Summary : Tempers flare as tensions mount on the Lucky Dragon. They're ready to rumble as Kimble finally takes on Logan. Part six of my Kimble series.

Notes : Rated M for language, violence, and sexual situations.

AU but only because I chose to change a few things in my dear friends' histories for simplification, nothing drastic so please forgive. I wrote this for a friend who didn't read the comics so there is a bit of back history and explanation on who everyone is and what their powers are. I've been working on this story for years so I do ask that you don't use any of my non-Marvel universe characters without my permission. I love my Siskans as I do my children.

Art for The Clan and Endgame has been added to my website if anyone is curious enough to take a peek. See my profile for the link. SQ.

10-13-13 - Updated, added (break)s as needed, fixed punctuation errors.

(One)

Day three

Miles away from Earth, a tiny space vessel was drifting lifelessly in the black emptiness of space. Most of its passengers were awake, doing their best to amuse themselves in their desperation. Fallen lay dozing on the floor of her lav, resting under the watchful eye of her daughter, Maylee. Logan and Remy picked at breakfast, eating as a means to pass the time. The Clansmen were planning their escape, vowing they would regain control of the Lucky Dragon by any means at their disposal. Henry was in the shower and Kimble lay on the floor of the engine room, fast asleep.

Kimble and Beast had spent the bulk of the last eight hours working on the damaged engines, hoping to finish the worst of the repairs so that Fallen, in her weakened state, could manage to power them home. The damage to the engines had been pretty substantial, more than Kimble had first thought, but nothing a little enthusiasm and some help from Beast couldn't fix. Fallen's Ristle levels were being constantly monitored and her levels were rising, but she would still need more time. The question was, would fate grant them that time or would this present tranquility prove fleeting?

Kimble was dreaming, his hands and furry, pawed feet twitching as his mind saw only images that threatened to break his mind. He saw himself running through the vast confines of the ship's computer system, being chased by a man from Hell. He stumbled into the circle of light of the Black Room and collapsed to his knees, exhausted from running. Mirror Face was always just a step behind him and it seemed as though he would never escape. Kimble had come to the Black Room hoping to find safety, but he could already tell it was a wasted effort, even now he could hear the beast howling in the distance. Kimble put his head down and bawled, overcome with fear and hopelessness. His creator had never designed him to take this kind of stress and these dreams were wearing him down. He sobbed for a moment and then looked up when Seth approached him from out of the black.

"Oh, thank th' spirits!" Kimble cried, wiping his tears away. "Ya gots ta help me, Seth. He's there. He's always there now!"

Seth looked down on him and slowly shook his head, his eyes full of contempt and disapproval. "Why didn't you tell me you were Zander, Kimble? Here I am telling everyone that you're okay, when you're hiding things from me."

Kimble hadn't expected such an unfriendly response from his brother and he didn't know what to say. He began to stammer lame excuses, "I wuzn't hidin' nuthin'! It ain't real! It ain't the truth!"

"You're a liar, Kimble. You're not my brother," Seth turned and walked away back into the black, his head down with sadness and regret.

"No! Wait!" Kimble started to rise and follow, but he wasn't alone.

"Just where did you think you're going, freak?"

Kimble turned to see Valentin come into the circle of light behind him and he cowered in fear. Yesterday Kimble had asked Seth to take the password safeties off of the Black Room so anyone could enter. He had done that in the hopes that maybe Fallen could go there again and not be booted out. He could see now that had been a mistake. Here there were no security screens to protect him, he was now defenseless. He raised his fists in a pitiful attempt to intimidate the big man.

Valentin towered over him, uninjured in this vision and standing tall and powerful. He poured down his derisive laughter on the terrified Siskan, his words full of arrogance and malice. "Put your head down, little boy. You can't fight me and you know it. All you know how to do is run your mouth off."

Kimble submissively put his head down as he groveled before the stronger man, but muttered, "It ain't always gonna be like this, you'll see. The X-men're gonna bring me to their place and I'll be a hero just like thems. They'll teach me how ta fights and then I'm gonner kick yer ass!"

"I wouldn't count on that, punk," Wolverine growled, coming into the light.

Kimble gasped in surprise. Valentin had faded away and Logan now stood in his place. The feral X-man looked down where Kimble cowered and sneered down at him with all of his hate and non-acceptance. "You got a problem, boy. You'd best learn to accept where yer at. You ain't never gonna be good enough fer us. Fallen an' Seth'll do just fine, but not you. Not you. You ain't nuthin' but a stupid little child with all of yer fussin' and fightin'. The only thing yer gonna learn is what the four walls of a holding cell look like - from the inside!"

"Remy'll help me! He likes me!"

"He ain't gonna do nuthin'. He'll keep in line and do what he's told. He's an X-man first. Accept it. Yer on yer own, boy."

Kimble lay down and sobbed, losing all hope.

"I'll helps ya, kid. Don't you worry."

Kimble looked up as Zander finally stepped into the light. The light glittered off of his shattered mirror face, robbing him of all expression except for the conviction in his voice. He held Valentin's long broadsword in his hands as he spoke, raising it up and into the light. Instead of threatening to kill Kimble as he usually did, he offered him the blade with this advice, "This is whatcha need, Kimble. It's alla yer rage an' power. Use it. You ain't got no idea what's inside a ya - an' neither do they. This is all ya needs ta find out. Takes it. Feel yer power. Kill Valentin an' they'll see. They'll see how powerful you kin be an' then they'll finally respects ya they way ya deserves."

"No! Yer full of shit! You ain't nuthin' but a monster! You always try ta kills me!"

"Aw, don't be takin' all that personal, kid. I wuz just fuckin' with ya," Zander cackled, shrugging his well muscled shoulders as if his terrorizing Kimble had meant nothing.

"It wasn't funny!" Kimble bawled, tears streaming from his eyes. He wasn't sure what was more terrifying, Zander chasing him or Zander trying to be friends. "Go away!"

Zander snorted with impatience. "Look at ya, down on yer fuckin' knees like some stupid little crybaby. Yer so much more an' all ya does is waste it. Siskans didn't accept ya, neither did them Clan bastards. What makes ya think them X-feebs're gonna have ya, huh? Why even try, they ain't nuthin but a buncha stupid assholes what're never gonna love ya the way ya deserve. They don't thinks yer even real. To them, you ain't nuthin' but property, boy. No say and no rights. An' fer that they deserves ta be punished!"

Kimble trembled at those words. Punished, Zander had said. Something about the way he said it made it almost sound appealing. It would be so easy to give into his hate and rage, to surrender to the growing madness inside of him.

"You kin do it, you know," Zander said, continuing with his wicked persuasions. "You done it before and you kin do it again. Punish them! Punish them all!"

Kimble shivered in revulsion. He saw flashes of violence, of blood covered swords and the cries of dying men. "Go away! I ain't no killer!"

"Oh, yes you are. You 'n me, we're the same."

"Never!" Kimble screamed and found his feet. He was running again. He came from the darkness back to the ship like some kind of bizarre magic trick and now he was running down the hall towards the shop. Zander was right behind him, gravelly laughter trickling out of his mouth as he thrilled to the chase. Kimble gasped in agonized futility as the hallway stretched out endlessly in front of him. There would be no escape.

He heard as Zander tossed Valentin's sword from behind him. It made a chopping helicopter sound as it spun on it's way towards him.

"Ya fergot sumpthin'!" Zander cackled just before the sword caught up with Kimble, running him through from behind. Kimble screamed and fell.

(break)

Kimble snapped awake with a jerk, barely feeling the hard floor beneath him. There was that strange pinching sensation in his head again as he twitched but it went away quickly. He dabbed at his nose, expecting it to bleed, the pinch had felt just like that, but there was nothing. The spasm passed and he dismissed it as just simple stress. After a dream like that who could blame him? He rose up numbly on his hands and knees, still gasping as he fought the urge to keep running, his dream had been so vivid and real. He saw he was safe now though, he was in the Engine Room surrounded by engine parts. He was still here on the ship and he remembered now that he and Beast had spent most of the night working in here on the repairs. He must have fallen asleep on the floor.

A sob escaped him and he rubbed his aching stomach. It hurt so bad now. He thought for sure he had screamed as he had woken, but no one came running. Either that, or like Zander had said, no one had cared. Kimble shambled drunkenly to his feet, his head swimming in a fear induced fog. He needed a charge and some water. He had to get back to Fallen.

He staggered out of the Engine Room, not bothering to shut the security door behind him. He shuffled down the hall to the stairs and didn't even notice Beast as he came freshly showered out of the downstairs lavatory.

Henry had been working just as hard as Kimble. Less than an hour ago, he had watched as Kimble nodded off and slowly tipped over onto the floor. Knowing Kimble was exhausted, Beast let him go. He had slipped away himself a few minutes later, wanting to take a shower to refresh himself. It appeared that Kimble hadn't slept long or peacefully. The Siskan looked trashed. Henry greeted him as he shuffled by, but he didn't reply.

Henry watched him go by, puzzled by the Siskan's lack of response. He could tell Kimble had just woken up, he was rumpled and glassy eyed, and figured that maybe Kimble wasn't much of a morning person. Beast shrugged and went into the Engine Room to work some more on the engines, figuring the more they accomplished now, the sooner they could get home. He walked over to where Kimble had been working and gasped in surprise.

Beast had only just left Kimble where he had been sleeping, but nothing was as he had left it. All of the parts that Kimble had been working on before he fell asleep had now been pushed away from the work area in a perfect circle. This wasn't Kimble being neat. Some of the pieces had fallen over in disarray. What Beast was looking at was a telekinetic blast pattern. A very mild blast to be sure, but a blast nonetheless.

Beast touched the floor in the center of the circle and wasn't surprised to find it still slightly warm from Kimble lying there asleep. He shook his head and muttered to himself, "What are you dreaming, Kimble?"

He followed Kimble upstairs, but didn't find him in the galley. He did see Logan and Remy sitting there, having breakfast. "You know, I think Kimble may be telekinetic," he said as he sat next to them. "I was just checking his progress in the Engine Room. He'd just woken up and walked right past me like a zombie. I could see where he'd been sleeping and he had all the parts pushed away from him in a perfect circle. I don't think he even knew he'd done it."

"Telekinetic blast pattern?" Logan repeated, not the least bit surprised. He already suspected Kimble's emerging new ability.

"Weak, but yes. You don't sound too surprised."

"Yesterday when he was dreamin' in the shop, he was givin' off very small telekinetic waves."

"You didn't mention it," Henry replied, just a slight edge to his voice. This was something he would have wanted to know. Not that he considered Kimble a threat, it was the doctor in him. He didn't like secrets.

"You didn't give me a chance," Logan growled back defensively, a bit of righteous indignation in his tone. "You were too busy backin' him up 'stead of me."

"That's not fair. You had him backed into a corner!"

"Why would Kim even be telekinetic?" Remy interjected, wanting to avoid an argument. He wasn't sure how to take what he was hearing. "It don't make no sense. He just a 'gram."

Henry gave voice to something he had been mulling over in his mind. "I think it's possible that more than Kimble's power sources got altered in the overload. Kimble's Mistress is telekinetic and now she's powering him directly. It's possible that some of her abilities might have transferred to him in the surge. Seth himself admitted that Kimble no longer scanned as a normal hologram."

Remy nodded, trying to digest that. It sounded a little implausible, but he didn't know that much about these things as Henry did. "You t'ink Kimble knows?"

"I don't know," Henry replied. "What I am certain of is that he is still disturbed and sleeping poorly. He passed me by like I wasn't even there. He didn't look well."

"If he cracks up, what are we gonna do about it?" Logan asked, desiring a plan. He didn't care about the why of this, only what could be done about it. "He can phase. We can't lock him up. We've got no way of restrainin' him."

"Why you so eager ta lock 'im up?" Remy asked impatiently in Kimble's defense. He was sick of Logan's poor attitude. Sure Kimble was a little stressed out, but he didn't think it was anything they couldn't handle.

"Where have ya been, Cajun? He's gone fer Vally twice and scared the bejesus out of little May. Hello!"

"Vally's been askin' for it since de firs' day we got 'ere, furball. And de kid? Well, I don' know 'bout you, but if I was bein' accused of wantin' to kill my brother, I'd be a little pissed off, too."

Logan cooled a little without giving up his position. "Look, Gumbo. I understand ya like him. I know ya well enough to see why. He's a bright shiny new toy and I'm sure he's a real hit at parties, but ya gotta face facts here, boy. He's crackin' up. When that kid pops, we gotta be ready ta deal with it."

"Kim ain't no toy," Gambit snapped defensively.

It was Henry's turn to interrupt. "If he can phase and he's telekinetic, we've got no real way of controlling him, not here. The best thing is to keep him calm and as far away from Valentin as possible. We probably should keep him away from you as well, Logan. Clearly the two of you dislike each other."

"Yeah, well, it ain't no picnic being cooped up in this tin can like this. I don't know what's worse, waitin' fer Kimble to crack or us runnin' outta air if Fallen doesn't get back on her feet on time."

"She'll be fine," Henry insisted. "If her scans are correct - and I think they are - we should be up and running tomorrow or the day after. Until then, I'm asking you to stay out of Kimble's way."

"I'll leave him be so long as he doesn't give me any excuse ta butt in," Wolverine countered, not really budging. He felt it was his duty to look after his teammates, psycho 'gram or not. He was about to say something else, but Maylee had smelled Remy's cooking and was shuffling into the galley, rubbing her eyes. She smiled at them and at Remy in particular, he'd made breakfast again so she wouldn't have to.

Remy got up and made her a plate, trying to keep his frustration down. On one hand, he appreciated Logan's concern for their well being, but on the other, he believed Logan was well on his way to causing the very break in Kimble he was trying to prevent.