"Welcome to the final show.. hope you're wearing your best clothes." Sign of the Times by Harry Styles
The next week passed by in a blur.
The X-Men focused all of their efforts on rescuing the kids as discretely as possible. They worked so hard that Lilli almost forgot about Warren and Kurt. Almost.
The X-Men had a system of stealing— no, rescuing— the kids. It included a lot of sneakiness, singing, planning, and huge bouts of invisibility that left Lilli drained for hours. It was hard to take the kids without anyone noticing— they'd at first had to take the poor ones with no friends who wouldn't be missed. But the X-Men had quickly ran out of those kinds of kids and now were frantically trying to find ways to bring more kids down to safety without anyone noticing their absence.
It was getting hard.
Lilli was standing in the bedroom that she'd claimed that was located near a kitchen and an arcade. She'd called dibs on it as soon as she'd seen it, and was glad that she had. It was one of those 5 star resort master suite type of bedrooms— it was gigantic. There was a four postered California King sized bed in the middle of the room that was covered in a deep red down comforter that was just so comfortable. There was a dresser, a couch, a TV, an armoire, a table, chairs, a desk, and a giant dark red area rug in the center of the room. The floors were a dark hardwood and the walls a deep golden hue that coordinated well with the floors and the rug. There was a bathroom attached that was the same aesthetic and style as the bedroom and included a walk in shower. It was a room fit for a queen, and Lilli loved it.
But what she didn't love was the deep worry that was settling in her stomach at that very moment. She was standing in front of a giant gilded mirror and watching herself bite her lip nervously. She was heading up to the Institute to get a few more kids in five minutes, but that wasn't what she was worried about.
No, she was worried about Warren. And Kurt, too, of course, even though he'd never been that nice to her. But she was mostly worried about Warren. The two boys hadn't sent a message on their device that Hank had made them for three days. Three whole days. And to make matters worse, their last message from Kurt had been eerily haunting— "We believe we have been discovered. We feel like we are being watched. We have not seen Kezing but we fear he has seen us."
That was it. Lilli had been repeating those words in her head nonstop the last three days. Those three short sentences sent her into a tizzy of worry every time she thought about them. And currently, they were all that she could think about.
Lilli looked at her eyes in the mirror. They seemed darker, stormier— they reflected her mood. She now knew how wives felt when their husband went off to sea. She felt like the room where the second device was stationed— the one that received Kurt and Warren's messages— was her own widow's walk. She'd spent so much of her free time in there, pulling at her hair in vain as she waited and watched for something, anything to show that they were still alive. But nothing ever came.
Lilli was hoping that by the time she got back with the students, Kurt and Warren would have returned from Kezing and be safe and sound and say that no, she hadn't needed to worry, their device had just broken down and everything was fine. It had been a week since they'd left, after all. They were supposed to come back today.
And they will, Lilli thought to herself. She was trying as hard as she could to keep her hopes up, but it was hard. The only thing keeping her anxiety from swallowing her whole was the thought of saving the students. She loved those kids and it was her responsibility to keep them safe. It was this feeling of protectiveness that was causing Lilli to throw all of her focus into saving as many kids as she could.
A knock at Lilli's door brought her out of her thoughts. She jumped, turning towards the closed door. "Come in!" She called, turning and walking over to her bed. She sat down on the edge of it as the door opened, revealing the face of Ororo.
"Are you ready?" She asked Lilli. Lilli nodded, standing back up. It was time for them to go get some more students. They were taking three boys, all of whom were thirteen years old. Jean and Professor Xavier had heard them wondering where some of their friends had gone. They had to go get them before they started asking questions out loud.
Lilli walked out of her room, shutting the door behind her. She and Ororo walked the now-familiar route through the winding halls back to the assembly room. At first, it'd been impossible to remember where anything was, but after a few tours from Hank and Professor X and a lot of panic-inducing wrong turns, the X-Men bad started to get the hang of the hallways. Still, at least one of them went missing once a day and needed to be found. The collection of students the X-Men had stolen back were a different story. Upon Professor Xavier's request, they all took up rooms off of main hallways and never strayed from them since they had everything the students needed: a library, a gym, kitchens, bathrooms, lounge rooms, and more.
Lilli and Ororo were walking down this hallway, passing by rooms and rooms filled with students. Overall, they'd taken over seventy students out of the hundreds enrolled in the school. The main hallways branching off of the assembly room were never empty anymore, and a few times Lilli'd had to wait to go into a bathroom.
After a moment, Lilli and Ororo arrived in the assembly room. Peter and Scott were already there waiting. The four met in the center of the room. "Are you guys ready?" Scott asked. Lilli and Ororo nodded. "Okay. Then let's get going."
"What song are you guys gonna sing? I'm thinking the Star War theme song," Peter said as the four started heading towards the door that led up to the basement of the school. Peter was referring to the tactic that the X-Men had adopted to avoid alerting Cas and his mind-reading capabilities to their plan— they sang a song in their head so that Cas couldn't hear any thoughts of their plan. It was a brilliant idea, and Lilli was able to find a little joy in thinking up songs that she knew Cas hated.
"Footloose. Cas hates that song," Lilli replied, laughing.
"Ooh, good one," Ororo said appreciatively, bumping Lilli's shoulder playfully. "I'm doing Ghostbusters."
"Uptown Girl... she's been living in her white bread world.." Scott started to sing, doing a small little dance. Lilli laughed at his antics, momentarily forgetting all of her worries as she watched Peter join in and start to jiggy around. She and Ororo clapped as the two boys finished with dramatic bows.
"I never knew we had some professional performers on our hands!" Lilli exclaimed with a bright smile.
"It's just a side hobby," Peter said, brushing it off as he opened the door that led to the hallway that led to the basement of the Institute. The four mutants quickly stepped out of the bunker and into the chilly, damp air of the hallway, dropping their fun attitudes and turning serious. There were lanterns hanging every ten feet or so, but other than that the hallway was long and dark. Lilli immediately started singing Footloose in her mind, trying to keep out all thoughts of their plan. So now I gotta cut loose, footloose...
Scott shut the door behind the four and they all walked up the inclined hallway in silence. After a moment, they reached a wall. Ororo pressed a stone towards the bottom of the wall and stepped back as the wall slid open to reveal a small, closet-sized room. The four mutants crammed in and the wall behind them slowly started to slide shut. They were at once plunged into darkness and Lilli's heart rate began to pick up. No matter how many times they did this, Lilli still hated the claustrophobia she got from that small room. Kick off the Sunday shoes, please, Louise...
Peter pressed another stone on the far wall and the wall started to slide open. Lilli pushed out of the closet-sized room first, taking in gulps of fresh air. Ororo, Scott, and Peter quickly followed, and the wall slid shut behind them.
They were stood in a storage room filled with dusty boxes and knick knacks. It was dimly illuminated by a pale light coming outside of the open door. "I'll go on ahead," Peter whispered. The other three nodded and Peter sped off out of the room. Lilli kept concentrating on singing Footloose over and over in her mind— Pull me off of my knees. Jack, get back, come on before we crack...
A moment later, Peter returned. He nodded his head. "They're alone," he said, referring to the three boys.
"Okay. Thanks," Scott said. Peter nodded and shrunk back behind a tower of boxes to wait until they returned with the boys.
Lilli reached out her two hands, and Scott and Ororo took hold of them. As they did, the three all turned invisible. Lilli looked on either side of her to her friends, who appeared to her like watery apparitions but were invisible to everyone else. Both of her friends nodded. They were ready. Lose your blues... everybody cut footloose...
The three X-Men hurried out of the storage room and into the dimly lit basement with Ororo in front, followed by Lilli and then Scott. They made their way through the basement and up the steps into the lobby of the school. Lilli couldn't help but shake her head in sadness as she saw the Kezing agents milling about the school like they owned the place. It made her sick watching them talk and laugh like they'd lived there their whole lives and not just recently stolen it from the X-Men. But she couldn't even think about her anger— she had to keep singing Footloose or else Cas would catch on to them. You're playing so cool, obeying every rule...
The three mutants made their way up the staircase and down one of the boys dorms hallways. They stopped at room 113, poking their heads in through the open doorway. There sat three young teenaged boys on beds. One was flipping through a book, another writing something down, and the last was taking a nap. They looked bored out of their minds, and for good reason: Kezing had kept all of the students on the third floor in their rooms, only letting them out for bathroom breaks and mealtimes. The students on the second floor had been evicted and placed in common areas around the mansion— lounge rooms, libraries, classrooms, and the like. They had to sleep on the ground, or in chairs or couches if they were lucky. There were usually 15 students to a room. They were being penned up like animals while the Kezing agents took over all of the rooms on the second floor.
The X-Men hadn't been able to take any of the students on the second floor because of that. There was no way they could take a few kids without the rest in their room noticing. So, they'd been forced to take students who were on the third floor and up who were still in their rooms. That was why they were taking these three boys— they were towards the back, quiet, and didn't talk much to anyone else. They wouldn't be missed.
Lilli looked over at Scott and Ororo. They nodded, and the three hurried in. "Don't scream, it's us," Lilli whispered to the kids, quickly turning the three X-Men back visible. The three boys all looked up at them and jumped nearly out of their skin.
"We're here to take you back," Scott whispered as the boys sat up quickly. "Don't say anything. Sing a song in your head so no one hears your thoughts."
"What?" The boys all asked in unison. But they didn't have time to answer any questions.
"Just do it, we have to go," Lilli answered, her voice urgent. "You all need to grab hold of me somewhere. My arms or shoulders or wherever, it doesn't matter."
"How can we trust you?" The boy who'd been reading asked.
"Take a leap of faith," Ororo answered. "Now, let's go."
Lilli held out her arms, and Ororo and Scott quickly grabbed hold of her outstretched hands. The three boys looked at each other dubiously, and Lilli fought to keep singing Footloose. Deep way down in your heart, you're burning, yearning for some...
"God damnit, you guys, we have to go," Scott urged, his voice barely above a whisper. The three boys seemed to jolt out of their shock and jumped up all at the same time. Two took hold of Lilli's shoulders and another her right arm. Mustering up all of her energy, Lilli turned all six of them invisible. She felt the three boys jump as they felt the sensation tingle down their spines, and she would've laughed if she could've. Somebody to tell you that life ain't passing you by...
"Sing a song in your head or else he'll hear you," Scott ordered. There was no need to elaborate on who he was. Everyone knew.
The six mutants soundlessly escaped the dorm room and hurried down the hallway. Lilli knew that Jean would be setting to work telekinetically making the beds and hiding all of the boys' belongings so that it looked like the room was uninhabited so as not to raise suspicions about the boys' whereabouts. But she couldn't think about that right now, she had to focus on getting these boys back to the bunker without being caught. I'm trying to tell you it will if you don't even try, you'll get by if you'd only...
The six mutants were tiptoeing their way down the grand staircase to the front entrance when they heard a couple of loud, familiar voices coming from below. Immediately they all froze on the staircase, not even daring to breathe. Lilli's eyes scanned the empty foyer, waiting for the voices to appear.
The voices got louder and louder until they finally turned a corner. Lilli's breath hitched in her throat and it took all of her willpower not to cry out when she saw who it was.
The voices belonged to none other than Cas and his loving, kind father, Emperor Kezing.
Cut loose, footloose.
—————
Ahhhh Kezing makes his return!!! What's he doing here?? Where's Warren and Kurt?? Will Lilli and the other X-Men be caught?? You'll have to wait and see muahahahahahaha (that was my evil laugh)
In other news I've updated my Paul Lahote fic if you guys want to check it out! Those chapters take me forever to write because they're all generally 4000+ words (so almost 2x the length of this chapter) 😩
N-e-ways I hope you're enjoying the story please don't forget to vote and comment and share!! I love you all and in case no one's told you today, you're so strong and smart and cute and you're loved by so many people ❤️
Love, serbisa