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Ororo was half-certain that the disturbing thoughts in Xavier's voice were somehow connected to Dante. Jean's phone call afterward confirmed it beyond any doubt.
Jean lowered the phone, showing an uneasy look. "Ororo… do you want to go there?"
Despite choosing to leave the X-Men, Jean still cared for everyone there with the exception of Professor Xavier.
"Yes," Ororo answered without hesitation, her voice steady despite the storm brewing inside her. "I need to see it with my own eyes."
"Then let's fly together."
Jean enveloped herself in a glowing pink aura and shot forward. Ororo summoned the winds beneath her feet and followed, weaving supportive currents around Jean to boost her speed. The night air rushed past them, cool and whispering, carrying the faint scent of distant rain.
Once they left the suburbs behind, the landscape opened into dark reservoirs and rolling wooded hills bathed in moonlight. She didn't get to enjoy the scenery as a disturbance rippled through the wind currents. She glanced over her shoulder to spot a large, bulky jet slicing through the low clouds.
Jean halted the moment the humming sound of the engine reached her ears. "Why are they here?"
The jet descended smoothly and hovered before them. The winged-eagle logo emblazoned on its wings left no room for doubt. They had seen this exact aircraft a few times before, whenever Nick Fury arrived at the mansion to deliver one of his threats or just to see their status.
Ororo frowned. "It's here for me."
It won't be the first time Fury had arrived in this jet to detain her and it wouldn't be the second either.
The jet swiveled and the side door opened with a hiss. A man in a long brown trench coat stood in the doorway, balancing a Bo staff in one hand and a fan of playing cards in the other. His red-on-black eyes glinted in the dim light. He certainly seemed like a man of talent.
Nick Fury stepped into view beside him, gripping a heavily-modified pistol. His one good eye looked thoroughly irritated. "Motherfucker, let me sleep for one night. One damn night."
Thunder crackled overhead as lightning flashed dangerously in Ororo's eyes. "Did you just curse at me?"
"I curse your entire mutantkind," Fury growled, grabbing the edge of the door and leaning out. "Now get in."
"We're busy," Jean said in an ice-cold voice. "Why else would we be flying in the middle of the night?"
"I don't know. Maybe to show off how cool and powerful y'all are," Fury replied sarcastically. "Unless you want to kick off a full-scale war between mutants and SHIELD tonight, I'd recommend getting your asses inside."
Ororo hated Fury's disrespectful tone, but she swallowed her rising anger. SHIELD held far too many strategic advantages. A war right now would be catastrophic for mutants.
"What do you want from us?" Jean asked the question before Ororo had a chance to.
Fury fixed his single eye on Jean and waved the pistol dismissively in her direction. "On second thought, you can leave, Grey. I don't feel like starting something with Skullfire tonight."
The brown-haired man beside him looked momentarily disappointed.
Jean's brows rose in surprise. "What about Ororo?"
"She's what we call… a stray," Fury said, his voice dripping with condescension. "She'll be detained for the crime of public use of mutant abilities without sanction."
The wind around Ororo howled louder, lightning dancing wildly in her eyes. "You call me a stray like I'm some dog. Are you certain I won't smite you with my thunder?"
Fury's expression stayed annoyingly calm. "You won't. Now get inside, or I'll deploy the anti-mutant countermeasures."
"You're really pissing me off," Jean muttered. Her eyes began to glow as she reached out with her telepathy. "Who put up this wall?"
It seemed Fury had come prepared.
"I'd be an idiot to face a telepath without insurance," Fury said in a sharp voice, raising the gun toward her. "I'll let this little mistake slide because of Skullfire. Next time, you'll be punished like the rest of them."
Jean clenched her fists. "You can't touch Ororo. She is on Skullfire's side now."
"No, she isn't. She is still one of Charles's."
Nick Fury called her bluff out in an instant. Ororo knew better than to think such a simple trick would work on a man who had eyes and ears across the entire country.
Ororo placed a hand on Jean's shoulder. "I'll accompany him."
"Then I'm coming too."
"He only wants me." Ororo shook her head gently. "Go home, Jean. I'll be fine."
Fury tapped the pistol's barrel against his temple. "Quite the fearless woman. I guess all of Xavier's kids are cut from the same stubborn cloth."
Ororo flew past Fury and the stranger without another word, taking a seat on one of the six chairs inside the dimly lit jet. Jean remained hovering outside, biting her lips. Ororo knew this was how she looked when racking her brain for a solution.
'I'm touched that she wants to fight for me, but this isn't a problem that can be solved with raw power.'
Not unless that person was a non-mutant like Dante. But then again, she had no idea how much strength he had left after battling Magneto. Burdening him to go against Fury after such a battle felt selfish.
Because she had offended SHIELD. This time, she hadn't used her powers to help Dante. It was best she faced this punishment herself.
Fury was about to slide the door shut when he noticed Jean speaking urgently into her phone. He motioned to the brown-haired man with a curt nod.
"Not the biggest fan of bullying girls, but orders are orders, hein?"
Ororo recognized that accent as Cajun. Throughout her life, she had only run into two people with such thick Cajun accents.
The man flicked a single playing card. It flew through the air, struck the screen of Jean's phone, and neatly spun back into his hand. There wasn't any Telekinesis involved, only pure skill attained through practice.
"Good work, Remy," Fury said.
Jean shouted from outside, demanding her phone back. Fury slammed the door in her face with a metallic thud. The jet's engines roared to life and it began to climb into the night sky.
Remy presented the confiscated phone to Fury, but his charming grin was aimed straight at Ororo, clearly hoping for a reaction. "Chère, this is the part where you clap for Remy's little performance, non? Tell me I got style and all that."
She studied him carefully. Even though he was following Fury's orders, this man was undoubtedly a mutant or someone with powers. Or else the cards in his hands wouldn't have almost noticeable purple flames dancing on their edges.
Fury turned his one eye on her, assessing like a predator sizing up prey. "You came too willingly. Should I be worried about any hidden motives?"
"I'll admit I'm very curious to know what SHIELD does to detained mutants these days."
Without any warning, Fury raised the gun and pulled the trigger. The bullet tore through Ororo's arm and left a bleeding hole there. She gasped, more from shock than the pain itself. She hadn't expected Fury to shoot her after she willingly boarded the jet.
Even Fury's subordinate stared at him with his mouth agape. "Director… There was no need for that."
Ororo pressed a hand to the wound and winced, feeling the blood seeping between her fingers. "Why?"
"Special bullet, designed for your kind," Fury said flatly, already turning his back to her. "You'll feel the effects soon enough."
Ororo tried to summon the wind to strike the jet in retaliation, but nothing answered her call. Her deep connection to the natural forces around her was fading rapidly with every passing second, like a flame smothered by smoke.
'The bullet.'
SHIELD had found a way to suppress a mutant's powers, taking away their only chance to fight back.
Remy shook his head, muttering under his breath, "Men should bleed for women. Not the other way around, cher."
Fury dropped the gun carelessly and moved toward the pilot's seat, leaving Ororo glaring at his back. She was powerless to do anything but endure.
Remy scratched the back of his head for a moment, then his eyes brightened. He hurried to the other side of the jet, grabbed the medkit, and dropped into the seat right beside her. He opened the kit on his lap.
"I don't need this."
Remy stared at her. "You're bleeding."
Ororo just shook her head. The wound was in a non-threatening spot.
"What's your name, chère? Mine's Remy LeBeau."
"Ororo," she replied. "When will my powers return?"
"Uh… no idea," Remy replied with a helpless shrug. "I didn't even know the Director had something like this lying around. These SHIELD folks are full of surprises, hein?"
Ororo lowered her head, a strange emptiness settling deep in her chest. She should feel relieved to be free of her powers. There wouldn't be any responsibility of fighting for mutants or any fear of losing control. Instead, she felt as though a piece of her soul had been ripped away.
She felt incomplete.
A pair of black boots suddenly appeared in her line of sight. She looked up slowly.
Dante stood before her. As always, he showed up in places without notice, calm and silent as death itself. Usually, she would've noticed his arrival through the shift in wind, but she no longer had the power to do so.
Remy let out a high-pitched shriek like a girl, dropping the medkit out of sheer surprise. "Mon Dieu! You really are a ghost!"
Dante paid him no attention, keeping his eyes on the bleeding wound in her arm. "Fury?"
Ororo nodded, curious about his response. From reviving the dead to defeating Magneto in a battle, Dante always did the unexpected. Anticipation stirred in her chest to see how he would handle SHIELD.
He turned without another word and walked straight toward the cockpit. Fury stood up with an eerily calm look, not a trace of fear in his single eye.
Dante continued walking until he was nearly nose to nose with Fury. He grabbed SHIELD's Director by the collar. "Nick Fury."
"Skullfire, can you not ruin my sleep every night?"
He spoke the name as if he was scolding a troublesome subordinate rather than facing a man who could tear him apart. However, Ororo believed Fury should be terrified at the moment. Dante wasn't lighthearted even when he had fought Magneto. But right now, Dante was silent.
When someone like Dante chose silence, something far worse than anger was coming.
***
Back in Westchester, New York.
The woman posing as Receptionist Anna from Silver Sable International stepped out of the car. She had shifted forms again, this time into a version almost identical to her original appearance, minus the signature blue skin.
The passenger door opened, and her adopted daughter Anna Marie—Rogue—walked around to stand by her side. The young woman with the distinctive white streaks in her brown hair raised an eyebrow, scanning the grand red-brick building with wary green eyes. "This is where Xavier and the rest stay?"
Anna—or rather, Raven Darkholme—showed an enigmatic smile. "Erik should be inside if the tracker is right."
Was she smiling because Dante had survived the confrontation, or because he had once again exceeded her expectations by defeating Magneto? She leaned toward the latter, despite knowing Dante's existence would make her mission harder and harder as time progressed.
It was a strange feeling.
Raven moved ahead with confident strides and Rogue trailed close behind. Using the small tracker device tuned to Erik's unique magnetic field signature, they navigated through the quiet halls until they reached a particular room. Inside was unusually quiet for a room shared by Erik and Xavier, two old friends.
She opened the door without any fear. With the mutant treaty in place, Xavier wouldn't try any bullshit about her past actions. Erik, her boss, was also here.
Nothing inside the room was as she had expected.
A tall, imposing figure stood before the bed, wearing a theatrical black cape with jagged, split ends that spread like the feathers of a bird. Scott, Erik, Henry (Beast), Warren, and Bobby stood motionless around the room without a single movement. Their faces were blank and their eyes vacant, like someone had taken their souls.
Only Xavier appeared normal, seated calmly in his wheelchair. Yet the serene smile on his face sent an ominous chill through Raven's veins.
"Ma, I got a real bad feeling about this guy," Rogue whispered, flexing her gloved hands. "Something about him feels… sinister. Like he crawled straight out of a nightmare."
The man in question turned slowly and revealed a pale handsome face. His stylish beard and long black hair made him charming. But that was taken away by his eyes that glowed a deep, malevolent red. The diamond-shaped gem embedded in his forehead only added to his menacing aura. Nine out of ten people would be terrified of meeting this man alone.
He spread his smile, grinning ear to ear. "Poor Anna Marie… I was saving you for another experiment. But it seems I'll have to make an emergency schedule change."
A cold shiver wrapped around Raven's neck like invisible fingers. This man had somehow placed everyone in the room under his complete mind control. Against an opponent like this, they wouldn't even be able to put up a fight. In the first place, Raven's strength was in her shapeshifting, not in her powers.
Raven reacted instantly and shoved Rogue backward. She withdrew two pistols from the holsters in her coat. "I'll hold him off. Find Dante. Tell him everything."
Letting Rogue use her powers on someone this mad might destroy her mind. After all, Rogue took more than just someone's powers. She took their memories, skills, emotions, life force, and even a part of their personality.
An ominous laughter filled the room behind her.
***
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