The Warrior with No Name

By The Odd Little Turtle Named Froggie

(Marvel characters property of Marvel. I made a few up.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Real life got in the way. I had to split this chapter in two. I will see about posting the rest tomorrow. It's too late tonight.

Oh, I did post a "Kitty has trouble with her powers during some awesome Colossus lovin'" drabble set in this universe.

Input welcome.)

#

Seeing my daughter, alive and well, in David's twisted re-imagining of Siberia, with Kitty as my wife was overwhelming to say the least. Kitty took it well. In fact, she took it better than I expected her to take it considering all that she's been through. Though, I would have preferred not to have gone through the experience at all, I am grateful for whatever thought processes David went through that caused him to put her in my dream. Or her dream. Or in whichever's mind we managed to end up. We have yet to figure that one out. He wasn't exactly forthcoming in his information once Illyana summoned the N'Garai demons.

#

The hollow sound of heavy rain hitting the tin roof echoed throughout the mostly empty warehouse. Lightning struck in the distance, illuminating the grimy, abandoned warehouse, the still bodies of the Fantastic Four and Piotr on the floor, Spiderman, who sat cross-legged, Logan, who sat supported by his arms with his feet sprawled out in front of him, and Illyana, who hovered over her brother's prone body. Thunder rolled soon after causing the dirty windows to rattle.

"So telepaths get a brain bitch smack if they try to read you?" Logan questioned with a significant lifting of his black caterpillar eyebrows. Illyana gave a forced smile and a tense nod hoping Logan wouldn't put her through twenty questions about her past. No one needed to know her secrets. No one needed to know what those monsters had done to her, what they had forced to her to do, to become. And she didn't want to relive the pain and misery and debauchery she had suffered through at the hands of the Demon Lord and his servants.

"So Kitty woke up," Spiderman prompted. "Can't you teleport Kitty out of wherever she's located?"

"I have to be able to see her."

"I can—"

Illyana shook her head furiously, rejecting the suggestion before it even passed his lips. "No. You've already gotten me close to her once. David saw us, telekinetically attacked you and Kitty." She swallowed, and continued, her voice distant, "I couldn't save you—it happened too fast for me to react. I managed to teleport her to Limbo, but I misjudged the rate of her fall and where the stepping disk let out. She fell into the Lake from the shore." She hung her head, scratching at the scar on her forehead. "It takes so much concentration to teleport someone else to Limbo. I—"

"She drowned?"

She tossed her head, gave an irritable tug at the wide sleeve of her peasant blouse. "I don't know. I'm not sure. I couldn't get to her in time." The blonde mutant hugged her knees to her chest; her booted feet disappearing beneath the expanse of her quilted skirt, rested her chin on her knees. "I can't go in the Lake. No one can go in the Lake. I fixed it where it never happened."

"How did—Never mind," Spiderman was beside himself with questions. He wanted to know all about Limbo. He wanted to know how she could fix it, but logic prevailed. Peter Parker assumed that if dimension had no time to begin with, then it was possible to go to any point in Limbo and cause an alternate string of events to take place. He was quiet a moment while the platinum spiky-haired woman slapped her brother's face. The large black-haired man didn't react. "Why can't you go into the lake?" Spidey inquired finally.

She looked up at him, a haunted expression on her face, in those ice-spoked blue eyes. She looked ethereal in the dim light. "Mer-people," she said softly, a tremor echoing through her voice, fear in her tone, in her eyes. Mer-people? Like Mermaids? The young sorceress shuddered in what might have been revulsion or something altogether different, her eyes looking off into the distance and clouding with a memory the web-head was all too glad he didn't share.

She was silent until Logan spoke. "I spoke with 'em," he said, indicated Piotr. "They were in some kind of dream sequence, in Siberia. Zilya was there." He looked pissed a moment. Illyana's eyebrows shot up in surprise. David was torturing him? Anger simmered just below the surface. Oh, David would pay for that. Piotr had done nothing to David to warrant any of this. She imagined a horde of demons at her beck and call slowly taking their turn with him, ripping his flesh from his bones as he screamed for his life.

She was pulled out of her murderous reveries by Logan's gravelly voice when he asked, "Yana, why would yer brother think that Kitty and I are, were--" He paused trying to formulate words, clasping his hands together in confusion, revulsion—"together?" The Canadian sat on his haunches, his knees digging into the dirty floor, his hands on his thighs.

Illyana blinked, shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea." What a gross idea, she thought, her thoughts no longer on demons or fairies or unicorns or the ravenous aquatic monstrosities of the Lake.

"Does 'telepathy is a no go in Limbo' mean anything to you?" he wanted to know.

Her blue eyes lit up. "Of course!" She smiled a real smile for the first time Spiderman had seen her, her lips parting in a dazzling display of straight white teeth that gleamed in the dimness of the building. "I'd forgotten about that!"

"What?" he questioned, Logan intoning his piece a nanosecond behind the physics genius.

"Telepathy doesn't work in Limbo."

If not for the mask, everyone would have seen the confusion that was evident in his voice. "So, what, you're just going to teleport David to Limbo?"

"I think that I'm gonna do just that." A smile of pure wicked glee spread on her face and Peter Parker swore the only time he had ever seen so much mischievous danger was when he and MJ were dating.

#

"It's only because it's you, Katya," Piotr told Kitty quietly, bussing a tender kiss across her lips. Her mouth quirked in amusement as he put an arm around her to deepen the kiss. His tongue reached out just as the child's voice that floated across the expanse of the small house hit his eardrums and sent his emotions into turmoil.

The small house wasn't big enough to contain his feelings. His heart kicked. Without realizing it, his grip on Kitty tightened. She gasped, and he let go almost immediately. He mumbled an apology, his blue eyes darting away to find his daughter staring at him.

White Wolf. No.

Piotr wanted to hit something, to smash something, to hurt something. He wanted to punch David until his so called friend was a bloody pulp beneath his fists. The man Piotr had known for the better part of ten years was not someone who would do this. He was sure of it.

"David, why are you doing this?" he questioned out loud. Zilya only munched on her sandwich, pointedly ignoring him.

Kitty peered up at the tall muscular man beside her, her heart aching with the weight of his tragedy. He was tense, his hands fisted at his sides. His jaw was clenched, his mouth compressed into a taut line. The mouth that had been kissing her soundly before. That thought sent a jolt of awareness through her.

It wasn't fair that he had to relive this horror. She prayed to God that David wasn't sadistic enough to kill Zilya in this dream sequence. She had no idea how Piotr would react, what he would do, what he would say. And she had no idea to how to comfort him without being patronizing or showing pity towards him. The last thing the man needed was pity. Kitty knew that if the situation were reversed and Michael made an appearance, she wouldn't stand for pity from Piotr. She wished she could help him, could take away the pain that was etched so prominently into his features. She could only take his hand, hold him, offer some sort of human touch to ease the pain she felt emanating from him.

Her blood boiled at the thought of David screwing with their minds this way. She seethed with pent up anger at the man who Piotr had told her was a good friend. Hell, she had met the man only a few days before. The rapport the two had shared had been as close to brotherly love as one could get. Kitty vowed to make David pay for his crimes against her, against Piotr.

Piotr. He was the man whom had taken her in from the rain, had given her shelter when he didn't have to do anything of the sort. He was the man whom had invited her to lunch, who had invited her to share a piece of his time. And he was the man whom had called her when he and his sister were in trouble, when his apartment caught on fire. He'd turned to her for support and comfort, had trusted her with his cat and his little sister.

He was the man whom had kissed her with such tenderness in her apartment and just now in this terrible telepathic reality, this telepathic reality that seemed vaguely familiar. Okay, not the Siberia part, but this room, this home looked so much like her parents' home in Deerfield. Before the divorce, before her father's death in Genosha.

"Are you gonna be alright?" she questioned quietly, her eyes searching his visage.

He nodded curtly. "Da." He continued to watch his daughter, sighed and ran a hand across his face. He shook his head. "Nyet." His eyes darted to Kitty's. Piotr had expected to find pity there, instead he found understanding and compassion and another emotion he couldn't quite discern. His breath hitched in his throat. He knew if she continued to look at him that way that he would break down into an unmanly and shameful bout of crying. But that too, he knew she would overlook.

And with that thought a new kind of awareness settled over both of them.

"I don't think I can do this, Katya," he told her hoarsely. The rich timbre of his voice was suddenly gone and it felt like he had swallowed glass. He cleared his throat.

"Ya don't have to do it alone, Petey," Logan said from the door way. Piotr was torn between feeling relieved and dismayed. He was relieved that he had another friend there, but he was dismayed that Kitty's lover was in the dream sequence.

Piotr did give the short Canadian a smile as he took in the man's attire. Jeans, dirty boots and a short-sleeved plaid flannel shirt. He was taking off his work gloves as Kitty plowed into him with a jubilant laugh and a big hug, which he returned with a surprised smile. Piotr felt his heart plummet to his socked feet, his chest feeling tight.

"Been a while, pun'kin," Logan said gruffly.

Kitty stepped out of his embrace. "I should have called sooner."

"Ya still mad at me?"

Kitty shook her head. "Not as much now."

Piotr's heart hurt further still, but he shook Logan's hand anyway, careful not to give away his inner turmoil.

"Damned telepath," was all Logan said. The taller man nodded, waited for Logan to continue. "I think I can wake up from this though. Just gotta fight him."

"Just the same, it is good to see you again, Tovarisch," Piotr was honest and deceitful all in the same instant and immediately felt ashamed with his behavior. Kitty was not his. He should never have kissed her.

"David's already put me through another dream sequence," Kitty said abruptly, her eyebrows furrowed in anger. She crossed her arms in a protective gesture, and Piotr restrained himself from pulling her close, though he desperately wanted to. "Pete and some fairy."

Logan eyed her, his bushy, black eyebrows shooting up. "A fairy, huh? Little 'un or big'un?"

Kitty looked thoughtful a moment before answering, "She was my height, I guess."

"Pete say anything helpful?"

"Just that 'telepathy's a no go in limbo.' Whatever that's supposed to mean." She shrugged her shoulders, looked a little lost.

"Limbo?" Piotr asked, his blue eyes meeting Logan's darker blue ones for confirmation. "Illyana's Limbo?"

She looked confused, watching each man carefully. "What?"

Piotr gazed down at the woman he cared for and told Illyana's story.

Kitty stared. "So, she's my age now? Wait, how long have I been sleeping?"

"Not very long," Logan reassured her. "Limbo has no time constraints. She was probably only gone fer a few seconds compared ta how long she lived in Limbo."

"I can't wait to get reacquainted with her."

"Papa, who's that?" Zilya asked, pointing at Logan. She had wandered into the circle of adults while Piotr had explained what had happened to his sister. Now Piotr looked very much like he would burst into tears at any moment and Kitty took control of the situation, diffusing it before any more damage to could be done to the man she cared for.

"Uncle Logan," she answered smoothly. "I think it's time for your nap, Zilya." She took the little girl by the hand and led her to one of the two bedrooms away from a very distraught Piotr. It was the least she could do.

"But, Mama, I'm too big to take a nap," the little girl protested. "I want to stay up and talk to Papa and you and Uncle Logan."

"You aren't too big to take a nap," Kitty assured her, picking her up and placing her in bed, grinning at the stuffed Nightcrawler doll and stuffed Lockheed doll. "These guys need you to watch them. They are too little to stay up. You are just the right size to keep them company."

"Well," Zilya said, eying the stuffed dolls uncertainly, "if you think so, Mama."

Kitty gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Oh, I know so, kiddo. Get some sleep and let your food settle."

When Kitty came back into the living area, she immediately knew there was a problem by Logan's posture. Her mentor looked ready to throttle Piotr. Piotr looked oblivious to Logan's "I'm-gonna-take-out-yer-flaming-larynx-right-now" stance.

"So, you're not--" Piotr eyed Logan distrustfully.

Logan sputtered incoherently, choking on the thought, before yelling at the much larger man. "O' course not, dumbass!" The Wolverine looked ready to pounce. "Are ya outta yer flamin' mind, Ruskie? She's too much like my daughter ta--" He cringed. "Get yer head outta yer ass, Pete, and get back in the fight! I'll deal with ya later."

He looked over at Kitty. "The Ruskie's out of his flamin' mind!" He shuddered and then he wasn't there anymore.

"What was that all about?" Kitty questioned, stepping closer.

Piotr looked sheepish raising his hands as though to fend her off. "I'd prefer to talk about it later, but I think it was enough to wake him up."

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(Input welcome.)