So after this long I've finally got the REAL Chapter Three up for you ladies and gents. After a few PMs here and there and a little poll on my profile page, most of you have encouraged me to do either post the chapters as I revisit them, or to do whatever *I* need to do to recover. (For those interested, all eight pairs of my father's sunglasses have been 'missing' for weeks. *evil grin* But, to be fair, ALL of the info on my flash drives wasn't lost, so three pairs of sunglasses are floating around here somewhere for him to find.)
ANYWAY, I've worked on this chapter for a while, and here you go! Not sure when you can't expect the next chapter, but I've been tinkering with that one too so hopefully it won't be as long in coming as this one was. As always, Sunigyrl, you are the bomb dot com!
Enjoy!
Missing
Ruby scrambled back into her daycare building with all the other kids when the teachers called them and hurried over to the craft table, pausing only to glare at another blond girl, Jessica, that pushed in front of her a blew a raspberry at her. Ruby wanted to snap at her, but remembering her mother's scolding the last time she'd gotten into 'a very unlady-like tussle', Ruby settled for tossing her longer, curlier, prettier hair in Jessica's face.
She snatched at Ruby's hair and tugged, causing her to yelp. But the Jessica pretended that nothing had happened when the teachers looked, and Ruby knew that she wouldn't be able to get back at Jessica without getting into trouble. She'd need Kendall's help if she wanted revenge.
Ruby and Kendall didn't like each other very much today, but all their family at the mansion had taught them to always unite against a common enemy. If nothing else, Kendall would help Ruby because she had to, although Ruby was sure that Kendall wouldn't mind. Kendall didn't like Jessica either because she'd said the blue beads on her braids were for boys – and after being told that the blue beads matched her mommy's eyes, Jessica had declared, "Then your mommy must be a boy!"
Kendall had already sat in timeout for ten minutes after she pushed Jessica's face into her food at lunch – Uncle Logan would be proud, since Jessica was the tallest girl in class, and Kendall was the smallest – so Ruby knew Kendall would want to help. And getting into trouble wouldn't be so bad; at least they'd be in trouble together, and Uncle Remy and Uncle Kurt would probably be proud of them if they did a really good prank!
'Giving' Jessica her spot at the craft table, Ruby looked around the classroom but didn't see Kendall. She slowly walked a circle all the way around the room, unable to catch a flash of blue beads. She tried looking with her head like Mommy and Aunt Betsy were teaching her, but none of the other kids heads hummed in that special way that Kendall's did.
But maybe that wasn't the best way to look. Ruby had a hard time looking into other heads unless she was looking right into that person's eyes, so she wouldn't be able to find Kendall that way unless she was looking at her.
"…"
And if she was looking at Kendall, she didn't need to find her because she already had!
Maybe Kendall was being a creep and hiding in the cubby area again, waiting to jump at Ian - that boy she said smelled really good - and drag him inside like that nasty spider-trap-door bug she liked so much. Kendall could be so weird! But maybe that wasn't her fault. Auntie Ororo taught her to like nasty bugs, and Uncle Kurt taught her how to fit in really small spaces and be really quiet until someone comes by. And, now that she thought about it, sometimes Uncle Logan dragged Auntie Ororo away and told her how nice she smelled. Maybe Kendall wanted to be like her mommy and daddy with Ian! Maybe she liked him!
With a crafty smile, Ruby decided she had what Uncle Remy called 'incentive' - Aunt Marie insisted it was 'extortion', though she wasn't sure how two words could mean the same thing - and saved that thought for making Kendall mad later as she approached the cubbies. Careful to stay out of reach in case she was waiting for a victim, Ruby scanned the area with her eyes and her head but still didn't find her sometimes-sister. She moved backpacks, tossed coats, and almost fell when she had to climb to see into the top cubbies.
Kendall wasn't there.
"Hmm," Ruby huffed to herself. Mommy talked out loud when she needed to find an answer, and doing what Mommy did always helped Ruby. "Did she stay outside?"
She went to the window to look out at the playground for Kendall. She'd seen her playing with an icky frog earlier that she'd rescued from some boys, and when Kendall found a new friend she didn't pay attention to much else.
But all those thoughts of recess and revenge on Jessica went away when Ruby saw Kendall outside, and not where she was supposed to be! She wondered if she was wrong, but no one else had those braids and beads! But if it was Kendal, why was she letting those men carry her away? Who were they? Why wasn't she kicking or making any noise or biting like Uncle Logan and Uncle Kurt and Uncle Remy taught them to?
Ruby didn't like that one bit! She opened the window and called out Kendall's name as the men ducked down behind some bushes like they were hiding.
Ruby ran across the room and tugged at Ms. Page's wrist. "Ms. Page! Ms. Page! Come see!"
She was finger painting with some of the other children and didn't turn to Ruby until she'd wiped the paint away. Ruby impatiently pushed at her arm, jumping up and down to make her hurry.
"Not so rough, Ruby," Ms. Page said. "We talked about being polite, didn't we?"
Ruby huffed and waved her hand like she saw Mommy do when something didn't matter. "I saw someone! This many" – she held up two fingers – "and Kenny! Outside!"
"Honey," Ms. Page said slowly, "Kenny came inside."
Ruby shook her head, her curls whipping back and forth. "Nuh-uh! She's outside! I saw!"
Ms. Page got up and let Ruby pull her over to the window. Ruby pointed excitedly to the bushes, but no one was there anymore. "But - !"
"I don't see her outside, Ruby."
"They took her!"
"Ruby, we talked about causing a scene to get attention too, didn't we?"
Ruby gave Ms. Page a look that Mommy gave people when she was mad. She didn't blink once, and suddenly she heard whispering. It sounded like her teacher, but Ms. Page wasn't talking. "… overactive imagination," Ms. Page's voice whispered, like Mommy sometimes did without talking. "Is she sure Kenny isn't just hiding?"
Ruby crossed her arms over her chest, trying to imitate the tone that her Mommy used when she wanted people to listen. "Where is she hiding?" she screamed, stomping her foot.
Ms. Page's eyes got wide and the whispering inside Ruby's head got louder. But before she could hear what she was saying, Ms. Page looked away, and it was quiet in Ruby's head again.
After taking a deep breath, Ms. Page looked around the area that Kendall liked to play in, and after a few moments she frowned, looking concerned. Finally, Ruby thought.
"Everyone," Ms. Page called out, "who saw Kenny come inside?"
"She took our frog!" one boy said, looking mad.
"She hit me," said the boy next to him.
"She said it was a toad," Ian piped up. "And they were gonna step on it!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Ian, did you see her come in?" Ms. Page asked.
"Uh..." He looked away from Ms. Page, and Ruby could tell he didn't want Kendall to be mad for telling on her. But before Ruby could promise that Kendall wouldn't be mad, he spoke. "She was sleeping. Or laying down..."
Sleeping! That's why Kendall didn't fight the strangers; they made her go to sleep!
Ms. Page looked out the window again and left Ruby's side. She was going outside to look, but Ruby knew that Ms. Page wasn't going to find Kendall. Ruby wanted to start crying, but Mommy sometimes told her that crying didn't help anything. So what could she do that would help?
"Mommy," she mumbled as her eyes got misty. But she got an idea and her tears stopped. Her mommy would know what to do! She always knew what to do!
"MOMMY!" Ruby screech at top volume. "I. WANT. MY. MOMMY!"
The last time she had thrown a tantrum and started screaming, they'd called Mommy and she had come to get her right away. If they did the same thing now, maybe her mommy would be fast enough to catch Kendall.
Ruby kept screaming until Ms. Page came back inside and went to the phone to call Mommy, and Ruby shouted over the phone what she'd tried to tell Ms. Page.
A piercing telepathic screech penetrated Betsy's thoughts and she stopped speaking midstream, listening. The source was easily identified - only Emma Frost could scream like that. The reason for that scream, however, was a little more difficult to place.
As soon as Betsy tried to enter the blond's mind she was met with a wall of fury and anxiety that couldn't be penetrated without causing a migraine. She tried merely brushing against the woman's consciousness, trying to get her attention, but didn't receive so much as an irate curse for her troubles; she didn't even seem to notice that Betsy was trying to get her attention. "What the hell is going on," she muttered to herself.
A scream from Emma could mean anything. Drama queen that she was, it could be something as menial as a strand of gray in her immaculate hair... But some strong gut feeling told Betsy that this wasn't some temper tantrum. Emma screamed often enough, but her thoughts hadn't been colored with such blind hysteria since she'd learned of Scott's death.
Emma's mind was flying all over the place, her thoughts were in disarray and Betsy couldn't understand anything that she was thinking. That had never happened before.
"Someone getting into a fight?" one of her students asked.
Betsy shook her head absently, too absorbed to snap at the child for the distraction. "No, but something is wrong."
Betsy tracked the blond all the way from her office to her garage, trying to get something from her. But nothing more could be collected from Emma's mind as she sped off until she was out of range and Betsy lost track of her. "Shit…"
"Something wrong?" a soft voice asked.
She sensed the closeness of the person more than heard it, and before the thought even crossed her mind Betsy's hand lashed back and clamped onto a wrist, ready to throw a body over her shoulder. But her mind had a chance to catch up before her reflexes acted for her and she released the rich boy's wrist. Seemingly unfazed – because he knew she didn't like people standing behind her – he gently rubbed his wrist as he stepped in front of her.
"Is something wrong?" Warren repeated. "I thought I heard you scream."
"Not me. Emma."
The slight tension left his shoulders. "Oh. Nevermind, then."
"I didn't say it was nothing. She…" She let the word trail off, unable to find the right words. She couldn't tell him what was happening, because she didn't know. She hated not knowing what was going on.
Suddenly her vision shifted before her eyes and she was looking at Logan, who was outside with his class. He was tugging at his hair, driven to his knees by something that was going on inside his mind. Betsy could sense that there was a strained telepathic connection between Logan and someone else (most likely Emma), but the connection was broken and the vision ended before Betsy could find out any more.
Betsy blinked and she saw Warren standing in front of her, concern etched all over his features. It was then that she realized he was holding her hand, lightly rubbing the pad of his thumb across the inside of her wrist in a gesture that was probably meant to comfort her. Although, peeking into his mind, she saw that touching her was a comfort to him too. She shivered and snatched her wrist away, hating her body's reaction to such innocent contact. But she didn't have time to snap at him, and she doubted it would do any good anyway. His blue-green eyes didn't waver when she glared at him, but he obligingly didn't reach for her again.
"You saw something?" he asked, correctly assuming that she'd had a vision.
She shook her head, running her hands through her long purple locks of hair. Being unable to see what was happening in another person's mind – especially at a time like this – was a pet peeve of hers. More like a handicap, if she was being honest. It felt like she was going deaf and blind. "This isn't good," she muttered.
"Should we tell someone?" Warren asked softly.
"We may need to tell everyone."
Emma wasn't sure how many traffic laws she broke on her way to the daycare – nor did she give a damn – but what was normally a fifteen to twenty minute drive turned out to be a less than ten.
She stormed right through the doors and zeroed in on Ruby with her telepathy, nearly fainting with relief that she was fine, but also scared out of her mind that Kendall was indeed missing. Her daughter ran right up to her and Emma scooped her up. She pinned the two guilty looking teachers with a paralyzing glare as she rooted around their minds for details. The second she'd heard the words, "One of the children may have been taken," accompanied by Ruby's frantic screaming, she'd hung up the phone and high tailed it to the daycare in hopes that she might discover that Kendall had just climbed over the fence and up a tree again.
But Ruby's screaming had been adamant and truly frantic, and Emma would trust Ruby before she contemplated what the negligent teachers had to say. And the fact that Emma didn't feel Kendall's mind anywhere nearby…
The Page woman seemed to know the most – which was, in truth, very little. In fact, the little that she knew had been told to her by Ruby. If not for her, it might've been hours before these dumbasses had figured out that Kendall was gone!
Giving the teachers a withering glare and promising that she wasn't close to done with them, Emma turned her attention to Ruby and focused on her memories. Horror made her chest painfully tight as she carefully replayed the memories half a dozen times to assure herself of what Ruby had seen. Oh, Kendall!
Without a word, she went over to the back door and nearly ripped it off its hinges in her haste to get out to the little playground. She focused on the bushes that Ruby had seen the men with Kendall hide behind, and looked out over the playground, scanning furiously for something, anything. A cut in the fence, a candy wrapper, a bit of rope…
And then she saw it. Underneath one of the slides was what looked like a small tranquilizer needle. She didn't dare touch it, for fear of messing with the scent that might be on it. She wanted nothing to disturb Logan's senses when he got here. Nor, she had to admit, did she want Logan to tear her head off in the event that his rage got aimed at her if he smelled her on it. The X-Men had often wondered if her diamond coated skin was strong enough to withstand the full force of his adamantium claws, but she wasn't eager to find out today.
In her haste and panic to get to the daycare, she'd completely forgotten to call out to him or Ororo telepathically to let them know what was happening. Though both were perceptive to psychic activity and one could even read thoughts when necessary, Emma doubted that they'd felt or heard her terrified shriek before she'd departed.
She knew from experience that neither carried a cell phone with them when they were teaching, and time was too short for her to risk Ororo possibly ignoring a phone call to her classroom if she thought it was unimportant.
Emma carefully set Ruby on the ground and expanded her powers all the way back to the mansion. She'd never stretched that far before, but her fear and adrenaline as well as the necessity to contact them at all costs fueled her strength. The static around Ororo's mind would be difficult to penetrate, and Emma didn't think she was up for that as well as the painful mental connection she was about to force.
As soon as Emma felt the whisper of Logan's mind, she used all of her might to let out a telepathic screech that could likely shatter glass.
"Not quite," Logan told Hisako Ichiki, twisting her hand by only a few degrees.
She gave him a skeptical look. "How would I survive without your help?" she asked, chuckling and rolling her eyes.
"Laugh it up," Logan encouraged as he walked down the line and observed everyone's stance carefully. "Details like that are the difference between breaking someone's jaw with your hand or breaking your hand on their jaw."
"Won't break my hand," Hisako said haughtily, using her power to project a large, nearly translucent, glowing robotic fist around her actual fist. It was always kind of cool when she did that, but it was truly impressive when she had the psionic body armor cover her entirely!
"Is that why some people can chop through wood planks and cinder blocks with their bare hands so easily?" Danielle Moonstar asked.
Logan nodded as he paused to correct her foot placement before moving on. "Exactly. Offensive fighting isn't always about strength and agility."
Kitty snorted from the other end of the line where she too was correcting stances. "So sayeth Mr. Strength himself," she muttered loud enough for the class to hear. A few tried in vain to hide their chuckles, while a few of the braver students made no such attempt.
Logan turned to her with his famous raised brow. "Mr. Agility would concur, as I'm sure you know," he said, noting her slight blush with satisfaction. The students didn't bother hiding their snickering this time.
"If all Kurt and I had to rely on was muscle and speed, I guarantee we wouldn't be as good at combat as we are." Logan lectured. "There's always going to be someone out there that's stronger or faster; that I can absolutely guarantee. You have to think to win. Cement, wood, bone... Everything has a shatter-point, and if you know exactly where to hit to do a good amount of damage and exert very little energy – "
"LOGAN! ! !"
The sound pierced into his mind with so much force that it drove him to his knees. He clutched his hair as pain and terror drilled into him without mercy. A multitude of images rushed at him, but he didn't know what he was looking at until he caught a fuzzy image of two men in overalls walking side by side. One of them was carrying something in his arms. Logan couldn't make out what it was and the image disappeared, only to be started over again from the beginning.
The pain was still intense, but he tried his best to focus on the images that were apparently so important. A window, some bushes, a slide, a needle, Ruby… He saw the image of the two men again and focused all of his attention on what was in the man's arms, sure that it was important. It only took a few moments for him to realize that it wasn't a something, but rather a someone. One more instant and suddenly he caught a flash of very familiar braids.
A hand lightly touched his shoulder and the images disappeared. Wolverine turned his head to face the female that had dared touch him and snarled like a wild animal. Her sudden shock and fear was apparent, but she wasn't his target. He tore off in the direction of the garage, seeing nothing but blurs of red.
Kitty stood in the yard, frozen to the spot, dumbfounded and watching after Logan for a good minute before she snapped out of it. Something was wrong, though hell if she knew what. One minute he was fine and talking, the next he was on his knees, clutching his head and shouting about images, the next he was ready to take her head off. And his eyes…
Kitty had heard that Logan sometimes got in touch with the rage inside him and let it loose, but she'd never thought that it was anything more than aiming it. Heightening his senses and increasing his stamina or something like that.
Wrong.
What she'd seen in his eyes was much more than that, something animal. Something feral, downright primal. His eyes had been dilated, so much that all that was left of his usually liquid amber eyes was just a thin brown rim outside pupils as black and infinite as hell itself. Wolverine's eyes. In that moment that their eyes had been locked and Wolverine clearly hadn't recognized her, Kitty had been screaming inside. She knew from horrifying experience that adamantium was too dense for her to phase through, and she wasn't sure what she would've done if he had attacked her in his blind rage.
Perhaps that's what she got for touching him. As soon as she'd seen that something was wrong with him, she should've gone to get Ororo, as it was fairly obvious that the weather witch was the only one that knew how to handle Logan when moments like these popped up, few though they were.
But none of that answered the question of what the hell was going on!
"Everyone get inside," she commanded, proud that her tone didn't waver. "To your rooms, right now."
The class was instantly on alert, and while some of the students began to make their way to the mansion without question, a few young fools stubbornly held their ground, waiting first for information so they could judge the danger they may or may not be in. I used to be one of those young fools, she reminded herself so she wouldn't snap at them.
"What's going on?" Doug Ramsey asked, frowning at her.
"Something's wrong. Don't know what." She turned to the students who had yet to move and used a tone that others' rarely heard. "It wasn't a request. Everyone. Inside. Now!"
She may have been only a few years older than them, but she was an X-Man, and they respected her authority. They hesitantly went inside after the others and she followed behind, pausing when a very intense looking Betsy appeared in front of her. "I take it he's already gone," the Asian said, frowning.
Kitty nodded. "He left just a minute ago. Didn't say where."
"Something is going on, but I couldn't get a read on his mind or Emma's," she informed the younger woman, her mouth twisted in a depreciating grimace. "He's the second one to run off like that in less than half an hour."
"It must be something serious if both of them left, huh?"
"I think Emma called for him."
Warren came up behind Betsy, a worried frown marring his Hollywood features. "Why would she do it like that when anyone else would've picked up the phone?"
"Because whatever is wrong couldn't wait that long," Betsy answered tensely, gliding past Kitty and down the hall with a determined expression. "Ororo is going to leave in a similar fit after you talk to her, Kitty, and after she leaves I want you and Warren to put all the teachers on alert and get all the students to their rooms. I think I know where Logan and Ororo will be going, and Emma will need my help before she does something stupid to get home."
And with that vague and convoluted explanation, Betsy was out of sight. Kitty wisely pretended not to notice the effort it took Warren not to follow her, nor the way his feathers puffed in indignation at the order to stay behind.
She brushed past him hurriedly and made her way to Ororo's classroom, sparing only a moment to wonder if she would've gone in that direction if Betsy hadn't mentioned Ororo.
Yes, Kitty decided. She hadn't really been thinking about it, but she was sure that her feet would've carried her in that direction. If anybody would know anything about Logan's strange behavior, it would be Ororo.
Emma had spent herself calling out to Logan, and honestly didn't think that she could do it again to call Ororo without passing out. She was already feeling a little dizzy from maintaining that connection for such a long time, and the pain he'd felt was the pain she was experiencing from stretching her powers so far. She'd nearly screamed in frustration when Logan hadn't caught it the first time, but the images had been blurred by the distance between them. The third time around he'd seemingly realized what he was looking at, and the instant she'd felt that white hot fury that only Wolverine possessed, she'd pulled back. But instead of leaving, she stayed right where she was to make sure that no one disturbed any potential evidence.
If those incompetent teachers had called the police, then they'd want to poke around at any and everything. And she'd be happy to let them do that to their heart's content…
… just as soon as Logan was done with whatever he needed to do. It was his daughter, after all, and his nose was better than any bloodhound or tracking dog, his mind sharper than New York's best detectives.
If it'd taken Emma a little less than ten minutes to get there, then Logan must've made the trip in about five. He didn't bother going through the building, which she was thankful for when he pushed his claws out of his fists and tore a hole in the fence to get into the playground. In his current frame of mind, he was focused only on finding Kendall. He wouldn't give a damn if he'd scared all of the children inside. Had it been Ruby that was missing, she wouldn't've cared either.
Her vision fading by the second, Emma pointed in the general direction of the needle and muttered, "Under the slide." She stepped back wordlessly, leaning heavily against a portion of the fence and kept up the appearance of someone who was on full alert. If she'd thought she was dizzy right after breaking the connection with Logan, what she felt at the moment gave new meaning to the word. Everything felt like it was spinning, and Emma would've sworn in that instant that she weighed no more than fifteen pounds. She stayed standing because she truly feared that she wouldn't be able to get back up if she sat, and she kept tabs on Ruby's mind to keep herself focused on staying upright.
Logan's loud and erratic thoughts did little to help the room-is-spinning sensation. Though she could barely see his fuzzy form with her eyes, she could see and hear him in her mind. He'd gone right to the needle and had paused before he picked it up, trembling from rage so great that it was a wonder he didn't erupt. His mind was a hurricane of red, so powerful that Emma didn't dare enter it for fear of being more overwhelmed than she already was.
She'd seriously underestimated the toll that a mental connection from such a distance would take on her, but she couldn't bring herself to regret it. She only hoped that her quick thinking had bought Logan enough time to possibly catch up to Kendall and whoever had taken her
"Mommy, wha – "
"Shh," Emma commanded. The outline of her daughter was a little less fuzzy, but Emma didn't dare focus her vision for fear of anyone seeing or sensing her weakened state. She sensed Ruby with her mind and gently covered her daughter's mouth. She was too exhausted to even think about picking Ruby up, but she held her body pressed close to her leg as though she might be ripped out of Emma's grasp as easily as Kendall had been taken. "Uncle Logan needs you to be quiet right now, Ruby," she told her daughter telepathically.
Ruby looked up at Emma with a worried expression. What is he doing, she asked. Is he gonna bring Kenny home?
"Of course he is," she told Ruby, raking her nails through the child's curls in an attempt to soothe her. "Safe and sound. She'll be back before you know it."
He's probably the only one that can find her.
That last thought Emma kept to herself as she continued to watch Logan with her mind and through her daughter's eyes.