Fade awoke with a dry taste in her mouth. It wasn't blood, thank goodness, and it wasn't any form of poison, toxin or smoke. In this case, it was simply the taste of a day spent without water. Everything had gone down so quickly. She was tracking down a group of mutants, or at least they showed symptoms of being mutants at the hotel, and something had gone wrong. Maybe she tripped and fell, maybe someone knocked her out, but all she knew was that she was laying in the dust and soot next to an extinguished fire. Apparently this group did not enjoy her company that much. She pulled herself off the ground and patted down her jacket. Her worn down jeans were now black and brown and she had smudges on her face. The worst of it all was the bump on the back of her head, but she could have suffered more excrutiating pain than a sore head.

It was apparent that these weren't humans who would take her to a camp, so why did they strike her? Or did they even strike her on purpose? She was invisible in the first place, an accidental hit on the back of her head was plausible. The extinguished fire didn't have any smoke arising from it, no, it seemed all that smoke settled on her clothes and in her hair. How long had she been there? That did not matter now. She pulled out her X-Communicator and attempted to reach Shin. No response. So she tried Streak, still no response. She kept calling out on the Communicator for some information on what was going on when she finally examined the damned thing when no one responded. Great. Just what she needed. The light was off. Fade had never been good with electronics but something told her that when the light was out, then stupid thing was not working properly.

Climbing back up to her feet, she decided to make her way back to that hotel, hopefully without running into that group again. Deciding that it would be best, she turned invisible and walked for about three hours before she reached it, still invisible. She did not want anyone watching her, at all. She phased through the doors of the front lobby and passed by the check in. The desk clerk was staring intently at the floor, so she simply sauntered by. When she reached the rooms the X-Men had been assigned, she just phased through the walls. Hopefully no one is doing anything indecent, she smirked to herself before phasing through Shin's door. Nothing. No clues or anything. Nothing in Streak's, Sumi's or Jewel's room. They were all gone. She could not be out for that long, could she?

The pitter patter of footsteps stopped her from searching for more clues and she phased her head through the door to see who was there. Men. Armed and dangerous men. The desk clerk was in front of them, pointing to little dusty black footprints on the floor. Damnit! They tracked her with her own footprints! She should have known better than that! They went to Shin's room first, as there were dusty footprints going in and she took the opportunity to phased through the window of the room and climb down the wall, using her raptor claws. Perhaps the rest of the group had been taken. Perhaps they were at the scene trying to break out the other mutants. She had to get to that camp.

It would not be hard to find the camp at all; just followed the armed and dangerous men. So she latched on to the back of their van for a long ride.

It took a while for the vehicle to get there, but Fade just held on and stayed invisible. Better safe than sorry. They finally reached a warehouse and pulled up to the gates. The invisible redhead could not exactly peer around the van to get a better look, not just yet, she had to stay perfectly still, had to make sure she did not make any noises. The guard talked to the drivers for a bit and Fade caught some of the conversation.

"Catch anyone today?"

"Yeah, just one little one in the back of the van. She's some kind of partial animal thing. I didn't wanna get close enough to see just what animal," he grunted.

"Filthy. Well, bring her on in for processing and hurry up, I hate leaving the gate open for too long, Jack."

The van pulled through and began it's short journey to the drop zone in front of one of the warehouses. There were some puddles of water around, it had rained the night before. Water. Water was one thing that was bad for an invisible person. Mud and water. It was so much easier to spot dripping water on an invisible foot and it took more concentration than ever to make every splotch disappear. She had been working on perfecting that with mud, but it would still create a silhoutte of where she was standing. Why couldn't they just have camps with clean pavement? If they had the money to create these collars, they could pave the ground so she could sneak around easier.

Slowly, she crawled off the van and stepped to the side before the drivers jumped out and opened the back. Inside, a little girl, maybe thirteen, was laying unconscious. It was amazing how Fade did not see her before, but she had been covered with a tattered mat of some kind. If Fade had known she was back there, she would have pulled her out to safety and then found her own way to the camps. Whatever she would have done, she did not and there was no sense in doing it now or she would be compromised. She forced herself to turn away from the small girl and tried her hardest to keep walking when she heard the girl wake up and start crying.

Just a few more steps, and I can't hear her anymore. I can't help her, there's nothing you can do, Jenny. You can help her get out once you get to know the place, just keep walking. Her invisible fists tightened and she noted the name of the man. Jack.

There was nothing to be seen, not on this level at least. A ramp that lead down underground caught her attention and she walked down it, making sure she did not step too harshly because the warehouse would echo every footstep she made. Finally, she had reached her destination, the cold, dafty underground mutant concentration camp. Groups of mutants were huddled around each other, possibly for heat, but none of them made any noises. None of them talked, some would make slight eye contact and if you stared hard enough, they were mouthing words to each other. The prisoners here had to stay sane, they could not let the humans win. Fade scolded herself for mentally excluding herself from the human race, she knew she used to be one of them and she knew they had nature similar to mutants, but when they threw her genetic brothers and sisters in this kind of a place, it was hard to feel sympathy for the human race.

A few mutants were similar and she did her best to keep moving, to not stop and try to help them. Shin was there. How the hell did they catch her partner? Why was she not there to help him? Possibly after she gained some intel on the place, she could return and talk to him, briefly and as quietly as possible. Deciding that it was best to search the processing area, she returned to ground level and approached the door to some kind of an office. While outside the door, she took off her jacket and used it to wipe down the bottom of her shoes along with anything that would drip off to keep her from leaving footprints, which was how she was nearly caught last time.

She phased her face through the door to check if the coast was clear and finally, her whole body followed. She could hear the girl crying, her whimpering echoed down the halls and Fade followed, walking slowly. A few cameras were pointed down the halls, but she could not tell if they were heat vision cameras or motion sensor. Just to make sure, she climbed up the wall and began to scutter across the ceiling. The camera was pointed at the ground for the most part, maybe they wouldn't think to point it at the ceiling?

The sounds of whimpering were getting closer, she was almost there...

A closed door stood in front of her and Fade gathered her breath and her sense of calm to look through. What was on the other side may very well knock her off her high horse of morality and make her become the one person she hated to be. She phased through the door and looked at what was in front of her. The girl's head was tilted back by the man called Gabriel ((formerly Jack until I changed the ethnicity of the name)) while another man picked up a large collar. Fade had not been captured by the Registration Act either and never knew what those felt like or exactly what they did. All she knew was that no mutant liked it and it knew when a mutant was using their power, even it was unintentional. Gabriel held on tightly as she squirmed around and the collar was brought over. The little girl gasped for air as it was tightened around her, a little too tightly.

She tried to say ouch, tried to communicate with the men that their brute force was killing her, that she could not breathe, talk, or do anything. The poor girl was completely helpless. Her eyes widened in an attempt to communicate through them, welling up with tears that rolled down her cheeks and onto Gabriel's grasp. Fade covered her mouth with her hand to help keep herself quiet. She should have never come back in that room, she should have left right then and there with just the location. Now that she was there, she could not turn around, she would no abandon the poor girl. She would not leave her with those filthy Romanian humans, she just could not.

Gabriel laughed and finally let go once the one who put on the collar let him know that it was on tight enough. The two men looked at her and shook their heads before talking.

"What happened to that damn mutant at the hotel?" Gabriel said.

"It might have been one of our invisibles. The footprints did lead to a room that we tracked back to one of the mutants we have downstairs, Gabriel."

"Maybe. Why the hell do we gotta rely on some mutants who can turn invisible like that? We shouldn't gotta rely on anyone but ourselves," Gabriel grunted.

"Yeah well one man's trash may be another man's treasure," the second guard laughed.

"I don't know who thinks this thing here is any sort of treasure," he said as he backhanded the little mutant girl who had just regained her oxygen. "They're just freaks, all of them. Let's throw her downstairs before she looks any more pitiful and I gotta whip her into shape."

"You know boss knows about what happened to the last little girl, right? I told you there isn't such thing as pure alone time with anyone here," he warned, lifting up the girl.

"Boss knows he liked to watch that through the camera. Hell, it probably erupted and urge in him to do the same thing. They're so young and innocent at that age," he twirled his fingers through the little girl's dirty, matted hair.

"That last girl was a human, she wasn't a mutant and you damn well knew that," Gabriel's friend warned him. Gabriel's fists clenched and he glared up at the other man.

"Don't think I don't know about that mutant woman you claimed was dead when you got there. I got ears, you know. When we were searching that refuge rat apartment complex, I could hear her screams and your moans through the damn walls. So don't act all high and mighty just cause I did it where there are cameras. Least I didn't kill the girl when I was done with her."

"Yeah, but you didn't take off her collar, everyone thinks she's a mutant and she's being treated like she is down there. That's a human being."

"We're human beings. That's all that matters."

The second guy seemed to understand and nodded. The two made their way out the door, the little girl draped over Gabriel's shoulders with his hand on her rump. It sickened Fade. For what seemed like eternity, she stayed completely still, the name Gabriel twisting and turning slowly in her mind. Gabriel. Gabriel. Gabriel. She would have her revenge. Those two little girls would have their revenge. What a monster -

A small buzzing noise interrupted her thoughts and she hurried through her pockets to find the X-Communicator. How it was working now, she had no idea. It was a message from Streak, she needed to meet back up with him. She attempted to answer back, but the communicator did not work. Perhaps it could only receive at this time? The two men had left their jackets in the room and Fade went to the one that was closest to Gabriel. It did not have much in it, maybe a piece of gum and pieces of pocket lent. What it did have in it was one of those little photo pocket books, the ones that go in your wallet. It had a picture of a little blonde girl, maybe the human he had used and abused, a picture of a doberman, and a picture of Gabriel with a woman and two children. He had a damn family…

Quickly, she shoved the photos in her pocket and grabbed the keys from the table along with his friend's jacket. Bingo, the second guy had his pass card clipped onto his jacket. He must have forgotten it was not on his shirt. Fade threw her hair up in a bun, grabbed a paper towel, wiped the smudge from her face and put the jacket on. When she was out of sight from the camera, she turned visible and walked out in front of it, not looking, just walking at a moderate pace. She opened the door, zipped up her jacket all the way and walked over to the van. Gabriel and his friend were on their way back from dropping off the girl at the concentration camp. They were talking but Fade chose not to listen. They walked past her and nodded, she nodded back with a firm look on her face. The men went to the bathroom and the second they closed the door to the men's room, she jumped in the driver seat and drove towards the gate. The guard looked inside. The van and let her pass. It was Streak-bound until she heard the radio in the van flare up.

"Van stolen by possible rebel. Plate number 847283, last seen exiting the gates less than one minute ago."

Sirens from police vehicles could be heard and soon Fade could see the lights in her rear view mirror. Her foot stomped hard on the gas and she sped ahead as the vehicles caught up to her. One hit her from behind as another fired a shot at her tire from her right side. It was a direct hit and the van began to rock back and forth until a hit from the left side sent the van into a swerve and eventually a crash. It plummeted towards a tree, smashing the driver's side and breaking ever window.

The vehicles pulled up next to the van and the all got out to check to see if she had survived. No one was in the van, it was completely empty. They reported the escape and brought a few dogs to sniff out where she had ran to, but they only stayed around the van and tree it smashed into.


High up in the branches, Fade kept very still. She didn't move, she didn't breath loudly and she didn't move the hand that covered the open wound on her left arm from when she phased through the van before it crashed.