Part Five: Ghosts in the Machines
Xander was dieing. He could feel one of his shattered ribs cutting into his lung, filling his breath with blood. He would have laughed if it wasn't so painful.
Slowly, amazingly Xander felt his wounds begin to heal themselves. Bones set and knitted as good as new, while flesh was molded like clay into what it had once been.
Opening his once swollen eyes Xander saw a girl. She was bruised, swollen, and spat blood every time she took a ragged breath, but there was something familiar about her.
"Secret?" asked Xander in a soft voice.
"No, her sister Surgeon," came the doctors cold voice. "Take a good look Ash, because she is the one that will make sure that you will never leave here on your own violation."
"What are you talking about?" said Xander as he watched Surgeon begin to heal.
"Surgeon can heal any injury inflicted by you during the course of testing, or by your own hand. With her at our disposal, death only comes when asked."
With growing fear Xander realized the truth to the doctors words. This is how they had broken the man he had fought. Quicksilver must have been broken and mended so often that life had become as much of a prison as the rest of the building.
Xander was about to grab Surgeon and make a break for it when he noticed the guards. Each was heavily armed and wouldn't hesitate to shoot him.
"Guards, escort Ash to the mess hall and take Surgeon back to her cell."
"Don't worry, I'll be back for you," promised Xander as the guards led him out.
The mess hall seemed to be something out of a science fiction movie. Everywhere Xander looked there were amazing creatures eating a verity of food. If it wasn't for the armed guards, and dead atmosphere, Xander could have let himself geek out.
"Ash," said a familiar voice to his right. Turning Xander saw Gambit coming toward him. "Come sit with me, and I'll introduce you."
"Okay," said Xander when he decided that he was probably safer with Gambit.
Once they had both gotten a grey paste for their meal Gambit began to talk, "The Indian with the grey temples is Forge, but everyone else calls him Traitor."
"Wait, what Indian," asked Xander when he didn't see the person Gambit described.
"De one who is eating his meal in a home instead of a hell," said Gambit with venom in his voice. "He's a mutant like you and me, but he sold out. He is the one dat built the device they use to find us, and he is building more."
"A mutant that helps put other mutants here. Yeah, I can see how Traitor would work," said Xander with equal venom. Okay, he may not be a mutant, but putting anyone here was just wrong.
Nodding Gambit continued, "Over dere is Goose."
"Goose!" exclaimed Xander. The blond Gambit had indicated didn't resemble a goose in any way. In fact she looked cute.
"Goose," repeated Gambit. "As in de goose dat laid de golden egg. De people here force her to make skins of gold and diamonds to fund dis place."
"Skins. Do they skin her alive or something?" asked Xander.
Gambit nodded and said, "Dat's what de guards say. According to dem dey skin her once a week, if dey need de money or not to keep her in line."
Over the next hour Gambit told Xander about everyone in the cafeteria from the guy with angel wings, to the boy with red eyes.
"Where is Quicksilver though?" asked Xander when he didn't see the man who had almost killed him.
"Nother cell block," said Gambit as he finished his paste. "Everyone here are just our neighbors."
"There must be fifty people here. How many people do they have?" asked Xander.
"More dan fifty," responded Gambit. "Beyond that, who knows? Way I here it is dey even have a real live witch."
Xander grimaced at that piece of information. If they were going after supernatural creatures as well as mutants, things could be much worse than he thought. The witch could be someone he knew, Amy, or maybe even Willow.
As the thought that Willow, his Willow could be going through the same pain as him settled, Xanders mind began to go down a new path.
"Has anyone ever tried to break out of here with all these cool powers?" asked Xander, a plan forming in his mind.
Gambits black and red eyes took on a haunted look as he said, "Don't try it, it's not worth dealing with de guards."
"Right now I'm not that worried about some grunts with guns," said Xander.
"There are worse things out there then men with guns," said Gambit with an effort to suppress his accent. The look in his eyes seemed to scream to Xander to understand how important it was that he not ask any more questions.
Xander nodded, indicating that he under stood. He could wait for now. He couldn't wait very long with the possibility of Willow being in danger, but he could wait for now.
That night Xander's dreams were assaulted by strange images. A burning rock star kept trying to talk to him, but was stopped by a dog with a gun and a furry soldier. Xander knew the rock star had something important to say, but he was afraid of the flames.
These dreams continued in one form or another all through the night, until the rock star left. While Xander wouldn't be able to say how he knew, he still knew that the flaming rock star would be back the next night.
