This Abyss

Note and Disclaimer: I obviously don't own anything from X-Men, but the extra characters are obviously mine. This is the second story of two (so far) of the series, "Unspoken". I'm trying to make a prelude of sorts to new movie Days of Future Passed and a sequel to The Wolverine, so I'm hoping it would be as true to that as to the series itself, especially after the awesomeness of the last movie. Thank you so much!

July 29, 2007

They all had been ready for days. Granted, it had been years since the battles had begun and the lines had been drawn in the sand (especially after the incident in San Francisco and the aftermath from Magneto's attack and Jean's death at Logan's hands), but the dangers had increased as the past became the present and then the future. Daily, they had waited for the moment when they would come, continuing their studies as planned normally. Daily, as the time ticked ever so slowly and the children became nervous and ready at their escape stations while books remained abandoned in their classrooms, they knew that it would begin again and that they would be put to the test. And soon, that test was to come.

Ororo Munroe and Danielle Mitchell Ellis, along with Hank McCoy, stood at the ready when all hope faded as time soon ran out, as the months without Xavier turned to something akin to a ship without a captain and the time without Logan seemed like a team without strength. Besides them on their daily watches by the gates though were former students graduated, now adults, those who were soon to be part of the X-Men team: Rogue, Bobby Drake, Devon Williamson and Kitty Pryde. They watched their footing constantly, turning their powers to every crunch of grass, every shadow that crossed their paths. They chased away men who meant them every harm, men that already were dragging other mutants to the camps created. They proved their mettle, but the ultimate battle was yet to be fought.

They would see it coming, but were helpless to prevent it. However, it was their turn to stand guard and be the protector, just as many before had been.

And they knew that many were gone as the government turned itself to its former ignorance and chaos and let itself be led by madness. News filtered daily about the "dangerous" mutants being dragged to camps, drugged by the machines that Trask Industries had created so long ago. Soon though, the machines turned on humans without mutant powers too, those who passed the gene to their children. They also saw internment, prison time for nothing they did wrong. Affairs between families who saw this unfairness turned to more hatred. They fought harder to get them freed, but to no avail.

The spiral was still churning. Resistance was rare. Trask finally had won.

That July day, when all hope seemed to have failed, had been still. The hot air had been filtering around New York for some time now and there was no relief. The children had been extremely uncomfortable in hiding on the ground level under the mansion, far from the dangers outside and away from their guardians now on the prowl. They had been camping there, passing small food supplies and water back and forth, and awaiting the time in which their comfort would return, but they all had whispered of dying, of being taken away from the only home known in their short lives. While Danielle and Ororo tried their best to calm their fears, they too were held fast by the tight rope they walked on daily.

One day, they were going to fall. That day was upon them, they would soon learn.

Hank McCoy had spotted the first military trucks from his position, the first line of defense the school had left. Although old and tired of the fighting (being the diplomat that he was and actually good camouflage with his blue fur), he was not without vigor. At his seat in the highest tree at the gate, he looked down and whistled to Rogue in the bushes on the bottom. Rogue, who many found out was immune to poison ivy, had been assigned to bushes and other nature-like shrubbery until a time in which the others could adapt to their more outdoor settings…which didn't seem to be anytime soon, she found out. Many braved it, few left without a scratch.

Rogue looked up from her position and eyed each passing truck, her eyes still in her binoculars. "You seein' what I'm seein', sugar?" she hissed at Hank, trying not to stray her eyes from her own personal situation with Bobby and Kitty.

"Get ready," Hank only replied, jumping down from the tree with ease (causing some pain in his back) and landing next to Rogue. While the latter did not notice anything, she knew what to do.

As Rogue finally gave up her place in the bushes, Hank took over (knowing that Rogue would recruit Devon and then Bobby as the next line of defense), peering through the binoculars Rogue had left behind. Now, he figured, if the trucks had the right amount of weight to it, then the disabling bomb buried in the road (which had been added this morning by the younger group) would allow them time to regroup and fight the new men, not kill them.

It had not been Charles' way.

Hank shuddered, trying not to cry for his old friend and how he valued life, mutant and human. Of course, Hank was glad that Xavier had not seen this day. Vaporized, for lack of a better word, by Jean Grey a few years ago, Xavier had been the driving force behind the school. While Hank believed, as Magneto did later, that the school's spine was held together by Xavier, Ororo Munroe took the headmistress role nicely. However, she was not the stuff Xavier was, rudderless as many had been and struggling to find her place as now head of a school full of mutants and two friends now dead because of the incident with Stryker at Alkali Lake.

Before long, before things in Hank's mind got out of hand, Danielle returned instead of Rogue. Now twenty-eight and bitter to the core, Danielle was one mean-fighting woman, Hank had to say. With now short reddish-white hair and stress lines and scars that lined her body in waves, Danielle was one of the few to have been tortured under the insidious scheming of her husband, Senator Leon Ellis, head of mutant affairs and rival to Hank McCoy in all ways including politically. Lost in her own musings since Logan had left her after Jean's death, Danielle had fought on to keep the school opened and to keep her children safe. While adapting Devon Williamson unofficially and keeping Michael and Riley closer than ever before, she was still the mother that nobody wanted to cross.

And Hank could already see that this was making her angry.

With her eyes turning blood red in fury, Danielle kneeled next to Hank and ducked her head. "Do we know who's in there?" she asked, taking the lenses from Hank and taking a closer peek at the trucks.

"No, but I have the feeling that Trask is here," Hank replied.

This made Danielle pause, lowering the binoculars as her hazel eyes returned. "Why?"

"Who else would be here, Danielle? They've been the ones sending the men and arms. They control the camps. Who else would it be?"

Hank almost felt energy pulsating from Danielle as her irritation grew, but he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. This calmed her, but it would not be enough to tame the hot-tempered woman. He knew what she was thinking. Military trucks meant that somebody close to them was coming. The only company who used them was Trask, who had been on the hunt for mutants for some time now. And the people involved with both Track and the military were her husband and his cousin and wife, Leon and Peter Ellis and Mary Belkin-Ellis.

Danielle sat up. "Anything we can do now?"

"Well, any attack now would be suicide," Hank deduced quickly. "Rogue was sent back to warn everyone to stand up and fight, but I am not sure whether or not diplomacy would be key to avoiding this new battle about to come."

"You know, diplomacy was not on your strong point ten years ago," Danielle teased, relishing a moment long ago she had with Hank…for one insane night many years ago. "Why use it now? It hasn't gotten you anywhere, Hank. I don't think it will now."

"Yes, well…"

"Admit it, Hank. There is a time and a place for a good fight."

There was a twinkle in Danielle's eyes that Hank had not seen in a long time, not since Jean and Scott died and Logan had up and disappeared. She was teasing him most definitely, yes, but the time and place was almost comical to Hank. Indeed, the sparkle he had seen (and had vanished just as fast) was nothing compared to her former happiness with Logan (who Hank resolved to figure out how to kill when he sees the mutant next), but it was a start to something joyful. It was wonderful to see even Danielle think of something silly in a time like this.

Indeed, there may be hope after all.

Just as suddenly as Danielle's smile occurred, she got up and was in a defensive stance. Taking two small knives out of nowhere (Hank knowing her love of knives and her expertise in them), she aimed and hit a few targets behind Hank, groans easily heard from guards. When he looked to see what happened, startled at the change, he saw that two men in uniform were behind him…and were posed to kill him had Danielle not seen them. Now, they were dead instead of Hank, knives sticking out of their foreheads.

"Let's get out of here," Danielle quickly proposed, taking Hank by the hand and running without their precious binoculars or her knives. While Hank let go of her hand and was running on his own, he saw that she was slowing down. While barely any food and water toughened Danielle in sacrifice, it also dehydrated her, allowing her reflexes to decline.

By the time the two reached the mansion minutes later, however, they stopped. In front of them, a long line of men stood in front of the doorway. All had their guns pointed at the pair or were holding it to the heads of the mutants that were standing guard at the doors. While Bobby, Kitty and Rogue remained as calm as possible and barely held a fight (Kitty even sported a new bruise on her face), Devon struggled with his captor, earning a displeasing ending for sure and a rifle butt to his face. Ororo was nowhere to be seen except by a van, gagged and tied.

Out of the line of soldiers by the mansion door, Leon Ellis swiftly appeared. Wearing the same uniform as the others, except this from his days in Vietnam from long ago, and carrying nothing more than a shiny Trask device, he stood in front of Hank and Danielle. Turning his new toy on (and many could see that it was one to Ellis), he easily disabled the mutants, dropping them to the ground in agony, as if something was torturing them.

"Ah, that's better," Ellis said, motioning to two men to pick up Danielle and Hank. While the latter was taken away with the others, Danielle was stood in front of her husband. When Ellis turned off the device, she was back to normal and standing on her own.

"What do you want from us, Leon?" Danielle spit out, venom in her eyes. "We've done no harm. We've left humanity alone. Mutants have been quiet, even Magneto. Why now?"

"Because, Danielle, it is not easy to forget that night at Alcatraz," Ellis answered, eying her left middle finger, which held a simple ring given to her by Logan some years ago. "Don't you remember it now? You were there, I saw, almost getting killed in the attack had you not ably shielded yourself and a few other younger mutants. You fought against Magneto, helping to get Logan to the other side, and tried to get to your precious friend, Jean Grey, who proved to be dangerous after all. Then, you saw your little lover kill her off with those adamantium claws of his, realizing that he still loved her too, even after his blind eyes went over to you. And he left you, poor little you…"

"That's not true!" Inside though, Danielle was screaming. The agony of those days and the grief behind those graves, the helplessness she felt with Logan…there was nothing more she could do but to hide her doubts. "Jean had been thought dead at Alkali Lake!"

Ellis put his device away. Taking out his gun from a side pocket, he stroked Danielle's chin with it, the barrel inches away from her eyes.

"I could have you shot," he whispered in her ear almost like a seductive lover. "I want you dead, but I know your powers."

Danielle wanted to laugh, like her brother had all those years ago, but did not sustain it. To keep alive, to keep her sanity even, especially for the children (her three in mind), she had to keep a cool head. Her previous outburst could have cost lives and not just her own too. It was already enough that Stryker was dead, as well as his men, and that damages were done. Mutants had a bad name these days and were being sent away. Now, she had a chance to help herself and others…and she was going to take it.

"You'll be alive, I can assure you of that," Ellis continued out loud, motioning for the same man to come back to take Danielle away. "Tell me where the children are and I'll make sure that they are comfortable at the camps and won't be killed. Resist now and Ms. Munroe will be the first to die instead of being a guest of Peter and Mary in their home."

Danielle was stuck now, the traitor once more, just as Scott Summers had named her some years ago. She looked at the others – Rogue, Devon, Bobby, Kitty, Ororo and Hank – and mouthed an apology to them all with everyone seeing it, her weakness in their eyes. She knew Ellis would stop it nothing to tear the building apart and find the children if she said no. He would love to see Michael and Riley dead, mutant children of his that Danielle would die for if necessary. He would take pleasure in seeing the others tortured and killed too.

Words tore up inside of Danielle, a mess of good and bad. Threats of going to hell would do no good. Memories best left in the dark were going to be dug up. Children were going to be killed, innocent or not. And now, she had no choice. It was do it or die trying.

Hank saved her though. Through his fatherly love her for (and for the love he had for the one night they slept together), he said before Danielle could, "They're below the mansion, Senator. I'm sure your wife will lead you there and they will come calmly. Let her get them first and we'll cooperate."

"Yes," Danielle added numbly, already moving in tune with the man now in charge of her and going to the front door. "Follow me."