Chapter 41: I Had (The Time Of My Life).

Gavin was slowly walking back to the Institute with his new companions: Johan, Katerina, Romano and Marcus not far behind him. The latter two men were still groggy because of it being early morning and because the trio had woken them up at their hotel.

"Come on you two, hustle up! The Institute's right this way!" He called to two men, Marcus adjusting the duffel bag over his shoulder. The bag itself contained the many name tags, ID badges, subject dog tags, etc. of the HYDRA soldiers, staff and prisoners that the pseudo vampire either killed or set free.

Gavin continued forward as he pulled the brim of his fedora down, adjusting his grip on the body bag he had on his shoulders, which apparently was still squirming. As they finally reached the Institute, he buzzed the doorbell.

"Honey, I'm home!" He called into the speaker as it buzzed to life.

Scott's voice rang out from the other end. "Gavin? Is that you, man?"

"The one and only." The pseudo vampire said. "Mind letting me in? I have a few new friends with me." Within moments the doors were opened by Jean, with Rogue standing close behind her.

"Gavin!" The southern girl snapped, stepping out from behind the redhead, pulling the Japanese American boy in by the collar with one hand while the other was raised in a fist. "You idiot! Give me a good reason to not punch your lights out for walking out on us!"

"Well for one, I know you all missed me." He grinned at her. "And two, I need to deliver this package to someone here." He jostled the body bag over his shoulder, making its contents wriggle and groan.

"What in the world.,.?" She drawled, looking at the bag with disgust and shock. "But, that's beside the point. We thought you were kidnapped or somethin'!"

"Glad to know I had been missed so much." He joked with a confident grin.

"Gavin, who are these people?" Jean said cautiously as she looked at the four people who stood silently behind him.

"These are a few friends of a friend, Marcus, and Romano. I found them on my mission to destroy HYDRA." Gavin said before gesturing to the other two siblings. "And these are the Sever siblings."

"Seriously?" Both girls asked.

"But, we can get to my disappearance later." The boy said cooly, trying to evade the harassing questions he knew would follow. "Where's Chelsea?"

As if on cue the dragoness came storming out of the second level hallway to the stairs, followed by an equally pissed looking Logan. "I told you, you stupid son of a bitch if you EVER went after HYDRA I would-!" Her yelling fell silent and she froze when she saw the two men behind Gavin. Her face turned pale as if she had seen a ghost.

Gavin smiled up at her. "Hey, Marks. You miss me?!"

Logan sniffed the air letting out a growl before realizing the reaction his girlfriend had. "Chels, you good?"

She ignored them both, eyes locked on the two strangers. One of them, the man her age with Latin features stepped forward looking at her intently before the corner of his lips pulled into the slightest smile. "Largata..." He said in a quiet, gruff voice.

Chelsea began to come down the stairs slowly, holding onto the rail as if the world would slip away if she let go. She finally came to the bottom, carefully approaching the man. "I thought I told you to never call me that."

"I wanted to see if the punk I knew was still in you." He quipped. A smile spread across her face, as she threw her arms around his shoulders. "Romano! Oh my fucking god I can't believe- How?!" She grasped his arms looking over his eyes full of joy.

"I'm not the only one, hermana." He said, stepping aside to reveal the other man. Dark rings laid under his golden eyes and he slouched against the doorframe for support. Chelsea stepped back for a moment, examining him. She looked him up and down as if evaluating him. Roman watched her as she did this, then placed a hand on her shoulder. "I assure you. It's him."

She looked between the two men like she was trying to make sure both were actually there. "M-Marcus?"

The golden-eyed man in the door looked up at her as she approached him, placing a hand on his cheek. "Do you remember?"

"How could I forget, Blondie?" His voice was raspy like it wasn't used often. But his eyes shined with undeniable excitement.

"Holy..." The dragoness didn't finish her sentence before she grasped on to him. Marcus, although taken aback, cautiously reciprocates the gesture, placing his lips on her forehead. "I-I thought you were dead! I don't understand we saw you gunned down, bloody as all hell!"

He smiled down at her. "You know I'm too stubborn to die."

*Sknit*

"This is all sickening sweet and all," Everyone's attention turned to Logan, who looked both very uncomfortable, and angrier than before. "But you mind telling me what HYDRA scum is doing in our house, and why for god's sake my girl is hanging onto one of their necks?!"

"Whoa there, Logan, down boy." Gavin said getting in between the clawed mutant and the three others. "They're old friends of Chelsea and Bast, and they're like seriously close is all." He then turned back to Chelsea and Marcus who had separated from their hug. "And besides you just heard her say that she thought one of them was dead, so, cut her some slack okay?"

Logan glared at him for a moment before slowly lowering his claws and sheathing them, making everyone breath a sigh of relief. "Fine." He growled before glaring at his girlfriend. "But I expect at least some sort of explanation."

"You got it." The Dragoness nodded.

Bast, who was mostly quiet through the whole ordeal, finally couldn't take it anymore and just ran to the three old friends and tackled them in a hug. "Oh my god! I thought I'd never be able to see you guys again!" She cried as tears streamed down her face, the four joining in a group hug. Making Marcus drop the bag he was carrying with an audible 'thump'

"Trust me, the feeling's mutual, kitten." Romano sighed as he stroked her hair before both men looked at Gavin. "But you can thank the Vampiro and his friends for that."

Gavin chuckled sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck while his face was the shade of a petunia. "Aw shucks guys, stop. You're making me blush!" He chuckled, accidentally dropping the body bag onto the floor of the Institute and a loud groan could be heard from it.

Everyone then turned their attention to said bag. "Um, is it just me, or did that bag just, like, groan?" Kitty asked, her nose furrowed in disgust.

"Nope, you're right Kitty." Gavin said, kicking the side of the body bag, making it groan louder this time. "This is a gift for you survivors of HYDRA, especially for you, Chelsea." He grinned, hoisting the bag up and then unzipping the top, letting the person inside fall to the ground. The man was maybe in his late fifties, with graying black hair, and a goatee. He looked awful, with a black eye and multiple wounds on his face calloused over with bloody scabs. "Say hello to Victor Rowner."

Chelsea and Bast stepped back, a look of horror on their faces for a brief moment. "Gavin, what the hell is that monster doing here?!" Chelsea snarled as she stepped in front of Bast, scales rippling across her skin as her eyes slitted like snakes.

"He's here for justice. He mutilated and tortured you four, and many others. I think it's fitting that he gets a taste of his own medicine." Gavin states as he glared at the man who looked up in shock at the two women, struggling against his gag.

Logan approached the boy, paying no attention to the man on the floor as he did so. "This completely goes against the rules of the Institute, what the hell were you thinking promoting such actions in front of everyone?!"

"Please, Wolverine. Out of all people you're not one to talk about rules and the immorality of inflicting pain." Gavin growled, before looking back up at his female mentor. "So Chelsea. What would you like to do with him?"

Chelsea looked at the gagged man and cracked her knuckles. "Oh I know exactly what I'm gonna do with him." She grinned.

It was at this point that Johan spoke up. "Hey Gavin, I just realized we seem to be missing one of your friends." He said, getting everyone to turn to him.

"Wait, Johan?" Bast asked him. "You work for SHIELD?"

"Yep, and so does my little sister over here. Say hi to everyone, lil' sis." He replied before urging his sister to greet everyone.

"Hey gang, what's up?" She greeted casually with a two finger salute.

Everyone waved before Kai spoke up. "Who's the other friend you're talking about?" She asked.

Johan dialed his phone and spoke with someone else on the other line for a minute or two before putting it on speaker.

"Hello? Who's calling?" Pele's voice asked. The second her voice reached Kai's ears, the girl froze with wide eyes before approaching the phone.

"P-P-P-Pele?" The girl asked warily.

"Kai! Oh hey lil sis! How is everything? No wait, don't tell me, you're probably in too much shock right now. Seriously guys, couldn't you have waited until after I finished recovering? I wanted to do this in person." Was the lava girl's reply.

"Sorry. We couldn't wait. Our bad." Gavin said sheepishly.

"How are you alive?!" Chelsea asked.

"Apparently my soul never left that pile of rubble and HYDRA had reanimated my body to make it their toy soldier. Gavin was able to put it back after Johan broke the chip that reanimated me." Pele explained.

Bast looked at Johan before she threw her arms around him. "You are the best man I've ever met." She told him with a smile as tears rolled down her face. The man just chuckled before she hugged her back.

"Hey, don't sell Gavin short. He did the rest of the work." He said with a smile as he continued hugging her.

"You're welcome." The pseudo vampire smiled.

"Where're you now?" Bast asked her formerly deceased friend.

"SHIELD HQ, the doctors here are helping me recover." The girl replied.

"Oh." The cat woman nodded.

"Well, I'll see you guys when I'm recovered, bye!" Pele said before hanging up.

"Gavin." Xavier said to the pseudo vampire. "I'd like a word with you and Mr. and Ms. Sever in my office please." He told them with a stern look on his face)

(Later)

In the forest outside the Institute, Chelsea dropped Rowner on the ground, making him groan and cough through his gag. "Marcus. Take out his gag. Shatter his eardrum if he tries anything." She ordered her comrade as she shifted back to her human form.

The brown hair man did so without much protest from the ex-scientist in front of him. Rowner spat out a clump of blood on the ground once his mouth was free. "You! Agent! Untie me!" He attempted to command, although the fear was evident in how his voice shook.

"I'm not under your control anymore, you demented butcher." Marcus said coldly, kicking the man in the stomach.

Rowner sputtered and gasped for air as the four mutants surrounded him, once he opened his eyes, a twisted grin came to his face. "Ah, the thorns in my side have finally returned. You, the Mexican." He looked directly at Romano. "You blinded half a dozen guards and caused so many light outages you cost us more in damages than what you cost to keep alive. But my higher ups just HAD to have you in our special forces. thought you'd be useful." He then shot a glance of malice at Marcus. "YOU. You injured more of my men than nearly any other subject. You were a machine of rage and danger. But machines are so easy to control…" His sadistic grin came back to his face. "Pump you with enough sedative, and you were all ours. Mix it with nicotine and well, you were begging for us to give it to you, and would do anything for us."

His gaze then moved to Bast. "I hardly remember you. Were you one of our creations? You look to be a little too old to be a product of the breeding program?" He tried to move around to face Chelsea and his eyes lit up. "And you, my darling dear. My favorite test subject. You were something else… You all created quite the problem for me all those years ago."

"Sorry to cause you so much trouble. But, after all these years," Bast mimicked with a hiss coming forward, grasping Rowner's jaw and digging her claws into his cheeks, drawing blood. "The thought of finally giving you what you deserved never left our minds."

"Where do we start?" Romano asked aloud, his eyes starting to glow with a white hue.

"Wherever you like." Chelsea said in a cold hushed tone. "But Roman, leave him with SOME vision."

Through the blood and the pain, Rowner started to let out a distorted chuckle. "You pathetic creatures... you don't realize what I've done for you, for the new world order."

"You did nothing for us." Chelsea spat taking a step towards him. "You killed, mutilated, tortured, and molested children who had no way of protecting ourselves."

"Oh please, my little girl. I made you. I made you into the weapons and killers you are today." He sneered. "Out of all these whelps, you caused the most trouble for me. There were so many more powerful than you, more valuable than you. But, you always had to be such a prima donna. Had to be the leader. Had to try to get everyone's attention."

Chelsea grabbing him by the collar hoisting him up. "I never tried. You just were so fucking obsessed with me that's all you saw, all you focused on. Is there even a shred of humanity left in you to see the pain you caused in us, in me?!" She growled.

"I saw a lot of things in you." He spat, looking at her nonchalantly. "I saw the potential in your powers. You are a creature of chaos, not meant to be alive." Her nostrils flared at the comment, only provoking the mad doctor's voracious speech. "But with the right person in charge that chaos could be controlled, channeled, and made into a beautiful weapon. But that isn't why I was "obsessed with you", as you put it. YOU were the chance I had to rewrite what I had let go so long ago. My whore of an ex-wife, you are so much like her…" He tried to reach up and touch her face, but his wrist was caught by the dragoness's tail, which wrapped around his wrist, pulling it from its socket. Rowner wailed in pain, as he was thrown to the ground, cradling his hand.

"I'm not some fucking ghost from a failed marriage." Chelsea said, bending down to his level as her eyes turned draconic and her wings grew out from behind her. "I'm your fucking worst nightmare."

"Which is why I took so much glee in giving a bitch like you a lesson." Rowner grunted, trying to back away. "You never knew boundaries, when you'd take shit too far. And my dear, how I relished every second I got to torture you, put a bitch like you in her place. Do you remember when I took half of your liver?"

In a flash the Dragoness was on top of him, her knee on his chest to force the air out of him "Enough!"

"Or what about the time I put you in with Kuo? You were so wiped from that little session you never even tried to stop me when I-"

"ENOUGH!" She began pressing her knee into his throat making him choke on his words.

"But you know what? I saw the success of our breeding program in you, the girl who could recover from anything. It didn't matter if we knocked you up with the most ferocious fetus we could create, you'd recover from any damage. Do you know what I really wished I would have done? I wish that we finished that hormone treatment of yours, wiped your brain senseless. And more than anything, I wished I could have evened the odds of producing a human or mutant offspring, given you MY genes. What do you think about that my dear?"

"I think you should shut up." The blonde growled. "Romano?"

Romano extended a hand and he started pulsing Power through them, a bright light surrounding the area, everyone else covered their eyes as Rowner could only roll around on the ground in agony, unable to cover his eyes as he screamed in pain, his eyes on the verge of burning out of his skull.

"That's for trying to turn me into a drone, Gringo." He snapped.

Satisfied with his work, Romano stepped away and Marcus was next the man grabbed the scientist by the side of his head and then started to make him quake with molecular energy coursing through his brain.

"You should have left me alone!" He growled, throwing the man down as his nose bled from a minor concussion caused by the pulses.

Next was Bast, who deployed her claws and started tearing into the man's flesh like a feral animal, tears streaming from her eyes and she screamed in rage. After she finished she then kicked him in the face, making him fall back.

"That was for Kai." She hissed angrily, cat tail's fur on end.

Rowner Just kept coughing up blood as he tried to stay conscious. His body torn and bleeding out with every second that passed. He tried to send out a string of curses at the group through his now shattered teeth as he leaned up against a tree, but was stopped when Chelsea knelt in front of him and put a finger to his lips, her eyes turning draconic as she put on a fake seductive face.

"Shh shh shh shh shhh." She told him as he struggled to breath through the blood in his throat. "This is going to hurt, a lot, any last words, you pathetic and hopeless, perverted psychopath?" She got no reply as she only received incoherent gurgling. "Thought so." She said. "Now let me finally give you what you wanted so goddamn badly."

The Dragoness then slowly grasped the back of his head and pressed her lips to his as she sent a small stream of fire into his mouth and throat, scorching it from the inside and causing him to grasp it in agony as he slowly started to lose his grip on his life. Though this moment was short lived as Chelsea then transformed into her Dragon form and then chomped down on the top half of his torso, and with a few large movements of her head, swallowed the man whole.

Chelsea growled happily as she licked her dragon lips in satisfaction. Oh, it felt good.

"Finally…" Romano panted as he slumped to the grass. "After all these years, we've finally gotten the justice we deserve." He breathed.

"Yeah. And with Pele back, the whole gang's back together." Marcus nodded.

"I've never felt more at peace than I do right now." Bast breathed, feeling a large sense of relief flowing through her being.

"You said it." Chelsea nodded as she turned back to normal. It was true, at long last, they could finally feel at ease, their pasts… Were finally behind them.

(A few days later)

Pele had finally joined the Institute as did Romano and Marcus, the former two had become the Institute's maintenance man and full time cook respectively, and on top of that, Beast had managed to help Pele get her metal arm turned into a non-hydra variation.

Amongst other changes was that they also had gone to counseling with Emma Frost, and as such were much better off mentally speaking, and Marcus had also started going to detox and drugs anonymous meetings as well, though his battle with addiction was far from over.

As for the Sever siblings, Johan and Katerina had both been reassigned to Bayville to help keep an eye on things by Fury, so the Institute saw a lot more of them. Bast certainly didn't seem to mind this arrangement, or Johan, for that matter. In regards to Katerina herself, the Professor wanted to get some practical data on her mutant abilities, but she said she had wanted to wait for a while so she could settle into Bayville. Part of that actually involved going on a couple dates with Romano.

As for Gavin? The poor boy had to do a slew of catch up work, had a weekend's work of detention, and on top of that had to commit to two weeks probation. It was honestly a mess, but Xavier was willing to shorten it to a few days probation if Gavin agreed to letting him see just what went down.

In fact that was what they were doing right now. Gavin was in Xavier's office with said telepath peering inside the boy's mind at the memories of his Vendetta. And when he finished, he was filled with conflicting emotions.

"I… Do not know how to respond to this…" He said finally.

"That doesn't surprise me. My vendetta was practically a war, so it's natural for it to be bloody." Gavin said evenly.

"But you seemed to enjoy it. That is not the reaction of a sane person." The man stated.

"Professor, I think we both already know that I was never sane and will never be sane. It's just how I am." The pseudo vampire stated.

"I suppose that's undeniable." The man said with a sigh. "Still… Never in all my years did I suspect that I would learn of a Lovecraftian mutant. A truly unexpected, and somewhat horrifying, discovery." He mused with a small shiver as he recalled the image of Katerina's Cthulhu form.

"True." The boy shrugged. "So… Three days probation then?" He asked to clarify.

"Yes." The man nodded as the boy got up and left.

Later on, the horror aficionado was sitting on the couch and was about to watch Dirty Dancing when Rogue came in with some popcorn and a couple drinks.

"Mind Ii Ah joined you?" She asked.

"Take a seat." The boy replied as he gestured to the open seat next to him. As the movie started to play, Gavin smirked as Patrick Swaisi came on screen, the man was one of his favorite actors. The two started to share the popcorn when the pseudo vampire's hand and Rogue's ungloved hand accidentally touched while reaching for some of the buttery snack.

The two looked at each other and blushed before retracting their respective hands. "S-sorry." Gavin apologized with a stutter.

"My bad." The Southern girl said. After a moment of awkward silence and watching the movie again and eating their snacks without incident, she spoke again. "So… Are you excited for the dance this weekend?" She asked.

"Yeah. I managed to get my probation shortened to three days, so I'll be free this weekend." He replied with a nod.

"That's good… So, has anyone asked you yet?" She questioned.

"Nope. No one has asked me at all." HYDRA's nightmare fuel replied with a sigh.

Rogue was silent for a moment, turning back to the screen and taking a sip of her drink. "Well, Ah don't have a date either. Ah don't suppose, you'd mind goin' with me?"

Gavin almost choked on his popcorn when he heard her basically ask him out. Taking a drink to clear his throat, he gave a loud cough.

"Wait, seriously?" He asked in shock. "You wanna go to the dance, with me?"

"Well, no one else is asking us, and you're immune to mah powers. You feel like the best pick for me." She replied with a shrug.

"Yeah... I guess I was just surprised because. To be honest, no one's ever asked me out to dances… Ever, I was always the kid most girls voided. Like the plague." The boy said, slumping a bit as he ate more popcorn. Rogue looked at him sadly before she pulled him into a hug, much to his surprise.

"Not anymore you're not." She said quietly into his ear. The horror fan couldn't help but smile as the girl let him lay his head on her lap while they watched the rest of the movie. It really did make him feel better.

(Later)

Everyone was down in the danger room for a test Kurt was performing on a device Forge had made, and they were about to test it out.

"Ready, Kurt?" Forge asked.

"Vhat is this thing supposed to do, exactly?" He asked.

"According to what I'm able to deduce from the sulfuric gas your teleportation leaves behind, I have reason to believe that you pass through another dimension when you teleport." David Xanatos stated, he too had made a habit of stopping by on occasion to keep up with the Institute, especially when something that caught his interest came up.

"And this device will slow you down just long enough for us to get some readings. Once we're through you'll be able to teleport all over the globe!" Forge added.

"That's probably gonna be helpful." Johan noted.

"No kidding." Katerina added.

"You ready, Kurt?" Forge asked again.

"About as ready as I can be." The blue boy replied as he secured his mask.

"Break a leg, fuzz ball!" Lance called as the boy got ready.

"Head for my old lab at school. That would be a good place to exit at since no one will be there to see you appear." The tech genius instructed, getting a nod in return.

With that the boy disappeared and around four minutes later, he reappeared after telling them it was a success.

"Vow! You von't believe what I saw in there!" The boy said as he jumped up and down in excitement.

"Oh this I gotta hear." Gavin said as the boy started explaining what he saw.

The next day, Kurt was going to do the test again and had also managed to get a date to the dance with his kinda crush, a girl named Amanda, while Kitty had asked Lance to the dance.

Everyone was looking at the screen that played the video footage of the dimension Kurt passed through and it was met with… Varying degrees of shock or surprise.

"And that thing actually exists?" Pele asked in disbelief.

"So it would seem." Devin nodded with wide eyes.

"Are those teeth?!" Evan asked warily.

"Oh I so wanna go a few rounds with that thing!" Gavin smirked wildly.

"Are you nuts?! No way, not after that shit you pulled in Brazil." Chelsea snapped while smacking the boy on the back of the head.

"You're never gonna let me live that down, are you?" The boy questioned.

"She wouldn't be an older sister if she did let you live it down." Lance joked with a smirk.

"I'll be sure to go with ya the next time for safety." Logan told the still shaking Kurt.

"Still doesn't make me feel any better…" The blue mutant said nervously.

(Later)

At school after the big revelation of the creatures, Kurt was now worrying about what to do about dancing with Amanda since his holo watch didn't give him five physical fingers, though Scott was able to convince him to just wear gloves.

Devin, meanwhile, was sitting with Gavin, Rogue and Risty when Roxy came up to him, which caused the boy to get the same nervous feeling he kept getting around her.

"Hey Devin, do you have a date to the dance yet?" She asked him.

"No. Why?" He asked, managing to keep himself from stuttering.

"Well…" She smiled as she slid in next to him, getting real close, her braid flipping over to the right side of his neck as she leaned on him. "Because I was hoping you'd go with me." She told him.

The liquid metal user gulped nervously as she looked at him with her pearly white eyes. "Uh… Well… I mean if you're asking, I guess we could go together."

The scorpion themed girl smiled as she kissed his cheek. "Alright then, it's a date." She smiled as she left.

"You sure you two aren't dating, mate?" Risty asked curiously.

"Positive." Devin managed to reply with a groan.

After school everyone was in the danger room again and Wolverine was going to be going with Kurt on this next trip, for his safety. Gavin still made it clear that he wanted a piece of the action, but after Chelsea threatened to sit on him while in dragon form, he shut up.

This trip was longer than before and by the time Logan and Kurt got back, the former was wounded and the latter was scared to death.

"No more! I am never teleporting again!" The blue mutant exclaimed fearfully.

"Kurt, snap out of it!" Chelsea snapped, slapping him across the face. "You move too fast for those things to get to you, remember? Stop worrying about something that doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things." She told him before helping Logan up as his wound healed. "You okay?" She asked.

"I'll live." He replied as the wound closed. Though the blonde's tender tone towards the man got a sigh from Marcus, who still was trying to come to grips with his blonde friend moving on.

'I'll need to clear things up with her, sooner or later.' He thought.

Kurt, meanwhile, managed to pull himself together as Forge and Xanatos apologized for having put the boy through such a mess.

"I apologize, Kurt, I only wished to conduct these tests for your benefit." Xanatos told him.

"Yeah me too, sorry man." Forge nodded.

"Any chance they coulda been followed?" Gavin asked as he helped Kurt treat his wounds.

"Not unless his dimensional gates never closed fully, but the odds of that being the case are slim to none." The young tech expert replied.

"About 20 to 80 percent at the most." Xanatos added.

"Let's hope it doesn't happen." Xavier nodded.

(The next night)

The night of the dance everyone was in formal clothes and dancing. And they also all had their dates with them. Kurt was dancing with his date Amanda, Kitty was slow dancing with Lance, Devin was with Roxy, and Jean was standing off to the side while Duncan was talking to his friends and Scott was dancing with his date.

"You jealous?" Risty asked the redhead.

"A little bit." She sighed. "Sometimes I feel like he doesn't actually care about me." She admitted.

"Ah cheer up, I'm sure he'll come around." The British girl told her before Rogue and Gavin walked in. "Ooooh, Rogue certainly is looking nice."

Said girl was currently wearing a purple sports bra underneath an orange version of her usual translucent shirt, a red lycra skirt with a black biker belt, long black gloves, and pair of red pants, black heeled boots and lastly the choker Gavin got her for Christmas.

Gavin, meanwhile, was wearing a black short sleeved shirt, black pants, a black formal jacket, and some black shoes. His long hair going all the way down to the back of his upper thighs.

"You think I should get a haircut?" He asked Rogue as they got into a slow dancing rhythm.

"Ah dunno. You'd make an awesome Alucard if you got a full outfit." She replied.

"Pretty sure my costume covers that." He smiled. That was when I Had (The Time Of My Life) started to play, apparently someone had requested it. "... Wanna show these prudes how to really dance?"

"You know it." The southern belle replied with a grin. The two started quickly swaying to the music as it started to kick up speed, and everyone gave them the dance floor to watch. Gavin spun the girl around twice before quickly dipping her and then they started a shuffle dance.

"Are they… Doing a Dirty Dancing routine?" Kitty asked Lance.

"Looks like it. Wait, you've seen that movie?" He asked in surprise.

"Yeah. It has good dance scenes that I like." She replied with a shrug. Lance couldn't help but blush as several ideas popped into his head.

Meanwhile, both Scott and Jean watched in shock as Gavin twirled Rogue around and the girl wrapped her arms around his neck, passion being very much visible in their eyes as they danced.

"Wow… They've got that routine down to a T." The shaded teen commented with wide eyes.

"They really do." The redhead nodded. "But, don't you think that it looks like they-never mind." She said dismissively, deciding not to dwell on the amorous gazes the pair seemed to share.

Gavin then spun Rogue into the center of the floor and then everyone else started to join him in dancing up to her, spinning on his knees until he reached her and catching her in his arms and lifting her into the air with his hands on her waist, before spinning her around and everyone started copying them.

Principal Kelly watched the entire ordeal with a sigh of exasperation. He probably should have seen something like this coming. As the dance slowly came to an end, the pseudo vampire and Southern Belle both held each other as they looked at each other with half lidded eyes before they slowly started to move closer and closer. Their lips were just about to touch when-

FLASH

A portal opened right in the middle of the dance floor, and three of the 'Devil Raptors' popped out of it, causing Gavin and Rogue's 'almost kiss' to be interrupted by a mental cold shower.

'I am gonna turn those raptors into a bloody mess!' Gavin thought angrily. Things were going so well and they just had to ruin it!

Rogue, meanwhile, was equal parts embarrassed and furious. Though she didn't understand why about the second part. 'Right as we were about to- Wait, am Ah actually mad that they stopped me from kissing Gavin? What's that all about?' She thought.

Their thoughts were interrupted by one of the raptors charging at them, maw wide open, causing all the other students to scatter in fear.

Once the view was clear, Gavin used smoke tendrils to catch the creature and slammed it into the floor. "That was for ruining our dance finale!" He growled at the creature as he stomped on its snout.

Rogue glared at one of the raptors, which looked back at her with hunger in its eyes. It roared and charged at its intended prey, only for her to leap to the side and crash into the wall, dazing it.

The third was easily subdued by Scott's blasts, and then all three disappeared after a blue beam shot them. Everyone turned around and saw Forge standing there with his Middleverse projector.

"Uh, that's not gonna send anyone to the Middleverse, is it?" Gavin asked warily.

"No, just send these guys back where they came from. Come on, we gotta close those portals before more get through!" The young man said as they all followed him, save Kurt who had disappeared with Amanda in the confusion.

(Later)

Rogue and Gavin were walking home. After everything was done, they were now just ready to go home.

"What a mess." The horror fan sighed.

"Got it in one. Ah can't believe that happened when it did." His friend replied with her own sigh.

"Yeah… Hey, about that, sorry if I got carried away. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again." He told her, referring to their almost kiss.

"No no, don't apologize… Ah honestly don't think Ah would have minded if you did." She responded honestly.

Gavin looked away with slight nervousness. Was she being serious? He felt like he was gonna faint! "D-do you mean it?" He asked as they reached the Institute gates.

After a moment, the auburn haired girl nodded. "Yeah, Ah am." She nodded.

"... Do you wanna… Maybe try? Ya know, just to see how it feels?" The pseudo vampire asked.

Rogue looked at him with a blush. "Um… S-s-sure." She stuttered nervously.

Gathering up every bit of courage he had, Gavin took Rogue into his arms and brought her closer as she stood on her toes to reach him and he leaned down with her wrapping her arms around his neck, and a second later: their lips finally met.

The reaction was almost instantaneous, both pulling each other closer as they kept kissing, and unbeknownst to them, someone was watching.

Risty was just around the corner and on her back she had a bundle in a baby back strap. Seconds later she slowly turned into Mystique and the little infant inside the baby backpack popped his head out, revealing it was Damian.

"That's your Daddy, Damian. Just a few more days and you'll be going to live with him. Are you excited?" The shapeshifter asked her son happily as she watched the two slowly separate and blush, agreeing not to talk about it.

"Da da, da da!" The infant babbled happily at the sight of his father.

"That's right, Damian. That's your father." She told her son with a smile. "And you're going to love being with him." She added as Gavin and Rogue started walking into the Institute.

Dragon Emperor0: If there's one thing I know about kissing to see how it feels, it almost always leads to something more.

ThermalsniperN7: That's usually how the romance formula goes.

Dragon Emperor0: Also, Rowner's dead! And good riddance too. The world's better off without him anyway. Sure hope he didn't give Chelsea indigestion…

ThermalsniperN7: Yeah, that'd suck. Does that count as cannibalism, though? … You know what? Never mind. Best not to think about it.

Dragon Emperor0: Who cares anyway? Well, see you guys next chapter.