"Praise God. Pass the ammunition!" Old Soldier Phrase

She came upon the scene before her and, seeing the wave of black suits, felt her heart plummet for a millisecond. Dear God, they'd be lucky to survive this at all. She pulled the gun around and opened fire, figuring quite coldly that with the semi on high she'd get the most amount of bullets out in the least amount of time possible. She cut into the bodies that were advancing toward Agent R, who was holding them off as best he could, and she watched as the gun cut some of them clean in half. The force of the gun still amazed her sometimes, and she'd been in this business for years. Granted, she tended to prefer up close and personal combat in comparison to out and out warfare, but still anyone who'd ever watched one of those guns in action in the middle of battle would probably agree with her. They were impressive to watch. She kept the instinctive scream of rage and power that seemed to come from using a gun that powerful down in her throat and calmly cut through the backend of the line that was surrounding Agent R. It did what she meant it to. Most of them turned toward her and opened fire. She phased as different mutant projectiles tried to shoot through her, a telepath tried to grab ahold of her mind, and guns shot through her into the oncoming enemy line like she wasn't even there. She smiled as she flipped the now empty clip of the gun out and grabbed a new one off the many on her utility belt. She flipped it in with a click and opened fire again at the people in front of her right when they figured out the dilemma. How in the hell were they going to hit something they couldn't touch with bullets? She reached into her uniform and quickly pulled out a portable gas mask and slipped it on right when one of the men caught a clue, and threw a gas bomb at her.

As the gas exploded, she used that as cover and started picking people off in all directions, knowing that the gas wouldn't last for long, but using the advantage anyway. She got down on her knees and belly crawled toward where Agent R had last been, wanting to know if he was still alive or not. She cut people down as she saw feet, already knowing her allies by the shoes they had worn and the folds of their clothing and she knew that they knew the same things about her. She shot one men's legs clean off and had to shield her eyes from the blood and bone fragments that came flying at her at close range, hearing him scream in pain as he went down. She shot upward through his chest, making damn sure he'd never bother her again. She sensed movement to her left and rolled in the near blinding fog, coming up with her gun, and almost ended up hitting Agent R with a spray of bullets. She let off the trigger just in time as he left off his trigger as well. He was in a near belly crawl but not quite, using the fog with his gas mask in place. She nodded at him and he at her as they started crawling through the fog toward the place where the Human High Council would be found. Hopefully, anyway.

They made it about a hundred feet, it seeming to take them an eternity to get there, when the gas finally started to let up and they quickly rolled to their feet. She looked at Agent R through the slight gloom and, noticing a spreading patch of blood, looked at him worriedly. He shook his head. "It's not serious." To prove this he held up his arm and showed her where the blood was dripping from. It looked like a dagger had taken him through the arm in the lower part, but obviously hadn't hit an artery or a vein or, hell, even a major tendon or muscle. She spoke through her radio since otherwise their hearing was dimmed by the ear pieces so that the machine guns didn't deafen them temporarily, "You're damn lucky, you know that, R?" He nodded at her and motioned quickly in the opposite direction, "There is some cover over here. I think we're going to need it." Katya was about to ask why, taking off her gas mask to make sure she didn't get the dulling effect of that on top of everything else, when the hum of an engine cut through her perceptions.

She cursed and, looking at the lighted face of her watch, the Black Air agents still shouting through the fog for something to shoot at, noticed the time. Oh fuck, this was so not good. Harold and Mike had obviously made it and that meant that the runs were going to start. She and Agent R had never moved for cover so fast in their lives and she still had to dive for it as the bullets ripped along the ground like some unholy beast. It ripped through the fog like bullets ripping through a tissue, the fog now actually providing more cover for the enemy then she would have liked, but at least it had to have been hitting something. She hit her radio and spoke to the man in the plane. "Damn, Har, why don't you just go and blow up a small portion of Apocalypse's empire? I mean sheesh. We're DOWN here, you know! We could have been in that fog." The very bitter and pragmatic voice broke back over the radio with extreme calm for Harold, "Yes, but you weren't. Ain't that the important thing, yank?" At that moment she both respected and wanted to hurt that man. He was a cold blooded son of a bitch, she'd give him that. She waited until the near super sonic sweep was over, then she and Agent R moved as if one mind moved them. They took off from the wreckage they were hiding behind and moved again toward some other cover, trying to get a fix on where exactly the human high council room was. She saw the shadows move on the ground by her and, looking up, let out a hearty curse, "HAROLD!! We've got Sentinels airborn! What the fuck?!? Did you tell Moira that we were here to help and what was going on???" Harold's voice came over the line, irritation to put it mildly, in the words. "She's giving me lip, the harpy! She swears that all the mutants on the island are going to die and there ain't nothing we're going to do about it." Katya snarled something very very foul about the Scottish woman and all of her descendants as well as her anscestors in that moment, and snarled softly, "Put me through to the bitch, Harold."

He didn't even ask for confirmation, merely did as he was told, and told her when she was connected to where the Human High Council was hiding snug as a bug in a rug. Katya did a volley of fire toward the enemy, ignoring the Sentinels since at least they'd take some of the bad guys with her when she got blown into bits, and she spoke calmly, "Moira MacTaggert and other members of the human fucking high council. This is Shadowcat of the X-men. I have done work in your favor before and I'm doing the same thing now, so call of your fucking little tin cans!" Moira's voice came back over, cold as an arctic winter, "We don't even know if you're Shadowcat or if you're impersonating her. All up there are going to die, and then we'll sort the rest of it out later." Katya didn't even bother to count to ten, she merely let the numb cold certainty of death flow through her tone like acid and into Moira's ears, "If you do NOT call off the Sentinels within the next three minutes I will surive this, and I will kill you, Moira. You can doubt my identity all you want, you can have your little facist hate fest on your own FUCKING time and roast marshmellows over evil little baddie mutant bodies for all I care, but, if I and my people die up here with your aid, I will kill you. ALL of you. And I will make it last."

She waited a couple of minutes for that to sink in and then decided that it was time for the final slam... something that she knew would hammer home her point and make it count with MacTaggert... she knew Katya... she knew what she was capable of. The last was said in almost a low whisper, not at all dramatic, more like she was so pissed she wanted to shout, "And if you doubt me, Moira, you're an idiot as well as an asshole and an evil Scottish bitch. You know I'll make it hurt. It'll hurt like holy hellfire for all of you before you go to peace." She suddenly heard sounds of a quick conversation going on in the background and she was surprised when Brian Braddock came onto the line instead of Moira, "Do NOT threaten us, mutant." Katya rolled her eyes toward the incoming Sentinels and spoke plainly, truthfully, and dared them to sense a lie that didn't exist in her words, "I have never Brian Braddock, NEVER, threatened or bluffed in my life. If I say I'm going to do something, I'll do it. And your families will die with you. DON'T test me." Moira's voice came over, quickly whispering to Brian about Katya's record as an assassin, Katya was sure, and some of the more colorful things she'd done. She could almost feel Braddock and the others pale over the line. And just like that communciations were cut off from them.

Agent R looked at Katya as he prepared some of the homemade explosives, hoping against hope that he could at least take down some of the sentinels before it was too late, "Jesus, Cat. What kind of reputation as an assassin do you have? I've never heard Braddock sweat, let alone pale like I just heard." Katya shrugged as she emptied the rest of her gun and threw it off to the side, figuring if she was alive she'd pick it up later and, bending down, picked up a good solid looking handgun and some other toys from one of the dead Black Air agents they were currently using as cover. She felt the bullets rip into the flesh of the bodies in front of her and shrugged at him. "A good one. I have a reputation as being good at my job." With that, she stood and, taking aim at where she sensed most of the heavy fire coming from, took out three men reloading their guns and two men firing -- but not fast enough. She then hit the ground again and, checking the clips on the other guns, seemed satisfied. She also reached down and picked up the spent bullet brass, sticking it into a pouch she carried exclusively for that.

Suddenly the radio came to life again, Harold coming back over the line on the all team channel instead of exclusively to Katya. She could tell by the amount of beeps at the beginning of the communication. "The Sentinels are backing off. Good work, yank. The human high council said that after this is done we've got fifteen minutes to vacate the premise before they release the Sentinels to go in killing again. Everyone clear?" Affirmatives were heard from all parties, this time including Mike and Agent X who had come down God only knew where. Katya watched more gas roll across the ground from far away as she and Agent R stood up as one, taking out agents left and right to get a good clear path made for them and, before the communcation closed, Katya suggested, "It might be a good idea from this point on to use the all-team frequency as much as possible. They've got gas and we'd prefer not to hit our own people. Least that way we can get a vector also when someone is taken down, to recover the wounded." Or the dead... the thought was left unspoken by all of them.

She and Agent R moved again, this time off in the direction of their teammates as Katya spoke into the radio, "Harold? Are there any of the human high council that are down or need rescued?" She could hear the guns going off as well as see them hit the ground, as Harold's voice came over the line. "Not that I know of. Braddock got shot and a pet ex-telepath by the name of Frost took a bullet, but is going to be fine." Katya looked at Agent R and knew he was thinking the same thing she was. "There are too fucking many people, Harold, and too much planning going into this to just have it work out so smoothly like there was nothing to this rescue at all. Son of a BITCH! We've been set up!!!" All around her in her ears she heard agreement, and Pete added his two cents in. "Which means that, since the human high council is probably shacked up in a very nice hole right now and the Sentinels will pick off the bad guys once we're gone, we gotta get the hell out of here! If we don't get out of here soon they're going to get reinforcements in, and then what?" Agent X's voice came over dryly with an undertone of pain to it, making Katya wonder if he'd been shot. "We die, Wisdom. If we don't get the bloody hell out of here we're going to bloody well die."

Katya couldn't agree with the sentiment more, but didn't say anything. She instead surveyed the jagged rocky ground around her and, getting down low to the ground behind a boulder, shook her head at Agent R and motioned. He'd already figured out that the enemy probably held the high ground, and were going to have guns set up up there. He motioned for Katya to get further down and she didn't question. She merely got down on the ground as low as she could and, using some of her still much needed energy, even though she was pretty sure they were all tired, touched his foot and phased him. He looked down at her and she nodded that he was okay. He stood up suddenly and she felt the bullets hit the rock all around her as he grew in size to about three times his normal and, drawing back his hand, chucked the grenade with all his might. Unlike a grenade though, it had a much shorter time limit on it and it blew up as soon as it hit. He shielded his eyes from the blast, figuring that she was going to keep him from the debris, which she did. He then shrunk back down to his normal size, got down and helped her to her feet and into a crouch. They then nodded at one another, and started for the next check point in their slow mission to help their teamates and get the hell out of there. Katya mentally shook her head at the thought that it was amazing how quickly a mission could change from one of rescue to one of just plain survival. It still impressed her to this day.

Suddenly the radio cracked to life as someone hit the ground or something, because she heard a groan of pain. She recognized that groan, and her eyes widened in horror. Please, God, she whispered in her head, please no. She hadn't prayed in a long, long time, but she threw a quick one up now as she and Agent R as one just simply pulled out guns and started shooting anything that moved in their goal to get to Pete. "Harold, I need a lock on Pete." The voice on the other end sounded worried. "He's about a quarter of a mile from your position and is taking on a mutagenic... Oh SHIT!" Katya did not like the sound of that, but she immediately just shouted, "Which way?" She barely heard the "East" before changing directions and going off in a full fledged run, leaving Agent R to help an injured Rahne he'd just found stumbling to keep her feet. She heard Pete's voice speak through the radio, oddly calm but still in pain, "Scratch. I thought you were dead." The voice came back calm and evil although off from a distance, since it didn't get picked up very well on Pete's radio. "You were wrong, Wisdom. Now die." She came into the edge of where they were and saw Pete's downed figure right when Scratch raised a gun... an inhibitor gun in his other hand, and she heard the explosion go off in her headset at the same time she saw the gun kick in Scratch's hand. She didn't even think in that moment, knowing she was too late. She simply started killing.

The first bullet from her Browning high power hit Scratch in the middle of his chest and the other Browning in her other hand was a close second to put a bullet through the other lung. She simply phased and shot as she ran and, when he raised a hand in a millisecond and tried to electocute her, she simply stepped up on air slightly and kept going, blowing holes as fast as the guns could kick in her hands, her aim sure and true. When the two guns quit she simply threw them aside and grabbed two more out of the back cross draw she'd prepared, blowing more holes through him, but he stayed standing. He raised a gun over Pete and sighted down to take his head completely off, but she never gave him a chance. A barrage of bullets from her guns blew his head to pieces, brains and bone scattering in all directions, and yet still she fired into that body, her bullets the only thing keeping it upright. She didn't realize she was screaming an unholy scream until she had emptied both clips for those guns into Scratch's body and turned it to hamburger. She then dropped both guns down on his dead body, and dropped ot her knees beside Pete, numbly keeping phased by some miracle of fate or instinct, she wasn't sure.

Surprisingly, he still had a weak pulse even with half of his chest blown out by a hollow tipped bullet and what looked to be a high powered electrical charge. If they had had a healer, a REAL healer, he probably still would have died, but he would have at least had a chance. As it was there wasn't anything she or anyone else could do. She'd seen the bullet wound that Pete had given Scratch, but that was nothing to what she'd done. She just wished she had hurt him more. She cradled Pete's body in her arms, somehow trying to shield him from hurting anymore, and felt him stir slightly in her arms. She raised a tear stained face from his neck, not even noticing the scent of burning flesh, and Pete choked trying to speak, knowing his lungs were gone. Katya closed her eyes and, hugging Pete close to her, gave them both a chance to say goodbye. She phased into him and then phased him as well, so deep that she could feel the mists of the ages seeping around them as the dimensions flowed around them in streaks of color in all directions.

Katya looked at Pete, at this minute whole and standing, knowing it wasn't really his body, and choked at his amazed expression as he looked around, "We're between the veil, Pete. Between life and death, nothing and everything. It's a walkway between dimensions and everything. I knew you wanted to talk, and this was the only way." Pete nodded at her as he walked to her and held a lock of her hair, "You're beautiful here... and you look so different. I didn't know you had naturally curly hair before McCoy got to you." Katya choked on emotions that wanted to kill her and managed, "I forgot I had it, honestly. It's been a while. Pete... I..." Pete shook his head, his fingers closing on her lips before she could speak. "Don't. I know what you're going to say and I know you know what I'd say." Katya nodded, not knowing how much longer she could keep this up without losing both of them into a nothing for eternity, and said the one thing she knew she could do. "I'll avenge you my love. I swear that." He nodded. "I knew you would. I wanted to tell you before I....died....that there is a contact I have in Apocalpyse's ranks. I want you to meet him, and I want you to find out who that traitor is. 'Cause I think they found out where you were through Magnus's records, made some connections that weren't that hard, and they set us up. I want that traitor to die as much as you do right now. They cut our time together so bloody short. But you're right, Katya...this place isn't right. I'm positive of that now. The further away we are from what we're supposed to be and who we are supposed to be with, we'll unravel faster. I... I'll meet you when this world ends and all we have is seeing one another in some other time and some other place. I love you." His hand came up and passed through her this time, both of them knowing it was time for him to go. She didn't bother to hide her grief as she ran her hand through what was essentially his soul. "Yes, Pete. I will meet you there as soon as it is time for me to go. Do you know of Valhalla?" Pete nodded, his image fading slowly by her sheer force of will. "Yes, I always liked the legend of the place." Katya closed her eyes for a second, then, looking him back in the face, announced, "I'll send you out as one of my Viking friends taught me to do. I love you too, Pete, and I will see you again. I promise."

With that she was back in her own body, feeling pain from doing that stunt, her dead lover in her arms. She numbly put his body back onto the ground where she'd helped to lift it from, and didn't even bother to check for a pulse. He was already gone. Then, not feeling anything at all anymore, she went through the pockets of his jacket and found the things she knew he'd want her to have. She took his lighter, his flask of scotch and, reaching deep into his inner pocket, she pulled out his metal cigarette holder and opened it. Inside was a card and she instinctively knew what the numbers meant and when the meeting was she was going to attend. She then grabbed one end of Pete's trenchcoat and pulled him through the firefight one painful inch at a time until she was about in the middle of it. She then looked at the enemy all around her and, leaning down, kissed Pete's already cooling lips. "Take that Star of David with you. I don't need it anymore." She whispered that, then, as she walked away from the body, she pulled something from her uniform. It looked sort of like a hairspray can but, when she pulled the pin and threw it over her shoulder, the canister landing on Pete's body, the people around him knew what it was. The phosphorous bomb blew up and set the air on fire, in a living hell. Only a pyrokinetic would have been able to survive the blast, and even that was a maybe since it burned on a cellular level. She kept her molecules phased as she walked away, the burning rush at her back taking out things in the opposite direction as the wind caught the now high flames. "In the distance I see the halls of my father. And my father's father. And my brothers. And my sisters. Here in these hallowed halls of Vallhalla where the brave shall live. Forever." She near shouted that out above the roaring inferno, hoping that Pete would hear her cry and her prayer... wherever he was now. And then she turned back to the island and the reality of men, and decided that they were all going to die. Every single one of them was going to die that had something to do with this. And it wasn't going to be pretty. With that thought she took a cigarette out of Pete's holder and lit it off the nearest dead soldier, taking a long drag as she pulled out another gun to go and kill. That she'd do. In spades.