Chapter 8: The Metara
Home…
Sara woke, freezing cold, with a huge headache. She tried to raise her hand, and found she couldn't. She lifted her head and looked down; her wrists were strapped down. For a moment she thought she was back inside the warehouse, but the table beneath her was padded, and while not the most comfortable thing to lie on in the world, it didn't feel like the warehouse. The light was too bright, and hurt her eyes, so she lay back for a moment, feeling her head throb, and moaned, "Logan…where are you, God I need you…"
Hands were at her wrists, unfastening the straps, and she opened her eyes again as she was pulled tightly into his embrace. "Sara," he breathed into her hair raggedly, "Oh god, Sara. I missed ya so much, darlin'. Don't do that again."
"No. I won't. I promise." She hugged him back with all the feeling in her heart as the watching X-Men cheered.
Lilandra and Charles shared the two seats at the head of the table in the War Room. The Guard sat at one side of the table, the X-Men at the other, and Sara, as the accused, sat at the end of the table, Logan beside her. Lilandra spoke first.
"We came here to execute a traitor and his two assassins. The traitor is dead, and the assassin is dead, and both at your hands, Sara Michaels of Earth. This, the murder of two souls, whether deserved or not, would normally guarantee that you also face execution, if not at Our hands, then at the hands of Our Guard. However, extenuating circumstances have forced Us to take another look at the events of the past three days. We have, therefore, decided to commute your sentence." She took a breath, and continued. "Knowing that you were under the influence, or as Our friend Charles Xavier has put it, the 'possession' of an outside being, We find now that you were not responsible for what happened while you were possessed by the being known as Deathstar. Therefore, you are released, with our apologies." She held up a hand to halt everyone's movement. "We require only that you give us your word, your promise, that you will never again take another life."
Sara went pale. "Majestrix, I'm sorry, I can't promise that," she murmured. A ripple of shock went around the table, and Gladiator drew his energy blaster. "I am sorry for what I did, Lilandra," she continued. "I will carry the guilt for my husband's death for the rest of my life. No matter what he may have done to me, he didn't deserve for me to kill him the way I did." She blushed in shame as she stared at the table. "But I can't promise I will never kill again. I am a member of the X-Men. We have all taken an oath to protect the people of this world, and each other. If one of my teammates or an innocent is about to be killed, and I am in a position to stop it, I will kill the one threatening that person. I can't guarantee that that won't happen, Majestrix. And even if I resigned from the X-Men, this planet is still a dangerous one. I may still have to kill someone in self- defense."
Lilandra looked taken aback. "I hadn't thought of that," she blinked. "All right then. I want your word that you will not kill except in self- defense or in defense of another. Can you do that?"
Sara's smile was radiant. "Yes, Majestrix, I can," she smiled.
Home…
Sara turned over restlessly in her sleep.
Want to go home…
The voices were insistent, invading the deep, dreamless sleep she needed so badly.
Take us home.
"No," she murmured in her sleep. "No, I am home."
Logan woke up as he heard the low whisper beside him. He turned over and looked at Sara. It had been a long day, with the hearing and all. Moonlight entered the window, picking up the gleam of silver metal lacing what little of her skin could be seen under the thick blanket she had wrapped herself in. Her contact lens was sitting in its container on her bedside table.
Her white eye drove her crazy. It unnerved the others too. Hank had made a contact lens for her to wear; it had a violet iris and dark pupil on it. It looked like her other eye, and when she put it on, even Logan had felt much better. She looked a little more normal, though it was hard to ignore the silver plating covering half her body. It wasn't that unusual, to them; Colossus' body virtually turned to metal when he transformed to his invulnerable state. Cable had a cybernetic arm. And Husk, up in Snow Valley with the rest of the youngsters, including Jubilee, was able to turn her skin into anything she wanted to turn it into. They had just gotten used to…no, Logan corrected himself, I'm used to feeling her bare skin sliding under my hands when…
Another sound snapped him out of his reverie, and he looked down at his sleeping lover as she whispered in her sleep, "Leave me alone, please, leave me alone, I can't, I don't know where your home is."
He touched her shoulder gently, then realized it was smooth metal and she had no nerves to feel on the metal. As he looked down to find a patch of clear skin, he could have sworn the surface of the metal shimmered a little. Thinking it was just a trick of the light, he touched her actual skin and woke her from her nightmare gently. She turned to him, smiled, and they chased her nightmares away together.
They stumbled out to the breakfast table rather late the next morning, but they weren't the only ones. Charles and Lilandra came down a few seconds after they did, both impeccably dressed but with small smiles on their faces. Jean shot the Professor one look under her lashes, smiled, and returned to the stove, where she was just finishing the bacon. Scott had the same smile on his face, and Logan rather suspected something of the same sort was on his as well. Sara alone seemed slightly distant, wrapped in a thick sweater and long sleeved jacket. She suddenly seemed cold all the time. He couldn't figure out why; it was June, after all.
Lilandra seemed relaxed today, even engaging in some small joking around. Sara had a forkful of eggs halfway to her mouth when she said casually, "As my business here is concluded, I should be getting back to the Throneworld, but I can't bring myself to go home just yet…"
Her fork fell with a clatter to her plate, and everyone stared at her. She was staring out into space, her eyes blank, and her mouth moved. When her voice came out, it wasn't hers; it sounded like a hundred voices all speaking together. "Home," they whispered. "Take us home…"
Sara blinked, and her eyes returned to normal. She picked her fork back up and was about to resume eating when she realized they were all staring at her. "What?"
"What did you say?" Xavier asked her.
"What did I say?" she looked genuinely puzzled.
Jean crossed the breakfast room quickly. "I felt something too, Charles. Sara, can you let me in?" Sara dropped her shields.
Jean slipped into the first layer of her conscious, 'looking' around. Nothing. Charles followed her as they slipped into her subconscious…
And was assaulted by a blast of noise, the sound of a hundred thousand voices calling in concert, Take us home! The two telepaths reeled for a moment in the wave of sound. Charles steadied himself.
Who are you? he asked.
We are the lost, came the return answer. We want to go home. Take us home!
Where is home?
Far from here.
How far?
Lots of black spaces away.
Charles restrained himself from sighing, just barely. We are on a planet called Earth. What is your home called?
Metar.
How were you brought here?
By the black bird.
What are you doing here in the body of our friend?
We were put here by the black bird.
What do you look like?
In front of their eyes flashed a picture of the smooth silver surface of Sara's skin. Charles heard Jean gasp. Charles, the metal Koven bonded to Sara's skin…it's alive!
Charles took a closer look…and discovered it was true. What looked like a smooth plate of metal was, at the microscopic level, really a colony of thousands, of hundreds of tens of thousands, of microscopic silver organisms. It was all terribly clear. The metal wasn't metal at all, but living organisms. They wanted to return home, to the planet of their origin. It was a simple enough wish, but with one problem; it was permanently bonded to Sara's skin. We will do what we can, he promised the organisms, and withdrew.
He opened his eyes, and saw the same sick horror in her face that he saw on Jean's. He spoke, his voice tight. "Lilandra, did your scientists ever analyze the metal at the microscopic level?"
"No," she said, puzzled. "The planet it came from is the closest planet to a white dwarf star. It was too hot on the surface to do much of anything. Our probe, the one that went down to the surface to collect our samples of the metal, returned rather melted. We have kept it at the same surface temperature to maintain its fluidity."
"How many probes were sent down there to collect samples? How much of this stuff do you have?"
"Only the amounts Koven stole to create his creatures. We had the metal from his failed experiments melted down and returned to its fluid state, and my ship collected the parts of Gero's body" Sara flinched, and Lilandra shot her an apologetic glance but went on, "and the metal that was used on Sara here. Charles, why?"
"It's not metal, Lilandra. It's living creatures. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of them. They are microscopic. They came from a very hot planet, that's why Sara's been feeling so cold. Lilandra, they want to go home."
"That's what it meant, then," Logan said. They looked at him. "Sare, ya talk in yer sleep. Last night ya were mumblin' somethin' 'bout bein' home a'ready, that you didn't need ta go home. It wasn't you talkin', it was the organisms. But they can't go home, Chuck, they're bonded ta Sara's skin. The only way I can see ta get 'em off would be either ta melt it all off Sare's body, or ta have it removed magnetically…No!" he exploded as he saw a thought flash across Xavier's eyes. "Ya can't!"
Lilandra looked at Charles again for explanation. " I have an old friend, sometimes enemy, named Magneto. He manipulates powerful magnetic fields, Lilandra. He could possibly pull the metal magnetically from Sara's skin. Sara, if you would be willing to try it, then I will call him. He will come; he owes me a favor."
"Yeah, after all the times we gone an' pulled his fat out o' the fire," Logan grumbled.
"I'll try it, Charles," Sara said, a bit desperately as she shivered in her sweater and jacket. "They need to go home."
