Diane knew it. They weren't coming back. Something had happened, and now all the official X-men were gone. They'd left the school (which was in vacation for now) in the hands of Gambit, one of the older people around at least. Bruce was with her the whole time. Despite how she'd acted at the beginning of school, she'd become fond of all the X-men.

The roar of the blackbird interrupted her own melodramatic thoughts. She ran, bowling Bruce over despite her tiny size, weaving in and out of her friends, probably knocking over other people, but not stopping to apologize. The blackbird was glistening with water still, but there were no marks of battle on it.

The door slid open, letting out a battered Alex. Her mouth was open, she knew, but she was instantly next to him. He was too tired and beaten up to notice who she was. She was too worried about him to care that everything in her body went crazy when she slid his arm over her shoulder and helped him back to the mansion.

"They got the X-men." He managed, once she'd dropped him on her bed. She didn't have the key to his room, and he hadn't made any motion of giving her one. She'd needed to get him somewhere where he could lie down. He'd told her, when she asked whether he needed to go to the medlab, that there was nothing wrong with him, it was just that he was so tired. "And the professor. I got away, but just barely. They won't be happy. The professor was protecting me."

She smiled at him lightly, though she didn't know why. He just sounded pathetic right now. This was the second time she'd seen him look hopeless. There was nothing he could do to help his friends, the X-men, and was beaten, and he knew it. "You did your best. We'll help them. There's nothing we can do now. Just rest. And we'll go get them tomorrow. They probably are expecting you to give up on them. They know that you left them once."

Alex nodded, and closed his eyes. Diane hadn't noticed that he'd been hanging onto her hand the whole time. Instead of disturbing him further, she curled up on one side of her bed and fell asleep as well, tired out from worry and plagued by nightmares of the X-men dying.

A note that in this chapter, ~* is Diane's mind voice, ** is Bruce's, (( is Cyrene's, || is Rogues, !! is Kitty's, = is Bobby's, ~~ is Alex's, // is Johnny's, -- Is Kurt's, and :: is Aubrey.

Diane was up well before Alex was. She hadn't been beaten to death, after all. He'd gotten the rest of their elite group of 'New-Xies' as she called them, together. No one particularly objected to the name, but that might have been because they were too keyed and worried about the X-men to care. Since Alex knew where the place was, then they had to take him, though in his current condition, Diane would have preferred not to. And he was their leader.

They skimmed the water as the Blackbird hung low over the water in the attempt to be discreet.

"We have to go under!" Diane said suddenly. "There's.camera's out there.they'll see us."

Alex, looking strained, nodded. There was the sound of the plane air- sealing itself, and they went under.

Magneto carefully reached out with his power. There was the sleek form of the Blackbird under the water.how stupid they were. It's almost as though they'd forgotten about his power. "Firetamer, Wave, Labyrinth, go do 'diversion' tactics. Iris, you need to stay with me. I'll need you."

The X-ies had to abandon their Blackbird and swim for it. They all had the little breather packs over their mouths and noses, and they were all in a costume of sorts, though some of them did have to wear the blue and gold new-mutants suit.

They swam quickly for the large rock of the island. They began to notice that the water was slowly heating up around them about halfway there.

For once, Aubrey seemed to be on the side of everyone else. He had set up a sort of a link so that they could all talk to each other under the water.

~* Bobby? Can you do anything without freezing us all? ~*

= I don't know. I've never honed my power to that close. =

(( Well, we have to do something, this is going to hurt in a couple minutes.))

= Yeah, let me try. =

Bruce cut in, somehow making he think faster than usual. ** If he can't keep it from freezing over, then Aubrey and Kitty.no wait.Rogue, you take Kitty's power and Aubrey and Kitty and you and Diane take someone out of the water.**

~~ Good thinking. ~~

Diane frowned under the water. Alex even -sounded- weak, even his mind did, but he wouldn't let her make him stay in the 'Bird. She felt the water start to get cold. There was a battle here, the person who was heating it didn't like the fact someone could contradict his or her power. The water around Bobby was absolutely freezing, Diane shot up towards the surface of the water, dragging Alex with her. He was heavy, she could tell he was barely hanging on to consciousness. She shot out of the water, felt Kitty run up with Kurt, Aubrey lifting Johnny and Cyrene. Rogue swam up, Diane saw her head surface. She slapped a hand to Kitty's, Kitty's eyes widened, and Rogue disappeared, then came running up with Bruce.

Not two seconds too late, the water froze over with a crackle, and Bobby, broke his way up, his skin frozen over. They all took out the Oxygen tubes at about the same time. "They figured the best way to get rid of us was the let us freeze ourselves in." Bobby said.

"Kitty, Cyrene, you stay here." Diane snapped suddenly. "Alex isn't going to make it." She was staggering slightly under his weight.

But Aubrey's eyes flashed. "Who made you the leader, bitch?" He snarled, glaring at her. He had never really liked her, since she always snubbed his power.

Alex's head snapped up. "YOU LISTEN TO HER!" He roared at Aubrey, who flinched. "But, Diane, I'm not staying behind."

"Oh, yes you are. I'm not getting you killed."

"You'll short the team leaving them behind to watch me."

"I'M NOT GETTING YOU KILLED!" She screamed, losing control, her already raw nerves snapping. "YOU ARE STAYING HERE IF I HAVE TO LOCK YOU INTO THE BLACKBIRD! I ALREADY LET YOU COME ON THIS INSANE LITTLE EXCURSION, AND I SEE THAT WAS A MISTAKE!"

She tapped a couple buttons on her watch, glaring at Alex, as if daring him to object. "Bruce, take his control watch." Bruce was staring at her as though she'd just grown horns, but he didn't do it. He glanced at Alex, who glared at him. "Do it, or I will, and I'll have to knock him out to do it." She snarled, the air around her blinking white light on and off. "This is taking time that it shouldn't. They're watching us already, they know we're here. So wasting time only gives them the advantage: Preparation. So, as I said, do it or I will."

The Blackbird surfaced with a gurgling pop, as though to emphasize her words. Bruce sighed, phasing the watch with a thought. "That won't be working any time soon, sorry Alex." He added to the end of that, when the blond haired leader glared even more fiercely.

"Now get in the 'Bird or I'll put you out and drag you in there. Kitty, you stay with him, and phase him if he tries to override my command. Cyrene, you can come with us."

She half dragged, half-carried Alex into the plane, Kitty following her, eyes wide, surprised.

When she came back out, she beckoned sharply to Aubrey. "I know you don't like me. I don't really like you, but we have to work together. Let's just get through this fight and save the X-men, and then we can go back to hating each other in peace. I need your help. I need a link to Alex so he can give us directions, since he knows where they are."

Aubrey, who was surprised at Diane's sudden show of command, as well as Alex's order to obey her, nodded. He touched her forehead, which glowed briefly silver. Diane staggered sideways, surprised. Her ears went faintly red, and she snapped, "Alex, quit it. Or make a wall or something." Then with a few more taps on her watch, she sealed the Blackbird.

"Lets go swimming again." She said finally. "And no more talking."

They all but the breathers back into their mouths and dove back under the water. They soon came to the tunnel that the X-men had previously found. There was no one there, and they quickly found the several signs of struggle, and moved through the tunnel quickly.

"Watch out!" Johnny shouted suddenly, twisting his hand. A ball of flame went off course. A girl, or, rather, a woman, with red hair and eyes was standing behind them. In front of them, a woman with blue skin and hair left a trail of water on the floor. She created a wave out of no where, but Bobby froze it, blocking her from the fight with the red head, for the moment. Every attempt to create fire was quashed, so the girl soon resorted to dancing around and trying to hit people, which really didn't work, since everyone else could use their power. Cyrene made quick work of her with a clawed cuff to the head. Johnny melted the wall, but the water girl didn't have any more luck than the fire tamer did. Anything she threw, Bobby froze, and she too was soon cut down by Bruce, who tripped her by phasing the ground under and them, hitting the side of her head.

Diane didn't like leaving the two of them behind her, but she made ropes and they tied them up. They went up the stairs at the end of the tunnel.

~* Alex? *~

~~ Go left. ~~ His voice was dreadfully weak. She had been right to leave him behind. ~~ You were not. But I'll let it pass, if only because I can't waste the energy arguing, if that was only because I'm trying too hard to keep a wall up so I don't distract you. ~~ She almost jumped, feeling the blood rush into her face. Bruce was eyeing her funny. "Left, he said left." She said quickly. She heard Bruce mutter, "Yeah, right, I'm sure that's why your face just went that interesting shade of red."

Following Alex's directions they made it to a door, guarded by a short woman with black hair and purplish eyes. She smiled charmingly at them. Diane fell to her knees, a heavy weight was settling on her mind, she wanted nothing more than to just lie down and go to sleep.

She could feel everyone else falling into the heavy pressure of the telepath's mind, she struggled, struggled, fought.but.