Author’s Note:  Okay, gang… this is where things start getting really scary.  Right, like they haven’t been scary enough.  What can I say?  Catastrophes, disasters, and other major, life-altering events makes for some crazy behavior!  Which means fun for fanfic authors!!!!!!!!!  Just remember, your keyboards will melt if you flame me, so if you don’t like it, don’t read it!  But I really hope you’ll like it, ‘cause I worked awful hard on it.  Anyway, we’ll be getting to the good parts pretty soon now, and the real point of this story!  Then you’ll all just think I’m really crazy and never read another thing I write ever again@!  ::recovers::  Don’t mind me; it’s been a really bad month.  Read on, MacDuff!

 

This story takes place after “Day of Reckoning”.  It is erotica, and therefore is not for the eyes of those under 18 or easily offended by sexual situations, homo- or hetero-.  X-men:  Evolution is the property of the WB, Marvel comics, and several people that I’m probably forgetting.  You can’t sue me!  I don’t have any money anyway, so it wouldn’t do you any good. :-P  There are also random songfic elements to this story; the songs used (plus a few others for good measure) are listed below and belong to their respective artists and recording companies.  If you do not have these songs or have never heard them, AudioGalaxy is a free peer-to-peer mp3 site where they can likely be downloaded.  I especially recommend the songs by Anathema, Godgory, Linkin’ Park, Depeche Mode, Poe and Nickelback as theme music for Wanda.

Comments, questions, and favorable reviews are encouraged.  Criticisms that are phrased civilly will be taken under advisement.  Flames will be fueled with napalm and returned, causing the offending keyboard to melt internally and be unable to manufacture any further unchivalrous nonsense.  You have been warned.

 

Recommended Musical Accompaniment:  Play the Game- Motorhead
                                                                                It Doesn’t Even Matter- Linkin’ Park
                                                                                Angry Johnny- Poe
                                                                                Blasphemous Rumors- Depeche Mode
                                                                                Dogma- KMFDM
                                                                                How You Remind Me- Nickelback
                                                                                Torpedoes- MDFMK
                                                                                Empty- Anathema
                                                                                Conspiracy of Silence- Godgory
                                                                                Last Note of Freedom- David Coverdale
                                                                                Nothing Else Matters- Metallica
                                                                                Can I Touch You… There- Michael Bolton
                                                                                To The Moon and Back- Savage Garden

Aftermath:  Chapter Six
By Lady Eternal

 

                When Lance finally woke, dawn light was filtering through the window.  Groaning softly to himself, he rolled over to wake Kurt.  Finding out just how much conditioner that fur needed sounded like fun…

                Except his furry lover wasn’t there.

                Blinking himself fully awake, Lance stared at the space beside him, still warm from Kurt’s cuddly form.  When had Kurt left?  Why would he leave?  Lance couldn’t understand; last night had been amazing.  What could possibly have prompted Kurt to leave their bed after a night like that?  A knock at the door startled him.  Pulling the sheet into a haphazard toga, Lance hesitantly opened the door.  Wanda stood on the other side.  “Hey.”

                “Did Pietro come to you last night?”

                Lance blinked.  “No.  I spent the night with Kurt.”

                Wanda’s eyes narrowed slightly.  “Is he here?”

                “No…”  Lance’s eyes went wide as he trailed off.  “Mother of God… you think they’re off having a bitch fight?”

                “Considering I specifically told my brother not to, they’d better not be,” Wanda muttered dangerously.  “Get dressed.  We need to find them.”

                Lance quickly shed the sheet as he closed the door.

 

                “Whaddya think?”

                “I think you’re crazy.  What if they catch you?”

                “No chance.  You know where you’re goin’?”

                “Ja.”

                Once again atop the skyscraper where he had observed the battle with his father, Pietro peered down at the chasm that opened into Boliver Trask’s underground bunker.  If he could keep Trask busy enough, no one would notice Kurt removing the others until it was too late.  “I know where all the main power junctions are.  As long as the power doesn’t go down in the containment area, they’ll scurry like rats trying to fix the problems and no one’ll even notice what you’re doing.  With three handles, you should be able to get everybody out fast.”

                “Three?”

                Pietro glanced meaningfully at Kurt’s tail.  “Two hands and a tail make three rescue appendages.”

                Kurt chuckled, swishing his tail.  “You sure about this?”

                “Oh, yeah.  Trust me.”

                “Okay.”  Grasping Pietro’s hand, Kurt teleported into the complex.  The moment they landed, Kurt and Pietro flattened themselves against the wall.  Voices were heard coming down the hall, passing the shadowed corridor where the two boys hid.

                “It’s really quite remarkable, from a purely scientific standpoint.  The males have powers that accentuate their natural strength, agility, and endurance.  Each managed to do considerable damage to the targets before they were subdued.  Only the female’s power requires stealth and adaptation; against mechanical targets, she actually has no unnatural defenses.”

                “She cannot take energy from the machines?”

                “No; only from living creatures.”

                Silence.  “She must be put down.”

                “Much as I hate to lose such a unique specimen, I’m afraid you’re right, General.  The slightest connection with her bare skin causes instant reaction; prolonged contact can cause a depletion of vital energy which can result in death.”

                “She remains in the med lab?”

                “I’ve kept her under sedation ever since she lost consciousness in the test field.  Administering the poison will be a simple procedure:  quick and painless.”

                “Good.  What of…?”

                Pietro and Kurt stood in dead silence as the voices trailed off in the distance.  Trask was going to execute Rogue…  “We have to get to her first.”

                “Ja.  You know where that lab is?”

                “Yeah.  It’s a couple levels down, above the containment cells.”

                Kurt nodded, then grabbed Pietro’s hand and bamphed.  They landed on the floor in the hall and Kurt swiftly bamphed again, putting the boys safely on an insulated electrical conduit running along the ceiling.  Motioning for Kurt to remain where he was, Pietro swiftly crawled along the conduit into the med lab.  Surveying the layout for a moment, he took careful note of where the nurse was in comparison to Rogue’s biobed.  His heart clutched when he saw her:  she looked too pale, even her unconscious state troubled by nightmares.  This was his fault…  Kurt appeared in front of him and Pietro almost fell off the conduit.  “What?” he hissed.

                “They’re coming.”

                “Fuck.”  Pietro glanced around swiftly, searching for some way to cause a distraction…  “Go.  Now.  Get her out.”

                “They’ll notice she’s missing.”

                “Not if I’m fast enough.”  Spinning around, Pietro flashed down the conduit and leaped down just as the doctor was walking into the med lab, knocking the man down.  “Tag!  You’re it!”  He then grinned and ran at top speed around the corner, drawing the doctor and the nurse into chasing him.

                Kurt stared for a moment, then leaped down and opened Rogue’s biobed.  Curling her into his arms, he double-bamphed out onto the roof of the skyscraper and tucked her into a corner.  “I’ll be back, liebschen.”  He then bamphed back into the compound.

                Inside was a cacophony of sirens and guards running to assist other areas as Pietro raced through the complex causing chaos.  He cut elevator cables, smashed junction boxes, teased personnel into following him into rooms and then raced out, disabling the door panels as he flew through the ventilation system.  Kurt bamphed into the containment level, pausing only for a moment to check the guards before he disappeared into Wolverine’s cell.

                Everyone was up and listening to the chatter of the guards on their radios, trying to determine what exactly was happening.  Kurt grabbed Wolverine’s hand from behind and bamphed into Beast’s cell, startling the Canadian mutant and Evan, who had glanced over at Wolverine’s surprised snarl.  “What the Hell?”

                Kurt grabbed Beast’s wrist.  “I’m getting you all out of here.  Let’s go.”  Bamphing into Evan’s cell, he swished his tail into Evan’s grip.  “C’mon.  We’re all going now.”

                “What about Rogue?” Fred asked as the group appeared in his cell.

                “Got her first.  Grab a hand and let’s go!”

                Fred swiftly took Beast’s other hand in his meaty paw.  The group disappeared just as the guards were being radioed to check the prisoners for a rescue attempt.  A fast double-bamph had everyone out on the street.  “Go back to the Institute; I’m going after Pietro.”

                “Pietro’s in there!”  Fred made an inarticulate sound of fury.  “Leave him; Rogue was crazy to tell him to go for help.”

                “He’s the one who helped me get you out,” Kurt countered.  “Just get back home.”

                “Where is the Rogue?” Wolverine asked, trying not to let his concern show.  “She was hurt.”

                “Safe, for the moment.  I’ve got to go back for her after I grab Pietro.  Just get going, okay?  We’ll be there soon.”  Before they could argue, Kurt bamphed back into the complex and into the surveillance center.  The guard monitoring and coordinating the attempts to capture Pietro didn’t even see him appear until just before Kurt used the fire extinguisher to knock him out.  It took him a few minutes to finally spot where Pietro had stopped to hide, watching the contingent chasing him go past with a smirk of superior glee.  Kurt quickly called him on the comlink.  “Pietro, stay put.  I’m coming.”  He then took the guard’s sidearm and put the fire extinguisher on the control panel.  Dragging the guard into the hall, he fired at the extinguisher, causing the chemicals inside to explode before he bamphed into Pietro’s hiding place.

                “What kept ya?” Pietro asked, crawling out.

                “Who said you got to do all the damage?” Kurt replied gamely.  “Let’s go.”  Grabbing Pietro’s hand, he bamphed back to the skyscraper.  Rogue was slowly waking from the sedation when he reached her.  “Rogue?”

                Disoriented, frightened, and in pain, Rogue struggled as he tried to pick her up, slamming her cheek into Kurt’s.  Pietro jumped back as Kurt let out a yelp of pain, tumbling Rogue from his grip as he staggered from the drain.  Pietro grabbed him as he crumpled.  “Rogue, it’s Pietro and Kurt!”

                “No…” she moaned softly.  “Kurt…”

                “C’mon, kid; before Trask figures out where we are!”

                Struggling through the fog of the sedation, Rogue wrapped the blanket around her hand and grabbed for Pietro.  I wanna go home…

 

                By now, everyone was searching the grounds for Pietro and Kurt.  Storm circled the grounds from the air, remaining in communication with Scott in the X-jet and with the ground parties.  Widening her search pattern, she spotted something on the ground:  a small group of people leaving the city as fast as they could.  For a moment, she stared in disbelief, but as she hovered over them, she couldn’t deny what she saw.  “Scott, quickly:  land the X-jet about three miles from the outskirts of town.”

                <<What the Hell are they doing having a spat that close to town?>>

                “They’re not.  It’s Wolverine, Beast, Fred, and Evan.  They’re on foot, heading towards the Institute.”

                For a moment, Scott couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  His moment of disbelief quickly melted when he spotted the group on the jet’s radar and circled back around, landing a few feet from the obviously tired group of mutants.  “Hey, guys; goin’ my way?”

                “Not now, Shades,” Wolverine growled sarcastically as the four of them hustled on board.  “We’re a little too tired for wise-cracks.”

                “Where’s Rogue?” Scott asked swiftly.  “How did you get out?”

                “Kurt and Pietro busted us out,” Evan replied.  “Kurt said he stashed Rogue someplace and had to get her after he grabbed Pietro.”

                “What the Hell?”  Scott took off, turning the jet back towards the Institute.  “X-jet to Storm:  I’ve got them.”

                <<Are they all right?>>

                “We’re okay, Auntie O,” Evan replied quickly.  “God, it’s good to hear your voice.”

                <<Evan… thank God… is everyone else all right?>>

                “Rogue got knocked around pretty bad by Trask’s other gadgets, but everybody else is okay.  Kurt said he’d get her from where he’d stashed her after he grabbed Pietro.”

                <<WHAT?!>>

                “They’re probably back at home by now,” Evan replied placatingly.  “From what we could tell, those two were really driving El Psycho and his goons nuts so they could get us out.”

                A string of African words came over the radio that no one really wanted to know the meaning of.  <<Get them home, Scott.  If those two trouble-makers aren’t there, we’ll have to search Bayville for them.>>

                “Roger that, Storm.”  Scott shook his head as he radioed the computer in the hanger to open for their descent.

 

                Lance came across the lawn swearing.  Storm had called the search parties back, letting them know that Kurt and Pietro had attempted and apparently partially succeeded a rescue operation on their own.  It’s bad enough that Pietro thinks this little stunt will get him back into my good graces, but to drag Kurt along?  If he’s gotten one single strand of that blue fur even singed, he’ll never be fast enough to get away from the beating I’m gonna give him… and he’s not gonna enjoy a single minute of it, either!!!!!!  He was so angry and so absorbed in his own thoughts that he almost didn’t see the three errant mutants appear with a soft cloud of smoke two steps in front of him.  Startled and already upset, Lance stumbled back with a curse, causing the ground beneath their feet to shudder and the barely-standing trio to tumble to the ground.

                Moaning softly, Rogue slumped onto the ground, gratefully accepting oblivion in place of the pain that screamed through her body.  Pietro let go of Kurt as he tumbled back onto his ass; Kurt lay still for a moment, quite reluctantly returning to the land of the conscious after being drained by Rogue.  Looking up, Pietro gazed almost longingly at his stunned (ex?) lover before managing to paste an innocent look on his face.  Wanda and the others quickly joined him, having been only a few steps behind the rock-tumbler when the trio appeared.  “What?  No hello?”

                Rage billowed up inside Lance for a moment; he choked it back almost viciously.  Instead, he stepped forward and pulled Kurt into his arms.  “Kurt?  Kurt, are you okay?”

                “Katzenjammer…” Kurt murmured.  “Sleep now, okay?”  Without waiting for approval, Kurt passed out again, his body curling instinctively against Lance’s.

                “He’ll be fine,” Pietro offered softly.  “Rogue panicked and head-butted him when he picked her up.”

                Lance closed his eyes, trembling softly, then looked up at Pietro as he stood.  Pietro wanted to reach out and hold him, to ease that torn, hurt expression in his eyes…

                Don’t, Brother.  He’s not ready yet.

                Sister, please… I need him…

                Trust me, Brother.

                For a long moment, Lance just gazed at Pietro.  Those eyes, as blue as Kurt’s fur, just reflected love right back at him… Lance took a deep, shuddering breath and carried Kurt inside.  He needed to make a decision… needed to give Pietro a chance to explain… but right now, all he wanted was for his beautiful elf to wake up.

                Pietro tried not to fall down as he turned to look at Wanda.  He felt so tired…  Now what, Sister?

                Now, he will attempt to convince himself that he can only love one of you.  You must show him that isn’t the case.  Bending down, she scooped Rogue easily into her arms, cradling her close.  You’ll know when the time is right, Brother.

                Lance won’t understand.  What if he really does only want one of us?

                You’ve spent too long among the gahdje, Brother.  You should have known from the beginning what was going on… or have you truly lost all your intuition?

                For a moment, Pietro just gazed into his sister’s eyes.  Her meaning slowly sank in, and all of her words clicked in his mind.  Nodding once, he glanced at the still unconscious Rogue in Wanda’s arms.  She’s still badly injured.

                Agatha is coming; she will heal Rogue’s wounds… the physical ones, at least.  Go get some rest.  And, Brother?

                Yes, Sister?  Pietro had turned away at her command and half turned back, hesitant of another rebuke over his reckless plan.

                What you did… is the first truly Romani thing you have done in years.  It is good to see you remembering yourself.  As the shuv’hani’s caravan appeared across the lawn, Wanda bestowed a genuine smile upon her brother.  I am proud of you.

                Tears sprang to Pietro’s eyes as Wanda turned, carrying Rogue to Agatha’s caravan.  Wanda had forgiven him.  Now, if only I can get Lance to do the same…

 

 

A/N:  In case you couldn’t tell, a reconciliation is starting to glimmer on the horizon… but we’ve still got a few miles to go.  Don’t give up hope!!!