Chapter 37
Secret Military Base, Undisclosed Location, United States of America
"I think," Jean looked up, hope flashing in her cerulean eyes for the first time. "I know where we can find the Professor!"
The five mutants had reunited and at present, Azazel was permitting them a brief rest in what looked suspiciously like an actual office break room. The small area contained a table and a kitchenette, a coffee station, and a half-empty vending machine. A row of monitors hung along the far wall. Scott was glued to the monitors, watching rotating images what Azazel guessed to be surveillance scenes from around the compound. The room was easy enough for Jean to secure with a few telepathic barriers (not that they'd seen anyone alive on the way there), and it provided some audio relief from the blaring alarms in the hallways. The room's most important feature, however, was its working sink. Wanda snatched several glasses from the cabinets and passed them out to each mutant. With one well-placed kick, Scott shattered the vending machine's glass (much to Kurt's mild embarrassment, as he'd just asked if anyone had quarters) and deposited an armful of cheap snacks on the table. While the group recuperated, Jean filled them in on Charles's secret message woven into the frightening words that echoed inside their minds not long ago.
In the end, Azazel didn't even need to teleport to find the others; he and Kurt simply followed an ominous trail of dead that ended in a containment lab where the teens were hiding. Scott quickly explained that they'd found another mutant who, upon his accidental release, proceeded to immediately and utterly destroy any military support who'd crossed his path. According to the teen, the violent mutant had been trapped in a cage and "looked all kinds of messed-up." Thankfully, Jean convinced him to leave them alone before he embarked on his bloody rampage. Azazel stroked his beard thoughtfully as he listened to the wild tale. He suspected Jean's group had found and freed an experiment, although he didn't say so out loud; he didn't want to frighten the teens any further.
Whoever he was, Azazel's gaze lingered to the path of death and destruction as they slipped out of the lab, we're staying the fuck away from him. The mystery mutant's victims looked like they'd been torn apart with teeth and claws; powerful telepath among them or not, Azazel felt that Jean's group was damn lucky they didn't meet the same fate. He'd seen firsthand mutants mutilated in the name of science, and afterwards those tortured souls were often unable to distinguish between friend or foe. One of the rare times Azazel had ever officially "lost it" (as the kids would say) was the night in 65' when he found Angel's body at a Spanish research facility. The poor girl had been hacked to pieces, and her beautiful gossamer wings torn from her body. He never did find Janos, but he did find his friend's name logged into an autopsy record along with Angel's and 13 other murdered souls. His mission had been to recover a certain set of files from the facility, but as soon as he and his comrade Neena secured the necessary information, they then slaughtered every single human they found before burning the facility to the ground. While both operatives were reprimanded for their excessive use of force, the punishment had been worth it. Azazel's only solace was that Raven hadn't been feeling well so Neena had taken her place on the mission; he was grateful that she never saw with her own eyes what those monsters had done to their friends.
At present, Jean finished speaking, and the only sound in the room was the occasional tearing of a wrapper and chewing. Azazel looked over each of the teens, thankful they were unharmed and grateful for an opportunity to sit down and properly tend to his stab wound. When his gaze reached Kurt, he lingered. Kurt sat on the floor against the wall, his hands folded in his lap around his rosary and his head tilted back. His eyes were closed and his tail was curled around his right leg, its spade twitching occasionally as the beads slipped through his fingers. Kurt appeared more alert and less shell-shocked, and there was definitely more color in his cheeks. Azazel hoped that the earlier events were starting to fade, not that he thought the boy would (or, could) forget what happened. As soon as they had a private moment, he planned to speak with Kurt and to reassure him again. He'd been worried when the boy seemed stiff and robotic when Wanda hugged him as they reunited, but he felt relief when Kurt seemed to perk-up as Scott told them about the experiment. After hearing his friends' brush with death and danger, Azazel hoped Kurt wasn't feeling so alone in the day's trials.
"I can help you with that."
A lilting voice interrupted Azazel's thoughts. He glanced up to find Wanda standing in front of him. She smiled meekly and motioned to his shoulder. During their run, Azazel created a makeshift bandage by bunching a portion of his shirt against the wound. Just a few minutes ago, he'd shrugged off his jacket, sucking his breath through his teeth sharply as he peeled the fabric away. It had bonded to his skin with dried blood, and a fresh rivet began to seep as soon as he'd started to clean it.
"You know how to make stitches?" As self-sufficient as he was, Azazel realized it'd be easier if someone could help him sew the wound closed with their two hands instead of his one.
"Ah... no, not technically," Wanda shrugged, "but for the last few weeks the Professor and I have been experimenting with my mutation, and I can kinda fix things like your injury if I concentrate hard enough. I'd like to help, if I can."
Azazel looked impassively into her silver eyes, fighting the urge to frown. He didn't like the sound of "kinda fix," but at the same time, he suddenly felt mildly embarrassed that he didn't actually know what Wanda's mutation was. He's once seen her discharge energy from her fingers similar to Jubilee, but he didn't know what that energy did. Azazel looked again at his shoulder. The puncture was deep and bleeding more than he'd like; he had to do something more permanent soon or he'd risk passing out from blood loss or not being able to accurately teleport for a few hours. With a resigned sigh, he removed the cloth and motioned for Wanda to approach. She eagerly placed one palm just over the wound and her other on his shoulder behind it, applying gentle pressure on both sides. From the corner of his eye, Azazel saw both Kurt and Jean curiously observing the girl's actions. Only Scott ignored them as he continued to watch at the monitors.
"Ok, this might sting a little," Wanda said, taking a deep breath. A faint red light began to glow around her hands. Azazel had been on the verge of inquiring what exactly, might sting, when a white-hot, blinding pain shot through every fiber of his being. For a brief second, his entire body jerked like he was having a seizure, and the only thing that prevented his fall to the floor was his involuntary clutching of the chair's arms.
"There! All done!" Wanda took a few steps back, wringing her hands . Thankfully, the heat and pain receded as soon as she removed her hands. "Um... how do you feel?"
Azazel clenched his jaw, taking a several deep breaths through as he prayed for the room to stop spinning. He felt like he was going to throw up, and a faint charred smell hung in the air, like seared meat at bar-barque. Kurt and Jean had jumped to their feet and now stood next to Wanda, both examining Azazel's shoulder. He looked again at his wound but was surprised to see smooth, slightly more pale skin surrounding it, almost like a mild burn. The injury no longer seemed to be bleeding; in fact, outside of a small puckered scar, the entire injury seemed to be...gone?
"What did you do?" Azazel rotated his shoulder, astonished. Everything felt fine, abet a little sore, like any recovering injury would feel. The girl hadn't just cauterized the wound; she'd made it so the wound wasn't there at all.
"I put a hex on it!" Wanda beamed as she walked to the sink to rinse the blood off her hands. "The Professor and I figured out that if I concentrate my powers, I can make things go back to the way they were, or I can make things turn inside-out. Your injury was the most advanced thing I've healed successfully!"
"Wow, that's so cool!" Jean closer in to admire Wanda's work.
"Thank... you..." Azazel forced a grateful smile even as he felt mildly horrified by the consequences of "make things turn inside-out" and "successfully." He suddenly felt extremely lucky and made a mental note not to let Wanda touch anyone else until she had more practice.
"Hey, the scar kinda looks like the letter 'K' now!" Kurt pointed out helpfully as Azazel started buttoning his shirt. "K for Kurt!"
"Fantastika," Azazel grumbled under his breath. Apparently he was a walking fucking alphabet of healed injuries.
"Oh my God!" Scott leaped to his feet, jabbing excitedly at the monitor bank. "Guys! Look! It's them!"
The team quickly assembled around Scott; sure enough, their four comrades appeared on the bottom left screen, trapped in some kind of circular cage. Azazel noted at the time stamp on the bottom of the screen and glanced at the room's clock. The time synced, indicating the image was current and that wherever they were, they four were still alive.
"What the hell is up with Dr. McCoy?!" Scott frowned. While Raven wore her blonde disguise and Peter and Moira appeared as normal, Azazel could see there was definitely something wrong with the scientist.
"I think he's supposed to look like that," Kurt offered. "I heard him and Raven talking about both being blue - well, actually talking about both not being blue, anymore at least - on my first day at school."
Blue fur...? Ah shit! Azazel's eyes went wide when it finally clicked who Dr. McCoy really was; the last time Azazel had seen the leonine mutant, he'd tried to ram his spade through the man's eye. Well, he reasoned, at least now I suppose we're even now for what happened in The Danger Room.
"Can you reach them?" Wanda asked Jean as she reached out and touched the screen where her brother stood.
"No, there seems to be some kind of barrier," the redhead admitted. "Honestly, I've been trying to reach them since we arrived, but I haven't had any luck."
"Look at the green lights surrounding them!" Kurt tapped on the screen. "See? They look just like the bars on the helicopter. Jean, I bet that's why you can't talk to them."
"Look for signs, clues as to how we find them," Azazel instructed, narrowing his eyes as he scanned the entire monitor bank. There had to be something, somewhere, that would lead them to their comrades.
"There!" Scott snapped his fingers seconds later and pointed. "Look at the sign! Jean? Wanda? Didn't we run past something like that going to the lab?"
"Yes!" Wanda chimed in, her silver eyes flashing with recognition. "I remember seeing that!"
"Can you lead us back...?" But Wanda was already running to the door, waving excitedly for the team to follow. With that, Azazel found himself shepherding the teens once again as they ran into the heart of the complex.
Raven's frown set harder as her eyes searched the watch tower window for what felt like the thousandth time. At least thirty minutes had elapsed since they'd seen even a glimmer of movement beyond the blood streaked glass.
At this point, it really was starting to look like they would need a miracle to save them.
"So... " Peter's voice cut through the thick silence like a knife, "anyone else got a brilliant idea on how we're going to escape? Because, now's really the time to share with the rest of the class!" Raven cast her eyes down, unable to look at the speedster, let alone answer his question. She knew Peter was trying to make a joke, but she could hear the very real fear creeping into his voice. Raven was afraid that if she spoke, she wouldn't be able to hide her fear either. She glanced over at Hank, but her friend was staring at the ground, looking rather defeated.
Think Raven; think! She bit her bottom lip and nervously fiddled with the bandage on her arm. Her throat felt parched and her head was starting to ache. She couldn't remember the last time she'd drank water, and after Peter's secret Twinkies, they didn't have any more food. The blue woman remembered reading once that the human body could last four weeks without food, but only four days without water. It's only a matter of time before we starve or die of thirst.
Time was staring to run out.
"Oh!" Moira suddenly burst to life, startling Raven from her dire thoughts. The agent pointed excitedly, seeming at a loss for words.
"Yeah Brah! Here! Down here!" Peter jumped in the air, waving his arms madly, as if trying to flag down a plane. Even Hank was now looking up and smiling. She turned to the source of their unexpected excitement and felt her skin ripple involuntarily. She covered her mouth with both hands as she looked back to the window.
It seemed that miracle they needed had finally arrived; Raven just never expected it to be in the form of her son.
"Over here! I found them!" Kurt yelled as he leaned over the control panel to better see. Eins, zwei, drei, vier... that's everyone! He counted, satisfied everyone was indeed present. He smiled wide enough to show all his fangs as he waved down at the now joyous captives. Soon, his entire team was crowded around and patting him on the back. Finally, Kurt thought with relief, something has gone really right.
To say it had been a difficult day was a severe understatement. Kurt thanked God for so many things that happened in last thirty minutes. He thanked God that Azazel didn't judge him for breaking down in tears, and that he'd held Kurt's hand on their search for the others. At first Kurt felt childish - he was seventeen, not seven - but whenever Kurt stumbled or his voice wavered as he prayed, the red man squeezed his hand reassuringly, giving him the resilience to keep moving. There was a gentleness in Azazel that Kurt hadn't expected since The Danger Room; Kurt was beginning to realize that despite his reserved nature and questionable past, his father was proving to be a rather complex individual.
Kurt thanked God too that they found the others quickly and unharmed, and he thanked God especially for Jean. One of the only reasons why Kurt was still functioning was because of the young telepath.
What happened? Jean's voice echoed in Kurt's mind as the group sat in the rest area. She knew something was wrong the moment they reunited. Kurt tilted his head back and pretended to pray while he concentrated on his memories of shooting the man who tried to kill Azazel. I'm going to take the pain away, Jean's voice was soothing. I won't make your memory go away, but I can make it so it doesn't bother you as much, at least until we get back home.
As she spoke, Kurt felt a weight lifting from his shoulders. He still knew he'd shot a man, and he knew that man was dead, but the event had faded in his mind as if it happened long ago. His heart didn't feel so heavy, and he felt like he could even smile again. When he turned to thank her, for a second, Kurt saw Jean's eyes glow brightly as if they were on fire. She blinked quickly and when Kurt looked again, Jean's eyes were their normal deep blue. Kurt wondered if his own eyes had played a trick on him, even though he still felt unsettled. Jean smiled sadly and turned to talk to Scott. It struck him just how good Scott was doing for someone who lost his brother and best friend only a few hours ago. The indigo teen suddenly wondered how much pain Jean absorbed from them all that day just to keep the team moving forward. He wondered where she kept that pain so it didn't destroy her.
But right now, Kurt banished these thoughts as he watched the captives explode with happiness. Only Raven stood perfectly still, her hands pressed to her face in shock. As Kurt looked down at his mother - his beautiful, blue mother - he felt a hand slide onto his shoulder. Azazel stood next to him, but the man's focus was solely on Raven, and her focus was on Azazel; an expression of relief and something deeper, something Kurt desperately hoped was love, mirrored on both of their faces. Kurt felt a small smile twitch on his own face. He couldn't wait to see his parents together at last.
"Why can't we hear them?" Scott tilted his head as he waved at the group below. Until he mentioned it, Kurt didn't realize that he couldn't hear the shouts of joy beyond the glass.
"I think the room's soundproofed," Jean guessed as she put her fingers to her temple. "And I still can't get through the barrier, even this close."
"There's gotta be an intercom somewhere," Wanda said and began searching the control panel.
"If there's a barrier, how do we get them out?" Kurt looked at Azazel. "Can you teleport inside?" The indigo teen instantly recognized the neon green bars illuminating the walls of the cage. He still hurt from his failed attempts to teleport out of the electrified helicopter (and, from falling two stories in an explosion; and, from fighting four adult men; and, from tripping over two dead bodies, not that he was keeping track or anything). He released Kurt's shoulder and vanished. Kurt excitedly turned back to the widow, but a heartbeat later, he heard Azazel reappear.
"Nyet," the red mutant scowled, his nostrils flaring. "Electric field is too strong. I cannot penetrate it."
"Well, sounds like someone needs to make a door," Scott smirked triumphantly, tapping the side of his glasses.
"There is a door behind those bars," Kurt motioned to the left side of the cage below. "Scott, do you think you can blast it open?"
"Easy, but they're going to need to stay back so they don't get hit. How are we going to tell them to...?"
"Hello?" Wanda said loudly into a mic. "Can anyone hear me?" The four captives started nodding, but their voices remained silenced. Wanda frowned, tapping on the mic. "I don't understand. This says 'intercom'..."
"Here, flip the receiver toggle," Jean leaned over and punched a button next to the mic.
"...anaconda!" Peter's voice echoed in the room.
"Hey, Mr. A?" Scott asked. "Think you can get Jean and I down a level so we're on the other side of that door?" Azazel disappeared only to reappear a few seconds later.
"Da, it only electric on inside of door. Easy to appear on outside."
"Awesome," Scott linked arms with Jean and took Azazel's outstretched hand. He then turned to Kurt and Wanda. "Here's the plan: Wanda, when we're in place, Jean's going to start a countdown in your thoughts from ten. You or Kurt get on the horn and tell everyone down there to stand as far away from that door as possible, Ok? Kurt, once you see that door open and they're free, you teleport with Wanda and join us."
"Ja," Kurt agreed and nodded vigorously. For the first time that day, it sounded like their team had an actual plan that didn't involve completely winging it. Even Azazel looked impressed with Scott's quick thinking as the trio vanished.
"Ok, Jean says they're in place," Wanda punched the intercom.
"Hello? Can everyone hear me?" Kurt cleared his throat. All four pairs of eyes alighted on him. I will take that as a yes, he thought. "Um, we will count to five and then Scott is going to blow open the door, so you need to stand far away, ja?"
"She's counting now!" Wanda said. "Tell them to stand back!"
"Ok, here goes! Stand back!" Kurt held up a hand in the window to help illustrate. "Eins... zwei... drei..." Kurt looked at his hand and frowned. He forgot he never really visually counted on his fingers, since he only had...
The explosion rocked the room, making even Wanda and Kurt quake stumble and grab the control panel. As the dust cleared, they saw a gaping hole and the captives start to file out. Wanda seized Kurt's arm, and the two appeared instantly in the midst of their friends.
"Hey! Watch out!" Scott ducked to the side, narrowly missing Kurt landing in his lap.
"Entschuldigung!" Kurt grimaced and held up his hands apologetically. He was still trying to master teleporting into places he couldn't actually see, and he didn't quite have the same finesse as Azazel.
But right now, none of that mattered as Raven emerged from the cage, smiling brightly as she waved away dust between her and Azazel. He remembered how Azazel curled his tail around Raven's wrist on the plane, and he'd seen how the two looked at each other through the window just moments ago. The indigo teen had waited so long to see his parents reunite, and now that moment was finally here. He was was over the moon with anticipation, knowing they would now finally have the chance to hug or kiss or engage in some other grand romantic gesture that would validate that they still loved each other, and that at the end of the day, the three of them could unite as a real family.
"Well," Raven stopped in front of Azazel, putting her hands on her hips and gazing up at him sweetly. Kurt clasped his hands together excitedly. "It sure the fuck took you long enough to get here."
Azazel smirked while Kurt frowned, but before anyone could respond, a silver blur collided with Azazel, knocking him a few ungraceful steps backwards.
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" Peter yelled, hugging Azazel tightly. "Oh man! I thought we were going to die in there!"
"Get. Off. Me." Azazel snarled and shoved Peter away. The oblivious speedster proceeded to speed hug each of the new arrivals, stopping only when he reached Wanda. For once, Peter was at a loss for words, and looked at his little sister like he was going to cry. Kurt smiled as Peter grabbed Wanda, spinning her around in the air as she shrieked happily and hugged him back fiercely. Well, he reasoned, at least one family gets to have a storybook reunion.
"Witchy, mom's going to kill me when she finds out I let you come this field trip," Peter said as he put her down.
"What happened to your clothes?" The redhead cocked her head and pointed at Peter's naked chest.
"Raven tore my shirt off!" The speedster stated matter-of-fact. Several of the teens (and Azazel) looked quizzically at Raven.
"I'll explain later," she mumbled, rolling her eyes. "First, we need to get moving."
"Right. Follow me!" Jean took Scott's hand and the pair started down the hallway, waving for everyone to follow. Peter looped one arm through Wanda's and the other through Kurt's, pulling them along for the ride.
When the wall fell and she finally saw her rescuers, Raven wanted nothing more than run to Azazel and throw her arms around him, but she held back, knowing restraint was in order. Only Moira knew about their real relationship, and they didn't need to cause any more drama for the day, especially not in front of Kurt.
The blue woman balked slightly when the teenagers took the lead, but she changed her tune when she saw Azazel fall following them without question. After a few minutes of silent running (passing a lot of mauled soldiers), the group entered a large military hanger.
Inside sat the most beautiful plane Raven had ever seen.
"Well, it looks like you got your warplane Hank," she nodded to the leonine mutant.
"We found this after we got split from you," Scott pointed at the plane and addressed the teleporters. "We figured it might come in handy to take us home."
"Or take us to Cairo," Jean corrected.
"Cairo?" Hank asked with an quirked eyebrow. Jean filled the captives in Charles's secret message. Raven scowled at the mention of her brother in the clutches of En Sabah Nur. She wasn't sure what was in store for him, but she knew they had to get to Egypt fast if hey had a chance at saving him.
"Wait, hold on," Moira put up her hands before pointing at Azazel. "Why can't you just take us to Cairo? I've know you can teleport with more than eight people, and it'd be faster than flying."
"Da, it would faster and da, I can easily jump with more than eight," Raven rolled her eyes as Azazel seemed to puff out his chest a little, bragging about his mutation. "But, we nyet know what exactly is waiting in Cairo, and I have never been to the city, so is harder to know where is safe to appear. Would nyet be good idea for group this big to appear instantly in the middle of bad place, give away position."
"It's also better to approach slowly and get a feel for what we're getting into," Hank added. Azazel gave him a curt nod of agreement, and Raven heard Scott whisper something to Kurt that sounded like 'see, that's what I said in the car earlier.' Raven reviewed Azazel's team; while they appeared thankfully uninjured, they were ragged and stressed. Judging by how torn and dirty their clothes were, she couldn't imagine what horrors they'd seen at the base during their rescue mission.
"If what Jean's told us is accurate - and we have no reason to believe it's not - then we have a few hours before En Sabah Nur and his cronies pose real danger to Charles," Raven assessed. "I think a few hours on a plane will do us all some good. It'll give us time to plan and time to get our energy back up before we confront those assholes."
"Fair enough," Moira conceded. "Hank, can you really fly this?"
"Yeah, I can fly this," the blue man nodded. "I just need a little time to review the controls, but it shouldn't be too different from the Blackbird. Um, that's a plane I designed," he clarified to Moira. Raven frowned; she still kept forgetting that Charles had wiped the women's memories of them and the incident in Cuba.
"How long?"
"Twenty minutes, tops. I just need..."
"Sweet, check this out!" Peter was suddenly stood in the center of the group, holding his arms out wide. He was no longer shirtless; as a matter of fact, he was wearing a sleek, dark silver flight suit. The speedster started flexing for his audience. "Seriously, how cool do I look right now? On a scale from one to ten?"
"Where did you find that?" Wanda asked.
"In that closet over there," Peter pointed to the far side of the room. "There's like, a ton of them."
Raven sighed. It figured that Peter would be ransacking the room instead of listening to their plan. At least it seemed this time he made himself useful.
"It's a Kevlar flight suit," Hank touched Peter's sleeve, admiring the fabric. "You know, it might be a good idea for everyone to wear one since we're headed into a possible combat situation."
"Alright," Raven nodded as she flipped her scales to be a mirror of the suit Peter wore. "Everyone grab a suit and get ready. We have twenty minutes."
"Twenty minutes?" Scott asked. "Until what?"
"Twenty minutes," Peter snapped on his goggles and crossed his arms dramatically, "until we save the world!"
Raven put her hands over her face; it was going to be a long flight.
A/N: And that explains why they are still taking the plane to Cairo.