Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), my menagerie is hiding after that fic... *eg * AND they're kilt-less...*VBEG * InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly wonderful shiny sparkley muse-bunnies for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: I promise, more smut soon. It'll happen. Really! The armadillos are laughing at the Killer Kitties (tm) and their Minions (tm)...it seems that the felines are thinking it's too hot by far here right now. The armadillos, being native Texans, mock their sweatiness and are doing dances that involve rude gestures and attempts at mooning. The ducks are silent on the matter.




Todd noticed it first. "Hey, where's Piotr?" Something had been niggling the back of his mind for over two hours, ever since their escape from the lab-like space. They had scattered through the woods, Roulette and Firestar on their heels. Todd had ended up with Scott, leading him through the woods as carefully as possible but still ending up with the both of them covered in scratches and cuts from the thickening forest. They had come to rest in a copse poplars, Todd debating whether or not to climb to the highest branches when Scott noted that their pursuers seemed to have fallen back. Indeed, even as he tried to breathe quietly, Todd noticed that the sound of approaching footfall had ceased. The forest was silent, everyone who was on the run having found a hiding place and taken to it with gusto. Piotr's absence had only been noted when they had come out of hiding. At least an hour had passed while they hid in the trees and brush, sap sticking and limbs cramping as they waited. Finally, a Jamie had crept through the woods, seeking out the others. He disappeared with an almost alarming, barely audible "pop" while he stood before Todd and Scott, trying to explain where the others were gathering. Scott had managed to hold onto Todd's arm with little complaint as the sallow teenager led him through the woods towards the sound of murmured conversation. Everyone had gathered in a small clearing, barely five feet across to either side. Evan's wounds were starting to heal and his coloring was returning to normal as he tried to get a word in edgewise between Bobby and St John. Todd's question drew them all up short.
"For that matter," Jamie asked, "where's Kurt?"
Automatically, everyone looked up as if expecting to see him hanging by his knees or tail from one of the overhead limbs but he was not there. _Though _, Todd thought, _how could we see him if he was? _1 "Piotr wasn't with us in the white room..."
Scott blew out a harsh breath. Even with his eyes squeezed tightly shut, he bore an expression of exasperated leadership. "Kurt...I'm not surprised that he ran off. He's playing hero, I'm sure."
Sam snorted. "Mad cause you ain't?"
"Time and place, Guthrie...this is neither!" Scott snapped. "Look, we can't skulk around here all night...the girls are still inside and for all we know, so is Kurt. We need a plan."
"I've got a plan," St John growled. "Torch the place!"
Bobby grabbed his boyfriend's hand before he could reach for the lighter he kept in his pocket should the need to commit arson arise. "Not just yet, St John...burned friends are not happy friends."
Scott made an impatient gesture with his hand. Even with the light coming from the large house and the celestial bodies, the woods were still dark enough to make him hard to see. "No going in with guns blazing...that'd get us all killed. We need to decide on a plan and stick to it!"
Same spoke up again, clearly not used to being a follower. "How can we have a damned plan if we don't know what's going on inside there? For all we know, the girls are dead themselves or gone somewhere else. Maybe Kurt's out here in the woods, hurt or dead himself."
"Get off the death kick, man," Todd said loudly. He knew Rogue had been with the girls and did not want to think of any of them, least of all her, dead or hurt, unable to call for help.
Sam opened his mouth to say something but Jamie said, "Look, we can't just stand here having a pissing contest over who's going to tell us what to do!"
Scott raised his eyebrows over his shut lids, a little surprised at Jamie's suddenly aggressive language. "Squirt's right...look, the best thing I can think of right now is to assess the situation from the outside and see if we can go for help. The Professor is supposed to be back at the Institute soon...today's Tuesday now, right?" Someone murmured assent and he continued, "He was supposed to be back, he and Warren both, this afternoon. He'll use Cerebro to find us and since Sam used his mutation and Kurt undoubtedly used his..." he trailed off meaningfully.
"That's assuming they can get to us," Sam said darkly. "We don't know who we're dealing with. That crazy bitch could have a whole army of people ready to take down anyone who comes onto her property."
"Somehow," Scott said dryly, "I doubt it. Only two people came after us when we ran and no one else since...We're alone in the woods."
"Which tells me," Todd said in a rare show of his intelligence, "that she's pretty damned secure in the fact we can't leave. Something is going to stop us and it might not be a person...think of that?"
The look on Scott's face said that he had not. "Fine. We go back in. We go in quietly, we don't get caught."
"What if we do?" Jamie asked.
"We won't," Scott persisted.
"But..."
"Jamie!" several said at once.
Jamie frowned. "If any of us get caught," he said firmly, "deny everything. Lie your asses off."
Scott nodded, accepting it. "Let's get moving." So through the shadows and night they crept, fanning out across the greenbelt as they each headed towards Emma Frost's house, the large mansion on the Massachusetts hinterlands, heading towards who knew what but something they could only hope would end well.

Jean frowned. This, she decided, was stupid. She could feel washwash of telepathic inquest flow over her, seeking information which she was not about to give up. Rahne and Rogue were huddled against a table, murmuring darkly over their situation, and Amara was sitting by herself under the outcropping of a counter, seemingly staring off into space. Empath was the only male in the room and he was watching them all avidly. _*Empath. _ *
_*What? _ * he asked after a moment's pause, sounding as startled as he could telepathically.
_*Let us go. _ * She exerted all the influence that she could muster over him and she actually saw him waver a moment before he responded.
_*No. The testing isn't complete yet. Your turn is next. _ *
_*My turn for what? _ * Jean stretched tentatively, checking his reaction to her movement. When he did not so much as flinch, she was satisfied that her shields were firmly in place. *_ What sort of test are you talking about?_*
_*Gunning for a case of Stockholm Syndrome2, Jean? _ *
_*Empath, I don't know what you're playing at here but you can change...let us go. _ * She was distracted by the sound of Rogue's voice.
"Jean, give it up...he's not worth the effort."
This seemed to incense Empath more than anything Jean could have said. _*Not one of you is worth my time but the White Queen requires me to... _ * He swallowed his words mentally and just glared.
Jean started in again. _*You're a sad creature, Empath. Messing with other people's emotions, doing what someone else tells you to do... _ * She felt the anger start low in her belly and knew it was not truly her own. She felt an urge to strike out at Empath, tear at his skin with her nails, and she knew that he was provoking her how he knew best. She closed her eyes and pushed it down, hoping that he would not move on to one of the others in his need to start a fight. _*Poor Empath...can't even make me angry like he wants... _ * The emotion was different now. Jean could see his expression shift the moment before desire welled within her, warmth seeping through her limbs, her heart racing and mouth going dry. He smirked at her, knowing full and well just what was happening to her body. Jean gritted her teeth as she felt the dampness spread between her legs, a response unbidden and unwanted. The desire to touch Empath in so many inappropriate ways coursed through her veins for a horrifying minute before she was able to gather her strength. With everything she had, Jean turned the emotions back on him. She threw up every shield she had, opening the proverbial floodgates on her own emotions, the ones she truly felt and not the ones he was creating within her to get a rise. She willed pain into him, making his knees buckle by sheer dint of will. She held him in place when he would turn to flee and Jean knew when she had won out by the sharp cry that tore from his throat. Jean felt her power course through her like honey, sweet and thick and warm all at once. She felt strong and loved it, even as part of her worried that this was wrong, even as she exerted just a little more of her abilities and held his vocal cords still against Empath's will.
His eyes went wild, rolling in his head like a frightened horse. He was begging for someone to help him with his expressions but the girls on the floor were too morbidly fascinated to move and even if they could, not one of them was sure they wanted Jean to stop when all was said and done. After a moment, he went absolutely limp and felt to the floor. Jean sucked in a gasping breath and pressed the heel of her hand to her breastbone as if it hurt to exist in that moment. Empath's mind was an open book as he lay unconscious, a twisted plan of treachery so complex that it made telenovellas3 seem to make sense. Breathing raggedly, Jean said with a hitch in her voice, "Fucking idiot..."
Amara was honestly impressed. She wanted to tell Jean that she should let go of her prissy reserve more often, but even she knew that it was not the time or place. "What did you do to him?"
"Backlash," Jean said, grinning like a fiend. "He's going to have one Hell of a headache in a few minutes...let's get out of here."
"We can do that?" Rahne asked, sounding wary.
"Sure..." Jean closed her eyes and held out her hand, a door sliding open in the paneling, a door that had previously been hidden from their sight. "Emma Frost is holding us here. Called the White Queen. But she isn't here right now...Empath's mind showed that she was taking someone to see an even more powerful mutant..."
"Who?" It was Rahne again, rising creakily to her feet.
"I'm not sure...but I have an idea that it's Magneto. Come on," Jean said, hopping to her feet as if she did not feel bone-weary and rather like collapsing herself. It had taken almost all she had to do that to Empath and she now was not sure if she could fight him off again should she need to. "Let's get moving before he comes to."
Rogue waited until Amara and Rahne had gone ahead, falling into step with Jean as they headed down the hall cautiously. The walls were very close and it was dimly lit, making it impossible to move quickly. "Jean, are you sure you're okay?"
"I will be...I can't get a read on the guys, though...We need to find them and get out of here before everything goes all to Hell..." Even as she said it, Jean was not quite sure that things were not already that way.

A/N Next chapter.... SMUT!!!!!!!!!!!! Whoooooo!!!!! And Kurt! And Kitty! And old people! :)

1 Yeah, sort of random homage to X2 there, lol.
2 A situation where a captive falls in love with or feels a deep bond with their captor and often defends them and refuses to leave them because the captor has created a raport to the point where the victim feels safe with them, protected and held in confidence. Weird, huh?
3 If you have ever seen a soap opera on Telemundo, you know what I mean.