Domino didn't see Vanessa again for days, and in a way she was glad. She had other shit to do. She collected her half of the fee for the Maine job, rebalanced her portfolio, went to a gymnastics class, won a scratch-off worth 150k, and accidentally guest starred on a Shonda show. It was a good week. She had that feeling again, the back-of-the-mind nudge that meant things were going well for her.

So coming home to a dead guy on the floor, exactly six days after she'd last spoken to Vanessa, was - well. Not ideal.

Judging by the way his pants were down around his knees, she'd killed him immediately after seducing him. Or maybe before, but Vanessa wasn't that crazy. Probably.

It took her embarrassingly long to see the DMC badge leaning against his thigh. "Motherfucker."

"I don't like waiting for people to figure their shit out," Vanessa said in a low, tight voice. "I waited for Wade and it sucked, and I was in love with him. I won't wait for you that long."

She already knew the answer, but she had to ask. "Waiting for me for what, exactly?"

"You said you don't like to get involved."

"I said I have to take care of my own shit first. It's a whole concept in therapy, which by the way, you -"

"I cloned his hard drive," Vanessa said. "They're ramping up operations. They have money and they're taking kids now, they're not waiting for places like your orphanage to fill up."

"It wasn't my orphanage."

"I'm taking on DMC," Vanessa said. "There's no way they got this much money without some kind of illegal activity. I'm going to break into their headquarters and steal all the information I can carry out with me. And if you don't help me, I'll get in and out the way they taught me."

The silence stretched on for what felt like forever. "I don't know what they taught you," Domino finally said.

Vanessa huffed out a pissy breath. "Murder. What else?"

It was, admittedly, pretty predictable. And weirdly familiar. She'd wondered enough at why her luck pushed her towards Wade; now she had to wonder again with Vanessa. Domino's life had been so calm before she'd made friends with unstable, homicidal, weirdly hot late-blooming mutants. "You know I've killed people too, right?"

"I know it's not your go-to," Vanessa said. "And I'm pretty sure you could get us in and out of a single highly secured building on the strength of charisma and flashing some cleavage. But what do I know? Not much. Except exactly what angle to hold a knife at when I'm slipping it between a man's ribs."

"Oh my God, okay, I get it." She shook her head. "Fine. I'll help you. Just - what are we going to do about the body?"

It wasn't hot, the way Vanessa looked her up and down and smiled, her eyes going bright with - what, bloodlust? Who knows. It wasn't hot, it wasn't, but Domino felt a tingle down her spine anyway as Vanessa said, "Don't worry, baby. I know a guy."

-

The guy was Wade. X-Force, Domino thought, was a mistake.

-

When the blood was gone and it didn't smell like dead douche in the living room anymore, Domino sat down in her armchair and opened her laptop. "Let's talk planning."

"What are you going to do, make a spreadsheet about it?"

"Hey, you said you wanted my help. If you're having second thoughts about my methods -"

"Touchy." Vanessa rolled her eyes. "Fine, spreadsheets it is. Tell me what you think we should do."

Domino stared at her and found her mind had gone blank. Absolutely no tingling feeling was there to push her along. Shit, maybe this really was a bad idea.

"Or, I'll tell you how I'd do it. DMCHQ is in Virginia, just outside Springfield. Most of their facilities are underground. It's hard to sneak in because there's nothing around, except for trees and lots of cameras. And of course, given the area, cameras can trace your every move for days." Vanessa shrugged. "I'd get myself captured again, keep a few weapons concealed, and fight my way out, getting the information first."

"Sounds like a plan with a high chance of failure."

"Guess it does. It's almost like I'd need to be really, really lucky to survive all that." Vanessa blinked at her in fake innocence.

Ugh. It shouldn't have been hot. No - scratch that. It wasn't hot, Domino told herself firmly. But she got Vanessa's point all the same. "We can talk about how to get in. That's one issue. The other issue is how to get the information. Even assuming it's all on computers, they might not be networked. They'll definitely be locked down. Do you think we'll be shoving hard drives in a duffel bag, or...?"

"Hadn't thought that far. You should add it to your spreadsheet."

She was taking notes, damn it, not using a spreadsheet. But actually...

She opened up Excel, still glaring at Vanessa, and started keeping track of all the unknowns.

"We could really use some help with this," she said after they'd made a preliminary list of unknowns and potential challenges that, taken together, amounted to 'nearly everything'.

"Do you want to call your cyborg?"

"Like I said: not my cyborg."

"I think you guys have chemistry."

"I think you have a personality disorder, so I guess we're even."

"The fact remains that we need help," Vanessa said. "Unless you're about to get really, really lucky, and have a private army swear fealty to you, or something."

She meant it as a flippant joke, a thing that was too impossible to even semi-seriously consider. She couldn't possibly know that the possibility had haunted Domino - not of a private army specifically, but being able to compel loyalty, topple governments. Domino could do it, she was pretty sure, if she wanted to. Essex House had been pretty sure too.

She'd been silent for too long: Vanessa knew something was up. "The X-Men probably wouldn't help us."

"Not even Wade's?"

"X-Force? It's kind of a joke."

Vanessa cocked her head. "The Wade I knew wouldn't joke about that kind of thing."

"The Wade you knew tried to kill himself a hundred times. Maybe he's changed."

"Not that much. Who's on X-Force? You, Colossus, Cable...?"

"Two or three teenagers, depending, and Dopinder, for now. Not exactly a first-class strike force."

"What does your luck tell you?"

It was on the tip of Domino's tongue to tell Vanessa to fuck off, that her luck had no opinions on this or anything else. But then she felt a nudge, stronger and more distinct than anything since she'd seen the ad for X-Force. Suddenly, she knew. "I should go to the mansion and see who I can get to help me. You should do recon. We have a bunch of unanswered questions, and DMC has the answers."

"You really think I can just slip in and out, huh? What would I need you for, then?"

"The perimeters won't be tightly guarded and you know it," Domino said. "That's completely different from stealing several terabytes of data. Figure out who goes in an out, what their security protocols are, and that kind of thing."

For a moment, she thought Vanessa was going to refuse to do it just to be contrary. The steely look she gave her certainly seemed to imply that she was pissed, or thought Domino was disposable. But then she smiled, a slow curve of lips, eyes crinkling. It was a beautiful smile. She looked happy.

"You get to pick who I kill next," Vanessa said.

Right. A happy Vanessa was a bloodthirsty Vanessa. Domino ignored the thrill that gave her, the itch of ill-gotten power. "Thanks," she said. "Let's get to work. We don't exactly have time to waste."

She ignored the way Vanessa brushed past her, two fingers on her hip, warm breath against her neck. Vanessa didn't mean anything by it; this was all part of the game.

By the time she got to Westchester, she almost believed it.

-

Entering the X-Mansion felt a little like walking into a carnival sideshow interpretation of her own childhood. Essex House had also been covered in old-money furnishings, serious busts of serious white men, and lots of heavy wood paneling. But here, the kids Domino passed looked happy, relaxed. No one flinched away from her in fear. She heard no screams or ominous humming of medical equipment.

It was, in short, a home. Domino told herself she was glad for the kids, and buried her furious resentment as deep as it would go.

It sparked to the surface when Colossus said, "No."

"You don't even know what I'm gonna ask."

"The Professor informed me of such. The answer is no."

"Oh, right, the Professor. Where is he, exactly? The man's more elusive than good pizza in Kansas."

Colossus shook his head. "You will not sway us. Vanessa should stay home, go to therapy. Attempting to exact revenge benefits no one."

"I mean, arguably it benefits the kids who are going to be kidnapped and tortured. Like, pretty sure not having that happen is a benefit. Not that I'd know."

"I, too, was experimented upon. Extensively. But to kill draws attention, Domino, which we cannot afford."

Domino looked to his left, then to his right, then leaned forward and craned her neck around him.

He sighed. "What."

"Oh, nothing. Just looking for where you stashed your balls. Or the script to this little talk."

Colossus sighed. "Wade is a bad influence."

"Well, don't worry, I barely hang out with him." She crossed her arms and did her best to glare. Her senses were lighting up - she was in the right place - but she felt at a loss with regards to what exactly she should be saying. "Look, Vanessa got me to do this, okay? She told me -"

Oooh, no. Nope, her instincts threw up a huge stop sign right before she recounted Vanessa's murder/blackmail. "It doesn't matter what she told me, actually. We need help, you guys help people, isn't this kind of meant to be?"

"That help cannot involve endangering the school, Domino." For a moment, Colossus sounded actually sorry. Not a mouthpiece of a rich dude with a savior complex, but like an actual person. "I wish you luck. But, we cannot be involved."

And that was that. She let herself out and decided to walk it for awhile, knowing she'd happen across a train station or a car with keys still running when she decided she needed it. And, damn it, that was half the problem. Vanessa had a big mission that Domino agreed with, but didn't want to be part of; thinking of how dangerous it all was, and what DMC would do if they were caught, made her want to scream. She'd vanquished the ghosts of Essex House from her mind - well, her waking mind - years ago, and it had been paying dividends. Literal dividends, in fact. She didn't want to think about what might happen if she destroyed her own hard-won, carefully-constructed peace.

But Russell hadn't deserved to be in the Ice Box, and Vanessa hadn't deserved to be tortured, and Wade hadn't deserved to be turned into a moldy avocado. Fucking...damn it, damn it, damn it, she thought as she walked down the road.

For a moment she thought the glint up ahead was a lighter. As she got closer, she realized it was a USB stick. Despite the fact that it lay on the side of the road, it looked brand new.

She picked it up and kept walking. After twenty minutes, she saw Alexander Skaarsgard in a corn field, fixing up his vintage plane. One exciting plane ride later, she was home.

She knew better than to just plug the USB stick into her laptop. She called Wade.

"It's my lucky day! What's up, Dom? Vanessa sexiled you? Oooh, are you being held for ransom?"

"Of course not. I was just wondering if you knew where I could find Cable. Dude doesn't have a cell phone, but I have a mysterious thumb drive I need someone to analyze."

"We could just give to to Weasel, you know. He has the physique of a super-hacker."

"That can be a backup plan, but do you know where Cable is?"

"Hmmm. Cable's pretty special, and you sound like you really need to talk to him. How much can you pay for the info?"

"For fuck's sake," she heard in the background, and then static and indignant yelps filled the phone. A few seconds later, Cable said, "Where'd you find a mysterious thumb drive?"

"I'm surprised you know what a thumb drive is."

"I looked it up while Wade was trying to extort you." He fell silent, and Domino made a face at the phone. She wasn't even opposed to explaining, but she hated how well Cable could deploy speaking silences.

"I'll come over," she said. "I don't want to try explaining on the phone." Where people can eavesdrop was left unsaid, but judging by the way Cable grunted assent, he understood.

When she showed up at Wade's, she found Cable in pajama bottoms and a tight undershirt. The couch, she noticed, didn't show any signs he'd been sleeping on it.

So, so not her business. "Here you go," she said, tossing him the thumb drive.

"Soooo," Wade said, handing her a beer. "Are you and Ness suffering Sapphics yet?"

"Dude, get a hobby."

"I'm just saying! She called me the other day and wanted to know what kind of booze you like."

"Probably just my luck working overtime to get me free liquor."

"But it hasn't worked overtime to get you free puss-"

"It's a codebreaking algorithm," Cable said loudly.

Domino blinked. "Wait, what?"

He pulled his metal hand away from the USB stick. The glow in his mechanical eye faded as he focused on Domino. "It's built to get you past any authentication or authorization barrier. Computer login, password on a website, government firewall, whatever. Plug it in and it'll break the code."

"Okay, I'm not exactly a Geek Squad member, but isn't that impossible?"

Cable shrugged. "I'm telling you what it does, not how it was made."

Right. Okay. Well, then. "That's fortunate, I guess. We'll need an awful lot of help if we're actually going to do this thing."

"What thing?" Cable said, at the same time Wade said, "Password-protected sex? Is that like a condom for lesbians?"

"Fuck off," Domino told Wade, then explained the whole breaking-into-DMC thing.

"Holy fucking shitballs," Wade said when she was done. "That's insane! You're going to die!"

Cable gave her a flat, unimpressed look. "Luck and shapeshifting won't be enough to get you out alive."

"I know. I tried to get Colossus to help us out, but -"

"That oversized Boy Scout wouldn't lead a mission to liberate a Hot Pocket from the gas station freezer, much less actual kids," Wade said. He sounded more bitter than Domino had ever heard him.

"That's unfair," Cable said. "He helped with Russell."

"No, X-Force helped with Russell. Colossus was there in his capacity as a loyal X-Force member - gasp! Cable! You're a genius!"

Domino bit back a laugh. Cable smiled, barely, watching with lazy fondness as Wade ran off to summon the X-Force. She could wait to tell him they weren't actually going to be doing the heist for weeks.

-

All in all, she was feeling pretty good when she got back to her apartment. Maybe that was an excuse; maybe she never had a chance, would've always been caught out by Emma Frost sitting in her living room, drinking one of her sparkling waters, watching Vanessa with not-quite hostile eyes.

Maybe.

"Hey, Vanessa," she said, not taking her eyes off the incredibly powerful psychic picking at a loose thread on her antique French fainting chaise. "What the fuck is going on here?"

"Look who I found working at DMC HQ."

"Yeah. I'm looking." She didn't dare stop. "How - you know who this is, right?"

"You're not the only one with access to fancy x-dossiers, Dom."

Which was the snottiest possible way she could've said yes. "Then why is she in our living room?"

"She has her own reasons for being here." Emma Frost - Domino really, truly could not think of her as anything but her full name - stood, smirking at both of them. She was incredibly tall, unbelievably hot, and fucking terrifying.

"She has an office down at DMC," Vanessa said. She examined her nails like she was telling Domino about the gross person in the 7/11 checkout line. "Being annoyingly...good?"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Emma - Frost - fuck, what could Domino even call her? - said. "DMC doesn't further my goals any more than Xavier's school of do-gooders does. You found me at DMC looking out for my own interests."

"Right." The itch at the back of Domino's neck wanted her to say - "But, what if you stopped lying and told us why you were really there?"

Emma's smile faltered, just for a second. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Domino crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame, doing her best to look like her heart wasn't pounding out of her chest. "You're not telling the truth, but you're here, which means there's something you need from us. Tell us what you were doing there, for real, and maybe we'll be able to help you."

"When I've needed help in my life, I've conscripted henchmen," Emma said through clenched teeth. "Not jumped-up little also-ran mutants whose powers -"

Vanessa snorted.

"Excuse me?"

"Also-ran? Domino? You've gotta be kidding." And for a second there, watching Vanessa smirk, Domino's head spun. It wasn't much use living across town from Wade if she was going to keep his weird sexy twin in her spare bedroom. "You haven't seen her in the field."

"I have, actually," Emma said, "but both of you together can't even touch me, so -"

"Sure, that's why you're here," Domino said, entirely without giving herself permission. "Because you don't need us. Now that we've established that, tell me why you were embedded with DMC."

A freezing cold, brittle silence took over the apartment. Domino half wanted to back down, but she couldn't - not in front of Emma Frost, and especially not with Vanessa glaring at them both.

"Fine. If you must know: they have something I want. Some kind of tool they're using to hide mutants. They can create pocket dimensions -"

"And torture us in them." Vanessa's smile was a cruel, awful thing. "Got some muties you want to torture, Emma?"

"Don't be obtuse, it's nothing like that. Tech like that would help us hide as easily as it helped them hurt us, and you know it."

"Before we re-litigate a poorly veiled metaphor for the concept of nuclear deterrence," Domino said, "I think we can all agree that having a super powerful mutant on our side is a good thing, right, Vanessa?"

"She wouldn't still be here if I disagreed."

She decided not to ask how Vanessa thought she'd make Emma Frost leave, if she didn't want to. "Wonderful. Emma, do we have a way to contact you?"

They swapped burner numbers and veiled threats, and then Emma saw herself out. As soon as Domino's heavy wood door closed, Vanessa snapped, "If she'd gutted you like a fish it would be no less than you deserve."

Domino shrugged. "I knew I'd be fine."

"Oh, yes, of course. How could I forget about your luck?"

And of course, now Vanessa started advancing on her, leaning into that 'I'm a badass' prowl that they presumably taught at villain school. Domino didn't back up, refused to cede even an inch of ground, and consequently found herself face-to-face with Vanessa as Vanessa furiously hissed, "If you think for a second that your luck will stand up to Emma Frost's double-cross -"

"It's that or going against DMC alone, and I don't feel too good about that," Domino said. "Which, if you think my luck is real at all, should worry you. I don't generally do things I don't feel good about."

"Let's see how you feel about this," Vanessa said, and punched her.

Domino ducked - barely. Luck had nothing to do with it; she moved on instinct, lashing out with a stiff hand, then kicking as Vanessa dodged. She found herself slammed against the wall by a too-strong arm, Vanessa's features contorting as she moved to punch - but her fist only hit drywall, and even as Domino's favorite vase fell from its shelf and shattered, Domino rolled away.

"Jesus Christ," she got out, dodging the knife Vanessa threw at her. "What is your problem?"

"Call it mental instability," Vanessa said. "I'll admit I'm disappointed, though. When Wade and I used to play -"

"This isn't playing! This is - fuck - fighting!"

Vanessa's hand flexed around the candlestick she'd grabbed. She twirled it in her fingers, facing off against Domino with shoulders squared. "Sure about that?"

Domino forgot about self-defense for a second, she was so exasperated. "That's a brass candlestick. If it makes contact with my skull, I'm dead."

"Ooooh," Vanessa cooed, "but that would be so unlucky."

And, okay, maybe Domino wasn't that much smarter than Wade after all, because for a second she was horribly distracted: by the sun glinting on Vanessa's hair, by the look in her eye as she advanced, by the fucking detailing on the brass candlestick and the way it cut into Vanessa's skin. It only took a second of being struck stupid by the beauty facing her, and then she was on the floor, on her back, fighting to regain her breath even as Vanessa kissed her.

Bad idea, Domino's luck told her. Bad, bad idea.

But if she did a stupid thing, her luck could dig her out later. Right? Too often, she'd been too scared to test it. Faced with the possibility of working alongside Emma Frost, though, going up against DMC, all the stupid shit she'd not just agreed to but encouraged -

Well. Maybe it was time to test the boundaries of her luck, just a little.

She kissed back, locking her legs and rolling them. Vanessa went easily, like she'd been waiting for it, arching her back and laughing when Domino made a stupid noise. "You can think I'm hot, you know. It's fine."

"Yeah, thanks, I went to a women's college," Domino said, and got to work making it so Vanessa couldn't come up with smartass shit to say.

It was impossible to forget about their mission here. There was the moment Vanessa gasped, with Domino three knuckles deep in her, and said, "Wa - wait, wait," and Domino could've sworn she'd been about to say Wade. There was the moment Vanessa pinned Domino's legs and every alarm in her brain went off, and she nearly sent Vanessa through the coffee table. But in between, before and after, there was only pleasure: coming around Vanessa's fingers, against her mouth, kissing her and laughing when Vanessa finally ran out of words.

-

Nothing good could last. Vanessa hopped off Domino's hips with a smile and said, "Fun time. Thanks." Domino didn't see her again all day.

She went down to Sister Margaret's later, just to blow off some steam. Weasel handed her a drink and said, "Wade has a message for you. Do not stab me. Stab Wade, instead."

"What's the message?"

"Quote, two words: dental dams, end quote."

"Motherfucker."