Dreamweaver: Part Ten
Something dragged her from her warm, contented blackness, a panic that nibbled at the edges of her awareness. Regina tried to ignore it, but it grew more insistent until she gave in. She sat up with a groan.
Oh, my head hurts. Just like it had after the bank, only worse. She started to brush dirt from her clothes, but gasped as she saw the man lying sprawled on the ground beside her. Nathan, she remembered. He'd opened his mind to her, let her see his thoughts, even though she'd attacked him.
And he'd tried to protect her against Essex. She remembered that. She leaned over him, relieved to find that he was still breathing. But he was so still and pale. What could be wrong?
Regina frowned as she tried to recall what had just happened. She remembered Essex appearing, and Nathan and his friends calling him 'Sinister'--a good name, she thought bleakly. Then something about a woman named Rachel, and 'psionic amplifiers', whatever those were. The last thing she could clearly recall was Nathan grabbing her and blowing out the wall.
The fear suddenly surged up again, and she gasped as she recognized the feel of the mind that was approaching. It was still quite a distance away, but she'd have known those thoughts anywhere.
"Andrew," she almost whimpered. He'd be angry with her, probably hurt her again--"Nathan, wake up!" she said wildly, shaking him by the shoulder. "Please, you have to wake up! He's coming!"
It seemed like forever before she got any response. Nathan's eyeids fluttered, and he stared up vacantly at the sky. Regina remembered that he'd been hurt, and couldn't see. She felt a delicate pressure against her mind, only for a moment, and the look in his blind eyes suddenly grew more alert.
"Regina?" he said faintly. "What--what happened? What's wrong?"
"Andrew's coming," she said hurriedly, urging him to his feet. He managed to get up, though he looked like he was about to fall right over again. He was in no condition to protect her against Andrew, in any case. Regina bit her lip, feeling selfish for the thought. He helped me, I've got to help him. "Come on," she said determinedly. "We have to find someplace to hide."
He started to shake his head but then winced as if the movement hurt. "We're not running, Regina," he said tiredly. "I'm not, at least. But when I tell you, I do want you to run. Find Logan and Bishop, and tell them that I--tell them that I need their help. I'll be all right until then."
She nodded uncertainly, getting the impression that he was hiding something from her. "What are you going to do?" she asked tremulously. He actually smiled. It was a tired smile, and she could see how much pain he was in. Still, it made her feel safe, for some reason.
"What am I going to do?" he echoed her. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, Regina, and that's all you need to know." His voice was quiet, but there was iron in it. Somehow, she knew that he would do as he said, no matter what it took.
She stared up at him, blinking back tears. "Thank you," she said softly, taking his hand. "No one's ever stood up for me like this before."
#Then it's time someone did,# he answered in her head. She started, suprised but rather liking the sensation. Outwardly, he looked very intimidating, but there was such warmth and compassion in his mind, despite all the dark and painful memories lurking there. She'd never met anyone quite like him. #No one can stand alone forever, Regina.# She felt a flash of irony from him that she really didn't understand.
They stood hand in hand for quite some time, until Regina heard rustling in the trees. She gave a little whimper as Andrew stepped out of the shadows, and Nathan's grip on her hand tightened slightly. He might not be able to see, but she could tell he knew very well that Andrew was there.
"Well, look at this," Andrew said in that sneering voice he always used before he hurt her or someone else. "What a charming scene. Step away from him, Regina. I don't want you to get in the middle of this."
"No, you wouldn't, would you?" Nathan said quietly. "You can't risk hurting her. She's too valuable to you--and to Sinister." Andrew considered his words, and then nodded, grinning.
"True on both counts," he replied, and his expression hardened. "Come here, Regina. Before I get angry with you."
#Now!# Nathan snapped in her mind, pushing her away. #Go!# Then he lept at Andrew, fast as lightning despite his blindness. Andrew gave a grunt of surprise as Nathan slammed into him. They both ended up on the ground, grappling with each other. #I said--GO!# Nathan roared, and with a strangled sob, she obeyed.
"Help!" she screamed as she ran through the woods back towards the cabin. She knew that Essex was back there, but so were Nathan's friends, and at the moment, she didn't care about anything else. She had to find them, so that they could help him. Because if anything happened to him while he was trying to protect her from Andrew-- she would never be able to forgive herself.
***
As Logan struggled to his feet, he heard Regina scream somewhere in the distance. Bishop gave him a hand up, scanning the forest for any sign of the girl.
"She said Taylor was coming for her," Logan growled, and turned towards where Sinister was standing. "How did he get away from your Marauders?"
But Sinister was gone. "Shit!" Logan snarled. "Did you see where he vanished to?" Bishop shook his head, looking grim. Logan remembered the tesseract portal Sinister had emerged from. I suppose something like that's not going to be affected by the building being blown up. "Are you hurt?" he thought to ask Bishop, ignoring the feeling of his healing factor at work.
Bishop shook his head. "It was just energy, despite what it did to the cabin. I absorbed a lot of it--I'm charged back up to full capacity again."
"Fine," Logan snapped, but was glad to hear it. He knew Bishop was good in a hand-to-hand fight, but his mutant power was going to be worth more against Taylor than Logan's. Nate's would be even better, but considering what happened earlier, I don't think we'll go there. Besides, something told him that Nate was going to be in the position of rescuee, rather than rescuer. "Let's go. They can't have gone very far."
They headed into the forest as Logan tried to track Cable and Regina's trail. But the whole area had been affected by the psi-wave. Cable and Regina's scents were everywhere, mixed in with the Phoenix for good measure. They wandered the area uselessly, Logan cursing steadily in increased frustration, until they caught sight of Regina through the trees. She was running in the direction of the cabin, visibly panicked.
"Regina!" Logan called, drawing her attention. She stopped, a look of incredulous relief on her face as she saw them. She dashed towards them, tripping over a tree root and landing in Bishop's arms.
"You've got to help him!" she panted as he set her back on her feet. "He told me to run, and then he and Andrew started to fight--" She paused, trying to get her breath back. Logan was about to demand more information from her when there was a roar of jet engines above them. Light shone down on them, a sort of false dawn, as the Blackbird hovered just above the trees.
I'll be damned, Logan thought, although he wasn't really surprised. Here comes the cavalry, right in the nick of time.
Though every instinct he had screamed at him to respond to the panic he saw on Regina's face, he waited until the hatch opened. Jean appeared, telekinetically carrying Scott and Hank, who had a med-kit slung over his shoulder. Sam was right behind them. The Blackbird ascended, banking in the direction of the clearing where the cabin had been, probably to land, and Logan saw Ororo sitting at the controls.
Jean lowered herself, Hank, and Scott to the ground. Sam landed beside them.
"Where is he?" she asked Logan, her voice strained. Logan gestured out at the forest rather helplessly, and she scowled, her eyes narrowing with frustration. "I can feel him, but I can't pinpoint his location! This damned interference--" Her eyes went blank for a moment, and she looked sharply down at Regina. "It's you. You're the source of the interference. How are you--" Her expression grew intent, and Regina started to tremble. "Where did all these shields come from?" she asked in a dangerous voice. "What are you hiding?"
Bishop stepped forward, about to protest, but Scott beat him to it. "Jean, I don't think now is the time," he said quickly. She glanced over at her husband, her eyes fierce.
"Damned right this isn't the time," Logan growled. "That fool son of yours is out there playing the hero, something he's in no condition to be doing. We've got to find him before he gets himself killed, and Regina here's the only one who knows where he is." He looked at Jean, trying to convey that Regina wasn't the enemy, but she glared right back at him, clearly angry and suspicious. He sighed, and turned back to Regina. "Lead on, kid."
***
A fist slammed into Cable's jaw, knocking him to the ground. "Ouch," Taylor said mildly. "What the hell are you made of, pal?"
Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, Cable thought, his head spinning from the blow. He'd lost his telepathic lock on Taylor, and although he searched desperately for the reserves that had sustained him earlier, he couldn't find them. All he could manage was his TK 'sonar' field, and even that was intermittent. He was so tapped out at the moment, the T-O virus should be eating him alive. Why he couldn't even feel it advancing, he didn't know. I suppose I should be thankful for small favors--
He sensed the kick aimed at his ribs a moment before it landed, too late to avoid it. "You really should have stayed out of it," Taylor continued in a calm voice while Cable tried to get his breath back. The stabbing pain in his side warned him that he had at least another broken rib to add to tonight's tally. "I don't know who you and your friends are, but I don't like being chased. Plus, I'm still a little pissed about whatever you did to me back there. So--"
Desperately, Cable forced himself to his feet and dove behind the nearest solid object he sensed--a tree, he realized, feeling the roughness of the bark. He needn't have bothered. Taylor's plasma blast incinerated the tree instantly. As Cable tried to get out of the way, he caught the outside edge of the blast. It set the sleeve of his coat on fire, and he hit the ground, rolling to smother the flames.
He tried to get back to his feet, but couldn't manage it. His arm was a solid mass of agony, and his concentration was totally gone. He couldn't find Taylor telepathically, couldn't re-establish the TK field--but he'd be damned if he was going to lay down and die. Pushing himself up on one elbow, he cradled his burnt arm across his chest, and tried every pain-control trick Aliya and Blaquesmith had taught him. But it hurt so much, and he was so tired--
"Oh, I am enjoying this," Taylor said from somewhere nearby. "I suppose I shouldn't kill you, considering how interested Essex seems to be in you, but I'm tired of being beholden to him. I think I'll take Regina and go into business on my own. Killing you will be a message to him, that our--relationship is over."
"She won't go with you, you know," Cable said, appalled by the weakness of his voice. But the longer he could keep Taylor talking rather than blasting, the more chance Logan and Bishop would show up to save his ass. "After what happened in Calgary, she won't go back to that life. She has a conscience, Taylor--something you'd know nothing about."
"A conscience?" Taylor snorted. "You fool. She's a clone! Essex accelerated her growth, psychologically conditioned her so she'd act like a teenager, and then gave her to me to field test. She's been active for six months. She's not a person."
Cable thought of Madelyne--of his mother. Remembered the time he'd spent thinking he was Stryfe's clone, rather than the other way around.
"You're wrong about her," he whispered, teetering on the edge of oblivion. "You're so--wrong--"
"Maybe." Taylor's voice seemed to come from very far away. "But you're dead." Cable felt a sudden heat to his left--Taylor charging up his power.
ZAK! Cable heard Taylor grunt with pain, heard his body hit the ground hard. But it hardly mattered to him. It was the other sound he'd heard, the distinctive noise of his father's optic blasts, that pulled him back from the brink of unconsciousness.
#Scott?# he sent faintly. #Jean?#
***
"Good shot, sir!" Sam said with a certain vindictive pleasure as Taylor hit the ground and didn't move. Then again, Cable wasn't moving either, which worried him.
Jean gave Scott a worried look, and then closed her eyes. Contacting Bishop and Logan, Sam figured. They hadn't dared a frontal attack, not when Taylor could have killed Cable in a heartbeat, and Jean, who could have stopped the man cold under any other circumstances, was still suffering from the psionic interference that girl--Regina, Sam reminded himself--was causing.
Bishop had been on the other side, as back-up, since he and Cyclops were the only ones with the ability to attack from a distance. Somehow, though, Sam had known that Scott wouldn't miss. Not with his son's life at stake. Ah only wish ah'd been able t'get a few licks of mah own in, he thought vengefully, knowing the thought wasn't worthy of an X-Man but not really caring.
"Ah--Cyclops? Phoenix?" Sam asked when neither of them moved. Somethin's not right, he thought uneasily. After the way they were worryin' on the trip up here, they should be runnin' to Cable's side. Not just standin' there. "Aren't we gonna--"
Jean suddenly erupted with a shocking oath and took to the air. #INCOMING!# she shouted telepathically, and a bolt of blinding energy shot at them, only to be stopped by a TK shield. Scott cursed, and Sam instinctively blasted up to join Jean.
"Who's shootin' at us?" he asked urgently, but saw for himself before she could answer. A tesseract portal had opened, disgorging several familiar figures.
"Marauders," Jean hissed in a voice full of loathing.
***
Logan felt as though he'd just been hit by a truck.
"Nice--t'see you again, Arclight," he growled, pulling himself back to his feet and glaring at the tall, muscular woman in the silver half-armor. "Lookin' good for a dead woman."
"That's the great thing about being a Marauder, Wolverine," she said almost coquettishly. "We take a lickin', but we keep on tickin'."
"Cliches," Bishop grated. "How charming." He blasted part of her own attack back at her, along with some of the psionic energy he'd absorbed earlier. Though she was tougher than she looked, Arclight was visibly staggered.
Satisfied that Bishop had things under control, Logan turned to go help Cable, only to find Blockbuster in his path.
"You sure haven't gotten any prettier," he said, and lept at the big Marauder with a snarl. But he was distracted, worried that none of the other X-Men had appeared to help Cable, and his preoccupation proved costly. With a speed he'd never exhibited before, Blockbuster grabbed him by one wrist, and flung him with stunning force against the nearest tree.
***
#Nate, stay down!# Jean projected desperately, not knowing if he could hear her or not. Her attention, at the moment, was focused on trying to shield herself from Riptide's projectiles. Damn this interference! It was like static on the astral plane, interfering not only with her telepathy but her telekinesis as well.
This was not going well, she thought bleakly as she looked out over the battle by the first faint light of dawn. Arclight and Prism were both blasting away at Bishop, who was visibly tiring. Logan was having serious trouble with Blockbuster, although it looked like the tide would turn as Hank lept into the fight. She saw Scott take cover as a battered-looking Scalphunter shot at him, and Sam dove past her, clearly aimed at Harpoon. She herself was having trouble holding off Riptide. This newest version of the Marauders had clearly gone through some improvements.
Some of them are missing, she thought. She'd seen a flash of Vertigo, dead, in Logan's mind earlier, but where were Scrambler and Sabertooth? More to the point, where the hell was Storm?
#Ororo, where are you?# she sent desperately, but didn't get an answer. #Listen to me, all of you!# she projected powerfully at the other X-Men, praying they would hear her through the interference. #One of us has to reach Nathan!#
***
Cannonball sent Harpoon flying with a kinetically-enhanced punch. He heard Jean in his head, and his jaw tightened determinedly as he turned away from the Marauder. He prepared to blast towards Cable, ready to go right through anyone who got in his way. But even as he moved, a dark-clad figure lept towards him.
Scrambler! Sam thought, knowing he had to get out of range. But before he could engage his blast field again, Scrambler reached out and grabbed his wrist. Sam wrenched away, too late. His powers went mad, and he fell to his feet with a gasp as his blast field exploded outwards.
#Sam!# he heard Jean cry.
He fought to get his blast field back under control, but even as he tried, it collapsed inwards with a speed that stunned him. He tried to get up and failed, landing face-down on the ground.
***
"Sam!" Cyclops yelled, seeing his teammate go down. Gritting his teeth against a sudden flare of rage, he blasted Scalphunter, not bothering to hold back. The Marauder was thrown backwards into the bushes, freeing Scott to go to Sam's aid.
The younger X-Man was conscious, but clearly dazed by Scrambler's attack. Scott pulled him to his feet and glanced around for some safe place he could put Sam until the fight was over.
Something raked across his back, and Scott groaned, crumpling to his knees and losing his hold on Sam. He managed to turn his fall into a quick roll and come up facing the opponent whose identity he already suspected, but a clawed hand shot out and ripped his visor off. A solid kick to his midsection knocked him back to the ground, and he had no choice but to keep his eyes tightly closed. He wouldn't mind nailing Sabertooth, but he couldn't risk hitting Sam.
Jean? he called with some urgency. Some help here, honey?
#I can't--Scott--# She sounded exhausted, even frightened. #Scott, to your left!#
He was lifted from the ground by the back of his uniform. "Long time no see, Summers," the Sabertooth clone said from behind him, and then drove Scott head-first into the nearest tree.
***
#Scott!# Cable heard Jean shriek, and for a moment, he was seeing through her eyes as Sabertooth dropped an unconscious Scott on the ground beside Sam and stood over them, smirking. A decidedly unhappy-looking Harpoon limped over to his side. He felt Jean's helplessness--tied up with Riptide, she couldn't do a thing--and saw in her mind the images of the other X-Men all occupied with their own battles.
He saw Harpoon raise both hands, an energy spear materializing in each. Cable focused in on Sam and Scott, and willed a telekinetic shield to take shape around them. The pain was so bad that he broke the link with Jean to protect her, plunging himself back into blindness. But he held the image of the shield in his mind with every bit of determination he had. He felt blood trickling from his nose, knew that without access to those reserves he couldn't keep this up.
No, he told himself, trembling with the effort. I will. I must--I won't let them down--
But he just didn't have enough left. When Harpoon's energy spears came down and hit the shield, it shattered like glass. As a million red-hot needles stabbed into Cable's mind, everyone in the vicinity, and every telepath on the planet, heard him scream.
to be continued...
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