Chapter Six
Aura glanced at Solitaire worriedly. He'd been getting progressively worse as the hours passed. She'd finally ripped the sleeve off her jacket and bound it lightly over his eyes, which he said helped a little, but she knew the light was still bothering him.
Remy still hadn't woken up, and she was kind of glad about that. The wound on his right leg was no better, no worse, and the one on his head looked extremely painful. She changed the dressings using the supplies the red-haired girl had given her, but she knew that she was nowhere near experienced enough to deal with this sort of thing.
Tears sprang to her eyes and she pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, trying to stop the tears. ((Damn it, Langley, get a hold of yourself. Crying isn't going to help,)) she told herself severely. ((Deal with this. Everyone tells you how strong you are emotionally and mentally, now's the time to prove them right.))
The door swished open and Damien walked in, followed by Sabrina. The sight of the Australian girl who'd betrayed them all so easily sent Aura's blood boiling. She jerked to her feet and hissed, "what are you doing here, bitch?"
"Now, now, girls. Don't fight here," Damien said. "Believe me, you'll have plenty of time to do that later. Now, Miss Langley, my servants tell me you've been rather agitated lately."
"Wouldn't you be?" Aura forced the words out between clenched teeth. "I've been kidnapped and held against my will, I don't even know if any of my other friends are all right and the two people with me are sick and injured and you don't appear to give a damn about us! If we're so damned valuable why are you willing to just let Remy die, huh?"
"He won't die," Damien said casually. "He's much too strong to succumb to something as simple as infection. As for Solitaire, this keeps him much more manageable. You don't appear to be harmed, Miss Langley, so why are you so upset?"
"Because they're my friends, you piece of worthless scum-sucking filth," Aura snarled. "Because I care about them and I don't like to see them suffer."
"Kristin, I'm ashamed. I thought I taught you better than that."
Aura froze at the voice that came from behind Damien. Then, as he walked out, she started shaking.
The blood red eyes bored into her, as if searching her soul. Silver skin and the red diamond embedded in his forehead affirmed the fact: he was the man she hated, the man she had once loved as a father, and not a figment of her imagination or something conjured up by Damien to make her complacent. There was no way he could get the evil in those eyes.
Sinister, Nathaniel Essex, smiled at Aura, displaying razor-sharp teeth. "It's wonderful to finally see you again, Kristin. I've been looking for you and your friends for quite some time."
His gaze swept the room, taking in the two guys on the beds. "Ah, I see Remy is here, as promised. What does the other do? I must know that I have made a fair trade for my dreamseeker."
"He gets visions of the future," Damien said, as though he was discussing the merits of an animal he was selling, "and telekinesis is unusually strong with him. He has mild telepathy, also."
Sinister raised his eyebrows. "I admit I'm impressed," he commented. "These migraines, do they occur frequently?"
"From what my intelligence has been able to find out, they occur about monthly," Damien replied. "I don't see how it would be much of a hindrance. The boy has led a normal life until his mutation manifested."
"Well, I am anxious to get my property back. I could wish for Daniel to be mine again, but I can see how his brother would want to have him near again. And the boy Solitaire seems to be a fair trade. I accept your offer, Damien."
"No!" Aura cried. "I won't go back with him. I won't do those things again!"
"You hardly have a say in the matter," Sinister said. "Now behave or I'll see to it your friends suffer."
Aura stumbled backwards, getting as far away from Sinister as possible. He chuckled at her discomfort and said to Damien, "once Remy has recovered I'll take them. Until then, be sure they do not escape. Discipline them if they require it. I won't have my people uncivilised."
Damien nodded. "Of course. You do remember the other conditions of our deal?"
"Yes. They will be met, don't doubt that," Sinister replied. He glanced at Aura, who had dropped down beside Remy and was mechanically checking his wound. He chuckled again. "I am glad to have my people back. As soon as they are able to travel, I will remove them from here and return to my base of operations."
@ @ @
Logan and Storm waited anxiously for Jean to leave the Cerebro chamber. She'd insisted on trying to find Dreamer, Aura, Remy, Solitaire and Xavier using Cerebro, despite the risk with her relatively untrained mind. She emerged, pale and shaking but otherwise all right.
"Nebraska," she gasped. "Somewhere near the border of Nebraska."
Minutes later, Kurt, Raptor and Chantelle were talking intently to Jean, getting all the details they could. Finally, Raptor nodded. "I think that's all we're likely to get from one session with the brain-strainer, and I don't think it's a good idea to use it again, Jean, so don't suggest that. Kurt, Channy and I can find them using the info you got us."
The other X-Men were watching, worried expressions on their faces. Bobby said, "I still don't like you risking yourself so soon after everything that happened, Raptor."
"I'll be fine, Bobby," Raptor said gently. "I can take care of myself. I'll be back, I promise."
She kissed him and whispered, "I could never leave you for long. Not after last time."
Chantelle was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her hair streaked yellow, silver and blue. She was fading in and out of sight as she got more apprehensive.
"Rap, I know I'll be fine; I'll be invisible. But are you sure you and Kurt'll be okay?" she asked.
Raptor nodded. "We'll be all right. It's been months since they've seen me. The metal girl has, but it'll take her ages to get back to Nebraska. A little makeup, some different clothes, they won't know who I am. And like Kurt said before, if his holographic inducer is projecting a different image they'll never even guess he's not who he says he is."
She frowned. "Of course, I'll have to borrow some stuff that isn't Spandex. Chantelle, you got anything I can use?"
"Sure. Come with me and we'll figure out what a girl who wants to work for Damien would wear."
They went to the room Chantelle shared with Aura and threw all the clothes in Chantelle's half of the closet onto the bed. The empath picked through them, taking out various items and placing them on the armchair. Mostly things in dark colours, like black, navy blue and forest green. "That should do it. When we went there last week, all the girls wore dark colours. You should fit in fine with these. But what about your hair? They'll know it's you if you go in with long black hair."
"I can fix that," Raptor said. She passed her braid through her hands, turning it strawberry blonde. She blinked at her reflection. "Geez. I look like a blonde bimbo," she muttered. "But my eyes are too dark. You don't see many blondes with dark brown eyes."
"Contacts," Chantelle said. "We'll buy some along the way. Now try on this outfit and we'll see how you look."
Half an hour later, Chantelle walked out of her room and grinned at the waiting X-Men. "Guys, meet Tori, our rebel mutant runaway."
A girl wearing torn black jeans and a black sleeveless shirt came out of the room. Her reddish-blonde hair was up in a punk hairstyle and she wore black lipstick and dark blue and silver eyeshadow.
She smiled. "Don't look so surprised. It's only me. I've just turned into a little blonde Goth, that's all."
"You look really different," Cat said approvingly. "They'll never know it's you."
@ @ @
Scott paced around his cell. He'd tried endless times to contact Jean through their telepathic link but the karamantium cuffs blocked the link. He didn't have to wear his visor, what with the cuffs locked around his wrists negating his power, but he didn't take it off. Doing that would be acknowledging that he was beaten.
The white walls of the cell were pink through the ruby quartz of his visor. The only things breaking the monotonous white/pink were the bed and the wooden table with three chairs. Not that anyone but Damien, Sabrina and Adam had ever come into the cell, apart from the anonymous nurses whose only job seemed to be drawing blood.
He rubbed his arm absent-mindedly. They'd taken so much blood over the past few days that his arm was bruised from halfway up his upper arm to halfway to his wrist. His arm hurt, but that didn't stop him from pacing the length of the cell and punching the wall each time.
He still couldn't believe he'd been captured so easily. Deep down he knew that it couldn't have been prevented, that none of them had even thought that Discordia would be able to take on a mutant's powers when she morphed them, but he couldn't help feeling he was to blame somehow. And hoping that none of the others had been captured as well.
((I should have seen it coming,)) he berated himself. ((Stupid to think it'd be so easy. Why else would they let Rogue know where they were unless they were planning a trap?))
The door swished open suddenly and Adam walked in. Scott was still shocked every time he saw Dreamer's brother. They were virtually identical, apart from their different-coloured eyes and Adam's longer hair. Dreamer's navy hair was cut short and spiky, while Adam's was long enough to pull back into a ponytail.
"Mornin', Scott. How're ya doin'?"
"Like you care," Scott muttered.
Adam grinned. "Ya raht, Ah don' particularly care that much 'bout ya an' th'others. Just makin' small talk."
"What others?" Scott asked.
Adam's smile widened. "Damien didn't tell ya? We had a l'il expedition ta th' mansion an' picked up a few acquisitions, Scotty-boy. Mah brothah, of course, th' Professah, Aura, Remy an' Solitaire. Ah wanted ta bring ya wife – it'd be kinda excitin' ta see if th' baby turns out ta be a mutant – but there really wasn't enough tahme. So we got th' ones we really wanted, an' th' Professah ta do a l'il job for us. Of course, that's where y'all come in. If he won't do what we need, then Ah'm afraid we'll have ta use a l'il unfriendly persuasion."
"Xavier would never do anything to help scum like you."
"Scum… Ah kinda lahke that. Y'all gotta realise, Scott, ya cain't stop us from doin' what we're plannin'. Somethin' big is about ta go down, an' we c'n either be part of it or swept aside. Y'all at th' mansion, ya don' know half of what's goin' on in th' world. Ya're all too sheltered ta realise that sometahmes th' peaceful way don' work. Y'all gonna be in th' way of humanity's hatred of anythin' new, an' y'all gonna suffer for ya ideals. Well, Ah won' let mah brothah be part of that."
"It's not going to go down like that," Scott said.
Adam shook his head, navy hair falling into his dark purple eyes. "Yah, it is, Scott. Ah didn' want ta believe it mahself, but Ah c'n see Damien's point here. Ya either on th' side that'll win or th' side that'll lose. Are ya so sure ya're on th' raht side?"
"Logan asked Storm that once before. You know what she said? 'At least I've chosen a side'. Well, I've chosen my side and nothing you say can change that. I don't know what happened to make you believe this bullshit, but hurting and killing will never be the right way. I would rather die than become as full of hate and anger as you. You can paint this any way you want, but the only reason you hate us is because your brother trusts us instead of you. And can you blame him? You kidnapped him and three of his friends, you're keeping us all captives here. What makes you think Dreamer will ever trust you after this?"
Adam's smile was bitter and tinged with hatred. "Ah'll make him see that our way is th' raht way. Ah don' care what it takes."
"I'm right and you know it. You aren't saving him from anything, you're just ensuring that he'll never trust you."
"Shut up," Adam snapped.
Scott smiled briefly. "Can't take it, huh? You can spout all that crap about wanting the best for Dreamer, but the truth is, you can't handle this alone."
"Ah said shut up."
"Sabrina and Damien too full-on for you? Or did you find out about how easily Damien kills his workers? What makes you think you're any different? You—"
Adam growled and aimed at Scott. Electricity crackled from his hands and threw Scott against the wall. The leader of the X-Men chuckled painfully. "I'm right," he rasped. Adam turned to leave, Scott's mocking laughter echoing in his ears.
"No. This's th' way things are. Ya cain't change that."
"I'm right. You know I'm right."
"No. This is th' only way."
TBC. In Chapter Seven, Kurt and Raptor get taken to the base. They talk to Scott. Jean meets Aura's new boyfriend. Dreamer and Damien 'talk'…
