“Open the gate!” Shaw barked. The guard stumbled forward, pulling the metal gate open. Rogue strode forward confidently, leaving Jean’s body lying in the gravel.
Emma pulled at Shaw’s sleeve. “Sebastian, are you sure...”
He shrugged her off impatiently. “Of course I’m sure. This is everything we planned for!”
He eyed Rogue warily as she approached within a step of him, but another close look at the flames in her eyes seemed to reassure him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a metal case. He snapped it open, his hands trembling with eagerness, revealing a slim disc the size of his palm. He flipped a switch and the disc began to glow, lights rapidly circling along the perimeter as a steady light glowed in the center. The arc reactor.
Emma pulled at his sleeve again, her voice growing shrill with alarm. “Sebastian! Here? Now?!”
This time he backhanded her, sending her sprawling to the ground, his voice a whiplash snarl. “Why would I wait another moment?”
He placed his palm on the center of the arc reactor, and a cold blue light started to spread through his body. He shuddered under the force of it as the light grew brighter and brighter, until he was practically incandescent with energy. Finally he turned it off. The glow that had suffused him slowly absorbed into his body, leaving him pale and shaking. He raised bloodshot eyes to Rogue.
“Come here,” he ground out.
Rogue shoved the gun into her belt and slowly approached. She stood eye-to-eye with Shaw, watching his labored breathing. His hand snaked out and grabbed the wrist of her ungloved hand. “Take it!” he snarled, pressing her palm flat against his face.
Rogue closed her eyes, concentrating on the tingle and then the buzz of her mutation activating. As the painful pull started she focused desperately on controlling the rush of his thoughts into hers, his power into her body, gauging her moment. Finally, as the Shaw inside her head shouted in triumph and the real Shaw was distracted and weakened by the pull of her mutation, she slid the needle into his neck and pressed the plunger.
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Shaw reared back, shoving Marie roughly away. Both of them stumbled, disoriented by the sudden disconnection. Shaw pulled the syringe from his neck, looking at it in disbelief.
“What...what have you done?” he asked.
Marie remained silent, watching him steadily.
“What have you done?!” he screamed.
Emma had pulled herself up from the gravel, and started to back away slowly, her hand pressed to her bloody lip. “She’s betrayed us!” she spat bitterly.
“Impossible!” Sweat broke out on Shaw’s forehead as he looked from Marie to the body of Jean. “She killed Jean Grey...she is the Phoenix...”
Marie followed his eyes to Jean’s body. She gave a low whistle, and the body on the ground started to ripple and shift, Jean’s elegant pantsuit turning to blue scales, the red hair turning a fiery orange as it shortened and clung to her scalp.
“What was it you said to me, Sebastian? ‘Shapeshifters can be hired by the hour, my dear,’?” Marie mocked. “Thanks for the tip. This one cost a fortune, but she’s worth every penny. Quite the actress, isn’t she? Plus, with enough incentive she even allowed me to take a hit of her power first.”
Marie watched Shaw’s stunned expression with satisfaction as she made black veins appear on her own face, turning her eyes to twin flames and then to blue before letting them fade back to their own clear deep brown.
“A trick!” Emma bleated. She looked imploringly at Shaw. “I didn’t know -- I swear I didn’t know...it must be Xavier -- I thought I was stronger, but he’s blocking me...he...” Emma’s eyes suddenly grew distant. She clasped her hands behind her back and started solemnly reciting. “Bye, baby bunting, daddy’s gone a-hunting, gone to get a rabbit skin...”
Mystique had jumped lithely to her feet by now. She winked one yellow eye and blew Shaw a saucy kiss before turning and running to the truck, throwing it into gear and driving hell-for-leather down the gravel path.
Shaw turned back to Marie, his whole body shaking with fury. “You bitch!” His hands began to glow as he reached out for Marie.
Marie concentrated, accessing Shaw’s power. “Don’t do it, Sebastian. You’ll only hurt yourself.”
Shaw grabbed for Marie’s bare arm and she gritted her teeth as she used his mutation to absorb the power he was emitting, sending it back outward toward him. They stood locked together, the immense power of the arc reactor cycling through them.
Marie tried to wrench free, but his grip was too tight. She began to struggle in earnest, forcing the words out through the rush of power that threatened to overtake her.
“Sebastian, listen to me! I injected you with something that suppresses your mutation. You have to let me go!”
Shaw grinned evilly, and Marie realized that he was only encouraged by her struggles. She was unsure if he was even listening to her words. She felt a subtle shift in the power roaring through them both, as the energy she was pushing outward began to exceed the energy she was taking in from Shaw.
“You idiot! It’s happening already...when the cure takes effect, you won’t have your powers anymore. You’ll be human. You can’t hurt me, Sebastian, but I’ll kill you -- you have to let go!”
Shaw’s grip tightened further on her arm, painfully grinding the bones together. Suddenly he seemed to falter. He swayed, and then stumbled, but still refused to relinquish his grip. Marie watched helplessly as the malicious look on his face faded to blank shock as they both looked down to where his grip was locked on her. The glow was no longer being expelled from his hands but began slowly traveling up his arms instead, encompassing his torso.
Finally his grip on her arm slackened, and Marie pulled free in horror as Shaw began to scream in anguish. The glow spread slowly through his body as he flailed and shrieked helplessly, his movements turning frenzied and jerky as the glow consumed him. A final choked scream and he was gone, turning to bitter ash that brushed Marie’s face and burned her eyes as the wind blew it towards her.
Marie bit back a sob, wiping the grit from her eyes.
“Marie...” Logan’s beloved voice rumbled close behind her and she wheeled, backing away, barely perceiving the forms of the other X-Men rushing past to grapple with the guard and more of Shaw’s thugs who were emerging from the house.
“Don’t touch me!” she choked out. “I can’t...” She held up her glowing hands helplessly in warning, warding off his touch.
His hazel eyes were warm with compassion, his voice low and soothing under the clamor that surrounded them. “It’s okay, baby. I’m not going to touch you. I’ll make sure no one comes near you. Close your eyes now, and focus. Put him away, like you did before. You can do it, darlin’.”
“I...I killed him...” She still felt numb from the shock of it. “I don’t want to hurt anyone else...” She flinched away as Ororo ran by her, hot on the heels of Whirlwind.
“It’s okay, darlin’. I’ll watch over you, okay? No one will touch you. I promise you.”
She nodded, taking a deep breath and forcing herself to close her eyes, turning her attention inward. It was eerie to experience Shaw’s thoughts and feelings again, knowing he was truly dead, but she hadn’t absorbed much and with concentration she was able to bottle him up quickly.
She opened her eyes to Logan’s face, stark with concern. “Better?” he asked. She nodded, and instantly found herself crushed in his arms, her face pressed hard against the warm leather of his jacket, his arms straining her even closer, his breath warm on her neck as he reassured himself with her scent.
She closed her eyes and breathed deep for a moment, allowing Logan’s presence to ease some of the tension that had kept her taut as a bowstring since she had devised the plan. There were still loose ends, but Shaw was gone. The guilt of killing him started to be eclipsed by the relief that he was no longer a threat.
Something boomed in the distance, and Marie pulled back to see a red and gold shape streaking through the sky. A smile quirked the corner of Logan’s mouth. “Stark always did love to blow shit up. There goes the west gate.”
Marie looked around. “Emma?” she asked.
“Chuck has her singing Christmas carols right now. It’s pretty festive, actually.”
She snickered, hiding her head back in his chest.
They both heard a thwucking sound and Logan pushed Marie behind him as Azazel appeared a few yards away, his eerie blue eyes taking in the scene. Logan snapped out the claws. “This one is mine,” he growled, launching himself forward.
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The claws were a hair’s breadth from Azazel’s throat when he teleported, smoke blinding Logan as he instinctively lowered his shoulder, hitting the ground in a judo roll that brought him back on the balls of his feet in a fighting stance. He roared in frustration, scanning the lawn. The smell of smoke from Iron Man’s attacks on the gates and the clamor of other skirmishes going on around him blurred his senses, covering the sound and smell of the ‘port as Azazel appeared behind him, knife slashing into Logan’s kidneys.
Logan wheeled around but Azazel was already gone. Logan gritted his teeth against the pain of the healing. He closed his eyes and focused on tuning out the other smells and sounds, waiting for his opportunity. He sensed the next ‘port almost the instant it happened, getting Azazel in the shoulder. He saw the man’s eyes widen in surprise as he ‘ported away, leaving only his blood dripping from Logan’s claws.
Logan closed his eyes again. Focus...focus...
He lunged forward, feeling with satisfaction his claws digging into firm flesh and bone as the sound and smoke of the next ‘port puffed. The smoke drifted away and Logan froze in horror. Azazel had ‘ported Marie with him, held in front of him like a human shield, one arm under her neck and another around her waist. Logan’s shocked gaze dropped to where his hand pressed tight against Marie’s chest, blood oozing slowly up between his white knuckles, pooling around the blades.
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