Chapter Sixteen
Eventually, we did have to put the children to bed, since Kurt fell asleep on Hank's shoulder, and David kept glaring at anyone who even thought about taking him away from Sean. It was sort of adorable. But Sean compromised with him by agreeing to be the one to put him to bed, as long as it was okay if Hank came too, since Sean still couldn't make it up the stairs on his own. Erik and I collected Kurt and joined them. Kurt's things were still in David's room, but neither of us wanted him to sleep there that night. Or any other night that Raven was still in the house. She may have given birth to him, but she had never been his mother, and I wasn't about to let her hurt him again. It may have been wrong to keep him from her, but then, I never claimed to be a saint, regardless of what she thought.
We left David, Sean, and Hank in David's room, with only minimal whining from any of the boys, then went to my room. A brief moment of shy, slight awkwardness had us pausing in front of my door, before I laughed and pulled Erik inside. We'd slept in the same bed before, the night before, and having Kurt with both of us would just be safer for him. Everyone changed into pajamas and slipped into bed, with Kurt cuddled in between Erik and me. "Ich liebe dich, meine Leiben," Erik murmured softly, kissing first Kurt's forehead, then mine.
It was the best night's sleep I'd had in a very long time. Even with Kurt's little toes digging into my ribs most of the night.
…
Charles woke us adults with a frantic "Raven's gone!"
We hurriedly gathered in his office, wrapping robes around us as we went. I collected a still mostly asleep Kurt, because I didn't trust Raven to not try to steal him back, just to try to hurt me and Erik. And it seemed that Moira had a similar thought, since she had David with her.
"She was planning something last night, but I couldn't tell what," Charles said, anxiously pacing behind his desk and leaning more heavily on his crutch than usual. "She kept me out mostly. I think she's still planning on going after Trask, but I don't know how or where. She's still convinced that if she can kill him, she stops all the threats to mutants. And she won't listen to reason."
Logan muttered something that sounded remarkably like "She never has," which got a tiny smile from most of us.
"I might be able to help with that."
Janie, Lotta's roommate, popped into the room. She was able to travel using electricity, so she literally popped out of the outlet, startling Erik and Logan, who instantly pushed out his claws. She just gave him an interested once-over, then turned back to Charles. "Sorry, Professor, but I think you want to see these," she said as she handed him a thick folder.
Moira and I went to his side as Charles began skimming the papers inside. "Where did you get these, Janie?" he asked.
The folder contained all of the files Raven had collected from Trask's facility in Vietnam. And they contained quite a lot of damning evidence, more than just his experiments.
"I couldn't sleep last night," Janie started to explain, "so I was just wandering the lines. I know you don't like me to leave the house, so I stayed here like you asked. The blue woman was looking through these papers, and she said something about finally getting what she needed to finish everything, and she mentioned killing someone, so I waited for her to go to sleep, and then I grabbed these. Lotta said I should show it to you, so here I am!"
"Janie, you are a genius," I breathed, while Charles looked slightly constipated.
"We'll talk about respecting boundaries when we get back," he sighed. "But it looks like we'll be going to Washington today. Petra, Suzanne, we'll need you to stay with the children-"
"I'm going with you," Janie interrupted defiantly, hands thrown on her hips. "You wouldn't have known about this if it wasn't for me."
"And you'll need me, too," Lotta added, coming out from behind the curtains with a smug look. "I can help, and I'll just sneak on the plane again if you try to leave me behind."
Logan chuckled. "I think the X-Men are getting formed whether you like it or not, Professor."
Charles sighed, and he looked to be very close to dropping his head to his desktop. "So, it would seem."
In the end, Sean, Petra, and Suzanne stayed with the younger children. Ink, Toad, and Spike all decided against coming and facing the man who had almost kidnapped them. Thompson stayed behind, as well, though he did drive us to the air field. "My mutation is only being able to speak to people no matter the language," he said apologetically. "I wouldn't be much help in a fight."
I gave an understanding smile. "As long as you help keep our kids safe, I don't have a problem with that. We'll see you once this is all over."
The flight to Washington, D.C. didn't take long, though none of us relaxed the entire time. And then we had to land at a commercial airport, then rent a vehicle big enough for all of us. "If you would let me build a hangar on the grounds, we could have taken the Blackbird and none of this would have happened," Hank muttered to Charles as he navigated traffic. "We could have just flown straight to the Pentagon and landed there. No one would have seen us."
"We'll discuss that when we get back home," Charles said wearily. "For now, let's just concentrate on keeping Raven from killing anyone, yes?"
Since we had Charles with us to persuade the guards, Hank was able to park directly in front of the Pentagon, and we all piled out. "Trask is meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense right now," Charles explained, then squeaked when Hank picked him up.
"Then we'd better hurry," Hank replied, setting the pace.
Between Charles, Lotta, and me, we were able to make it unchallenged to the very center of the Pentagon. "That's where Trask is," Charles said, and Hank set him down gently. "He's in there right now."
"I'm sorry, you can't-" one of the guards said, but Charles cut him off.
"We can go in there. We're so sorry we're late for the meeting," he told him, and the guard nodded.
"Right, go on in."
Another guard opened the door for us, and our little group trooped right on in.
Secretary McNamara looked up from his notes to goggle at us. "I don't know who you think you are, but you can't be in here," he said. "We're in the middle of a meeting."
"I think they're some of the people I was just warning you about, Secretary," Trask suggested calmly, with more than a touch of smug arrogance, even while Stryker tensed and put his hand on his sidearm.
"You mean, these are your so-called mutants?" Chairman Wheeler looked us over and seemed unimpressed. "They look like a school group that got lost."
"Oh, I can assure you that they are much more than they look," Trask promised. "Just look at how easily they got into one of the most secure buildings on the planet."
That was a fair point, but it didn't mean I had to like it. "To be fair, we do have a few extra gifts than the ordinary human does," Charles agreed, heading to the other group gathered around the table. "But that doesn't make us any more dangerous than anyone else."
Trask snorted. "Oh, so you don't have someone in your little group who can read minds?" he asked, still sounding very conversational. "Like you couldn't simply pluck nuclear codes from any of these men. Or, if I'm not mistaken, that woman there can influence people with music. If she so chose, she could convince you all to kill each other, or declare war on Russia. So, what's to stop her from doing that?"
"What's to stop any one person from killing another?" I posited in return. "Any one person can cause immensurable harm to another. That's not a distinctly mutant trait."
"Like the pain you and Stryker caused to your test subjects in Vietnam," Alex said, stepping forward, with more fury in his words than I had ever heard from him. And I'd heard him speaking about his father.
"What are you talking about?" Admiral Moorer demanded. Stryker and Trask were both staring at Alex, now that they noticed him, in something like horror.
"I can show you proof, if you would permit," Lotta said, perfectly polite. Which really told me just how angry she was. "We have documents here that prove Trask and Stryker were conducting illegal human experimentation in Vietnam."
"And just how did you get this proof?" Trask asked, an eyebrow lifted in polite questioning. "My facility was recently destroyed. It was a total loss. That's actually what we're discussing today."
Moira answered that one, taking the wind out of his sails with one neat sentence. "I work for the CIA, and I was given intel that several of our men had been captured and taken to a black site." Trask seemed very uncomfortable now. "Once we arrived in country, we found Major Stryker trying to illegally remand several privates, who happen to be mutants, to a private facility. Our group prevented Major Stryker from taking them into custody, and we discovered the location of the black site facility. Once at the facility, we discovered many, many captives, both military who had been declared dead or missing, including one who's with us here today," she pointed at Alex, "and local Vietnamese villagers. Horrific experiments had been performed on many of them, as well as abuse of numerous kinds. We rescued a Vietnamese girl, probably no more than sixteen, who had been raped-"
"You can't take the word of some Vietnamese girl on something like this," Stryker interrupted, answering my silent questions of just who had done the raping.
"As one of those rescued from the facility, as well as a member of the United States Army," Alex countered, fury making his eyes glow faintly red, "I can attest to this. The girl in question was raped multiple times in the few days I was held at the facility, by several different men. Including Major Stryker. And he was in the room when the other men raped her."
Stryker paled, but still he blustered on. "You can't possibly believe the word of a private over a major, now can you?"
"We could always find the girl and perform a paternity test for her two children," Erik suggested calmly, though I could feel him shaking slightly next to me. The whole situation was far too much like what my own father had done in the concentration camps, done to Erik, for either of us to be comfortable with it.
"I could perform the test for you, since I am the one who developed it," Hank added modestly.
Stryker startled at that, as did Trask. "Enough," Secretary McNamara said. "Show us this proof you claim you have."
Lotta stepped forward and gave him the folder. "Here, sir. Oh, and I think you'll especially like this first one. We've made copies for each of you gentleman."
McNamara handed his colleagues the copies, and there was silence for a bit as each man read it. Eyebrows lowered as they got further into the document. Both Trask and Stryker looked uncomfortable, though Trask hid it better.
"Guards!" McNamara snapped, once he clearly made it to the end of the document. "Guards!"
The door opened, and six very confused guards come in. "Yes, Mr. Secretary?"
"Arrest those men," he ordered, pointing at Stryker and Trask, "on charges of treason!"
Trask and Stryker erupted in yells, swears, and threats as the guards advanced on them. But a shout from General Chapman had everyone turning. "That's not good enough!" he screamed, launching himself toward them with a grace that belied his age.
AN: A bit of a cliffie, but it shouldn't be too much of one. I'm going to try to have the next chapter ready by next Sunday, though I am having a bit of a hard time 'cause I suck at fight scenes. But I'm going to try for you all! Thanks to brigid1318 for your lovely review, and yes, I did think you would like that last chapter with the anti-Raven theme!
Translation: Erik said, "I love you, my loved ones."
