Persistence of Memory

Persistence of Memory Chapter Twenty (NC-17)

Disclaimers Apply

 

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta, almost the new
year. * G* I’m such a Halloween Queen it
isn’t even funny, LOL. InterNutter, TC
and Maxwell Pink are loverly for archiving.
J ProPhile is nifty for being a smutmuse. J Rea/Rev/Reviewers: Thank
you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I’ll try… (you
know who you are, lol).

 

 

 



“That,”
Magneto said dryly, “did not go as planned.”
He kicked a loose piece of metal out of the way, glad it had only stuck
to him for a brief moment. Firestar was
panting softly, the area around her scorched.
Tarot merely groaned and held head, ad, glaring up at Pietro as if it
were all his fault.

“What
happened?” Pietro gasped, his heart hammering in his chest as if he had run
faster than he was meant to. “What the
Hell was that?”

Magneto’s
frown only deepend. “Psylocke,” he
called, pressing the opening mechanism for the room. “What did you…” He stopped in the doorway. Psylocke was in a heap on the ground, the
connection to this Cerebro broken and hanging loose from the console as she
stared glassily at the ceiling. “Damn
it,” he hissed. “Pietro, Tarot! Pick her up!”

Before
Tarot could get to her feet, Firestar pushed past and joined Pietro in trying
to lift Psylocke, who was heavier than she looked. “Did she ask you?” Firestar muttered as they worked at getting
the other woman to her feet.

Pietro
blinked at her in shock. “Ask me what?”
he asked in similar tones, his back to Magneto.

“To help
her,” Firestar breathed. “Shhh.” They
had gotten Psylocke relatively upright and were supporting her between them as
Magneto strode forward. “She seems to
be unconscious.”

Magneto
sneered. “Thank you for that
assessment. Get her to her room. When she wakes up, bring her to me for
questioning.” He turned on his heel and
stormed away, heading, Pietro noticed, not up the stairs but through a sliding
door on the other side of the control room.


“Help her?”
he asked Firestar. “How?”

“Help who?”
Tarot demanded in her lightly accented voice.
“Who needs help?”

“No one,”
Pietro snapped before he could stop himself.
“Move…” He and Firestar
shouldered past Tarot and up the stairs, waiting for the sliding panel to open
and let them into the rest of the massive house.

Tarot followed sullenly and silent
as they half-dragged Psylocke up several flights of stairs anto tto the bedroom
Firestar indicated. “What’re you doing here?” Tarot asked Firestar as soon asylosylocke was in the bed. She stood
between the former Hellion and the door, blocking her exit effectively.

Firestar sighed. “I’m here because I’m looking for answers.
With Emma…gone…I had no…guidance.” She
shrugged, hoping her half truth would suffice.TaroTarot narrowed her eyes at the
older woman. “I don’t believe you.”

“Believe what you want,” Firestar
said dangerously, “but if you don’t get the Hell out of my way right now, I’m
burning you alive.”

Tarot paused a fraction of a
second, long enough for Firestar to raise one hand threateningly, before
stepping to one side. When they were
alone, she asked Pietro, “Who are you supposed to help?”

He thought, as he did everything,
fast. “Mystique. I’m supposed to help her get something from
one of the X-geeks and er…I forgot.” rot rot snorted in wry dismissal before flouncing from the room. Pietro frowned after her before glancing
down at the unconscious woman. Help
you? What’re you doing here? Help you how?

“Pietro!” Tarot snapped.

“Coming, dear,” he snarled, leaving
Psylocke alone in her mind.

 

 

Scott saw them first; he was
leading a small group of the new students back from the lake and their swimming
test (something the Professor had required before letting anyone near the lake
or pool). Logan tore up the driveway at
a potentially unhealthy speed, the engine not even off before people began
spilling from the station wagon. They
all looked, he realized, like death warmed over. “What’s going on?” he called, jogging up to them with ten
students in tow.

Kitty tried to focus on him
blearily. “Scott?”

“You look like Hell,” he said,
reaching for her as she swayed forward.
“What happened?”

Kurt, coming to Kitty’s side and
looking the worse for wear himself, shook his head silently. “Let me take her to her room,” he mumbled as
if his m hur hurt.
Scott reluctantly let go of
Kitty’s arms and turned to face Logan.
“Who did this?”

“No idea…not really.” Logan looked shaken but grim. He made a “wait here” gesture and moved to
help Rahne to her feet, her knees seeming to be weaker than was needed to
stand.

Scott stared around him at the
handful of his friends who had been fine a mere two hours before, now
staggering around, seeming dazed and sick.
Lance was laying on the ground, clutching his head and muttering to
himself something that sounded like “stop it, damn it!” while Todd sat next to
him, slime drying on his chest and chin.
Rogue and Jamie were the only ones who seemed untouched, until Scott
realized that Rogue was shaking like a leaf and Jamie had a twin running
around. “Let me,” he said hurriedly as
Amara endeavored to get out of the car, wearing what looked to be Kurt’s
overshirt and Kitty’s sweater, strategically tied to cover obvious nudity.

“I’ll get her,” Lance said thinly,
struggling to his knees, then pitching forward. “Ugh.”

Logan made his way back through
what was quickly becoming something akin to a field hospital for mutants to
stand next to Scott. Quickly, tersely, he related the incident in the
office. “And Mystique wriggled away
from us in the parking lot. Hell, the
kids were too weak to hold her and I had my hands full of Amara and Todd.” As
if to punctuate this statement, Todd chose that moment to retch a quantity of
slime onto the driveway. “Nothing
happened here, did it?” he asked, a tinge of panic in his voice. “Storm?
The kids?”

Scott shook his head
vehemently. “We’re fine… I was down at
the lake with these,” he jerked his thumb towards the porch, indicating a group
of very panicky looking students, “doing their swimming test. Logan…you said Mystique was there…”

Logan nodded grimly. “We’ve gotta get these in. Go for Beast and I’ll start hauling in the
worst of the bunch.”

Scott nodded in a mirror of Logan’s
gesture. “Come on, guys. Time for study hall.”

A young student, still dripping
wet, piped up, “Are they sick, Mister Summers?”

“Yeah,” he answered
hesitantly. “Tre nre not feeling
well. Let’s get inside and you all get
dry then head to study hall with Forge.
Get moving,” he added with a little more authority. Leech lingered for a moment, giving Scott a
wide-eyed stare. “Artie…” Scott sighed. The young boy yelped and dashed to follow the others. “Logan,” Scott began, but shook his head and
followed the young mutants inside.

Kurt appeared before him in a cloud
of sulpherous smoke, blinking in sise.ise.
“Scott!”

“What is it? Is Kitty okay?”

“She’s…How did I get here?”

“You ported…” Scott paused in his backward walk to keep
talking to Kurt.

“I…huh. I didn’t mean to…” He
frowned, shaking his head. “Must be
stress…I thought about coming down to help but I wanted to stay with Kitty to
make sure she was okay… I must’ve
ported without meaning to.” With a sharp sigh, he disappeared again.

Scott frowned as he turned to hurry
towards the medical bay. Didn’t mean
to? I thought he had better control
than that… That train of thought was quickly put from his mind as he ran
into Jean running in from the back of the house. “Slow down!”

“Scott,” she panted, her face pale
and eyes wide and red. “I need to get
Beast. I mean, I need to see
Beast…Oh!” She rubbed frantically at
her temples as if trying to scrub something away.

“Jean, slow down! What is it?”

“My powers…they went…” She shook her head again. “I need Beast.”

“Come on. I’m going to get him for everyone out front.” Scott tried his best not to sound terrified,
but that effort failed acilicilia came trailing behind Jean. “You, too?” he asked simply. She nodded.
“Damn it…”

 

Kitty’s entire body ached. It felt like she was one massive knot of
muscle and pain, her limbs on fire and her brain buzzing with terrified
thoughts. It had all happened so fast
that she had not had time to process what was going on and only now, in the silence
of her room, was she beginning to put things together. She had been standing with Kurt one moment
and the next, she felt a crushing pain in her skull, radiating through her body
and she was falling. She knew she fell
through one class room, the home ec cooking lab, before landing in the basement
with the rats and janitorial equipment.
The power had shorted out in her wake as she passed through wires and
switches. Who saw me? Who saw us? She closed her eyes against the too-bright sunlight, recognizing
the unmistakable twinges of an early migraine.
The sheets felt cool beneath her arms and she realized that Kurt must
have pulled her sweater, shoes and socks off when he led her to her room. Kitty sighed inwardly, wishing she had some
medication as she fell into a light sleep.
Where did Kurt go? I want him
back here…I sleep better with Kurt here…Is he okay? What happened to him?
What happened at all? She
began to feel the tension slowly seeping away as she thought of Kurt. She still hurt but not as bad as she let her
mind wander to comforting things and soon, she felt as if she were falling, a
not unpleasant sensation that ended with a jarring thud. Kitty gasped and opened her eyes, staring up
at the ceiling. She was, as best as she
could immediately tell, in one of the basements. Not again…[1]
She struggled to sit up, tangled in her blanket, cursing her mutation. From the chill in the air and the dank
smell, she guessed she was in the lowest level, the one so far below ground it
almost r drr dried out or got warm. Fuck. Wrapping her blanket around her bare
shoulders, Kitty shuffled to the door, illuminated only by the faintest of
sodium lights. Reaching for the knob,
she gasped aloud as her hand passed right through the knob. She shook herself and tried again, making
contact this time. Flub. Residual dream…she assured herself as
she got her bearings and began to tread in the direction of the elevators. The more she walked, the more it felt as ife wae was moving through molasses, her legs getting heavier, strangely so. Frowning, she looked down and screamed. She was knee-deep into the ground, her body
phasing without her will.

 

 



[1] How Kitty
discovered her powers, canon. She fell
through her bed and into the basement in her parents’ home while she slept…