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Amira stepped over the rubble that was strewn across the lawn and the insides of the Institute. She tried—and failed—to ignore the blood on the floor and splattered on the walls. Walking into the kitchen, Amira found that she wasn't the only one who'd thought to come in.

Gideon gave an off-hand nod to acknowledge her presence but not in any way that suggested familiarity, much less friendship. He had a beer in his hand, undoubtedly one of Logan's.

"Good idea." Amira commented as she fetched one for herself. Gideon looked at her oddly.

"Aren't Muslims not supposed to drink alcoholic beverages?" He asked.

"They're also not supposed to be bisexual mutants or be in the same room as an Israeli and not be punching him in the crotch." Amira retorted. "So it's a bit late to be worrying about that."

Gideon raised his beer as if in salute. "Touche." They both spent the next moment in silence, drinking.

"You know they're going to ream us out for drinking." Amira said at last. Gideon shrugged.

"The legal age for drinking in Israel is eighteen and there's no punishment for drinking even if you are underage." Gideon pointed out.

"This isn't Israel." Amira reminded him. "Or Palestine for that matter."

"Wouldn't know it to look at this place." Gideon retorted as he cast his gaze back into what was left of the living room and foyee.

"Touche." Amira said. "Anyway, I'll be eighteen in a couple of months…but everyone around here has the most ass-backwards morality I've ever seen." Amira rolled her eyes. "The teachers get so preachy about sex, drinking, smoking and all that…then they have us running around in uniforms, thrown into a 'Danger Room' run by a psychotic Canadian, and put in life-threatening situations. I guess child endangerment isn't as big a deal as drinking and smoking around here."

"Must be." Gideon said in a rare moment of agreement. "They talk about building peace and coexistence…then train them as soldiers and throw them into combat situations, but God forbid we should ever kill someone in self-defense…in situations the teachers keep putting them in the first place!" The two of them, Arab and Israeli looked at each other and invoked the international groan that's been uttered everywhere from Abuja to Zurich.

"Americans."

The next few minutes past in silence. Usually, unless they were arguing the two of them never spoke to each other. "So…learn anything from corpsy over there?" Amira jerked her thumb at Trevor Fitzroy's mortal remains, left lying in the living room.

"Yeah. After using my powers to examine his past it became apparent that he was a jack-ass." Gideon deadpanned as he took another drink of beer. "Seriously though, he's not the only Hellfire Club member looking to carve a reputation out of the corpse's of the Inner Circle. And the Inner Circle isn't likely to take that lying down."

"Fun times ahead then." Amira groaned. "I picked a good day to start drinking." Then they heard a commotion outside and the two of them rushed to see what happened.

"What's going on now?" Gideon moaned.

"Sam's gone!" Paige wailed.

"What? How?" Amira asked.

"He took my teleportation watch when I was examining him." Lina groaned. "I didn't even realize his was awake. The next thing I know, he's gone!"

"Where would he go?" Scott wondered.

"Given how upset he was and how much he blamed himself for what happened to the New Mutants since he was team leader…" Storm groaned. "I think I have a pretty good idea of where he'd go." Amira winced as she figured it out.

"Well…shit." She said. "That sucks."

"Hey is that one of my beers?" Logan demanded as he noticed the can in her hand. Amira groaned.

"I stand corrected...this sucks!"

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