Devourer of Sins

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

A/N: Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, another one down... Ready for more? You so rock for beta-ing... Mucho goddess happiness to you! (Even if you were paired w/Billy..lol) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are spectacular for archiving and taking up so much space on their sites with my fic. :) Readers/Reviewers: I understand the Killer Kitties (tm) may have a way to reprogram the ducks... we'll just have to wait and see if they attack again in the next fic...


"I'm sorry...I've just never actually been in the room with one mutant before, much less so many..." The man tittered nervously and sloshed tea from his cup with shaking hands.
Beast raised one shaggy brow. "Actually, all DNA contains point mutations, so you're a mutant yourself if you want to split hairs about it..."
"Mmmm...rather..." The man, one Professor Raimi1, set his tea down carefully and fidgeted nervously with the cuff of his jacket for a moment before clearing his throat. "I cannot begin to apologize enough for all this trouble. This is far beyond even the worst nightmares of the Deus Project scientists." His eyes darted towards Kitty, Kurt and Jean before skimming back to take in the rest of the room, all those who had been bound and kept by Tlazolteotl several nights before. "I'll tell you ethinthing you need to know. My...superiors...have decided a certain amount of declassification is necessary in this case."
"If the project is dead, why were those...whatever they were...still active?" Jean asked with an edge in her voice. Beside her, Scott squeezed her hand only to find it unresponsive, so y way was she.
Professor Raimi said, in his best scholar voice, "Tlazolteotl, Itzli and...the other...were rogue. They were the last remaining...soldiers...from the Mexico branch of the project. You see, each sector had a, well, a theme, for lack of a better word. We chose the gods of that region to name our soldiers and in their education (because they were taught, much like you students are, what they were fighting for and how they should do it), they were indoctrinated with the myths and background of their god."
Logan, rubbing his knuckles absently, said "Taught? From what that little guy told us, they were some sort of construct, machines almost..."
Raimi leaned forward excitedly. "Ah, that's the fascinating part! They had intelligence! We combined AI with the components of our soldiers and, with each generation, they became more independent, capable of individual thought and action!"
"That's why you ended the project." Kitty's soft voice was tinged with bitterness. "You ended it but kept Tlazolteotl and Itzli around to experiment with!"
"No, no! That's not it at all!" Raimi leapt to his feet and began pacing, weaving in and out of the clusters of students and adults, hands clenching and unclenching with frustration. "One of the scientists, Doctor Lawrence by name, took it upon himself to attempt a fourth gen after the experiment was closed! First gens were mere humans injected with the components, some naturally derived psychotropics akin to puffer toad toxin2 that facilitated the...reprogramming."
"Brainwashing," Kurt stated blandly. "Call it what you want, but it was still brainwashing..."
Raimi waved an impatient hand. "Yes, yes...Lawrence took that method a step further. He contaminated himself with the first injection, then added the AI components."
"Himself?" Beast asked with a note of disgust.
"He...he trained Itzli to help him. Itzli was the most pliable for a long time...it seemed, though, that the first gens degraded quickly, regained some sense of self and were no longer useful after a while."
"He said something about being used for parts..." Kitty chewed her lower lip in reflection. "Were the first gens cannibalized?"
Raimi finally sat, shaking his head. "In a manner of speaking... We found that the later generations needed organic components to maintain a semblance of life and Lawrence determined that the best way was with blood. Human blood." Unwillingly, his eyes drifted to the gauze pad on Rogue's neck and the glaring youth beside her. "Tlazolteotl developed an affinity for it. She was the ultimate reason we shut down the project. In Aztec theology, Tlazolteotl is the devourer of sins. Blood is her food. She requires sacrifice daily to maintain her standing in the pantheon and with humans. Our Tlazolteotl was told mutants are abominations against her nature and needed to be destroyed...this was added to the catalog of sins she was taught early on as part of her education on her godhead and she...she took it too far."
"That's putting it far too mildly, bub," Logan said, coming to stand too close to Raimi for the professor's liking. "What about that other guy? The one Rogue found in the woods? He turned to powder..."
"From what I've been able to ascertain," Professor Raimi said, squeaking only a little, "that was Lawrence. Tlazolteotl killed him in anger. Lawrence...shifted...between godheads. He could not decide which was best. The child in Mexico, the murdered one? I believe he killed him in a fit of being Tlaloc, the rain god. Tlazolteotl used Miss Pryde to incubate, sealing herself in the girl's flesh and emerging when need be. The box she made Kitty carry contained something akin to spare parts, extra powder that makes her up. She was able to assimilate the parts Beast had in the lab to make herself stronger, to complete the emergence from Kitty."
The man rattled on, but Kurt paid him no mind. He saw Kitty slowly phase through the sofa and downward, into tasemasement beneath their feet, never changing position so as not to arouse attention. Kurt waited a few moments before rising and nodding to Professor Xavier. The older man nodded once in return and went back to discussing the matter at hand. Kurt went out into the hall, shutting the door silently behind him before porting first to the first level of the basement, where Kitty had phased to, then to her room and his, checking each location thoroughly before moving on. "Katzchen, sai said under his breath, "where are you?" It came to him in a flash and he was there in a moment. She was sitting on the old pier, jutting behind the bare slab where the boathouse once stood and a new one was being built. She did not look up when he appeared but rather held out one hand in invitation.
"I'm tired," she said when he sat beside her, tucking his knees under his chin in imitation of her posture. "Very tired..."
"I know, Schatz..." Kurt tucked her under his arm and rested his chin on the crown of her head, feeling her sigh against him. "We have the strangest lives, ja Kit Kitty snorted, then laughed. "Putting it mildly..." With a slow exhalation, she scooted closer to Kurt. "This year has been fucked up."
"Liebes, language."
"Oh, like you don't curse, Mister Potty Mouth? I may be slow with this whole German thing but I know swear words when I hear them..." She nudged him in the ribs with her elbow and winced as her broken wrist was jostled. "Damn it...before the new year, I'm gonna end up breaking every bone in my body!"
"Don't say that!" Kurt cried with mock terror. "Although," he added slyly, "it'd give me a great excuse to kiss you in interesting places...you know, just in the interest of the healing arts."
"Kiss it make it better?" Kitty asked archly. "Hmmm...I wonder if Beast ever studied that in med school. I'll ask him to try it out next time I get my wrist checked."
"Ew." Kurt kissed Kitty on top of her head and pulled away slightly, tilting her chin up to kiss her lips softly at first, then with growing desire as she returned the action. When Kitty made a small mewling noise in the back of her throat, Kurt's mind became pleasantly fuzzy. His hands roamed freely along her back, moving to her sides and then, more tentatively, under her shirt. Kitty sighed and parted her lips against his, dartinr tor tongue alone the seam of his mouth, begging entry that Kurt gladly granted. The cold evening air grew considerably warmer as tongues met and laved, each taking t tur turn with the other. Kurt's hands had stilled momentarily but Kitty's gentle squeeze on his tail made him become exploratory once again. "Love you, Katzchen," he murmured against her mouth.
"Me, too, babe," she breathed back, kissing his pointed ears, first one then the other as he found her breasts, clad in her ubiquitous cotton bra. Her nis sts stiffened as he swept his thumbs over the sensitive tissue, sending sparks of excitement through his own body at her response. Kitty arched against him for one blissful moment before she pulled hastily away. "Company!" she said with a mild panic, arranging her clothes to a modicum of order.
"Sorry, guys," Todd sighed, looking downcast as he walked, Kurt noted, not hopped, to sit with them. "What's up?"
Kurt growled. "Not much anymore... What do you need?"
"Nothing, I guess..." Todd made to stand again then sat abruptly. "Rogue isn't talking to me."
Kitty sighed. "Why not? What'd you do?"
"It's...it's just that I decided to be honest with her, completely truthful. When...when whatever that thing was came to me, she looked like Rogue. She did things..."
"Oh," Kurt and Kitty said as one.
"I told Rogue and I think she hates me now." Todd sniffed, ducking his head to hide the tears Kitty had already seen. "She won't talk t, wo, won't look at me..."
Kurt and Kitty exchanged glances. "You're the guy," Kitty said sotto voce, "you talk to him!"
"So what if I'm the guy? You're all...talky and all..."
"Wuss." Kitty leaned around Kurt to talk to Todd. "Rogue doesn't hate you. She's just upset. Confused, probably...if she hated you, she'd hit you."
"Ja," Kurt said with false cheerfulness, "or drain you..." Inwardly he cringed at the double entendre but Todd did not seem to notice, so hrughrugged it off.
"Drain...funny..." Todd sighed. "How can I get her to forgive me?"
"Todd," Kitty said, reaching out and laying her hand on his arm, startling him with her unasked for touch, "just give her time. Did she say she wanted to break up with you?"
"No..."
"Did you break up with her?"
"Hell no!"
"Well, don't worry then. Just let her deal with all this...be there for her, let her rant and rave and throw things and then just let her get over it."
Todd smiled crookedly. "I got good at ducking from livin' with Tabby for so long...I can deal with Rogue..."
Kurt smiled broadly, baring his teeth in what could pass for a friendly grin only if you did not know him at all. "Good...can we be alone now?"
"Kurt!" Kitty cried, slapping his arm in embarrassment.
Todd rose to his feet and smirked. "As you were, children..."
"Danke!" Kurt called after his retreating form. "Now...at the risk of being clichéd, where were we?" Hanedaned forward, lips parted for a kiss, but Kitty leaned away, leaving him perched ridiculously on the edge of the pier.
"Kurt, would you break up with me over something like that?"
"You've got to be kidding me!" he moaned, burying his face in his hands. "What makes you think I'd do that?"
"Well, if I cheated on you..."
"What happened to Todd was not cheating. It was molestation and violation." He backback and favored Kitty with a patented Kurt Wagner eye-roll. "Just one of the random oddities that happen here at Hotel Weird."
"Be nice..." Kitty scooted closer again and looked up at him from under her lashes. "This ring..." she said, indicating the silver on her finger, carved with the Hebrew letters proclaiming his love for her, "you mean it, right?"
"What do you think?" he said softly, lifting her hand to kiss the finger bearing the ring. "Of course I do."
"Do you think she would have killed us?" she asked, transfixed by Kurt's yellow gaze, swaying closer as if against her will.
"Yes. Yes, I do." Kurt did not draw away but he did not move closer. "I would have died to keep her from you..."
"I would've kicked your ass if you did that," Kitty said in all seriousness. "Don't mess with me, man...I see gods as a matter of course. I can do it."
"Schatz, you are weird."
"Ah, but 'There are more things in Heaven and Earth than dreamt of in your philosophies3,' you know..."
"I k Lie Liebes," he said, brushing his lips across hers. "I know..."


a/n Next story, smut! Smut smut smut smut smut...everyone gets smut!!!

1 Had to throw him in somewhere, Foxfeather... lol...
2 Actually a chief component of the zombie powder.
3 Hamlet, Act I Scene IV I think...maybe scene V. I'm too lazy to go get my book out right now...