500 Miles
Hope
By Princess Alexandria
The flashes of light and dark and the tumbling of her body always disoriented her, but Christy saw the opening and just darkness on the other side. She was tossed out of the portal with speed and stared at the ground she was being tossed at, no person stood there, just dirt. With a groan Christy slammed into the soft dirt and her body sunk down into the ground with the force of the landing. Spitting out dirt and pulling her arms out of the holes that had developed around them Christy struggled to kneel and look around.
Her hands, though dirty, shifted in front of her eyes. It made Christy smile with just a little hope, knowing that no double had been there to merge with. Maybe, just maybe she was finally home. The air smelled clean and the trees rustled in the soft wind. Christy looked around at the woods and noticed it wasn't New York, and it wasn't home. That didn't necessarily mean she wasn't on the world she wanted, Christy told herself, but after hoping so many times she didn't let herself hope too much.
As she stood up she turned and looked down. The soft dirt was in a familiar shape and a stone stood on one end, marking a grave. Christy stared in the fading early evening light and stared down at the tombstone, her stomach felt like she'd actually become ill as the words started to register in her mind.
Scratched into the stone were the words 'Emma Frost.' And below that someone in a different style had added another line. 'Christine Taylor.'
"Oh God." Christy managed to jump off of her own grave and to the side. Christy moved to the make shift headstone and reached out tentatively, letting her hand shift and caressing the name of her lover, seeing the way her fingers fit the lettering. This Christy had to bury her lover first, she just felt it, knew it without needing more proof. Christy felt a surge of empathic pain at the thought of what the only other pairing of a Christy and an Emma she'd seen had gone through. This wasn't a graveyard, Christy noticed as she looked around. She was in the woods, trees obscuring the sky enough for it to feel like it was starting to get dark. Christy stared back down at the tombstone. Christy caressed the stone and looked around at the woods, seeing what might be a road in the distance. This wasn't her world, but Christy couldn't shake the feeling that something was very painfully familiar here.
And who buried this world's Christine Taylor? And in the same grave? Christy stood up and enhanced her hearing, looking for any sign of other people, a hum of cars, anything. Her lips thinned into a grim line as she listened and heard nothing much. A picture of this world was forming in her mind already and she didn't like it.
As Christy walked toward the road her fists clenched. She was grateful to not have to deal with being trapped in someone else's body, but the reason why was horrible. She couldn't help but think about Raven, and how she'd feel if the woman died. She also felt bad that she was grateful it wasn't Raven, and Christy let herself think of this other Christy as a stranger, because she didn't have the time to mourn a friend.
Christy moved carefully toward the road as she got closer, looking for any hint of other people. The sign she found herself coming out of the woods near told her she was near Boston, not very near, but it was 50 miles away and the road was a freeway. No one was on it. The sick feeling grew as Christy with no other idea on what to do moved to walk along the side of the woods towards Boston. She knew better than to expose herself too much by using the road. Her hearing was turned up and her own footsteps were loud to her ears, but she didn't want anyone sneaking up on her. When the sky darkened a bit more Christy risked stepping out onto the freeway and stared up at the sky. She knew it was there, somewhere it was out there.
Her eyes found it and she just stared, not hearing anything as all of her senses numbed. All she was aware of was the streak of light in the sky coming towards this world. It would get bigger, she remembered it bigger, but it was there. An asteroid.
Christy didn't know how long she stared, but it was fully dark when she heard something and had to tear her eyes away and stare at the edge of the woods, searching for the source of that crack of a twig. Her hearing amplified again and Christy moved as smoothly as she could for the woods a little to the left of the sound she could now clearly hear, the breathing, the rustle of the leaves being pushed aside. Her eyes narrowed as she took in the shadow.
"You're in our territory." A cold voice spoke before Christy could get to cover, and it held clear threat to it.
"I don't even understand what you're talking about." Christy said as she turned to see the shape in the shadows step out into the road, the moon and the asteroid lending just enough light to see it was a woman. "But I'm not here to cause trouble."
"Christine?" The voice sounded stunned for a moment and then the woman stepped further out into the light of the moon, asteroid and stars. Christy stared at a thin but not yet starving Mystique. "Christine?" The woman moved forward and had her arms wrapped around her and holding her tightly. "I thought you died, did you solidify again? I'm so sorry I left." Mystique spoke softer, "I'm so sorry she died honey."
Christy froze as she found herself being hugged. At least this Mystique was a friend, but there were still so many holes in her knowledge, Christy wasn't going to be able to fake this and she hated to tell the woman now staring at her that she wasn't her Christine.
"I'm from a different world." She spoke softly and watched the myriad of emotions cross Mystique's face, disappointment, pain, disbelief, and a resigned sadness.
"Well you picked the wrong planet to crash." Mystique glanced up at the sky. "The wrong planet." She sounded like she'd heard of this before.
"Was she from somewhere else too?" Christy asked quietly.
Mystique said, her voice flat and unemotional. "I guess you can come with me. It isn't like there are many of us left." The older shape shifter then turned and started to walk into the woods. Christy followed quietly, her mind racing with questions, but she stayed quiet. They must have walked through darkened woods for ten minutes before Mystique spoke again. "This planet is about to die and we'll die with it." It was a familiar situation and Christy still felt her heart freeze at the idea. "Things are rather scarce now, but Christine, our Christine, she knew what to do. We hoarded supplies and we guard them well until that last attack, where Emma died." Silence filled the air and Christy didn't interrupt it. This was a nightmare and she hated that these people had to live it too. Wasn't one dead world enough? "You Christine's have lousy luck you know that? She came from another asteroid world five years ago, only to die on this one."
"I've been there and done this too." Christy said quietly and sighed. "How long?"
"Month and a half." Mystique answered just as resigned as Christy remembered being. Christy nodded and wondered if that was enough time to fully recharge, or if she'd need to be rather proactive in getting deaths to recharge from. A disgusted look crossed her face as she considered that she was now going to have to be that predator Selene had asked about.
"How is the food supply?" Christy said as they stepped into a small clearing and she noticed the fire.
"Momma?" A southern voice spoke and Christy looked across the fire to see Rogue. "Ah know you said she died."
"This is a new one." Mystique sighed. "Christine, this is my daughter Rogue."
"I go by Christy." She gave a small grimacing like smile to Rogue.
"Well we got a lot to talk about," Mystique sat down on a log, "so you might as well sit."
…………….
"Alright." Mystique sighed heavily and leaned forward. Christy mimicked her pose for the conversation. "Christine Taylor appeared in this world five years ago. She fell onto the lawn of Emma Frost's school. I wasn't there, but I heard she was skittish and in shock. Emma took her in, and it wasn't until a few weeks later that Christine quietly told her what had happened to her. Christine had no idea how she got here from being about to die, maybe it was some natural occurrence or some powerful beings intervention." Christy stared as Mystique tried to guess as to the how, and realized that this Christine never realized she had that power. She also realized that Mystique was more thrown by her doubles death than it appeared or she'd be putting together the fact that Christy clearly was familiar with the portal. "When Christine started to exhibit her powers Emma contacted me to tutor her in how to shape shift."
"You worked with Emma here?" Christy asked quietly, trying to grasp the differences in the worlds.
"The Brotherhood has had some dealings with the Hellfire club in the past." Christy's jaw clenched at that club's name for a moment. "It was a trade. Emma would work with Rogue to try and control her powers and I'd work with Christine." Christy stared at Mystique and could see the mask of no emotions on the woman's face. "When the news came about the asteroid Christine retreated into her mind and was catatonic for a day. Emma struggled to try and break her out of it but without being able to use her telepathy it was hard, and while she was doing this she was also trying to comfort her students, and working to get more details than the news had. She called me and had me and my team come to her school."
Silence filled in the gap and Christy didn't speak. She was too busy putting pieces together and giving Mystique enough fake privacy to wipe some tears off of her face. She noticed that Rogue had wrapped herself up in a blanket on the other side of the fire and was either asleep or pretending to be. When she noticed Mystique needed more time she did start talking.
"I was living in a doomed world too. The portal took me to another and I made a life there." Christy stared into the fire. "A good life." Her voice was a little shaky. "I learned my powers, and I learned how to create those portals at will." She could feel and hear Mystique had turned to stare at her. "Yeah, I make those portals."
"You mean Christine…" Mystique sounded stunned.
"Had the power to leave and didn't know it?" Christy finished the sentence and clenched her fists. "Yeah. I can't seem to get control of how to pick my destinations, but I ought to be able to jump ship before it hits here, if I power up enough." Christy looked across the fire to Rogue laying there and her tension started to fade. "I've never tried to take anyone through with me before. I've used it to banish a few people in a fight, to kill, but I've never used it with other people." She turned her head and looked at Mystique. "I want to try." A tear trailed down her own cheek as she remembered the people that died on her own world, people she had no idea she had the power to help. Maybe this time she could really help.
"We have about twenty people with us." Mystique looked a little stunned. "Or are you talking the planet?"
"I can't save everyone." Christy leaned a little closer. "I really can't." People had to die for her to leave. This was the hard part of her powers and Christy wasn't happy with the reminder of how it worked. She glanced over at Rogue. "Can we take a little walk?" she spoke quietly. Mystique caught on quickly because in five minutes they had privacy.
"What is it?" Mystique asked her, sounding commanding, as they stood in the dark woods with the fire in the distance.
"My portal is powered by death. I feel some going on out there, but if I want to have enough power before the asteroid hits I need," Christy sighed heavily. "You have any enemies you want to kill now?" She asked and watched as Mystique took on a grim expression. "I can wait, but everyone else can't. The asteroid won't kill me."
"I'll leave someone in charge of our home base." Mystique told her. "And I'll show you where the other camps with other people are." Mystique shook her head. "We have some weapons and we can get more from the dead."
"I'm sorry." Christy told her softly, hating that she was going to hunt again.
"No, if this is a chance to actually live," Mystique smiled a little. "It's a little hard to accept that we have a chance. After the xmen and fantastic four disappeared trying to take care of the asteroid, well, our chances looked pretty slim." Mystique sighed. "Kill a few flatscans and live for tomorrow. I guess we can just not tell the others how you power up."
"Actually," Christy was hesitant to say this. "Dying mutants give me more power." That earned her a rather dirty look. "But I don't want to kill your own people. It's just with the population already so depleted, this is not gonna be done naturally." Christy shook her head. "I really didn't want to have to kill again." Her voice cracked. "Your food supplies are good?" She asked hesitantly.
"You had to resort to that in your world?" Mystique sounded a bit stunned. "No, we have enough. Still do with how many died in that last battle with our neighbors. I'd like to start with them. One of them killed Emma, and she didn't die quickly. When Christine and I got back and found her." Mystique stopped talking. "Christine just stopped living. She stood over the grave of her lover and just melted away. Her eyes were so dead, and she just kissed me and melted away."
"You loved her." Christy whispered as she took in the shaking shoulders of someone who should be numb to death by now.
"Tomorrow we'll finish the walk back to our base and I'll arrange for the two of us to take off. I don't think we should tell anyone about this until you've powered up, in case someone objects to what we have to do, what you have to do, to save us." Mystique said, not answering the comment Christy made. Christy nodded and walked back to the fire with Mystique in quiet distraction. So she could die the way she was, she could just will it to happen. "I think I can trust you with the location."
As she laid down, she thought out like she used to with Raven, in their way of communicating. "I'm glad I didn't take you with me Raven. I don't ever want to drag you down and what I have to do now…" She sighed as she resigned herself to the fact that in a day or two Christy would be hunting again.
…………………
"Let's not tell the others about Christine." Mystique spoke quietly to Rogue and Christy. "We'll be off on a mission, so if you can pretend for a few hours they will at least feel like one of their matriarchs lived."
"Yeah, Okay." It made sense to Christy to keep moral up. Rogue seemed to understand that as well, because she just sighed and nodded. "Why isn't she buried closer to the camp?" Christy asked, knowing she hadn't heard a camp nearby when she arrived.
"She's buried, they're buried, where Emma proposed." Mystique spoke and Christy found her heart stopping and her eyes tearing, so she just looked away. It was a quiet walk after that, where Christy did her best to contain her pain at that thought. She squashed the small part of her own mind that said her own Emma hadn't proposed yet.
With her enhanced hearing Christy heard the sounds of people before they stepped out of the woods, to see a partly burned mansion with people on the trampled down lawn. Most of the people were young, younger than Christy. Quite a few looked to be students, and Christy suddenly understood why this Emma had died. Most of the Emma's that she'd met would have fought until the end to protect her students.
"Mrs Frost-Taylor." A young voice spoke and Christy froze, knowing that the marriage happened was still not enough to prepare her to hear that name. "I'm so sorry about your loss." Christy turned wide eyes to look at Mystique after the well wisher walked away.
Mystique spoke quietly as they continued their trek to the house. "Just nod and be unresponsive to all but what you absolutely have to respond to and you'll pass. After we found the body she just shut down."
Christy just walked through the small camp and nodded occasionally at people. She let her tears fall as they fit what pain she'd feel in these shoes for real and said nothing. She took in some familiar faces, but dark and haunted ones, that she'd never seen in person but she'd seen pictures of. The Hellions were alive here, and it made Christy wonder when in time this was. She didn't ask who all was here and did her best to not appear surprised as she made it through them and into the mansion, following Mystique. She'd also noticed a small scattering of Xmen, and other faces that weren't familiar at all. Now it made sense why they weren't explaining their mission before leaving, because even this close to death Christy wasn't sure Kitty or Kurt would agree to killing people a few weeks earlier than they would have died for a ticket out, and even if they agreed, it was a burden that would haunt them.
……………….
The room she was lead to was an office with a fireplace. Christy found herself looking around at the set up, the pictures on the mantel and she knew it wasn't her doubles office. This place screamed Emma and it wasn't comfortable to be there. The door clicked closed behind her as Mystique closed it, giving them some privacy. "You any good with a gun?" Mystique asked her and Christy just sighed and turned to give Mystique a look. "Silly question I see." Mystique said and moved toward a closet. "We've got plenty of ammo to get us started and I've mapped out the surrounding area so I know where the other survivors are." Mystique pulled out a few guns from the closet and ammo, so Christy moved to take some from her and set it down on the couch. The office was large and could spare that space.
"You do know I'll try to control where we go, but I've been having trouble with that." Christy spoke softly about her portal. "I've been lost for 10 months trying to get home."
"I'd rather land in the middle of world war three than stay here." Mystique stopped and turned to face Christy. "Even in that type of hell there is hope of survival. That hopes been gone from this place for a while. I like how it feels to have it back."
"Okay, as long as you understand I can't promise paradise." Christy studied a gun and swallowed hard to push her pain away. She understood too well. "So it's just you and I?" Christy asked as she looked over the weapons, picking out what she'd prefer to have in her mind in case she got to chose.
"Safer that way. The others might be either a little too moral or too young and inexperienced." Mystique checked the chamber in one gun and then pulled a holster on.
Christy watched as Mystique put it on and just stared as Mystique adjusted the straps. This was wrong. "You can't shift?" Her words were a little stunned and Mystique grimaced at her while putting the gun in the holster.
"No I can't. Government didn't want the mutants living longer than anyone else. There's a power dampener in orbit, their last fuck you before they die. They want to make sure we go with them." Mystique picked up a knife and slid it into a boot sheath. "Christine was the only one with powers that worked after that thing went up. How else do you think they managed to kill Emma? She was too powerful a telepath to be taken out by surprise and that's what they did."
Christy picked up a gun and shifted a holster onto her own body as she loaded it and slammed it into place. Her eyes were cold and her movements practiced and she considered a world that would prefer no hope to mutant help. The bigotry here was the extreme and hunting got a little easier knowing that. She'd found her motivation, what she could hold onto as she pulled the trigger.
"Do you have any grenades or bombs?" Christy asked as they finished storing ammo on their bodies. "We don't need tidy kills, just kills." It was different than hunting in that she didn't need to preserve the bodies.
"Small problem with that General." Mystique pulled out a box and stared down into it. "This is all I have left. If we want more we need to take out one of the army camps the hard way and pick through their leftovers."
"What is with you and crappy nicknames." Christy muttered, remembering her own Mystique as she looked at what they had. "Well, I guess this will have to do for now. We leaving the others enough to protect themselves?"
"Yeah, this is just my stash." Mystique started to pull grenades out of the box.
"You'll have to teach me how to use those." Christy told her and stood up, walking towards the mantel and the pictures as she waited.
Emma looked so beautiful in a wedding dress, and of course in spite of her past exploits it was white. To think this woman had died hard was hard to accept, but Christy shut her pain down and reminded herself to do fast kills and leave the judgment to the afterlife. Hopefully Mystique would remember that as well. Christy didn't want to bury the double of her best friend and she wasn't sure how much Mystique relied on her powers to get out of situations.
…………………
They'd stayed only a couple hours before heading out. The walk was a quiet one and Christy didn't interrupt the silence as she followed Mystique through neighborhoods and past a small shopping center that looked just as raided as the ones home had. Her eyes followed Mystique's movements and studied her body, not liking how thin and harsh the blue woman looked.
Finally they stopped for a break outside of an abandoned bank. "Wanna make a withdrawal?" Christy said distractedly as she studied the bank from their seat on the bench outside. "Idiots, it looks like someone already broke in." she shook her head at people not understanding that money itself had no real value, it was what you could buy with it, and in a world like that it was worth nothing at all.
"In the worlds that you've visited, was the money always the same?" Mystique asked as the woman took off a boot and rubbed her aching feet. Christy glanced at the blue foot, noticing the blisters. Mystique really wasn't the same without her powers.
"I hadn't really noticed that." Christy's eyebrows drew together as she considered the money she'd handled. "The American money was all the same." She realized.
"In a new world we're going to need to get established." Mystique put her boot back on and moved to remove her other boot. "How much can we bring with us?"
"I don't know." Christy nibbled on her lip as she considered that. "I think you'd better travel light, because this is my first time caring if the other people in the portal live." Still Mystique made sense. "Perhaps two carry ons?" She gave Mystique a small smile. "It's not the airlines, but you all do need supplies. You just have to be ruthless about cutting stuff out. I'd say safer to have one bag a piece. People will need to be able to hold on to each other. We want to make sure they all land in the same world, and I've had trouble with that. I can't focus for long."
"Backpacks." Mystique muttered, clearly thinking out loud. "And maybe a few withdrawals from the banks." Christy just leaned forward and rested for a moment and let Mystique plan her people's future. The woman would plan well.
They didn't leave that area until they had found some backpacks in a nearby store and filled them with large bills from the bank. They left the backpacks in the bank, to be picked up later. Christy wouldn't have even thought of this.
…………………
When night fell they'd found their way to an abandoned hotel. They could have had their own rooms, but Christy said nothing when Mystique followed her into the same one. It had two beds and in the nearly dark Christy used her powers to enhance her eyes. She was able to see Mystique still managing to do well enough moving around in the dark, taking a trip to the bathroom, even though they had one candle and it wasn't lit yet. Christy took care of that after she'd double checked how thick the curtains were, so they wouldn't be advertising their presence.
It wasn't a bad place for the night.
Aside from telling Christy that they were almost in enemy territory, they didn't talk much before going to bed. There was tension, and Christy just sighed as she rolled over onto her side to stare at Mystique sleeping. Looking like a woman that recently died wasn't making this any easier on Mystique. Maybe tomorrow Christy would change her look a little. At least her hair could be cut. There had been too many searching looks cast on Christy today for her not to feel like her appearance was a problem.
When Christy pulled her sheet tighter to her body her mind spoke out again, Raven, I hope you are okay, she thought towards a double that couldn't hear her anymore. Then her mind drifted to her Emma, and she hated the way her mind raced when she thought about her lover, and all the problems she'd need to face when she got home. She was going to make it home though, she had to.
Christy needed help and she didn't have anyone to ask. Perhaps she should have stayed in that first world with the ruined New York for longer. That Emma had been helpful in making Christy understand her powers better, that Emma would have been a good person to help train Christy.
"Sleep." Mystique's weary voice interrupted her. "I know you don't breathe when you sleep, and we need a good rest for tomorrow."
"Sorry." Christy muttered and worked to try and sleep while she could. Her mind made it difficult by latching on to the fact that Mystique clearly knew her double well enough. They were like a team apparently. "I really am sorry." Christy whispered into the darkness her voice softer as she meant something else. She was sorry for Mystique's loss, her pain, and that Christy was just prolonging it by existing here.
………………
"They tortured her." Mystique spoke quietly as they stared down at the camp and the people moving around. "I think that hurt Christine more than anything, even Emma's death, realizing that her lover's last moments were hell." Christy flinched as she heard that. "I want them to suffer."
Christy took a deep breath and looked at the people she was here to kill. "Suffering takes more time. We might lose control of the situation. We don't even know who did it." She turned to look at how Mystique stared at the camp, the hate in her eyes. "Getting you killed won't help anyone."
"She didn't even want to seek vengeance; she just wrapped Emma up carefully and wanted to take her to her grave." Mystique shook her head, not understanding that.
"You really want vengeance?" Christy looked over at the people as she considered that Mystique would seek it with or without her. "Pick a target and we'll leave him alive until the end." She offered.
"I want that man." Mystique pointed to a large man stepping out of what they'd determined was the central office. "He's in charge. He threatened us before and I believe he planned that attack. He probably killed Emma. I need to do this for Christine. It's the least I owe her." Christy sighed as this would mean a more difficult mission. They needed to plan this one carefully.
They watched the camp and planned quietly for hours. Christy almost felt like she'd never left her home world as she stared at people knowing she was going to kill them. She even found herself starting to think of them as food, which was a thought she had to push away.
That night Christy stared down at the silencer on her gun and then up at the asteroid. "Here we are again." She spoke to it as she waited for Mystique to come back from her scouting mission. She stared down at the dead woman at her feet and squatted down to study her face and body one last time. "Too bad I didn't have powers last time." She told the asteroid as she started to shift. "But you won't get me this time either." She stood up in her new taller and thinner form and glared at the asteroid. "No fucking celestial marble is taking me out."
"Nice trash talking to the asteroid. You gonna wrestle it now?" Mystique's voice drew Christy's attention to the woods around her and it was amazing how well blue skill blended into the night. Mystique was nearly on her before she was visible to normal vision. Christy hadn't enhanced hers yet.
"You can't tell me you haven't yelled at it." Christy bent down to start and hide the body.
"We may have had a few discussions. It drives a hard bargain, I hadn't managed to convince it to change course." Mystique sighed. "I can't pass for one of them, so I'll be moving slow and sneaky."
"I know, we already talked about it." Christy stood up, still a little nervous even with her powers. "So how about we do this."
"Christy." Mystique spoke slowly.
"I know, no survivors. I know." Christy took a shaky breath as she considered what that meant. "Absolutely none."
The camp was quiet in the middle of the night, with small fires in cans here and there and a few night guards. Christy nodded to one as if she belonged as she walked past him and up the steps in her stolen form. She stopped on the top floor and moved to the apartment that they'd seen the leader had. It wasn't locked. She hadn't expected it to be, because she remembered how keys were a problem in her world. She pulled out a smaller gun out she shot at the man rolling over in the bed, hitting him with three darts before walking closer to him.
Checking the room carefully for other people she found none. "Lonely at the top? I remember that." She muttered as she tied him up with his sheets and stuffed a pillow case in his mouth. "If you were smart you'd die while I'm out." She didn't kill him though, because if what Mystique believed was true he did deserve what he would get.
She slipped out and continued on with a different gun. Her heart hammered for a few beats and then just stopped altogether as she slipped into yet another apartment. Two shots later and a power surge that let her know they'd been fatal shots she slipped back out and continued her murderous trip across the third floor of the apartment building.
It was the fifth apartment that nearly made her cry. The bullet went through the child's head right before he could cry out and Christy gasped as if she'd run a marathon as she leaned forward and did what she could to not be sick on the floor. Tears trailed down her face as it registered that she'd actually shot a child.
It took her a few shaky breaths as she studied the room, unable to look at his body, before she could move on. She couldn't take a kid with her and couldn't leave one behind to draw attention to her. She hated her practical side, and herself, as she realized that if there were another kid here she might have to shoot one again. As she made her way to the next apartment she tried to convince herself that leaving a child alone to die by asteroid was crueler, but it wasn't a convincing argument. She prayed before each apartment that there were no kids inside before she opened the door after that.
Mystique was probably not moving as quickly, but some first floor people were dying, Christy could feel it. Mystique had to be much more covert in her trips in and out of rooms.
It was the shift change that rang the alarm. Christy was just coming out of an apartment when she saw someone else run out from one she'd already visited. She turned to aim at him, but he managed to yell before the bullet hit him. "Shit." She muttered as she rushed to the downed man so that it wasn't too suspicious, gambling that she'd buy a few more minutes. A few doors opened and people rushed out while Christy pretended to check his pulse and looked out across the street. "Sniper." Was all she said and then she moved as if avoiding one, making the others rush back into their apartments.
Christy did not want to be trapped on the third floor when the rest of hell broke loose. She took that moment to reload her gun as well.
…………………..
"Aw Shit." Christy swore as she dove over the railing firing round after round at the men shooting at Mystique. Mystique was already taking out what she could from the roof of the clubhouse and these men were working to take the sniper out having found the weakness in her location. Bullets hit Christy by the dozen as she fired at and killed the more clever small group. Other members of this tribe ran around screaming, some shooting, some giving orders, and many falling down dead.
In a move that had many screaming Christy walked right at another group of them while they shot her. Her body jerked back a bit with every hit, but her guns kept firing. She was like the Terminator, she thought distractedly as she killed another person with a distracted shot to the side.
The ground was littered with the dead and Christy shot down at one playing possum as she walked over him.
A bullet went right through her from above and Christy looked up to see Mystique had done it, right before she felt the death behind her. "Nice, don't even ask if you can shoot me." She muttered quietly as if her partner could hear her.
The bullets slowed down and Christy felt like she was just picking off the remaining people. Mystique rolled off the roof and moved to walk along side her. "Some ran, I got a few in the back but I think this camp is mostly cleared out. Still be careful." They moved back to going through the apartments and Christy said nothing as they found a few more people that had hidden rather than join the fight. They found a room with more children and Christy froze as she saw them. The mother rushed toward her and a gun went off as Mystique shot her.
"I can't." Christy turned to look at Mystique while the oldest child whimpered and cried. His brother was too confused to understand. Mystique held out her gun again, but it started to shake before the blue woman lowered it as well. Their no survivors rule was already in doubt.
"With no one to take care of them they'll starve to death before the asteroid hits." Mystique spoke and Christy's arm shook as she raised it. The loud bang made her flinch, and the follow up from beside her had her flinching again. Two children fell backwards and stopped moving.
"I've never killed children before." Her voice cracked and Mystique rested a hand on her shoulder. "I wish I had more power, enough to hold the portal opened longer."
"You said you can't save everyone." Mystique tried to wipe some tears off of her own face subtly and Christy pretended she didn't see them. "It's just life and death. It's the way it is."
They were very quiet after that, and once the camp truly was dead, except for one man tied up on the third floor they just stopped and stood in silence. Mystique finally wrapped an arm around Christy and held her as they stood there with the stink of blood in the air. They stood that way for a while, until they heard a man scream.
"Guess he woke up and got that gag out of his mouth." Christy muttered and then sighed heavily. "You still want to do this?" She really wasn't in the mood for torture.
"Oh Yeah." Mystique's voice was cold and the woman pulled away, depriving Christy of the heat of her body. It wasn't until then that it even registered to Christy that this Mystique was treating her like her own did, like a cherished and perhaps more than platonically loved friend. The battle brought them closer, hopefully when Mystique realized what she was doing and that Christy wasn't Christine it wouldn't cause tension.
The one live man in the apartment screamed when Christy walked into his apartment looking like Emma. It made him look rather guilty. Mystique followed her in and Christy just smirked at him and stood in Emma's traditional way, a hip thrust out as Mystique methodically did some of what he or his people had done to Emma to him, and Christy was sickened to hear more details of what the blonde had gone through. It didn't last long because they were both tired, but he didn't die easy. Once he was dead Christy shifted back and let out a breath. "Let's get out of here."
…………………..
"Are you feeling more powered up?" Mystique asked from her bed in the hotel room they'd slipped into for the day. It wasn't dark but the drapes did a very good job of keeping it dark inside.
"Some." Christy stared up at the ceiling instead of looking at Mystique. "Sick isn't it? My powers?" She could still see tiny bodies falling to the ground after she killed them.
"You don't normally have to do this, right?" Mystique's voice was softer. "So in a normal world you just power up naturally?"
"Yeah, if I tried hard I could do it in two weeks at home, the place I call home now." Christy thought of the training she and Emma did with Christy's powers.
"So it isn't so gruesome, and I'm not about to curse my only ticket out of here." Christy could hear Mystique turning to face her so Christy turned as well. Mystique looked sympathetic. "They all are on death row Christy, and until you arrived we all were as well." Christy gave Mystique a weak smile that lasted only a moment, to acknowledge the kindness.
"I want some grenades and bombs." Christy rolled onto her back again. "I don't want to have to look into their little eyes as I pull the trigger again. It's selfish, I know, but I have so many nightmares already. I don't need these new ones."
"I've never shot a child before either." Mystique told her quietly and Christy grimaced.
"Do you want to sleep in my bed?" Christy asked quietly after a moment. "I just, I could use," Her words trailed off. "My Mystique is my best friend." She admitted quietly. A bed creaked and Christy noticed the blue woman out of the corner of her eye.
"Scoot over." Mystique sounded a little vulnerable. "My Christine was my best friend too."
………….
It was three weeks, three weeks of hell that would inspire new nightmares, but Christy felt her power and knew it she finally had enough. That was good because they were getting further and further from home base and they needed to make their way back. She stepped over the dead man and picked up his gun as she moved toward the door. "We could start back, it's enough."
"We might need a cart to bring some things back." Mystique followed her, walking more carefully. On the last mission Mystique had managed to get shot and while they did what they could for her leg, it was still going to take time to heal.
On their way back Christy would have to help Mystique while talking about the various supplies Mystique had squirreled away as they went. The trip back might take a week normally, but this could slow them down. Mystique had stashes of cash, jewelry and gems. She also had more ammo in case the new world wasn't all that great, but Christy was going to do her damnedest to find a world at peace. These people deserved that.
"You want me to play horse don't you?" Christy smiled just a little, imagining Mystique strapping her to the cart. It would be a way to speed it up. Christy had more endurance, that was just the way it was. "Sometimes it doesn't pay to be the strong one."
"Well, if the feedbag fits." Mystique teased and they did their best to maintain the jokes and pretend everything was okay as they walked away from the dead. Christy did notice that Mystique was leaning on her more than just so they could be friendly, she was having trouble walking.
They were back at the hotel they were currently using and Christy showered first. This was almost a ritual now, they left the dead talking a little then the trip back was in silence and they didn't speak again until they both showered. They would talk quietly in a darkened room and then take a nap, sometimes in separate beds, sometimes in the same one depending on how difficult the day had been.
"Any ideas on what we'll tell the others about my sudden power to save them?" Christy asked as she heard the bathroom door open later as Mystique started to move for her bed. Christy's eyes moved to the bandages on Mystique's leg and knew that it would be best to leave soon, just in case that became infected. It would be nice to have actual medical help, Christy needed to find a world that would give that to an obvious mutant.
"The truth, that you're not from around here and you have the power to create portals. They don't need to know what made that possible." Mystique said as she moved to sit on the other bed.
……………
Four days later Christy turned from her place pulling the cart to glare at Mystique. "Call me horsey one more time and I'm gonna pull over." She spoke in a fake parental warning tone. The cart resembled a poor copy of the old west wagons and was filled with fifteen backpacks and Mystique. Christy was letting Mystique rest and with what the woman must weigh now it wasn't really making her job harder.
"Too bad I don't have a horse whip." Mystique teased and Christy's body tensed.
"Don't even joke about that." She spoke sharply, turning away and continued to pull the cart along the freeway.
"Christy?" Mystique spoke more seriously and softer.
"The last world I was in wasn't a cake walk. Being whipped isn't a joking matter." Christy gritted her teeth and focused on moving smoothly forward. This was a little slower than normal walking but if she kept a count in her head of how fast her pace should be she managed to not get distracted and slow down.
"I'm sorry." Mystique sighed. "I guess your luck ran out before you got here?"
"You could say that." Christy thought of Raven and missed her. "You gonna pull tomorrow?" She asked and listened to Mystique's soft laugh at the idea.
"You know I'd do the touchy feeling thing for you, but we're not really set up for that now." Mystique finally spoke and Christy relaxed a little more as she realized Mystique wouldn't push now. It wasn't a good idea to talk about anything too emotional while you're trying to stay aware of your surroundings. Mystique clearly knew that.
"That's fine. Don't feel like talking now, what I want is a break and a real horse."
"Sorry, I think people ate all of those." Mystique shifted in her seat. "But we could pull off the road here and rest."
"Like you need a rest?" Christy turned off the freeway and moved closer to the trees for cover.
"I am covering us." Mystique spoke up.
"Yeah." Christy rolled her neck as she put the bar she used to push with down. She rolled her shoulders and felt her body take care of what soreness managed to exist. "Well you got the map?" She took it when it was handed to her and tried to see their progress. It was strange how large the world looked when you didn't have a car, she thought as she looked at the progress made that day and what they had left to go. "We aren't making it today and I don't think we'll make it tomorrow."
"I can help push for a while after break." Mystique offered and Christy waved it away.
"Don't worry about it. I can't pull and watch for danger at the same time very well. You're freeing me up to concentrate on being a pack mule. There is more to it than I thought."
………………
"What?" A voice called out in the stunned silence and Christy just stood still and stared at Mystique rather than the other people staring at her. "You mean it?"
"Yes, we can live." Mystique smiled and seemed to be attempting to look each of her people in the eye. "Christy can get us out of here." They'd returned a couple of hours ago and Mystique had this meeting called after Christy and Mystique managed to clean up and pile the new supplies up by type for redistribution. "I don't want to drag this out, so we're planning to leave in the morning. We can't bring much with us. In order to start a new life we've," Mystique motioned to Christy, "been out picking up supplies we can use as currency and a few other items. We'll give everyone one partially filled backpack with these items and the rest of the space is all you have for personal items. I know it's tempting to load up everything you care about, but we can't tax Christy's power like that. What she's offered is already going to push her to her limits." Or beyond, Christy thought quietly to herself.
"Where will we go?" Christy looked over at the Hellion that asked and sighed.
"I don't know." Christy answered herself. "I don't have a lot of control yet, I'm trying. If I had more control I never would have come here and lived through this again." Her voice was even and honest. "I'll try to aim for something good, but it might just be climbing out of the fire and back into the frying pan." She could see a few people nodding, somber expressions on their faces and got the impression they all felt like Mystique. Any hope at all was better. Christy wasn't even going to try for home this time, because these last few attempts had been getting worse and worse. She didn't want to risk it with other people.
"And you're not Christine." Another voice, this time it was Kitty. This Kitty sure was a lot more serious and somber than the last she'd met. If it weren't for the reasons that made that happen Christy would have found it an improvement.
"No. She couldn't bear life without her Emma." Christy admitted quietly. "They're together on the other side."
There was silence and Christy was somewhat comforted to see that her double was missed and even the good news didn't lessen that. It was Mystique that interrupted it after it lasted for a while. "I need volunteers to divide up the supplies evenly and repack the backpacks. They can then distribute the bags to others for their own supplies." A few nodded and moved toward the mansion. "Let's get some sleep." Mystique spoke quietly to Christy.
……………….
"Okay, one more thing." Christy spoke loudly over the excited group that was pulling on their backpacks. "You're all might be shot at high speed towards my double." She studied the group. "She might not even have a clue what's going on. I've never managed to not hit one. For me it works out but a dogpile like this could really hurt someone." She had only remembered this as she started to consider a good spot to create the portal.
"I can go first fraulin." Kurt said. "I can try and turn us away from her."
"He could, he's very acrobatic." Mystique spoke quietly. "And if all else fails he can teleport the first few." Christy nodded. The others started to work on an order for the line and Christy turned to Mystique.
"I have to go last. Can you go with me and try and make sure I don't hit my double? I'm not as graceful as you are, even hurt, and merging with a double causes problems."
"I want to go last anyhow, to make sure everything runs smoothly." Mystique didn't respond to Christy's opening for teasing. She was actually pretty tense. Christy sighed and just picked up a backpack of her own. This was one idea that she was going to try and remember, bringing things to help was just smart. Too bad she hadn't considered it herself.
A sound of trees rustling made Christy tense up and turn to face them. "Ambush?" Christy asked just as bullets started to shoot at them. Some poorer group was after their supplies, but they didn't need them anymore. These attacks were relatively normal for here, but the timing was horrible. No one was prepared.
"Grab what you can and go!" Mystique yelled loudly and picked up a gun to fire back. Mystique stared right at her. "Get them out of here." Christy didn't look away for a moment looking into desperate eyes and then she did.
"Move it people, we need a line. Here we go." She ordered, before pulling in a deep breath and screaming. The others were rushing to link up hands and Christy was surprised at the lack of fear Kurt showed by running right into the portal. Christy couldn't focus and fight at the same time this time, she lowered her gun and felt bullets rip through her as she focused on peace and coexistence and a world that was welcoming and helpful. A world like that probably didn't exist, but maybe she'd get one of the criteria. As the line moved in Christy walked along with the last person, Mystique backing up with her slowly.
Christy reached out to take Kitty's hand and turned to reach for Mystique as they approached the portal, but her minds eye saw it first, as she heard the bombarding bullets hitting nearby Mystique's body jerked several times and then she started to fall.
"No." Christy let go of Kitty, who was being pulled by the others. Kitty looked like she'd let go to. "Stay with them." Christy ordered as she took several steps back to pick Mystique up.
"Hold on." Christy whispered as she struggled with her thoughts, to control them. Christy ran up to the portal, but she was too late to grab Kitty's outstretched and disappearing hand.
Christy stared at the empty portal for a moment in shock, before looking down at Mystique, knowing she wouldn't be able to hit the same place. Christy's expression hardened and she refocused her thoughts as Mystique's body shuddered in her arms and blood ran down Christy's body from her friend.
Christy jumped into the portal with bullets following her and focused on one thing, "Help." She called out as she clung to Mystique's body, hoping the woman could make it to medical help in time.