author: Lucinda
contains nothing worse than the X-Men movies.
main characters: Willow, Kurt Wagner
disclaimer: I own nobody from BtVS or Marvel Entertainment/X-Men the Movie
distribution: Wic, WLS, NHA, Bite Me, Twisting, Paula, anyone else please ask.
note: FfA # 1673. Sequel to 'Unexpected Visitor' - AU post season 3. The Initiative is in Sunnydale, there was no ADAM, Willow felt unneeded and transferred to a different college.
Willow sighed as she ducked into the abandoned church. Scaffolding loomed in front of the stained glass windows, and the scent of dust was thick in the air. Her mother had called, wanting to know if she'd met any 'nice Jewish boys off at college' and if she was 'sleeping well and being careful in the parking lots, because there's so much crime on school campuses nowadays...' Willow hadn't mentioned that she'd been doing light patrols, conditioned by her years helping Buffy. She didn't mention slaying the occasional vampire or that she'd joined a local wiccan group in addition to going to the temple regularly.
Her roommate at the dorm room wasn't terrible, though she really didn't feel like she had much in common with Michelle. Michelle wanted to be a French teacher, and was fascinated by Orlando Bloom and Leonardo DiCaprio, as if there were no larger issues in life. Sometimes, Willow just had to get out, before she screamed in frustration of someone being that shallow.
"Willow? Is everything alright?" Kurt's voice echoed down from the darkness near the ceiling.
"My dorm mate is a shallow twit?" She offered, feeling herself smile. "I got tired of hearing about what a shame that poor Leo didn't get an Oscar and how absolutely cute Orlie looked in period clothing."
"Other than that, are you well?" There was a soft bamfing sound, and the smell of sulfur, and Kurt was there, his pale eyes gleaming in the shadowy room.
Her book bag thumped against the floor as she leaned forward to give him a hug. "Close enough. Lots of little frustrations that don't really mean much except that they're all happening at once, and there's the whole mess..."
"Does this city have a large vampire problem? There have been many poor people slipping in to pray for protection, and they leave with some of the Holy Water." Kurt shivered a little, and tugged her towards the pews. "I can not think of any other reason why they would do such things."
"I guess that depends on how you define a vampire problem." Willow sighed, feeling tired and worn for a moment. "There's a few, but nowhere near what I had to deal with back home."
"I would have said any vampire endangering people counted as a problem." Kurt murmured, and brushed a finger over the fading remnants of a bruise on her cheek. "Should I ask what it was like in your home?"
"Home was hell." Willow sighed, and glanced at her hands, and the multitude of tiny scars over them. "Actually, home was the Hellmouth, which isn't quite the same thing. More trees, the ocean, and dentists, all of which Angel said Hell doesn't have."
Kurt murmured something in Latin, a fragmented prayer as he pulled her in for a hug. "You do not need to be alone. I may not have been through everything that you have, but I can always listen."
Willow smiled, and leaned against his shoulder. "I remember how we first met, and I think you had your own version of hell that you suffered through. It's just that yours was because of people, not evil mystical convergences."
"Hardly a benefit." He admitted.
The hinges of the doors creaked.
Alarmed, Willow tried to duck down, and Kurt leaned forward, whispering, "You stay here, I will try to take a closer look."
There was a soft bamfing and the feeling of air moving, and Kurt was no longer in the pew with her. Willow closed her eyes, and tried to figure out what was happening. Nervous, she tried to mask her presence as best as she could. Who – or what – had entered the church? Vampires were unlikely, they really weren't much for churches. But there were still oodles of different types of demons, or even humans. And human didn't automatically equal nice. She thought that there were two of them, not quite normal, and probably female, though she really couldn't get much from one of the presences.
"Get out!" Kurt's voice echoed from the ceiling, made ominous and forbidding. "Get out!" More echoes, from a different corner of darkness. "Get out!"
Carefully, Willow peeked around the edge of the pew. She could see them, though they were facing the main alter of the church. Absently, Willow made a mental note to ask Kurt what that section of the church structure was called, she really wasn't sure about the terminology. One of them was a red haired woman, her hair brushing her shoulders and flipped in a rather nice style, dressed in a black leather bodysuit with long sleeves. The other figure had white hair, a bit longer, and sort of mini capes attached to her shoulders and wrists. She had the unshakable feeling that they were looking for Kurt.
The white haired woman spread her arms, palms upwards, and seemed to focus. The feeling of her presence changed, reaching out, touching the air. For a moment, Willow thought the white haired woman was a witch, especially when a wind started to circle around her. But the jagged lightning bolt that emerged from a cloud that shouldn't have been beneath the ceiling to blast thee rafter that Kurt had been perching on had none of the feel of magic to it.
Willow gasped as Kurt started to tumble downwards, trying to gather magic to herself and hoping that she wasn't about to see another friend suffer.
The redhead's hand shot out, and Kurt halted in midair. "Are you ready to talk to us?"
Willow's first thought was one of envy. This other redhead made floating something the size of a person look easy, and she'd actually caught him in the air. Her second thought was that she wouldn't have needed to catch him if her friend hadn't blasted at Kurt. She wasn't sure what to think of these two, but they were clearly very capable women.
"What can you remember about your attack on the President?" The redhead's voice was calm, as if she was unconcerned by the fact that they'd just blasted a church rafter and grabbed someone from the air.
Part of Willow wanted to know if anything would get through to the strange redhead, and another part was boggling on what she'd just heard. Kurt had attacked the President? No, he would never… He'd said the soldiers who had him had used something, tried to turn him into a puppet. That he hadn't been able to fight it completely, though he'd never said what they'd wanted him to do. Now she could see why.
But she didn't blame Kurt. It hadn't been his fault, and he'd done all that he could to fight them, to get away. And he hadn't killed the President, hadn't done more than scare the man and half his bodyguards into a tizzy.
The big question was – why would human soldiers be sending someone after the President? He'd thought the soldiers had sounded like Americans themselves, so why? What did they think it would gain?
"Can you remember anything before?" The other woman's voice was gentle, and carried an accent that Willow couldn't place.
Kurt was silent.
"Leave him alone." It took Willow a second to realize the words had come from her.
"Who..?" The redhead started to demand.
Willow felt a tickle at her mind, and scowled, strengthening her defenses and letting a sharp crackle of energy flow between the layers, enough to hurt if the other redhead tried to pry into hr mind again. "He's my friend, and I'm not going to stand back and let you hurt him."
The other redhead looked at Willow, and the tickling came again, right before the woman let out a gasp and clutched at her head, almost collapsing.
Willow moved towards Kurt, wanting to make certain that he wasn't injured. "Are you okay? They didn't hurt you? Red over there didn't try to walk around in your head?"
He gripped her hand, shaking his head. "I am uninjured. I… I don't know if she did or not. How could a person know?"
Willow could feel his tension, and she moved, trying to put herself between her friend and these strangers. "So, what sort of people come in and try to blast someone out of a church?"
"We only want to help him." The white haired woman spoke, her skin an unexpected chocolate brown. "Something frightening was done, through his actions, and we fear that greater troubles will come."
"I would not have done such a thing of my own free will, and they did not seek to frighten him." Kurt's words were soft, and his accent thicker. "But I do not know what benefit they thought there would be."
"Maybe both of them should come with us." The redhead commented, rubbing at her temples. "He might know more than he thinks, and I want to know how she…"
"How I kept you out of my head?" Willow asked, trying not to snap. "Are you familiar with the idea of personal space? Of privacy? My mind is a no trespassing zone."
"Jean…" The woman with the white hair tried to sooth her companion. "You wouldn't have wanted someone you didn't know trying to look into your mind. Please, come with us, it could be very important."
"My mother did tell me not to go away with strangers." Willow commented, still uncertain if she could trust these two. They were pretty, and capable, but those in no way meant they were nice or trustworthy.
"I am called Storm, and this is Jean Grey." The white haired woman spoke, a hint of a smile on her face. "Now that you know who we are, perhaps you will agree to accompany us?"
"As in, Dr. Jean Grey who spoke at the Senate hearing on mutants?" Willow blinked, feeling surprised. So the other redhead was pretty, telekinetic, and smart. Some people had all the luck.
"Yes." The other redhead looked surprised. "You were watching those?"
"I am Kurt Wagner." He slowly stood up, his hand resting on Willow's shoulder. "Perhaps we should go with them. If there was a purpose behind that, it can not be good."
Willow sighed, knowing that she had just been out argued. "Okay. Let me get my bag, because I'm going with you."
"Danke, Willow."
His smile almost made up for the way she'd panicked at the sight of him toppling downwards. "I just hope we don't regret this."
All Kurt could do was nod in agreement.
End More Unexpected Visitors.
