Carne Vale

CARNE VALE CHAPTER FIFTY THREE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, I hid Billy and Joaquin's stash of rum so be wary of knocks on the door at odd hours...they seem to think Tim has it. InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are wonderful archivey types and I am sending them tons of muse kibble for doing so. ;) Readers/Reviewers: Soooooooooo sleepy...I think the Killer Kitties (tm) had the Killer Minions (tm) hypnotize me because I find myself clucking like a chicken whenever someone says "raspberry." Sure, it doesn't fit with their plans for world domination, but it's kind of funny in the grocery store.

"Salicadoola, menchiaboola, bippity boppity boo! Put 'em together and what do you get? Bippity boppity boo!"1 Wanda snorted as Tabby sang. The blonde had been making fun of the name Scarlet Witch for the better part of two days, starting when she noticed that Wanda had not dyed her hair it's usually reddish hue for a while or was she wearing much of the shade. Tabby continued singing the Disney song under her breath as they waited in the registrar's office at Bayville Community College, flipping through the GED test packet as if she were not nervous.
"They weren't witches," Wanda said when Tabby hit a lull in the song. "They were fairy godmothe
"
"Huh?"
"In _Sleeping Beauty _, the Bippity Boppity Boo-ers were fairy godmothers, not witches." Wanda picked up an information booklet on getting an associate's degree and thumbed through it as Tabby stared at her. "Yes, I've seen Disney movies. I'm not a savage."
"I just can't picture it... Whoa." She pressed the flat of her hand over her mouth. "Kid's up."
"Gonna puke?" Wanda, despite her growing affection for Tabby, had no desire to be part of the morning sickness experience. She stepped back a healthy three paces, out of what she termed splash radius and made a face. "Go to the bathroom and do it."
"Just nauseated...nothing on my stomach to throw up." Tabby let out a shaky breath. "I thought this shit was supposed to stop by now."
Wanda shrugged. "No idea, Tab. But you're starting to show more than before...you've got a Buddha belly."
"Don't make me shove plasma down your throat," she growled, snapping to attention as the door to the councilor's office opened. "Here we go..."
"Tabitha? Are you ready?"
Tabby paused at the door and turned back to Wanda. "If I fail this test," she said seriously, "kill Kitty before she gets to me."
"You didn't even have to ask..."

By her reckoning, she had about two hours before there was any chance of Tabby finishing her GED, and that was if the other girl worked fast and they let her go before the break. Wanda pulled around the block from the Boardinghouse and sat for a long time, staring at the back corner of it that she could see, the gray paint peeling to reveal even more gray wood, the shutters on Todd's old room hanging crookedly where the amphibian-like teenager had been rebounded from the wall by a rather irritated Lance and Pietro one day a year or so before. It was after nine in the morning and she knew that at least Fred would be at school. _One thing that tub of lard was a stickler about was school...when he was awake for it. _ Wanda sighed and decided it was time to face the devils that plagued her, slamming the car door so that the sound ricocheted like a gunshot up and down the quiet residential street. She stalked through the yards between the boardinghouse and her car, disregarding flower beds as she circled behind the garage and eased herself in through the backdoor, never locked since Todd lost the key while sewer-diving one day. _If Incubus is still here, this won't be pretty...but if he is what I think he is, he won't be here... _ Wanda had a passing acquaintance with Bayville High School and had a rather gnawing feeling that the mutant known as Incubus, the scourge of the Brotherhood, the thing that goes bump in the night for mutants who should fear nothing, was a student at said institution. _Magneto always did like 'em young...he can train us up better, mold us how he wants us. _ Wanda spared the gigantic hole in the wall a bare glance as she strode through the living room. _Must've been one of the X-freaks who did that. Pietro's such a fuckin' neatnik that he'd have a heart attack just from the dust piles alone. _ The stairs creaked under her weight as she headed for the silver-haired teenager's room, aware of the changes that had been made all around here. The walls of the upstairs hallway were an institutional white and the trim around the doors was black. The doors themselves, usually flimsy wood, were in pro process of being replaced...Lance, Todd and Fred's room had doors made of heavier wood, something sturdy that could withstand a hard kick or even a ball of charged plasma. Rogue's old room, the one that seemed to be relegated for the girls that came and went through the Brotherhood for it had been used for Tabby after Rogue left and Wanda herself for her first, brief stay, was door-less and Mystique's suite of rooms still bore the old, scarred door that came with the place. Wanda paused outside Pietro's room, her hand on the doorknob, when something drew her attention to Mystique's room. It was nonoisnoise, per se, but rather the awareness of movement behind the scarred piece of wood that made Wanda approach the room cautiously.
She knew something was awry, things were not as they seemed to be. Everything was in relative order but somehow, not. It was too clean, she realized. Like someone had gone over the room with a fine-toothed comb. The same instinct that had led her to the room made her spin around and drop to her knees as the person behind her grabbed for the back of her neck. "Son of a bitch!" she hissed, throwing up a shield of her powers, deflecting theirs and binding them. Wanda felt strange, as if something inside of her were moving too fast or she was falling through water. For a brief, horrifying moment, she thought that whoever was attacking her had been able to get past her powers or use theirs on her before she could deflect them, but she quickly realized that this was entirely her. She looked up at her assailant's face and was not surprised to see Pietro grinning savagely at her.
"My darling sister," he cooed. "This is unexpected! Father was just asking about you..."
"Liar," she bit out, rising to her feet when she realized he was not going to make another move towards her. She knew that if he were here, Incubus must be nearby. _Once that fucking freakshow gets his meathooks into someone, he doesn't let go until he's all used up _..."You haven't heard from Magneto any more than I have. The old man's probably dead!"
"That's where you're wrong," he said, almost crowing. He jittered with nervous energy and Wanda wondered in an almost clinical manner when the last time it was the boy had been able to run, to burn off all his pent up need. "He's been in touch...he wants me to head the new Brotherhood. Mystique is gonna be out of the picture before you know it so he's letting Incubus help me get set up, get everything ready for when the new recruits come!"
"New recruits?" Wanda was still feeling the sensation of falling inside her body and was growing more than a little uneasy. She did not feel it until she had used her powers and now, it seemed that the feeling was not going to stop. "What, you guys put up a poster or something?"
Pietro snorted in derision. "Magneto is sending them. He's gathered them to rebuild us. Wanda," he said excitedly, closing the distance between them before she could back away, "you have no idea what we're going to be capable of...Incubus has seen it. He knows how great our father is going to be, how much stronger he's growing and how strong the Brotherhood can be!"
Wanda held up her hand and stopped Pietro from coming any closer. "You are seriously fucked in the head, you know that?" The scabs around her wrist, from where he had restrained her, showed beneath the sleeves of her shirt and she felt her anger rise at the sight. "What the Hell do you want with Tabby?"
"What do you think?" he sighed as if realizing she was simple. "She can help us breed the future of the Brotherhood!"
The falling feeling suddenly stopped and became a dizzy sensation, spiraling through her head and neck, making her nauseated. Wanda said, somewhat thickly, "Even I wouldn't raise a kid in this hell-hole. Pietro, where's Incubus?"
"Busy," came the short, sharp reply.
"Where is he now? Tell me or so help me..."
"Don't you want to know where Magneto is?" he askeryinrying to divert her.
"You wouldn't tell me. You'd try to misdirect me...Stop where you are, Pietro!" she snapped as he took a step towards her. "So help me..."
"So help you what? You'll keep me from running fast? I can still get to you. I did it before...you and Tabby, for fuck's sake!" he suddenly cried. "Whores!" Quick as a wink, his hand came up from his side holding a chunk of brick from what Wanda guessed had to be the basement. She threw up her hand and made a desperate wish as she threw herself back and rolled away, Pietro's startled cry making her fall to a halt. Instead of a brick, there was red-pink dust on Pietro's hands and the floor. Wanda felt shock for the first time that she could honestly remember. Her fleeting wish had been that the brick would crumble to harmless dust, and now it was manifest. The sick feeling she had experienced suddenly became familiar. She remembered it from the earliest manifestations of her power. _ Great. More of the damn things to deal with...Fuck._2
"Bitch!" Pietro growled, diving for her. Wanda felt a surge of pleasure as she held out her hands again and formed the clear thought that made her brother freeze in mid air then fall to the ground with a thud, inches from grasping her.
Pietro was on his feet in an instant, her actions against him more startling than actually inhibiting. He managed to get a grasp around Wanda's throat and was just starting to squeeze when she pulled the oldest, possibly dirtiest trick in the book; she drove her knee up hard and fast into his crotch, pulling him forward by the shoulders at the same time. Pietro let go of her neck immediately, made a funny yelping noise, then fell to the ground. Wanda wasted no time; she tore strips off his clothes and tied his wrists behind his back, his ankles together, and gagged him. "It's for the best, Pietro," she said. She knew what she needed to do, as much as she hated to do it. She did not like admitting that she needed help with anything, especially when help came from the source she almost detested as much as she did her father. Pietro was struggling against his bonds and she knew she had to work fast. She dug her cell phone from her pocket and dialed the number to the Institute, added to her phone's memory only because Tabby insisted on account of her almost daily contact with Kitty. "Let me talk to Wolverine," she snapped at Beast, who had answered the phone. After a lengthy pause, she was put on hold for an even longer period.
"Yeah?" Logan was less than amused. He had been up to his elbows in engine oil and grease when Beast tossed the portable phone to him with a muttered comment about irate girlfriends. "If this is Sarah, I told you, it's over..."
"This is Wanda. Wanda Maximoff. Scarlet Witch," she added, just in case.
"Yeah...okay..." Logan snorted. "And this is Napoleon Bonaparte."
"Get to the Boardinghouse now. I've got Pietro tied up and someone needs to help me haul his ass to the car. You can have him so long as I get the information I need from him before you're done."
Logan stared at the phone as the dial tone sounded. _Come stay with us here, Logan, Chuck said. It's an easy job, you can use the free time to search for your past. The kids are harmless and just need occasional supervision. Last time I believe that man... _

A/N Okay, I know...no smut this go. Well, never fear, dearhearts! It's the return of smut in the next chapter! Kurt/Kitty and one other couple I haven't decided on yet. Viva la smut!

1 Yeah, those are actually the words to the first verse. I'm sad because I know that...
2 In comicverse, Wanda has a hex field capability which can make things like gun barrels melt, objects in flight change direction, etc...she accomplishes it by gestures and mental commands, a "hex", and it is limited to her line of direct sight. As in, she has to be seeing it personally, not on television or something. But I thought she could use something useful in the stories aside from her binding capabilities. Anyhoo...