Disclaimer's: *Sigh*, must we do this every time? Oh well, I certainly hope that no one here hates me for making Storm the bad one. It just works SO well!

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"Hello, everyone!" Storm said, "And please, do not call me Stormy. It implies a sign of affection, and believe me, I hold no affection for you, Gambit." She looked at everyone, "Or any of you, really."

"Mommy?" Nikki said, "What happened to you?"

"Nothing really, angel," Storm said, "I'd really appreciate it if you'd please go back into the Mansion now. I'd hate for you to get in the way of this."

"In the way of what?" Nikki asked. Her eyes were filled with terror, "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing," Storm said, "I'd just like to have some grown up discussions with the X-Men, if you don't mind. It's really not something for a child to hear."

"I'm not a child," Nikki said, "And I'm an X-Men, too."

"You are also my daughter and you will obey your mother," Storm said, "Now go inside."

"She's my daughter, too," Gambit said, "And I think she's old enough to handle whatever you're going to say."

"Don't be difficult, Gambit," Storm said, "I merely don't want to discuss certain things in front of her. You surely don't want her to... get hurt by it, do you?"

Gambit stared at Storm and then said, "Go inside, angel. We call you when you can come out."

"One of us will, at least," Storm said.

"Daddy?" Nikki said.

"Go on, angel," Gambit said.

"But-"

"Obey your mother!" Storm yelled. A gust of wind blew Nikki into the Mansion through the open door and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Jean?" Storm said.

All of the others had been silent until now, when Jean said, "Yes, Storm?"

"Would you please lock the door so that Nikki can't come out?" Storm asked. Jean started to move, and Storm said, "No, no, please use your telekinesis. It would be so much quicker and I don't have much time to chat."

Jean closed her eyes and soon, through the quiet, everyone heard the dead bolt and the lock click.

"Thank you," Storm said.

"You're welcome," Jean answered.

"Come on, Storm, cut the crap," Wolverine said, "What do you want and why the hell are you causing all these problems?"

"Now Logan," Storm said, "Can't you be a little more patient? If you wouldn't interrupt, maybe we could speed this up a little. I'm sure Nikki doesn't want to spend any longer than she has to inside alone."

"Well, then maybe we should send someone in there to keep her company," Logan said, "If Jean would unlock the door, maybe Rogue and Jubilee would be nice enough to go inside so Nikki isn't so scared."

"I have no problems with Jubilee going inside if she wishes to," Storm said, "But I'd like to talk with Rogue, so I suppose she can just stay out here with all the others. I don't want my daughter to associate with her any more than necessary."

"Jubilee, would you like to go inside and keep Nikki company?" Logan asked. They all humored Storm as well as they could.

"I think I'd better stay out here for now," Jubilee said, "Maybe later on."

"Oh, no," Storm said, "This is the only time I'm offering."

"Then I guess I'll stay out here," Jubilee said.

"Suit yourself," Storm said.

"What did you want to talk about, Storm?" Scott asked.

"Ah, yes," Storm said, "Nothing really, just a few things I wanted to say before I kill you and take my daughter home."

"I don't think she want to go back with you if you kill her friends and father," Gambit said.

"Who said anything about killing her father?" Storm said, "You'll come back with us and we can be a happy family again, since the tramp will be out of the way."

She wants to kill me? Rogue thought.

"You know I couldn't do that," Gambit said.

"Then I suppose I'll kill you all, even Nikki," Storm said, "Do you still want to stay, Gambit? If it means your precious angel dying?"

Gambit just stared at her.

"I suppose we can let Nikki out then," Storm said. A gust of wind swept the door open, breaking the locks and sending Nikki flying through the air. Gambit caught her as she landed and put her down.

"Daddy?" she asked.

"I think we be getting ready to fight, angel," Gambit said, "Just remember, that's not Stormy, that's not your Mom. She's gone. This is someone we need to deal with now."

Nikki just nodded.

Logan said quietly to Rogue, "Go into the Mansion. Take Jubilee with you, and Nikki, too. They can fight her there, if she gets past us. Go now!" He lunged at Storm, who was standing about 10 feet to his right.

Rogue grabbed Nikki and Jubilee and ran towards the Mansion. The door flew closed in their faces. Storm had flown up out of Logan's reach and was now laughing.

"Doesn't Rogue want to face me?" Storm asked, "I can't imagine why. She could just take off that bracelet and knock me unconscious. Why doesn't she?"

"Rogue, Jubilee, Nikki, go now!" Jean yelled as her TK blew the door open again.

Storm stopped them dead in their tracks, "If you go inside, I suppose I'll have to collapse the house on you. At least out here, you'll have a fighting chance. Besides Rogue, we never got to talk about the issue here."

Rogue turned around and said, "All right, Storm, let's talk."

"First of all," Storm said, "Why is Logan so dead set against getting you away from me? I can't think of any reason. And why doesn't Gambit seem to care about you one way or the other? Or isn't that a power negating bracelet?"

"It is," Rogue said, "And Gambit and I aren't together. Logan and I are. That's why he wants me out of the line of fire."

No one could've looked more shocked than Storm, so Rogue went on.

"When I found Gambit, I realized he didn't matter that much to me anymore," Rogue said, "Logan did. It was never me you had to worry about taking Remy away. I didn't know he was still alive. You should've stayed married to him."

Bad thing to say.

A lightning bolt flew from Storm's fingers into the ground in front of Rogue. She fell down and watched another lightning bolt sizzle on Storm's fingers when...

Logan leapt at Storm and knocked her towards Cyclops as he shot an optic beam at her.

Rogue picked herself up as Storm dodged the beam. Jean flew up towards Storm, trying to hold her still.

"I'm not done talking yet," Storm said and flung Jean back to the ground, right into Scott.

"You still ruined my marriage," Storm said to Rogue, who was being held steady by Logan, "And the fact that you and Gambit didn't get together, the fact that my marriage ended for nothing, makes it that much worse!"

"Mommy, stop!" Nikki cried, "It's not her fault! It's your fault! You wanted Daddy to leave you so you could have an excuse to stay angry! Stop it!"

Wind spun Nikki into a wall. She fell to the ground, stunned.

Gambit ran towards her, but was stopped by lightning at his feet. He turned around and said, "Why you doin' this, Storm? You want to kill your daughter?"

"No," Storm said, "But I do want to kill you and Rogue, and since everyone else seems to want a piece of the action, them, too, but not Nikki."

"Then, why you hurting her?" Gambit asked.

"Because she loves you more than me and once I kill you, she'll hate me," Storm said, "There's no point in keeping her alive, now is there?"

Jubilee was pulling Nikki to her feet.

"Rogue," Logan said, "You need to get out of here."

"I can't," Rogue said, "I'll just try to stay out of the way."

Logan looked like he was about to argue, when Storm said, "What is it with you and getting Rogue away? I realize you can't want me to kill her, but this is a bit much."

"Go to Hell," Logan said. That was when it got ugly...

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Well? How was that? Just wait until you see the next chapter! I said things get ugly (and sad) for a reason, you know!