xp_logs | Somewhere I Belong

Amanda and the X-Men track down Topaz and Taboo and Amanda makes the man an offer he really can't refuse.

Topaz wasn't scared.

Really, she wasn't. She was currently on the floor, hands bound behind her back, her head pounding, a pillowcase over her head obscuring her view, but she wasn't scared. She was glaring in the direction she could hear Taboo's voice, not that it mattered, and a small voice in the back of her mind was telling her she was stupid not to be scared - no one knew she was here, no one would save her. She was on her own.

But she wasn't scared.

"So we're good here?" Taboo's voice was close - but not too close. "We've got a deal?"

Before anyone else could speak, however, there came a brisk knock at the door. "Room service!" A female voice called, a voice Topaz recognised.

Topaz's head snapped up, eyes widening. "What the hell?" One of the men grumbled, heading over to the door. "This isn't-"

He was cut off by Topaz's voice, loud and sharp and slightly panicked: "Amanda!"

All hell broke loose.

The door imploded, propelled by a blaze of pure New York - the hot fetid air of the subway tunnels, the blistering heat of the pavements in July, the blare of every taxi in every traffic jam - catching the man who had been about to answer it and blasting him across the room. In the doorway stood an enraged witch, fists clenched and eyes glowing dangerously as she surveyed the scene. She took in Taboo and stepped forward.

"You," she grated, raising her fist, energy crackling over her knuckles. "There won't even be a smear left when I'm done with you."

Scott followed Amanda through the door, his eye flicking around the room taking in the situation in the room before he rested a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Topaz first," he reminded her quietly. "The girl is walking out of here with us," he told the occupants in the room in a matter of fact voice.

"And anyone who tries to prevent that will at best be limping out of here", Kurt snarled, eyes flicking between Topaz and Taboo. "Please. Try."

"Best listen to 'em 'cause they don't normally kid around." Logan said as he sauntered through the doorway then leaned back against the wall. He casually slid his claws free then held them up in an X in front of him. "Don't get any funny ideas either. I especially ain't in the mood."

Voices, so many voices. Topaz struggled against the ropes binding her wrists, trying to make sense of what was going on. She let out a noise of surprise when a rough hand grabbed her by the arm, dragging her up. "Sorry mates." It was one of the men. "Old man said she's ours now."

Kurt didn't waste time. A teleport forward put him an inch from the buyer, a punch in the face no one could have seen coming put the man on the floor, he reached for Topaz's arm, and then he was gone again and had deposited Topaz safely behind his three companions.

"No, she is ours. Would anyone else like to argue?"

Amanda's instinct had been to shake Scott's hand from her shoulder and go ahead and shred Taboo where he stood, but his words registered. Topaz didn't need to see that. "Do you want to argue?" she asked the older man in front of her, a particular glint in her eyes begging him to say "yes."

"She's my daughter," he replied, grinding his teeth. "I've known her almost her whole life. You've barely known her five minutes. What makes you think I'm going to let you take her away from me again?"

The teleport left Topaz completely disoriented for a moment. She shook her head, blinking dazedly, still struggling to get free. The ropes were starting to dig into her wrists. She did, however, manage to pick up the last bit of what Taboo was saying. "Not goin' with you," she mumbled, shaking her head again.

Logan knelt down beside Topaz and pulled the pillowcase off her head. "Hold still, kid. I'm gonna cut you free." Next he carefully cut the ropes from around her wrist then helped her up. Once she looked steady enough on her feet he glanced back at the confrontation in front of them. "Hey, asshole, maybe you should listen to your daughter first before you go decidin' anything and she just said 'no', in case you missed it."

"Sounds like she's made up her mind," Scott pointed out to Taboo turning to face the man head on, "I'm not really inclined to leave Topaz with, or even trust, anyone who would sell his own daughter. So here's what's going to happen, we leave and you don't bother her ever again, got it?"

"Legally she's mine," Taboo retorted. "You push this, you'll have to get me arrested, go through the whole court deal. Which means Topaz here is the only witness. You want to put her through that?"

Topaz took a step back, half ready to bolt out the open door. She'd run before she went with him again. She wanted to believe they wouldn't really let her go with him, but she'd also wanted to believe that Taboo had changed. Her judgment wasn't the most trustworthy, clearly. And what if they decided she wasn't worth the trouble?

"It will be all right, Topaz, stay where you are", Kurt said with a glance back over his shoulder at her, and then he moved fast and before anyone could stop him, he'd grabbed Taboo by the collar and slammed him hard against the wall. Holding him there against all efforts to struggle free, he spoke in tones of level fury. "This is what is going to happen. We are going to take Topaz back to where she is safe and cared for as clearly you do not, before she runs out of this room rather than spend another moment with you. You are never going to contact, approach, or attempt to harm her in any way ever again. If you do, we will know."

His grip tightened on the man's collar almost to the point of choking. "As far as I am concerned, you are the lowest piece of scum in existence. These two" - gesturing at the buyers without looking at them - "may trade in slaves, but you would have sold your daughter. Come near her again, and if you are lucky, I will find you first. I live by a code not to kill. So if I ever see you again, I will take a knife, I will put it here" - he pressed hard on the base of Taboo's neck - "and I will see it to it you live out your natural life with no use of your arms, legs or voice. If my sister sees you first... well, it may be over more quickly."

He finally, contemptuously, let Taboo slump to the floor. "I lost a sister to a man like you, many years ago, and there was nothing I could do about it. I will not let the same happen to Topaz."

Logan shot a glance to the two human traffickers and bared a feral grin in their direction. "Most of us here ain't got pretty pasts and mine's far more checkered than you'd expect." He jerks a thumb at Kurt. "He's also one of the far more principled folks 'round here, so if I were you I'd cooperate without much fuss. If you get my meanin'."

He'd love nothing more than to let loose on the assholes with his fists and some judicious use of his claws, but the kid already looked unsteady on her feet. There was also a heavy dose of wanting to bolt interlaced with the panic and fear. Considering the scum Kurt had pinned to the wall was her father, she probably wouldn't take well to the damage he wanted to inflict on that particular piece of shit.

"You can't threaten me," Taboo managed, voice rasping. "You're from a school, I know your faces. Touch me and I'll have you shut down. Topaz is mine. I'll do what I bloody well want with her."

"Get Topaz out of here. We're leaving." Amanda's voice was flat. She was the least threatening individual there, a small blonde woman in jeans and a t-shirt with "Never mind the bollocks" written across it. As the three X-Men began to withdraw, she fixed Taboo with a steady look. "You think you have all the answers, don't you? You'll take down the school, get Topaz back, do whatever the fuck you want. But I'm not from the school. You have no idea who I am, and if you so much as set foot in the States again, I'll know. And there won't be anything left of you."

She poked him in the chest with her finger, letting the stored power of New York run through him, a low magical hum that spoke of muggings in city streets, drug dealers and pimps preying on the weak and desperate, rapes and assaults and domestic beatings and child abuse, every ugly part of the city. "Feel that? That's what I am. And you've gone after one of mine. You come back, what the Destines are going to do to you will look like nothing."

Taboo made a choked sound, a protest despite the rising violent energy running through him. Amanda drilled her finger into his chest, her fury propelling her power into the old spell Rack had used to drain her. Beneath her fingertip, she could feel his heart fluttering.

"Forget about Topaz. From now on, she doesn't exist. You forfeited every right to her you might have had when you dragged her into this fucking vendetta of yours." She flexed her finger slightly and Taboo groaned, turning grey. "The only reason you're alive now is because you were her dad, once, and I don't want her to see what I'll do to you. Next time, if you're stupid enough to make there a next time, she won't be a witness." She pulled her finger out of his chest with a look of disdain. "Get the fuck out of here, all of you."

The men exchanged wide-eyed looks before turning back to Taboo. "Sorry old man, you're on your own." And with that they took off, making an exit in a nearby wall for themselves rather than going out the front door and having to go past the blonde or any of those other freaks. That girl definitely wasn't worth all the trouble.

Taboo dropped to the floor, grey and shaking. "What... what are you?" he gasped at Amanda, clutching his chest. "You're a monster."

"Yeah, I am." Amanda stepped away from him, expression still remote. "And you really shouldn't fuck with me and mine." With that, the turned her back on him, walking to the door. "We're done," she told Scott.

Scott spared the cowering man on the floor a cold glance as he held the door open for Amanda, there wasn't anything he could add to the blonde's speech. He didn't know if Taboo would ever even think of trying anything, but if he did he knew exactly what was waiting for him. "Come on," he said turning his back contemptuously on Taboo and letting the door shut on the old man, "let's go home."