Chapter 11.

(Angela)

My guts clenched and I broke out in a cold sweat at his words. "The Sentinels?"

Buzz nodded. "Yeah. Come on, I'll show you."

I looked over my shoulder, but Logan was already up and getting dressed. A few minutes later, we were walking into the computer room behind Buzz. He had at least half a dozen machines working, all of them showing something different. He pulled a couple of chairs up on either side of the one he usually used and motioned for us to sit down. I was tense, my insides in a knot and I really wanted to pace, but I took the proffered seat anyway. Logan took the remaining chair and Buzz typed in a series of commands so quickly his fingers were a blur. Instantly, a schematic of the same robot I'd seen over fifteen years ago appeared on the screen with notations in Russian all over it. I sucked in my breath and Buzz looked at me sideways. "This the thing you wanted to find?"

I shook my head. "No, I didn't want to find it, not ever. But it looks like I did." I leaned forward and peered at it closely. "Any idea what that says?" I asked Buzz, but it was Logan who answered.

"Yeah, I do." He said, his brow furrowed in concentration. He pointed to a long note that was scribbled down the left side. "This says here that this is the original plan for the giant Sentinel, the one you saw the plans for before. But it also goes into how it can be scaled down using current technology."

"How current?" I really didn't want to know, but I needed to.

It's not a common occurrence that something can scare Logan enough to make him go pale, but this certainly fit the bill. "Looks like these notes were added about eighteen months ago, so pretty current."

"Nah, not so much." Buzz added. "Computer and robotic technology evolves so fast that what you build today is obsolete next week." Logan scowled at him, but Buzz is one of the few people who wasn't fazed by it. "Hey man, I know what you're getting at here. If they were working on it last summer, then they're probably still working on it, might even have a working prototype by now."

Logan nodded. "Yeah. And if you can build one, you can build a thousand, ten thousand." He took the mouse away from Buzz and scrolled down to the bottom of the schematic where there was a lot more writing. "Looks like they've been workin' with someone in China." He sat bolt upright and stared at me. "In Beijing."

My mind reeled. "That's where Vulture and Demon were last operating, according to the Hudson Bay files."

"But those files were outdated, Ang." Buzz said. "They still had you down as presumed dead, remember?"

"Were you able to pull a time stamp off any of them?" He shook his head. "Damn it. Have you decoded everything?"

"Not yet. I have one cd-rom left to crack, but since I know how they're encoded it shouldn't take me too long."

"Good. Get working on those as soon as you can." I looked around at the other computers. "Anything else to show us?"

"Unfortunately, yes." He said and expertly wheeled his chair over to another machine in one smooth motion. "If you thought that robot was bad, wait til you see this." Logan and I moved our chairs over next to his and he pulled up another schematic. "This is something called a 'Master Mold'. It's a fully automatic, self-sustaining Sentinel factory. And it's mobile."

"So it can build a bunch of those things, drop 'em off and move on to another place and do it all over again." Logan growled. "Fuckin' beautiful." He ran his hands through his hair and another growl rumbled low in his throat. "I don't fuckin' believe this." He looked over at me, still scowling. "You sure you ain't psychic? Secondary mutation or somethin'?"

"I swear it." I replied, clasping my hands to keep them from shaking. "In a hundred and five years, this is only the third time my instincts have been this accurate."

"What were the other times?"

"Nothing I want to talk about right now." He looked at me curiously and I shook my head. "Ask me about it later, when we have less to worry about, ok?"

"Um, guys? I wasn't finished." Buzz said, sounding exasperated. We looked at him expectantly and he cleared his throat. "All right. I got this from a friend near Hong Kong. From what we've been able to find, THIS thing is online."

"WHAT?" I cried, leaping out of my seat. "You're telling me this thing is producing Sentinels right NOW?"

"See, that's the funny thing. It works, but it isn't WORKING. Whoever built it hasn't decided to use it yet. My buddy thinks they're waiting for something."

"Like what?"

He shrugged. "No idea. He's working on hacking their mail server, see if there's anything in there other than internal memos and spam."

"Still, this ain't somethin' we can sit on." Logan said as he also stood. "Darlin', we have to tell the Professor and Scott. Right now."

I nodded and walked over the phone that hung on the wall. Unlike the other phones in the mansion, this one only worked internally. I picked it up and punched in the code for Charles' room and he picked it up almost immediately. I quickly outlined what we'd found and asked him to meet us in the study. He agreed quickly and I repeated the process with Scott. When I was done, I turned back to Buzz. "They want you there, too. You got any of this on disk or something?"

"On my laptop." He replied as he picked it up. "The other machines are still working, trying to track where this thing is and who's responsible for it, so I can't be gone long."

"I'm sure he'll understand. Come on." The three of us hastened to the study, barely beating the Professor and Scott there. Logan was prowling back and forth near the windows, a cigar clamped between his teeth. I was doing much the same in front of the sofa, minus the much-wanted tobacco product. They came in about two minutes later, Scott looking less than happy at being awakened at this ungodly hour. However, once Buzz started explaining the Master Mold and how it worked, he became considerably less whiny. Thank the gods for small blessings.

"Angela, why have you been keeping this from us?" Scott asked, leaning forward on the sofa. "You should have told us."

"Told you what?" I snapped. "That I had a bad dream about something that I saw at Alkali Lake? It's been almost sixteen years, Scott! We killed all the really important scientists when we got out of there."

"How can you be sure? Logan wasn't exactly in the right mind to be choosy about his targets if you told the story accurately."

"No, he wasn't. But I was. And I made damn sure I got anyone who could recreate the bonding process, lab assistants…hell, there wasn't a single person breathing between my room and the back door when we were done. Except Stryker, I couldn't find that bastard."

"Angela, please calm down." Charles said mildly. "Scott isn't accusing you of anything."

"Sure could have fooled me." I muttered.

"I understand why you were reluctant to say anything until you were certain." He continued. "The important thing is that you told us now."

"The real question is, what the hell we gonna do about it?" Logan said, crossing over to me. "We can't just sit here an' hope that thing won't start crankin' out killer robots."

"Agreed." Charles replied. "But we still don't know where it is. Buzz, you said you're still working on that?"

"Yeah, I've got four machines working right now." He said as he gathered up his laptop. "And some of the guys who helped with the underground are on it."

"Is there anything you need to speed up the process?"

Buzz thought for a moment. "Yeah, at least four more computers and some help would be cool. Jubes and Kitty are all right with the computers, but I don't know if they've got what it takes for this kind of search."

"What about Sage?" Logan said and we all turned to him. "Her brain's faster'n any computer. Show her what ya got an' she'll have it analyzed at the speed of thought."

"Logan, sometimes your brilliance is scarier than your temper." Scott said with a smile.

Logan took a step back, one hand clutching his chest in a mocking gesture. "What was that, Cyke? A compliment?"

Scott smirked. "Don't get used to it."

"If you boys are done, I think we all have a lot of work to do." I said, shaking my head.

"Not all of us." Logan said. "You're goin' back to bed, darlin'."

"I will do no such thing!" I exclaimed. "There's too much to do to even consider it!"

"Yeah well, unless you want Hank on your ass for not takin' care of yourself, you'll go right now."

"How's he gonna know?" Logan just looked at me, his eyebrow quirked and his arms crossed over his chest. "You wouldn't."

"Oh yes, I would." He stood there, challenge written on his face. I glared at him and grumbled. "C'mon tiger, you know I'm right."

"I'm pregnant, Logan, not dying."

"Hey Chuck, what's Hank's extension again?" He asked as he made his way over to the phone.

"Oh, fuck you! I'm going!" I shot another glare at him, but went back to our room. I didn't think I'd be able to get back to sleep, but I was more tired than I thought and drifted off not long after my head touched the pillow.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I woke up a few hours later with Logan's arm draped across me. I had no idea when he came back to bed, but I wasn't complaining. I rolled over and snuggled into him and he tightened his grip on me. I couldn't see the clock from where I was, but from the angle of the sunlight streaming into our room I could tell it was much later than I thought. I sighed and extricated myself from my lover's arms.

Half an hour later, I emerged from the bathroom to find the bedroom empty. I glanced at the clock and muttered a curse; I had barely enough time to eat before my first class of the day. I dashed to the kitchen and grabbed a quick bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam and washed it down with a huge glass of orange juice. I made it to my classroom with two minutes to spare.

It was the first day of strategy and tactics for the new Delta team. I'd been given the class roster, but I wasn't surprised to see that Sage had been added as well. "Good morning class. Welcome to the first day of the last of your free time." Sofia and Rahne grumbled a bit and I smiled. "Yeah, I know. But you were warned that being advanced to Delta team meant more class time, so deal with it."

Sage raised her hand and I nodded to her. "Angela, why am I in here? I wasn't advanced with the team."

"First off, while we're in class, I'd prefer it if you called me Miss Rex, ok?" Everyone nodded. "As to why you're in here, I'm sure you've spoken to Logan and the Professor, yes?"

"Yeah, they said they had a special project they needed me for, but they didn't give me any details."

"You'll get those later when you go talk to Buzz, all right?" She nodded and I turned on the overhead computer display. "Now, you won't be getting a book for this class. Everything you'll be learning in here comes from my personal training." Warren cleared his throat uncomfortably and I looked at him. "Something on your mind, Warren?"

"Well, it's just…some of the kids around here, they say you and Logan were trained as assassins." He said, unable to look me in the eye.

I walked over and leaned against the desk in front of him. "That's true. Does that bother you?"

"Well, I guess I just don't understand what assassination techniques have to do with combat strategy."

"Because our assassin training came later. I was trained as an infiltrator first. But I had to know strategy and tactics for all of it. Or did you think that being an assassin means that I just go in, kill everything in sight and hope I get the right target?" He blushed and looked down at his keyboard. "Logan and I are trained to take on a force that's superior in numbers with just the two of us. That's what you'll be learning in here."

I went back to the overhead display and called up the lesson for the day. "Consider this. There are five of you and you have been called on to rescue two mutants who are being held here." I clicked on the display and it zoomed in on a building, with a black X indicating a room in the basement of the compound. "To all outward appearances, this is a normal office complex. In fact, it belongs to an anti-mutant organization, which plans on using these mutants in an attempt to stage an attack on the surrounding neighborhood. Your intelligence tells you that they've been drugged and are in the process of being brainwashed. One of them is a telekinetic, the other has the ability to manipulate any form of stone." I clicked on the building again and the lobby and first three floors turned blue. "These stories are the front. They appear to be a law office, an architectural firm and the home office for a pharmaceutical company. In reality, everyone who works in these offices are part of the organization." I clicked again and the rest of the building turned red. "These are the offices of the people in charge of the group. The top floor is where the head honcho works." One more click and a series of dots appeared, some of them white, the rest black. "The white dots are considered civilians. For the purposes of this class, a civilian is anyone who is non-combatant, meaning they are not trained to fight. It doesn't mean they won't. The black dots are the people who guard the building from attack."

I turned to the class and hit a button on my computer, which sent the scenario to their individual machines. "Your mission is to go in, rescue the mutants and get back out with a minimum of fuss. In other words, this is supposed to be a covert operation using the entire team. Acceptable losses and other parameters have been sent to your machines. You each work alone on the scenario. There are no right or wrong answers in here, only answers that work better than others. Once you've finished, I'll look over your solutions and we try each of them out in the Danger Room a week from today. Now get to work."

I sat back down and turned off the overhead display, switching to the computer in front of me. Since my machine was hooked into all the others, I could peek at what they were doing without leaving my desk. Ninety minutes later, the clock in the corner chimed and I stood up. "Ok, don't worry if you didn't finish today. You have all week to finish this project. We don't expect you to plan something like this in an hour and a half on your first day. That comes later." I smiled at them as all but Sage groaned. "See you all tomorrow."

I waved them out of the classroom and crossed back to my desk. Not surprised that Sage had completed the scenario, I decided that she would need to come up with a different solution every day and we'd choose one to run from the bunch. Remy had done better than I thought he would, while Warren was trying a tactic that took him all but out of the equation. Sofia and Rahne had made about the same amount of progress, but they were young and not gifted with Sage's computer brain. I still felt pretty confident that they'd do all right in the end.

I was still going through what they'd done when Logan came in. He looked pissed. "Lover, what's wrong?"

"Babies eventually become teenagers, right?" He asked, sitting at one of the desks and propping his feet up. "I mean, there's no such thing as a mutation that'll keep them babies, is there?"

"Not that I've heard of, why?"

"I think I fucked up." I looked at him curiously and he sighed, scrubbing his face. "You know Rogue thinks of me like family, right?" I nodded. "Well, she comes to me all upset, so I asked her what was wrong an' she tells me Bobby broke up with her."

"What? What the hell for?"

"Over Remy, from what I could figure. So, she's all cryin' and I'm tryin' to comfort her an' I told her if Bobby was that stupid that he didn't deserve her an' she could do better."

"All very true. So how did you fuck up?"

"I'm not sure. She started yellin' at me an' told me I didn't get it an' that all men are fuckin' morons. Then she took off."

"Did you go after her?"

"I tried, but she took her glove off and threatened to imprint me into another coma, so I let her go."

"Smart man." I muttered and walked around my desk to stand in front of him. "So what does that have to do with babies becoming teenagers?"

"Well, we're about to have one. And if I can't handle this shit now, what makes me think I'll be able to handle it thirteen years from now?"

I laughed and eased myself into his lap, sliding my arms around his neck before I kissed him softly. "Lover, by the time you have to worry about that, you'll have the whole daddy thing figured out, I promise. Besides, you've done the daddy thing before, remember?"

He nodded and a brief flash of pain went through his eyes. "Yeah, but that ended badly too, remember?"

"But not because of anything you did. It wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known something like that would happen while you were away."

"I shoulda been there, I shoulda been able to save them."

I sighed and pulled him close, resting his head against my breast. "Believe me, I know how that feels. And even though it sucks and it's unfair, everything does happen for a reason. Maybe our reasons were to bring us together and get it all right this time."

He slipped his arms around my waist and nuzzled my neck. "I love you, tiger."

"Love you too, forever." I gave him another kiss, then stood up with a sigh. "All right, I'll go find Rogue and see if I can calm her down. You want to take Bobby?"

"Nah, I saw him off with One-Eye doin' the guy talk thing, so I'll let that go."

"Ok. Do me a favor and finish going over the scenario I gave Delta team today?"

"Sure darlin'." He smiled and I left the classroom in search of Marie.

I found her about forty-five minutes later out by the stream. It was freezing outside, but she was clad only in jeans and a heavy sweater, her arms wrapped around herself. I'd brought an extra jacket with me when I hadn't found her indoors, remembering what I'd been like when I ran off in the middle of winter when I was upset. She didn't turn when I approached her, but she did take the jacket and slip it on, zipping it all the way to her neck. We just stood there for a long time, not saying anything. I figured she'd talk when she was ready. I was right.

"Men are stupid." She said without preamble. I simply nodded and waited for her to continue. "I mean, they are really, REALLY stupid."

"No arguments here." I replied. The breeze picked up a little and a few flurries began to fall. I heard her sniffle, so I turned to her and wrapped my arms around her. She collapsed into my arms and her shoulders shook as she wept quietly. After a few minutes, she pulled away a little and I produced a tissue from my coat pocket.

"Thanks." She said, accepting it gratefully.

I smoothed the hair away from her forehead with my gloved hand. "Wanna tell me what happened?"

She nodded. "I was just talkin' to Remy about the strategy class, you know? I mean, I wasn't gonna give the answer or nothin', cuz I know you change things for each class so it's not like I would know anyway. But Bobby overheard me and he took me aside and said it wasn't fair for me to help him if I didn't help everyone else too. I tried to explain that I wasn't givin' him the solution, just explainin' how you expect things done in there and he said the only reason I was bein' so helpful was because it was Remy."

I bit my lip to keep from bad-mouthing the charming Cajun. I didn't like him, but I couldn't let my personal feelings get in the way here. "So what happened then?"

"Well, you know Remy. He tried to defend me and Bobby told him to back off. I told him to leave Remy out of it, that this was between me and him, but he just got pissed off and said I was takin' Remy's side."

"Were you?"

"No, not really. I just think Bobby's been jealous cuz Remy's always so nice to me and stuff. I told him Remy's nice to all the girls, but he didn't wanna hear it."

"He does seem to be a little taken with you, in case you haven't noticed."

"I know. But Bobby wasn't like this when John had a crush on me too."

"But John and Bobby were best friends. He didn't want to lose his friend over something like a crush. Remy's something new and different, something he doesn't know how to react to."

"Yeah, I s'pose you're right." She sniffled again and I produced another tissue. "Thanks."

"No problem." I shoved my hands in my pockets and shivered a little. "So then what?"

"Then Bobby yelled at me, told me that he didn't want me talkin' to Remy anymore. I told him he couldn't tell me who to be friends with and I'd talk to Remy if I want to. And that's when he said if I liked Remy so much, just go be with him cuz he didn't want to deal with me goin' behind his back anymore."

She broke down into fresh sobs and I wrapped my arms around her again. I knew she didn't want to hear a lecture about the fragility of the male ego, so I just gave her what comfort I could until she'd cried herself out again. I offered her another tissue and she took it. "Well Marie, looks like you have a decision to make."

"What's that?" She asked, still sniffling.

"Well, on the one hand, you have Bobby, who you've been going out with for some time now. But how do you feel about Remy?"

"I don't know!" She cried. "I mean, he makes me laugh, he's polite as can be and full of charm. And he kinda reminds me of home." She sighed. "I just don't know."

"Do you love Bobby?" She shrugged. "Marie, that's not supposed to be a trick question. What does your gut tell you?"

"If you're askin' if he makes me feel all fluttery inside, then the answer's no."

"Then maybe it's not so bad that this happened now instead of later. I know it hurts, it always does when someone you care about leaves you. But caring isn't the same as loving, no matter how close they are."

She nodded and sighed and the wind picked up again. Night was falling fast and the temperature had dropped considerably from when I first went out there. "Thanks Angela. I don't feel better, not yet, but this still helped."

"I know sweetheart. There's nothing I can say to make it better. But maybe if you go talk to Bobby, you can save the friendship."

"All right." We turned and made our way back to the mansion.

By the time we made it to the back doors, it had become the beginning of a real blizzard. I shook the snow from my hair and boots and pulled off my gloves, then went to stand by the fire to thaw out. Logan joined me a few minutes later. "So, how'd it go?"

"She'll be all right, even if I do have a bad feeling that she'll be dating Remy before spring." I replied, rolling my eyes at the last.

"I saw her and Popsicle talkin' in the lounge. Your idea?"

"Yeah. I figured if she could save the friendship, it'd be worth it to both of them, make it a little easier."

"Too bad they can't settle things the way we do."

I chuckled. "What, beating the shit out of each other, followed by incredible sex?"

"Works for us."

"Yeah, but it's difficult to hurt us for long." I pointed out.

"True." He nuzzled my neck, his sideburns tickling my cheeks. "So, wanna pretend we just had a huge fight an' we're past the ass kickin' part?"

I looked at him with glittering eyes. "Sounds good to me."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I was wrong about one thing. It didn't take nearly until spring for Rogue and Remy to hook up. Although, given the circumstances, I wasn't too surprised with the way it happened. Logan had tapped Rogue to assist with Delta for a Danger Room session in the first week of February. Except for me, each member of Alpha took turns doing the job I used to do, which was supervising the session from the inside. Logan had them running one of the countless scenarios that take place in a busy urban setting, where collateral damage is likely to happen. These exercises are designed to help them learn how to minimize that damage. I didn't learn about the entire situation with Rogue and Remy until afterwards, when Logan showed me the video capture of the session.

At any rate, Rogue was there as the in-room observer, only lending a hand if someone got into a particularly sticky situation. Otherwise, she stayed pretty well out of it. Warren and Sofia (who were now going by Angel and Wind Dancer, respectively) were flying overhead and using their aerial advantage to great effect. Rahne (who had chosen "Wolfsbane" as her code name) was shifted into her half-wolf form and keeping several of the assailants occupied while Remy (who now had the code name "Gambit") used his power to take out enemy transports and coerce them out of their cover. In the meantime, Sage had analyzed the situation at a glance and was already well on her way to the objective, which was a pair of mutant children who'd been trapped by the angry mob the rest were taking care of.

Rogue was used to the chaos of the Danger Room and how real everything in there could be, but it didn't stop her from reacting instinctively when a Molotov cocktail was lobbed at Remy from behind. She made a beautiful flying tackle and knocked him out of the way a split second before the bottle of burning fuel would have hit him. Not thinking, Remy had reached up with his bare hand and stroked her cheek. "Tank you, ma chere." He'd said, resting his palm on her face. She went to pull back, but stopped herself short. His hand stayed on her face and NOTHING HAPPENED. A few seconds later, Logan noticed what was going on, ended the program and rushed into the Danger Room to check on Remy. Imagine his surprise when he found the two of them just standing there, his hand on her face and tears streaming down her cheeks.

Rogue looked over Remy's shoulder and saw Logan standing there, mouth gaping. "Logan! He can touch me! Someone can touch me!" Logan shook his head and barked out the command that cut the video capture.

I sat back in my chair in the observation room and looked at Logan. "Huh. That's certainly interesting." I said.

"Tell me about it." He replied dryly. "An' all I could do was stand there like a damn fool and stare. I didn't know if I should be happy or pound the Cajun to a pulp."

"So, do we know why he can touch her?"

"Best thing Hank's come up with is it's got to do with his mutation. It's like he's got this constant field o' energy all around him, same energy he uses to charge those cards o' his. Rogue's mutation draws off of that, but since he's constantly generatin' it…"

"She can draw off of it all she wants and they cancel each other out." Logan nodded and I cursed softly. "You know what this means, right?"

"Yeah. Means I hafta go make sure he understands that if he hurts her, he's gotta deal with me."

"I so hope I have a boy. I shudder to think what'll happen to you if we have a daughter." He chuckled, then leaned over and kissed me. "Well, I guess I have to go talk to her now." I said and stood up.

"What for?" He asked, looking confused.

"Give her my blessing. Everyone knows I can't stand the guy, but I know she'll want to know that I'm ok with this." I laid my hand on his face, caressing his cheek with my thumb. "No one should have to live without touch."

He turned into my palm and kissed it. "You are goin' to be the most amazin' mom ever."

"Remember you said that when I let our daughter go on her first date."

He growled playfully and I just laughed and went in search of Rogue. I meant what I said, about touching. It's a basic human need and I'd always felt so bad for Marie because of her mutation. It was the first time I'd ever felt bad for someone because of their gift. I've known mutants who thought of their power as a curse, but in Rogue's case it was very close to being true. But she'd found someone she couldn't hurt and I couldn't help but be happy for her. It was one of the few bright spots we had for the rest of the winter.