Author's Note: Like the first chapter, this chapter gives us a few slice-of-life moments for Kitty and Illyana leading up to the wedding. I've decided to add a third chapter to cover the wedding and what comes after, because this chapter was threatening to get really out of control otherwise. I've included stamps to indicate where time skips ahead.

I do not own the X-Men comics/movies and I make no claims upon it or its characters. All these characters are used under the concept of Fair Use, and I make no profit or income from using any of them.

How Kitty Pryde Saved Illyana Rasputin's Soul (or Was It the Other Way Around?)

by Jo K.

Chapter 2: Spellbound

Don't even think about what's right or wrong, wrong or right

'Cause in the end it's only you and me

And no one else is gonna be around to answer all the questions left behind

And you and I are meant to be so even if the world falls down today

You've still got me to hold you up

And I will never let you down

-The Veronicas, "Untouched"

—O—

—O—

JUST UNDER ONE YEAR LATER

The notably loud slam of overstuffed file folders onto the conference table was just another sign that something was wrong at the Xavier School.

Eyebrows raised around the large table, as glances were quickly cast about, met and returned silently while Headmaster Kitty Pryde angrily rearranged the folders in front of her chair, grumbling to herself as she continued to stand rather than take her seat for the morning faculty meeting.

"Um... Kitty?" asked Dr. Henry McCoy, balanced atop the back of his chair. If no one else was going to mention the pink mutant elephant in the room, then he supposed it was up to him.

Kitty looked up from where she was making mostly a mess of the file folders. Her eyes were narrowed slightly in a clear sign of annoyance, although the funk she had been in since yesterday was already quite evident to the faculty (and most of the students) of the Xavier School.

The glance of Kitty's eyes toward the empty chair beside her, where her fiancee Illyana Rasputin should have been sitting, was another tell-tale sign something was wrong.

McCoy, the X-Man and former Avenger known as Beast, cleared his throat. "Far from me to presume to tell you how to run this school," he said calmly, "but all of us are concerned at your rather... uncharacteristic behavior the last two days."

The smacking of a thick file folder hitting the floor after accidentally being phased through the surface of the large table provided an awkward punctuation to Hank's statement.

"I'm fine," Kitty said, too quickly and a bit too forced to sound sincere. She quickly looked down to the other file folders, trying not to scream, cry or phase anything else through the table as she thought about the student applications that would now be scattered over the floor below the table.

"Headmaster," Hank said gently. "I, er, haven't finished reviewing my slate of applications yet. Would it be possible to postpone this meeting for another day or two? To, ahem, give me more time to review my files?"

Kitty's glare lasted for another second before her frustrated mind processed what her friend was doing, then it took considerable effort to not break into a smile and tears at the same time. You're a good man, Hank McCoy. "Fine. We'll do this tomorrow at nine."

There were a few grumbles and irritated looks as the faculty filed out, but there were just as many who looked relieved at having another day to put off the meeting.

"It was a good idea," Hank said as the last of the teachers on the selection committee left the room.

"What?" asked Kitty. "Postponing the meeting?"

"Inviting non-powered teachers to be part of the faculty. It'll help ground the rest of us."

Kitty nodded. "We needed more than just us. Not only to handle the class load with our numbers growing, but to remind us that there's more to life after graduation than fighting Sentinels and supervillains." Kitty looked at the window, watching the students eating lunch, reading or playing on the school's main lawn down below.

The soft creaking of the seat next to Kitty told her that Hank had sat down. She glanced out of the corner of her eye, seeing that he hadn't sat in Illyana's chair, which remained empty.

"Did the two of you have a fight, Kitty?" Hank asked, his voice as gentle as that of the kindly uncle Kitty had always considered him.

Kitty was quiet for several seconds before she swallowed, her throat dry. "Yes," she finally said. "Over something stupid."

Hank nodded. "It usually is, once we have the benefit of hindsight."

It was silent in the room for several minutes, as Kitty watched the students down below acting like normal preteens and teenagers, talking, laughing, checking cell phones, throwing a frisbee, kicking a soccer ball. Like their school wasn't mostly taught by hardened fighters and killers who had faced genocide multiple times.

"It was about Piotr," Kitty finally said, her voice low.

Hank nodded. "Not the exact cause I was expecting, but certainly a potential powder keg."

Kitty turned, surprised. "He's Illyana's brother, Henry. How can we not invite him to the wedding?"

Hank took a drink of his coffee, which he was still holding. "He also happens to be your old boyfriend, which I imagine is the main source of friction here."

Kitty sighed, lowering her head to look at the floor. A few papers had sailed out from under the table, tiny islands of white against the dark wood floor. "That's... certainly the biggest problem, definitely. But I haven't thought of him in that way for years!"

Hank sighed. Kitty was brilliant, but sometimes she had blind spots in her logic.

"I mean, I chose Yana, not him!" Kitty said hotly, trying to fill the silence hanging in the air.

"Yes, you did, but how long did it take you to do so?"

Kitty stopped in place, then she slowly turned to look at Hank, who was looking at her with the knowing expression of a parent imparting an unpleasant truth to a beloved child.

"Kitty, Illyana knows you've chosen her. The two of you are getting married, after all, and you've both been the happiest I've ever seen either of you these last twelve months. But to her, Piotr is associated with painful memories, and not just memories of you and him dating."

Hank stood, the chair creaking beneath his frame as he pushed off of it. He walked over to Kitty, opening and extending his powerful arms.

Without hesitation, Kitty stepped into his embrace, smiling at the comforting feel of his soft blue fur against her face and arms.

"You'll get through this, Kitten," Hank said quietly, smiling against the top of her head. "Illyana loves you more than anything, and I know you feel the same about her. She'll be back once she's had some time to cool off."

Kitty nodded, blinking away the tears. "I know," she said, her voice muffled by Hank's fur. "But it still hurts."

"Of course it does. That's because you care about her, and she about you."

Kitty nodded against his chest. "I know. I can feel how much she loves me, through our connection. Even when all the emotions start to jumble together like it did when we were arguing yesterday, I can still feel how much she cares, just like I could feel how much it hurt her when we were yelling about Piotr."

"Then that means she could feel the same from you, I imagine," Hank replied calmly. "Emotions are powerful enough when we're experiencing ours alone. Each of you was getting a double dose of them when you were arguing."

"I... I hadn't thought about that," Kitty admitted, her voice quiet. Suddenly the seething anger and chattering anxiety she had felt at that time made more sense.

"You can talk it out. That's what words are for, after all. Aren't you meeting with the wedding planner again today?"

Kitty nodded. "If she comes back."

"The planner or Illyana?"

Kitty couldn't help but let herself smile at the joke from her old friend. "The planner. I know Yana'll be back."

Hank chuckled, a happy sensation that Kitty could feel in his chest. "Something tells me she's seen couples argue before."

"Yeah, but I doubt she's ever had someone teleport away because of an argument."

Hank laughed softly. "I concede your point, Headmaster Pryde."

—O—

The rest of the day seemed interminably slow. Kitty spent most of that time paying bills and looking over progress reports, two activities that required more concentration than most, in an attempt to quell her seething worry.

It was just an hour before three, when they were supposed to meet again with the planner, when she realized that not all of the worry trapped inside her was her own.

Kitty took a deep breath and leaned back in her chair, relaxing as much as she could. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the anxiety and turmoil she felt in her heart.

I love you, Yana, she thought, focusing on the deep, powerful love she felt for the woman she had chosen for her mate. Their love for each other had survived teenage years, forced separation, Kitty's boyfriends, even death. That same love would survive them arguing about the wedding.

Kitty smiled when she felt a warmth penetrate the nausea deep inside her, between her heart and her gut, that told her Illyana was returning the loving feelings Kitty was sending her.

They would work it out. She knew they would.

—O—

"Will your fiancee be, um, joining us today?"

Kitty had just opened her mouth in an attempt to answer the blonde woman when the door to the small conference room opened, revealing Illyana in her short leather top, even shorter leather shorts and her thigh-high boots.

"I'm sorry for being late," the Russian woman said quietly, quickly taking a seat before Kitty could stand. The two of them glanced at each other, both faces wearing hesitant expressions. Kitty didn't see any lingering anger in Illyana's face, but there was still hurt lurking beneath the neutral expression on her lover's face. Seeing Illyana's emotionless mask settle into place again stung; Kitty thought they had moved past that stage with each other.

"We can postpone the guest list discussion until the next meeting," Kitty said quickly. "That should give us time to talk through that."

"Absolutely," replied the wedding planner, in her forties but possessed of a frightful amount of drive. "Have you two had time to discuss venues?"

Surprisingly, it was Illyana was spoke first. "My only concern for a venue is that the location should be kept secret from those planning to attend. For security purposes."

The planner blinked several times as a nonplussed expression settled across her face. "Well, that would be unworkable. What will the invitations say? How will the caterers arrive?"

"I would be willing to transport people from a neutral meeting point to the wedding location itself," the Russian said calmly. "I don't want to present a large target for those who would seek to do us harm, let alone give them advance notice to prepare an attack."

"Then why are you having a large wedding at all?" asked the planner, who was trying not to get frustrated. She had dealt with tricky couples before, but watching two people, each of whom could easily kill her, argue yesterday had been particularly nerve-wracking.

"Because the woman I love deserves to feel special on such an important day."

Kitty's heart skipped a beat as she processed the sentence, and the several layers of meaning beneath what Illyana had said and what the Russian hadn't said. She quietly took in a deep breath and wished again that she could somehow magically take away all the self-hate that haunted the woman she loved. It had gotten better, significantly better over the last year, but that darkness and self-loathing continued to lurk in Illyana's subconscious, waiting for the right moment to rise up and strike again and again.

"Yana," Kitty said gently, resting her left hand on her lover's bare thigh. "You deserve to feel special too."

Yana's bright blue eyes were glistening, an unexpected sight that took Kitty's breath away. "Having you by my side, becoming my wife..." The blonde took in a shaky breath, somehow keeping the tears at bay. "That will already make me feel more special than I ever could have imagined."

Illyana quickly looked away from Kitty, her eyes seeming to fixate at a spot on the wall behind the wedding planner. She hoped Kitty couldn't discern the emotions warring within at her, telling her that she was being foolish, that she would only cause the woman she loved pain and heartbreak, that all someone like her could ever bring to a union was bitterness and ash. Even now she could hear the sharp edge in Katya's words, despite her girlfriend trying to restrain it, and that was clearly the result of the angry things they had yelled at each other yesterday.

She didn't want a large wedding. A simple ceremony in a field of wildflowers would be ideal, as far as Illyana was concerned, something that would allow the beauty and heart of her Katya to shine brighter than anything around her. But Katya had always wanted a glorious wedding, surrounded by the friends and family she had made, not the ones she had been born into.

She would have it.

"So we're keeping the target number for the wedding attendance around 300?" asked the planner hesitantly.

"Yes," Illyana said confidently, refusing further elaboration.

"What about the invitations?" asked the blonde sitting across the table from them. "Did one of them catch your eye after you had time to look at them?"

Kitty frowned. Illyana had left without saying anything other than the brief discussion they had had in the meeting yesterday, so Kitty had looked at and considered the invitations last night. "I like this one," Kitty said, sliding one of the half-dozen forward, then placing the others in a neat stack to the side.

Illyana looked at her love's selection, and her lips briefly turned up into a slight smile. She had looked at the invitations more last night, thanks to an image she conjured from her memories. But the one Kitty had chosen was the one Illyana had voiced her approval of yesterday.

Illyana looked softly at Kitty, her expression unreadable for a brief moment before she looked back at the wedding planner. "That one would be my choice as well," she said politely.

"Agreement, excellent!" the woman said happily. "Did you have time to consider any music for the wedding ceremony itself or the reception?"

Both women nodded. Kitty pulled out a small legal pad and tore off a page covered with neat writing. "Here are some selections that I'd like to consider. We can make a final decision once we decide on the musicians and sound technicians and have a chance to talk to them."

The woman took the paper and quickly perused it. She looked up. "Traditional wedding march?" she asked Kitty. "That could get confusing if you both use it, but I remember one lesbian couple who both walked in together to it. It made for a really sweet moment."

Kitty felt the barest touch on her left wrist; she looked down to see Yana's fingers tentatively resting there, then she looked up to see her girlfriend's face smiling softly.

"I'm glad you're doing it," Illyana said. "It's what I have always thought of as well. You... entering to those notes of music." I've dreamed of it a thousand times.

Kitty involuntarily fluttered her eyes briefly. She could feel the depth in Yana's words, that there was more meaning to them than what her lover was verbalizing. She could also feel the warmth in her chest that told her that whatever it was Yana's wasn't saying, it was something heartfelt and loving.

It was really hard to stay mad at Yana sometimes. Despite all the darkness Illyana had suffered throughout her life, despite the power she wielded and the menace she could exude, there was still a part of her that remained a young, sweet Siberian girl who had a heart full of love and joy. Her innocence and childhood had been stripped away from her years ago, but she chose to keep fighting for others, for a better world.

She chose to keep fighting for love, and for the woman she loved.

A gasp from the wedding planner yanked Kitty out of the deep pool of her thoughts. She quickly looked at the woman, who appeared stunned as she was looking at a somewhat crumpled piece of paper that sported a smudge of soot on one corner.

Oh, God, Kitty thought. Yana's choice of music.

"Is this a real list?" the blonde asked, her face somewhat stricken. "This isn't a joke?!"

Illyana nodded innocently.

Kitty watched the exchange, fighting to keep a grin off her face.

"You cannot walk out to 'Devil's Child' by Judas Priest!"

Kitty snickered without meaning to; she quickly coughed and covered her mouth to hide her grin. That was her Yana, all right.

"I have some alternate choices on there," Illyana said politely, pointing at the paper.

"'Am I Evil'?!" the planner said, her voice higher in pitch. "I've never even heard of a band called... Diamond Head?! Is that right?"

Illyana quietly nodded again, her face utterly neutral as the wedding planner gasped again.

"'RAINING BLOOD'?!" the poor woman practically shrieked. The increasingly frustrated woman turned to Kitty, her face pale.

Kitty shrugged. "My woman likes her old-school heavy metal," she said calmly.

—O—

After the meeting was over and the wedding planner had been talked out of quitting, because she really was a good planner with a history of pulling off complicated weddings whom Kitty and Yana trusted could make things run smoothly, Illyana and Kitty stood alone in the meeting room, each quietly fidgeting as they stood there.

"I'm... sorry," Illyana said quietly. "For yesterday."

Kitty nodded silently before she replied, "Me too." She kept looking at the floor. "I missed you last night."

"I spent the night in Limbo," Illyana said softly.

Probably on our favorite patch of ground, Kitty thought. Overlooking the blood-red lake that's so pretty, as long as you don't get close enough to it for something to grab you.

"I... I didn't feel like I deserved to be in bed with you," Illyana whispered.

While for some people it might have been a ploy, an attempt to inspire sympathy, Kitty knew both from experience with her girlfriend and from the bitter stinging sensation leaking through their soulbond that Illyana was being entirely serious.

It was frustrating sometimes, although Kitty wasn't ever sure she would tell Illyana that. Always trying to build up Illyana's self-confidence, her self-worth. It wasn't the Russian's fault she had suffered all she had, and Kitty knew that, but she had spent years helping her friend, now her girlfriend, cope with what had been done to her over the last two decades.

And she would gladly continue to do it. That was what friends, what partners did. Kitty was sure that she wasn't always the easiest to deal with, either. She could be demanding, picky, even obsessive or neurotic at times. She was sure that there were times when Yana got frustrated or irritated dealing with her, but the stoic blonde woman continued to stand by her despite all circumstances—including death.

Love meant knowing everything about someone and still choosing to spend your life with them.

"Hey Yana?"

Illyana looked up at the sound of the soft voice she loved so much, knowing that the hesitant tone of the words was her fault. "Yes, Katya?" she replied softly.

"Are... we still on for tonight? Danger Room?"

Illyana smiled, trying not to shout with joy at the small crack in the ice between them. "I wouldn't miss it for anything."

—O—

The intense surge of jumbled emotions woke the Stepford Cuckoos from their sleep, all three of them abruptly sitting upright in their individual beds in the large room they shared.

What was that?! the three of them thought to each other simultaneously, before another surge of intense psychic emotions slapped them like a bucket of brackish water.

Immediately they were out of their beds, Celeste and Phoebe throwing on robes and Mindee just wearing her My Little Pony pajamas. (She didn't really give a fuck what anyone thought about her clothing choices.) The second surge had come from the direction of the Danger Room, and a third bolt of emotional anguish stabbed into their temples while they were on the elevator.

When the elevator doors opened, the three young women experienced a shared moment of surprise when they saw Rachel Grey, in sleep shorts and a t-shirt, punching keys on the keypad lock leading to the Danger Room's control booth. The redhead's short hair was messy and disheveled, and she blinked a few times too many when she turned to look at the three new arrivals.

"You felt it too, huh?" Rachel said, a statement more than a question. She turned around and tapped two more keys. The doors to the control booth opened with a soft hiss, with Rachel not even waiting for them to fully open before she was hurrying into the room.

A fiery presence at the back of the minds of the four women told them another was joining them, with expressions ranging from annoyance to disgust appearing across the faces of the Cuckoos as they recognized the rapid-fire intensity of the mind joining them.

"SOMEBODY was using the elevator, so I had to take the stairs!" Quentin Quire said loudly, only to be hushed in unison by the Cuckoos. "Oh, for pete's sake! The booth is sound-proofed! Unless someone's broadcasting, no one down there can hear us up here!"

"Quentin, please," Rachel said over her shoulder. "I'm trying to figure out who's in there."

The blast screens were lowered throughout the control booth, so none of them could see what was going on in the main Danger Room, and all of the monitors that should be displaying the events and status of the current activity were worryingly dark. More concerning, only a sense of psychic murkiness could be felt telepathically from the main section of the Danger Room down below.

This close and inside much of the psi-dampeners built into the Danger Room, the next bolt of emotional upheaval was much sharper and more intense. For Rachel, it was also much more recognizable.

"It's Kitty," Rachel said, tapping away at the main terminal. She continued, typing in her access code to override the blast doors and the control screens being blank; they had been set that way, it seemed.

The soft whirring of well-oiled ball bearings in tracks announced the blast screen opening, revealing a sight before and below the control room that took the breath of all five of its inhabitants.

It was the Xavier School at night, although the flickering light from the school violently burning, large portions of it collapsed or blown to pieces, illuminated the brutal fighting on the central lawn in front of the school. Bodies lay strewn across the open field, punctuated with burning wreckage of vehicles intermittently. A flaming helicopter, torn mostly in two, sat in a small crater a few hundred yards away from the School itself, with charred bodies around it. An armored car and a tank both sat, each blown apart but dark and still, the figures visible in them unmoving.

"Dear God," Mindee said softly, too shocked to think the words. The other Cuckoos were likewise befuddled. Even Quentin Quire was briefly without words.

A scrum of bodies in motion had formed close to the fountain in the center of the main walkway leading to the school. Flashes of fire from gun muzzles flickered on and off in the chaos of the melee; those deadly lights were countered by red flashes over the bodies of the two women in the center of the fighting, standing back to back and surrounded by what looked like two dozen soldiers in dark gray fatigues. Some had guns, other had swords, staffs or other melee weapons. Their equipment and gear looked like a mixture of soldiers and samurai, possibly ninja.

Even from up in the booth, the silver glow of Illyana's soulsword and the swinging of her long, straight blonde hair were easily visible. A glowing red blade was held in her left hand, opposite her soulsword, which was held in her right. However, effort was required to focus in on Kitty, a dark shape who phased in and out through the bodies of their attackers; the flash of a katana was sometimes visible in front of her, and occasionally the blade seemed to emit a pulse of bright purple light as it bit deeply into an attacker. As the five telepaths watched, Kitty's flashing blade cleaved through the neck of a soldier, sending his human head toppling to the ground and revealing a look of utter fury on the brunette's face.

"Are they actually killing them?!" Quentin said, amazed.

Phoebe spoke up. "Danger, what's the kill count for Professor Rasputin?"

The mechanical voice of the sentient artificial intelligence that ran the Danger Room for which she was named came from the speakers around the room. "Current kill count for Illyana Rasputin is one-hundred-thirty-one counting all methods of damage. Of that number, one-hundred-and-three were from ranged attacks or area of effect attacks, including damage as a result of teleportation and from explosions caused directly by Illyana Rasputin. The remaining twenty-eight are from melee combat."

"And for Headmaster Pryde?" asked Celeste.

"Current kill count for Kitty Pryde is eighty-seven, all from melee combat. Would you like a breakdown by specific manner of death, such as from mutant power of phasing versus edged weapon damage?"

"Yes!" said Quentin, gleefully.

"NO!" Rachel said, angrily.

"Uh oh," said Phoebe. "Someone's pushing their way out of the wreckage of that helicopter."

The Cuckoos and Quire all turned to see the flaming wreckage shift and slide, finally with several large pieces flying away. Stepping out of the wreckage, anachronistic suit smoldering in a few places, was Sebastian Shaw.

"This could get ugly," said Mindee.

"Yeah, he's absorbed all the kinetic energy of the helicopter crash," added Celeste. "He'll be nearly maxed out in power."

Shaw spotted the melee. He took several running steps toward the mass of bodies, then leapt into the sky, arcing toward the fighting.

A green bolt of eldritch power struck Shaw in midair as he neared the fighting, sapping his forward momentum and sending him crashing into a group of soldiers. Shaw roared as he climbed to his feet, bellowing loudly as he faced the two women.

Suddenly Kitty was in front of him, hurtling herself directly at him and then through him in the blink of an eye.

Shaw immediately gasped and grew silent. He teetered on his feet a few seconds, before clumsily tumbling forward onto two nearby bodies.

"What the fuck did she do?!" Quentin practically shouted, his face a nearly comical mixture of delight and surprise as he leaned forward, closer to the observation windows.

"She's holding something," Celeste said, squinting and wishing Rachel would get the monitors online so they could zoom in. "I think it's—" Her sentence cut off with a wet choking sound as her words failed her.

"Got it unlocked!" Rachel said triumphantly as the monitors flashed to life.

The main screen displayed the lines of information Rachel was particularly looking for.

CURRENT DANGER ROOM ACTIVITY

SELECTION: RANDOM

SCENARIO: ALL_IS_LOST

ARCHITECT: ILLYANA RASPUTIN

SAFETY LOCKS: PARTIALLY ENGAGED (ONLY PERMANENT/LETHAL DAMAGE TO USERS BLOCKED)

LEVEL OF FORCE ALLOWED: UNLIMITED

ENEMY COMBATANTS: RANDOM

THREAT LEVEL: HIGH (INITIAL), SUPERIOR (CURRENT)

THREAT LEVEL ESCALATION: YES, TO MAX LEVEL OF EXTREME

TYPE OF COMBAT: NO RESTRICTIONS

SIGNATURE VILLAINS: YES

VILLAIN LEVEL: HIGH (INITIAL), SUPERIOR (CURRENT)

SIGNATURE HEROES: NO

MUSIC PLAYLIST: ILLYANAS_PISSED

CURRENT SELECTION: ACES HIGH/IRON MAIDEN

NEXT SELECTION: THROUGH THE FIRE AND FLAMES/DRAGONFORCE

PREVIOUS SELECTION: KILLERS/MOTORHEAD

SEE FULL PLAYLIST? Y/N

"Oh my God!" Mindee said, her hand flying up to cover her mouth as she and her sisters stared into a monitor that had come to life in front of them. They were watching a replay of their headmaster, the sweet, caring Kitty Pryde phase into Sebastian Shaw and emerge holding a long, hose-like structure; as soon as she turned solid behind him, a gout of blood poured out of the long, fleshy tube.

"She pulled out his fucking AORTA?!" Quire said, literally jumping up and down in place. "HEADMASTER PRYDE?!"

"That's horrifying!" Phoebe said,, looking like she was about to throw up.

"You're disgusting, Quire," hissed Celeste, looking sideways at him, disgust writ across her face.

Mindee just stood there in shock, her hand still covering her mouth.

Rachel stood still as a statue for several seconds, trying to take in what she was seeing. Obviously, Kitty and Illyana hadn't meant for anyone to see what they were doing here. They had turned on the psi-dampeners, the privacy screens, locked out the monitors and blocked access to the control room. She was only able to get in because she had Administrator-level access. None of them would have ever known what Kitty and Illyana were up to, except something had overwhelmed Kitty emotionally, causing momentary cracks in the psi-armor she and Illyana had erected around her mind. And whatever it was that had caused such a reaction in her friend had apparently been severe enough for her to justify using lethal force against those attacking the school in this scenario.

Rachel's stomach grew sick with dread and a cold nausea. She quickly called up the camera controls, then began cycling through the illusionary school.

Bodies. All dead. Mostly the dark-garbed soldiers, but far too many of the fallen were recognizable. Hank. Ororo. Both of them standing between a room full of slain students and a pack of attackers. The room itself was blown apart, walls shattered from the fighting.

Rachel cycled to the next camera. A group of young students, bloodied with bullet holes, slumped in a corner, huddled together.

The next camera showed Kurt, impaled on a massive spear. At least a half-dozen students, some of whom Rachel recognized as in the combined eighth and ninth grade class, were strewn around the room, brutally battered and slain. In the center of the room, the headless body of Proxima Midnight, one of Thanos's most powerful killers. Her head had been tossed on the ground next to the body, the sharp edges of the decapitation indicating the razor-sharpness of a sword.

Colossus, still in his steel form, with a massive hole gaping in his left torso where his heart and left arm should have been. Next to him, the lifeless body of Magneto, with no visible wounds on his body but with what appeared to be his lungs lying on the rubble next to him, a thin pool of dark blood beneath them.

A room full of older students, bodies both blown apart and scorched, with the corpse of Bishop, who appeared to have bled out from multiple stab and slash wounds to his neck and torso.

Room after room Rachel cycled through, the images were the same. The school had been breached. The students had been exterminated. The faculty and staff, all fallen but protecting their charges to the very end.

Including her, lying gutted on the floor of a dormitory lobby, in a pool of blood that didn't entirely belong to her, based on the shredded bodies of a score of attackers surrounding her.

"We need to go," Rachel said, her throat thick and voice wet. She toggled the camera controls off. "This is..." She closed her eyes and choked down memories of carnage, of brutality and slaughter, the smell of smoke and ash and burning human flesh she had tried so hard to forget somehow rising up in the back of her throat and making her gag. "This is something they wanted to do in private," she managed to get out, her voice shaky, "and we're intruding."

"But...!" Quentin said, only to be grabbed by both arms, Mindee on his right and Celeste on his left, and steered out of the control room.

Rachel closed the blast screens again, checked the psi-dampeners and saw that they were already at maximum, then locked out and blanked the monitors again.

"Get your hands off me!" Quire said, a pink glow beginning to manifest around his head as his telekinesis began to flare; however, that was immediately overpowered by a blue glow around the heads of all three of the Cuckoos.

Go, said Celeste telepathically.

Ahead, added Mindee eagerly.

Quire, finished Phoebe, all three itching to lash out at the prickly young man.

"Calm down," Rachel said, a red glow building around her own head. "Back to bed, all of you, and not a word of this to anyone tomorrow, unless you plan on confessing to Kitty or Illyana that you were spying on them."

"What about you?" asked Quentin, already huffing about being told what to do.

"Oh, I'll talk them about it," Rachel said. "But I plan on leaving the four of you out of it. Unless you want me to tell them."

"Goodnight, Professor Grey," said Celeste, offering a weak but passably polite smile. Her sisters followed her when she turned and began walking to the elevator.

"Good night, Quentin," Rachel said to the pink-haired young man, who groaned to himself but turned around and walked down the hall.

"I'll take the stairs," he called out over his shoulder. "Wouldn't want to be stuck on an elevator with them, anyway," he said, voice dropping to a mumble as he walked away.

Rachel turned back to the door to the Danger Room; she quickly closed and relocked it. She stood there for several moments, staring at the blank steel doors. I hope the two of you work this out soon, she thought, keeping her thoughts tightly to herself due to the presence of so many telepaths nearby. I don't think this is entirely healthy. For either of you.

—O—

Illyana was fully focused on the two cyborg Reavers that were approaching her and Kitty when she felt more than saw her lover collapse on the shattered ground.

"KATYA!" she screamed, immediately teleporting a pool of lava roughly the size of a small car onto the two Reavers, whose screams only lasted a second before the magma both incinerated and crushed them. She ran toward Kitty, who was curled up into a ball on the wreckage scattered around them. Blood stained her uniform in so many places that there was more brown fabric than yellow in the stylized X over her torso and hips, but Illyana only saw a few nicks in the fabric. "Katya, what is it?" she asked frantically, slipping into Russian accidentally. "What's wrong, beloved? Where are you hurt?" she asked, but Kitty only gasped for breath as she shook where she lay.

"DANGER!" Illyana shouted, lifting her head up. "END SIMULATION, NOW!"

Instantly everything around them vanished, leaving just them, slightly off-center in the large room. Carefully Illyana cast a diagnostic spell on Kitty, relief washing over her when she only felt some minor bruises and scrapes. "Shhh, my love, it's alright," she whispered to the sobbing Kitty. Illyana's strong arms carefully pulled her girlfriend into her lap as the blonde sat on the floor of the Danger Room; she kissed Kitty's head and held the brunette tightly as Kitty continued to cry, her anger and rage that had flared at the sight of her students, her friends, her home, all destroyed was now spent, leaving her emotionally exhausted and her heart aching.

"I'm sorry," Illyana whispered. "We never should have run that program. I should have overridden it when it came up. You shouldn't have exp—"

"No," came a weak voice from beneath Illyana's head, which the Russian had gently placed atop Kitty's own head, her chin and neck pressed protectively over and against her girlfriend's brown hair.

"I shouldn't have let you see that," Illyana said, her own eyes burning as she cried with guilt over what Kitty had just experienced, the emotional torture she had inadvertently put the woman she loved through. "It was... it was too much."

With a long sniffle, Kitty lifted her head slowly, giving Illyana time to pull her own head back. The brunette's eyes were red from crying, which had occurred several times during the last hour as they had fought their way through the grim scenario, but her face was determined as she looked into Illyana's own blue eyes, also red-rimmed with emotion. "You listen to me, Illyana Rasputin," Kitty said fiercely, the energy in her voice at odds with her exhausted appearance. "We are in this together! Do you hear me? TOGETHER."

Seeing the surprised look on Illyana's face, Kitty continued. "I know you want to spare me any kind of suffering or pain where possible, and I love you for that, but I have chosen my place beside you, and I willingly accept all that comes with it, the good, the bad and the horrible."

The spirited expression on her face softened, and her lips trembled slightly. "You shouldn't have to suffer all... this... by yourself," Kitty said, her voice softer. "You're not going to be alone anymore, Yana. I swear it."

Illyana's jaw quivered briefly before she hugged Kitty tightly, burying her face into her lover's shoulder and allowing herself to cry freely. Kitty tightened her grip on Yana and patted and rubbed the Russian's back soothingly as she comforted her.

Sweet God, Yana, Kitty thought as she protectively held the woman she loved. You don't need to torture yourself like this any more. You deserve better than to lose everyone you care about, over and over again, before you—

Kitty felt herself breathe in shakily as she considered the parameters of the scenario. It was a warzone scenario. There were no victory conditions, because victory was not allowed. The scenario would continue until it was deactivated... or all the participants had been virtually killed.

Kitty closed her eyes against the tears that began to flow from her eyes again, running down her cheeks into Illyana's pale blonde hair.

You lose everyone in this scenario, everything you care about, and then you die. Unable to save the ones you love. Unable to protect your home. She shivered with emotion involuntarily. How many times have you run this scenario, Yana? How many times have you tortured yourself?

"No more," she whispered against her girlfriend's hair, smelling the softness, the warmth that was her Yana. "You're not a failure, Yana. You're a hero. You're MY hero. And I'll ALWAYS be with you." She sucked in a shuddering breath. "You're never going to be alone again, moya lyubov," she whispered, the Russian for "my love" falling smoothly from her lips thanks to months of practice.

They sat that way for several minutes, neither wanting to do anything to break the contact between them. Kitty hummed a few lullabies, then nervously began to softly sing a few baby songs she remembered her parents singing to her when she was a child. They were nonsense, as most baby songs were, but the sensation of feeling Kitty's breathing around and against her and hearing her lover's gentle voice finally managed to soothe the tumultuous emotions flowing back and forth between the two of them.

Soft, tender kisses on Kitty's neck, slowly moving up toward her head, told her that Illyana was feeling better now that she had been allowed to cry things out.

"Spasibo," the blonde whispered in Russian. Thank you.

"Poz... pozhaluysta," Kitty replied, a bit stiffly, in the same. You're welcome.

Illyana smiled, and the brightness of her pale blue eyes, despite the bloodshot vessels surrounding those pupils, was the most beautiful thing Kitty had ever seen. "You have always been my hero," said the Russian woman, her voice raw and raspy, then she kissed the woman she had loved as long as she could remember.

When Illyana had finally emotionally recovered enough to safely teleport them to their rooms, they wasted no time stripping off their uniforms and getting into the shower. The thirty minutes that followed were composed of roughly ten percent of the time washing and cleaning and ninety percent of the time holding each other and/or kissing under the warm spray of water.

They made love twice that night, the first immediately after finishing the shower. Their bodies were still wet in places from the shower, but they didn't care as they touched, kissed and entered each other slowly, gently until both of them had satisfied each other. They fell asleep, tangled together in sheets that were wet in spots and partially torn off the bed, but neither of them cared.

Sometime during the night, Illyana slowly became aware of Kitty's fingertips softly touching her, slowly stroking her thighs and her labia, silently asking for permission rather than simply taking her lover. Illyana would have allowed her to do so without regret or hesitation had her Katya gone ahead and slid her fingers into her, but she could understand, even in the twilight state between sleep and waking, what her girlfriend was asking, and she slowly shifted her right leg forward and outward to invite her lover inside her.

Immediately she felt Kitty slip into her, the gentle touch completing a heated circuit not just physical and sexual but also emotional and spiritual. Illyana could only gasp and clutch backwards over her shoulder, finally tangling her fingers in Kitty's thick chestnut hair and holding on tightly as her mate worked back and forth inside her, her slim finger curling and twisting in the way she knew her best friend loved, hitting the right spots over and over again as Kitty started to lose herself in the eager heat and intimate pressure of her girlfriend.

The sensation of something brushing against her legs was a bit surprising, but even in her drowsy state Kitty could recognize the feeling of Illyana's slim tail stroking the back of her thigh, gently wrapping around her right leg. Kitty smiled in the darkness as she leaned her head forward, burying her face in Yana's blonde hair. Yana was really feeling it if her tail was out.

The warm tail slid just slightly back and forth against Kitty's bare skin in tune with Kitty making love to Yana, most of its movement lightly squeezing and then relaxing around Kitty's thigh and leg as Illyana gasped and rocked in the bed under Kitty's soft touch. When the blonde harshly sucked in a shaky breath, her entire body stiffened, her inner softness gripped Kitty's slim finger as tight as a steel vise, and her tail squeezed Kitty's leg in a primal, sensual embrace as every part of Illyana clenched and every sensation other than Kitty went away for several orgasmic seconds.

Kitty was already close to her own orgasm from where she had been touching herself before moving to Yana, and the sensation of Yana's breathing, her tail caressing and now squeezing Kitty's thigh, the feel of the woman she loved slamming into her climax had Kitty on the edge so badly that, had her mind considered it, she would have been begging to be tipped over the precipice.

And then the tip of Illyana's tail, twitching in a spasm of delight, fluttered between Kitty's slightly parted legs and brushed against her sex.

Kitty's orgasm hit her like a truck, with her entire body clenching as she stopped breathing momentarily. Her middle finger, still inside Yana, curled and pressed into the blonde's posterior wall, triggering a second orgasm from the still-gasping Russian woman. The two of them gripped each other tightly, Illyana's hand fisted into Kitty's hair, Kitty's body and left arm pressing against Yana's back, Yana's tail still squeezing Kitty's right leg and that same right leg wrapping around Yana's left leg.

Finally, after several seconds of primitive groaning, both women gasped for air as their bodies allowed them to breathe once more.

"Holy... fuck," Kitty swore softly.

Illyana weakly mumbled something in Russian that Kitty had no chance of translating, not in her current state.

"Wh... what did you say, baby?" Kitty asked softly, her lips warm against Illyana's right ear.

Illyana swallowed carefully before replying, a grin on her face, "I said, I can't feel my feet. Or my legs. They're just... tingling right now."

Kitty grinned as she placed a kiss behind Yana's ear. "Well, I can still feel part of you on me."

"Give me just a few seconds, and I'll make it go away," Illyana said weakly. Her tail had also gone numb for the moment, unfortunately.

"No, no," Kitty quickly said, throwing her right arm around Yana's chest, her hand softly cupping the blonde's left breast. She gently rubbed her wet finger across and around Yana's nipple, knowing the blonde's breasts would be extremely sensitive for the next few minutes; she grinned against Yana's neck as she felt her girlfriend shiver at the slick sensation against her skin. "If you make your tail go away now, after what it just did, then you'll be sleeping on the couch in the headmaster's office for a week."

Illyana smiled and buried her face in her rumpled pillow. "I love you, Katya," she said, lifting her head enough for her speech to be audible.

Kitty snuggled in against her mate, smiling as she placed another kiss on the back of her Yana's neck. "I love you, too, Yana," she said warmly as she closed her eyes and drifted off into sleep, holding the woman of her dreams.

—O—

THREE MONTHS LATER

"Tell me again why I'm doing this?" Illyana yelled, trying (without much success) not to shy away from yet another pair of lacy panties thrown in her direction. She quickly breathed a sterilization spell in the direction of the silky white underwear where it had landed on her leg. She wasn't making any judgments, but she also didn't know these girls and wasn't taking any chances.

"Because it's a bachelor party!" shouted Roberto daCosta, his voice just barely audible over the pounding of the bass inside the strip club.

"But I'm not a bachelor!" Illyana shouted back, having to lean to the side to look around the nearly nude girl dancing in front of her, her bare legs just inches away from Illyana's face.

"Yeah, but you're exclusively into girls!" shouted Sam Guthrie from beside her.

"No, I'm exclusively into Katya!" Illyana yelled back.

"It's a tradition!" shouted all of the men who had dragged her out to the strip club.

Illyana sighed again. She looked up at the young woman dancing in front of her, a pretty redhead who grinned lasciviously as she squatted nearly to the ground and swayed in front of the Russian woman. She was quite attractive, Illyana would freely admit, but she wasn't the woman she loved, and that simple fact crushed the appeal of staring at the nude woman, no matter how beautiful she might have been. Illyana looked back up at the redhead and smiled politely at her, her eyes awkwardly sliding between the redhead's eyes and her breasts. She didn't want to look too long at either one, but not paying at least a modest amount of attention would have been rude.

The redhead winked at her, then she turned to the side and extended her left leg toward the fistful of money being held out to Illyana's right. Illyana breathed a sigh of relief as she saw Sam Guthrie, face visibly red even in the dim lighting surrounding the main stage, hesitantly slide several bills beneath the white garter on the woman's thigh.

"Yeah, Guthrie!" Roberto yelled, out of his chair and slapping his friend on the back happily. "Live a little!"

Sam met Illyana's grateful gaze and smiled at her. Illyana smiled back and tipped her forward slightly, silently thanking him for getting her off the hook.

The guys meant well. They really did. And the attention Illyana was getting from the dancers was certainly flattering.

But none of them were her Katya.

"Hey, you're that hot X-Man, aren't you?" spoke-yelled a woman into Illyana's right ear, making her wince slightly. She turned to see a young woman built like Kitty, with the lean build of a professional dancer, small breasts, taut abdominal muscles, petite frame. "The one with the sword, right?" the woman loudly said again, flashing what Illyana was sure was a dazzling smile.

Illyana politely nodded. "I am here for my... bachelor party," she said, raising her voice and leaning toward the young woman's ear. She was unsure if it would be better to put some dollar bills in the woman's garter or g-string now, in an attempt to stave off the offer of a lap dance or table dance, or if it was just stalling the inevitable.

Finally Illyana made her decision and reached for her money. The woman, who appeared to be in her early to mid-twenties, slightly younger than Illyana and Kitty, waved her hand in front of the blonde. "Oh, honey, it's on the house! You saved my sister and her family from a fire in her apartment building a month ago!"

Illyana swallowed a sip of her cola and bravely put on a polite smile as the woman took her by the hand and moved her in the direction of a nearby couch. She really, really hoped Kitty was having a better time.

—O—

Kitty really, really hoped Illyana was having a better time.

"There is NO FUCKING WAY I'm letting him swing that... that thing in my face!" she shouted over the thrumming dance music to Alison Blaire, more famously known as the singer Dazzler.

Alison grinned as she turned her head away from the male dancer clad only in a g-string that seemed to be simultaneously defying the laws of physics and the breaking point of spandex as he worked his way around the main room of the U.S. Male Revue strip club. "Oooh, Kitty Pryde, cussing like a sailor! I like it!"

"If he tries to stick his dick in my face, I'm phasing through the floor. I'm just telling you now."

"I'll swap places with you!" said Amara Aquilla, one of the later members of the New Mutants, immediately getting up from her seat behind Kitty and stumbling over someone's purse along the way.

"Seconded!" added Dani Moonstar, a delighted grin on her face.

As Amara rapidly slid into the front-row seat Kitty happily vacated, Kitty turned to the dark-haired Native American, another former New Mutant teammate of her soon-to-be wife. As she slid into Amara's old seat next to Dani, Kitty said in a quieter voice, "I thought you and Rahne used to be..."

"I've played both sides," Dani said back, before taking a drink of her ginger beer. "And you thought right, by the way," she added with a smirk, lifting her bottle in a small salute. "People don't just form a special telepathic bond between them for no reason," she said knowingly, leaning in close to Kitty. "No more than they just bond their actual souls together, like you and Illyana did."

Despite the heat in the club, Kitty felt herself blush. Maybe she and Yana hadn't been as subtle as they had thought when they were teenagers.

Dani poked Kitty's shoulder lightly. "Rahne and I only got a telepathic bond," she said playfully, words barely audible over the pounding music. "You and Yana must have fucked A LOT more than we did!"

Kitty's face felt like it was going to spontaneously combust. Somewhat helplessly, she nodded. "Yeah, we probably did," she said, deciding that owning up to the truth was probably the wisest choice of actions at this point. She wasn't fooling Dani, anyw—

Kitty whirled around, so that nearly her entire body was facing Dani. Some of the girls beside them jumped slightly, other than the ones currently focused on getting their dollar bills ready for when the muscular stripper reached them. "Your power!" Kitty shouted. "You could see our worst fears... or our deepest desires!"

The Native American smiled proudly. "Took you long enough to figure that out, Pryde!" she shouted back before happily patting the petite woman on her shoulder, then leaning in closer to Kitty's ear. "I'm happy for you and Illyana both. All either of you ever wanted, deep inside your hearts, was each other."

"Why... Why didn't you tell us that?" Kitty said, looking into Dani's dark eyes, a bright hazel color that had seemed to somehow lighten through the years.

Dani smiled, a wistful expression both loving and slightly sad. "It wasn't my place to tell you," she said. "All I could do was hope the spirits brought you two back to each other eventually. And they did."

The two of them stared at each other for long seconds. They had never been teammates, ironically enough, not officially, but there had always been that bond between Kitty and the New Mutants, joined together forever by one slightly demonic, frequently scary but always amazing mutant sorceress.

Kitty leaned forward and hugged Dani around her neck. With little hesitation, Dani returned the embrace, holding Kitty around her torso.

"I hope you and Rahne make it back together, too," Kitty said, hoping her muffled words were audible over the noise of the club. She felt Dani nod against her shoulder.

To her credit, there were no tears on Dani Moonstar's eyes when she and Kitty released each other from the hug. She had seen too much, been through too much as a Native American marginalized in a land her ancestors had settled, a mutant who had been stripped of her natural powers, a Valkyrie unable to return to Asgard, for her to cry right now. But there was a definite longing in her hazel eyes as she nodded again. "Me too," she said sadly. "Me too. She's got a lot of issues to work through still. Those assholes who raised her seriously messed her up. Not sure if she'll ever be really free of those demons."

Shrieking next to them signified the arrival of the male stripper; Kitty and Dani turned to see Alison, Rogue, Psylocke, Pixie, Rachel Grey, Ororo Munroe, Hope Summers and the young Jean Grey in various states of delight, embarrassment and giddiness.

"What say we leave them to it?" Dani said, standing up and holding a hand out for Kitty. "They can catch up to the rest of us who'd rather be someplace else."

Kitty smiled and took Dani's hand, letting the taller woman help her up out of her chair. She looked behind them to the glowing table where Laura Kinney, Nico Minoru, Karolina Dean and Julie Power all sat chatting and drinking, the four of them, their drinks and the table between them illuminated by the swirling multicolored skin and hair of Karolina.

"Sounds like a plan," Kitty said, taking the taller woman's strong hand.

—O—

"Excuse me," Illyana said as they reached the loveseat. She was shockingly nervous at this point, which was more than a bit irritating to her, but it wasn't this woman's fault. Well, not deliberately. She pulled a wad of money from the pocket of her shorts and pulled two twenties out. "I greatly appreciate your offer," she told the confused women, "but I... I'd really feel uncomfortable being that intimate with anyone other than my Katya—my fiancee."

The small brunette's face went from uncertain to beaming in just a second. "You're so sweet! No offense taken, honey! I wouldn't want to do anything that'd make you uncomfortable. Your blonde friend there with the cute accent just wanted me to show you what you'd be missing as a married woman!"

Illyana looked behind her at Sam, his attention now occupied by a blonde on the stage in front of him and the other boys. Then she turned back to the dancer, smiled wickedly at her and held the two twenties out in front of her, quickly adding a third to them. "Why don't you make sure he gets the dance, then?" Illyana said slyly. "And I'll throw another twenty in if you let me get a picture for his wife without him knowing it."

—O—

As Kitty lost herself in the rumbling of skate wheels on wood and soaring strains of 80's music, she considered their current location a major step up from the male revue. It had been some time since she been on skates, and watching her friends skating (or trying to skate) with her was entertainment all on its own.

Laura had immediately hit the rink like she had been skating since she was a child. Maybe she had been. Kitty wasn't exactly sure and wasn't going to ask. Nico, however, looked terrified as Laura pulled her along with her, skating backwards as she led Nico around the vast skating area.

Karolina and Julie could both apparently skate as well, although Karolina seemed to be more skilled than the redheaded girlfriend. But Julie grinned as she glided around the rink, letting Karolina twirl and zip around her as they went. The alien girl had muted her powers, appearing now like an ordinary (if beautiful) twenty-year-old willowy blonde, not out of shame or fear but because the glow her body had given off was interfering with the lights reflecting off the disco ball above the roller rink.

Kitty took a minute to think about how different the world had become. There were still those who hated everyone who was different—there always would be, unfortunately—but the numbers continued to slowly shift to those who were more tolerant of women, of different skin colors, different religions, different loves, different languages, different genetics. It was hard-won progress, coming in fits and starts with that progress still-too-frequently purchased with the blood of innocents, but that progress toward acceptance was what the X-Men stood for. It was what they and the Xavier School would always stand for.

"This is different, huh?" said a voice almost in Kitty's ear, startling her briefly.

"Jubilation!" the brunette shrieked, excitedly throwing her arms around her petite friend's shoulders. Which sent both of them tumbling to the ground.

Kitty instinctively phased through the surface of the rink, popping back up almost immediately. Jubilee landed somewhat awkwardly on her wrist with her left foot beneath her, but her vampire physiology kept her from suffering any significant injury.

"Oh, Jubes, I'm so sorry!" Kitty said as the two of them got back to their feet; the skaters behind them easily diverted to each side of them as they kicked off and got back up to speed. "I didn't hear you coming up behind me!"

"Ah, it's okay," the Asian girl said with a grin. Her canines were just sharp enough to be noticeable if one knew to look specifically for them. Which Kitty did. "I don't make a lot of noise anymore."

Kitty smiled as she looked over at her friend. "I'm so glad you came. Wasn't sure if you could get free or not."

"Patsy and Jen are having a night in, and they insisted on keeping Shogo so I could be at your party," Jubilee said as they skated easily around the track. As they coasted by the side facing the tables and main body of the skating center, she watched as Gabby Kinney, Laura's little sister, was lacing on a pair of skates, with the assistance of a slightly older blonde girl and a brunette wearing what looking like a unicorn toboggan.

"Who're the kids helping Gabby?" Jubilation asked.

Kitty looked over her shoulder, turning her head to keep looking at they curved around the end of the rink. "Molly Hayes is the one with the awesome hat, and Katie Power's the blonde," she said. "They're both fifteen."

"Mmm, Molly sounds familiar," Jubilee replied. "Not sure I've ever heard of this Katie, though."

"Molly's one of the Runaways. A mutant, too."

"Really?"

"Yep. Strongest mutant we know of."

Jubilee's mouth dropped open. "What? You're joking, right?"

Kitty shook her head. "Sweet as can be. Her powers are still stabilizing, so right now it's temporary surges of strength and invulnerability, but she blew Piotr away on lifting and power when she let us test her, and that was when she was twelve."

"Shit," Jubilee swore softly.

Kitty laughed, "Yeah, she knocked Logan through a wall, then about a hundred meters away when he blew cigar smoke in her face."

Jubilee broke down and howled with laughter. "Please tell me someone got video of that!"

"Unfortunately, no. I blame Scott, both for having Logan deliberately try to provoke her and for not recording the results. He was the one in charge at the time."

Kitty and Jubilation split to go around a father and his son skating slowly, the man carefully holding his son's hand to keep the boy balanced. Once they were around the two of them, they came back together smoothly. "From footage and first-hand accounts we've collected, in terms of physical strength, she's stronger than Juggernaut when she powers up. She doesn't have that unstoppable power of his, but she could toss a battleship like a horseshoe."

Jubilee cackled suddenly. "A horseshoe?! Oh my God, Kitty, I knew you were an old woman in a hot body, but horseshoes? Seriously?"

Kitty felt her face flush red. "Anyway, Katie was one of Power Pack. You know, the kids who were superheroes?"

Jubilee's face lit up. "Ohmigod, I remember reading about them! Which one was she?"

"Katie was the youngest. She could—well, can disintegrate things and convert their mass into energy. Her sister Julie's here, too." Kitty spotted Julie and Karolina, pointing them out to Jubilee. "The redhead skating with the blonde. That's her older sister Julie, who goes by the hero name Lightspeed. She's still a reserve Avenger. Was a student teacher at Avengers Academy when it was open. I offered her a job teaching flying and aerial maneuvers. She's literally been flying since she was ten years old. She thanked me but turned me down, because she and her girlfriend Karolina—that's the blonde girl, who's really a Majesdanian, an alien—live in Los Angeles with the rest of the Runaways."

"Must be pretty good, if she impressed you," Jubilee said, watching Molly and Katie flank Gabby as they wheeled the younger girl onto the hardwood floor of the skating rink. The two of them each held one of Gabby's hands, helping the girl keep her balance as she wobbled awkwardly at first while rolling between them. "Aw, that's sweet. They're teaching Gabs how to skate."

Kitty smiled as she watched with her friend. "They seem like good kids. I've only briefly spoken to Katie Power once, but she seems like she's doing okay now."

Jubilation looked up, her face concerned. "Now?"

Kitty sighed. "Parents are divorced. Their mom didn't take it well when Julie came out as gay, after they'd moved to Los Angeles so Julie could pursue an acting career. Their brothers stayed in New York with the Future Foundation. Lot of friction between Katie and her mom, especially when Katie started hanging out with Julie and met Molly through her. Two of them hit it off, went from friends to more than friends by the time they were both fourteen, then Katie eventually dropped the bomb on her mom that she was gay too."

"Oof," Jubilee said softly. "Bet that sucked for both of them."

"Nico, Laura's girlfriend knows the story a lot better than I do, but I know that Katie wound up running away, ironically enough. Nico, Julie, Karolina and Katie's mom found her in bed with Molly the next morning."

"OH," Jubilee said, her eyebrows rising comically. "In bed, like..."

Kitty met her friend's eyes. "Yep."

Jubilee looked at the three girls again. "Shit."

Kitty considered things, then shrugged. "You know, I should probably be more up in arms about kids having sex, but Yana and I were doing it almost every night when we were still thirteen."

"Not everybody is emotionally equipped to handle it, Kitty. I sure wouldn't have been."

"I'm not sure Yana and I were either, but I know that for us, it was something just... incredible. Wonderful. It made us feel loved and supported at a time when we both needed it badly."

"And look at you today," Jubilee said, playfully bumping her hip into Kitty's, sending them swerving to the left briefly. "Getting hitched to your high school sweetheart!"

Seeing Kitty smile shyly, Jubilee skated in front of her, turning backwards and continuing to skate as she took Kitty's hands in her own. "Hey, don't you act like you're embarrassed, Kitty Pryde!" she said, slipping into her mom voice. "I think it's pretty amazing that after all you and Illyana have experienced together, after all the shit that the universe has thrown at you both, you still wound up together!"

Jubilee peeked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't about to run over anybody, steering them around the turn while still going backwards, then she looked back at Kitty. "You were each other's first love, and you two still love each other, Kitty. Do you have any idea how amazing that is?!"

Now Kitty grinned, kicking forward and turning Jubilee around so that Kitty was skating backward and pulling Jubilee forward. "Yeah, I do," she said. "I really, really do."

"Have you heard from your woman tonight?"

Kitty nodded, guiding them around the turn at the other end of the rink. She felt Jubilee tug on her right hand, so Kitty slid toward that side, around someone that was in front of them. Once she saw the boy and girl go past, Jubilee tugged on her left hand again, guiding her back to their original line of motion. "She finally got them out of the strip club," Kitty said.

"Oh, God, a strip club?" Jubilee said. "Hey, weren't you going to one of those too?"

"I think there's still quite a few there. Not my thing any more. Yana was just as uncomfortable at hers as I was at the one earlier. She said the girls were nice, at least. One of them tried to give her a dance for free, because Yana had saved her sister's family."

"Aw," Jubilee said, smiling.

"Yeah," Kitty said, with a bashful smile. "She finally got them to move on. She's killing them at laser tag, last I heard."

"Nice," said the short-haired brunette. "Where are they eating?"

"C'mon, Jubes. It's Yana and a bunch of guys. It'll be a pizza or hot dog truck, I'm sure."

"What about us?"

"I like to be able to sit down to eat." Seeing a huge grin break out on the Asian woman's face, Kitty immediately blushed. "Do NOT make a dirty joke out of that, Jubilation!"

Jubilee laughed over her shoulder and kicked off, accelerating forward quicker than Kitty could keep up as she headed toward Nico and Laura.

"JUBILATION!"

—O—

THE NEXT MORNING

Illyana was careful to not wake Kitty up on their day off. The wedding was only three days away, and it had been well after two in the morning when Jubilee and Dani brought Kitty back to the school. They had all fallen asleep in a dollar movie theater watching Moana, and all three of them were fighting a case of the giggles by the time they managed to get through the front door. The lock had put up a valiant fight against Kitty, with the stalemate broken only when Kitty phased them through the door.

Illyana had put Kitty into the shower with most of her clothes removed, then she had taken Dani to a guest room in the faculty wing. She teleported Jubilation over to Patsy Walker's apartment after calling ahead to warn the redhead and her friend Jennifer, because getting punched by a Hulk in the middle of the night was not something high on Illyana's to-do list.

After returning to their home and getting Kitty dried off and into bed, Illyana allowed herself a few hours of sleep before she began her dreaded plans for the next day.

Unfortunately, sleep refused to grace her with its presence, as her mind percolated all night on the task that awaited her.

Finally, at around eight o'clock, Illyana sighed, gently released Kitty from her embrace and carefully slid out of bed. She quickly showered and dressed, going through Kitty's closet (well, both closets were Kitty's, pretty much, but Illyana did have some clothes in one of them, so Kitty insisted on calling it Yana's) before selecting a sleeveless lavender shirt, a red blazer and a knee-length patterned skirt. She looked at Kitty's jewelry stand for a moment before she carefully removed a necklace featuring an upside-down triangle with a rainbow pattern, a gift she had gotten Kitty for Pride Month. She smiled as she looked into the mirror, placing it on her neck and closing the clasp.

She looked very different than usual as she considered her appearance for the day. Looking like this, she could very well be a college student or a young professional dressed for work, nearly the opposite of her usual provocative attire. But this task was important, and it was worth being a bit uncomfortable for a few hours.

She quietly walked into the living room next to their bedroom, closing the door behind her. She pulled out her cell phone and checked the marker she had placed on the map application several days ago. She focused on the location first, then she flicked to the picture from the street-view camera. She closed her eyes, took several calming breaths, and then disappeared into the blue-white gleam of a stepping disc.

An invisibility spell concealed the glow of the stepping disc as it manifested on the sidewalk in front of a small house in New Hampshire. Illyana checked the house and the number on the mailbox to verify she was at the right place, then synced her phone to verify she hadn't accidentally traveled in time as well, due to how anxious she was about this meeting. When she was satisfied she was at the correct place and same time, she put her phone back into the small black purse she was carrying today.

She hated dressing this way, conforming how she looked to what others thought or expected. But it was a sacrifice she was willing to make for something this important.

She quickly walked up to the door. There were lights on inside the house, so he hoped the woman she was looking for was awake. Without further hesitation, she pressed the button for the doorbell, hearing soft chimes ring through the house.

The next few seconds seemed to last forever. Illyana nervously shifted back and forth in the wedge sandals she was wearing, something else she had borrowed from her girlfriend. Them wearing the same size in most clothes had been a blessing over the years, and even now Illyana could wear almost everything of Kitty's except for the tightest shirts and some of her bras.

The door opening yanked Illyana's attention away from the comforting tangential thought process it had slipped into.

"May I help you?" asked the middle-aged woman, her frame pleasantly pear-shaped, framed and offset by her classic (and expensive-looking) top and slacks. Her dark brown hair, shot through with tasteful highlights, was carefully coiffed despite the relatively early morning hour. A frown drew across her mouth as she looked Illyana up and down, then looked over her shoulder. "We don't allow solicitation in this neighborhood," she said stiffly. "I'll report you to the homeowners' association if you don't—"

"Ms. Pryde," Illyana said, trying to keep her voice calm. "It's... been some time since I've seen you."

Theresa Pryde looked confused for several seconds, the soft crows-feet forming at the corners of her eyes flexing softly as she examined the strange blonde girl standing on her front porch. Then her brown eyes widened and the hint of a smile appeared on her face. "...Illyana?" she asked, uncertain but then smiling, politely if not enthusiastically, when she got an affirmative nod from the Russian girl.

"My God, how long has it been?" Theresa said, her attitude less hostile but still not exactly forthcoming. "Ten years?" She stepped aside, hovering as if she wanted to give the young woman a hug but was unsure if she should do so. She also looked to each side on the porch.

"I'm alone," Illyana said.

"How did you find me?"

"It... took some effort." And a scrying spell or two. Illyana turned partway, looking at a few people walking or jogging in the distance. "I've come to speak to you about something very important. May I come inside, or would you prefer that we speak out here on your porch for all your neighbors to see?"

The brief flash of annoyance that crossed the older woman's face told Illyana she had hit her target, and it took more effort than she had expected to keep from smirking at the woman who had cast her only daughter out for being a mutant.

Wordlessly, the woman stepped aside, opening the door for Illyana.

"Thank you," the Russian said as she smoothly stepped into the foyer and stopped, waiting for the other woman to close and lock the door behind her.

Illyana noted Theresa looked pointedly at the charm dangling from the necklace she was wearing as she stepped around the Russian woman. "Would you like coffee or tea?" asked the older woman, stepping toward another room.

"Only if they are already prepared," Illyana replied, taking a few steps to where she could watch Theresa move about in a kitchen. "I would prefer you not go to any trouble for me."

"I'm already on my second cup," Theresa said, tossing a weak smile over her shoulder as she retrieved a plain red mug from a nearby cabinet.

"Then coffee would be fine," replied Illyana. "Nothing in it, please."

Theresa poured coffee from the carafe into the mug, then carried it over to Illyana, who politely took it. When Theresa turned to pick up her own mug from the counter, Illyana surreptitiously cast a simple detection spell over the mug with a flick of her right index finger. Satisfied all was benign, she lifted the cup to her lips and tested the temperature.

"Please, have a seat," Theresa said, gesturing to a small table in a sitting area next to the kitchen.

Illyana nodded as she took her seat, taking a sip of the coffee as well. Quite good, rather strong, pleasantly bitter.

"So," spoke the older woman, who carefully placed her mug on a trivet sporting a picture of a bird of some sort. "Why are you here, Illyana?"

Illyana placed her mug down on another trivet. "You have not replied to the wedding invitation," she said calmly.

Theresa looked surprised. "You're getting married?" she asked, unsure once more.

Illyana nodded. "In less than a week. You were sent an invitation several months ago, but you never replied."

"Why would you send me a wedding invitation?" asked Theresa, a slight note of annoyance in her tone.

"Because," Illyana said calmly, pausing to take a sip of her coffee. "I'm marrying your daughter."

There was complete silence in the small sitting room for several seconds. Illyana was prepared to teleport the coffee mug out of Theresa's hand should the woman try to throw it or the coffee in it at her, but other than a slight twitch across the woman's left temple, she remained unmoving, continuing to examine Illyana carefully.

"I am well aware of what has transpired between you and Katya," Illyana said, remaining vigilant. "I was the one who held her those nights she cried herself to sleep after you cast her out."

"You took advantage of her," Theresa said coldly.

"Nyet," Illyana hissed instantly. "No. I did not. Katya and I had already been... involved with each other long before you threw your only daughter out of your life for being a mutant. I did not and would never take advantage of Katya, emotionally or otherwise. I love her far, far too much to do that."

Theresa looked into Illyana's bright blue eyes, and the younger woman could see tears threatening to form in the eyes of the older woman. "How... how long?" Theresa managed to ask. "How long have you..."

"Since we were both thirteen," Illyana replied calmly. "I have never loved anyone but Katya the way I love her."

"The two of you came to the old house several times," Theresa said, a tear trickling down her cheek. "Did you—"

"I came here to ask that you attend our wedding," Illyana said, cutting the woman off. Going into the number of times she and Kitty had made love in her childhood home (and it was not a small number) was only going to complicate the situation further.

"I haven't spoken to Katherine in over ten years," Theresa said sharply. "Why on earth would I attend her wedding?"

Illyana kept the expression on her face carefully neutral. "Because you are her only living parent," she said calmly. "And because it would make an already special day even more special for her."

"Why are you the one asking me this?" Theresa said.

"Because there is nothing I wouldn't do for her," Illyana said truthfully. "If you choose to reject the invitation, then I would rather you reject me than her. Katya has made as much peace as she can with you walking out of her life. I don't want anything upsetting her further this close to the wedding, because she already is balancing far, far too much." She took another sip of her coffee, longer this time as she composed her thoughts.

"While Katya does not expect you to be at the wedding, we did send you an invitation in the mail several months ago."

"I have any mail from Katherine intercepted at the post office," Theresa said sharply. "I don't want to be part of her world, of your world... of freaks."

"And I would prefer her not have anything to do with a shallow, angry, petty, bigoted woman who is slowly growing more spiteful, more bitter and more resentful, all alone," Illyana replied, her voice calm but laced with a hint of steel. "But as I have said, you are her mother, and I know it would mean a great deal to Katya if you were to be there on her wedding day."

Illyana placed her left hand on the small table, palm up. A bright stepping disc briefly flared in her palm, fading after less than a second to reveal a manila envelope.

"I have already purchased a round-trip airline ticket for you to New York City. It leaves in two days and returns two days later. I have also reserved and paid for a room for you at the Marriott Marquis at Times Square, for the same days. I've also put forty dollars in here for cab or subway fare, so you can come to the wedding at no cost to yourself."

"It's not a matter of money," the older woman sneered.

Illyana looked at her for a few long seconds. "I know that. I simply don't want there to be any excuses as to why you couldn't come to your daughter's wedding," she finally said. "Whether you attend or not is up to you, but I know it would mean a great deal to the woman I love to have her mother there as a witness."

Illyana placed the coffee mug back on the trivet she had been using, then she stood up slowly. She said politely, "If you decide to come, the hotel will know how to get in touch with us to arrange transportation to the wedding and the reception."

The woman stood reflexively as well, swallowing as she seemed to contemplating what, if anything, to say in reply.

Illyana began to walk to the door, with Theresa trailing behind her. Just before they reached the door, Illyana stopped and turned. "I do have one more thing to say to you, Theresa," the blonde said calmly.

"Oh?" replied the older brunette.

"I intend for the day of our wedding to be everything Katya has ever wanted. She would like for you to be there, but if you're uncomfortable with being around us, our friends or our students, then I suggest you either stay home or quietly leave without making a scene."

Illyana stepped forward until she was just inches away from the slightly taller woman. "Because I will NOT tolerate ANYONE insulting or belittling the woman I love on our wedding day." Illyana allowed her eyes to glow red for a little over a second before they returned to their more usual pale blue; she was pleased by the sight of Theresa withdrawing slightly, fear crossing her face.

"Thank you for the coffee, Theresa," Illyana said sweetly, smiling before she turned and teleported out of her future mother-in-law's home.

—O—

Author's Afterword: Okay. One more chapter, with the wedding itself and then a little look down the road at what the future might hold for these two. Kitty's right; Illyana does love her old-school heavy metal. Kitty goes more for Whitney Houston, Heart, Adele and 90s pop, in case you were wondering (but she has been known to rock out to Garbage and Kelly Clarkson when no one's watching).

Thanks for reading, and hope you're enjoying so far!