Disclaimer: The X-Men and related characters are the property of Marvel Comics and are used without permission. This is a non-profit making work of fan-fiction.
 
 

Chapter Twenty-nine – The Gathering Storm

Emma Frost walked confidently around the upper levels of the Hellfire Club, her white fur cape trailing behind her. These levels contained the guest suites and most were currently occupied by those partygoers who had had more on their minds than the food and the music. Part of the Hellfire Club's aim was to provide pleasure for its members. Any pleasure. Frost hoped that her companion for the night had enjoyed himself, but it hardly mattered. When he awoke he would remember it as the greatest experience of his life, regardless of the truth of the matter. The telepathic suggestion was a minor thing – Emma might have a high opinion of herself, but there was no sense in leaving anything to chance.

Emma wished she could have slept herself, but after the events of last night there was much work to be done. She needed to speak with Shaw. She should have done so earlier, but by silent consent, the Inner Circle had all agreed to go their separate ways for a few hours at least. Idly, she wondered what was going on in the rooms she passed. She could have peered in telepathically, but she decided against it. It was not that she was against voyeurism per se, but she did not consider it worth the effort given that she was unlikely to learn anything from the experience. Instead, she contented herself with making deductions with what she could perceive outside the rooms. The noise alone told her that not all of the guests were sleeping. The sounds of pleasure were muffled, but distinct. There seemed to be occasional cries of pain, too, but in the heat of passion it could be difficult to distinguish the two. Was that a whip? Emma did approve.

She passed one room and immediately detected the odour emanating from it. Emma wrinkled her nose in distaste. Drugs were something she had no truck with herself, but if they were bringing the guests pleasure then she had no business to deny them. Nonetheless, she moved on a bit more hurriedly.

She had already picked up Shaw's mental signature. He was in the room at the far end of the hallway. The door was locked, but all members of the Inner Circle had copies of the master key. Emma unlocked the door silently and threw it open. Shaw whirled angrily on her. He was too annoyed to make any effort at modesty. The young Chinese in the bed with him might have tried, but her hands were tied to the carved head of the bed. Frost raised an eyebrow, amused, but she was hardly the person to question anyone's sexual preferences. Then she noticed the other woman at the foot of the bed, her pale skin matched by the silk sheet that she had wrapped around herself. Shaw must have got his strength back, she mused.

'Aren't they a bit young for you?' she mocked.

'You're hardly one to talk,' Shaw snapped. He picked up a silk dressing gown from the floor and put it on. 'What do you want?'

'We've got business, Shaw,' Emma replied. 'With the X-Men involved we're going to have to move forward our schedule. This,' – she indicated the room with a wave of one gloved hand – 'can wait.'

Shaw took her criticism with bad grace, but he knew that she was right.

'Gather the others,' Shaw ordered. 'That should give me time to finish up here.'

Emma left him to it. She could have released a psychic shout, summoning the members of the Inner Circle all at once, but where would have been the fun in that? No, this way was much better.

She descended the stairs to the next level. As a telepath she was constantly picking up thoughts from all around of her. The mental equivalent of background noise was how she had referred to it in one of her lectures, back when she had still given lectures. She normally did not mind the disturbance; after all, she might accidentally eavesdrop on some information she could use at a later date. However, there were exceptions and the impressions of who knew how many people around her given free rein to act out their fantasies were giving her a headache. She had to concentrate very hard, but it was possible to erect a wall to block the noise. It was hard work and the wall had to be built one brick at a time so she was too distracted to notice Rebecca until she was practically on top of her.

Emma was surprised that she was not cavorting like the others. Perhaps the woman had more brains than she gave her credit for. She must certainly know that her usual lover had found alternative entertainment for the evening. Emma wondered if it bothered her, but for once she refrained from prying. That would mean opening her mind to the rabble once more.

'Frost,' Rebecca stammered, 'I didn't expect to see you here.'

Rebecca sported a black eye. Clearly her self-healing powers were not inexhaustible.

'Someone has to make sure our plan goes ahead,' Emma commented dryly.

'Absolutely,' Rebecca agreed with enthusiasm. 'The X-Men are bound to return and we need to be ready for them.'

Emma raised an eyebrow. So, the woman had a brain after all. More of a brain than Shaw at any rate, at least tonight.

'That doesn't explain what you're doing here,' Emma pressed.

There was a polite cough from behind her. No one should have been able to sneak up on her. Unless they were another telepath.

'She's here to meet me,' the Red Queen said. 'I think we all need to talk.'

* * *

When Kitty Pryde had joined the X-Men, one of the rooms in the mansion had been converted into a music room for her to use. Now, returning to the room after years away, Kate was glad to see that the grand piano was still there and still in good condition.

She opened the lid and started tapping out a few notes to test its tuning. Soon she was playing the opening passage of some Chopin whose tune she knew by heart, but whose title she had completely forgotten.

'I see you haven't lost your touch,' Scott said when she had finished. She had not heard him come in.

'I'm surprised I had it in the first place,' Kate replied. 'I was always a dancer first and a musician second. Or should that be an X-Man first, a dancer second and a musician lagging somewhere far behind.'

'Sounds about right,' Scott chuckled. 'But I've yet to see you apply yourself to something and then fail to excel at it.'

'Except leading the X-Men,' Kate put in, all her humour gone. 'That is why you're here, isn't it?'

'Jean sent me,' Scott admitted. 'She said you needed to talk to me.'

Kate shook her head, finding humour in the situation despite herself. You never could keep secrets from a telepath.

'I can't control them,' she admitted. 'I mean, I know Proteus is the more immediate threat and that Sam is not in any imminent danger so we should all be flying back to Manhattan right now. But I've a feeling that if I do that then Bobby and Theresa won't be coming with me.'

'They want to rescue Sam,' Scott deduced. 'It's understandable. Even admirable in a way.'

'But I need the whole team if I'm going to stop Proteus,' Kate complained.

'Tough,' Scott replied. 'You're just not going to get it.'

Kate looked puzzled. 'That's not exactly the advice I was expecting.'

'You think you've got problems – you should have a go and trying to boss Wolverine around,' Scott told her, 'then you'll know what insubordination is really about. Bobby and Terry are going to go after Sam whatever you decide so there are two ways you can play this. Either you can order them to go with you and watch them disobey or you can try and incorporate their wishes into your plan.

'It's your call.'

* * *

Jubilee and Paige were jogging around the edge of the lake. Jubilee hated to admit it, but she was actually enjoying this – it gave her a chance to sweat out all of the pain that had been reopened by Proteus. There are things that no one should have to suffer, but the past was past and Jubilee just wanted to forget about it and start over again.

Paige had other ideas.

'Something's bothering you,' she said as they rounded the next bend. It gave Jubilee a kind of perverse pleasure to discover that Paige was just as out of breath as she was. 'What did Proteus do to you?'

'He showed me my past,' Jubilee replied reluctantly. Paige deserved some kind of answer even if Jubilee did not want to give it.

'You still haven't told me what happened when you left the school,' Paige persisted. 'Was it really that bad.'

Worse than you could ever know, Jubilee thought. Aloud, she said, 'I don't want to talk about it.'

Paige stopped running and rounded on her. 'Oh, it's okay for you to say that, is it? I'm supposed to spill my guts to you about my problems, but poor little Jubilee gets to keep her little secrets. I thought we were friends, Jubilee. I thought we could tell each other everything, isn't that what you said.'

Jubilee turned her back on Paige; she could not face her. 'You don't know what it was like. Believe me, you don't want to know.'

'Oh sure, first my brother turns on me, then I lose my family completely, now Jono's turned his back on me, but my troubles are much less than yours! No one can possibly have suffered as much as little Jubilation!'

Now Jubilee did face Paige and when she did so there was hatred in her eyes. She had buried the pain inside herself and as time passed she had been able to cover it with a scab of forgetfulness. But over the past few days, people had been picking at that scab, herself included, and now finally the pain was allowed to burst free. And Jubilee revelled in it; finally she had a chance to lash out.

Paige was on the ground before Jubilee even knew what she had done. She did not follow up her attack. Not physically at any rate.

'You have no idea!' she screamed. 'To be lost and alone on unfamiliar streets. To be frightened and vulnerable. Sure, I had my sparks to protect me, but there were so many of them, don't you see? And they...they...'

Paige got to her feet and put her arms around Jubilation. She seemed so small and fragile. It was easy to forget that her tough streetwise façade was just an act to hide her vulnerabilities. Jubilee leaned into the older woman's shoulder and cried. For the first time since the attack she was able to give release to the emotion she had kept locked inside. Paige just held her close, allowing Jubilee to draw from her strength.

'You were right,' she whispered, 'I had no idea.'

''S'not your fault,' Jubilee sniffed, 'nobody ever does. An' I shouldn't have lashed out like that.'

'Hey, it's not like you meant it,' Paige responded. 'Anyway, I still owe you for saving my life.'

'S'nothin',' Jubilee muttered.

''Sides,' Paige continued, fingering her face, 'this is nothing a quick husking won't cure. If you don't mind, that is.'

'Jus' let me turn around,' Jubilee said. She could no longer see Paige, but the tearing sound of husking was unmistakable. A beneficial side effect of Paige's power was that minor injuries were completely healed when she husked to a human state. It still turned Jubilee's stomach to see someone step out of their skin like that.

'Come on,' Paige suggested when she had finished, 'let's walk the rest of the way back to the mansion.'

'So what did Proteus show you?' Jubilee asked. Paige looked at her askance. 'Hey, fair's fair.'

Paige sighed. 'Why not? I'm the one who said friends shouldn't have any secrets.' Her eyes took on a far away look. 'Proteus showed you your past. I'm terrified that what he showed me might have been my present. He showed me Jono, but a Jono who didn't love me, who had turned his back on me. He showed me that everyone had turned away from me. Am I really that bad, Lee? Do I really drive people away?'

'Hey, I'm still here, aren't I,' Jubilee replied, 'even if I did just deck you. And I honestly can't believe that Jono would ever leave you. You've only got to see the way he looks at you to know he's besotted. Good thing for him that you are too, really. Good thing all round.'

'I don't want to be alone,' Paige said, her eyes still fixed on some point beyond the horizon, 'yet I drove my family away. Or they kicked me out; I'm really not sure any more. Either way, if you can't count on your family, whom can you count on?'

'You're asking me, Hayseed?' Jubilee commented. 'I'm an orphan, remember. But if there's one thing I learned hanging with the X-Men and then with you and Gen. X, it's that the only kind of family that really matters, the only people you can count on to look out for you no matter what, are your friends. Believe me, Paige, you may not know it, but you've got plenty of those here. 'Sides, surely it's not too late to mend bridges with your folks back home if that's what you want.'

'Yes, Lee, it is,' Paige whispered. 'It's far too late.'

* * *

Kate found them waiting for her outside her office. Kate liked to try and keep her work separate from the rest of her life; conducting her business from her office helped to maintain the illusion. Of course, if you are a mutant, there is never time off from work.

'Come on in,' she invited them and then offered them seats along one side of her desk. Rather than going to her own chair, Kate instead chose to perch on the one of the desk's corners.

Bobby and Theresa were obviously here to plead their case, but Kate did not give them a chance.

'If you want to ask to go to Avalon to rescue Sam, don't waste your breath. You're not going.'

'Wha-' Theresa was lost for words.

It was Bobby who recovered first. 'Kate, I know you want to take as large a squad as possible against the Hellfire Club, but you know you can beat the Inner Circle without us. And as far as Proteus goes, we're no match for him physically, so assuming you have got a plan to take him down, one mutant more or less isn't going to make a lot of difference.'

Kate pretended to consider for a moment. She wanted to let them sweat; they were causing her enough aggravation. 'True on all counts,' she admitted.

'Then why won't ye let us rescue Sam?' Terry demanded.

'Because I'm sending the two of you to Antarctica,' Kate replied, 'just like Sam asked.'

'But Sam's on Avalon,' Theresa protested.

'True,' Kate said, 'but my guess would be that Magneto will bring him with him when he sets up on Earth. Our best hope of stopping Magneto – and rescuing Sam – is to get to the Antarctic base before they do and set up some kind of trap. Now, I've still got Proteus to worry about so I can't send everybody, but if you two want the job, it's yours.'

Theresa was not happy, Kate could tell. She wanted to go racing off to rescue Sam immediately, but she was at least considering Kate's idea. She turned to Bobby, seeking his opinion. When he decided, it was for both of them.

'We'll go to the Antarctic,' he announced.

Kate tried to restrain herself from smiling too broadly. They had agreed to her compromise and the team had been spared open rebellion. And who knew, perhaps some good would come out of this mission after all.

'How soon do you want us to leave?' Bobby continued.

'How soon can you have the Raven prepared?' Kate replied.

* * *

Apparently, very soon indeed. Barely quarter of an hour later, Kate was standing on the driveway watching the Raven – a much smaller version of the Blackbird designed only for two or three people – rocketed southwards. She really did hope they rescued Sam, but she stood by her original conclusion: Sam was in no danger from Magneto.

She spotted Scott and Jean watching from the study window and she gave them a thumbs-up sign. It had been Scott's idea to send Sunspot and Siryn on this mission, after all. She just hoped she did not come to regret it. Bobby had had a point though; they were not going to beat Proteus through strength of numbers. In fact, at that moment, Kate had no idea how they were going to defeat Proteus. She did not doubt that they would, though; there was no real alternative. Either they beat Proteus or they died trying and then it would not matter.

She would feel better if she had a plan, though. She needed more information. Proteus must have a weakness they could exploit, but there was only one person who might know what it was. Kate would give her a call as soon as she got back to her study, assuming Moira would even speak to her. Kate would come up with something; Rahne was depending on her.

She opened the outer doors and stepped into the hallway. She was almost knocked back outside as Paige came barrelling down the stairs, Jubilee at her heels.

'Hey, watch it,' Kate admonished. Then she saw Paige's face. 'Paige, what is it? What's wrong?'

Paige was obviously distressed, but she was too out of breath to get the words out.

'It's something to do with Jono.' Annie stood at the top of the stairs, the fingertips of one hand resting against her forehead. She was trying to telepathically extract the relevant information without being intrusive about it. Telepaths, more than most people, understood that the contents of a mind were sacrosanct.

'He's not in his room,' Jubilee managed. She was doubled over and breathing heavily.

'He's gone.' Paige hoarsely forced out the words. 'He left a note. He's gone to rescue Rahne. Alone.'

* * *