knew it wasn't himself she saw. She had never been afraid of him. Never had a need to be.

"No." Xavier stopped him before he got too close to her. At first he didn't understand why, but then he realized that Xavier was trying to soothe the girl too, telepathically.

**I'm not going to hurt you.** She whimpered as his thoughts came into her mind. **I am not who you think I am. I'm a friend, I'm trying to help you.** Her shaking stopped only a little, and her eyes didn't burn as brightly. **Look again. We are all only trying to help.**

******

Thousands of miles away in upper Canada, thirty miles under the forest floor, Kurt was wiping the blood away from his nose. "That was a quick move, Timofee. Didn't see it coming."

"That's okay," Kurt's sparing partner said as he swung his tail around to help Kurt up. "I didn't 'see' it either." They both laughed. Timofee was blind. Well, blind in a mutant way, he could see, only like a bat. He constantly sent out echo sound so he could 'see'. But Timofee hadn't always been like that, he was born with sight, but as his mutant powers had manifested, his eye sight dissipated, tell he could use his eyes no longer.

He had been found on the street much as Lizzie had been, and he was raised by Conrad and Nina Jentree as their own, and as Lizzie's brother. The two were close, closer even then Lizzie and Kurt were. They even looked like brother and sister, both with black hair, though Lizzie's has a blue strip down the center, and even their faces were alike.

Kurt, the bleeding in his nose stopped, aloud himself to be helped up and then slapped the younger boy on the back. "You know-" he started but stopped. Suddenly he had the feeling of falling. He shook his head, but the feeling didn't disappear. Suddenly he was screaming in pain as images came to his mind. Images that his partner dreamed about almost every night, dreams he had to share because of their mind link. He dropped to the floor just as Lizzie did so far away, and hugged himself, trying to help her get rid of her demons.

Suddenly, Sinister was beside him with a large needle in hand. He injected Kurt with the liquid in it, and as he slowly regained control over himself, hoped that Lizzie was getting the treatment through him.

******

Lizzie looked around trying to find the owner of the voice that sounded in her head. It seemed to be coming from the Sinister in the chair. "Look again," he said, so she did. Her eyes were drown back to the Sinister with eyes like her poppa's. Only this time it wasn't just his eyes, it was his face too. It was Poppa's face on Sinister's body. But how could that be?

She lifted her hands to her head in agony. Why was He playing these games in her mind? Why couldn't He just leave her alone? Why didn't she kill Him when she had lashed out at Him only moments ago?

But she knew the answer to that.

She wouldn't kill Him because that was what He wanted. And she would never do as He wanted.

She looked up again, and again her eyes were drown to those of the one with her poppa's head, only now he no longer had the body of Sinister. It was her poppa, here to save her.

He was coming closer to her now, saying something she couldn't quite understand the words. But then she could. "-I here now, mon Petite Belle." only Poppa had ever called her that. "I here, it okay now."

And suddenly she felt a familiar feeling come over her, and all of the Sinisters disappeared back into the part of her mind that housed her nightmares. She realized what had happened, it often times did, and wondered slightly how she could have gotten over it without the shot she usually took.

She looked at her poppa, that was when she notice what she'd done. She hadn't lashed out at Sinister, she had latched out at the X-Men, her poppa...

******

Xavier moved his hover chair toward her a little more, and then stopped as Gambit started near her again. "I should 'ave been dere. I should 'ave watch o'er you and your momma. But I here now, mon Petite Belle. I here, it okay now."

Her eyes changed again as he neared her. This time to the mint green they usually were. She looked around in surprise, caught sight of Remy, and managed to whisper, "...poppa..." only loud enough for Gambit to hear before she passed out.

Gambit was at her side instantly, he cradled her in his lap, as Henry came over to examine her. Until then, he hadn't felt the pain, was too worried about the girl. But now he felt the fire in his chest, and looked down to see the front of his shirt covered with blood and the two twin burnt holes where she had attacked him. It was only a moment more before the pain reached him in full and he was as unconscious as his daughter.