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Chapter 29: How Could You?

"I can explain—" Azazel begins to say, but is thrown against the wall suddenly when my fist (super charged in purple energy) makes direct contact with his jaw. He stares up at me from the floor, eyes wide in shock with a red hand at his cheek. I make to strike him again, fist pounding painfully, but I am restrained by Cannonball who pins my arms back forcefully, but my hands are still aglow and I blast him back into the opposite wall, straight through Warwick's mirage. I advance on Azazel as he gets to his feet and I firmly plant one blazing palm dead center in his chest, pushing him against the wall with a rage-fueled strength, and raise the other hand with a ball of light, ready to blast him should he try anything.

"Why?" I breathlessly pant, looking wildly into Azazel's eyes. "Why!?" I shout. Azazel's eyes narrow dangerously, maintaining his composure. I can tell he had not imagined our reunion going this way. The clicking sound of a gun cocking reaches my ears and I look out of the corner of my eye to see the barrel of a hand-gun only an inch or so away from my temple. "Drop him." Domino orders me, a smirk spread plainly across her face, as she draws a second gun level with her shoulder.

"Not until he tells me why he did it." I reply furiously. "Why he betrayed us." I turn back to look at him. "What would Emma think if she found out?"

"What? Emma Frost?" Cannonball drawls, rubbing the back of his head in pain. "Heh, oh she knows alright! All of them do now, I'nt that right, Azazel?" Cannonball continues and Azazel shoots him a look of warning. Is that...guilt I see in those eyes? Cannonball continues on, ignoring Azazel's look, "Yeah, she was the toughest to take down. Even Metal Head didn't know what hit 'im!"

"You—you caught them?" I say in disbelief, my eyes widening as I look sharply from Cannonball to Azazel, who merely gives a small nod, "It is true," He admits. "I did not mean for this to happen. Not to you."

Whap!

My own hand stings as my hand makes contact with his face for the second time. Domino cocks her second gun, which I ignore and Cannonball makes as though to come near me but I glare at him (somewhat psychotically) and he backs up with his hands up saying, "It's cool! It's cool!"

"You didn't mean for this to happen?" I repeat. "Well look what happened!"I say, throwing my arms out. For once, Azazel appears bewildered. Maybe even a little scared. "It did, Azazel! What was it all for, huh? For the money? What did they have against you that no one—not Frost, not Magneto, not even you could escape from? Was it blackmail? Extortion?" I pause, waiting for his answer, but he shakes his head slowly. "They have...a debt."

"A debt," I repeat, highly suspicious but willing to listen. "What kind of debt?"

"I—I cannot explain," Azazel actually stammers, suddenly looking uncomfortable (countering his normally collected composure that used to intimidate me) but Domino holsters her guns, crosses her arms and shifts her weight to one hip, "Oh, please don't hold back on account of us!" She says haughtily. "We'd love to know ourselves! What is it that you owe the boss man that you keep so secretive?"

"I cannot tell you," Azazel says to me moving closer. I gear up for another slap.

"Can't or won't, Azazel? Which is it?" I ask bluntly but he shakes his head again and moves even closer. "Please…" He reaches out a hand to touch me but I recoil immediately. "Don't. I should've known it would be you." I say and suddenly, I feel my hard exterior crumble and my voice cracks. Is nothing sacred anymore? Are Mutants so broken down that we would backstab one another to get in good with the humans? What have we become? "At least tell me why. Give me a reason. Any reason to make me understand—"

My words are cut off when Azazel suddenly reaches for me and forces a kiss onto my lips. For a moment, I allow this to happen, but I quickly come to my senses and push him away, sending him staggering a few steps back. I glare daggers at him, thinking to myself, You are so not getting off that easily.

"Well, ain't the world a small place!" Cannonball proclaims, looking from me to Azazel and back. Even Domino appears to be mildly interested. "This is the girl ain't it you, sly dog!"

"He never talked about a girl." Domino argued while Azazel and I stare at each other. I could feel him trying to contact me telepathically but I block him out.

He's been in my head for far too long.

"He didn't have to!" Cannonball retorts. "Guys can just tell, ya' know? We got that psychic link…"

"Why did you come here?" I ask finally, eyeing the two warily out of the corner of my eye.

"We figured you wanted to talk to us—" Cannonball starts to say.

"So we came down before you could do anything stupid." Domino finishes, adding with a sly grin. "Poor planning on our part, I see."

"I want to see your boss." I state plainly. "Whoever's in charge here, I want to see them. Now."

"I think that can be arranged, don't you, Domino?" Cannonball asks with a cheesy grin.

"I think so, CB." She returns, smirking also.

If I had any doubts about what to do about escaping, they've all but vanished and in their place, a fierce determination.


When they let me out of my cell, I feel an odd sense of confinement. As though my being let out of this small cage has only released me into a larger one.

I could just leave.

Phase back into my body. I know I wouldn't make it all the way back to Winchester—in fact, I don't think I could make it past the body of water surrounding the Island. And I don't think I could swim to shore very easily either. Still, if I have no other alternative, I'd be willing to chance it. It's the only way to get in range to call out a warning to the Professor.

But first, I have to see my friends and make sure they're alright.

As we cross the hall opposite the door I'd come through, we walk past Warwick, who watches me and nods, somewhat sympathetically; though his blank expression never changes. We also pass by Rodney, I think, a…nice-looking guy with wavy light brown hair, hazel eyes and a worn-out face. I catch sight of the young boy, Dimitri, who looks at me with wide, pleading eyes through a curtain of auburn hair. Both he and Rodney also wear those horrendous white suits and for the second time I pray I don't have to also...

Then we pass by Remy.

I can tell it's Remy because of his voice as he calls out, "Hey, Ghostgirl! Give my regards to da' Colonel, will you?" I can't help but slow down my steps slightly when my eyes fall upon his countenance. His unruly brown hair is shoulder-length, his handsome face dirty, and most strikingly, his eyes are an odd color, with black coating what should be the whites of his eyes, surrounding blood-red irises. His face greatly contrasts his own white suit which is torn and discolored so much so that one could barely make it out. I guess he doesn't like them either. He notices my lingering gaze and winks one of those odd eyes, touching two fingers to his head and gesturing at me in an odd sort of solute. Domino urges me on. She and Cannonball flank my left and right side and Azazel brings up the rear. I can feel his eyes on me, but I keep my eyes forward with a grim determination.

A few turns here and there down countless corridors leaves me hopelessly lost in memorizing the route we take to get wherever we're going. " 'How big is this place, anyway?' " I wonder.

We pass by a surreal sort of cafeteria filled with Black Suits of all shapes and sizes. Men and women, some of them with their helmets raised so I can see their faces as they turn to watch us. A group of them meet us before we can fully pass by, and bar our path. "Where are you taking this prisoner?" One of them, a particularly large man asks. He is flanked by two women wearing similar sets of armor (both of whom are carrying large guns firmly in their hands) and their demeanor is less than inviting.

"Interrogation. Step aside." Domino says shortly, but the group makes no movement to allow us to pass and I get the uneasy sense that something's not quite right here. Everyone seems to be extremely tense and the way those women are carrying their guns…It's like they'd like nothing more than to gun us down right here and now.

"You should be accompanied by a squad." The man quips. "I thought Colonel Striker made that clear."

"Yeah? Well that sure the hell is news to me!" Cannonball states obnoxiously, stepping forward. The women tighten their grips on their guns and the man seems to become all the more tense as Cannonball eggs them on, saying, "Besides, he sent us to get 'er. Not you."

"Either way," Replies the guard. "We are under strict orders to escort any and all prisoners whenever movement is to be made. We will accompany you to the interrogation room."

The mutants hesitate and I shift on my feet, not caring for the idea of being stuck in the middle of this disagreement. I feel uncomfortably like a barrier stopping the two groups from leaping at one another. Finally, Domino gives a curt nod and the women take to the rear behind Azazel while the man walks just ahead of me. I glance back, noting the suspicious glances being exchanged between Mutants and Humans and, for a brief moment, I purposely meet Azazel's eye and perk my eyebrows as if to say, "This is what you traded your friends for?" His eyes narrow and I smirk spitefully before turning back around and continuing on after the Black Suit ahead of me. When we arrive at the Interrogation Room, I am not well-enough braced for what I'm met with.

The second I follow the armored man inside the enormous room containing a ridiculous amount of mirrors lining the walls except for one wall, which is made completely out of metal, I am greeted an air of foreboding, a sense of danger. I scan over the room briefly and my eyes soon fall upon a curly haired figure in the center of the room. Her head droops to the side and she has a cut on one of her sunken-in cheeks. Her skin is pale and lined with sweat and her breath comes in short, labored pants. Her eyes are closed and, at first, she appears to be unconscious, but then she opens them groggily and her eyes meet mine, "Liz..."

"Tarina!" I cry, phasing my elbow out of Domino's restricting hand and rush past the armored man, who makes as though to shoot me, but pauses, a hand over his gun, realizing I'm not attempting to escape. I hurry to Tarina, wrenching a metal table aside with a deafening screech and kneeling down before her to look her over. "Tarina, what have they done to you?" I whisper, carefully moving a curly hair from the freshly bleeding cut on her cheek. She looks awful. Her eyes are dim and lined with deep bags; her lips cracked and bleeding. She looks as though she hasn't seen the sun in years and hasn't bathed in months.

But it's only been a couple days! How could this have happened?!

"Oh, this 'n that," She slurs, her eyes unfocused and I realize she's been drugged.

"Have they been—" I hesitate, not sure how to finish that question.

"What?" She drawls. "'Sperimenting on me? Don' think so, just puttin' me ta sleep's all. Well, now they wan me to find some people…but I dunno who they are."

"Find people?" I repeat. "Mutants?"

She nods groggily.

"What Mutants? Do you know who?"

"yeah…Yeah some guy…some, some guy in, ah, oh I don know, they wan me to find him! Some mind reader guy, but I never met 'em."

" 'That's why they hurt her.' " I think numbly. " 'They want the Professor. Of course they do! And the others…It's just as I thought. I have to warn them!' "

"Yes, it's true. Tarina doesn't know who Professor Xavier is," An old, militaristic voice says from the door way in which the figure of a man decorated in more ribbons and medals than Cortes stands, followed closely by Cortes himself. The man is obviously weathered in years, with a thin line of a mouth, stretched in a proud, toothy smile across his face, and dark, hard eyes that seem to stare right into my own, probing for answers.

"But you do, don't you?"

"Stryker, is it?" I ask, straightening up in front of Tarina. His smile broadens.

"Correct," He replies smoothly, completely unafraid. I could knock him clear across the room, but he knows I won't. He knows it right to his very core. "You're pretty smart for one of your kind, aren't you?"

My eyes narrow instinctively at that comment, but I don't buy into his game and respond calmly, "The human race is known for being fairly intelligent. Though there are many who fall far below the standard, wouldn't you agree, Colonel?" I add, staring at him pointedly though I don't smile. The Colonel makes an odd hissing sound by sucking the air through his teeth, all the while keeping that broad grin on his face and appears to be bouncing on his heels. "Oh, I like this one, Lieutenant!"

"So then missy," He says in a stately mannor, walking further into the room with his hands clasped behind his back. "I suppose you want to see your friends then, don't you?"

I don't reply. Instead I eye the Colonel, getting the odd sense that he's up to something. He smirks, then turns to Cortez with a curt nod and I watch tensely as the Liutenant turns on his heel and exits into another room behind one of the glass lined walls. I study the window, trying to see if I can spot any movement behind it. Suddenly, there's a loud grinding sound and I turn quickly to the very far end of the room and watch in shock as the metal wall begins to crawl up the wall to reveal more glass beneath it, this time though, I can see through it. I inhale sharply, my eyes traveling from left to right as I see that the glass is separated into several, glass-lined, cramped rooms. Inside those rooms, restrained by chains and straightjackets are Magneto and the others from his mansion including Emma and Angel. And at the very end—

"Glenn!" I cry, forgetting to call him by his code name as I sprint across the room, phasing myself through the glass. I want to embrace him, but he is tethered to the floor of his cell by heavy chains around his wrists and ankles. A metal band (about two inches thick) pins his wings to his body, bitting into his skin. His jumpsuit is torn and he is bleeding from several wounds all over his body. They've been beating him.

"Oh, Glenn," I whisper as he looks up to me with one good eye, the other one is swollen shut.

"Good…to see you…too—nhg!" He suddenly groans, slumping forward into my shoulder and I hold him delicately. I pull back and look him over, realizing in horror that he's been shot in his abdomen. My eyes sting with fury and I carefully prop him back against the wall. The cell is so small he hardly moves back at all.

"Please, he needs a doctor!" I shout back to the group outside the confined cell. Stryker steps forward with a smirk of triumph on his face.

"In due time," Stryker says matter-of-factly, "But first, I'd like a word—"

"No!" I say forcefully, phasing back through the glass to approach the Colonel, my hands and eyes glowing menacingly. "He could be dying, don't you understand?! He needs help now!"

"And he'll get it." The Colonel replies, unwavering as he raises a hand to stop everyone else in the room from attacking me. "But only if you agree to do as I say."

I pause, looking to Tarina, who appears to have fallen unconscious and I turn back to the window. Magneto and everyone else seem to be unconscious as well, all of them looking worse for wear (Emma more so than the rest) and I finally look to Glenn.

"Liz—don't…listen to them. Whatever they say…It's…a lie." He pants but heaves a tired sigh and slumps to the right side once more.

"What do you want?" I ask finally, letting the glow in my eyes fade along with my fists.

"I want the Mutants." Colonel Stryker states simply.

"That's too bad. I don't know where they are." I reply shortly, crossing my arms.

"Oh, really?"

"Really." I reply in a harsh whisper. "Anything else?"

"I know you know where they are." The Colonel says angrily, suddenly dropping that charming smile. "Now, I'd hate to do anything to incapacitate my newest commodities, but I'm afraid if you don't do what I say, if you do not tell me where Xavier and the others are—I will kill them. Starting with your little boyfriend."

My brow furrows for a millisecond in brief confusion, almost—Almost—glancing over at Azazel. The Colonel also adopts a look of mild confusion, murmuring, "Oh? He's not your boyfriend? Interesting. I thought for certain…"

"Enough, Stryker!" Glenn manages to call weakly. "Leave her alone—"

I look back to Glenn and I give a horrified gasp. He's definitely fading fast. He is dying. His skin is ghastly pale, sweat lining his brow, blood is everywhere. I close my eyes tightly, my fists clenching. What do I do?!

"You can save him Ghostgirl," The Colonel says, coming to stand behind me. "Just tell me where they are. All it takes is a location to save his life."

My mouth feels dry, every fiber of my being shakes with rage as my mind works on overload, trying to decide what the right thing to do is. I reach out to Glenn telepathically, finding it easy to slip into his mind:

" 'Glenn, what else can I do?' "

" 'Stay silent. Don't tell them anything. You'll only be letting them win!' "

" 'They never wanted to help us! They never said they'd come back for us! I—I could warn them. I don't think I'd get very far but-' "

" 'It would already be too late. Besides, where would they go?' "

" 'I don't care where they go! I won't watch you die!...I've made up my mind...' "

"Liz…Don't…" Glenn whispers and I meet his eyes for a painstaking second, emptying myself of all emotion before saying in a small, defeated whisper, "Westchester. They're—they're in Westchester, New York."

"Where in Westchester?"

"I—I don't know. I've never been there before. We couldn't see when they brought us over."

The Colonel pauses, then gives a satisfactory grunt and turns to his men. "That'll do for now. Escort these two to their cells and send medical assistance for Mr. Kavi immediately." He addresses the Black Suits. The women begin to lift Tarina from her chair and the man approaches me, taking hold of my arm with unnecessary roughness. The Colonel then turns to the mutants, casting a proud glance over at me, before saying in a deadly tone,

"Prepare for departure."


Dun,Dun,DUUUNNN! Thanks for reading! Make sure you tell me your thoughts in your next review and while you're at it, I wanna know: "Would you have told him their location in Liz's position?" THANKS AGAIN!

~THE SCRIBE! :D