Here be the Disclaimer…I do not own X-Men Evolution…I do own the story and original characters…and well…my shoes. That's about it.
I got this out a bit sooner than I thought I would…Yay me! Thanks to those who reviewed chapter six of 'Survival and Sacrifice'…
Ish-my Canuck sister in YTV hatred…I tossed some fuzzy Romy your way just for being so loyal with the reviews.
That One Person – I'm on your favourite stories! YAY! *Happy dance* Glad to hear you enjoyed it that much. Your French teacher sucked man…it is truly 'Ferme ta bouche'…trust the French speaking Canadian. I won't even get into what my old French teachers used to say…this is a PG13 fic so far and I don't want to up the rating on the first chapter.
Darkness and Loss
One
A hand snaked out from under the pile of blankets in response to the high pitched trilling of the alarm clock that was carefully set on the bedside table. A groan sounded from the nest as the occupant lifted the covers enough to tell the time-it was early, far too early for a normal human being to be awoken. The hand brushed the clock off of the table only to have it fly into the wall cracking the drywall and falling to pieces leaving a nice sized dent in the process. "Asli!" the mutant known only as Rogue groaned as she rolled over to survey the damage-after little more than two months she was still trying to get used to having super strength at her disposal.
"You know you're getting spoiled living with us lazy Acolytes. Didn't Wolverine have you guys up at four am to run drills?" Her erstwhile roommate stalked in from the bathroom still towelling her shortish dark hair, Asli hadn't bothered to cut it in a few months and the curls were beginning to run riot-Rogue thought it looked better than her normal buzz cut.
Pushing her white bangs away from her face Rogue glared at the girl who had unexpectedly become her best friend, "Was there a point to waking me up now though?"
"Shade's bringing Bender by for another round of 'Carol fun time' today." Asli shrugged trying to be nonchalant but Rogue knew just how much it bothered her when her former team-mates ventured within Magneto's grasp even if it was to help Rogue-so far things were going well. No one had been recruited to the Acolytes against their will-yet.
Without warning their bedroom door swung open to allow the tall, lanky form of Remy Labeau to glide in bright eyed and looking smug that he had caught Rogue still in her PJ's-her Rubber Ducky PJ's at that. "Chère, you didn't have to get all dressed up for Remy…he prefers it if…"
It had taken time but the Goth counted the Cajun and the other Acolytes as her friends but it was obvious that Remy enjoyed invoking her ire. Unfortunately, while the others had been broken of the worst of their teasing he alone persisted. Weighing her options Rogue decided it was past time to put him in his place before he could have a chance to finish his thought. For once Rogue was grateful for her borrowed powers as she threw her pillow at the lecherous Cajun with all her considerable might. It caught him square in the face and knocked him off of his feet; Remy landed in an undignified heap on the floor.
"Three points." Asli smiled and pushed at the boy's crumbled body with her foot, "Congrats on a good clean face shot Rogue."
Quick as a snake strike Remy's hand darted out and wrapped around Asli's ankle pulling her to the ground with a thud. Before she could catch her breath he mercilessly began to tickle her sides causing Asli to scream wordlessly with laughter. Rogue caught the pleading look in her friend's eyes and after sliding her hands into her gloves dived into the fray.
Using his own tactic against him Rogue got a firm hold on Remy's twitching ankle and used her strength and flight ability to lift him into the air. Locking her arm she held him as still as possible considering the way he was writhing around trying to break her grip. Once it would have worked-but these impromptu wrestling matches had been going on at least once a week since the day Rogue had awoken from her coma.
"Hey look it's a Cajun piñata," A deep voice rumbled from the doorway; spinning around to face the intruder Rogue dropped Remy he in turn barely avoided a broken neck by curling into a ball.
Asli shook her head and tried in vain to hide her smile-all six and a half feet of Nadim 'Cobra' Hussein was curled up in laughter; even his tail was twitching, "That wasn't funny Nadim."
"Homme Remy must say you got de worse timin' in de world…" Remy piped up from the floor, "Don dose snake eyes you got see Remy's got two belle filles to occupy?"
Rogue smirked as the tall snake-like mutant flicked his long tongue in Remy's direction, "How you gonna do that when Rogue's got you by the ankle three feet in the air?" the tail swiped at Remy's head playfully and the Cajun ducked it, "You're good man but not that good. 'Sides the man is here for Rogue's session and she isn't even dressed yet."
Dropping to the floor Rogue shot Remy a dark look for all the good it did, "Then ya'll get out. I'm not sitting through one of Bender's lectures because ya'll wouldn't let me get dressed. And by 'y'all' I mean you Remy Labeau…Out!"
Over the southerner's heads Asli met Nadim's eyes with a smile; the tall mutant shook his head as Rogue and Remy stood toe-to-toe starting yet another argument over who was to blame for Rogue's lateness. "They've got it bad." Was all he said as Asli led him out of the room to leave the others to their own devices.
"You have no idea," Asli groaned theatrically, "I can't decide if they'll kill each other or just try to work it out. Just be glad you don't have to live with them."
Nadim's snake eyes widened in horror and he raised his hands in surrender, "You've got me there. Even refereeing Feral and Brick's arguments looks fun compared to those two. "He grabbed Asli's arm quickly with a pleading look on his face, "Please, please, please don't leave me alone with them! I don't think Bender and Shade are appropriate back up when dealing with them."
"Sorry," Asli patted her friend's scaled arm softly enjoying the texture of his snake skin, "I've got other more pressing plans today."
"What could be more important than my sanity?"
Asli smiled softly but didn't answer; she didn't know if anyone would understand what she had to do.
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Today was the day and Kitty Pryde couldn't believe her incredible luck after months of waiting and walking on egg shells she was finally on a date with Pitor Rasputin a.k.a Colossus. Not that they hadn't spent all of their time together; they trained together with the X-Men at least once a day. His room was three doors down the hall and to the left of her own. Not to mention the fact that Kitty had made it a point to read a bedtime story to his eight year old sister Illyana every night since her rescue from Magneto. This month they were working their way through the latest Harry Potter book, with Illyana doing most of the reading-just to practice her English.
Kitty had spent plenty of time with Pitor; just not alone thanks to the all seeing eye of Wolverine and the overprotective brother instincts of the boys at the Institute-Scott and Kurt foremost among them. The other wrinkle in the valley girl's romance plans was the devotion that Pitor lavished on his sister. It wasn't a bad thing-it was one of his best qualities-but until he had asked her to join him for lunch alone she had worried that he was just making excuses not to be with her.
Normally, the petite, pretty brunette had no shortage of confidence when it came to the opposite sex-as Lance Alvers could attest Kitty wasn't as naive as she liked to act. However when it came to Pitor all of Kitty's skills disappeared. And there was one very good reason for that-Cypher.
There hadn't been a sighting of the mutant hacker since that horrible night inside the government research facility; Magneto and all of his lackeys had been laying low-even the Brotherhood boys had melted into thin air. At first Kitty had been far too preoccupied with figuring out what had happened to Rogue there-it wasn't like the Goth to scream and faint.
The Professor was quick to set the minds of the Institute at ease; his mysterious source had revealed that while rescuing one of the captive mutants she had accidentally absorbed the other girl completely. According to the same source the telepath that had made the soldiers leave that night was helping Rogue deal with this and the other psyches trapped in her head. It seemed like the Professor's source had an awful lot of top secret information on the movements and mindset of Magneto and the Acolytes. The ache in the pit of her stomach told Kitty she had a pretty good idea of who the 'Source' was; which brought her back to Cypher. Even when she wasn't around Kitty was dogged by her phantom.
"Katya?" Pitor's voice was soft as he leaned forward to brush a stray lock of hair from her face, "Are you sad?"
She shook her head and gave the handsome Russian a small smile, "It's like nothing…I was just thinking about Rogue, wondering if she was like alright."
His blue eyes darkened as Kitty had known they would; any mention of Magneto or his group caused the same reaction. It was how she could also tell he was thinking of Cypher. "I do not know. I think perhaps Magneto would take care of her because he gains more from her as an ally. With the new powers she has acquired Rogue is a dangerous person to cross."
Kitty nodded, what Pitor said was right-Magneto was nothing if not shrewd and getting on the wrong side of a supercharged, invincible girl was never prudent. This time she offered him a real smile, "You always make me feel better Pete."
"It is because I like your smile, Katya."
Blushing Kitty turned her eyes to the door as the bells tingled announcing a new arrival in the restaurant; it took all of Kitty's acting skills not to blanch as she was confronted by the angry brown eyes of her former boyfriend. Lance coldly glared at her then latched his eyes onto Pitor's back, so much for the Brotherhood disappearing; Kitty grumbled in her head. "Can you excuse me Pete; I have to use the powder room."
Rising like a shot Kitty scurried towards the ladies bathroom as if all the hounds of hell were after her not just one ex-boyfriend. Swinging the door open Kitty stepped in and spared a quick glance at a girl with long mousy hair fixing her lipstick with her compact. The valley girl was about to walk into a stall when a familiar voice called out to her, "Having fun Shadowcat?"
Spinning around Kitty's eyes widened as the mousy girl lowered her makeup case and the X-Woman had to kick herself for not recognising her. It wasn't like the girl was Mystique and able to change her entire appearance. "What do you want Cypher?" Kitty did her best to sneer.
"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," the hacker lifted herself to sit on the sick ledge, swinging her feet like a small child, "What about you?"
"That's like totally none of your business!" the brunette snapped.
The feet stopped their rhythm and Cypher slid onto the ground again, "I'm not going to play school yard games with you. I came to talk-take it or leave it."
Kitty didn't bother hiding her incredulous look, "Me talk to you? About what, Global Warming? Third World debt reduction? Religion? Morality?"
"How about you hacking your way through Magneto's system to find Illyana?" Cypher shrugged blank faced and for a second Kitty wished for Scott's optic blasts-so she could level one into that empty face.
Crossing her arms over her chest Kitty stayed silent while Cypher continued, "You couldn't have thought I wouldn't know about it. But you were good, if it hadn't been me checking things it would have gone unnoticed."
"I'm so glad I like pleased you," Kitty rolled her eyes, "Is that all?"
"No," Cypher moved close enough that Kitty could see how little she meant to the hacker-it was the first time Kitty could recall being afraid of the girl. "I need you to stop it. If I noticed it someone else will eventually. For your own safety back off."
Kitty blinked; had she just been given a warning 'for her own safety' from Cypher the cold blooded Acolyte? All of her half-thoughts crystallized, "You're Xavier's source. You and Rogue are fighting Magneto from the…."
A hand cut off the rest of the words and Cypher looked positively angry, "For a smart girl you can be very dumb. "
Pulling away Kitty realized that someone could be listening-she could have gotten Rogue and Cypher killed with her carelessness. "That's what you meant when you said this wasn't how it was supposed to be."
Pain flared in the fathomless grey eyes allowing Kitty a chance to see that no matter what Cypher really did care about Pitor. Thinking of the large Russian make Kitty feel vaguely sick to her stomach-the only reason he and Cypher weren't together was his belief that she was truly on Magneto's side. If it was all a ruse then here was no real excuse for them not to be; Kitty had seen first hand how deep their feelings for each other ran. "Pitor." She choked out.
"It's okay," tears glimmered in Cypher's eyes causing another wrench of guilt in Kitty, "Do me one favour? Take good care of him. Pitor's a good man; love him right-like I can't. I'm okay with it as long as he's happy."
Dumbly Kitty had to stamp down on her own urge to cry, this was something so sad it was Operatic. Sucking down a deep breath Kitty nodded, clearly she was getting the better end of this deal. Without anymore discussion Cypher brushed away her tears and walked out the door.
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"How'd it go? You and Kitty were in there for a while." Lance Alvers cornered Cypher the moment she left the restaurant; he had lain in wait ever since scaring Kitty into the bathroom at the hacker's request.
"Fine," she ground out walking towards her car briskly.
Lance wasn't fooled; he could see tear stains on her normally impassive face. He groaned when the girl he thought unflappable dropped her keys to sob quietly. At a loss Lance did what came most unnaturally to him, he wrapped his arms around her small frame and hugged her close as she cried.