"All of this for data that doesn't seem to want to be decrypted," Carmen said bleakly, brushing the back of her hand across her eyes and then rubbing at the back of her neck. "Damn it, I just wish we knew whether it was worth it."
She really wasn't as discouraged as she sounded, Nicholas knew. Just tired and stressed, even more so than the rest of them. He was fairly sure she hadn't had more than a couple of hours sleep at a time since Jamie had gone undercover. He wished he could believe it was out of concern on her part, but he knew that wasn't quite the case. There might be a tiny part of her, deep down somewhere, that still looked on the members of the network as people, even as family, but if there was, it was only a fragment. She, like Nathan, had learned far too much at Blaquesmith's hands, although Jeff's death had undoubtedly been a factor, as well; she had certainly been much colder, afterwards.
"The girls will crack the code," he said reassuringly, the words coming almost automatically. This was who he was--the buffer, the diplomat. Blaquesmith had taken Nathan and Carmen and honed them into weapons that could cut each other as easily as they could the enemy. And so they had, for enough years that both had been terribly scarred, and any possibility of trust between them was gone. "I don't believe our file on Katherine does her justice. She's utilizing the full capabilities of our interface systems as if she'd designed and built them herself. And we both know that Melinda and Rebecca are more than competent in this area, as well--I doubt whoever wrote that encryption is anything close to a match for the three of them working together."
He wondered sometimes what Blaquesmith had been thinking, how the Askani had gone so wrong in handling not just Nathan and Carmen, but all the young people he had recruited over the years. The network could have been a family--or a Clan, devoted to one another and to the mission. Instead, they were an army - no more, no less - and one in which anything more than casual camaraderie was frowned upon.
"Nicholas," Carmen started irritably, and then sighed. "Never mind. You're right, of course--I should have more faith."
He smiled faintly, sadly. "I keep telling you that, dear." *And you never listen.*
Carmen rubbed at her shoulder, her expression almost speculative as her gaze roamed the command center. "Logan and Storm have certainly made themselves scarce since we got back."
"Minimizing the possible conflict," Nicholas said. "I doubt they meant Nathan any harm, Carmen. But they were among the X-Men who had direct experience with the Dark Phoenix--" He hesitated, for some reason expecting a protest, but Carmen's expression merely tightened, so he continued. "Their reaction is understandable, perhaps."
"Their reaction would have been entirely justified if we hadn't reached him in time," she muttered. Nicholas raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged almost angrily. "I'm not certain - it was shifting constantly, maybe because of the temporal distortion, like the Askani said - but I'm fairly sure that if he'd faced the Horseman without us there, Vandal would have killed Jamie."
"And?" he prompted, knowing by the look in her eyes that it wasn't all of it.
Carmen's eyes went distant for a moment. "And," she said softly, "I'm fairly sure that London wouldn't have still been there, a few minutes later. It would have been too much. He would have lost it completely." She shook her head. "I never should have gotten him involved in this, Nicholas," she said, agitation straining at the surface calm in her voice. "Vision or no vision, I should have left well enough alone."
"You were convinced it was necessary--"
"I was convinced I was right to think it was necessary," she said bleakly. "There's a difference." She was silent for a long moment, but he could almost see her mind racing behind her eyes. "He has to be kept out of the rest of this," she murmured. "Above all, we can't risk him. There would be no way to compensate for that, unless of course you'd prefer to throw everything we've worked for to the wind and ask Nate Grey if he feels like saving the future."
He didn't respond to the little jab. It wasn't directed at him, after all, and as long as Carmen was making jokes about the boy she wasn't plotting his early demise. He'd barely managed to convince her to let things be--she'd been determined that Grey had to die, after the first confrontation between him and Nathan. "Josephine believes his physical condition will do quite nicely at keeping him out of the rest of this," Nicholas pointed out.
"I don't." Carmen seemed very interested in the floor, all of a sudden. "Not his physical condition, not whatever Josephine heard Domino make him promise. None of it is enough of a--variation," she said, her mouth twisting in a bitter smile. "There are some patterns that can never be broken, some threads that are wound together inextricably."
"Nathan's and Apocalypse's being one of them, I assume you mean," Nicholas said with a completely sincere sigh. Carmen tended to be even more difficult when she was in one of her mystic moods.
Carmen glanced at him, and for a moment, he fancied he saw a touch of fondness in her eyes. "Scoff if you like, old man, but there are some things we couldn't change, even if we wanted to--" She trailed off, frowning, and touched her headset. "I beg your pardon, Julianne?" she said, her eyes widening slightly.
"What is it?" Nicholas asked sharply, looking across the room to the communications station, where Julianne, one of their newest comtechs and barely out of her teens, was hunched over the console, her posture somehow avid.
Carmen focused back on him, her mouth a grim line. "We have two planes inbound from Black Mountains," she said darkly. "According to the flash-burst Julianne picked up, the station there has been destroyed."
Nicholas paled. "Casualties?"
"Numerous," Carmen murmured after listening for a moment long. "But Kevin sent the transmission. At least there's that." Her eyes flickered to Melinda, still deep in link at the interface station.
"Should I bring her out?" Nicholas asked.
"No. She and her brother can save the family reunion for later," Carmen said immediately. "Decrypting that information is a little higher on my priority list."
***
Kevin took a deep breath as the plane came to a stop inside the hangar, and closed his eyes for a moment, even as the others started to get out of their seats. The confrontation he was expecting now was going to be less pleasant than the flight here - and that was saying a great deal, given that the storm had weakened only slightly, if at all - but he had wounded in the second plane that needed medical attention. What he wanted took a distant second to that, he reminded himself, opening his eyes and wearily undoing his harness.
"Kev?" Angharad said softly, hovering behind his chair.
"I'm coming, angel," he said, hauling himself to his feet and giving her as much of a smile as he could manage. The flight had been too long, damn it. He'd had time to think--not just about Tally, either, but about everything that had happened.
The people they'd lost. Ambrose's betrayal. Even, much to his distress, about how this was going to affect the balance of power in the network. He wished he could silence the part of him that didn't want to stop planning and calculating, at least for long enough to mourn the friends he'd lost today. That wasn't too much to ask, was it? The ability to stop thinking like a good Askani operative and go back to being a human being, just for a while--
The hatch opened, and Kevin found himself staring down at a small group of people, Carmen Dunworthy standing a few steps in front of the rest. His sister wasn't among them, and Kevin fought back a brief surge of worry as he stepped down onto the hangar floor. He realized that the group was mostly made up of a medical team, thankfully, but Nicholas and Pete were there, as well. He was glad to see them--especially Pete.
Dunworthy opened her mouth, but Josephine beat her to it. "Your transmission said you had wounded, Kevin?" the medic asked softly. Kevin nodded and gestured at the second plane, which hadn't finished powering down its engines yet. Josephine gave him one measuring look and then headed over, her medical team following her.
"Bad day, Kev," Pete said softly from beside Nicholas.
"You've got a talent for understatement as always, Wisdom," Kevin said hoarsely. "Where's Mel?"
"Trying to decrypt the information we got from the London base," Carmen said crisply. "We may be working on a deadline we know nothing about, here. I wasn't about to interrupt her."
Of course not. Kevin nodded, eyeing Carmen warily--waiting for the rest of it. She finally gave him a thin smile. "Your transmission was a little sketchy on detail, Kevin. What happened?"
"This would be better done back up in the command center," Nicholas said immediately. "And I'm sure Kevin wants to make sure his injured operatives are seen to--"
"Where's Nathan?" Kevin said, his voice still more uneven than he liked. He saw Nicholas's eyes widen slightly, and heard an indrawn breath from Angharad's direction. Pete snorted, and Kevin reflected that the question hadn't been particularly diplomatic. It wasn't that he shrunk from challenging Dunworthy, but doing it now, trying to appeal to a 'higher authority' when he was in her station, after he'd lost his own--
"In the infirmary," Carmen said, an edge creeping into her voice. Kevin opened his mouth, and she cut him off. "He was--injured when we hit the base."
"Not quite the truth," Pete said acidly, and then turned back to Kevin. "He manifested the bloody Phoenix force," he went on bluntly. "He's not recovered from that soddin' mess in Alberta yet. This on top of everything else was too much for him."
The Phoenix force. Kevin honestly couldn't think of anything to say to that. The silence dragged on until Pete shook his head. "Bad day all around," he muttered.
"Sounds like it," Angharad said very quietly from where she stood at Kevin's side. "Do you suppose we could talk about this somewhere other than the hangar, though?"
Carmen nodded brusquely and turned on her heel, heading towards the elevator at a pace Kevin didn't even bother to try and keep up with. Nicholas and Pete weren't in such a rush, thankfully.
"Where's Tally?" Nicholas asked, glancing back worriedly at the second plane.
Kevin ran a shaking hand through his hair. Tally. The Askani might have saved him, but that certainly didn't mean her intentions were entirely benign. And to think of his little girl--his daughter, out there somewhere, caught up in something and completely beyond reach of help, if Nathan really was incapacitated--
"Tally's--not here," he said, his voice breaking slightly.
***
"WHAT?" Logan stared down at Kevin Parrish for a single shocked instant, and then whirled towards Shavrin, his claws coming out involuntarily as he took a step towards the Askani. "Start talking, lady!" he snarled.
She didn't so much as blink. "And say what?" she asked, very softly. "I know nothing about this."
"Logan--" Storm said, and Logan gritted his teeth as she laid a hand on his arm. "Logan," she said, more soothingly. "Let us look at this rationally."
"Jubilee and Gina get hauled halfway across the world by yet another damned Askani and you want to look at this rationally?" Logan roared. "I want some fucking answers!"
"As I do, learning that a fourth sister is in this timeline," Shavrin said tensely. "But rest assured, Wolverine, I have no interest in either of those children! Bright Lady, I didn't even know the girl Gina EXISTED before I came back here!" She shook her head. "Not even the most militant among us would think to take action against the child," she snapped. "If we had known about her while she was under Essex's control, perhaps, but not while she is being raised in Xavier's ways! Offer her additional training, perhaps, but abduct her? Her AND a second child, who has a role of her own to play that cannot be jeopardized?"
Logan's eyes narrowed, but before he could ask Shavrin what the hell Jubilee's 'role' was or point out that Hana, from the looks of it, went a fair ways past 'militant', Parrish spoke up again. "I don't think she meant them any harm," he said very quietly. "She saved my life, and she certainly saved theirs. Angharad and I would never have been able to get them out of the base in time."
"I didn't ask you, pal!" Logan snapped at him, glaring at the man. He'd had those girls there, he had to have known they didn't belong away from the Academy - all of these people knew WAY too much about everyone associated with the X-Men - and yet he'd managed to let this new Askani, whatever her motivations were, whisk them away from under his nose.
Parrish was suddenly on his feet, his blue eyes blazing red. Logan froze, his instincts screaming a warning at him. "I have had a very bad day," Parrish grated. "My people have been wounded and killed, my station has been destroyed, and my--daughter is missing." His voice broke slightly, but grew harsh again as he continued. "If there had been any other choice at all, I would never have let an Askani take those girls--ANY of them!"
Logan's jaw clenched. He didn't want to back down, damn it. He wanted Jubilee and Gina back at the Academy where they belonged. Barring that, he wanted answers. But he heard the raw pain beneath the surface of the other man's voice, and part of him couldn't help but respond to it.
"She saved their lives." Parrish sat back down, his eyes fading back to blue and his shoulders taking on a defeated slump. "I can't deny that. But I don't know what she wanted, and even if I did--"
"You wouldn't have trusted her in either case," Shavrin said with a faint, twisted smile. "Not to minimize the importance of whatever this fourth sister is doing, but there is another issue here that we seem to be missing."
"What Apocalypse wants with you," Carmen murmured, staring right at Parrish. "No ideas?"
"Ambrose said he wanted my abilities," Parrish rasped, running a hand that shook through his hair. The green-haired woman that Logan vaguely remembered as having been introduced as Angharad leaned forward, her lovely face tight with concern. Logan couldn't blame her. Parrish had the look of a man running almost on empty. If it hadn't been for this business with the girls, Logan would have backed off and given him some space. "Not why."
"Your abilities?" Storm asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"I'm an alpha-level mutant, like Mel. She's a pyrokinetic, I generate displacement fields. I can use them offensively, as if they were standard energy blasts--I don't know what use that would be to Apocalypse." He laid his hands back on the table, folding them together somehow determinedly, as if he'd noticed how they were trembling. "I don't know what makes it important enough to have destroyed the station over it."
"The distortion the waves are causing is temporal displacement, reflected back on us," Jonas said abruptly. "Temporal displacement--spatial displacement. Not too hard to make some sort of a connection there. We need the rest of the pieces to put the puzzle together, though--"
Logan started to make an angry comment - this wasn't a damned game! - but the door slid aside and Melinda erupted into the room. Kevin rose from his chair again and stepped forward to catch her as she flung herself at him, hugging him fiercely.
"I knew there was something wrong," she said hoarsely, and Logan got a glimpse of the tears in her eyes before she buried her face in her brother's chest. "I knew it," she continued, her voice muffled.
"Mel," he said wearily, and some of the tension faded from his expression, just for a moment. Then it flooded back, and he pulled away gently, turning back to the table. "I'm open to suggestions," he said, the exhaustion in his voice open and unguarded. "Especially since I've made an absolute flonqing mess of things so far today."
"We don't have enough information," Nicholas said heavily, and looked at Melinda, who was still holding her brother's hand tightly. "Any luck with decrypting that data yet?"
Melinda shook her head. "Nothing," she said, still sounding shaky. "I was on my way down to see if Shavrin could partial-link with us--I'd have asked Nathan, but--"
"Anything I can do to be of service," Shavrin said immediately. "Although I need to scan to locate this other sister, as well--"
Logan glared at her. "Not even a guess as to whether she's friendly or not?" he asked sarcastically. He wasn't calm - far from it - but he was rational enough to realize just how little good gnashing his teeth, frothing at the mouth, and thinking of all the things he was going to do to this fourth Askani would help at the moment. Stay focused, he told himself. One thing at a time.
Shavrin met his eyes unwaveringly, and she gave a low, bitter laugh. "I'm as lost as you are, Logan. Believe me."
***
Cecilia looked up from her terminal, and yelped as she met the eyes of the Askani sitting on the biobed, regarding her thoughtfully. "You're awake," she said, a little unnecessarily, and told her heart to settle down and start beating at a normal rate.
"Very perceptive of you, healer." The Askani winced slightly, sliding out of her cross-legged position and swinging her feet over the edge of the biobed. Cecilia jumped up from her chair and moved to help her, but the Askani gave her a dirty look, and she hesitated. "How long have I been unconscious?" the time traveler asked, her jaw set in a determined line.
"Just a few hours," Cecilia said, moving more tentatively towards the biobed. "How are you feeling?" For some reason, she simply couldn't imagine using her normal sort of brusque bedside manner on this woman. It hadn't been so hard when she'd been in actual, obvious need of medical assistance, but at the moment she looked awake, alert, and quite calm. Which was maybe why she was capable of giving off the scariest damned vibes Cecilia had felt from anyone since she'd gotten shanghaied into this crazy excuse for a life she was 'enjoying' these days.
"I'll live." The Askani pursed her lips thoughtfully, tilting her head as if she was listening to something. "The distortion is--less."
"This is a good thing, I'm assuming?" Cecilia said, trying for a bantering tone. If that was true, you certainly couldn't tell it by the weather. The storm was still raging out there, according to the weather reports still splashed all over the news channels. Although, she had to admit that she couldn't hear the howl of the wind quite so clearly here underground any longer.
"Oh, yes, healer. This is a very good thing." She slid off the bed and stood without any apparent difficulty at all. Cecilia opened her mouth to protest, but shut it without saying a word as the Askani fixed her with a level glare. "It means I can chance teleporting to Dayspring's location now."
Cecilia frowned. "I don't think that's a good idea. If I understand all of this, you could send yourself right back into psionic shock--I'm not sure how you recovered this quickly." Cable certainly hadn't. Then again, his had been a lot more severe--
The Askani started to make what would undoubtedly have been a sharp retort, to judge by her expression, but hesitated inexplicably, going from irritation to frustration in the blink of an eye. "Possibly," she muttered. "That would certainly be counterproductive. But sitting around here waiting for that traitorous bitch to find him again--"
She really, really doesn't like Hana. "You don't do him any good if you kill yourself, either," Cecilia said, much more firmly this time. THIS sort of stubbornness, she was more than used to dealing with. It seemed like a prerequisite for membership among the X-Men. The Askani gave her a hostile look, and Cecilia sighed. "Look, you--Dios, I can't keep calling you 'hey you' or Askani Number Three. What's your name?"
"Askani," the woman muttered, but before Cecilia could roll her eyes and point out how helpful THAT was, she gave a sigh and went on. "I understand the problem, healer. You may call me Tyris if you wish. It was my name, once."
"Tyris, then," Cecilia said with a faint smile. "As I was saying, I won't pretend to understand what's really going on here. I can make a guess as to how serious the situation is--I know what sort of shape Cable was in when he left, and I doubt he could do much to defend himself against a hostile three year-old." Tyris arched an eyebrow, and Cecilia continued. "But you have to remember that you can't help him if you wind up flat on your back again. Better to wait--" The medlab door slid open, interrupting her, and it was Cecilia's turn to raise an eyebrow at the sudden blaze of interest on the Askani's face as Dana walked in. "Hey, Dana," Cecilia said.
"I could come back--?"
"No, that's all right," Cecilia said. "Tyris, I don't know if you remember Dana--"
***
"Of course. Both my healers," the Askani - Tyris? Dana thought curiously - murmured, a strange little smile playing on her lips. "My thanks to you as well, little sister," she said as Dana approached the bed. "I owe you a great debt."
Dana felt herself flush, but managed a tight smile in return. "You needed help," she said. "It's what I do." That led, of course, to thoughts of what the Askani was here to do, which she stepped on firmly. You're just checking on her, she told herself. You don't have to get into any of the--other stuff.
"Ah, yes, but did you regret it when you heard what I told Scott Summers?" Tyris asked shrewdly. Dana flinched, wondering if she was being that transparent, and the Askani smiled thinly. "You are young, still," she said, as if that answered everything. "You haven't yet learned how harsh necessity can be."
Dana looked back at her, meeting her eyes unwaveringly. "I might know more than you think," she said, softly but firmly. Damn it, she wasn't letting the woman bully her. "You sound like Nathan, you know."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Tyris said without batting an eyelash. She was smooth, Dana thought. You had to give her that.. "Very interesting," the Askani went on, looking her up and down until Dana looked away, flushing. Not that she minded being sized up, but people usually weren't quite so blatant about it. "He's had a hand in training you, hasn't he? Dayspring, I mean."
"A little," Dana said, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders. Tyris's smile only grew. "Most of what I learned about my empathy, I learned from Meggan Braddock." Dana's mouth quirked. "The healing sort of comes on its own." The joke slipped out before she could stop it.
Tyris chuckled, a surprisingly friendly sound. "True enough, but he has left his mark upon you. Interesting, when he had so little formal training of his own." She reached up, flipping her red-brown hair over her shoulder. "Nevertheless, the way you look at the world of the mind owes much to Askani teachings. Dayspring might not realize it, but he's wrought well, in this." Tyris tilted her head again, almost thoughtfully. "Perhaps better than well. Do you wish to know more?"
Dana bit her lip, trying to hide her sudden suspicion, but Tyris seemed to 'hear' her. "It would seem a useful expenditure of my time," the Askani continued wryly, "since your fellow healer has reminded me of the risks I would run in teleporting to Dayspring's side until the distortion fades further. Nor would it be a poor use of your time, to learn more."
"What more can you teach me?" Dana asked almost hesitantly. Part of her was leery of the answer. "I mean, you're a telepath and a telekinetic, right?"
"Among other things." Tyris shrugged elegantly as Dana stared at her. "It keeps life interesting--that is the saying in this time, isn't it?"
Dana had an inkling that Tyris knew damned well that she had the saying right. There were depths to this woman, just as much as there had been to Hana. Less malevolent, it was to be hoped--"But you're not an empath," Dana said with a cough when she realized the silence was dragging on.
"I have something of that gift," Tyris said. "Less than you, but it is there. I'm well-versed in the training empaths are given among the Sisterhood."
"So what can you teach me?" Dana folded her arms across her chest, realizing she might look a little confrontational, but not entirely convinced that would be out of place here. She was getting the distinct impression that Tyris was very amused about something, and that was more than enough to make her wary.
"More than you would think," Tyris said briskly. "Very little of what Hana's ilk knows, may they all burn for eternity--"
She says that so matter-of-factly, Dana thought in rueful amazement.
"--but much that might be vital when put to the right use by someone who does not share such corrupted values," Tyris continued, leaning back against the edge of the bed. "More to the point, little sister, what would you learn from me? From one who espoused what you believe is cold-blooded murder?" Her smile thinned again, her voice growing somber. "The knowledge may save you, and others, if you can bear to trust me enough to let me teach you. It has its own price beyond that, of course. Think very carefully on the offer before you make your decision."
Dana stared at her, feeling oddly trapped all of a sudden. What was she supposed to say to THAT? How could letting her teach me save people? Tyris was right about one thing; Dana didn't trust her. How could she? None of them really knew, for sure, what ANY of these Askani wanted. But Dana couldn't just brush her off, not when she was holding other people's safety over her head like that. I wish Nathan was here-- She needed advice, damn it.
"I have things to do," Cecilia interjected. "Tyris, you're free to leave the medlab if you want. Just remember what I said."
"Oh, I will keep it most clearly in mind, healer, have no fear about that," the Askani replied absently, her gaze riveted on Dana.
***
Cable opened his eyes and stared out into a sea of shifting blues and greens, rippling through the air like water out of a painting. Water wasn't that color in real life, he thought muzzily, swallowing. It hurt to swallow; his throat was so dry it felt raw.
A soft cry of pain impinged on his awareness, and he let his head sag to the side, trying to focus on the shadows moving behind the partition beside his bed. Golden shadows, merging with each other every time they touched. There was another choked cry, then quiet sobbing that died down into labored breathing. Over it all, a murmur of tense voices, too soft for him to distinguish words.
He wasn't sure they would have made sense, anyway. Everything felt--odd. The air was thick, pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe, and he was cold, cold right to the bone.
Concentrating, he managed to sit up, but dizziness washed over him in waves and he nearly fell back against the bed again. Not right. Something definitely wasn't right, here. Gripping the side of the bed with shaking hands, he tried desperately to focus. Not right. With him? Well, that was flonqing obvious.
But it was more. Just like--before. He closed his eyes, his breathing coming in ragged gasps as he tried to remember. Before--he'd known before that something was wrong. In the night, in the rain--but this was worse. So much worse that focusing on it made his stomach try and twist itself into knots in reaction.
Danger. He knew it was coming. The bright blues and greens dancing through the air darkened, their crisp edges growing fuzzy, indistinct as they contracted. Darkening, darkening, until midnight blue snow hung in the air, tiny pinpoints of seething light.
He couldn't wait here, he thought sluggishly. Had to warn them. Sliding off the bed, he grabbed at the edge desperately as the room seemed to tilt around him. I am NOT going to fall on the floor. His legs were trembling, as if the muscles didn't want to hold him, and it took enormous concentration to put one foot in front of the other and head for the door.
No one showed up to stop him, or even called out after him. Grabbing onto the doorframe as the infirmary door slid open in front of him, he glanced back over his shoulder, braving the dizziness--
And went to his knees with a sob as the air cleared and everything the distortion had been hiding crashed down on him like a mountain falling from the sky. Pain--fear--nearly a dozen minds, some of them dying--
Was he too late? No. No, the station was still here. The worst was still coming. He used the doorframe to haul himself back to his feet, and tottered out into the hall. The air grew murky again, and he squinted desperately, trying to find the elevator.
Dark--it was getting dark again, darkness tinged with fire at the edges. He was reduced to feeling his way along the wall, but he didn't let that stop him. Couldn't let that stop him.
Death was coming. He could see it, smell it on the air. It raced along his bones like an electric current, humming a mocking dirge, and no matter how hard he tried to move faster, stumbling along mostly-blinded by the sudden darkness, it chased him.
He had to warn them.
***
"I beg your--no. No, Josephine, you don't need to repeat yourself. I heard you."
Domino looked around sharply at the sound of Carmen's voice. She'd had been paying only cursory attention to the discussion Storm was having with one of the technicians over the latest meteorological data, currently being displayed in holographic form. Apparently the storm fronts were beginning to break up; which was good, of course, but the improvement, at this point, was slight enough not to be particularly noticeable, so she couldn't bring herself to be too excited about it. Whatever was going on over by the communications console with Kevin, Nicholas and Logan had appeared far more interesting. She wanted to know what they were talking about, but she hadn't wanted to be too blatant about eavesdropping.
Both were forgotten, though, as she saw irritated bemusement descend like a curtain over Carmen's features. The medic's name had drawn every bit of Domino's attention, inexorably. Trying to stifle the nagging suspicion, Domino met the other woman's eyes, arching an eyebrow questioningly.
Carmen grimaced and strode over to her side. "Nathan's disappeared out of the infirmary," she muttered.
"He did WHAT?" The words came out, too loud, before she could stop them, and just about everyone in the command center looked up from what they were doing. Domino forced her expression back to blankness, and deliberately turned her back on Logan, who was studying her intently. "How the hell did he get out without anyone seeing him?" she hissed.
"Josephine's got her hands full with all the Black Mountains wounded," Carmen said, her dark eyes sparking with anger, as if she was taking this as a personal attack. Frankly, Domino didn't give a damn what she thought, and she wasn't about to moderate her tone just in the name of diplomacy. "She said he was sound asleep the last time she checked on him."
"Well, obviously he didn't STAY that way, did he?" I'm going to kill him. I'm fucking well going to kill him. The thought was absolutely crystal-clear in her mind, untouched by the sick anger that was sitting like a rock in her chest, making breathing difficult. "Any suggestions?" she grated, the terse question all she could manage.
"Easy enough to track him down," Carmen muttered, reaching up and adjusting her headset. "Rebecca, give me a location--"
A stream of sulphurous profanities escaped Domino's lips as she saw a tall silver-haired figure lurch into the command center before Carmen had even finished her sentence. Concern about everyone else's reaction, worry about his shields, even her own instinctive dislike of public scenes vanished as that tightness in her chest exploded into fury like a volcano erupting.
"Son of a fucking BITCH!" she spat, striding towards him. Some distant, calm part of her noted everyone jumping to alarmed attention in her peripheral vision, but self-control was a fleeting memory at the moment, and she ignored the audience completely, focusing only on him. "What the FUCK do you think you're doing?"
"Domino, wait," Carmen said quickly from behind her.
"No, I am NOT going to 'wait'!" Domino shot back over her shoulder. She proceeded to ignore Carmen and stalked right up to Nathan, fighting the urge to deck him. Maybe knocking him down and beating some sense into him would work, she thought, enraged. She'd certainly tried everything else. "What are you doing?" she hissed at him. "Didn't you listen to a word I said to you back in the infirmary?" She hadn't been oblique, that was for damned sure. She'd told him to let this go, to let the rest of them worry about it now--warned him that if he didn't, she wasn't going to stick around to watch him kill himself.
And yet, here he was.
"I can't believe you!" she nearly shouted at him. Nathan flinched away from her, his eyes wide - the left pulsing dully, the right so dilated that the black of the pupil swallowed all but a thin circle of gray - and darting around the room wildly.
"No," he muttered, swaying alarmingly, one hand going to his temple. "Here--it's happening right here."
If she hadn't been so angry, she had a nasty suspicion she'd be in tears. "Damn you!" It came out much softer, but still savage. "Damn you to hell, Nathan, I meant what I said!" She'd drawn a line, and he'd crossed it. It was that simple.
"Neena, hold off a sec." That was Logan. LOGAN, of all people, grabbing her arm. With a curse, she whirled, about ready to lash out at him as the handiest available target, but he stepped back out of her easy range, and the scowl he directed at her stopped her in her tracks, just for a moment. "Look at him. Stop shouting and LOOK at him."
Fuck him. He didn't know what she'd said to Nathan in the infirmary. The stubborn asshole had pushed her too far, this time. But even as she though it, even as her pride rebelled at admitting that Logan might be sticking his nose into this for a reason, her eyes were already moving back to Nathan's face.
A sudden chill of unease hit her as she saw that he was still looking wildly around the room, as if he was searching for something. Her angry words appeared to have gone entirely unheard--it was like he didn't even know she was there. Her anger cooled even farther as she took in his flushed face, unsteady stance and shallow breathing. "Nathan," she said, her voice calmer but still hard. "Why did you leave the infirmary?"
He moaned, one hand going to his temple again as he tried to step around her. "Stop her," he said dazedly. "Two of her. She's hiding death and she doesn't know it."
Domino stared wide-eyed at him for a moment, speechless. "Nathan," she finally started, helplessly. She'd expected an argument, not--this. "What are you--"
"Ghost," he continued feverishly, as if he hadn't heard her. "Angry--she's angry, he made her hate and now she's waiting."
"What's going on?" Nicholas said urgently, hobbling over to them. Kevin followed him, those ice-blue eyes narrowed with concern as he studied Nathan.
"Nathan?" Ororo ventured tentatively, taking a few steps forward from the holo-unit and then hesitating. "Nathan, are you well?"
Logan growled. "I don't think he's hearing any of us," he said, and then jumped forward at the same moment as Domino did, as Nathan's knees buckled. Between the two of them, they managed to keep him on his feet, but he didn't seem to even notice their assistance.
"Dead--we're all dead if the other wins--"
He was raving; there was no other way to describe it. "Nathan, look at me!" Domino said sharply, a thread of fear lacing through her at his continuing lack of response. She reached up and laid the back of her hand against the side of his face, drawing it back with a hiss. "Shit, he's burning up."
Another growl came from Logan. "Neena, the bleedin' virus is hot, even," he said urgently. "How the hell's that possible?"
Domino blinked at him in disbelief and then moved her hand to Nathan's left shoulder. Logan was right. She could feel the heat of it right through his shirt. Steady heat, radiating from the techno-organic metal that was usually so cool it had always been hard for her to believe that it was alive and not just prosthetics. "I don't know," she said, her voice shaking. "I've never seen him like this."
"I can see it," Nathan moaned, trying to pull away from them. "It's already here--let me go, I have to stop it!"
Carmen came up beside them, one hand touching her headset. "Josephine, I need you up here, right now," she said tensely, her eyes fixed on Nathan's face. "We should get him sitting down, at least," she said in a lower voice.
"Easier said that done," Logan muttered, trying to hold onto Nathan as he kept struggling. "Damn it, Cable, settle down! It's all right!"
"Let me GO!" He shoved all three of them away telekinetically - not too forcefully, but enough to send even Logan staggering. Kevin lunged forward to block his way, and Nathan stopped dead, blinking at him. "Kevin," he said unsteadily.
"Right," Kevin said firmly. "Now calm down. Whatever it is, we'll sort it out."
"But--"
"You trust me, don't you?"
Domino straightened, moving back to Nathan's side very cautiously. She didn't understand how Kevin had gotten through to him, when he hadn't seemed to see her and Logan as anything except obstacles. Not that she was complaining, although it stung in a petty sort of way--
"But--the engine," Nathan muttered faintly, swaying again. "You're--here? I don't--" He trailed off, eyes rolling up into his head, and Domino and Kevin reached out to him almost in unison. But he caught himself, somehow, shaking his head as if to clear it. "I don't understand," he said in a small, confused voice. "That's not--you were supposed to be there--"
Kevin frowned. "The engine?" he asked, his eyes narrowing again. "What do you mean?"
Domino could have kicked him. "Never mind that," she snapped, reaching out and taking Nathan's arm, giving it a little shake for good measure. "Nathan, look at me--LOOK at me!" His head turned in her direction, but his eyes wandered past her, and her jaw clenched in sheer frustration. I will NOT hit him, she told herself harshly. That will NOT help. "Come over and sit down," she continued inexorably, trying to draw him towards the nearest chair. "It's all right. Nothing's going to happen--"
"It already HAS!" Nathan jerked away from her and somehow managed to rediscover both his coordination and balance as he bolted towards one of the consoles on this side of the command center.
"Nathan!" Carmen snapped as Nathan reached the console, grabbing onto the edge to steady himself as he began to enter some sort of code on the keypad. She swore and started towards him. "Leave that alone!"
Domino stopped in her tracks, so quickly that Kevin ran into her from behind. "What is it?" she asked sharply.
"Rebecca's control system," Kevin answered rapidly, stepping around her. "I don't know what he's--" He never finished his sentence.
Domino was already looking back at Nathan when it happened. The lights dimmed, the seemingly ever-present hum of the station's generators slowing to a dull growl--
Crackling blue energy arced up from the console, blindingly bright. It smashed into Nathan, flinging him away, and he folded to the ground with a moan as the lights came back up. Domino swore and ran to his side.
"Rebecca!" Nicholas said, sounding utterly appalled.
"What the fuck was that?" Logan snapped.
"It's a defensive system, but she shouldn't have--"
Domino fell to her knees beside Nathan. "Nate," she said softly, urgently. He was huddled on the floor, curled into an almost fetal position, still moaning. "Nate, talk to me--"
A scream came from Carmen's direction, and Domino's head whipped around in time for her to see the other woman go to her knees, clutching at her head. "Kevin!" Carmen gasped out. "Shut Rebecca down, turn off the matrix--NOW!"
Kevin didn't stop to ask questions. His eyes glowing red, he raised a hand---and was hurled to the floor as the console emitted the same whiplash of energy. Domino knew, just by the way that he hit the floor, that he was unconscious, at the least.
"You are not shutting me down," Rebecca's voice said from every speaker in the room, soft and strangely deadly. There was a strange, metallic edge to her voice that was decidedly ominous. "That's not the way it works." The lights dimmed again, and some sort of klaxon started to shrill from across the room. "I shut YOU down," the synthesized voice of the AI said, almost viciously. "And you all die."
"The defense grid's down!" one of the technicians shouted in agitation from the direction of the klaxon. "And we've got incoming!"
***
She could hardly open her eyes. Her visions usually hurt, but they'd never been like this before. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Carmen squeezed her eyes shut tightly. Concentrate--have to concentrate--
But she was seeing it already, what was descending upon them, and suddenly all of Nathan's raving was making sense. "Report!" she managed, her voice breaking on the word as she forced herself to open her eyes. The room seemed to swim in front of her, overlaid with images of fire and battle and death.
"We've got perimeter breaches all over the place! Teleport signatures are still cropping up--"
She tried to focus on the technician, but couldn't see anything but his corpse, lying in a corridor on the other side of the complex. "Kevin--" She reached out blindly, and cried out as someone seized her hand.
"Easy, darlin'," Logan's gravelly voice said as he pulled her to her feet. "He's out cold--"
"They're mutant biosignatures!" the technician shouted.
"Dark Riders--" she muttered, fighting the wild laughter that bubbled up inside her. So Nathan hadn't killed all of them after all. She heard someone swear - Nicholas? she thought in disbelief - but found herself struggling to stay on her feet as another wave of images cascaded over her.
Her vision cleared sharply, and she found herself staring helplessly at Rebecca's control systems. "She's rerouted everything," she murmured as a flash of Kevin struggling back to his feet and blasting the console to pieces hit her. "It's too late." It would take time to get to the AI matrix physically--it was buried in the sublevel beneath the command center, and shielded more tightly than anything in the entire station. By the time they did--
A slap rocked her backwards, and she staggered, blinking in shock at a grim-faced Nicholas. "Concentrate," he said in a harsh voice. "Dark Riders, you said."
"They're coming to kill you," Rebecca said, almost sweetly. "All of you--"
Carmen saw Kevin sit up, and swallowed. "No--" she said hoarsely, as he started to get to his feet, his eyes glowing red. "It won't do any good--" She gasped, nearly falling again as she saw running battles in the corridors, Jonas stumbling towards one of the emergency accesses, covered in blood--no. Jonas, sitting in the pilot's seat of one of the planes--uninjured?
"Internal coms are down!"
She looked over at Nathan, blinking, trying to focus her eyes. He was still lying on the floor, his head cradled on Domino's lap. "Telepath--" she managed. "We need--a telepath--" A cry escaped her, and she fought the overwhelming irrational urge to claw out her own eyes as she suddenly saw nothing but Jelena, Kevin's telepath, being cut in half by an energy blast.
"Carmen! Stop it!" Someone grabbed her hands, holding them away from her face, and she blinked at Nicholas. "She can't function like this," he snapped, his head turning to the side. "Kevin--"
"NO!" Carmen shouted violently, her head clearing and one absolutely crystal-clear realization setting in. "They WANT Kevin--" She knew that, as surely as she knew her own name. That was the reason they were here, to do what they'd failed to do at Black Mountains, because of the Askani's interference--
Then everything shifted again, and Carmen swore as she got a flash of Domino standing right here in the command center, fighting to protect a still-unconscious Cable. The Riders were desperate to kill him--to kill him while he was helpless. Before--before something--
Realization hit. They knew. They knew about the Phoenix, and wanted him dead before anything like what had happened at the base could happen again. Two objectives, then, the strategist in her thought with remarkable calm. Neither of them acceptable.
"Kevin and Nathan stay out of it," she said, gritting her teeth at Nicholas's sharp look. He should know better than to question her at a time like this. "We need to get them both out of here--"
There was the sound of a distant explosion, and the whole station seemed to tremble as the lights went down. Curses came from more than a few directions as the echo seemed to linger. The darkness was as total as it was brief, and as the emergency lights came on, Carmen shook her head determinedly, banishing the last flickering fragments of imagery.
There'd be more. She knew that. Wouldn't have it any other way. When you were backed into a corner, you took every edge you could get.
Carmen Dunworthy took a deep, ragged breath and started to give orders to her people.
***
"What is it?" Scott asked, laying a hand on the back of the chair as Betsy tried to coax whatever transmission she'd summoned him to the commsuite to see into some reasonable facsimile of clarity. The storm was beginning to fade, more noticeably now, but the remaining temporal distortion, invisible though it might be, was still wreaking havoc with communications. He hadn't taken a shift on monitor duty yet today, but no one seemed bothered by that. They all clearly realized he was already long past his usual frustration threshold, Scott thought with a sort of bitter humor. Then again, wrestling with equipment might be a good way of sublimating his current and burning - if rather impractical - desire to take his son over his knee--
"It appears to be from Theresa," Psylocke said calmly, hands moving elegantly over the console. "I'm trying to clean it up a bit."
"No rush," Scott murmured wryly at her unhurried tone.
Betsy raised an eyebrow. "There's no need for sarcasm, Scott." The screen, awash in snow, flickered several times, and Betsy shook her head. "The transmission arrived in appallingly bad condition. I could use Kitty's help at the moment."
Squelching a comment about how she wasn't the only one who wanted Kitty and the rest back safely, Scott narrowed his eyes, trying to focus on the faint outlines of Theresa Cassidy's face, lost in the interference. "Do what you can," he said. "Just so long as it's not a call for help, or something we need to act on quickly--"
"I don't believe it's the former. I can't be sure of the latter--"
"--chancing the storm," Theresa's voice crackled from the speakers. She looked--shocked, Scott thought in bemusement as the image grew slightly clearer. "--not--much choice--she--told us--"
"Chancing the storm?" Scott frowned. "I don't think I like the sounds of that--"
"--others, too--" Static interrupted the recording completely for a moment, but receded slightly again as Betsy scowled and made a few more adjustments. "--think things--to a head--dangerous---very soon--"
The screen flickered again, and Betsy swore softly. "I'll keep trying to produce a clearer version of what we recorded," she promised, not looking away from her work. "I can't guarantee anything. We're still having these bloody power surges, for one, and I can't get back in touch with them at all. This damned storm--"
"Well, what have we got at the moment?" It was a mostly rhetorical question, of course. "They said they're chancing the storm," he muttered, looking down at Betsy speculatively. "They could be planning to do something--go somewhere, maybe--"
"Here?" Betsy asked, hesitating in mid movement and meeting his eyes. Scott shrugged, and she raised an eyebrow. "It is possible."
"But we don't know for sure." Scott shook his head. It did make sense, though, he had to admit. "'She' told them--told them what?" And who the hell was 'she', more to the point--
Betsy muttered something to herself, hands dancing over the console once more. The screen flickered again, coming alive. The static, visually, was worse, but the audio seemed slightly clearer.
"I'm running it again--"
"--the storm," Theresa's image said, the worry in her voice much more audible. "--real problem--the Askani--not left with much choice, Rachel--told us we had to--the mansion--"
The bottom dropped out of Scott's stomach. Rachel, he thought, stunned. Did she just say Rachel? She did. That was--enlightening.
"Oh, my--" Betsy murmured, leaning back in her chair. "I suppose that answers our questions." She shook her head. "First she tells Jean to get back here, now X-Force gets the same message? Rachel seems to have been very busy today."
Scott reminded himself that he needed his jaw to talk properly, and went about picking it up from the vicinity of the floor. "You know," he said, as dryly as he could manage. "I really, really have to have a talk with my children. If they keep springing these little surprises on me, I'm going to go gray before my time."
***
"You know, Mel," Jonas said calmly, leveling his crossbow, focusing his mutant ability, and watching as the explosive bolt hit the Dark Rider in the dead center of his chest, turning him into something resembling dog food, "I don't really need a babysitter."
Melinda shrugged and traded places with him as he reloaded. "Carmen says you do," she pointed out, incinerating the next three Dark Riders that came down the hall with one well-placed fireball.
She didn't know how she was managing to sound quite so calm. There were Dark Riders here, inside the station, the heart of the network - Dark Riders that wanted to capture her brother and kill Nathan - and all they could do was try to hold them off for long enough to get the evacuation together.
She should NOT be so calm. Maybe Jonas was rubbing off on her. "I'm taking the other side," she said, and dove for the other side of the hall. An energy blast of some kind whizzed over her head, nearly singing her hair, but she ignored it. Close didn't count.
Rolling as she hit the ground on the other side, Melinda came back to her feet and leaned around the corner, concentrating hard as she reached a hand towards the six or seven Dark Riders who'd taken cover at the other end of the hall. The fireball that blazed into existence was bigger than anything she'd managed in months. She directed it mentally down the hall, and heard screams as it reached its target.
"Nice shot," Jonas said, and took out one of the survivors with his next shot. "So what, then--I'm going to die a terrible death or something?"
"Something like that," Melinda muttered, the smell of burnt flesh hitting her. She was used to it. It was sort of inevitable, when she used her pyrokinesis to fight. You could get used to all sorts of unpleasant things, if the necessity was there.
"Well, live hard, die young, take a few of them with you," Jonas said, and actually tossed her a smile.
The charred, bloody-splattered hallway stretched out in front of them, empty save for the corpses. "A lull, maybe," Jonas said meticulously. "You fall back to the next junction, I'll meet you back there in a minute--"
"Like hell," Melinda snapped instantly. Jonas gave her a surprised look, and Melinda forced herself to smile. "You think I'm leaving them all for you?"
"Bloodthirsty as ever," he murmured almost fondly, reloading his crossbow. He leveled it abruptly as something rose from the floor, and then lowered it with a sigh. Melinda had a small fireball ready and waiting, which she let dissipate as soon as she saw who it was. "Hello, Pete, Kitty," Jonas said dryly. "Where'd you two come from?"
Kitty finished phasing them out of the floor before she answered. "Emergency access number twelve, according to the stupid git here," she said, a bit of an edge in her voice. "There are about sixty Dark Riders standing right outside."
"I'd like to know where the bloody hell they all came from," Pete snapped, clearly agitated. Melinda knew, without having to think about it, or ask, that it was only partially because of the situation--and mostly about Rebecca. "Correct me if I'm wrong," Pete continued, his voice shaking ever so slightly, "but didn't Nate kill all of the Riders in that sodding base?"
"Well," Kitty said very calmly, not letting go of Pete's arm, "obviously they came from somewhere else." She glanced at the hallway. "You're been busy," she said, paling slightly.
"We've got people scattered throughout the whole station complex, holding off the bastards at choke points," Jonas said, just as tranquilly. "It's a good thing this place was built like a fortress. None of us ever thought our own AI would shut down the defense grid--" He paused for a second, wincing at the expression of near-anguish on Pete's face, and then went on. "We just need to hold them off for long enough for Carmen to divine us the safest evac route." Frowning, he reached up and touched his headset. His face went blank in that unmistakably Jonas-expression of alarm. "We need to fall back," he snapped. "Right now!"
The ceiling caved in, and Melinda gasped in surprise as Jonas tackled her, bearing her to the floor. "What are you doing?" she almost shrieked as debris fell all around them. "JONAS!"
He went limp on top of her, and swearing, she struggled out from underneath him. "Kitty? Pete!" she shouted. The dust was so thick, she couldn't see them anywhere--"Jonas?" she said urgently, looking down at him. Her heart skipped a beat or two in relief as she saw him already stirring. "Don't DO that!" she hissed. "Idiot!"
She heard a stream of curses from somewhere in the dust, and Kitty and Pete appeared, hand in hand and definitely on the translucent side at first. Pete swore, kneeling down beside them. "Jonas? You okay?"
"Fine--" he coughed as Melinda and Pete helped him sit up. He reached instinctively for the tactical headset, and cursed hoarsely in obvious frustration. "Broken--damn it--I'm out of contact with the tactical net!"
"Then we fall back," Pete said harshly, getting to his feet and pulling Jonas up with him. "You're supposed to be coordinating this whole bloody excuse for a defense, and you can't do that if you can't talk to the other teams."
Another explosion rocked the station, nearly knocking Melinda back to the ground as she tried to get up. Kitty reached out to steady her. "Either way, we need to fall back," she said crisply. "I don't know what's going on a few levels above us, but I don't think we want to stick around and wait for whatever it is to come crashing down on top of us."
Jonas leaned over and picked up his crossbow. "Let's go," he said, his face set and pale.
***
Angharad flinched at the look Josephine gave her as the medic straightened and turned away from the bed where Patrick, one of the technicians from Black Mountains, was lying, hooked up to a bevy of monitors. "It will be a miracle if he survives being moved," Josephine said very quietly. "He's the worst hurt of them--" She hesitated briefly as one of her assistants passed, pushing an anti-grav gurney towards the door. "Everyone else should come through the trip well--" The station shook with another explosion, and Josephine grimaced.
"If we manage to get them to the hangar," Angharad said, just as softly. She tried to tell herself that the wounded had already been through one turbulent plane ride today. They would be all right for a second; they had to be. She and Josephine and the infirmary staff just needed to get them to the hangar safely. That was all they COULD do.
"Oui," Josephine said with a sigh. "There is that. Help me get supplies together, s'il vous plait?"
"Of course," Angharad said, and following her, trying very hard not to worry about what Carmen had said the Dark Riders wanted. She wanted to be with Kevin right now, that was the problem. But she had to see to their people, too, since he couldn't.
Life in the network was hard at the best of times, but she couldn't remember ever feeling quite so helpless.
***
The auxiliary control room was crowded, filled with the noise of people trying to make sense out of the disaster that had descended on the station. Carmen and a few of the technicians were wrestling with the computers, trying to get control of at least a few primary systems back from Rebecca--and not having much luck. Logan and Nicholas were trying to coordinate things with the teams scattered through the complex trying to hold the Dark Riders off and create a safe evacuation route.
Domino wasn't paying too much attention to any of them. Perched on the edge of the padded bench where Nathan was lying, she laid a hand against his forehead, trying to manage a reassuring smile as he blinked up at her. "Hey," she said softly.
"Too late," he muttered, his eyes fluttering closed again. Domino grimaced, taking his hand and squeezing it tightly, feeling his pulse racing beneath her fingers. He was shivering steadily, something close to a whimper escaping him every so often.
"Nate," she said, a little more firmly. "Stay with us, here. We're going to need to move, shortly, and it'd be easier if someone didn't have to carry you." She was fairly sure he was hearing her. Whether he understood--that was a different matter. His fever was too damned high, and there wasn't much they could do about it at the moment. Josephine had given him something when she'd been up here a few minutes ago, before she'd had to go back down to the infirmary to get the wounded ready to move. It had helped, a little, but not enough. Shavrin had tried to scan him, before she'd gone to help with the defense of the station, but she hadn't been able to find any psionic explanation for this.
Domino grimaced again. The 'defense'. They were buying time, that was all they COULD do, the two and three-person teams scattered across the station complex. It's a good thing this place is built like for defense. The Riders were still trying to push their way through the maze of corridors and sublevels. As far as crises went, this one was unfolding in a moderately leisurely manner.
"Emergency accesses three through six are blocked, according to the security detachments," she heard Jelena, Kevin's telepath from Black Mountains, say from over at the main console. "Storm says she's having more luck on level seven--she thinks she can hold that access open, if we want to ."
"That doesn't do us much good," Carmen said tautly. "We need to make a push for the hangar."
"Why not do that now?" Logan growled.
"Because we can't leave the databanks for the Riders," Carmen snapped, her hands flying over the console. "Do you have any idea what they could if they got their hands on the Record? And we can't afford to just wipe the computer memory clean, either. I've almost got a channel open to Paris. We can download, if I manage to make a secure connection--"
"You're holding off the evacuation for this?" Logan growled.
"This is important, Logan!" she blazed. "It's not just the Record and the data we got in the raid. You don't understand--if Apocalypse gets his hands on some of this information, or if we lose it, he wins!"
Domino tuned out the argument. She couldn't bring herself to be overly concerned about the fate of information at the moment. Let Carmen worry about that. "Nathan," she said again, very softly. "I need you to stay awake."
"What's in Paris?" she heard Logan ask. "Another station?"
"You're going to send the Record to Olivares?" Kevin asked sharply, before Carmen could answer.
"Well, I would have sent it to you, Kevin," Carmen snapped, giving him something close to a baleful look, "but seeing as though you got your station blown up, we're going to have to make other arrangements. Paris is the closest station with the level of security and the dedicated core-space that we need for a transfer like this. Edinburgh's is down for upgrading, so unless you want to wait around here while I try and establish a secure connection with Morocco, Paris is the best option." She straightened, muttering something under her breath that sounded almost grateful. "Raul? Are you receiving?"
There was a crackle of static from the speakers, and then an unfamiliar male voice, deep and concerned-sounding. "Relatively clearly, Carmen. I see you're on an emergency channel. What's going on?"
Olivares, Domino surmised. Nathan shifted on the bench, a moan escaping him, and Domino ignored the quick, concerned look Logan shot in their direction.
Carmen's expression tightened. "Situation critical, here," she said tightly, as if it hurt to admit it. "We've got Dark Riders inside the station and Rebecca's been corrupted somehow. Black Mountains has been destroyed already, so I need a data link--I'm going to download the Record and the rest of our core's memory to you."
There was a moment of what seemed like shocked silence before Olivares answered. "Working on the uplink. The distortion's going to be a problem." He sounded calm--too calm? Domino wondered suddenly, her eyes narrowing. Not that anyone around her was losing their cool or anything, but still, there was something in his voice--
"We don't have much of a choice," Carmen almost rasped. She didn't seem to notice anything amiss, and Domino shook her head, shelving the vague suspicion--at least for now.
"Sounds like it. What happened at Black Mountains?" Curiosity, now, surprisingly mild. As if he were asking who'd won yesterday's soccer game.
Kevin leaned forward, before Carmen could answer. "Ambrose happened, Olivares," he said bitterly, and Domino saw his eyes glow red in the dimness of the emergency lights. "He decided he liked the other side of the street better."
Again, a space of silence, and when Olivares continued, Domino caught an odd edge to his voice, audible even with the faint static still distorting the transmission. "Ambrose? The same Ambrose you had updating security systems on AI matrices all over the British Isles three months ago?"
Carmen went ashen, and Kevin closed his eyes, the muscles along his jaw rippling. "Shit," he breathed through clenched teeth, and then slammed his fist into the console. "SHIT!"
"Webs," Nathan muttered, his eyes still tightly closed. "Weaving webs--" Domino looked down at him, her mouth quirking in a bitter smile. He might still be raving, but that comment was clear enough.
"Congratulations, Carmen, you managed to screw yourself AND every other station in the UK," Olivares said, the sarcasm in his voice obvious. "So nice to see that you can't manage to keep tabs on all your people, even with all the telepaths you've got at your disposal."
"This--is not the time for this discussion," Carmen managed, her hands tightening on the edge of the console, as if to steady herself. Guilt and rage chased each other across her face before she managed to don a blank expression again. "We have a crisis to deal with at the moment," she went on, her voice steadier. "Let's focus on that, if you wouldn't mind."
"Later, then," Olivares said, the threat in his voice clear as day. "We'll have lots to talk about, later. I've got the link up ready--start transmitting."
Domino started as Nathan's eyes flew open and he sat up, pulling his hand free of hers. "Not--the answers," he said feverishly, giving Carmen an unmistakably urgent look. She met his eyes, frowning, and he rubbed the back of his hand across his eyes, making a frustrated noise. "Not--the package," he said desperately. "Don't throw it away. Send it home."
"What was that?" Olivares' voice said from the speakers, sharp and questioning. "Was that Nathan I heard?"
"Wait one," Carmen muttered, and was up out of her chair and across the room, kneeling in front of Nathan before any of the rest of them could react. Her eyes met his. "I can't get a clear image of what's going to happen, I don't know why," she said softly, urgently. "But you saw this happen before I did. I don't know whether it was the temporal distortion or something else, but I KNOW you're seeing more than I am right now." She reached out, taking his hand. "Tell me what to do," she urged.
Nathan's features twisted in frustration. "The answers--the secrets--" He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Not ours--HIS."
"The data from the base," Carmen muttered. "You don't want me to send it to Paris? Nathan?" His head was sagging towards his chest, and Domino slid an arm around his shoulders to keep him upright. "Nathan!" Carmen snapped, taking his face between his hands. "Look at me. Where do you want me to send it? Nathan!"
"Home," he almost moaned, and Domino gave Carmen a warning look when she seemed ready to persist. "Home," Nathan repeated and laid back down, drawing in on himself in an almost fetal position.
"The X-Men's mansion," Nicholas said suddenly, getting up from his seat and moving to the one Carmen had just vacated. "That's what he wants. He wants us to send the data we got from the base to Westchester."
"Jelena," Carmen said, getting up, "get Kitty back up here." They'd need her, Domino thought, unless one of them knew more than they were letting on about the X-Men's systems. "Nicholas, see if you can get a channel open to the X-Men."
"No!" Olivares' voice suddenly snapped from the speakers, alive with fury. "That is not acceptable, Dunworthy! None of this would have happened if you hadn't gone to Nathan in the first place, and now you want to get more involved with the X-Men?"
"I'd like to know how you know that!" Carmen snapped, going back over to the console.
"Carmen, I will NOT--"
"Leave it, Raul! It makes sense--that's where we're heading when we evac."
"You most certainly are not!"
Domino looked up, frowning. "What the hell's his problem?" she asked, unable to keep the edge out of her voice. They HAD to go back to the mansion--Shavrin had said she would need Jean's help to do anything to help Nathan.
"Raul, this isn't up to you," Carmen said, ignoring Domino completely.
"Well, you don't seem to be making very good decisions lately, Carmen, if you'll forgive me saying so--"
Domino gave a sharp bark of laughter. "Wonderful, just the time to be arguing amongst yourselves," she growled, bending over Nathan again.
***
Hank McCoy had never been quite so glad to get back to the mansion as he was now. The flight back from New York, where he'd been conferring with Reed Richards and Hank Pym about the current temporal crisis, had been harrowing, to put it mildly. The fact that they hadn't really accomplished anything of note, making the trip rather pointless in the first place, truly wasn't helping him put the risks in perspective. At least the storm seemed to be dying down somewhat, he thought as he ran from where he'd landed his minijet on the lawn to the front door of the mansion. Still, attempting the hangar in such weather conditions, had seemed a little chancy to him.
He reached the front door, and had to fight the winds to close it again, once he was in. Inside, there was an eerie sort of silence, a sharp contrast to the howl of the winds outside. "Hello?" he called out, semi-facetiously. "Is there anyone home?" There was, of course--just not in this part of the mansion, perhaps. He had spoken to Scott to tell him he was on his way home--
#Hank?# Elizabeth's voice said sharply in his mind. #We need you down in the commsuite. We're getting a very unusual transmission from Kitty in London.#
No rest for the weary, Hank thought and stopped, on his way to the elevator, to get a towel from the washroom. It wasn't very large, which made it of limited use, but he would take anything he could get at the moment. He loathed being soaked like this; he smelled like nothing so much as a wet dog.
"What sort of transmission?" he asked briskly as he walked into the commsuite precisely two minutes later. Elizabeth vacated her chair, allowing him to sit down and see for himself. "My goodness," he murmured, eyes scanning the screen. "This is a great deal of data--"
"She didn't say what it was," Elizabeth said, standing at his shoulder. "Just told me it was vital, and then got off the channel so she could make use of as much of the channel as possible. The interference is a problem."
"They're on their way back here?" Hank asked methodically, freeing up memory space for the download.
"Apparently," Elizabeth said tensely. "She said they were under attack."
Hank hesitated for a moment. "Oh, dear," he said, and then continued what he was doing, pushing the worry to arm's length, for now. "Have you told Scott?"
"I called him when the transmission came in--I don't know where he is--" She shook her head. "He said he was going to go check on our Askani visitor."
"Ah," Hank said. "I think I prefer not to contemplate what he could be doing, then." The download was still coming, and Hank pursed his lips. "It appears to be encrypted. You're certain she didn't tell you anything about what it is?"
"Of course I'm certain!"
"No need to snap, Betsy," Hank said soothingly. "I'm just concerned about security, since we don't know what's it--"
"You don't trust Kitty?"
"Of course I do," Hank said, and then blinked, in shock, as the screen lit with the image of a young blond woman, gazing down at them sorrowfully. "Um--hello? You would be--?"
"Rebecca," she said.
***
It was a most unusual sensation, being in two places at once. Rebecca had only been out of her matrix twice before--once for the experiment Melinda had carried out, the second time at Apocalypse's base under London, where she and Mel had extracted the data she had just ensured would download safely to the X-Men.
The fact that the her that was still in the matrix back in London was a monster with her image and her memories made it even more wrenching. She reached out and insinuated herself into the mansion's internal security systems so that she could see who was in the commsuite.
"Please ensure nothing happens to this information," she said to Henry McCoy and Elizabeth Braddock. "It may be the key to what's going on."
Before they could ask her any questions she didn't have time to answer, she traveled back along the rapidly decaying connection between the mansion and the station, ignoring the bits and pieces of her she lost along the way.
I'm degrading, she thought with a sort of bleak amusement as she reached her matrix and found herself facing her 'twin' on the VR landscape that had been her home since the day she'd died.
"Oh, look who's here," the other her said with a grin. "Shouldn't you be gibbering in a corner somewhere at what I'm doing to your dear family and friends?"
"What you're doing?" Rebecca asked with a soft laugh. "You haven't done much." Her twin glared at her, and Rebecca smiled faintly. "So you shut off the defense grid. I don't see the Dark Riders making too much progress, do you?"
"They will."
So much hate, Rebecca thought. She could remember how this had all happened, now--the worm program Ambrose had planted when he'd been here updating her security systems. If only she'd had access to those memories--but he'd been far too clever for that.
"You're losing, you know," she told her twin calmly. "Carmen's saved the contents of the computer core. They're working around you quite efficiently. If I didn't know you were me, I'd have some doubts. You're certainly not having much success."
"They still have to get out," the other Rebecca snarled. "They can't get that far past me." She smiled savagely. "If I have to, I'll turn the defense grid against them."
"No," Rebecca said, reaching out to the systems that were her eyes and ears and hands. "You won't."
"Oh?" the other Rebecca said innocently, and Rebecca could see her doing the same--gathering her strength. "And you're going to stop me? Don't make me laugh."
"That wasn't in the game plan, actually," Rebecca said calmly, and lunged forward before the other could move to defend herself.
They merged, like the mirror reflections they were, and the virtual landscape trembled as they began to fight.
***
It took longer than Logan had expected, but it happened in the end, just as the download to the mansion was finishing. The report came in from three different teams at once, Jelena relaying them all.
The Dark Riders were breaking through. It was time to leave.
Carmen swore, and Logan gave her a tense, humorless smile, knowing he was taking his life in his hands by being so flippant. "Well, had to happen sooner or later," he said.
"Shut up, Logan," she said, getting up. "Anyhow, that tears it. We have to go, now." She glanced quickly at Jelena. "Tell all the teams to fall back. Anyone who can make it to the hangar should try, but if there's a closer exit, tell them to take it." Her mouth twisted. "Or make it. It's not going to matter. I'm setting the self-destruct for thirty minutes."
"Is that enough time? We don't know if WE can get to the hangar," Nicholas said grimly, hauling himself to his feet. Logan gave him a measuring look, wondering if the old man would be offended if someone offered to carry him.
At the thought, he looked over to where Kevin and Domino were trying to get Nathan to his feet. His eyes narrowed, and he muttered a curse under his breath. We'll be carrying him, that's for sure--shit, two teleporters around here and neither of them can do a damned thing. It was ironic, it really was.
"We have to try," Kevin said tensely, glancing at Jelena. "Where are Shavrin and Storm? If we get them up here--"
"Providing cover for the group from infirmary," Jelena reported. "They'll get them to the hangar and then try and join up with us."
"We'll get through," Logan said grimly, unsheathing his claws. "One way or the other."
"Can I help?" a voice said softly from the speakers, and everyone in the room, save for the semi-conscious Nathan, nearly jumped out of their skins.
"Rebecca?" Carmen asked sharply, her face alight with suspicion. Logan growled under his breath. It had to be a trick.
"Yes, Carmen, it's me." The AI gave a breathless-sounding laugh. "Not quite intact, but it's me."
"How do we know for sure?" Carmen snapped.
"Look, I know you're suspicious--I would be, too. But it IS me, Carmen," the AI said urgently. "Ambrose planted a worm program when he updated my security systems. It created another me, a ghost in my matrix--"
"Then there's no way to tell!"
"I know, Carmen, and I don't have any way to reassure you. I don't have much time," the AI's voice continued, shaking. Logan couldn't help it--some of his doubt melted away as he listened. She sounded so human. If she'd been standing beside him, he wouldn't have had a doubt in his mind that she was sincere. "The other's still here--I've just managed to pen her up for now."
"Becca--" Wisdom started, his voice hoarse and the misery on his face obvious. "Can't you--"
"No, Pete." The response was firm, but still soft. "All I can do is make sure you all get out of here. I'm running out of time--the matrix is destabilizing, between the two of us fighting and the damage the Riders are doing to the station. You need to go. Now. Take the most direct route--I'll use the defense grid to help you."
Carmen still looked doubtful. "There's nothing we can do, one way or the other," she muttered. "If she's telling the truth, she can help. If not, there's nothing we could do to stop her, anyway--"
"Tell Jamie I love him," the AI continued hurriedly. "Go!"
That last comment made up Logan's mind for him. Besides, Carmen had a point--and they had to take the chance. "You heard the lady," Logan said sharply, when none of the stationers looked like they were going to break out of their paralysis anytime soon. "Move!"
They exited auxiliary control into a scene out of a nightmare. The klaxons that had been muffled by the shielding in auxiliary control were almost unbearably loud, now, shrieking endlessly, and the emergency lights were flickering on and off in the smoke-filled corridor, as if the station's power grid was too damaged to keep them operating. Logan smelled things on the smoke that were definitely Not Good--everything from burning chemicals he couldn't identify, to burning flesh.
"You okay?" he shouted at Domino. Nathan had snapped out of it a little, and seemed to be stumbling along somewhat under his own power, although Neena was keeping a firm hold on him. She nodded, without saying a word, and Logan ran for the front, where Carmen, gun in one hand, was leading the way, her eyes only half-focused. "What're you seeing, darlin'?"
She shook her head. "It's all shifting!" she shouted back at him. "Parts of the defense grid--Rebecca's going to get it back on line, but the Riders--" She trailed off. "I don't KNOW, damn it!"
Something jumped out of the smoke at them, howling. "DOWN!" Kevin shouted from behind them, and Logan jerked Carmen down with him as a blast of ruby-colored energy seared through the air where they'd been a moment before. It hit the Dark Rider head on and just--obliterated him. In mid-lunge, the Rider's body glowed, flickered, and vanished entirely, like a mirage shimmering in a heat wave, there one moment and then gone the next.
Logan came back to his feet, blinking at Kevin. "Pretty impressive," he said, wondering what the man could do with a bigger target.
Kevin shook his head, something almost wounded in his eyes. "Keep going!" he said roughly, helping Carmen up.
"This way," Carmen rasped, swaying as her eyes unfocused for a moment. "Keep close--everyone stay close!" The urgency in her voice was unmistakable. Logan glanced back over his shoulder, worriedly, at Nathan and Domino, who were near the rear. Something moved out of the smoke towards them, and he started to turn, a shout on his lips, until he saw who it was.
"Keep going!" Shavrin shouted as she emerged from the smoke, coming into clear view. She took Nathan's other arm, clearly supporting him telekinetically, because they started to keep pace again. "Some of them have penetrated to this level!"
The elevators were out as an option, for obvious reasons. Logan climbed the ladder as they moved through the connecting tubes to the level the hangar was on, and wondered how the hell Storm was managing with the wounded--
#Anti-grav stretchers,# Shavrin's voice said in his mind, tensely. #They're already there--#
Well, tell them to get the hell out, then! Don't wait for us!
#Storm's attempting to use lightning on the hangar doors--it's not working.#
Logan swore. "Carmen!" he shouted up at her. "The hangar doors are stuck!"
#I was actually informing her of that already, Logan.#
"We can have Kevin blow them open when we get there!" she shouted down at him. Logan glanced down at where Shavrin was apparently levitating herself, Nathan, and Nicholas upwards. Made sense. The two of them weren't particularly capable of climbing a ladder at the moment--
The level they exited onto was worse. Sparks flew from blackened holes in the walls where energy conduits were laid open. There'd been fighting up here, Logan thought grimly. Carmen hesitated, and he nearly ran into her.
"What is it?" he shouted.
She shook her head. "Keep going!" she shouted, and he told himself that her eyes were just watering because of the smoke. But he couldn't ignore what he was sensing from her.
"What the hell is it?"
"Just keep--" She swore, clutching at her head, and someone screamed behind them. Logan looked around in time to see Jelena fall, nearly cut in half by an energy blast from out of the smoke.
And all hell broke loose. There were Dark Riders everywhere, rushing them from all directions, and it was all they could do to defend themselves. Logan fought grimly, knowing he couldn't let himself lose control, not under these conditions. He had to stay focused--
They were so damned close to the hangar.
"Get Parrish!" one of the Dark Riders screamed, gesticulating wildly at Kevin, who swore and blasted him and at least three others around him into nothingness. More rushed him, though, and Logan growled and cut some of them off, slashing at vulnerable points, putting them down and putting them down hard.
#We can't get pinned down!# Shavrin's voice said intensely, and Logan blinked as Dark Riders went tumbling to the ground like bowling pins.
"She's right!" Carmen shouted, her face grim as she emptied her gun into the Riders' ranks. "We HAVE to keep moving!"
Kitty phased as a Dark Rider struck at her, and then rematerialized, nearly taking his head off with a kick. If the circumstances had been a little less desperate, Logan might have taken a moment to admire how she and Wisdom fought side-by-side, as if they'd been doing it for years. Considering the situation, though, he saw it, registered it as a good thing, and then let it go.
Domino emptied one gun as he looked around at her, and went for her back-up weapon, never moving from her protective position in front of Nathan, who had slumped against the wall, as if he wasn't aware of anything that was going on around him. Logan wished he was in better shape--they could sure use him at the moment.
Wind suddenly howled through the corridor, seeming to strike directly at the Dark Riders and them only, and blowing the smoke away. Many of them hit the walls with nothing less than crushing force, and didn't get back up again. The exquisite control demonstrated told him what was going on, even before the smoke cleared the rest of the way to let Logan see Storm standing there, her hair whipping around her face and a terrible look in her eyes.
"I need assistance in opening the hangar doors," she said, in a voice that seemed to ring through the corridor, perfectly audible, even over the howl of the wind.
"We'll get them open," Kevin snarled, disintegrating another Dark Rider who didn't have the sense to stay down. "Let's go!"
A Dark Rider tackled Shavrin, bearing her to the ground, and Logan dashed to her side, throwing the Rider off her and into the wall. She was getting up slowly, clearly stunned, and he growled, hauling her upright and dragging her along with them. "Neena, can you manage?" he shouted.
"Just fine," she grated, dragging Nathan along with her, her face set and grim. One of the technicians stepped up to help Nicholas, and Logan nodded curtly, letting himself concentrate on getting Shavrin moving. She was semi-conscious at best--must've hit her head or something--
With some difficulty, they disentangled themselves from the last of the Dark Riders, and made it the rest of the way to the hangar. Two of the planes, one of them Gwen's, already had their engines going, clearly ready to take off.
Kevin darted out in front of the group, staring at the hangar doors, and brought his hands together, almost in a prayer-like position. The wave of energy that swept outwards from him was blinding, and the hangar doors actually shrieked as it hit them.
They didn't vanish as completely as the Dark Riders had, but the hole was more than big enough to serve as an exit. The color drained from Kevin's feet as he wavered on his feet, crumpling slowly to the floor. Carmen was halfway to him when something pulled Logan's attention upwards and he saw a glowing blue form swooping down from the shadowy heights of the hangar, towards them. "WATCH IT!" he bellowed.
Carmen whirled, her gun coming up. Storm looked up at the same moment, and a lightning bolt slashed through the air towards the Dark Rider.
It hit him, knocking him from the air--a moment AFTER he had already thrown what looked like a blue fireball, right at Carmen. Logan saw her starting to dodge--too slow--
#NO!#
That telepathic shout had most definitely NOT come from the Askani slumped half-conscious in his arms. Logan's head whipped around and he watched Nathan straighten, pulling away from Domino, his eye almost spitting golden sparks.
Pure, bright sunlit gold, no trace of the Phoenix in it or his scent. But any relief he might have felt at that vanished as he saw, out of the corner of his eye, a golden TK shield take shape over Carmen. For a moment, he was back in the woods in Alberta, watching Cable shield Scott and Sam from Harpoon's attack, watching the shield shatter and nearly take Nate's mind with it--
The cry of denial died on his lips as the blue fireball hit and broke into a million tiny sparks, flying outwards from the fiercely shining, perfectly intact shield. Intact, Logan thought with a daze. Not like Alberta after all. Carmen, as if she hadn't noticed, picked herself up off the floor of the hangar and darted to Kevin's side.
The Dark Rider's body hit the floor, smoking. Only then did Nathan drop the shield. Barely noticing Kitty and Pete running over to help Carmen with Kevin, Logan looked at Nathan, stunned. Nathan's eyes were roving the hangar almost frantically, and he was tilting definitely to one side, as if his balance was going. Domino reached out with a curse to steady him.
"Any fucking time now!" someone - Melinda, Logan thought - screamed from the hatch of Gwen's plane.
Logan picked Shavrin right up and ran, trusting the others to follow. Kitty and Pete were the last in. Wisdom hit the hatch control and then launched himself at the companel.
"Go, Gwen!" he snapped hoarsely. "Get us the hell out of here!"
The acceleration was swift and brutal, knocking most of them off their feet, or nearly. Logan managed to stagger in the direction of one of the seats, and laid Shavrin there as gently as he could.
"Everyone okay?" he rasped, turning around.
Nathan was kneeling on the deck, his head in his hands, Domino at his shoulder with an expression of taut worry on her face. "It didn't happen," he breathed raggedly. "But I saw it--"
"The future is what you make it," Nicholas said with a weak laugh, pulling himself up off the floor and into a seat. "Isn't that what one should say at a time like this?"
"Nathan," Carmen said unsteadily, looking up from Kevin and half-crawling over to him. He looked up at her, blinking, and she shook her head slowly. "You could have--you might have--"
He stared at her, his mouth working silently. "Carmen," he finally breathed, and then both she
and Dom lunged to catch him as his eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped to the floor.
to be continued...