Disclaimer: Marvel Entertainment owns everything, with the exception of Cat who is my own creation. This is a work of fanfic, no copyright infringement intended.

Author's note: the idea for this story came from another House of M fanfic, A Cry In The Night by Hunter Lambright, which can be found at the idea for the crime described came from an excellent film called The Night Of The Generals, but I don't know who owns it. If any one does know and could let me know I'd be very grateful. Reviews are also VERY welcome.

Part 3 Havok

Alex summers had been a hero, leader of Lord Magnus's army, decorated a thousand times for his courage and bravery in battle. Had been. Now he crouched in the kitchen of a disused house.

He'd been so stupid! Magneto had lived too long and survived too much not to have a way of dealing with meddlers!

That had been what led him to be here now. He'd found out about something, someone, in Magneto past. He'd tried to blackmail Magneto to let him continue to see Lorna.

Lorna. He loved her. Loved her emerald green hair, loved her eyes that laughed even when she didn't. God he loved her. But she's hate him now, just like every one else did. Her eyes wouldn't laugh, they'd cry. She'd think that they told the truth.

Frank Sherborne. He'd been under Alex's command, and if Alex was honest he hadn't liked the man. Thought him too quick to anger, he pulled him away from a fair few fights in his time. Least they'd accepted that his death must have been self defence.

But he hadn't killed him, or his wife and kid!

They claimed that he'd been having an affair with Harriet, that her son was his. That when Frank found out about it, that he'd invited Alex over and confronted him. That to protect his relationship with Polaris, Alex had used his powers to kill him and his family.

That was why they set the Marauders on him. He'd only heard of them though rumours till now. They were dispatched to capture the most dangerous mutants. Their record for capture was good; their record of bringing suspects to trial was poor.

He's kept ahead of them for nearly 3 weeks. He'd been in Special Ops and had made use of all that it had taught him. He could have kept ahead of them indefinitely if he hadn't had a run in with one of them. Plague.

He'd heard of her, before this. Beside her work with the Marauders, she also had links Apocalypse, had been one of his housemen. He'd met her briefly when he'd done some work in Egypt, where Apocalypse ruled.

She'd only touched him for a few seconds, but it had been enough.

He now felt weak and tired for most of the time. The little food he could gather from raids, he tended to throw up and he knew he was feverish.

The sound of breaking glass grabbed his attention. Was it them? Or just some of the local kids messing around? It didn't matter. Either way he had to get out of here.

He got slowly to his feet and got ready to run. At the same time one of the Marauders charged into the room. Alex did even stop to think. He merely raised his arm and fired a blast of plasma at him.

He then ran out of the room, firing two more blasts at the guys in the next room. It occurred to him that he had no idea how many there were. If Apocalypse had been willing to loan them a horseman, then who else might have also given help?

It didn't matter he decided. If he was going down, he'd take as many of them as possible with him!

This it seemed was unnecessary. There was no one in the hall or outside the house. He could only presume that they reckon he'd be weak enough to take down with only half a team. Or may be there'd been something else that required their attention. While he was sorry for the mutant whoever he or she was, he couldn't help been glad.

He stopped under the cover of some trees, fighting for breath. It was when He lifted his hand to wipe his forehead that he noticed that the sleeve was torn.

Plague. He could see the black boils on his arm, just like last time. He hadn't even seen her but it didn't matter. His contact with her might have only been for a few seconds, but it was enough.

He lifted his head and glanced towards Genosha. Lorna was there, in Magneto palace. In a few days they'd be holding a party, partly to celebrate her birthday and partly shown the terrorists, both human and mutant, that they weren't winning.

He'd head that way. Least that way he'd see her again. One last time.

"URH!" cat declared, pushing the keyboard away from her.

"No luck then?" Mystique said, slipping her coffee.

"I've tried every file, every sub file, every directory in every one of SHIELDs computers And I Still Can't Find It! even with Shaw's clearance code." She shook her head in despair and glance up as the door opened to admit Nightcrawler and Rogue.

"Please tell me you've have a better day"

Nightcrawler, a.ka. Kurt Darkholme shook his head.

"Nien"

"Don't suppose ya'll could be more definite bout where ya heard it?" Rogue a.k.a Anne Marie asked.

Cat shook her head. "I know I heard the name around SHIELD, during the Mutant Human War, but more than that…" she sighed. "The more I try and remember it the vaguer it gets. I'm all most certain that it had a connection with Magneto, Lord Magnus I mean."

The door opened again to admit Sage.

"The files in question," She said, gliding over to the table. "have not only been removed. Every bite of every byte has been deleted, and the disk descrambled. Someone clearly does not want us to know who Xavier is or was."

"The Children of Xavier killed over 5000 people in 20 separate Co-ordinated attacks world wide. This isn't some piddling human resistance group that can be handled because we know who's involved and what they're fighting for!"

Breathing deeply she turned to their commanding officer, Captain James "Logan" Howlett a.k.a Wolverine, who had remained silent during the exchange.

"Any thing else on the cards Wolvs? We've been at this for three days straight and we're no further forward than we were after the attack"

Wolverine shrugged. "The Sherborne case or the insult of security arrangements for Polaris's Birthday"

"I vote for Polaris's birthday. Fewer toes to tread on and I don't like the Sherborne case"

"Why not?" Jess Drew a.k.a Spiderwoman pouring a cup of coffee. "Sour" she added at the sniff of milk from the carton.

"It's …to neat I guess. The guy had a loud and public argument with the victim a few days before his death. His prints are on a brandy glass, which is smashed to pieces, in the house, not far from the guy's body. His dog tags are found grasped in the dead woman's hands, so tightly that they only find them in the post mortem. His commander swears that he was absent that night." She sighed and shook her head. "It's reminds me too much of a case I was involved in during the war. That was a set up. Anyway" she said, informing them by her tone that the subject was closed. "I presume we're going for similar arrangements for tonight's bash as for the Quicksilver and Wanda's bash"

Wolverine nodded. "Full uniform though and we won't be alone this time, everyone who can be spared will be there. There're one or two other changes as well"

The Red Guard leaned in closer and as it would turn out unwisely put the Sherborne case out of their minds.

There it was, Hammer Bay, capital of Genosha. The palace was visible, clearly against the black sky. He wait till it was properly dark, there was more chance of reaching the palace unseen. Getting in wouldn't be a problem, he done it enough time. It had always amused Lorna when he'd done that. She'd called him her Romeo, climbing though the Xavier Memorial garden, up a vine to her balcony, tapping on the window until she open the window. She'd laughed declaring that he must be mad the first time he'd done it. But she'd got use to it. It had been the only way they could see each other.

He'd been an idiot. One night he'd stayed later than he should have. They been discovered in, what divorce lawyers would call a compromising position.

Lord Magnus had been furious. He'd been yelling, flinging objects around with his powers, calling Alex all sorts of terrible things, getting him so mad that he'd blurted out what he knew. What his commander, a veteran of the Mutant Human War, had told him, one night when he'd been drunk.

The next day Frank Sherborne had died and the Marauders had been after him.

He doubled up as another coughing fit hit him. A splattering of blood was visible on the back of his hand in the moonlight. He'd got worse in the last few days and he knew it.

He could, he would still reach the palace in time to see Lorna. He Had To.

The Marauders did not like SHIELD. SHIELD did not like the Marauders. The Marauders viewed SHIELD as jumped up policemen. SHIELD viewed the Marauders as Killers for hire. As a result when Callisto and her second in command Caliban came to meet with the Red Guard Commanders, Agent Wolverine and Agent Cat, you could cut the tension with a knife.

"Your people can come up to the gate, there's nothing I can do about that, but you ain't going no further!"

"With respect Captain Howlett, I don't think that you realise the seriousness of the situation. Alex Summers, a.k.a Havok, is a powerful mutant and possible mentally unstable. If you had seen the bodies of the people he killed-"

"Is alleged to have killed," Cat interrupted. "Or did I miss the memo on the end of presumption of innocence for Marauders?"

If Callisto could kill with Looks, Cat would have dropped dead.

"Be that as it may he has attacked with the intent to kill myself and two of my agents-"

"Probably just returning a favour" Wolverine growled. "You're killers, pure and simple especially that Plague"

"Takes one to know one" Caliban relied, stung.

Cat moved fast, but Wolverine was a fraction of a second faster. Two of the three claws on his right hand were extended and they lifted Caliban off the ground.

"I've been more than reasonable with you" he growled. "Now get out, before I do something you'll regret"

Callisto and Caliban began to retreat.

"Oh and Callisto" Wolverine called after then. "I've given my guys orders to shoot to kill any one who tries to enter the Palace with out an invitation, and I don't care who they're carrying orders from."

Callisto and Caliban took the hint and were gone.

Lorna Davis a.k.a Polaris yanked the indigo dress over her head and pulled on the emerald green cape. She sat down at her dressing table and began to brush her green hair. Her father only asked one thing from his children, that they shine, and she would do that tonight, even though she felt like crying.

Alex…getting up she wandered over to the window and, stepping out on to the balcony, she gazed into the gathering dusk.

"Where fore art thou Alex?" she muttered to the night.

"Are you out there hiding believing that I hate you? Alex's that's impossible. I love you!"

She thought back to the first time she'd met him. It had been when he was summoned to receive the Mutant cross. She had been sent to fetch him.

"Captain Summers?" she had called, knocking on the door.

"Come in. Doors not locked." He had replied. "I'm in the shower, if you can just give me two secs." He had continued. She had stood, patiently until he emerged, naked except for a towel.

"Oh!" he said. "Excuse me. I wasn't…I mean…you're beautiful!"

"Thank you. Now Captain Summers-"

"Please" he had interrupted "Alex or Havok if you prefer."
" I will stick with Captain Summers. Thank you."
Everyone else she had known had treated her as Magnus's daughter, Alex had treated her as a woman, a woman who he could seduce. She had liked that and liked that even once he found out who she was he hadn't treated her any differently. They had become lovers a few weeks later. That had been nearly 3 years ago.

"Alex I love you. If you're out there PLEASE give me a sign."

A knock on the door brought her back. She was half convinced that this was the sign she was hoping for and threw the door open.

Quicksilver, her half brother stood in the door.

"You ready?" he asked oblivious to the expression on Polaris face.

Lorna turned her face to hide he rears. She gathered her courage before replying.

"Yes I'm ready."

"Seems to be going well." Rogue observed sidling up to where Cat and Wolverine stood.

"It's when things appear to be going well that you have to most ready for trouble." Wolverine snarled.

"Relax" Cat said. "Everything's going to be OK. You might," she added "warn Mystique to be more careful. I observed her shape shifting twice in the last ten minutes and I'm pretty sure that Shaw did too."

Wolverine nodded.

Agent Sitwell to Agent Wolverine" the voice came clearly though communicators into all their ears.

"Wolverine here."

"Trouble down here. The Marauders are here, demanding admittance. We need back up."

Wolverine swore.

"Go." Cat said with a smile. "I can handle things up here."

Wolverine nodded and left. It was about 5 minutes later that the shouting began.

It seemed to Alex that SHIELD Came out of nowhere. Suddenly within the sea of greens, purples, golds, reds and blacks, there were metallic legs, with black white and red uniforms. Guns were pointed at him and voices reached him as though a thick fog.

"SHIELD Command this is Red Guard Agent Darkholme. We have Alex Summers. Request back up to secure him."
" Guy doesn't seem to be armed."
"Don't get too close Drew. I thought you'd learnt your lesson from the last time"

"He doesn't look too good."

"Yes Wolverine, we like some help, so long as it's not the Marauders."
"Please" he muttered "don't shoot"
" He's still alive"

"Hold your positions!"

"Alex" Lorna voice. He tried to get up, but his arms wouldn't support him.

"Don't move a muscle else we'll shoot!" the warning came from the blue woman.

"Please," he muttered. "I'm dying"

"Too bad" this was from the second blue figure.

"Sage get a med team down here."

"Please, "if he wanted to have chance to stay alive he'd have to tell them. " Xavier" it was too late he sunk down into the blackness that waited him.

"Sage where the hell is that Med team?"

"You can't be serious" this was from the woman with black hair.

"Jess if he's telling he truth, we're in no position to disguard any help we can get. Sage where is Med team?"

"On their way sir" Sage murmured as she relayed the information to SHIELD Command.

To be continued