Okie Dokie, here's another chapter for you guys. I really appreciate you loyalty in reading my story and reviewing. I know how hard it is to stay interested in a really long story. So, once again Thanks so much for reading and reviewing!!!         

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            "Could you go any slower?!" Quicksilver barked at Gambit as she tried to break the security alarm on the medical supplier warehouse, without setting it off. "C'mon, I thought you were a master thief?" He huffed.

            "Shut up, Pietro." Gambit whispered. "Security's real tight at these kinds of places. If you keep screamin' like a little girl, you'll wake up the guards watchin' those cameras." He gestured towards the cameras pointed down at them. Quicksilver was surprised to see them.

            "How d'you know they're asleep?"

            "They're rent-a-cops. Dey always sleep… otherwise, they'd be out here already." Gambit went back to working on the security system. "An' I may be a master thief, but I'm also a can artist. Even the smallest masterpiece takes a little time."

            "Yeah, time we don't have." Quicksilver mumbled.

            "You just impatient, or you actually care 'bout one of your 'brothers'?" Gambit smiled as he flung to door open without incident. They both walked in.

            "Definitely just impatient… where's the list?"

            "An' bitter I see." Gambit said as he fished through the pockets of his trench coat for the list of supplies they needed.

            "Wouldn't you be bitter if your father favored a bunch of lazy, ungrateful, arrogant lackeys over his own son?"

            "What channel were you watchin'?" Gambit handed him the paper and Quicksilver looked over it briefly.

            "Get the bag." He directed. Gambit pulled a large plastic sack out of his pocket and held it open. Quicksilver sped throughout the entire building so quickly, Gambit could only tell where he was by how far away his voice sounded. "He took all of you in off the streets. He housed you, fed you, and trained you. He sent me away to 'handle' the brotherhood. He's lied to me, betrayed me, and cast me aside." Gambit listened openly, but couldn't help to crack a smile at Quicksilver's naivety. "And then you just left him. You just left what I always wanted."

            "Listen homme, he treated us like slaves. Sorta like Mystique always treated you, except, she realized y'all were still kids. Mags didn' care. We did what we were told, when we were told t'do it. He gave you your own team. He sent ya t'live with tes amis." Gambit explained.

            "Whatever." Quicksilver answered, stopping in front of Gambit to dump an arm load of supplies into the sack.

            "Freeze, Junkie!" Quicksilver heard from behind him. He looked back to see two security guards pointing guns at him.

            "Have a nice nap?" He said, remarking their tardiness, angering them. He looked back in front of him to see that Gambit had disappeared with the medical resources. He was surprised by the abandonment, giving the guards an opportunity to cuff him. "Hey?" Quicksilver shouted indignantly. "Wait, I don't have anything!" He pleaded.

            "What a pity." One of the guards said, as the other pulled a couple things off the shelf next to them and threw them on the floor. "Well, ya did, but you dropped 'em on the floor when we cuffed ya."

            "No way man--" Pietro looked up to see Gambit's red eyes glowing on top of another shelf. The security guards were too involved with their "situation" to notice him as well. Gambit reached up to the ceiling and began to charge one of the sprinklers, making it glow pink and start to sizzle with heat, setting off a shower. The cops were caught off guard by the sudden down pour, and Gambit swooped down, grabbing Pietro's hand cuffs and charging them until they dissolved.

            "Hey! There's two of 'em!" One of the guards shouted, spitting water. Gambit got up to try and run with Quicksilver, but one of the cops had caught the collar of his coat. He quickly pulled the sack out of his coat and slapped it in Pietro's hand.

            "Go!" Go Gambit shouted.

            "But what about--" Quicksilver hesitated.

            "Go fool! I'll handle this!" With that, and a silver streak, Pietro was gone.

            "Hey, where'd he go?" The guards were befuddled by Pietro's disappearance. Gambit rolled his eyes as the other guard slapped a fresh set of metal bracelets around his wrists. Suddenly, sirens could be heard.

            "Forget him, the police and fire department's here." The two pulled Gambit outside as he sighed with boredom.

            "What happened?" A real police officer asked the two security guards as they went out to meet him.

            "This one," He jerked Remy's tied arms, "and another one broke in to feed a habit."

            "Whoa!" the officer said, seeing Remy's red eyes. "He must be comin' down hard." Gambit made his eyes flash, spooking the police officer. "He's not a junkie, he's a mutant!"  He concluded.

            "Good work, detective." Gambit sneered.

            "Read him his rights and put him in the car, do everything kosher. Make sure the charges stick." The leading officer said as he followed the fire chief inside the warehouse. Two other police officers took over for the rent-a-cops.

            "What's your name, son?" One of them asked as he shoved Gambit in the car. Gambit didn't respond. "How old are you?" He grew frustrated when Gambit still didn't answer. "Look, boy, I don't think all mutants are scum… Don't prove me wrong." He whispered. Remy finally looked him in the eye, surprised by his mutant sympathy. "What's your name, son?" he asked again.

            "Wagner." Remy smiled. "Kurt Wagner."

*          *          *

            "Excuse me, have you seen Dr. Reyes?" Scott asked the receptionist as he and Betsy walked up to the counter in the middle of the hospital waiting room.

            "Uh-huh." The receptionist said, handing Scott a clipboard with a form on it. "You'll have to fill this out, then take a seat. A doctor will be with you as soon as possible."

            "No, no, we need to see Dr. Reyes." Scott repeated. Betsy sighed impatiently.

            "Is she expecting you? Do you have an appointment?" The woman asked, skeptical and obviously very bored with her job.

            "Well, uh, no, but--"

            "Dr. Reyes!" Betsy shouted, as Cecelia went from one exam room to the other. "Dr. Reyes!" Betsy called out, trying to grab her attention.

            "Betsy? Scott? Are you alright? Is everything okay?" Dr. Reyes said as Betsy and Scott rushed across the room to her, dodging sick children and injured people in wheel chairs.

            "No. Dr. Reyes, we need your help!" Betsy pleaded.

            "What is it?" Cecelia asked, flustered and confused.

            "A friend, at the institute, he needs an operation." Scott explained.

            "Well, bring him in. I promise he won't be turned away." The doctor responded as kindly as she could.

            "No, it isn't safe." Betsy said. "You have to come with us."

            "No, I'm not a surgeon, I can't help you. And if I leave in the middle of my shift, I could lose my job." Cecelia refused. "If you want to bring him in--"

            "We need your special talents." Scott interrupted her. She quickly grew frustrated. They knew how ashamed she was of being a mutant, and they said they would respect her wishes to remain anonymous. It seemed to her as if they had lied and she'd trusted the wrong people with her secret.

            "I'm sorry. I can't help you." She said bitterly as she began to walk away.

            "But Dr. Reyes, he might die!" Scott called after her.

            "Sounds to me like he will die." She spat back. Scott and Betsy watched dumbfounded as she distanced herself.

            "How can you turn your back on us?" Betsy shouted. "On your own kind?"

            "I'm nothing like you freaks!" Not only did Cecelia's sudden shouting cause the busy ER to freeze, but the unexpected emergence of a cellophane-like coating over her entire body, caused by an impulsive urge to protect herself, forced her to the center of the universe. "Look what you've done!" She broke the eerie silence that had fallen over the crowded room. She broke down and fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. "Look what you've done." Several other doctors approached Cecelia, as well as Betsy and Scott.

            "Don't worry, Cecelia, we'll fix you up." One of the doctors said.

            "Don't touch me!" She shouted. "I'm a mutant, Mark. You can't just 'fix me up'!"

            "Especially when she isn't broken." Scott jumped in.

            "Who are you anyway? What have you done to her?" Mark sneered at him.

            "Liberated her." Scott smiled.

            "You outted me!" She corrected.

            "You have nothing holding you back anymore." Betsy said. "They will judge you… they probably already have." Cecelia looked up at Scott, and then Betsy in her PJs and coat. They were both smiling warmly, albeit worriedly. Then she looked at her colleagues and saw only fear, anger, and confusion. She calmed herself and sat placidly on the floor.

            "Alright." She said, her force field dissipating. "Alright, I'll go." Betsy and Scott breathed a sigh of relief at each other, then extended a hand to Cecelia and helped her off the floor.

            "Cecelia, if you walk out that door with those… those… those monstrosities, there won't be anything here for you when you come back." Mark called out to her as the three made their way to the door, the whole emergency room still staring at them in awe. Dr. Reyes stopped to answer him eye to eye.

            "If I finish out my shift tonight, will there be anything here for me to come back to tomorrow?" She asked earnestly. When Mark stared at her blankly, she got her answer. She sighed and turned back to Betsy and Scott. "And we're not monstrosities… we're evolution."

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            "Where's Gambit?" Rogue snapped at Pietro as he emptied the sack of medical supplies on the Professor's desk in his office.

            "Rogue--" Xavier tried to diffuse the situation.

            "No!" She shouted, tossing the old man aside. "Speed Demon… where is he?"

            "I don't know, okay? Chill out, Rogue." Pietro spat back.

            "Whaddaya mean, 'you don't know'? Where did you leave him?"

            "He mighta been arrested." He answered meekly.

            "Arrested?!" Rogue followed Pietro as he went to sit down on the sofa in front of the fire place.

            "Look, it was either me or him, and I could get here with the stuff faster."

            "You or him?" Rogue said, confused.

            "Yeah, yeah. They had me in cuffs, he busted me loose and took the fall." He said, ashamed anyone was able to catch him. "What's the Acolyte to you anyway?"

            "Pietro--" The professor finally managed to interrupt them just as Rogue was about to open her mouth to respond. "Do you think he's alright?"

            "I guess." He shrugged his shoulders. "Looked like he could handle himself to me."

            "Alright then. Rogue, we'll go down to court in the morning once they open and post his bail. There's nothing we can do for him now." Rogue nodded abysmally. "Pietro, did you get everything we need?"

            "Everything that was on the list… it's all there." He answered.

            "Great. All we need is--"

            "One fire proof doctor coming right up!" Scott announced as he walked in, Betsy and Dr. Reyes following behind him.

            "Where is he?" Dr. Reyes asked.

            "He's on the couch in the front lobby." Xavier informed her. "As soon as you flip on a light switch, it's going to blow." Cecelia nodded tiredly as she looked through the supplies on the desk.

            "What am I doing, brain surgery?" Cecelia joked. When she looked around, everyone tried hard to avoid eye contact. "You didn't say it was going to be brain surgery!" She shouted at Scott.

            "You can do this, Cecelia." The professor encouraged her. She looked at him as if he were crazy. "I'll stay in telepathic contact with Hank and relay everything he says to you and vice versa, he'll talk you through it." As Cecelia nodded, she managed to talk herself into believing she could do it. "Rogue, perhaps you could borrow Pyro's power to try and keep the flames from engulfing the mansion." She nodded, still angry about leaving Remy behind. "Scott, get Logan to stick around. He can get anyone out of the fire if need be." He nodded as well. "Betsy, Get Peter and tell him it's time for his assistance. And get Kitty, Kurt, the rest of the Brotherhood, and all the other students and wait outside." She nodded too. As Scott and Pietro left the room, Xavier and Cecelia left too, but Betsy stopped Rogue.

            "What?" Rogue asked coldly.

            "You know I'm not mad at you, right?" Rogue rolled her eyes and told Betsy telepathically it wasn't her who had the right to be angry. "I'm sorry, okay?"

            "Okay." Rogue said, relenting her frustration, trying to avoid falling into the same trap as her friends.

            "Where's Remy?" Rogue sighed at Betsy's question.

            "He's probably in jail." She spat bitterly.

            "What?" Betsy asked in disbelief.

            "Ask Speedy Gonzales out there." Rogue said. Betsy just looked at her, speechless. "Betts, I gotta go clear my head t'fill it with a whole lotta crazy." Betsy smiled at her as they walked out of the room.

            "Good luck." Betsy said, as they went different directions down the hall. Rogue just waved a gloved hand in thanks.

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            Dr. Reyes trembled as she stepped closer to Pyro laying on the sofa. "Um… you…" She called to Lance who was sitting on the coffee table in front of Pyro.

            "Lance," He said. "My name is Lance."

            "Right, Lance" Cecelia sighed. "I need you to leave, it isn't safe." Lance nodded as he stood up and left. He grumbled at Colossus who was in armored form, waiting to assist Dr. Reyes.

            "Cecelia, how are things going?" Xavier tested out their mental connection.

            "I don't know what I'm doing." She thought back.

            "Don't worry, Cecelia, Hank knows what to do." She sighed and took a deep breath. Rogue moved away from Colossus's side and pulled off her glove.

            "What are you going to do, exactly?" Dr. Reyes asked her.

            "With this one little finger, Ah'm gonna do more than science ever could." Rogue leaned in to touch Pyro's face, when Dr. McCoy shouted a warning to her.

            "Wait!" Cecelia yelled, startling Rogue. "I need him conscious."

            "You're gonna operate on his brain while he's awake?" Rogue asked, disgusted.

            "There are no nerves in the brain… he won't feel anything. If I operated on his brain while he was unconscious, I could hit something and not know it, and he could wake up a paraplegic. This way, if I hit something, I'll know in enough time to fix it." She explained.

            "Just hurry up and do it!" Pyro shouted, clutching his pounding head. Rogue gently placed a hand on Pyro's face, absorbing his power and a few of his memories. Dr. Reyes looked at each of her assistants to make sure they were ready.

            "Rogue, you have to keep the flames away from--"

            "I know." Rogue barked. "It hurts, just fix it!" She felt Pyro's pain. Cecelia took one more deep breath before she flipped on the light switch. All the lights in the room went on for the first time in hours. The light bulbs all buzzed under the stress Pyro placed on them, uncontrollably, as he writhed in pain. Almost simultaneously, every single bulb snapped, bursting into flames, causing Cecelia's force field to kick in. The flames held the shapes of tortured souls thrashing about in agony as if they were trying to escape a firey hell, reflecting Pyro's suffering. The roaring made it sound as if they were crying and moaning. Dr. Reyes regained her bearings as Hank gave her instructions. She took a hypodermic needle filled with anesthetic off the tray Colossus had to protect. She walked the through the flames Rogue was trying to keep from reaching the ceiling, toward Pyro on the sofa, and gave him the shot in his head. She gave herself a pep talk as she tried to prepare herself mentally for the trial in front of her as she waited for the anesthetic to take effect.

            "You still with me, Pyro?" She asked him.

            "Ungh… John…" He moaned. "Yes…"

            "Alright, John, this going to try to relieve some of the pressure on your brain. Don't be afraid of the bone saw, alright? If you get scared, you'll go into shock, and I need you to stay with me." She said calmly. He couldn't nod, but he put one his hands over the one she had placed a hand on his shoulder, signaling her to go on. Colossus emerged from the conflagration at Cecelia's side. She picked up the bone saw and turned it on. Rogue could hear it through the flames she was fighting against. The sound triggered something in her brain.

            Sinister stood over her with a bone saw. She could feel everything as he placed it to her head. The pain began to overwhelm her and she started to have a panic attack. She fell to the floor, clutching her head. "Stop it!" She shouted. She started to hyperventilate and inhale great amounts of smoke. "Stop it… it hurts!"

            "Rogue? What's wrong?" Cecelia asked, trying hard to stay focused on Pyro.

            "Ah… Ah… Ah can't breath." She wheezed as her eyes began to burn.

            "Rogue, I need you to calm down, you're going to inhale too much smoke."

            "Ah… Ah can't… Ah can't."

            "Get her out of here." Dr. Reyes said to Colossus. He handed her the tray and went to the other side of the room, scooping Rogue up in his hot-to-the-touch metal arms. He carried her outside and set her on the front steps where all the other students had been waiting.

            "What's wrong?" Betsy asked as everyone stared at Colossus and Rogue. He shrugged his shoulders. Rogue was finally able to breath in fresh air, and began to calm down.

            "Ah can finish." She said to Colossus.

            "It would be best if you stayed out here." He replied. One of the windows beside the front door blew out. Rogue waived the flame back as Colossus went back inside to help Dr. Reyes.

            "What happened?" Kitty asked as she sat next to Rogue on the front steps.

            "Ah don't really know."

*          *          *

            "Hand me the catheter." Dr. Reyes ordered as soon as Colossus came back inside. He ran to the sofa and plucked the long blue tube off the tray she'd balanced on the arm of the couch. She inserted it into the hole she'd drilled in Pyro's head. She acted swiftly, almost as if she knew what she was doing. "Still there, John?" She asked.

            "Mmm-hmm" He grumbled. She performed the operation as she received instructions from Dr. McCoy, traveling at the speed of thought. Everything he knew was at her complete disposal, and everything she saw there was as if he were observing the operation himself. The flames danced wildly over her since Rogue was no longer there to hold them back. Sweat dripped from her forehead as she could feel the heat of the fire, but sustain no burns. Her toughest task now was to finish the operation without the tools melting. She finally snipped out the infected part of his brain. It had swollen and was putting pressure on the rest of his brain. Once she removed it, the flames started to die down.

            "How ya feelin', John?" She said calmly, relieved to no longer having to compete with a roaring fire. He began to breathe deeply, not having to cringe under pain.

            "Rather sweet, mate." He finally said. She breathed a sigh of reprieve as she looked at Colossus.

            "Everything working okay?" She asked.

            "Far as I can tell." Pyro responded groggily.

            "Okay then, I'm just going to sew up this little hole and then I'll let you rest."

            "Wait a minute." He said. Cecelia was instantly alarmed. "Did you cut my hair?" He asked. Cecelia sighed again.

            "It was either that, or gettin' crazy orange hair inside your brain."

            "Guess I should just go join the Morlocks now." He grumbled. Cecelia just smiled at him as she shook her head.

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And you all thought I would let Pyro die!!! ;-P