I awoke to a someone tapping, and the sound of a low voice cursing in
German. I was groggy, disoriented, and strangely not alarmed. Kurt moved,
as if it to get out of the bed, and I tightened my arm around him. "Don't
go," I said softly. For the first time in days I felt safe, warm, and
comforted. I didn't want that taken away from me.
The persistent knock sounded again, and I cursed whoever was out there knocking on the door. I was happy here Dammit, where I didn't have to think of anything. There was no family, no missing people, no mass murderers. There was just Kurt, me, and darkness, and that's all I wanted. Reluctantly I let him go, and kissed me gently on the forehead before going to answer the door.
Logan leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. For once, there wasn't a stogie gripped in his teeth. In faded blue jeans and a flannel shirt he looked like he'd just walked in from a week in the woods. He looked at Kurt for a moment, then snorted. "She still here, elf?"
"Ja." Kurt said. "Watch your eyes Morgan." He warned me, and I pulled the blanket up over my head. I heard the click of a switch, and footsteps, then the door closed.
"Did you two have a good sleep?" Logan asked. The statement could have been a loaded question, but I didn't get that impression. It sounded sincere enough, which surprised me.
"As well as can be expected." Kurt said. I felt someone's weight settle on the band, and a three fingered hand rested on my leg. "Come, Morgan. Unwrap yourself."
I sighed and disentangled myself from the blankets. Blearily, I scrubbed at my eyes and sat up, trying to rub the sleep from them. Kurt patted my knee, and Logan said "Morning."
"Bah." I replied eloquently, and he chuckled. "Is that bitch conscious yet?" I asked. I wanted to question her about my mom as soon as possible.
"I wouldn't have thought so, but yeah. She's awake. That's why I came up here. Thought you might like to ask her a few things." Logan said.
I couldn't stop the wicked grin from spreading over my face. "Oh, there's a lot more I'd like to do other than question her." I entertained a brief fantasy of dipping her in boiling oil, or perhaps beating her to a bloody pulp with my bare hands. It seemed I preferred the latter, for my hands flexed almost unconsciously. "Fortunately, I'm a good person, and I'll just keep all that stuff away for my fantasies."
Logan barked a short laugh. "Yeah well, the reality is never as good ya know." He sounded as if he spoke from experience. Briefly, I wondered how this man was in a real fight. I shuddered inwardly. I don't think I wanted to know. He didn't strike me as the type who had any hesitation over killing, what with those short swords springing from his hands. "So you wanna go down now?"
I nodded. "Give me five minutes, and we can go straight down." I could want to question her all I wanted, but I wouldn't be able to focus on much with a full bladder. I excused myself to the restroom, and while I was there splashed some water on my face and ran a brush through my hair. Then we trooped out of Kurt's room.
We walked to the sublevels of the school in silence, each wrapped in our own thoughts. Kurt slipped his hand into mine, and I gripped it gratefully. Just hours ago, I'd been bemoaning how chaotic my life had become, and now I was contemplating the horror of having never met Kurt. If we all made it through this, I made a mental to note to yell at him for bringing me so much grief, and then drag him off to the nearest private room and show him exactly why I was willing to put up with all of it.
The cell Candy was being kept in was an eight foot by eight foot stainless steel cube. It had a small cot built into the wall, a tiny toilet and a sink. She was standing in the middle of this small room, eyes tightly shut, as if she were concentrating. Slowly, she reached a hand up to the silver collar that Logan had put on her, and when her fingers touched it, there was a bright spark and she snatched her hand back with a hiss. I could see that the fingertips of both hands were an angry red, as if she'd been shocked often, and I grinned with grim pleasure.
Logan left Kurt and I in a small room with a table and four chairs. The table was a long one, and faced a wall that was mostly window. The chairs all lined one side of the table, as if this room was used for observation. I was too nervous to sit. I stood, chewing absently on a lock of hair while Logan left.
He reappeared a few moments later, shoving Candy into the stark white room the window fed into, and slamming the door shut. The woman howled and threw herself at the door, pounding on it and cursing for Logan to let her out.
Logan came into the room, and settled into one of the chairs. There was a button on the table, and he pushed it. "So, what's your name?" he asked.
"Go to hell." Candy spat out. Her hand went for the collar again, and she got another shock for it.
"That collar is repressing any sort of abilities that you have." Logan said idly. "You're just about as helpless as a regular human being right now."
She glared at the glass. "Fuck you."
"No thanks. I've sworn of whores." Logan said, unfazed. Candy shrieked and threw herself at the glass, bouncing harmlessly off of it and sprawling out on the floor. "Temper temper," Logan chuckled.
"This is getting us nowhere." I muttered.
"I agree." Kurt said. Still, he rested a hand on my knee comfortingly. "But this is all the recourse that we have."
"Is that little boy blue I hear?" Candy said, and her voice became sing- songy. "Little boy blue let me blow horn," Kurt stiffened, his grip on my knee becoming more painful. "The brunette's in the bar, the blonde's making porn, Where is the blue boy looking for a girl who's cheap? He's under the redhead not making a peep. Will you fuck him? No not I, for if I do I'm sure to die!" She laughed, and it was an entirely naughty laugh, as if she were simply flirting with him. Either way, Kurt was gripping my knee so hard it hurt. "Poor Kurt, you weren't expecting that were you? Thought I was just a pretty little girl, didn't you?"
Kurt shook his head, his eyes squeezed shut tightly. "No," he whispered harshly. I touched his shoulder, and felt he was as tightly wound as a spring, his muscles quivering.
"Don't you remember Kurt? Oh, that bar was so crowded, sooo smoky. You'd tracked down that a lot of the people I've killed hung out in that bar, hadn't you? You were expecting a man. Someone big, someone burly. Ooooh but I wasn't expecting you. So juicy, so tempting, with so many perfectly useful gifts." She licked her lips.
"Stop it." I said, and she gave a harsh laugh. "Logan, this isn't-"
He reached out and hit the button. "Let her talk. She may spill something." He said.
Kurt was shaking so hard I could hear his chair scraping across the floor. Abruptly, he stood, release my knee and knocking his chair back a few feet. "It was so easy. Bat my eyes, wiggle my hips, pretend to be interested, and you were oh so ready weren't you?" Candy cooed.
"Halt die Schnauze! Ich möchte nicht dieses hören!" Kurt snarled. "Ja Sie!" Candy hissed, and I stared in surprise. I didn't know she spoke German. I could tell Logan wasn't happy with it either. He frowned, hands balling into fists. "Sie möchten sich erinnern. Sie sterben, um sich zu erinnern sind nicht Sie?" she continued.
"Nien." Kurt said. He was crouched in the corner, tail lashing, eyes closed.
"Sterbend, um sich an die Weise zu erinnern berührte ich Sie, die Weise küßte ich Sie."
"Lies." Kurt hissed, his eyes narrowed to golden slits, and expression of rage slowly creeping over his face.
Candy, meanwhile, had stepped nearer the glass. Her head was back, and she ran her hands down her body slowly, suggestively, over her breasts and down across the flat plain of her stomach to her thighs. She brought her face down, and there was an expression of lewd ecstasy. She licked her lips and said "Sterben, zum sich zu erinnern, an wie ich das Fleisch von Ihrer Rückseite zerriß und Sie zu Ihren Knien holte."
Kurt growled, an animalistic rumble that started from his chest and ripped from his throat in a wordless scream of rage. Abruptly, he was gone from his spot and in the cell with Candy. I watched, horrified, as he picked her by her neck and threw her across the cell. She slammed into the wall, head bouncing off of it, and slumped to the ground.
Logan was out of his chair a split second before I was. He didn't bother going through the door, he simply launched himself through the glass and into the small room. I clambered through the hole myself. Logan planted himself firmly between Candy and Kurt. "Elf, get a grip. You can't kill her." His tone very much implied a 'yet.'
"Get out of my way Logan. Move, or I'll move you." Kurt said. His voice was calm, distant, as if he wasn't really all there.
"No can do bub." Logan crossed his arms over his chest. "You'll have to move me, cause I ain't movin."
Candy shifted on the bed, a low trickle of laughter escaping her lips. It didn't help things. Kurt ported around her again, and grabbed her by her hair. Logan spun around and in turn grabbed Kurt by his tail. I stepped in, and laid a single hand on Kurt's shoulder.
"Kurt." I said softly, and tried to put everything I felt into that one word. There was a sudden silence in the room, heavy, thick, and I wondered if it had been just what I said that made it go quiet.
Kurt's eyes flickered to me, and widened slightly. "Liebe," he said, "you're glowing."
I looked down at my skin, and sure enough, there was that shimmer of rainbow glitter under my skin. Only I didn't feel hot, didn't feel pressured to change like I had the first time it had happened. "So I am." I said.
"Freak." Candy muttered, and laughed. Kurt wrenched her head around roughly, and she yelped with pain.
"Let her go, Kurt." I said. "Please. She's the only one who can tell me where my mother is." I laid a hand on his arm, and abruptly, he released her. He was still shaking, still looking so angry, so enraged. But I saw in his eyes that he was hurting, he was scared, and I understood that. Wordlessly, I took him into my arms, and held him. For a long moment, he simply stood there, not moving, hands hanging at his sides. Then, hesitantly, I felt his hands come around my waist, and he crushed me to him.
A breeze stirred through the room, whisping my hair around my shoulders, stirring my clothes. It was a cool breeze, promising. It carried the scent of earth, and rain, and the new growth of spring. I held Kurt, his face buried in my chest, arms firmly wrapped around my waist, as his shoulders shook. I could feel the wetness of his tears soaking through my shirt, could feel the spasms of his body as it shook with silent sobs. The breeze picked up, growing a bit warmer. "Where the hell is that wind coming from?" Logan asked, puzzled.
I turned to face him, and answered. "Me." I should have found that strange, but I didn't. I knew that the breeze was coming from me, just as I knew how to breathe. It was instinct. So natural, I couldn't understand why it hadn't been there before. Even more, my feet were no longer touching the ground, and I wasn't perturbed by this at all. It also seemed as natural as my heartbeat, as if I couldn't live my life any other way.
Later, I'd wonder about this. Right now, I need Kurt calm, and I needed to find my mother. Those were the two most important things.
I turned to Candy, and said "You will tell me where my mother is."
"No." Candy said.
"I know where she is," Kurt said, and his voice sounded dry, raspy. "Likely, she is being held, where I was tortured." He turned haunted eyes to me. "I remember."
I felt a sudden feeling of elation mixed with bitter sorrow. I was happy that he remembered, for that meant we could save my mother, but said because he had enough bad memories in his life, and he didn't need more.
The next few hours passed in a blur. Candy was safely locked back up in a cell, and Logan had gathered a team to go in and rescue my mom. They'd tried to insist that I stay, but I had threatened to stow away on the Blackbird if they didn't take me with them, and they'd relented.
Now, the six of us were standing outside of an old, broken down warehouse on the outskirts of town. Kurt was there, and Logan. Storm too, with Rogue and Gambit. Scott had gone to DC to meet up with the Professor, and Jean was in charge of the mansion with us gone. They were all wearing dark clothing, it looked like leather, but I wasn't sure. I'd wrapped myself in shadows, an illusion so dark that I think everyone but Kurt wouldn't have been able to see me.
My floating episode, as well as the breeze, was quite over. I was trying not to mull the situation over too much in my mind. It was a distraction I didn't need at the moment. What was important was that I concentrated on the mission at hand. While in the blackbird, they'd wired me up with a small ear piece and a mic. I was the decoy, the scout. Oh they hadn't wanted to do it, to be sure. It'd led to a screaming fight between Kurt and I-our very first- but they'd conceded that I was the best person for the job, simply for my ability to look the part.
"Are you ready?" Kurt asked, and I nodded. "Be careful Morgan, please." He brushed a finger down my cheek.
I took a deep breath, and cast the detestable illusion. Now instead of me, I looked like Candy. Hopefully, I'd be able to pull of being her long enough to find my mom, and to find out where the guards were. The two men that had dumped Kurt were, for lack of a better term, Candy's slaves. They bowed to her every whim, Kurt had said.
I squared my shoulders, and headed toward the warehouse with a confident step. The door was unlocked, so I went right in. I took a moment to get my bearings, scanning the hall I'd just stepped into. It was short, and had two doors, one on the right and one on the left, then ended. "Two doors," I whispered, and hoped they heard me. "One on the right, and one on the left."
"Go right," Kurt's voice came to me. I took the right door. It was another hallway, with a door at the far end. I went down the hallway to the second door, and opened it. This was a large room, with a few overturned desks, and scattered pieces of furniture laying about. Why was it that abandon buildings always had to have furniture left in them? I skirted most of the debris on the floor, to the door that was across the hall.
I opened the door and stepped through into what could only be the main storage area. The ceiling was high, about fifty feet, and I'd say that it was about 150 feet in either direction. There were large pillars at regular intervals, and an odd assortment of junk scattered about. Two junked cars, a junked van, shopping carts, papers, and broken furniture as well as an odd assortment of other things now filled the space. There was a light, pretty much dead center, and a few upright desks there. A TV was blaring, and the large man I remember from the very night this all began was watching it. He had short, black hair, and was wearing a muscle shirt and blue jeans. There was a scar that went across his face, over his left eye, across his nose and vanishing on the right side of his jaw. Nearby, in a threadbare armchair, was the smaller man. He was curled up, reading a book whose title I couldn't read.
Between the two of them, was my mother. She lay limply between the two, not tied, not gagged, just laid there in a little ball. Her clothes were in shreds, hanging off of her body, some of them were tinged brown with old blood. It took sheer force of will to keep me from running to her.
I didn't want to talk to the men. I didn't want to have anything to do with them. I slipped back through the door, my heart pounding, my breath coming in short gasps. I leaned against the wall heavily and tried to calm myself down.
"Morgan? Liebe? What's wrong?" Kurt's voice came to me urgently.
"They're here. She's here. Oh God, Kurt.. I think she might be dead!" I clapped a hand over my mouth, trying to choke back a panicked sob.
"We are on our way." Kurt said.
The few short minutes it took them to get into the warehouse felt like agonizingly long years. I tucked myself into a corner, ridding myself of the slimy illusion. Kurt found me there, and squatted down in front of me, resting his hands on my knees. "Morgan, do you want to wait outside?" he asked.
I shook my head. "No. Mom won't know you. If she's alive-"
"She's alive." Logan said, and tapped the side of his nose. "I c'n smell it. She's afraid, and she's in a lot of pain, but she's alive." A dark look crossed his face, and he snarled. "Let's get in there."
I heard a sharp cry of pain, and it brought me to my feet. They were doing something, they were hurting my mom! I hadn't even realized I'd started running for the door until I found myself flat on my back. Kurt had me pinned, a hand clamped firmly over my mouth. I stared up at him in surprise. "No. Stay here. We will handle it from this point on."
I acquiesced mainly because I had no other choice. I nodded, and watched as they all slipped through the doorway. I crawled across the floor to the door, and looked through it.
The two men were wrestling with my mother, the smaller one pinning her arms firmly, and the larger one pressing his bulk down on her, pinning her to the floor. He was a solid weight between her legs, and I realized at once what they were, I feared, trying to do.
"I don't think the lady's interested in what you've got to offer, pal." Logan said darkly. He stepped from the shadows, and into the small pool of golden light that surrounded the desks.
The tall man came to his feet, and I breathed a sigh of relief to see that his pants were still fastened. "Who the hell are you?" The man demanded.
"Name's Wolverine." Logan said. "And that there is a friend's mom. It'd be a good idea if you both just got up and walked away. Else, someone might get hurt."
The large man rolled his shoulders fluidly. "Eat shit." He responded. Then, he opened his mouth up wide. I watched in grotesque fascination as a stream of something thick, black, and buzzing spilled forth from his mouth. The cloud enveloped Logan quickly, he disappeared under it's thick mass. I realized that it wasn't some form of goo, but insects. Dark, shiny insects that I assumed were busy stinging and biting Logan for all they were worth.
A rock bounced off of the small guys head, and he looked around. "Up here, Sugar." Rogue said. She was idly tossing a large brick in her hand. From her floating position a good ten feet in the air, she would prove a hard target to hit. She winged the brick at his head, and it blurred toward him.
It encountered empty space, as the small man seemed to split his head into two pieces and allowed the brick to pass right through. Then, he melted into a puddle of goo and vanished through a crack in the floor.
Not good.
Kurt was facing off with the larger man now. "Remember me?" he asked softly.
The large man smiled, and it wasn't pretty. "How could I forget? Your screaming was like music. Are you ready to sing for me again, German?"
Kurt reached behind him, and drew two slim swords. I hadn't noticed them earlier, probably because I was so wrapped up in getting where we were. He smiled grimly. "Nein, I am not ready to sing. But I am ready to dance. Let's dance." Kurt said.
I watched, and prayed that we'd win.
Translations::
"Halt die Schnauze! Ich möchte nicht dieses hören!" = Shut up! I don't want to hear this! "Ja Sie!" = You do! "Sie möchten sich erinnern. Sie sterben, um sich zu erinnern sind nicht Sie?" = You want to remember. You're dying to remember aren't you? "Sterbend, um sich an die Weise zu erinnern berührte ich Sie, die Weise küßte ich Sie." = Dying to remember the way I touched you, the way I kissed you "Sterben, zum sich zu erinnern, an wie ich das Fleisch von Ihrer Rückseite zerriß und Sie zu Ihren Knien holte." = Dying to remember how I ripped the flesh from your back and brought you to your knees.
The persistent knock sounded again, and I cursed whoever was out there knocking on the door. I was happy here Dammit, where I didn't have to think of anything. There was no family, no missing people, no mass murderers. There was just Kurt, me, and darkness, and that's all I wanted. Reluctantly I let him go, and kissed me gently on the forehead before going to answer the door.
Logan leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. For once, there wasn't a stogie gripped in his teeth. In faded blue jeans and a flannel shirt he looked like he'd just walked in from a week in the woods. He looked at Kurt for a moment, then snorted. "She still here, elf?"
"Ja." Kurt said. "Watch your eyes Morgan." He warned me, and I pulled the blanket up over my head. I heard the click of a switch, and footsteps, then the door closed.
"Did you two have a good sleep?" Logan asked. The statement could have been a loaded question, but I didn't get that impression. It sounded sincere enough, which surprised me.
"As well as can be expected." Kurt said. I felt someone's weight settle on the band, and a three fingered hand rested on my leg. "Come, Morgan. Unwrap yourself."
I sighed and disentangled myself from the blankets. Blearily, I scrubbed at my eyes and sat up, trying to rub the sleep from them. Kurt patted my knee, and Logan said "Morning."
"Bah." I replied eloquently, and he chuckled. "Is that bitch conscious yet?" I asked. I wanted to question her about my mom as soon as possible.
"I wouldn't have thought so, but yeah. She's awake. That's why I came up here. Thought you might like to ask her a few things." Logan said.
I couldn't stop the wicked grin from spreading over my face. "Oh, there's a lot more I'd like to do other than question her." I entertained a brief fantasy of dipping her in boiling oil, or perhaps beating her to a bloody pulp with my bare hands. It seemed I preferred the latter, for my hands flexed almost unconsciously. "Fortunately, I'm a good person, and I'll just keep all that stuff away for my fantasies."
Logan barked a short laugh. "Yeah well, the reality is never as good ya know." He sounded as if he spoke from experience. Briefly, I wondered how this man was in a real fight. I shuddered inwardly. I don't think I wanted to know. He didn't strike me as the type who had any hesitation over killing, what with those short swords springing from his hands. "So you wanna go down now?"
I nodded. "Give me five minutes, and we can go straight down." I could want to question her all I wanted, but I wouldn't be able to focus on much with a full bladder. I excused myself to the restroom, and while I was there splashed some water on my face and ran a brush through my hair. Then we trooped out of Kurt's room.
We walked to the sublevels of the school in silence, each wrapped in our own thoughts. Kurt slipped his hand into mine, and I gripped it gratefully. Just hours ago, I'd been bemoaning how chaotic my life had become, and now I was contemplating the horror of having never met Kurt. If we all made it through this, I made a mental to note to yell at him for bringing me so much grief, and then drag him off to the nearest private room and show him exactly why I was willing to put up with all of it.
The cell Candy was being kept in was an eight foot by eight foot stainless steel cube. It had a small cot built into the wall, a tiny toilet and a sink. She was standing in the middle of this small room, eyes tightly shut, as if she were concentrating. Slowly, she reached a hand up to the silver collar that Logan had put on her, and when her fingers touched it, there was a bright spark and she snatched her hand back with a hiss. I could see that the fingertips of both hands were an angry red, as if she'd been shocked often, and I grinned with grim pleasure.
Logan left Kurt and I in a small room with a table and four chairs. The table was a long one, and faced a wall that was mostly window. The chairs all lined one side of the table, as if this room was used for observation. I was too nervous to sit. I stood, chewing absently on a lock of hair while Logan left.
He reappeared a few moments later, shoving Candy into the stark white room the window fed into, and slamming the door shut. The woman howled and threw herself at the door, pounding on it and cursing for Logan to let her out.
Logan came into the room, and settled into one of the chairs. There was a button on the table, and he pushed it. "So, what's your name?" he asked.
"Go to hell." Candy spat out. Her hand went for the collar again, and she got another shock for it.
"That collar is repressing any sort of abilities that you have." Logan said idly. "You're just about as helpless as a regular human being right now."
She glared at the glass. "Fuck you."
"No thanks. I've sworn of whores." Logan said, unfazed. Candy shrieked and threw herself at the glass, bouncing harmlessly off of it and sprawling out on the floor. "Temper temper," Logan chuckled.
"This is getting us nowhere." I muttered.
"I agree." Kurt said. Still, he rested a hand on my knee comfortingly. "But this is all the recourse that we have."
"Is that little boy blue I hear?" Candy said, and her voice became sing- songy. "Little boy blue let me blow horn," Kurt stiffened, his grip on my knee becoming more painful. "The brunette's in the bar, the blonde's making porn, Where is the blue boy looking for a girl who's cheap? He's under the redhead not making a peep. Will you fuck him? No not I, for if I do I'm sure to die!" She laughed, and it was an entirely naughty laugh, as if she were simply flirting with him. Either way, Kurt was gripping my knee so hard it hurt. "Poor Kurt, you weren't expecting that were you? Thought I was just a pretty little girl, didn't you?"
Kurt shook his head, his eyes squeezed shut tightly. "No," he whispered harshly. I touched his shoulder, and felt he was as tightly wound as a spring, his muscles quivering.
"Don't you remember Kurt? Oh, that bar was so crowded, sooo smoky. You'd tracked down that a lot of the people I've killed hung out in that bar, hadn't you? You were expecting a man. Someone big, someone burly. Ooooh but I wasn't expecting you. So juicy, so tempting, with so many perfectly useful gifts." She licked her lips.
"Stop it." I said, and she gave a harsh laugh. "Logan, this isn't-"
He reached out and hit the button. "Let her talk. She may spill something." He said.
Kurt was shaking so hard I could hear his chair scraping across the floor. Abruptly, he stood, release my knee and knocking his chair back a few feet. "It was so easy. Bat my eyes, wiggle my hips, pretend to be interested, and you were oh so ready weren't you?" Candy cooed.
"Halt die Schnauze! Ich möchte nicht dieses hören!" Kurt snarled. "Ja Sie!" Candy hissed, and I stared in surprise. I didn't know she spoke German. I could tell Logan wasn't happy with it either. He frowned, hands balling into fists. "Sie möchten sich erinnern. Sie sterben, um sich zu erinnern sind nicht Sie?" she continued.
"Nien." Kurt said. He was crouched in the corner, tail lashing, eyes closed.
"Sterbend, um sich an die Weise zu erinnern berührte ich Sie, die Weise küßte ich Sie."
"Lies." Kurt hissed, his eyes narrowed to golden slits, and expression of rage slowly creeping over his face.
Candy, meanwhile, had stepped nearer the glass. Her head was back, and she ran her hands down her body slowly, suggestively, over her breasts and down across the flat plain of her stomach to her thighs. She brought her face down, and there was an expression of lewd ecstasy. She licked her lips and said "Sterben, zum sich zu erinnern, an wie ich das Fleisch von Ihrer Rückseite zerriß und Sie zu Ihren Knien holte."
Kurt growled, an animalistic rumble that started from his chest and ripped from his throat in a wordless scream of rage. Abruptly, he was gone from his spot and in the cell with Candy. I watched, horrified, as he picked her by her neck and threw her across the cell. She slammed into the wall, head bouncing off of it, and slumped to the ground.
Logan was out of his chair a split second before I was. He didn't bother going through the door, he simply launched himself through the glass and into the small room. I clambered through the hole myself. Logan planted himself firmly between Candy and Kurt. "Elf, get a grip. You can't kill her." His tone very much implied a 'yet.'
"Get out of my way Logan. Move, or I'll move you." Kurt said. His voice was calm, distant, as if he wasn't really all there.
"No can do bub." Logan crossed his arms over his chest. "You'll have to move me, cause I ain't movin."
Candy shifted on the bed, a low trickle of laughter escaping her lips. It didn't help things. Kurt ported around her again, and grabbed her by her hair. Logan spun around and in turn grabbed Kurt by his tail. I stepped in, and laid a single hand on Kurt's shoulder.
"Kurt." I said softly, and tried to put everything I felt into that one word. There was a sudden silence in the room, heavy, thick, and I wondered if it had been just what I said that made it go quiet.
Kurt's eyes flickered to me, and widened slightly. "Liebe," he said, "you're glowing."
I looked down at my skin, and sure enough, there was that shimmer of rainbow glitter under my skin. Only I didn't feel hot, didn't feel pressured to change like I had the first time it had happened. "So I am." I said.
"Freak." Candy muttered, and laughed. Kurt wrenched her head around roughly, and she yelped with pain.
"Let her go, Kurt." I said. "Please. She's the only one who can tell me where my mother is." I laid a hand on his arm, and abruptly, he released her. He was still shaking, still looking so angry, so enraged. But I saw in his eyes that he was hurting, he was scared, and I understood that. Wordlessly, I took him into my arms, and held him. For a long moment, he simply stood there, not moving, hands hanging at his sides. Then, hesitantly, I felt his hands come around my waist, and he crushed me to him.
A breeze stirred through the room, whisping my hair around my shoulders, stirring my clothes. It was a cool breeze, promising. It carried the scent of earth, and rain, and the new growth of spring. I held Kurt, his face buried in my chest, arms firmly wrapped around my waist, as his shoulders shook. I could feel the wetness of his tears soaking through my shirt, could feel the spasms of his body as it shook with silent sobs. The breeze picked up, growing a bit warmer. "Where the hell is that wind coming from?" Logan asked, puzzled.
I turned to face him, and answered. "Me." I should have found that strange, but I didn't. I knew that the breeze was coming from me, just as I knew how to breathe. It was instinct. So natural, I couldn't understand why it hadn't been there before. Even more, my feet were no longer touching the ground, and I wasn't perturbed by this at all. It also seemed as natural as my heartbeat, as if I couldn't live my life any other way.
Later, I'd wonder about this. Right now, I need Kurt calm, and I needed to find my mother. Those were the two most important things.
I turned to Candy, and said "You will tell me where my mother is."
"No." Candy said.
"I know where she is," Kurt said, and his voice sounded dry, raspy. "Likely, she is being held, where I was tortured." He turned haunted eyes to me. "I remember."
I felt a sudden feeling of elation mixed with bitter sorrow. I was happy that he remembered, for that meant we could save my mother, but said because he had enough bad memories in his life, and he didn't need more.
The next few hours passed in a blur. Candy was safely locked back up in a cell, and Logan had gathered a team to go in and rescue my mom. They'd tried to insist that I stay, but I had threatened to stow away on the Blackbird if they didn't take me with them, and they'd relented.
Now, the six of us were standing outside of an old, broken down warehouse on the outskirts of town. Kurt was there, and Logan. Storm too, with Rogue and Gambit. Scott had gone to DC to meet up with the Professor, and Jean was in charge of the mansion with us gone. They were all wearing dark clothing, it looked like leather, but I wasn't sure. I'd wrapped myself in shadows, an illusion so dark that I think everyone but Kurt wouldn't have been able to see me.
My floating episode, as well as the breeze, was quite over. I was trying not to mull the situation over too much in my mind. It was a distraction I didn't need at the moment. What was important was that I concentrated on the mission at hand. While in the blackbird, they'd wired me up with a small ear piece and a mic. I was the decoy, the scout. Oh they hadn't wanted to do it, to be sure. It'd led to a screaming fight between Kurt and I-our very first- but they'd conceded that I was the best person for the job, simply for my ability to look the part.
"Are you ready?" Kurt asked, and I nodded. "Be careful Morgan, please." He brushed a finger down my cheek.
I took a deep breath, and cast the detestable illusion. Now instead of me, I looked like Candy. Hopefully, I'd be able to pull of being her long enough to find my mom, and to find out where the guards were. The two men that had dumped Kurt were, for lack of a better term, Candy's slaves. They bowed to her every whim, Kurt had said.
I squared my shoulders, and headed toward the warehouse with a confident step. The door was unlocked, so I went right in. I took a moment to get my bearings, scanning the hall I'd just stepped into. It was short, and had two doors, one on the right and one on the left, then ended. "Two doors," I whispered, and hoped they heard me. "One on the right, and one on the left."
"Go right," Kurt's voice came to me. I took the right door. It was another hallway, with a door at the far end. I went down the hallway to the second door, and opened it. This was a large room, with a few overturned desks, and scattered pieces of furniture laying about. Why was it that abandon buildings always had to have furniture left in them? I skirted most of the debris on the floor, to the door that was across the hall.
I opened the door and stepped through into what could only be the main storage area. The ceiling was high, about fifty feet, and I'd say that it was about 150 feet in either direction. There were large pillars at regular intervals, and an odd assortment of junk scattered about. Two junked cars, a junked van, shopping carts, papers, and broken furniture as well as an odd assortment of other things now filled the space. There was a light, pretty much dead center, and a few upright desks there. A TV was blaring, and the large man I remember from the very night this all began was watching it. He had short, black hair, and was wearing a muscle shirt and blue jeans. There was a scar that went across his face, over his left eye, across his nose and vanishing on the right side of his jaw. Nearby, in a threadbare armchair, was the smaller man. He was curled up, reading a book whose title I couldn't read.
Between the two of them, was my mother. She lay limply between the two, not tied, not gagged, just laid there in a little ball. Her clothes were in shreds, hanging off of her body, some of them were tinged brown with old blood. It took sheer force of will to keep me from running to her.
I didn't want to talk to the men. I didn't want to have anything to do with them. I slipped back through the door, my heart pounding, my breath coming in short gasps. I leaned against the wall heavily and tried to calm myself down.
"Morgan? Liebe? What's wrong?" Kurt's voice came to me urgently.
"They're here. She's here. Oh God, Kurt.. I think she might be dead!" I clapped a hand over my mouth, trying to choke back a panicked sob.
"We are on our way." Kurt said.
The few short minutes it took them to get into the warehouse felt like agonizingly long years. I tucked myself into a corner, ridding myself of the slimy illusion. Kurt found me there, and squatted down in front of me, resting his hands on my knees. "Morgan, do you want to wait outside?" he asked.
I shook my head. "No. Mom won't know you. If she's alive-"
"She's alive." Logan said, and tapped the side of his nose. "I c'n smell it. She's afraid, and she's in a lot of pain, but she's alive." A dark look crossed his face, and he snarled. "Let's get in there."
I heard a sharp cry of pain, and it brought me to my feet. They were doing something, they were hurting my mom! I hadn't even realized I'd started running for the door until I found myself flat on my back. Kurt had me pinned, a hand clamped firmly over my mouth. I stared up at him in surprise. "No. Stay here. We will handle it from this point on."
I acquiesced mainly because I had no other choice. I nodded, and watched as they all slipped through the doorway. I crawled across the floor to the door, and looked through it.
The two men were wrestling with my mother, the smaller one pinning her arms firmly, and the larger one pressing his bulk down on her, pinning her to the floor. He was a solid weight between her legs, and I realized at once what they were, I feared, trying to do.
"I don't think the lady's interested in what you've got to offer, pal." Logan said darkly. He stepped from the shadows, and into the small pool of golden light that surrounded the desks.
The tall man came to his feet, and I breathed a sigh of relief to see that his pants were still fastened. "Who the hell are you?" The man demanded.
"Name's Wolverine." Logan said. "And that there is a friend's mom. It'd be a good idea if you both just got up and walked away. Else, someone might get hurt."
The large man rolled his shoulders fluidly. "Eat shit." He responded. Then, he opened his mouth up wide. I watched in grotesque fascination as a stream of something thick, black, and buzzing spilled forth from his mouth. The cloud enveloped Logan quickly, he disappeared under it's thick mass. I realized that it wasn't some form of goo, but insects. Dark, shiny insects that I assumed were busy stinging and biting Logan for all they were worth.
A rock bounced off of the small guys head, and he looked around. "Up here, Sugar." Rogue said. She was idly tossing a large brick in her hand. From her floating position a good ten feet in the air, she would prove a hard target to hit. She winged the brick at his head, and it blurred toward him.
It encountered empty space, as the small man seemed to split his head into two pieces and allowed the brick to pass right through. Then, he melted into a puddle of goo and vanished through a crack in the floor.
Not good.
Kurt was facing off with the larger man now. "Remember me?" he asked softly.
The large man smiled, and it wasn't pretty. "How could I forget? Your screaming was like music. Are you ready to sing for me again, German?"
Kurt reached behind him, and drew two slim swords. I hadn't noticed them earlier, probably because I was so wrapped up in getting where we were. He smiled grimly. "Nein, I am not ready to sing. But I am ready to dance. Let's dance." Kurt said.
I watched, and prayed that we'd win.
Translations::
"Halt die Schnauze! Ich möchte nicht dieses hören!" = Shut up! I don't want to hear this! "Ja Sie!" = You do! "Sie möchten sich erinnern. Sie sterben, um sich zu erinnern sind nicht Sie?" = You want to remember. You're dying to remember aren't you? "Sterbend, um sich an die Weise zu erinnern berührte ich Sie, die Weise küßte ich Sie." = Dying to remember the way I touched you, the way I kissed you "Sterben, zum sich zu erinnern, an wie ich das Fleisch von Ihrer Rückseite zerriß und Sie zu Ihren Knien holte." = Dying to remember how I ripped the flesh from your back and brought you to your knees.