Disclaimer: X men are not my property. See previous chapters for full disclaimer.

Flicker

"Dat Rogue." Gambit asked casually, "She really kill people?"

Pyro nodded. "Yep."

"Even mutants?"

"She drains their powers, then she kills them." He scowled, remembering a time that seemed long ago, when Rogue had owned his power.

"How long you got after she touch you?"

"Five minutes?" Pyro guessed, "Not too long."

Gambit sighed. "Not good den."

They were sitting in a deserted corner of the gardens, surrounded by trees. Everyone else was inside, with the exception of Sabretooth, who was dozing sprawled out near the lake. Pyro flicked open his lighter and sent a small flicker of flame up into the sky. "Why isn't it good?"

"Well, t'ing is, she's a good lookin' girl."

"You…you fancy her?" Pyro asked, feeling a sudden quick stab of jealousy and wondering why.

The Cajun shrugged. "Been a long time since Gambit had a woman."

"Oh." A slightly larger flash of flame arced into the air. "You know she's going out with Bobby right?"

"Bobby?"

"Bobby Drake, Iceman."

"Him?" Gambit gave a small snigger, "I tell you homme, I had competition before; dis is not competition."

"Oh." Pyro tried to think of something to say.

Gambit shot him a slightly worried look. "You don' want her do you?"

"What, oh, no. It's fine."

"You don' look to happy homme."

"I'm fine. You just watch out she doesn't kill you."


Indio stared worriedly at Cerebro, jumping slightly as the door closed shut behind him. "Are you sure this will be safe."

"Don't worry about it kid." Wolverine said, trying his best to sound reassuring. "Just don't concentrate too much on anyone, and if it hurts too much take the helmet off.

"It should be fine." Hank smiled at him.

Indio nodded. Both men were worried, but none of them seemed to think that anything bad would happen to him personally. Logan's worries were for Rogue, Hank's for all the mutants currently in a coma.

Slowly, he approached the chair and sat down, his feet dangling slightly off the floor. In the background, he heard Logan's thoughts turn instantly to the Professor, and the mysterious Dr Grey that he thought of so much. He lifted the helmet and put it over his head, where it hung down to just above his eyes.

Silence.

For the first since he could remember, Indio heard complete and utter silence. No thoughts, no voices, not even the faint static in the background of people far away.

"Are you ready?" Hank asked. And Indio jumped again at the sound, which seemed odd coming with no preparation, no thoughts before it, no sign that anyone else was around.

"Yes." He whispered.

Logan moved forward and put a hand on his shoulder. "OK kid. Now concentrate, but not too much."

Indio nodded and closed his eyes, following the same thought processes he had back with the Silent Man's machine. A brief pause and then they were all there, the thousands of figures in blue and red, spinning into infinity.

"There's so many." He murmured.

"Take your time." Hank said gravely. "Try to find the ones who are ill."

Indio frowned, his mind flitting amongst the ghostly shapes. There were people standing, people sitting, people laughing, crying, shouting, hurting. The full spectrum of human emotion flew by him, leaving him feeling slightly dizzy.

Logan's hand tightened briefly on his shoulder.

"There's... there's no one ill. Some are not so well, but there are none who have collapsed."

Outside the flying whirls of sparkling people Logan and Hank exchanged worried glances.

"Try to find Magneto." Hank suggested.

"Your Silent Man." Logan explained.

Indio nodded, concentrating on retaining his own identity amidst the many souls surrounding him. Gently (remembering the effects of last time) he concentrated on the Silent Man, trying to remember his looks, his voice, his walk, everything about him.

"He's not here. There's no one…wait."

There. Just outside the spiralling colours that soared through his mind were other figures, not bright or sparkling but faded, ghostlike and grey. Quickly, he pushed through the last of the colours and stood among them. There was no emotion here, no wide rollercoaster of sound and light and feeling. Just dull grey flatness.

People floated in front of him, all the same. Limbs hanging, eyes either shut or vacant, no movement, no semblance of life at all. It made Indio feel slightly sick.

"I-I've found them."

Hank let out a small gasp of relief. "Is there anything you can do?"

Indio shook his head, more in confusion than denial. "I don't know."

But somehow, part of him did. These people had no thoughts, no feelings, no mind. He had spent his life hearing things from other people, now maybe it was time for things to flow the other way.

Slowly, he halted his mind, in the centre of the still grey shapes. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, this was it.

Concentrate. That was the key. Not to concentrate on anyone of them, but on all of them. To send out his thoughts, any thoughts, into the minds of all of them, a kick-start for the brain.

Concentrate.


In the mansion hospital Mystique's eyes snapped open.


A/N: That ending works better on film ;)

yay! I have discovered pagebreaks! I used to do little lines of dashes, but had no idea they were not coming out in the story (I swear they used too...) anyway, it's all OK now, and I might actually go back and clean up some of the other chapters.

I know the title is stupid. I could not think of a title! The best one would have been 'into the mind' but I used that for last time.