Mirror, Mirror

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… Sending the Yule box tomorrow! *happy dance * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena and Greywolf are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. J ProPhile: *insert witticism here * Morgan: *gloke with stalk * Readers/Reviewers: Muchos gracias for reading/reviewing as you can!

Amara stood on the edge of the crowd, her eyes half-closed as she strained her ears, listening to the buzz of gossip and excitement. She was close enough to hear the murmurs about Rogue fainting, close enough to hear the supposition she was some sort of drug fiend, pregnant, both and neither. She held herself very still as Lance passed within feet of her, both wanting him to see her and fearing what might happen if he did. She waited until he had disappeared through the crowd and eased herself forward, touching people on their shoulders as befit a princess, not voicing her request but manifesting it in her actions. Move, she thought. Get out of my way or suffer. It took just a minute for her to reach Rogue, but she did not make herself known. They were huddled on the ground, Rogue sitting up and propped carefully against Todd’s chest. Some massive man watched them like a hawk, his light colored eyes unblinking as he stared down at the small group. Kitty was weaving her way towards the building, and Amara made a quick decision to follow. Breaking away from her friends, she hurried after the other girl, not bothering with polite nudges this time. She shoved people out of the way with surprising strength for a person her size and age. “Kitty!” she called. “Kitty Pryde!”

Kitty stopped in her tracks, wincing as she heard her full name in Amara’s voice. “Damn it,” she hissed as the Nova Roman drew near. “I told you we needed code names!”



“Next time you can be Nancy Drew,” Amara replied tartly. “Where are you going?” She pulled Kitty by the elbow towards a thick brick pillar, shielding them from the crowd and the cold breeze dancing through the courtyard. “Things are moving fast. I found out more about this group from one of those twits in the blue shirts with the walkie talkies.” She glanced aside as she said this, as if expecting one of them to be hovering nearby, watching her with their weasel-like eyes.

“I’m going to call the Professor,” Kitty said tersely, bouncing on the balls of her feet with urgency. “Rogue’s absorbed some of Graydon…wow, that sounds disgusting…and we need help here.”

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Amara pointed out. She nodded at the center of the courtyard and Kitty craned her neck to follow her friend’s gaze. The bonfire pile was huge, taller than Lance, and it shone wetly. She could smell a faint tang of fuel on the cold, crisp air, and a shiver of nervous fear wormed it’s way along her neck to her chest.

“Wow…that’s huge,” Kitty breathed. “Um, okay. Look, we need help. We need Logan and Storm and whoever else can come out. We’re not going to be able to stop the entire Friends of Humanity group on our own…” She swallowed hard, a lump moving in her throat. “I think this is the first time I’ve wished I was back at school,” she added sotto voce, staring at the pile of wood.

Amara drew herself up to her full height, not quite as tall as Kitty but close enough to bring their eyes nearly level. “Do as I say and we can do this on our own. I need you to get Graydon alone, away from the others, and disable him.”

Kitty stared. “Wow, okay, generalissima, what’s with the sudden pulling nonexistent rank? It’d be stupid of us to do this alone…” She was silenced by Amara’s warm hand over her mouth. Kitty glared, fighting the urge to just phase through her friend and hurry to the phones.

“If we call them, we have to wait. We don’t have much time.” She removed her hand slowly. When she saw that Kitty was not going to retort, she nodded once and continued primly, “I was raised to be a leader, Kitty. I am a child of Bellona, a child of Mars. I know what I’m doing.” She smiled, a sliver of teeth showing between red lips. This, Kitty thought, was not comforting. Amara tossed her hair over her shoulder and sniffed imperiously. “Now, get Graydon to come to you and disable him. I’ll take care of the rest.”

“Disable him? What do you mean?” She growled in frustration as Amara delved back into the crowd. “You’re not allowed to watch Misery[1] anymore!” she called after her. She stomped her feet, in part to keep warm and in part to vent her annoyance, before turning back towards the building. Graydon and Lance were coming out with bottles of juice and soda clutched in their hands. Lance gave her a sharp, disproving look, but Kitty simply smiled and bounced over to them as if she were at the county fair. “Hey, Graydon, I was wondering if you could tell me more about some of the stuff you guys do. I mean…” She looped her arm through his and pressed close, never letting her smile slip. “I’m really interested in it, you know? I think it’s so cool that you guys are reaching out to college students!”



Graydon stopped and stared down at her, taking in her wide, blue eyes and freckled nose. He sighed and rolled his eyes heavenward for a moment, then handed the bottles he had over to Lance. “Take these to your friend. I’m gonna show her to my temporary office and give her some pamphlets.”

Kitty shot a grin at Lance and giggled. “I’d love some pamphlets!”

Lance bit his lower lip, holding back a torrent of curse words and imprecations. “Be careful,” he finally shouted after them, feeling like an old lady with his warnings and nervousness. “If you die,” he added under his breath, “I’ll kill you.”

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[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100157/