AN: I'm ALIVE, I'M ALIVE!!!! The evil combination of work and school tried to keep me from posting, but I have managed to keep them at bay long enough to send you this. Always remember, if somebody asks you if you can work overtime JUST SAY NO!!!! Since it takes too much time to update my profile I'm doing it here. Work is alot, school is a little bit less. I actually have time to think, even write occasionally. Believe it or not, this chapter is a culmination of almost six months worth of free time (its so short still that I want to cry). But it's good, at least my mommy says so. This is the last you'll all probably hear from me for the next few months, but fear not, summer is coming (There may be a foot of snow on the ground, but I can still feel it. DAMN YOU PUNXATONY PHIL!!!) Hope you enjoy...don't forget to review! Oh, and before I forget: DISCLAIMER: Author cannot be held responsible for any damage to characters she does not own incurred in the writing of this story. Marvel Comics reserves the right to sue me and in doing so incur my credit card bills for any misrepresentation of their characters, even though the author is earning DIDDLY-SQUAT writing this. Couldn't remember if I put that at the beginning.
"I cannot let you do this Charles!" Lilandra shouted, stepping forward, only to be blocked by none other than Hepzibah.
The cat-like lady smiled ferally, teeth gleaming in the light. One furred hand rested dangerously comfortably on the hilt of the sword at her side. "Like to see, I would, you try to stop us." Flipping her long white ponytail back behind her the feral look traveled to her yellow slitted eyes. "Forget not, Empress, without bodyguard you are now. You have not men can hold the Earthlings here."
Lilandra stood motionless as Hepzibah ran her tongue across her pointed teeth menacingly. In front of her Scott Summers, Cyclops, turned towards the leader of the Starjammers. "Us?" He simply asked.
"Of course," Corsair smiled, motioning simultaneously to Hepzibah to back down while Raza left the room. "Last time I checked you X-Men didn't own a Starcruiser. But I just so happen to have one you can borrow...for a price of course." Before anyone could leave Corsair turned back to Lilandra, who stood silently fuming in the center of the room. "Lil, the food was great. We'll talk about payment for services rendered later."
With a wink Corsair was gone, leading the X-Men out of the room and towards his Starjammer. In shock, Lilandra sank down into a chair in the corner of her suite, noticing belatedly the plush softness that met her. A gift from Charles, she thought wistfully.
* * * * *
D'tar found himself, of all places, standing outside the door of the skrull's personal chambers. He didn't know how he'd gotten there, or what he was planning to do. Eavesdrop? That could dangerously be ineffective. Confrontation? That could force him to give everything away without getting anything in return. So D'tar settled on simply watching and waiting. He knew Tes'ral was not in his chambers, every three hours the skrull was required to check in with the Council and let them know of any new developments in the situation. That in and of itself was suspicious as far as D'tar was concerned, but he figured that in a situation such as this perhaps it was not entirely suspect. If only there were a way for D'tar to overhear some of those Council conversations. That of course was impossible, so D'tar settled on waiting in the alcove down the hall from Tes'ral's apartments in the feeble hope that he would catch the skrull doing something slightly more suspicious than indulging in a late afternoon snack.
* * * * *
Jahf stopped suddenly and let out a cry of shock. Before Sam could react the creature reached up into what appeared to be nothingness and pulled out...a body. It was definitely a human body, ripped from the fabrics of reality that Jahf had explained were invisibly woven into this chamber's very existence. Sam gasped as he realized that this burnt wreck of a human being was still alive, writhing in agony before his very eyes. Then shock turned to horror as flesh burned away into nothingness slowly started to regenerate before his very eyes. Skin healed at a magnificent rate, then hair pushed its way through healed pores until a mostly healed face turned towards Cannonball, eyes wild with pain. "Wolverine." Sam whispered, not knowing quite how he could do much more for the Canadian than what the healing factor was already taking care of.
Then with stunning suddenness Logan was on top of Sam. "Where are the rest of them? Did you get them out?"
"No, I couldn't find them." Sam stated, referring to the Imperial Guard without knowing that Logan was talking about an entirely different "them". Claws extended from Logan's hands, and he paused to look down at them, bone reflecting dully where minutes ago adamantium had been.
"It wasn't real, Logan." Jahf interrupted Wolverine's thought processes before they could fully comprehend what was going on.
Within an instant he had Jahf by the throat. "What d'ya mean 'it wasn't real,' bub?" He growled at the little man he held suspended in mid air. "An' ya better spit it out real quick."
* * * * *
It had been so long since D'Tar had laughed that he had almost forgotten how it felt. For the first time in twenty years his face broke into a smile...he had the skrull. For the second time that day he pulled up the communication history log from Tes'ral's private chambers. Listed on the screen were four incoming holographic interactive exchanges sent from a single interstellar cruiser. The messenger had been subtle, unless you knew what to look for each message would have appeared to have been placed from the Shi'ar homeworld...except for the data sequencing. The opening code to the hologram started with the character 7, used by the Visi-tech Corporation, but the hologram communications from the Shi'ar homeworld were broadcast by Virtual Imagery, inc. Their code always started with a 4. Whoever was communicating with the skrull could not, therefore, be from the Shi'ar homeworld, but was trying their damndest to hide that fact. The code was, of course, corrupt by the time D'Tar managed to locate it, probably beyond repair. He ran the reconstruction program anyway, hoping against all odds that the code strand was retrievable and the log retrievable, or at least traceable. The program would take hours to run, so D'Tar left it to its own machinations and left to locate the Empress.
* * * * *
"Talk!" Logan stated gruffly, dropping Jahf none too carefully on the 'ground'. "Fast!" He added.
Jahf dusted himself off and glared at Logan before beginning. "Well its not that it wasn't real, exactly. I guess I shouldn't have said that. But it wasn't reality."
*Snkt* Claws appeared from Logan's hands as he stood now perfectly healed and seething. "Stop talkin' in circles, bub, or I'll carve the answers outta ya."
"Fine!" Jahf stated, angered by the threats from the man whose life he just saved. "You are inside the M'Kraan Crystal. It transported you to another possible reality! I brought you back here before you DIED! HAPPY!!!" The small alien screeched.
Wolverine just grunted, sheething his claws. "So where's Rogue?" he asked both Jahf and Sam.
"Don't know." Jahf answered, turning back to examining the writhing, shimmering strands of nothingness that filled the room.
"Hang on just one dang second, Wolverine." Canonball said, grabbing the shorter man by the shoulder. "You ain't even phased by any o' this, are ya?"
Logan laughed and pushed Sam's goggles down over his eyes. "Kid, look around ya. I learned long ago that there are some things you just don't question." Through the goggles Sam stared at the swirling, writhing ribbon of unnamable colors he was standing on. "This is one of 'em." Sam nodded, once again mesmerized by the absolute enormity of the chamber. For the first time Sam wondered exactly how he'd gotten inside and more importantly how they were going to get out again.
* * * * *
Rogue waited for him to get angry, upset,...something. She expected a charged pillow through the wall. She did not expect the sympathy and concern she saw in his eyes as he caressed her face. "I was 'fraid dis'd happen." Rogue just looked at him confused.
"What?" she asked, almost angry at him for not listening. "Don't tell me you know what's goin' on, Cajun."
Remy smiled and sat down beside her, holding her hands in both of his. Rogue couldn't help but notice that he still hadn't put on a shirt. "Y'absorbed somebody in dat FOH fight yesterday, chere. Y' member dat?" Rogue shook her head confused. Remy smiled and began running his thumbs up and down her hands. It was very distracting. "Ever since y' gained control, chere, absorbin' peoples' energy has made y' suffer de occasional bout o' amnesia."
Suddenly Rogue felt the need to wipe that sympathetic look off his face with a left hook. "So yer sayin' Ah've done this before, just completely forgotten who Ah am, where Ah am, etcetera, etcetera."
"Not everyt'in', mon amant, usually jus' de past few months." Remy said soothingly, his left hand moving smoothly from her hands to her back, rubbing in soft circles.
"Okay..." Rogue trailed off for a second, getting lost in the comfort he was providing. "So why don't Ah remember us bein' engaged?"
If she hadn't known any better she would've sworn Remy was blushing. "Oh...yah...um...dat." Rogue just glared at him, somehow knowing she wouldn't like the answer. "Wellllll...see de t'ing is, chere...."
"Spit it out, swamp rat." Rogue demanded, turning to face him. The comfortable back rub had long since ceased.
"It jus' all happened so fast, chere. We were happy, life was great, yougotpregnant, and we got married." Remy smiled, pleased with himself.
"Ah missed somethin' in the middle there, Cajun." Rogue stated, referring to the muffled mumble of something that he had inserted somewhere in the middle.
Remy sighed melodramatically and grabbed her hands again, looking deep in her eyes. "I said: you got pregnant, and we got married."
Down the hall Hank was enjoying his first late morning in his bed in the past six months when: "AH'M WHAT!!!!" woke him out of a sound sleep. "Stars and garters, this cannot be good." Hank mumbled before rolling over and promptly falling back asleep.
* * * * *
"Interesting, wouldn't you say, Tes'ral?" The hologram asked grinning evilly.
"Certainly, master, but how does this affect our purpose? Aren't we trying to locate a reality where there is no Phoenix." Tes'ral asked, confused.
"Of course we are, skrull." The holographic image snickered at him. "But just because there is no Phoenix does not mean that there is not a Jean Grey."