Chapter IX


As Erik focused all his attention on Raven and the computer screens, Pietro turned to Piotr. "Piotr!" he whispered, but the Russian ignored him. "Don't let him do this! Your sister has been avenged. Do you want millions of innocent people added to her name on the list of people that have died because of drugs?" As he spoke he wriggled his arms trying to loosen the knife that was in the sheath attached to his wrist. Piotr looked increasingly uncomfortable as Pietro spoke and Pietro could tell he had touched a nerve. "Listen Piotr. Help us to stop Erik. We could use a guy like you in Excalibur. We…"
"Pietro if you have any last words then don't you think we should all hear them?"
"If you stop now Erik then you might actually get out of here alive."
Erik laughed. "Brave words son, but I'm afraid you are in no position to back them up." He turned his attention back to the monitors and Pietro resumed his wriggling. He could feel the knife almost in his hand. He turned back to Piotr.
"Piotr listen to your heart. Illyana wouldn't have wanted this." Pietro could see the two sides of Piotr warring. One side knew that the murder of millions of innocents was something Illyana would never have been able to bear. On the other hand this way would kill the people who had murdered Illyana and stop anyone else dying because of drugs. Eventually he turned to Pietro and nodded once. Pietro grinned. All of a sudden things weren't looking so bad.
Raven turned to Erik. "Everything's ready, love. With the push of a button, the missiles will fire."
"Excellent." Erik turned to face Pietro and Remy. "This is your last chance son. Join me and we will reforge the world, together."
Pietro laughed. "Your plan's failed dad." With a sudden flick of his wrist he threw the knife into Raven's chest. Erik dropped to his knees by Raven and then turned to Piotr. "Kill them both!"
"No!"
Erik was so stunned he was momentarily speechless. "What?"
"This is madness Erik. I will not help in the murder of innocents."
"So be it." Erik pulled a gun from inside his jacket and fired. Piotr crumpled to the floor, blood pouring from a wound in his chest. Erik then lunged for the button that would fire the missiles but Pietro tackled him to the floor.
"It's over dad," Pietro spat but Erik merely grinned.
"I wouldn't be so sure." The door opened behind them and half a dozen guards ran in. Pietro let go of Erik and leapt to one side to avoid being cut down by the guards' machine guns. "Kill them both!" Erik shouted.
Pietro grabbed at the gun in Raven's hip holster, levelled it at the nearest guard and fired. The man was dead before he hit the floor. The other five opened fire again and Pietro ducked behind a control panel. After a few seconds he realised that the guards had stopped firing. They must have run out of bullets. Making the most of his opportunity Pietro leapt up, firing as he did so. His first two bullets took out another two guards, his third knocked one to the floor, a gaping hole in his leg, and the last two blew away the remaining guards. Pietro dropped the empty gun and looked around. Erik had disappeared amidst all the confusion. Cursing, Pietro ran over to Remy who was barely conscious. "Can you walk?"
"Yeah." Pietro helped Remy to his feet.
"Come on." Pietro grabbed Piotr's gun as they left.
"Where are we going?" Remy sounded almost delirious.
"We've got to find Rogue and Kitty and get out of here."

Erik opened the secret door that led to his study and breathed a sigh of relief. He had managed to escape into his secret tunnel amidst all the confusion. How could things have gone so badly wrong? Still, all was not lost. He pressed a button on his desk and the doors to his study opened. X23 strode into the room. "X23, find the intruders and kill them, immediately!" X23 bowed her head to him and then ran out of the room.
Yes, all was not lost. But he had to get away from here. If, and although it was unlikely Erik was a very careful man, if X23 failed to kill Pietro, his son would be hunting for him. Best that he leave no evidence as to what he had been doing here. He opened a panel on his desk to reveal a row of buttons. He pressed them in a certain order and a mechanised voice echoed throughout the châteaux. "Self-destruct has been activated. Self-destruct will occur in ten minutes." Unbeknownst to everyone except for Raven, Erik had gathered a large amount of explosives under his châteaux that he could detonate if things got out of control. Like now for instance.
Erik grabbed his briefcase, picked up a gun and looked around one last time. This place had been like a home to him for almost fifteen years. Still, it would not be too hard to find a new base. Especially not with Pietro out of the way.

Pietro and Remy were one floor above the cellblocks when they heard the announcement. "Self-destruct will occur in ten minutes." Pietro looked at Remy.
"Can you go any faster?"
Remy gritted his teeth and nodded. They were about to go down the stairs to the floor below when a figure barred their path. It was X23. Pietro brought his gun up but X23 had already leapt into the air and as Pietro tried to draw a bead on her she landed right in front of him. He snapped off a shot but unbelievably X23 dodged the bullet. She launched herself forwards in a flying kick that drove all the breath out of Pietro. Gasping he dropped to his knees, trying desperately to draw in a breath. X23 drew her two knives and raised them above her head. Pietro expected death to come at any second but instead X23 looked up and gasped. "You!" her voice was harsh and grating and as she spoke Pietro turned to see what had stopped her.
At the end of the corridor was a man that Pietro recognised. Short, with dark hair, wearing a ninja outfit and holding a katana in his hands. It was the Wolverine.
As the two faced each other off, Remy helped Pietro to his feet and they hurried down the stairs to the cellblocks. "Who was that guy?" Remy asked as they headed for the cells.
"Wolverine. An assassin. Guess they've met before." As they passed a monitoring room full of monitors, Pietro saw something that caught his attention. It was Erik hurrying out to the landing field. "You get the women and meet me outside." Before Remy had time to argue Pietro had sprinted off.

X23 and Wolverine faced each other in the corridor. X23 was the first to break the silence. "So they sent you after me. I should have known."
"You knew someone would catch you sooner or later."
"It makes little difference. My fighting ability has vastly improved since our last fight. You cannot hope to win."
"We shall see." With that the two leapt at each other. They moved faster than the human eye could follow, both masters of their own fighting style. After almost a minute of blocking and lunging they broke apart, both of them sweating and breathing heavily. "Not bad," X23 said before launching herself back at Wolverine.

Erik was at the door leading to the landing field when a sudden thought struck him. He didn't have the Gambit Program! Dropping his briefcase he turned and ran back to the elevator. After shooting several of his lackeys that got in his way he made his way to the control room, where he began frantically searching for the program.
"Looking for something?"
Erik whirled around to come face-to-face with Pietro, the Gambit Program in his hand.

Remy hurried into the cellblock. He frantically began searching cells when a voice behind him made him freeze.
"Hello Remy."
He turned and saw Raven standing in the doorway, her chest covered in blood and the bloodstained knife clutched in her right hand. She moved forward on shaking legs, grinning maniacally. "I'm going to enjoy killing you." She lunged at him.
Remy tried to dodge, but the beating he had taken earlier slowed his reflexes. He expected to feel the knife slash into him, but at the last second someone smashed into Raven's side sending her crashing to the floor. The person turned to face him and he was shocked to see it was Rogue. "Hey Remy. What kept you?"
Raven lunged at Rogue who sidestepped easily and kicked Raven hard in the ribs. Raven clutched at her ribs, then launched herself at Rogue in a flying kick that knocked Rogue to the floor but also caused Raven to lose her grip on the knife, which went skidding across the floor. Raven grasped Rogue's throat with her hands and began throttling her, her injury-induced strength almost causing Rogue to black out. Rogue tried to fight back but it was no is no good. She prepared herself to meet her maker but the pressure on her neck suddenly vanished. Looking up she could make out Raven's face frozen in a mask of surprise. She could also see the knife sticking out of her throat. She shoved Raven off her and Remy helped her up. Remy looked pale and shaken, although slightly exuberant at having killed Raven. The two looked at each other for a couple of seconds and then Remy said, "shouldn't we free Kitty."
"Right."

Wolverine was hurting. He could feel and he knew X23 could see it. This time he was barely able to bring his katana up to block her knife and her kick caught him totally off guard, throwing him into the wall. "Come on Wolverine, you can do better than that!" X23 sneered. Wolverine threw himself aside as she attempted to crush his windpipe and then lunged with his katana. X23 easily knocked it to one side and stabbed Wolverine in the stomach with one of her knives. Wolverine let out a gasp of pain and his eyes bulged wide. X23 moved close to him, preparing to deliver the deathblow. "You're too old for this kind of mission Wolverine. I'm far superior to you in every way." She was about to plunge her other knife into his heart when she felt something knick her neck. She clapped a hand to her neck and realised at once that a dart of some kind had hit her. Probably poisoned. She felt her vision dimming and she wavered where she stood. Her last thought was the wish that two years ago she had not murdered Wolverine's entire family.

Erik managed a smile as he saw the gun levelled at him in Pietro's hand. "Come now Pietro, you couldn't shoot your own father."
"Maybe, maybe not. Only one way to find out." Pietro raised the gun.
"Shoot me then. There's no one stopping you."
Pietro's index finger tightened, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Not in cold blood. He lowered the gun. "Get out of here!" he spat.
"Why would you want to let me go?"
"You won't be too hard to find. And next time, I won't hesitate to pull the trigger." Pietro turned to leave the room. He'd always had a kind of sixth sense; that was what had kept him alive for so long as an assassin and Excalibur agent and it was this that told him to throw himself to one side now. As it was the bullet still hit him, only in the leg instead of the back of the chest. Pietro let out a groan of agony and clutched his right leg, which had begun to bleed. Erik laughed again, mockingly.
"I on the other hand possess none of your strange reluctance to kill members of my own family." He levelled the gun at Pietro's head. "Goodbye son."
He pulled the trigger.

Ishandahalf and Storm-Pietro I'm glad you enjoyed chapter 8 and I hope chapter 9 was just as good. SO sorry for the delay, but chapter 10 should be up much sooner. Hope you enjoyed...