"Absolutely not."
Strange was standing in front of Kurt and the Howletts with his arms crossed, his tone a cross between offended and horrified that they would suggest blood magic to him.
"Hey. Turnabout is fair play, right? Just trying to level the field," Logan growled out. "See how he likes it."
"He uses it because his soul is already damned," Strange pointed out.
Logan shrugged openly. "And?"
"And for one thing, yours is not — and for another, I'd like to keep my own!" Strange said, sounding exasperated. He shook his head and turned to Kurt. "Now, I can track him, certainly. I can point you to where he is hiding or where he has been. But I will not tie your souls together and damn us all," he added, turning now back to Logan. "Haven't you learned anything from your dealings with him? At all?"
"You're just being difficult," Logan said, his arms crossed.
"If it risks your soul, it's not difficult," Kurt said, shaking his head as he handed his sword to Strange. "And that is simply not something I'll allow you to risk, mein Freund. And you know it."
"He's going after our kids — it's worth it," Logan defended.
"Not when there are other options," Kurt shot back. "I won't let you risk that just to make him suffer when I know you can be creative in that regard without blood magic." He shook his head. "You don't get to take that risk for poetic justice. That's not good enough."
"It doesn't matter," K said, cutting in. "It's not happening; quit arguing about the what ifs and find me that sack of crap."
Strange gestured to K with one hand. "And there we have it," he said simply before he held a hand over the sword, a sigil in the air glowing brighter as the sword hovered on its own. It took several minutes, but when the sigil finally faded out, he looked up at Kurt. "There's a small village in Finland," he said. "Just a few miles from the coast. I can give you coordinates."
Kurt nodded once, taking his now-clean sword back from Strange to sheath it before he put a hand on both Logan and K's shoulders and teleported all three of them off to the village Strange had found.
The village itself was worryingly quiet when they arrived, though it wasn't hard to figure out where Azazel would have set himself up: a larger home built into the mountain that overlooked all the rest. That was where Kurt's next teleport took them — right to the front door.
"Are we splitting up and going around back or just kicking in the front door?" K asked. "I'm good either way."
"Personally, I'd rather just go in and be done with it," Kurt said as he drew both swords.
"No, no," Logan said, shaking his head. "He's got some time to put in first."
Kurt gave his friend a look for just a moment before he put his shoulder to the door, and the three of them spilled into the little villa. It was large enough that it took them a moment to look through the rooms, and if it had been any other team but the three of them, they would have missed the entrance to a hidden passage into the mountain — but the scent trail was there.
"Of course he took the creepiest idea from Creed he could find," K muttered.
"I think it came with the home," Kurt said, shaking his head as they pressed on into the hidden tunnel, finally coming out the other side to an open cavern, where it was clear why the village had been so quiet.
There were several bodies, drained entirely, as well as a familiar setup to Kurt — a throne, a table, all the "comforts" that his father was used to having.
Logan had gone completely still and was frowning deeply as he scented the air. "Get outta here, Kurt," Logan almost breathed out.
Kurt raised both eyebrows. "How far?"
"It's Arkady," Logan said as a means of explanation.
In an instant, Kurt disappeared, teleporting back to the villa so that he could start up a search outside of the caverns — and outside of Arkady's reach. "Really?" he all but growled under his breath. "Omega Red?" He let out another frustrated sort of growl before he started teleporting again, looking for any other sign of what his father was up to — and for any escape routes he might have had waiting that Kurt could put a stop to.
Logan and K were working their way through the hidden passages deep into the mountain after Logan described the owner of the scent to K and how to deal with him in hushed tones, trying to prep her for what they were going to come up against.
"He should be in stasis in Siberia," Logan said quietly. "Explains why Rachel found Azazel more or less out that way. Getting a life-sucking sack of crap to help him."
They finally reached the end of the last tunnel, slowing as they approached, since the scent was thicker, and the spores that Arkady let off were strong enough that they had Logan's head spinning slightly the closer they got. There was no way that Omega Red wasn't in the chamber beyond the turn.
When the pair of ferals finally stepped out, they saw more of what had been in the earlier chamber: bodies lying lifeless scattered through the room. But across the room, Arkady was draining a young man down to nothing, and as he did so, it looked as if some of the years were falling off of Azazel, his hand resting on Arkady's shoulder as it happened.
"Snyltgäst," K growled out as both she and Logan rushed forward to tear into them both, with K letting loose a string of curses and oaths in Swedish as she headed toward Azazel — though she was sorely disappointed when the old demon disappeared in a red swirl of smoke.
But it just meant that much more trouble for Omega Red as the ferals joined up to tear him to shreds.
The Russian monster laughed when he heard K's Swedish, but that was probably not the right move on his part, since he most definitely was not the person K wanted to disembowel, and laughing at her really only poured more fuel on the fire.
His attention was more on Logan, though, having fought him for years with plenty of success. He took the same approach as he always did, wrapping Logan up in tentacles and trying to suck his life force down to nothing as quickly as possible — though ignoring K when she was in that kind of a mood was not the right play.
While Logan tried to get an arm loose to cut off one of the tentacles, Arkady hit K hard enough to toss her halfway across the cavern. He turned his back to her, expecting a roar from her when she got up as Logan often did, but K didn't operate the same way Logan did. The only warning he got was the light scrape of the toe of her boot as she made her dive for him, slicing off the tentacle holding Logan cleanly but making it impossible for Arkady to control the death spores that he used to drain people.
He reached out with the other tentacle to try and catch her up, and as Logan worked his way out of the useless severed carbonadium tentacle, Arkady caught K by the ankle, pulling her closer to him.
She was almost within his reach to pull her over by hand when Logan threw a knife that had been lying on a table nearby and planted it in the center of Arkady's throat. He rushed forward and sliced free the other tentacle, then dragged K out with him as Arkady struggled to breathe.
Kurt, meanwhile, had nearly exhausted his search when he caught a sign of movement inside the church, and he found himself angry all over again.
He teleported into the church to find that his father was stooped over the altar — not praying, obviously, but recovering something buried in the floor there. A few books and relics, things that Kurt was sure he should not have.
"What are you doing here?" Kurt asked. He hadn't meant to ask it, but he couldn't stop the look of horror at seeing his father standing at the altar. Of course, he should have realized: he was no longer a full-blooded demon, just a magician with a demon's bag of tricks. But it was still something else entirely to see that.
Azazel straightened up and smiled when he saw Kurt. "I should have known you would be with your pets," he said with a laugh.
Kurt glared as he pulled out his swords, teleporting to his father in an instant and coming up with smoke as Azazel teleported to the far side of the church.
"Coward," Kurt snarled as he teleported to meet him there, and this time, Azazel met his swords with his own. Upon taking a closer look at his father, Kurt could see that Azazel was now a much younger man, and Kurt blinked in surprise for just a moment, enough for Azazel to knock him back into a pew.
He recovered his footing and teleported back to the fight, and for a long moment, the church rang with steel as well as the occasional wooden sound of one of the two teleporters crashing into pews and benches.
"So vain, my boy," Azazel breathed out, some of his old strength back in his strokes — though Kurt wasn't sure if that was because of whatever was making him younger or something else entirely. "To be so insulted that I have eternal youth and you do not."
"Is that what you're calling it?" Kurt ground out as his third sword came into play, and Azazel had to duck to avoid taking it across his neck. But it left him open to attack with the second sword, and he only just teleported out of the way in time, shoving Kurt to get the distance he needed.
"I was ready to take my leave of this place anyway," Azazel said with a sneer as Kurt teleported to him and Azazel teleported elsewhere. They followed each other for several teleports, leaving the church out into the village, across the rooftops, down to the main square.
"Because you can't stand to be anywhere we might find you," Kurt said through his teeth.
"Because I've already gotten what I wanted out of this village," Azazel said, waving his hand lazily. "I have other things to do. Youth and longevity is one thing, but power…"
"You won't get any more power," Kurt promised him, teleporting to meet him at the fountain — and narrowly avoiding the blades that were waiting for him as he teleported away.
"Ever the optimist," Azazel muttered, shaking his head.
"Not something I learned from you."
Azazel laughed before he teleported to the top of the church tower, and Kurt was careful to teleport outside the tower so his father couldn't catch him in the enclosed space. "You and I both know I'm growing more powerful every day," Azazel called out. "You can't stop me."
"Watch me," Kurt snapped, diving for his father, but once again, the former demon disappeared. "Coward!" he called out as he spun. "Are you really that afraid to face me?"
"I simply have better things to do," Azazel replied. He disappeared again, and this time, when Kurt found him again, it was inside the church gathering his things. He grinned when he saw Kurt. "Tell that girl hello for me, my boy. I'm sure we'll meet again," he said.
Kurt let out a near growl, but by the time he teleported to the altar, Azazel was gone. In frustration, he kicked at one of the pews. He let out a little shout and then sheathed his swords, stepping out of the church with a glare before he teleported to the house to meet Logan and K.
"Logan!" he called out, stopping outside of the entrance to the cavern.
"Stay back!" Logan called back. "He's not dead yet."
Kurt let out another frustrated noise as he stood back from the entrance, feeling entirely impotent and worried all at once as he sat down in the nearby library, resting his head in one hand as he at least tried to get an idea of the books his father was reading.
It was more of the same, of course. Immortality. Eternal youth. Stealing life from others. And all of it had Kurt more on edge than before.
But it wasn't long before the two ferals came out, supporting each other, though clearly Logan had gotten the worse end of the deal and was still sporting marks around his neck from the tentacles. "He won't be using Arkady anymore," Logan told him. "I put a knife in his throat."
Kurt got to his feet with a frown and rested a hand on Logan's shoulder. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Logan told him. "He just packs a punch."
"I can't say the same for my father; he seemed to be avoiding anything like a fight," Kurt said, clearly frustrated.
"You saw him too, huh?" K said, looking vicious.
"I saw a much younger version of him than I've seen before."
"Then he'll last longer when I peel his hide off of him," she growled out.
"He didn't seem too perturbed that we were here," Kurt said, glaring hard as his tail twitched behind him. "It seems he used up this village and was ready to move on." He glanced up at Logan. "What was he doing with Omega Red?"
"Using him to siphon people," Logan told him frankly. "Watched him drop a few years before he scampered off like a little rabbit."
Kurt frowned. "That... may be why Strange was unable to locate him. It's not magic."
"Well, it will be if he can find a way to use his corpse," K said, pushing her hair out of her face.
"Yes, well, all the same, what say we take a page out of your book and commit a little arson?" Kurt offered.
"Oh. It's already on fire. Not much to light, and apparently his spores don't spread the fire, but all of those drapey-looking fabrics should burn just fine," K said. "If Arkady isn't dead from the knife, the smoke will get him."
Kurt nodded. "Then we will have to look for the next place. I wasn't able to get my swords in him this time, unfortunately." He let out a sigh. "So, I believe, it's back to intelligence work." He gestured at the books. "More Viking lore," he told K. "We can look in areas that fit the bill."
K looked thoughtful for a moment. "What's the name of this town? Have you seen it anywhere?"
Kurt paused. "I think the signs are in Finnish? But you can look."
K turned and tried to find a sign that was anything other than a mile marker before she narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "No, that's Swedish," she said, tipping her chin up toward the old church. She turned to look up at the mountains in the distance. "We need a map. If he's digging around the old stories, he'll be poking around a few mountains, but not all of them."
"Easy enough," Kurt said. "If we can narrow it down, I can get us to the mountains and run him out of his hiding places." He looked between Logan and K. "I'd rather move now than risk him getting any more power." He held his phone out to K. "You know the stories best. Find us our next mountain, and we'll be rid of him for good."
K looked at the map, studying the elevations and trying to translate the names in her head quickly before she pointed to one that was a little further south but two countries over. "I think that's the oldest one."
Kurt simply nodded at that before, in an instant, all three of them disappeared in blue smoke.
Elin sat up stock straight, her blanket clutched under her chin as she listened to everyone around her sleeping peacefully. She sat like that for the longest time, listening until she decided that she wasn't going to be able to fall asleep without something close by — and the teddy bear wasn't cutting it.
She put the blanket down and carefully crept through the tangle of limbs, doing her best not to jostle anyone on her way out of the fort. When she saw Scott still sleeping nearby, she held her breath as she tiptoed around him as well.
When she finally got to the door of the suite that led to the hallway, she slowly turned the knob and slipped out into the hallway. Everything was dark, and the shadows cast off at odd angles from the windows and furniture, but she could see where she was going just fine.
She remembered what her parents had taught her about being quiet when she moved, and she nearly ran down the hall to her family's suite, again slipping in silently. She didn't turn on the lights as she made her way across the room to where her father kept their Japanese blades. She thought about it for a long moment before she picked up the sword that Logan had given her and clutched it tightly to her chest as she turned right back around and headed to the Summers' suite.
Again, she crept by everyone carefully, and this time, when she lay down, she was holding the still-sheathed sword close, curled up facing Chance since Krissy still smelled a lot like the sea, but it was very hard for her to relax, even when she was between her two best friends.
She was just starting to drift off when a strong smell of brimstone washed over the room — not from the bamfs. It was Krissy's stupid grandfather, creeping through the room until he spotted Krissy and smiled.
Elin closed her eyes for a second before she gritted her teeth and drew her sword as she got up — and even managed to stab him before he could see where she'd come from.
Azazel let out a gasp — loud enough to wake at least Scott and Chance — and backhanded Elin hard enough to send her stumbling. Scott caught her before she could land too hard — and it was Chance that got there next to kick the former demon in the face, breaking his nose and leaving him bleeding from his mouth as Chance looked smug for just a second before Azazel grabbed him by the foot. And twisted.
Chance cried out, and Scott fired off a shot before Azazel could pull Chance any further, but Azazel teleported out of the room — grabbing Krissy along with him as he did.
Scott swore under his breath as he got to his feet and hit the panic button, which would lock down the mansion and which alerted the bamfs — who were already teleporting the kids down to the Danger Room.
Azazel, meanwhile, had moved on from the Summers' suite to the Wagners', though since the panic button had been pushed, the bamfs were already there gathering up kids as Kate got Kade from his crib. The bamfs looked wide-eyed when they saw Azazel — especially when they saw that he had hold of Krissy with one hand around both wrists the way he'd held onto Elin before. He had a sword in the other hand lazily pointing toward Krissy, and he was bleeding from his side where Elin had stabbed him — and from both his nose and mouth.
Kate froze when she saw him, pulling Kade instinctively closer to her chest. "You look like hell," she said.
"I'm not in the mood for your childish antics," he sneered as he pulled Krissy closer, though his gaze was on Kade and he was smiling when he saw the little boy. "I'm just here to claim what's mine."
"Nothing and nobody here is yours," Kate shot back.
Azazel glared at her. "I don't have the patience to indulge you right now."
"Because someone shorter than you stabbed you," Kate said. "Little low for Annie…"
He nearly growled at her before he yanked Krissy closer to him, his sword dangerously close to her chin. "You know as well as I that I don't need to keep them alive when I'm through. And there's no requirement in the spell that they have to be anything but breathing. Give me the boy, or her final moments will be spent in agony."
He'd barely finished uttering his threat when there was a muted bamf, and he turned just in time to see the flash of red before an optic blast first knocked his sword arm back and then a second solid hit to the chest had him hitting the wall and gasping.
There was no way he could win that fight, and he knew it — and the only reason it hadn't been a fatal shot was that Scott was more concerned with getting him away from Krissy. In an instant, he teleported before Scott could deal him another blow, reappearing not beside Krissy or Kate as Scott had expected but just behind Scott to stab him directly through the back of the knee, twisting to be sure it hurt to repay Scott for interfering. Then, he teleported again, first to grab Krissy by the arm and then to Kate to wrench Kade out of her arms and disappear.
He'd expected to reappear in the altar room he'd carefully prepared for the ceremony he needed not just to steal back his powers but to make sure the children were artificially aged forward so that the powers would be at their highest level.
He had not expected to find the room in flames — or to see Kurt, K, and Logan setting fire to the last of his scrolls.
"You imbeciles!" he shouted, startling Kade into crying. "Have you any idea the centuries of history and magic you've destroyed?"
"At least nine. No more than twelve," K said, tossing the last scroll onto the fire. "My Old Norse is a little rusty, but the runes were pretty clear."
Azazel let out a noise that would have been more of a growl when he was a demon as he shoved Kade at Krissy so he could draw one of his swords. The little girl clutched onto Kade with wide eyes before she stomped on Azazel's foot and, when that didn't immediately win her freedom, bit his hand to make him let go of her arm, even for a second.
For a moment, it looked like the bamfs that were on both Logan and K's shoulders had gotten to Krissy and Kade to get them out — but neither of them had moved, and the smoke was purple when Krissy and Kade reappeared behind Kurt. She was wide-eyed and clearly terrified and crying, but as soon as they were safe, she clutched Kade tightly to herself, and Kurt called out for the bamfs to "get them out."
The bamf with K immediately disappeared with the kids, which left three angry X-Men with a former demon who was bleeding from his face, side, and hand. But before he could disappear like he had every time before, Logan's bamf teleported him directly behind Azazel, and the former demon felt a cold metal collar snap around his neck an instant later, preventing him from leaving.
As he'd promised, Logan didn't simply kill him; instead, he sent a claw through a nasty pressure point before he kicked him squarely in the back toward Kurt. "Your turn, Elf. Just make sure you don't cover the blood scent on his right hand, wouldja?"
Kurt nodded. "That will not be a problem," he promised — since that was the arm Azazel couldn't use after Logan had torn apart his shoulder. The man tried to hold up one sword in defense, but Kurt simply bashed it away from him and immediately ran him through under the ribs. It wasn't anywhere fatal… immediately, anyway. "If you had stayed away from my family, this would be much easier for you," he told Azazel in a low, dangerous tone before he pulled both swords free. Without taking his eyes off of his gasping father, he asked, "Do either of you have anything to add, or shall I dispatch him and get back to my little girl and her new powers?"
"I think I'm happy with destroying his work," K said before she called Azazel some very condescending-sounding word in a language Kurt did not recognize.
Azazel glared her way before he turned his attention to Kurt. He had fallen to his knees, but there was still a sort of demonic fire there. "I'll see you soon enough," he said. "You and your pets and your penchant for torture. At least I've seen that side of you come out to know I won't go without when you join me."
"Kurt," K said, weighing it out. "Maybe it's too kind to end it quickly for him. You can go home if you want us to just … make sure he doesn't get out of here."
But Kurt shook his head lightly before he drew back, this time cutting Azazel's heart to ribbons before he pulled his swords loose and the man fell in front of him. "No," he said quietly. "I don't want him to die believing he's right."
"Then if it's all the same to you," K said, "we should light him on fire too."
Kurt gestured widely as he stepped back, not taking his eyes off of his father's body. "Go ahead. I'd rather there was no trace of him anyway."
It only took the two little ferals less than half an hour to get the corpse — and the entire room for that matter — into a full, boiling blaze, sure to destroy everything inside, even if anyone attempted to extinguish it.
As soon as it was clear that nothing could be recovered, Kurt and the bamfs took the group back to Westchester — the Howletts to the Summers' suite and Kurt to his own, where Kate was gently rocking both Krissy and Kade. Krissy had climbed into the rocking chair with her and was refusing to let Kade out of her sight. Kade was finally starting to calm down, since he was somewhere familiar and hadn't understood any of what was happening anyway, but Krissy was still clearly coming down from her terror.
At the sound of Kurt's arrival, Kate glanced up over the top of Krissy's head. "Kurt?" she asked, the question unsaid.
Kurt teleported over to where they were and kissed Kate gently and then Kade and Krissy on the tops of their heads. "He won't be bothering anyone ever again," he promised, and Kate looked entirely relieved, leaning back into the chair.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
He nodded. "He was badly hurt by the time he got to us, and we had an inhibitor collar prepared just for him."
Kate nodded lightly as Krissy glanced up at Kurt, halfway hiding in Kate's shoulder. "You killed him?"
Kurt nodded and gently brushed her hair. "He won't be able to get to you ever again, liebling," he promised. He kissed her forehead tenderly and then cradled her face in one hand. "And you were so brave, Prinzessin. I'm so proud of you."
She shook her head. "I wasn't brave," she said. "I just wanted to get away."
"And that is what makes you brave," he told her. "When you are scared and you act anyway, that is bravery."
Krissy nodded and let out a little sniffle before she threw her arms around Kurt's neck and the sniffle turned into a sob as she let out all the terror that had happened in the past twenty-four hours.
When she was finished, Kade had already fallen asleep, and Kate had set him down and checked on the other two. Kurt didn't say anything except to whisper comforting things in both English and German to Krissy until Kate came back, gently patting her back until then.
But when Kate came in, he gave her a little smile before he tipped his chin down and lifted Krissy's chin with one finger. "But we shouldn't dwell on evil when we have something so wonderful to celebrate," he said. "Did you mean to teleport, schatzi?"
Kate stopped in the doorway, her eyes wide as she mouthed the word 'teleport' over Krissy's shoulder, and Kurt nodded once as Krissy bit her lip to consider her answer.
"I… was just trying to get away faster."
"And you did," Kurt agreed, pushing back her hair again. "Did you notice your smoke? It is your favorite color."
"I didn't really…." Krissy shook her head.
"Well, you'll see it next time," Kate said as she sat down next to the two of them, rubbing her hand over Krissy's back. "Now how am I going to keep up with you?"
Krissy shook her head. "I don't know," she said.
"And you know," Kurt said, still trying to draw out a smile from the little girl, "this means you can cheat when you race Sying, even with his super speed."
Krissy grinned impishly. "He hates losing."
"Exactly," Kurt said, booping her nose. "You'll have to show him, once you learn how to do it when you mean to."
Krissy nodded, a little smile stuck on her face before she rested her head back on Kurt's shoulder. He knew she had to be exhausted, but she also wasn't letting go of him anytime soon, so he picked her up to take her back to his and Kate's room.
"I'm too old to sleep with you and Mama," she muttered, and he chuckled.
"I think your mama and I can make room for a special occasion."
Krissy frowned but didn't argue the point any further — and it wasn't too long before she fell asleep after that, with Kurt rubbing her back gently and telling her about how many things she could do to practice her powers.
At some point, Kate had climbed into the bed as well and simply curled up next to them, but it wasn't until they were both sure that Krissy was asleep that Kate let out a breath and gently kissed Kurt behind his ear. "Was it like last time?" she asked gently.
Kurt raised both eyebrows as he turned to face her. "I'm not sure I know what you're asking."
"I mean… the last time you killed him. I know it was the future you that deal the final blow, but…"
"No, it was nothing like that," Kurt said. He carefully turned so as not to disturb Krissy and gently pulled Kate into a kiss, but when she was still looking at him searchingly when the kiss broke, he let out a breath. "Even the way it went down… In that timeline, we had to bring so many of our friends to bear, and every stroke was hard won. In this… he was already worn down and powerless in a collar." He shook his head. "It was, essentially, an execution," he said quietly, frowning at the thought as soon as it was formed.
"No," Kate said, shaking her head as she pushed back some of his curls. "No, we had to fight for every stroke here, too. Billy turned him human, and he pushed every button he could. You got rid of his control, and he found a different way to come after us. Every step forward was two steps back, and when you had him cornered, you ended it."
Kurt nodded lightly, though his father's words were still ringing in his head. "I'm afraid I enjoyed it."
"And?" Kate challenged, her chin thrust out. "You're telling me you shouldn't be happy about killing a demon, even if he's not red anymore? Even when he's been screwing with you this long?"
Kurt shook his head and couldn't help but smile at her as she got worked up. "Of course I'm glad he's gone," he said. "He's been allowed to go on for too long."
"And by killing him, you saved our kids from having to deal with him," Kate pointed out. She watched him carefully as she added, "You weren't here when he came for them. Elin saw him and stabbed him, Chance broke his nose… He hit both of them and then threatened to torture Krissy to try to get me to hand Kade over." When Kurt simply stared at her, his mouth in a little 'o' shape, she nodded once. "So… I'm not sorry at all."
Kurt considered her for a moment before he finally let out a breath and kissed her gently. "And neither am I," he promised. "But it sounds like I missed quite a lot."
"I'll tell you about it later," she promised before she pulled him into a kiss, though she wasn't quite done with him as she paused when the kiss broke. "Isn't she a little… young to be teleporting already? I thought she was practically a teenager in that other time before it happened. Even Charlie was almost ten."
"Sometimes it comes with puberty, and sometimes it's trauma," Kurt admitted with a frown Krissy's way.
"Oh." Kate looked over Kurt's shoulder to their sleeping daughter and then nodded once as she seemed to decide something. "Right. Well. That's the only good thing your dad's ever done, then. Letting her get to play with her powers while she's young enough to really play."
Kurt shook his head at her. "No," he said. "This… was all Krissy."
"Yes, that's better," Kate agreed, laying her head on his chest with a sedate smile.
