Phase Two: Lockdown

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

Washington

From behind their austere oak desk, they stared at her.

"She's not dead."

Shasta pursed her lips. "I know."

"She's not dead and you told us she would die."

"I know." She paced up and down the room, the images of the identical men and the blonde twig and some girl in armor and that blue freak and her sister mowing down the Sentinels one by one. Twenty-eight of them had been either defeated by them or were getting quite the workout from the two regiments that it turned out that stupid Muggle Theta had mobilized on the island.

She hadn't planned on dear Salinas getting in the way the way she had. That definitely threw a cog into things. She thought wasizface would have spirited her and their darling children away somewhere safe and let Jeimu handle it.

Of course that was a stupid assumption to make anyway, she chided herself. She should have known that Salinas would never go down without a fight. She should have known.

"We still have the last seven," she ventured forth meekly.

"You do realize that's what we were trying to avoid..."

She smiles. "That's why I'll be going there to oversee it myself." She holds up a finger...

...and she's gone from the room.

The men look at each other and sigh before the one on the end lifts a phone to his mouth, no doubt authorizing the launch of the final seven Sentinels. The ones that were supposed to be their last ditch effort, used only as a last resort.

The ones that would kill everyone on that island, mutant or not.


Coast of Newfoundland

Shasta landed into the ocean, soaking wet and cursing her lack of foresight. Of course. You couldn't Apparate onto Newfoundland no matter how powerful of a witch or wizard you were. But there was something different about this barrier.

It was physical. It was a light blue haze that was gaining opacity, as though being formed.

She looked up and watched the seven Sentinels arc toward the island, perhaps a kilometre inland.

They'd breached the barrier. If she was lucky she'd find a place where she could do it too.

Comments

[i_salted_dean]

Sam looked up as thunder reached her ears, then went to one knee behind the bank of her improvised foxhole. "Oh sonofa...." -'Roy, this is it.-

Over in the crater by where Sal used to be Albus turned, his face paling behind the beard even as his shoulders straightened. -Here we go.-

And Hunter paused and bellowed defiance, his eyes showing no trace of reason as he crushed a Sentinel hard drive in one hand.

Vanya stared at Hunter briefly before refilling the Jackal's magazine. "Do we know what's happening?" She knew something was coming; she just wasn't sure what.

Sal, meanwhile, was inching toward the coast as if transfixed. "This isn't normal," she muttered. "She needs us to do this..."

She jumped when she saw the seven Sentinels streak overhead and concentrate on one lone person standing on the roof of the ferry terminal, which miraculously was only missing a few windows and a satellite dish.

Kurt frowned upward, then rubbed a burned place on his arm and shook his head slowly. "They saved these for last...."

His voice was full of foreboding.

Sal narrowed her eyes. "I see that."

Then there was a ball of fire and the phoenix was up and away.

Leeroy stared at the rapidly descending robots and at Jeimu standing atop the building. The view wasn't good from here, but what he could see didn't bode well. -This ain't good, is it?-

He looked at Jav. "You okay, man?"

-This is where we say goodbyes.- Sam looked down at the small woman standing indomitably on the rooftop. -And maybe figure out why I'm still seeing her as a mother.-

"I... I's got a bad feeling about this," said the hyper clone softly, glancing toward the palamino centaur and the silent, dark-haired Burgite who shared their foxhole. Then he started as Kurt appeared near them.

"What's she doin'?" Leeroy asked Kurt quietly, pointing to the impressive sight of the red and orange bird that was gaining altitude, weaving in and out of the robots' formation as they settled to the ground.

The bird was watching her friend, who simply stood there as though there wasn't a thing wrong in the world - despite the fact that she'd been a split second too late in raising the barrier.

It didn't make sense.

"Vatching Jeimu." He glanced curiously at the young Burgite as the man straightened his black jacket and quietly left the foxhole, then nodded to the centaur and resumed looking up.

Albus appeared with Sam and Sadri, his face unwontedly serious as he turned his head to look up at the Sentinels.

"Stay here," he told the two women, then turned and strode toward the beach.

Sam frowned and shook her head beneath her helmet as she watched him go. "It's not going to work, old man."

Sadri fell as they appeared, then struggled to get to her feet again. "What is it you're planning to do?" She squinted in Jeimu's direction but all she could see was a sooty black nothingness. The darkness of Shasta's intent. It was absolute and terrifying.

Leeroy blinked but didn't acknowledge the women and their appearance. He just stared at Kurt, then back at the bird. "And yer not gonna stop Sal from doin' what she's doin'?"

"Albus wants to kill Shasta." Sam walked over to hunker by the foxhole and reload her gun, even though she had a good idea that it was going to be useless. She could hear her father somewhere nearby, lurking and giving orders as he watched the newcomers warily.

Kurt blinked and looked at his step son. "You tell me how."

Leeroy scowled. "Goin' an' gettin' 'er might be a place t' start from."

Ven looked at Sadri with concern in his eyes, but she just shook her head and unclipped her sabers, choosing instead to hobble toward Jav. "Hey. C'mon, you need to stay in it."

The bird, meanwhile, had arced off, away from the robots and was diving toward a tiny, secluded break in the rocks. It was looking for something.

Kurt shook his head and bamfed away, appearing near where his wife had gone to earth.

Jav looked at his sister in law, his face holding no more expression than Aoife's had before she died. "I'm alright."

Atin blinked at the deadness of his brother's voice, then hauled himself to his feet and looked from Ven to Sadri, wondering what they were supposed to do now.

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

There was a lot of noise. The sky was a marvelous marbled blue - her barrier had worked perfectly. Nobody could leave, and nobody could enter.

Most of the noise was coming from her family, their woes and protests. And then there was the niggling voice in the back of her head telling her to stay tall and beat the snot out of these things.

She couldn't tell whose voice it was. It may have been her own conscience. It may have been the Elders doing what they do and trying to control her. She wasn't sure. All she knew is that the first twenty-eight of these things were just damn easy to kill off. Jav and them had helped, but -

Jav. The name and the man behind it cracked through her fuddled mind and provided a sense of clarity. She hadn't anticipated this - her need to sacrifice herself for his continued survival - when their relationship took off. She hadn't anticipated that it would have been so hard to let go.

But she hadn't let him go; not really. It just added to the spiralling vortex of confusion that was her mind lately.

All of it was questions: Is this the right thing to do? Why don't I feel worse about leaving him behind? Am I doomed to hell because they won't let me see God? What am I supposed to do? Are there any options? Do we need to stay here...

...can we stay here...

She threw her hands into the air and waited for clarity. The robots would not attack anybody else now; her telekinesis was as good as a wall.

...just move somewhere else...

There was no control. They were controlling her. And yet she agreed. She wanted it to happen. Wanted them all to live.

You can do it. All of you.

And then she heard something. A disturbance.

[i_salted_dean]

"There he goes," said Sam, her voice hollow through the helmet speakers.

Bloodsmell and burning on the wind, the sound of someone crying and trying not to, low voices. And now this new danger. Would it ever end?

Vic looked over at his friend from where he crouched with a hand over his heart, his golden eyes weary and full of strain. They'd been through so much bs together. And he'd smelled how Sam's scent changed every time the tall hunter looked at Jeimu. Sadness and goodbye.

He couldn't take goodbye.

There was a choked snarl as he coiled himself. She wouldn't want to go. He'd have to get her fast and get out of here.

-No goodbye.-

He sprang.

Jeimu squinted through the haze of colliding voices, not quite daring to believe that it was him who was causing this major upheaval.

She didn't want to believe because of what she would have to do. She'd found him almost dead many years ago. She'd never thought that she'd die first and without making her peace. He was a royal pain in the arse, that one, but he was a friend and she loved him all the same.

Love was useless here. It would only get them dead in the end. He couldn't interfere. Nobody could interfere.

She saw him coming out of the corner of her eye and backpedaled slightly, snapping her head around to stare at him, eyes glowing, hair floating as though she was weightless. She was weightless as she began to ascend under the power of her own TK.

There was no action to give it away; just the massive shockwave.

Her mind was blank now. She wasn't herself.

The time was now.

...we can move somewhere else...

She was still standing, she was still alive, but she was leaving.

"Oh @#$%&$#! Vic!" Jav snapped out of his combat funk and pitched the rifle as he ran toward his fallen friend, heart in his throat as he wondered how Jeimu could have done it. Vic lay crumpled partially on his side, his face pale and stiller than Jav had ever seen it even when the guy was asleep.

[i_salted_dean]

Sam was shaking slightly. Seeing things play out- and knowing that she couldn't do anything about it- made her want to go to where the Elders were hiding and open up with her Deece.

And Hunter actually stopped short and staggered as he felt the emotional shockwave that the telekinetic one had unleashed.

Jeimu's screams were only in her mind. She could see it as it happened - every agonizing second - and yet she couldn't do anything about it. She wasn't even sure if Vic was still alive. She fought for control over herself. For one more minute to say that it would all be okay, that the waiting and worrying and destruction were going to be over soon...

It didn't come. She was locked in the massive flurry of her own power. The power that the Elders, the Burgites, these people, this very island granted her. It made her stronger. Gave her focus. She floated a full foot off the ground by now; the seven robots in their circle of death still immobilized.

Move.

She let her eyes focus back on the people who were watching: Sam with her angered resignation, and Jav with a shocked expression.

His look of pure... disappointment shocked her to the core. Her feet hit the ground hard and the pillar of stored energy wavered and she clicked into his mind.

-Don't watch.-

And then she looked skyward, appealing to what they'd forbidden her to know, crying out to the heavens for just a little bit of assistance. Take them all somewhere safe. Please.... Somewhere safe.

She felt an answer and grinned inwardly. It wasn't a yes and it wasn't a no, but it was an answer and her suspicions were correct. There was something bigger than this one event. The energy righted itself and she began to rise again, this time floating toward one of the giant robots.

Her hand touched its forehead, and then the robots were gone and she knew nothing.

What was left of her fell to the roof of the terminal building without preamble.

Jav had watched... he had felt her go, and now stood there in blank bewilderment as he stared into an empty place in his mind that he hadn't realized held something untill it was gone.

Tears welled in his eyes. -God.... Please... You got her? Do You have her????-

If there was a reply he couldn't hear it, and he stumbled the last few steps to Vic and fell to his knees, holding his head as his shoulders shook with tearing sobs.

-Murder. The. Illegitimate dogs.- Sam's voice was a snarl of helpless rage in Leeroy's mind as her armored glove crackled under her grip on the Deece.

And near the beach the determined bird braked in mid air, wheeling about as though to look back at the damage done.

She cried.

[sadri.livejournal.com]

Sadri felt her heart rise up into her throat as Sal's phoenix song drifted across the air. There was no movement. It was very strangely silent.

She looked at Ven and then at Jav and then winced, lowering herself back to the ground again. The fight was over and it had seriously zapped her reserves. "What should we do?" she asked quietly. "Should we go... get her?"

A flashback cut through her brain, of the last time she saw her old Master, crumpled on the ground in quite a similar way. She shuddered visibly and hoisted herself up on hands and knees, where she was promptly sick on the ground.

"It's not over yet," said Sam, turning toward Leeroy and pulling off her helmet.
Hunter growled uneasily and watched as the young Burgite returned rubbing his knuckles and looking white. The stranger unobstrusively picked up a pack and slung it over his shoulder, then turned and walked away without looking back.

"No, it ain't," Leeroy said, nodding in agreement. "Sal's doin'... somethin', and it ain't good."

The bird had ceased singing and continued on its flightpath, around a bluff and out of sight.

"We goin' after 'em, or what?" Leeroy looked around at everyone.

"Kurt'll be there for her when it's done." Sam watched the stranger as well, frowning, then turned her head as Jav began to curse in that broken but fervent way that sounded like prayer. "Somebody help him, he's too messed up to remember CPR."

Ven took the cue and nodded, gently pushing Jav out of the way and setting to work on Vic. He took out his medpac and hoped that the hypodermic needles within them hadn't expired. You could easily restart a man's heart with what was in there.

The vitals didn't look good; there was no pulse, and so with everyone watching, he began CPR.

A few moments passed and Ven's face grew more and more grim. FInally, he looked at Sam. "Little help?" he asked. "You managed to get him back before. Try it again and then we get him to the hospital... provided it's still in one piece."

She blinked and started slightly. "Right. Sorry. God?" Her head bowed and she frowned, one hand going out absently to Leeroy for support.

When she looked up a bit of the grimness was gone from her face. "I think you're supposed to get him to the hospital."

"That doesn't make sense." Atin frowned.

"I... I missed it. @#$%$&@," said a female voice shakily, and Aoife limped into sight looking like death warmed over, her gun clenched in one hand as the other braced against her broken leg.

There was a clatter as Atin went down from the shock.

Sam just shrugged and headed for the terminal, her thoughts on getting Jeimu's body down before any thestrels got ideas.

Sadri stared at Aoife. "What the hell happened to you?"

The small woman blinked and sank to the ground. "Direct hit, it feels like."

"Yeah," Sadri said. "I saw that, and the part where you died."

[teh-rest.livejournal.com]

Ven and Leeroy, meanwhile, hoisted Vic up between them and set to work trying to flag down one of the many vehicles zipping by. Parts of the town were ablaze, but all in all, it was a lot less messy than it could have been. They managed to find Ro and her truck and clamored into the bed of it, speeding away.

Sadri watched them go and blinked. "I think the hospital is up and running. Vic'll be fine." She noticed Sam going toward the terminal and looked at Jav. "And what are you going to do?" It was simply her tough-love persona shining through. She couldn't be mean to any of them.

"I...." He stared around aimlessly, then looked back at her, eyes empty.

Hunter rumbled angrily, but then closed his eyes and took a deep breath. -I should help with the injured.-

Sam shed the armor before she tried scaling the wall, wanting her more familar weight and balance. Once it was off, however, she grabbed two pipes that protected some of the building's wiring and went up easily.

Aoife straightened out her leg with a wince. "Oh... somebody checked...."

"Yeah," Sadri said. "And you should go with Sam," she added to Jav. "Really."

The onetime Jedi focused back on Aoife. "Can you heal that yourself, or...?" Not that she could guarantee that she could heal anyone in her present condition.

Jav looked at her blankly, then shuddered and walked toward the terminal building.

"It'll heal." Aoife winced as a piece of shrapnel worked its way out of the limb and fell to the ground.

Hunter watched as Ro and her vehicle and passengers suddenly appeared by the hospital ER entrance, Vic breathing faintly and unsteadily, then looked toward Vanya and vanished himself.

Vanya frowned slightly. She didn't take well to death when she wasn't responsible for it. She hunkered down beside Sadri. "Can you walk?"

The blonde woman grinned a little bitterly. "No. I think those shocks screwed with something..." She groaned. "We still have Sal's sister to deal with - she's on the island." Sadri lifted a hand and pointed. "Either that or help Sam and Jav get Jeimu out of here. We're going to have to figure out what we're going to do with her..."

Vanya frowned and nodded, disappearing and reappearing at Jeimu's side, her curiosity getting the better of her. The human looked peaceful, her open eyes not shocked or scared. Leaning forward she closed the woman's eyes gently. It probably wouldn't do much for Jav's mental state if Jeimu was looking at him. And she was still warm. None of the stereotypically cold and clammy and rigor mortis type of stuff. If it wasn't for the lack of life and vital signs one could have assumed she was sleeping.

Vanya turned to Sam, who had just made it to the top of the building. "So."

Sam gained the roof and walked over, looking toward the ocean where the phoenix had headed. She could see the other one- Fawkes- sitting on a rock just a little ways away, his feathers ruffled with anger.

Jav swallowed as he walked over and knelt by his wife's body, one hand automatically reaching toward her shoulder.

Then he stopped and curled into himself a little before suddenly gathering the still form into his arms and just sitting there, rocking slightly.

[random_xtras]

Sal touched down and changed back to herself again, looking around surreptitiously to see if she'd been followed. She noticed the heaving figure on the beach and walked over to it.

"Have a good swim?"

Shasta groaned and rolled over onto her back, gaze smoldering with sheer contempt. "It was lovely. How's your little Spirit Mage doing?"

Sal literally snarled. "The Sentinels are gone, if that's what you mean."

Shasta laughed, pulling herself up. "Do you really think you're going to kill me?"

"I do."

"Even with an audience?" She pointed back in the direction Sal had come from, and the younger sibling whirled around, cursing.

Someone followed me. Oh great.

Golden eyes looked back at her from the shadow of a tall rock. They held sadness, but also support, seeming to say, 'Do what you must. I'm here for you when you're done'.

"Isn't that just touching," Shasta commented. "So hurry up and get on with it, then."

Sal made a face and reached for her Deece... which wasn't there. Damn it. She patted her thigh slightly. I guess it's down to this, then... Her fingers fumbled for it as she tried to justify what it was she was about to do. And she found that she couldn't do it... but that had nothing to do with Shasta being present. "Don't you want to fight?" she said with some derision. "You used to be all about the fightin'..."

Shasta smiled.

And was up on her feet, wand out, making a beeline for Kurt.

[random_xtras]

Those golden eyes flashed, and he stepped forward, arms crossed over his chest and tail twitching as he looked sternly at her. This was Sal's fight, he knew. And he could probably even lose her if he interfered. But he wasn't about to run.

Sal's own eyes went wide and she booked it up the small hill just in time to see Shasta raise her wand.

"Avada-"

No, this just wasn't happening. Sal was not going to lose the one thing she still had left in this world. In the split second it took her to make the decision her mind travelled somewhere it hadn't travelled in years. She was thinking of her parents. They had died in much the same way as Shasta was going to die right now.

The maple wand was up and in her hand before she could even really react. As though she hadn't stopped using magic for close to fifteen years.

"Not today, Shas." Sal's eyes narrowed and she channeled her grief. "Avada kedavra."

A flash of green light and Shas was dead.

And Sal froze, eyes wide and staring at her sister, and then up at her husband.

He looked soberly down at the dead woman, his Catholic past coming out as he absently murmured a prayer and made the sign of the cross. Then he blinked and lifted his eyes to his wife, studying her face to try and see if it was time to go to her now.

Her wand hit the sand and she didn't bother to pick it up; she just stood there, her gaze now locked on Shasta, but she was looking through the body, not at it. She felt inexplicably hollow.

"You #$%^%," she whispered all of a sudden. "I can't believe you hauled me this far..." And turned me into a murderer, just like you.

She breathed deep a few times and then collapsed.

Kurt gasped and teleported next to her, gathering her tenderly into his arms and quickly teleporting again to where Albus was sitting up dizzily and nursing a bruised jaw.

"Leibe," said the blue man softly, patting her cheek. "Leibe, vake up! Come back to me. Sal?"

Albus blinked, then lowered his head and muttered one of Ven's favorite words.

She grabbed his wrist and lowered it to his side tenderly to keep him from prodding her anymore, then looked at him. Her eyes were more empty and war weary than they'd ever been before, and she just looked like she'd been through hell and back. She was still looking through him as the tears started to fall and she wrapped her arms about herself. He couldn't save her from this.

No one could.

"Leibe," he whispered, kissing her on the cheek. "I know."

"Do you?" came Albus' absent, gruff reply.

"Ja." Kurt held his wife close and got to his feet. "I had to kill my brother, for the same reason."

Swallowing, he teleported to he and Sal's room, then lay her tenderly on the bed irregardless of their grime and curled around her protectively, praying for morning to save them from this darkness.