Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, zip. Blaze owns me. Ilehana is Corrinth's.

10

Back outside, the unrelenting scream of laser blasts and the seething roar of fire and acid were finally broken by a shout of defiance. "Hey losers," cried a familiar voice from an upstairs window of the mansion, "Catch!" It was Tabitha, Magma and Morose, leaning out of the window with attacks primed and ready. Embyr and Buzzard immediately flew up towards the window, only to be beaten back by a rain of exploding firecrackers, fistfuls of lava-fire, and several hardback books as thrown by Morose. Blaze and Gambit took the hint, broke from cover and attacked the two airborne mutants with their own ranged attacks.

"Jean!" yelled Wolverine from the midst of his scrap with Iona, "Get Morose!"

It took Jean less than a second to telekinetically throw Behemoth into Vertigo. Scott blasted the pair of mutates into the fountain, and then knocked back Ruckus before he could avenge his downed teammates. With Blaze and Remy providing covering fire, Jean flew up to the window and offered a hand to Morose. The white haired girl gulped, rubbing the small goat-like horns that protruded from her forehead with her wrist. "I can't do this," she told Jean solemnly.

"Please Morose, we need you," Jean insisted. Still the girl wasn't convinced, but she climbed onto the window ledge and took Jean's hand nonetheless. They descended gracefully to the ground, protected by Jean's telepathic shielding. The front of the mansion resembled a scene from Dante's Inferno. Amidst the smoke, ash and charred stench of burnt earth, the X-Men regrouped around the small girl who was their only hope of ending this battle quickly.

Sinister's mutates also recoiled, lining up together to face this unexpected behaviour from their opponents. Grey smoke drifted across the scene and the sun seemed to dim in the swooping sky above. Morose took a deep breath, before unleashing her depression-fed mutation. Ribbons of black mist entwined with the smoke, swelling and growing until a massive black bubble swallowed up the X-Men's opponents like the tide reclaiming the rocky shore.

"You're sure this will work?" asked Cyclops, who had not experienced Morose's powers before. "Morose's attack will strip them of their powers, but it can't affect anyone who is a Guardian of Destiny?"

"I ain't sure, no," Wolverine, the Metal Guardian, replied. "I don't know what Sinister is capable of, but this is our best shot."

"Let's do this," Jean agreed vehemently, feeling the strength of the Guardian of Thought swell inside her. Cyclops, he of Energy, had a similar ferocious expression in his chiselled features. Blaze, Fire Guardian, looked over at Gambit and was aghast, "You can't go in there Rem. You're not a Guardian. You won't have any powers."

"Neither will they," pointed out the Cajun. He shrugged out of his torn trench coat and in the same smooth motion withdrew his extending staff weapon. With a flick of his thumb, he triggered the extending mechanism. Blaze felt gooseflesh trickle over the back of her neck just watching him prepare himself. Gambit's eyes narrowed as he considered the dark bubble in front of him, "'Rose can handle these losers, eh Petite?"

"I couldn't knock them out, there are too many and they are too strong," Morose replied in a distracted voice. "I've just made them upset, and took their powers away. You should go in now, before they find their way out."

Wolverine patted the kid reassuringly on the shoulder; she had done good. Morose's ability to create this power-hungry void wasn't just depression fed. It also created a depression so raw it overwhelmed those inside it. As the X-Men stepped through, they were ready for the crushing emotion. Each of the five team-members fought off the invasive feeling of oblivion with the only weapon they had against it, their anger.

Suffused with a violent repulsion against these genetically engineered mutates who had attacked their home and their family, the X-Men showed no mercy. In the pitch-black void, out of phase with the rest of existence, Sinister's now powerless troops stood a snowball's chance in Hell. If the X-Men had been less well drilled, less in control, it would have been a massacre…

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Not long afterwards, the unconscious mutates were tied up by the fountain, watched by Wolverine. Logan was on the phone to Nick Fury, explaining why he and Blaze were no longer in the Arctic and insisting that Shield come and take the mutates away. Fury didn't need asking twice. At the same time the others were roaming through the mansion, doing a headcount and treating the injured. So far there was nothing worse than a few nasty bumps on the head to report. Still Logan wished that the Professor and Beast were here to treat the injured, and most of all Ilehana. It wasn't like the Wolverine to be so sentimental, and he quickly pushed all such pointless thoughts aside as Gambit came to join him.

"Still no sign o' Sinister himself," Gambit reported.

"No?" Logan asked. Remy shook his head, making Logan sigh wearily. "Why do I get the feelin'," he wondered aloud, "that we been set up, and this is just a cover for somethin' else?"

"You t'ink dis all a play to distract us?" Gambit was horrified. "Why? From what?"

"I don't know," Logan admitted, "I guess…"

Whatever he guessed was cut off by the roar of jet engines. The Blackbird soared majestically over the mansion, before banking steeply and dropping to land in tandem next to the Velocity. Blaze and Jean came out of the mansion to watch as the jet's gangway lowered ceremoniously. The open doorway revealed a stunning, lean blonde woman with smiling Xavier eyes. Logan's jaw dropped open too, but with much less decorum than the X-Jet's gangway. After being feared dead for so long, Ilehana Xavier was returned to the X-Men.

"Vixen!" yelped Blaze, barrelling across the lawn to welcome her old friend back with a fierce hug. Ilehana returned the embrace, but she only had eyes for Logan. Noticing this, Gambit went over and took hold of Blaze by the elbow.

"Cherie, I t'ink maybe Vixen an' Wolverine need a moment," Remy whispered in Blaze's ear. Blaze flushed, slightly embarrassed, and let herself be led away. Somehow Wolverine managed to walk sensibly up to Ilehana, scoop her unresisting slender form into his strong arms, and kiss her deeply.

"Okay, that's a better welcome home than I had planned," Blaze admitted to Gambit as they politely averted their eyes from the reunited couple. Beast raised a hand in greeting to the Cajun and the English girl as Jean escorted Hank and the Professor into the mansion. Both Remy and Laura waved back, before a sudden wave of shyness accosted Blaze as she tried to excuse herself from Gambit's company, "I'd better get back inside myself, they're gonna be shorthanded…"

"I need to keep an eye on de mutates 'til Logan comes up for air," Gambit admitted with a grin. Blaze pursed her lips to stop herself from grinning, and with a shake of her head started to walk away. Gambit thought about calling her back and confronting the nest of writhing gators in his stomach. Not today Remy, he told himself silently. In any case, ole Logan jus' 'bout gone an' stole your thunder…