"All right, dat is de last straw," Gambit said. "You ain't going dat far. Gambit won't allow it."
"Who said you got a say in it?" Shine said. "Look, what use it defeating the External if no one sees it? They'll go out and summon her again, and it might work. I want them to have the Fear of God."
"Dey be more like to kill you for taking away deir power," Gambit said. "You don't understand."
"What don't I understand?" Shine finally lost her patience with him. "That cults thrive off of power like plants thrive off of soil? That they fight and kill for it like drug addicts will kill for a another dosage or the money to buy it with? That they hate each other because they are in competition for it, and that the External, like all false deities, thrives off of tension and hatred and fear and lives off of that worship like bread and water? That outsiders are mistreated, and that people who try to leave are branded for life by this experience and never really are cut off from it? Family Ties run too deep, and the nightmares never stop. Is that what I do not understand?"
Gambit blinked at her.
"What was that?" Mystique asked.
"My father was in a cult," Shine said. "And so was my uncle...many years. I heard the stories. I've been around groups much like cults, and I was almost killed by several on the last missions we were on. It was horrid enough." She crossed her arms. "And you have to cut them out by the roots. There is no other way to end it, or they just keep drawing in new suckers. The cycle never ends. Isn't that the way of it? Now, we will not walk into this Bayou, show off a little to this External thing, and then walk out like nothing happened and leave these poor fools in bondage to their little charade. They will have their chance to break free, and you had better darn well not stand in our way. Is that clear?"
"Dang..." Rogue muttered.
Logan was grinning. "Let's go find 'em. I can't wait to see the looks on their faces."
"But..." Gambit was losing his ability to argue. "If you know all dat, den you know what else."
"I know that human sacrifice is basically a part of this whole thing," Shine said. "Though you may call it something else to hide how grotesque it is--they always do... It's appeasing the gods, isn't it?"
She pretty much nailed it, though no one said "gods".
"This begins to sound familiar to me again," Storm said. "I see we have run in similar circles. "Well, lead the way." She gestured. "Let us go see if these people will be freed."
"This is serious." Kurt was clutching his smaller Bible to his chest. "I have never seen such a thing... My only experience vith the occult vas a fortune teller at the circus, and I didn't like going in there at all. The first time it vas too uncanny."
"Oh, you should never go to those," Shine said. "And you ought to repent if you have. Knowledge from people like that always has a price."
"You are right about that," Kurt said. "I never heard that it made anyone happier."
"Only mutants can tell the future," Mystique commented. "Sometimes."
"I wouldn't take Apocalypse's words as foolproof," Shine said, like she'd read her mind.
Mystique jumped.
"Uncanny, ain't it?" Gambit said to her dryly.
"Shut up," she said.
"Might as well just take us there," Rogue said to Gambit. "Or Shine'll turn on her eye-flashlight thing she does, and they'll find it anyway."
"I could try..." Shine said.
"Fine," Gambit said. Maybe if he talked to them first, he could tell them these people were just crazy, and they might not kill them all right off... The X-men had at least fought them before.
It wasn't that long of a walk to the Thieves' headquarters, but in the humidity, it was wearing on the others. Kurt was all right. He kept poofing ahead of them...until he found a huge spider in one tree he was on and a snake in another, and then he was alarmed and poofed back to walk.
"I guess I'm not very used to large animals, living in a monastery," he said sheepishly.
Logan had his claws ready.
Storm acted like nothing about this bothered her. She'd seen worse in Africa and Egypt. Even a gator would not have shaken her. Crocodiles were more dangerous.
All too soon, they were coming through the trees up to the house of the Thieves.
The guard outside did a double take.
"Remy?" he said, of course in the same accent.
"Hey." Gambit tried to think how to do this. "Where's Bobby?"
"He around," the Thief replied. "You finally come back?"
"No," Gambit said. "We have business with y'all."
"We don't have any business with outsiders," the Thief eyed the X-men.
"We can handle this," Shine said to Gambit.
"I know how you handle," Gambit said. "You say exactly what you think, and dat stupid around here."
Wally rolled his eyes. "Why over-complicate things?"
"Yeah, tell him, babe," Shine said.
"We're here to get rid of your External goddess," Wally said, before Gambit could stop him.
The Thief went from annoyed to furious real fast. "What in tarnation did you jus' say?"
"What is tarnation?" Kurt hissed.
"Uh...I dunno, really," Rogue said.
"It's an euphemism for hell," Mystique said.
"How d'you know that and I don't?" Rogue said.
"Please, Rogue, I had to learn how to talk like y'all while I was posing as that woman," Mystique said in that accent flawlessly. "Some research was required."
"I guess I never thought of that," Rogue said. "Also, is he gonna shoot us?"
The Thief looked like he might do just that.
"Well, what is dis?" he demanded of Gambit.
"Dey crazy," Gambit said. "Dey say dey gon' to come here and stir things up. I need to talk to Bobby."
"Oh, you'll talk to him all right, and he'll say we should shoot the lot of ya!" the Thief said.
He banged on the door.
"You tell him to hurry, Jean Luc," Shine said, in an odd voice [Jean, pronounced with the French accent, is a man's name, rhymes with John. Not like Jean the American version].
The Thief turned around. "How did...? Remy, you go tellin' my name?"
"I ain't...told dem no one..." Gambit was a little unnerved.
"Got 'em again." Wally low-fived Shine.
"How's that toe healing up?" Shine asked Jean Luc, in the same tone.
Jean Luc looked at his boots. No one else saw anything odd.
"What are you? Some kind of witch doctor?" he said.
"Nope," Shine said. "Well, go get Bobby. We'll wait."
Jean Luc opened the door and ran like he was afraid she'd get after him.
Shine turned to the others and shrugged. "A bit of John 4 always gets people's attention. Not to show off too much or anything."
"Okay, but watch it or they'll worship you instead," Wally said.
"And you don't want that," Storm said that like it was meant to be humorous, and they laughed, but no one else thought it was funny.
"This talk of bein' worshiped from three people makin' anyone else feel kind of small?" Rogue asked in a low voice.
"Wait till they get started," Mystique said. "This should be amusing."
"Momma, if I didn't know better, I'd say you thought this was goin' to work," Rogue said.
"Whether it does or not, they'll scare hell out of the gangs," Mystique said. "And that will be entertaining for me."
"Mother!" Kurt said. "Language like that is not...vell, is not right."
"If you're to be believed, Kurt, hell is what ought to be scared out of people, so what do you object to?" Mystique said.
She really seemed to be in oddly high spirits.
Kurt had no ready answer for this.
A moment later, Bobby and two other Thieves appears, along with Jean Luc, who was keeping to the back.
"Dat one!" He pointed at Shine. "She done know my name..."
"So Remy told her." One of the others was clearly skeptical.
"He say no," Jean Luc said.
"So? He could say anything."
"Right you are, Pierre," Shine said.
"Are they all French?" Wally asked Gambit.
Gambit shrugged. "Dey is Cajun."
Pierre blinked at Shine.
"But how would she know which was which?" Bobby was convinced. "Look, who are you, Missie? Jean Luc say you here to get rid of our... And ain't no one is supposed to know about dat. Remy, you done been runnin' your mouth."
"I ain't never told dem," Gambit said. "Dey jus' already know. It's a sorry business. Dey think dey can get rid of dat swamp witch."
"Shh!" they all hissed.
"Well, even if I believed dat," Bobby said, "you a year too late. External will not be appearing for another 9 years for de next tithe. We settle dat."
"In that case, you have nothing to worry about," Shine said. "So we can go out there and give it a try and you won't stop us."
Gambit had thought the tithe thing might be a way to get out this...and now he knew it wasn't.
He muttered a curse word.
"Jus' 'cause it won't work don't mean we want your kind poking around our turf," Bobby said. "You with my brother, so I give you one chance to leave before we make you."
"Just try." Logan stepped forward.
"Logan," Storm said.
"Oh, come on," he said.
"Let's see if they can scare them, first," Storm said. "That will be far more diverting than just open fighting."
Logan smirked. "True..."
"Though if it came to a fight, I wouldn't mind either," Storm said. "Anyone who sacrifices people to a witch deserves a good beating."
"Storm!" Rogue gasped but almost laughed.
"Well, it's true," Storm said.
"Remind me never to anger you." Kurt backed up.
"What is dat ?" Bobby suddenly noticed him. "You bring a demon here with you? Dat what you are? A witch?"
Shine's eyes flickered gold.
"All right, fine," she said. "If you're going to be disrespectful, we'll go to the Assassins instead. Maybe they'll be more reasonable."
"Yeah," Wally said. "Who needs you anyway?"
"Now hol' on a minute!" the Thieves cried.
"Adieu, mes amis." Shine waved.
They both turned.
The thieves were angry and rushed at them. "Now, where do y' think you're going--?"
Wally tripped two of them.
One grabbed Shine by her arm, and she turned and punched him squarely in the jaw.
Logan happily knocked Bobby himself aside, and Rogue plucked the one Shine had just hit up and tossed him aside.
"Wait!" Gambit said. "We start violence now, it never end!"
"You mean maybe dey start a feud with us too?" Shine rubbed her hand and did a decent impression of their accent. "The Assassins will be upset enough if we don't include them. Could get ugly. This is the business of both parties."
Bobby stood up.
"Remy, dis will mean war," he said. "Dis foolishness."
"I know, but I try and try, and dey not be talked out of it," Gambit said. "Why you think I even come back? I swore I never would, but I been trying to get 'em change deir minds... It ain't working."
"Well, if you want to include the Assassins," Bobby said, "fine. Dey say same as us, and we all will fight. But on one condition."
He glanced at Gambit. "If dis go bad, and we come off on top, Gambit return to us."
"What?" Rogue said. "Just who do you think you are!"
Yellowish energy crackled over Bobby for a moment. "Do you wanna test us?"
"Uh oh..." Gambit muttered.
"Gambit is not our property," Shine said, with all the dignity of a visiting monarch. "But if you want to fight it out for him, should we fail, it is your business. Will that suffice? He can decide for himself. I doubt you would beat the X-men."
"Good enough for me," Bobby said. "Dis be a short trip. Let's go."
Several more Thieves joined them as they walked to wherever the Assassins' HQ was.
"If dis was crazy before, now it is ludicrous," Gambit said. "All of dem got us outnumbered."
"Will you relax?" Shine said. "This is going exactly how I envisioned it would. Try to enjoy it a little."
They reach the Assassins' home.
To Rogue's relief, Belladonna was nowhere in sight. Her humiliation must have been complete.
The new leader of the Assassins, who did not give his name, came out to see why the thieves had the gall to show up at their door.
"You know dis mean war, if you come here," he said.
"Not their idea," Wally said. "It was us, they just came to settle it."
"Who are you?" the Assassin leader said.
"Dey be here sayin' dey kill our External," Bobby said. "Somehow dey know about dat. Dese fools all come with dem to watch. We tell dem it ain't de right year to even see it. Dey want to try anyway. You agree, we should waste 'em now?"
"Bobby!" Gambit said.
"Dis ain't your business, Remy," Bobby said. "You leave de guild, you ain't got no say in it. We have rules."
"We let ya live once!" Logan said.
"You trespass once and get away with it!" Bobby said.
"Dey save your life!" Gambit said.
"Dey save yours," Bobby shot back.
"Oh dear..." Kurt said.
"No one told me there'd be family drama also." Mystique was clearly enjoying this. "How original."
"Momma, hush now." Rogue was worried.
"Excuse me," Shine spoke loudly, getting everyone's attention. "Monsieurs, if you will, I think I have a solution."
"You crazy enough to come here," the Assassin leader said. "You make a wild claim, threaten our whole way of life, and you say you have solution?"
"Yes." Shine didn't flinch.
Pause.
"What is it?" the Assassin leader said finally.
The ball was in Shine's court now.
"We have made an outrageous claim," she spoke clearly and loudly. "But if you feel, as we do, that your deity you pay homage to is truly all powerful, then you will also feel, as we do, that her honor must be defended. We have been challenged, on your behalf, by one of your own (we will not say who) that your External is stronger than our God. We have come to meet that challenge. I believe, as guilds, you allow for that, do you not? They call it a rumble in New York. I do not know what you call it here."
"Dat'll do as well as any name," Bobby said, now more interested. "So it's a duel of honor you're after... Where is your champion, den? Where is your External?"
"He is here," Shine said, "invisible, waiting for the right moment, just as yours is. If she refuses this challenge, it will be acknowledged that she is too afraid to show herself. And that is our win. If she appears, then we fight. The victor can decide what happens to the spoil. We have our X-men to look on, and you can each have your Thieves and Assassins as you choose. I only have one request: I want you to call your families, your women, all of them, to come see what happens. As you can see, their fate will hang on this also."
"We don't like dem to see bloodshed before dey old enough," the Assassin leader said.
"And no blood will be shed," Shine said, "at least if we have our way. If you attack, then you exposed them yourselves, not us. And you can't expect us to take responsibility. Do we have an agreement?"
"What say you if we refused?" the Assassins leader said. "You trespassing."
"If you refuse, I'm going to the bayou anyway and taking claim over it," Shine said. "And all of them will be going with me."
The X-men tried to look like they'd known she would say this.
"And you're all a lot of cowardly people who don't really trust the External anyway," Shine added. "I'd be surprised if she doesn't spit at you next time the tithe comes around if she hears tell of this."
"Who'd tell her?" Bobby said.
"I'm sure someone would be happy to," Shine said. "Plenty of witnesses. Someone who's like to take the Chosen position next time."
Oh, she had played them like a fiddle.
They all looked at each other. No one trusted each other that much in the guilds, especially since Belladonna had sabotaged the tithes--twice.
"I'll be d----d," Mystique muttered behind Kurt. "If she didn't just trap them as neatly as that."
Kurt objected to this language also, but said nothing.
You could see that both groups were trying to find a way out of it and not finding one, at least not one that kept their dignity. If either refused, the other could say they had had no faith in the External at the next Tithe, and claim more power and favor.
Seeing this, Bobby and the Assassins both nodded as if in agreement.
"We agree to dese terms," the Assassin leader said. "If you want to die, fine. But when you lose, your friends will not stop us from doing as we like to y'all. If they are allowed to go, anyway."
"Snakes," Logan muttered.
"Dis is not a good idea," Gambit said to them. "Dey will never forget such an insult. If you lose, it serious."
"We're not gonna lose," Shine said. "Though if you keep talking doubt like that, our chances will be worse and worse. Pick a side, Gambit. You want to stand with the Thieves or Assassins? Or do you want to stand with us? You can do what you want but choose now. You won't get to change your mind later."
"You should stand with us," Bobby said. "Dis is probably your doin' anyway."
Gambit glared at them, then he said purposefully, "Even if dey crazy, I still stand with my friends--and dese radicals. Deir blind religion don't tell 'em kill innocent people for power."
If that stung, the guilds didn't let on.
"We can go now, then?" Shine said.
"No reasons to stall," the Assassin leader said. "You, call everyone." He nodded at one of the Assassins.
"Pierre, go get de guild," Bobby said. "Tell 'em we have a show for 'em."
Pierre went off.
"Well, Shine, I really hope you're as good at this as you say you are," Rogue said.
"I don't need to be good at it," Shine said. "God will do the rest. A challenge like this could never go unmet."
"I thought ya weren't supposed to test the Lord," Logan said.
"Ah, you remember your Gospel," Shine said. "And you're right--a stupid test is not one we're supposed to do. But against other gods? Against other religions? Against the things He says about Himself? There we can and must test Him, or our faith is based on ideas only."
"What else is faith but ideas?" Mystique said.
"That is something people who do not have it say," Shine said. "So I'll excuse you, Raven, but for the rest of us, all of us believe God guides us and does things for us. And Christianity has always boasted not just happenstance, but actual miracles that cannot be refuted, not by anyone who witnessed them. It's important to remember that while God does not flaunt His power openly to most of us, that does not mean He cannot. God can do anything He wants, and when He chooses to show Himself openly, people remember it."
"So why not do that all the time?" Mystique wasn't biting. "No other thing that claimed to be God would hide it."
"That is what the vulgar mind of us faithless people says," Shine said. "You forgot the book already? That's the surest sign of a false god, that they show up openly like some harlot and show everyone what they are. They are big and loud and dark and merciless. God does not overawe us, not often. He wants us to want to know Him. To Love Him, freely. We cannot all be afraid of Him all the time if we are to Love Him. Love and fear cannot live together well. God meets us, He says, in the secret and the quiet place. That is how He knows we are seeking Him for Himself and not out of fear or a desire for power, as many people do. Aren't these guilds proof enough of the way that does not work? I swear--" She shook her head at Wally. "--people can look right at the answer for their question and not see it."
Mystique was embarrassed by her saying this, though she saw that Shine did not even mean it to embarrass her, and went silent.
"Vise vords," Kurt said. "But...vhat do you intend to do?"
"Just what she said," Wally said. "And I'll be right there too. This is old hat by now. So are we just gonna walk out there and summon her?"
"We don't summon spirits," Shine said. "We will demand she show herself and see if she has the gall to do so. If she is even a correct term for whatever that is."
She started singing offhandedly while they waited. "'In the secret, in the quiet place, in the stillness, You are there. In the secret, in the quiet hour I wait, only for you, 'cause I want to know you, Lord.... I am reaching for the Highest Goal, that I might receive the prize, pressing onward, pushing every hindrance aside, out of my way, 'cause I want to know you more! More and more!...'"
* * *
The two guilds, and most of their families, were gathered soon after.
Even with the extra people, most of whom Gambit had never seen much of, the crowd only came to about a 100 total with both sides. The guilds were small, as more and more people had died.
It was like having two powder kegs close to each other and a lit candle, from how they looked darkly at each other and at the newcomers.
Some of the younger kids and women who must not have participated in the violence, or at least not yet, were also curious looking.
It would be much of a walk to were the External appeared, and they all started moving.
Mystique didn't care to be caught up in this if it went south, and at an opportune moment, she faded into the crowd, transforming to blend in.
She then hid behind a tree when they came to the actual clearing.
A lot of the more wary onlookers did too.
Shine did not look nervous, though that did not mean she wasn't, as some of them knew.
Wally was smiling a little nervously.
Kurt was getting very strange looks from the people.
"What is that?" one kid asked quite loudly.
"Ain't they ever seen a mutant before?" Rogue said.
"Not one dey knew," Gambit said grimly. "He shouldn't have come. When dis over, dey go after him too."
"Maybe you should stop worryin' so much," Rogue said.
"Chere, don't you get it? Dis could be de end of de line," Gambit said. "Dey stacked de odds against us, those two lunatics. We could have handled de small number, maybe, but now dey outnumber us almost 10 ta 1."
"I don't think the kids will do much," Rogue said. "But you ain't never been so worried by odds... What's really wrong?" She was getting concerned.
"Gambit seen too many people die dis way," Gambit said in a dark voice.
Rogue finally began to see there might be a side to this she just couldn't understand, something Gambit didn't want anyone else to see.
She wasn't sure what to say.
She looked around, wondering if Mystique might have some insight into this, being that she'd been in similar positions...but now found that, predictably, Mystique had ditched them.
"Well, that just figures!" She made a fist.
"All right, quiet, everyone," the Assassin leader called for their attention. "We have our challengers here."
A lot of people booed at them or called slurs.
"Dey say de External will not defend herself," Bobby went on. "Normally we only fight each other, but we decided to make exception dis time."
Cheers met this remark.
"Figures de only thing dat bring dem together is killing someone else." Gambit was sick to his stomach.
"Have some faith, brother," Kurt said.
"Faith is what got us into dis mess," Gambit said.
"Now that it comes to the point," Storm said to Logan, "I do not feel as sure as before... I believe, but...things do not always happen the way we want them to."
"Have to trust they know what they're doin'," Logan said. "They got this far."
Storm bit her lip.
Wally waved at the guilds. "So...yeah, we're gonna... You know, Shine maybe you should take this. You're better with the speeches."
Some people snickered at him.
Shine looked around, and then she spied the stump the External tended to appear out of, and she stepped on top of it, to their anger.
"All right, Thieves, Assassins," she said loudly, and the water behind her made her voice a little more amped. [Water does this, yes.]
"You all came here to see who's stronger, and now I'm going to put it before you. We come in the name of Jehovah, El Shaddai, Yahweh, the God of all, the God of the Bible, if some of you know what that is."
A few people must have. They got very surprised looks.
"Yes, you didn't think that God did this sort of thing," Shine said. "But He does, all the time, and many false gods have fallen to Him. We have a story in our Bible. There was a statue of Dagon, and the ark of God, where His presence dwelt for a time, was put in front of it, and every day they looked, the statue of Dagon would be lying on its face before the Ark. In another story, a prophet of ours slew 400 prophets of Baal also. Baal was much like your External, demanded sacrifices and services in exchange for power and blessing. Our God demands no burnt offerings, no tithe, and no human life for His favor. He asks only for our Faith and our trust and our devotion. He is a God of Mercy and of Truth and of Justice. Three in One. And He has swallowed all other gods, and all other imposters will bow to him. This is our claim. So, in the words of our Prophet who slew the 400, how long will you hover between two points? If your External is a god, then follow her. If Jehovah is God, then follow Him. This is our challenge. Do you have an answer?"
She stepped down.
They were all speechless.
Finally, Bobby said, "Big talk, but how will you get her to show herself to de likes of you? You have no tithe, and it has not been 10 year."
A chorus of guild members agreed. "Yes, if you're so high and mighty, den show her!"
"I find it quite ironic that I have to call upon your stupid, little deity," Shine said. "But if you really have no power to require her appearance to us all, I guess we can try. But we won't be sacrificing anything."
Wally nodded, then he kicked the stump real hard. Everyone gasped.
"Hey, stop him!" one said.
"Wait," the Assassin leader said. He was sure fire would strike the both of them.
"Hey, External!" Wally called. "Come out, come out wherever you are--if you're not too chicken. We're going to take your whole territory if you don't defend it."
Shine laughed.
Everyone else wanted to die of horror.
"This is unorthodox..." Kurt muttered.
"We dead," Gambit muttered.
Logan put his face in his palm. "Ugh..."
Storm was watching closely. "Wait, Logan, look." She grabbed his arm and pointed.
The yells from the others broke off then too.
Smoke was coming up from the ground around the stump.
Wally stepped back.
Shine watched, eyes gleaming.
The smoke billowed up from the stump and surrounded the entire area, forming a sort of barrier.
Mystique, even where she was hiding, saw it close behind her, and it felt clammy. She shivered. She could tell something powerful and evil was appearing, even before anyone saw it.
And then, over top of the stump, in all her strange colors and cold eyes, the External appeared, with a very angry look on her face.
[Oh snap!]