"And then they all left the country and settled down in a safe place and lived happily ever after and had lots of little mutie kiddies, the end."

...Yes, I'm joking.

A/N 1: [insert very long, very boring definition of 'stuff', ranging from plotbunnies to flames] can be send to hack_heaven@usa.net. Yes, that's an e-mail address. No, I don't bite ^^

A/N 2: *tilts head* A handful of chapters, a couple of interludes, and the epilogues left - you can survive for that long, can't you? *wry smile* Now I just hope that *I* can.

Italics indicates thoughts/telepathy

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Chapter Eighty-Five: Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

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The sun was unpleasantly hot, the stinging rays blinding their eyes and burning exposed skin as they got ready to leave. The air was heavy, uncomfortable, not at all helping on the already tense atmosphere, and the heat only added to their tiredness.

Aaron dropped the last of the bags in the trunk of one of their newly - and rather illegally - acquired cars, then brushed a lock of damp, blond hair away from his eyes. Even though he was noticeably less affected by the heat than the others were, it was still getting to him. He might be part snake, but he was still enough human to find this kind of environment unpleasant, especially compared to the climate he'd been used to in New York.

His tongue swiped out, tasting the dry air, and caught the hint of a familiar scent. Turning his head slightly, he found Pheonix leaning against one of the walls of the motel, partially hidden in soothing cool of a shadow. More than any of them, she suffered in the dry climate - her dark skin protected her from the sun, but just as her mutation granted her control of water, it also gave the water a certain control of her, draining her strength as their surroundings got increasingly dry.

"Are you okay?" Aaron asked and headed over to her, feeling a bit of relief as he reached the shadow of the wall.

Pheonix nodded slightly and toyed absently with the sunglasses in her hand. "Yeah...I just needed some fresh air."

Aaron tilted his head slightly as he watched her, blue eyes taking in what he saw, her skin, usually a deep, dark brown now looking almost unhealthy, her face revealing the same thing, her dark blue eyes betraying her tiredness.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Aaron repeated and reached a scaled hand out to touch her arm, frowning slightly as he felt how warm she was, even when out of the sun.

Pheonix sighed, too tired to snap at him for asking again. "I'm okay...it's just too dry around here. It'll get better when we get out of this hellhole."

Aaron nodded slowly in reply, not really feeling like pushing his luck when it came to his rather temperamental teammate, and an uncomfortable silence followed, neither quite sure what to say.

Finally Pheonix sighed and sat down on the dry grass, leaning her head against the wall with a tired motion. "We're fucked, aren't we?"

It wasn't really a question, but Aaron answered anyway. "It's only 300 miles or so. We can handle that." His tongue swiped out once again, drawing out the 's'-sounds, and he made a distasteful face as he tasted the dusty air. "And hopefully, we'll continue to somewhere less dry."

"'Only 300 miles or so'," Pheonix repeated, biting out each word. "Yeah, but it's 300 miles where every person we meet have seen us on TV or those damn flyers they've put up. We're dead before we even get out of town."

"Not necessarily." Aaron's words were soft, a sharp contrast to Pheonix' angry words. He was used to her temper and her attitude, and he never really let it get to him. Working himself up over something like that was...useless. A waste of perfectly good energy. "If we don't stop anywhere around other people, we should be able to get out of here with a little luck."

And they would, wouldn't they? Because although their pictures had been on TV, the flyers around town were badly printed, making it hard to recognize any details. With a little luck, it could work.

"It's going to take more than 'a little luck' to get us out of here," Pheonix snapped, her tiredness forgotten. "Not even Cretes and Sanderson think we'll get out of this alive."

"They said that?" Aaron asked with a frown. It didn't sound like them - from what he'd seen, they had remained optimistic, despite of all they'd been through.

"They didn't have to," Pheonix said disgusted. "Haven't you seen how they act? They were even the ones who suggested that we should plan what to do in case we got caught."

"They're in charge of their team - they're supposed to plan ahead," Aaron disagreed. "That doesn't mean they think we're going to die or something...it's their job to expect the worst." And really, those two had, as far as Aaron could tell, always been too optimistic to suddenly start to get visions of doom. They were supposed to plan for the worst case scenario and hope that they never had to use those plans. All leaders did that.

"Whatever." Pheonix wrapped her arms around her legs and pointedly ignored Aaron, a sure sign that she didn't want to discuss it further. Aaron, being Aaron, just as pointedly ignored her bad mood.

"What's really bothering you?" he asked, and Pheonix glared at him.

"Nothing," she snapped, and even without the biting tone in her voice, Aaron would have known it was a lie. He *was* part snake, and the long, thin reptilian tongue wasn't just for show.

"You sure?" he asked, although it wasn't really a question as much as a way to tell her that he knew very well she was lying. "You don't smell right."

Pheonix looked up, dark eyes narrowing suspiciously. "What...?"

Aaron shrugged casually, the heat starting to make him sleepy like it had so often before. "You don't smell right," he repeated, his tongue swiping out for emphasis. "You used to smell one way, but now you smell..." he trailed off and shook his head. "I don't know."

Pheonix sighed again, feeling the exhaustion catch up with her once more, quickly draining her anger. "Just leave me alone. Find someone else to annoy."

Doing what she said would undoubtedly have been the best course of action, but she was also his teammate, and Aaron didn't like to see her like this.

"Sorry, can't do that," he replied with a shrug. "I'm staying here until you tell me what's wrong, you might as well accept that."

Pheonix looked up, anger returning to her eyes as she glared at him.

"I miss Lae, all right?!" she snapped. "I miss her! Now leave me the fuck alone!"

She curled up against the wall again, seething with quiet anger, and Aaron fell silent.

He could understand that Pheonix missed Laetitia - it had been no secret that the younger girl had seen the Greek mercenary as an older sister - and he had to admit that a part of him missed her, too. Different as they were, he'd never been close to her, but he'd respected the woman for her skills. And more than anything, those skills were what he missed now. It might be cold of him to think like that, but it was the truth, and Aaron had never cared much for lying. Too much of an effort, really.

But he missed Laetitia now, and a part of him couldn't help but worry what would happen next. Without Nike, they'd lost one of their most skilled fighters. That in itself was bad in a situation like this, but with the added situation with Jordane, things had gotten a whole lot worse. Jordane wouldn't be able to fight, Aaron knew that, and with her current condition, Blade's attention would be on her, and not on the team.

Aaron wasn't stupid, far from. Normally, he might have docile and almost lazy attitude of the creature he resembled so much, but that didn't mean he wasn't aware of his surroundings. Yes, Hal was a good leader, and yes, Zach was good fighter, but the truth was that it had been Blade and Nike who had kept the team safe. Granted, they had gotten them into some fairly dangerous situations more than once, but they had also been the ones who had kept a hand over the others and made sure that nothing serious happened.

Without them, things didn't look good.

Beside him, Pheonix sighed tiredly, and Aaron sent her a brief look, before looking into the distance. "I miss her, too," he admitted quietly, feeling almost uncomfortable with breaking the silence. "She was a good teammate."

"You don't miss her, you miss her powers," Pheonix snapped and glared at him.

Aaron looked at her, his surprise obvious, and the other snorted. "I might look like some dumb ghetto slut, but I'm not stupid. Just because I went to a lousy school doesn't mean I'm an idiot."

"I didn't say you were stupid," Aaron corrected quietly. "I was just surprised."

"Why? It's the truth," she bit out. "You don't miss her, you miss her powers. If she'd had some useless power, you wouldn't have cared."

"I would," Aaron disagreed, feeling the first bit of annoyance at her accusations. "I didn't know her very well, but she was still my teammate, and that means I cared about her. Yes, I miss her powers because we could use them now, but I also miss her as a person and my friend."

Pheonix fell silent again for a moment, and when she spoke again, the anger was gone. "So I was right."

"About missing her powers?" Aaron asked. "Yeah."

Pheonix smiled wryly, a hint of bitterness shining through. "Not just about that. About us being in trouble. You just admitted that."

"I didn't say that - I just said that we could-"

"But that's what you meant." Pheonix looked at him, dark eyes serious, and Aaron fell silent. "You know it's true - Lae is gone and Blade doesn't care about anyone but Jordane. We're fucked."

Aaron could recognize his own thoughts in her words, but he wasn't about to allow her to sink into depression - their situation wasn't as hopeless as she made it sound.

"We're not complete lost," he corrected. "Hal's a pretty good leader, and Kyle and Ryan have some useful powers. We're not helpless."

"Hal lacks the practice, and Sanderson and Cretes won't use their powers unless some actually starts to shoot at us or something," Pheonix bit back. "We're fucked. It's that simple. I can't use my powers very well here, Zach still has a headache, and the Guardians can't fight for shit. We'll need a miracle to get out."

"Maybe we'll get one, then," Aaron replied quietly.

Pheonix snorted. "You're being stupid now. God doesn't care about mutants. Nobody does."

Aaron sighed but didn't reply. There wasn't much he could say to her statement - he wanted to believe that someone out there cared, but it wasn't hard to understand how she felt. He'd felt the hatred towards their kind on his own body more than once...understanding her bitterness was all too easy.

The uncomfortable silence was interrupted by the soft sound of footsteps in dry grass, and the two looked up and found Hal making her way to them, white skin glistening faintly from the large amounts of sunscreen she was forced to use.

"You two all packed?" she asked, looking briefly at the cars before turning her attention to them again.

Aaron nodded. "Yeah - I just put the last of our stuff in the trunk."

Hal smiled, but it was a pale smile, lacking its usually warmth. "Good. We're leaving."

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