It was just like in her nightmare: the tall man stalked her from across the room, his eyes glowing red, a possessive expression on his face. For a moment, that pale red-eyed face was all Anna-Marie could see.
Then the cry of: "Anna, run!" snapped her out of her frozen trance. Anna's eyes moved away from the encroaching figure of Doctor Milbury to the victims lying still and silent on nearby tables. Her stomach lurched and she tasted the sharp metallic taste of fear in her mouth. Nearest was her neighbor, Cecelia, looking pale under a sheet in the dim flickering light. Anna rushed to her side.
Clutching Cecelia by the arm, she found her neighbor's skin to be blessedly warm, not cold, stiff or dead. Anna shook the woman, begging her to wake up, to no avail. Doctor Milbury stalked towards her, a cruel grin hooked his mouth.
"Welcome, Marie," he said in a cultured voice. "Have a seat. Would you take some tea?"
A sensation of deja vu shuddered through her. The voice, the mocking smile, the superior tone; she'd heard it before. Yes, at the conference, but then more recently. She struggled to recall where. With a frustrated gasp, Anna ran to the next table to see the petite young woman, Katherine. Her large eyes seemed sunken in her face, her lips were pale. This was not the angry girl Anna had encountered in the stairwell. Was this her twin? A doppelgänger? A clone? Anna-Marie shook her head, chastising herself. That was insanity! Anna shook the girl, even knowing she wouldn't wake. Anna looked to the other tables, the other helpless victims. Her instincts were telling her to run, but her feet stalled, unable to leave these people to their fate. After all, WWCDD? (What Would Carol Danvers Do?)
"No more running," Milbury told her, now only several paces away. He raised a hand and crooked a finger. "Let us journey down the path of discovery…and explore the extent of your abilities." His gaze hungrily raked over her form.
Paralyzed with indecision, Anna-Marie stood frozen under his red-hued gaze. There was a shout from one of the tables and then the sound of gunfire. With a gasp, Anna-Marie dove to the floor. There were several explosions, shattering glass and tearing metal. Debris rained down from above. When Anna opened her eyes, she saw her surroundings in fits and bursts of light. Gripping the table, she pulled herself to her feet. Milbury's pale face hung in the shadows, red light emanating from his eyes.
"Enough!" he said and bursts of light fired from his eyes.
Anna-Marie cried wordlessly and threw up her hands to shield her face. Miraculously, the blast flowed over her harmlessly. Cecelia's powers had protected her, an involuntary reflex. Anna thought: don't let him touch me! as Milbury lunged over the table towards her. His hand passed straight through her form and he nearly collapsed onto Katherine's body. Anna-Marie looked at her hands, as if her palms could tell her what was going on.
Someone shouted her name and she looked up. Anna moved towards the shout. Someone here was awake, someone needed help. She ran towards the voice, obstacles seemed to melt through her form. Or rather, she was passing directly through them, as if she were a ghost.
Suddenly, Remy was there, popping up from the floor like a jack-in-the-box. Anna drew up short, felt herself go rigid, and crashed into him. Together they collided with the floor, Anna landing on top of his chest. She instinctively jerked away when she felt his hands claim her arms in an unrelenting grip. With a jolt of fear she lashed out to strike him across the face.
"Let go'a me!" she shouted. His features froze in an expression of shock and there was a flash of hurt in his eyes. The pain in his gaze stayed her hand, and she began to doubt who and what was reality; who was an imposter and who was the real deal? Who was the person from the Graymalkin ballroom, and who was the man lying beneath her now? "Who are you and how—," she began.
But Remy lunged at her, pulled her beneath him and then they were rolling across the floor. Sharp debris ground beneath their bodies. Anna felt overwhelmed, engulfed beneath the body above her, closed in. Trapped. She screamed and struggled.
Then she heard: "Rogue, please!" and froze. No one would call her by that nickname, save one person. She went still and gazed up at him. "Remy? It's you?"
"Well, who the hell else would I be!" he shouted with exasperation. Then his expression clouded over with introspection and he asked: "You didn't happen to see another strikingly handsome Cajun man runnin' around, did you?"
Yes, it really was him. "As a matter of fact—."
With a screech of metal on floor tiles, the table behind them was abruptly shoved away. Together they scrambled to their feet to put some distance between themselves and Milbury. While Remy postured and bluffed, Anna's mind spun. She had absorbed Cecelia's powers, and Katherine's as well. She witnessed their last conscious moments: Cecelia, accosted in an alley by an enormous bulk of a man; Katherine, caught unawares while crossing the park. Both dragged bodily through a metal door set in the street, sealed with a metallic bang as the doors closed over them.
From the corner of her eye, she saw Remy throw something at Milbury. It harmlessly fell to the side. So, Milbury had a shield as well. When Milbury's eyes once again glowed red, Anna leapt in front of Remy and threw her arms out wide. The concussive blast battered into her appropriated shield, protecting them both from the brunt of the attack. She seized Remy's hand and tugged him into a run.
When they reached the plastic-covered barrier, Anna threw herself at the fence. Instead of passing through it, she bounced off and stumbled backwards. She was still rigid with fright, needing a moment to collect herself. She turned to Remy.
"Can't you explode it?" Anna asked, knowing he could, but she saw doubt and fear race over his features. His head shook slightly, his gaze lost focus. Clinging to fear as they were, there was no way to control their own powers. Anna gripped his shoulders and drew a steadying breath.
She was surprised at the calm tenor of her voice when she said: "Don't panic."
As Remy held her gaze, she could feel the tension in his shoulders lessen. The panic blazing in his red eyes dimmed. She felt her own control come back to her as she breathed with him. Her thoughts and those of the women she'd recently absorbed became clearer. While Cecelia's powers were a tightened reflex, Katherine's required a sensation of relaxation. With calmer thoughts came the notion that Anna could not only make herself intangible, but extend her field to other objects and people.
"I have an idea," she told him. Then, through some magic, she stepped to the barrier and passed neatly through it, as if it were no more than vapor. She witnessed Remy's awed expression with a sense of immense pride and satisfaction as she drew him through the fencing, phasing them both through the barrier to relative safety.
"How," Remy began.
"Intangibility!" she exclaimed.
She had only a moment to feel victorious. Milbury was once again upon them, glowering at them through the fence. Anna's hand tightened in Remy's compulsively.
"Mister Creed, if you would please?" Milbury said in a bored tone.
When Creed growled, all sense of control left her then. Together they fled into the darkness, Remy not relinquishing his grip on her hand. She could feel his thoughts rising at the edge of her mind like clouds gathering on the horizon. His powers layered over the others, and she could sense the energy around her, see better in the darkness than before. She could intuit her surroundings; the placement of walls and supports, wires and ductwork. With this newfound understanding she tugged Remy's arm.
"Remy!" Anna gasped. She was not used to all this running. "We have to—we have to split up!"
"You're crazy, I ain't leaving you!" Remy told her, a note of emotional strain in his voice. "That lunatic wants you for some experiment!"
A thrill of fear ran through her. Remy's thoughts conveyed the nature of Milbury's abilities. He was collecting powered people. The basement level had become storage space for bodies, a power bank of superhuman abilities for him to tap into.
As she struggled to catch her breath, she asked: "So if Milbury needs me for his experiment, he won't hurt me, right?"
"You want to end up on one of them tables, like the others?" She could feel his fear race through her like a current.
"I can give—you time—to get—away."
"No, no way!"
She was resolute. The time for running was over. There were people who needed her help. She could feel the personalities of others she'd absorbed: Kurt's kindness, Cecelia's stalwartness, Katherine's positivity, backing her up, giving her strength. "Remy, you have'ta go get help!" Anna begged. "You know this building better'n me! You know the people here better'n me. You gotta go!"
Anna jerked Remy to a halt. He spun to gaze at her, his eyes roaming her face. His expression hardened. "I can't leave you to those maniacs!" He had an image in his head of Creed and his brutality that nearly shook her resolve.
"Splitting up is our best chance! They can't hurt what they can't touch. I have a shield—can turn untouchable!" she reassured him.
"For how long?" Remy challenged. "How long do you hang onto these powers?"
Okay, he had a point, she didn't know how her powers worked for certain. She'd spent so long avoiding touching other people, too afraid of overhearing their thoughts, that she'd never tested her limitations. "I'll—I'll be okay!" Sparking back to their earlier conversation re: Bonnie and Clyde, she reminded him: "Just—just keep the getaway car runnin', would ya?"
Remy was shaking his head. He was as bullheaded as she was! "A–a shield? It's not enough! Milbury—he's got laser beam eyes!"
"I think it's more like a force-beam," Anna explained. "A eye-blast. If it was a laser—."
"Are you seriously gonna argue wit' me right now?"
She snapped back: "So I need t'fight fire with fire, you're sayin'?"
Remy looked down at their clasped hands. Realizing she'd already possessed his powers, he nodded his head slightly, resigned. Remy turned a tender gaze to her face. He seemed to realize there was no more arguing. Remy pulled her to him and this time she did not push away. His hand gently cradled the back of her head and she shivered. When he drew closer, she gasped. Remy hovered just out of reach, close enough that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her face, but still giving her a choice to retreat, to pull back.
No. No more running, she commanded, and rose up to claim his lips with her own.
Remy made a small surprised sound, then both of his arms were around her, holding her close. She'd never been kissed, not like this, without restraint. Something felt alive between them, a connection that plunged straight through her. It was a sensation that was more than just his powers flowing through her, but a pulling, magnetic feeling. She only had to stop resisting the pull to feel complete. She had a moment to relish the sensation of the sweep of his lips, the taste of his mouth, before thoughts crowded her skull. Remy's memories spun before her mind's eye in reverse: the sinister glint of a full syringe, Creed's snarling face, a flash of a sword blade, his mirrored reflection—no, not a reflection—but someone else, wearing his face. Then Anna saw her mother, her expression made rigid with fervent violence.
Remy broke away from her with a gasp, his attention drawn away. "I…" Anna raised a hand to her lips, which felt both tingly and numb, as if she'd experienced an electric shock. The sensation echoed the shock she felt inside. Raven was here, at The Graymalkin? Her mother was…one of them? One of the powered? She could change her face?
Remy crouched and picked up something from the floor. Anna looked down and saw playing cards slipping from the pocket of her borrowed coat. The coat Creed had torn as he pursued her from apartment 9G. When Anna turned, her stomach hollowed out with a sickened realization. Playing cards littered the floor into the distance, bright against the dark floor, leaving a trail straight to them. Anna shook herself out of her inner-turmoil. She had to draw Creed's attention and give Remy a chance to retrieve help.
Suddenly, Creed was above them, standing on a tottering shelving unit. The rush of adrenaline gave Anna-Marie strength, and with a shout, she shoved hard into Remy's chest. She phased him through to the other side of a fence, where he landed sprawled on the floor.
"Run and get help!" Anna told him before spinning on her heel and running back the way they had come. She heard him cry out a protest right before the shelving unit behind her came crashing down.
Anna-Marie was running down a damp corridor, concrete walls to either side. She knew she was heading back to the lab. Back to the people who lay helpless, to be experimented on by a megalomaniacal doctor. Was her mother one of Milbury's victims too? She shook her head, as if casting away the thought. No, nothing was making sense! There were too many thoughts, too many memories that weren't her own. No time to tease them apart and make sense of the tangle. She heard a screech, like nails on a chalkboard, behind her. Risking a glance, she could see the shadow of a huge man lunge into the corridor on all fours, like an ape. Creed's claws scratched across the tiled floor. He bounced off one of the walls and propelled himself towards her.
Anna couldn't help the scream that escaped her lips. She whipped her attention forward and collided with a wall. For a second she thought she'd reached a dead end, but there in the blackness was a slightly less dark opening, a doorway to her left. Anna shoved herself away from the wall, and there on the cinderblock she left two handprints, illuminated in hazy pink. As she watched, the light grew brighter. With a gasp she spun herself through the open doorway and into the next room. Behind her came Creed's triumphant, panting laugh. The next second, he had reached the end of the hall. Anna ran. Twin explosions propelled Anna's next few steps. Creed had thrown himself at the wall, thinking to rebound and give chase. Instead, he had met the faintly glowing wall which had exploded upon impact.
Harsh panting breaths tore her throat as her feet pounded the tile floor. In the darkness, Anna glanced down at the pale shapes of her hands. They felt cold, numb, as she flexed her fingers. It was as if the wall had leached the warmth from her palms. She came to the realization that without a power source to tap into, Remy's powers drew energy from his own body. She had leached heat from her hands to make the wall explode. Anna was running through a room full of machinery, the boiler room. As she ran, she let a finger trail along the belly of some pipe. Her arm went numb with cold as she left behind a pink line of explosive light. Creed was raging behind her, cursing. She heard him grunt and she instinctively ducked. A chunk of cinder block went sailing over her head to smash into the machinery ahead with such force, it shattered and left a dent in the metal paneling. The beast was still in pursuit. Anna braced herself for the next explosion she'd left behind. There was a bang and a scream of boiling steam as the pipe behind her detonated. Creed howled, this time in pain. Anna stumbled. She wondered if she had enough strength in her to set another bomb.
Anna was running past a great steel tank, like an enormous sarcophagus, when the whole building shook. From somewhere in the bowels of The Graymalkin came a rumble. Anna stumbled, reached out and caught herself against the pipes that were running hip-height parallel to the floor. Helplessly, she looked up into the darkened gloom of the ceiling as dust floated down. She wondered if The Graymalkin itself could withstand another explosion. When the building settled, she could hear nothing but her own panting breaths. Anna-Marie staggered forward, using the pipes as support. Her knees quaked, her legs felt like jelly. The atmosphere was humid from the steam of the exploded pipe. Tendrils of her wild hair clung to her face and neck. Somewhere a light flickered, providing a vague gray illumination to the steamy air. Fixtures were indistinct shadows, a maze of steel pipes and mechanical structures. She pressed forward, moving towards the center of the building, going from one machine to the next, using the network of boiler room equipment as cover.
It took some effort to make sense of the different personalities in her head. Anna-Marie felt as overwhelmed as she had during the conference when she'd absorbed so many people at once. Thinking of her dream, Anna imagined the different personas returning to their apartments. She drew a steadying breath. She imagined a carpeted hallway, each of the softly polished apartment doors closing with muted clicks. In her hand, she held a key; she was the one with control. She was the one with the master key. Anna-Marie moved slowly down the hallway, the brass numbers on the doors winking at her in the warm lighting. Drawing long, calming breaths, she stopped before one of the doors. Anna raised a hand and rapped lightly on the wood paneling, letting her eyes fall closed.
A long pause, and she reopened her eyes. The door before her remained closed. If he wasn't here, where else would he be? she was wondering when suddenly the door sprang open. She let out a squeak as a firm hand grasped her bicep and yanked her forward. Anna was inside the apartment now, the door slamming shut with Remy throwing himself against it.
"Rogue!" he gasped, his dark eyes wide.
"Remy, do not grab me like that!" Anna-Marie scolded and landed a punch to his right pectoral.
"Ah!" he said with surprise and rubbed his injury. He was shaking his head at her, increasing her irritation with him. "Anna, you can't be here! You need to be out there!"
"I just need to know more about Milbury before I—," she began. "I mean, I don't want to go after him blind."
Remy had been breathing hard, as if he'd run a long way. He hastily swallowed, pausing to try and speak. "Milbury, he's got—so many powers! He can change his shape. He's been—been posin' as Xavier for who knows how long! But Rogue, it's not just Milbury after you. Your momma—that woman with the gold eyes—," Remy panted out. "She's come for you, too! She wants the drives, cher. The ones with the patient files."
Anna's hand moved to her coat pockets as she said: "I–I got 'em. Now, about this Milbury, if maybe we could move this along—.'
"No!" Remy lunged for her again in his panic. "Creed—!"
"It's okay, I got him. Blasted him with an exploding pipe," Anna reassured him. "He's not gonna get up from that."
"He's got a healing ability!" Remy exclaimed, his voice raw as he gave her a little shake. "He can heal! That's his power! You got to get the hell outta here, Rogue!"
Anna-Marie reopened her eyes to the reality of the darkened basement. She could still hear the hiss of steam, the faint rumble of machinery, the humming in the walls and a soft trembling beneath her feet. Slowly, she turned to look behind her. There was nothing but curling clouds of steam. She let out a slow breath and turned to look forward. Boiler equipment loomed dark into the seeable distance. Somewhere a cricket chirped, then abruptly stopped with an audible crunch.
Anna burst into a sprint, running forward into the darkness. She plunged ahead, feet slapping wetly against the floor. She whirled behind a metal support girder, pressed her back to it and strained her ears for any sound of pursuit. Anna leaned forward and peered back the way she had come. Nothing. With a steadying breath she turned—and stepped into a firm unyielding embrace. Anna drew a breath to scream, but a hand clamped over her mouth, smothering her. The hand was latex-covered, it squeaked against her teeth. Anna-Marie found her eyes locked on that of the man looming over her. It was not Creed, but Doctor Milbury. He smiled a close-lipped smile.
Anna kicked and struggled, but he changed his grip on her, pinning her back to his front. His forearm locked across the front of her body, his opposite hand covered her mouth and nose.
"Intangible!" she tried to shout, as if it were a secret code to activate powers. "Intangible intangible!"
"You absurd little girl," Milbury said coolly into her ear. "As if you are capable of controlling your own powers, let alone those you acquire. No. That takes strength of will. And an unflinching fearlessness."
Anna-Marie's heels drummed against Milbury's shins, her hands curled into claws as she struggled against his grip. He was inhumanly strong. "No more running, Marie," he breathed. She strained away from him, fearing what would happen were she to be touched by this criminally insane person. The thought of having him in her head made her wretch; she was already haunted by the nightmare of him. He turned, taking her with him. Her feet scrambled against the floor and found no purchase.
"Stop fighting—you've lost," he commanded.
Anna sunk her teeth into the meat of his gloved fingers holding fast to her mouth. She ground her elbows into his gut, bashed the back of her head hollowly against his sternum. It had been years since she'd tussled with the boys behind the church, making up for her lack of size and strength by becoming a whirling dervish of fists and uncompromising attitude. Milbury cursed at her, adjusting his grip as she flailed and shouted profanities that would have made Aunt Carrie faint dead away. Anna-Marie had one goal: to delay him, to distract Creed and Milbury until help could arrive. Milbury clenched her to him with one arm while the other hand loosed her to search his coat. Anna snaked an arm free and reached above and behind to grab a fistful of Milbury's dark hair while stomping on his instep.
"Agh, you sumbitch—I'ma kick yoah ass so hard yoah momma gon' cry when she sees what Ah done t'you—!" she managed before a hand clamped around her throat like a vice.
From the corner of her eye she spied the glint of a needle. Anna-Marie flung out a hand to knock it away. He was folding over her, forcing her to the ground. His fist knotted in the hair at the base of her skull, forcing her to look up into the deep wells of his eyes.
Stop.
She heard the voice in her mind and obeyed, her body going rigid. Somehow, Milbury had put his thoughts into her mind, without even touching her. Anna's eyes widened in fear. Milbury was standing over her, syringe in hand, his hair in disarray and breathing hard. "You will not slip through my fingers this time," he spat. "You're naught but a girl, a stupid child from the backwoods. That someone like you should be born—by dumb luck—with such a gift, is an anathema to me!"
Milbury pulled her head back, exposing her throat. Anna managed a growled protest as she fought the paralysis in her limbs and tried to regain control of her mind. The doctor's hand descended, needle posed at her neck. Anna-Marie shoved back at the intrusion of his thoughts, throwing her will into the effort like a shoulder thrown into a door.
"Get. Out—," Anna-Marie wheezed. "Of mah head!"
Milbury eyed her contemptuously, but the twitching at the corner of his eye told her she had gained some ground. The needle paused in its trajectory. Anna's eyes watered so that it seemed Milbury's pale face shimmered. His soulless eyes, intent on her, flicked upwards. His expression shifted, slackening slightly to a look of annoyance. Anna blinked away tears, and saw a faint pink glow was indeed flickering over Milbury's features. She found she could turn her head.
There Remy stood as if poised to flee, his stance wide and undecided. His eyes met Anna's and determination stole over his features. In his hand he held a single playing card. It glowed pink, illuminating the area in stark flickering shadows. Anna could see him swallow his nervousness. Remy's chin jutted and he pointed at Milbury with the card.
"Ain't no way t'treat a lady…or Roguey neither, enh?" he said, his voice strong with bravado.
Milbury's hand unclenched from her hair and Anna found herself collapsing to the ground with a gasp. She held her bruised throat with one hand, looking from Remy to Milbury again.
"Well…?" Milbury prompted and mockingly gestured as if to say: 'after you!' "I'm ever so curious as to what you think you might do with—what is that? A Queen of hearts? Not even a King? Please, be my guest. I will enjoy seeing your reaction when whatever you throw at me has little effect. You see, I can absorb energy, courtesy of your large friend Mister Lucas. Absorb and redirect energy in a focused and powerful beam. Useful, that. The optic blasts I also obtained, maybe not as useful. But they are fun."
With that, Milbury's eyes lit up red and Remy dove aside as twin beams burst from Milbury's eyes. Remy cast his arm upwards, releasing the card he held as he did so. Amazingly, it flipped upwards in an arc, trailing a comet tail of pink light behind it. For an instant, the card stuck itself into a grate in the ceiling. The card suddenly brightened, and the image of it burned an impression that flared behind Anna's closed eyelids. There came an explosion and Anna rolled herself across the floor and away from the flying debris. When she looked up from the wet floor, she saw the grate tumble down from above. It struck the reflexive shield that protected Milbury before falling to the ground with a clatter.
Milbury shook his head as if disappointed. With bemused incredulity he asked: "Playing cards? …Really?" Something like snow drifted down from the hole in the ceiling above. Milbury brushed some of it off of his shoulder. Anna watched the powder settle onto the floor tiles and dissolve. Drawing a breath, she caught a scent of something familiar: powdered laundry detergent. Her brows drew together confusedly as she looked up at the soap's source. She suddenly realized that they were under the laundry room.
There came a distant voice: "It came from this way."
"But what was it?"
Anna-Marie sucked in a lungful of air. "Down here!" she bellowed, her voice echoing. "HELP! Help us! Someone come quick—HELP!"
Remy had joined in the shouting, jumping up and down and waving his arms. "Down here! Look down here! We're in the cellar!"
"What the hell—," came a voice from above. It was unmistakably Logan. "Quick kid, grab that end of the table!"
Anna experienced a flash of victory as she climbed to her feet. She smiled a triumphant grin at Remy an instant before Creed crashed into Remy from behind, taking him to the floor. Anna let out a scream. A firm hand clamped onto her shoulder, jerking her backwards. She spun, flailing her fists at Milbury. A figure plunged from the open hole in the ceiling and landed in a crouch on the floor before them. Logan glanced over his shoulder at Anna before spinning towards the sound of Victor Creed's snarling. Creed paused in his assault on Remy, dropping him to the floor carelessly where he lay in a heap. Creed and Logan met one another's eyes for all but an instant before crashing together with animalistic rage. Remy scrambled out of the way of the brawl.
Anna-Marie struggled against Milbury's grip as he attempted to drag her away. They both paused in their struggle as another figure came through the hole left by Remy's explosion. This one was female, and instead of falling, she gracefully floated to the floor. Her long red hair settled onto her shoulders. She pointed an elegant finger in Milbury's direction.
"Let her go," Jean said simply and coolly.
"Magnificent," Milbury breathed and Anna-Marie found herself abruptly freed. Anna propelled herself forward on her hands and sliding feet away from the man.
"Bombs away!" called a younger voice and suddenly Jubilee was dangling from the hole by her arms, legs kicking in space. She dropped the remainder of the way to first land on her feet, then her rump. Her sunglasses fell from her forehead onto her nose. "Hey, it's dark in here." There came a sharp whine and a crack of an explosion and they all flinched away from the sparkling lights that came from her fingertips.
From above came more voices. Anna saw Robert's head appear upside-down as he assessed the situation below. There was a tussle and he was yanked upwards and out of sight. With a crack of breaking cement, the hole suddenly widened. An enormous man wearing a suit of armor crashed into the basement, shaking the building's foundation. He slowly rose from a crouch to his full height. Anna realized the man was not wearing armor at all, but his skin had become living metal. Remy had reached Anna's side and they both stood holding one another and staring, wide-mouthed, as a sheet of ice seemed to pour from the ceiling. An accountant came tumbling down the slide and went spinning across the floor before sliding into a nearby support.
"That worked better in my head," Robert said weakly.
Emma slid down the ice slide like an Olympic figure skater and came to stand alongside the armored Peter, crossing her arms over her impressive chest. "We interrupted our building meeting for this?" She took an unhasty step aside as Creed went flying across the room to crash into Peter with a resounding clang. Peter stood, unmovable, as Creed staggered a few paces before collapsing backwards onto the ground.
Still more Graymalkin residents were arriving, their voices echoing from the laundry room above.
Milbury seemed to take this as a cue to depart. He cast a hateful glance at Anna-Marie and Remy before raising an arm. They flinched back as he drew a golden circle which hung in the air like magic. The circle filled in with bright white-gold light. Milbury stepped into it, and just like that, the golden disk vanished from existence, taking Milbury with it.
"What in the heck was that?" Jubilee asked, raising her shades to her forehead.
"I call them stepping disks," said a voice from the darkness. Two figures staggered forward, one petite brunette, the other tall with a shining sheet of yellow hair. They were holding onto one another for support. "Trans-dimensional teleportation."
"Yana!" Peter cried and rushed forward, the ground thundering with each footstep. "Kat! But you were in Cancun…?"
"We never made it," Katherine said with a grim smile. "We've been—."
Just then, The Graymalkin shook, sending several people staggering.
"We gotta get out of here," Remy announced. "The structural support—the whole building's gonna collapse."
"But the others—!" Anna-Marie began.
"This way!" Yana said and beckoned. "We'll need more help!"
They followed the girls back from where they'd come for a ways, walking through darkened corridors, before coming to the chainlink barrier around Milbury's lab. The Graymalkin residents rushed forward, Logan parting the fence with his claws, Peter tearing through metal as if it were paper. Anna-Marie stifled the surreal sensation of amazement at seeing the others using their powers without restraint.
Those victims who had not roused from their comas were awakened by Jean and Emma. Emma leaned over Bishop and shouted: "WAKE UP!" Bishop awoke with a snort, his eyes springing open. Jean gently lay a hand on Scott's forehead, her eyes closed in concentration as she summoned him to consciousness. Before he could open his eyes, Remy offered up a pair of lenses.
"Here, mon capitaine," Remy said as Scott felt blindly for his shades.
"Remy—," he began. "Your sunglasses won't—hey. Wait. These are mine…? Where did you..?" Scott put the red-hued lenses over his eyes to better glare at Remy. Accusingly, he asked: "Did you steal these from my desk?"
"And now you're realizin' what an invaluable asset Remy is! I'm glad you're starting to see things from my point of view," Remy said affably.
Anna rushed across the room, looking for her neighbor. Cecelia was slowly sitting up, a hand to her head. The room echoed with a long, loud moan of metal being pushed to its limit. Anna-Marie looked up to see the missing support beams, the ceiling structures bowing downwards towards them. Anna turned and locked eyes with Remy, who had his arm braced behind an emaciated-looking Charles Xavier. Pieces of the ceiling were tumbling down around them. A sort of resignation passed over his features and Anna's heart lurched. She looked up to see the remaining supports slowly falling towards them, the ceiling crumbling.
Anna-Marie instinctively ducked, curling her arms to protect her head, realizing it was futile. They would all be buried, crushed beneath The Graymalkin. She was frozen in this tableau, hearing people shout warnings or cry out in fear. The moment seemed to go on for several long seconds, then longer. From where she hunched, Anna-Marie blinked her eyes open. There came a murmur of confusion. Amazingly, they were not all dead. Cautiously, she looked up. All around her the metal supports hung in the air, held by an invisible force. Slowly the building began to right itself, metal softly groaning in protest. Metal tables, medical equipment and fallen debris began to rearrange themselves, forming a new support beam that stretched to the ceiling. Mismatched components slotted together like blocks in a Jenga tower. There was a thrumming energy in the air. The building trembled with the distant sounds of cracking cement and breaking brickwork, but then all became stable once more. The Graymalkin residents gave a collective sigh of relief as they relaxed from their defensive postures.
"Did you do that?" Jubilee asked Lorna, who was looking somewhat befuddled. Her arms were raised and a table was hovering over her head.
"Until now, I haven't been able to do much with my powers—other than demagnetize all my credit cards," Lorna said with a shrug. The floating table wavered and Lorna hurriedly stepped out of its way before it crashed to the ground.
"You are all woefully unequipped and inadequately prepared for the future to come," said an ominous voice heavily imbued with gravitas.
"Severe understatement," grumbled Lucas.
"Oh lawd, he comin'," Remy said under his breath.
A figure emerged from the darkness, his hair and light gray suit catching the dim light so that he seemed to radiate.
"Mister Lehnsherr, sir," Scott said a little warily. "You're back."
"Erik, darling!" Emma said, her tone somewhat caustic as she twiddled fingers at him. "So lovely of you to drop by."
Erik Magnus Lehsherr slowly surveyed the disaster scene before him, his expression steely, his gaze finally coming to rest on Charles Xavier. He spared a glare for Remy, who grimaced and attempted a sliding step away from Erik's attention.
"Erik," Xavier said, his voice scratchy from disuse. He gave a small, rueful smile. "It's good you've returned. This place was quite literally falling apart without you."
The man in gray crossed his arms over his chest. He asked: "Charles. Are you admitting, finally, that I was right?"
~oOo~
They reconvened to more comfortable surroundings for further discussion, prompted by the emphatic suggestion by Emma Frost and the complaints of the basement humidity adversely affecting Lorna's hair. Jubilee helpfully asserted that the basement "smelled like ass," and couldn't they go back to the ballroom for muffins?
The meeting chairs were rearranged into a rough circle, with the residents seated, some under blankets or clutching cups of tea or bottled water. Together, they pieced together the events of the past few weeks. Xavier had not been in residence for some time, as his various speaking engagements had taken him across the country. From his occasional glances in Erik's direction, Anna-Marie guessed his departure was in part prompted by his falling out with Erik. In Xavier's absence, it seemed that the mysterious shape-shifting Milbury had assumed his identity.
"My speaking tour ended at the conference on National Security," Xavier explained. "When I attempted to take the private elevator to my upstairs residence, I found myself in the unused cellar instead. Mister Creed had evidently sabotaged the elevator car. I was taken by surprise by Doctor Milbury. I haven't any idea how long I've been his captive."
"The conference was a couple weeks ago," Anna-Marie supplied. "I saw you there—I saw you and Milbury both."
Anna recounted her experience at the conference, ending with her encounter with Erik. Remy was less forthcoming with his side of the story, so it was Erik who revealed that he'd sent the thief to do his spywork when he suspected Xavier was not entirely himself. This information was not well-received by Scott. Remy gave a sullen shrug in Scott's direction and turned his eyes towards the ballroom doors to avoid anyone else's gaze.
"Creed, I believe, has been working for Milbury for some time," Erik informed Xavier. "Perhaps from the beginning. Sent to disrupt our lives."
"Certainly, his presence here has been divisive," Xavier agreed.
"Which I am sure will continue when we decide what it is we should do with the man," Erik added, a challenge in his tone. "Sending him to the authorities as he is now will attract the attention of a certain government registration program for superhumans."
"Superhuman registration program," Remy said in a mumble, as if he were puzzling something out. "S-R-P?" He turned his gaze to Anna-Marie. "Something your momma mentioned while she was beatin' the ever-lovin' tar outta me."
A memory sparked to life in Anna-Marie's head. "Ah! Oh, I know this from somewhere…" she snapped her fingers. "That creep Gyrich! He's in charge of the program. I saw it in his thoughts. And Valerie Cooper?"
"Val is on our side," Xavier told her. "She's one of my—allies."
"Informants," Erik corrected.
"Honestly, Erik, you make it sound like some sort of spy drama," Xavier admonished.
"English is not my first language, Charles. But there is a saying about ducks," Erik began. "And I see a lot of feathers and hear a lot of quacking."
"But then, my momma, Raven Adler…" Anna-Marie paused here, wondering. Was Raven with the SRP, Xavier, or…
"I think she's on her own side," Remy said, crossing his arms over his chest as he slouched in his chair.
Anna felt prompted to defend her mother. "Now, you don't know for sure."
"She tried to cut my head off," Remy said and pointed at his neck. "With a sword."
It came to light that Raven was a shape-shifter, that Milbury had gained this ability from her years ago. There was some discussion about Remy's accusing Raven of attempted murder, some coming down on the side that they could understand things from Raven's perspective.
"That's besides the point!" Remy said with exasperation. "She wanted those drives, mostly to cover her own ass."
At the mention of the drives, Erik once again pinned Remy with his focus. "You told me the drives were destroyed."
"I told you a lotta stuff I shouldn't've," Remy quipped.
"I have them!" Kurt announced and brandished a brown paper envelope. "I was able to claim them in the commotion! After Marie, ah, Anna-Marie, disappeared and while Logan and the imposter skirmished."
As Xavier was closest to Kurt, he extended his hand. Kurt turned over the evidence to Xavier who tipped the contents into his open palm.
"There's only three there," Remy said in a dull voice. "There's supposed t'be five."
Together, they began searching the ballroom floor, checking under furniture and in corners. The two missing drives were gone.
"What could she do with that information?" Warren asked, extending his palms and his wings. "What are the optics on this situation? How damaging would it be?"
"Her aims appear counter to those of the government," Erik mused. "If what Remy claims is true, she was operating as a mole."
Anna-Marie sat herself down. We have an interest in people like you… "She's lookin' for recruits," she said. "Lookin' for more people like me. Like us." Her mother was looking to dismantle the government agency from the inside. Anna was coming to the realization that her mother was a terrorist.
The answers could be easily found, she thought. All she had to do was pick up the phone. Anna hoped her inkling suspicions were wrong, but her phone call home went unanswered. In fact, the number was no longer in service. The realization that her mothers had disappeared was like a kick to the chest. All along, she imagined that she would return home to Mississippi. At some point, it would become clear that she was safe, that no one was pursuing her. Now it seemed that she was homeless again. And that, perhaps, she had been abandoned.
"You have a place with us," Xavier assured her, sensing her thoughts. "That is my vision for The Graymalkin. For people like us to have a home, and the freedom to live the lives of our choosing."
"It should be made apparent to you by now that we will have to fight for that freedom," Erik intoned. "That we will not be left to our own devices. Not when people want to exploit us for our abilities."
Xavier raised a calm hand. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We're not prepared for a fight, Erik. I do concede we need to prepare. We should start with learning control. Responsibility over our powers."
"Is that your counsel for the man we've got locked in our basement?" Erik said acerbically. "The fight has been brought to us!"
"And despite our seeming lack of preparation, we have all come together organically. Without fear of one another or revealing our true selves," Xavier continued and gestured to the group. "None of what you want can be accomplished without first fostering a sense of community."
"Oh, lord. Kumbaya," Emma said and rolled her eyes. From somewhere, she'd produced a silver hip flask and she now took a swig. "Is that why we're letting sub-letters in?"
"Hey!" Katherine objected. "There's a housing crisis!"
"Your approach is far too slow," Erik returned, ignoring the sidebars. "This situation is escalating as we speak."
"Did coercion serve your purposes," Xavier asked and gestured to Remy. "Instill a sense of immediacy and shared purpose?"
"Don' drag me into your lovers' quarrel," Remy sassed.
Charles and Erik continued to argue. Anna-Marie sat in mute, somewhat numb shock, fading from the conversation. The events of the past twenty-four hours were setting in. She'd been lured, drugged, pursued, threatened, terrified out of her mind, and nearly crushed to death. Thinking of what the future would bring was nearly more than she could bear. Others chimed in with further information, bits and pieces of their stories and how they came to be at The Graymalkin. The victims gave brief and terrifying accounts of their encounters with Doctor Milbury. They speculated as to his whereabouts, which could be practically anywhere given he had Yana's ability to travel via inter-dimensional portal. This prompted an aside with Kurt, who could likewise teleport. Lucas mentioned he'd traversed time, but that wasn't under his own power, but by a device future-Daniel had built with his technopathic abilities. Anna's head drooped and she blinked groggily. It was getting to be too much to process at once.
Remy leaned over and nudged her with his elbow, rousing her. "Y'look like you could use a cup of coffee," he said. "So. How 'bout it?"
"Oh," Anna-Marie said and sat upright. "Yeah, sure, I could go get—."
"I meant, with me. Rogue, would you want to go out and get a cup of coffee with me?" he asked and smiled a bit.
"Do you think now's a good time to be askin' me out on a date?" she asked and gave him a weak smile in return.
"I think now's a good time to distract you from your worries. Or at least give you the space to get a handle on your thoughts," he said. "Know it feels a bit like someone yanked the rug out from under ya. Thinkin' people you trusted had your back, and then turns out they don't."
She considered him for a long moment. "How about a rain-check, Remy?" she finally answered, and though she felt physically and emotionally exhausted, it was something of a comfort to feel understood.
Remy continued: "For a second there, I thought I was going to be crushed by art deco architecture. I thought, if I had to get my ticket punched, at least I got to kiss the prettiest girl I ever met."
"Here I was thinkin' I didn't want my only real kiss to happen in a cross between Dexter's Laboratory and one of Dexter Morgan's kill rooms," Anna-Marie said dryly.
"Havin' regrets?" he asked, eyebrows raised.
"No regrets," she murmured.
His grin poked a dimple in his cheek. "My life flashed before my eyes," he told her. "Seemed pretty empty there 'til you came along."
Anna-Marie felt her face flush and she glanced away. "Your life flashed before my eyes too, Swamp Rat," she confessed. "And I don't think you're as bad as you seem to think you are."
Now he looked down at the floorboards, taken aback. "Hah," he scoffed and waved away her appraisal. "Don't know what you think you know 'bout me, but I'm far from bad, I'm super."
Next time: we wrap it up.
I used to work in the basement of an old building that took up the entirety of a city block. It used to be a department store, but became part of the University and the archives where I worked was in the basement. I based The Graymalkin's basement on that. It was horrifying and only slightly less traumatic than Milbury's lab.