A/N: YES! Someone reviewed! I have not been forgotten! Praise god! Do a little dance! PLEASE KEEP REVIEWING!
Oh yeah and I should say that I don't own Magneto or anyone else who's showing up with him. LAWYERS, LEAVE ME BE!!!
"Magneto?" Scott repeated. "What the hell is he doing here?"
"I dunno, but he's gonna leave before the drug hits him too and he bends me into a pretzel. Let's go give him a proper welcome, eh?" Logan jogged down the hall and let the others catch up. Unfortunately, they didn't even reach the stairs before Kurt stopped in his tracks, clutched his head, and vanished.
Another knock on the door sent Logan running down the stairs with Scott on his heels. Sabere looked around in vain for Kurt before following.
Logan threw open the door to reveal a very odd couple – an elderly man who carried himself like royalty and had a condescending smirk on his face, and a younger woman – completely naked – who would have been quite beautiful if she didn't have scaly-looking blue skin, completely yellow eyes, and slicked-back auburn hair.
"What do you want?" Scott demanded.
"I hear you've come across a bit of trouble," the man said calmly, locking eyes with each of them before settling on Sabere. "I had a very interesting nightmare earlier this evening…something from Alkali Lake, if I remember correctly…"
Logan raised his arm, preparing to stab the man, but his arm froze in mid-strike. The man sighed and glared at him. "Ah, the young…when will you learn that I can bend your body…" He raised a hand, and Logan's arm moved slowly backwards, despite his obvious attempts to stop it – "…to my every…" Logan's claws spread apart, making him wince as they pressed against the bones of his hand – "…whim?"
Kurt's sudden reappearance behind the blue-skinned woman startled them all, and Logan took the opportunity to retract his claws and wrench his arm back into place. He looked at Scott, who laid his fingers on the trigger for his visor. "Magneto, how did you have the dream? Have you been in the mansion?"
Magneto shook his head. "For people who live at a school, you are certainly unintelligent sometimes. Charles is the most powerful telepath in the world. It's very likely that this entire hemisphere picked up his nightmare – including the man who made him have it."
"Stryker," Sabere whispered as Kurt ducked around the woman and entered the mansion. "He'll know the drug has worked."
"Now this one's more up to my standards," Magneto said approvingly. "What's your name, and why haven't we met before?"
"You're the visitor, let's have your names first," she retorted, wishing she had brought her knives with her.
"Forgive me. I am Eric Lensherr, but you may call me Magneto, and this is Raven Darkholme, or Mystique."
The woman at his side nodded in acknowledgement, smirking at Logan before striding forward confidently into the mansion.
Scott stepped firmly in front of her. "You still haven't told us what, exactly, you're doing here."
"Extending a helping hand," Magneto announced. "Since the X-Men have now been rendered…well, powerless, we may be able to help you."
"The last time you 'helped us,' you tried to kill the Professor and carted off one of our students," Logan growled. "Forgive us for not jumping at the opportunity."
"Where is John, anyway?" Scott asked. "Is he out there?"
Magneto hesitated. "He is not here, if that's what you were implying. No, he is…indisposed, as it were."
"He was drugged, too," Sabere realized. "You were going to use him as a bargaining chip, or something."
Magneto tapped a finger to his temple. "You are either too smart for your own good, or you're another telepath who is going to make me regret forgetting my helmet. I still don't have your name. Yes, John, or Pyro, was drugged – how, I do not know – and if I were to find the antidote for the drug, I would give your share if you let John stay with me, where I believe he is truly blossoming."
Before the others could argue, Kurt spoke for the first time. "Do you know where the base is?"
"No – "
"Then how are you getting the antidote? And shouldn't John be allowed to decide for himself where he wishes to be?"
"I was going to ask to borrow your magnificent jet before I was repeatedly interrupted. I would use my own powers to find the base from the jet, get the antidote, and offer some to you – "
"In return for a student. No – " Scott winced suddenly, took three steps away from them –
- and his eye beams exploded with such force that they took off his visor and took off most of the far wall and part of the staircase next to it.
Magneto raised his eyebrows and extended a hand, bringing Scott's visor back to him. "Well, it's your choice." He suddenly seized Sabere's hand and pressed a round metal something into her palm. "Contact me."
With that the pair left, Magneto closing the doors behind them without touching the doors.
Sabere examined Magneto's parting gift, trying to decide what it was, but before she could, Logan snatched it out of her hand, tossed it up in the air, and sliced it in half on the way down.
"What was that for?" she demanded.
"We're not contacting that sonofabitch, no matter what he has to sell us," Logan shot back.
"Why not, he could have helped us, he could have found the base – "
"We don't need him to," Kurt broke in. "I know where it is."
Three voices chorused, "How?"
"I teleported there on accident, just a few minutes ago. I swear it is, it looked exactly like the one Kitty and I searched – except there were soldiers there."
"Can you get back?" Sabere asked anxiously.
"No, no, not now, how did you get all the way to Maine? Where exactly have to gone?"
Kurt shook his head. "It's nothing to worry about. I did not recognize many of the places, but I knew some, and no one has seen me yet."
"But if you can't teleport voluntarily, how do you know you won't get stuck somewhere? It's been dumb luck that you've wound up back in the mansion at all." Scott had replaced his visor, which was surprisingly undamaged, and was watching Kurt uncertainly.
"It's been dumb luck that I haven't teleported into a wall or something. It won't be a problem. We won't be able to get to the base now, anyway. No one could sit in the jet for more than five minutes without falling out of it, blowing it up, or telekinetically messing up the controls."
"Or having one of the Four Horsemen strike…" Logan grumbled.
"I've made my point. No one goes near the base until the drug wears off." Kurt was losing his temper, but Sabere didn't blame him – between the drug, no sleep, and an unwanted visitor, she was ready to scream too.
"How do you know it will?" Sabere asked.
Kurt took a deep breath. "I don't know. I don't know anything. We just need – "
The rest of his sentence was lost as the room suddenly swirled around Sabere and the familiar headache seared her mind. She fell to her knees, gasping from the throbs of agony, trying to decide whether she should fight the pain and live or just die and make it all end…
Her last conscious thought was relief. At least the knives are upstairs.
A/N: It might actually be interesting to kill Sabere. Totally pointless, but interesting. I'm letting the world know that I'll be on vacation till next Sunday so there will not be any new chappies until then. Please don't desert me again! Thanks to the few who reviewed! 3 days til TTT!