Authors Note: *Looks sheepish* - So....I'm sorry about the shocking rate of updating! On the bright side, 4 more chaps to go, so at my current rate this fic should defo be finished by 2014!:S

Thanks to everyone who's still reading. I am going to try and finish this fic by the summer! I dedicate this to everyone who wants to know how the hell the story ends! xx

War and Peace

Anthony Gage was certain of few things in life. People screwed you over, alliances can change at the first scent of trouble and you always should know who your enemies are. What he was most certain of though was himself. Of his own abilities, or more specifically: his perfect aim with a pistol.

He watched the bullet head straight for Lance's heart. The corners of his mouth turned up slightly as he felt a chuckle coming. Then it happened, for the second time that week.

He missed.

The smirk turned into a growl as blue energy crackled around the bullet and it stopped in mid-air. The bullet then turned around and headed for him instead.

"Son of a bitch!" shouted Gage as he dived out the way, dropping his gun in his urgency and the bullet smashed into the wall behind him.

"Why thank you" said Wanda grimly as blue energy crackled in her palms.

Gage was fully aware of the power this girl had, and his weapon was currently lying several feet away on the floor.

Before he could even look at it, the girl's twin had snatched it up in his hands and was twirling it around his long, bony index finger. "Yeah, I don't think so buddy."

He growled and anger erupted within him. He refused to go down to a bunch of no-good mutant freaks.

"Well, looks like you punks got me." He said while discreetly reaching into his boot for a knife he had stashed there.

"Watch him. If he moves, shoot him" Lance said to the speedy one. "Wanda, untie Tom and Shell."

Gage bit back another snarl at having his own gun trained on him. He'd have to wait for his opportunity.

Lance went over to his sister and untied her.

The little girl hugged him tightly and Gage felt like he was going to be sick. 'Spare me' he thought to himself. He was in the process of rolling his eyes when the floor started rumbling again. He looked up to see Lance examining the 3 gashes he'd cut into his sisters face. Lance growled and then turned towards him.

"You are going to pay for touching her!" cried Lance as he thrust his arm in Gage's direction. The ground swelled and cracks appeared in the ceiling as the furniture knocked into him, knocking him into the wall. Gage grunted as he fell back to the floor again. He could taste blood in his mouth and his shoulder had taken a pretty bad knock, but he still had a grip on his small knife.

"Get them out of here" ordered Lance to the Maximoff twins.

"What!" Screeched Shelly

"Lance!" cried Arianna pulling on his hand

"OUT!" screamed Lance putting Arianna's hand into Tom's as he ushered them towards the door, never for a second taking his eyes off Gage.

Tom, Shelly and Arianna continued to protest. Lance looked towards Pietro and nodded once.

"You heard the man"

And with that sentence he had whisked them all out of the room before they could utter another word.

Within a second, Pietro had returned and both twins looked at Lance at he glanced down at Gage with nothing but hatred in his eyes for the man who had once taken everything that was important away from him, and had been planning to do it all over again..

"Lance?" asked Wanda, "Want some help kicking this loser's ass?"

Lance shook his head slowly, "Why don't you help find the others" he said. The twins got the message and left the room.

The door closed quietly behind them and Lance cracked his knuckles.

"How about we settle this one on one Anthony?" he said.

Gage spat the blood out of his mouth and smiled the smile of a purely sadistic man. 'One on one?' he thought to himself as he adjusted his hold on his knife.

Just his kind of fight.

In a random East Wing corridor...

"Ow!" screamed Pietro as he got a kick to the shin as soon as he and Wanda arrived back in the corridor where they had deposited the Winters family, which happened to be 3 floors up and on the other side of the building.

"Take us back to Lance, now!" screamed Arianna

"This is Lance's score to settle, not ours" said Wanda seriously

"Oh that's just fine and dandy isn't it!" Shelly threw her hands up in the air in exasperation and looked towards Tom for help

"Take us back!" ordered Tom

"Now!" added Arianna as she stamped her foot onto Pietro's

"Yeow!" he screamed. "I can't go anywhere with a broken foot!"

Tom turned to Wanda. "What is Lance thinking!"

"If I were Lance, I'd want Gage dead." She said evenly

Shelly gasped and covered her hands over her mouth. "No! That's what the police are there for!"

"Police? Have you not been paying attention to the kind of friends that man has?" said Pietro

"If he got out once, he'll do it again" added Wanda. "That's why Lance left you in the first place. He just wants you to be safe."

"But I don't want my son to have another man's death on his conscience!" argued Tom

"Screw Gage, I wanna help Lance kill him!" said Arianna as her mother used a tissue to wipe off the blood on her face.

"Pffff…Lance will be fine, he's a mutant." Said Pietro

"But he's not invincible." Said Shelly stepping forward. She put her hands on Pietro's shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Take us back. Let us make sure he's safe."

Pietro looked at Wanda who rolled her eyes. He sighed. "Lance is gonna kill me for this." He zipped away with Shelley and Wanda before coming back for Arianna and Tom.

Ballroom

"This way!" screamed Jean as she led the way, following the mental signatures of the others to the ball room whilst Magneto took care of the guards they met along the way effortlessly.

"You help the others, we'll handle the rescue" said Magneto confidently as he signalled for his team to follow behind him.

"Wait-" said Scott but the screams of the others trying to evade capture reached his ears and he decided to continue towards the ballroom. A move he would later look back on to regret.

Within seconds of stepping foot into the chaos, he was hit. He tried to struggle, but he could no longer move as the material encasing him head to foot solidified.

"Scott!" cried Jean as she sheathed her self in a telekinetic bubble and deflected an incoming attack.

"Urgh, I hate her" said Empath as he watched his shot fail. He swung his gun over to rest on his shoulder and sighed. "That whole 'nothing can touch me' thing is soooooo cheating"

"Roulette, take care of it." Ordered Jetstream as he assessed the playing field.

As Emma had predicted, Shadowcat was proving troublesome: she kept phasing out of any attempts to capture her with the green holding gel and was currently preoccupied in taking out guards in an effort to get to the members of his team with the blob guns.

Jean Grey, the Wolverine, Toad, and Nightcrawler were the only ones left to detain.

He aimed another shot at Nightcrawler, who was currently hanging off a chandelier and missed as he teleported across the ballroom. The chandelier, on the other hand, dropped to the floor and left a huge dent in the ballroom floor, as large as the rock it had now become.

Roulette had prepared a black disc. She waited until Jean flew closer and then hurled it in her direction. Although her aim was perfect, it bounced off her shields and hit the nearest person.

That person happened to be Wolverine, who - as luck would have it, tripped over just as Empath shot at him.

"Not quite the target but it works for me" chuckled Empath

"Get ready" said Jetstream to his teammate. He propelled himself forward and sped towards the Toad. Shrieking, the filthy little mutant dodged out of the way and straight into the path of Empath's next shot.

Roulette meanwhile had managed to trap Nightcrawler. "Got another one!" she screeched happily

"Two to go!" shouted Jetstream as he watched Shadowcat and Jean Grey devoting all their efforts to evading capture.

"Give it up girls!" He shouted, "You're almost out of energy. Save yourselves the effort and come quietly."

"How about not!" shouted Jean. Fire flashed in her eyes as she swiped her hand out in front of her, directing a wave of telekinetic power. She sent the surrounding guards who were currently shooting normal bullets at her flying across the room. She then turned her attention onto Jetstream. His own special immobiliser gun was out of his hands before he could make any moves to grab it.

Jean grinned as the gun flew into her hands. She looked at Jetsteam and took aim. "Let's see how you like it!"

Back in the West Wing...

"What was that!?" asked Shelley as a loud bang vibrated the walls of the corridor they were running down

"Either Lance or a bomb." Said Wanda. She thought about it for a second. "Most probably Lance."

"Yeah well, Let's get him out of there." Said Tom

"Bad hostagesss."

"What the-" asked Pietro as Catseye appeared out of nowhere flanked by ten or so guards carrying guns of the normal and immobilising variety,

"Busted!" said Arianna as her father tried to push her behind him and out of sight

"Got that right" said Catseye before taking aim at Wanda and firing a blob at her.

Wanda stopped it mid air and threw it back across the hall so that it hit one of the guards and froze him solid. "Not these again!" she muttered as she took up a defensive stance.

Catseye growled. "Ssshoot them all!" She raised her gun while the other henchmen around her started firing bullets into the air.

"Why are you fighting this punk?" asked Gage as he and Lance circled each other, not taking their eyes of each other. "You know I'm gonna kill you eventually."

Lance eyed the knife his step father was holding in his left hand warily. "All I know, is that its time you got what you deserved!"

Lance stamped his foot and the walls around him flexed, his power sending Gage flying back into the wall.

Gage coughed and shook the cobwebs out of his head and focused. He jumped over the next wave of power Lance sent in his direction and used a chair careening across the room for leverage as dove straight at Lance.

Lance was ready for him. He was done being scared of this man. He dropped to the floor so Gage flew over him and hit the table.

"Old age catching up on you?" chuckled Lance as he watched Gage pick himself up

"There's a reason I'm on Interpol's most wanted list kid." Spat Gage as he threw his knife directly at Lance's heart. Lance dived to the floor to avoid the knife and before he knew what was happening, Gage had landed on his chest and pinned him to the floor.

Lance's eyes watered as Gage punched him hard in the face. He then proceeded to pummel every part of Lance he could reach. "I've had years of army training on how to deal with stupid punks like you boy!"

Lance spluttered and coughed as blood flew out of his mouth from the latest punch. Oddly, he then began to chuckle. 'Just so you know, I've had training. Just in a different kind of army." He threw his head up and smashed Gage right in the mouth with his helmet before throwing him off and kicking him across the room.

Lance wiped blood off his face and then grinned. "And Summers said my 'fruit-bowl' was useless!'.

Gage picked up his knife and rushed at Lance, who dodged to the side and then kicked Gage in the back, forcing him to the floor again. "While you were rotting in the jail I put you in, I was getting stronger and better."

"And you know what Anthony?" Lance kicked Gage back to the floor as he tried to get up again. "I'm better then you."

"You wish" grunted Gage as he attempted to swipe Lance's legs out from under him. Lance jumped and then landed on Gage's ankle, making him scream out in pain. "You little shit, I'm gonna get you for taking away the best years of my life."

"Me?!" shouted Lance furiously

Lance knelt down and dragged Gage back up til' he was standing and then punched him so hard he actually flew into the air a little before crumpling to the floor. "It's you! You did this! You ruined my life! You killed my parent's!" Lance kicked him squarely in the ribs and let his anger towards this man flow out of him. The room shook violently as Lance screamed at Anthony Gage.

"Because of you I lost family, friends and my home! What did you lose? What did you give up? Nothing?! Because you're a worthless piece of crap! You're unhappy because you did some jail time for being an asshole? I think you got off easy!"

Lance turned around and punched a fist into the trembling wall. Cracks in the plaster erupted from his fist and spread to the ceiling. Behind him, Gage staggered to his feet and drew his arm back, preparing to throw his knife at Lance again. "Should've watched your back kid!" He barked.

Lance glanced over his shoulder. "Wrong again"

Before the knife could leave Gage's hand, the chandelier he was standing directly under fell on top of him, along with chunks of the ceiling.

Lance walked over and wrenched the knife out of Gage's hand. He was largely pinned under the chandelier, with only his head and left arm free.

Lance heard some kind of commotion going on outside, but didn't really register what it meant. He could only thing of one thing: payback.

Gage screamed as Lance stabbed his free hand with the knife and pinned it too the wooden floor, just like Gage had done to Lance all those years ago.

"It's over. You can't hurt me anymore" Lance muttered as he prepared himself to take the next step, and bury Gage forever.

"ARGH! LANCE!"

The familiar scream was followed by the sound of multiple guns being fired.

Lance jerked his head up. "Arianna!" He shouted as he dove for the door and threw it open in time to see his sister, foster parents cowering from a fight going on in the corridor between Wanda and Pietro and a whole lot of Hellfire guards.

Wanda was currently manipulating all the bullets that were being fired so that they were all being held inches away from her face.

"Whoa!" Lance heard Arianna mutter

"Totally Matrix of her" whispered Shelly back.

Pietro saw Lance dash out of the room. "Time for a bit of 'shake 'n' take'?" He asked.

Lance smirked. "On it!" He stamped his foot on the ground, and within seconds Catseye and the Hellfire guards were tripping over on the shaking floor. Pietro took advantage of their diverted attention to grab their guns and re-distributed them amongst Lance, Shelly, Tom and Wanda. He kept Catseye's special immobiliser gun for himself.

"Oooh new toy!" He shot at Catseye, but she jumped out of the way rapidly, and two of her colleagues were caught by the green blob instead.

Catseye hissed and dived for Pietro as the remaining Hellfire guards screamed into their mikes for back-up. Lance and Wanda had the remaining guards knocked out in a minute, while Pietro seemed to be having a whale of a time irritating Catseye.

"Here Kitty!" Pietro dashed to the left of her. "Missed me!" Catseye hissed and swiped at him again. And missed, again. She snarled with fury as she dodged Pietro's shots with the immobiliser gun and attempted to strike him with her claws.

"Rowr! Kitty's got a temper!" mocked Pietro

"Lance! Wanda! Pietro?" came Kitty's voice over the com-link. "We're in serious trouble! HELP!"

"We're on our way!" said Wanda into her mike calmly.

"End it Pietro!" said Lance

"Time for a cat-nap!" said Pietro as he dashed behind Catseye. Before she had time to register where he'd gone, she was already starting to freeze in some big, green goo.

"Lance where's Gage?" asked Arianna.

"He's in there, I knocked him out!" Lance nodded towards the room he had just come out of. "Let me finish him off and then –"

"We don't have time for this Lance! Let's go help the others now!" Ordered Wanda as Jeans voice also came over their com-links asking for back up.

"Let's move!" said Pietro he dashed down the corridor and then was back before the others had even taken a step. "Whoa, lets move somewhere else, there's like 30 more of those goons on their way"

"This way!" shouted Lance as he and the others took off in the opposite direction. "I swear there are some lifts round the corner! Come on!"

Shelly help Arianna up onto Lance's back and then ran after the kids. Pietro was zooming off ahead to check the way was clear and Shelly glanced to her left to look at her husband.

But he wasn't there.

He was stood still outside the door Lance had just come out of.

The door to the room with Gage still inside it.

Not saying anything to the others, she slowed down and turned back in the other direction. Tom looked up as she reached him. His lifted up his firearm and looked at her.

"I don't think I can leave." He said to her. He smiled as he spoke a line from his favourite Ramones song, but it didn't reach his eyes, 'should I stay or should I go?'

Shelley looked at the door then back at her husband before raising her own gun. She held her free hand out to him, and Tom took it and gave it a light squeeze.

"We promised to look after them together, so I say, team effort."

He looked at her and nodded. They burst into the room and Gage was lying on the floor, wiping blood out of his mouth. "What do you want blondilocks?" he spluttered as he attempted to stand up.

As one, Shelley and Tom raised their guns and pointed them straight at Gages chest.

"To give our kids some peace." Said Tom

......and SCENE! Hope you enjoyed it! Next chap is something for all the ROMY fans ;)

Muchos love

Soulstress

xx