True Believers: Part Twenty-Eight
Shavrin's shriek instantly wrenched Logan's attention away from his wary contemplation of Cable. Even as he turned towards her, the young Askani was slamming into Nate, bearing them both to the ground. Lightning struck somewhere very close by, the crack of thunder quite literally deafening, but it wasn't quite loud enough to drown out a second cry from Shavrin and one from Cable, almost in unison and both full of an anguish that lashed outwards like a whip, staggering everyone around them.
Dunworthy recovered and reacted faster than any of them. "Get to cover!" she barked, leaning down and hauling a semi-conscious Shavrin up off the ground. Domino started to do the same with Cable, and Logan leapt to help her drag him back towards the questionable safety of the nearest alley.
Not a sniper, he thought swiftly, scanning the rooftops. He hadn't heard a shot, and neither Nate nor Shavrin looked to be wounded. Besides, why would she have TACKLED him like that if it had been a physical intact? Throwing up a TK shield would have been easier--
"Nate!" Domino was saying in a low, urgent voice he could barely hear over the roar of the storm as they lowered him carefully to the ground. "Nate, come on, snap out of it--" Cable's eyes were rolled up into his head, blood trickling from his nose as his whole body shuddered convulsively.
"C'mon, tin-man," Logan growled worriedly. Damn it all--
Shavrin was suddenly there, pushing him out of the way and cursing a blue streak under her breath in Askani. Flushed and wild-eyed, she didn't spare him or Domino a single look as she took Cable's face between her hands, her artificial eye glowing silver for a moment.
And Cable suddenly thrashed out of her grip, choking, his chest heaving as he gasped for air. Shavrin fell backwards, blinking at him, and he spat a string of words that sounded like exactly what Shavrin had just said, only backwards, as he fought to his feet.
"What happened?" Dunworthy demanded.
"Killed--" Shavrin said miserably, her eyes filling with tears as she struggled to get up. Logan gave her a hand, but she didn't even seem to notice. "They killed the workers--all of them, dead--"
"Bloody hell!" Wisdom swore, wiping rain from his eyes. "And the two of you caught the backlash--"
"You mean they know we're COMING?" Kitty asked sharply.
"Sounds like it--shit!" Carmen swore, adjusting her headset. "Jonas, fall back!" she ordered swiftly. "Get your team away from the warehouse, it's a trap--"
Cable stood there, trembling from head to toe, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides. Domino started to reach out to him and then froze in her tracks. Logan caught Cable's scent changing, and took a step back automatically.
Aw, SHIT--
"VANDAL!" Cable screamed as the Phoenix-effect exploded into existence around him, knocking the rest of them from their feet. Before anyone could react, he blinked out of existence, teleporting in a flash of light almost brighter than the firebird-shape surrounding him.
Darkness fell again for one, shocked moment.
Then the roof of the warehouse blew off.
***
Gina didn't know where she was. Everywhere around her was dancing light, for as far as she could see. There didn't seem to be anything solid beneath her feet, but for some reason, she wasn't falling, either.
#Hello?# she cried out telepathically, somehow sure her voice wouldn't work here, whatever this place was. #Can anyone hear me? Help--#
A strong grip closed around her wrist and pulled her forward, yanking her out of the lights. Gina blinked, dazed as she found herself standing on a--cobblestone path, leading up through a garden to a tiny house that looked like something from some of Mr. Cassidy's pictures of Ireland.
"Welcome," Miriya said, her expression somber. Gina blinked at her, and then saw Jubilee and Tally standing behind her, both looking as bewildered as she felt. "The transfer, rough it was. Apologies I would give, had I any responsibility for the matter."
"Different--" Gina said without thinking. "It was different--where are we?"
Miriya raised an eyebrow. Gina realized how tired she looked, and wondered what it had cost her to bring them all here. It was an odd thought, but there was something very--true about it. Those instincts again, Gina thought distantly, staring into the woman's strange eyes.
"Between," Miriya finally said. "Call it you might, my watchtower."
"Could you possibly make any less sense?" Jubilee asked faintly.
Miriya's smile was a limp, weary thing, flickering across her face and vanishing in an instant. "More obscure, language grows, as closer to truth one comes." She inclined her head in the direction of the house. "Come along, little sisters."
"What are we here for?" Gina persisted, following her immediately. Tally and Jubilee came along a little slower, but Gina barely noticed, being totally consumed with the utter necessity of getting a straight answer from Miriya. "Miriya--"
"To wait," Miriya muttered. "No place safer than between the worlds to wait until the proper time."
"For what?"
Miriya stopped and looked back at them. She was irritated, Gina realized. Irritated and tired--and sad. So sad.
"Until the proper time," she repeated, steel in her voice. "Come along." This time, she didn't keep to their pace, but strode determinedly up the path, clearly intent on getting inside the house and not particularly worried about how fast or how soon they followed.
"I want to know what happened to Angharad and Kevin," Tally said in a very small voice, hugging herself.
Jubilee gave Miriya a disgusted look. "We'll figure it out, Speedy. I say we watch her like a hawk."
Gina blinked, reaching out tentatively towards the house with her mind. Try to know what you're walking into, Bishop's remembered words echoed in her mind. It's the only way to ensure that there are no unpleasant surprises waiting for you.
And there was. Someone waiting for them in the house. Someone coming OUT of the house, in some kind of floating chair. A floating--gold chair.
Gina had never met the man who sat there, staring at them in disbelief, but she'd seen LOTS of pictures of him while she'd stayed at the mansion. All the X-Men had talked about him. She'd SEEN him in their minds, in their memories. His face was as familiar to her as if they'd known each other for years.
She knew exactly who he was.
"PROFESSOR?" Jubilee yelped, her eyes as wide as Gina had ever seen them.
***
Somewhere on the astral plane, Madelyne Pryor froze in mid-transit as the familiar, burning sensation of the Phoenix-force flaring into life scraped across her senses. Oh, Nathan, DAMN it! she thought in cold panic. What NOW?
#Madelyne?# Nate's astral form stopped beside hers. His avatar glowed so brightly it was almost painful to look at. #What's the matter?#
She debated telling him. Reaching out tentatively, she localized the Phoenix-caused disruption. England--of course. Something was happening. Nathan had gotten himself into trouble again--
Different. It felt different. Stronger, more controlled--she fought the urge to reach out and touch his mind, to see what was happening through his eyes. Caution, the ingrained wariness that seemed to be so much a part of her in this new life, held her back.
There were things she couldn't do. Not even for him. She'd been aware of the Phoenix since her memories had been awakened. Always there, at the edges of her perception, incandescent and unreachable, warning her not to come too close. For a cosmic entity, it had a definite sense of responsibility--and even a certain impersonal fondness for her, she thought sometimes. It knew her nature, knew she couldn't survive any kind of union with it. Not in this form, which was far more fragile than it looked--
#Nothing, Nate,# she projected back at him, carefully shielding her concern. She knew she didn't need to worry about him sensing the disturbance the Phoenix-force was causing. He was utterly fixated on the path of the original distortion wave. Even now, he was emanating a sort of bemused irritation at her 'holding them up'. She sighed inwardly. Her 'creator' or not, sometimes she really thought the boy would do better with a good boot to the head--
Or maybe it was just misplaced frustration. Nathan--is it not possible for you to go twenty-four hours without SOME kind of catastrophe, kiddo? There really wasn't anything she could do, right now, Madelyne thought in frustration. The Phoenix was being very--maternal around Nathan these days. She could only hope that extended to making sure he didn't burn himself out like a damned candle.
#Well, let's go then,# he continued irritably. #The interference is fading. If we don't find its source, soon, we'll lose the trace entirely--#
She toyed, briefly, with the idea of pointing out to him how idiotic it was to assume that the distortion waves were over and done with, but discarded the idea. So he was obsessive--that was part of the reason she'd come to him in the first place. Besides, his shields were strong enough to protect him, even if she didn't lend a hand--
Which she probably would, Madelyne thought with a sigh as she followed him across the astral plane. I have really got to learn to stop being so soft-hearted when it comes to the two of them--
***
Hana sat up, sweating. Not again-- she thought dazedly, reaching out and immediately identifying the nature of the flare on the astral plane, even through the interference.Its strength and psionic 'taste' made it easy enough to recognize, especially after years of exposure to the Mother Askani.
Oh, how this complicated matters--
Beside her, Raul Olivares slept on, oblivious. Her composure slowly returning, she gave the station chief a contemptuous look and then slid out of his bed. Bringing her clothes to her hand telekinetically, she nudged him deeper down into sleep with a single, casual thought. She didn't need an audience for this.
Her lip curled as she thought of the way they'd spent the last, thoroughly unpleasant hour. It had been more than distasteful, but she'd deemed it necessary. Olivares, all of these people, were easy to manipulate empathically, but she'd needed something more--permanent for the station chief. It was standard procedure, when in another era, to create a few failsafes, just in case. Sleeping with the man had simply been the most efficient way to gain full access to his mind. She had always been willing to swallow pride--and nausea--for the sake of the greater good.
In any case, it was done, and she'd fry every synapse in his brain if he presumed to lay a finger on her again. It was amazing how much real pain could be inflicted without doing permanent damage, once a little basic conditioning was in place. Sitting down in the meditative position, she took a deep breath to calm herself and then focused, beginning to levitate.
Soon, the glowing form of her mistress took shape in the dimness. #You sensed it too, milady?# Hana asked respectfully.
The expression on Madame Sanctity's glowing face was remarkably calm, considering the circumstances. #Quite strongly,# she said ironically. #The Phoenix begins to find the idea of returning to this plane, manifesting fully, an appealing one--and Dayspring moves closer and closer to striking a balance with it.#
#Which we cannot allow.#
#Obviously, child,# Sanctity said with a heavy sigh. #His--tendencies towards the random are dangerous enough. We cannot have the Phoenix-force coming willingly to his call--it would make him too unpredictable, shake the foundations of everything we have built.#
Unpredictable? Uncontrollable was the word that came to Hana's mind at the thought. #Yes, milady.#
#To think that I would live long enough to see a cosmic entity--COSSETING a human like a favorite toy. It is bewildering!# Sanctity's 'voice' grew angry, baffled.
#Perhaps with its connection to both Jean Grey and Madelyne Pryor, something like this was inevitable,# Hana ventured tentatively. Not liking the idea, but voicing it anyway. She needed to look at the situation from all angles. After all, Shavrin she could certainly handle--Tyris was more problematic, but still HUMAN, at least. There was NO way she could fight the Phoenix-force, not on any level.
#You are not suggesting it regards him as its CHILD, are you?# Sanctity asked scornfully. #Foolishness!#
Hana caught herself clenching her jaw, and made herself stop. #Perhaps not, milady. Madelyne Pryor was animated, given her very life by it--is it so far-fetched to believe that her child would share something of its substance?#
Sanctity was silent for a long moment. #Immaterial,# she finally snapped, her astral projection glowing fiercely. #We can debate the vagaries of his heritage at another time--#
#Milady--#
#You will be SILENT, child!#
Hana clamped down on her reply, and waited. Sanctity said nothing for a while longer, as if testing her obedience, and then finally went on, her voice in Hana's mind growing increasingly heated.
#This can not be permitted to continue,# she snarled almost feverishly. #He is growing increasingly unstable--the risks he exposes himself to are unacceptable! He must be brought under control, and if I must spend your life to gain that end, I shall!#
Hana swallowed. She hadn't heard Sanctity this angry for a very long time. She was almost raving. Unpleasant things happened when Sanctity lost her temper. #Tell me what you want me to do, milady,# she said submissively. It was the only thing to say--anything else, even the slightest hint of impudence or resistance, would earn her a painful reprimand. At the LEAST. She had not served her mistress for this long without learning something about the Madame's nature.
Sanctity glared at her, looking barely mollified. #It has cost your precognitive sisters considerable time and effort, but they have pierced the interference and located a nexus point that can be turned to our advantage.#
Images flowed directly into Hana's mind. She blinked, recognizing the forested area outside Xavier's home. #There?# she asked rather lamely. That was walking into the predator's den, for her--
#Tomorrow,# Sanctity snapped. #At dusk.# Those glowing eyes narrowed. #You must be resolute,# she almost hissed. #There is a saying in this era--one must sometimes burn the village to save it. We will salvage what we can. Do NOT disappoint me, child--#
Her astral projection vanished in a burst of light, and Hana sighed heavily, lowering herself to the floor and standing up. As far as conversations went, that one had been more--unsettling than most. What could be going on? If there was one thing she hated about missions such as this, it was the sensation of being WITHIN time, being forced to move and change with it. Unable to see the greater picture--
Xavier's home. Tomorrow. Hana's mouth twisted bitterly. She wondered how disobedient Sanctity would consider her if she focused less on being resolute and more on simply being quick about it.
Here, little heretic. Let me put you out of your misery.
Hana shivered at the memory, rubbing the site of the stab wound, remembering how suddenly Tyris had lashed out. How close she had come to dying--
She was not a warrior. She shaped the timestream, she did not let herself be drawn into the hopes and fears and battles of those who were nothing but gamepieces to her. She distanced herself properly. Tyris did not, and that was her mistake, her weakness.
Perhaps Tyris WAS a fool, a wiser part of Hana's mind pointed out dryly, but she was a very dedicated--and dangerous--one.
Stealth. Subtlety. They were the only weapons Hana had available to her against a siondahri. They would have to be enough.
Hana sighed again, this time in exasperation. It would be so much easier if she could just KILL her.
***
When it happened, it was like an explosion in her mind, a star going nova inside the confines of her skull. Jean shrieked, her coffee cup dropping from nerveless hands and shattering on the deck of the Blackbird. She would have followed it down, if Bobby hadn't leapt to support her.
"Whoa! Jeanie, what's the matter?" His worried face lingered in her vision, but she couldn't speak, couldn't reassure him. The fire blazed in her mind for a moment longer, and then was--distant, again. Still right there within the range of her telepathic perceptions, an ominous beacon shining on the astral plane, but no longer trying to consume HER, too--
Trying to slow her breathing, Jean blinked desperately, willing her vision to clear. Her shields had gone up instinctively, as soon as she'd felt it, but it had been so intense, even through the interference on the astral plane--
So intense. So familiar.
"I--I'm all right, Bobby," she managed, straightening, even while her whole inner being shrieked at the lie.
She was not all right. She was about as far from all right as it was possibly to get. "We need to get back to the mansion, Bobby," she said, hearing the agitation in her own voice but unable to suppress it.
"Jean, we still have to--"
"NOW, Bobby." Was this what Rachel had been talking about? THIS was what was causing events to 'slide out of control'? Way to be specific, kiddo--
He stared at her for a long moment, in wary silence. "Jean, what's going on?" he finally asked, very carefully. She could sense him wondering if she was in control of herself or not--damn this whole miserable situation anyways, she thought savagely. It had them all second-guessing each other--
She bit her lip, tasting blood. The truth would have to do, she told herself. "I just felt the Phoenix-force go active. FULLY active, Bobby."
She didn't have to elaborate. His eyes widened. "Ohhhhh, shit. Umm--okay. Yeah, going is good. I'll go get the others--"
"Quickly, Bobby," she whispered, and closed her eyes for a moment as he left. She reached out, struggling to penetrate the haze of interference as she tried to link to Nathan's mind.
But all she could sense was the Phoenix. Nathan was lost somewhere within that blazing fiery bird-form. Everything that was him had been consumed, buried beneath that inhuman fury.
She opened her eyes, swallowing. #Rachel? I could really use a little help right about now--#
No answer. She took a deep breath and went forward to the cockpit, readying the Blackbird for take-off.
Outside, the storm raged on.
***
He felt the storm, felt the rain falling through the shattered roof of the warehouse, hissing and evaporating as it came into contact with the psionic flames that enveloped him. He felt the storm, sensed the fabric of time and space straining under the pressure, rippling, beginning to unravel at crucial points, weakening the whole.
He didn't care. Rage was all he could feel, rage that centered around a single face, a single twisted, foul consciousness that he would find, and crush the life from as slowly and painfully as possible.
#VANDAL!#
The flames roared higher. Mighty wings spread and the fire echoed his challenge with a scream of its own. The walls of the warehouse shook, foundations beginning to buckle under the strain.
#VANDAL!#
He heard shouting. Groans of pain, screams of terror. Some of the beings in the warehouse had died when the roof had exploded, crushed to death beneath the falling debris. Tiny sparks of life, flickering and dying.
Not quickly enough. Lashing out viciously, he sent a wave of power into the dying ones, shattering, scorching incandescence that left only ashes in its wake. He felt them die, tasted their deaths, and reveled fiercely in them.
Then he turned his attention to the ones that were still alive. Alive, and attacking him--attacking him!--with weapons or their own puny mutant powers. Gunfire and bio-blasts alike were absorbed by his flames, feeding their strength.
Insects. Less than that, microbes--why wouldn't they get out of his way? He looked into them, saw the structure of their bodies and minds--connected, inextricably. Complex, incredibly complex--and quite remarkably fragile.
He looked in their minds, and saw the faces of the workers who had died in the explosion. Innocent, terrified faces, screaming for mercy. Knowing they were going to die--
What was left of his reason exploded.
#MURDERERS!# He struck at their minds, first, feeling each consciousness splinter into insanity under his attack. Then, as they started to fall, he reached out with his telekinesis, flame and fury swelling his strength to unprecedented levels, and tore their bodies apart on the molecular level.
***
#STOP!# Shavrin shrieked telepathically. Logan swore and reached out, grabbing Domino, the only one who'd been quicker than him running for the warehouse, just in time to prevent her from slamming into the telekinetic shield that appeared in front of them, glowing so brightly that one look at it blinded him for a moment. Cursing, he pulled her back, ignoring her struggles and shielding her body with his own in an instinctive reaction that she'd probably kill him for later.
#MURDERERS!# Cable's voice snarled in his mind, a single hurled accusation full of feral rage. And then the air was blazing, a fierce, angry red-gold blaze that turned the light from Shavrin's shield into a wan glow. It seethed at the borders of the shield, and Logan somehow knew that the only reason it didn't break through and destroy them all was because it wasn't directed at them. It vanished as quickly as it had come, sucked back to its source like some kind of psionic backdraft.
There was a groan from behind them, and his head whipped around in time to see Shavrin crumple to the ground, unconscious. Then he had his hands full, trying to keep Domino from pulling away from him and running for the warehouse.
"Damn it, Neena, hold on--"
"Let go, Logan--LET GO!" Violet eyes blazing, hair plastered to her head by the rain, she wrenched out of his grip, slammed a fist into his jaw hard enough to send him reeling, and then whirled and sprinted for the warehouse.
"Neena!" Ignoring the others totally, he went after her. "Neena, damn it!" he shouted hoarsely, his words drowned up by another crack of thunder. "Hold up!"
The slender, black-clad figure in front of him didn't look back, didn't stop for even a moment. She hit the side door she'd been heading for so hard that she snapped it off its hinges, but even that didn't slow her down. Swearing, Logan followed her in--
Only to stop, as if he'd run into a wall, at the sight of what was waiting for them.
God--fuckin'--damn.
Floating in the air, surrounded by the Phoenix-effect, Cable turned, slowly, almost lazily, as if he was moving in zero gravity, and stared at them, his eyes narrowed. The Phoenix-effect was immense, filling the whole warehouse. It seemed to move with Cable, fluidly, its wings rippling with a terrible, dangerous grace. It even seemed to breathe with him, like it was part of him, as if, somewhere along the way, the place where it stopped and he started had gotten lost.
Domino was frozen a few steps ahead of him, looking like nothing so much as a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck.
He sympathized. His heart felt like it was about ready to burst out of his chest, and he was caught between a completely insane instinct to attack, to try and take the--creature in front of him down now, and a much more sensible urge to grab Domino and get the hell out of there as fast as he possibly could.
Holy shit, did he ever sympathize--
Cable was wearing black body armor like the networkers, rather than his own uniform. It made him look like a shadow there in the heart of the firebird, but the expression on his face was all too plain.
Those feverish, inhuman eyes narrowed further, into blazing slits, and his face twisted with rage so overwhelming it was too great to vocalize. And when he spoke, it was almost enough to drive them to their knees.
"Get out."
That fiery, charred scent, the scent that was unmistakably the Phoenix, was everywhere, choking him with how thick it was. That terrifyingly familiar scent--so little of Nate left in it--
This had to stop. Now. They had to put a stop to this before Cable went too far--
Snarling, he lunged forward, pushing the still-frozen Domino out of the way and charging, ignoring Domino's cry of protest from behind him. His claws came out in mid-leap, and he was almost there, so close--
Then a bolt of telekinetic energy that would have knocked a 747 out of the sky slammed into him, and he found himself airborne, flying helplessly through the hole that used to be the roof of the warehouse, back out into the night.
Winds screamed around him, seemingly increasing his speed but then swing him around, slowing him as he turned helplessly. He saw a flutter of silver-gray, and then Storm caught him.
"Goddess!" she cried out. He craned his neck around and saw her staring down in horror through the shattered roof of the warehouse. Cable hadn't followed him. He was just--floating there, staring at Domino, who'd gotten back to her feet. "Logan--"
"Gotta stop him--!" he shouted hoarsely over the scream of the wind and the thunder. He could taste blood in his mouth, and his whole body screamed with pain as his healing factor raced to repair the damage. "Storm--gotta take him down--" Below them, the others were racing towards the warehouse. Even Shavrin--
He could feel the shudder go through her body, smelled the sudden anguish coming off her. "Logan--we cannot--"
"Look at him, 'Ro!" Logan snarled feverishly as they hovered there. "You flamin' well know what that thing's capable of doing! If we don't stop him right now, we know where this is going! We HAVE TO TAKE HIM DOWN!"
"Bright Lady forgive us--" But she was changing direction, using the winds to carry them down into the warehouse, and he knew she'd do what had to be done. They'd both seen too much, remembered too clearly what had happened all those years ago.
It couldn't be allowed to happen again. No matter what they had to do.
***
Domino stared up at Nathan, surrounded by the Phoenix-effect, and found herself unable to speak a word. She could breathe, just barely, but couldn't react. All she could do was stand there, stand there and stare into those terrible eyes and scream internally as cold fire inched along the psi-link, breaking through whatever Nate had done to it to seal it off slowly, almost measuringly, as if the--thing inside Nathan was gauging her reactions to the invasion.
It didn't feel like him. It was Nathan's body, but it wasn't Nathan's soul. Or his mind--the presence on the psi-link was as cold as ice and as hot as the heart of a star, raging and impassive at the same time, so brutally powerful that every fiber in her being wanted to flinch away--and couldn't.
Why was it so interested in her? the part of her brain still functioning properly wondered desperately. Why hadn't it brushed her away like it had Logan? Just because she hadn't attacked it?
Or was Nathan--
He had to be in there somewhere. Had to. Would the Phoenix care about what had happened to those workers? Maybe he'd gone too far, called too deeply on the Phoenix-force and gotten lost somehow, but it was Nate's anger that had to be driving this.
Staring into those blazing, pitiless eyes, she thought of him, focused on him--let all her worry and anger and caring flow out into that cold fire. Searching, seeking, for some trace of him--the tiniest sign to tell her that he was in there, seeing her--
Nate--Nate, I know you're in there--answer me, please--
Something changed in his expression. A moment of hesitation, as if he wanted to say something--a single, searing flash of shock and fear--
There was a burst of profanity from behind her, which sounded very much like it came from Wisdom. Shit, she thought, a surge of cold terror going through her as she turned towards the 'cavalry', a warning to stay back on her lips--
And a mammoth lightning bolt slammed into the Phoenix-effect around Nathan. It seemed to--shatter on impact, but it hurt him. She could feel it along the link, knew it even before he reeled in the air, an inhuman scream shaking the foundations of the warehouse.
"Storm!" she screamed, as Ororo, carrying Logan along with her, flew down into the warehouse. Part of her realized suddenly that she hadn't spared even a thought for Logan, but as Storm lowered him to the ground and then threw another lightning bolt at Nathan, she found she didn't really feel like worrying about him now, either. Nathan seemed to deflect this one more easily, but the Phoenix-effect around him grew brighter, and that momentary flash of humanity was gone. "STORM! What are you doing?"
"Back off!" someone shouted from behind her, and Domino flinched as a colossal fireball shot past her, right at Storm, who barely managed to dodge it. Domino whirled and saw Melinda, haloed in pyrokinetic flames of her own, glaring at Ororo.
"Child!" Storm's voice echoed over the thunder, almost imperiously. "You do not realize what you are doing--" Something whizzed past her, only missing her by a trick of the wind, it seemed, and then exploded a short distance away.
One of Jonas's crossbow bolts, Domino realized, and blinked at the sight of the other team. They'd found an entrance on the other side of the building, and they looked every bit as ready to fight--to defend Nathan.
Who didn't really looked like he particularly needed their help, all things considered. A taloned, fiery claw snatched up a huge chunk of the fallen roof and hurled it at Storm, who barely managed to sweep it aside before it hit her.
#GET OUT!# Nathan's voice suddenly screamed, and Domino wasn't the only one who staggered, pain slicing through her mind at the force of it. #Kill him, kill them all, STAY OUT OF MY WAY!#
Head spinning, Domino somehow managed to throw herself in front of Logan as he ran at Nate again, claws out and growling ferally. "What the fuck is the matter with you?" she screamed at him as he put the brakes on just before he ran into her.
From the way he had--and was--acting, she'd assumed he'd gone beserk. That he wasn't thinking, just reacting. But there was sense in his eyes--and not just sense, but focus, the sort of focus that made her realize that he knew exactly what he was doing and had no intention of letting her or anyone else get in his way.
"Out of the way, Neena," he snarled.
"I won't let you--" And she was blinking up at him from the floor, her jaw throbbing. He didn't even spare her a glance as he headed right for Nathan. The stupid, suicidal idiot--
She struggled to her feet, her head spinning. "LOGAN!" Someone grabbed her from behind, and she nearly took his head off before she realized it was Wisdom, and he was trying to help her.
He was staring at Nathan, his face ashen as he watched him and Storm trade lightning bolts and TK blasts at a furious rate. "Bloody hell, this is not good--"
"No shit, Wisdom!"
"Your link--can't you--"
"DON'T YOU THINK I WOULD IF I COULD?"
Logan came flying back at them, crashing to the ground with a groan of pain. Kitty was past them like a shot, kneeling beside him. "Stop it, Logan," Domino heard her shouting as Wisdom half-dragged her in that direction. "There's got to be a better way, some way to reach him--we can't do this! He isn't the Dark Phoenix, damn it!"
Logan pulled away from her, pulling himself to his feet, still snarling. "Not yet--that's the point, Kitty! We have to stop him before he--damn it, this ain't the time to be debating--" Another fireball shot at Storm from Melinda's direction, and Logan whirled, glaring at Dunworthy. "Carmen! Either get your people to help or stay out of the way!"
Dunworthy wrenched her gaze away from Cable and Storm, and then leveled her weapon at Logan. "Not a chance in hell!" she screamed, her eyes blazing. "I don't care what the hell you think you're doing, but if you want him, Logan, you've got to go through every single one of us first!"
"NO!" Pete threw himself in front of Logan and Dunworthy, amazingly enough, DIDN'T pull the trigger. Kitty gasped, paling, and jumped to her feet, reaching out and phasing both of them. Wisdom didn't seem to notice, his eyes blazing as he glared at Dunworthy. "This is bloody insane, Carmen, we can't do this--"
Another terrible scream, telepathic and vocal both, ripped through the air, staggering them all once more, and Domino watched as Nate fell from the air, hitting the ground hard. The Phoenix-effect around him contracted, twisted, but didn't vanish.
Something snapped in her as she saw Storm hovering over him, some instinct taking over that she couldn't stop, or control--without thinking, the decision not even half-formed before she began to move, she drew her weapon, only enough presence of mind to change to a stun setting as she took aim--
In the heartbeat before her finger squeezed the trigger, the Phoenix-effect exploded outwards, greater than before, enormous wings unfolding as it emitted a mind-shattering shriek. It rose into the air--
--and plunged downwards, burning through stone and steels and dirt. Down to the base, screaming for blood as it plunged into the earth.
#VANDAL!#
Her hand clenched around the grip of her gun as she lowered it to her side. Still hovering in the air, Storm was staring at her, pupiless eyes wide with shock--and something else.
Dunworthy suddenly cried out, dropping her gun and staggering, clutching at her skull. Pete swore and leapt to support her at the same time that Melinda did.
"Carmen!" the young pyrokinetic gasped. "Carmen, what is it, what do you see--"
Prescient, a cool voice reminded Domino.
Dunworthy tore away from Pete and Melinda, her eyes wide with horror. "No--NO! We have to get down there--" She started towards the hole Nathan had made, but Pete reached out to stop her.
Jonas was halfway to them at the moment of her outburst. "Blueprints, remember?" he shouted at them as he changed direction and headed for the opposite corner of the warehouse. "The bloody access is over here--"
Domino started to follow him. Logan made a move towards her, and she almost brought her gun back up before she could stop herself. "Don't you touch me, you bastard," she rasped at him, seeing the flash of--something in his eyes. Seeing it, and not caring. She gave Wisdom one searing, bitter look. "You should have let her shoot him!"
***
Down, down into the earth, far away from the storm and the ones that had attacked him. The ones that were supposed to be his allies, his friends--
His physical body hurt. There had been damage, but it could be tended to later. Stress fractures in his mind were beginning to spread further, but the Phoenix flooded them with energy, keeping the damage from spreading any further--for now. It soothed away the images of betrayal, put the memory of the innocents who had died and the monster who had killed them in front of him, to remind him of what had to be done.
Wrath banished pain. #VANDAL!#
And he broke through, into the dark, cavernous place beneath, the place that stunk of evil and death. He slowed his descent, stared around blankly at those who rushed to try and stop him.
Fire. There had to be fire.
And, as soon as he thought it, there was.
to be continued...
[FOOTER]