Subject: X-MEN: "Rose Red" (4/4)
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 20:54:55 -0700
From: rosarum@freedom.net

"Rose Red," part 4 of 4.

* * *

"ow ow OW!"

"She's awake!"

"But am I alive?" Fuse moaned.

"You're alive," said Sarita.  "You don't even have anything
broken."  Her face was shining.  "Trev says you did
wonderfully.  And you didn't even use your powers!"

"Jared..." Fuse said urgently.  "Is he..."

Sarita laughed.  "Knocked into next week and still mopping
up the puke?  You bet."  She finished tying up a bandage
around Fuse's ribs, where bruises the size of grapefruits
were starting to blossom.  "When I join the Fangs I'm gonna
do it just like you."

* * *

"Listen up and listen close," said Jared.  He was slumped
back in an old chair, his broken leg propped up on a stool.
Fuse and the other Fangs were sitting around talking about
where to get some money from.  "I got news."

They quieted, looked over.  Jared wasn't meeting any of
their eyes.  "You know we been hit hard by the CBB.  They
got Derek.  They shut down half our businesses.  They been
pushing us back.  There's more of them and they got better
equipment.  And the cops are on their side."  Nods, curses,
murmurs of assent.  "The truth," said Jared in a hard voice,
"is that we ain't winning this war.  It's time to settle
it."  An uneasy silence.  "I got a call.  They offered us a
deal."

"A deal with the CBB!  Fuck that shit!" yelled Trev.

"Shut up motherfucker!" Jared yelled.  "We got one chance
here!  We gotta be smart!"

"What's the deal?" demanded Fuse.  "What kind of deal would
they make with us?  Now that I'M one of you?"

"They don't know about you, Fuse!  And they can't know.
You're our biggest fucking liability here.  We keep you
hidden, we got a chance of pulling this off."

"What. Do. They. Want."

"Nothing.  Nothing.  Just--that if we hear about muties, we
let them come and get them.  That we don't get in the way.
That's all.  They're crazy, they're off on a holy fucking
war here.  We give them this one little thing--and it's
NOTHING--then they got no more problem with us."

"That's NOT NOTHING!"  Fuse screamed.  "And they're
LYING--or you are!  It makes no sense for them to let up on
us now!  Unless we're gonna be their fucking SPIES!"

"Bitch, you do NOT call me a liar," Jared snarled.

"Yeah, and how come you give the orders here anyway, gimp?"
Fuse rose to her feet.  She drew a deep breath, just to test
the state of her ribs.  Still sore.  But this had been
coming for a long time now, and she was as ready as she
could be.  "I think you love the CBB so much, you should go
join them."

Jared didn't move.  "Steve.  Jose.  Take her down."  Jared's
friends exchanged glances and slowly got to their feet.

Trev leaped up, stood beside Fuse.  "This is crazy," he
said.  "She's one of us.  The CBB wanna kill her, well, that
means no deal with the CBB.  Ever."

Christo carefully set down his Coke, stood up, and walked
over to Trev and Fuse.  "Heard that," he said.  Miguel
looked around, and shrugged.  "Yeah," he said, and joined
them.  A girl named Therese stood up and walked over to
them, stood silently with the group.  Her boyfriend followed
a second later.

"Get out of here," Fuse hissed to Jared.  "And anyone who
wants to work with the Nazis, you go with him."

A jittery, dangerous silence followed, and still nobody
moved.  Ten of the Fangs were still seated between Fuse and
Jared, declaring no alliegence.

She let her power build, let it spark between her fingers,
let the multicolored light gather around her hands.  That'd
sort the mutie-haters from the crowd.

"C'mon baby," breathed Mira.  "Let's go."

Clumsily Jared got to his feet, lifted his crutches.  Mira
hovered by him but he shook off her hands.  "They gonna take
you, freakgirl," he spat.  "And they're gonna take the
freaklovers too.  You got no chance."

He limped to the stairs down, Mira following closely.  Steve
and Jose moved after him, awkward, tense.  "No chance,"
Jared repeated, and started down the stairs.  The boys
remaining in the room shifted nervously.

"Go on," said Fuse gently.  "If you believe him, go on."

A couple more got to their feet and, looking down and
sideways and everywhere but at Fuse, walked to the stairs.

"Okay," she said to the ones that remained.  "Things are
gonna change for us now."  Deep breath.  "I'm gonna teach
you how to fight for real."

* * *

They'd developed a routine.  Breakfast in the morning at the
greasy diner on the corner.  Then they split up for the day,
searching the streets, and met back at the hotel at night.

Logan rapped on the door of Kitty's room.  "Cat?  Ya back
yet?"

"Come on in," she called.  He pushed the door open;
Shadowcat was on the bed, working on her laptop.  "I had an
email waiting for me from Gambit.  He wants you to call
him."

"Huh."  He turned away, rummaging in his pockets for
quarters.

"Hey, Logan," Kitty laughed.  "Use this."  She held out a
sleek silver object and laughed again at the look on his
face.  "Honest, it's the next best thing to telepathy."

Logan took the cellphone dubiously.  "Pryde, you're a
flamin' yuppie."  He jabbed his finger at the tiny glowing
buttons.

"Ororo?  Yeah, it's me.  Lemme talk to Gambit, willya?"

"Bonjour?"

"What've you got, Gumbo?"

"Ah, mon frere.  Gambit have news for you."

"Spill it already."

"Gambit, he know some men in de city.  He hear t'ings.  He
decide t' speak to his friends 'bout de young people, an
'bout the streets you an' de Shadowcat been hauntin'."

"This story got a point?"

"De point, mon ami, is dat some t'ings be changing
recently.  Like dis one leetle gang, dey nothin', dey a
bunch o' punks.  Until...somepin' change.  Now dey get
focus.  Dey get direction.  Dey get weaponry.  Dey on the
streets and dey huntin' down mutants."

"That right."

"Ah, but de story get better.  Seem like, out from nowhere,
come dis other leetle gang.  Dey fight de first gang but dey
always seem to lose.  Until...again, somepin' change.  Now
dey get their own focus.  Dey start to fight like dey be a
trained strike force.  An' dey start to make a few ripples.
Why do you t'ink dat be?"

Logan's patience was thin but there was such glee in the
Cajun's voice that he played along.  "Sounds like a change
in leadership."  This had better be going somewhere real
good, he thought.

"Oui.  An' it seem like, de new leader be a mutant.  De way
Gambit hear it, she a mutant p'tite, mebbe fourteen,
fifteen.  Dey say her name be Fuse.  Now, your guess, it be
as good as Gambit's.  Why you t'ink dey call her dat?"

Logan nearly stopped breathing.  "Because," he growled, "she
blows things up!"

Not the quickest rabbit in the mental race, thought Remy to
himself.  But he does get there in the end.  "Like Gambit
say, your guess be as good as his."

"Gumbo, if you were here, I'd kiss you," Logan rumbled.
Shadowcat looked up from the bed, startled.

"Dat's exactly why Gambit make sure t' be in another state
when he tell you," Remy laughed.

"Where did you say this gang operates?"

* * *

Kitty and Logan strode through narrow streets.  It had grown
dark and most of the little corner stores had gated up their
doors and windows.  Logan stopped suddenly, sniffed the air,
and then just as abruptly took off running.  Shadowcat raced
after him.

They came up in front of a boarded-up apartment building.
There were dim lights in one of the upper stories.
Wolverine sniffed again, then strode to the door.  It wasn't
gated or even locked.

Two flights of stairs, which Logan took running.  The sound
of their footfalls echoed through the old stairwell and he
heard an answering commotion from above them.  Distantly, a
girl's voice:  "C'mon!  Everybody UP!  Like we practiced!"

It was.  It was her.  Wolverine burst into the room and paid
absolutely no attention to the two groups of kids ranged on
either side of the door with knives and baseball bats,
preparing to jump him.  All he cared about was Jubilee
standing in the center of the room, alive, unscarred, in a
long black coat and power exploding from her fingertips.

Shit.  Her fireworks hit him full in the face, burning, and
more seriously, blinding him.  From ground zero the sound
was less of a PAF and more of a BAM:  he was knocked to one
knee by the force of the blast, eyes stinging, ears
ringing.  "Jubie!" he yelled.

That was when the kids started in on him, and when a tire
iron cracked into his jaw Wolverine felt a familiar rage
boiling up.  NO.  They were just kids and he couldn't lose
it with them, not in front of Jubilee.  He kept the claws in
and started laying about him, relieving the kids of their
bats and metal pipes and...dammit, that stung...knives.  A
solid kick caught him in the midsection--hell, Jubie had
waded into the fray.  "Darlin'," he gasped, "it's me":  but
she didn't even seem to have heard.

Behind him Shadowcat would have been joining in, but she had
noticed some more commotion from the street.  Dark vans
pulling up.  Soldiers spilling out of them, some kind of
paramilitary, wearing gas masks and carrying serious
firepower.  Definitely headed up to the building.  "Logan,"
she called urgently.  "Company."

"A little busy here darlin'," he grunted.  Jubilee was
throwing fast, tight punches, and while he blocked those the
rest of the kids kept stabbing him.  He was losing blood
faster than he could heal up, and much as he hated to hurt
Jubilee's friends, something was going to have to be done
soon.  "Sorry, sweetie," he muttered as he gave Jubilee a
hard shove backwards. As soon as she was out of the way he
started cracking heads together.

"Oof!" Fuse crashed into the battered old couch.  Something
was utterly not right about this.  That scary guy had to be
a mutant, which meant he couldn't be one of the Clean Blood
Brothers.  He also seemed to recognize her, or something.
"Back off guys!" she yelled.  "He's a mutie!  I'll deal with
him!"

Wolverine dropped the kid he'd just beaten unconscious.
"Just listen ta me!"  She stared back at him, jaw set
defiantly, black eyes snapping.  He grinned in pure
happiness.  "Jubilee..."

Commotion from the stairwell drowned him out.  Shadowcat had
set herself at the head of the stairs, blocking the advance
of the gas-mask troops, and she'd just laid out the first
two with well-placed ninjitsu kicks.  The ones behind them
were opening fire.  She phased and the bullets passed
harmlessly through her; when the soldier in front of her saw
that, he rushed at her.  She phased back in and dropped him
with a strike to the solar plexus.  The stairway was choked
with troops now; at least only a couple could get to her at
once.

Something went sailing over her head, landed, clattering,
behind her.  A gas grenade, hissing out greenish smoke.  Her
eyes started to water and burn.  She retreated from the
stairs, grabbed the grenade, phased through the wall and
dropped it in the street.  She phased back into the room
with Wolverine and Jubilee, coughing and gasping for
breath.  "Tear gas!" she warned.

The shock troops filled the doorway behind her.  Most of the
gang kids were sprawled on the floor around Wolverine.  A
few were on their feet, gathered behind Jubilee.  "These
friends of yours, darlin'?" Wolverine demanded.

Jubilee didn't answer, but sparks poured from her hands,
blasted into the soldiers.  With their masks on she couldn't
tell whether she'd affected them.

"Guess not," Wolverine grunted.  SNIKT.

Another gas grenade came flying into the room.  "I've got
it," Shadowcat cried, and dove for it, phasing through the
floor as soon as she'd grabbed it.

Jubilee was staring at the man who'd just grown claws.  A
clenched fist and long shards of metal.  It was reminding
her of something.  Something she'd been supposed to come
back to.  Someone who'd been supposed to come for her.
Something she'd forgotten...someone who'd forgotten her...

"You left me!"  she screamed, not knowing where all the
anger was coming from, not knowing why hot tears were
streaking down her cheeks.  She launched herself at
Wolverine.  "You forgot about me!  You left me there!"

Wolverine whirled, startled, as Jubilee threw herself at
him.  He barely managed to sheathe his claws before she
impaled herself on them.  "You forgot about me!"  She was
hitting him, punching him, slamming her fists into his face
and chest.

And then the soldiers were unloading their guns.  He grabbed
Jubilee, wrapped his arms around her and flung her to the
ground, covering her as the bullets ripped into him.  She
was flailing underneath him, kicking and scratching.  "You
forgot!"

"Kid..." he managed.  Then three sharp pains ripped into
him, numbing his flesh where they hit.  Tranquilizers.  He
rolled off Jubilee.  "Run," he snarled.  "Run...to
Shadowcat..."

But she didn't, she just pulled herself to her knees and
pounded her fist against him, screaming that he'd forgotten
her.  Until another trank dart caught her and she slumped
like a rag doll.  He tried to catch her but the drugs were
taking effect.  In the last moment he was conscious they
pulled her out of his arms.

* * *

Logan was having his oldest, his worst nightmare.  The one
where he was stripped, strapped to an operating table,
surgical markings drawn on his skin.  The drugs coursing
through his bloodstream warred with his innate healing
factor, sending the world careening in and out of focus.
Distantly he was hearing voices.

"...too dangerous...can't be transported until it's
declawed..."

"...damage it...they'll only pay for intact specimens..."

"Better call for orders."

"It's coming around."

Logan struggled against the restraints.  There was an IV
drip in his arm and a man in a surgeon's gown fiddling with
it.  "Jesus, this much sedative would kill a human," the
doctor said.  "Maybe we should dope the girl up again too."

"No!" Logan shouted, his speech already slurring from the
drugs.  "The kid doesn't have a healing factor!  She
can't...she's just a kid...she can't survive what I..."
What I've survived, he thought.  But then he blacked out.

* * *

The girl was in a cell.  Her hands were cuffed behind her
back, but if she could've stretched out her arms she could
have touched both walls at once.  There was nothing else in
there with her.  All she could see beyond the bars was a
stretch of white hallway with flourescent lighting, and
another row of identical cells facing hers, but they were
all empty.

"Hellooo!" she yelled.  "Trev?  Christo?  Anybody?"

She buried her face against her knees.  There were all these
fragments of memories in her head now but they didn't add up
to anything coherent.  She'd been so hurt when she'd
seen...those claws...but now she desperately wished he'd
come back.  She was afraid they might be hurting him.

"Jubilee!"

Her head snapped up.  Shadowcat had dropped out of the
ceiling.  "There you are," Kitty said with relief.

"Who're you?" the girl demanded.  "Stay back!  I KNOW you,
don't I?"  Pain and confusion crossed her face as she
struggled to remember.

Kitty hesitated.  "Yes," she said.  "In a way...I'm your
sister."

Jubilee laughed nastily.  "Is that right, whitebread?  So
which of us is adopted?"

"Both of us," said Kitty firmly.  "Jubilee...don't you
remember anything?"

"I don't...I don't know...an' I don't think I wanna
remember!  But I'm pretty sure you and I got nothing in
common!"

"You're totally right, and you're totally wrong," Kitty said
softly.  She crouched down to look the little street punk in
the eyes.  "Jubilee, listen to me...there is nobody in the
world that loves you more than Logan.  But there is nobody
in the world that understands you better than me."

Jubilee's dark eyes filled with sudden tears.  "I don't want
to," she whispered.  "I don't wanna remember."  She was
rocking a little, back and forth, and Kitty remembered with
a flash of pain the Jubilee in the videotape, rocking in the
corner of her prison.

"Listen," she said, leaning closer.  "Once upon a time,
there were two sisters, and their names were Snow White and
Rose Red... Does that sound familiar?"

Jubilee's whole body froze.  Her eyes finally drifted up to
Kitty's.  The hurt and the need were so plain, and Kitty
knew that she had one chance to get through to the girl
Jubilee had been.  She had to keep talking but she couldn't
remember Jubilee's story.  "And they both knew...a bear..."
she floundered.

"A wolf," breathed Jubilee.

"Actually," said Kitty, "he was a wolverine."  Jubilee
nodded slowly, and suddenly Kitty understood.  She just had
to tell the truth.  "He was a wolverine," she said with more
certainty, "that lived in the woods.  Lots of kids get lost
in the woods.  Some...some don't ever come back out.  Snow
White and Rose Red were special, they were lucky.  They met
the wolverine, and he protected them."

"Always?" said Jubilee.

Kitty swallowed.  "Whenever he could.  There was this one
time, Snow White was kidnapped...by an Ogre.  And the
wolverine couldn't kill the Ogre.  So he...he pulled out one
of his own claws and he gave it to Snow White, so that she
would have a weapon to defend herself with.  And that's how
they defeated Ogun...I mean, the ogre."

"Sure," said Jubilee bitterly.  "Everyone loves Snow White.
She's the good sister.  But everyone forgets about Rose
Red."

"Nobody could EVER forget about Rose Red.  She wouldn't LET
them."  Kitty forced a smile.  "When Rose Red chose somebody
to love, she never let them go.  When they were on the edge
she talked them down.  When they flew off the handle she
backed them up.  And that wolverine LOVED her for that."

"But one day," Jubilee said in a strange little-girl voice,
a singsong tone very like her voice on the videotape, "Rosie
fell into a cave.  And the witch who lived in the cave
grabbed her and threw in her a cage and every day the witch
would cut off a finger or a toe and eat it for dinner."

Kitty flinched.  "That's right," she said sadly.  "And Rose
Red waited and waited for the wolverine to come and save
her.  But he never did."

A silent tear tracked down Jubilee's face, dropped onto the
concrete jail floor.

"So," Kitty said, "Rose Red picked one of her own
finger-bones up off the floor of the cage, and she used it
to pick the lock, and she sneaked out of the cave in the
dead of night.  And by this time she hated that wolverine."

"Then what?" whispered Jubilee, her voice still high and
small.  It was sending chills over Kitty to hear her talk
like that.

"Well, what Rose Red didn't know was that the witch had cast
a spell over the cave that made it invisible.  So the
wolverine had spent all this time looking and looking for
Rose Red.  He didn't eat or sleep or talk to anybody, just
wandered around and around in the woods.  And Snow White
went with him.  But after Rose Red escaped, the spell was
broken, and Snow White and the wolverine found the cave.
But," Kitty dropped her voice ominously, "the witch was
still there."

Jubilee looked terrified.

"The witch was there," said Kitty, "and she grabbed the
wolverine and locked him in the cage.  And she started
eating pieces of HIM for her dinner."

"What about Snow White?" Jubilee managed.  Her lips were
quivering.

"Snow White hid," said Kitty, "and the witch couldn't find
her.  And then when the witch was asleep she crept up to the
cage and she said, 'Wolverine, I'm going to run away and
find Rose Red.  She'll let you out of the cage with the key
that she made from her fingerbone.'  But the wolverine said,
'Don't do that, pun'kin.  Rose Red's just a little kid, she
shouldn't hafta deal with witches.'"

Jubilee looked torn.  "She wasn't THAT little," she said
finally, and Kitty was vastly relieved to hear a note of
defiance enter her voice.

"Well, that's what Snow White said.  But then the wolverine
said, 'But maybe she couldn't save me anyway.  Y'know,
sometimes you can't save people, no matter how much you love
them."

Now Jubilee looked outraged.  "But sometimes you CAN!  And
you gotta try!"

"Well, that's what Snow White said.  But then the wolverine
said, 'I don't know, I think Rosie might be mad at me.  I
shoulda been able to see through that invisibility spell.'"

Jubilee's brows knitted.  "He shoulda been able to SMELL
through it," she said unhappily.

"It was an in-scent-ibility spell too," Kitty said firmly.

"Oh...then that's...that's just part of life, y'know?"
Jubilee choked out as the tears flowed down her cheeks.
Then Kitty realized she was laughing, even through her
sobs.  "Inscentibility spells and all..."

Kitty reached out and drew the younger girl against her.
There were tears burning her own eyes.  Jubilee collapsed
against her, breaking down, her whole body racked with sobs
as she gasped for breath.  "Shh," Kitty whispered, "shh,
it's all right, it's all right, Jubilee.  Come back to us.
Come back, we need you."

"Kitty?" said Jubilee at last, her voice muffled by Kitty's
shoulder.  Kitty caught her breath.  Jubilee straightened
up, sniffing.  "Inscentibility spells are the stupidest
thing I've ever heard in my life.  Are you trying to tell me
Wolvie's in trouble?"

Kitty slowly let her breath out, her heart singing with
relief.  "Yeah, Jubilee," she said, feeling a silly grin
cross her face.  "We're all in trouble.  We're in some kind
of military installation.  Those soldiers captured you and
Logan during the fight; I slipped into the back of one of
their trucks and I got out again before anybody saw me.
I've had a look around and I don't think the place is very
big.  I even found Logan but he was out cold and he had a
guard.  I think they're planning to operate on him."

Jubilee tensed.  "Can you phase these cuffs off me?"

She freed Jubilee with a touch.  "I've got a plan.  I can
tell you where they've got Logan--if you can get there and
cause a distraction, I'll have time to get to the control
room and crack the security system.  It looks like they've
got a lot of automated stuff around here.  If I can get
control of that, it'll be a lot easier to get out of here."

Jubilee wiped the snot off her face with the back of her
hand.  "I find Wolvie and I start a ruckus?"  She sniffed
again.  "That's the best plan I ever heard in my life.  You
ARE a genius, Pryde."

* * *

Jubilee was following Shadowcat's directions.  Two lefts,
down the corridor, around the corner...yep, there was the
guard.  He looked up, and shock and recognition crossed his
features.  At the same moment Jubilee remembered where she'd
seen him before--knocked out in a subway station.

"Hey!  That's MY COAT!"

Jubilee almost felt sorry for him as she blasted him with
her sparks.  Poor unlucky bastard, crossing HER twice.  As
he reeled from the explosions she closed the space between
them and punched him out.  When he slid to the ground she
shrugged off the leather coat and left it lying over him.
He did have a point about that, and she had a better one at
home.

* * *

The "operating theatre" that her old friend had been
guarding was a bizarro blend of "M*A*S*H" and "The Matrix."
The room was tiny, and the floor was dirty, and the
furnishings consisted of a couple of old metal folding
chairs and one stretcher.  But the walls were crowded with
tall black cabinets and gleaming, whirring machinery, some
of which vaguely reminded Jubilee of the stuff in the medlab
back home.

Wolverine was strapped onto the stretcher, and, oh geez, he
was naked.  Gross.  There was also a tube coming out of his
arm and connecting to a a drip thingy which Jubilee did NOT
like the look of.  He also had strange lines and circles
drawn on his hands.

She was pretty sure that he'd wake up if she got that thing
out of him.  So she went over and yanked it out.

It didn't come out all the way, and the flow in the tube
suddenly reversed:  instead of the clear liquid pumping into
Wolverine's arm, his blood was shooting UP the tube and into
the bag.  Jubilee yelped, horrified, and tugged harder.  The
tube finally popped out and she saw that Wolverine wasn't
actually bleeding much.  Then, of course, he wasn't actually
bleeding at all, and the bruise started to fade too.

She set about unfastening the restraints, squinting a little
to try and avoid any sights that might require therapy
later.  Good thing he's so hairy, she thought fervently.

* * *

The nightmare was always the same.  He was always strapped
down, always helpless, pumped full of strange drugs.  There
were always the doctors talking with the soldiers.  There
was always the kid muttering about having no sunglasses just
when she really needed them.

Wait.  No.  That wasn't actually part of it.

Logan woke up.  He became aware of several things at once.
One was how he had gotten here.  Another was that he was
laid out for surgery but that Jubilee had just finished
undoing the restraints.  The third was that there were
several sets of distant footsteps coming towards them.

Only one of the problems was urgent.

He sat up, gripped Jubilee's shoulders, and gave her a hard
shake.  "I did NOT forget about you," he growled.  "Not for
a minute.  Not even for a second."

"S'okay, Wolvaroonie," she said, almost shyly.  "We're
good."

He looked at her closely.  "Yeah?"

"Totally.  And if you put on some pants, you can give me a
hug."

He snorted.  "Hold off those goons for a sec, willya kid?"

"What goo--"  The door burst open, revealing a team of
soldiers.  "Oh.  Yeah, sure."

PAF.  PAF-PAF.

Logan swung off the stretcher and started rifling through
the cabinets.  Heroin, morphine, a jug of something labeled
"Serum X."  A set of scalpels.  Gauze and tape and surgical
thread.  A set of medical textbooks wedged in with a copy of
"Aberrations and the Devil's Marks, A-Z."  A glowing yellow
eye floating in formaldehyde.  A notebook of chemical
notations.  And--aha--his clothing.

PAF.  PAF-PAF-PAF.

It was better than a symphony.

* * *

As they raced out into the hallway the lights flickered and
went out.  After a moment low, red emergency lighting filled
the compound.

"The best part," said Jubilee cheerfully, "is that all this
chaos is going according to plan."

"Nice plan," said Wolverine.

* * *

"Hey!" called Shadowcat.  "You guys are going the wrong
way!"

They turned around.  "Well you're supposed to be recon
girl," said Jubilee defensively.

"Exit's this way," Kitty said.  "I sealed off most of the
compound and gassed it."  She smiled smugly.  "You won't
believe how easy it was to get root.  Login:  root.
Password:  password.  I was half-hoping it was all fake, but
nope."  She shook her head.  "You can buy a bunch of
rednecks a network, but you can't teach them how to run it."

"God, Cat.  You're such a nerd."

Shadowcat colored.  "Sorry," she said stiffly.  "The point
is that the security system is now our friend."

"Aw, lighten up," said Jubilee.  "I get to call you names.
It's in the kid-sister job contract."

"Oh no.  What have I gotten myself into," Kitty said
ruefully.  But now the flush in her cheeks was one of
pleasure.

* * *

"You ain't staying, huh," said Trev, looking at his feet.

"I can't," Jubilee said.  "But the CBB...I don't think
they're gonna be a problem any more.  We really wrecked
their secret base."

Trev looked up.  "You know," he said awkwardly, "you'll
always be a Fang."

She smiled.  "And you know--you can call me.  If things get
bad.  Especially if whoever was behind the CBB turns up
again."

"Yeah.  I will."

"And keep looking after Sarita.  We gotta...we gotta look
after the people we love."

"You know it."

Jubilee nodded.  That was about all there was to say.

* * *

Kitty was driving them home.  Jubie was asleep in the back
seat, curled up against Logan.  He stroked her hair gently.
She stirred a little, burrowing deeper into his warmth.  She
looked like she was having a good dream.  He hoped so.

He looked up at Kitty.  She glanced in the rearview mirror,
met his eyes, and smiled.

"Kitten," he said quietly.  "I don't know what you did in
there.  But you did it real good."

"I got lucky," she said simply.  "I got through."

"Yeah.  You got a knack for that."

She smiled a little wider, and turned her eyes back to the
road.

They were okay.  Nobody had died or lost their heart's
desire.  Nobody had a sucking chest wound.  And as far as he
could tell nobody was insane or harboring malevolent psychic
influences or infected with alien diseases.  They seemed,
for the moment, safe; and they were headed home.

It was like a fairy tale.

* * *

Finis.