AN: After a very long Hiatus, I'm back with a new Chapter! \(^0^)/ yay! Thanks to everyone who favorited, followed and reviewed! Enjoy!


Chapter 3: Ashes, Ashes We All Fall


The black car slid into a halt just pass the parked police cars, fire engines and ambulances that crowded the street of the school. He didn't even shut his door, too anxious to find his daughter, calling out her name and dodging the emergency personnel that hurried about doing their jobs. He found her alone, sitting on the steps in front of the church with her head buried in her arms.

"Dawn!" He was at her side in an instant, dropping to his knees in front of her. A gasp escaped him when she looked up at him, her eyes-

"Oh Papa, a bad thing happened and people were hurt and my heart hurts and my head hurts...!" She broke out in a tearful rush, her breathe hitching and catching as she spoke. Her hands were shaking and covered-

"You have blood on you."

"No one will talk to me. They make signs of the cross against me and whisper prayers. And Jessia won't talk to me! They took her away and-and-my eyes...they-they say something about my eyes."

"Shh, there's nothing wrong with your eyes. They're still beautiful." And he spoke the truth, they were still beautiful even if they were a pulsing burning red. They were still Dawn's eyes.

She broke into shuddering sobs, and was instantly embraced in a tight hold and pulled against his body. Remy hated to see his little girl crying so heart-brokenly so. He glared at everyone around them, hating how they shunned her when Dawn needed them the most. He pulled her into his lap and tucked her close as he soothed her. After a while, her tears slowed.

"Tell me what happened."

"I'm scared, non. I won't say what happened."

"Please cherie. I need t' know."

A fresh wave of tears start up and the words come tumbling out.

"They hurt Jessia."


The final bells resonated in the high archways of the church and its buildings as many of the students gathered their belongings and headed out to the front gates for the journey home. Outside on the street, black cars with black suited men waited for their young masters to appear to be taken home.

It was a abuzz of activity and nothing appeared out of place and why should it? Everyone knew this was a neutral zone and whoever broke the peace here, would expect the whole of rich, powerful and dangerous parents and their organizations to come crashing down on them. It was that arrogance of fear and power that left the window open for the small trio to come in.

These men had nothing left to lose, nor did they care what happened to them so long as they got their blood vengeance on the family that had destroyed their homes...their livelihood...their families.

Let the family mourn and rage like they had to. Let them feel the pain and loss and be helpless to do anything but suffer it.

"-An' so tonight we should totally have a sleepover!"

"I don't know. I never slept over at anyone's house."

"Well den, we will just have t' fix that. Because sleepovers are de best thing ever especially for girls. We can stay up late an' giggle over boys an' make up an' have pillow fights! We can annoy our brothers an' sisters an'-Dawn we will have so much fun I swear!" Jessia threw her arm around Dawn's shoulder and pulled her close for a hug. They were best friends for a reason, she knew. Dawn's quirk was she could be open and friendly to complete strangers but she never let anyone close enough to know her. Jessia was reserved and tight-lipped about herself but once she befriended you, you knew everything there was to know. It was something her grandfather was trying to rub out of her with little success.

"I really don't want to-are you sure your parents will be ok with having me over? I mean, they don't even like Papa." Dawn said with a roll of her eyes. The first time their parents had met, Papa had come away with a bruised lip but Jessia's papa had come away with a bloody nose. The second time, Papa had come away with a hand-print on his cheek and Jessia's mama had walked away with her eyes angry and her cheeks burning red from embarrassment. After those two meetings, Jessia and Dawn had forbidden their parents from meeting each other because it was so embarrassing for them. It was the only thing the school kids would talk about.

"Dawnie, Dawnie..." Jessia sighed shaking her head. "My parents love you."

"That's not my name." Dawn said with a half hearted sulk. Jessia laughed and released Dawn, skipping down the few steps that led to the gates before turning around, her hands clasped behind her back.

"But I can call you whatever I want because you're my friend." Jessia said waiting as Dawn caught up to her at the bottom of the stairs. "Just like you can call me whatever you want because I am your friend."

Dawn tilt her head to the side like a bird, a slight furrow in her brow as she thought of something. After a moment, she smiled.

"Bitch."

Jessia's smile widens and she giggled as she bumped Dawn with her shoulder. "Jerk."

Warmth spread through the rest of Dawn's body with Jessia's reply, pleased that Jessia understood the reference of the word and returned it in kind. She bumped Jessia back, laughing as Jessia stumbled slightly off to the side. She was happy, she would realize later, truly really happy at this moment and nothing she had felt could take this from her. She had a best friend who understood her and cared for her.

A father and aunt who loved her and wanted the best for her.

Everyone she loved and cared for were safe and healthy and happy. This, she had thought, could be what heaven on earth feels-

"Excuse me."

Jessia and Dawn turned to see a man standing close by.

And then Jessia fell backwards, a red circle blooming across her chest. Dawn gasped, frozen in place as the man approached Jessia with a gun, a gun he had just used against her best friend, and pointed it down at her as Jessia whimpered and gasped.

"Jessia." It was a whisper, spoke with shock, fear and full of pleading to understand what was happening. Why was this happening? Who is this man? Why are you lying on the ground with a red chest? Please, what's going on?

"-Dawn." A word of help. Full of fear for her friend and please help, I'm hurting, why am I hurting, I can't breathe, what's this taste in my mouth...hurt, hurt, please, please, please help, help, help...dawn...

The world grew loud, screams and guns shooting; car doors slamming and cars speeding away from the scene, all of it overwhelming to Dawn as she collapsed to her knees as she watched the hammer pull back and then...blessed silent...and a white hot light.

Then nothing.


"They hurt her so bad."

A look to the side where EMT's were talking to a young blonde girl, her green eyes empty and pale, her once rosy skin faded to make it look like she was a fragile thing who could break at the slightest movement. She was covered in blood but when the EMT's had checked her they didn't find a wound. This girl who he met a few times and each time had felt like he was a juicy steak dropped in a hungry lions den, she was that demanding and fierce and-she was just a kid. He couldn't imagine what she would be like as a full grown woman. But this girl now, being led by the EMT's with a blanket wrapped too loosely around her shoulders was nothing like that girl he knew.

"They hurt her!" Dawn cried in his shoulder, her words tinged with heat as she grew tense.

"Shh, Dawn, it's over now. Papa has you cherie. There are no bad men." Remy soothed his daughter, stroking her hair.

"No, there are no bad men." Dawn agreed to Remy's relief which disappeared with a cold chill at Dawn's next words. "Not anymore. She made them go away."

Remy's heart felt like it was stuck in his throat, a heavy throbbing thing that pounded away as he struggled to speak before he asked the all important question he prayed wasn't what he thought it was.

"Who did?"

"The Bright Lady. She came and-burned away the wicked. And the others came and-Papa my head hurts. Make it stop, I can't think!" Dawn broke into sobs then as the words echoed in Remy's mind, remembering something she had once said.

"Did the Bright Lady send you?"

It's years earlier, a few hours after Coppertown and the girl called Dawn is laying in his bed, covered under all the blankets he could get away with because she said she was cold. Sinister had checked her over once, at his behalf and announced her healthy and fit with some slight bruising and scratches and told him to never bother him again over a flat-scan when the mutant baby is still missing.

"Who?"

Dawn hasn't spoken since he brought her here and hid her face in his shoulder when anyone approached them since she refused to be parted from him. There's some downtime until the next mission and seeing how tired she was, he had brought her to his room to get some sleep. But she won't sleep without someone holding her so he's taking off his coat to slid in bed next to her when she says, "Mama always said that the Bright Lady was watching over us. She's a goddess, she's life and she's fire. Mama always said that if I ever needed help, to call on the Bright Lady and that she would come. Because I'm her beloved child."

She slid close to Remy, curling her hands under her chin as she tucked her head next to his chest. She breathed in deep, letting it out in a slow sigh, her eyes closing. It's quiet until she spoke again. "She came when I called her. When the world was loud and scary, she came and burnt the bad men away. When my heart hurt so bad, she came and took away the pain. She kept me safe until you came and decided that I should stay with you because you can keep me safe. She went away then but promised to come back when I call for her."

She went to sleep then, leaving more questions than answers about this Bright Lady she talked about. But he let it slide, after all she was just a small child who had witnessed a horrible event, who lost her mother and home in one swoop so it made sense that she would make up a fiery goddess who saved her instead of realizing that she had saved herself because she was a mutant.

As he looked around at the many fires that burned around them, he knew without a doubt that she had caused them, that in an act of fear and he sensed anger that she had lashed out like she did in Alaska all those years ago. Only the fires couldn't be blamed on the Purifiers and there were witnesses now, people who saw the fire explode from a little girl and take flight only to go after the three bodies now lying with white sheets pulled over their burnt unrecognizable forms. They watched in terror as the fire shattered into small bursts of lights that flew out and crashed into other buildings and created more fires before suddenly disappearing.

They would say so many things and it would be a headache for the police to make sense of anything they would say but it wouldn't be long before someone would put the pieces together and come after Dawn.

He lifted a still crying Dawn in his arms and carried her to the car, moving so calmly and quiet that the police didn't take notice of him as he loaded Dawn in the car he came in before getting in himself and started the car. This was his skill as a thief; to be able to move in a crowd without being noticed only this time someone did notice and reached for a radio as he drove away.

He put his message through and the relays sent his message through the channels until it reached HQ. A runner ran to give the message to the man in charge, swallowing nervously as the man with the white slick back hair and red eyes flashed and he spoke, "The mutant child has been found. Send the teams to its locations. We will destroy it before it attacks again."

"Yes Bastion sir."

Bastion ignored the man, ignored everyone and everything as he looked at the giant screen in front of him as he pulled up images of the fire, until he found the one picture he needed and enlarged it. She was different than he though she would look but then again the only picture he had of her was when she was older, after she had caused such destruction.

The mutant messiah.

The murderer of millions.

Her eyes were larger, the color completely different and her skin was darker in color, not the pale he knew it should have been. She was taller at this age than the information he held in his cortex, and a bit heavier and rounder...things about this child were different, minor things but she was a mutant, of that he knew. His sensors were never wrong.

She would die.


Rogue's team had looked for the child said to have caused the fires but couldn't find a sign of her, minutes too late to have spotted her in the arms of the man they knew as a traitor and former lover. But they had found the girl who had been close to her.

She was quiet, too quiet and she stared blankly ahead of her. Closed off to the rest of the world the EMT's said when Mindee pressed for answers with telepathic influence. Traumatized, they said, as if attacked but she bore no marks on her. But other witnesses had said that she had been shot in the chest, at point blank range. Her uniform had certainly showed the signs, a huge bloodstain had covered her entire front and a hole from a bullet was over her chest but-

"I'm in Hell aren't I?"

The question shocked everyone. The girl they had identified as Jessia Bolivar, spoke softly her voice flat as if she were stating fact instead of asking a question. "That man killed me an' I'm in Hell. Dere's so much fire here."

"No. No sugah, you're alive." Rogue said softly. This girl looked like she would break, if not already.

"I died. I thought she was my friend. I never knew dat she-she brought me t' Hell." Jessia's voice quivered then and tears well up. "She was my friend." The tears slipped down her face.

"Who?"

"She put de fire around me an' it hurt so much an' I screamed but de fire didn't release me. I heard her say she was goin' t' save me but she only brought me t' Hell!"

"Tell me sugah, who did this to you?"

"She was supposed t' be my friend. My best friend...she called me a bitch and I called her a jerk an'-dat's supposed t' mean something!" she screamed, making the EMT's jump.

"Rogue." Mindee spoke up.

"I know." Rogue sighed, pulling off one of her gloves.

"She won't be any more help." Mindee said as Rogue pressed two fingers to Jessia's forehead. Jessia slapped her hand away and glared at them but Rogue had the information she needed. She wore the shock of it on her face.

'Ah don't believe it. He's—oh my gawd!'

"Rogue?" Mindee watched as Rogue shook the shock off before leading Mindee to the rest of the team. Pixie and Hellion stood off the the side, not exactly hiding but well out of the way so no one would be bothered by their presence.

"Well, did you find her?" Pixie asked, her wings fluttering in excitement. A new mutant after all this time! "Is she here?"

"No. No, he would have taken her to a safe place already." Rogue said offhandedly.

"He? Some guy has her then?" Hellion stated. He was ready to fight, to take back what he thought was theirs. A mutant had no business being alone. "Do we know where and with who?"

"No and yes." At her student's strange looks, Rogue turned to Mindee. "Link up with your sisters. Tell them to search for Gambit mental signature. He has the girl who caused all this."

Pixie squealed in delight. A girl mutant! She was so going to win the money pot back on Utopia. But her excitement was cut short when she remembered, "Wait, didn't he work for that Sinister guy that time we were searching for the mutant baby all those years ago? He's a bad guy isn't he?"

"Shit, and he has the girl!" Hellion cursed. A faint green glow appeared around him.

Rogue frowned but didn't say anything. It had been five years since then and Gambit didn't contact anyone from the teams. Any attempt had been met with a stone wall, silence and flat out apathy to their cause. No one was in contact with him and for all they knew he could have been dead without Cerebra's scanners telling them otherwise. He didn't want anything to do with the rest of them. His actions were a complete mystery and secrets she knew, held the most danger.

But whether he wanted it or not, the large gaping void between him and everyone else was quickly disappearing. He had someone they needed to protect and/or save for the rest of the world. The girl needed to be on Utopia for her own sake, for the sake of all mutantkind.

Remy, no Gambit, better hope that he was ready because now had all the attention of the X-men pointed right at him.