Group Fic

Chapter 11 By Lady Macbeth

-Then, chère…any ideas?

Ororo stood silently for a while. They sure had gotten in the middle of something big. Mystique and Emma were the worst combination of evils she could think of, not to mention a whole house full of mutants at their mercy, an apparently half-lobotomized Rogue, and both Jean and Logan missing. Now, how do you beat a crazy telepath and a crazy shape-shifter without blowing up the mansion and everything inside in the process, was the question she posed herself.

-Let's play their game…

-Pardon?

- We'll see how far they'll go with this until they hang themselves…

-Or kill us, whatever comes first, huh? –Remy grinned

-Hey, hold your horses there, Storm! -Rogue snapped- you still owe me some explanation… For starters…weren't you supposed to be pregnant? If Logan disappeared that night how the hell are you carrying his child?

-I'm not. That night Mystique approached me disguised as Logan…I have reason to believe the subsequent events were memories implanted on my mind, while I was vulnerable, to make me believe I had slept with him.

-What for?-The southern belle asked, still suspicious.

-Do I look like I can follow your "mommas" twisted logic, Anna? To break you and him apart, I guess…the point is: those two are using us against each other to get what they want. Believe on what you want, but the more you doubt, the more Logan is at risk.

-She wouldn't do this to me…. She knows I love him…

-As I said, you're free to believe in whatever you want. After all you know your mother better than us…

Rogue lowered her eyes, fighting the idea of Mystique betraying her like that. But Storm was right at one point: even though Mystique loved her as her own flash and blood, maybe even a bit too much, she did have a very strange sense of how things worked.

-How do I know if she has him?

-Where is "Logan" right now?

-The cabin…

-Ok. I'll go over there and talk to "him". Let's make her believe she has us where she wants.

-Uh, Stormy…What about Emma? How exactly do you fool a telepath?

-Did you forget I once controlled her powers? And you can avoid telepathic powers yourself. –She turned to Rogue-You go back inside and pretend this conversation never happened. Remy you go with her and talk to Scott, tell him everything we know, but try not to make a fuss.

-Ok, but be careful…we don't need fireworks just yet…

-Logan? Are you there? –Ororo called opening the door to the cabin.

-Here. - "Logan's" gruff voice came from a nearby hard-wooden chair, half hidden in the shadows that formed inside the cabin, from the closed windows blocking the sun.

Entering, she walked up to "him".

-Where's Gumbo? - "He" asked

-In the mansion. Sorting things out with Rogue…

-Good.

-What about us, Logan? -She dared.

-Darling, I'm sorry; but I don't think there's any "us"…We made that clear that night…

-I know…but now is not just the two of us anymore…

-Yeah, Gumbo told me…are you sure about that?

Ororo looked up to meet the gray eyes looking for some sign of tension. Nothing. "You sure know how to play, Mystique".

-Yes. I took the test twice. I'm definitely pregnant.-she lied, hopping to get some reaction.

-You're sure is mine?

-Logan, are you trying to humiliate me even more? I haven't been with anyone else in the past three months! If is not yours, then whose baby is it? The Holy Ghost's?

-Sorry, darling…But I had to be sure. I mean you and Gumbo…

-Never had anything. He never touched me.

"Logan" got up and went to the front porch, a wondering expression in "his" face. Probably Mystique was considering if either this was a desperate attempt of hers to get back at Rogue by faking a pregnancy, or if she had gone plain nuts. There was no way she could be pregnant, they both knew, but Mystique had to keep in role, if she wanted her plans to work.

-We'll sort things out, darling.

-I truly hope so. -She went behind "Logan" and touched "his" shoulder, making "him" turn around. So the shape-shifter was going to play it all the way…then let the games begin, Ororo thought to herself. -Did you and Rogue talked?

-Not much…She's not really up for it right now…

-I see…and you? How are you feeling?

-I'm hanging in there…

-I still don't know why she went through with that wedding…if she was with you all this time…I just don't get it…

-Neither do I…Guess I'll just give her some time…

-Oh, my friend…-she let out, embracing "Logan", and resting her head on "his" shoulder for a long moment. Exactly as she predicted, Mystique wouldn't loose that opportunity to put her out of action. As "Logan" led his hand to her hair and pulled it harshly, reaching out with the other hand to immobilize her, she spun her body around, twisting the arm that had her hair her behind the attacker's back, loosing a couple of silvery strands in the process. Her assailant turned, breaking free, and holding her by a wrist, threw her against a wall.

-I just knew you wouldn't resist taking me down, Mystique. -Storm smiled as "Logan" turned into Mystique right before her eyes.

-You knew everything all the time. I could read it all over you. You're a very bad liar, Wind Rider.

-And you are even worst of a strategist…Rogue knows everything.

-She won't believe you…

-Keep telling yourself that.

-Can't you see, Ororo? She will believe anything I want her to believe. That child craves so much being loved and wanted that she'll submit to anything. Just as she submitted to that ridiculous Romeo and Juliet fantasy with the Cajun and this foolish pantomime of a secret wedding with Wolverine. But as soon as both of them desert her and the whole mansion cast her away like a filthy pariah, she will need her mom. But first things first. Let's take care of you.

-The whole mansion cast her away? -Storm echoed, trying to keep up with her delirium- are you completely delusional? The X-men will never do that.

-They will, once your dead body turns up in her bedroom. You understand, don't you? You're "pregnant" with her secret lover's baby, and stole her soon-to-be-husband at the day of the ceremony…and Anna does tend to be very passionate some times.

-Sounds like a plan…-Ororo grinned devilishly getting back on her feet-but you'll have to kill me first.

-No problem. -Mystique stated, shifting back into Logan´s form and unsheathing the deadly claws. Before she could reach to Storm, however, the Wind Rider had already boosted herself off the floor with a gust of wind and gone outside, taking the fight to her own territory. Following, Mystique got out, and shifting once more, this time to Rogue's form, lifted herself to meet Storm meters above.

As the sky darkened and lightening threatened to come rippling down, Mystique threw herself forward, her fist hitting Storm on the abdomen so hard the Kenyan goddess fell back hitting a tree twenty feet away. Ororo tried to hoist herself back up, but a lancing pain hit her from inside, dropping her to her knees. That punch could easily have ruptured her liver, she thought in desperation. It had been luck enough that the impact of the fall didn't break her spine. Still she got up, as the overdue bolt of lightening came down hard upon her opponent.

Second sub-basement of the Xavier's Mansion: Cerebra

Storm was a tough woman, Emma had to give her that. Now things were definitely getting interesting. The Frost heiress had a big share of overdue matters to solve with the X-men's co-leader; anyway…she might just take the chance to get them over with. What had begun as a partnership of practical interests with Mystique was rapidly turning into some serious fun.

Storm was right to assume Emma's powers wouldn't reach her or the Cajun. They were both well protected against telepaths, after all the Louisiana lover boy was a powerful empathic mutant and Storm had been literally under her skin for long enough to the mechanics of her powers by heart. Never mind…when the game is too easy there isn't any merit winning anyway.

So what she couldn't play the king and the queen, she still had her pawns. And the queen was about to go down…hard.

-Come again? -Scott shook his head, sitting down on professor's chair, in the office.

-Yeah, I know is crazy. But that's what happened.

-How Storm came to the conclusion that Mystique and Emma are behind this mess?

-Apparently she felt something off with Logan, and Emma is just a very luck guess. She's the only telepath that would be demented enough to do this, anyway.

-So you think Rogue is being controlled by Emma to be a toll in Mystique's hands?

-Maybe. She looks absent, but then again that might be just Mystique's influence…

-What do we do now?

-You asking me? Stormy is there in the cabin, trying to get a hint from "Logan".

-And Jean and Logan's whereabouts? Any idea about that?

-Who knows, homme? That crazy bitch could even have killed him already for what we know…and we don't even know if she really has Jeannie, yet.

As the Cajun finished this last sentence, a guttural thunder sound reached their ears from afar, followed by the tremendous sound of falling trees

-Did you hear that? - Scott snapped getting up at once.

-Yeah. Something is happening to Stormy. - The Louisianan blurted out rushing out of the room, followed close by Summers. They rushed to the backdoor, passing through the game room, causing a fuss as both Kitty and Jubilee demanded to know what was going on. When the four of them got outside, their question was more than answered: over the trees, right above the cabin a single patch of the sky was turning a ghastly, stormy gray.

-Ok, why do I feel Storm might have something to do with that? - Jubilee let out looking up at Gambit and Scott.

-Because she does. Mystique found out she knows everything. -Remy answered, not wasting any time to go in the direction of the forming storm.

-Mystique? What Mystique has to do with anything? -Kitty asked in confusion.

-We'll discuss that later. Now Storm needs help-Scott snapped, prompting the two girls to follow him as he went after the Cajun.

As the four mutants reached the cabin, a wild tableau of broken trees displayed itself in front of them. The cabin was half-demolished, as a wooing wind made leafs and pieces of wood dance in crazed circles, lifting up columns of dust.

-Did Mystique and Storm did all of that? - Kitty asked no one in particular, her hazel eyes wide with amazement, as she used her powers to avoid getting hit by any fragments of the former-cabin.

-Yeah, people…I guess we just lost the catfight of the millennium…-Jubilee crossed her arms over her head, trying to scan the place with eyes watering from the dust, poorly disguising her astonishment. -Where are they?

-Over there! -Kitty squeaked pointing to a fallen oak tree, as the two men ran over to the spot she indicated, where Storm was tossed like a broken doll between the two separated parts of the enormous vegetable.

-Stormy! -Remy called out, catching her from the ground with extreme care. Touching her face he called again-Mon amour, talk to me…I told you not to try anything, petite…