Kurt's eyes opened wide as he read the articles out of the book. Dear lord, Alistaire's right! No wonder they scrambled the book up so badly you needed a chart. No one in their right mind would create a position so powerful for one person to occupy.

Kurt shook his head at a passage and drew a line through it with his pen before reading on to the next.

Tabitha was leaning forward and chatting with Alistaire quietly.

"I … don't think so." Alistaire told her.

She smiled slightly. "So he's not…"

"Not that I know of." Alistaire told her. "But… I can't be sure. It doesn't seem so though."

She nodded. A definite 'maybe'. Great.

"I'm not being very helpful, am I?" Alistaire asked with a smile.

She looked at him in such sympathy and caring that for a moment he was stunned.

"You got me out." She whispered. "No one's ever been more helpful. Trust me."

And she leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. "Thank you." She said close to his ear.

Alistaire smiled, reached over and gave her hand an affectionate squeeze. "You're quite welcome."

Just then Kurt drew another line through another paragraph and let out an exasperated sigh. "Ach! This is so wrong!" He said, crossing out a whole page. "Horrible!"

Back at the lighthouse Kitty stood transfixed in horror as the sword wielding girl flew over the railing at her.

She phased instinctually but the girls left hand lashed out quickly. It seemed to glow in a purple streak and as it passed through Kitty's head, she spasmed, became solid and fell to the ground unable to control her muscles.

The girl smiled and the purple flare around her hand disappeared.

She's a mutant! Kitty realized.

Down the hall, Lucy heard her crumple to the ground, and it made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

She broke in to a run towards the lighthouse balcony, sensing that something was wrong.

"Oh,no,no,no…" Whispered the tiny purple dragon as he saw Kitty go down.

He dove from the top of the lighthouse and swooped gracefully up over her to drop down between her and her attacker.

He dug in his toes, clenched his little fists in rage and blew a thick, red shot of flame up towards the attackers face making her retreat for an instant.

But only for a instant, because Lucy dove through the flames and over the dragon and the fallen girl.

The attacker thrust at Lucy with a swift and steady sword strike that pierced her lung before it retreated.

Lucy held her ground and stance.

She felt the lung collapse.

She felt her body spasm and convulse, but she held it together and never took her eyes off the other girl.

She knew from experience that she couldn't speak yet, but she did manage a smirk.

She felt burning of her body 'knitting' itself back together, and the slowing trickle of blood that was flowing in to her lung.

Suddenly her claws burst forward, her now repaired lung began to quiver and then exploded back in to shape, ejecting all the blood in to her throat.

Kitty stirred behind her and Lucy smiled.

She opened her mouth and spit the blood in to her attacker's face while diving for her.

Lucy's first three attacks were blocked, but soon her attacker realized that she couldn't keep it up.

"Damn it, why aren't you dead?" She asked as she took the offence with a flurry of attacks.

Lucy smiled. "Hell don't want me." She grinned and dropped her guard, allowing her attacker to slice her across her face.

Kitty began trying to force herself to stand. The dragon cooed softly in support.

After an instant of shock Lucy cocked her head and smiled at the other girl as he face slowly knit itself back together.

Her attacker went pale.

"Stop this now." Lucy told her. "And I'll let you live."

She must be why I was supposed to wait for tonight… Damn. I should have followed the plan…

"If I stop this now my brother dies." She replied, diving forward with the blade in front of her.

Lucy sighed. But I've done so good, not killing… What do I do now?

And then it occurred to her.

Lucy smiled as the girl dove towards her. "Let's try this." She whispered, then she threw a rabbit-punch to one of the girls kidneys, and ran it through with a quick pop of her claw.

The girl fell to the floor spilling blood everywhere and convulsing.

Kitty rose shaking to her feet while the little dragon put his tiny hands on her boot to try to steady her.

Lucy plucked the sword from the girl's reach and knelt next to her. "It's just a kidney." She said. "Most people have two."

She stood up and cast a concerned glance at Kitty.

"I'm all right, I think it just stunned me." She was holding her head.

"She needs a doctor." Lucy said.

"Forge!" Kitty called in to the house. "Forge!"

Forge pulled off his earphones and looked around his little workbench. Did someone just…

"FORGE!"

Uh, ho… He jumped up and ran for the voice.

"Holy shh…" He stopped himself before speaking. And he looked up to meet Kitty's eyes.

"Police and an ambulance." Kitty told him.

"Right." He dove for his phone in the next room. "I'm on it."

Lucy walked calmly over to the girl.

"You're going to tell me what you meant and what you're doing here." She said cracking her knuckles.

The noise was a mix of metallic notes and tones.

It was intimidating to say the least.

"Wait." Kitty told her. "Start with her name."

Lucy looked down at the girl. "Well?

The girl looked up slowly, like a half-mashed insect on a windshield, and Lucy could see the defeat in her eyes.

"Betsy … Braddock." She said slowly. "And I was supposed to kill her." She pointed at Kitty quickly before clutching back at her wound.

Kitty swallowed nervously.

"Why?" Lucy demanded as her lip twitched in anger. "Who sent you?"

Betsy looked lost. "They have my brother. He's crippled. He can't move and they have him…" She sniffed, her blood flowing out through her fingers where she clutched her wound. "And they'll kill him."

She raised her head and met Kitty's eyes.. "I don't have anything against you… It wasn't personal."

The dragon shot a disgusted 'poof' of flame at her and took three little steps away from them before kicking his legs (as though kicking dirt backwards on to the fallen girl) then he jumped off the house and soared out of sight.

"Who has your brother?" Kitty asked holding her hands close to her chest.

The girl looked lost. "The Hellfire Club." She moaned in pain and her breathing increased. "I don't care what happens to me, but … you've got to help Brian… Let me die, it doesn't matter, but… Please… He's all I have."

Kitty sighed.

Lucy looked at her in disbelief. "It's a trap." She said almost sarcastically. "In case she failed, so others can try again." She shook in anger at the thought.

"No." Betsy insisted. "It's not."

Lucy let out a low growl and Kitty could tell she was having trouble controlling herself.

"Ummm…" Kitty stepped between them but spoke to Betsy. "I think you should keep quiet for a bit and let me think this out…"

"You'll have to hurry. By the time the ambulance has me they'll be able to kill him. They know everything. They run everything."

Lucy looked at her in disbelief, her eyes growing wild while she forced herself to breathe. Go ahead, keep talking… She felt her lips curling in anger.

"Lucy. Go see what's keeping Forge." Kitty said. "Go on."

Lucy nodded, paused, took two deep breaths, then turned and stalked off.

"Thank you." Betsy said. "I could see it in her eyes."

Kitty nodded. "Yeah. She could have killed you."

'Wants too' you mean… Betsy swallowed. "Please… Save him."

Kitty looked in to her eyes.

And she caved.

"First…." She said softly. "Tell me everything."