Disclaimer: I own nothing, nada, zip. Blaze owns me.
Scene 10The redhead and the blonde met Wanda at the Institute's gate and let her in. Wordlessly they took her deep into the mansion's wooded grounds, until a haunting clearing opened up beneath an old knarled oak tree. Blaze created a small swarm of airborne fireflies to light the grove, whilst Wanda opened a rucksack and took out a few weird looking items.
"Cool…" Tabby whispered, leaning forwards to pick one of the objects up, but Wanda slapped her hand away. The Scarlet Witch silently bid the other two join her and sit in a circle. Wanda had her back to the tree trunk, her spine straight and her legs crossed under her. Placing the ouija board in front of her with an upturned glass in the centre, Wanda then held out her hands palm upwards for the others to take. To her right Boom Boom obliged without thinking about it, but to her left Blaze hesitated, whispering, "Why do you need us again exactly?"
"To make a circle," Wanda also whispered, overcome with darkness. "A séance needs at least three people, otherwise the energies can't flow properly."
"Oh, I see," Blaze accepted the explanation and Wanda's hand. Boom Boom took Blaze's other hand to complete the circle. Silence fell as the excitement and mild apprehension started to swell like a corpse left in the sun, becoming bloated and unavoidable. Wanda's lips moved, but she spoke so quietly that Blaze couldn't hear what she said. Tabitha was starting to think this might not be such a good idea, out in the woods all alone with a girl who was calling who knew what down on them. Blaze wasn't feeling rosy either, suddenly remembering that there might be a few deceased spirits out there that would not wish her well. Don't be silly, she chastised herself, it's just a bit of fun. It won't work.
"Place your right index fingers on the glass," Wanda ordered in an anxious hiss. Blaze and Tabby obliged, as Wanda asked out in a slightly louder voice, "Is there any spirit person present? Anyone who wishes to make themselves known to us?"
"Did the glass just shake?" Tabby asked with a nervous gulp.
"I don't know," answered Blaze. "If it did it wasn't me."
"Or me," Wanda chipped in. "Oh, it did it again!"
"Now what?" Blaze hissed, looking from one of her friends to the other, three pale and scared faces in her flickering firelight. The tension was so much, Wolverine could have sliced through the air had he been there. For a few rapid breaths, nothing happened. Then a bizarre noise made all three girls scream, throwing themselves backwards from the board and knocking over the glass.
"Sorry, sorry," Blaze tried to apologise, and at the same time still her own thundering heart. She fished in her pocket to tug out her mobile, holding it up by way of explanation. "It's my cell phone, sorry."
"Sheesh Blaze!" sulked Tabby, whilst Wanda pouted and sat back on her heels. Blaze tucked her hair behind her ear before opening the phone to accept the video call. She started to say "Happy Halloween," but that was as far as she got. On the other end of the line Gambit was horrifically pallid and splattered in crimson blood. Battered and bruised, he could not hold the camera still. The image was blurry and kept shaking. Horror-struck, Blaze gasped. What had happened to her friend? Then she thought she had figured it out.
"Very funny Remy," she drawled sarcastically, an angry scowl on her face. "Don't I get to choose if I want trick or treat? What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack? Only you could try and pass that off as a joke."
"Who's jokin'?" asked Gambit desperately, voice wracked with pain. He moved the phone to show he was lying on the forest floor, with three uniform slashes across his chest to his belly. The blood was his, the danger was real and there could be only one person who had inflicted wounds like that to Gambit. Genuine fear for Gambit's life eclipsed Blaze's earlier giddy terror at things that go bump in the night. Now she was really scared. Her heart was in her throat as she told him, "Hold on Remy, I'm coming, just hold on."
"What's happened? What's wrong with Gambit?" asked Wanda as Blaze hung up. The Scarlet Witch immediately caught the urgency of the situation.
"He's been attacked by Wolverine," Blaze answered, getting to her feet and heading back to the mansion at a jog. Abandoning their stuff, Wanda and Boom Boom flanked Blaze and followed her. "He's hurt, badly. I have to get to him."
"We're going with you," Wanda got the idea instantly, and Blaze didn't argue with Magneto's daughter.
"Wait, aren't you going to tell the Professor, or Storm, or someone?" Tabby didn't understand.
"Don't you get it Tabitha?" snapped Wanda. "Wolverine attacked Gambit."
"Yeah I know, so?"
"So if we tell the X-Men, given both Logan and Remy's respective popularities, who do you think they will sat must have started the fight? They won't help Gambit!" Blaze knew she was being irrational. Fear for her friend overrode common sense.
"What makes you so sure Gambit didn't start the fight?" Tabby pestered.
"Two things," Blaze explained, ushering both girls into the house and towards the lift to the lower levels, specifically the hangar. "One, Gambit wouldn't pick a fight he was less than likely to win. He's not suicidal. Two, given how nuts the Prof has been with grief since Vix died, and Logan's less stable than Xavier anyway. Who knows how far over the edge it's pushed him?"
The lift doors reopened, and Blaze quickly marched them to the hangar where the Blackbird sat waiting. Somewhere in her skull Blaze thought she heard a wolf howl with urgency. I'm on my way Rem, she thought vehemently. I'm on my way. I've lost my parents, I've lost Vixen, I won't lose you too. Not everyone I care about has to die. I swear I won't let it happen again.
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"Now which way?" Tabitha asked, hands on hips as they disembarked the jet.
"I don't know," Blaze panicked, looking around through the endless darkness and pillars of trees, clutching a medkit. "These are the coordinates."
"Over there!" Wanda pointed off to the left. "A light!"
"Not just any light!" Tabby exaggerated, knowing the fuchsia-orange glow of Gambit's powers. Blaze needed no further encouragement to break into a run. Even as she did so, the flare started to fade. She pushed herself onwards over uneven ground, skipping off tree roots and leaping over hollows. Twigs scratched at her face and hands as she forced herself through the thickest part of the forest. Gambit's flare dwindled and died, but Blaze kept running forwards. Even though she couldn't see, she retained enough sense not to use her powers in case she sent the whole wood up in flames. Suddenly the trees themselves started to glow with a dim red light, penetrating the darkness. Blaze didn't have to look back to know that Wanda was using her mutant gift to light her path for her.
The redhead burst through the tree line into a clearing, with Tabby and Wanda only paces behind. Gambit lay spread-eagled on the forest floor, unmoving as a corpse. Over him a great grey shape loomed, its wedge-shaped muzzle lowered to the Cajun's wounds. The wolf lifted its head towards the girls as they burst into the clearing. There was red blood on its fur, and its tongue was lolling. Whilst Tabby and Blaze stared at the creature, Wanda looked right then left, realising they were surrounded. A whole pack of wolves was circling just inside the tree line. Gambit's flare had been nothing to do with the jet arriving. He'd been trying to scare off the wolves that wanted to eat him!
The big wolf by Gambit's side looked from Tabby to Blaze and there it's gaze halted. Brown predatory eyes glimmered with recognition, eyes that seemed to embody great sadness and intelligence. Blonde hairs criss-crossed the she-wolf's muzzle and chest, and she had a blonde tip to her tail. Blaze froze, gob-smacked beyond all belief. She knew this wolf! This was no wolf! Ilehana…