* DISCLAIMER * This is a non-profit work of fan-fiction involving characters created and owned by Marvel Comics Group. * WRITTEN BY * Samy Merchi * ARCHIVED AT * http://www.merchi.org/corona.html * STARRING * Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo "EMPATH" de la Rocha Illyana Nikolovna "MAGIK" Rasputina in *********************************** * FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE * * CHAPTER ELEVEN * * Doesn't Take A Brain Surgeon To * * Write This Chapter But It Helps * *********************************** *** "Status, Moira?" Moira MacTaggert glanced over her shoulder towards the door to the operating room, then upon seeing who it was, turned fully towards the arrival, pulling down her surgical face mask. "Lot o' bleeding, Ororo. Magneto's kept it mostly in check with his powers, but every moment he holds it back the bullet keeps movin' inside Illyana's head an' could cause even more damage." She took a deep breath. "So we're gaunae try'n get the bullet out." "I see", Ororo Munroe replied with a neutral expression, eyes slightly narrowed as she considered the report, then looked to Magneto, not saying anything, for a moment. Then, her eyes went back to Moira. "How soon will you begin?" "Immediately", Moira answered, turning back towards Illyana and taking a deep breath. "Every moment -- every minute, every second, something important could be damaged in her brain. We cannae afford t' wait." Storm stood immobile as a statue for a moment, and then gave a rigid nod. "Very well. Go ahead", she said softly. *** BOOM! A small form blasted thru the sonic barrier, exceeding the speed of sound and emitting a loud boom spreading outwards from the wake as the shape zoomed northwards a few hundred feet above southern New York State. Pulling a loop in the sky, it started a descent towards Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. *** Moira glanced nervously to Magneto as she took a long probe-like instrument near Illyana's head, and then switched on a monitor next to the operating table which started showing a picture transmitted by a mini-camera at the end of the probe. "I'm gaunae go in, try t' spread the entry wound up a bit..." Magneto watched silently, electric blue energies crackling around his fist, as the probe touched Illyana's forehead, and started sinking in. He had seen a lot of things in his time, but somehow, he found his breathing quickening slightly at the sight. "Heart rate's going up!" Sharon Friedlander shouted suddenly, glancing towards Illyana in alarm. "Moira, pull back, it's not worth it --" "Blast it, yui're right", Moira mumbled and pulled the instrument away, looking down in frustration, her eyes closing for a moment, her teeth clenching behind her face mask. "Magnus, prepare t' pull the bullet out quickly..." "Wait", Magneto said, his frown deepening. "I could break the bullet down into smaller particles before extracting it?" he suggested. Moira quirked an eyebrow and thought that over for a moment, before giving a little sigh of relief and actually smiling for the first time since the operation had started. "Do you think you can do it, Magnus?" Magneto nodded slowly. "I believe I will be able to reduce it to fine metal shrapnel -- those would be sharp, though. It will take some more time, but I can make the shrapnel blunt, round. However, I will not be able to tear the metal down to microscopic particles and still maintain sufficient concentration to control her circulation..." "Then larger shrapnel will have t' be enough", Moira said, and then looked to Illyana. "All right. Let's start. We've got nae time t' waste... 'tis still gaunae be nae walk in th' park..." Storm lifted a hand to her temple, receiving a telepathic communique. "Wait." Then she glanced over her shoulder at the door leading into the hallway outside. SLAM! Rogue slammed the door open and strode in, followed by an older man with a white beard, dressed in blue robes. "Thou hast called, wind-rider. I have come." "And with perfect timing, as well", Ororo said, and moved over to place her hands on the man's shoulders. "Thank you for coming, Healer", she told the sewer-dwelling mutant Rogue had been sent to retrieve. *** "How is my sister?" Piotr Nikolievich Rasputin asked as he quietly entered the observation booth next to the operating room, with a concerned frown on his face. "SelFriends have witnessed arrival of MorlockHealerEntity", the techno-organic alien Warlock said with his face almost glued to the window between the booth and the operating room. "Self anticipates improved odds for survival of SelFriendMagik." "'bout time we got a lucky break coming our way", Douglas Ramsey mumbled and put an arm around Rahne Sinclair's shoulders, hugging her close to him reassuringly. "She'll be all right, Rahne, you'll see." Rahne sniffled slightly and nodded hesitantly to Doug's words. Then, she glanced to Peter curiously. "Where's Kitty?" "She had some things to take care of", Peter replied flatly as his eyes fixed thru the window onto Illyana. *** "PFAH!" A small fist-sized cloud of smoke and fire erupted in front of Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha's face. "AGH!" he shouted, recoiling backwards, more surprised than injured, his hand rising in front of his face defensively. "Lockheed!" Katherine Anne Pryde scolded and gave a harsh glare to the little purple cat-sized dragon fluttering in midair in front of the two mutants. "Manuel is a *friend*. Be nice or there will be no candy for you this week." "Pfah", Lockheed snorted again, a bit more resignedly, and then looked at Kitty with a hurt expression for a few moments. "Cooooooooo?" he then said, fluttering over to her shoulder and perching there. "I love you too, dragon", Kitty smiled and scritched under his wing as she stepped further into the room she and Manuel had just entered, leading the way. Manuel followed a few steps behind Kitty, glaring at the beast on her shoulder occasionally, but most of his attention went to one half of the room. "So this is her room?" he asked, with a curious tone of voice. "Our room, yeah", Kitty said as she picked Lockheed up from her shoulder and put him down to perch on top of a chair before turning towards Manuel. "It's not much", she said a bit demurely, walking over to him and placing a hand onto his chest, "but at least there's a good bed on my side of the room..." A little rumble-like noise came from the direction of Lockheed, and Manuel wrinkled his nose, turning his eyes onto the creature. "Be silent, beast", he said, his eyes flaring crimson and staying for for a few moments. Then, the rumbling ended. "Don't pay him any attention", Kitty smiled as her hand started rubbing Manuel's chest slowly, soon joined by her other hand starting to stroke the side of his neck. "He's just being jealous." She pressed her body against his, and started kissing his neck slowly. "Yes yes, whatever", Manuel mumbled and pushed Kitty away, walking to the other side of the room and opening a closet door, peering inside curiously for a moment. Then, he pulled out a pair of ornate lace panties, bright white. "Certainly looks like something she'd wear..." he mumbled to himself. "Yeah, the tramp", Kitty hissed as she walked over to Manuel, moving behind him and starting to caress his lower abdomen with her hands while her mouth placed light licks and nips onto the back of his neck. "We don't have anything to do until Frost calls you, Manuel... Let's have a bit of fun?" Manuel sighed and rolled his eyes. Then, he shrugged and put the panties back in the closet. "If you insist..." he said and turned to face her, then pushed her down onto Illyana's bed. Lockheed just watched silently. *** Emma Frost quirked a curious eyebrow at something, then took a slow sip from the cup of tea in her hand. "Tell me, Marie-Ange --" she said softly while placing the cup back down onto its saucer without so much as a sound "-- Manuel came here with us -- would you mind seeing him?" "I --" Marie-Ange Colbert tensed up visibly, and swallowed a bit. Then, she lowered her eyes ashamedly and closed them. "I don't... I don't want to --" "It is all right, Marie-Ange", Emma smiled, placing her saucer down onto the lounge's coffee table and standing up, walking past Kurt Wagner and Samuel Zachery Guthrie over to Marie-Ange, placing a reassuring hand onto the young girl's shoulder. "It is perfectly all right if you don't want to see him. I will understand completely." Marie-Ange hesitated for a moment in almost tangible anguish, and then let out a shuddering breath, pressing her body against Emma's and resting her head on Emma's shoulder. "I can see him..." she murmured weakly. Emma smiled and nodded, stroking the back of Marie-Ange's head slowly with one hand. ((Manuel)), she spoke telepathically. *** "Ms Frost is calling", Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha said, and pushed Katherine Anne Pryde off him. "Hmp", Kitty pouted and pulled her knees up to her chest as she sat on the bed. "We don't have to go right away. Come on, Manuel..." she whimpered in need and nipped his ear. "Let's fool around at least a *little* before we go... We didn't get to do *anything* last time..." "When Ms Frost gives an order, you obey", Manuel said flatly as he stood up from the bed and adjusted his pink Hellion uniform slightly before heading for the door out of the room. "Poo", Kitty grumbled. "Why does everyone who dresses in white have to be such a bitch?" *** "The Healer'll stop the bleedin' first, repair th' damaged blood vessels", Moira MacTaggert explained. "You can stop creatin' magnetic fields inside Illyana's head then, Magnus. Then, the second stage o' the operation's removin' th' bullet. With no longer needin' tae divert yuir concentration on controlling Illyana's blood circulation, you can pull out the bullet, in as small fragments as possible. Then, when tha's done, the third part o' the operation's up t' the Healer -- repairin' any damage done t' the brain." She took a deep breath. "Then, the rest's up tae Sharon and me." "Shall we begin?" the Morlock Healer said, standing beside Illyana's operating table, placing his hands onto the sides of the Russian girl's neck, feeling the arteries underneath his fingertips, and then just waiting silently for the go-ahead. Moira flipped some switches around on half a dozen separate monitoring devices for a good minute or so, before then looking over to the Healer, and nodding. "Do it." "The damage to thine comrade is critical indeed", the Healer said as he let his mutant power flow thru his hands, concentrating, working carefully on the damaged arteries in Illyana's head, gradually repairing them, restoring the proper routes of circulation, "but focused on small areas. She is not beyond being healed by my gift." His brow furrowed in concentration, and long, silent moments passed. A minute. Another one. People glanced at the clock on the operating room wall every now and then, watching the long hand gradually move clockwise as the Healer tended with care to the injuries in Illyana Nikolovna Rasputina. "It is done", the Healer said after almost ten minutes had passed, small droplets of sweat on his age-worn leathery forehead. He took a deep breath, and stepped back slightly. "The bleeding has been stopped, and her circulation restored to normal." "Heartbeat's steady", Sharon Friedlander added, as if to confirm the Healer's words. "Pulse is up at 80." Moira looked at Illyana for a few moments, and then nodded thoughtfully to the nurse's words, before glancing to Magneto. "Yuir turn, Magnus." The Master of Magnetism nodded, and moved to stand at the head of Illyana's operating table. He silently placed his right hand hovering above her forehead, and then frowned very slightly, as if in deep thought. "I am a bit *rusty* with microscopic manipulation, but with any luck, it just *skids* out of there..." he said quietly, concentrating for a moment before his hand crackled with blue energy. "It's vanishing", Sharon said, watching the monitor with the X-ray image of Illyana's head, and the bullet inside it, which was slowly shrinking. "Disintegrating", Moira said thoughtfully as she turned to glance at the monitor as well for a moment, before her eyes returned to Magneto's hand by way of some other monitors. "Being...disassembled", Magneto grunted slightly as his face tightened in exertion, his eyes closing. "Molecule...by...molecule..." "Heart rate going up!" Sharon shouted suddenly. Moira bit her lip hard for a moment, and glanced at the EKG* monitor briefly, then over to Magneto whose eyes had opened. "Keep going", she said slowly, her eyes widening a bit as she wondered if she had made the right call. * Elektrokardiogram (heart monitor) "Bullet's almost gone --" Sharon said and glanced over to the EKG. "Pulse is up at 120 and holding steady..." "There", Magneto said sharply, as he turned his hand around, the palm upwards now, with a bullet resting in the middle of it. The blue energies surrounding his hand vanished into thin air. "Pulse going down, Moira..." Sharon said, letting out a deep sigh of relief. ZAKOW! Magneto's eyes flared for a fraction of a second with blue energy, as the bullet on the palm of his hand was instantly atomized into nothingness, bearing the brunt of the Master of Magnetism's fury and frustrations from the past hour. Moira quirked a wary eyebrow at Magneto, but decided not to say anything to him for the moment. Then, she glanced over to the Healer. "Yuir turn again, Healer. Can you do it?" "We shall see", Healer answered, placing his hands onto Illyana's cheeks and once more letting his power flow thru his hands. His eyes closed as he focused and concentrated his power onto the damaged tissues of the New Mutant's brain, trying to to start putting things right. *** ((The operation's going well so far.)) "Good", Logan said aloud and took a deep puff from his cigar as he surveyed the small dead volcano to his side and the burned ground all around, forming a large clearing in the woods. "Ya might as well leave the Cerebro", he commented, blowing out a thick cloud of smoke. "If someone would've attacked, they'd'a done it by now. Check with 'Ro first though, see if she agrees with me." ((Will do, Logan)), the transparent astral projection of Elizabeth Braddock replied before winking out of existence and leaving the Canadian mutant pondering things. "Gonna be hell cleaning this up", Tom Corsi said as he walked over to the three-foot-high volcano and looked curiously down at it. "Half-burned trees, ground all messed up and turned to cooled-off lava, not to mention all the ash and soot in the air from the fire..." "They did what they thought was the right call", Logan said, tapping his cigar, causing the ashy tip to fall off and drift to the ground in black flakes. "You approve?" Tom asked as he crouched beside a half-burned tree trunk, and grabbed it, his arms tensing and exerting as he slowly dragged it over to the pile where he had started placing the leftovers from the fire. "Didn't say that", Logan answered before taking a brief puff off the cigar. "Don't approve. Do understand, though. They're kids. Full'a anger. Would'a pulled a stunt like this myself in the younger days. The X-Men changed me, though. Gave me responsibility. Made me a team player. Taught me I couldn't just go flyin' off the handle without thinkin' of the consequences, like I had before. Everything I did, affected other people too, not just me." "Being a cop myself", Tom said as he sat down on the pile of tree trunks he had gathered, "or well, having been one before the Demon Bear changed me and Sharon* -- can't exactly say I'm happy about bypassing proper procedures. But like you say, they're kids. Think they'll learn?" * NEW MUTANTS #19 "Depends on how they're treated", Logan shrugged as he started finishing off his cigar, took a few last puffs off it and then stumped it out against one of the trees remaining still alive and upright. "Like I said, the responsibility's what changed me. Treat'em like kids, not givin' 'em any, they ain't gonna change. Who wouldn't want ta stay a kid forever, if they got the chance?" "Good point", Tom nodded slowly. Logan tossed the extinguished cigar away with a flick of his fingers and then said, "So, ya come t' own up to your responsibilities, Amara?" "How long have you known I was here?" Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla asked as she walked out of the woods surrounding the clearing with a neutral expression. "Since you arrived", Logan answered calmly as he leaned against the tree beside him. "A bit 'fore Betsy left. Ya might want t' check the direction o' the wind first before tryin' ta spy on me next time. Stealth was good though -- very quiet movements. Nice work." "Thank you, Wolverine", Amara replied as she stopped at the edge of the clearing, watching her handiwork thoughtfully. "One does not survive for years in the Amazon jungles without developing some proficiency in hunting. I shall bear your advice in mind in the future." "Which advice?" Logan simply asked as she watched the blonde woman thoughtfully. Amara looked towards the X-Man silently for a few moments, and then, without a word, spread her arms outwards, and with a flare of energy turned to her glowing Magma form. "I can repair some of the damage I have wrought here. My control over the earth is absolute", she said as the solidified magma ground of the clearing started glowing and slowly melting. "You might wish to move elsewhere, Officer Corsi", she warned as the ground beneath the pile of tree trunks started glowing slightly. "I can dispose of the wooden refuse with ease." Tom blinked as the tree trunks underneath him started sinking into the ground below them and smoldering, catching fire in some places. "Whoa", he mumbled, and hopped off from over the pile, to the edge of the clearing, walking over to Logan to watch the young woman get to work. It took less than a minute, as Amara stood in the middle of the clearing, the ground around her turning first to liquid stone, and then starting to shift and turn over and over again as if being plowed from the inside out, as the molten ground sank away from the surface and down into the depths of the planet, replaced by fertile earth from deep underground. "I can not clean the air", Amara said softly as she powered down to her human form and kneeled down onto the ground, taking some of the fertile soil in her hand, and then letting it slowly trickle thru her fingers back to the ground. "But the wood is disposed of, and the damage to the earth has been repaired." "Nice work", Logan nodded approvingly. "Make no mistake", Amara said simply as she slowly stood up. "I do not believe our actions were wrong. Our only mistake was erroneously believing Manuel was guilty. Had he, indeed, been so, I *would* have slain him." "In this line o' work, you'll end up havin' ta kill sooner or later", Logan replied. "Just a few weeks ago, I had ta use lethal force against Rachel t' stop her from killin' Selene*. What makes my actions different from hers is I was actin' ta *preserve* a life. She was actin' ta *take* one." * UNCANNY X-MEN #207 "Killing's inevitable sometimes", Tom agreed. "Cops wouldn't be given guns and be trained to use them if it wasn't. But the difference between good and bad is what you'll use the lethal force for. To uphold the law -- or to break it." "Don't become Rachel", Logan said with a warning tone, watching Amara for a few moments, before taking a deep breath and turning around, leaving the clearing. Amara watched the two men leave and stayed in the middle of the clearing, standing there silently as a frown came onto her face. *** "Yes, Elizabeth. Feel free", Ororo Munroe nodded approvingly in the observation booth, her attention momentarily diverted from the surgery in the operating room as she conversed with the astral form of Elizabeth Braddock. ((Thanks, Storm. I'm craving for a big sandw--)) "LOOK!" Douglas Ramsey suddenly shouted, pointing a finger at the window beyond which was the operating room. *** "A stepping disk!" Moira MacTaggert shouted as a disk of light blazed into existence underneath Illyana Nikolovna Rasputina's operating table, and quickly rose upwards, swallowing the table into itself. "Stop it!" "It is a magical manifestation", Magneto said, gritting his teeth. "My powers can not affect it -- and I dare not move Illyana away in her state --" "She's gone!" Sharon Friedlander gasped as the disk of light swallowed up Illyana, and then winked out of existence, leaving the operating room as it had been ten seconds earlier, only without the operating table and the patient on it. "What happened??" Moira asked urgently, glancing towards the Morlock Healer. "I don't know", the Healer replied as he lowered his hands from where they had rested on Illyana's cheeks. "I was finishing up my task of repairing the injuries inflicted upon her... I was nearly done, when this happened." ((I have a theory)), Elizabeth Braddock's voice rang thru everyone's head. ((At the moment the stepping disk appeared, I could sense a jolt of mental activity from Illyana.)) "True", Sharon said, glancing towards the EEG* charts and seeing the spikes indicating a resurgence of activity in Illyana's brain. "Definite signs of brain activity." * Electroencephalogram (brain monitor) ((I got a flash of panic)), Elizabeth continued. ((When her brain went back 'on-line', it must've went back on with the last memory she could remember -- a gun being fired in her face.)) "And instinctively, she reacted to protect herself", Magneto said, nodding grimly in understanding. "I see." He glanced towards the Healer. "You said the healing was not complete. What can we expect?" "Brain damage is nothin' tae take lightly", Moira frowned. "She could remain in coma for the rest of her life." "And us lacking the power to get to Limbo to assist her, she could remain there indefinitely?" Magneto asked. "Tha's one possibility", Moira nodded. "On the other hand, the brain activity we got before she vanished is promising -- she might well make a full recovery. The question is, whether tha' was a *temporary* spike, or whether her brain was repaired *permanently*." "I refuse to accept this", Magneto said defiantly before stalking towards a door. "There must be a way we can follow her to Limbo, and by the Eternal, I will *find* it!" Moira sighed quietly, watching the Master of Magnetism exit the operating room, the door swishing open before him, then back shut behind him. She shook her head silently, and then blinked, glancing towards the window to the observation booth where everyone was watching her. "Och --!" ((Don't worry, Moira)), Elizabeth said. ((I relayed everything said here to them. They know what happened.)) She let out a little mental sigh. ((I've got a headache. I'm going to go get something to eat, and then lie down a bit.)) With that, her astral form in the observation booth winked out of existence. *** On the ground floor, Elizabeth Braddock pulled the Cerebro helmet off her head and stood up from in front of the computer console. She rubbed her temples slightly before exiting the room to the hallway outside, and heading for the kitchen on the other side of the house. "Hi, Betsy", a cheerful voice rang out. Betsy turned her head towards the voice to see two people come down the stairs from the second floor. "Hello, Kitty", she smiled. "And this must be Empath?" Manuel smirked and took Betsy's hand in his, bowing deep and touching his lips lightly to the back of her hand. "Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha, at your service", he said as he stood straight again. "Turn off the charm, please", Elizabeth said with a very faint smile. "You're young enough to be my --" She stopped in mid-sentence, even the faint smile suddenly vanishing. Then, she steeled herself and forced herself to go on. "Never mind." "You okay, Betsy?" Katherine Anne Pryde asked with a concerned frown. "Yes, quite", Betsy nodded and took a deep breath. "Just a little migraine from having been actively exerting my telepathic powers for the past hour or so. I'm just on my way to the kitchen to grab something to eat." "Okay..." Kitty said a bit hesitantly but decided not to push the issue. "Try to get some rest after that?" "I will", Betsy nodded as the trio reached the door to the kitchen and she stopped there. "I'll see you later, Kitty. It was a pleasure meeting you, Manuel." "As it was, you", Manuel replied, before he and Kitty continued on towards the living room, rounding a corner and vanishing from sight. Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, frowning slightly in deep thought for a moment. Then, she winced at the migraine pounding at the sides of her skull, and shook her head, entering the kitchen. "Bonjour, Elizabeth", Xi'an Coy Manh said as she moved here and there near the stove, evidently working on a stew of some kind. "How are you doing?" "Been better", Betsy answered as she walked over to a cupboard and took out a bag of sliced bread. She then stopped, sinking into her thoughts for a moment again, before looking to Xi'an and lifting an eyebrow. "Tell me about Empath?" *** "The prodigal son returns", Haroun ibn Sallah al-Rashid said in his usual dry tones. "Manuel??" Marie-Ange Colbert whispered hoarsely, her throat constricting as she whirled towards the entrance into the living room, her heart feeling like it was going to stop in place, her blood feeling icy, sweat breaking thru her skin as she tensed up. "I am not your son, Jetstream, for which I am eternally grateful", Manuel Alfonso Rodrigo de la Rocha commented flatly at the Moor, before his eyes slowly shifted over to the red-headed Hellion in a New Mutant uniform. He looked her over slowly, with tangible tension filling the air of the living room. Then, finally, he parted his lips. "You look very good, Tarot. The uniform complements you very well." What he exactly *meant* with that... Well, maybe Emma Frost knew. It was questionable if Manuel himself did. Katherine Anne Pryde turned to idly browse a bookshelf to hide a small frown that forced its way onto her face. But not quickly enough to avoid the sharp, intelligent eyes of Jennifer Stavros, who stood up from the chair she was sitting in, and walked over to Kitty. "Interesting bookshelf", she murmured in thought and gave Kitty a friendly smile. "So full of classics." She let her eyes linger on the books for a moment, before her slender, gloved fingers pulled out Shakespeare's /Twelfth Night/. "I love this play so much", she smiled to Kitty. "Unrequited love is *such* a sad thing, don't you agree? Always manages to stir up emotions in me..." Marie-Ange's attention wasn't on Kitty and Jennifer, but the Spaniard before her. "Th-- Thank you, Manuel", she said in a shaky voice, and swallowed nervously, just standing there and feeling like everyone's eyes were on her, which wasn't very far from the truth. Then, she suddenly heard someone shout her name as her knees gave out and everything went black. She wondered who it was. *** "J-- James?" Marie-Ange Colbert mumbled as her eyes fluttered open to see the Apache before her. "W-- What happened...?" "You fainted, Marie-Ange", Emma Frost's voice cut in and Tarot turned her head slightly to see her blonde teacher standing beside the couch she was lying on, flanked by Haroun ibn Sallah al-Rashid and Catseye. "How are you feeling?" "I am...well", Marie-Ange replied, swallowing nervously before closing her eyes for a moment. She took a few deep breaths, trying to clear her head, her hand instintively going to the tarot pack in the pocket of the uniform, and the feel of it reassured her at least a little bit, like a safety blanket or a favorite toy. "What will happen now, Ms Frost?" she managed to ask thru her constricted throat. Emma Frost took a deep breath, and turned her eyes from Marie-Ange lying on the couch, to Kurt Wagner and Sam Guthrie standing nearby. "With your permission, Kurt, I would like to take Marie-Ange home to the Academy. I see no point in torturing her by keeping her here virtually as a captive while a decision is made on whether to press charges against her. I give my word that she will be available at the Academy should charges be pressed." "And your word is certainly one to be trusted, nicht wahr, Fraulein?" Kurt smiled, perhaps a hint of sarcasm exchanged between him and Emma, but barely noticeable to anyone else. Certainly not so as the German X-Man went on. "You are, of course, quite correct. Ms Colbert's natural radiance has sadly been diminished by the strain placed upon her by these unfortunate events, but I am certain she will be able to bloom and flourish once more under your tender care. We will, naturally, stay in touch." "Thank you, Kurt", Emma said with an expression that was something between a triumphant smirk and a genuine warm smile. "And if there is anything we can do for poor Illyana --" Suddenly, a blinding light filled the room. A few moments later, Douglas Ramsey's voice approached. "Hey guys, the surgery's over, but Illyana's --" He paused as he reached the doorway to the living room and blinked at the sight of the empty room. "That's weird. I could've sworn I heard people talking in here..." *** A huge disk of light placed the Hellions, Emma Frost, Kurt Wagner, Katherine Anne Pryde and Samuel Zachery Guthrie in the middle of a medievalesque throne room adorned in a demonic fashion, before winking out of existence. "Welcome", the Darkchilde, Illyana Nikolovna Rasputina, said in a hiss as she watched the group with narrowed eyes, sitting on the throne. "I suggest you all find comfortable seats. It's going to take a *while* before I'm done, torturing. Poor. Tarot."