Chapter 6-How Far Can It Go
"LET ME OUT OR I SHALL MAKE YOU SCREAM SO LOUD YOUR LUNGS WILL EXPLODE!" Death screamed as she pounded on the cage wall. Kurt winced.
"She's even worse than before." Beast commented as he studied the computer screen he was staring at.
"Ve have to save her, Professor!" Kurt insisted.
"YOU WILL ALL DIE! MY MASTER SHALL TAKE YOUR WRETCHED SOULS AND USE THEM TO POWER HIS ARMY!" Death screamed even louder.
"We are trying, Kurt, but we have no idea how to save her!" The Professor answered back sharply, rubbing his bald head. He calmed down. He was very stressed out.
"Please, go see if Rogue is home. Remember, under no circumstances can she see this. We cannot let things get more out of hand than they already are." The Professor reminded him. Kurt was just about to leave when Kitty quickly phased in.
"Rogue's home!" Kitty informed them frantically. "Jean's trying to distract her, but she's not buying it!"
Everyone gasped, while Death continued to curse obscenities and threats at them.
"She still creeps me out…" Kitty took a moment to comment on Death. Just as they tried to figure out what to do, the last person they wanted in there walked in. Rogue gasped as she saw Death.
"What's she doin' here?" She demanded angrily, a confused look on her face.
"Rogue, please, calm down!" Professor Xavier urged, but Rogue wouldn't listen. She continued to rave.
"How the hell did she come back!" Rogue screamed. "Did you help her?" She began accusing everyone. She whirled around to face Kurt. "It was you, wasn't it!"
"Shut up and calm down, Rogue!" Kurt shook her. She came to her senses, but didn't calm down.
"Why-is-she-here?" She gasped.
"That vasn't our mother you shattered that day, it vas a fake. Apocalypse has taken her, and I am determined to save her, and if you had a heart you vould help too!" Kurt said quickly. Rogue's expression softened, and she calmed herself down.
"You mean, that she's under control?" Rogue asked, trying to understand the situation.
"No, she's out of control." Beast called out from his post. Rogue walked over to the see-through cage and stared into Mystique's face, twisted into a look of rage, hate, and evil…the very words Rogue had always used to describe her.
"YOU WILL ALL SUFFER THE WRATH OF DEATH!" Death screamed out, and took once again to banging the walls. Rogue couldn't stand to look at it.
"Are you sure she can't escape?" Rogue asked the Professor.
"We can't be sure. Her powers are radically heightened. She can do practically anything now." The Professor answered. Suddenly, Death grew silent. She sat down cross-legged on her floor. A face Rogue recognized spread across her face.
It was the face she always wore when she was planning something.
"You guys, we should pay attention to what she's doing." Rogue told the others. But where was Kitty?
"Vhere's Kitty?" Kurt asked. They looked around to see Kitty in the cage of Death.
"Let me out of here!" Kitty urged, banging on the wall.
"Don't think we're about to fall for that." Beast laughed.
"No, like, really, guys! Mystique has already like, escaped now!" Kitty insisted. She proceeded to phase through the wall and hop to the ground. Everyone was stunned.
"How'd you get in there?" Rogue asked, completely befuddled.
"While you guys were looking away she turned to me, phased out, then threw me in there! That's just how fast she is now!" Kitty explained.
"And now, the worst has come to pass. She is loose. Now, go! We must find her." The Professor rubbed his temples, and searched the grounds for any sign of Mystique's mind. He gasped. "My God- she's become so powerful she can block my telepathic probes!" No one waited a minute longer. They ran out for Mystique, or more precisely, Death.
But their attempts were futile. It was like trying to catch smoke with nothing but your hands. She had already disappeared.
Kurt quickly broke down.
"Mo-mo-mother…" He sobbed as tears ran down his face. Rogue tried to comfort him.
"I will use Cerebro. Perhaps that will help." The Professor sped off to Cerebro.
Kurt continued to cry. Rogue had more control. She wouldn't let herself cry in front of other people.
Kurt tried to wipe his tears away. Beast whispered to Kitty, and Kitty nodded. They left Kurt and Rogue alone.
"Ro-Rogue… Mystique…I vas having a funeral for her…and she came…and she had control…and before she succumbed to …whatever Apocalypse has done to her…she told me that she loves us very much." He managed to choke out. Rogue stared, trying to take in what Kurt had just said. Had Mystique been sincere?
Of course she had. It had been her last words as herself. She made up her mind.
"Kurt…" She lifted up his head and stared into his wet eyes. The yellow eyes she recognized as a trait Mystique had. "Nothing can evah erase what she did to me. But Ah can forgive her. If you're right- if she did love me, then Ah'm willing to fight for our mother." Rogue smiled, and was surprised at her own words.
She was right.
Nothing could ever make up for what Mystique had done to her over time. But it can be rebuilt. Rogue had had a relationship with Mystique before she'd used her time and time again. Maybe they could save that.
Maybe the dream she thought so fondly of every day, of her, Kurt, and their mother being a family, wasn't so impossible.
Suddenly, the Professor rolled out at top speed.
"She's on her way to Egypt. She's resting in an old construction lot. Go!" The Professor urged. Kurt and Rogue, brother and sister, nodded to one another and teleported to the X-Jet. The Team was already there. They flew off at top speed.
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Marko Wagner may not be the trustworthiest person, but he was a good friend of Irene's, and would always help her out.
"Don't think of this as me wanting to help Raven." Marko repeated quietly teleported Irene to the construction lot that Irene had requested from him.
"Do not be so worrisome, Marko. You can go now." Irene whispered as she straightened herself, and stared with her blind eyes around her.
"Nein, I think I'd rather stay and vatch from afar." Marko said finally, before leaving a stench of brimstone and sulphur behind in a cloud of smoke, and reappeared on top of an old, abandoned crane.
Irene knew that Raven was mere metres away. This was her last chance. She knew everything that would happen if Raven wasn't stopped now. Many innocents would die.
And on a more important note to Irene, it had to be done now, while a flicker of Raven's strong will still remained.
She walked straight ahead, her cane guiding her. Marko's beady black eyes watched the scene unfold from far above.
Irene could hear a plane approaching overhead. It didn't matter. She heard breathing up ahead.
She carefully stepped forward. She got a vision of a huge iron girder in her way, and carefully stepped over it.
"Raven?" She called out softly, hoping to get an answer. She heard a shuffling as Death turned around.
"How foolish of you to seek pure Death out." Death said. There was no humour or arrogance in her words.
"Raven, I know you're still in there. Fight it." Irene kept calm, although sweat was starting to bead on her forehead.
"Shut up, old woman!" Death commanded.
"Raven, fight it!" Irene shouted.
Death looked like she was about to attack Irene when she suddenly collapsed forward. She was clasping her head so tightly, her nails began to dig in.
"Ahhh!" Death screamed. "What's happening!"
"Come on, Raven! Fight it!" Irene cheered.
"Ireeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeene!" Mystique screamed, wrestling against Death for control. But Death took the winning side.
"Stop it!" Death screeched, still clasping her head. The X-Jet began to land as it approached the construction site.
Inside, Rogue and Kurt ran up to the window.
"That's Irene! We need to help her!" Rogue urged.
"Wait! Mystique's struggling. She might overpower Apocalypse's tampering!" Jean informed them.
But to their horror, this was no longer the case.
Death stood up, and shook herself. She picked up Irene by the neck and smiled a cruel, evil smile. Irene feet dangled helplessly in mid-air, Irene gasping for air.
"Fool. You thought your friend could overcome Death? Pity. She doesn't know what's about to happen to you. Are you get precognetic visions of your own demise?" Death hissed, bringing her face in closer to Irene's.
"NO!" Rogue screamed, and scrambled to get out of the X-jet. Kurt tried to follow her, but the ramp would not lower.
"We've got to help her!" Rogue cried. Scott tried to get the ramp to lower, but by the time Rogue and Kurt got out, they were too far away to help.
Too late.
Irene took in her last breath and said, "I love you, Raven." Before Death threw her to the ground.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion through Rogue's eyes.
Her legs pumping hard, Kurt's tail swishing, and finally, frame by frame, she saw Death pick up Irene's cane and draw it up.
"NO!" Came Rogue's slow voice. Just as the cane came slowly down, everything burst into sudden rush. Rogue stopped dead as she watched Death give the final, deathblow.
She fell to her knees, tears falling freely from her eyes. She knew what had just happened, but could not believe it.
Irene was dead.
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For me, that was a powerful chapter. Very angsty, I know. This was updated quickly on request of Frankie, who is an AWESOME regular reviewer, by the way, thanks! Please review. Bet you didn't see the Death of Irene coming, did ya? Something else surprising coming in the next chapter.!