Family matters 4
I wake with an armful of warm, blue, Elf. He lifts his head and looks me in the eye and in a completely normal tone of voice says.
"Er, Logan, why am I in your bed?"
I smile down at him, but then there's a noise in the bathroom, Ororo, I'm guessing, and the shutters come down as the memories resurface. He starts shivering. But he was back, just for a moment, he was here and he was whole. I stroke his hair.
"It's alright, it's just Ororo. You're safe here." He doesn't answer me, because he can't.
Ororo really wants to join us, she has a lightning bolt with Mystique's name on it. But Kurt's mind has gone into itself again. Not as tightly as yesterday, he's nowhere near as unresponsive but he's clearly still very sick. We get him dressed and when Ororo goes out into the habitat, in search of breakfast, he follows her. I bring up the rear, keeping a close eye on him, he doesn't look too steady on his feet.
Jean is sat at the kitchen table, alone. He stops, stares at her, I know what he's thinking, Mystique can be anyone, no one can be trusted, I think that's why he followed Ororo, to keep her in sight, so she couldn't be replaced. He starts shaking again, every so slightly, looking between Ororo and Jean. But then Jean clearly **speaks** to him through the psylink and he relaxes. So we have a strange, stilted breakfast, none of us are in the mood for small talk, but Kurt needs to eat.
We agree to go down in half an hour, Scott's already down there, we're trying to keep this under the radar, if Mystique smells a rat, she won't rise to the bait.
I pick Jeannie up in my arms and she looks me in the eye. I know she wants to apologise, again. I know she's sorry for what's happened but it's too soon, I'm still too angry. So I'm all business.
"Turn it on." She nods and activates the Inducer and her familiar face is replaced by his.
We step through the portal from The Summer House back to Krakoa and I carry 'Kurt' back to his habitat. I don't care who sees us, the more the better, he's under my protection now and everyone should know that.
It's a gamble; as far as I can tell it's a single bomb, but there's always the possibility that she's got a booby trap laid that'll flatten half the island. We'll trigger the bomb and Jeannie will play dead, with the Image Inducer set to show 'Kurt's' mangled remains. We're guessing that one of the first to show up will be Mystique. We don't know who she'll look like, Jean will scan their heads, I'll scan their body language. There's no guarantee she'll show, but I think she will, this time it isn't a big bomb, I think she's hoping to maim, not kill. Dead, Kurt isn't in any pain.
Jean looks round Kurt's apartment as I put her down. It really is beautiful, little white flowers everywhere, I keep joking with him that the Island has a crush on him. Maybe it does, there were flowers in my bathroom up on the Moon this morning, they weren't there before Kurt moved in.
The bomb is on his bedside table. It's in his bible, his rosary rests on top of it. Bitch. Fucking bitch.
I make small talk, in case Mystique is listening and I head for the door. Jean'll trigger the bomb with her TK, we don't want me in there when it goes off; we don't want my senses blunted by the blast. Then she gets to play dead and we see who else shows up.
I pause in the doorway. "You'll be okay?"
She nods, the plan's not without risk, but she's one of the most powerful mutants on the planet, she'll be fine.
The door closes behind me and I step into the corridor. The crack of the detonation loud and disturbing, even though I know it's coming. If I hadn't been here, that could have been our lad in there.
I open the doors and start kicking up a fuss.
People come running. Including Sean and Black Tom, I'd forgotten Sean is practically Kurt's neighbour. Shit, I don't really want to traumatise him, Sean is an old friend. Jeannie is still playing possum, Sean suddenly loses some of the tension in his pose, I'm braced to tackle him. Is that you, bitch? But Jean speaks to me via our link **I've told Sean were running a scam.**
Okay good, but where is the damn woman?
A scream cuts through the air, piercing, I stumble and put my hands over my ears, for a second or two, it's agonising but then it's cut short. Sean and Tom react as though someone has run them through with a knife, Sean spins, yelling "Theresa!" And starts back towards the door, back towards his habitat, jostling with people coming the other way, adding to the confusion. And still no Mystique.
Theresa Cassidy, Sean's little lass, red hair, freckles, sonic scream, like her dad. A scream cut short.
And then, She's there. In the corridor. Floating about a foot off the ground. Holy crap.
Her red hair floats around her like seaweed. Her yellow eyes burn with unholy fire, her teeth are pointed. Her skin is still blue, but it's hard to see, she's glowing with a black non-light. Her hands are bloody claws.
Everyone is running away from her, except Sean, Tom and me. Everyone else has more sense than us.
**Jeannie!** I put out an urgent mental call and she comes flying out of Kurt's habitat, a beautiful avenging green, red, gold angel.
And Mystique swats her away like she's nothing. Jean Grey, my Jeannie, one of the strongest mutants on the damn planet, but she's flung back through the door with the crashing of glass. Sean is sobbing, he launches himself at her, his sonic scream tears the air, but with no more success than Jean had, she throws him down the corridor with a slight motion of her bloody fingers. Her mad eyes are on me.
"Good day to you, Logan. And where's my lovely little boy?" Her voice is like gravel. The air smells of blood, old, stale blood, as well as Theresa's fresh blood, still dripping from her hands.
"Monster!" Tom rages, Theresa is his niece, and, at his command, Krakoa sends out tendrils of vines to entangle her. She smiles, mouth full of those sharp teeth, as the vines touch her, they wither and die.
Black Tom and I are lifted off the ground by dark ribbons of night, breathing is not an option, neither is moving, I hear the blood pounding in my ears.
What the fuck is happening? The power coming off her is growing, the air crackles with static. She's a fucking shapeshifter, where the hell is all this coming from? She decked Jeannie! The smell of blood gets stronger. There are black feathers floating in the charged air.
Summers optic blast hits her square in the back. It doesn't even slow her down, she just ignores it. Others are coming, I can hear them, but they're not going to be in time for me or Tom. The three of us are now in a sphere of that black light, no one is getting in and I have a pretty strong idea that Tom and I aren't getting out.
Jeanie's back on her feet, Sean and Summers are throwing shit at her, but it's not connecting, how the hell did the mad bitch get so strong?
And then I hear a sound. I think it is quite possibly the last sound I want to hear right now. It's the 'BAMF' of displaced air.
He stands before her, the purple cloud of brimstone dissipating about his knees and he looks up into her terrible, beautiful face.
"Mother?"
"Hello, my darling." Black wings beat in the air. I can't move. Krakoa tries to reach her again but the vines turn back as soon as they touch her dark sphere. Another concussive blow from Summers, but she doesn't even spare him a glance. Lightning cracks across the ceiling, Storm has caught up with her missing charge. But nothing reaches her.
She's a goddess. She is our Death.
And Kurt stands there, in worn sweatpants and jumper, bare feet, looking up into her face. Of course, we discussed coming here over breakfast, even traumatised, that clever mind was listening, never underestimate Kurt.
He looks calm, he looks serene, he looks like a fucking martyr.
If he survives the next thirty seconds, I am going to kill him.
"Shall we begin, my darling?"
She focuses her fury on him, like a dark tornado of malice. He twists beneath her rage, wounds open up on his arm, his shoulder, she makes a motion with her clawed fingers and his flesh parts. He cries out with the pain, blood flowing down his arm. The cuts curve in obscene patterns, like ribbons of scarlet against the blue.
"I'm going to flay you alive, my pretty child."
He's held before her, his feet still on the ground but immobile before her power. I wonder for a second, if he could teleport away? But, of course, while she's focusing on him, she's not hurting me or Tom or anyone else.
"Please, ah!" A cut opens on his cheek bone. He twists his neck away in desperation but the clawed hands draw more curves in the air and his flesh continues to part.
"And when I've finished with you, my lovely child, maybe they will give me my wife back."
I struggle, desperately to reach him but she has me held fast. I can't watch her do this. I can hear myself yell and snarl, I sound like an animal, but no matter how hard I strain, I can't break free. Tom has gone still, his eyes fixed on her ugly, beautiful, terrible face.
For fuck's sake, where is everyone? There are bangs as someone tries a gun, with no obvious effect. But where are the big 'guns'? Xavier? Apocalypse? Mags? Someone has to be able to get through. She can't be that strong.
Kurt cries out again, his clothes are in rags at his feet, she moves her hand across, a swirl of bloody pain opens on his beautiful shoulder. She moves closer, breathing in his agony like a drug.
He trying to speak, his words catch in his throat. She leans in, she's so close, her eyes glowing and he touches her.
He's holding one of the Krakoan flowers still, like some stupid peacenik hippy. It's white petals are splattered with his blood.
It's all Krakoa needs.
The vines race up his legs like lightning, engulfing him and through him and that bloody flower, to her. She shrieks with fury but the vines flow into her mouth, her hair, down her arms, torso, legs, pulling her towards the floor.
Sentient, not just an island, but a sentient being, all it needed was an opening.
The black lightning and blacker feathers tear the air, slicing Tom and me in her fury. I can't see anything of Kurt at all, just a writhing mass of green, enveloping her, him. The bloody stink in the air is overwhelmed by the greener smell of loam, plants and living, growing things.
Her power bubble dissipates and I can move again. I launch myself towards the green mass; I have to get him away from her. With my claws I start desperately to carve at the roots, at the lianas, at the fucking flowers. I have to get to him, yelling his name in the sudden silence.
Jean's telekinesis pulls me back and I rage against it, the berserk fury rising in my mind.
**Logan!** she screams in my head.
**Let me fucking go Jeannie! I've got to get him away...**
**Logan! Calm down, or you'll free her too!**
I'm sobbing for air, Kurt, my boy, my gentle, gentle boy. With that Thing.
Tom walks forward, his face streaked with blood and tears.
He crouches next to the green trap and his hands reach out, out and into it.
And Krakoa, slowly releases its grasp.
Jeannie lets go of me and I stumble forward. And then he's in my arms, filthy, bloody, shaking but alive and moving and I gather him against me. He's coughing soil and dirt from his mouth.
"I'm sorry." His voice is horse. I brush more soil and dirt and bloody white flowers from his face, the wounds are full of crap. He's a complete bloody mess. I take his head in my hands and look into his golden eyes.
"You goddamn idiot." I yell. "You goddam stupid, reckless, fucking..."
It's not the usual way to say 'I love you' but it will have to do for now.