Emma and Elisabeth were thrown from the Mindscape, cloaked in a protective
cocoon of psi-shielding that rendered them deaf and blind to the explosion.
Like Madelyne, they never heard Phoenix's seemingly final words, they were
back in Elisabeth's body, and Maddie had already exploded into a cloud of
shards that are blown across the infinity of the Mindscape, as 
Phoenix is reunited with the other half of her Essence, flaring in majestic
celebration of unity and wholeness...

When the dazzling brilliance fades, a new harmony spreads across the 
tortured ether of the Mindscape, and nothing remains to mark the epic
struggle...except the memories of two women who cared enough to try and 
help a tortured soul...and a frail human form that breathes slowly, and
peacefully for the first time in weeks...

As they waited to be released to consciousness of body, by the cocoon that
had protected them alone, Baronesses Frost and Braddock conversed in the 
private Mindscape that they temporarily shared...exchanging ideas, feelings
and nursing their own wounds.

<<...you know Liz, I've been thinking. You're right about the Club and the
Inner Circle needing fresh blood, new ideas. Your father was the Black
Bishop, your his heir. Would you consider taking the seat, and keeping my
nose the grindstone?>> Emma asked, <<Shinobi could stand to have his reality
shaken up, but I'm wondering who your mystery dinner date is... Sebastian is
long dead, Selene was killed by that FitzRoy brat...so who does that leave
us with, now that my Hellions are gone?>>

She stretched out in the Zen garden she'd built in her Mindscape, enjoying
the feeling of the sand under her aching back, <<Well, Roberto da Costa
could fill his father's position as Black Rook. HE's smart, honourable and
all that jazz, even if he's a bit hot tempered. I've known him for a couple
of years, back when he was with the New Mutants auxiliary programme, and what
about Imanuel de la Rocha? He may have Open Mind Syndrome, but it's treatable,
you know...oh, hadn't you heard about that thing they did with me? Roma's
people fitted me with psibernetics...we'll put him as White Rook. You dealt
with him for years, Emma. It's my turn...>>

Emma 'chewed' on the idea, and found it palatable, <<What are we going to do
for a Black Queen? I don't suppose you'd take it if we don't find another
candidate... Well, I trust you, Liz. You're honest and honourable...>>

Liz thought about their new friend, <<If Phoenix survived, we might offer
her. Poetic justice if she joined us...only we approach her with nothing
hidden...That Mastermind scenario you dreamed up last time *really* back-
fired!!>>

The fey telepaths laughed as Liz sarcasm sunk home, <<I deserved that,
besides, I've had a bit of enlightenment dropped in my lap: first sharing
my body with 'Saintly' Jeanne Grey, and now sharing yours. I don't like being
helpless, and reactive to the stimuli of my surroundings. I never agreed
with Xavier, and I don't think you did either. Your time with the X-Forces
was with 'Michael Xavier' aka Magneto. HE was proactive, which made a big
difference... With you coming out of SHIELD, MI6 and Her Maj's Secret Service
and now the Coda, I just can't see you as one of his PC isolated, cult-like
followers....>>

Liz sobered, her eyes darkening, <<No, I never was. I *thought* the likes
of you, Jeanne and I were mutants, Homo Superiorus; but we're not. We're 
Sidhe, Tuatha, the Fey folk of legend. Otherworld is in our genes. We're not
entirely human, and we have to consider that, as well as our responsibility
to metahumans of all types. The Hellfire Club has been used for a very long
time, to manipulate politics, economics, and power. I think it's time we
lived up to our responsibilities, our noblesse oblige to *all* people who
happen to live on this planet and in this star system...don't you??>>
 
Emma was about to respond, when the layers of psychic shielding cocoon
wore away; they both heard Remy pounding on the door of the boathouse,
making enough racket to wake the dead...


"'Lisabeth, you in there, chere?" he hollered, "Ah can feel ya, but Ah don't
tink ya can hear me...th' hell wit' it, Ah'm goin' t'have t'pick de damned 
lock. Again."

Remy's melodious voice trailed off into a mutter as he pulled a lockpick
out of the seam of his jeans and hunkered down to begin working on the 
deadbolt that separated him from the lady he was beginning to care--and 
worry--a great deal about...

He'd been just about ready to slip the pick into the lock and get serious
when he heard a faint click and the door swung open to reveal the very vision
he'd been hoping to see, "Well, 'bout time ya open'd up an' let you lover
inside b'fore he make a fool'a himself, bein' worried an' all tha', darlin'."

Liz couldn't help but giggle at Remy's sheepish expression at having been
caught, and she broke out laughing when she realised that he was soaked to
the skin by one of those unpredictable upstate New York rainshowers that
she'd known were going to happen this afternoon... 

She looked at him, a genuine smile on her face, for a change; "You are going
to ask me if I would like to warm you up, and of course, I know that I'm going
to say 'yes', and you're wondering what sort of flowers you should get me
before we go to Poppa Gumbo's Cajun Deelite's tonight... The answer to that
is not 'roses' but 'surprise me'... You know the hazards of getting involved
with a fey telepath who also happens to have more than her share of the Sight
to boot, sweet!"

Remy looked utterly miserable, standing in her doorway, his beautiful garnet
red eyes aglow in the fogginess that surrounded the boathouse on Spuytin Dyvil
Cove, back of Xavier's Institute. Rain ran down his face, plastering his
long, silky auburn hair to his face and neck; yet managing to reveal just
how magnificent he was under his tattered jeans and Rue Bourbon t-shirt.
Sometimes, she simply loved to look at him...especially when she looked ahead
with her Sight, at where they were probably going to be in a few months...

"Ahem...Gambit t'Baroness 'Lisabeth Braddock," he groused good naturedly,
"If, an' ya don' mind y'r Ladyship, Ah'd like t'come in an' warm m'bones
a'fore Ah take m'death o'cold, s'ev'n Poppa Gumbo can' thaw me out...o'course
Ah'd think of a few ways *ya'll* coudda been thawin' me out already..."

He waved his hand in front of her eyes, only to have her scoop him up, and
carry him inside, to the luxurious bathroom she'd conned Cable and Bishop
into remodeling to suit her Continental tastes. <<Mon cherie Messeur LeBeau,
I would never dream of letting you catch your death of anything... Now, I
suppose a candle-lit bath and some nice Chateau Picard might begin to warm
your blood and dare I say your heart,>> she whispered into his mind as she
contemplated kissing him, <<My, did you over toast your buns, today, sweet?
They feel quite nice... [swat!] Oh, you wish to be put down, now, eh? You
were contriving on how you were going to seduce me only a mere 10 days ago,
and now you're about to complain that I am being too 'fresh' for your tastes?
My dear, you do not know fey ladies, very weelll do you?>>

She let her paramour slide down in front of her, keeping his body close to 
hers, as she gingerly caressed his face, <<Did it ever occur to you that,
just maybe, I *like* that overly charming voice of yours, and that I wanted
you to do what you did? I *knew* something was going to happen between us,
but I didn't Look too hard, because I wanted it to be spontaneous? I care,
Remy LeBeau, and I don't care if Ettienne LeBeau was your father or not, or
that you never knew your mother...I just want you to be who you are, because 
you let me be what I am...>>

He looked at her searchingly, daring to hope that she might be feeling the
tinist bit for him of what he was feeling for her, "Does dat mean dat you
might, jus' might be fallin' in love, a tad bit, wit' ol' Remy??"

He held his breath, counting to himself as he waited for her answer, and
when he thought he was going to turn blue, she answered him with a kiss
that warmed him to the core of his being and made him tingle all over...

But it was Emma Frost who cried, partly happiness for Liz and Remy, but
mostly because she was feeling sorry for herself, and profoundly lonely.