Head Like a Hole

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Wanda relaxes a little bit, not far from home, but is worried about her recent health, mental and otherwise. When she makes a decision to go see Charles, someone takes an exception.



With a tired noise, Wanda dropped her helmet on the ground and stretched out on the log. It was peaceful out here though getting rather late for a bike ride. She was sore in places she hadn't been sore for a while.

A good kind of sore, but, well still.

If she craned her neck she could catch a glimpse of the Mansion gates down the road. It would be less than a five minute ride from here but she felt like lounging for a few seconds.

Rubbing her head, Wanda frowned. The headache was back, she hadn't noticed when she was on the motorcycle. Too many other things to concentrate.

This was starting to get old and nothing felt right. Things had been...off in various ways for a while but they had gotten worse with the information dump by the Askani. Wanda had been checked out by the Professor but she wondered if it would hurt to have him look again.

Actually, that sounded like a fantastic idea. She wasn't able to concentrate lately, her sleep had been erratic and she was almost positive she was starting to sleep walk.

~No~

Wanda froze as a soft thought slithered across her mind. That hadn't come from a telepath that she knew and, actually, that felt like it had come from the inside...

Unfortunately, her hesitation proved to be her undoing and the creature within struck hard and fast and she fell without a sound.



Someone wakes up, but it's not Wanda.




A soft groan broke through the evening air, startling a near by owl. With some difficulty, the person on the ground rolled over and stared up at the night time sky.

It took a few seconds to figure out how to work the mouth properly but it was not all that hard to remember how to do so.

"I'm free?" There was a pause and then a horrendous laugh as Chthon the Corruptor sat up in a body not of his own. "I'm free!"



Chthon gets the feel of the new legs--and body--but realizes he needs something more. Decided to create a new host needs someone else and he tries Wanda's charms out on Kurt.



Chthon leaned against against the gate walls that protected the lands from the outside of the world. He was going to have to be more cautious from here on out, he'd already felt this Xavier's influence even while he was hiding in Wanda's mind. He was too weak to go head to head with that kind of power.

Frowning, he forced Wanda's powers on and sighed happily. Using powers, his and hers, felt too good after all these years. This would mask the disruption for a short while at least. As he walked, slowly for it was hard to get these long legs to do what he wanted, he spotted someone in the distance.

Grinning, Chthon headed over. He did need to get in practise or else he'd be stuck in this body for good.

Kurt was in a tree, practising his acrobatics. He smiled, waving, when he saw Wanda approach.

"Hello," he purred slightly, leaning against the tree. Better so that he could get these stupid legs to work properly. "Having fun?"

"As usual", he answered cheerfully, swinging down to hang by his tail. "And it is good practise."

"Yes, I can see that." Hands placed behind his back, Chthon smiled innocently as the branch Kurt was swinging on suddenly broke. Stepping closer, he awwed. "Looks like you need to find something else to practise with," he said, thankful that this body seemed to be made for this kind of thing.

He'd almost been caught by surprise, but managed to teleport to another branch before he hit the ground. "I could have sworn that branch would hold my weight", he muttered, leaning down to examine it.

Chthon wrinkled his nose at the stench. This one would not make for a good 'father' to his host, too much chance of the body having that particular drawback. "Maybe you just need to look for something else to hold your weight?"

Kurt shot her a grin, oblivious to any undertones. "I must have misjudged. This one seems strong enough."

There was an urge to hex him here and now and be done with it. Reaching up, Chthon gently took hold of the tail that was whipping back and forth--this new branch was closer--and tugged. "That was not what I meant."

Kurt blinked, no longer oblivious and starting to grow a little uneasy - Wanda had always been flirtatious, but this was a different level. "...no?"

"No, it is not." What was it going to take, a sign? Maybe he should just flash him? "I'm bored, darling, and you look like you could do with a...distraction."

....Definitely not like her. Wanda was playful about her flirting, not this blatant. "...that would depend on what kind you mean", he ventured after a few moments, eyeing her cautiously.

Hrm, he sounded suspicious, that would not do at all. And time was running out. He'd give it one more go. Leaning up on tip-toe to get closer, he smirked. "It has been a very long time for the both of us, I'm suspecting--" Oh, if he only knew how long.

"Wanda - " he started to object again, wondering just what was going on here and if he should alert the Professor.

Catching the expression, Chthon snarled suddenly, face distorting. "You could have simply said 'yes'," he said softly, rings of red growing around his hands. "It would have been so much easier for you...and I'm sure Wanda sends her regards."

There was no time to waste, obviously. He was already teleporting as he sent a frantic call out. Professor! There is something wrong -

Watching in fascination as he teleported away, Chthon's hands twitched ever so slightly. The strings moved and rippled in ways that took his breath away. Oh, this was useful.

And it didn't really matter where the intended destination had been, since the chaotic interference resulted in Kurt being teleported elsewhere. Not far from where Chthon stood now but considering that he heard nothing more from that direction, it was a good sign that the young man was completely knocked out.



Despite Chthon's best efforts not to be noticed, Angie gets a flash that something isn't quite right.



At first, she thought the flicker of red petals at the corner of her eye was Doug doing something romantic with roses. And just because she was feeling contrary, she had intended to ignore him until he announced himself. But Doug's voice never came, and there was no casual touch on her arm or neck to indicate that he was around.

After a few seconds, Marie-Ange whipped her head around, trying to focus on the movement of scarlet that she kept almost seeing. Nothing there, no rose petals, no slips of paper, and to her relief, no blood.

Not for several moments, until the whirlwind of blood-red images scrambled past her eyes. A wailing baby, covered in blood and mucus, with black hair - and a tail. Kurt, bleeding on the grounds, broken much as Remy had been. A flock of owls, ravens, falcons, hawks with crimson feathers.

The vision hadn't passed yet, entirely, before she was on her feet, sprinting down the hallway. She knew the halls well enough to run them at night, with the lights off, when everyone was asleep. She could do it with bizzare twisted images of panic and mayhem flashing past her eyes.

~PROFESSOR!~ Marie-Ange had been told more than once that her psionic defences were lacking, compared to others. Ms. Frost had told her it would likely prove to be a liability. Now, it was an asset.

Charles answered her distress call immediatly. It took no time at all to explain what she'd seen, and what she feared it meant. The brief mental convarsation was over before she reached a door, and fled outside, following guesses and the flashes of familar trees and paths on the grounds from her vision.

It felt like she was running in slow motion - like the ground was sucking at her feet, and she barely felt the cold. Marie-Ange was almost certain she would arrive to find a mangled body.

And she was immensly grateful to be wrong, when she came to find Kurt, not battered, not eviscerated, but simply unconscious on the ground under one of the largest trees.



With Kurt an unsuccessful attempt, Chthon realizes that there's someone else a lot more powerful to try and get things on with. Cain doesn't even realize what's hit him.



Glancing back at the prone body of the blue mutant, Chthon smiled a little bit. He still had it. Turning, he...no, he supposed it would be she currently...she continued towards the lake area. There was a feeling of power, a little faint currently, that struck a nerve. Her eyes narrowed sharply.

Cyttorak. But, again, they were weak and old like...Chthon laughed suddenly. How the old man had managed to find a host before he had was astonishing. Maybe it was time to go pay this host a visit.

It took no time to reach the boat house and she leaned against the door way to knock. Cain, she thought, pulling up things she had gleaned from Wanda's memories. His name was Cain.


Cain roused himself from the couch, blinking at the television playing some infomercial. "Must've dozed off..." he mumbled, hearing the knock again. Scratching absently at his jaw, he pulled himself to his feet, lumbering for the door. "Coming, coming. Jeez, if one of you kids flushed something you shouldn't have..."

Opening the door, he cocked his head in puzzlement. "Hey, Wanda. You're, uh..." he took a look at her rather disheveled state. "You all right?"

"Not very...may I come in?" Not waiting for a response, Chthon eased her way past him, purposly brushing against his frame as she squeezed in. Mentally, she reached for that familiar and hated signature, wanting to laugh and mock him for being trapped in that...

That...

He wasn't there? But there were traces!

Seething internally, Chthon forced herself to relax as she leaned against the wall near to Cain. "Am I interrupting?"


Confused, Cain scratched his head as he shut the door. "Uh, no. I just dozed off watchin' something. You sure you're..."

Okay, it may have been close to four decades, but Cain was pretty damn sure he recognized that look.

"You, uh... you want some coffee or something?" he stammered, trying to take his mind off the sudden tension in the air.

Coffee? By the makers name, what was coffee? Not that it mattered, though it did prove a point. She had a lot to learn about this new world she had been kept from.

"Coffee, no. Something?" This body, she discovered with a thrill, was simply made for this type of thing. She walked closer to Cain and smiled up at him. "Yes, very much so."


"Wanda..." Cain managed to growl out weakly as she pressed right up against him. "This ain't... I mean, it's not like..." He tried to find any explanation for what she was doing, other than the obvious one. It wasn't like Wanda was an unattractive woman - good GOD, no, he thought - and hell, she was pretty much built like he liked them. Tall, solid - heck, the gal came up to his shoulder, something half the men in the mansion didn't.

He wasn't exactly sure how his hand made it to her hip, but it felt like it belonged there. "Woman," he groaned softly, "you are definitely putting out some signals here, and if you ain't serious about them, you'd best be backing off so I can get myself to a cold shower, y'hear?"

There was a smirk for a second as Chthon laughed, a sound that was low in her throat. The sensations were fascinating and long overdue. She'd get her revenge on Cyttorak later though Cain was still of much use to her. There was power there, enough power that the child Wanda would have would be perfect.

"I am always serious about things of this nature." Snaking a hand up his chest, she wound it around his neck as she leaned up to kiss him. Oh yes, this would be exactly what she needed...and it would be fun.


Any ideas of resistance or second thoughts that Cain may have had were suddenly swept away as he backed up, still holding Wanda to him, until his knees hit the couch and he toppled over. Looking up at Wanda, his eyebrows hit his hairline. "Damn, woman! You, uh..."

Then she moved again, and the last vestiges of protest or concern were silenced with another kiss, this time with Cain pulling her down to him. It had indeed been FAR too long.

No wonder his tormenter had picked this one, Chthon thought, attempting to stay under control as waves of physical sensation washed over her. She purred a little when a hand wrapped tightly in the wild mane of hair this Wanda had.

Sitting up, pushing away a little bit, she only wasted enough time in order to rid herself of the cumbersome shirt.

Pausing to catch his breath, Cain looked up at Wanda. He managed to get out a "Wow, those are nice--" before being silenced again by her mouth on his. After some moments of further wriggling, Cain felt the couch overbalance, and held Wanda to his chest as they were both unceremoniously dumped onto the floor. He heard something crash, probably a lamp or the coffee table. Or both. Not that he was caring right about now.

Had anything actually landed on his...her, blast it all, body, Chthon would have paid more attention to the growing disaster around them. Something made a very distinct cracking noise when they rolled and she did hope that it wasn't the floor.

Cain's shirt was the next obstacle. Because as nice as this ways, she didn't know how much time they had before someone found Kurt on the lawn.


A ripping sound, and Cain felt the buttons fly off his flannel shirt. All right, if assertive was how she wanted it, he was fine with that. His hands moved lower, pulling at cloth, feeling the thin material tear beneath his fingers.

Somewhere in the back of his brain, there was a small feeling of simultaneous recognition and apprehension, a sort of deja vu warning him about something. Of course, Cain paid it no heed, being quite distracted by a now only-technically-clothed Wanda atop him.

Well, here was an interesting problem. Chthon cocked her head to the side in an oddly owl-like gesture and grinned. She was perched right on top of Cain...she moved a bit and listened to him groan...but sadly that meant the removal of his lower pieces of clothing would be difficult.

One would assume, anyway. There was a flash of red that seemed to light up the entire area and a much larger ripping noise. He'd have other pants, she thought, arching under his roving hands.



Scott sounds the call.



He had taken himself off-call for a reason, Scott told himself grimly as he raced down to the Situation Room. That, and he wasn't up for close quarters fighting yet, and he knew that - but it didn't make not running out there to join the response any less hard.

He had his headset on roughly a half-second after sitting down in the chair. "Lee, status on the evac?" he asked and listened to Lee's report, succinct yet telling him everything he needed to know. "The house hasn't been breached?" he asked, just to make sure that he was hearing that right.

Not the house. Just the grounds. Then Charles was in his mind with a controlled rush of information, and even as Scott was processing that, he felt the familiar sensation of Nathan establishing the switchboard. Reaching out to include him, even though he wasn't out there.

Scott gritted his teeth and started giving orders to redeploy the X-Men and trainees still inside the house.



And the X-Men heed it, much to Cain's boat house dismay and much to Cain's dismay. Chthon manages to make things go awry and flees off the mansion grounds.



The boathouse door chose that moment to crash open under a focused blow of telekinesis. Nathan, who'd somehow managed to find himself at the head of the group breaking landspeed records to get down to the boathouse, stopped and stared in incredulous shock at the scene in front of him. Okay, so not what I'd expected...

"Cain! That's not Wanda!" he barked, and if there was a slightly strangled edge to his voice, he figured that in retrospect, peopel would probably forgive him.

Feeling the man underneath her stiffen, Chthon suddenly rolled to the side and came up in a crouch. A slightly inhuman sound came out of her mouth when she focused on the man who'd just interrupted a perfectly good plan and then she realized there were more behind him.

"You are all very fast." Standing up, she shrugged. "Too fast but at least this should be fun." Faster than Wanda had ever been able to do, she'd sent a hex bolt straight at Nathan.

Nathan flung up a shield instinctively, although part of him knew perfectly well that it wouldn't do diddly-squat against a hex bolt. #DOWN!# he shouted to the others, and dove as well. The hex bolt passed over their heads, harmless, but as it intersected his TK shield, something happened, and his psimitar... belched, for lack of a better word. A telekinetic lash whipcracked through the room, shattering furniture, and Nathan frantically tried to ground the psimitar.

"Oh dear," Chthon said with a grin as she looked at the destruction around her. Is this how Cyttroak felt? She'd have to do this more often. But right now there were more pressing concerns, like escape. Turning, she tossed another hex bolt at the nearest wall--already weakened by the wild telekentic blow--and disappeared through the crumbling mass.

"Keep back," Nathan grated at the others as he tried something that Forge would have probably have killed him for. You were not supposed to draw power through the psimitar in reverse, and as a matter of fact, it really sort of fucking hurt. But the psimitar was still charged, he could feel it, and he wasn't risking another eruption like that.

Cain sat up suddenly, puzzled as to why Nathan had blown his door down and ruined a perfectly good moment that had been about to become a much better moment - and was Wanda attacking him for it?

Either way, they were destroying his living room, and that just wouldn't do. With a growl, Cain stood up off the couch, not caring that he was at the moment garbed only in a pair of boxer shorts. "All right, I want some answers and I want them right--"

As he took a step towards Wanda, arm outstretched, he felt the floor creak loudly beneath his foot. He'd been meaning to get that board looked at, probably some evidence of rot, what with being built right above the lakeshore and all. However, at this precise moment, it just happened to be weak enough that his leg went completely through the floor.

Cain almost had time to swear before the entire floor collapsed under him, dropping him into the muddy water along with a shower of rotting wood, and end table, and his couch.



Storm is the first on the scene and Chthon finds himself/herself confronting people who are much more powerful than what was expected. Not that Storm has a better time of it.



The woods had called to Chthon as a beacon of safey and she'd fled, disappearing as the group behind her struggled to figure out what happened with the wall and the explosion. The ground was familiar and yet not, a product of only being actually aware for such a short time. And the nightly 'visits' she'd made during the woman's sleep had been interesting but not as useful as they could have been.

Almost by accident, she stumbled on a clearing. A river ran in and formed a small lake, one that must be tied to the one on the grounds, before trickling back out. Glancing over her shoulder, she frowned. Someone was getting close.

Despite all the confusion back at the boathouse Ororo had forged ahead in hopes of keeping track of the... thing that had attacked. She had followed its path through the woods, not even glancing behind her to see who had followed. They would be along as soon as possible, she knew.

The wind picked up as she approached the clearing, whipping through the trees and rattling the branches. She strode into the opening between the trees, chin lifted high.

An eyebrow quirked at the entrance and Chthon backed up as she took in the woman in question. There was a vague recognition but she'd never really run into her when she was more or less in control. But she knew enough from Wanda that this one was powerful.

"You do not give up easily, do you?" she asked, gathering power, and letting it hum around her. This was not a trick her human host could ever do and it was a miracle she was able to do it, with most of her powers still out of her reach. But, gods, it felt good to rise up off the ground.

"Not when a friend's life is at stake," Ororo muttered, loud enough for the entity to hear her. Already she could feel the familiar race and crackle of electricity over her skin, and the darknening clouds overhead reflected that energy. "You're not welcome here. We will never let you stay."

A scowl crossed Chthon's face and she crossed her arms over her chest. "You have no say in the matter," she responded, almost childishly. "The womans mind is locked far away from here and though she has you to help, there will be none there to lend a hand for her return." The Knights would never allow that, she would never allow that.

Quickly glancing at the sky, she frowned. She would watch and wait for the woman to make the first move.

The wind whipped around the clearing now, bending the more slender trees towards the ground. Ororo was concentrating intently - she didn't want to injure Wanda, but nor did she want her to get away. She didn't know what this new being was capable of, exactly, but the demonstration in the boatroom made it clear that she was quite powerful.

"Leave her now," she demanded, her voice cutting through the whistling wind.

"Not an option."

Despite her words, Chthon's heart sped up as the winds grew around her and she hastily tapped into her powers. They weren't quite hers, not as they once were, but they were more than Wanda's. But the lines she saw were jumpy, unstable, thanks the growing atmosphere around her. Relying on raw power, she simply pointed and sent a hex bolt towards this alarming person.

At the same moment, Ororo had created a gust of wind intended to knock Wanda back, though not to hurt her if she could help it. She sent it towards the figure before her with a gesture, her eyes by now completely glazed with white.

A second later, Ororo herself was thrown back against a tree as the gust was redirected against her. She winced, feeling the rough bark bite into her back.Gritting her teeth, she pushed herself up, not lessening the winds that still howled around the clearing. Perhaps she couldn't incapacitate her, but neither could Wanda or the thing possessing her body.

She had to keep this woman busy, Chthon thought desperately, mentally shoving back against the presence that tested and strained at her mental walls.

#Mine!# she shrieked at it before returning to the task at hand. Another hex bolt took out the trees surrounding her attacker and sent them crashing around them both.

Ororo's heart sped up as a thick tree trunk hurtled towards her, and it was only with a well-timed gale that she was able to send it spinning away. The clouds overhead were laced with lightning, and the smell of ozone was heavy in the air.

I don't want to hurt Wanda... but this thing is far too strong... A bolt of lightning cracked through the air and exploded the ground not far from where they both stood.

The suddeness of it caused Chthon to leap backwards and head further up, scrambling in her haste to get away. This was starting to get more dangerous as time went by. She'd been banking on them using more caution than this but it looked like they were willing to go to great lengths to get their friend back.

The two women locked eyes for a second and when Chthon felt the wind rise up around her again, she struck, using the force of the wind to snap branches and send debris everywhere.

Ororo whirled as a large rock went flying by, twisting to avoid it. Things were quickly growing out of hand as she felt the storm above grow larger, and she struggled to control it while at the same time avoiding the debris that was flying about.

Unfortunately, her attention was divided enough that the small eddy of wind that had begun nearby spiralled into a funnel, picking up branches and rocks and clods of dirt and whirling them about. Ororo had just managed to calm the dark, roiling clouds when she was engulfed by the funnel and a large branch struck her a glancing blow across the head.

Almost immediately the whistling winds and rolling thunder died away, and Ororo crumpled to the ground in a heap. The branches and rocks dropped like rain about the clearing, and the way was suddenly free.



...where did Wanda go? And what on earth is going on?



Someone was screaming, the sound one more of raw exhaustion and anger than anything else. It took Wanda a heart beat before she realized that she was the one screaming and that yanked her eyes open. Taking a shuddering breath, she burrowed her head into her arms and tried to remember what happened and why she was sprawled on the ground.

There had been a late night ride and a headache, that much she knew. And...she had decided to go to Xavier, to discuss the dreams and the late night wanderings. Then a voice but it wasn't like a telepath normally felt, coming from the outside. This voice had come from the inside out. And then there had been nothing.

Cautiously, Wanda lifted her head and felt her mouth drop open in shock. She hadn't known quite to expect but certainly not this.

Desert stretched as far as the eye could see--in any direction, she realized, craning her neck around--and not the forest she'd been in, or the mansion or anything else familiar. Pushing herself up on her knees, she stared.

"...I refuse to believe I've died," she remarked dryly, crossing her arms.


"You are not dead," the smooth voice came from behind her. "You are here, however, which gives me cause for alarm. Where is the Corruptor?"

There had been no warning before the voice, no footsteps or any kind of sound, and Wanda turned in alarm, scrambling backwards.

She stopped, though and stared. "I...sorry? Who? And if I am not dead, then I clearly must be insane because you're a giant talking cow."

Indeed, the woman's voice seemed to emanate from a very cow-like being, her large brown eyes gazing at Wanda soulfully. "You see me through the veil of your own thoughts and memory. This form is..."

She blinked her eyes, suddenly standing upright and clothed in a flowing brown robe, "...unusual. But it shows that you recognize me and know that I am no threat to you. I am Bova, although that should mean nothing to you. And you are the one who is called Wanda, daughter of Magda."

That broke through the veil of 'in unknown place, talking to a large cow' fairly quickly and Wanda found herself on her feet, swaying a little bit. "Yes, that was my mothers name. How do you know how I am? And more importantly, where am I?"

"You are..." Bova's lips fluttered, almost as if searching for the words to describe something the human mind could not comprehend. "It is easiest to say that you are inside your own mind, but a portion of it that you have never seen, a part meant left unseen. A prison, of sorts."

"I've been captured," she murmured, remembering the cold, oily voice that had stolen into her thoughts before she woke up here. "If I am in here, then this Corrupter of yours must be where I was."

Bova nodded. "We are... your consciousness does not have the concept to describe us. We are beings of a higher existence. Many of your millennia ago, one of our kind committed the unthinkable crime, murdering another of us. For his sins, he was cast out, into this world imprisoned. And his victim followed as well, for we cannot die as you conceive it. Chthon did not die, he merely slept. When he awoke, he was but a fragment of himself, trapped in the mind of your kind, a human mind. But he is the Corrupter, the Lord of Chaos. Through this mind, and others through time, he has brought his works into your world."

Reaching out a thick-fingered hand, Bova touched Wanda's hair. "Your mother, Magda. She knew of us. She called to us with her gifts, as many have done. You were born touched by Chthon, Wanda daughter of Magda. You are the last mind he has touched and now he has grown strong enough to emerge into your world. And so you are here in his place."

Wanda stared at her. "This is almost too much to handle," she whispered, cradling her head. She didn't fear this person, creature or whatever it was. No matter the role they played with Chthon, Bova was not here to harm her.

The idea of being trapped away while someone with ideas of godhood ran around with her body stirred her though and she lifted her head, a stubborn glint in her eye. "Alright, then, where's the exit?"

Bova cocked her head at Wanda, a gesture that had an odd effect for a cow. "It took Chthon over sixty of your millennia to even gain the strength to observe outside his prison. To simply escape is impossible, Wanda daughter of Magda."

Wanda snorted softly and pushed herself to her feet. It was weird, it felt like being weightless, there was little physical sensation here. Even standing didn't help the view and it felt like it was never ending.

Closing her eyes, she randomly picked a direction and started walking. Over her shoulder, she commented, "We shall see about that. From everything you've said, this Chthon was trapped here after expending a vast amount of energy. Mine was a bit more unexpected and, besides, I have friends who will not be taking this lightly."

Bova nodded, looking past Wanda at a flickering red glow in the air. "Indeed they are not. Behold."



With Storm down, Sam comes in next. And things get interesting.



With that...that witch dealt with, Chthon allowed herself to relax and bopped slightly in the air. Not only had she been forced to use a large amount of energy simply gaining control of this wretched body but now she found herself on the defence. And the white haired woman would not be the only one coming to rescue their 'friend'. And it was not a fight on one battle field, she thought, forcing this Xavier person back with her mind, of course not. Nothing was that simple and it hadn't been since her imprisonment all those years ago.

Now that he had broken the sound barrier, getting anywhere on or near the mansion grounds took Sam about as long as it took to think about it. And the benefit of hypersonic speed was that you got there ahead of the sound announcing your approach. So the only warning the entity posessing Wanda's body had was a brief glimpse of his blast field glowing in the distance before he was upon her.

Chthon shrieked in fury, the sound as unhuman as it could get, and dropped lower to the point that her bare feet skimmed the water. The weather witch had been fast enough, must there be another so close to the first? And this one was hard to keep an eye on, damn his manuvering. But they were in a forest after all and, as it turned out, Chthon enjoyed this trick almost as much as Wanda had. Without warning the trees around them exploded and sent a shower of leaves and bark raining around them in a thick cloud.

Sam smiled grimly through his blast field. Either the entity didn't have complete access to Wanda's knowledge about the rest of the X-Men, or she was still getting used to her powers. Sailing through the explosion of leaves and bark like they weren't even there, the debris flashed into ash on the corona of his blast field as he made another pass, attempting to drive her into the lake.

It very nearly worked and Chthon was more than a bit shaken as she forced herself higher. These people weren't supposed to be threats. She'd known Wanda would be powerful, her influence was more than enough to make sure of that, but they were supposed to be like the Knights that had guarded her while she slept. Powerful enough to do what she wanted, when she wanted, but not to interfere. Eyes narrowing slightly, she tested the man by sending a hex bolt at him.

The nova-bright flash that resulted from the hex bolt interacting with his blast field nearly blinded Sam. In fact, it might have if it weren't for the goggles he wore. They polarized just enough for Sam to maintain his vision, and he spared a quick thought that he'd thank Paige after this was all over, and he heeled through an Immelmann turn, burning in at Chthon again, darting from side to side to avoid another pair of hex bolts.

Shrieking in fury again, a sound that scared away whatever animals were left in the woods, rings suddenly appeared around raised hands. The bolts were fun and worth it but they expended far too much energy. This woman's powers seemed to be more along the lines of finese than anything else and wasn't up for burning through that much raw energy. But, oh well, whatever got the job done. And there were so many pretty strings to play with...

Chemo- meaning chemical. Kinetic, meaning motion. Chemokinetic, meaning movement as a result of a chemical process. Normally, Sam's blast field rendered him functionally invulnerable while still permitting air through for him to breathe. But when the chemical corona that allowed him to fly suddenly hardened around him, Sam was left encased in a form-fitting shell, with no way to move, see, or breathe. The shell plowed a furrow in the ground, stopping when it slammed up against one of the trees, nearly splitting it in two from the force of impact.

Chthon smiled and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Two down," she hummed.



Haroun's turn and he manages to do a little better...but not much.



Forcing herself up higher, Chthon settled briefly on a overhanging branch that stuck out over the water. Breathing deeply, she glared and screeched at the people beneath her, ignorning the pain in her throat. These ants were starting to become annoying, despite the fact that several were dealing with the consequences of confronting her.

A noise caught her attention and she stood, staring in the distance. Another flier?

~Comm, Jetstream. I've made contact and am engaging. Get me some backup!~ he subvocalized as he swooped in for the kill. He'd fought alongside Wanda - although supposedly this wasn't Wanda really -enough times to know that given time she'd find a way to kill you somehow. The trick to taking Wanda Maximoff was not to give her that time. Hit her and _keep hitting her_ until she went down. Give her time to breathe, and you were a dead man. In accordance with this theory, he kicked up the speed and aimed for a pass-by kick to her head. Shouldn't kill her - he hoped - but should definitely ring her chimes a spell.

Though she moved to avoid the blow, she wasn't fast enough. It didn't connect entirely but that slightly was enough to force her off the branch. It was a shock as she righted herself in mid-air and grabbed at her shoulder. Chthon hadn't felt pain in...in...it had been longer than she could remember. And this hurt.

The trees around them groaned in warning as she yanked on the strings to send them falling around, her anger evident.

Haroun ducked and weaved to avoid the falling branches, but wasn't quite good enough to miss them _all_. Luckily, the branch hit his left leg and promptly caught fire for its troubles. Not for the first time, he wished he had a gun. Load it with gel rounds and pop her before she did anything crazy.

Crazier.

Time for another pass. He pulled a tight a turn as he could without blacking out and came in for another pass. Second verse, same as the first, he thought with amusement.

Despite the urging to run, flee, get to safety, Chthon school her body and thoughts and waited, unmoving, as the man came closer. At the last second, she shifted, hands moving like she was playing a harp. Coming to rest on another branch, she grinned suddenly.

The woods against exploded around them but it wasn't the creaking of trees being broken or leaves exploding, but the shrill cry of a frightened flock of birds torn off their course of flight. And the black cloud was heading for a straight on course with her opponent.

Haroun had, of course, heard the expression "eating a little crow". But he'd never intended it to be quite so disturbingly literal. He had his face covered, of course, which saved him from asphyxiating. That was the good part. But the 'caw'ing and the scrabbling of feathers and the claws on the beasts toes were _not doing his face any good whatsoever_. His goggles saved his eyes, but one of the damned things manage to poke a claw-tip through the mesh covering his nose and mouth and hook his nostril.

Pursing her lips slightly, Chthon nodded in a vaguely amused way. It looked like it hurt. Good, it would keep him busy. She glanced down and frowned. Which was good as it seemed there was a never ending line of these people.



Alison keeps her distance but manages to keep Chthon busy and distracted long enough.



Surprisingly, there was a lull as Chthon's attackers pulled back into the wrecked foliage around them to regroup. She took the time to catch her breath and wiped sweat from her eyes. Exhaustion and pain from a hit she'd taken on her shoulder from the second flier dogged her and, with it, the surprise that she was feeling this way.

Never could she recall feelings like this before. And it worried her.

The light that surrounded her briefly seemed innocuous and warm, almost comforting perhaps, after the sudden end to the previous combat allowed the wind to chill her through.

The way the light suddenly twisted, playing havoc with her senses as the light show went mad, however, had nothing pleasant nor warm about it.

The swirling lights nearly dropped her from the skies and Chthon scrambled at the closest branch. Curling her hands around the rough back, she blinked furiously in an attempt to help counter balance the dizzyness. No such luck and she growled, swiping one hand in front of her but that didn't help, either. What was this?!

Keeping her focus on the figure cligning to the tree, spidery like in the interplay of stark shadows and light, Alison kept up the lightshow, not moving from her hiding place, as it were, intent only on keeping 'Wanda' busy and distracted for as long as possible, hoping the nausea and further physical strain would help those who were currently marshalling their forces to try and oust the interloper from Wanda's body. She wasn't sure how long this would work and knew that her only advantage lay in heightening the sensations as much as possible, even if it meant a fall from the tree for her target.

Chthon struggled and tossed a hex bolt in the direction of the irritation but it was half hearted at best. There was a build up and she couldn't fight this, but she had to try.

Closing her eyes only did so much, she was still seeing them on her eyelids and beyond. But it did help and taking a steady breath, she opened them again to deal with this woman...

And then realized that this had been a distraction, all aimed to divert her attention away from her shields. It was a heart beat moment, one of many, that Chthon realized this had been a chilling mistake on her part.



Wanda manages to get a bit of a helping hand.



Unable to see what was going on beyond the walls of the prison, despite the fact that Wanda knew something had to be happening if the flickering red was any indication, she found herself growing more and more desperate. She'd actually come up to a physical barrier and currently was testing the strength of it.

"Is there anything you can do to help?" she asked Bova, frowning.



"Not on my own," Bova said quietly. In the air around her, there seemed to be another presence, invisible but still unmistakably there. She extended a thick fingered hand towards the red glow, speaking again as if with multiple overlapping voices.

"The Corrupter embodies chaos, Wanda daughter of Magda. The uncontrollable, the inevitable randomness of fate. Yours is the power to seize control of that fate. Take this moment, now."

"...what do you mean by..." Her words were cut off by a sharp cry as the wall in front of her trembled and rippled. Wanda stepped back but stopped as she watched an opening slowly form and a breeze whispered through it. And on the other side...

"I've always hated 'Through the Looking Glass'," Wanda muttered and took a deep breath, looking towards Bova. "Thank you." And with that, she stepped through, back towards where she belonged and towards the welcoming voice of Xavier.



Bova hung her head regretfully as Wanda vanished from sight. "You would not thank us if you knew what was in store, Wanda daughter of Magda. Good journey."



Jim is called on for a little more telepathic support and, despite everything, he and Nathan, and Charles, manage to do exactly what's needed.





Jim wanted to be running. His heart certainly felt like he had been. He knew he couldn't afford it. Physical proximity meant nothing to a telepath, but concentration could not be cheated.

"The walls are weakening." He tried hard not to think about what that meant.

He'd woken up to Charles in his mind and the dance of scarlet light in the trees beyond his window. With consciousness came knowledge, and an instant later Jim was yanking on his shoes and out the door, not bothering with his jacket. He'd barely even registered the confused students moving through the halls around him. A brief word of acknowledgement, a brush of psychic reassurance -- that was all he'd been able to offer. What more could he have done? Charles was already taking care of them.

Concentrate.

The light was getting closer. Not too much farther to go, now, even at a walk. He took a deep breath and sent his mind forward, seeking the others. Up ahead, fighting -- and above them a mind that should have been familiar, flickering in and out of his awareness. Wanda, but not Wanda.

He pulled back into his own mind, a withdrawl that was almost a recoil. He was frightened, he realized. He didn't want to do this. Not to Wanda, not to anyone. Not ever again. But Charles had asked it of him, and Jim knew there was no choice. My fear, or her life. Not a choice at all, really.

The telepath took one last second to prepare himself and cast his awareness forward once more, this time seeking contact with one mind in particular.

Calm.

Nathan felt the brush of familiar thoughts, in the middle of the fight. #Jim,# he sent back, his mental voice strained. #Don't get too close... it's a mess over here...#

Jim couldn't help but laugh as his steps slowed, then stopped. #I don't intend to get in the way,# he sent, resting a hand against a tree. He was sitting down so he could concentrate, he thought as he sank to the frozen ground. Only that. Only that. He crossed his legs under him and closed his eyes, projecting a gentle warning to the other man as he slipped himself forward. He could sense Charles fighting above him, his attack escalating in intensity. There wasn't much time left. Concentrate the mind on the present moment. Calm.

Nathan went for cover, or for what questionable cover a tree provided in the midst of all of this. He just needed a minute, to solidify the link with Jim and thicken the shields, just a little, to accomodate the two of them looking out onto the battle through one set of eyes.

#Are we buying Charles an opening?# he sent, his mental voice stronger as he found himself able to draw on Jim's strength as well as his own flagging reserves.

Jim supplied a wave of wordless affirmation as he added his own shields to Nathan's, strengthening their mutual defense. Preparation. Preparation was everything. He needed to be below the patterns, below the structure, feeding directly into the source. Free of will. Free of intent. Nothing forced or imposed. Follow the paths in the riverbed. Charles' assent filtered through his mind like the light of a distant star.

Anger crackled across the astral plane, wild and building, an alien tang that felt like battery acid in the back of Jim's throat. Through Nathan's eyes he could see Wanda balanced on a treelimb, her skin burning crimson in the chaotic energy that surrounded her hands. The snarl that twisted her face rendered it almost unrecognizable. The world around her seemed to ripple and shear.

#It's not human, whatever it is.# Nathan's presence was startlingly clear, even in the midst of the distortion. #But its defensive patterns are fraying, I can see it...# They weren't patterns he recognized, but he could recognize their purpose, and their cohesiveness was slipping.

#It's like any structure,# he said to Jim as he stepped back out into the open. #Hit it at the right spot and it crumbles.# He concentrated on the psimitar, hoping to hell that probability did not choose this particular moment to shift around it.

Anything can be broken. The thought echoed in Jim's mind even as he felt Nathan tense for the attack, and for one terrifying moment he was back in that night, in those minds, and everything was breaking around him and his stomach began to heave and no no no--

Not this time. Sharp-edged and clear, like a stab of lightening against a cloudy sky, and Nathan was bringing the psimitar to bear as Wanda launched herself into the angry sky It's different now. Charles and Nathan. I trust Charles and Nathan. I trust them. I trust them.

I trust them.

And so, in the split-second that passed between Charles' signal and Nathan's engagement, Jim turned all of his strength towards the spillway he'd built into Nathan's power and pushed.

Nathan was startled by the amount of power that was flowing through him at first, but then he forced his mind back to the problem at hand - the fight at hand, and shaped that power and his into a single stream, pouring it through the psimitar, amplifying it exponentially.

His mind was going to feel a little on the singed side in the morning, Nathan thought dimly, and let the blast fly, right at Wanda, or whatever was inhabiting Wanda's body. The surge of power hit those strange patterns squarely, fracturing them. Not entirely, and that gave Nathan something of a shock, but enough to create an opening. Enough to make her... him... it? falter.



In the end, Wanda and Chthon fight for the right to be there and Wanda goes that extra distance. And Lorna reacts just in time to save her not-quite-sister.



It hadn't hurt leaving but, oh, coming back almost made Wanda wish she was still stuck in that mental prision. It was like her/their mind was on fire despite the familiar and soothing presence of the Professor surrounding her, even as he fought to push Chthon out of his X-Man's mind.

Two minds were never built to encompass one space, not like this. It felt crowded and like she was drowning in someone else.

Chthon snarled and renewed her...his?...attack, both on Xavier and now on Wanda. This was to be his body, she had been banished! To have escaped so easily when it had taken him lifetimes was not fair!

"This is mine!" he howled in her head, pushing and pulling on her as he oozed around the essence that made her Wanda. He would kill it, he would, though death was not something he generally enjoyed. But this was his last chance for now--possibly ever--and he simply could not let that slip by him.

What?

No.

No.

No.

If Wanda Maximoff was anything, it was determined. As the icey blackness surrounded her, she realized with a shock that it was literally do or die. And she would not die. Not like this, never like this. Somehow, despite the screaming pain, she activated her powers and a dark reddish glow was cast over the entire clearing.

The strings were warped and twisted but for once, Wanda could see her own. More importantly, she could see his. This entity had but a limited time to get used to how she did things, she'd had twenty-eight years. And soon it was his turn to realize that something was not right.

'...no, don't do this, you could kill us both!'

'Perhaps.'

She gathered all of the strings that screamed Chthon, intruder, in her mind and held them tightly. Some of her strings were interlaced with them but there was no helping that and there were none that seemed to be harmful to the point of death. Hopefully.

As Charles pushed one last time, she gathered up her strength and ripped, a visible ball of red growing between her hands. A scream, her own, mingled with Chthon's mental one as the power built up to immense power.

Normally, a hex bolt was excess chaotic energy or, at best, a little bit of energy from pulled strings. But this one was one of a kind, created from actual strings and another power source.

Vaguely aware of a shouted warning to get down, get away, get clear, Wanda finally let go. As a wave of pure entropic energy surged around her, she felt another, alien presence for a brief second.

There were no words but she felt Chthon screaming in pain and anger as his Knights, aware that this world was not a place for him, gently pulled him back home. And then there was nothing but the sensation of falling.


By chance or fate, Lorna had arrayed herself slightly away from the main force. No uniform, because she wasn't team but she couldn't have stayed inside. When the wave of energy raced across the water, Lorna did what everyone did--braced and shielded. Unlike most everyone else though, she also locked herself in place an immovable object against the unstoppable force. The landscape ripped itself to pieces around her and out of the corner of her nearly shut eyes, she saw a figure in black go flying. The world was awash in deafening sound and lethal wind. Then it was all silent.

Lorna drew in a breath and looked back just in time to see Wanda's pale, limp form hit the icy lake waters. Releasing her shields with a cry, Lorna had flung herself forward before she realized what she was seeing. She sped over the surface then dove and hit the water just scant moments after Wanda, reaching out for the EM signature that she knew had to be somewhere in the inky, freezing depths. It was her seeking hand that made contact though, quickly numbing fingers brushing over insensate flesh.

With her lungs screaming for air, Lorna grabbed at Wanda and dragged her close, hurtling them both back out of the water. The wind slapped away her first breath, stealing it with bitter cold and disoriented her. In a half daze, Lorna moved them toward the largest EM field she could sense, not needing to see for that. She just hoped it was the mansion.