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Knife in the Dark: Scene 13Something was bleeping, an incessant and irritating noise. Blaze came out of her slumber confused. She hadn't set an alarm clock. What was bleeping?
Things didn't get any clearer when someone in the large steel framed bed next to her shifted his weight. A muscular arm looped over Blaze's back to dangle a small silver orb in her face. Bewildered but fast coming round, Blaze took the comm. device and started to sit up. The loft apartment's cold air must have got to Indigo, as he dived back under the thick white quilt with a grunt.
With the comm. device in her hand, Blaze stood and moved away from the bed across the open plan room. It was still dark outside, as she clicked on a table lamp. Catching sight of her reflection in the sheet glass front of the room, Blaze had all the breath crushed from her chest. What had he done to her?
Still with the consistency of henna tattoos, the lines and designs Indie had brought out on Blaze's skin had reached a new intensity. Like tiny flames lapping over her skin, in places they were sharp like barbed wire. Again elsewhere the lines bloomed into delicate flowers like English roses. Blaze raised a hand to her brow, following the tattoo trial where Indigo had brushed a strand of her hair away. She followed the line down her cheek, under her jaw, down the side of her throat and further. As she looked at her reflection, there wasn't much of her body he had left unmarked.
The comm. device was still bleeping. Blaze drew on a dressing gown and pulled her hair loose of the collar, glancing at the clock. Then, finally she answered the call.
"It's half five in the morning, I'm trying to sleep, so this had better be good." She moaned exhaustedly.
"It twelve t'irty dis end Cherie, an' that make you five hours ahead. What the hell you doin' in Britain? That ain't no place for you Laura!"
If Blaze had needed a wake-up call, Gambit yelling at her down the phone was like having her head forcefully plunged in a bucket of ice-cold water. She had to catch the edge of an occasional table to stop her knees giving way. She felt a flush of guilty feelings as she looked at herself in the glass again. She'd been losing all sanity with Indie when Remy was in trouble…
"The Professor sent me…" She tried to explain, hearing tears in her voice. Gambit cut her off. "You should've told him no."
"Leave me be Rem, you're preaching to the converted." Wiping her misty eyes on the sleeve of her dressing gown, Blaze tried and failed to get her head together. Deliberately she turned from both her reflection and Indigo in the bed. Gambit and Indie were both right. Being back so close to the part of the world she had grown up in, where she had killed her parents, was too much. Too full of emotion for her to deal with… Blaze tried to focus on the present, confining her past to the dark core of her heart. But somehow the present was only slightly less upsetting, and she felt only slightly less guilty. "Where are you Remy? What's going on?"
"At Studd's. Look Petite, it over. There only me, you an' Wolverine left…"
"The others, they're not…" Blaze gasped.
"Captured an' bein' held somewhere. This Kincaid who runnin' all this be sendin' the X-Men out with a bang, all together. They on our tail now…"
"You have to get out of there!" Blaze demanded. "Remy you have to lose them!"
"We need to do somethin'." Gambit stated passionately, giving Blaze goosebumps. "There jus' ain't enough wit' Wolverine an' me to go up against…"
"You're not going up against anyone! Its suicide! Have you still got the jet?" Blaze argued efficiently.
"Yeah Blaze, I know where dis is goin' Cherie. You t'ink it any safer where you is? I t'ought the British Prime Minister was startin' comin' down hard on mutants too. I don't wanna go outta the fryin' pan an' into de fire here."
"Then you're scheming with the wrong girl." Blaze pointed out with a weak smile. "Look, I've one more X-Man here who'll be more than happy to help. Maybe I can rally some more back up too. Leave it with me, but please Remy just get out of the States."
"What 'bout the others?" Gambit asked. "We can't leave 'em. If Kincaid can't find us, he'll jus' kill 'em 'an be done wit' it."
"Then hope he's arrogant enough to think that he's getting close to catching us too. Maybe Studd can help misinform them. Just get out of there."
Gambit didn't say bye, the conversation was done so he just hung up. Logan and Studd were both watching him.
"Ahh." Studd sighed ironically. "Still a sucker for her, hey Remy?" He grinned and turned his wheelchair back to his beloved computers.
"She go for it?" Wolverine asked, knowing like Gambit did that the plan all along was to get Blaze to pull together some form of support for them to collect from a secure location, i.e. the UK. Gambit's careful manipulation of her would hopefully prevent the frequently temperamental and often emotionally insecure Firefly reacting too badly to news of the X-Men's total demise. As always, Gambit was trying to protect his former apprentice, and as always the strain was telling on him a little as he replied.
"Yeah." Gambit pocketed the enhanced handset Studd had given him in his trench coat. To Studd he said, "You know where we can get enough jet fuel to cross the Atlantic an' back?"
Studd raised a pierced eyebrow carefully. "You know its funny you should say that…"