Chapter 7: Kidnapping

"The Reavers are attacking," Xavier said grimly, leaning forward over the table. "They were downtown a few minutes ago, terrorizing a bus full of people. Now they're attacking Sara's hospital. Go and stop them, before they do any more damage."

Sara watched the Blackbird take off with a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach. She didn't know why, but even the euphoria of her engagement to Logan hadn't dispelled the sense of impending doom she'd felt hanging over her head. She didn't know why, unless it was because she'd started having contractions. The doctor had been worried that she was going into early labor once, and she'd gone to the hospital, but nothing came of it, except to make her even more anxious. Her due date was now only six weeks away, and she was so ready to go, now, as she found herself repeating to Logan nearly a dozen times a day. She was so tired of this; she couldn't tie her shoes, and she felt constantly like she was going to pop. Stairs had become a real effort for her, and she had begun to take Charles's elevator up and down. She had gained almost sixty pounds, and although the doctor had assured her over and over that the extra weight would go away, she wasn't sure how soon it would go away, and she wasn't sure how she would look after it did. Already her once-trim one hundred ten pound body had stretch marks all over.

Charles watched Sara as she stood in front of his study window, aware that something was wrong, even though she tried to pretend there wasn't. "Sara," he said gently, "It's always hard to watch someone you love go out there, no matter how many times you see it. I feel the same way each time any one of you goes, but there's nothing I can do except hope that I've taught you all enough for you to defend yourselves adequately, and come back safely."

Sara sighed in frustration, sitting down on a chair in his study. "It's not that, Charles. I don't know why; I can't explain it, but for some reason the last month or so I've been feeling like something bad's going to happen, and I don't know why I feel like that, or what it might be. It sort of feels like an itch you can't scratch that drives you nuts." She got up and started to pace, and Xavier thought she must be indeed upset, if she could find the energy to pace like that in the condition she was in. "It disturbs me that the Reavers are involved in this; Logan still gets nightmares from what they did to him in Australia. Oh, God, Charles, I think I'd die if anything happened to him!"

Charles was thinking that over, and wondering what to say in response when all the mansion's alert sirens went off at once. Sara and Charles got downstairs with all possible speed, Sara stopping in her room just long enough to grab Chang; but they never made it to the War Room, the heart of the mansion's security network. The mansion's electricity cut out and they were left standing in the front foyer when the massive wooden front doors blasted open. Lady Deathstrike, Cyber, and Sabretooth stood framed in the hole.

"Well, well, well," Deathstrike's face bloomed in a cruel smile. "Logan's little pet and the great Charles Xavier, sitting here and waiting for us to come and get you."

Xavier had never felt so helpless in his life. Sara was pregnant, how could he protect her? At that moment he wanted more than anything to be able to stand and defend her. There was no doubt in his mind that they were here for Sara. Why he didn't know, but he could guess. The three people standing in front of him all held grudges against Logan, and he had a sinking feeling that they were going to kill her.

Deathstrike turned to her two escorts. "Kill him, but take her. We need her alive."

Sara drew Chang, and placed herself between Xavier and their enemies. "You're not going to touch him," she said angrily.

Deathstrike laughed; not a pleasant sound. "You, child? As loaded down as you are, you're going to take us on?" Sara's hand went to the necklace around her neck, swiftly, unobtrusively, and closed around the pendant, activating the forcefield as she spoke to him telepathically. Charles. It's me they want, not you. Get to the end of the hall and flip the breaker. Once the electric is on, they can't touch either of us. I'll hold them off. Without giving him a chance to argue, she stepped into the battle. Charles paused there for a moment, torn between getting to her side and helping her, or going for the circuit box that would restore power to the mansion. It proved their undoing.

The slight hesitation allowed Sabretooth to reach him. The feral man lunged for him, and Xavier's hoverchair tipped over from the sudden weight and he went sprawling. Without assistance, he couldn't get back into the hoverchair fast enough. He knew he'd made a mistake; he should have done as Sara had suggested and headed for the breaker box he could see at the end of the hall. Too far, and out of reach. Sabretooth swung at him, striking him, and Charles fell to the floor, dizzy from the blow over his eye. The huge mutant towered over him, raising a gargantuan fist to strike Xavier again, and kill him.

Sara saw it too. With a shriek of pure fury she stumbled the few steps to Xavier's side, hauled him bodily into his chair, and thrust Chang into his grasp. The violet forcefield sprang to life around him, protecting him. She gasped out "Stay!" to Chang, and Charles sensed the sword's reluctant obedience as it fastened itself to his hand.

She stood in front of them, triumphant. "You won't touch him," she hissed at Deathstrike and Sabretooth. "You won't get through that forcefield."

Sabretooth howled in rage and flung himself at the forcefield protecting Xavier. Again, and again, and again. It didn't budge, didn't move. Charles sat in his chair, invincible, wrapped in that violet energy swirl.

Deathstrike hissed at him, "Stop that, you fool! The girl activated it, she can take it out! Work on her!" Sabretooth turned away from Xavier and struck Sara. She cried out, fell to the floor, her hand flying to the cruel bruise blooming on her cheek.

He snarled, growled, hissed, and howled at her as he kicked her, screaming at her, "Take down the damn forcefield!" Charles felt sick as he watched Sara resolutely clench her teeth against the words he was trying to beat out of her, and wrap her arms around her middle to protect the unborn children in her stomach.

"Enough!" Deathstrike screamed in impotent fury. "The X-Men will be here soon. Grab the girl and let's go! We can't face them here!" To Charles she said, "We'll let you know where we are…after we get there. We're going to set a trap for your beloved X-Men, with her as bait, and nothing's going to save them this time!" She gave an evil cackle as she, Sabretooth, and Cyber left, a barely conscious Sara slung between the two men.

Xavier went out, onto the lawn, just in time to see a helicopter with the three villains and Sara in it lift off in a flurry of noise, and fly away toward the west. He shaded his eyes from the brilliance of the setting sun, watching until the tiny black dot disappeared over the horizon. When it was gone, and he could see it no more, he bowed his head, feeling tears dampen his cheeks. And that was where the X-Men found him when they returned.

Jean was the first to reach him, running over the lawn to fall to her knees at his side. 'Charles!" she cried, her hands coming up under his chin to lift it so she could see the dark bruise swelling his eye closed, "what happened!?"

"Sara," Charles sobbed raggedly, unable to stop the tears flowing down his cheeks, "they took her, they beat her up and they took her, they were going to kill me but she stopped them, she saved my life, and I couldn't stop them, I couldn't save her, oh, dear God, Logan…" he looked up at Wolverine, standing stunned in front of him, and breathed, "Logan, I'm sorry..."

Scott came to his side, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Charles, you did what you could. It's not your fault."

"But it is!" Xavier cried in anguish. "She tried to save both of us, she told me to head for the breaker, to turn the electricity back on, if I had it would have activated the mansion's security systems and saved both of us. But I didn't listen to her, I thought I knew better, and the gift she gave me, the forcefield that saved my life was wasted. Oh, Sara, Sara, Sara…" And he turned and headed into the mansion, head and shoulders bowed in sorrow for what he had failed to do. She had given him the forcefield to protect him, leaving herself and her children unprotected, and he had thrown it away for his stupid pride, thinking he knew better. The X-Men, not knowing what to say, followed him into the mansion silently.

Sara awoke lying on something hard. Her back and hips ached, and her body was a massive ball of pain. She heard herself cry out with it, clamped her lip between her teeth to stop it, and opened bruised eyes, to see a number of black horizontal lines in front of her vision.

"She's awake," came a harsh, growling voice, and she nearly screamed as a metallic arm armed with an electric charge prodded her in her kidneys. She dragged her protesting body upright, and the lines in her vision resolved into the vertical bars of a cage. The arm retracted, and she stared at its owner in terror.

"Pierce," he said, sweeping her a mock bow. She knew his face from Xavier's files. This was Donald Pierce, the leader of the Reavers, and the one who had ordered Logan crucified on the wooden X back in Australia. Beside him was Lady Deathstrike, Cyber, Sabretooth, and the rest of the Reavers.

"Let me go," she said, but even to her own ears it sounded weak and pathetic. "Logan will kill you for this!"

"He'll never get the chance," Deathstrike said. "He and the others will walk right into the trap we're setting for them, and they will die. Most of them will die right away; I have no use for them. But Logan, your husband…him I will keep around to watch you give birth, and then I will kill you, and then I will kill his helpless newborn infant children in front of him.

"What kind of heartless monster are you?" Sara whispered. ""Our children haven't done anything to you. Why do you want to hurt them?"

Deathstrike hissed, "I am the heartless monster Logan has made me to be! I want to hurt them because if I do so I can hurt him! And he will come running, girl, he will come running when I show him you." She signaled, and Cyber and Sabretooth unlocked the cage she sat in, dragging her out and throwing her down on a cold metal table. Sara closed her eyes as her clothes were torn from her and she was strapped down. Not again, please not again, she begged God silently, but the binding went on. When she was helpless Cyber raised a hand over her throat, extruding only the claws that bore hallucinogenic compounds. He sank his talons deep into the veins of her neck, injecting the drugs into her neck vein.

Sara sank into a nightmare world within her own mind, where Richard stood over her and hurt her again. Sabretooth watched her strain against her bonds, the straps digging painfully into her swollen belly, and snorted. "I don't see anythin' happenin'," he said. He stepped up to the table, laying a hand on her thigh. Sara gasped out, "Logan, please…help me, oh God, help, please…" It gave him an idea. "Hey, Pretty Boy," he snarled. "Can ya use yer brainwashing power to make her think I'm Logan?"

"Yeah," the Reaver came forward, the fiber-optic cables extruding form his eyes, "What's that gonna do?"

Sabretooth smiled evilly. "Even if the X-Men manage to free her and get away from us alive the little runt won't ever have his girl back. She ain't gonna want him ta touch 'er after I'm done with her."

Deathstrike grinned maliciously as Pretty Boy went about programming Sara's brain. "Now why didn't I think of that," She purred as the Reaver moved aside and Sabretooth began to touch the helpless girl.

The X-Men didn't waste time. When Deathstrike sent them a call with a set of coordinates they ran for the Blackbird. Logan sat silently near the window as they flew above the clouds, heading for Australia. He should have known they would take her there. The site of his greatest nightmares and fears, and now his beloved was trapped there. His claws popped in and out, a quiet snikt, snakt the only sound in the plane.

He hadn't slept in the two days she'd been gone. He'd tried, knowing he had to be fresh, his wits sharp, for this battle, but no matter how he'd tried he simply couldn't. He kept getting out of their bed and looking around the nursery, at the things waiting for the children she was having, and hoped that when they found her she and the kids would still be alive. He knew they had taken her as revenge against him, and that they needed her alive, but there were a lot of things that could be done to her body that would leave her alive but cause incredible pain. He knew from experience that her captors could be quite creative with their tortures.

All his worst fears were realized when he finally saw her, lying strapped to a table in the Reavers' underground base. Bruises, welts, and cuts marred the smoothness of the skin among the metal latticework on her body, and her swollen stomach heaved with her tortured breathing. Claw marks on her neck showed where Cyber had pumped her full of the hallucinogenic drugs that were part of his physiology. The rest of the wounds on her body were definitely Sabretooth's work.

"You're gonna die," he snarled at Sabretooth, extending his claws. He didn't even try to hold back the animal fury rising within him; rather, he welcomed it and tapped into it for the strength he needed to save his beloved.

Fueled as they were by anger, it didn't take long for the X-Men to make short work of the Reavers. Cyber and Sabretooth followed them as they ran off, nursing wounds that Wolverine had inflicted. Still seeing red, he would have run after them when Jean's shouted telepathic command stopped him. He returned, slicing Sara's bonds easily with his claws and easing her unconscious body off the table into his arms, and carrying her onto the Blackbird.