I don't own X-men: Evolution

Amara opened her eyes, blinking groggily. Her head hurt like hell, as if there was a huge hammer repeatedly pounding at the base of her skull. She slowly became aware that she was in a sitting position, her back resting against a warm chest that rose and fell rhythmically. A pair of arms encircled her waist, ostensibly to keep her from falling sideways.

She lifted her head away from its resting position in the hollow of the person's shoulder and turned. She was met with a pair of brilliant sapphire eyes looking straight into her own. She had been sleeping on Pyro.

In a sudden rush, memories came flooding back to Amara. St John, being held by Sabretooth, Magneto telling Pyro that he had found out about his talk...what talk? The only words that she remembered were that of St John, heatedly telling Remy that he loved Amara.

He loves me... the thought danced through her mind as she looked into St John's face. He had a pleading, sorrowful look in his eyes, as if all had been lost. Amara didn't give a second thought to what she did next.

Twisting, she threw her arms around John's neck and brought her lips up to his in a passionate and fiery kiss. After a startled moment, he retaliated, hugging her closer than ever to himself, deepening the kiss until Amara started to feel dizzy from the sheer intensity of it.

She broke it off, leaning back to gaze once more into his eyes. "Say it."

"I'm sorry, 'Mara. I really do love you."

"I know, John. I forgive you." She brought her arms to encircle his waist, snuggling into the warmth of his bare chest.

"Thank-you, luv." He said softly, voice breaking. He held her there in his arms, planting a kiss in her hair, enjoying what brief moment he had with her there in the cell.

After a while, Amara looked up, taking in their surroundings. They were in a small, square cell, cement walls studded occasionally with metal rings or chains. The door was the same sort of affair, with only an iron grill at the very top to let in any light. It was cold, but at least it was dry. Well, she could remedy the cold part of it.

Scooting a little ways away from Pyro, she concentrated...then cried out as her head pounded even more fiercely.

John was at her side in an instant. "Wot's wrong, luv?"

"My head, it hurts so much...and I can't use my powers!" A hint of panic edged into Amara's voice with that revelation. What had happened?

"I know, 'Mara." John sighed. "Moine's gone as well. Magneto's injected us with some koind of power-blocking chemical...I've seen it before. I think it only lasts for six hours or so, it's not permanent. Ol' Mags don't want that, I'm afraid."

"Why not? Wouldn't it be safer for him just to get rid of our powers altogether?"

"Well, he's got plans fer your powers, luv. Most loikely fer moine as well." Pyro sighed and sat back to lean against the wall again. "Y'see, he's got this machine thing that needs lots of energy to work. He's gonna use our powers t' do it." And most likely kill us, he added silently.

"Shit, that's not good." Amara closed her eyes and winced as her head gave another throb of pain. "Yowch...I'm glad I left a note for the X-men back at the cave. They'll know what to do."

"Amara, yer brilliant, ya know that? If Magneto's got me an' Remy under lock and key, the on'y people he's got on his team are Sabretooth and Piotr." Pyro chuckled. "Piotr's never happy about foightin' the X-men, ya know that? He's got morals...more'n me and Remy have put together."

"Why does he work for Magneto then?" Amara was curious; the Russian Acolyte was the one that the mansion had the least information on.

"Well, Mags has bin blackmailing the poor feller since before he formed the Acolytes. Threatened his family, all that sort of thing. So he has to foight."

"Magneto really doesn't have any problems with ruining the lives of others, does he?"

"Nope. He does it for a "better future", though, so who are we to argue?" John's tone was ironic.

Amara sighed, looking around the cell once more. "So. What do we do now?"

"Wait." John gave a humourless chuckle. "Watch the clock and wait. Until your friends come to get us, or Magneto does. In a best case scenario, we get our powers back before either."

He got up and stretched, feeling his spine crackle as he bent sideways, wincing as he stretched his arms over his head. The puncture wounds caused by Sabretooth, four little holes in a neat row down each of his arms with a corresponding solitary hole on the other side, cracked open, small trickles of blood making their ways down his arms. He sighed and sat down again, a little ways away from Amara.

Amara's eyes widened at the blood that made its way in small rivulets down Pyro's arms, creating a red streamer-like effect down to his wrists. Silently, she moved closer to him, taking his forearm gently in her hands, she inspected the wounds.

"John...did Sabretooth do this?"

"Yeah...he had a problem with moi unwillingness ta co-operate with Magneto. They're not too deep, but it hurts loike bloody 'ell."

Amara cast her gaze around the cell, searching for anything that would make a good bandage. She had just taken a First Aid course, and knew how to improvise, but there really was nothing to improvise with. The cell didn't even have a bed; John was only in his boxers, so no extra material there...she looked down at herself.

She was still wearing the red t-shirt and jean capris that she had put on yesterday morning, before the fight. The jeans were definitely out for bandage material, so that left her shirt.

Amara looked over at St John. He was tentatively poking at one of the holes, wincing as a spurt of newer blood gushed out. The other holes were still bleeding profusely, painting most of his upper body a bright red.

She sighed, and tore off the bottom half of her shirt, not without much growling and cursing on her part. In the end, she was left with just enough material to cover her.... more intimate attributes, and a large wad of red material in her hand. She ripped this in half, and approached John, who had been watching her appraisingly the whole time, head tilted to the side like a puzzled puppy.

"Give me your arm," She instructed, readying the material.

When he complied, she wrapped the material as many times as it could go around his arm, tying it off with a neat slipknot. She did this to the other arm as well, so that afterwards John had two matching armbands to soak up and hopefully stop the blood flow to the outside of his arm.

Amara sat back, feeling rather pleased with herself at the result of her First Aid knowledge put to practical use.

"Now, I wonder what's going on in here?"

The feeling immediately dissipated as she looked up to see Pietro Maximoff standing, shadowed, in the doorway to the cell.

A/N: Mwahahahaha...Cliffie! But I'm posting the next chapter right away anyways, so it's no big deal. Here's some more fluff for y'all. I'm trying not to make it sound forced but it's kinda hard... so I enter Pietro!!

Don't get me wrong. I LOVE Pietro. It's just that I needed a bad guy, someone to sort of put things off balance in the next chapter, and Pietro fit the bill perfectly. Please don't flame me...Please?

Pietro's Kitten: Thanks! O yes, I had to put in the half-naked Pyro. And guess what? He's half naked in this chapter AND the next one. Hehehehe...

Flames: Yeah, Mastermind's not my favourite either, but he's....not really necessary either, come to think of it. But he came in handy for my story :). So he can't be all bad....lol.

Lady Sir Henry Morgan: Thank you so much! Wow, you checked the three cool boxes! I am forever in your debt! lol, you're amazing :)