By Raven Adams

At first, Bobby couldn't tell what was wrong. But when Lizzie collapsed in a heap on the floor of the storage room, he knew. He jumped over the puddle of fast spreading green liquid that had come from the strange gun, and scooped her up in his arms

Using his mutant powers, he made an ice slide and sled the two of them out of the building as fast as he could. He came to a stop when he reached the car they had stolen, and lay her in the back seat. He didn't notice that one of her hands had fallen on her chest, or that the hand was emitting a white glow.

He felt her wrist, then her neck, and then her wrist again.

No pulse.

She wasn't breathing, and she had no pulse.

Remembering what Hank had taught him years ago, he tilted her head back, made sure nothing was in her throat, pinched her nose and started to breath into her mouth.

Lizzie gave a muffled cry of alarm and pushed him away, casing him to fall out of the car and onto the street. She gasped for air and rolled out of the car to spill what little she had eaten today.

Bobby was so happy, he was laughing as he held her hair back for her. When she stopped retching, she sat up, tears streaming down her checks. Bobby grabbed hold of her and pulled her to him.

"It's okay, kid. You're okay." He said softly, trying to comfort himself as much as her.

A moment later, she pushed away from him. "Yeah, yeah, I'm okay. Thank you, Bobby."

"I didn't do nothing."

"You didn't put my hand...? Never mind ... head hurts. That bag ... where is it?" She asked looking around.

"Inside, I'll go get it. You'll be okay out here?"

She nodded. "And my laser sword and one of those guns from the carat too."

He stopped. "That stuff in there made you stop breathing, and now you want one?"

"Just get it, Drake." She said softly, getting back into the car and putting her head in her hands. She looked so helpless sitting there. He hurried to do what she'd asked.

When he got back into the warehouse, it was to find that the green stuff that had been all over the floor, was now gone. Completely. There was no trace of it at all.

He grabbed the bag and pulled out the skirt he had found earlier and picked one of the guns up with it, rapped it up, then placed it into the bag. Then he picked up the laser sword. And here I thought she was trying to be Luke Skywalker or something. He thought with a half smile.

When he got back outside, Lizzie was kneeling on the ground throwing up again. He put the bag into the car, and held her hair back for her. After all she had said to him tonight, all the ordering and the Mission: Impossible attitude, she was still a teenaged girl, not too much unlike Jubilee, and he liked her.

He got down on his knees beside her. "Are you okay?" He asked softly when she was finished. She looked up at him and nodded. She had been crying again. After a few long deep breaths, she reached up and pulled the black bag down on the ground beside her. "Hey watch it! I put on of those things in there!"

"It's okay. If I ever compliment Striker on something, it's that he knows how to make strong casing on one of his anti-mutant guns, so the Green Death doesn't leak out." She said rummaging around in the bag.

"Anti-mutant guns? Green Death? What have you gotten me into?"

"I haven't gotten you into anything. I didn't know this was here, but one thing's for sure, it's not going to be for much longer." She was still searching in the bag. Finally she got agitated with it and dumped it's contains on the ground. "He didn't bring it! I can't believe he didn't bring it!"

"Bring what? Lizzie, calm down!" He grabbed her shoulders, she was crying again.

"I don't ... want to die, Drake!" She said between sobs. "You're not going to!" He pushed all the stuff back into the bag and tossed it into the car. "Come on, let's get back to the mansion, Dr. Reyes can help you." He helped her to her feet, but she shook her head.

"She can't help me. She'll just make it worse. Besides, there's something in there I have worked hard on to stop. I lost someone very dear to me because of what's in those crates." She fingered the scar on her neck, "I destroyed the factory that they were made in, but some of it must have survived intact." Her eyes shifted around for a moment, as if seeing something from the past. Then she pulled something from out of her belt and started toward the fence.

"Whoa! Wait a minute!" Bobby got in front of her and held out his hands as if to push her back. "You're not going back in there!"

"Oh yes I am, Drake. I suggest you go and get those guards we saw and tell them there's a fire in the building."

"But there's not a-"

"There well be. Now get out of my way!" When he didn't step out of her way she held up the thing that had pulled from her belt. It was a little black box with a yellow button on it, and a digital clock that was now counting down for 5 minute. "See this? My partner made these things. He calls them portable San Andraus Vaults

He stepped aside and watched her climb up over the fence. He thought about going to get her, and just tossing the earthquake thing at the building, but just then the guards they'd seen only a few minutes earlier, come around the corner of the building. He changed to ice form and when after them.

Lizzie was scared.

She wouldn't... couldn't, let Bobby know she was scared, but she was. And who wouldn't be. The man who had created the Green Death was far worse the Stryfe who had created the Legacy Virus. And far more cruel then Sinister ever thought to be.

A picture of two friends popped into her mind. Shade. A quiet girl, not because she wanted to be, but because Striker had cut her tongue out for calling him father. And Kera. Shy and secretive. She had been Striker's Pet, his concubine since she was nine. Lizzie and Kert had sent them free on a mission that seemed to have happened a hundred years ago.

And then, almost against her will, she saw Brian, giving her one of those goofy little boy grins that had made her fall in love with him. She could see him pushing his hair out of his green eyes and saw the eyes sparkle with interest ... and love. She remembered the day he had dropped to his knees and proposed to her as if it had happened yesterday, and not almost a year ago.

She stopped in front of the storage room door, and shook the picture from her mind. One tear escaped from her closed eyes. One tear was all she would ever let come when she thought about Brian, only when Striker was dead would she cry over the loss of the one she had held so dear.

She walked into the storage room, the devise in her hand told her she had less then a minute to place it and get out of the building before it collapsed. She tossed it into the open crate with the green dragon stamp.

She had thirty seconds to get out of the building.

Of all the things Sinister had "gifted" (for that was what she and Deven had come to think of it) her with, there were very few that she liked to use, and one of those she knew would carry her out in no time flat.

Twenty seconds.

She took a deep and held it, knowing what would come next would be as painful as exhilarating.

She heard her skin rip, and then her uniform, as a pair of black wings, the same color of her hair, even down to the blue stripe that ran across each feather, popped out of her back and rapped around her like a blanket.

Ten seconds.

She sighed, the pain already forgotten, and was comforted by the feel of the feathers brushing against her face.

Five seconds.
She spread the wings,
three...
and shook them once, feathers flew everywhere (she was molting),
two...
she lifted off the floor,
one.

San Andraus Vault: if I didn't spell this right, I'm sorry. My spell checker wouldn't pick it up.

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