The pre-dawn chill hung over Brooklyn as Esdeath sat cross-legged on her bedroom floor, a police scanner crackling softly beside her. Her room was spartan—bed, desk, closet—with the only personal touches being a small collection of books and a map of New York City pinned to the wall, dotted with colored thumbtacks.
She marked another location on the map with a blue pin. "Fourth mutant sighting this month in Red Hook," she murmured, adding notes to a leather-bound journal. The police scanner squawked about a break-in at a bodega in Queens—nothing worth her attention.
Esdeath closed her eyes, focusing on her breathing. The dream about Jean still lingered, but she pushed it aside. Sentiment was a distraction. Today was about becoming stronger, more precise.
Her phone buzzed. A text from Magik: Found something interesting. Will be in touch.
No details, no explanation. Typical. Esdeath smirked and tucked the phone away.
She moved to her window, watching the sun creep over the horizon. The city was waking up, but she'd been alert for hours, plotting routes and training scenarios. Uncle Frank wouldn't be up for another hour—plenty of time to slip out unnoticed.
"Time to level up," she whispered, grabbing her jacket.
The abandoned warehouse in Red Hook reeked of rust and saltwater. Sunlight filtered through broken windows, casting long shadows across the concrete floor. Esdeath had cleared a wide space in the center, setting up makeshift targets using old crates and barrels.
She closed her eyes, focusing on the cold energy flowing through her veins. This time, instead of creating large ice constructs, she concentrated on forming dozens of small, razor-sharp ice shards—each no bigger than a throwing knife.
The air temperature plummeted. Frost crackled across the floor as thirty ice shards materialized around her, hovering like frozen wasps.
"Now for the hard part," she muttered.
With a flick of her wrist, she sent the shards flying toward the targets. They scattered wildly, some embedding into the crates while others shattered against the walls or floor. Only seven hit their intended marks.
"Shit." She wiped sweat from her brow. "Control needs work."
She tried again, this time creating fewer shards and focusing on guiding their paths. Fifteen shards formed, glinting in the morning light. She visualized trajectories, willing the ice to follow her mental commands.
The shards launched forward—more controlled this time. Ten hit their targets, three missed, and two veered off course.
"Better. Not good enough."
For the next hour, Esdeath drilled herself relentlessly. By the fiftieth attempt, she could reliably control twenty shards simultaneously, guiding them with increasing precision. The warehouse walls were studded with ice, targets reduced to splinters.
She smiled, satisfaction coursing through her. But satisfaction bred complacency.
"Let's make this interesting."
Esdeath positioned herself in the center of the warehouse and created six ice constructs—roughly humanoid figures with crude arms. She programmed them with a simple command: fire ice projectiles at her from random directions.
The first shard whistled past her ear. She twisted, narrowly avoiding it. Another came from behind—she ducked. A third grazed her shoulder, drawing blood.
"Good," she hissed through clenched teeth. "Make me work for it."
The constructs fired faster, a hailstorm of ice bullets. Esdeath moved like water, dodging and weaving. When she couldn't evade, she deflected with small ice shields. Each near miss sharpened her reflexes; each graze taught her precision.
Blood trickled down her arm, but the pain only heightened her focus. This was what she needed—real consequences for failure. Her body responded instinctively, muscles burning as she pushed herself beyond normal human limits.
After twenty minutes, her clothes were torn in several places, small cuts marking her skin. But her movements had become fluid, almost prescient. She could sense the projectiles before they launched, anticipating trajectories and adjusting accordingly.
The constructs suddenly stopped firing. Esdeath stood in the center, breathing heavily but controlled. Sweat plastered her hair to her forehead despite the freezing temperature.
"Not bad," she said to no one. "But not enough."
An idea had been forming in her mind—dangerous, possibly stupid, but irresistible. If she could freeze water molecules, control ice in complex patterns... could she freeze time itself?
Esdeath centered herself, drawing on everything she'd learned about her powers. She created a single ice shard and launched it across the warehouse, tracking its movement.
Then, with a deep breath, she channeled every ounce of her power into the space around her. She visualized reality itself as water—something that could be frozen, suspended, held in stasis.
The air crackled. The temperature dropped so rapidly that moisture in the air crystallized instantly. The flying ice shard slowed... slowed... stopped.
Everything stopped.
The dust motes hanging in sunbeams. A drop of her blood midway to the floor. The sound of distant traffic. All frozen in perfect stasis.
Esdeath moved cautiously, reaching out to touch the suspended ice shard. It remained fixed in space, as immovable as if embedded in concrete. She walked around it, examining the perfect stillness from all angles.
"Holy shit," she whispered, her voice sounding strange in the absolute silence. "I actually did it."
She counted seconds in her head. Five... six... seven...
At ten seconds, the strain became unbearable. Her vision darkened at the edges. Blood vessels burst in her nose. The cold burned in her lungs like fire.
Reality snapped back with the sound of shattering glass. The ice shard completed its journey, embedding in the far wall. The suspended blood droplet splattered on the floor. Sound and motion resumed as if nothing had happened.
Esdeath collapsed to her knees, every muscle trembling. Blood streamed from her nose and ears. Her lungs heaved desperately for air.
"Too much," she gasped, wiping blood from her face. "Way too much."
She remained on the floor for several minutes, waiting for the room to stop spinning. The power had been incredible—moving freely while the world stood still—but the cost was too high. She mentally filed it away: Emergency use only. Last resort.
Even as she acknowledged the danger, a part of her thrilled at the discovery. Another level unlocked. Another boundary pushed.
Night had fallen by the time Esdeath finished her training. She stood on a rooftop in Williamsburg, watching the city lights below. Her body had mostly recovered, though she still felt the bone-deep fatigue of pushing her limits.
The air beside her shimmered and tore open, revealing a glowing portal. Magik stepped through, her Soulsword gleaming in the darkness.
"Jesus!" Esdeath hissed, nearly losing her footing. "A little warning next time?"
Magik's lips quirked in what might have been amusement. "Where's the fun in that?"
She was dressed in her combat gear—black and yellow, with eldritch symbols etched into the leather. The sword pulsed with otherworldly energy.
"There's a situation," Magik said without preamble. "Rogue mutant, pyrokinetic. Xavier wants them contained before they hurt themselves or others." She paused, studying Esdeath. "You look like shit."
"Thanks. It's my new aesthetic." Esdeath straightened, ignoring the lingering pain. "Why me? Don't you X-Men handle this kind of thing?"
"Xavier suggested a... lighter touch. Less official." Magik's eyes narrowed. "Unless you're not up for it?"
The challenge was obvious. Esdeath smiled, cold and sharp.
"Lead the way."
They tracked the mutant through Brooklyn—Magik teleporting to scout ahead while Esdeath followed energy signatures with her cold sense. The trail led them to an abandoned construction site where the temperature was unnaturally high.
"There," Esdeath whispered, pointing to a figure huddled near a pile of burning debris.
The mutant was young—maybe fifteen—with hair that seemed to flicker between red and orange. The air around them wavered with heat.
"I'll circle around," Magik said. "You approach from—"
She was cut off as a fireball exploded where they'd been standing. Esdeath had sensed it coming, pulling them both behind a concrete barrier just in time.
"So much for the subtle approach," she muttered.
The pyrokinetic screamed, unleashing a torrent of flames that set the entire site ablaze. Esdeath raised ice shields to block the assault while Magik teleported behind the mutant, attempting to subdue them.
Another fireball flew toward Magik. Without thinking, Esdeath created a dozen ice shards and sent them flying—not at the mutant, but in a protective pattern around Magik, intercepting the flames.
Steam hissed as fire met ice. Magik glanced back, genuine surprise on her face, before striking with the flat of her sword. The mutant crumpled, unconscious.
Silence fell over the construction site, broken only by the crackling of small fires. Esdeath extinguished them with a wave of her hand, frost spreading across the ground.
"Nice trick with the ice," Magik said, sheathing her sword. "Didn't know you could do that."
"I'm full of surprises."
Magik approached, studying Esdeath with new interest. "You're unpredictable... I like that."
The words hung between them, charged with something neither was willing to name. Magik opened a portal to Xavier's school, the unconscious mutant floating through first.
She paused at the threshold, looking back at Esdeath. For a moment, something vulnerable flickered across her face—then vanished behind her usual mask.
"Don't be a stranger, ice queen," she said, before stepping through. The portal closed with a flash of light.
Esdeath stood alone on the rooftop, frost swirling around her fingers. She looked down at her hand, then up at the night sky.
"One day, I'll master it all," she whispered to the darkness. The power, the control, the connections forming around her—all pieces of a puzzle she was slowly assembling.
She smiled, feeling the cold energy pulsing through her veins. Tomorrow would bring new challenges, new limits to break.
And she would be ready.