“I don’t remember,” Illyana answered, somewhat hesitantly and eyes downcast as one crimson hoof scuffed against the metal of the bullet, leaving the surface curiously unmarred. “I just…there’s a hole, Kitty. Makes sense, I guess, considering I was dead. I remember dying.” Briefly, a frown marred her features. “ I remember putting the younger me into my armor and sending her home, and then bright, white light. Blinding. And then nothing. Or at least,” she added with a crooked, humorless smile, “nothing until Belasco decided he needed me back again. I remember what came after that.”

As topics of conversation for a rescue in outer space went, the resurrected sorceress reflected, this was probably as strange as it got. But Kitty’d asked, once Emma and Bobby had stepped aside to give them some illusion of privacy, and she knew better than to try to dodge her former roommate’s questions. Even if Kitty was in no condition to be asking them.

Or possibly especially then. Kitty’d always been like a pit-bull in some ways; she’d just latch on to the idea and keep at it no matter what, and it didn’t seemed she’d mellowed out any in the time Illyana’d been gone. Given that her former roommate’s pallor probably wasn’t entirely the result of the grey blanket and alien metal draining the color from her face, it seemed awfully cruel to make her go to the extra effort just to get the answers she wanted.

Besides, it was almost a relief to talk to someone about it all. Someone who might possibly be able to understand, unlike the newest batch of X-Babies, who knew her only by reputation, or the X-Men she’d been with on the ship. Oh, Bobby and Alison had tried, and she’d been relieved when neither had pressed the issue of her appearance, nor apparently even given it a second thought. But…if she couldn’t make sense of her own actions, how could anyone who’d barely even known her before her death even come close?

Kitty’d known her better than anyone, way back when. Hopefully it would make the difference now.

Kitty directed a tired grin in her direction and squeezed her arm. “Hey, I needed you back a long time ago. How come you didn’t show up then?”

Despite herself, Illyana chuckled. “Did you remember to file your reincarnation request in triplicate?” she asked, arching an eyebrow. “Because forget about all the magic, that’s the real key.”

“Damn, foiled by paperwork. You’d think the Summers family would write a manual on this stuff.” Kitty shook her head sadly and sighed. “I’m going to have to have a long talk with Rachel about that when she gets back from outer space.”

“If we ever get out of outer space ourselves,” Illyana retorted, directing a dirty look over her shoulder at Emma. She had no idea what they were waiting for now that Bobby’d managed to extract Kitty from the bullet, and Emma wasn’t exactly being forthcoming on the subject. They could’ve been back on the ship and halfway to Earth by now instead of racing toward that planet John had seen in their path.

“Do try to be patient, Ms. Rasputin. Surely you can’t be in that pressing a hurry to add my soul to the others in your little trinket? If it’s purity you’re seeking, I’m afraid I’m woefully underqualified.”

“I’ll settle for what I can get,” Illyana countered, her eyes flashing with eldritch fire, “The original wasn’t exactly in mint condition, either.” Now that Kitty was safe, the compulsion to complete her self-imposed quest was nagging at her even without Emma’s reminder, and ignoring it was becoming more and more difficult. All she needed was four more souls to fill the Beatrix amulet and she could reclaim her own. Emma’d done her part here. Her soul might as well be the first.

There was something wrong with that premise, a voice that sounded suspiciously like her own observed from the back of her mind, whispering something…a reminder she couldn’t quite make out about amulet’s true purpose, and what a full complement of bloodstones really meant. But she couldn’t quite grasp it, and the memories refused to surface, slipping through her fingers like whispers of smoke when she grasped at them, leaving her frustratingly blank yet again. She just needed to fill the empty holes…

“Yana?” she heard Kitty ask tentatively, fingers tightening on her arm once again and shattering her concentration. Wide, concerned brown eyes searched her face. “Are you with me here?”

“Unlikely,” Emma said aloud before Illyana could even recognize that Kitty’s question required an answer. “She’s too busy trying to determine whose souls would be an appropriate exchange for her own. You’ve three to use right here, Ms. Rasputin, and perhaps John or Alison would care to volunteer theirs to a good cause. I’m afraid it’s altogether too likely Wisdom sold his years ago. Do hurry, though. It won’t be long, now, before the matter becomes academic for all of us.”

“No…” she muttered, automatically recoiling from the suggestion, even as another part of her – not the same voice as before, darker, more sinister – whispered in her ear, suggesting that it might be the very answer she was looking for. A bit too emphatically, Yana shook her head, trying to remove the fog from her mind, along with the conflict. That wasn’t the plan. Emma, yes, but not Kitty, and while she barely knew Bobby Drake she remembered him rescuing her from Arcade years before. She wouldn’t take his soul…

“And Megan? What, exactly, made hers acceptable? Do you even know?”

“Emma, I don’t know what’s going on, and I don’t care,” Kitty snapped from her side. “Just knock it off already.”

“I’m afraid I can’t,” Emma countered. “Dear Ms. Rasputin believes she needs her soul to summon her sword. I’d suggest she set her mind to doing whatever she feels she needs to do to acquire one, or this bullet is going to have a rather abrupt encounter with an inhabited planet.”

“What?” Kitty exclaimed, eyes going wider and face paling even more, and Illyana felt rather than saw her turn toward the last remaining person on the bullet. “You didn’t tell me that! I wouldn’t have let you-”

“Which is why I didn’t tell you that!” Bobby shot back. “Don’t worry, Pete and Ali have it covered-”

“They don’t.” Emma’s voice was cool as she met Illyana’s eyes. “You’re going to have to break the mystical protection around this bullet, or it’s going to send that unfortunate planet hurtling into its neighbor. Now, don’t you think it’s time to stop your infernal whining about your lack of a soul and either set to work replacing it or attempt to determine where it might be hiding?”

“It’s not that easy!” Illyana shot back in defense, teeth clenched and taking a step backwards under the intensity of Emma’s gaze before stopping herself. “I need…I need…” she tried to make sense of the images flooding her mind. The confusion. Belasco. The Beatrix amulet. The new group of X-Babies, cowering before her. Storm, as she’d known her in Limbo. Pixie, with her soul ripped asunder, even as her own had been, the dizzying rush she’d felt when she’d seen the first of the bloodstones take its proper place…

“Yes, that was pleasant, wasn’t it?” Emma observed encouragingly. “Like father, like daughter, filling the amulet with the souls of the innocent. Perhaps you should have filled the amulet fully, instead of taking just one piece and pretending you were doing it for her own good. But then, that’s how Belasco did it with you, isn’t it? One piece at a time? You’d hardly want to break precedent.”

Fists clenched and her nails bit into her palms unnoticed, Illyana shook her head again, reflexively. Denial or rejection, she didn’t know, wasn’t even really aware of her own movements. Voices and memories and…things she couldn’t put a name to swirled and twisted and rushed into her mind, jumbling her thoughts and perceptions even further. The souls of the innocent. Something about what the Beatrix amulet was for…

“Emma, shut up, can’t you see there’s something wrong?” Kitty demanded, her friend’s voice reaching her as though from a distance. Far away. “Leave her alone. I can get the bullet through the planet, and we can figure out something then.”

“You can’t!” Bobby protested. “You barely got out once; there’s no way you’re going to manage it again.”

“Want to place a bet on that?”

Souls of the innocent. The Amulet. The Bloodstones.

“All of you, just shut up!” Illyana demanded with a growl and eyes flashing a flaming red as she whirled on the assembled mutants, fangs bared and tail lashing in irritation, before covering her face with her hands, trying to focus. Trying to sift through it all before it overwhelmed her.

The amulet. Five bloodstones. The sacrifice of innocence, that would…

Open the portal and allow the N’garai to take over the Earth.

That son of a bitch.

Her lips tightened into a thin line as Magik closed her eyes and focused inward, even as she had years before when she’d created the Soulsword as a weapon against Belasco. He’d played her as a dupe then, assuring her of his love and filling her mind with the glory that would be hers if she surrendered her soul to his keeping and helped him open the gates for the Elder Gods. If Storm hadn’t rescued her, she would have surrendered the rest to him willingly, trusting child that she’d been.

She was no longer trusting, though. No longer innocent. And he’d brought her back from the death she’d chosen, and managed to trick her into doing something far worse.

She probed deeper within herself until she found it - a tangled mess of light and dark, good and evil, reflecting her own nature. Dim and buried…hidden, almost. But there.

Her soul.

All a trick, then. He’d taken advantage of the confusion induced by her return, used her as his cat’s paw to fill the amulet once again. And once again, he’d nearly succeeded.

“Like hell.”

Fog dissipating, giving way to determination and the clarity of realization, she could feel Kurt Wagner, far distant . Could sense his surprise as the burden he’d born for the love of another sorceress was taken from him, pulled inexorably back to its rightful mistress. And sent him a surge of gratitude, even as the hilt of her sword materialized in her hand.

Hers. Like her soul, a mix of light and darkness, corruption and innocence. Only Belasco’s lies had hidden it from her, kept her from feeling the pull of like to like. Turning it in her hand, she plunged it into the floor. Eldritch light flared, bright and blinding for a moment, and she felt the intricate web of sorcery enmeshed in the alien metal give, weaken, then dissolve into the aether under the might of the Sword.

She stood there for long, pained moments, ignoring the stares of the others and their whispered questions, then pulled the sword out of its metal encasement. And finally, looked up from her feet – feet? – to glare at Emma Frost.

“This doesn’t change anything,” she warned, meeting ice blue eyes with her own that were only a shade deeper. And it didn’t. There was too much history between them for her to trust Emma, or, she suspected, vice versa. But just maybe she owed her one. This once.

“My dear, I’d hardly have it any other way,” the White Queen replied, a smile playing over her lips as she responded to either the sentiment or the unspoken thought. “Shall we go, now? I believe the others will take it from here.”

“No sooner said than done,” Illyana replied, grateful for the change of subject. She had a lot to think about, but for now, she was content to push it from her mind and focus on summoning a stepping disk to get them back to the ship.

“Any chance you can drum me up something to wear while we’re in Limbo?” Kitty asked as the circlet of light appeared beneath their feet. “Not that I don’t appreciate the blanket, but-”

“I think it’s a good look for you,” Bobby assured her, waggling his eyebrows. “John’s going to be disappointed in Illyana, though. He really liked the horns and hooves.”

Startling, Illyana reached up to her forehead and was surprised to find that the curled protuberances were shorter by half. She was still a work in progress, apparently, but she’d take it. The rest would come, now that she’d broken Belasco’s compulsion and knew how to go about it. “He’ll deal,” she replied with a grin. “And I think I can come up with something that’ll satisfy you both,” she assured Kitty and Bobby as the group disappeared.

What had Alison said about Xena: Warrior Princess? She was pretty sure she’d seen that show at least once…

**********

“They’ve got it!”

Pete probably knew he didn’t have to announce it out loud, Ali figured. They all got the message from Emma and now that things had gone silent on the telepathic front it was pretty much a given than they’d high-tailed it out of there courtesy of Illyana’s Limbo Express. Now it was just them versus the Giant Bullet of Doom. She couldn’t really blame Pete for making the announcement anyway, though. Something like that was worth saying out loud. Especially since they were really starting to cut things close.

And on that note…

“So how much longer?” the mutant pop-star asked.

John was already checking the figures on his display. “About fifteen minutes,” he said. Anyone looking at him would have thought the Skrull-in-rock-idol’s-clothing was the most relaxed man in the world, but there was an unmistakable tension in his voice. And no wonder. Fifteen minutes wasn’t a lot of time.

“All right, then,” Ali said, drawing herself up with a deep breath. “It’s Showtime.” No point waiting around for an invitation, after all. Her eyes flicked toward Pete and for a second she hesitated, an internal debate flashing though her as she told herself that she should say something to him while she still had the chance.

Hell with it. “Pete?” she ventured.

He turned around to look at her, not over his shoulder, but swiveling his chair so he could face her fully. One of his brows arched curiously as he waited for what she had to say.

“I-”

Suddenly the viewscreen blinked over to an image of the Tamabouki fleet’s commander. “Our time grows short!” he bellowed in his Muppet-y way. Apparently he’d decided there was no need to even pretend stand on ceremony anymore. Not that she could blame him, really. His remark was about as literally true as it could get. “What is the status of the Breakworld projectile?”

Well, so much for that. Lifting her eyes up to the screen, Ali gave the commander a quick nod. “We just got word the spell’s gone,” she told him. “And I’m on my way.”

That was that, then. Turning on her heel with a final glance toward Pete, Ali slipped out of the cockpit and walked purposefully for the causeway. She gathered her nerves as she approached the rungs that would take her to the upper deck and the airlock, trying not to think about just what it was going to take to actually stop that big-ass bullet. And whether she was really capable of pulling it off.

It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d pulled off the impossible, after all.

“Ali, wait,” she heard Pete say, and turned to see him walking toward her with a strange look in his eyes. God, he wasn’t about to start that again, she hoped.

Steeling herself for an argument they really didn’t have time for, the former pop singer said, “We’ve already discussed this, okay? I’m doing this.”

It didn’t look like she was changing his mind, though. He didn’t stop until he was right in front of her and in a gentle voice that took her by surprise said, “I know.” Then, in a move that took her even more by surprise, he leaned in and brushed his lips against hers, letting the kiss linger while Ali’s eyes went wide. “For luck,” he explained when he pulled back, body still tense even as he gave her a crooked smile.

Oh. Well that was different, then.

Eyes twinkling impishly, Ali slipped her arms around him and let out a soft chuckle. “Well don’t hold out on me, Pete. Think about how much luck I’m going to need.” And with that she laced her fingers through his ink-black hair and drew him into a deep, passionate kiss. Holding him close, she sort of lost track of time until finally they both had to come up for air and she moved to catch his eyes with hers.

Pete sort of looked like he’d just been whanged over the head with a wooden board, but that half-smile was still there. “What about that husband o’ yours?” he finally asked, sounding a bit confused.

“Pff. What about that wife of yours?” Ali tossed back with a mischievous grin.

“Good point,” the British spy conceded. “Right then, time to get to work, yeah?”

Surprising even herself with how softly she smiled, Ali gave Pete’s cheek a gentle pat. “I’ll be back before you know it,” she assured him.

“If you aren’t you’re getting a spanking,” Pete said with a gruff frown that didn’t reach his eyes. There, instead, was an unexpected gentleness and concern, something she hadn’t imagined the surly Brit was even capable of when she’d first met him. Now it hardly surprised her at all.

Ali breathed a mild chuckle as she reached for one of the ladder’s rungs. “Promises, promises,” she teased with a wink, leaving him to do his part as she made for the airlock.

As soon as the door sealed behind her, Ali heard John’s voice sound out through the intercom. “All set then, luv?” he asked.

“Ready when you are,” she replied, sheathing herself in a thin force field of soft light. No point in wasting time climbing into some bulky space suit if she didn’t need to. Besides, if she was going to risk it all on the craziest damn stunt of her entire life, she might as well look good doing it.

A moment later she felt the air sucked out of the chamber as it depressurized, seeming to take the artificial gravity along with it. She floated toward the hatch as it slowly began to open and propelled herself through the gap that formed as soon as there was room. Once outside, she flew through the vacuum of space, the nimbus of light surrounding her making her seem like a tiny sun.

As she drifted into position, Ali couldn’t help drinking in the sights around her. As trips to space went, this was far from her first rodeo, but she still found herself awed by the sheer spectacle of it all. The fleet had jumped ahead to the Tamabouki homeworld to wait for the oncoming bullet, and as her naked eyes fell upon the sight of the planet for the first time she felt her breath catch, as much out of wonder as to suppress a slight chuckle. It was a beautiful planet, but given the way the Tamabouki looked, the lemon yellow atmosphere reminded her entirely too much of hollandaise sauce. In the distance, the gas giant it served as a moon for loomed like Jupiter’s angry green cousin.

Everywhere else, it seemed, were ships from the fleet. On every side, including above and below, they waited for her, all facing the same central point she was headed toward as planned earlier. It was like having the oddest damn audience she could imagine gathered in the most scenic amphitheatre of all time, just for her biggest performance ever. And in a way, that’s exactly what it was.

She wasn’t sure if John had given them the signal or not, but the moment she was in position the first of the sonic beams slammed into her. The thin wave was little more than a concentrated pocket in an otherwise silent vacuum, but no less intense because of it, and Ali tensed reflexively as soon as it hit. Power taking over automatically, she absorbed it all, feeling the energy building up as she went into living battery mode while the wave kept pouring into her.

Then a second joined in, and a third, each new beam of sound crashing though her as it, too, was soaked up through her force field. Three became dozens. Then hundreds. Thousands.

Oh god, it hurt…

Ali gritted her teeth as she struggled to hold it all in, body trembling and shining brighter than any star in the distance. It was more than she’d ever taken, and still it came until she was sure she would burst from the sheer volume of it all. She refused to let that distract her as she concentrated on gathering every wave, not letting a single iota of sound stay from her waiting form. Painful as it was, she knew she’d need all of it, and even that might not be enough for her to take down something the size of the Breakworld bullet.

She still wasn’t even sure just what the hell she was going to actually do to the thing. For all her confidence on the ship, she still hadn’t MacGyver’d up a plan of her own, but she was going to have to come up with something quick. She wasn’t sure how much time she actually had left. Five minutes? Two? Less?

She’d read up on hollow point bullets. Something she browsed through once during a case study while she was still in Law School. The way those things worked, it would do some truly nasty stuff to that planet if it hit, worse than even John had suggested. Funny how much damage something like that could do to the planet, even though the one was so much smaller than the other.

Her eyes flicked toward the sun in the distance. Heat like that could even melt adamantium, and would make short work of something like the Breakworld bullet before it had a chance to get close enough to actually do any damage. It was a shame the thing wasn’t on course to hit that instead of the Tamabouki homeworld.

Wait a minute…

Ali almost smiled as an idea flashed through her mind, and immediately set to projecting her forcefield out as she put it into action. The glowing sheath expanded outward, the edges growing thick and bright as she reinforced them into the largest solid light object she’d ever made. Pushing further, focusing with all her strength, the forcefield slowly took shape until finally she was ready.

A simple chute, nothing all that remarkable really, except for the fact that it was roughly ten miles wide and several thousand miles long. She’d never attempted something of this size with solid light before, but if her guess was right, it only needed to hold together for a few seconds. Now all she had to do was angle it properly and hope like hell that her plan would work.

In the distance, barely a pinprick in the blackness, she spotted the bullet coming. Face set, Ali clenched her muscles as she took aim and waited, letting it get closer. She had to make sure that she didn’t move until she was ready, when she’d found the perfect angle. If she guessed wrong there wasn’t going to be enough of her left for anyone to worry about anymore.

She was, literally, only going to get one shot at this.

Still holding the forcefield together, she watched as the bullet barreled its way toward her and made the last few adjustments, concentrating everything she had into it until she was ready. A blink later it struck, sliding into the chute as smoothly as a toboggan. She didn’t even feel it until it reached the first curve, the sheer mass of the thing and its velocity pushing against the solid light with bone-crushing force. The backlash rippled through the field and struck Ali hard enough to make her head spin and her vision explode in bright reds and oranges. She let out a scream of pure agony, yet still held on with everything she had. This wasn’t even going to be the worst of it.

The whole thing took less than a fraction of a second, yet it felt like an eternity of torment. The bullet fought against her like a living thing as it rode the chute. It didn’t want to change directions. Too bad for it. Fighting back against the pain, she used the chute to nudge the bullet along, incrementally redirecting it until she finally had it aimed exactly where she wanted. And not a moment too soon. She barely had time to notice her handiwork as her well of strength ran dry and her focus finally snapped, the ruined forcefield winking out of existence. She was left floating alone, unprotected by even the thinnest of sheathes. It didn’t matter, her nerves were already on fire, the pain blinding her to everything. All she had time for was one last mental sigh of relief, one glimmer of pride at the knowledge that she’d done it. And then the darkness came, wrapping her in its blissful embrace as it carried her off to oblivion.

But not forever.

“Ali? Ali, damn it, breathe!”

Despite her fuzzed consciousness barely hearing the words, her body responded to the command, convulsing slightly as she sucked in a deep, wheezing breath and then collapsing to the hard metal floor beneath her.

Hard metal floor? When had that happened?

Blue eyes fluttering open, she blinked for a moment until the fog cleared and saw that she was back in the scout ship’s airlock. Her head was cradled in Pete’s arms, and as her eyes fell upon him she noticed him looking down on her with undisguised concern. He was wearing the spacesuit she’d left behind, his tie still visible in the gap left by the helmet he must have removed after getting her back to the spaceship.

Pete sighed with relief. “Don’t you ever make me do something like that to save your ass again, yeah?” he told her, and now that her vision was starting to adjust a little better, Ali did think he looked a bit paler than normal. Apparently he wasn’t a big fan of spacewalking. She decided she might have to work on that. Floating around out there was kind of fun, actually, now that the she wasn’t focused on the unpleasant stuff that had come with her latest foray into the void.

“You smell like cigarettes,” she said weakly. God, she could barely twitch her fingers.

The observation had Pete shaking his head in bemusement, despite how concerned he looked. “You were expecting potpourri?” he asked.

“Good point,” she said. Not that it mattered. She wondered if it was possible that she was actually starting to like the smell. “Did I-?”

“Yeah,” Pete answered automatically. “You turned that thing inside out, all right. It won’t be bothering anyone now. That was quite a show you put on back there.”

Smiling weakly, Ali chuckled. “Hey, it’s what I do”

“Maybe,” he told her as he shifted her closer. “But you got one part wrong.”

“Oh? And what’s that?”

There was a beat of silence before he answered. “You’re supposed to knock them dead, not yourself.”

Ali shook her head and chuckled again. She tested her strength again and found she could actually lift her arm. Yay progress. Reaching up, she wrapped it around Pete’s neck and drew him down. “Shut up, Pete,” she said, inching her head up until their lips met.