TITLE: It's a Magikal Life
AUTHOR: MikeJaffa
SYNOPSIS: Rahne gets the "Wonderful Life" treatment, courtesy of an unlikely angel, Thanos. Spoilers for New Mutants: Dead Souls #2. Guest appearance by Doctor Strange, Thanos, and a whole lot of X-Men and New Mutants I have no desire to tag.
DISCLAIMER: Marvel owns the characters, and I am making nothing off this fic.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Another author wrote how Rahne was less mean to Illyana after New Mutants 25. I decided to posit my own explanation for it. Enjoy.
8
8
Rahne hesitated at the entrance to the kitchen. It was 3 in the afternoon the day after the ordeal with Cloak and Dagger's powers, but Rahne was still in her night clothes. She had slept all day. She still had a headache and an upset stomach. She had only just now decided to come down to the kitchen but saw the witch—the demon—Rahne could no longer acknowledge the name "Illyana Rasputin"-sitting at the kitchen table wearing a blue robe over her shamefully revealing nightgown, and a pair of sunglasses. She had a glass of some noxious smelling fluid in front of her.
Rahne powered through her fear and her anger and crossed the refrigerator.
Illyana said, "What are you getting?"
She sounded exhausted, but Rahne couldn't spare that…that thing any compassion.
"What business is it of yours, witch?" Rahne spat.
"I'm responsible for you because I performed an exorcism on you," Illyana said, a little angry but still under control. "Your body is still recovering from channeling Dagger's energies and all the stress you were wonder. Water or apple juice would be best right now."
"I'll be having orange juice, thank you. Oh, and consider yourself relieved of all other responsibility for me."
Illyana looked away. "Excuse me for living."
"You can stop doing that, any time you like." Rahne poured herself some orange juice.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me, witch. You want to pop off, don't let me stand in your way." She drank some of the juice.
"Fine! Fine! Whatever. If that's the thanks I get for being nice and trying to help, I won't bother anymore. But when you start retching your guts out, don't come whining to me."
"I won't-"
"Rahne." Professor X's voice sounded in her mind. "Would you please join me in my study?"
"Yes, Professor." She gulped down the rest of the juice, dropped the glass in the sink, and crossed the living room. As she got to the study, Roberto DaCosta came out, looking just as tired as she felt.
"Bobby, are you all right?"
He smiled. "Clean bill of health. But what got the professor so annoyed with you?"
"I guess he 'overheard' me telling off that witch."
Roberto's eyebrows arched. "And she let you out of there with your head?"
"Rahne," the professor's mental voice interrupted.
Bobby went upstairs and Rahne pushed open the big wooden door to the study. A man in a high-collared red cloak stood looking out the picture window. Was it Rahne's imagine, or was the cloak rustling as if there was a breeze? The professor sat at his desk facing her.
The professor said aloud, "Close the doors, Rahne."
Rahne obeyed.
"Rahne, I am very disappointed," the professor said. "The mission of this school is tolerance. If mutants are to peacefully coexist with humans, we must ourselves learn to be tolerant of-"
"With all due respect, Professor, this isn't a matter of tolerance. That witch—I will no longer use her name—is a demon. We saw it and felt it last night. She's evil. It's as simple as that. I've given her every chance, but…I can't do it anymore. I can't live under the same roof with her. I…I've made up my mind. I want to leave the school. Lady Moira is trying to adopt me. Soon as that's through, I'm gone."
"I'm sorry to hear that, Rahne. I will, of course, accede to your wishes and make the arrangements with Moira when the time comes. But at the moment, I would hope you would indulge one more exposure to magic."
"Magic?" she squeaked.
The cloaked man turned around. She saw he was bearded and wore what looked like a blue kung fu uniform with a large gold medallion on his collar. He smiled. "Hello, Rahne," he said. "I'm Doctor Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts."
"You're a witch!?" Rahne yelped.
"'Sorcerer Supreme of Earth' is a less pejorative term and—in my opinion-sounds cooler, but yes, I use magic."
"I'll not be having any more spells cast on me."
"I understand. Demonic magic can be…unsettling, but my magic derives from other sources. And I'm not going to cast a spell." He tapped the medallion. "I would like to use the Eye of Agamotto to make sure you are completely free of the Dagger energies that possessed you. Think of it as…Illyana was the ER doctor who treated your problem, and I'm the family doctor who's checking you the next day. You don't have to agree to this, and in all probability you're clear. But better safe than sorry."
Rahne shifter her weight, anxious. "No pentagrams?"
Strange chuckled. "No, no pentagrams."
"All right."
The medallion opened, and a golden eye floated out and affixed itself to Strange's forehead. "How many times have you seen her use pentagrams?" he asked (hoping that casual conversation would put Rahne at ease).
"What?" Rahne said. "Oh. Twice. The exorcism last night and what did she call it, astro projection spell."
"Astral projection," he corrected gently.
"What's a pentagram for anyway? I thought it was for summoning the devil."
"No, in those magical traditions, it protects the sorcerer in case anything goes wrong. It's supposed to, anyway."
"Huh. Maybe she's doing them wrong because both time-" Rahne broke off as she suddenly got more nauseous, felt dizzy, and her headache got worse.
"Uh-oh," Strange said as the eye returned to its medallion (which snapped shut). "What have you had to eat or drink?"
"Just some orange juice…" She started heaving.
"Charles!" Strange said as he hustled Rahne to the door. "Bathroom…thank you!"
Strange practically carried Rahne out into the living room, where Dani and Kitty turned at the commotion, but he made it two steps before Rahne fell to all fours and started retching.
"Don't fight it, Rahne," Strange advised. "It'll be worse if you fight it."
One more heave and orange fluid burst out of Rahne's mouth. On the floor it bubbled and started to move on its own. Eyes sprouted out of it.
Strange pulled her back away from the blob. Rahne heard Illyana shout, "I've got this!" Illyana charged past them and plunged the soulsword into the orange mass. It bubbled explosively before settling into an ordinary puddle of orange juice. "Residual ectoplasm," she panted. "I'll clean that up."
Holding Rahne, Strange said, "You did tell her not to-"
"I tried," Illyana said, "but of course she wouldn't listen to-"
Rahne shifted to half wolf. "Get off me!" she shouted as she leaped away from Strange. "Witches! Witches!" She glared at the other New Mutants and X-Men filing into the room in response to the commotion. "What's the matter with all of you? It's in the Bible! 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'! But you all consort with witches and demons without a thought about your immortal souls, and I'm the bad person for saying anything?"
Dani said, "Rahne, calm down-"
"I'm done being calm!" Rahne shouted. "I'm done not saying anything. She's evil. She's the spawn of Satan. That's not me saying so. She admits it. She doesn't even hide it! And you're all damned to hell for consorting with her." She focused on Illyana. "You should have stayed in Limbo forever or let S'Ym kill you that time he came for you. I wish I'd never met you—no, scratch that, I wish you had never been born!"
Illyana took a menacing step forward. "You little—" she hefted her sword, "—after all I've done for this team-"
"Come on, witch!" Rahne screamed. "You and me! Let's settle this, once and for-"
"ENOUGH!" Professor X's voice thundered in her mind. "Rahne, return to human form. Now. I will not ask again."
"Professor." Rahne changed to human as Kitty came up behind Illyana and put her hands on the witch's shoulders, in part to comfort and part to hold her back.
Professor X had left his study and come over to the group. He kept his anger in check and his voice calm as he said aloud, "Rahne, you said some harsh things to Illyana. Would you care to apologize?"
"No," Rahne said, her voice shaking. "Not to her. Not now. Not ever."
"I see," the professor said. "Well, then, I've been patient with you for as long as I could, but now, you leave me no choice. You have expressed a desire to leave this academy. I see no reason to delay things. Miss Sinclair, as of this moment, you are expelled. The decision is irrevocable and final; you will never be readmitted. Please go to your room and start packing. You will leave in the Blackbird as soon as you are ready."
"Sir."
As she turned to head for the stairs, she heard Kitty say to Illyana, "No, she's not worth it. Come on, sport. Let's go back to our room." Rahne kept her head high and didn't look at anyone as she climbed the stairs, went down the hall, pushed open the door to her room…
…and found herself in a wide stone room with a large, circular pool in the middle of it. A huge man about the size of the Hulk in a blue and gold outfit with a purple, Skrull-like face stood by the pool.
He said, "Approach, Wolfsbane. No harm will come to you."