The ceremony's over and Illyana rushes for the champagne with as much subtelty as she can manage. Subtlety's never been her strong suit, and today? Fuck today. Today could burn in the deepest pits of Limbo. Today feels like the worst day of her life, and that's coming from a woman who's spent years as an empty husk without a soul, even more years trapped in a hell dimension, watched her brother die on television, been forced to murder her best friend, been driven insane by an avian space god, sacrificed her existence to return to a second childhood she doesn't even remember... The thought trails off as she guzzles the sparkling booze and realizes she's lost track of the number of horrifying events in her life. "I should really make a list," she mutters.
"Maybe you should congratulate the couple first?" Rahne asks, smiling nervously. The werewolf is standing by the table sipping a ginger ale. Illyana rolls her eyes and the action makes her feel a little woozy. Was that my second glass? she wonders. Illyana nods to Rahne and pours another glass before walking hesitantly toward the beaming couple, walking past a nervous looking Doug Ramsey and some of the younger generations of X-kids chatting to each other. Illyana doesn't even know most of their names. That girl moving in on the champagne is named after a painter or something?
Illyana closes her eyes for a moment, picturing her first memory of Kitty Pryde. Back when she was a little girl feeling lost and lonely in a strange country, Kitty had seemed so... Wise. Beautiful. Glowing. Even then she saw the way Kitty looked at her brother. It made her a little uncomfortable, she remembered, but it was long, painful years until she realized why.
Maybe it was Cat that made her figure it out. Cat was a very different woman, of course. But occasionally, rarely, she saw bits of Kitty in her. Which, Illyana thinks with more than a little melancholic irony, makes it a tad more disturbing when I murdered her. She shakes her head to clear it of past trauma. She's let all that go.
"Pozdravljaju s dnem svad'by," Illyana says, trying to smile. "Congratulations, you two," she says again for Kitty's benefit. She's never sure how much Russian Kitty knows. "And it's about damn time," she lies, "I was-" wondering if I'd have to step in and take her for myself, is what she almost says in her anxious buzz, but she's mercifully cut off by a shriek from the catering tables.
"-anymore!" slurs the voice in an accent Illyana can't place. Piotr narrows his eyes in concern and Kitty sighs, and Illyana turns toward the voice. Rescued! I can't believe I almost said that.
The girl with a painter's name - Cézanne? No, who the fuck would name their kid Cézanne, that's dumb - was hovering a half-meter off the ground, clutching a bottle of champagne and... Is that her making the tables float? Illyana scans the room for telekinetics, but Rachel's the only one she recognizes and she looks just as shocked as the rest of the crowd. That vampire girl - Is she even still a vampire? - who's always nice but condescending to Illyana and the British guy with half a face rush towards painter girl. Renoir? That's not it. Manet? I think it's Manet. Who the fuck names their kid-
"Monet!" Yells the maybe-not-a-vampire-anymore.
Eh, close enough.
"Hey calm down girl you're being like, really weird and making things awkward and-" Vampire Girl's baby starts wailing from No-Face Boy's arms, "-Oh jeez sorry kiddo," the girl continues, "He hates it when I yell. And now I'm the one being weird. Sorry everyone! Keep, y'know, doing wedding things!"
For a moment it feels like the pressure's gone out of the room. Then Monet flies into Vampire Girl - I think she's got a ridiculous name too? - grabs her by the dress, and throws her into the cake.
"I'm sick to death of your apples, Jubilee!" She screams.
Knew it was something silly.
Monet floats higher in the air, nearly touching the roof of the tent they're all under. "I'm sick to death of all of it! I can't do this anymore!" Tears start to form in the girl's eyes. "I can't-"
A look of anger for a moment, then surprise as she drops to the floor, limp.
The room is silent for a moment, and then Vampire Girl, No Face Boy, and a few others rush toward this Monet girl. Illyana glances back at Kitty and Piotr as they're approached by a guilty looking Rachel. "-just sedated her a bit," she hears the telepath say.
Illyana, sobered a bit by the spectacle, looks at the glass in her hand, then the dazed girl lying on the grass. "I'm going to see if I can help," she says to no one in particular, and the look of surprise she sees on Kitty's face makes her heart die a little. The way she looks at me now... I have to get out of here.
Monet is delirious, her head resting on Probably-Not-A-Vampire-Since-She-Just-Got-Tossed-Like-a-Salad Jubilee's lap. Illyana can make out a bit of French and a language she doesn't recognize on top of occasional English - "Let me stop," or sometimes "Make it stop."
"God, Jono, what's happened?" says Jubilee, cradling what Illyana assumes is her friend.
"She's been through a lot, luv," says a voice in Illyana's head, which she assumes comes from the British boy with no mouth. Telepathic accents give Illyana a headache.
Illyana lifts Monet out of the stepping disc, glancing around the apartment. She'd volunteered to take the girl home - anything to get away from that place. Jubilee steps into the dark apartment and runs into the doorframe.
"Ow! Damn! Still used to night vision," says the Almost-Certainly-Like-99%-Sure-Now-Ex-Vampire. Illyana sets Monet, still mumbling, on the floor and flips a light switch.
The apartment is spartan, almost empty. Jubilee cocks her head to the side. "This is your apartment, M?" she asks the near-catatonic girl. Monet responds with a single loud sob.
"You've never been here? You knew the address, though," says Illyana.
"I had to mail her some of her stuff after she got de-merged from her evil brother," says Jubilee as if that doesn't raise way more questions than it answers. "Maybe she just moved in?"
"I like it," Illyana says, picking Monet up again. "Simple. Utilitarian."
"Those aren't words I'd use to describe Monet," says Jubilee.
"Anyway, thanks for your help," Jubilee says as they lay the mumbling girl onto her surprisingly expensive-looking bed. "I guess you can go now, I can-" She's interrupted by a buzzing coming from her purse. The small girl fumbles with the phone for a moment, nearly dropping it. "I hate purses so much," she mutters, then, looking at her phone, "Oh no." She looks up at Illyana. "Can you stay with her for a bit? Shogo got in the cake somehow and Jono's freaking out. I'll be back as soon as I can."
Illyana sighs in relief at the excuse to stay away from Kitty and Piotr. "Happy to."
"Thanks, Illyana," smiles the young woman as a stepping disc envelopes her, sending her back to the celebration.
Illyana sighs again, glancing at the girl on the bed, her eyes still quivering with fear. "Guess it's just us, then."
It's not long before Rachel's mind zap starts to wear off.
"You're not going to throw me anywhere, are you?" Illyana asks as Monet rises to a sitting position.
"No."
"Great."
They sit in silence for a moment. Then Monet asks Illyana a question that knocks the wind out of her.
"Have you ever been held prisoner?"
Illyana freezes. Limbo. Seven years in hell, literally. She shivers.
Monet continues. "In our... Line of work it's a common hazard, I suppose. Still, it can leave a mark." Her hand reaches for her face, and she pulls back at its touch. "Oh listen to me, I can't help but sound like them..."
Illyana sits on the bed, dazed by the triggered memories. "I spent a long time as a prisoner," she says to the girl, "many years."
Monet turns, and to Illyana's surprise, she smiles. "Then you understand! You-" Monet looks at Illyana and some of the clouds fall from her eyes. "Of course. I'm sorry. I've heard about you. Your childhood."
Illyana feels a twinge of anger. Everyone's heard of me, haven't they? The lonely queen of Limbo. The pitiful lost child.
"I guess we've got a lot in common," says the girl, and Illyana's anger subsides, replaced with concern.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"My brother," begins Monet, "Marius. He was - is - a devil, in so many ways. Our childhood was... It's not important. He hated me. Transformed me. I spent years trapped. He turned me into a monster, quite literally."
Illyana's eyes soften. We really do have a lot in common.
"I couldn't leave. He fed on me and the thing he turned me into wouldn't... I couldn't die. I couldn't escape. I couldn't speak. I couldn't-" Monet trails off, reaching for Illyana's face for a moment before pulling away. "It ended eventually, of course. I was rescued. Our community, our ridiculous X people, they pulled me out and gave me," she laughs at the word, "freedom."
"But I was already there, with friends I'd never met, a personality I'd never... She wasn't ME!" She sobs, and Illyana can feel that pressure you only feel when a telepath is very, very upset. "They took my place and they weren't even... I love my sisters but they..."
Illyana puts her hand on the girl's shoulder.
"I'm not making much sense, am I? I'm sorry, I've never really... I don't talk about these things. I've tried so hard to be the person everyone already thought I was. For years! Pretending to be something I'm not. And Everett and Jamie and did they even... I lose everyone. And now, after Marius - he found me again, kept me prisoner again," her voice cracks and her tears stain her dress, "made me a monster again, and the things we - I - did..."
Illyana is shaking. The champagne had worn off long ago and now the heartbreak of losing Kitty to her brother and the flood of memories this girl - this woman - was bringing out of her was getting to be too much to bear. She slumped in the bed and reached out for the woman, wrapping her arms around her, pulling her close, desperate to give and receive the comfort of human contact.
"I know," she says, stroking Monet's long black hair and holding back her tears.