Agent-G: glad that I got you frustrated evil grin and yeah, that reference was just too good to give up.

Fighting Destiny - Denied

"Why would I, Magneto, even want to form an alliance with the two of you?" he sneered, before turning around.

"To stop all those disasters happening around the world!" Marianne yelled in an attempt to stop him, "a lot of mutants get killed in them!"

That did indeed stop Magneto: "How could you know how those are caused?"

"Because we're here because of that. We need to stop it and we'd like your help with it," Michael replied, glaring at Magneto, making sure he could get in front of Marianne if need be. He could also see that Remy seemed to be interested, but that Magneto was far from it.

"I have better things to do with my time then to listen to this," the older man sneered at them, before getting ready to leave.

"Please! Hundreds will be killed, you have to help us!" Marianne cried out desperately. It had no effect on him and she let out a resigned sigh as he and Remy left, even though Remy had appeared to be interested in the story.

"Remy'll help, he does back in our dimension. He's to big of an idiot to give up on this. He just probably went with the nut to try and get Collosus to help us," Michael tried to console her.

"I just hope he does so quickly, before things go wrong," Marianne whispered.

"Go wrong? Anne, things are going wrong, but if we stop this, we stop it from going any further," Michael wrapped her in his arms.

"Ready to go back, Marianne, Michael?" Jean asked them while joining them on the roof.

"I'm sorry it didn't work," Ororo offered.

"We might not have gotten through to Magneto, but Remy seemed interested. We'll see, but it has to work, there simply is no other option," Michael turned to them.

- = Other Dimension = -

"I'm, like, thinking this whole matchmaking is, like, totally not a good idea," Kitty groaned as she gingerly touched the bandage around her wrist. While trying to get away from Rogue, she had fallen and had sprained her wrists. The rest of the girls had, once again, gotten to know just why Rogue had to control her mutation, or had been chased around by exploding cards.

Meanwhile, Ben and Forge had finally managed to make a STABLE, non exploding, non tearing the house apart, device to create portals to other dimensions. Now, they faced one tiny little problem: how would they find the correct dimension?

"We're gonna die if we tell 'm this," Ben sighed.

"We're also gonna die if we don't tell 'm this," Forge added.

"How about we get dead-drunk first, THEN tell 'm and then die due to alcohol poisoning?" the, sorta, redhead suggested.

"I like the sound of that," Forge nodded, "will that go quick enough?"

"One can only hope. I never died like that before and to be honest, I'll take that over Sarah any day."

"Sarah?! I was more thinking along the lines of Wolverine!" Forge in turn cried out.

"No way man! Logan sliceds, Sarah will first turn you into extra crispy, then turn you into crereal that was too long in milk, she will show you what it is like to suffocate and then she will burry you alive! That's way worse!" he nodded to give his statement extra force.

"Bring on the drinks then," Forge groaned, "But what if Sarah and Logan gang up?"

"Then no amount of liquor is gonna be enough," Ben shook his head.

- = With Marianne and Michael = -

Marianne had retreated to the forest on the grounds of the Institute, just sitting, her eyes closed, back against a tree, completely hidden from view if you walked over the paths. She figured she deserved a little time off. She had just trained with Michael, or had tried to. And Marianne had once again proven just why she wasn't a fighter in the kicking and hitting area. But there was no choice, she was going to have to come along: she had to go home with Michael.

Then there was the fact that she was homesick, which was kinda funny, because her 'home' didn't exist yet, Marianne figured that it was sooner 'dimension-sick'.

The last part was the whole Magneto-alliance-fiasco. She just couldn't believe he could be that stupid! She had heard that he only was open to one opinion: his own, but why did he have to be such a jerk about it and not even hear them out?

Anyway, at the moment, she had some time to herself: Michael was training with Michael, the X-Men were doing their homework, Ororo was doing some business for the Institute, Hank was working in the med-lab and Xavier was doing some research on something, she didn't really know the details. Even Emily was quiet, probably because she was still offended by the fact that Marianne had told her to 'shut up'.

They would go tomorrow, so everyone was a little tense, but Xavier had insisted that everyone would do their homework. There would be extra training after dinner and they would leave early next morning.

But that was tomorrow, right now was perfection. She let herself drift away, catching some much needed sleep, because no matter what, she knew she was going to have nightmares tonight because of her nerves.

- Later -

It was time for dinner and Marianne had yet to show herself. Michael himself had a pretty good idea to where she was, or could be. Marianne had a tendency to disappear for short times when she needed a break. That usually happened when she had actually done the work from which she had to take a break, she was too plain stubborn to take a breather halfway.

"I'll tell ya, that woman's gonna be the death of me one of these days," Michael grumbled, but the smile on his face proved that he wasn't serious. He quickly found her, sound asleep against a tree.

"Ya know, ami, ya shouldn' leave such a belle femme out alone," he was stopped by an all too familiar voice: Remy. Michael shot a quick glance at Marianne to see if she was injured in any way, but that was not Remy's , he knew that.

"You try and keep her from doing what she wants to do, Remy. I take it you were interested in our proposition," Michael snorted while walking over to Marianne, he squatted in front of the sleeping woman and brushed some of her dark blonde hair out of her face.

"You two toget'er?" Remy came out to where Michael could see him.

"Yeah, have been for three years now. You alone here?" he turned his head slightly.

"Non, Remy got Piotr to try this alliance out too. Now Remy have a question pour toi, mon ami. How is iz dat Remy see you die t'ree years ago, but you be alive now?" Remy looked at him, his deck of cards ready in his hands.

"Because he's not the Michael you saw. We're from another dimension and our dimension is being destroyed by the same thing that will wreak havoc onto your dimension," Marianne suddenly spoke up. Michael looked back at her to find her fully awake.

"Merde. Dat be some big trouble," Remy cursed.

"Well, Cajun, still up to it? Still wanna be in this alliance? Because you're in it back in our own dimension. Quite frankly: we saved your butt," Michael rose to his full heigth and turned to face the thief.

"Remy always be up to de challenge, how 'bout you, Piotr?" Remy smirked, and now the Russian joined them as well.