Disclaimer: All of these characters belong to Marvel and are borrowed without permission with no profit made.

October 1998

VC presents X-Men in:

IMMORTALITY
Part 1
"Drain You"
Told by Tom


Her foot lowered onto the step. Her body swayed, but quickly she regained her balance before anyone
could notice. She walked down the stairs with more confidence, even though her head was still spinning. Her
companion followed shortly after her and he too walked off the stairs. Soon they were both standing on the
ground, looking at the black plane in front of them.

"Dis Blackbird don't have any cloaking device but it shouldn't be visible in de forest anyway." Gambit said.

"Whatever." Betsy said in a quiet voice which almost disappeared in the void of the night.

They began circling the area slowly, moving towards the center, using trees as a cover. "So ya gonna tell me
what this is all about ?" Remy asked.

Betsy opened her mouth to speak but suddenly a strange dizziness hit her head. The world around her began
to spin and she felt her legs giving way to her body weight. She fell to the ground with a loud thump.

Remy was by her side in a mere second. He quickly checked her pulse and breathing and with a relief found
that they were there. He gently lifted her and put her head on his knees. "Betsy ? Can you hear me ?" he
asked.

In that moment Betsy opened her eyes slowly. "Wh... what ?"

"I don't know. You just collapsed in front of me."

" Damn it must be getting closer."

"What Betss ? What's getting closer ? C'mon stop playing games with me I want to know why we're here."

"There's no time, we need to go, now." she said trying to get up. His hand landed on her shoulder and he
held her down firmly.

"You're not going anywhere chere until you tell me what's going on, besides you're not fit enough to even
walk back to the Blackbird."

"Okay, okay I'll tell you then. Remy, I.... I don't know how to say this.... but... I'm dying."

His face turned white for a brief moment and then his eyes went wide. "You're.... you're what ?!"

"Well I'm not so sure that I'm actually dying, but.....I.. I don't know what's happening to me. Remember how
my life got saved by the Crimson Dawn ?"

"Oui."

"Well last night the Undercloaks came to my room, trying to capture me. I fought them of, but they said
something about me paying the price for using Crimson Dawn. Ever since then, all through today I've been
feeling terrible. This pain is ripping through my body. I get hallucinations, I see shadows laughing at me
everywhere. All through today I've been barely able to walk, to stand on my feet. I'm not sure if I'm dying
but I'm definitely getting weaker with every minute, and considering what the Undercloak said about me
paying the price, I figured I'm probably going to die..." he voice trailed away and tears rounded in her eyes.

Remy couldn't squeeze out a word out of his mouth for a long time. He has never seen a teammate die, just
the thought of it scared him to death. He was scared of death... Finally he managed to speak. "What are we
doing in Hong Kong then ?"

"That's the other thing." Betsy continued with her voice still hushed. "Today, I was having hallucinations, but I
also got a telepathic message from Matuso saying got you. That and the attack of the Undercloaks seem to
fit together. Matuso is involved in this. I know it."

Remy looked at her in disbelief. "And you came here to see Matuso, when you can't even stand straight on
your feet ? Are you out of your mind ?"

"Yes I probably am. I'm dying Remy, the only way to find out what the hell is going on is to get to Matuso. I
know it sounds like a suicide but it's my only choice." she said getting up slowly. "I'm feeling better now. If
you want you can go with me, but I'm not probably worth it."

Remy looked with blurry eyes at her figure slowly began moving away from him. It was crazy. He knew it.
He couldn't just leave her here to die... "Okay, okay I'll go with you. But I still think it's damn stupid."

"Yeah so do I." Betsy said with a faint smile. "Thanks Remy."

"Eh, you'll thank me when we get out of there. Otherwise I'll be mad at you." Remy said with a grin. His
sense of humor was returning, briefly.

They began approaching Matuso's house, once again using the trees for cover. Remy watched Betsy
carefully as she crawled in front of him. She seemed to be acting normal, but Remy who had seen her in
combat more times than he could count quickly noticed that she was in no form to do this. Her moves were
clumsy and she stepped on too many branches and made too much noise. Her hands touched and moved
trees. She was acting like no professional. He understood her though, he was as scared with death as she
was. Ever since then.... ever since then he hated death. It was something he could not stand seeing since he
saw so much of it then. He tried to make some funny comment, like he always did to make Betsy at least
smile for a second but this time nothing funny came to his loud brain. It was occupied with one thought.
Death... She couldn't just die like that, could she ? She was a X-Man after all. X-Men don't die so easily.
When they will go back, Henry will help her. He knows this kind of stuff. There's got to be a way to save
her. X-Men don't just die like that.

Betsy tried to focus her vision, to see what was in front of her. She lied when she said she felt better. In fact
everything got worse every minute, She could hardly see what was in front of her anymore. She tried very
hard to hide her clumsiness and lack of coordination but she was sure she was failing. She heard some
branches crack under her feet. She wondered about what Remy said. Was she in any condition to do this ?
Maybe she should have asked for help instead of rushing into it. Maybe she was going to die just fighting
Matuso. Maybe she should have turned back like Remy said. She pushed that thought as far away as she
could from her mind. She had to do this. It was enough of always running away. She had to confront Matuso
about this. She hated being tampered with. Her thoughts switched back to Remy. He could have left her.
This was none of his business. Yet he was still here with her. She hadn't considered Remy a great teammate,
especially since the day she tried reading his mind. She didn't get far enough to find out something useful, but
he didn't believe her. Ever since then they had kept far away from each other. She doubted he would ever
stick out his neck for her. Yet he surprised her today, when he said he was going with her, and then when he
followed her, he seemingly forgot about the mind accident, and was ready to help her even if it meant putting
his own life on the line. Maybe she was wrong, maybe someone in the world would still be on her side.

A silent "Chere." caught her attention, just barely. She turned around to see Remy crouched behind her.

"You might want to hide a bit." he said. She looked around and saw that she was well out of the forest and
standing in the open. She quickly fell to the ground. #Sorry, I was thinking of something else.# she talked
back. She clenched her teeth as telepathic backlash hit her. It hurt. It hurt really badly. She had been using
her telepathy to keep herself sane, to block out all the voices inside, and when she used it, it back lashed.

"It's okay." Remy whispered. "Go." They began crawling in the short grass slowly, again trying carefully not
to make much sound. Gambit was succeeding, and Betsy once again made mistakes that would shame any
ninja. But by now, she didn't even notice them anymore. The dizziness overtook her head to the full extent. It
was worse than when she was blind. She had no idea how she still worked out where she was going,
everything seemed to blurry and unreal. Finally after few minutes she found herself under a door. How she
got there she had no idea, all she could think of now was the pain growing at the back of her head. It was
terrible. She tried waiting patiently as Remy picked to lock open. Out of the sudden her vision returned to
normal, but just for a while, and then again she was seeing everything blurry. She began having doubts as if
to this was a good thing to do. Maybe she was not up to it.

It was too late for any regrets as Remy opened the door. They walked inside, looking around for any sight of
guards. The house was dark, not a single light on. All through Betsy couldn't see or hear them she knew they
were there. Matuso had about hundred guards in his house. They were probably getting ready to attack any
minute. And then, just as Remy shouted "Look out !", from everywhere dozens of ninjas fell to the ground.
Betsy reached for her katana but before she could pull it out someone had delivered a kick to her head. She
went flying and landed on the floor, hard. She tried getting up, but everything was swirling around her. She
leaned on her katana and slowly began getting up, but then one of the ninjas swept kicked her and knocked
her legs out. Before she hit the ground another Hand punched her on the back of the head and she fell to the
ground unconscious.

As Remy saw Betsy fall the the ground he frowned. This was all his fault. He should have not let Betsy come
here at all. If she was going to die, it was going to be his fault. And he was not prepared for yet another
painful memory. He decided to retreat. He saw a Hand coming at him from the left and he swung his hand in
the last minute knocking him out. He began making his way through the army of ninjas and trying to get to the
unconscious Betsy. He pulled out a set of cards and lighting them, threw them in front of him. They exploded
upon meeting with the ninjas and for a second it looked like he was going to get to Betsy. But then he felt a
hard yank from the back. Someone had grabbed him by his jacket and pulled him back. He landed on his
back side as a group of Hand ninjas began to surround him. ^I can take them.^ he thought quickly. With one
move he jumped back to his feet and eyes the ninjas surrounding him. A deck of cards slipped into his hand
from his sleeve, no one noticing. ^It worked on Gladiator, should work on them too.^ he thought as he
began charging the cards. Then, something unexpected happened. Someone, or something grabbed him from
behind, but it wasn't human. He dropped his cards and fell to the ground. He received a hit on the back of
his head. His world went blurry. Hardly conscious he managed to see a shadow standing over him. "Madre
dios." he managed to mumble before a dozen Hand soldiers gang bashed him into unconsciousness.

***

Somewhere in Africa.

The figure moved slowly in the dark. Her steps were unheard, her presence barely noticeable. From far
away she was invisible in the night and the wind. She hid her face under a purple hood, that matched her
coat which covered most of her body. She walked slowly up a hill cursing inside at the sand which kept
sliding away from her feet. ^Should not be much further.^ she thought to herself. ^This wind is making me
totally disorientated, but I should be heading in the right direction. It wasn't a wise idea to go here at night
anyway. My powers won't be up to full potential. Then again, even if they aren't, these humans aren't much
of a threat to me.^

Her thoughts stopped as she reached the top of the hill. She looked down to see a oasis, with trees and a
lake. There was a village on the southern side of the lake. ^It was closer than I thought.^ She thought,
smiling under the hood. She began walking down the hill, thinking over her plan. ^I better power up now,
they might try to resist.^ she thought. She stopped on her way and clenched her small fists and teeth. Closing
her eyes she felt energy flowing through her body. She could almost feel it sparkle. When she opened her
eyes they were glowing with gold. Feeling much more confident and powerful now she continued he journey
down the hill.

It was not so late yet and she saw a fire burning in the middle of the village and people sitting around it. In
fact, men sitting around it. When she was close enough to the village to see where exactly they were sitting
she stopped. Concentrating her mind, she disappeared in a flash of white light, this time of a smaller
magnitude. She reappeared in the middle of the village, materializing in front of the men seated in front of the
fire.

"I am Lukin !" she shouted in a surprisingly deep voice for a woman. The men were at their feet within a
split second and grabbing for their weapons. Looking up, they saw a figure standing in front of them, her
image not quite real. One of them shouted few words in some language and men began running out of their
homes around the village, responding to the alarm. When Lukin finally materialized fully they were standing
around her, a dozen or more, prepared for a fight. She eyed each one of them, keeping her stance as if she
was about to attack. "From now on, I'm the boss here." she finally said.

"What is this ?" one of them asked in broken English.

"A woman attacking us ?" added another.

"Get her !" shouted another one. Lukin took a step back as the men charged forward. She dropped her
cloak to reveal a full purple body suit and her face. Her body alighted with gold energy for a split second and
a aura of gold beamed around her. By then, the warriors were on her. She hit the ground hard and many
punches flew. To their surprise none of them seemed to hurt her.

"Enough !" she shouted. She raised her hands and pushed them off. They flew back and landed as if they
were hit by something, some sort of energy. But they didn't have time to think about it. The tallest one of
them, presumably the chief got up and charged at Lukin. She stayed in her place, cold and ready. His hand
came across and aimed for her face. Lukin ducked, cursing the man for his speed. But she was still faster.
Her shiny hand came up and smacked the chief into the jaw. Everyone heard a loud cracking sound as his
jaw snapped. Taking few steps back in surprise he looked at his bleeding jaw and then Lukin. Silence filled
the whole village. Not even a fly could be heard.

Chiefs disbelief finally broke into rage as he threw himself at Lukin again. This time she wasn't as quick in
stopping the punch and the chief got her straight in the nose. She fell to the ground under impact, but there
was no bleeding. The chief looked in disbelief again. ^What is going on ??^ he thought. That hit was enough
to brake that nose, and there was no sign of blood. Using the moment of distraction Lukin kicked the chief in
the knee, tripping him up. He landed on the ground and before he managed to look up Lukin was standing
over him. Her foot came straight up and kicked him in the stomach making him roll to the ground. He tried
getting up but she kicked him again and placed her foot on his stomach.

She looked around and saw the whole village watching her, not a word spoken. "From now on, I'm the
leader here. If any of you try resistance, you will end up like him." she said pointing at the chief lying on the
ground. "Is that understood ?"

Few heads nodded, and then the rest began nodding, realizing they hadn't had a big chance against a woman
who had just beaten their best fighter.

"Good. Now someone help him before he dies of pain." Lukin said smiling devilishly.

The Second Half of Issue 18