Institutionalized

INSTITUTIONALIZED CHAPTER FIFTY (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies and BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), I think Tim and Steed are afraid of the flurry this weekend! They're hiding in the box... InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are shiny. :) They archive so they're superspecialshiny at that... Readers/Reviewers: I love you. I mean it. I'm all gooshy and pink because y'all read this stuff and review. I'm embarrassing the menagerie because I'm so happy that I'm singing Dancing Queen now. *g * ;)


The sound stopped merely moments after it began, but it seemed like it had gone on forever. "I think my ears are bleeding!" Evan shouted to no one in particular.
"No, I don't know about beading!" Kitty returned, also shouting. "What kind of a question is that?"
Kurt herded his sisters behind him, standing between them and the entrance to the basement sublevel determined to be the source of the sound. "Was?" he said loudly to Kitty. "What meeting?"
"Move," Logan ground out between clenched teeth. The teenagers parted like the Red Sea as he pushed past Beast and Storm, his claws coming out fully as he gained the door. The metal parted like butter under a warm knife, a few slashes and it was a gaping hole rather than a door.
"I would have opened it," Banshee said dryly, standing a few feet from the door, directly in front of a crumpled heap of humanity that appeared to be Emma, clutching her head and shaking.
"What the Hell was that?" Scott demanded.
"My power," Banshee sighed. "But it stopped sudden-like."
'That'd be _my _ power," Wanda growled, stepping past Kurt and Jean to stand even with Logan. "I'm binding you. What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
"Like I said, lass, and mind your tone with me, she tried to get physical. Mental, rather..."
Jean frowned. "She was too much for you?"
"Does she look like she was too much for me?"
Emma chose that moment to stir. Her ears were indeed bleeding, her eardrums ruptured. Her face was pinched and paler than could possibly be healthy. "I need out of here. Now."
"Too bad, lady," Logan said sharply, advancing on her quickly. "Kids, get back upstairs. I'm gonna interrogate Frosty here."
"No, Logan," Beast said quietly. "She's afraid."
Jean nodded. "Very..."
"Get the Professor then," Scott said impatiently.
"He knows," Jean said quietly, coming forward to stand next to Logan. "Wanda, are you binding her?"
"Yeah. Her and the Screamer there."
"Banshee," the mutant in question bit out with little good humor. "Mister Cassidy to you."
Jean made an swift hand gesture, shutting up the argument effectively. "Emma...what are you afraid of?"
"I've been worked over by better than you, Red," the woman said, struggling to sit up. "I'm not afraid of anything."
"Bullshit," Kitty burst out before she could stop herself. She colored slightly under Logan's piercing glare and ducked behind Kurt. "Save me," she squeaked.
Jean squatted down to look Emma in the eyes. "I think I know how we can find out. Where's Rogue?"
"No," Lance and Beast said at once. Beast continued, "She's in no shape to deal with this."
Lance nodded. "And Todd'll slime anyone who goes near her." It was purely conjecture on his part, but he knew Todd well enough to realize that he would protect Rogue with everything he had if it came down to it.
"No, I won't," a voice said quietly from the back of the group. Todd looked weary, obviously not having sl sho showered or changed. He held tightly to Rogue's hand as she swayed in the doorway, bumping the frame slightly.
"Oh, gods," Amara breathed. "She looks..."
"Shhh," came from Rahne, startled by the appearance of their friend.
Rogue wore no makeup, Cecilia having removed it as she lay in the infirmary as a sort of motherly gesture. The circles under her eyes were so dark as to be almost black and her face bore a natural pallor underscored with pain and anger. She wore her body suit still and latex gloves over her hands but other than that, she was disturbingly bare, not caring what anyone could see through the fine mesh of the fabric. Her posture was wrong, as if she did not know how to use her own body, slightly hunched with her head pushed forward. She broke free from Todd's grasp and took a few lurching steps towards Emma, ignoring everyone else. "You," she said quietly, "fucked up royally, didn't you Emma? Did you see Professor Xavier yet? Does he know about Thunderbird? Does he know about the others who don't have names?"
Emma blinked. "How..." She took a shuddering breath and said on the exhale, "Empath."
"Kurt," Kitty whispered frantically, "get the Professor!" They all knew the Professor was aware of what was going on but it made them feel slightly better to have the assurance that he was coming toute de suite. Kurt nodded and ported, leaving Kitty clutching Katja's and Anja's hands.
Rogue cocked her head to one side. "It hurts so much, having him in here. You know what he tells me, Emma?" she hissed, dropping to her knees beside the woman. "He says he's glad I killed him, even if it was an accident. He says being a Hellion, being one of your brats, was too hard on him. He hated it."
"Liar," Emma said languidly. "You have no idea..."
"You killed Thunderbird1 on accident. You killed others, too, didn't you?" Rogue was speaking so quietly that most in the room had to strain to hear her, but Emma had no problem making out the accusations.
She shook her head violently and spat out, "I killed no one!"
"Well," Rogue said a little more loudly, smiling despite herself in a toothy, malevolent grin, "you committed sins of omission, then, didn't you? You let them die...all except Thunderbird. That one, you did yourself. You say it was an accident, but was it really? He was going to leave, abandon all that you worked so, so hard to build..." Kurt's bamf interrupted her speech but Rogue only paused for a moment. She was driven, unable to stop the words from coming out of her mouth. Empath in her head was feeding her the information, though not directing her. Her own personality was vying with his and she was finding it increasingly harder to stay focused, the urge to scream and curl into a ball very great. "You wanted so much, Emma...far too much..."
"Rogue," the Professor said gently but sternly. "I think that's enough for now."
Rogue twitched like a startled baby bird and slowly turned, never rising from her crouch. "Professor, I know..."
"Yes, as do I...Todd, please assist Beast in returning Rogue to the infirmary." He added mentally to the doctor to give her heavier sedation until this confrontation was over. Rogue put up no protest as Todd came forward to help her to her feet. The group that had closed around them as he led her painstakingly towards Beast. There was a rushing moment of silence as they left before the Professor spoke. "Emma," he said in a measured tone, "he cannot hurt you, you know. You have control. You know you do."
"I know that," she snapped, finally gaining her feet. Her ears were still seeping some blood, having been so close to Banshee's cry. Everything sounded off, wrong somehow, and she knew that her eardrums were ruptured. Somehow, that made her feel nauseated while nothing else she had done recently affected her. "I am not afraid," she sneered, her fists clenched by her sides, focusing her glare solely on the Professor. "I think you are laboring under a misapprehension..."
"No such thing, Emma..." The Professor glanced at Logan and, more forcefully than before, "Tomorrow you leave here."
Emma smiled slowly then, a curving expression that would have been beautiful in another time or place. Her eyes lit on Roberto and her words made him grow cold. "It's too late, you know...they're coming."

Firestar closed her eyes and took a few slow, deep breaths. Warpath had beaten her good but he had not come away unscathed. Since the incident in the hall, they had not spoken, even when Emma's command came down. They were, it seemed, all that remained of the Hellions. All that remained, Firestar thought, that could manage to do anything other than get captured. The night air seemed to wrap around her and pull on her as she paused, mid-flight, before forcing herself onward. Warpath was driving, she knew, and if he arrived before her, there would be nothing she could do to stop him. Especially since Emma had such a strong hold on him. It would be, she supposed, like betraying a lover one held dear or worse, a parent. _Presuming one actually gave a damn about parents... _ The young woman had very little opinion about parents as she never seemed to have any herself, being raised by Emma as long as she could remember, being trained to kill and protect as the White Queen wished. It had never occurred to her until she saw Thunderbird die that maybe, just maybe, Emma wanted too much. The trails of double and triple crossing that had sprung up between Emma and Magneto had done more for Firestar's ulcers in the past six months than anything else in the world could have and now she feared she had not acted quickly enough. _If Warpath is right, we won't be alone long. If Magneto truly has more people... _ She did not want to think about it. She could make out the dark shapes of the Xavier Institute in the night, quickly heading towards dawn, ane hae hastened herself along. _Please let me get there first...I don't know if there is a god but if you're there and actually listen to people like me...Please let me get there first. Maybe I can undo some of what's been done... _ She was across the gates of the institute then when she felt gravity make a sickening grab for her body. She gasped but did not scream as she plummeted towards the earth, her hands splayed in front of her in an absurd attempt to stop her fall. Firestar closed her eyes and braced mentally for pain and panic when she felt suddenly airborne again. It took a moment to realize that there was a pair of arms around her, that she was being held.
Dryly, Warren stated, "You know, I am getting so much use out of these wings lately...I think I mighep tep them."

Tarot paced nervously back and forth, shooting glances at a strangely sanguine Pietro. "Why aren't you more worried? What if they figure out it's not him?"
"It won't matter," the teenager said, trying to look inviting as he lounged in his bed at the Boardinghouse, thankful that at least his room had not fallen victim to Blob's slob-gene in his absence. "The only one who can tell is Logan-that guy wtabbtabbed him-and Mystique can get away from him easy enough. Besides, it's not like she's gonna talk to anyone other than Warpath and Emma and the Professor."
"You're awfully cocky," she sneered. "You know as well as I do those brats won't just let anyone walk in and chat! Especially not your father!"
Pietro frowned. He was already planning his ascent to leadership within the reforming Brotherhood and thinking of Magneto was like throwing cold water on bare skin. "Leave him out of this. He's still to weak to do shit for us, you know."
"Bitter much?"
"Shut the fuck up, Tarot!" He levered himself off the bed and crossed to her so quickly she did not see him coming. "Just be fucking glad that Incubus got us loose before anything happened."
Tarot narrowed her eyes and made a calculated gesture, stepping closer to Pietro and laying her hand heavily on his chest. "If I recall," she said throatily, "you had a lot to do with that, too...If it weren't for your remarkable speed..." she trailed off, tilting her head to one side. "Tell me again how things will be once you're in charge, Pietro..." Tarot let him lead her to the bed and settled back against the pillows, his body actually shaking with the need to expend energy. She only half listened as she let her newly emerging abilities emerge2. She knew that, despite his best plans, Pietro's ascent would not happen unless she had a hand in it.
1 Warpath's brother in the comics. And I am so off canon here it's not even worth pointing it out to me if you noticed, lol.
2 Aside from her tarot deal, Tarot is actually a precog in the comics. A very good one at that.