Chapter 8: Guilt

"Put the mindsifter on, then bring her to the control room."

Bastion's orders were quite clear, but made little sense to the two guards that stalked down the corridor. He had the X-Men; the transport carrying them (or at least a few of them) was en route to the Hulkbuster base, so why did he still want Jubilee's thoughts monitored? "Look, this don't make no sense," one guard finally said to the second one. "He's got the mutie freaks, he's got the location of their base, what's he need any more of her memories for?"

The other man thought for a moment, then shrugged and gave up. "Ours not to question why, ours but to do or die," he quoted whimsically. "Who cares. Just do what he says."

They pressed the keys on the electronic keypad that opened the door to cell 233, and strode inside. The young girl looked up when they walked in, her expression one of sudden fear.

Jubilee stared up at the two dark figures in the doorway, her heart suddenly thumping hard in her chest. She'd been left alone for a long time; after her last session of drugs and abuse, Bastion had smiled grimly when he walked away. And after that, there had been nothing. A guard shoved food and drink in to her, but they hadn't been drugged; and even the guards' abuse tapered off once the initial shock and pain had passed and her body became used to the intrusion. When she no longer responded to their battering with screams of pain and pleas for mercy, it hadn't been as much 'fun' for them. They had left her alone after that, leaving her in the darkness of her cell. Her body had slowly recovered; she clung to that knowledge, gaining a small scrap of hope in the midst of her almost overwhelming terror. Bastion had stopped asking her about the X-Men; did that mean he had them? And was it something she'd said? She remembered that cold, unpleasant smile he'd had after the last time…

But these guards weren't here to drag her off for more abuse. They pulled her to her feet, and she stood quietly as they strapped the mindsifter to her head and dropped the bulky backpack on her shoulders. Then they roughly shoved her out of the cell and down more long featureless hallways until they reached a set of heavy doors. The door opened at their approach, and Jubilee was escorted into a huge room.

An enormous viewscreen dominated one wall. Under it, banks of computers hummed quietly as they went about carrying out their normal functions. Daria sat at one of those workstations, looking up briefly when she saw Jubilee come in. She didn't smile or say anything; Jubilee sighed. So much for their brief bonding moment.

Bastion hit a switch on the remote he held, and Jubilee blinked as the entire room in front of her filled with images.. On it was a huge transport plane, probably like the one Bastion had brought her here in, and over it, escorting it like fighter pilots over Air Force One, were a bunch of Sentinels. A human voice, distorted by the mechanism, said over the loudspeakers, "The transport has arrived from Colorado with the neutralized mutant designates. Secure the perimeter and commence offloading!"

Jubilee frowned as the unloading hatch on the plane opened, and four First Strike guards disembarked, balancing an anti-grav sled between them. Jubilee thought she saw a flash of Scott's visor, and…a yellow utility belt? Naw. Couldn't be. It just couldn't. Forcing her voice to keep steady, she scoffed lightly, "You're really pushin' the envelope with this one, Bastion!"

Bastion came to stand beside her, and Jubilee saw the look of complete satisfaction on his face. He looked like a cat stuffed full of cream. "Oh, it's true, Miss Lee. The outlaw group of mutants you call the X-Men has been brought to justice…their nest in Salem Center has been breached…" the cold tone sent shivers down Jubilee's spine. No. She couldn't have. How did…? "…and very soon, their race will be extinct. No longer will mankind live in fear of his genetically enhanced cousins." As the antigravity sleds pulled up, Jubilee saw Ororo, immobilized in some sort of hard casing; Scott, with some sort of mask locked over his head and face; and Sam, Paige's older brother, with some kind of heavy restraining mittens on his hands somewhat like the ones that had been used on her when she was in the guards' playroom.

Jubilee forced a bravado in her voice she wasn't feeling at the moment. "You went over the top with that 'Wolvie begging for mercy' bit the last time, now you expect me to believe that you creeps took out Storm, Cyclops, and Cannonball and trashed the Xavier Institute? As if!"

Bastion's voice was oily with satisfaction, and Jubilee wanted to belt him. Hit him, or kick him, anything to get that self-satisfied smirk off his face and out of his voice. "The time for charades is over, child. Operation: Zero Tolerance—the design by which I will destroy mutantkind—is on the verge of success…and it is owed in part to information I took from your mind, "Jubilee".

Jubilee's heart sank into her shoes, and guilt settled over her like a heavy wool blanket. She must have…had she? How else had Bastion found out where the X-Men lived…maybe this was all wrong…maybe she hadn't…but how else had…oh, no…

Sam rose groggily, pushing himself up on his elbows. "Uhh…take these dampers off me, ya low-down gene Nazis! Lemme fight y'all one-on one!"

One of the guards raised his gun and whacked Sam on the head, the butt of the rifle connecting with Sam's skull with a solid whump. "Shut your trap, mutant!" Jubilee recognized that voice; it was 'Eyes'! She'd heard his voice too many times during her imprisonment to mistake it. Angry, she hurtled forward. "You leave Sam alone, you big bully!" She wasn't sure what she was going to do, but she had to do something! Maybe butt him in the stomach with this bulky thing on her head. "You leave him be, or—" she broke off abruptly as her head and shoulders vanished through the armored guard, just like Kitty when she phased through things… "—they're all just holograms!" She heaved a huge mental sigh of relief. "Nothin' but smoke an' mirrors! You can't fool me, Bastion! You can't—" and again she broke off as she saw the occupants of the next sled.

Wolvie and Jean.

She tried desperately to believe this was an illusion, just an illusion and nothing more, but when she looked at the woman who had been a combination big-sister/friend/surrogate mother to her, and the man who was her savior, her life, her entire world…she saw how tightly Logan had gripped Jean's hand in his. The movement of his fingers was curtailed by the mitts covering his hands and restricting his claws, but he was grabbing Jean's hand. She knew he would reach for Jean one last time, with his last breath, with his last bit of strength…and she also knew, with a bone-deep certainty, that Bastion wouldn't know about this, wouldn't know how deep Logan's love for Jean ran…and she knew this wasn't just a hologram. This was far too real. She said in a small voice, "This…is the real thing, isn't it?" Despair settled over her. It was over. She'd failed. And because of her, everyone she knew and loved would die.

"Truth is self-evident, is it not?" Bastion smiled grimly After all this time, all his effort, he had them. He had the X-Men. And this child would spend the rest of her life grieving, feeling guilty, for her betrayal of her friends. He wasn't about to tell her how he had really gotten the X-Men's location. There had been a memory of Jean and Jubilee shopping at a mall, and the name of the mall had been on signs inside the building. It had only taken a quick computer search for residences close by the mall before he turned up one owned by Xavier. And when he saw the 'school' s website, he had known that this was the X-Men's base. Jubilee hadn't told him; he'd had to get the actual location…but she had pointed him in the right direction. It was all the same, really. "What you saw was a real-time holographic projection from the surface. Had you forgotten that you are ensconced far below the desert floor? It is all true, Ms. Lee. Approximately an hour ago, the X-Men known as Cyclops, Phoenix, Wolverine, Storm, and Cannonball were taken into custody by my forces. Yes, even the Xavier Institute has given up its secrets. Soon we will break the encryption protocols for the 'Xavier Protocols' and the 'Mutant Underground' files, which hold the key to defeating every X-Man."

No. Oh, no. No. I failed. Oh, God, I failed…and the knowledge came crashing down on Jubilee like a tidal wave, swamping her in grief and guilt. "No…no, you can't!" His hand came up too close to her face, and fear and guilt made her wild. She bit him. Hard.

"I can—and I WILL!" Bastion struck out at her. Her teeth hadn't clamped down on his skin, but just the fact that she had the temerity to do it…he belted her again. And, seeing that that light hadn't gone out, he hit her again. "Even now, your fellow X-Men are descending to their perpetual incarceration. You will never understand this, girl---but I am sorry. It brings me no pleasure, no elation of victory knowing that your kind will perish by my hand. I must protect the human race…and mutants are its greatest threat." He looked down at her, fallen to her knees before him, her head swimming with stars from the force of the blow, and sighed. "I will be back, Daria," he said, grabbing the back of Jubilee's jumpsuit and helmet and dragging her up on the nearby illusion-producing dais that had been her 'cell' for almost three days. "I want to supervise this offloading personally." He left the room without a backward look.

The six guards sensed their boss was happy with this cargo, and talked quietly amongst themselves as the platform lift descended to the bowels of the Hulkbuster base. "Hey, this hairy one is leaking something fierce," one finally looked over and saw the blood leaking from Logan's cuts.

'Eyes' snickered. "Oh, yeah? Turn him over so the holes are facing up."

The first guard sighed. "Okay. Gotta…pry his hand loose…from the redhead, though…" Deed followed word, and the guard turned Logan over on his back. "Whoa! What are we taking this freak down to security detention for? Nobody can take damage like that and still be alive!"

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the lift grating to a halt. "Heads up!" he called to the second set of guards who met them at the doorway to 'Security Level 01'. "Prisoners coming through for the ultra-containment block!"

The guard who took Scott's antigrav sled said caustically, "The sooner they're locked up, the better!"

The regular personnel lift near them opened up and disgorged Bastion, his grim face looking just a little less grim than usual. "Stop," he said. "I want to look at them." The guards stopped, and Vastion strode up beside the sleds, looking down at the unconscious occupants. "Ah, homo superior—born with superhuman power, yet so like mankind in your vulnerability. Why do I hate you, I wonder? Many of you appear no different than any other human. If I cut you, you bleed. If I strike you, you bruise…and in times of strife, you take solace from those closest to you. So why do I feel—in the deepest core of my being—that I must eradicate you?" He stood for a time, musing, then shook his head. "Bah. I waste precious time in contemplation. What I do, I do for the good of humanity." He gestured to the guards. "You may proceed." He turned down another corridor as the two antigrav sleds moved off under the guards' supervision.

Xavier looked up as the door to his cell opened, and Bastion came in. With a flick of a switch from the remote he held, he showed Xavier what Jubilee had seen; the X-Men being offloaded. 'Did you ever think it would end like this, Xavier? When you formed the X-Men, years ago…did you think your foolish dream of peace between the species would die so easily?"

Xavier's heart sank as he saw Scott, Ororo, Jean, Logan, and Sam on those antigrav sleds, but refused to allow himself to sink into despair. "Men die, Bastion. Dreams live on."

Bastion persisted. "Your 'best and brightest' have been brought low, Xavier. The students you spent so long preparing for this very fight have failed utterly. They will be kept here for the rest of their unnatural lives." The hologram was showing Ororo and Jean and Scott being offloaded into containment cells.

Xavier refused to take the bait. "As long as they still breathe, there is hope."

Bastion waved a hand dismissively. "Spare me the platitudes, Xavier. I've heard enough of them in the months since you came into my custody." He clicked to another section of the containment facilities. "This animal, the one you call Wolverine, is a perfect symbol of what humanity fears in mutants. A fear that, deep in your heart of hearts, you share. Ever since the day you took him in, you've known the moment might come when despite your efforts, he would no longer be able to control his bestial nature." Bastion sniffed. "No matter. Apparently he did not survive the crash of their aircraft." Two of his guards were loading Wolverine's still form into the disposal incinerator.

Xavier stared. No…Logan had survived worse, though Bastion didn't know that. And Bastion's guards were putting him in the incinerator. Logan wouldn't survive that…"Logan!" he cried, about to tell Bastion that Logan was still alive, had to be…but the communications unit at Bastion's belt beeped, and Bastion paused to dig it out. "What is it?"

"Sir, please return to the control room," came the voice Xavier recognized as Bastion's female assistant. "There's something here you should see."

"On my way." And Bastion stalked out of the room, leaving Xavier to ponder his students' predicament alone.

End Notes:

Credits for this go to the creative team on Wolverine 115, Hama/Yu/Tadeo, my gratitude for giving me such a detailed issue to work from!

There really was a lot going on in this issue, which is why I'll be stretching 115 through chapters 8 and 9. My apologies to the artists and writers mentioned above; the sudden scene shifts are perfectly fine in a comic book, but they might be confusing to the reader, so I took small blocks of the book and compressed them into larger chunks. Bastion's 'talk' with Xavier happened on pages 7 and 9 of #115, with page 8 put in the middle of the two pages. In order to make this a little more coherent for prose, I took page 8 out and put that in the beginning of chapter 9, then compressed page 7 and 9 into the last scene of chapter 8. Hope I didn't confuse too many of you.

I'm going to hold onto chapter 8 an extra day, because chapters 8 and 9 need to be written together, since both depend heavily on each other's content for ease of reading. Both chapters will appear together.

On to the next chapter!