Everything happened so fast that it all seemed to go by me as if in a dream. As Remy was knocked back from the force of the kinetic blow, I turned my head to watch him fly across the room. But a flash of blue shot passed me and I heard flesh meet flesh. I blinked to clear the sudden haze across my vision.

"Holy shit!" Came a gruff voice and I turned to see Logan and Remy coming toward me.

"Remy?" I mouthed, my throat suddenly dry.

"Good Lord! Scott!" I turned my head back around to see Henry McCoy dragging an unconscious Remy back over to me. Then the three exploded into action. Hank taking the lead dropped the body of someone I'd thought had been Remy Lebeau and stepped between me and the portal as Storm and Rogue came through.

"Gambit!" He snapped.

"On it, mon ami!" Remy answered, knowing what he wanted. I could barely understand what was happening. Remy ran to the portal, intercepting Storm and Rogue and the rest of the Calvary coming through. Gambit gestured to them with a nod to Henry and they turned away from where he stood shielding me from their curious looks. I felt a flush go through me from the shame of
being bound as I was.

But at that moment, two of the guards, who must have heard the commotion came barreling through the door and any attention to my predicament was drawn away with the beginning of a fierce battle. A loud shriek from Banshee drove the guards back.

"Take control of the palace," I shouted to Henry over the din. He nodded and began bellowing orders into his headset. Within a few moments most of the X-men who'd come through the portal -- and from what I could see it must have been the whole roster, including the Generation X kids, Pietro and Wanda -- had moved out to secure the citadel. Only Hank, Logan and Remy, the *real* Remy Lebeau I surmised, remained with me. Nathan came to kneel beside me for a moment. I flushed in shame as my son looked at me with tears in his eyes. "Dad," he said with so much love. More than I'd ever heard in his voice.
"Dad, it's okay."

I closed my eyes and nodded. "Go help the others. Find Jean. Make sure she's safe." He stood up without question, looked at me one more time and then headed out the door. I felt a good deal of relief. He was one of the last people I wanted seeing me like this.

"Let's get you out of these, Cyke," Logan said with incredible compassion. After all these years I still couldn't believe he could be that kind to me. I'd expected a smirk and a smartass comment. But he was quiet, sincere in his kindness. He popped a claw and made short work of my restraints. Hank caught me before I hit the floor. My arms and legs were numb from the position I'd been forced into for such long time, and I could hardly move to stop myself from falling forward. He lowered me all the way down to the cool marble and then looked at the collar around my neck.

"Inhibitor?" He asked, though it was obvious. I think he was feeling almost as embarrassed as I was, now that the heat of battle had died in the immediate area surrounding us.

I nodded. "Do you have my visor?" I asked. Simple expedient questions. I wanted to stick to simple plans. My mind began to click back into battle mode, leadership tactics. And I'd thought I'd lost that ability months ago. It was like riding a bike.

He nodded and pulled it out of a small gym bag slung over his shoulder. "We weren't sure what to expect. I have your uniform too. Scott?"

"Later," I said more gruffly than I meant to. "Just get this thing off me."

Logan stepped over and bent down. "Hold still," he told me and placed the very tip of his claw against the top of the collar. With one downward stroke, he cut through it without even nicking my skin and pulled it from around my neck. Thank God for adamantium claws. I closed my eyes tightly as I felt him pull it away and Henry positioned my visor back into place. I occurred to me suddenly that I hadn't even taken a last unfiltered look around.

But Hank was distracting me as he bent toward my groin. "I think I can just unclasp this..."

"No!" I hollered, causing him to jump. "No," I repeated more quietly. "I'll take care of it. Help me sit up and give me Remy's coat."

Gambit turned hearing his name. I suddenly realized he'd been standing over the unconscious form of his doppleganger since the other's had left. I felt a chill go though me at what he must be thinking. As he began to shrug off his trench coat I said, "No. Not yours."

He scowled. "Dat ain't Remy."

"Sure," I answered. "Just give me his coat. It's roomier."

He nodded and began to strip off my former master's coat. He wasn't very gentle about it. And when the false Remy stirred, he pummeled him back into unconsciousness. After he placed the coat over me carefully, Gambit went back to stand guard over his doppleganger. Or so I thought. I watched him as Hank began to explain how they'd found me.

But a minute into Henry's explanation I saw a glint of steel appear in Remy's hand as he bent down over my master's throat.

"No!" I roared. "Remy don't!"

Gambit swung around, knife in hand and a snarl on his face. "Why not?! De bastard deserves to die!"

"X-men don't kill." It was all I could think of to say. God knew I had wanted him dead often enough. But now, faced with the certainty of his execution, I couldn't bare to have it happen. I realized with a cold terror that I didn't want him dead. No matter what he'd done to me, I didn't want to see him die.

"Maybe dey should," Remy replied acidly. But the knife disappeared and he stood up and moved away. I breathed a sigh of relief and he gave me a puzzled frown. "What's dis all about, homme?" He asked coming toward me.

"You don't..."

"Why don't you catch up with the others," Hank interrupted me, speaking to Gambit in a tone that brook no argument. Gambit glared at him for a moment. "We'll take care of Sinister's clone." Henry said to him.

"I t'ink you should send him back to Sinister," Gambit snarled. "If you don' want to kill him."

"We'll take care of it, Remy. I promise." Henry clutched his shoulder and ushered him towards the door.

"Merde! You'll treat him wit' kid gloves after all he done." He wheeled around and looked at Logan. "You kill him, homme, if he tries anyt'ing. Oui?"

Logan nodded. "Sure kid. I'll keep an eye on him."

Gambit nodded and was out the door without a look back.

The circulation had returned to my limbs and I painfully pushed myself up into a sitting position. "What happened, Hank?" I asked. But he put a hand up waving me to silence and listened into his headset. He nodded and looked back at me.

"The palace is secured. They've found Lorna, Jean and Alex and have freed the slaves."

I took a deep breath, my mind going into a whirl with tactics, analyzing the situation, considering all the alternatives to an all out war. But there were only two goals to accomplish: free the mutant slaves and return them to Earth. Again I felt amazed at how quickly I was turning back into Cyclops, leader of the X-men.

"We need to take control of the city. There are a good many mutant slaves from Earth here. They ought to be recognizable by their inhibitor collars." Hank nodded again and began relaying orders into the headset. I went back over all the information I had gathered during my time here. When Hank had finished speaking to Storm and Rogue, the official field leaders at this
time, I said, "I need one of the flyers to find Councilor Constantine. I'm fairly certain he'll be an ally. One of the guards ought to be able to give you the location of his estate."

"I'll take care of it," Logan said, heading toward the door. I heard him say, "Banshee," as he headed out of the room.

"We don't have much time," I said to Henry. "I'm not sure how many mutant slaves there are in this country." Hank's eyes widened at this remark. "We need to get them away from their...owners before they're hidden or killed. I've no doubt most of the owners are not going to let them go without a fight."

"What is this place?" Hank asked in astonishment.

"Oddly enough, a twisted place of reverence for mutants," I replied. "I'll explain it all later." I pushed up, trying to get to my feet, but my limbs were still partly numb. Henry bent to help me and I smiled weakly.

"Very strange, indeed," he commented, but said nothing more.

"What happened to Gambit?" I asked as he helped me to my feet.

"He's been enjoying Sinister's hospitality for five years now." Hank replied simply.

"Shit!" I said, realizing that my situation, while bad, probably didn't compare to Remy being held prisoner by that madman. "No wonder he's out to kill."

"Yes," Hank continued. "I think I would have felt the same way. Apparently Sinister had created this clone." He pointed at the doppleganger. "He then had Gambit captured. He used him to imprint his memories on the clone, making him a very close copy, but a more powerful one. Remy isn't sure how powerful he is, but he does know this clone has better control over his powers. And I think Sinister's plan to use the new clone for his own purposes backfired, because the clone began to have ideas of his own. Having Remy's memories gave him autonomy and a hunger for freedom. He escaped Sinister's care, leaving
Gambit to take his place. I'm fairly certain Sinister knew Gambit was the real thing. But I doubt he cared much. In fact I'm certain he was angry enough about his loss to take it out on Remy. Remy was in bad shape when he got back to us a few months ago."

"Wait a minute," I said, a thought occurring to me. "I thought the Neo took out Sinister. That's what I read in the files."

"We'll need to update those files then," Hank replied in all seriousness. "But you should know how hard it is to kill that devil. The Neo probably took out half a dozen Sinister clones, never even coming close to the real thing." I nodded in agreement.

I was able to stand on my own, shrugging into my former master's coat, when Jean, Lorna and Alex arrived.

"Scott!" Jean shouted and ran toward me. Knowing she was going to throw herself into my arms I turned quickly to catch her on my hip.

"Easy," I said. She backed off, giving me a puzzled look. "It's okay," I assured her. "Just a problem I need to take care of in private."

Her eyes widened in horror. "That..." she hissed. I nodded.

"Oh Scott, what happened?"

"We'll talk about it later. Right now there are a lot of things that need to be taken care of." I looked over at Alex. He had a tentative arm around Lorna's waist, but his eyes were locked on our still unconscious would be master. He looked up suddenly, as if sensing my gaze, and flushed slightly in embarrassment. I felt Jean bristle beside me. I turned my eyes on her and saw
anger.

"Jean," I said, putting all my need into my voice, "take Alex and Lorna back to the mansion."

Her eyes sparked with the anger she held in them. "Scott..."

"Please," I cut her off. "I need you to do this for me."

"You need me here," she replied matter-of-factly.

"No. I can take care of this." I glanced over at Remy. "I can take care of him. I need you to take care of Alex and Lorna for me."

I could see it was going to be difficult to persuade her. "He still loves him," she hissed. "I saw it in his thoughts."

I closed my eyes. "You haven't read his mind, have you?"

She shook her head after a moment. "He was projecting."

"Then you haven't gone deep enough. You don't know the whole story," I said.

"I think I know enough. Lorna's told me plenty," she snapped.

I sighed. "Please. Lorna doesn't know as much as she might think. Please. Take them home. Don't read Alex's mind. Let me try to explain it to you when I get back. I promise I'll tell you everything."

Jean echoed my sigh. "Alright. But I'm not going to try to stop him if he leaves."

"Fair enough," I said. "Just do me one other favor." Jean rolled her eyes, but then nodded. "Tell Xavier to leave him alone. Don't let him mind wipe him. Even if he asks for it. Not until I get back at least."

She narrowed her eyes at me, pursing her lips. "Xavier's not at the mansion." I looked at her in surprise and she said, "when you disappeared, and we couldn't find any trace of you on Earth, he contacted Corsair. Since both you and Alex were missing, he thought perhaps one of Corsair's enemies had decided to come after you both. He's with your father."

I nodded. "Makes sense. Well, I should be home before he gets back. Just watch out for them."

"Fine." She wasn't happy about it, but I knew she'd do it for me. I kissed her gently.

"I'll be home soon."

Without another word she walked over to Lorna and Alex and took Lorna by the hand. Alex took another look at his master and came over to me. "Scott?"

"It's okay, Alex," I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. I wanted to kiss him, but I knew this wouldn't go over well with Jean. Or Lorna. Or possibly Hank for that matter. "Go home. Take care of Lorna. I'll be there soon." I looked into his eyes and saw what I feared most. He was going to run. I shook my head. "Don't Alex. Don't leave before I get back. Wait for me. Please."

He hesitated, uncertain. "I'm not making you choose," I continued. "It's out of your hands now. I just want you to wait until I get back before you leave. You'll need the time to take care of Lorna anyway. She needs you."

He looked very tired and sad then and I thought he was going to say something about Lorna, but then he hung his head and said, "Okay. I'll wait."

I blew out the breath I didn't know I'd been holding and squeezed his shoulder. He didn't say anything more, just turned and walked toward Jean and Lorna who were standing by the portal, waiting for him. There was a swirl of colors and the three walked into the portal and vanished. I sent up a silent prayer that they'd make it home safely and that Alex would stay until I got home.