Subject: [OTL]: (Age of Madelyne) Morrigan Chapter 2/? (R) Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 00:30:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Age of Madelyne: Morrigan Chapter 2 by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Everyone here is Marvel's. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. WARNING: Harsh language, mature themes, and violence. NOTE: " - regular speech ~ - telepathy # - private thought * - flashback sequence -------------------------------------------------------- 6/17/2001: X-Mansion Boathouse: 10:05 hrs EDT: -------------------------------------------------------- "... you'll understand if I gloss over Rachel's conception," Maddie joked to Emma, trying not to laugh at the squirm Scott performed. "Of course. Suffice it to say that by September '86, you were expecting," Emma said, shrugging. "And I was at the height of being the White Queen. It seems so long ago." "It WAS, though," Scott said. "You were a different person, then, Emma." "You're too kind. Admit it, Scott, I was a bitch," Emma said, matter of factly. Scott raised an eyebrow, but Emma and Maddie smiled at each other. "Better to be straightforward about it," Maddie agreed. "Imagine my surprise, though, about what happened when the New Mutants went to rescue Kitty from you ..." ******************************************************** 9/05/1986: Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, Mass.: 21:23 hrs EDT: -------------------------------------------------------- #I'LL GROUND ALL OF THEM !!!# Maddie slogged through the underbrush at the edge of the Academy, her wrist-Cerebro tracking the trail her charges had left. #Not bad enough that Scott and the others vanish - ohhh, NO,# she thought, frowning. #Kitty gets kidnapped with that Ramsey boy, and the New Mutants go to the rescue ?# ~?~ #Shhh, baby,# Maddie sighed, trying to calm her unborn child. #Telepathic already ... yeesh.# ~Well, this is an unexpected surprise.~ Maddie rolled over, pulling her Magnum pistol out, but froze at the sight of AK-47s levelled at her head. ~Bring her to me,~ she "heard" a female voice call in her head. The Hellfire guards dragged Maddie to her feet, and she was hauled away. -------------------------------------------------------- "Fascinating. Not a trace of active mutant ability about you, yet you register as a latent of staggering potential - and you look identical to Jean Grey," Emma said, pacing past where the handcuffed Maddie had been placed on Emma's drawing room couch. "I get a lot of that," Maddie said in a dangerous tone of voice. "I came here looking for my student." "Singular ?" Emma asked, smiling coldly. Maddie clamped down on her emotions as the White Queen laughed and said, "You needn't pretend that the New Mutants are safe at Xavier's mansion, Mrs. Summers. And I, for one, look forward to educating your students - as well as possibly yourself." "The last time you went a round with anyone who looked like me, you ended up on the losing side," Maddie replied with a weak smile. The flash of ice in Emma's eyes almost made Maddie wince, until the corner of Emma's mouth twitched. "Touche'," Emma admitted. "You're a brave woman, Madelyne. I respect that. I'll make you a deal - if one of your students can best one of mine in a fair combat in my training facility, I'll let you all go. If they lose ... well, the New Mutants are mine." "And me ?" Maddie growled. "Released to Xavier," Emma said. "You're a curiosity, but I think it would be ... imprudent to give your husband a fixation upon which to build a revenge campaign. Cyclops' tunnel vision is a most formidable asset, even without his optic powers." #Just keep talking,# Maddie thought, her fingers working furiously behind her back. #Bless you, Ororo, for teaching me to pick locks -# ~STOP THAT,~ Emma sent - - but Maddie ignored her, and the White Queen's eyes widened as her mind control bounced off of a mindshield. "YOU stop," Maddie spat, standing and tossing her handcuffs aside. "Funny, I feel ... invigorated, all of a sudden. Must be that maternal glow." "Pregnant !?" Emma gasped. "But - your unborn child cannot be that powerful -" She screamed, as something golden flickered around Maddie, and the other woman snapped, "This definitely wasn't in the manual for pregnancy." -------------------------------------------------------- "CHIEF !" "Illyana ?" Dani Moonstar asked, watching as her teleporting teammate waved her back. "I 'felt' something HUGE," Illyana Rasputin whispered from within her stolen Hellfire guard mask. "There's a disruption on the astral plane - here ! Something's happening with the White Queen !" "Can you use the distraction to safely cast a tracking spell ?" Dani asked. Illyana nodded, then whispered something. "One of the few magicks I can use on this plane," Illyana admitted, before teleporting them. "I've got Kitty's location - let's grab the others quickly, before the Queen's distraction gets out of hand." -------------------------------------------------------- Kitty gasped, staggering out of the small bedroom she'd been locked in, as the psychic inhibitors in her mind were torn free painlessly. ~C'mon, kiddo,~ she heard Madelyne send telepathically. ~Time to go home.~ "Maddie ... ?" Kitty breathed, phasing out of the bedroom. She gasped when the black-clad Maddie collapsed into her arms, and the bloodied form of Emma Frost sank to the floor across the room. "What happened !?" Kitty asked, relief overtaking panic as a stepping disc deposited the New Mutants in front of her. "Guys !!" "Kitty - where'd Mrs. Summers come from ?" Sam Guthrie asked, his eyes widening as he looked at Emma's still form. "An' who took out th' White Queen !?" "No time - get us home, 'Yana !" Kitty pleaded. "Guys, I think Madelyne did this somehow !" ******************************************************** "'Somehow,'" Madelyne said, chuckling wryly. "The first real manifestation of my mutant talents, and it was almost all subconscious." "It was real enough to terrify me," Emma replied, arching an eyebrow and taking a muffin to eat. "Looking back, I rather deserved that little hand-slapping. You were rather kind." "I blamed it on Rachel," Maddie said, shaking her head. "She's powerful, but the majority of what happened back there was me." "Still, you went back into latency," Scott pointed out. "Maybe you weren't ready for it yet." "It didn't take long to remanifest," Maddie pointed out wryly. ******************************************************** 6/2/1987: X-Mansion Medlab: 12:45 hrs EDT: -------------------------------------------------------- "PUSH, lass !" Moira MacTaggart insisted from between Maddie's legs. "I'm - GRMM - trying !" Maddie cried, wincing at the telepathic cry of terror coming from her unborn child. ~Shh ...~ "It's done !" Moira cheered, holding aloft a squalling newborn girl. Scott fainted, but Maddie sighed gently and smiled. "Rachel," Maddie breathed, feeling her daughter's emotions become calm and curious as she reached out telepathically. Moira finished cleaning off the girl, then cut the cord and dressed her in a diaper before handing her to Maddie. "Is Scott all right ?" Maddie asked, letting Rachel begin to nurse. "He'll be fine, as long as his glasses dinnae slip," Moira said, finishing her work on the new mother. "Th' wee one's APGAR score was 9." "That's great," Maddie said, smiling over the slurping sounds Rachel was making. "Hungry, aren'cha ?" -------------------------------------------------------- "Well, to be honest, Professor, I really think Ororo should take over." #Scott -!# Maddie thought, amazement and a bit of fear in her mind, as she watched Scott look intently at Charles Xavier. The bald telepath shook his head from the doorway of the medlab, then stood and crossed his arms. "Scott, I understand your need to take some time for your family," Xavier began, "but to totally retire from the X-Men ?" "Professor, I won't leave my wife to do all the work, or miss out on my daughter's childhood," Scott said, frowning. "I can get a decent job as a mechanic in Salem Center. If you absolutely need me, for emergencies, I'll be around. But I want the 9-to-5. I want the 3 a.m. feedings. I want to be a parent first, and an X-Man second." Xavier looked at Maddie, then nodded. "I ... understand," he said, softly, when Rachel cooed. "I can't deny you this, Scott. I owe you far too much to demand that you sacrifice your family for your - job." "The X-Men are still my family, Professor. But I have to make my own nest, now - together, with Maddie," Scott said, turning to clutch his wife's free hand. ~Thanks,~ Maddie sent, drawing a gasp of surprise from both men. "Sorry for the surprise," she added, aloud. "I guess those 'latent abilities' you always sensed are manifesting, Charles." "That would explain the relative lack of psychic birth trauma I sense from Rachel," Xavier said, nodding. He held up a hand defensively when Maddie glared at him, and added, "I didn't probe her mind, Madelyne. I can sense her emotions, though." "A psionic rapport," Scott breathed, looking at Maddie. She swallowed hard, but Scott smiled at her and took Rachel in his arms. "It's ... been a while," Scott said, gently rocking his newborn daughter. "Since I've been psionically linked to anyone, that is. It's ... nice." Maddie smiled weakly, then looked at Xavier. "Charles," she began, "I'm more than willing to keep teaching here at the school, once I'm up and around again." "I'd appreciate that," Xavier said, and for a moment, Maddie could have sworn he looked exhausted. The fatigue disappeared, however, and Xavier added, "Perhaps I could help you explore your own mutant abilities ?" "I'd like that," Maddie said, smiling wider. ******************************************************** "I have to hand it to Charles, he did help," Maddie said, sighing in reminisence. Scott squeezed her hand, and thought, #You can't keep beating yourself up over what happened. You were protecting the kids ...# ~I know,~ Maddie sent, kissing Scott's cheek. ~It's just - hard, sometimes, knowing that I did - THAT - to Charles ...~ "Of course, peace didn't last for long," Maddie said aloud, smirking. "Not when Marie showed up." ******************************************************** 6/9/1987: -------------------------------------------------------- "P-please - ah CAIN'T go back t'Magneto, or t'Mystique !" #Poor thing,# Maddie thought, wrapping a blanket around the enormously-pregnant Rogue. The younger woman, dressed in a green maternity outfit, sat sobbing on the couch of the X-Mansion's living room, Madelyne beside her with Rachel laying at Maddie's other side. "Rogue," Xavier began, sighing, "I can try to help you, but you have to understand that your - history -" "Charles," Maddie interrupted, frowning. She picked up the fussing Rachel and said, "I'm a low-level, late-manifesting mutant psion with a hazy recollection of my past, Jean Grey's face and an attitude who swooped in here and seduced your star pupil. Yet, you accepted me. How much damage can a not-quite-19-year-old girl, who's practically a single mother, do ?" "Maddie's right, Chuck," Logan grunted, his eyes flickering to where his wife was rocking their newborn daughter in a chair by the bookcase. Elektra smiled back, and let Rina grab at her long black hair. "We're th' original second-chance club." "And regardless of whether or not Rogue married Magneto, Professor, she's a mutant in need," Scott said. Most of the other X-Men looked at him in surprise, but Maddie smiled gratefully at her husband. ~It's not her fault she fell in with a rough crowd,~ Scott thought to Maddie over their psi-link. ~I can sympathize with her to a degree - I remember what it was like to be alone, an orphan. I was lucky.~ ~Bless you, hon',~ Maddie sent, beaming at Rachel as the girl projected love and warmth at her mother. ~You're just so precocious, aren't you ?~ "Very well. If the X-Men are agreed, we will grant Rogue sanctuary," Xavier said, nodding. Rogue gave him a grateful look, but gasped. "Oh, boy," Kitty breathed, pointing at a growing stain on the couch where Rogue was sitting. "Mah water -" Rogue began, before she screamed. "Contractions," Maddie said, handing the crying Rachel off to Scott. "MOIRA !" ******************************************************** "And Charles Xavier Lehnsherr arrived soon after, ushering in a new era of angst, chaos and general weirdness," Maddie deadpanned. "Chuck's a good kid, though - just a little ... sensitive." "That's being charitable," Scott sniffed. "I can't believe how much things changed over the next few years, though - I never expected to strike out on our own." "You had your reasons, darling," Maddie said, charitably. "X-Factor wasn't a total disaster, after all. "And it allowed me to get my hands on the monster who tormented us both ..." -------------------------------------------------------- NEXT: X-Factor the First, Nate, Apocalypse, the Hellfire Club part deux, the Dark Riders, and more. --------------------------------------------------------