Agent-G: hums mantra Just two more months, two months before finals are done with still humming

Prophet-Song: Thanks! Uhm yeah, I know updates have been sparse, then again: so has time. Every time I thought I shook RL off of my tail, it jumped me again!


Shattered Resistance - Who are you!

Rogue Worried, she did it with such an ardor, that it simply deserved to be spoken with a capital, in fact, if she worried even more, it would be spelled out in capitals. She was cursing herself for letting Marianne leave with only Logan for protection against whatever the ambush would be. In fact: she cursed herself for letting the young doctor go all together. Just one quick tap would have had her drained enough for Marianne to not be able to go, Rogue would, temporarily have her powers and she'd be able to take care of business. But no, she'd have to listen to Marianne.

Honestly, though, that was only part of her reason for the deep scowl on her face. Remy, otherwise known as Gambit, or rather the pain in the universe's neck, was her other reason. No matter the cut in his arm, no matter the threats of Rogue to knock him out, permanently, no matter Ashley's attempts to bring truth to that threat he kept on being... well... Remy.

There were plenty of other things to worry about, like where Pyro kept pulling the lighters and matches from, how they were going to get food, where Magneto was, besides laughing his bucket-head off. No, she'd rather think about the most painful ways she'd kill Remy, and then do it again, if so possible, would there be enough pieces left of him.

"PYRO! Put the lighter DOWN!" Rogue winced at hearing Sarah yell at the end of the line at John, Rogue still couldn't help the slight smirk at the irony: for someone who could control, among others, fire, Sarah sure had little to no control over John.

Five... four... three... two... one... Rogue counted mentally.

"OW! Ey Sheila, that hurt!"

"Good."

A few muttered choice words followed from John's mouth, but Rogue could practically see the glare Sarah was giving him. All in all, she'd be happy once she saw the Institute. She'd be extatic when she was inside and absolutely delirious with joy once Marianne and Logan got back. Alright, maybe that was a bit much, she gave in to her mind, but she wouldn't feel even remotely at ease untill they were one group again.

Sarah crossed her arms over her chest, forcing herself to ignore John until he once again became a thread. In other words, when he found another lighter. It was unbelievable how he always managed to get another lighter. How many had she taken from him by now? And there just came more and more. She'd rather face Ben's out of control robots again rather then be stuck in the back with that idiot. Or try and make Tank see reason over something, facing Marianne after she and Tank had another... dispute in the kitchen. Anything but this. Cruel and unusual punishment, that was what this was.

"He'd be 'avin' more," Remy murmured quietly from his place in the group, so quietly no one heard it. He was actually having fun at the exasperation that began to take over the woman. These people got far too serious, it was just a little bit to the Institute. Whatever happened to 'always look on the bright side of life'?

Feeling bored, he took out his deck of cards and strolled up to the front, where Rogue was, ignoring Ashley's 'ready to kill and maim'-look. He didn't really get why everyone was so serious: sure, things were down right awful, but it could be worse. They could have been caught totally by surprise, could've been captured, or even killed very very slowly. Yeah, those were all pretty high on the 'don't want that to happen'-list.

"Ah, chere," Remy drawled, shuffling the cards in his hands.

"No!" was the only, growled reply he got.

He raised his eyebrows at Rogue: absorbed a bit too much Wolverine, perhaps? That couldn't be good for anyone. He wouldn't like a Wolverine in his head, Remy shuddered just at the thought of it.

"Awww, but you don' know what Remy wanted to do," he took a whiney note in his voice.

"No, Ah don' wanna play yer stupid card tricks," Rogue ground out, tugging at her glove. She had taken of the necklace that negated her powers for then, just to be on the safe side. She found it took a bit of time for her power to get back to its ussual potential, time they often didn't have in fights.

Before Remy could retaliate, however, Ashly jumped in between.

"If I were you, Gambit," she said crispily, "I'd be gettin' my ass outta here, 'cause in five minutes you'll be havin' 'bout as much life in yourself as a papersheet," with that, she tapped the side of her head, giving the suggestion she'd seen it with her power.

Remy paled slightly at that suggestion: as much as he enjoyed bugging Rogue, he also enjoyed the fact that he was alive, and with said mutant with her nerves that high-strung, the twitching or her left eyebrow, he quickly, very quickly, beat an hasty retreat. Perhaps later. Yeah, much, much later, when there was the possibility of getting a nice, big, steel wall between him and Rogue, that or an ocean.

"That'll keep 'm quiet for a while," Ashley stretched her neck, her arms crossed over her chest. There was a scowl on her face and the impressive black eye, scratches and cuts that littered every visible piece of skin, it appeared, only aided in making her look darker.

Rogua glared at the retreating pain in the universe's neck, before turning to Ashley: "Why didya hafta warn 'm? Ah wouldn' have drained 'm that much. Jus' a lil' ta put some good common sense fear inta 'm."

"Oh, was I warning him for you then? Because I sure felt like throttlin' 'm," Ashley shrugged, not particularly caring about what would happen to Remy, just as long as he shut up.

Once again, a heavy silence wrapped itself around the group of tired, weary travellers like a thick blanket, dampening even the thoughts in their minds with its cloth woven from the tiredness that resided within each and every member. Every step seemed to grow slower, taking the further away from their goal: the Institute.

Sarah looked back into the direction they'd come from more and more, obviously tempted to just go back and see if she could help Marianne. But duty kept pulling her mind back on the track. She didn't have much faith in John when it came to defending, seeing him more like a lose canon then anything else, Remy's arm was still bothering him, she could clearly see that, Ashley moved slow from the bruises and scrapes, TJ wouldn't do much good with his broken arm, so that left her and Rogue. Rogue was good, but not good enough, none of them were, to be able to go against a small, weaponed army while making sure none of the others got killed.

It seemed to take all eternity, while, in truth, it had taken half a day, the Institute was in sight.

Rogue's eyes narrowed when she saw that the security system was fully online and the Institute was locked down: odd, very odd. She didn't remember Logan saying anything about that. Maybe Scott had dropped by before them, and brought it online. Paranoid.

On the other hand, they hadn't been able to take everything with them, so much equipment had been left behind, that had to be protected, yeah, that had to be the rational explanation. What else could it be?

"What's the hold up?" Sarah asked, coming to stand next to Rogue, in front of the closed gate.

"Security system online, an' the Institute's locked down, Ah guess Cyclops got a lil' worried," Rogue shrugged, "Ah'll have us in in no time," she moved to the pad to type in her password only to come to one conclusion, "or maybe not."

"Oy, I didn' like the sound o' that, Sheila," John felt compelled to state the obvious.

"Why can't you have us in?" Sarah gritted her teeth and ignored John, she forcibly bashed in the mental red light that was flashing up an alarm-sign, repeating the mantra that 'it would all be alright'.

"It's broken," Rogue frowned, looking closely at the broken panel, someone seemed to have smashed it in with a rock, either to prevent anyone else from entering or a random act of violence. Most likely just someone being a 'big boy' and smashed the panel in with a rock or something. It didn't really matter, there was a second panel, Rogue mentally thanked Logan for his all round paranoia.

Finding the panel, however, was another story, and Rogue soon went from thanking to cursing Logan's paranoia, stupid panel was too well hidden away. The others soon found themselves watching a shaking, cursing bush, or rather: Rogue had crawled into the bush, and was cursing loudly.

"Dis be somt'in' Remy don' get to see every day," Remy murmured, tilting his head to the left while curiously observing the bush. He had to enjoy it as much as he could now, because knowing Rogue, she'd blackmail them all with the most painfull retribution should they ever spread that story. And what was the fun in spreading a story if you weren't in one piece to observe the results?

"Ya won't ever see it again, an' ya'll never ever speak 'bout it either," came from the bush as Rogue punched in the code and then came out again, twigs and leaves sticking out of her hair and a look that put Marianne's glare to shame. The gate opened, and it surprised John that it did so without any creaking or just plain refusing too. It did fit in their stroke of 'luck'.

Unknown to the group, though, their entrance did not go unnoticed and was designated as a Very. Not. Good. Thing. Things happened fast in the Mansion, people were sent down to the lowest levels, while only two remained to play 'welcome' party to the group that had just shut down the defense-system. Part of their caution was caused by the fact that the out-side video system had been demolished even before they got there, so the group inside the Institute had no idea who was outside and on what side they were. The only thing that allowed them to notice that there was someone coming in was the fact that the security system had been switched from all out to virtually non-existant.

Outside, Rogue and the other couldn't help but feel a little more at ease then they had felt in a long time. Even though they weren't inside yet, it was good to simply set foot upon the ground they had been aching to get at ever since the get go.

Half way up the lane though, Rogue froze, coming face to face to a not so welcoming looking young man: "Who the hell are ya!" she hissed.

"Vincent!" called an all too familiar voice out, and another man, too familiar for Rogue's tastes: Shadow, came scrambling from the trees, "Oh, hi Rogue... ehm... I can explain?"


A/N: Vincent is Agent-G's! I swear, I just borrowed him! Only 'cause I like Vince and like borrowing other people's OC's (the ones I like - )