DISCLAIMER: Among the many things that I do not own sit both the X-Men and Survivor. I do own Jeff Probst, though. He's currently chained in my basement. He says hi.

"I don't know If I'm just getting a little paranoid, what with the ranks being so thin and all, but I have a feeling that we're about to find out just who the mutants are. I've tried to be as open as possible about it, but the truth of the matter is that I bet I'm going to have to make some new, different friends very, very soon. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate mutants. But there's just something about them… They make me feel uneasy. I've read a lot about them, with my work on a number of campaigns and with a few different politicians. I know that they can be dangerous. From what I've seen, they're murderers." He looked around the small room and raised his hands. "This place is case in point. When I got my letter telling me that I was chosen, I did my research. This place was mutant slavery central. And you know who enslaved them? Other mutants. I mean, even our tribal names are reminiscent of that! The Magistrates were the militia of the first government. They were brutal. The Mutates? They were nothing more than kids. Kids who were basically harvested for their abilities. They didn't even have names. If mutants would be willing to do that to each other, just imagine what they'd do to me. I don't know…" Trey stepped out of the confessional and closed the bamboo door behind him. He made his way down the path and smiled at Anna, who winked back at him as she climbed the hill. He turned and watched her walk up. "I hate to see you go, but I love to see you walk away…" He continued staring until he felt something hard hit him hard on the head. He turned around and saw Jean running towards him to fetch the soccer ball that she had been kicking around.

"Sorry, Trey! Little accident!" Trey threw the ball back to her and she walked away, muttering "pervert" under her breath. She peeked up at the confessional booth just in time to see Anna close the door.

Inside the booth the camera was rolling. Anna stared at the door for a moment while collecting her thoughts. "Ya know, bamboo isn't indigenous t' Genosha either." The cameraman rolled his eyes. "Ah guess that they're gonna be combining th' tribes this week. That should be nice. Ah'll get t' see some of mah friends. It's been so long since Ah got t' use mah powers, Ah went for a little fly last night after Ah thought everyone was asleep. Long story short, Sarah knows. Ah'm pretty sure she can keep her mouth shut, though. She ain't too bad, even for a lawyer. From th' way that Bobby and her act around each other, Ah have a feelin' that Ah'll be hearing from her even after this thing is all over. Good for him, though. Ah heard a crazy rumor that th' next challenge is gonna expose the mutants, but Ah dunno. Ah hope people don't get mad when they figure out that Ah'm lying. Although, it ain't really lying. They never asked me directly. Ah bet most of 'em guessed on th' first day. Th' hair is a dead giveaway. But no one knew about mah ability t' control the absorbtion, so that was helpful. Especially after that story that ran last year about how mutants have problems, too… Ah still don't know how that journalist got all of that information. Ah'm rambling. Seeya." She stepped out of the confessional and walked back down to the beach, where the rest of the teams were assembled and waiting. She stood next to Sarah and grinned. Soon after that, Jubilee ran over to the group, shooting off fireworks to get their attention.

"Guys, one minute until show time. Do your hair or whatever, I gotta go get into uniform." She bounced back towards the trailers.

"Spunky, isn't she?" Betty chuckled a bit at Jubilee's antics, as Warren and Jeff took their places on the platform above the contestants. The cameras started rolling and Jeff began speaking.

"Tonight on Survivor: Genosha, we combine the two tribes. Your new headquarters will be on Hammer Bay, on the other side of the island. There are partial structures there, and you will be given a few days to get settled, find water, and food."

Warren continued the speech. "Since the trip is rather intense, I've invited a few of my friends along to help."

On cue, the cameras cut to the beach, where a large airplane was landing. All of the contestants were shocked, some because they had never seen such a jet in person before and some because they simply were not expecting it to show up. Most of the contestants had no idea who would be stepping off of the jet.

"Oh, crap." Anna didn't know how she was going to handle this new development. One look at Bobby and she knew that she wasn't alone in that. Jean, of course, had known of it ahead of time. The sound of the ramp being lowered brought her back to the beach and she looked over towards the jet. Sure enough, there stood Scott, Hank, Logan, Betsy, Piotr, Jubilee, Kitty, Kurt, Ororo, and Remy. Anna had never realized just how good they all looked, lined up like that. Sarah nudged her and she was jolted back to reality again.

"No whimpering, Rogue. I need you to introduce me to someone."

She hadn't even realized that she was being that obvious. "Who d'ya want t' meet?"

"The hunky one in the trenchcoat with the big stick."

Anna laughed. "Hands off, he's mine."

"You're joking?"

"Nope."

"Way to go, girl."

"Tell me about it."

"Well how about the one with the funky glasses?"

"Married to Jean."

"Jean?"

"Yeah, you know… Jean, like from the other tribe."

"She's one too?"

"Shh."

"Damn." She looked over the lineup again and noticed something. "There's someone still missing. I've seen pictures. There's another guy."

"Yeah, Warren. Angel."

"No, besides him. There's a snowman."

"Iceman."

"Oh. Whatever. Where's he?"

"He's, uh, around." She was surprised that Bobby hadn't already told her. "Ah'm sure you'll meet him soon."

"Cool."

"Pun intended?"

"You bet."

"Commercial is almost over!" Jubilee yelled loud enough for the entire mansion to hear her. Since the show started, the crowd that gathered in the rec. room weekly to watch it had more than doubled, as students and friends of the team flocked to watch it with three (sometimes four) of the contestants. Logan nudged Rogue in the side. "What are you guys talking about there?"

"Huh?"

"You and Sarah. You're talking."

"We were talking about you, of course."

He turned his head and noticed that Sarah herself had just walked in with a few bags of food. She winked at Rogue, who took the ball and ran with it.

"Yeah, we were talkin' about how cute your ass looks in that spandex. We were hopin' that you'd accidentally rip th' fabric before we got to camp, and we could walk behind ya on the trail."

"…Really?"

The answer came in unison. "No."

Remy walked into the room with a six-pack and set it down on the table, looking for a place on the couch to squeeze himself into. Eventually he gave up and sat on Rogue.

"Ah can't see the screen."

"Don' matter, you seen it already. You were dere, remember?"

"So were you."

He slid off of her and sat on the ground, leaning back so that his head was on her lap. He looked up at her and smiled.

"Better, Chere?"

"Much."

"I look so good on camera." Jubilee was excited that she got to be on national television. Simply working behind the scenes was fun, but actually being a part of it was so much more fun. Onscreen, the team had walked down the ramp of the jet and over to join Jeff and Warren on the small platform, where they introduced themselves.

"It is a pleasure to meet you. Warren has told me many stories."

Warren smiled at the team and addressed the camera.

"Now that we have some help, the teams will make their way back to their respective camps for the last time. Then they will relocate to Hammer Bay, with the help of the X-Men."

Half of the X-Men went with Jean and Bobby's team, the other half went with Sarah and Rogue's. Personal introductions were made, and they headed off.

"When we return to Survivor: Genosha," a voice narrated, "Are secrets going to be revealed?" The screen went to a clip of Betsy and Bobby sword fighting in the woods. Betsy was using her psychic blade, and Bobby had made a lightsaber out of ice.

"Heh… oops."

"And will romances be discovered?"

"See, Bobby. Ya gotta remember that th' cameras are everywhere." Rogue shook her finger at him.

"Speak for yourself."

"What?"

Bobby pointed to the screen, where Rogue and Gambit were ducking off of the trail. Another brief shot showed them making out in the woods.

"WHAT THE HELL?"

"There's cameras everywhere, Anna banana." Bobby taunted her.

The phone rang, and Scott answered it. "Hello?" His eyes grew wide and he held the receiver away from his ear. Everyone could hear someone shouting on the other end, and Logan laughed. He could hear exactly what that person was saying.

"It's for you, Rogue. It's your mother."

"Shit."


"Ah can't believe they let you come with our tribe." She had made sure that she wasn't in earshot of any of her tribe menbers before talking candidly with Remy.

"Oui. De professor let us choose."

Remy, as well as Ororo, Logan, Kitty, and Piotr had gone with Rogue's group, while Betsy, Kurt, Scott, Jubilee, and Hank had gone with the other group.

The camps were about thirty minutes from the main site, and the X-Men had a lot of time to get to know the contestants.

"So you're the youngest, huh?"

"Yep. Lived in a mall and stuff, it was cool."

"How long has Betty been on the team?"

"You mean Betsy?"

"No… Betty." He pointed to the contestant.

"Oh, I see what you're doing. I may talk a lot, but I don't let information like that slip. Sorry, Malachi."

"Ah, well. I tried."

"I'll give you that."

Farther along the trail, Betsy nudged Bobby. "Care to do a bit of training?"

"I know a spot in the woods where the cameras don't reach."

"Let's go."

They hung back a little bit and ran off, Bobby forming a strong icecicle along the way.

"So, you're a scientist?"

"Correct."

"They just let you walk into a University and get a degree?"

"Well, I had to do the coursework, naturally. But yes, why wouldn't they?"

"It's just…"

"How obviously a mutant I am?"

"Yes."

"I wasn't always blue and furry, you know. In fact, It wasn't until after I graduated that I happened upon the serum that created this."

"So you were normal in college?"

"Oh, I wouldn't say normal, Betty. I was a football player. See my feet? Came in handy on the field. No pun intended. Long story short, I was a natural. But people at the school disagreed about the natural part of that statement. I was kicked out and joined up with Xavier. Finished my degree from within the X-Men."

"And the fur?"

"Experimenting. Needed a lab rat. I took matters into my own hands. Instead of furthering my mutation, I degenerated myself to a primate. Move over, King Kong."

"What about the other blue one?"

"Nightcrawler?"

"Yes."

"He was born that way as far as I know."

Betty was quite curious about how exactly mutation worked. Paul, on the other hand, was more interested in just how much depth some particular mutants had.

"You're a priest?"

"Ja."

"And you're a member of the X-Men?"

"Why else would I be here with them, mein freund?"

"It's just… doesn't that seem a bit hypocritical?"

"Not at all. In the bible, we are taught that kindness is the key to salvation. We do not act upon hatred, we act against it. God made us the way we are for a reason, and being with the X-Men gives me a way to serve God by using the gifts he gave me for good."

"That's an interesting way of looking at it. What do you do with people, religious organizations, that claim that Mutants are demons of some sort?"

"Oh, believe me. Looking the way that I do, I get that a lot. Sometimes people cannot be persuaded. Otherwise, I am more than happy to discuss it with them."

Paul and Kurt continued to talk religion until they reached the campsite. Up ahead, at the top of the hill, Jean and Scott had already climbed it and were deep in conversation.

"Anything interesting been going on at the mansion?"

"Oh, just the usual. Logan destroyed a couch the other day."

"That doesn't surprise me."

"I'm working with Hank on developing a new fabric for the uniforms. Maybe you could work on a design?"

"Sure."

"Make sure that they're better than Jubilee's."

"That shouldn't be too hard."

"True. We were thinking of some sort of leather coated with something or other."

"Oh, Scott. No leather."

"Why? Leather is sexy."

"You said the same about spandex."

"I stand by that."

She pointed to his face. "New visor."

"You noticed."

"Of course I did. Plus, Hank is talking about it about thirty feet behind us. His brain is moving faster than his mouth."

"It's a little bit more streamlined. And he made the layer of ruby quartz thinner, too. I see things in a much lighter shade of red. Except your hair."

She ran her hand through it. "Yeah, they made me dye it."

"It isn't purple, is it?"

"No, Betsy would kill me. That's her trademark. It's black."

"Black, huh? How's it look?"

"I'll show you when we get back to camp and I get a mirror."

"All righty… so do any of your friends here know?"

"Only Bobby and Rogue. And most recently, Sarah. Rogue told her. But we can trust her."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep. She'll most likely be the next one to leave the island. A lot of people aren't comfortable around her because she's a lawyer."

"That sucks."

"Tell me about it. And Bobby kind of has a thing for her. Guess nothing'll happen there."

"This is like a bad soap opera."

"Speaking of which, when we pass this ridge, look to the right. You'll see a very happy couple."

"Ok…"

They walked on in silence, until they passed the ridge. Scott looked, as instructed, and immediately wished he hadn't.

"Oh, God… too much information."

"Think I should move a hedge or something so they have more privacy?"

"Depends. How badly do you want to win this game?"

"…you're evil."

"Only as necessary."

A/N: That took me longer than I had hoped... I lost the disk that I keep my stories on and had to rewrite most of it. And then, of course, I found the disk. Pfft. Well, review!