Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, the menagerie has resurfaced and their all wearing towels...one step from kilts and not disappointing at all. ;) InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are fantabulous for archiving. :) Readers/Reviewers: It hit 100 degrees today. The Killer Kitties (tm) et al have gone below ground...Not meot pot poor Nemain...she melted. Actually, I'm not Nemain. I'm her doppelganger and am hiding the puddle-formerly-known-as-Nemain in the tub until she stops whinging about it being so hot. She knows damn well it gets MUCH hotter than this late in the summer here! Humph.


Tarot was honestly going to make Pietro work for it, but in the end boredom got the better of her. Night had fallen hard and fast after hours of teasing dusk and, as per Magneto's demand, "that damned television" had been shut off at seven. Pietro seemed to be used to the looming hours of silence in the cavernous house, but Tarot found herself actually missing the mad chaos of Emma's place. _It's eight o'clock so Warpath1 would be watching some war movie right now with lots of explosions and splattering...even that noise is better than this. _ She noticed, not for the first time, that the house smelled like a Catholic church, like cold marble and holy water and faintly of incense and a little like old books and leather. She had a brief vision of a row of hooded monks traipsing down the hall behind her and even half-turned just to make sure before she caught herself. _This place may be haunted but it isn't that haunted... _ She had hoped to wait and make him sweat and maybe get herself a little more interested in the proceedings than the bare minimum, but boredom won out and she found herself trailing through the maze of hallways looking for wherever Pietro had hidden himself for the evening. He was skittish around everyone, she noticed, as if he expected to get hit all the time. She had yet to see Magneto raise a hand against anyone-even her own beating had been self-induced, a product of her mutation gone haywire, but Magneto had ultimately done nothing but watched with a small, bemused smile on his lips. _Thinking about that ain't gonna make this any more fun, you twit, _ she scolded herself, trying first one door and then another, finding them open but the rooms behind them empty.
"Looking for something?" Pietro asked.
Tarot schooled her features into neutrality and turned towards his voice. Pietro was standing at the end of the hallway she had just come from but she knew that he could very well have come from anywhere, moving so fast she almost could not see him. "Someone, more like," she purred, the intent in her voice unmistakable.
Pietro felt his brows creep upwards. "Um...Magneto is with Incubus down in the lab...Mystique is off to meet with Emma..."
"Why?" Tarot asked sharply, momentarily diverted.
"Dunno...Magneto told her she had to do it, had to make some exchange..." Pietro shoved himself away from the wall he was leaning against but did not move any closer towards Tarot. "Why do you care?"
"They hate each other, Mystique and Emma..." Tarot was distracted then, knowing that whatever exchange Magneto had planned between the two women must surely be a sp, sp, something to cull the weak from the herd. Shaking herself mentally, Tarot raked a glance over Pietro. He was very pale, more than was possibly healthy, in the dark hallway. She wondered if he would glow if given half the chance. As he stared back at her, she walked slowly towards him, knowing that he could bolt if he chose to but also knowing that he would not. "I'm bored, Pietro," she said plaintively, brushing against him knowingly.
"Uh...There's some books in the study..." He looked even more pale, if that was at all possible.
She snorted. "Pietro, you're not really that dense, are you?" She pressed the palm of her hand against his chest and pushed him back against the wall with little effort. "I'm bored, Pietro...want to entertain me?" She let her hand slide down his chest and stomach and come to rest somewhere else entirely.
Pietro waited for a moment before reacting. His entire life, it seemed like everything had happened so fast that he could barely remember the details, but this was the first time a girl was offering herself to him willingly, without his entreaties and teasing and half a bottle of Mad Dog. Now here was Tarot, fairly easy on the eyes and obviously more than willing, rubbing against him enticingly as she stared up at him with wide eyes, the expression on her face obviously practiced. For some reason, it made him think of Amara, how the Nova Roman always had a false front on before other people, but he shoved the thought aside as Tarot's hand squeezed him with every ounce of intent in her body. "My room's the third on the left."
The room itself was Spartan, even by Brotherhood standards. Pietro did not have much in the way of belongings aside from a few changes of clothes, some books and a random video game or two that he never got the chance to play at his father's house. The bed was bare of all but a single sheet and a rather flat pillow, a comforter in a forlorn heap on the floor where it had been kicked that morning in Pietro's haste to answer Magneto's call. He felt as if he should apologize for the room somehow, but Tarot did not give him a chance. She pushed him towards the bed and was on him as soon as his back touched the mattress. Kissing him hard, she parted his lips with her tongue and was already pulling his shirt up as she laved the inside of his mouth. She broke away long enough to yank his shirt off and throw it towards the comforter before attacking him again, kissing his mouth and throat and then his chest, sucking hard enough to leave a purple mark above his right nipple. Pietro hissed at the pain of the marking but did not push her away, even as she bit him on the bruise, seemingly taking delight in causing him some discomfort. She sat up and pulled her top off, revealing the fact she wore no bra. Pietro reached up and took her breasts in his hands, rubbing his thumbs across pale brown nipples and areolas, rolling the stiffening flesh between his fingers and making her shudder. Tarot let him have his way for a few minutes before she pushed his hands down to rest on his stomach. With a slight smile, she stood and took off her jeans, Pietro following suite. When they were both bare of clothing, Tarot crawled back onto the bed and straddled his hips. Pietro had barely a moment to grasp her hips before she lowered herself onto his length, already hard as could be; he gasped aloud when she began to move frenetically on him. It had been so long and he had wanted so much in that time that he knew he would not last very long at all and the fact that Tarot seemed to be on the verge herself did not hinder matters. Soon, she dug her nails into the white-blue flesh of his chest and threw her head back, moaning roughly as she tightened internal muscles around him, her release running from her and down her thighs, pooling between them as she continued to rock her hips. His climax was not long afterwards, her still-clenching muscles milking him for all he was worth, his spurting seed filling her and mingling with her own fluids in a sticky mess between them.
When they had been quiet for several minutes, Tarot grimly satisfied and not even a little bored and Pietro was still breathing hard, making sketchy circles on the flesh of her back with his finger tips, he asked, "Why did you come here from Emma?"
"I wanted more," she replied simply, sounding a little astonished as if he should already know the answer.
"More what? From all that I've heard, Emma's pretty powerful hlf alf and the Hellions seem to be doing a damned good job in the mayhem and fear department."
"Penny ante crap...burglaries, enforcement for paramilitary groups...not what she really wants. Emma wants power. She wants the Brotherhood."
Pietro froze, his hand falling still on her back. He would not delude himself into thinking he loved Tarot or even cared for her aside from how he could care for another mutant simply because they were in a similar situation as he was, but he felt a definite affinity for her. He felt how they were similar in ambition and the need to please and prove. And now he felt like maybe she could out-prove him to Magneto. "How do you mean?"
_ What the Hell? Mags knows and it's not like Pietro's gonna go running to Emma to tell her I blabbed _... "Emma wants to run this mess. She knows Magneto's sick...Hell, everyone knows! We even know there's more to the Brotherhood than the Boardinghouse in Bayville and this set up Mags has brewing here. She wants control of the second most powerful organization in the mutant world, so to speak. Emma wants the same thing I want."
"What do you want, Tarot?" Pietro asked a little breathlessly. He could see the intricate knots of treachery spreading across the people he knew, Emma crossing Magneto, crossing Mystique, all of them crossing Professor Xavier...it was mind boggling and breathtaking to his corrupt mind.
She raised herself up on one elbow and regarded him openly. With an even tone, she replied, "I want power, Pietro. I want it all."
His so recently latent ambition seemed to receive an electric jolt from these words. He could see a future spanning before him-before them. One of rising control, of power over others, of spreading mutant influence and dominance in world affairs, with her at his side, even though he knew very well that he would not love her and could not love her nor she him, the pairing a purely practical and visceral one. "I think," he answered smoothly with a touch of his old bravado, "I can help you with that."

"Man, they're so going to kill me," Roberto moaned.
_*Shut the fuck up, please! _ *
"Jono!" Kitty chided, grinding the gears in the Jeep just a little as she shifted gears. "Roberto is really laying himself on the line here..."
"That was dirty pool you know," the mutant known as Sunspot wailed. "You _cried _ at me!"
_* The number one weapon in the female arsenal, mate. Crocodile tears. _ *
"So not true!" Kitty cried. "I just got frustrated...And no one is going to kill you!"
Roberto let out a weary sigh. "Mystique will...and if she doesn't, Magneto!"
Jono and Kitty exchanged glances in the mirror. She did not know if Logan, Warren and the others were going to Magneto's and she frankly hoped that they were not. The last thing they needed, she thought, was to have the older mutants going into parental mode as they tried to do their hero-bit. "Magneto won't kill a kid, Roberto. And that's what we are to him...kids." She bit her tongue on that, thinking bitterly of Ruth and how their newly discovered grandfather was ultimately responsible for her death. _Forgive me, Ruach... I'm lying to keep him from freaking and to maybe, hopefully, help my friends out of danger... _ She spared another thought for the Wagners and Cecilia, still ensconced on Institute grounds. The Professor was still there though when they left, he had been using Cerebro and thus missed their departure. _Um, so long as I'm talking to the supernatural...God, please make sure they're all okay and please let us get far enough away before the Professor figures out we're gone...so long as no one uses their mutation, we should be fine... _ She glanced at Jono again and wondered if his now-eternal state of energy containment was considered a continual use of his mutation. Sighing, she asked aloud, mainly to break the uncomfortable silence, "Why are they always going to Canada?"
_* I suppose because Mexico is too far away from New York to flee to quickly, _ * Jono said dryly, sounding bored and irritated at once.
"Harder to get weapons across borders, too," Roberto put in. "Though there's tons of ways around it. But if you're just running, whoever is after you is likely to get caught if they have a weapon..." The conversation became a rather stilted one about weapon laws and smuggling of said weapons across international borders, then to the laxity of the border between the US and Canada. Even that bare conversation was better than the silence, the tension that crept through them all. Roberto had finally caved and told them how he had gone to Mystique when he realized that he could not follow through on Emma's plan for the Institute and how Mystique had made it a point to capture him during the onslaught a few nights previous only to let him go. She had given him a message for the Professor that lacked details meaningful to anyone other than the man himself. Mystique's and thereby Magneto's location had become evident during eavesdropping on the conversation between Logan and the Professor.
Silence fell again as Kitty nervously noticed the sign announcing the impending border. "Try and look legal," she tittered. Jono snorted mentally and Roberto sank lower in his seat until Kitty elbowed him, hissing for him to sit up and "look happy, for crying out loud!"
"Do you have anything to declare?" The border guard was a pleasant woman of middle years and seemed more bored than actually interested.
"Nope, not a thing!" Kitty chirped. "That it?"
"Actually..." The guard leaned in the Jeep and looked at each of them carefully. "Sir, would you mind removing the covering from your face?"
Roberto, his voice tight, said "He can't! He's...um...sick!"
The guard frowned. Her friendly demeanor sliding into stern disapproval. "I'm sure you all understand that, due to recent world events, we are being even more vigilant with the comings and goings of people across international borders. What illness do you have, sir?" She held up a hand to silence Roberto and Kitty. Jono shrugged helplessly. "Sir, please remove the covering from your face now."
Chancing it, Jono said in his most well-modulated voice, _*I'm not so much sick as highly allergic...I have multiple sensitivity syndrome and so much as the slightest whiff of pollen or perfume or anything, really, could kill me.2 _ *
The guard motioned for someone to come over and join her. "I'm going to have to ask you all to pull over here and step out of the car slowly..."
Kitty frowned, biting her lip. "Why?" she finally asked. "My friend just has allergies..."
"Suspicious behavior," the guard murmured to her companion, trotting up to join her. "That one in the back..."
Kitty closed her eyes and sent up a quick prayer to whoever was listening. "Roberto, how far are we?"
"About an hour...why?"
The guards were discussing procedure and not exactly paying close attention to the teenagers. Kitty licked her lips and said, "What time is it?"
"Ten-ish...again, why?"
Kitty looked around carefully. There were no other guards available at the rather rural crossing and they seemed to be the only car. "Hold on, please." She stepped on the accelerator and practically flew through the bank of booths, the two guards shouting after them, one calling on a radio for backup. She hoped they were going fast enough that they could not get a look at their plates. "Get out the damn map and find a back road!" she cried, fighting the urge to turn around and throw herself on the mercy of the guards.
_*Kitty _ , Jono said as they rocketed through the night, flashing lights appearing behind them, though some distance away, _if you get me killed... _ *
"I won't get you killed," she promised. "Incarcerated, maybe, but not killed..."


Kurt was feeling very weak by the time he made it to the confines of the house. It was eerily silent-no alarms, no footsteps, not even a murmur of voices as he crept long the narrow hall that had given him so much trouble earlier. He felt very scared for the first time in ages and wished desperately that he knew how Kitty was. He was honestly worried about all of his friends, but he knew that if anything happened to Kitty, he would never recover from the grief. _She's fine...she's probably worried sick about where we are and is crying or yelling or both...Mein Katzchen is passionate with her emotions. _ He tried and failed to smile about that. He paused for a long moment as he reached the spot where he had been grabbed earlier. He knew he was in no shape to port just then, despite the influx of nutrition he had received earlier. Sticking to the shadows, he crept further along and paused as he smelled burning ozone. _Wanda? _ He knew the scent from the few times he had been around Wanda when she used her powers. He had not seen her earlier but knew that was no surety that she had not been taken. Stretching as far as he could, Kurt craned his neck to look around a corner and saw a wide room, an antechamber really, done entirely in dark wood paneling and odd brass fixtures. What he focused on was the source of the surprise running through his veins. Tabby, looking green around the gills and swaying on her feet, stood near one of the walls, bracing herself with one hand on the wood as she pressed the other hand to her swollen belly. She heaved soundlessly and dryly, going to her knees. Her feet, from what Kurt could see, looked very puffy. Years of being around his mother when she was pregnant and the various women of their Romany group when they were bearing made Kurt very aware of the hazards of pregnancy and all of the possible outcomes that could befall someone in need of prenatal medical attention. Tabby looked like she was desperately in need at that moment. Kurt stayed as low to the ground as he could, sliding along the wall into the room, hoping it was dark enough that he could not be easily discerned.
"Who's there?" Tabby asked suddenly, her voice sounding rough. "Please...I need help."
Kurt shuddered at the needy tone in her voice. He had never heard Tabby sound anything but strong and confident. This needy tone was almost unnerving. "Tabby," he said softly when he was a few yards away. "I don't know where the others are...are you under guard?"
"Not if you got in..." She sniffled and turned slowly to face him, finally focusing on his eyes. "The big Native guy left me here...he went running off after the blonde chick. Said if I moved, he'd take the baby himself, whether or not Emma was ready for it."
Kurt swore under his breath. He bet he knew where Roulette and all had gone. He bet they were still running after the others or worse, with the girls, doing God only knew what. He stood carefully and reached for Tabby's hand. "We're going to get out of here, okay? I can take you to a safe place before I come back for the others."
"Others?"
"I'll explain later, okay? Come on..." He managed to get her to walk a few yards before she had to double over in nausea and dizziness.
"Blood sugar," she said shakily. "Beast said I need medication...and I think this is edema," she said, indicating her feet. "Damn scary words to know, huh?"
Kurt swallowed hard and nodded. "Come on, I'll get you out...there's a place about one hundred yards down this hall..."
"Only," a deep, clipped voice intoned, "if you get through me, first."


1 Hey, remember him? I mentioned him lots-o-chapters ago...lol.
2 Really a disorder. Sucks, don't it?