Huzzah! Chapter 10

This chapter is a little slow. I mean, it was almost painful. Don't worry, chapter 11 will be more interesting. MUCH more interesting. With the introduction of another character and a bit of suspense.

I've changed the format a little bit. Nothing big. Just everything in italics is translated from a different language, depending on the character.

Scarlet Suicide: You should know me better than that, lol. Of COURSE there's going to be Jonda. You just have to be patient and wait for John to be introduced in the story. It'll be a while yet, but it'll be worth the wait. Believe me. That's too bad about your computer. We need as many players as we can so we can get started. You can still go to the site and follow along. Even if you're not involved, it's still entertaining. But playing is much more fun than just reading.

Ishandahalf: I was beginning to wonder when you'd show up. LoL. Enjoy mucho mucho!

SSJ Tokya: LMAO Don't worry, the brooding will end soon. O.O Write, dangit! Yea, you heard me. I'm going to nag you wherever I can. BAH HA HAAA

Onto the story:

"Okay, I'm not so good with the geography. How far are we from Siberia?" Wanda narrowed her eyes as she scanned the map of Russia she had stolen from the airport.
"We're taking a train through the mountains. We should be in Bar-... Barguzin in two days." Amanda reached over Wanda's shoulder and traced the path of the train from Moscow to Lake Baykal.
Wanda looked down at her watch, then up at the departure schedule. "We got an hour before we leave..." she glanced over at the shop a few yards away. "Wanna get something pierced?"
Amanda stared at her in disbelief. "You're joking, right?"
"Oh, c'mon! It doesn't have to be major! I want to get my nose done... oh! Maybe I'll get a lebret!" Wanda scoffed at the horrified look on her friend's face. "Fine. Nose. Come with me."
"Nooo..." Amanda groaned in protest as Wanda dragged her along by the arm.

"Pain!" Amanda unzipped her coat, then pulled her sweater halfway up her stomach. "I can't believe I let you talk me into this..."
Wanda grinned, poking at the shiny silver stud in her nose. "Hey, I didn't FORCE you to get your naval pierced!
"Yeah, well at least I'll be able to hide my 'souvenir' from Ororo." she replied, pulling her shirt down again and zipping up her coat, just as a man in uniform came into their compartment, asking for their tickets and passports.
After confirming that the girls were who they claimed to be, he went on to the next cabin. Amanda shivered and tried to rub some warmth into her arms. "I don't think I've ever been so cold in my life! No wonder they used to exile people to this place."
Wanda snorted. "Maybe THAT's Ororo's angle."
Amanda glared at her. "You have no respect for authority..."
Wanda suddenly frowned and turned away to look out the window, at the barren, snow covered mountains as they rushed by.
Amanda sensed the change in her friend's demeanor and immediately felt remorseful of her comment. "Wanda, I'm sorry-"
Wanda cut her off "no, it's okay."
They sat in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes, until Amanda broke it with a mild whisper. "What do you think is going to happen?"
Wanda shrugged. "I dunno... 'Ro will probably try to rip it out with a pair of pliers."
"That's not what I meant." Amanda leaned forward, "I mean, what if Agatha doesn't make it? There's going to be three of us, 'Ro can't handle it alone."
Wanda scowled, still staring out the window. "It doesn't matter-" she squeezed something in the palm of her hand "-Because she's going to be fine."

Ilyana had been watching her parents carefully for the past few days. They were nervous, sad, and even distant. When she had asked her brother what was going on, he dismissed her and stormed off with a despaired expression. There was something going to happen, and no one was willing to tell her!
Ilyana had turned thirteen the day before. Where was the adventure she had been promised as a child? She was still stuck on the farm with the same chores, the same people and the same everyday life. She was sad that Piotr wasn't there. He would've made things interesting. Getting fed up with all the secrecy, the young Russian girl with bouncy blonde hair stomped into her room and slammed the door shut behind her. She muttered some angry words under her breath as she started pulling books, journals and small stuffed animals off her shelves and throwing them onto her bed. She got down on her knees and lugged a large suitcase out from under her bed and dropped it next to her pile of objects.
Luckily, all her laundry lay in neat folded stacks on her reading chair. They were the first things to go into the case. Next went her books and journals. She emptied her jewelry box into a sealable pocket on the lid. She pulled an old disc-man out of her desk drawer and a Kevlar- zippered case full of CDs, and packed them into her knapsack with more books that she couldn't fit into her bursting suitcase.
Ilyana slumped back into her big armchair and admired her quick work. It had only taken her five minutes to get her most precious items ready to go. That was a new record! It was almost therapeutic for her to do this when she got upset. Not that she ever planned on actually running away, but it was good to know that she could be prepared if the need ever came up.
A knock came at her door, and Ilyana had to stand up and hide her suitcase before she allowed them entry. Quickly picking herself up from the floor, Ilyana let out a quick "come in".
Her mother and father were standing in the doorway. Her mother looked pale. Her father looked grave. "Ilyana, we need to speak with you." papa said softly, leading his wife into the room and motioning for their daughter to sit on the bed.

"There it is! Lake Baykal." Amanda gasped in awe, dismounting one of the snow mobiles they had hired to take them to the town near the body of water.
"It's huge!" Wanda gaped. "It'd be so much fun to skate on that thing!"
"I don't think it's completely frozen over."
"Then lets go swimming!" Wanda snapped back sarcastically.
Amanda rolled her eyes and proceeded to walk toward what looked like a general store. "Lets find our teeny witch, shall we?"

"Mama? I still don't understand. Why are you sending me away?" Ilyana looked to her mother for the answers her father wouldn't give her.
Mrs. Rasputin shook her head sadly as she scrubbed a large stewing pot. "You aren't happy here, Ilyana. I thought you'd be glad for a reason to leave."
"I WOULD be glad if I knew what the reason was! Are you, Papa and Mikeal coming too?"
"No... We don't belong where you're going." she dried her hands on a towel hanging next to the sink. She placed them on Ilyana's shoulders and stared at her straight in the eye. "We love you very very much, Ilyana. But these women in New York can teach you things you'd never be able to learn here."
The thirteen year old girl turned away from her mother's eyes. "It still doesn't make any sense. How can you accept this so easily?!" she demanded.
"Your father's mother was the same. It's rare for such a gift to be passed on to a man.
"This isn't easy, Ilyana. Even now, my heart aches at the thought of losing another child."
Ilyana was pulled into a tight embrace. She hugged her mother back. She felt her own tears form as spots on her shoulder became wet. "Is this what you want?"
Her mother nodded. "This is what I want for you."

"Are you sure this is the right address? Neither of us actually KNOW Russian..."
"No... but I do understand hand signals, and the one that one guy gave us was quite obvious." Wanda grumbled, walking up the front steps of a small, two-story farm house. She knocked on the door and stood back to wait for someone to answer.
A young man opened the door and stared down the two girls. He was tall, had black hair, and was built like an ox. He frowned at them, but bid them enter the house. Wanda looked to Amanda. She shrugged and followed her inside.
A short fat woman appeared in the front hall, drying her eyes with a dishtowel. "Mikeal who's at the door?-" she seemed to have noticed the two teens standing by her son. "Oh..."

"Ilyana getting ready." Mrs. Rasputin said slowly and with difficulty as she poured tea for their guests. "We did not be thinking you are here early."
Amanda took her mug from the heavy-set woman graciously. "We're really sorry, Mrs. Rasputin. We didn't know-"
Mr. Rasputin shook his head. "It is not your fault, da?" he looked quickly to his son, Mikeal, who was scowling at the two American girls. "Ilyana will be in good hands in America." he stated, more to his son than anyone else.
Around the corner, Ilyana was leaning against the wall, listening in on their hushed conversation. She understood most of the words spoken, but she couldn't decipher everything. Those girls were the ones taking her to America. She had accepted this fact. In a way, it was like Piotr was fulfilling his promise to her. She was going on an adventure.

Ororo had spent the past four hours crying. She hated crying so much. She was glad that the girls weren't there to see their mentor in such a state of weakness. She had to be strong for them.
Agatha's status had gone from bleak to worse. Even Rogue was saying that she could see death just around the corner. Ororo almost resented having a vampire in the house, just because she could tell if someone was going to die or not. But Rogue had been acting as an emotional crutch for her.
"Ah've seen a lot o'death in mah life, Ororo. Believe me, it's never easy."
Ororo felt Rogue's hand on her bare shoulder. It was slightly warm. The Southerner had fed recently. "How is Remy doing?" she asked, wanting to stay off the topic of death.
"He's fine. Ah figure he'll be right and proper by t'morrow night." Rogue sat down across from Ororo at the table. "He's really sorry about what happened." she whispered softly.
Ororo only nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. She had long since stopped crying.
"He still won't tell me why he was starvin' when Ah found 'im." Rogue sighed. "Or where he came from." A scowl appeared on her pale face. "Or who he was with before he skidaddled. Ah think he was runnin' scared." Rogue chuckled warmly. "Of course, he's still a warm-blooded Creole stallion."
Ororo's eyes snapped up, and she stared at Rogue in shock. "You haven't-"
Rogue's clear green eyes widened as well. "NO! No, that's not what I meant! No. Ah wouldn't think of it!"
Saying that eased Ororo some, and she relaxed in her seat again.
"Ah was just sayin' that... sex is something he didn't f'get when he died." Rogue then proceeded to explain that drinking blood, to vampires, was a more euphoric experience than making love. "So, he's tryin' to cut a deal. Since he can't drink human blood anymore, he wants 'compensation'."
"From you?"
"Ah'm his first option. Ah turned him down, though. Ah just don't have that drive anymore. Ah told him he should go out and find himself a girlfriend or somethin'."
"How did he react?"
"He was upset, but he didn't say much. Ah left him in the room to brood by himself."

"Cheers, darling, on a job well done." A sensuous blonde woman smiled. She raised a wine glass and gently tapped it against the one of the woman sitting across from her.
The other woman brushed her long red hair over her shoulder before taking a sip of the alcoholic beverage. "That boy needs to learn his lesson. I had no idea that son of mine would turn out so... innocent." she said the last word like it was poisonous.
The blonde stuck out her lower lip and pouted. "Oh, I know, Raven. It wasn't your fault, dear." she crossed her long white legs. "I have full confidence in our agent. The boy won't be causing trouble for us any longer."
Raven set down her wine glass, tapping her dark blue hand on the table. "You're right, Emma. But still... do you think that if his father was a demon... he would have turned out differently?"
Emma made a delicate growl. "I thought we had an agreement to never discuss this again, Raven." she said, her English accent stressing each word heavily. "You need to let it go. You did what you could for him, and he turned away from you. He was a bad egg, and there was nothing we could do about it."
Raven was about to reply, but their study door burst open, and a man with large side-burns came storming in.
Emma's smile widened. "Sebastian, darling! What's the news from Wynegard?"
The man named Sebastian scowled and stood before the two voluptuous demon-women. "She's been taken." he announced in a gruff voice.
Emma and Raven glanced at each other. "Well... good then. We can begin-"
"By Harkness."
Emma dropped her wineglass, and it shattered all over the marble floor. "If you're lying to me, Sebastian, I will be very cross with you!" her icey blue eyes flashed.
Sebastian didn't shrink away. He was used to the Succubus' temper tantrums. "Don't shoot the messenger, Emma dear. I have no control over Jason's visions."
"Then KILL him and get me a new mystic!" Emma shouted, stomping her foot on a large chunk of glass.
Sebastian nodded and went to leave the room, before Emma decided to take out her rage on him. Before he was out the door, he heard her say "and tell the agent to go and get her! I don't care what he does! I just want the girl! ALIVE!"
"Humans. They're absolutely useless!" Raven snarled. "The only thing they're good for is a bit of cruel entertainment."
Emma poured herself another glass of white wine. "I couldn't agree more." she growled, downing the wine in one fluid motion. "Cheers!"

Wanda lead Amanda and Ilyana through the crowd at the Moscow Airport. The other two witches were talking. Amanda helped Ilyana with her English.
"I are-"
"Am."
"I AM thirteen years old." said Ilyana with a proud smile. "I am becoming very good with English, da?"
Amanda nodded. "You'll fit right in! I was born in Munich, Germany. I didn't learn how to speak English until I was five."
Ilyana grinned. "I am thinking that Wanda is real American girl?"
"Nope." Wanda replied quickly, weaving between pedestrians. "Transia, Europe. My mom moved us to New York when we were still in diapers."
Ilyana looked at Amanda questioningly. "We?"
"Wanda has a brother."
"OH!" Ilyana exclaimed. "I have brother too!"
"Yes. We met him, and I'm happy for you, kid. Now can we please just get on our plane and leave?" Wanda grabbed hold of Amanda, who had an arm around Ilyana, and pushed them toward the gate they were boarding.
She was impatient. She was in a hurry. She wanted to get back to their nice little house in suburbia New York. She wanted to walk in the door, and throw her arms around Agatha - who of course would be up and walking around just like she usually did - and say "You're here, and you're never going to leave me."
The last call for passengers boarding the plane to Berlin came. The three young witches walked on without looking back.
Review my little monkies! I need the encouragement.