Told you this one would be shorter! Brace yourselves. This one's a doozy...

DISCLAIMER: I don't own X-Men or anything related to it.

Chapter 45: Severing Loose Ends

When we left the Island, things couldn't have been more hectic. According to Doug, the moment the Mutants who had been on the ship reached ground again, most of them took off (to try and find their families no doubt), but the ones who couldn't openly walk into a hospital or police station for help (like Glenn or Azazel) stayed behind with Doug—

At Tilly's house.

When we returned for them, many demanded we drop them straight off at their homes. But both the Jet and the X-Cop were running out of fuel and there would be no way we could make so many trips in one night. We were all so tired, so mentally and physically drained, that all anyone could think about was rest. It was late in the dead of night before we finally got everyone situated back at Westchester (After a group of us scoped it out to make sure it was safe) with Tilly and Doug staying behind in Canada to 'get acquainted…'

Logan, however, chose to stay with us. To help out. And, while I appreciate his help, there's still something that bugs me about him. He told me, when we got to Tilly's house, that the place had seemed familiar to him; that everything about it was like out of a bad dream he once had. He even said that he remembered some things about the place...before it blew up anyway, which was spectacular! The Professor says Logan lost his memories due to some tragic event or perhaps brainwashing, but there's still something else about him that doesn't seem right.

" 'Give it time, Elizabeth,' " The Professor said to me during the trip home, when he caught me watching the man apprehensively. " 'And all will start to make sense.' " I just stared at him. I didn't know what he meant by that.

None of it makes any sense.

How Stryker got away; how Magneto left us to die; how Azazel can wrap his arms around me and make me feel whole again in spite of being the very thing I've hated for months on end; how Glenn incessantly picks at the scales on his skin until they bleed and scar; how he doesn't look at me anymore. How he stares at Angel; who still won't awaken. How Donovan can still talk to me, heal my wounds, care about me, after all I've put him through. How the X-Men can not hate us. How they've grown closer to each other and to me and my misbegotten team of nobodies in spite of everything they've sacrificed to see us live. How I can sit here, alive and breathing while Warwick lies in the ground in his freshly dug grave in the garden of the Xavier Institute.

I just can't make sense of any of it.

We get inside the mansion and I stretch, my wounds mostly healed save for some serious scaring on my side and shoulder. I feel more tired than I've ever been in my entire life but I can't see how I'll get any sleep. I feel half-dead from fatigue and yet so much as happened that my mind continues to race with unanswered questions and my heart pounds in my chest.

"You should return to your body," The Professor tells me, patting my arm comfortingly and I give a start at the touch. Now, I have the jitters. Great. "You've been away from it for far too long."

"Yeah," I murmur in a soft, drowsy voice. Then I give a humorless laugh, staring at nothing in particular, "I guess I have."

The Professor sighs, knowing he can't be of any more help, and says, "Havok will show you the way."

"Alright," I say, remembering he's in the room just next door putting Storm to sleep, but when I enter the room, she's already fast asleep as he's tucking her in. The tall blonde stands, patting the little girls' snowy white hair like a big brother would and turns to me with a smile as tired as my own. "She hasn't woken up?" I whisper, surprised. Most people have awakened by now, except for the ones who have passed out from sheer exhaustion. And Angel. I don't think Angel will ever wake up.

"Nope," Havok replies, stretching his back out. "She's alright but," An odd look crosses Alex's face as he stares down, worriedly, at the little girl. "She's been tossing and turning in her sleep. She keeps mumbling something but I can't understand what she's saying."

I reach down and stroke her head, thinking of poor Glenn, who had to be sedated earlier (so that he would stop tearing at his own skin and trying to shake Angel awake), and the deep lines of distress in her face smooth out, momentarily calm, until I remove my hand, and a deep frown passes over her features once more. She turns violently in her sleep, knocking a plastic tikki-like statue off her dresser. Havok sets the statue right and tucks the girls arm in before saying at last, "C'mon."

I follow him out, a little worried about Storm, but when Alex passes the Professor he stops and says, "I think you should see Storm. I think she's having nightmares or something."

"I can help her," The Professor assures us, fatigue apparent on his own, warn features. He looks far older than his years, with deep lines etched under his eyes and around his forehead. "I think we all will be having nightmares tonight."He adds as though speaking to himself and wheels away. Pushing back the pang of guilt that invades the back of my mind and stabs at my heart, I turn to Azazel (who had been waiting in the hall for me all the while) and before I can explain where I'm going, or say anything really, he takes hold of my wrist at my side and leans in to whisper in my ear, "I will wait for you here." I look past him to where he means and see that it's a bedroom. Our bedroom.

Oh!

...Oh...Hm...

Yes, well...That will do nicely...

"I thought, perhaps, you did not want to be alone," He explains vaguely as ever, his bright blue eyes positively shinning in the dark, and a mischievous smile curls my lips in spite of myself. I scoff and whisper back, "It's like you can read my mind." Then I pull away and say over my shoulder as I follow a slightly uncomfortable Havok out, "Don't wait up..." Azazel leans against the doorframe, crossing his arms and watching me leave with that tail of curling and uncurling just above the floor. It is so on.

Once out of earshot Havok opens his mouth to make a comment, but I say, "Don't even, " I smirk, thinking about how Donny is curled up in his bed right now, waiting. "I'm not the only one sharing a room tonight."

Alex blushes deeply, becoming as crimson red as Azazel, and says, "We're just friends."

"Uh-huh," I murmur knowingly as he leads me down an elevator towards the infirmary. We get inside and watch the doors close behind us. "Let's just hurry up—" I say, smiling again and feeling optimistic for the first time in God knows how long. "So we both can get some sleep."


The Professor couldn't tell what was wrong. Her dreams were filled with darkness, like a cloud had been placed over her mind and he was having trouble sifting through it. Storm was hiding something from him. There was something she didn't want him to know—that much he could tell. He spoke to her softly, so as not to frighten her, " 'Storm, Ororo, It's alright. Just tell me what's wrong. I promise I won't be angry.' "

Her voice responded from far off, " 'I didn't mean to, Professor! I forgot to shut down the elevators like you taught me.' " She added and an image of someone in dark descending the elevator flashed before his mind, but he couldn't see who it was. He only caught a glimpse of white teeth, glittering in the dark through a disturbing grin worthy of the fabled Cheshire Cat. " 'What are you saying, Ororo?' " The Professor asked, a feeling of dread coursing through him. " 'Ororo what happened!?' "

She sniffled and the dark cleared and he found her, sitting in the hospital bed where Ms. Hawthorne's body had once lain. She looked up at him through a curtain of white hair and said, " 'They took her.' " Then she burst into sobs as the floor seemed to drop out from beneath the Professor. " 'They took the lady away!' "She continued to sob even after the Professor withdrew from her mind, flashes of the abduction flashing behind his eyes, and she sat up in her little bed, tears still in her eyes. Emma ran in, wearing little more than a bath robe, followed by a shirtless Azazel who both had heard the commotion, as the combined energy of the telepath and the distraught little girl caught their attention.

"What is it, Xavier?" Emma breathed haggardly and he looked at her and in a second both she and the red Mutant beside her understood. The Professor knew there wasn't much time and reached out to the girl only to find himself blocked from reaching her. They had already found her. "Azazel, wait!" Emma cried but, in his panic, he had already teleported away without them. "Xavier, we have to hurry!"She said urgently but a dark shadow had crossed over his face, "It may already be too late."


Meanwhile…

The second we arrive in the hospital room, we both freeze on the spot. The bed where I am said to have been lain before the madness back at the Island even happened is empty.

My body is no where to be seen.

I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat, my palms growing slick with a cool sweat, "Alex?" I ask numbly, never taking my eyes off the spot, as if my body will suddenly appear right before my eyes and allow me to breathe again. "Tell me you got the wrong room." The X-Man shakes his head, looking equally as dazed and mutters in confusion, "This is it. I remember! Donny and I…we visited you." He runs an anxious hand through his hair as I continue to stare ahead, and says, "I don't—understand…"

But I do.

They had left the Island looking for me. Stryker and his men. It's the only reason our escape had even been possible. But I had naively thought that they'd only captured Storm when they did come here. That they hadn't found my body after all. I was wrong. But where did they put my body, then? Could it still be on the Island? But if that's so then it must have gone up in the inferno after the main power grid blew. Does that mean I'm…Dead?

" 'No. That can't be it.' " I think with a shudder as I step forward and place a hand on the bed. There's still a bid of a dent where my body had been. How long was I gone?

"You don't think it could still be here, do you?" I ask hopefully, but when I am met with a gasp and a faint grunt, I turn whip around just in time to see Havok fall to the ground, unconscious. And just behind him, trembling and grinning as psychotic as ever—

The Monster.

"Actually, I do." Giggles the Monster, as he leans against the doorframe unsteadily, his legs knockneed for some reason, and he gives with an insane chuckle that makes me jump and my skin crawl. I stagger backward, unsure of what to make of this. Unsure of how to handle this. How did he even get back here?! Where is Stryker? And above all, what did he do with my body?! "Your buddy really messed me up back there, you know that?" Josef slurs, stumbling towards me, breathing heavily. He chuckles again when I hurriedly move back to get away from him. "But that's not why I'm here," He says, stepping toward me and I back away on instinct. Even in his condition, he could still disable me easily, and it's his unpredictability that has me worried. I need help. Now.

"Where's my body?" I stall, trying to telepathically reach the Professor, but something's blocking me. The Monster tsks at me loudly and wags his finger at me. His blue eyes are flecked with patches of red and brown and green. He's no longer able to control his borrowed shape-shifting powers but his telepathy remains intact; unlike his sanity. "No telekenetipathy for you now." He croons mockingly, a smile curling his sweat-lined, feverishly pale lips. Then he taps his head at my questioning look, "Still got Emma in here, remember? Got all your friends. Even that…that Healer. Pfft," He scoffs loudly, filling the doorway with Glenn's bat wings as a shimmer of diamond runs up the length of his right arm. "Healer my ass! The guy fried my brain!" He suddenly screams at me—mouthed wail—and I jump and back up into the bed, nearly falling over with a yelp. My heart leaps in my chest as his wings flare out and he emits a screechy chortle.

He's completely lost it!

"Y-you never answered my question," I say, preparing to attack. "Where is my body?"

But he shrugs, which scares me more than anything, a goofy shrug with his hands up near his head like he's some kind of drunkard who is about to get his ass handed to him at the bar. "Hell if I know! We went back to find you," He says darkly, abruptly sobering up as he starts moving toward me at a quickened pace. I move away the bed, giving us some distance as I prepare to fire an energy blast at his face should he get any closer. Maybe if I manage to knock him out, I can get help without putting anyone in danger.

"But you weren't there! Why weren't you there? I don't know!" He erupts in giggles then stops quite suddenly, a deadly look befalling his clouded, disturbingly unfocused eyes, and he cocks his head too far to the side as he says, "Stryker wanted me to send a message." He opens his mouth to say something, but draws out his next words as though having trouble getting them out, and he doesn't seem to notice when I raise my glowing hand, ready for his attack before it happens.

A twisted smile curls his lips, "I don't think you'll like it."

I don't see it coming. I can't see it coming because he doesn't attack me head on like any other enemy I've faced thus farBut from behind.

The sound of impact is the first thing my brain processes; a wet crack like the sound a watermelon would make if you hit it with a sledge hammer. Only I haven't been hit by a hammer and I'm not a watermelon. Wet, coppery blood fills my mouth and I look down, uncomprehendingly, at the blade jutting out from my abdomen just below my rib cage. At first, I'm not sure of what I'm seeing and I find myself looking up at Josef, who chooses just then to disappear right before my eyes, with only that insane smile lingering in the space where his face had once been.

It had been an illusion all along.

It's only then that I feel his breath on my ear, "Thank you for moving out into the open for me." Azazel's voice whispers in my ear as he twists the knife that Azazel is known to fight with deeper into my body, and I feel my breath hitch, but the pain hasn't quite registered in my brain yet. All I can think is that I hear Azazel's voice coming from this-this…Monster as he stabs me in the back. "It makes killing you a bit easier," I can almost hear him smile from behind me as he asks mockingly, "Da?"

I try to speak but I choke as more blood fills my mouth and my legs shudder beneath me as something begins to hemorrhage from deep inside or me, but I somehow don't fall. I feel suspended, like I'm being help up my the blade protruding through my diaphragm, and any second I'll just collapse. But even worse is the memory of that strange encounter I had with Havok so long ago as it attacks my firing brain. When I delved into his mind and nearly drowned within his thoughts by Azazel's hand.

Only it wasn't Azazel. I knew it then and I know it now. It's not Azazel.I try to say but every breath I take feels borrowed and nothing comes out but blood when I open my mouth. I can hardly take even half of a breath before it hitches, as though the knife has put a physical wedge beneath my diaphragm, preventing me from taking a full breath. " 'I try again, mentally this time, but before I can get the thought out, Josef grips the blade tighter, twisting cruelly, and this time there sharp pang and a sickening grinding sound in my back.

I'm starting to feel it. The initial shock is wearing off. Soon, I'll be able to feel everything. I gasp, feeling as if I'm drowning, and give a strangled whimper as the Monster presses his face into my hair and whispers softly, and still in Azazel's voice, "Aren't I?" I catch a glimpse of a tail in the corner of my eye But before I can even begin to believe his lie, a cloud of smoke engulfs the room with a resounding bang, and, suddenly, we're not alone. Azazel's eyes fall on me before the smoke has cleared, but before he can register what has happened, Josef attacks him telepathically and Azazel crumbles to the ground with a strangled cry, gripping his head as he fights to block him mind, but he was unprepared and we're all exhausted. Azazel has been weakened just like the rest of us, making it all the more difficult to fight him off.

"What are you waiting for?" Josef hisses in my ear. "Your lover awaits you!" He removes the blade from my body in one quick motion.

The next thing I know, I'm falling. My legs no longer work and I have no control over my limbs at all. Like a puppet whose strings have been cut, I fall to the floor beside Azazel and find I can't get back up; can't move; can't speak. All I feel is numbness and a hollow, nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Is this what Warwick felt before he died? Is that what's happening to me? Am I dying?

Unable to do much else, I lift my eyes toward Azazel, who is trying desperately to fight off the Monster's attack a mere foot away from me, and, for a moment, I fear the Monster has won when Azazel's blue eyes meet mine for an instant and I see those panicked eyes begin to roll—

But then something miraculous happens. And Emma and the Professor are there, Emma attacking Josef and the Professor wheeling towards us as quickly as he can. Azazel is already recovering, his body relaxing and his eyes coming back into focus as he scrambles to get up. "Get them into the hall," The Professor says to someone and Donovan along with Beast and Jubilee and Sean drag myself and Havok out into the hall, Azazel stumbling out after us with the help of Sean.

They turn me over and I moan quietly, the blood flowing even faster. "Professor!" Beast yells, fear shining brightly in his eyes. In fact, everyone looks that way. Even Jubilee bears an expression of utter horror as they stand above me, not sure of what to do. Only Azazel is there to start giving directions. "Give me this cloth," He says to Jubilee, reaching for her shawl, and then starts wrapping it around my waist. I can't feel the material against my skin. I can't feel anything.

"Havok, Beast, Jubilee! I need you!" The Professor calls and they rush out to meet him. Beast returns a second later with a distorted Emma in his grasp. "He's too mentally unstable," She breathes, putting a hand to her head as she stumbles over. "I-I couldn't control him!" She looks over to Azazel and then down at my wound. She assesses it silently a moment, her face blank, "That won't do," She says shortly and glances around. "You—" She says to Donovan who flinches. He's been staring at me this entire time, frozen and momentarily incapable of speech. "Find some gauze and bandages now."

Donovan shakes his head, "Couldn't I just heal her?" He asks tentatively, reaching a hand for me ,but she knocks his hand away, crying out, "No! The shock will kill her! Just go get the bandages!" She cries. Realizing she's right, Donovan takes off. "And anesthesia!" She calls after him.

"Forget bandages!" Azazel says angrily, his accent coming out in full bloom in his panic. "She dies now! We must leave for hospital!"

"Do you really think they'll help her if you just teleport inside?" Snaps Emma, her eyes flashing with rage. "They'll know what she is! But we can't just take a car like last time either. There's no time!"

"So we are to let her die?!"

"No!" She objects. "We must get her properly wrapped up before she loses any more blood. Now, help me get this off—" But the moment they attempt to lift me to remove the hastily wrapped shawl, I scream as a sudden pain rattles my entire body and a chill like ice shoots through my bones. Then, without warning, everything goes dark.


"She's bleeding out," Emma breathed. The color had drained from the young Mutant's face she had become very still. She was barely breathing. She wasn't going to last much longer without proper treatment. "Donovan!"

"The hell is going on?!" Came Logan's voice as he rounded the corner of the infirmary. He had heard the noise and smelled the blood long ago but had trouble finding the damned place. He looked down and noticed the blood before he noticed the girl. He could hear her labored breathing and judging by the sheer amount of blood on the floor he knew immediately she wasn't gonna make it.

"We're under attack!" Emma cried, but her words didn't seem to reach the other Mutant. Logan couldn't move. Donovan had to push past the paralyzed man to get Emma the gauze. He couldn't take his eyes off her. He hadn't known the kid long but, seeing her that way...He knew enough that she didn't deserve it, and before he realized it, the claws were out. "Which way?" Was all he growled, and then, once he had his heading, he was off.

And it couldn't have been in better time.

The Professor had been knocked clear out of his chair after the man known as the Monster shot Havok's beam at Jubilee, sending her crashing right into him, and they both fell over. Jubilee was out and severely burned, and the Professor looked up through the wreckage of his wheelchair to see Beast fall at the hands of the Monster, drained.

Everyone had been defeated. With nothing else standing in his way, Josef advanced on the Professor, grasping him by the front of the shirt with one hand, his breath coming in short, labored pants. "I'm stronger than all of you!" He cried out and lifted his hand as claws similar to Beasts grew from his finger tips; only these claws were encrusted in hard diamond and preparing to deliver a final blow.

"You are no better than any of us, Josef." The Professor said as his legs slid out from beneath him, leaving him virtually helpless as he lied through his teeth and said (in an attempt to reason with the man), "But you could be one of us."

"One of you?!" Josef cried, blinking the cool sweat out of his eyes as his vision doubled and he fought to concentrate. His hands shook and his skin felt as though there were a hundred insects crawling just beneath the surface. "I am above you!" He spat, shoving the crippled man against the wall violently. "All of you! I have their strength! I have their memories! I have their power! And now, I have yours!" The Professor flinched when the Monster brought his hand down but when the blow did not come, he opened his eyes to see a look of shock plastered on the Mutant's face. Then the Professor fell to the ground as Josef screamed in pain. The Professor gave a startled cry when the Monster's severed arm fell beside him.

"Hm," Logan said just behind the man, his own claws drawn and bloody. "Looks like you don't have mine." And then with one, deft swipe of his claws, the Mutant fell.

All six pieces of him.

"That's for her." Logan said softly. He retracted his claws and offered a hand to the Professor, helping him back into his chair once more.

"Where?" The Professor asked, trembling all over.

"They're workin' on her, Charles," He said grimly but shook his head, looking away as he said, "She ain't gonna make it."

The Professor sat for a moment, just sitting there breathing for just a moment before he squared his shoulders, telling himself he needed to be strong for this, and, without a word, followed Logan to the dying girl's side.


Will she die?! You'll have to wait and see...IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!

~THESCRIBE!