Chapter 11 Faustian Bargain
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Marvel, except for my original characters, of course. But if Marvel wants to use them, they can. Feel free to post this, or any other Glaivester fic, anywhere, but please notify me so I can brag about it.
[A/N Sorry, I'm delaying the Rogueneto until next story. Also, only one more chapter after this one in this story].
Tuesday evening, Switzerland.
Fortunately, most of the lab was still here, so it did not look as if Zemo and the Red Skull had been able to take much equipment with them. SHIELD agents had come in and were confiscating or destroying everything that might be used to create the genocidal virus.
Upon discovering that the Red Skull had three-quarters activated the first sample of virus, SHIELD made certain that none of its agents on the ground had any known Jewish ancestors. The two that did were immediately quarantined, as was Kitty.
Doctor Chamberlain was freed, much to his joy.
Unfortunately, there was very bad news.
"Folks," said Fury. "It looks like Kitty was infected. So were two of our agents. There must have been traces of the virus on or in the Red Skull and she must have caught it when she came into contact with him. From what we know of the virus, symptoms should appear within forty-eight hours and she will most likely be dead within ninety-six."
Kitty, upon hearing this, became very frightened and began to cry.
"Isn't there anything we can do?" asked Logan.
"We'll try, but no, I don't think we can save her."
An hour later, Kurt, Wanda, and Talia were sitting on a balcony of the castle, very sad, when they heard a humming noise. Suddenly a being with silverish-pinkish metallic hair rose up on a metal horse, and stared at them.
"Who are you?" asked Kurt.
"I am a servant of Sinister. Don't you remember me?"
"Ruckus?" asked Kurt.
"I am War now. I have an offer to make you. I have here," he pointed to a vial in his left hand, "a cure for what ails Kitty. All I ask in return is a sample of Talia's tissue." He held out a syringe. "Oh, I also ask that Slayer be returned to Sinister. In return, I will give you this mind-cube." He held out a yellow cube, about a foot-long on each side. [A/N not the cosmic cube] "It will allow a telepath like Xavier to download the contents into Talia's brain piecemeal. So she won't grow up... without growing mentally."
Kurt should have been more cautious. He didn't know if he could trust Ruckus or not. But he wasn't. And Wanda, seeing an opportunity to save her daughter from mental retardation, encouraged him. He bamfed into the infirmary where Slayer was healing, and bamfed her out onto the balcony. He grabbed the syringe, and asked what to do.
"Just take a little tissue," explained Ruckus. Put the syringe in her earlobe. It will collect a little blood, a little epithelial tissue, etc.
Kurt did as he was asked and returned the syringe to Ruckus. "Thank you," explained Ruckus, as he picked up Slayer, saluted, and flew off into the distance.
Kurt looked at the vial. "Take orally," it stated. He bamfed into Kitty's quarantine cell and gave the vial to her. "It's a cure. Drink it!"
Kitty, figuring she had nothing to lose, did so.
"What the Hell is he doing?" demanded Nick Fury.
A few minutes later, Kurt explained it to him. Kurt had been allowed out of quarantine, because everyone there would have already been exposed to the virus, and seeing as he was not Jewish, it was unlikely that he would be affected.
"And you believed Sinister?" asked Fury incredulously. "We'll scan the cube. If it checks out, Xavier can try it. As for Kitty, well, we'll see what happens."
As it happened, by the next day, Kitty's body was clear of the virus (Zemo had designed an easy test that detected the virus itself and it was described in detail in his notes), and her antibody count was so high that Fury made a serum from her blood to cure the other two affected people.
Meanwhile, Sinister congratulated Ruckus/War on getting the sample.
"You did well. Now I can make a Talia clone. Sinister smiled. And little Slayer has come back to us. Too bad her brain does not heal as quickly or as well as her body, or she would not need those goggles. Well, now we shall have two of her, as Ms. Dexter is already working on making a clone of her."
Ruckus/War smiled back.
"Oh," Sinister remembered. "I also sent out Pestilence [A/N aka Hairbag]. He managed to get into contact with the stealth helicopter that the Red Skull was using to escape. He didn't manage to bring it down, but he did manage to get a captive."
Sinister smiled as the Red Skull was brought to him, flanked by Hairbag/ Pestilence and Ramrod/Famine.
Sinister's eyes narrowed. "I should kill you. You set my work back decades with your insipid little racism angle to creating a master race. You destroyed thousands of potential test subjects." Sinister then smiled broadly. "But you have also made yourself useful by altering your germ line. I will be mating you with several mutants over the future to produce a new generation of stronger, more advanced mutants to rule the world."
The Red Skull laughed. "Do your worst."
"Oh, but you see, you will be mated with all sorts of mutants. African. Australoids. Jews. Gypsies. Polish. Russian. Oh, we'll find lots for you to do, and you may have to condescend to sleep with filthy, inferior races." Sinister was obviously using a mocking tone in the last few words. "Oh, yes, you'll be so fortunate."
The Red Skull's face fell. "I won't."
"Oh, my associates are quite persuasive." Ms. Dexter walked up to him. "If Juggernaut could not resist her charms, what makes you think you can?"
"Let me go! Let me go!" The Red Skull was taken away, as Sinister threw his head back and laughed.