Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER FORTY FIVE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE(tm), can we scream yet? InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are shiny and sparkled for archiving. Readers/Reviewers: There's been a coup d'etat...the ducks took over the musical and now it's The Music Man. You know, "Seventy Six Trombones" wouldn't be so bad if even one of them could play the trombone... The Killer Kitties (tm) and their Minions(tm) are hiding...I think I may join them.


The entire trip was surreal for Kurt. _I'm riding in a car with a corpse...a dead man...teenager. God, he's not much older than me...his lips are so blue... _ It was at that unfortunate moment that the body gave a post mortem jerk.1 "Ah!"
"What?" Jean said, tense beyond belief. Empath's body gave another twitch and there was a disturbing rattling noise, like he was trying to talk. "Ah!"
"What the fuck...is he still alive?" Todd cried.
Banshee, swerving as Jean tried to move from the front of the car to the back without unbuckling, thus making her lurch into him by accident, said, "That's just the death rattle...it's the last air leaving his lungs..."
Jean added, a little tersely, "He's passing into rigor mortis...we really shouldn't have moved the body, you know."
"How would we have explained it to the authorities? Sorry, y'all, mutant fight got out of hand...God!" Rogue's words turned into a cry of pain as she pressed her hands over her eyes. "My head..." She gasped and threw her head back and sucked in a deep breath. "Stop _feeling _ so much..." Her hands clutched convulsively at her knees and she curled forward, muttering to herself incoherently.
"What's wrongodd odd asked, almost panicky, first to Rogue then turning wide eyes to Jean. "What's going on with her?"
Jean did not need to scan Rogue to know what was happening to her friend. Sighing, she said, "Backlash...she can't control Empath's powers and she's feeling everything we feel..."
Kurt furrowed his brow. "We all need to calm down then?"
"If you can..." Jean did not think that they could all reach a state of calm necessary to placate Rogue's raging emotions and temporarily enhanced psychic ability nor did she think that doing so would seriously help the girl, but she was willing to go along with the idea if it even had a speck of a chance of working.
Kurt took a breath and exhaled slowly, drawing forth a picture that made him happy. It was a scene that had never happened but one that he imagined on a regular basis, especially when he was feeling upset or tense: Kitty, grinning at him and pink as a rose from nervousness, backing towards a door, beckoning him as she pushed it open and disappeared into the room. He followed, in his thoughts, and found her laying back on the bed, a white dress spread wide around her, her shoulders bare above the neckline of the dress and...
"Kurt!" Rogue growled warningly.
"Ooops...Guess that was the wrong thing..." he sighed.
"I just don't want to feel all gooshy over Kitty right now..." In truth, Rogue was having a hard time not screaming herself raw over what had happened. She had unknowingly compartmentalized Empath's death into a part of her brain that deemed it less real because she did not choose to acknowledge his reality. Instead, she merely concentrated on trying to keep her thoughts her own, trying to block out all the confusion whirling through her mind. She could feel each and every thing that the people around her felt, except the disturbing black hole that was Empath, which she again shoved away into the "deal with it later" part of her mind.
Kurt nodded and forced himself to think of something else, a nearly impossible task because every minute that passed brought them a little closer to the Institute and a little closer to Kitty. _Think of the circus...The high wire, the trapeze...flying through the air like that _... He chanced a glance at Rogue and saw her face relax slightly. The car had fallen silent as everyone tried to think of something pleasant, schooling their minds away from the horror that had been so recently theirs. Roulette was the only one not cooperating, mainly because she was bound, gagged and her chips tucked in the glove box away from questing fingers. Kurt knew without the benefit of psychic powers that the blonde girl was thinking anything but pleasant thoughts. In fact, she still had tear tracks on her cheeks from when she had first seen Empath. That had led to the decision to bind her properly, the rage she flew into upon finding her friend was dead. She had clawed St John's face when she worked free of her bindings in the study, and sent Evan reeling with a well-placed punch. Evan did not even react, merely taking the hit and falling back. In fact, Kurt thought to himself, Evan had been almost unresponsive since he had been returned to them in the lab area, wounded and ashen. _Everyone else seems to be functioning...what happened to Evan? _ He did not have long to dwell on this as flashing lights ahead drew soft curses from Banshee and Jean. "Shit," Kurt said a little louder than they had. "Hide the body!"
"Where?" Scott snapped. "We've got a girl bound in the back seat and a corpse on the floorboards...just where do you suggest we put them?"
Jamie made a nervous noise low in his throat. "Want me to throw a multiple in front of the car and distract them?"
"Nice idea but not a good one," Jean muttered. They were rolling to a stop at a police barricade
Todd sighed. "Rogue, sorry 'bout this, but..." He lurched into the back seat and grabbed Roulette's face in his hands, kissing her for all he was worth despite the gag over her mouth. She struggled some but he managed to pin her arms to her side in an embrace. Rogue did not even notice, bent over her lap as she was, breathing jaggedly with the new rush of emotions.
Kurt, Jamie, Jean, St John and Bobby all made various faces of disgust, though none were too sure just who they felt worse for as some slime seemed to be seeping around the edges of Todd's mouth in his efforts to keep Roulette quiet and still. "Sc pre pretend you're asleep," Banshee muttered. "Put something over the body..."
There was a general scramble as they looked for things to put on the floorboard. The car was stopped then and the bobbing beam of a flashlight was quickly approaching. "Quick," Kurt said under his breath, "roll him onto his side so it looks like he's asleep..." The dawn was brightening towards day but it was still quite dusky out, the purple shadows deep in the trees on either side of the road. Kurt fumbled for his holo and breathed a sigh of relief that it was still working, though, he noticed with some ire, his right hand seemed to be flickering. Tucking it under his leg, he managed to look appropriately sleepy as Banshee rolled down the window.
"Good morning, sir," Banshee said pleasantly to the officer peering into the car. The beam of light touched on them each in turn, lingering on Todd and Roulette in the very back.
"A little early for that, isn't it?" the man replied, but shook his head slightly as if to clear his thoughts and said, "We're stopping people crossing into the States because we're on the look out for this girl..." He produced a sketch of a girl who looked roughly like Kitty. "She had two males with her, one masked, and they were in a red jeep. Partial license of JK2-W...well, that's all we have. Have you seen anyone matching this description or a vehicle like this?"
Kurt managed to control his breathing, but just barely. Not trusting his voice, he shook his head as everyone mumbled their negatives.
"Where are you all coming from, anyway?" the officer continued, peering closely anshanshee.
"Ah, we were on a field trip to the Tour de Pax in Montreal and got a bit turned around, trying to go into Toronto." He shrugged sheepishly, playing up the "dumb tourist" act. "We've from the Xavier Institute...would you like to see my ID?"
The officer shook his head. It was then that Kurt noticed Jean's strained look of concentration and he knew that she must be trying to manipulate the man. _*Jean, don't...you know it'll put you down for a long time... _ * He received no answer, merely the tightening of Jean's brow as the man nodded curtly to Banshee and returned to the barricade. Banshee drove on staidly, dingding a bend in the road after several miles, effectively blocking their progress from the patrol's view. Jean slumped forward, her head hitting the dashboard as she released her hold on the officer. "Banshee," Kurt asked carefully, willing the panic from his voice, "how fast can this thing go?"
"Fast enough..."
Todd disengaged from Roulette and pushed himself back into the seat next to Rogue. "I'm sorry, sweets, but I had to...Rogue? Rogue?"
Bobby leaned forward and looked closely at the girl. "She's awake, I think...just...tense..."
Jean's voice, thin from wear and stress, drifted back, "I know the feeling."

Magneto hated being unaware. And he hated being purposefully uninformed even more than that. As he lay on what seemed to be an exam table, he knew that he was both at that moment, Tarot's pinched face and Pietro's bland one peering down at him. "What," he finally asked, his voice raspy, "are you staring at?"
"Incubus's work," Pietro said with a slight smile. "You look fine..."
"What are you talking about?" Magneto tried to sit up but found he could not, not because of restraints but because he was sore beyond belief. He felt, he thought to himself, as if someone had ripped his innards out and replaced them with acid.
"You were dying," Tarot said softly, her face belying her tired state, "and Incubus saved you."
"How?" Magneto demanded, forcing himself now to sit up, hissing softly at the raging pain shooting through his body. Years of practice allowed him to appear unaffected, but he knew he would be paying for it later.
"He told us what to do with the blood, what the doctor was mixing it with in that lab downstairs, how to put it in you..." Pietro looked vaguely ill. "Why that guy's blood? I thought it had to be Kitty's because she's related?" He spat the last word like venom.
Magneto suppressed a sigh as he responded, "The Russian's mutation would make me stronger. Metal, you know...the mutation is in the blood with us, in all our cells...the good doctor was decocting it for me to make me stronger, healthier..." Shaking himself to coherence, he said, "That is not the issue here...where is Incubus?"
Tarot and Pietro exchanged a glance as if daring each other to speak first. When it seemed that neither would do so, Magneto made a threatening gesture, prompting Pietro to burst out with "He's in you!"
Magneto did not have to ask clarification. He knew what Incubus did and how he did it. He became very still then and listened to his own mind, felt his own body like a case around something ineffable. There he was, Magneto realized. He could feel Incubus moving inside him, trying to find space to exist but failing. "He hasn't fed in a while, has he?"
Tarot was the one who answered. "I don't think so...I'm not sure..."
" Mag Magneto answered, "he hasn't. He is weak...he can't control me..." He glanced down at his body and saw he was shirtless, the smooth skin of his abdomen bearing no trace of Wolverine's work. "But he tried, didn't he? Healed my body for his use...that was his undoing..."
Pietro shifted uncomfortably. "Are you well now? Can you...will you lead us again?"
Magneto cocked his head to one side. "You know, I do indeed feel better..." He let the laugh bubbling in his throat burst forth. "I haven't felt this good in years..."
Somehow, that did not make Tarot feel any better.
1 The first time or two you see it happen, it's really disturbing. So is the death rattle.