When she woke up, she was still on the floor. Her nose had stopped
bleeding, and she was sore all over. There was a crackling portal in the
middle of the hall, glittering faintly silver. The girl with blond hair
that had accompanied the two evil mutants was there, pouring what seemed to
be silver energy into the glowing circle. It was growing slowly, but by
the way the girl was breathing fast, she wasn't going to be able to make it
very big.
Enigma had disappeared, but Magneto was there, watching all the X- ies, who were freed, but they really had no place to go, there were mutants all around them with various powers, though most of them were telepaths strong enough to keep them from going anywhere.
Diane struggled back onto her knees from the floor. Bruce was over next to her in a flash. "What happened?" He asked, worriedly. Diane suddenly realized that they all had not heard the telepath talking to her. She could almost see it. She was yelling at the telepath, obviously about something he said. Then she refused him something, then toppled over, almost screaming.
"He killed my sister." She said finally, her voice shaking, though whether from sadness or anger, she couldn't tell. "Trying to get me. He was on the mutant SWAT that was always chasing me. Found my sister, killed her, trying to find me. Maybe he even thought it was me. I don't know. Right now, he.he needs Alex for something, when he didn't come with us, he used me, my link, tried to force me to call him. I wouldn't, so he tortured me.played around with my brain so that all my nerves went crazy.I did it, I screamed.I called Alex and now he's going to come.and if he does, we've lost.this guys got it too welled planned out.and it's all my fault." She was shaking now, not just her voice, and for the first time in forever, she let herself cry.
About an hour later, Enigma came stomping back. ((((( Brat! ))))) He snapped at her, his eyes glowing faintly. ((((( Is your boyfriend always this slow? ))))) She hadn't really thought about it, but suddenly she smiled, remembering her instructions to Kitty. Also lucky for her, he was too busy being grumpy to pick up the thought. Alex was safe.
((((( No matter. One of you will do just as well, though I may have to adapt. Actually, I think I will use the blond brat, if only because she defied me. No one defies me. Iris, are you done? ))))) The blond mutant nodded, wiping the sweat off her face. " I can't make it any bigger. They haven't noticed it yet."
((((( Good. Get the X-men. ))))) The blonde hopped through one of her portals and disappeared.
Diane somehow managed to get to her feet, leaning on Bruce. ((((( Funny, I wouldn't have thought it of you, little blond brat, playing with the two of them. I can't reach Alex, as Xavier is still protecting him, but he- ))))) The telepath jerked a finger at Bruce, ((((( Is quite easy to read. )))))
Diane didn't even have to step forward, Enigma was already so close to taunt her, she slapped him. It wasn't very hard, she didn't have the strength to hurt him much. But he stepped back, his eyes on her. ((((( I do hope Iris hurries up. I will take great pleasure in killing you, girl. No one has dared go that far with me in years. )))))
Diane felt Bruce gasp, it registered that everyone could hear him, but for some reason she really wasn't afraid of the telepath. "Do your worst." She snapped. "It can't really be any worse than what you've already done."
((((( I was under the impression that getting your life sucked away hurts more than any torture I could come up with. )))))
"I was talking about my sister." She snapped. She was about to say more, but the rest of the X-men were dragged in. They all looked surprised to see her and the X-ies.
((((( Oh, good, Rogue, come here. ))))) He made a gesture at her, and she walked forward, though Diane could tell she was fighting. ((((( Iris, Brat. ))))) Diane didn't have the strength to fight him any more, she walked forward. Iris touched her portal. With a jerk of Enigma's hand, Marie touched Diane's arm. Her other hand touched Iris's, and her eyes widened.
Enigma had been right, this was worse, much worse than his torture. The pain was more intense than anything he had done to her, and she could -feel- her life slipping out of her body, into the Marie's, and then into Iris, who poured it into her portal, which was growing quickly. Diane could just barely make out several men in suits through her clouded vision. This was the end, but she still wasn't scared.
She heard a scream, then two more, the door blasted off it's hinges, and her arm slid out of Marie's grasp, she fell, she saw two people run straight through Marie. She fell to the floor, and though she wished she could to stop the pain, she didn't black. She realized with a vague sort of interest that it was Havok and Kitty that had just blasted the door down, then the Professor was freeing the X-men.
But she couldn't black out. She had to get Enigma for what he had done to her sister. She had to kill him, see him die.
She some how managed to stand up, she staggered forward towards the mutant telepath, who was trying to fend off the mental assault of the Professor.
She threw herself at him, saw him look surprised. But the blackness took her mind before she could hurt him. She felt the faint sensation of being picked up by someone big, desperately hoped it was someone friendly, and then lost all ability to think.
It wasn't really much a fight. The Professor had been working on freeing himself from Enigma ever since capture, and the students and the X- men vastly outnumbered the mutants Magneto had managed to collect.
Alex had heard Diane's scream, and it had taken him about thirty minutes to persuade Kitty that he wasn't kidding, then thirty minutes to persuade the computer.
Everything coordinated at the same time, and they got both the super- mutants back into jail with a little telepathic neutralizer on Enigma.
Enigma had been planning to make a portal directly into an important meeting of the UN, and control the X-men, forcing them to take over the government. Then he and Magneto were to take control and force the mutant cause.
They flew the plane back, fighting time, as Diane was getting worse and worse until she was hardly breathing. Rogue had taken too much of her life to keep her going for very much longer.
They managed to get her to a life support, but her life was hanging in the balance. Bruce, Alex, and Rogue never left the medlab. Rogue finally broke down and sobbed.
"It's all mah fault. If Ah would have fought him any."
"You couldn't, Marie, it's not your fault." Bruce said, gently, taking his eyes off Diane's limp form for once.
"Diane did. She fought him, refused to call Alex."
"He would have gotten what he wanted in the end. He did get her to call me." Alex broke off, an odd look on his face.
~* Tell her to stop. I'm hurt, not dead. *~
~~ Diane don't, you'll wear yourself out- ~~
~* Alex, shut up, and tell Marie I'll be fine. *~
"Marie, she says.she says she's fine. Or she will be."
"Oh, and how is that?" Rogue snapped, glaring at him. "Don't you try that, Alexander Summers, I know she's unconscious and you aren't really talking to her."
"She is. Her mind is awake, I guess, she's just."
"Can't you stop causing problems for people just once?" Bruce snapped suddenly. "I don't believe you either. You already play around with how Diane feels about you, do you have to mess with me and Marie as well?"
"I was -not- messing with Di-"
"I'd believe Alex if I were you, Bruce." The calm voice of the professor said. "Or if not him, believe me. She is -so- loud when she talks telepathically, almost blasted me."
Bruce glanced at Diane, alarmed, as though wondering whether she'd jump up and yell at him. Then he looked at his feet and muttered "Sorry." Marie went faintly red, said,
"I'm sorry, Alex."
"Then I do believe that you two should go to bed. It's late. Diane won't die as soon as you're gone."
The first thing Diane saw when she opened her eyes was the deep blue of Alex's eyes. As always, she fell through them, for the first time she reveled in it, though, didn't fight it. He was the one who broke eye contact. Then her eyes met Bruce's brown ones. She smiled, summoned the strength to raise her hand, touch his face gently, as though making sure this wasn't a dream. She wasn't dead, or hallucinating.
She sat up slowly, carefully, batting away the people who tried to help her. "Would you quit it?" She asked in a raspy voice that she hardly recognized as her own. "I'm -fine-."
Her eyes slowly went around the white room, a faint smile on her face. They had all come to visit her.
"Why'd you all come?" She asked finally.
"Because we love you, Diane." Alex said softly, a faint trace of his old grin on his face. "We want to see you alive. After all, you saved us all."
Diane was quite literally pampered over the next few days. She finally managed to get on her feet, and after that, her recovery was fast. She was always with someone, if not Alex, then Bruce, Kitty, or Marie.
Finally she climbed out of her bed, stretched, and ran down the hall, reveling in the fact that she was alive. She ran into Alex, bounced off him practically, and grinned at him. She tilted her head to one side, pouted, then smiled again. "Oops."
"That was entirely on purpose and you know it." He said with a grin. She grinned back. The link that Aubrey had made between them had not been removed, so she could feel the flash of his amusement.
"How did you get Kitty to believe you."
"Well, first I fainted. You were -really- loud."
"Oops." She muttered.
"She thought it was because I was so exhausted. She wouldn't listen to me for a while when I woke up, but then I think she realized I wouldn't joke about you being in serious trouble. So she finally let me near the keyboard. The Blackbird wouldn't let me override easily without my control watch." He sighed, his blue eyes faintly darker. "I hate to admit it, but you were right to leave me back there. I'm sorry I was such a pain in the ass."
"De nada." She muttered, glancing up. She fell through the blue again, the emotion which had always been contained to her mind not anymore, swirling around her brain and his, flooding the link, knocking over the wall.
And suddenly she was kissing him, her arms around his neck, fingers tangled in his hair, finally, -finally- giving into it. She gasped, melting into the blueness of his eyes, surrendering at last. She felt his tongue slide past her lips and lost the thread of reality.
Enigma had disappeared, but Magneto was there, watching all the X- ies, who were freed, but they really had no place to go, there were mutants all around them with various powers, though most of them were telepaths strong enough to keep them from going anywhere.
Diane struggled back onto her knees from the floor. Bruce was over next to her in a flash. "What happened?" He asked, worriedly. Diane suddenly realized that they all had not heard the telepath talking to her. She could almost see it. She was yelling at the telepath, obviously about something he said. Then she refused him something, then toppled over, almost screaming.
"He killed my sister." She said finally, her voice shaking, though whether from sadness or anger, she couldn't tell. "Trying to get me. He was on the mutant SWAT that was always chasing me. Found my sister, killed her, trying to find me. Maybe he even thought it was me. I don't know. Right now, he.he needs Alex for something, when he didn't come with us, he used me, my link, tried to force me to call him. I wouldn't, so he tortured me.played around with my brain so that all my nerves went crazy.I did it, I screamed.I called Alex and now he's going to come.and if he does, we've lost.this guys got it too welled planned out.and it's all my fault." She was shaking now, not just her voice, and for the first time in forever, she let herself cry.
About an hour later, Enigma came stomping back. ((((( Brat! ))))) He snapped at her, his eyes glowing faintly. ((((( Is your boyfriend always this slow? ))))) She hadn't really thought about it, but suddenly she smiled, remembering her instructions to Kitty. Also lucky for her, he was too busy being grumpy to pick up the thought. Alex was safe.
((((( No matter. One of you will do just as well, though I may have to adapt. Actually, I think I will use the blond brat, if only because she defied me. No one defies me. Iris, are you done? ))))) The blond mutant nodded, wiping the sweat off her face. " I can't make it any bigger. They haven't noticed it yet."
((((( Good. Get the X-men. ))))) The blonde hopped through one of her portals and disappeared.
Diane somehow managed to get to her feet, leaning on Bruce. ((((( Funny, I wouldn't have thought it of you, little blond brat, playing with the two of them. I can't reach Alex, as Xavier is still protecting him, but he- ))))) The telepath jerked a finger at Bruce, ((((( Is quite easy to read. )))))
Diane didn't even have to step forward, Enigma was already so close to taunt her, she slapped him. It wasn't very hard, she didn't have the strength to hurt him much. But he stepped back, his eyes on her. ((((( I do hope Iris hurries up. I will take great pleasure in killing you, girl. No one has dared go that far with me in years. )))))
Diane felt Bruce gasp, it registered that everyone could hear him, but for some reason she really wasn't afraid of the telepath. "Do your worst." She snapped. "It can't really be any worse than what you've already done."
((((( I was under the impression that getting your life sucked away hurts more than any torture I could come up with. )))))
"I was talking about my sister." She snapped. She was about to say more, but the rest of the X-men were dragged in. They all looked surprised to see her and the X-ies.
((((( Oh, good, Rogue, come here. ))))) He made a gesture at her, and she walked forward, though Diane could tell she was fighting. ((((( Iris, Brat. ))))) Diane didn't have the strength to fight him any more, she walked forward. Iris touched her portal. With a jerk of Enigma's hand, Marie touched Diane's arm. Her other hand touched Iris's, and her eyes widened.
Enigma had been right, this was worse, much worse than his torture. The pain was more intense than anything he had done to her, and she could -feel- her life slipping out of her body, into the Marie's, and then into Iris, who poured it into her portal, which was growing quickly. Diane could just barely make out several men in suits through her clouded vision. This was the end, but she still wasn't scared.
She heard a scream, then two more, the door blasted off it's hinges, and her arm slid out of Marie's grasp, she fell, she saw two people run straight through Marie. She fell to the floor, and though she wished she could to stop the pain, she didn't black. She realized with a vague sort of interest that it was Havok and Kitty that had just blasted the door down, then the Professor was freeing the X-men.
But she couldn't black out. She had to get Enigma for what he had done to her sister. She had to kill him, see him die.
She some how managed to stand up, she staggered forward towards the mutant telepath, who was trying to fend off the mental assault of the Professor.
She threw herself at him, saw him look surprised. But the blackness took her mind before she could hurt him. She felt the faint sensation of being picked up by someone big, desperately hoped it was someone friendly, and then lost all ability to think.
It wasn't really much a fight. The Professor had been working on freeing himself from Enigma ever since capture, and the students and the X- men vastly outnumbered the mutants Magneto had managed to collect.
Alex had heard Diane's scream, and it had taken him about thirty minutes to persuade Kitty that he wasn't kidding, then thirty minutes to persuade the computer.
Everything coordinated at the same time, and they got both the super- mutants back into jail with a little telepathic neutralizer on Enigma.
Enigma had been planning to make a portal directly into an important meeting of the UN, and control the X-men, forcing them to take over the government. Then he and Magneto were to take control and force the mutant cause.
They flew the plane back, fighting time, as Diane was getting worse and worse until she was hardly breathing. Rogue had taken too much of her life to keep her going for very much longer.
They managed to get her to a life support, but her life was hanging in the balance. Bruce, Alex, and Rogue never left the medlab. Rogue finally broke down and sobbed.
"It's all mah fault. If Ah would have fought him any."
"You couldn't, Marie, it's not your fault." Bruce said, gently, taking his eyes off Diane's limp form for once.
"Diane did. She fought him, refused to call Alex."
"He would have gotten what he wanted in the end. He did get her to call me." Alex broke off, an odd look on his face.
~* Tell her to stop. I'm hurt, not dead. *~
~~ Diane don't, you'll wear yourself out- ~~
~* Alex, shut up, and tell Marie I'll be fine. *~
"Marie, she says.she says she's fine. Or she will be."
"Oh, and how is that?" Rogue snapped, glaring at him. "Don't you try that, Alexander Summers, I know she's unconscious and you aren't really talking to her."
"She is. Her mind is awake, I guess, she's just."
"Can't you stop causing problems for people just once?" Bruce snapped suddenly. "I don't believe you either. You already play around with how Diane feels about you, do you have to mess with me and Marie as well?"
"I was -not- messing with Di-"
"I'd believe Alex if I were you, Bruce." The calm voice of the professor said. "Or if not him, believe me. She is -so- loud when she talks telepathically, almost blasted me."
Bruce glanced at Diane, alarmed, as though wondering whether she'd jump up and yell at him. Then he looked at his feet and muttered "Sorry." Marie went faintly red, said,
"I'm sorry, Alex."
"Then I do believe that you two should go to bed. It's late. Diane won't die as soon as you're gone."
The first thing Diane saw when she opened her eyes was the deep blue of Alex's eyes. As always, she fell through them, for the first time she reveled in it, though, didn't fight it. He was the one who broke eye contact. Then her eyes met Bruce's brown ones. She smiled, summoned the strength to raise her hand, touch his face gently, as though making sure this wasn't a dream. She wasn't dead, or hallucinating.
She sat up slowly, carefully, batting away the people who tried to help her. "Would you quit it?" She asked in a raspy voice that she hardly recognized as her own. "I'm -fine-."
Her eyes slowly went around the white room, a faint smile on her face. They had all come to visit her.
"Why'd you all come?" She asked finally.
"Because we love you, Diane." Alex said softly, a faint trace of his old grin on his face. "We want to see you alive. After all, you saved us all."
Diane was quite literally pampered over the next few days. She finally managed to get on her feet, and after that, her recovery was fast. She was always with someone, if not Alex, then Bruce, Kitty, or Marie.
Finally she climbed out of her bed, stretched, and ran down the hall, reveling in the fact that she was alive. She ran into Alex, bounced off him practically, and grinned at him. She tilted her head to one side, pouted, then smiled again. "Oops."
"That was entirely on purpose and you know it." He said with a grin. She grinned back. The link that Aubrey had made between them had not been removed, so she could feel the flash of his amusement.
"How did you get Kitty to believe you."
"Well, first I fainted. You were -really- loud."
"Oops." She muttered.
"She thought it was because I was so exhausted. She wouldn't listen to me for a while when I woke up, but then I think she realized I wouldn't joke about you being in serious trouble. So she finally let me near the keyboard. The Blackbird wouldn't let me override easily without my control watch." He sighed, his blue eyes faintly darker. "I hate to admit it, but you were right to leave me back there. I'm sorry I was such a pain in the ass."
"De nada." She muttered, glancing up. She fell through the blue again, the emotion which had always been contained to her mind not anymore, swirling around her brain and his, flooding the link, knocking over the wall.
And suddenly she was kissing him, her arms around his neck, fingers tangled in his hair, finally, -finally- giving into it. She gasped, melting into the blueness of his eyes, surrendering at last. She felt his tongue slide past her lips and lost the thread of reality.
