Marvel owns the X-men, no profit is to be made from this work.

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There were places in the world where a cop didn't look much different from the rank and file of the military, all the glittering brass, pips and medals a secret language for those that knew how to read it. Eyeing the man walking up to his table, Victor could tell that he'd made good since he'd last seen him. Madripoor might be a nation built on piracy and pillage, but that didn't mean it didn't have it's own police to try and keep their own sense of order out there in the streets.

"So yer Police Chief now are ya Tai?"

The man's uniform was starched and pressed, not a speck of dirt on it which was a real mean feat to accomplish down in Lowtown. Military green and looking like he should be commanding troops somewhere, Police Chief Tai ignored the question and instead picked up the bottle of whiskey that had been making the rounds at the table. His little Lee sat sizing up the interloper with a wary eye, watching him inspect their poison before setting it back down.

One of the help came on up with a chair while another brought a fresh tumbler to the table, one that Tai took a critical eye to, his lips pulled back in a tight line at noticing a water spot. Buffing it clean with a handkerchief he had pulled from his jacket, only then did he look in askance to help himself to a drink, one taken neat when Victor gave a permissive nod. He knew Tai was a man who lived by a set of rules, and even if there was a whole mess of grey in between the black and white of his play book, well that just made things all the more interesting.

"How many years has it been since we sat together Sabretooth, or is it Mister Creed these days?" Tai asked, setting his drink squarely down on the coaster.

"Enough." Victor mused, freshening his own drink before sliding the bottle across to his little Lee.

Tai wasn't a man who had been born in Madripoor, he had a history somewhere that had driven him away, a history he kept to himself. It stunk of a mistake, the kind you only made once but cut so deep you'd never forget it.

"You never were one to make trouble for me Mister Creed." Tai said after another sip, his lips pulled back in a grimace as if he were forcing himself to enjoy his drink.

True enough, he hadn't ever made much trouble for Tai or the rest of those men who kept order out in the streets of Madripoor. Most of what he did might well be considered a public service in one way or another, sometimes taking out the trash, other times reminding folks that there were consequences for getting too bold. The coppers here usually knew just when it was time to go take a walk that might dig them up an alibi, it saved a lot of paperwork when things were all said and done, just another cold case in the making when the body finally showed up.

"Is this a warning or a threat?" Jubilee asked, inviting herself to the conversation.

Tai looked her over as if reassessing his opinion of her, clearly not just a nights entertainment because any whore would have known her place as decoration and stayed just as quiet as the scenery she was part of. That little bit of genuine surprise said much, giving Victor a time line for just when he had crossed the Police Chief's desk.

"I get the feeling it's supposed ta be a bit o' the latter, but with just enough o' the former fer old times sake?" Victor mused, catching Tai's eye to see the man raise his drink in toast, finishing it in a single swallow.

"I should ask to be excused, I find myself needing to venture to the lavatory." Tai said, and only at a nod did he excuse himself.

The handkerchief had left behind, and on it was the warning the old beat cop had brought as a favour for old times sake. It pretty much told who had been pressuring the Police Chief, but if there was a thing to know about the police in Madripoor, it was that they took poorly to extortion. Smirking to himself and freshening his drink and Jubilee's, it looked as if he was about to get his dinner and a show.

"Somebody gonna get a hurt real bad?" Jubilee asked, steeling herself with a belt of whiskey.

His smile was his answer, lips pulled back to flash fangs that for all her caution still set her skin tingling. Fever dreams and hazy memories of that smile brought the phantom pain of bites that only drove her to buck harder, the few nights she had with him still running hot through her veins to burn bright in her memory of them.

Shattering glass announced them, shadows falling through the windows that moved silently through the crystalline shards that glittered on the floor. A flash of steel, a streak of red, and something warm splashing against her cheek stole her breath. Her heart skipped a beat, fluttering and faltering from her shock, her skin grew cold in the face of the truth she was forced to accept. He had been playing with her all along, and if he had wanted her dead...then dead she would be.

"Saved your life." Deadpool said sing song, a child's game brought to life with very real consequences.

Whether before or after he had said it she didn't know, but there had been the dull thud of what could only be a body falling lifeless against the floor. Feeling her sense of time struggle to keep up, every blink was a snapshot of carnage, the only mercy to be had met out with a quick death. And out of the maelstrom that had fallen on the Princess Bar, Victor was her rock, the thing she could cling to if she was to keep her head above water.

"Shinobi" Victor purred, pounding back the last of his glass to throw it at an attacker that had ghosted in from the fight.

"Fucking Ninjas?" Jubilee blurted out in her shock.

"Fucking Ninjas, right on!" Deadpool cheered.

Watching the fight and feeling her cheeks burn, warmth returned to her knowing that she was safe as safe could be. She was never in any danger and even Police Chief Tai had known it, coming for a drink to pass a message writ on a handkerchief all while enjoying a drink. The screaming was white noise, it was fleeting and fleeing, the dining hall empty other than them. Bodies littered the floor, unmoving and growing cold as crimson pooled with those last few hammering beats of the heart.

Throughout it all he sat there with eyes only for her, Victor Creed, the brother of the toughest son of a bitch she ever had known and that wasn't a lie. Feeling that splash of red across her cheek growing cold, she raised a hand to it but fought it frozen, caught under the spell of those dark eyes looking at her from across the table. They were eyes that were excited and hungry, eyes she had seen before but lusting after another.

Leaving the blood where it lay, she reached for the bottle and pounded back a slug just to feel it burn in her belly. Some secret part of her had always wanted to know those eyes on her, but in Logan they had been all wrong. Here and in this moment, the clash of steel and grunts of exertion just an ambiance to it, she found someone whose eyes such a look belonged in.

Her warning came in those eyes, a warning of danger mixed with rage and something she hadn't expected, fear. Fear didn't belong in those eyes, not over her, she had seen enough fear in eyes like that, fear and grief and worse. She wouldn't have him grieve her, not if he really was Logan's brother. Her skin burned and her breath couldn't be found, she was suffocating under the pressure of her power. The dining hall was empty for all but them, and she didn't have to worry about hurting anyone, at least none that didn't deserve it.

This was no flash bang, this was no firework, this was a choice between life and death and she'd choose herself over them. Darkness took her as she was able to breath again, and it was a breath that brought soot and ash, it brought shame and guilt, if only because she liked the bar and the lady who ran it.

"Ace in the hole..."

Victor's voice was a whisper, lost to the dream that had her remember being held in his arms and feeling safe for the first time in her life after so very long. Love was for kids, this was the kind of animalistic lust of the mated, it was all about survival. It was back to back, just the two of them against the world. She surrendered to the darkness, she did her part, everything else was up to him.

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