Subject: [OTL]: The Chosen Ones [5/12]
Date: Fri, 15 Oct 1999 11:02:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: D Benway <d_benway@yahoo.com>

The Chosen Ones: Part 5 of 12
Little Boy Lost
Benway did this.

*******************************************************************

This story is not intended for children of any age. It contains
descriptions of human behaviour which many might find distressing.
You have been warned.

The characters belong to Marvel. The story is my own, and copyright
to me. Many thanks for the editorial assistance of Tina S and
Luba K. Other stories are archived at the website of Luba.

********************************************************************

He was coasting down the main street of Haverhill, his tie flying
loose behind him in the breeze. He was on Kitty's bicycle, the one
that she hadn't used since being attacked by the psi some weeks ago.
The psi had appeared to both Kitty and Sam in the same week, then
nothing. He half-believed that it must have been some sort of test.
All of their hostages were still alive, and so he assumed that they
had passed it.

Behind him on the rack were the books that he bought for more than
if he purchased them on the net. He did not really need them, but he
needed an excuse, any excuse to get out of that prison. As he passed
a row of empty shopfronts, he couldn't resist stopping at the only
remaining business on the block. It was an arcade, one that still
had some very old machines, ones that couldn't be found anywhere
else any more. He stood in front of one, and lay his hands on the
right set of controls. He closed his eyes and imagined the smell of
the pretzel shop in the mall near his old house in Westchester,
imagined her beside him, imagined her, just a friend with a
boyfriend who was much too old for her. He looked up from the
controls into the glass, but something was wrong. Instead of a view
from the cockpit of a space cruiser as imagined by a programmer from
Skokie, a cartoon figure of a girl with short red hair and green
eyes stared back at him.

"Hi," she said uncertainly. "I'm Ray."

The machine and the arcade were no longer there. Instead, she stood
alone before him, still as a cartoon. She was dressed in a skin-
tight uniform that revealed a body with strangely un-natural
proportions. He wondered if breasts that large would be a handicap
in a real fight.

"We're on the plane?" he asked. "Time's not passing?"

"Yes, we're on the plane, and no, it isn't."

"Where are we?"

They were standing in a very ornate office in an old house. It took
him a moment to recognize it. It was in Xavier's school.

"His study actually."

She was standing there beside him, human now, in the parka and camo
pants that the others had told him about. They hadn't told him about
her eyes. They were the most beautiful shade of green he had ever
seen. She looked away.

"Don't think of me like that," she growled.

"Sorry," he muttered, looking away. "You're beautiful."

"They used to look at me like that when they were training me. When
they were breaking me."

"I don't-"

"Don't you? I should have made myself ugly, but I don't want to
change anything about my outside again. I want to look like I was
born to look."

"What do you mean?"

Her face changed. Jagged spikes appeared at the periphery of her
face, pointing inwards. Her eyebrows and eyelashes vanished. Her
lips curled in a feral snarl. Only her eyes remained unchanged, a
pure emerald green.

"Scary, isn't it?" she growled. "That was the idea."

"Are you going to kill my mom?"

The spikes vanished, and the girl looked away, saying nothing. He
stood awkwardly in a place that no longer existed as she made small
choking noises. She turned back to him, her face streaked with
tears.

"I'm sorry," she said. "They trained me. I didn't mean-"

"How do I know that your tears are any more real than this room?"

"They are. Oh, they are. Where I am, they're real."

He felt ill.

"I'm not going to kill your mother," she said. "I don't want to kill
anyone's mother, not ever again. I want to help you, not hurt you.
You're all I have now."

"You could go back to the future, couldn't you?"

"Not without Kate. She sent me here to save me, but she was a
different Kate than yours. Nothing to go back to, anyway. If it'd
all worked out, I would have had _my_ mom and dad here, or the next
best thing. They're gone, too."

"Who were they?"

"Scott Summers and Jean Grey."

"Oh. Shit."

"Yeah. They died in my future, killed by the Sentinels. I saw it. I
asked Kate to send me back to somewhere where they were still alive,
and I end up here and find them gone. Daddy off with the Prof,
wherever the fuck they are, and Mommy's dead. I found my heritage
back there, but not the story. How did my mom die?"

He swallowed. His mouth was very dry.

"Why don't you just pick my mind?"

"Can't. You're too well shielded."

"Look, I don't know all the details, just some stuff I've picked up
from the others."

"Please."

"Your mom was in a crashing space shuttle. A bunch of the X-men were
on it, and they were all going to die, and your mom changed into
something more powerful than she had been. She scared them all. She
had more power than she could handle. She went into the stars and
fried this planet somewhere."

"No."

"Yeah. Four or five billion dead. The Shi'ar tried to kill her, but
she beat them. She almost had it under control, but she couldn't
handle it. She killed herself, to save the universe."

"I can't believe it. No. I can."

"Kitty told me all about it. She heard it from all of them.
Nightcrawler, Storm. Even your dad told her. They told all the other
kids."

"But they didn't tell you."

"I wasn't in their school."

"Are you Cypher?"

"Who?"

"Nothing. You don't know Xavier."

"Why should I?"

"The barriers. They're quite impressive."

"No shit."

"There's something else, too." She looked down, frowning. He heard a
loud snap, that seemed to come from inside his head.

"What did you do?"

"There was something else, besides the barriers. A failsafe. I cut
it out."

"A failsafe."

"If triggered, it would have destroyed your mind. It was linked to
the barriers, but it had a remote trigger, too."

He stared at her. He started to giggle. He found he couldn't stop.
He wondered if he was giggling somewhere in an arcade somewhere in
Massachusetts. He wondered if people were staring at him. He
wondered why he should care.

"Doug-"

The laughter snapped off. A numinous golden shadow had appeared
behind the girl.

"Why can't you all just leave me alone?" he whispered.

"Because I want to help Emma and Kate and the rest of you. I know
you're planning something. I want to help. You're all I have here."

"I can't talk to you about that. I can't trust you. You've said you
were allied with Frost."

"That was a different woman. Same heart, but more knowing. More
loving, less brutal. No, not less brutal, less arbitrary. She taught
me that. She and Kate taught me everything I know."

"In the future."

"In a future. She did it to save my life, and I can't imagine-"

She stopped, and everything shimmered. He was almost back in the
arcade again, when everything snapped back into place and he was
back in Xavier's house.

"Kitty's alive here," he said. "Maybe you could help us."

"You would trust me?"

"Oh fuck, why not, we don't know what the hell we're doing, and you
never put a bomb in my head. All this, it's a fucking madhouse.
I mean, I don't believe all that religious crap, but I know what
she means when Rahne says she feels damned. I'm damned. We're all
damned, and that bitch wants us to think its the way of the world.
That's what she calls it, the way of the world. Power. Cages.
Fighting in the arena. Always looking out for a way to push the
person above you off the ladder, always shitting on the one
below. Worst thing is, I'm starting to believe it myself."

"It can be like that. But it doesn't have to be."

"Why not? It's all you knew, if you're telling the truth. You said
the dream was shit."

"Kate always believed in the dream. It was the only thing she had to
hold on to."

"They told me about that, too. The futures where everyone died. They
told me the club started it."

"It did. It went all to hell on them. They think they've got fate on
their side. That's what makes them dangerous."

"Huh."

She said nothing, but something in her face had hardened. The golden
glow re-appeared behind her. He felt something shift again inside
his head.

"You're still hiding something."

"What?"

"There's something you don't want me to see," she said.

He could feel her straining to find her way around the blocks in his
mind. Kitty had told him about throwing her out. He tried to block
her. She pushed back, harder. A shadowy image of fiery wings
appeared behind her.

"I'm going to find out what you don't want me to see," she said.

"Don't. Please. Let me tell you. You can tell if I'm telling the
truth, can't you? Let me tell you, in my words. Please."

She pulled back, but still stared at him warily.

"I don't like talking about this."

"You have your own barriers to hide it."

"I don't know where to begin."

"Tell."

"My Mom got really sick. I was 10. My power kicked in early. I'm
good with prying out signal from noise. I did it to people, and it
scared me. It scared me so much that they thought I was nuts. They
put me in a hospital for crazy kids. They gave me the wrong drugs,
and I went like a zombie. Some of the other kids, they did things to
me."

The girl nodded impassively. He didn't see sympathy. He was glad. He
hated pity. He was glad until he saw in her eyes that she too knew
that it was the way of the world.

"And they raped you?"

He nodded. His mouth was dry. Molest was so much easier a word for
it. So much less emotional, as the therapist that his father had
hired had said.

"I'm not your therapist."

He laughed. Something inside was growing, pacing in its cage,
waiting to be let out.

"I didn't even remember any of it. I think I kept a diary, but I
lost it. It never happened, as far as I know. Xavier fixed my head
and made me forget it all."

"That was nice of him."

"Nice?" he screamed. He was starting to shake. "Fucking nice? Do you
know why he did it? He did it because he needed me. If I'd just been
some crazy kid off the street my ass would still fucking _be_ there.
He needed me to fix his fucking Shi'ar computers and tech that he
was selling to everyone to finance his fucking crusade. The birds
had these codes that kept their tech out of the hands of the
monkeys, and Kitty and I were his key to getting rid of them."

"But he-"

"I can't talk about this with any of them, because they all think
he's a fucking saint. What the hell's the difference? Same methods
as fucking Frost, and now he's gone, I can't go back to him to get
it all fixed up."

"Your dreams."

"I'm afraid every night before I go to sleep. I don't remember them,
except that they've got something to do with the hospital. I
sometimes piss all over the bed. Sometimes they can hear me
screaming down the hall. I don't hear myself, I just wake up hoarse.
Frost keeps asking me about it. She won't leave me alone."

He was quiet now. He could barely speak.

"If she could stop the dreams, I'd sell them all. I mean it. I'd
give them all to her. I'd do anything she wanted."

"She gets those dreams, too."

He stared at her.

"She had them in my time, and she has them now. Not often."

"I guess we're all victims, then, huh?"

She winced. He smiled. She took his hand. Her hand was not soft, as
he had expected. It was knobby, and some of her fingers weren't as
long as they were supposed to be. None of them had fingernails. He
found it hard to breathe.

"We all may be victims, but some of us are survivors. None of us
could have survived on our own, if we hadn't stayed together."

She held him until he had run out of tears. It was so easy to
believe that all of this, her, the office, the hope was all real.

"How did it get like this?" he asked.

"You tell me," she said.

"I knew Kitty before all this started, back in Westchester. We used
to play video games. She'd get so excited when we won. She was so
bright and wonderful, but then, you know that, don't you?"

"I do."

"She hugged me once, after we beat a machine. I wanted her, so
badly. That night I had the first dream. I was glad to get away to
the school. I thought it was her fault."

"You don't think that now."

"Why don't you tell me what I think?" He felt like screaming it, but
kept the anger in check. "I don't know what to think, myself. I was
so glad to come to the school. They gave me this fucking monster
computer to play with and all the books that I wanted. Then, two
weeks later, Kitty and all her friends show up, tell me I'm mutant,
and that I have to choose what team I'm going to be on. I mean, I
thought the choice was obvious. I didn't question it. She didn't
tell me that he put the barriers in until after."

"Kitty can beat anyone at chess."

"I know."

"The team is not the same as the conspiracy."

"No. Amara and Dani never got the blocks. Frost could get to Rahne
through Dani's link, so they're all out. Roberto was in, but then he
started turning into one of them, acting more and more like Haroun
and Manuel and his father. We couldn't trust him any more. He's lost
his soul. Frost got Amara. She belongs to Manuel now."

"Frost hasn't done anything to Dani or Rahne."

"Why should she? She's nailed two of our most powerful already."

"Did Amara ever play Kitty at chess?"

"She lost. Five moves. She's kind of dumb."

"I can't read her."

"Frost put barriers in?"

"I can't understand what I see. The pictures in her mind make no
sense. It's hard to read someone who comes from such a different
world."

"Huh."

"So it's just you, Kate, Sam, and Yanna."

"Yeah. Me, the iron maiden, preacher boy, and the spawn of the pit
against the world."

Anger flared in her eyes.

"Why did you call her that?"

'You know how tough she can be-"

"Not Kate. Illyana. Why are you all so afraid of her?"

"She does things. Black magic. I don't know how she does it, but
she's fucking nuts. Really crazy. She scares me. I don't know if
she's even human."

"I was three, turning four. She looked after me. Illyana. Like my
big sister. She was singing a song and reading to me. It was a song
that started 'Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross' and there was this
big noise and she took me downstairs to this room and the Prof tried
to talk to the soldiers and something happened to him and Illyana
took me away and then something happened to her and the bad men, and
I never learned the second line of the song."

Her face had gone rigid, the words spilling out as if she couldn't
stop them. He was so glad that she hadn't taken it deeper and shared
the experience with him.

"To see a fine lady upon a white horse."

"Oh."

"I don't know any more. My mom-"

"If you're hiding something that would hurt her, you'll learn what
pain really is."

He went cold.

"I know that you won't sell them to Frost if she could stop the
dreams. Not yet anyways. Tell me. Now."

"I'm a whore."

A furrow passed over her brow, as if she hadn't understood.

"I'm what they want me to be. I lie, I cheat, I pretended to love
someone so he could tell us how to break into the Club's network
without getting detected. I did things to him that those kids in the
hospital probably did to me. I'm ugly. How can anyone ever love me
now?"

He was empty. There was nothing left in him. He looked into her eyes
for the contempt that he knew he would find there. She was smiling a
small smile.

"You're not ugly. You're beautiful, fighting to be free. You have no
idea of what's really important."

"But what-"

"What's done is done. You've done more to save yourself and your
friends than any of them have, and one day you will be free. Free,
in a world where anything might happen. Even love."

"How can you believe that?"

"I have to. I have no other choice."

The office began to flicker into grayness. She became indistinct.

"Wait!" he screamed. The room flickered back into existence.

"Can you do something, when its all over?"

"What?"

"Fix it, fix us, Kitty and me, so we don't remember this? So all the
hospital shit and this place, so that it never happened? So we can
meet, and go out on a date, and have a first kiss, just like normal,
just like it is on TV?"

He could not read her expression.

"We'll see."

The room vanished and he was standing with a greasy plastic handle
in his right hand and three quarters in his left. He closed his
eyes, and knew for the first time what it meant to be in love.

*******************************************************************

They were working late, mining the club's systems for anything that
might be of use. The lights were off. She could see his face, barely
lit in the blue glow from his laptop's screen. He was concentrating
on something. He was better at it than she was, much better. She
wasn't sure if she liked that. He had locked himself in his room all
afternoon and hadn't come out until dinner. When he had, he looked
less scared than he had been before. Had he betrayed them. It was a
natural thing to consider, but she pushed it aside as ridiculous.
Not worth thinking about. He didn't have the guts. She returned to
the screen.

She was looking at something to do with the club's finances. It
appeared to be a list of Korean officials on the club's payroll. Or
was the club being paid by the Koreans for some obscure service?
North or South? Even that was unclear. She was tempted to ask him,
but she decided not to. Instead, she paged through twenty pages of
dense legal phrasing that she was sure made no sense even to the
person who had written it. As she reached the end, she suddenly knew
that she would never see Piotr Rasputin again.

It wasn't a rational feeling. She knew no more or less about what
had happened to him than she had a moment before. The certainty was
there, when a moment before it had not been. She thought about the
calendar, in which she was counting off the days until her 16th
birthday. It had been a stupid thing to do. She knew that, but it
had become a habit after two years of marking off each day. She
hadn't missed a single one. And yet, he had been more distant, less
responsive before the disappearance. Did he go to get away from her?
Ridiculous, but it took 5 weeks for her stop thinking that it might
be true.

"Hey"

She looked up.

"Something wrong?"

"No. Nothing. Why?"

"You haven't moved in five minutes, at least. I timed you."

"Nothing."

"Did she get to you again?"

She made a gesture towards the window. It wouldn't have been visible
to the camera.

"I killed the bugs. Flooded one of the toilets upstairs and shorted
out the transceiver. They won't be able to fix it until tomorrow."

"Flooded the toilet?"

"Yeah. They all flush automatically, but you can override them. The
hub for all the sound-and-light show feeds is just underneath the
second floor toilet. I mean, what does that tell you about Shaw,
when he has to have control over when all of the toilets flush?"

He gave her a weak grin. It was enough.

"Come over here," she said. She wondered why his eyes were so sad
behind his smile.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

He mounted the stairs to the junior masters' quarters, holding the
invitation in his hand. It was scrawled on a piece of paper torn
from a notebook. It gave a time and a room. He had found it stapled
to the assignment he had received that afternoon. He had no idea why
Wilson would want to talk to him.

His knock echoed in the corridor. There was a scurrying from within,
the sound of breaking glass and a muffled curse. He placed his ear
next to the door to listen as it opened. A blast of fetid, smoky
air choked him. He was seized by a fit of coughing.

"Get in," growled Wilson.

He followed, eyes watering. The air in the room was a greenish gray
colour, illuminated by a single dim bulb hanging from the ceiling.
For a moment, he imagined himself back in the hills, visiting the
cousins who were too proud to take the welfare.

"Sit," said Wilson, taking the only obvious chair.

He scanned the room. There might have been a sofa beneath a pile of
papers that looked as if it had been accumulating since the fall.
Wilson pointed at a box stacked against a wall. It was uncomfortably
close to the ground.

"Throw us one of those," said Wilson, pointing to a half open box of
cigarette packages. Wilson lit up. There were at least three still
burning in the ashtray.

"Filthy habit," said Wilson. "Still, they're better than the things
you lot smoke."

"I don't smoke," he said.

"No. Why don't you?"

"No need."

Wilson grunted. He couldn't see the man's eyes in the dark corner of
the room where the chair was, but he knew the man was staring at
him.

"Why are you here?"

"What?"

"Why are you here, Guthrie?"

"I got a scholarship."

"You're 19 years old. You shouldn't still be in a school like this."

"I lost a year of schooling working in the mines. I'm almost caught
up. I only take your course, and the rest of the time I help
Mr. Ambrose with the Latin and Greek."

"Right. The bloody classicist from the pits. Should be good for a
scholarship somewhere."

"That's what I hope for."

"And what do you get out of it? Speaking dead languages?"

"I can read the word of my saviour as it was written."

"Christ," said Wilson, covering his eyes with his hand. "Don't you
ever read anything else?"

"Not lately."

"Did you ever?"

"Homer. Virgil."

"Figures. What about Sophocles? Euripides?"

"No."

Wilson leaned forward, staring at him intently.

"Do you enjoy being here?"

"I am grateful for the opportunity."

"Are your friends?"

"Our school closed. We had nowhere else to go."

"There's always somewhere else to go," said Wilson, baring his
teeth. "There's always another way. Always."

He began to sweat. It was a test. It had to be.

"I hate my job," said Wilson, slouching back in the chair.

"Oh?" He didn't want to panic. He had no idea what to do.

"Teaching fucking little empty-headed children of empty-headed
fathers and mothers to be sycophantic little courtiers. Waste of
bloody time. All you people can do is make lies and aircraft."

"I'm, I'm sorry."

"It's an English class and not one of them has read the damn books,
save you. Not one of them. I don't care. I'm doing it for you.
Understand? For you."

His mouth went dry. He was certain that Wilson wanted to fuck him.

"What did you want to see me for, sir?"

Wilson rummaged at the side of his chair, then threw something at
him. He barely managed to catch it. It was a book. He looked at
Wilson and caught the cold stare again. It was black and had no
title on its cover.

"Open it."

He did. There was an elaborate crest on the inside, identifying the
book as the property of the Ship's Library of the HMS Hood. It was
an Oxford naval edition of the complete works of Shakespeare.

"Helped me through some bad times, that did."

"Thank you, sir."

"Take it as a loan. I'm changing the course again. When we've
finished Macbeth, we're starting on Hamlet."

"Oh."

Wilson stared at him for a moment, then used his butt to light a
second cigarette. For a moment he thought he saw a flash from the
end of the man's little finger as it flared into life.

"Awful habit. Look. This'll give you a head start. Hamlet. read it.
Understand it. Please."

He had the most awful feeling, for a moment, that the man actually
wanted to help him, but it passed.

"That's all. Get out."

He left, mentally composing his report of the event for Frost. He's
tell her first thing in the morning. That'd show the cocksucker.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

When they were finished, he decided that it had been the most
disappointing event of his life. He could only finish by closing his
eyes and thinking of green eyes and knobby hands beating on his
back. The blood had been a surprise, too. He hadn't thought there
would be that much. Worse, Frost would notice the coincidence. No
sound and vision, followed by bloody sheets. How could he have known
that she would have wanted this?

"You can light up."

"But you don't like me to smoke in here."

"It's what you're supposed to do after, isn't it?"

She was looking at him, a nervous little smile on her face. He
didn't smile back.

"Yeah. It's also the time when we're supposed to lie about how much
we love each other."

The look on her face. She turned away. Mistake. Terrible, terrible
mistake. He reached over, to touch her, to reassure her, to unsay
the words. He didn't see it coming, and now he was on his back,
looking up at the ceiling, trying to remember how to breathe. It
took some time.

"Do you love me?"

With her face turned away, he could barely hear her. Lying was not
an option.

"I don't know."

"Did you ever love me?"

"Yes. Maybe. All this."

"Yeah. All this."

"Do you love me?"

She didn't respond, at first. Then she turned back towards him. Her
cheeks glistened in the lamplight.

"I didn't want this to be with one of them. I wanted it to be
someone I loved, or who at least loved me. You know?"

He knew, but said nothing. He hugged her, and hoped that would do.

*******************************************************************

She returned from limbo at the appointed time, more or less. Her
command of the circles had been improving of late. She could almost
always get the day right, but beyond that she could never be sure.
If she was upset, she could arrive anywhen. She knew that it would
be a very bad thing, if she lost control. Kitty was there in the
room, but something was different. Something so unimaginable that it
took her a moment to recognize the reek of blood and the red stains
everywhere. On the walls, on the ceiling, on the floor. Dark, dark
red, red blood. Blood. Blood.

"Yana?"

"Yeah," she slurred. Kitty didn't know she could see the blood.

"The cameras and bugs are off. Doug fixed it. At least we can talk."

"You promised."

"I-"

"You promised. It was one of the things we had in common. It was the
one place you could go where I can never follow."

"What?"

"You know what you did. With him."

"It was vital-"

"Pigshit."

"For God's sakes Yana, it had to happen some day. I need you to get
rid of this."

Kitty was holding a sheet out to her. The blood was black on it,
thrashing, whirling off the fabric into the air to choke her.

"I can't. Not that sort of blood."

Yloh, yloh, yloh.

"So what am I supposed to do with this? Frost will see it and find
out about us in the system."

"So slit your wrist and then go to the infirmary. Use the sheet as a
bandage."

"That won't work. Its the wrong colour. Stop being such a bitch
about this."

The blood was in Kitty's eyes, clouding them. Kitty couldn't see it
there, blinding her.

"Yana?"

"What do you expect me to say?"

"Look, I'm sorry, OK? It just happened. By the way, do you know a
good abortifacient? Just in case?"

"He did not use a condom."

"It just happened. You know?"

The blood was in her eyes now, but it was her own blood.

"It did not just happen. You were saving yourself for Piotr."

Kitty didn't have the words to respond to that. Instead, she
flushed. Blood inside and out.

"You do not think he is coming back."

"It has-"

"Faithless bitch! Are you giving up on me next?"

"Yana, for God's sake-"

"No gods. How could you be so fucking stupid? If you get knocked up,
you'll have their dicks in your mouth forever."

"I needed to do it. I couldn't let one of them have it."

"So he could get it up?"

"That's none of your fucking business."

The blood was so think that she was blinded now, almost choking. She
imagined Kitty's pale face ending in segmented antennae below a pair
of multi-hued, multi-faceted eyes.

"It is my business. What you ask me to do, do you know what it costs
me? All I have is you and Piotr. That's all that keeps me
remembering what is important. It's always slipping away, they could
get me at any time. If Belasco came after me, the only thing that
would keep me going is knowing that you were back here, waiting for
me. Or would you be?"

She was screaming now. She didn't like to scream. It encouraged
them.

"Yana, you're all I've got, too. You're like a sister to me. You're
the closest person to me of everyone. I'm sorry, you're right, I was
weak, and stupid. I shouldn't have done it, but it took a weakness
from me, and I'll be stronger now."

She unleashed the full force of the Look on Kitty. The blood clouds
burned away in the flames of her glare. Kitty did not flinch. She
only looked sadder, if that were possible. It was Kitty, there, not
an insect. Kitty.

"Unless you get pregnant."

"Yes. Can you do something about that?"

She knew the potions. She could give them to Kitty. She almost did.

"Avoid them. Most are based on ergot, and could damage your mind.
There is a pill that the French have. I could steal it for you."

"A pill?"

"Marie-Ange has them. Makes you bleed and expel the mess, but you
have to take it soon after. I could get you some, from her supply."

"Uh, OK. When do I have to take it?"

"Within 48 hours. I am not certain. I will bring instructions. Will
you be able to read them?"

"Yes."

"Good."

"The sheets-"

She uttered a guttural command. The beds switched places almost too
quickly to see. There was a flash as the microtags in the sheets,
mattress and frame switched places. The bed on her side burst into
blue hellfire. She focused all of the hate and fear on the bloody
sheet. It flared white hot and melted the mattress frame and the
carpet.

"That will be easier to explain."

Kitty held out her hands.

"Friends."

"Forever," she said, hugging her only friend in the world.

"Yana, I need you to do something."

She closed her eyes, and prayed that when she opened them, she
wouldn't see blood.

"Yes?"

"This psi, Rachel, has she contacted you?"

"No. I am not receptive. You know this."

"She's a threat. She's come after me, Sam, and Doug. If we go after
Frost, we can't have her around. She can't be allowed to interfere.
She has a connection to Frost."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Find her. Tell her not to interfere. She knew you, in the future.
She might listen to you."

"She did not know me. She knew someone who looked like me."

"So pretend. Convince her. Be your sweetest innocent self."

"What if she does not come? What if she lies to me? My spells are
imperfect at identifying lies."

"Then stop her. Put her out of the picture until after we're done
with Frost. Do anything you have to, to keep her away from us.
Understand?"

She understood.

******************************************************************

In her chambers, the woman in white leather paced. It was a nervous
habit, one she would not have admitted to. The cameras and the sound
were out all over Henry. It didn't stop her from listening in on
them, but it cut off the feed to Shaw. If he knew they were in the
system, he would demand blood immediately. He had already called
twice, screaming at her stupidity and demanding that the contractors
be beaten. If his paranoia got any worse and he demanded blood, he
would have to have it. If she played by the rules, the next step
would be to order the executions. The Ramsey boy's aunt, Pryde's old
math teacher in the Deerfield High School, Paige Guthrie, and at
least one other from each hostage list. If she played by the rules.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

In a paneled chamber in a townhouse in Manhattan that no-one should
have been able to afford, the powerful man was attended by his
trusted servant. What was her opinion?

"It's too dangerous. I cannot read her, or the others at this range.
If you were to let me go closer-"

"You will remain at my side."

"She would be a formidable opponent, if she turned against you."

"You believe that she would turn against me."

"Yes."

"She is weak. She is dependent on me, entirely. She is not aware of
how much she needs me."

"She is not as weak as you believe."

"Have you evidence?"

"No, I don't. Only intuition. She will fight to protect those
children."

"No. She will protest, but she will give in. It is not a large
sacrifice that I ask for. As long as I guarantee the safety of the
rest, she will sacrifice the useless ones."

"She sees them as her children."

"Rubbish. She makes suggestions just as we do for their eventual
use."

"She would have to, if she did not want to raise suspicions."

"She would not rebel. I know her too well."

"She knows you, just as well."

"Have you forgotten the rules?"

"Sebastian, she's dangerous. If you go after those kids, she could
turn on you. She could bring you down."

"I have protection."

"You have the best protection I could provide, but she's better.
Unless you're willing to let Selene-"

"We go ahead-"

"Sebastian, please-"

"You interrupted me."

"Sebastian, I-"

"You do not interrupt me. It is against the rules."

She blanched and backed away. He could not stop himself from
smiling.

"You are to be punished if you break the rules."

"Yes, master."

"Now get down on your knees, Tessa dear, and open your mouth."

As he undid the belt of his robe, he once again appreciated what it
truly meant to be a sovereign.

[Next: The Homecoming]

=====