Disclaimer: I don't own X-Men: Evolution. I know, quick update; I wouldn't get used to it.

Chapter Thirty Three – Attack

November 1998

"Mine?" Pietro repeated.

"Yours." Lexa confirmed, her voice gaining strength when he didn't move. "I found it in my room. At first I thought you'd put it there for some kind of joke, but then I realised it smelled like you because …" She trailed off, knowing there was no need for her to finish.

"Okay." Pietro realised his voice was little more than a whisper and cleared his throat hastily, using the time to wrap his head around it. "Okay, they're scared."

"How did you get there?" Lexa asked, a note of speculation entering her tone.

"Because they're contradicting themselves." Pietro told her. "They want you back as a weapon, right? But, if that was true, threatening us wouldn't help, because you wouldn't care."

"But I do care." Lexa protested, before realisation dawned on her face. "You're right."

"I always am." Pietro smirked, eliciting a smile. "It'll be okay, Lex."

"Somehow, I doubt …" Lexa trailed off, sniffing the air, before the colour drained from her face and she grabbed his arm. "Duck!"

The both dropped to the floor just in time to avoid the round of gunshots that flew over their heads towards the horizon.

When they subsided, Pietro straightened up to face their attacker; a masked man in HYDRA uniform, aiming a gun in their direction.

He didn't have time to figure out how they'd gotten into the grounds without alerting mansion security; sure he'd done it, but he was moving too fast for the sensors to pick him up.

"You don't want to hurt her." Pietro stated, his voice a lot calmer than he felt.

"No." The man agreed. "I want to kill you."

Instinctively, Pietro pushed Lexa behind him. "Let's talk about this rationally …"

"Too late." The gun moved so that it was aiming directly between his eyes and what little could be seen of the assassin's face twisted into a smirk. "Any last words?"

Pietro's mind raced and he made a decision, hearing a voice in his head that definitely wasn't his telling him that help was on its way. "Just two." He smirked, knowing he had his attention. "You're screwed."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That's an interesting gun to use." Pietro commented. "I was expecting some kind of machine gun … maybe a semi-automatic … but that holds, what, seven bullets?"

"Six." Lexa corrected from behind him.

"And you're out." Pietro concluded.

"No, I'm not."

"Mmm, I think you are." Pietro insisted cheerfully. "Your first shot missed her, the next two missed me, the next two missed her and the last one missed me. That's six."

"No, it's not."

"Yeah, it is." Pietro counted them off on his fingers. "One plus two plus two plus one. That's six."

Their adversary rolled his eyes. "Even so, I only shot at her twice. So that's one plus one plus two plus one, which is only five. And you know where the last bullet's going?"

"Nowhere." Pietro answered. "Because it doesn't exist. And even if it did, that would be one plus two plus one plus one, not one plus one plus two plus one."

"Okay, one plus two plus …" The assassin trailed off, realising what Pietro was trying to. "Shut up! The point is, there's one bullet left in this gun and guess who's gonna get it!"

On cue, the ground rumbled beneath him, causing him to stagger. Taking a chance, Pietro grabbed his wrist and forced his gun-hand up, bringing the man to his knees and allowing him to disarm him.

Now he looked up to see Lance and Kitty approaching; she must have flown them up from the beach and landed a few hundred along the cliff edge.

"We'll take him to Wolverine and get hold of SHIELD." Kitty told them, concern in her expression. "You two okay?"

They both nodded, Pietro still pinning the man down while Lance searched his pockets, pulling out a restraining device and using it to bind him.

"You can let him go now."

As Pietro stood back, Lexa approached him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Pietro assured her, wrapping an arm around her subconsciously. "Are you?"

"You didn't have to do that." Lexa told him quietly. "I could have handled it. What if he'd shot you anyway?"

"Lex, the gun was empty." Pietro insisted, picking it up. "One plus two plus two plus one is …"

A loud bang echoed through the trees and one of the smaller branches fell to the ground.

"One plus two …" Pietro muttered.

"Plus one." Lexa smirked.

Kitty rolled her eyes. "Learn to count, Quicksilver. Gimme a hand, Lance."

The couple seized an arm each and unceremoniously dragged the man through the trees in the direction of the mansion. Kitty could probably have floated him, but they seemed to have reached a silent decision that he didn't deserve the dignity.

"How did HYDRA get hold of an assassin?" Pietro asked when they were out of earshot.

"They train them." Lexa pointed out. "What do you think they wanted me for?"

"Wait, you're a trained assassin?" Pietro raised an eyebrow; she nodded slowly. "Then why was I the one facing him down?"

"You were having a guy moment." Lexa answered sweetly. "You really should have let me handle it though; I'm the one who can heal from things."

"And I've got super-speed, remember?" Pietro teased, taking her hands in his. "I can outrun any bullet."

Lexa would have laughed, but she was very aware of the gap between them diminishing. Seconds before he would have kissed her, she picked up another unfamiliar scent on the wind and several things happened before she could react.

Pietro's eyes widened and, in a split second, they had switched places. Then there was a loud gunshot and, painfully slowly for anyone, let alone Pietro, he sagged forwards into her arms and she staggered slightly under his weight.

"Outrun that."

To her horror, blood began to seep through Pietro's shirt and she sank to her knees, pulling her sweater off, shivering in just a thin t-shirt in the cold air, to press it against the wound before she allowed herself to look up at their attacker.

It wasn't a HYDRA assassin.

She recognised him from town that morning; Anna had pointed him out to her.

It was Duncan Matthews.

"You bastard." Lexa growled. "What did he ever do to you?"

"He was born." Duncan smirked coldly. "Him and the rest of you mutant freaks."

Lexa thought about fighting, but she knew that wouldn't help her or Pietro. "You'll never get away with this."

"Sure I will." Duncan tossed the gun over the cliff edge and she could hear the distant sound of the sea swallowing it. "No evidence."

"That's what you think." Lexa muttered, glancing involuntarily up at the security camera affixed to one of the nearby trees. "Get the hell out of here. Now!" She watched him run off before turning her attention back to Pietro, her blue sweater now dark red. Helpless, she resorted to screaming for help, both out loud and in her head.

In the distance, Lexa could hear people responding to her call, but she couldn't focus on them, even when Jean's voice floated into her head, asking what was wrong.

Her world had been reduced to the young man in her arms. Her hands shaking, she searched desperately for a pulse.

For a heart-stopping moment, she couldn't find one, then, to her relief, she felt a faint beating beneath her fingers.

There was a soft bamf and a smell of sulphur and the X-Men were standing beside them, the New Mutants still in uniform from their training session.

"And Kurt's." Kitty concluded. "Interesting."

"And helpful, considering Kurt and Amanda are God only knows where." Bobby added.

"What happened?" Lance asked, ignoring the byplay and kneeling in front of Lexa and Pietro.

"Duncan Matthews." Lexa answered without looking up. "One bullet."

"Oh God …" Jean joined them with difficulty, helping Lexa roll him onto his back. "Iceman, flashlight."

"Got it." Bobby pulled out the small flashlight they all kept in the belt of their uniform and handed it to her.

"Thanks." Gently lifting his eyelids, Jean shone the light into his eyes. "Pupils are reactive; that's good. Kitty, if I levitate him, do you think you can teleport us back to the infirmary without making this worse?"

"I think so." Kitty nodded.

"Jean, just one minute …" Scott began.

"Scott, I'm pregnant and worried; do not argue with me." Jean snapped. "Why don't you worry about how exactly Duncan and a HYDRA assassin got past security?"

"Fine." Scott sighed. "Lexa, you'd better come with me; you know how they think."

"No." Lexa shook her head.

Scott sighed again. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Neither did I." Lexa glanced down at Pietro. "Matthews followed HYDRA in; it must be something fairly simple." Her voice lowered to a whisper. "He took the bullet for me, Scott; I need to stay with him."

The shock of this admission stopped any protests Scott might have had and he simply nodded, gesturing for Bobby to follow him.

"Someone call the police." Jean called over her shoulder, tossing the flashlight back to Bobby as she did.

"Jean, is that going to help?" Kitty asked quietly.

"He is not getting away with it and we can't mete out our own justice." Jean stated sharply, brushing her cousin's bangs out of his face, the tender gesture in sharp contrast to her tone.

"Already dialling." Jubilee assured her.

"And I'll call Wanda." Lance added, pulling his phone out. "Should I call Aunt Judy as well?"

"Not yet." Jean told him. "Wait until we know what's going on first; there's no point worrying her if it's a flesh wound. Boys?"

Roberto and Sam stepped forwards, helping her to her feet, and Pietro floated into the air. Jean put a hand on his arm, gesturing for Lexa to do the same, and Kitty took his hand.

With another bamf of smoke, they were in the infirmary and Jean lowered Pietro onto one of the cots, calling for Belladonna at the same time.

The three women were gently but firmly shooed from the room and sat outside, waiting in companionable silence for news.

Scott was at a loss. He just couldn't see anyway someone had gotten through or over the fence without alerting the sensors.

"Hey Scott!" Bobby called. "What about this?"

Desperate for some answers, Scott jogged alongside the perimeter fence to where the other man was standing end; the fence didn't run all the way to the cliff edge, stopping instead at the protective wooden fence that ran all the way along.

"What?" Scott prompted.

"Watch." Grasping the edge of their fence, Bobby climbed over the other railing to edge along the cliff edge and climb back over the other side. "That's how they got in."

"We're gonna need to fix that." Scott stated, a scowl on his face.

"Yep." Bobby agreed, climbing back in the same way. "Here." He aimed his hand at the gap and created a solid wall of ice in the gap.

"That's gonna melt." Scott pointed out.

"It'll do for the moment." Bobby shrugged. "Do we still have the stuff left over from building the fence the first time?"

"Yeah, it's in the garage." Scott nodded. "C'mon, Iceman. We may as well get that done now. I don't wanna take any chances."

Pietro woke up in a clean, white room, his surroundings slowly coming into focus as he opened his eyes. I've been here before … Where am I? He tried to sit up and a sharp pain ran through his head. Ow … Okay, won't do that again? What happened?

Immediately, everything came back to him; HYDRA, gunshots, Lexa …

Lexa!

He shifted again, his right hand creeping over to his left shoulder, half-expecting to still feel blood, but the wound had been bandaged and the movement drew his attention to the fact that Lexa was asleep in the chair next to his bed, her head resting on her folded arms.

He tried to sit up again to no avail, but this time she stirred; stifling a yawn, she sat up, running a tired hand through her hair, her eyes travelling around the room before landing on him. "Pietro?" She was wide awake in an instant. "How do you feel?"

Pietro tried to reply, but his throat was dry and his voice wouldn't respond. Thankfully, she seemed to understand, because she handed him a glass of water, which he drank gratefully. "My head hurts." He told her.

Lexa took the glass back and placed it on the side-table. "That's odd, since you were shot in the shoulder." Her voice was shaky, despite her casual tone. "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?" Pietro asked vaguely.

"Do what?" Lexa repeated incredulously. "Do what? Pietro, you took a freakin' bullet for me; why?"

"I didn't think." Pietro admitted quietly. "My mind works faster than everyone else's and I make mistakes faster as well. But I'd do it again, Lexa. I'm still not entirely sure why, but I would."

Lexa shook her head with a noise that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a sob. "Oh, Pietro, what am I gonna do with you?"

Pietro smiled sweetly. "Keep me and love me?"

This time, Lexa definitely laughed, dropping a soft kiss on his cheek. "You know what? That may just be the answer."

AN: I've removed 'Of Love and Life' (the sequel to 'All's Fair') simply because I'm starting to confuse myself, so I'll finish rewriting and reposting this and then I'll turn my attention back to that one, kay? Review please!