A/N - robbiepoo - So ... yeah. Clint ... is in his element, surrounded by his people and his Natasha ... you know. the Under ten crowd and him are like peas an' carrots. Yeah, Tony ... Tony is a little stressed out. He's prolly gonna sleep for a while, let's be real. He needed it. And Yeah, K is just .. beside herself, and yes Emma is the WORST. EVER. But ... that's all gonna get fixed. I swear.

and KJAX - welcome back! All will be revealed.

Chapter 37: Judge, Jury, And Executioner

Even with Jean putting the loudest arguing to sleep, it had still been hard to get the team weeded out to head up to Avalon for Scott. The truth was, Charles had too many volunteers that wanted to go raid Magneto's place - all of them for good reason, but he had to draw the line.

There were other things to consider than simply who wanted to avenge friends or who was out to make a statement … or the rather impressive number of his team that had been present for a hand off of one kid or another. After Logan had been particularly troublesome about hearing 'no', Natasha was quick to volunteer to hang back and keep an eye on her 'little uncle', and Charles knew that as soon as Logan woke up, the bulk of the smaller kids would be clamoring for his attention. Which meant that Logan would have his hands full. It was trying. But somehow, Charles managed to keep this team small.

If nothing else, in the event that they ended up returning with more than they were anticipating, then there would be room on the blackbird to accommodate them.

As it was, Charles had taken Jean with him, as well as Henry, Steve, and Pietro - who had insisted on coming to be sure his sister was safe too - and that was the extent of it. They were ready for a fight, and he was sure that Erik was more than prepared to make life miserable for them given half a chance. But still … the group of them were determined to get Scott back at the very least. Jean was ready to go get him all on her own if need be.

But they weren't expecting a friendly reception when they reached the docking point. Erik's followers had made a point to be downright welcoming of the three X-Men (though Pietro had hung back and slipped out to go find Wanda) and were glad to guide them to where Erik was waiting for them. They were even halfway cordial to Steve.

When they arrived, Erik was reclined on a metal throne. On one side, Scott was partly wrapped up - but it was a much neater job than before. And on the other side, K was simply floating with her arms at her sides, looking entirely resigned.

Hi, Jean, Scott projected toward her. Knew you were coming.

Don't you 'hi, Jean' me, she shot right back. I can't believe we had to come all the way to Avalon. What were you thinking?

To be honest, I'd hoped you'd be right behind me, Scott replied, sounding tired even in his mental voice.

We weren't that late, were we? Jean asked. What happened?

Scott frowned at her for a moment before he shook his head. It's just been a long night.

Jean narrowed her eyes on hearing that. You're going to … can you just … I need to know now. Was your cellmate that horrible in close contact?

Scott shook his head. No, but we do need to get her out before a literal demon deal gets more involved. He met her gaze. Like I said. Long night.

She gave him a little look for that and then glanced around the room at the other players in attendance. Though when she saw the smug sort of gloating look on Emma's face, she narrowed her eyes and touched Emma's mind, only to back off with fire dancing in her eyes when she got the gist of what Emma had tried to pull. I'm going to kill her.

Jean…

Don't even start, Jean projected back to him. If the shoe was on the other foot, would you be calm?

Well, no-

Then no. I will not be calm. The fire started to flicker around the edges of Jean's hair, and though she didn't realize it, she'd started to float a few inches off of the ground, which was earning her a concerned sort of look from Steve.

"So," Erik said looking overly smug. "Have you come to stay or is this some poorly thought out 'rescue' attempt?" He gestured to Scott. "Because you're not taking him back."

"I came to give you one last chance to listen to reason," Charles said evenly, though in a powerful tone that he so rarely used.

"And what is your angle this time, Charles?" Erik challenged. "The boy tried to aid the escape of a traitor."

"I'm trying to give you a chance not to become everything you hate," Charles said, his eyes narrowed. "Before it consumes you."

"You don't know what you're saying," Erik sniffed. "Leave now so we can hold our trial in peace. You've said over and over you want no part of this - don't start now."

"Let them go, Erik," Charles said. "I won't stand idly by while you play judge, jury, and executioner. I'm not asking, old friend."

Erik drew himself up, glaring right back at Charles. "No."

At the expression on Charles' face, and the fire that was starting to build around Jean, Emma paused and quickly shifted over to diamond form, paranoid that one of them would force their way into her mind. Which was really like asking for it from Jean. Particularly since Erik and Charles had only been talking up to that point.

Jean narrowed her eyes and tipped her head slightly before she forced Emma out of her diamond phase and dove in to see exactly what had transpired, and the extent of Emma's manipulations. As she'd expected, everything she saw only had Jean more and more angry.

By that time, the flames had grown - though not hot enough or large enough to show the full Phoenix - not that she needed it. The cry of a bird echoed the chamber just before the flames seemed to direct themselves at Emma - and in very short order, the White Queen was reduced to nothing more than a wisp of ash.

Erik narrowed his eyes at that and let out a sound of frustration and anger. "You come here to preach morality to me?" he snapped, gesturing toward where the White Queen had stood only moments before. "You have no moral high ground when one of your own students steps in to play the part you accuse me of claiming as my own."

"She tried to seduce him with telepathy," K said. "She more than earned it."

"I wasn't aware seduction warranted a death sentence in your estimation of the world," Erik said with narrowed eyes.

"If Emma tried to make me sleep with her, I'd absolutely want her dead," K shot back. "There are some things I wouldn't even trust to my healing."

"She used my face," Jean said, still furious and with her hands clenched.

"What she did was tantamount to rape," K snarled Erik's way. "You can't possibly advocate that - even if it was against a young man. And correct me if I'm wrong, but you were the one that was preaching not to use your mutant ability on other mutants, weren't you? Fancy that," K added dryly. "Your White Witch started the trend for her own gains. And you? Leading by example, I see."

Erik glared her way for an instant before it turned into a sneer. "There are exceptions to every rule," he said as he turned on her and lifted her higher so that she was eye level with him. "Broken trust, for example. Betrayal. Treason. But perhaps our young friend has the right idea about how to deal with that." The moment he said it, he extended the fingers on his hand nearest K - and with a pained gasp, she looked more like she was being pulled apart than just floating. Erik's lip twitched as he narrowed his eyes, concentrating hard as K started to scream.

But that was one step too far for Charles. He didn't even need to project to Jean before she had removed Erik's helmet, and in a second, Charles dove into Erik's mind with nearly clinical precision, simply shutting him down before he could even realize where the attack was coming from.

All at once, K fell to the ground, and so did Erik, and Charles shook his head at the prone form of his old friend. "I gave you every chance," he said quietly, though Charles himself didn't look to be doing terribly well either. Jean looked alarmed as Charles covered his nose with the back of his hand - but not quickly enough to hide the fact that Charles had managed to strain himself to the point of a nosebleed - something that none of his X-Men had seen before.

There was a long and pregnant silence before finally Hank and Steve stepped forward to look K over. "I suggest we expedite our exit," Hank said as Steve picked her up. His estimation was accented by a great lurch as Avalon was quickly losing the forces that held it together.

Scott looked down at the metal still holding him and then up at Hank as he made his way toward Scott. "Who'd you bring?"

"I'm afraid you're looking at your stalwart rescuers," Hank said. "Was there someone special you were hoping would come to bail you out?"

Scott shot him a dry look. "Fine. If someone wants to refocus my visor, I can cut it myself."

"Nonsense," Hank said with a chuckle as he waved Steve over to carry the unconscious little woman closer to Scott. "We can deal with that without having you shoot through the hull, if you don't mind." He carefully aligned K's hand and arm then pressed a spot on her forearm not far from her elbow to extract one claw, then he bent her wrist to keep it from slipping back. "Try not to sneeze."

Scott simply held perfectly still as Hank carefully guided K's claw to cut him loose. He shot Hank a little smile as he shook out his arms not more than a moment before Jean got there to hit him in the arm and then kiss him hard.

"Oh good; so you're not mad at me?" Scott couldn't help but tease her when the kiss broke.

"Are you kidding me?" she said, staring at him open mouthed. "How in the world am I supposed to follow through on my plans if you keep doing stupid things like this?"

"Like…" Scott frowned slightly, but when Jean caught where his thoughts were, she shook her head.

"Not the White Witch. That - no. Stupid things like getting yourself captured," she said, hitting him in the arm again for good measure.

"I'm pretty sure this was a one-time thing," Scott said with a small smile as he pulled her a bit closer.

"Well, you better hope so," she said, still blushing high on her cheeks as she relaxed into him. "I don't think I can handle being married to you if you're going to keep playing damsel in distress."

Scott stared at her, open-mouthed. "Wait. What?"

But that seemed to get her to blush a shade or three deeper as she scanned his thoughts and realized what, exactly it was that had him hung up. Jean tipped her chin up defiantly. "You heard me."

Scott couldn't stop himself as he started to grin at her. "I… yeah. I mean - when? Let me at least get you a ring," he said, starting slow and finally starting to pick up speed. "Unless you wanted to do that too."

Jean stammered for a moment, trying to catch up to herself. "I just meant … I mean - no rush, Scott. That's ... "

Scott's grin only seemed to get wider before he pulled Jean into a long and lingering kiss. When it broke he just seemed to be grinning even wider, somehow. "Jean Elaine Gray, will you marry me?"

"Of course," she replied almost in a tone of shock.

"As incredibly romantic as I'm sure Avalon is for such a moment, I do believe that the time has come for us to expedite our departure," Hank said as their footing heaved. "Today, people."

Scott and Jean both looked his way for a moment and flushed red before Scott nodded. "Right."

As they headed for where their ship was docked, it was hard to miss the green-haired Lorna hovering a few feet off the ground in the central chamber of Avalon, arms outstretched and eyes closed tight in concentration as she tried to keep it together and the alarms sounded for evacuation.

Wanda and Vision were being ushered forward by Pietro, who took one look at the group of X-Men and changed direction to send his sister and brother in law toward them. "I can get Lorna out at the last second if you can take my sister and her family," he offered.

"Of course," Charles said, waving Wanda forward.

It wasn't exactly a hard sell either. Especially when Billy and Tommy squirmed to get closer to K - and Tommy flat out kicked Steve in the shin. "Let her go!" he shouted before he hauled off and kicked him twice more for good measure before Vision picked him up.

"Woah, hey!" Steve said, shifting back instinctively as he raised K up a bit higher. "Take it easy, tough guy.

"He didn't hurt her," Jean promised, doing her best to switch from flustered to calming. "We're trying to get her to safety so we can take care of her."

Tommy crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her, clearly not believing a word of it. "She doesn't neeeeed taknin' care of."

"Are you sure?" Steve asked. "Would you like to help us take care of her?"

He stopped and tipped his chin up, clearly working it over in his head before he glanced over at Billy and the two of them managed to get loose from their parents and rocket over to her.

"As soon as we get away from the space station, we'll be able to sit down so you can hold her hand," Hank promised as gently as was possible when they were rushing to get out.

"Everyone has a designated means out," Wanda informed them. "They just need the time to get there, and Lorna … I think Lorna has it covered. She was pretty insistent."

"I would have given you ample warning had I had any other choice," Charles said, though it looked like the frown was never going to let up.

Wanda rested her hand on his shoulder. "He was losing touch with reality, Charles. We're lucky he didn't tear the station apart on his own."

Charles didn't say anything in response, still in his own thoughts on the matter, and for the moment, the little group simply focused on getting to the blackbird - where Hank and Steve quickly made sure to arrange K so that Hank could give her a preliminary exam while also allowing the two youngest members of the group to stay with her.

"How come she sleepy?" Billy asked, peering at K intently. "Wake up, K! No sleepnin."

"She's healing," Hank said as he listened to her heart - the simplest answer he could come up with that was even halfway true.

Tommy climbed up beside K, frowning at her. "O-kaaay," he said after a moment.

"Did she getted hurt on her hand?" Billy asked, frowning at something there as he held onto K's hand with both of his. "Oush."

Hank looked over the top of his glasses, frowning even before he got a good look at the mark on her wrist, and then frowning deeper the longer he looked at it. "Scott? What do you know? This didn't happen where we saw her." Then he looked at Jean to project out There is no reason for any injury to be this raw looking on her. Even with the unseen damage Magneto did.

Scott frowned even harder and then looked toward Wanda. "She made a deal with that demon of yours," he said.

Wanda held up both hands. "He wasn't ours. It was pretty clear from day one that he really didn't care much about father's cause," she said. "He came looking for her. Father kept him around because he was powerful. He thought that Vrykolakas was a mutant."

"Well, he got what he wanted," Scott said with a glare. "Though I don't know if Azazel will get to close the deal, since the X-Men got her out first."

Wanda's eyebrows went up high at that. "I thought … I knew the name he gave us was fake … but … are you sure that's the right name?" When Scott nodded, Wanda's shoulders dropped as she looked over K. "Oh, what did you get yourself into …"

"She said he didn't ask for her soul," Scott said.

"No, he wouldn't," Wanda said, shaking her head. "Not directly anyway. He … if he's the Azazel … we need to bring in Doctor Strange. This is out of my expertise."

"She don' need a doctor, Mom," Tommy said, scrunching up his nose. "Thas silly."

"She needs this one, sweetheart," Wanda said.

"Nu-uh," Billy argued. "No doctors!"

"Honey, Doctor Strange is a doctor for your spirit. Not your body," Wanda said.

"Oooooh." Billy nodded. "Thas different."

"Weird," Tommy said, scrunching up his nose.

"Strange, even," Scott said straight faced from where he was sitting with Jean, in too good a mood with her fingers intertwined with his not to run with it.

Wanda bit her lip and looked toward Scott. "Do you know … did she tell you what he had to do to collect?"

He shook his head and turned his attention back to Wanda. "She only said it wasn't her soul," he admitted. "She wouldn't tell me anything else." He paused. "And I'm pretty sure it was a two-fold deal," he added, looking a bit more frustrated at the memory.

Wanda looked toward Jean and Charles. "This … this is one of those times where permission isn't … we need to know so the Sorcerer Supreme can be prepared."

The two telepaths shared a look, though for as high as the emotions were running thus far, it wasn't long before they both nodded and put their heads together, so to speak, diving into K's mind to get the answers they needed.

And, of course, when they did emerge - only a few minutes out from Westchester - Jean was furious at what she saw, fire at the edges of her gaze. "I'm going to kill him too," she breathed out.

"Your face is on fire," Billy sang out.

"It does that," Scott said with a smirk.

Jean rolled her eyes at Scott but switched to a telepathic message to the adults so that the kids wouldn't hear the content of what they had seen - the details of both deals and what was at stake.

Wanda was well beyond upset on hearing what had transpired. Not only for the deal itself, but for the fact that her friend had felt so cornered that this was the way out of it. "She gave up," Wanda said.

"He was going to kill her," Charles said, his eyes narrowed and his irritation obvious. "That much was absolutely certain."

"She was really more concerned about the kids, though," Scott put in. "I did get that out of her - she wouldn't deal unless Avalon and especially the twins would be safe."

Jean glanced his way but didn't correct him on it. "I don't know how this works," she said. "It's clear he didn't manage the first part of the deal, though."

"Some of it must be still valid. If it was completely null, the mark on her wrist should be gone," Wanda said. "And I know he put in too much time for this deal to just walk away if he had even a sliver of a chance to collect."

"We can ask Doctor Strange about that much," Scott pointed out.

"He's a biblical demon, Scott," Wanda said. "Even if he shouldn't be able to collect, he'll try to collect."

"I got that much, actually," Scott said. "I just meant we should ask Strange how to combat it - and how to fight a demon."

"I already have a method in mind," Jean said with her eyes narrowed.

"I'm not sure how Phoenix fire measures up to Hellfire," Hank couldn't help but say.

"Jean will win every time," Scott said. "It's that simple."

"You're biased, Mr. Summers … or should I say Mr. Grey?" Hank teased.

Scott smirked. "Not how it works, Hank."

"Just be happy Bobby isn't here," Hank laughed, though he took a moment to offer both boys a Twinkie. "For being such wonderful assistants."

"We're not s'pposed to take candy from straaaaaangers," Billy sang out - even though Tommy was already gleefully opening and devouring his.

Wanda had to smile at them both. "Hank is an Avenger," she said. "We were on the team together, weren't we?"

Hank smiled her way and nodded. "Yes, and I have missed working with your mother."

"Okay," Billy said, then looked toward Vision. "Can I have it, Daddy? A Nevenger gaved it to me!"

"Of course," Vision said with a nod. "Dr. McCoy is perfectly trustworthy."

Billy giggled at that and quickly tore into his Twinkie, though Tommy had already finished his and was tugging on Hank's arm. "I do more and get anudder?"

"When we land, we'll get you some dinner - and then dessert," Hank promised. "And if you help more, yes, you can have another. You also get one when you get a check up."

"Inna check up!" Tommy said, bouncing on his toes. "Inna check up!"

Hank chuckled. "As soon as we land and get your friend seen to, you can have a check up."

"Yay!" Tommy bounced and threw his hands up and then quickly reattached to K so that he was holding her hand again. "I like Doctor Co-y."

"Most of the kids call him Dr. Fuzzy," Steve said, which got a patient, but resigned sort of sigh out of Hank. Especially when both boys turned to Hank wide eyed and let out a "ooooooooooh" in perfect harmony.

Of course, as soon as they'd landed and gotten unloaded in Westchester, Jean stuck with K while the boys got their check up and took the time to give her a quick kiss before they were ushered upstairs to the other kids - Twinkies in hand.

As for K, once the lab was clear, Hank pulled a little blood to test and Jean got her settled into the cell that Logan had tested out and a watch was established to keep an eye on both her and the possibility of any 'visitors' while they waited for Doctor Strange to arrive.

Hank was still giving everyone from the blackbird a once over when Pietro and Lorna came in looking a little worse for wear. With Lorna, it was a matter of simple exhaustion from trying to keep Avalon from falling apart until everyone was out, and with Pietro, it was a matter of a few bits and pieces of falling-apart-Avalon when he'd gotten her out last.

Of course, the twins hadn't seen their Uncle Pietro in a long time, so there was an immediate mobbing, with one little boy on either leg before Pietro could get all the way to a seat.

"We missed you!" Billy informed Pietro

Pietro was grinning in spite of himself with a hand on either of their heads. "Missed you too, troublemakers."

Tommy grinned and shook his head. "Nuh-uh! No trouble today! We're helpin' and gettin' Twinkies!"

"Oh, great - who thought it was a good idea to sugar you up?" Pietro teased as he took Tommy and tossed him in the air.

"Me too! Me too!" Billy chanted over Tommy's wild laughter, which was, of course, ringing through the entire medical area and getting smiles out of everyone. It was impossible not to get caught up in the twin's giggles.

"Boys, why don't you let Hank look at your uncle in case he needs Twinkies too?" Wanda said when it was clear the twins weren't going to let Pietro do anything but play with them.

The sounds of protest were loud - and ringing - especially with the way both of them let their entire bodies droop - and in Tommy's case, melted entirely to the floor. "Fi-i-i-ine."

"You're welcome to help me," Hank told the boys.

"Like we helped with K?" Billy said, one eye shut. "I dunno… I don't wanna just hold hands."

"Yeah, I wanna play," Tommy agreed fervently.

"I'm sure if you want to play, we can take you up to meet the other kids," Jean suggested. "There are quite a few boys and girls that would like to show you around."

"Oooh, can we please?" Billy asked, spinning to face Wanda and almost bouncing on his toes! "I don't wanna stay here. It's boring."

Wanda smirked and looked up at Steve. "We're sticking close to the X-Men, so if you stay with either group, they'll meet the kids," Steve said.

"Have fun," Wanda told them. "Just don't go outside yet, okay?"

"Okay!" the boys chorused happily, both of them rushing over to Jean - since she was the one to make the suggestion.

Of course, most of the kids were taking naps at the moment, but Teddy and Kate had flat-out refused to go to sleep because they were having too much fun playing with their race cars, so that's who the boys got to meet when Jean brought them up to the living room.

Katie beamed and waved at the newcomers happily, and Teddy made sure to push some toy cars aside for them. "You can come play too," Teddy said with a shy smile.

"Did you come with my mom too?" Katie asked cheerfully.

"We came with our mom," Tommy said, grinning widely. "You're pretty!"

Katie giggled at that. "That's what my dad says," she agreed. "You can have the green car 'cause you got a green shirt, okay?"

"Awright," Tommy said just before he nearly dove in to play with them, already making squealing car tire sounds as his green car raced around the floor. But Billy was just … standing there looking shy as he scuffed his feet against the carpet.

Teddy seemed to decide this meant he needed to take things into his own hands, and he made his way over to Billy with a handful of a few different cars. "You can pick if you want," he offered.

"Thanks," Billy said with a little smile.

"I'm Teddy," the blonde little boy said. "And that's Katie. She's new too. Her and Miles just got here."

"I'm Billy and that's Tommy," he said. "We're twins. But I'm older."

"You got different hair, though," Teddy said, his head tipped to the side.

Billy's hand shot up to the side of his head before he could answer. "Well … yeah. We're not … we're not … didendical. He has hair like our Uncle Pietro."

"Okay." Teddy shrugged. "I like yours better."

"Me too," Billy said, grinning. "But yours is kind of neat too. We don't have any yellow in our family. My Aunt has green hair though."

"I can do green!" Teddy said, his whole expression lighting up. "I … I can't do it right now. I gotta be mad… but I can do it!"

"That sounds cool," Billy said as he made his way over with Teddy to where Tommy was currently crashing his car off a cliff - complete with screaming passengers. When his car 'hit' the ground, Tommy threw himself backward as he ran through his explosion sound effects and gave a stellar 'death' performance.

"Your brother is silly," Katie informed Billy.

Billy rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry. He's … like that. Mom says he gets his drama from our Grandpa."

"That's okay. I like silly," Katie said with a shrug.

On hearing it, Tommy let out a cry of triumph, popped up on his feet and kissed Katie on the cheek. "Tag! You're it! Catch me if you can!"

"You're gonna get it!" Katie shot back, rushing after him, which had Teddy glancing sidelong at Billy.

"She's… like that too."

Billy shrugged. "That's okay. They can play together then."

"Do you wanna play something else?" Teddy asked.

"My mom said we can't go outside yet," Billy said. "But we can do stuff here. At least until they come up here."

"The grown-ups play too if you ask nice," Teddy promised.

"Yeah, Dad said the 'Vengers would be nice to us," Billy said before he leaned forward. "My mom and dad useta be 'Vengers."

"Really?" Teddy grinned. "Which ones?"

"Scarlet Witch and Vision," Billy said proudly. "An' my Uncle said that Captain America told him they were still 'Vengers!"

"Well, yeah!" Teddy nodded, his eyes wide. "That's so cool! I know all the 'Vengers! I got to live with 'em for a while!"

"That's so cool!" Billy said, looking more excited as the two of them chatted. "Who's your favorite?"

Teddy scrunched up his nose. "Cap," he decided at last. "But I like Beast too, 'cause he lets me eat Twinkies."

"Yeah? I forgotted, you got to live with the X-Men, too! Lucky!"

Teddy grinned. "So where you been living?" he asked.

Billy blew his hair out of his eyes. "We been stuck on A-avalon. And it was super boring most of the time, 'cept when K would come home and bring presents and play games with us."

"I like K," Teddy agreed. "She saveded me from a biiiig robot!"

"My Mom told me about her helpin' kids," Billy said before he gave Teddy a grin. "She's just like that."

"Well, I'm really glad you're not on a Valon anymore," Teddy said. "Cause… cause I thinkyou'reprettytoo."

Billy turned bright red and clearly didn't know how to respond - even though he was grinning widely. So Teddy just grabbed his hand, and the two of them rushed off to play together.