Author's Notes: Once again thanks to all who reviewed. This is the chapter that you have all been waiting for. A really big battle. I am sorry it took me a very, very,very, long time to update this story, but I had a a lagr amount of writter's block and I had many thigns going on in school.

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The Battle

Vonce now stood in his chamber. It took quite some time for the fire in front of the door to finally burn out. When it finally did he figured the Puppet Master and the mutants were long gone.

After debating for some time whether he should go after them one of his men entered his chamber. He looked at the cloaked figure. "I hope you have brought good news."

"I am afraid not," said the man. "Forgive me sir, but Hennin's body was found not to far from the ceremonial chamber. He had been stabbed in the heart. He's dead sir."

Vonce growled in anger. The muscles on his new body tensed up. He turned to the man and grabbed him. In a fit of rage he tore him apart.

He gave a low growl as he stood covered in blood. "Do not worry Hennin," he said to himself, "I will avenge you. I will bring you back and I will use the brains of the mutants and the Puppet Master to do it."

Vonce whipped the blood off his now clawed hands and called for his guards. The two cloaked men entered the chamber and saw the pieces of their former comrade on the floor.

Vonce looked at them and said, "get my men together. We are going after those mutants."

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Rogue lead the way through the temple with Andre at her side. She was the only one who knew her way around this place. The five other mutants and the puppets followed closely behind.

"So do we have a plan," asked Scott as the puppets ran further ahead to get closer to their master.

"Well," said Andre, "we're definitely gonna get into a huge brawl with the other Hanzain Cult members. I say we try to focus on Vonce, and if we kill him just get the hell out of here."

"But what about Suetek and the last Totem," asked Rogue, "they're still on the loose."

"We'll worry about that later," was Andre's only answer.

Rogue began to feel sick to her stomach. She had been in battles before, but never with this many enemies.

She could not help, but fear what would happen if they failed. If they did then Vonce would transfer all of his men's souls into similar creatures as the one he was now.

She looked at Andre. His eyes were full of uncertainty.

"Do you think we stand much of a chance," Rogue asked her brother.

Andre did not want to lower the confidence of the X-Men, but he could not lie. "Our chances are very slim. We may die trying to kill Vonce."

Rogue looked back at the five X-men. All of them except for Logan had fear in their eyes. Rogue began to think that it was a stupid idea to fight along side Andre if they were just going to loose.

But then she looked over to Andre and the puppets. They may have seemed uncertain about the upcoming battle, but they did not seem worried at all.

They looked determined to beat Vonce even though their chances were not good.

Rogue could not help, but admire them. The confidence rose up a little inside her as they walked down the corridors of the temple.

It was at that time Andre stopped. "Are you guys ready," he asked without turning to the other X-Men.

Logan answered for them. "Yep, lets start this."

Andre took a deep breath. He tightened his grip on his cane and looked down the hall. One more deep breath and he was ready.

"VONCE!!!," he yelled out very loudly, "I'M HERE!!! I WANT TO FINISH THIS NOW!!!"

Rogue and the other X-Men looked at Andre in shock. They thought they were at least going to try and make a surprise attack, not just walk in and announce they were still here.

"Are you out of you mind," Rogue asked. "Now they all know we're here."

"They would know anyway," said Andre.

The puppets were becoming aggressive. They wanted to kill every member of the Hanzain cult and make them pay for all the trouble they caused their master.

A few moments of pure silence went by. They may have only been mere seconds, but to Rogue they seemed like an eternity.

A few more moments went by and nothing happened. Andre yelled out again, "I'M HERE VONCE!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR? COME AND GET ME!!!"

"I intend to," came the voice of Vonce from the darkness in the hallway ahead of them.

Vonce stepped out of the shadows followed by all his men. Rogue watched nervously as all the cloaked men surrounded them. The very first thought in her head was, 'we're dead.'

The Hanzain members were completely encircled around them.

Andre looked directly at Vonce and Vonce looked at him. Nobody moved as they stared at each other.

Vonce then spoke. "Puppet Master, why are you still here? You knew that in only a moment's time I would have my men hunting you down. So why have you not left this temple?

"I figured you'd already know that," said Andre. "You know my grandfather's secret. I can't allow you to live."

Vonce laughed and said, "Toulon, surly you don't think you can escape from here?"

"Maybe we wont," said Andre, "and I don't care if I don't survive, just as long as you are dead."

Vonce smiled and said, "it seems you do not care about the lives of your friends, and they are still willing to help you?"

Andre said, "I do care about their lives. I only said I don't care if I don't survive."

Vonce paused and looked to Rogue. "And you," he said, "aren't you afraid of what is to come. Aren't you afraid to die."

Rogue stood silent for a while. She had to tell Vonce something, but she still did not want to seem weak to him.

She finally spoke after a long pause. "Ah would tell you that Ah'm not afraid, but that's not true. Ah'm terrified of what's gonna happen. But still even if Ah am afraid and even though our chances of beating you are slim, we still plan to kill you."

"Very well then," said Vonce, and with a simple twitch of his eye all his men had their swords in hand. He then raised his arm and swung it down signaling his men to attack.

It was then that the first wave of his men, which was about twenty of them, went running towards the mutants and the puppets. Vonce figured that he would not need all his men to defeat this small group of mutants.

All the X-Men readied themselves for the battle. Rogue held up her still ungloved hands ready to attack. She thought to herself, 'Ah'm taking the sword of the first guy who's killed.'

Vonce watched this and smiled as he though, 'this will be the easiest victory for the Hanzain Cult.'

But as soon as he thought that another voice was heard in his head saying, "you will not defeat my students that easily."

As soon as those words entered his mind a flash of fire came out of nowhere burning five of the men in the first wave.

The X-Men stood in total shock at what had happened. The cult members in the first wave of the attack stood bewildered by what happened.

Andre looked down to Torch, but he did not start the fire.

Then all the mutants and puppets turned flying in the air Amara in her fire form. Below her sat Professor Xavier in his wheel chair and with him was Storm, Beast, and the other recruits. They had finally arrived to help them.

Rogue smiled in joy at this sight. She never thought she would ever be so happy to see all the younger recruits ever in her life.

Vonce saw all the recruits in front of him and gave a roar of anger before yelling, "all men attack full force!"

And so the battle had begun. All the men charged towards the X-Men and the puppets.

Andre turned around just in time to see one clocked man running towards him with his sword in hand. The young puppet master pointed his cane at the man as the dark figure ran into it impaling himself.

Andre then took the man's sword and began to slash Hanzain members left and right.

Rogue stood near Andre. She was soon surrounded by three cloaked men. She held her hands up ready to suck the life out of who ever attacked first.

One of the men ran at her. The puppet Blade saw this and quickly ran at the man and cut his ankle causing him to fall down.

Meanwhile the other two men attacked Rogue. She managed to dodge every one of their attacks. She looked down to the man that had fallen and saw Blade leap on his chest. The puppet slit the man's throat and then went on to help other X-Men who needed it.

Rogue looked back to her two adversaries as they came in for another attack. She dodged their blades and grabbed the sword of the dead man.

She spun around cut the stomach of one of her opponents. The figure fell dead to the floor. The other man gave up on Rogue and went to fight any of the other X-Men.

Jean stood with Iceman and Six-shooter in a far corner of the battlefield. Jean was throwing Hanzain Cult members around with her mind as Iceman froze others where they fought.

Six-shooter merle fired one of his six guns at any enemy that came at the two.

Scott stood near Logan who was doing the most damage. He had no weapon and since his eye beams were still inactive he was defenseless.

Scott then heard Rogue's voice yelling to him. He turned around and saw Rogue holding up a syringe full of the antidote that would give him his powers back.

Rogue threw the syringe to him. Storm then flew in above Scott and gave him his visor.

Scott injected the antidote into himself and put on his visor. He then let out a huge beam from his eyes taking out at least fifteen Hanzain cult members.

The battle raged on. Storm and Amara flew above the battlefield letting loose fire and lightning at any unsuspecting Hanzain cult member.

Kitty stood back watching the battle with Professor Xavier. She did not want to kill anybody even if they deserved to die.

The puppets, excluding Six-shooter, were doing what they could to help the X-Men and their master. They dodged bodies that nearly fell on them and whenever they saw that one of the X-Men was having trouble they would go and help them.

Blade watched as Torch fried a Hanzain member. He then began to run through the feet and legs of the cloaked men cutting ankles and calves as he did.

He then ran into Pinhead who was beating the eyeballs out of a Hanzain man. When the man was dead Pinhead ran over to Blade.

The small headed puppet pulled another Hanzain man by the ankles causing him to fall down. Blade then ran to the man's head and stabbed him in the jugular vein.

Blade and Pinhead looked at each other with satisfaction, but then something caught Blades eye.

He turned to the man that Pinhead had just killed and saw Suetek's special Totem sucking the life energy out of the dead man. Ever since the battle began the two remaining Totems had been using it to their advantage. Almost every time a person died they would run to the corps and take the life energy. The Suetek Totem was almost at full strength.

As the special Totem sucked the energy he saw Blade and Pinhead looking at him. The two puppets ran at the little monster, but the creature ran away.

Blade and Pinhead followed the Totem into the darkness of the Hanzain temple leading them away from the battle.

Decapitron saw them leave, but he did not stop them. He knew exactly why they were leaving.

Meanwhile Vonce watched the battle. It seemed that even though his men were fighting with al their skill they were still loosing. He figured it was now time for him to enter the battle and reveal the true strength of the creature he had become.

He watched as Storm flew above his head. He leapt into the air. He jumped so high it was as if he himself was flying. He snatched Storm by the waist and threw her down to the hard stone floor. When she hit the ground all the wind was knocked out of her.

As Vonce fell through the air he managed to direct himself so he landed right on top of Storm.

Kurt who was battling not to far away saw Vonce on top of Storm. He quickly teleported over to her aid. As he appeared in front of Vonce he kicked him with both of his three toed feet.

Vonce did not seem to be affected by the blow. He grabbed Kurt by his tail and pulled him off his feet. He then stomped on Kurt's stomach five times.

Kurt gasped for air after he was given that hard blow.

Vonce was ready to go in for another attack, but then he heard a voice behind him say, "leave him alone Vonce."

Vonce turned around and saw Andre, balancing on his cane and pointing his sword at Vonce. "It's me you want," the boy said.

"Very well," said Vonce. He picked up a sword that lied next to one of his dead comrades. He looked at Andre with an evil smile and said, "one on one."

Then Rogue came running next to Andre with a sword in her hand and she said, "two on one."

This did not seem to worry Vonce. He merely picked up a second sword and began to circle the two Toulon children.

Kurt and Ororo stood up and quickly backed away from the duel.

As Andre and Rogue circled Vonce Andre said to Rogue, "on three we take him quick and easily"

But Rogue interrupted her brother and said as she ran at Vonce, "Ah ain't waiting till three."

She ran at Vonce with rage in her eyes. She wanted him to pay for every thing he did.

Vonce was quick I his defense. As Rogue swung her sword at him he blocked it and hit the Goth in the chest with the handle of his sword.

Rogue knelt down in pain as Vonce went in for an attack. Andre quickly ran in front of his sister and blocked Vonce's attack with both his cane and sword.

He tried to push Vonce away, but the now monster Vonce only moved back a few inches.

Rogue recovered from her blow and now both her and Andre attacked together. They went at the creature with a combination of swings and thrusts.

Vonce blocked every one of them with ease. He then smiled at the two and said; "now it's my turn."

He quickly slid between the two mutants and was now at their backs. As they turned around Vonce swung his sword cutting both of their right arms.

This caused Andre to drop his cane. Vonce then picked the boy up and threw him across the room. Andre slammed against the wall and fell to the floor, leaving Rogue alone to deal with Vonce.

Vonce went at Rogue again swinging his sword around and attacking Rogue hard.

Rogue barley managed to block every attack.

Vonce looked at her and said, "you're doing well. But I am much stronger in this body than you will ever be."

Rogue gave him an angry look and said, "well the Ah'll just have to even the odds."

She then quickly grabbed Vonce with her ungloved hand, ready to take his strength and skills with a sword, but nothing happened.

Vonce grabbed her arm and threw her. She flew through the air and landed hard on the ground sliding few feet before she stopped.

'Why didn't mah powers work' she thought. Then she remembered that her powers did not work on the Totems either. The magic of the formula must make it so she could not absorb the life force f anybody in a new body.

Vonce ran toward her. Rogue lifted up her sword ready to defend.

Vonce swung his sword so hard that it caused Rogue to loose her grip on hers. The blade flew out of her hands and landed out of her reach.

Vonce held his sword up to her neck and said, "after I kill you I will destroy your brother and the Toulon family will be no more."

Rogue closed her eyes hoping that the pain would go by quickly, but then she heard Vonce scream. Not in pain, but in surprise.

The Goth opened her eyes and saw Andre holding onto Vonce's back for dear life as the monster thrashed around.

Andre had managed to crawl over to his cane. He used his cane to impale Vonce's arm.

He twisted the cane around in Vonce's arm as he was thrashed around.

Andre then fell off of Vonce, leaving his cane where it was.

Vonce dropped one of his swords as his arm went limp. He quickly left the battlefield with Andre's can still in his arm.

Rogue stood up helping her brother stand in the process. As Andre was helped to his feet he grabbed a sword that lay near by.

Andre said, "we gotta get him before he gets away."

"But we can't just leave the X-Men here to fight for themselves," Rogue objected.

They then heard Logan's voice say, "it's ok, go get that bastard before he gets to far."

They looked over to Logan as he took his claws out of a Hanzain member. "We got everything under control here."

Andre and Rogue nodded. They ran after Vonce prepared to kill him.

Andre used his sword for support as he ran with his sister.

Meanwhile the X-Men continued to fight. That number of the Hanzain cult was growing smaller, their men decreased. The X-men fought well as the screams of the Hanzain members echoed through the temple. The Hanzain cult had lost the battle with the X-Men, but the battle for the formula was not over.