As the jet touched down on the cliff top above the ocean labs, the X-Men hurried down the ramp and prepared to enter the facility.

"Is he here already?" asked Fliss.

Neil concentrated for a moment, "I think so. The constantium is making it difficult, but I can just about sense his presence."

Pyro ignited his cigarette lighter, "No-one kills him but me."

"Bloodthirsty as ever, I see," said Logan.

"If you met the man who'd raped your daughter, you'd feel exactly the same way."

"John, get a hold of yourself," said Chloe. "Don't give into your anger, or you might do something you'll regret. Remember, he'll be casting illusions into your mind. If you react in anger and without thinking, you might end up killing the wrong person."

"I get the picture, Gaia."

"Neil, where is he?" said Scott.

"I don't know," Neil admitted. "I can't sense him any more. There's too much constantium here."

"Logan? Pick up his scent if you can."

"I'm on it."

"OK, let's move. Be careful, all of you."

Pyro hissed furiously, "He's a dead man."

"What do we do?" cried Gemini.

Annie took charge, "We have to find him as soon as possible. Otherwise it will be too late, for millions of people. Marina, you stay here and keep searching the computers' data-vault. You might find something more about the submarine. Dominic, you'd better stay too. You're the only one who knows anything about subs."

He nodded his agreement, "My solar energy is used up, so I wouldn't be much use in a fight anyway."

"The rest of us will have to split up into pairs and search for Davor."

"Whoa!" said Gemini. "Pairs? Isn't that, like, risky?"

"Of course it is! We're in a desperate situation here! If we all stick together we may not cover enough ground! Gary, Cassandra, go together. Vertigo, go with Gemini. Atlas, you're with me. Let's go."

"I am not going with him," Gemini refused, pointing at the ninja.

"We're wasting time! Come on!"

The six teenagers split into their three pairs, and hurried out of the computer room, each going in a different direction.

"Well, the lower level is flooded," said Gary, as he and Cassandra ran along. "I guess he won't be going down there. We can restrict our search to this level, and any above it."

"There's one level above," she said. "Can your telepathy sense him?"

"No. I could at first, but the constantium must be blocking it now."

"Wonderful."

They moved more cautiously as they entered an area of the facility they were unfamiliar with. There didn't seem to be anybody round, no guards or researchers as far as they could tell. Had the place been evacuated due to the flooding? They could only guess. The absence of other people was probably a good thing. It meant there were less innocents to be caught in the crossfire. They began searching the area carefully for any signs of Davor.

"Listen, Cassie," Gary said eventually. "I know we didn't part on very good terms, but – "

"But you still want to be friends?" she scoffed. "Forget it."

"I never meant to hurt you…"

"You broke my heart, and you knew that was exactly what you were doing."

"I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't choose to. I just had to follow my heart."

"Yeah, right. The moment you found out she was still alive, you dropped me like a bad habit."

"No, Cassie, it wasn't like that! I was torn apart! I couldn't decide what I should do! I knew I was going to have to hurt one of you and I just felt so terrible that I'd allowed things to get to that point!"

"I should have known along that you didn't want me. You just wanted somebody to hold on to while you pined for her."

"No, that isn't true. The fact is my life changed when I thought Marina was dead. And then it changed again when I found she was alive. I was mixed up and confused and I didn't know what to think. The fact is I did love you. You weren't just a substitute for Marina. There was something special between us."

"Yeah, right."

"I'm not lying, Cassie. When I joined the Brotherhood it was like starting a whole new life, and you were a part of it, the biggest part. When we allied with the X-Men, I found myself back in my old life again. I was having to live both, and I couldn't do that. I had to choose one or the other."

"Whatever. I don't really give a shit," she lied. "Can we drop this already, please?"

"Yeah, OK. I just wanted to let you know that – "

"Oh, stow it, Gladiator. I don't care. I'd rather talk about this constantium stuff. Is it really indestructible?"

"As far as I know. On top of that, it blocks telepathy as well."

"Which means you're not going to be any use when we come up against it, right?"

He sighed, "I guess not."

"Well, isn't that just – "

"Sshh! I thought I heard something…"

They went silent and listened intently for the sound of anyone approaching.

Gemini was uncomfortable being alone with Vertigo. She still didn't trust him. She would probably never trust him again. She still remembered his hands, touching her, on her legs, and between her legs. She remembered the delight in his voice when he discovered her lack of underwear. She remembered his refusal to listen to her protests or her wishes, as he forced her legs open and tried to violate her. Well…maybe that hadn't been his intention. Maybe he'd genuinely thought she was OK with it. But that was how it had felt to her.

She remembered how Davor had done exactly the same thing, on countless, countless occasions. Only then Dad hadn't been there to rescue her and to comfort her. Nobody had. All she'd been able to do was curl up and cry herself to sleep, knowing there was nothing in the world to prevent it from happening again the next day. She'd never felt safe around men since. She knew their instincts took over their brains whenever they looked at her. She knew she was just an object of desire for them. She knew they would never take the time to try and find out what she was like as a person, underneath the exterior.

But still…she no longer feared them. She knew Dad would always be there to protect her. She knew he'd take on any man who tried to abuse her from now on. She wished Dad were here now. He would know what to do about Davor. He always knew what to do. He always made the right decisions. He would have come up with a plan by now, a plan that would defeat Davor and stop the submarine from killing people. Dad knew everything. The X-Men just didn't listen to him. If they had, maybe they wouldn't all be stuck in this situation right now.

"What do we do if we find him?" she asked Vertigo.

He shrugged, "Kill him."

"We can't kill him! Didn't you hear Crusader? We have to find a way to stop the submarine or people will die!"

"Humans will die."

"And mutants. Besides, not every human deserves to die."

"Yes they do. They're just vermin under our feet."

"No they're not. My Dad doesn't think so. Vertigo, I don't get it. What happened to make you hate humans so much?"

"Why don't you ask your Dad?" he said mockingly.

What an asshole, she thought.

Atlas was nervous. Annie could sense it, and it was making her nervous too. Had she known him better, she would have known that this was not an uncommon feeling for him. Since his early days at the orphanage with the human kids, he had become accustomed to looking over his shoulder at every moment, on the lookout for those who might try to hurt him. He remembered planting batches of flowers in hidden, secret places in the woods, then lying awake at night for fear that the other children might discover them and trample them. Anxiety was a near-constant companion for him, but he did not dislike its company. It kept him safe. Even if many of his worries or fears proved to be unfounded, he had always believed that it was better to be safe than sorry. He disliked taking chances, but he wasn't a coward. He was prepared to put himself in danger, but only when he was confident that he could understand and evaluate the risks involved. He didn't like risking his life at times when he was ignorant of the full facts.

At times such as this. Things were moving much too quickly for his liking. They didn't know where this Davor was. Nor did they know precisely what he was capable of. Nor did they know what his objective was. Nor did they know how they might force him to tell how to stop the submarine from destroying half the world. He looked at Crusader. Did she know any of these things? Did she feel any more confident than he was? Did any of them? Did they have a chance of defeating Davor? Was it possible to see past his illusions to kill him? How would they know when they had killed him?

"Crusader? What if he's casting an illusion on us right now?"

Annie smiled to try and reassure him, "Don't worry. He needs to be close. We'll have at least some chance to react before he can cast."

Had Atlas thought it over, he would have realised how wrong she was.

The X-Men were the first to be targeted. Hurrying through the facility in pursuit of their quarry, they were afflicted with the first of the illusions. A heavily armed group of security guards suddenly came charging at them round the next corner. Forced to back up and seek cover, they were shocked and alarmed by the appearance of a second group of guards, attacking them from behind. There was nowhere else to go. They were trapped between the two forces.

"Surrender or die," one of the humans barked.

But Pyro had no intention of surrendering. Driven by a fire within, and determined to avenge the torment suffered by his daughter, he hurled a ball of flame at the nearest group of guards. Caught by surprise, they had no time to avoid it, and each man was set alight.

The second group brought their weapons up to fire, but Fliss reacted faster, individual lightning bolts leaping from each of her outstretched fingers, hurling the men backwards and burning sizzling holes into their flesh. Logan and Chris were already running forward to deal with any survivors, when the two groups of guards abruptly disappeared into nothing.

"What the hell?" Logan cried.

"Where'd they go?"

"It's an illusion!" Scott realised. "Shit, he must be close! Logan, can't you smell anything?"

"No!"

"He's here somewhere, and he knows we're here. All right, stay calm – especially you, Pyro. We can expect more illusions. Let's keep going."

Cassandra's ears pricked up at the sound of footsteps rapidly approaching.

"Hey, someone's coming," she whispered to her former lover.

"Is it him?"

But the footsteps were too light to be a man's. It couldn't be Davor. Was it one of their friends? Both Gary and Cassie waited and watched as the footsteps grew louder and louder, to see who approached.

"Cassie!" little Accel cried as she came running towards them. "Cassie, help me! They're chasing me!"

"Honey! What are you doing here?"

Cassandra was already rising to meet the child. Behind Accel they could see two guards, both carrying automatic weapons. They knelt, steadied themselves, and fired. Accel screamed as she was thrown to the ground, bullets ripping into her tiny body and killing her instantly.

"NO!" Cassandra howled, her eyes wide in horror.

Thinking nothing of her own safety, she ran towards the little girl, hoping beyond hope that there was some spark of life left in the child. At the end of the corridor, the guards were aiming their weapons at her head.

"Cassie!" Gary yelled, grabbing at her and pulling her back.

"No!" she screamed, clawing to get free. "I have to help Accel! She's dying, you bastard!"

"It's an illusion, Cassie, it's not real!"

"Accel!"

"It's an illusion!"

But the bullet that flew through the air towards them was quite real. Cassie's foresight wasn't fooled, however, and she pulled Gary downwards until the two of them were flat on the ground.

Davor Rosiçky cursed as the bullet missed his grandson by inches. He disappeared back round the corner, seeking his next target.

Gary and Cassie looked at each other uncomfortably. They'd ended up in a position which, some months ago, they wouldn't have found unnatural at all. She was on the floor, on her back, and he was on top of her. For a few moments neither of them moved. Although it felt strange, it didn't feel wrong.

"Um – "

"Yeah – um – "

Marina! he reminded himself. Gently he rose, allowing Cassandra to move aside and stand

"Well, thanks for saving my life," he said.

"Likewise."

The awkward moment passed, and they got their minds back on track.

"Where'd he go?" she said. "We have to follow him!"

"We can't get too close; he'll cast another illusion," Gary warned. "We might not see through it this time."

"He doesn't need to be close to cast an illusion! I just remembered! He cast one on me just before we got here!"

"He did? What happened?"

Cassie sighed, "All of my terrible feelings – about you and Aqua – were multiplied a hundred times until I wanted to kill myself. I almost did. If Helios – if Dominic hadn't stopped me…"

"And Davor wasn't even close by?"

"No! We were still in the helicopter, still on our way here!"

"Shit! That means he can cast them from any distance! It means we aren't safe anywhere in the building!"

Vertigo had been feeling strange for quite some time now. The terrible and painful memories that he normally kept locked deep inside himself, were beginning to throb and demand to be allowed out. Sometimes, very occasionally, he allowed himself to brood on them, but he hadn't done so recently. Man, the feeling was intense. It was almost as if the memories had become visions in front of his eyes…

In his earliest memories he had been a very small boy, no older than six or seven. His mother was thirteen years old when she'd been raped by her own step-father. She had become pregnant, and Vertigo had been born. His early memories of the man had been drunkenness and bouts of violence often resulting in his mother being beaten, and he himself being sent out of the house, sometimes all night. He would cry himself to sleep every night, listening to the sounds downstairs, his father yelling and threatening, and his mother crying and whimpering as she was beaten. But in the morning Mommy would wake him, smile at him, and tell him everything was all right.

He believed her. He believed that one day everything would be all right, and they would be happy. Daddy wouldn't drink any more, and he wouldn't hit Mommy. Mommy wouldn't need to spend so much time applying her makeup to hide the bruises and scratches, and Daddy wouldn't spend what little money they had on drinking their lives away. The young Vertigo worked hard at school, proving exceptionally talented at sports and gymnastics, and he looked forward to the future. One day everything would be all right. Mommy and Daddy would love each other again, and they would be proud of him.

His dream was finally shattered one winter morning, when he came home from school to find Mommy on her knees, begging Daddy not to hit her with the baseball bat. Daddy was drunk and swearing and yelling, and started hitting her with the baseball bat. He didn't stop until she stopped moving. After that there was no Mommy, and the little boy who would become Vertigo had realised that his happy future was never going to be. With his mother went everything that was good in his life, leaving him in the care of his drunkard father, who turned his vicious attentions to beating his only son. Vertigo quickly learned to be swift and nimble to avoid the old man's blows.

When he was ten, he finally decided his gymnastic and athletic brilliance was simply too ludicrous to be true. Realisation that he was a mutant took some time to sink in, but Vertigo – as he had started calling himself by then – wasn't much given to expressing surprise or emotion. He took it in his stride and without appearing to care, as he had done every day since Mommy had been hit with the baseball bat.

When he was twelve, the old man had reached for the baseball bat again. As the blows rained down and Vertigo pleaded with him to stop, he remembered Mommy had pleaded too, but it hadn't done her any good. So he did what Mommy hadn't done. He fought back. With a single twist of his wrist, he ripped the baseball bat out of the fat old drunk's hand. Then things went out of control. The man who'd ruled his house with an iron fist for years was stunned by the boy's defiance. But it didn't slow his reactions as he lumbered to the gun cupboard, reaching for the shotgun, determined to re-assert his authority any way he could. He never got to the gun cupboard. Leaping on to the old man's back, Vertigo scissored his legs around his father's neck, squeezing with every ounce of strength those young but wiry muscles could muster. Within seconds, the neck had snapped, and Vertigo was an orphan.

He looked up. His memories and feelings were so intense, he almost imagined he could see it happening right in front of him. There was Mommy, on her knees, begging Daddy to stop hitting her with the baseball bat. Last time it had happened, Vertigo had done nothing. Last time it had happened, Mommy had died. This time it would be different.

He stood, and began running towards them.

"You whore! You filthy stinking little whore!" the old man was yelling, with another crack of the bat and another scream from the young woman.

"SHUT UP!" Vertigo howled, driving his fist into the man's throat in one effortless, murderous manoeuvre.

His father's throat exploded in a shower of blood and he was thrown backwards. Mommy was unmoving on the ground, and Vertigo knelt beside her, sobbing uncontrollably, "Mommy?"

The illusion was ripped apart with the sound of a gunshot. Vertigo's catlike reflexes saved his life, as he jerked sideways by pure instinct, and the bullet hit him in the shoulder instead of in the neck. Footsteps hurried away, and Davor was gone.

"Vertigo!" Gemini cried, running forward to his side.

She had watched in confusion and disbelief as he had run forward and begun screaming at the air in front of him. Then she had seen the figure at the end of the corridor with the gun. She hadn't had any time to react before Vertigo had been shot.

"Are you OK?"

He was still in tears, but she couldn't tell whether it was from pain or from the illusion he'd been experiencing. Blood was pouring from the wound in his shoulder, and she pressed his hand against it, "Hold there for just a second."

Tearing off a scrap of his shirt, she wrapped it around the wound and tied it tightly. The bleeding stopped, and she admired her field dressing. Dad had taught her how to do it. She helped Vertigo to his feet. He was beginning to calm down, and she was ready to pursue the monster.

The X-Men were moving cautiously, each of them wary of further illusions. They worried that they didn't know the full power of the deceptions. Could Davor create an illusion in which the X-Men believed they had died? Could he, for example, fool them into thinking they had been shot? What would happen? Would the brain, thinking the body to be dead, shut down? Would they actually die? Was that possible? It was a terrifying thought. The Professor would have known the answer…but he was no longer here.

Pyro was striding ahead, driven by his rage at his daughter's torturer, thinking nothing of safety or care or precaution, thinking of only one thing: finding the bastard and making him suffer what little fraction of Gemini's suffering he might be able to inflict. He was leaving the X-Men behind, but he didn't care. He didn't need them. He'd never needed anyone. Besides, this was a personal battle. This was a father protecting his daughter. This was two years' worth of payback. This was Pyro's way of finding a target for all the rage that had been pent-up inside of him ever since Jacqueline had died. He'd tried attaching his rage to the humans, but it hadn't worked. Maybe Davor was the one. Maybe he was the one who could take the blame for all the agony that Pyro and Gemini had endured.

His chance came sooner than he might have expected. Turning the next corner, he found himself face to face with the bastard himself. Davor looked surprised, and quickly glanced around for some way of escape. Turning to run, he wasn't fast enough. Pyro launched a fireball that engulfed him, setting him alight, his screaming figure running about in terror until it collapsed on to the floor and burned in silence.

Then it changed. The figure in the midst of the blaze was not Davor. It was somebody else. Somebody Pyro had never expected to see again…

"Jacqueline!" he gasped.

It couldn't be! It couldn't possibly be! The only girl he had ever loved could not possibly be lying in the middle of the inferno he had just created! Yet she was. How had this happened? She was dead! Could she have survived? Could she somehow have survived, found her way here, only to be killed at last by the man who loved her? No! That couldn't be true! Pyro couldn't have killed her! He loved her! He'd lived in agony for years because of her death! He couldn't be the one responsible for it!

Dropping to his knees, he clawed at the figure in the flames, as if he could somehow restore her to life. It was pointless. It was useless. She was dead. Jacqueline was dead and he, Pyro, was her killer. He broke down into anguished sobbing, and didn't even hear the click as the gun was pressed against his forehead.

"Nice try," said Scott.

His optic blast hit Davor just before the illusionist could pull the trigger on the weeping Pyro. With a yell of anger and pain, the old man was thrown to the ground. The illusion had vanished, and Pyro saw that the figure in the middle of the flames had disappeared. There had never been anyone there, least of all Jacqueline. What had he been thinking? She was already dead. He'd seen it happen. He'd cradled her dead body in his arms after she'd been shot. How could he possibly have been taken in by an illusion that she had survived?

Davor scrambled to his feet, hurried through the dying fire, avoided another optic blast, and disappeared through a door on the left.

"You OK?" Scott asked, hauling Pyro to his feet.

Furious at the X-Man seeing him in such a sorry emotional state, Pyro tried to maintain some dignity, "I'm fine. Thank you."

Scott turned round, and beckoned to the rest, "Come on. He went through here!"

Annie knew it was an illusion the moment she saw the ghostly, black-garbed figure of Death, the prime Horseman of the Apocalypse, slowly gliding towards her. Calmly she evaluated the situation. Death was dead. She'd killed him herself, seen his radiation-craving form shatter into a cloud of black ash as her healing power overcame the unknown and unstable bonds that held his cells and molecules together. He was dead. It made no logical sense that he'd be walking towards her now. Plus, Atlas wasn't reacting to it in any way. It wasn't there. It was an illusion. But if so, how could she make herself see through it? How could she cast it away and get back to reality?

Concentrating, she fired a blast of telepathic energy in the directions of the illusory Death. If Davor were standing there, casting the illusion, it ought to disrupt his mental processes and destroy the illusion. Nothing happened. Maybe he was somewhere else. Could he cast these illusions from afar? Annie hoped not.

Vertigo's injury was still giving him problems, and he was finding it painful to walk. Gemini supported him as he gingerly sat down to rest, to give the wound some more time to heal. She then stood, and kept a close eye in both directions to make sure Davor could not ambush them. Well, there was no sign of anybody at the moment. Maybe he was off deceiving somebody else. Maybe Dad and the X-Men had gotten here, and were fighting him. Maybe they'd already killed him. Maybe the nightmare was already over.

A noise to the left told her this was not so. Gemini looked over, and her heart gave a sudden lurch when she saw him. He looked different. He looked like Magneto. But it was still him. She could tell, somehow, something about him told her it was the man who'd abused her so many times over two years. Looking at her hungrily, he began to hurry towards her. Gemini's initial reaction was sheer terror, and she tensed herself to run away. But she couldn't do that. She couldn't leave Vertigo. She had to stay and fight. Concentrating hard, she summoned her duplicate.

But it didn't work. No twin appeared by her side. No! Why wasn't her power working? Was she too tired? Did she need to recover strength before it would work? She backed away as the monster approached.

"Vertigo, help me!" the terrified girl begged him.

He made no response. Gemini turned to run, but only stumbled and fell on to her hands and knees. She turned, sobbing and shaking, as the demon advanced on her. Vertigo had disappeared, and something strange was happening to her too. She was shrinking, growing smaller and thinner, tinier and weaker. Her clothes vanished, and then she was a terrified, cringing, naked eight year old, just as she had been so many years ago.

No! What's happening to me! she tried to scream, but no sound came out of her throat

The monster grabbed her shoulders, holding her down. She struggled, but she no longer possessed her fourteen year old body. Her eight year old form was pathetic and useless, and she could barely squirm. Her legs were pushed apart.

No! God, kill me, please kill me now! God, please!

And just as suddenly as it had begun, the terror was ended. She gasped in relief. She was fourteen again. She had her clothes on. She was still lying on her back, but Vertigo was there, and there was no sign of Davor Rosiçky anywhere. Instead Cyclops of the X-Men was kneeling down in front of her, his hand gently touching her shoulder, his mouth forming words that her terrified brain wasn't hearing.

"…you OK? Alexandra?" she finally made out.

Without knowing what she was doing, she clutched him, begging him to stay with her and never to leave her. Still breathing hard, her mind coming to terms with her experience, she told herself to calm down. It was only an illusion. Only an illusion. Her worst fear imaginable, being taken back to her previous hell, away from Dad's protection, had come true, if only for a few seconds. It wasn't real. It wasn't real!

Eventually some part of her took control, and she realised she was hugging Cyclops. Gently he disentangled her arms, and helped her stand.

"What happened? Did you get him away from me?" she asked awkwardly.

"Yes. He's on the run now. We'll catch him."

She exhaled slowly, "Oh, it was horrible. But it felt so real! I thought it really was happening! I thought I really had been – never mind. I…um…Cyclops?"

"Yes?"

"I want to thank you for, um, for getting me out of there. Out of the illusion, I mean. I know I've – I've, oh, this is hard to say. I'm sorry for the things I've said to you sometimes. I mean if I, like, hurt your feelings…I'm sorry."

"Alexandra…don't worry about it. Just calm down. Here's your dad."

He handed her over to Pyro, and she rested in Dad's arms. He's here and he protects me. He always will. I'll never have that taken away from me.

"Don't worry," Dad said softly. "We're gonna kill that bastard."

"No. You can't kill him," she whispered.

"Why not?"

But Gemini was so overwhelmed with emotion and relief and the lingering fear of the illusion, that she had forgotten all about the submarine and its murderous drill.

And nobody had noticed that Neil and Chloe Rosiçky had disappeared.

Scott heard her voice speaking into his mind.

Scott…

He recognised it instantly.

Jean? he thought

Yes, it's me.

You're alive?

Yes. Scott, there's more going on here than you realise. You have to turn back.

Turn back?

I can't explain right now. You have to come back to the mansion. That's where I am now. I'm using Cerebro to talk to you.

One part of Scott wanted to believe it, would have given anything for it to be true. He'd had this dream, this fantasy, so many times. After Jean had died, he had imagined a hundred different scenarios in which her telepathic voice would suddenly speak into his mind, and tell him she had survived. Maybe she could have held back the flood long enough to break free, and to lie somewhere, exhausted and undiscovered, until her injuries healed and her strength returned. And then she would come back to him. But as the weeks, the months and then the years began to elapse, he'd finally accepted this dream was not going to come true. So it changed slightly. Maybe Jean's use of her telekinetic powers had drained her so much that she had lost her memory. That was possible, wasn't it? Maybe she was alone, on a remote island somewhere, recuperating and recovering her lost memories. Maybe once she had recalled her past, she would remember Scott, and then she would come back to him.

It was possible. Wasn't it?

But another part of him saw the obvious and painful truth.

Nice try, Davor. Your illusions might work on the others, but I can see through this one. Are you losing your touch?

Scott, this is Jean. Leave now. Come back to the mansion with me.

If this is Jean, tell me how to destroy Davor.

Silence.

Why are you doing this, Davor? asked Scott, why are you forcing us to relive our most painful memories and remember our saddest losses? Does your research really justify this pain and suffering?

Davor's angry voice came: If you knew the true value of my research, you would not even ask that question, fool!

The words of a true mad scientist…

Be silent. What I am developing will change the world forever.

What we're about to do to you will certainly change your world forever.

Davor sneered: Ha! Bring it on, as you Americans would say.

"Scott?" one of the others was saying. "Which way do you think he went?"

"He's on the run," said Scott. "We're forcing him to move quicker than he wants. He must be heading straight for whatever brought him here."

"And what would that be?" asked Logan.

"His supply of constantium, I would guess. Alexandra, do you know where to find it?"

Gemini looked at him, "I know where his main research lab is. He might be heading there."

"Can you take us there?"

"Sure."

"No, wait a minute," Pyro said. "She's not going with us."

"Yes, I am!"

"No, you're not. You just found out what his illusions can do to you. You want to go through that again?"

"Dad, I am not waiting here. Besides, he can cast his illusions on me whether I'm here or there. He can cast them from anywhere."

"He can?"

"Sure. He did it to Cassie when we were coming in on the chopper."

"Are you serious?" said Scott.

"Yeah."

"He can cast them from a distance?" Fliss asked in dismay. "Then we're screwed! We can't possibly know what's real and what isn't!"

"But he can only cast them on one of us at a time, right?" said Iceman.

"No," said Scott. "We all saw the illusion of those guards, remember?"

"Shit, that's right."

Pyro said, "But the more detailed illusions, the ones deliberately aimed at a single person and designed to bring on an emotional collapse – I bet he can only do one of those at a time. If we stick together, we should be OK."

"Agreed," Cyclops nodded.

Logan had been sniffing the air around them for the last few moments, and he turned to the rest, "He went this way! Follow me!"

The sound of Marina's voice screaming for help grabbed Gary's attention in an instant.

"Gary! H – help me!" he heard her begging.

She was just up ahead. Whatever was happening had to be putting her in danger. Whatever it was, Gary would rescue her from it. He began running in the direction of her voice.

But Cassandra had stepped in front of him and put her hands on his chest, "Gladiator, it's an illusion!"

"It is?"

"Of course it is! He's trying to draw you towards him so he can shoot you! Remember, he did the same thing to me with the illusion of Accel!"

"But what if it isn't an illusion? What if she really is in trouble?"

"Call her. I bet she's still in the computer room."

"I don't have a communicator."

"It is not real. It's just another illusion."

"Gary, please help me!" Marina shrieked from just around the corner.

He made up his mind. Maybe it was an illusion. Maybe it wasn't. Either way, he wasn't going to take the risk that Marina might really be in danger, and that he ended up doing nothing to help her. If it was an illusion, he might die. If it wasn't, Marina might die. He knew which chance he was more willing to take. He began running forward.

"Gladiator! It's not real!" Cassandra cried, trying to pull him back.

Anger rose inside him. Cassandra hated Marina. She wouldn't care if Marina died. She didn't care about the possibility that it wasn't an illusion. He grabbed her and shoved her up against the wall, fury flowing through his veins. Cassandra. She wouldn't care if Marina died. She would happily kill Marina herself. She's hoping it's not an illusion, so Marina really does get killed. I hate her! I hate Cassandra! She hates Marina! I'm going to kill her!

"What are you doing?" Cassie shrieked in surprise, as Gladiator's large hands grasped her around the throat and began squeezing.

Die, you murderer, die! You would kill Marina if you had the chance! You're not going to get the chance! I'm doing this to save her from your hate!

Cassandra began to choke and writhe, struggling to break free, but she had no hope of matching his huge mutated strength. As he squeezed, her windpipe constricted, her face began to turn blue, and her movements were little more than wild, erratic spasms of desperation. Her eyes pleaded with him to stop.

And something in the eyes managed to get through. Gary suddenly gasped with shock, and his hands instantly let go of her throat. Cassandra fell on to her hands and knees, wheezing and choking, gratefully sucking air through her bruised windpipe into her starved lungs. For a moment he was racked by confusion…what had he been doing? He'd set out to try and save Marina from being hurt, and he'd ended up trying to throttle Cassie! What had happened to him? What had possessed him?

Gradually she got her breathing under control, and he reached for her hand, helping her to her feet.

"I – I'm sorry," he said in bewilderment. "I have no idea what just happened…"

"I do," she wheezed. "But I don't believe it. Even though I could see the illusion, I couldn't see what Davor was trying to do with it. I thought he was trying to lure you out there to kill you. But instead he was trying to use an illusion of Aqua to drive a wedge between us, to make you kill me."

"I never saw it. Cassie, I'm really sorry…"

She sighed, "You don't need to apologise. I fell for his illusion earlier."

"We have to kill him."

"After we stop the submarine!"

Atlas noted with increasing panic that Crusader was beginning to struggle. Several times she had almost lost her balance, and it took at least three tries before he could succeed in getting her attention.

"It's the constantium," she said with an effort. "Oh, we must be getting close. There's so much of it. The poorer grade stuff doesn't affect me so much, but the pure samples…they're like a bubble in timespace where telepathy can't exist – where I can't go."

"What are you gonna do? What do you want me to do?"

"I don't think I can go any further. I'll lose consciousness if I get any nearer to the damn stuff. Listen, it's too risky for you to go on alone. Try and find the others."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know. I think they're close."

"OK. Well…"

"Good luck," she said.

Annie hated the feeling of powerlessness as Atlas walked on without her. She fumed inside. It was her duty to stop Davor. It was her duty as the strongest X-Woman to fight against those who were evil. It went against every instinct in her body to stop here while her weaker friends went on without her. The problem was, there simply wasn't any other choice. If she went on any further, she'd be knocked out. This was a battle she couldn't take part in, let alone win. For once her great telepathic gift was more of a curse than a blessing. It rendered her totally unable to approach Davor for fear of the constantium.

She smacked her fist into her thigh in frustration. How could she just be standing here when their enemy could be only yards away! Sighing deeply, Annie forced herself to calm down. She wasn't totally useless. She could still heal any of her friends who came by. She'd tried pushing through the walls with her X-ray sight, but she couldn't muster the concentration to get it to work. The constantium was affecting her mind's ability to focus.

Dominic stood restlessly near the door of the computer room, resisting the temptation to pace back and forth. That would only distract Marina. As far as he could tell, she was having enough trouble as it was. She had been searching the computers' data-vault for any more information about the submarine, or about the constantium. But after Cassie and the rest had left, Marina had been having little success. To her dismay she had discovered that some of the files were still security-encrypted, at a level higher than the decryption key she'd been given by Hoogstrate, the computer expert. There had to be some way of cracking the encryption and finding her way in…but unless she had a sudden stroke of luck, it would take time, time they probably didn't have. She didn't know exactly what was in the encrypted files, but she guessed it was Davor's highest security information. It was probably the secrets of his research that nobody else, not even his eleven co-conspirators, knew about. Would it hold the answer to why he was doing all this, why he'd had her family murdered? Marina hadn't forgotten that. She had to know what was so important that her family had been killed to protect it. It wouldn't bring them back and it probably wouldn't make her feel any better…but she felt as if she had to know. There was simply no other way to go on.

She heard a noise from the doorway, footsteps entering the room, and she glanced up apprehensively. Had someone found them? Had Davor somehow gotten past the others and come after her, determined to finish the last Forrester? Strange. Dominic had disappeared. But Marina forgot about him, and about everything else entirely, when she saw the two figures who'd walked into the room.

"Mom! Dad!" she cried.

Her father smiled. Her mother opened her arms, and Marina ran across the room to fall into an embrace. Mom held her fondly, and kissed the top of her head. Dad's hand gently caressed her shoulder, as the two adults lovingly cuddled their youngest daughter. Marina sobbed tears of elation and relief as she hugged them. She'd craved her parents' company and love for so long without having it, and now it was hers once more. She'd dreamed about this moment. She'd dreamed that Mom and Dad were not dead after all, and she could hold them once more and feel their affection for her. This was right. This was meant to be. Her mind was healed now. Her mental illness was gone. Mom and Dad were alive again.

Dominic looked on in dismay as Marina was overcome by the illusion. He had never seen her looking so happy, so content, so relaxed…and it saddened him. He knew it wasn't real. He knew that once the illusion was over, Marina would once again have to face the reality that her parents were dead. She would have to lose them forever, all over again. He knew it would do terrible things to her. He knew it might send her back into the awful trauma she'd experienced before, but this time there might be no recovery. All of the healing she'd done, all of the hard work and commitment she'd put into rebuilding her life…it might all be for nothing now. She might never recover from this. He wanted to grab her and pull her away from the illusion. He wanted to pull her out of it. He didn't have the heart to do it. He didn't want to be the one who pulled Marina out of her blissful dream, and brought her back to the numbing horror of reality.

He sat down in front of the computer where she'd been working. It was obvious that she'd been getting somewhere. He'd bet that was why Davor had cast the illusion on her, to get her away from the computer. Dominic knew he had to try and take up where she'd left off. If the answers they sought were close, he was ready to find them. He was no expert with computer security, but to defeat Davor he was prepared to try anything. Looking closely at the screen, he tried to get an idea of what Marina had been in the middle of, just before the illusion took her.

Great. It looks as if she was writing some kind of decryption program to break into these files. I don't have a clue what to do with it. It makes no sense to me whatsoever. He sighed. I suppose all I can do is try my best. Are there any programs she's already finished writing, that I could try and use to hack my way through the encryption? Yeah, here's some. Let's try this one…

He sighed.

He knew just enough to be able to compile the program and set it to work. If it didn't work, he'd try the next one. And then the next one, until he'd tried them all. If none of them worked, he'd have to try and get Marina back to work on the problem. But he doubted if she would be in any state to concentrate on this or anything else. Nevertheless, he had to do something. Even if his efforts did nothing more than distract Davor, it would at least help the others. He wondered how they were getting on. He thought Annie might have called him if there was some kind of update on the pursuit. He wondered if Scott and the rest were here yet. They had to be. Davor couldn't have arrived very long before them.

He looked over at Marina, and sighed heavily. She was huddled against the wall, smiling in contented bliss, and whispering something under her breath. She thought she was hugging her parents and whispering her love to them. How could Davor do this to her? How could he risk destroying her mental stability forever, just to stop her from getting to the files on the computer system? Was his research work that damn important to him? Was it more important than a person's life? Because if Marina couldn't recover from losing her parents again, her life would be over. She'd still be alive and breathing, but her mind would have completely collapsed and she would be little more than a mindless automaton. Dominic couldn't bear to think of that happening to his friend. He'd kill Davor if that was how Marina ended up! Angrily smacking his fist into his palm, he was suddenly aware of somebody walking into the room. Dominic looked across to see someone he recognised, but someone he had certainly never expected to see again.

His twin brother Recyclo stared back at him. For a moment Dominic's heart leapt. His brother was here! His brother was alive! They'd thought he was dead! Dominic had always maintained that they'd never seen him die, that he could have survived, but nobody else had wanted to believe it. Nobody else had wanted Recyclo to still be alive. Only Dominic wanted his twin brother to have survived, to allow them to finally spend time together after nearly seventeen years apart. He forgot about the computer and the decryption program. His brother, the brother who had been lost for his entire life, was here.

Then he realised. He'd just seen Marina fooled by the illusion of her dead loved ones walking into the room. Now Davor was trying to fool him with the exact same thing. It had almost worked. For a minute Dominic had been ready to leap out of his seat, abandoning the computer search, and run across the room towards his brother. Now he stopped himself from rising, and put his mind back on the computers. He ignored the illusion of his twin.

"My brother," came Recyclo's voice. "Don't you know me?"

Dominic said nothing.

"Why are you ignoring me?"

"Because you're not real. You're not really here. You're an illusion."

"I am no illusion, brother."

"Yes, you are. You're here to distract me from using the computer. Davor knows I'm about to find his secret files, and he's terrified of what I might read in there. That's why he got Marina away from the computers. Now he's trying to do the same to me. It isn't going to work."

"I commend your resolve, but it isn't necessary," Recyclo said. "As I said, I'm not an illusion."

Dominic turned to look at him. The twins' eyes met and held. Dominic felt something he'd never felt before. He couldn't put his finger on what it was. He couldn't even describe the type of feeling. He didn't know what it was, but he did know one thing. This was no illusion. There was no way that Davor could have faked up the emotions he was feeling now.

This really was Recyclo.