DISCLAIMER: I don't own the X-Men or any other characters, etc. Marvel, etc... I do lay claim to the FOH members, the OC ones, but only with reluctance, and Diana Clayton as well, I guess. I also lay claim to Suzanne and the lousy assassins, only the OC ones.
A/N: I am amazed I was able to get this chapter out so quickly. Don't get used to it, though. lol
Chapter Fifty-Four:
Ororo stands in the empty hanger and sighs. She wanted to go with the team, but she couldn't manage another flight without vomiting the entire trip. Just then, Jubilee runs into the room, "Um, Storm, I think we might have a problem?"
Another sigh breaks from the weather witch, "Did you break another cd player?"
Jubilee frowns, "Third one this week… but that wasn't what I was talking about. I can't find Jaime…"
"What?!"
"Or Illyana," she adds with a flinch.
Ororo looks back at the place where the jet once stood. "Oh, great…"
Henri LeBeau hates killing. He's a thief, not an assassin, but he does what is necessary to survive. Two dead Rippers lay on the ground behind him. His phone is beeping again, but he is cleaning blood off his knife. Merci can wait for just a while. These two thought they had him, but they were only two. He hadn't counted the men that had been with Suzanne and now he was regretting it. His thieving instincts had told him too, but he had thought it was a better idea to remain still and quiet at the time. His phone goes off again. "Merde, Merci, have a lil' patience, mon amoure."
Sinister is humming as he packs his luggage for the trip home. Siena is looking at him oddly. Mr. Sinister does not hum. So, she is greatly confused by the humming. "So, am I to assume you didn't enjoy our trip together?"
"What?" Sinister stops humming and packing at the same time. "What would make you think that?"
"You were humming…" deadpans Siena with her arms crossed over her growing belly.
"You have it all wrong, my dear," Sinister mollifies. "I was humming because I am so eager to get home and begin our new life together as a family. The baby will be born soon, and we can be married."
"I haven't said I'll marry you," Siena states.
"You will," he answers in a matter-of-fact tone. Siena feels suddenly nervous and doesn't know why. "But we won't even think about that until after little Elijah is born." He smiles at her with his pointy teeth showing plainly.
Siena feels her heart rate return to normal. "You are so sure it's going to be a boy, huh?"
"Absolutely," he admits. Secretly, while Siena was sleeping, he had run a few tests. He knew for a fact the child was a boy, but he could never tell her.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here? A lil' family reunion?" Marius says as he glances around the room. He takes in Belladonna's outfit and his eyebrow raises. "Take off dat ridiculous wig, Belladonna."
"Papa, I can explain," she begins, pulling the wig off immediately and holding it rather sheepishly.
"No, we will talk 'bout dis later," he says, "after I kill dese intruders."
"Yeah, good luck with that," Rogue says with a laugh. Marius shoots her with a nine millimeter in the forehead. It doesn't even leave a mark. "Like Ah said… good luck. Ah ain't so easy ta kill anymore, Marius."
"What the…!" Belladonna starts.
She is cut off by her brother waking up with a groan. "Oh, I t'ink I been hit wit' a two-by-four…"
"Henri!" Marius exclaims, noticing his son's presence for the first time. "What did y'all do t' my son?"
Rogue just rolls her eyes. "We're leavin' now."
"Over my dead body," Marius says, still blocking the room's only exit.
"Have it y'r way," Jean-Luc says. He pulls a knife from who-knows-where and throws it at his rival's throat. Marius dodges it easily.
"Is dat all y' got?"
"Rems, care ta join the fun?" Rogue asks in a sultry voice.
"Gambit'd love t', chérie." He charges a card and throws it at Marius' feet. Belladonna screams as it explodes and Marius is thrown backwards through the now open door. However, the explosion has caused a loud noise, and assassins are running their way.
Not to mention, Bella is angry with them now.
"Do you have their coordinates yet?" Hank asks.
"Yes, I have them. Here." Xavier inputs the information into the jet's system.
"The house appears to be in the middle of a swamp," Hank informs the team.
Ororo's voice is heard coming over the com, "Beast, can you hear me?"
"Yes, Storm, loud and clear. Are you all right, my dear?"
"Yes, I'm fine, but there is a slight situation on our end."
"What kind of situation?" asks Charles.
"We have reason to believe Jaime and Illyana may have… snuck onto the jet…"
Logan groans. "I'll go sniff them out."
"Really, Swamp Rat?" Rogue growls. "We have one ally in this place and ya have ta get on her bad side."
"Remy was already on her bad side, River Rat," he says with a smirk. They both pause from arguing long enough to dodge a chair.
"Good point," Rogue agrees. "Ah don't know what she's so mad 'bout anyway… it's not like ya killed him."
"Belladonna was always a bit of a Daddy's Girl," states Jean-Luc, aiming another knife and throwing it. This one Julien is barely able to dodge in time. Rogue and Gambit are still confused about where Jean-Luc's knives are coming from.
"Oh," Rogue replies with a nod.
"Remy LeBeau, you coward, stop hiding and die like a man!" Belladonna shouts.
"So, Roguey, you got any idea how t' get out of t'is mess?" Gambit asks.
"Not a clue."
Graydon Creed sleeps peacefully in his hospital bed to the tune of the beep, beep, beep of the monitors. Diana is alone with him right now. She is contemplating whether ten million dollars is worth all the lying. She looks down at him. He is a handsome man and he really needs her help. She sighs and decides the money is worth it after all.
A gentle knock announces Harrison's arrival. "Hey, is he asleep?"
"Yes, finally."
"You look worn out. Why don't you go home and rest?"
"I can't leave him here like this," Diana says, managing to crack her voice just the right amount. She's so worried he will forget his pills and let the voice come out at the wrong time… or on camera. That would be bad. He also has that bad habit of sleep walking… Fortunately, the pills had been helping with that, but…
Harrison mistakes her intentions, of course, and nods his head. "You are such a caring person, Diana. He's lucky to have found you."
Diana agrees wholeheartedly but can't say that. "I'm lucky to have found him too," she agrees instead. Ten million dollars lucky. Maybe after he dies, I can write a tell-all book about it. She grins down at Graydon's sleeping form at the thought of exposing the truth after his death. She likes the idea.
Logan drags the two stowaways into the front of the jet. "Tell O she can stop worrying. I found 'em."
Illyana squirms out of his grasp. "Let go of Jaime!" She kicks him in the shin, and finds out why that's a really bad idea. She hops around on one foot holding the other saying, "Ow, ow, ow."
Logan raises an eyebrow at her, "Don't… do that again."
"No problem," she says, still holding her incredibly sore foot.
He releases Jaime, who rushes to her side. "Found those two in the cargo hold."
Xavier shakes his head. "I should have noticed them, but I was so worried about Anna."
"It's okay, Professor," Scott tells him. "We understand."
Kurt is nervously pacing the jet. "Zere!" He points at an old mansion in the middle of a heavily wooded swamp. "Zat has to be it, Professor."
Kitty and Colossus make up the rest of the team; both of them are glaring at the stowaways.
Wanda and Pyro have reached New Orleans, but have no idea where to go from there. They have been wandering the streets for hours and finally stopped to eat.
"Wow," Pyro says, "this stuff tastes almost as good as Gambit and Rogue's cooking."
Wanda takes a bite and coughs, "It's a little spicy, don't you think?"
"I like things hot," he says winking at her suggestively.
She blushes and then sighs. "How are we going to find them?"
"I suggest we follow the jet," he takes another big bite and points at the x-jet flying over them.
Wanda is up and pulling him out of the restaurant before the waitress even notices they haven't paid.
"Awww, but I'm still hungry!" Pyro whines.
Rogue has managed to bust a hole through a wall so they could get out of Marius' office. She's blasting with Scott's laser beams behind them every few seconds to keep Belladonna and Julien from following them.
"Now what?" She asks the two Cajuns who have been picking the lock on the door.
"Dere's 'bout twenty assassins waitin' outside de door wit' AK47s," Jean-Luc informs her.
"Ah wondeh why they ain't just shootin' through the door," she says.
Just about then, the trio hears the sound of bullets hitting the wood. Remy and Jean-Luc hit the floor fast. Rogue crouches, but she's not really worried about bullets.
"You jus' had t' say say it, huh, chère?" Remy glares at her.
She sticks out her tongue at him.
"Stop it, y' fools!" Belladonna cries out. "Y' almost hit Papa!"
The gunfire stops and there is a murmur of voices apologizing and saying they are stupid and such. Rogue takes the opportunity to crash through another wall. She waves at the guys who quickly follow. The next room has two doors. One of them is both unguarded and unlocked. They rush out into the hallway and run towards the nearest exit.
Pyro looks skeptically at the swampland in front of them. "I don't think we can ride on this."
Wanda looks at him with a smirk, "What's the probability that our bikes can run in this swamp?"
A thin blue film begins to glow underneath their bikes.
Pyro grins at his girlfriend. "Did I ever tell you I'm in love with you?"
Wanda laughs and revs her bike. She starts following the jet that appears to be hovering in one place now.
The jet is indeed hovering in one place, because it can't land in the swamp. It has recently transformed, thanks to Forge, into a VTOL craft. Logan jumps down. Jaime watches him fascinated.
"Oh, no, don't you even, like, think about it," Kitty says, pulling a rope ladder out and dropping it down the side. "Illyana and you are staying on the jet with Beast and the Prof."
"Aw man, we never get to have any fun!" whines Jaime.
"So, running off to Limbo vasn't fun?" Piotr asks, looking at the rope ladder and shaking his head. There is no way it will hold his weight.
"No, that was a blast! But you guys wouldn't have let us if we'd asked first!" Jaime whines again.
Kitty just smiles at him in the way older people smile at kids when they're mad at them. "Goodbye, Jaime." She starts climbing down the rope ladder.
"Da, goodbye." Piotr leaps from the plane, causing it to rock back and forth.
Jaime's face turns green and he runs to the bathroom. He almost knocks Illyana over as he does. "Vhat is problem, Jaime? Can I help?" She follows him until she hears him throwing up. Then she turns and walks quickly away.
Scott is the last down the ladder because Kurt teleported. They stand watching the mansion. Logan sniffs. "This place is booby-trapped to blow sky high."
"Well, so am I," Scott says in his leader mode. "Let's get back our teammates."
The explosion nearly makes her lose focus. "Johnny, could you try not setting off the traps for once?"
"Aw, sheila, they're so fun to blow up."
"We're supposed to be sneaking up on them," she explains.
"Okay fine," he whines as he jumps his bike over an alligator. "Woohoo! Almost as good as jumping crocs back home!"
"You're insane."
"And proud of it," he agrees with a grin.
"Hey, look, there's a mansion up ahead! That's got to be where Gambit and Rogue are!"
Belladonna slowly enters the room, waiting for another red blast from the little tramp that stole her boyfriend, but nothing comes. Maybe they're all dead, she thinks with glee. So, she is greatly disappointed to find the room entirely empty and another gaping hole on the other side of the room. "Dat little tramp! I hate her!"
"Easy now, Bells," Julien says. "Easy, I t'ink I got more t' settle wit' Rogue den y' do." He handles his gun, but puts it away. He saw how ineffective it was against her as he was waking up.
Bella just glares at him.
"Why don' y' just stay here and take care of Papa, eh?"
She looks back at Marius, who is in pretty bad shape and still unconsious. She nods. Julien heads into the next room, only to find it empty as well. He opens the right door, though, and out into the same hallway behind Rogue, Gambit, and Jean-Luc.
Rogue, Gambit, and Jean-Luc have found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Guards in the front block their path out of the house. Julien is behind them, and he's closing in. Jean-Luc announces he has run out of his mysterious knives.
When suddenly, the front door goes up in flames, and the guards run outside, only to get knocked back through the wall.
"What in tarnation?" Rogue exclaims.
"I didn't know people actually said zat," Kurt says from behind her.
"Kurt!" she hugs him tightly, but carefully. "Y'all have no idea how happy Ah am ta see ya right now!"
"You should have told us you needed help," Kurt admonishes.
"Yeah," Rogue agrees. "Sorry 'bout that…"
"Can we get out of here before Julien catches up?" Remy asks.
"Good idea," Rogue says, grabbing her brother's hand in her gloved one and running towards the door. Remy and Jean-Luc are on their heels.
BAMF
"What just happened?" Jean-Luc asks bewildered as he looks at the place Rogue and Kurt used to be.
"Don't ask, Père, just don't," Remy insists.
Another BAMF and Kurt is back for the two of them.
The jet is big enough to hold everyone, but getting to the jet is another story. Assassins have poured out of the woodworks.
"What happened to this place? Marius neveh used to keep so many people around!"
"He tripled security last night 'cause he t'ought de t'ieves might put up some kind of escape attempt," Jean-Luc explains. "Dat's when he moved me t' his office."
Remy nods. "Where's Henri?"
Jean-Luc shakes his head. "I don' know. From what I gat'er, he ain' dead, dough."
"Of course he's alive. He's a LeBeau. Remy'd like t' talk t' Merci t'ough."
"Yeah, me too, sugah," Rogue agrees.
Scott frowns. "We need to get out of this and get you home safely."
"Aw, Scott, Ah didn't know ya cared."
Scott blushes and feels that old feeling he used to feel around Rogue start up again. "Stop it, Rogue."
She laughs. "Okay, fine." She grins. "Truce?" She holds out her gloved hand.
"Truce." They shake hands and he blasts a laser beam at an assassin who was about to shoot Remy in the head.
"Nice save. Remy owe you one," Gambit says, charging a card and throwing it into a crowd of enemies.
Kitty and Wanda both come running up and hug Rogue fiercely. She hugs them back.
"Don't ever scare me like that again!" Wanda says. "I've lost Father. I can't afford to lose you, too!"
"Like totally, promise!" Kitty says, agreeing with Wanda.
"Okay, Ah promise," Rogue says, happy to see her two best friends.
Pyro is having the time of his life. Fire animals, people, and dragons are chasing the assassins around. They aren't really prepared for Pyro.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
"Johnny!" Wanda shouts. "What did I say about setting off the bombs?"
"Not to… but I thought, we're already here…"
"No setting off the bombs!"
"Okay, fine."
The former Acolytes are used to this kind of behavior from Pyro, but the X-Men are freaked out. Well, Logan isn't. Logan is completely ignoring him and tearing through guns, pillars, and whatever else he feels is in his way.
It isn't long before they are back on the jet, Julien is on the ground-weaponless and swearing revenge, and Jean-Luc is safely returned to Merci's house until he can rebuild in a new location. There they learn that Henri is actually on a ship headed back to the U.S., safe and sound, having left the Rippers on the shore staring in amazement as the boat pulled out of their reach.
Henri hadn't told Merci about the missile launcher Suzanne had aimed and fired at the ship. After all, the missile had barely damaged the ship and no one had gotten hurt. Why worry the girl, right?
The X-Men (stowaways included), Wanda, and Pyro fly back to Bayville in the jet.
"Anna?" Xavier says as they pull into the hanger.
"Yeah, Papa?"
"You are grounded for the rest of your life."
"But, Papa…" Rogue whines.
To be continued . . .
A/N: Well, this chapter wrote itself. I hope you enjoy it. Not much of a cliffhanger, but I plan on starting a new story arch next chapter. So hang on to your seats! This story is about to get real! Lol I mean I just realized how few episodes are left in the series for my story to cover! 3, just 3… I'm kind of excited about that.
Coming up: Kitty makes a new friend!
Will Apocalypse take over the world? What will happen to Lucas/David/Ian? How long will Graydon take to heal? Will Jaime ever find out what his title means? Will Siena marry Sinister? Will Ororo ever find out who the baby's real father is? Will Rogue really be grounded forever? What is up with those spheres? Will Scott stop acting like he's got a pole up his. . . er, never mind. . . Will I ever stop making up these ridiculous questions? All these answers and more as A Split in Reality continues.
Please Review! :) Pretty Please, with sugar on top. :) And a cherry! And nuts. . . And Chocolate sauce! And Whipped Cream! And a banana! And butterscotch! And, um, gummy bears! :) ! And candy corn! And um, peanut butter? Jelly? Um, raisins? And M&Ms! And. . . um. . . Marshmellows! And Gummy Lifesavers! And Stride Gum! And Cinnamon Toothpicks! And Pixy Sticks! And Dr. Pepper! And a spork to eat it with!
Seriously, though, the more reviews a chapter gets, the guiltier I feel about taking forever to update. . . the guiltier I feel the faster I write. . . lol Please review!
