We Can Explain...

We Can Explain...Chapter Thirty One (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta... *more shimmies * I think I caught Watari in the zills earlier...InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena get Peeps for archiving/hosting. :) ProPhile is a busy smutmuse. ;) Morgan... *more hugs * Readers/Reviewers: I'd like to take this moment and thank y'all for NOT being insane in a bad way... *mutters about negativity * And *glomps * for reading/reviewing. :)

The dark haired woman smiled at them with a hint of an edge to the expression. "Please come along," she urged just a tad brusquely. "The guests are waiting." She was tall, taller than Lance even, her aquiline features making her all the more imposing. She wore a flowing blue robe that shimmered as if lit from within, her body pure light instead of flesh and bone. "This is merely the recreatareaarea for the household. I apologize for bringing you here instead of into the house proper..."
"Whoa, what?" Lance started forward as if to grab her and shake the entire story out of her, but Amara laid a hand on his elbow, holding him back. "Bringing us here? We found this place on our ow
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The woman arched a fine brow and thinned her smile infinitesimally. "Of course, it's perfectlymon mon to find a place such as this," she waved the beringed fingers of one hand to encompass the Romanesque baths, "in a toolshed."
Jubilee, still dripping wet, asked as calmly as she could manage, "How did you bring us here?" Her fingers grasped Remy's surreptitiously, squeezing tightly. "People will be looking for us."
"Yes, yes," the woman sighed. "I know." She turned and began a stately walk towards a door they had not noticed before, set in between tromp l'oeil1 columns. "Your friends are waiting for you upstairs. They arrived a short while ago." She stepped through the door, standing aside in an obvious invitation or order, no one was quite sure which.
Remy and Lance exchanged wary glances. The Cajun finally nodded, making some inward decision. "D'accord." He ped ped out in front of his companions, taking the lead whether they liked it or not. "We'll come 'long if you tell us yo' name."
The woman smiled and spread her hands as if she were letting water spill through her fingers. "Why don't you call me Phobos2?"
"Phobos?" Lance tasted the word on his tongue and frowned. "What the Hell kind of name is that?"
"I don't know, Avalanche," she retorted, her voice fairly dripping ice. "What the Hell kind of name is that?"
Amara cleared her throat gently and moved to be seen behind Remy. "I apologize for my friends. They are tired and a bit...off put." Her voice had taken on a new cadence, one rarely used around the residents of the mansion. Her English was clipped and more accented than usual, as if she were striving to keep her native tongue at bay. "We will join your other guests."
Phobos cocked her head to one side and smiled faintly. "Thank you. It would be a shame to have this evening end badly..." She turned and disappeared into the darkness beyond the door, behooving the quartet to follow her.
The hall was long and dark, lighting set low near their feet and kept purposefully dim. It took a moment for Jubilee to realize that the walls were not black as she first thought but a very deep blue. She clung tightly to Remy's hand as they strode down the corridor, keeping pace with Phobos' long strides, her eyes drawn to the dark walls near her face in the narrow hall. She saw a faint design, barely visible in the dim light, and reached out to touch the raised pattern. A shock went through her, seemingly centering on her throat, right around her voice box. She tried to gasp but it came out a dry rasp. She stopped in her tracks, her fingers spasming free of Remy's, her other hand numb and immovable. Jubilee tried to cry out again, pain wracking her body as her voice finally tore free from her throat. "Help!"
Phobos reeled, pushing Remy and Lance aside before they could even react. "Foolish bitch!" she snarled, her cool façade gone. She grabbed Jubiby tby the shoulders and pulled her hard, flinging her to the floor with a growling curse.
Remy was on Phobos before she could reach for Jubilee again. "Keep your damned hands off her3," he snarled, pressing her against the patterned wall.
Phobos had the height advantage over Remy but he was heavier. She struggled slightly, but could not escape his grasp as Amara moved to help Jubilee to her feet and Lance came to stand beside his male counterpart defensively. "Forgive me," she murmured with suddenly downcast eyes. "I should have tyou you about the security system. I feared only for your friend..."
Remy shook her hard enough to make her teeth rattle before she clenched them. "I ain't believin' you."
"Remy, please," Jubilee whispered loudly. Her eyes were wide and scared, tears standing in them. She was shaking visibly as she leaned on Jubilee. "It was my fault...let her go."
The Cajun stared for a moment, taken aback. "Chere," he began, but sighed and shook his head. It was better, he decided, to step back and wait for the better time to confront this strange person. "You sure you okay?"
"I'm just...tingly," she sighed, trying to smile. "It shocked me." She could not say what it had felt like, really. It was like every sensation she had ever felt in her entire life crashed in on her at once, every sound and smell and taste and feeling swirling through her body in an instant. She thought she had died.
Phobos stepped away from Remy and straightened her gown. "Now, if we are quite done..."

"Amara."
"Gwah."
"Amara, you're snoring." e ste stiffened suddenly, her eyes flying open. She had dozed off mid-lecture and now several sets of eyes were on her, some curious, most amused, one piercing. "I apologize," she said softly.
"Everyone, take a break," Professor Xavier said calmly. "Amara, come with me."


1 "fools the eye." The style of painting a mural on a wall to look like it's something it's not, like columns or a window.
2 Means fear in Greek. Twin to Demos.
3 Back to the Future, anyone?