The rest of the X-Men stared in mute shock as Gambit raised no defense. Erik the Red continued to lambast the Cajun with a fervor bordering on the religious. As for Gambit, he remained in his spot. Seeing Rogue kneeling there, stricken, seemed to deflate the last of his objections.
Warren was the first to move, as their captors back turned on him, gripping the ax in both handles hard enough to make the wood creak. Apparently he was allowed to move that much of his body: the upper half. He couldn't move his legs, they felt gripped in a tight fist. But he was a hero, and a good one. Despite all the adversity, and the dire situation they were in, he could still do something. Warren was a hero, and heroes did what was right and best for all, no matter their personal wants.
He tossed the ax to Rogue who channeled her anger, her will, the psyches who were willing to work with her, all of what she was at whatever it was that tethered her to where she crouched. She let out her long seeded anger at the Massacre flare to life, fueled it with her shame at being played a fool for so long, the rage of a broken heart - and caught the ax squarely in both hands.
Swinging it down from an overhead wind up, she shattered the chain's central axis where the links all congregated. The axehead, charged to bright pulsing pink by Gambit's power, shattered in an explosion of metallic shards.
"How dare you?" she raged as she struggled to take a step forward. As she did she swiftly charged her left glove with Gambit's stolen powers. She flicked it off and it flung at Erik the Red's head. The second followed it.
With her own skills combined with Remy's, they should've hit their mark. But the glove sailed past his head, tilted cockily to one side.
"You, Rogue, think to condemn me for what, exactly? Using your powers?" he mocked her. "I thought you took the thief's abilities for your own. That was poorly thrown, just as your argument was."
"It wasn't for you, Red!" Beast cried out as he managed to lift his arms, the right glove hitting the chainlink, and breaking the devices that powered their chains and ability restrictors. The left glove had been to move the man into enough position to make her initial attack look convincing. Clearly, even if Rogue and Gambit were in turmoil within and without her body, they could still work together.
"You forgot which team you were dealing with," Beast reminded the man as he sprang forward. "Were held together on levels you couldn't imagine!"
Betsy went immediately to assist Trish, who was checking on Joseph. She spared a portion of her psychic powers to probing Joseph's unconscious mind while the rest of it was used in battle against Erik the Red. Even distracted, even as he fought the others, his mind was still a match for Betsy's. Perhaps it wouldn't have been so if her powers hadn't been affected so profoundly by the Crimson Dawn.
The white haired man was lying insenstate on the gurney. "Sure, he's stable, but is it safe to unplug him from whatever was going on here?" Trish asked as she felt frantically for a pulse.
"I'm not sure, Trish…" Betsy said through gritted teeth. Their adversary was so strong; it made talking to anyone a Herculean task. "Let's just first see if we can move him somewhere safer -" she said as the two jerked the gurney aside as Rogue and Erik the Red fought just above them while Beast and Maggott trailed behind.
"Next yer gonna tell me how this was all for our good!" Rogue raged as she took one swing and another at the man. "That sacrifices hadda be made!" Was that to Erik the Red or to another? All those who heard it wondered that very thought, even Rogue herself. There was no time to labor under the luxury of introspection. She followed up with another haymaker that seemed to actually do something when it landed. The man staggered under her blow.
"It's the same lines, the same lies every time-!" She continued as she tried to kick the man in his midsection. She was gripped by something invisible once more, tugged away from their jailor, and immediately turned to fight this force holding her with all her strength. "Leggo…me…" She thrashed, seemingly fighting an enormous telekinetic construct.
While Rogue was occupied, Erik the Red contended with Maggott and Beast and their physical assault. Beast was opting to take the fight to him, while Maggott was more interested in some sort of modified fastball special with one of his slugs. These assaults, all of them, were laughable to their opponent. He was still able to fight all of them, and even more mad to consider; he continued his tirade, lambasting them as he managed to hold them all. He was practically foaming at the mouth as he spouted accusations at the team. "You are speaking in defense of a monster, all of you! There is no righteousness in harboring an architect of genocide!"
That one word held such power. Not only for all the fighting in this room, but also the man who lay seemingly senseless on a gurney, as two women tried to assess how bad off he was. Hearing that word snapped him from his catatonia. He clawed his way through ragged, tattered memories, as his senses returned to him in a rush. He 'saw' the people in the room before he opened his eyes. And there was something wrong with their adversary. Something was off about their bio-electromagnetic signature.
As he rose into the air, he opened his eyes, and reached out with his powers, righting the wrong he felt with their enemy. A small device, at the waist. He could feel the culprit, and it was child's play to overload it, break its circuitry. Snap.
The physical characteristics of Erik the Red fizzled out, and a fuschia-hued skin replaced it. Long dark flowing locks of hair, and a cape, which, truly, could only be described as glorious flowed from the large structure on his back, showing the illusion the image inducer had provided. There was no helmet, no red leather, no Erik the Red. No, they knew who he was.
"Exodus?!" Spluttered each of the X-Men, as well as Trish Tilby, who knew of him, had reported on him multiple times through the years. All save Maggott who uttered a bewildered, "Who?"
"My lord!" Exodus cried, looking at Joseph with what could only be described as exultation. "You wake! I had not expected your recuperation to progress so quickly. He will be pleased at-" Exodus broke off as Joseph flung the gurney at Exodus.
Exodus was considered one of the most powerful enemies the X-Men had ever faced. He could take the team on solo, and it might end in a draw, perhaps even a win. But the same could be said of their former enemy Magneto. Had the two been on the same side, the X-Men would have their work more than cut out for them.
That was not the case here. Joseph was not Magneto, no matter how the former Frenchman named him. Truth be told, as Joseph woke, he realized that he was sick of that name. He was sick of that legacy. He could not, would not embrace it, and chose instead that he would acknowledge it with a response he deemed appropriate.
For this situation, the response was swift and immediate. The gurney was followed up by an enormous wave for magnetic force. He joined the fray, knowing he was pushing himself beyond his limits and not caring a whit.
"What do you know of genocide?!" Joseph snarled as he threw blast after blast against the man that forced this charade on them. "You prate about righteousness? Where was the justice in any of this?!"
Sure, he wasn't 100% certain at what was going on, but he knew enough, heard enough distant whispers in the fog of his mind to understand enough, and saw his allies engaged in battle. That was more than enough motive for him.
"And you think you know?!" Exodus laughed hysterically as he riposted, leveling a telepathic thrust at Joseph. It struck him hard enough that his assault on Exodus faltered away to nothing as he clutched his head.
"Would you like to truly remember?!" Bennet du Paris asked him, and extended his right hand. Joseph shrieked in agony as he felt an assault on his mind like a wave of volcanic ash burying him. It was apparent that Bennet du Paris was focusing his whole attention on Joseph.
Yes, Exodus was strong, but not a god. He could not fight so much at once. As he threw the psychic blast, his hold on the others failed and the X-Men felt their wits returning to them fully, the forces holding their bodies weakened, and the tides turned.
Rogue's hands were free of her gloves, having used both as charged objects to throw at him earlier, and she made her way to Exodus, throwing a punch to his jaw that could only be described as unchecked. Exodus flew backwards, slamming into a wall as Rogue gripped his head with both hands. She had apparently shorted out the costume's force field generator, because her own skintone went a similar hue as Exodus'.
"Rogue!" Betsy cried out as she backed into a shadow. Angel had swooped up Beast and flown the pair of them through the shadows. Trish and Maggott had already left as well, through the portal Betsy was maintaining. She pointed, and Rogue's gaze turned to see what was so important. Joseph wavered in mid-air, before the field surrounding him collapsed, and so did he.
Rogue sprang into action, using a portion of the borrowed sliver from the ocean of power within Exodus. He had a multitude of abilities, one including teleporting, which he apparently decided to utilize by cutting his losses and spirited himself away in a blink of an eye, without any further ceremony. Rogue hadn't inherited that one, but she did gain his telekinesis. It was just enough to catch Joseph before he hit the ground. Even flying she would've been too late.
She didn't have the powerful mutant's abilities for much longer, though the memories would linger.
'Those always did,' she sorrowfully reflected as she released the telekinetic shield around Joseph to carry him in her gloveless grip. She'd be careful, but now that she had him in her arms, she wouldn't let go. Her eyes, now glowing white, settled on Remy, who stood nearby. He had charged forward with the rest, intent on entering battle with Exodus. The expression on her face was unreadable as they stared at one another across a distance more than physical.
"Cher," Gambit choked out. His powers were also apparently under her control, though not completely gone. Her eyes looked upon him like a stranger's. The entirety of the complex began to rumble ominously. It was clearly coming down.