Of Beast And Blade

by Scribbler

[AU] In a distant realm where sword and sorcery rule, unlikely heroes have been chosen to save their world. [Ch20: Ororo finally shows her true colours. Meanwhile, Tabby's dramatic appearance in the fight against Sabertooth may be a double edged sword]

9. Danger At The River

DISCLAIMER: X-Men: Evo belongs to Warner Bros. And Marvel Comics. I have never, and shall never own them, no matter how much I may want to. I've simply warped them to fit my own twisted mind. However, this fic and any original work herein is officially mine, and anyone trying to steal it will find out how painful a weapon a computer mouse can when used by someone with imagination.

WARNINGS: This is an AU (Alternative Universe) fic. Everything has been transplanted into a fantasy universe of my creation. Inspirations, despite what you might initially think, aren't actually from a certain Peter-Jackson-esque film, since I started work on this before I ever *saw* that movie. Influences rather include InterNutter's spiffy fic 'Mein Teuful' (if you haven't yet read this then go do it *now*!) and various other sources I'll explain later.

CODES:
Hello = Narration
~ Hello ~ = Thought
"Hello" = Character Speaking
*Hello* = Bold
//Hello// = Psychic communication

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Hello again. After two essays, five internet briefing papers and a lotta scribing on InterNutter's Bulletin Board, I have returned to OBAB in a blaze of glory. Well, perhaps not quite a blaze, more of a flicker really, but you get the picture. I actually pulled the lead out a little early to release this chapter, and this is mainly for two reasons. Reason number one: I promised InterNutter that if she let me archive a new fic on her site I'd dedicate this instalment to her. I luv ya, 'Nutter! Reason number two: I had a chapter of someone else's fic dedicated to me! Simmysim, this one's for you too. As soon as you've finished reading, get back yo writing more of 'fantasy', y'hear!

Quick notelets; *please* will people review when they read this fic. I was looking back over the old reviews and I had such a great response to the Prologue, but thing's seem to have dwindled since then. Also, Sujakata, you definitely win the prize for longest review I've ever had. Not that I'm complaining, of course. ^_____^ Feedback beats Ambrosia as a food of the gods. Lemme know what y'all think of this chapter too, OK? Art still very much welcome, peeps! (It's my birthday on December 15th, and that date also marks a whole years since I joined ff.net, too).

Last thing now: inspiration for this instalment came from a piccy I found whilst net-trawling back in April. Harry, no it's not Poopsie, but good guess. Hopefully this critter would be able to hold its own against Poopsie, though. You can look at the image now, but I'd advise viewing it after the creature makes its appearance in the fic, otherwise there'll be no sense of surprise, now, will there?

http://www.poolofradiance.com/viewin_woc.htm?thirded/thirded_lg/Displacer-Beast.jpg

Or just go to www.poolofradiance.com and click on the Displacer Beast icon, same as with the chimera a few chapters back.

Enough jabbering now. On with the fic!

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'Of Beast And Blade' By Scribbler
Chapter Seven ~ 'Danger At The River'

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'Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.'-- Mahatma Gandhi

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The world was quiet. Save for the scuttling of a mouse or other such rodent now and then, nothing stirred and nothing moved. It was as if the very air was sleeping, couched in the moon's soft gleam. An aura of peace surrounded everything, infecting everybody with its indubitable calm and natural serenity.

All except one person.

Kurt lay on his back in the aged Oak tree, staring through the branches at the sky. It was a deep bluish black. The colour of his own hair, yet enriched with an unfathomable quality that had both entranced and frightened superstitious folk for centuries, and would no doubt do so for centuries more. It was a cloudless night, and the rich canvas was liberally speckled with bright stars. A sliver of moon was clearly visible, sliced through by a jutting branch that ostensibly speared its luminescence with dark shadow. In all, it was a beautiful sight.

Yet Kurt barely registered this as he sprawled on his perch, golden eyes unfocused and staring at nothing in particular. Inattentively he sighed and scratched his ear. A few blue hairs came loose and floated gently away from him, to be caught by an errant zephyr and whipped away. Abruptly his gaze snapped into focus and he followed their progress, watching until even he couldn't see them any more.

He grunted, and turned over, careful to be absolutely silent lest he wake either Kitty or Rogue. Those two had been quiet ever since Rogue's little outburst previously, and he didn't want to interrupt their slumber and incur her wrath simply because *he* couldn't sleep.

It wasn't that he wasn't tired - far from it. His lids called desperately for sleep, but somehow his mind remained too active for him to rest yet. Where his body craved slumber, his brain just kept on going. And going. And going.

Specifically, it kept going concerning one thing in particular, and it involved Kitty's facetious comment from earlier.

The suggestion that he might have fleas had bothered Kurt more than he'd let on. He was a fastidiously clean person when he got the chance, and though this wasn't always possible living in a forest, he'd always been careful not to pick up any unwanted houseguests. Or, if he had, he'd been quick to notice and rid himself of them before he became infested, or worse. But now....

Innocent as Kitty's comment had been, Kurt now found himself unconsciously scratching his fur a lot more than usual. Oh sure, he'd had the occasional itch before, but nothing serious. Nothing that might indicate he had *fleas*. He'd always been so watchful about things like that. Still, there hadn't really been time on their journey thus far to conduct a thorough check of his hide for visitors, but surely he would have known if they were there. Surely?

His three-fingered hand strayed to his arm and curled into the soft hair there, scratching gently at the skin beneath. Kurt's eyes widened as he realised what he was doing, and hastily dropped the offending limb so that it dangled off the branch, as far away from his body as it could go.

However, that wasn't enough.

Another tickly sensation started up at the base of his spine, and before he could stop it, his long tail had flicked up and was using its triangular tip as an effective scratching implement. After a brief moment of relief, Kurt wilfully lay his tail flat on the bark behind him, using the feel of the rough bark against the hyper-sensitive skin there as an indicator where the all-too-good-at-scratching appendage was.

A moth fluttered past his face. Its flight was wayward and erratic, much like his thoughts. They flitted from one thing to another, never really settling and invariably returning to the topic that had claimed most of his mind. Yet more itchy patches had started up on his shin and neck, but he resisted the urge to scratch at them. That is, until more manifested on his stomach, chest and shoulder blade, at which point he gave in and sat bolt upright, clawing at himself like a tiger in a fury.

~Right. That's it. I'm going to have another wash!~ he thought vehemently when this fierce scratching session was over.

Sliding with cat-like precision and grace along his branch to the tree trunk, Kurt proceeded to swiftly descend to the ground. Once there, he allowed for a quick glance around him - nothing had stirred, so he assumed both girls were still sleeping soundly, but it always paid to be careful around Rogue - before scampering off towards the riverbank.

However, he hadn't gone more than a few steps when something caught his attention. Or, more accurately, the attention of his sensitive nose. His nostrils twitched as a familiar scent assaulted them, only to be whipped away again on the night breeze.

He froze.

~Was that...?~ He sniffed again, turning his head in the direction of the delicious aroma. As tempting as washing was, Kurt's overpowering appetite generally always won out when he was forced into making a decision between food and cleanliness. Noiselessly he spun round and followed his snout.

The scent led him further downstream, to a spot almost completely overgrown with trees, shrubs and all manner of other plant life. He would have continued through the treetops, but the smell seemed to be coming from ground level, and he dropped to all fours with his nose to the ground like a dog.

Finally, when the overpowering greenery made it almost impossible to move, and he was on the verge of giving up, he spotted them.

~Ah, mushrooms. I knew it!~ he thought happily as his keen eyesight espied the diminutive clump of greyish fungi through the near-impenetrable mass of overhanging bracken.

Crouching low, he crawled on his belly beneath the bracken towards the tantalizing cluster. Deftly he chose one and broke it of at the base of the stem. Giving it a precursory sniff to determine its edibility, he popped it whole into his mouth, a large grin spreading across his face as the flavour hit his taste buds. It was just as he remembered, a hint above blandness, but tangy nonetheless.

In virtually no time, all that was left of them were several stumps and a very satisfied elf, licking his chops.

Absently he cleaned the last crumbs from his facial fur, feline style, liberally smearing the side of his hand with spit and catching the excess in it. This unconscious action evoked a cognisant thought.

~Oh ja, bath-time.~ He broke off swabbing to sit up, poking his head through the thick fronds.

It was then that Kurt realised just *how* far downstream his mushroom-quest had taken him. He didn't recognise this area at all, and mounds of solid foliage obscured his view in every direction.

~Mein Gott, how far did I go?~ he wondered.

The sound of rushing water reached his ears. He was still quite close to the river then, although he couldn't see it from here.

~Oh well, this spot should be as good as any for a wash. I'll just follow the bank back to the tree afterwards. At least here there'll be less chance of waking Rogue or Kitty with my splashing.~

With this decision out of the way, Kurt pushed his way through the bracken and other greenery towards the sound of the water.

It was hard going, and eventually he elected that travelling beneath the leaves was easier than trying to struggle through them. A lot less of his fur painfully snagged on twigs that way, and he acquired fewer bald patches as a result.

He was just coming to the very edge of the foliage - apparently it stretched right to the edge of the bank, dipping several leaf tips into the water itself - and the promise of sanitation when he found them.

At first he thought he'd touched the dead body of some animal when he put his hand down and instead of finding hard ground it sank into something soft and warm. He yanked it back, inadvertently shaking all three fingers in disgust. Then he realised that it couldn't be a corpse because the smell was all wrong. It smelled musky, but not putrid as rotting flesh would do. More stale, like old sweat and dirt - although that was putting it generally. There was dirt everywhere around him.

Cautiously he leaned towards the soft mound and inhaled its scent. There was something recognizable, but he couldn't quite place it. It hadn't moved when he'd stepped on it, so he reached out and tentatively prodded. The tiny heap remained still. Inanimate. He prodded it again, with the same results. Heartened that it didn't appear to be about to leap up and bite him, the blue-furred boy laid one palm on it. It was soft yet scratchy, like the old blanket he'd used as part of his bed at home. He gripped it gently and dragged it towards him. Still no movement. He dragged it a little more. His sharp golden eyes could make out its shape now, and this too seemed very familiar.

When it was close enough, Kurt held the thing up to get a better look at it. It appeared to be some item of clothing. Wide and baggy, it was several moments before he saw it for what it really was.

A skirt.

A skirt? What was a skirt doing out here in the middle of nowhere?

Kurt leaned forwards and grasped the rest of the pile. They were all various forms of attire. All female, and all were imbued with the same musky scent.

What on earth was going on here? They might be the remains of an animal attack. But then, what kind of creature would leave the clothes intact when it devoured the body? He doubted there was anything capable of doing so, but his experience with the chimera had proved to him that there were beasts in this world he'd never even conceived existed. Perhaps one of them was responsible for this pitiable pile?

But no, he quickly dismissed the idea of it being an attack of any kind - bestial or otherwise. For one thing, there was no blood anywhere around, and he couldn't scent any on the breeze. For another, the area was completely unscathed and there were no signs of a struggle. How strange. He'd stumbled upon a miniature mystery without even looking for it.

Kurt's head cocked to one side in thought, and his ears twitched as they always did when he was confused or puzzled.

Abruptly in the silence that ensued, he suddenly became aware of a noise. A faint splashing, like when water being pulled along by a current comes up against a rock. It was coming from further ahead.

Thinking it might possibly have something to do with his mystery, Kurt padded forwards a short distance, the clothes still in his hands, and surreptitiously poked his head above the bracken to investigate.

What he saw made him colour right down to the roots of his fur, and he had to stifle a gasp by ramming his hand into his mouth.

A figure stood some way out in the river, just far enough that the water level came up above its hips - which was shallow where the depths of the Danub were concerned. It was a female, and she was completely naked, fortunately with her back to Kurt. A mop of unruly brown hair stretched down her spine, dripping wet. Water splashed faintly against her porcelain skin as it rushed past, and as she turned around the furry boy turned four shades of red when her face was revealed.

It was Kitty!

Kurt ducked down into the concealment of the bracken. It seemed Kitty'd had the same idea as himself about a midnight wash. The privacy of the night had suited her clandestine needs, it seemed, as had this removed spot downstream. With a silence he wouldn't have thought possible of her, she must have slipped away to bathe without the threat of her companions waking and chancing upon her.

~Und here I am nearly waltzing straight in on her!~ Kurt mentally berated himself, although the mistake was hardly his fault.

He waited for a few seconds until he was sure she hadn't seen him, and then began to quietly creep away.

He was back at the sad little clump of non-mushrooms before he realised that, in his haste, he'd forgotten to leave behind her clothes. They were still tightly clasped in his own thick fingers.

Cursing himself under his breath, he turned around and went back, praying she hadn't left the water yet and found her garments missing.

She hadn't. Forced by necessity to see where she was, Kurt popped his face above the bracken once more. Kitty still stood in the water. She was facing the bank now, but her hands were held to her face as she washed it and her arms obscured most of her front. He dropped her clothes in roughly the same place he'd found them, and risked a last glance at the river to make sure she wasn't about to leave it and catch him there.

Moonlight bounced off the Changeling's skin, giving her an ethereal quality that sunlight just couldn't compete with. She seemed so delicate, like she was made of fine crystal, and liable to shatter at any moment. Kurt's head made to turn away, but his golden eyes remained. Held fast by the untimely beauty imbued upon her by the Lady Moon.

It occurred to his id that he'd never seen a female body before. His consciousness was too firmly fixed on Kitty to acknowledge this musing, but his subliminal mind recognized it immediately. His life of coerced solitude and general looks hadn't allowed for him to make many acquaintances, least of all female ones. Of course, there had been his mother, but she'd seemed so regal in her magenta robes that to think what lay beneath was too blasphemous for words. Somehow she'd always been classified in his mind as mother first, woman second, and all other observations of her had followed in the same order.

Thus it was with almost childlike inquisitiveness that Kurt stared at the pale form bathing in the moon's soft glow. There was no smuttiness to his gaze, only innocent curiosity. Like a newborn rabbit kit emerging from its birthing burrow for the first time, to look upon the outside world, so different from the close, dark world it was used to.

Kurt knew girls were different than boys, but the details weren't something he'd ever bothered himself with. As far as he'd been concerned when growing up, the only way to tell them apart was that boys threw rocks when they saw him, whilst girls screamed at the first hint of blue fur. Either way, hostility was all he'd ever known, and physical observations had only stretched to 'no fur, so they won't like me because I'm different than them.'

Kitty bent down, dragging his thoughts with her. Almost languidly she cupped a pool of water in her hands and dashed it against her face. Her expression was one of happiness - almost glee - as she sprayed herself with the cooling liquid, removing the accumulated grime and filth from her skin. Cleansing herself in more ways than one. Small droplets coursed down her cheekbones, plopping back into the water with inaudible drips.

She straightened up again, tilting her head and closing her eyes to the splinter of moon. Her lips curved into a relaxed smile as she simply let the water wash about her, revelling in the soothing sensation of the peaceful night. All her bravado and daring façade melted away under the unprecedented sheen, and she was left as she was. An adolescent girl, at peace with herself and the world around her. In her contented nakedness, Kurt thought that he'd never seen her look lovelier. To him, she seemed radiant.

They stayed that way for quite a few minutes, neither moving, and only one being aware of the other. The solitary sound was that of the river, which noted them with the same damp indifference as it had seen the universe for countless years. It was uninterested in these two. They were insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and none of its concern. To coin a phrase, they barely made a ripple in its consideration.

However, at that moment, something else rippled its attention. Something that it could not ignore. This thing made fewer physical waves than the bathing girl, but its impact on the river was instantaneous. Those acutely in tune with nature would have sensed the change in the atmosphere immediately. A sense of impending kismet. Of a released darkness, which altered the very fabric of the unresponsive river, making it dangerous and foreboding without actually altering its face.

Of all this, both Kitty and Kurt were ignorant. Kitty wasn't insightful enough to sense it, and though Kurt may have been able to had he been concentrating, he was too absorbed at present to notice it either. Silently the darkness locked onto them. In that instant, their fate was sealed.

Kurt was the first to see it, despite his interest being elsewhere. A shadow on the water's surface: or at least that was what he thought. That is, until it started moving.

It was in the middle of the river, where the water was deeper, and flitted about constantly. He half-considered it to be merely the product of his overtired brain, but something about it told him otherwise. It was too solid, too corporeal for that. His gaze reluctantly transferred from Kitty to this darting blackness.

It was strange. Notwithstanding its erratic movement, the shadow was moving in a single general direction - towards the bank. As it drew closer, Kurt's keen vision perceived that it was not a silhouette reflected upon the surface as he'd at first thought, but rather a black mass beneath it. It was large, and grew as it entered the shallows, like a large object coming more into focus with the absence of depth to hide it.

Too late he realised what its intentions and goal must be.

Kitty was peacefully oblivious of any danger until it struck. One moment she was blissfully immersing herself in the moon's pale illumination, the next the water beside her had quite literally exploded and she found herself hurled into the air and splashing down several feet away. Coughing and spluttering she struggled to right herself, but slipped and crashed into the frothy liquid once more.

"Kätzchen!"

A voice. Calling her name. Kurt? What was he doing here? Come to think of it, where exactly *was* he? Kitty's mouth filled with water as she tried to suck in a lungful of air. What in all Seven Hells was going on?

Finding her feet, she stood up, clutching at her chest in an effort to conceal herself and retain some shred of dignity.

Through the haze of fluid clouding her eyes Kitty saw a familiar blue figure bounding from the bracken onshore and jumping into the shallows with a loud splash. Water dripped off her nose and she thought angrily to herself:

~Kurt? What's he like, playing at? He's supposed to be *asleep*! Man, I never like, figured him for a pervert!~ She glared at him, yet he kept on coming towards her. But there was something fluttering in his hands, and one look at his worried face instantly told her that it hadn't been him that disturbed her peace and sent her sprawling. A cold hand of fear suddenly gripped the Changeling's heart.

If it hadn't been Kurt, then what *had* attacked her?

Her answer was delivered directly. Kitty barely had time to register that Kurt was running towards her before a veritable wall of water obscured him. It gushed up in front of her, to come smashing down on top of her head, beating her to her knees with its sheer force.

Kitty gasped, but her maw filled with liquid and her lungs spasmed to rid themselves of it. She crouched on her knees, water reaching up to her neck and her entire frame wracked with sobbing coughs that seemed to shake her very bones. Her muscles hurt under the torrent of water, and she lifted her eyes to see what had caused such a massive fountain.

Yet her attacker still chose to remain unseen. All Kitty glimpsed before it disappeared again was a flash of bluish-black hide.

Desperately she cast about her, but it was nowhere to be seen. Fear tensed its grip inside her chest, moving downwards to her stomach where it became a block of ice, weighing her down.

"Kätzchen!" Kurt burst through the froth, a flailing mass of slicked blue fur and anxious golden eyes. He landed next to her, his expression one of concern. "Kätzchen, are you all right?"

In spite of their predicament, Kitty couldn't help a spark of anger flaring up inside her chest.

"Kurt, what are you, like, doing here? You're meant to be back at the tree!" Her tone was accusing, and Kurt bowed his head, abashed.

"I'm sorry, Kleines. I didn't mean to spy, honest I didn't. But right now we've got bigger things to worry about."

"Like what?"

"Like *that*!" He pointed to where the dark shadow was visible beneath the glassy surface once more.

Hastily he handed the girl several drenched items she discerned as her clothes. She threw the biggest - her skirt - around her shoulders as a makeshift shroud just before the water before them erupted again. Kurt grabbed her hand, and together they were buffeted aside by the gigantic swell that accompanied the explosion.

When they finally came to a stop Kitty perceived that they'd been moved a substantial distance away from the shore. When standing up the water now easily reached her chest. Not a good sign. Frantically she held on to Kurt's tridactyl hand. She still had absolutely no idea what was going on, and the not knowing scared her just as much as the assailant did.

Kurt stood quite still, relying on his hypersensitive instincts to observe where the shadow was. Golden orbs scanned the water, but the increased deepness made it difficult to distinguish one shadow from another. Still he concentrated. He concentrated so much that the backs of his eyeballs hurt and his mind ached trying to split such intense focus between all of his senses. He felt Kitty's grip on his hand tighten in fear, and beat down his own trepidation for her sake. He couldn't crack, not now. Not when so much rode on his keeping a clear head.

There, to their right. A flash of blackness too deep and pure to be a normal shadow. Kurt leapt aside, dragging Kitty unceremoniously with him. A nanosecond after they moved the water where they'd been spewed upwards in a veritable geyser of flotsam and foam. Kitty huddled against him, yanking the skirt closer around her slender frame and staring in terror up at the demonic apparition that rose from the water.

The attacker paused for a moment after it broke free of the surface, glaring at them with a look that seemed to say: 'How dare you move when I'm coming for you, you insolent little whelps!' Golden and blue eyes gawped at it, and their insides knotted with dread.

It was feline in appearance, but much bigger than any cat either of them had ever come across before - even Kurt's puma. About six feet in height at the shoulder, it resembled a large panther, with bluish-black fur slicked to its body like a second skin. However, this was where the similarity ended.

Water coursed copiously from the creature's spindly yet powerful frame, all but eclipsing the six legs attached to its underside. Each limb seemed incongruously frail, but the strength that lay in each of them was patently obvious all the same.

A long, thin, whip-like tail sprouted form its hindquarters, lashing furiously about and sending up a smaller spray to accompany the larger one falling all about it. The tail was vaguely reptilian, but the feet and legs looked more like those of a wolf. It was thinner than either adolescent could have thought possible unless through starvation. Its belly was having a conversation with its backbone, and every rib was painfully visible through husping skin.

Two things caught their attention most of all in that split second when it paused long enough to stare and give them a chance to see it properly. The first was its head, which was that of a panther, but contained several extra rows of needle-sharp yellow fangs, all dripping with fetid saliva as well as water. Its nose was blood red and its lips were drawn back into a permanent snarl of hatred.

Its eyes were no more than a pair of lustrous green slits, devoid of pupils and the merest hint of compassion. Its gaze was cold, but frighteningly intelligent. Whereas the chimera had been terrifying but instinctive, this creature possessed a harsh shrewdness behind those blank eyes that rivalled the sentience of any humanoid. If eyes are the windows to the soul, then this strange beast had a soul of blackest ice.

The other thing - or rather, things - that claimed their attention were the two long, muscular tentacles growing from just behind the creature's first set of shoulders. Each was at least twenty feet long and tipped with a large flat diamond of flesh covered in wickedly jagged barbs, each several inches in length and deadly down to their honed point.

It was as if someone had taken a wildcat and an octopus and merged them together to create this hideous, astute monster. Truly, a freak of nature.

If ever a more demoniacal spectre existed, then neither Kitty nor Kurt had ever come across it. This thing seemed to embody all the fears and hatred contained in the universe, rolling them into a ball and liberally smearing itself in them. It stood before them, oozing odium from every pore and seeking something - anything - on which to vent this unadulterated loathing.

Two emerald eyelets glared at them and a hiss like that of a hot sword being plunged into cold water slithered from its jaws.

"Oh gods!" Kitty whimpered, not taking her eyes off it. "A Displacer Beast!"

"A what?" Kurt demanded, but his query went unanswered as the alien creature chose that moment to cease its glowering and lunge at the pair.

Kurt leaped adroitly aside, neatly avoiding the snapping teeth, but from high overhead one of the tentacles came crashing down, and though he spun nimbly away to avoid it his hand was roughly wrenched from Kitty's in the process. He heard her squeal in panic and sudden hurt, but was too busy evading the thrashing limb to get to her.

"Kätzchen!" he yelled, but the cry was lost in the noise of splashing water as the Displacer Beast plunged beneath the surface once more, sending up a fine spray of erstwhile harmless fluid. Kurt spluttered as it vanished, leaving him crouching chest deep in water with no sign of Kitty anywhere.

The blue-furred boy scrambled to his feet. "Kätzchen!" he called desperately. "Kitty! Where are you?"

No answer.

A terrible sinking feeling manifested inside of Kurt, and he cupped his hands around his mouth, not caring if the Displacer Beast came back as long as he could find the Changeling girl.

"Kitty? Kleines? Wo sind Sie?"

Still nothing.

The dreadful feeling increased. Oh gods, what if something had happened to her? It was all his fault. He shouldn't have let go of her hand. How could he ever forgive himself if....

"Kurt...." A voice, weak and soft but there nonetheless, filtered through the haze of self-doubt clouding the boy's mind. He heard it and spun round in the direction it was coming from.

"Kitty? Are you there? Speak to me!"

"I'm over here...."

He swivelled round. There! There she was! In the shallows again. Ostensibly, the beast's assault had knocked the brown haired girl back towards the riverbank, and she knelt there, water lapping against her helplessly nude body.

"Kitty!" Kurt cried happily. He rushed to her side, ecstatic despite their quandary at seeing her alive. For one gods-forsaken moment there he'd thought.... Well, what he'd thought was just too horrible to contemplate, and he pushed it from his psyche in favour of pleasure at seeing her alive and well.

But no, something was wrong. Kitty was alive alright, but she wasn't 'well'. Her arms were clasped around her bare abdomen, and her pretty face was contorted into a strained mask of pain. Kurt's expression faltered.

"Kätzchen, are you OK?"

She didn't look up. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you alright?"

"Ja." He studied her face with a trained eye. "But you're lying to me. You're hurt."

"Just a scratch," she replied. "It doesn't matter. What *does* matter is that we get away before the Displacer Beast comes back."

Kurt couldn't argue with this sensible deduction, but he was still worried about her. She shivered, clutching the pitiful covering tightly around her and trying to rise whilst maintaining some amount of decorum. One hand flew to cover her bare chest, and with its removal from her abdomen a thread of crimson leaked over her other arm and dripped into the water.

"You *are* hurt!" Kurt exclaimed. Without hesitation he pulled his own threadbare shirt off and pulled it over her head to remove some of her embarrassment. "Here wear this, it'll staunch the blood if you hold it against your wound."

Kitty nodded dumbly. The cut across her stomach was only a flesh wound and not really serious, but sure as hell hurt! Kurt's shirt, however, slipped easily over her and was baggy enough to cover most of her extremities, for which she was glad. At least she wasn't so discomfited now.

Kurt stared at where the blood had formed a red mist in the liquid around them. There was blood in the water. They had to get away *now*. If this 'Displacer Beast' was a carnivore - and, judging by its teeth alone, it was - then it could probably sense this. The blood would act as a homing beacon straight to them.

"We have to get ashore, right now!" he said. "Hopefully that'll slow it down."

"Fat chance! It's a *Displacer Beast*. It can walk on land too," Kitty said pessimistically, as if he should know what this meant. However, she did as he said, and scrambled for the overgrown shoreline.

Kitty was first to clamber out, and turned to hold out her hand as Kurt followed suit. Gratefully he grasped it, using her as a lever to haul himself up, but the bank was slippery, and his fur-covered feet were wet. He slipped, and sprawled facedown in the mud and bracken. It was only his grip on Kitty that prevented him from falling in again.

Kitty's head jerked up as a familiar dark shape powered into view several feet behind him.

"Hurry Kurt, it's coming!" she yelled, giving his arm a sharp tug to help.

Slipping and slithering, Kurt gained a purchase and crawled onto the bank, lashing his tail furiously from side to side to maintain balance.

Abruptly the water they'd just left parted in a shower of droplets as a repugnant panther-like head thrust its way up. Without vacillation - almost like it had planned it - the Displacer Beast stretched its neck and clamped its front teeth around the end of Kurt's tail. He cried out at the burst of intense agony from the extra-sensitive appendage, but it was cut short as the creature jerked back and dragged him bodily underwater with it.

Kitty stumbled as his hand was snatched from her own.

"Kurt!"

The only indication of his position was the mass of bubbles where he'd disappeared. Kitty strained to see something, some sign that he was OK, but looking into the water from outside rendered her to all intents and purposes blind.

She stood up, preparing to jump in after him. It was foolish, she knew. After all, this was a Displacer Beast they were dealing with here. One of the deadliest creatures in the world, it was rare for one to be spotted, and even rarer for an encounter with one to be survived. But she couldn't just leave Kurt to drown or be ripped apart. She couldn't! Her heart sank within her breast at the mere prospect, and without hesitation the slender girl made as if to leap.

Yet there was no need for her to go into the water, because at that precise moment the duo of elf and beast broke the surface again. Kurt struggled vainly from where part of his waist was clamed firmly between the creature's immense jaws, beating at it with his fists. His efforts were like a fly to a lion, and he yelled as it tightened its clench and threw its head from side to side like a dog with a rabbit.

Kurt became a blur of indigo and pain-filled screams. Kitty stared in horror at the scene playing out in front of her.

"Kurt!" she yelled uselessly. "Kurt!"

A growl rent the air. A growl that stilled her heart and widened her eyes as it vibrated the ground under her bare feet. Kurt's cries were instantly dwarfed by this terrifying growl - hidden behind it. Birds that had erstwhile been roosting peacefully in the surrounding trees took to the air in fright, and everywhere was filled with their startled bickering and calling.

Kurt felt the rumble slam through his body, shaking him down to his bones. It was petrifying, but the sharp teeth pressing into him reminded him of his physical body and prevented his natural instinct of freezing in panic. Instead, he leaned forward, back muscles screaming as they bent more than they were supposed to, and rammed his fingers hard into one green eye.

The Displacer Beast roared in pain and fury. In doing so, it opened its mouth wider, just as Kurt had planned, and he rolled dexterously out to splash down in the water. Barely pausing long enough to regain his feet, Kurt sprinted for the shore, and utilizing a strength borne of fear he leaped clean out of the river and landed heavily beside Kitty.

"Come on!" he barked, taking her hand and bolting through the thick undergrowth. The Changeling was literally dragged along behind him, but made no protest. In fact, when an angry snarl sounded out behind them it was all Kurt could do to keep up with the speeding girl.

They ran as fast as they could, but were forced to alter their direction when another snarl originated from their left. The two adolescents banked right, barrelling through as speedily as the thick greenery would let them. There was no time to think, no time to consider their options. There was only time to flee. Everything worked on instinct, sentient thought temporarily shelved in favour of survival impulses.

The sound of a bulky body crashing through the foliage. Where? To the right. Go left. Keep running. Don't stop. Don't look back. Just keep going. Keep going. Nothing was as important as keeping going and avoiding the thing that was tracking them.

Kurt vaulted over a sizable rock blocking their path, but Kitty glanced off it as she tried to go around, shaving precious seconds off their escape time. A smear of red appeared on the drenched shirt, and she clutched it to herself, sticking to the elf's earlier advice and using it to stem the blood. Red hot shards of pain lanced though her body, but she pushed herself onwards despite them. She couldn't crack. She wouldn't let herself crack! If she faltered then they were both dead. She couldn't do that to Kurt, not after he'd risked his life to save her.

She knew that he could go much faster if not hampered by her clumsy body, but he refused to adhere to the path decreed by logic and the law of survival by leaving her behind. Her resolve hardened, and she urged her legs to move faster than they'd ever moved before. Faster than was humanly possible. Faster, faster, always faster, because faster was what they needed to stay alive.

However, always they were dodging. Wherever they went, a growl would start up to their left, or they'd hear crashing footsteps to their right and be coerced into taking another line of flight. They changed direction so many times that soon Kitty was hopelessly lost, and trusted solely to Kurt's senses to get them safely away from there.

It was this notion that sparked another, more serious one within her mind.

~Oh gods, what are we, like, gonna do if we *can't* lose this thing? We can't fight it, it's too strong. Oh gods, help us. Please!~

She sent up a silent prayer to all the gods she knew of, and some she didn't, begging them to show mercy and remove them from this lethal dilemma they now found themselves in. Her feet ached and bled as the ground cut them open, her breath came in ragged gasps, and the flesh of her belly stung horribly, but still she muttered taciturnly for some miracle to rescue them.

Kurt had no time for such frivolities. He was much too concerned with keeping one step ahead of the Displacer Beast. He could discern it clearly, whether by sight or sound, moving almost beside them but staying predominantly hidden, and curiously making no move to strike. It remained a constant distance away, making itself known intermittently - enough that they could avoid it - but never attacking.

Kurt's golden eyes narrowed. Something was wrong with this behaviour. He'd seen that creature up close. There was no playfulness in its eyes. This was not some tame housecat that played with its prey, no matter how much it resembled a feline in appearance. This was a killer. A hunter. Purely and simply, a towering mass of lethal flesh and cold deviousness. So why, with its obvious intelligence, wasn't it attacking them whilst it had the chance? It didn't make sense. Several times Kurt was aware of just how open and vulnerable they were, but still no aggression was forthcoming. It was almost as if it was waiting for something....

He came upon his answers a few sickening seconds later, when he stumbled forwards through the underbrush, only to find himself teetering on the brink of the river once more. The ground at his feet was churned and muddy, clear evidence of his own earlier struggle.

At once he realized what the Displacer Beast had been up to. It hadn't been chasing them at all, it had been *herding* them. Like a dog herds hapless sheep, and they'd done exactly what it wanted by going back to the very location where it had all the advantages and where they had nowhere to go but into the water or along the bank. A place where it could reach them, and was no doubt already waiting. He cursed himself and his own absence of forethought under his breath.

"Scheiße! Was habe ich jetzt getan? Ich bin solch ein Idiot! Ich sollte gewußt haben."

"Kurt?" Kitty's shaky voice, tight with suppressed fear, splintered through his mental abuse of himself. "What are we doing back here? I thought we were trying to get away."

"We were, Kätzchen - I mean, we are! But that.... that.... *thing* has forced us back here somehow. It's been shepherding us this whole time."

"Oh gods." Her words came out as a strangled whisper. She was obviously utterly terrified, but trying her best not to show it.

Kurt's jaw set. Things looked bad, but he wasn't going to crumble. She needed him to be strong. She needed him to be there for her. She needed him....

A deafening roar gashed the night air. Kurt spun round and tackled Kitty roughly to the ground. She lay there, all the wind knocked from her lungs and Kurt lying beside her, golden eyes wide and darting about. His nose wrinkled as he scented for their pursuer, but the water made it difficult to trace. Everything smelled the same - washed out and tinctured with mud and blood. He snorted as these foul stenches filled his nostrils. Blood. Soil. Dank. Wet. Where was that thing anyway? He hadn't heard a splash as it entered the water, but sound was no indication with this beast. It was clever. The absence of scent told him it was masking itself somehow, and the river seemed the obvious answer. Then again, the Displacer Beast had already proven that he should expect the unexpected from it. The obvious answer was no ally any more.

Kurt leaned towards Kitty and whispered softly into her ear; "Try to crawl away underneath the bracken. Be careful not to make any noise or sudden movements." He didn't tell her that he still wasn't sure of its position, and she - as he'd intended - took his plan to mean that he knew where it was and so they were edging away from it.

Almost soundlessly they crept under the hanging fronds of bracken, all but holding their breath so as not to make a noise. Kitty's lungs burned, but she forced herself to take small, quiet breaths instead of the long shuddering gasps they demanded.

One side of Kurt's waist ached unbearably where the Displacer Beast's jaws had clamped around him. His fur had acted as a barrier against its sharp teeth, but he was badly bruised, and winced every time the muscles there contracted. Gritting his teeth, he struggled onwards.

They'd gone but a few feet when the undergrowth in front of them was suddenly ripped aside by a massive paw, to be replaced by the snarling maw and jagged fangs of the waiting Displacer Beast. Kitty, who was slightly in front of Kurt, felt its hot breath on her face, and was unable to contain herself any longer. She screamed, throwing herself backwards away from the creature. Kurt yelped as she cannoned into him, jolting his bruised side.

The beast glared at them from where it stood, saliva oozing over its lips. The green eyes narrowed, and it tensed its muscles ready to pounce. Kurt noted its action with alarm.

"Move! Move!" he shouted, scrambling to his feet.

The beast was too fast. It sprang at the slower Kitty, pinning her to the floor with its foremost front claws pressed to her shoulders. She screamed again. A long, panic filled scream that echoed throughout the forest.

Kurt whirled round, gaping in horror at what was happening.

"KITTY!"

He ran back, but before he could reach them one of the Displacer Beast's long tentacles snaked out of the sky and smacked hard against him. Luckily for him, it was the fleshy side that struck him and not the bony spikes, which would have caused much more damage. As it was he was thrown to the ground, winded but otherwise unhurt.

"Ki... Kitty..." Kurt wheezed, unable to catch his breath. He could see her; petrified beneath the creature's feet, blue eyes dominating her skull as she watched its gaping jaws descend upon her. He tried to roll over, but lancing pain shot through his side, and he was suddenly aware of just how much his tail wound was scorching him. "Kit.... ty.... Ki...."

Kitty could only stare as the horrible gleaming teeth came towards her face. A globule of spit splattered on her forehead, and she saw her reflection in the soulless emerald eyelets. Her face was streaked and smeared with mud, and her soggy hair splayed raggedly around her head. An incongruously trivial thought popped into her mind.

~Gods, I look a mess!~

Maybe it was the absurdity of this notion, or maybe it was the incarnate death inches from her head, with all the intents of ripping it off. For whatever reason, something abruptly snapped within Kitty. She felt it acutely, like the tether holding down a frisky horse suddenly parting, leaving it free to do as it wished. An almost tangible sensation inside her of a barrier being broken down. Shattered.

And with the removal of it came anger. Anger at this creature for trying to kill her. Anger at the world for humiliating her in front of Kurt. Anger at the throbbing pain of her wound. Anger at everything that had put her in this situation. Yet also, riding on this anger came a curious apathy. A nothingness deep inside her being. A feeling she instantly recognised and embraced.

All this passed in less than a second, but it was a second that Kurt would remember for the rest of his life. Helplessly he watched as the Displacer Beast closed its jaws around Kitty's skull, bringing its teeth together to slice through her flesh.

"*NO*!" he half screeched, half coughed, but it was no use. All the shouting in the world wouldn't change what had just happened.

His mind froze in horrified shock, and the universe seemed to grind to a juddering halt. His vision sharpened to show everything in horrific, stomach churning clarity. He saw the look of triumph in the Displacer Beast's pupil-less eyes. He saw Kitty's body rise slightly as its teeth found a hold in her. He saw the individual droplets of water fall from her brown hair as it left the ground. He saw her fingers splay and shake in agony. He was seeing her die.

Water collected beneath his eyes, but it wasn't river water. This water stung, prickling the backs of his eyeballs with their salty sorrow. He'd failed her. Just as he'd failed his mother. It was exactly the same. He'd had the power to save her, to do something, but he'd failed. And now she was paying the price for his failure. It was his fault. It was *all* his fault.

"Kätzchen..." he stuttered, voice choked with emotion.

Suddenly, Kitty's body twitched. A look of inhuman surprise crossed the Displacer Beast's face, followed by shock as the limp corpse between its jaws moved. The Changeling's arms braced against the ground, and she pushed herself upright into a sitting position. Up she went, her body passing right through its teeth like they were empty air. With a faint gasp of exertion, her head appeared on the other side of its skull.

It gave a growl of confusion and swung its head from side to side to regain its grip, but instead of resuming its hold, it lost even more of it as Kitty phased through it completely to stand upright and walk away. Just like that. From being a dead body, she calmly got up and walked away. The surprise on the creature's face would have been comical if it hadn't been so ghastly.

Kurt staggered to his feet. "Kitty!" he cried, a mixture of joy and trepidation in his tone. He'd heard stories of the walking dead before.

Yet a single glance at her face told him that she wasn't one of the undead at all. In fact, she was more alive looking than he'd ever seen her. She was actually smiling. He almost laughed. A broad grin split her face; as if escaping from the jaws of death was something she did all the time.

The Displacer Beast shook its head. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Always when it killed its prey, the victim stayed dead. To have one ostensibly resurrect itself was beyond its capacity to conceive. In true animal fashion, and belying its natural intelligence, it decided that this was prey to be ignored. What use was quarry that kept coming back to life? The hunt was only enjoyable if there was blood at the end.

It looked discerningly at the two humanoids. The female was bad prey, but the other one.... It had held the other one between its teeth, Felt him struggle with the fear of having his life snuffed out. This, it knew, was good prey. Prey that would rip and tear easily under fang and claw. Prey that would bleed and cry out. Prey that would die, and stay dead.

Faster than the eye could see, it shook off its confusion and leaped. Kitty turned at its deafening roar, but it wasn't aiming for her, its escaped quarry. The sleek body flew through the air, seeking the blue furred form in front of her. Like some hellish arrow it streaked towards him, fired straight from the bow of the Evil One himself.

There was no time to run. There was no time to dodge. It was too quick, too insufferably fast for that. Even as Kitty whirled round to shout for Kurt to get away, and even as he threw himself to one side to do so, the beast was descending from its leap, snapping jaws wide to catch him and break his feeble body in two. It was no use. Kurt had no phasing powers to rescue him. He had only his speed and nimbleness, which counted for naught when his pursuer was swifter and more agile than he was.

~I'm going to die!~ was all he had time to think, and in that moment there was no doubt in either of their minds that he was indeed about to perish.

"YAAAAAAAH!"

A solid lump of something suddenly crashed into the Displacer Beast mid-jump. The force of the impact sent it off balance, and its course of flight altered so that it landed in an ungainly heap in the bushes to Kurt's left. Wasting no time, he sped away to his right, but chanced a quick look behind him to see what had happened.

What he saw made his jaw drop.

With a grace incompatible to the situation, but totally suited to her form, Rogue landed where the Displacer Beast should have done. Her hood was back, and her hair was mussed where she'd been rudely awoken from sleeping, but her stance was one of someone completely awake and ready to do battle. Her sword was out, and she glared at the panther-like creature as it rolled to its feet, snarling hot liquid death at the person so audacious as to strike at it when it was pouncing on other prey.

Rogue didn't bat an eyelid at the terrible noise. Instead, she twisted her head slightly over one shoulder, never taking her eyes from the brute, and called out:

"Shrimp! Elf! Y'all OK?"

Kitty appeared at Kurt's shoulder, and answered for them both: "Yeah, we're fine."

Rogue nodded grimly. Her green eyes locked onto the Displacer Beast. She'd never seen something so hideously deformed in all her life, but she refused to be cowed. Rather, her gaze held a hint of challenge.

"Careful, Rogue. That thing's like, a Displacer Beast," Kitty called out.

"What?"

"A *Displacer Beast*!"

The ex-assassin narrowed her eyes until they were little more than harsh slits. A Displacer Beast? But they were mountainous creatures. What was one of them doing near the Danub? Hunting hadn't been sparse recently, and that was the only reason they ever ventured away from their fiercely protected territories. It didn't make any sense.

Then it came to her. The Silver Sword had a Displacer Beast. He was famous for it, since he was the only person ever to capture one without being killed in the process. It was his prized possession. Her agile mind made the connection in an instant.

~He must know I'm coming. I suppose he would with his magic and all. That's probably how he sent it here too. The coward's decided to sic his pet on me instead of facing me himself. Lily-livered Pebehock!~

"Fuzzy, Half-Pint, I want you two to get the hell away from here as fast as you can. You hear me? Go."

"But Rogue - " Kurt started to protest.

"Go! It's here for me, not you. You'll have a better chance of escaping if I keep it busy."

"But - " he began again.

"For gods' sakes, will y'all just *GO*!"

Kitty bit her lip. What Rogue said made sense, but something inside the younger girl balked at the idea of leaving her to face such a demonic beast alone - even if she was just some washed up assassin with a grudge against the world.

~Don't be, like, stupid, Kitty!~ she mentally rebuked herself. ~Rogue's, like, a trained fighter. She can handle herself. You'll totally get in her way if you stick around. Plus, you don't even *like* her, remember. Why should you care whether she lives or dies anyway?~

But she did care. It was completely illogical, but a part of Kitty didn't want Rogue to be ripped to shreds by this unholy creature.

Torn between conflicting emotions, Kitty hovered between flight and staying. Her brain told her to run, to get away from there before it was too late. As the resident expert in monsters, she knew all too well the deadly surprises a Displacer Beast kept hidden in its lethal body. Yet some strange, inexorable force kept her rooted to the spot. A small voice at the back of her mind, calling out to her, and growing louder with every passing second. How could she leave Rogue to fight alone? It was cowardly. Displacer Beasts were rare, and few people knew of their secrets. Did the ex-assassin know enough of them to have a chance of winning against it in combat? How could she flee knowing she might be leaving her to certain death? A Displacer Beast's attacks ran to more than just physical blows.

No such inner conflict existed in Kurt. He took a staggering step forward, refusing to abandon the older girl, but his reversed knees buckled, and he would have fallen helplessly to the ground had Kitty not reached out and grabbed him, using her own body to prop him up.

With this the Changeling's mind was made up. "Come on," she mumbled, half dragging Kurt away. He struggled against her, but she tightened her hold of his slender limbs. A gasp of pain brushed his lips as she inadvertently pressed his side, and his struggles ceased as his concentration switched to beating down the agony flaring inside him. Surely a bruise wasn't meant to hurt *this* much?

Rogue didn't even acknowledge them. Her entire focus was on the Displacer Beast, which now stood before her, muscles bunched in a crouch and reptilian tail lashing in eager anticipation. She shifted her grip on her sword handle, preparing for the attack she knew must come. Whatever happened, she wouldn't let this thing get to either the shrimp or the elf. If it were her it had been sent to eliminate, then it would die by her blade, and her blade alone.

Her mind twitched in protest at this strangely protective instinct, but she pushed it away in favour of awaiting the creature's next move. She knew little of Displacer Beasts or their methods of fighting, and needed to keep her entire focus on this one if she was to have any chance of defeating it.

~Trust the Silver Sword to send something I don't know much about,~ she thought grimly.

For its part, the Displacer Beast just stared at the girl. It recognised the odd, bicoloured hair and curious apparel from the images implanted into its mind by the one who had imprisoned it. The one audacious enough to call himself master, but would never truly be master of the Displacer Beast. It hated him with a vengeance, but even *it* could not resist the orders he'd magically embedded into its brain. They appealed to its natural instincts to hunt and kill, turning them upon themselves so that it would dispose of the target set by this 'master'.

A bestial expression akin to a smile briefly crossed its features. The other two squealing humanoids had been a delightful distraction, but now it had no more use for them. They could go. It was finished with their pitiful screams and attempts at resistance. Now it had found its true target. The one it had been sent to destroy. The one that promised a real fight.

Now was the time for blood.

Without warning it leaped. Rogue dodged, throwing her sword sideways in order to catch it as it careened past, but the creature checked its jump and altered direction to slam into Rogue, avoiding the blade and knocking her from her feet. With a precision born of years of harsh training, Rogue fell into a roll and leapt upright again. However, when she turned to face it, the creature was gone. Melted into the undergrowth where it could attack from any side without being detected.

She cursed under her breath. That had been sloppy. She was lucky to be alive right now after a mistake like that. She listened intently to any noise that might illustrate where the Displacer Beast was hiding, and whirled round at a small sound behind her. Her brows knitted in fury when she saw what had caused it.

"You two? I thought I told y'all to get lost. What are y'all doing here?"

Kurt and Kitty looked sheepish from where they stood a few feet away. Despite all variances, they hadn't been able to just abandon their comrade to a beast that could so easily slay her.

"We couldn't leave you," Kurt piped up, "This is our fight too."

"Oh for crying out loud!" Rogue angrily exclaimed. "Will y'all stop it with the nobler-than-thou crap? This *ain't* your fight, it's mine. The Silver Sword knows I'm coming, and he's made the first move by releasing this thing. *I'm* the one it was sent here to kill, so *I'm* gonna be the one to take care of it, understand? Now get outta here before I kill you both myself!"

Kitty gnawed at her lower lip. She didn't particularly like Rogue, but that was no excuse to just ditch the violent female when she probably didn't know what she was getting herself into.

~After all,~ she reasoned with the part of herself that wanted to run away to safety, ~She did, like, save my life when I was falling off that building in Zanninsa. I guess I should, like, return the favour.~

"No, you don't know what you're dealing with," she rejoined flatly.

"The teeth and claws of a really pissed off monster," Rogue tersely replied. She was in no mood to have her orders ignored, and politeness was very low down on her list of priorities. Didn't these two realize how stupid they were being? She was giving them a chance to escape, and they were throwing it away to stay with her. It was irrational. Idiotic.

Kitty shook her head. "No, you don't understand. There's more to it than that. A Displacer Beast is called that for a *reason*. Plus the spikes on its tentacles are filled with - "

Her sage words were cut off as a loud snarl signified the reappearance of the beast in question. It burst from the undergrowth to their left, and Rogue barely had time to raise her arms to shield her face before it crashed into her, using the momentum of its leap to carry them several feet, over the side of the riverbank and into the water of the Danub itself. They vanished in a flurry of bubbles, and both Kurt and Kitty rushed to the edge to see what was going on.

The liquid churned with an unseen tussle. Through the froth it was impossible to determine who was winning, and they could only hope that their companion was holding her own against the fearsome onslaught of the panther-like animal. Haltingly the clump of bubbles moved further out, as if the combatants and their fight were travelling beneath the surface.

These bubbles became fewer and fewer as the minutes crept passed, and a stark, cold hand of dread enclosed both Kurt and Kitty's hearts as they did so. Despite everything, Rogue was merely human, and humans could only survive underwater for a short amount of time. Time that was rapidly running out.

Three minutes passed, then four. The thrashing-induced foam all but disappeared. Surely she couldn't last much longer? She had to come up for air soon, or else....

Or else....

'Or else' was something neither teenager wanted to consider, but it pushed its way into their contemplations regardless. As the last few bubbles popped and no replacements were forthcoming from the depths the hand of dread extended around their lungs and tightened, making their breath come in short, horrified gasps. She had to surface soon, didn't she?

Didn't she?

Oh gods, what if she didn't come up? What then?

No, that was stupid. Of course she was going to resurface. She was The Rogue. A master of survival. The one who'd thwarted the very Guild of Assassins itself to stay alive. Indestructible. Unyielding.

But what if....

Suddenly the darker water several metres out exploded as Rogue's head broke the surface. Her mouth was open wide, gasping for life-giving air, and a thin cut traced across one cheek, leaking blood into the river. Her hair was plastered to her skull, making her almost unrecognisable, and the pair onshore watched as she sank down again into the much deeper water, arms flailing helplessly, her sword still clutched valiantly in one hand.

At once Kurt realised what was wrong.

"Her armour!" he yelled. "It's weighing her down!"

And it was. Desperately the ex-assassin strove to keep her head above water, but always the burdensome metal encasing her body pulled her beneath the surface of the choking fluid. Slowly but surely, and without any help from the seemingly-vanished Displacer Beast, Rogue was drowning.

"We have to help her!" the furry boy shouted. "We have to do something!"

"What?" Kitty asked commonsensically.

Kurt threw up his oddly shaped hands. "I don't know. Just.... something! She's going to die if we don't help her somehow."

"But what should we do? She's too heavy for us to pull out alone."

Yet in the end, despite Kurt's intentions to aid her, Rogue's head - and indeed, the rest of her, too - left the water by itself. Or so it seemed.

With a 'whoosh' of spray, the Displacer Beast swam beneath the girl, powering up from below and smashing into her. The force of the blow lifted her clean out of the river, and sent her body spinning like a broken ragdoll through the air.

"Rogue!" the two onlookers cried out in unison.

She splashed down nearer the shore, where the water was shallow enough for her feet to touch the bottom without submerging her head. However, for a few moments she was incapable of doing more than kneeling. All the wind had been savagely crushed from her lungs, and she struggled for breath as the Displacer Beast no doubt prepared for another attack.

Rogue spat liquid from her mouth. It was red with blood. Damn thing! It had the advantage in the water, whereas her armour made her cumbersome here. Logic dictated that she had to get it onto shore to even the playing field.

She straightened up, casting about for any sign of the beast. The river's surface was glassy and smooth, only broken much further out where the current tugged beneath it. Damnit, where was that thing?

With a high-pitched squeal it ruptured the water again directly in front of her. On instinct Rogue thrust her sword forward, and struck home when it impaled the creature's throat. A small grunt of triumph snorted from her nose, and her mouth twisted into a grim smile.

Yet this smile quickly vanished. Something was wrong. Yes, the sword had pierced the soft flesh of the Displacer Beast's neck, but there was no blood. In fact, the creature didn't even seem to have acknowledged the blade, and snarled at her savagely. Rogue blinked, perplexed. It should be dying, run through by cold steel, but still it lived, and with apparently no damage done at all.

Kitty called out from behind her. It was just as she'd feared, Rogue didn't know of the Displacer Beast's capabilities and tactics.

"Rogue, that's not the real Displacer Beast! That's just an image it's created to, like, confuse you! *That's* what I was trying to tell you. It can, like, project copies of itself to confound its enemies whilst it attacks from somewhere else!"

Kurt turned to her, horrified. "You mean it could be *anywhere* right now?"

~Yept!~ Rogue thought, wrenching her blade free. The false beast began to evaporate, proving Kitty's words, but before the ex-assassin could do anything, the air behind her, between herself and her two onlookers, shimmered, and the real Displacer Beast emerged from its holographic shield to pounce upon her back, forcing her face down into the water.

"Rogue!" Kurt shouted, and before Kitty could do anything he'd leaped from a standing start on the bank to land squarely astride the monster's back. It roared, enraged, and threw back its head to dislodge him. Yet Kurt remained firm, holding onto the bases of the massive tentacles to keep from falling off.

"Kitty!" he yelled. "Get to Rogue!"

Wordlessly, the Changeling did as she was bade. She jumped into the shallows, splashing to the head of the flailing beast whilst it was preoccupied with its unwelcome rider. She knelt down next to where Rogue thrashed, half submerged in the cruel liquid, and reached down to grab the girl's free hand. Then she reached inside herself, past the broken mental barrier to where the nothingness resided. Down into the very core of her power. She grasped it firmly with mental fingers, calling upon it to do her bidding and rise to the surface. She'd never called upon it this way before. It had always just appeared unannounced when she needed it, but something about that snapping she'd felt inside her earlier prompted her to try. She tugged and pulled, embracing and merging with it until it consumed her entire body with its heady emptiness.

With a faint 'schlock' Rogue passed right through the Displacer Beast's claws and materialized out of the water, coughing and spluttering mud from her mouth. The two girls fell backwards, creating another, bigger splash.

This enraged the Displacer Beast. Not only did this furry little insect insist on perching atop its back, but now its true prey had escaped as well. Howling its fury, it snaked both tentacles down through the air towards Kurt, bending them further than they were meant to be bent, but ignoring the self-inflicted pain to rid itself of him.

Kurt saw them coming, and forcibly threw himself from the creature less than a second before they hit. He landed with his customary sure-footedness and grabbed Rogue's arm, propping her upright with Kitty doing the same on the other side. All Rogue could do was splutter and heave, and the two dragged her with them towards the shoreline.

Free of its visitor, the Displacer Beast whirled round and lunged at them, but Kitty allowed it to pass straight through their bodies by calling again upon her Changeling power. It sailed past, snarling all the way, and whipped round to lunge again, with exactly the same results.

However, Kitty couldn't keep this up forever. She was too new to consciously controlling her power, and for that reason her strength was rapidly failing. She flagged, and her steps became laboured as she fought to keep hold of the nothingness in her mind. Her teeth gritted, her jaw set, but it began to slip away from her, leaving them open and vulnerable.

"Kurt," she choked, "Kurt, I can't hold it."

Rogue gasped beside her, and violently pulled herself free of their well-meaning embrace. "Then don't!" she spat, turning back upon the growling beast.

Kurt whirled to catch hold of her, but she shook him off. "Rogue, bitte, we have to get away."

"To where?" she shot back, holding her sword forward in both hands. "This thing will follow us no matter where we go, elf. It was sent to kill me, and it won't stop until either it, or I die. No, it ends here. Right now."

"Rogue - " Kitty verbally supported the cerulean youth.

"I appreciate what you both did for me just now, so that's why I'm telling you to leave while you still can," Rogue cut her off, and began running forward towards the glaring monster.

Her rarely given, but transmuted thanks hung thick in the damp night air.

"Rogue!" Kurt yelled.

Kitty stared. Rogue was going to be killed. She couldn't defeat that thing alone. She just couldn't! The brown haired girl called out for her to stop, to turn back and run with them, but even as she opened her mouth she knew that it was useless. Rogue wasn't the type to just give up and run away if there was even a slight chance of success. She'd fight until she drew her last breath, and then some.

Proving Kitty's thoughts, Rogue launched herself at the Displacer Beast, slicing her sword down in a graceful arc. It cleaved through the creature's head, but the absence of blood told her that this was an empty victory.

~Yept! Another false image!~

Something solid slammed into her, knocking her sideways. Rogue stumbled but kept her feet, whirling round to face her attacker. There was nothing there. The beast was using its holographic shield to conceal itself again, and Rogue was left at its mercy as she desperately tried to tell where the next assault was coming from.

A flicker caught her eye, like the air to her left was shimmering. Faster than anyone could see she turned and plunged forward, bringing her blade up to cleave through where she hoped the monster was hiding. A pained screech announced that her blow had hit home, and a spurt of red blood erupted from the ostensibly empty air.

Rogue jumped back, and saw that the end of her weapon too was smeared with crimson. It dripped off into the water, but she hardly noticed as the Displacer Beast reappeared before her.

With grim satisfaction Rogue noted that only five paws now graced its slender body. The foremost right had been completely severed by her lucky blow, and only a large red mist in the river water signified its final resting place.

Enraged and in pain the beast wasted no time in leaping at her. Rogue brought her blade up above her head to strike it in mid-air, but at that moment it demonstrated its natural cruel cunning again.

Rather than do as most injured and angry animals would have done and simply fly blindly at the ex-assassin, the Displacer Beast shrewdly landed just in front of her, avoiding the blade meant for it. It crouched, swinging its two tentacles low to knock her feet out from under her with a resounding splash. Rogue pitched backwards into the shallow water.

Raising its injured leg to keep it clear of the combat, the creature then leapt onto her before she had time to right herself, burying its savage teeth into her sword-wielding arm. Rogue cried out in pain and blindly threw her other fist upwards where it connected with the side of the beast's skull. This dislodged its grip slightly - enough so that it was unable to simply rip her limb off - but not enough to remove it completely. It growled through a mouthful of flesh and fabric.

Rogue called upon the training inlaid into her during years of tutelage under Logan. Her conscious mind stepped back and allowed her instincts to kick in - quite literally. Bringing both legs up to her chest, the girl struck out hard with both feet. Her boots met the Displacer Beast's gut, winding it and causing it to open its maw and scream in pain. A loud crack rent the air as she kicked again and several ribs snapped on impact. In that precious free second Rogue rolled away and jumped into a fighting stance once more.

However, now she was badly injured too. The hand gripping her sword was weak and flaccid, and blood ran down her arm where the muscles had been torn. Deftly she transferred the blade to her other hand, but was aware that now she was at even more of a disadvantage. It was not that she couldn't fight with her left hand - Logan had made sure she could at the beginning of her training - but it was considerably less dexterous than her right, and the power behind her blows was weaker as a result.

The hurt monster coughed and heaved as pain cut into its chest. Damn human! She'd pay for that with her life!

It ran forward, but curiously did not attack Rogue again. Instead it sprinted past her to the deeper water further out and plunged into the depths in a flurry of spray. Rogue turned, but it did not resurface, and soon the bubbles of its departure dissipated, leaving only the calm, fraudulently smooth surface.

Rogue didn't relax. She knew this wasn't the end. The Displacer Beast wasn't retreating, no matter what things may look like. It was planning something. The question was, what?

Kitty and Kurt stood on the shore where they'd clambered out. They too wondered what new scheme the horrendous creature was plotting, and two extra pairs of eyes relentlessly scanned the river in search of some clue to aid their battling companion with.

Suddenly, Kurt yelled out a warning: "Rogue, behind you!"

Rogue whipped around to see the snarling jaws descending on her. Deftly she swung her sword round, and was rewarded with it sinking into the Displacer Beast's neck; but with her strike the beast evaporated.

A holographic image!

There was no time to curse now though, because another beast was advancing to her right. Rogue spun on her heel and struck low, cutting the legs out from underneath it. Yet this one too vanished, only to be replaced with a panther-like form charging in from her left.

Rogue became a veritable vortex of swinging cuts and flashing metal, but all to no avail as the army of Displacer Beasts kept on coming, but no original was obliging enough to show itself.

Kurt's hands bunched into fists. "It's trying to tire her out so it can finish her off easily," he muttered heatedly.

"We.... we have to help her," said Kitty, taking a step forward. However, the Changeling's strength was almost completely spent. Drained by her powers until she could barely stand up. Kurt grabbed her, helping her to maintain her feet.

~But what can we do?~ he asked himself. ~What can *anyone* do against a creature like that?~

Rogue was beginning to weary. Three days long trek with only snatches of sleep hadn't prepared her for a fight like this, and the Displacer Beast's tactics were working. Her rain of blows became steadily weaker, and her whirling turns slower as she faced each new beast, hoping it was the real one. She couldn't carry like this much longer.

"Rogue, above you!" The elf's voice flew into her ear, and she jerked her sword vertical to impale another image that would have landed atop her if he hadn't cried out.

~No, I can't give up,~ she admonished herself for her weakness. ~Those two are counting on me. I can't let them down. I *won't* let them down!~

This unusually caring thought lent new energy to her failing limbs, and Rogue fought with a potent new vigour.

Yet even this wasn't enough to protect her from what happened next. A long writhing tentacle blasted from the water at her feet, wrapping itself tight around her legs and hauling her bodily into the air. She hung, upside down, as the rest of the real Displacer Beast emerged from the river, snarling its certain victory through glinting fangs.

Cold, blank eyes glared at its victim, and it began to shake her forcefully from side to side. Rogue tried desperately to hang on, but the power of the shaking made her lose her already inferior grip of her sword, and it fell uselessly into the water below.

Unarmed now, she dangled helplessly, a prisoner of the monster's lethal grasp.

The bestial grin returned to its hideous face, and it hissed menacingly at her. Rogue drooped, her cloak flapping about her head and the material copiously leaking both water and blood. She had nowhere to go, no way of escaping from the terrible appendage holding her fast. Her eyes closed in apparent defeat, and her muscles visibly relaxed.

Kitty and Kurt watched all this through dismayed eyes.

"*ROGUE*!"

The Displacer Beast pulled the limp body close, opening salivating jaws wide to bite into the vulnerable flesh. It had won, and now it would claim its prize.

Abruptly, and without warning, Rogue snapped from her defeated trance, bending almost double and yanking the dagger from her belt. A flash of silver and a scream of inhuman anguish crammed the night atmosphere, and Rogue dropped into the river, closely followed by a several tentacle. The appendage flopped and fought for several seconds before falling still, blood oozing plentifully from where it had been attached to its owner.

Kurt couldn't suppress a triumphant shout at this turn of events, and he punched the air with his uninhibited hand. Kitty lent her own pleased voice to his clamour, and they cheered Rogue gleefully on from the sidelines. As unlikely as it had seemed before, now it appeared that Rogue *could* actually win this battle.

However, the Displacer Beast was not done yet - not by a long shot. With cold shrewdness it regarded the gasping human. She held in her hand only a bloodied dagger, hardly enough to pose much of a threat. Her sword was nowhere to be seen, and it knew she couldn't afford to waste precious time searching for it in the churned, swarthy mud of the riverbed. It narrowed its calculating green eyes.

Rogue's arm was on fire, but she dared not let it show. To show weakness was to give an enemy an opening. So instead she slowly circled the Displacer Beast, as did it her, neither attacking nor retreating, and each glowering at the other with the same ruthlessly defiant gaze. A low growl seeped from the creature's gullet, but the girl remained silent, watching....

Abruptly, the Displacer Beast bounded forward, twirling back on itself mere yards away to smack her with its reptilian tail. Rogue flew through the air, surprised at the strength in such a slender thing. She somersaulted, landing on her feet and rushing back at it in a counter attack. It leaped quickly away, and she stabbed only vacant air.

Undeterred, Rogue sped forwards again, thrusting her dagger in front of her in an offensive action. With one fluid movement, the Displacer Beast turned and leaped lightly over her head, coming to rest behind her and swinging one tentacle and one bloody stump her way.

This time Rogue wasn't so lucky. The bony ridge of the last remaining tentacle caught her sharply on her shoulder, burying several of its wicked spikes into the soft flesh beneath her collarbone. She yelled loudly at the stinging blow, but was silenced when the momentum of it crushed her into the water on her belly. A flurry of mud, water and scarlet liquid rent the air, and when it cleared she lay unmoving, prone. No bubbles of life surrounded her submerged face, and her body was limp as the faint current tugged gently at her drifting hair. She was inert. Lifeless.

Kitty's hands flew to cover her mouth. "Oh no!"

The Displacer Beast crept forward, wary that this could be another ruse to make it drop its guard. Yet when no movement ensued from the fallen human, its step quickened, and a sense of triumph filled its twisted mind. On five paws it edged towards her, spittle dripping from its maw in anticipation. The smell of her blood filled its nostrils, and it drank deeply of the wondrous flavour.

Finally, unable to wait any longer, the creature pressed forward, sniffing delicately at the corpse and wrinkling its nose as the glorious scent of fresh meat acted like a pungent drug upon it. From the dawn of time Displacer Beast's had sought that intoxicating scent, and yearned after it every day of their lives. It invaded their sleep and their waking dreams alike, forcing them to hunt and kill just for a hint of it. As gold is to greedy men, so blood is to the Displacer Beast, and all other creatures like them.

As is customary to all its kind, the Displacer Beast positioned itself above Rogue's head ready to consume the flavoursome contents of her mind first. With one uninjured paw it turned her slightly in order to get a better grip, and bent its face to crack open and devour her.

At once, dark green eyes flipped open, and the 'carcass' rolled over to fling one of its hands ferociously upwards. The emerald eyes of the Displacer Beast widened in shock and pain, and a loud squeal pierced the air as it stumbled backwards.

Its mouth gaped. A trickle of blood appeared at the corner and another dribbled out of its quivering snout. It snorted, sending droplets of red flying everywhere. Pupil-less eyes met with defiantly triumphant green, and it blinked once before keeling over onto its side.

The beast thrashed wildly for a minute or so, and then fell into convulsive twitching. Eventually, this too ceased, and it finally slumped in death, the handle of a dagger still protruding from where it had pierced its heart.

The world was immediately silent, as if commemorating this creature who had passed so suddenly, and so violently from it. A gentle breeze buffeted the Displacer Beast, but the staring eyes didn't flicker, and the mammoth form remained still, unconcerned now with mortal pursuits. A deathly hush descended over everything, until even the multitudes of dancing insects were quiet.

This reverent taciturnity was broken as Rogue hauled herself to her feet. She shook herself slightly, spitting evil tasting mud and blood from her mouth. Slowly she began her journey back to shore, pausing only to retrieve the dagger secreted so precisely in her conquered adversary. A gush of red followed its removal, spraying her already filthy face with yet more sticky liquid. She didn't bother to wipe it off, and replaced the blade uncleaned in her belt. Then she crouched down, running her fingers through the riverbed until she found what she was looking for, and continued back to the embankment, her sword clasped tightly in one hand.

Kitty and Kurt cried their delight at her victory, and rushed gleefully to the edge of the bank. Their visages split into wide grins as they prepared to welcome back their conquering companion, who had found victory where they'd thought she would only find defeat. Snatched it quite literally from the jaws of failure. Both marvelled verbosely at her prowess as a fighter, and shouted such compliments to her as she walked towards them.

However, almost immediately they noticed that something was wrong, and their greetings died on their lips as they regarded her approach. Rogue's steps held none of their usual haughty pride. Instead, they were imbued with a strange tiredness. Her movements were listless - strained; as if it was all just too much effort. She walked slowly, and her face betrayed no trace of having just won out over an ostensibly unconquerable foe. Rather, it seemed that all her concentration was taken by simply putting one foot in front of the other.

Suddenly she stopped. Her body began to tremble uncontrollably, and without so much as another sound she slumped limply into the water.

"ROGUE!" Kurt yelled, unhesitatingly jumping into the river. The water was freezing against his already cold bare chest, but he hardly perceived it as he ran towards the collapsed girl.

She didn't move as he drew near, and not even her eyes flickered as he pulled her upright. Her face was drawn and even paler than usual, and threads of purple veins were stark through the near-translucent membrane of her eyelids. She seemed ghostly and defenceless - not at all like herself. Something was most definitely extremely wrong with her.

Frantically, Kurt pulled her as best he could back to shore, slipping and sliding in the mud until he was covered in the tacky substance. She was heavy because of her armour and limpness, but he struggled on regardless, dragging her to the bank where Kitty waited, ready to help pull her onto dry land despite her own fading strength.

They lay Rogue flat, and Kurt danced about her worriedly, hopping from foot to foot. His tail lashed incessantly, and he gabbled: "What's wrong? Was ist los? She looks dead. She seemed fine only a moment ago. Oh Rogue, what's the matter? Get up, please get up."

Kitty hovered her ear close to the ashen girl's face. Breath blew into her earlobe, but it was harsh and shallow. Rogue was alive, but barely. Her skin had taken on a ghastly pallor, and when the younger girl pressed a hand to her forehead she found it startlingly clammy, sticky rather than wet, and hot.

On impulse, remembering something her mother had told her years ago, Kitty pulled back a lock of saturated hair from where it was plastered to Rogue's neck. What she saw made her gasp in dismay.

Three short, white, bramble-like spikes were imbedded in the malleable skin there, roughly broken off at each of their bases. The flesh around them was a puffy, blotchy red, and one could almost feel the heat being given off without having to touch it.

Kurt peered over Kitty's shoulder. "What? What is it? What are those things?"

"Those are spikes from the Displacer Beast's tentacle," Kitty replied sombrely. "That's what I was trying to warn her about. Oh, Rogue."

"Was?" Kurt was perplexed. "Warn her? What do you mean, Kätzchen? What's happened to Rogue? What's wrong with her?"

Kitty turned soulful blue eyes upon him, and Kurt was shocked to see tears in them. "Those spikes are filled with lethal venom, Kurt. She's been poisoned."

"Poisoned?" Kurt was aghast. "Then we have to get them out!" He dived forward, but Kitty stayed his hand.

"Don't! You might do more harm than good if you just, like, yank them out."

Kurt fell back, abashed. "But what should we do then? The poison will kill her if we don't do something. She saved our lives. What should we do, Kätzchen? You know about these things. What should we *do*?" This couldn't be happening. This was Rogue. Indestructible, insuperable Rogue.

Kitty turned away, wiping her eyes on the tattered sleeve of his baggy shirt. "I don't know, Kurt," she said haltingly. "I just don't know."

*******************

To Be Continued.....

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*TRANSLATIONS*

GERMANIC:

'Was habe ich jetzt getan?' ~ What did I now do?
'Ich bin solch ein Idiot!' ~ I am such an idiot!
'Ich sollte gewußt haben.' ~ I should have known.