(Seven)

Gambit was only just outside the stadium when he heard the first explosions. The booming was so loud, it nearly toppled him off his feet. They left his ears ringing and made him a bit dizzy, but he kept right on going. Nothing was going to deter him from his mission. Kimble was going to be found and brought home today, come hell or high water.

It wasn't going to happen without some difficulties – a stray bomb fell close by and knocked him down hard onto his hands and knees. He grunted with pain, asphalt not being too friendly on his skin, but stood up woozily and kept going. He paused only long enough for a quick look behind him. The stadium was intact in spite of the explosions and he hoped most of the damage was in the stands and not on the grass where the people were. There were some ugly plumes of smoke he didn't like but he was in no position to do anything about them now, he would have to place his hope in the strength of this team, hopefully they would see to it that it was put out.

The SHIELD and X-men had been granted special parking privileges close by and he went in search of his Jeep but soon realized that with all the police and rescue vehicles coming, he would never get it out of here. He kept on running. He would find Kimble on foot, he was only a few blocks away and not that far from here. He didn't want to leave Kimble alone and exposed.

As he ran, all sorts of thoughts ran through his mind. 'Shay had not said what her injuries were, Gambit's mind was running wild with all sorts of possibilities – Kimble shot, Kimble stabbed, Kimble hit by a car, Kimble beaten within an inch of his life. Kimble had been through enough already as far as the thief was concerned, the thought of him being damaged any further was making Gambit sick even as he ran. The only thing that gave him comfort was that Kimble had been intact enough to figure out how to use a pay phone.

Gambit raced down the street and away from the stadium, making his way to where Lakotashay had indicated. It wasn't far and he covered the distance quickly, but was wiped out from his run. He found the phone 'Shay had used - the pile of coins left behind in a pile on the bottom of the phone stall was a dead giveaway - but now saw no sign of Kimble himself. He looked around wildly, scanning the throng of people standing around gaping at the smoke filled sky. Kimble was nowhere in sight.

Remy had almost given up when he caught sight of Sabretooth out of the corner of his eye. The big man was slowly walking down the street away from him, clearly looking for something - Kimble no doubt, if the Siskan had escaped. Creed was battered and bloody, but the people around him didn't seem to notice, they were all looking at the smoke from the explosions, the cloud was growing bigger and darker by the minute. Already there was the sound of fire and rescue sirens howling in the distance. Victor was keeping low and to one side, tracking Kimble from the scent of Mary on his shirt.

Gambit slipped into the crowd of people milling about the street, downwind from Creed and followed him. He knew that Sabretooth's ability to track was as good as Logan's and was willing to let Creed do some of the work in finding Kimble for him.

It was a good strategy, Creed moved slowly along the storefronts, but paused at the opening to an alley. He sniffed and laughed with a grunt, going in. Gambit slid his retractable bo staff from his pocket and quietly snapped it out. His noise was being covered by the crowd in the street and Victor was unaware of his presence. He entered the ally, but waited until he saw the big man drag a limp and unresistant Kimble out from the garbage.

Creed couldn't hide his relief that he had Kimble back in his possession. He seemed unconcerned that the Siskan was offering no resistance and lay like on dead, Creed laughed irritably and spoke into the dead and empty face of his servant, hoping to revive him with words. "You all done runnin', my pet? That's good, 'cause it's time ta come home. I'm pissed - really pissed, actually - but I'll take care of that, don't you worry. How many times I gotta tell ya? Jael can shove his three million dollars up his ass. Yer stayin' with me!"

"Saby, you wound me. Gambit offer you double dat an' still you turn 'im down," Remy teased, coming closer.

Creed whirled in surprise and snarled when he saw the thief standing there. He grinned, showing his fangs. "Hey, Cajun. You still got my marks on your pretty skin?"

Remy twirled his staff with a confident smile. "Dat boy belong to me. You put him down nice and quiet, s'il vous plait, mebbe I don break your head open, d'accorde?"

"Humph. Yeah I knows about you an' him. Too bad fer you, he's mine! You want him, you'll have ta go through me!"

Gambit just grinned, not really understanding what Creed had said about him and Kimble, but didn't care. "I made it t'rough you b'fore, M'sieu 'Tooth. I can do it again. I ain't no little kid no more."

Creed let Kimble's limp body fall and they went to it. True, Gambit was no longer the teenager he had been on that terrible day in the Morlock tunnels, but at the same time, Sabretooth was big and fast, stronger than Logan with a better healing factor.

Remy was a good fighter and nimble, yet wasn't as good in such close quarters, not against a man with claws who could heal. He kicked and spun, using his surroundings as best he could to keep the monster from getting close enough to scratch him with his big ugly talons. It was close fighting, his jacket was beginning to show the wear and hung in ragged tatters in the front. Remy used anything he could find as weapon, charging bits of garbage and the like, but was leery about too big a bang, he didn't want to topple a building on them or hurt Kimble by accident.

Sabretooth seemed to guess this, keeping the thief close and not letting him get too far away to where it was more open. He was no fool and well versed on Remy's strengths and weaknesses. He knew that Remy would wear down eventually, that he wouldn't be able to compete with his own resistance to fatigue. Creed was right, Gambit was running out of gas while he was just getting warmed up.

Remy cursed in ragged French when Victor shattered his staff with a vicious swipe of his claws. The big man grinned in satisfaction as Gambit was forced to retreat a little. Remy wasn't quite sure what to do now. He tossed a few more cards but Creed was much too skilled to be dazed that easily.

Remy had been hoping perhaps Kimble would wake and help him out here - that little sword trick would come in handy right about now - but the pilot lay dead like a huge white dishrag, his eyes open but unseeing of all that was around him. Gambit cursed and fell back on the pistol, firing the full clip into Sabretooth and only earning another guttural laugh. The monster that was Sabretooth couldn't be stopped with bullets, especially when he was in a full mad on like he was right now. They danced around some more, but it wasn't long before Creed got the upper hand. He gave Remy a crushing blow to the face, hard enough to spin the poor boy around, tangling his legs. Victor caught his prey and slammed him into the brick wall with enough force to daze him. He pinned Remy down and raised a huge clawed hand. "Bang! Yer dead, Cajun!"

Time froze in that instant for Remy. He saw Sabretooth's raised claws above him and heard the thunder of his own heartbeat filling his hears. He had always been lucky and really never saw himself as trapped or dead to rights as he was now. There were no X-men leaping off the roof to save him or Danger Room panic buttons here. He wasn't getting out of this alive. As the claws came down towards him, the only thought he had was one of intense regret. He had wasted so much time and never really tried to achieve the one thing he had always wanted most. He wanted a wife and kids. Lots of them, all running around his feet as they squealed and laughed with the joy of just being alive. He should never had wasted his time waiting on Rogue who was never going to truly love him. He could have found a real girl with a real heart who could have given him some real kids and a real life.

Funny how the face that came to him was Molly's. He saw her smiling face, the soft blue glow of her eyes. He knew it was wrong to want her, she was way too young, but he couldn't help it. It was her he was thinking of right now and he felt a kind of peace having her in his heart as he died. He closed his eyes and cringed, waiting for his death and hoping it would be quick.

Gambit cried out as he was sprayed with hot blood and gore. The biggest shock came when he discovered it wasn't his own. He coughed in surprise and looked up at Creed in wonder. Sabretooth stood before him, twitching like a crazed madman, howling not with victory, but with agony. He had been run through with a large orange glowing broadsword which bore an uncanny resemblance to Valentin's. The pilot had miraculously revived and come to his rescue after all, Zander had made his mysterious blade and given it a charge. It wasn't as bright as it had been on the day Remy had seen him do this the first time, Zander was almost out of juice and had played his final card to protect his friend.

Remy could smell Creed's insides burning from the hot plasma of the sword and he couldn't stop himself from gagging. He prayed Creed wouldn't explode as Seamus had, he didn't know if his stomach could take it.

Kimble stood behind Sabretooth and growled Zander's low mumble in his ear. "Surprise, fucker! Fergot about me, didn'cha? Do ya know who I am, huh? I am La ShaRain natay LaRoo, the Guardian Angel! Zander! I toldja you an ' me wuz gonna have a reckonin'. Toldja I wuz gonna kill ya, too, if ya followed us. How ya likin' it, c-cksucker, huh!"

Creed gasped through reddened teeth, unsure of what had just happened. He knew Zander was angry at him, but this? Clearly, his little toy wasn't wrapped as tightly as he had thought. Kimble was having a breakdown and had skewered the wrong guy. How embarrassing.

"Put me down! I'm yer Master!" he spat out, spraying blood. He jerked his body, but the sword held him fast. His flesh had fused to the blade in a feeble attempt to heal itself, and Zander's telekinetic power restrained him as well. He was trapped with no way out. "You promised ta protect me!"

"Kim done that, not me. Never me. No real Master would ever treats us like ya done. It's been real fun, watchin' Kimble playin' around with you, but it wuzn't ever love. We had the real thing b'fore, we knows what it's like and you ain't it! You jus' wanted an invulnerable punchin' bag with a nice warm hole in it! Kim wuz whatever ya wanted him ta be. Jus' cuz him an' 'Shay wuz cool with it don' mean I wuz. I ain't about ta bow down ta you 'r anaone else, fucker! I toldja you ain't never gonna be the Master of me! Time fer some payback!"

"That's a stinkin' load of crap!" Sabretooth snarled, his feeble brain unable to wrap around the conundrum placed before him. He still wanted to believe this was Kimble playing some sort of stupid game. "You were there, waitin' on me, beggin' for it! Kim was all cryin' when he thought I was gonna leave him! You can't deny what was there!"

Gambit reeled, was this some kind of lover's spat? Wow, did Saby ever get the surprise, he chuckled to himself. For once Kimble's damaged mind was working in his favor. The Lover wasn't the only one in the house and now poor Victor had to deal with the fractured pilot's various selves, an outraged Punisher in particular. Hey, what comes around goes around, Saby. Enjoy.

Zander wasn't done arguing. "Yeah? Maybe there mighta been sumpthin' there 'tween you an Kim, but if ya loved Kim as much as ya say, how come ya didn't listen ta him? He gave ya every chance ta stop this. Every chance! Him an 'Shay done evrathin' ya ever wanted 'em to, butcha couldn't do this one thing fer them, ya fuckin' hypocrite! You couldn't spare us this one life! This one life in exchange fer the rest of ours! Well ya blew it, fucker! You made a mistake lyin' ta us an' thinkin' I wouldn't stops ya. Yer goin' down - permanently!" Zander gave the sword he had conjured from his own power a vicious twist and snarled, "That's fer the belt, asshole!"

Sabretooth howled in agony, his voice cracking and breaking from the strain. It was a horrible sound, the worst thing Gambit had ever heard. The only thing not making this worse was that Zander was too weak to fully Channel the blade, he was melting Sabretooth from the inside out, but couldn't load him up with enough plasma to burst him apart. No matter, a blade was still a blade. Sabretooth was only one more twist away from being severed in two.

"Zander, non! C'est essez! Stop!" Remy shouted, breaking out of his daze. He didn't mind Sabretooth getting some pain, but this was getting out of hand. The Punisher wanted to take this all the way. "Don' kill 'im!"

Gambit had been startled by Kimble's transformation and recognized Zander's voice all too well. What a breath stealing transition - only moments ago Kimble had been lying in a pile of trash like a dead thing, now he was hovering behind the monstrous Sabretooth, glowing with a strange orange light. Remy had already seen Zander's magic trick before, but it didn't compare to seeing it right up close like this. Zander was monstrously beautiful as he stood so elegantly, the air around him charged with some kind of malevolent power. Remy didn't understand what was going on here. All he knew was he couldn't let Kimble or any of his broken selves kill anyone else.

"Why not? This fucker's dead already!" the Punisher snapped, his eyes red and full of hatred.

"Non, jus' 'urt real bad. He got the point, let 'im go!"

"No!" Zander growled again. "He wuz hurtin' Kimble real bad an' likin' it!" His face was contorted in an ugly mask of rage and hate.

"Gambit's askin' you not to, s'il vous plait," Remy said, keeping his voice level. It was sinking in that Kimble's Zander was the spirit firmly at the helm and he didn't want to aggravate the Punisher who was obviously so easily roused. "S'il vous plait, Zandy. Fo' me. Fo' Gambit."

Zander continued to growl as he considered his options.

Let him go...please, Kimble whispered from the circle of light. He's all done nohow.

Zander looked at his victim and saw Kimble was right. Creed had grown quiet from blood loss and pain and wasn't fighting him anymore. The Punisher closed his eyes and with a low moan, withdrew the sword, letting Creed fall bonelessly to the ground. Victor rolled over, clutching his guts and shivering. He was badly hurt, perhaps fatally. There were no assurances that his healing factor could save him from everything. His insides had been melted, horribly charred and fused as if he had swallowed a plasma bomb down his own throat. There were no words to describe the pain. All there was, was the smell of cooked meat.

The Punisher shivered and the orange glow left him as the sword dissolved away to nothing. His power now drained, he crumpled down next to Kimble's lover who lay in a lake of crimson blood and gore. Zander blinked and released control, his rage no longer needed.

Kimble groaned as he returned to the fore. His body was almost out of power and wasted now, too weak to really move. His eyes cleared and for a moment, he met those of his Master and he keened sharply in shame and horror of what he'd done. This man had loved him and he had skewered him like so much meat. "Kristalay! Oh, no.. Not my Kristalay!" Kimble wailed with a sob."I'm so sorry! I didn' mean ta hurts ya so bad...jus' couldn't lets ya kill Remy...not this one...please!"

" 'S okay, kid. I'll be comin' back fer you, don't you worry," Creed growled gently, accepting Kimble's apology. He lifted a huge clawed hand and dropped it over one of Kimble's, swallowing it up. He twitched once and passed out.

Kimble watched as Creed's shine shimmered and faded away. It wasn't out, not yet, but it was as good as gone. His Master was dead and he had been responsible. Kimble cried out loudly and that bright light burst out from inside of his brain, flooding the Black Room of his mind. He howled and was swallowed up by it, falling back into his chains, back into the circle of light.

Gambit waited, expecting Lakotashay to come out. He had seen the light dim in Kimble's eyes, and realized the Lover had retreated. But it wasn't the Quitter who came to greet him, no. It was someone new.

The tiny pilot child came out violently, screaming a torrent of hysterical Siskan. "WE'S BAD! WE DONE THE VERY BADDEST THING! WE KILLDED THE MASTER! NO! NO! NNNOOO!"

"Oh, Jesus!" Remy cried and grabbed at him protectively, not really understanding. All he knew was that this was bad, really bad. He didn't recognize the voice and it frighted him. He shook the pilot roughly, hoping to snap him out of it. He never noticed that in spite of his injuries, Kimble took very little power from him. With injuries this severe, he should have been violently tossed into Kimble's mind, back into that grey sky of Kimble's internal Neverland. It didn't happen. There was a small red crackle as his bare fingers grasped at him, but that was all. He screamed at his friend, "Kimble!"

The pilot just wailed, repeating in Siskan over and over as the tears poured from his eyes. "WE DONE A BAD THING! WE DONE THE BADDEST THING! WE'S SO BAD!"

Remy groaned in mental agony, Kimble's vibrations of pain, shame and horror were choking him. They were intense and powerful, just as strong as Babette's vibrations of love had been. Their bond was strong, strong enough to hurt him like nothing else right now. It was horrible and tears sprang to his eyes almost instantly. Shi'ow-ri was screaming at him, / He's splitting again! You have to get him out of here! Move your Cajun ass!/

He scrambled to comply, his mind spinning. Kimble was trashed and they had to get out of here. One look at Kimble's feet convinced him they weren't going to go out walking.

"Whoa! What, the hell happened here?"

Gambit looked up, startled to hear the voice from above him. He smiled with relief, hoping his pain didn't show, he would never be able to explain it.

Max dropped down, dressed in a bulletproof vest and a harness, holding a set of straps. Like Fallen, he was expected to wear these for transport because he was still in training. He took one look at the charred and savaged body of Victor Creed and shuddered in revulsion. He didn't think Remy had done that, but didn't believe the other guy did either. He was wailing like a little kid who just got busted for doing something bad. Max just hoped whoever it was that had done thing, they were far away from here now.

"What you doin' 'ere, Maxie? Not dat Gambit's mindin' it any."

"Logan sent me," Max replied, his voice a little shaky from all the excitement. He was thrilled he had been included in the Rally crew. He hadn't expected to see any action because he was so new and was ecstatic that he had ended up being of some value.

"Nice to know dat boy's good fo' sumptin'," Remy joked and hauled Kimble up into his arms. The pilot had quieted after his initial outbursts and was now sobbing and repeating his lament in low tones, the Siskan leaking out around his sobs. The painful vibrations had lessened, making it easier for Gambit to think and get moving.

Max came over but froze, uncertainly. "You okay?"

"What? Why?" Remy asked, not really understanding. He glanced down at his body, seeing in a stress induced fog that he was covered in Sabretooth's blood. "Oh, dat? Well, it ain't nuthin' a litte dry cleanin' won't fix, n'est ce pas?"

"Uhm, sure," Max replied nervously, fumbling with the leather in his hands.

"Chill out, Maxie. It ain't mine."

Max nodded, feeling a little better, and helped Remy get strapped up in a harness, trying not to look at Kimble. This guy was covered in blood as well and stinking of garbage, hopelessly trashed.

Max got them set and jerked them into the air without preamble. He was young, but quick enough to know when to shut up and get moving. The crowd outside the alley had seen them and was growing curious. He flew swiftly, heading back to the Mansion.

To be continued in Recovery.