2003
Piotr stares, enraptured, at the dark haired woman across the lawn of the school. There is no one near her, but for all the world, it looks as though she is fighting a fierce enemy. Piotr has no doubt she would be stunning to see in battle - she is already breathtaking as is. She stumbles back as if struck, and Piotr goes to stand and make his way toward her on instinct. Ororo’s hand on his arm stops him. He looks down curiously.
She shakes her head with a small smile. “Let her be.”
“What is she doing?”
“Sparring.”
“She is alone.”
She shakes her head again. “We simply can’t see her opponents.”
Piotr can feel the confusion that Ororo can no doubt see on his face.
The weather witch chuckles. “Her designation is Graveyard.”
Piotr’s brow scrunches up. “Is she fighting dead people?”
Ororo shrugs. “Something like that.”
Piotr watches her in silence for several moments before he speaks again. “She is beautiful.”
Ororo nods. “She is.”
Piotr blushes.
Ororo smirks. “Didn’t mean to say that out loud?”
He shakes his head furiously.
“She’s several years older than you,” Ororo cautions. “And an instructor here.”
“She was a student here?”
Ororo nods. “She was raised here. Abandoned at the hospital the day she was born. Her mutation… it was something she was born with and couldn’t control as a baby. It frightened her parents. Fortunately one of the doctors knew Charles.”
“What can she do?”
“I see dead people,” a lilting voice comes from his shoulder.
Piotr whips around to find the woman smirking up at him, raven hair plastered to her sweat soaked forehead and gray eyes sparkling. “My apologies, miss. I did not mean-”
She waves him off and leans to the side so she can see Ororo past him. “Which one’s this?”
Ororo laughs. “Piotr Rasputin. Also known as Colossus.”
The woman eyes him openly and shrugs. “Fitting.”
Piotr blushes and shakes his head, steps back, focuses, and shifts and grows.
The woman lets out an impressed whistle. “Bet you’re handy in a fight, amigo.”
“He hasn’t graduated yet, but he does well in simulations,” Ororo agrees.
Piotr shifts back to his human form and jerks his chin toward the empty lawn. “You do not seem so helpless yourself, Miss…”
She chuckles. “My name is Muerte.”
Piotr shuffles uncomfortably.
Muerte simply shrugs. “A parting gift from my parents.”
Piotr nods and examines his feet.
“Ask,” Muerte demands. “I know you want to, and it will not offend me.”
Piotr takes a deep breath and forces himself to meet her eyes. “What is your mutation?”
She smirks. “I told you. I see dead people.”
Suddenly the space around them fills with what Piotr can only describe as ghosts. Several of the younger students shriek and run. One girl faints. Piotr can only gape as his grandmother is suddenly in front of him, reaching up to pat his cheek fondly.
“Muerte!” Ororo scolds, though it’s clear she’s trying not to laugh.
Muerte rolls her eyes, but the ghosts vanish. “I can see ghosts. I can communicate with them. I can allow others to see and communicate with them. I can make them corporeal to a point. I can cause them to possess living beings. Under the right circumstances, I can aid or prevent them in crossing over. And if I allow the ghost of a mutant to possess me, I can utilize their powers. I like your grandmother, by the way. Met her when I got back yesterday; she’s very fond of you.”
Piotr is half-listening, but still gaping at a spot over her shoulder where his gaze had gone when he’d pulled it from his grandmother. “Was that Hitler?”
Muerte laughs so hard she snorts. “Si. Bastard never really got over his racism, so he makes a decent sparring partner. Dead for decades and still can’t learn to control his temper or figure out how not to telegraph his right hook, though.”
***
Piotr is leaning back in his chair, chatting with Kitty, when a sharp whistle cuts through the din of students from the head of the room. Piotr’s chair slams back down and his eyes lift to Muerte’s smirk.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you may call me Muerte. I have no last name I care to claim, so don’t bother asking. I’ll be your history teacher this semester and if you are very lucky, no one will ask me to cover your simulator sessions.”
Piotr chuckles quietly.
Muerte’s eyes flick toward him with a small grin before she continues. “This specific class is Advanced Mutant World History. If you’re in the wrong place, espantar.”
She is met with blank stares.
She rolls her eyes. “Shoo.”
No one gets up.
“Good, let’s get started.”
Piotr has always been a good student, but he is determined to ace this class.
Kitty spends half the class watching him with a knowing smirk.
“Piotr,” Muerte stops him on the way out of class.
Piotr stops, doing his best to ignore Kitty still hovering in the doorway.
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“Of course.”
“Do you know much about your country’s history? Well known mutants or those who opposed mutants?”
He nods slowly.
Muerte beams at him. “Would you mind making me a list? I’m not very familiar with Russia, and I want to makes certain to cover everything as fairly as I can.”
Piotr pulls out a pen and quickly jots down a list to hand over.
“Gracias. Were any of them particularly… um, violent?”
Piotr raises an eyebrow at her.
She blushes. “You know what I can do. This class is going to be more… interactive than most.”
Understanding dawns on Piotr. “Da, do not give this one, or this one,” he points to one name on each side of the list, “any… what was word? Corporeal?”
She nods and makes quick marks next to them. “Gracias, Piotr. I’ll see you in class tomorrow?”
Piotr nods. “Good day, Miss Muerte.”
Muerte rolls her eyes and calls after him as he exits the room. “Just Muerte, Piotr!”
“‘Good day, Miss Muerte.’” Kitty literally pounces on his arm as soon as he’s in the hall. “What was that?”
Piotr glances down at her. “I do not know what you’re talking about.”
Kitty scoffs. “Bullshit.”
Piotr resolves to ignore her.
She sticks by his side through the halls anyway, singing Hot for Teacher all the way to their next class. If Piotr wasn’t so scared of the suddenly very real possibility of his grandmother being over his shoulder, he’d say something very rude.
*
Logan tosses keys toward Scott. “Your bike needs gas.”
Scott tosses the the keys back. “Then fill her up.”
Muerte waits until Scott leaves to lean over the bannister. “Do you really have to push his buttons every time you see him, amigo?”
Logan shrugs.
Muerte rolls her eyes and joins Logan at the bottom of the stairs.
Logan nods toward the next room. “So, Rogue and Ice Boy?”
Muerte shrugs, her eyes going a little distant. “He’s a stepping stone in her path, but not the whole road.”
Logan tugs gently on the end of her braid. “You keeping psychics around again?”
She grins. “Only when the Professor is not around. He says it gives him headaches.”
Logan rolls his eyes.
“So, we’re on babysitting duty, hm?”
He shrugs again. “At least they’re smart enough not to leave just me here with a bunch of rugrats.”
*
Muerte jolts awake from a dead sleep at Theresa’s scream. She sprints into the hall in time to see two jack booted thugs come flying through a wall, followed by Piotr with an unconscious Theresa in his arms.
“The tunnels,” she tells him.
He nods and gestures the other students to follow him as Muerte brings up the rear. Logan comes around the corner with another child in his arms as they open the door in the wall.
Piotr takes Jones from Logan. “I can help you!”
“Help them!” Logan orders.
Defiance briefly crosses Piotr’s face, but he nods. “Muerte?”
She looks at the kids assembled in the tunnel and then down the hall Logan ran down. She closes her eyes and does a brief headcount. Three missing from this wing. Bobby and John will be together and Bobby will look for Rogue… Rogue screams, and Muerte almost takes off down the hall, but then she hears Logan’s shout. Rogue won’t let the dumbass sacrifice himself; they’ll all get out. Muerte decides, nods, and shoves Piotr into the tunnel. “There’s a clearing just over a mile directly east of where this tunnel comes out. Take them there. I’m going to clear the other wing and get the spare jet. I’ll meet you there.”
“Murete! You cannot go back there!” Piotr protests.
Muerte reaches up and rests a hand on his arm. “I have to. It’s the only way we’re getting everyone out of here safely.”
“It is not safe for you. Let me go.”
Muerte shakes her head and laughs. “You are too big and too loud. They won’t even know I’m still here until it’s too late. Get them to the clearing.”
Muerte gets to the spare jet hangar under the stables without being noticed, and manages to corral another dozen kids on her way. She makes sure it’s fueled before she fires it up up and opens the hanger doors. She takes off North, a few shots pinging off the tail of the jet. She engages the jet’s cloaking before flipping back around toward the clearing. She heaves a relieved sigh when she sees Piotr and the children, but no soldiers in sight.
Loaded up and in the air, Piotr takes a quick headcount before joining her in the cockpit. “About two dozen altogether. Where will we go? We are too many to hide easily and not all their families will welcome them home…”
Muerte rolls her eyes. “It’s Winter break, Piotr. Any students who would be welcomed home are already there. We’re lucky it was this week they attacked. Far fewer students to evacuate.”
“We still did not get to everyone.”
Muerte’s jaw clenches. “No, but we will get these to safety before we let ourselves worry on that.” She takes a shaky breath, forcing herself to stay focused on the children already with her. “I keep a horse rescue in Texas. It’s isolated, has plenty of space, and I trust my staff. We’ll go there.”
*
Muerte scowls at the news, currently showing dashcam footage of the whole mess in Boston, outside Bobby Drake’s house. “I’m gonna kick that kid’s ass.”
Beside her, Piotr shakes his head. “John has always had temper.”
Muerte shoots to her feet with a growl.
Piotr raises an eyebrow. “Where are you going?”
“To find them.”
“How?”
“All of the X-Men’s equipment is comm linked. I should be able to use it to find the other jet.”
“I will go with you.”
“Piotr, no. You are strong, yes, but you are still a student. I cannot put you in such danger.”
“Muerte-”
“No. Stay with the children. Protect them. Please.”
Piotr clenches his jaw, but nods tightly.
*
“There is another plane incoming,” Magneto warns moments before it comes into sight and lands.
They’re all unbearably tense until the moment Muerte steps out of the jet.
“The children?” Jean demands.
“Seguro,” Muerte reassures. She side eyes Magneto and Mystique. “Forgive me if I don’t say where.”
Jean and Ororo both immediately relax.
Muerte eyes the group and immediately latches onto the tension between Jean and Logan. It takes all her willpower not to roll her eyes. “Logan, I’m bunking with you. Bobby, I promise I will know if you go anywhere near Rogue’s tent.”
*
Magneto and Mystique, heads bent together, chuckle. Magneto smirks at Rogue. “We love what you’ve done with your hair.”
Rogue manages two steps and a glove before Bobby grabs her.
Muerte carefully keeps her eyes focused on the gun she’s cleaning as she shifts through the ghosts surrounding Magneto and gives one just enough juice to appear before him, making certain no one else can see it. Jean grimaces, but doesn’t say anything. Magneto turns a satisfying shade of white.
“Make light of another’s life and misfortunes, and I will emphasize yours,” Muerte warns viciously through Shaw’s ghost. Beside him, Mystique continues to laugh, completely unaware. Muerte makes sure the ghost fades slowly.
Magneto has himself mostly under control again by the time John speaks to him.
“You are a god among insects, never let anyone tell you different,” Magneto tells him.
Muerte rolls her eyes. “Don’t inflate his ego, cabrón.”
John shrugs. “A little praise never hurt. He won’t get under my skin like he’s trying to, though. My history teacher was too good.”
Muerte grins smugly. Magneto looks put out at having his game called.
*
“I’ll go,” Logan says. “I have a hunch he’ll want me alive.”
Muerte scoffs. “He certainly will, which is exactly why you won’t.”
*
Muerte sticks to Logan’s side like glue inside the dam, despite his grumbling. He may not know his past here, but the ghosts in this dam were chatty fuckers and many recognized Logan. It wouldn’t do to have him caught unaware. Besides… she’ll be more useful against Stryker than he will.
Logan visibly flinches at the sight of the water tank.
Muerte wants to let him get close enough to see the adamantium and find the claw marks before she speaks up, but they don’t have that kind of time. “Logan, do you trust me?”
He looks at her sharply, but only takes a moment to nod.
Muerte nods back before sending ghosts - and their memories - at him rapid fire. The scientists he killed in this very room, a woman he loved once, the children he saved… she manages to throw Styker’s wife at the scientist to buy them a few extra minutes in the meantime. Logan collapses to his knees and she runs to him, lets him breathe raggedly into her shirt.
A full minute later, he manages to straighten. “Thank you.”
Muerte nods and he pulls them both to their feet as Stryker enters, already rambling about adamantium and aiming his little experiment at them. Logan tries to go after Stryker.
Muerte holds him back. “I can’t survive a fight with her, amigo. I’ll get Stryker.”
Logan growls, but nods and charges. Muerte barely makes it out the door after Stryker.
Muerte flat out tackles the scientist as he reaches his helicopter.
“Who the hell are you?” He demands around her hand at his throat.
She shrugs. “Death. Afterlife. Maybe something in between.”
The dam starts to burst. Muerte curses at Stryker’s explanation and chains him to the chopper. “We die, and you’re going with us.”
She takes a deep breath and takes stock of the ghosts of the mutants surrounding her. There! Portal-maker. She takes another deep breath, summons it, and steps back into the dam the moment Logan closes the spillway.
“You don’t wanna go that way,” he warns. “Trust me.”
“How about this way?” Muerte calls.
The next portal she opens directly outside the back of the jet. Bobby and John start strapping the other kids into seats as Storm rushes up to Rogue. Logan spots Stryker chained to the wall. Muerte shakes her head at him. “No time.”
He growls, but steps onto the plane.
“Scott, we need to get to Washington,” the professor warns.
The damn starts burst more quickly. Jean looks at the door. Muerte catches her around the shoulders and physically tosses the taller woman further into the plane with one arm and opens a portal in front of the jet with the other. “Jean, push it through.”
Jean gapes. “What?”
“The jet,” Muerte grits out, “push the fucking jet through the portal before I lose my hold of it and we all die. It’ll knock us both the hell out, but we will all live. And your idea will kill you. ¡Hazlo!”
*
“What is wrong with her?” Piotr demands, taking in the sight of Muerte in Logan’s arms.
“She over taxed herself,” Storm explains. “Her and Jean both almost killed themselves to save us. We need to get them in beds and on IV bags of nutrients and liquids.”
Logan jerks his head toward a building behind the house. “There’s a full medical facility beneath the West shop.”
“What did she do?” Piotr asks Rogue quietly, as they follow Logan.
Rogue shrugs helplessly. “Professor tried to explain it on the plane. All our powers have limits, right? Muerte can manifest ghosts - make them visible or corporeal - and talk to them. There’s no limit to all of that, but it drains her when she uses possession. She let the ghost of a mutant that could make portals possess her to save us. I think she knew it could kill her if she held it too long…”
Piotr curses in Russian.
*
It takes 3 days for Jean to wake up - Scott never leaves her side.
Logan lurks around the medical wing - Rogue often his shadow.
Muerte wakes on Day 5 to Jean scanning her chart with a scowl on her right, and Logan slouched in a chair on her left. She pokes his arm where it rests on her bed.
He shoots up straight. “Jean!”
Jean looks up and much of the tension drains out of her frame. “You’re insane,” is the first thing she tells Muerte.
Muerte shrugs weakly. “Did it work?”
Jean nods. “You were right. It did a number on you and I, but… everyone made it… minus Stryker.”
“I am not going to apologize for leaving that cabrón to drown.”
Jean shakes her head. “I wasn’t going to ask you to.”
“Did we make it to Washington in time?”
Jean smiles. “Yeah.”
Muerte relaxes against her pillows. “All the students?”
“All safe and doing well. Most of them are very fond of your horses.”
Logan snorts. “Pretty sure Piotr is going to beg you to let him stay here.”
Muerte quirks an eyebrow.
“His father had horses, when he was a child,” Jean explains.
“¿No es bienvenido a casa? ”
Jean shakes her head. “No, he’s not welcome home. His family is-”
“Very superstitious,” Piotr’s voice comes from the doorway.
Muerte winces at having been caught talking about him.
Piotr shrugs. “Is okay. I have new family.”
Muerte smiles, understanding. “Si , they are special, aren’t they?”
Piotr nods.
“You are welcome here any time.”
“Thank you. I want…” His face scrunches and her turns to Jean. “принести извинения?”
Jean chuckles. “Apologize.”
“What for?” Muerte asks.
“I should not have argued with you about staying with children. You were right. Was best place for me.”
Muerte smiles. “They know you better than they know me. And my power scares many of the younger ones. It was best.”
“Да.”
Muerte yawns. “Alright, Logan, carry me to bed.”
“What do I look like, a pack mule?” Logan grumbles. “And you’re in a bed.”
“My bed, por favor.”
Logan continues to grumble, even as he bends to lift her gently.
Piotr and Jean watch them curiously as they leave the medical wing.
“Are they…” Piotr makes a vague gesture with his hands.
“I honestly don’t know,” Jean answers. “They’ve known each other a long time. And they’re protective of one another. I don’t know the extent of their relationship. And it’s none of my business.”
Piotr grimaces at the implied chastisement. “I suppose not.”