Chapter Thirteen:

I stared at the pair of them. How could this be? How could I have never noticed? How could they have been separated at birth and only met now in the most unlikely of circumstances? I'd known that Helios had been orphaned and adopted, but I'd never known anything about his real family. I'd known that Recyclo had been orphaned and separated from his twin brother. But somehow I had failed to make the connection between the two things. I was probably the only person who knew both of them on a personal level, and yet it had never occurred to me. How could I have been so blind?

For a moment both of them were too shocked to respond, then Helios found his voice, "I – I don't understand – how can you – they told me you were dead!"

"Who? The X-Men?" said Gemini angrily.

"No – my foster parents. They said I had a brother, but – but they said that he – you – were dead. I don't understand, I – "

He tailed off, still too shocked to finish the sentence properly. Recyclo remained calm and replied, "I was taken when they discovered I was a mutant."

Gemini looked at him, "Taken where? By who?"

Recyclo made no response. He turned to Vertigo and said, "Leave me with him. You go on."

After a moment's hesitation, Vertigo nodded, "OK. Glad, Gem, let's go."

He stood, releasing Helios, who got to his feet. For a moment it seemed as if Helios might try to make a run for it, but clearly he wanted to stay and talk to Recyclo. Gemini and I hurried after Vertigo in the direction of the elevator. I glanced backwards as we went, as Helios and Recyclo, twin brothers, continued to stare at each other, neither of them knowing what to say or how to say it. Just how did a person respond to the twin they had never met? What would I have done if it had been me?

In a way it was similar to the problem I found myself facing. My sister and I found ourselves on either side of the human-mutant conflict – it wasn't easy for me, and it couldn't be any easier for her. We had never been particularly close before, but we had always loved each other. Now I didn't know what my feelings for Crusader were. I loved her, because she was my sister. But I hated her, because she was part of an organisation who put human lives before mutant ones. Both of us were committed to what we believed in, and both of us would fight for our beliefs. Crusader would fight to protect the humans, and I would fight to preserve my own kind. If it came down to it, we would have to fight each other. If only there was some way I could talk to her, some way I could let her know that she was on the wrong side…why couldn't she see that what she was doing was wrong? Why couldn't she understand that we had to protect ourselves from the humans? She had seen Marina die as I had – she had loved Marina almost as much as I had – why couldn't Crusader see what Marina's death meant, as I had? Didn't she feel anything, any remorse or pain or sorrow; didn't my love's death mean anything to her?

"Is this it?" came Gemini's voice, interrupting my thoughts.

We had reached the elevator. I hit the button to call it, and we waited for it to reach the ground level. Vertigo slouched impatiently against the wall, glancing at his watch, and sighing, "I really hope we have enough time to pull this off. How long d'you think Mystique can keep the X-Men fooled?"

"If Crusader uses her telepathy, she'll know right away that Mystique isn't who she's pretending to be," I said.

Gemini retorted, "She knows what she's doing. She'll keep them occupied long enough. We can count on it."

"Hope you're right," said Vertigo. "I – "

He stopped at the sound of someone approaching. Light, padding footsteps could be heard on the stairs, coming downwards, and each of us reacted instantly, taking up defensive postures to face whatever danger might be nearing us. A dark figure was making its way down the stairs, and as they entered the dim light of the hallway, we relaxed. The figure was a child, no older than eight, clearly just out of bed, wearing a nightdress and carrying a stuffed animal. I vaguely recalled the layout of the building – she was probably heading down to the kitchen for a midnight snack, or possibly to the games room to watch TV. The child saw us; she stopped and a small frown crossed her face, "Who are you?"

"We're the Brotherhood," said Vertigo lazily.

The child's eyes went wide with horror. Clutching her stuffed toy to her chest, she stammered, "Please – please don't kill me!"

"Why would we want to do that?"

"Please, don't – don't kill me!"

She was backing away, trying to find some way to escape, visibly shaking with fear. I said quickly, "Look, we're not gonna hurt you."

"But – but you're the Brotherhood – you kill people – that's what you do – isn't it?"

"No – who told you that?"

"The – the adults. They said – "

Gemini interrupted angrily, "Then they're lying! They're the ones who kill mutants!"

"No they don't!" said the child, then she asked uncertainly. "Do they?"

The elevator had just reached our level, and as the doors slid open, we walked inside. The child watched us, still scared and confused, and I said to her, "Nobody's going to hurt you. Just go back to bed and forget you saw us, OK?"

"But what are you doing here?"

"We're trying to help a friend. Go back to bed."

"OK…"

The elevator doors closed, and we lost sight of her. Gemini was still angry, "Did you hear what she said? She thinks we're just a bunch of murderers!"

"Well, that's only what she's been told," said Vertigo.

"I know that! It's the X-Men! They're lying to these kids, filling their heads with propaganda and poison, and manipulating them into betraying their own kind!"

"So, what do you want to do about it?"

She threw up her hands, "I don't know! We have to do something! We can't just let our enemies turn these kids into cold-hearted mutant-killing machines!"

"Maybe so, but not this mission. We haven't got enough time to do anything more than look for Pyro."

The elevator reached the underground level, and we stepped out.

"Gosh…this brings back memories," I said, looking around.

"Happy ones?"

"Well, yes and no. This was one of the last places I saw Marina alive."

"Saw who?" Gemini asked.

"My – my friend. You know, the girl who was shot by the humans. The reason why I joined up."

"Oh yeah. I – sorry. So – so where will they be holding Pyro?"

I shrugged, "Dunno. I've only been down here a couple of times. I don't really know what's down here. We'll need to look around and try to find him."

We had reached the main corridor now, and Gemini was eyeing suspiciously the huge round door that led to the Cerebro machine.

"What's in there?" she asked. "Is that the torture room?"

"The what?"

"The room where they torture mutants. Pyro told me about it."

"I don't think there's anything like that down here. Are you sure that's what he said?"

"Yeah."

I frowned. There was no torture room here. I was sure of that. Could Pyro have made a mistake? Hadn't he lived here once? He must have been down here before. He must have known there was nothing like that here – mustn't he? He wouldn't have lied to Gemini – would he? He must have simply made a mistake. That in itself was weird though, since he didn't make many.

The corridor branched in both directions and Vertigo said, "All right, Gladiator, which way?"

I struggled to remember the layout of the base, "Let's try down here."

"OK."

We hurried down the passageway to the left, and Gemini said, "Looks like they patched up our tunnel."

Vertigo and I looked over to see the newly reinforced section of adamantium-shielded wall that had once been the entrance to a tunnel dug by Mole. That had been during the first Brotherhood invasion of the school, back when I was still blindly following what my parents had told me…back when Marina was still alive. I thought back sadly to that happy time, that happy time that would never come back. If only – if only there was something I could do, anything, to see her again. Just once. To see those deep, emerald eyes; to feel that soft, gentle touch; to see that smile, so rare but so beautiful – just once again. I would have given anything, even my own life, if it meant that Marina might get a second chance to live hers.

Might I have stayed with the X-Men if she had not died? Might I never have become consumed by the terrible sadness and vicious thirst for revenge that now drove me daily? Might I have decided that human life was worth fighting for? I didn't know. If I still had Marina, would I even have cared about anything else? Just to have her at my side once more would have been enough to make me happy for the rest of my life.

I sighed. I had to let go of my sorrow. I knew I mustn't ever forget Marina, but I had to accept that she was gone and move on. It was the only thing to do. I had Cassandra now, Cassandra who loved me and had agreed to marry me. I had to devote my life to her now, to protecting her and any children we might someday have together. I had to, but I knew it wasn't going to be easy. I loved Cassie, and there were a lot of good and wonderful things about her, but she wasn't Marina, and she never would be. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was that made me love Marina, but whatever it was, it had been unique to her, and I would never find it in another girl. She was lost, lost forever, taken from me, torn from within my heart. It was something that a person of my age should not have to experience. Nobody should lose a love so young in life. That was what the X-Men didn't understand. None of them knew what it was like to lose somebody. None of them knew what it was like to have their true love taken away by the evil of others. Maybe if they had, they wouldn't be so keen to protect the humans.

I came back to reality as we followed Vertigo into a room on the right. I remembered this room – it was a meeting room of some kind – I had been here once before. A round metal table with a dozen or so chairs stood in the middle of the room. On the table were various papers and documents, and the chairs looked as if they had been pushed back in a hurry.

"Looks like they were having a meeting," said Vertigo, fingering some of the papers. "They must have been in the middle of it when they had to go off and stop 'us'."

He picked up a couple of the documents and idly scanned them. Suddenly his eyes widened, "Whoa – this is interesting."

"What is?"

"Hold on. I wanna read some more."

"We haven't got time! We need to find Pyro now!" Gemini snapped.

Vertigo didn't look up, "You two go and find him. This stuff looks as if it could be important…"

Gemini sighed impatiently and grabbed my arm, "Come on!"

We left the room and hurried down the passageway, entering a section of the base I had never seen before.

"Pyro!!" she yelled. "Are you in here?!"

We could hear no response. There were doors on either side of the corridor, and she began trying them one by one.

"Hey, this one's locked!" she exclaimed. "He must be in here!"

I hurried over to her side. She struggled with the door, trying to force it open with her shoulder.

"Here, I'll try."

She stepped aside to allow me room. There were no windows in the door, and it looked pretty solid. There was no way of telling what was inside, but it was locked – that was a hopeful sign that Pyro might be inside. I tried to force the lock, but it held firm. I stood back and kicked the door. It gave slightly, but remained closed. Tightening my muscles, I threw myself at the door, putting all of my strength behind a shoulder charge, and was rewarded with the sound of one of the hinges snapping, and the door buckling under my power. Jumping back, I charged the door once more, and this time it caved in, ripped from its hinges, collapsing into the room beyond.

"Pyro!" Gemini cried, relief in her voice.

He stood just inside, and she ran forward to throw her arms around him, hugging him tightly, resting her head against his chest, as if she was a loving daughter embracing her father.

"What the hell are you guys doing here?" Pyro demanded.

"We came to get you out," I said. "We haven't much time, come on!"

He managed to disentangle himself from Gemini, and we hurried back into the corridor outside.

"Where are the others? And where are the X-Men?" he asked.

"The rest are upstairs, securing our escape route. The X-Men aren't here. They were fooled into leaving the school unguarded, but they'll be back soon."

"Then let's hurry."

As we ran back towards the elevator, Vertigo emerged from the meeting room, a bundle of papers under his arm, announcing, "Pyro, you've got to see these!"

"I will as soon as we get out of here! Hurry!"

We got to the elevator, and Pyro hit the button to ascend. The journey upwards was as swift as ever, but we were in such a hurry it felt like a year and a day. We had no idea when our enemies would get back, and we had to get out of here before they could intercept us. If they caught up with us, they would try to destroy us. We mightn't be so lucky a second time – and if the X-Men defeated us, the fate of mutantkind would be sealed.

As soon as the lift reached the ground floor, we were out and hurrying towards the exit. We turned the corner that led to the front door, and we noticed instantly that Recyclo and Helios were not where we had left them. The first tendrils of panic began to ensnare my mind. Where were they? Had they gone outside? Had they gone elsewhere to talk in private? Having been apart for sixteen years, what if they decided they now wanted to stick together? What if Recyclo wanted to stay here with his twin brother? What if Helios wanted to come with us?

The first of the screams from outside reached my ears just as we reached the front door. The sounds of battle followed immediately, and I knew instantly that things had gone wrong. We had taken too long. The X-Men were here, and they were killing my friends. We would be lucky to escape with our lives.

"You'd better summon the jet!" I said to Pyro.

He shook his head, "I had to destroy my remote signaller in case the X-Men tried to use it! Come on, we'll have get outside and help them!"

I kicked open the front doors of the mansion and we hurried outside to aid our friends. The first person I saw was Cassandra, as she began running towards us.

"Pyro! Gladiator!" she cried. "We're under attack! It's them!"

"The X-Men?"

"No! Look!"

Through the darkness strode a gigantic figure, mammoth fists bunched as he swung a punch at a much smaller person near the ground. In the shadows a tall, gaunt shape glided like a ghost, accompanied by a skeletal figure I recognised all too well. From behind me came a terrible hissing sound I had hoped never to hear again.

"Get down!" Cassandra yelled.

I dived to the ground, as a dark shape dropped from somewhere above me, a clawed hand swiping through the air where my head had just been.

"It's them!" Gemini screamed.

"Get out of here! Go to the jet!" Pyro ordered, pushing her in the direction of safety.

He reached for the pocket where he normally kept his lighter, but it wasn't there. The X-Men must have taken it from him. I could see more clearly now in the darkness, and I identified the shape which had attacked me as the sneering insectoid mutant. These were the guys we had encountered in that lab…how had they got out? How had they got here? What were they trying to do? Why were they attacking us?

I had no time to think, as the insectoid drew back his head and spat a mouthful of acid in my direction. I ducked, and the corrosive liquid splattered on to the wall of the mansion, sizzling through the stone. Pyro grabbed Cassandra and propelled her away from the building, yelling, "Go to the jet!"

Vertigo sprang at the insectoid, twisting and kicking it in the head, narrowly avoiding a slash from its claws. The insectoid hissed loudly once more, and jumped to adhere itself to the side of the building, climbing up out of our reach. I breathed two lungs' worth of flame in its direction, but it was too far away and the fire burned up in the air. I heard a noise from behind me, and reacted just in time to dodge the skeletoid, whose dry, emaciated hand was reaching for the skin on the back of my neck. Vertigo administered a powerful kick to the vampire's chest, knocking it away from us. In the darkness I heard the roar of the giant.

There was a meaty thwack and a small figure came hurtling through the air past us. It was Mole, and he collapsed on the ground beside Pyro, unconscious. Scarab appeared from the black night, hurrying towards his friend's side. He bent to check Mole was alive, then turned to face whatever enemy might approach.

"Scarab, get him out of here!" Pyro commanded. "He's hurt bad – get him to the jet! Go! Now!"

Scarab didn't argue, lifting Mole's inert form from the ground and hurrying off into the darkness.

Pyro yelled to me, "Gladiator! Go! This isn't our fight!"

I had turned, and was ready to obey his order, when some instinct made me turn back and look up. The insectoid was steadily climbing the side of the mansion, and had now reached one of the bedroom windows. As I watched, his fist reached out to smash the window, and I heard a scream from inside. The children. Was that why these mutants had come here? Had they been sent to kill the children? I felt myself moving back towards the front door. We couldn't leave now. If the kids were in danger, somebody had to protect them, and until the X-Men got back, that somebody was us.

"Where are you going?" Pyro demanded, grabbing my arm. "I said go to the jet!"

"Look!" I said, pointing up to where the insectoid was now climbing through the window into the interior of the mansion. "The kids are in danger! We can't go!"

"Get on the jet! We're getting out of here! That's an order!"

My anger rose, "Damn you, we can't leave the children in danger! You go if you want – I'm staying!"

I didn't wait to hear his response. I ran to the front doors of the mansion building, threw them open, and darted inside. I could already hear terrified screams from the upper floors – the insectoid had to be attacking the children. I had to get to him and stop him before he harmed any of them. Anything else was unthinkable. What the hell were these guys doing here anyway? I vaguely remembered Pyro saying something about them being part of a government research project – something to do with building an army of genetic mutants – was that what this was about? Had they been sent to eliminate the mutants here? Had the government waited until the X-Men had left, or had it just been coincidence? Whatever the case, the simple fact was that I had to protect these children, in any way I could, until the X-Men got here.  

A/N: I've updated the website, please take a look. The link's in my profile. Anyone interested in character pictures, please let me know. Thanks