Chapter Six
Jean glanced at Solitaire as she and Dreamer entered the infirmary. He was sitting at a stainless steel table, a pack of what looked like Tarot cards in front of him. She couldn't see his eyes through his ever-present Aviator sunglasses, but he still looked tired.
"Th' Doc said ya maht be able ta help us out," Dreamer said, sitting down on the edge of one of the examination beds. Solitaire nodded. "Yeah, I heard that you tried to contact the others through the vortal nexus. I figured that wouldn't work, since they have a dreamseeker like you said. But you had to search through the vortal nexus because you weren't sure where they were, didn't you?"
"Yah, if Ah don' know where ta look Ah have ta do it th' long way," Dreamer affirmed. Solitaire asked, "if you had an exact location, would the dreamseeker be able to stop you?"
"Prob'ly not," Dreamer replied. "If Ah had th' exact location of th' mahnd Ah was tryin' ta contact, Ah'd be able ta get in without alertin' an outsahde presence. Even a telepath as strong as th' Professor wouldn't be able ta detect me. Why?"
"I think I can get you an exact location. One of my powers is the ability to see people when I touch a deck of cards," Solitaire explained. "If I concentrate on Rogue, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler or Gambit, I—"
"Who?" Jean interrupted. Solitaire looked confused. "Rogue, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Gambit. The four students Damien kidnapped."
"We don't call them that," Jean said, perplexed. Solitaire frowned. "Maybe it's because I mainly get the names of mutants when I have visions. Or when I see somebody and they're a mutant. I can tell what they can do and what their codename is. Those are the names I got."
"Ya sure that ya c'n see them?" Dreamer asked. Solitaire nodded. "I can direct my visions, a little. You'll have to take the images from my mind, though. I usually get migraines after I make myself see something."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jean asked. "You can pull out any time you want. It's perfectly understandable."
"Thanks, Dr. Summers-Grey, but I can do this. Cerebro can't find them because of those cuffs Damien has, but I can. I have to give it a shot."
Jean's gaze shifted to Dreamer. He spoke before she could.
"Ah'm sure too, Jean, so don' try ta change mah mahnd. Let's get this done."
Solitaire turned the first card and whispered, "show me Shadowcat."
Jean couldn't see anything but a blur on the card. Solitaire stiffened as the vision began.
A brunette girl, pretty, kind of preppy-looking, pacing in a room with an auburn-haired guy with red-on-black eyes sitting on the bed nearby. Shadowcat and Gambit.
He muttered, "more detail. Location."
A large facility with several mutant signatures. A dark-haired guy in his mid-twenties, wearing black and talking to a blonde girl. Dark and Laser. Human names Damien and Sabrina. Walking past the room with Shadowcat and Gambit. Talking about… words fuzzy. Unclear.
"More detail."
Dim corridors, all in white. Underground. Far away.
Solitaire blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of the black dots in his sight. He muttered, "come on, I need more than this!"
He turned the next card, ignoring the lash of pain that followed. Determined to stick this out until he found something useful.
A field, splitting open. A jet lifting off. The field closing again, as if the split was never there.
"Good, show me more of that. Where is it?"
Pulling away from the field, like a view from space. Almost as if there is a blinking sign above it, saying 'Colorado'. The base is still in Colorado.
"I found them. Get the images from my mind before I pass out," Solitaire said urgently, concentrating on keeping the pain at bay long enough for Jean to read his thoughts. He felt her gentle presence in his head.
** Where? ** she asked. He concentrated and pulled the images from the vision out of his mind. ** Here. **
Almost as soon as Jean had taken the images in, he lost the battle against the flood of pain he had tried to hold back. Jean recoiled from his mind as it came crashing down like a deluge from a broken dam. He managed a weak smile and said, "do what you can. I don't think I can help much more."
Jean turned to Dreamer. "You've got stronger barriers than any I've ever seen. Do you think you could drop them for a few minutes?"
"All raht, Ah'll try. Ah'm not sure if Ah know how."
Jean reached out to Dreamer's mind with her own, aware of countless other minds in the mansion. As soon as she entered his mind, she could "hear" every other consciousness in the area with startling clarity. She could feel Jubilee's anxiety over Dreamer, underlying sadness over Raptor and anger at Damien. She could feel the pain and utter weariness that Solitaire was determined to hide. She could even feel her own uncertainty and worry. And she could see Dreamer's memories.
A man's sinister face, staring at them with greed and cruelty in his eyes. A slightly younger Dreamer stood in front of Aura and Remy, a defiant expression on his face. "Stay th' hell away from them, Sinister," he hissed. "Ya wanna hurt someone, try ta take me on."
Jean pulled away from the memory, unwilling to violate Dreamer's privacy. She'd felt a deep disgust and fear in the memory, and it worried her.
** Don' worry, Jean, ** Dreamer "said" softly. ** Just tell me what Ah need ta know. **
She pulled the information she'd received from Solitaire's mind and pushed it into Dreamer's mind. He said, ** got it. Ah think this maht just do th' trick. **
Jean pulled out of his mind and opened her eyes. Dreamer said, "ya gotta sedate me again. Ah won't be able ta get insahde their dreams otherwise."
Jean injected him with the same sedative they'd used before. In seconds, he was unconscious.
She turned to Solitaire. "Maybe you should go back to your room and get some sleep," she said. "You don't look too good."
"Headache," he admitted. "Forcing myself to see things always gives me a migraine."
"Are you going to be okay?"
"Yeah, after some sleep. Hope it did some good," Solitaire said. He stood up shakily and grabbed the side of the table. "Woah. Dizzy."
"That's it, you're not walking up the stairs," Jean said. "You can sleep here."
"Would it be okay if you dimmed the lights a little?" Solitaire asked. "My eyes are extremely light-sensitive, and it's a little bright."
"Is that why you wear sunglasses?" Jean asked. Solitaire nodded. "Yeah. Ever since I was a little kid."
He walked unsteadily over to one of the exam beds.
"Tell me if it did any good, okay?"
"All right," Jean replied. "But the rest is up to Dreamer."
@ @ @
Dreamer felt his consciousness break away from his body. He pulled the images Solitaire had found into the front of his mind and concentrated on them. His mind rocketed past countless other people, sleeping, daydreaming, going about their lives, oblivious to his presence hurtling past them.
He could feel Rogue's consciousness signaling that she was asleep. Now that he knew exactly where to go, the other dreamseeker wouldn't be able to touch on his presence.
He bypassed the vortal nexus and went straight for Rogue's mind. He carefully entered her dream, not wanting to rupture her subconscious.
He was in an unfamiliar place, a meadow covered in snow. Flakes drifted down slowly, but he didn't feel the cold. His real body, the one that could feel, was back in Westchester. This was just his astral projection.
He walked through the fields, looking for a sign of Rogue. After a while, he saw her sitting by a campfire, her back to him.
"Rogue?"
His voice seemed unbearably loud in the quiet dreamscape. She turned and smiled. "Hi Dreamer. What are y'all doin' here?"
"Ah don' have long, Rogue. This is a dream. Ah contacted ya through th' vortal nexus ta see if there's anythin' ya know 'bout where y'all are that c'n help us fahnd ya. We know y'all in Colorado but not where exactly."
Rogue frowned. "We haven't seen much, but Damien let slip that we're in this li'l town just insahde th' border. More lahke under th' town, actually."
"Are y'all okay? Have ya seen th'others?"
"Ah'm with Kurt, an' we're both fahne. They haven't done anythin' ta hurt us. Ah don' know where Kit an' Remy are."
"C'n ya think of anythin' we c'n use 'gainst Damien?" Dreamer asked. Rogue shook her head. "Sorry, Sugah. Ah honestly cain't think of anythin'."
"Do ya know where Remy an' Kitty are bein' held?"
"No. Ah haven't seen anyone but Kurt," Rogue replied. Suddenly, the dreamscape crackled and turned black-and-white, like a television in a storm. Rogue looked alarmed. "Dreamer, what's goin' on?"
"Y'all wearin' those karamantium cuffs," Dreamer explained. "They're blockin' mah power."
"Then get outta here b'fore ya do damage ta yaself," Rogue exclaimed. Dreamer said, "we'll get y'all outta there, Rogue. Ah promise."
He pulled away from the dreamscape just as it broke completely, leaving the white void of nothingness that he'd become used to seeing when a dreamer suddenly woke up.
As he was returning to his own body, Dreamer remembered the flicker of consciousness he'd felt the first time he passed Raptor in the dreamstate. When he passed her body again, he felt the same flicker of consciousness, although all he could see were fuzzy memories.
He approached her astral mind carefully, looking for a way in without hurting her mind or body. He finally found a loophole in the links that made up her defensive shields and slid through.
((This is nothin' lahke Ah expected. Th' coma victims Ah came inta contact with when…))
He broke off that train of thought and concentrated on Raptor's mind.
Raptor's subconscious was like nothing he'd ever seen before. Most of the time, coma victims didn't dream. Their minds were focused on the outside world, but they couldn't see it or hear it. So they dredged memories up, memories of loved ones and friends. Raptor had memories, but she also had dreams.
The dreamscape was the mansion. Dreamer didn't see Raptor anywhere but he knew she was around there somewhere. He walked up the polished wood stairs and toward the room she and Jubilee had shared.
Raptor was sitting on the bed, brushing her hair. She glanced up as Dreamer entered the room and smiled. "Hi Dreamer. Have you seen Bobby? I've been looking for him but I can't find him."
Dreamer swallowed and took a step forward. "Raptor…"
"He said he'd find them for me."
The dreamscape suddenly shifted to a large communal house. Several children were playing games with soft toys at one end of a big grassy yard, while adults had a barbecue and talked. Raptor walked over to the children and knelt down. A dark-haired little girl in a pink sundress was laughing and playing with the others.
Dreamer walked over and stood beside Raptor. "Is that…"
"Me. I was only five years old," Raptor said, watching her younger self play. "I didn't know people could do what they did."
"What happened?" Dreamer asked. "Why were ya sent ta a foster home?"
The dreamscape changed again, this time to a small, rundown house with dying grass in the front yard. A big, beefy guy stood on the front porch, watching as a thirteen-year-old Raptor walked up the path.
"Where've you been, girl?" he asked. The younger Raptor glared at him and said, "school. Or were you so drunk you didn't remember that?"
The man hit her, sending her sprawling to the grass. She slowly got up and stormed past him into the house.
The older Raptor looked sad. "Richard. I lived with him for nine years. I met Jubilee when we were both seven. And when we were sixteen we ran away."
The dreamscape showed two teenaged girls, Raptor and Jubilee, walking away from a bar. A truck stopped beside them and a familiar voice asked, "you need a ride?"
"This's how ya met Logan," Dreamer realised. Raptor nodded. "Yes. He took us to the mansion, to a real family. But not my parents, never them…"
"Raptor, Ah came ta take ya back. Don' ya want ta see Bobby again?"
The dreamscape suddenly shifted to the room where they'd all been held captive by Damien, the Augmentator in the middle. The room was empty except for Raptor, Dreamer and Damien.
The older man laughed. "Foolish child," he said, "what makes you think your parents are even alive? For all you know, the people who kidnapped you killed them."
"Don' listen ta him, Raptor."
Raptor was huddled against the wall, tears shining in her dark eyes. Dreamer suddenly noticed that she was wearing pure white Spandex pants and a white Spandex leotard, and patches of deep crimson were appearing on her chest.
"That's it, bleed! You're useless anyway," Damien snarled. "You couldn't even save Rogue from death. You wasted your effort."
"Raptor, Rogue's alive! Ya saved her," Dreamer said desperately. Raptor shrank back against the wall, tears tricking down her cheeks, the patches of blood growing larger.
"Nobody's going to care if you die. You're just a waste of space," Damien hissed. "Even your parents don't care. If they did, why haven't they come looking for you? Or is it because they're dead?"
"Ya parents are alive," Dreamer said, dropping down in front of the sobbing girl. "Bobby found them, an' he's gonna bring them back ta th' mansion!"
"You're just a worthless piece of gutter trash," Damien said, grinning cruelly. "Only good for one thing. They'll use you and throw you away. You know it. Richard did, didn't he? So why should they be any different?"
Raptor covered her face with her hands. Dreamer grabbed her wrists and snapped, "ignore him! Are ya gonna let him do this ta ya? Ya know that what he says is all lies. Nothin' he says is true, Raptor!"
"All your friends are gone, little girl. I killed them, just like I'm going to kill you. You know it's inevitable. Why fight it?"
"Don' listen ta him, Raptor," Dreamer said, trying to shake Raptor out of the shock she'd slipped into, slumped against the wall and sobbing.
"But he killed… he killed you all…"
"Do Ah look dead ta ya, Raptor?" Dreamer asked. Raptor hid her face in her hands and kept crying. Dreamer gently but firmly removed her hands, took her face into his hands and made her look at him.
"Nobody's dead, Raptor. We're all waitin' f'ya ta come back t'us. Bobby's gone ta bring ya parents back, they're not dead either. None of us are. Now stop this!"
Raptor's spasmodic sobs stopped and she looked up at Damien, her eyes glittering angrily. She stood up, and the bloodstains disappeared. She threw back her head and howled like a wounded wolf, then charged at him. Before he could move, she was on him, hands around his throat.
She raised one arm and the hand morphed into a blade. But even struggling for breath, Damien grinned and said, "go ahead. You can't kill. You're helpless."
"Finish it, Raptor!" Dreamer hissed. Raptor plunged the hand-blade down into Damien's heart. He gasped as the blade pierced his heart and jerked reflexively. Raptor yanked the blade out, morphed it back into a hand and stood up. She turned to Dreamer and tears filled her eyes again.
He pulled her into a fierce hug. She clung to him as if she was afraid to let go. He spoke into her hair, "ya did a good job, Raptor."
"Is Bobby really getting my parents?"
"Ah wouldn't lie 'bout that, Raptor."
He could feel her tears as he stroked her hair, rocking her gently in his arms. Finally, she pulled away and wiped her face. "Take me home, Dreamer. Show me how to go home."
TBC. In Chapter Seven, the X-Men and some new recruits go to rescue their friends. Damien and Sabrina talk about one of Damien's sinister associates. Plans are unveiled…
