Sanctuary Part 6:

Living Weapons

The Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Salem Center NY

"After everything you have been through you shouldn't have to suffer through this too," Charles Little Sky was holding down the lump that kept threatening to clog his throat. He stood over a prostrated Switchback, bruises had formed over most of her visible skin, arms face and lower legs. She lay in a medical bed in the X-Men's underground emergency clinic. She still hadn't woken up from her attack.

Charles and created a portal to her apartment he had set her up with not long ago but she wasn't inside. He had heard a ruckus outside and investigated finding Switchback being completely overwhelmed by a mob of angry humans. Blood was already streaming from her nose and mouth. He had ported down to her immediately but he was too late, she was already out of it. She was laying on the sidewalk as people kicked and spit.

An enraged Portal had sent the closest to the middle of Death Valley then grabbed Switchback and fled back to the mansion. That had been hours ago. Jean and Doctor Reyes had worked on her for almost two hours straight. They had come out sweating and exhausted.

"It's all up to her now. There's swelling in her brain, but I've done everything possible for her at the moment. She needs to rest." Doctor Reyes had informed him then both women had left to get some rest. Charles hadn't moved from Switchback's side since.

"Reyes does good work," Wolverine's voice growled next to him. Little Sky jumped a little and looked at the hairy muscle-bound X-Man.

"I suppose you X-Men have to deal with this kind of thing all the time," Little Sky didn't know what else to say at the moment. He didn't feel like having a conversation, let alone with someone he didn't know very well.

"Not all the time, but far too much," Wolverine grunted in agreement. Another X-Man approached, Angel. There was something supremely creepy about watching a man who had been known as 'The Angel of Death' approaching his injured friend. Charles had to fight himself to not stop Angel from approaching.

"I just finished speaking with Jean," Warren said to Charles as he approached. "She said it would likely be a while before she wakes. You have been here all night, why don't you go get some rest and we can be here if she wakes up."

"I wanna be here when it happens," Little Sky shook his head.

"And if you look like crap and are snoring because you haven't gotten enough rest? That ought to be really comforting." Wolverine stated.

"Does she even know you?"

"We actually met, at least if she is from the same Universe I think she is," Logan said. "She helped another version of the X-Men fight an Apocalypse that had taken over all of North America."

"Hm, so you have met," Charles found himself suddenly relaxing, if only slightly. The second he let it his body began to tell him how tired it was, yawns and slow slips into sleep quickly began to manifest themselves.

"Get some rest, Little Sky, I will get you if she wakes up before you do, I promise," Warren reassured.

"I suppose I could use a quick nap," Charles agreed. He sighed and gave one last look at his friend before turning and shambling out the door.

"So, I'm right in assuming Jean said that Switchback should awaken soon?" Wolverine asked Angel once Charles was out of earshot.

"Of course," Angel said coldly. "What we need to say to her requires privacy Little Sky would never give us."

"Damn, Worthington, that's pretty cold," Wolverine looked in surprise at his teammate.

"If we want to get done everything we talked about then it will require some actions that seem 'cold'."

"Oh I understand that just fine," Wolverine shrugged. "I just had no idea you understood it so well."

"I will do what must be done, Logan, to ensure we aren't killed off by a bunch of fearful humans or jealous mutants."

"So will I, bub."

"Can you two shut up and get me a drink of water?" a weak voice croaked out at them.

The next few minutes were spent getting Switchback comfortable and making sure she was lucid. It wasn't long though before they got down to business.

"Switchback," Wolverine finally began. "We've met before, I know what you can do and I know you've seen what an evil man can do to this country. I know that this is not your world, and it may seem like a paradise compared to the one you came from, but it's about to get a hell of a lot worse."

"I noticed."

"Of course. Sorry, I just wanted to make sure you understood what was at stake here before I asked you some things."

"Why don't you get right down to it?" Switchback was exhausted but obviously this was important.

"The President has been assassinated by a mutant, and we need to find out who that mutant was so we can bring them to justice and put an end to all of this extreme mutant hostility we have been seeing recently."

"What does that have to do with me?"

"We need you to help us get a video of the incident."

"Let me guess, it is in a heavily guarded facility and you don't even know where I need to go to get it?"

"Something like that."

"I don't know if you two have noticed or not but I am not exactly in the best condition to be doing this."

"If you do this with us tonight, we can fix that." As they continued talking none of them noticed that someone else had approached the recovery room.

Sam Guthrie stood just outside the doorway, out of sight. He could only catch snippets of the conversation. What he did hear made him think that perhaps Mister Summers and Professor Xavier wouldn't like what they were whispering. Still, they had trusted him not to say anything. He had definitely grown up in a culture where you didn't snitch, but sometimes, when people were doing something dangerous, it was best to bring it out to light.

Mister Summers, not Logan or Professor Worthington, was his mentor, he should be honest with him. He needed to go tell him all the suspicious things he had seen between Worthington and Logan. First, right after Xavier told him not to, Worthington flew to DC and landed on the White House grounds, provoking a deadly response at literally the worst possible time for him to do so. Then they covered up what they had been doing, encouraging him to lie to his mentor, or at least not be honest with him. Then they had both disappeared last night not long before Switchback had arrived, and almost the second they got back they went to talk to the woman they barely knew about whatever it was they were covering up from Cyclops and Xavier. A woman who had just been brutalized by humans and they shouldn't be bothering at all. It was all suspicious and Sam had to say something.

He crept away from the recovery room, Logan had enhanced hearing, among other senses, so he had to be extra quiet. He hurried on to the elevator and quickly mashed the buttons, hoping they weren't right behind him. He waited impatiently, dancing like he had to pee until the doors closed.

When the doors opened he glanced about, he wasn't sure why and filed into the hall with the other students and even a couple of the refugees. He had to find Mister Summers before he lost his nerve.

"How long!?" a shrill cry echoed in the wood-paneled hallway. Sam looked around, he recognized that voice. "No, I haven't heard anything!" It was his teammate Xi'an, also known as Karma. She had actually been the initial leader of their little team until her little brother and sister had been kidnapped and once she got them back she decided she needed to have a more active role in their lives. When she stepped down Sam had been assigned as her replacement. Being a team leader wasn't a role he was comfortable with but Mister Summers insisted he was the right choice for the position. He remembered the panic in Xi'an's voice when she had found out they'd been kidnapped, it was in her voice now.

"Xi'an?" he called out. She didn't respond but Sam was searching the hallway that seemed to be teeming with students like ants. It still didn't take him long to spot her, she was standing still in the hallway, her cellphone to her ear and tears streaming down her face.

"I'll get there as soon as I can get a ride," Xi'an said firmly and hung up her phone.

"Xi'an, what is it? What's happened?" Sam called out as he approached her, her eyes were too filled with tears to make him out of the mess of students milling around them.

"It's the twins!" Xi'an burst into more tears. "They've gone missing and no one knows what happened!"

"Again?" The hair on the back of Sam's neck prickled and stood on end. This couldn't be a coincidence, first Bobby disappears then Xi'an's twin siblings.

"I've got to go," Xi'an said brusquely.

"Xi'an, wait!" Sam cried as she walked away. She paused but didn't turn around. "We can search for them much faster using Cerebro!"

Xi'an turned around. "You're right."

"Let's go see Professor Xavier!" They ran toward the library, Sam forgot all about his mission to talk to Cyclops.

Lightwheel TownHomes, Washington DC

Aaron Amberson stretched his neck, he had worked all night and most the morning. Sometimes your hours as a reporter were crazier than a fireman's. Having been reassigned to the political beat after deciding he was tired of reporting on superheroes he had moved from New York to DC and he couldn't have been happier about it. In New York, every day he ran into some sort of supervillain or superhero battle or he would be affected by one in some way. It felt almost as if his life were in constant danger and the only quiet place was his own apartment. The last straw for him was when two aliens came crashing through his apartment window late one night. He didn't sleep for almost a week after that.

DC was so much better, all of the threats being thrown about were political. No random invader from below the earth or superhuman brawl, just a bunch of older men and women constantly trying to ruin each other's careers. Backstabbing was much better than real stabbing. Sure there was plenty of crime in DC, but it was regular crime, no portals to hell opening up at random.

Of course he wasn't aware, as he got out of his Uber ride, that his life was in very real danger. He scanned his card key and the door to his building opened and he slipped through with a yawn. Across the street sat a black van, the windows tinted darker than was legal. Inside sat a man wearing equally dark sunglasses, staring at where Aaron had disappeared into the building.

"He's in," the man spoke into a small microphone attached to his headphones. "Release the girl."

Aaron Amberson didn't know it but he had made enemies of the very wrong sort. He had been digging into the political history of the newest head of Homeland Security and he had found some very unsavory things. The dumbest thing he had done though was that he had not been quiet about it. A good number of his fellow reporters knew about it, his boss knew about it, so did several drivers and at least one photographer, he had some major dirt on Henry Peter Gyrich. He didn't know it yet but someone had betrayed him.

He lit some incense to help him relax as he removed his clothes almost immediately. He stepped into the bathroom and turned on the shower to let the water heat up, each TownHome had its own water heater. Just down the hall the door to an empty apartment opened of its own accord and out stepped a little girl with flat dark hair. She sniffed the air. There it was, the Scent.

The Scent had long been a part of her condition. X-23 had been tortured and conditioned with the scent to the point that when she smells it her mind goes blank and anything that is marked with the scent is eliminated. She doesn't even remember actually killing any of her targets. Just as now, the smell invaded her nostrils and her eyes glazed over.

She followed the smell down the hall. She grabbed the doorknob and discovered it was locked. That was easy. She popped her newly metal-coated claws and jammed them through the locking mechanism. The door opened. There was another scent in the apartment, something strong and obnoxious but nothing could take away the scent that pervaded her mind. Little wisps of smoke danced around her as she tried to make out where the scent was coming from. She passed through the living room and followed it down the hall. Someone was showering, it wouldn't do them any good. She opened the bathroom door. The glass walls of the shower were fogged with humidity, the scent was in here. She popped her pairs of claws.

"Hello?" a nervous voice came from the shower. Aaron opened the door to the shower and found himself staring at the little girl. Reflexively he covered himself up with his hands. With a shriek she launched herself at him, and it was then he finally noticed the blades protruding from her little fists. He raised his arms to protect his face, she slashed right through his arm, his hand dropped to the shower floor, she jammed her second fist into his chest. One of her blades burst through his ribs and into his heart. He screamed as she continued to slash at him, his lifeblood flowing down the drain as the shower kept flowing.

In seconds the Scent was gone, the piece of his skin that it had been placed on had flowed down the drain with the blood and other bits of viscera. X-23's glazed over eyes slowly came back into focus. She looked at the blood splattered all over her black-clad torso. Usually she didn't get free of the Scent's control until she was already on the way back to the Facility.

She glanced about for her handlers, but none of them were present. A man lay half torn apart in the shower. She bolted.

She ran from the bathroom into the hallway then out the apartment door. Somehow, she knew she was supposed to return to the apartment she had come from, but she didn't. She raced to the stairwell and leaped down the stairs a floor at a time. For the first time in her life, X-23 was free.

The White House, Washington DC

"Mister Gyrich," the President said, drawing out his name, dripping it in dismissiveness. "So nice to see you." Or was that sarcasm?

"Hello, Madam President," Gyrich forced a smile to inch its way across his face. "How has today been treating you?" Ever since Ms. Marvel had been assigned to her personal guard the President had been wearing an all-too-pleased smile. An arrogance she had never possessed seemed to creep out of nowhere and settle itself into her already challenging personality.

"So, what is new that you can tell me about our recent project?" her voice was challenging, a nasty hidden hint of humor was behind her words as well, as if she were hoping he had failed so she could punish him and take delight in it. Some people were never meant to have so much power.

"I have already appointed a project lead," Gyrich smiled, trying not to give away the fact that he delighted in disappointing her.

The President's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Who?"

"Stephen Lang."

The President sighed as if she were trying to be patient to a very small child. "Help me to understand how you thought that was the appropriate choice for the position."

"You know he understands the severity of what we are dealing with better than anyone else in the District."

"Knowledge isn't everything, Gyrich, this is politics, public opinion matters more than know-how."

"So, you didn't want me to hire who was best for the job?"

"He isn't best for the job, because part of the job is the public image, and his public image is shit!" She screamed that last word loudly. Ms. Marvel shifted ever so slightly behind her.

"He's already begun organizing the entire Division, do you want me to get rid of him?"

"No, you idiot, it looks like we are incompetent if we hire a guy and fire him less than twenty-four hours later! He needs a second-in-command that can help soften the public image as I did for the President."

"So you want me to go find some bleeding-heart that will go along with all of this?" Gyrich looked at her plainly conveying how impossible such a mission would be for him.

"No," the new President actually rolled her eyes at him. "All you need to do is find someone that the public doesn't already hate, and is charming, and good looking, and diplomatic enough to pull this off!"

"Right," Gyrich sat down, she hadn't exactly made it much easier on him. "Is that all?"

"No it is not," the President's eyes narrowed at him. "Agent Fox hasn't given me an update, make sure he calls me personally or shows up at my office in the next two hours."

"I'll reach out to him."

"Okay, now that is all."

"Madam President," Gyrich bowed his head slightly and then turned on his heel and walked out of the room with a grimace. He grabbed his cell and dialed Fox, it rang four times then went to voicemail. That was unlike Fox. Gyrich knew where he would find him, the man took too much pleasure in his work.

To Gyrich's surprise his other phone started to vibrate just then. He grabbed the old flip phone and stuck it to his ear. "This is Gyrich."

Gyrich's face changed from a grimace into an outright rage, his skin went from its usual pale color to pink then a bright shade of scarlet.

"How the hell did this happen? How could you let it get away? Dammit we need another asset to bring it in. This is your top priority, drop everything else, and get it back, now! I don't care about X-25 right now, get back X-23!"

Gyrich furiously flipped the phone shut and increased his pace as he exited the White House. Everything he had worked for was at risk.

Location Undisclosed

Mystique lay on the cell floor, too weak to act defiantly. It didn't matter how strong you were once you had been taken to the brink of death multiple times a day for two days straight. She refused to break, but she could no longer keep up the act of angry defiance. She hoped they would think she was asleep and leave her alone, but she was foolish to have such hopes. Sleep deprivation was part of the torture.

"Raven, don't go to sleep on me, Raven, or I might have to fill your cell again," came Fox's smarmy voice.

Mystique slowly raised her head to show him he was awake. Her legs were weak and trembling, she hadn't eaten since getting captured. These government types knew how to weaken you. At this point she was fairly certain he was doing all of this for his own enjoyment that he knew she couldn't fly away like Angel, his body was specially adapted for flight and unless she knew the ins and outs of his anatomy and musculature there was no way she could replicate it perfectly.

"Today I was thinking we would start with-" Suddenly Fox's voice stopped mid-sentence. Mystique glanced up again and saw someone standing directly over her. She flinched a little in surprise.

"There you are," a voice said, grabbing her wrist and elbow and pulling her up. There were actually two people in the room with her. One she recognized instantly, Archangel of the X-Men, the other it took her a moment to remember but it was Vanisher.

"What do you want?" Mystique tried to sound tough but her weak trembling voice gave her away.

"I don't like helping you any more than you like getting help from me but I couldn't leave you to take the blame for my actions."

"Your actions?" Mystique was surprised to hear an X-Man admit any wrongdoing, especially the socially elite Warren Worthington. "That's why he wanted to see if I could fly."

"Okay, yay, great, happy reunion," Vanisher snapped. "We need to go now before the soldiers get here and murder us."

"He's right, let's continue this discussion elsewhere," Worthington glanced at Vanisher who grabbed them both and vanished along with them.

It was disorienting for Mystique who was already weak and fatigued to teleport hundred of miles away. She dry-heaved a little since there was nothing in her stomach to actually vomit up. They had transported to what looked like a sparsely furnished apartment about twenty-five floors above the New York streets.

"What the hell is this?" a rough gravelly voice demanded, furious. Wolverine was waiting for them, he popped his claws.

"Hold on, Logan, this is my fault."

"I'll say it is," Wolverine advanced on Mystique. "What is she doing here?"

"Logan, I couldn't leave her to government torture because of something that I did."

"Why not, she's earned it?" Logan spat.

"And you haven't?" Mystique shot back, swaying slightly on her trembling legs.

"They were going to figure out it was me and not her soon enough, it was better to get her out of there before she cracked."

"You took Vanisher's collar off?"

"I couldn't exactly teleport him to her rescue if he hadn't."

"Shut up!" Logan demanded, pointing his claws at the criminal. "You're lucky he didn't just teleport away and leave you two there."

"We still have his money," Angel said. At that Mystique looked at Vanisher, understanding now why he was working with the X-Men.

"That was supposed to just be an extra incentive."

"What do you want from him?" Mystique asked as she finally gave in to her exhaustion and sat on the floor.

"They want me to steal surveillance footage from the White House and find out who murdered the President."

"I want in."

"No!" Angel and Wolverine said in unison.

"Those bastards tortured me, starved me, all for something I didn't do," Mystique tried to reason. "I at least want to know who to blame."

"She would make for good cover if I got caught, she could be anyone," Vanisher pleaded her case. He was glad to get any help he could get to save his millions from the X-Men.

"You can't even stand, how do you think you could help him?"

"Just get me some food and I will be fine after a couple of hours rest, you're not the only one with a healing factor you know."

"I don't think we can trust her," Angel said doubtfully.

"No kidding," Wolverine looked at his teammate pointedly.

"Look, I know we have no reason to trust each other but right now we need to stand together as mutants and forget the past."

"No!" Wolverine barked

The White House, Washington DC

The White House was more lit up than usual, ever since Angel had landed on the grounds the security had only gotten tighter. The grounds were lit up like it was Christmas and there were Agents posted every twenty feet. None of their preparations were going to stop what was coming.

The Secret Service has its own room that no one outside of the Secret Service, with the exception of the President, may enter. It's in between the Kitchen and the North Hall on the basement level. It was in here that most of the cameras were monitored and anything pertinent to the Secret Service would be stored. It was here that they had stored the hard copy of the previous President's assassination.

Vanisher had already stolen from the White House before, multiple times, as a matter of fact, that is how he first met the X-Men not long after their inception. It had been the original five who had gone up against him, but they hadn't stood a chance. It was only thanks to Xavier they were able to defeat him. He had never forgotten how they had ruined his retirement plan. Now he was working with them, against his will, but still, it burned.

Vanisher knew right where to teleport to, Mystique was with him. With a flash they appeared in the Secret Service room. Two agents were currently inside and turned to see what had flashed. Mystique, having gotten several hours rest and two meals, was back in fighting shape. She unsheathed two knives and with a couple of quick swipes slit one's throat and stabbed the other through the heart. They were down before they could raise the alarm.

Mystique rushed over to the door and locked it then turned and examined one of the dead agents. She turned into the one she thought was better looking, probably the younger of the two. Vanisher was over at the main computer terminal trying to find the file they were looking for. He stuck a thumb drive in the USB port and started searching by time frame.

Someone tried to open the locked door. Mystique glanced over her transformed shoulder. "Hurry it up, there's already someone at the door."

She inched forward, whoever it was out there was now knocking loudly on the door. She kicked the bodies out of view as fast as possible, grabbing one of their guns, and went to open the door.

"Why is this door locked? You know that we are on high alert and we need rapid access to this room?" It was Agent Fox. Mystique's hand gripped the pistol she had just stolen. She tried to stay calm, they couldn't afford to give themselves away just yet. She couldn't just shoot him in the hall.

"Sorry, sir, I don't know how it got locked," Mystique lied.

"Who else is in there?"

"Just Brown, sir."

"Brown? I don't know any Agent Brown!" Fox shoved the door the rest of the way in and entered the dimly lit room.

Mystique closed the door behind him. Fox turned and gave her a strange look then turned back and saw the two bodies on the floor. He turned back to Mystique who changed back into her natural blue form.

"You!" Fox shouted. Before he could say anything else Mystique shot him, right in his open mouth. Shattered teeth and the bullet tore through his back throat and pierced the top of his spine. Fox dropped.

"You better hurry up now," Mystique barked at Vanisher and locked the door again. She leaned over Fox, he was still alive, his eyes wide with terror and pain, his mangled throat made a funny gurgling sound as he struggled to force air down into his lungs.

"You know, you just might survive this," Mystique told Fox with a vicious smile. "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

Fox choked even harder on the blood that trickled down his throat. What was she going to do?

"Did you have to shoot him?" Vanisher groused and he spotted the file he was looking for. "Couldn't you have stabbed him or something and kept it quiet?"

"Oh, this one deserved special treatment," Mystique motioned at Fox.

Boom, boom, boom! Someone was pounding on the door again. "We heard gunfire!"

"Are you ready yet?"

"Almost."

"Come on!"

"I'm trying why did you have to shoot him?"

Blam! Blam! Shots rang out as someone shot several holes in the locking mechanism. Three Secret Service agents came charging into the room, guns at the ready. They stopped in confusion, three bleeding bodies lay on the floor, one of them winced at the gruesome sight.

"Hey, one of them is alive!" the agent bent down to study Fox. "He won't be for long if we don't get him help! What the hell happened here?"

Fox continued to gurgle, unable to answer.

Back the sparse apartment Vanisher held the thumb drive up to Logan and Warren. "First I want my money back!"

"For all we know, that's just your personal porn stash," Logan growled. "You don't get any money until I have proof that's what I need." Angel thrust a laptop at the two mutant criminals.

Rolling her eyes Mystique took the thumb drive and plugged it in. Within seconds a video started to play. At first it seemed innocuous enough with some tourists wandering through the White House when suddenly a little girl jumped at the Secret Service agents with a scream.

"Um, Logan, did you see-?" Angel began.

"What the hell," Logan breathed as he leaned in and looked closer at the little girl who was now stabbing yet another agent with two very familiar looking sets of claws. Mystique smirked in the background. Vanisher popped out the thumb drive and the video stopped.

"My money."

"You got it," Angel said in a daze and pushed a button on his phone. Vanisher saw the money transfer back into his account. He and Wolverine didn't even look while the two criminals teleported out of the apartment, both were staring at the video they had now restarted.

"Logan, what does this mean?"

"It means the problem is bigger than we thought. It means that Weapon X is back and it means that the President was ordered to be killed by humans."

"What do we do about her?"

"We find her."