Chapter 5
Though it took considerably more time than they really had to spend freely, John Proudstar and Clarice Fong tracked down the Mutant Brotherhood's hideout. While it felt like it could turn into exactly the same case as it had been with the last two people thirty sent in undercover; the similarities in the situations and execution of plans really was terribly alike; there had again been little choice.
Thunderbird, even for all his skills, had been unable to track Charles after so long of him going missing. They could not get anywhere near the latest sighting of Charles as it was a crime scene and Trask had specifically armed all current guards with mutant detection devices.
Magneto's cult was the very next option as far as it went. Either they had a hand in Charles' kidnapping, they might know something, or they could help the X-men find out.
Thunderbird and Blink were accepted into the fold with seemingly open arms, likely because no one knew that the X-Men had already recruited them as, well, they were still essentially in hiding. There was no reason to expect spies, thankfully, so infiltrating went smoothly. After that, it took a few more days for the two to sufficiently determine that no one, not even the top ranking members, could conceivably be hiding one Charles Xavier.
Hank and Alex startled terribly when the swirling ring of purple light appeared in the center of the kitchen one evening though as they had not been expecting a return so soon. They had been at the mansion less than three hours prior. The X-Men were still in the process of mobilizing for the next morning.
John stepped out of the circle first, looking grave as death, and Clarice did not look much more cheerful.
"We have a problem." John informed them succinctly.
Alex narrowed his eyes warily, "What kind of problem?"
"We need to make our move tonight." Clarice hoped up onto one of the bar stools.
"Why tonight?" Hank was already waving his hands about like a conductor, "We aren't ready for a confrontation tonight! We are in the process of gathering equipment, readying the portable-"
"Well," John cut him off, hooking his thumbs in his belt loops, "then we have to go as we are and hope they don't want to get into it. Our timeline is moved up because the great, logical master of magnetism decided we're attacking a weapons plant tomorrow."
"If we want to head that off," Clarice added, "we have to do it before they mobilize."
"I'm gonna kill him!" Alex shouted to a nearby wall, turning on his heel and fisting his hair in his hands. "Why does he always manage to make everything worse!?"
"Are they planning to use the weapons or destroy them?" Hank seemed less inclined to care, at least not if it meant ruining the plan.
"We don't know, honestly." Clarice confessed, "but adding Magneto, Mystique, and the Brotherhood in a bunker of weapons of mass destruction is not the best recipe I've ever heard of."
There really was nothing else they could do but move. They could not allow Magneto to raid a weapons plant, it was too dangerous a prospect to entertain. Regardless of whether he destroyed the plant or stole the weapons, the results would be a disaster.
They gathered up what they had and hoped they would not be waking into a fight they were woefully unprepared for. They banked on the element of surprise and whatever there was left of their history with the two main leaders.
If there was even a thread of sentimentality left for them, but most importantly, Charles, Mystique would listen. There was little any of them were willing to bank on with Magneto, not even in Charles case. Friends they might have been, but it had all been undone on a sandy beach. The trust would never be anywhere close to renewed regardless of what Erik responded with upon seeing them. He could turn on them all easily enough.
That was the problem with desperation, it left one open to betrayal because safer options were not available. It left a sour taste in their mouths to have to contemplate asking for help from Magneto. Still, here they were, bringing the oldest in the group, as many as the school child spare, and they were jumping through a portal on the outskirts of a terrorist camp.
They intended to bring more people, bring weapons, and storm the hideout to make demands. The reality was going to be far less glorious, involving far more supplication and discreet groveling. They intended to put a stop to the raid but they had little ground to stand on. The area was unfamiliar, their own weapons had not been ready, not the tools they used to help some of them focus their power. Alex was relying on an old model in his suit as the latest one was not tested and child not be tested while they had many of their own potentially in harms way.
Clarice and John retreated back to their tent just in case they needed to hold onto their cover, vanishing into the night, taking their only way to retreat with them. It was part of the plan, but having the way out lost was disconcerting.
Hank felt like he might have an aneurysm.
Once they sneaked up to the border of the camp they were noticed, of course. Everything moved very fast after that. Both sides began posturing, barring teeth, puffing up their chest, fanning out their tails, just generally trying to intimidate the opposition.
Things escalated, a few energy shots were fired from both sides even though Hank loudly insisted they were there to talk. It seemed like unbeatable odds, like a battle was imminent.
Then a voice cut above it all and flowing yellow eyes landed on Hank as mystique, in all her blue scales, sauntered to the head of her group.
Hank had intentionally brought out his own blue side for the occasion, knowing he would need the advantage it offered. They faced off, yellow eyes to orange, fur to scales.
"What are you doing here?" She asked simply, voice harsh and unyielding.
Hank found himself slightly breathless, even after so much time had passed, "We came to talk."
She arched a ridged brow, "So talk. I'm listening."
"We need to talk to Magneto too." Armando stepped in, taking pity on Hank and his sudden bout with dejavu coupled with heart arrhythmia, "Something has happened."
"We're busy." She crossed her arms under her chest, "You can't expect us to drop everything when you show up unannounced!"
"It's important." Alex offered, more subdued than he would have been with Erik, "It's about the Professor."
Stark confusion flitted over her face and she cocked her head, bird- like, "Charles? What about him?"
"We need to speak with you and Erik together." Armando pressed, not conceding ground.
Her jaw clenched in irritation but she nodded and marched them to the center of the camp. They were made to wait outside a tent, clustered into a tight ball so as not to be ambushed. They probably looked like a school of fish, ready to swim away at the slightest provocation.
Without warning, Magneto emerged from the opening, a sharp, predatory smile on his face, helmet in place, "My, what a surprise!"
Darwin instantly stepped in front of Alex and the blond's sudden shower of sparks. Magneto only smiled wider, amused rather than intimidated as he put on a show of amiably offering to have a chat with them since they "came all the way out" to find him.
He took them into his tent, already suspicious at their timing, bluntly asking after their knowledge of his movements. No doubt he believed it had been Charles that found him out.
It only took a few seconds of their judgemental silence before he began to justify what he was doing but Hank was less than interested.
Hank held in a sigh, "We didn't come just because we heard you were going after weapons. We came because-"
"Before you get on your high horse, condemning us," Mystique snarled, "Shouldn't you be telling us why you've been hiding in the ivory tower, doing nothing? Do you have any idea what's happening outside your fence? I've been getting mutants out of the death trap, posing as military, sending them home! I was independently doing so until I heard about Erik's escape."
"Funny how popular you become once you escape prison." Magneto flashed a smirk at all of them but he was met with only one halfhearted smile from a girl with black hair in return, so he sighed, lifting his shoulders in a shrug, "Though none of you came to congratulate me."
"Not so much." Sean mumbled very quietly, unlike his usual cheeky manner.
The interesting part, Magneto thought, was how they all seemed to look to Hank. Even Alex was very clearly deferring to him. He stood at the head of the group like a father bear, a Charles Xavier in blue. Exactly what had happened while he was away? He should have visited more often than once or twice, whatever it had been. It might give him some ground to stand on now that he was faced with these familiar and not so familiar faces.
"I take it that the school is doing well, judging by how many new faces you brought with you." When Hank bristled at the compliment a few warning bells sounded inside Erik's skull, so he persisted, testing, "Not that I'm looking to steal them away, but did you bring all of them or is this only part of the group?"
"Pretty sure it's not actually your business seeing as how you never bothered to care how we were before." Darwin sounded very calm but there was a subtle bite to each word, one that was so different from his normally easy, wide smiles of the past.
Erik cocked a brow, leaning most of his weight on one leg as he licked his lower lip, "Very well, as you wish! We can skip the polite questions and general niceties." None of them objected, letting him say his peace, waiting to see what he would do, "So just tell me, why did Charles send you all here? He obviously had reason to risk-"
The tiny gasp stopped him, setting off more warning bells, and now he studied the sudden wide eyes and absolutely rigid stances. Hank honestly looked ready to roar and spring at him even though he stood his ground.
It was the collective reaction of having someone verbally stomp on an open nerve. There were so many diverted eyes and fidgeting fingers that it all dropped a lead weight into his gut as he watched them. Mystique seemed to notice it as well if the way her back arching was indication, and it always was. The tension in the small group screamed foreboding and he and Mystique far from stupid.
Erik's shoulders stiffened, brows curled down tightly, and his fingers fisting at his sides.
It was Raven that spoke first though, "Where is Charles?"
It took Hank considerable time to answer, his face showing so clearly how many biting retorts he was holding back before he answered rather lowly, "We all wish we knew."
Those words felt a little like a punch. Charles was paralyzed, it was not as if he could just run off.
Alex's strong, dominant voice cut in, "Which is why we came. We were sort of hoping you guys might have an idea about that."
Yellow eyes stared at them, wider than Hank thought he had ever seen them, "How can you not know? You've been with him." A reflexive if not strictly defensive anger took hold of her tone to shift it from the worry, "How exactly do you misplace someone like that?"
"If you hadn't run away and left him, maybe you would know." That was one of the nicer things swirling in the blue furry head and it was obvious.
"Since neither of us have been held up in a house to hide, perhaps you might enlighten us?" Magneto interjected, the utter calm in his expression not quite hiding the churning emotion well enough past the creaking leather of his gloves as his fists clenched tighter.
"The Professor has been missing since he went undercover to reverse the draft notices for all of us old enough. He knew mutants were getting picked off so he started erasing evidence, covering trails, hiding us. Everyone here was rescued and given new identities or histories to keep them from tracking us." Darwin spoke in his easy way, shifted to his quiet manner, adapting as he always did to calm the others.
Missing. The word might as well have been a slap or a gunshot to the stomach.
Hank's jaws clenched before he spoke to the two numb figures before him, "Charles and Moira knew the mutants would never stand a chance, put on the front lines just like the three teachers drafted from the school before. He refused to let any more of us be taken so the two of them decided to alter all the records, erase everything detailing mutant behavior and shaving off a few years for the older ones." He motioned behind him, "Got them all fake records and identification so they would be safe at the school. They also erased every record about any holding of the Xavier estates to be sure no one could find the house, or at least not the right Xavier house. They even erased what they could of your records. You and Raven don't officially exist in more than a few pages of information that was too public to get rid of."
That was indeed news, but not something to be focused on in light of the bigger picture.
"What went wrong?" Erik spit out, managing to sound very even.
"We don't know." Hank admitted bitterly, "They just stopped showing up to the meeting place and then..." the orange eyes fell away, blinking several times as if to focus, "Moira was found dead."
The air suddenly seemed much heavier, harder to breathe.
"No one has come to the house in all that time, no one asking questions. The records really are all gone because we checked." Alex picked up the baton when no one else spoke. "But the mutants he had been rescuing stopped coming. None of us have heard or seen anything no matter what we tried. Moira was killed around the time you broke out so we thought there could be a connection somewhere."
With that, Raven nearly lunged at the blond, voice a raspy, partial scream as she glared, "That was months ago!" Her hands shot up at her sides, uselessly motioning with no direction, "He has been missing for eight months? That is nearly a year! What were you thinking? Why did you never try to contact us?"
"You forgot to leave us your phone numbers when you left us on the beach to die." Sean muttered, locking eyes with her, "And we forgot to ask all the times you never visited." His cheeks were starting to redden behind his freckles with his anger as he glanced at Erik, "You didn't leave a number that time you stopped by either, even when you saw him in the chair."
Absolute dead silence fell over them all as they all stared at the opposing side. No one seemed to quite be breathing as they all seemed to let what had been said settle into their minds. Most of those faces had not been on the beach on the day in question but every one of them seemed to know about it as well as which of the Brotherhood leaders standing in front of them committed what travesty against the beloved Professor. Saying it aloud made it more real to all the young faces staring at the two seasoned warriors.
"Actually, he has been missing a year and six weeks." Hank nearly whispered it but they heard it all the same. "Three days... seventeen hours. But that is counting the time it took us to find you." He could not seem to hold back as if counting it all alone had been too much to stand.
The horrified curse was not stifled fast enough by the quick motion of Raven's hands clamping over her mouth. She very nearly crumpled but managed to remain on her feet before the crowd of onlookers. Erik would have had more sympathy for her had he not been fighting so very hard to stay calm himself. Magneto could not suddenly become emotional over such news because he was the leader. Though a few metal objects around camp rattled for a few seconds.
Magneto's shoulders squared, a chill entering his eyes like the setting of winter, "Then he is dead. They would never keep a mutant alive that long." He steadfastly ignored the sharp pitch cry from Mystique and he simply pressed on, "If Moira is dead, killed as a traitor, there is no hope for Charles. Were he alive, he would have returned to you by now. They probably killed him before they killed her."
There were a lot of stuttering or even held breaths from his crowd but he refused to back down. He stood tall before them without regretting a thing he said. It was the truth. Charles was a strong telepath but he was also crippled, vulnerable... and weak. He knew as well as any that that particular gift could be blocked, and if it was, Charles was defenseless.
Without telepathy Xavier was utterly helpless. His hands suddenly twitched at his sides even though he did not know why. If Ch-Professor Xavier had been killed before the human woman it would mean he himself could have done nothing to help, locked away as he was. Part of him was glad to know that and part of him desperately cursed himself for not having been free to help in the beginning.
His throat suddenly tightened when a very unwelcome vision of Charles staring up at him from the sand planted itself in his mind. The air in the mountains was much too dry and made his eyes want to water.
"That was what we thought until just a short time ago when we all saw him alive." Hank spoke with actual hope in his voice, a hope that instantly shot right through each one of them standing in that tent. "His face was conferred but no one can do the things he can. No telepath can freeze an entire room and walk through as if it were nothing at all."
His legs pumped so hard and his breaths came in deep and desperate drags. Under the scarf covering his nose and mouth he distantly knew with irritation that his cheeks would be burning red. He could blame it on the cold but he knew perfectly well it was from exertion. Being in shape helped the hated sign he always considered a show of weakness to present itself less often, but chasing two mutants over fences, yards, parking lots, and even the tops of roofs was really his limitation. He was a telepath, not part lizard or cat, which those two were!
Well, technically only one of them was, but it was two for all intensive purposes.
They swerved, turning down a dark alley while he plunged after them, cursing when he nearly decapitated himself on a hanging ladder. Still, he forged on, thankful when the space opened up to the light of the moon once again. Thankful, that is, until he saw their new destination. It would be just his luck to fall from the cliffs into the cold tropical waves and the probable shark infested waters. Every island had sharks, always, but he understood that this one was known for it!
If he could just get a hold of that bloody lizard mind this could be over! He never had this much trouble gaining a handle on even such a wild minded thing, but he could not quite catch it. Perhaps it was the distance. His range had been rather poor in recent day thanks to a slight accident but it should not have been anything he could not handle. Somehow, that mutant was blocking him. It was not smart enough to do it mentally so it clearly carried something with it that managed to deflect his efforts.
Eyes on the the ever elusive pare, he had to groan to himself. Why did they have so many boats when there were sharks lingering everywhere? Logic dictated that people really should avoid tempting fate in such a way. He stumbled down the dock steps, following them to the boats as well as he possibly could without actually tripping and breaking his neck; he was frankly not interested when it came to accidents.
The moon reflected off the silvery scales of the mutant as it climbed the metal mast of the coast guard ship, its laughter peeling over the air like a blast from a horn to his ears. His tail coiled round the top as he watched the closer pursuer as well as the much farther distanced man in black. Before his female counterpart was fully up the sails he had jumped to the desk below and scurried down an open hatch.
Even over the distance, he heard her hiss of anger as she chased him down. All the mind reader could do was run faster, knowing he could never catch her attention when she was like this, so lost in the chase that his warnings would never be hindered. The scattered, jigsaw mind of the lizard man was very difficult to even begin to put together considering much of it was utter nonsense and made up words, but he had picked up on the fact that she was going to be attacked the second she made it into that smaller space.
The muscles in his chest were taking a beating as his heart pounded harder, the stress spiking it higher than the run ever had. The mind reader could only hope he arrived in time to save her. He had a feeling she would need it with this particular case.
Scurrying down the steps, she swung herself high, anticipating the tail waiting to trip her from under the open metal steps. It would not be so simple to outsmart her! The pads of her fingers stuck to the roof of the boat, slipping a bit over the metal, but not so badly she could not retain her hold. Her hair hung awkwardly from the tight band securing it into a clump at the back of her head, her bangs dangled strangely as she hung upside down. Her own tail lashed like an angry cat as she hissed. His big eyes stared at her and his tongue flicked out to his lips, a motion she could not keep her own tongue from following as she stared back.
She hissed at him again, baring her teeth before she dropped to the floor, running at him the second she was on the ground. He raced away, cackling loudly as he took to running along the walls as he lead her down a hall.
They were all so stupid, human trash, just like electric eels! Ships like this were made of living metal to keep the alien invaders from reading minds, but it would not work! Communist Patriots be damned to pickle in -
Eyes snapping shut, she shook her head to clear it from the utter gibberish filling it. She had to focus! She could focus! Her companion must have been getting closer if she was getting worse. Or maybe those were part of her own absorption. Either way, she needed to stay clear. Keep these thoughts out of her head and hold fast to her own clarity! There was a job to do! This mutant was dangerous, like electric eels! Oh, god, she needed to hold her head and stop letting it cloud her mind like this!
He skidded into a large room, a captains showy little room, and she slammed the door shut behind her. Trapping her in a room had been his intention and she knew it but she did not care. A small thrill ran up her spine as he grinned wide at her and her own lips pulled into a mirrored smirk. This would be fun while it lasted, but he would die.
Those long fingers of his reached back for a knife and she reached for her gun. They drew together but neither moved for a moment after, but then it was chaotic flashes as each dove and twisted round the other. His fingers held her wrist to steal the gun and she held his to keep the blade away from her face. They grappled round and round the room, toppled the wooden furniture, bounced over the bed, and hit the floor in a joint roll. At some point they had begun to cackle in tandem, eyes wild with blood-lust, tails coiled one round the others as they rolled like a set of crocodiles in a fight.
They wanted to win, to prance the body of the other around like a trophy of strength for all the others to see. Maybe it might be nice to eat the heart; just slice open the chest and lap it up. Aliens could not read minds if you eat enough hearts, but a lizard heart should be best of all because it would be the same.
Some part of her distantly realized that those were not her own thoughts but his, yet there was not enough of her mind distanced from the fight to separate his insanity for her usual clarity. That part of her screamed for help and wanted to crawl away from such a hideous mind, but it was already too late.
Rachel! A distantly familiar voice rattled within her mind but she hardly heard it, too busy seeing red as the knife cut into her arm and then his as they flailed along the floor. There was no humanity in either of them, reverted to nothing but animals locked in a fight. Hang on! It called to her again, falling unnoticed once again.
There was quite a lot of blood but she did not pay a great deal of attention as she screamed and hissed, grinning all the while. One last roll put her on top, the gun having swiveled to the center of his chest, her fingers still locked on the trigger. The widening of his eyes told her that he knew it was over, but his smile only widened as he cackled his last.
The loud, loud bang cut him off and silence dropped down on her. She was panting but there was no other sound. It was only in that moment that she realized he had been screaming strange things to her as they struggled. He had never once been quite, either babbling nonsense that somehow seemed utterly logical in the moment, or laughing and giggling. The knife was in her hand one second and in his chest the next, but she stopped short of opening him up like his voice was telling her to.
Her skin was already tingling painfully in that familiar way, the marrow of her bones aching and she knew she was about to shift. She scrambled to her feet as her fingers began to shrink, claws returning to her normal nails, and the scales slowly vanished. It hurt, every bit of it hurt, but not the way it once had. The tail melted away to nearly unhinge her balance enough to make her fall back down. Her body normalized again, shaping back to its gentle and thin slopes. The sharp bones of her cheeks nestled back to their usual place, the reptilian features lost and leaving the beautiful girl with dark innocent eyes behind. Her face was wet, water dripping down her chin even though she could not explain why.
Her clothing was ripped in quite a few places but she did not really notice. This was not the first time. Her pants had been ruined by the tail but she still had a coat and the belt was still on the keep what was left from falling off. Had she been in a skirt there would have been no problems, though her legs would have been badly cut up. Modesty was saved by long coats.
The laughter, she realized, was still rippling from her even as she moved to the door. It felt good to laugh so she simply allowed it, letting the residue of insanity hold its place as the mutants voice lingered in her mind. Everything he said during their fight made her laugh harder. He was right! They all deserved at drown in their gold! Everything he said was so illogical but he was so correct! Mirrors, at least his, really would keep aliens from reading their mind! She understood why he had so very many hanging from chains all over him now! They cut her hands and arms while they struggled but she never felt it.
The very second the fight was over, he knew it, felt it, and he slowed. He was panting, leaning on the wall for support as he gathered himself. Hooking a finger in the scarf, he tugged it down to hang very loosely at his neck. His hands cradled his head as his ragged breathing slowed and the cold sting in his lungs began to subside. She was returning to her usual form, he could feel that as well. When the pain flared he sent her a few calming sensations to take the edge away and increased the serotonin it produced.
Just a minute too late. Now he would have to help her pick up the pieces because he could do nothing more than that. She would need him now, need him to gather back her mind from that dark place.
She was just down the hall, her shields down uselessly in the wake of her shift. Normally he could not gain such blatant entry to her mind without her explicitly letting him, but it was easy to slip through now. It was not normally such a dramatic change but she had been too close to that creature for too long. The chase lasted such a long time and now she was much too tired to be able to keep him out. Her body could sustain more than one shift at once but that lizard had simply been too vast a change for her mind to keep up. Every part of her had become the lizard mutant and now she would need time to recover. In more than one way.
The thoughts bubbling from her mind were utter babble, just the way his had been. The sheer volume of his insanity had surprised both of them. When he has fallen so far behind it had left her so very open. In hindsight, it might have been better if he stayed farther back to let her mutation stop latching into him from a distance, forcing her mind to remain so open. It would not have helped very much if he had though. This was all part of her mutation, the price of it.
Every gift had some form of price, such as his ever present headaches. Everything in life had a good and a bad side. There was nothing to be done about it but try to balance it.
The door opened and he watched her come out of the room, weaving more than walking. He could not help the swell of sympathy he felt at seeing his dearest friend in such a pitiful state but he shoved it away to avoid her picking it up. She would hate his pity. He stood up slowly as he watched her amble down the hall, her eyes fixed on him even if she had difficulty focusing.
She was laughing maniacally, eyes so wild as they peeked at him from under the thick bangs. Tear streamed down both her cheeks and he knew those to be her own. She knew she was not in control of herself, felt the insanity coiled around her mind and she was afraid. Rachel loathed being out of control but she could not help things like this. It was a defect in her mutation, taking on a little of the personality of any mutant she stole powers from. It was not her fault, things like the strong and suffocating insanity of that mutant simply carried to her more easily.
His hand extended to her, eyes gentle and carefully delivering no blow of judgement. Laughter still bubbling from her, she slipping her hand into his and he pulled her to him. His gloved hand slid into her dark hair, rubbing circles along her scalp while his other arm slipped around her twitching body to hold her in place. He could feel her fear, the horror that belonged to her rather than the stolen powers, the quiet sobs of shame thrumming in the back of her mind as she tried to hide from what had possessed her sanity.
"Calm your mind, love." He whispered directly into her ear, "I'm right here."
The shaking stopped and he let her coil against him, reaching for him in every sense there was, winding herself into his powers like a lifeline to pull herself away from the one she did not want to keep. He did not resist as he felt her sinking into his mind, her mutation duplicating his gift so that she could crawl inside to cower there within his safe mental walls. The body in his arms went limp as she drew her consciousness from it to ride with his instead until it was safe to go back.
The poor creature was light in his arms and so easy to pick up. She did not take care of her body and pushed it much too hard. Strong and fast as she was, he had watched her slowly fading over time. The treatment for her mutation was taking a considerable price from her. While he did everything he could to help her, she refused it. When she wielded the exact same power as he himself did, because she could not actually prevent her powers from melding with any mutant she was in contact with, there was little he could do to force her to do as he instructed.
Why can't I control it? Why can I never truly control it? The delicate, smooth voice murmured into his thoughts.
You will , he assured her quickly. It takes time. I am right here with you, I promise.
She was silent as he held her close and walked down a hallway until he found comfortable seating. The couch would do them both a bit of good until they were each stead and rested enough to return home. If anyone found them he would take care of that, but they would be fine for the time being. Someone would be along soon for the mass murdering mutant she killed anyway. He did not particularly care what happened to the creature. Some minds were simply not together enough to even begin to work with. It had done horrible things to Rachel even though she was still thankfully alive, unlike most the encountered it.