Disclaimer: We all know I don't own them right

Disclaimer: We all know I don't own them right? Right.

A/N: Thanks for everyone who helped with the Spanish so the standard disclaimer applies; if you are fluent are familiar with the language and I've horribly butchered it in some way then just let me know and it'll be changed. Have fun and please review...it makes all the difference in the world. : )

Return of the Dragon

5

Jubilee sat up with a start, as the pounding on the door continued. She started to get up when a hand grabbed her and clapped onto her mouth, sparks began to crackle as Jubilee struggled when she heard Carlos's soft voice whisper in her ear. "It's only me, be quiet and let me answer the door. Go hide under the bed." Jubilee squirmed in the thin opening, shoving a few boxes in front of her as Carlos pulled a sheet that divided the room to shield the women. Once satisfied that the girl was out of view, Carlos pulled the door open angrily.

"Who is this and why have you disturbed this house?"

Jubilee could see several boots from her position under the bed, and her breath hitched as she counted five men. Her mind raced as she felt around under the bed for some kind of weapon to be used for protection when her hand closed around a metal ring.

"We have orders to search every house in the area. There is dangerous fugitive on the loose and we're here to protect you."

The teenage boy stood tall, seemingly uncaring of the machine guns only inches from his face. "Do you know who lives here? You're trespassing on the property of Rose Gonzalez."

At this, the men stepped back uneasily. "We are only following orders."

From behind the curtain Tante Rose stepped out, holding her head regally as she secured her robe. Her hair was wild and had curled into ringlets sometime throughout the night. "Who bothers me at my own house?"

The leader stepped forward and bowed slightly, lowering his gun in the presence of the woman. "My apologies Senorita Gonzalez but we have been ordered to search the houses for a dangerous fugitive that has gotten loose in the area. My only concern is for your family's safely."

Rose stepped back and waved to her house. "Then search, but remember if you do not find what you seek in this house, I will take your presumptuousness as dishonoring my casa and my name by thinking we would harbor such a fiend in my house. Your choice senor."

The leader's eyes quickly glanced around the small shack from the doorway, unwilling to step past the boundary of the door. "My mistake Senorita. Please go back to sleep and we will disturb you no further." The men quickly backed out and started to jog down the muddy road to the next house in the far distance.

Once Carlos was sure that the men were far from the house, he knelt down to look under the bed pushing aside some boxes. "Jubilee it's alright you can come...." He trailed off at the empty space. "She's gone."

Tante Rose only smiled. "As I figured she would, we were to help her rest and then she would continue on her journey."

"She's all alone." He protested, throwing the window above the bed open and peered into the night.

"She wouldn't have accepted our help anyway. Go back to sleep Carlos, morning will be here soon." Smiling she brushed back her son's hair and nudged him towards the mat. After a few minutes, she heard the slow and steady breath of sleep and soon fell into the darkness herself. Below her a slight draft blew in from the almost unnoticeable crack in the wall that had enough leeway to allow, if someone wanted, to squeeze through and then fit back into place without anyone noticing.

About a mile away from the shack, Jubilee looked back at the small house with a sad smile. The last thing she wanted to do was get some more people into trouble, especially those that had been so kind to her. Catching her breath Jubilee once again started jogging westward in hopes that she would eventually end up in Mexico somehow. As the shack faded from sight, Jubilee would have no way of knowing that the house she had slept in was one of the most powerful mutants on the southern continent in precognition, whose sleep was already troubled by dreams of things yet to come involving a young teenage girl with the weight of her family on her shoulders.

-in-

Once the men were out of view from the house the tallest man looked at his comrades. "Carajo." He swore softly to himself as he scanned the horizon where the moon was just beginning to rise above, and saw a figure briefly outlined against the bright orb. "Let's go get the girl."

One of the younger ones looked at him in horror. "She's a known witch, do you really want to cross her?"

"I answer to Vanya and not that puta. Come on!"

And so as Jubilee breathlessly ran into the night, she was totally unaware of the men closing in on her and her imminent capture. The first clue she had was a blinding pain in the back of her head and before tumbling into unconsciousness.

-in-

The next thing Jubilee was aware of was a bright light that was making her head ache even more than it was already. She was being half carried and half dragged down a cool corridor, her left foot scraping painfully on the ground, raw from the rough terrain since she had lost her shoe in the desperate fight to get away. Keeping her body limp, Jubilee could make out two men on either side of her dressed in black uniforms, machine guns slapping softly against their sides as they walked stiffly down the hall. Jubilee heard a door open and was roughly shoved on a chair, her arms and legs bound with wire that cut into her flesh. There was no way that Jubilee could blow the wire off her without severely damaging herself in the process.

A man kicked her, causing her to sit up with alarm. The room was huge, looking like an empty warehouse with huge windows on either side of room, and the ceiling going up dozens of feet. In front of her was a simple wooden desk, with a leather chair. The occupant of the chair was currently turned away from her so she couldn't make out his face, but she could smell the reek of cigars as wafts of smoke floated around the man.

Jubilee glared at her captor. "So is that stench just you or the cigars as well?"

"Child, you have caused much damage to my business. I've lost face with some of my associates and that doesn't make me happy. I don't like being unhappy." The man's voice was soft with a thick Russian accent.

"What are you some B movie? I'm sorry but the whole Godfather thing is out." Jubilee flipped her hair over her shoulder and grinned. "Have you ever considered therapy, I hear it does wonders for orally fixated mobsters like yourself."

"Brat!" The chair swiveled around to reveal a large, blond man in his fifties. To put it mildly, he was massive; large broad shoulders that made up his heavily muscled body. He glared at her for a second, cocking his head to the side as he studied her. Jubilee could only stare at him in silence, her blue eyes wide. "But you are like a fly to me and just as easy to take care of." The man pulled out a large silver gun, cocked it and put it against her head.

The younger guard fidgeted nervously and the blond man looked at him furiously. "What is it Garcia? Unwilling to see a child die?"

He clenched his hand, avoiding the man's eyes. "She's just a child and alone. What is the point, sir?"

"The point is that no-one crosses me." Seemingly disgusted by his men's reaction he violently motioned towards the door. "Get the hell out of here you pathetic excuses for men. I'll deal with you later."

The guards quickly filed out and soon there was total silence in the room as Jubilee and the man looked at each other. And then he pulled the trigger.

-in-

Several miles away Tita woke up sobbing, her scream shattering the night as images flooded her mind. She curled into a ball, forcing her mind on other ideas, topics, items, issues; anything to keep the painful realization that she had just seen a gun go off at her new friend's head.

"What is it sweetheart?"

The small girl clutch at her mother, her tears wetting the soft fabric of her nightgown. "Jubilee is dead, mama. Dead! I saw it!"

Tante Rose sighed sadly, and stroked the wet cheek. "Be brave, be brave…."

-in-

The blond man grinned and put the gun back in his holster. "Well, that was easy."

"A little over dramatic if you ask me."

"Please, I should get an Oscar for that performance."

Jubilee rolled her eyes. "Please. Now cut me loose."

"No one is grateful anymore you know." He commented as he undid the wires around her ankles and wrists. "People rush here and there and what is left? I tell you, we need to smell the roses." Helping Jubilee to her feet, he stepped back to look at her critically. "You're awfully skinny."

Sticking her tongue out at him, Jubilee laughed and jumped into his arms to give him a bear hug. He chuckled, swinging her around easily as a doll before setting her down. Jubilee stood on her tiptoes and gave him sound kiss on the lips. "Nice to see you again Uncle Vanya."

"And now," Vanya sat back down and patted his knee. "come, sit on my lap and tell me what my little Leelee is doing out in the middle of nowhere, stowing away on my ship."

Giggling, Jubilee sat on his lap and leaned her head against his shoulder. "You just want me on your lap you dirty old man."

Patting her waist suggestively he pretended to leer at her. "And how often do I get the chance to have a beautiful young woman on my knee?"

"Perv."

Laughing uproariously, Vanya leaned back in the chair. "Not for a quite a few years now." He touched her face softly, his face saddening for a moment. "Ah, little one you look so much like your mother. I'm so sorry that they died."

"They were murdered by a man called Bastion."

"I heard you took care of it personally. Everyone said you took him down and put him away for life." Vanya beamed at her. "All you had to do was ask and he would have been taken care of."

Jubilee shrugged. "I wanted to do it on my own, besides I want him to be punished, not pushing up daisies. It was a family thing."

"We are family. Who was it that used to bounce my knee and call me Nana?"

"Yeah, I know. I just needed to do it on my own."

"I understand. I kept all the clippings though."

"Are you serious?" Jubilee laughed.

"I've always proud of you, like a daughter."

Her eyes darkened and she pulled away slightly. "A daughter that you never see, never call?"

Sighing, Vanya looked Jubilee in the eye, his face serious. "My little Leelee, your father and mother welcomed me in like family and treated me as such. They made me your god-parent when they had you and I was thrilled. After they were killed, the bank refused any and all business with me and I was forced to more illegitimate means of making money. This lifestyle is the last thing you needed, and I didn't want you to get hurt."

"Seems like everyone wants to protect me these days. I am capable of taking care of myself you know." Jubilee's lower lip jutted out as she sucked on a lollipop stolen from one of his pockets.

"Jubilee, it isn't that we think you're weak, it's that we care. So, tell me now, what are you doing here?"

In between yawns, Jubilee recounted the whole tale to his sympathetic ears and almost as soon as the last sentence was said, she had fallen asleep on his lap. Shaking his head softly, he pulled out the lollipop and set her down in his chair. Looking at her with an indiscernible expression for a moment, he pulled out a cellphone and punched in some numbers.

-in-

Jubilee smiled as she slowly woke up, only aware that she was warm, lying on something soft, and gently rocking back and forth, back and forth….a blue eye cracked open to see a small porthole with the sun streaming through. Tiredly getting out of the bunk, Jubilee noticed that her clothes had been replaced with an oversized silk shirt that hung around her knees. Rubbing the fabric absently, she padded over to the window and peered out. Not particularly worried, Jubilee poked around the room, finding some clothes her size in the tiny wardrobe and put them on. After Jubilee had put on the T-shirt (pink), the shorts (with little butterflies embroidered on them) and shoes (thankfully white with purple laces) Jubilee walked up onto the deck.

Cheerfully manning the helm was Vanya, and he waved to her as she stepped out onto the deck. "Hello! Did you sleep well?"

Jubilee gestured to her clothing. "Why am I in pink? And who undressed me last night?"

"Little Leelee, I was wiping your baby bottom when you were less than a year old. It is not a big thing for me to put you to bed. As for the clothing, pink has always looked good on you…plus you were asleep and couldn't say no." The older man looked slightly shocked when Jubilee blushed a beet red, and scrambled up the stairs to where he was. "What?"

Jubilee paused a moment to breathe. "I appreciate the sentiment and all but I'm 16 now, it's a little…" she glanced up at his totally sincere face and faltered. "Never mind. So where are we going?"

The yacht bobbed as it sped along the water, it's sleek body smoothly cutting though the waves. It was fairly large and stationed at key points around the railing were guards. Jubilee had no illusions about what the older man was capable of and what he did for a living, a week in his cargo hold made sure of that. However, she did know that he would never hurt her, which was why she felt no worry in his presence.

"You said you had to go to Mexico, I thought that'd I drop you off in Cancun myself. I'll have to leave you there but I think you'll be okay, no?"

Jubilee flung her arms around him and kissed his cheek. "Nana you're the best."

"That's what I keep telling everyone but no one believes me I think." He put an arm around her, giving her a squeeze. "Good thing you do."

-in-

A day later…

The streets were crowded as people from all walks of life had their vacation on the sunny beaches. Jubilee had (after being given a credit card from Vanya) found a hotel and checked into a suite. She spent the first few hours walking around and shopping for the clothes she would need. Once she had gathered everything (and burned the pink outfit), Jubilee decided to go for a walk along the streets.

The back alleyways were fairly quiet, and Jubilee strolled down these little pieces of history throughout the city. As soon as her feet had touched Mexican soil, she had felt a tugging sensation as if she was being drawn somewhere. She had ignored it during the day, but as the evening approached she let the impulse take her where it wanted. Soon it became clear that it was drawing her out of the city and it was dark by the time she made her way back to the hotel.

Sitting out on the balcony, Jubilee stared at the phone for a minute before biting her lip and punching in a number.

"Hola?"

"Hey Ange."

Jubilee grinned as she heard him whoop in delight. "Where ya been Chiquita? We've been looking all over for ya."

"I sent you that note in the presents. Didn't you guys get it?"

"Yeah, Jono figured it out for us but after that we were looking for you here and nothing. We even went down to that Calakazam city and nada."

"Did you guys ever check Paige's voicemail?" In the background Jubilee could hear Paige defending herself as she was pelted with various items in the room after she had repeated the message Jubilee had left. "Guys? Guys!"

"Yeah, I'm here." Angelo answered after a few seconds. "So you're in Cuba now?"

"No, actually I'm in Cancun. Where are you guys?"

"Hey we're here too! We're at…Some Hotel Meridian…hey is that right….yeah, it's a hotel Meridian. We figured since Emma was paying, we might as well wait for you in the best right?"

Jubilee suppressed a sigh. "What room are you at?"

"Uh..forth floor at room 451."

"I'll come on over okay?"

"Cool, see ya then."

Suppressing the urge to roll her eyes, Jubilee walked down the hall and took the elevator down. Two minutes later she stopped outside a brown oak door and knocked. The door was almost immediately clung open by Angelo who stared at her in shock and then gave her a wry grin. "Let me guess, either you've suddenly become very fast or we're in the same hotel."

"And they said that you weren't the smart one."

Jubilee suddenly found herself hugged very, very tightly and blinked hard to stop the tears from falling. Squeezing Angelo back, Jubilee heard him whisper in her ear. "It's been the longest three days of my life, Jubes. I'm glad you're safe."

"Now I am." Jubilee murmured in his neck and chuckled softly.

"What is it?"

"You guys are never going to believe what happened to me."

-fin-

A/N: Hope you liked it, and please review! Oh and Rachel…the pancakes were delicious!