A/N

Sorry for the delay! To make up for it, I'm posting two chapters!

"This is crazy!" Scott shook his head. "No way did we just get up in the middle of the night to find an all out war in a museum, break it up, and have the bad guys just disappear in a blink of an eye!"

"It's obvious those guys were like, mutants. They had to be, right?"

"I'm not so sure." Jean said worriedly. "They didn't feel like mutants."

"But they looked kinda sorta like it!"

"It's not as if we could see their faces." Rogue pointed out. "They were all wearing those weird helmets and those uniforms."

"Maybe they came from a Space Ranger convention?"

"…Somehow I doubt that sci-fi moguls in dull green uniforms would hold up a museum, Miss Pryde." Hank McCoy said, rubbing his temples. "They must have been there looking for something. Perhaps we should focus on that then what they were at the moment?"

"That robber's got something to do with it. I smelt him in some of the rooms. I could have tracked him if the police and certain others hadn't been fouling up the trail." Logan glared at the sheepish looking Nightcrawler that was perched on the edge of the couch. The brimstone smell of his transporting had destroyed some of the significant smells that Logan had been trying to track.

The X-men that went on the mission, consisting of Jean, Scott, Rogue, Kurt, Kitty, Logan and Hank, stood in the study around Professor Xavier's desk. Xavier had listened to the odd tale carefully.

"Mr. McCoy is right. Make sure you ask the Curator what was missing. If we find out, we may be able to find the robber and get the whole story.

"I heard ze police say zey got a 911 call, but the girl wasn't found. Should ve look for her too?" Kurt asked concernedly.

"Yes, but keep in mind that there may be more to that than meets the eye. For all we know, that call was staged."

A few minutes later, after the X-men had filed out and gone back to bed, Charles Xavier rubbed his eyes and yawned. It was already a long night.

He steepled his fingers for a moment, and looked off into space.

He sent the X-men out when he felt a strange surge of raw psychic emotion from Bayville. It had been so strong that if he hadn't realized the danger and put his mental shields up, the force could have knocked him out. All through the broiling mass of thought, he kept on hearing one phrase above all.

Destroy the enemy.

He had sent the X-men out immediately, and they got there mere minutes after the police had engaged these creatures.

Jean was right. There was something not human about these creatures. It gave him a bad feeling.

A feeling that a conflict was boiling between two sides, and it wasn't long before it boiled over into the innocent population.

They had to get down to the bottom of this. Somehow, he had the feeling something that had to do with everyone depended on it.

I woke up four hours later, curled up on the couch in a fetal position. I didn't move an inch.

Rain was pouring down outside. It was hitting the window with unnerving precision.

I let my hand slip nonchalantly from under my cheek to the back pocket of my shorts. I traced the tip of a knife that I kept there for emergencies. Who knew what kind of creeps prowled after seventeen year old girls these days?

Something was moving around outside.

I slipped off the couch and hid on the other side of the couch arm, away from the window. I sat with my knees to my chest, the knife out of the leather sheath in one hand, the other circled around my legs, making myself as tiny as possible.

I closed my eyes and began watching it move outside. The observation point was a small nest of starlings, huddled in their nest under the highest corner of the roof. Even though it was a few stories higher than my own borrowed place, their eyes were much better at picking out small details that anyone else I was likely to find.

A shimmering outline was carefully sneaking up the escape, not making any sound at all.

Well, well.

I blinked my eyes open, gathered up my bag and did a quick check around for anything I left out. I grabbed my wallet and jammed it down my pocket. I grabbed my sneakers and jammed them down into my bag. I picked up the jacket and pants and slung them over my shoulder. I unlocked the door and closed it quietly, locking it behind me.

No time for tidying up or laundry. I ran as quietly as I could. The Ghallian might not be able to hear me, but a person yelling at me for being noisy at four thirty in the morning might tip it off.

I got to the elevator and went down to the garage. It was a pretty nice apartment, I had to admit, with an underground parking lot. I wouldn't have expected it in Bayville. Then again, mutants hang out in an institution on the outskirts of Bayville, so maybe there was more to this town than meets the eye.

I got out of the elevator and did a quick mental check with the sparrows in the rafters. It was cold, too cold to be in a tank top and shorts.

No one was here. Yet.

Another scan produced incredible good luck.

I walked to a dark blue car with hardly a speck on the outside. It looked like it had been babied all of its life.

Unfortunately, the ones that babied hadn't thought about driving too much in the future, because the keys were locked on the inside.

A few cars down, there was a wall with a fire extinguisher. I pulled it off the wall, shifting everything I had to one arm and carrying the extinguisher in my other hand.

It really was a pity. It was such a nice looking car.

The crash set off the alarm, more than likely alerting the Ghallian. I reached over the broken glass carefully and grabbed the electronic locking device on the keychain that was hanging from the ignition. A second later, the alarm was off and I was throwing my stuff into the passenger seat. I sat in the seat after throwing my black jacket over the glass shards on the seat. I closed the door after me and started the engine. It purred to life with little comment.

I had no idea what car it was. I could tell that it must be valuable to some extent if the owner babied over it so much.

I put it into gear and began to drive out of the garage.

I passed my driver's test. I wasn't bad, really. But I hadn't driven in months. Which was why I almost clipped the little green car coming out. I got out onto the street and was hit with a blast of cold air from the broken window.

I shivered and resisted the urge to turn on the heat. I had to be on the lookout for my little Ghallian frie—

WHUMP!

I ducked instinctively at the sound. I closed one eye.

It was on the roof of the damn car!

I slammed my bare foot on the gas. The wheels hydroplaned for a half second then went careening down the wrong side of the street. I jerked the wheel back around and the car slid into the correct lane.

The speedometer kept going up and up. I hoped everyone would stay off the street. I didn't know if I could stop this thing in time.

Speaking of stopping-

I slammed my foot on the break and braced my arms. I didn't have a seatbelt, and it wouldn't be good if I went flying with the Ghallian.

The wheels screamed and the car went into a spin. I held on for dear life as the world whipped around. Something heavy fell off the roof.

When the car hit its back light against a lightpole, everything stopped.

After a second of breathing deep breaths and keeping whatever was in my stomach staying there, I looked up. Directly in front of the car, the limp figure of a Ghallian soldier was on the ground.

I took another deep breath.

Yes, it was a Ghallian soldier. The uniform was camouflaged in a way somehow alien to earth's own armies. As if it had been made for an environment a little more red or a little more green, in some cases. They wore helmets, which made everyone think that they were the same race, but I knew that under the helmet you could get anything from human-like to something that looked like some five year old's play-doh collection.

It started moving. I felt my foot itch to the gas.

It was just in front of the car. I wouldn't even have to get out doing it.

But wouldn't that be killing?

Lord Jaakeni said to kill Ghallians in your way!

But it would be murder…and it's helpless, it looks like it has a broken leg.

It isn't murder if Lord Jaakeni says it isn't!

But that's WRONG.

I jerked like I'd been slapped.

Of course it was wrong. It's wrong to murder, just like it was wrong to steal and wrong to hurt. Sometimes you had to do these things to survive. But not now. They were helpless, and I never wanted to kill anyway.

The soldier is in pain. I looked at them, thinking to myself.

Why did I want to kill it?

Because of Lord Jaakeni. He told me to. You have to kill the enemy.

But what about the helpless enemy, the one that can't fight back? Didn't Jaakeni go on about the horrors of war, the helpless cut down before the wicked?

I was having a hard time coming to grips about my situation. On one side was the infallible words of Lord Jaakeni. On the other, the rebellious comments of a part of my mind that was against him in every way. The part of my mind that was feeling…

Pity. Not the indifferent pity of breaking the window of a perfectly maintained car. It was the pity of someone who looked down at the enemy and felt pain at what they did, without knowing why. Pity, not directed at the enemy, really…but at me.

I wheeled the car around the fallen soldier. It'd be calling others soon enough, better I wasn't around. I put my foot on the gas and tore away from the site.

You didn't kill him. Lord Jaakeni will be furious. The little voice in my head whispered malignantly.

I felt myself frowning. The voice had always been so natural, I had always thought it was a part of me instead. But now…it said 'you'. That's not how I talk to myself.

I couldn't stop to think about it now. I had to keep driving, had to get out of this city and away from any threats.

Then maybe I could start thinking about my situation.

She had been there.

Oh, they all knew about her. Her, and her strange ability to always know when they were about. Some of the more foolish soldiers referred to her as a witch, as if this side of the barriers could produce such a powerful one.

Thinking amongst Ghallian soldiers, especially the lowly ranks of foot soldiers, was considered a crime punishable by death. Thinking created intelligence, and intelligence created the ever abominable question 'why'.

But even so, with every crime punishable by death, there are still a few who keep testing the bounds of authority by doing it in secret.

He was one of them.

Intelligent enough to gather information. Intelligent enough to keep said information gathering a total secret. Intelligent enough to use said information for his own purposes.

And stupid enough acting to pull it all off without so much as a raised eyebrow.

He kept guard while the two other soldiers he was with tended to the fallen idiot that had gone on ahead to cut Her off. He had gotten on the worse end of the fight it seemed. He was lucky to be alive, they said. She could have killed him if he hadn't acted like he was dead.

He almost snorted aloud. That wouldn't have helped at all. He knew from his last encounter that she wasn't that easy to fool. He had shifted out of sight and she still saw him. She even stabbed him with a pole, which still hurt…

And she let him live. He had been helpless and she didn't try to finish the job. And she hadn't here.

That made for some interesting conclusions.

Yes, he was smart. But being smart, he could tell his own military career would come to a grinding halt soon enough. He was arrogant, which made it all the harder to keep the intelligence in check. He also knew which way the war was going. As usual, it was heading for nowhere on both sides. The warrior ship of the soldiers were deteriorating, and they were dying left and right. The only thing a soldier of the 'Great Ghallian Army' could hope for was to die quick.

Unless, of course, one made his way to another option. And, truth be told, he was very good at making his way.

Please leave your reviews on the way out! Thanks for reading!

PrincessofWildfire: Hey there! Sorry it took me so long to get another chapter up! I'm having a tough time keeping my schedule straight. Heh, you have many questions! As far as Arcane goes, good possibility he won't be showing up. I'll be eplaining the Ghallians in depth soon enough, though, so bear with me! Hope you enjoy the chapter!