"I am a bastard."
"Yeah, we know that." I laughed as I sat down next to Logan at the table in the kitchen. Bruce looked at me worriedly, I just smiled.
"You seem chipper today." Bruce seemed on edge. Didn't surprise me, I scared people with my good moods.
"I am. No reason to be ticked off, yet." I smiled and looked back to Logan. "Now, why have you come to the realization that you're a bastard?"
"Maybe he's been spending too much time with his past self."
"Or, maybe this is the past self, and he's getting tired of the current self. Ugh. This time travel bull is already making my head hurt." I laughed.
"I don't know you, kid." Logan said.
"Ok, so we've got past Logan, here. How the hell can we tell them apart? Can we make them wear signs?"
"I don't think they'd take kindly to that."
"No, I wouldn't." He growled.
"Well," I got up to the get a bowl of cereal, "What should we do?" I turned around. Logan was gone. Bruce was staring with his jaw dropped. "Where…what…huh?" I dropped my bowl.
Past Logan had disappeared. Like, literally. He was gone. My phone started ringing. I answered it, not taking my eyes off the spot where Logan has been.
"Dena." I said softly.
"We've got a problem." Clint's voice sounded frantic.
"Yeah, I'd say so."
"They've all disappeared." Tony sighed, slumping in his chair.
"All of them. At the same time." I said.
"Just as they appeared." Bruce added.
"Well, now I'm just confused." Clint said.
"Now you're confused?" Natasha shook her head. "The whole thing confuses me."
"What got them here in the first place?" I asked.
"Who cares? They're gone now." Clint shrugged.
"Who cares? Hawk, if someone is doing this, bringing people back, what's to stop someone from bringing back Hussein, Gadalfi, Hitler?!" I spat.
"Dena's got a point. If this is some kind of tech, in the wrong hands, it's dangerous."
"Bringing people into different time streams, Tony, it's dangerous in anyone's hands." Bruce shook his head.
"So, we have to figure out who's doing this, why, and stop him. That's a tall order when we have no idea what we're doing." Natasha sighed.
"I agree. We don't even have a clue as to the first place to start looking." I looked to Tony, hoping he would know what to do.
"For now, we'll put on feelers. Try to find anyone with anything to do with interests in time travel."
"You know how many theoretical scientists and Dr. Who fans you'll be looking at?" I scoffed.
"It's the best we've got." He sighed.
"Right. We'll, let's get to work, then." I said, and walked to elevator, heading up to my floor.
"Dena, wait." Clint jumped on the elevator with me.
"What?" I asked, clenching the guardrails as the elevator started to move. Ten seconds, the ride was over, we got out, Easy, right?
"Thor informed the rest of us about the Loki situation." Clint started. I stopped him.
"I don't want to talk about this right now."
"Dena, Azazeal wants to control you and turn you into a mindless drone."
"I know that, Hawk." I frowned. "Right now I have bigger things on my mind."
"What? The time travelers?"
"No, I have to go tell a friend that, not only do I know who his dad is, the one he's been looking for and never met, but also that he's trying to control him and turn him into a mindless drone, as well. Plus, I'm sis half-sister." I said darkly.
"Oh, right. I forgot about Nightcrawler. Are you just going to hunt down and tell all of the spawn what's going on?"
"No, and thanks so much for calming me spawn. Kurt deserves the truth."
"That's not what I meant.'
"Yes it is, I just caught you. Don't try to lie to me, Hawk, I know you too well."
"And, yet, sometimes I don't think I know you, at all."
"Because you don't." I pointed to the elevator. "Out."
I parked my car in front of the mansion, and sat there for a moment. I took a deep breath. I was about to divulge terrifying news to a dear friend. Awesome. Best day ever. I got out and went inside.
In the years that I'd been away, the mansion had not changed at all. It was the same, over-done, stately manor that I had been amazed by when Logan carried me here when I was 10.
"Well, to what do we owe this pleasure?" Storm came down the staircase, beaming at me.
"I need to see Kurt, actually." I smile at her.
"I'd ask for a hug, but as I recall, you hate human affection.''
"Not so much affection as contact. Do you know how much bacteria is the average human's skin?"
"Most of it is beneficial, Dena." Jean laughed as she came out of the den.
"I'd rather not risk it." I smiled at her. "Where can I find Kurt?"
"He was studying in the gazebo, last I checked."
"Studying?" I asked, confused.
"Yeah, he's gotten big into religion, here lately."
"Oh, dear." I shook my head. "Just what this house needs, a religious nut."
"He's actually being rather…smart about it, for lack of a better term. Going into it with an open mind, and actually reading instead of being a…"
"Zealot?" I suggested.
"Harsh, but the word works." Storm shrugged.
Kurt was indeed reading in the gazebo that sat on the cliff. He didn't notice I came up behind him.
"They say Jesus married the whore, ya know." I said softly.
"They say a lot of things." He smiled as he turned to me.
"How ya doin' Kurt?" I sat down beside him and looked out to the water. It was very…sparkely today.
"Very well, actually. How about you? Still hiding?" He asked with a knowing smile.
"I hide about as much as you do."
"And yet everyone knows my secret."
"Wow, you really don't waste time make people feel crappy, so ya?" I chuckled uneasily.
"I am sorry. It was not my intention. I was quite the kidder when I was younger, it would be bad to fall back into old habits." He turned to me, I smiled at him.
"I'm not here for civilities, anyway."
"You are not a person for civilities. You only speak when you have something to say. It is a good quality…when managed."
"It just tends to get me in trouble." I laughed, but couldn't keep the frown off my face.
"What is wrong, Dena?" he asked, concern on his face.
"How did you feel when you found out Mystique was your mother?" I asked, in a small voice. I wasn't really sure where to start in telling him all this.
"Excited."
"Excited?" I blinked at him in confusion. "You were excited to know that your mother was a murdering hate-monger?"
"No," he laughed, "I was excited to know that I had a mother at all. Yes, I admit, I was very…quick to accept her, that may have been a wrong move, but I do not think I ever hated her. She was my mother."
"But she never did anything for you," I pressed, "she didn't raise you or care for you."
"No, but she gave birth to me. She gave me up, but I found foster parents who raised me with more love than I could have ever understood. All things happen for a reason."
"I don't know if I can believe that." I shook my head slowly.
"Have you been on a quest to find your birth father again?" He sounded like he knew the answer before he even asked.
"More like I stumbled upon the answer. It's…not what I expected."
"Tell me." He smiled warmly, trying to make me feel safe. I cringed; a sudden desire to get as far away as possible.
"Azazeal." I sighed. "His name is Azazeal."
"The demon."
"You know him?"
"I've fought him a few times."
"Sweet irony."
"How so?" He looked confused.
"Azazeal has many children. Who knows how old he is, centuries, maybe. He spawns children to use as…minions, for lack of a better word."
"You think, given the biological hold he has over you, he can control you, if he wished?" He smirked at me, as if I were being foolish.
"He's a demon, Kurt, not a mutant. Who knows what he is capable of doing?"
"So you fear for yourself?"
"Not just me, Kurt." I looked at him, dead in the eyes, waiting to see if he could tell what I was going to say next. He frowned.
"You mean…I am…"
"Yes, we're not certain, but I'm sure enough to be afraid for you."
"I should be flattered, you do not fear for people often. You are very much the believer that people can take care of themselves."
Ouch. I'll let that one slide. This was his defense mechanism against things he did not want to believe. "Kurt, I found out information that pertained to you, and I let you know."
"Will you seek out every spawn and let them have the same warning?" He spat the word with such hatred that I tensed up.
"No." I looked at him, my face hardening. "You just said how you didn't hate Mystique when you found out she was your mother."
"I was a lot younger, then, Dena." He let out a sigh and looked out at the water. "Mystique was not so great a sinner as a demon."
"You're nothing like him, if that's what going through your mind." I said.
"No, I have happiness, I have God." He looked at me. "What do you have to save yourself from becoming him?"
"I have my anger." I stood and started walking back to my car. "I am too angry at him to become him." I looked back to him. "I'll find him, Kurt. I'll find him, and I'll kill him.'
His face was sad; a single tear fell down his cheek. And you'll become him, and be lost to us forever."
