Chapter 19
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Bobby sat up and shook his head to clear it. The explosion had shaken the entire villa, the very ground beneath their feet! When he looked around, Methos was gone, but that didn't concern him at the moment.
About a yard away lay Professor Xavier, his wheelchair overturned, his eyes closed. "Rogue!" Bobby screamed. "Rogue!"
She suddenly appeared, running down the hallway towards them as Bobby struggled to lift the Professor's body. "We have to get him out of here."
Bobby slung Xavier's right arm over his shoulders, the left over Rogue's and, together, the two young mutants lifted their mentor and hurried out to towards the clearing where the Blackbird sat waiting. They could see the flames beyond the windows, listening to the cars burn and crackle, gas tanks fueling the flames.
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Piotr felt his heart almost stop as he heard metal on metal! Suddenly, Methos staggered out into the hallway, drawing something from his shoulder, his Ivanhoe clutched in his other hand. He breathed for a moment, slumped. But then another voice cursed him and Methos blocked the on-coming strike, kicking Hayden back!
Piotr armored himself and moved to help but Methos saw him.
"No! Get Nadya out of here!" he ordered, turning just as Hayden furiously attacked again. The younger Immortal was rabid, out for blood.
Without another thought, Piotr scaled down and ran for Nadya's room. He found her half in bed, half on the floor! The explosion had shaken her room and she had had tried to pull herself out of bed but to no avail.
"He's here, isn't he?" she cried. He didn't answer. "Piotr, what's happening?!"
"Come on!" Piotr quickly lifted her; he had no time to be ginger and tried to ignore the scream of pain that broke through her lips as his hand touched her side. Hurrying out into the hallway, he heard her shriek again.
On the stairs, Hayden and Methos fought, blocking any means of escape. Piotr considered armoring and jumping down to the first level but he could not risk such a jar to Nadya's body as she clung to him. Methos suddenly cried out in pain as Hayden's blade ripped across his upper abs; then the Boy brought his blade down, locking Methos against the railing and pushing it closer and closer to his neck!
"Methos!!" Nadya screamed as the two men went over the side of the railing, crashing down to the marble floor!
Piotr gripped her tightly, moving down the staircase. Both men lay limply on the floor and, as much as he wanted to help Methos, the young Russian knew that he had to get Nadya out.
"No! We can't leave him there! Methos! Methos!" Nadya's frantic screams echoed down the hallway as Piotr hurried to get her out of the house.
The villa shook again as Duncan's Aston Martin blew up, adding to the huge fireball at the back of the house!!
Methos groaned as he pushed himself up, the wound in his shoulder healed. Hayden was starting to come around, too, reaching for his sword.
"You think you and that freakish excuse for a human will stop me, Methos? You're old, you've been running too long," the Boy sneered.
Methos gripped his Ivanhoe, struggling to his feet, his stomach still partially bleeding. "I'll die before I let you take her; you should know that."
Hayden grinned. "Well, you're only partially right." He stood there. "You should be thanking me, Methos. You haven't taught her; she's willful and unruly. But don't worry, I'll teach her everything she needs to know about obedience…and pain. I'll set you turning in your grave for all eternity and, once I have your Quickening, you'll see it all…through my eyes."
With a roar, Methos attacked him again with every ounce of anger and hatred he could muster. He would end this last legacy of the Horsemen!
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Piotr and Nadya had managed to get across the villa when a sudden explosion brought down the wall in front of them! Piotr was thrown back but his metal exoskeleton protected his back. His concern was focused on protecting Nadya, bracing his weight on his other hand with the other holding her back, raking against the floor as the blast threw him across it. Nadya cried out in pain and shock but stopped as soon as they stopped sliding across the floor.
Piotr looked back to the rubble that made up what was once their exit to the Blackbird.
"Well, that's out." Piotr felt more blood seeping through Nadya's bandage but her face, though frightened, was focused.
"I have to get you out of here." He picked her up again and headed back the way they had come.
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Methos saw the bright flash before he heard or felt the impact of the shot. He knew it had hit his liver.
"You weren't expecting that, now were you?" Hayden asked, leering. His hand clenched the weapon in his hand and pulled off another shot to the lung.
Methos staggered back. He registered an explosion further back behind him...somewhere.
Talia rounded the corner. Piotr carried Nadya ...'Coming back into the room. The explosion came from there,' she thought, but the earlier explosions had her more worried. The gun in Hayden's hand confirmed her fears. She lit the rag as Hayden looked up, catching the faint approach of Nadya's Quickening.
Piotr saw Methos collapse and had to use most of his strength to keep the struggling Nadya from escaping his arms, the pain of her wounds forgotten the instant she saw Methos hit the floor.
"No!!"
Hayden had felt the youngling approach and he saw as quickly the tall silver...'Is that armor?!'...man holding her. 'Come to me, pretty.'
"I've never fought a man in armor before," he said as he made his way across the room towards them. "But they say there is a first time for everything." He pushed a stray lock of blonde and equally bloodied hair out of his face.
"That includes disappointment...and, in your case, death," came a reply from the shadows. Piotr and Hayden both started.
Then Hayden felt a presence envelope with a stabbing pain in his head. 'Immortal!' his senses told him this but not why they hadn't informed him earlier. He tasted blood and realized his nose was bleeding.
"She is mine!" he bellowed, enraged.
Piotr saw Hayden rush at him and Nadya and then he felt the flash of heat as a bottle of flame exploded a few feet in front of him, cutting the man off!
"Doubtful." Talia said and then yelled at Piotr. "Get her out of here!"
Piotr quickly complied, hoping to find a wall that wasn't load bearing to create a doorway.
The young one was yelling again, Talia noted. Methos. 'Ehhh, dead...so he is out of the picture for a few minutes....I really don't want to clean up this mess,' she thought as she watched the young one turn. For a moment, she thought he was going to rush her but saw him move toward Methos instead. 'Didn't see that one coming.'
She kicked herself. Hayden reached the dead man before Talia could stop him.
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"Nadya!" Duncan reached for her as Piotr ran through the atrium. He could see the blood soaking through the bandage where her stitches had pulled and she was almost biting her bottom lip in two.
"Methos...we have to...we can't leave him here!" she murmured weakly as Piotr passed her into Duncan's arms.
"I'm going to help him!" the Russian said as his armor scaled over again.
"No! It has to be a fair fight."
"FAIR?! You call this fair?!" Piotr cried furiously, indicating to the burning cars and Nadya's body. "He tried to kill her, he's tried to kill us all!"
Duncan's brows knit seriously. "Methos can handle himself; he's been through worse." With that, he turned and headed through the garden towards the back wall entrance. Nadya was still crying for Methos.
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Logan grabbed up the Professor as the kids brought him to the Blackbird. "What happened?!"
"The explosion, I think it knocked him out when he fell out of his chair!" Bobby gasped, collapsing into a seat and starting to strap himself in.
Logan quickly felt for a pulse. The Professor was alive. "I think he's going to be OK. Storm, can you get us out of here?!"
"As soon as we have the others!" Ororo used her good hand to push the buttons, entering the lift-off sequence in the jet's computer, initiating the autopilot. She could see Duncan, Nadya, and Piotr heading for the Blackbird at that moment.
"You'll be all right, Chuck." As he strapped the professor into his chair, Logan tried to ignore the nagging in the back of his brain. 'Talia...You would leave her to die?'
'No!' his brain screamed back. 'She can handle; I'll see her again. I'll see her again!'
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Duncan deposited Nadya back into Piotr's arms and then made it back into the house in time to see the stand-off between the two Immortals.
"So kill him." Talia taunted. "It will be a lot easier just to execute you anyway while you are down."
Hayden felt MacLeod approach and turned to levy the same threat to him. "Come any closer and I end him," the blonde man said, grasping the steel blade poised over the still form's neck with both hands.
MacLeod stopped, looked at Talia to see what she was thinking.
"The villa is burning up," she said, looking to where the flames were moving down the hallway.
"Apparently." Duncan replied. "And my room was in that wing," the highlander said in his best put-off tone....18th century French royal court tone, to be precise.
"Your luggage still there?" Talia had lowered her weapon and was using it to lean on.
"Favorite sweater."
"Ohhh, the white one...with the pattern?"
Duncan nodded. "What should we do about this?" He gestured to Hayden and the soon-to-be revived Methos, judging on the Quickening's energy dancing across the bullet holes. Then the gasp of air.
Methos locked eyes with the man standing over him.
Hayden pulled the blade back to strike, but Methos rolled out of the path of the weapon. Hayden realized he missed, both the strike and his chance, and turned to run.
Talia gave chase.
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Logan's head jerked up as Piotr rushed across the lawn. He smelled blood coming from the young man and soon saw that Nadya was the cause of it.
"Some of her stitches burst," he said as the Russian sat her down in a chair, only to hear her gasp in pain as she tried to stand.
"Nadya, you can't go back there!" Piotr insisted loudly.
Logan saw the look on her face at that. "I don't want him to die....I don't care if they have to do this....I don't want him to die."
"I'll go!" Logan said. 'Yeah, but you know the real reason you wanna go back there.' He thought to himself as he rushed from the plane. 'Hey, it's ok if I go back and help both of 'em,' he reasoned.
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Talia hadn't followed Hayden very long when she heard a sound...not the feet of the others trailing behind her...footfalls sound different. Then she saw a small black object rolling toward her. The last thing she heard was MacLeod scream.
Duncan saw the grenade. Tried to warn her. Failed. The ensuing blast crumbled another wall, and most of Talia's bones. Duncan saw the mangled body, parts still on fire, and swiftly moved to put them out.
Methos yelled at him as he rushed past. "I'm not letting him get away!"
Duncan would have acknowledged that but he was too preoccupied.
Logan heard the blast, and heard the sound of running feet, coupled with the scent of fear. 'Heading my way.' He crouched and prepared to spring out of the shadows.
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Hayden was running for his life, and he knew it. Caught up in his escape he almost didn't see the other man. Thankfully, instinct is a blessed thing. Hayden reacted, dropping low as the man slashed for his head with some short knives, his own weapon cutting a deep gash into the attacker's stomach. He did not even slow his pace. That one was dead--since Hayden had not been able to sense him. The large garden was on this side of the villa.
'You can lose yourself in the woods beyond that.'
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Methos saw Logan take the hit and stumble, hand clutching his stomach. 'Gut wounds...lots of fun.' He could also tell that the other was not out for the count, but he did not want to lose Hayden. He rushed by Logan calling out as he ran.
"I've got him! You help MacLeod with Talia." Pointed with hand, "Back there!"
Logan grunted. 'Help him with Talia?!!!' Logan suddenly wished he could heal faster.
Duncan finally put out the last flame on Talia's leg. He looked away for a moment; the smell of burnt flesh made him want to retch. Her entire face was charred--a bloody, black mess--as were her arms, one beyond recognition as a human body part. Most of her clothes were ashes, her hair almost all gone. At least the blast hadn't blown her head from her body. But there wasn't much left...for now. This would take at least the rest of the night and on into the next day to heal. If she were fortunate, she wouldn't scar. Even Immortals have certain limits as to what they can regenerate.
Mac could feel the heat of the fire as it began to spread into the entrance hall. Grasping a still intact curtain, he yanked it down and used it to wrap Talia's body. Then, he lifted her as gently as he could. If only he'd shouted sooner.
Logan could smell it, even before he rounded the corner to find MacLeod lifting a something covered and tied with a sheet. Under the sickening charred smell, the searing flesh, he could smell….vanilla.
"No," the word stuck in his throat, coming out only as a garbled choke. Not since he had lost Jean had he felt this cold. This complete and utter emptiness. He felt like a husk where everything else--everything that had only recently grown back, if not healed-had been burned away and all that was left was the shell. All of this he felt in a few seconds.
Mac saw his face. "You don't want to see her. Not yet." He saw the gash in Logan's stomach, the blood streaming between his fingers.
"Come on." With that, Duncan hurried down the hallway for the exit that Piotr had made.
"But what about...?"
"Leave him to Methos!" Duncan replied as flames began to engulf the entrance hall.
Just before he stepped through the wall, Logan turned to see Pallas Athena standing tall amidst the flames that threatened to tear her down.
"Goddess of war, right?" the Wolverine murmured.
She just stood there, the flames blackening her once perfect alabaster body, the shoulders and wings where Nadya had so often sought refuge.
"Yer certainly in the right place, lady." With that, Logan quickly followed Duncan.
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Bobby sat up and shook his head to clear it. The explosion had shaken the entire villa, the very ground beneath their feet! When he looked around, Methos was gone, but that didn't concern him at the moment.
About a yard away lay Professor Xavier, his wheelchair overturned, his eyes closed. "Rogue!" Bobby screamed. "Rogue!"
She suddenly appeared, running down the hallway towards them as Bobby struggled to lift the Professor's body. "We have to get him out of here."
Bobby slung Xavier's right arm over his shoulders, the left over Rogue's and, together, the two young mutants lifted their mentor and hurried out to towards the clearing where the Blackbird sat waiting. They could see the flames beyond the windows, listening to the cars burn and crackle, gas tanks fueling the flames.
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
Piotr felt his heart almost stop as he heard metal on metal! Suddenly, Methos staggered out into the hallway, drawing something from his shoulder, his Ivanhoe clutched in his other hand. He breathed for a moment, slumped. But then another voice cursed him and Methos blocked the on-coming strike, kicking Hayden back!
Piotr armored himself and moved to help but Methos saw him.
"No! Get Nadya out of here!" he ordered, turning just as Hayden furiously attacked again. The younger Immortal was rabid, out for blood.
Without another thought, Piotr scaled down and ran for Nadya's room. He found her half in bed, half on the floor! The explosion had shaken her room and she had had tried to pull herself out of bed but to no avail.
"He's here, isn't he?" she cried. He didn't answer. "Piotr, what's happening?!"
"Come on!" Piotr quickly lifted her; he had no time to be ginger and tried to ignore the scream of pain that broke through her lips as his hand touched her side. Hurrying out into the hallway, he heard her shriek again.
On the stairs, Hayden and Methos fought, blocking any means of escape. Piotr considered armoring and jumping down to the first level but he could not risk such a jar to Nadya's body as she clung to him. Methos suddenly cried out in pain as Hayden's blade ripped across his upper abs; then the Boy brought his blade down, locking Methos against the railing and pushing it closer and closer to his neck!
"Methos!!" Nadya screamed as the two men went over the side of the railing, crashing down to the marble floor!
Piotr gripped her tightly, moving down the staircase. Both men lay limply on the floor and, as much as he wanted to help Methos, the young Russian knew that he had to get Nadya out.
"No! We can't leave him there! Methos! Methos!" Nadya's frantic screams echoed down the hallway as Piotr hurried to get her out of the house.
The villa shook again as Duncan's Aston Martin blew up, adding to the huge fireball at the back of the house!!
Methos groaned as he pushed himself up, the wound in his shoulder healed. Hayden was starting to come around, too, reaching for his sword.
"You think you and that freakish excuse for a human will stop me, Methos? You're old, you've been running too long," the Boy sneered.
Methos gripped his Ivanhoe, struggling to his feet, his stomach still partially bleeding. "I'll die before I let you take her; you should know that."
Hayden grinned. "Well, you're only partially right." He stood there. "You should be thanking me, Methos. You haven't taught her; she's willful and unruly. But don't worry, I'll teach her everything she needs to know about obedience…and pain. I'll set you turning in your grave for all eternity and, once I have your Quickening, you'll see it all…through my eyes."
With a roar, Methos attacked him again with every ounce of anger and hatred he could muster. He would end this last legacy of the Horsemen!
......................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Piotr and Nadya had managed to get across the villa when a sudden explosion brought down the wall in front of them! Piotr was thrown back but his metal exoskeleton protected his back. His concern was focused on protecting Nadya, bracing his weight on his other hand with the other holding her back, raking against the floor as the blast threw him across it. Nadya cried out in pain and shock but stopped as soon as they stopped sliding across the floor.
Piotr looked back to the rubble that made up what was once their exit to the Blackbird.
"Well, that's out." Piotr felt more blood seeping through Nadya's bandage but her face, though frightened, was focused.
"I have to get you out of here." He picked her up again and headed back the way they had come.
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Methos saw the bright flash before he heard or felt the impact of the shot. He knew it had hit his liver.
"You weren't expecting that, now were you?" Hayden asked, leering. His hand clenched the weapon in his hand and pulled off another shot to the lung.
Methos staggered back. He registered an explosion further back behind him...somewhere.
Talia rounded the corner. Piotr carried Nadya ...'Coming back into the room. The explosion came from there,' she thought, but the earlier explosions had her more worried. The gun in Hayden's hand confirmed her fears. She lit the rag as Hayden looked up, catching the faint approach of Nadya's Quickening.
Piotr saw Methos collapse and had to use most of his strength to keep the struggling Nadya from escaping his arms, the pain of her wounds forgotten the instant she saw Methos hit the floor.
"No!!"
Hayden had felt the youngling approach and he saw as quickly the tall silver...'Is that armor?!'...man holding her. 'Come to me, pretty.'
"I've never fought a man in armor before," he said as he made his way across the room towards them. "But they say there is a first time for everything." He pushed a stray lock of blonde and equally bloodied hair out of his face.
"That includes disappointment...and, in your case, death," came a reply from the shadows. Piotr and Hayden both started.
Then Hayden felt a presence envelope with a stabbing pain in his head. 'Immortal!' his senses told him this but not why they hadn't informed him earlier. He tasted blood and realized his nose was bleeding.
"She is mine!" he bellowed, enraged.
Piotr saw Hayden rush at him and Nadya and then he felt the flash of heat as a bottle of flame exploded a few feet in front of him, cutting the man off!
"Doubtful." Talia said and then yelled at Piotr. "Get her out of here!"
Piotr quickly complied, hoping to find a wall that wasn't load bearing to create a doorway.
The young one was yelling again, Talia noted. Methos. 'Ehhh, dead...so he is out of the picture for a few minutes....I really don't want to clean up this mess,' she thought as she watched the young one turn. For a moment, she thought he was going to rush her but saw him move toward Methos instead. 'Didn't see that one coming.'
She kicked herself. Hayden reached the dead man before Talia could stop him.
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"Nadya!" Duncan reached for her as Piotr ran through the atrium. He could see the blood soaking through the bandage where her stitches had pulled and she was almost biting her bottom lip in two.
"Methos...we have to...we can't leave him here!" she murmured weakly as Piotr passed her into Duncan's arms.
"I'm going to help him!" the Russian said as his armor scaled over again.
"No! It has to be a fair fight."
"FAIR?! You call this fair?!" Piotr cried furiously, indicating to the burning cars and Nadya's body. "He tried to kill her, he's tried to kill us all!"
Duncan's brows knit seriously. "Methos can handle himself; he's been through worse." With that, he turned and headed through the garden towards the back wall entrance. Nadya was still crying for Methos.
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Logan grabbed up the Professor as the kids brought him to the Blackbird. "What happened?!"
"The explosion, I think it knocked him out when he fell out of his chair!" Bobby gasped, collapsing into a seat and starting to strap himself in.
Logan quickly felt for a pulse. The Professor was alive. "I think he's going to be OK. Storm, can you get us out of here?!"
"As soon as we have the others!" Ororo used her good hand to push the buttons, entering the lift-off sequence in the jet's computer, initiating the autopilot. She could see Duncan, Nadya, and Piotr heading for the Blackbird at that moment.
"You'll be all right, Chuck." As he strapped the professor into his chair, Logan tried to ignore the nagging in the back of his brain. 'Talia...You would leave her to die?'
'No!' his brain screamed back. 'She can handle; I'll see her again. I'll see her again!'
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Duncan deposited Nadya back into Piotr's arms and then made it back into the house in time to see the stand-off between the two Immortals.
"So kill him." Talia taunted. "It will be a lot easier just to execute you anyway while you are down."
Hayden felt MacLeod approach and turned to levy the same threat to him. "Come any closer and I end him," the blonde man said, grasping the steel blade poised over the still form's neck with both hands.
MacLeod stopped, looked at Talia to see what she was thinking.
"The villa is burning up," she said, looking to where the flames were moving down the hallway.
"Apparently." Duncan replied. "And my room was in that wing," the highlander said in his best put-off tone....18th century French royal court tone, to be precise.
"Your luggage still there?" Talia had lowered her weapon and was using it to lean on.
"Favorite sweater."
"Ohhh, the white one...with the pattern?"
Duncan nodded. "What should we do about this?" He gestured to Hayden and the soon-to-be revived Methos, judging on the Quickening's energy dancing across the bullet holes. Then the gasp of air.
Methos locked eyes with the man standing over him.
Hayden pulled the blade back to strike, but Methos rolled out of the path of the weapon. Hayden realized he missed, both the strike and his chance, and turned to run.
Talia gave chase.
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Logan's head jerked up as Piotr rushed across the lawn. He smelled blood coming from the young man and soon saw that Nadya was the cause of it.
"Some of her stitches burst," he said as the Russian sat her down in a chair, only to hear her gasp in pain as she tried to stand.
"Nadya, you can't go back there!" Piotr insisted loudly.
Logan saw the look on her face at that. "I don't want him to die....I don't care if they have to do this....I don't want him to die."
"I'll go!" Logan said. 'Yeah, but you know the real reason you wanna go back there.' He thought to himself as he rushed from the plane. 'Hey, it's ok if I go back and help both of 'em,' he reasoned.
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Talia hadn't followed Hayden very long when she heard a sound...not the feet of the others trailing behind her...footfalls sound different. Then she saw a small black object rolling toward her. The last thing she heard was MacLeod scream.
Duncan saw the grenade. Tried to warn her. Failed. The ensuing blast crumbled another wall, and most of Talia's bones. Duncan saw the mangled body, parts still on fire, and swiftly moved to put them out.
Methos yelled at him as he rushed past. "I'm not letting him get away!"
Duncan would have acknowledged that but he was too preoccupied.
Logan heard the blast, and heard the sound of running feet, coupled with the scent of fear. 'Heading my way.' He crouched and prepared to spring out of the shadows.
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Hayden was running for his life, and he knew it. Caught up in his escape he almost didn't see the other man. Thankfully, instinct is a blessed thing. Hayden reacted, dropping low as the man slashed for his head with some short knives, his own weapon cutting a deep gash into the attacker's stomach. He did not even slow his pace. That one was dead--since Hayden had not been able to sense him. The large garden was on this side of the villa.
'You can lose yourself in the woods beyond that.'
...................................................................................................................................................................................................
Methos saw Logan take the hit and stumble, hand clutching his stomach. 'Gut wounds...lots of fun.' He could also tell that the other was not out for the count, but he did not want to lose Hayden. He rushed by Logan calling out as he ran.
"I've got him! You help MacLeod with Talia." Pointed with hand, "Back there!"
Logan grunted. 'Help him with Talia?!!!' Logan suddenly wished he could heal faster.
Duncan finally put out the last flame on Talia's leg. He looked away for a moment; the smell of burnt flesh made him want to retch. Her entire face was charred--a bloody, black mess--as were her arms, one beyond recognition as a human body part. Most of her clothes were ashes, her hair almost all gone. At least the blast hadn't blown her head from her body. But there wasn't much left...for now. This would take at least the rest of the night and on into the next day to heal. If she were fortunate, she wouldn't scar. Even Immortals have certain limits as to what they can regenerate.
Mac could feel the heat of the fire as it began to spread into the entrance hall. Grasping a still intact curtain, he yanked it down and used it to wrap Talia's body. Then, he lifted her as gently as he could. If only he'd shouted sooner.
Logan could smell it, even before he rounded the corner to find MacLeod lifting a something covered and tied with a sheet. Under the sickening charred smell, the searing flesh, he could smell….vanilla.
"No," the word stuck in his throat, coming out only as a garbled choke. Not since he had lost Jean had he felt this cold. This complete and utter emptiness. He felt like a husk where everything else--everything that had only recently grown back, if not healed-had been burned away and all that was left was the shell. All of this he felt in a few seconds.
Mac saw his face. "You don't want to see her. Not yet." He saw the gash in Logan's stomach, the blood streaming between his fingers.
"Come on." With that, Duncan hurried down the hallway for the exit that Piotr had made.
"But what about...?"
"Leave him to Methos!" Duncan replied as flames began to engulf the entrance hall.
Just before he stepped through the wall, Logan turned to see Pallas Athena standing tall amidst the flames that threatened to tear her down.
"Goddess of war, right?" the Wolverine murmured.
She just stood there, the flames blackening her once perfect alabaster body, the shoulders and wings where Nadya had so often sought refuge.
"Yer certainly in the right place, lady." With that, Logan quickly followed Duncan.