A/N - Okay so I'm impatient to get this one up. I happen to like this chapter. (remember NO QUESTIONS OR GUESSING DIRECTION. This is a no-request zone. Just enjoy. You'll see why in a sec.)

okay. so, griezz- yeah ... there was a LOT going on with Logan right there. It wasn't that he was being a dumbass or a pain, it was more that he just saw that someone else has been mistreated by a lot of his nightmares, and ... he just held this woman down into a panic attack. Man has to feel guilty about it.

KJAX- Yeah, in every alternate reality I've dreamed up - or co-dreamt up with robbie - it doesn't always go smoothly. And ... it's not ALWAYS Logan that ends up with the girl. There are other contenders. But - come on, man. My Jean and Scott are AWESOME, and are much more like a real couple than how they tend to be written elsewhere. They really are a perfect match for each other.

and robbie - the original four are SO. MUCH. FUN. They will always hold a special place in my heart - every one of them. Hank is criminally underused, Warren ... I love Warren in spite of his stupid. Bobby is ALWAYS funny, and well. You know how I feel about Jean and Scott. Hank is such a wonderful gentle soul most of the time ... he really was the ONLY choice to talk to her. Especially after there was that kerfuffle about his name with Bobby. That HAD to be explored.

The Beginning Of The End For Earth's Mightiest

It was quiet from all fronts for several weeks after the X-Men had let K leave mostly peacefully. Scott was starting to believe that their late night visitor had actually done as she'd said and simply disappeared into the woodwork. Until of course, one morning over coffee, the news picked up a story that he definitely could have done without hearing first thing.

Magneto was making an open threat to anyone that disturbed the sanctity of the safe houses and shelters that were offering sanctuary to mutants. The speech he was rattling off was as condescending and threatening as any that he had ever uttered before- mixed with just enough fire and passion to draw in support from a larger group than he had already.

And then, as the camera panned out, the screen showed the short, pretty little brunette that he'd let leave with their secrets. Scott stopped dead in his tracks and stared at the screen, his jaw clenching and his anger rising. She was almost expressionless as she stood with her arms crossed low standing on Erik's left with Wanda and Pietro on his right. There was no way he'd have her on a public stage unless she was important to him. And Scott had let her walk.

He couldn't believe he'd let her convince him she was anything like neutral.

It appeared as though this particular broadcast was old though since the reporter went into a live feed of most of Magneto's group as they hit back at a battalion of MRD that had raided and shot up half of a homeless center that was open to mutants in Brooklyn. The footage covered the fight - and the backlash as Erik crushed sentinels and MRD choppers alike as they tried to back up their troops that were getting pounded. It was official, and had it been a smaller effort - or if Magneto hadn't made such a show of it - it wouldn't be an all out war. But now?

Scott was just considering calling the team together to go and help when the reporter got a little more excitable - and the Avengers showed up on the scene. The camera man rushed to get a better angle as Captain America found a spot to try and reason with Magneto before it devolved further.

"The fight is over," Cap was arguing. "You made your point."

"And you're here to defend the police force that is encouraging this," Erik countered.

"I'm here to prevent a war," Steve said. "I don't agree with anything that happened in Brooklyn. That's my home town. Do you think I wanted to see that kind of intolerance happen here? But that's not an excuse for this. You bring the people responsible to justice - you don't do this," he said, gesturing around him at the evidence of the fight all around them.

"This is the first time that you've seen anything happen to a population that's different then?" Erik asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought you of all people wouldn't forget what horrors happen when one group is allowed to treat another as less than human."

Steve narrowed his eyes. "I know," he said in a more dangerous tone than before. "But I also know the difference between a flawed system and what we fought against in the war."

"But you want to put your faith in that flawed system," Erik said low. "And what we fought against isn't so different."

"I put my faith in people. Where it should be," Steve said. "This has always been the struggle for anyone who's different. But you know violence doesn't work to change minds. It just gives people an excuse for more violence. Is that what you want?"

Erik glanced at him, looking for a moment like he was just appeasing him. "I can tell you firsthand that following the restrictions and laws meant to channel someone into camps leads to nothing but genocide." He leaned forward. "Do some research, Captain Rogers. It's going on now, in this country."

Steve frowned harder at that. "If that's true, then I won't let that stand," he said. "And if that proves to be the case, then I'll be the first in line to tear them down."

"You should ask your friends at SHIELD what they've been ignoring for the last decade or so," Erik said, gesturing to the broken sentinel nearby. "Though I can't imagine what you think that those giant mutant hunting robots are for if not rounding us up."

Steve tipped his head. "I was under the impression they were there for you to crush into tin cans."

Erik smirked. "When I come across them, yes, but what about my children? Or my lovely friend?"

He had gestured toward K, and when Steve looked her way, she shook her head lightly. "Leave me out of it," K said, stepping back to avoid as much of it as she could.

Steve let his shoulders drop as he shifted his stance to a more reasonable one. "I'm not endorsing this full-press assault you're doing, but if you know where there are camps - if you know where this kind of thing is happening, please - tell me. Tell the Avengers."

"The Avengers have never done anything for mutants," Erik said in a rumbling tone.

"We protect the world - everyone in it. We don't pick and choose what that means."

At that though, K let out a little sound and tipped her head to the side, almost grimacing. "If that were true, then where do you think all the mutants have been going? There have been bigger raids than this that have resulted in slaughters for mutants - mostly young teenagers… no Avengers showed up."

"I'm sorry," Steve said, turning her way and looking genuine about it. "I really am. I wish the Avengers could be everywhere. But that's what groups like the X-Men, even the Defenders are for. We can't get everyone that deserves it."

K held his gaze for a long moment, but she couldn't just … ignore it, and just as Steve turned his focus back to Magneto, she simply couldn't hold her tongue. "Captain Rogers," she said, kicking herself away from where she'd been leaning. "This same kind of thing happened in midtown not three days ago. It was six blocks from Avengers Tower. The police ignored it as soon as it was determined to be mutants that had died." She tipped her chin down. "And as much as you'd like to pass the buck on this one, the X-Men can't be expected to cover everything to do with mutants. They don't have the public backing or the support that you do. And the Defenders are even smaller."

Steve let out a slow breath. "We do what we can," he said. "We're not perfect. But I wish like hell we were."

"The fact is that the attack on the mutants here in Brooklyn happened technically yesterday … and no one responded … which is why our strike back happened today …"

"I'm not arguing that these people should escape justice, ma'am," Steve said, taking a few steps toward her. "All I'm trying to do is stand in the way of another war. I've seen what that does to innocent people, and I'd just as soon avoid another one and find another way to fix this. I'm not saying there's no problem. I'm only trying to save more lives." He held her gaze for just a moment and then turned back to Magneto.

"But only when its not mutants. Because that's not your problem, is it?"

Steve turned her way fully and glared hard. "Lady, if you're not going to listen to a word I say, then you're not worth talking to," he said with some real heat. "I just told you I wish to God I could be in every place and stop every crime but I can't, and if that's not good enough for you, then you need to find someone else to blame."

"I'm not blaming you," she clarified. "All I'm saying is that you can't come in trying to stop him from payback and play both sides against the middle. I'm sure there are some innocent humans you want to help. Somewhere. Kitten up a tree. Something more worthy than mutant genocide."

Steve crossed his arms. "I'm not playing both sides. I don't work for either side. I'm telling you the God's honest truth, and just because that includes me and my team being fallible - that doesn't mean I can't try to stop a war. I do my best, ma'am."

"The trouble here, Captain," Erik said in a rolling sort of rumble. "Is that the war is already on. The only problem is that we're fighting back."

"The problem I'm having now is this," Steve said, gesturing at the destruction around them. "This is not solving anything. This is just destruction."

"Destruction of genetically predispositioned robots and the unconstitutional military force sent out to capture us," Erik said. He waved his hand to clear the path between them, and when he waved it again, it was to pull K from where she'd been leaning against a streetlamp to a spot between himself and Steve.

"I really don't want to fight you," K told Steve, her voice almost small.

"Then don't," he said. "That's always an option."

"I don't think I have a choice in it." She squared up and shook her head at him. "There's no way that this will look good for you."

"I've never been too worried about PR, much as the history books would say otherwise."

She shook her head lightly, her tone just loud enough for him to hear. "This … this can't end well. Win or lose … this ... Cap … I'm a foot shorter, tiny, and a woman … please don't."

"You know I can't let you and your friends go any further. Retaliation is one thing. But this is too far," Steve said, settling into a fighting stance. "I'd rather not fight you, too."

She looked honestly upset, but took a step toward him, her hands in fists as she angled her body slightly away. Steve let out a breath that perfectly conveyed exactly how disappointed he was that she wasn't backing down and slung his shield on his back. K leaned forward and they headed for each other. It wasn't even much of a fight though. At all.

It was hard to tell who threw the first punch, but after a few skillful dodges on both sides, K very suddenly couldn't pick her arms up beyond holding her hands near her ready position. Her legs wouldn't move either. She couldn't block him, and she couldn't dodge. It was only for an instant, but it was perfectly timed for Steve to land a solid, hard hit that sent her down and out.

It was clear that Steve hadn't expected it at all. Not knocking her out … and not breaking his hand, which … had him more than a little confused. For a moment, he couldn't help but sway, his stomach twisting at the broken bones. But when he got his bearings back, the first thing he noticed was that the woman he'd been scrapping with was laid out cold. He didn't seem to register what was being said as he immediately made his way over toward her to check on her. She was bloodied up pretty well, wasn't moving, and to his irritation, instead of checking on her himself, Magneto was pandering to the cameras.

With an irritated sort of look on his face, he tried to rouse her gently. "Come on, wake up," Steve said as he checked her vitals and Magneto continued to rile up the crowd.

As soon as K's eyes fluttered open, she found once again that she couldn't move, though this time, it was because her entire body felt much, much heavier. She didn't miss that Steve was kneeling next to her, looking almost sick as he tried to bring her back to consciousness, all while cradling his broken hand to his chest.

Very suddenly, the heavy sensation lifted and K picked up her head slightly to Steve's relief. But the damage was just getting started, really.

Erik was using the cameras against Steve - and though she'd been unconscious for the kick off, K knew that they'd caught a show as Captain America KO'd a tiny woman on live TV.

Steve was trying to get K to respond to him, since she still hadn't moved much or answered him yet, but it wasn't until he had her halfway cradled that she said a word. And it was all at once.

"Project:Wideawake will show you what the sentinel's programming is intended for, their capabilities, and how they've been utilized so far. There is a proposal that's sitting on the president's desk called Operation:Zero Tolerance that will have people screaming about how right Magneto is," K said at just over a whisper - and she knew he heard her by the total change in expression on his face. "You're looking for Camp Hayden, Kentucky. Camp Neverland in Alberta."

"Is this where …"

"The US is still funding Weapon X," K continued quietly and quickly as Steve looked more upset. "Look in the Department of Agriculture under the pest control division. I would have told you if I could have talked to you away from the cameras. But there is no way I could get a message to Captain America without going through compromised soldiers or breaking through Stark's security … which … you never would have listened to me that way, or through any other method that I had at my disposal."

"You could have gone to the X-Men," Steve said. "They could have gotten the message to me."

But she shook her head at that. "They wouldn't have listened to me either. But they knew about the camps." She looked on the verge of … something as she shook her head. "I didn't want to be the one to take down Captain America."

"Don't worry, you didn't," Steve said, trying to assure her, but K shook her head lightly and looked up at him, meeting his gaze head on.

"Yes. I did. And I'm sorry for that."

Back at the mansion, Scott had seen the whole thing, half frozen as he watched it going down. Magneto had to have had some supporters in the newsroom because there is no way all that aired would have made it to broadcast otherwise. Unless of course, they were hoping to show how dangerous and evil these mutants were - which also, would not have surprised him in the least.

But no matter what the intention was … what they had was what looked like Captain America one-shotting a woman that he knew was a lot more formidable than she seemed on the news. Not that it mattered. The imagery was hard to argue with, and the parallel that the newscaster was using was precisely what K and Erik had been saying: that the Avengers only showed up for mutants after the damage was done. And worse still was the fact that they were trying to say that Captain America was a little too eager to punch a 'defenseless' woman.

Scott rested his chin in the palm of his hand as he thought it over. The servers that they had set up in the basement would have recorded this and every other related broadcast once the word 'mutant' came up. He picked up his coffee and headed downstairs to watch the fight again, slower and on a bigger screen. Something wasn't right about that fight. He hoped there was a different angle than the one he'd seen already starring Captain America with a solid battle glare as he knocked her out and then immediately regretted it. That much was clear, anyhow.

Scott had to have gone through it three or four times before he thought he had it figured out … she'd frozen. Purposely an instant before Cap hit her. It was a set up from the word go. He narrowed his eyes and locked his jaw down a little tighter. That was beyond dirty. And it did nothing to ease his anger with her. They were going to have to get her out of this fight before Magneto let the woman run wild to cause more chaos.

With that, he made up his mind to put Logan on her and have him do some digging through any means he wanted. They couldn't fight a woman who wasn't following the rules without bending the rules a little themselves. And Logan would know exactly where to go and who to talk to in order to do exactly that.

Meanwhile, K was clearly unhappy as the group headed back to Avalon. She had her arms crossed over her chest and she was physically as far away from the others as she could be … until of course, Erik pulled her closer.

"You did beautifully, my dear," he said, his tone echoing exactly how pleased he was with the day's events. "You should be proud."

"You used me to set up Captain America," she growled out. "I told you I didn't want anything to do with screwing with the Avengers, and you purposely used my own body against me." She didn't even bother to try and hide her anger with him for that.

Erik let out a patient breath and tipped his chin down, though his tone shifted to one that clearly showed that he expected complete obedience. "I simply used what was available to me in the most efficient way possible - and it put an end to the battle quickly. Isn't that what he wanted?"

Her growl shifted lower at that. "You know damn well that wasn't what he wanted," she said, pointing a finger his way. "If you were done being an ass, why didn't we leave sooner? Or were you planning on doing that the whole time?"

For an instant Erik faltered, but then he put on a tight sort of smug smile. "You don't have many options, and even fewer friendly faces to welcome you. But, if you would prefer going back to the situation I found you in …"

"No," she said, shaking her head at that and losing some steam.

"This will pave the road to better things for all of mutantkind," Erik said gently before he rested his hand on her shoulder. "And there are far too many others out there that would happily take advantage of you if given half a chance. I am simply trying to protect you as much as I'm trying to make sure that the world is a safe one for my grandchildren." He dipped his head down slightly. "They adore you. I know you'd like to see the best for them."

K seemed to lose more of her fire as she thought of the twin boys that belonged to Wanda. "I don't want to be used like that," she said finally. "You knew that."

"I did not mean to offend," Erik said soothingly, but that had K's eyes narrowed as she turned toward him, her eyes flashing dangerously. "It's not a lie."

"But it's not exactly true either," she said. "You just didn't care if you offended."

"Either way, I don't think that same trick will work again." He brushed off her concerns easily, and for the rest of the ascent, K was trying to shake the feeling of wanting to strangle him with her bare hands. Which of course, was a lot easier to do once they made it to Avalon, and they were greeted by two happy very small boys.

Wanda crouched down to scoop them both into a hug, but as soon as they got snuggles from their mother, Billy led the charge to hurry over and pull on K's pants leg, his head tipped back as far as he could make it go to look up at her as he used her for balance to keep from toppling over backwards.

"You want to ride on my shoulders again don't you?" K asked before she crouched down and let him climb up on her, giggling the whole way. Wanda did the same with Tommy - who was crowing about being taller with chants of "I bigger! I b-i-i-i-igger!" as the group made their way toward the inner rooms of Avalon.

Erik looked over his shoulder at the two women and gave K a smug sort of look. "This is what we're fighting for, my dear. Their continued innocence."

K scowled, though neither boy saw her, and before they got much further, Wanda put out a hand to get K to stop. "I'm not happy with how this went down today either," she said quietly. "Steve was a friend of mine. But you have to know, not once while I was on that team did we ever intervene in favor of a mutant."

"I know," K said in soft response as Billy got a handful of her hair and pulled. "It just wasn't right to do that to him."

"No, it wasn't," she agreed before she let out a sigh. "But … let's get the boys a snack. I'm sure they'd love to help with some lemonade."

K let out a sigh and turned her head so she could peek up at Billy, who grinned widely and kissed her head right at her hairline. "Alright," K said, which got a bigger grin out of the little boy.