Title: Amazing, Arizona (9/??)

Name: Allaine

Spoilers: Certain characters are based on characters belonging to Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney, and various other companies. To name them would mean spoiling the surprise of who you'll encounter. If you don't recognize someone, it's either because you're not a member of the fandom, or it's an original character.

Rating: R

Summary: Driving a hijacked gold train southeast through the Arizona Territory in 1879, the Charnel House Gang's next stop on the line to Tombstone is the town of Amazing, a not-quite-normal place where people just want to be left alone. The Gang's plan to pillage the town and kill the inhabitants hits a snag, however, in the person wearing the tin star - Sheriff Raven Darkholme.

Chapter 9

"Well, I reckon we're done here," Raven finally told the others. "Less someone disagrees."

"They could be here any minute, Sheriff," Sean pointed out.

"The reverend'll come if they hit the rails again," Raven replied. "Then they'll have to either move the boulders Deputy Waylon put on the tracks, or they'll have to come on foot. Imagine it'll take them a couple hours to make it here when they DO leave. Enough time to roust you all from your beds, if you want some shuteye. Or tear you away from your fam'lies, if you want a few minutes more with 'em."

She fixed her eyes on a point somewhere above Kay's shoulder. "But if I have to pull one of you away from a BOTTLE, I'll strap you to the railroad myself and let the damn Gang drive over you. Clear?"

"Ain't had a drink all day," Kay grumbled.

"Ask me, I'm going to catch some sleep," Raven said, ignoring her. "Haven't caught a wink in two days. If the reverend comes back, we evacuate the townsfolk. If it's sunup and he ain't back yet, we assume the worst and evacuate the townsfolk." She frowned. "Other'n that, get a good look at this town while you can, 'cause there might not be much left this time tomorrow."

"Sheriff?" Ororo asked suddenly. "Where are we supposed to go? Can't rightly go back to the Stagg ranch."

Raven nodded. She'd forgotten. "Rose," she said. "Take 'em to the hotel. Something nice, if he's got it."

Rose pulled at her white forelock, a bad habit when she was uncomfortable about something, but said nothing. Raven assumed that her deputy felt awkward because it brought back memories of their altercation that morning. Assuming something different would just piss her off.

"Fine then," Raven said. "God bless." She put her hat back on and headed for home.

The next day, and everything she'd arranged, weighed so heavily on her mind that she didn't realize Emma Frost was waiting outside her home until she nearly walked past her. Raven realized she was even more tired than she thought, because the only emotion she felt upon seeing the mayor yet again was exhaustion. "Don't you got kids at home, Emma?" she asked.

"Crystal and Jason are fine, Raven," Emma said. "I wanted to see you for a minute."

"Consider me seen. Now go home. I need shut-eye."

"Raven," Emma said stubbornly, stopping her. "Whatever you may think of my methods, you have to realize that what I did tonight was for - "

"I know, I know, for the townsfolk," Raven sighed. "But Emma - "

"No," Emma corrected her. "Well yes, for them too, but I was doing it for you, Sheriff."

Raven was startled. "Me? Emma, if that's so, then you damn well got the opposite result."

Emma shot her a look. "The others are going to need you tomorrow, Raven, but I'd feel better if you weren't in town when the Charnel House Gang comes to town."

"I'd feel better if I wasn't in the same state as the Gang but - "

"No, dammit, Raven!" Emma growled. "You're not understanding me! You're in more danger than anyone else in this town! More than Rose, more than Kay, more than any of them! You can change your look, and you're damn quick on the draw. How the hell are either of those going to help you against the Charnel House Gang?"

"I know what I'm doing, Emma," Raven muttered.

"I suppose you do at that," Emma said. "There's reasons you're Sheriff, and those are the reasons you'll be here tomorrow. Doesn't mean I don't worry. This town would have a hard time moving on without you. And I'd miss you, even though you're a right bitch most of the time."

Raven frowned and scratched the back of her head. "I think that's s'posed to be two compliments, but danged if I hear the second one. I hear you, Emma," she quickly added, waving her hat at the annoyed woman. "I don't want you dead neither, and not just because you're the mayor. Although I disagree with your notion that the town can't go on without me. If there's one thing about mutants, it's we learn to live with - loss."

Emma nodded. Then she smiled wanly. "Never said the town couldn't go on without you. Just said it'd be hard, is all."

Raven chuckled absently, but her mind was on other losses. "Anything else, Mayor Frost?"

"No, I don't believe so, Sheriff Darkholme."

"Then I'm going to bed. You might consider the same."

"I'll do as I please," Emma said smugly as she walked away.

"Yeah, I right expect you will," Raven replied to the empty air.

Inside her home, she sat down on the bed, tossed her hat aside, and picked up her one framed photograph. "Living with loss," she murmured as she ran a finger across the glass.

Mystique walked her horse at an easy pace. Texas was miles and miles of nothing at all. No reason to flog your horse, unless someone was after you. And she was tolerably sure no one had tied her to those two bodies back in Lubbock.

Even if they had, good luck finding a shapeshifter. Although good luck never helped anyone before, if they'd ever had it.

And supposing someone was after her, she'd hear AND see them coming from a long distance . . . away.

Mystique took off her hat and squinted into the distance. There was at least one rider coming toward her at a fast pace, judging by the cloud of dust. Funny thing was, they were riding TOWARD Lubbock, not from it.

Whoever it was and wherever they were coming from, Mystique didn't exactly trust them. And even if they were a stranger, what was another human left moldering in the dry sun?

She unslung her rifle and cocked it, lining up her sights. When the lone rider, and it WAS a lone rider, got within a couple hundred yards, she fired into the dirt in front of the horse. It reared up on its hind legs as the crack of the rifle and the way the bullet slapped against the soil frightened it, and the rider almost fell. He did get down in a hurry, though. "Don't shoot!" he cried out. "I'm just a courier, miss!"

Mystique slung her rifle, disgusted. She'd rather it had been an enemy. Then she could enjoy the killing. She rode forward slowly, one pistol out and resting against the saddle, behind her leg where he couldn't see it easily.

Her forward progress ended when the man called out, "You wouldn't know a Raven, would you?"

There was no way he could know her name, and she raised her revolver. "I know OF a Raven, if you want ta know," she said coldly. "Who's asking?"

"Got a letter," he said. "For Raven."

She sat there, looking at him. "And what makes you think I'm her?"

"Well, miss, woman came into our office in Amarillo - "

"Amarillo's a long ways from here."

"Yes, I kin attest to that. Anyway, she offered one of us a lot of money to bring this letter - " He held up a tan envelope in one hand. "To a place about two days' journey south. Said to just keep on riding until I met a woman named Raven. Figured it was all pre-arranged, but we had a bet. Well, everyone except me, that is," he admitted sheepishly. "On account of I'da have a reason to lie if I did. Guess Tom wins the pot."

"Put both your hands up," Mystique said, as serious as he was laidback. "I don't like surprises, and I don't like people sending me letters when nobody knows where the fuck I am."

"Hey, easy now," he replied, putting both hands in the air as she pointed her gun at him a second time. "No need to get ornery." He crept forward and held out the letter.

She grabbed it from his hand and opened it carefully. Inside was a brief note, hardly worth spending money on.

"Raven -

It would be safest if you didn't go tonight.

But if you must, you'd better bring extra ammunition.

Irene"

Mystique's bewilderment grew. "Irene. That the woman who gave you this?"

"Don't rightly know," he said. "She didn't give no name. But I suppose the boys at the post office know more. I'm just the hired man for this job."

"Lucky you," she replied before she put a bullet in his chest, and another between the eyes before he'd dropped more than a couple inches. The back of his head exploded, spraying gray matter everywhere.

Mystique had already forgotten him. This Irene person, whoever she was, had to be connected with her meeting that night. She would be disguising herself as a man, not for the first or the fiftieth time, for a meeting with some disreputable sorts for a train robbery. They were going to rob the passengers, and then Mystique was going to kill them.

"Them", including her fellow thieves.

Mystique tapped her chin with the hot barrel of her pistol thoughtfully. A relative or a lady friend of one of her future "colleagues", she reckoned. Stupid woman thought she was doing the right thing, saving an innocent woman from an ambush -

But they thought they were meeting a MAN.

And how the fuck did this Irene know when and where she'd be coming from?

There was nothing else for it. Mystique was going to have to ride up to Amarillo when this was over with, find this Irene woman, and have a "chat" with her.

First, though, she had a meeting to attend.

Still, she took the bullets from the gun holstered in the dead man's belt, and the extra bullets in his saddlebag. It had nothing to do with the note, she told herself. She could always use more.

Raven woke up with a start. "Irene," she whispered, putting a hand next to her and finding nothing. She looked over and realized she'd been so tired that she'd fallen asleep without even lying down. She'd also managed to keep a death's grip on the picture frame, so that it didn't fall and shatter on the floor.

"Irene," she repeated. Back when she was known as Mystique, she'd become just one of many, many people who had received letters from Irene. But she'd been the only one to take Irene to bed.

Of course, Irene had known that would happen too. Blind to something an inch in front of her face, her powers did allow her to see the future, albeit a hundred different futures at once.

Had she known Raven would die tomorrow? She wouldn't have told Raven if she had. God knew Irene never breathed a word of her own death to Raven. Why she couldn't do it - why she never even told Raven WHY she couldn't - would haunt her forever. Had she foreseen failure?

She couldn't save her love. Her love hadn't even asked her to try. How was she going to save the town?

"I wish I had a letter from you now, Irene," she said out loud. "I know you could have if you wanted to. You made me your damn delivery girl after you died." She closed her eyes. "Tell me what to do. Fuck's sake, you could just lie and tell me we'll all be dandy."

But Irene never lied. She just - left things out. Raven hoped this wasn't one of those times.

Raven put the picture aside and lay down. She had no earthly reason to be awake right now. She was beat.

Naturally, sleep came slowly.

"Raven."

The sheriff opened one eye. Emma Frost appeared to be standing next to her bed. "I died," she muttered. "And this is hell."

"Get up," Emma said waspishly. "The reverend came back ten minutes ago. They're on the move. Rose thought maybe we should let you sleep a little longer, but I knew you'd break skulls if you found out they'd done that."

"Damn straight," Raven said. She looked up at the mayor. "Ever heard of knocking?"

"You never lock your door. Coming in seemed more efficient. Besides, who likes being woken up by pounding on their front door?"

"Who likes strange women comin' in without an invitation?"

"You never exactly UNinvited me last night," Emma said. Her eyes trailed along Raven's form, and she smirked.

Raven scowled at her as she sat up. "You need a last look at this?" she asked, cupping her breasts briefly. Raven hadn't worn real clothing besides her hat in years, and of course while she slept her powers stopped working and any clothing she'd simulated reverted to bare skin.

"You know how my powers work, Raven," Emma drawled. "I can relive my memories as easily as breathing."

"Or yapping. Or arguing. Or telling other people what to do," Raven grumbled as she suddenly became clothed.

"I AM an elected official, you know." She turned serious. "Reverend wants to talk to you. Seems the Gang didn't suit his fancy."

"They're Catholics?"

Raven buckled on her pistols and followed Emma outside. The reverend was fidgeting as he sat on the stoop outside her home. "Sheriff," he said, almost leaping to his feet. "We must - "

"I know, I know," she cut him off. "We're getting everyone as far as we can from here, and - "

"No, Sheriff Darkholme," he said. "I was about to say that you must stop these creatures. We cannot allow them to leave here."

"Well," the sheriff said, startled, "you make it sound so simple."

"I do not wish to minimize the danger you are putting yourself in, Sheriff," the preacher said. "But these creatures, they are not of this world. They are devils in borrowed skins. They practice cruel depravities on the living and the dead. Do you know what I think, Sheriff?"

She gestured for him to go on.

"I believe they are the deadly sins come to life."

"Thought there were just the five," Deputy Waylon rumbled from behind the sheriff. She hadn't even noticed him.

"The scorpion, he was wrathful," the reverend said, ignoring him. "Spitting his poison, angry at being there, angry at not leaving, angry at everything! The fat man, gluttony, consuming the flesh of the dead! The lustful wolf, ravaging the women, and the greedy serpent, plundering everything." He rubbed his forehead in agitation.

"I'd like to believe the fifth was sloth, but I don't suppose that's right," Emma said.

He laughed nervously. "Perhaps insanity should be a sin, because the one they called Palmetto is utterly mad. Sheriff, these things are abominations in the eyes of our Lord. They must be stopped."

"Doesn't the Good Book say that vengeance is the Lord's?" Raven asked indifferently, having never been a churchgoer.

"The Lord helps those who help themselves, Sheriff," he replied. "My parishioners will be pray for your success today, AND for their damnation."

Raven nodded. "Shouldn't you be seeing to the flock then?"

"Of course. I just needed to get these things off my chest. I witnessed horrors that will live with me always, sheriff. I did these things for this town."

"I don't doubt your loyalty to Amazing any more than I doubt your piety, Reverend," Raven said. "I'd just feel better if anyone who isn't fightin' gets as far away from here as possible."

"Do not worry about me, Sheriff Darkholme. As you know, with a thought I am - "

BAMF!

"Well," Raven said once he'd vanished in a puff of smoke, "now that we've had our exhortation from on high, I guess it's time we faced the music. Waylon, where are the others?"

"Rose flew off to roust 'em," Waylon told her, turning his head slightly so that his neck made cracking noises. "They'll be here soon."

"Good," Raven said. She looked at Emma.

"Shouldn't you be moving on too?"

"In a moment," Emma told her. "I DO need one minute alone with you, though. Deputy?"

Waylon tipped his hat. "Mayor," he said, striding away.

"Am I receivin' my final orders?" Raven asked.

"You say that like you won't be around to receive any more," Emma said.

"Or like you won't be around to give 'em."

"Resent me all you like, but I'll be praying for your safety too," Emma told her. "Please, Raven, be careful today. Don't go forgetting you can't take a punch the way Rose or Kay can. If something happens to you, I'd fear for the others twice as much."

"Hmph. Maybe if you'd let me lock Jason UP the next time he breaks the law, I'd consider it."

"Fine then," Emma said. "You can throw the book at him next time, as long as you make sure you're alive to do it."

Raven adjusted her gun belt. "Well. Guess I've got a new reason to live." She took off her hat and waved Emma away. "Go on, git. Make sure Crystal's safe. Like you said the other day, this is no place for a girl her age."

"No place for a woman any age. Or man," Emma said, but she did as suggested.

The sheriff watched her leave. She cut a damn fine figure walking away.

Plus there was the peace and quiet that tended to follow her departure.

Then Raven realized how quiet the town was, like a ghost town, and Emma's bickering didn't seem so unwelcome.

"Oh, well," Raven murmured. "Guess I'll just have to kill the whole Gang now."

To be continued . . .