Chapter 9: Former Dark Avengers

As soon as Jubilee lost contact with Melody, she and Noh were in motion. They knew she was probably with E'tann, and they knew he had already been targeted once, so the only solution was to search the grounds and the rest of the castle for the crown prince and their daughter — and to reach out to Sinta to let him know that the second attempt was in the process of being made.

As it happened, though, Sinta was already headed their way, looking like he'd just come out the other end of a battle himself, with his clothes rumpled and smelling like smoke and his eyes flashing.

"The Accusers are here," he said before Jubilee could say anything. "They made an attempt on Jar'i," he added.

Noh and Jubilee both shared a look. Jar'i was E'tann's little brother. "Filthy cowards," Noh spit out through a hiss. "Using children in their war."

"The Accuser philosophy is absolute," Sinta said in a tired sigh. "Ethics do not matter as much as the means, because we believed our morals to be unshakeable."

"And how's that working out for you?" Jubilee shot back.

Sinta held up both hands. "I was explaining, not justifying."

"Well, don't do either," Jubilee said, though before she could get going any more, Noh stepped in.

"The Accusers have something, some kind of telepathic weapon that uses the voice of the Supremor," Noh explained. "My entire family was attacked as well."

Sinta frowned. "The Supremor?" he repeated — with just enough awe in his voice to let Jubilee know that if the Accusers had something real, Sinta himself could be compromised.

"I don't know what it was," Noh said carefully, plainly picking up on Sinta's interest and unwilling to lose a good ally to the worship of a being that had once misled Noh into betraying the Avengers and then left him to fend for himself when the Avengers turned him away. "And even if they have some piece of it, I would be loath to give it any credence without knowing more."

It was a fair answer, a diplomatic one, even. Noh's practice being an ambassador had tempered his tongue. But in that moment, Jubilee stared up at him, surprised that he wasn't being more vocal about the situation. The Supremor had screwed Noh over more times than Jubilee could count, and his approach to its possible return was to wait and see?

"Seriously?" Jubilee said.

Noh turned toward her with one eyebrow raised. "There are too many possibilities to consider," he said.

"It's a stupid big face, and we're all better off without it. This isn't hard." Jubilee rolled her eyes up toward the ceiling. "It's a good thing you're so pretty."

"I am," Noh agreed, though considering the circumstances, the smile he always wore when she complimented him didn't last long. Instead, he turned toward Sinta. "Do you know where Melody and E'tann were? We haven't been able to contact them telepathically."

Sinta turned a paler blue than usual. "What?"

"I can run the perimeter, and my children and I can search the palace quickly, but I'd rather have a bearing to begin my search," Noh prompted.

"Right." Sinta obviously steeled himself, though he was still pale. "I'm sorry, Noh. I know they were looking for privacy, but I didn't pry beyond that."

Noh nodded sharply and then simply took off without waiting to hear anything else. If Sinta couldn't give him a direction, then he'd have to scour the whole palace. And Jubilee reached out telepathically to her two speedy kids who weren't missing, prompting a three-person, high-speed search of the palace and grounds.

Jubilee bit her lip, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She was in telepathic contact with all of them, yes, but when they went that fast, it was hard for her to follow their search. She couldn't process everything they saw as quickly as they saw it. So, she didn't know any more than Sinta did when all three of them eventually wound up back with Sinta and Jubilee.

Without Melody or E'tann.

"Oh crud," Jubilee whispered as her telepathic knowledge caught up to the present a split second before Noh shook his head, confirming what she already knew.

Still, Noh offered a solution: "I don't know the palace as well as you do, Sinta. If you know of any hidden passages that I might have missed…"

Sinta nodded quickly. "There are several, but not even I know all of them. Ronan would have known, but he didn't pass that knowledge down, nor did the previous emperors. A lot of it has been lost."

"Let's start with the ones you do know," Sying said, the stress obvious in the tone of his voice and the way he kept bouncing around on his toes. Even years later, he still panicked at the thought of captivity in space, even if it wasn't his own neck on the line.

"And I'll call my godfather," Celeste put in. When everyone turned to look at her, she shrugged. "He can bring backup with a wish, and he's super protective of me and Mel, seeing as he's the reason we even exist. So… why not call him?"

For just a second, there was quiet. And then, Sying laughed. "So, you're totally going to be running the Guardians of the Galaxy, then?"

"Just because you didn't think of Billy—"

"They're such boys," Jubilee pointed out. "They think they have to handle everything themselves."

Noh started to protest, but when Jubilee shot him a look with one eyebrow raised, he sighed and spread his hands out in front of him in a gesture of peace. "We're simply faster."

"Whatever, dude. Tell yourself whatever you have to."

Celeste smirked as she got out her phone and stage whispered to Sying, "Okay, I'm going to call in the Demiurge. You boys plot and plan about anyone who could have Supremor-lite tech."

"Future Guardian leader," Sying sang back to her.

"If you say so," she sang, though once the comm clicked and alerted her to the fact that Billy had picked up on the other end, she waved her brother's teasing off. "Hey, Billy? We need some help."

Celeste could hear one of the kids back in Westchester giggling until Billy wrested control of his phone back from whoever it was. "Sorry, say that again. Kind of got caught in a dog pile."

Despite the severity of the situation, Celeste couldn't help but grin. "Having fun?"

"It's the holiday season in Westchester. It's always a good time." Billy paused. "But you're supposed to be having fun on Hala. Desperately miss your Space Punk so badly you need a fairy godfather's wish?"

"Actually, it's more serious than that," Celeste said, losing her grin. "We can't find Melody."

Billy's voice lost all its light as well. "What happened?"

"Long story short? The Accusers are still jerks."

"No kidding. What do you need?"

Celeste glanced toward her parents, but they were deep in discussion with Sinta about where the Accusers could have found something like the Supremor. "Umm… my grandparents, maybe? Dad and Sying have already looked, and they can't find Melody or E'tann."

"Oh, you need a tracker," Billy said, and Celeste could practically see him nodding along. "Got it. I'll see who I can find. Hold on."

Celeste drummed her fingers against her phone and bounced slightly on the balls of her feet as she waited, listening to the muffled sounds on the other side. Billy had put the phone in his pocket, but she could still hear the murmur of conversation. She hated talking on the phone, actually, and would rather sprint to wherever someone was for this exact reason — she could hear so much better in person than she could over the phone. It didn't matter how good her hearing was if the sound wasn't picked up by the microphone.

In the rumble of voices, she heard one that sounded like Logan, though it could also have been James; they were hard to tell apart on the phone until they had been talking long enough to get the inflection right. James sounded more like his mom with his speaking patterns.

Then, at last, Billy pulled the phone out of his pocket. "Still there?"

"Where would I have gone?"

"Good point." Billy paused, and Celeste held her breath. He didn't sound terribly sure of himself, and considering how big a dilemma she and her family were facing on Hala, she couldn't help but worry that something was wrong at home.

"Everything okay?" she asked before he could do or say anything else.

"Yeah, I just… I have an idea. Don't let your dad kill me, okay?"

"I'm not making promises when everyone here is as stressed as they are."

"Okay, fair, but ... just trust me, okay?"

"Alright," she said slowly. "I trust you."

"Love you too, Celeste," Billy said, then muttered a spell.

The next thing Celeste knew, a bright light temporarily blinded everyone, and once that light cleared, a Howlett was standing in the middle of the room — but not any of the Howletts they had expected to see.

"You." Noh nearly hissed. "What are you doing here?"

Under any other circumstances, Celeste would have laughed. She really would have. Because there was Daken, standing like a dark shadow in the remnants of Billy's spell, light years away from where they'd left him. Despite the fact that they were only on Hala in the first place because Noh couldn't stand the idea that his granddaughter was becoming too friendly with the guy.

"Billy, now isn't the time for a joke," Celeste said through her smile.

"He knows what's going on, and he's a good tracker too," Billy argued. "James isn't up to it. Neither are his siblings. And your grandparents are busy. Let them have a nice Christmas."

"Billy…"

Billy let out a sigh that was audible through the phone. "Look, they're letting an old rivalry ruin family gatherings at this point, Celeste. And Noh's worse than he is. Akihiro hasn't flirted with Noh in years. He's not perfect, but he's trying. And I hate to see one of my best friends in the world so far away from family because he can't let go of a grudge."

"He's going to make you pay for this," Celeste said, watching as her father and Daken squared up with each other, though Daken looked more concerned with his wardrobe than the clear threat Noh was leveling.

"I know," Billy said. "Good luck," he added — and then hung up.

Celeste shook her head, knowing that Billy was right — he usually was. Celeste was too young to remember the blatant flirting and sexual harassment that Daken had thrown toward Noh, and she was too young to remember any of the lingering effects of her father's involvement with Norman Osborn, either. She only knew that Noh and Daken hadn't gotten along for as long as she could remember.

But… she'd also seen how Daken was starting to change, too. She and her sister were in trouble often enough that they were up early — and that meant they'd seen him coming in early to talk to Logan or K. They'd heard some of his reports ... or at least the tail end of them. And they'd seen that he was putting forward an effort.

He was still a total jerk with an attitude problem, but he wasn't nearly as bad as Noh made him out to be.

All that being said, dropping a guy her dad hated into the middle of a search for Melody probably wasn't the smartest way Billy could have addressed the situation, but then, her godfather had a flair for the dramatics in a way no one else really could compare to.

Whatever the case, Noh was advancing on Daken, positively furious — and that had Sinta ready for a conflict, too, already with his hand on his weapon as he asked Noh, "What is the meaning of this?"

"Billy sent him," Celeste said before things could escalate too much.

"Billy isn't always sane," Noh replied without missing a beat — which, to be honest, was hard to argue with.

Still, Celeste shook her head. "He says you need to stop acting like immature teenage boys."

Noh stopped hissing, and Sinta looked between the two of them, obviously trying to parse whether he was wading into the middle of family drama or not — but Daken ran a hand through his hair, straightened out the lapels on his suit, then stepped forward and said, "Are you done illustrating the immature — or do you want to posture some more while I find your missing daughter for you?"

And just like that, Noh was right back to hissing, so Jubilee stepped in. "So. Hey. Umm .. she and her boyfriend were totally looking for privacy, so we don't know where they were when they went missing in the first place," she explained. "Sorry, dude. That's the best I've got, but I super appreciate you dropping your holiday plans with Wolvie to help out." She smiled brightly and held out some pixie sticks as a peace offering.

Daken drew in a slow, patient breath but didn't refute what Jubilee had said as he hesitated and took one of the candies. With an understated smirk, he turned toward Noh with one eyebrow arched and shook his head. "No wonder you needed me," he said.

Noh drew himself up, looking like he was going to say something, but Celeste projected to him first: Dad, he's helping.

Noh looked toward Celeste, who had both hands out, her palms upturned. He let out all his breath and then let his shoulders slump. Fine.

Billy says—

I'm well-aware of Billy's need to fix everything. I'll not have him dictating to me when he knows the past Daken and I share.

Whatever, Dad, Celeste said. Kree pride later. Find Melody now.

Fine. With that, Noh stalked off after Daken, who had already set himself to work looking for Melody's scent.

Celeste sighed. I hope Billy knows what he's doing this time, she thought before she rushed to catch up with her dad and Daken.