Devourer of Sins

DEVOURER OF SINS CHAPTER NINE (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply

A/N I'm putting the whammy on your computer even as I type, Foxfeather... (and Ted's got the goofer dust so we're cool). InterNutter, T C and Maxwell Pink are wonderful for archiving. Readers/VERY few reviewers: Remember, no matter how funny it seems, it's never a good idea to hang mistletoe from your belt at the office Holiday Party. Okay, maybe a little of a good idea but just don't Xerox your butt.


Rahne and Todd leaned sleepily against the pillar, Storm's frantic waving for a cab resulting in nothing but yellow blurs passing them at breakneck speed. "Cabs," Todd muttered, "never stop when you need them to."
"Could be worse," Rahne responded, "could be snowing."
Storm spared them a glance. "It won't happen.... TAXI!!!!" The next yellow car flew by and she snorted. "Stay here with the bags. I'm going inside to call for a car from the airport."
Todd sighed. "Wonder what's up back home?" It still tasted strange on his tongue to call the mansion home. He half-expected to find his things piled in the front hallway with a stern command to leave every time he returned to the Institute after being gone for more than an hour.
"Storm just said the Professor is going out of town and she needs to be back immediately. The meetings were winding down anyway..." She yawned loudly and shook herself. "I'll just be glad to get into my own bed again."
"How 'bout _my _ bed, sweetie?" a rather nasal voice behind them asked.
Rahne rolled her eyes as she turned, facing a skinny youth not much older than she was backed by several friends, all trying their hardest to look cool. "Ain't interested. Sorry."
"Aw, come on, baby...I'll make you a woman."
"Too late...puberty beat you to it."
Todd snorted at her comeback but knew that it was not going to end easily. "Rahne," he muttered, "just ignore them. Storm's gonna be out in a minute and we'll go..."
"This your shorty, yo?" one of the other boys addressed Todd. He jerked his chin in a defiant gesture. "She gonna forget you ever existed once we're done."
_Damn it. I try to be good, really I do... _ Todd clamped his cold fingers over Rahne's mouth, already opened in protest. "Let me," he muttered. Thickening his accent to nearly comic proportions, he said, "You guys can't get patch on your own? You come rollin' up six deep, hit on my girl in front of me, trying' to be all hard and you ain't got shit on me, man...just step off before I bust heads, yo."
The first youth snorted. "Short shit, you ain't gonna live to see tomorrow if you just don't step right now."
_This is gonna hurt... _ Todd rose creakily to his feet, the cold permeating his clothing and chilling his bones. He motioned low for Rahne to stay still but he could see her tense, ready to strike. "Look, I don't want none of your trouble. We're just tryin' to get home..." The punch caught him off guard. He had expected it from the leader but it came from a rat-like boy to his left, the jab sending a cracking pain through his jaw and neck. _Yeah, I was right. This is gonna hurt. _ Todd regained his balance and kicked out at the one who hit him, having learned long ago not to bother with punches if he couvoidvoid it, his powerful legs being much more harmful to the wellbeing of anyone who tried to damage him.
Rahne moved around the bench to get out of the way of flying punches and the occasional body. Someone exiting the hotel saw the fracas and ran back in, no doubt to call the police. Todd took another blow to the chin and that was all for Rahne. "I'm not gonna let ya take the hits for me, lad. Shove over!" She dove in with enthusiasm, the fight being the most fun she had all week. Rahne grabbed one of the guys who were helping to hold Todd down so that their leader could better pummel him and sent him sprawling. Todd wriggled his legs from beneath the teenager pinning him and planted his feet on the offender's chest, sending him into the hotel wall with a scream and a thud. Rahne grabbed the scrawny boy who had started it all and brought his face close to hers. "If ye leave now, I won't bite ye," she said softly, letting loose with her most feral growl. She was moderately pleased thatwet wet himself. Rahne exchanged sick grins with Todd as he slumped back to the ground and leaned against the pillar, appearing as innocent as possible as a police cruiser pulled up.
"I leave you alone for _five minutes, _ " Storm seethed, "and you get into a fight!"
"In all fairness, Storm, he was defending me! And we didn't even use our powers a little bit!"
Todd nodded fervently, feeling slowly returning to his fingers and toes under the influence of the hired car's heater. "Yeah! We was provoked!"
Storm's mouth was a thin line as she considered them both. Finally, she said, "Whatever the reason, it was still a fight. We'll discuss punishment when we get home."
The teenagers sighed mutually and sank into the thickly padded seats. After several silent minutes, Rahne asked quietly, "So why do you think I needed defendin'?"
"Cause." Todd shrugged and picked at a nonexistent thread on the seat next to him. "I dunno...I just know if it were Rogue getting picked on, I'd want someone to stand up for her...and I don't think you're all bad," he admitted at last as if it were being torn from him.
Rahne stared at him in stunned amentment. "You like me? As a friend?"
"Never said that," he muttered.
"You don't think I'm all bad..." She grinned broadly at him. "I'm gonna tell Rogue you've got the hots for me!"
"Don't make me slime you..." he sighed, snorting at her grin.

Jean was not quite sure what to do. Itzli, or the man who called himself Itzli, still lay prostrated at her feet, seemingly afraid of her. _So...for some reason, you're a god. Your brain just short-circuited. Play it up, Jean...and stop talking in third person... _ Summoning her best authoritative voice and drawing herself to her full height, Jean intoned, "You will be most heinously punished for your indiscretions to my person. If you return me to your companions, I will let you live. If you fail, I will..." she cast about, not sure if Quetzalcoatl was vengeful or not, if he was the type of god to eat a transgressor or merely turn him into a newt.1
"I will not fail!" Itzli had never been so afraid in his entire existence. _The Master did not tell me his Sacred Offering was the God Himself! Rebirth, indeed! Why a woman, though? It's a sign of His displeasure that the Feathered Serpent disguises himself thus! _
"Er...good." Jean cast about for something to say that would get the ball rolling. "You may rise," she finally settled on.
"Your companions, my lord," Itzli murmured, his eyes averted from Jean's penetrating gaze. "Are they gods as well? Do you travel among mortals now?"
"Yeah...I'm traveling with mortals now..." Jean was desperately seeking spin control and flailed at the first thing that presented itself. "Are there more...prisoners...here? More people like me?"
"Yes!" Itzli smiled thinly, thinking of his Goddess, waiting for him in the antechamber, prepared with the blade and bowl even as he spoke to the Incarnation. "Two, one pale of flesh and tender of body, the other from the netherworld, traveling with the tender one." Itzli held out begging hands, "Would it please you to have them?"
"I think it would," Jean said, barely containing her sudden excitement. "Take me to them!"
"Please, follow me!" Itzli darted into the shadows, disappearing from Jean's view. On shaking legs, she followed him, unable to pry into his mind but sensing his nearness well enough to follow him in the darkness of the hallway. Itzli was giddy. Quetzalcoatl would rise from the ashes of his death to bring life to their land, to their cause. _Goddess will be pleased...the God will die by Her hand and She will bring His birth. _ Itzli stopped short and let Jean catch up with him, smiling at her in his most charming manner.
Jean felt sick now. She was weak from hunger and fear, her mind a whirl and confusion replacing blood in her body. She could not reconcile the man from the plane, his harmless yet creepy staring making her uncomfortable as they disembarked, with this man, this almost rat-like man with the wicked blade hanging from his waist, his eyes darting and seeing more than she dared imagine. _He thinks I'm a god. He accepted it without question even after he saw me on the plane. Why didn't he think I was Quetzalcoatl then? _ She kept her eyes trained on his back as he scurried ahead, taking a sudden offshoot to the right, the walls narrowing around her as she followed him down a slope, the damp air growing warm, an oddity in the cold subterranean confines. "Why is it so warm?" she asked against her better judgment.
Itzli laughed. "As if you didn't know, Great Serpent!"
Jean laughed in return, feeling like she was about to get into more trouble than she bargained for.

Kitty woke feeling too hot. She tried to turn but found she could not, her arms and legs would not obey her. "Kurt," she said softly into the darkness. "Kurt..."
"He cannot hear you," a low female voice responded. Out of the shadows, Tlazolteotl moved forward, gliding and undulating like the serpents on her skirt. Her arms were decked with heavy jade cuffs and around her neck, a torque of gold, shaped like a snake with jade eyes, glittered in the light of the torch held in her hand. "Kurt, as you call him, is...sleeping."
"What did you do?" Kitty cried, her voice thick with tears, rough from fear. "Kurt!" she yelled loudly.
"He is not dead as of yet. You sinned in a holy place and must be punished," Tlazolteotl hissed. Her aspect was still one of power, her eyes raking Kitty's naked body with the clinical assessment of a doctor.
Kitty pulled hard against her bindings, feeling rope pull against her limbs. "What sin did we commit? Tell me and I'll beg forgiveness...just let Kurt go!"
"No...I need you both. You are both sinners and must be punished."
"I did it...I sinned. He's innocent...let him go!" Kitty begged, not caring about the tears streaking her dirty face.
"I saw you with my own eyes, sinner. I saw you defile the sacred chamber. I saw you couple like animals, base acts in a pure place. You must be destroyed. You were sinners when you came here and could not be saved from my wrath."
Kitty had never wanted to throw up so much in her entire life. She sobbed jaggedly, hanging her head in pained fear. She noticed dimly that she did not feel dizzy when she was not looking at the woman and realization hit her like a wet noodle. _She's messing with my mind! She doesn't want me to recognize her...she's some sort of teep...why doesn't she want me to know who she is? _ She coughed, bile rising to gage her, and the woman made the first ungraceful, startled movement Kitty had seen her make. "I'm gonna be sick...please, untie me and let me get some water!" A shield slipped and Kitty knew who the woman was. _Seat 14 D, New York City to Mexico City Nonstop...you're mine, bitch... _
"No. Suffer." The woman looked over her shoulder and seemed to dismiss something. "We will begin. You are a lesser offering. You are mere preparation for the important event." With scarce more than a thought, she lifted the table Kitty lay on and made it follow her into the shadows.
Kitty willed herself not to cry or make a sound. Her breathing remained slow and regular despite the panic beating in her breast. The room they were in was longer than she imagined, the black recesses springing to life under the light from the so-called goddess's torch. Murals spread like poison on the walls, gruesome dances with missing body parts spiraling away from grimacing gods with raised blades, colors bleeding into each other with surprising fluidity, considering their bright tones. The table jolted to a stop before a large, gold-crusted altar, one with a disturbing trough along the side, reminding Kitty of an autopsy show she had seen once on HBO, one that had given her nightmares and made her hide against Kurt's chest for the next several nights, the image of the draining of the corpse haunting her. "Kurt!" she cried out again, the word torn from her very heart as Tlazolteotl lifted her with no effort, sliding her onto the altar.
"He cannot answer you," the woman said again, monotone. With a flick of her wrist, the torches lg thg the chamber blazed to life, making it as bright as day and smoky with burning pitch within the chamber. Kitty saw why. Another altar was not far away, this one crusted in jade and jet, and Kurt was tied to it. He was gagged with what appeared to be her shirt from the floor of the dais-chamber, and he was naked as well.
"Port," she hissed desperately. He shook his head and she knew that he would not leave her, even if he could. Kitty felt at once elated, comforted and angry. "Go," she said more clearly. "Don't die because of me!"
The snake-skirted woman stepped between them, sharpening a black-bladed knife. In a language ign ign to them, she began chanting a rhythmic prayer, hypnotic in it's monotony. On a small table between the two altars, she lit a censer and placed several lumps of resin and a handful of dried herbs on the burning coals. Soon, a noxious aroma filled the air and Kurt felt his eyes roll back in his head. This smell, he knew, was what had made him so weak when they first fell below. The woman was still chanting, now raising the knife above her heake ake a sacrificial lamb, swaying as she chanted. Taking a small box from the table, she approached Kitty, placing the box with malachite inlay on the girl's stomach. Kurt bucked and strained against the ropes holding him as best he could, gnawing at the gag with his sharp teeth, striving to free his tail from the lower ropes, unable to do anything but watch and fight his bindings, the fumes from the censer rendering him too weak to do much else.
Kitty felt numb, unable to move. The box was cold on her belly and the knife glittered in the woman's hand, her chanting no longer hypnotic but now fearsome, the words unknown to Kitty but the tone quite menacing. Suddenly and with deft movements, the woman sliced downward and across Kitty's lower ribs, deep enough to split skin and send blood blossoming to the surface in surprise before it ran down her skin in rivulets. At the second stroke, Kitty screamed.

A/N 2-the Rahne/Toad thing will make sense later. Promise.
1 He got better...