I'm giving this an R rating (for violence, language and sexual situations).

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Author's notes: I hate wasting bandwidth for this kind of shit. But the more I think about this, the more pissed I get, so here goes…

The main characters in this story are both beyond the age of consent. Want the layman's terms? It means that I've written Wolverine loving a woman of LEGAL AGE, who just happens to be Jubilee. Surprise! At 24, she IS LEGAL.

I never intended to write this series as propaganda to convert people into being Wolvie/Jubes shippers. Likewise, reading a Storm/Logan fic will never make me into a Storm/Logan shipper. But if it is a good story, I'll still read it. And I usually review them. That's called 'Being a Responsible Reader'.

I'm responsible also, in that I've never said that the Jean/Wolverine romances I've stumbled on were poorly written, or worse, a thing that SHOULD NOT BE. I have said that I simply don't read them because I, personally, don't like 'em. But, you won't find me concealing criticism of InsertX-femalecharacterhere/Logan shippers in my reviews. That's called 'Being a Grown-Up'.

I don't enjoy stumbling upon that kind of concealed criticism in a review elsewhere, especially when an author works as hard as I have on this story.

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Thanks to Ice for her constant encouragement. You RULE, Chiquita!

Thanks to Sparklagal for making requests. Thanks to the small groups of regular readers of this story (you peeps know who you are :) Your encouragement for me to continue posting here, even tho I feel like bailing, is totally appreciated. Thanks to Mel - for sending His Royal Stuffiness Aa Michael over when I was at my very worst. And also to Ascian for her inspirational website.

If you haven't been reading this series, you should start from the beginning with "Guileless". This is a series and they are dependent on each other.

And sorry for the delay. :/ I've been making handmade soap for the last few weeks and my fingertips are all splitting from the dry winter weather and being in water too often. It's kinda hard ta type with all those band-aids, ya know? :)

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7

Do not pass go, do not collect 200 mutants and get them to safety

Uri Soshnikov liked his job aboard Captain Kikkunen's cargo ship. And he liked Jubilation Lee.

But he liked money, too.

David Heisler was a friend of Kikkunen's son. He contacted the Captain to get Jubes a guaranteed ride to Vladivostok. Uri, being Kikkunen's second-in-command, was the only one the captain trusted with the details. Almost a month before Jubilee climbed aboard Kikkunen's ship, representatives of the PHP who were searching for Sumeeta for their 'silent financial partner' got wind of David's plan. They approached Uri for information on her activities, and unfortunately he had some. Uri offered it freely against the massive amount of rubles they promised in return.

All he had to do was deliver Jubilee into their hands, and the rubles would be delivered into his.

While Jubilee said her goodbyes to the Captain and crew, Uri shaved his beard, buzzed his head, changed his clothes and jumped ship. He followed Jubilee to the designated spot where David instructed her to catch an unmarked 'bus ride' - which turned out to be a semi truck with people in the trailer instead of cargo. That would take her West to Qiqihar on the border of Mongolia and China, then up into Mongolia proper, through the city of Chobalsan, and further North near the Russian border. No passport required. No questions asked. Her ride was even paid for already, through David's careful handiwork. The now-unrecognizable Uri was right behind her, shoving rubles into someone's hands and looking like just another traveler wanting to go unnoticed.

He got aboard the trailer before her, and sat closer to the cab, while Jubilee stayed near the back end where she initially got in. Uri flipped open his cell phone and hit a speed dial button. He hissed into the cell angrily in Russian, careful to keep his voice low even though the trailer had the latest Chinese pop songs coming out of an obviously stolen speaker system.

<You told me I'd be paid once I told you where she could be found. So where is my money?>

Agent 92, speaking on the other side of the globe, sighed deeply. Uri Soshnikov had a tendency to whine. 92 spoke back to him in Russian, and even though it was not his first language, he used it more eloquently that Uri himself.

<You will receive everything that you have coming, Mr. Soshnikov. We need for Lee to enter Mongolia and meet with her party before your end of the deal can be closed. Stay on her, do not lose her, check in with me frequently, and the money will be yours. It's that simple.>

Just before he hung up, Uri said something that could only be translated loosely, and it amounted to calling 92 the 'back end of a constipated cow'.

92 blinked. He just wasn't good with working-class humor.

***

3 days later, Jubilee got off the semi, finally at her destination. They'd covered nearly the same distance as two-thirds of the continental United States. The only stopping done was for the smugglers to load up on diesel fuel and grab some food for the smugglees. She had to giggle. She was a 'smugglee'. Many of them got off the semi at that point, but still more were loaded on.

Uri followed Jubilee carefully, calling in his location to Agent 92. He didn't know where they were, as it wasn't really a city, it was just a locale with a bunch of people coming and going. 92 told him to stay on the phone and they would triangulate his position.

Jubilee was met by a tall Mongolian youth, who spoke broken but understandable English. Uri eyed them from a distance, pretending to mill about with the other people, all the while keeping her in his sights. He was approached by several young boys, asking for money and offering him gum and crackers in return. They spoke an odd combination of Russian and Mongolian, and he had trouble understanding them, but he could tell they were starving. He got frustrated with their interruption and tossed some rubles from his pocket onto the dusty ground. They leapt on the money, fighting, more children than there were coins. He curled his lip and stepped back from the throng, looking up for Jubilee.

She was gone.

<Fuck!>

The children stopped fighting and giggled at his foul language.

***

<Where is David?> Jubilee asked the Mongolian kid for the third time, and in his own tongue. He smiled that toothy grin again and answered back in English.

"You see he is here. I take you to, yes?" He walked even faster, leading her into the small town with cramped buildings and more people. It reminded her of Madripoor. The seedier side of Madripoor.

She sighed. She was tired and hungry. She wanted to sleep in a real, hard, bumpy cot. Such a cot would be heaven next to a crowded semi-trailer filled with people who hadn't bathed in a long, long time. This kid had suddenly grabbed her and led her into town. Now, he grabbed her again, and dragged her into an alley. They ran down the length of it, and turned into another, and then they stopped and crouched behind a dumpster. She didn't want to keep going without some sort of explanation, but she had little choice. She was the mutant foreigner here.

<Look, what the fuck's goin' on he->

Jubilee's whispered words were cut off as the tall, skinny Mongolian youth put has hand over her mouth and held her firmly. Covered by the darkness of a dumpster, he glanced at Jubilee strangely and then peered out from around the corner of the old brick building they were next to. A few men suddenly ran past them across the street, heavily armed and dressed for nighttime combat. Jubilee's startled gasp was muffled by the boy's hand. When the soldiers were completely out of sight, they waited a few minutes longer and then crept towards the back end of the alley at the youth's urging.

He led her into a filthy basement and then down into an old storm shelter. There were no lights and she was forced to hold onto the hem of the boy's t-shirt for guidance as she waited for her eyes to adjust.

Okay… so definitely those dudes with guns were gonna whack us. But leadin' me around in this place… What the hell is this kid gonna do to me? Shit!

Fear was beginning to set in, and she could feel her heart beating in her throat. "Awright, just hold up here, cowboy." Jubes yanked on his shirt and forced him to come to a stop, in the middle of a musty hallway. There was some fading sunlight creeping in through broken, greasy windows in another room. Enough to make out the boy's expressions, but not much more than that. She switched over to Mongolian and got serious. <What the hell is happening here? Where's David? Where's Sumeeta?> Jubliee's brow furrowed in anger and the Mongolian boy tilted his head at her.

Slowly, like she was waking up from a bad dream, Jubilee saw the boy's face and body slide into that of a strong, well-built Indian woman of slightly above average height. One that was drop-dead gorgeous. Her yellow eyes flashed at Jubilee for a moment, then quietly, they shifted to an acceptable brown shade found on many Eastern Indians. The human ones.

She smirked playfully at Jubilee's saucer-like eyes, and spoke to her in calm, earthy tones. "I prefer Susie. That is, if we are to be friends… Jubilee." Sumeeta smiled at her then, full on, and Jubilee felt strangely at ease.

She smirked back. "Just Jubes, if ya don't mind." Jubliee reached out her hand and Sumeeta shook it. "Nice to finally meet ya, Susie."

***

Logan stretched and scratched his stomach as he stood up from the plush chair in the suite that Xavier's money had provided him, Kurt and Angel with. He was bored. Political assignments did not sit well with him. He preferred showing up, pleading his case just once, and slashing away any disagreements after that. But things were already so precarious on the mutant/human relations front that he couldn't afford to be that rash.

And he had Jubes to worry about, too. Where she was, she wouldn't have any back up if things got dicey. More and more he was feeling that leaving her to her own defenses was a bad move. At least the X-Men's presence in Germany that day was public knowledge - they had certain laws on their side, for now. Jubes had nothing to lean on, because as a rebel, she was operating outside of the law, no matter how stupid the laws had become.

Logan, Kurt and Angel had just come from a heated debate between the mutant and human residences of the Die Rose GartenWohnungen, an apartment building in small suburb of Hamburg. It hadn't gone smoothly, and the many of the humans were moving out, breaking their leases and angering the complex's management. The management was turning to the American Pro-Human Party to act as mediators. Unfortunately, the PHP often used the FOH to get their 'resolutions'. So far, the Friends of Humanity hadn't been seen by the three X-Men. And they assumed, smartly, that it was not because they weren't in Germany yet. They knew it was probably because the FOH was in hiding until the Pro-Humaners blew their little whistles with their little chicken lips.

So they ate their dinners, digested, and made plans to go back to the Rose Garden Apartments that night, just to check on the mutants that were living there.

The riot was already in full gear when they got there. Couches and desks had been thrown out of the windows of the apartments, presumably they were property of the mutant residents because they were doused with gasoline and lit on fire. Several humans were in the streets, running around with signs supporting the FOH, or condemning mutants in general. The FOH 'soldiers' were doing their job - nothing - by just standing on the fringe of the activity and watching. When a few mutants were chased from the building and then shot by the human residents following them, that was when the three X-Men decided to act.

Angel was first, flying towards the front of the building and attempting to enter through a blown out window. Logan followed suit, running head on to the doors where mutants were fleeing out. Kurt bamfed his way there, beating the feral and avoiding the bullets that Logan took in his back instead. They entered the building and searched for survivors immediately. Some of the furniture had been burned on the porches, and now the fires had gotten into the building. The sprinklers were going off already, and Logan could smell the oncoming smoke. The building was already lost. Many mutants were already dead. The only thing they could do was find whoever else was inside and get them out.

On the third floor, Logan heard a small girl crying. She and her older brother were in their bathroom. Angel was already there, trying to get them to come out, but they were afraid of his blue skin and his huge wings. Kurt flipped on his inducer, and coaxed them out of the bathtub with reassuring German words. They came out, and allowed Warren to fly them out.

Logan and Kurt stood at the window, and watched in horror as several FOH members finally moved. They raised their weapons and shot Warren, children in his arms be damned. He and the children were riddled with bullets, and he hadn't put on his armor before they left that night. Angel and the kids fell to the ground, dead, and in a pool of their own blood.

Angel's dead body was now caught in the crossfire, and the bullets were getting closer to Kurt and Logan on the porch. The initial shock of seeing their longtime friend massacred wore off of Logan first; he could survive bullets. But Kurt would not be so lucky. They were enormously outnumbered and they had to get out of there.

He stole a look over at Nightcrawler, and he could see the teleporter struggling with his thoughts of bamfing in to grab Warren's lifeless form, and hopefully between the bullets, which was not possible. It was wrong, just to leave Angel's body there… to leave behind the body of a fallen comrade. And especially wrong for Kurt, given his religious convictions. But they had little choice.

Logan grabbed the Elf before he could make that mistake, and dragged him back inside the burning building. He forced Kurt to look him in the face.

"I know what ya wanna do, Elf. I want it too, but we can't." He looked back over at the curtain, billowing in the heat and wind. "Get us inta the sewers below this buildin', Kurt. We gotta leave, an' right now."

All he could think about was Jubilee, alone, in a world that was erupting with unchecked violence towards mutants. Angel was dead, and he hated that… but he wasn't going back to New York with Kurt to mourn Angel's loss with the other X-Men.

He was going to Mongolia to find his woman, with or without Nightcrawler's help.

***

"Heisler, Jesus! It is so good ta see ya!"

Jubilee hugged David fiercely. She hadn't seen him since he warned her about the Governor's plans to capture her in Oklahoma. "Jubes! You made it, thank God!" His voice was shaky, and Jubilee noticed Sumeeta kept looking out of the windows while they talked fast and caught up.

"But, what's happening? You can't possibly be sneaking people over the border into Russia with all these troops running around. That's like… major suicide." She wiped the sweat off her brow with the towel he handed her, and gratefully accepted the small glass of water he poured from a bottle.

"We aren't. We aren't even recruiting. We're already in hiding and I couldn't even get a hold of you to tell you to abort." He frowned, and squeezed her hand. "Not that that-"

"-would have stopped me," Jubilee finished his sentence and smiled at him. "Okay, so the operation's a bust. Let's just deal with the sitch we got and be done with it. I got connections," she said, opening up her duffle and yanking out her laptop and cell phone. "An' I got hardware and the juice. I can have a pick up here in no time."

She immediately logged into her live audio link software and tried to contact Remy through his back door server.

***

From out on the lawn of Xavier's immense property, Remy LeBeau never saw the prompt for Jubilee's chatlink on his computer at the boathouse.

"Uncle Remy, do it again!" squealed Nat, clapping her hands and laughing hysterically. Remy smiled; he was glad to be back in the little girl's highest favor. What Logan didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Yeah, only make it bigger," shouted Paul.

Rouge looked up at him from where Natalie sat in her covered lap. She gave him the 'damage property at yer own risk, Cajun' face. Remy shrugged. He charged up another pebble, and aimed for another one of Jean's lawn ornaments. This time he not only hit the little wooden girl bending over with her spotted bloomers exposed, he blew it sky high.

"Dude! That was perfect!" Paul laughed.

"Good… Ah hated that one," muttered Rogue. Natalie giggled uncontrollably.

***

After waiting at least fifteen minutes, there was no answer, and Jubilee logged out of that link and tried one of her Cajun uncles. That was when the line experienced interruptions and her laptop froze. She frowned, and restarted.

"Damn Macs and their bugs," she muttered disgustedly.

David crossed his arms, sighing conceitedly, "I keep telling you to get a PC platform, Lee, but you never listen…"

"Fuck you David, I'm a Mac girl and ya know it," she flipped him the bird and he chuckled happily.

"Macs are fer shit, Jubes," he goaded her. "Unstable, unreliable, unpredictable…"

"Spoken like a narrow-minded PC user, David," she smiled as the familiar, beautiful bong of restart filled the air. "I'll have you know that I ran Oklahoma on 3 souped up iMacs and a G-8 with a modified proce-"

"Shhhh!" From the window, Sumeeta waved her hand at them and stepped back a little. She groaned. "Aw, diddly-fuck, we're in trouble now!" She ran over to them and started shoving things in her bag. "Get your gear together, they found us."

Jubilee didn't bother to ask who or how, she just did as she was told and followed them down to the lower levels, and out into the alley. Susie had already slipped into a Mongolian façade, a young girl this time. Several shouts were heard above them, and Jubilee looked up to see the same soldiers that had initially followed her and Sumeeta earlier. They were yelling from the very window Susie had just been standing at. Jubilee lobbed a paf at him, just before David yanked her out of the soldier's line of sight and the bullets that followed.

They ran down a side street, packed with rotting foodstuffs and vendors, hookers, conmen, and their willing victims. Darting in and out of the people, it was difficult for them to stay together, but they managed. They turned another corner and saw no one following behind, but ahead of them, the unmarked vans of the PHP and the foot soldiers of the FOH were already on them. They turned, and headed back, only to come head on into the path of the original set of soldiers.

Jubilee went to toss another paf, but the barrel of a gun was now in her face. She froze. She was angry, but she froze. David pushed her out of the way of the gun, the soldier shot, and clipped him across his shoulder.

"David!" Sumeeta screamed, morphing back and rushing to his side as he fell, clutching his wound. It wasn't fatal, but it hurt like hell and was bleeding profusely.

"Jubilation Lee?" A man in a blue lab coat with a clipboard strolled up to Jubilee and questioned her with raised eyebrows.

"Maybe," Jubes spat, catching her breath, "What the fuck is it to you?"

"Mm. That makes you Sumeeta Karamshi, then?"

Susie looked up from where she kneeled with David, her hand pressed onto his wound. "Y-yes," she answered.

"He is David Heisler," the lab coat pointed at David with a pen, and motioned to one of the soldiers. The soldier took his pistol and shot David in the head, blowing out the back of his skull.

David's lifeless body fell over. Jubilee gasped, and Sumeeta screamed hysterically while she tired to sit him back up in the panicked hope that he would somehow come back to her. Jubilee swallowed her shock quickly and lunged for the blue lab coat.

"You son of a bitch!" She shouted, and charges were beginning to fly from her hands. Someone grabbed her from behind and an inhibitor collar was on her neck before she could blink. The vengeful sparks died at her fingernails. She tugged at the collar immediately, it was a too-tight fit, just enough to allow her to breathe. That is, if she didn't panic too much.

Susie was lost to her tears; her beloved David was gone for good. She rocked back and forth with him in her arms, slick with his massive blood loss. They lifted her from the ground and attached a collar to her as well, and she fought them, but only because they took her away from David's body.

Lab coat pointed at the body and barked, "Clean that up. Toss it in the same hole with Soshnikov's." He looked at Sumeeta and frowned. "Get that one isolated in our van." He turned to Jubilee as they dragged off a kicking and screaming Sumeeta, and smirked at the small woman's attempt to get out of the soldier's clutches and help her friend. "You… She is yours." Lab coat glanced at one of the soldiers and turned on his heel.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Jubilee screamed at his retreating back, helpless to stop the tears from falling. One of the soldiers opened her duffle and the laptop fell out near her feet. She immediately crushed it under her boot heels over and over until they grabbed her and punched her and made her stand still. A man in a black FOH uniform appeared, and spoke to her with no emotion.

"Jubilation Lee, you are under arrest for the murder of former Oklahoma Governor Wallace Pearson of the Pro-Human Party on March 14th, 2005. You are registered as a Mutant Rebel, and therefore your rights are waived."

"This is complete bullshit!" she screamed at them, "This is Mongolia, not Oklahoma! And I have rights!"

With a wave of his hand, one of the uniformed men whacked her in the back of her head with a billy club and she found herself falling to the rocky street. She landed on her knees. Her thin pants were poor protection as the dirty, sharp gravel cut through them to her skin, poking into the flesh there with her weight on bearing down on them. She was reeling from the blow to her head and the pain in her knees was excruciating.

How ya gonna get out o' this one Lee?

***

92's phone rang. He received the news that Lee had been arrested by the PHP and was being held in Mongolia pending her exportation back to Oklahoma. David Heisler was dead. And Sumeeta? She was in their hands now. He ran down the hall to his superior's office. Just before knocking, he took a few deep cleansing breaths, straightened his tie and swallowed hard.

"Enter."

Even thought the voice was muffled from behind the door, it still managed to be threatening. 92 opened and closed the door quickly, and proceeded to give the heavy man the information.

"That is very good news, Agent 92. It is result-oriented news; the kind I favor."

92 shifted nervously on the carpet in front of his superior's expensive desk. "Sir, I have some other information that troubles me. It isn't about Karamshi directly, but more the medical program."

The stony-eyed man looked up at 92. "What is it Agent?"

"It's Fury, Sir. He's poking his nose around in the program. One of the medical staff members told me he is getting, uh… involved in Jane Winchester's case."

The heavy man put down his tea and NY Times. "Involved? How so?"

"Like… romantically involved. And," he laughed nervously, "You know how Fury can get over a women, Sir!" Agent 92 smiled weakly, then cleared his throat.

The heavy man furrowed his brows at the emotional content in Agent 92's tone. "Colonel Fury will be dealt with, in time. For now, he still sees SHIELD as he sees fit - the way he had re-built it in the past. He will not be much trouble unless he suspects otherwise. And for that, we have a contingency plan. Dismissed, Agent."

92 straightened up and inhaled sharply, then turned on his heel and left the heavy man alone.

***

"When questioned about their involvement in the day's events in Germany, representatives of the FOH had this to say:

'We do not condone the actions of these civilians, but we understand their concerns. We were here simply to help the PHP perform their duties as a mediator of this issue. It is unfortunate that it has escalated to this point, and we understand that some of the human occupants of the apartment building suffered injuries as the mutants fled the structure. We are doing all we can to attend to their wounds.'

When asked if they would be tending the wounds of the mutants involved as well, this was their reply:

'If there are any mutants who were injured, all they need do is come forward and they will receive the same qualified, proper medical treatment. But it is our understanding that all the mutants involved were killed, so it is a moot point.'

Several mutants were involved in the riot, notably one who had seemingly taken two human children from the burning building to act as a shield against the guns that were being fired. A German bystander related what he saw:

<The blue man flew down from the third floor with huge wings of feathers. I saw him as he was shot over and over. He was injured badly, and he fell to the ground and that was when he crushed the children.>

We at BNBC have learned that the mutant referred to as the attacker of those children did die of his wounds, and he was an affluent American named Warren Worthington the Third, owner of Worthington Industries. Also known as Archangel, he was a member of the controversial Mutant association known as the X-Men. There is already an investigation in place to learn if this riot was instigated by Worthington or any other members of the X-Men.

This is Trish Tilby in New York, for BNBC News."

 

Cyke felt his legs give out underneath him. Taking a break between the bill-paying and inventory, he had simply been channel surfing in the kitchen while grabbing a cup of coffee when he happened upon Tilby's report. The coffee mug slipped out of his limp fingers and crashed to the floor, hot liquid coursing everywhere on the tile. Before he had time to let the news sink in, he felt the anguish of the entire house inside his head as the telepaths within connected them all in a mansion-wide broadcast. He put a hand to his screaming head and sat down before he fell down.

Kurt and Logan were apparently missing. And his friend, his old friend Warren, was dead and gone.

***

A soldier brought Jubilee her 'dinner' to her makeshift cell, which consisted of a poorly cooked piece of fish and a scrap of stale bread. She was starving, so she ate it.

Then she proceeded to vomit it all back up.

She knew the PHP was behind her arrest, they freely admitted that. She had no clue as to where they were getting their firepower or their finances. The FOH was an obvious suspect. They were, at the very least, involved.

What these people were doing was highly illegal, but who was going to care? She was a 'mutie' after all. She also knew that they were holding her here, very close to where she had seen David murdered, because they were reluctant to take her back home - just yet. More and more politicians were converting their platforms to the Pro-Human Party. Many of the States were starting to fall in line with mutant policies by closing in on the adoption of the FOH's Mutant Registration and Reservation policy, just as Oklahoma had. It was not the law yet in these places, by any means. But they would help with getting Jubilee to Oklahoma for a 'trial'. The problem was most of the other states - like New York - were still tolerant of mutants. Xavier would throw money at it, and they'd raise a stink about her being arrested in a foreign country, or the lack of those pesky Miranda rights, or something… and somehow they'd get her off.

So they were staying in Mongolia, for now. When the more conservative Western states formed a block with Oklahoma, they'd bring her back home, and get her strung up in a hurry.

Jubilee rubbed her grumbling belly. She hadn't eaten well since she left the ship. She hadn't eaten much at all. Yet she'd just gotten sick. She'd been sick everyday for some time.

I know I need food. But I keep puking it up. And how can I be so hungry when my stomach feels so full…

It was true, it was sticking out a little bit. She suddenly had a vision of those poor souls in Ethiopia and Poland, children who were clearly starving, yet their stomachs stuck out like basketballs because of some sort of bacteria growing in their gut.

So what now? I'm malnourished, so my tummy's gonna swell?

She gasped when she felt it move slightly. Jubilee's eyes bugged out.

No. It's gas, she told herself, cuz that just isn't possible.

The Beast had told her so, and the Beast was a genius…

Besides, Logan just nailed me for the first time… what? Three weeks ago? Maybe four? And I'm showing already? No flamin' way.

Her stomach moved again. This time it was more like a kick. A tiny little kick.

"Oh… shit."

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