Nine

    "So, you are our mother?" Kurt asked Mystique.

    "Yes." She said tonelessly.

    "Not a very good one at that." Oz muttered.

    "I tried, it is not my fault that your father took you away from me."

    "Oh, no, even if he didn't you would have set me up for adoption."

    "I couldn't keep you!"

    "Shush." Oz said and looked around the tree. The shadows were close; some of them stopped and looked in her direction then continued on in their search.

    "You father took you before I even knew I had given birth to twins. I only saw Kurt and I knew I couldn't keep him, all with my work and I had no money. I figured putting him up for adoption would be the best thing for him."

    "Then how did you hear about me?" Oz asked still looking around the tree for anything moving closer.

    "When your father died I got a letter explaining everything, how he had stolen you and left me and what he did to you."

    Oz's breath caught, she spun around and looked at Mystique. "So you know what is in my head?"

    "Yes," she nodded. "When I found out I swore that I would find you and destroy the information in your mind. I thought the professor could help me with that, but I work with Magneto and going to Professor Xavier wouldn't have been to his liking. So I told Magneto that I wanted to find my children again."

    "And?"

    "Well, he asked why so I told him that one of my children was harboring the plan for the next apocalypse. He said it would be good if it got loose, maybe it would kill all the humans. Then I explained that it was mutants planning it to kill the rest of the mutants. He didn't really like that, so he came here to talk to Professor Xavier and see if he could find you. But you've been and he didn't know where you were, so I left to find you. Professor Xavier told me that Degas, the one after you was in Wyoming, so I went there and I fought her, then she caught your vibe and headed off. I tried to follow but I had a better idea, I'd come back here, surely the fight would wind up here sooner or later. So I did. And here you are."

    Oz arched and eyebrow. "Wow."

    "Don't say that."

    "Wow." Oz said defiantly.

    "I am still your mother."

    "So what? The end of the world is developing in my brain, there are hundreds of shadows trying to find me, some crazy psycho bitch is out to kill me so her screw boy can read my dead mind and get everything out. I just found out that I am a twin some odd days ago, that my mother is some crazy person who's husband stole me and oh! I'm bound to die sometime tonight! Yes, be my mother in my last hours, I need the solace."

    "Don't take that tone with me young woman-"

    "I'm twenty one Mystique, I've made it this far without you, I think I can make it the rest of my life without you. Thanks anyway." Oz raised her hand for silence. She looked up slowly, a shadow jumped down on top of her; it ripped out a saber and thrusted down into her abdomen. Oz yelped in pain, Mystique spun in a high kick, hitting the shadow in the neck, and throwing it off Oz. Kurt ran to Oz and pulled the saber out of her.

    "Damn." Oz spat. "That hurt."

    "Let's talk later." Mystique said slowly.

    "Well no shit Sherlock!" Oz shouted rubbing her gut. She looked up and saw that they were surrounded by the shadows. "Oh, damn."

    They charged, Kurt disappeared as well as Oz and they teleported in amongst the shadows throwing punches, kicks, Kurt use the saber and slashed out at the shadows, Oz use her claws and decapitated as many as she could teleport in front of. Mystique jumped in among them and fought them as best she could.

    The shadows retreated, some were laughing and cheering. Oz ripped her claws out of ones chest just as someone screamed. Oz looked up at Mystique who looked over at Kurt. Another scream ripped through the nighttime air. They looked around, more screams, like a group of people.

    Oz ran through a forest, Kurt ran after her trying to call her back. The shadows ran beside her, in front of her, behind her, they chanted her name, they chanted words of malice and words that brought fear to her heart. Kurt called to her more furiously, his voice full of worry and concern. Oz tripped on some roots. The shadows closed in, they had weapons, weapons she had never seen before, things from an alien race used to probe and pick and torture… she screamed. Kurt appeared with his saber, he challenged them and threatened them, they took steps back then stopped and assessed the situation then they again began to close in. he turned then to her, grabbed her with his tail and pulled her into his arms and they teleported away.

    They appeared in the mansion. She looked around but there was no one there. They ran around to the different rooms, but there was no trace of anyone. She ran outside to the front, the lawn was covered with bodies. Everyone who lived at the mansion was on the ground, blood covered them, the war had broken out on the steps of this school, and they had caught Professor Xavier and the other X-Men off guard. Mystique and Logan had run to the school grounds from the forest they looked down and gasped. Oz wheeled around to see where Kurt had gone, there was a blinding white light, she could hear Logan screaming her name, and then, something dug itself into her stomach. The pain was a searing white light, like the one she was starring into. And all the while Logan was screaming her name, she could hear him trying to get to her, but the shadows where there, they were fighting Logan, Mystique and Kurt, and the pain of her stomach made her feel as if she was falling.

    She could hear Degas laughing; she heard the front door of the mansion slam shut.

    "Finally, I got you and you are dying."

    "Oh," Oz was on the ground, the white light was fading, it blurred into more colors, and the interior of the mansion came back into view.

    Degas stood with shades, Jubilee stood next to her, her eyes were glazed over, her hand outstretched toward Oz, and white lights were circling her.

    Degas looked over at Jubilee. "Oh, no, it's not what you think Oz, she's not really betraying the Professor. One, he's dead, and two, she's dead."

    Jubilee crumbled to the ground, Toby was holding her up and channeling through her using his power to use her power.

    "Hello." Toby smiled down at her.

    "Oh, this hurts." Oz looked down, she was bleeding like there was no tomorrow, and hey, she thought, from this point of view I don't think there is.

    "You are finally dying!" Degas cheered.

    Oz pushed herself up off the ground. "Fuck dying, I don't have time to die."

    Degas stopped and starred at Oz intently. "I killed you. Jubilee is the only one who could kill you, Professor told her so."

    "Did he?" Oz coughed hard, she spat out blood.

    Degas turned to Toby who raised his hands in defense. "Hey, that's what he told her! That's what I picked up from her mind."

    "Idiots!" Oz laughed. "Of course he'd tell her that! Because he knew that you'd kill everyone and look into her mind and see it. Professor isn't a-" she coughed again. "Dumbass like you two." She spat out more blood.

    "Looks like you're dying from here." Degas smirked.

    "Well maybe I am, but before I do," she threw her arms down, her claws shot out and she glared evilly at Degas and Toby. "I have to kill you." she teleported behind Toby, she thrusted her claws through the back of his rib cage ripping his heart into three pieces. He screamed and she teleported behind Degas who spun around and shot a flamethrower in Oz's face. Oz yelped and teleported to the other side of Degas. She brought her claws down over Degas's shoulder, cutting the clavicle apart. Degas's arms fell but clung to her body by the skin of the armpit.

     Degas screamed and whipped her other hand around, she dug her fingernails in Oz's right shoulder and surged through Oz's skin a large fireball. Oz ripped to get away; she brought her claws up, slashing Degas across the face.

    Oz dug at her chest and felt the fireball sizing down. She curled her shoulders in and collapsed to her knees. She brought her arms up over her chest and the fireball died.

    Oz jumped up, slashed Degas across the chest, spun around and kicked her in the side sending Degas flying across the hall and smashing into the large grandfather clock. She ran over to her and pounded her fists and claws under Degas's ribcage aiming up. Then she ripped them out and dug them into her chest, ripping her chest cavity open and pulling out her heart.

    Degas made a final attempt to set Oz on fire, but the fireball miss Oz's face and hit the heart that was skewered on Oz's claws.

    Degas crumbled to the ground as Oz watched the heart burn, the muscle quivered and sizzled, making it look like it was still beating, but Oz knew that it wasn't and that Degas Oso was dead.

    Everything around her was very dim. She looked around the mansion; echoes could be heard and seen. Oz saw little kids running around the mansion hall, a bright yellow and white light shone around them. They weren't really there she realized, these were echoes, like ghosts. The heart was gone, her claws retraced and she collapsed to her knees clutching her stomach. It was still pierced where Toby channeling through Jubilee had struck her with an energy blast.

    She fell on her face, her eyes fluttered and tears slowly came out. No more would this place be full of laughing kids, arguing teachers, advising professors. No more would this place be a haven for mutant kids to grow and learn and develop. No more… would anything exist here.

    Someone came crashing through the front door. She could barely see them… a lot of them… hundreds of them? Her eyes fluttered closed, people were crying, someone screamed her name and tried to shake her awake.

    Five more minutes, she thought, I just need to sleep some more.