Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father Chapter Sixty One (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta...*bounces * Not excited at all. Nope, not me... InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink and Dracena are squishy loveliness for archiving/hosting. ProPhile: *gloke * Morgan: *flash * No idea why I did that. Readers/Reviewers: Just a few more to go and then...newness!

"Oh, this place *smells *!" Tabby coughed hard, the sound rattling in the dark room. Lucas squirmed at her breast, pushing away from her even as she turned her face to avoid hacking up anything at her son. "Wanda, take him!" She held out the child and sucked in a deep breath before coughing again.
"Oh, Klappe," Kurt muttered. "It isn't so bad... und my nose is far more sensitive than yours." He wrinkled said nose and peered into the darkness. "Was...What is this place?"
"I just go where I'm shoved," Kitty replied tartly. Kali had not given them much choice in their destination, herding them and haranguing them into going where she wanted them to be. "Feel around for a light switch or something," she added, her balance affected by the darkness.
The soft rustle of bodies moving in close confines, hissed apologies for trodden toes and the soft clack of something being knocked over were the only sounds for several moments as blind and almost blind fingers felt the walls and other flat surfaces. After an indeterminate amount of time, Remy sighed. "Desole, Kitty. Ain't no switch in here."
Kurt heard her sigh and winced sympathetically. It would be so easy to phase from the room, to teleport them out, but where to? He would not port blind with his friends, and especially not a baby. He was against the far wall, the one opposite to the door they had been herded through. His keen eyes could tell that it was smooth metal and though the smell in the room seemed strongest there, he did not let on. Tabby's theatrical coughing was irritating enough to make him snap. He ran his fingers down the wall, trying not to inhale too deeply, the stench (he decided that was the better word for it as he moved along the metal barrier, the stench becoming nearly a blanket of oppression as he slipped along) seemed to be comprised of something sweet, something bitter and an underlying tone of denatured alcohol and iodine, smells that triggered a knee-jerk nausea in Kurt, whether he wanted to admit it or not. Kitty's second sigh was distinctly tearful and tugged at his heart on a more primal level than the current confusion was doing. "I think I found something," he said even as his hand met empty air, the wall turning into a corner and corridor.
"What?" Wanda was at his side, surprisingly agile in the dark, within seconds. "How can you...hey! Where's the wall?" Her pale hands flailed in front of her, Lucas back on Tabby's hip across the room. "It's a doorway!"
Kurt grabbed the back of her jacket as she would have started forward. "It's a long hallway," he responded. "I can't see the end of it..." He squinted and peered down the long darkness. Keeping his tight grip on Wanda, he turned to look around the room again, seeing things the others could not, not even Remy with his keen vision. Amara whimpered, coming awake in Lance's arms, but Kurt paid her no mind. Long metal columns were spaced about two feet apart on the right and left sids of the room, pressed tight against the walls. In the middle of the room was nothing, just empty floor, but long tables lined the walls and jutted a few feet into the cleared space. He was not sure, but he thought he saw a drain in the middle of the floor. The silence that had fallen after the tremors had become distinctly frightening. Any sound, he decided would be welcome. Just something that was not so tomb-like.
At the end of the dark hall, a clicking noise began, like a padlock being turned or a roulette wheel spinning. Beneath it, the whisper of voices was heard rising to a dull murmur.
"Anything but that," Kurt sighed.
"What is it?" Amara muttered thickly, her voice rusty and tongue thick. "What's that noise?"
"I don't think we want to know," Kitty responded, tensing nervously.
Lights began to click on down the hall, long bars of halogens flipping on one right after the other. The bright glow was blinding, making Kurt hiss and turn away instinctively, cover his eyes at the pain. The whisper was a dull roar, voices indistinct but rising and falling like breath. The hall was flooded with light now, and a dull whirring began in the room they were in. Kitty instinctively clung to Kurt, her fingers tightening on his arm. He did not know how she had gotten to his side, but he did not care. "If something happens, phase Tabby and Lucas out of the door we came in," he muttered.
"We don't know if something's out there now," she pointed out, the whirring steady and seeming to build in intensity rather than volume.
"Take a chance," he breathed. "Lance, let Kitty get Amara out if it comes to...something..."
Lance nodded, but Amara hissed an invective in Latin. "No," she snarled thickly, struggling to get free of Lance's hold. "It is my fault we're here. I'm staying, even if I fall." She swayed precariously on her feet even then, the blood dried on her clothes and skin, her eyes hollow and tired. She looked sharply at Lance, daring him to contradict her. "Please," she add, so softly only he could hear her. "I need to."
Lance nodded slowly. "Stay behind me. I can't..." He shook his head then and simply physically moved her behind him, putting the wall behind her and himself before her, facing the center of the room where the whirring seemed to originate. A loud thump followed by a clockwork like sound began layering over the whirring, gear grinding noise and Kurt gasped. Lance followed the direction of his startled gaze and felt his jaw drop. The columns were moving! They were turning slowly, so slowly it was almost unnoticeable unless you were looking for something amiss.
The columns were moving slowly, turning and shifting in the bright halogen glow. The sick blue of the tiles was a glaring contrast to the cool silver of the walls and tables and columns. The small group had moved forward without thinking, forming a loose, outward facing circle as the columns moved faster. Rogue noticed it first, the seam of darkness at the edge of silver, slowly opening into a gaping rectangular maw. " They're hollow," she said flatly, too stunned for emotion. "Those tube deals are hollow!"
Kitty strangled on whatever she was about to say as the first one stopped moving. The silver column was indeed made hollow, but now they bore cargo. A shriveled, adult human form was curled in some sort of suspension, not moving. It seemed to float in the clearish liquid, it's face tucked against it's knees in a gross mockery of a fetus. "What the hell..."
"Dis," Remy breathed, "ain't right."