I'm curious to know just how many people actually read my New X-Men Chronicles. So, if you're reading this, let me know, okay? Email me, leave a review, anything, just let me know that I'm not posting these for no reason!

*** *** ***

Vicky stood in front of the X-Men mansion. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door. "Hope they don't lock me in the basement like they did Dad," she muttered to herself.

Addie Logan opened the door and immediately turned pale. "Who…who are you?" she asked, forcing her voice not to tremble.

Vicky snarled at Logan. "My name is Victoria Creed. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Logan stared in shock, wanting to say something, but finding it impossible to get any words out. Suddenly, Vicky started to laugh. She walked in and draped one arm around Logan's shoulders. "Just kidding, runt. So, you got any spare rooms around here?"

Logan found her voice. "No."

"Riiight. You expect me to believe that you live in a mansion this size and every single room is full? I don't believe you." She pushed past Logan and started up the stairs. "So where are the spare rooms?"

"You can't come up here," Logan said, chasing after Vicky.

Vicky ignored her, testing the handle on all the doors until she found one that was unlocked. "Anyone live in here?" she asked Logan.

"Yes."

Vicky opened the closet. "Then how come there's nothing in here. No clothes or anything."

"Get out, Creed."

Vicky threw her bag on the bed. "No, I think you need to get out. You're in my room and you didn't even ask to come in. That's just rude." She pushed Logan out of the room and locked the door.

Vicky sat down on the bunk and chuckled to herself. This was going to be fun.

*** *** ***

"Hey, Drake, what's up?"

Kacie looked at the person sitting next to her. "Who are you?"

"Vicky Creed. But don't worry. I'm not going to rip your head off or anything."

Kacie thought for a moment and then shrugged. She thrust the bag she was holding in front of Vicky. "Cheese doodle?"

Vicky took one from the bag. "Thanks. So what are you watching?"

"Cartoon Network."

Vicky rolled her eyes. "You are definitely Iceman's kid."

"And that's a bad thing because…?"

Vicky took another cheese doodle. "I'm not saying it is."

"Victoria Creed?"

Vicky turned to see a tall woman with long, white hair standing in the doorway. "Let me guess, Storm's kid?"

Rebecca nodded. "Yes. Would you mind accompanying me to the War Room, please? You, too, Kacie."

"Are you going to kick me off the team?" Vicky asked, faking sad, puppy-dog eyes.

Rebecca sighed. "I cannot kick you off a team you are not on. But we are going to put whether or not you stay here to a team vote."

"Great," Vicky muttered as she got off the couch. "I feel like I'm stuck in a rerun of Survivor."

Vicky followed Kacie and Rebecca into the War Room. "So this is where you guys come up with all your big, important decisions. I'm intimidated."

Kacie nudged Vicky. "Try to be a little reverent. Might swing the vote in your favor."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to be voted out of the tribe or anything…"

Vicky sat down beside Logan. "So, runt, you planning on voting for or against?" Logan's only response was to get up and move to the other side of the table.

Rebecca waited for a few minutes as the other X-Men began to file in. "Is everyone here?" she asked.

"Tristan and Ric aren't," Marie said.

"Tristan isn't coming," Logan said. She frowned. "He said he isn't truly a part of the X-Men, so it isn't his place."

"Funny, you'd think your own boyfriend would be standing up for you at a time like this," Marie muttered. Logan gave her a dirty look.

"Ric's on his way," Warren said. "He was on the phone with his grandfather, and he said go ahead and start without him."

"Okay then," Rebecca said, biting her tongue against comments about Renegade's level of commitment to the team. "I'll go around the table and get your vote. Wildcat, I'll ask you first."

Logan rolled her eyes. "Guess."

"Okay, that is one against. Ice Queen?"

Kacie shrugged. "She seems all right to me." Logan looked at Kacie as if she'd just performed the ultimate act of betrayal. Kacie slid down a little in her seat.

"Phoenix?"

"No."

"Okay, two against, one for. Charger?"

"Hell no. She's a Creed, and that can't lead to anything good."

"Twister?"

"It doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I remember her father."

Vicky frowned. "How could you have known my father? I've never heard of you before in my life."

"We fought your father about a year ago, Victoria," Rebecca said. "Around the time of his death."

"Right," Vicky said. "His death. Okay, go on playing Lord of the Flies. Who has the shell now?"

Rebecca ignored Vicky's comments. "Sparks?"

"I think we should at least give her a chance. We don't know what her relationship with her father was, and besides, he's dead now," Billy said.

"I know exactly what her relationship with her father was," Logan snarled. "I remember her from when he kidnapped me when I was five years old. She was daddy's little girl. Trusting her is just asking for trouble."

"And I guess you'd know all about being daddy's little girl, wouldn't you, runt," Vicky said. "I wonder, have you ever had to do anything for yourself, or does Daddy Wolverine come around and make sure his precious little girl never has to do anything that might break her nails."

Logan started to go over the table and attack Vicky, but Warren held her back. "Hey, Logan, Billy's right, okay? We might be wrong in trusting Vicky, but we have to at least give her the benefit of the doubt. I'm not saying we should just let her on the X-Men, no questions asked, but I don't think we should just throw her out, either."

"Don't you remember hearing what happened when her father was here? Warren, I know you know what he did to your mother."

"Yeah, when my father was kept chained up in the basement," Vicky replied.

"Your father was a homicidal maniac!" Logan cried.

"Oh yeah, and yours is a saint."

"Victoria, Adanya, calm down," Rebecca said. "No need to start fighting over the past, especially since no one at this table was even born then. And I agree with Warren and Billy. We should give her the benefit of the doubt. It is not the policy of the X-Men to turn our backs on anyone—even the child of our enemy."

"So that makes the vote an even four and four," Kacie said. "Where's Ric?"

"I'm here," Ric was, coming in as far as the doorway. "What's the count."

"It's at four against and four, well, for," Warren said. "You're the tie-breaker."

Ric leaned against the doorway. "That's a lot of pressure." He looked over at Vicky, who winked at him. Ric smiled. "She doesn't look like a homicidal maniac to me," he said. "We might at well let her stay."

Logan looked from Vicky to Ric, and then back again. She quickly got up from the table, pushing Ric out of the way roughly as she made her way through the door. Marie got up and followed Logan out, muttering something to her brother about him thinking with the wrong brain as she left.

The room was silent for a moment until Rebecca spoke. "Well, Vicky, it looks as if you are here, at least for a probationary period. Cable and Angela are currently away from the mansion, but your status may change upon their return."

"All right," Vicky said. "But I thought Husk was in charge of everything here."

"Mom tends to go off and let us do things our own way," Billy said. "She comes in sometimes and tells us to change a few things, and we do until she leaves."

"So she's following in Xavier's footsteps then?" Vicky asked.

"Pretty much," Kacie muttered.

"Do you think Cable's going to order I pack my bags and get out?" Vicky asked.

"As long as you have not been causing too much trouble, probably not," Rebecca said. "He tends to give us a lot of autonomy. He does not want to make any of the same mistakes he felt he made with X-Force."

"So this means I can settle in here?" Vicky asked.

"For the time being, yes," Rebecca replied. "Logan said you were able to, um, find a room."

"Yeah."

"Are you comfortable there?"

"Yeah."

"Stay there, then. Dinner is served around seven if you want to eat with most of the team. Leftovers are in the fridge usually by eight or eight-thirty, and you are more than welcome to pick at them if you would rather."

Vicky stood up. "All right. I'll see how I feel at seven." She stopped for a moment. "I'm not here to cause trouble, Rebecca. I can't say I'm going to be the world's best team player or anything like that, but I'm not out to get any of you either."

"I know," Rebecca said. "And the others will come around once you prove yourself to them, I am sure."

"Don't bet on it," Rachel said, rolling her eyes. She got up from the table and walked over to Vicky. "With your father and probably whoever your mother was, too, you're destined to be nothing but a problem for the X-Men."

"Unlike if I was born with a parent like Scott or Jean where I'd be destined to be a know-it-all with a stick up my ass?" Vicky asked.

Rachel just glared at Vicky before turning on her heal and storming out of the room. Warren gave Vicky a sympathetic look before following his girlfriend, hoping he'd be able to calm her down from one of her tirades for once.

"If no one else has anything to say to me, I'm going upstairs," Vicky said. "I promise to let everyone know before I go psycho and try to kill the whole mansion, all right?"

Rebecca chuckled a little. "And if you could, give us enough time to get ready for battle, too."

Vicky smiled. "I'll do that."

Ric followed Vicky out into the hall. "Can I help you, stripes?" Vicky asked.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask a favor from you," Ric said.

"This better not be anything lewd."

Ric laughed. "No. Not now anyway." He winked at her and Vicky snarled. Ric seemed unphased. "No, actually I just wanted to ask you to lay off Addie. Don't make me regret breaking the tie in your favor."

"Why should I do that?" Vicky asked. "The runt's an easy target."

"Addie's been through a lot, especially where your dad's concerned."

"What, he kidnapped her once when she was five. And whatever happened a year ago that you people keep talking about."

"There's more to it than that."

Vicky frowned. "What?"

"It isn't my place to tell you. And I wouldn't ask Addie. I'm one of the only people who know, because she never wants to tell anyone. Just know that her hatred for your father is more than justified, and odds are she's going to project that to you. If you want her to ever accept you, you're gonna have to stop aggravating her."

"I don't care if she ever accepts me or not," Vicky said. "And it's not like my father could've done anything that terrible to her."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Victoria."

"What happened?"

"I told you, it's not my place to talk about it. The only reason I know is Addie used to trust me more than anyone else on the team."

"Used to? Why doesn't she anymore?"

"I'd rather not talk about that either."

Vicky decided to change the subject somewhat. She could always learn the dirt on the team some other time. "So, what about you? Has my father ruined your life in some way, too."

Ric looked sad. "He made me what I am today."

"What is that supposed to mean? Wait, let me guess—you don't want to talk about it."

"You catch on quick."

"Has this team actually been around long enough to build up that many dark secrets?"

"Dark secrets are easy to get," Ric said. "But most of it's more like painful memories. Look, just go easy on Addie. She's had to deal with a lot of the past few years, and she isn't completely healed. You around tormenting her is only going to make it worse for her."

"And I'm supposed to care, because…?"

"Because you're not an evil person like your father."

"Who says I'm not?"

"Just find someone other than Addie to harass," Ric said before walking away.

Vicky was even more confused than she had been before. She remembered when her father took Addie as a five year old, but what had happened since then that Ric was talking about? And what had happened with her father, Ric, and the rest of the X-Men that had, according to them, led to Sabretooth's death?

*** *** ***

Tristan found Logan in their room, laying on the bed and punching a pillow. Tears were streaming down her face. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say Victoria Creed is staying."

Logan stopped, turning around to look at Tristan. "The vote was tied, and Ric came in and broke it. He wants her to stay, and probably because she's his type—tall, blonde, and easy."

Tristan sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms, letting her cry on his shoulder. "You aren't jealous…are you?"

Logan looked up. "What? No, of course not! Who Ric LeBeau attempts to seduce is the last thing I care about anymore. I love you, you know that. It's just, well, I can't live under the same roof as Victor Creed's daughter. God, she looks so much like him!"

"Is that what the problem is—whenever you see her you see Sabretooth?"

Addie started to cry in earnest again. "He haunts my dreams, Tristan. You've heard me cry out in the night before. Being with you, waking up and knowing that there's someone to hold me and make the memories go away, well, it's made things easier. But now, looking at her face, it's all so clear in my mind all over again. She's nothing but a constant reminder of what happened to me three years ago."

Tristan tightened his grip around her. "It's all over now, Logan. He's dead. And she isn't her father, anymore than you are yours. He's never going to be able to hurt you again."

"It still hurts, Tristan. I thought I'd be over everything that happened by now. I thought I was strong enough to move past it. Why am I not strong enough?"

Tristan petted her hair. "You are strong, Logan. You're one of the strongest people I know. But you're dealing with more than anyone ever should have to in a lifetime, let alone only a few years."

"I just don't want to feel broken anymore. My bones are unbreakable—why isn't the rest of me?"

Tristan didn't have an answer for her.

*** *** ***

Illyana Rasputin opened up her suitcase. She'd barely even had enough time to unpack the things she'd brought with her from Russia before she was leaving again, this time to move into the X-Men mansion with her brother. Her parents had been completely for the idea of them leaving, and she knew it would be easier on them to have only two children in the house instead of four. Besides, life away from her mother would make a lot of things easier for Yana.

"So how are you liking it so far?"

Yana turned around in surprise at the sound of a voice behind her. "Richard! You startled me."

Ric had never much cared for being called Richard, but with Yana's Russian accent, he didn't mind so much. Still, he said, "You can call me Ric. Most people do."

"Ric, then."

"So do you like the mansion."

"Yes. So far it seems very nice. The people here are friendly."

Ric smiled. "I'm glad you're happy here. Must be a big change from St. Petersburg."

"Oh yes, very much so," Yana said. "But I think it's a change for the better."

"Your brother seems to like it here. Especially when my sister's around," Ric commented dryly.

"He's been looking for an opportunity to ask her on a date all week," Yana said. "I think that might be why he decided to come here in the first place."

"Is he safe, or should I play protective big brother?"

"I would go with the latter," Yana said. "Kristof Rasputin has broken more than enough hearts in his sixteen and a half years."

Ric frowned. "I'll keep that in mind. Not that Marie with listen to me anyway. She brushes off nine-tenths of what I say to her."

"Younger siblings are like that. I have a heck of a time getting Katya and Nikki to do anything I want them to do."

"How old are they?"

"Nikki is nine and Katya is eleven. I didn't want to leave them to come here, but my parents insisted. Kris mentioned us being X-Men, and I guess they thought it sounded like a good idea. Things have never been easy at home for any of us."

"How so?"

Yana looked away. "I…I don't know you very well, Ric."

"And you're not comfortable talking to me about personal matters?"

"Something like that."

"I understand. But if you ever do need to talk to anyone, I'd be more than willing to listen."

"Thank you."

"I hope you're happier here than you were at home."

Yana smiled. "If everyone's as nice as you are, then I'm sure I will be."

*** *** ***