Note: Thanks for the reviews! My new computer still isn't working properly, but I printed out this chapter and re-typed it on my old computer so I could post it. I hope those of you reading are still around. I know it's been a long while.

Fear: Chapter 9-Mourning Night

"Are you sure no one's coming?" Jean asked quietly for about the tenth time.

"I'm sure." Ororo answered softly as they slipped out the front door.

Once outside, the eerie night was crisp and cool, though the sky wasn't easily viewed through the sharply glowing static from the electric dome surrounding the mansion.

Jean shivered involuntarily, looking around with paranoid eyes. "What exactly are we looking for Storm?"

"I'm not sure...Just look for something unusual that may be powering this thing." she answered, looking around herself.

Finding the stairwell, Stick made his way toward the door at the end of the long, dim hallway. His boot-clad feet stepped in something slick and sticky, briefly causing his feet to stick to the floor. Crouching down and examining what it was, he realized the substance was blood. Thick, crimson blood. Flicking his nose slightly, Stick stood back to his full height and cautiously opened the door to the stairs.

Rogue and Kurt gasped softly as the door opened and one of the killers stood there, staring at them. They were too busy trying to get Logan to wake up to realize he had been coming down the hall, and now it was too late.

Kurt want nothing more but to teleport them all to safety at that moment, but there was nothing he could do. He and Rogue just stared fearfully up at the tall mask wearing man.

Sniffling softly, Rogue's eyes were filled were tears, flicking back to Logan's still and bloodied body before she looked back up at the attacker.

Stick continued to stare, though he knew he should probably just throw in a grenade, kill them, and get out of there. He then noticed Spider's dead body, a sick grin of thankfulness sweeping his face. Stick never liked her, she enjoyed the killing way too much. It wasn't right. Now he got the pleasure of telling Craven his little sister was dead. This might be fun.

Glancing back at Rogue, Stick quickly wiped the grin off his face, turning it back to a stone-faced, grim expression. The pleading, tear-riddled look on the girl's face made him re-think what he was doing, as if he actually did have a conscience for once in his life. 'They're kids...they're just fuckin' kids...' he thought sympathetically, then looked to Logan's body. 'That guy's pretty much dead...He could've been their father..' Stick gazed between Rogue and Kurt remorsefully, then clenched his fists by his sides and turned away, leaving them alone.

"This is bullshit." he muttered in his gravelly voice, stalking back down the corridor. Stick was in this for money more than anything, not like the killing game Craven and his sick, twisted sister were playing. He was going to find that bastard and tell him exactly what he thought about this whole thing.

Gasping for breath that he didn't know he'd been holding, Kurt looked to Rogue with shocked eyes. "What just happened?" he asked softly, confused.

"I dunno..." she mumbled in responce, her voice filled with sincere concern as she looked to Logan again, hs chest barely rising and falling. "He's barely breathin'..."

"Rogue..." Kurt tried for a comforting hand on her shoulder. He stopped speaking and just stood beside her, lost for something more to say that would be comforting. He didn't want Logan to die either.

"Hey, what's that?" Jean called to Storm, pointing to something that looked like a black metal stake poking out of the ground, the electricity of the web stemming off from it. "I think it's the power source." she answered herself with wide, hopeful eyes.

Crouching down beside it, Ororo examined it carefully without touching the metal. "Here's something..." she started, a finger cautiously going towards the bottom of the stake that went into the ground.

"Storm...careful...." Jean warned timidly, looking around to make sure no one was coming.

Gripping the bottom of the stake tightly and pausing a moment to realize she hadn't been electrocuted, Ororo sighed with relief, then forcefully pulled it from the ground.

Jean gasped as she looked up, noticing a portion of the electric web flickering before going out. "Why hasn't it gone off all the way?!" she asked nervously.

Ororo stood, still holding onto the metal stake. "There must be more of these to power it. We probably have to get them all before our powers are restored."

Nodding, Jean followed Ororo as she started walking close to the remaining web, looking for more metal sticking out of the ground. 'We've got to hurry so we can get our powers back...' she thought to herself as they trudged on. '..and save Logan.'

"Craven!!" Stick bellowed angrily, marching down a hallway that had bedrooms on either side.
"What?" the man muttered as he rounded the corner and stared hard at Stick, wondering what the hell he was thinking screaming like that.

Stopping as soon as he was directly in front of the brown-haired leader, Stick dropped his hands by his sides, fists clenched tightly. "I'm out Craven. I don't want any part of this anymore."

"What are you talking about?" Craven said, shaking his head as if he thought Stick wasn't serious. "You're an explosives-man-for-hire Stick. You do the job, you get paid, then you're out. Now finish the job." he muttered the last part darkly.

Stick just shook his head fiercely. "No, I don't care about the money anymore. How can this even be a challenge for you Craven, most of these mutants are kids, they're just kids. They don't even have their powers thanks to Spider, so how the fuck's that a game for you?!" he nearly yelled.

Craven glared menacingly as Stick took off his mask, revealing the military-style cut beneath, smooth tanned skin on a young, handsome face, barely innocent blue eyes boring into him.

"By the way," Stick started with a sick, pleased grin. "Your sister's dead."

Light green eyes widened with shock, then narrowed in anger as he rushed up to Stick, grabbing his shirt and pinning him to the wall. "Who?!" he spat angrily. "Who killed her?!!"

Stick's grin fell as he stared into Craven's deadly eyes. "I dunno, probably the guy with the claws, but..." pausing for a minute, Stick thought about how he'd left the skunk-haired girl and blue boy alone with the dying clawed mutant, "he's dead now." he finished quietly.

"Aaaarrhh!!" Craven cried with anguish, letting go of Stick and backing aawy, hands pulling on his slicked back hair. His face was redened and angry, but there were no sorrowful tears in his eyes.

"Her body's in the stairwell on one of the floors if you want to retrieve it." Stick told him, then closed his mouth, instantly regretting what he'd said. Those kids were still there... 'Maybe they'll leave in time...' he thought to himself hopefully. He'd already harmed them all enough from just joining up with Craven in the first place.

Cursing loudly, Craven glared wickedly at Stick as the man turned down the hall and began walking away. "You think you can just walk away?! It's like the mob pal, no one gets out alive." he muttered lowly, then pulled three blades from his belt and boot sheath, throwing them accurately towards Stick's retreating back.

Gasping with sudden pain, tears of sorrow and betrayal formed in Stick's gentle blue eyes as he slumped to the floor on his knees, realizing this was it...no second chances to redeem himself for all the bad he'd done...He was dying now.

"Gives the term, 'back-stabbed' a whole new meaning, doesn't it." Craven said with a sickly satisfied tone as he heard a soft wheeze from Stick, then his upper body slumped forward and he landed softly on the floor with a 'thump', no life left in him. But atleast he was out with a somewhat clear conscience.

Turning the other way down the hall, Craven marched off to get his sister's body.

"No...." Rogue whispered suddenly, tears streaking her pale and dirty face.

"What is it?" Kurt leapt down from the stairs easily, having been keeping a look-out in case the killer from before decided to come back and actually finish them off.

Gasping, Rogue's murky green eyes met Kurt's golden ones, her lower lip slightly quivering. "His heart stopped...he ain't breathin'..." she mumbled through tears, looking down sorrowfully at Logan's body.

Kurt held Rogue tightly as she leaned forwrad and began sobbing, mumbling, 'They're too late', under her breath. Kurt's tail hung limply behind him, sympathetic eyes drifting to Logan's body that lay on the cold floor, partly covered in his t-shirt and surrounded by a dark pool of blood. Staring, he noticed something happening and gasped. "Rogue, wait, look!" Kurt exclaimed, voice sparking with hope.

Turning slowly as she pulled herself form Kurt's arms, Rogue stared at Logan, swearing that she saw his chest rise slightly. Reaching forward and pulling back Kurt's shirt that was draped over him, she stared at the gash on his chest, witnessing the edges of the wound start to pull inward. "They did it Kurt!" she exclaimed happily, "Jean an' 'Roro got our powers back!" she looked to her friend, not even saddened by the fact that she could no longer make skin-to-skin contact again. Rogue was just happy that Logan was alive. There would be no more deaths this night.

Kurt's ears twitched suddenly and he sprang to his feet, eyes darting toward the stairwell door. "Someone's coming!" he gasped, looking down to Logan, then to Rogue. "I'll 'port us to the infirmary!" Kurt whispered sharply, grabbing Rogue's sleave-covered arm, then crouching down and gently touching Logan's shoulder.

Before whoever was coming could open the stairwell door, Rogue, Kurt, and Logan were gone with only the sound of imploding air and a cloud of brimstone scented smoke in their wake.

Fifteen minutes later...

"Logan. It's time to wake up now Logan..."

Brown eyes snapped open and Logan sat up quickly, breathing heavily a moment as he allowed his vision to adjust to the surroundings. A hand on his shoulder caused him to look to the side sharply, finding Ororo standing there with a comforting smile on her face.

"Wha-?" he mumbled raspily, brows furrowed in confusion as he tried to piece together what had happened. Everything seemed rather fuzzy at the moment. It wasn't so surprising really, he had come back from the dead after all.

"Welcome back to us." Ororo said kindly in a quiet voice. "Jean and I were able to take down the power-disrupting web just in time for you to start healing again apparently. Rogue and Kurt were with you when your heart stopped." she told him the last part with a slight frown, her eyebrows furrowed with past concern.

Logan abruptly flung his feet over the side of the medical bed, then examined himself by raising his arms, confirming that his wounds were no longer there, though he was covered in sticky and drying blood. He looked to the floor, seeing a large patch of crusting blood that was no-doubt his. Mind remembering quickly, Logan's face contorted in anger and he began rushing out the med-lab doors. "Craven!!" he snarled.

"He's gone Logan!" Storm shouted after him. "They're all gone.." she said more quietly when he'd backed into the room, then she answered an unasked question from the look on his face. "The girl's body is gone, as well as the other two."

"Rrr..." Logan growled lowly, his fists clenched tightly by his sides, claws begging to be released and sink into Craven's flesh. "What about-? " his head snapped up suddenly, haunted eyes looking to Ororo with worry.

She looked down a bit sadly, knowing what he meant. "Hank brought both Bobby and Scott's bodies to the other lab, the rest of the kids are all taking it pretty hard. The injuries some of the other students received were mild and they've already gotten their treatment."

Logan glanced off, nodding without a word.

"Everyone's exhaused, but no one can sleep... It's nearly morning anyway and we've all decided that a good clean-up needs to take happen. There's just so much blood and destruction all over the place, painful things for these children to think about right now." Storm supressed the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks, pausing a moment to force her voice not to crack before she continued.

"The Professor suggested that me, you, and Hank take care of the cleaning so he can talk to the students and allow them to mourn." Ororo watched him nod again and stand there seemingly in distant thought, but not yet saying a word in responce. Stepping toward him, she put a hand on Logan's shoulder gently. "You must be more exhausted than anyone after your ordeal, why don't you clean yourself up and get some rest. Hank and I can take care of cleaning up." Ororo offered softly.

"No." Logan shook his head, voice low and gruff with hinted sorrow. He raised his chin slowly, meeting Storm's gaze. "I wanna help."

She just nodded at him, smiling partly as they both headed toward the infirmary closet for mops and anti-bacterial cleaning sollution to wash away the blood on the floor.

What Logan didn't want Ororo to know, was that he probably wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. He knew already that sleep wouldn't come easy to him now. Not until he could be sure Craven wouldn't return, that the kids in the mansion could be completely safe from that twisted psycho. He had a feeling the sadistic killer would be back.

Things around the mansion would be different for awhile now. It was a sure thing that some of the students would leave, so much death having took place there, they wouldn't want any further reminder. Some wound mourn on their own, maybe try to keep themselves busy with other things, and some would just never be the same.

The End

Note: I hope you all liked!! Look for a sequel in the future! Please review!