Disclaimer: Yep, none of the traditional X-Men belong to me...just the ones i made up...and they're getting ready to go on vacation with me and won't be around for you to play with anyway, so don't bother trying...

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Chapter 20.

(Angela)

We forced ourselves to walk as calmly as possible to the Professor's office, even though everything in me wanted to run. However, we couldn't alarm the children so we took it slow. Kurt was there ahead of us and the Professor was talking to Sam on the secure radio that we used to communicate with the X-Jet over long distances. Sam sounded beyond frantic, which was understandable if what I heard was true.

"…two of them, came out of nowhere. The one guy hit me with something in the face, blinded me. The other one was a woman, fought better than Angela and she took Scott. I saw a helicopter leave but I don't know where they went and they're not showing up on radar."

"How did you manage to get away?" Charles asked.

"Sheer luck. I think they only had a narrow window to operate within and if they didn't get us both by the time their ride showed up, they had to leave anyway."

"Makes sense." Logan said, his brow furrowed in concentration. "We ran a few ops like that, remember?"

"Yeah, I do." I replied, running my fingers through my hair. "So we're thinking what here?"

"I don't care what you all are thinking." Sam snapped. "I'm thinking that we need to mobilize and find him."

"Agreed." The Professor said in a forceful tone. "I'll get on Cerebro and see if I can't locate him that way. I'll let Angela and Logan decide who will be going in to find him."

"That's easy." I said. "Alpha and Beta teams are both going. If this is what I think it is, we'll need every person we can spare."

Logan leaned in close to me. "You're thinkin' they were from Weapon X, aren't you?" I nodded and he swore under his breath. "Fuck. We ain't ever gonna be free from them, are we?"

"One head at a time, lover." I murmured, remembering my comparison to the mythical hydra. "We'll get them all, one head at a time."

"Sam, will you be ok bringing the jet in or should I have Kurt get me up there when you're on final approach?" Storm asked, clearly worried.

"I'll be fine. I watched everything he did. Eidetic memory comes in handy at times like this." I heard him gasp before he continued. "Have everyone ready to go when I get there. And I want Josh in the hangar too. He'll need to fix up my knee before we leave again."

"Wait, what's this 'we' crap, bub?" Logan asked. "Last time I checked, you weren't on the team."

"Try and stop me, Logan. I'll do more than dent your head. He's my best friend and I'm not leaving him out there!"

"Logan, choose your battles wisely." I whispered. "You can't win this one. Let him come. He's trained, he's strong and he'll walk if he has to. I recognize that tone, you can't talk him out of it."

"But Angela…"

"No buts! He sounds like I did when I came after you. You have to let him do this."

Logan sighed. "Fine, you'll come with us. But you follow orders, got it? No goin' off by yourself."

"That's funny, coming you mein freund." Kurt said. "That's just vhat you did last time ve vere up there."

"Keep the commentary to yourself, bub."

"Listen, I should be back at the mansion within the hour." Sam broke in. "Just be ready when I get there all right?"

"We will be." I said. "Don't worry, we'll find him."

He signed off the radio and I looked around at everyone in the room. With Scott gone, the Alpha team needed a leader. It was a hard question to ask, but that's one of the things I've always been good at, saying what no one else wanted to say. "So. Except for Sam, all of Alpha team is here." I began. "Scott's the de facto leader, but he's our mission objective. Technically, that means that leadership would fall to Storm as the next X-Man in terms of seniority."

"Oh no, I don't want it." She said, hands held up. "I'm not really leader material. Not for something like this."

"All right then. Who do you want then?" All eyes in the room shifted from me to Logan and back again. It was clear they thought one of us would be best in the role, but no one would like what we would do. Not to mention, I had a sinking feeling that whoever led this team would assign the other to Beta. I took the decision out of their hands. "Fine. I say Logan should lead Alpha team. I'll lead Beta." Everyone erupted into protests except the Professor. I'm pretty sure he knew what I was thinking anyway. I put up a hand to forestall them. "Look, it makes sense. This way, each team has someone with them who's prepared to handle someone from Weapon X. Trust me, no one on Beta is prepared to take a life, not yet. It's what I'm trained to do."

"Angela, you can't be serious!" Kurt cried, clearly not liking this decision.

"I'm dead serious Kurt. And if you're not, then you can stay here." He lowered his eyes. "Look, I know how you feel about that. But these people, they're serious. They've been active operatives a lot longer than I was. From what I read in the files, some of them were there before me. They will not stop, they will not hesitate to kill you. They've been with the program all this time. I guarantee they will feel no remorse as they rip your guts out."

"But you got avay, you and Logan both." He said weakly.

"If those people wanted to get away, they would have. We got out because we got lucky, in a really horrible way. Logan was driven all but insane and I grabbed the opportunity to get away." I leaned forward and looked him in the eye. "We got lucky. If you hold back on these people, you won't."

The room fell into an uneasy silence. No one else made any move to protest, so I nodded to Logan and he took over. "All right then. Alpha team is with me, Beta with Angela. Let's get suited up and ready to go."

We all left the office and I went in search of Beta team. They were all still sprawled out in the lounge when I got there. "Beta team!" I barked out. "Suit up! We have things to do!" None of them hesitated in the slightest, they just jumped from their seats and ran to either the elevator or the stairs to get suited up. "Delta team! You're staying here. Your primary mission is to protect the mansion and the Professor. You do whatever he tells you to do. If for some reason he's incapacitated, then Totem's in charge, understood?"

"Do we need to suit up?" Jesse asked, looking a little nervous.

"No, not at this time. If there's a serious threat to the mansion, you get the youngest kids out with at least one senior student per ten kids. Anyone you can't get out, you lock them in the Danger Room and that door does not open until a staff member gives you the all clear and that includes Buzz." I looked at each of them in turn. "Any other questions?" No one spoke up. "Very well. I'm counting on each and every one of you to take care of this place by any means necessary. I'm trusting you to make the right decision if you have to."

I turned and started for the elevator, only to find Totem joining me just before the door closed. "What is it?"

"Angela, why would you leave me in charge?" He asked, looking confused.

"Kyrohyou, Delta team isn't done with their training. The Professor can probably incapacitate an entire squad with his mind alone, but I can't take the chance that someone will get through anyway." I put my hand on his shoulder and gave him a hard look. "You're the only other person who's prepared to do anything to keep this place safe. You made a vow to me to protect me, even at the cost of your own life. Well, I'm asking you as a friend to protect this place." I reached out and grasped his shoulder. "This is my home now. It's yours for as long as you want it. I need you to do this."

He looked at me gravely, then bowed. "I will do my best to do as you ask." He stood up and much to my surprise he gave me a quick, hard hug. "But please, come home safe. I do not deserve your friendship, but you have given it anyway. I am honored that you find me worthy of it."

"Listen to me. You, me and Logan, we're family in a really demented way, born from the madness of a monster. We understand things no one else here ever will. We've been through horrors no one else should have to go through. I will do everything in my power to make sure it never happens again."

"I will not let you down." The elevator door opened and I stepped out. Totem raised his hand as the door slid closed and I sprinted to the security room. Buzz was in there with the Weapon X files already opened, scanning them for similarities to the descriptions given by Sam.

"Hey Buzz. What you got for me?" I said.

"From what Sam said, I think these are your guys." He replied, pointing to two names on the list. "The guy that got Sam, I think that's Asp. From what I can tell, he has the metal on his skeleton, he's super stealthy and flexible. And he spits venom."

"Ok, that's really gross. What else does it say?"

"Well, there's a line here that says he has a healing factor of 4.5, but I don't know what that means."

"Hm. It must be some kind of classification system, something they came up with to rate us or something. Can you find out?"

"If it's on these disks, I can. But it might take more time than you have."

"I still need you to try." I ran my fingers through my hair. "Ok, who's the other one?"

"There's only one other living woman from the program besides you and that's this one, Tigress. Her claws are longer, but she only has them on her hands. She has senses like Logan and agility like you. Her healing factor is a 5.8; apparently, she forced her healing factor to make her immune to all kinds of stuff by overdosing."

"Great. So she's a nutjob in more than one way. Just what I needed."

"If it makes you feel better, it says you have a healing factor of 4.9 because you come back from the dead. Logan's a nine."

"Well, that's something I suppose." I clapped him on the back and turned to go. "Good work. Keep us posted."

"Will do boss." He said and turned back to the computer. I left the room and sprinted to the locker room.

Logan was still there, adjusting his uniform as I stripped down. He looked me over with his eyebrow quirked in that sexy way of his. I just smiled as I pulled on my tabi. "Like what you see lover?"

"So far, so good." He replied. I quickly donned the rest of my uniform and turned to leave, but he reached out and stopped me. "Hey, don't run off."

"What is it?"

He swallowed hard. "I just…Angela, as soon as we get on that plane, we're all X-Men."

"I know. What's this about?"

He pulled me close and kissed me, pouring more passion and emotion into that one gesture than I've ever felt. "I love you, darlin'. I'll never be able to tell you or show you how much. I don't know what we'll find when we get out there, but I needed to tell you before we left. You know, just in case."

"Logan, you're scaring me. Where is this coming from?"

"We've never gone on a mission together where we weren't together. You know we'll have to deploy in different places. I never told you all those years ago how I felt and now we're goin' back into the fight. I'm not takin' any chances, not anymore."

I felt a lump form in my throat and I pulled him down to me for another kiss. "I love you too. I always have, from the first time I ever saw you. We'll make it through this. Whether we like it or not, this is what we were built for. But loving you is something I did all on my own and if for no other reason, I'll make it through this. So I can tell you I love you when we get back."

He managed a weak smile and held me close, stroking my hair. We stayed that way for a moment until we heard the sound of someone clearing their throat behind me. We stepped apart and I turned to see Rogue standing there. "Come on, sugah. We have places to be."

Logan gave her a half smile and the three of us left the locker room to make our way to the hall outside the hangar. About ten minutes later, we heard the doors slide open and the jet come in to a perfect landing. The hangar doors slid open and we all rushed inside, Josh in the front next to Storm ready to help Sam. The ramp came down and he ran up with Storm right on his heels. I allowed myself one more smile before boarding the jet.

Sam was stretched out on the seats in the back, Josh's hand on his exposed knee. It was an ugly sight, one of the worst knee injuries I've ever seen. If we didn't have Josh, we would have been forced to leave Sam behind and let Dr. Endicott treat him. I was tempted to ask him to come along, but I didn't want to leave him behind in the jet alone and he might be needed here for an emergency. I bit my lip to keep myself from asking him anyway and watched him work. I'd never seen his power at work before and it was a beautiful thing to behold. In a matter of minutes, he had Sam's knee back to normal. He thanked Josh and they both dashed out of the plane, Sam to change into his uniform and Josh to help watch over the school. Logan and I made sure everyone on board had a communicator and we agreed on the frequencies we would use. Alpha team took the seats near the front while I took my usual seat as far from the front as I could get. Five minutes later, Sam rejoined Alpha team and Storm closed the ramp in preparation for take off.

Once in the air, the Professor checked in with us. He was currently scanning for Scott using Cerebro, but was also patched in to the jet's main radio frequency. He'd had no luck so far, but if Scott were still unconscious, he wouldn't be able to find him. He promised to keep scanning and let us know the moment he found anything. He signed off and I motioned to Beta team to gather around me.

"Ok team, listen up." I said, looking each of them in the eye. "For those who went with me before, this won't be too much of a surprise. As for the rest of you…" I trailed off and looked down at my hands. "If we're right about who has Scott, this is a very bad situation. They'll be like me and Logan, all the way down to the adamantium bones. So they won't be easy to take out or even just subdue. At least one of them spits poison, the other one's like if you mixed me and Logan together and made one good one, without the great big claws and coming back to life parts." Everyone nodded, filing the information away. "Now, unless the Professor gives us better intelligence, we're starting at Alkali Lake and working our way eastward, since that's the last direction we know they were heading. Wild Child, you have Scott's scent in memory, so I'll need you as a tracker first and foremost. Shadowcat, you'll be the forward scout; Jubilee will be your backup. Colossus, you're with Wild Child."

More nods all around, then Bobby spoke up. "What about me?"

"You'll be with Rogue as her backup." I looked over at her. "Same thing as Hudson Bay, only you'll be doing your thing here real soon."

"Why? Won't your powers wear off before we get there?" She said with a touch of panic in her voice.

"No. You need to imprint as much as you can without killing me, enough so it'll last but I'll be awake when we get there."

"Angela…" She began and I gave her a sharp look. This was a mission now so it was code names only. "Hellcat, how fast do you usually recover? I put Logan out for days after Liberty Island."

"Not as fast as he does, but I don't want you to take everything. But you need a lot more than you took last time because we'll be out longer. Just do what you have to do." She nodded and looked away, clearly not liking this order one bit. "Rogue, listen to me. If I had my way, I'd make you imprint all of us. You'd be unstoppable that way, but that's not fair to you. So you take as much of me as you can and you just deal with it. That's an order."

"Yes sir." She said without a trace of irony. I made everyone call me "sir", even though it should technically be "ma'am". I just hate that word. I don't feel old enough to be a "ma'am", over a century of life notwithstanding. "Where are you gonna be?"

I smiled. "I'm taking the high road. I'll be in the trees."

"You won't have any backup." Iceman pointed out.

"I won't need it."

Everyone fell silent again as they processed exactly what was happening. For half of them, this was their first time out on a real mission. For the first time, they looked impossibly young to me and I felt a twinge of guilt at bringing them in on this. Scott had always argued that they were just children and I was always the one arguing that they were old enough to vote, to be drafted to die for their country, to be considered adults by law. In a way, he was right. They were children. But they also had the right to make their own decisions and they had all decided that this is what they wanted to do, THIS is what they wanted to be. I had no right to take that away from them.

"Rogue, with me. Let's get this over with."

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I came to when we were ten minutes from landing. Rogue was still sitting next to me, her expression hard. I looked over at her and she gave me a curt nod, the exact same thing I would have done. "So, how long do you think it'll last?" I asked her.

"A few hours for sure. And hey, check this out." She held out her ungloved hand and she furrowed her brow in concentration for a moment. After a few seconds, claws slid out from her fingertips.

I raised an eyebrow, impressed. "Well, that power of yours looks like it's progressing. Good stuff. If you need to lose your boots, do it. I should have a spare pair of these in here if you want them. Gloves too."

"Thanks, I'll ask Storm where they are." She moved to the front of the cabin and I settled back in my seat. A moment later, Rogue came back and I helped her put on the modified tabi like the ones I wore. We sat back in silence, each of us doing our own mental preparation for the mission ahead. For me, that meant stripping away the layers of humanity I put up between me and the animal inside until the hunt was all I wanted. I stopped just this side of completely feral, since I had to keep enough of my mind to lead this team. Still, my vision was obscured in a red haze, something I'd never been able to explain when the animal took over. A few minutes later, we landed.

We disembarked and waited until Storm set the defensive controls on the jet. It was set for vocal recognition, so if anyone who wasn't in the vocal database said anything on board, it would immediately close the ramp and shut itself down until someone came and manually entered the correct code to the jet's central computer. They would be effectively trapped until we got back. As soon as she joined us, Logan spoke up. "Ok teams, listen up. The Professor still doesn't have any current intel from Cerebro, so he's got Buzz looking into it. Right now, all we're doing is recon, try to figure out who these people were. Alpha team, we're going to the north, Beta to the south. We'll check in over the coms in thirty minutes."

Everyone nodded and set off. Logan and I spared ourselves a moment to just look at each other. I gave him a half smile that he returned before setting off behind Alpha team. I jogged the few yards to my team to give them their orders.

"Shadowcat, Jubilee I want you to go follow this path straight out, stay at least ten yards inside the tree line near the lake. Iceman, Rogue I want you following the same line fifteen yards further in. Wild Child, Colossus same thing. I'll take the furthest point on the high road. Check in every five minutes, code names only. If you find anything, report immediately and we'll converge on your position. Wild Child, you need to find scents you don't recognize. If you do, mark the position and we'll bring Wolverine over to lock it in his memory. Questions?" No one answered. "Let's do this."

We all moved to our positions and each team checked in as soon as they were in place. I slid my claws out and scrambled up the nearest tree, leaping from branch to branch when possible, cutting overland when I had to. They all checked in when they were supposed to with nothing new to report. Thirty minutes later, we heard Logan's voice over the com. "Beta leader, check in."

"Beta to Alpha. Nothing to report. Widening search area."

"Roger that. Check again in thirty. Alpha out."

I tapped the earpiece to switch the channel Beta was using exclusively. "Teams, widen search area. Expand to twenty-five yards. Check in every five minutes. Hellcat out."

I was still in the trees, scanning the ground beneath me for clues. Full night had been upon us since we got here and it was an open book to my eyes. Nothing was hidden from view. My sensitive ears could hear Wild Child and Colossus doing their sweep twenty yards away. If I cared to, I could peer through the trees and catch the glint of moonlight off Colossus' steel form, but that wasn't why I was there. Five minutes before the teams were to check in with each other, I caught sight of something glimmering in the dim light in the clearing below me. I tapped my earpiece so I could talk to both teams. "Beta leader to Alpha leader."

"Alpha here, go." Logan whispered.

"I've spotted something on the ground. Going low ground to check."

"Roger that. Stay in contact."

I slipped out of the tree I'd been perched in and carefully scanned the area. I crouched low, almost on all fours to the object in question. I looked carefully for signs of a trap: tripwire, pressure plate, anything that would make this a stupid thing to do. I didn't see anything, I couldn't hear anything, so I reached down carefully and picked up the object. It was something I recognized, because I had one just like it. It was a simple metal tag on a broken metal ball chain, stamped with a number and a single word. "Alpha leader, I have something. Both teams, converge on my position."

A chorus of "Roger that" came over my earpiece and I crouched low again, effectively hiding myself in the brush. A few moments later, the rest of my team came into the clearing and I stood briefly, motioning for them to take cover. Ten minutes later Alpha team entered the clearing. I stood and motioned for my team to stand down as I walked over to Logan.

"Worst fear confirmed." I said, handing him the tag. "They have him."

He looked at the tag, bringing it close to his face. I knew he could see it just fine, as well as I could. He did that to get the scent off it. As soon as he had that, he'd never stop until he found the person it belonged to. According to the tag, it was Tigress. "Son of a bitch. This just got a whole lot uglier."

"Tell me about it." I ran my fingers through my hair. "Any news from home base?"

"Not yet, but I don't think we can wait." He turned to his team. "Atlas, you said they were heading due east when they left?"

"Yes, but I don't know what's out there." He replied.

"I do. A whole lotta nothin'. They could be anywhere." Logan closed his eyes, gritting his teeth with frustration. "All right, new plan. Storm, can you configure the jet to scan the ground for heat signatures, power output, anything like that?"

"It'll take me about half an hour, but yes I can." She said.

"Ok then. Everyone, back to the jet. We're gonna find him the old fashioned way."

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AN: Well, this is the second to last chapter and before you jump my butt, i know i'm a day late updating...i was tired, sue me...So you'll get a treat when i update on the 6th, so that's only 2 days:) Special thanks to my beta readers, Zac and Turiel Tincdaniel for their support and vigilance...Extra Special thanks to DBK(tm), for finally tearing himself away from the online Star Wars crack game to once again inspire me with his badgering...:) Super Special thanks to Dee (MidLifeCrisis) Rhia (RhiannonUK) and Joe (Joegood2003) for being swanky friends...if you haven't read their stuff you really should...and it'll tide you over til i get back...:) Extra Super Special thanks to you, the readers, for sticking with me this far...the more hits i get, the more i think maybe i don't suck at this whole writing thing...and Extra Super Swanky thanks to the readers who review...it's your feedback that keeps me going...without it, this story would never have happened (much less the sequel i'm already hard at work on!)...:)