Chapter Seven

Rogue woke up almost as soon as Dreamer left her dream. Kurt was looking at her with a concerned expression on his face. "Are you all right?" he asked. "You looked as though you were having an intense dream."

"Ah was, Sugah. Ah think Dreamer found a way ta contact us while we're sleepin'," Rogue said slowly, sitting up and rubbing her face. "Ah told him where we are, an' he said they'd get us out. Th' cuffs were interferin' with his power so he had ta go b'fore it hurt him. Ah hope he's okay."

"He'll be fine, Rogue. He can take care of himself."

The door hissed open and three of the guards walked in, carrying trays of food, magazines and newspapers. Rebecca, the red-haired, red-eyed girl, dumped the magazines on the bed and said, "I gave 'em a list of what normal people read, but Dusk just don't understand teenagers. Hope these are okay."

The other two guards, Prowler and a dark-haired girl with green skin covered in purple swirls, placed the trays on the table in the middle of the room. The girl said, "Dusk was gonna give us beer to bring, but I figured you wouldn't be so hot on that. Bec managed to convince him to buy soda."

It had been like this ever since they were captured. Every six hours, Rebecca, Prowler and the dark-haired girl who called herself Jennie brought them food, soda and magazines. Rogue asked, "could Ah have a real book, not those magazines?"

Jennie glanced at Rebecca and Prowler, who shrugged. She replied, "why not? I'll be back in a sec."

She left the room, leaving Prowler and Rebecca to guard Kurt and Rogue. The redhead was playing with Kurt's image inductor. She said, "this is an interesting piece of technology. So small! I thought something that could change what we look like would have to be much bigger."

She put it on the table. "Damien doesn't want to bother with it. Personally I'd love to be able to change my appearance but he says that's what shapeshifters are for."

Jennie returned with a handful of paperbacks. "I took these from Damien's office," she said, giggling. "He'll probably think Sabrina did it. She's the only one who'll go into his office."

"With good reason," Rebecca said reproachfully. "Never let Damien catch you in his office. You know what his temper's like."

"Are our friends all right?" Kurt asked. Rebecca nodded. "They're fine. Bored, but that's to be expected, isn't it?"

"Can we see them?" Rogue asked. Rebecca hesitated, biting her lip. "I don't know. Damien might get mad."

"Please? Ah just wanna see them for a few minutes," Rogue pleaded. Prowler sighed. "Look, if it was up to us you'd be able to talk to them for however long you wanted. But Damien gave us orders to keep you separated. I don't know why and I don't particularly care. You'll get to see them eventually."

@ @ @

As soon as Dreamer woke up, Jean was at his side. She asked, "did you find anything useful?"

"Rogue knows where they are. She gave me th' directions," Dreamer replied. He glanced over at Raptor. "How is she?"

"It's amazing. About an hour ago, not long after you went to see if the others knew anything about where they were, her brainwaves changed. She's sleeping now, not in a coma. I think she's going to be all right."

It was only then that Dreamer noticed all the X-Men, even Logan, and Jubilee, Chantelle, Aura and Solitaire were in the infirmary. He raised his eyebrows. "Somethin' Ah don' know 'bout, Jean?"

"Well, you all know about us being the X-Men, so Professor Xavier thought you might become recruits. Teammates," Scott explained. Aura grinned. "They want us to become X-Men. How weird is that?"

"Ah don' know, it kinda seems lahke a cool ahdea," Dreamer said slowly. Jean nodded. "The Professor never liked the idea of us having such a small team. When it was just me, Scott and Ororo, he always worried about us not having enough people to watch our backs. You students wouldn't come on every single mission, of course. You've still got your studies to worry about. But you could help us out."

"I think this is one time we need everyone we can get," Scott said. "Now that we've got the location of where Rogue, Remy, Kitty and Kurt are being held we can go and get them, but if there are as many mutants against us as there were last time we're going to need all the help we can get."

"I don't want Dreamer or Solitaire to go this time," Jean said. "They're still weak from what we did earlier. Besides, I want someone here in case Raptor wakes up before we get back."

"We'll be fine here," Solitaire said. "Good luck, you guys."

The X-Men took Aura, Jubilee and Chantelle to the hidden levels, where Cerebro resided and the Blackbird was kept. The three girls' eyes were wide and incredulous as they walked through the lower level to where the uniforms were.

Jubilee wrinkled her nose at the black uniform. "This is worse than what Raptor wears," she complained. Chantelle just pulled hers on, her hair turning bright silver in her excitement. Aura looked down at the jeans and black shirt she was wearing.

"What's wrong with this?" she asked. Jean, already in her uniform, replied, "these are more practical to fight in, Aura. They have bulletproof vests build in and they allow for less restricted movement."

"Oh. Okay then."

Aura and Jubilee pulled their uniforms on and followed Jean to where Scott, Logan, Storm and Chantelle were waiting at the Blackbird. Scott was in the pilot seat and Jean in the copilot seat, which left the passenger seats for the girls, Storm and Logan, who had extended his claws and was swiping the air with them. Chantelle bounced into the jet. On her last bounce, she stayed in the air.

Jubilee looked up at her. "Uh, Chantelle, you're floating," she said. The European girl looked down and squeaked. "Merde! Arretez! Comprehendez nyet…" [(Insert favourite curse). Stop! I don't understand…]

"Can you get down?" Jean asked. Chantelle closed her eyes and slowly came back down to floor level. When her feet touched the metal floor of the blackbird, she opened her eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew. I don't know how that happened."

"We'll look into it after the mission," Storm said. "We should all sit down and prepare for a rather long flight. Colorado is a fair way away."

As they buckled themselves into the seats, Aura asked, "what can you do, Jubes?"

In answer, Jubilee held up her hands and miniature fireworks erupted with a paf noise. Aura grinned. "Cool! What about you, Chantelle?"

Chantelle closed her eyes and vanished from sight. Aura frowned. "Where did she go?"

"I'm right here, Aura. You just can't see me."

She reappeared, still sitting in her seat. "I don't do that a lot. It's kinda creepy. What do you do?"

Aura concentrated. Suddenly, there were two Logans in the jet. Jubilee looked surprised. "Which one is the real one?" she asked. Aura snapped her fingers and one of the Logans vanished.

"Cool," Chantelle said. "I get the feeling this is gonna be easy."

"You don't know that," Storm cautioned. "Never underestimate your enemy."

@ @ @

Sabrina walked down the dim corridors of the base, her bootheels making clicking noises against the white tile. She was dressed in black jeans, black calf boots, a navy halter top and a long black duster. Her blonde hair was pulled up in a French twist and she was wearing the pearl earrings Kylie had bought her for her seventeenth birthday, two days ago.

She entered Damien's private quarters. He was sitting at the desk, the wall of monitors in front of him. Sabrina walked up behind him and placed her hands on his shoulders. "You're very tense," she murmured. "Your shoulders are full of knots."

She started to massage his shoulders and neck, talking while her hands moved. "How's the plan going?"

"Well enough. The four we have don't suspect anything," Damien said, still looking at the monitors. "Is everything ready? Dusk and Discordia in position?"

"They're ready," Sabrina assured him. "Rebecca, Prowler and Jennie took our guests their food and magazines. I'm still not sure we should have chosen them, Damien. They're too soft-hearted."

"They have their flaws, but they suit my purpose," Damien said. "You and your mother, on the other and, are virtually perfect."

He turned around. "You turned seventeen a few days ago, didn't you?"

When Sabrina nodded, Damien stood up and walked over to the chest of drawers beside the bed. "I'm sorry I didn't see you on the day, but I was very busy organising things. However, I believe this should make up for it."

He pulled out a small black box tied with a thin, crimson ribbon and handed it to her. "Happy birthday plus two, Sabrina."

Sabrina untied the ribbon carefully, opened the box and gasped. Lying on a bed of dark crimson rose petals was a gold chain with a teardrop pendant. The gemstone was a red so dark it was almost black.

Damien lifted the chain and looped it around her neck. "It's a bloodstone," he explained, doing up the clasp. He moved around in front of her and smiled. "It suits you."

Sabrina touched the stone with one finger. "I can't accept this. It's too expensive."

"You're seventeen, Sabrina. A fairly large milestone to my thinking. Besides, you're one of us. Expense is not important. After all, my funds are almost as large as Professor Xavier's. There are many people who hate mutants, but there are also those who merely hate the ones who ally themselves with Xavier. These people are more than willing to give us the monetary support we need. As well as some of the people who have their own agendas with certain students at the mansion, and are willing to pay me to help them with their vendettas. It's a twisted web and it suits me perfectly, don't you think?"

Sabrina looked at her reflection and smiled. "All right then. I do like it. It reminds me of what I can do with my lasers. Virtually make blood come from stone."

She turned to the wall of monitors. "How has Discordia's training gone?" she asked. Damien replied, "perfectly. She's ready. I think we all are. The dreamseeker contacted the Southern girl in her dreams earlier today, so I assume it won't be long before the X-Men arrive."

"Isn't Adam here to stop that from happening?" Sabrina asked. Damien replied, "I didn't want it to be too easy. Their dreamseeker tried to locate our guests through the vortal nexus, and Adam prevented that. So they had to find another way, and that ate up their time. And gave Discordia enough time to learn what she has to. We will need Adam later on, and I want you to train him properly once this part of the plan is over, but for now I merely needed him to create the pretense of security for our simple-minded friends."

Sabrina smiled. "They don't suspect a thing, do they?"

"Probably not. The Cajun thinks that I plan to use the Augmentator on them again, and I think the brunette agrees with him. The Southerner and the Elf haven't discussed it yet, but I don't doubt that they've come to the same conclusion."

"The Cajun was going to try to pick the locks of the cuffs," Sabrina said, chuckling. Damien smiled. "I know. What they don't realise is that the "keyhole" is actually a decoy. The cuffs lock electronically, and the locking mechanism is protected by the karamantium. They'll never get out of them with bobbypins."

"Do you know the background of the Cajun, Daniel Whitlock and the girl they call Aura?" Sabrina asked. "The Cajun and Kitty were talking before, and it seems there's more to those three than meets the eye."

"Yes, they have a rather interesting past," Damien mused. "There is still a lot I don't know, but that will change as soon as I speak to one of my associates."

"One of your associates?"

Damien nodded. "Yes, a man who has an… interest in the Cajun, Daniel and Aura. I imagine he's furious at losing them. It wasn't all that long ago, after all."

"What do you mean?" Sabrina asked. Damien replied, "you know that Daniel met Aura and Remy in an orphanage, don't you?"

"Yes, when the boys were seven and Aura was five," Sabrina answered. Damien continued, "they didn't stay in the orphanage for long, as I'm sure you also know. They spent a little time on the streets. My associate encountered them and was… intrigued. He took them in and trained them extremely well. But it seems he pushed them a little too hard at one point. A little over a year ago, Daniel challenged him, and the three made quite a mess of the place. They escaped and lived on the streets for a few months before Jean Grey took them to the mansion.

"Of course, training wasn't the only thing my associate did with the mutants he acquired. He is an incredibly unscrupulous man. He did unconscionable things. I know I can hardly be called a saint, but the worst things I do aren't nearly as bad as the mildest things he did and still does. Still, I feel sorry for him."

"Sorry?"

"When I think of what must have happened to make him snap that way… the world is cruel, Sabrina. Perhaps he thought he was preparing his charges for a world that would never accept them. Maybe he thought he was doing the right thing."

"You really think so?"

"No, of course not. No doubt he tries to excuse himself by saying that, but there's no way I believe it," Damien said. "The man is evil. But he also has a brilliant mind, even if he does use it for… unpleasant things."

A computerized voice spoke suddenly. "Proximity alert. Proximity alert. Unknown aircraft approaching."

Damien grinned. "I think we're about to have some company."

TBC. In Chapter Eight, the fighting gets underway. Raptor wakes up and has a chat with Dreamer and Solitaire. The X-Men fight. And fight. And Discordia shows a disturbing aspect of her mutation…