"Pull over here." Williams told the driver and he hoped out on the curb. Kitty followed close behind.
"Wait here." Kitty told Rachael. "Keep an eye on Watts."
Rachael shrugged and glanced between the cabby and the back seat before snuggling in to relax.
Kitty had to hurry to catch up and fall in step with Williams as he trotted up the street.
"Watts lives there." He pointed. "It's our last stop. First… Tina Bristol's house."
Williams lunged up the steps and rang the buzzer. A small, sour-faced woman opened the door and brightened slightly to see him.
"Forget everything Mildred ever told you. Forget his words and ignore them. Do what you would do instead and do your best to be happy."
The words echoed around the girl and suddenly she smiled a devastatingly wide grin that Kitty would have thought impossible for her just a moment before.
"Jamie!" She smiled. "I haven't seen you in years."
"I can't stay." Jamie Williams told her. "But I'll drop back by next week."
"Oh." She said, confused. "Okay. Bye." She waved and closed the door, laughing at something.
Williams jumped between the stairs of that building and the one next store, knocking loudly.
"WHAT IS IT?" A man hollered from the other side.
"Message." Williams replied and the old man opened the door. "You should let the neighborhood children do whatever you think is appropriate. Forget everything Mr. Watts ever told you to do and just use your own best judgement."
The man nodded several times. "What are you selling?" he asked, suddenly perplexed.
"Wrong house." Williams smiled at him and jogged down the stairs.
He crossed the street to a stately house across the street. "This one is gonna suck." He said softly as he knocked on the door.
An elderly woman peeked out the edge of the window before recognizing him and unfastening the many locks on her door before opening it. "Jamie!" She stepped out and hugged him. "You still remember me, don't you!" She beamed. "Just like when you'd come over to see Timmy and Martin when they were alive. Always brought me a card and a hug at Christmas." She smiled at Kitty. "He's a good boy!" She added.
Kitty smiled.
Jamie hugged her and whispered in her ear, just loud enough for Kitty to hear. "You can heal now. Timmy and Martin weren't drunk when the accident happened. They were murdered by Mildred Watts from across the street. He's been found guilty and he's going to be punished." He leaned back and looked her in the eyes. "You can go outside now without worrying about anything. You don't have to live inside. You can go wherever you want and feel safe now. You've grieved enough and now it's time to move on and be happy again. Okay? Will you do that? For me?"
She smiled wide. "Of…" And what he said slipped from her mind. "…course…" She looked around for along moment. "Would either of you two kids like a cookie?" She asked. "I made some today."
She reached out and then brought the plate over to the door. She had kept it right nearby. "I was going to offer some to the children out front today… But I was being silly… I was scared to go outside… Can't imagine why now… But the cookies are good. I wouldn't want them to go to waste!"
Jamie and Kitty both took one. "Thank you Mrs. Schmidt." Jamie bit his cookie and waved. "I'll be by next week."
"Good." She told him. "If I go out I'll leave a note on the door." She smiled at Kitty. "He's such a good boy." She said again. "Used to shovel the walk for me every day when he lived down the block."
Kitty looked at Williams. "Awww…" She said and Jamie Williams blushed.
"See you next week." He waved and jogged down her stairs.
Just then the woman saw some neighborhood children running down the street and for the first time in years she stepped out on to her front porch with a plate of cookies. "Hey!" She called out. "Any of you kids like chocolate chips?" She asked.
And many cheered as they ran up her walkway to get a cookie, and waved goodbye while saying thank you on the way back down.
Williams crossed the street again and went to Watts' own house. He knocked on the door and Mrs. Watts answered. "Did you find him?" She asked, seemingly concerned.
"I sure did. Thank you." Williams smiled at her. "Now. I want you to remember how much your husband loved you and how much you looked forward to retiring to live in the U.S. with your daughter. I want you to stop doing all those things that Mildred said you had to do and just live as you see fit from now on, looking out for your own happiness in the process before his from now on, understand?"
The woman wavered for a moment but didn't speak.
"So have a good night Mrs. Watts." Williams told her.
"Oh, I will…" She looked lost in thought. "I think I'll get out the old photo albums… And maybe call my daughter in Florida… I haven't talked to Penny in a long time."
"She'll like that." Williams assured her. "Say hello for me."
"I will." She added, closing the door slowly. "I will."
Alistaire puttered down the street. He cast a searching glance around as he went. Most people had cleared the streets, even if it meant pulling over and parking to wait out the trouble at a local bar or friend's house.
He looked at his wrist communicator. No way to know for sure though… He reasoned. And he was right. He couldn't be sure that anyone was free of Watts' influence.
But still, he had to trust someone.
Alistaire pushed the 'on' button so that anything he spoke in to the communicator would be broadcast to the others. "Kurt. Please respond!" He said hesitantly.
"Alistaire!" Lucy answered. "We're down town. On the roof adjacent to the hotel. The building with the fountain outside."
"On my way." Alistaire reported. "How are we doing?"
Lucy sighed back. "We… we're better than we were… but there's been a ... development."
Alistaire was dumbfounded for an instant. Oh no… He realized. Lucy answered… not Kurt. Kurt still hasn't replied.
"Is it… Is it Kurt?" Alistaire asked solemnly.
"Yeah." Lucy replied. "And Tabitha."
Alistaire put the pedal to the floor and began devouring the streets of London with the little car. What good does it do to win against Brian, to stop the hellfire club, to stop Watts and save Britain … If it costs us people like Kurt… And Tabby…?
Alistaire's mind raced with images of his early days with Kurt. He had been so unsure and so naive, but Kurt never held it against him. Kurt taught him about x-genes and how psychic stress affected cellular DNA development to allow for such a wide variety of mutations.
He thought about how Tabby had hugged the guard when she got out of jail and how she had put on the 'seductress' act for the cameras during her first interview.
She had posed on the hood of his car and made her charges of grand larceny and border violation seem like nothing more than a misspent youth.
He thought of all the nights he and Kurt spent combing over Tabitha's release forms and the conditions of her release.
And he thought about all those nights when he would see Tabby watching Kurt, while he was hard at work and she would be beaming with such gentle pride and amazement at his compassion and dedication.
"Wither Excalibur…" he told himself. "Wither the world."
And he turned yet another corner and made a beeline for the building in question.
He leapt out of his car and stood on the hood to leap up to the fire escape and then… He climbed.
They must have heard him coming because Brian was at the top of the fire escape to offer him a hand up on to the roof.
Alistaire smiled weakly. "No hard feelings I hope." He shrugged. "It wasn't personal."
Brian nodded several times. "I know. You did what you had to. I'm glad I didn't hurt anyone. And I guess that's thanks to you." He put his bloody and burnt hand out and Alistaire shook it.
"You surprised me." Brian told him. "I didn't think you had the skills or the will." He added. "But that's not the case. You're not here by chance. It's no fluke that Kurt kept you on… You belong here Alistaire. I didn't realize that until tonight."
"Well, thank you." Alistaire smiled at the huge and understanding man. "I want you to know… I didn't want to … I regretted it all the while."
Brian nodded. "Yeah. I bet you did." He swallowed hesitantly. Not like Illyana… She hurt me and enjoyed it…
Brian smiled sadly. "Come on. The others are over here."
Alistaire followed Brian over to find the group standing on the opposite side of the roof. Alistaire let his attention fall over Emma for a long moment. He recognized her from Kurt's files.
"Alistaire Stuart." He extended his hand to her. "It's nice to finally meet you Ms. Frost."
"Likewise." Emma intoned. "Your reputation precedes you." She nodded slightly. "Not many people steal from Sebastian Shaw and live to tell the tale."
Alistaire smiled. "Well, I did steal our charter. It gave our office the ability to get away with things like that."
Emma smiled. "Maybe publicly. But Sebastain rarely cares about the details of any law. You outsmarted him because he underestimated you. It's not a mistake he makes twice." She said almost threateningly. "You might want to remember that… should your paths ever cross again."
Alistaire nodded, his expression now serious and focused. "I will. Thank you."
Alistaire looked to Lucy's body. "Glad to see you made it back." He told her. Then he spied Forge's body. "And it's good to see you're up and around. How are the eyes?"
"Fine." Lucy growled out of Forges lips, confused by the statement.
"I'm over here Alistaire." Forge smiled from Lucy's body. "There was some confusion at the hospital." He explained. "Lucy's in my body at the moment."
Alistaire's eyes danced between them. "Oh… I see…"
"We can work on their problem later." Betsy intoned. "Right now… we've got a bigger problem."
And the crowd of heroes cleared to reveal Kurt and Tabitha, each wearing a null-cuff. They were both catatonic and unresponsive, laying in a heap next to the ledge.
"They were like this when we found them." Illyana added. "We think Forge's invention was damaged. We're not sure what's wrong with them."
"Can't we just take the handcuffs off?" Alistaire asked hopefully.
Lucy's ashen gray face went worried with possibility. "I don't know." Forge began. "It was supposed to be used on one person, not two. Each cuff keyed in to the person's mutagenic signature and then act together to repress the mutant abilities. But here... Each cuff read a different signature and … Obviously … in the process of blocking whatever ability the cuffs think they're suppressing… It's suppressed the cognitive and motor skills of both of them. I don't know if we should take them to a hospital or the lighthouse. I do think we should call Hank McCoy. He's twice the doctor I'll ever be and he could probably figure out what happened here."
"So… they're trapped… in some form of feedback?" Alistaire asked.
"Something like that." Forge/Lucy admitted. "And I've no way of knowing if they're aware of us or not until we get them back to the lighthouse. But the cuffs might be tied up in their autonomic functions… From the cuffs' perspective, they can't tell what they're suppressing from who. If we disconnect them in the wrong order or without knowing… it could kill either one of them or both."
"How?" Alistaire asked.
"Well, they're both breathing right now but if we uncuff one of them the processors will change their focus to the other one. And believing that the connected one is still breathing, because of the dual readings, the cuffs might suppress that function in the other without realizing that it's killing them. In the name of suppressing anything that isn't absolutely necessary."
Alistaire looked back to Illyana. "Let's get everyone back to the lighthouse to regroup." He told her.
"Who died and made you boss?" Betsy asked, immediately regretting her choice of words. I should just shut up tonight. Nothing I've said all day has helped anyone…
Alistaire shot a reluctant glance at Kurt and closed his eyes. "I'm not the boss." He said quietly. "But I am third in line to run the team behind Kurt and Kitty. Neither of them is able to make the call tonight. So I think we should regroup and do something for Kurt and Tabitha."
"Sounds good to me." Brian added.
"Me too." Said Lucy in Forge's voice.
And Illyana opened a portal to the lighthouse large enough to accommodate them all.