"I have the feeling this isn't the brightest of ideas." Logan hissed as he danced through the crowd. "Although I do love that dress on you." Ororo smiled and looked away. She was wearing a long, clingy red dress with ornate beading in black. The full skirt swished softly as they spun, and the ruby necklace she wore drew attention to her stunning cleavage.
"I didn't know you could dance." She said, ignoring the compliment as she smiled. He dipped her slowly, and she stepped closer to him.
"I picked it up along the way." Logan said, brushing a strand of silver hair from her forehead.
"Along the way to where?"
"To you." He kissed her softly on the cheek and willed himself to make that enough.
"Logan, out of all of the crap that has happened my lately, I don't think I could trade any of it of it if it meant never meeting you." He was about to respond when her eyes focused to something behind him.
"What do you see?"
"Well, our guest of honor has arrived." Logan's arm tightened around her waist.
"We can back out. It's not too late."
"You know it is my darling. Please let me do this. He has too much sense to kill me in a room full of people." He let Ororo go reluctantly, keeping his back to Xavier as he walked across the floor, greeting people. She ran her hand down the side of his cheek and sighed. "Don't worry, everything will be fine." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips before she melted into the crowd.
*
"I'm glad you think the FBI has been doing well this past administration. I try my best to keep out the corrupt people, while also taking my job seriously. Threats from within are usually the most damaging."
"Oh I agree." An older woman gushed as she patted Professor Xavier's arm. "We need to do all we can to make sure people don't step out of their places." Emma rolled her eyes from where she stood, silent beside Charles, her arm in his. The orchestra started a new song, and the group parted ways.
"She is an idiot." Frost said as they strolled away from the refreshments, wine glasses in hand.
"I agree, but a rich idiot. Harmless if not dull." He turned to her and smiled. "I must say, you look lovely."
"I know." Emma Frost's blond hair fell to her mid back, and she wore it in a sort of crown style, adorned with emerald clips. Her matching gown was floor length, and made of a wispy material that made no sound as she moved. The neck was a graceful, wide arc that rested on the edge of her shoulders, the collar extending around her back and draping neatly behind her, a diamond clasp holding it together in an elaborate knot.
"Excuse me. Mr. Director." Charles turned with a smile on his face, a smile he used to great his constituents. When he realized who he was speaking to, he blinked, and cleared his throat carefully. "Hello. I thought you might want to talk." Ororo smiled thinly.
"And you are correct. Ms. Frost, could you please give us a moment? This shouldn't take long." Emma glared at Ororo with extreme hatred in her blue eyes, making them seem like shards of ice.
"Of course." She walked off and Ororo turned back to Xavier.
"So we meet."
"Yes we do." He looked up and down. "My…I admire your audacity." She smiled and crossed her arms.
"Really. I thought it was cleavage." Charles was slightly surprised, but took it all in stride. "I didn't come here to make small talk."
"Of course not. Care to dance?" Ororo looked at his outstretched hand and debated. After a second she put her gloved hand in his, and they swept out onto the dance floor. "So, what is it that you want?"
"Why are you trying to kill me?" She stared into his eyes, trying to fathom someone so evil as to kill to keep something from the world that could save it.
"It's nothing personal. You just got in the way." He said indifferently as they spun around slowly. "You wouldn't be in danger if you had just left. You decided to take everything."
"I couldn't have my premier experiment taken from me. It was mine. I thought it up."
"It would have ruined the world."
"Your world." Charles nodded.
"Now you're getting it. Do you know my organization is filled with men and some women who would die for our way of life."
"I know all you want for this earth are rich, blue eyed, blond haired people."
"That's true. The world would be a better place if it were purged of all racial anomalies."
"Racial anomalies? What you're trying to do is genetically impossible. I'm sure you know as well as I do that you would have to inbreed to produce time and again blue eyes and blond hair. The genes for blue eyes also carry the gene for insanity. If you mix genes with another person, you can achieve blue eyes without activating the insanity, but when the same genes are reused over again, there is an astronomical chance they can line up. Then you'll have a mentally crippled and insane blond haired blue eyed person."
"We've already thought of that. We'd keep some women of every race for breeding, to make sure that doesn't happen. Just enough genes to ensure intelligence and strong bodies." Xavier smiled at her. "I must say, you have amazing hair. We'd keep you around. I'd even use you myself."
Ororo fought the nausea she felt rising in her stomach and she stepped back slightly. "I'm through with you." She moved to tug her hand out of his, but he gripped it hard, bringing her closer. His arm on her waist was like a clamp and his once calm face turned into a twisted mask of fury and evil.
"This dance is over when I say it's over. Your people have always been a blight on this earth, never doing for yourselves, always depending on handouts. We come in and try to show you that the only way you'll get ahead in the world is if you abandon your primative ways. But you refused.
Now you're in the way. All of you except the ones that have proved loyal beyond a shadow of a doubt. Do you know how much wealth is in Africa? And once everyone's gone untold billions will be reaped from the earth."
"You mean raped? Europeans deal blow after blow to Africa and you expect it to recover? Are you oblivious to what centuries of exploitation will do to an entire continent? You warp our history, obscure what we've contributed to the world and you say we are helpless? Because before the first white man stepped onto the shores of Africa, we could not fathom an evil such as your people. Let me go." They had stop dancing and were staring at each other as they spoke. Charles smiled and released her, and watched her walk away quickly.
Emma appeared by his side and he looked at her briefly. "Is Piotr or Sarah here?"
"Yes."
"Go after her."
*
"Ororo, what's wrong? Did he do something to you?" Logan asked for the twelfth time since leaving the party. Warren and Betsey walked beside them, worried about their friend, who was repeatedly dabbing away tears.
"No…look, I'll talk about it when we get back to the house. I'm just…shocked right now." Logan took her hand and they walked to the limo.
*
"There they go." Sarah put down her binoculars and smiled. "Lets hit it." Piotr put the Navigator in gear as they watched the limo leave the grounds. Following it at 200 yards back Sarah shoved a clip into a sawed off Uzi and looked around. "Okay, we don't have much time."
He threw the car into overdrive, barreling down the dislocate stretch of road, woods surrounding it on both sides. They caught up to the limo and speeded in front of it, and Sarah leaned out of her window. Her shot hit the driver in the head, and the limo swerved violently as the man died.
Piotr moved out of the way as it came towards him, slowing down slightly. Sarah had her binoculars in hand as she peered into the driver's side. A blond man was now at the wheel, and he looked angry. Somehow their eyes met and she smiled. Competition. "You better make this thing move, I don't think they'll-" Her voice was cut off by the front of the limo slamming into their fender, jerking the Navigator hard.
Piotr slammed on his brakes and turned the car a hard left, coming around to face the limo. They both barreled towards each other, tires screaming on the lonely road as their headlights loomed larger. Sarah was pressed into her seat, scared as it looked as though they would hit head on. "Piotr, turn! TURN!" She grabbed the wheel and yanked it towards her.
The Navigator was sideways when the limo hit it at 100 miles an hour. It slammed it off the road, the navigator slamming into the woods. The limo continued down the road quickly, eager to put some distance between what just happened.
Piotr screamed as he realized the brakes were useless, and Sarah threw her hands up over her face as they struck a large tree. Sarah wasn't wearing her seatbelt, and on impact flew out of the windshield and hit the tree itself, falling to the ground. He watched her hit the dirt, and blinked a couple of times because he didn't believe it.
Prying his broken foot from the crumpled mass in front of him he took off his seat belt and hobbled out to Sarah. He winced as he saw her. Her head was split open, blood everywhere, bones sticking out of her skin in random places. A bone monster, that's what she had become. Amazingly her lips were moving, her almost vacant eyes pleading and he leaned down to hear her.
"Please…help…me…" She said softly, her hand grasping air. Piotr looked down at her and straightened up.
"You want me to kill you? Put you out of your misery and mine? Of course. What are friends for?" He brought out his gun and shot her twice in the head. Her eyes died and he pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.
"What is it?" he smiled as the phone was answered on the first ring.
"I'm injured and there has been a problem. But the problem was killed. Our goal is still alive I'm sorry to say." Piotr could feel the anger from over the phone.
"I see. You'll be picked up shortly and a containment crew will be there as well. Sad we lost Sarah."
"Oh yes, very sad." He hung up the phone and turned back to her body. "Dos Vedanya."
*
"Everyone alright?" Warren asked as they got out of the limo. They were back at the Worthington mansion, and everyone was okay, save some bruises.
"Yeah. Where did you learn to drive like that?" Logan asked, breathing hard against the car as he collected himself.
"I drive a formula 1 racer as a hobby. It came in handy." He shrugged and hugged his wife. Betsey looked pale and had her eyes closed. She was so scared for her husband, and she could still see James' body, lying there lifeless. A bullet wound in his head.
"He tried to kill us. That son of a bitch tried to kill us again!" Ororo screamed, anger rolling off of her in waves. She paced back and forth, her temper too far gone to rein it in. Shaking hard she tried to breathe.
"Ororo, please calm down. We're safe and sound now, and that's all that matters." Betsey said, coming over to her friend. Ororo stopped her with a raised hand.
"You don't know what he said! You couldn't imagine being that close to someone so…so…" She rubbed her temples and told them everything Xavier told her, every horrific comment and statement he made to her. When she was finished everyone looked sick and angry.
"I can't believe there is a group of people out there who would do something like that." Logan said, growling.
"They give blond haired blue eyed people a bad name." Warren said, shaking his head.
"It's quite feasible they could do it in the next hundred years. They've got the resources to do almost anything they want. And if they don't, they'll just perpetrate a war and get it that way." Betsey simmered, eyes narrowed to slits.
"They count on the fighting between everyone. Most people think that the big battles are rich against poor, black versus white. No one sees the big picture." Ororo sighed, looking at the sky.
"What is the big picture."
"Good against Evil." She tapped her shoe against the cobble stone walkway and started to walk to the house.
"Where are you going?" Logan asked, jogging slightly to catch up with her.
"I have a plan. I want them all gone, for good. They cannot continue to play with me and my life. I won't have it." She turned to him and sighed, stepping into his embrace. "I'll understand if you want to leave, try being on the run on your own. I know you could disappear for the rest of your life."
"If I left you darlin', it wouldn't be much of a life. I'm in this for the long haul. They're not getting you or me." He kissed her softly. She smiled gratefully.
"Thank you Logan. It's going to take a lot of people." Ororo said as Betsey and Warren came up the stairs.
"You know we have people who are willing to help." Warren said, determination in his eyes.
"I'll need hackers."
"We've got plenty of them." They all turned around and saw Bishop and Forge. "What, you thought you'd leave us out of this? No way. Cloud Lady is our friend, and we're going to help her any way we can." Forge said, rubbing his hands together. "So when do we start?"