KIDEN NIXON

BIOGRAPHY

The only daughter in a family of six, Kiden Nixon grew up in Alphabet City, New York. One day as a child, her mother sent her out with her police officer father while she went shopping for a birthday cake. This nice day with her father took a tragic turn when her father was shot dead before her eyes in a seemingly random drive by shooting.

Years later, Kiden grew to become a rebellious teenager; smoking, going to raves, doing drugs and fighting with her mother. On one particular day at school, she got into an argument with a fellow student, Hector, who slapped her. Enraged, Kiden ripped his earring out. Before the fight could escalate further, they were interrupted by their teacher, Cameron Palmer.

That wasn’t the end of it though, as Kiden and her friend were ambushed after class by Hector and his friends. While some girls beat Kiden’s friend, Hector and his boys pushed Kiden around before pinning her to the ground. This traumatic experience was enough to trigger Kiden’s mutant abilities. As she screamed for them to stop, time seemed to do exactly that. To Kiden, it appeared time was frozen. While she was exploring this new situation, Kiden touched Hector’s arm, causing it to break. At that same moment, the time freeze ceased. [NYX #1]

Kiden didn’t reveal her newfound powers and no one seemed to suspect Hector’s injury was anything but normal. The stress of her newly-discovered mutant abilities was compounded the next day by a fight at home between her mother and her drug-dealing brother, Tyler, driving Kiden to storm out.

At school, Kiden was confronted again by Hector, and this time he brought a gun. Kiden instinctively activated her abilities a second before the bullet killed her but, while she was taunting the frozen Hector, she accidently touched his ear, returning time to normal speed. The bullet meant for Kiden instead hit Miss Palmer. In a panic, Kiden fled the school. [NYX #2]

Concerned about Miss Palmer, Kiden went to the hospital to see if she was alright, but found half the school there. Fearing the police would be waiting for her at her home, Kiden instead chose to stay on the streets. Being a dangerous place, it didn’t take long until she was confronted by some punks, forcing her to use her powers once more. She spent four months in slowed time, which equated to three days of normal time, wandering New York. During this period, she learned she didn’t need to eat or drink whilst her powers were in effect, and that she needed skin on skin contact to break the spell.

Eventually, she grew bored with this arrangement, longing for some friendship. She kissed a homeless boy named Alex, bringing her back to normal time. She spent the next five months living on the streets with Alex and his friends, and it was some of the happiest times of her young life. Eventually, though, Alex grew homesick and left, which ended up being the push Kiden needed to go home to Alphabet City. The first person she saw upon arriving home was her brother Ty, who told her their mother was getting remarried and everything had been much better since she’d been gone. Deciding Ty was right, Kiden left without seeing the rest of her family and returned to the streets. [NYX #4]

It wasn’t long after that her life took another surprising twist when, while sleeping in an alley, she was confronted by what appeared to be the ghost of her dead father. The apparition told her she needed to go to Cameron Palmer’s apartment and save her life. While stunned to see her dead father, she still did as she was asked. When she arrived at Miss Palmer’s apartment, she found the woman, depressed since the shooting, had slit her wrists in the bathtub and immediately called an ambulance. [NYX #2, 4]

Kiden stayed with Cameron at her apartment while she recovered, though Miss Palmer was adamant that Kiden go home to her family. Asleep one night, the image of her dead father returned and told her to go to a hotel. She rushed to the hotel and Miss Palmer followed, where they found the teenage prostitute X-23 and her client, whom she had apparently just murdered. Kiden and Cameron took the girl to a nearby diner, where Kiden finally told Miss Palmer about her time on the streets and X-23 explained the client killed himself. [NYX #3, 4]

Unbeknownst to Cameron and Kiden, another prostitute working for X-23’s pimp, Zebra Daddy, followed the group back to Miss Palmer’s apartment. Once more, Kiden’s father’s apparition returned to her and told her to get out immediately. The trio got out not a moment too soon, as Zebra Daddy’s goons busted in and shot up the apartment. On the run and in over their heads, Kiden used her street smarts to keep the group safe and find them food.

It wasn’t long before Kiden’s father’s ghost mysteriously appeared again and sent her on a mission to save another girl. This time, the group was sent to a certain spot just in time to witness a mutant-hating mob attempting to lynch a young mutant named Tatiana Cabon. Fortunately, X-23 managed to get through to the girl, who had succumbed to her animalistic nature. Kiden convinced Tatiana to stay with them, at her father’s instruction. [NYX #5]

The dramas of the last few days grew too much for Cameron, and she blamed Kiden for destroying her life twice, which upset Kiden greatly. However, shortly after, she apologized and the girls reconciled. [NYX #6, 7]

Struggling to get by with no money and no shelter, Kiden and Cameron decided they had to return to Cameron’s apartment to retrieve her cash and credit cards. Kiden was initially hesitant but another vision of her father resolved her decision. Unbeknownst to Kiden and her friends, Zebra Daddy had tasked a young mutant named Bobby Soul to track them down. Additionally, he also sent his goons to stake out Miss Palmer’s apartment, in case the women returned to it.

As soon as they arrived at the apartment, they were met by Bobby Soul. Bobby had also received visions of Kiden’s father and had a change of heart about helping Zebra Daddy. Almost immediately after, though, the group were beset by Zebra Daddy and his goons, resulting in a fight breaking out. When Zebra gunned down X-23, the image dragged up traumatic memories in which she recognized Zebra Daddy as the drive by shooter that had killed her father.

When she stopped time to save Cameron, who had been tossed from her apartment window, Kiden had the opportunity to kill Zebra and came very close to doing the deed. However, she instead choose to let him live, though he was seemingly killed a moment later by X-23. With the cops on the way and Zebra’s goons still around, Kiden and the other girls had no choice but to go with Bobby back to his apartment. [NYX #7]

As they had nowhere else to go, Kiden and Tatiana remained living with Bobby and his autistic younger brother, Lil’Bro. After X-23 left suddenly without explanation to join the X-Men, a worried Kiden searched for her, but never found out what happened to the girl. Miss Palmer found her own place to live but remained a mentor to the kids, regularly checking in on Kiden and the others and giving them money and groceries when she could. Kiden grew to care for her friends, scavenging them presents from the trash and even got a part time job as a waitress to help pay the rent.

Since just before the encounter with Zebra Daddy at Miss Palmer’s apartment, Kiden had been sending letters to her family. Unfortunately, Kiden’s mother had remarried and moved the family away, so all the letters returned undelivered.

Unbeknownst to Kiden, a mystery man had been following her with a camera. One evening, the group went for dinner at Cameron’s and Kiden’s father’s ghost returned for the first time since the fight with Zebra Daddy. Her father warned her they had to run. Moment later, at Cameron’s apartment, they discovered the place had been ransacked, blood was everywhere and a photo of their strange family stuck to the wall with a knife. [NYX: No Way Home #1, X-23 One-shot]

Kiden’s dad’s ghost warned her they had to run and that they could still save Cameron, so they got out of there before the cops arrived. Upon arriving back at their own apartment, they found the cops waiting for them, presumably because someone had tipped them off. Fortunately for them, Kiden used her powers to freeze time and retrieve their belongings. They then set off to investigate Miss Palmer’s kidnapping; going to talk to one of Bobby’s gang contacts, whose beanie Bobby found at Cameron’s. Unfortunately, this led to a confrontation with Bobby's contact, who was frightened when Tatiana's powers activated, resulting with Tatiana getting shot. [NYX: No Way Home #2]

Kiden and Bobby subdued Tatiana’s shooter, but ended up under fire from more gang members. Fortunately, Kiden was able to use her powers to grab each of her friends and pull them into “pause-world” with her. They escaped the gang and took the wounded Tatiana to the hospital. While the staff took her into surgery, the news channel ran a story about Ms. Palmer’s disappearance that indicated Bobby, Kiden and Tatiana as being suspects in her kidnapping.

Meanwhile, following some leads, Kiden, Bobby and Lil’ Bro headed to Empire State University where they dialed a number Tatiana retrieved from her attacker’s mind. A tattooed man, seemingly expecting their call, approached them and spoke ominously of their future and how he was hired to kidnap Cameron. He mocked Kiden and knocked her unconscious. Bobby possessed the man and forced him to commit suicide, but afterward had trouble returning to his body. By the time Kiden woke, Bobby Soul had forgotten who she was. [NYX: No Way Home #3]

With the amnesiac Bobby and Lil’ Bro in tow, Kiden returned to the hospital to retrieve Tatiana but instead found S.H.I.E.L.D with the girl. Though Kiden used her powers to get them to Tatiana, they were still nearly caught by the agents when they returned to normal time. Kiden’s quick response managed to get the group back to pause-world without capture.

With Tatiana still injured, Bobby convinced Kiden to take her to Dr. Cecelia Reyes, a local doctor that treated mutants from her apartment. Reyes did a good job but Kiden was still mistrusting of her and remained antagonistic. When the woman went to run an errand, Kiden followed but she was interrupted by a mysterious woman who was immune to her abilities. The mystery woman said she had Miss Palmer and was there to teach her how to be better, leaving the stunned Kiden with an Empire State University card. [NYX: No Way Home #4]

Unbeknownst to Kiden, these events were being orchestrated by the ghost of her dead father, who after dying had seen numerous visions of Kiden’s own death across reality. In order to prevent her death, her father had formed a pact with a mysterious unnamed organization to test her and make her stronger. The specter had also somehow formed a connection with Lil’Bro, though the details of this connection remained unknown.

[Note: During the final issue of the first NYX series, it appeared as if the ghost of Kiden’s father was merely a manifestation of Lil’Bro’s powers. However, in the second NYX series, it is revealed her father is in fact a real ghost, though likely given form by Lil’Bro’s powers.]

Kiden retrieved her friends from Ms. Reyes’ apartment and took them to a safe hiding space before abandoning them to go confront Miss Palmer’s captors. However, Kiden’s father had Lil’Bro use his abilities to show the others where she was going.

At Empire State University, Kiden confronted the mystery and was tranquilized for her efforts. She then awoke gagged and strapped to a table, with medical tubes in her arm. Elsewhere in the facility, her friends had also been captured and were being experimented on. Kiden’s father’s specter comforted her and help pulled her out of the drug-induced hallucinations she was suffering through. Kiden then learned to her horror that her father had apparently struck a deal with the mysterious organization. As long as she survived, Kiden would be given to the organization for purposes of experimentation. Luckily for her, though, and unbeknownst to the organization, Kiden’s father had deliberately arranged for Kiden’s friends to be captured and then helped them escape through his connection with Lil’Bro.

With one last look at her dad, Kiden and the other’s escaped, finding a traumatized Miss Palmer on the way. Cameron had suffered greatly and, in her traumatized state, she lashed out at Kiden, blaming her for everything that had happened to her. In her state, Cameron needed more help than Kiden and the others could give, so they left her with a hospital emergency ward and returned to a life on the streets. [NYX: No Way Home #6]

Eventually, after some time on the street, Kiden argued with Bobby as to whether they should stay in the city or leave. When Lil’Bro sensed someone nearby, Kiden activated her powers, freezing time, and discovered X-23 was watching them. The group reconnected with X, who was being mentally manipulated by the Gamemaster at the time and struggling emotionally. When X-23 ran away and leapt off a building to get away from the Gamemaster, Kiden froze time to save her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t maintain it and X still hit the ground, though she survived thanks to her healing factor. When Wolverine came to collect X, Kiden protected her friend, thinking Logan was another pimp. While she was reluctant to let X go, Kiden conceded and asked that, if X ever needed to run again, she should run to them. [X-23 one shot]

Kiden’s current whereabouts are unknown but, given her street smarts and her bond with her friends, it’s likely she’s surviving.

ALTERNATE VERSIONS

In an alternate future seen during the Messiah War, Stryfe and Bishop abducted Kiden from her timeline to the year 2997 and held her prisoner aboard his Celestial ship base. Kiden was strapped into a complex machine and used to power a chronal net that amplified her time freezing abilities over the entire North American continent, preventing time travel. This was part of Bishop’s plan to capture and kill the messiah child Hope. After X-Force came to the future in search of Hope, they found themselves trapped by the chronal net. When they discovered Kiden, she asked her old friend X-23 to kill her but the girl hesitated, forcing Domino to do the deed.