I'm happy, I'm so happy!

Thanks for all of you who took the time to review: I didn't think I would get so many without writing "Romy" in the summary, lol! You'll know why I tried to avoid that much, much later….but for now please enjoy!

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Damn it, there were losing him.

She could only vaguely make out the silhouette in the shadows, but she could tell it was a man, and a very agile one to boot. And he was slowly, but surely creating a greater distance between him and his pursuers.

She kept her eyes focused in front of her, but her mind, if for a split-second, turned to the man at her side. What had he been doing there? Could he possibly have been following them, or Betsy, or….her. At times she had caught him watching her, in his unsettling way of his.

Wait…did she say unsettling? What was wrong with her? She was the Rogue, and he had made a fool of her one too many times. Although she hadn't been lying to Logan, she really felt grateful in a way for opening her eyes to what she had. But she also had helped him out despite the fact that he had tricked her into it in the first place: they were even. Nothing left bonded them, right? Right?

Suddenly, the sound of an engine roaring derailed her: their prey had disappeared just around the corner. She tried to make her steps longer, to move her legs faster: he was so near, so so near, and now they were almost at the corner and….

"Look out!"

She felt Remy catch her wrist to stop her before pushing her none too gently against the wall, putting himself in front of her as to shield her, at the precise moment when the vehicule stormed out of the dark just before them, only to quickly vanish into the distance.

Both watched it, as if engulfed by the night, breathing heavily. They slowly turned towards each other, emerald meeting red flame. She kept looking into the depth of his eyes for a while, transfixed by what she believed she could see there, forgetting her previous train of thoughts.

But their surroundings and their situation slowly asserted itself anew, and she became conscious of exactly how close to her he was, almost pressing her into the wall at her back, and she gently but firmly pushed him from her with her two hands on his chest. That snapped him out of his own reflections and he took a couple of steps back.

Now much more in control, Rogue begun to look around, but with this moonless night and the dim light from the occasional lamppost boarding the road, she realised that searching for clues about their mysterious follower would be a hopeless task, and most likely all traces would be gone before tomorrow, if he had left any. She let out a frustrated sight, then felt Remy's hand gently pulling at her arm, turning her around.

She was contempling the sparkle of mischief in his eyes when she heard him say: "Remy think we should go to the mansion to get help for searching."

Oh no, not that! She had almost forgotten about the very reason why she was out in this hour in the first place. But he was right, they had to tell about this. Not that trying to hide it would do any good with a handful of telepaths in the house in the first place. Her shoulders slumping, she agreed: "Yeah, let's get Logan."

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"Haven't I seen that symbole before?"

God, he had been looking everywhere for the two girls when he saw them emerged from the night with Remy. Logan hadn't say a thing when he had sent him looking for them all over the place, but the sight that had greated them had both relieved him and sent him on a rampage, he could tell, and he knew it had little to do with Elizabeth's inebriated state.

But a few muttered words with Rogue and he slipped again into his calm and collected demeanor, distilling orders to everyone present. He had been sent to teleport Elizabeth back to her room; he then went to wake up Kitty to finish help the nearly passed out girl to bed, to finally join the others already on their way outside. As they were walking, he talked with his sister to finally get an explanation. He inwardly smiled about her enthousiasm at her little escapade, but openly frowned when she started to give him an account of what happened on their way home. She was adamant there was no reason to worry, that this guy could have been there for a lot of reasons, but he wasn't buying it, and he could feel she had already started to considerate all the possible scenarios.

He was so caught up in her story as she related this latest incident that he barely registered the fact that they had stopped when he spotted Logan from the corner of his eye giving a good sniff at the air and crouching, seemingly scrutinizing the floor in front of him.

They then all started to look around, careful to not walk on any muddy trace of boot or any other clue the guy may have left behind. But it was only after a long while that finally Logan stood, holding what looked like a golden chain and a pendant, which looked like a Chinese character. He heard a muffled gasp, and turn to see that Rogue, standing before the hand extended before Logan that carried the jewellery, had indeed her hand in front of her open mouth, clearly puzzled and disturbed by what she saw. If it could had been possible to clearly discern with the little light and through the goth make-up, he would have sworn she had blanched at the sight. Remy was now approaching them, and standing at their side, he took his time inspecting the thing before finally speaking out:

"Haven't I seen that symbole before?"

Logan settled for a scowl, obviously not in a hurry to explain any of this. But it was obviously enough for Remy who let a low whistle. If Kurt wanted to understand what was going on, he had to ask for himself.

"Vat- Vat is this? And vhy are you all making such a face? Is that a bad thing?"

"That, Kurt" started Remy, "these are kanji, japanese writing characters. Together, they mean 'equilibrium', or 'balance'."

"Well," stammered the blue mutant, not sure he understood where this was going, "isn't that a good sign. I mean, "equilibrium", that's good, that's, you know, not threatening."

"The point is, the Elf," Logan intervened, "that this is not the kind of characters people wear as fashion statements. In fact, this is also the name of an old Japanese organisation, and this is their trademark."

"Organisation? You mean, like the yakuza or something?"

"No," this time, it was Rogue's turn, "they were nothing like the mafia. This organization started with Buddhist monks. Hundreds of years ago, during very troubled time, they swore to do whatever was in their power to make sure that the equilibrium of forces, in all aspects of life, was respected. At first, they pursued their goal in a non-violent way. And so they became very sought after in the whole country, rehestablishing peace wherever they went. Wars were avoided."

"But then, strange events happened, and their ways just weren't efficient anymore. So reluctantly, they had new people joining them. Warriors. But they where allowed only if they agreed with a very strict code of honor, and once they commited to this organization, they could not leave it ever. Very strict rules were edicted concerning about everything in their life. Those were made with the hope to discourage those who went there looking only for a little action, and did not truly believe in the cause."

"And did it work?"

"Oh yeah," added Logan with a wry smile, "in fact, those who indeed joined were so much into their belief that they became an unstoppable force. The events soon ended, but the organisation actually survived. The warriors became mercenaries, but they didn't forget their code either. They only accepted missions if they saw them fit for their whole "equilibrium" thing."

"Well, at least they're good guys, right?"

"They do not distinguish good from evil, not in the way you mean. In fact they can work for both sides of the spectrum. Their only goal is that the equilibrium of forces is actually respected."

"I guess we just have to look out for any sword-carrying Japanese guy from now."

"That's the whole problem. With the opening of Japan, they actually attracted people from all over the world. There is no telling if the guy was Japanese, French, German or American."

With that, he started to walk towards the mansion, adding, as he passed through Kurt standing there deep in thought: "Don't worry too much about it: no matter what he was after, he won't put any threatening move on anyone or anything around here before letting us know." He stopped before the young man's puzzled expression just long enough to add: "It in their code." With that Logan turned his back to him and resumed his march, Rogue and Remy in tow. Kurt stood there a little while, pondering what he just heard, before running after them.

Just has they were about to part company as they arrived near the main stairs leading to their rooms, he caught Rogue's soft murmur to Logan: "But they don't care for mutants-humans, or whatever races' little dilemna. Nobody could have hired them against us, they wouldn't have agreed, would they?"

Rogue's pleading whisper, and the anguished look she exchanged with Logan then told him that they may have left some very important detail out of their explanation before. Like how strong or how many these guys actually were.

No word was spoken, but he must had answered her nonetheless, for she shighed, but some of the tension in her shoulders seemed to melt away, and with a nod and a little smile, she headed for her room, Remy having long disapeared into his. Then Logan turned right and climbed another set of stairs leading to the adults' wing.

Kurt did the same, and after  his nightly routine, went to bed. Although he felt better at his sister's demeanor, some words that the older man had spoken before kept plaguing him before sleep put his mind at rest, wondering what lied behind the words. They do not distinguish good from evil.