What Domino heard was the metallic grind of more hunters coming after them.

"Crap," Rogue looked out from under the tarp. "That's Warren."

It was Warren...their Warren.

"Sinister is here then," Domino knew all about it by now. "Stud, pull it together."

She slid into the driver seat. "Back in the car, we're going to have to move fast."

"I'm okay now," Forge said, still a little queasy.

"For mid-level, you really don't have a strong stomach," Roach said. "A kid would be less squeamish than you about it."

"Not helping," Forge said.

"Can you three delinquents maybe pipe down about the blood shed," Domino said. "Tin man here is sensitive about it, and we have to escape."

"Fine," Roach said. "But we're still gonna have to kill them if they catch up to us, it's us or them."

"No!" Rogue said. "I refuse to stoop that low."

"I would," Domino said. "They're monsters, why would you feel guilty about it? Think of how much blood is on their hands."

She sped up the car. "Keep your head in, if that metallic vulture sees us, we're dead, we can't fight Angel, or should I say Archangel now."

"What's the difference?" Forge was trying to distract himself.

"I don't know, how pretentious it sounds?" Domino said.

[The difference is rank, if anyone actually cares to know the answer to that.]

"Dom, you can't shoot them," Rogue said. "Not to kill. Please."

"Rogue, I would do whatever it takes, we're trying to save the world," Domino said. "And you're a fool if you think showing mercy to brainwashed goons is really any more respectful of human life than not killing them is."

[This is an interesting point. There are times when choosing not to kill an evil person may be condemning way more people to death. 

While I am against murder, if you read my other stories, you know that I acknowledge there is a point of no return with some villains.

I don't know that Domino draws the line where I would, but the X-men never going there may be a bit too idealistic in a world like this, at the same time. 

What would you guys think if you were them?]

"Even if you're right about that," Forge said. "I don't think I could...I mean they're still people."

"Are they though?" Domino said. "Do they have souls anymore? You want to wait forever to see if your buddy can snap out of it? Or do you think if he could have he would have by now. Face it...he's gone.

She frowned to herself. "Even if we don't like it. Sometimes you have to cut your losses. If it's between that and innocent people, I don't think there's much of a choice."

"You were okay with killing innocent people before," Rogue said angrily. "What should I expect...the brotherhood always was. You're not in charge, Dom, we're the ones who are the heroes, so if you have a problem with that, you can just get out now."

"Uh Rogue--" Forge said.

"So," Domino said, taking a corner a little too fast. "You'd really do that to me? Over this? I guess we really never were friends Rogue," she cast Rogue an angry look in the review mirror. "Because as much as I didn't care for you stabbing us in the back after pretending to be on our side, I could see why you did it, and if we were on the same side again, I'd have still saved your butt. Kind of like we just did. But I guess that doesn't matter, the X-men just turn in whoever they don't like now, is that it? hey," she laughed bitterly. "Maybe I'd have been next. Maybe it's good that we split ways when we did."

"I--" Rogue faltered.

"Can you guys fight later?" Bolts squealed. "Getting closer...I think he's gonna spy us soon, and there's more of them, look."

Some Riders had appeared lining the sky also.

Like they knew this was a bad sign, all regular civilians had cleared the street, and it was empty.

The car would be seen any second, they probably could hear it already.

"All right, we have to ditch this," Domino said.

She stopped. "It's too obvious it's us in this thing. At least on foot we could blend in...if we weren't dressed like this."

"Nothing you can do about that," Rogue jumped out of the car. "Let's move. Warren'll be on us in a second."

They ran for a side street, ducking behind some exhaust pipes.

But suddenly, Warren landed in front of them.

He didn't say a word, he just shot feathers at them.

He pinned all three of the teens immediately, they had no experiences in dodging.

Domino fired at him, and it did nothing to his metal hide.

"Warren...buddy..." Forge nervously held up his gun. "I really don't want to have to use this on you..."

Feathers knocked him into a  wall.

Rogue swallowed.

"Rogue...suck his power out," Domino said.

"He'll never let me get that close," Rogue said.

Warren just started walking toward them, not even hurrying.

Roach frantically squeezed himself around the feathers and got free from them all, then he started pulling at the ones one holding his sister in place.

Warren ignored them, they were clearly not his top priority.

"Warren..." Rogue said slowly. "It's me...Rogue...you remember me right? I know...Sinister did something bad to you, but, we're your friends."

"We're not friends anymore," Warren said mechanically. "You are lost souls, I will return you."

Rogue held up her hands. "All right..." she said, "you talked me into it, if you let the others go, I'll come back with you."

"Negative," Warren said. "I am to capture all X-men."

"I'm not an X-men," Domino said.

"Serf is optional," Warren said. "Back off and I will leave you alone. Drop your weapons."

Domino stared at him. Then she dropped her gun and kicked it towards the teens.

Warren turned from her and grabbed Rogue by her arms.

"Ah hang on," Rogue couldn't get one hand free to touch him. She tried to head butt him instead, but his arms were too long.

Domino backed up to Forge and yanked one of the feathers out of the wall, which cut her hand.

"Ah..." She said. "I forgot I'm not wearing gloves...can this thing hurt him?"

"It should," Forge said. "I initially designed it with him in mind."

"That's charming, it better work," Domino pulled the trigger.

Warren wasn't even watching her, like all the other brainwashed puppets, he seemed to only have as much focus as was allotted to the task at hand.

The gun blasted him into the wall.

Rogue was also jarred by it, but Domino's luck was good enough not to have hit her by accident.

"He's not dead, though..." Forge said. "Probably just down for a minute or so."

Domino brutally yanked the other feathers out of the wall. "If we had the time, I'd be yelling at you for not making a more lethal gun to fight a flipping tank with wings! Ah!" She pulled the last feather out and fell back.

Forge brushed himself off.

"Got it," Roach had the other girls free now.

"Maybe if I suture him down," Bolts said. "It'd buy us a little time."

"Can you use his feathers to do it?" Forge asked.

"I think so," she said.

She bent them and latched them onto Warren.

Domino pulled Rogue up.

"Maybe if I drain him now..." Rogue said, pulling off her glove.

But then they saw another rider.

"No time," Domino said.

They ran for it.

"I didn't tie him down that well..." Bolts said. "He's gonna be after us again."

"Here," Roach handed Domino her guns.

"Thanks," she said. "Fat lot of good it'll do against those things."

They jumped through some garbage bins and into a different street.

"Oh no..." Bolts stopped short. "We're almost to the front of the Temple!"

"This...wasn't this whole place a temple?" Rogue asked.

"The whole Capitol is like one big Temple," Bolts said. "The plant and stuff is just the far edges of it, but the worship part, that's in the center of the city, and it looked like we're just about there. We're not allowed to go in there unless we have special clearance. We're not worthy."

"Clearance?" Domino said.

"You don't understand," Roach said. "Even if we wanted to, we'd be shot or worse for even going inside the gate. You can't make us do that."

"We can't stand still!" Domino snapped.

But it was too late.

Warren appeared back over their heads. He didn't seem angry, he never seemed to have any emotions at all, he just shot at them.

They kind of ducked.

Forge made a sort of shield grow out of his arm, but it didn't do much good, it just got stuck full of feathers.

Warren had them cornered against a wall pretty much, the only way out was to go back the way they came, and the other rider was now blocking their exit.

They had what looked like a gun to shoot weighted nets.

"No..." Spray cried. "They'll put us back...they'll throw us in the oven! Why did we think this was a good idea?"

Domino slapped her. "Get a grip. Or we're dead."

She fired, but of course it had no effect.

"Surrender, foolish souls," Warren said.

Forge held up his gun. "Uh...Warren..."

Suddenly his arm yanked itself back and hit the wall.

"Huh?" Rogue said. "Magneto?"

But no Magneto appeared, instead hovering over them on metal discs was...

"Lorna?" Domino said strangely. "Pietro's sister?

She had the green hair.

"It's Polaris," she said. "Not Lorna...the slave names are long outlawed."

"But..you...I thought..." Domino sputtered. "What are you doing here? Hunting us?"

"I'm not really, I'm just collecting you," Polaris said. "Warren was having trouble. You're causing a disturbance. Scaring people."

"I think they were as scared by you guys chasing us..." Forge said nervously. "So you're also Magneto's daughter huh? I guess that explains the power...I remember you now, I kind of forgot you existed."

"She was literally on Genosha before we got kidnapped," Domino said.

"Yeah, but I didn't realize she was related to Magneto," Forge said. "No one ever tells me anything, you know."

"What are you talking about?" Polaris said.

"I just can't see Magneto letting her do this..." Domino said.

"Daddy didn't know," Polaris said. "At least...not at first...now all of us have to do our part to keep the peace."

"Where's the teens?" Forge suddenly said.

They seemed to have vanished.

"Just take them," The rider behind Polaris and Warren said. "Never mind the grunts, they're little better than rats, they aren't a threat."

Polaris lifted Forge up. "Don't struggle and I won't hurt you."

"But--" Forge sputtered.

Lorna was always a little too fragile to be a fighter they all thought, it was weird to see her using her powers like this.

Suddenly wind slammed into her from nowhere.

The sky had clouded over without anyone noticing--indeed it was so dark from pollution and it was nighttime anyway, that you'd hardly notice unless all the lights went out.

They looked.

Storm was suddenly behind them. Where had she come from?

She was gritting her teeth. "Leave them alone," she said. "Warren...I don't believe that's the one I know, but nonetheless, you must stop this."

"I will stop you," Warren raised his wings.

Suddenly a different person flew over his head and grabbed it.

"I did this once, I can do it agin!" the girl cried in a thick country accent.

Forge and Domino realized that she was wearing the same colors as Rogue, and had the same hair color.

But she was much taller and older looking. They both looked at Rogue.

Rogue was gaping at her.

Then she winced and rubbed her head . "I don't feel so good guys. .."

Polaris recovered from Storm's blast.

"This won't work " she said, raising several pieces of metal. "I have weapons everywhere."

"Who are you?" Storm was puzzled. "I didn't think anyone but Magneto had this power."

"That's my father," Polaris said.

"Oh...he has three...no wait, I remember now," Storm said. "They mentioned that..."

"Look out for her," Scott was suddenly there, he blasted at Lorna and she went flying into a wall. "I've never seen her fight, but if she's got Magneto's power, you can't let her get a chance to use it."

"Scott?" Rogue turned to him.

"Ah!" Warren cried, as the other girl's power took effect.

He dropped to the ground.

"Is that...also Rogue?" Domino asked.

"Yeah...that Rogue is from the 80s," Scott said. "Domino, what you are doing her?"

"I could ask you that same question, Cyclops, where did you all come from," Domino demanded.

"Hi," a girl who looked like a tiny version of Shadowcat waved at her. "We were hiding in the pipe...that's why we have oil on us."

"I wasn't going to ask," Domino said. "So the X-men are here."

The other rider, seeing all of the, did the smart thing and ran for it.

"And he'll be calling in back up," Wolverine was there too all of the sudden.

"Logan!" Rogue cried.

"Ah!" The other Rogue grabbed her head. "Stop it stop it! Why are you already so powerful."

Then in a different voice. "Evil...hatred...submission to Sinister's will! Attack the X-men!"

Then in her voice she said: "No, get out of my head! Now! I'll make you! I ain't as weak as I used to be. I have help!"

She made some kind of motion and suddenly her face cleared and she stood up. "Well...that was tougher than I thought...I don't ever want to do that again."

The new Rogue gaped at her and then fell over.

"Wait, is that me?" older Rogue cried. "She's so small! Ah, that's so weird to see!"

Warren sat up, holding his head. "I...what...What did you do to me?"

"Angel right?" Rogue held out a hand to him. "I done purged your evil away...wasn't easy, but..."

"Oh no, you haven't," Warren said, looking sick. "You can't just purge Sinister away...he implanted it inside me. At most you've just stalled it...what have I been doing?"

He glanced at Forge and the other Rogue. "I'm sorry...I've been fighting my friends, haven't I?"

"What's going on?" Polaris was standing up, looking woozy. "What are you saying, Angel?"

"Polaris," Warren said. "I remember...you can't help them, they're evil. Everyone, Apocalypse and Sinister...don't listen to your father! He's mad, they're all mad. And the other me, they had him, and...and this fellow named Gambit."

"Gambit?!" Rogue grabbed his arms "Tell me, where was he, is he alive?"

"The last I saw him," Warren said shakily. "He was alive, they...had plans for them...not sure what they were, but, they wanted them alive. I think they want all of you...I have to warn you while I still can...you can't let them capture you, they have the other X-men, the ones I know...in their secret place."

"Where is that?" Forge asked. "I couldn't find it anywhere."

"I can't say it," Warren said. "They put blocks in our minds, so we can't tell you, even now I think it's still there...unless Rogue has the memory of it."

"No, I only got your memories of being brainwashed..." Rogue said. "I'm sorry, Angel...I know, it's not a good feelin' to have someone else in your head."

"It was my own fault, I was foolish to trust Sinister..." Warren said. "And now I have what I deserve."

"What are you talking about?" Polaris demanded. "My father and everyone else, they wouldn't brainwash someone into doing what they want."

"Where has she been the last 20 years?" Domino asked.

"It's not her fault," Warren said. "With all the mind messing around here, I wouldn't be sure if she just doesn't have any memories of anything they don't want her to know. Polaris thinks all this is for the good of mutant kind...they'd never tell her the truth, this is a living nightmare, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. You have to stop them, you don't have much time to do it, not now. You were wrong to come to this timeline at all, the Merging will happen so much faster with you all here...I don't know how it works...it's blocked from me, but I know they thought you'd all increase it..."

"We had feared as much," Storm said.

A new woman who Domino didn't recognize but Forge vaguely recognized as the DJ from before, was coming out of the wall.

"Warren," she looked up. "Come here."

"Who...who are you?" Warren said.

The woman spoke in an impressively calm voice under the circumstances. "A friend, come here..."

For some reason, she had a lot of authority in her voice.

Warren came a little closer.

The woman pulled out a sword and regarded him in its reflection.

"Yes...he's still not free, Rogue, you did your best, but, this goes deep. Even with the other we still had to help remove the last of it, it takes time to do that. But Sinister isn't like Apocalypse, he has technology embedding with the rest of it. I'd have to cast all that out of him at the same time. It might be extremely painful to do so, I wouldn't want to try it out in the open like this, Warren you must come with us, I think my partner and I can free you, but we'll need more room to do it.

"No I couldn't," Warren said. "If I snap back, I might kill you. Get far away from me, from all of us. The other rider just went to call in more help."

"That red thing," Shine was examining his face. "That's what's patching Sinister's voice to you isn't it?"

"I...yes, how did you...?" Warren said.

Shine inserted her sword under the red chip and pried it off of him like it was easy.

"Ah!" Warren yelped like it hurt him and he began to writhe.

"I thought that might hurt..." Shine said, somberly.

"Who the h--- are you?!" Domino gaped at her.

"Shine," Shine held out her hand. "The World Walker. And you are?"

"This is Domino...she's kind of working with us right now," Forge said. "And this is Rogue...maybe you know that."

The younger Rogue got to her feet shakily. "I was a little spooked there...I mean we knew about this, but...that's me?" She glanced at the older Rogue.

That Rogue put her hand on her hip. "Is it all right for us to meet like this, Shine? We won't merge."

"Well you haven't yet," Shine said. "But don't touch her. If one of you absorbed the other...well just don't."

"Remy is still alive, Shine," Rogue said. "We can still save him...we have to...she looked upset. "I gotta make it up to him, for all of it, we are gonna save him right?"

"We want to save them all," Shine said. "But one thing," she glared at Forge. "Why do you have the Talis? Raven was supposed to have it."

"Oh...by Raven do you mean Mystique?" Forge asked.

Shine nodded grimly.

"She gave it to me," Forge said. "I can explain...but maybe we should get under cover first."

"Yeah, sure," Shine looked upset. "Bring Warren...whatever he says, we shouldn't let him go back to them, and anyway, without that red thing, I don't think they can track him."

"What about Polaris?" Forge asked.

Shine looked at her. "She's welcome to join us if she wants. I think she looks too innocent for us to harm her further. We're not here to brutalize people who don't know any better. What do you want, Sweetie?"

Polaris stared at her. "I...I'm confused," she said in a small voice. "I should ask my father."

"If you want to save him, you'll come with us," Shine said. "Or he's going to be in the same boat as the rest of us will. Trust me. I'm sure they haven't told him everything. Not that I put it past Erik to be this stupid to begin with, but suicide is not usually his game."

Polaris covered her mouth.

"Your call," Domino said. "But we literally all came from the past to stop this, and you're not the least bit concerned that you might be on the wrong side?"

"I--you..." Polaris said. Then she frowned. "I saw things...things about my sister. Do you know where she is?"

"You know...we might actually," Shine said. "She's psionic, isn't she? All psions have vanished. We know why."

Lorna clenched her fist. "I want to hear this..."

"Then come on," Shine pointed to the wall. "Out of sight, now."

"You're really letting her come?" Domino said. "Even if she's sincere, Magneto will flay you alive."

"Then he can join the club of people who want to do that to me, get in," Shine pointed.

Domino shot her a double take. "Okay, I like her already."

***

Once they were back inside the tunnel, and Hank was using the flashlight to help make introductions, the others were just about ready to panic.

The three teens, who Kitty had snagged early on when Shine had said that the Talis was right outside the tunnel, had been first panicking, and then filled all of them into the best of their knowledge.

Forge, Domino and young Rogue then filled them in.

(Shine said they'd refer to older Rogue as Marie as long as they had both of them there to avoid confusion. No one called the younger one by her real name, apparently. Though she was startled that Shine knew what it was.)

"You escaped all that on your own?" Ryan's eyes were huge. "That's so wild. You guys are cool."

Forge rubbed his head. "Well, we were lucky. It was kind of too easy."

"They didn't care about us," Domino crossed her arms. "Just Rogue. Apparently you guys are on their list. So...you're the team of people who sent us the note...just who are you exactly? The other X-men, I get that...I think I can guess. Storm, Wolverine, Colossus," she pointed to each of them, and then stopped on Morph. "Okay, I have nothing."

"Morph," Morph said. "Left the team ages ago, now I'm on this team. Time Traveler. Nice to meet ya. So...you said Mystique gave the Talis to you."

Forge held it up. "I don't even know what it is, but she said to keep it out of their hand and that it might vanish. I figured she meant you guys would show up for it. She said to try to stall on the bad guys finding us. To make an opening for you...I'm not sure I really did that, but at least we're here...there's less of you than I remember from before."

"We...lost Nightcrawler," Shine's face fell.

Silence.

"I'm sorry," Domino said. "He wasn't that bad."

"I can't believe it," Rogue said. "You mean your Nightcrawler right."

"Yeah," said Marie. "That one. Never met yours."

"He's probably with the others," Rogue said. "But he'll be all right, probably. Only our Mystique, she was there, and she had this other woman with her...that's the last thing I remember before I woke up in that prison."

"And what did this woman look like?" Emma said. "Black hair, black dress, gloves, like a bad reenactment of some bar scene in the old West?"

"Yeah, that's it," Rogue said.

"Selene," Emma frowned. "So now she's working with that other Mystique...well, this went from bad to worse, didn't it?"

"I can't get over that you're alive," Domino stared at her. "I heard that you blew up. How do you come back from something like that? I thought I was lucky, but that's another level."

"Apparently, I'm almost indestructible," Emma said. "And you, why aren't you with the brotherhood?"

"Since 'Silver left, there really isn't one," Domino said. "We weren't invited to join this little coup of Apocalypse's, I guess they knew we wouldn't be that insane. Ever since he ditched us, it's been stuck hiding from the law, as usual. Figured I might as well help. Why are you with the X-men still?"

"I was kidnapped," Emma said. "They found me. It's one of those 'no choice' things."

"Same," Domino said.

"You guys should make a club," Morph said. "Mystique can join it when we find her...she was okay right?"

"Uh...yeah, she seemed fine," Forge said. "I mean, they dragged her away with an electric whip, so that wasn't too good, but she didn't break character, so she must have been conscious still. I don't know what happened to her after that. I half hoped she'd find a way to meet up with us when we were escaping, but nothing. It felt like we found you guys by chance."

"We found you," Shine said. "I traced the Talis...I put some of my...uh, power, into it already. Raven knew that. She saved your lives I think. She knew we might be able to trace it, but I doubt she even knows how much. But...now we can't find her...I'm sorry, I'm happy we saved you, but..." she started crying. "One more set back...how much more can one person take...?"

"What's wrong with her?" Domino said.

"Go easy on her," Wally put an arm around her. "We'd have had the longest 24 hours you can imagine, and we've been losing teammates right and left since this mess started. I'm sure you guys have had a time of it too, but you can't imagine that kind of pressure. We really hoped to at least get Mystique back with this. It looked like her self sacrificial stunt is getting an Act Two now."

"Mystique?" Domino sniffed. "The one you know must be the total opposite of the one we know. I can't imagine her sacrificing herself for anyone. I've never really met her, but, I knew about her working for Magneto...Quicksilver could be jealous of how much more he trusted her than us."

"No one trusts Mystique," Logan said. "They just use her. I never liked the one we knew, but, she's come through for us a few times now, and we owe it to her to save her hide if we can. But if you don't know where she is, we can't waste time looking for her...sorry Morph," he looked at him seriously. "But it'll just have to wait, when we find the others."

"And you think they'll keep her alive that long?" Morph said. "Without the Talis...what does she have to use as a bargaining chip?" he looked miserable.

"Well, she could sell us out," Emma said.

Everyone glared at her.

"What? Would you really blame her under the circumstances?" Emma said. "They'll tear her apart...I'd even forgive her for it. She might be able to stall with just small bits of info till we can get there. Would you really judge her for that? It may work to our favor. She's clever enough to use that edge. Don't fall to pieces Morph, I'm already doing that enough for both of us."

That bit of dark humor made Morph laugh more for pity than anything else.

"Why is he so upset anyway?" Domino asked. 

"They're dating," Marie supplied.

"What?" Rogue looked a little sick. 

"Seriously?" Forge said. "Oh that's so weird...good for you  though, Morph. I always thought you'd find somebody eventually."

"Yeah thanks" Morph said. "Only took crossing a world or two. What about you, the girls beating down your door yet?"

"Heh...no," Forge said. "Still single...not that the MRD has made it easy to find other mutants who are available..I mean, dating websites are a nightmare now."

Morph laughed. "Oh, I forgot about those.  Well, get chucked around reality a few times, it really does it for most people, apparently. Must be the suspension  bridge effect."

"Can we cut the small talk?" Domino asked. "Please tell me you people have a plan. We literally staked our lives on busting out of there and getting rescued by you."

"Rescued by us...well that's debatable," Shine said, drying her eyes with some determination. "But go over more carefully for us what you learned about this place. And on the move, we can't risk staying put here for too long. Polaris? What do you say? You want out, now is the time to say it."

"I'll stay for now," Polaris said, biting her lip. "I still want to know what's really going on..."

"And we have to bring this big lug?" Bolts pointed to Angel, she'd fastened his wings together just in case. "He's still one of the horsemen. We should just kill him."

"No," Shine said. "You will not punish him for being brainwashed, enough of that. You three kids are welcome to join us, but you play by our rules if you do. Do you have a problem with that?"

Her tone was enough to cow three teens who'd lived their whole lives under a tyrannical regime. They nodded meekly.

"We'll all have to tell you what we've learned," Shine went on, more calmly. "But on the move.... This way, I guess."

Suddenly Emma turned. "We're not alone."

Hank shown his flashlight more ahead.

Along the wall was crawling a mutant that had to be a Morlock...or at least the equivalent of one.

"Outlaws?" it said to them in a raspy voice. "Looking for Caliban? You have horseman with you? Caliban will want to meet you. Follow Silverfish."

"Relative of yours?" Domino asked Roach and Spray.

"Oh, ha ha," they said.

"I guess we found who we were looking for," Shine said. "And as much as this feels like an obvious set up, it beats going back out into the open, so let's follow him. Walk and talk, come."

They started moving.

"And she's a little weird," Domino hissed to the others. "Are we sure these people are sane?"

"Well, they're the X-men," Forge said.

"Oh, that's proof enough," Domino said.

"Beats the alternative," Rogue said. "Even if it's totally weird to see myself...with better hair too...but it looks a little too 80s for me."

"I think she looks cool," Forge said. 

Rogue glared at him.

"What?" he said.

"Ah, forget it." She frowned.

"I think I see why you're single," Domino muttered to Forge wryly.