Devourer of Sins

DEVOURER OF SINS CHAPTER THIRTY TWO (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, Ted would like to have some strong words with Joris, but be warned. He's purple. Try not to laugh. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink kick so much ass for archiving. Readers/Reviewers: The Killer Kitties (tm) have triumphed! The ducks are fleeing! Run away1 Run away!


Several things happened at once and none of them were painless or specifically good. The moment before Kitty made contact with Tlazolteotl, she saw what the woman was carrying in her arms-the Professor, limp as a rag and arms trailing nearly to the floor due to the woman's stature. Rouge coughed a great gout of blood, making Todd cry out in shock, and Beast twitched to life. Kurt's cry startled Kitty as she saw their mentor and she twisted in the air, slamming sideways into Tlazolteotl rather than grabbing her around the neck as she had hoped to do. It seemed to Kitty that time slowed to a snail's pace for one interminable moment then, with the sick impact of her body against Tlazolteotl, sped up again, whirling around them all. The Professor fell from the woman's grasp and hit the floor, rolling onto his side. Kitty and Tlazolteotl tumbled into the wall then hit the floor in a tangled heap, blood and skin mingling, marring the white floor of the lab. Sound rushed into Kitty's skull like a wave, layering over her own harsh breathing.
"Kitty!" Todd yelled at the same time Kurt cried "Katzchen!" for a third time. Kitty's head slammed against the tile floor with a thud like a melon and she felt her eyes close before she swam towards consciousness, fighting the urge to give in and just let her mind go.
"You have dishonored me, cur." Tlazolteotl moved so that she was pinning Kitty, knees on her shoulders and hands wrapped around her throat, her own face so near the girl's that flecks of spittle were evident on pale skin. "You refused your station and sullied my sacrifice...your death will be disgraceful!"
Try as he might, Kurt could not teleport. Even his tail was bound, all limbs effectively useless. "Todd! Get over here! Cut me loose!"
Todd was hurriedly cutting Beast's bonds, the oxygen mask firmly over the blue man's face as he did so. "I'm comin', I'm comin'! Damn it!" One rough slice brought a clump of fur with it and Todd withdrew hastily, half-expecting Beast to slash at him with a massive hand. Instead, the man was more intent on sucking in great lungfuls of oxygen, struggling towards wakefulness.
"Now, Todd!" Kurt growled, struggling harder, tightening the ties around his limbs.
"Get off me!" Kitty yelled, striking uselessly against her captor. She tried to phase but could not, her body tingling with the effort like so many pins and needles were under her skin. She still clutched the scalpel in one hand, but the blade, she noticed in the back of her mind, was facing the wrong direction. She heard Kurt yelling at Todd as if from far away but tried to drown it out, unwilling to let anything distract her, make her panic. She butted against the Professor's back as she pushed away from Tlazolteotl and was vaguely reassured by his grunt of response. _Alive but out of it...thank God! _ A scrambling noise behind her made Kitty look up to see Kurt rising from the floor, rubbing circulation back into his arms and legs as he did so. A flash out of the corner of her eye made her snap back, just in time to see a stainless steel tray swinging towards her head. With a wordless cry, Kitty threw her arms over her face and screamed as the tray slammed into her wrist and hand, fracturing several bones in the process. The scalpel drove into the palm of her hand painlessly, the metal so sharp it split the tissue with practically no resistance. When Tlazolteotl raised the tray for another downward swing, Kitty rolled to one side and saw a blue blur fly overhead.
Todd paused with something akin to jealous admiration as Kurt launched himself at Tlazolteotl. He crouched low and leapt, unfolding his legs and reaching out with his hands in the process, latching onto the woman like a limpet. Kitty pulled herself to her feet with the aide of the lab table, gripping the leg and then the surface with shaking hands. Kurt was feral in his attack, howls rising to join with curses, fur literally flying. Kitty gasped in shock, Kurt's ferocity scaring her, his eyes glowing even in the light of the room as he sank his teeth into Tlazolteotl's arm to keep her from hitting him. "Kurt! Stop it!" Kitty ran forward, scalpel clutched in her undamaged hand.
"Katzchen! No!" He saw the sprawl coming. Kitty tripped over the Professor's prone form and landed hard on her stomach, a resounding crack preceding her scream of pain. Tlazolteotl shook him off easily and swooped forward, scooping Kitty up by the front of the lab coat. "Let her go! Beast! Help!" Kurt tried one more time to port and could not. He flew at the woman again and wrapped his arms around her neck as Beast lumberorwaorward, still slowed by the aftereffects of the narcotic. "Nein!" Kurt growled, tightening his grip. The woman in his hands paused, dropping Kitty like so much rubbish, and reached to disentangle herself from his grip. It was at that moment Kurt realized that she not only was unaffected by his attack but that she was not breathing. Beast lifted the woman into the air and shook her slightly before Kurt could cry out in surprise.
"Todd, if you don't mind..." Beast said, the eerily calm woman merely smiling at him with something akin to beatific bliss. Todd made a wet, hacking noise and spit...nothing. Kitty and Kurt turned wide eyes to him and he tried again. "Todd..." Beast sounded impatient and the woman was slowly raising her hands, palms up as if in supplication.
"I can't! Nothin's happenin', yo!"
"Half-Pint, move!" Logan snapped form the doorway.
"Logan! Nein..." Kurt cried, too late. Logan's claws extended a fraction before the man cringed in pain, going to his knees as Tlazolteotl extended her hand towards him now, making a twisting motion that sent him onto his back.
Beast looked around frantically for somewhere to put the woman, to keep her from harming anyone else. "Kitty! The freezer!"
"Wait!" All eyes turned to the door and the small man standing there. "Tlazolteotl, you have displeased the gods. You have doomed us to destruction. For this, you will die."
Tlazolteotl twisted once and dropped from Beast's grasp, shoving him with one hand to send him falling onto his backside. "Insolent little piece of offal! How dare you presume to dictate to me, She who will eat your _soul _ , the displeasure of the gods?"
Itzli, with uncommon courage, stepped forward. Kitty could make out Jean standing behind him and to one side, just out of sight of Tlazolteotl. Storm crouched near Logan, seemingly checking him for damage and finding none. Itzli said clearly, pulling Tlazolteotl to him with his words, "You abandoned us. You killed Huitzilopochtli1 as surely as you stand here. You abused lesser beings for your own end and you left the Templo de la Muerte. You know what that means..." Itzli caught Kitty's eye and nodded coolly.
_What, _ she mouthed, shocked. He widened his eyes and looked at the scalpel in her hand and nodded. _Oh. _
Tlazolteotl took Itzli by the front of his shirt and shook him roughly. "Huitzilopochtli abandoned us! His destruction is fitting. He makes me powerful. You, Itzli, are naught but a servant to the gods. You will join these...these mutants in death!"
Kitty took this as her cue. She leapt forward again, swinging the scalpel in an arc towards the woman's throat. She missed and hit her shoulder where it joined to her neck, a spray of vermillion spattering everyone within a five foot radius. Kitty gasped and staggered back, falling into Kurt's arms. He pulled her away and turned, shielding her from the sight with his body. He felt the return of his powers like a gentle snap behind his eyes, between his ears. "It'll be okay, Schatz," he said softly before vanishing from sight. He took her to his room and with qui quick, hard kiss, said, "Stay here. I'm begging you...stay here!" before porting back to the lab. Kitty nodded to the empty air and fell to the floor in a dead faint.
Kurt reappeared into absolute chaos. Beast was pulling the Professor from the fray and Logan was back on his feet, lugging students out of the way. Itzli and Tlazolteotl were in a death grip, each twist and shake spraying more red liquid around the room. It was Jean who brought it all to a halt. Loudly, with all the authority she could muster, she shouted, "Tlazolteotl! You've displeased your creators! You must be punished!" She was several feet off the floor, her hair, by some trick of telekinesis, floating around her head like a halo. Kurt was not sure but he thought, for a brief moment, she was arrayed in fire, glowing like Amara in a high snit. He realized then that it was a mind trick, at great expense to Jean's mental energy.
"Quetzalcoatl!" If Itzli knew it was really Jean, a teenaged mutant and not his god, he did not let on. Instead, he went slack in Tlazolteotl's grip and seemed to be in a faint.
Tlazolteotl threw Itzli to one side as if he were naught more pap paper and advanced on Jean. "You hold no fear for me, Serpent!"2
"No, but I should." Logan slashed out with his claws, having advanced soundlessly. Three red streaks appeared on the woman's skin, widening slowly to gaping maws, pouring blood onto the floor and pooling around Logan's boots.
Tlazolteotl turned haphazardly, clutching at the wounds and growling, "Stupid man! You have no idea what you've done! I'll only grow stronger!" She advanced with lurching steps on Itzli.
"No, but I know..." Itzli regained his feet and grabbed Kitty's abandoned scalpel. "You can't use me...you can't fix iw!" w!" He looked once more at Kurt and smiled weakly. "I'm so sorry...there's enough of a man left in me to say that." Turning his eyes to Jean and backing away from the advancing Tlazolteotl, he said, crying, "Forgive me...please?" With one swift, deep movement, he slid the scalpel across his throat, opening a second mouth of flesh and b. .
"No!" Kurt and Jean cried as one, diving towards the downed man. Tlazolteotl gasped and Logan seized the opportunity. He struck hard and fast, severing her head from her body in one movement. Within seconds, she was a pile of powder on the floor.
Silence reigned for a very long time. Some were coughing, struggling to wakefulness from their drug induced sleep while Beast and the Professor soothed Kurt and Jean, still trying in vain to staunch the flow of blood from Itzli's throat. Storm broke the silence at last. "We need to call someone..."
"Yes," Professor Xavier sighed. "Who?"
Beast swallowed thickly and took up a large biohazard bag. Using a simple broom and dustpan, he scooped Tlazolteotl's remains into the orange-red sack and tied it tightly. "I'll...I'll see what I can do about this..."
"Didn't you freeze it before?" Kurt asked softly, feeling strange calling something so lately human "it." Beast nodded and opened the freezer with a funeral air, shoving the bag deep into the frost-lined depths.
Logan could not look at anyone. He had taken lives before but this was different somehow. He knew Kurt and Jean had seen him, as well as Storm, Beast and the Professor. He felt unclean, unfit to be near them. "I know some people...I'll make a few calls, get in touch with 'em and see if they can get this off our hands."
Storm nodded. "I guess contacting the Deus Project is out of the question."
"The what?" Jean asked softly, staring at the dead man between her and Kurt.
She was unheard, though, as Logan finally turned to his lover. "Maybe not...maybe they can clean this up, finish what they started."
"Whatever happens," the Professor said with the air of a man who had seen one fight too many, "make it happen soon..."

A/N Loose ends will be tied up tomorrow and the next day (if need be). Next story, no deities or weird problems. Honest teenaged angst and smut... *g*

1 Chief god of the Aztecs, aka The Hummingbird God, a god of the sun. Associated with air.
2 One of Qulcoalcoatl's names was Winged Serpent