Subject: [OTL]: The Chosen Ones [10/12] Date: Mon, 25 Oct 1999 11:53:17 -0700 (PDT) From: D Benway The Chosen Ones: Part 10 of 12 Newton III 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 didn't wake up that morning, because he hadn't slept at all the night before. He experienced the odd feeling of disassociation that he knew from many all-nighters at Westchester and before. He only got out of bed to answer the call of nature, but on the way to the bathroom Kitty and Illyana intercepted him. Kitty looked grim. "We've got a problem," she said. "Haroun and Roberto are gone. Do you know anything about this?" The suspicion in her voice erased any forgiveness that he might have felt. "Why don't you just ask your friend?" "Neither Emma nor Illyana can find them anywhere." Illyana giggled, then put on a small child's impression of mock seriousness. Kitty put her hand on Illyana's shoulder. "That's enough, snowflake." Illyana looked at Kitty with wide eyes, and the grin vanished. "M'sorry." He shuddered. Illyana's voice was barely human now. "Sam, if you find anything out about them, let me know. Also, if you see Amara, I need to speak with her. Come on, Yana." Kitty led the devil away. He went into the bathroom and bolted the door behind him. He collapsed to his knees before the porcelain wall tile and prayed for guidance but none was forthcoming. By the afternoon, he didn't feel tired at all. Half out of his head, but not tired. He heard his door open. He turned to see Amara, standing in the shadows. She had a nasty bruise on the side of her face. "How-" "I had a meeting with Katherine, Samuel." "And she hit you." "Yes. I will tell you what I told her." "That you betrayed us?" Amara flinched as if struck. "Samuel, I cannot imagine how you could think that. I have not betrayed you, but I must ask you to make Katherine see reason." "Manuel." he snarled. "He took you." "I took him, body and soul. I can see how this has hurt you, but you must understand that you have no idea of who I am. How could you have read so much Latin and known so little about Rome? If you had known me and all that I have done before I met you, I know that you would have rejected me. Manuel could not." "But his power-" "Was his to use or not use. I told him that he could have my body, but if he ever used his power on me, I would incinerate him. He is weak and easily dominated, but he is a good lover." "So you seduced him for us?" "You were making no progress. Frost was wearing you down. I knew that Pryde would be obsessed with a technological solution to a human problem. Time was in the Club's favour." "But we got into the system." "You were besieging the city when all you had to was to walk in through its open gate. I found the gate, but I knew that it would be futile to tell you." "We couldn't trust you." "You wouldn't trust anyone. The four of you alone had no hope, and so I went to your government." "The hostages." "Frost dismissed me as the plaything of Manuel. I believed that it was worth the risk." "But government would destroy us all." Her face darkened. "Samuel, I come from a society which practices a game called democracy and in reality operates like the jungle that surrounds it. When I came here, I could not believe that a society could operate with so little blood flowing in the streets, trying so hard to live according to the rules that the philosophers proposed. I know that your society is flawed, but I cannot understand the crude, ignorant cynicism that so many of you possess about the institutions of the state." "Amara, they want to put us into camps." "Fool! Your government consists of millions of individuals, a microcosm of your entire society and you know as well as I do that most of them don't want to put us into camps. Your government is based on a remarkable set of ideas, even if your people are for the most part far too ignorant to make it work properly. I didn't go to the soldiers. I found a district attorney who had persecuted financial criminals and who had a daughter with a tail. I met him every time I went to New York with Manuel." "Manuel knew?" "He assisted me in tracking the man down." "How could you know he wouldn't betray you to Frost?" "As I said, he is mine." "You told this to Kitty?" "Yes." "And she hit you." "Yes. She accused me of betrayal. Do you believe that I betrayed you?" "I, I don't know." "I suppose it matters not," said Amara. "I have come here to ask you to persuade Katherine to surrender Emma Frost and the remaining staff and guards to the District Attorney in Boston by Monday morning. Kitty, Illyana and yourself will not be prosecuted." "What about Frost?" "I believe that they will make an example of her." "You know that Kitty wants to use Frost to re-create Westchester here." "They will never allow it. She deserves to be thrown to the dogs for what she did to that girl, when we first arrived. Her name was Jubilation Lee. She was a 12 year old runaway from Los Angeles." "Frost tried to stop it." "She did not stop it. She may have been the only one who could have stopped it and she chose not to. She runs this prison. She is responsible. Have you any idea of the number that she has killed?" "How many have you killed?" She didn't answer. "If we don't surrender?" "They come in and take you all. They will call in the soldiers to do it, and many will die. Please, Samuel, talk her into surrender. I don't want you to be hurt. They will ask you to submit to tests, but they will be with the civilian authorities, and then they will let you go free." "And you trust them." "For what might have been. Please." "Get out." He turned his back to her, and looked into blue sky and the gloriously sunlit panorama of the back fields. He heard the door close behind her. Two hours later, he hadn't moved. Instead, almost paralyzed, he had watched the light of God's sun dwindle away. The night was God's too, he thought idly as the door opened behind him. "Mara." "No," said Rahne. "Just us." She was standing with Dani just inside the door. "Have you seen Amara?" he said hoarsely. "No," said Dani. "That's what we're here to ask you about." said Rahne. "I haven't seen her since she came and talked to me," he said. "No-one else has seen her either, or Manuel, or Haroun," said Dani. "We're trying to get everyone together," said Rahne. "All of us are in the common room downstairs, waiting this out. We've even got James out of Down Under. He brought Angelica up with him. They're killing each other down there. I can smell the blood." "Killing each other?" "The faceless ones," said Dani. "Those loyal to Frost against the rest." "And what do you intend to do?" he asked. "Hold out there until it all sorts itself out," said Dani. "They won't attack us above ground." "Is Roberto there?" he asked. "It was his idea," said Rahne. "You know that he's probably betrayed us to the club." "Samuel Guthrie, do you know his heart?" asked Rahne. "He would never betray us." "The Hellions are with you?" he asked. "We cannot find Haroun, Manuel, or Amara," said Rahne. "We have Marie-Ange, Jenny, Angelica and James. They're frightened. We could use your help to calm them." "Marie-Ange said she saw Illyana with one of Haroun's shirts from the laundry," said Dani. "She read the cards and she said Doom would come to claim him." "And what did the cards say about the rest of us?" he asked, bitterly. "Nothing," said Dani, glancing nervously at Rahne. "Nothing she would tell us," said Rahne. "She became quite upset." "I'm staying up here for now," he said. "I might join you later." "We could really use you," said Rahne. "Later. I need some time alone." "Please," said Rahne quietly. "Later." They left him alone again, but he forced himself to watch them leave, since he knew that he might never see them again. ******************************************************************** She sat on her bed, her features rigid, but it hardly mattered, as the human who had once been the centre of her world wasn't paying any attention to her. Instead, she held Kitty's head in her lap as Kitty moaned, and Kitty's tears moistened the matted fur that now covered her legs. She looked out through the window, where she could see the children in the courtyard. Some were crying, some were standing slack-jawed, others were on their knees praying. Some were arguing, and what looked like a rugby scrum was lurching across the green, as only a mob of people trying to hug each other could. Kitty had told her to kill, and she had. Kitty had known what it would cost, but she had done as requested. Kitty had shed tears for the victims, but never for her. Tears for the 457 that had died a world away, for the tens of thousands who would soon die of radiation poisoning, and for the wall of ancient brick that no human would now be able to approach for 20,000 years. All those tears, but none for her. Kitty was no different from any of the rest of the cattle, who lived unknowingly one bloodstone away from Armageddon. ******************************************************************* He was locking his door when he saw Roberto at the top of the stairs. Roberto was pale as a ghost. "You haven't heard." "Hear what?" "Atomic bomb in Jerusalem. Didn't go off like it was supposed to, but there's plutonium all over the place. Hundreds dead, thousands dying. Israelis have gone mad. They're killing thousands of Arabs, and no one even knows what really happened yet." "End times." "No fuck. Your government has decided to stand by Israel whatever, so now we get to see who else out there has the bomb." "Why did you betray us?" "I expected you'd want to talk about what's really important." "We needed you." "To die alongside you? How did you think you could possibly get away with it? They were watching you the whole time. Shaw knew about everything." "You fuck." He lashed out. Roberto could have dodged, but he didn't. Instead, his fist connected and Roberto staggered backwards, holding his stomach. "Good one," said Roberto, wheezing slightly. "You're not fighting back." "I could break you in two if I wanted to. I don't want to. Feel better now?" "Asshole." "You can't imagine what I had to do." "I'm sure." "I had to convince them that I was serious." "They didn't believe you." "They found Amara easier to believe." "You took her into it?" He wanted to hit the little rat again. "We both found our own ways in." "But that was just fine, because you were both on the side of the angels." "Exactly." "We found out what you did with those women in New York." "They were well paid. They were great." Roberto smiled to himself. "How was fucking club whores supposed to help us?" "Here's a typical Saturday night at the club. I stay away from the smack and the hard liquor, just stick to the bennies and the coke. Ten hours fucking and drinking, and by 5 or 6 I'd be the only one left awake. The security in the inner circle apartments sucked. All I had to do was wait until Shaw passed out, then download the contents of that laptop that Tessa always carried around onto a zip disc." "You what?" "Took six months to get that far. Took eight tries to get the disc. Once I spent an hour under his bed while he fucked someone. I shit myself, I was so afraid. Given his habits, he didn't notice the smell. Gave it all to the DA that Amara put me in touch with. They were all set to move on you when you went after Shaw and fucked everything up." "Liar." "You'll see. They're pissed off, but if you can give them Frost and the school without bloodshed, they'll let you all go. Same deal as Amara told you about." "Why should I believe you?" "How are you going to be the man in your family if you end up spending the rest of your life in a federal prison? If you're so keen on sticking with the club, we might have a position for you. I'm taking it legit." "You are." "My Dad and Leland. We made a deal. Give them Frost and my father goes free." "Your father tried to kill us all." Roberto shrugged. "He's still my father. If he crosses me, I break him in half. He's learned, just like I have. Besides, who would you have stepping into the vacuum? Leland?" "You're corrupt." "What would you have done in my place? Died a noble death, I suppose. It's the way of the world, Sam." "How long do we have?" "Tomorrow night. No time at all really. When the full impact of the bomb hits the fan, anything could happen. Markets might collapse, all deals are off if no-one knows whose ass they're supposed to kiss." He grunted non-committally. "If you need to talk, call DaCosta America in New York and ask for the Patron. I know that you'll do the right thing." Roberto left the room. The sun had entirely set, and the image of the brightly-lit corridor remained floating in the darkness for some time after. ******************************************************************* She lay on satin sheets with the girl sleeping in her arms. Kitty had appeared at her door as she was trying to interpret the effects of what she had done. It had gone completely out of control. She had the money, but she also knew what she had done to get it. Even worse, she suspected that the pressure that she had exerted had produced some unintended consequences. She had been following up on those consequences when Kitty had walked through a wall and had stood in front of her, no longer a killer but merely a very little girl who needed to be told that the Bad Things were not coming to get her. She had held Kitty as the girl cried herself to sleep, imagining that it was Cordelia or Marie-Ange or Jimmy or any of the others that she held. In the darkness, she had followed her suspicions and found that it was The End. To be merciful, she knew that she should snap the girl's neck before she waked. There was a switch that could be thrown that would flood Henry House and the Underworld with Sarin gas. She could throw it, but instead, she did nothing, and waited for the men to come. ******************************************************************* He sat on the park bench in the darkness. The light that would have illuminated the bench at night was broken and had not been repaired. The bench had been given up to the lawless for whatever use they might have for it, but his fellow lawless seemed to be elsewhere that very night. "I have a proposition for you," came a voice from the darkness. "I'm not interested." The light came on, illuminating a very healthy looking man in a trench coat. He idly wondered if he was about to be propositioned by one of the local high school coaches. "Don't go flying off now until you hear what I have to say," the man said, smiling. "You're from the DA." "No, not me. I'm from up there." The light went out. In the moonlight, he could make out a suspiciously large cumulus cloud. "My chief has 6000 men waiting to drop on this place." "You're SHIELD." "Knew you were a bright one." The lamp came on again. "You're the hard sell," he said. "Amara and Roberto were the soft sell." "Not quite. We've been watching this situation for some time, and we will be bound to act even if your government doesn't. We're a UN agency, as I'm sure that you know." "Yeah. It's why you do fuck all. Why aren't you off putting the lid on all the shit in the Middle East?" "We are doing just that. Deals have been made. There is an understanding. The planes are back on the ground, now. We expect the riots to be over tomorrow, and then the mourning can begin. It's all very sad, really." "So why are you bothering with us?" "I am not at liberty to discuss that in detail, but I'm sure that my chief will debrief you on this matter soon enough. Both matters are related." A wave of nausea hit him. What could the connection be? Kitty and Frost didn't have that sort of power. "I'll bet you're wondering what the connection is, aren't you?" "Yes." "We aren't the only ones who have made it. There have been a great many people watching you for some time. Some of them aren't as nice as we are." "How long do we have?" "Twelve hours." "Roberto said thirty six." "Twelve. I have a little something that might make it all easier." The man gave him a small black bible. It was surprisingly heavy. "See the red tassel? Get within 20 feet of Emma Frost and pull it. It will temporarily incapacitate her, and perhaps make your job a whole lot easier." "Will it hurt her?" "Not really. Just knock her out and make her headblind for a while." "Why?" "Without Frost, your little friend Kitty won't have a leg to stand on." Except Illyana. "Just do the right thing, and everything will work out just fine. Good night." The lamp went off. He looked for the figure of the man in the darkness, but no-one remained. He opened the bible. It had pages with text, just like his own. &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Kitty awakened in the darkness. Emma had fallen asleep and she was still alive, but that didn't seem so important. She had not thought of herself as religious in the normal sense of the word and her parents had not been observant, but she could not keep the memory of her Grandfather intoning One Day In Jerusalem from her thoughts. No Jerusalem for anyone, now. As she phased out of the room and made her way down the stairs in the darkness, she wondered how she could have ever have believed that the arrangement with Emma would have worked. The forces that were against them were too strong, and it was a different, more realistic future that they would have to dream of. If she had done as Amara had, Doug would be alive, Rachel would be alive, even Shaw would be alive, and even better, humiliated. It was time to end it, and get help for Illyana. She would sacrifice everything for Illyana. As she passed the service building in a half-daze, she saw someone standing in the light of a lamp by a car with its hood up. The figure turned and looked at her. "Pryde, is it?" Wilson, the drunken English teacher. "I was just at Ms. Frost's. She gave me permission to break curfew." "Bugger curfew. You know how to fix a motor?" "I have to get in." "Look, I'm bloody desperate. Damn thing won't turn over." He wasn't drunk, but there was a desperate look in his eyes. Finding Sam and making the call could wait a moment. It had taken Jerusalem to make her see that it was the small things that were important. "I'll have a look." The bulb in the lamp was weak, and she could barely make out the shape of the engine. "What do you think the problem-" Something flashed and the car came up and hit her in the face. The ground hit her even harder. Her body didn't work. She tried to phase, but that didn't work either. Wilson put a cloth over her face that smelled sweet, and everything went black. ******************************************************************** He was sitting in his room in the dark, once again. The two bibles sat on his desk, identical except for the colour of their tassels. He had been looking at them in the moonlight for three hours when Rahne came in. "Have you spoken to Kitty yet?" "No." "Sam, we haven't much time." "Less than you think." "When will you talk to her?" "When she gets in." "Can you convince her?" "Haven't decided if I want to. How are things downstairs?" "Not so good. Marie-Ange and I are looking after Angelica, but Jenny and James are hitting the drink. No-one's come up from Down Under. Dani and Roberto went down to recce, but they only found some bodies. Roberto left at sunset. Said he had to go to New York. We could use your help." "I'll join you after I've seen Kitty." "Sam?" "Yeah?" "I have faith in you. I know you'll do the right thing." He didn't know what to say. She slipped out of the room before she could see his tears. [Next: Things Fall Apart] =====