Chapter 7: Degrees of Separation
Peter Parker was the first to return to the mansion, a bit dazed as to how he got there, if he was being honest, and entirely happy to see that Sara and Aunt May were perfectly safe and happy there. He had just started to explain what had happened — leaving out as much gore and blood as possible — when K and Logan appeared with a bamf on each of their shoulders, hair wet and in new clothes.
They weren't far into the living room when their three little ones spotted them, and with an excited shout for 'daddy,' the two girls led the charge, with James hot on their heels to snuggle in and kiss both of them.
"So, it turns out that Aunt May was the one doing most of the snuggles on your three," Peter said as Elin attached herself to her mother and Logan tried to balance the two smaller ones.
"Oh?" Logan said while James nestled in and Sadie tried to turn his head to give him a kiss.
"Thank you, Aunt May," K called out, stroking Elin's hair and held on to Logan's arm. "And it's nice to see you looking so well."
"It's nice to see you both back in one piece," May said with a warm smile. "You were sorely missed."
"Apparently," Logan said as Sadie melted into his shoulder.
"Hope they weren't too rotten," K said while the little group of them headed toward the stairs.
"These three angels? They were nothing but well-behaved," May said fondly.
"Good," K replied. "They know they're supposed to behave."
"You really have taught them well. It shows. You should be proud."
K rested her hand on Elin's head, and the little girl looked up at her mother for a moment before letting go and heading over to give May a hug and a very quiet 'thank you' about half a second before James rushed over to do the same, though Sadie just waved May's way and blew her a kiss.
The little family went upstairs together, with May smiling after them before Peter offered her his arm to head up the stairs as well. "It's kind of super late? We can head home in the morning, seeing as the creep's taken care of."
Scott was the last to arrive at the mansion, with Azazel still unconscious and Betsy glaring at him and looking like she was just waiting for a reason to make the former demon king miserable. They took him down to Hank's lab, where the good doctor was sure to set it up so that Azazel would have enough drugs to keep him under for as long as they needed.
Azazel would be under constant monitoring, too — but even still, after spending the last few days running after Kurt, Scott didn't want to leave anything to chance. So once Azazel was all set up and Hank reassured Scott — again — that he wasn't going anywhere, Scott headed upstairs next.
Kurt and Kate had just come in from the forest, though Scott only knew it had been recent because he got there at about the same time there was a tiny mob of elflings to their parents. Scott frowned, well-aware that his timing was bad, but he knocked on the door anyway.
Kaleb was still hanging off of Kurt and grinning when Kurt answered the door. "Hi, Scott!" Kaleb called out, beating his dad to the greeting.
Kate was in the middle of a snuggle with both of her girls as she glanced up at Scott, and he let out a sigh as he scrubbed a hand through his hair. "We've got—" He glanced toward Krissy. "Our guest is completely unconscious, and Hank said that's not going to change anytime soon," he said slowly. "But last time he was here, he didn't need to speak to get you and K to break him out," he explained to Kurt, who was already frowning and clearly following Scott's train of thought.
"I see," Kurt said slowly, shifting the way he was holding Kaleb. "And with him being in the house…"
"Exactly," Scott said, starting to nod. "So I think it would be safer — not just for you but for everyone—" he added, tipping his head slightly toward Kate and the girls, "—if we separated the two of you from his reach. At least get you somewhere far enough away that it would be hard for you to go to him."
"And somewhere I cannot teleport," Kurt said, still frowning but nodding along. "Or there's no point to my leaving."
"I was thinking about K's cottage," Scott admitted. "It's practically a home away from home for this kind of thing at this point. And if you set up a dampening field there and bring Kate and Logan to keep you from crossing the threshold…"
"I'll need to grab a few more tranqs from Clint," Kate said. "I gave you all mine."
"Do that," Scott agreed, then let out a sigh. "And I'll call Jubilee. With him here, and you two in the cottage, I don't want him getting any ideas about the kids."
Kurt glanced over to where Krissy was watching the conversation intently and then let out a sigh. "Yes, that would be too much of a temptation," he said. "And I don't want him to think he can have me bring them to him either," he added, this time a little softer.
"Not exactly the trip I was hoping for on our anniversary," Kate said with a little frown.
"We'll take the elflings somewhere with sandy beaches when this is through," Kurt decided.
"At least we'll get to hide away together tomorrow," Kate decided.
"I already called Strange and Billy," Scott told them both. "I'm sure it won't take long to figure out how to break the spell, especially with how mad Strange was last time he was here."
"And how incredibly irritated he was on seeing the pages I sent him as well," Kurt pointed out.
"Exactly," Scott said. "I'm hoping it won't take long at all — and you two can go to LA by the end of the day. After all this, I'm sure you could use the break."
"My grandfather's here, isn't he?" Krissy asked after a moment, clearly watching the adults in the room with her tail perfectly still behind her.
The three X-Men froze before Kate very gently kissed Krissy's forehead. "Yes, but he's not going to go anywhere. And we're not going to make you stay here while he's around. You can stay with Sying's family, alright?"
"Alright," Krissy said, frowning and curling a bit more into Kate.
"And you'll have all our little friends with you," Kurt said. "Do you think you could sit with the bamfs while they have to fly instead of teleporting?"
"They're not gonna like that," Krissy said, wrinkling her nose.
"That's why we need you to take care of them," Kate said with a little smile. "Can you do that?"
"Alright, but they're not gonna like it," Krissy said again.
Scott watched the family scene for a moment before he let out a sigh. "I'll meet you down at the hangar. I have to go talk to Logan and K first, but we should get moving on this before any curve balls have the chance to get thrown our way."
Kate nodded. "I'll just grab a bamf and go get my tranqs," she said, sure to kiss both of her girls before she got up to do just that — and Scott let the group of them get packed in privacy as he went next door to the Howletts' suite.
After he knocked, K called out that the door was open, and he let himself in, not surprised to see that Logan and K were relaxing together — the kids already asleep after spending a good amount of time snuggled with their parents, which Scott wasn't sure would make this easier or not.
"Azazel's downstairs," Scott told them both, hands in his pockets. "Hank has him drugged, and Strange and Wiccan are on the way to start working on breaking his hold on you and Kurt," he added K's way. "But … it's still a good idea to take a few precautions in the meantime."
Logan sat up a little straighter and let out a breath. "Why don't we just take his head off?"
"For how long he's been off our radar — and how long he had Kurt? I'd feel better if Strange double-checked him first and if Billy made sure we're not shooting ourselves in the foot," Scott admitted.
"What are you thinkin', Slim?"
"Separating him from K and Kurt," Scott said. "We know he doesn't have to speak or be near either of them to exercise his influence, but if they're far enough out, even if he does call for help, they shouldn't be able to get to him to help him until we've broken whatever spells he has on them."
"Strange said it'd be easier to remove things if they were there. You gonna pull 'em back while he's handling things?"
"We can figure it out with Strange when we need to," Scott said. "But I'd feel better if he tried without them first, considering how the last time went."
Logan nodded and glanced toward where the little ones were sleeping. "Alright. Where you have in mind, and what are the fine details I should know? Or is it just a 'go hide' thing?"
"I figured you could head to the cottage," Scott said. "Kurt and Kate will come with you, and we'll set up a dampening field or collars, something to keep Kurt from teleporting and to make sure Kate's tranqs will work on K if she tries to get to Westchester." He leaned back against the wall and let out a breath. "I'm going to ask Erik to fly Kate and Kurt's kids to LA too — since Azazel's here and we know he would love to get his hands on them."
"That would break the deal," K said.
"I'm not going to take the chance that the deal was only that he'd let them go in that one instance," Scott pointed out. "Krissy's already terrified of him as it is — and she can tell more or less what's happening. I don't want anything else to happen if I can help it."
K nodded, though she crossed her arms over her middle as she thought it over and Logan simply got to his feet. "Any idea how long it'll be? Don't have much up there for the little ones," he said.
Scott frowned. "If Azazel tries to call them, I don't think the kids should be there to see it," he admitted.
Logan paused, and it was crystal clear that he was thinking of who to send the kids to outside of the mansion before he nodded. "Right."
"Strange and Billy are already on the way. Hopefully, this will be through in no time," Scott said. "I'll have Jana fly you out — just to be safe. You can call her for pickup when you get the all-clear, but I'm thinking it would be easier to make it as hard as possible for either of them to get here when he calls — and you know he will once Strange gets started. In the meantime, you know the kids are always welcome with us. Or I'm pretty sure Peter's aunt wouldn't mind getting more face time with them." He almost smirked. "She seems to like them."
"Thank you, Scott," K said, saving both of them from any more awkward tripping around each other. "We'll bring them over in a little bit."
"Alright," he said, headed for the door. "Don't worry about them; Annie and I love having them over."
"Sabretooth and Mystique are dead," K said. "This is a speed bump in comparison. And I'm sure that Charlie doesn't mind snuggling up with Elin to save her from Chance."
He did smirk at that one. "I'll meet you in the hangar."
The two Howletts immediately went to the little ones, rousing them enough so that Elin and James both walked with them down to the Summers' suite, though James was walking with his face half buried in K's hip, leaning on her the whole way, and Sadie barely woke up enough to give them both kisses before she curled up and passed out again.
Logan and K didn't bother to pack anything, especially considering the fact that they had all they needed at the cabin Logan had in mind. When they got to the hangar, Kurt and Kate were busy, and Jana was raring to go, though she was careful not to look too eager about being part of such a big mission.
"So, where are we headed?" she asked. "Cyclops said something about maybe K's place?"
Logan let out a sigh and closed his eyes. "Place near Alaska. I'll give you the coordinates when we get in the jet. It's not in the system."
"Alright," she said with a nod before she went back to prepping the jet so that she could hide her excited look at getting to go to one of Wolverine's off-grid hideaways.
Kate and Kurt had tucked the elflings in on the mini jet, since it was late enough that the hope was they'd just sleep through the whole flight out to LA, though Tommy promised he'd ride with them to keep an eye on them (and, though he wouldn't admit it, to keep an eye on Erik). So once they were all tucked in with blankets, bamfs, and teddy bears, Kurt and Kate joined the others at Jana's jet to head out.
When Strange arrived, he was clearly annoyed and furious at the situation in general, ready to get down to work and looking more gruff than usual, though Billy was reassuringly not nearly as serious-looking — which at least meant that there was no danger of world-ending consequences for this particular endeavor.
"Where is he?" Strange all but demanded as he strolled through the hallway.
"We have him sedated in Hank's lab," Scott explained as he led the way.
"Then let's address this ridiculous issue before it gets any worse," Strange said, with Billy shaking his head behind him.
"He's in a mood," he told Scott in a stage-whisper.
"How long has that been the case?" Scott asked quietly as they followed Strange's billowing cape down the hall.
"Well, he wasn't happy about K's deal in the first place — that was really crummy being around him, by the way — but he was tolerable doing research until you called up again to say Kurt was missing, and it's just been going from there with the stuff Kurt was sending him to translate."
"Is it something we should be concerned with?" Scott asked. "More than we already are, that is."
"Not when he clearly doesn't know how to perform the spells," Strange said over his shoulder with a glare.
"And the simple fact that he doesn't know how shows how old and dangerous it is, right?"
"It's not something that should be practiced by anyone, for how many ways it can go wrong," Strange said. "Not only for the caster but for anyone involved, as well as the laws of nature and time."
"He's not going to break anything like that," Billy said before Scott could say anything about that. "Not the way things stand right now, anyway. I just don't see that in the future — though admittedly, it's always changing based on people's decisions in the present."
"So it's possible for him to get his power back?" Scott asked, looking concerned.
"Powers, yes, but nothing like what he had," Billy promised. "He still doesn't have that connection to Hell — and he never will. He's still mortal, and he can't undo that. Ever." Billy looked entirely serious as he crossed his arms. "It's just not possible to undo one of my spells when it's powered by the Demiurge."
"But he's trying to," Scott replied.
"Trying being the operative word," Billy said, shaking his head.
By that time, they'd reached where Hank was keeping watch over a heavily sedated Azazel. "He hasn't done anything more offensive than breathe this whole time," Hank said, though he didn't take his gaze off of the equipment that was rigged to keep a steady stream of sedatives and paralytics in his system. "There is a Kree device in place that will prevent him from teleporting."
Strange glared at Azazel as he came to a stop a few feet away from him. "I've been researching how best to break a demon deal," he said. "I can try a few things with regard to the spell on Nightcrawler, but the truth of the matter is simply that a deal cannot be broken unless a new deal is reached — or the terms of the first one are either broken or come to an end." He let out a sigh. "We have some leeway here," he added. "K's deal was to give him access to her blood, not to give him full control over her."
"It's a technicality," Billy said with a grin. "But this is more… technical than magical, really."
"And of course, the control he has over both Nightcrawler and K can be broken easily enough, so long as he agrees to end it," Strange said. "It doesn't matter if it is under duress — once he releases them, he would need to recapture either of them to redo the spell."
"I can help with that," Betsy offered, stepping out from the shadows.
Strange's head came up fast, and then a near-smirk played with his expression. "Yes," he said thoughtfully. "You can." He turned toward Hank. "If you would, please — if we are to free Nightcrawler and K, then he needs to be awake to give his word."
Betsy smirked and looked between Scott and Hank before she and Hank stepped in to where Azazel was being held. Hank was quick to pull the IV and simply get out of the way, knowing that the sedation would wear out quickly — and probably faster than what was strictly normal when Betsy was firing up her psychic knife.
She waited until Azazel started to move a bit, slowly waking from the sedation, before she plunged the psychic fire into his chest, waking him harshly — though for the first time, Strange didn't seem bothered in the least by the barbaric act.
Thousands of miles away, at the exact moment that Betsy started to work on Azazel, both Kurt and K suddenly felt the unstoppable urge to get to Westchester.
Both of them seemed to be hit with a sudden jolt, and Logan and Kate had just enough time to share a look before they moved. Logan flat out tackled K to the ground as Kate whipped her bow out; before Kurt could reach the door, he had a tranquilizer arrow in his shoulder, and a second later, he hit the ground face first. Kate lined up a shot for K next, though with Logan and K both moving, she ended up loading a double shot — since K would be more affected than Logan with the collar on.
Kate winced and apologized quickly after she let the arrows fly, even as K stilled. "Didn't want to give her an arrow of leverage on you," she explained, crossing over to where Kurt was splayed out as she turned him over.
"What kind of leverage would she have with three hundred pounds of anchor on her?" Logan asked with a smirk.
"She's smart and mean; I'm not taking chances," Kate pointed out as she pulled the arrow out of Kurt's shoulder.
"You don't say," Logan said sarcastically.
Kate just rolled her eyes at Logan.
"They're fine; don't feel bad. They knew this was gonna happen," Logan told her. "If you're upset, I'm sure Kurt won't argue if you offer to kiss it better later." He gestured to Kurt, sprawled out on the floor. "Now. Why don't you toss me some rope so I can tie her up?"
Kate nodded, pulling some of the extra rope from her quiver from old spent grappling hooks. "Hopefully we won't have to hit them again. This is stupid."
"She's not as strong with the collar on," he told her. "She won't get out of this. You want me to get him too?"
She let out a heavy sigh but shook her head. "I can do it. It's just… stupid."
"This whole thing is stupid," Logan agreed as he got to work.
"If he's still alive when we get back, I'm going to shoot him," Kate told Logan frankly. "I don't care what tricks he has up his sleeve as long as no one's gonna die if I kill him."
"Sound reasonable to me," Logan agreed, though he was shaking his head. "Trying to figure out the best way to keep her from squirming loose … damnit."
"You want a traq just in case?" she offered, holding one of her arrows out to him.
"Nah. I'll just tackle her again," he said, shaking his head.
Kate nodded at that as she pulled out her own rope. "This is so not what I was planning to do with him on our anniversary. Just so you know," she grumped.
"Sorry it's not as scenic as it could be," Logan teased, as if he'd ever picked out a hiding spot that wasn't ridiculously gorgeous.
She gave him a dry, dry look for that one. "Yeah. You're hilarious. That's so not the complaint here."
"You want it after this is over? Hole up and kiss whatever you shoot?" Logan countered.
"We already promised the kids we'd take them to the beach," Kate said. "We've been apart long enough — I'm sure you know the feeling."
"Yeah, that wasn't exactly the best 'welcome back' that we could have had," he agreed.
"No kidding," Kate said.
"Thought Scott was going to have a stroke for a minute there," Logan muttered.
Kate had to nod her agreement. "You should have seen him when Krissy asked if this was about Azazel," she said softly.
"No, I got to see him try to reword 'go hide' so that it didn't sound like last time. He still acts like he had a choice last time around."
Kate shook her head, one eye closed in a little wince. "Yeah… that guy needs a vacation, like, stat."
"We'll ship him here," Logan decided with a smirk.
"I'm in favor," Kate said, matching his smirk. "Annie would love it too."
He looked over his shoulder and out the window and shrugged. "Maybe."
"Well, you're assuming she's going to care what the weather is like when we're gift-wrapping relaxed boss man."
"At some point, the older ones will always look out the window," Logan pointed out. "And not sure if you noticed, but Ol' Slim ain't as dark as he once was."
"You mean our steadily-silvering Summers?"
"That's the one," he agreed, finally pulling the last knot tight.
"Kurt's not as blue as he used to be either, but he doesn't seem to have any problems," Kate said with a crooked grin.
"And you're a lot more purple," he said quietly.
Kate shook her head at him as she worked on Kurt's ankles. "I over-dye, honestly. I kinda like the purple."
"Oh, I know," he said, nodding. "The candy grape scent is something else on that stuff."
She grinned. "I meant I'm not as gray as all the purple suggests," she said, pointing at her head. "I just like the stripes."
"Yeah, I know. The lighter stuff ... well. I wasn't pointing out the gray so much as I was pointing out that you're getting more colorful while he's fading."
"Well, Kari's blue enough for both of them — and Kaleb."
"I don't want to know what the shower looks like if he decides to be vain and go full body."
Kate burst into surprised laughter, shaking her head as she sat back after finishing her own tying job. "I'd never let him — he'd have to sleep outside. That would just… the smell would mess with even a normal little human like me," she laughed.
"I'd have to break Scott's heart and move to the boathouse like I was trying to do before," Logan said, shaking his head.
"Aww, but you just pointed out how old he's getting, and we have to be gentle with his over-stressed heart," she chuckled.
"Which is why we haven't done it," he countered.
Kate shook her head at him and then pushed herself to her feet and wiped her hands on her knees. "Think you could help me move him so he's not by the door?" she asked.
"Sure. Lay out a blanket on the carpet," he directed as he headed over to pick Kurt up. "If we put 'em on the beds and they start thrashing …" He shrugged. "Not the first time I've had to do this."
"Smart," Kate agreed, headed to a closet to pull down a blanket they could use to bring over to him, though she was sure to pause and give Logan a kiss on the cheek. "This whole thing sucks, by the way, but… thanks," she told him quietly.
"Hey. He's my best friend. He'd try to do the same for me if I needed it." He let out a breath. "Probably end up breaking somethin', though …"
"I dunno. We have a pretty good setup with K. Do the same to you… tranq arrows and a teleporting demon… you wouldn't get far either," Kate said.
"Okay, you go ahead and think that," he chuckled as he set Kurt down where Kate had set up the blanket.
"I'll go ahead and know it," she said. "I've seen him fight you — the behind-the-back arm hold is a personal favorite of mine. Saw him do it way back when we first met Azazel."
"Yeah, he likes that one too — until I pull his grip loose, and then it loses all the fun suddenly."
"Well, he'd only need to do it 'til I tranq-ed you," Kate pointed out. "Easy peasy. We are a beautiful team."
"And as long as K wasn't helping me, it'd be perfect," he agreed.
"Yeah, I don't want to fight both of you," Kate agreed, pulling a face. She let out a small sigh. "Even when we went to that future, we didn't ever fight you both together. We were lucky that way. Well, me and Kurt never did, but the others had to do it."
"Yeah, I'd rather not think about that," Logan replied.
"As crummy as this is, honestly, it's still, like, a thousand times better than that future. Really," Kate promised quickly.
"So far," he replied. "It can always get worse."
"Well, it's already pretty much guaranteed not to get to that point anyway, since he's not a demon anymore," Kate pointed out.
"Small miracles."
"Small Wiccan, you mean."
"Right. That too." he leaned back against the couch and watched K and Kurt all drugged up and restrained. "How long are those tranquilizers good for?"
"Three hours, give or take," Kate said. "I mean, it varies based on height and weight and all that, but I saw Clint get hit with one, and he was out that long."
"You'd think he'd have built up a tolerance," Logan said before he turned Kate's way. "You know he's poked himself on accident."
"Honestly, the fact that he has a low-level healing ability explains so much about how he hasn't had more issues," Kate said.
He'd be dead a dozen times over without it," Logan agreed. "Gotta be like a damn alley cat."
Kate smirked and leaned back. "This is newer stuff," she explained, gesturing at their drugged friends. "Clint changes it up every once in a while."
"Probably changes it when it doesn't work to knock him out for a nap."
"He changes it when Hydra comes up with quick antidotes," Kate explained.
"Potato … tomato. Whatever."
She shook her head at him for that one and then leaned back on the couch. "Whatever. Either way, we have time to kill. And I have a book to read if you don't want to lose horribly to me in cards."
"That's never gonna happen," he replied. "You can try. But you're gonna lose."
"Only if you cheat," she pointed out, the grin widening.
"So is that saying you don't know how to cheat? How can you be as old as you are and not know how to cheat at cards?"
"That's me saying you can't beat me fair and square," she countered.
"Oh, I can, but old habits … and it's good to keep sharp on the cheating for Fury's games."
"Uh-huh. I hear words, but it sounds a lot like excuses to me."
"Get the cards," he replied with a little growl.
