Scythe wandered the underground hallways of the Xavier Institute. She hadn't seen Gambit for three days. Rogue and Kurt were getting noticeably more uptight about Vie's impending departure. She was going to go with Rogue to the mall this afternoon to buy Vie and Rogue cell phones to keep in touch. Vie was just waiting for Rogue to get off from school.

Scythe found a large door with a blinking red light and decided to check it out. She hit a few random buttons on the panel and managed to open the thick doors. Inside it was dark, pitch black. A female automated voice suddenly surrounded Vie. "Wolverine training sequence activated." She looked around, trying to orient herself but was blind.

Dim lights came on, revealing to Vie a metal landscape. A labyrinth of metal walls rose from the floor. As she began wandering through them, she felt Wolverine's presence somewhere within the labyrinth. His adrenalin was up. It took only a moment for Scythe to find out why. Guns emerged from the walls and began firing at her. Vie dodged and ran into the metal maze. Around each corner was some kind of obstacle. Metal saws the size of umbrellas, guns, lasers, darts, trapdoors. Vie ducked, dodged, and leapt her way through. The closer to the centre Vie got, the harder it became to avoid the weapons.

Scythe came to a spot where there was no floor for three yards. Along the walls were plasma guns that began firing at her. Vie leapt to the nearest one, grabbing on with her hands and using it to acrobatically swing up to the next gun. She flipped her body around the gun and planted her feet on the top. She sprung to the next gun as a laser from across the way shot at her, blowing up the gun she had been standing on. Finally she was within jumping distance to the ground. She dove forward, tucking and rolling as she hit the ground. Vie rounded the corner and nearly ran headlong into Wolverine. He snarled. "What are ya doing in here, girlie?"

"I have no idea," she said. As darts started to rain on them, the two bolted for another hall. "Do you have any idea how close we are?"

"Should be a few more turns. Watch out," he snapped, tackling her to the ground, as a metal ram plummeted towards them. Wolverine covered Vie's head as it passed inches above them. "Gotta get cha out of here," Wolverine mumbled to himself.

"I've been handling myself fine," Vie snarled.

"Think yer so tough? You lead," he snapped.

Scythe smirked. "Gladly." Vie pushed herself to her feet and took off. Wolverine followed. Scythe dodged oncoming bullets as they rounded another corner. Wolverine blocked some with his claws.

Vie acrobatically avoided all the obstacles, while Wolverine followed behind, breaking them. Finally Scythe reached the centre of the maze with Wolverine. "Sequence terminated," came the automated voice.

"Not bad, girlie," Wolverine said as the labyrinth faded, leaving an enormous empty metal room.

"Not bad yourself," Vie teased. "What time is it?"

"'Bout a quarter after three."

"I gotta go meet Rogue. We should do this again sometime, tough guy," she smirked and gave him a swift kiss and ran out the now open door.

Wolverine watched her leave. "Strange girl." He realized one of his pockets was light and growled. "She took m' damn keys."

XxxXxxX

Scythe chuckled and she hoped into Wolverine's Jeep and sped off to meet Rogue at her school. She was wearing an oversized hoodie and a spare pair of Rogue's gloves to cover her hands and arms. As Vie pulled up to the school, she pulled the hood over her face. Vie honked the horn as she saw Rogue walking out.

Rogue spotted her and hoped in. "Ready?" Vie asked.

"Let's go."

They arrived at the mall within minutes and were soon walking the pathways looking for a phone store. The first one they came across was Verizon. "Let's check here," Scythe said, leading the way in. The browsed phones for a few minutes before a young man in his early twenties came over to help them.

"What are you ladies looking for today?"

"We're going to start a plan and we each need a phone," Scythe said.

"Alright, we have a large selection of smart phones available…" the young man went through his sales speech about the various phones and what the benefits were of each one.

Eventually Rogue and Vie each picked a smart phone and Vie signed them up for unlimited plans so Rogue could play around on the internet and what not. "It's so expensive," Rogue said guiltily.

Scythe chuckled. "Money's not something you've got to worry about anymore, Anna," she said, handing over a card and signing for the purchase. Once their phones were set up. They each programmed each other's numbers, the number of the institute, and the numbers of a few other students in. "Got any homework tonight?"

"Ah swear, ya drive me nuts with that school stuff" Rogue growled. "No, ah don't have homework tonight."

Vie smiled, "Alright. Anything you want to do while we're out?"

"Let's get something' to eat. Ah'm starvin'."

XxxXxxX

After eating out, the girls returned home. They went to talk to Beast about Vie's outlook. "Everything is going swimmingly. I've made several more batches for Vie, identical to the one she has already taken. You'll need to take 100ccs every four weeks."

"Great. Thank you for all your help, Henry. What about the stitches?" Vie asked.

"That is also doing very well. We can take them out in ten days."

"Thank you," Vie rose on her toes and kissed Beast's furry cheek. "You've been wonderful."

"You sound as though you're leaving" Beast pointed out.

Scythe nodded. "I am. Tomorrow night." Rogue didn't take kindly to the news, but Vie had warned her it was coming.

"In that case I'll package a large amount of your serum. You are always welcome back for more."

"I'll visit. I've got to make sure this one stays out of trouble," Vie teased, pointing her thumb at Rogue.

XxxXxxX

As Vie lay awake that night she wondered if she should contact Gambit. And if she should, how would she do it. As a master thief, Gambit made himself very hard to get a hold of. She pulled his playing card from her pocket and looked it over. It gave her an idea.

She pulled out a piece of paper and began scribbling a message on it.

Diable,

Me rencontrer ici demain à minuit. Je suis venue à la maison.

V

(Translation: Devil. Meet me here tomorrow at midnight. I'm coming home. V)

Vie folded up the note and taped it to the playing card before getting up and heading out the door.

Scythe crept quietly through the mansion and out the front door. Once outside she breathed in the calm night air. Quickly and quietly, she made her way through the forest the same way she had when she first arrived. When she made it to the street Gambit had dropped her off at, Vie taped the card and her note to a tree where Gambit could easily find it but no one passing by would notice it. Hoping that would work, Scythe crept back into the house.

XxxXxxX

The following evening, Scythe had dinner with all the X-Men. Many of them had questions about her being related to Rogue, what she did, why she was an Acolyte, etc. Vie answered them as best she could to show that she had nothing to hide from the X-Men. The only thing she kept short was anything pertaining to her killings. She wouldn't go into details like who she had killed or how she did it. She simply told them she had traveled a lot over the last year.

She spent that night with the students, watching a movie and playing video games. After ten, the number of kids dwindled as they headed off to bed. Soon it was eleven and down to her, Rogue and Kurt. "I'll visit often, or meet up with you in the city. You can call or text anytime as much as you want."

"How do you know Magneto won't use you against us?" Kurt asked.

"Magneto doesn't know I'm related to Rogue. He doesn't even know I've been here all this time. Gambit told him I had gone to see my mother. As long as he doesn't find out, he won't play us against each other." Vie looked at the clock, eleven thirty. "You two need to get some sleep. Text me in the morning." She hugged each of them before shooing them off to bed.

Scythe headed for the front door. She had enough time to take a casual pace to get to where she told Gambit to meet her. Once she got to the front door, Wolverine was standing with his arms crossed.

"Came to say good bye?" she smirked.

Wolverine growled. "Don't flatter yerself, girlie. I'm making sure yer leavin'."

She nodded. "Keep in touch, tough guy." She captured his lips and walked around him out the door. There was a new weight in Wolverine's pocket. Wolverine smirked, she had returned his keys.

XxxXxxX

Gambit had seen Vie's message as he had driven up to visit last night. Now, he waited beside his parked motorcycle. It was about ten to midnight. He had parked his motorcycle next to the tree the note had been taped to. Gambit leaned against his bike with arms folded over his chest, absentmindedly playing with the ace of hearts he had given to Vie and she had used to signal him. It had been a clever idea to use his card. Gambit had wondered how, and if, she would get a hold of him to pick her up.

"You waiting for someone?" came the seductive voice he had first heard in a Mexican bar.

"Waiting for you, chère," he smirked, remembering their first exchange. "You gunna make me chase you t'rough a crowd again?"

Vie chuckled. "Out here? At this time of night? I think not." She walked up to Gambit and threw her arms around his neck. Gambit wrapped his arms around her waist and held her their. Each enjoying the feel of the other in their arms. "Let's go home."

Gambit smiled at her. "You sure you don wan t'stay, petit?"

Vie shook her head. "I've stayed long enough."

"Alrigh', chère. Hop on," Gambit mounted his motorcycle and Scythe got on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. She rested her head on his back, taking in his scent. It was musky and spicy and oddly comforting. As Gambit drove off, Vie fell into sleep.

XxxXxxX

Scythe woke to Gambit pulling into a gas station. She rubbed her eyes and righted herself enough to allow Gambit to get off to put gas in his bike. She looked about groggily and realized the most definitely weren't in the state of New York anymore. "Where are we going?"

Gambit chuckled. "I told you, chère. We goin' home."

"New Orleans?" He nodded. "Are you crazy, Cajun? I haven't been back since I was supposed to kill you. What if our families see us together?" she growled.

Gambit swept Vie off his bike and into his embrace in one fluid move. It managed to leave Vie breathless as their faces sat less than an inch apart. "Let dem."