Operation: Anansesem

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Having finally met up with the others, Wanda is brought to a forgotten city where they do manage to find the three missing magicians. No one ever said they were going to be in the same shape...




"This is it," Wanda said from the back, leaning forward slightly to peer out the windows of the rented vehicle. What looked to be decaying buildings sat clustered around trees that would weather the harsh climate that being close to the Sahara brought down. The place had been abandoned for years - perhaps it had been a way station at one time or built for trade. But the life had died out of the village years ago and it had lay still since.

From the blood seeping into the ground near the jeep, more than just the village's life had died.

"Help me out," she directed to Amanda, fumbling with the door handle.

Amanda opened her mouth to object, then closed it again, face going expressionless as she jumped out of her side of the Jeep and ran around to open the door. Her boots squelched slightly in the bloody earth. "You are so not up for this," the witch muttered as she let Wanda lean on her shoulder. "We're here. Do you sense anything?"

"Pain and a lot of it," she ground out between her teeth, leaning heavily on Amanda and the cane. The attacks had not really ceased but now it were more of a constant wave of pain. As if whatever Monona had been going through had stopped being surprising and had started to be normal. "She's here, somewhere."

The smell of blood and dust was strong in the air but she had been smelling it for days, so she was undisturbed by it at this point.

Bishop stepped out of the Jeep behind the two women, looking around slowly and then to them. "Is that all we have? Cryptic, magical guidance? Can't we get a bug and a GPS with our budgets?" Amanda was supporting Wanda well enough and him trying to be overly helpful when he'd more likely need to be mobile could get them hurt, so he left the two hobbling around as he took up a good over-watch position.

"You say that in a way that synonymizes 'technology' for 'magic'. Technology only takes you so far," Doug muttered. "GPS can lead us to the village, but that means crap-all for the people themselves." He glanced around the area, ill at ease. "Besides, magic and technology don't always play very well together."

"I think you just do not want to have to buy another laptop so soon." Marie-Ange made a face at the puddles of blood forming around the Jeep's tires and gingerly stepped out of the back seat. "It could be worse. We could have been stuck just with my precognition to guide us. Which no one wants, and we should all hope that we never have to use it to try to find somewhere."

"We should probably start in." Jubilee noted, having gone very silent as they moved closer to the village. "Before we get a welcoming committee."

"I really don't think we need to worry about that," Amanda murmured, looking around at the blood-stained ground. "At least, not from the locals."

"I don't think anyone's worried about the locals," Mark offered. "So if this place is a ghost town, where's the fresh blood coming from? There's kind of a lot of it."

"Staying outside of de world of de arcane, dis is Africa. Slaughtered villages are not dat uncommon, and de weapon of choice is often something sharp and heavy." Remy's gaze darted from building to building, sizing up the town. "If dere's a tribal element support whatever it is we 'bout to run into, de bodies will be stacked in several of de homes. Keep an eye out."

A second jeep pulled in behind the first. Betsy exited the driver's side door and grimaced at the squelching sound from the ground. She looked down and swore, lifting her foot. "Please tell me that's not an eye."

The Cajun scruffed the bloody earth for a moment, considering the available options. "Betts, why don't you take Wanda and some de others towards what she senses as de source. Remy take de rest de long way 'round, make sure dere no surprises."

Betsy nodded in Remy's direction, walking over to Wanda and Amanda. She let Wanda brace herself on her other side, freeing Amanda. "Time to see this to the end. Amanda, please lead the way."

So the blood hadn't been simply a mental interpretation. Chills ran down Wanda's back as she let Betsy lead her with Amanda at her side. If that had been real, how much of what she had seen and assumed to be false or trickery real? "Forward, they're somewhere in the back of the town."

As they walked on, pieces of body parts started to become visible. An arm here, part of a head there. And several looked either chewed on or torn apart, along with the cuts that dominated the wounds. An odd dream-like taste entered her mouth but she ignored it.

She came to a grinding halt, though, when a weakened voice said in a heavily accented English, "The child is here..." Wanda turned and saw a man slumped against the remains of a house. He was bleeding heavily from multiple wounds. "The child has been ... raised. Dead and he broke his promise to us..."

Amanda raised a hand to Betsy and Wanda, indicating they should pause. "Could be a trap," she said shortly. "Sarah? Let's go talk to the crazy man, shall we?"

Sarah smiled at her crookedly. "What are you implying exactly? That I cope well with crazy?" The plan: If they're crazy, let them be crazy. If they attack, hit them first. The two moved cautiously towards the hovel, listening for a sign of any impending ambush. "Sir, what happened here?"

His eyes focused on them for a moment before glazing over once more. "He came to us ... promised our god back. We took villagers to appease him but we were all bait. A monster..."

As he trailed off, slumping down into himself, an ear shattering scream split through the air. A mixture of pain, rage and triumph that was only answered by Wanda's responding groan as she slumped further onto Betsy as her knees gave out. Somewhere in the back, a being moved in the shadows as something came flying out of the darkness, landing near their feet.

The body lay half-devoured in the sand with no recognizable features even as it took one last, shuddering breath.

"Well, it looks like this shit just got extra real." Bishop stepped up toward the body, looking to the direction it came from. He pulled his pistol, just in case that would help. "This is where zombies come from, right? Or is that New Orleans? Or Haiti? I get that all mixed up."

Farouk raised his brows heavenward for a second, behind Bishop's back but said nothing. Staying quiet and paying attention was seldom the wrong thing to do, and doubly so on this trip. Stressful circumstances brought out all sorts of interesting data, even from most secretive of people.

In some ways he learned more about the mage underworld in the last week than in the year following his discovery of its existence.

Of course one did meet the most appalling people. And the spillover from Maximoff's dreams was less than pleasant. Speaking of witch... He sidled forward softly, blithely avoiding Amanda's glare. The younger mutant still hasn't forgiven him for doping her friend, it seemed.

Amahl touched Wanda's shoulder lightly, majority of his support for the wobbling woman coming vis-a-vis the relatively unobtrusive TK push. "What do we think?" He inquired sotto voce. "You going to faint or throw up?"

Despite the growing pressure behind her eyes, Wanda managed a faint laugh. "God, I hope not," she said, gritting her teeth, "you'd never let me live it down." Her eyes widened slightly. "I think we are about to find what we came here to find..."

Fainting wasn't likely, but throwing up was for Doug, as the amount of gore visible in the village was mixing with Doug's unpleasant memories of New York City. The sickly sweet smell of rancid meat was everywhere, and he couldn't escape it. It was all he could do to swallow the rising bile in his throat and trail along behind the others, clutching the length of wood he'd found to use as an impromptu staff and glancing around nervously.

Something scuttled in the darkness before creeping forward, moving unnaturally. It moved as if some of its parts were broken or just wrong; like it was learning to walk all over again. When it emerged from the back, Wanda realized with a sick feeling in her stomach, exactly why it was moving like that.

It - they - were like some sort of grotesque spider - bodies fused together at odd angles to create six legs from a lumpy torso that once had been three different ones. They were naked but nothing below the neck indicated which body had belonged to which mage, the spell had stripped them of even that much identification. Arms twitched as they pulled themselves along and Wanda flinched.

They could still identify them because the faces, cruelly perhaps, had been left intact.

It moved sideways, regarding them with an inhuman expression. A stone blocked the way for a brief second, before the swipe of several arms sent it crashing through a close by house. The sound of the clatter seemed very loud amidst the shocked silence as they tried to make sense of whatever this 'thing' was, or worse, might have been.

Fortunately, the sounds of the impact on the house had pulled Remy's small team back towards the others, and the Cajun gestured to Marie-Ange and Jubilee silently, indicating for them to move around behind, to flank the creature. He waved up Mark with him, as he crept forward, hoping that it would keep its attention focused on the others for just a little longer.

Jubilee followed Remy's directions without hesitation, her feet speeding along the ground silently as she passed by what was left of a house on the right of the creature. The sound of its movements thudded against her ears as multiple feet hit the ground, but she didn't look sideways, only concentrated on getting into position.

Before Marie-Ange was in place behind the thing, she had a simulacrum of Death out, hooded and wielding a long-handled scythe, and one of the almost ever-present longswords in her own hands. There were days she really regretted that her DNA hadn't provided her a convenient 'blow things up' mutant power, and this was very much one of them.

A string of swear words marked where Amanda and the others stood and the witch immediately moved to in front of Wanda. With the connection, it was likely she would be the first target. "Looks like someone summoned up something they couldn't handle," she said, hands balling into fists. "And here's me in the fucking boondocks. We need to get Wanda clear, she can barely stand up."

Bishop took his cue, he knew that there was a team flanking and that he would have to be the distraction, since Wanda needed to get back and some of the others would need to take her. "I just knew when someone told me that we had the Queen of Hell working with us that I was going to have to deal with zombies." While no one had exactly advised it, he decided it was time to start firing at the beast, focusing on one of the many heads, careful of those gathering behind it.

With a quick glance to Remy for confirmation, Mark followed suit, adding to the din of gunfire with Bon Jovi-fueled plasma blasts aimed at one of the "feet" (if it could even be rightly called that). "I hate my job and I hate my life."

"If you can't take de joke, you shouldn't have signed up." Remy said, as he flung a pair of cards into the creature. It barely seemed to notice them, moving with a viper-like speed in response to the attack. He barely got out of the way of a stone the side of his torso being flung at him, and tumbled as he hit the ground, gaining some distance.

"Wanda! What de hell is dis thing, and how do we hurt it?" Remy called out, scrambling to his feet.

Wanda, surrounded by those who wanted to protect her, shook her head in an effort to clear it. "Somehow - it's them, all of them!" she called back, tugging on Betsy's shoulder so she could be completely set on the ground. Her fingers dug into the ground as she thought it through. "Remy, keep them busy! Amanda, I -" She grunted as her back rippled thanks to muscles clenching in pain. "Give me your hand, I've an idea."

She held her hand up to the young witch even as she clenched Betsy's in her other one as well.

"I hope it's a good one, I've got squat in the way of power here," Amanda muttered. Normally she'd have been terrified, but the same fury that had propelled her ever since Adrienne's description of what had happened to Pete and the others was keeping her functioning now. Nothing was going to get Wanda and that was that. She reached for Wanda's hand, sitting beside her and digging her free hand into the earth as Wanda had done. If there was any energy left in this pile of rubble, she was going to find it.

"Whatever you have in mind, do it quickly." Betsy moved in closer to Wanda and Amanda. She took furtive glances at the conglomeration in front of her. It was eerie how they merged, twisted unto one another, and still sentient. "It's a wonder they're still cognitive."

Doug stepped in front of Wanda and Amanda, shielding them from the creature's direct view. He held the improvised staff at the ready, and when another chunk of masonry came flying towards him and Wanda and Amanda, he swung two-handed, like the staff was a slim bat and the masonry an oversized baseball. He managed to deflect its trajectory enough that it didn't continue on towards whatever Wanda and Amanda were trying to do, but the shock vibrated through the staff as it shattered and continued up his arms, and so he wasn't able to move as the masonry clipped his shoulder and spun him around.

"Not much power is needed, we're going to use what we've got." She tugged Amanda down until she was crouched next to her and Wanda placed their joined hands over her heart where the connection had been shown when Emma and Betsy had gone in. "I need to reach them - overload the connection with their Names."

~~

There was the slightest tingle of energy, more a memory of power than actual power itself, and Amanda had to throw her mutant ability wide open to even attempt to absorb it. "Right then," she grated, eyes squeezed shut. "Let's hope we've got someone watching our backs during this."

Jubilee had finished working her way around the creature and now stood only a little way off from where Wanda and Amanda crouched. She'd have been in on the fight, except that she'd noted the need for someone with a little more offensive power here once Remy's cards had simply slipped off the creature.

"I'm here." she said, looking over at the two as she moved closer in now. She nodded at Doug where he stood, moving to stand beside him. "Do whatever it is you need to, I've got you till you come back."

"As do I," Betsy added, standing behind the lot. The heat hadn't helped as she kept her attention split between the minds of her two friends, as they traversed into a realm she did not understand, and the scattered party.

Wanda and Amanda seemed already lost in whatever they were doing, and Doug rubbed his twinging shoulder as he stood with Jubilee and Betsy. He drew a short combat knife and took the closest position to his teammates. The three of them would make a good layered defense, Jubilee able to deal with anything at range, Betsy somewhere in the middle with her telepathy and combat skills, and Doug at close range with anything that might manage to get through the other two. If the...whatever it was...was going to get through to Amanda and Wanda, it would pay dearly to do so.

***

"Keep it busy, dey say. Might as well say 'Remy, let dis thing from de armpit of Satan's playground gnaw on you face while we stand and talk 'bout weird magic rituals for an hour'. Swear to God, Remy getting tired of fighting things wit' tentacles and meat spores and everything else. Just want somet'ing t' punch in de fucking brain!" The rant came out between clunched teeth as LeBeau charged the creature behind a spray of cards. It reeled back under the impact and swiped at the attacker. LeBeau arced over the blow, jackknifing in the air to land both feet in a heavy blow on the midsection of the creature. With a yell, he slammed down his staff on one of the heads, and as the creature stumbled back, planted his staff and kicked off over it's head. Remy landed with a neat somersault, twirling the staff. In the dusty air, the static drew motes into the tight revolutions of the staff, and channeling his power through it, began to glow purple as he charged them. Pivoting, Remy brought the staff around in a low arc, and it connected with the creature's legs with a thunderclap blow, knocking it from its feet as Remy dashed clear.

"Dat bought us 'nother couple of minutes! Whatever you planning to do, better do it soon!" The Cajun yelled, as the creature clambered back to its feet.

With the thing stomping around like an obese parody of a spider, Marie-Ange was doing more to keep from being squashed than anything else. She sent the image in ahead of her, she and it striking at what she guessed was something like where an ankle would have been on the thing's feet, hoping to cut a tendon or other vital 'connect the leg to the foot' part. Anatomy went right out the window with giant multi-headed spider monsters.

Bishop fired around Remy, quite careful considering, aiming for the heads of the beast. He'd never seen anything teaching how to deal with zombies with multiple heads, it was honestly an ingenious design. He knew he couldn't keep it down for long but he could hope to disorient it. He shot all the heads in turn, part to confuse it and part just in case that might actually work.

Mark messily dodged a foot coming to stamp down on him, rolling and slamming against a half-demolished home with a loud "Oomf!" He blasted wildly to grant him the few seconds he needed to get back to his feet. "We need more firepower," he said to no one in particular as Bishop ran past him. "Oh oh! Bishop! I have a present for you!" He didn't even wait for a response, just redirected his blast at Bishop to energize him.

The energy sponge might have even laughed too, had it not been for the situation. Once Mark blasted him, Bishop continued to fire from his pistol; though for only a moment before it misfired courtesy Wanda's energy corruption and his new charge. Working around the perimeter of the beast, so that he could see and coordinate a more intense and multi-directional attack, he signaled the other man to prepare.

Marie-Ange was just methodically hacking away at whatever leg was closest, in the hopes that the thing would get off-balance or actually needed the unnaturally large number of limbs that it had, and that one less foot or grostesquely deformed foot-like thing would slow it down. Which didn't seem to be the case, but at least it provided some kind of distracted. Every cut she made into it kept it busy for a few more seconds.

***

Meanwhile...

"Monona Konmlan." It was more than a name - it was a Name. And Wanda's bet that between Amanda's connection to the magical and the connection that bound herself and the African mage to each other worked. It rang in Wanda's mind like a gong, causing her to wince but not let go of Amanda's hand. If she did the connection would surely be lost.

The world around them faded like watercolor paint that had been watered down. The colors became muted as they ran into each other, forming other colors or becoming white wash all together. The creature with melted limbs and screaming faces faded as well, though not completely. In front of it now stood the form of a woman - about as tall as Amanda, clearly in her fifties with hair streaked with silver. She looked dignified.

She looked terrified.

"Wanda Maximoff. Amanda Sefton." She Named them in turn, forging an even stronger connection between the three. "You came."

Amanda nodded. "Not much of a choice," she replied, shortly. A faint nimbus played around her, one that Manuel would have recognised as swirling rage. "You have to let Wanda go. You're killing her."

Regret colored Monona's face. "I never ... I never wanted all of this," she said, coming forward until she was only a few feet away from them. "I thought the connection lost when we left the astral plane that day but when I realized it was still there, it turned into my - our - salvation."

"What has happened? Who has done this to you three?"

"...I am ashamed to say this but everything you see before you was my own folly."

Amanda's eyes narrowed. "Your folly? You've done this?"

Even though the other woman now covered her face in shame, her voice still echoed clearly. Wanda felt the gentle but firm presence of Betsy in the back of her mind and felt reassured. "We lost our powers and I lost my identity. What is knowledge without the ability to use it? Especially when my people so often suffer. I was unable to help anyone, let alone myself. A man came to me, having gotten my name through less than honorable means, and the things he promised me..."

Monona steeled herself and stood straight, shoulders back and head up. "The other two were colleagues of mine..."

Wanda interrupted. "Did you say were?"

"Yes. Their bodies are still alive but the essence that made them unique and themselves was stripped by the creature that resides now in me. I was promised my powers back if I could just open this gate. He said that beyond it lay the source of the problem. I was foolish and I agreed while the others resisted. When I did as I was asked..."

"Saturday night," Wanda said to Amanda with horror in her tone, "when I suffered the first attack. All that pain ... oh god, no wonder the other two are dead."

"She opened the gate to let that thing through." Amanda's voice was flat and there was no pity in her eyes. "And killed the other two doing it." Her hands clenched and the swirl of anger around her grew. "Just like Margali nearly did to me."

"I was wrong but I can right this to an extent." Despite the look in Amanda's eyes, Monona stepped forward and placed a hand on Wanda's cheek. "I killed two people that were friends and I endangered the life of someone who had saved mine at one point. Wanda, there is no
going back from this. You have seen what has become of our physical bodies and the internal is just as mangled. Using our link, I managed to buy time - this creature is the embodiment of one of Anansasi's insane children. Locked away for a reason and he now seeks to destroy the world using our powers."

Despite the fact that this wasn't real, the hand on Wanda's cheek felt warm and rough, just like the hand of a woman who had a hard life and had worked every minute of it. She had come to Africa expecting to find a victim and while Monona was a victim, it wasn't the kind she had expected.

Brownish grey eyes suddenly expanded into black pools that ate whatever light happened to touch and for a moment, Wanda felt herself falling - the cord that wrapped itself around her left arm tightened and yanked, eagerly seeking her as well.

She felt Amanda's grip tighten at the same time that Betsy's hold in their mind strengthened to the threat and once again the eyes were simply warm and tired eyes.

Amanda had watched Wanda begin to fall towards the woman and she'd yanked back with all her mental strength. "You're not having her as well," she growled at Monona, or, more accurately, the thing riding her soul. "You have to end this. Now. Or I'll figure out a way to do it."

"We're running out of time. Wanda Maximoff, I'm asking you to end this - kill me. If you kill me you will have a window in which it will be stuck in the body; the portal is still open in the last house. Toss the remains in there and it will seal itself. All I ask is that you tell my daughter that I am truly sorry."

Wanda's hand went up to mirror Monona's on the other woman's cheek. "You were a good woman but your mistakes ... still, I feel as if I know you." The image before them faded and Wanda turned to Amanda.

"The connection is going to shatter between you, Betsy and myself when I do this - I will be fine, tell the others about what needs to be done."

Amanda gave her a slightly suspicious look, afraid of what she was going to do. "What are you planning, Boss Lady? 'Cause if it's some big sacrifice thing, I'm going to kick your arse for you."

The smile Wanda gave her was sad.

"She has such a weak heart..."

Everything went red.

***

Something exploded next to the creature's head but it paid it no mind; instead, it sighed softly and seemed to collapse in on it self, falling in a pile of disjointed limbs to the ground.

Wanda blinked exhausted and gritty eyes even as she felt Amanda's hand leave hers. The pain that had been a constant companion for a week now was gone, though she was certainly not better yet. Exhaustion covered her like a blanket as she stared at the wrist of the hand that had clenched the young witch's.

Wrapped around it was now a wooden necklace that sported a stylized spider in the middle - she'd seen it at the last second wrapped around Monona's neck before the image had vanished.

"Magic," Wanda said, half in irritation and half in awe before she pitched forward as her body shut down.

"Wanda!" Amanda moved to catch her, but the older woman was much bigger than she was and they wound up half-sprawled on the ground. "Ugh, little help?" the witch grunted.

Betsy leaned down and braced Wanda's body against her own, allowing Amanda to move out from under her. "Go on, we've got her."

Leaving Wanda with Betsy and Farouk, Amanda hurried forward to where the bodies lay. "We need to move them. The last house, there's a portal there," she explained, turning one of the corpses over and wincing a little at the state of Jane Burr's body - the woman had been dead for some time and hadn't died well, to judge by the expression on her face. 'Sorry, Kristophe,' she mentally apologised as she swallowed her rising gorge and pulled at the dead woman's arm. "C'mon, help me," she repeated.

And then Jubilee was there, gripping at the dead woman's other arm, and pulling. "Okay, let's get this done. Before our little friend decides he doesn't want to go home. Marie-Ange, can you make some kind of platform to carry them on?"

Working as a team the group hauled the three corpses to the last remaining house. To call it a 'house' was being generous - it was a shell of three walls and part of a roof, crumbling away, barely able to contain the pulsating light of the portal. One by one, the bodies were thrown in, Monona left until last. As her limp form - face far more peaceful than either of her companions - entered the portal, it abruptly winked out.

Amanda sighed and began scuffing out the traditional summoning circle etched in the dust of the floor. "She couldn't handle it, having her power gone," she commented. "After the Shadow King business. So she cut a deal with whoever this blonde bloke and his cronies are."

"We've all made bad deals in the past." Jubilee noted, watching the portal wink out as Monona's body disappeared. It didn't seem right to her, that this woman wouldn't get the chance to make up for that bad choice. But the universe had never promised fair, and not everyone got a second chance. "Come on, let's get Wanda home."

The reply came from several places, and almost could have been rehearsed:

"Shut up, Jubilee."