Review Replies:

Proud to be an X-Nerd: Your reviews are always so fun to read. You liked the ending then, huh. --evil smile-- Yer gonna love this…

Wolf: Yay us for finishing finals and not bashing our brains into the walls! Course, Greentree would prolly charge us big for the blood stains…I have a spin off in mind for Wolf. Let it be in my head for awhile. Its developing…

Vballmania: Woot, new reviewer. I think I like cliff hangers…

AllenTerrill: I love to read crossovers of all kinds, but I don't know anything about the Academy X comics. I've heard of Hellion before, but I thought it was a group of kids under Rogue or something.

Lady Q: Such enthusiasm! I like to write about ghosts. They're creepy, and even if someone doesn't believe in them, they still get scared at the movies if they watch a ghost story.

Dgrub: Glad you like the stories. Personally, I don't much care for fics that revolve completely around an OC, but that's what I ended up writing. Odd how things work out, eh? But because this IS an X-Men fic, I felt obligated to sprinkle in some of the X-Men. I wouldn't dream of having Cougar worry about any of their old problems. Good Lord, she'd prolly have an ulcer by the second chapter. I did have her mention Jean Grey's latest death (is she still dead?) just because I wanted to maybe play with Emma Frost a little.

Quote: "Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's research."- Wilson Mizner (1876-1933)

Chapter 11

I'm sitting in the Med lab with an ice pack on the large lump on my head. "How's Dragon?" I ask Ana as she bandages my torn up shoulder. Medic's passed out on the bed behind me.

"Well," she eyes our leader, also passed out on a bed, "Conner said he should be awake by morning and will probably be sore. Sabertooth cut him up badly."

"Yea, well at least Conner got to him soon enough."

Amber's blue hair catches my eye as she comes in, "Hey guys, we need to have a wrap up meeting. Cougs, are you up for it?"

I nod and wince with the effort. "Yea, sure." I look at Ana, who's frowning while taping my wound. "Am I good to go, doc?"

"Yes. But you should have Conner look at this when he feels better."

I'm already putting my t-shirt back on. The tattered old shirt fits right in with my ratty jeans and bare feet. I dress like a bum whenever I can.

With both girls on either side of me, we start toward the conference room. "Hey, guys?" I ask them, "I'm not gonna faint or anything…"

"You have a concussion," Ana points out.

"I'm fine." Really, its just a headache now.

"You lost a lot of blood too," she continues.

"I've lost more'n that before." The last thing I need right now is a couple of mother hens.

We get to the meeting room before they can retort.

Everyone's assembled about the round table, minus Conner and Joseph. Grateful to be sitting, I take up my usual spot. I have a usual spot so that everyone can find me quicker to yell at me. Hehe.

Amber starts the meeting in Joseph's absence, "All right, so overall we won." weak smiles, but it's clear that we're all relieved. "Dragon's recuperating. He should be fine in the morning and Medic is resting now." She puffs out her cheeks and blows through her lips. "We have seven people in lock up. Most of them are still out, but Conner checked all of them over to make sure that no one was seriously injured. There's four that are here voluntarily. For security reasons, they're in a holding cell too. From the gates cameras, those that got away seemed pretty scattered. I'm not too sure if they'll regroup or not since we've got Grendel and, from previous experiences, Sabertooth probably won't go and recollect them." She looks to Logan for confirmation but he just shrugs. "Cougar, what happened to your wolf friend?"

I shrug too. "The Feds came and got her. She said she's fine with them, but we might have to go rescue her eventually." Which reminds me…"Oh, and that nut house my sister was in? They're holding a buncha mutants against their wills for experimentations. We should probably to help them out too."

"Big job?" she asks with raised eyebrows.

"Naw. You could probably just go in there and bully the receptionists into letting them go. They're kinda pushovers." Wolverine snorts at my comment, but I ignore him.

"All right. We'll fill Dragon in on that when he gets up and send out a couple people. Also, Ana, could you get on the line with the California school and let them know that the teachers and kids can come back tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"And…" Amber actually looks uncomfortable to speak. GASP. "We kind of need to know the situation with your sister, Cougar. Not to pry or anything, but we can't just keep her in a holding cell forever." When we set up base here, we scoffed at the idea of having four holding cells. Guess we needed them after all.

I purse my lips and look down. Where to begin? "Laura's some kinda psychic. She didn't wanna go to Xavier's to get evaluated or anything, so I don't really know specifics. Weather it's a mutation or not, she can see ghosts and her powers kinda feed them. There's high spiritual activity around her. They like to move stuff. She talks with them, so its not like they drive her crazy," then again, look where I found her…" Just like the living, there's good and bad spirits. She once told me that the good ones protect her from the bad ones. I think the doctors might have done something that messed it all up and one of the bad ones took over."

Dubious looks from around the table. "So," Rogue asks, "What are ya'll gonna do?"

"I dunno. Get Lisa at poke around her head and bring Laura back out? Yer guess is as good as mine." No one contradicts me by pointing out that the ghost thing claimed Laura to be dead. That's nice of them.

"Maybe I should call and have her come back tonight?" Ana suggests.

"Yea. She can bring back some of the older kids too." Amber sighs, reminding all of us that we're tired. "Thanks everyone, for sticking around and helping. Any suggestions on what to do with our prisoners?"

"Call up New York," Gambit answers, "See if Scott wants us to take dem back with us."

Rogue turns to Logan, "Are you comin' back with us too?"

He glances at me before replying gruffly, "No. I'm gonna stick around here for awhile more."

I narrow my eyes at him but he doesn't notice. Or care. He's not telling someONE someTHING…

"Great. I'll get back to you on what he says. Meeting adjourned and all that garbage." We are SO formal here, Cyclops would crap his pants…

I slip out of the crowd and head down toward the holding cells. Don't ask me why, I don't know either.

The first cell, as I can see from the monitor outside the door, holds the female prisoners. The next holds the males, Viper included. The alligator boy is in the third cell. I don't know what we'll do with them, probably ship them all off to different schools. Our current students wouldn't be too welcoming of intruders. I know this from experience. The last holding cell holds Laura, for lack of a better term. She's strapped down in a bed. Against my gut feeling, I go into the room.

"Isn't it ironic," she asks while staring at the ceiling, "that you just took me out of an insane asylum, and then have your superhero friends lock me up and restrain me just the same?" She turns to look at me and I feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up. "Irony, I assume, hasn't changed definitions since my time."

"Who are you?" I demand. It's not really too threatening since I'm across the room and clearly not willing to take a step closer.

"I'm Laura." she smiles coyly at me.

I feel my face harden," No, yer not."

"I am now."

Fine. I'll play it her way, "Who'd ya used at be?"

"Why do you speak like that? So…" she looks back to the ceiling in search of the word, "ungrammatically. Your sister didn't speak that way."

I talk like our farm bred dad. She talks like our city raised mom. It's been a family discussion for years. "You'd know the answer to that if you really were Laura. Answer my question."

"Who was I? At one time, I was Rebecca. And then I wasn't. I wasn't anything. And now I'm Laura."

My jaw tightens, "Rebecca, yer dead. Go to God."

She huffs at me, "That may have worked if I were some house spook who doesn't know her place. But, you can clearly see, that's not the case." She smiles at me. "You know, I'm here to stay and there's really nothing you can do about it."

A growl rumbles from my throat as the door opens.

Gambit takes ahold of my arm by the elbow, "Come on, petite. Remy think you need some air."

I glare at the thing as gambit steers me out backwards. The door closes on it's stupid smile.

"Yo' face's gonna freeze like dat, petite," he notes casually. After I turn a scowl at him he adds, "Dat aint much better."

I can't help but let out one of those short, almost laughs. "And she called me ungrammatical."

"It's all part o' Gambit's charm." He turns more serious, "Ya'll right?"

'No,' I think. "Yea," I say. Confused? Me too. "What are you doin' down here?"

"We're takin' off 'n comin' back with de bigger jet fo' yo' prisoners. Gambit was just comin' down at see what he'll be dealin' with."

"Pretty bunch, aint they?"

"Oui."

I sigh. I'm tired. Its probably only around nine o'clock and I'm beat. "Have a safe trip back and I'll probably see ya in the morning. I'm goin' ta bed."

"Ya look tired, petite," he points out.

I make a face at him, "Well that aint too chaming."

He laughs. Good. At least someone can.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

It's not until the second time she knocks that I realize someone's at the door. These stupid ghosts have been knocking since I got into bed; whispering in my ear and tipping things over on my dresser. At first I hid under my blankets. It always worked before. I shove the covers away and storm to the door. Its only ten thirty, but I'm pretty sure I won't get to sleep tonight.

I pull the door open just as Amber starts to knock again. "Cougar?" She looks me over, "Everything all right? I heard--" her eyes widen as something falls loudly off ofm y dresser behind me. "What the hell was that?"

Looking over my shoulder, I growl, "Keep it up. I'll get a priest ta exorcise yer astral butts outta here." I've been threatening them for the last half hour. They don't seem to care, but then again, they're already dead…

There's a goosebump raising whisper in response and something else falls. "Ghosts." I answer her.

"Do you see them too?"

"No," I sigh, "Every once in awhile whemn I was a kid I'd hear them. But Laura's powers give them…strength. They're buggin' me now ta tell me ta fix this mess, I assume."

She stares at me for a moment. "That's kinda creepy, Cougs."

"Mhmm…"

She gives her head a slight shake, "Anyway, I was also gonna tell you that Lisa's back. She left as soon as Ana called."

I look over her shoulder, "I don't see any students. Did she actually leave them there to enjoy themselves?"

She gives me a wry smile, "No, but she didn't feel the premises was secure enough."

I roll my eyes. "Well, can she take a look at my sister's head, or is she hittin' the hay?"

"She's down there now." Amber's face softens, "Did you want to go down?"

I make a face, but nod, "Yea. Lets see what she can find." Really, I'd much rather stay up here with these bloody ghosts than go down there, but, what the heck.

The thing is lying on the bed where I'd left it. Both Lisa's eyes and its own are closed, though the former looks like she's concentrating quite hard. Lisa's sitting in a chiar next to the bed, white knuckling the arms and scrunching her face. She sighs heavily and her dark eyes open at last. "I can't find her," she states simply.

"What do ya mean?"

"I mean," she flexes her long fingers and sighs again, "I can't find her. She's buried too deep."

"Hm." I grunt at my feet. "Well thanks for tryin', I guess."

"Are you all right Cougar?" Amber asks softly.

"Yea." I pivot on my bare feet and stalk out the door before she continues. I need to think. I need to be alone to think. Hesitating for a moment, I decide to go to the roof. Stopping at my room, I shove on shoes and an old sweat shirt.

The air's cold and I'm glad that I took the time to dress. Its getting into late fall, almost Thanksgiving time, and my breath comes out as white steam. As I sigh, the door behind me opens. I glance over, suddenly paranoid of Sabertooth. Its just Wolverine, though, and I turn back to stargazing. He'll figure out I'm up here.

He's at my elbow in moments. "Ya know, yer a sittin' duck up here."

Blandly, I reply, "No, I'm not."

"Ta Creed ya are."

I look over at him but he's not looking back. "So. What were his plans for me?"

"Dunno." He's still not looking at me, despite my own penetrating stare.

My cat eyes narrow, "Bull. He talks when he fights. I know he told you."

He turns to me and scowls, "It doesn't matter as long as ya keep clear o' him."

"Oh, yea," I growl at him, "Cuz I really go out looking for him. Just tell me."

"Lets just say that killin' ya wasn't in the immediate future."

"What was?" I press.

He sighs, obviously tiring of me, "Rape. Torture. Brainwashin'. Among other things."

"And you believed him?"

Its not really a question, but he answers me anyway, "Yea."

I press my lips together and look back over the school yard, "Hmmm…"

We're quiet for awhile before he adds, "If I ever tell ya ta run again, kid; do it."

I nod once, and then ask, "Do you think he's dead?"

"Ask yer sister."

Shrugging, I reply, "She aint exactly available."

"Amber told me."

This surprises me. There's no real reason why she should tell him that….then I think outloud, "And then she told you ta come find me."

"No. She told me that you took off."

I look back to him, "So why DID you come find me?"

" don't think you should go anywhere by yerself for awhile."

Blinking, I can't keep the edge from my voice, "I'm on probation?"

He scowls at me, "Its for yer protection."

"Creed spooked you, didn't he?"

He doesn't answer me. We stop talking about it and I sit up on the roof for as long as I like. Then I go inside without so much as a word to him, even as he follows me to my room an sniffs outside my door when I close it on him. Checking for boogey men in my closet. Probation. Bleh.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, I sit over my over sized cup of coffee and stifle a yawn. Rough night.

"Hey Cougs," Amber bounces into the kitchen. She's always bouncing. It irritates me. I grunt back and she asks, "Rough night?"

I blink at her in response. Out of all of my team mates, she seems to be able to notice me more than the others. I've always wondered why that was.

"Well, Lisa kept trying but she suggested that we call in a stronger psychic. What do you think?"

"Yeah," I grumble, "Call who ever'll come." I don't want to talk about it.

"All right," she grabs an apple from the counter. "I'll get on that. Josephs awake by the way. I assume he'll be wanting to talk to you."

"Why?" I grunt again.

"Oh, don't be surly, you know he checks in on everyone." She takes a large bite of the apple.

With a final grunt, I take my coffee cup to the offices. He's most likely there. Over achiever.

Yup. Sitting at his desk and looking over some papers. Security pictures, actually. He looks like he just took a shower; his hair looks black when its wet, not tinted with moss. Softly I knock on the door frame and he looks up.

"Ooh," he motions toward my excessively large coffee mug, "Big Cup. You must've had a rough night." They know me so well. The corners of my lips turn up just slightly as he continues, "How are your injuries?"

I shrug the shoulder that Creed tore into. It hurts, but I hide the wince behind a sip of brew. "Not bad. Yours?"

He presses a hand to his chest, "Not too bad either. He left some gnarly marks though. Conner says they'll be gone in about a week though. I'm not too bruised up either."

"Yea. You looked nasty when we brought you in." I stuff my free thumb into my jeans pocket. Creed had almost killed him and I felt guilty about it. "Ya woulda fared a lot better if ya woulda just stayed outta his way."

His eyes don't meet mine when he says, "We had to slow him down. Keep him away from you."

"Not if it gets you killed too." I correct.

He does look up now, "From what I understand, he was planning on doing a lot worse to you."

I shrug and change the subject, "Did you wanna see me?"

He hums while he thinks, looking down at his normally neat desk, now littered with…everything. There's surveillance pictures, meeting logs, some phone messages, a couple students papers and three or four dirty coffee mugs. "No. Not really…Oh," he looks at one meeting log in particular, "What about that hospital that we need to visit?"

"There's a girl who works in the kitchen. She's a teleported, but she's got one of the doctors in her family tree, so she's treated pretty nicely. She should be able to help you get the others out.

"All right, and the coordinates should be in the hanger's log book?"

"Of course," I think quick to remember if I really had entered any info into the book. I THINK so…

"Other than that, just to let you know, there will be some of the older X-Men coming today to pick up the prisoners and friendlies. After they're gone I'm calling the students back. Lisa doesn't think that its safe for them yet, but we have no reason to believe its not."

I shrug. Three years of living with the teachers and we're still fighting over authority boundaries. Oh well, not my problem.

Draining the bottom of the cup, I slip out of his office. I leave the mug in the kitchen and wander toward the front door. Its Monday, but without any kids, we don't have any classes. I figure someone's got to clean up the battle mess.

The front lawn has looked better. Step stones are smashed; our stupid fountain is ruined (I thought it looked ridiculous anyway); our trees and bushes are torn up and smashed down; there's pot holes everywhere from explosions; and patches of blood look brown in the morning sun. Lovely.

I don't exactly know where to start. I should go get the wheel barrow and start hauling broken rocks and cement to the back rubbish pile. The door behind me opens and I glance over my shoulder to see Lisa.

"Cougar?" She calls out a little too loudly considering that I'm only ten feet away. I didn't realize I'd been shielding myself.

"Yes?" I reply just as loudly, making her jump and frown all at once.

"I was under the impression that you were not to be alone outside," she answers with pursed lips.

I roll my eyes, "You gonna baby sit me while I clean up this mess?" I start walking without waiting for her answer. She follows and I slow a step so she can catch up. "Did you want something in particular?" I ask. Hm. The back yard doesn't exactly look up to par either and it takes me awhile to locate the wheel barrow in the back near our tree line.

"About your sister's powers…what form of psychic is she, exactly?"

I sigh, "I don't know, actually. She sees dead people. Parapsychic maybe?" I turn to her, "Is that a word?"

Lisa sighs lightly. If there was a proper way to sigh, she can do it. "Oh, I don't know."

The bird feeder sways slightly behind her, full of seed. My brain catches on to something and I frown, "Lisa?"

"What?" She turns to look over her shoulder and turns back when she doesn't see anything.

"Where are all the birds?" My stomach tightens with paranoia.

Its not paranoia if Creed shoots out of the woods, which is exactly what he does.

He spears me to the ground and back hands me hard enough to make the edges of my vision go dark and my head spin. I hear Lisa scream in surprise. Maybe that's why she's not an X-Man…

Sabertooth leaves me on the ground, nearly senseless, to go after her, "Stay outta my head. You might not like what ya find." I stumble to my knees to see him lifter her off the ground by the throat.

A snarl escapes my lips and I lunge forward. He's not facing me and I take advantage of it by slashing the back of one of his knees. My claws dig deep enough to damage one of the tendons. The leg gives out on him and he throws Lisa into the air and against a tree in order to catch himself. Lisa slumps to the ground as he turns back to me.

I scuttle away and try to regain my footing. Not sure of where to run to, my instincts just scream at me to move.

Large hands grab my hair and pull me back. I grunt at the pain and mentally curse myself for wearing my hair loose today. Grabbing ahold of his hand, I pull him closer, reducing the pain and cause a little of my own. My claws leave four deep gashes across his face and damage one of his eyes. He lets go of my hair and I send my feet into his stomach.

He bends over for a second then comes after me again. I face him and kick him in the throat. I'd been aiming for his head, but it was too high up for my powerful kick. I'm sure I crushed his windpipe though, because he makes some God awful noises when he tries to breathe. I don't give him a chance to heal before I try to punch him in the face. He takes the hit, breaking his nose, but he catches my arm just the same.

"So ya like it rough, kitty cat?" he leers down at me as I try to twist my arm away without turning my back to him. I hear the back door crash open, but it seems like a long way away. He hits my face again and I fly back as far as his hold will allow me. I'm dizzy suddenly, "Ya know, I had some great plans for ya, but it looks like our reunion is gonna be cut short." He lets me go and kicks me in the gut as I drop. The air wooshes from my lungs. "Guess I'll just have ta kill ya and get it over with."

"Cougar!" I hear Blast yell. My head rolls to the side and here she comes with Wolverine…But they're so far away, and Sabertooth's already starting to carve me up despite my squirming, kicking, clawing self.

I scream as he rips through my abdomen muscles, spilling my guts to the forest floor. He tries to accomplish more, but a streak of blue plasma engulfs him and sends him away from me.

I close my eyes against the pain and try not to scream again as more of it hits me in waves. A breeze shoots over my head and I open them for a second to see Wolverine as he hurdles the mess that is me and does some slicing of his own.

Ana orders him, "Wolverine, Get back!"

My vision goes dark.

"Shxt. MEDIC!" Logan's by my side a moment later.

I try to sit up in my delirium. Maybe I can help? I throw my head back and hold back a strangled cry.

I'm losing too much blood. There's so much of it…I'm getting cold…

Hands hold me down and Wolverine orders me, "Just stay still kid, don't move," above my head he hollers, "Conner! Get yer ass over here!"

Maybe I should put my intestines back into the cavity. Don't want them to get dirty…

Again, he stops me by catching my now bloody hands and telling me, "Just stay still…"

He says something else, but I can't hear him anymore.

…the world goes dark…

Pain flashes across my cheek. Logan slaps me again, "Stay with me kid…Hey!" Another slap but it doesn't hurt.

Conner says something.

"Cougar!" Conner places shaking hands above his dying teammate.

…Everything's dark…

Ana turns from her captive and asks, "What's happening back there?" Her tanned face is pale from the sight of so much blood coming from her friend.

…Everything's cold…

Wolverine shakes the girl slightly, "Come on kid, stay with us…Hurry Up!" he snaps at the boy.

…Everything's gone…

…I'm gone…

The girl on the forest floor stops breathing.