Disclaimer: The X-Men are the property of Marvel. Golan and Cirrus belong exclusively to Star and are used with permission. Corrinth retains all rights to Ilehana Xavier and Ori. Lamby retains all rights to Blaze.

A/N: This story is a joint work between Lamby and Corrinth, based on Corrinth's X-Men the Movie fanfiction of the same name. The bit of conversation Blaze is thinking about is from 'Landslide'. Reviews always welcome.

04

#"Gambit! Don't, it's not worth it! Come with us..."

"Why?" He threw off her grip sharply, holding a charged card in his fingers aggressively. "So I can bask in the presence of the wonderful Xaviers? So you can keep in tellin' me how I don't belong anywhere? How I don't belong with you?"#

Ilehana winced as she approached Blaze, the vehemence of those horrid words replaying in Blaze's head filling Vixen with pity for the troubled redhead. Blaze had been a better friend to Gambit than Vixen thought he deserved, and those spiteful lies were the way he had replayed her. Ilehana could only agree with Gambit's ex Rogue's words on the matter.

"He's not worth it Blaze."

Blaze shut her brown eyes and sighed, long lashes brushing her cheeks, before she stood from scrubbing her car's bonnet and turned to face Ilehana. She should have known that the Vixen was there, and listening to her thoughts. Ilehana didn't apologise for overhearing Blaze, but stood and met her friend's eyes evenly. It was Blaze who dropped her gaze first.

"Washing your car again?" Vixen tried to make light conversation, unwilling to leave right then. "I didn't think it was all that dirty."

"It wasn't." Blaze agreed, her voice sad and introvert. "But washing it helps me think."

"What is there to think about, Blaze?" Ilehana tried to keep her voice soothing, but she felt almost as keenly as Blaze Gambit's unprovoked slur and betrayal. She'd called him a friend, too, once. "He used you to get me for Magneto, used Rogue to fill his time after Magneto left..."

"There's something else going on here." Blaze refused to let Ilehana mount the evidence up against Remy. She knew him; those insults he'd thrown were just not his. "I can feel it. Someone, something, provoked all this..."

"Face it Blaze, Gambit is who he is, one of the bad guys. Some people just can't change." Briefly Ilehana grasped Blaze's shoulders in a friendly gesture of support, then let go. She turned to leave, looking back only briefly to see Ori gently lick Blaze's fingers in his own gesture of comfort for his friend, before he trotted back to shadow Vixen's steps.

"Perhaps," Blaze whispered to herself as she turned back to her sleek convertible. "I don't want him to change. I like him just the way he is..."

Suddenly a car roared up the drive. Ilehana recognised it instantly as the one her father preferred to be driven in, though preferably not by today's chauffeur Kitty Pride. Vixen started to smile as Shadowcat plunged the car across the gravel, breaking hard, but then it hit her that something was horribly wrong. Shadowcat phased through the car door rather than waste time opening it, a look of absolute horror on her face. All the other X-Men scattered at the front of the mansion, from Bobby and Jean through to Logan and Blaze, started forward to see what was the matter, but Ilehana had already reached Kitty and was demanding an explanation. Shadowcat was shaking; anger and terror clear in her young voice.

"Someone's taken the Professor!"

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"Kelly was waitin' for us when I parked the car outside school, right there on the sidewalk. He didn't take the Professor inside at all, but led him round the back of the building to where the fight was." Kitty paused, frantically trying to make sure she reported everything back exactly as it happened to the other X-Men in the planning room. Beast, Rogue and Nightcrawler had been called in along with all seven X-men who had been with Ilehana when Kitty arrived back. The rest of the Institute's children had been left out for now, Vixen wanting to protect them from hopefully unnecessary worry. Not that she felt hopeful that it was all an overreaction; now that she was trying she couldn't find her father's unique telepathic signature anywhere. Never in her life had Vixen felt so cold.

"Go on." Storm encouraged Kitty gently, every X-Man hanging on her every word. Even Ori was regarding Shadowcat with worried eyes; the telepathic wolf had a great respect for Vixen's pack alpha and father.

"Next thing I know," Kitty explained, "Kelly arrived, parked his car and went into the school."

"How is that possible?" Ilehana asked incredulously. Nightcrawler and Rogue exchanged knowing siblings' glances before replying together.

"Mystique."

"Shape shifter." Logan grunted when Ilehana and Blaze looked confused. They hadn't come up against the mutant personally yet, but it did fit with Kitty's story.

"Anyway I'm all, like, totally confused when suddenly this van screeches around the corner and disappears." Kitty continued, glancing up at Ilehana. "I'm sure it was Colossus driving..."

"Colossus and Mystique, and the Professor disappearing." Beast's voice was one of sharp reason. "I have to admit it doesn't look good."

"I'll be in Cerebro." Vixen's voice left no room for argument, but that had never stopped Logan before.

"I don't think that's such a good idea." Wolverine met Ilehana's angry glance. "Look darlin', I might not know much about these things, but the way your powers are at the minute, I'm sure it'd be safer to let Jean try."

"Not a chance." Vixen muttered, tone ice cold.

"You wont let me at least try?" Jean asked. Scott and Storm as well as Logan supported Jean, but the others looked mostly confused at this sudden battle for control, as if its significance escaped them. If she had been any less certain, Ilehana might have glanced sideways at Blaze for support, but she already knew that Blaze would back her up no matter what. It was how their friendship worked, how it had worked for over a year since they had met.

Suddenly Ilehana was aware of a telepathic probing, did Jean really think she could read her mind? Ilehana slammed a telepathic barrier between Jean and herself, was infuriated to see Jean reel sharply backwards into Scott at the intensity of the invisible wall. The others looked at each other, aware that they had missed something between the two young women. Blaze glanced at Ilehana, somehow conscious that the meta-morph had won her battle, but when she saw the look of fury on Ilehana's face, Blaze shivered, suddenly so very cold...

"If you don't like the way I do things, Jean, you know where the door is." Jean sank to her knees as Ilehana poured her strength and anger over her mind like a bucket of liquid adimantium. "My father may pity you, I do not. With him missing I am alpha now, you would do well to remember that."

Jean took in the expression on her aggressor's face; how long had Ilehana had that kind of power? Somehow she staggered back onto her feet, running from the room with her face in her hands. Ilehana watched her go, aware that she had probably just made a fatal mistake...