A Soul Divided: Part Nine

by Kerri

Charlotte pushed herself back from the computer. "It looks like that's the only option, Hank," she said.

"I concur. We must recreate the accident. It will take one or two days to gauge the energy output, run the computer simulations." He frowned over his calculations, then looked up at her. "I'm sorry."

"So am I." she let out a sigh. "I'd better talk to Remy. He should have a say in this."

"Yes, of course."

She got up and left the lab. She was still a little stiff from the fight, but it was worth every ache and pain. The last week had given her the autonomy to move around the mansion without incident. Cyclops and Angel had warmed up enough to not pointedly wish she were dead every time they saw her. Nightcrawler finally thawed enough to allow her to try her rusty German out on him, it had been more than fifty years since she'd used it. Storm stopped leaving the room when she was present.

She made her way up the stairs to Gambit's room and knocked on the door. Of all the people here, he was hurting the most. "It's Charlotte, Remy. I need to speak with you."

After a few very long minutes that made her feel exposed out in the hallway, the door opened. He glared at her, his auburn hair wild, the black patch giving him a piratical look. He was shirtless, his tanned skin gleaming, the jeans he wore faded and tight. He looked good, she had to admit. If he smiled, he'd be devastating.

He moved back and gestured her in. She carefully avoided touching him, stepping off to the side. "I ain' goin' hurt ya," he grumbled.

"I know." She moved a pile of clothes out of the chair and sat down. "Hank and I think we've found the only way to send me back."

"So. Why you here?" He lounged in the matching chair.

"It's very dangerous. Blade might be killed in the attempt."

"An' you won'?"

"I wear body armor in my reality. It rechannels energy around me so it won't hurt much. Blade has no such protection here, this could very well turn her into a crispy critter."

"Can you make dis body armor for her?"

"The material simply isn't available. I could possibly scavenge some from the old house, but whether or not it will work..." The idea seized hold of her. If Blade had been foolish enough to leave everything at the old Virginia house... She couldn't have done that, could she? The only way to know would be to go look. "Did she ever tell you about the place she was born?"

He shook his head. "Non. Maybe somet'ing dere?"

"Maybe. It's worth looking into."

He pulled on his shirt and reached for his boots. "Den we go. Now."

In the garage they ran into Wolverine and Angel. "Ya ain' goin' wi'out us," Wolverine growled.

"Dis doan concern you, homme," Gambit said roughly. "Who tole' you, anyway?"

"Jean did. Are we not a team?" Storm asked, coming out of the shadows with Beast. "Do we not work together as a team?"

"Doan any of you want to save Blade," he accused.

"You're right, we don't," Magneto told him. He, Jean and Nightcrawler entered the garage. "She's hurt us, far more than you can imagine, but Charlotte needs help. She has made herself more a part of this team in such a short time than Blade ever did. We know what loyalty means. She deserves ours."

"And so do you," Jean told him gently.

Gambit reached out to Storm, she came easily into his arms. The men stood around them, content to let the women express their feelings. First and last, they were a team.

Charlotte hung back, feeling more of an outsider than she had the entire time. She could sense something in Gambit break open. He needed his friends' support, and they gave it unstintingly. Maybe he'd found what he needed to see him through this.

They pulled off at where the Virginia house should have been. She slid out of Wolverine's jeep, her heart breaking. The ruins of the once beautiful home her mother built. So much destruction. It was painfully clear Blade cared for nothing, not family, friends or lovers. "It's not supposed to be like this," she told him.

The team assembled around her. "Where do we start looking? And what are we looking for?" Cyclops asked.

"The gate room." She missed the look on his face. "If it's still here, it's in the basement."

She picked her way through the remnants, standing at where the stairs to the lower levels should have been. "It should be down here."

"I don't see anything," Nightcrawler said.

"It's shielded. Blade obviously left the power source intact. She's wasted everything." Probably didn't find it useful if she couldn't alter the transport device to be planet bound. Only one way to test it. She took a step into the void.

She hit the shields, the force tossing her back into Angel, causing him to stroke back into the air a few feet. He caught her and lowered them both to the ground. She was dazed, the world blurred.

"Found it," she tried to joke, but the pain jangled her nerves. She couldn't move just yet.

Gambit leaned forward. "I'll take her."

"No, she's fine," Angel responded, Charlotte cradled against his chest. A week earlier he would have let her hit the ground and then stepped over her.

After a few minutes she sat up and away from him, her body trembling.

"What's wrong with her, Beast?" Jean asked.

"The power from the force field appears to have interrupted the connections between the nerve endings and the muscles," Beast said. "A few minutes rest she will be fine. It's approximately the same reaction from a stunning device."

Gambit gathered her up in his arms and hugged her against his body. Blade never showed any weakness; Charlotte seemed to wear her softer qualities on her face, attributes Blade didn't even seem to possess. He looked around at the faces of his teammates. Wolverine stared back at him, his eyes both envious and worried at once.

The trembling stopped, she soaked up the warmth of Gambit's body. With a deep breath she freed herself

They all watched as she moved back towards the gaping hole in the floor. Wolverine poised himself to grab her if something went wrong.

"Magnus? You would be able to disrupt the field long enough for me to get through," she said, thoughtfully gazing down into the empty space.

"It will not injure anyone?" he asked.

"It shouldn't. If you would exert enough power to counteract the effect-" She disappeared right in plain sight of the entire team.

After nearly 10 minutes they could hear her underneath them. "It's off. Be careful, there aren't any stairs down here." A bit of firelight that sparked from her fingertips lit the surrounding area.

Magneto lowered them all down into a passageway. They followed the sounds of her cursing, Blade's name figured prominently in her monologue.

"Wasted it, just wasted it all, the stupid bitch," Charlotte muttered, "'course, if she ever got it to work properly she'd have been twice as dangerous."

She was scowling over a dust covered console that looked like something out of Star Wars. "If it could ever be workable again..." She stopped and took a deep breath, promptly choking on the dust they'd kicked up into the air. "Everything in here goes. Hank and I can get it sorted out back at the mansion." After she pulled the power source.

[next part]

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