Aliana
Douglas sighed as she smoothed her apron.
She could tell that this day was going to be boring and it annoyed
her. She felt life pass her by each day
she worked at the restaurant.
One of these days, Ali, we’re
going to get out of here and go somewhere nice, she thought to herself as she brought out the order to one
of her tables.
She
walked over to the table with the new occupant and took out her pad, “Hi, I’m
Ali your waitress today. Welcome to
Mickey’s, the lunch special today is tuna fish surprise and the soup of the day
is tomato. What would you like to
drink?”
She
looked up when the person didn’t respond. She found a very handsome, auburn haired male
looking at her through tinted red glasses.
She wondered if she was mute, but then a slow smile crossed his handsome
face, “Petite, I would like to order some coffee.”
“Okay,”
she wrote it down, trying to ignore the man long enough to do her job, “I’ll be
right out to take your order, sir.”
A few
minutes later, she returned with a cup and her coffeepot. She willed herself not to blush and screw up
under the scrutiny of the handsome man before her with the delicious accent she
could not place. She looked at him for a
moment, almost transfixed and he seemed greatly amused by it.
“Get
down,” she ordered quietly, shocked him, and yelled at the whole restaurant,
“Get down! Now!”
Aliana
dove and knocked the auburn haired gentlemen down when
he didn’t comply. It was just a second
later when a man flew into the window with a gun. She grabbed the man’s foot before he could
land. When his arm shot back to back
hand her, she caught it and held him captive.
She forced the man down using all of his force against him and pressed a
knee in the middle of his shoulders. She
pulled his arm back and took off her apron, hogtying the man.
She
stood up, wiped her hands off her uniform, turned to the shocked auburn man,
and asked, “So what would you like to order?”
“Ally!”
the owner yelled walking up to her angrily, “That’s the second time this
month! You’re fired and don’t think I’ll
be paying you either.”
“Right
then,” she sighed and pushed past him.
She went to the locker room, pulled off her dress, and put on some jeans
and a red button down shirt.
She
walked out of the restaurant, her bag slung across her bag. She shook her head in dismay, what was with
those guys? Why
couldn’t she catch a break to save her life? Damn
mutant hate groups, she thought, just
because I helped one person during a mutant hate rally and they saw it, now
they think they can try and kill me whenever they
please. Typical, shit.
“Bloody
wanker,” she muttered to herself and then realized
that someone was following her and she sighed again, “What do you want?”
She didn’t bother to turn and face the person. She didn’t really care. If they wanted her dead…well they would have
to work for it.
“Chere, I didn’ get to tank you
for saving my life,” a male’s voice said from behind with an accent.
She
turned and found the beautiful auburn haired man standing before her with an
easy smile, “You don’t have to thank me.
A life is worth saving.”
“I’m
Remy LeBeau,” he said offering his hand to her.
“Aliana
Douglas,” she shook his hand and he kissed it.
“Now,
Remy get’s de feelin’ dat you knew de person dat
crashed into de restaurant, am I right?” he asked.
“Maybe,
what difference does it make?” She studied him, she wondered if he ever took
off those glasses. At first, she thought
he was blind, but that was quickly disproved.
“It was
a mutant hate group,” he stated and she started walking, he kept up with her
much to her annoyance.
“Maybe,”
she replied.
“What
did you do to get a mutant hate group on you, petite?” he queried.
“Oh,
nothing, just tap danced on a few of their best men is all,” she said waving
her hand in the air, “Look I need to go.”
“You a mutant?”
She stopped dead in her tracks, “I’m one too, chere, dere’s nothing wrong with it.”
“Nothing
wrong?” she repeated looking at him now, “Nothing wrong? I can’t even keep a
job because of those mutant haters. Word
travels fast, you know? Then those bloody “Friends of Humanity” pops
up and try to take me down. Now, I don’t hate them, I don’t hate anybody, but they are really
getting on my last nerve. I really want
to make them regret what they have done, they’re
causing more damage than fixing.”
“Come
wit me, petite, I have a friend who will help you,” he offered trying his best
to be unassuming.
“Why
should I trust you?” she asked curiously looking at him for any weapons, Though he’s a mutant, stupid, he is his very best
weapon.
“You
shouldn’t,” he replied and she noticed the pained look glimmer across his
handsome face.
She
sighed, “Fine, let’s go meet that friend of yours. It’s not like I have anything to do the rest
of the day anyway.”
He
smiled at her brilliantly and she couldn’t help but
roll her eyes as she slipped on her glasses, “Follow me, petite.”
He held
her to a flashy sports car, which she immediately felt like she did not belong
in, and drove her out of
They
drove up to a stately mansion with acres of land surrounding it. She gasped in surprised and looked at Remy,
who was grinning. He pulled into the driveway
and opened the door for her.
“Petite,
dis be de headmaster,” Remy
replied when a bald man opened the door, “Dis is
Professor Charles Xavier head of…”
“Xavier’s
School for Gifted Children,” Aliana finished, “I’m Aliana Douglas, it is nice to meet you.”
“Hello,
Aliana,” the bald man smiled at her warmly from his wheelchair, “I’ve been so
anxious to meet you.”
“Oh?”
She took the offered seat, noticing that Remy left them alone, “Why’s that?”
“It
seems that you have been having some trouble with FOH,” he replied steepling his fingers.
She looked at him carefully, something tugged at her.
“You
want me to work with you?” she asked before he could go on with his
speech. He looked slightly surprised and
then pleased.
“That
would be it, yes,” he nodded, “Would you consider it?”
She
shrugged, “Depends, what’s the catch?”
“No,
catch,” he murmured, “we need help around the compound but more importantly we
need help on the team.”
“Team?”
she queried, folding her arms against her chest, “X-men? What did I do to deserve a spot there?”
“Well,
you have excellent fighting skills,” he stated and she shrugged, “And your
power could be useful to us.”
“I
suppose it would,” she nodded, “I have protective and destructive powers.”
“And it
seems a little bit of telepathy,” he smiled at her, “So what do you say, Aliana
Douglas?”
“Sure,”
she grinned at him, “At least I can’t get fired because of the scrapes I keep
getting into, right?”
“Right,”
he nodded, “you do realize that you will need to live on the compound, right?”
“Of
course,” she nodded, “I have to pack up my belongings and tell the Super that
I’m leaving.”
“So the
rent won’t be a problem?” he asked.
“No,
sir, I paid it off just yesterday,” she shrugged, “it wouldn’t have mattered, I
saved his life and he was content with giving me this month free for some
reason.”
Xavier
chuckled, “Well, Remy will take you to your apartment and help you pack. We’ll get you settled as soon as possible.”
“Okay,”
she nodded, “thank you.”
“No,
thank you,” he said shaking her hand, “we’ve been watching you for the past few
months. We could use a person like you
on the team.”
*********************
“This,
ladies and gentlemen, is Aliana Douglas, the newest member of our team,”
Professor Charles Xavier said showing a 3-d picture of the woman that rotated for
a full view, “She’s moving in today.”
“What
can she do, Chuck?” Wolverine asked, he never liked
new people.
“Aside
from her excellent fighting skills,” the bald man paused, “she’s highly
intelligent. She scored just past genius
on the I.Q. exam. She has the ability to
shield herself and others. Also, her ability to form explosives with a sheer thought of
will. I suspect, she has some telepathy
as well and some minor healing ability.”
“Sounds
like a winner,”
“I
suggest that you all welcome her into the fold.
She’s traveled far and wide to search for
sanctuary. She’s been through more
things than most people her age.”
“How
old is she, professor?” Jean Grey asked curiously.
“Twenty,”
he replied and looked at everyone, “she will be a great asset or the worst
adversary we’ve had since Magneto.”
*********
“Is dis it, chere?” Remy asked as he
looked at two bags.
“Yeah,”
Aliana replied emerging from her bedroom with her backpack slung over one
shoulder, “I don’t keep what I can’t carry.”
“How
long have you been on de run, petite?” he looked at her.
“A good
five years, actually it’s six now,” she murmured and
slung another bag on her shoulder.
“Why, petite?”
“Oh,
abusive parents who hated mutants would be the top reason and then more
recently FOH wanting me dead,” she shrugged, “figures I save one of those
bastards and payment would be death. I
don’t even know why I bother sometimes, Remy.”
“I’m
sorry, petite,” he murmured suddenly he wasn’t feeling
too good.
“Don’t
be, they were my adopted parents anyway, doesn’t really matter,” she shrugged
as she gave the room a once over.
“Why do
you still fight?”
“Because,
that’s what I do,” she replied looking at him strangely, “I’m too stubborn to lie
down and die.”
“Have
you…ever did something you weren’t proud of?” he asked quietly and Aliana knew
that he was asking her something important.
“I’ve
made a few mistakes,” she murmured as she studied his face that lost his
charming smile, “People died because of me.
I’m learning from my mistakes. That’s all that I can do, to honor their
memories.”
He
nodded and was silent as he took the remaining bag and led her out to the
car. The drive back to her new home was
silent as well. Each of them lost in
their own thoughts.
Aliana
settled into her new room. Remy left her
alone and she just stared at the four walls, sensing so much strife within the
Cajun man. She wondered if he needed her
help and if he would accept. She knew
men to be very prideful, hell it wasn’t as if she wasn’t either, she just knew
that there were things in the X-mansion that needed fixing and she just might
be the one to fix it.
********************
Aliana
was not very happy. She could sense
everyone’s bogus friendly-nature and it drove her bonkers. The only four X-men that weren’t
fake at all were the reason she stayed where she was. She liked Hank or better known as Beast, and
“All
right, kid, time for the Danger room,”
“Fine,”
she said and looked up at the control room to find all of the X-men there.
“Computer:
Program Wolverine Alpha,” the black haired man ordered and the white room
slowly changed to that of a dark city with many alleys.
Aliana
disappeared the second the shadows appeared.
She controlled her breathing and focused her sense of sight so that she
could find her prey. She had to prove
herself to them and if she could be on par with Wolverine, she would be good to
go.
She
heard something above her and she looked up.
Wolverine was trying to tackle her but it did not work out according to
plan. The heavy man bounced off an
unseen barrier and she disappeared.
She
hopped up onto the top of a low-rise building and leaped off that to a higher
one. She used the flagpole to swing up
to land on a nearby building. Logan
surprised her by ramming her off the building, the momentary lack of breath
making her gasp as she plummeted twenty feet down.
She
tucked into a tiny ball and used the momentum to push off a wall. She landed on all fours and looked up, her
long raven hair flying in the process.
She growled, he was playing dirty and she decided she would do the same.
She
pretended to not notice
Aliana
struck when
His
claws slid into her abdomen and her eyes changed colors, instead of the brown
that he had associated with her, her eyes were now completely black. Shit,
he thought scared for a second.
A large
red bubble appeared between them and it exploded, sending
“Do you
want more?!” she shouted, “Because I’ve got more!”
The
program ended and both Aliana and Logan were heavily damaged. Although, the wild man was worse off for the
moment. She calmed herself down and
closed her eyes. She concentrated on her
abdomen, knitting the wounds together so that she could heal.
When her
hand moved away from her stomach, she was fine.
She walked over to
“Is
everyone all right?” Jean asked as she burst into the room with the blue furred
doctor behind her.
“Yeah,
“Why
were you so brutal?” the red haired psychic asked angrily.
“He
fought dirty, so I fought dirty,” she shrugged, “he pissed me off, he’s lucky I
can control myself.”
“Uggh, man, what the hell hit me?”
“I
did,” Aliana stated as she offered a hand to help him up but he didn’t take it.
“Ok,”
he nodded.
“Feeling
ok?” the Asian woman asked as she studied him.
“What
the hell was that?” he asked referring to what hit him.
“Oh,
that’s my plasma bomb,” she shrugged, “it’s highly effective in defeating the
enemy and keeping warm.”
“Why do
I get the feeling that you were going easy on me with that bomb of yours, darlin’?”
“Because
I was going easy on you,” she stated bluntly, “if I was really upset, as in
totally enraged, the bomb would have turned you into ash.”
“Are
you all right,
“I’m
fine,” she said simply, flipping her raven hair away from her shoulders.
“I’m
good, Blue,”
“I
know, it happens when I channel my plasma bomb and when I get angry,” she
smiled a bit ruefully, “anger triggers it, that’s when I can’t fully control my
powers.”
“You’ve
done some stuff you ain’t too proud of?” he asked.
“I’ve
done my share,” she stated and walked out of the room and said, “I don’t like
fake people. If you don’t like me, don’t
pretend…I really hate that.”
The
others looked at her and she kept on walking.
She was hungry. She always got
hungry when she healed herself and other people. But first, she was
going to shower and get rid of the dried blood.
Caked blood was never very comfortable to her.
A few
minutes later, Aliana was cooking up some Thai green curry…extra spicy. She put some of it in a bowl with her rice
and began to eat. She was a loner, she was always lonely growing up. She liked it though,
it was easier than trying to keep people happy.
“Petite,
why are you eating alone and what are you eating?”
Remy LeBeau asked as he entered the kitchen.
“Curry, and no one else is hungry, I guess,” she shrugged and
looked at him as he looked at her expectantly, “You are welcome to have some…if
you can handle it.”
“Handle
it, mon petite?” he queried intrigued.
“I made
it extra spicy,” she replied with a slight grin, “How have you been?”
“All
right,” he shrugged taking a seat next to her, “I heard you fought
“Yes,”
she ate her food, barely sweating the heat as she smiled when he started to,
“Is it too hot, Remy?”
“Mon
petite,” he mumbled flushed, “dis be
de hottest dis Cajun boy ever had.”
She
laughed and smiled at him, “Let me get you some milk.”
She
handed him the milk and he drank it gratefully, smiling at her, “I don’ tink I ever heard you laugh, petite.”
“I
don’t think I actually saw you smile for real, Rem,”
she winked at him, “You don’t have to finish it if you don’t want to. I understand.”
“Non, dis be damn good,” he smiled,
“dis be worth de burning of my tongue.”
She
chuckled, rolling her eyes as they ate amicably together. Aliana felt comfortable and so did Remy. When they were both through, she took up the
plates and began to wash them.
“Dat be good, Ally, I didn’ know
you could cook,” he grinned at her.
“Yeah, I’m
just full of surprises,” she shrugged.
“Remy
will have to cook you something one of dese days,” he
said.
“Okay,”
she replied.
“Where you heading, petite?”
“Outside, the gardens, you?”
“Mind
if I join you?”
“Sure,”
she smiled, “just be careful, I don’t want your girlfriend to get jealous.”
“Hey,
Remy is a gentlemen,” he bowed to her.
“Whatever,”
she grinned at him playfully, “you, my dear, are a Ladies’ man and don’t think
I don’t know that.”
“I
resemble that comment,” he replied with a false hurt look to his handsome face,
his red on black eyes shining with amusement.
“You
know when I first met you, I thought you were blind,” she said suddenly, “but I
see you have very handsome eyes…my favorite colors at least.”
“Well,
tank you, petite,” he bowed as they walked outside.
“Don’t
let it get to your head, lover boy,” she smiled, “I’m only saying this because
you aren’t being fake with me and I like that.”
“Oh? De others…dey being
fake?” he asked curiously.
“Most
of them are,” she shrugged, “the professor told them to be nice to me, which I’m sure I wasn’t supposed to know, and I don’t like
that. I don’t
want people to pretend to like me. Where’s the fun in that?
People being fake nice and me being me. Can’t make true friendships that way, you
know?”
“Tell
me about yourself,” he took a seat on the cement bench and she sat next to him.
“What’s
there to tell? My real parents died, my
adopted parents hate me, I ran away and fell into a
wrong crowd. Believed someone I shouldn’t have and killed some innocent people. I stole a few things and killed a bad guy,”
she sighed and looked off into the distance, unaware of the fact that her eyes
changed color, “I’ve got a lot of blood on my hands. I’ve made mistakes
and I’ve been rectifying them. The
hardest part was forgiving myself and learning from it.”
She
turned to face Remy, only remotely surprised to find him crying. She pulled him to her and hugged him. She ran her fingers through his hair.
“Hey,
it’s ok,” she murmured softly, “it will be okay, Remy.”
“I did
so many bad tings, chere,” he said as he choked back
a sob, “so many bad tings…”
“Did
you learn from them?” she asked, “have you made those mistakes over again?”
“No,”
he pulled away, “I haven’t but…”
“But what? You learned from them, you have a good heart,
Remy LeBeau, and I don’t think you would do those
things again,” she stated confidently looking him in the eyes, “You need to
forgive yourself and move on, you can’t just stew in this forever or you’ll be
broken.”
“Petite,
you don’t even know what I did,” he whimpered and she pulled him close.
“True,”
she agreed as she ran her fingers through his hair, “I might not know, but I’m
not going to condemn you. In fact, if
you are worried about what will happen when you go to heaven, I’ll take some of
your burden.”
He
pulled away from her, looking at her incredulously, “You will?”
“Sure,
if that makes you feel better,” she shrugged, “I can help bear your
burdens. No one should ever go at it
alone, not if it is tearing them apart.”
Remy
nodded and hugged her tight, surprised that should make that offer and she
said, “Besides if we go to hell, I’ll have someone to keep me company,
right? Well, I don’t believe in hell, so
it doesn’t matter to me in the first place.”
“You
don’ believe in hell, petite?” he asked his voice muffled by her shirt.
“I
believe, and you’ll probably give me a lecture for this,” she said softly, “I
believe that everyone gets reincarnated.
I believe in each life we take on what we can bear and learn from them. Each life holds a lesson to be learned or sometimes-even lessons. Then we go back to the between worlds and if
the master is satisfied he’ll pass us to the next level--the next level being
that of heaven or becoming one with the Great Spirit.”
“So dere be no punishment den?” he asked quietly, his tears
subsiding.
“There
are some repercussions,” she replied, “if you did something bad in one life it
might come back in the next, but it is only to learn a lesson.”
“Where
did you learn dis, petite?” he pulled away so he
could look at her.
“I
don’t know, it’s just something that has been a part
of me,” she shrugged and smiled sheepishly, “could be a fool’s hope for all I
know.”
“It’s
beautiful,” he replied and cleared his throat, “tanks, petite, I appreciate
dis.”
“No
problem, I’m here if you need me,” she smiled at him, “I know sometimes it is
easier to talk to a stranger.”
“Oui, it is, but I don’ tink of
you as a stranger,” he pulled out his cigarette and lit it.
“Put an
ice cold rag over your eyes before you go see your girlfriend tonight,” she
replied, “she won’t see that you’ve been crying.”
“It
works?” he asked curiously.
“Trust
me,” she stood up looking at the mansion, “I guess I should get going. I’m getting hungry again.”
“Already,
petite?” he looked at her curiously.
“I
healed both
“
“He
stabbed me in the abdomen,” she replied offhandedly as if it were
normal, “and I practically blew a hole in his chest. His wounds were far
more extensive then mine so I needed a lot of energy to heal him. Have fun on your date tonight, Remy.”
Remy
watched the Asian woman walk away. He
felt better now than he had for months. He
made sure that he was going to pay the favor.
************