Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men, the New Mutants, the New Warriors, or any other characters randomly appearing in this fic, and I'm making no money from having written it.
The Butterfly Effect was written as a gift for Mi-Chan17, who showed me just how well Illyana and Vance could work, and was graciously edited by Beaubier. Thanks for reading - if you like it, please leave feedback!
The Butterfly Effect
*** Part 1 ***
It wasn't fair.
Granted, Illyana Rasputin had long since given up on "fair", just as she'd given up on "safe" and "normal". None of them were really options for a girl who'd lived half her life in Limbo, who'd had portions of her soul twisted and blackened, who'd seen her friends and family die horrible deaths, both at the hands of her Master and by her own doing. No, fair wasn't something she'd ever really come to expect.
Sometimes, though, something happened that dangled the possibility of normality in front of her, tantalizingly close. And when it was invariably ripped away, it hurt just as much as it had the first time. She might not expect fair, but that didn't keep her from bemoaning the lack of it in her life.
Illyana sighed as she kicked a rock, then watched it skid down the sidewalk until it hit a crack. She wasn't altogether sure where she was, beyond "some small town in New York"; she wasn't sure she cared. Sam was okay, apparently suffering no long-term harm from his encounter with the Beyonder. More importantly, Kitty was okay, and didn't seem to be holding any grudge over having been disastrously cast in the role of Ruler of Limbo, even briefly. She'd made the right choice, taking it all back upon herself; it wasn't fair to dump it on her roommate just so she could have a chance at a normal life. Limbo was her responsibility, whether she wanted it or not.
But to have the hope that it didn't have to be, and then to have to choose it again? No, that wasn't fair either, and for once no one had even pretended to protest when she'd summoned up a stepping disk and disappeared. She couldn't look the other New Mutants in the face and pretend that she was happy that she'd made the "right choice". For the first time she could remember, she'd been whole, had had a chance at safe and normal and fair and all the other things her teammates took for granted. And now?
She gave the rock another, harder kick and wrapped her arms around herself, regretting that she hadn't had the foresight to grab a jacket before taking off. She could pop back to Limbo and get one, easily enough; her sword was back there once more, assuring her of a safe place to teleport. She didn't want to, though. She just wanted…
Damn, was "normal" such an awful thing to want that it had to come at so high a cost?
Caught up in her thoughts, Illyana didn't notice the car turning into the driveway until she heard the horn urging her out of the way, and for a moment, she stared at it before realizing the driver was waiting for her to move. The blonde woman behind the wheel looked nervous, and Illyana glanced down at herself quickly to make sure she hadn't manifested any of the outward signs of her Darkchylde persona before looking back up, reassured that whatever was making the blonde woman nervous, it wasn't her. The boy in the passenger's seat…
Illyana met his eyes for a moment, long enough to recognize his apprehension as something entirely different from his mother's. She knew that look; a resigned acceptance that no matter how bright people might say the future was going to be, it wasn't likely to turn out that way.
The woman laid on the horn once more, and Illyana tore her gaze away from his and hurried off the driveway and down the road, abandoning her rock. But when she glanced back over her shoulder from a few houses down, she saw the boy standing on the driveway, still watching her.
"Hey, wait up!"
Illyana turned to see the boy she'd seen earlier racing towards her down the sidewalk, now wearing a hoodie that looked as if it had maybe fit properly six months earlier and carrying something over his arm. She tensed a little, and debated calling up a stepping disk, but resisted the impulse. It'd be easy enough to 'port out once she found out what he wanted.
"I just…are you okay?" he asked when he caught up, somewhat out of breath. "You seemed sort of…lost."
Illyana shrugged. "Not really," she replied, answering his observation, not his question. "Just taking a walk and looking around."
The boy gave her a skeptical look, dark hair flopping down over one eye. "In Saugerties."
"Well, it's as good a place to walk as any, right?" she countered. "Besides, I live just down the road." Westchester was right down the road from Saugerties, right? It just depended on which road you were talking about.
Well, or not. But it was close enough, anyway. It wasn't as if she'd landed herself in Ancient Egypt. It was all a matter of perspective.
"Since when?" He held out his arms in a "hey, just asking," sort of way. "No, seriously – I don't recognize you, but I've been gone a while. When did you move here?"
"A few weeks ago." She tilted her head. "Where've you been?"
"Vegas, most recently." He rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly, in a gesture that made her think of Doug whenever he was trying to muster up the courage to breach a sensitive subject. "I was sort of doing the cross-country roadtrip thing."
"Sounds like fun." She forced a smile without too much difficulty, just because the guy was kind of cute standing there, looking awkward. A chance to talk with a cute guy, even under false pretences, wasn't something she was about to throw away; she was just going to have to be careful to keep her story straight. "How'd you manage that during the school year?" That sounded normal, right?
"Umm, I just kind of did it?" He smiled. "I'm Vance, by the way. Oh, and hey - you looked like you could maybe use this." He held out the extra sweatshirt he'd been carrying over his arm and shrugged awkwardly. "It's colder out than I figured, too. You don't have to worry about giving it back or anything; it's too small, anyway."
"Thanks," she said, and took the hoodie from him, though she didn't immediately put it on. "Illyana. Nice to meet you." Surprisingly, she even meant it - he had a nice smile, and she didn't often get to talk to anyone who didn't already know her as 'one of those Xaviers' kids' or worse.. "So, you just took off on a road trip? This story's getting better and better."
"It had its moments. Time to come home though, I guess." He didn't seem particularly enthused, though, and his eyes were shadowed. "Anyway, it's getting dark. Can I walk you home?"
She shook her head. "I'm good, it's not that far," she lied, then made a face and pulled the hoodie on over her head. No point in refusing it, and it really was getting cool out. "Besides, I'm not really ready to go back yet, y'know?"
"Yeah." There was a long pause, and he took a breath, then exhaled slowly. "I'm not sure I am, either."
Illyana paused. There was still a chance this was some kind of trick – she knew Dani would recommend being on her guard, and Cat would have pointed out how, strategically, she was leaving herself wide open to an attack. But…
"So, are we taking a walk, or what?" she asked, grinning crookedly. He seemed harmless, after all, and if she couldn't actually be normal, pretending it with someone who didn't know any better was the next best thing.
Vance gave her a grateful smile, and nodded. "Yeah. We're taking a walk." He fell into step with her, and they started back down the road. "Where'd you move from?"
"Originally? Russia," she admitted. "I've been in the US a couple of years, though."
"Really? " He sounded genuinely surprised. "You don't have much of an accent."
"Oh well, I watched lots of tv." She made a vague gesture and grinned. "Besides, gotta fit in, right?"
Vance's laugh sounded a little forced, but he nodded. "Yeah, pretty much, I suppose. Still, I would've never guessed. " They reached a corner, and he gestured to the right. "There's a park over there – just one of those ones for little kids, but…we could hang out there for a while?"
"Sounds good." Illyana smiled gratefully and turned that way. "So…how 'bout you? Are you from here originally, or are you a transplant?"
"Nah, from here," he admitted. "Pretty boring compared to Russia, huh?"
Illyana let out an amused snort. "Trust me. Boring sounds pretty awesome sometimes." Despite the dimming light, she could see the park's play area across the street and headed towards it. "Is that why you left, because you were bored?" She doubted it, but it was possible she was wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.
"Maybe?" He shrugged awkwardly. "Partly, anyway. I mean, there's a whole country out there - I wanted to see some of it."
"So, what'd you all see?" she asked, and was rewarded by a grateful look, followed by a recounting of things seen, heading westward. Somewhere during this, though she couldn't have said exactly when, they settled onto adjacent swings on the swing set - neither of them moving, just using the swings as improvised seats.
"So yeah. Ended up in Vegas," he finished after a while. "Actually saw the first of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation matches."
"Seriously?" Illyana replied, impressed. "I saw it on tv. Did you see The Thing fight that alligator guy?" Why he was there and not with the Fantastic Four was something she hadn't quite figured out, but the match had been incredible.
"Practically from ringside," Vance replied, lips twitching as if there were more to the story he wasn't telling. "From what I heard, he was actually some famous wrestler, once upon a time. He made some kind of deal with a sorceress to get back in the ring."
"Mmm, some kind of gradual transfiguration spell?" she mused aloud without thinking, then shrugged as he gave her a curious look. "Hey, I read Harry Potter, just like everyone else. Anyway, sounds like you had an awesome time. Why'd you come back?"
"Well, it's...home, y'know?" he replied, with an off balance shrug of his shoulders. "Sooner or later, you kind of have to go back."
"I don't know. Sometimes not going back sounds like a pretty good plan." To the school. To Limbo, which was more her home than anywhere, she supposed. Back to Russia, which wasn't even an option for her. "Anyway, you don't seem real happy about it."
"Anyone ever tell you you're pretty perceptive?" His eyebrows quirked up, and he smiled crookedly as he wrapped his arms around the swing chain closest to her and leaned in to rest his forehead against it. "You're right, though. I've got really mixed feelings about coming back."
"So why do it? It sounds like you had a good thing going." Granted, he hadn't really explained ihow/i he'd been travelling, but she assumed he'd been hitchhiking. It wasn't like most people could get from here to there without covering the distance in between.
"My mom hired a private investigator, and he tracked me down." His smile faded and he shrugged crookedly. "And, y'know, how do you say no when your mom shows up and asks you to come home?"
"I don't know," Illyana admitted. Given her own last run in with her parents, it wasn't likely it was ever going to come up. "I guess it depends on why you left in the first place?"
"Why'd you leave?" he asked, and when Illyana met his eyes, he smiled faintly. "C'mon, no one just takes a walk in Saugerties. There's nothing here to see."
Illyana sighed. "I'm going back." She turned away, staring out across the play area to avoid his eyes "I just needed to get away for a while. Something happened, and I needed to wrap my head around it." She shrugged. "Saugerties sounded like as good a place as any."
"Are you okay?" She spun to look at him, forehead furrowed, and watched as Vance shrugged awkwardly. "Hey, it's a reasonable question."
"I guess?" Illyana shrugged again and grimaced. "Anyway, yeah. I'm fine. Gotta be, right? Everyone expects fine." After all, it wasn't as if she'd lost anything that was really hers, or that she'd ever had before.
"Everyone expects a lot of things. It doesn't make them true."
Illyana's lips quirked up, just on one side, and she glanced over to see Vance watching her with a concerned expression. "I thought I was the one who was supposed to be being perceptive?"
Vance shrugged again, eyes dropping a little from her face. "Look, if it's none of my business-"
"Nah, it's okay." Illyana sighed, adjusting herself in the swing so she could lean forward and rest her elbows on her legs without falling. "Just...did you ever have one of those days where you woke up expecting everything to just be same old, same old - and it's not? I mean, it turns out that it's the most incredible, awesome day ever, and you get a present you never even hoped for, and you're kind of on the top of the world? Because you figure everything's going to be great from there on?"
She glanced over at him, waiting for confirmation, and watched until he nodded for her to continue. "Except then, five minutes later, someone tells you that the only reason everything's great for you is that it's all gone to hell for someone else. Someone you care about. And the only way to fix it is to give the present back, knowing you're never, ever going to get a chance at it again." She shrugged. "It's been that kind of day."
"That's a pretty specific kind of bad day. I think I get the idea, though. You're sure whatever the present is, you won't get another shot at it?"
"It's kind of a miracle I got a first shot at it." She sighed. "Anyway, it's no big deal. It's not like I'm out anything." Corrupt soul, check. Demonic dimension, check. Teammates suspicious about her motivations, inevitable. Yep, same old, same old. Moving on. "I should probably just suck it up and head back."
"Yeah, me too," Vance admitted, though he didn't sound at all sure about that. "Starting things off by pissing off my parents probably isn't the way to go."
"Are you going to be okay?" Illyana asked, eyeing him skeptically. "Because...you don't seem at all sure about that."
"Yeah, probably." He rubbed at the back of his neck again. "My mom promised, y'know? Things are gonna be different. So..here's hoping?"
It was her turn to look skeptical, and she took a breath. She was probably going to get into trouble for this, but - it wasn't like she wasn't in trouble more often than not, anyway. "Look, if things aren't? I know a -" her voice broke off as she felt a weird tilt, as if the very fabric of reality had been torn and pieced back together. She started to fall off the swing, only to have something - something that wasn't there - catch her before she could hit the ground. "What..?" she asked groggily.
"Are you okay?" Vance had jumped off the swing and hurried over, and was now crouching down in front of her, a worried look on his face. Stranger, though, was the fact he wasn't actually iholding her/I - and she still wasn't faceplanting on the ground.
"Yeah?" She shook her head and shifted to sit up, then reached up to rub at her head. "Whoa, weird. Did you feel that?"
"Not as much as you did," Vance said, and she felt whatever had been holding her loosen its hold. "What was it?"
"No clue, but I should probably go find out," she admitted, then gave him a curious look. "Right after you explain why I didn't fall on my face?" She thought she might know, but it didn't feel anything like it did when Rachel did it, so she wasn't sure.
"Umm, telekinesis?" he admitted awkwardly, eyes dropping towards the ground. "Sorry, I probably should've told you I'm a mutant, huh?"
Illyana grinned a little, and summoned up a stepping disk around them without giving it direction to actually go anywhere. "Guess that makes two of us, then. I'm a teleporter." And a demon sorceress, but that wasn't exactly something she advertised. She was still trying to put it all behind her. She let the disk return, then gave him a curious look. "How come you're not at the Massachusetts Academy? I thought Emma sunk her fingernails into everyone she could get?"
"Who?" Vance shook his head, looking bemused. "Never heard of it. Or Emma."
"Lucky you." Illyana took a breath and got to her feet. "Look, I need to get back. For real, this time. You want to come with?" She grinned a little, impishly. "The trip's not the greatest, but you can meet my brother. He's an X-Man."
"Your brother's...honestly?" Vance grinned enthusiastically when she nodded confirmation, then paused, the grin fading as he shook his head. "Really, I should probably head home. If I'm gone much longer…"
"Oh please, I can get you back before you left," Illyana explained, waving off his objections. "Chronospatial teleporter. My aim's not perfect," she admitted with a crooked smile, "but I'm getting way better. Or, y'know, my brother can just call your parents or something-"
"No!" Vance protested, then took a breath as her eyes widened. "Look, that'd be...bad, okay? But if you can really get me home before now…?"
"Piece of cake," she assured him, linking her arm through his. "C'mon, you can meet my roommate Kitty, and we can find out why the Earth just turned itself upside down. It'll be fun."
There was something she'd been worried about earlier - something to do with taking him home with her, maybe? But she couldn't seem to remember what, exactly. It wasn't like anyone would care, especially since it'd turned out he was a mutant, and it wasn't as if Limbo was all that dangerous to teleport through anymore. Just...disconcerting. But she had experience dealing with that.
Chalking her confusion up to the residual dizziness from the weird reality tilt, Illyana waited for Vance's confirmation, then summoned a stepping disk. "You might want to keep your eyes closed," she warned him, citing the explanation she normally used when she didn't want someone to see anything odd in Limbo. "Teleporting can make you pretty dizzy if you don't." She waited until he'd complied, then took them off to Limbo. Maybe Ororo or Kurt could get him to talk about why he didn't want to go home. She had a feeling it was something a whole lot more serious than his parents being mad at him for having run away.
*** Part 2 ***
"Piotr? Kitty? Anyone home?" Illyana called out a few minutes later when she and Vance reappeared in the mansion's foyer. "Huh," she added, her forehead furrowing when there wasn't any response. "I wonder where everyone is?"
Vance, meanwhile, was looking around the foyer, his eyes wide. "You actually live here?"
"Pretty cool, right?" She grinned. "Except when it's my turn to dust - you would not believe the amount of dusting this place needs. But I'm pretty sure Kitty and I worked out the fastest way to do that."
"Kitty…"
"My roommate," Illyana explained, directing a curious look towards the stairs. It was weird that no one was coming, especially considering how late it was; she'd half expected Piotr to be standing in the foyer, ready with a disapproving look for her having been gone so long. They must have gone on some kind of mission; she'd have to check, but it probably wasn't anything to worry about. "We were the only teenagers here for a while, so they figured it'd be good for both of us if we shared a room." She grinned. "They've been regretting it ever since, but we haven't. We have a lot of fun."
"How many people live here?" Vance asked. He let go of her arm, and was turning around as if trying to judge the overall size of the building from the foyer. It wasn't an awful plan, Illyana mused, but it wasn't going to work, considering all the underground areas.
"Huh, lemme think." Her, Kitty, Piotr. Ororo, Logan, Erik, Rogue, Kurt, Rachel… "Nine? Ten if you count Lockheed." She grinned again as Vance gave her a curious look. "Kitty's dragon. He's awesome."
"Oh come on, now I know you're messing with me. A dragon? Seriously?"
"Seriously," Illyana replied. "He's about this big," she held her arms out to illustrate, "he's purple, and he flies. So, okay," she admitted as his eyebrows climbed higher, "he's an alien. But he looks like a dragon, and he hasn't complained about being called one. Are you hungry?"
"Huh?" Apparently not prepared for the chance of subject, Vance blinked, then shook his head and looked awkward. "No, I'm fine. Really. I ate on the plane - you don't have to..."
"Ugh, airline food. Anyway, it's no trouble - there's always leftover stuff in the fridge. And homemade tv dinners." She gestured for him to follow her, and explained, "The X-Men go off on missions and stuff, so sometimes I'm the only one here. And no one trusts me to cook."
"Why not?" Vance asked, following along.
"Well, there might have been one time where I tried to see if teleporting the microwave back through time would make it cook faster? But I still maintain that was a Physics experiment." She wrinkled her nose at that, then shrugged and grinned. "Anyway, it works out pretty well. Whenever anyone does cook, they put together a couple of frozen dinners and stick them in the freezer. Or sometimes I just pop out for burgers, but I want to see if they left a note on the fridge and whether or not I need to call Moira."
"Y'know, I'm starting to think you're throwing in all these names just to confuse me," Vance pointed out, but he was smiling, and looking more relaxed than he had since she'd met him.
Illyana smiled back. "Maybe a little? But seriously, Moira's just...like a friend of the family, kind of?" She made a face. "She used to come stay with me when I was younger, or take me back to her place if everyone was going to be gone for a long time, but I talked Piotr out of that a while back. Now I just have to call and check in."
"And in the meantime, you get the place to yourself. Sounds like a pretty good deal."
"Mmm. Yeah, it's not bad. I like it better when everyone's here, though." She shrugged, her smile dimming. "It kinda sucks to know they're all out there, that they may be in danger, and I won't know if everyone's okay until they get back." Or until her curiosity got the best of her, and she popped off to Limbo to check.
"That would suck," Vance agreed as they headed into the kitchen. "At least when Ben got into trouble, I was right there with him."
"Ben...hold it, you actually know Ben Grimm?" Illyana spun towards him, surprised. "No wonder you got awesome seats at the UCWF. That's so unfair."
"I was his manager," Vance admitted with a grin. "I definitely earned a place ringside."
"Unfair," she insisted. "Hey, I wonder if I could -" her eyes settled on the answering machine, and she broke off abruptly and headed over towards the phone. "Hold that thought." She held up her hand and pressed the button to hear the message.
"Hey roomie," the familiar voice of Kitty Pryde rang out. "Hope you get this message - where are you, anyway? Anyway...Rachel's got a plan to take down the Beyonder once and for all, and - arrgh, gotta go, or they're gonna leave without me. If you can make it there to help, it'd be awesome. If not - well, hopefully we'll be back soon."
Illyana bit at her lip, hands clenching and unclenching. She had to go, obviously. Kitty wouldn't have called if it hadn't been urgent. On the other hand, there was no way she was going to be able to go into a fight and keep her secret.
On the other hand, if she didn't? There might not be anyone to keep her secret from.
"I can help," Vance said, pulling her out of those thoughts. "I've met him; he fought Ben last month."
"If he did and Ben won, he was up to something. Even Rachel can't take him down by herself." Illyana rubbed at her forehead. She really hated to do this, but Kitty'd sounded as if the situation was desperate. She couldn't very well just leave Vance here, and more help couldn't be a bad thing, right?
Dropping her hand, she met Vance's eyes, and pushed herself away from the counter, gesturing for him to come closer. "Okay. You're going to see some really weird stuff, and I promise to explain later, but I don't have time now. Just...stay close, okay? And don't freak out." Which was a lot to ask, maybe, but she was going to need to scry for the X-Men if she wanted to be able to find them. She didn't need to be distracted.
"What do you mean, don't frea-"
His voice cut off as, without warning, she summoned a stepping disk and transported them to the throne room of Limbo. "Welcome to Limbo," she said upon arrival, though her heart sank when she caught sight of the horrified expression on his face. "It's safe enough if you don't wander off. Just gimme a minute to find out where they are." Deliberately turning from him, she hurried over towards the scrying mirror and sat down before it, cross-legged.
"Limbo? Illyana, what is this? Where are we?"
"I told you, I'll explain later. I need to concentrate." She closed her eyes, as much to eliminate any chance of seeing his reaction as to focus, and felt rather than saw the image on the mirror waver. "C'mon, Pryde, I know you're out there…" she muttered under her breath.
"So, Baby Boss - new playtoy?" a familiar voice interjected, and Illyana let out a disgusted snort as she lost control of the image and turned to glare at S'ym.
"Mine. Don't touch him," she warned the demon, her eyes glinting with eldritch fire. Granted, Vance seemed to have taken care of that, having erected some kind of pink-ish barrier between himself and her lieutenant, but she wasn't trusting to that to hold S'ym off for long, especially considering that Vance had a very definite "oh shit" look on his face.
"Hold it - Illyana, what's going on here?" Vance asked, his eyes flickering from S'ym to the jumble of lesser demons who'd accompanied him before flicking back to her apprehensively.
"Aww, you didn't even tell him?" S'ym jeered. "That's not right. He should know who he's dealing with."
Illyana's eyes narrowed but she hesitated, grasping for an idea as to how to salvage the situation. S'ym, meanwhile, tapped the ashes off his cigar and smirked at Vance. "So kid - your new girlfriend? Also known as Darkchylde, demon sorceress and ruler of Limbo. You might want to watch out for that. She's got a history of getting rid of people who get on her nerves."
"If I did, you'd be long dead," Illyana snapped, then summoned a stepping disk beneath S'ym and his entourage. "Get out of here, S'ym. And don't come back," she called after him as he disappeared. Once he was gone, she let her head fall into her hand. Yeah. That had gone well, hadn't it?
"Illyana? What...are you okay?" she heard, and she peered up to see Vance eyeing her with an expression that mingled concern and apprehension.
"Oh yeah, fine," she lied. "Because, y'know, that was exactly what I'd had in mind when I brought you here. Not a quick in and out."
"Was it true, then? The sorceress part, I mean." He took a few hesitant steps towards her, then stopped, as if trying to determine whether or not it would be a good idea.
She couldn't blame him. She wasn't sure if it was, or not. "It's true," she admitted. "Welcome to Limbo, temporal nexus and demon realm." She shrugged awkwardly. "It's not like I lied. And I said I'd explain later."
"And the part where you said you were a mutant?"
"Oh, no. That's true," she assured him hurriedly. "Teleporting here is my actual mutant ability. The rest…" She sighed. "Honestly, can we table this until later? We really should get going before it's too late."
"Not really," Vance replied. "From what you said earlier, you can take us back to any time anyway, right? So it seems like now's as good a time as any to explain."
Illyana opened her mouth to protest, then closed it. "Okay, you've gotta be the first person ever who's actually understood that," she grumbled. "Granted, that's mostly because I rush people through here before they can notice anything weird, but still. It's unfair."
"Only because you're trying to avoid having to explain," Vance observed. He smiled faintly. "Having your own dimension's gotta be kind of cool."
"Not so much." She made a face and shrugged awkwardly, though she appreciated him trying to make it sound as if it was no big deal. "The cost was kind of high."
"What was the cost?" Vance asked quietly.
Illyana shook her head. "Not now, okay? That, we really don't have time for." Not to mention, if he knew the truth, he'd probably bail out on his offer to help. She sighed. "I promise, I'll tell you later."
Vance met her eyes for a few moments, then nodded slowly. "Alright. Can I at least ask what you're doing, though?"
She let out a sigh of relief and smiled a little. "Scrying. C'mere if you want, you can watch." She turned back to the mirror, sensing rather than seeing Vance move in behind her, and focused once more. She'd had it before, it shouldn't take long…
"Holy cow," Vance remarked, and she opened her eyes to see the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Avengers fighting...her forehead furrowed. Teenagers? Not the Hellions, but very obviously teens, dressed in black and yellow costumes that looked a lot like the ones she and Kitty wore for training sessions. For a moment, she wondered if the Beyonder might have de-aged some of the X-Men, or brought in interdimensional counterparts, but a second look confirmed that she didn't recognize any of them.
"Who are they?" Vance asked, sounding as confused as she felt.
Illyana shook her head, eyes hardening as she caught sight of a blonde, flying boy barreling into her brother and blasting him backwards into a wall. "No clue. But we're going for reinforcements, anyway."
"Who? It looks as if every hero on Earth is already there."
Illyana grinned. "Which is why we're going to pick up a few no one knows about yet."
**** Part 3 ****
"Okay, so, this should be safe enough," Illyana explained about ten minutes later (or an hour earlier, depending on how she looked at it) as they stood overlooking the grounds of the Massachusetts Academy. "We're going to just pop in and out, and hopefully we won't even run into Emma."
"Who's...the headmistress, you said?" Vance asked, with the air of someone who was being inundated with names and still trying to sort them all into place. "Wouldn't it be easier just to ask her?"
"No way. Emma hates me. She can't read my mind - when she tries, she gets physically sick." She grinned smugly. "It's a gift. I really don't want her poking around in there anyway. Besides, she's tried to kidnap Kitty a few times, so I'm not exactly a fan of her, either."
"Then why-"
"Because a few of the Hellions - her students - aren't half bad. Kitty and I go to their dances sometimes."
"Despite their headmistress having tried to kidnap her."
"Well, I didn't say it made a whole lot of sense," Illyana admitted. "Besides, either Erik or Ororo takes us. Emma won't mess with them."
"Because of the Hellfire Club link."
Illyana grinned. "See, you're getting it. Anyway, if you want to just stay here-"
"No way," Vance protested, just as she'd expected he would. "I said I'd help. Just let me know what you need me to do."
"Well, if you want to flirt with Jennifer to distract her, it probably wouldn't hurt," Illyana teased, but her expression sobered a moment later. "Seriously, just watch out for Manuel - he goes by Empath. He can mess with people's emotions, and he does it for fun."
"What do I do if he does?"
"Let me know and I'll stab him." Granted, it probably wasn't quite the answer he was looking for, but Illyana was already concentrating on calling up a pair of disks, one here, one in Limbo, to take them inside.
"You'll do what?" The light flared up around them, and Vance barely managed to blurt out, "Advanced warning would be -" before she triggered the next disk and ended up in the hall of the girls' dormitory
"-nice." he finished lamely.
Illyana shrugged. "Sorry? C'mon, Marie-Ange's room is right down this way." She started down the hallway, her forehead furrowing. Which room…
That one. She knocked on the door, and heard familiar voice call out, "Come in."
"You don't even ask who it is?" Illyana joked as she opened the door. She stepped inside, unsurprised to see Marie-Ange seated on her bed with her cards spread out before her, with Sharon sprawled out across from them in cat form.
"I just read the cards," Marie-Ange said with a shrug, then looked over at Vance curiously. "The Two of Swords?"
Illyana looked surprised, then laughed. "Possibly. I'd figured on a major arcana card, but that would make sense. What else have you seen?"
Before Marie-Ange could answer, Sharon stood up, stretched, and jumped off the bed, changing into her human form mid-jump. "First Devil-girl introduces Catseye to her friend?" She walked around Vance, who eyed her apprehensively, his eyes following her as far as they could.
"Sorry. Sharon, this is Vance. Vance, this is Sharon, and the girl on the bed," she gestured to to Tarot, who blushed a little and smiled, "is Marie-Ange. They're friends of mine," she explained.
"Ms. Frost says no more helping Devil-girl," Catseye interjected, but she grinned as she stepped away from Vance. "She says spy on, report on, don't help."
Illyana eyebrows climbed, but she just grinned a response. "Really."
"Of course, what Mlle Frost insists upon must be taken into consideration," Marie Ange replied, "but I've already cast the tarot, so letting you see it hardly constitutes help, I wouldn't think."
"Umm...sorry, I'm not really familiar with your cards." Vance stepped further into the room. "What's the Two of Swords, and why is it, umm, me?" He looked over at Illyana curiously. "And what does she mean, Devil girl?"
There was more to the question than there appeared on the surface and Illyana knew it, but she shrugged it off casually, providing only the obvious answer. "Oh, that's the card Marie-Ange always draws when she's doing a reading for me." It had the benefit of being true, and if it didn't answer Vance's underlying question, that was okay. She didn't want to get into it here. "Sharon's decided it's my new nickname. And the Two of Swords refers to an even partnership." She frowned as she looked down at the cards. "Reversed?"
Marie-Ange nodded. "A beneficial partnership, one with potential, but not to be relied on to the exclusion of all others." She gestured towards the five of swords. "You have mixed feelings about it?"
"I have mixed feelings about everything." Illyana wrinkled her nose. Did she have mixed feelings about Vance? She honestly wasn't sure, other than the part where he now knew more about her time in Limbo than anyone living, other than Kitty. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and she still hoped to get the story about just why he didn't want to go home, but she didn't have time right now to try and puzzle it out. Hopefully there'd be an opportunity later, though given what was/would be happening with the Beyonder in short order, she wasn't sure there was much room for hope there, either. "But right now, I need help," she added, returning to the more immediate subject. "Could you call Jimmy, maybe?"
Tarot frowned down at the cards, and shook her head. "According to the cards, you have the help you need. Involving us would cause more problems than it would solve." She looked up again with an awkward, apologetic expression. "Be careful, not everything is as it seems, and when the truth is revealed, the Hanged Man indicates that you'll have a decision to make. Make your choice carefully." She looked at Vance, then picked up her deck and held it out towards him. "Pick one."
Looking a little apprehensive, Vance selected a card, then turned it over. "Justice," he read aloud, his forehead furrowing. "What does that mean? And why did you want me to pick a card?"
"It's a very quick way of doing a reading," Marie-Ange explained. "Justice refers to balance, or cause and effect. You may be forced to deal with the repercussions of not only your own actions, but those of someone you care about. Try not to blame yourself." She shrugged and smiled faintly. "It's not much to work with, I know, but the cards say the situation is urgent, and that delays would only harm your cause. Come back again sometime, and I'll do a full reading for you. Unless, of course, Mlle Frost insists you are also not to be helped."
"Umm, thanks." Vance handed the card back to her, looking bemused. "Why would she-"
"It's an ongoing joke," Illyana explained. "Frost keeps trying to insist that so long as I'm neither an X-Man or a Mass Acad student, I don't fall under the mutual assistance pact. We pretty much ignore it, and since she really doesn't want me as a student, she ignores us ignoring it. Are you sure we don't need more help?" Illyana asked, turning back to Marie-Ange. "When Kitty called, she sounded pretty desperate."
"All the pieces are assembled," Tarot assured her. She smiled. "Have Monsieur Lenscherr call and invite us to visit soon? We can talk then." Her eyes darted over to Vance, eyes twinkling with a hint of mischief. "I'll do another reading."
Yana grinned back. "You're on. Thanks for the not-help." She stepped in closer to Vance and took a breath. "Ready?".
"Hey, I'm apparently the Two of Swords." He smiled, though she was reasonably sure he was trying to cover his nervousness. "I'm not about to bail out on our team-up now."
"Bye Devil Girl. Bring Kitty-cat and Justice Boy to play soon, yes?" Sharon said, plopping down gracefully on the end of Tarot's bed.
"As soon as I can," she promised, then called up a stepping disk. With any luck, she could time it so they arrived in the Rockies right at the time she'd scryed earlier. Tarot's reassurances aside, she didn't doubt the X-Men could use all the help they could get.
"Wow," Vance breathed as they reappeared in the midst of the battle she'd scryed earlier.
"Yeah." Illyana looked around, trying to find the X-Men in the flurry of activity even though, as battles went, it seemed unexpectedly tame. She'd taken a moment in Limbo to alter their clothes into something more appropriate - unstable molecules loosely patterned on the old X-Men uniforms, though she'd recolored them so that they wouldn't be mistaken for the teens who were apparently working with or for the Beyonder. Vance, surprisingly (or perhaps not so much, considering his brain had to be reeling by this point) had taken the fact he suddenly dressed in red, white and blue spandex more or less in stride, and had simply requested a mask to go with it. Having decided it wasn't a half bad idea, her own red and white uniform now sported a matching cowl of its own.
The costumes were the least of her worries right now, though. She hadn't caught sight of Kitty or Piotr yet, but even as she looked around, the ground began to shake and a volcano burst out of the earth, spewing lava and sending the nearest heroes flying backwards. She started to summon a disk, but before she could, a pink-ish dome formed over them.
"Got it," Vance said breathlessly. His face screwed up in concentration as the lava struck his telekinetic shield. The source of the volcano appeared a moment later - a girl who looked as if she were on fire, throwing flames at the nearest of the Avengers who appeared to combat her. "Not sure how long I can hold it, though," he admitted.
"Hey kid, what're you doing here?" a voice boomed from behind them, and Yana whirled to see a very welcome orange figure barreling towards them, even as the flow of lava stopped abruptly, signaling that the girl had been taken out of the fight.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Vance shot back, dropping the shield with obvious relief. "I heard you got yourself into trouble again."
"Like you showing up isn't adding to it," the Thing countered, though the smile on his craggy face made a lie of his words. "Thought you were heading home, Astro-"
"Justice," Vance interjected, cutting him off. "I'm Justice, and this is-" He paused and glanced over at Illyana, apparently unwilling to call her by either her real name or Devil Girl but unsure what he should say instead.
"Magik," she supplied, offering a grin at both his chagrin and his choice of codename before turning back towards the Thing. "I think you know my brother, Colossus?"
"Yeah, we've met," he said, his tone going a bit cool. "Anyway, you kids clear out. Plenty of us here already."
"Right, like you honestly think I'm gonna do that," Vance said with a snort. "Clue us in on the situation? We just got here."
The Thing let out a snort that somehow mingled frustration with amused familiarity. "X-Men's Phoenix up and dragged us all here. Figured on a big fight, but there ain't much going on unless you're one of the big brains. Just an attack by some superpowered kids your age no one's ever heard of." He glanced over at Illyana as if trying to determine whether or not that was universally true.
She shook her head. "I don't know them either," she admitted. "Have you seen my brother at all? Or Ki- err, Shadowcat?"
"Last I saw, they were taking on the bargain basement version of the Torch." Ben gestured towards their left. "Kid who flies with flames out his butt," he explained as she gave him a curious look.
"Got it," Illyana said, remembering the image she'd scryed in the mirror, then turned to Vance. "You coming?"
"Try and stop me. Catch you later, Ben."
"Kid, when this is over, you and me are gonna have a long talk," the Thing called after them as they hurried off in the direction he'd indicated.
"What was that about?" Illyana asked.
"He was there yesterday when my mom showed up. He - hey, watch out!" he said, grabbing her hand and yanking her down just as someone - a kid who looked as if he were covered in some kind of technological body armor - flew over her head, apparently propelled by an unknown source. Illyana looked around, identified She-Hulk as the most likely source in question, and grinned and waved.
"You know She-Hulk?" Vance asked incredulously as the giant green woman smiled and waved back.
"Nah, she's just friendly. I did meet Dr. Strange once, though. He was pretty-" her voice wavered and broke off as a towering figure suddenly appeared before her.
"Little apprentice, did you really believe that getting away from me would be that simple?" the red clad figure boomed, a cruel smile playing over his lips. "Fleeing is no solution." He stepped closer, somehow growing larger with each step. "I will always, always hunt you down and bring you back."
"Belasco." She took a step backwards instinctively, then narrowed her eyes and stood her ground. Showing weakness before him was not an option. "You have no power over me. Not any more. You're only alive because I didn't want to kill anyone else."
"I have no power?" Belasco gestured, one-armed, and suddenly, they were back in the throne room of Limbo. "Any power you think you have is an illusion, little one. You're mine, body and soul, just as you were always intended to be." His smile widened. "Or do you think your human friends will still accept you, once they've seen what you are?"
Another gesture, and Illyana let out a shriek of mingled anger and frustration as her form flickered, horns breaking out from her forehead, legs bending to better accommodate hooves.
"What're you doing to her?" Vance shouted, and a pinkish barrier rose up between her and her former master. "Leave her alone!"
"Nothing she didn't choose for herself. She offered up her innocence eagerly enough-"
"I was six!" Illyana pulled her soulsword from its sheath in her torso. "I didn't know!"
"And when you were nine? And eleven? No, you knew, my child. You wanted this."
"And now I don't!" She narrowed her eyes and charged towards him, only to be brought up short by the wall of energy between them.
Belasco, apparently, had no such limitations, and slapped her aside with one smack of his hand, sending her flying backwards to land on her butt, sword still in hand. She stumbled to her feet, ready to renew her assault, but before she could, a blast of pink energy shot past her.
"I said leave her alone!"
Illyana watched in disbelief as the energy passed right through Belasco, and both he and Limbo's throne room wavered and disappeared. In their place, there was only a teenage Native American girl, who crumbled to the ground even as she watched.
"Oh my God," she heard Vance gasp as he rushed over to the teen.
"Illyana, what happened?"
She turned to see Kitty standing hurrying toward her, a worried look on her face that morphed into dismay as she grew closer. "You're…"
"Snowflake?" Piotr's voice boomed, his expression one of confusion. "What-"
Illyana froze as she realized she was still in her Darkchylde persona. Part of her longed to call a stepping disk, to disappear into Limbo rather than face Piotr's reaction, and for a moment, she stood transfixed, staring up into her brother's eyes and watching as realization gradually sank in. She couldn't deal with this. He couldn't. He wasn't supposed to have ever known. No one was.
He wasn't the only one who knew, though, and finally, she pulled her eyes away from his and glanced over to where Vance was crouched beside the girl. Who still wasn't moving.
"Kitty, can you…?" she asked, glancing back at her best friend. It wasn't a fair thing to ask of her, especially considering how recently Piotr had dumped her, but even she couldn't be in two places at once right now, and she really needed to be somewhere else.
Kitty bit at her lip, but nodded. "I'll try," she promised.
Yana gave her a grateful look, then turned back to Piotr for just a moment. "I'll explain later. I've gotta go." She swallowed hard, and sheathed her sword back in her chest. Not caring for the moment whether her appearance had changed back or not, she raced over to where Vance was crouched.
"I didn't know. I didn't mean to," he was stammering, though she wasn't altogether sure he even realized she was there. Up close, the damage to the girl was far more obvious; bruised, battered, a pool of blood slowly spreading on the ground from too many injuries to count.
She was, however, still breathing.
"We need a doctor!" Illyana shouted, and waited for others to take up the call before crouching down beside him. She reached over awkwardly to set her hand on his shoulder, frowning as she realized that blood was trickling from his nose. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." He dragged his hand across his face, leaving a macabre streak of blood across his cheek, but if anything it only accentuated his horrified expression . "I just...I thought I'd hit him. I didn't know…"
""I didn't know either. I thought it was real, too - my worse nightmare, brought to life." She shook her head. "I guess...she must've been doing it? Some kind of illusion?"
"I could've killed her," Vance whispered, closing his eyes as others hurried over and started examining the girl, debating on how best to address her injuries. "My dad was right, I'm a monster."
"You did it to save me, and this...this was an accident," Illyana pointed out quietly. "You're no monster. Trust me, I know monsters." After all, she was one. And now, everyone knew it.
She pushed that thought aside, even as Storm alighted on the far side of the fallen girl.
"Illyana, would you go for the Morlock healer?"
Illyana nodded and reluctantly got to her feet just as Ben Grimm came over, a grim expression on a face poorly suited for it, and tried to urge Vance to his feet.
"C'mon, kid. It's gonna be okay."
He was wrong, though, Illyana reflected as she stood there for a moment, watching as Ben led Vance away from the girl's unconscious body. Things were never going to be quite okay for him again. If anyone knew that, it was her.
"Magik?" Storm asked.
Illyana nodded, and called up a stepping disk. With any luck, the girl at least wouldn't die. He'd have that much, at least.
****Epilogue****
Illyana sat on the floor of the rec room, technically part of the crowd watching tv but apart from it. Not, granted, that it was anything new - but the reasons were.
When reality had somehow reasserted itself, she'd been prepared for the New Mutants to band together against her. After all, she was ultimately the one responsible for Dani's near-death; if it hadn't been for her, the Chief would have been there with them, not off recuperating at her family's ranch. Instead, it had seemed as if she was the only one who cared. About anything. The others had accepted her explanation with the same amount of interest they did everything else - as if they were going through the motions, but without really knowing why they were even bothering to put forth the effort.
They weren't alive. Not really. It had something to do with what the Beyonder had done to them, but none of them were explaining that, either. And she hadn't been there to know.
Part of her felt guilty about that. The other part just wanted to smack them all and tell them to knock it off, because she wanted - needed - things to go back to normal, if only to keep her from dwelling on how much better things had been when they weren't.
The doorbell rang, and for a long moment, she waited to see if anyone would jump up and race to see who it was, but no one did. Letting out a hmmph, she got to her feet and went to answer, hoping it was a pizza delivery guy who'd somehow gotten a wrong address and was mis-delivering something with pepperoni and mushrooms. She pressed the button on the intercom.
"Hi, Xavier's School for Zombified Youn-" she began, but broke off as she looked at the monitor and realized just who was standing there, backpack slung over one shoulder and an awkward expression on his face. "Hang on, I'll be right there."
She pressed the button to deactivate the security system, and raced out the door and down the front steps to the gate. "Hey," she said when she got there, a little breathless from running.
"Hey." Vance offered a faint, crooked smile. "I just wanted to stop and say goodbye."
"Why?" she asked, her forehead furrowing. She hadn't seen him since she'd taken off to find the Morlock healer, and hadn't honestly expected to. For a few days, she'd sort of hoped he'd call, if only so she'd have a chance to say thank you and ask whether or not he was holding up okay. When he hadn't, she'd written him off as one more thing lost.
Still, that wasn't the right response, was it? She tried again. "I mean, where are you going?"
"I don't know yet." He shrugged "I mean, no one pressed charges over, well, over what happened, but I can't go home, y'know? Not after...that."
"Yeah. I get that." Illyana nodded understanding, then paused and glanced back at the mansion. "It's not exactly the same here either," she admitted as she turned back to him. "I heard Mags talking on the phone - he's thinking about shutting down the school and shipping us over to the Massachusetts Academy."
"Well, that'd be okay, right?" Vance said. "You've got Marie-Ange and Sharon there."
"No, I don't." Illyana grimaced a little at the memory. "Part of the reality re-write." She sighed. It hurt, really, knowing that they could have been friends, had things been just a little different. "It kind of sucks. I really did like them."
"It could all work out, though." He smiled a little, though it seemed forced. "I mean, you guys could still end up friends.
Illyana shook her head. "I'm not exactly the Hellions' favorite person."
"Oh." He looked awkward, then sighed. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you that, umm, despite everything? I'm glad I got to meet you." He smiled again, faintly. "You still owe me that explanation. But I can take a raincheck."
Illyana looked surprised. "You can't tell me you haven't heard stuff by now." After all, the superhero/mutant community wasn't exactly huge. Rumors spread pretty quickly, and while everyone's memories seemed a bit blurry, she had a feeling that her appearance as the Darkchylde probably stood out.
"I didn't hear it from you yet," he pointed out with a smile that seemed somewhat more genuine, then held out a hand. "Another time, maybe? Take care, Illyana."
"You too." She paused and cocked her head. "So...how're you set for transportation?"
"Umm...I'm not, I guess? I just figured I'd catch a ride when I could."
Illyana glanced back at the mansion for a moment. The X-Men were off on a mission. Magneto had been spending a lot of time in his office, drinking himself into oblivion. Her friends…
With the exception of Kitty, she wasn't even altogether sure who her friends were, right now. She still wasn't sure how she felt about that, but given how things stood, she wasn't sure she was going to figure it out, here.
She took a breath and turned back to Vance, meeting his eyes. "Y'know, a road trip really doesn't sound like a bad idea."
Vance's eyes lit up for a moment, but the light dimmed and he shrugged awkwardly. "You've got a home here. Family. Friends."
"Yeah," she admitted. Because she did. Maybe things weren't great right now, but ultimately, she knew she'd come back. For now, though...
"I'll leave them a note. Didn't you say you knew how to drive a motorcycle?" she asked, linking her arm through his as she guided him towards the garage. "Because I know where there's one no one's using…"
Logan, she decided, would forgive her eventually. She would leave him a note, and trust that Kitty would keep him from going too ballistic. If anyone had to understand running away from their demons, it'd be him. Even if the demon you were running away from was yourself. At least, for once, she'd have company doing it.