Chapter 10: "Everyone Under Eighteen and Kate"

It had been some time before Noh finally returned with good news. He'd found where the demons were clearly congregating and had even been sure to creep up the side of the old opera house to peer inside long enough to spot the ornate throne — but there was still no sign of Sying even after Noh returned.

Dawn approached and still... no sign of the other sparkling darling. So, the decision was made that perhaps it was time to start looking for him.

Daken and Logan both were preparing to head out and track him down by scent alone if necessary when their ranks were increased by six.

It didn't happen all at once, as Sying had to take them in one and two at a time. To start with, Sying had both Zoe Barton and Tammy McCoy on his shoulders, and he was panting the slightest bit as he very quickly explained, "We needed more backup," before he ran off again.

The two men shared a look before Zoe rushed over and flung her arms around Logan's neck in a hug. "What's with the brown hair, little darlin'?" he asked as he squeezed her back — the girl was thin and had freckles as brown as her hair, and while the freckles were normal, the hair color was not. "I thought you liked red."

"Yeah, but I was trying to draw off some demons a while ago. Looked like Aunt K," she explained with a smirk. "And… I got stuck in the transition. Hair should change back to red eventually."

"Why would you draw them off looking like her?" Logan asked with a frown. "Didn't he tell you what happened?"

"Yeah, but this was yesterday, and the demons are stupid," she said. "And it was early yesterday, and they thought their boss's bodyguard was there?" She grinned widely. "And Dad set off a beautiful explosion. Thanks, Daken, for the holy water bomb idea, by the way. Works great." She waved the tips of her fingers at Daken.

"My pleasure," he replied before he tipped his head toward the hallway. "The girls are down there. I'm sure they'll want to see you."

"I'm sure they'll want to see Gerry too," Zoe said with a smirk before she fell into a more serious expression. "How's Charlie? Could she use a little Barton cheer?"

"Long as you keep your bandages to yourself — knock yourself out," Logan teased.

"Hey, you must be talking about Gerry," Zoe teased right back.

He reached over and picked up her wrist, which had a wrap almost up to her elbow. "Really, now?"

She rolled her eyes and tried to snatch her arm back. "Growing pains," she said. "I'm still getting used to the powers."

"Yeah, and your Dad must be sixty feet tall by now."

"You know he hasn't been Goliath for years," Zoe shot back without missing a beat as Sying came skidding to a stop, this time just with one passenger — Tyler.

"You sure you don't want your dad's help?" Logan asked Sying when he saw how the boy was trying to get a breath. "He's not doing anything."

"It took me ages to find a way into their hideout that wouldn't give us away," Sying panted. "So ... I'll be right back." With that, he zipped off again, leaving Tyler to shake his head at the young half-Kree.

But once Sying was gone again, Tyler took a few long strides and picked Logan up in a crushing hug. "Heard you were back."

"Yeah, new addition to the old crew," he agreed. "And a couple more too. Injured Elf thataway." He tipped his head toward the doors that would take him to Kurt simply because Tyler had his arms pinned.

"I heard he was back too," Tyler nodded. "Or… there were two of them? Sying tried to talk about temporal something but… it went over my head."

"Put me down and I'll explain it on the way," Logan offered, which finally got Tyler to do exactly that, looking a bit sheepish for how pleased he was to see Logan.

Tammy slipped over to follow the two of them, pulling her arm through Tyler's as she did. "What about…" She looked over her shoulder at Zoe and dropped her voice. "Sying mentioned Kate, but I didn't want to ... I mean... "

"Long story short?" Logan said low. "Gateway brought them here to fix things. Both of them. We have a pretty young Kurt and Kate here." With that, he pushed open the door to the room where Kurt was injured and Kate was clearly fussing over him.

But Kate looked up when Tyler and Tammy opened the door and broke into the widest grin as she threw her arms around both of them. "What are you two doing here?" she asked, beaming.

"Heard you busted your Elf," Tyler told her in a low timbre. "Figured I'd fix him up for you — or it's not fun otherwise."

She grinned wider and hugged him again before she noticed the way he and Tammy were attached and giggled. "Oh. Oh, I swear I'll be good and not tell past you about this, but I so called it," she said.

"Everyone called it," Logan corrected. "Now, you want your Kurt fixed or not? I think this one'll be a quicker fix than the other one."

"Yes, please, fix them both," Kate agreed quickly, stepping back to let Tyler into the room. "They both need it. The other one is skinny and just... " She shook her head and then gestured to her Kurt. "And this one got himself stabbed."

As Tyler worked on healing Kurt, Sying arrived with Natasha and Gerry, taking both of them further back to where Charlie was so that Gerry could cheer her up, though Natasha stole away to see what Logan was up to as soon as Sying put her down, both eyebrows up when she saw that, yes, there was a younger Kate and Kurt.

"Clint is going to melt," she whispered to Logan.

"How is that new?" he asked over his shoulder to give her a look.

She grinned at that, nodded thoughtfully, and broke into something like a relieved little giggle as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I missed you," she told him.

"I missed everyone," he replied, covering her wrist with his hand and tipping his head to rest against hers.

"Have you seen Zoe yet?" she asked, still hugging him from behind and resting her head on his shoulder. "I don't know what you remember from your time with Azazel — but you know she discovered her powers a year ago, da?"

"I heard about it from other sources," he told her. "But I saw her when she came in. And her wrapped wrist."

"You would have been proud of her," Natasha said. "It was her idea to shapeshift into your wife and confuse them. We killed over three dozen demons last week alone."

"How'd they react when they saw her?" Logan asked — out of curiosity.

"Well, they're used to you two being close to Azazel," Natasha pointed out. "So they tried to… I don't know that I'd say they tried to be on their best behavior, but as close as you can get with demons. It made them easier targets when they were looking for their boss to try to grovel at his feet and not expecting us to burst through the windows and kill them."

"They must have been lower level then," Logan said. "All of the ones that have spent more than a few minutes around us know to scatter and keep their distance."

"Well, you haven't been out west," Natasha said. "Not much anyway. He's trying to run us out with overwhelming force. I think it irks him that he can't get rid of us."

"Likely," he agreed. "Hey. Is that boy gonna make it back alright with Clint, or is he gonna need a leg healed or something just from association?"

She rolled her eyes and smacked him in the arm. "Be nice. You know he's getting slower with age," she teased.

"Always makin' excuses. What was it when he was spending half his time in a dumpster?"

"I wasn't around to keep him out of trouble," she said.

"Well that sums up his life in one sentence doesn't it?" he teased.

She chuckled as, at last, Sying and Clint arrived to round out the little group, and she didn't even hesitate to gently pull on Logan's arm to keep him out of Clint's way as the graying archer ran right to where Kate was and all but bowled her over in a hug.

Kate laughed as she hugged him back. "Aww, did you miss me?" she teased, but he didn't tease her back at all.

"Yes," he replied softly as he hugged her that much tighter.

Tyler looked up from where he'd finished up with Kurt. "Alright, well, as soon as I can work on our Nightcrawler, it looks like we're all here, right?" He looked to Sying, who looked pretty winded but just nodded.

"Great; when do we leave?" Kate asked.

All of them stared at her for a moment, but it was Logan that broke the silence. "We leave when we have everyone in one room. You will stay here with Krissy, Elin, and Charlie," Logan said. "And maybe baby Kurt too if I'm feelin' cautious."

"Baby Kurt, really?" Kurt chuckled his friend's way.

"Compared to how I'm used to seeing you? Yeah. Baby Kurt," Logan replied.

"So he's, what, five to my four and a half?" Kate teased.

"Oh, he's six. But compared to Grampa Kurt, he's a baby," Logan countered.

"But you're gonna need teleporters," Krissy argued as she crawled down from the ceiling, where she had been trying to sneak in on the conversation.

"Bamfs," Logan replied.

"Come on, Logan — we've been fighting him this whole time!" Krissy argued.

"And not winning this whole time," he said quickly.

"What about Chance? Or Sying? Or Zoe and Gerry?" Krissy asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"That's up to their parents, isn't it now?" Logan replied. He looked around the room as the kids began to gather around him, and he knew he had a problem brewing. "Here's what's gonna happen. Everyone under eighteen and Kate go with Daken so he can explain to you exactly what's going to happen if you're captured."

"It might take some time," Daken said in an easy drawl. "There are different objectives with different prisoners."

"Take your time," Logan said. "And don't spare the details."

"And I have to go because, what, you think I didn't get the message with the demon kids and the death thing? Because I'd like to point out I am not the only one in this group who's been captured by that guy," Kate said with her arms crossed. "He captured you and Kurt, and you're both going."

"He doesn't want to screw me or Kurt," Logan countered with a glare that she wasn't used to having him aim at her.

But it was Zoe who reached over and grabbed Kate by the arm, her expression determined as she pulled Kate along. "You're an idiot, Aunt Katie," she said in a tone she'd clearly learned from her mother. "Come on. You're going to listen to Daken, and then you're going to stay with Charlie after he scars everyone. Okay? Okay."

As it turned out, the kids and Kate emerged from Daken's very detailed description — not only of what had happened to Kate but of what would happen to each of them — without any good argument for coming along, so they ended up all piling in Charlie's room.

Gerry, somehow the first to bounce back from everything they'd heard, hopped right up next to Charlie and cheerfully began to fill her in on everything that had happened out west with his parents and Natasha and some other assorted heroes. And Charlie, for her part, leaned into Gerry and listened to him tell stories as she let his endless energy and optimism calm her down against the shocked kids around them.

But the rest of the group — the adults and parents that weren't Kate — waited just long enough to be sure none of the teens tried to sneak out and come along anyway despite the graphic warnings before they slipped outside to meet up with the bamfs.

"Are they still there?" the older Nightcrawler asked the bamfs, who seemed unable to stop hugging him once he was out in the open. When the bamfs nodded and chattered at him, he turned to the others. "He's going to know we're there the moment we 'port in, so be ready for a fight." When the others nodded at that, he looked to his little friends, and in an instant, the entire group appeared in the opera house as close as the bamfs could get them to Azazel's throne.

Logan, for one, didn't wait to orient himself before he started swinging, slicing through two demons before they realized what had happened. Both Kurts had all three swords out, and though the older one was clearly a bit rusty from having been held captive for so long, they were both dealing massive damage. Tyler was simply bashing through demons, claws out and snarling, as Tammy was picking up every chair in the opera house to hurl at anything that belonged in Hell. And Jubilee and Clint were doing a fine job making sure there were plenty of explosions all around as Daken gave Natasha a boost up to the balcony so that she could get the drop on a few demons that were trying to get past America, who was solving the broken leg problem by staying in the air and punching everything.

Noh was bashing and shooting his way through demons when he spotted an opening, though there wasn't quite enough time to explain his plan to Logan as he would have liked. Instead, he simply grabbed Logan and hurled him across the opera house so that he more or less knocked K back from Azazel.

She'd barely gotten enough time to realize what had happened and start to smile at Logan before Azazel blasted him away from her with a roar. He'd only just blasted Logan, though, when a familiar purple arrow sang through the air to sink into his arm. It didn't do much to hurt Azazel, but it did draw his attention long enough for Clint to sing out his greeting. "Hiya, K. Heard my other wife's honor needed defending." He tipped his bow Azazel's way. "This guy bothering you?"

She grinned his way. "Little bit. Seem to be down a few items of clothes because of him," she admitted, looking down at herself — and smirking slightly at Logan, who couldn't help but look her over for a second. "I just bumped into a real cutie, though. He disappeared before I could make a move."

"When this is over, we'll make sure you guys go on a first date," Clint teased her before he was distracted again by a demon who grabbed him out of the air for a second before Natasha sighed and shouted something in Russian that sounded like Clint had heard it a thousand times.

"Lifeguard, do you mind if I throw you too?" Noh asked with a little smirk, and Tyler nodded.

Azazel had regained his senses enough that he was trying to get close to grab K and disappear. It was almost like watching a cat play with a mouse as he'd appear, and she'd take a swing to keep him from getting a hand on her, then he would teleport to the opposite side to try and get her to back into him, chuckling all the while.

But Noh had excellent aim, and this time, he wasn't trying to hit K when he tossed Tyler right at Azazel. The moment Tyler got his hands on Azazel, he broke into a wide grin, even though Azazel bodily tossed him over the stage with a snarl.

But when Azazel tried to teleport again ... he simply couldn't, and though he tried several times, he was simply left half snarling in frustration.

As soon as it was clear that he wasn't able to go anywhere, K stared at him wide-eyed for a moment before she rushed forward and hit him solidly in the throat with a growl. She began to lay into him bare-fisted, pounding him for everything she was worth — and it was clear that her adamantium-laced fists were more than what Azazel had expected. Every hit rang out with an echoing crack.

When he finally managed to get a hand on her to freeze her in place to get her to stop, he was definitely hurting, bloodied badly and wincing as he made out his threats.

Both of the Nightcrawlers glanced at each other, sensing the opening K had given them, and they didn't need to share a word as they both teleported over, on either side of Azazel, swords drawn as they dove in to simply try to tear him apart.

The three fighters danced across the stage, and even injured, Azazel was putting up a decent defense, though it was clear to anyone watching that he was playing entirely defensively. He could hardly turn without one of the two Nightcrawlers there to meet him, blades drawn and snarling in his face.

"Weren't you the one calling me a coward — and yet you cannot face me without a small army of your own and help from your own past," Azazel spat out as he barely managed a parry.

"Seeing as you've been hiding behind my best friend since your rise to power, I'm not much inclined to care what you consider valiant," Nightcrawler spit back. "You and your army of demons. When it was just you and I fighting, you were trapped on an island, if I remember correctly. And that's where you stayed."

"Then, I was weakened by my forced exile from Hell," Azazel replied coolly. "You could never handle me in my full power."

"And still, the only time you can take on a fight is when you have an army behind you," Kurt growled out. "Still — you are the coward here."

Azazel sneered at him for a moment before he settled into a smirk and shook his head. "We can have this argument all day, my boy — and we always do," he said silkily. "Tell me something, though — speaking of cowardice — where is that dear girl of yours?"

The elder Nightcrawler laughed. "Old man, that is none of your concern. Not when you clearly got what you bargained for." With that, Azazel snarled his way and then twirled in an instant to slash the younger Kurt from shoulder to hip, staggering him back a few steps as the blood began to flow.

"Hmm," Azazel said with a sneer. "And this is supposed to be the more spry of the two of you."

His moment of gloating cost him, though, as Logan darted past, avoiding the blades that Nightcrawler was wielding simply to slash Azazel across the back of his thighs as he passed, crumpling the demon king and rendering him further immobile.

With an echoing roar, Azazel simply blasted back all three men, sending both the younger Kurt and Logan flying into a wall, where fresh forces of demons were waiting, though the older Nightcrawler teleported at the last second and reappeared in front of Azazel, teeth bared and swords flashing. It happened so fast that Azazel was only able to block one, the other sinking deeply into his chest.

"For all your efforts to take them from me, you never could handle us," Kurt all but growled out before, with one sweeping motion, he removed his father's head.

And for a moment, he stared at his father's body before he simply sank to both knees.

As soon as Azazel had died, all of his spells broke at once, and the person nearest to Nightcrawler, was, of course, K. She took in the scene and very quickly made her way over to him, pushing him away from his battered father's body, making sure that he was no longer facing Azazel, before she took his head in both of her hands to make him look at her. "It's over," she said before she wrapped him up in a hug. "I'm sorry it took so long."

He leaned into her hug for a long moment, pulling her to him as he whispered, "If I could have gotten there sooner…."

"Hey. Don't worry about that. It's done and over with. I'm okay," she promised, holding him as tightly as she could. "He can't hurt anyone now."

He took in a breath that was likely supposed to be steadying, but it hitched in his throat before he simply melted into her, the relief falling from every movement of his shoulders as he all but sobbed his shock and grief into her shoulder.

It didn't get any better when Logan joined them and laid a hand on Nightcrawler's shoulder to mutter something low that felt encouraging from just the tone. He looked up at the younger Kurt — who was barely biting back gasps of pain as Tyler finished fixing him back up — and then around them to where the rest of the group was pushing back the other demons who weren't smart enough to see that their master had fallen.

"Just … keep everyone back for a little bit, would ya?" Logan said softly as he put his arms around both Nightcrawler and his wife.

Tyler nodded softly, his eyes wide on seeing the scene before him. "As long as you need," he swore, resting a hand on Kurt's shoulder as the younger Kurt started to drift off, before he took up a defensive position to give the group of traumatized friends time to themselves.