Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men. Ilehana Xavier belongs to Corrinth. All other characters belong to me.
A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers out there; you really are all stars.
Scene 18 Day 05, Friday.........Blaze lurched bolt upright in bed as something dramatic changed in her room.
"Mercury is awake, and she's asking for you." Kurt told the redhead abruptly, before bamfing right out again through the still-closed door. Blaze shook her head, conscious of the urgency of the request if it made Kurt teleport in here to tell her. She was well aware of Nightcrawler's dislike of teleporting where he couldn't see where he was going.
Dressing quickly, Blaze was still tugging knots from her hair with her fingers as she began running down the stairs from the staff quarters. Gambit caught her up neatly; hand on the railing of the landing above he dropped a flight in a single jump to keep up the pace besides her.
"Nightcrawler?" She asked him quickly. He nodded.
"Ain't got no manners, for a saint." He grumbled. "Should've been a t'ief."
Blaze smiled shallowly at that as she swung herself around the banister at the bottom of the stairs, flinging herself toward the elevator to the lower levels. Gambit punched the button ferociously, the doors taking forever to slide closed.
"So..." The Cajun began, "Sleep well?"
"You're that annoyed at me still that you have to make polite conversation." Blaze pointed out. "Course I didn't sleep well."
"Je ne suis pas fachez." He answered, watching her avoid his gaze. "Not very annoyed anyways, Chere..."
The doors slid open, and the conversation was suspended as they entered the lower levels. Hank met them, looking refreshed after whatever sleep he'd managed to grab between caring for his patients. Instead of taking them straight in to see their old friend, he took them into a side room to explain all he could to the thieves.
"You have to understand something crucial about Mercury." He began, "I understand both of you have known her a long time, and that she was close to you both?" Hank waited as Blaze nodded, almost shyly. "Then you know she hasn't always been mad. She isn't insane at all, except when certain levels of chemicals in her blood stream reach so high a level that they, in effect, poison her... Chemicals that find their way into her by way of her close contact with heavy metal compounds..."
"Hank, we're thieves, not scientists." Blaze pointed out. "What are you saying? That Mercury's powers have sent her mad?"
"In essence, yes, exactly that. The metals she controls are so closely associated with her physiology that they enter her body, giving her heavy metal poisoning if she uses her powers too often. I believe that if she had not been in jail for so long, she would have already been dead through the simple use of the powers she sees as her own."
"Can you do anythin'?"
"I'm treating her for the poisoning along with her injuries. She has been informed as to what has happened to her, but she's finding it a little hard to understand, and the effects haven't entirely dissipated yet. I'm sure she would appreciate seeing a familiar face or two." Hank set off towards the infirmary, Blaze and Gambit shadowing his footsteps.
"Familiar faces she try an' kill off..." Gambit muttered sideways to Blaze, but the redhead wasn't listening. Already her eyes were fixed through the opening doors on her old friend, and enemy.
"Blaze, Remy..." Eloise was sat up in the bed, looking placid and pale. Hank went straight to her side, adjusting some medical machinery with no apparent fear of the invalid woman. Blaze and Gambit stopped dead in the doorway. "Beast's told you what's wrong with me? He said you'd understand..."
"He told us." Gambit nodded, arms folded. Something immensely sorrowful flickered behind Mercury's grey eyes as she glanced from one old friend to the other. She knew she'd tried to kill them again, she knew she'd killed Lance, she knew all of it, but couldn't make it glue together in her head. Fear rode in her stomach, what would they do to her now?
"What do you want me to say?" Mercury bit at them argumentatively. "That I'm sorry? Well I am! But I couldn't help any of it! I thought you were going to come and kill me unless I killed you first! No, worse than that, I knew you would! I was certain of it! What else could I do? Do you have any idea what this is like for me? Knowing that I'm mad, and that my mutant powers are killing me?"
"Elle, stop it." Blaze went forward to her friend, took the other woman in her arms in a supportive hug, all fears and dreads forgotten. Eloise hid her face in Blaze's hair, choking back a sob. "I know what its like to be at odds with your powers, you don't have to explain yourself to me."
"I tried to kill you!" Eloise exclaimed. "I thought you were going to steal all my life away from me, that you were becoming a better me than I was. I thought it was me or you, and you were my friend!"
"Still am, Eloise." Blaze sighed, perching on the bed and motherly brushing Mercury's hair back from her face. "Don't worry, you're in the best place for people like us, there are people here who can help you..."
"Blaze..." Gambit warned menacingly, not liking this one bit. "Fais attention..." Blaze glanced at him briefly as he warned her to be careful, and held his eyes in a fiery stare.
"Tu ne me fais pas confiance?" She challenged him, asking if he trusted her. Rather than prove that he didn't, not right now, Gambit turned to Beast instead.
"Watch them." He ordered, knowing he had no place to make such a demand, and left.
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"How are you feeling Professor?" Storm asked gently, helping her mentor to sit up in his bed on the other side of the infirmary from where Blaze and Mercury were chatting animatedly in subdued voices.
"Much better, thank you Ororo." Charles' voice was a little rough, but his smile genuine. "Is Ilehana here?"
"I am Dad." Vixen replied. "Of all the..."
"Before you begin to lecture me, my dear daughter, on overtaxing my mental energies, why don't you tell me how we are doing?" Ilehana had to smile at that, at his words and the look in his eye as he cut off her tirade. Slowly, she obliged, hoping he wouldn't begin taxing himself again just yet.
"All the X-Men and pupils are clear, the only other infected individual is Sian, who is human and therefore immune. Havoc's taken her home. The two girls who died on Hawaii were mutants as well, the connection is clear, but what we can't see is how the virus could have been on Hawaii in the first place. Even if it is a recent mutation, it has to have a viral ancestor I should be able to trace. But the only diseases I can think of that act in anyway like this are found on the African subcontinent and rarely elsewhere."
"So you think it was a deliberate plot to release it on Hawaii?" Xavier asked, making Vixen nod.
"Especially given the fact that the victims were the President's daughter's friends, it sounds like someone is trying to get the government's attention. But we have no proof, or any idea who it might be. Also, without a sample of the pure virus in its early infectious stages, I'm stuck as to create a cure..."
"Then let us hope a cure will be unnecessary." Charles answered. "I see Mercury has been found?"
"Yeah." Scott answered this time, small smile on his face. "But its cost us a car..."
"My car..." Blaze looked over briefly, sadness in her eyes. "My poor car..."
"Excuse me, Blaze." Xavier quipped. "I think you'll find that the Aston Martin is mine."
"Was." Scott piped up, grinning as Blaze shot him a look that could kill. "I just hope the insurance will pay up..."
"That was odd..." Mercury commented slowly to Blaze as the conversation between Xavier and the X-Men went on without them. "I tried to stop the car with my powers, but it was hardly metal at all, apart from the engine..."
"The Aston was mainly carbon fibre, because it's so much lighter... I don't know Mercury, imagine not knowing that." Blaze smiled, making Mercury perk up a bit more herself.
"Oh please, Blaze! You were always far more into stuff like that than me. I'm sure its because you hung around with the guys more than you did with us girls, just look what its done to you!"
"What do you mean, look what its done to me!" Blaze laughed. "I'm doing just fine, thanks!"
"I'm glad, Blaze." Mercury smiled softly, "I really am. And maybe if you'll help me, I can be too? After all, there is only one mutant I've ever met who could completely suppress her powers..."
A slow chill ran up Blaze's spine, a lump rose in her throat. Mercury was right; Blaze was the only one who could teach her all she knew to survive and resist her mutation. And then it dawned on Blaze that here was someone who needed her. Her, not the X-Men, not Gambit, not even Xavier. Mercury smiled a thin smile as she watched a slow change wash over Blaze, knowing now she had Blaze exactly where she needed her...