The youngest member (X-Men Evolution)

Day of Reckoning

"You pest! You will obey orders!"

The guard swung his fist, hitting Marigold's jaw. The hit was hard enough to knock the young girl off her feet. The six year old girl tried to keep her tears from falling as she lay on the ground, maybe if she acted like she had been knocked out she wouldn't have to follow the guards orders. She lay there for a few moments, holding her breath in fear until she felt a familiar gentle touch on her shoulder. She had fallen for the trick where they get one of the guards to pretend to be Julie, so she stayed laying, her eyes shut. "I'll take her back to her room. Next time try not to hit her so hard she passes out." That voice above her was Julie. Marigold let out a sigh of relief as the woman picked her up and carried her out of the room. Marigold didn't dare to open her eyes, or give any sign of consciousness as the woman took her to her room.

"You can't pretend to pass out every time a guard hits you, you know. They will catch on eventually." Julie whispered as she lay Marigold on her bed. "I understand that you don't enjoy this part of your training, but you must do it." Marigold opened her eyes and turned to Julie, holding her sore jaw. "I - I can't do that." the young girl said, tears gathering in her eyes again. "Survival training is apart of your curriculum now. If you keep resisting it will only get worse for you." Marigold let a few tears slip down her cheeks. "I don't want to kill the deer." She admitted, her voice broken. "You will be happy that you know how to kill and eat animals when you are on the field...I will not come to your rescue next time you try to pretend to pass out to avoid training. Do you understand twenty five?" Marigold frowned, Julie only used her number when she was upset with her or in front of any of the other doctors. "Yes Ma'am." She said. Julie sighed and walked to the door of her bedroom. "It's times like this that you remind me so much of your mother and father." Julie said, before shutting the door.

-Xavier Institute-

Marigold gasped, awakening from her dream suddenly. It hadn't been a nightmare exactly, but the memory of having to kill those poor animals for survival training. The girl sat up in her bed and shook the thoughts from her mind. Since Logan had left the Institute to try and track down Saber-tooth so that they could find Magneto. Marigold had been having more trouble sleeping, she always felt safer with Logan in the mansion. She got out of bed and prepared herself for the day. As usual she was awake before the other students. She saw Hank and Ororo dressed in their x-men uniforms in the foyer as she was making her way to the kitchen. "Marigold, why are you up so early?" Ororo asked, clearly not expecting to run into anyone at this time. "It's not that early...where are you and Hank going?" She asked, worry in her voice. "We are going to check on Logan and his mission on tracking down Saber-tooth. We haven't heard back from him recently and Cerebro can't detect him...we fear that Magneto has captured him." Hank said, knowing that it was probably better to let the young girl know what was going on then lie to her. Marigold frowned, walking over to the two adults as they got ready to leave. "Do you think Logan is okay?" She asked, everyone knew that the child and grumpy adult were very close. "I haven't seen anything take down Wolverine yet...don't worry child. We will bring him back safe and sound." Ororo said, kneeling on one knee and resting her hands on Marigold's shoulders. "I know you will." Marigold said, hugging both adults before they walked out the front door. Marigold kept her brave face on until they were out of her sights, but as soon as they were gone Marigold frowned and walked into the kitchen suddenly not as hungry as she had been before. Instead she walked over to the kitchen window and watched as Hank and Ororo drove through the front gate of the Institute. She hoped that Logan was okay.

-The Next Day, Danger Room-

"There he is!" Night-crawler called out, pointing the fake Magneto that the X-men were fighting against in the danger room session. The training had gotten a lot tougher sense the fight with the Brotherhood that was lost in the mall. The Professor said that he was training the x-men for the day that they would have to fight Magneto, but the training was harsh with Magneto being guarded by a heavy duty fighting Drone. Only a few people from the team hadn't been hit by the drone that was attacking the students with a paintball gun, Marigold being one of those few people. She stayed invisible as she watched Night-crawler and Magma (aka Amara) take on Magneto together. The drone hit Night-crawler in the chest, orange paint exploding over his chest. Magma was barely able to get away without getting hit as well. "Dang, now Night-crawlers out too. How can one Drone tag so many students?" Spike asked over the x-men's communication devices. "Where is our objective?" Cyclopes asked, keeping his focus on the mission. Taking out Magneto.  "About 36 meters to the east of your location Cyclopes." Marigold said, keeping her eyes on the fake man. The Drone started attacking Jean an Scott from their vantage point and Cyclopes took out the drone with his lasers. "Thanks Scott." Jean said. "Your stalling Cyclopes. Magneto wont be sitting around waiting for you to decide on tactics." The Professors said via speakers. He was in the control room hitting the x-men team with everything he had. "Make a move or relinquish control to Jean." He said before sending in another Drone to start attacking again. "Okay, let's rush Magneto from all sides team." Scott said into the communicators. Everyone followed his command and started their attack on Magneto. Spike and Shadow-cat taking the back, while Jean and Cyclopes took the front, Magma and Marigold took the left and right sides. The remaining people on the team had Magneto surrounded. Everyone went in for the attack, but before anyone could even get close to the fake statue of Magneto they were all taken out by drones, Marigold was the only one who made it to the statue because of her shields blocking the Drones from hitting her. She made a ball shaped force field and threw it at Magneto's head. "Yes! Go Marigold!" Shadow-cat cheered, the mission had been completed, take out Magneto. But a few moments after Marigold had knocked off the statues head the whole thing exploded. Marigold was barely able to get a shield around her in time to block the explosion. "It was a dummy! we have been tracking the wrong guy the whole time." Cyclopes said with frustration. "Mission failed.I want to see everyone in the planning room now!" The Professor said before the Danger room simulation turned off.  "Sorry guys, that was a total bust." Marigold said frowning as she met with the rest of the team. "That wasn't your fault, we were all after the same target...let's go meet with the Professor." Jean said as the whole team slowly made their way to the planning room. Marigold let her thoughts wonder off as she walked with the rest of her team, whenever she failed missions before coming to Xavier's Institute it always had really bad consequences.