"Where is Hank?" demanded Xavier.

"He is safe, don't you worry but like I said, he is currently with an associate of mine and he will remain as her guest until she is through with him," Magneto explained.

Xavier blanched as he stared at the man standing before him, trying to digest the information that he recently received. The possibilities ran through his mind until the only one that seemed the most probable bothered him for a clarification.

"It's Katherine. She's your associate, isn't she? After all she apparently did for Hank it was all just a ruse in order to trap him."

Magneto couldn't help but smile and Xavier didn't need to read his mind for any more answers. He could see it written all over his face.

"You may try and find him, but you will be sorry. She is stubborn and exceptionally ruthless. All you need to do is ask dear Gambit when he awakes," Magneto told him.

"Tell me why she did this," demanded Xavier.

"Shouldn't you being asking that question of her? After all, she's the one behind all this. I simply gave her a helping hand."

"Even though you knew this fiasco would end up harming other mutants? This is completely unlike you."

The master of magnetism carefully glided over to his old friend and walked around his chair once, a smile still written all over his face. Xavier grew nervous as he wondered what was going through the man's mind.

"You see Charles, that may be true to a point but you have to realize that this is a bit more about Katherine than what you realize. If you knew where she came from and what she had to deal with growing up, you'd be as cynical a person as she has turned out to be. Most of your precious X-men should be glad that they can easily walk around the public setting without being a target for ridicule. When I finally found her, she was a very hardened young woman who was out for revenge against everybody. I simply provided her an outlet for her anger but her ultimate goal is just the same as mine: a world where we shall be the dominant species and one where we will no longer have to hide," Magneto explained. "I don't have to fully explain her actions but just ask your students what they now think of her. I know they won't think too highly of her now but just remember all that she's done for your precious Hank McCoy."

With that, Magneto turned his back to his old friend and walked off into the darkness surrounding them. Xavier gulped as he glanced back down to the motionless Gambit on the ground next to him.

'What would you tell me if you were conscious right now? Is Hank going to be alright?' he thought as he activated his comm.

00000

"This is completely unacceptable! We have to act now!"

"Scott, there's not much we can do now. We have no idea where to find them. We've already tried Cerebro and we haven't located them as of yet. Wolverine's trying to track her scent in the park as we speak, to no avail and neither the professor nor I want to try and scan Gambit's mind yet since he's still in such a frail condition."

Scott Summers growled as he stared at Jean as she gently placed a hand on his arm, hoping to calm him down. Several of the others were there as well, with mixed feeling about the situation. Rogue didn't say anything for she was feeling the worst since she was the one who felt they could trust this woman who appeared to be a kindred soul for Hank. Gambit's poor condition wasn't helping her mood either. She glanced around at the others and there was already some mix of disagreements on what to do next.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get her!" Jubilee cried out.

"Hold on Jubilee, we cannot just go out and search the entire city for her. We would have no idea where to start looking for her. She may have been somewhere near the park to begin with but she could have easily moved to another location by now!" Storm protested.

'I just wish there was a way we could find her and then she could explain why she did all this,' Rogue thought as she listened to the bickering start up again.

She sighed as it was starting to give her a headache. The worry wracked her brain as she thought of Gambit sitting unconscious in their infirmary. She also wanted payback for what Kat did to him but knew she probably would have to wait a while before she could get it and now Hank's freedom and well-being were on the line. The quarrelling of the others somewhat filtered into her attention as she tried to figure out what she could possibly do to help until they got a lead. Rogue found she could come up with nothing. After a few moments, she perceived that there was nothing more she could do to help the conversation for the time being so she decided to head into the hallway. She thought it was for the better since she really didn't feel like talking much about it.

'I wouldn't be surprised if I got some blame for wantin' to trust her. It's heart-breaking. We got Gambit back only to find out it was a trade-off. I wish we knew where you were Hank. I wanted to trust her too. Looks like I was fooled as well,' Rogue thought.

She wandered the halls, hoping to think of something that she, or any of them really, could do to help but nothing could really cross her mind.

"I should go out for a bite to eat. Maybe it would help clear my head a bit," she said out loud to no one in particular.

Then an idea struck her and she couldn't help but smile before she ran out the door.

00000

Hank's mouth was parched as he stared at the ceiling of the room he was now situated. With help from Magneto and Mystique, Kat had relocated him from the cave to an abandoned barn on the outskirts of the city. With each passing moment, his mood kept going down as his hopes of getting rescued were decreasing.

Since their arrival, Kat had shown her complete opposite of what he had seen already. She was exceptionally aggressive and had injured him on several occasions. The blood was streaked in his fur and it had caked on, leaving an unpleasant feeling on his skin. Despite all the torture that Kat had done already, she hadn't forced herself on him - yet - though he was still waiting for that to happen anytime. He closed his eyes as he heard the door open nearby. Hank could tell by the deftness of the footsteps that it was Kat that walked in on him today.

"Hello darling. How are we today?" she asked in a sweet voice.

"I'm good," he muttered under his breath.

Kat couldn't help but smile as she began to step around the bed that he lay upon. She sat down next to him and placed a hand on his leg. A laugh escaped her lips as she watched every tense move he made.

"What's the matter? You don't seem yourself. Was it something I said in the last couple of days?" she innocently asked of him.

Her grin widened as she moved closer and gently placed a hand on his chin while giving a small kiss on the cheek. He took a deep breath as she slowly backed away from him and grabbed a nearby trench coat.

"I'll be back soon. I haven't been out much in the last few days so I'm heading to my favourite cafe. I'm certain you must remember it," Kat told him.

Hank did remember the cafe all too well as he watched head out of the room. He wondered what the others were doing now and what they could possibly be thinking over the fact he allowed himself to be fooled like this. He stare turned to the nearby bookcase and all the books that filled their confines. Somehow, he really didn't feel like reading much.

00000

Rogue carefully watched the cafe from a nearby rooftop. She hadn't told the others where she had been going the last couple of days and part of her ached to be near Gambit's side as he recovered from his recent ordeal.

'So Kat, are you goin' to return to the scene of the crime?' she thought.

Inwardly, she was hoping that the cat would do so but another part of her realized how smart Kat was in the end for staging the entire scenario out. She had abducted Gambit and severely injured him, gained enough trust from Hank and her at least to allow access into the mansion, then proceeded to kidnap the blue-furred mutant and essentially have everyone turn on each other to some extent. She didn't know how much of that was initially the cat's plan but it still worked out in her favour in the end.

'If you do slip up, I can only hope that it's soon. I can't wait here forever and the others will soon start askin' where I've disappeared to all this time,' Rogue pondered.

She flew down in between two nearby buildings and stood in the alleyway, watching as the people walked past her. They seemed to be completely oblivious to her presence a short distance away. She turned her attention back to the cafe, failing to see someone walk up behind her. The figure placed their hand on her shoulder and she jumped. Twirling around, she was ready to defend herself when she saw the familiar face of Wolverine standing next to her and she relaxed.

"Logan, you nearly gave me a heart attack. What are you doing here? " she asked.

"I could ask you the same thing. You had my curiousity going on what you were doing when you kept disappearin' for hours on end these past few days. Now I have an idea," he explained.

Rogue glanced over across the street and gave a deep sigh. Somehow, she knew that she probably wasn't going to find what she wanted.

"I thought I could find that cat here. This is where Hank was meeting up with her but she hasn't shown her face here yet. She's probably not going to come back. How about we back to the mansion?" she sadly replied.

"Not yet we aren't and over there's why," Logan replied.

He pointed across the street towards the cafe. Rogue followed his stare across the street and her eyes perked up in interest as she saw Kat making her way down the street to the cafe door.

TBC...