Epilogue:
The remains of Stryker's base were still smoldering as the Brotherhood moved among the wreckage looking for Rebecca…or her body.
Pyro was easily redirecting the remaining flames away from the search areas. Magneto was commanding Sabertooth and Deathstrike to shift the heavier debris out of the way. Everything was covered in dark gray soot, and it was difficult to tell the difference between what had been the walls and what had been the Sentinel
Sid was moving with the most urgency. He was not prompted by the chance that Rebecca had been injured by the explosion and fires. She had been shot, and she did not share his ability to regenerate. He had no way to know how serious her injury was until they found her.
A short distance away from the others, Toad searched through the rubble with much less enthusiasm. Magneto's assurances on the helicopter as they circled held much less weight now that they were on the ground. The base had been decimated; the mountain under which it had been hidden looked like it had been sliced in half. Thick clouds of smoke rolled across the charred landscape, making the air thick and breathing difficult.
Toad shoved pieces of wreckage aside roughly as he walked, scanning the ground for any sign of Rebecca. His mind was numb as he worked, unfeeling. Whenever his thoughts strayed back to the moments before the explosion, the image of that fiery rage caused unwanted emotions to stir up inside of him. He did not understand them, and did not know how to cope with them, so he buried them with all of his other unpleasant memories.
"Anything?" Sid's voice shouted angrily. The expression on the young man's face was understandably worried, but also becoming frustrated at the apathy of the Brotherhood.
If you wanted a shoulder to cry on, you should have stayed with the X-Men, Toad thought bitterly and continued on away from the others.
He made his way forward, the charred debris crunching under his boots, until he passed a large piece of rubble jutting out of the ground. Once he was out of view of the others, he crouched and rubbed his eyes with one hand. The dust and ash in the air were making his eyes water and sting.
His thoughts lingered again on those last moments in the hanger. Her anger…her rage…so different than the young woman who had helped him escape from their cell. After the mysterious tremors had passed over in the tunnels, Toad had walked beside her for a time. Even thought they had not spoken, it felt like they had. Something had passed between them, unspoken but…
"Oh, hell," Toad mumbled and wiped his face. He could hear Sid shouting again and wondered how he ever expected to find anything in this chaos.
When Toad stood to head back, something caught his attention amongst the rubble. It was not much, just a change in color against the gray ash. As he moved forward, he saw a hand lying against the ground. He walked over and lifted a wide, thin piece of debris from above the hand. He looked down and saw a thick tangle of hair, still partially braided as it ran down Rebecca's back.
Toad felt his blood run cold as he carefully shifted Rebecca into a sitting position, her head hanging limply against her left shoulder. She was covered in ash and soot, and the only color against the sea of gray was the red blood around her right shoulder.
He pulled a cloth from one of the many pockets in his coat, and pressed it against the wound. He reached forward and tilted her head upright, before pressing two fingers against the artery in her neck. The pulse was faint, but it was there.
Toad let out a haggard sigh, and then heard Rebecca's own strained breath. For a long moment, he could only stare at her. The hand checking for heartbeat was suddenly touching her face, his gloved palm covering her cheek and ear. There was another hint of red, this time from the hair closest to her scalp which had not been covered with the gray dust from the fire.
"Toad!" a voice rang out, and he jumped in surprise, "Have you found anything?"
It was Magneto's voice, and Toad turned his head to look over his shoulder.
"She's here!" he shouted, "She's alive! But, she's…"
Toad choked on a gasp as a hand closed around his right wrist. His palm was still against Rebecca's face, and when he looked back, her eyes were open wide. She looked up at him wearily, and struggled to take a deep breath. She moved her mouth, trying to speak. Then, Rebecca's eyes closed again, and the hand holding his wrist fell away.
Toad's heart was pounding as he watched her fall back into unconsciousness. Her hand had still been very warm and the shock against his cool skin had been almost painful. He could only imagine what would have happened if she had thought he was an enemy, and had lashed out again. But, her look had been one of recognition, not angry or disgusted, just relieved at being found, but…
"Becca?" Sid said as he knelt down next to them. Toad moved back as Sid reached down and drew his sister from the ground. Sid also checked for a pulse first, and then lifted the cloth on her shoulder to examine the wound.
"Jesus," he breathed, "We have to get her to a hospital."
"What makes you think they would help you?" Magneto said and Sid glared up at him, "How long do you think it would take before they discover you are mutants?"
Sid stood and drew Rebecca up with him, "It's never been a problem before."
"No, not when your physicians know of the Council and their people," Magneto said, "Correct? Do you really thing any local hospital will just take you in off the streets, without names, without explanations for your wounds?"
Sid did not reply as Magneto continued.
"The Lady is quiet adept at treating wounds like this. She can make use of the medical supplies in the helicopter until we reach the Island. We will go there directly…"
"Why not just take us home?" Sid asked angrily.
"You do not know just where we are, do you?" Magneto asked, "We are in the Appalachian chain, and the flight will be shorter to our Island. Besides, this began with our search for you, and I do still wish to continue our earlier conversations."
Magneto made a wide gesture, "Otherwise, you are free to go any direction you choose."
Sid sighed and, considering his only other option was to walk out of here and hope to find a doctor soon, he turned toward Magneto and nodded.
"Fine, let's go then, quickly, she's still bleeding," he said as he marched off in the direction of the helicopter.
As the aircraft rose, Mystique and Toad sat at the controls as the Lady Deathstrike tended to Rebecca's wound. Sid was by her side, closely watching everything the Lady was doing.
Pyro sat close by, and tried to give Sid an encouraging grin.
"Don't worry, man," he said, "She'll be okay. The Lady's good at this."
Sid glared over at him, but then sighed and nodded apologetically. He was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep for a few days.
Suddenly, a harsh ringing filled the enclosed cabin. Pyro frowned, and wondered if the noise was an alarm in the chopper. Sid looked around, and then began to pat his jacket until he drew his cell phone from one inner pocket. He stared at it for a moment, almost as if he did not recognize the device. He opened the cover and put the phone to his ear.
"Hello?" Sid said with a frown.
"Sid?" a voice called back, "Is that you?"
Sid's eyes grew wide, and his face filled with a surprised, and comical, fear. Pyro frowned, and thought Sid looked more nervous now than after the explosion.
"Uh…yeah, it's me," he said, "Hi, Uncle Sebastian."
"Ok…good," Sebastian said back, "Is Rebecca with you?"
Sid glanced over at his unconscious sister, "Um…yeah, she's here."
Sebastian sighed with relief, "Where are you guys? I've been trying to get a hold of you for hours."
"Oh," Sid said, "I guess…we've been kind of…out of range…"
"Well, now that I've found you," Sebastian continued, "I actually just wanted to ask you guys one quick question…"
"Sure," Sid said, and had a sick feeling he knew what the question would be.
"What the hell happened to the house?"
***
Author's note: Well, I had this entire epilogue written… and the power went out. I lost the entire file and had to start over again. Oh, well. It's snowing so maybe I'll get a day off out of it.
Finally wrapped up book 3. Hooray. Despite all that happened, I hope book 4 can be more lighthearted. Just have to figure out how to do that. Thanks to everyone who sent reviews! I appreciate feedback of any kind because it lets me know people are still reading. :-) A few last review responses and a review of crossovers again.
Crossover review:
Firestarter/Firestarter 2: Rekindled – Mostly based on movies; the six Lot program mutants were taken from Firestarter 2, scifi.com still has info about the movie up if you haven't seen it; Rebecca's appearance is based on the actress in movie 2.
Virtuosity – Yes, a movie about some weird killer VR guy, but the Sid in my story is based on the Sid in this movie, without being weird killer VR guy. Where I got the glass idea from.
The Prophecy – The movie stars Christopher Walken so is automatically worth watching. Mary is a character drawn directly from that.
Storm of the Century – Where the 'stranger' comes from; He's the big bad in that movie and I know he has a name but I couldn't remember it and I just started calling him the 'stranger.' Biblical references to the demon 'Legion' draw from that movie as well.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I know from the movies that Charles and Erik knew each other in their youth. I'm assuming for my story they were both draw to the Watcher's Council because of their supernatural abilities before 'mutants' became so publicly known.
Review responses:
Lil_Sis – You have way too much fun with acronyms.
writergirl/Jojo – Thank you for your compliments and keeping my swearing in line. :-)
WolfKyr – Thank you again. You save me where MS Word grammar checker fails. :-)
Deb1 – Sad chapters are the hardest to write, so I plan to make the next book a little more fun, even though everyone has a lot to deal with…again. :-) Thanks for your reviews!