Okay, quick note before I let you read this, I tried my hardest to fit what Sinny and Rem said in Uncanny X-Men #350 into this story, and when I did, it came out sounding like crap. So, I figure, if I mess Gambit up enough to make him older and have a ten year old daughter ... then I could take out some of the stuff he and Sinister said. Although I did leave the mettle thingie in there. I should also say right now, that in the next three chaps is when the Mutant Massacre is supposed to happen, because I wasn't reading it at the time, and 'cause I can't find the graphic novel, I won't have any of it in the next three chaps, so this is just to let you know, that's what's gonna be happening.
Also, I want to thank Shera Crawler 007 for adding a little bit here and there with Sabretooth and Blink, it now seems I'll be using Creed a little more before I'm done with this.
Sinister, Gambit, and Sabretooth belong to Marvel. Blink and Conda (yet again, I haven't put him in it, I will next chap) belongs to Shera Crawler 007 (thanks for letting me use them, She). Lizzie, Devin, and Shadow (the man formerly know at the giant without a name) belong to me, Raven Adams. And Dor, bless his soul (he's so nice about this) is a real person, so only his wife owns him.
And, as always, i need some water, so please water me! thanks.

The Sun Will Shine Again
by Raven Adams
July 1998

Chapter 15

Devin jumped over Dor's staff, and brought his own around to hook behind the older man's feet. Dor fell to the ground with a crash and a curse. Then Devin's staff was pushed up under the older man's neck.

"Got'cha." He said, pushing the staff up so Dor's chin rose with it. Then he smiled down at his fallen Sensei, and pulled the staff away, and lowered his hand down to help the man up.

Dor made as if to take the offered hand, but at the last second, grabbed hold of Devin's wrist and flung him over. Devin landed on his back and it seemed like every bone in his body was broken. The next thing he knew, Dor was over him, a knife at his throat.

"Never offer your enemy your hand. I could very easily have killed you, and it would be your own stupid mistake."

"No, Dor." Lizzie said behind him. "It would be your mistake."

The old man hid a smile. He hadn't even heard the girl sneak up behind him, she had thieves' feet for sure, but he could feel the prick of the knife Lizzie had taken to carrying with her at his back. Devin was grinning like the Cheshire cat, obviously they were using their new found ability against him. Which was good. It meant they were working as a team.

"Enough." He said, making his voice harsh and cold, covering over his pride of the two. "I have seen enough for the day, off with you two. If you're not in the pool swimming laps in five minutes I'll show you just how much you can take in pain without actually dying." He practically growled. The blade at his back was gone, he knew Lizzie was putting it back into her boot. He let Devin up to follow his sister.

They had taken to calling themselves brother and sister, something the Master wouldn't be too happy about, since he planned on using them for breeding when they were older. But they worked together, better then any of them had thought they would, and the treatments were working, the boy was now a mutant, and the girl's power level had been charged, making her more powerful, although she didn't know it. Nether of them really understood what was happening to them, and neither really cared so long as they had each other.

They didn't understand what they were being trained for, and Dor was happy he wasn't the one who would have to tell them when the day came. He was also happy that the Master hadn't been around since they had been together, they were lucky they got to become stronger in spirit, mind, and body before Sinister did to them what was...inevitable.

As the two silently ran from the room, Shadow walked away from the wall where he had been standing. Dor just barely acknowledge him, but when he didn't follow the children, and just stood there, Dor turned. "Shouldn't you go after them?"

"Thank you." Was all the giant said before following Lizzie and Devin into the locker room.

He didn't have to ask, he knew why he was being thanked. He could very well have hurt Devin before Lizzie could have done something with that knife, the Master would have wanted him to do that, but he hadn't. "You are welcome my old friend. What I couldn't do for you, I will do for them." Dor said softly to himself then walked to the pool.

He could 'ave done more, Dev. Lizzie sent her thoughts to him in the other room.

You felt that too, huh? What is this we've got, I don't understand it. I mean-

'Ow c'n we hear each ot'er in our heads?

Yeah.

I was t'inking 'bout dat las' nig't. I t'ink it 'as somet'ing t' do wit de TESTS. Even when she didn't say it out loud, the word came out sounding like a curse word she shouldn't ever say. I 'member dem doin' somet'in', I don' know all wha' dey do, but it hurt.

Yeah. He shook his head, when Lizzie's mind had opened wide and taken in all the thoughts of the people around her, Devin's had done the same, only his came in dreams as he slept sick with fever.

They reluctantly moved apart and into different rooms to change into their swimming suits. You know, He asked. I think we can get Shadow to help us get out of here, away from the TESTS and everything, to find your poppa?

NON! Lizzie's mental word was more harsh then if she had screamed it in his ear. He winced, but didn't say anything. I sorry. But...

I know. He sighed. They both talked about it, thought about it more, but neither really had the courage to try and escape. Black Thief had told them both of two of her escape attempts, and the scars she had gotten for her troubles. Both could sense the scars she'd gotten on the inside even though she didn't speak of them. She even told Lizzie that the Master had given her over to Blink for trying to escape, that scared Lizzie more then any scar could.

Lizzie was afraid that if they tried, Blink would get her, and do to her what he had tried before. She hadn't fully understood it, but every time he came near her, he got this look in his eyes and this smell about him that made her feel sick in the very pit of her stomach. She'd do anything to get away from him, so if trying to escape would only bring him closer, she didn't want to try it.

Devin thought most of the same of the man's brother, Conda who's snake eyes glistened when Dev came into the same room with him. But what terrified them the most was the thought that if they did try to leave, then IT would return. Devin didn't remember ever seeing IT. The thoughts, and the dreams Lizzie had of the night her mother was killed, was enough to scare him without ever having to get near IT.

He sighed and walked out of the room he had changed in. He leaned against the doorway to the room where Lizzie was, and said "I'm, sorry." in a mouse like voice.

Lizzie came out, and was going to say something, when Dor's shout reminded them they were supposed to be swimming. Together they both sighed and walked out to where the pool was.

Dor took one look at their solemn faces, and decided he wasn't going to push them as hard today in this leason. "Lizzie, in the water." He said, pointing to the pool ladder. "We are going to do something different today. Lizzie, I want you to close your eyes, and spin around a few times, don't open them. Devin, when Lizzie counts to one hundred, I want you in the water, and I want you to shout 'Marko.' To which Lizzie will reply 'Polo.' Lizzie, I want you to find Devin and tag him."

Eyes still closed, Lizzie grinned and started to count to one hundred.

After a while, there was nothing but laughter and splashes as they tried to get "Marko!" "Polo!" out of their mouths unsuccessfully.

Remy picked up the telephone, and dialed the number quickly. He let it ring three times, and hung up. After a while, it rang, and he picked it back up. "Oui?"

"Have you the people I asked for?"

"Oui."

"Then I have your key. Meet me in the Chapel on St. Elm Street in a hour." The phone clicked, and the line went dead. Remy smiled, so the Devil wanted to mean in a church huh? He could deal with that.

He hung the phone back up, and pulled on his coat. It was time to go get his daughter back.

Later that night, Lizzie looked into the mirror and frowned. She pushed her hair up, away from her face so she could see the roots. Yeah, she wasn't wrong, it was changing color.

"Lizzie, if you keep frowning like that, your face will freeze that way." Shadow said moving his bishop to take Devin's last rook. Devin made a sound of triumph and moved his queen to take the bishop, when Shadow countered by taking his queen with his own and happy calling out "Check Mate!"

Lizzie glared at him as Devin challenged him to another game and they set the board up again. Sometimes she wished he'd go back to being the solemn giant who didn't speak much, but only sometimes.

"My hair's turnin' blue. See?" He held her bangs up, "Right 'ere, right in de middle, it go all de way t' de back o' my head, Dev's is doin' de same!"

Shadow shrugged. "It happens."

Devin laughed, "You mean people start to grow blue hair all the time? Now that, I'd like to see!"

"I never heard o' it 'appenin'!"

"Well, it does, it's happening to you isn't it?"

Devin blinked, his hand in the air with a pawn in it. "What is happing to us? I mean, look at out ears, they don't look right. Lizzie and I can hear each other in our minds, we can see, hear and smell better. Why is this happening?"

Shadow shrugged, "Something in the water?" Dev grinned at him.

Lizzie didn't say anything, just moved away from the mirror and sat down on the floor in between Shadow and Devin's chairs. She watched the two play their game, then, "Non. It de tests isn' it, Shadow? Wha' 'ave you been doin' t' us?"

He didn't say anything, then, after a while, when he realized both children were staring at him expectantly, he sighed and leaned back in his chair. "The tests give you things. They make you stronger mutants. They make you smarter, more powerful. Everyone here, all the classes you take, all teach you to use these powers, to harness them to make them work for you."

After taking a second to think it over, Dev was the first to grin, "Hey! That's kinda cool!" But the grin faded when he looked at Lizzie.

"Non, it n't. Why? Why do dis t' us?" Lizzie asked, not sure that she liked the idea all that much, even though she could feel Devin's thoughts whirling into her head.

"The Master chose the two of you for these tests, like he chose me when I was younger."

"He did dese t'in's t' you too?"

"Yes."

"You like it no more den we do! I know it! So why you lettin' dem do dis t' us? Why change us?" She jumped up, angry. "My mother was killed, an' my father is responsible, an' now you tell me I becomin' a monster?"

"It's not-"

"It is! You changin' me! An' I don' wan' t' be changed! I wan' t' be de way I was 'fore!" A tear came out of the corner of her eye, and she ran out of the library and down the hall.

Devin sat there for a second, looking after her then stood up. "I better go after her."

"No." Shadow said, pushing the boy back down in his chair. "I'll go get her."

"You sure?" Devin asked.

"Yeah, we'll be right back. And don't move anything on that board!"

Dev grinned. After Shadow left the room, he frowned, and reached back, trying to scratch at a place on his back. Unable to reach it, he walked over to the mirror and lifted the back of his shirt. Looking over his shoulder he saw that the two bumps on his back had not only not gone away, but had grown larger, longer.

"I n't doin' it, Sinister." Remy looked around the chapel, a card in his hand, the Ace of spades, the card of death. He flipped in over in his hand, then back again, nervously. "I got you people, I don' wan' no part o' wha' you do wit' dem. Dat your decision. You got wha' you wanted, you know wha' I wan'."

"Yes, your fee..." a round metal thing flipped out of the air, Gambit caught it in midair, and rattled it, the key was inside. "Now, you have your key... But you have no where to use it. You see, Mr. LeBeau, in order for me to tell you where your daughter is, you will do one more job for me."

"Dat wasn' part o' de deal, Essex! You say I do dis f' you, an' I get my daughter back!" Remy practically exploded, but a warning hiss from Sabretooth kept him from doing anything more.

"I believe our arrangement was that I give you the key after you do a job for me, In do not recall saying I would tell you were your daughter is located. Oh, you will do one more job for me, Mr.. LeBeau." Red eyes slowly appeared as dark sunglasses were pulled down. They glared at him from the darkness. In taking a step forward, the man's death white face was revealed, and sharp toothed grin came from it.

Remy took a step back. "I don' your dirty work f' you! I don' even wan' t' know why you wan' Sabretooth an' de o'hers, I jus' wan' wha's mine, an' f' you t' get out o' my life!"

The smile got bigger, and Remy had to fight to keep from charging the card in his hand. "Tsk, Tsk, Mr. LeBeau. Now I...I am the one who has what you want. See, I dangle it over your head, you are a fish in water Mr. LeBeau, you've already taken the bait, and now I'm about to reel you in."

Remy didn't much like the sound of this, and took another step back.

"You see, Mr. LeBeau, I have what you want, what you need. Your daughter. A fine young lady she is, I hear she is taking to my experiments rather well."

"Experiments?"

"Yes, you see, I have been using her body to see just how much mutant power I can infuse someone with... from what I have been told so far, she is doing quite well, other then a little mishap with one of my men getting too friendly with her."

Remy yelled a vile name at the man and lunged at him. Half way to the man, he was caught in mid air by Sabretooth, and knocked unconscious.

Yellow-green eyes swept over the still face a moment before turning their savage gaze reluctantly to Sinister. One claw pressed against the soft skin of his throat.

"No, not yet." Sinister smiled, and replaced his sunglasses. "Bring him. He will do as I say now."

The claw stayed in place for a second, mind weighing the consequences against the pleasure. The skin slowly lost the redness as the pressure lessened, and Sabretooth hefted the body turning to follow Sinister. One thought ran through his mind, He don't own me, I could gut 'em both whenever I want.

Lizzie blindly ran down the hall, not looking where she was going or even caring. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she fought against the thoughts that her Poppa was to blame for all of this misery.

She was running just to run, just to feel the floor beneath her feet, and the slight wind she was making, on her face, drying her tears.

But she was running blind, and didn't realize until an arm came out and grabbed hold of her that she was in the quarters of the Malevolent Quartet. She tried to scream when the arm grabbed her, but her mouth was covered with a hand from behind, and she was yanked into the shadows, away from the lit hall. After a few minutes, Shadow came racing by, running right past her, she tried to let out scream, but the hand muffled it, and when she tried, it pushed harder against her, scraping the insides of her lips against her teeth.

When Shadow was long gone down the hall, the hand pushed her up against the wall in front of them, and she realized her fear in running away had come true.

Blink grinned at her, the whites of his eyes and teeth, and the orange of his hair were the only thing she could really see. He said something to her, but it was too low for her to hear. He took his hand away, only to replace it with his own mouth before she could let out a scream.

His breath was worse then it had been the other day, and when he pushed his tongue into her mouth, he even tasted nasty. She tried to bite him, but he was too quick for her, and pulled out before she could. He chuckled at her, a dry sound like the rubbing to two pieces of sandpaper together. She shuddered.

She tried her hardest to remember Dor's training, but nothing came to her mind, except for the fact that his hand was touching her in a place she knew she shouldn't ever be touched, she remember her momma telling her about men who would do that, and that she needed to stay as far away from them as possible, and that, more than anything, turned her stomach queasy.

And then something happened. Her fear dissolved, and she let pure instinct take over. She lifted her knee and kicked him in the crotch. He doubled over in pain, surprised, letting her go. But instead of fleeing, like she had tried to do before, she stood her ground, and pulled one of her throwing knives from their hiding place on her back.

Blink looked up at her, hate swirling in his eyes almost as strong as the desire. Lizzie's eyes had turned red the minute she kicked him, and they showed no signs of changing now.

"Pourquoi peux toi pas juste mourir et laisser moi seul?!?"(1) She yelled, kicking him, again, as hard as she could in the chin. He was dodging out of the way, and if the pain in his crotch hadn't slowed his reactions considerably he might have missed it completely. As it was the blow still made him fall over on his back, barely conscious. Another swift kick to the head put him down for the count. That done, she decided to take care of this fear right then and there. She kneeled down, and lifted the knife above her head, and would have brought it down too, if her mother's face hadn't flashed before her eyes, making her stop.

"Laisser moi seul..." (2) The knife clattered to the ground noisily. She slowly lowered her hand, sick with herself for being such a coward and not ending it, and she put her head in her hands, sobbing.

She felt Shadow come up behind her, and he helped her to stand up. Blink was still unconscious. That was the only thing saving him, Shadow did nothing, he would deal with him later. Lizzie let herself be helped, and led away. But, after only a few steps, she heard Blink moan behind her. Without thinking, she whirled, grabbing two of the knives from her back, and threw them all in one fluid continuous movement.

The knives stuck straight up in the ground, one on either side of link's head, one actually cutting him. She smiled, and then let Shadow lead her away.

Continued in Chapter 16

(1) Pourquoi peux toi pas juste mourir et laisser moi seul?!? Why can you
not just leave me alone?
(2) Leave me alone...

Okay, so I'm not great with French, I'm sure I got the sentence structure all wrong (anyone who ever would like to help me out here, I wouldn't say no), 'sides, I can speak Cajun French, but for the life of me, I can't spell it, so I keep a little French/English dictionary by me at most times. Anyone who speaks French, please forgive?

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