Author's notes: Thank you for the reviews. I am glad that you like this story.
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Dueling Hennin
Andre had been strapped to a chair as Vonce retrieved the truth serum. Once again the five captured X-Men were chained in the room forced to watch what will happen to Andre. The only Hanzain cult members in the room were Vonce and Hennin. Two guard waited outside the door incase of any problems.
They watched as Vonce held the vial in front of Andre's face. "This fluid," he said, "is your betrayal to the Toulon family."
The boy gave him an angry glance and said, "I'll kill you before you can even reveal it to you men."
"What makes you think I will reveal it to my followers," said Vonce. "Hennin an I will be the only members of the Hanzain to know the formula. We only plan to make my men immortal not to teach them the formula."
The five X-Men chained to separate pillars around them narrowed their eyes at Vonce. He was a very twisted man, but he was not stupid. He knew that if his men knew the formula they would not have to depend on him as much any more, and they might turn on him to get the precious fluid.
"Now," said Vonce, "let us get this over with."
Hennin stood behind Andre and clamped his hands both on his upper and lower jaw. He forced his fingers into the boys mouth an opened it wide.
Vonce held the vial over Andre's mouth and poured some in. Hennin let go of the boy's mouth.
Andre bent his head down weakly as Vonce stepped a few feet closer to him. Andre lifted his head and spit the fluid into the cloaked man's face.
Vonce brushed it off and punched Andre twice in the stomach. "Do not bother spitting it out," he said. "We have plenty more where this came from."
They did not even give Andre a chance to breathe. Hennin opened the boy's mouth again and Vonce poured the liquid in, however this time Vonce held the boy's mouth shut as Hennin step away.
Andre struggled with the man trying to spit out the fluid, but Vonce pushed his thumb against the boy's Adams apple, forcing him to swallow.
Vonce took his hands away from Andre's mouth. The boy coughed and gagged as he felt himself getting drowsy.
He tried to fight the truth serum, but the stuff was too strong. His head bowed low as his eyes began to close.
Scott yelled from the pillar he was chained to. "Stay awake Andre, don't give in."
Vonce turned around and punched him dead in the face. He then turned back to Andre who had finally nodded off.
"We must make this quick," he said before one of his men came in.
"Lord Vonce," he said, "we have a bit off a problem."
"What is it Anole," Vonce asked the man rather annoyed.
"The boy's sister is still lurking around," Anole said. "The puppets and she killed the three women that made the truth serum and they've still managed to stay hidden from us."
Vonce was infuriated. "Damn it! Damn it all!"
"They will be heading up here now," said Hennin. "If they arrive before we get the formula the boy may die while we're dealing with her."
Vonce looked towards Anole. "Go and assemble all my men. Hunt the girl Rogue down. I want that mutant crushed."
"No," said Hennin, "don't send the men after her."
Vonce looked at him disapprovingly through the shadows of his hood. Hennin spoke again, "if you send all our men marching around the temple she will surely hear them and no something is wrong. Then she might hide with the puppets until they stop looking."
"Then what do you propose we do," asked Vonce.
Hennin said willingly, "I will go and get the girl. I assure you that by the time you get the formula out of the boy she will be dead."
"Very well," Vonce said approvingly.
Hennin left the room.
Vonce took out a peace of flat slat and block coal. These were what the Hanzain Cult used to write.
He handed the items to Anole and said, "write down what ever comes out of the boys mouth. We must make haste, I have wasted to much time already."
Anole took the coal and slate. Vonce looked at Andre who simple sat in his somewhat unconscious state.
"Now," Vonce said, "tell me the formula that you grandfather discovered."
The five X-Men watched hoping that Andre would be able to hold back his words. Kitty began to say quietly to herself, "don't tell him anything, don't tell him anything," over and over again.
Vonce heard he speak, but ignored her.
Andre's mouth opened, but his eyes remained close. He spoke lightly. "The formula that gives life must be done with extreme accuracy. All the ingredients must be the exact amount as instructed."
Andre began to tell Vonce the formula. The five imprisoned X-Men looked sadly at Andre. The formula that he tried so hard to keep was slowly being revealed.
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The puppets followed Rogue now. She had learned her way around the temple from when she absorbed Mirila's thoughts. She now knew her way around the temple, and exactly where Andre was being held.
She the only weapon she had with her was Andre's cane. She was happy that she had the cane. Since her gloves were stolen the only weapon she had was her hands, but now she did not have to worry about her powers being her only defense. However she still wished she had her gloves.
The puppets followed close by her heels. They stopped however when they saw Rogue's feet stop.
Blade and Pinhead walked in front of Rogue to see what was wrong. There were three doors in front of Rogue.
The Goth searched through the thoughts of Mirila to try and find which door to enter. She keep saying to herself, "which door, which door, which."
After a few minutes she looked towards the one on the right and said, "that one."
The puppets followed her over to the door. She was about to grab the latch when it began to turn.
Rogue and the puppets backed away. Torched aimed his flame-thrower and Six-shooter aimed his guns.
Pinhead and Blade stood by Rogue in a fighting position while Decapitron stood a few feet to the side ready to fire his electric volts.
The door swung open and there stood Hennin holding a sword in each hand. He took two steps towards Rogue and stopped.
The pale girl stood and looked at the man. "You," she said, "Ah know you. You're that guy that was with Vonce when he captured Andre. You're that Hennin guy."
"Very perceptive you young one," he said not moving from where he stood.
"What the hell are you doing here," Rogue asked angrily.
"I have been looking for you," the cloaked man said, "We have no use for your brother anymore. Now you are the number one priority."
"Why," Rogue asked, "Ah thought getting the formula was your number one priority?"
Hennin smiled behind the shadows of his hood and said, "that was true. But there is no point in that now. Your brother's dead."
Both Rogue and the puppets we shocked by his statement. Rogue's eyes filled with despair. She looked at Hennin and said, "you're lying."
"Oh are you so curtain of that," said Hennin.
"You wouldn't have killed him until you learned the formula," Rogue said trying to hold back her rage.
"We already have," said Hennin, "your brother told us the formula as soon as we gave him the truth serum. After that he was of no use to us. We killed him the same way that we killed your parents."
Rogue tried not to cry. She almost never cried in front of an enemy. She had a feeling that Hennin was lying to her, but was not quite sure. What if Hennin was telling the truth?
"Well are you going to say something or just stand there in a pit of your own sorrow," Hennin asked very coldly.
Rogue's eyes filled up with rage as she said, "Torch fry him."
Torch was about to let out his flame, but stopped when he heard Hennin say, "you try and make one attack at me you had better hope you don't miss. For if you do I will go strait to Vonce and tell him to kill those five mutants that we kidnapped earlier."
Rogue held her hand up as a command for all the puppets to get out of their attack positions. "They're still alive," she asked. She figured that the Hanzain cult would just assume kill her friends if they got the formula."
"Yes," said Hennin. "If you want to live to save them and if you want to avenge the death of your precious Andre, then you will duel me."
He threw the sword so it landed near Rogue's feet. He then said, "I will only fight you on one condition. The puppets will not get involved."
Rogue looked down at the sword. She knelt down and picked it up. "All right," she said looking at Vonce.
Gave Andre's cane to the puppets. "If Ah loose the duel," she said to them, "Ah want you to try your best to save mah friends."
The puppets all nodded in agreement.
Rogue faced Hennin with the end of her sword pointing directly for the man's heart. If he was telling the truth about her brother, Rogue wanted him to pay.
They began to circle each other. Each one eyeing the other waiting to defend.
Rogue pushed her sword forward towards Hennin's chest, but the cloaked man swiftly blocked the attack.
Rogue swung her sword at him, but he grabbed her arm with his free hand. He jammed his sword into the ground and used both his hands to throw Rogue across the room.
She hit the wall hard, but she stood back up. The puppets began to cheer for her with loud grunts, hisses, and cackles.
Hennin came at Rogue slashing his long blade forward. Rogue rolled to the side as Hennin's sword hit the wall so hard it made sparks.
Rogue stood back to her feet. Hennin came at her letting out a barrage attacks with his sword.
Rogue managed to block ever one of them. She was surprised how well she was fighting. She had never fought with a sword before.
After a few more defends Rogue spun around behind Hennin and hit him in the back of the head with the handle of her sword.
The cloaked man fell forward a little, but then swung his sword back at Rogue. The very tip of the blade slid right against her thigh. She gave a quick yelp of pain as she fell back to the wall.
The cut was not that deep, but it was enough to make her bleed. Warm blood began to dribble down her leg.
"A simple cut and you're already near giving up," Hennin said.
"Ah won't give up," Rogue said.
She quickly ran forward and swung her blade. Th sword swung clean at Hennin cutting his shoulder. Rogue said, "one cut for me, one cut for you. Now we're even."
Hennin ignored the red liquid dripping down his arm.
He ran at Rogue. She tried to dodge his attack, but Hennin grabbed her shoulder and pushed her up against the wall.
Hennin held his sword right up to her neck. "I owe you an unpleasant death," he said, "but I believe this will have to do."
Before he could slit Rogue's throat she quickly grabbed his hidden face with her ungloved hand.
Her powers kicked in. She began to absorb Hennin's strength and memories. In no time she saw the image of Andre tied to a chair in the room that Hennin left only a few minutes ago. He was not dead, just unconscious.
Hennin pulled himself away from the young Goth. For some strange reason he did not fall unconscious, He just seemed very angry.
Rogue got off the wall and said, "You're thoughts are in mah head now Hennin. Ah know you lied to me now. Andre's not dead, he's just knocked out."
"Very true," said Hennin, "but the bad news for you is that he is revealing the formula to lord Vonce right now."
Rogue held her sword up and said, "it doesn't matter. Ah'll kill him before he gets a chance to use it."
"The only thing you will be doing is bleeding to death," said Hennin before going in for another attack.
The puppets watched the duel. They wanted so much to go in and help Rogue, now that they knew their master was alive, but still they could not. They wanted Rogue to kill Hennin herself.
Rogue kept on blocking Hennin's blows. Her powers normally at least weakened her opponents, but Hennin seemed to be fighting harder.
With one flick of his wrist the cloaked man knocked Rogue's sword out of her hands. Rogue watched her sword fly out of her hands and land far away from her.
Hennin pushed his blade forward into Rogue's shoulder. He kept moving forward until the point of the sword came out the other side and into the wall.
Rogue screamed in pain. She had never felt something so agonizing before in her life. She held the wound around the sword.
Hennin walked over and picked up Rogue's sword on the other side of the corridor.
He then faced the young Goth. Tears were running down her face from the immense pain.
Hennin simply chuckled and said, "look at you. Weeping over that peace of torn flesh you have there. If you could only let the pain flow through you and feel have refreshing it can be you would not cry."
Hennin cut his hand with the blade he held. "Shut up," said Rogue trying not to show any fear.
"You failed girl," said Hennin. "Your brother will have revealed the formula soon and then he will be killed. The Toulon family will be extinct."
Rogue said nothing. She just tried to pull the blade out of her shoulder.
"Don't bother," Hennin said, "your death comes now."
It was at this moment that the puppets could not hold back anymore. Tunneler started up his drill and ran right for Hennin's leg.
The man fell to his knees and looked at the puppets as they surrounded him. "You were not suppose to get involved," he said angrily.
The puppets did not care. They were not about to let Rogue die. She was their master also.
Rogue pulled the sword out of her shoulder. Hennin was about to throw his sword at the girl, but Pinhead grabbed his arm that held the sword and pulled it down to Blade. Blade then cut off three off the man's fingers causing him to drop his sword.
Hennin looked at Rogue. The Goth lunged forward stabbing her sword right into the cloaked man's chest.
Hennin gasped and looked at Rogue. He tried to say something to her, but all that came out was a cough.
He fell to the floor. His eyes closed and they never opened again.
Rogue pulled her sword out of the dead man. She knelt on the floor holding her bleeding shoulder.
Blade held out his knife hand and had Torch light up his flame so only a little flicker of fire showed. He heated up his knife and then began to rub it against both the wounds on Rogue's shoulder.
Rogue cried in pain and backed away from the puppets yelling, "what the hell are you doing?!"
She felt her shoulder wounds and discovered that they were not bleeding anymore. Blade had cauterized her wounds.
She would have thanked the puppets, but her shoulder hurt too much. She knelt down waiting for the pain to go down before going to help her friends and her brother.
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Vonce stood listening to every word that came out of Andre's mouth. The formula was almost completely revealed. The five captured X-Men listened as well. They could not help but listen.
Andre was breathing heavily. The poisons that were in the truth serum were taking affect.
Anole who was still righting said, "lord Vonce, maybe we should give him the antidote and get the rest of the formula later."
"No," Vonce said, "we get it all now."
Logan struggled with his chains and said, "just give him the antidote now, or he'll die."
"Shut up," Vonce yelled.
Andre continued saying the ingredients of the formula. "The last ingredient is the most important. You must use the digeneral lobes of a human being."
"Digeneral lobes," Vonce asked.
"Yes," said Andre, "they are the key to the formula. The digeneral lobes exist in the human brain. It is right were the spinal cord meets the brain."
"Very well," said Vonce. He turned to Anole and asked, "did you get every thing?"
Anole only nodded.
Andre said in his unconscious state, "there's one more thing. And it's very important. If you wish to transfer into another body, you will need eight digeneral lobes. And it works best when you use fresh human material. The brains from animals and the already rotting dead work ok, but digeneral lobes from freshly killed people works best for more efficient life."
Vonce said, "alright. We need fresh brains from humans."
He took out a small syringe containing the antidote for the truth serum. He poked the needle into Andre's neck and injected the substance into him.
In a few seconds Andre came back to full consciousness. He looked around the room and saw the saddened look on the faces of the five imprisoned X-men and knew right away what her had done. He looked shamefully to the ground.
Vonce called to his guards outside the door. They entered the room and awaited their leader's orders.
Vonce said, "I want you to go down to the barracks and bring me eight of my men. I do not care witch ones you chose. Just bring me eight."
The guards nodded and headed for the barracks.
Jean said angrily to Vonce, "you'd kill your own men just so you can live forever?"
"Oh, don't tell me you wouldn't do the same thing," Vonce said back.
Anole put the slate that the formula was written on down. He walked up to Vonce and said, "lord Vonce, if I am not needed here any longer I wish to continue my rounds."
"Not yet Anole," Vonce said putting his hands on Anole's shoulders. "I am greatful that you have written the formula for me, but I am afraid you must do one last thing."
Anole stood and waited for his knew orders. Vonce slipped his knife out of his cloak and stabbed the man right in the back.
Anole gasp in surprise, not in pain. He felt his life slowly slipping away. Vonce said to him, "do not asked so surprised. Your death will go to the immortality of the Hanzain cult."
And with those words Anole died.
The five X-Men remained silent. Andre looked angrily at Vonce. He was now more determined to kill him than ever. Vonce now knew the formula. It was Andre's duty to make sure the secret of his family would not be abused again.