Chapter 12: Complications
When Hank awoke it was six am. How had six hours gone by without any news of Izabelle? If they had found something surely he would have heard. He raced to Charles's office and his heart nearly stopped when he saw the entire team assembled there.
They looked like hell: mud covered, soaking wet, and rank. Storm took Hank's hand quickly telling him to sit and they would explain.
"What has happened?" he managed, numbness spreading out from his chest.
Charles looked deeply uncomfortable and the rest of the team looked miserable. "Cerebro cannot locate Izabelle any longer. At least, not as Izabelle."
"What…?" He sounded like air being let out of a tire.
"It means that her powers can be traced but not to her. However, it is one of our Morlocks. It would seem her powers have somehow been transferred to another mutant for the time being. But this makes it much harder to locate her since it cannot be guaranteed that she is with the mutant who now possess her powers."
"Hank, we will find her. Come hell or high water," Scott promised earnestly.
"And it may very well be high water," murmured Kurt, trying to relieve some of the stress in the room.
"Professor!" Jean's exclamation made the entire room jump but Xavier nodded at her.
"I feel her too. We will go to her."
"T' who?" Logan asked.
"A messenger."
They could see the Morlock through the haze of rain as she approached down the driveway to the school, and they waited in the rain some distance from the school. She stopped, still some distance from them, and put her hands around her mouth and shouted to them.
"Only the blue one and the telepaths!"
"What makes you think we will barter with you?" Logan shouted back.
The woman opened her mouth and a tentacle shot out from within. At the end of the tentacle there was a horrifying second mouth but it simply dropped something about a yard away from them. Rain soaked it through quickly and Hank picked it up, his hands shaking. It was a patch of fabric from the sundress Izabelle had been wearing when she had left yesterday.
"Logan, stay here with the others," Charles ordered, nodding for Beast and Jean to follow him. He kept the rain off of himself by a little bubble of force as they walked. They stopped about a yard from the Morlock.
"Where is my wife?" Hank asked and his voice shook.
"She is safe."
"What have you done with her powers?"
"Nothing at all. You should be wondering where she is." The Morlock looked directly at Xavier and Hank waited for him to read her memories.
"She's inside another mutant," Xavier explained as he read her mind. "He can absorb other mutants and takes on their powers. They can be removed within a certain frame of time and remain unharmed."
"I am here to warn you. If you come after her, Meme will be more than happy to add both her powers and the powers of your unborn to his collection. If you make no further attempt, you will receive your wife unharmed."
"And my son?"
A wicked grin spread across the Morlock's face. "Everything comes at a price, Dr. McCoy."
It took a huge amount of effort for Jean to restrain Beast and the Morlock looked more than a little shaken as her forehead oozed blood from three parallel cuts, mixing with the rain.
"How will we know when to expect Izabelle's return? Just your word?" Xavier asked calmly.
"You have your machine and your powers. When you sense the child has been born she will be back within the next twenty-four hours."
"Should any harm come to either mother or child, I can assure you that we will be at your doorstep before you can bat an eye." Xavier's voice had taken on an icy menace and the Morlock looked as though she now realized she was out of her depth. "Go on, little mutant, and report back to that snake in the grass that you serve."
They watched her run until they could not see her anymore. Only then did Jean let Beast free. He was resisting the urge to tear up any part of the landscape he could lay hand to. Jean couldn't help but wish for a half of a second that she had Adine's powers; she wanted so much to give him some peace.
"Professor?"
The rest of the team rushed up to them. Hank turned the scrap of fabric over in his hands, wishing he could stop feeling for just a few moments.
"Our hands are tied," Xavier explained, moving the bubble that shielded him from the rain so that it included them all. "Adine knew I would read that mutant backward and forward and that was the real reason she was sent. She knew enough to show the Morlocks have the upper hand and not enough to give away anything important. Izabelle is being held inside another mutant. They will pull her out so that she can give birth but if we try to move on her he will absorb them both permanently. Adine will be able to feel us coming so we cannot sneak up on them. Their location is no longer a secret, but they've built a dam that can be released to flood the room and they would move to another location. She did not know where that would be."
"We can always try. If we get there fast enough we could still get her back couldn't we?" Storm asked.
Xavier shook his head. "She cannot be removed by force."
"Well…" Jean said hesitantly. "Her due date is today. We might not have long to wait. It would be less risky to go after them both after he's born, especially if what they want is the baby."
"But…" Everyone looked at Rouge as she trailed off. She had said very little through all of this and she was now watching Hank closely. "But to not be there…for the birth…" She trailed off again and would not meet their eyes. She could not imagine it; she was deeply jealous and in a very different way she could understand some of Hank's pain. She knew what it was like to have potential ripped away from her.
Hank moved to her and kissed her forehead sympathetically. "Read my thoughts and you aren't even a telepath," he murmured to her.
"It would appear this is our only choice," he said to the group at large. "Now, if you will excuse me, I will be in my lab, trying to think of something other than my wife in labour in a sewer somewhere."
Izabelle regained consciousness once she left Meme's body. She had been reassured it was like being in a coma and mercifully it was. She had enough nightmare fodder without memories of being trapped in someone else's body. The mutant they had sent to the school was explaining what had happened as she awoke. Three long scratches ran across her forehead and Izabelle hid a smile. Somewhere out there Hank was still fighting for her.
But the smile turned into a grimace as pain radiated through her in a wave. The pain had started hours ago (she could not guess how many since it was always dark down here) and she was trying desperately to ignore it. Izabelle began to lean forward to relieve the pain in her back and suddenly felt her water break. She sat quickly tried to hide it.
"Excellent," Adine declared placing her hands on her hips and grinning at the Morlocks grouped around her. "They will have realized that we have total control in this situation. This buys us time until the child is born."
Izabelle bit back a moan but did not succeed. All eyes turned to her and her face screwed up in pain.
"See if her water has broken," Adine ordered to Feral. Anesthesia would not come near her after the last time they had contact with one another.
The cat-like woman examined her quickly, looked over at Anesthesia, and nodded. A hungry grin spread across the Morlock commander's face.
"And right on time. How kind of your baby to be so obliging, Izabelle."
But to Anesthesia's dismay, the situation did not remain as she had planned it. There was a loud rumble and the room they were in shook. Morlocks screamed as chunks fell from the roof and smashed on the floor. Then water began to pour in. Berzerker met her eyes with fear and then rushed off to take care of the dam.
"Every able body go and secure that dam!" Anesthesia shrieked and dozens of mutants rushed away after Berzerker. But Anesthesia grabbed hold of Scaleface before she could go. "You stay. We need someone who can carry her."
Izabelle was moved to a makeshift tent that had been set up on the dais. She was shocked to see how rudimentary the supplies were within and concluded correctly that if this was the treatment she was getting for carrying "their savior" the others must all have lived in the most abject poverty. Again she felt pity for them; they had kidnapped her because of the lunacies of their leader but their need was very real. Izabelle was trying hard to breathe deeply and calm down but nothing that was happening was helping her do this.
"What time is it?"
Adine gave her a look but Izabelle repeated the question.
"Eight in the morning."
Izabelle calculated in her head. She was taken around two in the afternoon the day before. Contractions had not started in earnest until they had finally stopped traveling; at a guess, that meant she had been feeling far apart contractions for about twelve hours. They had not increased in frequency and her water had only now broken, but the pain was unbearable. Something was wrong.
Anesthesia watched her closely as Izabelle realized all of this. Berzerker returned though, distracting her attentions.
"Well?"
"It's less sound but it will hold up for a few hours at best. Another tunnel collapsed much further up and we've been hit with all of that water."
Anesthesia nodded and then sent him for someone named Cybelle. A young woman with short spiky hair showed up not long after.
"How far dilated is she?" Anesthesia asked with no preface.
The woman moved to check and Izabelle tried to scurry away from her.
"She is our midwife. Either you work with her or you deliver alone."
The cold response was enough to motivate Izabelle. This woman, who had once been the lover of her close friend, was willing to let her crawl off and attempt to give birth alone and uncared for if she did not follow her commands. If she did follow her commands, her baby would be taken from her forever. Fine then; she would deliver and she would do everything she could to protect her child from this monster. She allowed the woman to inspect her but the answer almost made her sick with worry.
"Five centimeters." Cybelle turned to Izabelle. "How long have you been having contractions?"
"Far apart for twelve hours."
Anesthesia watched Cybelle's shocked expression with frustration. "I take it this is bad?"
"It's failure to progress. If her contractions don't pick up…"
Izabelle groaned as another seized her.
"Well, what do we do?"
"We wait, I guess. But if she doesn't dilate more there is nothing I can do."
So they waited. The black silence was only punctuated by Izabelle's cries from each contraction and by the rumblings from the wall of water that was dangerously close. Her contractions picked up slightly around ten in the morning but she still had not dilated beyond six centimeters.
"I don't understand what you are telling me!" Anesthesia shouted at Cybelle. "How can she not just push? People have babies every minute!"
"She has to be at nine at least before the baby will even move so that it can be pushed. She's not moving to the next stage of the birth and I can't change that!"
"So what happens?"
"Without anything else the baby will die. She may as well."
Izabelle began to cry. Her sobs echoed in the quiet that followed.
"A hospital?" Berzerker volunteered.
"No," Anesthesia snapped. "We wouldn't stand a chance of getting away with the child."
More silence and then: "Get Hank."
The group that was with her stared at her.
"You must be out of your mind. Bring your husband down on our heads?"
"You idiot bitch!" Izabelle screamed, reaching the end of her fuse. "He can deliver this child! I am sure he would agree to anything by now just to be here! Bind his hands however you want but BRING ME MY HUSBAND!" Her screaming echoed and died away.
"She's right, Anesthesia," Cybelle opted hesitantly. "You could bring down an elephant with your mutation. If he tries anything just force him to his knees. I can't do anything else for her though."
Anesthesia watched Izabelle for a moment longer before leaving the tent. Izabelle could hear her asking for someone named Whisperer and heard them leave. Now she was alone with no one she even remotely knew. She could only pray that Hank would arrive.
"Hank!"
Hank sat up so fast it made his head spin. He held his head in his hands and tried to remember. It was now eleven in the morning. Five hours had passed since he had been told he would not see Izabelle until after she delivered. He had fallen asleep, which surprised him, and then…
"Hank!"
Now he was on his feet. That sound, the sound of Izabelle screaming his name in distress, was in his head! Somewhere there was someone who was responsible for this.
"You're a wise man, Dr. McCoy."
That voice made his fur bristle so thick he looked like a bottlebrush. "Where are you?" he snarled into the air.
"Since you are so wise you would have the good sense to not draw attention to this. You would have the good sense to gather any medical supplies you may need, and to exit the building, heading for the cliffs."
"Supplies for what?"
"Supplies for the birth of your child. Further instructions will be given once we see you, Dr. McCoy."
He could feel the presence slipping out of his mind. He was alone again. He ripped through the hospital wing like a tornado. The problem was he had no idea what to bring. There could be a thousand different reasons they had come for him and none of them good. He had to leave the mansion without being seen, but the stormy weather made it much easier and he slipped away unnoticed. He reached the cliffs in minutes and out of the dark storm two figures approached.
"Hello, Doctor."
Hank snarled, his lips curling back from rows of white fangs. "You take my wife from me and now you come crawling back?"
"I will keep this very simple," Anesthesia continued as if nothing had been said. "You have two options. One: you accompany us without incident, deliver your child, surrender your child to me, and you and Izabelle return home."
Hank lurched forward but felt a quake of fear when she stood her ground.
"The other option is for you to kill, harm, or ignore my words. As a result your wife and baby will both die, much to the disappointment of all involved."
"What has happened?"
"She has been in labour for fourteen hours and is at six centimeters. This means nothing to me but is apparently a very big deal." And she could read on his face that it was indeed.
Hank thought through what was in the bag he carried. He could intensify her contractions and…
"Is she safe now? Where do you have her? Is anyone with her?"
"She is safe. Our midwife is with her. Are you coming or not Doctor? There will be other children for us; there may never be other children for you."
And out of his pure desperation to see Izabelle again, Hank McCoy agreed.