Author's Note: Short chapter, because writer's block is evil. But I warned you guys it might suck, so you can't yell at me. At least it's up, okay? I miss you guys! I need you here to give me inspiration. It's very sad. And Abby! I love you! Good luck! Oh! And last chapter I think I said it was Monday night...Sorry about that. It was actually still Sunday night, same day as the laser tag and such. I knew I'd mess up my days eventually! Gah!

Chapter Fifteen

Sleepy, sleepy. That's what Cassandra was as she headed back to her room from the bathroom. She wished it was Saturday night so she wouldn't have to wake up early the next morning but, unfortunately, it was stupid Sunday night. Well, technically, stupid Monday morning. Which meant she had class and, unlike regular college, she couldn't just skip it. It was hard to skip class when you lived in the same place as the teachers. Even worse, when one of them happened to be the world's greatest telepath and would know if you were faking sick.

Unfortunately, her stupid body wasn't tired at all. It refused to let her fall asleep, regardless of how dead her brain was. Despite not being able to sleep, though, Cassandra was more or less happy. It had been a great day, with laser tag, lunch with Logan, and then more making out. That was quickly becoming a daily thing with them. And Cassandra didn't at all mind. She did feel a little guilty keeping the secret from her friends, though. And eventually they were going to catch on. She was pretty sure that Samantha was already figuring out something. Samantha kept giving her irritating, knowing looks.

She was still in the hallway outside of the bathroom when every animal in the vicinity started freaking out. Cassandra barely had time to wonder what the hell was up with them before she started sinking, as if the floor below her had turned into quicksand. Cassandra glanced downwards and saw a swirling black shadow, into which her feet had disappeared. She let out a startled shriek and struggled to get out, looking wildly around for anything she could grab a hold of.

Logan, who had already been woken up by the screaming animals, heard her scream and bolted out of his room. Cassandra was sinking fast, already up to her chest in the shadow.

"Logan!" She yelled, spotting him.

He didn't even think, he just ran towards her, reaching out to grab her hand. Before he could get to her, though, she was gone. Furious, Logan slashed at the shadow with his claws. Something inside there shrieked and for a moment he feared that he had gotten Cassandra, but just as quickly he realized it wasn't her scream. The shadow slunk along the floor, moving into the shadows by the wall and disappearing. Logan clawed the wall, trying to get after it, but when it got him no where he stopped.

No. He refused to believe that she was gone. She had to be here, had to be somewhere, all he had to do was find her. This couldn't happen again. No one was invading his territory and taking away his family. That thought, and the cries of some of the students, turned his thoughts towards the others still there. Instantly, Logan was on the move, grabbing the other X-men to search out this thing. He threw open the first door he came to, Kurt's, and felt a surge of panic when he realized that he wasn't in there.

Logan shook his head. Cass, Kurt….Rogue. Sam. Logan raced down the hall and tossed open Samantha's door. She wasn't there. He moved downwards, barging into Rogue's room. Nothing. Letting out a snarl, he shouted, "X-men, get your asses up! We're under attack again!"

Without waiting for an answer, Logan moved towards the stairs. He could hear it down there, and hell if he wasn't going to find it and rip it to shreds.

Zephyr had rather thought that it would be uncomfortable to sleep in the same bed as Warren, since his wings would most likely take up a lot of space. But Warren had years of practice sleeping with his wings, and he knew how to tuck them in so that they weren't falling off the bed. Even with her curled up at his left side, her head pillowed on his chest, the wings didn't bother either of them. His left wing was partly under her, and he had folded it so that it was cradling her under the blankets. The down on the feathers made it warm, so much that she only needed the simple quilt on her bed to stay warm even through the cold night.

His feathers were soft and comforting, almost as much as listening to the rise and fall of his chest was. Zephyr could hear his heartbeat under her ear and her eyes closed as she matched her breathing to his. In his sleep, Warren's hand reached for hers, their fingers intertwining. Zephyr snuggled closer to him, feeling a peace that she had never quite known before.

Unfortunately, that peace was ruined when some bird outside of Zephyr's window started cawing like crazy and pecking at the glass. Zephyr groaned and stirred, reaching over to the other side of her bed. For a moment, she expected to find Warren there, but then she realized she had been dreaming. And a really good dream, too, Zephyr thought with irritation. She was so going to kill Samantha for waking her up from that.

Then more birds added their voices, and other wildlife joined in the frantic calls. Zephyr's irritation faded, turning to concern. She had never heard the animals sound like that. Something must be terribly wrong. For a moment, Zephyr felt a brief twinge of fear. She didn't want another attack on the mansion, not so soon. Not now that she might be…Might have….

She shook her head, forcing away the thoughts and threw off her blankets. She was moving towards her dresser to find some clothes when she heard Logan yelling. Now she knew something was wrong. Bypassing the clothes, Zephyr lurched for her door, throwing it open and skidding out into the hall.

"What is it?" Zephyr demanded when she saw Logan and Scott in the hallway.

"It's downstairs." Logan replied, looking like he was itching to get moving. "It already got Cass."

"We don't know who else." Scott said. "Sam's either fighting and sounded the alarm, or she's been taken and the animals are reacting." He paused. "Do you know which one it is?"

Zephyr shook her head. "No. I've never heard them do this before."

"Sitting here talking about it isn't going to do anything." Logan said. "Let's go."

"Logan, we need a pl…" Scott trailed off as Logan turned and started down the stairs.

Zephyr hesitated, wanting to go check on Warren. Fortunately, he came running around the corner, wings clutched tightly around him so they wouldn't get in the way.

"Zeph!" He shouted, looking relieved to see her as he came up beside her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She told him, reaching out to take his hand. "Come on. There's something downstairs."

Like almost everyone else that night, Rogue was unable to sleep. Maybe it was some sort of subconscious knowledge that something was going to happen that was keeping her up, an uneasy feeling or something. But, then again, maybe not. It was more likely the fact that most of them had a lot on their minds preventing them from sleep. That was definitely Rogue's case.

Early that evening….Rogue was pretty sure she had made a commitment to Gambit. She wasn't entirely sure what that commitment was, but it had been something. Now that she was away from him, and able to think logically, she wasn't sure that was such a good idea. One would think she'd wait at least a month to make the mistake of having feelings for someone again. But, unfortunately, that stupid giddy feeling just wouldn't go away.

Every time she thought of Gambit, her heart beat a little faster and she could definitely feel butterflies in her stomach. She didn't know what it was about him. Honestly, Rogue knew very little about him. But she knew enough to know that he would probably break her heart. What frightened her a little was that she didn't really care right now. She wanted to take a chance, wanted to be spontaneous and just not worry about the consequences of her actions. Gambit seemed to do a pretty good job with that.

Rogue shook her head. She had left her room in order to not think about Gambit. Earlier that night, she had run into Samantha, who had invited her to a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon. At the time, Rogue had declined, but now it was sounding like a really good idea. Nothing like staring at a drunken Johnny Depp to take her mind off of, well, anything.

She was heading to the rec room when the noise started. Rogue paused, frowning. Damn, Samantha must be having one hell of a nightmare. Rogue continued to the rec room, quickening her pace. When she arrived and found it empty, though, with the second Pirates movie still playing, Rogue grew worried. She backtracked, starting towards the stairs.

Before she could reach them, though, someone called her name. Rogue turned around to see Ali heading towards her. The young girl's light green eyes were wide and worry was obvious on her face.

"Rogue, what's going on?" Ali asked, stopping next to her.

"I don't know." Rogue admitted. "Something's spooked the animals. Come on, honey, we'll go get the others."

They hadn't made it very far when one of the shadows by them began churning, and a dark figure emerged from it. Fast as lightning, it was next to them. Rogue pulled off her glove and reached out to grab it, but just as quick as it had come over it was gone, over on another side of the room.

"Stay behind me, sugar." Rogue told Ali.

The shadow figure fidgeted, staring at them as if trying to decide how it could get close to Rogue without letting her touch it. Rogue stared back as she slowly inched towards the stairs, pulling Ali behind her. The thing zipped over to the stairs, cutting off their path, and Rogue stopped. For a few moments, nothing happened, then Ali darted off to one side.

"Hey, creepy thing!" Ali yelled. "Over here, come get me!"

"Ali!" Rogue called. "Get back here!"

Ali ignored her and motioned her to go up the stairs as she yelled again. The figure glanced over at Ali, then turned and charged for Rogue. She whirled, gloveless hand reached out to try and grab it as it ran by, but it was too fast. Beforeany of them could react,six more figures sprang out of the shadows.For a moment, they surrounded Rogue, but thenfive of them ran into another one and disappeared.

"It's time to go." The remaining one said.

The fast figure nodded. "We're done."

They sunk back into the shadows just as Logan, Scott, Zephyr, and Warren came charging down the stairs.

"Rogue! Are you two all right?" Scott asked.

Logan gave her a brief look-over, then asked, "Where is it?"

"We're fine." Rogue said. "And they're gone."

"They?" Zephyr repeated.

Rogue nodded. "There was more than one."

"There were five." Xavier said as the elevator doors clanged open and he wheeled out. "And yes, they were gone now."

"But we saw seven." Ali protested. "Well, five of them went poof. But there were still seven! I didn't do that badly in math!"

Xavier's lips twitched briefly in what might have been an amused smile before he sobered. "The students are all safe in their beds. Ali, you should probably join them."

"Oh, okay. Fine. Be that way. No one tell the kid anything." Ali grumbled, but she headed up the stairs anyway.

"There will be rumors of anywhere from seven to seven hundred by tomorrow." Scott commented.

"What were they, Professor?" Warren asked.

"Mutants." Xavier replied. He paused. "I think we should continue this discussion in the teacher's lounge."

They followed him there, where Piotr, Ororo, and Hank were already waiting.

"Professor, what is it? What's happened?" Ororo asked. "Are the students all right?"

"The students are fine, Ororo." Xavier told her. "There was an attack on the mansion."

Hank shook his head. "So soon after the last one? Charles, we might want to think about increasing our security."

"Is everyone okay, Professor?" Piotr asked. "What did they want?"

"I don't know what they wanted. I could feel their presences, but I couldn't get inside their minds. It was as if something was keeping me out." Xavier said.

"Us." Rogue replied. "They wanted us. Ali tried to draw attention to herself, but it ignored her and went straight for me."

"Magneto?" Logan asked, remembering the last time someone had wanted Rogue.

"It's a possibility." Xavier admitted. "But as far as I know, Erik doesn't have a telepath powerful enough to place shields that can block me out. And what I sensed tonight was different than Erik's helmet."

"I didn't think a telepath powerful enough to block you out existed." Hank said. Though he didn't add 'anymore,' it still weighed heavy in the air.

"Were they after all of the X-men, or just Rogue?" Scott asked.

"I believe they may have been after all of us." Xavier said.

"How many of us did they get?" Zephyr asked quietly.

All eyes turned to her, then to Xavier for the answer.

Xavier closed his eyes. "Everyone who's not here."

The reaction was immediate. Exclamations, denials, worry, and ideas filled the room at a volume too high to really make out any of the words. Only Logan was quiet, as he got up and made his way to the door.

"Logan, where are you going?" Ororo asked, catching him.

"To find them. I can track them better than anyone." Logan said.

"Logan." Xavier said quietly. "I can't sense any of them."

Everyone fell quiet.

"That doesn't mean anything." Logan said. "Magneto has some place shielded from you, so that you can't sense any of his gang. They're probably there."

"I'm going with you." Rogue told him, standing up.

"Me too." Zephyr said.

"And me." Piotr added.

Logan seemed ready to refuse, but he took a long look at their faces and sighed. "Fine. Let's go."

"This is stupid." Scott said. "Professor—"

"Logan, charging in without a plan will only make things worse." Xavier told him. You can't help them this way. You can't help her.

Logan stared sharply at Xavier. Stop looking through my head.

I didn't. It's right there, shouting at me. Xavier replied.

I have to do something, Chuck. I can't just sit here. Logan said.

Xavier paused. "Very well. But if you find something, please contact us before you do anything. In the mean time, the rest of us will attempt to come up with a plan."

Charm was cold. In fact, it was the cold that woke her up, although she didn't realize it until she had been pulled out of a deep sleep only to start shivering. Oddly enough, though, her hand, the lower part of her forearm, and her right leg were perfectly warm. It took Charm only a moment to notice that she wasn't in her room, or her bed. She was in Pyro's, something she had seen often enough but had never slept in. He was sleeping on the other side of the bed, lying flat on his back. She was on her back as well, but her arm and the back of his hand were tossed over him, resting on his stomach. His leg had hooked over hers as well.

That must be the source of the warmth. Charm had already noticed that his skin was hotter than a normal person's, but it had never occurred to her that it could provide warmth. She pulled her hand away, ignoring the protests of her suddenly cold skin. She must have been really tired, and really drunk, to fall asleep in here after training. Charm never did that. Never. Not once had she ever fallen asleep in the bed of whoever she had just had sex with. Maybe she was pushing herself too hard in training.

Charm started to untangle her leg from his when she stopped. She wasn't looking forward to the cold walk back to her room. And it would be kind of stupid to do that, since even when she got there, she wouldn't have anything that could keep her as warm as Pyro could. It was the cold that was keeping her there, Charm decided as she settled back down, letting her body rest ever so slightly against his. It wasn't because she liked sleeping with him. It was only the cold.

That was both easier and more difficult than he had thought. Getting in had proved much simpler. Maybe he should have kept that one around. But it was better this way, in the long run. He could easily get her again, when he finally decided to make his move for the one that should be his. And before one of them had sounded the alarm, everything was going perfectly.

But those mutants were good. Once they were rallied, it was hard to defeat them. Even with the little he knew about them, he knew that they would cause a problem. If anything went wrong, it would be because of them. So he had to study them. Learn everything about them, so he could anticipate their every move.

For now, though, all he had to do was wait.