This chapter made me cry. I can only hope that it touches you as it touched me.

And, also, two of you, Gambit-Rogue, especially, caught a little mistake of mine with Sage and Bishop, that I missed during the revisions I made before I started updating again...however...on second thinking...I've decided that I can use it...I think...and if I can't...I'll go back and change it. Thanks to both of you, you know who you are.

Chapter 13: Backlash Blues

Sebastian Shaw, Black King of the Japan Branch of the Hellfire Club, and if this all means nothing to you, don't feel bad. The Hellfire Club is one of the most secret, yet also, most notorious secret societies in the world. With at least three branches on every continent, the people of this "club" rule the economy, the government, and the public. These are the people behind the people who are behind the oh-so-secret ruling of the world. For now, most of them, at least in the Shaw's branch, are mutants.

One of those mutants was the very man who'd brought the X-Men to Genosha. A man who went by the name Fitzroy. A transporter, he could open interdimensional portals using the life force he'd drain from life beings on either end of the portal. After he'd brought the X-Men to Genosha, he'd reported back to his boss, Shaw, who in turn, ordered Fitzroy to watch the mutates very closely.

How Shaw fit into the scheme of things was something that Rogue had taken a long time to figure out. Then it dawned on her, one bright and shiny morning, after going over the records she'd copied from the Citadel, looking for a weak spot in the infrastructure. Money. Shaw was the money, the financing, the backing. Lucas, while fully capable of putting such a plan into motion on sheer determination, didn't have the money to make it succeed, or for that matter, the brains. Shaw took care of most of that. At least, he had at first.

Once enough mutates had been made, and the Citadel had become self-sufficient, Shaw hadn't been needed anymore. Lucas cut Shaw off, all communications, and killed his little spy. Little did Lucas know that by then, Shaw had a new spy, Rogue. In exchange for her and Shadowcat's eventual freeing, Shaw would get his information, and eventually, she would aid him in taking down the mutate army that, instead of working for him, would decimate the world's economy and open the way for him to sweep in and take over, all on the downlow, of course.

Rogue wasn't happy with the deal she'd struck, never had been. Shaw had his own reasons for doing what he was doing, for the very plan he'd first set into motion, and she was no fool to think she knew them. She watched him, as he watched her, both waiting for the eventual betrayal. Until then, they were allies, begrudged ones.

"Rogue. You've news?"

She nodded, before speaking. "Phoenix has sent the army into Australia. They've cut off all communications out of the west coast. My estimates give two days before they've taken the whole continent."

"So short a time period?" He asked smoothly, accepting a cup of tea from someone off camera.

She nodded again. "They've got good speed, and there really is a lot of open territory they don't have to both with. They'll take the major cities, declare it theirs, and move on, the enforcers will ensure the takeover is complete once the army has moved on."

Shaw nodded, sipping his Earl Grey calmly. "Our other project?"

She shook her head. "Nothing doing."

He cocked an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean?"

"I mean that I doubt I'll be able to get what you want."

"Why?" Anger tainted that smooth smirky tone.

"It's not here."

"What do you mean it's not there?"

"I mean, it's not here. I can't detect it's presence anywhere on the vessel."

Shaw sighed, his disappointment evident. "I guess we'll just have to look again. I'll have Tessa work on that. When will the second stage of Plan A go into effect?"

"In a few hours. I've time to prepare."

He studied her through the screen. "If you survive it, I'll see you in Sydney."

"If I survive it, there will be no need to see me at all."

Shaw grinned. "You'd think."

He severed the link, leaving Rogue with a fuzzy screen and a mild head ache. She shook her head to rid herself of the ache, and slowly set about putting the room right. She restored all channels of communication, and set Jubilee back in the chair. A few mental quirks and she had the girl forgetting that she'd been attacked. When asked why she wasn't monitoring the devices later, she'd reply that she'd fallen asleep.

That was all Rogue needed, really. A few hours. Just a small time. She didn't know if her heart would last that long.

Meanwhile, Shadowcat didn't know if her body would last at all. She was in so much pain, and so little of it was her body. Mostly it was her heart, and her soul. Nightmares drifted in and out of her mind, taking their sweet time as they did so. Even as seizures rocked her body, and blood pored from her nose from the mental torture, she imagined to herself that she'd get better. That she'd learn to answer to her human name again. That she'd finally live again.

Piotr returned to her side, never having been able to find Rogue. He'd found Gambit, oddly befuddled, also looking for Rogue, but together, they hadn't found her, and though it gave him a vaguely anxious stomach, he left Gambit to looking and returned to Shadowcat.

McCoy was in the corner, working feverously, trying to figure out what was wrong, and if he could stop it. Piotr took a chair at her side, and slowly slid his hand into her's. She turned to look at him, catching a glimpse of him through the terror that coiled like a snake in her eyes. She was afraid, and there was nothing he could do.

He sat there with her, though. They waited together for an end that wouldn't come. Finally, Beast came to her bedside, a look of utter desolation on his face. "I don't know what's happening."

Piotr nodded, his gaze never leaving her face, nor her's his.

Beast continued. "I can't stop what's happening."

They didn't hear that, but they didn't need to. The seizures had stopped, as had the bleeding, yet she'd become so cold, so still. He held her hand.

Beast walked back to his chair, not wanting to intrude any further, and quietly alerted Xavier and Magneto to the going-ons in Medical. Within minutes, most of X-Force had gathered just inside the doors, watching silently as Shadowcat grew weaker. Rogue still had not been found.

Piotr stood and sat by her side on the bed, still watching, still holding. He used his free hand to caress the side of her face, and he shed a tear watching her color grow all the more paler.

"Shadowcat..." he whispered.

She slowly lifted her own hand, taking his wrist. "No. Don't call me that."

"Katya."

She smiled, just a little. "It's not so bad."

He nodded, not hiding his tears, though he didn't know why he cried. He barely knows this woman. Barely, but just enough. "The pain? It goes away?" He asked in his deep voice.

She nodded, slowly. "It's not so bad anymore. You know, I can almost remember the time before. My parents, my friends, being a mutant." Her voice, it grew weaker, but he couldn't bear to tell her to rest. Her vitals were slowly, but surely dropping as her body began to shut down. Her hand was limp in his hand, she couldn't control it anymore. The telepathic link, once severed, was now causing her mind to die, and her body was going first. She used all her strength to speak. "I remember you."

He smiled through his tears. "I never forgot you."

She smiled at that, a big, a real smile. It reminded him of that girl he'd been with so long ago. Deep dark tombs in Egypt and her smile had lit them up for him. She continued to speak. "I think in another life, you'd have been mine."

He smiled. "In this life, I am yours."

She smiled, and for the first time, a tear slid down her cheek. "How ironic that I'm finally free, and I won't live to see it."

"Don't say such things, Katya. Your spirit, it was always free." He brought her hand to his chest. "I've always felt you with me. Always."

She smiled, and another tear joined the first. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her eyes dimmed, and what little tension remained in her body left. In one of the happiest moments of her life, she left this world for the next. It was as she'd always wanted to go, not in a blaze of glory, but surrounded by family and friends, and in happiness. It was also as Rogue had intended all along.