The mission brief was just that — brief. No monsters, no aliens, no mutants causing trouble. Just ignorant humans doing what ignorant humans did best — try to kill innocent mutants who were just trying to live their lives. This time they were heavily armed, and their victims were from a village in rural Vietnam, a government-appointed safe haven for mutants. Illyana's old teammate, Xi'an Coy Manh, and a few other X-Men had taken up temporary residence there, in liaison with the rest of the X-Men, while they got the village on its feet. Approximately an hour ago, the country's anti-mutant insurgents had made a hostile move on the village, taking hostages and wounding innocents in their path. The X-Men's mission was simple enough; Xi'an had called for back up and they were answering that call.
They were lucky to have Illyana, and to have clearance to use her. Although the Blackbird was state of the art, it would have taken them quite some time to get to Vietnam by air. And by that time, who knew what they would have arrived to find?
The scene that met them when they emerged from Illyana's stepping disc was bad enough. The sun was setting on the village, and it was in ruins. Debris from houses littered the battleground. Shards of glass, melting sheets of corrugated iron, and half-burned timber could be made out through the dust- and smoke-choked air. Shouting, wailing, the groans of dying animals and gunfire tore through it all. With their enhanced senses, Logan and Hank could pick out the metallic stench of blood and the nauseating aroma of burned flesh, and could make out bodies further on. The others were spared, and glad of it. It was a certifiable warzone.
Illyana stepped up first, a string of words in a foreign tongue muttered under her breath as she extended a hand out in front of her, fingers splayed and her palm facing the ground. A mist that swirled with different shades of teal and blue poured up from the ground, eating away at the smoke and the dust that made a dense fog all around them and chasing back the long shadows with artificial light. When the mystical shroud dissipated, it left behind a clear view of the horrors laid out for them.
Bodies were scattered all around the village's main square, some of them burnt, others covered in blood. Every single one of them had been gunned down, and left where they had fallen. Some looked like they had made a run for it, but hadn't make it far, while with others it was clear they hadn't even had the chance to try. At first, it seemed as if whatever fighting had occurred in the area where the X-Men had landed was over now, instead moving further into the village. That assumption was proven to be false when a group of insurgents jogged out from behind a collapsing wall, shouting to each other in Vietnamese and swinging their guns onto the X-Men, cocked and ready.
They opened fire, but their bullets never reached their intended targets. Instead, they were swallowed by a large, glowing portal to a realm beyond their comprehension. They were lucky, too, because while Illyana had sent those bullets to Limbo to rip into the flesh of the demons that dwelled there, she could just have easily have turned them around on the insurgents, and they would have never seen it coming.
Still, the men had burned through a good few rounds of ammunition before their futility of their efforts finally sunk in — and that was just fine with the X-Men. In fact, they would have been happy for them to have spent even more of their already limited cartridges, or thrown down their weapons in rage. Unfortunately, all they did was exchange worried glances with each other.
Logan snorted, and his claws unsheathed with their usual snikt. His amused smirk was reflected in their polished adamantium coating, "Nice try, bub."
"Wolverine, disarm them. Emma…" Cyclops didn't even have to finish the command. The insurgents stiffened as one, dropped their weapons, turned, and marched from the battlefield. Unlike many of the groups they fought back home, these ones weren't sophisticated enough to own technology with which to shield their thoughts.
Scott continued, "Shadowcat, make sure they don't cause any more trouble. As for the rest of you, you have your orders. Disarm and detain. Help the wounded. Find our people. Go."
Kitty was taken aback, feeling like she had just been slapped — if only that was possible in her current state. She started to protest, "Watch the prisoners? Just have Emma knock 'em out. I'd be of more use—"
The others were already moving away, and even with his visor obscuring his face, it was obvious that Scott didn't want to hear it, "You have your orders."
"They're bullshit," Kitty snapped back, her voice raised to ensure she was heard over the din, "I'm an X-Man. Let me fight."
"We don't have time to—"
He was saved from having to explain himself when Logan, already dragging an insurgent back by his feet, butted in, "Listen to the boss, kid."
Outnumbered and conscious of the fact that this was definitely not the place, the brunette could only huff, "Fine."
Internally, a mental barrage of insults was aimed at Scott, and she aggressively shouldered Logan away from his captive, taking hold of his boots herself, hauling him back through the dust to join the rest of her charges on the outskirts of the field. Scott and Logan disappeared into the fray.
Jerks.
Kitty hadn't gotten very far when the burnt and crumbling wall beside her shuddered, a loud thump and a grunt of pain on the other side of it accompanying the explosion of dust on her side of it. Before Kitty could do more than drop the legs of the man she was dragging, another insurgent was tossed out into the open, and Illyana stepped out from behind the wall after him. She delivered a swift, spiteful kick to his side for good measure and lifted her gaze to meet Kitty's.
"Come on," she said, motioning with a tip of her head towards one of the buildings that she could have sworn was on fire when they first arrived. A smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, "do you always do what the boss tells you to?"
Kitty couldn't help the laugh that bubbled from her lips. She used her head to gesture back at the men she was supposed to be guarding, "Can you tie them up?"
After using a portal to gather up their two men and send them over to the rest of their captives, a simple binding spell, muttered under Illyana's breath, got that out of the way. Ropes made of mystical energies tied them all together with no chance of escape, even if they had still had their wits about them to try.
"You ready?"
"Ready is my middle name," Kitty grinned, "Let's go."
Illyana turned on the heel of her boot and slipped into the squat building on the other side of the wall, careful of the low-hanging rafters. She had heard yelling coming from inside when she had first approached and had found the insurgent still conscious inside, but hadn't seen any survivors, dead or alive. The building was small but there were two rooms off of the main one, and she motioned to the first one for Kitty to take while she continued off to the second.
The stench of smoke filled the place, and Kitty could taste the stuff in the back of her throat, but thanks to Illyana's earlier spell, visibility wasn't a problem. She found herself in a master bedroom with bullet holes pockmarking the walls, and a layer of dust covered every surface. The walls vibrated with whatever it was that was happening outside, and at first glance, the room appeared empty. But Kitty had been a kid once, too, and she dropped to the floor at the foot of the bed on instinct.
A little face, smeared with grime and tears, stared back at her. She flashed her teeth, "Hey, it's okay. I'm an X-Man. We're the good guys."
The kid was either too scared to move — and who could blame him, she looked ridiculous — or not convinced. Kitty tried again, "You know Shan?"
That got her a wary nod. The little boy shifted, and a flash of fur revealed that he was clinging to some kind of teddy bear.
"Me too. We're friends. She called me to come help. I know this is super scary, but you have to trust me. I'm going to keep you safe. Okay?"
It occurred to Kitty then that he probably had no idea what she was saying, but the tone of her voice must have been enough, because he thrust a dirty hand out from under the bed, and let Kitty drag him out on his stomach. He latched his arms around her neck as she stood, teddy bear swinging against her shoulders as she took him back out into the main room.
Illyana was nowhere to be seen, so she stuck her head through the doorway of the next room to call out to her, "Yana?"
Illyana, standing over something on the floor near the corner of the room, glanced over her shoulder. Spotting the child in Kitty's arms, she quickly swatted her hand back at her, shaking her head, "Get him out of here."
The other woman caught on immediately, and with a grimace, she spun back around to put her back to the room, "Oops. Let's not go that way."
The kid was astute for his age. He couldn't have been more than four years old, but the second Kitty turned around and he could see over her shoulder and into the room beyond, he started screaming.
Kitty bounced him in her arms as she strode quickly from the dilapidated ruin of a house, cooing at him in a way she hoped was reassuring. It didn't seem to make any difference at all.
Inside, Illyana knelt down beside the two lifeless bodies. She covered a gloved hand over the wide, vacant eyes of the woman, gently closing them before she removed her hand. Lips set into a deep frown, she bowed her head and whispered a quiet apology.
The two deserved a decent burial, so she refused to leave them here where the building would undoubtedly end up collapsing in on them sooner rather than later. She made a quick trip to the other room to see if there was anything she could use, opting to snag the top sheet off the bed in the bedroom when nothing else sufficed. When she returned, she pulled the sheet over the both of them so the little boy wouldn't have to see their bodies again.
A stepping disc carried them from the decaying house and back to the square where things had calmed down and other dead victims had been placed by some of her teammates. She took another portal to find Kitty again.
Shadowcat had her back to a wall, the little boy still sniffling in her arms. She had absolutely no idea what to do with him, and sprinting across the open, corpse-littered square didn't seem like a very good idea. Especially not when she could still hear automatic weapons being discharged, and extra especially when she couldn't just phase through those shots. The glow of Illyana's stepping disc was a welcome sight.
She hiked the boy up further in her arms, and lowered her head as close as she could to the speaker and microphone he was muffling, "Have you seen the others?"
"No, but they've been close. There were other bodies laid out in the square," Illyana told her, blue eyes set on the kid in Kitty's arms. She felt so bad for him, and it showed in the crease of her forehead and the downturn of her lips and the sympathetic softness of her gaze. He'd done nothing to deserve any of this, especially having to grow up without his parents. It ignited a simmering rage beneath her skin that encouraged her desire to make all of the ones responsible suffer. They'd get what they all deserved, that much she knew.
"We need to find them."
What they really needed to do was find somewhere safe to leave the kid, because without her powers, Kitty definitely didn't feel safe toting him around. The gunfire she could hear was further off now, but there could just as easily be more insurgents lurking around the next corner.
"Da," Illyana agreed, and she was the first to step around the side of the building to scope out what they were dealing with. The coast was clear, and she motioned back with a quick bend of her fingers for Shadowcat to follow her.
They struck out across the yard together, quick and quiet — fortunately, the little boy bouncing in Kitty's arms seemed to realize the direness of their situation. Illyana stayed ahead of them, and when she spotted something — or, a group of somethings — through the smoke and dust ahead, she threw her arm out in front of them to stop Kitty from advancing any further.
"Up ahead, look," she said, a forward inclination of her head indicating just what she was looking at. She didn't know if they were friend or foe and she intended to find out alone, without endangering the young boy. She was just about to tell Kitty as much, too, when she heard a voice call out from ahead and immediately recognized it.
It was Kitty that called out to their long lost friend, "Shan!"
The distance between their groups was hastily closed, with Karma heading her party of what Kitty and Illyana could only assume — because they didn't recognise a single one of them — were other mutants, each of which had already sustained some kind of injury, but were nevertheless on their feet.
"Illyana, Kitty," Xi'an greeted them with a slightly strained smile. Her gaze settled on Kitty, "I didn't know you were back in action."
Kitty's smile came easier, and she shifted the boy in her arms, "Couldn't keep me down. We'll catch up later. I think this is yours."
One of the men in Karma's band, a bloody bandage wrapped around his head, stepped forward to take the child from her, and after a quick glance exchanged with their leader, Kitty handed him over.
"Was there anyone else?" It didn't take a genius to work out that Xi'an meant the boy's parents. Illyana shook her head sadly, a frown set on her lips. Xi'an's face fell, too, but she didn't seem that surprised. She shot a glance over her shoulder to the boy, then returned her back to the two women in front of her, "Keep looking for others. I'll take care of him."
"Anyone we should keep our eyes out for?" Kitty asked, her mind on missing children and elderly residents, or any of the X-Men Xi'an might have lost track of. Xi'an and her group were already melting back into the smoke — evidently, the fires that had produced the stuff Illyana had cleared when they arrived were still going — and the answer Shadowcat got was not the one she had been expecting.
"Try the men with the guns."
There wasn't much else to say after that, not that they had any time to sit around and chat right then anyway. A quick glance around the square told them they had a lot of buildings to look through still, some in better shape than others. It was just a matter of choosing a place to start.
"Left to right?" Kitty offered. Illyana gave her a tight nod and together they started towards the first of the structures in question. It didn't look like it was faring too well in the chaos, which was all the more reason to go in first. If there were survivors, they needed to be rescued before the entire thing collapsed in on them.
Magik went in first, meeting yet another empty main room. The house was much like the first, only the roof of this one had been half destroyed, and leaves and twigs had fallen into the room through a hole in the ceiling left by a torn away section of corrugated metal. Broken and charred rafters hung precariously from above, evidence that a fire — or flamethrower — had beat them to the building. It was little more than embers burning on the floor now, which Illyana stomped out while Kitty ducked through the doorway to the right. The small room beyond was empty, with not even a bed to look under this time, just a broken table and some upended drawers — obviously looted.
She withdrew, her heart growing heavier still, and met Illyana's gaze. She shook her head to indicate that she had found nothing. There was only one other room, probably a bedroom, but the damage that had been done to it made it hard to tell. A quick search through the wreckage determined that everyone who had once lived there had been evacuated — hopefully to safety and not into the hands of their enemies.
Luck on their side, the rest of the buildings would be similarly empty.
"Reminds me of Genosha," Kitty noted, and hastily added, "Before the Sentinel, and before it was made into a mutant haven. It was just after mutant slavery had been abolished. Humans and mutants were fighting with each other and blaming each other for the economy. They were starving, living on the streets because all their homes had been trashed."
Illyana was quiet for a moment or two, more focused on the damage than she was Kitty but she still heard her, letting every single word sink in and deepen the frown on her lips. If there was anything more upsetting than seeing a town in ruins because of humans, it was knowing that at any given moment, at any place in the world, it could and would happen again. That knowledge pushed a heavy weight down on her chest so hard that she physically felt the pain and the struggle was evident in the waver of her voice when she finally said, "Do you think it will always be like this?"
Jews had been persecuted for over two thousand years, Kitty was as difficult to comprehend as what had happened in Genosha, and what was happening here, even if it was on a much less significant scale. There were a couple hundred people in the village, tops. But that didn't make their lives worth any less. It didn't make them any less innocent.
Kitty was determined, even if, in the wake of such destruction, she didn't really believe her own words, "No. Nadya won't grow up in a world like this."
Illyana's jaw quivered and she had to clench her teeth to stop it, but still she nodded. It was hard to imagine a world where things like this didn't happen, but she didn't know what she'd do if she stopped believing such a world could exist. She didn't say it out loud, because part of her knew that Shadowcat probably felt the same way, but knowing there was at least one other person who believed in it too was enough.
"No, she won't," she reiterated, her voice much more firm and secure this time.
"Let's go. We have more houses to—" Kitty broke off as the ceiling above them shifted and creaked. She froze and stared up at it, her head tipped back, watching to make sure it wasn't going to collapse on them if she took another step towards the exit. A few seconds passed without incident, but just when the brunette thought it was safe, the whole building lurched.
With shouts of alarm from both of them, the X-Men attempted to drive clear as one of the main rafters snapped clean in half and the whole thing fell inwards. Illyana was successful — Kitty, not so much. Both of her legs were trapped under the debris. It wasn't so much painful, just annoying considering that she couldn't just phase out. Dragging herself forward with her arms only managed to free one of her legs.
"Ugh, dammit!" she cursed loudly.
Illyana was quick to react, dropping down to one knee beside the other mutant. "I've got you," she assured her, digging her fingers beneath one of the wooden beams. She pulled up on it, but one end was caught beneath part of the fallen roof which made lifting it much harder. Teleporting wouldn't do any good and it was times like this that made her wish she didn't have to rely on portals. She clenched her jaw and tried again, but this time she tried to lift the remains of the roof first, exerting enough effort to warrant a strained growl, her face turning red with it.
Even with her fingers dug into the cracks between the wooden floorboards, Kitty still couldn't pull herself out. Her foot was jammed sideways, stuck beneath another rafter, so she couldn't even twist onto her back to maneuver.
"I think we need Hank," she sighed in defeat.
"I'm not leaving you here to go find him," Illyana told her, repositioning her hands on the largest part of the collapsed roof. If she could lift that up, the rest would be easy in comparison. With one hard push, she managed to get it to budge by sliding it instead of lifting it and with a breath of relief, she moved back to the rafter that had been trapped under it.
With her teeth grit together and her face screwed up, Kitty tried a third time to haul herself out. The pressure on her ankle had definitely been alleviated, leaving room for the pins-and-needles that filtered down to it along with her blood, but there still wasn't quite enough room to pull her leg free. It was beyond frustrating,and she was just about to insist that Magik find one of their teammates to help out, when movement behind the blonde caught her eye.
There was no time to talk.
She yanked her body forward, felt something in her ankle pop painfully, to grab Illyana's leg, hoping to pull it out from under her and topple her off balance and out of the literal line of fire.
"Katya—" The confusion was clear in her voice and in the furrow of her brow, but whatever question that would have followed never found its way to her lips. The explosion of automatic gunfire erupted from behind her and her Eldritch armor grew up her back to protect her from the onslaught without her even willing it to. But its crawl across her upper back wasn't quite fast enough and suddenly there was a searing pain in her left shoulder that caught her by surprise.
The weapon's chamber clicked empty and without thinking, Illyana twisted around. She had to catch herself from falling forward with her right arm. A shining ring of light opened beneath the insurgent and dropped him into Limbo where, with any luck, something would deliver to him the punishment she didn't have the conscience to carry out herself. She half-sat, half-collapsed back flat on her ass then, raising her hand to her wounded shoulder when her Eldrich armor retreated. Underneath, the black and yellow of her uniform had been soaked with her blood.
"Yana!" Kitty reached for her in vain, her fingertips barely skimming the back of her uniform no matter how hard she strained or how she twisted. Her ankle was on fire, probably dislocated, but that was barely a blip in her mind. She had barely been able to see what had happened past her lover's body, but she had heard. And she could see now.
"Illyana!" she cried out again, growling under her breath for how totally useless she was, stuck under the roof she had been too stupid to dive away from sooner, "C'mere, Yana. Where were you hit?"
"My shoulder," Illyana winced as she pressed her hand against the wound and turned back towards the other woman. Her heart was racing and she could hear it beating in her ears and her breathing was slow and heavy, but she still had to get Kitty out from under the debris. So she dropped her hand from her shoulder and grabbed for the wooden beam again.
"Don't even think about it," Kitty battered her hand away without a second thought. "Radio the others. And let me put pressure on that."