Part One

The rain hit the ground with a incredible speed. The ground hissed from the heat it had been under for the last few weeks. The storm came sudden. Minutes before it had been sunny then out of nowhere clouds covered the sky and rain fell.

Elizabeth Braddock knew exactly what happened. Her leader, Storm had just found out what exactly Cyclops was planning for the X-Men. And she was not happy with that. You see Storm just like Elizabeth was a mutant. While Elizabeth was a powerful telepath, Storm had the power to control weather, and when her moods changed, so did the weather. Now that Storm was arguing there would be no chance for sun in the foreseeable future. But that gave Elizabeth a perfect reason to sneak out of the War Room where the conversation with Storm, Cyclops and the rest of the X-Men had been held. She didn't want to take part in the argument. In fact she couldn't take part in the argument. She didn't know these people. Of course, she had known them, but that was before. Before she was changed. Sure, she recognized most of their faces but it was as if she had known them in her previous life. She didn't feel comfortable around them. For her they could be strangers on the streets just as well. It was a weird feeling. A feeling that she couldn't shake off. A feeling as is she wasn't herself.

^Well I'm not really am I ?^ she thought to herself. ^I mean looking at myself I wonder just who I am. God knows what that bastard Matuso did to me. I don't even know if this is my own body. I wake up after being mind controlled by Mandarin and I'm in a oriental body with lower power and ninja skills like no one else. What the hell is going on ?^

She crossed her hands over her chest. She looked up to the sky seeing rain falling down with the speed of a cannon. The raindrops washed over her face. Soon water was dripping down from her everywhere. Her clothes became so wet they started dragging her down. And yet she still stood there, staring at the sky not minding this at all.

***

The next day she woke up early. The sun was upright in the sky already. ^I guess Storm came to a agreement with Cyclops then^ she thought. She quickly took of her robe and went around her new room trying to find a swim suit. After few minutes of browsing through her bag she found a pink two piece swimsuit she had bough few days back in New York. She briskly put it on while forcing her purple hair back to it's original position. That done she grabbed a towel and walked out of her room. It was seven thirty and most of the X-Men were asleep. She left the house quickly and walked across the school yards towards the pond. She quickly dropped her towel and entered the ice cold water. ^Auuuu damn I never thought it was going to be so cold^ she complained to herself. Clenching her teeth she made another step towards the water, and then after a bit of hesitation jumped in.

At first she wanted to jump out back to the shore but she dived under the water in order for her skin to get used to the coldness. When she resurfaced she wasn't even cold anymore. With slow strokes of her arms the started swimming towards the center of the lake. She loved swimming ever since she was a young girl. No matter if it was sea, pond, river, pool she always enjoyed a morning swim. Something that was brutally interrupted by her change of body. Now as her arms stroked the water she was amazed how her new body felt just like her old one. Her long legs crashed the surface of the water just like before. They all felt perfectly the same. They were just as long and just as trained as before. ^Maybe this is my own body then^ she thought. When she looked up she saw she was on the other side of the pond. Diving under she swam towards the bottom of the pond. After few seconds she was able to touch the green plants growing there ^This is amazing I can swim even faster than before^

After a minute she started feeling her lungs needed more air. But she didn't resurface, just swam under the water marveling at the plant life that seemed to be not from this world. Yet another minute later her lungs felt like they were going to explode. With few fast strokes of her hands she came up to the surface breathing in air deeply. She started choking for a while and then finally she was breathing normal again ^Damn it I could have came up so much earlier but no I had to feel the danger. Is what Wolverine say's true ? Am I really turning into a wild card ? Who am I ?^ She brushed those questions aside and started swimming back to the shore. She stopped in the middle of the pond and flipped around to her back. She laid her head on the water and while her feet were barely moving she started of to the sky laying on the water. ^Ah this is life. Peace, quiet. Just me, water and the sky^

She blinked as the sun shone in her eyes. Making little effort her feet splashed the water. She was slowly moving towards the shore. ^Heck if I go at this speed I might as well get a tan^ she thought to herself and smiled.

***

After and hour she finally made it to the shore. Smiling to herself she slowly walked out of the water and looked around for her towel. It was lying on the ground just where she left it. Pulling her wet hair away from her face she grabbed it.

"Dat was a good swim dere chere." she heard a voice behind her.

Without thinking much she spun around while activating her psychic knife. With one swift move her legs sprung her upwards and she threw herself at the direction of the voice. She saw a figure of a man and before anything else could happen she landed on top of him knocking him down to the ground. She put her hand with the psychic knife to is head and asked in a vicious voice, her teeth clenched.

"Who are you. And what do you want ?"

"Take it easy chere. It just be me." the man mumbled.

"Oh I'm sorry errr, Gambit, right ?" she said while her face turned red.

"Yes dat is right. I don' mind at all." Gambit pointed out with a huge grin. Betsy looked down. She was still in her two piece swimsuit, water dripping from her everywhere, leaning over Gambit.

"Um.. err yeah right..." she mumbled her face becoming even more red. She quickly got off Gambit and stood up. Gambit helped himself up after her a big grin still on his face. He brushed his long dark brown hair back and tucked it behind his ears. Smiling he walked up to Elizabeth who was now wrapping herself in a towel, her face returning to it's natural color. He smiled at her and she smiled back. As they made their way back to the mansion a conversation evolved.

"So.. um Gambit what's your real name ?"

"Remy."

"That's cute." Elizabeth said now that she stopped being ashamed.

"Yeah I know." Remy said grinning. "And you're... Betsy ?" he said while trying to think back.

"Yeah that's it. So what were you doing over by the pond ?"

"I was just walkin' past an' I saw you swimin'" Remy said. Out of instinct Elizabeth tried to read his mind to see if he was telling the truth, but to her surprise she couldn't get through. He had some sort of telephatic shields over his mind and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't get through them.

"Oh okay then." she said giving up. For few brief moments they walked in silence towards the mansion. When they reached the building he opened the door for her and she stepped inside. They saw Prof. X in his study and they greeted him along their way. Elizabeth made her way up the stairs and she was followed by Remy, their conversation starting again. Soon they were by Betsy's room and she smiled at Remy. "I have to get dressed now, I can't walk around the mansion like this." They both laughed. Finally Remy stopped. Putting on his best charm look he spoke.

"Chere what would y' say fo' a dinner sometime soon ?"

Her breath stopped for few seconds and then she smiled again, relieved. "I'd love to Remy." she said trying not to blush again.

"Great, chere." he said while turning around. If there was a time to leave it was now. "See ya 'round."

"Yeah bye." she waved her hand and opened to door of the room. She stepped inside and slammed to door shut after her. For the first time since she got her new body, she was happy.

***

The tall, black haired woman walked around her home. The place was neither here or there. It just was. Her hair brushed to the back reached to her waist. She was wearing a white and gold body armor just as usual, with her cape tangling behind her on the floor. As her gold boots stepped on the floor of her citadel she thought about her past experiences. She entered a room somewhere in the complex and sat down in the middle of it. Mist floated in the air and it was dark. She crossed her legs and put her hands over them.

She was Roma. The goddess of all things living.

As she started her mediation she saw the world in front oh her eyes. The seas, the forests, the skies, the fields of grass, birds flying high up in the air, fish swimming in the oceans, dears running in the woods and most of all... Men. Men walking on the surface of the world. The greatest of creatures ever created and still some of them the stupidest. Suddenly her vision started to blur. She saw smoke in front of her and all things living destroyed. Forests on fire, oceans polluted, grass turned into mud, sky full of clouds and redness... She saw fish dying in the dried out rivers, birds falling from the sky and Men. Men lying around. Dead.

"AAAARGHHHHH" she screamed as the first telephatic assault was fired at her. She saw a person standing in front of her. "No..." she moaned.

"YES. I HAVE RETURNED. AND I WILL DO JUST EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAW ! AND NO ONE CAN STOP ME !" The person then started laughing. Roma looked up fear in her eyes. This couldn't be happening. Before she was able to get up the vision was gone and everything returned back to normal.

"Oh no. Not now." she cried to herself as she got up. She quickly stormed out of the room. ^There still might be hope^ she thought.

End of Part One