Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men or anything associated with them…

A/N: Sorry for the cliffhanger last time! So, we have the conclusion to the search in this chapter, but what will happen to the crews when all is said and done?

Chapter 22: Hecate

Rogue was moving through a tunnel, toward a light. It was growing brighter and brighter. This is death.

Chere. Chere.

The sound echoed around her.

She blinked her eyes against the light. So bright. Like a ball of flames. So close now. What would happen when she reached the light? Where would she go?

Her eyes slid sideways and in the light she saw the pack she'd dropped, and the pieces of the shattered tablet. It all came back to her. She'd fallen into the abyss. Her thighs had jammed against her chest. She'd felt searing pain.

Then nothing.

Now her ribs ached. Her right hand throbbed; it was wet with blood. Her throat was choked with dust, and one thigh felt as if it had been struck with a hammer. Was death this painful? Did you wake up feeling all the pain you missed when you lost consciousness? She was still moving toward the flaming light; it hurt her eyes.

Then she realized it was a torch. It was held by Remy, and coming toward her. She was alive and still in the goddamn hole.

She cringed as she sat up. Why was she still alive?

Remy was several feet above her now and she could see that she was on an overhang that loomed from the wall. She squinted up into the light. She couldn't tell where the tablet had been, but she was sure now that she hadn't fallen far. Maybe only fifteen feet, twenty feet. She felt bits of rubble from the shattered tablet underneath her. If she hadn't been wearing her leather jerkin and breeches, she would have been hurt much worse.

"Chere, can y' hear me?" The fear in his voice was clear. "Please, chere, answer me."

She cleared her throat. With an effort, she yelled, "Remy."

But it came out as a whisper. Her throat was dry and felt like it was caked with dirt. She tried again. Louder this time, a gravely sound.

"Rogue, chere!" As Remy reached the overhang, he swung over and crouched down beside her. "Dieu, chere, Remy t'ought he lost y'."

She reached out carefully and allowed Remy to wrap her in his arms. As they sat there, Remy brushing the dust from her hair and face, she realized they were a half step from the brink of the prominence.

She pulled him backwards, then felt something against her back, jutting out from the wall. "Darlin', ya can let meh go."

"Sorry, chere. Remy almost lost y'." He whispered as stood.

"Yeah, some knight in shinin' armor ya are. What took ya so long?" She asked as she gave him a playful push.

Remy stumbled backwards a step, but then nearly tripped over a crumbled piece of tablet before Rogue caught his shirt collar and pulled him back. "Watch it, sugah. Whose savin' who again?" Remy smiled and then kissed her, and they both laughed in spite of the seriousness their situation.

Remy called up to Mercy and then looked Rogue over for injuries. "Chere, y' have at least one cracked or bruised rib on each side. Maybe more." He took her bloody palm in his hand and torn a section of his shirt off for a makeshift bandage. "Remy won't be able t' hold y' without hurtin' y'. Y'll have t' go up alone." He untied the rope from his waist. Finally, he tied a loop, threaded the rope through it, and made a swing.

He was about to signal to Piotr to get ready when Rogue stopped him. "Remy, bring the torch over here."

She was looking at a rock jutting from the wall. It was black, shaped like a cone, and still partially buried in the wall. Remy held the torchlight over it. Its surface was thatched as if it had once been encased in a rope sheath and the strands had petrified.

"What is dis?" he whispered.

"Ah don't know, but it might be what we're lookin' for." She scraped away some of the dirt encrusted on it and ran her fingertips over the rough surface. Remy lowered the torch until it was almost touching the cone. It looked like obsidian, or iron, and the thatching, Rogue was convinced, was not natural, but man-made.

"Remy, Rogue, are y' ready?" Mercy called down to them.

They looked up. "Not quite." They'd lost the tablet, but maybe they could salvage the cone. Rogue didn't know why, but she sensed it was something important, something she couldn't leave behind.

Remy handed the torch to Rogue, and wrapped his arms around the cone to see if he could loosen it. He pulled, and thought it moved. He took in a deep breath and pulled again. There. It moved. He was sure of it.

Firmly, he took it in both hands and tested how firmly it was implanted. The cone moved slightly as he wiggled it back and forth. He pulled harder, but his hands slipped off and he tumbled back onto the ledge. He rolled onto his stomach and his leg slipped over the side. He patted the air as he stared down into the abyss.

"Careful, sugah. Careful," Rogue said as she gave him a hand to his feet.

"Merci," he whispered, and went back to work.

Rogue sorted through her pack and handed Remy her mallet. He chipped at the stone, pulled and twisted the stone, chipped again, and pulled some more. He was sure that it was almost free. He placed his feet against the wall, grabbed the cone with both hands, and pulled as hard as he could. His hands slipped off, and he sprawled onto his back.

Rogue broke out into laughter. Remy lifted himself up onto his elbows, and stared at her in disgust. He kicked the stone in anger. It was all that was needed; it broke free. He blinked away the dust, and grinned as he lifted the cone from the rubble. He placed it at Rogue's feet, and brushed it off. It was about a foot and a half long and about six or seven inches in diameter at the base, and narrowed to a rounded nub. It felt heavy as iron.

"What do ya think it is?" Rogue asked.

"Remy doesn't know, mais it can wait. Y' need t' get out of here. Remy'll carry de stone." Remy moved Rogue back over to the rope and she sat in the loop. Remy tugged once, and a moment later, she felt herself rising and swinging out from the debris-strewn overhang. Her eyes focused on Remy. Then he was blanketed in darkness, lost in a lightless abyss.

She held the torch out and watched for the place where the tablet had been. Ten, fifteen, twenty feet. She continued rising. It was hazy from the torch smoke, but then she saw it. A dark hole, and above it a smaller indention where the torch holder had been yanked from the wall. God, she had been lucky. People fell three feet and broke bones. She'd tumbled two stories through pitch darkness and survived with cuts, bruises, probably a couple of cracked ribs.

She was exhausted from her injuries and the fall. She pressed her forehead against the rope and closed her eyes. Within seconds, she felt herself drifting, half asleep, half awake.

Her head jerked up, and she grabbed the rope. She must have dozed. She forced herself to concentrate on the rope and keep her balance. Just hold on. Stay awake. Breathe. God, she ached.

Another minute passed, an elastic minute that felt like hours, but finally she popped through the lip of the hole, and drank in the cool air. Kurt took her hand and helped her. She climbed to her feet, wincing in pain, as Piotr lowered the rope for Remy.

Mercy ran over to her and held her. "We've got t' get y' t' a doctor."

"Where's Remy? Is he out yet?" Rogue asked.

"Non…don't worry. He'll be wit' y' soon. What happened down dere?" Mercy asked. "How did y' survive dat fall?"

"Ah found a stone, a black stone," she mumbled.

"What?"

"Shaped like a cone, thatchin' on it. When Ah fell, Ah landed on a ledge. It was there."

"Dieu, dere really was somet'ing down dere." Mercy looked back over to the crevice just as Remy appeared from the darkness. Piotr and Kurt, breathless from their efforts, collapsed on the ground followed by Remy, who dropped the odd stone next to him.

"If y' fine men are done restin', don't y' t'ink we should get Rogue t' a doctor?" Mercy scolded as she stared at them with her hands on her hips. All three men looked over at her with startled expressions.

Kurt looked over to Piotr and then Remy. "Do you ever get the feeling ve are not appreciated?"

Remy heaved a heavy sigh and glared at his sister-in-law. "All de time, mon ami. All de time."

Back at the manor…

Everyone was gathered around the strange stone that was placed on the table. Wanda, Kitty, Henri, and John had been briefed on the events earlier that morning at the crevice, and now they sat in silence.

"What next? Is this what we were looking for?" Wanda broke the silence and started to re-examine the stone. "I thought we were looking for a necklace."

"We are. This must be another link in the chain. Maybe it'll tell us what to do next." Kitty took another sip from her cup. "What about that tablet you found above it, Rogue?"

"Well, it was written in ancient Greek, which would make sense. Hecate was a Greek goddess. But the passage was vague, makin' reference to somethin' called the naval of the Earth. It said the naval holds the key."

Reeves cleared his throat. "Excuse me, ma'am, but I may be of some help here. You see we were required to study Greek mythology and culture in boarding school. I do believe that the Delphic omphalos was called the naval of the world. It was lost centuries ago…Stolen from Greece by some adventurer no doubt."

"You do not believe zis could be ze omphalos, do you? Why would it be here?" Piotr asked.

"I do not know, but it does seem to fit the bill. Who knows why things end up where they do. After all, what am I doing in the middle of nowhere. What is a Russian doing in the Caribbean? How does an orphan inherit a legacy? Life is often full of surprises, young man."

Wanda was turning the object over in her hands and then whistled. "I think you all should see this."

On the bottom of the stone, there were five small indentations. Wanda placed a finger into each one for a perfect fit. "Didn't you notice this when you found it."

"Sorry, Wanda, but Ah had just fallen twenty feet down into a dark abyss and Remy and Ah were hangin' on a ledge. We didn't exactly get a good look at it." Rogue narrowed her gaze on her.

Wanda moved her fingers and felt something give a little. The bottom of the stone had moved. "Did you see that?"

She continued to turn her fingers counterclockwise in the grips as the bottom of the stone slowly opened. "Looks like we might have something here."

"Careful, love. You don't know what might be in that bloody thing." John said as Wanda reached into the stone.

When she pulled her hand out, she held a tattered scroll. Nothing else was inside.

"Great…more riddles." Wanda sighed as she unrolled the paper.

The scroll was beautifully decorated with elegant script and colorful pictographs. Along the edges there were symbols representing the zodiac, framing a lengthy passage in a foreign tongue, and images of unknown objects.

"It's beautiful." Mercy whispered. "What language is dat?"

Everyone looked over to Kurt. "Ja, it is Latin. Let me see the scroll."

"Ex terra, ite sescenti undequadraginta pedes. Da fidei quae fidei sunt. Astra via, quod supra est sub." Kurt recited the words in a hushed tone. "Visita interiora terraiae, rectificando, inveniens occultam gemmam."

"What does it mean, mon ami?" Remy asked.

"Out from the earth, go six hundred and thirty-nine paces. Give to faith that which belongs to faith. The stars as your path, that which is above is below. Return to the interiors of the earth, and by rectifying you will discover the hidden gem."

"Bloody hell! What does that mean?" John asked as he paced the room. "Why is nothing ever easy?"

"Well, love, I would think we should start back at the crevice. Don't you?" Wanda stood in front of John and placed her hands on his shoulders, stopping him in his tracks.

"Ah agree with Wanda, but Ah refuse ta go back down that hole or any other hole!" Rogue sat down and leaned back.

"Y' feelin' okay, chere?"

"Yeah, darlin'. Ah'll be fine." Rogue turned to Kurt. "Do you think this will lead us to the necklace?"

"Ja, it would seem so."

Letting out a deep sigh, Rogue stood and took the scroll in her hands. "Let's finish this."

Rogue left the room, leaving everyone looking after her. Remy stood and grabbed hold of John. "What are we doing?" John asked as Remy pulled him out of the room followed by the others.

"We're followin' her," Remy answered.

"Why?"

"'Cause she's in front of us."

"Well, that certainly answers that. It would be difficult to follow her if she was behind us."

Remy smiled. "Y're not getting' out of dis one, John."

"Bloody hell…"

In three hours the nine had reached the crevice and had followed the prescribed path that wound into the wooden hills. Kurt was in the lead, reading the scroll. "There's something ahead. Look at these piles of stone. They aren't natural…it's refuse, shards of chipped rock that have been dumped." Kurt led them around the next corner, which allowed a clear view of the valley. Below was a shimming pool ringed by trees. A pair of birds called out from atop the tallest tree.

"Ve made it."

"It looks like paradise," Kitty said.

Remy murmured his agreement. He was watching Rogue as she knelt at the edge of the pool, her legs folded out beneath her, washing more grit from her face.

"Have you asked her yet?"

Remy looked over his shoulder and shook his head.

Rogue was sitting on the top step of what looked like a row of stairs going down into the water. This does not bode well. She dipped her feet in the water and uttered a sigh of relief. She glanced around her, hesitant for a moment, and then lowered herself into the pool.

"Should y' be doin' dat, chere?" Remy asked as he knelt by the water's edge.

"Ah'm feelin' much better, sugah. Don't worry."

"What do y' t'ink 'bout dis place?"

"What strikes meh as odd," Rogue began, "is the pool itself. Ah don't think it's natural. The water…it's unnaturally warm, almost as if it's heated. Then there's the matter of the steps…a path that leads nowhere."

"Non," Remy said. "Tante Mattie believes dat pools of water are gateways t' de spirit world. Perhaps de steps lead t' a doorway."

"Do ya actually believe that, sugah? So ya want ta swim ta the bottom and find this door, huh?"

"Oui."

Remy unlaced his boots. He placed them together on the top step, then unbuttoned his shirt and slipped off his belt.

"What are you doing, comrade?" Piotr asked.

"Remy's goin' t' see what's at de bottom of dis pool. Stay here."

Wearing only his breeches, he walked down the steps until the water was up to his waist. He paused for a moment, filling his lungs with air.

"Remy'll be right back," he said, then took a last gulp of air and held it.

Remy dove forward. He kicked downward, following the steps, using his hands to help pull himself along. The weight of the water pressed against his ears, telling him he was passing ten or twelve feet, and he worked his jaw to equalize the pressure.

The water was clear and the rays of the late-afternoon sun shimmered over the steps. His eyes did not sting, as they would have in sea water, and he had no trouble following the staircase. The pool was surprisingly deep, and Remy had to clear his ears once more before finding that the steps led into the mouth of an underwater cave.

Remy darted underneath the lip of the opening, trailing his hand against the rock, then kicked upward. He proceeded cautiously, feeling his way with his hands now that he had lost most of the light, being careful not to slam against an unexpected outcropping.

Suddenly he broke the surface.

He shook his head, clearing the water from his eyes, and looked around him. In the dim light that filtered in from the bottom of the pool, he saw that he was in a vast subterranean chamber. The steps led out of the water to a carved stone archway. A figure loomed in the darkness below the archway, a statue or something, but he could not make out what it was.

Beyond was darkness.

Remy rested for a moment on the steps, half out of the water. The chamber echoed with the sound of water dripping into the pool from his upper body, and it seemed as if the eyes of the stone figure beneath the archway were on the back of his neck. When his breathing returned to normal, he dove back into the water and returned.

"Remy," Rogue said. "Ya nearly scared meh ta death, sugah. Ah thought ya had drowned."

"Mon frère, what did y' find?" Henri asked.

"Dis 's de entrance," he said. "Dere's a cave at de bottom of de pool, and dere are more steps leadin' through an arched doorway. But Remy couldn't see much 'cause it was too dark."

"We'll need torches," John said, smiling. "I can handle that! They won't be perfect, and there'll be a lot of smoke, but they'll work. I'll coat the ends of my matches with wax so we can light the torches on the other side."

"Good. Remy, Piotr, Kurt, John and Ah will go below. The rest of ya can keep a look out for any trouble." Rogue began to strip off her outer jacket.

"Jus' one minute, chere. It's a hard swim t' de bottom. Remy doesn't t'ink y' should go."

"Ya need meh, darlin'. And Ah'm not lettin' ya otta mah sight again, so just try and stop meh!"

"Shouldn't you wait until first light?" Wanda asked.

"Where we're goin'," Remy said, "it won't matter."

In the cavern…

Remy emerged into the chamber with his boots slung around his neck and the bundle of torches beneath his arm. Rogue popped to the surface a moment later, gasping and spitting water.

"Ah don't want ta hear it, Swamp Rat!"

"Back t' dat, are we?" Remy smirked.

John struck one of his matches and held it beneath one of the torches. The torch sizzled, a flame appeared, then died. On the third match, the flame finally held, and he used that torch to give life to the others. "I am John, Lord of the Flame!"

Remy rolled his eyes and quickly laced his boots. Holding their torches aloft, the group approached the archway. The stone figure beneath seemed to dart and feint in the flickering light. The statue was that of a woman, life-sized, with a flowing head of hair. Her robes were covered with symbols: the sun and moon, the stars, serpents, and the ram. Her right hand was raised palm out in a gesture of warning, while her left beckoned the travelers forth.

"Remarkable," Piotr said. "Ze goddess Hecate."

"She gives Remy de spooks," Remy said.

Kurt recited the Coptic inscription above the arch: "Behold the threshold. The call is answered. The journey begins vith knowledge, but ends vith faith. V-I-T-R-I-O-G." He paused.

"V-I-T-R-I-O-G… does dat mean anyt'ing t' y'?" Remy asked as he came up to stand beside Kurt.

"Visita Interiora Terrae, Rectificando, Inveniens Occultam Gemmam," Kurt said. "It's the same as the scroll."

They walked beneath the arch and found themselves in a twelve-sided hall. There seemed to be no exit. In an alcove set into each of the sides was a relief that depicted unusual processes. The reliefs were dominated by furnaces and alembics, flasks and retorts. The floor was made up of an interlocking mosaic of six-sided stones. Each stone had one of the twelve zodiacal symbols carved upon it.

John took a step forward and the stone under his foot plunged beneath him. Remy caught him by the collar and hauled him back. The missing stone left a man-sized shaft that was twelve feet deep.

"Careful," he said. "T'ink 'bout what y're doin'. Deses zodiacal symbols on de floor…can dey be arranged in a sequence?"

"Of course!" Rogue said. "The stars my path…isn't that what the scroll said?"

She began to step forward but was stopped by Piotr. "Wait! Zey are not arranged by month. Look at ze reliefs. In mother Russia, zere is a myth about a magical process to turn lead into gold. It's called alchemy. Zat is what is pictured here. Ze alchemical sequence…each symbol stands for a process."

"Now we know why Lehnsherr wanted us all to look for this necklace together." John sighed.

"Piotr, we'll take it in order," Remy said. "Do y' remember de process?"

"Da. Calcination is ze first," Piotr said. "Zat's Ares."

They stepped together onto the stone with the symbol for the ram. The entire floor sank, leaving the stone they were standing upon a foot above the others.

"Is it safe?" John asked.

"We're still here, aren't we?" Remy asked. "Next?"

"Congelation. Taurus."

Piotr and Remy stepped down upon the bull. The stones rumbled and sank another foot, leaving Taurus halfway between the floor and Aries at the threshold. Rogue and the others stepped onto Aries and through the threshold as Remy and Piotr continued on.

"It's makin' a stairway down," Rogue said. "Go ahead. We're right behind ya."

Next was Gemini, for fixation, followed by Cancer, for dissolution. Then came Leo, Virgo, and Libra…digestion, distillation, and sublimation…and Scorpio for separation. The floor was now eight feet below the threshold, and the top of a doorway had appeared above the floor.

When Sagittarius through Pisces had been chosen, representing creation, fermentation, multiplication, and projection, the doorway was fully revealed. The twelve stones that had been chosen remained at various heights, stairstepping their way up to the threshold.

"It's like being at the bottom of a well," Kurt said. "So far, so güt, but it's bound to get harder. And I don't like the inscription above the door: the Path of Trials."

Rogue reached out and brushed the cobwebs from the doorway and stepped through the long, narrow passage. It turned at twenty yards, then sloped downward, and took another turn, winding always downward.

"It reminds me of a type of passage you find inside a pyramid," Piotr said.

"Ah think this is a pyramid, only inverted," Rogue said. "It should end in an apex-shaped chamber."

"Dat which is above is below," Remy recalled.

"Right, but what are these gouges on the floor and wall?" Rogue asked as she ran her hands over the marks. "Marks of the stonecutters?"

"Non, dey're fresh." Remy paused. "Remy's got a bad feelin' 'bout dis, chere."

They turned a corner and the passage ended in a blank wall. Remy handed his torch to Piotr, then ran his fingers along the stone, searching for a seam. There was none. Then he tapped on the wall.

"Solid," he said.

"What's this white stuff hangin' against the wall?" Rogue asked, holding her torch up to it. "It has a strange green glow to it. There's a heap of it on the floor, too."

Remy examined his hands, then tasted the residue that clung to his fingertips from touching the wall.

"Awww! I can't believe you just did that, mate! I think I'm goin' to get sick!" John yelled as him mimicked gagging.

Remy glared at John. "It's powdered bone."

John's eyes widened and he stared in disbelief at the floor. He touched the pile on the floor with his boot, and the pile shifted and diminished, draining through a funnel-type hole in the floor, like sand through an hourglass.

"Listen," Remy said"

Something rumbled behind them. Then the floor began to quiver.

"Whatever dat is," Remy said, "it can't be good."

The sound grew louder. Something was scraping and sliding down the corridor, the frightening sound of stone against stone. They waited, their eyes riveted to the last corner they had turned. Dust fell from the ceiling, shaken loose by the vibration.

"We've got to get outta here," John said. "Let's run for it."

Piotr held him back.

"Wait," he said.

The sound was like thunder now.

Remy went to the corner and dared a glance. A huge stone filled the passage, advancing inch by inch.

"Okay," he said, moving the torch along the walls, searching for something, anything. "We're trapped in a giant mortar and pestle and are 'bout t' be ground up and drained down a hole in de floor, leavin' only bone dust."

They all stared at him with their mouths agape. "What?" he asked.

"That's mah man! Always the optimist!" Rogue sighed. "Well, we know we can't wait here against the wall, or we'll end up like him. Them. Whatever. Let's walk toward the thing and see what happens."

"Toward it?" Kurt asked.

"Ouichere's right. It's takin' too long t' get here. Whoever designed dis 's tryin' t' make us afraid out of our minds, cowerin' by de wall, waitin' f'r death. So let's do de unexpected. Greet death."

"Da, of course," Piotr said. "Ze wise man welcomes death, ze fool fears it."

They walked forward, torches raised, and turned the ninety-degree corner. The pestle was three yards away and rumbling toward them. Rogue examined the back wall.

"This is the only place in the passage that hasn't had grooves gouged out of it," she said. Then she held her torch low, examining the floor.

"No bone dust," Rogue said. "Here's where we stand. As it closes in on us, it'll seem the only direction we can go is back ta the wall at the end of the passage, but don't, no matter what happens."

The stone had passed the edge of the corner, narrowing the space in which they stood. It was now three feet away and coming closer. They tossed away their torches. At two feet, John shifted nervously. At one foot, as the stone touched their clothes, he made a move to slide out of the way, but Remy gripped his arm.

The stone touched their chests, and what began as the lightest of pressures quickly became intolerable. Rogue's face was turned toward Remy, and the rough surface of the pestle pressed against her cheek. It felt as if the life was being squeezed out of her.

"Ah could have been wrong, sugah," she whispered. "Ah love ya."

Remy squeezed her hand. There was a thud as something fell into place and the wall behind them began to move backward, easing the pressure on their chests. They were plunged into darkness as the stone hid the last of the light from the torches. The pestle's motion changed, and instead of coming forward, it slid to the left, toward the blank wall.

Standing motionless in the darkness, Remy no longer felt the stone wall against his back, and he felt a wisp of air on his neck. He took another torch from his bundle, struck a match, and lit it.

The wall was gone, revealing a passage that sloped gently downward. At the end of the passage they could hear a murmur of running water.

They emerged in another chamber, resembling a Greek temple set above a pond. The water flowed from one end of the pond and disappeared down a twisting series of baffles at the other, cascading into the earth. In the center of the pond, on a pedestal, was a stone lion, with unusually flared nostrils.

Remy dropped his hands into the water. "It's hot."

"What do ya think these baffles are for?" Rogue asked.

"I zink zey are meant to dissipate ze heat," Piotr answered. "It must be fed by some sort of heated underground river. It's so hot in here."

"Ah don't think Ah want ta look for a door in that pool. Look around," Rogue ordered. "There must be another way. Ah feel air comin' from somewhere."

Remy held the torch aloft and watched as the flame flickered. Then he went to the opposite side of the pond, stepped behind the Doric columns, and inspected the wall. The torch burned a brighter orange.

"It has t' be along dis wall," Remy said.

"Hello, mate," John said.

"What have y' got?"

"A fellow adventurer," John said, holding another torch over a skeleton slumped against the wall. The jawbone hung in a crooked grin beneath the skull. "Pretty old, judgin' by these clothes."

"Any sign of vhat killed him?" Kurt asked.

"Nope," John said, gently probing the fragile cloth. "No indication of bein' crushed, shot, stabbed, hung, decapitated, or any other type of violent end."

"Dat's bad," Remy said. "Come here, chere. Tell Remy what y' make of dis."

He was standing in front of the stone orb protruding from the wall. Carved into it was the acronym VITRIOG.

"Do we push it or pull it or what?" Rogue asked, placing a hand on his shoulder. "If we keep goin' down, should we push it down?" With both hands, she pushed downward on the orb. It dropped a few inches.

Something began to hiss behind them.

Gas billowed out from the lion's nostrils. The air was filled with the stench of rotten eggs.

"Sulfuric acid," John shouted. "Douse the torches. We've got to get out of here before we're poisoned or blown to bits."

Remy stomped on his torch, putting it out, and Rogue did the same. They were left in darkness, listening to the hiss of the gas as it filled the chamber.

Remy grasped the orb and tried to move it, but it wouldn't budge. "Down on de floor."

As he crawled on his hands and knees along the wall, Remy's nostrils picked up a whiff of fresh air. His hands searched the base of the wall, and when he touched one section it unexpectedly moved inward.

"Here," he called in the darkness. "Remy's found somet'ing."

Remy crawled into the shaft, followed by Rogue, who was holding the belt loop in the back of Remy's breeches, and then John, Kurt, and Piotr.

"It must be some type of air passage," Rogue commented.

They went forward on their hands and knees. They had gone only a few yards when the shaft began to tilt, turning downward at an alarming rate.

"It must be cantilevered somehow," Remy yelled back. "Triggered by de weight of our bodies. Use y'r back and legs t' jam in de shaft."

The shaft continued to turn until it became vertical instead of horizontal. Remy was well wedged in the shaft, but Rogue did not have a good purchase on the walls and began to slip. She slid down against Remy.

"Chere," he said. "As good as dis feels, Remy can't hold both of us."

"Ah'm tryin'," Rogue said, "but Ah'm no mountain climber. What can we do now?"

"Dis," Remy said as Rogue's rear pressed down upon his head and the soles of her boots began to slide down the wall, "is de faith part, Remy t'inks." Remy let go and plunged down the shaft, dropping through the darkness, with Rogue above him. Kurt, Piotr, and John looked at each other, shrugged. "All for one, and one for all."

The shaft twisted first one way and then another, and they tumbled like marbles down a chute. The shaft gently curved and became horizontal again, but before they could slow their momentum, they passed through a warm waterfall and spilled out into yet another chamber.

Remy lay on the floor, his head spinning.

Rogue sat up and held her head with her hands. "Remy," she breathed. "We're there."

Remy looked up just as John, Piotr, and Kurt fell from the shaft. The chamber slowly stopped swaying. They were inside the apex, the tip of the inverted pyramid, and it was half-filled with water. They were in a sort of causeway that led to a twenty-four-sided solid in the center of the chamber. Above the polyhedron, seeming to float in the darkness, was a glass sarcophagus.

"The Tomb of Hecate," Kurt whispered.

The polyhedron was made up of what seemed to be leaden panels, and three of the panels, spaced equally around the middle, bore recessed handholds inside of a golden circle that seemed to be the end of a tube. The tubes corresponded to three leaden cylinders in a rack on the floor. Remy touched the polyhedron with his hand, and he could feel a soft vibration travel up his arm to his shoulder.

"It feels alive," he said.

The chamber was filled with a mistlike purple glow. Through the dark panes of the sarcophagus that floated above, they could see a mummified figure sitting on a throne, a necklace clutched in one skeletal hand. Remy was close enough now to see that the sarcophagus stood on a thin pedestal of some pale bluish material.

"Cobalt?" he asked.

"Beryllium, Ah think." Rogue said as she grasped one of the handholds in the polyhedron. "These are obviously meant to be turned."

"Non," Remy said, taking her hand. "Look at de floor."

There were footprints in the floor, one to each side of each of the three panels with the recessed handholds. There were no footprints in front of the panels.

"Y're not supposed t' stand directly in front of it."

Rogue nodded.

They took up positions on either side of the panel, while Piotr took the third. Remy reached over and grasped the handle. "Are y' sure y' want t' do dis?"

They all nodded.

Together, they gripped the handles and rotated them ninety degrees. The sarcophagus floated downward, the beryllium rod disappearing into the polyhedron. The misty purple glow subsided, then all but died. The waterfall over the entrance to the chamber slowed and finally dribbled to a stop.

"Amazing…" Piotr said in a hushed voice. "Zere are no moving parts except for a beryllium rod."

The handles slowly became free. They began to slide them out of the polyhedron. As they did, the humming began to subside. The sarcophagus opened and John reached in to take the necklace from the hand of the goddess.

"It's warm," he said.

As the necklace came free and the handles were pulled completely from the polyhedron, a brilliant shaft of purple light shot from the openings, as if furnace doors had been opened to reveal a mock sun.

"Now let's replace the handles vith those from the rack." Kurt suggested.

He lugged one of the cylinders over to the polyhedron, and fitted it into the vacant slot. He locked the new handle back in place, and did the same for the other two. The sarcophagus rose once more, exposing the beryllium rod, and the glow was restored to the chamber. Water began to cascade over the entrance once more.

"Now, can we get outta here?" John asked as he placed the necklace in a pouch attached to his hip and wiped sweat from his brow.

"Yeah," Rogue smiled, and took a deep breath. "Let's go home. We have a necklace ta deliver."

A/N: The next chapter will be mostly ROMY and will deal with what their future holds... We'll also find out what's so special about this darn necklace! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! You're the best!