Chapter 20
New York...
A rather bedraggled looking woman in her early 20s with auburn hair, light skin and large blue eyes emerges from her bedroom. She is dressed in a large fluffy yellow and black night robe with novelty wasp slippers on her feet as she shuffles across her penthouse apartment towards the incessant knocking on her door.
"God I'm going to give that security guard a piece of my mind," she grumbles because she left instruction at the main door that she wasn't to be disturbed this morning. She had a very late night trying to sell her wears. She is a top-notch fashion designer after all. A great one hence why she lives in a penthouse apartment in the really expensive part of New York.
She gets to her door, opens it and spies a man with grey hair and an eye-patch. "No," she says and then moves to slam the door shut in his face.
The man jams his foot in the way to prevent her shutting the door. "Is this the way you greet all your guests Janet?" he queries with a wry tone.
Janet Van Dyne rolls her eyes. "Only you Fury...and the answer is still no."
"Is that you speaking...or Hank?"
Truthfully it's Hank speaking. Janet hadn't quite got around to changing his mind yet. Seeing as she is too tired to try and force Fury out she relents and opens the door again. "What do you want?"
"You know what I want," Fury replies since he has asked her this before. He's back to get her to change her mind and agree this time.
"Yes. Yes. To join your 'Avengers Initiative'."
"The world's changing Janet. The reveal of mutants should be evidence enough. We have supervillains popping up everywhere and there needs to be a team to deal with it. A team to counter the threats that no single individual can handle alone," Fury makes his pitch.
"And you think Hank and I can do this?"
"Why not?" Fury asks her back. "Otherwise what is the point of the powers Hank gave himself and you?"
Janet rubs her face. "I'm too hungover for this," she complains.
"No change there then."
Janet frowns. She knows that voice. She looks up to behind Fury where there is a tall, athletic blond woman with blue eyes, the same age as Janet herself, with her, what would be shoulder length, hair tied in a pony tail, dressed in the typical dark blue SHIELD uniform. Janet's eyes light up in surprise. "Carol?"
Carol Danvers smiles at seeing her college room-mate again. "Hi Janet."
"Oh my God! Carol!" Janet cries in excitement as she pushes past Fury and hugs her old friend. Janet then pulls back and looks Carol over. "What are you wearing?" she asks, making a face and wrinkling her nose a little in distaste. "You know that uniform does nothing for you," she gives her assessment.
"That your professional opinion Jan?"
"Yep...and even that will cost you $500. You'll be getting billed for my consultation first thing tomorrow Fury," Janet teases.
"File it with the accountants," Fury dead-pans.
"You actually work for this kill-joy?" Janet asks Carol, jerking her thumb in Fury's direction.
"Fraid so."
"But I thought you wanted to be a pilot in the air-force?" Janet asks in confusion.
"I did. Qualified top of my class," Carol says proudly.
"And then I recruited her the day after," Fury fills in.
"You accepted?" Janet asks, still puzzled by her friend's thinking. Carol was so excited at the idea of joining the air-force. Carol loves flying. Why would she give that up for SHIELD?
"I believed I could serve my country better by joining SHIELD."
Janet arches a sceptical looking eyebrow. That's a very easy answer to give about serving one's country and while Carol does truly believe in doing that Janet won't be taking that reply at face value. There has to be a better reason than that why Carol left her dream to be an air-force pilot for SHIELD.
"Where's Hank?" Fury asks, in reference to who else he is here to see.
"What's the time?" Janet asks.
Carol checks her watch. "11.37."
"Wow that's early!" Janet complains in her usual jovial manner.
Carol rolls her eyes. Janet never changes.
"Where's Pym?" Fury asks, a little more sternly, his patience running out.
"Where he always is. Down in his lab," Janet assumes.
"Hank! Guests!" Janet yells, some 20 minutes later after she had had her caffeine fix, gotten dressed and led Fury and Carol down from her apartment to the lab Hank has in the lower levels of the building.
Bent over a microscope is a tall, lean man with blond hair dressed in a typical white scientist's coat over his more regular clothes. "I know," Dr Henry Pym replies, without looking up.
"How do you know that?" Janet wonders.
"The ants told me."
"Of course they did," Janet says with a sad sigh that those ants of his get more of a conversation from Hank than she generally does. She gestures for Fury to take the lead. "Be my guest."
Fury steps forward. "How's it going Pym?"
"My answer is still no."
"You haven't even heard my question," Fury argues.
"It's always the same. You want weapons. You won't get them from me. Go talk to Tony Stark," Hank tells Fury bluntly and borderline rudely.
"I want to make the world a safer place," Fury states.
Hank finally straightens up and turns round to look Fury in the eye. "You want a team of superpowered thugs to do your dirty work, beat up criminals so that they can then be locked up and the key thrown away," he gives his downbeat assessment of what Fury is up to. "Criminals don't need prison. They need rehabilitation. Those altered in some way need cures," he argues.
"That's a funny little world you live in there Hank," Carol says.
"Nice to see you again Carol...or it would be if you weren't wearing that uniform," Hank modifies his greeting, his displeasure all too evident at seeing Jan's friend as a SHIELD agent.
Carol rolls her eyes. Hank never changes either. Always the idealist and pacifist. "One day Hank you'll have to see the world as it actually is. So you go ahead and talk to your ants. SHIELD will be making sure there's still a world for them to live in," she states in a cold, harsh tone.
Fury raises his hand to stop Danvers. "Listen Pym you want to make a better world? You think you can do it in this lab then go right ahead and stay here but let me make one thing clear. I'm going to create a team to ensure world security...to take down threats no individual alone can. Now you can be a member of that team and influence its direction or not and leave it to others to decide the direction. The choice is yours."
"Hank," Janet pleads with him not to dismiss it out of hand. Personally she thinks it would be cool to be part of a superhero team, beating up bad guys, taking names, kicking ass.
Hank looks at Janet and can see the expression on her face. He sighs. He could never say no to her really. "I'll think about it," he submits.
Janet's face lights up. That means she can twist his arm into agreeing if given a few days.
"You know where to reach me," Fury says. "But really think about it," he requests of them. "Ant-Man and Wasp; Avengers."
"Ooh catchy," Janet says with enthusiasm, her eyes wide and gleaming with excitement as she imagines it.
Hank clamps his hand over his eyes and shakes his head. He can see Janet is all for this. He still harbours serious reservations.
Fury and Danvers depart...after Janet gets Carol to promise that they will spend some quality 'Girl Time' together soon.
"You do realise he only brought Carol along as a lure right?" Hank points out to Janet.
"How stupid do I look Hank?" Janet asks him back. "Of course I knew that...but he has a point. You can't say he doesn't. I mean look at mutants," she says using Fury's argument.
"I wish. I find them fascinating," he replies, with that scientific curiosity glint in his eye.
"Fury, Hank," Janet tries to get him back on track.
"I'll think about it Jan. That's all I promise. I still don't see how it's a good idea."
"But?" Janet prompts wanting to hear him say it.
"But...if we join, I suppose, I could contribute a few good ideas and input some much needed sanity to this whole Avengers proposal."
"See. That's just what I was thinking."
"I'll think on it Janet. Can you at least give me a few days to do that?"
"Sure Hank," Janet smiles sweetly, hiding her smile of triumph because she's won. She knows she's won. After all she always gets her way in the end.
Elsewhere...
Clark groans as he wakes up. God what was that they did to him? He shakes his head and opens his eyes to find himself in what looks like a warehouse. Clark looks up to see his hands chained above his head to a vertical wooden support...and for some reason while he was out his jacket and t-shirt have been removed to leave his shirtless.
Clark tries to break the chains only to find, to his surprise, he can't. In fact he doesn't feel right at all. He still aches all over and if the pain in his shoulders is any indication he has been strung up here for awhile. Clark hasn't felt like this since...since Jor-El suppressed his powers.
Clark thinks and can remember being pinned to the floor by the 3 girls and then this great pain...not unlike what he felt when Parasite drained his powers.
Somehow they must have done something similar and removed them which means he isn't breaking these chains by brute force. Even, as he is, stronger than a human, without his powers, these chains aren't going to give way. He'll have to try and wriggle his hands free.
To his left, chained up like Clark, to the neighbouring wooden support, he spots Lex, stripped to the waist like Clark is. Clark briefly looks around for any sign of the 3 girls but doesn't spot them. Seems unlikely they would leave him and Lex alone for long if they went through the effort of stringing them up like this.
"Lex," Clark says in a loud whisper, hoping to wake up his friend. Nothing.
"That won't work. He's under a spell."
Clark's head snaps round as Lana, Wanda and Rogue appear into his field of vision. "Spell?" he queries with a puzzled frown.
"And so were you suppose to be," Isobel continues as she walks right up to Clark, looks into his blue eyes and seems to study him. "But it seems your strength of will is greater than I gave you credit for," she gives a reluctant compliment. She then snaps her fingers. "Wake up Alexander!" she commands and Lex starts to stir.
"Who are you?" Clark asks, because this isn't Lana. Not even Lana under some form of mind control. He looks into her eyes and sees a complete stranger.
Isobel smiles. "Ah not the dumb farmboy this vessel thinks you are."
"Vessel?"
"Since I wish for us to get along as best we can I'll skip straight to the introductions shall I." A large smirk then forms on her face at what she is about to do. "You are Clark Kent."
Clark's face instantly turns grim and he gazes at Lex who, to his credit, is schooling his expression well.
Isobel looks at Lex. "What do you think of that Alexander? All those years you looked into Clark Kent and it turns out he's a superpowered hero. Although personally I find the name Superman a little egotistical."
"I didn't come up with it," Clark has to say in his defence, his voice now gravely serious sounding, although he agrees about the name.
"If you say so," Isobel remarks, sounding like she doesn't really care. "Nothing to say Alexander?"
"Who are you really?" Lex asks, putting off any discussion about Clark until they aren't strung up like 2 pieces of meat on show but now he gets it. He finally gets the great secret of Clark Kent. The one Clark felt he so desperately needed to hide from him. Lex thinks he is actually hurt about Clark's lack of trust in him.
Isobel rolls her eyes, bored looking. "Very well. If we must get to it. I am the Countess Margaret Isobel Thoreaux. Born in France in the year of Our Lord 1574. Burned at the stake as a witch in the year of Our Lord 1604."
"Which won't be happening again right? Because that was not pleasant," Madeleine complains.
"You just won't let that go will you?" Isobel complains back at having heard this many times already today. She waves off her companion and returns to her story. "Just before my end I managed to speak one last curse to magically bind my spirit to this world until someone of my bloodline touched my tomb and behold the result," she says, as she gestures at herself.
Isobel pulls a hand-held mirror out of nowhere and looks at her reflection. "I must say the resemblance is remarkable. This body was given a form nearly identical to my own to be my vessel. This is not a coincidence. This is destiny. I was suppose to be reborn in this time to complete my quest."
"You're...possessing Lana?" Clark asks, his brow furrowed at how strange this is all starting to sound.
"That's a good a term as any," Isobel concedes as the mirror she materialised vanishes back into nothing.
If Lex accepts that possession premise for one moment he has a question. "Lana is your descendant?"
"Lana's ancestors come from France," Clark states which earns him a questioning look from Lex. "We did this family tree project for school," Clark explains how he knows that.
Isobel looks a little thoughtful for a moment. Almost wistful. "Contraception like today didn't exist back then. There were bastards I birthed but I was not cruel to them. I left them in care of others and no doubt they had children who had children and so on and so forth until Lana Lang was born."
"You actually expect us to believe this?" Lex asks scornfully. Magic. Witches. Ghostly possessions. He's not that stupid.
Isobel chortles amused. "What you believe or not is unimportant Alexander. You can concoct whatever explanation you wish for how I have defeated you. You are here only for my amusement. The only important person here is Clark. After all would I have gone through so much effort otherwise to lure him out."
"What do you want from me?" Clark asks.
"The stones of power."
"Don't know what you mean," is Clark's instant reply.
Isobel smiles not in the least surprised that would be the response. "Oh you know what I refer to Clark. You've touched one. I could smell its power when I ripped yours from your body and you will tell me where it is," she vows.
Madeleine strides up to Clark. "And if you don't we'll cut it out of you," she vows, sounding enthralled at the prospect, before she digs her nails in to the right side of Clark's chest and rakes them down cutting into his skin, making him bleed.
Clark grits his teeth at the pain.
"Madeleine. Enough," Isobel commands, with a grave expression, clearly unhappy that Madeleine did that when it wasn't necessary. Not yet anyway.
Madeleine's expression sours. Isobel never lets her have fun.
"She's just like my father," Madeleine's host expresses her opinion on who Isobel reminds her of from the prison within her own mind.
"Silence! I have nothing nothing to say to you!" Madeleine snaps back.
"Why should I. It's my body you've taken over and you'll find I'll never stop fighting you you 400 year old tramp!" Wanda promises, her fury all too palpable an emotion at having her body hijacked and her powers used to hurt her friends.
Madeleine tries to ignore her host's irritating struggles as best she can.
Isobel sighs at Madeleine's behaviour. She would have thought Madeleine would have learned by now that pain was like a scalpel to be used selectively. Isobel rubs her head. "Where was I?" she asks before she recalls. "Oh yes. The stones. Let me tell you a story of a 18 year old witch in training. Of her teacher, the Duchess Gertrude, who saw that her prized pupil had the raw magical talent to do what she couldn't and find 3 mythical stones capable of granting ultimate power."
"You're the pupil obviously," Lex assumes.
"Indeed," Isobel confirms for him. "It was a long, difficult quest in a time when you couldn't just hop on a plane and be anywhere in the world in hours. Even teleportation through witchcraft has its limitations when you don't know where or what you might be teleporting into. During this quest I picked up 2 sister witches with whom to share my dream; Madeleine Hibbins and Brianna Withridge. Together we decided that Gertrude's vision for what use to put the stones was too...limiting."
Lex chuckles a little as he guesses what happened next. "You betrayed your own teacher."
"She had a small mind and small ambitions!" Isobel insults her former teacher and justifies her actions.
"And terrible dress sense," Brianna adds.
"And absolutely no sense of humour," Madeleine too adds in to the criticisms.
"However she had knowledge enough of my magics to know how to bind them," Isobel moves the story on. "She stole my spell book and rendered the 3 of us powerless. Gertrude then whipped up the locals into such a frenzy we were hunted down, tried...if you want to call it a trial and burned to death."
"Which isn't pleasant I can assure you," Madeleine says again, repeating her complaint, with a glare at Isobel who she blames for how they met their end.
Isobel rolls her eyes again. That's all she gets. Complain. Complain. Complain. She brought them back from the dead. You think that would get her credit but no. Madeleine just keeps going on and on about being burned at the stake.
Isobel takes a breath. "Lets take a jump shall we. To the summer just past. Lana Lang is in Paris when she bumps into someone..."
Flashback...
Lana stands on a bridge, over the Seine, near Notre Dame Cathedral, leaning on the railing and sighs. She had been excited about coming here and learning design at the exclusive school but a month in and the homesickness has kicked in with a vengeance. She missed Lex. She missed Chloe...only she probably wouldn't miss Chloe's cousin, whom her friend had told her was visiting Smallville, if even half of what Chloe has said about Lois Lane is true. Lois Lane sounds like a handful.
'Where's a blue-eyed farmboy when you need him?'
Lana's eyes widen as she realises what she just thought. Good god she can't possibly be wishing Clark was here. She isn't that hung up on him. He dumped her. He lied and kept secrets. She has Lex.
Clark is just the obnoxious jerk who rejected her.
Only he's not a jerk. Not really.
Lana sighs some more before groaning. Damn Clark Kent for being too nice. It makes it harder not to like him. She drops her head into her hands.
"Vouz allez bien?" someone asks her.
Lana speaks passable French and knows she is being asked if she is alright but the accent was American.
Lana turns her head to gaze upon a young man, with blond hair looking at her with gentle concern. He was quite handsome really. "I'm American and I'm fine. Thank you for asking," she says.
The man smiles and Lana finds herself smiling back. "Lana Lang," she introduces herself as she holds out her hand.
The man takes her hand gently and introduces himself back. "Jason Teague."
The present...
'Teague?' Clark thinks to himself. Clark knows that surname. They were part of the Veritas group the Professor told him about. Normally he might think that a coincidence. For some reason on this occasion he doubts it.
Isobel turns to Lex. "But of course you knew all about who Lana met didn't you Alexander. You had her watched constantly. Couldn't let her out of your metaphorical sight could you. Your flaw Alexander is that you're a man who has an intrinsic need to control everything and everyone around you. That flaw will lead to your downfall by the way...or it would if you were going to live past today," Isobel says with a dark smile.
Isobel turns back to Clark. "Now where were we? Oh yes. Jason. Being lonely as she was Lana sparked up a friendship with Jason. She even developed a little bit of a crush on him," she informs the two captive men, while she glances at Lex with a sly grin, wondering how he, as Lana's boyfriend, is taking the news that her affections were straying.
Isobel continues, "Jason told Lana how he was in Paris researching the family history. Looking into his ancestors. Particularly one Duchess Gertrude."
Both Clark and Lex frown simultaneously.
"Coincidence?" Isobel asks the obvious question. "No. Destiny," she tells them what it is. "Lets bring this story to the crucial moment. One day, a few weeks after they first met, Lana accompanied Jason to the church where he supposedly managed to track down where my remains were interned."
"How did you get interned in a church?" Lex asks her, interrupting her story. "Witches were tossed into unmarked graves so that their souls would be condemned nameless."
"Quite correct Alexander," Isobel congratulates him. "However interrupt me again and you will get to experience first hand what being burned alive feels like," she warns him. "The answer to your question should be obvious of course," she says with an insulting air as if Lex and Clark are stupid for not seeing the reasons which she then goes on to explain.
"The Duchess had me secretly interred in the church where my remains would be kept safe and then the story of my one day return was passed down the Gertrude family line along with the stories of the stones. They have waited for 400 years for my return all because of their singular greed and lust for power never waned. Their descendants thought I could restore to them the power and wealth that they had squandered over the centuries. Thought I could finally find the stones they have spent 4 centuries failing to locate themselves."
A truly disturbing grin appears on Isobel's face. "They had no true comprehension of who they were dealing with."
"Jason never tracked down your remains. He knew they were there and led Lana to them," Clark surmises.
"Ah. So you are brighter than Lana's memories of you make you appear," Isobel remarks. "True enough," she confirms that Clark is correct. "However this was where he made his biggest mistake. He thought it was just part of winning Lana over, preparing her for the truth of her ancestry so she could be used in the Teagues' schemes. To be fair to them they were not as foolish as their predecessors...I'll explain what I mean later in my tale," she adds as an aside as she wishes to get to the crux of this. "Jason, however, did not realise what would happen by bringing Lana to my tomb..."
Flashback...
Jason had left Lana after he got a phone call. While he dealt with this he had asked her to make a rubbing of the etchings marked into the surface of the stone that covers the grave of the Countess Thoreaux. While not a direct ancestor Jason had told Lana of the story of how his ancestors had the Countess burned as a witch only to feel such guilt afterwards they had her interned in this church.
Lana had come to really enjoy Jason's company and was only too happy to do this favour for him. Lana places the tracing paper on top of the slab of stone and starts rubbing with a piece of charcoal and the very faint image, difficult to see on the stone, appears in clearer, sharper detail. It is a stylised image of a woman, no doubt the Countess herself.
Lana works her way down until she is just above what would be the hips when her brow furrows as a symbol appears in her rubbing. Two parallel lines, curved at the end with a small circle sitting on the middle of each line and a black spot at either end. She has seen writing like this. In Smallville. In the caves.
Lana lifts the paper up and looks at the stone beneath. The symbol's not there. She places the paper back down where the symbol is as clear as day.
How?
How can the symbol be on the rubbing but not on the stonework?
It didn't make sense.
Lana reaches out with her hand and touches the mark. It suddenly glows with a purple energy. Lana gasps as the energy enthuses her. Her eyes, if they could be seen, flash with the same purple energy.
Then a sudden still calmness comes over her. She looks down at her hands, which then reach up to her face as if feeling it over. She reaches into her purse and pulls out a compact mirror and looks at herself. A delighted smile comes to her lips. "This will do," she says, with a strong French accent.
"Lana!"
Lana takes a moment to grab her rubbing, scrunch it up in a ball and shove it in her purse, before she responds. "Yes Jason?" she calls out in a sweet tone in her normal accent as he walks over to her.
"Sorry about that," Jason apologises for the phone call. "Where's the rubbing?" he asks.
"Oh it didn't turn out well. I was just going to start over," she explains.
"Maybe we could do that another day. That was my mother on the phone. She's coming into town to visit and I need to go meet her at the airport," he says.
Lana smiles with an understanding, sympathetic look. "Of course you do."
Jason helps Lana up to her feet and then notices her looking around strangely. "You alright?"
Lana looks at him with a gleam in her eyes as if she is starting life over anew. "Never been better," she assures him.
Jason leads Lana out of the church. "So I was thinking that maybe...if it's ok with you...that you could meet my mother. Maybe we could go have dinner together."
"Sounds delightful. I feel like I haven't eaten in centuries!" she declares with a haughty laugh.
The present...
"And from that day to this I have been in charge of this body," Isobel finishes this part of her story.
"And Lana? You said she was asleep?" Lex asks.
"I ascribed terms you could understand. She is completely unaware of what is happening. Her conscious mind is asleep."
Madeleine wishes her host's mind was asleep...but for some reason it wasn't, forcing her to deal with its incessant resistance to her control.
Isobel continues, "However I can access Lana's memories which is what allowed me to fool you all. Of course accessing her memories is what made me realise Clark's connection to the stones."
"What do you mean?" Clark asks.
"The symbols recorded to be etched into the stones match those in the caves in Smallville and from Lana's memories I could see how so many odd things happened there and how Clark Kent always seemed to be there in the middle of it. Lana couldn't see the connection but I can. It's not a coincidence. It never was and the second I was in your presence yesterday and sensed your power I knew I was right. You Clark Kent are the key I need to finish my quest. For I to gain possession of the stones. This is why I was returned at this time because you are here and through you I will gain the ultimate power."
Clark cocks his head slightly. "Don't you mean we?"
"What?"
"I. You said I to gain possession, I will gain ultimate power but don't you mean we as in the 3 of you."
Lex secretly has to admire Clark's observations there because he nailed it. The term would be a Freudian slip showing Isobel's true intents to take this power solely for herself.
Isobel finds her two fellow witches looking at her. "What? It was a slip of the tongue. That's all!" she insists.
"Sure it was," Wanda's voice drawls sarcastically inside her own head.
"I told you to be quiet!" Madeleine snaps back.
"I told you. Just like my father. He goes around claiming to do stuff for all of mutantkind when it is all about himself. She's just the same. You wait and see. As soon as she doesn't need you any more she'll be rid of you and take these stones for herself."
No. Madeleine can't believe that. After all they suffered together...except that whole thing was Isobel's fault in the first place for misjudging the Duchess.
"The Duchess whom she betrayed without a shred of remorse I'm betting. What makes you think she would care for you more than she cared for her own teacher," Wanda argues.
Madeleine looks at Isobel. What would make her think that? Isobel has betrayed many more than just the Duchess on her path. Hell Isobel betrayed her own mother without as much as a shred of regret. Saying that Isobel hated her mother for very good reasons so that's probably excusable.
Madeleine's gaze turns to Brianna who seems to be staring off into the distance again. She subtly kicks her and Brianna seems to snap back to the here and now.
"What went wrong?" Clark suddenly asks Isobel.
The question seems to catch her out. "What?"
"What went wrong?" Clark repeats. "Since you went through all this effort of catching me when you obviously cast a...spell..." That word sounds wrong coming from his lips. "...that affected us all at the mansion, and I'm guessing is to blame for the memory loss, you could have already had me easily so what went wrong?"
Lex can see Clark's point. Isobel could have had them during the period they were intoxicated and vulnerable.
Isobel looks visibly flustered at being seen through. "I'll admit this was not my original plan," she confesses. "My original plan was to use the person closest to you, Clark Kent, as a vessel for one of my sisters. My assumption would be that your girlfriend would know your secrets including information about the whereabouts of the stones and that by possessing her I would gain access to that knowledge."
"Didn't work out as planned," Lex assumes.
"Nope," Brianna answers, suddenly feeling like she has been left out of this conversation for too long. Besides she needs a distraction from all that incessant chatter she can hear. "I couldn't find what we sought but on the plus side at least I got this body out of the deal," she chimes with happiness as her hands feel over herself in a blatantly sexual manner. "I'm gorgeous!" she declares. Her hands then cup her breasts and push them together and up, emphasising Rogue's already generous curves. "I mean just look at these!"
Clark has. On many occasions and more than just looked. 'So not the time Kent,' he mentally berates himself.
Isobel rolls her eyes. "Yes those are...nice," she humours her fellow witch.
"Didn't work out as planned," Lex repeats, staring at Isobel, pretending that little scene never happened.
Isobel looks uncomfortable at admitting her failure. "I underestimated how strong willed she was. Unlike Lana Clark's little girlfriend refused to be subdued as easily. She has been able to keep the important memories hidden from Brianna," she explains with more clarity what Brianna was meaning. "The same is true for the other one."
That could explain how they seemed surprised by what Clark could do when they fought and why they were so ill-prepared to fight him...yet they still won. Clark thinks he may need to practice in the Danger Room more.
Isobel scrutinises Clark closely. "Tell me Clark how do you do it? How do you inspire such loyalty that they resist so strongly to keep the truth hidden."
Clark can't give her an answer because he doesn't really think he does anything special. For Wanda he has tried to just be her friend and be there for her as she tries to piece her life back together. For Rogue too he started out just being her friend and it grew from there to the love they share now. He chooses to say, "I don't think they do it for me. I think they do it because they know what is right and what is wrong and that giving you what you want is wrong."
Isobel smiles as if hearing a wonderfully ridiculous concept. "And do you have such faith in them to know that they will never betray you?"
Clark says it without any hesitation or doubt. "Yes."
"Damn straight!" Wanda says to Madeleine. "You'll never get what you want from me bitch!"
"I grow weary of you," Madeleine says, starting to sound irritated.
"Boo hoo. I feel so sorry for the one who hijacked my friggin body!" Wanda yells sarcastically.
"Just give me the knowledge I seek!" Madeleine snaps.
Wanda mentally smirks. "Temper. Temper," she mocks, knowing how ironic that is coming from her of all people.
Madeleine fumes. What an irritating, frustrating host she ended up with.
"You still haven't explained what went wrong entirely," Lex points out to Isobel.
"The spell I cast to intoxicate you all was all designed to make sure you didn't notice what I was up to. I needed time to cast the spell to bring my sister witches back from beyond the veil. In your inebriated states it wasn't hard to get these two to drink my potion. The last part of it, the memory loss was to leave you confused long enough for us to find the stones," Isobel explains her original plan.
"Only you couldn't get the information you required out of them," Clark repeats what she admitted. "Let me guess by the time you realised this it was already morning when we would all be awake."
"Indeed."
"And since we have two telepaths living at the mansion they would instantly know that Rogue and Wanda weren't who they actually were you couldn't even come back and pretend nothing had happened. You managed to fool Jean and the Professor because they had never met Lana before. They didn't know what her mind is normally like. That being the case you needed a way to lure myself and Lex out so you...enchanted the Brotherhood into doing your bidding," Clark deduces the whole scenario.
"Nicely put," Isobel compliments Clark. "You have more or less deduced it," she confirms Clark is correct. "You are a lot smarter than you appear aren't you," she observes, comparing him to what she knows from Lana's memories.
"Why Wanda?" Clark feels he needs to ask, if for no other reason than to drag this out as long as possible and give his friends time to find them or for him(or Lex) to figure a way out. "Why did you choose her?" he clarifies.
That's what Madeleine wants to know as well right now because it is such an annoying host she has.
"Her latent magical powers of course," Isobel answers as if it should be obvious to even a simpleton.
"Her what?" Clark asks, his confusion at that answer clearly written on his face.
"My what?" Wanda asks at the same time in total surprise at that answer.
"They were dormant," Isobel explains. "Untapped. Unused but I could sense them within her. Only made sense that she become Madeleine's host," she says with a lazy shrug as if she isn't really bothered.
A frown comes to Madeleine's brow. She had sensed something when she entered this body but had been distracted by her annoying host's mind. She takes a moment to search deep within this vessel and there it is. Glowing and twirling and burning brightly. It was much more power than she expected. Damn this host. If Madeleine hadn't been so busy fighting Wanda she could have been working out how to tap into this.
Isobel waves her hand and an old fold-up chair screeches across the floor to her. She sits down and crosses her legs, making sure to kick one out to push her dress back and allow more of her legs to becomes visible. "Enough about what you fools can't see," she decrees. "I wish to finish my story. Now where was I? Oh yes. I had just taken control of this body and Jason was wishing for Lana to meet his mother so I went home to change and shower which also bought me more time to study Lana's memories..."
Flashback...
Isobel was under the shower, delighting in the marvel of having heated water flow over her. Such an improvement on the time she lived in. She had been rifling through Lana's memories so she could fool Jason tonight and as well as exploring the memories she was taking the time to explore her new body as well.
Her hands were roaming over it in a fashion she can see Lana had not allowed anyone to before. "Such a good little girl weren't we," Isobel mockingly laughs.
After her shower, she dries herself off and steps into the bedroom of the apartment Lana was living in. She stands in front of the full length mirror, stark naked and studies herself. It was truly remarkable how alike this body was to her own. She starts to turn when she spots the mark on the small of her back. The same one she had used to utter her curse and bind her spirit to this world. She hadn't expected that. Then again she had thought that up at the very last moment when the Duchess foolishly brought her book to within inches of her, allowing her to tap into just enough power to overcome the bind Gertrude had placed upon her, to speak her curse.
Her book.
She must retrieve her spell book.
Jason was most likely the key if he was a descendant of Gertrude's. Knowing her teacher as she did Isobel can assume the book is still kept by the family. To be sure she must ingratiate herself to Jason's mother tonight. She must earn their trust and learn what happened to her spell book.
Isobel's hand touch the symbol on the small of her back and memories of her host flash up of similar symbols in her home town of Smallville and of a handsome looking boy with blue eyes who seems to be around too often to be coincidence.
A clock chimes the hour. She must get dressed. She will explore Lana's memories further later.
Isobel searches through Lana's wardrobe making several faces as she goes. Honestly the girl has no fashion sense whatsoever. Luckily by Lana's memories Paris is considered a fashion capital of the world. Shopping must be done.
However for now she will make do and picks an outfit suitable for dinner. She has barely finished when the doorbell rings. She quickly brushes her hair back and moves to the door to open it. She flashes a smile as she pulls the door open. "Jason," she greets him merrily.
"Hi Lana," Jason responds with a smile of his own as his eyes gaze over her.
Isobel know that look all too well from men.
Jason then introduces his mother who is out of direct sight. "This is my mother Genevieve Teague."
She moves into sight and Isobel has to just take a moment as she fully absorbs the woman's appearance.
The present...
"It was remarkable," Isobel says. "Genevieve Teague was the exact spitting image of Gertrude. This only confirmed what I already suspected. This was my destiny to return in this time. Now all I had to do was lull her into a false sense of security and discover what happened to my spell book. I spent the next week or so doing this. Jason was easy enough to seduce through my whims to aid me in earning his mother's trust." Isobel then laughs. "But then men are so easy to seduce and in return Jason was kind enough to break this body in," she says in sultry, suggestive tones.
Isobel then looks at Lex, waiting for a reaction. "Nothing to say Alexander?" she asks him. "No disappointment that you weren't the first man to have this vessel?"
Lex schools his features so as to not to reveal anything to her.
"Well what can I say? I had a 400 year old itch that needed scratched and you weren't around," Isobel says in terribly amused tones. "Then again surely you knew," Isobel suggests to Lex. "You had Lana watched so therefore it seems a prudent assumption that you knew. The question is why you did not act? I guess you allowed this because it served you in some way for Lana to get close to the Teague family. Chess pieces. That's how you see people around you Lex don't you. Pieces on a chess board to move about to get what you want. Lana was no different. Not really. Oh I'm sure you care for her but like any chess piece you would sacrifice her to win the game."
"Be quiet," Lex growls, his temper causing him to show her words are getting to him.
Isobel smirks slyly.
Clark just looks at Lex and wonders how much of what Isobel is saying is true about what Lex allowed to happen to Lana because Clark can't dismiss it out of hand. Not with what he knows Lex is doing with SHIELD and Lionel.
Isobel continues her story for no other reason than she likes to hear herself talk. "Eventually my ploy to win trust worked and I was invited to spend a weekend at the Teague residence in England. Of course this was no doubt because they still thought Lana was the key to getting what they wanted without realising Lana was no longer around. I won't bore you with the trifling details. It all came to ahead on the Sunday when I was in the library with Genevieve..."
Flashback...
Isobel fawns attention as Genevieve gives an excruciatingly boring history of the library. Her interest is more in looking for her spell book. She had almost sensed it the second she arrived but can't quite seem to focus in on the book and the power within and she needs her book. What she had discovered since her awakening is that the last spell Gertrude cast to bind her powers still held true. With her spell book, which had been used to bind her in the first place, Isobel could break the spell and then at long last she could finish her quest. Of course this would be after she wreaks her terrible revenge for what Gertrude had done all those centuries ago.
Isobel needs to try and gently divert Genevieve onto the subject of her ancestor Gertrude. "So when I first met Jason he was telling me how he was researching your ancestor, Gertrude. Is there anything here from her time?" she asks, sounding and looking as innocent and naïve as possible.
Genevieve looks at her almost suspiciously for a moment. Isobel just fakes a slightly dumb air as she twirls a lock of her hair around her finger.
Genevieve then moves to the book case and pulls a book back. There is a click sound and a whole section opens. A hidden door.
Isobel moves to behind Genevieve to see a safe was hidden behind the fake front. Genevieve opens it and Isobel's mouth almost drools with anticipation as she spots the battered leather book. Her spell book. She can smell the power it holds.
The safe must have hidden it from her. Perhaps an old spell of Gertrude's. The safe looks old. As in hundreds of years old. Must have cost a fortune. It is before it's time in some senses and Gertrude probably mixed in some magical protection spells when the metal was being poured. Or at least that is what Isobel can assume.
"This book and the safe is the only thing we have left of Gertrude's time," Genevieve says. "Gertrude believed this was the spell book of the Countess Thoreaux."
"Really?" Isobel inquires making herself sound like an over-excited idiot. "Is it?"
"Well if you believe in magic I suppose it is," Genevieve laughs.
Isobel laughs along with her while thinking, 'Idiot! Just give me my book!' "Can I read it?" Isobel asks.
Genevieve moves to the centre of the room and lays the book down on a table and opens it up.
Isobel moves beside her and pretends to be innocently perusing the pages when in reality she is looking for the spell Gertrude cast that has bound her powers.
There.
Isobel reads it, her fingers running over the paper, the book's inherent mystical power already flowing into her She speaks the words in Latin and a great wind blows up the library. A surge of energy shoots out of the book into Isobel. The force knocks Genevieve to the ground.
Isobel cries out in ecstasy as her powers return and she needs several moments afterwards to draw breath. She laughs giddy with power before she takes her book and stands over the dazed Genevieve. "400 years I have waited for this day," she decrees.
Genevieve looks up and at the words something clicks. "Isobel?"
Isobel grins. "Ah. So you get it do you? It's been me from the day I met you."
Genevieve crawls backwards away.
"Oh now don't go!" Isobel shouts as she gestures with her hand and throws Genevieve against the bookshelves and pins her there with her magic. "Tell me descendant of Gertrude. What was your plan? To use my descendant, thinking that her bloodline would be enough, to find the stones? Surely you didn't truly want me to return. You were not so foolish to think I could be controlled by a mere mortal because that is what you are. Your bloodline has thinned so much you've lost the gift of magic. I can sense this to be true."
Genevieve struggles to move against the force holding her but can't.
Isobel slaps her across the face. "Speak!" she commands. "Or know my wrath!" she threatens.
Genevieve shakes her head. "My ancestors wanted you to return. I didn't."
"I'm correct about using my descendant aren't I? You found out that Lana Lang was one?"
Genevieve nods. "To find the stones," she explains what she believed she could use Lana for.
"Without magic you could not access the power within them," Isobel dismisses that plan. "What was your aim? And please don't lie to me or I will rip it out of you," Isobel threatens with deadly intent.
"To use them to find the Traveller."
"Traveller?" Isobel asks puzzled by what the woman means. "What are you prattling..." It suddenly occurs her to what Genevieve might mean. "Do you refer to the Gods in the stories? The Gods who left the stones here?"
Genevieve nods in response.
Isobel laughs mockingly. "Foolish woman. You realised you couldn't control me so you thought you could control a God?" she asks in incredulous disbelief.
"With the stones it can be done," Genevieve asserts.
Isobel snorts. "Those Gods left this world long ago," she dismisses Genevieve's plan. "The stones will be mine and the world will kneel before me," she promises. "Only you won't be around to see it."
"I told you what you wanted!" Genevieve pleads for her life.
"And for that I will grant you a mercifully quicker death than Gertrude gave me," Isobel describes what is Genevieve's reward for being cooperative.
Just then the door to the library opens.
"Jason!" Genevieve tries to shout out a warning to her son.
Isobel acts instantly and with a gesture of her hand flings a chair at Jason knocking him down before she yanks him to pin him next to his mother. Isobel swaggers up to Jason and kisses him, sucking on his lower lip as she does so. "Hmm. Thank you for the pleasurable times Jason," she murmurs in a low husky voice.
Jason blinks, totally confused about what is happening.
"It's Isobel," Genevieve explains.
Jason's head snaps round to his mother. "You said we weren't bringing her back," he hisses at her, revealing how he was in on it.
Isobel chortles. "She didn't. You did Jason dear. The moment you took Lana to my tomb. You thought the book was key didn't you? You thought only through it could I be brought back."
The silence that follows answers that question.
"The book was only one key. My tomb was a second," Isobel clarifies. "The mere touch of my blood descendant upon the symbol on my tomb was sufficient for my return. The mistake Jason, that has allowed me to return, was yours."
"Isobel," Jason speaks to her. "We can work this out. Help each other to get what we want," he makes the offer.
"You want to cut a deal Jason?" Isobel snorts hard with laughter at that concept. "Oh my dear foolish boy. Don't think I do not understand your part in this. You were to seduce Lana, prepare her for the truth of her heritage all so you could use her for your own selfish wants and desires. If Lana was still here...well from her memories I can see she is capable of quite colourful methods of retribution." Isobel smirks. "She really is my descendent."
"Isobel," Jason starts again, desperately trying to think of a way to appeal to her. "This world is new to you. We can be your guides. We have resources, money, centuries of research into the stones. We can help you."
Isobel kisses him again. "A tempting offer," she says in a whispery soft voice before her expression grows hard and cold. "However if you think I would sacrifice my revenge to share power with the blood descendants of my enemy you are more foolish than Gertrude ever was. Never!" she declares at a shout. "Never will I ally myself with her bloodline. In her stead you will know what I suffered at her hands!" she vows, her hatred and anger breaking through. "You will know what it feels like to burn alive!"
"You promised a quick death," Genevieve reminds Isobel.
A truly malevolent smile adorns Isobel's face. "I lied." She raises her hand. "Infernus!"
Hell!
Where Isobel is sending them. She doesn't need them after all. She has all she needs; herself.
Jason and his mother ignite. Isobel drops them and starts to walk away as the screams echo behind her of them burning with flames that cannot be extinguished until their work is done. Isobel stretches her hand out and the books on the wall ignite too.
Let it all burn until there is nothing left.
The present...
"Shortly after that I returned to Smallville, planning to make it the starting point for resuming my quest for the stones. I overheard Chloe and her boorish cousin speak of her birthday party and saw it as the way to get close to you, Clark Kent, without raising suspicion. I brought Alexander as my...oh what is the delightful saying in this century...oh yes. As my booty call," Isobel takes delight in demeaning Lex.
"Bringing me here is a lot of effort for a booty call," Lex points out.
Isobel admits, "I also discovered your quest for the stones and I can't allow that. To use the chess metaphor I am removing your piece from the board. Without you, your father and this Fury person, will have a harder time of it. After all, trust me, when I say I was in your company long enough to know what you are up to."
Isobel looks at Clark. "If only you knew the truth, Clark, of what Lex is scheming. Believe me when I say you would never call him your friend if you did. Then again you must already be questioning that. After all, to repeat it, Lex was watching Lana. Surely he didn't think the burning down of their home and the deaths of the Teagues was a coincidence. Yet he did nothing. Why? What was he trying to get out of it? I know the answer but I won't spoil it for you. Lets leave it as a puzzle for you to solve."
Clark briefly looks at Lex and wonders what game Lex is playing at...if he is to believe this. If he is to believe this Countess then she murdered two people and Clark thinks she'll murder a lot more to get what she wants if she isn't stopped.
"Was there a point to this little story?" Lex decides to ask, shifting the attention off of him and his plans.
"Yes," Isobel confirms. "To illustrate what would happen should Clark refuse to assist me." Isobel gets to her feet and walks over to Clark, swaying her hips. Her fingers reach up and brush over his lips. "This doesn't have to get unpleasant Clark," she says. "The Teagues were of no use to me. However you are. Help me find the stones and I can make sure we can both reach a satisfactory outcome," she makes the offer in sultry, husky tones.
Clark glares at her, his expression fixed to show she isn't affecting him.
Isobel smiles, her head cocks to the side as she studies his face. "A year ago I think I could have seduced the information from you but you no longer desire this body do you." Isobel points at Brianna. "You desire that one."
Isobel then spots Brianna's distant stare again. "Brianna!" she snaps.
Brianna almost jumps. "What?"
"What is the matter with you? Have you been listening to me?"
"Of course I have," Brianna says defensively. "It is just hard to hear above all the racket."
"Racket? What are you prattling on about now?" Isobel asks, her expression one as if she is contemplating that her fellow witch has lost her mind.
"Can't you hear them? Always talking, talking, talking," Brianna explains.
Clark looks at the person inhabiting his girlfriend's body closely. He might have an inkling what is going on he thinks and if he is right it could be very bad for Rogue.
Isobel's eyes narrow dangerously as if to say she has had enough. "It is time," she states. "Get the answers we want," she instructs.
Brianna seems to regain focus and starts to grin salaciously. She saunters over to Clark, swaying Rogue's curvy hips as she does so. Clark has to push down his body's instant reaction at how sexy she is making Rogue look.
On the way Brianna moves over to a table nearby and picks up a cloth. She proceeds to wipe the blood off the right side of Clark's chest from where Madeleine dug her nails in. Brianna's free hand trails over the defined torso of their prisoner. "Such a shame to mar such perfection," she almost purrs.
She looks up at Clark and smiles sultrily. "I know you want this body Clark. It wants you too. It physically aches for you. Not that I can blame it." She shivers. "Such pleasure you are capable of giving. I have access to some of this vessel's memories. I can remember the pleasures you have brought her and that she brought to you. Help us and I can guarantee more such pleasures," Brianna promises.
Clark's expression hardens. If that was suppose to weaken him it's failed. It has done the opposite. He's downright pissed at this ghost raping Rogue's memories of their time together.
Then another hand strokes across his exposed chest. "And it just doesn't have to be that body Clark," Madeleine says, as she appears on his left side. "This one desires you as well. She desires for you to be her first lover...her only lover for the remainder of her days."
"What the fuck!" Wanda exclaims inside her own head.
Madeleine ignores Wanda.
Clark looks at the ghost wearing Wanda's face with complete scepticism at that. "Wanda doesn't feel that for me."
"Doesn't she?" Madeleine asks back with a sexy, impish grin and Clark can't help but for a moment think Wanda looks pretty sexy right now. "What do you think the argument was about?" she asks him. "The one that has had these two forms we inhabit not speaking to each other."
"It was because your girlfriend found out about the feelings Wanda has for you," Brianna fills in the details.
"Rogue felt threatened," Madeleine continues. "What followed was inevitable. A fight for dominance. To establish who is the alpha. Who has the right to claim you."
"That's not what happened at all you lying slut!" Wanda spits furiously at her possessor. "I swear I'm going to find a way to Hex your skanky ass all the way to Hell!"
'Claim me? What am I? A piece of meat?' Clark thinks to himself. He then mentally slaps himself. He shouldn't be listening to them. They just want to know where the stone is. They'd probably say anything to try and make him talk. Although Rogue does have her insecurities...
"Help us Clark," Brianna purrs in his ear.
"Yes. Help us," Madeleine purrs in his other ear.
"We're not like these two."
"We don't have any animosity for each other."
"We would be more than willing to share you," Brianna says in seductive tones.
"Yes. Share you," Madeleine says in the same seductive tones.
Clark gulps as unbidden images enter his head of what them sharing him might mean. He feels kind of hot and bothered and really he shouldn't be finding this arousing at all. Nope. He needs to...think...he needs to try and escape...buy time for his friends to find him and Lex...
'Oh God! That feels good!' he mentally moans inside his head but stops himself from making any audible sounds at what Brianna and Madeleine hands are doing to him.
What Clark isn't seeing is the flashes of reddish mystical energy from where Brianna's and Madeleine's hands are rubbing all over his skin.
Isobel had to admire Clark for resisting this long. She wonders just how long he can keep it up, though, when their magic is weakening his mental defences in a more subtle fashion than they used on the Brotherhood. If that approach was going to work he would have already spilled everything. After all they tried to do it when he was unconscious but he resisted. Not that he remembers it but he wouldn't answer the questions about the stones even in that state. That's why they are having to try this approach. Clark is too strong willed for the direct approach. Torture would only make him resist all the harder she believes. They need a more indirect way to break him.
Brianna and Madeleine move onto placing gentle kisses all over Clark's exposed skin and Clark can't bite back the low moan this time. With their magic amplifying every sensation it is only a matter of time until he cracks.
Isobel strides over to Lex and allows her hands to roam all over his exposed torso. After all why should she miss out on all the fun. "Jealous Alexander?" she inquires from him at the fact he isn't getting the sort of treatment Clark is, sounding highly amused with herself. "Don't be," she tells him. "You may not have been this body's first but I gave you the same pleasure Clark is getting. You were so co-operative after that," she says with a knowing grin.
Lex doesn't know whether that was a slip or deliberate but he just worked out how she got him to agree to come to Bayville in the first place. When they were in bed together...when he was beneath her completely vulnerable she must have cast a spell upon him...like they are doing right now to Clark. He and Clark obviously have some serious issues to discuss but first they have to survive this and that means he has to stop these 3 getting those stones. "Cla..." he starts to say but Isobel cuts him off by smothering his mouth with a kiss which he is powerless to stop her doing.
Clark feels he is in serious danger of exploding right now as he feels mouths, tongues and hands explore his flesh. He hasn't felt this good since...well every time with Rogue makes him feel this good. His lust darkened eyes drop to the object of his thought. 'Oh Rogue. Oh god Rogue. I want you.'
"Ah'm not stoppin' ya sugah," she says in that sexy southern drawl of hers and Clark realises he must have said it out loud.
Rogue moves her lips closer to his. She licks them to make them moist. Her expression is sexily impish. "Kiss meh Clark. Reveal tha truth inside ta meh."
That phrasing seems odd to Clark but his brain can't seem to think coherently enough to explain why. He dips his head slightly and his lips touch Rogue's. Her lips part and his tongue mingles with hers. He kisses her deeply and revels in how good she tastes. God he doesn't see how he would ever get tried of kissing her like this. 'Rogue. Oh Rogue. How I love you,' he thinks to himself.
'Brianna,' a voice penetrates through the fog soup that has become his mind and he suddenly remembers where he is and who he is kissing. For some reason he had forgotten for a moment. He pulls his head back.
To his bewilderment, a pink mist eddies from his mouth and surrounds the two girls rubbing up against him, and he hears his own voice whisper hoarsely, even though he hadn't said a damn thing, "The cave."
Isobel pulls her lips away from Lex. "Thank you Clark," she says because she knows what cave he means from Lana's memories.
All 3 girls smile sweetly at him. Clark gapes slightly as he realises he just let them use him. He forgot for one moment who he was dealing with and let his defences down.
What she said to him about revealing the truth. She was casting a spell and he fell for it. He let her do it to him.
Damn it. He's stupid. He is. He is a total moron because he couldn't control his hormones and because of that he has just told 3 dangerous individuals where an object of great power is and worse than that he may have just made it impossible to get Rogue back.
Stupid.
There's no other word for it.
And because of his stupidity he may have just condemned the world to ruin.
Author's Note: The first section is not really related to the witches arc but I wanted to show Fury starting to recruit the Avengers and who better to start with than Wasp and Ant-Man...and I even threw in a pre-Ms Marvel Carol Danvers appearance. On the show they only ever revealed the year the 3 witches were burned, not how old they were...or at least I couldn't find a mention so I just chose the nice round number of 30 for Isobel. Gee poor Clark being tortured by having beautiful girls kiss and lick him all over. Poor, poor guy. LOL. No of course more seriously they were using magic to get him to spill where the stone is. Thanks to everyone who wrote reviews. Next up; the X-Men hunt for Clark and Lex while the 3 witches get nearer their goal...only mutiny is stirring in the ranks.