Toujours

by Taquinez

A tale of mystery & intrigue, pain & pleasure, love & hate, trust & betrayal, envy & satiety. A dark AU exploring the rooted depths of Rogue, Remy, Magneto, Logan, Scott, Xavier, Kitty, Cypher & more. Ch 10 - New Toys, Discarded Toys... It's all gone awry

10. Chapter 10 Worse Things

Author's Note: I must apologize for my grotesquely late update. This was mostly finished before I even posted the last chapter, so I have no good enough excuse for my tardiness. Thank you for your kind condolences at my loss, and, of course, for reviews as well. For those who don't speak up: I know you're there, all the chapter hits are climbing rather high and fast. Grant me a peak into your thoughts on them?

It's a monster of a chapter: 42 pages (single spaced) and almost 18,000 words.

PS. Omg, why aren't the section breaks working anymore!?!?!?! (throws mild tantrum) My eyes went crosseyed trying to put in makeshift ones real quick. Let me know if I missed any or misplaced any. Thanks! Enjoy!

Description: Ah, Remy. Friendship may disrobe the cloak, but the drain remains.

-

Chapter Ten

Once when I was all alone,
I called you, and you weren't at home
My heart fell like a stone
To the ground, to the ground, to the ground

Why, when morn had dawned on me,
And anger grew like ecstasy,
And Leda threw the swan on me and I fell
To the ground, to the ground, to the ground

Oh, don't say, "I want you,"
Don't stay this way, believe me,
I wasn't trying to play the game
Where someone's to blame,
I'll stay the same 'til you change your mind
And you'll change your mind

I could have broken you,
I should have spoken for you
You should have seen it was turning me on
Don't you know it's true?
There are worse things, perverse things I could do

Once when I was all alone,
I could not find the telephone
So instead I burned your pretty home
To the ground, to the ground, to the ground

("Worse Things," Johnny Hollow)

-

Preparations were completed swiftly. Four of Amelia's security officers would be joining Rogue, Kyle, Clarice, Erin, and Cristoph. They would splinter into smaller groups after Clarice blinked them a safe distance away and one officer would go with each. Mystique would slip off separately under her own mundane disguise. That would be a few hours later, though, since she was unconscious at the moment. Rogue had borrowed enough of Mystique's power to use if she needed to slip by unnoticed should she encounter any of Val's people. Thanks to Jean's influences, Rogue could store the ability for a later use, though she could still only use it in a limited supply dependent foremost on how much she borrowed. That Rogue was to absorb Mystique at all had been Mystique's insistence, another of those behaviors she blamed on her promise to Irene. It was Rogue's insistence that she get a small dose of Kyle first, to satisfy her own qualms, paltry a solution it might have been, about inadvertently infecting Mystique with Lanx in her own good intentions.

Now, two fresh sets of stolen memories churned in Rogue's skull. She was sorely out of practice for it and needed a few minutes to compose herself, to steady herself. With her hooded suede cloak comfortably settled around her, she sought solace out on the airy expanse of the veranda balcony overlooking the courtyard.

Gambit was already there, reclined along one of the stunted stone walls intermixed between sets of railings. He was smoking a cigarette, but upon seeing her, he stubbed it out on the underside of his shoe. Otherwise, he seemed content to leave her alone.

She went to the rail none too far from his stone lounge and soaked up the dewy morning air, the sight of all the plentiful green trees, and the sound of young children playing below. She had to lean out a little to watch them toss water balloons at each other. They were around the age of Marlee and Max, from what she could tell at that distance, that angle. It gave her a pang of sadness anew for their plight. It also crooned her will. I'll get you home.

She watched them a while longer before the pang swelled too large to encompass and she had to wrench her attention to the bright and cheery morning sky.

"You really married," Gambit asked, apparently now content to converse.

"Huh?"

"Mystique said dey got your husband."

"Oh, that. Nah, I'm not hitched," Rogue answered. "Not traditionally, leastways. Doesn't make me any more available."

"But, all dat stuff wit' Erik. You teetering a fence 'bout it."

"I am," she admitted. "Don't make it right and proper. Nor does it mean I'll follow through with it. Maybe I'm sorta fond of the what-might-have-been. Maybe I indulge it more than I should."

"Magneto know dis?"

"Never said it outright, not like that," she said wistfully. "I had assumed he was playing along, mostly. Been gettin' the idea… oh, I don't know… maybe I've got it all wrong."

"Lots of maybes in all dat, chère. Any plans to put a stop to it?"

"While I'm otherwise homeless? Are ya dense?"

He chuckled. "Guess dat's a no."

"Whatever he thinks we might be, he knows it's impossible."

"And if Évariste—dat's his name, right—doesn't come out de other side of dis?"

"Then I probably won't either. And he knows that too."

"I've heard whispers," Remy dared to say, though there was nothing daring in his tone. "Dat you're afflicted."

He noted how the wording seemed to make her cringe. It wasn't more than a sinking motion of the hood and cloak, so he wasn't sure. He continued anyways. It was better than the punches he'd solicited with his rash words during their first Messenger meeting in the tunnels, after all.

"Somet'ing called de fix? Is it a link between de two of you? Like a psychic bond?"

"Yes."

It wasn't more than Magneto and the others knew so she figured there was little point in hiding it. Besides, the trauma recently inflicted upon it was a medical issue for her. Even she knew the perilous recklessness contained in trying to disguise it.

"It was an accident, a long time ago," Rogue explained. "His powers, my powers, his crush, my condition. My guts were spilling onto the dirt. His concern overflowed his capacity. He's still a little angry with me for trying to take Sabretooth out on my own."

Gambits eyebrows lifted in surprise. He was impressed and disbelieving all at once.

"I lost, of course," she said dryly. "But I don't suspect I actually expected to survive, let alone to win. Still, it worked out in the end. Logan lived. Most of the Morlocks lived." A faint sardonic lilt elongated the next. "You became a traitor."

Seeing his eyes flash like burning rubies, she softened it by adding, "By betraying a madman. Made the difference, made it only a partial massacre."

"You so sure 'bout all dat?" It was challenging. He swung his legs off the stone and let them dangle.

The hood and cloak shifted, giving him the impression that she shrugged lightly. "Told you I studied up on you."

"Even learned my native tongue." He winked, rueful, but she couldn't see it under his dark sunglasses.

The hood alone shifted and he wondered if she was smiling. He sought her with his empathy, sensing impish mirth atop a distant withering sadness, and believed it was so.

"Évariste saved me," she said it like it explained it, though it did little to enlighten him on the topic of her knowing French-Creole-Cajun slang. "The fix was born."

"What's it like, being dat close to someone? Share your t'oughts? Your feelings?" A thought occurred to him. "What he t'ink about you and Erik?"

The hood dipped forward. Profound guilt sloughed off of her.

"Désolé," he told her and meant it. How could he not when his empathy made him experience her guilt as if it were his own?

A full minute passed before the hood lifted again.

"De rein," It's nothing, she told him eventually, dismissing his transgression. "It is what it is. Sometimes it's harder than others." The hood angled the slightest bit towards him. "Sometimes easier."

"So why you telling me all dis?" He slid off the stone, his back to the view, his eyes probing the hollow depths of her hood. "Everyone kept on warnin' me your lips were sealed." He licked his own unconsciously.

"You're safe," She said with a crooked smile. "You're not in it for the what-ifs or maybe-somedays. You're just in it for the thrill. You don't mind it being a game."

He smirked, but if not for his dark glasses she would've noticed that it was cynical and self-deprecating by his eyes. It was the very thing he'd argued about with Mystique. And yet… "You almost make it sound a virtue."

"It's all I can offer, so I justify it," she said. "Erik… It was wrong of me to play with him. He only likes it when things are serious. We both ended up caught in that sticky web. But you… We could both afford to fall a little, I think, just enough to keep the stakes raised, and still remember it's just a game. The delicious torture of it is sufficient for you I think."

Grinning fit to split himself, he loped an arm around her shoulders. "Well… I t'ink dis be de beginning of a beautiful friendship."

She savored the moment, enjoying the concept of simply having a friend. Not an attachment or a parent-figure or a dependent or an unquenchable-ache, but a friend. The idea of it gleamed finer than gold or platinum.

The Lanx stirred on her cheek, reminding her of her dependence on Kyle and Logan now and worse, how Erik could target it and tug at her on his whim. She frowned, though it was lost in the shadows of the cloak, and considered how similar his pull on her Lanx matched his pull on her emotions. Like a leash. She wondered how she let their roles switch. Wasn't she supposed to be holding those reins?

While she ruminated, Remy snuck inside her guard. He pushed the hood aside and leaned in, as if the hot smack of Lanx on her cheek had beckoned him to plant a kiss upon it.

"Maggots to a corpse," she said wistfully, rephrasing what she told him in the tunnels, and he backed out of the hollow of her hood, though not wholly away. "A little is never enough."

"You say de sweetest t'ings, chère." He whispered it against the hood. His words stirred it, made the oh-so-soft suede flutter against his cheek.

"Safe for me," she said as she lightly shrugged him off before he could pursue more. "Not so safe for devil-may-care scoundrels with a death wish." And yet, she couldn't help herself. "Ya may not have noticed," she said contradictory, playfully, turning the warning into a flirtatious boast, "but I'm mighty hard not to fall for." She waggled her gloved fingers forebodingly at him. "Just one little touch and down you go, all mine."

"Ahh," Remy said. Still to her side, he turned to face her and loped his arm around the front of her waist this time. "But dat's de real beauty of it, n'est-ce pas?" He hiked her closer, bumping hips, his right to her right, like in a Tango, and upsetting her balance just enough to make her grip the railing. "You don't have a vested interest in my wellbeing, so what do you care?"

She couldn't help it. She laughed. "Mystique and Erik must really hate you."

"What can I say?" He asked rhetorically. "Remy's a charmer."

"Remy's a swamp rat," she corrected him and found serenity in it. She rested her head against his shoulder and inhaled his scent—cigarettes, a spicy musk of utterly masculine cologne, the sharp floral of an expensive shampoo that was almost feminine—and its backdrop, the sweet and earthy air of the courtyard below. "Don't rattle the beds of too many fresh faced girls in Erik's territory while I'm gone," she told him. "They gotta be running low on contraceptives by now. Our next exchange would've been tomorrow, not that we even prepared it."

"Hey now, Remy's a gentleman," he said and chuckled. He puffed his chest with mock pride. "I bring my own."

"When Erik comes pounding on Xavier's door to make ya do right by 'em, ya best not complain to me about it," she told him. "Remember, I warned ya."

"Way I see it, he's got no room to complain." He pulled his arm from around her, leaned back against the railing and counted off his reasoning on his fingers. "You're unavailable. You're younger than his kids. He didn't even know dey existed 'til dey were all grown up. He's jealous of my romantic expertise and sexy physique." He tipped his sunglasses down and winked at her. "Not to mention my age."

She elbowed him smartly in the ribs. "Be nice."

Remy shrugged, non-committal, saying, "Maybe…" He smirked—a taunt, a tease, laid open the gauntlet, displaying a gambit. "But only if you survive."

She frowned sourly. "Always do." She headed inside.

"Hey, Rogue?" Remy called after her. "Ol' bucket-head really tap de Underground for condoms?"

Her fingers splayed across her belly—Marieé—though he couldn't see it. Over her shoulder, she called back, "Ironically, yes." She twisted a wicked little grin back at him; let the sunshine into the hood enough to share it with him. "…And other things."

His easy chuckles trailed after her, warming her as surely as the docile morning sun.

Friends… She found it delectably inviting.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Carol bypassed the security and entered Essex's lab without request.

Annoyance creased his brow at her approach. He was all smiles, sharp-toothed and foreboding, when he asked her, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I'm here to keep your tortures from being a waste," she said curtly as she avoided looking at the six-year-old patient anchored to the medical bed.

"I would hardly call the manifestation of young Max's powers a waste of efforts."

"You did it?" She didn't bother to hide her suspicion and shock.

He removed the syringe from Max's arm, dislodged the blood filled vial, and set it in the holder beside three others. "Not yet."

She swallowed hard. "Well, bring in Marlee. Let's see what we can get out of the two of them."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

They were gathered in the conference room, a large map already outspread on the table, waiting for Rogue's return. They didn't waste breath on greetings when she entered.

"See here," Magneto pointed on the map and then out the window to the desiccated tower poking up in the distance. "That's there. See the rim near the top?"

They squinted and nodded.

"Mystique reports that Nightcrawler uses that as a stop-point when they teleport here," Magneto explained. "If none of you move around overmuch, it should hold you." To Clarice, he asked, "Can you reach it?"

"Yes," Clarice said confidently. And she could, and much further, when need be, Rogue knew it for a surety.

"Good."

Magneto continued pointing out their route options using the map and computer printed pictures as navigational tools. A second set was bound in a small snap-open binder she could take with her.

When he finished, Rogue went over the line-ups. "Hollow goes with me and Erin to the safe house."

Hollow was mute, though it was unknown if it was voluntarily or not. Her razor-sharp carmine colored skin, clothed in numerous leather straps and belts that managed to remain faintly modest, made even Rogue cringe at the thought of ever needing to fight her let alone touch her. Hair, hands and feet were like claws, formed of elongated tendrils in matching carmine, though sharper than her skin. Rogue felt an instant kinship with the girl, and wondered if she had any idea of her own circumstances in return.

"Clarice drops off Taurus and Polaris somewhere in Connecticut," Rogue continued. "Near Westchester, she looses Monet and Logan, then she, Havoc, and Kyle continue down to New Jersey."

Everyone nodded, except for Kyle. He raised his hand. Clarice smacked it down, quipping, "What are you, twelve?"

Rogue sighed impatiently. "What is it, Kyle?"

"How do we all get back?"

Rogue set her chin determinably. "However you can manager it. I'll look for ya'll telepathically, if I can, reroute us for Clarice to pick us up, if it's manageable and she's got any fuel left in her, but a pre-determined meet up is just more info to be gained should any of us get harvested. Be a shame to go through all this just to get rounded up in one fell swoop at the end. Once we're separated, we stay separated until we're back under the jurisdiction of Magneto's sanctuary."

Kyle started to rebut her logic, but she stifled it with a stern look.

"You won't need to say a thing if you're captured. They're not above using telepaths of their own."

"That's gonna be a long walk if Blinky here taps out," Kyle grumbled, earning him another elbow to the ribs from Clarice.

"Good thing you've got a healing factor then," Rogue groused, unbending. "We've got the cash Magneto leant us. Take a train if you dare it. Just don't go near Elysium, the tunnels, or even Central Park for that matter. They'll be watching those for sure. Got it? Good. Let's move it on out then."

They begun filing out of the conference room to the vegetable garden on the east side of the province. Amelia had arranged it to be temporarily abandoned to ensure their departure would be least noticed. Before Rogue could pass out the conference room doors, however, Magneto tugged her back with a magnetic grasp of the hot smack of Lanx on her cheek.

"Stop doing that," Rogue snapped at him. "I'm not your puppet."

He relented, exchanged that grasp of her with a palm lain along her upper arm, under the cloak, atop the silk he'd personally chosen for her. "Better?"

"Barely," she grizzled. "What's so important?" Memory of the shipment she discussed with Gambit came unbidden. It tempered her annoyance. Though she knew he wouldn't get it, she joked crankily, "Need me to stop at the store on the way?"

Magnus frowned, thrown off, and said, "No, of course not." His frown deepened and he ordered more than asked, "Switch with Logan."

"No."

"Erin can handle the safe house," he said rationally, attempting to persuade her. "As the head of Elysium's infirmary she's an emergency contact for the Underground, right, so the Messenger Contacts will respond to her, the other installations will too."

"Magneto, no," she repeated, shaking her head.

Ignoring her, he continued, "Logan could handle anything they come up against and survive to bring them back here."

"Lord Magneto, no."

His palm clenched, squeezing her arm in a tight grip. "What if they already know about it? You'll be exposed. You're already a prime target."

"Magnus, no."

He shook her once, harsh, to hush her. "Hollow and Erin won't be enough support for you, especially now, while you're like this. Do you want a repeat of last night? I don't."

"No," she said adamantly shaking her head, "of course not."

"Then let Wolverine go to the safe house with Erin and you go to Xavier. Even if they still bear a grudge, the X-Men will defend you if attacked."

She kissed him. It was abrupt, and quick, passionate and angry and desperate and stilling. It was also draining. He hadn't time for a magnetic field. Her lips were soft and the spot she sometimes chewed caught at him. Over too soon, he blinked at her with startled eyes.

"No, Erik," she told him once more. She gently pried his fingers off her silk-clad arm and held his hand between both of hers. He could feel the heat of her through the thin material of the gloves. "I won't bring soldiers into their halls. I just won't."

"I understand," he told her low and mesmerized, and weakened. It took effort to generate a substantial magnetic field around himself, but he managed it. He reached into the shadows of the hood to lift her chin, to bare her face to him, to search her eyes, to draw out another, lengthier kiss, but she jerked away. She took two steps back, just out of reach of his steady and earnest hands. His steely blues sparked like struck flint, heated and assaulted.

She was already apologizing. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have kissed you. It gave you the wrong impression."

"Don't ever do that again," he said, cold and ironclad. "Not if you don't mean it."

"What if I did?" It was pained and eager all at once.

He tugged her toward him with a magnetic grasp of the Lanx. "Then you wouldn't be going at all today."

She didn't resist, but when she was near enough to hear his breathing, she erected a pane of Jean's telekinesis to halt his assertive reach for her. When both of his urgent, embracing hands collided with the invisible barrier, he shoved at it, shoved at her, wretched and righteous.

The hood tipped up towards him, indicating she was squaring herself against him, though her expression was muted in its shadows.

"Then don't take liberties with me that I can ill afford either," she told him pointedly. "You rule here, I get it. But, you can't be protecting me from this. It's my responsibility."

"It doesn't have to be," he told her gently. "I would gladly share it, if you would but let me."

"It's not a matter of letting you," she snapped vehemently. "The situation is fixed! That's all there is to it."

"But what if it wasn't?"

She halted at that. She took a long deep breath and let it out slowly, deflating with it. "It hurts," she anguished. "This dreaming and wasting… It's agonizing."

"I know," he said quietly. All the comfort he couldn't physically extend to her were in those two words.

"You fog up my scope, throw off my compass." She inhaled deeply again, let it out slowly again, but this time, she seemed to be filled up with the release. "And I have to stay focused right now."

He stiffened, but relented. "A compromise then, in the interim." He opened a drawer with his powers and levitated a small communication device to hover between them. "Take this. The center button will connect you directly to me." Before she could decline, he reminded her, "It will not give them any advantage they do not already possess should they track it back to me."

She hesitated, but finally lowered the pane of telekinesis between them so she could collect the device. "And the rest of it?"

His hands itched to hold hers as she cupped the device gingerly, but he abstained. "Come back and I will promise to try."

It was a courtesy he had only ever extended to Xavier, his oldest friend, and even then it was done so rarely. She understood this and accepted it.

"For better or worse," she reminded him dryly, "I always survive."

He watched her leave, bearing it with familiar stately grace.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"I'll take her from here," Hank said to the guard that served as Marlee's escort. He'd spotted them by chance as he was stepping out for a break. He'd stayed up working all night and hadn't eaten since before Évariste was brought on board.

"I'm under direct orders from Major Danvers," the guard responded soldierly.

"It's just at the end of the hall. There's nowhere else to take her. You can stand here and watch if you feel you have to."

"I'll follow."

"Suit yourself," he said as he scooped the sleepy girl into his gorilla-esque arms. A stuffed teddy bear dangled from one hand and she sucked on the thumb on her other one. "Don't do that too much or it'll melt away like a lollipop," he told her with a gentle smile.

She pulled it out and looked at it. "Is that why it's all wrinkly?"

He nodded.

"I shouldn't take so many baths then," she said in awe.

He laughed.

She smiled too, enamored with his cheerful furry face. She poked at his puffed out cheeks and giggled. "Did someone ani… anim… anime you too?"

He gave her a quizzical look as he tried to puzzle out how she connected Japanese cartoons to him.

Noticing his minor plight, she squeezed her eyes tight, and then hoisted her teddy bear up proudly. The teddy bear blinked and held out a stuffed paw of greeting to Hank. Beaming, she exclaimed, "Anime!"

Laughing jovially, he shook the bear's paw, finally getting it. "Ah, you animate things," he said, explaining what he remembered reading about her powers on the manifest list. "Make them seem alive."

"Anime!" She announced again.

"Well, that's a rare mutant power you have," he told her. "In fact, I've never come across it before. You see, I'm like this because—" he almost told her the truth, that it was through his own scientific carelessness, but decided it wasn't worth it, that she'd be scared enough of Essex as it was, so he simply finished with, "It's my own mutation. And, it lets me do this!"

He leapt, somersaulted in the air, kicked off the wall, flipped to kick off the other wall, and rolled to a soft landing on the pads of his feet—all with her cradled safely in his arms.

Her eyes were wide with delight. "Again!"

He laughed. "Maybe later," he told her with a ruffling of her hair. "After your visit with Max. You want to see him, right?"

Her eyes alit with hope. "Really?"

"Taking you there right now," he answered. "And if you're really good, I'll get you both a visit with Évariste this afternoon."

She bombarded him with a hug. "I like you! You look like cookie-monster, but you're much nicer."

Again, Hank erupted in laughter.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"Oh, hell," Erin laughed mirthlessly. "Did I ever mention that I don't like heights?" She gulped queasily and drew away from the rusted railing that wrapped the tower. Unfortunately, there was a chunk of the wall blown out behind her so she was stuck huddling unsteadily between the two.

Kyle whistled appreciatively. "Look at that view."

Polaris sighed unhappily. "There's so much rubble still."

Buildings and homes and streets were decimated for miles and miles, far as she could see. Magneto's province had restored several square miles of property around his citadel, but it was only a pin drop compared to what was left to reconstruct.

Havoc squeezed her hand. "It was a very destructive war."

"I thought it'd be better recovered by now," Taurus said depressingly.

"Takes longer than five years to rebuild this much damage," Rogue groused. "Manhattan held up okay, considering, but even there looks are deceiving. You know how many of the buildings are still empty shells. Too many people still live like squatters in 'em, what with records how they are now. Made it easy for us to slip in and establish Elysium, but it also made it easy for greedy people to snatch a lot of them up, leaving too many others homeless. Settling in as we have made it easy to ignore stuff like that."

"Ain't that the truth," Logan grunted. To Clarice, he asked, "Got your bearings yet?"

"Yeah," Blink said and folded the map. "Just not sure where to shoot the bolt up here. Cramped quarters and all."

Rogue looked around and frowned. "We gotta scoot closer together so you can do it on the grating. We'll have to jump into it."

Erin looked at the grated walkway they stood on, at the far away ground visible through it, and paled. "You've got to be kidding me."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"Max!" Soon as she spotted him, Marlee squirmed out of Hank's furry hold and ran at him with an excited girlish squeal.

"Marlee," Max slurred. Despite the lethargy to his movements, he seemed happy to see her.

Marlee spun an accusatory look on Val and Essex. "What's wrong with him?"

The teddy bear she had dropped in her excited run marched towards Carol and kicked her with its plushy foot. Carol coughed to cover a laugh. She sought an accomplice for her amusement in Hank, but he only gave her a concerned and resolute stare.

"You sedated him, Essex?" Hank asked, speaking of Max. "You're not permitted anesthesia because you're barred from performing surgical procedures while on board. Who gave it to you?"

"It was merely a Dramamine," Essex said. "The poor boy had trouble falling asleep last night."

"I wonder why," Marlee grumbled as she eyed Essex warily.

"My sentiments exactly," Hank said. He looked from Essex to Carol. "I suppose this isn't simply a friendly visit for them is it?"

Carol pursed her lips. It bothered her immensely to have Hank group her with Essex. "Val wants the location to the safe house."

"At what cost?"

"It's just a few questions," Carol huffed. Quieter, for Hank's ears only, she hissed, "It's not torture!"

"We'll see," Hank said as he watched Essex transferred a vial of blood to a machine that would spin it until its components separated.

"You're staying?" Carol asked, offended. His lack of trust in her bothered her almost as much as his grouping her with Essex.

"Most assuredly," Hank answered. He joined Marlee at Max's bed. "Are you going to introduce me to your brother, Marlee?"

"Max, this is Hank," she said. She leaned in to whisper in childish conspiracy. "He's not the cookie monster nor a big anime teddy bear. He's more like a roller coaster you can hug."

Hank smiled kindly. "It's good to finally meet you, Max," he said and meant it. "Your sister has quite the imagination, but I'd expect nothing less of someone with such a creative mutant power."

"Marlee doesn't have a power," Max said haughtily. "She's too young. I'm two minutes older so she won't get hers until after I get mine and that won't be for years. Évariste told me so."

"I do too have a power," Marlee countered adamantly. "I can anime!" She retrieved the teddy bear, which was still kicking futilely at Carol's foot, and set it on Max's chest. Giggling proudly, she said, "I made him like this."

Max ogled the bear enviously as it teetered atop him playing hide-and-seek with his blanket. He scrunched up his face in anger and smacked it off him, sending it sailing to the floor.

"Ow!" Marlee exclaimed. Tears pooled in her eyes. "That hurt!"

Hank fetched the bear for Marlee and then picked her up to comfort her. He watched Marlee examine the bear for injury before she calmed down and hugged it.

"Don't be mad," Hank told Max and he coddled Marlee. "Sometimes, when a person experiences something very traumatic, something very hurtful to them, their hearts and minds overload from it, and thus, early onset of mutation can occur. From what I hear, it happened to Marlee when she thought she lost you."

"So what?" Max complained stubbornly. "She's a brat. She never leaves me alone."

"It may seem bothersome now, perhaps," Hank explained, "But that's part of being a big brother. It's an important duty. However, if you can't handle it, I will gladly…"

"I can do it!" Max exclaimed, interrupting him. "She's my sister. So what if she can make her stupid doll move. I'm still bigger and stronger."

"Ah, well," Hank said with dramatic disappointment. "I guess I have to find another little girl to protect."

Max eyed him up and down. Finally, he said, "Okay, you can help."

"Very gracious of you," Hank said and bowed. He was amused, but he returned the boy's serious expression. "Well then, as our first duty, I think we should try and get you and your sister back home to your family. What do you think?"

"Yeah, you're prob'ly right," Max agreed.

"Where is your home," Hank asked.

"Elysium!" Marlee announced.

Her tears had finally dried up. She squirmed, showing she wanted down and Hank set her on Max's bed. He watched a moment as she let the stuffed bear loose to move around the bed, inspecting it with newborn curiosity. Hank wondered how much of it was the bear's own inclination versus a reflection of Marlee's.

"Elysium is a wreck, though," Hank said, genuinely saddened. "Is there somewhere you're supposed to go if you can't go there?"

"Mmm-hmm," Marlee nodded.

Max leaned in to them and spoke in what he thought was a whisper. It was breathy all right, but it was still loud. "The safe house."

"Ahh," Hank said. "That makes sense. Where is it?"

Max frowned. "We're not supposed to tell. It's a secret."

"Oh, of course," Hank said. "Can't be very safe if just anyone can know about it. However, I can't get you there if you don't tell me how to find it. Can you do it on your own? I might be able to procure you a flying vessel, maybe even a car for after you land. Are either of you trained as a pilot? Do you have driver's licenses?"

"Of course not," Marlee giggled. The teddy echoed her silently. It shook and held it's belly, giving physicality to what it couldn't voice.

Max showed him wide eyes. "I wish I was a pilot!"

Hank stroked his chin in a show of contemplation. "I'm licensed for both, but I don't know how to get to the safe house. What should we do?"

Marlee and Max shared a long look. They came to a decision with it and Max relayed it.

"Long island," Max said. "Bayville."

"We never remember the exact address," Marlee said shyly. "We got it wrong on the test and the make-up. Mrs. Evans said we couldn't go on another field trip until we got it right."

"Can you find it on a map?" Carol piped in. She was already typing on the keypad of the digital device on her forearm. She pointed it at a blank expanse of the wall and a projection of a street map of Southeast New York appeared.

"No," Max said and frowned. "We weren't going over that until next week."

"Have you ever been there?" Carol asked.

"Oh, yes," Marlee said. "We had a field trip there before the first test."

Carol pressed a few more keys and the projection changed to an old video surveillance view. It zoomed into the small beach town of Bayville and cantered along some of the streets.

"Ooh," Max said excitedly, pointing. "That's where we ate. Remember, Marlee? I put ketchup on your sundae!"

Marlee made a face at the memory. "It was icky."

"Yeah, but then Évariste bought you another one to make up for it." Max pouted. "You got two. Lucky."

They continued like that, Max and Marlee telling snippets of their field trip and pointing out landmarks of their journey, until the location was finally determined.

"When do we go?" Max asked excitedly.

Hank searched his head for an answer, a lie, but came up wanting.

"Not for a while," Carol supplied. "First, he'll need to check it out on his own. Make sure it wasn't compromised, like Elysium was."

Max nodded gravely, accepting it.

"Why are you helping us?" Marlee asked Carol in child-like curiosity.

"Duh," Max said, "She's Hank's friend."

"You don't remember her?" Marlee asked it with surprise. "She's the one that put you here."

Max remembered with a gasp and very scared wide eyes. He whispered then, a real whisper, "The glowy gun."

"Shh, shh," Hank said, comforting him with a gentle pat to his back. "It's okay. She only did it to get you away from the fighting," he lied and felt sick with it. "To keep you safe." He turned to Carol, piercing her with an expression that brokered no room for her to gainsay him. "Isn't that right?"

"Yes," Carol said with a heavy heart. "No matter what else happens, I do want you and your sister to get out of this safe and happy."

"Can we go see Évariste now," Marlee asked, her tone was thick with homesickness. "I was good, wasn't I?"

"Later," Essex said before Hank could say otherwise. "First, I have to give you both a check up."

"I'm not sick," Max said.

"Me neither," Marlee added.

"That may be," Essex said with his creepy grin, "But, don't you want to find out if we can get your powers to come out too, Max."

"You can do that?" Max asked excitedly.

"I am going to try," Essex said.

"I can't stay for this," Hank said horridly and headed for the door. He turned back with a heated warning to Essex, "They better be unharmed when Évariste sees them."

Essex tipped his head in acquiescence. The creepy, sharp-toothed grin never left. In fact, it grew ever larger after Hank exited.

"Don't leave them alone with him for any reason," Carol told Marlee's guard who'd been waiting silently just inside the lab doors. "I want a full report afterwards."

The guard nodded his soldierly assent and Carol chased after Hank.

"McCoy," she called, halting him. When she caught up to him, she asked, "Why'd you do it?"

"I thought it a kindness, at first," He said ruefully. "Because I'd be gentler. And yet…" He shook his head and sighed. "I don't think I helped them, not really."

"You did," Carol said.

"I made them trust you," Hank said. "That was a disfavor to them."

Carol frowned, her jaw clenching. "I meant what I said to them."

"What does it matter what you want," Hank said. "In the end, you'll follow Val's orders."

"Not on this…" Carol shook her head adamantly. She faced him squarely, confidently. "I promise I'll do all in my power to see them off this ship and as good as new."

Hank laughed despairingly. "After treatment by Essex? Oh, they'll be new, I'm sure. So new their parents will hardly recognize them."

With that he left her and returned to his own lab to continue his work at saving the world one strain of Lanx at a time.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Rogue threw back the hood and walked the streets of Bayville with her head held high. She didn't bother tapping Mystique's power for a disguise as of yet because it would do little to hide Hollow's sharp appearance. More accepted or not, mutants with extreme differences, especially those unknown in an area, still garner at lot of stares and whispers, increased attention by way of obvious avoidance. Therefore, disguising herself would do little for the group blending in as they traipsed to the safe house.

Instead, she employed Jean's telepathy. To every mind within a block she whispered, There goes Anna, Yvette, and Erin on their regular walk around town. Over and over she repeated it until it was like a well-known song off the radio. With every step they advanced, she scanned anew, adding any additional minds within a one-block radius of the trio to the redundant persuasion and loosing those that had moved beyond it. The subtle trick was so effective that even Hollow seemed to relax: her posture straightening and her gait relaxing. Hollow even ventured to return a wave of greeting to a friendly little girl riding a tricycle trailing ribbons from the handlebars. The child's mother had glanced up in precaution, but upon seeing with whom her daughter was being friendly, she nodded as though to say, oh, it's just Yvette again.

And it was taxing. The effect barely outweighed the physical and mental exertion it required of Rogue. By the time they entered the safe house, Rogue's brow was damp with sweat, her breathing was akin to panting, and the hot smack of Lanx on her cheek had expanded to encompass most of that side of her face—strips of it splayed across her temple, her nose, and her jaw.

Erin grew concerned.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Trees arched picturesquely over the road, shading it pleasantly. Birds twittered nearby, the leaves shivered excitedly in the light breeze. Logan smelled the comforts of home and other things.

"I think we're being followed," Monet said as she and Logan walked the long private drive that lead to the gates of Xavier's estate and school.

"Yup," Logan said unconcerned. "Expected as much."

"Should I lower the hood now?"

"No," he said. "Wait until we reach the gates. We want them thinking you're Rogue as long as we can."

"Just not so long that they seek to infiltrate the school."

"That's the plan," Logan affirmed.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"I'm bored," Kyle whined.

They were sitting at a patio table outside a small café in downtown that was ironically named The Underground Café. It was so obvious that it served a perfect cover for itself. None of their members had a hand in creating it, but once discovered, they couldn't resist using it, tongue-in-cheek, as it was.

"Too bad," Clarice said. She took a sip of soda before eating more of her turkey wrap. "I just teleported more than three hundred miles over a few dozen trips in under two hours. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and since you're just here as muscle—"

"But good looking muscle," he joked.

"—you will suck it up until I'm ready."

"Blah, blah, blah," he said, smiling cheekily. He pointed across the street and to the right, to the Princeton Library Courtyard, and added, "Lets go over there and mack for a while."

Clarice swallowed another bite of her sandwich down with a swig of soda. "Dumb ass." But she grinned when she said it.

"We wouldn't be the only ones," he said. "I've counted at least six sets of co-eds slobbering all over each other since we got here."

"Liar. There's not been more than four." Another bite, another swallow. "And stop staring at the blue haired girl with all the cleavage."

He chuckled good-naturedly, and let her eat a while in peace. After a few minutes, he asked, "Did you ever want to go to college?"

"Oh, would you just shut up, already!" Havoc exclaimed. It drew several startled looks from other patrons and passersby.

Clarice smiled, but put a calming hand on his forearm to still him. "You have to just ignore him when he gets like this."

"What's his problem?"

Clarice shrugged. "He's like Logan. His adrenaline got him all riled up, but he's not had a chance to use it. Makes him a little stir crazy. That means he's a motor mouth or pricking a fight with the locals. This is better, believe me. You'll get used to it. Like white noise."

"Not likely," Havoc told her with a frown. He stretched out in his chair and let out a long sigh. "Why couldn't I have gotten Lorna's assignment instead?"

"Because, my sunshine-loving friend," she said. She took a last draught off her straw until it gurgled unpleasantly around the ice, and then stood. "Then you wouldn't have gotten to meet the Cuckoos."

Three blond females approached. They all had iron-straight brilliant platinum blond hair that shone in the late morning sun. Their sky-blue eyes all blinked in synch. And though their clothing was not exactly matched, they each extended an identically Princeton sweater clad arm to offer a hand in greeting.

"Welcome, friends," the Cuckoos said in unison.

"Well met," Clarice replied formally. She shook each of their hands.

"With whom," the left-most Cuckoo, Esmee, began.

"Do you wish," the central Cuckoo, Celeste, continued.

"To contact?" finished Sophie, the right-most Cuckoo. She was the only one to appear infected with Lanx. It was a crawling patch that wrapped her right calf and knee, bared below her pleated skirt.

"This just proves it," Havoc said. "You're all crazy."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"See that clock tower?" Taurus asked Polaris.

They were standing in Temple Square in New Haven Connecticut. All around them was the rebuilding hustle and bustle of Yale life.

"Yeah," answered Polaris.

"There's a bell up there. When it hits thirteen after the hour, ring it."

"Thirteen times, I suppose?"

Taurus nodded.

"And who will this supposedly conjure."

"The Hellfire club," Taurus supplied. He managed to look a mite bit sheepish when he added, "So rumors say."

"You've never done it before?"

He shook his head, no. "Rogue has, but she also put out a psychic call with it. Here's hoping it'll do just as well."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Mystique opened the door out of her all-metal room to find Gambit leaning nonchalantly against the wall directly across from her.

"What do you want?" She snapped crankily. It was already later than she'd intended. Rogue apparently took more out of her than she'd expected. She figured Rogue did it to make sure she didn't have time to follow her to the safe house before tracking down Forge.

"To see y' off," Gambit said with a sly grin.

Mystique scoffed and continued down the hall. "You know, you would contribute more if you just got out of everyone's way. Go back to the X-Men already."

"Oh, I intend to contribute," he said as he fell into step beside her. "Just need to hitch a ride down south first."

Mystique stopped so abruptly he stepped right past her. He turned back to her, which she must have anticipated, because she used the motion to her advantage by grabbing his collar and swinging him into the wall. Her knee sprang up between his legs, making him stand on tiptoe to keep from being bruised in a sensitive location.

"Spill it, Cajun," she hissed. She produced a knife and hoisted it against his abdomen. "Or I spill you."

His smile cooled a few degrees to a temperate expression. "Not dat hard to guess Forge down in Cape Canaveral. He's de great new hope at restoring global satellite communication to its former glory, hein? Dieu, woman, it just a matter of putting two an' two toget'er."

She lowered the knife… to just above her uplifted knee.

Gambit raised his brows.

"And your plans?" She inquired.

"Get off in N'awlins. What else?" He asked… and winked.

She rolled her eyes and released him. "I suppose you're meeting Belladonna Boudreaux. Or is it still LeBeau?"

Gambit had the grace to wince. "She never took my name, mais oui, de divorce was final il y a trios ans." Three years ago. "But I t'ink y' already knew dat."

"Information is often the trade I ply," she said in answer. She smiled wryly at him. "But I think you already knew that."

"Oui," he said, "Same as Bella nowadays."

"And what is it you expect to learn from her?"

"De topic nobody's broached since I been here. Ironic too, since it's what started all dis."

"The murders."

"Mighty convenient dat dey stopped soon as Rogue was exposed," he drawled.

"You think it was a set up from the start?"

Gambit shrugged, non-committal. "If so, it be a long way to go, especially since dey could've just ambushed a Messenger meeting with Deathbird. She seems to be sharing deir coop, n'est-ce pas?"

"True enough," she said and eyed him closer. "But there's something else, too, isn't there?"

"How did dey manage to mimic her powers? De Lanx… dat could be explained at a stretch… but de drain… Dat be harder to duplicate, oui?"

"I wondered that myself," she mused.

"Great minds t'ink alike," he said with another wink. She was starting to wonder if he had a tick.

They rounded a corner and she noticed the backpack swinging on his shoulder. "I see you're all packed to go."

"Just a few essentials," he replied.

"Funny," Mystique said humorlessly, "You didn't have it when you arrived here."

"What can I say," Remy explained with a mischievous chuckle, "Remy's resourceful."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"Rogue," Erin complained worriedly, "At least let me do the contacts so you can rest more."

"No time," Rogue said. Her voice was scratchy with Lanx. Patches of it peaked out the top of her neckline, the ends of her sleeves, her gloves, and even around her ankles. And that was all that Erin could see because the jeans and charcoal grey shirt that Magneto loaned her covered the rest of her body.

Rogue rose shakily to her feet. "On second thought," she told Erin, "Go ahead and send a message to Cypher and Locke in Chicago. Tell them only the following: Helicarrier. Encrypted drives. Deathbird breach. Then you need to purge the system." She shoved her. "Go!"

Erin stammered confusedly at Rogue's sudden harsh treatment. "I don't…"

"Carol's here!" Rogue snapped at her. "Now go!"

Erin stumbled off to her task and Rogue dragged Hollow telekinetically to the door. They positioned themselves on either side of it and waited.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"You have a helicopter?" Remy asked, genuinely surprised.

"The information industry is lucrative," Mystique said.

"Where's de pilot?"

Mystique grinned.

Gambit sighed. "I'd be worried if I t'ought you were suicidal."

They climbed in and Mystique ran through the pre-flight sequence expertly. The blades whirred overhead.

"Gonna take all day dis way," Remy said after he thought about it. "How many times we gonna refuel?"

"None."

Remy's response was jarred from his lips by their lifting off.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Monet St. Croix examined Cerebro with awe. "Can you really reach the mind of any person on the entire planet with it?"

"Given enough time and effort, yes," Xavier answered.

"Can you affect aliens? The Technarch? The Phalanx?"

Xavier became grave. "Yes."

"Why didn't you—"

"Let him work," Logan chastised her. She huffed haughtily, but obeyed. It was a long while before anyone else spoke.

"I've found them," Xavier said at length. "Rogue was right. Val is on the Helicarrier along with Cal'syee. Several mutants are also there. Unfortunately, so is Essex. There is good news though," Xavier added. "Dr. Henry McCoy is also on board."

"Hank is up there?"

Xavier disengaged Cerebro and removed the helmet. "Yes. He is working on a research project placed under SHIELDs supervision."

"Where are they?"

"They are over the Indian Ocean, and moving easterly."

"Madripoor," Logan spat it like a curse. "Has to be where they're headed. But why? The Underground only has light contracts with Harada, and he doesn't branch out much past Tokyo since the war. Outside that, I can't think of any dealings they have in Madripoor. Place is worse than a cesspool since the war."

"Maybe it's unrelated," Xavier offered. "What I gleamed from Fury didn't include machinations regarding the Underground."

"Val's just piggybacking?" Logan asked in consideration. "I could see that. What about Carol? Was she there? Could be that Rogue was wrong. We never did see Val at Elysium."

"Carol wasn't present on the Helicarrier," Xavier said and frowned. "The Underground was definitely a high priority topic for Val." He massaged his temples. "I'll probe deeper after a short break."

"I could continue the search," Monet volunteered with eager confidence. "I'm a very skilled telepath."

"No," Logan and Xavier said simultaneously.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Rogue hugged the right side of the door while Hollow hugged the left. Both were poised for Carol's imminent entrance.

I'll yank Carol through, Rogue told Hollow telepathically, You take the operative behind her.

And the third? Hollow thought in return.

We'll race for him, Rogue quipped. On one, two…

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Deathbird teleported Carol and two operatives a few homes from the safe house.

"Com check," Carol announced via her own unit. It was a less advanced version of what they utilized to infiltrate Elysium because they were maintaining cover amongst the civvies.

"Levitt check." Levitt booted up the camera link built into the crude glasses that changed their shade based upon the amount of light that reflected on them. "Eye-live."

"Check Hudson." Hudson's video transmitted static so he tapped his glasses. It cleared. "On-line."

"Okay, people," Carol told them. She read from the digital device wrapped on her forearm. It was the only equipment they couldn't better disguise. They hoped people would only see the devices at a distance and mistake them for music players or something. "Scans show three mobiles inside so we're going in hot. Levitt, you take the back. Hudson, you're up front with me. Clear the floor and meet by the stairs. Everyone reading the prints?"

Hudson and Levitt both typed up the schematics to the house and replied, "Got it" and "I'm blue."

"We suspect the first floor to hold first aid and sleeping areas as well as a kitchen." Carol told them. "We hit those last. The computers and portals should be on the second floor. That's our priority."

They slinked along the back fences of the comely clapboard bungalow homes. They could hear the waves that broke and sucked at the shore only a single street over. At the fourth house, a white washed two-story with plum shutters and trim, they took their position.

"Hold for my mark," Carol told Levitt before she and Hudson splintered off, stalking around to the front.

Hudson peaked in through a window to find a room containing a pink canopy bed and shelves of stuffed animals. "Sure this is the right place?"

"Down to the brass knocker on the door," Carol assured him.

They creeped up front stoop, Carol first and Hudson watching her back.

"Okay," Carol told them steadily. "On one, two…" Something nagged at the back of her mind like a seventh sense. "No, wait!"

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Hank brushed crumbs out of his fur as he entered the infirmary. He waved his half-eaten sandwich in greeting to patients and co-workers alike as he ambled to Évariste's bed.

"Morning," Hank told Évariste, purposely leaving off the 'good' as he figured there wasn't much good about it for either of them. He pulled out the clipboard at the foot of the bed and perused the details of Évariste's condition since he left. Before he completed a cursory observation of it, Dr. Kerr Benedict, the intern, joined him.

"Two pints over night and another this morning," Kerr told Hank.

"But no more synaptic attacks?"

"Not so far, no," Kerr replied.

"Good," Hank said and smiled genuinely at Évariste. "Keep it up and Marlee and Max can come for a visit."

Évariste gave a small bow of his head and managed to make it seem elegant and worldly. "Thank you," he said with immense relief.

"I do my best," Hank told him as he replaced the clipboard. He moved on towards another patient, a Lanx victim whose only chance at escaping her coma rested on Hank's succeeding in his research.

Kerr gave Évariste an amiable departing nod and followed Hank.

"I need you to do a check-up on the kids when they're brought in," Hank told Kerr as soon as they were out of earshot of Évariste. "They're with Essex now," Hank offered in explanation.

Kerr's mouth opened in a silent and dreadful oh. "No problem," he promised.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"T'ought we weren't refueling?" Remy asked condescendingly.

"We're not," Mystique said and unbuckled her safety restraints. She exited the helicopter. The blades hadn't even completely stopped rotating yet.

"Wait!" Remy called after her as he scrambled to catch up. He did, but only as she entered a hanger. Traipsing along beside her, they passed stored helicopters and planes alike, and then out the other side. "Where are we going?"

"To my plane, of course," Mystique answered. Without looking at him, she grinned. "Trade has been very lucrative."

He eyed the small Cessna grumpily as they approached it. "De X-Men's is bigger."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Three!

Carol's seventh sense rang, but it wasn't soon enough. Soon as she had grabbed the door handle it was yanked open from the other side with such tremendous force that she thought her arm would go with it. Jerked off-kilter, she pitched forward, tripping over her own two feet. She would've fallen too, if an invisible force hadn't gripped her round her middle and flung her across the room. She landed hard on the couch, rolling it over, and crashing into a wall. She pulled herself to her feet in time to see something red and black, all keen-edged limbs and spike-tipped, slice through the door in two swipes while clawing at Hudson. Then Rogue, suede hood half-drawn, blocked her view.

"Rogue, wait," Carol said with hands raised to placate her, "It's not what you think."

"Promises, promises," Rogue said as she edged forward. There was a maddening gleam in her eyes, which were rimmed with the Lanx. It was visibly advancing along her skin with every step. Fine fibers of it gleamed silver in her hair.

"I can help you," Carol tried explaining.

In the background, Hudson fired a stunner but it pinged off of Hollow's gem-hard exterior.

"Oh, shut up, already," Rogue all but growled. She thrust her gloved hand forward, covering Carol's mouth and roughly pinching Carol's cheeks and jaw. With a boost from Jean's telekinesis, she lifted Carol slowly off the ground.

"Drop her," Levitt said. He stood in the doorway leading to the kitchen. Behind him, the back door swung ominously closed. He had one of the pulsing guns trained on Rogue.

"Kiss my ass," Rogue said.

"If you insist," Levitt said as he lowered his trajectory and fired. Ching-phoom…thmp.

"Levitt, no!" Carol yelled, too late. It wouldn't have mattered anyways, since the hold Rogue had on her mouth made it come out more like eh-weht wo.

Rogue whipped Carol in its path and lurched behind the knocked-over couch for cover. The ammo missed them both, lodging into a book on the lower shelf of a bookcase along the front wall. Like before, kinked tendrils arced through it and around it before it split apart, dispersing like dust particles in a shaft of sunlight.

Ching-phoom…thmp. The couch fizzled into nothingness like air escaping carbonated water. It gave Rogue a clear view of Carol coming towards her, of Hollow's tackling interruption, and of Levitt firing in response. Ching-phoom…thmp.

Rogue guessed it would ping off Hollow's skin like the other ammo did, but fearing that it might instead grab onto the leather straps that wrapped her, Rogue erected a pane of telekinesis to block it. To her dismay, it worked. The disk-like projectile smacked the pane and bounced away, right at her own face. It latched onto the Lanx on her cheek as rigidly as if Magneto pressed it there himself. She scrabbled at it with her fingers and Jean's telekinesis until she saw the blue-white tendrils curl down around her feet and begin its climb back up her legs. Clenching her jaw with grim determination, she thrust her right hand forward and to the side, telekinetically hurling Levitt through the kitchen out the rear door. She shoved her left hand out, clenching it to grip Carol and drag her telekinetically out the shredded front door, toppling her over Hudson's unconscious form on the stoop. Feeling her cells breaking apart, she plied the whole of Jean's telekinetic might to hold herself together long enough to call out telepathically to Hollow and Erin.

Hollow, get Erin out of here! Both of you get out! Go!

But I'm not done purging the system, Erin thought back to her in complaint, to no response. Rogue? She bore down with her own powers and searched for Rogue's biological presence, for the Lanx that was surely roaring over Rogue's immune system, but her powers sensed no sign of it. Rogue!?!

Something crunched at the door Erin had locked behind her.

"Hollow, that you?" Erin asked dumbly, knowing the girl couldn't or at least wouldn't answer. "Yvette?"

Something hit the door again and it splintered. Erin flinched, transformed the awesome energy of fear to speed as she spun around and initiated another sectional purge, trying to finish as many as she could before whoever was there got through. She didn't stop when she heard the wood tear apart and pieces of it spat at her back and the floor. She completed the fourth sectional purge and she raced for one more as she heard the creaking of leather followed by several pronounced snaps. She barely managed to hit the enter button when she learned the reason for the strange sounds. Hollow had stripped several of the leather belts off her legs and used them to tie a length of brown leather, which looked remarkably like it had come from the couch downstairs, around her arm and shoulder. Suitably safe, Hollow used that arm to swoop hold of Erin and haul them both out the window, into the tree outside.

Fffft…thunk. Ffffft…thunk. They didn't see who shot them, but two stunner rounds lodged into the trunk and a branch as Hollow clambered through the tree, chopping twigs and leaves that cluttered their way with her unbound hand. Then they were sailing through the air, crashing through a cluster of leaves of a tree in the next yard over. Another break from the whipping foliage as Hollow leapt atop a roof. Her claws shucked shingles with every step and more so at her rapid change of direction to dive to the detached garage, then the shed on the other side of a chain link fence, and into another set of trees. Erin was slung unceremoniously over her shoulder all the way.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"We're getting close," Mystique told him. "You better get ready."

Remy patted the stuffed backpack he'd procured back in Magneto's province. "Always."

"Not this time." Mystique laughed. "Chutes are in the back. Hook onto the rail. I'll open the doors from here."

"Oh, no," Remy said a little queasily. "I ain't jumpin'."

"And I'm not stopping," she said quite seriously. "I've wasted enough time as it is."

"Nuh-uh," Remy said and crossed his arms in a pout. "You're landing. You probably need to refuel anyways."

"I do, but not here." She tried not to laugh at his sudden lack of bravado. "Look, Remy. I might not like you, but I do like Rogue enough that I don't want her to hate me for causing you to be captured and tortured either."

"Mais, but Remy-de-splat be just fine."

She rolled her eyes, ignoring him. "If I land, someone will notice. Val will eventually be informed. You will be tracked down."

"And nobody will notice a dis Cajun flailing through the clouds squawking in terror like a shorn parrot?"

"Count to ten, then pull the cord," she explained. "The chute will do the rest. Even an idiot could handle it." She looked him up and down. "Then again, you do seem dumber than the usual men she bats her eyes at."

"Really instillin' de confidence here," Remy croaked.

"Thirty seconds, Remy," she droned. "Tick-tock."

Remy swallowed nervously. "You gonna come back by and pick me up?"

Mystique nodded, though it was obvious she didn't like it.

Remy mustered up his courage and put on a parachute pack. "If I die, I'm gonna haunt you."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Air roared by, faster and faster until the sound of it numbed into a long ago song, a melody that couldn't quite be recalled in any definitive detail.

And light. It was everywhere. All the colors known to man, and more, more than the eye could encompass. A billion times over, they reflected and refracted, doubling back, changing, muting, extracting, penetrating, eviscerating, blinding, and yet, magnifying the entire universe over and over again. The sun was over there and the moon just to the side here. Planets and stars swirled by in a rush. Another sun sped by and then another and another. Stars upon stars blurred past. Each paused in a flash of the refracted light accompanied by a cacophony of breaths and voices and cries and laughter before moving on so quickly it might never have been there in the first place.

She traveled like this through space and time as though she had been dispersed evenly inside all the individual brilliant particles of a spatter of diamond dust. And then that dust swooped down into earth's atmosphere. Hot and ill tempered, it cut through the air. Agile and pushy, it squeezed between molecules of metal and wires and plastic and glass and then stopped, fused into place.

Rogue blinked.

Deathbird grinned triumphantly from the other side of the bars. She activated the com-link to Val. "Got her."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Remy pulled out his phone and dialed the familiar but not recently used number. Three rings and a sassy, spirited, feminine Creole twang answered. It was slightly tinny through the poor reception. He chuckled mirthlessly as he realized how near it was to Rogue's when she was riled up… and the Lanx had a grip on her vocal chords.

"Bella," he said. "It's Remy. Come an' get me. We need to talk."

A heavy sigh. "What is it? I'm busy."

"Non," Remy said. "I'm not saying another word until my feet are planted on solid ground. Hell, on anything solid."

That got her attention. He could almost picture her fair eyebrows lifting and knitting in curiosity when she asked, "Where are y?"

"De Superdome," he said and batted a length of the parachute out of his view. "East side, from de looks of it."

"Dere's a big game dere today. Grand re-opening and all. Lots o' people. I don't feel like fishing t'rough all o' dem. Can y' be a little more specific?"

"Oh, y'll see me. I'm outside, doing m' best impression of a flag." He closed the phone and pocketed it. He glanced down the length of his body to the ground very far below. He hoped she was quick. He didn't know how long the snagged chute would carry his weight.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Marlee and Max bounded to Évariste's bed as soon as they spotted him. Évariste got so excited in response that the rapidity of his heart monitor drew Kerr in a panicked rush. Seeing the three hugging and giggling and making merry re-acquaintance, Kerr smiled in return. He knew he needed to check up on their physical condition per Hank's request, but for the life of him, he couldn't bring himself to spoil their reunion just yet. He leaned against a bed not too far away and just watched. It was one of the first joyful moments he'd encountered since he began his internship there and he was going to enjoy it for all it was worth.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Rogue clanged against the bars as she thrust her hands at Deathbird's throat. "I'll kill you!"

"Probably," Deathbird said with a pompous sneer. "If you could reach me. Hence the power dampener."

Seething, and needing an outlet for her anger, Rogue retracted her arms, grabbed the bars and squeezed until her Lanx-ridden knuckles turned white. She shook the bars, which didn't budge. She ignored that fact and yanked on them again anyways. She also ignored how threads of Lanx snaked off her hands to probe and coil around the bars until—

Deathbird laughed at the sight. "Look at you. You're pathetic, just a diseased waste of flesh and breath. I hope they put you out of your misery after the Underground's dismantled."

Deathbird leaned in close, close enough she was sure her triumphant breaths heated Rogue's fingers despite being so thoroughly encased with the living circuitry of the Lanx. "And I hope they let me do it."

Rogue grinned as though she welcomed the idea of it.

—the coils merged with the bars. Lanx wasn't only attracted to flesh. It also liked metal, especially when that metal had access to computerized technology. Suddenly, Rogue found a reason to appreciate her… condition.

Deathbird's smug satisfaction faltered. She eased back from the cell. "What are you doing?"

"Me? Nothing," Rogue said. "You're the one that shut down my powers." Rogue smiled acidulously. "Jean's powers. Remember?"

Rogue watched the Lanx crawling up and down the cell bars. She watched it leap from one bar to the next. She felt the bars being eaten by the biotech disease as if now the Lanx were a conduit that connected her to them. Both sources fed it equally and yet incised its hunger all the more. Faster and faster the Lanx spread. Soon the silvery threads through her hair corded and joined the romp of their siblings at her fingers. As though jealous of its brethren, strands of Lanx pushed through the leather of her shoes to seek out some of the cell for themselves. When her Lanx breached the electronics that tied the cell to its computer guidance system, Rogue felt a surge of energy and information like something alien and alive, as though by connecting the two, the Lanx lent the electronics her sentience and her its electricity. As amazing as it all felt, that's not what Rogue wanted. She didn't want to be part of the ship. She just wanted access to release herself.

"Shit," Rogue swore, beginning to panic. Through the Lanx, she was merging with the cell's technology as much as it was merging to her. Whatever made her think she could actually influence the biotech virus to her own intent was the result of an angry delusion. The combined might of Jean's powers and the fix, when it was solid and healthy, odd a thought as it was, barely kept the Lanx in check, and even then, it was a daily struggle.

Rogue yanked hard on her arms, trying to detach her hands from the bars. They pulled away like taffy. Strands of Lanx stretched and sagged between her fingers—which were more like finger shaped circuitry now—and the bars, reminding her nauseatingly like melted mozzarella when she took the first slice from a hot-out-of-the-oven pizza.

Deathbird's eyes widened when a wiry strand of Lanx burst from the cell's control panel and wiggled towards her. She sped the few steps to the small bank of video screens and the security console below them. She smacked her hand on the emergency alert button. A klaxon blared in repeated successions. Red lights popped out of the walls near the ceiling all over the Helicarrier.

"Security breach in holding four," Deathbird announced over the intercom. Her words echoed a split second later over speakers throughout the Helicarrier.

It had been exactly the wrong thing to do. Rogue's Lanx was now a part of the security system. It knew what the activation of the emergency button meant. It also knew how to protect itself. It opened Rogue's cell. And that, Rogue quickly realized, turned off the power dampener.

Jean's powers snapped back into existence inside of Rogue and the first thing she did with it was to pull on the Lanx, try to force it to retreat back into her. To her surprise, a magnetic field rose around her with the act of it. She had absorbed Magneto briefly before embarking on her mission to contact the other Underground installations and his power was still fresh in her storage bank and eager for use. Between the two mutant's combined powers, Rogue enacted a modicum of control over her Lanx. Through the Lanx's connection with the security system, she locked the door leading out of the holding area.

"Oh, Cal'syee," Rogue purred electronically. "You really shouldn't have betrayed me."

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Istanbul was Constantinople—Now it's Istanbul not Constantinople—Been a long time gone—Old Constantinople's still has Turkish delight—On a moonlit night…*

Remy's cell phone was ringing, so he answered it. Wasn't like he was busy with anything other than dangling there off the roof of the superdome.

"Allo, Belle," he answered, leaving off the you found me yet? Her laughter had been her telephonic greeting and it was answer enough. He grabbed the chute and pulled it to completely cover himself, which only increased her laughter. With a sigh, he told her, "Call me back when y'r done."

He hung up the phone and pocketed it.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Tessa closed her eyes like she was trying to will away her growing headache. "I don't suppose it would be too much to ask that the idiot who is so insistently ringing that bell has nothing to do with you contacting me?"

Xavier almost smiled when he answered her via cerebra's boosting of his telepathy. "I believe it would."

He got the mental image of her blowing the long purposeful curl of blue-black hair off her face in a huff before she continued, "And would it be too much to hope that this person isn't a particular Messenger for the Underground?"

"It isn't her," Xavier told her. "But it is a trusted associate of hers. I urge you to meet with them."

"Them? You began with the singular, but ended with the plural. Who else is there?"

"An associate of Magneto's."

"Are they ganging up on you?"

Logan and M couldn't see it for sure, but it seemed a full out smile broke across Xavier's face just then. "No," he assured Tessa. "Nothing of the sort."

"Okay," Tessa said. "But I can't get out for at least another hour. Could you find a way to get these people to cease the horrific banging of that infernal bell? It is the third hour in a row and people are becoming suspicious."

"Certainly," Xavier said. "But Tessa, this won't be a brief meeting. You may need to take leave for at least a few days. How long do you think you could manage without inciting Shaw's Ire?"

"Whatever it takes, I will manage it," Tessa told him. "That is why you placed me here, is it not?"

"It is," he said, leaving off the thank you for all you've sacrificed for us. He couldn't bring himself to say it, not when he would be expecting her to return to Shaw's fold for an undetermined amount of time.

Logan frowned.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Evr'y gal in Constantinople—Is a Miss-stanbul, not Constantinople—So if you've a date in Constantinople—She'll be waiting in Istanbul…*

Remy answered his phone without a greeting. "Y' done?"

"I t'ink so," Belle said a little breathless. "How'd in the world did y' manage dis?"

"I fell," he said. "What do y' t'ink?"

He hung up on her barrage of laughter.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Rogue managed to clamp down the Lanx enough to dislodge her hands completely from the bars. Still, her intended predatory stalk towards Deathbird was rather hindered by the taffy effect of each of her steps. She left a trail of Lanx strands like overactive silly string as she walked. But then, she didn't need to be close to do real damage.

Deathbird's nose crunched as Rogue used Jean's telekinesis to slam her face into the wall. Blood spurted.

Wish ya were here to see this, Évariste, Rogue thought to herself. She knew he hadn't been happy with Deathbird before she backhanded them so terribly. As if in agreement with her thoughts, her Lanx siphoned his location out of the security system and straight into her.

Deathbird's shoulder crunched as she hit the opposite wall. She expected the barrage to continue for a while longer, but it did not.

"Nighty night," Rogue told Cal'syee sweetly before telepathically knocking her unconscious. She dropped her into one of the cells and locked it.

The silly-string taffy effect to her walk was already reducing as she exited the holding room and headed for the infirmary. It hadn't left her entirely, though. Rather, it shifted. Now it was less of her feet to the floor and more of her to Évariste. The fix—broken as it was—hauled her, seeking repair.

I'm coming, Évariste.

To her pleasure, she read his reply straight from his thoughts. Soigneux, mon coeur. Careful, my heart. Je t'aime. I love you.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Even old New York was once New Amsterdam—Why they changed it, I can't say—People just liked it better that way…*

Gambit didn't bother saying anything when he answered this time.

"Singer's flying Emil up to y' now," Bella said. Her voice was laughter-laced and still mocked him amicably. "Whatever it is y' want from me, amoureux, I hope it's wort' it. For de life o' me, I can' t'ink of a single t'ing wort' getting hung off de roof of de Superdome. Scratch dat... knowin' y'… Probably some feisty slip of a t'ing, hien? Remy LeBeau, self-proclaimed king of hearts, y' sure gone an' done it dis time. Y' well an' truly fell for a girl, didn't y'?"

"More like I was pushed," he denied grumpily.

Belladonna hung up on her own laughter that time.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"Where did you get that Hulk band-aid," Évariste asked Max in attempt to distract the young twins from the alarming flashing red lights and klaxons.

"Doctor Nate let me choose it because I didn't cry over the needles," Max answered proudly. He looked at all the tubes and wires going in and out of Évariste and marveled, "Bet you'll get candy though. You got lots more than I did."

"Do they—" Marlee began but then her eyes glazed over and her brow furrowed.

"What is it?" Évariste asked her.

Marlee went to the wall and pressed her hand to it. Full of awe and wonder, she explained, "The ship… It's talking." She looked back at Évariste and Max and smiled broadly. "It says…"

"Rogue's here," Évariste finished with her.

"Is it your powers, Marlee?" Kerr asked as he rushed over. He'd been only half-observing them while he studied all of their charts. He'd still not gotten the heart to disrupt their visit to give the kids the check-up Hank had asked him to do. When the klaxons went off, he hovered between them and the door, unsure where his loyalties were expected until he knew what the threat was.

"It's not me," Marlee told them. She leaned harder against the wall, tipped her forehead against it. "But… I think I could. Like I did with the toys."

Kerr and Évariste shared a look, gauging each other's reactions and guarding their own all the same. Évariste probed further than that with his own powers and as he did so, he realized something.

"You're a mutant," Évariste said accusatory.

"Of course I am." Kerr tilted his head curiously at him. "All of Hank's interns are."

Évariste would have probed further with that, but then Rogue spoke telepathically to him so instead he addressed the kids. "Back up, you two," he told them. "Stick together. Stay near, but not too close."

They did as he instructed, but looked their question to him.

"Rogue's coming," he told them. "But she's not well."

Kerr took a step for the door; to bar it or to hold it open, he wasn't sure which exactly. Regardless, he wanted a better look at what was coming for them.

"Don't," Évariste warned, not yet sure if he should trust the likeable young doctor. "She'll kill you to get to us." His breathing raced. "She might on accident too." His eyes fluttered and a tremor thrummed through him. "She's Lanx ridden." His monitors beeped like crazy. "She's wired into the ship." The fix wanted full restoration. "Her mind is…" And it wanted it now.

His eyes rolled back into his head as a seizure struck him. Kerr jumped into action, setting off the medical alerts and plying the wealth of his life-saving knowledge. Seconds later, two nurses joined him. Hank bounded in just after them. Together, the four of them worked on the medical mystery that was Évariste in unison. All the while, Max clung to his sister as they watched. All the while, Rogue approached and they hoped she'd be there soon. But just in case… Marlee reached out to the Helicarrier with her powers and asked it for help.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"Rogue's on board," Xavier said in surprise as he searched for more answers upon the Helicarrier via Cerebra's boosting of his powers. "Her mind's chaotic, frenetic, hard to follow…"

Logan watched and listened. He hated being on the sidelines playing the observer and waiting his turn to act. Monet was restless also, but he got the impression it was because she really wanted to try out Cerebro for herself.

"She fought with Carol at the safe house," Xavier continued as he relayed the flashes of insight he got from Rogue's frenzied thoughts. "She was shot and… it's hard to decipher, but she connects getting shot with being transported onto the Helicarrier."

"Like back at Elysium," Logan confirmed, though he doubted Xavier heard him. Louder, in a tone that brokered no option but to be heard, he said, "Get me in touch with Fury. We need some straight answers, X."

"I'm trying, Logan, but Rogue is… there's all this static… It's like her mind has invaded the ship itself."

"Her Lanx," Logan mumbled in realization.

"It's fading now… she's seeking out Évariste now…"

"So stop peeping on her for a blasted second and find Fury," Logan insisted.

Xavier was quiet for several long moments until, "Found him." He was quiet to the room's inhabitants while he conversed privately with Fury, but then he gasped and lurched and roughly dispatched himself of the connection. Panting slightly, sweat beading on his brow, he looked askance at Logan's concerned approach. "The ship," Xavier told him full of awe and wonder. "It's alive."

Then he sagged in the chair, unconscious.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

All ninety thousand plus tons of the Helicarrier shifted and then paused. Everyone and everything on it kept on moving, slamming into walls and bulkheads in the process. By the time they caught up to the stop, it shifted again, and they were thrown the other way and it hiccupped forward and continued on its previous route.

"Marlee…" Max said in wary warning. He'd felt something course through her. The sensation had pulsed his palm where it pressed against hers. His insides dropped in excited dread, like when he rode that old rollercoaster at Coney Island. Something buried deep wiggled in response. It squirmed as if fighting to break free, but still too tightly bound to do so. The hairs on his arms rose and he rubbed them to try to erase the eerie sensation. He stared at her and asked, "What have you done?"

Marlee shook her hand out of Max's and glared at him in her six-year-old indignant way. "I'm helping!" Turning her back to him she faced a blinking console on the wall and spoke to it. "Heli, Évariste needs Rogue. Bring her here!"

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"What the hell?" Carol said when the floor tilted and a chair had slammed into her leg.

She was on the Helicarrier, in the transport/holding room. A few minutes earlier, she shot the still unconscious Hudson and Levitt each with the teleportation gun before turning it on herself. Upon arrival, she had planned to place them comfortably in some chairs, but when she found the floor seemed to be trying to shake her loose, she decided to simply dump them into the nearest cell as she slid past it.

Unexpected as it was, the Helicarrier was rocking. Its motion reminded her of a ship upon waters, only its rolling tilts and dips rode waves that felt convex more than concave. If she'd seen it from outside she would've compared it to a dog shaking water off itself, in slow motion. Its next swing sent her into the adjoining room, where she saw Val trying unsuccessfully to hot-wire the door open.

"She's got control of the ship," Val explained without much explanation.

"Who does?"

"Rogue," Val spat as if she'd swallowed something venomous. "Cal'syee set off the alarms shortly after Rogue was captured. By the time I got here Cal was out cold and Rogue was gone. Then the ship locked me in."

The ship in question rocked back the other way and as they slid, Val inadvertently ripped out the very wires she had been trying to splice together.

"I'll get us out," Carol announced as she braced herself against the opposite wall for leverage.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Rogue ran into a lot of interference along the way to the infirmary. She was being swarmed on both sides by loyal SHIELD foot soldiers and was waning on energy and losing the slight and tenuous hold she had on her overactive Lanx and feeling like she wouldn't win but at least she wouldn't go down in surrender and that's when she knew the Lanx had finally broke her because she swore she felt the Helicarrier come alive with personality and fear and worry and a voice that reached across the strands of Lanx that kept shooting out of her and into the metal walls and floors and ceiling and ask her for advice.

Clear a path, Rogue had thought at it sardonically without any regard for what that would take, what it would mean; that was when the ship started its slow rocking and sending them all sliding along the corridor.

Rogue scrambled at the slick and shiny walls for purchase to little effect when an emergency door slammed shut across the corridor. Had it waited another second later, Rogue would've been slashed in its path. She barely had a moment to process that thought when the ship shifted the opposite direction, sliding them the other way down the hall, and again an emergency door slammed shut, this time just shy of guillotining her. Both closures sealed most of the tête-à-tête from her, like mud sifted away from the more precious bits of gold. The few remaining soldiers were easy enough to knock unconscious with Jean's telepathy and telekinesis. Better yet, soon as she'd done so, a third door activated, and this one didn't cross the hall but opened out of it.

It was almost as if the ship was leading her to Évariste.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"Remy, stop y' squirming!" Emil's sniggers had taken a back seat to his irritation. "I gotta cut dese straps and keep a hold of y' wit'out snaggin' de bot' of us in de chute."

"Still don't understand why Singer can't catch me while you shuck de chute," Remy complained.

"Bella wants it as a souvenir," Singer answered Remy in mild exasperation. "She wants it safe more den she wants t' talk wit' y' so I'd shut up an' do as we say if I were y'."

"An' don't you forget dat if I drop, de last t'ing you'll experience will be a charged—Ahhhhhh!"

He dropped… two inches. Although, fairly, it had been abruptly done.

"Détendre," relax, Emil said, voice strained, "I gotcha, coz."

Remy craned his neck to see that Emil's lopsided grin was as taut as it had sounded. He watched Emil's face dampen with sweat and redden with stress. He watched Emil's neck and arms cord with fatiguing muscles from holding Remy's weight by the chute's harness. And as he watched, he heard the silky whisper of the chute itself as it billowed, gaped, and slid while Singer gathered its voluminous length into a manageable bunch.

Lifting her quiet, measuring gaze to Emil, Singer asked, "Ready?"

"Non," Emil said emphatically. "An' I won't be. Y' gotta take Remy too. I can't make de trade."

Singer frowned. "Belle won' like it."

"Belle can bec mon chu," kiss my ass, Emil said. "Not a matter of obedience, Chanteur." Singer. "'S a matter of Remy's weight." Contradictory to the rest of his face, Emil's eyes crinkled in his tease at Gambit. "Pas de lagniappe when its ev'ry day, coz." Not a bonus. "'S gluttony."

Singer's frown deepened. She surveyed the expanse of curved wall between them and the far off ground. "If I get y' to dat drain, t'ink y' can climb it to de bottom?"

Remy swallowed hard. He met her eyes. "She's a bitch sometimes, neh?"

"Bella?" She didn't even try to mask the incredulity. Singer was loyal to a fault.

"Necessity," Remy said and then, like he hadn't thought of that until just then, he added, "Mais, her too."

He indeed made it down. Emil, however, had to beg Singer to come back up for him. Held close, his back pressed to her chest, Emil grinned the whole way down.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Carol frowned the entire way as she cleared a path by busting through wall after wall of the Helicarrier. She arrived at the infirmary to witness Dr. McCoy holding paddles while one nurse watched the connecting prompt and another nurse helped the intern, Dr. Benedict, clear Évariste of anything that could disrupt or dispel the electrical charge.

"Clear!" Hank shouted as he pressed the paddles to Évariste.

Beep-beep. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

"Where's Rogue?" Carol asked them, not expecting an answer.

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

"Behind you!" Val hollered as she climbed over the debris from the hole in the wall Carol had made for her entrance.

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

Carol turned just in time to see Rogue's fist, bolstered with Jean's telekinesis, smash into her nose.

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

"Stay down," Rogue told her before she even crashed into a cart of supplies half way across the room. Hand upraised, she held Carol prostate against it. She thrust her other hand back, shoving a wall of telekinesis at Val, holding her against the wall beside the hole Carol had made. "Stay."

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

Rogue moved determinably towards Évariste.

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

Eleven feet. The Lanx was ahead of her, stretching and squirming onward, as though the fix tapped into Rogue's absorbed magnetic powers to help her achieve its goals.

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

"Charged," Kerr announced.

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

Seven feet. The tendrils escaping from her shoes scratched the floor.

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

"Clear!"

—eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—zzzztttkkk!

The machine crumpled in on itself, sparked, and then smoked.

Three feet. She could feel him, and he her, like the heady pull of magnets just before that ironic freedom in their clapping together.

"I got it, doc," Rogue said.

One foot. That pull, that pull. He stilled. He blinked. He rose up to meet her approaching lips.

"No, my dear," Essex said, "You don't." He plunged the syringe at her Lanx ridden neck.

"Heli!" Marlee screamed and the ship listened.

Its lurch sent Essex stumbling over backwards, his syringe clattering out of view. It disrupted Rogue's concentration, setting Val and Carol loose. Rogue grabbed the sheets to catch her balance, but still the kiss missed.

Essex drew himself to his feet. Val aimed her gun. Carol sprung up and through the air. Évariste and Rogue stared, transfixed, blood blossoming in mirrored patterns on their abdomen. Essex retrieved a second syringe from a pocket. Val pulled the trigger. Nurses ducked and Carol sailed overhead. Évariste and Rogue leaned in, so close, so close…

Carol snatched Rogue away, across the medlab, through the hole and beyond.

The bullet whirred past where Rogue had just been. It lodged in the wall over Marlee and Max's heads. Marlee's eyes grew wide and she dropped, unconscious. The Helicarrier shut down and plummeted.

Max screamed.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

"Then y'r fucked, Remy," Belle said and downed the rest of her bourbon. "'Cause Essex's de only source I can t'ink of wit' dat kinda knowhow."

"Mais, oui," Gambit said as he swirled the amber liquid that glowed with the light of the fireplace in the Boudreau's old fashioned smoking room, "You're still gonna help."

Mirth twinkled her eyes. "Damn straight," she barked and poured herself another sloppy glass. "'Bout time something interesting happened."

Take me back to Constantinople—No, you can't go back to Constantinople—Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople—Why did Constantinople get the works?—That's nobody's business but the Turks'*

"Bon jour! Bonne Nuit! Who's a callin' to join all de fun?" Remy answered his phone.

"Oh, this just gets better and better," Mystique said on the other end.

"I'd gripe about y' knowing dis number, but I doubt even y' could ruin my good mood right now."

"Perhaps its just as well that I don't pick you up, now," Mystique told him with sadistic glee. "With all the fun you're having playing in the mud."

Remy, who'd been leaning back in his chair, lost his balance. Belle laughed so hard at him that she spilled her drink all over herself.

"It's her mama, n'est-ce pas?" Isn't it? Belle roared with laughter at Remy's responding expression. "Oui, oui! Such fun!" She helped Remy up and made kissy noises at his cheek and the phone. "Should I torture her wit' tales of our vigorous—"

Remy clamped a hand over Belles mouth. Into the phone, he asked Mystique, "Listen here, Raven. I've about had it wit' your screwin' me around. Eit'er get your scaly, skanky ass over here like y' promised or—"

"Or what?" Her voice was so saccharine it made his teeth hurt. "You'll tell Rogue that I took away her already discarded toy?"

He pushed Belle off him completely and asked Mystique, "What y' mean discarded?"

"There's a new fix in town," she said oh-so-sweetly. "And I doubt he'll be letting you back into his compound any time soon."

"What de hell are y' talk—Mystique!"

Belle bounced against him in eager merriment. "What, she hang up on y'?"

"Non, worse, I t'ink," he said as he closed his phone. "Gimme your phone."

"Hey!" Belle quipped as Remy dipped his hand into her cleavage to procure her phone.

"Guess her and Forge made up," Remy said as he showed Belle the 'no signal' message on her phone. "Looks like she just took out y'r private satellite."

"Oh, no, she didn't!"** She ran to the doorway and called out, "Gris-Gris, git y'r ass over dere and put a cunja on dat slimy, blue, possedè pouffiasse!"

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

Additional Notes: What's this, a new fix??? Find out next chapter.

Irrelevant, But Fun For Me Note: I'm originally from Bayville, NY (like in X-Men Evolution). It's a small beach town on the northern side of Long Island. My maternal grandmother and one of my uncles still live there. Here's hoping I'll have the next chapter up by my birthday in a couple of weeks in celebration of this coinkidink (since, well, I loved X-Men years before Evo).

*"Istanbul/Constantinople" by They Might Be Giants (just in case a few of you youngun's didn't know it). I don't know why I have it as Gambit's ringtone, other than, it struck me as suitably amusing for some really strange reason.

**I am so addicted to the song from the commercial for Mercenaries 2 video game. The song lyrics are actually "oh, no, you didn't." I can't get the danged thing out of my head for months now. When it popped up here, I thought I'd share it with you.

X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X - X X X X X X X X X X X

See you next chapter!

Posted November 1, 2008. (Just barely)