Mission Accomplished: The Reunion

[Diesel]

Ian placed the blankets on the ground and activated the electric blanket to the highest setting. He was ecstatic and still in disbelief that he was out of there. It seemed like only a second ago, he had thrown Haven at Belasco in their own version of the FASTBALL SPECIAL. He handed a half naked Hardlight a blanket and then ran over to Haven to give her a big hug. Even if he only felt her frame around the forcefield, it was good that she was back and herself again.

Ian picked her up and swung her around happily. Kissing her cheek over her forcefield, he hugged her tight and breathed a sigh of relief that he never thought he would let out. "Aw babe you're back! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you when you needed me. I shoulda gotten you out of those chains somehow," Ian said resting his head on her shoulder. "Don't ever scare me like that again! Aw Haven babe you're back!" he said swinging her around before he put her down and beamed at her.

[Ember]

Aideen was dizzy. Plain and simple. Her head was pounding from the light. She heard noise before but didn't know what it was. The next thing she knew she was being carried somewhere. Aideen kept her eyes closed the entire time. It wasn't until she felt the drastic temperature change did her eyes pop open. "Oh!" she cried and started shivering hard. It's cold, so cold. Why is it so cold? Where am I? So, so cold!

Her shivering wasn't stopping and her body stiffened completely. Aideen managed to look around a bit and saw she was in some kind of a lab. It was cold and she was over someone's shoulders. It was so cold from the lovely heat of Limbo, making Aideen instinctively go closer to the warm body.

"It's... too cold..." she managed to say between her shivers. At least the joyous tone in the room made her hopes up a bit.

[Allure]

Veronika set the bags of water and food down and began taking them out on the chrome table nearby. "Oh I am so glad you are all here yes?" she said in practiced voice of relief. "If anyone would like some water, I do have," she said in a sweet voice. Veronika look around at all the injured ones in the room. Oh no that beautiful hunk of a Headmaster is injured! And.... oh my what happened to Onyx? He looks like a freak! Did the demon's procreate with him or something. Those wings are hideous! Veronika had to work hard to keep her face neutral and still look happy everyone is here.

She looked over at everyone and prodded Heather a bit. "Heather look, he is finally here! Move! Do something!" she whispered to urge her friend to go to her crush. "This is what you have been waiting for no?" she said before looking over at the young man called Ironclad. My he still looks amazing in his uniform. A sexy in a hard way, with no hideous wings as a side effect. Veronika took a bottle of water and walked over to hand it to him. "Here you go, you must be so thirsty," she said angelically. What happened to their giant pet lizard?

[Wolverine]

Gently taking her down in his arms Logan looked into the girls face. He reached over and placed a hand under her chin and lifted her eyes to his "Yer home kid...we're all home. Well, almost all of us anyway..." He said as he grabbed up a blanket and wrapped it around her. "Here this'll warm you up. I saw ya in there and you did good."

He reached over and rubbed her shoulders and arms quickly to generate some heat from the friction. Pulling her closer to him he rocked her slightly as he said in soft but gruff tones "Time now to just breathe. Put the past behind you and just breathe. You did real good and I'm proud of ya." He knew what Diesel had said to him and he could tell the girl wasn't the same as when they'd spent Christmas eve together, but he had a good feeling about her. She had an inner strength, it had been tested and she had passed the test. A lot of the kids seemed to have had their feet held to the flames and it was clear to him that they were all going to have some things to deal with. In his heart of hearts though he felt this one in his arms would be just fine.

[Ironclad]

Ironclad clapped a hand on Nightcrawler's shoulder and gave his teacher a bit of a smile. "Good timing there Blue man," he said and then looked over at Onyx, looking at his new... well mutation. "Liked the demons a bit too much there?" he asked with a raised eyebrow before a smirk came over his face. "You did good for your first time kid." It was rare for Mason to compliment anyone, but when he did it was true and rightfully earned. Onyx was able to keep up rather well and had a good enough control over himself despite Onyx's emotional behavior.

He glanced down at the little redhead girl with the bottle of water. Mason took it from her with a nod. "Thanks Girly," he said and leaned against the table, watching HeartString with neutral eyes. He'll admit he was scared out of his mind when she was there and he couldn't protect her. Mason was shooting at any demon that was unlucky enough to stumble within five feet of her when she was on the ground, but up there on the stage she was vulnerable. And even though he knew she was strong, he didn't like thinking about what could have happened to her.

Mason stayed quiet and watched her at work, fascinated by her every movement and trying to convince himself that she was okay now and will be. The fact was that he wouldn't stop thinking about it cause she was his girl. Just like that guy Diesel had his two girls that he looked out for, and Wolverine had the cute fire chick, Tracy was his girl. He didn't hide that he was staring at her and for once, didn't have the energy to cover up his emotions.

[Aqua]

Heather stood there, unable to move. Aideen was back, Ian and Lorelai were OK, Haven was there, Shadowkat, K'8, TrueSpirit, and all the rest. But Onyx looked so different. Was he attacked? He didn't look disgusting or ugly to Heather, just strange and scary. She could only imagine what LIMBO had done to him. She could see Veronika moving past her with the corner of her eye. Again Heather wanted to move but she couldn't. Only when Veronika actually spoke to her and moved her could she gain her self control.

She didn't know what to do, what to think. She was so shocked that they were able to return so quickly. In fact, she was so happy that it was too overwhelming to express. Instead, her body just contained it and made her do absolutely nothing. Hearing Veronika's words, Heather was able to compute but not obey. She knew that it would be wrong to talk to Ian and try anything. For some reason Veronika wasn't fond of Lorelai and Heather was able to catch that. But she didn't think much of it. Instead, Heather brought the packs of water she had in her hand and walked over to Lorelai. She quickly opened the bag and gave her a bottle. "Are you OK?" she asked her with sad, hurtful eyes. It pained Heather to see her friend this way, however her heart was ripping inside her and all she wanted to do was hug Ian tightly. She wanted to hug Lorelai as well, but she understood that the girl needed her space sometimes.

Placing her hand on the ice girl's back, Heather offered Lorelai the bottle and waited for her response. For closure, Heather wanted to cry, out of happiness of course. But that could wait till later.

[Frostbite]

Whatever had happened next was a blur for Lorelai, as the next thing she knew as her eyes were getting over the blast of light she and Ian were lifted and taken to a…portal. Obeying Iron Man, she stepped through, finally out of Limbo and into a blast of cold. It was a sharp change from the extreme heat she had grown accustomed to, but by the gods did it feel amazing! She moved to a nearby wall to lean against it, looking around for a second to see where she was. Her legs almost went out on her, but the wall supported her from just plopping down onto the floor.

Inhaling the cool air of the lab, she couldn’t believe she was finally out of hell. She absorbed the cold around her and began feeling better. Her head jerked to the side when she felt a hand on her back only to see it was Heather with a bottle of water. "Thank you," she said, her voice weak. Downing it, the burning cold ran down her throat and it never felt better. Her body grew colder and she felt more stable where she stood. A sigh of utter relief escaped her, and she was going to go give Ian a hug and a kiss, however stopped when she saw him spinning Haven around. Again she wondered when and how were they so friendly and seemingly close? Instead, she glanced around at the growing group of people who kept coming in from Limbo, a slight frown on her face. They were all in bad shape, and the cold in the room didn’t help them like it did her. At least now she wasn’t going to drop from exhaustion.

Lorelai stopped to look at Hardlight, and saw him looking a wreck. She was reminded of what he had said before, and still wondered why he considered her a best friend. She was the reason he almost died. She didn’t save him from anything. She didn’t deserve to be considered his best friend. Remembering that she told herself she’d keep away from him to further prevent anything else bad from happening to him, she was conflicted about whether or not to just give him a hug. He looked in a bad state, and she was hesitant. So for now, she settled with just slowly walking over to him. “Hey, you okay?” she asked. Obviously he wasn’t, but she didn’t know what else to say.

[Haven]

Grinning back at Diesel she hugged him back and felt for the first time that she might be able to let her guard down. She had looked into her own darkness into her heart and her past and found the light at the end of the tunnel was here with her friends. "Wow, I feel great!" she said and then in a moment of complete trust and heartfelt joy she managed to pull her forcefield in and wrap her arms around him as well.

"Look what I can do now!" she gleefully exclaimed "I'm not a demon anymore and I never want to go down that road again. Oh my god it was weird I-" a sudden realization washed over her "-oh no...Ms.Frost!" her face went shock stiff and she turned to look for her. "Oh Ian...I... I killed her. Well, I tried to... where is she? Is she okay?" Haven looked around to see the Headmistress with HeartString and some relief returned but she still wanted to see if she was going to be alright. " S'cuse me please big guy, I gotta check on her. I feel just awful."

[Decibel]

Helping Tracy with Emma as Dazzler had asked was more pleasure than Gina would have wanted to admit. She found that the Corsair who she had always thought was worthless was far from that. 'Wow I was wrong about her, she's exhausted looking but she just keeps on going, wow...all I can say is ...wow' Decibel thought watching the healer administer to Emma. She found herself truly impressed as while still holding a hand on their Headmistress, to keep the woman from getting any worse, Tracy reached out to begin to heal the unconscious Cyclops.

"I take back every nasty thing I ever said about you kid- uh, Trace. You are awesome. How can I help you?" Gina asked as she looked around to see who else needed healing and if there was any water nearby. "Hey can we get some water over here for HeartString?" she called out. "Who else is hurt?" she asked as she started to look over the returning mutants and Avengers.

[Dazzler]

Allison squeezed Emma's hand before she looked over at Gina and winked. The girl made her proud, and she could see that this trying mission had effected the kids differently. She knew what it was like, especially after a very hard and long mission. This was just the beginning for these kids, but Ali knew that in time, they will come to not regret them. Moments and times like this would change these kids and teach them more that many learn in a lifetime.

Allison reached over and took one of the first aid kits Diesel and Hank brought. She took out a cold compress that you had to break the little things inside to make cold. Allison cracked it and felt it become a welcome cold. She reached over and put it on Cyclops' forehead to cool him down. She smiled at Hank who was checking him over. "I told you we'd get them outta there," she said with a wink as she pressed the compress against Cyclops warm forehead. "Hang in there Scottie, you're in good hands," she said soothingly with a soft smile.

She looked over at HeartString and smiled a soft proud smile. It amazed her how much the girl had matured since the last time she saw her. Ali looked around the room and saw the happy reunions, Diesel being reunited with his friends, everybody getting ready to heal the raw wounds from Limbo. She saw Ironclad leaning casually against the wall, looking at Tracy intensely. Allison smiled knowingly and went back to moving the compress around Cyclops' forehead. "You're in very good hands."

[Hardlight]

Kevin took the blanket graciuosly from the muscled up Diesel and smiled weakly at him. "Thank you." he said nodding his head slowly and shivering slightly as he took a minute to feel the heat of the blanket and then it started to warm him up some. It was amazing to be out of that awful Limbo place and he was totally thirsty. He walked over gingerly to get himself a bottle of water from the red haired girl with the russian accent. "I'd like some water please." he said as he reached out a hand for some refreshming cold water.

Hearing the voice of Loralai he turned and smiled at her in a strange sorroful way. Fighting back some tears he said "I'll be o.k. I guess, how about you?" He looked around for MsMarvels to thank her for saving him again, he was very graetful to her for that, but he wasn't rude and ignoring Frostbite and he felt compelt to give her a hug. He was sort of heart broken and kind of numb too about the whole ordeal, but he felt proud of himself and closer to Ember and Frostbite than anyone and he just wanted to hug her for friendship sake and to say 'we made it'. "Hug?" he said asking and also offering in a soft way as he kept covered up in the blanket and moved closer to her.

[BEAST]

Hank was relieved when the others got back, though he did wonder why Thor had taken Elixir's body and American Dream to Asgard. He didn't have time to dwell on it, since there was so much going on in the lab. "Veronika, Heather. Bring some water over here. Hand them out to whoever needs it," Hank called as he got up from Cyclops' side, seeing that he was going to be alright thanks to HeartString. There was a reason why Beast was so fond of the strong young woman, and it showed as she used all her strength to heal Emma and Scott.

Hank smiled at Alison softly. "I never doubt you Daz, never have," he said looking at her for a moment, sharing a private look that no one but the two knew what it meant. Hank looked away and grabbed some of the First Aid kits, moving to the center of the room so he could address everyone. "Alright, anyone that needs minor patching up, see me now. If anything serious, HeartString will take care of you," he announced before he looked at Onyx and his new set of wings. "<<Good job Jasper, and I am proud of you for not losing control. This new mutation certainly is a bonus. Later I would like to examine them if you do not mind,>>" Hank said in German to the boy before he looked over at the others.

Ironclad was never injured so he didn't even bother looking at him. Instead he looked at Haven and positively beamed at her. "Haven, I am glad to see you fairing so well," he said and put an arm on her shoulder. "I don't suppose you need any fixing up, but do let me know if you do," he said leaving his hand there for a moment before he went to grab some water and hand it over to Decibel. "Who needs to be checked over?"

[Shadowkat]

A wave of relief washed over Kitty as they were all out of Limbo, out of that hot hell and into a cool lab. Her expression was both happy and grim, for she was happy they all made it out, but at a cost. A lot of them came out in not the best shape. She herself was pretty much fine, but had some bumps and bruises to deal with, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. She stood off to the side as she watched everyone get rushed to be taken care of, and others get back together with their friends. It was then she felt a pang; she missed Peter. She was sure he was back at the mansion making sure things were getting done.

She looked around for who she had been with in Limbo. Diesel was fine and off with friends, she was sure she saw TuneUp right next to k’8, and then looked around for Elixir. She was nowhere to be found; she wasn’t with friends, and she wasn’t with the wounded. She turned her head and slowly spun in place, looking for her. She started to worry again, the last she saw of her little charge she was not well off. Kitty didn’t know if she was dead or alive. And she wasn’t here. “Where is Elixir? Is she okay? Why isn’t she here?” she asked everyone, looking around with a growing worry. She prayed that she wasn’t dead. She wouldn’t be able to bear it if she had failed her student, her own team member and let her die. She looked at the adults, her eyes wide with concern.

[Ember]

When Aideen met Logan's kind blue eyes, she didn't deny that a part of her was in disbelief. How can he be proud of me when I'm the reason he was there in the first place? He shouldn't have been there at all. It's all my fault that he got hurt from Sabretooth, that he was there when the bombs went off. Aideen stared at him blankly with a look of terror and sadness.

When Logan hugged her close to him, that's when she started to come undone. The wall that she built crumbled enough that if anyone looked at her right then, they would see a scared and sad young woman. "No, no. How can you not be disgusted with me? It's my fault you were there. I shouldn't have been in the woods. If it weren't for me none of this would have happened to you. You took those hits so he wouldn't get me and then you were gone," Aideen said looking up at him, her dark eyes glittering in everything that she had walled up inside her, but all her walls had crumpled and out came a part of her that no one had ever seen before. Not her strict, tyrannical Uncle who frowned on any type of emotion, or the only close friend she had in high school. This was a first. "Sabretooth came back and you didn't. You should have came back," she said her soft voice getting quieter than it already was at the last couple of words.

At the moment several firsts happened for Aideen. For the first time since she was three years old, a tear slid down Aideen's cheek. For the first time in her life, she wrapped her arms around Logan's neck and hugged him. And most of all, for the first time her tears didn't stop. Hot tears flowed as she cried into Logan's neck, silent sobs wracking her body. Aideen cried out the guilt that had been eating her up inside, cried away the awful nightmare about Sabretooth, cried away the sadness that filled her when they couldn't find Logan. She cried out the loneliness she felt when he was gone, which tore her apart. Her tears were a release of all the pent up feelings she had kept inside for so long.

As Aideen cried, she felt her heart grow lighter. Her face was buried in Logan's neck, not wanting anyone to see her cry. She found solace in the man who unlike many, made her feel immediately at ease and didn't look at her like he had a certain expectation of her. It was then that Aideen knew that she would be okay. She may never wear her heart on her sleeve like others did, but going through life not caring about anyone didn't seem as rewarding anymore. Sure she might be hurt, but the thought of letting go the few she did care deeply about, like Logan, Haven, Cyclops and Emma hurt her even more.

As the tears left, so did the chains that closed her heart off. Aideen was a warrior at heart, but the battle she raged with herself was one that she will now gladly surrender. She was gonna be alright.

[Diesel]

Ian was ecstatic to be out of Limbo, to hug his friend that he thought he was lost to him forever, actually hug her! It was more than he could have asked for. Ian gave Haven a small smile. "Haven babe, you weren't yourself. She'll be okay," he said comfortingly. He squeezed her shoulder and moved over so she could go through. I'm still not done reuniting with my girl, he thought as he turned around to see her with Hardlight. Ian ruffled Hardlight's hair and beamed. "Thanks for looking after my girl little man," he said before turning to Lorelai with a grin. "You coulda died Pipsqueak." Ian said and cupped her cheek for a moment. He leaned down to kiss her soundly, her lips a relief. He had been so worried about her when he found out she was there with them. "You know Ice chick, you just survived hell. You are officially awesome, even if you are a midget," Ian said with a grin.

He walked over to the Native American guy that brought his friend back from her inner demons. "Hey bro, thanks a lot for helping Haven and all," Ian said sincerely as he beamed at his friend before glancing at Lorelai for a moment. "She's one of my best girls you know. And it was real cool of you to do that when you didn't even know her. And well, thanks a lot bro," Ian said as he put his hand out to the guy as a sign of thanks and friendship.