The next morning the set was relatively quiet, but that was mostly because the directors hadn't arrived yet. No fights had broken out, the sets were all in one piece (and not on fire) and the cast were actually getting along. There hadn't been an argument in a whole two minutes.

Suddenly, the silence was broken, as the directors 'ported in.

"Good morning Vietnam!" Tea shouted through her beloved bullhorn.

The cast groaned loudly, but none were rubbing their ears so much as Kaya.

"We're not in Vietnam, yo," Toad said, hopping over.

"It's a film reference," Kaya explained to the now semi-deaf Toad. "So, are we all ready?"

"Like, mostly," Kitty said as she walked on set.

"Only mostly?" Kaya inquired.

"Rogue's refusing to come out of her dressing room again," Kitty explained offhandedly.

"Aww, does this mean Ah have to get slapped again?" Remy asked.

"No darling, don't worry," Kaya said with a sigh.

"Oh," Tea said, feigning disappointment.

"Why won't she come out this time?"

"I told her they, like totally didn't have black makeup in Tudor times," Kitty said.

Kaya sighed again and went off to the dressing rooms. "Rogue?" she called through the locked door. "We really need you for this part."

"Why?"

"Because you have to throw an apple at Remy's head."

"Why didn't ya say so before?" Rogue asked, finally coming out of her room and making her way towards the set.

"Ah am goin' to get slapped again, aren't Ah?" Remy asked.

"Not slapped, per se," Kaya answered.

"An' here Ah though ya liked me."

"I do like you. It's just in the script that she throws an apple at your head. There's nothing I can do," Kaya explained as she walked to the set.

"Can't ya rewrite the script?"

"Where's the fun it that?" Tea asked, slouching in her chair.

"Sorry, I can't," Kaya replied. "Someone laced the pages with adamantium."

Upon hearing this, Logan sniggered quietly to himself.

"Did you?" Kaya asked.

"What would give you that impression, Flouncy?"

"Flouncy?" Kaya asked, as Tea sniggered off in the background.

"Yeah, you got yourself a nickname," Logan replied before walking away.

"Please don't tell me you're happy about getting a nickname," Tea said to Kaya as she sat beside her.

"No," Kaya lied.

"Okay, places people!" Tea shouted through the bullhorn.

The scene opens on Logan and Ororo, storming down a barely lit corridor late at night.

"I signed a marriage treaty with the King of Spain...and that boy will obey me, bub, or there will be hell to pay!" Logan growled, and it was already painfully obvious that he doesn't have to do a whole lot of acting in order to be mad at Remy.

"But he does not love her, my lord," Ororo replied, trying to match Logan's pace.

"It's not about love!" Logan argued.

"Perhaps it should be!" Ororo protested

"If he is to become King, he must accept his responsibilities."

"A sapling cannot grow in the shadow of a mighty oak, Logan," Ororo argued. "He needs sunlight."

"He needs a good whipping."

"Really, Logan!" Ororo retorted, knowing that he really wasn't acting that much at all. "Can't this wait till morning?"

"If I can't sleep, neither shall he," Logan growled, storming into the next room. "Remy LeBeau, haul your ass out of bed, now!"

And although Logan has strayed from the script, no one yet has the guts to point this out.

Ororo sighed as she saw a long rope made out of bedsheets, tried on one end to the bedstand, and the other hanging out the window.

"Oh, no," she sighed, shaking her head. "Not again."

"Call out the guard! Bring him back! Dead or alive!" Logan shouted out to the guards.

"Logan, we need our hero alive, really," Kaya pointed out quietly.

"Whatever, Flouncy," Logan growled under his breath as he rolled his eyes. Why did people never parody horrors?

The scene cuts to a moonlit night, with dawn just about to break in the east. The palace is off in the distance, and someone is riding away from it as fast as their horse will carry them.

"Yah!" the rider shouted, trying to get away from Logan as fast as possible.

The next shot shows a clear light dawn, with the rider still tearing across the countryside on another horse.

"Come on, ya stupid beast!" Remy yelled at the horse, urging it on as it jumped yet another hedge. "Come on! Yah!"

As Remy tears across the field, Rogue looks down from her garden, where she had been gathering apple from the trees. Upon seeing the hose, she instantly recognises it as the one which belonged to her late father, and one she is fiercely protective of.

"Oh, no, ya don't," she muttered under her breath, dropping all but three of the apples she had gathered in her apron as she ran down into the field, determined to stop the thief.

As soon as she was close enough, Rogue took one of the apples, aimed and hurled it at the rider.

"Thief!" she shouted as he hit the ground, throwing another apple at him for good measure. "This will teach ya to steal my father's horse!"

Remy desperately tried to scramble to his feet again, but with numerous projectiles being thrown at him with meticulous aim (we can only assume Rogue practised her aim for this scene), this was a rather difficult feat.

"Mine slipped his shoe. Ah have no choice!" Remy protested.

"And our choice is what? To let you?" Rogue retorted fiercely.

"Ah was borrowing it!"

"Get out, or Ah'll wake the house!" she threatened. "Ya know how cranky mutants are in the mornin'!"

"Ow!" Remy muttered as a final apple hit him square in the face, thrown just for good measure.

Finally, he managed to stand, and as he faffed about, trying to get his cape in order, Rogue finally realised who he was.

"Forgive me, Your Highness," Rogue said as she fell to her knees. "Ah did not see you."

"Chere's aim would suggest otherwise," Remy complained, rubbing his head.

"And for that Ah know Ah must die," Rogue said, wishing to God she could change her lines.

"Then er...speak of this to no-one and er, Ah shall be lenient. 'Cause Ah'm nice like that."

"Gambit!" Tea yelled through the bullhorn. "Stick to your lines!"

"Yes, Ma'm," Remy muttered under his breath.

"We have other horses, Highness. Younger, if that is your wish," Rogue said hopefully, still not wanting even a prince to take her father's horse.

"Ah wish for nothing more than to be free of my gilded cage," Remy answered, glancing around nervously in case the guards were close behind. Or worse, Logan. "For your silence," he said as he poured a purse full of gold coins onto the floor in front of Rogue, before riding away as fast as he could.

Rogue stared at the ground for a few moments, before gathering up the coins.

The next shot showed Jean sitting at the breakfast table, looking rather furious at something or another.

"I asked for four-minute eggs, not four one-minute eggs," she said quietly, as though trying to keep her voice steady, before failing miserably. "And where in God's name is our bread!"

"It's just coming out of the oven, my lady," Amara answered quietly before leaving the room.

"Jean, precious," Raven said, looking over at her 'daughter'. "What do I always say about tone?"

"A lady of breeding, like ought never to raise her voice above the gentle hum of a whispering wind…totally," Kitty answered quietly.

"Katherine, dear. Do not speak unless you can improve the silence," Raven said curtly.

"I was not shrill, I was resonant," Jean replied haughtily, acting perfectly for the part. "A courtier knows the difference."

"I very much doubt your style of resonance would be permitted in the Royal Court," Raven stated flatly as she took a sip of wine.

"I'm not going to the Royal Court, am I, Mother?" Jean asked testily. "No-one is. Except some Spanish pig they have the nerve to call a princess."

"Darling, nothing is final until you're dead, and even then I'm sure God negotiates," Raven replied, then sighed at the state of the table before them. "Why is there no salt on this table? Anna!"

"Comin'!" Rogue shouted up the stairs as she moved past them and into the parlour, where Amara and Tabitha were still in the process of making the breakfast.

"She's in one of her moods!" Amara warned as she pulled the bread out of the oven.

"Did the sun rise in the east?" Tabitha wondered. "Hey, what is that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," Kaya sighed. "I think it means something like 'did she get out of bed on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"

"And what does that mean?" Tabitha asked, still confused by it.

"It's just an expression!"

"On with the play!" Tea shouted through the bullhorn.

"Yes, Tabitha, it did," Rogue answered, dumping the gold coins on the table for them to see. "An' it is going to be a beautiful day!"

"Look at all those feathers!" Amara exclaimed.

"What are feathers?" Tea asked, again through the bullhorn.

"It's what they call the coins," Kaya replied.

"Why?"

"I don't know – because they're French?" Kaya suggested.

"Hey!" Remy huffed defensively.

"Remy, you're not French," Kaya said, sighing again.

"Non, but Ah do come from the French Quarter of New Orleans," he replied.

"Child, where did you get this?" Tabitha asked, getting on with the play before yet more fights broke out.

"From an angel of mercy," Rogue replied, rolling her eyes at the silly wording. "Ah know what to do with them."

"Maurice-"

"Maurice!" Tea yelled out again, making Kaya hit her own forehead with the palm of her hand.

"I mean Bobby," Amara corrected herself.

"Maurice!" came the cry again.

Kaya quickly snatched the bullhorn out her sister's hands, then pointed it at Tea. "Shush!"

Tea held out her hand, and the bullhorn obediently appeared in it. "No!" she yelled back.

"If the Baroness can sell your husband to pay her taxes," Rogue said as she restarted the play, "Then these can bring him home. The Court will have to let him go."

"But the King has sold him to Cartier," Amara said sadly. "He's bound for the Americas."

"This is our home, and Ah will not see it fall apart," Rogue said softly.

"We are waiting!" Raven's shrill voice called from off stage.

"Take heed, mistress," Amara said, giving the coins back to Rogue before handing her one of the breakfast trays. "Or these coins are as good as hers."

"Morning, madame," Rogue said quietly to her 'family' as she entered the small dining room where they were eating breakfast. "Jean, Katherine. Ah trust you slept well."

"What kept you?" Raven asked sharply.

"Ah fell off the ladder in the orchard, but Ah am better now," Rogue offered by way of explanation.

"Someone's been reading in the fireplace again," Jean said in her most annoying singsong voice. "Look at you; ash and soot everywhere."

"Some people read because they cannot think for themselves," Raven said spitefully.

"Why don't you sleep with the pigs, Cinder-Soot, if you insist on smelling like one?"

"That was harsh, Jean," Raven scolded, but the way she said it made it sound rather more like a congratulation. "Anna, come here, child," she said, beckoning her daughter to her, and Rogue slowly approached. "Your appearance does reflect a certain...crudeness, my dear. What can I do to make you try?"

"Ah do try, Stepmother," Rogue replied, trying her best to sound sincere. "Ah do wish to please you. Sometimes, Ah sit on my own, an' try to think of what else Ah could do, how to act..."

"Oh, calm down, child. Relax," Raven said, seeing right through the masquerade.

"Perhaps if we brought back Maurice, Ah would not offend you so," Rogue dared to say.

"Maurice!" came the now familiar shout.

"Ah mean Bobby," Rogue muttered.

"It is your manner that offends, Anna," Raven said sharply. "Throughout these hard times, I have sheltered you and cared for you. All that I ask in return is that you help me here without complaint. Is that such an extraordinary request?"

"No, my lady."

"Very well. We shall have no more talk of servants coming back. Understood?"

"Yes, my lady," Rogue said before walking out.

"After all that I do!" Raven huffed, as though Rogue actually had something to thank her for. "After all I have done! It's never enough."

"Eggs are cold," Jean complained to herself.

"And cut!" Tea shouted through the obligatory bullhorn.

"Did that one go well?" Kaya asked hopefully.

"What do you think? No. We're working with crazy mutant actors."

"Try working with crazy mutant directors," Jean said as she walked by. "Especially ones with bullhorns."

"Shall we go back to our own dimension now?" Kaya asked, and Tea nodded.

"Ya'll are from another dimension?" Remy asked, intrigued.

"Oops," Kaya said, having not really realised what she was saying.

"Duh," Tea replied flatly, before 'porting them both out.