It took several weeks to get most of the bedrooms back to being in good conditions. With everyone wanting to be back in their own beds they all worked extra hard at getting things straightened up. Ali used her power to either cut or weld things, or to fly tools back and forth in places where there were no floor. All the decorating came soon after.

Ali liked having a room in the mansion. She didn’t get the chance to get a room before the place was raided by the humans and Stalkers. Things were different now though. She did have her own room and she liked it. It wasn’t quite like home but it was as close as she could get it.

A few pictures of her family were hung on the walls along with one of her dance team’s exhibition posters. A small planted cactus sat on the desk in the room as a reminder of the desert. The curtains in her window were a light yellow which made her room had a warm feel to it. Ali thought how funny it was that her color choices seemed to reflect her mutation. She always picked lots of fiery colors such as reds, oranges, golds and yellows.

All week long the only thing she could think about was that she had been asked out on a date. Seraph is a cute guy and he seemed very gentlemanly. Carrying her fire dance stuff and walking her to her room. He was doing a good job of impressing her. Ali even though of his fire use and what ways he controls fire or if he had the exact same abilities as herself.

It was in the late morning and Ali was in her room. She was battling the emotions swelling inside her. Part of her felt abandoned while another part felt anger. The fire starter kept her powers in check. Nothing worse than destryoing your own room.

Looking out her window she wondered where Nathan was. It was a beautiful day and she wished she could be spending it with him. Unfortunatley that was not the case and sorrow was setting in. She had spent alot of her time alone in the Danger Room. Most of that was to vent her emotions through her powers while the rest of the time was spent training. It helped keep her in shape and kept her mind busy, but it was times like this that her mind took over.

Every second of time Nathan spent on the bus seemed to go in slow motion. At the very beginning it was easy to sleep because of the exhaustion incurred from his imprisonment. But as New York drew closer, Nathan could not help but think about what he would be facing when he arrived back at the Mansion.

Ali would be furious. But worst of all, she would be heart broken. And that was what hurt him the most. The reason for her sadness would be his absence. The last thing he wanted was to cause her pain. If only he could make her understand that.

Nathan had been taken captive as a follow up for a genetic experiment that had been done to him as an infant. The goal of the experiment had been to bring the mutant problem home to the general public that mutants should be hated and persecuted. Luckily, it was unsuccessful. Nathan had come to find out that his wings were not part of his original mutation. But merely and add-on of the experiment. He still felt violated by the information.

The message that he had left Ali from a pay phone was still playing through his head. "Ali, this is Nathan. I'm coming back. I had no choice but to go this time. I'll explain everything to you when I arrive back in a few days. And Ali...I still love you."

The last had certainly been a risk for how long he had been gone. It would been a risk before he had left. Their relationship had been solid before his aduction but not quite love. Ali had been the most influential driving force during Nathan's confinement. The thought of her had kept him fighting. So he felt he had to use the "L" word. Nathan was not the kind of man that used a word like love excessively either.

And here he was, standing infront of Ali's door hand balled up into a fist about to knock. He hoped she would recognize him. Nathan had almost three months of unchecked hair growth on his face and head. Experiments weren't allowed very many grooming luxeries.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered. Nathan knoked three times and waited for an answer.

One day out of the blue Ali's phone had a missed call and a voice message. She had discovered it after coming out of the shower. It had been awhile since anyone had called her phone so she couldn't imagine who it might've been. There was a brief thought that maybe it was Nathan, but then that was shaken from her mind.

Ali dried off and got dressed before listening to the voice message. It really was Nathan and he said he was coming back? Did he also really say he loved her? He never said that to her before. Was it just his way to try to soften her up emotionally? A way for her to forgive him. He would have another thing coming if that was the case.

A day later and there was a knock at her door. Her heart jumped and she was instantly filled with anxiety, sadness, anger and fury. Taking a hard swallow Ali tried to keep her tone calm for now.

"It's open."

Nathan slowly openned the door and entered. He wasn't sure how to act exactly but the image of a child apologizing to his parents with his eyes downcast came to mind. I have nothing to be ashamed of. None of this had been my choice. I came back as fast as I could. Nathan knew that it was going to take a little more convincing for Ali though.

Nathan softly shut the door behind him. "It's just me." A smile crept on his face as soon as he saw Ali. The smile grew into a grin after a moment. Nathan wanted to run over to her and embrace her but he knew that it wasn't going to be that easy.

Being unsure of what to do next, Nathan walked around the room and ended up near the window. Ali was more beautiful than he remembered. Her being was more perfect than any of the dreams that he had of her since they had last parted. Nathan said the only thing he could think of. "I'm sorry."

((OOC: I got permission for slight god modding in PM's))

Ali stood in the middle of her room. Her arms were crossed over her chest. The look on her face was one of utmost seriousness. Nathan was playing it safe by keeping his distance. She turned to keep him in front of her as he walked around the room and stopped by the window.

Then he said it. He said he was sorry and that was the end of her fuze. Ali quickly thrust her hands out towards Nathan and unleashed a fire blast. The blast hit Nathan and blew him out the open window.

In two strides Ali was at the window sill and yelling our at Nathan.

"SORRY!? You disappear on me a second time and the best you can say is SORRY!?"

Ali flew outside to keep Nathan in her sights.

"You don't get to keep doing this to me! My heart is broken over you! AAHHH!! I'm soo pissed off right now!"

An aura of flames ignites around Ali as she hovers several feet away from Nathan.

Nathan managed to get his arms up so that his face was covered from the blast. The blast still blew him through the window and out of the room. Nathan landed as softly as someone could after been blown out of the second floor of a building. He just lay there for a few seconds, still in disbelief of what just happenned.

He rose then while keeping his eyes on Ali. This had escalated far quicker than he had intended. He certainly never wanted it to come to the use of their powers. But it wasn't entirely unexpected either. Nathan had had a long bus ride to think about what would happen.

Nathan simply stood still and started to talk to Ali. Using his powers would invite Ali to use hers. Not that he wasn't above doing it, it was just something he would rather aviod. "Well, I had more to say than just 'sorry'. If you would just let me explain..." Nathan was starting to think that using his powers might just be the only chance he had for resolution.

Ali continued to hover several feet up and away from Nathan. Her flaming aura was still in full force as well. She was still in the mind set of blasting Nathan again, but when he started to speak again she paused briefly. He said he could explain things, but Ali wondered about that. She created a ring of fire around Nathan to keep him from trying to run off.

"You can explain huh? Then why don't you start by explaining why you keep leaving me without a single word Nathan. Am I so easily left behind?"

Ali shook her head.

"I'm not a rubber band. You can't keep pulling with my emotions and think I'll just bounce right back like it's nothing."

Well, at least she didn't blast me again, he thought as the ring of fire erupted around him. There may be hope for him yet. "I didn't have a choice Ali. I was taken against my will. Hurting you was never my intention."

He paused, letting her take in his last statement. "Would it be ok if we have a normal conversation? Maybe without you trying to set me on fire?"

The fire ring diminishes but doesn't completely go out. Ali then extinguishes her fire aura and lowers herself to stand on the ground. She really didn't want to hurt Nathan, but at the same time she didn't like being hurt either.

"Sure, lets talk but just keep in mind that I can set you on fire in a blink of an eye."

Nathan very nearly let out a sigh of relief. He knew he wasn't out of the woods yet though. He needed Ali to calm down more. They needed to get back inside. Or at least someplace where it would be only the two of them. Nathan didn't want everyone to know what had happenned when wasn't even comfortable with it himself.

"Why don't we go someplace where we can talk? You can set me on fire just as easily if you were a few feet away from me."

OOC: Sorry for the delay, internet difficulties.

Ali looked around. No one was in sight. Putting her arms out she gestured to the left then the right and shook her head.

"I don't see why we can't talk right here. It's as safe a place as any."

Crossing her arms the fire starter gave a look to Nathan as if to say. Well, I'm waiting. She hoped he had a good story, but at the same time she was fighting to want to rush to him and kiss him and hug him. She missed him soo much that she had turned into a bit of a hermit while he was gone.

Trying to stay lighthearted, Nathan started to chuckle, but it trailed off into nothingness under Ali's gaze. Taking a deep breath as if to steady himself, Nathan gathered his thoughts.

"This story starts before I was even born. All of this I learned very recently so it is still new to me. I'll try to remember everything." The reality was, he wanted to forget. "About 20 years ago there was a group of people that was very aware of the growing mutant problem in the United States. Among them were a few intelligent but very misguided genetic researchers. The group made a decision to bring the "mutant problem" to the light and initiate hatred of mutants through the general population.
Without a supply of mutants wanting to be persecuted, they decided they would make their own. The group decided the best cost effective way for this to work was to inject infants with a gene mutating compound. It would be easier for the process to work if the host was in the developing stages.

The whole process was very crude and rudimentary. The compound contained animal DNA. The hope was basically that the children would become disfigured due to a melding of human and animal genes. The mutant children would inspire fear among everyone that looked upon them. Even their own parents. Society would be forced to deal with the mutant issue then.

Fortunately, it didn't happen that way. A vast majority of the injections failed due to the child's bodies recognizing the foreign substance and rejecting it. Some of them were able to reject the compound but died because their bodies were too weak to handle the stress that came with fighting it off. A few mutations did get through though. Most of those few were the disfigurement that the researchers had hoped for. But the majority of families still kept their children and decided to raise them as normal humans.

The whole operation had been an overwhelming failure in the eyes of the group. They started to plan something else on a much broader scale. The injections had only been regionalized and with a certain time period. But something happened. I'm not sure what. Perhaps the government caught wind of their plans. Maybe it fell apart due to lack of funding. But it was stopped fortunately."

Nathan paused, "Is everything clear to you?" It was a lot to take in all at once. And there was still more left to tell.

The story Nathan began telling sounded rather sinister and quite disgusting. It was starting to leave a bitter taste in Ali's mouth toward the human resposible. It was making her wish she had known about such a plan. She could've stopped them.

"Yeah I'm following but I'm still waiting to hear where you fit in to all of this mess."

Nathan noticed the twist in Ali's mouth as he was telling the story. He had felt the same anger when he had first heard the story as well. People were so misguided some times. People, as in humans and mutants. But that was the world they lived in.

"I mentioned that a few of mutantions had gotten threw and manifested in the child's features. And that most of them were what they scientists had hoped for. But there were several that didn't show up until the infants had become teenagers. When their natural mutations had begun to activate or sometime after.

"Of those few there were some mismatches of sorts. Such as eagle's talons with electricity control or snake scales with changing color. But some seemed to fit wonderfully. Like perfect body control and monkey appendages. Or wings and pyromancing.

"I was one of those infants." His statement was remarkably calm even though his anger was making him boil inside. He moved on quickly though. "I was taken as a follow up for the original experiment. Somehow the scientist found the means to do this. I'm not sure how. The research was in case something like this would happen again, they would get it right the second time.

"I knew they weren't going to let me go once they had me. They would use me up until I was dead. Then they would continue to use my body. But I managed to escape and shut down their operations, with some help of course. And now, I'm here."

Nathan just stood there unthreateningly as he could, trying to read the expression on Ali's face.