Chapter Four

Cat glanced at her watch and sighed. It was almost time for dinner, and she really didn't want to go down there and see Scott. Or Logan. But Logan just scared her a little, with his gruffness, while Scott full-on freaked her out, for no reason that she could find. Whenever she went near him, she felt that wrongness that she'd never felt before. And she didn't like it.

She stood up, pulled on a jacket and headed downstairs, walking as slowly as possible. When she got to the dining room, Solitaire and Chantelle smiled at her and asked her to sit with them. She sat down, hunching her shoulders a little in an effort to escape Scott's attention.

It worked; he walked right past her to the teacher's table. Kurt and Kitty sat down across from her and she could see Rogue picking up her own food and Remy's, since Jean had given her permission to eat with her boyfriend. Jubilee flat-out refused to leave Dreamer's side so when Jean had finally allowed Aura, Remy and Dreamer to go rest in their own rooms Jubilee parked herself in Dreamer's room and wouldn't move.

Aura was sitting beside Kitty, a pure white feather tucked into the pocket of her jacket. Her face was flushed and her pink eyes sparkled.

Cat sat there and let the conversation wash over her. Every now and then she glanced up and saw Scott looking at her. A shiver crawled up her spine and she looked away, fiercely reminding herself that he was a teacher and Professor Xavier must trust him, or he wouldn't be there.

She was aware of Kurt and Kitty planning to go out for breakfast again the next day, since neither of them had any early classes or time in the Danger Room. The others were all talking about the new dance club that was opening that weekend and how they could convince the teachers to let them go.

"I don't know, dance clubs aren't really my thing," Solitaire said. "Bright lights, not really good for my eyes. I'll give it a try, though, if you want to go Chantelle."

The pink streaks in Chantelle's purple hair grew brighter. "You are so sweet, ma amata. We don't have to go the first night. It'll probably be really crowded, anyway. We can go another time if you feel like it." [My dear/sweetheart]

For once Aura didn't make a remark about lovebirds. Kurt noticed and asked, "what's wrong, Aura, you losing your touch? You're not complaining about us being 'all over each other' today."

Aura blushed and played with the feather in her pocket. "I'm in a good mood, that's all," she said. Chantelle cocked her head and stared at the pink-eyed girl, a quizzical expression on her face. Aura sipped her coffee and studiously looked at the far wall.

Cat glanced at Scott again and shivered. Kitty asked, "are you okay, Cat? You've been shuddering all night."

"There's… you're going to think I'm crazy, but there's something not right about Mr. Summers," Cat replied.

Chantelle turned her gaze to Scott and frowned. "I never noticed it before, but I can't read his emotions very well. It's like he has psychic shields, only I know he doesn't because I read his emotions before we fought Damien's servants. Comprehendez nyet." [I don't understand]

She closed her eyes and concentrated, sending her empathic ability across the room to where Scott was sitting with the other adults. And suddenly she could feel everything.

Boredom at having to maintain such an elementary disguise. Annoyance at the other mutants' stupidity, not noticing that there was a doppelganger among them. Amusement at the woman who was married to Scott, because she was getting confused over her husband's cold attitude toward her.

Chantelle's eyes flew open and she gasped, "Cat's right. There's something wrong going on here."

Solitaire's hand tightened on her arm. She looked up and saw "Scott" staring at her. She felt a shiver of fear at the hatred she felt pouring off him.

"That's not Scott," she whispered.

Solitaire hissed, "your hair's turning yellow, Chantelle! You can't let whoever it is know that we suspect they're not Scott."

Chantelle quickly closed her eyes and thought about happy things. ((Bunnies and meadows and Solitaire. Think happy thoughts. Everything is hunky-dory… merde, this is hard… Munchkins singing, bees buzzing, butterflies flutterbies, raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, big copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, brown paper packages tied up with strings, these are a few of some really dumb things. What good is a big copper kettle? And mittens itch, and I hate brown.))

Her rambling thoughts had slowly changed her hair back to purple and pink-streaked. She opened her eyes again. Solitaire squeezed her hand. "You did great, Channy."

"We have to tell someone what's going on," Cat said.

Chantelle nodded. "Ja, as soon as we can see him without "Scott" knowing, we'll talk to the Professor. I don't know what's happening, but that the man sitting over there… nicht im geringsten… is not Scott Summers." [It isn't]

@ @ @

Sabrina walked through the myriad of corridors to Adam's room. He was sitting on the bed, paging through the leather-bound diary he'd taken from Dreamer's room at the mansion.

Sabrina frowned. She didn't know what Dreamer had written, but it was something that made Adam determined to bring his brother to the base and turn him to their way of thinking. She assumed it was something about Dreamer's past that horrified Adam, but she wasn't sure what exactly had gone on. Damien wouldn't tell her, and she privately thought that she'd just as soon not know.

Adam glanced up and smiled. "Hi Sabrina. Is there somethin' Ah c'n do f' ya?"

"Damien wants to know when you're ready to carry out the next part of the plan," Sabrina said. "We don't want to rush anything but his associate is coming here in a few days and we need to have the leverage we require for a profitable alliance."

"Remy an' Kristin."

"Yes. Of course, the man will want your brother but Damien has assured me that's not going to happen. He says we can get a mutant with a unique power that Essex will be intrigued by and trade that mutant for your brother. And from what Damien told me about Essex, it will work."

Adam closed the diary and put it in his top drawer. "Ah'm ready whenevah y'all are, Sabrina. Ah'm not sure how much muscle we're gonna need though. From what Ah've read, there're some pretty powerful mutants there."

"We're taking Dusk, Lukas and some of the others," Sabrina said. "Draconia and Rebecca are going to be the decoys. They're probably going to attack any of the kids who leave the mansion. Then we'll go in."

"Sounds good ta me. Ah know not all of ya agree with me wantin' ta recruit Daniel, but Ah gotta try ta make him see that he should fight with us," Adam said. "Ah mean, he's mah brothah. Ah cain't jus' pretend he don' exist."

"I understand," Sabrina said. "If I was in your position I'd probably be the same. Hell, I joined Damien because my mother was here. I'd thought she was long dead. He gave me the chance to know her again. And he'll give you the chance to know your brother."

Sabrina's mobile phone rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and said, "talk to me."

"Sabrina, it's Damien. Discordia just contacted me. There's another development at the mansion. It seems that they have some new recruits. A girl called Cat and the boy Solitaire. She's not sure what the girl can do yet, but apparently Solitaire's powers are beyond what we thought. He has strong telekinesis and, like we thought, can get visions from touching playing cards.

"However, Discordia thinks that some of the students suspect she's not who she says she is. The empath Chantelle, Cat, Solitaire, Kurt, Kitty and Aura. Apparently Cat felt something wrong about "Scott Summers" and Chantelle scanned "his" emotions. We must act quickly, before they have a chance to talk to the Professor."

Sabrina looked up at Adam. "We have to go now," she said. "They found out about Discordia."

"All raht. Who're we goin' f' this tahme?"

"Dreamer, Remy, Aura and Solitaire," Sabrina replied. "We're still not sure what Cat's power is but she felt that Discordia wasn't Scott, so it may be some sort of premonition thing. We don't need her. Is there anything you need for the attack?"

"No. Ah've charged up mah electric supply, so Ah should be good ta use mah powers there if Ah need ta," Adam replied.

Sabrina frowned. "You know, now that you're one of us you need a "mutant" name. Like Dusk. His real name is Derek Alverrsehd. Or me. My codename is Laser."

"Ah assume codenames have somthin' ta do with power?"

"Yes. Let's see… you're an electrical conductor… and a dreamseeker, like Dreamer… that's it! You're brothers and you have the same power. He's called Dreamer, so we'll call you Nightmare."

"Nightmare… interestin'. Well, 'Laser', let's get this done."

@ @ @

The Professor's voice echoed in Jean's mind. ** Jean, three of Damien's mutants are at the mall. Take some of the others with you and find out whether they're doing anything we should be stopping. **

** Will do, Professor. **

Jean sent a telepathic call to the other X-Men, telling those within range to get to the garage. When she arrived, Bobby, Raptor, Kitty and Kurt were waiting with Logan. Jean said, "there might be trouble at the mall with Damien's people. The Professor asked us to check it out."

They climbed into one of the SUVs and headed to the mall. Jean thought it would be best if they weren't in their X-Men uniforms, since it was broad daylight, the uniforms were kind of noticeable and from what the Professor said there weren't a lot of mutant aggressors.

When they reached the shopping center they split up to check around. Fifteen minutes later they regrouped at the SUV. Nobody had seen any sign of Damien's people.

"Could Cerebro be wrong?" Kitty asked.

Jean shook her head. "I don't think so. Something must be wrong…"

Logan swore suddenly. "They're attacking the mansion," he said. "It's the only logical explanation. They wanted to get as many of us as possible out of the way while they attacked. The thing here was a decoy."

He leapt into the driver's seat of the SUV, barely waiting for them to climb in, and tore out of the parking lot at about fifty kilometres above the speed limit. He sped back to the mansion in record time, but when they got there the metal gates were twisted and smoking, as if they'd been hit by lightning or a huge electrical pulse, and Remy, Dreamer, Aura, Solitaire and the Professor were missing.

"Dammit!" Logan snarled angrily. "It was them all right. I can smell them."

Scott, Storm and the remaining students were all dazed, as if they'd been attacked by a telepath as powerful as Xavier. Cat seemed to be the most lucid one, so Jean asked her what had happened.

"Mutants attacked us. They didn't seem to want to kill anyone, which I suppose is a good thing, but one of them was a telepath and she did some sort of psionic scream that knocked most of us out for a few minutes. When we woke up, the Professor, Dreamer, Aura, Remy and Solitaire were gone."

Logan was stalking around the grounds, sniffing. He frowned suddenly. Scott asked, "is something wrong, Logan?"

"No, nothing's wrong, apart from Chuck and the kids being kidnapped," Logan growled.

Chantelle frowned and streaks of orange threaded in among the red and yellow of her hair. She snagged Cat's elbow and whispered, "Logan knows something about 'Scott'. We need to talk to him."

Cat nodded. "I can't help but feel 'he' had something to do with the attack. It was too orchestrated. Before I got knocked out, I saw them going right for Dreamer, Aura, Remy, Solitaire and Xavier. They didn't even try for the rest of us, except to get us out of the way."

Chantelle grabbed Logan's arm as he passed. "Logan, Cat and I need to talk to you. Kitty and Kurt should probably be there too."

Logan yelled, "Half-Pint, Elf, c'mere. I gotta talk to you."

Chantelle began, "we noticed something weird last night… well, Cat noticed something weird. About Scott. And you seemed to smell something just then, so we thought maybe…"

"Chantelle said Scott's emotions weren't his," Cat added. "And he's been giving me the heebie-jeebies ever since I came here. Normally people don't do that to me unless there's something seriously wrong."

"I had Scooter's scent a few metres back, and it turned into that metal girl's all of a sudden," Logan told them. "Looks like you're right, kids. Scott ain't Scott."

"Logan, what's wrong?" Storm called, seeing the four students and Logan in a huddle together, talking softly.

Logan looked up and said, "nothing, 'Ro. Don't worry about it. Get the kids inside and take care of them. I'll figure out what happened out here."

Storm nodded and turned to go inside with Jean and the other students. Logan let his claws slide out and walked over to 'Scott'. He tapped him on the shoulder then, when 'Scott' turned, slammed him against the wall and held his claws to his throat.

"Who are you?" he hissed.

'Scott' looked alarmed and said, "Logan, what are you doing? It's me. Why would I be anyone else?"

Jean and Storm turned at the noise and gasped. Jean cried, "Logan, what are you doing?"

"Scott isn't Scott, Jean," Logan replied, never taking his eyes off the man he had pinned against the wall. "C'mon, you're some sort of shapeshifter, now get the fuck outta my friends' body!"

'Scott' glared at Logan, who pressed his claws closer to 'Scott's' throat, drawing a drop of blood… blue-black blood. Logan hissed, "I can kill you, you know. I know you're not Scott so you may as well die as yourself."

'Scott' shifted into the metal girl, Discordia. She hissed, "it's too late, you know. You'll never stop him now."

"What does he want with the kids and Xavier?" Logan demanded.

Discordia laughed. "I'll never tell you. I don't care what you do to me, I won't betray him."

She suddenly shifted into liquid metal and slipped out of Logan's grasp. She became her usual metallic human form and vanished into the trees.

Logan didn't bother going after her. He turned to Jean, Storm and the younger X-Men. "Let's get going. Damien obviously has Scott as well, and we have no idea how long he's had him. Whatever he's planning for Xavier and the kids can't be good either, so we have to get moving."

"You think they're in one of the Colorado bases?" Chantelle asked.

Logan shrugged. "It's all we've got to work with right now. I don't want Jean to risk using Cerebro, and besides, there's no guarantee it'd work. If we don't find them in the Colorado bases, we'll figure out what to do then."

Who guessed Scott? Huh?

Anyway, TBC. In Chapter 5, Aura and Solitaire wake up in Damien's base. (They're not gonna be happy.) Chantelle, Kurt and Raptor come up with a plan. Dreamer sees Adam for the first time. I'm not seeing a happy family reunion between these two guys…