2x10

Antibody

###

Act I

###

"All I need is a little bit of blood," Bradley said, brandishing a test tube and collection needle with a mad gleam in his eye. "Now be a good girl and roll up your sleeve so I can jab you in the arm."

Jean buried her face in her hand at the confrontation now brewing in the observation gallery. The moment Bradley and Rao returned from Manhattan the white-suited mad scientist had barged into the med bay demanding Laura be summoned immediately, and would not be put off.

"Dr. Bradley, this will be an incredibly delicate matter, and it's best that we don't make a confrontation out of it," she had warned him.

"Dr. Grey, at this moment there is a hospital full of mutants positively swimming with a horrifyingly remarkable genetically engineered superbug of a quality of craftsmanship I am admittedly considerably envious. And oh yes, by the way, there is a very real possibility it may soon kill every single one of them in a very gruesomely fascinating manner. If this is a calamity you wish to prevent so you can go back to running your little daycare operation, I suggest you drag the goth bag of hyperviolent antibodies in here and strap her into a chair."

"James, please," Rao had said. "We talked about this on the ride back from the hospital."

"There is science to be done here, Kavita! And it's the sort that doesn't care about boo-boos and rainbow band-aids."

In the end, Bradley would not be argued with, and Jean relented and called Laura down. She arrived a few minutes later accompanied by Julian. Now they were all standing in a circle, and Jean could feel Laura's simmering hostility breaking through her control over her emotions.

"Dr. Bradley, please," Jean said, her own patience growing strained. "Step back, and everyone calm down."

Julian glared at Bradley, and subtly placed himself between him and Laura with his arms folded over his chest. Laura, for her part, shrunk down into herself as if to hide from having been made the center of attention.

"Just in case McCoy failed to elucidate when he discussed his hypothesis with you, time is of the essence," Bradley said.

"I am more than aware of the severity of the situation, but I need you to understand you're treading on some very unstable ground. There are some complications involved you don't know about."

"For one thing, Laura really doesn't like doctors poking at her," Julian interjected.

Bradley dismissed him with an indignant glare. "I'm sorry, but the scientists are speaking now. I don't need a lecture from a hormonal reject from a boy band audition."

Julian's temper flared, and a green aura formed around his hands. Jean immediately placed herself between them.

"Dr. Bradley, this is quite serious, and Julian is correct: We had to replace the quarantine bay once already recently, and I'm sure Hank would rather not have to do the same to the observation gallery because you got impatient and provoked her!"

Jean sighed wearily once Bradley finally backed off and turned to Laura.

"Laura, I understand this is a very uncomfortable situation for you," she said, softening her voice as best she could despite the urgency, "and I understand this would be asking a lot. But Dr. McCoy believes your healing factor may be the key to stopping this virus. You would be helping a lot of innocent people if he's right."

Laura did not respond, and she bunched her features up while she wrestled between the desire to help that Jean could feel at the surface, and something far darker lurking underneath.

Jean's heart ached while she watched Laura's emotional defenses chipping away little by little the past few months, battered by Stryker's attacks, the violent incident Jubilee reported in New York, her possession by the Entity, and now the fight in Salem. Cessily, Sooraya, and especially Julian Keller, of all people, had established themselves as stabilizing forces holding her up, but as she watched the turmoil pass across the young woman's features now the cracks were beginning to show, and the buried memories Xavier spoke of were threatening to break through more every day.

Subjecting her to Bradley's nonchalance about human experimentation was throwing grease onto a fire.

"Laura?" Julian asked, his own thoughts and feelings a tangled mess of worry, anger, and fear he would never publicly admit to.

"I ..." Laura started, but stopped again when her voice broke. Jean felt the panic building, and her body coiled tightly like a spring under tension and ready to release.

"Oh, enough of this waffling, I'll give you a lollipop when we're done," Bradley said, and before she or Julian could warn him otherwise, he seized Laura by the arm.

Laura reacted immediately, catching Bradley's wrist the moment he laid his hand on her, and with strength belying her stature she effortlessly rolled him over her shoulder and slammed him to the floor.

"Laura, no!" Julian cried, and with a metallic snikt her claws extended at Bradley's throat. For his part, he looked suitably anxious about the adamantium a hair's breadth from his windpipe.

"Do not touch me!" she hissed hatefully between her teeth. Her voice was ice and filled with lethal intent. "Do not ever touch me!"

Her body quivered with barely restrained rage at the uninvited contact, and revulsion and a sense of violation so thick it made Jean queasy rolled off her mind.

"Laura," Julian repeated softly. He knelt by her side, and gently laid a hand on her shoulder. Laura clenched her jaw and her neck tensed, but otherwise she made no move to avoid his touch.

Trust. It's still fragile, but she's showing complete trust in him. As much as she is struggling beneath the surface, it's still remarkable that she has come that far.

"Hey," he gently prodded, "come on, he's not worth it."

Laura slowly relaxed. She let Julian help her to her feet and retracted her claws again. Bradley, for his part, remained on the floor.

"A simple no would have sufficed," he grumbled.

"You didn't give her a chance to say so, James. And they did warn you," Rao said. "Repeatedly."

"This will get us nowhere," Jean said, and squeezed her eyes tight against the exhaustion threatening to overwhelm her. Exactly how long it had been since she actually slept, rather than draw on her powers to force herself to keep going, she did not know, but she could feel it telling on her now. "Let's try something else, shall we?"

She turned to Laura. "Would it be all right if you and I talked in private? No one crowding around you, no one else watching, or trying to pressure you. Just you and me."

Laura hesitated for a moment, then gave a slow nod. Jean offered her an encouraging smile, and motioned for a door leading back to the hallway. "We'll talk in my office. The rest of you please wait here. Dr. Bradley, Dr. Rao, if you could please begin the serum protocol we discussed while I'm gone. Begin with everyone already infected, and we can move on to inoculating everyone else once that's done."

Julian opened his mouth to protest, but she cut him off with a look. "We'll be back soon, right now I think we just need to let everyone calm down. If you would please help Dr. Bradley off the floor."

Jean reached out with her powers and grabbed the needle and test tube from Bradley's hand, floating them to herself before stowing them away out of sight in a pocket. Then, without actually making contact, she ushered Laura towards the door with a hand hovering over her shoulder blade.

###

Nori had not moved since David helped her into the bed in the recovery room. She might have slept for a bit before a sudden commotion out in the lab nearby woke her, but she had lost track of time and was no longer even sure whether it was yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Dr. Grey, her voice raw from exhaustion, was speaking to someone else there, or maybe it was several someones, but otherwise it all jumbled and ran together into a cacophonous mush of sound on the other side of the wall. A sense of smothering urgency hung over the med bay, but Nori couldn't lift her head from her pillow. Instead, unable to fall back asleep, she remained lying on her side and stared blankly at the wall in front of her.

Slowly whatever was happening next door quieted down, and for a moment she was left in silence.

A moment spoiled when Keller stormed in, raking his hair in frustration and muttering a string of some truly creative profanity about Dr. Bradley. Nori neither responded nor gave him any further consideration, and she continued to bore an imaginary hole into the wall across from her. It was some moments more before her brain even processed he was speaking to her, and it finally took him dropping his stupid face into her view and waggling his fingers in front of her eyes for her to focus enough to pay attention.

"Yo! Pikachu! Are you even listening to me?" Keller asked, when she finally heard him.

"Go away," she said.

"Do you even care what's happening around here anymore?" He folded his arms across his chest and glared down at her. "That freakin' mad scientist decided to start sticking needles in Laura and she nearly took his head off. Jubilee and a bunch of others have gotten sick since last night, too. This whole place is falling apart, and you're just lying there!"

Nori didn't answer, and wished he would just shut up and leave. She was tempted to zap him, but that would draw her attention away from the wall.

"And what happened last night? We were getting our asses kicked and you just ran off and left us."

"Would it have really made a difference if I didn't?" she asked.

Keller fumed. "Probably not. Laura says we were never meant to actually beat him. I mean it's Magneto, so yeah. But that doesn't mean we weren't supposed to try."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you. We lose either way, so why does it matter?"

He stared at her incredulously. "You're supposed to be leading us, and that's all you've got?"

"What can I say?" She took a steadying breath and squeezed her eyes shut tight while she prepared for perhaps the most horrible and humiliating words she ever had to say in her life. "It should have been you."

"What?"

"The team. It should never have been me in charge. They should have given the team to you."

Nori opened her eyes again. There. It was said. Time for him to gloat and take control. Better for everyone.

To her surprise his shoulders slumped, and he hung his head. He sighed in frustration and twisted his lip as if tasting something sour. "No, Cyclops was right."

Keller stepped out of her view, and the bed squeaked and shifted when he sat down on the end of it.

"He was right to give it to you," he said. "I'd have probably gotten everyone killed in Hicksville, because I'd have just rushed in looking to start a fight. I sure as hell wouldn't have listened to Alleyne's advice about how to take out that Sentinel during training."

"And I almost got everyone killed in Salem," she said, and silently cursed him at the unevenness of her voice.

"That wasn't your fault. Look, even Laura got blindsided by those guys, and sometimes it scares the hell out of me just how...aware she is of everything. She's five-foot-nothing and can carve up Stryker's fundie Delta Force wannabees like they were a goddamned Boy Scout troop, and they managed to ambush her and take her out of the fight! Do you really think you should have done better than we did?"

"I put us there. I should have been prepared."

"We didn't even know those assholes existed! None of us could have seen it coming...well, Ruth probably could have warned us if anyone could even begin to piece together her crazy enough to figure out what the hell she was saying half the time. The truth is we were all in over our heads."

"It's still my responsibility. I screwed up."

Keller groaned in frustration, and the bed shifted again when he stood up. "Jesus Christ, that's the entire point I'm trying to make here: You didn't. And this is me saying it!

"Like, Sofia and Laurie did this experiment for McCoy's chem lab last year. I don't know what it was, but they were mixing a bunch of stuff together. They followed the instructions exactly as McCoy told them, and she said the entire test tube exploded on them. Sofia almost smacked me when I laughed about it, because it sprayed this gunk right in her face that turned it green for a week.

"They did everything right, but they still failed the lab."

"You almost died," she said.

"Yeah, I did. So don't you think if I thought you'd screwed up I'd have been rubbing it in your face?

"You're supposed to be leading us. Cyclops and Xavier put you in charge for a reason. So you need to get off your ass, stop feeling sorry for yourself, and figure out how to put your head back in the game. Magneto wants everyone dressed out this morning so he can throw us around the room again, so you better have a plan this time. Because if all you can do is lie around here you really will be failing us."

And with that, he stormed from the room, leaving Nori to continue contemplating the wall.

###

Bobby looked up at the apartment complex towering over him. Mutant Town was unusually silent, except for the distant wailing of an ambulance rushing for Mount Sinai. The police had not yet set up road blocks to cut off access to the district, but their presence was everywhere on the streets to help coordinate the response to the situation as it deteriorated.

"What do you think?" he asked, and glanced at Ororo standing beside him.

She considered the building carefully. "Hank said almost all the first cases to arrive were residents of this block. About two dozen from this building, a few more from next door, and others from up and down the street or on the other side of the alley.

"If the virus was deliberately released as he thinks, we're likely to find something here."

Bobby folded his arms across his chest and frowned at the red brick façade of the apartment building fronting the sidewalk. The iron cage of the fire escape zig-zagged up the top five stories. None of the residents had noticed anything suspicious, at least that they reported to the police accompanying them and who were now checking the building; neither of them could risk entering themselves under the circumstances.

"Yeah, but what are we looking for?"

Ororo sighed. "Hank was, unfortunately, extremely vague. It could be literally anything at this point."

"I don't know, 'Ro, I don't like this one bit. I especially don't like being away from the school with all this going on. With Scott and the Professor down, Jean tied up dealing with the sick kids, Logan off with his team doing who-knows-what, Sam running around keeping up appearances, Pete in Limbo, and us, Hank, and Kitty out here ..." He sighed and shook his head. "I just keep thinking how that was exactly how Stryker was able to attack the school last winter."

"We do have Nori's team there."

"I know, but they're still just kids."

Ororo's lips twitched into an amused smirk. "I seem to remember you weren't any older than they are now when you became an X-Man."

Bobby flashed her a scowl of feigned indignance. "Yeah, but I was more mature than they are."

She laughed. "Bobby, you're still not any more mature than they are. Marie keeps me informed on everything."

He rolled his eyes, and his face heated in embarrassment at what sort of stories she could be telling about him. "Whatever she says it's a lie."

"Oh, Paige, Kitty, Jubilee, and I all get a big laugh out of it. I'd say Jean and the Professor wouldn't hear it from me, but I'm sure they already have, too."

He took one look at the playful grin on her face and shook his head. "You're killing me, 'Ro."

"Turn about is fair play, Bobby." She made a show of mussing up his hair. A couple of the responders waiting with them on the sidewalk had to turn away to hide their efforts to restrain their laughter. "I still remember all the trouble you gave me back then, and I'm not going to let you hear the end of it, either."

"I should have volunteered to go with Logan ..."

Before the repartee could continue, the crew emerged from the building, two of them carrying a large cannister between them. Bobby frowned and glanced at Ororo, and found his own curiosity mirrored in her features.

"What is that?" he asked.

"I don't know, but I don't like it. Come on," she replied, and started forward to meet them.

Bobby trailed after her, and they gathered around the men carrying the device. It looked much like a regular propane tank, but something was off about it he couldn't quite place.

"We found this in the HVAC room of the building," said one of the investigators, a heavy-set and mustachioed man who couldn't look or sound any more New York if he tried. "It was hidden, but someone had run a hose into the ventilation system. Even then we still might have overlooked it if we weren't specifically lookin' for somethin' outta place. Yooz seen anything like this before?"

Bobby shrugged. "Not since our last barbecue. 'Ro?"

Ororo shook her head. "Other than it being a storage tank for some sort of compressed gas ..."

"You think that's how they exposed the building?"

"Woah, exposed?" the investigator said, and his face paled. "Hey, we're not all gonna come down with this thing, will we?"

"Unless you're a mutant or a carrier of the X-gene, you're safe," Bobby said.

"Do ya think yooz ought to be messin' with that thing?"

"Almost certainly not," Ororo said. "Let's get this contained."

"Agreed," Bobby said, but something fixed to the simple valve knob on top caught his eye, and he leaned in for a closer look. "Hold on, there's something attached ..."

"Bobby, wait!"

Ororo's hand caught his arm, but not soon enough. Something on the tank beeped, and a scratchy, tinny voice blurted out, "Mutant genetics detected, threat identified."

"Was that a Sentinel's gene detector?!" Bobby said, incredulously.

As if in response, a concealed blasting cap blew off the neck of the valve with a sharp bang that echoed across the street, and a foul-smelling gas blasted directly into his face.

###

Act II

###

Peter woke the next morning — or at least he thought it was the next morning, the haze and ubiquitous red glow of Limbo made guessing the hour impossible — to the pervasive stench of brimstone and sulfur. He found himself still slumped in the chair he had been watching over Illyana from after laying her to bed.

He rubbed his eyes at the memory of following S'ym through the blasted, fiery plains of Limbo, to a twisted fortress of black stone erected on a hill behind many ramparts and towers. Though beyond the walls the denizens of Limbo were mostly bestial in form and intelligence, all those he saw upon approaching the fortress were of human shape, armed with bladed implements of various sorts, and girded in armor of polished black metal.

He paid little attention when the giant demon led him through the massive iron doors of the central keep, through a dark hallway, and then finally up the steep spiraling staircase to the top of the highest tower, where a room had been prepared for his sister.

Now he allowed himself a moment to examine his surroundings more closely. In an odd juxtaposition of the twisted hellscape of Limbo, his sister's private chamber was surprisingly cheery. The floors were of polished wood with a pale blue rug dominating much of it, and the walls were covered in white plaster. He could not tell from where it was illuminated, but a soft, warm, golden light filled the space. Dark wood columns supported the beams holding up the ceiling, and a large window in an elegant gilt frame looked out across the countryside. Behind a screen in one corner stood a luxurious alabaster bathing tub with gilt fittings. The remaining furniture — a dresser, wardrobe, vanity with elaborate mirror, a small, circular table surrounded by four chairs, and a night stand on each side of the massive, four-post bed — was all of wood, and of remarkable craftsmanship. The mattress of the bed was soft, with large, fluffy pillows, and a bed set of pale gold satin. Stuffed animals of every possible description piled on top of it.

And to his horror, Peter realized that his sister was no longer in it.

He leapt from his seat, a plush, comfortable chair matched to the rest of the décor, in a panic. Before he could call out a door nearby creaked open, and two demons, garbed as servants, entered bearing a tray. They bowed low upon placing them on the table, and then withdrew again.

"Wait!" he called. "What's happened to Illyana? Where is she?"

One of the servants paused, turned, and bowed respectfully. It clutched its taloned hands together as if in supplication. "Forgive us, but the Mistress has already broken her fast," the demon said, its voice somehow managing to be both ominous and stuffily polite at the same time. "She bids you eat, and you may enjoy the art gallery downstairs. She will summon you when she is ready."

"Summon me?" Peter replied.

The demon nodded. "Yes, sire. The Mistress has other matters requiring her attention. But she asks that you not worry, and enjoy the repast."

With that, it bowed again and followed its companion out the door. The latch clicked, though there was no sound of a lock or bolt, and he was left alone.

Peter sighed. What on Earth is Illyana playing at? She's sick and ought to be in bed!

He reluctantly turned towards the table and dropped onto one of the chairs — despite the spindly and delicate craftsmanship it didn't so much as squeak under his weight — and considered the trays in front of him. Both were of finely crafted silver of an opulence he had not even seen at the most high-class formal dinners at the school. He removed the lid of one of the trays and laughed in spite of himself at the aroma of hot kasha, and his mouth watered when he realized it smelled much like his memories of their mother's cooking. With it was a platter of Syrniki topped by fruit and sour cream, and two stacks of Blini; one topped with sour cream and red caviar, the other with strawberry jam and fresh sliced strawberries.

He lifted the lid of the other tray, and there was a bowl of fresh Tvorog with blueberries and strawberries, and a platter of Doktorskaya, smoked sausage, cheese, and black bread with butter for making buterbrody. Last, and certainly not least, there were cookies and tea for after the meal.

Peter shook his head in amusement at the extravagance of the breakfast, and idly wondered how much power Illyana expended for simple hospitality.

With little else to do for the moment, and his stomach growling over the fragrant melding of aromas, he dug in. Almost immediately, his mind was transported many years to the past, to the little farm on the shores of Lake Baikal. Everything tasted exactly as he remembered from his childhood, and Peter wondered whether that was some artifact of Illyana using her magic. I've never known her to cook a day in her life, and I can't imagine her teaching her demons to do so. It almost tastes too perfect, not that I'll complain.

He took his time savoring the meal and allowing the memories they conjured of home to carry him away, but soon everything was finished, and he grew anxious to see Illyana and make sure she wasn't pushing herself too hard. So, remembering the suggestion of the servant, he pushed himself away from the table and made his way for the door.

It opened out onto a landing illuminated by lamps of gold and crystal, with a stairwell spiraling down. With nowhere else to go, he followed this. There were no other chambers or stops all the way down, which he estimated to be the height of a modest New York high rise. Well, it was a big breakfast, so at least I'm working it off. Eventually, he reached the bottom and found himself in the northeast corner of a large antechamber. In the center of the long southern wall was a passage leading to the main entrance and grounds. Across this to the north, an elaborate set of double doors flanked by guards in ceremonial armor barred access to what he suspected was the great hall. There were other doorways to the east and west, though he could not guess what lay behind them. Tucked away between the stairwell to the tower and the doors to the great hall was another open passage, through which drifted the Promenade theme of Pictures at an Exhibition.

Curious, he followed the music, and shortly found himself in what, he assumed, was the gallery. Like Illyana's room it was a chamber of luxurious embellishment; fine, polished dark wood, marble floors, and lit by more gold and crystal lamps. There was no indication exactly where the music originated. Another magical conjuration, I suspect. Statuary and sculpture of marble and stone dominated the center of the floor, ranging in styles from modern (one even appeared to have been the work of Kevin Ford, before he disappeared) to classical Greek. The surrounding space was divided into several open halls, and Peter was soon aware that each hall was dedicated to a particular artist or stylistic school.

A survey revealed an astonishing collection of historical and modern paintings, and it seemed no matter how deeply into the gallery he ventured, there was another hall, and another, as if the dimensions of the room held no meaning. Some were pieces lost to time, theft, or war, and which Peter recognized only from descriptions in books and scholarly works, or the rare photo or facsimile. Others were famous compositions from the Louvre, the Met, the British Museum, and the National Gallery, among many other prestigious institutions. Warhol, Da Vinci, Hokusai, Caravaggio, Picasso, Dali, Zhaodao, and many more from across the world from antiquity to the 21st Century, all neatly hung from the walls of their respective niches. Peter thought he could spend a lifetime studying and cataloguing the full extent of the collection, yet barely scratch the surface.

However, he soon reached what appeared to be the place of honor of the collection; opposite the main doors, and positioned so that one would naturally find their way to it as they browsed the other alcoves. A marble archway served as a portal admitting access within, and when Peter stepped inside a lump rose in his throat.

Every single piece was his work.

Some were very old; forgotten exercises of his childhood. Many of them were little drawings, sketches, and watercolors he made for Illyana when she was still very young, before her powers manifested and she came to Xavier's. Others were more recent; mature works he had painted for Kitty, or gifted to the Professor to display in the school. Some he had never shown to anyone, and he marveled at the completeness of the collection. His face heated in embarrassment at his modest work being held in esteem even above the Great Masters, yet it was all carefully arranged, so each piece could be displayed in its best light and context.

"The Mistress thinks very highly of your talents," came a hissing, rattling voice behind him. Peter spun around, and found S'ym standing over him, his taloned hands clasped at his back while he regarded the collection. "She insisted that it be displayed in a place of honor. Though I myself am quite fond of Caravaggio."

Peter stared at the giant demon in surprise, not least because he never imagined such a creature appreciating the arts.

"I'd never have considered my work worthy of being displayed in the same hall as the Great Masters," he replied, "much less with this much reverence."

The demon grunted. "It must be a human trait. But come, this is not the time to discuss art, the Mistress is ready to see you."

Without waiting for him to respond, S'ym turned and stalked away, and Peter hurried to follow.

###

"Dude, you gotta be kidding me!" Santo said, astonished, and pretty much speaking for everyone else in the gym.

"We're sure those are real plates, right?" Julian asked.

"Hey, you made the bet," Cessily said with a smirk. "Don't tell me you're trying to back out now."

He spit her with an impotent glare. "Just load up the next set."

They gathered around the flat bench in uniform while waiting for Magneto to arrive and throw them into another ass-beating session, and Julian didn't know whether to be impressed or terrified. Laura lay on the bench, her feet planted firmly on the floor, and gripped the barbell with both hands while she waited for Victor and Santo to add another set of plates.

"Ok, this is going to be 405 pounds," Cessily said. "Anyone else want in?"

Sooraya shook her head, and buried her face in her hands. "I'm not sure this is what was meant when we were instructed to work on team-building."

"So that's a no from Soo. How about you, Nori?"

Julian glanced across the gym to where Ashida sat with Rahne. Rahne had finally found a spare training uniform that more or less fit her slim frame, though he doubted it would hold up if she wolfed out. Ashida showed no more sign of being engaged with anything as she had last night, and he chafed that even after he manned up and admitted she was the right person to lead the team, she remained distant and subdued. I don't care how much she annoys me. If we're not butting heads she's lost it.

"Nori?" Cessily repeated.

Ashida shook her head and slumped her shoulders. Cessily watched her for a moment and sighed. "All right. Rahne?"

"I'm nae sure what the Good Lord would have t' say about makin' wagers," she said. "Especially if ye might just get someone hurt in the process."

"Come on, it's just a bit of fun."

"Well, ye go an' have yer fun, but I'll pass on it."

"Suit yourself," Cessily said. "Just remember when Julian loses you don't get to share when he buys everyone dinner."

Julian made a face at her. "Can we just do it already?"

"Just making sure there's no one else wanting in. Ready, Laura?"

"Yes," Laura said, almost conversationally.

"All right, Santo, help her start the bar, then it's all you. Same as before: You have to rack it yourself. If Santo has to help, you lose."

"Right!" Santo said, and took position to spot. Julian folded his arms across his chest and waited for Laura to find a comfortable grip, and then all her muscles strained when she pushed the bar off the rack with Santo's help. He then released it, and they all stood dumbstruck at her supporting the full 405 pounds on her own.

She inhaled while slowly lowering the bar to her chest. Then, bracing her feet against the floor and with her back and shoulders flat on the bench, she pushed it up again. Her body quivered, and the muscles in her arms, chest, and shoulders strained from the effort. She did not exhale until she had successfully finished the press and racked the weights again with a loud clunk.

Cessily let out a victorious whoop and clapped. Laura rolled off the bench and stood upright again.

"Ok, just how the hell is that even possible?" Julian asked, flabbergasted, more than a little intimidated, and... he forcibly banished that particular thought before it told in his features. "You're five-foot-nothing, built like McKayla Maroney, and are barely a hundred pounds soaking wet!"

"Oh, good call," Santo said. "She's hot, too."

"Because of my healing factor, my skeletal structure, connective tissue, and musculature are denser than would be the case for a normal human," Laura said, ignoring Santo's remark. "My bones are therefore less prone to failing under stress, and I am able to exert considerably more force without risk of rupturing muscles or tendons."

"What does that mean?" Santo asked, scratching his head with the grating sound of stone on stone.

"It means she's a lot stronger than she looks," Cessily said, then flashed Julian a mischievous smile. "And Julian owes everyone dinner."

Julian frowned. "So, if one of us had taken a hit like what Magneto did to you last night ..."

"My leg broke. Yours would likely shatter," Laura replied. "Logan would be even stronger. Although the amount of additional muscle mass required to move the extra weight of the adamantium bonded to his skeleton has been exaggerated, there would be no risk of a bone fracturing under excessive stress because of it."

"How about you, Vic? Is super-dense bones and muscles why you can toss Santo off the stairs when he pisses you off?"

Victor shrugged. "I think it's just that he's got so many rocks in his head it makes him top-heavy and easy to flip."

"Hey!" Santo said, indignantly.

"Anyway, let's take stock," Cessily said, and Julian narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the playful gleam in her eyes. "We know Laura can kick Julian's ass, and she's stronger than him."

"Don't forget smarter," Victor added. "I've seen his report card."

"Oh, and faster."

"What are you picking on me for?" Julian said, mock defensively. Laura just looked between them with a subtle hint of amusement tugging at her lips.

"What does that leave Julian?" Victor asked, quite deliberately ignoring his protestations.

"Ego," Cessily said. "Definitely ego."

"Oh, and I don't think he's been all that disappointed when Laura throws him around on the mat," Santo said, and grinned his big, stupid grin. Julian's face heated, and a hint of color even appeared on Laura's cheeks at the suggestive lilt of his voice.

"You guys suck!" he said, turning his back to the group in hopes of hiding his sudden discomfiture. If the others thought anything of Santo's remark, none of them said anything. "I don't need this kind of abuse, I'll just wait for Magneto to get here and start kicking our asses again."

Cessily laughed lightly, stepped up beside him, and threaded an arm around his shoulders. She hugged him against her and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Oh, don't be such a spoilsport. You know it's just because we love you."

Julian stuck out his tongue, and from the corner of his eye he caught a hint of a smile creep onto Laura's lips.

Any further give and take was cut off when the door to the gym opened. But rather than Magneto, it was Josh who stepped inside. Santo folded his arms across his massive chest, and his glowing blue eyes glowered down at him. Julian scowled. Laura looked between them. Something odd passed across her features, and with some embarrassment he noticed her place herself between them when Foley turned right towards him. The others all shifted uncomfortably, and the room suddenly grew very tense. Only Rahne received his arrival warmly, and she hopped down from her seat next to Ashida and trotted over like an excited puppy who had been left home alone for five minutes.

"Hey Josh," she said. "Have ye come to watch us get killed by Magneto again?"

"Actually, I'm here to take Julian away from you guys and give him a reprieve. You'll have to get your butts kicked without him. Dr. Grey wants to see you."

Everyone suddenly looked his way, and Julian's scowl screwed up into a confused frown.

"Me? What did I do?"

"Knowing you, that could be a lot of things," Cessily said dryly, and Julian spit her with a dirty look that just broadened the playful smile on her silver features.

"She didn't tell me, I'm just a messenger," Foley said with a shrug.

"Why'd she send you over? Why not call me through the psychic hotline?"

"Something about having not realized how much it hurts."

Julian's face heated in embarrassment, and Cessily doubled over laughing. He just sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, anything to escape the torture Cess has been putting me through."

She just giggled and patted him on the shoulder once she regained control of herself. "Hurry back, it won't be the same getting our asses kicked without you."

###

Jean slumped in her office chair and wearily rubbed her eyes. She knew she ought to be taking advantage of the brief lull to try getting some rest, but as fast as the situation in the school was changing, she dared not allow herself even a few minutes of inattention. Even Scott's positive response to the serum could do little to lift her spirits: Though he woke briefly and his vitals and temperature were improving, he soon fell back asleep. She wanted nothing more right now than to be there with him, but she knew it would do no one any good. Hank's last call certainly did nothing to improve matters.

Sleep would simply have to wait.

It took a few minutes for the expected knock at her office door, and she frowned when she felt three presences outside; Josh and Julian standing outside her door, and a third trailing along a short ways behind.

"Come in," she said.

Josh entered first, followed by Julian. The latter tried to put himself as far from Josh as he could in the confines of her office, and she sighed heavily. With the school threatening to fall apart around her Jean had not had the opportunity to address the conflict she felt brewing between the two, and there would be little time to do so now.

Of all the times for Josh's history with the Reavers to come to light, this has to be the worst...

"Have a seat, please. Both of you," she said, and motioned to the chairs across the desk from her. They complied without a word. "There's no use in dancing around it, so I'll be frank with you both: Storm and Iceman have fallen ill."

Julian gawked, Josh's golden features paled, and both their thoughts were alive with fears that neither was willing to admit to publicly.

"They were investigating the source of the outbreak in Mutant Town, and it seems one of the cannisters used to deliver the virus had been booby trapped.

"I've spoken with Dr. McCoy, and the situation there seems to be getting worse even without this. He's already beginning to see cases of the second stage of the disease, though fortunately the powers involved have not proven particularly dangerous. But the number of victims is climbing even faster than they have here, and he's requested you two at Mount Sinai immediately."

Their shock was almost physically palpable, and they looked between one another without a word. Julian managed to find his voice first.

"Look, I can get why the Doc would want Foley," he said, "but what am I supposed to do? Fetch bedpans?"

Jean leaned forward and met his eyes. Julian was seldom forthcoming about his insecurities, but she could read them plainly now, even without needing to draw on her power. "Dr. McCoy believes that you may be able to help by containing any sudden outbursts in the event a mutant with more destructive powers comes down sick with the second stage.

"Your ability to create and maintain telekinetic shielding has developed considerably in our classes over the past few months, and I agree with him. We can't afford an incident in such a crowded location as Mount Sinai. Especially because we can't rule out that someone might try to attack the hospital directly. We've been concerned from the moment we discovered the second stage that it might be deliberately weaponized, and a hospital would be an ideal target. They have transferred as many of their non-mutant patients as they can to other locations as a precaution, but there are a number that can't be moved, and we need someone who can prevent a catastrophe if the worst should happen."

Julian rubbed his forehead anxiously. "I don't know if I can do it," he admitted. "If it had been me in the lounge when Jubilee went off ..."

"Julian, you can. You contained a very powerful explosive device during Stryker's attack on the school, and you've only grown more refined since then."

He sighed and sunk down into his chair. "Ok, I'll try."

Jean offered him a reassuring smile. "I have faith that you'll do far better than that. Just remember what we've worked on." She then turned to Josh, who fidgeted. "Josh, I want you to assist Dr. McCoy directly. Do what you can with your powers to help those who are sick. I know you haven't been able to attack the virus directly," she said, cutting off the protest forming on his lips, "but anything you can do to try will be of help. The hospital staff is also overwhelmed as it is, so the extra pair of hands now that we're down two more people will be of tremendous use."

Josh nodded wordlessly, and shrunk into himself.

"Good. For the next matter: Right now, our foremost concern is getting this outbreak under control, and helping the people who have been infected. I know that tensions are high between you two over what happened in Salem, but I need you to put that behind you. Now. We can sit down and talk through it once we're out of this crisis, but right now we need everyone on the same page, and I can't afford you two getting into it. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Dr. Grey," Josh said.

Julian's lip twisted into a scowl, but he gave a grudging nod. Nonetheless, he refused to so much as look Josh's way.

"Now, just one more thing before you're dismissed," she said, and looked to the door of her office. "You may come in, Laura."

Laura awkwardly edged around the side of the door, shrinking down into herself in chagrin at having been caught eavesdropping. Jean merely offered her a reassuring smile.

"What can I do for you?" Jean already suspected what had Laura following along behind Julian, but though she could pluck the confirmation from her mind, she allowed her to give voice to it herself.

"I would like to volunteer to accompany Julian and Joshua," she said, her voice even quieter than normal. Julian's face colored a little bit at that.

"I believe you have a training session with Erik, and I'll already be leaving him short Julian," Jean said.

Laura hugged herself, and an uncomfortable shiver ran through her body. "I...do not like Dr. Bradley. I don't want him chasing me with needles again."

Jean sighed in sympathy. "I know, and as I said when we spoke earlier, I'm sorry he touched you without your permission. I've already warned him not to pressure you, and I promise he won't do it again."

"Furthermore, if you believe someone may attack the hospital, I would also be of more value there providing additional security."

Though the response was the sort of analytical logic Jean had come to expect from her, somehow it rang strangely hollow, as if it were an argument she made to cover her real feelings. Jean dared not probe deeper in fear of upsetting her delicate emotional equilibrium, but Laura's surface thoughts when she spoke were a jumbled mismatch of confused feelings, all of them centering around Julian. The most dominant was a sense of protectiveness Jean had felt growing stronger after the attack in Salem.

It may not actually be the hospital she's concerned with, but she does make a good point, nonetheless. With 'Ro and Bobby out of action it leaves only Kitty to help Hank. If the Reavers or one of Stryker's people were to attack the hospital...

"The shuttle will be leaving immediately," she said with another sigh and a nod. We've asked so much that she's done without a thought just because she sees us as having authority over her. If this is something she wants to do I think she deserves the indulgence. "I'll let Dr. McCoy know he can expect the three of you within the hour. Laura, please see to it these two stay out of trouble."

"Yes, Dr. Grey," she said, and Julian and Josh both blushed in chagrin at the veiled admonishment.

###

The lab was a clean room behind its own airlock in the suite of rooms making up the med bay, just off the observation gallery. Rows upon rows of microscopes, spectrograms, sensors, detectors, autoclaves, centrifuges, incubators, cryostats, and analyzers of every type crowded every available wall and table. There were freezers for cold storage of temperature-sensitive samples and chemicals, an industrial sink for cleaning beakers and other equipment, and cabinets for the storage of same. Air conditioning units brought the temperature down to just below comfortable, while air scrubbers hummed and filtered out any potential contaminants. Another airlock door led to a decontamination chamber in the event something unfortunate should occur.

David, dressed head to foot in a clean room suit, with a mask covering his mouth and nose, raised a hand to wearily pinch the bridge of his nose between his eyes, but was stopped by the goggles covering them. Instead, he blinked a few times to work some moisture back into them. The excitement of the morning when Laura nearly snikted Dr. Bradley aside, the day had been a monotonous grind of samples and cataloguing. Josh had been called away by Dr. Grey a few minutes ago, leaving him to carry on alone.

At the moment, only Dr. Rao was still in the lab with him, running an experiment on a sample of Megan Gwynne's blood with a modified form of Dr. McCoy's serum. David could have run it himself once he grabbed her knowledge of the procedure, which would have freed her up for other tasks and at least given him something more interesting to do than peering through a microscope and counting cells. But Dr. Rao insisted on doing the work herself, likely as an excuse to have a few moments of peace from Dr. Bradley.

David couldn't blame her.

He sighed and jotted a few notes down, before removing the slide he had been looking at and discarding it in a medical waste receptacle. He removed his gloves, tossed them in to the bin as well, and then pulled a fresh pair from the box next to his station. The next sample was waiting for him, freshly prepared and ready to go. He reviewed the label and frowned at the instructions in Dr. Bradley's erratic hand:

Diagnostic subject: Laura Kinney

Exposure test using virus sample to determine effects of subject's healing factor interacting with the pathogen upon exposure. Make observations at 30-minute intervals.

He started a fresh line on his notepad and prepared the sample. I hope this was worth Bradley almost losing an arm. Laura really didn't like him touching her. David placed the slide on the microscope's stage and peered through the eyepieces. He adjusted the axes and focus knobs, and selected his objective. And the moment the image came into focus his head shot upright in disbelief.

"What ...?"

David looked again, and his mouth suddenly went dry.

"Dr. Rao!" he called.

"One moment, please," Rao replied calmly.

"Dr. Rao, you need to see this right away!"

Rao's chair squeaked, and a moment later he felt her hovering over him.

"What is it?"

David backed away from the microscope and gave her room to sit down and look for herself. Her expression was largely masked from view at this angle by her mask and goggles, but he could still make out the consternation spreading on her features.

"Dear God," she muttered, then looked up at him. "Call Dr. Grey and Dr. Bradley immediately!"

###

They gathered in the briefing amphitheater, seated together while Magneto addressed them from the floor below. Only Nori distanced herself from the rest of them, sitting with her head bowed off to the side and not looking at any of them. Laura and Julian were conspicuously absent, as well, and Cessily frowned; Julian may have been called away by Dr. Grey, but Laura simply disappeared. Given her inclination for silently following along the peripheral of a group, it was not until they filed into the amphitheater that any of them noticed she was gone.

Below, Magneto stood straight-backed with his arms folded behind him. Somehow, he seemed even grayer and older than yesterday.

"I have been informed by Dr. Grey that perhaps my methods yesterday may have been, shall we say, too advanced for you," he began, and Cessily couldn't help but notice the roughness in his voice. "However, there was a very specific purpose to the exercise. Would any of you care to venture a guess what that was?"

Cessily raised her hand. "Um, Mr. Magneto, shouldn't we wait for Laura and Julian to get back?"

"Hellion, Talon, and Elixir have been dispatched to Mount Sinai at Dr. McCoy's request to address the situation there, so they shall not be joining us."

They all looked between each other, and a pall of uncertainty settled over the group. It made sense that Dr. McCoy would request Josh to be sent, but the thought that Julian, and especially Laura, might be necessary sent a shiver down her spine.

"Are they expecting some sort of trouble?" Sooraya asked, giving voice to the question Cessily suspected was on all their minds. Except perhaps Santo. He just watched with his usual dopey expression.

"I really cannot say, so I suggest you put it from your minds for now and focus on the task at hand. So tell me: What went wrong in our last session?"

Santo raised his hand. "Uh, we got our asses kicked?"

"Wow, great job, Santo," Victor said. "You really hit the nail on the head."

"Hey, he asked what went wrong. Us losing was wrong."

"Weren't you paying attention last night? Laura said we weren't supposed to win."

"And your young friend was quite correct," Magneto said, cutting off any retort from Santo. "Yesterday's exercise was not about winning. In fact, it was very much about losing. Now, I ask again: What went wrong?"

No one responded, and everyone tried to look anywhere but at him. After a few moments of awkward silence, he sighed and rolled his eyes.

"The failure, was that you had no sense of direction or leadership." He turned his icy gaze on Nori. Cessily watched her do her best Laura-into-her-jacket impression, and she tried to shrink away from his glare. "Yesterday was a test of you, Surge, and I will not mince words: You failed."

"Because I should never have been in charge," she said, the first words she had spoken most of the morning. "I'm not a leader."

"Why? Because you lost? Because people nearly died under your command?"

Nori just lowered her head and nodded. Magneto sighed, and for a moment it seemed to Cessily that he swayed on his feet. "The mark of a leader is not in never losing. Many of the greatest generals in history have lost a battle, sometimes disastrously." He paused and swallowed, as if his throat had suddenly gone dry. "What sets apart a leader is how they respond to defeat, and how they learn from it. Your failure was not that you were unable to defeat me; you were never meant to. I could have killed you all had I wished.

"You failed because you allowed what happened against the Reavers to consume you, and prevent you from making decisions in the present at all."

"You weren't there!" Nori snapped, and shot to her feet. The lights began flickering when she lost her temper, and with it what control she had over her powers.

Magneto mopped his forehead. "My dear, I didn't need to be. I have faced death and defeat since before your parents were born. You were beaten. You were bloodied. You survived. You only fail so long as you don't get back up again."

No one said a word, and allowed the awkwardness to hang over the amphitheater. Even Santo remained mercifully silent for the moment. Cessily looked between Nori and Magneto; Nori looking as petulant as only a contrary teenage girl could, Magneto glowering sternly up at her, as if challenging her to lash out. His features were drawn, and, it seemed to Cessily, had grown paler.

And it was then she noticed the sweat beading on his brow, and, more horrifying, a small trickle of blood dribbling down from his nose.

"Someone get Dr. Grey," Cessily said, slowly rising to her feet when Magneto touched his fingertips to the blood, and studied them with growing dread once the realization settled over him.

"What's wrong?" Sooraya said, uncomprehendingly.

Nori's features paled when she saw it, as well. "Do it!" she snapped. "Someone get her now!"

"I'm on it!" Rahne replied, and all but bounded up the amphitheater benches in her rush to the top.

No sooner did she reach it and start for the doors than the little trickle of blood built into a torrent, and now began to flow from his mouth, ears, and eyes. He sunk suddenly to his knees and vomited, a slimy pool of bile, blood, and whatever he last ate splattering over the floor to Santo's disgust. A low, electric hum buzzed between Cessily's ears, and to her dismay she realized she couldn't move.

Magneto cried out and grabbed the sides of his head, and all around him the metal panels and flooring began to squeal and buckle. Cessily felt his power tearing at her body. She wanted to scream in agony, but she was completely frozen in place.

"Everyone out!" Nori cried, unnecessarily, while the entire briefing room seemed to be collapsing around them.

Magneto was now screaming, and the amount of energy building up around him condensed to the point it began to distort the light around him. Santo and Victor both ran for the door, Victor springing lightly over the benches while Santo ploughed through them. Cessily was distantly aware of Sooraya seizing her by the arm but, try as she might, could not budge her.

"Nori! I think Cessily can't move, and I can't move her, either," she called. Nori tried to come to her side, but stumbled awkwardly when she, too, was trapped in place.

"Oh shit!" she cried. "My gauntlets, I can't—"

Nori's words died in an agonized scream and the squeal of crumpling metal when her gauntlets crushed around her hands. The benches, wall panels, and flooring all collapsed under the strain, and the electric buzzing in Cessily's ears was now deafening. Her whole body was one big undifferentiated mass of pure pain. Her skin began to spaghettify, drawn to the heart of the magnetic storm centered around Magneto.

Her last conscious thought before a massive blast of energy slammed into her was a prayer that it would all end soon.

###

S'ym led Peter into a grand, cavernous chamber of black marble. It was fashioned in gothic style, but rather than the opulence of the library and Illyana's room, the effect here projected an atmosphere of something sinister and twisted. Guards in armor were stationed at intervals, and a few functionaries — Peter could not quite wrap his head around the concept of demon courtiers — gathered below a dais mounted by seven broad steps.

A single, towering throne sat atop the dais, fashioned of gleaming black stone graven with reliefs of grotesque leering faces filled with sharp fangs, skulls, and panels of bodies writhing in agony while trampled beneath the hooves of a towering horned woman brandishing a sword.

Peter's bile churned in his belly when he observed the figure's likeness to Illyana.

His sister lounged on a dark purple cushion upon the throne, one leg hooked over an armrest while she slouched against the other, her hand propped upon the hilt of her sword, which stood upright in its scabbard on the floor. Peter's face heated in embarrassment at the sight of her: Above the waist, she wore a cuirass of the same polished metal as did the guards, with elaborately etched and embossed pauldrons, fully articulated arm armor, and finger gauntlets.

Yet this was paired with a flimsy black scapula that only just preserved her modesty below the waist, with a narrow strip of fabric hanging down the front and back that left the sides of both legs nearly naked to the hips, except for knee-high boots encased in greaves and sabatons, with fanned poleyns protecting her knees. Atop her head she wore a black spiked crown. It all looked uncomfortably like something out of a video game, and surely their mother and father would be scandalized if they could see her in such a revealing state.

S'ym stopped below the dais and bowed.

"Mistress, I present your brother as you have commanded," he said.

"Thank you, S'ym," Illyana said, then turned her attention to him. She smiled when she met his eyes, but it was not the mischievous little smirk she favored Melody and her other friends with after some teasing comment, or even the special warm smile she saved solely for him. No, this was something dark, baleful, and empty of joy that sent a shiver down Peter's spine. "Good morning, Piotr. Did you sleep well?"

"Well enough, Yana," he said. Illyana's eyes hardened at the familiarity of the address. "Though I worried when you weren't still in bed when I woke up. How are you feeling?"

"You don't need to concern yourself. I am in Limbo, now. Nothing happens that I do not will to be, and this virus has no control over me here."

"So, you're cured?"

"Soon," she said, and boredly flexed her armored fingers on her sword. "I have all of Limbo's power flowing through me now, so it's only a matter of time. I can send you back to Earth when you are ready to go."

Peter frowned up at her. "Send me back?"

"Of course. There's no need for you to remain here any longer. I'll soon have made myself whole again, and I don't need you to nursemaid me."

"Is there anything you can do to help? Things have been getting worse since you got sick."

"No," Illyana said with finality.

Peter blinked in surprise. "No?"

She sat upright and crossed her legs. Her expression now grew hard as iron. "There is nothing I can do outside Limbo, and I will not permit any of the others to be brought here."

"What about Megan? And Melody?" he asked. "What about the Professor?"

"Limbo is my concern, now," she said, dismissively. "The Earth must solve its own problems."

"Yana, these are your friends!"

Illyana leaned forward. She rested her free arm across her knees, the other still gripped her sword. "Look around you, Peter. All of this is me. I have been attacked, and I don't know what might have happened here had this...assassination attempt been successful."

She leaned back again, and her armor clattered with the movement. "I will defend this place, and I shall avenge myself."

Peter sighed in exasperation. "Yana, listen to yourself! You're still not well. You've never tapped so completely into Limbo's magic before. You need to rest!"

Illyana's eyes flashed dangerously. "Don't presume to tell me what to do in my own realm, Peter! I will not have my will questioned, even by you!"

"Yana, please!"

"Get out!" she snapped, rising to her feet and pointing do the door. "Get out, or I will have you dragged out!"

"Yana—"

Peter was cut off when S'ym's massive body interposed itself between them.

"The Mistress commands that you leave her presence," he said, but despite the command in his voice, Peter noted something odd playing across the demon's features. He had never interacted with the denizens of Limbo as Illyana had, but he was shocked to realize it was fear.

"Goodbye, Peter," Illyana said. "A portal to Earth will be opened soon. I suggest you use it."

Peter stared dumbstruck at her dismissal, but with the towering muscular frame of S'ym standing between them there was nothing to be done. He sighed, turned, and stormed from the room, with the demon trailing behind him. They passed out of the doors to the great hall, and returned to the antechamber once more. S'ym stopped and beckoned him to follow.

"Come with me," S'ym said, and turned for the set of doors at the western end of the antechamber. Peter followed him, and soon found himself in a short passage with two other doors. One to the right led deeper into the castle along the western side of the great hall. The other opened onto a set of stairs spiraling down into darkness. S'ym followed this second passage, and they started down.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked after a few minutes descending in silence. So far there had been no other openings or landings, and the stairs continued to burrow deep into the earth.

"Somewhere we may talk. But not here, not yet. Now, no more questions."

Peter frowned at the demon's back, but remained silent. The stairwell seemed to go on and on forever, and the temperature plummeted the deeper they ventured. However, eventually it ended abruptly at another door. S'ym opened it and ushered him inside before shutting it behind them.

He found himself in a cramped cell with a bed, but few other comforts. Nonetheless, it was unusually warm and welcoming despite its austerity. Peter turned to S'ym, and the troubled expression on the demon's features unnerved him.

"What is happening here?" Peter demanded. "Yana has been coming to Limbo since she was a child, but I have never seen her like this before!"

"You are right, the Mistress's behavior has changed,' S'ym said.

Peter frowned. "How?"

"Though the Mistress visits often, she has never before drawn on her power as heavily as she has these past few days."

Peter gawked. "Days? What do you mean? How have I been sleeping for days with everything happening outside?"

S'ym held his hands up in supplication. "Calm yourself. Time has a different meaning in Limbo than on Earth. This is how the Mistress can use it to travel great distances in your world. Though it has been days here, not more than a few hours have passed outside. The Mistress commanded you be allowed to sleep; you were exhausted from your vigils over her." He sighed, and mopped his face with a clawed hand. "Had I realized the effect it would have on her ..."

"What effect?" Peter asked, his impatience getting the better of him. "I could see it in Yana's eyes she was prepared to attack me had you not stepped in!"

"The Mistress is not the first human to find a way into Limbo," S'ym admitted, and folded his arms across his massive chest. "Limbo is very old, predating even the creation of your Earth. The Mistress's connection to it is unique. We exist with or without her, but she is still a part of it, as it is a part of her.

"But Limbo is a place of incredible power, and power always exacts its price. Sorcerers and magicians from Earth have sought to tap into it for themselves for centuries, and they did succeed. But that power twisted them and drove them mad. The human mind is simply incapable of harnessing such power unaffected, especially if they draw on too much of it at once."

Peter studied the demon in horror. "You mean it's Limbo itself that's doing this to her?"

S'ym nodded contritely. "I fear so. It has been working at her mind slowly since she first opened a portal, but these past few days the process has quickened considerably, in part because she has been channeling its power into herself directly. This illness...what was it?"

"We're not entirely certain," Peter said. "I assume you know that Yana, I, and the others she has brought here at times while traveling are unusual from other humans."

"Yes, the Mistress has told us of mutation, and how it sets you apart from others of your species."

"This disease was manufactured specifically to attack us. In that much Yana wasn't entirely wrong; this was an assassination attempt, so to speak, though it was purely by chance she was the first to be infected. And it was not specifically an attack against her, or against Limbo, as she seems to think. It was meant to wipe out all of us."

S'ym considered that for a moment. "Then you must understand that Limbo itself is...complicated."

Peter frowned up at the thoughtful expression on the demon's features. "Complicated how?"

"The Mistress, I believe, is part of a very old prophecy: A child born of the Earth, connected directly to the Heart of Limbo. We were sworn to serve her millennia before she was even born." He lowered his voice conspiratorially, and leaned down to take Peter in. "But there are some who question being so bound to a child, and a human child, at that. They had ruled parts of Limbo for eons in her name, waiting for her to be born, and I fear they have developed a taste for power of their own in that time."

S'ym sighed, and suddenly the immense age of the demon, which Peter could not even fathom, weighed heavily on him. "This illness...if word were to spread of it ..." He shook his head. "I, and many others, remain loyal to her, but I fear that there are some who would see this as a weakness, and attempt to usurp her and take her place."

"Do you think she's in danger?"

"Possibly. They may not directly harm her, but they may attempt to use her for their own ends. I cannot even guarantee that her enemies do not have spies in this castle. I also fear what might happen if the Mistress were to be further corrupted. Those human sorcerers who tapped into Limbo in the past have done considerable damage, not just to your Earth, but to Limbo itself, and they only possessed a fraction of the power the Mistress can draw on."

"If this is true, and if she succeeds in purging the illness from her body, then I must get her home," Peter said, "for everyone's sake."

"Whatever you choose to do, you must act soon. If she continues to draw too heavily on her powers, even I dread what could be unleashed."

###

"It's no use," David said in frustration. "I checked the secondary generators, and they're completely fused, too. Anything that was powered on when Magneto blew is fried. Even the stuff that was shielded."

Jean buried her face in her hands. They were all gathered in the recovery bay, while Dr. Rao tended to Nori's hands as best she could. Every bone in them had been crushed the moment Erik's powers raged out of control and crumpled her gauntlets around them, and with all of their equipment offline there was little more they could do for her beyond giving her an injection of McCoy's serum to prevent her powers from overloading her mental faculties, and some painkillers that were doing much less for her than Jean would have liked.

A few glow lamps provided the only illumination, casting a weak circle of light around the team. Cessily lay curled up in a ball on a nearby bed while Sooraya stroked her hair to offer her comfort. Erik's powers had nearly torn her metal body into atoms during the massive magnetic blast that ripped through the lower levels of the school. David sat with Nori hugging her close to his shoulder while she cried in pain. Santo and Victor slumped in chairs nearby, and Rahne just tried to not draw attention to herself. Bradley paced the floor irritably.

"I would have thought McCoy, at least, would have the foresight to make better preparations than this," he said, gesticulating wildly in frustration. "Considering he spent the better part of 50 years at odds with a literal walking EMP, that should have been obvious!"

"Recriminations will get us nowhere, James," Rao admonished him once she finished securing the bandages immobilizing Nori's hands. "I suggest we try to fix the problem instead of complaining about it. We do have the portable generators, so at least the quarantine bay and life support equipment are back online again."

"Good thing, too," David said. "If we hadn't gotten Melody on oxygen when we did ..."

"It's best not to dwell about what could have happened," Jean said. "Dr. Rao is right: Let's focus on what we can do. Dr. Bradley, I believe this is falling more under your area of expertise without Hank, but is there anything you can do to get main power to the school restored? The portable generators won't last long."

Bradley stopped and considered. "I'll have to see what sort of materials I have to work with, though I suspect from what I've seen of McCoy's work it will be like building a nuclear reactor from stone knives and bearskins."

David shook his head and rolled his eyes. "You got that one from Star Trek."

"Ellison got that one from me," Bradley sniffed indignantly. "He often consulted me on the science for his work. But rather than appreciate its grandeur, he instead distilled it into the literary equivalent of two buck chuck."

David made a face as if Bradley had just run over his puppy, and then backed over it for good measure. "Ellison was one of the greatest science fiction writers of his generation!"

"Feh. Science fiction. I deal in science fact. And it will not be some fanciful bit of speculative wizardry that resolves this conundrum, but the liberal application of physics. Rock hard, unyielding physics!"

Everyone just stared at Bradley when he finished pontificating, and for a moment silence hung over the recovery room. Jean felt ripples of embarrassment over his choice of vocabulary from Rahne and Sooraya.

"He does hear himself, right?" Nori whispered to Rao, who could only pinch the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

"I hate it when nerds fight," Santo finally said. "Too many big words."

"I don't recall asking for opinions from the refugee from the geology lab," Bradley said.

"Can you do it?" Jean asked, cutting off Santo before he could process the insult and retort.

Bradley sighed in indignation. "Point me to the stone knives and bearskins, and bring me your strongest amphetamines since coffee is clearly out of the question without power."

"This is a school, James," Rao admonished.

"Precisely my point. One of these miscreants must have something squirreled away somewhere."

"I'm afraid you'll have to make do without," Jean said sharply, her temper beginning to get the better of her, when Bradley strained the last of her patience. "And no arguments or complaints, just get it done."

"There is another matter," Rao interjected, before Bradley could respond, "and it's the reason David called you before the incident."

Jean picked up a hint of trepidation from David that made her finer hairs stand on end. "What is it?"

"We had a chance to review the sample you took from Laura earlier," Rao said, "and our findings were...unexpected."

Jean eyed her and David closely, already not liking the tone of Rao's voice, or of their thoughts, for that matter. "How so?"

"I rechecked the sample myself, and it seems that she is already infected."

Jean gawked, and a brittle silence filled the room. Cessily levered herself upright.

"What?" Cessily said in disbelief. "Are you sure?"

Rao nodded. "Sadly, yes."

"But Laura didn't seem to be sick," Victor protested. "Last I saw her she was completely fine."

"It seems that her healing abilities have established homeostasis, of sorts, with the virus. Her immune response is holding it in check, but can't destroy it entirely."

"How long has she been infected?" Jean asked.

Rao shrugged and let out a sigh. "Unfortunately, it's impossible to say. She could very well have been the first infected after your husband and Ms. Rasputin, and we would never know it. I can't even estimate how long her healing factor can maintain this equilibrium. It's incredibly powerful, but it does have its limits."

Jean's shoulders slumped at the implications settling heavily around her. "I just sent her to Mount Sinai with Josh and Julian. Could she be contagious?"

"Again, I just don't know. If her healing factor is fighting the virus as fast as it can establish itself, it's possible she will not be able to spread it further. However, I do believe that this is actually an encouraging sign."

"How could you say that?" Sooraya asked, aghast. "With what this virus has done to everyone else it has infected, and now Laura is carrying it?"

Rao raised her hands defensively. "Please, let me finish: The important fact to take away from this is that her heightened immune system is successfully fending the virus off. This seems to be supporting Henry's hypothesis that her healing factor may be the key to formulating a cure."

"But you said that it's kind of a stalemate," Cessily said. "Like, it's keeping her from actually getting sick, but hasn't been able to kill it off entirely."

"Not now, no," Rao replied, "As Dr. Grey explained to me, Joshua attempted to use his powers to fortify the immune response of the other patients to little effect, but I believe that is because their immune systems were unable to adapt to it from the start. However, Laura's healing factor is of a uniquely aggressive type that I have only seen in two other mutants before. Henry believes that we may be able to amplify this effect to the point where it can actually eliminate the virus, not just prevent it from spreading."

Jean considered that for a moment. "What would you need to do this?"

"First, we need to get power back to the lab. James' confidence notwithstanding, if he's unable to do so we won't be able to get anywhere synthesizing enough of an antiviral treatment to take care of the patients here, much less at Mount Sinai."

"Now listen here, Kavita!" Bradley said irritably, "Do you even comprehend how quickly the wheels are turning in my brain right now?"

"Yes, James, but it will do us little good if the hamster's dead."

"Oh, snap!" Santo said, earning himself a glare from Bradley. The other kids tried their best to hide their smiles and laughter.

"Archimedes never had to deal with such insolence!"

"Archimedes got stabbed in the back by vengeful Roman soldiers," David said.

"Anyway," Rao interjected, forestalling another retort from Bradley, "We need power or everything else is pointless. I'll also need Josh's assistance. His ability to manipulate the genetic structure of biological matter will be the key: We need to modify Laura's white cells to fully overcome the virus's own defenses. I believe now that we've seen it in action I can guide him through what needs to be done. Fortunately, her blood type also makes her a universal donor, so we have no need to be concerned about finding compatible blood supplies. But this does mean I'll need her assistance as well to collect further samples."

"Laura is not going to like that," Cessily said, giving voice to Jean's own concern. "She really doesn't like doctors."

"Yes, I know. James helped demonstrate that quite emphatically this morning."

"We'll address that as it becomes necessary," Jean said. "But this does bring us to a second urgent problem: Right now, we have no way to reach Hank to even have Josh and Laura sent back. All our phones were killed by the EMP, and I'm sure any other electronics that were online at the time are shot as well. So even if we can restore power most of the school's computers will likely need to be replaced."

She turned to Rahne, who until now had remained quiet, hovering near the back of the room and trying not to be noticed.

"Rahne, please head upstairs. The elevator is offline, but you should still be able to use the emergency stairs. Check with Nezhno and see if his phone is working. With luck, the energy Erik released was contained down here and anything in the mansion itself is intact. If not, check all of the other students' rooms to see if anyone had a phone that was powered off at the time. I'd also like you to have him and Ruth come down here. I don't want them left alone with all of us tied up in case one of them gets sick, as well."

"Yes, Dr. Grey," Rahne said.

"David, please work with Dr. Bradley on the generators, that's still our first priority."

"Me?" David asked, and looked doubtfully at Bradley, who fumed silently over the suggestion he needed assistance.

"Hank is the only other person who would likely be able to understand the engineering required for this. At the very least, you can draw on Dr. Bradley's knowledge in a way that even I can't to help speed the process." She offered him an apologetic smile. "He'll still be in charge of the project, but don't let him bully you."

David nervously scratched the back of his head. "Um, ok. What about Nori?"

"I'll be fine," Nori said, though Jean could not miss the pain in her voice even through the painkillers. "If Josh gets back he can fix my hands, but my gauntlets are a total loss!"

"Didnae ye have a spare pair?" Rahne asked.

Nori looked at her with horror. "Those old things? Oh my god, I would die if anyone saw me in them!"

"Under the circumstances, Noriko," Sooraya said, "I suspect that vanity is the least of our concerns. If your powers should return you will need to contain them."

Nori bristled, but Jean interjected before the acerbic retort forming in her mind could make it to her lips. "Sooray is right, Nori. Hank and Dr. Bradley can see about repairing the others once the more immediate concerns have been addressed, but we can't afford another outburst. No offense, but your powers especially may be especially hazardous down here. And I have a bad feeling you may need them before all of this is done, so we can't afford to keep them suppressed. Rahne, please see about grabbing the old pair when you're upstairs."

Jean wearily pinched her eyes. "I understand how bad things are looking, but we can get through this. Let's just get to work, and take it one step at a time."

###

The ride from Westchester to Mount Sinai was just under an hour of awkward silence, with he, Laura, and Foley all piled in the back seat together. Laura squeezed onto the bench between them to physically separate them, but Julian spent the trip watching the scenery roll by out his window to stave off the temptation to punch him again.

They arrived at the hospital none too soon, and stepped out of the shuttle and into the sheer chaos of press, ambulances, and hospital workers struggling to direct the flow of pedestrian traffic and maintain clear lanes for emergency workers. Julian shuddered at the sight of men, women, and children being rushed through the crowd on gurneys by EMTs. Parents and children wailed and cried when their loved ones were carted away, while nurses frantically scrambled to take the patients into care.

"Julian!" a voice called, and Julian turned to find Ms. Pryde's diminutive figure darting through the crowd. Those she couldn't evade she simply phased through, and he was treated more than once to the bemusement of some idiot who couldn't get out of the way fast enough.

Ms. Pryde slowed upon drawing nearer, and she looked at Laura in surprise. Neither of them had changed from their training uniforms, only thrown their jackets over them to deflect at least some of the attention of the onlookers away from them. "Laura," she said, "I didn't know Hank asked for you, too."

"He did not," Laura said. "However, Dr. Grey agreed it would be prudent under the circumstances to provide additional security."

Julian smirked. "She's also hiding from Bradley."

Laura's cheeks colored. "I am not hiding."

"Sure you aren't." He laughed at Laura's indignant glare. "Just think of it as revenge," he added with a wink that made her turn completely red.

"Whatever the reason, an extra pair of hands is welcome," Ms. Pryde said, with a roll of her eyes at his teasing. "Come on, Dr. McCoy wants to see Josh right away."

Foley nodded and set his jaw determinedly. "Right."

"Julian, I'll leave you and Laura in the intake. Help out the orderlies and nurses if they ask, but keep an eye out for any sign one of the victims may begin to lose control of their powers. If you can, try to get the details of their mutations so we can be aware of anyone who might be a particular risk if there's an outburst."

Julian twisted his lip into a scowl. "You want us to point out our own people as dangerous to the flatscans?"

Ms. Pryde sighed patiently. "You know that's not what I mean. Everyone here is on the same side, and they're all doing their best to help. But we do need to be ready if something goes wrong and someone needs to be isolated in a hurry.

"Now come on, the Doc's expecting us."

###

Hank leaned wearily against the nurse's station. The initial flood slowly started to subside, but the number of new arrivals remained steady. Now, victims were arriving from further afield in Mutant Town than the block they identified as the focal point of the release. An orderly arrived with another gurney, and Hank levered himself off the desk. A sickening feeling roiled through his gut at the sight of a girl who couldn't be more than ten years old, lying still and pale, drenched in sweat while her body burned itself alive from within. He caught sight of a pair of gill-like structures behind her ears.

"She just came in, Doctor," said the orderly, a young woman whose face looked much like how Hank's heart felt, when she handed him the chart. "Nine years old, her parents claim to not be mutants themselves. They lived a block over from the release site. Her best friend lived in that building."

Hank glanced over the chart, and the words began to blur together. He pinched the bridge of his nose to force them back into focus.

He sighed and nodded. "All right, take her to Isolation B. Have they been advised to be tested for the X-gene?"

"Yes, Doctor," she replied.

"Good, one of them most likely is a dormant carrier, so we'll want to be prepared."

The orderly wheeled the gurney past and took the girl down the hall. Hank, left for the moment without anyone to direct, headed the opposite way to the overflow area, where a makeshift ICU had been assembled to handle the influx, and his heart ached to see so many more of them were children.

It's sickening that men of science could willingly unleash something so horrific against anyone so young and helpless.

Hank sighed and swept his eyes across rows of gurneys and their attached equipment. Some of the victims were now hooked up to respirators and other life support equipment. However, the largest challenge remained bringing their fevers down. The temperature in the isolation and overflow rooms had been lowered as far as the air conditioning could be set. Portable units were brought up in an effort to cool them even further, and now filled the air with the hum of their compressors and fans. Fortunately, Hank's fur insulated him and prevented the chill from becoming uncomfortable. Almost as soon as he began his survey of the room from the door a frown crossed his features.

There were gurneys missing.

Hank stepped through and made his way to an empty space where a young boy had been. The equipment had been powered off and disconnected. The same was the case a few beds over; an older woman. And another, a teenage girl. Five altogether were gone.

"What the devil ...?"

Hank retreated from the room and hurried back to the nurse's station. She looked up on his approach, and frowned at the expression on his features.

"Doctor, is something wrong?"

"Yes, there are five patients missing from the overflow room, along with their charts."

The nurse regarded him with some confusion. "Missing? Dr. Chandler said they were being transferred to New York Presbyterian Lower Manhattan because of the volume of cases we were handling. He had a signed order for it."

Hank narrowed his eyes. "I gave no such order, and I assure you, I would not have signed off on having patients removed unless I were personally overseeing the release. When were they taken?"

The nurse clicked around on her computer. "That was about half an hour ago ..." she trailed off, and her face turned a sickly color.

Hank stepped around the desk to look over her shoulder. "What?"

"The order is under your name, but there was no log for a medical transport."

He scowled. "Find Dr. Chandler, I want to see him immediately. And get security to look for those patients!"

"Yes, Doctor!"

###

Laura wrinkled her nose at the overwhelming layering of smells filling the hospital; the stink of disease, the overpowering sanitized odor of disinfectants, the fear of families watching their loved ones carted away, and the sweaty, musky stench of too many bodies crammed into too small of a space. Doctors, nurses, orderlies, EMTs, and other hospital personnel rushed through what to the untrained observer would be disorganized chaos, but Laura immediately picked up the pattern while the incoming patients were evaluated, logged, and routed.

She huddled deeply into a corner to stay out of the way, and avoid the white-coated men and women diving into the heart of the fracas. Everything looked and smelled much too sickeningly familiar, and now she found herself questioning her request to accompany Julian.

He stood next to her, his jaw clenched and his lips twisted into a scowl while he watched the activity, leaning against the wall behind them with his arms folded across his chest. The fragrant scent of his aftershave floated above the other overlapping odors, and she focused on it as a respite from the assault on her senses.

So far, the hospital staff had ignored them once Miss Pryde introduced them, and had not called upon them for assistance. The visitors and families largely paid them little attention, though the training uniforms beneath their jackets drew a few curious looks. Laura forcibly ignored the few whispers reaching her ears over the background cacophony about the close cut of the jumpsuit to the shape of her legs and backside.

Her eyes strayed to Julian, and her face heated upon realizing his suit was no different; not quite as conforming as leggings, but enough to leave little doubt about the shape of his rear. And that stirred up a response she could not quite put a name too. She had once overheard Laurie mention a feeling of "butterflies" when around Joshua. Laura supposed if she pushed her imagination, what she felt might not be dissimilar from the sensation of something fluttering about in her stomach. And that just confused her further.

Her enhanced hearing had at times picked up other girls at school — predominately those not part of what she now understood constituted her social circle — commenting favorably on his appearance. Laura considered him for a moment herself: Smooth, symmetrical features with a strong jawline. Clear, bright blue eyes. Hair neatly groomed in accordance with what she had learned of current fashion trends. A strange warmth spread through her when her assessment shifted lower: Despite his power compensating for a need for physical strength, Julian nonetheless kept himself fit and athletic, with an appropriately low percentage of body fat, and the traditionally masculine morphological characteristics of a V-shaped torso with broad shoulders, tapering to a slim waist and narrow hips... Laura suddenly flushed even hotter when, upon continuing her inspection, her eyes fixated on his backside again.

Why should I be reacting this way?

She determined it was not a bad sensation, but she forcibly turned her eyes away, anyway. It was rude to stare, and she could not afford to be distracted by such musings.

"Look at it," Julian was saying, inadvertently helping to give her something new to focus on than contemplating the cut of his jumpsuit and how he filled it out. "Most of these people aren't any older than us."

Laura considered the scene playing out before them and performed a quick mental calculation. Approximately 65% of the victims who had been brought in so far were adolescents, with the elderly making up the bulk of the remainder.

"Children and the elderly are often more susceptible to infectious disease, the former primarily due to developmental factors," she said. "That is likely why our classmates fell ill at a faster rate than the staff at the school, excepting the deliberate introduction of the pathogen when Cyclops was attacked."

"Ok, but, Jesus Christ, they're still just kids. Between this, and the bus last year ..." He sighed and trailed off, and his frustration rolled off him as a sudden change in his scent.

"It is not uncommon for children to be the preferential targets for terror attacks. They are more vulnerable, and present a powerful emotional impact on the target population."

Julian looked over at her, but she hung her head and refused to meet his eyes. She swallowed hard and fought off the memories threatening to claw their way out of the deep recesses whence she banished them.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to do so, now more than ever.

"You ok?" he asked. "It's not about all the doctors running around, is it?"

She shook her head, wishing that was all it was. "No," she said, and she felt her voice grow very small. "I don't want to talk about it."

Julian sighed. "I know." There was no reproach in his voice she could detect, though again, his frustration was evident in his scent. "I get it, but I am here if you ever think it would help to just get it out there."

Laura looked up at him, a confused mishmash of feelings she didn't understand warring for prominence. "It is just ..." She trailed off when her voice broke, and the ghosts locked away deep in her memory tried to break loose again.

"Look, I don't want you to think I'm trying to pressure you, you know? I just wish I could help."

She swallowed. "I...appreciate it. But I don't know that anyone can."

Julian tensed beside her, and his features twisted as if in indecision. Laura was aware that hugs were often customary in times of emotional distress; Cessily in particular was fond of initiating such contact when one of their friends was troubled, often whether they wanted it or not (though her victims usually relented). Physical interactions of that sort made her uncomfortable, but Laura found herself wishing Julian would do just that now, and that puzzled her further. Why did uninvited touch from others feel like a violation, and yet she welcomed it from him?

Before she could consider such implications further, a new scent intruded on her senses. Something — someone — familiar. And a face broke through the wall she had built around the pain of the past; Bald. Bearded. Glasses. One of the men in white coats.

Robert Chandler.

A low growl escaped her throat. She stood away from the wall and swept her head across the crowd, attempting to pinpoint the source of the scent. Julian snapped upright as well, now alert, and his frustration giving way to confusion.

"Laura?" he asked, a sudden surge of adrenaline coloring his scent. "What is it?"

Laura sniffed, concentrating through the confusing olfactory chaff to single in on that one particular, familiar scent. "Something is wrong. There is someone who should not be here."

"What do you mean?"

"Because he should be dead."

From the corner of her eye Laura spotted a member of the hospital's security pushing through the crowd, and Laura turned to follow him, ignoring Julian's audible cry of protest. He approached the doctor overseeing efforts at intake, and Laura picked up a fragment of their conversation over the background noise.

"...McCoy says that several patients have been moved without authorization," the security guard said. "Dr. Chandler is wanted for questioning immediately."

"I haven't seen him," the doctor replied. "Not since we cleared that first big influx from Mutant Town. He might be out front coordinating efforts there."

Laura's blood boiled at the confirmation, but her lack of height precluded her efforts to see past the sea of bodies around her. Instead, she relied on her nose, following the ephemeral trail winding through the crowd. Eventually, she reached a place where the press around them cleared, and when the bodies parted she spied Chandler in a hallway issuing directions to a man in scrubs.

And at the same time, his eyes met hers and his face went white in recognition.

Chandler turned and fled, and Laura sprung forward in pursuit. She dodged past people scrambling out of her path, while Chandler bowled through anyone unable to clear the way. He turned down a corridor and Laura followed him around the corner, kicking off the wall to make it without slowing. She was distantly aware of Julian calling her name when she quickly left him behind, her legs and arms effortlessly pumping despite the speed of her pursuit.

Knowing he could neither escape in a contest of speed, nor outlast her over distance, Chandler fled back into a more heavily trafficked part of the hospital. He plowed through the crowd, and the men and women he knocked down cried out angrily. Laura lightly vaulted over the prostrate bodies, and turned her small size to advantage dodging between those still on their feet. She did not need to see him to follow his path; she had his scent, and now followed him as relentlessly as any bloodhound.

By now, his flight had drawn the attention of security, who joined in the pursuit. But Laura outpaced them and quickly gained ground on her quarry.

Chandler pulled upon a door leading into a stairwell, and his feet echoed loudly within its confines. Laura followed and found him three floors down by the time she reached the first steps. Without hesitation she vaulted over the rail into empty space, Julian's astonished cry echoing behind her.

Laura landed exactly where she intended, coming down with an arm wrapped around Chandler's neck and spinning him around from the force of impact. Her weight settling onto his back and shoulders pulled him off-balance, and together they toppled over the rail.

"Laura!" Julian screamed as she and Chandler plummeted down. The bottom of the stairwell rushed up to meet them. She would survive the impact, he would likely not.

But, just before they struck the concrete below, a web of green energy arrested their fall. Chandler was white with terror, and his eyes stared bewildered at the floor inches from his face before they were gently lowered to the ground. But her prey had not yet surrendered. The moment Julian released his telekinetic hold on them, Chandler twisted onto his back and reached inside his lab coat. Time seemed to stop when he drew, leveled, and fired a pistol in one smooth motion. A puff of compressed air erupted from the muzzle of the gun, and something whizzed past her cheek just as she turned her head aside. She watched the dart sped for Julian — casually levitating himself down to join them — in horror, and her heart lept into her throat when it struck and lodged in his neck.

Chandler squirmed and readjusted his aim. A sharp snikt echoed in the stairwell, and she slashed her claws through both gun and hand. Its mechanism spilled across the floor, and with it several of his fingers. He cried out in pain and grabbed his wounded hand.

A strangled snarl of rage escaped her lips, and she seized Chandler by the shirt front and raised her claws to strike. But by now security had finally caught up with them. She thrashed at the hands seizing her by the arms and hauling her off him, and it was only Julian's voice that snapped her back to the present before she could lash out defensively.

He leaned against the handrail at the foot of the steps, his eyes wide with fear, and touched the dart protruding from his neck.

"Laura, you ok?" he asked, his voice hollow once he processed the implications of his situation.

Her mind scrambling to process what just happened, she said the only thing that made sense in that moment.

"Someone get a doctor!"

###

Peter followed S'ym back up to the inhabited levels of the castle. The demon was not able to explain precisely how that particular chamber, which served as his quarters, managed to block Illyana's ability to monitor what happened within Limbo.
Nonetheless, he was certain their conversation would go unobserved. The problem now was to get through to her and make her see reason.

They reached the top of the stairs, stepped out into the small hallway, then back through the door leading to the antechamber. Peter squared his shoulders and, with S'ym remaining behind, approached the guards flanking the doors to the great hall. They immediately crossed their spears to bar his entrance. Unlike S'ym, they were only the height of the average man, and Peter towered over them.

"The Mistress has commanded that none are to enter," one said.

"She will see me," Peter said, in the most commanding voice he could, but the guards were unimpressed.

"You will be summoned when she has need of you," the other replied. Neither so much as looked at him.

Peter twisted his lip in irritation. "I am not here as some supplicant or courtier to be summoned and dismissed at her whim. I am here as a brother come to talk sense into his sister. I will ask you once more politely to let me pass."

The guards both lowered their spears at him at the veiled threat. "The Mistress has commanded that none are to enter," the first repeated. "Remove yourself now or be removed."

He sighed. "Forgive me, I wish it had not come to this." With a metallic clattering his armor formed around him, the organic steel gleaming in the lamp light, and he seized both guards by their surcoats and bashed their heads together. He stepped over their crumpled, groaning figures, and threw the doors to the hall open.

Peter proceeded down the hall, glowering at Illyana seated on her throne. Complete silence fell over the chamber, and Illyana, her face contorted in anger, came to her feet.

"How dare you force your way into my hall!" she snarled. "I am not your sister here, but Lady of this domain, and I will be respected as such!"

"You are always my sister!" Peter shouted back, his baritone voice shaking the hall. "Whether you are here, at Xavier's, or at home, I am your brother. And as your brother, I tell you to listen to yourself! The Illyana I know would never have dismissed the well-being of her friends."

"Guards! Remove him at once!"

"Yana, stop!" he commanded, and the guards flinched back at the anger in his voice before they could carry out her order. "You are already unwell from the illness, and you have drawn too heavily on the power of Limbo fighting it. It is twisting your mind!"

Illyana stormed down from the dais, her scapula flapping between her bare legs. "Liar! I am Limbo!"

"No, you are not! However you are bound to it, Limbo exists with or without you, and its power corrupts everyone who draws on it. Your own servants would tell you if you were to ask them!"

"This is my power, Piotr! It's mine by right, and you will not usurp it from me!"

"I don't want your power!" he roared, and even Illyana was taken aback by his show of temper. "I want my sister back! Now before this goes any further, you will open the portal back to Earth, and we are going home!"

"This is my home!"

"No, it's not! So stop this childishness. Either we both return to Earth, or neither of us do."

Illyana's eyes lit with a baleful fire, and she drew her sword. Flames flickered wrathfully along its pale, gleaming edges. "You betray me, brother, so if you refuse to go when I offered you the chance, so be it!"

With no further preamble, she charged with an inhuman scream. Peter did not flinch. He did not stand aside. He planted his feet and met her, and deflected a powerful blow from her sword with his forearm. Steel rang across the chamber, and Illyana bore into him with savage abandon. They stepped around one another and circled, Illyana seeking an opening, Peter controlling the distance and not giving her a clean line to strike. Though she attacked with an animalistic fury that matched even Laura's, Peter refused to take the offensive against her. He deflected blow after blow, and soon the sleeves of his shirt were left a shredded mess.

Illyana struck again and again and again, every swing cheated when it connected with his forearms or hands. Their feet shuffled across the floor when she circled around to his side, and Peter countered her movements. Her eyes blazed with wrath, and, seeing her efforts with her sword had no effect, spun out of distance.

She raised one hand and barked something in a guttural tongue he could not comprehend, and a ball of white fire appeared in her clenched fist. Another sharp intonation, and the flame erupted in a column of raw energy that struck him square in the chest. Peter felt himself lifted from his feet, and it was not until he slammed into one of the marble columns supporting the ceiling overhead he realized he had been flung nearly thirty feet through the air. He came down hard on his backside, and dodged to the side when another blast split the space he just vacated, smashing the column into rubble.

Illyana charged again, mixing sword and sorcery to batter his defenses. Peter managed to catch her off-hand when she raised it for another blast, and he was horrified to find her appearance changed. Her face was a twisted mask of rage, and great black horns curled back from her brow that had not been there before.

The moment of distraction gave her an opening, and she hooked the hand holding her wrist with the pommel of her sword, and leveraged him into an arm bar that broke his grip. She lacked the strength to take advantage of her position, however, and Peter managed to twist himself free. Illyana stumbled forward a few paces while Peter backed away. She lashed out with a concentrated blast of power again, but this time rather than striking him directly, she aimed at his feet.

The beam of energy gouged into the floor, and fragments of marble erupted in a cloud of dust. Peter dodged, but Illyana merely turned to follow. The floor tiles were torn up beneath him, and dumped Peter to the ground.

She stalked forward, and Peter cried out at the sustained barrage of energy now blasting into him. Illyana did not stop until she stood directly over him, and took her sword in both hands. She panted in rage, and her eyes blazed. Peter raised himself up on his elbows. Now he had one last card to play.

Illyana lifted her sword high overhead, and stomped one heeled boot down on his chest, pinning him in place. Peter could have upended her effortlessly. Whatever power she gained from Limbo, she still could not match him in raw strength. Instead, however, he dropped his armor and waited for her strike to fall.

Her whole body trembled, her breath came in heaving gasps, her lips twisted into a sneer. And yet there was a moment of hesitation while she stood over him, the blade of her sword poised for a final, fatal blow.

"What are you waiting for?" he said. "Do it!"

Illyana blinked. The flame dancing in her eyes shrunk, though they remained lit from within.

"Do it!"

"I ..." she said in a trembling voice.

"This is what you want, isn't it? This is your kingdom. You're both ruler and executioner. You accused me of betraying you? Then strike and be done with it, because if this is who you are now, the Illyana I knew is dead, and there's nothing left for me outside."

Illyana stepped back, gripping her sword so tightly it began to shake. "Fight back!" she screamed, yet rather than commanding, it echoed petulantly across the hall.

"No," he said. "Look at what you are doing, Little Snowflake."

Confused, Illyana looked at the sword in her hands, and then at Peter lying on his back. The fire in her eyes dimmed and then extinguished itself, and the horns curling from her brow receded. "What I am doing ...?"

"This is not who you are, Illyana."

"Peter ...?"

Tears filled her eyes, and with a howl of grief Illyana dropped her sword. It clattered to the marble floor, and she sank down to her knees beside it, her face buried in her hands. Peter pushed himself up and gathered her into his arms. "It's all right, Yana."

"What is happening to me?"

"Your brother was right, Mistress," S'ym said from the doorway, and he approached with the clicking of his taloned feet on the marble floor. By now a small crowd had gathered, the residents of the castle coming to investigate the disturbance in the great hall. "You were drawing too heavily on the power of Limbo, and you were not prepared for it. It was twisting your mind."

She lifted her head from Peter's shoulder, and her features relaxed from the contorted expression of demonic rage, into that of a contrary teenage girl. "That should not be possible! I am Limbo."

"You are bonded to it, as we are to you, but you are not Limbo itself. This place exists with or without you, as your brother said. There have been others in the past who have tapped its power before you, and they all met with the same fate: Some went mad. Some have become twisted."

"But I have done things here before... I conjured my room, the gallery ..."

S'ym's expression was patient, and Peter couldn't help but be reminded of their father giving him a stern but encouraging talking-to after some foolish venture had gotten him in trouble, or of the Professor about to lecture one of the students after a bit of back-talk. "You wished for things to be, and they became." He shook his head and sighed. "What you were doing now was different. You were taking Limbo's power into yourself directly. Opening yourself to it greatly expanded your magical power, but a human mind cannot bear that much all at once."

Illyana slumped wearily, and Peter saw the disbelief and disillusionment in her eyes.

"You still have much to learn about both magic and rulership," S'ym said. "I have taught you as best I can, and you have responsibilities elsewhere: A good queen does not abandon her people, and your brother says you have friends on Earth who need you."

"I'm so sorry," she mewled. "I thought I had control ..."

"We need to get back," Peter said, steering the conversation back to the matter at hand and away from her recriminations. He helped her to her feet, picked up her sword, and returned it to her. "If you are cured."

She nodded. "I believe so. I can feel that the virus has been purged from me. But Peter, I can't do this for the others. It took considerable power to burn it out, and outside Limbo my magic will be too weak. And I wouldn't dare risk bringing the others here, not if what you and S'ym are telling me is true."

"I know, Yana. We'll just have to rely on science, and hope Dr. McCoy can find a solution. For now, let's go home."

"I'll need a few moments to open a portal," she said, sheathed her sword, and took a shuddering breath. "Thank you for stopping me."

He smiled and hugged her close. "It will be all right."

He watched S'ym frown doubtfully from over the top of her head, and Peter frowned in turn. Illyana pulled away, and S'ym immediately masked his expression when she turned to him.

"S'ym, I must return to Earth. I leave the castle in your hands."

He bowed low. "Mistress."

"Come, Peter," she said. "I think I am ready."

"I'll be right behind you," he said, and watched her depart. Her clothing changed, her armor vanishing and her scapula being replaced with something much more appropriate for her age — a simple pair of ripped black skinny jeans and a cropped t-shirt — and with it her sword vanished back into her soul. When she was out of earshot he turned to S'ym. "What's wrong?"

"Be wary, Piotr Rasputin," S'ym said in a low voice. "The Mistress may have regained control of herself for now, but the corruption of drawing too heavily on the powers in Limbo is not so easily cleansed."

Peter scowled at him. "Are you saying she might have been permanently changed by this?"

"I will not lie to you: She has drawn the power of this place directly into herself, so will carry the mark of what she has done all her life. Her magic will also be much stronger on Earth, now, though still not as great as it is here. This will be a very dangerous time for her."

"Is there nothing to be done, or is she doomed to the same madness as the others you've mentioned?"

S'ym cocked his head and considered for a moment. "Time, perhaps, will tell. But the more she draws upon her magic, the more precarious it will become. It is seductive, and addictive. And those who would seek to use her to pursue their own power in Limbo may now be drawn to her. Not all the demons in the world reside in Limbo. Protect her."

"I can give you my promise I will. And if Limbo needs to be protected, then you have my word that I won't allow her to face such a threat alone."

###

Josh rushed after Dr. McCoy, marveling at how quick and agile he was despite his size. He deftly threaded his way past nurses, doctors, orderlies, visitors, and other staff, dodged medical equipment and the occasional floor buffer, and vaulted a gurney here and there. If the ceiling had been designed for it, Josh imagined he'd have simply swung from it to evade the traffic jam altogether, and in which case he suspected he would never be able to keep up.

Dr. McCoy skidded to a halt at the top of the stairwell just as the door opened, and Laura emerged supporting Julian's weight on her shoulder, while a security guard accompanying them held the door for her. He was already looking very ill in the few minutes it took to get him upstairs again. Sweat beaded on his brow, and his face had gone very pale. If not for Laura, Josh suspected he would have collapsed altogether.

Laura's green eyes immediately swiveled towards Dr. McCoy, and Josh rushed forward to take Julian's weight.

"Foley get your damn hands off me," he slurred, and from the lack of focus in his eyes, Josh suspected he was barely maintaining consciousness.

"Shut up, Julian!" he snapped. "You're in no condition to be picky about who's keeping you off the floor right now."

"Joshua, can you help him?" Laura asked, and Josh was stunned by the despairing pleading in her eyes.

"I'll do what I can, but so far I haven't been able to do anything after someone's already been infected."

"Someone bring a gurney, stat!" Dr. McCoy called. "Hold on, Julian. Make room, and everyone get back!"

With Laura's help, Josh lowered Julian to the floor, and he placed a hand to his forehead. Already it felt as if he were on fire from the inside. He closed his eyes and called upon his power, however any hope that he might be able to stop the spread of the virus if he got to a victim before they fell unconscious was quickly dashed, and he collapsed back helplessly, spent from the effort.

"I'm sorry," he panted. "It's just like before, I can't even touch the virus with my power. I've tried to bolster his immune system but it's just not enough."

"Nice work, Foley, that's real helpful," Julian murmured.

"All right, that's enough of that," Dr. McCoy said. "There's no time—"

Laura's head jerked upright, and she cocked it to the side, cutting McCoy off before he could finish his admonishment. "Listen," she snapped. "Do you hear ..."

Josh strained his ears, but at first he could hear nothing. Then he became aware of a quiet rattling sound, slowly building in intensity, and he frowned. "What the hell is that ...?"

"Oh my stars and garters ..." Dr. McCoy uttered, and Josh noticed the gurney pulling up had started to shake.

"Uh oh ..." Josh managed, just before a concentrated blast of energy exploded from Julian, and his whole body contorted.

Josh found himself lifted from the ground and thrown through the air. He struck the wall behind him, the blow driving the air from his lungs. Everyone nearby had been blasted across the corridor. The gurney crashed against a wall, and anything not bolted down was scattered, levitating, or swirling.

Julian screamed and writhed on the ground. His power exploded from him unrestrained, tearing apart the floor and ceiling tiles in a whirlwind of green-auraed telekinetic destruction.

"Somebody help me!" he cried, the plea dying away into an agonized, inhuman wail as he grabbed the sides of his head.

Josh levered himself up. The whole floor shook beneath him, and people screamed in terror. Laura was crawling on her belly to reach him, before a loosened floor tile smacked the side of her face and knocked her sprawling. Josh managed to get his feet under him, but the moment he tried to dart forward a blast of telekinetic energy struck his shoulder and flung him back into the wall again.

Blood poured from Julian's mouth, nose, eyes, and ears, and as if the storm of flying debris wasn't bad enough, his power scooped up bloody vomit and sprayed it across the hallway.

Somehow, Dr. McCoy managed to fight his way through the maelstrom, braving the furious telekinetic hurricane threatening to tear the entire floor apart. He reached into a pocket of his lab coat, and jabbed the produced syringe into Julian's neck. The outburst subsided, and anything still lifted into the air came crashing or splattering down. Julian's body twitched and spasmed for a few moments, before lying frighteningly still.

"Is everyone all right?" Dr. McCoy called. The people around them slowly recovered and regained their feet.

Laura was now at Julian's side, but he did not respond when she touched his shoulder. Josh groaned, already feeling the bruises forming where Julian had thrown him into the wall. The gurney was righted, and a pair of orderlies rushed to load Julian on it. It took Dr. McCoy's gentle hand on Laura's shoulder to keep her from chasing after them when Julian was wheeled away towards the care unit. Her distress was palpable, and she continued staring after him in agitation after he disappeared.

"What the hell happened?" Josh asked.

"The kids managed to run down Dr. Chandler when he tried to run for it," the security guard who had accompanied Laura and Julian said, then produced a compressed air pistol in one evidence bag, and a magazine of hypodermic darts in another. "We took these off him."

"Dear god," Dr. McCoy said. "Where is he now?"

"We're holding him in the security office. The police have been contacted and are on their way."

"Take me to him, please."

"Doctor?" the guard asked, incredulous.

"Take me to him," Dr. McCoy repeated. "Five patients have disappeared from this unit, and Chandler has apparently forged my signature to make that happen. We don't have time for the police to get here, their lives may be in danger."

The guard sighed and nodded. "All right, the administrator said you're in charge. This way."

###

The security office was a small suite of rooms far from the functioning areas of the hospital. A guard manned the desk and phone, though he largely ignored them in favor of the New York Times crossword puzzle. There was also a holding area and interview room. Josh watched Dr. McCoy with Chandler through the one-way window in the wall of the latter, though what was being said he couldn't hear. Laura paced behind him like a caged tiger desperate to sink its claws into a zookeeper.

He watched her over his shoulder. Her gymnast's figure was tense, and wound up so tight he thought she might start clawing up the walls. He had seldom seen her express much of what she was feeling openly, but he didn't need to be a telepath to sense the barely restrained rage boiling beneath her stone-faced stoicism.

Minutes passed, and finally the door to the interview room opened and Dr. McCoy stepped out. His expression sent a shiver down Josh's spine.

"Well, that was unproductive," he growled.

Laura stopped pacing and eyed him intensely. Josh stepped in to speak before she could say something unfortunate. "What happened?"

Dr. McCoy sighed and mopped his face with one massive paw. "He wouldn't say a word. The man is a doctor, for God's sake! No one has found a trace of those missing people, and he refuses to answer any questions."

"I will make him talk," Laura said, and the shiver at Dr. McCoy's frustration was nothing compared to hearing the ice in her voice now. The guard lowered his crossword and looked at her incredulously.

"Laura," Dr. McCoy replied, a note of warning in his voice. "Now is not the time—"

"We need information," she snapped back, furiously. "And he will give it to me."

He sighed. "The police are on their way, I can't permit—"

"I am not asking permission. Joshua, I will need your assistance."

Dr. McCoy stared at her dumbfounded for a moment, taken aback not only by the backtalk, but that it was coming from Laura, of all people. "I beg your pardon? I am still in charge here," he said, when he finally found his voice.

"You are needed to help Julian and the others. This is what I am good at. Joshua."

Laura started towards the door to the interview room. The guard jumped up from the desk and tried to cut her off, but flinched back when she growled in warning. Josh put himself between them before it could escalate further.

"Laura, whatever you're planning to do I can't help you with this," he said. "I can't let you do this. You need to calm down and let the authorities handle it."

"The authorities will be unable to do what is necessary, and we don't have the time."

"Look, I know this guy shot Julian but—"

"This is not about Julian!" she snarled defensively. Almost too defensively, in fact, and he didn't need to be able to smell a lie to read one in her voice. Josh was horrified and taken aback by the pure hatred in her green eyes, while she trembled with barely restrained rage. Acid churned in his belly, and his throat went dry at the cold realization settling over him at what he was seeing.

"What did he do to you?" he asked, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Laura?" Dr. McCoy prompted, just as perplexed by the explosiveness of her show of temper.

Laura froze for a moment, as if she had let something slip she never wanted to see the light of day, and just as suddenly as her temper flared it was doused again and her icy stoicism returned. She shrunk uncomfortably under him, Dr. McCoy, and the guard all staring at her.

"I am going to do what must be done, and you are going to help me," she said instead.

"Look, kid," the guard said, and stepped to block her path, "I saw what you did to that guy's hand, and I can't allow—"

She speared him on a glare so withering Josh thought the guard would wet himself.

"Move out of my way," she hissed, and balled her fists.

Dr. McCoy took hold of the guard's arm. "I think it best that we do as she says. I won't go into the details, but there's too much at stake to not at least let her try. I, at least, will trust her, and take responsibility for whatever happens. Josh, please assist her."

Josh gawked at him, and a queasy feeling spread through him. "Dr. McCoy, I can't—"

"Just do it. I'm forced to admit Laura is right, we don't have any other options."

Laura didn't wait for him to respond, and instead brushed past them all on her way to the door. Josh looked helplessly at Dr. McCoy, hoping that he would step in and stop what was about to happen, but all he did was give him a nod. He sighed and slumped his shoulders, and followed Laura to the door. He felt like he was going to throw up.

They stepped through and he shut the door behind them. Chandler blanched at the sight of Laura approaching the desk in a very slow and deliberate manner. She lowered herself into the chair opposite him, leaned forward, and rested her elbows on the desk. For a long moment she just stared, and a brittle, expectant silence filled the room. Chandler was soon fidgeting nervously, and a cold sweat beaded on his brow while Laura's angry green eyes lanced through him. Cold dread washed over his pallid features. This wasn't about the chase through the hospital, or the bandage over his maimed hand. There was recognition and familiarity in his terrified eyes. Somehow, Chandler knew exactly who Laura was, and that thought unnerved Josh perhaps more than her intentions.

Finally, just when Josh thought Chandler would be able to take no more, Laura spoke. Her voice was as cold and hard as he had ever heard it, and there was no mistaking the malice she held for the man across from her.

"You remember me, don't you, Dr. Chandler," she said. "I don't know how you are still alive, but you remember me."

He swallowed and nodded.

"Then you know what is about to happen. The human body can endure only so much physical trauma before shock and blood loss become fatal. And I know exactly where that line is."

She nodded over her shoulder to him, and Josh did his best to at least try to look intimidating. Not that it mattered with 100 pounds of very angry Laura between them and obviously holding Chandler's attention. "This is Elixir. He has a power that allows him to heal almost any wound. Which means I can keep you in agony indefinitely until you tell me everything I want to know."

She extended the claws of one hand with a sharp snikt that echoed in the confines of the room, and Josh's heart crawled up into his throat.

"You know that I am the best there is at what I do," she said, "so I am going to start asking questions, and you are going to answer them."

###

Act III

###

Pierce watched the live newsfeeds reporting from Mount Sinai at a makeshift desk in the safehouse, his lip curled into a satisfied sneer at the chaos unfolding in Manhattan. The virus had spread rapidly despite the limited release, and the hospital was now filled to almost overflowing, inundated by a wave of disease that practically emptied Mutant Town. There had been no deaths yet, but the sight of respirators and other life support equipment made clear how quickly the situation was deteriorating within not even twenty-four hours.

One of the men approached his desk and waited patiently with his hands folded behind him while he digested the news report. Pierce let him stew for a few moments, before shutting down the feed and skewering him in place with his eyes.

"What is it?"

"Sir, Dr. Harkins is on the line for you, he says it's urgent."

Pierce sighed in frustration. Thus far, Harkins had been less than forthcoming with his promised help despite the efforts of his Reavers. He silently chafed while the scientist played his little games, but his patience was beginning to wear thin.

"Have we received any weapons shipments yet?"

The other swallowed. "Not yet, sir, though it's only been a few hours."

Pierce scowled at him. "Don't presume to overstep yourself by telling me about the timetable."

"Yes, sir," he stammered, and Pierce satisfied himself he had been suitably chastised.

"Put Harkins through."

"Yes, sir." The aide hurried away, relieved to be released from his presence with his limbs intact, and shortly a chime on his terminal announced the call had been routed.

Pierce leaned back in his chair and activated the conference. Harkins' face — Pierce was satisfied to note his customary smugness was gone and replaced by an agitated expression — appeared on his monitor.

"Harkins," Pierce said. "Where are my weapons?"

"You'll have them," Harkins said, "but right now we have a bigger concern."

"Oh? I thought you had everything in hand. You certainly sounded so full of it last night."

"Not now, Pierce, I'm really not in the mood. My man at the hospital went dark an hour ago. I have a contact within the local police who are telling me he was caught removing subjects and apprehended." A dark look passed across his features that even gave Pierce a moment of pause. "I'm working on getting him extracted, but this is potentially serious."

"Would your man have talked?"

"Ordinarily, no. But I've learned our priority subject was present, and I have every reason to believe it would have convinced him."

Pierce chuckled, and however foul his mood was already, Harkins's features darkened even further. "Yuriko certainly didn't think highly of your priority subject."

"Do not underestimate it! It's already cost my organization considerable resources and personnel."

"So what do you want from me, Harkins?" Pierce said, smugly folding his hands behind his head.

"I want you here," Harkins replied. "My contact had full details of our New York operation, and if he has been compromised it's all going to be at risk."

"I'm sure Xavier's people are a little busy at the moment."

"Remember, the group hunting Stryker and his Purifiers is still unaccounted for, and they have a few others we've not heard from, either. I want you to bring your people in to strengthen security in case there's trouble."

Pierce stood and leaned forward, staring Harkins down. "And what about what I want?"

"I'll see to it that your people are fully equipped on-site."

He jabbed his finger at the monitor. "They better be, Harkins. Playing rent-a-cop for your organization was not part of our agreement in this operation."

"Plans change, Pierce, you know that. Can I rely on you and your people?"

Pierce straightened, his cybernetics whirring and clicking with the motion. "We'll be there. Just make sure you hold up your end when we do, or it won't be Xavier's wet works team you have to deal with."

###

Power had still not been restored by the time Josh and Laura unexpectedly returned to the school, and Rahne's search for a functioning phone proved fruitless; even the upper levels had been struck by Erik's EMP when he fell sick.

They gathered now in the briefing amphitheater, minus David and Bradley, who were still working on the generators. Jean and Rao stood on the stage at the bottom, and watched while the others filtered in. Much of the room was still in pieces after Erik's attack. Torn and twisted wall and floor panels lay scattered everywhere, and many of the benches had been ripped up. With little functional seating left, the group clustered together; Josh sat with Nori and tended to her hands. Sooraya was beside her, and waited patiently with Laura, Santo, and Victor gathered around them. Rahne and Cessily, who had been helping her tear the school apart in hopes of finding a functional phone, arrived last.

"Laura! Josh!" Cessily called, when she entered and spotted them with the team. "When did you guys get back?"

"Just a few minutes ago," Josh said from the bench. "It's been an eventful couple hours."

"Where's Julian?"

The confused jumble of anger and grief rolling off Laura at mention of Julian's name struck Jean like a tidal wave. Yet other than a slight tightening of her eyes and twitch of her lips it did not show outwardly on her features. Jean's heart ached to see her so upset yet unable to process what she was feeling in that moment.

"Julian is still at the hospital," Laura said, her voice cracking just enough to put Cessily on guard. "He has come down sick as well."

Cessily's eyes opened wide, and she pressed her hands over her mouth in horror. "Oh. Oh no!"

"Dr. McCoy is seeing to him," Jean said. "We'll have to trust he'll do everything he can, but we still have our own jobs to do. Please, have a seat."

Cessily joined Laura, and Jean could feel her uncertainty over whether or not offering her a hug would be welcomed under the circumstances. Sooraya put a hand to Cessily's shoulder; her own grief radiated from her like a beacon. The others had been more subdued upon first learning the news, but even now she could feel the concern dripping from Sooraya, Santo, and Victor. Rahne dropped onto the bench next to Josh, with an older pair of Nori's gauntlets tucked under her arm. Once he finished working with Nori she flexed her healed hands and fingers experimentally, before slipping them on.

"Right now," she continued, "we're still without power, and have had no way to communicate outside the school. Laura, Josh, if you had your phones with you when you left, we'll need one of you to update Dr. McCoy on the situation here as soon as possible. Dr. Bradley believes he can get one of the generators back online within the hour. Most of the other equipment will need to be replaced, but we can at least get the lab up and running again."

Jean looked at Laura. Sooraya and Victor had already informed her of her condition, but what Laura felt was overwhelmed by her thoughts of Julian. "To fill Laura and Josh in, we now believe we have the foundations of a cure for this disease. Laura, so far, your healing factor has been able to resist the virus. Dr. Rao believes that with Josh's help this could be modified into an antiviral agent.

"She would like to draw some additional blood samples to begin the process, and will be overseeing this personally, not Dr. Bradley," Jean added, when Laura's discomfort and negative thoughts of Bradley became evident. "I know this will be uncomfortable for you, but it could save peoples' lives. We won't force you, but I do ask for your help."

Laura hesitated for a few moments, then slowly nodded her head. Her discomfort lit up her emotional state like a beacon, but Jean felt her desire to help was genuine, and not a rote response.

"Thank you, I promise we'll do everything we can to make this as easy as we can. Now, could you and Josh please update us on what happened at Mount Sinai?"

Josh looked askance at Laura, whose mood abruptly darkened. Jean frowned at his surface thoughts; doubt whether he ought to be the one to speak, and suspicion churning in his mind over Laura's behavior. In the end he did not need to say anything. Laura took a steadying breath and stood.

"We now know both where the virus was manufactured, and who created it," Laura said, and her voice was so cold even Bobby would not be able to chill the room so completely. "One of the doctors overseeing the crisis was planted by an organization I only know of as the Facility."

Icy fingers seized around Jean's heart. If they're here, and involved in this...

"Several victims had been clandestinely removed to an installation in an industrial installation outside Albany. That is where what he called the Legacy Virus was engineered and manufactured. There are more stockpiles there, as well as a number of captive mutants, many of which were taken by Stryker's Purifiers last year."

"How do you know all this?" Victor asked.

"I am familiar with the Facility," Laura replied, and no one needed telepathy to feel the revulsion in her voice, "though this specific installation is unknown to me. The rest the prisoner revealed under interrogation."

"It's a good thing he didn't call your bluff, too, otherwise we'd still be stuck," Josh added.

Laura spit him on narrowed eyes. "I do not bluff, Joshua. Had he not cooperated, I would have done exactly what I said."

Josh's face paled, and a hint of green showed through his golden skin.

"If this...Facility is holding people captive, surely we must do something to help them?" Sooraya said.

"Not to mention destroy that virus before they can release it anywhere else," Josh added, finding his voice again.

Dr. Rao nodded. "I would suggest we also obtain a sample. It may be invaluable in formulating the antiviral agent now that we know where to start."

"Yeah, but how do we even get there?" Victor asked. "I don't know if the Blackbird is still operable, but can we even get it out of here with the power out? And none of us even know how to fly it."

Jean regarded him with a raised eyebrow. "I think you're being a little presumptuous, Victor. I haven't agreed to any sort of mission at all."

"We have to do it," Nori said, her voice quiet and lacking in assurance. "Sooraya is right, if there are people there, we have to help them."

"I know you kids want to do something, but—"

"Sooray is right," Laura reiterated, and what Nori might have been lacking in conviction she more than made up with her emphaticness. "If the Facility has any captives they must be released, and that installation must be destroyed. And we must act now; Dr. Chandler's handlers will almost certainly be aware he has been compromised and will take action to burn the site."

Jean squeezed her eyes closed. Dear God, why did this have to happen now...

"But Victor has a point, too," Rahne added. "Even if ye know where the place is now, how can we get there?"

Before anyone else could answer a blinding flash of light filled the room. When it cleared, they were astonished to see a portal opened in the air down on the amphitheater floor, and Peter and Illyana emerged. It snapped shut again with the pervasive stench of sulfur and brimstone.

"Ok, is the timing of that just a little too convenient for anyone else?" Nori asked.

"I like to make an entrance," Illyana said.

"Yana!" Cessily cried, "You're up?!"

"I'm up, I'm alive, and I'm very angry." Her pretty features screwed into a fierce scowl. Peter, however, slumped wearily, though Jean felt no indication it was anything more than simple exhaustion.

"Yana was able to cure herself with her magic," Peter said, "but she can't help anyone else this way, so don't ask."

"That's cool, 'cause we're gonna go on a mission to get stuff to do it, anyway," Santo said.

Jean rubbed her eyes. "That hasn't been agreed yet."

"You haven't agreed," Nori said, a little of her typical fire returning the moment Illyana stepped through the portal. "The rest of us already have."

"We do have a ride now with Yana back," Cessily added. "You could 'port us where we need to go if Laura tells you where, right?"

"Now hold on," Peter said. "I don't know that would be a good idea right now."

Yana gave him her best indignant little sister look. "What's done is done. I can open a portal to transport everyone without worry."

Jean looked between the two but remained silent on the matter. She sensed whatever happened in Limbo was something neither was prepared to discuss in front of others.

Illyana turned to address Jean. "But I don't want to just be the Magic School Bus. These are my friends who have been attacked, too. If I go, I intend to fight."

"Yana!" Peter said, appalled.

"I know, Yana," Jean said. "But I'm already reluctant to send Nori's team as it is, and they've been trained."

"Sorta ..." Cessily added.

"I have training. It may not be from the X-Men, but S'ym has been teaching me to use my sword since I was a child, and I do have magic outside Limbo."

"Yeah, but you don't have a uniform," Santo said.

"Oh my god, shut up, Santo," Victor said, burying his face in his hand.

Illyana's eyes filled with white fire. "I don't need one," she said, and more fire danced across her body, burning her clothing away to reveal armor over a black scapula that only barely covered her lower half, with her sword at her hip. At first the pauldrons were unmarked, but soon an embossed "X" appeared on them. Everyone stared for a few moments, before Santo, naturally, found his voice first.

"Ok, now that's hot," he said.

Illyana made a pout and clicked her tongue at him. "Oooh, Santo, I would break you into rubble."

"And you say I show too much skin," Nori said, leaning towards Sooraya.

"Yana ..." Peter said, burying his face in one hand in embarrassment. "Would you at least conjure some pants?"

The fire faded from her blue eyes, and she glared indignantly up at him. "Call me Magik, Peter. And I shall shape my armor however I like."

Rahne blinked. "Am I just hearin' things, or did ye really just pronounce that with a 'K'?"

Illyana flashed her a mischievous smirk that came across just a little unhinged. "Of course I did."

Jean sighed. "If you kids are insisting on doing this... Peter, I'm placing you in overall field command. Take Nori and her team, plus Rahne and Illyana. Rescue any prisoners you can, and shut that operation down."

Nori raised a gauntleted hand. "Shouldn't David be on this one? He can do his genius hacker thing to get any information on what's going on."

"I'll see if Dr. Bradley can spare him."

Rao grunted. "Knowing James, he'll want to get rid of him just out of sheer ego. And David will probably be just as eager to get away from him. In the meantime, whenever Laura and Josh are ready, they can report to me in the lab. The bulk of the work will need to wait for the power to come back up, but we can at least get started."

"I will be going, too," Laura said, and her tone of voice made it clear it was not a request.

Jean shook her head. "No, Laura, right now your healing factor is the only reason you're still on your feet, and if you're wounded it could affect your ability to heal, or worse, give the virus a chance to take hold."

"And I can't in good conscience send you in there. Logan would almost certainly go berserk if he finds out," she added telepathically.

"I am not a child!" Laura snapped defensively, and her temper began to flare at the thought of being coddled. "I am the team's best fighter. If there is trouble you need me there." She waved her arm to take in the rest of the team. "They will need me there. I am going."

"If there's going to be a fight I should be there, too," Josh said. "Just in case anyone needs medical attention."

Jean felt their determination, and she sighed again in frustration when it became clear that neither would accept sitting out. She could, perhaps, telekinetically restrain them, or knock them out with a word, but neither option was palatable. And in Laura's case, could be potentially damaging to the trust she had slowly been building with the school.

"All right," she relented. "It's against my better judgment, but I won't stop you. But I want everyone to be careful. Get in, do the job, and come back safe."

###

Act IV

###

Albany, New York...

They stepped from the portal, exiting Limbo into a wooded area on the east bank of the Hudson River. The skyglow of Albany was visible in the north, and night slowly settled over eastern New York. The industrial complex loomed up in front of them, surrounded by a security fence, and flood lights cast spotty illumination across the grounds within.

Nori frowned at the complex. They were hidden from view of any security by the surrounding woods, but she could not see from her vantage whether there was anyone watching from within. Her stomach turned somersaults, and her hands shook within her gauntlets. She forcibly banished the doubts clawing at the back of her mind to concentrate on the task at hand: They had a job to do, and people were counting on them. Panicking again was something she could not afford.

"Aw, we have to walk the rest of the way?" Santo complained.

"Illyana didn't want to risk dropping us in too close," Colossus said. "Not without a better idea of what's actually in there. Prodigy, what do you see?"

David stepped up to the edge of the treeline and peered into the darkness, one hand on his glasses. "There's security, all right. A few guards inside the wall." He let out a low whistle. "They're all armed, too. And that's not surplus equipment, either. I don't know where these guys are getting their weapons, but this all looks modern. Some of it may be the same gear the Purifiers were using."

Laura slipped forward in a low crouch until she stood beside him. "The Facility is, ostensibly, a civilian organization. They do receive government contracts in addition to their off-book black projects. Their security will be professional paramilitary, supplemented by private military contractors. Lethal force is both justifiable and strongly advisable."

Nori's throat went dry at Laura's matter-of-fact analysis. "You want us to kill them?"

"They will not hesitate to do the same to us." Laura's voice suddenly took on a hard edge that filled Nori's bowels with ice. "What these men do would put them outside the laws and customs of war. They deserve no mercy."

"Enough, Talon," Colossus said. "We're still X-Men, and we have to be better than them. Prodigy, any further security that you can see from here? Cameras? Alarms?"

David adjusted the functions on his glasses again and nodded. "Hoo, yeah. I'm picking up cameras all over the place, both inside and out, and there's definitely an alarm system. Looks like they also have their own generator."

"Can you show me?" Laura asked.

"Yeah, just a sec." David pulled an iPad out of his kit and cast the feed from his glasses to it. Nori looked over Laura's shoulder while she studied a 3D scan of the installation taken by David's glasses, but could make little sense of it herself. Laura just nodded, and jabbed a finger.

"I can gain access at this point here. There is a gap in their camera coverage because of this angle in the wall."

"What about the alarms?"

"If I can get you remote access to a terminal, can you take control of the system from here?"

"It may depend on how their network is physically segmented," David said. He reached into his kit and produced a USB device about the length of his thumb. "Wireless dongle. It's loaded with a script that will override any security blocking external device access, and mask its presence so it won't show up on scans. Plug it in to any terminal that has access to their security system, and I can hack into it remotely."

Laura accepted the device and slipped it into her own kit.

"Are you sure you can get close enough undetected?" Colossus asked.

Laura's features twisted indignantly, as if she took the question as a personal affront. "Yes."

Colossus pulled them back from the edge of the woods, and they gathered with the rest of the group. The others circled up so he could address them in a low voice and without risk of it carrying. He took the iPad from David and laid it on the ground between them so they could all see the map.

"Ok, we have a point of entry," he said. "Talon will approach the complex here." He indicated the spot she identified. "After gaining entry, she will get Prodigy access to a terminal to disable the alarms in this stretch of the perimeter fence to allow us to follow her in. The idea is to do so before the guards can raise an alarm."

Cessily looked up doubtfully. "Alone?"

"I can move more quickly and more quietly than any of you," Laura said. "I also have extensive training in making unsupported infiltrations of this sort." She motioned at a couple points nearby on the iPad. "There are also guard stations here, and here. These will need to be eliminated, which will open a blind spot in their patrols. Once we are inside, the rest of the defenses can be taken by surprise."

"What about the prisoners?" Sooraya asked. "Do we have any idea where they are being held?"

"According to Chandler they are being held inside the main building here," Laura replied, indicating a large structure at the heart of the compound.

Colossus considered the map. "Our first objective, then, is to gain entry to the grounds, and secure access to that building. We need to get in fast to find the prisoners." He sighed. "We missed our chance last fall, and I don't want to fail them again. We need a team to go in, while the rest secure the perimeter. Surge?"

The butterflies started dancing around in her innards again when Colossus turned to her for her input, and Nori forced herself to breathe steadily. Oh God... You can do this, just focus...

"I'll go. Talon, this is your area of expertise, so you'll be with me on point. And we'll also want Prodigy to get into their computers to download whatever information we can, because I think Dr. Grey plans to expose all this. And Mercury, as well. You can slip through places that the rest of us can't."

Cessily shrunk down into herself. "Um...yeah. Just not with my clothes, you know."

"Hey, Laura is totally cool going commando in a fight, so you've got no reason to be shy about it, either," Santo said.

She glared up at the dopey smile on his rocky features. "Shut up, Santo!" Cessily hissed through gritted teeth.

"Elixir and Magik will round my group out," Nori continued, ignoring the exchange. "We don't know if the captives may need medical attention, and it gives us a fast exit."

Colossus smiled and nodded his approval. "Very good. The rest will remain outside with me to provide cover. Does anyone have any questions?"

Santo raised his hand.

"That doesn't have anything to do with me or Laura fighting au naturale," Cessily growled, her face buried in her hand. Santo lowered his.

"If we're through, let's get moving," Colossus said. "Talon, you're up."

###

Laura crouched low at the edge of the woods, adjusted the straps on her field pack, and studied the approach to the installation, about 100 meters of open ground. Though dark outside the compound, her enhanced vision picked out details that the guards would be unable to see. Her target was a side entrance, flanked by two guard posts. The security cameras were placed in a manner that left a narrow blind spot in their coverage at one corner of the compound until she reached the fence, which stood about twelve feet high, and was topped by barbed wire. However, this approach was exposed to view from the guard posts at the side gate.

External security unusually light. Likely standard concealment protocol in place, downplaying external features to deter closer inspection.

She considered the terrain. It was mostly flat, but she noted a slight slope descending from north to south that, if she stayed low enough, would screen her from view of the guard posts without exposing her to the cameras. There was also a large warning sign identifying the facility as private property.

Laura adjusted her earpiece, then darted forward in a crouch. She moved forward a few yards, stopped, and dropped prostrate, listening for any sounds her presence had been detected. Then she put her feet beneath her for another low sprint. Proceeding in this fashion she reached the sign, which provided a little better cover than the fall of the terrain. Laura leaned around it to study the gate from this new vantage.

The guardhouses were built into the perimeter fence, with windows looking out on all three external faces. Lights glowed from within. Probable security monitors; possible means of disrupting camera feeds.

The complex was approached by a narrow, two-lane drive branching off River Road, crossing the rail line following the course of the Hudson, then turning south to parallel the rail tracks. A shallow drainage channel followed this road, eventually draining into Papscanee Creek further south. The road forked upon nearing the gate, and the intersecting drive from the complex crossed the ditch by means of a small culvert under the road.

With a plan taking shape, Laura resumed her dash across the field in much the same manner as before; moving forward in a crouch for a few yards, then dropping flat for a few moments to listen for any sign she had been spotted. When none was evident, she darted forward again. She dropped into the drainage channel upon reaching it, which put her perhaps a dozen meters from the fence. It was little more than a dirty, debris-clogged, sloped depression a meter deep and perhaps another meter across, and ran very close to the front of the guard posts. Laura considered the layout of the cameras.

The depression is sufficient depth to screen me from the cameras, and this will place me closer to the guard posts.

Laura turned along the ditch, stepping lightly in a crouch through the layer of old, wet leaves and vegetation choking the bottom until she reached a point near the corner of the first guard post, opposite the road. From this vantage she noted the inward-facing windows were open doorways. Nor was there glass within the remaining windows, or any other barrier to entry. She quickly surveyed the layout of the cameras, and determined the guardhouses themselves would screen her from view. Lights illuminated the gate itself, but none on the outside walls of the guard posts.

Night vision of guards likely compromised, this will help facilitate my entry.

There was no indication the guard was watching the direction of her approach. Laura slipped forward, quietly moving in a crouch until she reached the shadow of the nearest guardhouse. She slowly raised her head up until she could peer over the windowsill and inside.

The guard sat in a chair with her back to her, sipping on a cup of coffee while watching the feed from the security cameras. Her posture was relaxed, and showed no sign of having heard her approach. Slowly, and as delicately as a cat stalking its prey, Laura raised herself up, rolled across the windowsill, and silently dropped into a crouch on the floor. She kept low and crept the remaining distance until she was now directly behind the guard.

Elimination of guards necessary to proceed, target unaware of my presence. Severance of spinal cord between C1 and C2 to ensure no warning. Body in this position should obscure line of sight of the other guard.

Laura rose from her crouch, carefully keeping the guard's body between her and the view from the other guardhouse, not even touching the chair to steady herself. She lifted her hand beside the guard's neck.

Snikt.

Laura's claw extended directly into the guard's neck. Her body jerked suddenly in her chair by reflex, but any effort to struggle was instantly stilled when the adamantium blade severed her spinal cord. The coffee cup dropped from her hand, and Laura casually snatched it out of the air before gently setting it on the floor.

She retracted her claw again. Unconsciousness due to lack of oxygen imminent, death by suffocation within five minutes. Target eliminated, no indication my presence has been detected.

Laura retreated back to the window, rolling over the windowsill once more, and landing in a crouch in the grass outside. She returned to the ditch, slipped down into it, and hurried along it to the culvert. This was just large enough for her small figure to fit through comfortably. So, dropping to her belly, and pulling herself forward with her elbows, Laura slid inside. The partly rotted, wet vegetation inside muffled the sound of her movements to anyone outside, though they echoed uncomfortably loudly in her own ears.

She reached the other side without issue, or any indication the other guard had heard her or even noticed the death of the first. As before, Laura slunk under the window opposite the road and peered over the sill. Once again, the guard watched the security feeds with his back to her, so Laura quietly slipped in through the open window and crept up behind him. One quick snikt later and it was all over.

Laura pushed the guard's chair out of the way, leaving him to quietly suffocate while she examined his terminal. Monitors were built in to the surface of a desk, and she traced the connections to a locked and reinforced cabinet on one side. Laura extended a claw, slipped it into the gap, and casually sliced through the lock. Upon opening the cabinet, she found a small terminal mounted inside. Laura retrieved David's wireless dongle from her kit and plugged it in to one of the USB ports on the front. A small blue light blinked on and began flashing.

She crouched down next to the desk and cued her headset.

"It's Talon, I am in, and you should be able to connect now."

###

Several tense minutes of waiting passed after Laura slipped out from the cover of their hiding place. Nori paced nervously behind David and Colossus, her stomach doing an Olympic-level floor routine with her bowels as the mat. She focused on breathing like Dr. Grey showed her, and willed her hands to stop shaking. But try as she might, she could not keep the intrusive fear she had just sent Laura out to her death at bay.

"Keep stomping around like that and they're sure to hear us," someone said behind her. Nori turned to find Illyana leaning casually on the sword at her hip, and watching her with that peculiar sense of detachment with which she regarded everything she deemed beneath her time.

"It's been too long," Nori replied quietly, unable to keep the nervous tremor out of her voice. "This could all go wrong very quickly."

Illyana shrugged. "It's Laura. With what she did to Stryker's people they have more to be afraid of from her than she does from them."

"She's not invincible."

"None of us are. Not even Peter." The last Illyana added with a thoughtful look past her, and at Colossus crouching next to David while they waited for Laura's signal. Nori chafed at how even her voice was under the circumstances.

"How do you do that?" Nori asked. "How can you stand there all calm like this, and acting like you don't care what happens next?"

"I grew up with demons," Illyana said, again with a shrug. "You learn quite quickly not to let fear get the better of you. It doesn't mean I don't care, or that I'm not afraid."

"And how do you do that knowing that you could be getting everyone around you killed? I almost lost one of my best friends and two of my team because of a decision I made."

Illyana's eyes filled with a dangerous light, and she curled her lip into a wicked smile that made Nori's finer hairs bristle. "Stand up to what you're afraid of and give it a reason to fear you back."

Before Nori could respond her headset crackled to life.

"It's Talon," Laura said, "I am in, and you should be able to connect now."

Nori turned away from Illyana and approached the edge of the clearing. She knelt next to David, and watched her genius hacker boyfriend at work with his iPad and a portable keyboard.

"That's great, Talon," he said. "I see the dongle online and I'm connecting now."

"Heh, 'dongle,'" Santo said from behind them.

Nori watched uncomprehendingly while his fingers flew over the keyboard, punching in line after line of code. "How do you even do that?" she asked.

David looked away from the screen long enough to give her a playful smirk. "I just think about you and imagine unhooking—"

Her face heated, and she cut him off with a swat to the shoulder. "Don't even say it, especially not with Santo listening in."

"Aw, I wanted to hear more," the walking pile of rubble whined.

"Shut up, Santo," Victor said.

"Don't worry," David said. "I'll save it for later, it's more fun to do than think, anyway."

"I should hope so," Nori said, and folded her arms across her chest in mock irritation. Her gauntlets clattered louder than she liked. "So what are you doing, anyway?"

"Well, I pulled the gist of Laura's covert training on handling security before she headed out. We can't just take out the cameras; anyone else watching them will see them go dark. So, I'm using a back door in the system to use my tablet to record them, and I'm going to loop that through in place of the live feed. All their security will see is the prerecorded footage."

Nori suddenly felt a little warmth flooding through her. "I love it when you talk nerdy to me. I don't understand it, but I love it."

David grinned. "And we're good...now."

He hit the enter key on his keyboard with a flourish, and his grin broadened in satisfaction at the response on the screen. "Awesome, now I just need to cut the alarms off ..."

A few more taps later, he nodded. "That's it." He looked up at her, beaming proudly. "We're in."

###

It took them considerably less time to reach the fence with the cameras taken out of the equation than Laura had, and now Nori frowned up at the gate allowing access deeper into the complex. There was no sign of Laura at either the gate, or in the guardhouses on either side of the road. One look inside and Nori was ready to throw up at the sight of the guards slumping dead in their chairs, each stabbed cleanly through their necks.

"Talon, where are you?" she called into her headset, and there was no response.

"Um...that can't be good, right?" Cessily asked.

"She couldnae have been taken, could she?" Rahne asked.

"If they managed to take Laura, we're all boned," Victor said.

"Talon, come in!" Nori repeated, her voice rising and the gymnastics routine in her belly turning into a mosh pit.

"Radio silence is advisable under combat conditions," Laura said suddenly from behind them, and Nori nearly jumped out of her skin. She spun around and found Laura in the doorway of one of the guardhouses that a moment ago was empty except for the woman who had been unfortunate to draw her duty shift that night.

"Jesus!" Nori yelped. "What happened?"

"I am sorry," Laura replied, flinching a little at the rebuke. "There were patrols near the gate that needed to be eliminated in the interests of maintaining secrecy."

Cessily swallowed. "Did you ..." She dragged a finger across her throat.

"Yes."

Colossus sighed. "Laura, we're not killers," he said in admonishment.

"I am," she replied flatly, and Nori caught a small hitch in her voice, though whatever troubled thoughts passed through her mind were quickly forced down again in favor of her typical icy stoicism. "What is more, so are these men. I know what I am doing: Nonlethal means of suppressing sentries and patrols are unreliable, and may lead to our presence being discovered before we are ready."

"Look, we can figure this out later," Nori said. "Let's just get this done first and get out of here before anything goes wrong."

"What's our way in, anyway?" Victor asked.

"I can bash that gate down," Santo said, and he rolled his shoulders with the grinding of stone on stone.

"That will be unnecessary," Laura said, and Santo deflated.

"Aw, why am I even here if I don't get to smash something?"

"It will give away our presence, and stealth will be to our advantage so long as we can maintain it. I have already created an entrance. This way."

She disappeared back inside the guardhouse and motioned them to follow. Nori trailed after her, followed by Colossus, and the others filing through behind them. Rahne gasped at the sight of the dead guard.

"Are we just goin' t' leave her there?" she asked.

"Proper disposal of the body will require time we don't have," Laura said, her voice never changing from her detached calm.

"Come on, Rahne," Cessily said, putting an arm around her to guide her past, and offer a little bit of comfort after the shock. "It's best not to think about it. Laura's right. I don't like seeing it much, either, but she knows what she's doing."

Laura led them through a hole she had cut in the back wall of the guardhouse, which then opened directly into the compound. She paused at the entrance to the opening and sniffed experimentally before proceeding. They found themselves in the shadow of one of the maintenance sheds surrounding the main building. Shadows stretched between them, with most of the illumination provided only by the spot lamps on the perimeter. Everything was deathly still around them, and that descriptor sent a chill down Nori's spine; somewhere lying nearby were the corpses of the security patrols Laura had liquidated.

Laura crept forward, motioning them to follow, and picked a deliberate path that kept the outbuildings between them and their objective. It was slow going, but Nori soon saw the reason behind her cautious approach: A direct path to the main building would take them through a large, open loading area in the center of the complex that would provide them no cover, and there was a small group of men at the main doors.

They continued working their way around the perimeter, pausing every time they were about to cross the open space between the buildings they used for cover. Nonetheless, they made good progress, and soon reached a point near where they could reach the rear of their target. However, Laura suddenly froze and pressed her back against the storage shed behind her. Everyone fell silent and crouched down, trying to blend into the shadows as best as possible (Victor almost disappeared when his skin changed color). Laura unnecessarily pressed a finger to her lips and motioned for them to remain in place.

She quietly jumped up and caught the edge of the shed, and effortlessly pulled herself up and rolled onto her belly on the roof. Nori peered around the corner, and paled when she spied three men slowly making their way from the main building to the structures they were sheltering behind, entering the narrow space between their shed and the next. All three were armed with military-style rifles. Above, she caught sight of Laura carefully crawling along the roof to parallel them, before drawing her feet beneath her and perching in a manner like a cat sitting on top of a shelf and surveying the floor below.

Laura did not remain there for long. The moment the patrol reached her position she jumped down between them. They didn't have time to utter more than a confused "What th—" before Laura sprung back to her feet and had all three pinned against the walls on either side with her claws through their throats; two with her hands in front, the third with the claw of her right foot behind her.

Nori gasped and pressed a hand against her mouth, sickened by the helpless spasming of the guards, their blood gurgling in their desperation to draw a breath, and unable to collapse held in place as they were on Laura's claws. Laura remained balanced there on one leg like some horror movie ballerina until, satisfied her victims would make no further noise, she carefully lowered them to the ground and retracted her claws again.

"Oh," Illyana muttered in her ear, and Nori looked over her shoulder to find her peering around the corner, "now she's just showing off."

Laura crouched beside the bodies for a moment, and relieved one of their rifle and a few spare magazines before retreating back to join the rest of them.

"We are going to have a long talk about this when we get back to the school ..." Colossus grumbled, his features twisting in disgust at the sight.

Laura ejected the magazine of her appropriated rifle, checked it, and slid it back into the receiver. She then started forward again without a word, beckoning them to follow.

On the other side of the next building she turned left, and followed it to the corner. She peeked her head around the side, and satisfied the way was clear, swiftly and quietly darted across the open space, until she was now crouched along the side of the large, central structure that dominated the heart of the installation. Nori followed, and they all piled up behind her. There was no door Nori could see on the back side of the building, so Laura motioned for them to hold back, then crept to the front and checked before retreating.

"Four guards," she whispered, "they don't appear to be alert." Laura looked up, and frowned. "I can't approach them unseen. There is no cover, and the roof here is too high for me to climb without them hearing."

Illyana slipped around Nori and Laura, and pressed her back against the wall. She gave a confident smirk that sent a shiver down Nori's spine. "I have this one," she muttered.

"Yana ..." Colossus uttered in a warning tone.

"Oh, relax, Peter. I won't kill them."

She crept to the front edge of the building, Laura and Nori following behind to watch. When Illyana reached the corner, she raised a hand and clenched her fist, and with the stink of sulfur and brimstone a portal opened directly beneath the guards' feet. They only managed a brief yelp before falling in and vanishing.

"Ok, so that was cool," Nori said. "But where did you send them?"

Illyana motioned into the air in the east. "About a thousand feet up and a mile that way," she said.

Realization dawned on Nori too late. She spun around and watched in horror as another portal appeared in the night sky to the east. Nori couldn't see the men falling out of the air, but the distant echo of their screams just managed to reach her ears.

"Yana!" Colossus gasped, and his jaw dropped, appalled. "You said—"

"I said I wouldn't kill them," she replied nonchalantly. "I never said anything about gravity."

"That is not what I meant, and you know it!"

Illyana shrugged. "We had to deal with them one way or another."

"Och, ye're an actual demon!" Rahne exclaimed in disgust, and as loudly as she dared without her voice carrying.

"Oh, I like that." Illyana's eyes flashed, and a circlet appeared around her head, with two horn-like extensions rising up at the back. The smile that crossed her features turned Nori's blood to ice.

"I understand pragmatism sometimes may call for extreme measures," Sooraya said, her eyes wide behind her niqab, "but that was excessive."

Illyana sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, you guys are no fun. Laura said these people are dangerous and won't hesitate to kill us. Whether any of you like it or not, we're not doing this without it getting bloody. So let's just accept that and move on."

Nori forced the bile bubbling up her throat back down where it belonged. "I'd rather we be able to do this without having to kill anyone."

Illyana clicked her tongue derisively. "Oh, you sweet summer child."

"I'm a year and a half older than you."

"There is no time for this, we need to get moving," Laura said, cutting Illyana off before she could offer a retort.

"Laura is right," Colossus said. "Once we reach the doors we split up. Nori, take your group in, the rest of us will keep watch."

However, no sooner did he speak, then Laura snapped upright and sniffed audibly. "Wait, something is wrong. I hear movement ..." she said, and swept her eyes across the compound.

It was at that moment that multiple flood lamps snapped on, filling the center courtyard with light. Men poured in from all directions, all of them armed, and Nori's stomach lurched at the sound of rifle slides being drawn.

"Put your hands up and come out immediately!" a commanding voice shouted.

"It's a trap!" Colossus said, and the clanking of his armor activating filled the air.

"Thank you very much, Admiral Ackbar," David muttered.

"Oh crap, what do we do?" Cessily asked.

"We cannot retreat, our path out has been cut off," Laura said, and brought her rifle up to her shoulder.

"Yana, can you get us out of here?" Colossus asked.

"We can't!" Josh exclaimed. "There are people trapped here who need our help."

"I said come out!" the voice repeated.

"Elixir, if they were expecting us—"

"Last warning!"

Laura didn't wait. She quickly sighted in on the direction of the voice and fired off a shot. A voice cried out, and all hell erupted as every gun in the compound opened up on them.

"Damn!" Colossus snarled. "Anyone bullet-proof up front!"

"All right!" Santo crowed, darting forward as fast as a quarter ton of living rock could to join Colossus on the front line. "Finally!"

"Oh crap," Cessily murmured, "we're doomed."

Automatic weapons fire rang off Colossus and Santo as the two big mutants absorbed the incoming barrage to shield the others. Laura kept under cover of the corner, her own rifle barking back with precision. She emptied one magazine, and then another, and finally the last one. Each shot found its mark, but there were still dozens more men to replace them.

"Surge!" Colossus bellowed. "Get your squad moving, it's now or never!"

"Shit shit shit shit shit!" Nori said, fighting down a wave of nausea, and forcing herself to breathe. "Talon, Magik, Mercury, Prodigy, Elixir on me!"

Without waiting to see if they were following, she broke for the main doors. Laura was soon ahead of her. Colossus and Santo paced them while they dashed the dozen or so yards along the front of the building as mobile cover. Laura popped her claws, shredded the lock, and hauled the door open. Nori ducked in first, followed by Illyana, Cessily, David, and Josh, with Laura bringing up the rear.

They found themselves in a small antechamber, with a reception desk opposite the entrance, and a small keycarded door leading to the office area next to the desk ahead of them. Another door with a safety warning sign led to the left. A pervasive, mechanical hum reverberated through the structure, punctuated by the rattle of weapons fire outside.

"David?" Nori asked.

"Looks like the offices are this way," David said, and headed for the secured door. "Best place for a computer terminal is back here."

Nori nodded. "Ok, Mercury, stay on him for now." She grabbed her by the shoulder, and her wagging finger reflected in her silver features. "Don't let anything happen to him!"

Cessily sketched a half-mocking salute. "Sir, yes sir!"

She rolled her eyes. "Talon? Where to?"

Laura sniffed, and frowned. "Most likely any research spaces will be concealed below the manufacturing area itself. There is too much noise with the heavy equipment and fighting outside, and all I can smell is machinery, smoke, lubricants, and your perfume, so I can't guarantee we will not be running into another trap."

Illyana drew her sword, and lightly tapped its flats against her palm with a grin. "Oh, wouldn't that be too bad. For them."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Nori said. "And my perfume is not that strong!"

"We can argue about that later," Josh said. "Let's just go."

"Nori, be careful," David said from behind the reception desk. He already had his iPad in hand and was working on getting the office complex door open.

"Yeah ..." she mumbled, and turned towards the door leading out to the manufacturing floor.

###

Bullets deflected off Peter's armor. He stormed forward into the middle of the formation firing into them, Rockslide right beside him and grinning his big, eager, empty-headed grin. The others crowded in behind them, taking cover behind their bulletproof bodies and letting them clear out a path. Men scattered at their approach, and soon he and Santo were swatting armed and body armored men aside. They broke ranks when the two giant mutants smashed into them, fleeing and seeking cover wherever they could to continue firing into them.

It's time for the others to get into the fight, they can't just hang back now.

"Wolfsbane, Dust, Anole, move in. Dust, blind them. Anole and Wolfsbane, hook left and try to clear them on the flank and work around behind them! We need to buy Surge's team time."

"Och, I didnae think there'd be so many of them!" Rahne cried.

"It can't be helped, just get in there, and work together!"

"Allah be with us," Sooraya muttered, before she discorporated into fine particulates of sand, and blasted across the front ranks of the soldiers facing them. They cried out and vainly shielded themselves against the onslaught, but her sand form tore through them, stripped the skin from their faces, and scoured their eyes.

From his peripherals he watched Rahne's body twist and contort, her head torturously elongating into a long muzzle filled with sharp teeth gleaming in the floodlamps. Her limbs reshaped and her muscles bulged. The sleeves and legs of her jumpsuit ripped under the strain. She crouched low for a moment, before springing forward with a snarl. Victor followed her, scrambling on top of one of the storage sheds to get above their attackers. Together they struck the flank of the installation's defenders, tossing men aside, and making up in strength and speed what they lacked in Laura's finesse.

The men were good. Despite the savagery of Sooraya's attacks, and Rahne and Victor tearing into them from the side, they held their ground at first. Peter and Santo had by now forced a path deep into the center of the line, and some were now trying to swing around behind to cut them off.

"Rockslide, cover the back! Keep a path to the others open!"

"Got it!" Santo said, but then skidded to a stop. "Uh...Colossus?"

Peter turned to look over his shoulder, and his heart immediately crawled up into his throat. About half way back along the way they had come stood a tall blonde man in a long coat, flanked by more men equipped like the complex's guards, but wearing distinct, dark uniforms and body armor.

The Reavers were here.

###

Laura stopped abruptly, and Nori cursed when she nearly crashed into her.

"Hey, what ..." she abruptly trailed off, and her heart sunk somewhere into her colon at the sight in front of her. Illyana stepped forward next to Laura and gawked, and Josh crowded in behind.

"Oh shit," he muttered in her ear.

They had just busted onto the factory floor. Opposite them was a loading door for trucks. Scaffolding from floor to ceiling supported catwalks and conveyor belts, and heavy industrial robots, lasers, a large glowing incinerator spewing noxious fumes into the air, and other machinery Nori couldn't begin to name but looked like something out of every 80s SciFi movie David had roped her into watching (before they inevitably led into a makeout session) filled the space within.

But that was not what drew her attention. No, that was reserved for Deathstrike, standing in the center of the factory floor, her bladed fingers spread wide, and that wicked, psychotic grin spreading across her features. Cole stood beside her, making a show of rolling his neck and shoulders, and dancing on his feet in anticipation of the fight to come. They were surrounded by more men. Some carried rifles, others metal batons and riot shields. Laura growled low and threateningly, dropped into a fighting stance, and a sharp snikt echoed across the cavernous space when she popped her claws. Illyana raised her sword into a guard position and flames raced down its sharpened edge. Nori's mouth went dry, and she stood frozen in place.

"Hello, children," Deathstrike said, in that giggling voice of hers. Her smile broadened when she laid eyes on Laura. "Laura-chan! I'm so glad to see you. Pierce didn't let us finish our game before, are you ready to play again?"

Laura stomped forward, her whole body shaking in rage.

"Laura ..." Nori stammered, but she could not move. They had walked into the very worst of scenarios, and memories of Salem flashed across her eyes. She saw Keller lying bleeding on the ground. Laura being thrown through that window. She felt the agony of her ribs shattering under Cole's boot, and every nerve shredding all at once under his electrical barrage. Her hands shook, her heart raced, and her mind blanked on everything Dr. Grey had instructed her about controlling her breathing.

"Kill them," Deathstrike said, and casually folded her arms across her chest, that malevolent smile never leaving her features. Her men swarmed forward with a cry. Laura and Illyana did not wait for Nori's orders and charged into them.

###

Laura's claws flashed as she spun through them, a whirlwind of death tearing through their useless body armor. Metal rang when her claws struck one of the batons, and to her shock they did not cut through.

Adamantium!

She dodged a counter stroke, rolled around the edge of her opponent's shield, and sliced his knees out from under him. His pained cry was cut short when she buried the claws of one hand through the back of his head. Another rushed in from the side. Laura dodged past his blow, cut his weapon arm off at the elbow, then followed with a left hook that opened his throat to his spine. More from the left. She tore through shields and ripped out bellies. Her hands and feet flew, and it was not long before the floor was covered in blood.

She did not see it. Her eyes fixated on Deathstrike waiting beyond the wall of men separating them. Rage built at the sight of her, and she saw Julian hanging from her bladed fingers again. And then she saw red.

###

Illyana's sword danced in her hands. Flame flickered along its edge, and it sheared through shields and bodies alike. A smile tugged at her lips at the carnage unfolding before her, the air thick with the cupric stench of blood. Some small, distant corner of her mind — faded memories of a scared child in the house in Kentucky not so long ago — cowered in disgust, but that just let the demon out to play. Rahne was right: That was precisely what the Reavers had called down upon themselves, and now she would take them all to Hell.

She laughed and reveled at the blood fountaining from her sword with every stroke, splattering across her face, neck, and armor. She hacked off limbs. Heads rolled. She lost sight of Laura, but she could hear her screaming in rage somewhere nearby, her voice carrying over the cries of the dying, and the panicked shrieks of those still on their feet. Her claws rang on impact with their clubs, or struck flesh with a sick, tearing thunk.

Illyana abandoned herself to the bloodlust, and her laughter echoed across the complex.

###

Nori stood dumbstruck at the carnage playing out in front of her. Laura deftly rolled through the press of men, tumbling and flipping like a demented gymnast to bring her foot claws into play. She lept into the air, striking men on both sides of her with lethal kicks. Upon landing again she rolled past a fresh wave, cutting their legs out from under them on her way through.

Illyana, less grace and more mad abandon, carved a bloody swath on the other side, her sword trailing blue-white fire. She slashed faces in two, hewed off limbs, and split another in two from shoulder to groin.

The bodies of the Reavers lay in heaps here and there. Those still clinging to life moaned pitiably in their agony or tried to drag themselves away. But more took their place. The men with guns, positioned on the catwalks overlooking the floor, held their fire in fear of hitting their own men with Laura and Illyana in the middle of them, but they were still too many. It was only a matter of time before they would be overwhelmed.

"Nori!" Josh shouted in her ear. "Nori, do something!"

Nori's breath started to come in ragged gasps, and her hands began to shake. Cold sweat beaded on her brow. Cole's eyes locked on hers from across the battlefield, and a mirthless smile spread across his lips.

"I—"

"Nori, you can do this," Josh said, gently, and touched her shoulder. "You fought Stryker's men, we've got this."

She closed her eyes, but the rising tide of fear was already up to her neck, and soon would be over her head and drowning her.

"You have to move! David and Cessily are back there, we can't let them down."

David...

Nori saw him in her mind's eye; Now it wasn't Keller hanging from Deathstrikes blades, but David. Her blood began to boil. The flood of panic threatening to inundate her receded.

No! I can't let that happen.

The lights throughout the factory flickered, and with a solid clunk her gauntlets fell to the floor. She stormed forward, raised her hands, and released her power, aiming for the gunmen on the catwalks overhead. It responded immediately; white-hot fingers of electric pain spearing through them, unrestrained by her gauntlets. They screamed in agony, dropped their weapons, and crumpled.

She then turned to the fight on the ground, snapping off blasts on either side of Laura and Illyana to clear the space around them, and she watched in satisfaction when the smile fell from Deathstrike's stupid face.

###

Cessily's heart lept into her throat at the sound of screaming from the room beyond, while gunfire raged outside. Or at least it would have if she actually had a heart.

"David, you better hurry up with what you're doing," she said.

"I'm going as fast as I can," he replied from the floor behind her. "Damn, I should have just had Laura cut the lock before she left. Wait ..."

Cessily turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Wait, what?"

"Can't you just, you know ..."

She would have blushed if she were capable. "I am so not going to do the T-1000 thing under the door and lose my clothes!"

"No, I mean, can't you make blades?"

Cessily smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh my god, Santo's stupid is rubbing off on me."

"Don't feel bad, he's got a lot to go around so it was only a matter of time."

"Stand back."

David gathered up his equipment and made room for her to step around him. The metal of her hand shimmered for a moment, before extending out into a long, sharp, sword-like blade. Cessily didn't know if she could cut as well as Laura's adamantium claws, but she didn't have to. She braced herself, took a breath, and brought her arm down hard on the keycard lock. It sparked and sputtered, and the door fell open.

"Not quite as clean as Laura, but I guess it works," she said.

"Horseshoes and hand grenades," David said. "Now let's go before—"

He didn't get the words out before something smashed into the door frame just beside his head, only narrowly missing splitting it open like a ripe melon. They both turned and found themselves staring up at a tall, handsome man with gleaming metal arms wired grotesquely to his torso, standing in the doorway leading back outside. His arm telescoped back in with a whir of cybernetics, and he took up a fighting stance.

"What is it with you kids always trying to check out before the fun starts?" he said.

"Oh crap," Cessily said in a small voice, just before he swung again, propelling his hand across the room. She and David jumped to either side just in time to avoid it, and it smashed through the wall behind them.

"You must be Pretty Boy," David said from the cover of the receptionist's desk. Cessily found herself trapped in a corner without cover.

He chuckled and retracted his arm again. "Foley's been talking about me, huh? He must be in here with you, 'cause he's not out front with the rest. I'll be sure to say 'hello' once I'm done with you."

Pretty Boy struck again, and Cessily only just managed to avoid the hit, landing behind the reception desk with David.

"Shit!" Cessily blurted out. "Now what?"

"Hey, you can do that, too, right?" David said.

"What?"

"Stretch."

"Yeah, but I can't put holes through walls like he can!" she protested.

"Come out come out wherever you are!" Pretty Boy called, and smashed his fist through the reception desk, right between them.

"Maybe not," David said in a low voice, "but this guy's all brawn, no brain. I've got every one of his moves and it's pretty much just 'pummel to mush.' You tanked an explosion from Jubilee."

She glared at him. "I got splattered across the lounge!"

"You got him, Cess. Just be creative. I need time to get to a computer."

Cessily buried her face in her hand. "God dammit... Ok, just get ready to run."

David gathered his feet under him. Cessily slipped around the hole left by Pretty Boy's last attack until she reached the edge of the desk and braced herself. The moment he threw another punch she jumped out from cover, and whipped her arm around his. She yanked him hard to the side, pulling his punch offline, and giving David a clear path to the door. David took advantage of the opening and broke into a run, darting through before Pretty Boy could recover.

Bracing herself again, Cessily turned her hips and retracted her arm simultaneously, and Pretty Boy yelped when she yanked him off his feet, and slammed him face-first into the reception desk, leaving another hole next to the one made by his fist.

"Oh, shit! I can't believe that worked!" A wicked grin crossed her features. "All right, Pretty Boy, Imma go Stretch Armstrong on your ass!"

###

Peter tuned out the sounds of fighting around him, and stared down the man in the long coat. The men flanking him snapped up the muzzles of their weapons, but he raised a hand in dismissal, and they fell back at once to seek out other targets.

"Well, well, it must be my lucky day," the man said with a laugh. "If it isn't Colossus! And I thought I wouldn't get to have any fun."

"And you must be Donald Pierce," Peter replied. "The pleasure is all yours."

Pierce laughed. "Oh, it most certainly is." He removed his coat with a flourish and tossed it aside. "It's been a while since I had a good fight. Come on, show me what you've got."

"Rockslide, on me," he said, and Santo's glowing blue eyes lit up like he just received everything he ever asked for on every Christmas list he had ever written all at once.

"You mean I get to tag-team with Colossus?" he asked.

Peter nodded. "We take him together."

"Oh my god on a scale of one to a million this is gonna be awesome!" Santo bashed one rocky fist into his fist, and stared Pierce down. "Get ready to get rocked ya robot freak. Rockslide is gonna bury you!"

"No smack talk."

"Aw, but that's half the fun!"

Pierce set himself, a wicked smile crossing his features. Peter and Santo spread apart to hit him from both sides at once, and at his signal they charged together.

###

Rahne lept off the top of the shed and landed in the middle of a group of guards. They all tried to swing their guns on her at once, but she grabbed the nearest and flung him into the men in front of her, while Victor cleared her from behind, snatching one with his prehensile tongue and whipping him into his comrades. The Wolf in her smelled their fear the moment they realized they had been outflanked and longed to run wild on the hunt.

Sooraya blasted across the group, popping out of her sand form here and there to deliver punches and kicks, before discorporating again and assaulting them with fine particulate that got into their eyes and noses, blinding them and choking them, and leaving many coughing out blood. The scent of it mingled with their fear, and Rahne's instincts threatened to drive her into a frenzy.

I'll nae lose control...! I'll nae lose control...!

A shot nearby rang out, and suddenly her shoulder exploded in pain that drove her to her knees. Rahne let out a canine yelp, and stared in horror at the ragged wound just below her right clavicle. Victor was by her side immediately. A few of the guards rushed in to try to finish her off, but he quickly drove them back, dodging around them, shredding through their body armor with his clawed hands, or simply tossing them aside.

"Elixir, Wolfsbane's down!" he called into the radio, but no one responded. In fact, Rahne didn't even hear him in her own earpiece. "Aw hell, I think they're jamming the frequency."

Rahne forced herself back to her feet. Her right arm refused to respond at first. But then, to her surprise, the bullet was ejected and the wound closed up on its own.

"Praise God almighty!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Woah, you can heal?"

"I dinnae know! I didnae when Pierce almost killed me in Salem!"

"Well, you do now, so let's not waste it!"

Rahne turned to find the man who shot her hastily changing out magazines, his features full of panic when he realized what just happened. She pounced on him with a snarl, seized him by the armor, and hurled him into another knot taking aim at Victor and knocking them all flat. The composure of the other guards around them were breaking down under their and Sooraya's relentless assault. Some dropped their weapons and fled altogether.

"I dinnae believe it, but I think we're winnin'!"

A sudden explosion behind her lifted Rahne up and flung her forward, accompanied by a hail of shrapnel tearing through her back. She hit the ground hard on her shoulder, and her head swam. When it finally cleared again, she looked up to find herself staring at a gruesome construct of flesh and metal, wearing a mask painted with a skull and leveling an oversized rifle at her. It fired again, hurling explosive rounds over her head that ripped into one of the maintenance sheds behind her.

"Rahne!" Victor cried, and lept at the monstrosity of flesh and steel stalking towards her. He struck the man square in the chest and knocked him back. The cyborg swung his gun around, and Victor dodged to the side to escape his line of fire. More rounds tore through the space he just vacated.

"Squirrely little shit, ain't ya!" the masked man snarled in frustration, wielding his rifle like a club. Victor kept a step ahead of him, ducking, bobbing, and weaving, and he countered every missed strike with a furious series of blows that would have floored a normal man, but the masked man shrugged off. So, despite his strength and speed, Victor was soon at a disadvantage once his adversary recovered from his initial surprise.

Victor ducked a vicious blow from the butt of the cyborg's rifle, and aimed a kick at his face. But the move was only a feint; as soon as Victor was unbalanced, his assailant lunged to the side, caught him by the ankle, and flung him aside. Rahne watched Victor sail through the air and slam into the side of one of the storage sheds so hard the wall buckled. He scrambled to his feet, bracing himself against the wall with one hand. The cyborg snapped the muzzle of his weapon up and fired from the hip.

Victor screamed as his right arm evaporated in a shower of blood and bone.

"No!" she screamed. Victor crumpled to the ground and grabbed the ragged stump where his arm used to be. The cyborg ejected his spent magazine and slapped a new one into his rifle to finish the job.

Rahne shook her head furiously to drive out the last of the cobwebs. Her healing factor ejected the fragments of shrapnel from her back, and soon the pain ceased. The Wolf now hungered to be unleashed, thirsting for blood. Memories of Nori and Julian lying wounded on the ground, and Pierce's blade slashing through her throat fed and nurtured it. A low growl escaped her throat. She put her feet beneath her and turned, staring the cyborg down with murder in her eyes. She curled her lip to bare glistening fangs, and her fur bristled.

Rahne sprung forward with an angry bark.

###

"Talon! Magik! Regroup on me!" Nori called, unleashing another electric blast into the sea of bodies between her and the rest of her team. Deathstrike's men spasmed and jerked under the energy pouring through them, dropped their weapons and shields, and collapsed to the floor.

Ahead of her, Illyana and Laura continued to press forward. Laura cut her way through anyone that stood between her and Deathstrike. Illyana seemed to just be looking to inflict as much carnage as possible. Both girls were covered head to toe in blood that wasn't theirs. The men in front of them buckled and gave way, leaving the bodies of their dead and wounded to be trampled while the survivors regrouped.

"Laura! Yana! God dammit, get back here!"

Nori rushed forward, fueled by the electricity she absorbed from the surrounding machinery. I've never had access to this much power before! She paired blows from her fists and feet with electric blasts, and fought her way through the mob between her and her teammates. She quickly lost sight of Josh, and she guessed he must have sought cover until the fighting was done.

Illyana, at least, finally acknowledged her, and checked her advance. She raised one fist, and flames danced along her arm before concentrating around her hand. Nori shielded her eyes against a blinding flash of light of blue-white flame raking the space around her. Those of the enemy close enough were incinerated before they even knew what was happening. Further back they screamed, threw their weapons aside, and futilely dropped to the ground in a desperate effort to smother the flames consuming them. Nori's stomach lurched when she realized just what Illyana was using against them, and that their efforts were in vain. The black magic of Limbo rapidly consumed them and left nothing but ash behind.

Nori finally reached her side once the flames subsided, and took up a guard position on Illyana's flank. "What the hell, Yana? Since when can you do that outside Limbo?"

"It was an eventful few days," Illyana said, dismissively.

"Colossus took you in there yesterday."

"Time works differently there, and for me it was almost a week. And I really don't want to talk about what I had to take on to burn this virus out of me."

"Ok, but just remember we're here to do a job, not for revenge."

Illyana smirked and leaned on her sword. "You might want to tell that to Laura, she's headed right for razor finger lady."

Nori turned to follow her gaze and her shoulders slumped in frustration at the sight of Laura carving a bloody path towards Deathstrike. The Reaver's smile returned, and she leered gleefully in anticipation. "Craaaaaap. Laura! Get back here, we take them together!"

"Deathstrike is mine!" Laura snarled, slashing through the last of the men standing between her and her objective. She now stood panting furiously, surrounded by a pile of bodies and glaring murder at the bladed horror in front of her.

Illyana pursed her lips. "So, she seems angry. What did I miss while I was enjoying my coma?"

Nori sighed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, not much. Deathstrike just almost killed Keller when the Reavers kicked our ass the other day."

"Huh. Just between you and me, I think we ought to let her work this one out herself. Besides, we have a problem of our own, now."

"What do you mean?"

Illyana raised a finger, and Nori followed it to Cole approaching, a wicked smile on his dark features and making a show of rubbing his fists.

"Hey, baby girl!" he said, his voice dripping with mockery. "Ready for round two?"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Nori groaned.

Cole snapped his hands up, and blue-white fingers of electrical energy blasted across the space between them, and only Illyana stepping in and throwing up a glowing barrier of magical energy between them spared her from taking another full-force blast. Cole did not relent, and kept pouring more and more energy into it. Illyana grunted and clenched her jaw, and Nori watched in disbelief when Cole's assault ultimately overwhelmed and shattered her shield.

Illyana shrieked in agony at the energy suddenly coursing through her, and the impact threw her backwards with such force it blasted her clear through the wall behind her.

"Yana!"

Cole laughed, and casually cut off his power. He shook out his arms and reset himself. "Come on, baby, it's just you and me, now!"

###

Laura's blood boiled, her body tense and ready to unload. Deathstrike giggled maniacally, clacking her bladed fingers together. For a moment they stared each other down, and nothing else existed for her. The surviving Reavers kept their distance, and Laura could smell the fear on them; none of them wished to come between Deathstrike and her prey.

That suited her just fine.

"Are you ready for me, little girl?" Deathstrike said, her voice playful and mocking. "I would promise you a quick death, but someone wants you very badly." She took up a fighting stance, and her blades gleamed in the factory lighting. "That doesn't mean I can't have my fun with you first."

Laura dropped into her own guard. The only thing that existed for her now was Deathstrike. The image of her holding Julian aloft impaled on her fingers forced itself into her thoughts unbidden, and tinted her vision red. "You call yourself Deathstrike," she growled through gritted teeth. "Show me!"

Laura charged forward, and Deathstrike responded in kind, her blades raised to strike. However, rather than meet her head-on, Laura dropped at the last moment so the strike at her head went high. She slid across the floor, and used a foot claw to rake her opponent's ankles on her way past. Deathstrike stumbled, but Laura did not give her a chance to recover. She dug her claw into the floor and her body jerked upright, spinning her around for a kick at the back of her adversary's head that staggered her further.

Laura rushed back in and struck multiple times in quick succession from behind before Deathstrike could turn. Though her claws cut deeply into her toro, the blows did little to slow her for long, and soon the damage was only visible from the ragged slashes through her clothing and body armor.

Target possesses enhanced healing capabilities, possibly cybernetically augmented. Conventional attack strategies ineffectual.

Deathstrike now turned to face her, and that unhinged smile came to her face. "Arrogant little child! Do you really think you're my equal? You are nothing!"

Laura dodged through a rapid series of strikes, deflecting some with her claws, and spinning around others to deliver quick, experimental slashes to key points. Every attack she landed soon healed over, confirming her suspicions. But something caught her ears over the ringing of her claws against Deathstrike's blades, and a plan began to take form.

###

Cessily dodged around Pretty Boy's fists, taking advantage of her fluidic body to maneuver around him. He launched a powerful blow at her face, and she snaked out of the way. When he retracted it again, she flung one arm around his wrists to bind them both together, then delivered a ferocious left hook to his temple.

He tried to use his advantage in size and strength to tear himself free, but she had a firm grip on him now, practically encasing him within liquid metal. Cessily turned on her heel, and with whip-like leverage swung him around and released him. Pretty Boy's face smashed through the wall behind her, followed immediately by the rest of his body. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch and skidded a good dozen feet across the ground outside.

Cessily pursued him out through the hole just in time for him to regain his feet again.

"Hold still, you slippery little bitch!" he snarled, and launched into a flurry of rights and lefts, his fists exploding outward on his telescoping arms.

Cessily threaded her body through the barrage, and delivered another solid punch to his face. However, before she could snake clear of him again, this time he managed to catch hold of her by the ponytail. She yelped in surprise, and Pretty boy hurled her away from him. The ground rose up to meet her, and she smacked her face into the turf. The blow left her momentarily dazed, but she managed to dodge to the side just in time to avoid his fist smashing the ground where her head had been.

She rolled back into a crouch and reshaped her arms into blades. "Ok, I really didn't want to do it like this, but no more playing around!"

"Bring it on, gorgeous," Pretty Boy said, and grinned wickedly.

Cessily darted forward, rolled past a fist rocketing towards her face, and brought her arm down on his. Her arm connected, and sheared through his cybernetics with a shower of sparks. Pretty Boy cried out in pain and lashed out with his other arm in a wild left hook. She ducked under him, and the momentum of the blow exposed his back to her. Cessily quickly reshaped her arms into scythes, and she brought both of them down into the shoulder joint. She pulled hard, and her blades tore through the outer plating and sliced through the wiring and plumbing allowing his arm to function.

"Gah! Do you really think that's gonna stop me?" Pretty Boy allowed his momentum to carry him around, and Cessily's arm-blades dragged through the flesh across his back. He managed the turn so quickly she was nearly pulled off her feet, and his hand shot out and caught her by the throat before she could recover.

His grip locked tightly like a vice around her neck and began to squeeze. It certainly hurt, but she narrowed her eyes to slits.

"Are you really that stupid? I don't need to breathe, dumbass!" Cessily said. "Do you?"

Pretty Boy's features twisted in confusion. "What?"

"Let's find out!"

And with that she slammed one of her hands into his face, and snaked her fingers into his nose and mouth. He managed a muffled grunt of surprise, and Cessily was satisfied when his eyes went wide with panic. He released his hold on her, and though she dropped roughly to the ground, she never lost her grip. Pretty Boy grabbed and slapped at her arm in desperation. His eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped heavily to his knees, before he finally keeled over unconscious. Cessily withdrew her hand from his face, and her features twisted in disgust at what was left all over her fingers.

"Oh gross!" she said, and wiped her hands off on her pants leg.

###

Illyana lifted herself up onto her elbows and shook her head.

"Ow," she murmured.

"It's about to get a whole lot more painful, mutie," said someone above her, and she looked up to find herself outside again, and hemmed in by men in the same body armor as the Reavers inside. Her sword, its flames doused, lay behind them.

Illyana smiled malevolently. She rose into a crouch and braced herself. "Don't worry, I promise you won't feel a thing."

She called her sword to her hand, and its blade reignited when it struck her palm. And then she was moving, darting through the crowd, dodging blows, and cutting them apart. In a moment it was over, and all her assailants lay dead at her feet.

Freed for the moment, she swept her eyes across the battlefield. To her left, near the doors they originally entered through, Cessily extracted herself from a collapsed body before retreating back inside. She spied Peter and Santo engaged in a furious brawl with a tall, blond man nearby, and she was astonished when he took a full-force blow to the face from her brother and immediately snapped back up again.

Illyana took off at a jog to join the fight, but the moment Peter spotted her, he stopped her with a look while straining against his opponent in a wrestling clench. Santo tried to circle around behind him, but was fended off with a quick kick to the stones.

"Don't worry about me," Peter said, "help Dust and the others!"

"Don't play the martyr with me, Peter."

"Rockslide and I have him. Go!"

She spit him on an irritated little-sisterly glare. "Oh, fine! But if he kills you, I'm going to drag your soul to Limbo just to say I told you so. And you know I can do it!"

Illyana turned away and ran past them. Sooraya moved through the back of the fight, surrounded by armed men and darting through them in her sand form. Illyana took up her sword in both hands and charged into the middle of the fray. Sooraya held back; she blinded and distracted her adversaries, using her sand form to blast through them before recorporating to strike with her hands, rather than simply pour herself into their noses and mouths to suffocate them, but that just let more of them close in around her.

Illyana had no such scruples.

Her sword flared and she dove into the Reavers with relish. Those Sooraya blinded she cut down while they shielded their eyes. She called hellfire to her hands to blast others, their bodies burning to ash and drifting away on the wind before they could even scream. Illyana soon ran out of targets, and for the moment the area around her and Sooraya was clear.

Pity.

Sooraya recorporated next to her with a swirl of howling sand. Her eyes behind her niqab were weary, and her shoulders slumped in exhaustion. She surveyed the carnage and bodies strewn around them, and bowed her head.

"Such a senseless waste of life... Yana, what are you doing out here? Where are the others?" she asked.

Illyana leaned her sword on her shoulder and considered her work with satisfaction. "Laura is working through some anger issues at the moment, and Cessily just finished off one of those big guys. She's supposed to be covering David, so I guess they made a move on him. I haven't seen Nori and Josh since I got knocked through a wall. Peter wants us to clear out the rest of the flunkies while he and Santo deal with some big blond guy. So what about Victor and Rane?"

"We got separated when these others arrived, and I couldn't get back to them."

Illyana turned her head in the direction of the distinct cries of fighting on the other side of the complex. Through a mob of goons swarming around the outbuildings on the east side of the installation she thought she caught a vaguely canine shape wrestling with someone rather large. "I think they went that-a-way."

Sooraya sighed. "Merciful Allah let this be over soon!"

"I'm only just getting warmed up," Illyana replied, and smiled wickedly. "Race you over there?"

"This is not a game, Yana!"

"It is to me." She brought her sword to her shoulder, and broke into a slow jog. "So let's go play!"

###

Rahne snapped and snarled, and dodged the muzzle of the masked man's rifle. He fired wildly past her, his legs whirring and clanging with each step to dodge her attempts to lunge in. She knew she was faster on her feet, but his combat experience managed to keep him a step ahead of her. The Wolf raged in frustration at being denied its prey; she was unable to take advantage even when he had to swap out magazines, and they now found themselves in a stalemate.

Her ears picked up the thudding of many feet on the pavement behind her, and she managed to glance away long enough to spot more of the newcomers approaching her flank. The fear of being caged in intruded on the Wolf's hunger, and she desperately lept at her opponent, her claws flashing in the floodlamps.

Once again, he dodged to the side, but this time her sudden movement caught him off-guard, or perhaps he was finally tiring. Rahne seized the barrel of his rifle in one paw. The flesh of her palm sizzled from the heat, and the stench of burned flesh and fur filled the air. She snarled in pain, but it was soon forgotten when she began to heal. Rahne brought her free hand down, and her claws smashed through the rifle's mechanism and tore it in two.

"Shit!" her opponent yelped. He dropped his end of the destroyed rifle and drew a combat knife from his belt.

Rahne threw the rest of the weapon aside and lunged in, heedless of his knife strokes. She lashed out with her claws and snapped her jaws at any appendage that came near, the ferocity of her offensive soon pushing him onto his back foot. After a few moments shuffling back-and-forth he thrust his knife out, and she dodged to the side and compassed around him. His momentum carried him past her, and she raked her claws down his back. His head jerked back in agony, shredding through his body armor and flesh and leaving ragged, bloody gouges in his torso.

Rahne seized him by the armor, spun on her heel, and hurled him with all her strength over her shoulder and into the side of one of the buildings. All the air left his body with a grunt and a sickening snapping of bones, and the wall crumpled inwards. His body collapsed to the ground, and Rahne did not give him the opportunity to recover. She pounced and struck him repeatedly with her claws.

He cried out as each blow tore the flesh from his chest and abdomen. Rahne seized him roughly by the throat, lifted him from the ground, and growled into his face. The Wolf hungered, the stench of blood almost overwhelming.

"Go on! Do it, mutie!" he said weakly, but defiantly. "You're gonna have to kill me!"

Blood poured out of his many wounds. It covered her hands and dripped on the ground. Her lip curled and bared her teeth. The Wolf in her craved it, thirsted for it. And somewhere deep inside her rage over Victor, lying in agony on the ground nearby, blazed. But Rahne shook her head and forced her primal urges from her mind with a snarl.

"No!" She pulled his face close to hers, and tore the mask from his head. To her satisfaction his expression was suitably terrified at her slavering, fang-filled maw barely an inch from him. "The Lord says thou shallnae kill. No matter what ye've done to my friends, I'll nae break his Commandments. Fortunately for ye, I'm still a good Christian girl, and I dinnae want yer blood on my hands or conscience!"

She tossed him unceremoniously to the ground, and he slowly pushed himself to his feet. He spat blood from his mouth and reached for a spare weapon on his belt. "You're a damned fool, mutie, you should have killed me when you had the ch—"

He never finished that sentence. Blood fountained from his chest, followed by the blade of a sword bursting out through his sternum from behind. He choked and gagged, and collapsed to his knees. Illyana stood behind him, her eyes blazing with baleful white fire.

"Unfortunately for you," she said in his ear, and a trace of mockery filled her voice, "I'm not a good girl, Christian or otherwise." She wrenched her sword from his back and raised it overhead.

"Yana, dinnae do this!" Rahne pleaded.

"You're an angel, Rahne. Promise me to never change," Illyana said. "But you said it yourself: I'm a demon, and I'm sending this one straight to Hell where he belongs!"

She brought her sword down, and Rahne ducked her head and shielded her eyes in revulsion when Illyana clove his head in two.

###

Nori stared Cole down, her heart hammering against her breastbone while a leering grin spread across his dark features. She slowly leeched power from the complex around her and felt the charge build within her. She forgot Josh taking cover away from the fight. She ignored Laura and Deathstrike's battle raging nearby. All that existed for her was Cole, and the malevolent gleam in his eyes when he sized her up.

"It's winner takes all this time, baby," Cole said, and set himself. Nori clenched her jaw, balled her fists, and willed her breathing to slow. Her power waited, an electric buzz in her ears.

"Fine," she said. "Let's get this over with."

They both snapped their hands up together, and Nori unleashed the full force of her stored power. Electricity popped and exploded between them, two columns of blue-white bolts of energy crashing together. Their poles met and repelled, creating a brilliant fountain of power that lit the space around them to blinding. The acrid stench of ozone filled the air, alive with dancing sparks, and crackling from the intensity of the electricity surging between them.

Nori furrowed her brow and braced her legs against the floor. Cole's blast pushed against her, threatening to knock her over backwards. However, she leaned into it, and let go with everything she had; if she fell there would be nothing between her and the agony of electric fingers tearing her body apart atom by atom. Sweat beaded on her forehead, and her hair stood out straight from the massive amount of static they put out. Her lungs burned from the acidic smoke generated by the air annihilated around them. Her whole body ached, every muscle tensed to bear the strain of the shoving match.

Slowly, she realized to her horror that her power was beginning to wane. Cole's blast drew nearer, and her reserve of stored power was nearly spent. In desperation, she closed her eyes and forced everything else from her mind. Her entire existence was nothing but her power. It danced around her hands and up her arms, stored deep within the core of her body, and she felt her presence in the world as a bright beacon of energy.

And then she saw it: Other bright points in the void she had wrapped herself in full of light and life. She opened herself up to them, and a thrill of euphoria rushed through her body when she was flooded with energy. In the world outside the nearby lights in the factory first flickered, and then exploded in a shower of glass and sparks. She drew that energy into herself and fed it back into her attack, and soon it was Cole's barrage buckling and sputtering.

"What...What are you doing?" he cried, and panic dripped from his voice.

Awestruck, Nori realized it wasn't just the factory complex she had drawn power from; she sensed Cole, as well, and the generator buried deep within him powering his cybernetics. She was draining his own energy cells dry and turning it back against him.

"There's a difference between you and me, baby," she snarled through gritted teeth. "My power doesn't need batteries!"

Nori drained the last of his energy. Cole collapsed to his knees, and his attack sputtered and died out. She cut off the flow of power, and it now danced across her skin, begging to be unleashed. Blue arcs of electricity surged around her. It raced up her arms and legs, across her bare midriff and along every contour of her body, a caress of pure energy wrapping her even more tightly than David's arms. Her hair stood on end, and the raw power glowing in her eyes tinged her vision blue. Cole looked up at her helplessly from the floor, his cybernetics dead without energy to drive them, and fear etched itself onto his features.

"Aw, shit ..." he managed, weakly.

Nori glared down on him without pity and raised her hands. "Get ready to ride the lightning, bitch!"

She released it all at once, a massive wave of energy that slammed into Cole's body. His screams could just be heard over the shrieking crackle of the column of light and energized plasma boiling around him. His cybernetics popped, the wiring burned, and his flesh cracked. Nori did not let up until she had poured everything she had into him, and when the sparks subsided black smoke rose from his crumpled, slagged hulk.

###

Yuriko slashed through the space the girl had just been occupying, and turned to defend a series of furious counter-slashes. The Kinney girl struck out her hands and feet, but Yuriko effortlessly battered her efforts aside. Other than a few light blows, her adversary had done no damage to her.

How disappointing.

Tiring of the game while the larger battle raged around her, Yuriko waded into her. Adamantium rang against adamantium with the clashing of their claws and blades, but though the girl was considerably faster, Yuriko's strength and cybernetic enhancements soon gave her the upper hand. A furious left hook tore Kinney's chest open, spraying blood across the floor. Yuriko followed with a rising slash from the right that sliced her from belly to sternum, and only the quick action of her adversary's healing factor kept her innards where they belonged. Nonetheless, the blows staggered her, and she stumbled backwards. Yuriko landed a backhand slash into her face and neck, her fingers biting deep into flesh and bone. The blow ripped the girl's face apart and opened her throat almost to her spine, while the force of impact spun her around. Yuriko raked her blades down her back.

Her adversary did not cry out. Yuriko drove her hand through her back, and blood exploded from her chest when the blades burst out the other side. "How pathetic!" Yuriko snarled in her ear, and Kinney managed only a sick, bubbling, bloody gurgle in response. She withdrew her blades and let the girl slump to the ground. Kinney collapsed onto her back and lay unmoving.

Yuriko stood over her and twisted her lip in disgust. "You truly thought you were a match for me? You are just a weak, wretched child. Look at you! You're not even fighting!"

The girl's wounds healed over, and though blood continued to pour down her mouth and nose, her features twisted in determination. "No...I am listening," she said.

"What?" Yuriko replied, and confusion washed over. It was just a moment's hesitation, but she chided herself when Kinney struck wildly with one leg from her back. The claw struck deep beneath her armpit, and she snarled angrily and in pain. A shower of sparks erupted from her cybernetics, accompanied by a fountain of blood that took much longer to stop than it should have. Yuriko tried to raise her arm to strike, but to her dismay it refused to respond. "My arm...what...what did you do?"

The girl was now in a crouch, her clothing in tatters, her features twisted in wrath, and her claws ready. "I can hear the motors driving your cybernetics. I just severed the main control servo for your arm. I just needed you close and still enough to strike it precisely.

"Now it's my turn!"

Kinney darted forward, and struck with renewed fury. The first blow finished the job her surprise attack started, and severed Yuriko's damaged arm at the shoulder. Sparks danced along the shredded circuitry, and blood spurted from the artery once supplying it blood. Yuriko countered with a wild blow from her left, but the girl lightly danced around it, spinning up the outside of her arm to drive her claws into the back of her knee. Again, sparks and blood exploded from the wound, and the cybernetics controlling her lower leg were cut.

Yuriko stumbled aside, but crippled as she was, she could no longer keep up with her adversary. Kinney leapt in for a series of strikes to her hips and torso, each blow slicing through wiring or actuators, and piece by piece Yuriko's body began to shut down. Her attempts to counter attack were uncoordinated. Her head swam; with her cybernetics failing they were no longer repairing her biological components, and blood poured from many gaping wounds ripped in her flesh.

"Your cybernetics are too damaged to self-repair," her adversary said, darting in for another blow to the inside of her thigh, laying open her femoral artery with a spray of crimson. Darkness crept in at the corners of her vision. "You are losing blood faster than they can heal you. You are dead and don't even know it."

Yuriko screamed in fury, and leveled a desperate, wild haymaker at the girl's head; if it could only cut her head from her shoulders...

But her own body was fast shutting down, and she no longer had the motor function or even the strength needed for such a blow. Kinney casually ducked under her, and all the breath left Yuriko's lungs with a sick grunt when a pair of claws were driven full-force into her bowels. The girl spun around behind her.

Yuriko sunk to her knees. Severed cybernetics sparked. Blood was everywhere. And then a last, agonizing pain tore through her back, and blood fountained from her chest. She tried to draw a breath, but it would not come. And just before her vision went black she looked down to see her own stilled heart, impaled on twin adamantium blades.

"You were dead the second you touched Julian Keller," echoed in her ears, the last thing her consciousness processed before it faded into oblivion.

###

Josh watched the end of the fight in nauseated horror from his hiding place behind a control console. Laura wrenched her hand from the bloody wound in Deathstrike's back, and when she held it aloft she gripped the woman's severed heart in her hand. Deathstrike's body collapsed without a sound.

Laura tossed her gruesome trophy to the ground beside her. She was covered in blood from head to toe, and her uniform was so shredded it was practically falling off her. Even the story Josh heard of her fighting the night of Stryker's attack was that of refined elegance, like a lethal ballroom dancer. Now he gawked, horrified at the wild and savage image she projected.

Nori stumbled up beside him, fumbling with her gauntlets when he came out from behind his cover. Her features were drawn and weary, and she slumped her shoulders.

"Josh, you ok?" she asked. Her face turned green at the sight of Laura walking away from Deathstrike's cooling corpse.

"Yeah," he said, and his voice echoed painfully loud in the utter stillness filling the inside of the facility in the aftermath. Josh forcibly tore his attention away from the grisly scene, and turned it on Nori for no other reason than to not have to look at the carnage. "Where's Yana?"

"Oh, shit!" Nori cried at the reminder, and clapped her hand over her forehead. "She got hit by Cole and I lost track of her in all the this!"

"We'd better go f—"

Before Josh could even get the words out something struck them from the side, and threw them both to the ground.

"Gun! Down!" Laura snapped in his ear. Josh heard a series of strange, muffled whumps. Laura was then up, and lunged at the gunman; one of the men who had been on the catwalks, and fell over the side when Nori electrified it. Josh wasn't sure why he wasn't down, but Laura soon made quick work of him, and he closed his eyes against the blood arcing from the man's throat.

He helped Nori back to her feet, and they both jogged over to Laura. She stood still with her back to them.

"Hey, thanks," Josh said upon drawing up beside her. "I owe you ..."

He trailed off when Laura didn't respond.

"Laura?" Nori called. "Hey, you ok over there?"

Josh stepped around her so he could look her over, and all the color drained from his face at the five darts embedded in her chest. "Oh shit ..."

"Get away from me!" Laura cried, and hastily retreated from them. "Both of you get away!"

"Laura—" Nori began, but her words died in her throat when Laura stumbled and sunk to her knees. Josh pulled Nori back just before Laura vomited blood on the ground. "Oh no!"

"Get back!" she repeated between heaves. Blood poured from her nose and mouth, and her breath came in gurgling gasps. "Keep everyone away from me!"

The symptoms set in with horrifying speed. Josh couldn't imagine how much of the virus surged through her system now; a single dart had been more than enough to floor Cyclops and Julian. With this many hitting her all at once...

"Nori, find Yana, we need to get Laura out of here and back to the mansion. Like, now!" Josh said

"On it!" Nori replied. A few nearby lights flickered, then Nori sped off, fueled by the fresh surge of power. Josh watched her go for a moment, before turning back.

And when he did his heart climbed up into his throat; Laura was gone.

###

Peter rolled along the outside of Pierce's arm to dodge his punch once Illyana rushed off, and smashed his elbow into the back of his head. Pierce stumbled momentarily, opening him up to a hammer fist from Santo that landed on his collarbone. However, despite the quarter ton of living stone bringing his hand down with all of his strength and weight behind it, Pierce tanked the hit, seized the big rocking mutant by the wrist, and rolled him into an armbar.

"Woah! No fair using joint locks!" he cried, before Pierce shoved him directly into Peter.

He managed to slip out of the way, and Pierce took advantage of the moment's distraction to gain some distance. A manic smile spread across his features.

"Is that all you got?" He mockingly beckoned him with his fingers. "Come on, Colossus, I expected better of you."

Peter didn't favor him with a response, and merely moved in with a powerful right hook. Pierce caught his fist, rolled it, and stepped aside. With the ring of metal against organic steel Pierce pummeled the side of his head, struck with such force that even he was dazed. However, before his adversary could take advantage, Santo recovered and rushed in. He moved faster than someone of his mass had any right to, and seized Pierce in a crushing bear hug trapping his arms against his sides.

By the time Peter turned back Santo had suplexed Pierce into the ground. He struck hard on his head and neck with a sharp clang, and the force of the impact left a deep gouge in the earth beneath him. Pierce's cybernetics whirred and strained, and he righted himself before Santo could recover and seized him round the neck.

Peter moved in quickly with a knee to the side of Pierce's head that knocked him sprawling and jarred his grip loose. Santo spun clear, and Pierce rolled back to his feet. Blood trickled from the Reaver's nose and brow, and gathered between his teeth. They stopped momentarily to circle one another, and in the brief respite Peter noticed the environment within the complex had changed. All of the gunfire had fallen silent, and the sounds of fighting had ceased. Pierce's expression twisted with fury when he realized that it was his men on the losing end of the fray.

"Looks like I'll have to end this myself," he snarled. "Play time is over, boys!" His cybernetics clacked, and suddenly his arms began to change, his right shifting into a long, sword-like blade, and his left into a cannon.

"Oh ..." Peter muttered, just in time for the cannon to fire, and a massive bolt of energy slammed into his chest. He struck the ground hard and skidded another dozen feet, his armor blackened, buckled, and smoking. Painfully, he got his feet beneath him and staggered upright, one hand holding his chest.

Santo charged Pierce, delivering a powerful series of strikes that would have reduced any normal human to a fine red paste. Pierce took several directly to his head, but it did little more than stagger him for several ferocious body blows he also shrugged off. His left arm shifted again into another blade, and he was soon trading blows with Santo. Bits of stone were gouged out of his rocky hide with each strike, and the grating of metal on stone was deafening. Despite Santo's tremendous strength, however, Pierce was gaining the upper hand, and with an explosion of shards of rock, severed Santo's right arm.

Peter stumbled forward to rejoin the fight, but soon became aware of another figure darting in from the side. Illyana's sword blazed wrathfully when she lunged in and brought her blade down on Pierce's shoulder, trailing fire like some baleful comet. The blade smashed through his cybernetics and buried itself part way through his torso, yet Pierce hardly seemed bothered by it.

He momentarily reformed one of his hands and seized Illyana by the hair, casually tossing her aside. Before she struck the ground, she opened a portal and disappeared into it. Another opened above Pierce's back, and Illyana used the momentum to drive her heel into him. She wrenched her sword free of his back kicked off him back into the portal she had exited from, and popped out once again from the first. She wheeled her sword through a powerful rising blow at Pierce's chest, fueled by the power of her flight. The portals snapped closed, and Illyana dragged her blade through Pierce's body before landing in a crouch behind him.

Pierce wheeled around — his damaged body repaired itself — and reformed his cannon again to fire. But before he could unleash the charged blast a deadly howl filled the air, and Sooraya's sand form blasted across him. It flayed the flesh from his endoskeleton, and he grunted, uselessly shielding his face with his arm. Illyana took advantage of his momentary blindness to withdraw out of distance, just in time for Nori, blazing with electricity and speeding out from the main building to flash past him. She skidded to a stop and shed her gauntlets. A deafening crackle split the air, accompanied by a massive electrical blast that raced across Pierce's body. Illyana unleashed a column of white hellfire from behind him, and between them the flesh was practically seared from his body, leaving only his cybernetic superstructure underneath.

Ragged strips of bloody flesh clung to the metal, and what of his internal organs were still biological were now exposed for all to see.

"Whoah, groady!" Santo exclaimed while he reattached his right arm. But Pierce was not down. A massive shock of energy exploded from him, deflecting Nori and Illyana, and Sooraya's sand form splattered uselessly against the shockwave. Flung clear, she hit the ground hard enough to knock the wind from her when she recorporated. Pierce's arms shaped back into blades. He wheeled between his attackers, fighting off Illyana's sword and Santo's fists, while Nori dodged around him and continued pumping blasts of electricity into him.

Peter dashed forward. With Santo on one side and Illyana on the other, Pierce was forced to turn between the two and was unable to concentrate on one of them, and Nori's blasts showed a visible effect disrupting his cybernetics.

And that gave him the opening he needed.

With a primal scream, Peter launched into a superman punch, and Pierce turned in response to square up to him. His organic steel fist smashed through Pierce's chest armor. Metal squealed as it buckled under the force of the blow, and the impact froze Pierce out of pure shock and disbelief. His hand now deep inside the cyborg's body, Peter seized hold of the wiring connecting brain and cybernetics, and with a savage jerk tore them out. Sparks exploded from Pierce's body, and his legs collapsed beneath him.

Santo rushed in to seize him by one arm, and Peter grabbed the other. They pulled them out tight, and restrained Pierce upright. He thrashed against their grip, but with his legs non-functional couldn't manage the leverage to tear himself loose.

"Surge, light him up!" Peter ordered. Every light across the complex blinked out. Electricity danced and sizzled across her skin, and her eyes blazed a brilliant, neon blue.

"This is for Salem, asshole!" she sneered, and cut loose with everything she had.

Pierce's whole body jerked as white-hot fingers crackled through him, frying every circuit powering his cybernetics, and reducing his biological components to ash. Nori didn't let up until thick, black smoke poured from his chassis, and after a few final pops and spasms, Pierce hung limply, with only Santo and Peter's hold on his arms supporting him.

They released him, and he collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

"Dude, does this mean we won?" Santo said, giddily.

Illyana leaned her sword against her shoulder, and a smirk tugged at her lips. "I think so, once Laura finishes with finger lady."

Nori retrieved her gauntlets and slipped them back on. "That's why I came out here: Yana I need you with me right away," she said, and Peter could not mistake the panic in her voice. "We have to get Laura back to the mansion immediately!"

"What happened?" he asked.

"She's been hit by darts, and it looks like she just took a massive dose of the virus."

Sooraya's hands went to her mouth. "Oh, Allah be merciful! Is she all right?"

Nori shook her head. "It's very, very bad, we have to get her home now!"

"Right," Peter said. "Yana, go with her. Get Talon back as fast as you can. The rest of us will finish here. But let's hurry, the noise we've been making is sure to have attracted attention."

###

Laura stumbled along the catwalk, blinded by the torrent of blood leaking from her eyes, and leaning on the railing for support while she half-dragged herself along the length of it. She could barely breathe; blood and fluid filled her lungs, and twice she sunk to the ground, vomited, and had to force herself back to her feet.

Organs failing. Healing factor compromised and...coopted.

She clenched her jaw in determination. Laura could feel the virus ravaging her body, reproducing so swiftly and in such a massive volume as it took control of her healing factor that just being near the others would guarantee infection of the entire team, if not everyone left at the school still unaffected.

Another stumble, and again she vomited blood and something more disgusting she dared not even guess at. Blood frothed in her mouth and nose. Lesions split open on her exposed flesh, and more blood leaked from them.

I can't let this happen...

Laura forced herself up again, only sheer will driving her forward to the end of the catwalk, and the industrial incinerator it overlooked. A heavy safety gate stood closed, blocking anyone from falling in on accident. She extended her claws and sliced through the latch, allowing it to swing open. Then she closed her eyes and rolled herself over the edge.

###

"Vic!" Santo cried, and bolted across the complex when he spotted Rahne approaching with Victor cradled in her arms. Her shoulders sagged wearily, and she gladly gave up her burden when the big rocky mutant reached her. "Speak to me, buddy!"

"Oh god, is that Santo?" Victor murmured weakly, while Santo cradled him to his massive rocky chest. "I'm dead and this is Hell!"

Rahne shifted back into her human form and rolled her eyes. "Och, dinnae be so dramatic," she said. "Josh will have ye back in order in no time."

The others gathered around the entrance to the main building, and Rahne shuddered at the sight of Pretty Boy lying crumpled near the big hole in the wall where the door used to be. Colossus was busy securing his hands and legs with a thick piece of rebar. Sooraya, Cessily, and David stood with him, but there was no sign of Nori, Yana, or Laura.

"Is it over?" she asked upon arriving beside them.

"Not yet," David said, and his shoulders sagged. "Laura...she got hit bad during the fighting."

Rahne blinked in surprise, and more than a little shock that Laura, out of all the team, had been taken down. "How hard could she get hit that her healin' factor cannae fix it up?"

"There were darts. A lot of them," Cessily said. "Soo just filled us in."

"Good Lord Almighty! Is she ..."

"Yana, Nori, and Josh are getting her back to the mansion, but the way Nori made it sound it may have been too much for her."

Rahne pressed her hands to her mouth, and cold fingers wrapped tightly around her heart. "Oh no. Oh no."

"There's nothing we can do about it now," Colossus said, once he finished securing their prisoner. "We still have a job to finish. Prodigy, any luck?"

"Yeah," he said. "I've just hacked the encryption on the files, and holy shit, this is some scary stuff. Dr. Rao will really want to look at this when we get back, it may help her with the cure. It also looks like there's a concealed entrance leading deeper underground beneath the factory floor, as Laura said. That's where the actual labs and storage are located, along with the prisoners. It looks like nothing has been moved yet."

"Good work! Once Magik has Talon and Elixir in hand and the area's clear, we'll join Surge," Colossus said.

###

It didn't take long for Josh to find her; a trail of blood led up the stairs onto the catwalk, and deeper into the complex. He rushed past pools of it, along with something even more disgusting, she had spit up. It quickly dawned on him just where she was heading, and horrified, he picked up his pace and sprinted along the catwalk. His boots clattered loudly on the metal grating, echoing across the complex.

He reached the end of it just in time to watch Laura cut open the safety gate overlooking the incinerator, and let herself fall.

Josh dove, landing hard on his belly at the edge, and grabbing wildly. He managed to catch her by the wrist, and the sudden jerk of stopping her fall nearly pulled him over with her. He managed to hook one of the vertical supports of the safety rail with his foot, and now they hung precariously over the open maw of the incinerator.

Laura looked up at him with bloodshot eyes. Blood poured from every orifice, and from great lesions tearing apart her skin. Josh wanted to throw up at the sight.

"Laura, no!" he cried, straining against her weight held tenuously by one hand. The blood smeared over her hands made it harder for him to maintain his grip, and he felt her slowly slipping away.

"Joshua, let me go!" she pleaded.

"I can't do that! I can't let you do this to yourself!"

"Please! It's too late."

"No, it's not! Just let us take you back to the school."

"Joshua, the virus is coopting my healing factor," she said, and Josh's bile climbed up into his throat. If the virus can actually use her healing factor... "I can feel it! This will not be like what happened to the others. It is mutating, and if it gets out it will kill everyone!"

"Laura, please. Just let me try!"

"It's not worth it," she said. "I am not worth it! My life does not matter, and I won't endanger everyone else, please just let go!"

Josh was stunned at the resignation in her voice. Through all the self-consciousness she displayed, he had never before seen anything to suggest the depth of self-loathing he heard in her voice now. This wasn't humility; she intended to sacrifice herself because she genuinely believed her life was not worth saving.

"Laura, listen to me. You do matter, and I'm not going to let you kill yourself when we have a chance to make this right. Please just give me time!"

"There is none!" Snikt.

Josh stared in dismay at the lights flickering along the edge of her claws as she drew back to strike at her wrist. His mind scrambling for something — anything — to stop her, he thought back to the afternoon before. He took a steadying breath.

"And what about Julian?" he asked.

Laura froze, and for a moment clarity came to her bleeding green eyes. "Julian ...?"

"You matter to him! He's going to be looking for you when he wakes up. You matter to all of us! You're our friend. Cessily doesn't want to lose you. Sooraya doesn't want to lose you. Just please! Let me try!"

Tense silence hung over the complex, broken only by the hungry roar of the incinerator. Josh looked straight into her eyes. They were glassing over now. Whatever reserve of strength Laura drew on faded fast. If she didn't relent soon...

Her claws retracted. Josh grabbed her other hand, and with a grunt of effort pulled her up. Laura's bloodied body collapsed in his arms. She choked and coughed blood, and it frothed on her mouth and nose.

Please, God! Let me do this!

Josh cupped her cheek in one hand and closed his eyes. He reached out to her with his power, and as he explored deep down, beyond her skin and muscle tissue, down into the cells themselves, he realized with dread that Laura was right: The virus had not only overwhelmed her immune system because of the massive volume that had been injected into her, but was now using her own healing factor to replicate itself at an unprecedented rate. And this new mutation was even more aggressive, it poured out of her body through the lesions opened in her skin, and Josh realized that this time contact with those fluids alone would be enough to spread it.

He grimaced in determination. Not this time. Now he knew what he needed to do. Now he knew just how to attack it, so Josh gathered his power to him. An incandescent golden light burned through Laura's body and lit the surrounding catwalk until it was blinding, and he went on the offensive.

###

Act V

###

"Come on, Vic! It won't hurt, I promise!" Santo said.

Cessily, Rahne, and Santo gathered around Victor's bed in the recovery bay. The bay around them was crowded with the first group of patients whom Dr. Rao had declared suitably cleared that they could be released from quarantine. Mr. Summers watched them with amusement from a bed nearby, where he was being fussed over by Dr. Grey. Melody was still in quarantine, but Megan and Fabio were up and about again, wrapped up in soft robes while they stretched their legs in the recovery area, and observed the exchange with morbid curiosity. Others napped with privacy curtains drawn, or talked quietly with each other and ignored the big rocky mutant's appeal.

Cessily smirked at the distress on Victor's reptilian features; since his healing factor wasn't as strong as Laura's they all expected Josh would be called in to fix the arm he lost in the fight against the Reavers. So it came as a surprise to them all when he had already regrown it by the time Josh was freed from his work with Dr. Rao preparing the vaccine and antiviral agent. It came as an even bigger surprise when the arm that grew in was even more muscular and reptilian than the old one, looking comically out of place on his otherwise slender physique.

"Dude, I am not letting you pull off my other arm!" Victor replied, crossly. "Why would you even think that would be a good idea?"

"Because your new arm is stronger, imagine how much more badass you'd be if the other one was, too!"

Victor buried his face in his hand. "Oh my god, shut up, Santo!"

Cessily regarded him with amusement. "I don't know," she said. "Right now you're kinda lopsided. You look like Quagmire after discovering internet porn."

He speared her with an annoyed glare. "Don't you dare take his side, Cess!"

"Think about it, Vic," Santo said, "you'd look totally jacked with both arms all buff. The other gay dudes wouldn't be able to keep their hands off ya!"

"Rahne, please, help me out here"

"Dinnae drag me into this!" she said, trying her hardest not to laugh. "I'm just glad yer nae goin' to need much more healin'. Ye scared the life out o' me!"

"Sounds like you were pretty badass, too," Santo said. "Yana said you just about took Skullf—"

"Santo!" Cessily and Victor shouted together, mindful of the younger kids hovering nearby.

"What?" he asked with an innocent shrug. "I was just saying she took that dude down who hurt Victor single-handed! That's awesome! Those Reavers were some pretty hardcore dudes."

Rahne's face colored intensely, and she hugged herself uneasily. "I didnae take any joy in that. What's worse, I almost didnae stop myself from killin' him. God help me, the Wolf in me wanted to so bad it scared me!"

Cessily took her shoulder by the hand and gave it a squeeze. "Hey, don't beat yourself up over it. It was a hard night for all of us. But you did what you had to to save Victor. And if it helps you feel better, you did stop yourself."

She sighed. "I know I did, but the feelin' was there all the same. I dinnae know how Laura and Yana can cope with somethin' so dark."

Victor frowned and looked between them. "Honestly, I don't know if they really are. Yana's been kind of weird since she got back from Limbo, and Laura...well, she's Laura. She doesn't let it show but Julian's mentioned she's a lot more bothered by what she does than she lets on."

"Look, Jubilee said it may be a few days before she's up to opening shop again, but she'll be there," Cessily said, and gave Rahne's shoulder another squeeze. She then flashed her a teasing grin. "Besides, if you need someone to talk to, I'm sure Josh would love to sit down with you."

Rahne's features heated again, and Cessily laughed at her discomfiture. "Och! Ye're an evil, evil person, Cessily Kincaid!"

"So how about it, Vic? One little tug," Santo said.

###

Scott watched the exchange between Santo and Victor with amusement, then with a shake of his head returned his attention to the iPad in his hands. His glasses were back in place, now that the treatment had been administered and Hank's serum wore off and restored his powers. Jean hovered over him, radiating her disapproval, but there was too much now to do.

"What is that you're reading, anyway?" she asked, trying to crane her neck to look over his shoulder.

"It's the information dump David pulled from the Facility's computer," he replied.

"I thought Dr. Rao said you were supposed to be resting, not working. I don't have to put you to sleep, do I?"

"I'm feeling better, Jean, really. I really just need something to do. I already feel I've been idle too long."

"Scott, you've only been up a couple days!" She shook her head with an exasperated look at the ceiling. "Why did I marry a workaholic?"

"Well, I asked and you said yes. Have you looked over any of this, yet?"

Jean sighed, and leaned against the wall behind her with her arms folded beneath her breast. "Some, and it made for very disconcerting reading. Almost all of the missing mutants we had been tracking were there. I already made a couple calls, and once Dr. Rao clears them, we'll begin reconnecting them with their families. At least, those that have them. It looks like we may have a couple new students joining us.

"I've also arranged to have all this information released to the CDC and Homeland Security. Anonymously, of course. They're going to want to know what was going on. It's a shame most of the staff got away during the fighting, but at least they weren't able to make off with any of the captives or equipment."

"What worries me is the Facility has been operating this close to Westchester all this time." He frowned at the report. "There was no specific mention of her, but... Unfortunately, they're very good at compartmentalizing their activities. This black site was focused entirely on their biological weapons research. There's definitely information the DHS and the CDC will want to know about, but it still doesn't help us track down this Harkins, or determine what site Stryker's weapons shipments were actually coming from."

"I know," Jean said, and sighed. "I'm worried, too. I'm afraid the situation has only gotten more dangerous."

"Have you contacted Logan, yet?"

She shook her head, and wearily sunk into the chair next to his bed. Scott took her hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze of support. "I haven't been able to get in touch with him, his team is still dark."

"What about Cerebro?"

"David and Bradley are still working on getting the rest of main power restored to the school, so Cerebro won't be operational again until at least then. If Logan hasn't responded by the time it's up, I'll try him that way."

Scott nodded and set the iPad aside. "He'll need to know about this, and we'll want to set a closer watch on the school. I have no doubts these people are capable of anything."

Jean nodded her agreement and slumped in her chair. Scott looked up at her, and the weariness in her features was disconcerting.

"Look, I'm doing ok. You need to get some rest. Peter said you've hardly slept in a week."

"I can manage," she said. "There's still so much to do."

"Now who's the workaholic?" he asked, and flashed her a playful smile. "I think the others can manage without you for a couple hours. Please, get some sleep."

Jean smiled back and gave his hand a squeeze. "Who do you think I learned it from?"

Scott's smile broadened, and Jean shifted in her chair so she could lean her head against him. Scott didn't release her hand, even when her breathing slowed, and he felt her doze off beside him.

###

Peter stepped out onto the terrace behind the school. Morning passed into afternoon, and the sun overhead was bright and warm. Kitty had not yet returned from Mount Sinai; though Dr. Rao's antivirus was proving effective, it would be another week or more before the hospital could begin discharging its patients, and Hank still needed every hand he could get. Nonetheless, it was still a major victory, and things already felt like they were beginning to return to normal.

He stepped down from the terrace and made his way out into the wooded area behind the school. It was mostly beginning to return to normal. Peter followed a path to a quiet little sun-dappled glade, and found Illyana there. She was clad in leggings and a crop top beneath a leather jacket, and her sword was in hand. A brass pendulum hung from a post driven into the ground and swung from a crosspiece.

Illyana cut at the pendulum, and upon striking it, it swung around away from her. She stepped to follow, stringing together a series of cuts. Each blow changed the direction of the pendulum, forcing her to constantly move to keep it in front of her while striking at different angles. Peter watched her for a time. Her movements had their own particular grace, if not of the same feline fluidity of Laura, and her sword turned deftly in her hands. However, the longer the exercise went on, the faster the pendulum moved, and the more furiously she cut at it. Eventually, her swings became wild and uncontrolled, and the pendulum swung around so fast it managed to get behind her and strike her in the back of the head.

Her eyes blazed furiously with white flame, and she lashed out with a ball of hellfire that blasted the pendulum into molten fragments. Illyana let out a petulant scream, and watched the shower of shatter brass fall into the grass.

"Yana," Peter called, and Illyana rounded on him. The fire in her eyes flared again over the interruption, and it was only when she saw him that it died away.

"I wanted to be left alone," she snapped. She raised her hand to the dangling cord, and with a surge of power a new pendulum appeared at the end. When Peter approached her, he became aware that there were far more bits of brass scattered around her than could be explained by the one she had just destroyed.

"We need to talk."

"No, you need to talk."

He conceded the argument with a shrug. "Maybe, but I think you'd benefit from it, too."

"Well, there's nothing to talk about," she said, dismissively, and launched into a fresh bout against the pendulum.

"Illyana Rasputina!" he snapped back, and that made her flinch. The pendulum, still in motion, flipped around and popped her in the nose.

Illyana uttered a curse in Russian that would no doubt have given their mother a fit were she alive to hear it, and lashed out once again, disintegrating the ball of brass in a blaze of hellfire.

"Language, Snowflake!" he shouted in admonishment.

"What do you want from me, Piotr?" Illyana demanded, lapsing into Russian in a fit of pique.

"Illyana, I'm not here to fight with you," he replied in kind, trying to keep his voice level and his frustration from leeching into it. "But we do need to talk about what happened in Albany. You killed people."

"So did Laura. So did Nori! She melted one of those Reavers into slag, and then fried Pierce at your orders!"

"They are not you. They did not enjoy it, but you treated it all as if it were a game."

"We had a job to do, and those men were not innocents! They were all killers, too. They were no better than Stryker's men, or those men at the Guthrie home. They would have killed all of us if we did not kill them first!"

"That's part of the point, Yana!" Peter said, and glowered down at her with his hands on his hips. For her part, Illyana didn't back down. "Sam told me about what happened in Amandaville, and how afraid you were during that fight. But that's not what I saw in Albany."

"Don't you dare try to scold me as if you were father. First of all, you're not. And you were never as good at it as he was, anyway!"

"I'm not trying to scold you," he said. "But something has happened to you, and it scares me. I've never seen you use power like this outside Limbo before." He motioned at the fragments of brass scattered around her feet. "A few minor conjurations, perhaps, to show off, but nothing like this. And I've never known you to be so callous about human lives."

"I did what I had to do, and I would do it all over again!" The fire returned to Illyana's eyes again, flickering balefully when she stared him down. "And this power is mine by right! I will use it as I see fit!"

"Illyana, please, listen to yourself," he pleaded. "You're talking like you did in Limbo right before you attacked me!"

She closed her eyes, and her whole body shivered. When she opened them again tears welled up in them, and meandered down her cheek. "You need to understand that I am not your Little Snowflake anymore. I am growing up, and I am growing into my power. It is becoming part of me."

Illyana clutched a hand to her chest. "I feel it here all the time now, and I'll not squander it."

"I'm not saying that. But you heard S'ym's warnings: You mustn't draw too heavily on your magic, especially not all at once. Mutant or not, you're still human."

She turned her back on him and hunched her shoulders. "I don't think I am. I think Rahne had the right of it: I truly am a demon."

Peter felt icy fingers seize around his heart. Though she would never admit to it openly, her words were tinged with despair and fear. He stepped towards her and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"No, you're not. Maybe you fought like one, but you will always be my Little Snowflake."

Illyana turned, and her features twisted through a range of emotions; anger, fear, frustration, grief. "You've always been naively optimistic."

He shrugged and smiled. "Maybe. But someone in this school has to be."

Peter gathered her into a hug, and for a moment, at least, she collapsed into him and buried her face in his chest.

###

Nori hesitated a moment outside the door and clutched the book in her hands to her chest. Her belly turned somersaults, and she closed her eyes tightly to steady herself. She could have asked someone else to do this instead, but Dr. Grey personally requested she deliver the book for her. And, if she were to be honest with herself, this was something she needed to do.

And yet here she stood, frozen in indecision.

She stood in the hallway outside the observation gallery, staring blankly at the door of one of the smaller, private rooms away from the main med bay suite. Santo's booming voice echoed off the walls and drowned out most of the other background noise. Some of their classmates and teachers were back up again, and a little bit of joy was starting to seep back into the student body, but Nori's heart sunk down somewhere into her bowels at the task before her.

Unable to retreat or put it off, she rapped her gauntlet-clad knuckles against the door.

"Come in," came the muffled voice from within, and with a steadying breath she turned the latch, opened the door, and stepped inside.

The room was functionally appointed, lacking many of the comforts of the dorms upstairs, but at least projected the idea of rest. A few monitors and other bits of medical equipment were tucked away in the corner. There were no tell-tale scorch marks of fried electronics, so Nori guessed they must have been shut down at the time Magneto went off. There were also cards, bouquets, and other "get well soon" gifts piled on every conceivable space.

Professor Xavier looked up at her from the bed in the corner opposite the door. A chair and table occupied the other, and would provide visitors somewhere to sit. His wheelchair also stood ready beside his bed for when Dr. Rao released him. At the moment, however, both chairs were empty.

"Hello, Nori," he said cheerfully. Despite the pleasantness of his voice, and as good as it was to hear him again after the fright of the past few days, it was hard not to notice just how tired he sounded. "What can I do for you?"

Nori held up the book in her hand. "Dr. Grey said you asked for this ..."

A momentary look of confusion passed across his features. "Did I?" Then an understanding smile replaced the puzzlement, and he nodded. "Ah, yes, I see. Thank you, I'll take that from you."

Nori crossed the room and handed over the book, though the Professor set it in his lap and showed no further interest in it. "And how are you doing?" he asked.

She hugged her arm self-consciously, and cast her eyes to the floor. "I don't...I really don't know. I did some things in Albany I knew had to be done, but ..." The smoldering remains of Cole and Pierce returned to mind unbidden. "I still can't get it out of my head."

He nodded, but when Nori looked closer there was nothing but sympathy in his eyes. "I understand." Xavier sighed. "It's the unfortunate reality of being a leader that sometimes you must make hard decisions."

Nori's breath caught in her throat, and she swallowed it down hard. "I...kind of wanted to talk to you about that. I think that you and Cyclops made a mistake putting me in charge."

"Why would you say that?"

"All the decisions I've made since Yana got sick have just led to one mess after another. I nearly got everyone killed in Salem, I messed up training with Magneto, and I almost froze again in Albany. And all those people I hurt ..." she trailed off suddenly, and tears filled her eyes. "Worst of all is knowing I let you down."

Xavier sighed and lowered his head. Nori braced herself for the chewing out she knew was coming, but much to her surprise, Xavier beckoned her forward, lightly patting the bed next to him. She hesitated a moment before sitting next to him.

"There's a reason Scott and I chose you to lead the squad," he said gently. "Because we knew that when it all came down to it, you would do whatever you had to to protect them, even if it meant making a decision I would disagree with, or taking the burden of action on yourself to spare the others that same terrible choice. You made a judgment call with Salem, and the choices you made all had sound reasoning behind them. If I gave you any cause to believe you had failed me, that was my own poor judgment.

"And that's the hardest thing a leader has to face: That sometimes, they may make a mistake. What matters is whether you continue to dwell on it, or if you learn from it. The reality, Nori, is sometimes you will fail. That doesn't make you a bad leader, it makes you human."

Nori's shoulders slumped and she hung her head. "Magneto said much the same thing."

Xavier smiled and leaned in conspiratorially. "Every once and a while, Erik does know what he's talking about. But don't let him know I said that." He offered her a mischievous wink, and Nori giggled in spite of herself. "You are a good leader, Nori. Perhaps you weren't ready for a situation like this, but in the end you came through and got your job done. That's all you can really do."

###

Josh tilted his head back for a long drink from his Coca-Cola, and relaxed in his chair. The lights in the quarantine bay and observation gallery were turned down low so those who had not yet been released could rest, though Santo and Victor's squabbling was clearly audible from the recovery room next door and would make it difficult for anyone to sleep. Although he kept an eye on the monitors and feeds coming from the quarantined patients, the urgency of the past week had finally faded away.

Melody, whose condition had become the most precarious, slept quietly. She was finally off the respirator, but had only just regained consciousness from her coma. Ms. Guthrie dozed in a bed beside her; her vitals had not yet stabilized, though her fever had broken that morning. Magneto remained unconscious, and his fever was still high. He was responding to treatment more slowly, but his outburst had been more severe than any of the others and left him considerably weakened. Alani, Roxanne, and Jessica were up and about, but Dr. Rao wanted them kept under observation a little longer. They gathered around Roxie's bed conversing quietly with one another. Quentin, Barnell, and Sidney were tucked away nearest the airlock; Quentin glared at the ceiling in boredom (his powers were still suppressed; more to prevent him from tormenting the others for amusement than any potential risk of him losing control again) while the others napped.

Finally, in a corner away from the others and under several extra layers of protection, lay Laura. She had been drifting in and out of consciousness since their return from Albany, and though his powers had managed to repair the damage to her healing factor and stop the virus from spreading further, her immune system was only slowly responding to this more aggressive form. The lesions had healed and some of her normal color was returning, however her fever remained dangerously high, and Dr. Rao insisted on the additional precautions to prevent the virus's new mutation from spreading further. The antivirus was working, but slowly.

Josh did not particularly appreciate the cruel irony that though her blood had been vital to creating the antiviral agent in the first place, it was having such a delayed effect on her.

The door back out to the subbasement hallway opened, interrupting his musings, and to his surprise Julian walked in with a backpack slung over his shoulder. Josh jumped to his feet at his unexpected arrival. Julian did not look at him, but nor did he consciously avoid him. Instead, he approached the windows overlooking the quarantine bay and peered inside.

"Julian!" Josh said, when he found his voice.

"Foley," Julian replied, his voice neutral, which Josh supposed was an improvement over the hostility the last few times they spoke.

"What are you doing back here? I thought you were still recovering at Mount Sinai."

"The Doc cleared me for discharge, which suited me just fine. Nurses aside, I had to get out of there before it drove me insane."

Awkward silence hung between them for a few moments. Josh didn't respond, and Julian didn't seem to be interested in continuing along that line of conversation. Finally, Julian sighed and bowed his head.

"Foley ..." he began, and trailed off uncomfortably. Josh didn't press him, and instead waited for him to continue in his own time. "I just wanted to say thank you. For saving Laura's life. And for everything else you did for us." He closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "And I wanted to say I'm sorry for how I was treating you."

Josh stared at him for a moment, stunned into silence. He never got used to the rare times when Julian Keller would apologize for being an asshole.

"I took everything out on you because ..." he sighed. "Well...because you were there, and I didn't have Pierce or any of those other assholes in front of me. But Rahne was right, it wasn't fair to hold something that happened four years ago and before you even came here against you."

"Look, Julian," Josh said, and joined him at the window. He leaned his shoulder against it and folded his arms below his chest. "To be honest, if it was the other way around, I might have reacted the same way. I shouldn't have kept something like this a secret from everyone, and maybe it wouldn't have blown up like it did if I hadn't. The truth is, back then I really did believe all that bullshit Pierce was selling. But that's what it was: bullshit, and I'm embarrassed and regret I ever bought into it. It took me having everything I knew turned upside down before I could finally pull my head out of my ass and see the truth."

Julian glanced sidelong at him for a moment and nodded. "Yeah. I think I can understand that."

"I don't blame you for being upset about it. That right hook might have been a little out of line, but I don't blame you."

Julian managed a small laugh. "Yeah, well, you gave as good as you got."

Josh extended a hand to him. "Maybe things won't ever be the same again, but I'm willing to put the past behind me if you are."

Julian eyed his hand for a moment, before accepting it with a firm shake. "Just don't spring any other surprises on us. Like you're actually Stryker's secret nephew or some bullshit."

This time it was Josh's turn to laugh. "I'll do my best."

Again, for a moment neither spoke, and Julian looked back out into the quarantine bay.

"Can, uh, I go in and see her?" Julian asked. He shrugged the shoulder with the pack. "Soo was going to bring this down; it's got a few things she might like to have to make her more comfortable down here, but I volunteered. You know how she gets about being in there."

Josh nodded. "Yeah, it's fine. Dr. Rao lifted the full quarantine protocols, so you'll be good with just a mask as long as you don't go into the inner tent. Just leave her bag in the air gap, and next time one of us suits up we'll take it the rest of the way."

He hesitated for a moment, memories of Laura's reaction to Chandler haunting his thoughts. "Look, I think you ought to know that there's something going on she's not telling us about. She knew that Chandler guy who shot you, and I saw something in her eyes ..."

Julian frowned in suspicion. "Saw what?"

"I honestly don't know how to describe it. Look, she seems to confide in you more than she does anyone else, but this guy did something to her she's refusing to talk about."

Julian hung his head and twisted his lip. "She always does," he said, and Josh was surprised at the frustration in his voice. "Thanks for telling me, though. I'll mask up now if you want to let me in."

###

Julian adjusted the mask around his nose and mouth. It smelled heavily of charcoal, which actually improved things over the overwhelming antiseptic smell of the quarantine bay. Quentin Quire glared at him upon stepping through the airlock, and he smirked behind his mask in amusement at seeing him left powerless. He passed Sydney and Barnell, then Melody and Ms. Guthrie's beds. Alani, Roxie, and Jessica gathered around Roxie's bed talking quietly, and Alani offered him a small wave of greeting. Jessica leaned in conspiratorially to the others, and all three girls giggled while they watched him pass. Julian rolled his eyes at Jessica.

Ugh. Precogs...

Julian reached the isolated corner of the bay. Two nested clear plastic tents surrounded one of the beds, with air conditioning units managing the temperature within. The clear plastic allowed Laura's condition to be visually monitored from the observation gallery, alongside the other equipment hooked up to her now. Laura lay quietly with her eyes closed, however he couldn't tell whether she was asleep. Her black hair was plastered to her brow by a thin film of sweat, and when Julian looked at one of the connected monitors it read a temperature of 103 degrees.

He opened the flap of the outer tent and stepped into the air gap in between. The portable AC units hummed quietly, and the temperature inside was somewhat cooler than he found comfortable. He slid the pack from his shoulder and laid it on the ground upon approaching the inner tent; almost close enough for him to reach out and touch her if not for the sheet of plastic between them. Laura stirred slightly on his approach, and her eyes, a dull and glassy green, fluttered open. She turned her head, then tried to sit up in surprise at the sight of him.

"Julian?" she said, weakly.

"Hey," he replied. "Don't try to get up, ok? How are you feeling?"

She sunk back down onto the bed again and swallowed. "I am better, but still tired. Joshua did something that helped."

"Yeah, I know."

"Are you still angry with him?"

Julian sighed and hung his head. "After what he did for you, and everyone else, I can't be. I think we're kind of back to normal again."

"How are you feeling?"

"Better, too, I guess. Next time I'll be faster to duck."

Laura's lips twitched slightly into a weak smile. "I am glad you're well."

Julian smiled back, though the expression was cheated by his mask. "So, Soo asked me to bring your bag down. She says there's some stuff in there to help you feel a little more comfortable while they've got you trapped in here like Bubble Boy. It's right out here, so next time Foley or one of the Docs come by suited up they're going to bring it the rest of the way in."

"Thank you." She closed her eyes again and sighed. "I am sorry, Julian, I am just so tired."

"I know. I just wanted to check in on you and make sure you were ok." He hesitated a moment, then took a steadying breath. "I'm going to let you get some sleep, but I wanted to ask you something first I've been trying to get for over a week. Hopefully before there's another interruption."

Laura opened her eyes again and regarded him quizzically. "What is it?"

"I was wondering once you're up and we're able to go to Salem again if you wanted to catch a movie or something."

There. The question was finally out, not that it stopped his stomach from knotting itself while he waited for her response.

Laura worked a little moisture into her mouth. "Do not feel you must wait for me to be out of quarantine if the others wish to go," she replied, and for a moment he felt as if someone had just sucker punched him. It wasn't a no, but he was a little chagrinned how she misinterpreted it.

"No, I mean this would just be you and me."

A little bit of color appeared on her cheeks once Laura realized her error. "Oh." She hesitated for a moment, and her features bunched a bit while she processed what she was feeling about the question. She turned her head a little to look at him, and a hint of a sparkle returned to her green eyes. "I...I think I would like that."

Julian smiled. "Ok. For now, get some rest, ok? We'll make plans once you're up again. And I'll let the others know you're feeling better."

She closed her eyes again and nodded, and Julian stayed there for a moment and watched her breathing slow until she fell asleep. He sighed, but felt a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

She said yes.

Julian withdrew from the quarantine tent and back into the main bay. Jessica, Roxie, and Alani followed his retreat back towards the observation gallery with a turn of their heads and giggled audibly at his back.

Goddammed Precogs...

###

Adam Harkins stepped off the helicopter with an aide in tow, and ducked under the whirring blades. The downdraft made a mess of his hair, tie and jacket, and he scowled in irritation while he straightened them again.

The ruins of the Albany installation were now swarming with police and emergency responders, and more concerning, DHS and other Federal officers. Fortunately, many of his own people were already among them, subtly directing the investigators in the wrong direction.

He leaned to his aide and lowered his voice. "Find out where the remains of Pierce and the rest of his lieutenants were taken, as well as where they're detaining Pretty Boy, and have them loaded up for transport to the New Brunswick installation. Then see about any other survivors. Keep it quiet."

"Yes, Doctor," she replied, and hurried off to carry out his instructions.

Harkins continued on his own and approached the officer in charge of the site. He waved, and the officer — an older man with dark skin and graying hair, dressed in a neat black suit with an FBI ID badge clipped to the jacket — detached himself from a small group of other men dressed in Evidence Response Team jackets and made his way over.

"Dr. Harkins!" he said, extending his hand in greeting. Harkins accepted it and gave it a firm shake. "When they said they were sending an expert to evaluate the site I didn't realize they were sending you personally."

"What do we have?" Harkins asked, feigning ignorance.

"A godawful mess. There were reports of gunfire in this area a couple days ago, and then we received a tipoff about a possible bio-terror site. When we arrived, there were bodies all over the place. And get this: Donald Pierce was with them. Or at least, what was left of him was.

"I've had a few of my teams doing a preliminary investigation of the main installation—" he waved vaguely in that direction "—and there were more bodies inside. Whatever happened here, it wasn't a robbery gone wrong. I did some time in Iraq, and I know a special forces raid when I see one."

"Special forces, in Albany?" Harkins said, and allowed an appropriate amount of practiced surprise into his voice.

The officer shrugged. "Whoever they were pulled out long before we could get here, but this was definitely a professional job. They had the security cameras cross-wired, the alarms were jammed, and the perimeter guards had all been taken out. Real precise blade work on the guards at the east gate, too. Forensics are looking over the computers, now, but it seems they were all fried. Some sort of massive electrical discharge burned out the whole system. They say they'll have to pull the drives physically to see if there's anything recoverable. There's also a pretty serious laboratory complex underneath, along with prison cells. It's too early to tell, but this may have been where the muties who disappeared last fall were being held, though we have no idea where they are now. However, there's definitely enough evidence to connect this site with the bio attack in Mutant Town."

Harkins nodded. "I'll have a team of my people available to assist you with the forensics. Let me know if you need anything."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to have them briefed."

"If you'll excuse me, I'll make that call."

"Right, good to see you again, Doc."

Harkins extricated himself from the conversation, and pulled his phone from a pocket. Once he had moved off a safe distance and out of earshot he dialed an unmarked contact. It rang for a few moments, and Harkins scowled in irritation. The site was in ruins, the Albany operation was lost, the computers almost certainly had been compromised, and now he was convinced the priority subject had been here.

The phone picked up. "Doctor?" the man on the other end replied.

"Get Kimura," Harkins said. "I need her in Westchester immediately."


A Note From The Author

Woof. That was a monster. I hadn't expected this episode to go so long, but there was so much to work through. In hindsight, I either should have spread some of this out more across the previous three parts of the arc, or extended it out for a fifth episode. However next up is the season-ending arc, and I'm going to need all three remaining episodes to do it.

There's lots of pieces moving and groundwork being laid for future stories, here, especially with Illyana. I never expected her or Rahne to become larger fixtures in the cast, but it opened up some new dynamics and storytelling potential. I wish I had more time to build up Yana's deterioration in Limbo more, but it's just the way things shook out I didn't really have the space for it anywhere else.

As I mentioned in the notes for last episode, I knew from the start Magneto was going to be a problem. Originally, it was going to be him leading the team in the climax. But it's Magneto, he would have crushed everyone with a wave of his hand. So what better way to address the problem than having him getting sick, too. As a bonus, it even gave me a way to up the stakes a bit at the school.

And of course, we get more HeliX development. Didn't I promise Laura was going to eat some eye candy? I kind of hit on the idea that while Laura obviously knows sex, she doesn't understand attraction. So, I went with her observations about Julian's physique being more scientific and clinical. At least until she got to the butt. However, it's going to be important moving forward that she doesn't comprehend what any of what she feels means, and will absolutely be part of her development figuring that out.

Originally, Julian was planned to be in the fight at Albany, and would help Josh talk Laura out of sacrificing herself, but I decided to knock him out of it, too. Him getting sick from the Legacy Virus was also a minor nod to his appearance in Kyle and Yost's X-Force, as was Laura nearly throwing herself in an incinerator, only for Josh to talk her out of it. And yay, Julian finally got to ask her out without interruption!

The final fight was a lot of fun to write, and get everyone to play a part in it. Laura's duel with Deathstrike drew considerable inspiration (and dialogue) from their confrontation in Messiah Complex. Cessily shows off how dangerous her powers actually are. Rahne gets to have a real moment to shine. Illyana has some portal fun. And Nori gets a couple great one-liners, especially a wicked callback to her first encounter with Cole. I didn't intend to reference Victor's oversized arm, but it just came about naturally as the fight scene played out. This is, officially, the single largest fight scene in the story so far, exceeding even the Battle of Xavier's to end Season One when you consider all the different focuses involved.

Also, "dongle" is one of my favorite words.

Obviously, the big elephant in the room is more of Laura's history with the Facility getting teased. I never expected that Josh would be the first of the kids to realize she was connected to them, but somehow the interaction just felt natural. And a name people have been dreading just dropped...

Incidentally, the training target Illyana is using at the end of the episode is a very real historical training aid called a pendelziel, and comes from a mid-16th Century German fencing manuscript. Yana's fighting style is going to lean into the German longsword tradition, so it seemed appropriate.

In other news, the reedit of 1x01 posted on September 15th, and 1x02 is also reposting today. I'm looking at posting future reedits on the 1st and 15th of each month, so keep an eye open for them.

The final arc of the season is up next and it's going to be a doozy, so stay tuned.