Chapter 4: Demiurge
Kurt was on his way to speak with Erik when the first sign of trouble came: just for a moment, Avalon simply disappeared entirely. It wasn't long enough for anyone to fall — it only lasted for the time it took to blink. But the split second of space was unmistakable, and when it returned, there was a strange charge to the air as well.
"We need to evacuate," Kurt said when he got to Erik. "It's just a matter of time with that boy gone missing all of what … ten minutes?"
Erik was already on his feet — though not for long when he was clearly getting agitated and began to levitate as well. "Yes, evacuate. Take everyone to solid ground — but then we are going after William." His tone left no room for argument.
Kurt nodded in agreement. "I believe that there is still sanctuary in the Savage Land." Before waiting for Erik to agree, Kurt turned and teleported to where the children were — an army of dark blue bamfs appearing all around the room as he did so.
"It's time to leave, little ones," he told them in as kind a tone as he could manage.
Krissy rushed right over to where he was with wide eyes, her tail swaying anxiously behind her. "Where? Nobody can hurt us up here. You said."
"I know, sweetheart, but now … they have something new," Kurt told her as he snuggled her. "We need to go."
The kids all looked incredibly anxious, but the bamfs grabbed little hands, and as soon as everyone had a buddy, they disappeared in poofs of blue smoke, reappearing deeper in the Savage Land a moment later before the bamfs went back to get the rest of Avalon's residents.
As soon as her feet hit the jungle floor, Elin looked up and down the trail and started to walk. She'd been there once or twice before, and she thought she knew the way to go. She didn't get very far, though, before Chance caught up to her and grabbed her hand. "No getting lost," he told her seriously. "We don't know where everybody is gonna be."
"We gotta hide," she told him just as seriously, pulling to get her arm back.
"Together, though," he insisted, holding her hand with both of his and looking upset. "No getting lost."
"What are you two doing so far from the others?" Erik asked. He had only just arrived and spotted the two of them almost hidden down a game trail, and in an instant, he was crouched beside them. "Stay with Wade, little ones. You don't want to become lost in the shuffle."
Elin gave him a look that was very much like one Logan used to give Erik when he thought he was full of it before Erik made a point to gently direct her back over to Wade — who looked relieved to see her.
Wade rushed over to wrap her up in a hug, scooping Chance up as well with his other hand. "We gotta put a bell on you two," he teased Elin gently.
"We were hiding," Chance explained.
Wade tipped his head at the little boy and then nodded seriously. "That's what we're doing too. Want to help us get used to our new hiding spot? I bet you can find all the best nooks and crannies."
Chance frowned for a moment before he slowly nodded. "Yeah, okay. I can help," he said.
Wade and his little troupe of kids made their way deeper into a pattern of caves, though when they found a door that Wade opened with a code and a flourish, Sying let out a little delighted gasp and ran over to where Tony was sitting at a workbench to wrap his arms around Tony's leg where he was sitting.
Tony wasn't the only one, either. Bruce Banner was there too, completely wrapped up in some notes before the door opened and he looked up to see the little troupe of kids.
"Hey," Dani called out to Bruce with a little grin.
"Oh, kids," Bruce said as he started to take a head count. "Lots … lots of kids. Where did you guys come from?"
"That's a secret," Sying said, speaking more to Tony than to Bruce as he grinned up at his favorite former Avenger.
Bruce blinked at him for a moment before he turned his attention to Erik and Kurt. "Alright, then what is is we need to do for you? Since I'm assuming this isn't a field trip."
"If you could watch the children — just for a short time," Erik said.
"That's a lot of kids for a couple of scientists," Tony said, even as he picked Sying up and tossed him in the air.
"We'll be good," Chance promised, with Elin barely peeking out from behind him and looking very much like she wanted to go back out into the jungle. "Dani and Ellie already know all the bedtime stories."
"Well that's good," Bruce said with a nod as he watched the little boy and the very wary tiny brunette behind him. "Would you two like to take a look at my experiment?"
For an instant, Chance looked excited, but he turned to Elin first. "Do you wanna?" he asked her
She shrunk in on herself a little bit and looked around the labs. Unable to find a decent place to outright hide, she very gently shrugged.
"Yes please," Chance told Bruce, carefully and slowly making his way over — with Elin still holding his hand — though he was grinning as he looked over Bruce's workspace.
As the little boy looked over the different gadgets and devices, Bruce reached up to retrieve a beaker from a shelf and then showed it — and the oblong magnet in the bottom of it — to the two kids. "Do you know what this is?" he asked, showing them the magnet. But when both of them shook their heads 'no,' he put it back in the bottom of the beaker. "I use it to stir things. Do you want to try it? We'll just use water. It won't be scary at all."
Chance glanced at Elin before he put on his best brave face and nodded. "I'll do it first," he said seriously.
"How about we do it together?" Bruce offered. He filled the beaker with water and placed it on a little machine — and as soon as he did, the little magnet in the bottom of the glass began to spin at a dizzying rate. "See? Stirs it up for me." He looked at Elin and tried to give her a little smile. "What's your favorite color?"
Chance looked over at Elin, who refused to take her eyes off of Bruce or to answer him. "She likes blue — but not like the ocean. More like … more like the sky."
Bruce nodded and held out a little dropper container of dye. "Would you like to put the color in for me? You can make it as blue as you want."
She shook her head quickly and stepped entirely behind Chance — who took over with a sheepish little grin. "I can show you which one she likes." He started to put the color in the beaker, drop by drop, until it was as close to the blue he thought Elin liked that he could get.
Bruce nodded at them both. "Good, very good. But …" He took the dye and put in two more drops, deepening the hue just slightly. "I like this one best. Do you want to start over and try it?" he asked, and when the little girl very shyly nodded once, he gave her a smile and pulled out a different dropper that made all the color in the water simply disappear. "Go ahead. It'll take more color now."
He was tickled when she stepped around Chance and started to play with Bruce, but it was just the thing that Wade and Kurt needed to see happen before they could go after Billy.
"Well, I should have known she would have decided to make friendly with Bruce Banner of all people," Kurt muttered quietly. "Her father will be thrilled, I'm sure."
"It's just fate," Wade agreed with a hand over his heart. "Had to happen."
"She's contrary, just like her mother," Kurt replied.
Wade chuckled and nodded. "Looks like her too. Gotta look in the eyes for her daddy."
"Let's just get going," Kurt said with a sigh. "And hope we don't run into them while we're out there."
Erik nodded, his eyes narrowed as he turned to Kurt. "He intended to go back to Haiti," he said, and that was all Kurt needed to hear. A moment later, the three men reappeared on the beach where Billy had disappeared. Wade immediately crouched low to the ground, looking for any sign of the young man who had gotten himself in trouble so very quickly.
They didn't need to look hard — or long — however. Weapon X had a reality-bender in their possession, and the ripples across reality were like breadcrumbs. Worrying breadcrumbs.
Wade was crouched down in the sand one moment — and then the next, he wasn't. He blinked back into reality after only a split second, but he was wide-eyed when he came back.
"O-o-o-kay," Wade said slowly. "Did you guys just see a creepy lab, or was that just me?"
Kurt and Erik shared a look of urgency and shook their heads almost in unison. "Did you see anyone else there?" Erik asked.
Wade shook his head. "I wasn't there long enough. But if I see our magical little buddy, I'll let you know," he said.
The air was ringing with the strange energy of Billy's power, and for a while, the three men simply followed that — though when they reached a helicopter pad, Wade frowned, and Kurt teleported over with his bamfs to the control tower. The struggle with the controllers was short and one-sided, and Kurt returned with a distinct frown on his face.
"They left from here not half an hour ago," he told Erik. "The flight plan is classified; it's not on any records."
Erik's eyes were narrowed, and the other two men could actually see the pull of the metal around Erik as the master of magnetism seemed to be on the verge of losing his temper. But before he could tear the helipad apart, he sensed something new: a rare metal that could only mean one thing.
He looked thunderous as he reached out a hand — and out of the nearby jungle, both Logan and K zoomed through the air toward him. "They send you. To deter me from my grandson." Erik's eyes were bright with fury, and Kurt teleported to him in an instant.
"Don't," he said softly. "Erik, please."
"We don't have time for your sentiment, Nightcrawler," Erik said, but it was a sign of how closely they had worked together for so long that he paused the slightest bit, not outright crushing the two ferals in his grasp, though he was holding them both perfectly still, every bone in their bodies under his command.
The sharp sound of bullets hitting katanas caught their attention for a brief instant, and both Kurt and Erik looked to see Wade burst through the trees — several yards from where he had been a moment before — though he quickly reoriented himself to deal with the few guards there at the helipad.
"They're growing more frequent," Kurt said with a frown. "These ripples…"
As if to prove the point, Erik very suddenly put a hand to his heart, and an instant later, Kurt felt it too, like a shock to his chest that stopped his heart and his breath. It was enough to send them both to their knees, though it passed quickly enough. Logan and K both hit the ground running, but Erik recovered quickly enough to stop them in their tracks. Still, he was clearly winded.
Kurt helped Erik back to his feet, and he could see in the older man's eyes that he had already made a decision even before Erik breathed out his decision, "I'm truly sorry, Kurt. But we cannot delay any longer."
Kurt frowned hard, his heart hammering too hard in his chest from the restart. "Erik," he said in a pleading tone.
Erik reached out, and both Logan and K's heads tipped back... but he paused the moment before he meant to close his hand. For an instant, both Logan and K let out involuntary cries of pain that rang in Kurt's ears, and both of his friends fell to the earth, with bloody, shining metal torn out of them.
Kurt sprang forward in anger, seizing Erik by the collar. "You-"
"Kurt." Erik held up a hand between the two of them. "I've only removed the foreign metal that should not have been there— not the adamantium."
Kurt was just inches from Erik, but at that, he paused. "You… what?"
Erik gestured to Logan and K, who were in a heap on the beach. And while Kurt could see now that they were not… boneless… they were still bad off, lying in much of their own blood, their eyes open and staring. His chest heaving, he waited, watching, just… hoping that one of them would take a breath. Just one.
Erik, meanwhile, had a small, terrifying device just in front of him. He frowned at it, with the other one floating just behind him. Both of them, with long, sinewy tendrils like fine wires that were writhing and searching on their own accord. He narrowed his eyes at the device before he simply dismantled it piece by piece, one microfilament at a time, saving the small quarter-sized metal disc for last, expanding it so that he could see all the tiny circuit boards and parasitic energy source. He was frustrated when he moved to do the same for the second and found that not only could he not dismantle it but his feet had touched the ground, the usual powers of magnetism suddenly out of his reach.
But only for a moment. They returned a few seconds later, and he let out a breath of annoyance. "If you wish to keep them we should relocate. Now," Erik advised Kurt.
Kurt nodded his agreement, but none of the bamfs were willing to volunteer for that particular job, leaving Kurt to take both still-unmoving ferals with him as they teleported to the little-known, tiny little patch of sand known as Isla des Demonas. "They'll know where they've taken Billy, I'm sure," Kurt said.
"As long as I don't lose my abilities, we can find ways to interrogate," Erik replied, though he let out a breath and softened his stance just slightly as Kurt glared at him. "I meant that I would keep them from attacking us."
"That's a very, very important distinction," Wade agreed, nodding several times over as he frowned at the two unmoving former X-Men, gingerly smacking Logan's cheeks.
"And it will depend entirely on if they wake up," Erik added.
Wade scoffed at Erik and shook his head. "Of course they will — we're only partway through the volume!"
Erik let out a deep sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Must you, Wade?"
"I'm just saying," Wade muttered, now moving on to poking K's arm. "You think they need mouth to mouth?"
"No," K croaked quietly. "Please." Her eyes were closed, and she looked as if she'd frankly been hit by a truck — though she did begin to panic when she realized that she couldn't move.
"K," Kurt said carefully, "are you back with us, then?"
It took her a moment to concentrate — seeing as she was nearly hyperventilating from the disturbing sensation of being held down by her bones. But she seemed to be thinking it over and searching out the answer before she answered with a very unsure "Yes?"
"The device laced through your body — both of your bodies — has been removed," Erik told her, though he didn't let her up either.
But the news seemed to have the opposite effect that Kurt had expected. K started to get upset all over again — unable to stop herself from crying silently to herself with her eyes closed.
Kurt glanced at Erik for only a moment before Erik let her go — and rather than take the few steps to get to her, he simply teleported there so he could be there faster to wrap her up, gently shushing her as Logan started to wake up as well.
"What's goin' on?" Logan asked, trying to see who and what had K upset like that. "And where the hell are we?"
"Islas des Demonas," Kurt told him. "That device — that thing inside you — it's gone, mein Freund."
Logan fell silent and then let out a deep breath. "Can I get you to move, Kurt? And … maybe let me up?"
Kurt looked between his two friends and simply stepped back, nodding softly as Erik released his hold on Logan as well — and gave Wade an imperious look to keep him quiet, since Wade had his hands clasped underneath his chin with a delighted expression on his face.
Logan moved to take over for Kurt, and after just a few moments, Wade simply couldn't hold back before he nearly bowled both of them over in his attempt to join the party. "Can I get a hug too?" he asked, only to be completely shocked when K shifted to do exactly that.
"I truly hate to interrupt a touching reunion," Erik broke in after the hug had lasted for as long as he was willing to wait, "but we do have a pressing matter at hand."
"What do you need?" K asked when Wade set her back on the ground.
"To know where Weapon X has taken William," Erik told her frankly.
The two ferals shared a look and nodded. "I'm guessing this is some … different dimension shift or something?" Logan asked.
"We're not entirely sure," Erik admitted.
Logan nodded in understanding and let out a breath. "All the highest value mutants are taken to Iceland," Logan said. "There's a base — as corny as it sounds — in the shadow of the volcano at Reykjavik."
Kurt simply nodded and glanced to the bamfs — and an instant later, all of them were in Iceland, where it was easier to feel the ripples in reality. The whole place was filled with that strange energy.
"Pretty sure we're not going to be able to walk in without being stopped," K pointed out. "Or we would." She looked up at Erik with an expression of true regret. "But I'm more than happy to kill whoever you want dead."
"You're welcome to come, if only to be there if our powers fail momentarily," Erik said, though he was already levitating, both hands outstretched as a familiar field started up.
She nodded and fell into step next to him as he floated along and simply tore the doors off their hinges and flung them aside before continuing right in, entirely unbothered by the soldiers who opened fire. He was crushing helmets and guns alike all the way through — until they got to the deeper levels where the mutants were taken.
He came to an impasse, and the two ferals made the decision on which way to go for him — away from the larger group of soldiers — while K promised that it was a short cut. "They're trying to draw you the wrong way," she said. "That will put you in a corner filled with dampeners."
"And no one puts Magneto in a corner," Wade said with a nod.
K gave him half a smile before she turned to Logan. "I love your brother, by the way."
Wade let out a gleeful giggle at that and beamed her way. "I heard that — you all heard that. No takesie backsies!"
"Not now, Wilson," Logan grumbled, though he too, had a little smirk as he rushed ahead and kicked open an entirely wooden set of doors for Erik. But when the doors came open, they could finally hear where Billy was — at least, those with enhanced hearing could hear the muffled sounds of screaming that coincided exactly with the moment Erik's magnetic shield fell apart and he hit the ground. .
"Helvete," K muttered. "We're on it ... " And just like that, both ferals were running flat out to cut the shortest path to where Billy was being held. No one's abilities were working, but it didn't stop the two of them from doing an amazing tag team of razor sharp death on their way to the room holding Wiccan and a dump truck-load of terrifying technology and equipment.
The path was blocked to start with, but once Wade and Kurt both joined in with their swords, the slice and dice routine became even more deadly against the Weapon X soldiers and guards — more so when the powers came back on.
As soon as they were halfway close to where Billy was, Logan rushed forward and cut through the power supply. It did him no favors — he shocked himself backward a good several feet, and he was smoking when he hit the ground — but at least whatever nightmares they were pumping into Billy were cut off at the knees.
Erik was just behind Logan, pure fury etched in his features as the machinery simply either crumpled or fell to pieces at his command, freeing up Billy. But the young man didn't move or open his eyes either, half curled on himself and crying.
But as the men in the group were all holding off the Weapon X forces, K managed to slip around them to the clearly upset Wiccan, pulling him close as best she could, his face on her shoulder as he leaned into her, though it was almost like he was holding onto a lifeline for as tightly as he had hold of her.
"Hey, they have it covered," K told him, running her hand over his hair as she kept him close. "We're getting out of here."
He was all but trembling as he shook his head. "I can't…"
"Can't what, sweetheart?" she asked before she instinctively gave him a little kiss on the temple. "It'll be fine."
He was surprised by the little kiss and turned his face her way, peeking up at her for just a moment — with eyes that were filled with what seemed to be actual, moving galaxies instead of irises. "I can't hold it," he told her.
She was careful to keep her reaction to herself on seeing the change in him. She had no idea what it meant, and she simply wanted to help him calm down. "Of course you can," she told him. "If you want to."
He paused at the second half of her statement, his eyes widening as the galaxies seemed to swirl brighter there. "I don't know if I'm ready," he admitted in a very small voice. "I could ruin everything."
"Or you could make it all the way it's supposed to be," she replied with a tiny smirk. "I trust you to do what you feel is right."
He held her gaze, still wide-eyed, for a long time before he closed his eyes again and nodded. After only a moment, the charged energy from before seemed to intensify until it had everyone's hair standing on end — and then Billy shot up through the roof of the building, melting a path like a comet.
Everything looked so small when Billy came to a stop somewhere about a mile above the facility — not just because of the height but because he could see. He could see everything. Billions of people at once. Weapon X, mutant, otherwise — he could see them. If he wanted, he could end them. He thought about it for a brief instant before he went higher.
He wasn't sure where he stopped, but it was no longer anything he recognized as Earth. Or reality. The plane that stretched before him, the ground he was walking on, was made up of thousands of pieces, all of them worlds.
He crouched down where the ground seemed to be cracked and tipped his head to the side, frowning when he realized that it was his reality. His world. Filled with Weapon X and everything that he'd just seen. And he could see the tears in reality as clearly as if they were rips in paper.
Frowning, he put a hand on the ground, trailing one finger over the tears, and they crackled with a strange energy for a moment. He frowned deeper and placed both hands over the piece of ground, pouring magic he didn't even know he had into it until he could feel the pieces move beneath his hands,
But it didn't stop there. The energy seemed to come from every vein in his body, practically bleeding into the realities around him. Realities all around him splintered. Dimensions crackled and reformed. A hundred different possibilities in one world were all true at the same time.
There were so many to choose from. In this world, he had a little girl with Teddy. In this one, he and the Young Avengers were all that was left of the world after Kang the Conqueror rewrote it. Here was one where the Mandarin declared war on SHIELD. Here was one where Kate and Kurt never met… And always, always, there was his, like a lightpost.
He could change it, if he wanted. He could change so much. Stop so much suffering. And he could see the ripples that would follow if he did. A slight tweak here, and Bastion would overrun the X-Men — but Billy would have his brother around into old age. A slight tweak there, and they were able to adopt the little boy they'd been looking at — but Kang the Conqueror overtook the world. Another change here and Teddy's people didn't try to wreck their wedding — but the ripples led to Sabretooth getting loose and killing K long before James was even a thought.
A simple stolen wallet had ruined one reality. He wasn't going to ruin another.
But… there were still changes he could make. He reached into reality, to his reality, underneath the mansion. And he reached into reality and gave his grandfather just a little boost on his way to Weapon X in the right reality, the one where Tommy had just flatlined….
He frowned and turned his attention away from his reality to the ones reforming all around him, surprised when he realized there was one at the very center. It wasn't his, though that would make sense. It was shiny, new — and it was the one he had just come from. He reached for it, trying to find the ripples there, but to his surprise, there was nothing he could change there. It was the center of it all, the reality where he became the Demiurge. So it would stay, brand new, right there in the middle of everything.
His frown deepened at that. He had meant to fix everything. He'd meant to put reality back, get rid of everything horrible that had happened altogether. But there it was, still exactly as he left it.
He reached into that reality — this time not to change it but to enter it. He should have gone home, but… he had condemned an entire reality to the fallout of his one mistake. The least he could do was make sure they were… well. Relatively alright.