Happy New Year!
Chapter 19 - Braddock Manor
Nate was sleeping in hard that morning, after an evening spent scouring James' mind for any sign of life. Even a rustling in the bush would have been reassuring at that point, but Nate couldn't find anything.
It was scaring him to death, and it just made him even more determined to do his job the next time he went in, even if he'd ended up with a nosebleed again.
But unbeknownst to him, Kate had turned off his alarm that morning, determined to let him actually recover his strength. As much as she knew what it meant to him to save his brother, she also knew that he was no use to James if he ran himself too ragged.
Besides, he was looking too pale for her tastes, and she could see dark circles under his eyes. He was neglecting himself and had even started to grow a beard - and that was just too much like Scott for Kate to ignore.
Not that long ago, she had been talking to her parents about her fear that she was going to turn out like Scott: raising her son alone and wasting away in depression. But Nate was swiftly usurping that nightmare. She almost wanted to tease him about being so competitive that he had to steal her fears as well as trying to outdo her accomplishments as a hero, but she didn't think that would land well.
She was sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying some time to herself after foisting David onto Scott. Every once in a while, she would see her father-in-law staring off into the distance so hard that she was worried he wasn't going to come back from wherever his mind had gone, and when that happened, she stuck a baby in his arms and forcibly grounded him in the current reality.
She looked up when the door to the kitchen opened and smiled tightly at Billy as he silently came in, grabbed his own coffee, and then sat down, looking down at the liquid swirling around a spoon that was stirring itself in his mug.
It didn't look like resignation, not the way Scott looked or the way Nate sometimes looked. Billy was tossing around an idea, and Kate wanted in.
"You're planning something," she said.
Billy looked up sharply and then quickly cleared his throat. "Nope. Because that would break the promise I made my mom that I wouldn't use any magic without her around."
"And you'd never do something reckless," Kate said, one eyebrow raised significantly his way. "Never, ever."
Billy rolled his eyes at her and took a long drink of coffee to hide his expression. "Okay," he said when he set his mug down again, "so now that we've joked about my magic, what about you? You holding up okay after … everything?"
"I'm not the one in recovery."
"Yeah, but that's not what I asked," Billy said. "You and I both know it's hard to be dating the one who is."
Kate let out a soft, almost scoffing laugh. "It's part of the job. Always has been," she said. "I grew up watching my parents trade off which one of them was in recovery. I know the back-and-forth. When he can only give ten percent, I give the other ninety. And when I've only got two in the tank, he finds ninety-eight. He'll be okay, you know? They both will."
"They both will," Billy agreed immediately.
Kate reached across the table to grab his arm and squeeze it. "For real, though, I feel like I have to tell you that whatever you're planning…" She trailed off, swallowed, and continued. "Whatever you're planning, I can't lose you and James both, okay? I can't. You know what you two mean to me after…" She let the sentence fall there and cleared her throat. "So. Yeah. I had to say that."
Billy dropped her gaze, which told Kate all she needed to know about how dangerous the magic was that he was considering.
"Okay. Well. Love you," Kate said, getting up to refill her coffee to take it elsewhere, because as much as she was holding it together for the sake of her family members who were worse off than she was, she was still barely functional herself, and she didn't want to say something she'd regret.
And that, of course, just left Billy sitting there in the kitchen. He totally understood where Kate was coming from. He really did. He didn't know what he would do if he lost her either. But she wasn't the one watching her boyfriend fade away into nothing. She wasn't the one who had the power to do something about it. And she didn't know how much power he had. He was literally an iteration of a god. There had to be something he could do.
Guilt trip or no, he was going to save James if Nate couldn't. And damn the consequences.
It was the middle of the day when Nate woke up and made his way downstairs, groggily, dragging his feet with every step. He wanted to get back to work as soon as possible, but he was also starting to wonder if he wasn't going to find anything, and even the prospect of failure was intimidating, to say the least.
They had been at Betsy's place for three days now, and by that point, he was actively trying to hide how quickly he would get nosebleeds. Kate kept turning off or otherwise sabotaging his alarm, and she kept pushing him to get some rest, but he couldn't. He could see his dad's expression falling with every passing day, and he was afraid that if he stopped, even for a break, his dad would call it.
In fact, he was pretty sure his dad had already called it and was just waiting for everyone else to catch up to him.
Usually, he would have a low-level telepathic awareness of everyone around him for about a block, but he was keeping everything contained, keeping every ounce of telepathic power in reserve so he could call upon it to find James in his too-empty mind. So he was genuinely surprised when he heard the bell ring at the front door; he hadn't known someone was coming for the first time in a long time.
He stood there, frozen in indecision, trying to decide if he should reach out telepathically to see who had come to visit - or if he needed to keep every drop of power for James. It wasn't terribly unlikely that another X-Man had come to see what was happening.
But before he could make that decision, Annie came rushing toward the main hall, still holding the Agatha Christie book she had been reading, swearing creatively before she remembered she could just project: Stop!
The butler who had been about to open the door paused, frowned, and turned Annie's way. "Is something the matter?"
"Do not open that door," Annie said, her eyes wide, her anxiety enough that Nate could feel her projection blasting through everyone, along with Sinister's name.
"Damn," Nate whispered. Of course Sinister would show up now. Of course he'd waltz in when everyone was at their lowest, when his dad had given up and when Billy was itching for an excuse to do magic he wasn't supposed to do, when Nate was drained and Annie hadn't had any formal training, so she had already alerted Sinister to the fact that she'd sounded the alarm.
But of course, because it was Sinister, the butler was only paying attention to Annie for a second before he deliberately spun toward the door and opened it to reveal Sinister standing there, looking like he was their neighbor for how he was dressed. His hair was slicked back, and he was wearing a long, black coat with coattails and subtle pinstripes, with a white shirt underneath.
It was easy to forget sometimes that the guy was from this area and from a forgotten time period, but seeing how comfortable he looked like that…
"I'm not here to fight," Sinister said, looking perfectly reasonable, if not mildly irritated. "I'm here to help."
Nate crossed his arms, though he remembered Sinister being at the facility, clearing out soldiers and paving a path for them. "Lost track of you at the department," he said, his arms still crossed.
"Of course you did," Sinister replied. "I was busy killing all those with sway." He let out a measured breath. "I saw what those idiot clones attempted to do. I'm here to help you attempt recovery."
"What's the catch?" Billy asked from the doorway, looking like he'd run there as fast as he could when he heard Annie projecting.
He turned toward Billy with an open glare. "As much of my research as I can recover."
"James and I were very thorough. There's nothing to recover," Billy said, matching his glare with glowing eyes.
"I'm sure you were," Sinister replied. "But I know that boy memorized far more than he let on."
"So you want to get in his mind, copy the files he memorized, and then you'll, what, leave us alone?" Nate asked incredulously.
He gestured openly. "It's more than I have now." He didn't say it, but Annie managed to catch a whisper of what he was thinking. There's no way that boy was stupid enough to entirely destroy everything.
"Besides, he put too much into James to back out now," Kate said, carrying David on her hip as she and Scott caught up to the group, with Remy last to join them and already looking for a fight with his bo staff out, knowing who was there.
"I didn't get the opportunity to examine him while you were captive," Sinister said. "I don't know how far gone he actually is - and I'll be damned if I believe anything those insipid little twits had to say."
"Well, obviously, you're not going in without a chaperone," Kate said, nodding toward Nate, who would have rolled his eyes at her if the situation weren't so serious. "Full offense: we don't trust you."
"The feeling is entirely mutual."
"How did you even find us?" Annie asked, frowning.
"I have my methods."
"Right." Scott looked between the group of them and then cleared his throat. "Well, no point in standing in the entryway. If you can help, the window's shrinking. If you can't, I'd rather find that out now and be done with this deal sooner than later." It was, frankly, the most anyone had heard him say the entire time they'd been at the manor - which was probably why most of the people there couldn't immediately find an argument against it.
Sinister walked with them farther into the house to where James was set up in his room, with all of the equipment still hooked up. And once they were there, Nate took a seat deliberately in the chair by James' head - though Annie slipped over toward him as well, reaching under the bed for a new box of tissues for the inevitable nosebleed when Nate took it too far again.
"If you have any insight into what the department was trying to do here, that might be helpful," Scott said frankly, leaning against the doorframe.
"As far as I can tell, they were attempting complete control, which … considering the players was an incredible overly optimistic endeavor." He shook his head. "They were too weak to attempt such a thing with someone so stubborn."
"Yeah, but the thing is," Kate said, "it seems like they pushed him out to the point his body isn't operating on its own. That's counterproductive, right? So what the heck?"
"That certainly isn't ideal if that is indeed what they managed," Sinister agreed, frowning at the entire set up. "Have there been any unexplained medical incidents?"
Scott sighed. "Several."
"Tell me about them, please."
Scott gestured toward the equipment in use. "His heart stops entirely. Frequently. It has to be restarted manually."
"No triggers?"
"None that we can see, and Betsy and Nate both have been inside his head during an episode and had to back out fast to avoid getting caught up in it. They'd have seen a trigger."
"I meant a physical one," Sinister said. "I should have been more clear." He made his way over to examine the equipment - and to see what he could with what little was stored on the memory there.
"So, can you fix him?" Kate asked after a second.
"Have you done away with the traps that were in his head?" Sinister asked Nate. "or were they still in place?"
"We had to remove them so we could do a sweep without worrying about hurting him if we set something off," Nate admitted. "We've been searching every inch of his mind for how to help him."
Sinister hummed to himself then pulled up a chair opposite Nate. "And how capable are you of starting now?" He looked Nate over. "You appear less than ready."
"If I'm just there to supervise, I can start whenever and still have enough juice if you cross a line," Nate said, tipping his chin up.
Sinister smirked, but didn't reply as the diamond at his forehead began to glow. "One step at a time, young man." He didn't wait for Nate to catch up before he dove in and immediately stopped when he saw the state of affairs. Everything that should have been there was still in place, if not locked up tightly - and none of that seemed to be of Nate's doing. But the emptiness …
He didn't look to see if Nate had followed - he knew he would anyhow. "Does the out of doors feel as empty?"
Nate nodded as he caught up to him. "It's the northern woods."
"Yes, I know what it is," Sinister said. "Have you tried to unlock all of what is battened down?"
"Yeah. And searched the trees, the river…"
"So he's not locked into some little box or something similar."
"No, everything that's locked up looked like it was waiting for release or wasn't helpful to their aims. Memories, emotions, that kind of thing I unlocked, but he didn't come when I restored those parts of his mind," Nate told him frankly.
"I need a moment to get my bearings," Sinister said quietly as he slowly looked around himself without taking a step.
It took a while, but finally, Sinister started to move - and when he did, he simply started wrenching open boxes and drawers - upending them and sifting through all he could. He worked quickly - almost moving too fast to track since this was something he was incredibly good at on the psychic plane. And he knew how to find the influence of those that shouldn't have been there at all.
Anything he could reach that didn't bear his own telepathic signature he isolated and cracked open as if he owned the place without a word spoken to Nate. And the instant Nate tried to argue it, Sinister caught him up in his alarm and locked him away in one of the harder to crack boxes. If there was any chance James was there anywhere, he'd be locked up tight and forced into something so small, it would be difficult to find.
And if he wasn't there … well, then Sinister had to start the work needed to preserve what he could. He had plans for more than simple samples, but if that's all he could get …
He shook his head to himself - that wasn't good enough. He wanted the body.
Annie had noticed Nate's nose start to bleed, and she crouched down with Kate to try to help him, though his eyes were still glowing and he hadn't come back to his senses. She brushed his mind gently, but when all she got in return was alarm and panic and the feeling of being trapped, she frowned, glanced toward Sinister - whose eyes were also glowing - and brushed his mind, too, before she could even think about all the ways that could be a bad idea.
In just that brief contact, she saw that he was determined to get what he could, and when she gently, carefully, quietly as she could, slipped into James' now-open mind to see what was happening, she immediately reached out to Scott to project what she saw. Sinister wasn't looking for James: he was grabbing memories, overturning drawers, trying to find anything he could use that James had in his head.
This wasn't a search and rescue; it was more like a harvest.
She needed to find Nate; they had to get Sinister out of James' head. And Sinister was distracted with his angry, desperate search enough that Annie could sneak around the edges, looking for Nate until…
She had to stifle a cry of joy, since she was more emotive in the psychic plane than she even was outside it. But she knelt down next to the box that held Nate, reached out, and winced when just touching it shocked her. She was still a novice at this sort of thing, and she wasn't at all up to Sinister's caliber. But Nate was powerful, and if she could just loosen it a bit, he could get out.
Scott, get James' telepathic interference thing, Annie projected as she concentrated to form a small shield around herself, trying to mitigate the shock as she toyed with the locks on the box holding Nate. She let out a soft "ha" as one lock came loose, though her arm went numb - or that's how her mind interpreted the telepathic feedback, anyway. She glanced up, knowing Sinister must have heard her by that point, to find that he was looking right at her.
"I think you've overstayed your welcome, Doctor," Annie said politely, clutching her hand to her chest as she tried to get some feeling back to it, not sure what to make of his expression when he looked somehow both angry and… she almost wanted to call it pride, but that was odd, wasn't it?
"I knew I was right to augment you," Sinister said - reinforcing Annie's impression of pride.
Annie cleared her throat, not sure how to respond. "You said you were here to help. Is this helping?" she asked, gesturing to the mess Sinister had made.
"The easy search was already done," Sinister said. "I was looking deeper."
"You were looking for what you wanted to keep," Annie shot back.
"That too," Sinister said, smiling her way. "And I think I shall."
Annie blinked at him in honest shock, but at that moment, all three of them were shunted out of James' mind and back into their own senses as Scott, panting, turned on the telepathic interference device.
Sinister glared at him, but managed to let out almost a bark of a laugh. "That certainly simplifies things," he said, raising one hand to plainly protect himself and James in a forcefield. He shook his head mildly and started unhooking the wires and ledes. "Barbaric out of date …"
Nate wiped his nose with the back of his hand, glaring as he got his bearings. "You just want to use him," he said hoarsely. "Whatever pieces you can get."
"Yes, and I have uses for far more than samples," Sinister said, looking as if he thought he'd won - though his expression shifted and he glared from Nate to Scott when he realized he couldn't teleport out.
Scott smirked when he caught Sinister's gaze. "You didn't think I'd let you leave with my son, did you?"
Sinister's lip curled, and he didn't stop glaring at Scott as he reached into his jacket and pulled out a small packet and started to unroll it. "You didn't think I'd leave empty handed did you?" The next moment, he got started taking samples - and went for the easy methods first - with blood as he set aside a scalpel to get more invasive.
"Nate, talk to me," Scott said under his breath. "I need to know."
Nate was shaking his head already, bleeding through six different tissues by then from the exertion of trying to fight Sinister when he was so tapped out already. "I don't know…"
"He couldn't find him," Annie said. Nate turned to look at her, and she looked apologetic but kept her gaze on Sinister. "He's not looking for his apprentice anymore. Just raw materials and memories."
Scott let his shoulders drop and took a step back. If that was the case, it was time to signal Lorna. They just had to get James away from Sinister first.
As for the others, they were all still trying to process how fast this was going downhill. Kate had gone upstairs with David to keep him away from Sinister, but she had come back downstairs just as Nate had started bleeding, just as Annie laid it all out… and she was shaking her head, muttering a quiet "hell no" under her breath that Billy was nodding along to, even if Nate was slowly starting to crumble and Remy was doing his best to keep this from turning into another medical event.
But Billy… Billy was watching Sinister. And he knew exactly what he had to wish for. And while everyone was distracted and panicking, his hands and eyes were glowing. And very, very quietly, he started to whisper under his breath, "IwishJameswasback."
The simple horror of what was happening down on Earth had most of the people James knew in Heaven all gathered in one place as they watched Sinister with James's family. Even though they knew nothing could come of it, they couldn't help but root for Nate. And they especially couldn't help but root for Annie, who was using her powers offensively for the first time against someone of Sinister's caliber. Now that Sinister had no reason to play nice, the deceased X-Men knew from experience that it was going to take everything they had to keep the rest of that family safe.
And yet, it all seemed to be sliding into inevitability, didn't it? It was all so horrible that none of those watching could find words.
James had his jaw locked down tight, and the growl was perched right at the back of his throat, which was a little too tight to actually let it out. This whole twisted scenario was Sinister's fault. And James felt too responsible for having been foolish enough to trust that the guy would stick to a deal.
"I wish I'd been able to kill him," Noh said quietly, both of his arms around James. "I came close. He wiped my memory of it, but I got that memory back upon my death."
"I had plenty of opportunity but let it slide because we had an agreement," James said, the growl finally breaking loose.
Noh sighed and rested his chin on James's shoulder. "Which he only kept until Apocalypse was dead."
"I could have stopped this," James growled out.
Noh scoffed in his ear. "We saw what happened when he turned you over to Department H. This was all his doing; don't give yourself any credit in his evildoing."
"You mean aside from all the parts that I helped him with?" James said, turning his way slightly.
"You helped him with legitimate research," Noh pointed out. "It's actually been fascinating to talk about it with a few other scientifically-minded Terrans in this afterlife. I've not been idle, and honestly, the scientific advances as your species leaps ahead in random-"
"Yet you haven't talked to me about it at all," James teased in Kree.
"There have been better things to talk about," Noh replied, grinning before he leaned in to steal a kiss.
"We should explore this. Scientifically, of course," James said airly before he turned his attention back to the scene below. The situation was serious enough that he didn't want to miss what was happening - but he couldn't pass up the chance to flirt, either. Not when it helped him relax as much as it helped Noh.
James was holding his breath watching his family throw their all into fighting the impossible, and he almost missed it when Erik suddenly straightened up next to him. James glanced his way in question just as Erik's lips parted and he whispered something in German.
Very suddenly, Erik turned to James with an incredibly urgent expression. "James, my boy, you need to listen very closely to me," Erik said in a low rushed tone that had James and Noh both leaning toward him in spite of themselves.
"What-"
"You need to deliver a message to Billy for me," Erik said - shocking James into paying stricter attention at the abandonment of 'William'.
"How-"
"Damn it, James - listen," Erik barked out in a tense, commanding tone, though he quickly tried to calm himself before continuing. "Please, tell him how sorry I am for trying to turn him into me for so long. Tell him that one of the smartest things I ever did was to choose him to be my successor and he must know how incredibly proud I am of the man he's become. He'll be a far better king than I ever could have been."
"What are you talking ab-"
"James," Erik said, cutting him off one more time and resting one hand on the side of his neck to keep his focus. "I know how much you love each other. You both have my blessings. Make the most of your time together."
Noh swore in Kree under his breath as he understood what Erik had come to see, though James knew enough of the nuance of Noh's language that he could hear the affectionate swearing around the word "demiurge" - the closest English translation being something like "that lucky bastard."
All at once, there was a rush of pain at James' middle - one that seemed to be in perfect timing with what Sinister was doing to his body on Earth. One minute it was a twinge, the next, Noh was going to the ground with him in an attempt to keep him from falling straight down as he curled in on himself, shaking in pain and well beyond words.
Logan and K both found their way over to him, alarmed and trying to find a way to help as James let loose a strangled scream. Heroes and several nearby angels were drawn toward the commotion at the same time that Noh realized he could no longer feel James in his arms. His spirit had gone incorporeal - no longer in one realm or the other and kicking off a fresh panic for his parents, Noh, and the extended family watching.
K turned toward Erik and followed his line of vision to let out a curse in Swedish that sounded particularly violent as she turned back toward James. "Billy's wishing him back." Her focus shifted to the nearest angels and her tone turned dangerous. "You said that wasn't possible. What the hell is going on with my son?"
Before the angel could answer, Noh found himself holding nothing - with no trace of James anywhere - not in Heaven .. and for a moment, not on Earth either.
And then, James seemed to come back to himself on Earth, and Noh let out a disbelieving laugh. "When the Demiurge wants something…" he trailed off, shook his head, and leaned forward with the others as they watched what was happening.
Sinister had most of his samples - hair, blood, saliva - all of the easy ones, but he was so angry at them, and he had the means to remind them of who he was, so, without paying them any attention, he pulled out the scalpel and started cutting. If they were going to make this difficult, he was going to do what he could to kill James and get as much as he could on the way out.
Scott clearly couldn't handle what was happening in front of him any more than Nate could - both of them were screaming by that point for Sinister to stop, knowing they couldn't get through the forcefield but trying anyway - and Sinister barely bothered pushing up his sleeves before he reached in to try and cut free James's heart - which was when very suddenly, James let out a harsh gasp.
Everyone froze, including Sinister - and after a few seconds, James looked up to meet Sinister's gaze as Sinister projected to him over the roar of a hundred voices shouting at him all at once. My dear boy, I am so pleased to see you back where you belong. Sinister smiled broadly, though James was the only one to see it. We have much to discuss - and our work is not yet over.
As Sinister began once again to move his hands inside of James's torso, James furrowed his brows then snarled low and rippling as he swung one arm up to stab him.
The hit landed, but not anywhere vital that James would have tried to hit - and Sinister stumbled backward - bloodied and still holding his scalpel. The forcefield fell, but no one outside of Sinister knew it - and before anything further could happen, Sinister snatched the samples he did have and rushed to leave - pulling Kate in front of him on his way out.
Nate let out a cry of anger that sounded more guttural than anything Kate had ever heard from him, and she felt him try to telekinetically pull her away from Sinister, though Sinister didn't let that happen. Scott couldn't get a clear shot, and Annie was beside herself, only not in a heap because Remy was bound and determined not to let her get stressed enough to have real problems, even if he was holding glowing cards and looking for a way to hit Sinister too. And Billy … Billy had dropped to the ground, sweating and looking like he was going to throw up, though no one had noticed him casting his spell, so they all figured he was sick from watching what had happened to James.
James was dripping blood, but was locked on to Sinister. He didn't seem to be acting anything like himself - even his growl was off as it kept rolling with every breath. He was unsteady where he stood and didn't seem like he even saw all of them there. He was definitely more reactive than they'd ever seen him. Something was off.
Sinister made a small movement and James crouched - claws out. Clearly any move anyone made was triggering some kind of prey drive that Scott hadn't seen in decades. Which meant that even in the best case scenario, they were all far too close.
In trying to get up, Billy knocked over a vase across the room and James turned to see it fall giving Sinister the opportunity to get away from the anti-teleportation field. He'd barely moved though before James darted after him and Kate, who couldn't break his hold on her arm and was stumbling to keep up with his much longer strides. The chase was short and Sinister stopped, sure to pull Kate in front of himself as James kept moving forward - not running, but stalking and moving when they did, still growling all the while.
"James, my dear boy, it's good to see you, really," Sinister said - and he obviously meant it, even with how things had been going up to that point.
"Dad, I'm not seeing any recognition," Nate whispered to Scott, his eyes wide.
Billy heard it, too, and he swore under his breath. Had he just made things a thousand times worse? If he brought James back to life but with a broken mind… what the heck was he supposed to do?
Sinister had tucked his samples into a pocket, though he seemed to have come to the same conclusion as Nate and was simply looking for a way out. Remy had tried to get a little closer only to dodge out of the way to avoid James slicing him to ribbons for being too close as Sinister very carefully backed away. The distraction was just enough to keep James from following at the same pace, anyhow.
"I'm sure you see my dilemma, my dear," Sinister said over Kate's shoulder as he took a better grip on her upper arms. "You've been a wonderful help, but I believe it's time we part ways." He drew in a breath and shoved Kate forward toward james - and James bolted right for her.
One second it looked like James was going to tear through her to get to Sinister, who had turned to run - and the next, he'd retracted his claws in order to push Kate down as he jumped over her head and tore off after him. They'd disappeared into the next room so fast, no one quite saw what happened before Sinister let out a scream and an actual brawl broke out. By the time they caught up again, however, Sinister had somehow managed to get the upper hand and it looked and sounded as if he'd broken James's neck.
Scott let loose a blast that sent Sinister crashing into the wall, and Remy blasted him with all of the cards he'd been holding, while Billy rushed, stumbling over himself, to check on James, panicking when he couldn't get a pulse. But as soon as Sinister picked himself up again, before anything else could happen, Billy let out a wordless cry, his eyes glowing not with his usual power but with something else.
And then, Sinister was gone, and Billy nearly fainted where he was if Kate hadn't rushed to catch him.
"What did you do?" she asked, trying to prop him up to keep him awake.
"Oh. You know." Billy could feel his eyes trying to close, but he fought against it. "I may have maybe wished him to the surface of the planet Mercury. He needed to be gone."
"You what?" Nate asked, even as Scott rushed to help James, rearranging his head in alignment with his neck.
"You heard me," Billy said, dizzy and tired and a little too tapped out to explain himself more deeply.
Remy let out a little chuckle, though everyone there was still in too much shock to do anything like celebrate more than Remy's quiet, "Hot damn, good riddance."
Scott didn't get far enough to start working on James before he took a breath - once again out of touch with the world around him. And no one was sure if that was going to change. "We need to get somewhere else," he said, frowning down at James. "Somewhere better suited to…" He trailed off; he didn't want to talk about containment, but it was necessary at that point.
"We should go home," Kate said, rubbing her arms where bruises of fingerprints had formed. "He probably needs to heal, right, Scott?"
"Kate," Annie said gently, but Kate shook her head.
"No. You saw it, didn't you? You saw him go around me. He's there. He's disoriented or something, sure, but he's there," Kate insisted.
"I don't know what I saw," Nate admitted when no one else was willing to speak up.
"I don't know how he came back," Scott said, frowning toward Billy in almost an accusation. "Wanda looked herself and couldn't find his soul. This was supposed to be a last-ditch—"
"Wanda what?" Nate spun to face his dad. "And you didn't want to mention that?"
"I was going to pull you and Billy aside today," Scott admitted. "But I knew neither of you would listen until you had your shot at helping."
"Yeah." Billy swallowed. "So, um. I wished him back?"
"Of course you did," Kate said in a tone full of affection, even if the others were looking at Billy like they were worried for his sanity.
"How?" Scott demanded, still stressed and standing near James as if he was trying to prepare himself to stop him if he woke up swinging again.
"I… literally just wished for him to come back," Billy explained. He shifted and then, seeing James, he tipped his chin up, looking more like his grandfather in his defiance. "I'm not sorry," he said. "I didn't see any other viable plan, did you?"
"You don't know what the consequences for something like that will be," Scott said, dumbfounded, raising his voice without meaning to. "Your mother confirmed it - Hank's readings confirmed it - the department killed him, Billy. What did you have to give up to bring him back?"
"You act like you didn't want him back!" Billy shot back, pushing off of Kate to get to his feet.
"Don't you dare say that," Scott said, his eyes flashing red, squaring up to Billy automatically. "Do you think, for one second, that I wouldn't give anything to keep my son safe? If you think it's easy for me-"
"Sure seems easy," Billy said. "You gave up on him before we even got here, didn't you?"
Scott narrowed his eyes. "You still haven't told me what the cost was."
"What does it matter?" Billy shot back. He gestured at James. "He's alive! We'll deal with whatever comes next."
"It matters more than you think it does," Scott said, barely restraining himself from shouting in frustration. "You know how magic works. You know you can't trade in lives. Do you even know whose life you traded for his? Do you think he'll ever forgive you for trading like that?"
"How dare you," Billy started to say, but Scott shouted over him.
"You don't get to act high and mighty when you just accused me of giving up on my own son!" He took a step toward Billy, pointing an accusation his way. "I would do anything for my kids, but I sure as hell know better than to think any one of them would rather I risk my own life or anyone else's for theirs. So tell me: what did you trade?"
"I got him back," Billy started to say, but again, Scott wouldn't let him avoid the question.
"What did you trade, Billy?" Scott demanded.
Billy didn't answer Scott, because he didn't have an answer. He didn't know what he'd traded, but the spell had worked, and he hadn't dropped dead, so he didn't think Scott was celebrating the win they'd just gotten. "Can't we just be happy he's alive and Sinister's dead? I killed the vampire with direct sun exposure!"
Despite the tense standoff, Kate snorted and then covered her mouth with one hand. "Sorry."
Scott spared her a look and then turned right back to Billy. "You don't know what you traded, do you?" he asked, and Billy couldn't pull off a poker face quickly enough to hide that.
Remy cleared his throat, doing his best to look as if he was simply part of the wall still. "Maybe not de time to point out - but …" he looked toward Billy for an instant before he turned to Scott. "May not have needed to trade a ting."
"That's a good point," Nate said, looking toward Billy. "Did it feel, you know, like godly magic or whatever?"
"I don't know," Billy said, wrinkling his nose at Nate. "I never know until it happens."
"So did it happen?"
Billy frowned and then crossed his arms. "I know I at least tapped into it," he said at last. "If I hadn't, a spell like that wouldn't have left me with enough to send Sinister to Mercury afterward."
"So maybe if there is a tradeoff, it's not as big?" Kate offered. "I mean, that other you did all sorts of interfering and barely batted an eyelash…"
"That's a big 'maybe'," Scott said, though by that time, James was starting to shift. He frowned at James, took a deep breath, and let it out. "We still don't know if what you brought to life is fully James."
"Um, yes we do," Kate said, rolling her eyes. "That was James. Mad beyond all reason, literally, but it was James."
"You don't know that," Scott said.
"Yes. I do. What happened to hoping for the best and planning for the worst? Are we not hoping for the best anymore?" Kate asked, crossing her arms.
Scott let out a frustrated sound from the back of his throat. "Nobody wants this to have worked - and to stick - more than I do, but I can't ignore the fact that this could draw down something terrible, either!"
"Okay, so we'll fight the terrible thing it draws down," Kate said. "I'm with Billy on this one. Whatever it is, we'll fix it. Better than James being dead, right?"
"Obviously," Scott said, drawing a hand down his face - and then turning his attention more immediately toward James as James started to wake up. Scott's entire demeanor changed, and though he looked guarded, he asked, cautiously, "James?"
James, however, didn't seem to register that anything was being said to him and effectively ignored Scott's question looking entirely in pain. The truth was that he couldn't hear him properly and he couldn't focus on what was happening around him at all. He was totally disoriented, but not angry anymore. Not really, anyhow. He was still healing from the damage he'd taken from Sinister, too, so he half curled in on himself and just stayed that way.
At that, though, Billy finally stopped floating and looking defiant. He touched down close to James and took a step toward him, pausing before he reached out to touch James' shoulder, hoping he hadn't screwed up as badly as Scott was scared he had. "Hey," he said quietly, and when James couldn't say anything back - but didn't attack him, either - he shifted in his crouch so that he could pull James into as much of a hug as he could manage.
When James simply ended up passing out with his head on Billy's shoulder, though, Billy looked toward Scott. "Okay, so… it might… I guess… maybe be a good idea to go back home so we can, you know, monitor him or something."
"At least he was awake for a minute," Kate offered, obviously trying to bolster him up.
"Yeah. A minute." Billy cleared his throat. "Okay. So. I… can't wish everyone back or I would, so I guess… let's pack up?"
"Yes, let's pack our things," Scott said, though he was pulling out his phone. "Don't worry. I'll make arrangements."
Kate raised an eyebrow and then grabbed Billy's arm before he could get too far. "You're getting the 'you're grounded' voice so hard from our father-in-law. You know that, right?"
"Worth it," Billy said without missing a beat.
"Oh, totally. Look at you using the power of love to defeat evil and death and all that," Kate couldn't help but tease him.
He scoffed and shoved her back a step. "Are you serious?"
"So serious. You literally did that. And they'll write your story in the stars. Literally. America says your face is up there."
"Oh my god, Kate."
"Not sorry," she said and kissed his cheek - just as a flash of red lit up the room and Wanda appeared, looking flustered. "Oooh, not it. Have fun - bye," she said, rushing off to go pack while Wanda looked around the room until she saw Billy and strode straight for him.
"You promised me you wouldn't do this," she said, and Billy was already holding up both hands defensively.
"I didn't promise anything, Mom."
"Do you have any idea how risky this was?"
"Yes, actually, I do," Billy promised, but his mother wasn't slowing down.
"I'm sending you straight to Doctor Strange, and I'll be joining you there as soon as I get everyone else here to where they're supposed to be. And you're not leaving until we figure out what you did and what the consequences are - do you understand?"
Billy barely had time to nod before he disappeared in a swirl of red. And only once Billy was gone and Wanda was no longer trying to impress upon her son how serious this was that her expression softened, and she came to kneel down beside James, gently brushing the hair out of his face where he slept.
"He doesn't seem like himself yet," Scott said cautiously, joining her on the floor.
"Do you want me to-"
"Please," Scott said.
Wanda didn't need to hear anything else before she held out her hand and rested it on James' chest. She would have let it hover over him, but her hand was shaking, and she didn't want to worry Scott. She was still in recovery herself, and this was a lot of magic at once for her.
But this time, the spell was simple, and she smiled as she pulled her hand back. "His soul's where it's supposed to be. He might just be adjusting." She pursed her lips. "But let's… keep an eye on him."
"You know I will," Scott said, and Wanda nodded, letting her shoulders drop.
"This could come back to bite him so badly," she whispered.
"Tell me as soon as you or Doctor Strange know what the deal was," Scott said, dipping his head to catch her gaze. "Billy is as much mine as James is yours. I don't want to see him hurt by this."
Wanda gave him a tight smile. "We'll see," she said, then cleared her throat and got to her feet, already working up the spell that would take them all home - and would surprise everyone there, she was sure.
Bobby was going out of his mind with cabin fever. He'd been cooped up forever with the department, and his leg was still healing, so he was either on crutches or skating along with an ice-enforced cast holding his leg in place.
Not to mention the guy he actually wanted to be doing his recovery with was elsewhere.
So of course when he had finally managed to slip past his well-meaning friends, just as he hit the front door, a red light warned him someone was incoming seconds before his absent friends and family appeared in front of him.
And it … it was a lot.
For one thing, James was completely covered in blood, and Bobby had no idea if it was his or someone else's. Wanda was glaring as she finished her spell. Remy had one hand on both Scott and Annie, both of whom looked pale. Nate was still nursing a bloody nose. And Kate was grinning and bouncing David in her arms, somehow unbothered.
"… tell you all about your Uncle Billy and the power of love when you grow up," she was telling David as they appeared.
"Kate," Nate said, still in a visible state of disbelief.
"What the heck?" Bobby blurted out, drawing their attention - at last - away from each other.
"Oh,hi," Kate said, obviously the best adjusted from whatever had happened. "James is back!"
Bobby looked down at the bloody, unconscious kid on the ground, up at Kate, and then around the group. "…what?"
"We're not making any promises until we check Billy's work," Scott said firmly, and Kate rolled her eyes.
"Typical. He can't believe something good is happening."
Bobby raised both eyebrows and then looked toward Scott. "What can I do?"
"We need to get him to Hank," Scott said, letting his shoulders drop. "To check."
"Got it;" Bobby said, already icing up a sled to move James. He glanced at Kate and then, with a crooked smirk Remy's way, said, "We'll hold on the party until he's awake enough to enjoy it, huh?"
Remy chuckled at that, though Kate was much more overt and came over to kiss his cheek. "You're the best, Iceman."
"Always has been," Remy said, and Bobby broke into a huge grin.
"Seriously, it's been so boring with you guys gone," Bobby said.
"Den you awful lucky ol' Remy find his way back."
"We'll see who's lucky," Bobby said under his breath, and Remy smirked crookedly as they followed the group in motion.
