Scene Thirteen

"Blaze!" Vixen panicked to see her friend trussed up like a slaughtered animal, head of red curls hanging dejectedly as she had lost consciousness. "Don't you dare die on me," she challenged, taking the girl's chin in her hands and gasping at how cold she was. For a moment she got no response, but then…

"Hey Vixen," no louder than a whisper, but Blaze forced her eyes open and ran a cold tongue over blue lips. Her pitiful amounts of breath didn't even frost the air.

"Blaze, you gotta get your act together. Melt your way out," Ilehana ordered frantically.

"Can't," Blaze was reduced to single word answers. The room span and she did not even have the strength left to shiver. Gambit came to stand beside Ilehana, taking off his trench coat.

"She's too cold an' the dome is eatin' all the heat she can produce," he filled in, wrapping Blaze up in the coat as best he could. Then he frowned, looking hard at the bonds of metal that held the redhead to the wall. He could do this, but it would be tricky and he couldn't guarantee Blaze's health. Still what other choice did they have? He'd underrated Magneto's cruelty almost as much as he had underestimated his own guilt about his betrayal of Blaze. He couldn't see her die. He raised a single finger to the first shackle.

"What are you doing?" Ilehana snapped, pushing him away from Blaze before he could touch the metal.

"Easy, Cherie, there ain't time for explanations. Read my mind if you have too, but Magneto'll be back any second so I gotta get on with it." Raising his hand again, Gambit resolutely ignored Ilehana's mental probing even though the very thought of a telepath in his head made him feel sick.

Ilehana hunted through Gambit's mind quickly, finding a brewing anger there at Magneto for deceiving him like a fool. He'd help the X-Men now to show his boss he wouldn't stand for these games. Even before he'd charged the first bind, she seemed satisfied and pulled out again. "Blaze," he addressed the girl who somehow found the strength to meet his eyes. "Lift your head and close your eyes. Dis is gonna hurt."

Blaze did as she was told and bit her lip in readiness for whatever it was he was going to do. Gambit pushed Ilehana back forcefully as the first metal strut exploded, bending back on itself and releasing Blaze's left wrist as she choked on a scream. Her wrist bled from a thousand tiny cuts where fractured metal cut into it, but other than that she seemed okay to Gambit's gingerly touch. Unbidden Ilehana stepped in telepathically to offer Blaze her own strength and comfort. Gambit touched the two ankle straps at the same time, trying to get this over with as quickly as possible for the redhead. They too exploded leaving blood and bruising but no serious injuries.

"Nearly done Chere," Gambit offered his own consolation as he reached for the final two bonds, the ones pinning her right wrist and her waist. As he did so all hell broke loose. The fighting mutants had dragged their fight this far. The X-Men, apart from Logan who was locked in ferocious combat with Sabretooth, fell back around Ilehana and company. Battered, bruised, scorched and tired Vixen knew that each of the three students had given everything they had. Yet her telepathy let her know what they did not, that Pyro and Colossus too were close to dropping. The cubs had done well on this hunt.

"Finish it," Vixen growled at the Cajun, morphing smoothly into her favourite form, the sleek grey wolf with black tipped ears. With Vixen armed with tooth and claw by their sides, the X-Men youngsters found renewed strength. Finally Rogue got a finger to Pyro, sucking his power dry as she took his thoughts, energy and memories. Ilehana's sensitive wolf's ears couldn't tell whether Pyro or Rogue screamed the loudest.

Kitty and Nightcrawler joined Vixen in confounding Colossus. He would aim and strike at one of the children as they dared to get too close, but he was not as quick as they were. As they escaped however their powers dictated Ilehana closed strong, bone-crushing wolf jaws around his metallic arm. She ignored the distaste of something so cold and inorganic in her mouth, forced away the pain of teeth meant for bringing down soft deer slamming onto unresisting metal. All was proved worthwhile as he stopped harassing the X-Men to try and shake Vixen off.

Finally with a roar of triumph, Logan thrust his claws into Sabretooth's ribcage. Shadowcat got to them first, her lightest touch allowing her to drag Sabretooth through the interior wall of the building, leaving him half stranded between one room and the next. Kurt grabbed Colossus as Ilehana gratefully let go and performed the same trick that he had used to dispose of Magneto. He left the heavy Russian floundering in a snowdrift.

Just as the X-Men could claim to be winning, the wall of the dome crept open and Magneto was back. An open palm towards Wolverine sent the mutant with the adamantium skeleton flying across the room, collecting Vixen on the way. Their two bodies slammed into the wall as, bravely or foolishly, Rogue and Kitty jumped their aggressor. Kitty let lose her power, sinking Magneto up to his chest in the very floor of his lair. Rogue was loath to touch the evil man, but the slightest brush of a finger silenced his roar of anger.

Gambit caught Blaze as she slumped grimly into his arms, dropping to one knee on the floor and pulling his coat properly around her. He was aware of the eyes of the X-Men, his enemies, on him as he brushed a strand of Blaze's hair from her face. He couldn't be bothered to care what they thought. He had prevented his misjudgement of Magneto becoming a pointless loss of life. But was it even simpler than that? As Blaze finally stirred in his arms, warmed by his body heat, he had a small inkling it might be…

"We done here?" Kurt asked, looking from the recovering Logan to the now-human Ilehana for leadership.

"Yeah," Logan nodded stiffly. Rogue turned and raised a palm to the metal dome, which opened under her stolen power like a tulip opens to the sun. Kurt and Kitty followed her through it as Logan and Ilehana went to where Gambit now stood with Blaze in his arms.

"Come with us," Ilehana offered as the Cajun dumped Blaze in Logan's arms. He didn't reply but he didn't need to. This had never been about winning favour with the X-Men. Behind them Magneto was already stirring after Rogue's attack, the ground groaning as he fought to free himself from the metal-ore containing ground. It wouldn't take him long to get free, not long enough for them to all get away anyway. Knowing this Ilehana didn't press Gambit any further. Let him distract Magneto with his insubordination; it could only work to the X-Men's advantage. She left.

Before Logan could whisk Blaze away through the wall of the dome and as way of an apology, Gambit kissed two of his fingertips and pressed them to Blaze's lips. Suddenly hard again he did not even watch them leave, turning back to his boss. Magneto's cold eyes met Gambit's red-on-black ones, both men re-calculating the other as the Earth wretched Magneto out of the ground. Not a word passed between them as Magneto closed Rogue's hole in the dome, turned and walked further into the lair with Gambit shadowing his footsteps.