The man known only as Williams looked down on the neighborhood from his apartment window. So predictable. He thought as he watched the lights go on and off across the street. Every night Mrs. Watts. Since we were children.
He sighed. And now… Now it's time for a change.
He eyed his refrigerator. And soon… It will all be different.
I swear it.
On the life of my friends, I swear it!
Forge felt a jolt and heard voices in the distance.
"Aistaire! Slow down!" Some German said.
"Sorry. Fight or flight you know." He sounded sad.
"Forge?" A red haired voice asked. "I think he's coming around."
Forge smiled softly. "Wow. He really hit me."
"Who? Who did this to you?" Kurt demanded.
"Lucy probably saw…" He felt that something was wrong there. Lucy … He remembered seeing her go down as he was going blind.
Blind… The word floated through his mind.
"Guys… Are my eyes open?" He said slowly.
"Uuuhh… Yeah." Kurt said softly. "Cant you…"
"No." Forge said softly. "I'm blind."
Kurt let out and exasperated sigh. "Forge… We found you at the side of the road. Lucy was gone. It looked like a struggle, lots of foot prints."
"She's gone?" Forge asked.
Lucy? He called out mentally. Honey? Where are you?
But no answer came.
"I … can't sense her either." He said slowly. "We're cut off from each other."
Kurt took another deep breath. "Okay. We need to regroup and then meet up with Brian and Illyana."
"Might I suggest the government suite at The Templeton in town? I happen to know that the sting operation they were doing there ended two days ago. It should be free."
"Sounds good." Kurt ventured.
"What are we going to do?" Rachael asked.
Kurt mused. "I'm assuming for the moment that Watts is behind all this, just as Emma said. Finding her hurt seems to corroborate her story." He bit his thumb nail absently as he continued. "And I'm starting to believe that his power is probably that of suggestion."
"Stands to reason." Forge replied. "And he's powerful enough to make Tabby turn on you." Forge shook his head. "That's impressive."
Kurt pondered. "Vhy is that so impressive?"
Forge smiled. "Because she'd die to protect you. You should have seen her when you collapsed at the lighthouse. She was …" Seen her at the lighthouse…
"Sorry." Forge shook his head. "She was upset."
Kurt turned back towards the road. She… would… wouldn't she? He admitted. I need to save her.
"So vhat do we know about defeating mind control?" Kurt asked.
"People come out of hypnosis when they receive a sudden shock." Forge volunteered. "At least in the studies I've read on hypnotic regression. I'm not so sure what disrupts hypnotic suggestions, and this sounds a lot more like that."
"In… in my old world…" Rachael met Kurt's eyes. "Scott fought an army of zealots who came to him from an unknown source. Fanatics. Called themselves The Order of the Voice." She looked thoughtful. "I think… Something brought them around… It took forever to figure out… I was just so young."
Kurt nodded. "Try and think on it. Let me know what you remember."
Kurt looked back in the side mirror and saw the single headlight behind him. Kitty… What are we going to do?
Back on the motorcycle Kitty was smiling. A little adventure was a nice break from all the paperwork she'd been doing. And she knew that – this way – she'd even be thankful to get back to the paperwork as soon as she could.
It's win-win. She smiled.
Back on the couch, Wilson rolled over as Tabby walked by. "Hey." He said to her. "There wasn't any trouble before, was there? I heard explosions."
She gave him a bawdy wink. "Naw, just a little impromptu target practice between friends." She smiled. "Betsy told me about your powers. Any luck yet?"
"I think I need to … sleep deeper … or… maybe with more on my mind… I'm not sure."
Tabby pulled a book off the coffee table. It hadn't been there when Wilson lay down. "I thought you might like to read this over. It's the new Mutancy Textbook Kitty's going to use in the education program she's arranging. It was written by Professor Xavier. He trained a lot of us here at the lighthouse."
"Sounds good." Wilson agreed taking it from her. "I have lots of questions."
She smiled at him. "I hope it helps."
And Wilson opened it and began to read.
Forge leaned over to Rachael. "When we get to the room… I'll try and help you remember."
She looked oddly at him and his vacant, unfocused stare.
"Call my name when we get there." He said. And then he lay back, took a deep breath, and went unconscious with his eyes wide open.
Rachael watched him for a moment. He couldn't sense her… That's got to be bad… If she's lost to him…
She pursed her lips, afraid to complete the thought.
Even worse, what if she's out there somewhere thinking the same thing about him? You know what happened to Logan in your world when Mom… But she pulled away from that thought too.
Forge felt the sudden jolt as he left his body. He looked back down at it. It was dull and hazy. A high definition scene as shown on a black and white eight inch screen with bad reception.
Wow. He thought. Someone did a real number on me.
Okay. It doesn't matter. Find Lucy.
The scene whirled around him and stopped. It was a hospital room with a sick little girl in a bed. She looked oddly familiar but fevered and raving.
Shhh… He told her. The nurse is coming.
And indeed the nurse did run over to the child.
"Damn." The nurse swore. "Tell Dr. Pathaway that X31 is going in to convulsions. She hasn't got much time left."
X31? Forge shook his head. The fools…
Find LUCY! He told himself.
And the scene spun again. This time to the mansion in Bayville as Wolverine grumbled by talking about finding Mystique.
Maybe she's still out cold. He reasoned. Or she's … He supressed the idea as it occurred. No. She's done too well. She's too smart and too strong to be taken down in an accident, planned or not. She'll wake up and make them regret…
But his heart wasn't in the argument.
I could sense her in her sleep. In my sleep even. Why not now?
"Forge?"
The scene whirled again and he found himself standing in a great stone room lit by torches that lined the reflective walls. They stood in somber rows with their hoods drawn over their faces as an ornate Egyptian style stone casket was wheeled down the middle of the group. Faintly he could hear them humming or chanting.
"Forge?"
When the casket reached the end of the corridor of people, the head shaped end touched the wall and must have hooked in to place on some unseen mechanism that hoisted it off the wheeled table and in to a standing position on the wall with a great deafening noise.
"Forge?"
Then a series of bright green lights began to light up and flash along the outside rim of the stone casket. When the last one lit and the circle was complete the lights all sprang to their full 'on' position and a great cheer went up throughout the room.
What the… Forge looked around.
"IT IS DONE!" A great voice announced over the din of the room, seemingly having come from no where.
"Forge!" Rachael said, more alarmed.
Suddenly Forge felt ripped back to the car.
Rachael noticed and breathed a sigh or relief. "I thought… You might be like Emma."
Forge smiled. "Nothing that bad… not yet anyway." He felt around the car. "We've stopped."
"We're here." Rachael said. "Here. Let me help you."
Then she took him by the hands and began to guide him slowly out of the car.