I’M STILL DYING!

(Disclaimer: Once again, Marvel Comics/KidsWB owns most of these people, with the exception of Michaela. This is the sequel to “I’m Dying!”)

PROLOGUE

She was almost ready.
Michaela had been in this hellhole for two months now, and that was more than long enough. She wanted out. She wanted revenge on those who had put her here, specifically the mutant who called himself Magneto, and his children.
Her plan was coming together. One more night . . .

...and the last piece of the puzzle would be in place.

CHAPTER ONE

"Mystique?"
She groaned and rolled over, pretending not to hear.
"Can I come in?"
No, you can't come in, you idiot! It's your fault I'm sick in the first place!
"I brought you some food!"
Oh, joy.
"Fine," Mystique rasped. "Come in."

Todd Tolensky,a.k.a. Toad, tiptoed into Mystique's room....

It had been a week this time. Last time, she had been sick for over a month. She blamed it on stress--the stress of having another person in the house, the stress of being a mutant, all kinds of stress.
She really needed to see a doctor.

"You want some soup?” Toad asked her.

"What kind?"
"Chicken noodle."
She sat up and peered into the bowl. It actually looked good.
"Did you make this yourself?"
"Yeah."
"For once you've done something right." She motioned for him to go, and he got the hint. He closed the door behind him.

Downstairs, Pietro, Lance, and Fred were arguing over the remote.
"Would you keep it down?" Todd demanded. "Boss Lady's sick again."
Pietro raised an eyebrow. " Again? That's the third time this month!"

"Man, I liked it better when we only had the X-Men to worry about.” Fred groaned.

"You think she's gonna die?"

"If we bug her one more time,” Lance said," we're gonna die."

This wasn't right, Todd knew. Ever since that time they'd busted him and Wanda (mmm, Wanda) out of that crazy lady's holding cell, Mystique had been almost constantly sick. Almost as if . . . someone had done something to her.
He shook his head. That was silly, wasn't it?

At the Xavier Institute, meanwhile, Professor Charles Xavier had a vague sense of uneasiness as he read the latest psychological evaluation of Michaela. The psychiatrist's notes indicated that her already vengeful attitude had taken a marked turn for the worse in the last several weeks....

She is very dangerous. Too dangerous to be let out again. I must speak to--
His intercom beeped.

"Professor, it's Scott. We've got major problems."

"What kind of problems?"
"Have you turned on your TV lately?"

"No." Xavier admitted. "Why?" He hoped it wasn't what he thought it was....

"Prison officials are now confirming that an inmate at Smithers State Women's Correctional Facility has escaped, and is believed to be headed towards Bayville. Michaela Sandoval is five feet six inches tall, has brown hair, and a scar on her right upper arm. It is not known at this time if she is armed . . ."

"Dear God."

He called his students together. Most of them had already heard the news.
"Because of the danger involved, I'm afraid I'll have to ask all of you to stay on the grounds until further notice."
"Does zat mean ve don't have to go to school?" Kurt asked hopefully.
"Under the current circumstances."

"So Mrs. Frankenstein's broken out?" Kitty said.

"Apparently so," Xavier sighed. "I'll have to warn Mystique and the Brotherhood as well."

"Great." Wolverine sighed. "When it rains, it pours."

When the phone rang, Pietro was the closest to it. He pounced on it before it had even finished the first ring.
"Joe's Pool Room, Eight-Ball speaking," he quipped.
The others crowded in to see who could be calling them.
"Mystique? She's, ah, she can't come to the phone--"
"Who is it?" Lance mouthed.
"Professor Chrome-Dome," Pietro mouthed back. Into the phone he said, "Important? Okay, I'll get her, but--yeah, I'll get her. Hold on." He put the phone down and went to Mystique's room.

"Xavier?"

"He said it was important," Pietro said. Mystique didn't look good, and he wasn't sure he should be getting her up out of bed, but Xavier had stressed the "important" part.

"What's happening?"

"I don't know. You gotta come talk to him." Pietro helped her up and handed her her robe, tactfully averting his eyes.

On her way to the door,Mystique glanced at a TV news bulletin....

She recognized Michaela's picture and froze in her tracks.
No. It can't be. Don't let that crazy woman near my kids again!

But when she met Xavier at the door, his words confirmed that "the crazy lady", as Toad had so eloquently dubbed her, was on the loose again. "Michaela's escaped..."

Do we know where she is?" Mystique asked. She thought she really ought to sit down, but she didn't want to invite Xavier into her house. Borders had to be defined.
"Not as of yet. I thought it would be best if you all came to stay with us for a few days. It's not safe for you here. She does know where you live, after all."
"I . . ." Mystique began. This was the last thing she had been expecting. "I don't--"
Then she collapsed onto the floor.

Xavier turned to Pietro and said, "Call the hospital immediately."

gonna be okay, yo?" Todd asked.
"She'll be fine," Xavier said. "Where's Wanda?"
"She went to get some ice cream--" Pietro began, then stopped dead as he realized his sister was out there with a crazy woman on the loose. A crazy woman who had already tried to kill her once. "Wegottagofindher!"

With that in mind,Xavier contacted Jean Grey. Tell Wolverine that he needs to find Wanda at once and bring her to the mansion.
Jean nodded. She was aware of the danger the other girl was in.

A few minutes later, Wolverine found Wanda at the school library. "C'mon, kid, we gotta get you home fast." he told her. "Michaela's busted out of the slammer and she's out for blood."

"Michaela?" Wanda went pale when she heard that news. She still had nightmares about being kidnapped and tortured not too long ago.

"Broke out of jail this morning.Told the guards she was gonna kill us all--right before she blew them away."

"What about Boo-I mean Pietro? Is he all right?"

"He's with the Professor right now."

"If that's where we'll be safest," Wanda decided, "that's where we'll go."
She was just leaving with him when a thought struck her. "Has anyone called my father yet?"

"We're still lookin' for him..."

"She hates him most of all."
"Why? He dump her or somethin'?"
"I don't know. It happened a long time ago. They worked together, I think."

Meanwhile, as she approached the highway exit leading into Bayville, Michaela had one thought repeating through her mind: Magnus,his family,the so-called Brotherhood,the X-Men--they'll all pay.

First, though, she had to ditch this car before she got caught. She pulled over at the next rest stop and got out.

She then began searching for another vehichle to hijack--preferably one with lots of gas. She had a long way to go before she gave her enemy and his family what they had coming to them . . . .

Jackpot! There was an SUV in a far parking space with the keys in the ignition. Served the dummies right.
She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then opened the door, slipped into the driver's seat, and drove away.

"Destroy them all."she told herself."Magnus,Xavier,Wanda,Pietro,Darkholme,Cyclops,Avalanche,Jean Grey,the Brotherhood,the X-Men....destroy them all.Don't leave so much as a fingernail left of them.Kill them one by one,then turn their corpses to ashes...."

Mystique woke up in the Medical Ward at the mansion. She felt worse than ever, especially when she realized where she was. Then she remembered why she was here.

"Easy, Mystique.You need the rest." Xavier said.

"Where are the boys?" she whispered.
"They're here. Logan's gone after Wanda. They should be back soon."

"Muzzer?" Kurt Wagner had just entered the room.

Mystique was relieved to see that he was all right. But she still worried about her other "children".

"Vat's happening to you?"

"What are you talking abou--" She tried to sit up and nearly fell off the bed. Her head felt like it was about to explode.

"Vhy are you so sick?"

"Good question." She tried to remember a time, over the last few months or so, that she hadn't been sick. It seemed it had been one thing after another for all that time.

"You think maybe the crazy lady injected you with something?" Toad asked Mystique. "I've been reading in school about germ warfare, yo."

"I don't think she was close enough," Mystique mused. Thinking hurt her head even more.
"I've called a doctor, a trusted friend, to come and look at you," Xavier told her. "Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this."

Michaela drove into Bayville, not really sure where to begin. She tried to remember if she was closer to the X-Men's mansion or the Brotherhood's house, but it had been too long.
Fine. She'd start with Bayville High.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Darkholme's not in today," the secretary told her. "She's been out sick all week."

"Oh?"

Yes, there must be something going around. The absentee list is quite long this morning." She tapped it, and Michaela craned her neck to read the list of names.
As she had expected, all of those she sought were there. He thinks he can hide them from me. I'll find every last one of you, and I'll--
The secretary was looking at her expectantly.

"Is there anything else, Miss?"

"No, thank you." Michaela turned and left the office.
It wasn't until some time later that the secretary had time to think how much her visitor resembled that lady on TV--the escaped prisoner. By then Michaela was long gone.

Back at the Xavier Institute, Cyclops, Wolverine, and Wanda were anxiously watching the news for further word on Michaela's rampage. "The crazy lady's lookin' for us, right?" Toad said to Kitty.

"I guess so," Kitty said. "I would if I were her."

"Question is," Spyke said, "How do we stop her once she shows up?"

"And is she bringing that creature with her?" Rogue asked.
The common purpose seemed to have united the two warring mutant factions. True, there were at first the usual personality clashes, but those were quickly forgotten in the face of the crisis.

"If it means taking all of us out, she'd bring Satan with her." Lance said. "Cyclops was right--she is a psycho."

"What about Mystique?" Todd asked. "She gonna be okay?"

"Only time will tell,Todd." Jean told him.

They kept an eye on the news, which unfortunately didn't have anything new to tell them.
Magneto arrived on their doorstep about half past two.

"Mystique's really sick, yo." Toad said to him.

Wanda saw her father and ran to him. "Oh, Daddy, I was so scared . . ."

Although Magneto didn't say anything,he too was alarmed by Michaela's escape.Whatever her intentions were,she was out for blood,that much was certain.

Michaela went to the Brotherhood house first, and didn't find anything. It seemed the occupants of the house had left in a hurry.
But where did they go?

She tried the Xavier Institute... or would have, if she knew where it was.
Thank God they still made phone books. Xavier, Xavier . . . there didn't seem to be a listing.

"What does it take to kill you,Xavier?"she muttered to herself in frustration.

Meanwhile, the doctor finally showed up and began examining Mystique,Pietro,and Toad.

Hey!" Toad protested. "There's nothing wrong with me!"
"On the contrary," the doctor said. "You have a very dangerous strain of Virus 10 lying dormant in your system."

"Is that bad?"
"Potentially deadly."
Todd whimpered and clutched his stomach.

"What's Virus 10?" Wanda asked Xavier.

"It's a genetically engineered form of flu that can be fatal to mutants."
At the words genetically engineered, Wanda paled. "Do you think . . . that woman had something to do with this?"
"Shouldn't Wanda be tested too?" Todd asked. "She got all kinds of stuff done to her."

"I say let's test everybody." Wolverine said. "Lady Psycho would give that stuff to her own grandma if she thought it could help her wipe us out."
Fred, a.k.a. Blob, turned to Lance and asked, "Does this mean we have to throw out all the stuff in the fridge? I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry!" Lance complained.
"I think that would be a good idea, to test everybody," Xavier said. "If you don't mind, doctor?"
"No, not at all."
The test involved a small blood sample; the results would be back in six to eight hours. Everyone sat waiting anxiously.

When the phone rang, the news was not good.

"I'm afraid your suspicions are correct, Professor. It's Virus 10 . . . and a particularly dangerous strain at that."

"And how many actual cases have we got? Apart from Mystique."
"Seven."

"Oh God." Kitty gasped. Rogue looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

"So who's on the disabled list?" Lance asked.

"Pietro, Mystique, Toad . . ."

"I knew it," Todd groaned.
"Yeah, you knew it cause that doctor told you so," Pietro said. He himself didn't feel particularly sick at the moment . . . or did he? Was there just the tiniest tickle at the back of his throat? The beginnings of a headache?
God, he was getting worse than Toad. Talk about a hypochondriac.

Storm took Wanda aside. "I'm afraid you and your father have it too."
"No . . ." Wanda looked terrified. To have found her family again, only to lose them so soon?
"That's five," Jean pointed out. "Who else has it?"

"Kurt..."

The German boy looked distressed.
"And, last but not least . . . Kitty."

"But I don't feel sick at all!"
"You might not right away," the Professor explained. "In some cases, symptoms never show up, or are very mild. For those of you more seriously affected, we have medicines. They can't cure the virus, but will at least keep the major symptoms in check . . ."
There was the thud of a body hitting the floor.

"Boo!"
"Pietro!"

"This is no time to be joking around," Logan said. "People are really sick here."

Then he looked and saw Pietro sprawled out on the floor, and realized that it wasn't a joke.

He picked the boy up. "I'll take him downstairs."

Wanda's blood turned to ice. "Is he--?"
"We don't know yet."

Elsewhere, Michaela glanced at her watch.

She had gone back to the high school, in the hopes of finding someone who could tell her where to find the X-Men. They had to have some human friends, didn't they?
School should be getting out any minute now . . .

BRRRRIIIINNNGGGGG!

The end-of-school bell rang.

Michaela waded through the flood of students, asking them questions. She had no luck. Lots of them knew the kids she was asking about, but not where they lived.
Rats. She'd have to drive around or something until she found it.
And then she caught a bit of a break.

She was able to sneak into Ms.Darkholme's office, where she was able to look at their permanent records.
Let's see, who's first alphabetically?

The first name she came across was Maximoff,Pietro.

That didn't help much. She'd already been to that address.
She leafed through again and found one that could help her . . .

Tolensky,Todd A., it said in the address book.

She smiled at her own brilliance. They thought they were so smart, hiding it right out in the open like that.
She picked up the phone and dialed the emergency contact number.
They won't even see it coming, she thought as she waited for someone to pick up. After three rings, she heard a voice. A voice she knew.

It turned to be a mechanical voice from an answering machine . . . but it confirmed she had the right number.
She went into her carefully-rehearsed fake-voice speech.

"Todd, this is Mrs. Haskell from History class. I need to speak to Ms. Darkholme as soon as possible . . ."

Would they fall for it?

Wolverine regarded the message with suspicion.

"I didn't do it!" Todd exclaimed. "Whatever she wants to talk to you about, it wasn't me!"

"That's not what's bothering me." Wolverine corrected him. "Something doesn't sound right about that voice."
"It's her." Mystique said.

"The crazy lady?"
"Yes. I'd know her voice anywhere, even if she tried to disguise it. She's looking for us."
"Don't speak. You need to save your strength."

Spyke turned to Xavier and asked, "So how do we stop her?"

This was a problem. The last time they had met, they had only been able to defeat her by combining all their powers. If half the team was out sick, that complicated things.

"Do we even know where she is right now?" Cyclops said.

"I can go find her," Logan said, but Xavier shook his head.

"No. I have another idea . . ."

Just then a third victim of the virus became acutely ill . . .

"Kitty!"

Kurt held her in his arms as the girl moaned feverishly.

"What are you waiting for, Xavier?!!" Magneto demanded. "The sooner we terminate Michaela, the better!"

"We can subdue her without resorting to extremes."
"That's what you said last time! She'll come back again, and maybe she'll actually kill someone before we can take her down . . ."
"Daddy?" Wanda called weakly, before she too slumped to the floor.

"Oh God." Jean gasped.

Magnus looked at Xavier, his face grave. "Find her," he said, in a voice like stone.

"If we're going to rumble with the crazy lady again, we need some extra firepower, yo." Toad cut in at that moment. "We gotta get hold of Sabretooth . . . ."
"Where is Sabretooth, anyway?" Jean asked Magneto.

"I don't know. He comes and goes on his own."

"I can find him, yo." Toad offered suddenly.

Everyone looked at him.
"He gave me a number to call. Said if I ever needed a hand, to get in touch with him. I'd say this counts."
Logan didn't look too happy about that, but even he had to admit that they could use some help right now.

"Do it."

Todd dialed the number shakily. Oh no . . . not now . . .
As if from far away, he heard someone answer.
"Kelly's Bar."
"Yeah, is Mr. Creed there?"
"Hold onna sec."
There was a long silence, during which Todd could hear a buzzing in his ears. Someone brought a chair over so that he could sit down before he fell over.

"Hello?"

"Uh . . ." What could he say to the man?
"Who is this?"
"It's me, Mr. Creed. Toady."
"Oh. Whaddya want, kid?"
Todd was about to answer when a bright flare of pain suddenly lit up inside his head. He dropped the phone and began moaning and rocking back and forth, clutching his head in agony.

"Hello?"

Lance took the phone. "We kind of have an emergency. Can you meet us here?"
"Where's here?"

"Would you believe it's Xavier's school?"

"I know where that is. Okay, I'll be right there."
Lance hung up the phone. "He's coming. How's Todd?"

"He's sweating bullets and his temperature's going through the roof." Cyclops said as Wolverine and Magneto put Toad on one of the empty beds beside Kitty. "Whoever infected him and the others must have borrowed a page from the anthrax guy's playbook."

"Oh mah God," Rogue said, as she thought of something. "Did you guys get a letter from some cancer fund about a week ago?"
"Yeah," Lance said. "You think that's where it came from?"

"It has to be." Magneto insisted. "And the attacker would have to know something about mutants . . . ."
"Which eliminates ninety-nine percent of all potential suspects right away." Xavier nodded. "Though the generic address on the envelope indicates the attacker is not aware of our true identities, he or she is probably familiar enough with the Institute and the Brotherhood to suspect that mutants may be living within this vicinity."

"So it's not Michaela?" Jean asked.
"Not exactly," said Xavier. "Most likely she has an accomplice on the outside. Once we find him or her, we may find Michaela."
"I can't picture her having any friends," said Scott.

"Couple of months back, we couldn't picture Magneto having a kid." Spyke pointed out.

"Does she have any family?"

"A younger brother." Magneto said. "Marco. A specialist in biological and chemical weapons."

"That marks him as a suspect right there," Scott said.

"And a potential deadly enemy." Storm added.
"You don't know the half of it . . ." Mystique managed to croak out.

"I'll check him out," Logan offered.

Elsewhere,Marco Sandoval waited to hear from his sister.

It had been so easy to get their addresses off a mailing list. It had been even easier to sneak a vial of Virus 10 into his briefcase and take it home to contaminate the phony pledge letters. Now all he had to do was sit back and wait for them to die.

Now for Marco to contact his sister . . .

But how to do it without someone noticing? They must be watching him by now.

Then an idea came to him . . .

"How are they doing?" Jean asked, looking toward the sick mutants in the hospital wing. In the past hour or so, there had been three more cases.

"They're dropping like flies." a frustrated Cyclops grumbled.

"Who's got it now?"

"Fred, Kitty, and Nightcrawler, yo." said Toad.

"This ain't good," Lance said. He was starting to feel a little light-headed himself, but tried to work through it.

Rogue suddenly moaned," Ah don't feel so good," and collapsed.

Just then, fortunately, there was the sound of a motorbike pulling up outside.

Cyclops and Magneto went to meet Sabretooth at the gate.

"What's the big emergency?"

"Not what,who." Magneto corrected him. "Michaela Sandoval."

"That--" Sabretooth growled at the very mention of her name. "What about her?"
"She's escaped from prison, and seems to be having her revenge. She has an accomplice on the outside who's using germ warfare against us."

"We're not sure of this,but we think it's her brother Marco." Cyclops told Sabretooth.

"If he's as crazy as she is, we're all in trouble."

"We already are," Xavier said, joining them. "We're at less than half-strength as it is, and this virus is still spreading."

"Who's got it?"

"Let's see . . . Pietro, Kitty, Toad, Wanda, Rogue, Fred, Kurt . . . who did I miss?"

"Mystique, yo." Toad said, somehow managing to find the strength to walk up to the gate and stand beside Xavier. "And the doc says I've got it too."

"Yes, I mentioned you. Have we had any new cases yet?"

"Well, Magneto, that Storm lady thinks she might have it, yo." Just then Toad collapsed.

They carried him inside and found that the list of victims had been topped by not one but two.

"Lance's got it."Jean announced regretfully to Xavier and Magneto.Sabretooth,enraged at the sight of his fellow mutants rendered helpless by the virus,had to be physically restrained.

"Where is she? Where is that--" He used a word that he shouldn't have used in the presence of impressionable teenagers.

"Wherever she is, bub," Wolverine said, "I'm personally tearin' her a new nostril the second I get my hands on her. And then I'm doin' the same to her brother--"

"Could we look him up? He's got a job. He pays taxes. There must be a way we can find him."

"Try cell phone records." Xavier suggested.

They went online and searched for any records that would give them an indication where Marco Sandoval was hiding.

As for Marco himself . . .

He had packed a bag and was just leaving home for a hotel. There he would await Michaela's further instructions.
In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have left behind the pad of paper on which he doodled her name and the name of his hotel . . .

"I came as soon as I received your summons, Professor." said Hank McCoy when he arrived at the Institute. "I daresay I find the news of Michaela's escape and return disquieting in the extreme . . ."

"Thank you for coming so quickly. I thought we could use your medical expertise," Xavier told him. Hank had been to medical school for two years before being forced to drop out due to a personal crisis.

"Virus 10." Magneto told the doctor bluntly.

"I've heard of that, but I've never actually seen a case before," McCoy said. "I'll have to order up some medication. There's no cure, but the symptoms can be treated. How many cases do we have?"

"The only ones who don't have it are the guys you're talkin' to right now,bub."Wolverine said."Everybody else is flat on their backs with this thing except Jean,and she could be laid up with it too the way things are going."

"Oh dear," Hank said.

They went inside, where they found that Jean had also contracted the virus.

Wolverine could barely control his anger.

"Let's go find her before something else happens!"

"Easy, Cyclops." said Xavier.

Diligent searching turned up Marco Sandoval's address.

Cyclops and Sabretooth went to confront Marco, while Wolverine, Magneto, and Xavier kept vigil over their infected comrades.

The lack of a car in the driveway was their first clue that he had already left. Strangely enough, though, he had left the front door open, as if he expected to be coming right back.

"Watch it." Cyclops warned. "There might be booby traps. If Marco's anything like his sister, he's probably got an elaborate home defense system in place..."
"Let's find out." Sabretooth picked up a small rock and threw it at the surrounding fence . . .

Nothing happened.
"He's gone away for the weekend," a voice said.

Cyclops and Sabretooth turned and were surprised to see a seventyish woman standing behind them. You'd have thought the presence of two bona fide mutants would have scared her, or at least surprised her, but she barely batted an eyelash at them.
"Gone where?" Cyclops asked her.

"I don't know. He just asked me to pick up his mail and his newspapers."

"Did he mention how long he'd be away?" Sabretooth said.

"No, but he only had one bag with him, so it couldn't be long. He goes away a lot."

And I think I have a good idea where he goes,too, Cyclops thought.

As soon as the neighbor left, they went into the house.

Back at the Institute, things were looking up a bit.
Jean, before she had gotten sick herself, had triaged the victims by using different colored ink on their charts. Green was used for cases that weren't that serious yet (there were only two or three of those). Yellow were the more serious cases, and red was the worst of all. So far, Mystique was the only one in red, although Kitty looked like she was on the verge of a color change.

Hank, despite his earlier reports that there was no cure for Virus 10, had found a serum which looked like it might be precisely that. And Xavier, with the help of Cerebro, had tracked down a rare plant in Southeast Asia whose leaves contained a sap that, when refined, provided a crucial ingredient in treating the virus.

Meanwhile, Cyclops and Sabretooth had found something very interesting . . .

"Check this out." Cyclops said to Sabretooth. "Marco left a forwarding address."

They took the slip of paper with the address back to the mansion, where they found Magneto pacing with uncharacteristic nervousness.

"What's going on?" Cyclops asked.

"Mystique's taken a turn for the worse."

"How much worse?"
Magneto shook his head. "She's having trouble breathing. They might have to put her on a ventilator if that medicine doesn't arrive soon."

"My head hurts, yo." Toad groaned.

He looked around and for the first time noticed the absence of someone. "Hey, where's Brenda?"
"Who?" Hank asked.

"A friend of Toad's." Jean explained, her voice weak from the illness. "She's been on vacation the last few weeks..."

"Lucky for her."
"Maybe not. She was due to come back tomorrow, but with all that's happened, she might have to stay overseas."

Unbeknownst to them all, the girl was already on a plane headed back to New York.
She'd gotten a mysterious phone call telling her to come home right away.

Her plane made a brief stopover in Montreal, where she tried to call Toad but she got no answer.

"Something's wrong." she said to herself, and tried to empathically contact Kitty.

She'd been practicing, and getting stronger, but it was still just out of her range.
"Fine. Do it the hard way." She dialed the number for the mansion. Sometimes having an international phone card really came in handy.

Xavier took the call himself. "Brenda?"

"What's wrong?"
There was no need to ask "How did you know?" between telepaths.
"We have a dangerous situation right now. It's best if you didn't come home . . ."
"What sort of situation? Have we been attacked?"
"Not exactly. Not by conventional means."
"Then what?"
Xavier explained, as briefly as he could, about the virus. "We're trying to find Michaela right now, along with her brother, whom we believe was behind the virus."
"I hope you find them."

What neither of them knew was that at that moment, Michaela herself was in an ambulance, en route to the hospital, after collapsing in her hotel room.

One of Marco's virus-contaminated envelopes had inadvertantly found its way into her hands . . . which, one might argue, was poetic justice.

Meanwhile, Brenda was telling Xavier about the phone call she had received.

"What did their voice sound like?" Xavier asked her.

"Well, it was definitely an American. A man, I believe."

"Marco Sandoval." Magneto declared without hesitation.

"You don't know that," Xavier told him. "For all we know, they could have another accomplice, or several."

"It's him." Magneto insisted.

Scott came running in. "Turn on the TV," he insisted. "They found Michaela."

". . . escaped from Women's Correctional two days ago, was found unconscious in a room in a Bayville Comfort Inn. A representative of the hospital could not give details of her condition, but said, quote, 'she's not going anywhere soon,' unquote."

"Professor?" Brenda said.

"I'm sorry, Brenda. We just got some rather disturbing news."
"Nobody died, did they?" The girl sounded panicked.
"No, no. But they found Michaela, and she's not doing very well. And her brother and anyone else who helped her are still on the loose."

"Oh God."

It was decided that Brenda would stay at a hotel not far away while the crisis was going on. Meanwhile, she attempted to make telepathic contact with Todd, but he was either asleep or unconscious, and there was no response.

"I can't reach Todd." she said worriedly when she called Xavier back. "Is he . . . is he alive?"

"Yes, of course he is. He's just sleeping right now. Most of them are, till the medicine gets here."

In the hospital, no one knew exactly what it was that Michaela had, though she seemed to be suffering from some sort of intestinal infection.

"Virus 10?" the attending physician at the hospital repeated in astonishment when he heard his colleague's diagnosis. "But I thought that disease only infected metahumans...."

"It does," said the specialist they had called in to consult. "Ms. Sandoval does possess the mutant gene, but in a dormant state. She never developed any extranormal abilities."
"That might explain her hatred of mutants--other mutants, I mean."

"You mean she's jealous of us?" Cyclops asked Xavier when they found out about this.

"It's very likely. There is envy even among mutants, sad to say--Scott, are you all right?"
The boy was rubbing his temples. "Just a bit of a headache," he insisted.

"Headache nothin'." Wolverine grumbled. "You've got the virus."
"Which means you, I, and Magneto are the only uninfected ones left." Xavier realized in alarm as Sabretooth assisted Cyclops to a sickbed.

"That might be a problem."

"To put it mildly."

"We should have someone stake out the hospital. Marco might show up there."
"I don't think he'd be that stupid," Wolverine said.

"He might be that desperate." a seriously ill Lance managed to gasp out just before he went unconscious.

"I'll go stake out the hospital," Logan said.
"No," Sabretooth countered. "I will. You stay here in case something happens. I'll keep in touch."

Perhaps, Magneto mused as they watched Sabretooth depart, his old friend’s vision might be more accurate than he'd believed. In fact all the mutants, X-Men and Brotherhood alike, had begun rethinking long-held assumptions.

Elsewhere,at a bar, Marco Sandoval gaped in alarm at the news bulletins about his sister's sudden illness. What could have gone wrong?

They'd been so careful not to allow any contamination from the letters to escape. Hadn't they?
He had to see her, at once. Even if it meant capture, prison, or possibly even death, he couldn't live knowing he may have inadvertantly caused her death.

And if the mutants were in any responsible,he'd kill every last one of them with his bare hands.

There was some good news, finally, at the mansion: the medicine had arrived.

Kurt and Mystique,being the most critical cases,received the first doses.

"With any luck," Hank said, "they should start improving in 12 to 24 hours."

"Not a minute too soon." Magneto said. He went from bed to bed, tending to the sick. He stopped longest beside Mystique's, feeling a mix of relief that she was going to be all right and anguish at almost having lost her.
He thought back to the first time he had seen her, walking across the college campus in the first weeks of classes. She was barely more than a child, innocent and beautiful. It was only later that she had become . . .
Her eyes fluttered open.
"No, don't speak," Magneto told her, as her lips started to form words. "Just rest for now. You're going to be all right now." He stroked her hair back from her flushed face, wishing it was the silky black of her younger years and not this choppy auburn mess. She used to have such beautiful hair . . .

"Muzzer?" Kurt rasped out.

Mystique reached out and grasped her son's hand.

Michaela, meanwhile, continued to weaken from her infection while her brother tried to get past hospital security.

"I have to see her!" he demanded. "You can do whatever you want with me just as soon as I've seen her."

"Not so fast, pal. How do we know you're not trying to help her go back on the lam?" the guard posted outside her room demanded.

"What do you think I'm going to do, smuggle her out in a laundry cart? She's too sick to go anywhere right now. I just want to see her, maybe for the last time . . ."

"If you're that psycho's brother," the guard said, "I wouldn't put it past you."

Marco decided that being nice wasn't working, so he got nasty.

"Let me in or I'll see to it that you're fired by the end of the day.”

The guard was not one to be intimidated. "Your sister's a criminal, you're one step away from being one yourself, and you threaten me? I ought to call the police right now!"
That was it. The time for words was finished.

He took a small canister out of his pocket and threw it on the floor.
Luckily, it was only tear gas, and not anything life-threatening, but it bought him time to get through the door into Michaela's room.

He was shocked at what he saw when he got inside.

She was so pale and cold, she looked dead already. There were tubes sticking into every part of her, and beeping machines around that monitored her life signs.
Marco pulled up a chair and sat beside her.
"Miki? I don't know if you can hear me . . ."

She couldn't, of course. In fact, she could hardly hear anything at that point--her dormant mutant genes, had in ways as yet unknown, caused the virus to act faster on her than it had on any of her victims. Her lifespan could now be measured in hours, perhaps even minutes.

Even if the doctors had known of the medicine that could save her life, they could never have gotten it to her in time.

Xavier was administer a dose of the new medicine to Toad when a newscaster broke into that afternoon's monster movie re-run.

"Police on the trail of escaped inmate Michaela Sandoval have apprehended her brother, Marco, an alleged accomplice. Ms. Sandoval is in County Hospital, suffering from an undisclosed illness. Doctors say she is not expected to live."

"Killed by her own lethal weapon." Magneto said with a hint of satisfaction in his voice.

"You still haven't told me how you knew her," Xavier said in a low voice.

"I was in love with her once." Magneto explained with an unusual wistfulness. "We met at a seminar on genetic mutation and a mutual attraction developed over time . . ."

"What happened to change things?" Xavier asked.

"She eventually revealed--albeit without knowing it at first--some rather ugly prejudices against mutants."

"And then?"
Magneto sighed. "We had . . . arguments."

Musta been some arguments,Toad thought as he received his dose of the medicine.

Wanda and Pietro were still asleep, and didn't hear their father's confession, but Mystique did.

How could she betray him so? Mystique thought with a mixture of sorrow and outrage.

"She declared," Magneto continued, "that she would wipe out the mutant gene once and for all. I told her it was impossible. This isn't a mere aberration of nature; it's evolution at work. Humanity is becoming its higher form. And nothing can stop that once it's been put into motion."

"Sounds like this chick had some control issues." Wolverine quipped.

At the hospital, Marco was sitting by his sister's bedside when suddenly the monitors went crazy.
He glanced at them. He hadn't done emergency medicine since his residency, but it didn't take a genius to know she was coding.
"No!" he cried, reaching for her hand. "Don't give up! You have to hang on, Miki! Please hang on just a bit longer!"

He started to lunge forward, but the police who'd caught him earlier took him out of the room. "Let's let the doctors do their jobs."
"NO!" Marco screamed. "Can't you see? She's dying!"
"They'll do everything they can for her."

With her last remaining bits of strength, Michaela herself tried to forestall the inevitable . . . but it was no good.
As he heard the long whine of the heart monitor going flatline, Marco again tried to rush to her, but the police held him back. "Don't make us put you in handcuffs, pal."
It was some time later that a doctor came out, his face grave. "I'm sorry," was all he said.

"No you're not!" Marco raged, lunging for the doctor's throat.

It took six cops to pull him off, and this time they did put him in handcuffs. He was taken away without ever saying goodbye.

The phone at the mansion rang in the middle of the second round of medicine.
Magneto answered it. "Yes? Oh, Victor. What is it?" There was a long pause. "I see. Thank you."
He replaced the phone on the cradle and announced to the others, "Michaela just died."
There was silence all around.

"Serves her right." muttered a still-sick Mystique.

"What about the brother?" asked a visibly concerned Hank,who was assisting Magneto in administering the serum to Lance and Kitty.

"He's been arrested. I hope they throw the book at him."

At the police station, an infuriated Marco could not believe this was happening.

He seethed with outrage as he thought of what had happened to Michaela. She wouldn't even get a decent burial now. And it was all the fault of those dirty mutants!
It was easier to hate the mutants than to admit that it was his doing, so he just blocked out that part of it.

Back at the Institute, most of the less-serious cases were showing improvement, and even the worst cases weren't as bad as they had been.

"Is she . . . is she really dead?" Wanda asked her father.

"Yes, she is. She can't hurt us any more."
"She had it coming," Toad snapped.

"No argument here." Cyclops said, still wincing from his headache.

"If she had only known she was a mutant herself, perhaps it would have changed things," Xavier mused.
Magneto shook his head. "You always did try to see the best in people, Charles. But I'm afraid that what little good there was in her was long-buried. The world is better off without her."

"I don't say this often, bub," Wolverine told Xavier, "but I agree with Magneto. That chick was bad news times ten."

A few days later, everyone was almost fully recovered. Additional batches of the serum were made,to serve as a vaccine against future outbreaks.

"I guess we can go home now," Todd said. "Thanks for letting us stay till we got better."

Wanda went over to him. "Why do we have to go?" she asked.

Toad had trouble thinking of an answer...

Mystique called her son over. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you," she said.

"Yes, Muzzer?"

"You are not my only child. You have a twin, whom I left with Irene to protect her."
"Her? A sister?"
"Yes."

"Where is she?"

"She's right here."
"Please tell me it's not Kitty," Kurt said. "Zat vould be too veird."
"No, it's not Kitty."

Cyclops blinked. "If it's not Kitty, then . . ."

Rogue had heard Irene's name and knew it was her. "It's me," she said, "isn't it?"

"For real?" asked an astonished Lance.

Mystique nodded.
"Freaky," said Todd. "So how come you were so mean to her when she lived with us?"

"It was mostly a camouflage." Mystique explained.

Rogue wasn't happy about that. "Why didn't you tell me? All you ever did was lie to me!"
"I was trying to protect you!" Mystique said. She struggled to sit up, still weak from the virus.

"From what?"Rogue demanded.
"From . . ." Mystique coughed. "From those who would see you as nothing more than a lab rat to be dissected and scrutinized."

"What's really goin' on?" Rogue asked.

"Nothing more or less than what I said." Mystique answered, and at that moment,all the mutants in the room realized a permanent corner had been turned.

Rogue was finding it hard to come to terms with this. "You visited me maybe twice in fifteen years. I didn't even know who you were! You should have been there!"
"Things weren't easy for me," Mystique said. "I was only twenty when you were born. I wasn't ready to be a mother yet. I always planned to come back for you . . ."
"Vhat happened?" Kurt asked.

"There was a man, before I met Magneto . . ."

"Who was he? Why did he leave you?" Both children were full of questions, but there were only so many that Mystique could answer, in her condition.

Eventually, though, much of her story became clear . . .

"He was older than I was, and utterly charming."

"There's a dangerous combo." Wolverine noted.

"Tell me about it," she said. "But I was so young and naive, I didn't see just how dangerous it was. Oh, he was married, too. And I wasn't his only mistress. You'd know his name, if I told you. He was very rich and very powerful. Not that you'd get any of his money, of course."

Cyclops shook his head. "I wouldn't want it."

"That's what I told him, the last time I spoke to him. I told him I was pregnant, and he asked me how much I wanted. I told him the money didn't matter. But with people like him, money is the only language they know how to speak."

"So what did you do?" Jean asked her.

"The only thing I could. I left him, and went home to raise my children alone."

"A most distressing situation." observed Hank.

"Wait, it gets worse," she said. "Jason and I found each other again . . ."
"I'm guessing you don't like this Jason guy much." Lance said.

"No," she said. "Jason was my brother. We were devoted to each other. He had been away for a while, doing some kind of government work, he wouldn't tell me about it. We made plans to settle down and raise the children together, be a little family."
"What happened?" Rogue asked.
Mystique closed her eyes. "On his last mission, he was captured by that--you know. He was part of a group testing an early form of Virus 10. By the time I found him, it was too late. He died in my arms."

"Oh God." Storm gasped.
Magneto looked at Xavier and said, "You can imagine why she might want to keep her family connections under wraps."
"In light of what happened to her brother, yes."
"Whoa!" Spyke said. "You tellin' me Marco and his psycho sister were workin' for the Feds?"
"If not them, al-Qaeda." Lance grumbled.

"There were many things going on," Mystique said, "that the government didn't want you to know about. Remember there was a war going on ten years ago. A lot of the work the Sandovals did was in biological weapons. I've always suspected that the so-called Gulf War Syndrome we've heard so much about came out of their work. But of course, I have no proof of anything."

"So they're wanted by the Feds?" Pietro spoke up.

"Among others." The strain of so much talking had just about worn her out, and she lay back and closed her eyes.

Rogue and Kurt looked at each other....

"This is too weird," Rogue said.

" Jawohl." said Kurt.

"I always wondered why we seemed to connect so well when we first met," Rogue mused.

Blob looked at his fellow mutants in confusion. "So, we goin' or stayin'?"

"We're not goin' anywhere without the Boss Lady!" Toad insisted.

"Chill, Toad."

"I still don't understand why we can't all just live together," Wanda said. "Wouldn't it be easier?"

Everyone stared at her. This was an idea they'd never even toyed with until now.

"I'm not sharing a bathroom with Daniels!" Pietro complained.

Magneto pondered his daughter's suggestion. Did he dare consent to it? He and Charles, after all, had fought each other for years over the place of mutants in society, and their proteges had done likewise. Then again, in light of Brenda's bond with Toad and the new threat posed by the Sandovals, it might be wiser to work with Xavier than against him . . .

"I'll think about it," he said. "We'll go home for now and discuss it later."

"Yeah." Wolverine said. "We've all got some major thinking to do . . ."

When the Brotherhood got back to their own house, something felt wrong.

"Watch it." Lance instructed his comrades. "There could be booby-traps here somewhere."

In another room, a vengeful Marco waited to attack . . . but before he could Toad spotted him and told his teammates, "We've got company, yo!"
The mutants instantly swung into battle mode. Hopelessly outnumbered and without even a weapon, Marco got his posterior righteously kicked.

Nevertheless, he gave it everything he had, shouting as he attacked: "I'll kill you all!"

"Yeah, sure you will." While everyone else was busy fighting, Toad called 911.

Simultaneously, Magneto contacted Xavier.

Is this the way things are going to be? he wondered. Instead of fighting each other, we all fight on the same side?

If it were, it would certainly be a welcome change in circumstances.

Marco was backed up against a wall when he took something out of his pocket. He held it up triumphantly.

"Virus 10." he said. "And I'm going to use it to wipe out every last one of you for killing my sister!"
"Your sister is responsible for her own demise." Mystique shot back. "She plotted genocide against mutants and tried to kill my children..."

"She got what she deserved," said a voice from the doorway.

Everyone turned . . . and saw Brenda standing there.
The girl continued, "And may God have mercy on her soul."
There was the sound of sirens in the distance. Marco heard them and panicked, dropping the vial to the floor in his haste to flee the scene. A brain blast* from Brenda stopped him cold in his tracks.
"Brenda?" Toad said. "What you doin' here, yo?"

"I came to see you."
Just then the glass vial completed its floorward arc, and shattered at her feet.
Only Pietro's lightning-quick movements saved her and the others from getting infected by its contents....

Unfortunately, he couldn't save her from the infection that was already in her system . . .

(to be continued in the sequel!)

*One of Brenda's abilities is a brief psychic blast of energy, which serves to temporarily disable an opponent