Disclaimer - I do not own X-Men: Evolution or X-Men in any way, shape or form. I will not make any money from this story. Any familiar quotes aren't mine either.

A/N - thanks for all the reviews. Sorry for the delay I caught a very prolonged case of laziness.

Chapter Seven

Kitty sat in the corner of the cell watching as Lance slept. His face looked peaceful and Kitty was surprised to how innocent he looked as he slept. Kitty couldn't sleep; she was worried that if she closed her eyes Lance would disappear and she had only dreamed him being there. There were dark smudges around her eyes and her skin was bordering on translucent.

She whispered to herself under her breath while keeping a close eye on Lance, her fingers were itching to move the stray bit of hair out of his face but she refrained and sat back on her heels. Cocking her head to one side she could have sworn that she heard something.

She stood and moved quietly around the cell, her eyes wide and alert. She heard it again and moved closer to the door.

"Hey, can you hear me?" a voice whispered loudly.

"Yes. Yes I can hear you" Kitty replied in a scared tone.

"Listen, I'm gonna let you out okay?"

"What?"

"Just wait five minutes then phase through the door."

"I can't. They've done something to me" Kitty felt her heart drop.

"When was the last time they were there?" the voice sounded amused now.

Kitty paused for a moment, scratching her head thinking back to when she had last been tested on.

"I'll take the silence to mean that you know that it has been a while" the voice laughed softly.

Kitty stared at the door frowning, "Why help me? Don't you hate mutants?"

"Nope, just needed the money. Listen I will cause a distraction, when you hear the loud noise start phasing."

"How can I trust you?"

"You can't. Wake up shaker there" the voice said.

Kitty strained to hear anything more but there was nothing but silence.

Mulling it over for a second she tried phasing slightly through the door. Her heart stopped when she felt the familiar feeling associated with phasing and her eyes widened when she saw her fingers lightly slip through the door. Without hesitating she whirled around and shook Lance awake.

"Uuuhhhh. No more peanut butter" he muttered.

Kitty stared at him, "Lance get up."

His eyes shot opened and Kitty looked from him to the door.

"Listen, we are getting out of here" Kitty said in a hushed tone.

"What?" Lance said, his eyes glancing to the door.

Kitty clamped a hand over his mouth and pushed the other hand through the floor.

"I can phase" she explained.

Lance nodded his head, showing that he understood.

Kitty stood and crept to the door with Lance close behind her. Holding an ear to the door she listened for the noise that was supposed to signify the distraction.

"How did..?" Lance began when a loud crash sounded outside of the room.

"Now" Kitty said and grabbed Lance's hand.

Willing this to work she ran through the door dragging Lance behind her. Once outside of the cell Kitty felt at a loss. She hadn't been in her own state of mind for so long that she wasn't sure on what to do next.

"Come on, Kitty" she felt someone tug on her arm.

She saw Lance and her mind hurtled back to reality. She followed Lance, running past door after door. Her sense of direction was shot but her sense of survival was working in overdrive.

"Where do we go?" she yelled over the noise.

"Not a clue" Lance replied as they kept running.

As they rounded a corner a new noise entered the fray. A siren had been set off scaring Kitty and making Lance cringe.

"I think Fred is still here" he said feeling confused.

Kitty stared at him with wild eyes; "we have to get out of here first. Then we can get help."

Lance nodded and Kitty grabbed his hand. They began to phase through wall after wall when they came into a room that looked more like an office than a lab. Lance had looked around first and Kitty suddenly found herself thrown to the ground.

"Very good" someone said cruelly.

Kitty recognised the voice and bit on her tongue to stop the urge to scream. Aidan Kale was sitting in the chair behind the desk, dressed impeccably as usual.

"What the hell do you mean?" she heard Lance yell.

"My plan worked and you did exactly what I thought you would do. Though I have to admit that you did even better than I thought. I didn't believe that you would get this far" he said, his cold grey eyes looked at them.

"Plan? You have got to be joking" Lance said in a dull voice.

Kitty looked up at him and frowned, he was pointing downwards and doing some weird finger pantomime.

Kitty stared at him blankly for a moment until she realised what he was going on about; she could still phase. She watched as Lance ran up and grabbed Kale's tie looking angry enough to throttle him.

"Don't hurt him, Lance. He's not worth it" she said, finding her voice.

While Kitty was saying this she was slowly sinking out of sight. The last thing she saw in the office was Lance falling to the ground, landing with a heavy thud. Kitty screamed when she saw the crimson stain spread on his white shirt.

She landed roughly on the floor and found herself in front of an elevator. Tears were trying to force their way out of her eyes but she shook her head and ran towards the elevator. She eased in and looked at the buttons before jabbing ground floor with a trembling finger. The ride up seemed to last forever and she knew that getting this far had not been in Kale's plans. She hoped that when the elevator stopped she had time to get away.

The lights of the floors winked on then off then finally the ground floor light came on and stayed on. Creeping to the side of the elevators she waited for the doors to open. Her heart was thudding in her chest and she felt a dull pain in one of her legs. When the doors opened and nothing happened she peered out and saw that there was no one around. She turned her head up to the sky and said a small thank you prayer.

Not waiting for any signs she took off at a full run out of the elevator and through the building. She ran towards sunlight, the first real sunlight she had seen in over nine months. Glancing around quickly she found herself in the lobby of a large hotel. She came to the revolving doors, ignoring all the gasps of the richly dressed people around her and ran out into the street.

The concrete bit into her bare feet and she shivered slightly in the brisk wind but she was free. And Lance is dead a small voice said in the back of her mind. She looked around wildly knowing that she wasn't safe in the open and she couldn't go to her parents. She had to get to a phone and call the Institute. She turned left and took off at a run not once looking back.

~*~

Lorna was wandering aimlessly around the Institute feeling immensely bored. She had been here for a couple of weeks now and after being on her own for a long time she was finding it difficult being thrust into a family situation. Plus the added house arrest. They were not allowed to leave the Institute grounds without permission and that wasn't given easily. The Professor had friends in high places and they had warned him to be careful, as there was a lot of anti mutant bills being spread around.

"Damn it" she swore lightly and kicked at a tree, which resulted in her getting a sore foot.

She sat under a huge oak tree and idly stared at the sky. She felt useless doing nothing.

"I should be out there helping...people...things...just doing something" she muttered to herself.

"Talking to yourself is never a good sign" someone said behind her.

She jumped, startled by whoever had appeared. Shading her eyes against the sun she looked up and saw Bobby standing over her.

"Do you always make a habit of scaring people or is this a first?" she retorted.

"Oh it's definitely a habit" he replied with a grin.

"Did you want something? Other than to annoy me that is."

"But that would take away the high light of my days" he said back quickly.

Since she had been at the Institute her and Bobby had gotten along really well. He was like the little brother that she had never had. They also liked to tease each other, a lot.

Bobby stood over her for a moment longer "The Professor wants to see us in his study."

She held out her hand, "Help me up" she demanded.

He did as he was told and they made their way to the manor laughing lightly at each other's jokes.

~*~

Rogue sat back in what she deemed as her chair. They had had so many meetings in the past two weeks that the study was becoming her second most visited room. Dressed in sweat pants and a sweatshirt it was obvious to everyone that she had been in the gym.

She watched as the other, older students gathered in the room. All of them wore similar expression and Rogue could see that some of them had lost weight. This whole deal was hitting them hard. She was just about to say hi to Scott and Jean as they came in when the phone rang. She reached out a hand and grabbed the phone off the desk.

"Hello?" she drawled.

"Rogue."

"Oh my god, Kitty is that you?" Rogue nearly screamed.

The room went silent.

"Rogue. I need some help."

"Hold on Kitty. Where are you?"

"Somewhere...I don't know...I thought I was in Chicago but I don't know."

"We're coming, Kitty. We'll be there as soon as possible" Rogue said as the phone went dead.

The entire room was silent until the Professor arrived.

"I know Rogue. X-Men, suit up" was all he said.

There was a mad scramble to the door and five minutes later they were in the air.

~*~

Kitty sat in a park. She had thought about hiding but she knew that they would find her. Her only hope was the Professor. She knew that he must have a reading on her now and that the others would be coming to get her. Her hands were trembling and she fell to the ground dry retching. Lance's lifeless body kept reflecting in her mind but she didn't want to believe it.

She sat on the bench for a few minutes longer before moving again. She keep this up for fifteen minutes, staying still for a few minutes before moving again. She was about to move again when she heard a familiar voice.

"Kitty are you here?"

"Kurt? Kurt is that you?" she tried to yell but her voice came out as a croak.

"Ja, Kitty."

Kitty spun around on her feet to find Kurt, Scott, Jean and Rogue standing behind her. Feeling an overwhelming sense of relief she took a step forwards before collapsing into a dead faint.

To Be Continued...