She looked over her shoulder, Degas was in the jeep right behind her, and Logan was right behind the jeep. This chase started out just south of Cheyenne, Wyoming and now they were speeding by the four corners area. They last stopped in Denver when Oz lost them in the city and was able to refuel before shooting off again.
The desert highway was long and empty. The moon looked full though it couldn't have been. The desert land seemed to cast its own midnight light from the sand. The jeep closed in, the speeds were reaching well over a hundred Oz looked over her shoulder again and sped out of the jeep's range. She made it over a bridge before Oz muttered a curse, pulled a u-turn and stopped. The jeep screeched to a halt, Logan and Kurt sped past the jeep and joined Oz.
"Oz!" Kurt called out. "What are you doing?"
"This ends here Kurt." She said, revving her engine. Degas grinned from her jeep, Toby sat next to her and she revved the jeep's engine.
"Oz, we can teleport back to the mansion and-"
"And what Kurt? Wait for them to get us there?"
"Professor can help us out Oz." Logan said.
"Help us out how? By getting his precious X-Men killed for my shit? I don't think so Logan."
"Why do you oppose his help?"
"Why is your ego so damn big?"
He blinked. "Fair enough."
"Oz, if you fight now, we'll never be together."
"Together?" Logan asked.
"Hey Logan," Oz looked over at him. "That night when I transformed into my true self, why did you walk away?"
Logan looked at her. "Because I remembered who you were."
Oz arched an eyebrow. "I might be psychic, but I cannot read your mind right now, please explain."
"Remember Degas said we knew each other?"
"Yes."
"Well, before all this adamantium was put into my body I worked with Col. William Stryker and we worked on mutant spies… we worked on you."
Oz nodded. "I see."
"I felt bad, seeing you in your true form, that triggered something and I got a rush of my memory back. I was a little furious with myself, not to notice that it was you before hand. And… and to fall in-"
Degas gunned it; she peeled out of her spot on the bridge and rushed towards Logan, Kurt and Oz. Oz shouted something then peeled out, rushing into a head-on fight and possibly a head-on death.
At the last moment Oz jumped off her cycle and was catapulted toward the jeep. Degas stood up, abandoning the steering wheel to Toby who lunged over to grab it. Degas raised her hands and shot out a billowing flamethrower towards Oz whop landed on the jeep's hood narrowly missing the flames. She extended her claws and ripped through the windshield and tore into Degas's legs. Degas screamed and threw a fireball down; Oz dove into the back of the jeep leaving the fireball to collide with Toby's face. Degas turned around and dove after Oz who teleported out of the jeep and landed on the shoulder of the road.
Degas jumped out of the jeep, she hit the shoulder of the road and rolled to a stop. Logan and Kurt drove around the wild jeep and parked their cycle in a ditch then ran out to help Oz who was now in a standoff with Degas.
"You can't kill me Oz." Degas sneered. "I'm invincible."
"What the bloody fuck ever." Oz smiled and lunged out claws extended. She moved to slash Degas in the stomach but Degas sidestepped and kneed Oz in the gut. Oz fell to the ground, rolled away from Degas who brought her heel down to crush her windpipe and jumped up, slashing Degas in the thigh. Degas yelped and sent several fireballs toward her. Oz stood paralyzed in the path of the fireballs.
Kurt appeared, grabbed her and teleported to Logan's side. Oz turned and looked over at Degas who looked over her shoulder and grinned wider.
"It doesn't matter where you go Oz, I've locked onto you, I got you in here." She tapped her temple. "I've been working on my telepathic powers for some time now, they are not very strong, but they can track you, and right now, all that matters are all the little children." She laughed and walked off to the jeep. Toby was rubbing his face when Degas jumped into her jeep and sped off.
"All the little children?" Logan asked.
Kurt shrugged. "What was she talking about Oz?"
Oz widened her eyes and her jaw dropped. "Shit, she was the one who gave me those nightmares."
"What?"
"That night they found me!"
"What are you talking about?"
Oz turned to Kurt. "I had a nightmare that night Jean and Degas had me, I dreamt… shit we have to get back to the school now!"
"Oz!" Logan grabbed her. "What is going on?"
"She's going to murder everyone at the school!"
**** **** **** **** **** ****
Professor Xavier, Cyclops, Jean and Storm patrolled the school premises. Professor Xavier could feel the anger coming, but in what form he wasn't sure.
The clock chimed three; it was the darkest hour of the night when the shadow slid onto the school grounds. They crept around and slid into the mansion and into the halls. They stalked along the walls, sinking into the shadows when a strange sound alarmed them.
They scouted the premises, graphing whereabouts of the X-Men. They regrouped in the front and assembled a plan then she slinked off back into the shadows and back into the mansion.
Oz, Kurt and Logan scaled the wall and snuck into the mansion.
"Logan, you take the second floor corridor, get the kids out of here if you can, Kurt, you take the lower levels, and I'll stay here."
"Shouldn't we warn the Professor?"
"If you find him Kurt warn him." Oz nodded and slid off.
Logan nodded and snuck upstairs; Kurt gulped and made his way to the lower levels.
Oz paused by a corner. Someone was waiting on the other side of the corner they had heard her and she them. She extended her claws slowly and in a rush spun around the corer claws raised to kill.
Storm gasped and stumbled a step back. "Oz."
"Shh." Oz said looking Storm in the eye.
"Oz what are you doing back here?"
"What the hell are you doing here?" Oz questioned.
"What are you talking about?"
Oz punched her in the jaw, her claws retraced fast enough so she didn't cut into her cheek. Storm fell back against the wall and transformed back into Mystique.
"So, you knew it was me?"
Oz glared at her. "What are you doing here Mystique?"
"I've come to protect you like I always have."
"Always have- ha!" she said in a low voice. "You were never there to help me, you were never there to save me."
"I have recently."
"Recently, what about all those times when I was at Wayside Manor? You never helped me there."
"I couldn't."
Logan came running down the stairs and skidded to a stop right behind Oz. "Mystique!"
Mystique blew a kiss to him.
"What the fuck?" Logan moved closer.
Oz pushed Logan back. "You were never there for me mother, so go away."
"Mother?" Logan asked.
Mystique smiled at him.
"You never cared." Oz grunted and walked past her.
"I just saved your life from a shadow that was waiting for you right here Oz, the least you could do is thank me."
Oz spun around. "I've fended for myself for this long, what makes you think I couldn't deal with a shadow?"
Mystique arched and eyebrow and folded her arms across her chest. "I am still your mother-"
"Screw that." Oz turned and walked off.
Mystique turned back to Logan.
"I don't have time for this." He said and walked off after Oz.
Mystique smiled and jogged off for the lower levels.
"Oz, I got the kids out, well, most of them."
"Most of them?"
"Some of them weren't in their beds, I couldn't find them."
"Because they are here." Professor Xavier wheeled around the corner with about ten people following. "They are here to fight."
Rogue, Bobby, Jean, Scott, Storm, Kevin, Kitty, John was back along with Magneto and another girl Oz never met before.
"Oz, this is Jubilee she has the ability to energy, and raw energy and create energy blasts."
Oz took a step forward then stopped and spun around. Kurt was running toward her, he skidding to stop in her arms.
"Kurt!"
"There are hundreds of them downstairs!" he shouted. "Mystique is down there now fighting them!"
"Mystique?" Professor Xavier asked and looked up at Magneto. "I thought you said she didn't come with you."
"She didn't." he said. "You do know Charles, that Oz and Kurt here are her children."
Some people gasped, others nodded just now noticing the similarities.
"She's our mother?" Kurt asked looking at Oz.
"Yeah," Oz nodded. "She is." Oz let her brother go and ran off.
"Oh, okay." He said and ran after her.
Oz made it to the lower levels; Mystique lay in a heap by the elevator door. Oz crouched down and looked her over.
"Mystique," she whispered. "Hey."
"She won't wake."
Oz looked up and saw Degas and Toby.
"What did you do to her?"
"Don't worry, your precious mother isn't dead."
"She isn't precious." Oz hissed rising to her feet. Kurt appeared next to her and looked down at Mystique.
"You know, I have gone through a great deal just to kill you Oz, you have put me through so much trouble and you don't even remember the whole thing." Degas smiled.
"I know enough to kill you Degas, you betrayed me!"
"Wrong!" Degas went straight faced. "It was you who betrayed us! It was you who ran away and it was you who got all of us beaten for your dumb actions!"
"No," she shook her head. "I ran way to find a place for us, you know that!"
"We knew what we were doing, you were the one in the dark. We didn't care that we were killing people."
"They were innocent!"
"There is no such thing as innocent people Oz! You should know that by now."
"You're wrong Degas, what about all the kids here? They are innocent."
"Innocent my ass, they are run a ways, they have all committed some crime before they ended up here at this-"
"Haven."
"Prison." She smiled. "Correct facility."
"Degas."
"You still don't know anything do you Oz? There is no safe place for you in this world Oz, but I can protect you."
"Fuck that!" she screamed. "You'd kill of this information. I know you would! I know what Toby can do, he can read minds-dead minds!"
Degas looked over at Toby. "That is true, but you don't even know what is in you mind Oz."
"I don't care, if you are willing to kill me over it, maybe you shouldn't have it."
"I'll get it one way or another!" Degas shrieked and whipped a rope of fire over her head and lashed it out at Oz.
"Grab Mystique!" Oz ordered Kurt. He spun around but saw no one.
"She's not here."
Oz turned, grabbed Kurt and teleported out of the way of the rope.
"You cannot hide from me Oz!"
They appeared on the main floor. Oz looked over at Kurt and smiled weakly.
"I can't fight her."
"You have to."
"Kurt, I'm afraid!" she lowered her head. "I don't know if this is worth fighting for."
Kurt wrapped his arms around his sister in a hug. "I am here to help you fight, it is worth fighting for I assure you."
She turned in his arms and hugged him back. Logan ran into the room and froze. "Sorry if I am disturbing you two, but we have a problem."
Oz let go of Kurt and walked over the door. She peered outside and saw a dozen pair of red eyes floating in the shadows.
"What the fuck are those?" She asked then it dawned on her. "Damn it. We have to get out of here you guys, we have to fight this war somewhere else."
"But where?" Kurt asked.
"We have to lured them out of here, and into the forest." Her tail wrapped around Kurt's arms and pulled him closer. "Take the back way out and meet me in the forest. Lured as many as you can out, if you find Mystique get her to help you." she kissed him on the cheek. "And be safe Kurt."
He returned the kiss and ran off.
Logan looked at her. "Got a new boyfriend?"
Oz sighed and turned to look at him. "Shit!" she whipped around to see a shadow had taken form, a tall figure wrapped in a black cloak. It held a dagger the blade was bloody. She felt her back, the wound was deep, but closing fast. She extended her claws and punched the shadow square in the jaw. It shrieked and fell to the floor. She swiped at it, cutting its head off in one clean swipe.
She turned back to Logan, "Hurry up, lured them into the forest!" she ran out of the room, the shadows tried to overwhelm her but she attacked them and was able to squirm out of the heap, down the hall and out into the forest.
They turned to Logan who arched an eyebrow at them all then ran out of the window.
Oz skidded to a halt under an oak tree and caught her breath. She looked up at the starry sky and muttered a silent prayer.
