This is a work of fan-fiction and not for profit. The characters contained herein are not my own, though the plot is. The character Meltdown (Tabitha Smith) is more commonly seen in X-Force or the New Mutants, but is playing the part of the Brotherhood here, as she does in all my stories. Rated for violence, language and scenes of a sexual nature. If this bothers you, please take heed.

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Traitor.

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Chapter One:

The pounding of her own heart echoed the flurry of footsteps as she ran through the dark street knowing she wouldn't escape. Silence was a luxury not afforded her. A scream caught just behind the frenzied breathing as she pushed herself to lengths she never thought she could reach. She knew she wouldn't get away.

They knew. They'd found her out.

There was a growl somewhere off to her left. Sabretooth. There was a sinister chuckle that echoed off the damp brick walls around her. Toad. Mystique would be there too, but she wouldn't hear her until she was on the ground. Tabitha knew she had precious seconds of life left and she didn't want to waste them. She wouldn't beg, she promised herself. She wouldn't cry. She would run until they killed her and at least she'd die moving. She couldn't remember the last time she'd stopped running.

She threw herself at the low hanging fire escape ladder, hoisting and grunting and climbing despite that damp that threatened to slip her. The metal was cold against her fingers, biting at rough edges and leaving blood raining unnoticed below her. Her powers would not avail her. This was the Brotherhood and they would catch her. They would execute her. She wouldn't beg. She knew she might cry.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. A fresh start built on a lie that was yanked out from under her and exposed to the light. It all crumbled away. A sob escaped her lips as she forced herself on, flying up the ladder. She slipped once, twice, stealing precious seconds. Leaving her bruised and aching. She'd been so silly to think she could leave it all behind. She was everything that they thought she was and worse.

Blonde and pretty, she'd come to the Brotherhood as their friendly face. The centerfold that posed as a mutant hero. She wasn't well liked, even from the beginning. Everyone had a problem with someone as good looking and perky taking a place in a team comprised of tortured freaks. The tortured freaks weren't the type to welcome with open arms on their best days, and this was too much to ask. They'd made it hard for her. Made her more than earn her place, but she had.

A year after she'd come to the island she was sitting in Toad's lap and watching a football game. Sabretooth was in an armchair with a beer, and Raven was leaning over the back of the sofa, hands braced as she studied the game they all had money on. None of them really cared about the outcome of the game, but they had fun goading one another and collecting the loser's money. She'd spent a night or two with Toad but their relationship was comprised more with flirting and taunting one another than anything serious. He pinched her hip and motioned to the coffee table for his beer and she retrieved it for him. He had an arm lazily circling her waist and was leaning back comfortably.

This was the life. Tabby jeered at the screen when their team fell a few yards behind. Sabretooth laughed and tossed a piece of popcorn into her cleavage when she was distracted. The rest of the team laughed at that. When it was over and the losers had paid their small fortunes, Toad gave Tabby a piggyback ride to his room, already having decided he was going to have her. He bit and licked and tickled his way into her panties, and they fucked well into the night. She wasn't the team slut, but they were all loose in the moral department. They needed each other. They shared beds, shared showers, shared pain and death.

It was why her treachery was so unforgivable.

The rain couldn't have come as a worse time. She lunged over the lip of the building and slipped, going down hard, face first, her chin slamming into the concrete, her mouth filling with blood. She felt the laugh behind her even before she heard it. Toad.

"I know you didn't think you'd get away, Pretty."

He was sauntering around behind her, relaxed. She didn't pose a threat and he knew it. He would execute her, doubtless, but Toad liked to play.

"So where'd you think you were goin', mmm?"

Getting her hands beneath her she pushed up, surprised despite herself when she felt his boot on her back, pushing her back down.

"Answer me, lovely. Just felt like a jog, did you?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," She choked around the blood in her mouth, feeling a tooth tumble free in the rush of liquid and get lost out into the dark.

"I bet you are," Toad laughed, moving to squat before her, and reaching to lift her chin in his hand. He clucked his tongue in admonition. "Lost a tooth, kitten, won't look very pretty in your casket."

She looked up at him, eyes glittering with the tears she was trying to hold back. It didn't matter. Rain slid down over her features, her clothes were wetting, soaking through. He didn't seem to mind.

"You gonna cry, princess? Y'dare gonna cry? Snake's don't get to cry." He swung at her, hard and fast and her face slammed to the side, blood flying in an arc and spattering to mix with the rain. She heard her own voice, whimpering as though from far away. She stared up at the falling rain and the moonlight grainy behind dark clouds. She sucked in a shaking breath and didn't try to get up.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry really isn't good enough," Toad told her dispassionately, appearing above her and lashing out suddenly with his boot. She felt rips crack and break with such searing agony that for a long moment she couldn't breathe enough to scream. Her body was thrown on it's side with the blow. She couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't have begged to save her soul.

"I'd like to cut you up," Toad continued in amicable tones, "Like to feed you little pieces of yourself after I roast them and butter them up a bit. But Magneto says there isn't time. Pity. If you hadn't bullocked things up so bad I could at least enjoy this. But, I'll make do. It'll be short, but I bet it won't feel like it to you."

She was finally able to make a hysterical inhuman moan and he chuckled, moving to stand over her again, feet planted on either side of her abused body.

"Does it hurt, love? Tell me it hurts." He sounded eager to hear it, reaching a cruel hand down to press into the broken ribs. She opened her mouth in a silent scream, blood erupting to war with the rain that tried to enter her. She wondered for a horrified moment if she would drown. She didn't think he'd let her live that long.

He relented a moment, wanting to hear her speak.

"No Daddy," She choked out, nearly inaudible through the burble of blood.

Another laugh this time.

"Daddy? Oh baby you should have told me you had a Daddy fetish, I would have loved to punish you. But no time now doll, Daddy's angry."

"Daddy made me," She managed at length, glad for his tirade to gather her inner strength.

He paused a moment and crouched down over her, "Now that's one I haven't heard before. Go on, Tabby, tell me how Daddy made you."

"He...sent me. I...thought it was...over. Thought he couldn't find me....I don't know how...how he did. I don't know."

He reached to stroke her cheek with feigned affection, "Why would Daddy send you, pet?"

"F..f...Friends of..."

"Humanity," He supplied, "Daddy's FOH? Hmm...well that merits a chat with Mags. Maybe you've bought yourself a few more hours, love. Pity, I was looking forward to chucking your traitorous arse off the ledge and watching you hit pavement."

She was surprised that he didn't try to hurt her further when his arm scooped beneath her knees and the other behind her back and he lifted her off the ground against his chest, but she supposed he wanted her to survive as long as possible to speak to Magneto. It didn't matter how careful he was, her broken ribs were the kind of pain that was suffocating. Her head fell back limply, and she focused on the rain hitting her cheeks and the taste of copper in her mouth.

"Stay with me, Tabitha," Toad's voice was a little more familiar now, a little less the cold cruel tone he used on strangers.

His arm shifted her a little closer, cradling her against him how he had when she'd been injured in missions so many times. Head spinning with pain as it was now, she could almost trick herself into believing he was protecting her as he had before. She heard other footsteps approach as he carried her, but didn't open her eyes. A soft rasping sound she identified as Raven's approach, a sharper thud was Vic.

"She's still breathing," Raven sounded disapproving and Toad grunted above her, and Tabby imagined that Toad tightened his grip ever so slightly.

"Th'bitch has information. Said someone made'er. F'we got bigger players, figure we gotta know b'fore we bury her."

"Don't you go soft, Mortimer," Raven seethed quietly, sounding as deadly as ever.

"I'm not sodding soft. She'll still die screaming."