**This takes place nearly one month after Amanda Sefton #8 and a non-specified amount of time before the friggin' return to Earth story**

Amanda Sefton woke up sneezing the strong smell of freshly crushed foliage from her nose. To her surprise, she was lying barely a league away from Amalgam Nation.

"Damn it!" Her mind started to race. 'I must have gone out running in wolf-form.' she thought, scrambling to her feet. She looked down at her body and got a jolt. She was wearing her old leather body-suit. But that had been ruined ages ago during the fight with S'ongloth A'daman! She'd been magically whipping up replacements since then, but each one came out with a slight variation in the pattern and fit. This was the original.

The real shocker was that she was wearing anything at all. Her runs as a wolf usually found her naked and covered with bloody scratches the morning after. Amanda decided that she could puzzle that out later, once she was in safer territory.

Since her teleport spells tended to draw a lot of attention, she opted to just run. She didn't get anywhere. It was like being on a treadmill. Things seemed to pass by her, the scenery seemed to change, but when she stopped, she hadn't gone anywhere. She threw herself back down on the ground, trying to slow her breathing and work a cramp out of her side. Her panting wasn't just exertion. An element of fear had begun to creep into her mind. What was going on? Had Sc... Nemesis Enforcer and Hala found a way to recapture them all? With no where else to go, Amanda got to her feet and approached Amalgam Nation.

The entire place was deserted. There wasn't a Heelie, Amalgamite, nor any another living being in sight. She wondered up and down the streets of her former home, amazed by the fact that all of the damage had been repaired. There was not so much as a sliver of broken glass on the streets. A thought struck, bringing with it both rage and confusion. Had the Heelies abandoned the city? Had all of the blood-shed and pain been for nothing? WHY? Still, if the Heelies had abandoned... and repaired... Amalgam, there was little reason not to reclaim it. With both Emma and Husk pregnant, the nomadic life just wasn't safe enough. They needed a permanent base. Amanda started to cast a teleport spell to get back to camp... and stopped. The sight before her knocked all thoughts out of her head.

Kurt, her one and only Fuzzy Elf, was standing in the center of A-Nation, engaged in serious tonsil-hockey with some blonde. True, he didn't remember thier love, but Amanda couldn't admit to herself that his memory might never return. Also, he didn't seem to be enjoying himself much. He was keeping both hands and his tail to himself. His yellow eyes were open and there was no passion in them. The woman was the one with the Roman hands and Russian fingers, as well as the one who seemed to be trying to fit half of Kurt's face in her mouth. But Kurt wasn't resisting either.

"That furry son-of-a-throw-rug-fucking-shape-changer better have a good excuse for this! Amnesia won't work this time!" Amanda growled to herself, marching over to the pair.

'God, that hussy has her hands *EVERYWHERE!*' Amanda lay one hand on the stranger's shoulder and spun her around. "Hands off, sister! He's m..." In the next instant, Amanda had whipped her hand from the stranger's shoulder and taken a step back.

It was her! Not Daytripper, no another alter-dimensional clone, but HER! Amanda's exact double, down to the obsidian nails ending her fingertips and the small, circular bruise on her neck.

"Do you mind?" Amanda2 asked, her voice showing the same inflections and tone that Amanda herself used. "We're rather busy. Aren't we Fuzzy?" Behind her, Kurt nodded. Amanda had to fight to keep her stomach contents down. The dead emptiness in his eyes made her ill. He was under a thrall spell! She'd never cared for the look that it brought to the animals that it was intended for, but to see that total lack of emotion and free will on her lov... team-mates' face...

Amanda shook her head, clearing it with some difficulty. Maybe something had gone wrong. Maybe she really was in another dimension...

"Oh, he's yours all right." Amanda2 assured her. "But I'm in charge now. Believe me, it's better for him. Show her, lover."

Amanda took an uncertain step backwards as Kurt reached out towards her. He tried to touch her and she jerked away. In the next instant, a bloody scratch appeared on the flesh of his face. Fuzzy put up a hand to his face and touched the injury, as if uncertain what it was. Not sure how he'd been hurt, Amanda went up to him and tried to move his hand aside to get a better look at the injury herself.

"Kurt, do...?"

Her words were cut off as Kurt lashed out and smashed her in the face with one fist. Amanda hit the pavement, abrading the side of her face, and looked up at the figure looming over her. She hardly felt the blood oozing from her nose and cheek. Her heart was in much poorer condition at the moment. She'd thought nothing could compare to the pain she'd felt when Kurt had insisted on their sleeping in separate rooms. How foolish.

Amanda2 came up behind Fuzzy, slipped her arms around his waist, and blinked on a healing spell. "See?" she smiled. "Every time you shy away from him and back into your memories, he hurts. You won't let go of your predictably pathetic idea that somehow he'll remember you and your little lust-fests. With you, he can't heal, and he won't strike back either. Trust me, I'm better for him."

"Why?" spat Amanda, struggling to keep her tears at bay with her anger. "Because he doesn't have a choice in it?"

"There is that." shrugged her counterpart. "But what do you care?" She sidled up to Kurt's front and pulled him into another passionate kiss. With a snarl, Amanda shoved herself up from the ground and towards her double. She'd kill this bitch herself!

It didn't register that she hadn't shifted to lupine form until the bolt of mystic energy jumped out at her. Amanda had maybe half a second to form a force-shield to protect herself. Time to spare. The mental command braced her body... just in time for it to be slammed back to the ground with second and third degree burns over her exposed flesh.

"Here's another reason. Without our powers, you're not worth much to anyone." Amanda2 lowered her hands. "So just find a nice corner to curl up in, Sefton, and let us do our job."

Amanda struggled to prop her forepart up with her arms as she ran her tongue painfully over her lips. The blistered, cracked skin stretched over her lips reminded her of thin leather. The saliva that it absorbed made them just pliable enough for her to speak without having the ruined skin rip.

"'Our powers... 'our job'... Who are you talking about?" The miserable croak of her voice hid the real pain of being helpless. Amanda2 leaned forward towards the original. The injured woman shrunk back involuntarily, but all that her double did was plant a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"I mean us. You, me, and Rahne."

Amanda wanted to shut down her mind for a while. She wanted to run away from this pain, this weirdness... but Kurt was still there. If she left, it would only be if he was with her. Thrall spells could be broken by non-arcane means... in time. It was difficult, but not impossible.

"Rahne?" she muttered, still stalling for time to form a plan. The name was vaguely familiar, but...

<Och, now Ah'm hurt.> The mental female voice had a soft Scottish accent. <How easily we forget.>

"Damn telepaths." Pain and heartache were pushed aside as Amanda surged to her feet. Her double gave her a slight smile and took a few steps back, taking Fuzzy with her.

<Ah'm nae a telepath.> came the voice. <Ye've got tae look inside

yerself.> The voice tittered, as if over some private joke.

Amanda shifted her weight from her right foot to her left, uncertain of what to do. Fighting was suicide, running meant leaving Kurt. Besides, she wasn't sure she could run. A sudden cramp ended the indecision, causing Amanda to double over, arms folded over her gut.

'What now?' The pain got worse, as if something was chewing it's way out of her. Under the skin of her stomach, a hard mass bulged out and shifted position. Inside, something burst, filling her lungs with blood. Amanda wanted to scream, but all that came from her mouth was a bloody froth and a gurgling mewl of pain.

'I'm in a bad remake of 'Alien!' If her whole world hadn't just become pain, Amanda might have laughed. As it was, she could only convulse against the concrete of Amalgam's streets and wish that she could pass out or die. Another choked gurgle of a scream crawled past her lips. Then a vision-whitening slash of pain... wet ripping sound... the snap and twist of splintering ribs...

'CREATOR, LET ME DIE NOW!'

...an outward explosion of flesh and organs and there was another body lying beside Amanda's on the concrete.

A red-haired girl, as fresh and as clean as could be, untangled herself from Amanda's insides and stepped away. Despite the amount of blood pouring from the ruin of Amanda's body, not a drop seemed to touch this new-comer. The red-head took a few hesitant steps away from the red and gray mess of Amanda's entrails.

"AH'M Rahne." she explained, smiling down into Amanda's pain-crazed eyes. "And Ah really am sorry about tha' messy exit, but Ah'm an unwilling part of ye*... or was, Ah should say. Either way, this was the only route Ah could open. *(see the Amalgam Nation TPB)

"My, what ye must think of me." Rahne chirped, looking down as her own bare body. Instantly, the young woman changed to a half-wolf, half-human form. "Now dinnae look so startled. 'Tis mah power anyway."

Amanda was pretty much beyond fear at that point. Her guts were spread out on a side-walk of Amalgam Nation. She should have been dead. She probably was already. And this was hell then, a place she'd never believed in as Kurt had. Well, she knew better now, didn't she? After all, what more could be done to her? She was lying on the ground in a ruined body, but still feeling pain in the end of every nerve. And while she waited for worse to happen, a soul-less shell of the man she loved stood over her, being kissed and fondled by Amanda's own dark-mirror image.

Amanda2 gave Fuzzy's face a final lick and grinned at him. "I'll get back to you later. OK, Mandy, up on your feet. Your legs'll work." After all of this, thinking of a reason not to move was more than Amanda could handle. Numbly, she bundled up her entrails and managed to get them pretty well settled back into place. As she folded her arms across her torso to keep them from spilling out again, her mind registered the faint ridiculousness of it. This wasn't possible...

Rahne gently nudged Amanda from behind. "Go on now, or I'll carry ye." Amanda took a trembling step forward. The pain from her injuries had actually become tolerable. Or maybe it was just tolerable in comparison to what she had been feeling. Maybe it had to do with being dead.

They kept walking until they'd reached the caverns that had once served as Excalibur's main head-quarters in Amalgam. Rahne kept giggling as they walked.

"What is it?" Amanda2 finally asked, turning towards the two behind her.

"Noth... oh, aye, 'tis something. 'Tis Miss Sefton. She's certainly one of the walking wounded, is she nae?" Amanda's lip curled in a snarl, but she could do nothing. Releasing her hold on her stomach would have been very messy and painful right about then.

Amanda2 gestured towards the mouth of the caverns. Amanda noticed that the corridor had been walled off roughly ten feet back and knew what these two were planning to do. Even now, she would have turned to run, had Rahne not grabbed her arm.

Amanda struggled, but Rahne was much stronger than she looked and was holding on tightly. "Kurt, PLEASE!" Amanda implored her lover one last time as she was shoved into the makeshift cell. No reaction from the blue furry guy. Amanda wanted to grab him by his shoulders and shake him, to get some recognition from him, even if it only meant getting hit again.

She whirled back towards the entrance, only to find it being walled off at an incredible rate.

"NO!" she screamed, throwing herself against the boulders blocking out the daylight, not caring what happened. Nothing. Her hand simply met cold, unyielding stone. "No..."

Amanda2's voice drifted to her as the last flickers of the sun's rays vanished. "Just curl up and rest. We'll take care of everything."

And then Amanda was alone in the dark, trapped in a body that would not die, only rot away. Despite the congealing blood in her lungs, she screamed. There was a flash of red light and an incredible heat...

...and Amanda woke up, still screaming. Fuzzy and Lucas were on either side of her, holding her against the ground. Her son's face had four bleeding lines scoured across it from her nails, and both men looked as scared as she felt.

Amanda stopped straining against the both of them and fell back against the ground. Lucas backed off just enough to let her up, but kept a wary eye on her. Emma Frost and Stefanie, who held Kitrina protectively, were standing against the wall of the tent with Storm.

"S'Okay... I'm awake." Her throat hurt, but OH, it felt good to draw a breath that was not filtered through her own blood. Amanda looked around. She was in her tent, in her sleeping roll. She hadn't gone anywhere. Not dead, not damned, not hurt. Just scared out of her mind. "Kurt?" The word was more a whimper than anything else.

"I'm here." Fuzzy put one hand on her shoulder and patted it awkwardly. "It was just a bad dream is all." To his mild surprise, Amanda all but threw herself away from him.

Lucas caught his mother just in time to keep her from hitting the wall. For a second, she stared at him with wild eyes, then clung to him with all of the strength in her body. He could feel her trembling against him. Stroking her hair, and murmuring as if to a frightened child, he embraced her and motioned the others out of the room. Casting a final look at the shivering woman in the older man's arms, Stefanie followed the others with Kitrina.

"That was close." the White Queen informed Stef as they began to walk back to their respective tents.

Stef nodded. "Closer than you think. Em, I... I saw that taint of hers trying to take over her aura. It was horrible. It was like my mo... like Amanda's own soul was being distorted to fit another body without leaving her own. We almost lost her! Gott, if you hadn't..."

Queen shuddered. "I'm just glad we were there to run interference against that thing. When Nyn couldn't do a thing to bring her out of her convulsions...

"Yeah and then I saw what was happening."

"Don't look so glum, Stef. You tried prying it off..."

"And failed. Miserably. Then you tossed in that idea about

throwing a psi-bolt into the gears..." Stef gave Kit a little squeeze. "You gave her a chance to fight back."

A shadow of a smile leeched across Emma's face. "Nothing big." She sighed. "Mandy was right, you know. About that thing being contagious. I'm lucky I got out without tracking some of it with me."

The two came to a stop outside of Queen's tent. "There's one other thing." the blonde telepath brought up. "It might be important later. There was someone else in there too. Not the taint. It's so much like a dark Mandy that I couldn't tell the two of them apart at times. This one was an separate, distinct personality. I didn't get a good look at it, though. It might be nothing..."

"But it might not. Any ideas?"

"None. And to be honest, I don't think it's worth the risk to go back in and root out."

Stef frowned and squeezed her eyes shut to hide sudden tears. "So now I'm going to have to stand by and watch her die... worse than die..."

"I didn't say that!" Queen snapped. "She's held it off for nearly a year, she might be able to beat it!" Stefanie nodded glumly, but didn't say anything. She didn't believe it, and neither did Queen. All that they could do... all that any of the team could do... was wait for the dam to give way and stand by to repair the damage afterwards. Assuming there was anything left to repair...

End (yeah, right)