PART ONE
THE NEW ELITES
Twenty-six.
Twenty-six people.
That's the number of people I killed in the first hour of my mutanthood.
Three of them were my adopted family.
They deserved it.
That leaves twenty-three, innocent people I killed in the span of half an hour.
Victor Morgan has killed twice that number of people in half the time.
We pile into the X-Jet, Kota holding onto me as he ascended the ramp with shaky legs. He nearly collapsed again when he heard the name of his best friend. Although I could hear the worry and compassion in his thoughts for his friend, I also heard the relief that he wasn't going to be going through this alone.
I wish I had been given that luxury.
Kota won't leave my side, so Logan begrudgingly goes and sits in the cockpit with Rogue. Luckily for him, the flight to North Charleston from what used to be Kota's neighborhood takes only five minutes.
My Dad stares at Kota silently as Emma hands him a sweatshirt. Kota takes it gratefully, his clothes mostly rags. Dad's moment of goodwill has disappeared, and I can feel the anger rolling off him in his thoughts, but he stays silent. I think it's because Kota is here.
If he wasn't, I'd be crying by now.
We land at Victor Morgan's estate, and I hold back a gasp. The huge house is ripped apart, and is only rumble now. Bodies litter the ground, their arms and necks twisted in impossible angles. The air is filled with lightning and heavy wind rocks the airplane. And through the window, I can see Victor Morgan- at least, what I think used to be Victor Morgan.
There's a being made out of wind and clouds floating high above the estate. Lightning rips through its body as it wraps its intangible arms around itself. I can feel its pain and anguish from here as the storm continues to rage around him, but I feel a sense of relief and smug happiness. I see the bodies of an older couple in his mind, their bodies flung across the room as his powers rips from him, his eyes turning into hurricanes, watching emotionless as they're electrocuted and their bodies being broken and broken again from the gale force winds pour out of his mouth.
He reminds me of myself. The way he feels triumphant as he sees the bodies of the people who tormented him sprawled across the ground, the feeling of pure, raw power running through his veins, the crash after the high.
I know he's going to regret the deaths later.
I know I did.
He reminds me of the boy who sits next to me. Kota's mouth hangs open as he stares at the smokey form of his friend high up in his sky, his mind a mix of worry and compassion and concern. Their minds and powers are very different, yes, but their forms are extremely similar. Kota turned into molten magma, and Victor is just wind and clouds holding onto some semblance of a shape, but it's so similar, and it can't be a coincidence.
I'm jerked out of my thoughts as the door opens to the X-Jet, and everyone starts to get out, identical looks of worry and apprehension on their faces. I hold onto Kota's hand as we walk out, his grip like a vase.
My Dad turns to me as soon as we get out, a permanent scowl etched on his face. "Sang," he says, his voice tight. "You do not move a muscle until I say so, you understand?"
"But, Dad, you don't know how to help, I'm the only one who can-" I argue, but he holds up a hand, and I can see I've pushed him too far.
"Sang, you agree, or you're going back into the X-Jet, and you're never going on another mission again, you understand?" he replies, and I reluctantly nod, wishing for the millionth time that I was born a Howlett, not a Summers, wishing my mother had chosen Logan, not stupid Scott, wishing that my mother was still alive, wishing that my father hadn't been so prideful during the Schism, wishing that I was an X-Man, not a citizen of Utopia.
My Dad turns around, and leaves us at the X-Jet, marching off to the Morgan estate, hand and hand with Emma. Logan and Rogue stay behind, stand silently, waiting for us to walk away.
Kota finally breaks the silence. "Your Dad is pretty interesting," he jokes, and I snort, giving him a grateful smile at his attempt to break the tension.
"'Interesting' is not the word I would use to describe Scott Summers," I reply. "Horrifyingly emotionally absent would be better," I add, before walking after my Dad. I hear him run to catch up with me, and I hold back a smile at his puppy dog cuteness. If this was under any other circumstances, I'd be flirting with him and planning my seduction with the lessons Emma taught me on how "a woman's words are sometimes better than a wink of an eye".
But, these are different circumstances.
Our ragtag group of four trail after Scott and Emma and they make first contact.
"Victor Morgan," he booms, trying to make his voice heard over the raging storm. "My name is Scott Summers, and this is Emma Frost, and we're here to help you." He makes a motion, and I see Emma put her hands up to her head, a flash of white, as she projects his message to Victor's mind. We see his form flinch. It doesn't seem to be work. Instead, it seems to be getting worse.
Victor's messy form is getting less bone and marrow and more smoke and vapor, lightning falling from his outstretched arms, and I swear I can hear him screaming, but that might just be me.
Rogue grabs Kota's and my arms as she yanks us away from a bolt of lightning, just in the nick of time. My Dad blasts away some falling rocks in a flash of red, and I start to think.
I turn to Kota, my eyes wide. "How good of friends would you say you and Victor are?" I ask abruptly, my voice straining to be heard.
He frowns, his forehead crinkling. "We've been friends since pre-school, so pretty good, I guess-"
"Good," I interrupt him, and pull him with me, marching over to my dad. "Whatever the hell you're doing Dad clearly isn't working, and I have a plan."
Dad clenches his jaw, before slowly turning around, his thoughts like burning, pointed daggers; meant to hurt, meant to cripple, meant to kill. "Sang," he began, his voice low with warning. "What did I-"
"Dad, your plan isn't working," I interrupt, and I hear that voice in my head that I head at Kota's house come back, whispering and urging me to not listen to my father, to go help, to go protect, to go cure this boy I knew nothing bad. "What I think we need to do is that we bring Kota and me up to Victor-"
"Enough," he replies, ignoring the warning glance from Emma. "Sang, you are a child and you have no say in how we run this, or anything else. You are not an X-Man." Scott turns his back to me, stalking off with Emma to go plan with Logan and Rogue, leaving Kota and I standing in front of an increasingly dangerous storm, and I feel my stomach drop.
If it wasn't clear before, it's clear now how my Dad feels about me. And I know what I'm about to do make him even angrier, but that voice in my head insists on it, I insist on it. So fuck it. "Fuck it," I mutter, grabbing Kota's arm and borrowing Rogue's power, flying off into the air and towards Victor.
I hear the sounds of surprise behind me, and the scared squeak of Kota beneath me. "Sorry," I say, smiling at him despite the situation. He's gripping my arm tightly, fear pouring off of him, and I don't blame me. The closer I get to the storm that used to be Victor Morgan, the harder it is to fly, but I push on.
I can't fail.
I won't.
I fly slowly until we're right outside the vortex. It takes all of my strength to keep us up in the air, and I wish we had someone with us who was telekinetic. I take a deep breath, my hand gripping Kota's tightly, before reaching out to Victor. "Victor Morgan," I boom, my voice echoing with what I project telepathically. I see the cloud of dust and wind flinch, moving slightly so I can see the fire eyes that are in the middle of a storm. If I didn't know better, by looking into those magnetic eyes, I'd say he had the power over fire, his eyes literal forest fires, but his power was far more deadly, far more chaotic. "My name Sang Sorenson and I'm here to help you," I lower my voice, my tone softer.
I can hear the scoff in his head, his fire eyes narrowing. "You can't help me," he says, his voice disembodied, vibrating through my bones like a hurricane, his tone dull and resigned. "I've killed... so many. And I liked it."
I hear Kota gasp from underneath me, and I shush him. "I get where you're coming from, Victor," I reply, hovering a little closer to the storm. It starts to calm down, minutely. "I've killed too-"
"You don't get it," he interrupts, lightning ripping through him. "I killed my mother, my father, everyone who lived in our estate. And I liked it. I liked the power I felt when I broke their necks, I liked the power I felt when I destroyed my home. This-" I see a hand form out of wind, gesturing towards the destruction. "-is something a princess like you would never understand."
I cock my head, a small, bitter smile forming on my face. "Victor, I killed my mother, and my father, and my sister, I ripped their bodies apart and stole the still warm metal out of their blood and created a cocoon out of it. I brought down planes, I brought down satellites, I killed and I rampaged and I destroyed and I liked it. I'm just like you Victor. We've both made mistakes, and we can fix it."
I can hear his mind whirl as he tries to process it, his body becoming more corporal. "I killed too," Kota adds suddenly, and I can feel Victor's surprised attention flicker to his best friend.
"Kota," I hear Victor whisper, and the winds settle down significantly, and I drift closer, using Victor's powers to bring Kota afloat next to me. Fire eyes meet green pools.
"I killed my neighbor," Kota continues, his gazed fixed on his increasingly solid best friend. "I burned him alive with my fires. I didn't mean too, but I killed him. I mummified him alive when he was only trying to help- oh, God, Vic, I killed him," I can hear the tears in his voice, see the effect they have on Victor, hear his thoughts.
Kota is like me, he killed too, he's a sinner too, she's like me, she's killed too, she liked killing, she's a sinner too, I'm not alone, his thoughts are repetitive as he suddenly drops in altitude, his storm dispersing around him, but the storm inside him doesn't. "Help me, Kota," he says, before turning his fire eyes onto me. "Please help me, Princess, it feels like I'm a tornado, that everything is scrambled inside, just help me or kill me, please-"
I drop Kota like a sack of rocks. He lets out a yelp but, I guide him slowly down with Victor's powers.
That little voice is driving me and I rush forward to Victor, my arms gripping his shoulders as my powers pour out of me. I can feel myself forcing him back into a solid form, hear his gasp of surprise as we suddenly drop twenty feet, his powers dropping out. I quickly catch us and put us in a slow descent, my hands still gripping him tightly.
I land softly on my knees, Victor almost on top of me as he clutches me, as if I'm a gift sent from God. He's shaking as his fire eyes meet mine, the madness near vanished. "Thank you," he whispers. "From here on out, you're my Princess, and I'm your Prince, I'll defend you always." And with that declaration, his eyes roll up in the back of his head, and he promptly passes out.
No one's ever made a declaration like that to me before.
I kinda like it.
~~~~
A-Report
Kota
Kota walks out of the X-Jet, his body fatigued and aching. Wolverine, who Sang introduces as Logan, walks besides him, supporting Victor. His best friend is like putty, barely able to form coherent sentences, his eyes constantly fluttering close. Sang walks out behind them, side by side with the mutant Rogue. He's warned to not touch Rogue, but his notices how Sang touches her friend freely, Rogue even pressing a motherly kiss on her forehead.
His curiosity about the red-headed mutant only as he sees Sang slump against a wall, as soon as they get off the plan. She holds her head in her hands, her hands combing through her curly, fire colored hair. Kota wants to go over and talk to her, but he stops himself as he sees her father, Scott Summers, stalk up to her, his whole body vibrating with rage.
"Sang Summers!" he shouts, and Sang quickly jumps up, her green eyes widening, her back pressed against the wall. "What the hell were you thinking? Disobeying my orders not only once, but twice?" he hisses, pointing a finger at her. "You could have gotten yourself killed, our team killed, the new mutants killed! Do you ever take the time to think?"
Sang cowers, and Kota can see her mouth tremble. Logan steps in, carefully laying Victor on the ground, before roughly pushing Scott away from Sang. "Knock it off, Scott," Logan grunts, stepping in between the father and daughter. "Sang saw that your approach wasn't workin', and knew she could help, so she did. Sang did everything right-"
"Stay out of this, Howlett," Scott hisses, and Kota can see the iconic ruby flash starting to form behind the man's ruby quartz glasses. "This is my daughter, not yours, and it's my prerogative as both her father and team leader to punish her as I see fit," Scott moves to make eye contact with Sang over Logan's shoulders. "You're not allowed to leave this place, not even to go to Storm's school, until you can prove to me you deserve your place," Scott turns his back, and walks off, but not before Kota sees the anguish on Scott's face. He sees a single tear run down Cyclops' face, sees the usually stoic face scrunched up in sadness and regret and desperation, before it's wiped off emotion.
The hanger is quiet for a moment, before sobs fill the air. Kota turns to see Sang collapsed into Logan's arms, her thins shoulder shaking with sobs as Logan's arms are wrapped tightly around his surrogate daughter. Rogue kneels down next to them, and wraps her arms around them, and Kota swears he can hear a muffled voice say "Why doesn't he love me anymore, why am I not good enough, why is everything I do is genocide in his eyes, why can't you be my father Logan, why I am not good enough to be his daughter, why doesn't he love me?"
And with that, Kota realizes Sang is just as broken as he and Victor are, and maybe, just maybe, they can fix each other.