Title: Revenge Part 4
Author: Ethiercn
Rating: T (language)
Disclaimer: I don't own them, and I am not making any profit from this. MacDonald's power is taken from The Sun Sword Series by Michelle West.
Author's Note: Takes place directly after Part 3. Charlotte Smith is supposed to be Charlotte Jones (Archangel's former girlfriend. They started dating when he was in X-Factor and broke up after he returned to the X-Men). I changed her last name because it would be one Jones too many, making it really hard to keep up with the Joneses (sorry, but you try not making a pun here). Perhaps Charlotte met a nice guy and got married. Their relationship is wonderful, and the only problem, if problem it is, is the Alias Smith and Jones jokes their friends make (I'll stop now).
With James' help Angelica removed her painting from the exhibit room's wall and took it to one of the studios. They leaned it against a wall. Angel knelt in front of it. Gently, she raised a strip of the canvas and sighed. It was ruined beyond all repair. Pieces of it were missing. At least, she still had the preliminary sketches. She could recreate it, make it better. Though it wouldn't be the same. It felt like a death. She sighed.
"You and Vance were apart for a while," James said softly from behind her. "Why did you get back together?"
Still studying her painting, Angel replied, "We both grew up."
The first blow landed across her shoulder and forced her to the floor. "You don't deserve him," James snarled as he raised the piece of wood for second blow. "You didn't even notice him all those times when he showed up to watch you paint." The second blow hit her head and knocked her out. His face contorted with jealousy and rage, James raised it once more, "He needs someone who will love him."
"Stop," a voice said from behind him. "Not here. Not yet."
Vance hurried up the steps to the school. His evaluation was over, but he didn't really care how it had gone. He would get Angel; they would go back to the Crash Pad, find whoever this was and put an end to it. His phone rang. "Hello," he said as he opened the door to the building.
"It's Scott," the guardsman's voice sounded tired, and instantly Vance knew this wasn't about Angel's help with Rhino. Before he could ask anything, Scott continued, "You and Firestar should know that Stephen Davies escaped."
Vance stopped and couldn't stop himself from looking around, "When?"
"An hour ago. Listen kid, some of the other inmates have escaped as well. I'll give you guys more detail later. It's too hectic right now. I just thought you guys should have a heads up."
"Thanks Scott," Vance started walking again, faster this time, almost running. A yard later, his phone rang again. Now what? What else could go wrong?
"Vance!" Thrash's voice was filled with relief. "We know who it is. We've tried reaching Angelica, but she's not picking up."
Not caring who saw, Vance flew down the hallway.
Stephen hid in the shadow of the building. He had seen Vance arrive looking upset and watched the man leave alone. According to the boy's body language something was wrong. The boy wasn't an artist. He had to have been trying to find Angelica. Stephen frowned. If Samantha had control of Angelica things would be difficult. His time in the Vault had made him think about his power. Perhaps, if his niece was nearby he could track her by tracking the microwaves. He didn't have much time; he would have to leave the city soon. But he should have a few hours.
Angelica woke to pain. Her head pounded, she felt dizzy and sick to her to stomach. She couldn't move her left arm, it hurt so much.
"She's awake," a voice said. James' voice.
"Hello Angelica," someone else said.
She knew that voice. Empath.
"You took Amara from me," Empath said he as slide the piece of framing wood under Angel's chin and raised her head forcing her to look at him. His handsome face was disfigured by hate. "I tried but no matter what I did, she refused to take me back."
Angel didn't say anything. She hurt too much. James stood nearby. His eyes had that familiar glassy look. She could feel the cold ground and make out the dim shapes of trees. She reached back with her good arm for the beacon.
"Looking for this?" Empath asked scornfully holding up the small device. "Not yours anymore, I'm afraid." He paused. Was he waiting for her to beg, Angel thought, trying to force her mind to think. She shifted slightly to hide her left hand; her head hurt too much raise the power to fly, but perhaps a constant low pulse would be enough to disrupt Empath's control of James.
"She couldn't even bear to look at me," Empath shouted, removing the piece of wood from underneath her chin. She let her head slump down; hopefully, she would be able to keep the pulse hidden. "I wanted to take something from you. Your boyfriend, Justice," Empath sneered. "But things didn't work quite like I planned. You left Justice for a while." He looked over at the James. "So passionate. So jealous of your ability and your relationship with Justice. My mistake was not realizing he was gay. I had to adjust my plans, improved them you could say."
"Don't become what Frost wanted you to be," Angel replied. She just needed a few minutes more. Raising her head, she could see that James' looked less like a zombie.
Empath snorted, raised the wood and brought it down on her injured shoulder. She screamed as her vision turned red for a moment. "Hardly, Angelica." He grabbed her hair and gave her head a yank to prove his point. "Nova Roma was the only time in my life that I was happy. You took that from me!"
"It wasn't yours to lose," she countered, trying to hold on to consciousness for just a bit longer. Empath still had the beacon. Her eyes slid back to James. He looked confused as if he were trying to figure out what was happening. With James free, she could stun Empath and get the beacon.
Empath glared at her, "I wanted you to watch as I destroyed your loved ones, but I'll settle for having you die knowing that I will destroy them by having them destroy each other. Your father, your friends, your Justice."
She wished he would shut up; he didn't sound as grand as he thought.
He shoved her head down to the ground and moved to where James stood. He passed the artist the wood. "She doesn't love him. Kill her now."
James took the bat, but his eyes weren't glassy anymore. He nodded slightly at Angel and swung around, pointing the bat at Empath. Empath cursed and moved to take the bat. Angel pushed herself up and began to crawl forward. She needed James to move so she could get off a clear shot.
"What are you," James began.
He never finished. The intense blast from above came so suddenly that the two men didn't even have time to scream. One second they were alive; the next, nothing but ash and charred bone.
"NO!" she screamed. Despite the pain in her head, she pushed herself on to her knees. Ignoring the sense of vertigo, she flicked on her power.
"Please child, don't embarrass yourself," Stephen said as he landed, sounding uncannily like Frost. "No matter how much I would enjoy a rematch, you are in no condition to fight." He stepped over the remains and reached for her. "I'm in the mood to be nice today. I'll even take to the hospital."
"You didn't have to," she shouted as she tried to stand. She fell as she moved away from him.
"Kill them," he finished as he caught her, picked her up, and took to the air. "I told you. We are either pawns or gods. It is better to kill those who would do kill us." He said something more, but she could not make out the words as she slipped into unconscious again.
"Can we back trace the beacon?" Justice asked Trash.
"Not if it's turned off," Thrash replied as he punched some more computer keys.
"Do you know any place where James could have taken her?" Nova asked, every so often his gaze going to the skylight to see if the others had arrived yet.
Justice shook his head. "I don't know him all that well. He's was just a friend of Angel's. Nice, amusing, that's about it. The others said that they had gone to get some food." He stared at the image of Empath on the computer screen. "And it's not like it would be James' anywhere, not if he's under Empath's control."
"She can take care of herself," Nova replied, trying to sound comforting. "She took out Stephen, and she dealt with Empath before."
Thrash ignored him, and Justice shot him a look.
"It would have to be somewhere out of the way," Thrash mused as he called up a map on the screen.
Bowing his head, Justice nodded in agreement. He shouldn't have left her, he thought. They should have come right here. To take her, James must have knocked her out, and Justice doubted that Empath would allow her to regain consciousness. She was far too dangerous. She could be dead already. If she was . . .
He looked over Thrash's head at the map. "He would want some cover."
Thrash's hands moved across the keyboard, and a couple highlighted places winked out.
Justice's phone rang. "Angel?" he asked as he raised the phone to his ear without even looking at the number.
"Vance, its Scott. Firestar's at Mercy General."
Justice took a breath, "She okay?" Thrash and Nova stopped talking and waited.
"She's unconscious. Has a concussion and busted shoulder. Stephen, of all people, brought her in. He had the staff call us before he left." Scott paused and said something to someone else. "Vance, there's some woman here claiming to be her mother, so the sooner you get here the better."
Stephen watched as Justice entered Mercy General. The boy really should lose the cape, the man thought. He frowned; it seemed his niece was correct about this Justice.
For some reason that fact made him sad and wistful.
He had done his yearly good deed. It was time to leave.
When the elevator doors opened, Justice could see Scott and his people blocking Mrs. Jones and her people. He caught the words, "stupid bitch" from the woman who stood behind Scott.
"Mac," the guardsman said though the reprimand lacked any real force.
"You were thinking it," Mac muttered.
"Where is she?" Justice asked as he came up. Thrash and Nova were going to wait for the others and then going to try to track down Empath. As much as Justice wanted to get into the room and see Angel, from the way Scott sounded on the phone, he knew he would have to deal with this first.
"In the room," Scott replied. "This woman is trying to take her."
"That's not it exactly," Mrs. Jones responded with a great deal of force and nodding a quick hello to Vance. "If Stephen tracked Angel, then she can track him." She turned back to Scott, "Surely you guardsmen want that as much as we do."
"Mac," Scott warned as the woman behind him took a breath. "Yes, we do," he continued. "But I disagree with your methods."
Disliking how easily Mrs. Jones dropped her daughter's name, Justice narrowed his eyes and asked Scott, "Firestar is still unconscious?"
Scott nodded at the same time Mrs. Jones said, "All I want to do is use her to track him. That's it."
"Yeah, cause you did such a good job catching him before," Mac spat. This time Scott let it go.
"My authority supersedes yours," Mrs. Jones said shooting the other woman an angry look. "What you want is of no concern." She gestured to the men behind her. They moved forward.
And were stopped by a telekinetic shield.
Mrs. Jones sighed and looked at Justice, "You of all people must surely understand."
"No," Justice interrupted coldly, "I don't."
"Stephen. . . "
"Is long gone by now," he finished trying to keep his temper under control. "You daughter has a concussion and hasn't regained consciousness, not that you seem to care." Mrs. Jones looked like he had slapped her, but he didn't care. "She's not going anywhere until the doctor says she can," Justice finished.
"I told you. ... "
"I heard you the first time," he interrupted, still keeping the shield up. "You're not taking her."
Mrs. Jones glared at him. "If my authority supersedes the guardsmen," she began.
"But it doesn't supersede mine," another voice said. "Firestar stays."
The speaker was an older African-American woman with a badge clipped onto her belt. Her body language spoke cop. Behind him, Justice felt the guardsman relax a little. "It's okay," Scott said.
"You must be Justice," the woman said coming to stand near the guardsmen. "I'm Lieutenant Smith, pleased to meet you."
"Charlotte," Mrs. Jones began in a reasonable tone of voice.
"Don't start Samantha," Lieutenant Smith interrupted smoothly. "You'll lose. This is a local matter. My jurisdiction. Not even the Avengers could take the case from me. You can stay if you wish. But you have no authority."
Mrs. Jones looked like she was about to argue and then thought better about it. With one last venomous glance, Justice could see the resemblance to Stephen, she and her people left. Justice dropped the shield and moved to the recovery room's door. Finally.
"What a mother," he heard Conrad say. "Doesn't she care about her own daughter?"
"Yes, but she fears Stephen more," Mac replied, "I can hear it in her voice every time she says his name."