"Damn." Remy said, hanging up the phone and looking at Bella Donna, who tilted her head in confusion.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Remy sighed. "In de middle of all dis crap down here, I have to go. Dat was Professor Xavier. He needs me to go on an emergency mission; I have to leave immediately."

Bel's eyes widened. "Oh no…Can' he send someone else?"

Remy gave his ex-wife a cryptic grin. "He is. I'm s'posed to go wit' Storm, Rogue an' Cyclops. I don' know how long it's gon' take, but can you handle t'ings here without me?"

Bel frowned. "I'll do my best, but it isn' gon' be easy wit' one of us gone."

"I know, Bel. But I don' have a choice." Remy admitted. "Now, I have to go tell de others de bad news.

A few minutes later, Remy found the six thieves gathered in Emil's room, talking quietly. Emil himself was sound asleep in bed. Remy quietly shut the door behind himself and looked at them all, a concerned expression crossing his fine features when he saw Emil.

"I got some bad news, mes amis." He said, deciding to get right to the point. "I have to leave for New York immediately."

"How come?" Genard asked, quickly glancing at Emil.

Remy sighed as he caught the worried look in Genard's kind brown eyes. "Professor Xavier needs me to go wit' some of de others on an emergency mission to stop de FOH. I don' know how long I'll be gone. An' I can' even give you a number where you can reach me."

He went across the room and stood beside Emil's bed, gently resting his hand on his friend's slightly feverish forehead. "Promise me you'll take care of him."

"You know we will, Remy." Zoe replied. "He's important to us to, you know."

Remy nodded. "I have to go. I hate not tellin' him, but I also hate to wake him up. He needs as much rest as he can get."

"We'll tell him when he wakes up," Mercy said. "You better get going."

When Emil woke up late the next morning, he was alone in his room. He didn't think much of that, because while he was sick, he didn't expect his friends to stay by his side twenty-four-seven. He was feeling a little bit better, so he decided to get up and go see Remy. Upon finding his friend's room empty, he frowned and started to go back to his own room, but stopped when he saw Bella Donna down the hallway.

"Bel." He croaked out, coughing and almost giggling at how funny his voice sounded.

Bella Donna turned and gave him a little smile. "How are you feeling?" she asked, joining him outside his room.

Emil sighed. "A little better," he coughed. "Where's Remy?"

"Oh…" Bel faltered. She hadn't realized that Emil didn't know Remy was gone. "Emil, he had to go to New York. Emergency X-Men business. He'll be back soon."

"Huh. Okay…How come it's so quiet? Where is everyone?"

"I'm not sure. I've been up for hours, an' I haven' seen anyone else. Dey wouldn' all still be asleep…"

"Non…" Emil giggled, coughing again. "I'm de bed-bug 'round here dese days."

Neither Emil or Bel knew it, but at that moment, things were about as bad as they could get. In the basement of the safehouse, Theoren, Claude, Mercy, Genard and Zoe were lined up on the floor along one wall, bound and gagged and only half-conscious. Three very nasty assassins had beaten them very badly. Singer's job was to keep an eye out for Bella Donna or Emil.

"Now. Here's how t'ings are gon' work. You better be listenin'." Gris said. "Your little mutie savior ain' here. An' de only other one of you who might be able to do anyt'ing 'bout dis is upstairs, hardly able to stand up on his own legs. If you're good little boys an' girls, you'll live to see tomorrow. If you give us any trouble, you won'. In de end, t'ough, you're all gon' die. It depends on you how long you stay alive b'fore you do, though."

Upstairs, Bella Donna had, with the help of Tante Mattie, told Emil to go back to bed. Then she went looking for the rest of the Guild with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn't like the way this was looking. It was really too quiet in the safehouse. Even Tante Mattie had noticed it and said something.

In the kitchen, Bel paused at the basement door. "Why would dey all be down dere?" she asked herself. It didn't make any sense, but she had to look. When she was halfway down the stairs, she heard Singer's voice.

"She's comin', Gris!"

Bel stopped at the bottom of the stairs and took in the scene before her, her eyes wide with horror. "Gris…what are you doin'?" she demanded, her voice carrying all the authority she had as the former leader of the Assassins Guild.

Gris-Gris grinned evilly at her. "Endin' de problems, my dear Bella Donna." He said, his voice venomous. "You see, we're gon' kill dese here t'ieves, an' when we're done, I'm gon' go upstairs an' finish off dat little red-haired punk, an' all our problems will be solved."

"You don' have to do dis, Gris. Dere has to be another way." Bella Donna pleaded. Silently, she was sending out a message to Tante Mattie, whom she knew was upstairs with Emil. She had managed to ask Mattie to come to the basement, but that was as far as she got before Fifolet took the barrel of his gun and slammed it across the back of her head, knocking her unconscious.

"Oh no." Tante Mattie breathed. The old woman was not only a healer, but she also had emphatic abilities, like Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and she felt what had happened in the basement.

"What?" Emil asked her, whispering again because he found it was easier on his voice.

"If I'm getting dis right, chil', de guild is fallin' apart. I'm gon' go down to see if I can find out exactly what's goin' on. I'll be back."

Tante Mattie sent her spirit down to the basement (she didn't dare go down physically) and saw what was happening. Emil patiently waited for her to come back and when she did, he didn't like the look on her kindly face.

"What?" he asked again, fear creeping into his hushed voice.

"Get up an' get dressed. I'd go myself, but I have to stay here an' see if I can fix dis mess. What I could tell, Gris, Fifolet, and Questa have de rest of de t'ieves tied up in de basement. Gris said somet'ing 'bout killin' dem. Bel tried to stop dem, but she got knocked out, by Fifolet I t'ink."

"So…where'm I goin?" Emil questioned, pulling on a pair of socks.

"You're in no shape to do dis, it's not gon' be easy, but you have to get out of here. You have to go to New York an' see if you can talk Professor Xavier into getting Remy home from de mission he's on early. We need him here more den de X-Men need him."

Emil started coughing as he got ready to go and ended up sitting back on his bed, drained of energy, holding his stomach in pain. "Okay. I'll go." He said, coughing some more and groaning. "But if I die doin' dis, I'm gon' come back an' haunt dose blasted assassins…"