Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I know I'm late on posting. Whatever, man. I'm busy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Deadpool, the X-Men, or anything that obviously isn't mine. I do own Raven, Hilda, Dana,...you should get it by now.

Rate, review, and Enjoy!

The next day, Raven was awoken by Hilda furiously shaking her arm and the screech of an alarm echoing through the halls.

She blinked a few times before jolting up in surprise. Guards were quickly evacuating out of the ward and the prisoners were desperately trying to figure out what was going on.

"Goodness, Raven, you sleep like ze dead!" Hilda shouted. Raven shook her head in an attempt to get her hair out of her face. It didn't help much; not as if it mattered much.

"What the hell is going on?!" Raven shouted back, wishing she could cover her ears somehow. From what she could tell, it was simply chaos. Nothing like this had happened in the past three months she had been imprisoned.

"An unidentified aircraft attacked ze island and broke ze shield!" Hilda informed her.

"Unidentified? Is it the military?"

The blonde shook her head.

"I can't tell. What should we do?"

Raven looked up at the concrete ceiling, which shook from impact and caused dust to fall down onto her nose. The people, or whatever they were, who were attacking could be either friend or foe. The risk would be considerable if they were to make their way past all of the other people. But there wasn't much time to make up a decision. They needed a diversion and this one was too perfect to pass up.

"We need to go now." she resolved.

"Now?!" Hilda raised her arms to shield her from some falling dust "Are you sure we are ready?"

Raven nodded, her eyes meeting her friend's.

"We're as ready as we're gonna be! Now get this mask off me so I can get your stupid helmet off!"

Hilda nodded eagerly and reached through the bars of the cage as Raven turned her back and tossed her hair over her shoulder. The German woman nimbly undid the leather strap of the mask and the horrible piece of headgear fell to the ground with a clatter.

Raven turned back around with a smile on her face. Hilda smiled too, taking Raven's appearance in. She had never seen the black haired girl without the mask. Her face was pale and her cheeks had sunken in, but her eyes showed that she was as fit as a fiddle.

"Thanks, Hildie." she stuck the bobby pin out through her pale lips "Now turn around so I can get that bucket off your head!"

Hilda smiled and, not wasting anymore time, turned around. Raven scooted forward and stuck the bobby pin in the keyhole.

With some serious finagling of both tongue and metal, Raven managed to unhinge the metal device causing it to crash noisily on the floor. Raven grinned in satisfaction as the full length of Hilda's blonde hair tumbled over her shoulders. Wade would've had a field day with this one.

"Alright, now all we need to do is-"

BANG!

With a sudden burst of psychic energy, the doors to Hilda's cage were blown right off their hinges and flung across the room. Her blue eyes glowed white and her hair rose around her in a ghostly fashion.

A second alarm, signaling the escape of the prisoners joined the first, making the room even louder. Hilda raised her right hand towards the sirens. She closed her hand tight, causing the speaker to implode.
Raven had never seen a class 5 mutant, or even a class 5 telepath, before. She had heard the tragic tale of Jean Grey a thousand times over and a thousand times again; which had given her a pretty terrifying image of what a class 5 telepath would be like. Red energy that burned like fire, black eyes, and a cruel visage was the image Raven held of the woman described to her as Jean Grey. True, she had not originally held that form, but there was something about her tale that left that final impression in Raven's mind.

Hilda, however, did not resemble that grim picture at all. Instead, she looked much like a beautiful white angel that had finally descended from the heavens to free them of this hell.

"How flashy." Raven grumbled, tugging at her jacket "Now, could you do something about these sleeves?"

Hilda turned her white eyes to her and raised her hand. In an instant, the buckles and sleeves were torn off. Raven felt her arms fall down and hang limply at her sides. Pins and needles spread from her fingertips up to her shoulders; as to be expected from someone who had hardly been out of a straitjacket in three months.

As she rubbed the feeling back into her arms, Hilda ripped off the door to Raven's cage with another loud bang.
The black haired woman ran towards the sealed doors as Hilda worked on getting the other prisoners out, using her vast telepathic skills to communicate to them about what was going on.

As the rest of the group ran towards the doors, Raven entered the numeric password, which she had memorized long ago, into the system. A light glowed green and the doors buzzed open to reveal the chaos on the other side.

"Even without zat helmet, I still 'ave grown so weak without proper nourishment and such. I cannot simply just push our way through zis." Hilda murmured as they peaked out of the door. Raven nodded, her eyes narrowing as a particularly panicked guard ran blindly in their direction. She shoved her arm out, effectively clotheslining him, and causing him to toss his gun into the air.

She caught it nimbly and promptly shoot him in the face.

"It's alright. Just rest your powers for now and focus on getting weapons, ok?" Raven instructed "Maintain a formation and under no circumstance is anyone allowed to separate from the group without my say so. We are all going to get out of here and we are all going to do it together, understand?"

A ripple of affirmation passed through the group, giving Raven a rush of confidence. They could do this. She just hoped nothing bad would pop up.

"Ah! Jeeze! How many alarms does this place have?!" Deadpool complained as he shot at one of the enemy soldiers. Ever since they broke the shield, everyone and their mother rushed out to try and take them down. Right now, the X-Men were focused on defending the Blackbird, since it was their only way out of this place. From the looks of how things were going, they seemed to have the upper hand.

"Victory shall be ours!"

"Kill all the phonies!"

"Who knows!" Domino shouted back over the gunfire and explosions "But it seems like Dana's got this place locked up tight! Getting in there's not gonna be a picnic!"

"We gotta hurry this up!" Wolverine ordered "Who knows how much time Gwen's got left in there!"

At the mention of her name, Deadpool felt a fire ignite in his gut. He pulled off one of his grenades and tossed it with a remarkable aim behind one of the bunkers, causing the structure to explode. Just one less thing standing in the way between Deadpool and his girl.

"Nice shot." Domino complimented as she reloaded her gun. Deadpool slid down the side of their own handmade bunker, checking the ammo on his own weapons. Somewhere in that concrete shithole, his Raven laid trapped and was being subjected to all sorts of torture. He had seen her file. It was nightmarish and enough to keep him from looking at his own.

"Hurry up and kill these bitches! They're probably making her watch Miley Cyrus's MTV performance!"

"Or worse: her rap video!"

"Move, man! Move!"

Deadpool nodded and pulled out his semi-automatics. He spontaneously leapt over his bunker, shooting wildly.

"I came in like a wrecking baaaaaaaaaall!" he sang, gleefully, watching as his enemies fell one by one "You all fell down and died!"

When he ran out of ammo, he pulled out his katanas and went to work slicing and dicing his enemies like a master sushi chef. He laughed maniacally all the while, not remembering the last time he had this much fun.

"It was when Raven was with us."

"We knew that! We were trying to not bring the team down, remember?"

"This would be so much easier if I was naked and swinging on a wrecking ball!" Deadpool ranted, stabbing a guy in the face, before spinning around and slicing a guy in half "And maybe if I licked a sledgehammer you could really get the symbolism in the pain my tumultuous relationship and how I still love Wolverine even though he stabs me in the face and-"

"Or you'll just look like a total slut."

"Is that what the kids are into? No wonder most of our daytime TV is full of paternity drama."

"It's a sad world we live in."

"Speaking of sad: weren't we killing people?"

Deadpool looked around on either side. He could hear Dana's forces scrambling around on the inside to either defend themselves or launch another attack against them, but as far as any more enemies on the outside: there were none. Well, at least none that were living.

"Well, I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles." he muttered, sheathing his swords as the rest of his team approached.

"Wow! Great job!" Domino approved, clapping Deadpool on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I know. I'm awesome. Just wish we picked the side with the door." he patted the solid concrete wall next to him "But I'm sure enough c4 could make one for us."

"No. We don't know the layout of the complex. We can't risk accidentally killing innocent prisoners because you were too lazy to go find a door." Wolverine growled.

"Ugh. You superheroes and your overrated code of ethics. No wonder most of your arch-nemeses keep coming back into the picture." the red clad merc replied, crossing his arms.

"You know you wished we had one of those codes."

"We have a code!"

"We do?"

"Yeah! Don't fuck with our girl, our friends, or our tacos!"

"And on that note, if I'm not allowed to make a door, then I shall find one! Tallyho!" Deadpool cheered, running off to the right. Domino shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. He would most certainly get into more trouble or worse if he was left on his own.

"I'll go after Pizzaface. You guys do what you gotta do and radio in with the details." she said before bolting off after him. As the pair ran off into the distance, the remainders of the group could vaguely hear a man's voice singing 'Eye of the Tiger'.

Wolverine shook his head, but quickly got down to business.

"Alright, while Domino and Dumbass scout out whatever's over there: Rogue and Gambit you two scout out the left. Storm, keep and eye on the Blackbird and I-"

BOOM!

A huge explosion interrupted the leader of the group and threw them all onto their asses, along with large amounts of rubble. Dust from the explosion clouded their vision as the group struggled to figure out what was going on.
Shadowy figures of various shapes and sizes poured out of the newly formed hole. The X-Men readied themselves for a fight. None of them expected Dana's forces to regroup and launch a counterattack so quickly.

"C'mon everyone! Pile out! The hard part is over! Now all we need to do is get down to the beaches and steal some boats!"

That voice. It was a distinct female voice. It sounded so familiar to each of them, but the air was still too clouded to see anything properly.

Suddenly, an unsuspecting foot crushed Gambit's outstretched hand into the earth. He pulled back his hand, causing the owner of the foot to slip and fall down.

It was at this point when the red eyed Cajun could see the owner of the foot properly.

It belonged to a girl who appeared to be about the age of seven. Her hair was a deep shade of emerald green and her pink eyes were wide and full of fear upon meeting his. The Cajun recognized this girl as one of those reported missing from the news.

"Ahh!" she shrieked, scrambling away from him before he could say a word "They're out here too! They're gonna put us back in the cages! Help me, please!"

"Oh no they're not!" the same female voice from before shouted "Hilda!"

An unseen force pulled the girl back into the falling dust and flung the Cajun high into the air. Instantaneously, he was dropped back into the earth with a sickening thud.

"Gambit!" Rouge shouted, scrambling over to help the fallen man. He held up his hand as he struggled to stand.

"Stay back, chere!"

The dust had cleared enough so that the group could see the shadowy figures more clearly. A few were clearly children and some were teenagers. A few were adults. But they were all primarily crowded behind a small, skinny woman with black hair and a slightly taller and almost equally skinny woman with blonde hair. The blonde's hair flew about her, very much like those possessed by evil spirits do in the movies once their powers activated, and her eyes were white.
The black haired woman suddenly pulled the blonde's arm down.

"Stop! I think I know them!" she pleaded "Could someone do something about this dust?"

Storm's eyes faded into white as she brought a huge breeze down to carry the dust away. Once it was gone, the owner of the voice was made clear.

"Raven?!" Rouge shouted.

Raven's appearance had changed drastically in the short three months she had been gone. Her hair was still dark, but appeared thinner and extremely unhealthy. Instead of being a healthy pale, her skin was a rather sickly color. It didn't help that her cheeks had sunken in due to malnutrition, but it was a quality shared by all of the apparently escaped prisoners that stood before them.

"You know zez people?" the blonde woman asked, her arm still outstretched. Raven nodded, tears of joy welling up in her dark eyes as they met with the eyes of her old friends.

"Yeah...they're friends." she replied, wiping her tears away with the palm of her filthy and bloodstained hands. The road out of the complex was not an easy one. There were many who stood in their way and even tried to kill them. Raven fought tooth and nail to get them out, using things as weapons she didn't even know could be weapons. She was so tired. So very tired.

"You guys go on now." she instructed her group, "These guys are ok. They're here to help us, ok?"

Cheers of joy and praise erupted from the group of prisoners as they ran to their saviors with outstretched arms.

"You go on now, too, Hildie." Raven told her friend. The German nodded and lowered her arm. She staggered forward with the rest of the group, completely exhausted from overusing her powers.

Raven was the last to join them. She, too, was completely and utterly exhausted. The pain of constantly being injured and healed was almost maddening. At least she got a taste of what Deadpool goes through on a day to day basis. But that was because he usually wasn't as careful as she was and relied heavily on his healing factor when it came to crazy escape plans like this one.

Gambit ran past all the other prisoners and wrapped the tiny Raven up in his arms. He lifted her off the ground, surprised at just how much weight she had lost. He placed a kiss on her cheek as he felt her thin arms over his shoulders. Her fingers ran through his hair and over his face, as if she didn't believe he was real.

"Oh, chere, we were worried sick 'bout you! Why'd you have to go an' run off like dat?"

Raven grinned her first genuine grin in three months and kissed him on the cheek as he lowered her back onto the ground.

"Because I was sick of your stupid face! Now let me go before Rogue kills you!"

A tearful Rogue shoved the Cajun out of the way and it was her time to wrap her arms around her best friend.

"I can't believe you're alright!" she cried, pulling away to look at her friend up and down, "But you're so dang skinny, girl!"

"Nothin' a couple dozen batches of your fried chicken and gravy can't fix." Raven smiled even bigger, if possible, "I missed you too, Anna."

Rogue pulled away and wiped the tears from her eyes, allowing Raven to make her way through the crowd to greet Storm and Wolverine.

"You guys cracked my computer?" Raven guessed upon being wrapped up in Wolverine's hairy arms.

"Yup. You made it hard enough to crack, though." the claw wielder complained. Raven rolled her eyes and patted the top of his head.

"Psh. And if you paid attention to any of those damn videos I oh so painstakingly made, you would know I did it so nobody else would be able to get that highly classified information. You ought to be thanking me." she joked. He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, thanks a lot."

Raven grinned happily as he released her. Her eyes scanned over her former charges as they were inspected by the X-Men who had come to save them. She had managed to save all of those imprisoned in the other jails on the complex. She had been reunited with all of the people who were taken from her. Well, all except two.

"Where's Deadpool and Domino?" she asked aloud, a sinking feeling growing in her gut. Deadpool was not known for being patient. She had always doubted he would wait for her as the days turned into weeks and the weeks turned into months. She had focused so much on getting out, she hadn't thought about what it would be like on the outside or if it would even be possible to live the life she had left.

It would've been much easier for Deadpool to fall back in a relationship with an ex than to spend three months searching for her. Domino was one of her best friends and if she was screwing her boyfriend, well, that would be a good enough reason not to show up.

"They went to see if there was a way in over there." Gambit pointed to the right of where they should. Raven nodded. She meant something to both of them. The right thing to do would be to show up and help her break out, even if they had engaged in a relationship. It wasn't as if Deadpool and Raven even were that serious. Yeah, they lived together, but nobody even said the big four letter 'L' word yet.

It would probably mean Raven would go back to Louisiana instead of New York. There, she and Remy would eventually pick up where they left off. She couldn't imagine it being as happy as it was with Wade, though.
Of course, there was always the option to move back into her home she had purchased from Tony Stark, but after all she had been through the last thing she wanted to do was be alone.

"Boy, is Deadpool gonna be happy to see you." Rogue said. Raven fiddled with her hair self consciously.

"And why would he want to do that?" she replied "He's got the attention span of a squirrel. He's moved on by now."

"Ha! As if! That boy has been even more of a wreck than usual since you went away!" her best friend exclaimed. Raven raised an eyebrow, keeping her eyes fixed in the right direction.

"Has he now?"

"Ya kiddin' me?" Gambit chimed in "Dat boy hardly left dat couch of yours since ya were gone! An' all he ate were pork rinds and takeout!"

Raven giggled at her own foolishness.

"That does sound a lot like Deadpool."

Rogue reached out and tugged on Raven's frail arm.

"C'mon." she urged her friend "Let's get y'all back on the Blackbird. You can eat, take a nap, and-"
Rogue's eager expression faded when she saw her friend shaking her head sadly.

"I can't do that, Anna." a pained expression painted on her face "As much as I want to I can't."

"And why the hell not!" her Southern friend yelled. Raven sighed.

"Rogue, I still have a whole ward of people to save in Hospice and the lab needs to be destroyed."
Rogue put her hands on her hips and frowned deeply.

"And you think you're gonna take care of all that by yourself?"

"It wouldn't be right for me to ask for you all to help me clean up my little sister's mess." Raven shrugged. Rogue's eyebrows knitted together as she stomped towards her friend pointing an accusational finger directly at her nose.

"We are your friends, Gwen! That's what friends do! And by God, I did not come all this way to get you just to have you slip away again!" she scolded the dark haired woman.

"I'd listen to her, chere." Gambit chimed in "Deadpool ain't the only one who's been messed up since you've been gone."

Raven rolled her eyes. She should've known better than to expect her friends to stay out of it. She was just so relieved Deadpool actually seemed to be affected by her disappearance and even stayed faithful. Weird.

"Alright. Alright, you guys. Anymore cheese and I think I'm gonna need some tortilla chips." she joked. Nobody laughed, but instead stared at her blankly.

"You get it? Cuz the content of the conversation is cheesy so...um..."her voice trailed off as she scratched the back of her head "So, um, what's the plan?

"Storm will stay with the rest of your escapees in the Blackbird." Wolverine said "We will go in and half of us will go to Hospice and the other half will go destroy that lab."

"And what about my sister?" Raven asked.

"We let the authorities take care of her." he responded. Raven nodded and followed them back into the complex.
For some reason, she didn't feel as if things were going to go as well as Wolverine had predicted. Even if they did manage to get in, do what they needed to do, and get out without Dana stopping them, which was highly unlikely, the concept that the human government would be able to contain her seemed ridiculous. The only way Raven could see an end to Dana's madness was through immediate termination.

But that wasn't the way heroes did things. Heroes beat up the bad guys and left them for the authorities. If the bad guys came back, the heroes did as well. It was a never ending game of cat and mouse that didn't make sense to Raven even as a child.

But could she bring herself to kill her own sister?

The only remaining branch of her family tree?

Song(s) Used:

Unstable by Chaotica

Perfect Insanity by Disturbed

The Prisoner by Iron Maiden

Man in the Box by Alice in Chains