Subject: EXCALIBUR: WOlfsbane "Little Star"(3/3) Date: Sat, 15 Feb 97 15:02:22 +0000 From: "Stuart Palin" To: untold-l@netcom.com WOLFSBANE#1 "Little Star" Part III DISCLAIMER: Wolfsbane, and all featured charcters are the property of Marvel Comics, and are copyrighted to them. No profit is being obtained by their usage. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- She woke to the sound of crying, and the feeling of warm water on her face. Hands were on her, and her head was in someone's lap. Tried to open her eyes - bad idea. She tried to talk, but her mouth was dry. The other person put her head down and a moment later water was poured into her mouth. Most spilled, but some hit home. "Yui're awake. Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get you involved.They made me! I'm so sorry." It was Bridgit Shane. Rahne opened her mouth a couple of times as if learning how to use it again, then spoke. "It's alright, we'll lick this one yet. Not tae worry." She half-believed what she said. "Where are we?" "Some Americans want to destroy Excalibur. They want ye as a hostage, get some of them tae surrender. They know about ye, knew ye were in Ullapool and saw ye heading to Kinross. So they set up th' trap.Th' Reverend, he was only too happy. He's an evil man." "Aye, t'would seem so. How bad do I look?" "Yui're ... yui're hurt bad. I saw a movie once, and ye look worse. I dinnae ken if ye'll ever be able to use yuir arm again." Rahne grimaced, bit her lip to hold back the tears. "We're both wearing collars?" "Aye. I tried to take them off, but I'm nae strong enough. We're going to have to wait." "Someone will come, someone will come." And she drifted back to sleep. When she woke up, she was able to open her eyes. Bridgit was gone, but there was someone else there. The door was open, light was streaming in, so the man's face was obscured. But she had no trouble identifying him. It was the Reverend. The walls were stone - judging by the door, she was being held in the cells of the Church. "Aye, we're finally goin tae be able tae burn ye, witch." His voice was as deep and grumbling as ever, still full of power and foreboding. "Nae if I ha' anythin' to do wit' it. Ye'll pay fer what ye've done." "`This is muh torch - I know about ye.' Ye told me that, last time we met. But now I know about ye, Wolfsbane of X-Factor and Excalibur. Scotland's finally goin' tae be free o' mutants and that MacTaggart witch." Rahne pulled herself into a sitting position, propped up against the wall. She felt better - may even be able to walk, but one eye was swollen shut. She felt her hair - it was short and red again, without her power there to make it grow. "I cannae b'lieve tha' any girl who I raised could grow to be so ... proud of what she is." "And what am I, Reverend?" He lunched forward, his finger poking into her cracked ribs. "A demon, a witch, a servant of the devil. A.. a..." "A product of an unholy union of violence!" she shouted at him. "An unspeakable, vile act with which ye betrayed all the love and devotion that muh mother had for ye! Ye look me in the eye, and tell me who the monster here is; muhself, with the ugly body, or yuirself, with the ugly soul." "Ye dare! Ye really dare tae challenge me within muh own house! Yui're an unspeakable woman, Rahne Sinclair - truly yuir mother's daughter." "I have yuir mouth." The powerful, almighty Reverend Craig froze. Rahne smiled with cracked lips - his lips. "Aye, ye do," he said at long last. "Is that why ye hate me, because I remind ye of Evelyn? Maybe because I killed her coming out, before ye had a chance to be forgiven for the unforgivable?" He was kneeling now, staring at the ground. His strength was gone, his aura of power vanished. "Nae, I never asked tae be forgiven. I wanted her tae know that I knew her for what she was - a harlot of Satan, a dock-workers' whore." "Liar! Yui're tryin' to justify yuirself when ye know that ye cannae truly do tha'! Yui're worse than trash, father. Now I know why ye know evil so well. It's because ye look at it every mornin' in the mirror - inside yuirself. Ye need to let go, tae accept what ye've done and move on, to do some penance. Instead, ye ferget to repent. Imagine, a clergyman who cannae even give a confession! "And fer yuir information, I had a God-awful childhood. I'm proud of what I am because ye hate it. I enjoy being a mutant because it annoys ye. So yui're a failure as a parent as well as a clergyman and lover. Nae a good record." Craig pulled himself slowly to his feet, brimstone burning behind the moist eyes. Rahne flinched slighty, thought he was going to hit her. But he turned and slowly walked out the door, closing it on the way out. An hour later she was called in for another "interview". She was made to stand on the one spot. Hardly able to stand, it was painful after the first five minutes, agony after fifteen. The wasn't allowed to stand on one leg at all, and was hit whenever she stepped out of the small circle on the floor. Hard, with the butt of a pistol. Her tormentor was an American - short black hair, with a goatee. He looked like a killer, with an athletic frame and a psychotic glare behind his eyes. She knew that a man had accosted Kitty and Wisdom two weeks before - this man matched the description. Was it him? He had a plaster over his nose. There were four guards, one in each corner of the room. Thirty minutes later, she was brought a coffee, which she gulped greedily - her first food or drink for at least a day - it was night outside. The cup was whisked away quickly though, and she was left with the pain again. Ten minutes later, she was willing to do anything to make the pain stop. They let her sit down, gave her a coffee and a cigarette - she'd never smoked before, but it seemed like a good thing to do - and sheets of paper with a pen. She began writing out everything she knew about Muir Isle's defences. It didn't feel like she was betraying anyone. She knew it was bad, but anything to make the pain stop. She was crying so hard, she didn't even notice the brimstone stench and popping sound until the American man fell over her table, arm twisted behind his back by a blue-furred, two-fingered hand. "Kurt?" she whispered. "Ja, liebchen. We will have you out of here in no time. I cannot teleport you - you are too hurt, but we will get Amanda to." His matter-of-fact tone, underlined with caring, was exactly what she needed. She began to cry, hugged Kurt and held on for dear life as he undid her collar. Shifting partially, she hardly noticed Amanda's teleport taking her to the medical room. She had visitors soon after she came out of the anaesthetic. He arm was broken, and two of her ribs as well as her nose and one eyebrow. The ribs required surgery - there were bits of bone in the lung that had had to be removed. Kurt was first. In fact, he was there when she came out - it was his watch. "Ach, liebchen. You have surely seen better days." "What happened?" "Just like you, you want to go straight to the important questions. Very wise. Now - to what happened. "We got worried about you when you were late to come back. We reasoned that you should be able to account for yourself quite well, but with the Americans' attack on Kitty and Wisdom, we were afraid of the worst. As it turns out, we were justified. But we couldn't find you. Our cerebro unit can only detect power activation - it takes a telepath to detect a mutant's psionic signature if their powers are not in use." "So how did ye find me?" "Ach, well. I wish I could say it was good detective work, but in the end we got a phone call, saying that you were being held in the church in Kinross. The man even told us which cell you would be in, and how many guards there were. He hung up before we could trace the number exactly, but it was somewhere in the Kinross area. So, we turned up and saved the maiden!" "Something ye do like doing so much. How long was I missing?" "Around three days. They really did work you over. Fortunately, your healing factor, as slight as it is, seems to have saved your arm. But had we arrived a day later, Moira says we would probably have had to amputate it." "I was afraid that tha' could happen. I'm glad it didn't. Bridgit told me ..." She sat bolt upright. "Bridgit! Where is she!" "Calm down, liebchen, Moira will crucify me if I let you hurt yourself. Bridgit is safe. We kept her overnight for observation, but returned her home. She wanted to go there. We spoke to her father, and they are moving to Ullapool, away from the Reverend. She is safe now. Her parents are very nice people - they had no idea what was going on." "Are ye sure about tha'?" "Ja. Even verdammte Wisdom was convinced. Oh, he tells me that the men who took you were agents of the CIA who were officially on leave'." "What does that mean?" "Well, according to Wisdom, if they're on leave but still performing active service, it's most ikely that they were seconded to another agency. He thinks Operation: Zero Tolerance." “Och, that dinnae sound too good." "Nein. They have decided to declare war upon us. So, what do we do?" "We make sure tha' they know tha' they cannae do anythin' to us. Scare them off the Isles." "Ja! That is exactly it. Moira says that you will be healthy in two days. We will begin to watch their movements. Find their agents. Move solwly and quietly, try to look like a more slow-moving team. After that," He smiled, with an evil gleam in his eyes, "we send them to the devil." To be continued in "It'll Chew you Up and Spit you Out", where Rahne is contacted by her old pals at X-Factor. Meanwhile, Excalibur begins their operations. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuart E. Palin (kweezil@hotmail.com) -------------------------------------------------------- "Only the insane have strength enough to succeed, Only those that succeed may truely judge what is sane." -------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------- Get Your *Web-Based* Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------