October 1998

VC presents X-Men in:

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.

***

Betsy moaned as she slowly returned to reality. At first all she could remember was darkness. Everything around her seemed to be black, neither up or down, just black. Her body felt as if it had no mass at all, as if she was just a weightless molecule floating around in nothingness. Then her senses returned to her. She felt cold and damp, but she still had no idea why.

Gradually, her vision started coming back. It was no longer swirling and fuzzy, but there was another element that was wrong with her. Something she couldn't quite figure out. And then finally, before realizing what was going on, the sense of pain came back to her, and she clenched her teeth as a piercing arrow of hurt stuck her. Her head felt as if it was about to explode and she could feel blood rushing around her head like crazy. She hated pain. Pain was something she eventually grew used to but still hated. Every day she would wake up and  her very first thought would be the feeling of pain as she grew accustomed to her new body. Even though the swap was years ago, she still felt pain from it. Of course nowadays it was more of a mental pain, as she grew used to the physical pain and now had to deal with the thought of not only living in someone else's body but with owning her life to living shadows. It was much over her abilities and even though she didn't show it, she rarely found motivation to go on, especially since she broke up with Warren. Maybe she deserved death.

^I don't know which one I hate more.^ she would think. ^Waking up with a body not of my own, or waking up with my mind shattered.^

And now, as she was waking up from unconsciousness all these thoughts rushed through her head. She couldn't stop them, she couldn't do anything to stop them. Finally they stopped, all with a sudden bang, and with that bang came to cold reality of where she was and what had happened. ^Oh God no.^ she thought as she finally realized she was floating in water.

By now she had noticed she was in a water tank. She slammed her hands on the walls but with no use. It wasn't going to break. She looked around. It was certainly some sort of a lab, with computers, screens and chairs all around her. There was no sign of people.

"Well well, look who's waken up." said a voice behind her. She turned around in a instant but she didn't need to. She would remember that voice anywhere.

"MATUSO !" she thought. She was about to scream the same thing when she realized her mouth was covered with a mask that supplied her air. So much for screaming.
 
 He smiled at her, watching her  trying to break out of the tank. He knew she had no power to do that, but still it was intriguing to see her so determined to try. Finally she gave up, and realized that too. Matuso saw her trying to say something and even though her face was covered he knew exactly what she was trying to say.

"What's going on ?" he asked rhetorically. "Let me explain Ms. Braddock. You came here. You wanted to attack me. You failed. Can it get more easy than that ? And as for why you're doing in this tank... No first I should have some manners and introduce our special guests tonight." he said with a wicked grin.

^Special guests ?^ Betsy thought. Then out of the shadow stepped out.... Tar ! Betsy almost choked on her own breath as she saw the ruler of the Crimson Dawn standing behind Matuso. In fact she had never seen him in the past, but he had been described to her many times and from the moment she saw him, she knew it was him. Tall, much taller than Matuso, with grey skin and a red cape. The rest of his costume was totally white, which somehow didn't suit him. He walked up to Matuso and stood behind him. "Welcome Elizabeth." he said with a evil smile on his lips.

Betsy was totally shocked. She knew Matuso had something to do with the Undercloaks but she never figured they were allies. Then again, once she thought about it, it made perfect sense. How could she not see something as easy as that. If she could she would have slapped herself in the head now, for being so blind. Then again with all her poor head went through in the last 2 days it was a miracle that she actually managed to get down here to Hong Kong at all.

"You may be wondering what is going on Elizabeth." Tar said. "Why you're feeling so weak, why you can't even see properly." Betsy's eyes went wide at the realization that she no longer felt dizziness, the way she felt it before. Had Tar stopped it ?

"Well you see, as to everything there is a price to Crimson Dawn. I don't just go giving away lives like that, I have to get something out of it. If you had come in any contact with Crimson Dawn, if you had used it, to save your life, or anything of that sort, you will pay the price. The price of your life. Sooner or later everyone has to give their life to me. In your case it was sooner."

Betsy looked at him, not sure what to do or say. She felt so helpless, stuck in this water tank without hope. In her answer she slammed her fists against it, only making a hollow sound. She was not getting out easily.

"Now don't you give me that look," said Tar teasing. "Everyone has to pay the price for it, unless of course I agree not to but I do that rarely to be honest. So anyway, you're dying Elizabeth, as I'm sure you've all ready figured out."

He said it with such mockery, such sarcasm, such ignorance, as if he was laughing at her, for falling into his trap. If she wasn't drifting in water tears would be running down her face, but instead they just disappeared into the fluid around her.

"But then this gentleman approached me." Tar said pointing at Matuso. "Made me a offer, and offer I couldn't refuse. So I agreed, and I won't take you into my kingdom." Betsy looked at them again, what were they up to ?

"Yes Braddock, we wouldn't just let you die like that." Matuso joined in. "You are dying, and are going to die, but first... first we are going to make some use of you. A fair trade, no ?"

^Use ?^ she thought. She did not like the word use. She slammed her fists against the cold hard surface of the glass surrounding her but it did no good, it must have been a inch thick. "Let me out !" she tried screaming just to choke on her own air supply again. Going wild with furry she stared slamming the glass around her, trying to get out desperately, like a wounded animal fighting to get out of a trap. With no use. Matuso had obviously predicted she would try something like this.

Breathless and hopeless she gave up, floating around in the water, awaiting her fate. If she was going to die, she was going to die standing up straight.

"Now that you understand that there's no way out, I want to point out to you that I am doing this for a reason." Matuso said.

^What is he on about ?^ Betsy thought.

"But unfortunately, you'll never know it. Good bye Elizabeth Braddock." With those words he pulled down one of the numerous levers . Betsy's body went limp as she drifted into unconsciousness.

"Are we ready ?" Matuso said to his lab technicians, sitting around the computers.

"Yes sir."

"Then do it." Matuso pulled down the lever sending something into Betsy. Even though she was unconscious she started swirling around in pain.

***

The feeling of waking up in pain was not new to Remy LeBeau. It was not the first time he had waken up like this with pain striking at the back of his head and then quickly taking over his whole skull. It took him a while to figure out just what had happened. Memories came back, hitting him like a fist on the jaw. He remembered Betsy falling, he remembered almost getting to her and then being attacked by a shadow. ^A shadow ? Madre dios what had I gotten myself into this time ?^

Then suddenly reality hit him again. He was cuffed. Chained to the wall. His powers were gone. But most of all.... Betsy wasn't anywhere in sight. ^What happened to her ? If she died..... No she didn't die.^ he told himself. He looked around. He was in a cell, surprisingly made of glass. He could see around, and noticed that he was in some kind of a laboratory.  There were people sitting in front of them, all in one line, each one of them studying the computers. There were two men who he couldn't recognize from behind standing in front of a big tank filled with water. ^Tanks.... not a pretty sight. I've hated tanks since....^ his thoughts stopped as he saw Betsy inside.

"Madre dios...." he murmured to himself, shocked. ^What is she doing there ?^ he thought. He watched as her body went limp, and floated in the water, only help up by her air supply. She looked bad, very bad. She didn't have any obvious injuries, but her face was twisted with the grimace of pain as they began charging her with something.

They turned around, and Gambit recognized them in the first instant. One of them, Matuso he knew straight away, he had seen him more than once before. The second one took a bit longer to figure out, but finally he remembered the so accurate descriptions of Tar Warren had made. ^If these two are in this together then we just got ourselves into a damn big mess.^ Remy thought.

They didn't seem to notice he was awake, as he watched on to what they did to Betsy. At first it seemed as if they were charging her body with something. He could almost feel her pain as she twitched and swirled. ^It's good she actually is unconscious, otherwise it would hurt....^ he smiled sadly at that. Oh how much he knew about that kind of pain.

"AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH."

Her scream brought her back to reality. ^What the hell ?^ he thought. ^She's not supposed to be screaming, she's unconscious. What are they doing to her ?^ he looked at Betsy again. She was still unconscious but her inhuman screams could be heard even through her face mask.

She was in the tank, struggling, beating her hands on the glass around her. Something must have went wrong because she was not unconscious anymore. Not that she was conscious either. Remy couldn't look at what they were doing to her. He tried pulling on his chains, but they were too strong. Once again he was left to his other skills. He began looking around the room for anything he could use as a lock pick. He tried hard, not to think about what they were doing to Betsy. Just block it out he told himself. But he couldn't, could he. He didn't know if it was done on purpose or if it was just a mistake, but his cell wasn't soundproof, he could hear every scream Betsy made, and they just kept coming and coming. It was like they were raping her.

^What are they doing anyway. It's almost as if they're draining something form her.^ he thought. Still no sign of anything that could pick locks. ^All those flashes of black light... I mean I've heard of flashes of white light, but black light ? And then there's all the black substance exiting her body. It's just going out of there, into the tubes. But what is it ? How can someone have black void in them ?^ Another scream reminded him what he as supposed to do, and he kept on searching the floor, as far as the chains let him. ^What the hell have I gotten myself into this time...^ he thought. ^I should have turned back.^ He stopped at that thought. ^No we should have turned back, I mean we..... Sure Remy you're just a coward like you always were.^ he sighed as he remembered just what kind of a coward he was... he would never forget that, would he ? It would just keep coming back, haunting him, reminding him what kind of a terrible person he was. What coward he was... ^It's no use playing hero now, it's not going to bring back the dead is it ? Damn you Remy LeBeau if only you hadn't..^ Yet another scream by Betsy brought him back to reality. ^Poor girl, I wish I could do something to help her...^

"I don't believe they haven't left a damn thing on this floor... There's gotta be something around !" he suddenly bursted out screaming. He stopped, surprised at himself at this outbreak of rage. ^If only I could help you Betsy...^ he continued thinking silently while pushing on with his search. ^I could have saved her... I could have just grabbed her and took her back to the Blackbird. She wouldn't resist or anything, she could barely walk. But instead I walked straight into a trap. Do I even have I brian ?^ he began torturing himself. ^I could see she was barely able to stand on her feet, yet I let her come here. If she dies... or if anything happens to her... Man I think I'll just kill myself now.^

He sat up against the wall helpless. There was nothing here, he could use as a lock pick. They knew he was going to be here, and they cleaned it out perfectly. He had searched every inch of the room twice, and still nothing. It was useless. ^Am I ready for that kind of responsibility, again ?^ he thought, leaning back against the wall. ^I should have thought about that before I allowed Betsy to come here.... Sometimes I just hate myself.^

***

Pain: the sensation of acute physical hurt or discomfort caused by injury or illness, or emotional suffering, mental illness.

Gradually, reality began returning. She was no longer in water, she could feel space around her, and that meant she was outside the water tank. After the senses came back, the feeling started too. She was still in the state of shock, and the  amount of pain she felt was only a fraction of what really went on inside. She felt being dragged down the stairs somewhere. Her captors weren't quite careful and she felt her legs dragging behind her. She got bumped on few corners and then they stopped. As much as she was actually beginning to register what was going on with her, she still didn't quite understand it. And when she tried opening her eyes, to see where she was, they wouldn't respond. After trying few times she gave up, with great exhaustment.

She felt her face being touched by someone. "Well you're still alive, aren't you ?" a voice said. To Betsy, it all sounded like one blur, she couldn't work out one word the person said. She felt being carried away again. By now, her vision seemed to start to return. Blurry as it was, at least she could working out shapes around her. Her feeling seemed to start improving again as she began feeling a strange sour taste in her mouth. What it was she couldn't quite put the finger on it, but it was very annoying. Had she been more conscious and not in shock she would have recognized the taste as blood, and would have understood the seriousness of the situation but now she didn't even think something could be wrong. Her mind, too battered to acknowledge the damage had reversed on itself and ensured Betsy everything was okay.

The next thing she felt was being thrown on to the floor somewhere and landing on hard surface.

***

"What have you done to her ?" Remy demanded in a angry voice as he pulled the beaten Betsy into his arms. She was barely breathing.

A very glad Matuso was standing in the doorway looking at them both. "You wouldn't understand Gambit."

"WHAT DID YOU DO ?" Remy screamed in anger pulling on his chains with all his strength, achieving nothing. All his effort only made Matuso smile.

"If you insist then." he said with a grin on his face. "But I'm only telling you this because you're both going to die soon anyway. I drained all of the Crimson Dawn from her body. Every little pint there ever was. It's gone. So basically, she's about to die..."

Betsy still couldn't get back to reality fully. She heard people talking but it was still hard to work out the words. She knew she was being held by someone and that few feet away there was someone standing. But that was all she could see and hear. Then suddenly, when the man at the door said die she snapped. With a bang, her shock ended and suddenly she was back in reality, not only understanding and hearing again, but most of all hurting. She clenched her teeth and tried not to scream as she felt her insides popping. It was terrible.

"Yes, she's going to die, and this time there's no Crimson Dawn to save her. I will attend to you latter." Matuso said looking at Gambit. With these words he turned on his heel and walked out, slamming the door shut behind him.

"H...i.." Betsy murmured.

"Hi. Betsy what have they done to you ? Oh my god, I shouldn't have brought you here." Remy panicked as he looked into Betsy's hollow eyes. Could Matuso be right ? He couldn't help noticing that the red mark was gone from her face.

"I...'m dying... ain't I ?" she said. A contraction swept through her entire body making her gasp for air.

"No... no you're not..."

"Remy... I... I ca..can feel it... Serves me right."

"No... no don't be like that... don't die Betsy... please.... just don't die..." tears rolled down his face as he pulled Betsy's head to his chest. "I... I can't take another death... I can't....." he had totally broken, he wasn't hiding anything anymore.

"It's too late Remy..... I'...m dying.... I'..m.... sorry for doing.... this to you... I... shouldn't have.."

"There's gotta be something I can do to save you..." he spoke really fast, his nerves breaking through. "Some magic or something, I bet you know...."

"I...I... can't thin...k of anything...."

"C'mon Betsy, don't give up !" he screamed.

"I know.... there... there is... Logan told me once about it... never tried..."

"What is it ?" he asked excited.

"We would have to link our minds.... link them together..." she took a deep breath, he could see she was having problems talking all ready. "Use your.... your mind to power mine... to help my... brain recover.... to help my body recover...." she began coughing up blood.

"Then let's do it !"

"There... there is a downside to it...." she kept talking. "Once we link our minds.... I will have your memories.... in ... in my... mind forever.. every... single mem.... memory... I can... can handle that.... but...." her voice trailed off, she couldn't speak much more.

^She will know my secret.... my past, everything. Can I let her do that... How will she react when she sees what I've done ?^ these thoughts flashed through his head in one instant.... And then he was sure. Maybe she would forgive him.... and if not he at least wouldn't be a coward anymore...

"Do it."

"Th...." she couldn't say it.

Remy lifted her hand, and a small pink psychic knife erected from it. Hesitating for a split second, he placed the hand on his head, digging the knife deep into his brain. There was a sudden shock and everything felt weird for few seconds but after that world returned to normal. He leaned back against the wall, feeling the link with Betsy every second. She fell into unconsciousness, but her breath was already beginning to stabilize.

Tears in his eyes he tilted his head back, while holding Betsy in his arms. This was it. He'd done it.

...

NEXT ISSUE:
"Twisted end"
IMMORTALITY PART 2

How will this end ? What was the purpose of this story ? Why did Matuso drain Crimson Dawn from Betsy ? All the answers are here, plus a cameo you'll never believe.