Disclaimer: I own none of this, except the plot.

Chapter Five – Playing With the Big Boys

April 1996

For a few minutes, Lance just looked at her, probably trying to decipher her cryptic response. Kitty waited, knowing he'd ask if he needed to.

Tabitha wasn't so patient. "Try us." Her smirk spoke novels more than her words.

Kitty directed a grin towards her ex-team-mate. "Lance's sister invited me."

With a thud, the bag Lance was carrying fell to the floor. "She…she's awake?"

Shifting her gaze from Tabby to Lance, Kitty felt a pang of sympathy and couldn't help glancing behind her to the photograph, seeing again just how close the twins had once been. Focusing once again on his face, she reached out to touch his hand. "She's been awake for about two and half years, Lance. You know her. She lives in Bayville."

"She…she…she what?" Lance stuttered.

Tabby moved to stand next to Kitty, her eyes travelling over the portrait. "Bloody hell…is the resemblance between mom and daughter as strong as I think?"

"Yeah, it is." Kitty confirmed, struggling to hold back a laugh, even as she felt bad for finding the situation funny.

"And she has her father's eyes?" Tabby asked, another smirk sliding into place.

I swear she's been taking lessons from Quicksilver. Kitty nodded, feeling her resolve crack as Tabby began laughing.

"It's not that funny." Kitty chided, a small giggle escaping her lips regardless.

Tabby called her on it. "If it's not funny, why are you laughing?!"

"Because you are!" Kitty managed to choke out. "It's not my fault! Laughter's infectious!"

By the time Lance had digested the fact that his twin sister had been living in the same town as him, the two girls were practically crying with laughter, now laughing for no reason other than laughter itself.

"Kitty!" Lance groaned. "Can't you just tell me what is so bloody funny?!"

Wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, Kitty pulled herself together. "Lance, look at your mom in that photo, give her your dad's green eyes and stick her in an X-uniform and tell me who she is."

Lance narrowed his eyes at the picture, then, suddenly, they widened in shock. "Shit!"

"You watch your language, young man!" Sara appeared in the doorway behind him. "What's happened?"

Kitty sobered up abruptly. "Well, it's a funny story. You see, Lance and I were best friends back in Northbrook."

"Oh, how wonderful!" Sara's eyes widened suddenly, as she apparently connected the young man in front of her with the boy who had moved away three and a half years ago. "My Lord … Lance?"

"Hi, Mom." Lance smiled weakly at her and she wrapped her arms around him with a choked sob, holding him tightly.

"Where have you been?!" Sara asked. "Why didn't you come home?"

"I didn't know Jeannie was awake." Lance answered shakily.

"I told Aunt Maggie she was." Sara insisted.

"Oh, that explains it then." Lance sighed. "I was staying with Uncle Daniel and Aunt Samantha in Northbrook."

"Well, at least you're here now." Sara kissed his forehead, not having to stoop to do so.

Lance smiled. "Oh, Mom, this is Tabitha Smith."

"Hello, Tabitha." Sara shook her hand. "Please call me Sara. Are you two…?"

"No." Both answered quickly. "No, definitely not."

"She's my…" Lance paused, as though wondering how to describe it.

"Team-mate?" Kitty finished.

Lance glanced at her. "Yeah, I suppose you could call it that."

Kitty smiled. "Lance, she knows about Jean; just tell her." She threaded her arm through Tabby's. "Come on, we'll go and find Jean; give her advanced warning."

This caused the slightly wistful expression that had appeared while Sara had greeted her lost son to vanish in a heart-beat as Tabby stifled another giggle.

They found Jean in the dining room, laying places for dinner. As they walked in, she glanced up, greeted them, carried on, then realised who exactly had walked in. "Tabitha! Well, this is a surprise; what are you doing here?"

Tabby smirked at her, but there was no malice in it. "Your brother invited me."

The plate in Jean's hand fell to the floor. Thankfully, her telekinesis was calmer than she was and it froze in mid-air before floating to the table. "How do you know my brother?"

"Oh, I think you know, Jean." Kitty told her. "Let me give you a hint; he's mutant as well."

Jean closed her eyes and fell into a chair. "I knew it."

"Well, yeah, it couldn't have been that hard." Tabby commented. "He can't look that different."

"Mom was convinced he went to stay with Aunt Maggie in Colorado." Jean whispered. "When I saw him in Northbrook … I just thought it was a coincidence. He didn't, did he?"

"No." Lance answered from the doorway. "I was with Uncle Dan."

"Yeah, I guessed that." Jean looked up, her eyes suspiciously shiny. "I'm so sorry."

"What are you sorry about?" Lance asked. "And please don't bring the X-Men into this."

"In that case," Jean stood up, "I retract my apology." She hesitated, her eyes searching his. "I really missed you."

"Oh, come on, Jeannie; don't cry." Lance said, a smirk playing on his face.

"Don't call me Jeannie!" Jean snapped, her tears quickly drying up. "And isn't there something else you'd like to say?"

Lance wasn't even bothering to hide his smirk now. "Like, "Mom, Jeannie's overdoing it again!"?"

"No!" Jean rolled her eyes. "And I never was 'overdoing it', Lance; you're just a sore loser. No one likes…"

"…a sore loser." Lance finished, his smirk fading into a soft smile. "I know. And I missed you too."

"Good." Jean walked forwards and hugged him tightly. "I thought I'd have to lock you in the cubby place again."

"What's the cubby place?" Kitty asked curiously.

"There's a small room that joins onto the library." Lance explained, still holding his sister. "I think it was for children to hide in during the war or something, but you can only reach it through this little gap between the bookcases. I hate it in there."

"I didn't know you were claustrophobic." Tabby commented, a gleam in her eye.

"I'm not." Lance groaned. "Whatever you're thinking, don't."

The next two weeks passed by far too quickly for Kitty's liking. Her relationship with Lance had almost returned to the way it was in Northbrook and, to her considerable relief, Jean and Tabby had accepted their closeness without question.

The two girls themselves were also getting along a lot better, which was a stretch in itself, seeing as, on the surface, they had nothing in common. Who knew they actually liked the same kinds of music?

But all too soon it was time to return to reality and Jean and Kitty walked through the front door of the Institute to be bombarded by information.

"Jean, that holiday project's due on Monday!"

"Did you hear? Magneto's back in town!"

"With the Brotherhood 2.0; I don't want to sound unprofessional, but yum!"

"Wolverine's running a training session this evening."

"We're not supposed to know this yet, but there's a Sadie Hawkins' Girl's Choice Dance coming up! And, Kitty, I need your help!"

"Kitty!" Jamie's voice rose above everyone else even though it was coming from the rec room as opposed to the entrance hall; since his arrival, he'd adopted Kitty as a 'big sister', seemingly because she was the first person he met. "Bobby stole my Gameboy again!"

Jean quickly disappeared with Scott to finish their project, leaving Kitty to deal with everyone else. She sighed wearily. "Thanks for telling me, Kurt, but I think Mr. Logan would have done that anyway. Evan, unless he starts something, we don't have to worry. Jubes, try not to make Bobby too jealous and don't give me that look; you know what I mean. Amara, come with me." She took her team-mate by the arm and led her towards the stair, pausing outside the rec room only long enough to call, "Bobby, give Jamie his Gameboy back before the doctors have to remove it from your colon!"

Once they were in Kitty's room – Rogue was in the rec room playing table football with some of the New Recruits (and beating them by the sounds of it) – Kitty closed the door. "Okay, what's wrong?"

While she unpacked, Amara told her how Brad had cornered her outside the airport, forcing her to flee, whereupon she was rescued by a tall, handsome stranger who demonstrated similar powers and then asked her out.

Kitty cut her off. "Amara, you're making it sound like a romance novel; what is the problem here? He sounds perfect?"

Amara sighed. "He works for Magneto! That's the problem! And now I'm due to meet him this evening and I don't know what to do!"

Kitty nodded thoughtfully, perching on the edge of her bed. "Out of interest, why do you think I can help you?"

"Well, you and Lance…" Amara began.

Kitty held up a hand to stop her. "I thought that might be it. Look, Amara, we are in two completely different situations: Lance doesn't work for Magneto, I have the advantage if something goes wrong and, more importantly, we were best friends for two years before we were enemies; I trust him with my life. You have just met this guy; he could be up to anything."

"But he could have attacked me then." Amara pointed out.

"Not if he didn't know you were with us." Kitty refuted quietly. "Anything could have happened in the last two weeks."

Amara sighed again. "Kitty, the other reason I asked for your advice is because…Well, I want your advice, not anyone else's."

Kitty thought for a second. "I think … I think you should go for it. I can't imagine Magneto would bother – no offence – if it was one of us, maybe…"

"That's what I thought." Amara nodded.

"But be careful." Kitty warned. "And don't use your powers." She paused. "And if anyone asks, I was totally against this."

On the other side of Bayville, in the depths of Magneto's new headquarters, John Allerdyce was lounging in a chair, daydreaming about the girl he'd met two weeks ago.

Sabretooth was in the gym, thankfully, and Magneto was plotting in his office. John wasn't entirely happy with his work, but it paid and, so far, there wasn't anything actively wrong with it. He had yet to mention Amara to either of them; Sabretooth wouldn't care and Magneto would just try to recruit her and he wanted to give her that option first. If she didn't want to join them … well, he wouldn't blame her.

He also hadn't mentioned her to Colossus, who was … somewhere. He hadn't really been paying attention when he left; the Russian was so quiet he was easily overlooked.

But Remy LeBeau, Gambit, Prince of Thieves, wouldn't take no for an answer and, despite the fact he'd heard all the details several times, he was leaning against the wall, shuffling a set of playing cards in a way that alerted John that a repeat was imminent.

"Could you cut that out, mate?" John asked, not opening his eyes. "You're giving me a headache."

"Désolé." Remy tucked the deck into his pocket. "So tell me again what y' know 'bout this girl?"

John sighed, but didn't begrudge him the conversation topic. "Her name's Amara Aquilla, she can create fire, she's from Nova Roma and I swear on my mother's grave that she's the most beautiful woman on this earth."

Remy pulled a face. "Where in God's name is Nova Roma?"

Now John opened his eyes. "We've had this conversation about seven times and you're only just focusing on that?"

"There were more important things to be focusing on, mon ami." Remy winked at him. "Where is it?"

"Apparently it's a small country in the middle of the Pacific." John shrugged. "Don't ask me, mate; I've never heard of it."

Remy shook his head pityingly and pulled up a chair in front of the computer, typing Nova Roma into the search engine.

"Hey!" John protested, finally leaving the comforts of his favourite chair. "You told me not to Google her!"

"You're not doing anything, Johnny-boy." Remy cracked his fingers. "I am. And I'm Googling Nova Roma; I never said not to do that. Here we are. It's a small province…name means New Roman'…" He paused. "Hello, what's this? What did y' say her name was again?"

"Amara Aquilla." John repeated. "Why?"

"Because 'Aquilla' is the family name of the royal family." Remy smirked. "Looks like your girlfriend's been holding out on you."

"She's not my…" John began, but was cut off when Remy cursed loudly. "What?"

Remy glanced over his shoulder to check they were still alone and pointed wordlessly at something on the screen.

John leaned in to read the small print. Latest news: Heir to the throne, Her Royal Highness Princess Amara has recently moved to New York, USA, to be educated there. She will be staying at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters in Bayville. "Shit."

Amara approached the gazebo in the park slowly, both excited and nervous, unsure of what to expect. Her mind seemed to have been left in the Danger Room and was analysing every small sound for possible danger. But she reached her destination with incident and let herself relax just a little.

John was already waiting for her, his face breaking into a smile at her appearance, but something must have shown in her demeanour, because he sighed. "You know, don't you?"

Amara nodded. "They took me aside and warned me. And you know as well. How? I didn't think Magneto was bothered with us newbies?"

"Gambit Googled Nova Roma." John admitted. "I wasn't going to tell him. But I swear he's got some kind of radar when pretty girls are on the cards."

Amara felt her face heat again and felt glad for the dim light. They were in a rather secluded part of the park, away from the lamps that illuminated most of the area, and, unless they were being followed, it was unlikely that anyone would see them. Throwing caution to the wind, she summoned a ball of flame and sent it into the air, letting it hover there so they could see each other's faces clearly.

"Can I assume that we're not about to get ambushed?" She asked, more calmly than she felt.

"Of course." John answered immediately. "Gambit's the only one who knows where I am and he's a closet romantic, so he won't say anything. What about your end?"

"I don't think anyone saw me leaving." Amara responded. "No one we need to worry about anyway." Finally allowing herself to drop her guard, she moved over to where he was sat on the grass under the wooden structure and took a seat beside him. "So…" She reworded the question in her head several times, before giving up. "So why'd you join Magneto anyway? I mean, he's a bit of a bastard and you're … not."

John smirked weakly. "Thanks." He sighed. "It's complicated. And a long story."

"We've got time." Amara prompted gently.

John nodded. "That's true. Okay … Even before my powers, I was a bit of a pyromaniac. I was careful, of course. Never burnt anything more than needed." He pulled his lighter from his pocket and flicked it back and forth a few times; his eyes lingering on the flame for a few minutes before making it disappear. "My sister, Caroline … she was a few years old than me … she had this boyfriend. On and off, they were. She was either madly in love with him or cursing him to hell, never in between. One day, I got fed up with it. I told him to back off and leave her alone. And he did. Caroline came storming into my room, yelling at me. How dare I interfere? I argued with her; told her he hurt her and I was sick of seeing it. That was when my powers came. There were a few lit candles around, it being me. The flames got bigger and bigger … Caroline was screaming … When I woke up, I was in hospital, on suspicion of arson. My entire house had burnt down; my parents had…"

He took a deep breath and his voice wavered for the first time; she reached over and took his hand, feeling his fingers close around hers. "My parents had been killed. Caroline and I, amazingly, survived, even though we'd been in the room where the fire started. Caroline vouched for me that neither of us had gone anywhere near the candles and they decided it was a tragic mishap. When we were out of hospital, she told me that she knew I'd done it and that it was an accident, but she didn't want me anywhere near her. After a few weeks, I ran into Magneto; he told me he knew the truth and I had a choice: either I could work for him or he'd turn me in. I asked him what the work entailed. He said it was keeping people like us safe and I agreed. End of story."

"Wow…" Amara squeezed his hand comfortingly, feeling relieved that the extent of her own power emerging was lighting the fire in the main room at home. "So mutant supremacy never came up then?"

"Never." John confirmed. "And I hate what I do. But it's a job and so far he hasn't come up with any reason for me to leave." He slipped his lighter away. "Out of interest, what are the chances of us having to fight each other?"

"Slim to none." Amara answered honestly. "I'm one of the new recruits, so Cyclops and the others don't think we're experienced enough to handle Magneto, even though we've been training for the same amount of time as they had when they faced him for the first time. Plus, even if I did fight, they'd keep me away from you, because of our powers. Besides, the way I see it, and correct me if I'm wrong, Magma and Pyro are on opposing teams, right?"

"Right." John confirmed, and she could see the question in his eyes, see him wondering why she'd used their code-names.

"But John and Amara aren't." Amara finished, knowing that this separation was the excuse Kitty used to keep spending time with Lance. "So we wouldn't be doing anything wrong if we were to hang out every now and then, would we?"

"No, we would." John corrected, reaching out with his free hand and tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear; she felt her skin spark where his fingers brushed against her cheek as he did so. "It just wouldn't be wrong enough for us to care. And, on that note, you up for dinner?"

Amara smiled sweetly as he helped her to her feet. "I think that is a very good idea."

Jean Grey did not need telepathy, Rogue decided grumpily as she watched the two begin the walk into town, still hand in hand. The older girl had noticed Amara leaving and had managed to talk Rogue into keeping an eye on her, allowing her to absorb just enough of her powers to make sure she was safe, although Jean hadn't elaborated on whether 'she' was Amara or Rogue herself.

Upon arrival, however, Rogue found herself thankful for the extra powers. It took her a while to catch up with Amara, but she caught enough of her companion's explanation to tell he was being blackmailed. He wasn't lying.

As the two disappeared, Rogue sighed and made to return to the Institute. Her way was barred, however, by another young man several years older than her.

"And what are y' doin' here, chérie?" His voice was heavily accented and she recognised the twang as from Louisiana. His dark hair fell over his face, falling just short of his eyes, which were a curious colour of red on black. Her breath caught in her throat slightly.

"Who are you?" Rogue demanded, harsher than she would have normally. "Were you spying on them?"

He just smirked at her. "I never give my name to strangers, chérie. And that depends. Were you spying on them?"

"Yes, I was." Rogue admitted without shame. "Now who are you?"

He bowed deeply. "Remy LeBeau, chérie, but you can call me Gambit."

Gambit? Rogue narrowed her eyes. "In which case, you don't need me to tell you who I am. You work for Magneto; you'll already know."

He chuckled lowly, causing blood to rush through her. "True. Yes, I was spying on them; wanted to catch a glimpse of the girl who's captured Johnny-boy's heart."

Rogue glanced involuntarily in the direction the couple had vanished. "Really?"

"Oh, yeah. Never seen him this enamoured with a girl in all the time I've known him."

Rogue raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And how long have you known him?"

"About six months." Remy admitted. "What's your point?"

"For me to have a point, this would have to be a conversation." Rogue told him sharply. "And this is not a conversation."

"Ah, I see." Remy's smirk grew wider, causing her to colour slightly and made her thankful for the thick layer of make-up she wore. "In that case, I had better be on my way."

Rogue took an automatic step back as a large silver sphere landed beside her; the last time one of those had landed near her, it had abducted her and taken her to Asteroid M.

Gambit bowed gallantly and kissed her gloved hand, before stepping without another word into the sphere, which closed and sped off.

As Rogue watched the sphere zoom across the night sky, she wondered why her heart was beating so fast.

AN: Ah, love ROMY. Well, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Getting a little worried about the lack of reviews here; please don't make me beg! Oh, and the chapter title? There's a song in 'Prince of Egypt' called 'Playing with the Big Boys Now' that has the line 'you can be our Acolyte' and, you know, since they're meeting the Acolytes in the chapter…

On a side note, there used to be a fantastic XME vid on YouTube for that song, but it got pulled (damn copyright rules). However, its creator – 3glitteringrose3 – is still posting and they're really good, so check them out!