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ax_main Illyana takes Kitty and Billy to Limbo with her to try and summon the weapon she needs to kill Belasco. Things go horribly wrong.
Illyana still wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but she was definitely doing it.
Pyro'd been right. Granted, that wasn't exactly how she'd worded it when she'd told Kitty - somehow, she'd figured she'd get a lot less help from her roommate if she mentioned where she'd gotten the idea from. But if she wanted to be safe in Limbo, she was going to have to confront Belasco.
When Ashake'd sought to take on Belasco, she'd sought her inner serenity and tried to purge her soul of the evil that had taken root there. Illyana wasn't sure if that was even an option for her, and honestly, she wasn't looking for serenity. Her magic had always responded better to anger - well, she might as well use that, right?
What she needed was a weapon.
And so, she was spreading powdered chalk that she'd mingled with other ingredients on the ground in front of Ashake's oak in the shape of a pentagon, hoping that it would be enough to keep the magic safely confined when she cast the spell. Especially given the fact that she'd brought assistance.
"Billy, can you grab the candles and put one at each point?" she asked, gesturing to the other side of the circle she'd nearly completed, then glanced over to where Kitty was standing guard. "Anything yet?" she called out.
"All good," Kitty reported, panning the horizon for demons just like she might in one of her games. Keep panning, keep your eyes open, don't let them sneak up on you. That was the name of the game. She was also holding a pair of tonfa - side-handled wooden batons - that she'd ordered off of the internet, because if she was going to fight with something, it was going to be something she could hit and run with.
Billy nodded and grabbed the candles that Yana had asked for, placing each one in each corner as instructed. It was his second time in Limbo and he never would get over how much more in control he was here than he had ever been back home. "So, what exactly is the plan again? I get that you're going to try and kill him, but are you sure we can do that?"
Yes, question the plan when he had already agreed to it and traveled to Limbo with them. Nice. Good job, Kaplan.
Illyana shook her head. "No clue. He insists he's unkillable - maybe he is. But that's not a today thing, anyway. I'm just going to see if I can summon up what I need to kill him."
"I hope it's like, a whip of fire or something. Or a tuning fork that will make his ears bleed out," Kitty called back. Okay, maybe she'd been watching a little too much Vampire Diaries lately.
Billy glanced over at Kitty standing guard with a small laugh. "A tuning fork? Might as well get her the one ring as well, though we'll have to go on another mission to destroy that afterward."
"Uh, no. Now you've gone into geekdom I've actually watched," Illyana pointed out. She put the finishing touches on her circle and stood up. "I don't want the one ring. Invisibility sounds overrated, and my soul's already mucked up. It doesn't need help." She grinned a little. "Though I'm not sure we couldn't find Mount Doom around here somewhere. It seems like the right place for it."
She wiped her hands off on her jeans, and took a deep breath. "Okay. I think we're ready. Are you guys sure you want to stick around? I can take you back, first."
Kitty glanced at her. "I'm not going anywhere."
"And leave you alone? Please. We're here to stay." Billy nodded and stood back from the circle, making sure he was in control of his lightning just in case.
"Okay, okay." Illyana rolled her eyes and smiled as she stepped into the center of the pentagram, then sobered. "Whatever happens, don't let anything break the circle while it's still active. Billy, you should be able to tell when it isn't. Just, y'know, in case." She forced a faint smile again, then sat down and closed her eyes, resting her hands, palms up, on her thighs. She honestly wasn't altogether sure what was going to happen, she had to admit. The idea, as she understood it from Ashake, was to pull forth some of the essence of your soul and make it tangible. Given the questionable state of her soul...
No. This was going to work, she reminded herself. All she had to do was focus.
Around her, the circle started to glow.
Kitty glanced back, entranced for a moment by the glowing circle, then turned back to continue scanning the horizon. "Billy, keep me updated."
"Got ya." Billy answered Kitty and continued to watch Yana do her spell. It really was impressive what she could accomplish, and Billy made sure to watch her incase anything went wrong.
How would he even know? He would just have to try.
It was working. And it wasn't. Illyana could feel the energy coalescing, pulling something from her, something almost tangible. All her rage, all her desire for vengeance - all of it was pouring into whatever it was that was starting to form in her hands. At the same time, the magic seemed to want something - something more, something it couldn't find within her. Some kind of sacrifice....
With a sick feeling, Illyana realized just what it wanted. This was Limbo, after all, and the magic was - not dark, per se, but not light either - how could it be, when it was forming from her? It wanted innocence, purity, just as Belasco had, and she didn't have any to give it, not without draining what little she had left, herself. And if she did that...
Well, she'd be exactly what Belasco'd wanted, and this whole thing would've been for nothing, anyway.
There was another option, though. One she wasn't sure she should even be considering, but both Kitty and Billy had promised her anything she needed. It wouldn't, she reflected as she directed the magic to reach out, even affect them, really; unlike what Belasco'd done to her, she wouldn't be touching their souls, or anything that made them them. All she needed was a tiny bit of that innocence....
A tiny bit was enough. Illyana felt rather than saw the flash of light as a sword appeared in her hands; felt the power contained within it. And smiled, knowing that it was right, that it was exactly what she needed.
And then the world darkened, and she fell over, the light from her circle extinguishing as the sword fell out of her hands to land on the ground beside her.
Kitty felt a small chill run up her spine and turned back just in time to see the flash as a sword appeared in her friend's hands. It felt like her breath was literally stolen away for a moment, like the moment she'd watched that mob surge at Tamara on YouTube, like nothing else would ever really be right again. Then Yana was falling to the ground and fear suddenly overcame the sensation. She shoved the batons' handles through her belt loops and ran toward the circle with a shout. "Yana!"
Billy felt vaguely sick to his stomach, his breath catching like the first time Kessler had decided he was too different and needed to be punished for it. He took a sharp breath, his chest hurting a little from it and immediately moved towards Yana when he saw her start to fall.
The circle was done so he didn't think twice about pushing past the lines she had drawn to catch her limp form. "Yana!"
He brought her down gently and quickly felt for a pulse and breath, finding both and breathing a little easier, but not by much.
Kitty dropped down to kneel next to him, her gaze flitting from the sword to her friend, her hands hovering helplessly. "Is she okay? What happened?! Did it go wrong?"
Billy frowned as he unzipped his hoodie and balled it up, placing it under Yana head so she wouldn't be laying completely on the cold ground. "She has a pulse and she's breathing."
He checked the circle and looked at the sword. "Nothing went wrong from what I could tell...Yana? Yana, come on."
He gave her cheeks a few soft pats.
Kitty stared at her for a moment, then reached for the sword, wrapping her fingers around it uncertainly.
Billy about had a heart attack when he saw Kitty reach out and grab the sword, not know what kind of magic is had come from exactly, but when nothing seemed to happen to her he relaxed a tiny bit.
The sword felt weird to him, like it was Yana's and belonged to her, but also felt bits of himself and Kitty connected to it as well. "Something is weird with that sword."
Kitty pulled the sword closer, staring at the faintly glowing sheen. She got to her feet, hefting the weapon, finding that it wasn't as heavy as it looked. "What did she do?"
Billy watched as Kitty stood with the sword, looking like some kind of heroine from a movie or something. He glanced back down at Yana and placed a hand over her forehead, not really expecting a fever, but just in case. "I-I don't know. I mean, when she told me she was going to make a weapon I kind of assumed she was going to do some weird blacksmithing with magic? But she said she'd be using her own essence."
He bit his bottom lip in thought. "So, if it's hers, why can you carry it?"
And why did he feel a connection to it?
Kitty frowned, glancing down at the sword in her hand, then at Yana. "I have no idea." Crouching again, she gently tried to lay the blade against Yana's skin. Maybe it could help in some way? "I may be a genius, but these are your waters, not mine."
"Ugh. Yeah, my waters with floaties and about five life jackets on me. Let's see..." Billy reached out to touch the sword as well, feeling a weird feeling of right when the cool steel touched his skin.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his magic, nowhere near as in tune with it in Limbo as he was with his electricity. He tried to think through everything Yana and Teddy had helped him with and took a deep breath.
"IwanttoknowwhatsgoingonIwanttoknowwhatsgoingonIwanttoknowwhatsgoingon."
His body and the sword glowed blue, then the sword seemed to melt into Yana's body, leaving Billy to just stare at where it had been. "What the fuck was that?!"
"What the heck was that!?" Kitty echoed, jumping back with a sharp gasp.
"I...I don't know! Her body just literally absorbed a sword!" He glanced over Yana again, wondering if having a sword in body would do anything, but Yana remained completely out of it.
Then something occurred to him. "Wait...if Yana is down for the count...does that mean we're stuck here?"
Kitty glanced around them, then nodded slowly. "We need to find some cover. If I phase her, she won't be heavy to carry. Have you got everything?"
"Yeah, hold on." Billy quickly grabbed the few things they had brought with them and glanced around for any kind of shelter or anything. What he found was what looked like it used to be a small beautiful hedge maze, now was brown and leaning in a little which would give them good cover and hide them at least for a little bit.
"Come on, over here."
Kitty nodded, getting her arms up underneath Yana's body, then phasing them both, sprinting for Billy. Good thing she'd been working on holding her breath. If she dropped her phase here, she might end up dropping Yana, and she couldn't afford to do that.
Billy waited until Kitty had carried Yana under the dead hedge before moving in behind them, making sure they were far enough back that they couldn't be found immediately if something were to come their way.
He sighed and took the bags off his shoulders, turning towards Kitty with a grin look when he pulled out his phone. "I mean, not that I didn't expected it, but my phone is completely glitching out."
He held up the screen to show her that the screens pixels were all messed up.
Kitty made a little face as she caught her breath. "Yeah, sorry about that. Remind me to make you a phase-resistant phone."
"Okay, side note, why are you so freaking awesome? Main note, what are we going to do here? Should we just wait till she comes to or I guess I could try using my magic to get us out, but I doubt that would work well."
Billy sighed and sat back against one of the itchy dead hedges. "Maybe I could try waking her up with it?"
Kitty brushed Yana's hair out of her face, trying to think. They were stuck in Limbo. There were demons everywhere. Yana was the only one who knew how to traverse the land safely, or how to get them out. Kitty suddenly wished she knew anything about medicine. Or magic. She looked up at Billy with a frown. "Try. See if you can wake her up. If not, we'll go from there."
Billy nodded, scooting a little closer to Yana and placing his hands in the air above her chest as he closed his eyes.
"IwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeup."
His body glowed blue and for a moment he felt like it was really going to work, but when he opened his eyes and saw that Yana's were still closed he sighed. His body stopped glowing and he dropped his hands back to his sides. "Damn it."
Kitty swallowed hard. "Okay. So, we've got to hope that she's going to. Maybe she's just exhausted. In the meantime, we guard her body and stay out of sight."
"We can hope." Billy muttered, but agreed with her plan and did his best to set up a small barrier, big enough to cover the three of them just in case.
------
Billy jerked awake when he thought he had heard something, listening intently to see if he could hear the sound again, but all that he could hear was the soft breathing from both Sleeping Kitty and still unconscious Yana.
He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. His back and neck killed from sleeping for so long in the weird huddled position and he quietly wondered how long they had been there. He was about to try and see if his phone would do anything at all when he heard the sound again.
It sounded like something shuffling outside their small hiding spot. Billy held his breath as the shuffling continued, then stopped completely. He waited, and when no more noise came, he quietly reached over to grab Kitty's shoulder, making sure she didn't make any noise when she woke.
"Something is out th-” His rushed whisper was interrupted by a horrifying shriek from outside.
Kitty jerked awake at the touch, then nearly stopped breathing at the sound of the shriek. She wanted to scream. To cry. To run. But she couldn't do any of those things, because Yana was there, unconscious, and Billy still needed her help. Swallowing hard, she made a 'wait' hand sign to Billy, then phased out and slowly phased just part of her phase through the hedge.
The sight was horrifying. Several four-foot-tall demons were sniffing around the hedge - all claws and jaws and reptilian eyes that swiveled in their sockets. They were the size of small ponies, and slashed and gnashed at each other like raptors from the Jurassic Park movies. But one...one was staring right at her. She pulled back just in time for claws to shred through the hedge. "Billy!"
Billy reacted faster than he could blink when Kitty yelled his name, reaching over and grabbing Kitty's arm to haul her out of the way as he sucked in a deep breath and let his electricity go.
A large bolt of blue lightening hit the monster that was trying to slash its way towards them, causing it to scream horribly in pain as its smoking body fell to the ground. "Kitty! Phase with Yana and get her away from them!"
He took a terrified breath when their location now caught the attention of all the other ones that had been roaming around.
Kitty started to argue, but there wasn't time and he was right. She needed to make sure Yana was safe. "Be careful," she told him, then ducked down and wrapped her arms around Yana, phasing out and putting her in a fireman's carry as she fled through the maze, desperate to find a place to hide her.
He watched as they phased out and ran, making sure he gave them as much coverage as he could before Kitty's breath ran out.
"I'll try." He muttered even though Kitty couldn't hear him. He thought about trying to use magic to blow them all up at once, but they were too quick for him to have time to think about the correct words let alone let him chant it.
Instead he let them get as close as possible before using himself as a giant living tesla coil.
Kitty dove out of the hedge maze, gasping for air as she phased back in. Yana's weight was suddenly a lot more, and she had to phase back out again to be able to handle it, holding her breath once more. Looking around, she ended up being in a very barren area of Limbo, with grey, scrubby plant life, huge rock formations, and several crevices that seemed to be shooting fire. Wow, remind me not to book my next vacation here, she thought as she raced for one of the largest of the rock formations.
So, turned out that using a large electric attack four times in a row tended to be a strain on the body as Billy fell to his knees on shaky legs. Now he knew how Pikachu felt all those times. He groaned when he noticed that a few of the demons were still getting up after the third shock, only about two, but still! Damn it!
At least they were slow enough that Billy could probably get a spell in before the attacked. He quickly shut eyes as he saw the two start a slow crawl towards him and thought about what he wanted. "IwanttheseassholesgoneIwanttheseassholesgoneIwanttheseassholesgoneIWANTTHESEASSHOLESGONE!!!"
His body glowed bright blue and the demons and their dead companions vanished with a blink of blue light. Billy panted and glanced around to find himself alone again. "Oh, thank god."
Then he promptly fell face first into some dead plants.
It could have been a minute or an hour before Kitty's hands were on him, squeezing, shaking him. "Billy. Billy, wake up. Oh god, oh god, Billy, please..."
Billy cracked his eyes open at the sudden shaking of his body, a plant shoved into his face and his body feeling like it had been run through a taffy puller. "Ugggghhhhh....yes. Yes, I'm here. Kitty, I'm here."
He pushed himself up into a sitting position slowly, his head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton as he glanced over to see Kitty. "Oh good. You're okay. Wait, where's Yana?"
Kitty reached out to help support him. "Safe. I think. Better than you. I had to get back here quick. Where are the demons? Are you okay?"
Billy groaned, shaking his head to clear out the dumb foggy mind feeling and frowned. "Umm...I'm really not sure where they went since I wasn't really specific on that. They could come back since I didn't kill them all, I don't think."
He took a deep breath and stood up on wobbly legs. "I'm okay. Just tired."
"Come on. I found a place to hide for a bit," Kitty told him, putting an arm around him and phasing out, shouldering him across the terrain to the shallow cave in a large rock formation where she'd left Illyana.
When Kitty had gotten Billy to her hiding place, Billy sat down gratefully and glanced over at Yana's prone body with worry. "Still no response?"
The only thing keeping him from panicking about that was that she was breathing, he could see her chest move, but she had still been out for who knew how long which couldn’t be good. He shifted over to the packs they had brought and pulled out two granola bars, tossing one over to Kitty before tearing his open. "I wonder if I could try opening a portal to get us out of here...obviously I'll have to wait a bit, but I could try."
Let's just, you know, take a breather, okay? I don't have a lot of demon-killing power on me right now, so you are all Yana and I have got." Which...really took a lot for her to admit, because she wanted to believe that she could protect them too, but really, all she really had were two sticks and some very wimpy muscles and absolutely no training whatsoever.
"Hey, but you did something vital. You got Yana out of there when it was dangerous. I could probably pick her up, but I could never have carried her far enough where she would have been safe."
Billy leaned his head back and took a bite of his granola bar, chewing for a little bit before swallowing and shifting over to Yana. He took another bite as he studied her still form, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with her. "What do you think that sword was?"
"Her weapon, I'd guess," Kitty sighed, taking a bite into the granola bar. "The real question is: how do we get it out of her?"
"Herm..." He finished his granola bar and dusted off his hands on his jeans before moving into a cross legged position beside Yana. "I wonder if I could try getting it out?"
He held his hands out over Yana and let his eyes go blue as he tried to sense anything from Yana that would give them some kind of clue. He didn't really get anything, so he dropped his hands and his eyes went back to normal. "Quick question for you. Did you feel anything when she summoned the sword? I kinda felt a little sick and stuff."
Kitty nodded. "I felt it too. Right before she finished whatever she was doing. What's that mean?"
Billy frowned a little, wishing he knew more about magic than his basic spell casting, and sighed a little as he tried to think what both of them feeling similar thing could mean with the sword. "Maybe the sword is...not all together good? Which is why we felt like that when it was being summoned? But the feeling went away after it was here, right?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure that tracks," she frowned. "Hold on..." Reaching out, she phased her hand, squinting and inwardly apologizing to her friend as she phased her hand through Illyana's chest.
Okay. Billy knew Kitty wasn't actually digging her real hand into Yana's chest, but even without blood or gore, Billy had to cringe at the sight. Ghost hand or not, it was weird to see.
Kitty didn't know how, or why, but as she slowly pulled her hand out, she was gripping the sword, fingers wrapped carefully around the hilt as she pulled it free.
"What the hell?" Billy gaped at the large sword being pulled out of his friend's chest by his other friend. It made absolutely no sense, but then again magic never made sense. "Holy shit, you did it! You got the sword out of her."
Billy watched her hold it and had to smile. "You kind of have the Warrior Princess vibe going while holding that. Can you do the weird war cry too?"
Kitty raised an eyebrow at him. "Billy, no. Not even in an alternate dimension filled with demons. Just no." She turned the sword over in her hand. "It's heavy though. I wish I'd had any sword training at all. But I think if we're going to survive here, both of us need to be able to fight. And I need to watch your back when you inevitably fall over."
"And as we have both seen that it will happen." Billy cracked his neck loudly before moving closer to Kitty to look at the sword. "Maybe you should try practicing with it a little, can you swing it without falling over?"
Kitty made a face. "Man, I wish they had weapons training at the school." Carefully standing in their little cave, she hefted the sword, giving a test swing. It definitely swung her center of gravity around. She wasn't great with it, but she managed to swing and keep her footing. She gave another swing, concentrating on the weight and the feel of it in her hands.
"Well, look at this. The Baby Boss is back - and she brought some friends for me to play with." S'ym took a puff off his cigar and smirked as he emerged from the shadows, where he literally hadn't been just moments before. At over seven feet tall and built like a defensive lineman, he was an imposing sight - even when you didn't factor in the purple skin, horn, and tail. "Belasco'll love to hear about this, but he won't care if I play a few games with you first."
He smirked and picked the dark-haired kid who had an aura of magic around him up by the front of his shirt. "First game - let's see how well you fly." With an almost negligible flick of his wrist, he sent the kid flying, then turned towards the girl with the sword. "Little girls shouldn't play with pointy objects. Didn't Darkchylde there teach you nothing?"
It all happened so fast that Billy barely had time to take a breath before he was crashing into the ground, his clothes luckily saving his limbs from getting too scraped up while the side of his face took a pretty good beating. He gasped as his entire body flared up in pain, instinct telling him to curl into a ball, but instead he raised his head to see the demon face Kitty.
"S-Shit. No!" He felt something leak from his nose and knew it was blood.
"Billy!" Kitty shouted as he was thrown, but then the massive demon was bearing down on her and she took a step back, trying not to let her fear show. She knew enough by the sight of his huge, muscled form that she had no chance of hurting him head on. He'd grab her sword and toss her aside like he did with Billy. On instinct, she dove through him instead, turning to slash the sword at his back.
"What the-" whatever else S'ym might have said was lost, as his form shimmered for a moment, then exploded in a shower of greyish ash.
Billy stared as it seemed Kitty had just defeated a demon more than twice her size and he quickly stumbled to his feet to get over to her.
Kitty stared at the space where the demon had just been, her heart pounding hard in her chest. She felt frozen in place, at least until she spotted Billy getting up and she dropped the sword point toward the grounding, turning toward him with wide eyes. "Are you okay?"
He limped back towards where she and Yana were, letting out a soft hiss as he sat down next to Yana's body. "I'm....feeling like hamburger meat."
Kitty looked around them, frowning. "If he found us, someone else will too. We can't stay here." She looked pointedly at his limp. "How is your leg?"
Billy frowned down at his leg and fiddled with the tears in his jeans where the ground had torn them up, only a few scrapes and probably huge bruises. "I think my legs fine, it's not broken, just really sore."
He reached up and touched his face, hissing when the salt from his fingers burned the raw bloody skin. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, muttering under his breath that he wanted to be healed. His body glowed blue and he was thankful that, while the magic hadn't healed him completely, at least his face no longer stung like hell. "Okay. You want me to carry Yana this time?"
Kitty watched him heal, her eyes widening slightly in wonder. "If your power can heal...could it find a safe place? Maybe somewhere there's water?"
"Erm...maybe?" Billy replied more than a little unsure. "My magic is better here, but it's also not a hundred percent reliable."
He thought about all the things that could go wrong if his magic decided he said something wrong, or it just wanted to be an ass. "I can try though, if you want."
She sighed, looking around them. "I'm just not sure what other options we have. It's been hours. We have no idea how long it's going to take Yana to wake up," and she didn't say 'if ever'. "We either try to make a portal home or find a place that's safe enough to camp for a few days."
"Okay. Okay, let me try this." Billy made sure to grab Kitty's hand and take hold of Yana's limp one just in case his magic decided to fuck up and send them all to different places. He tried to think of the right words to speak, something that couldn't be confused or twisted, and took a deep breath.
"IwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafe."
-------
Billy sighed, his busted lip and black eye stinging as he shifted the small cup of melting ice and handed it to Kitty for her to drink. Turned out, water in Limbo was undrinkable, at least to humans and also turned out Billy's magic refused to be nice and just give them water bottles. So, instead it had given them bags upon bags of grocery store ice, which was fine, sure whatever, just took forever to actually get any water.
Didn't help that they had been attacked four more times, almost losing Yana twice and Kitty and him practically dying each time. "Ya' know, besides the constant fear of my skin being ripped off by demons or dying from dehydration, Limbo is a fantastic Vacation spot. Top notch."
Kitty shifted uncomfortably on the ground, her legs and abdomen screaming in pain every time she did. She was pretty sure she'd dislocated her knee. At least the clawed gash across her stomach had clotted up beneath the flannel shirt she was using as a bandage. Taking the melting ice, she tipped some back into her mouth and crunched on it, wincing at the movement of her jaw where she'd been clocked by a large bear-like creature. "I can't believe Yana survived here as a little girl."
"God." Billy breathed, shifting carefully what he could swear was a broken wrist closer to his body as he moved to sit next to Kitty and watch Yana's thankfully unharmed body. "I don't even want to think about that. Every time I do, I get mad and just want to blow this place up."
She was a god damn child. He thought bitterly and winced as he moved to look at the wound on Kitty's stomach. "Are you doing okay? You look kind of pale. I could try the healing stuff again, even though last time it only just stopped the bleeding a bit."
He never again wanted to see Kitty's face screwed up in pain while his hands were covered in her blood.
As the two teens reflected on Illyana's past, a line of baleful green fire split the air, no more than a few feet away, its malevolent crackle like the cacophony of dozens of bones splitting and splintering at once. The line rotated in the air until it formed a circle of supernatural flame, the bizarre landscape of Limbo transformed into an even more unsettling contrast of sickly red rock and hungry shadow in an instant. A vague, amorphous figure appeared within the furnace, a figure which soon resolved into the shape of a man, tall and cloaked in scarlet, as it stepped forward.
At least ... it had once been a man, possibly. The figure's skin was ruddy to match the blood-colored clay of Limbo, the eyes set deep within his lean face a glowing yellow, as if lit from behind by the same molten rock which split and cracked the surface of his home. Two horns curved upward from his highbrow, and a forked tail occasionally snaked angrily from beneath the hem of his long cloak. When he stretched forth an arm to place it over his chest and offer a mocking bow of greeting, it was immediately clear that the opposite limb had been sheared away at the shoulder at some point in the past.
"Children," he rasped, "you've survived. Good. Good." It was an inhuman mockery of a human voice, an impossible voice that combined the hiss of the acrid sulfur vents around them and a frigid echo from a fantastically deep pit. "I had hoped to thank you in person for returning my apprentice. My realm is ... not terribly welcoming of guests." He gave them each an appraising look, and his lip curled back in a fanged half-smile. "But I think you may have noticed this, yes?"
However pale Kitty might have been before the figure appeared, it was nothing compared to how she looked when all the blood drained from her face, her heart starting to pound in her chest as she scrambled back against the wall and dragged Billy with her, unable to take her eyes off of the demon. Demon sorcerer, she corrected herself. Because she knew, instantly. "You're Belasco," she breathed.
The creature was like something that only one's mind could make, and Billy took a deep breath as the ice cold feeling of fear moved through him. When he heard Kitty say the demon's name, Billy immediately reached for Yana's limp body and dragged her over towards them.
They weren't much protection, but they were better than nothing. "You aren't getting her."
Billy's words were punctuated by the fingernails-over-slate sound of the archfiend chuckling. "If you know me for Belasco," he said, "then you know I already have her--in soul, if not always in body." Clawed fingers toyed idly with a heavy gold amulet, studded in dull red stones, which lay over his chest. "Which do you imagine counts for more? But the fate of my apprentice is not in question here. The dilemma before us is just what I should do with the two of you, hm? As I said, Limbo is not welcoming--and that is very much by design. My design.
"Still, I do owe you some small gratitude for coaxing the Darkchylde back home and keeping her relatively intact." The demon's cloak swirled as he raised his arm, and the air shimmered, rippled, and eventually broke apart with an awful crack, like rotted cloth tearing. Within the rent was the small park which had been one of Illyana's more frequently-revisited destinations in recent weeks.
"Step through the portal, and return to your gentler world. Remember Limbo only in your nightmares.”
Kitty was scared. Terrified, really, and longing to go home. She didn’t know if that portal some terrible trick or exactly what he said - a reward, but she knew, deep down, that it didn’t matter. She would never leave Illyana alone with Belasco again.
“Billy, go.” It took Kitty three tries to form the words as she pushed herself painfully to her feet, positioning herself in front of Yana’s body. She’d stowed the sword back inside her friend after the last fight, but she could get it back easily enough.
"Are you joking?" He rasped out, watching Kitty stand on wobbly legs and having that panicked thought that Belasco could easily do away with her. He didn't think he could stop another wound on Kitty's body and then he would lose her, that terrified him more than thinking about what Belasco could do to him.
He grit his teeth and stood as well, his hands sparking blue even though he held the broken wrist to his chest, and glared at the horrible creature in front of them. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily, Pryde."
The verdant and tranquil scene within the hole Belasco had ripped between dimensions grew fainter as his fingers curled. He eyed the pair with aloof curiosity--less interested in them, particularly, than their unusual responses so far. "You wish to remain in Limbo, then?" he asked, and shrugged indifferently. "If that is your choice, I will give you leave to stay--though I afford no special protection to those who do so of their own free will. This is a realm that devours weakness. And your strength has yet to be proven very far."
Around them, the air shuddered again, and suddenly the three mutants and the demon magician were surrounded by black basalt walls and oppressive gloom. They had returned to Belasco's citadel. His fingertips curled, beckoning, and Illyana rose from the ground, wreathed in emerald energy. "My apprentice can rest in her room, for now," he hissed. "You ... may do as you will. The stronger demons rarely venture here unless summoned, but the weaker ones may attempt to test you. My thanks, again, children."
"She's not going anywhere with you - her room or not," Kitty growled, then reached out to catch Yana's arm with one hand and Billy's with the other as she phased all three of them out of Belasco's magical grip. She hoped.
Billy tried not to panic when his breathing was cut off, able to tell himself that this was Kitty phasing them and not Belasco suddenly suffocating them.
"Ah," Belasco said, as though suddenly understanding. Illyana slipped through the binding rings of energy and fell into the arms of the other teens. "You wish to resist. My apprentice has seemingly told you just enough to lead you here, but not enough to keep you alive. How unfortunate." The demon's eyes flared, and the corridor in which they stood was suddenly wreathed in emerald witchfire. "Pass through that, if you can. I don't recommend it, though. Unless you have a limb or two to spare." He seemed to notice his own missing arm at that moment and laughed uproariously, soul-shivering and filled with loathing more than mirth. "Not that you have anywhere to run. All roads lead back here, for you."
Kitty eyed the fire uncertainly. Was he bluffing? She knew she could pass through regular fire, but she had no idea what that green stuff was, or what it could do. And, they were all three running out of air. Rather than risk Illyana's brain death, she finally dropped them back into solid shift, but reached out, pulling the sword from Illyana's body to brandish at Belasco in defense. "Let us go. All of us."
When air was finally allowed back, Billy took a greedy breath of it in and glanced over to watch Kitty pull out the sword again. He took a moment, hoping to god it wouldn't be his last before he raised his working hand out, blue electricity crackling to life as he glared at Belasco. "What she said."
He wondered how hard he would have to wish for Belasco to die.
"And just what do you imagine you're going to do with that, child?" Belasco demanded mockingly, though the venomous glow in his eyes had taken on a somewhat curious undertone. "I suggest you put it away before you hurt yourself." He looked between the two teens and sighed. "You two may leave whenever you wish; it signifies exactly nothing to me. But my apprentice stays. It will spare me the inconvenience of having to collect her again later."
The demon sorcerer seemed to swell menacingly, the shadows around him deepened, but his tone was more thoughtful than threatening as he said, "I suppose the most expedient thing will be to just kill one of you." His gaze fell on Billy. "Him, I think." The fire in Belasco’s fist flared again, and in response the flames wreathing the walls and floor rose up in grasping tendrils, circling around the defiant teen and drawing every inward with deadly promise.
"Billy!" Kitty yelled, desperation clouding her thoughts as she tried to figure out how to slash at a thing that just kept growing and shifting. All she could do was think that they needed Illyana. Now. "Wake her!"
Billy grit his teeth as he watched the flames come towards him, he knelt beside Yana and closed his eyes. He laid his both hands on her chest as he started to chant, his body glowing bright blue immediately in response to his panic.
"IwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIWANTYANATOWAKEUP!!" Yana's body started to glow and without warning a strong current of electricity shot from his hands and into Yana.
Illyana's previously prone body convulsed, and she let out a scream of mingled pain and anger as her eyes popped open. "What the-" she began, then broke off, her eyes widening as she took in the scene in flashes. Billy, looking pretty much dead on his feet, threatened by eldritch fire. Kitty, holding a sword and looking as if she were about to topple over. And beyond them...
Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit...
Without any further thought than that, Illyana called up a stepping disk large enough to encompass herself and both her friends, concentrated on the "now" it had been when she'd last paid attention to time, and let the disk swallow them up.
"What happened?" she blurted as they reappeared in her and Kitty's room at the Institute and she scrambled to her feet.
Kitty looked around furtively and quickly started to hyperventilate. They were back. They were back, they were back, and Yana was awake and they were back, and she slid to the floor, the room spinning a little. The sword fell out of her hands and she gulped air rather than pass out.
Billy had been about to cry when he noticed that they were back home and not surrounded by the hell that was Belasco's home, but when he heard Kitty's irregular breathing he quickly moved over to her. His body screamed as he kneeled next to her, good hand going to her back to rub soothing circles as he shakily tried to talk to her. "Kitty, i-it’s okay. Breathe, you need to breathe. Slow. In and out."
Illyana looked from one to the other, and bit at her lip, trying to figure out what she could possibly say. Or do. They'd obviously been stuck in Limbo for some time, and they looked like shit, and Belasco...
Later. She could freak later. Right now...she pulled out her phone, pulled up Sharon's contact info, and called. "Sharon? It's Illyana. We need help, in my room. Now." She glanced over at Kitty and Billy, her eyes haunted, and added, "You might want to call Moira, too." Because somehow? She had a feeling any healing spells she could cast here wouldn't do it, and there was no way she was taking them back to Limbo.
Kitty looked up at Illyana as Billy helped her breathing slow. "The sword. Hide it inside you."
"What?" Illyana went over and picked up the sword, realizing only belatedly that it was the one she'd created. "How do I do that?"
Only when he was sure that Kitty wasn't going to pass out and her breathing had slowed did Billy look up at Yana. "It came from inside you. Kitty was able to pull it out and put it back in."
He decided now was a safe time for him to finally lay down, the hardwood floor feeling awful against his aching body, but he didn't dare move.
Kitty nodded, leaning back against her bed as she caught her breath. “You passed out. I don’t know how long we were there. Billy wished us ice to drink from. We killed a lot of demons. That sword...it’s really powerful. I think it killed S’ym. But you can hide it inside your body.”
"Hold it - the two of you killed S'ym?" Illyana gaped at them, then shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "Right. The sword. It worked, then." She looked down at the sword in her hand, took a breath and pressed the point into her chest. There was a slight headrush, and she wavered a little, but sure enough, pushing it in further didn't hurt.
She took a deep breath once it was gone, then came over and sat down with them on the floor as the rest of what Kitty'd said sank in. "I'm sorry," she offered, knowing even as she said it that it wasn't anywhere near enough.
"Technically, she killed him." Billy raised his good wrist and nudged Kitty's thigh with it. "I just got thrown a good few yards by his gross self."
He was surprised he could be so light hearted about it even as he felt like he wanted to throw up the entire contents of his stomach. He heard Yana's apology and tried to make himself shrug, but when the stiffness of his limbs made it painful, so he gave up. "It's fine, Yana. We went cause we wanted to."
Yeah. So, had Ashake. And Cat. Illyana looked from one to the other, swallowed hard, and got to her feet. "I'm...gonna go see what's keeping Sharon," she said lamely as she headed towards the door, but before she even got there, Sharon rushed in, asking questions and fussing.
Feeling as if she were caught up in a nightmare of her own, Illyana just pressed back against the wall and watched.
Illyana still wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, but she was definitely doing it.
Pyro'd been right. Granted, that wasn't exactly how she'd worded it when she'd told Kitty - somehow, she'd figured she'd get a lot less help from her roommate if she mentioned where she'd gotten the idea from. But if she wanted to be safe in Limbo, she was going to have to confront Belasco.
When Ashake'd sought to take on Belasco, she'd sought her inner serenity and tried to purge her soul of the evil that had taken root there. Illyana wasn't sure if that was even an option for her, and honestly, she wasn't looking for serenity. Her magic had always responded better to anger - well, she might as well use that, right?
What she needed was a weapon.
And so, she was spreading powdered chalk that she'd mingled with other ingredients on the ground in front of Ashake's oak in the shape of a pentagon, hoping that it would be enough to keep the magic safely confined when she cast the spell. Especially given the fact that she'd brought assistance.
"Billy, can you grab the candles and put one at each point?" she asked, gesturing to the other side of the circle she'd nearly completed, then glanced over to where Kitty was standing guard. "Anything yet?" she called out.
"All good," Kitty reported, panning the horizon for demons just like she might in one of her games. Keep panning, keep your eyes open, don't let them sneak up on you. That was the name of the game. She was also holding a pair of tonfa - side-handled wooden batons - that she'd ordered off of the internet, because if she was going to fight with something, it was going to be something she could hit and run with.
Billy nodded and grabbed the candles that Yana had asked for, placing each one in each corner as instructed. It was his second time in Limbo and he never would get over how much more in control he was here than he had ever been back home. "So, what exactly is the plan again? I get that you're going to try and kill him, but are you sure we can do that?"
Yes, question the plan when he had already agreed to it and traveled to Limbo with them. Nice. Good job, Kaplan.
Illyana shook her head. "No clue. He insists he's unkillable - maybe he is. But that's not a today thing, anyway. I'm just going to see if I can summon up what I need to kill him."
"I hope it's like, a whip of fire or something. Or a tuning fork that will make his ears bleed out," Kitty called back. Okay, maybe she'd been watching a little too much Vampire Diaries lately.
Billy glanced over at Kitty standing guard with a small laugh. "A tuning fork? Might as well get her the one ring as well, though we'll have to go on another mission to destroy that afterward."
"Uh, no. Now you've gone into geekdom I've actually watched," Illyana pointed out. She put the finishing touches on her circle and stood up. "I don't want the one ring. Invisibility sounds overrated, and my soul's already mucked up. It doesn't need help." She grinned a little. "Though I'm not sure we couldn't find Mount Doom around here somewhere. It seems like the right place for it."
She wiped her hands off on her jeans, and took a deep breath. "Okay. I think we're ready. Are you guys sure you want to stick around? I can take you back, first."
Kitty glanced at her. "I'm not going anywhere."
"And leave you alone? Please. We're here to stay." Billy nodded and stood back from the circle, making sure he was in control of his lightning just in case.
"Okay, okay." Illyana rolled her eyes and smiled as she stepped into the center of the pentagram, then sobered. "Whatever happens, don't let anything break the circle while it's still active. Billy, you should be able to tell when it isn't. Just, y'know, in case." She forced a faint smile again, then sat down and closed her eyes, resting her hands, palms up, on her thighs. She honestly wasn't altogether sure what was going to happen, she had to admit. The idea, as she understood it from Ashake, was to pull forth some of the essence of your soul and make it tangible. Given the questionable state of her soul...
No. This was going to work, she reminded herself. All she had to do was focus.
Around her, the circle started to glow.
Kitty glanced back, entranced for a moment by the glowing circle, then turned back to continue scanning the horizon. "Billy, keep me updated."
"Got ya." Billy answered Kitty and continued to watch Yana do her spell. It really was impressive what she could accomplish, and Billy made sure to watch her incase anything went wrong.
How would he even know? He would just have to try.
It was working. And it wasn't. Illyana could feel the energy coalescing, pulling something from her, something almost tangible. All her rage, all her desire for vengeance - all of it was pouring into whatever it was that was starting to form in her hands. At the same time, the magic seemed to want something - something more, something it couldn't find within her. Some kind of sacrifice....
With a sick feeling, Illyana realized just what it wanted. This was Limbo, after all, and the magic was - not dark, per se, but not light either - how could it be, when it was forming from her? It wanted innocence, purity, just as Belasco had, and she didn't have any to give it, not without draining what little she had left, herself. And if she did that...
Well, she'd be exactly what Belasco'd wanted, and this whole thing would've been for nothing, anyway.
There was another option, though. One she wasn't sure she should even be considering, but both Kitty and Billy had promised her anything she needed. It wouldn't, she reflected as she directed the magic to reach out, even affect them, really; unlike what Belasco'd done to her, she wouldn't be touching their souls, or anything that made them them. All she needed was a tiny bit of that innocence....
A tiny bit was enough. Illyana felt rather than saw the flash of light as a sword appeared in her hands; felt the power contained within it. And smiled, knowing that it was right, that it was exactly what she needed.
And then the world darkened, and she fell over, the light from her circle extinguishing as the sword fell out of her hands to land on the ground beside her.
Kitty felt a small chill run up her spine and turned back just in time to see the flash as a sword appeared in her friend's hands. It felt like her breath was literally stolen away for a moment, like the moment she'd watched that mob surge at Tamara on YouTube, like nothing else would ever really be right again. Then Yana was falling to the ground and fear suddenly overcame the sensation. She shoved the batons' handles through her belt loops and ran toward the circle with a shout. "Yana!"
Billy felt vaguely sick to his stomach, his breath catching like the first time Kessler had decided he was too different and needed to be punished for it. He took a sharp breath, his chest hurting a little from it and immediately moved towards Yana when he saw her start to fall.
The circle was done so he didn't think twice about pushing past the lines she had drawn to catch her limp form. "Yana!"
He brought her down gently and quickly felt for a pulse and breath, finding both and breathing a little easier, but not by much.
Kitty dropped down to kneel next to him, her gaze flitting from the sword to her friend, her hands hovering helplessly. "Is she okay? What happened?! Did it go wrong?"
Billy frowned as he unzipped his hoodie and balled it up, placing it under Yana head so she wouldn't be laying completely on the cold ground. "She has a pulse and she's breathing."
He checked the circle and looked at the sword. "Nothing went wrong from what I could tell...Yana? Yana, come on."
He gave her cheeks a few soft pats.
Kitty stared at her for a moment, then reached for the sword, wrapping her fingers around it uncertainly.
Billy about had a heart attack when he saw Kitty reach out and grab the sword, not know what kind of magic is had come from exactly, but when nothing seemed to happen to her he relaxed a tiny bit.
The sword felt weird to him, like it was Yana's and belonged to her, but also felt bits of himself and Kitty connected to it as well. "Something is weird with that sword."
Kitty pulled the sword closer, staring at the faintly glowing sheen. She got to her feet, hefting the weapon, finding that it wasn't as heavy as it looked. "What did she do?"
Billy watched as Kitty stood with the sword, looking like some kind of heroine from a movie or something. He glanced back down at Yana and placed a hand over her forehead, not really expecting a fever, but just in case. "I-I don't know. I mean, when she told me she was going to make a weapon I kind of assumed she was going to do some weird blacksmithing with magic? But she said she'd be using her own essence."
He bit his bottom lip in thought. "So, if it's hers, why can you carry it?"
And why did he feel a connection to it?
Kitty frowned, glancing down at the sword in her hand, then at Yana. "I have no idea." Crouching again, she gently tried to lay the blade against Yana's skin. Maybe it could help in some way? "I may be a genius, but these are your waters, not mine."
"Ugh. Yeah, my waters with floaties and about five life jackets on me. Let's see..." Billy reached out to touch the sword as well, feeling a weird feeling of right when the cool steel touched his skin.
He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his magic, nowhere near as in tune with it in Limbo as he was with his electricity. He tried to think through everything Yana and Teddy had helped him with and took a deep breath.
"IwanttoknowwhatsgoingonIwanttoknowwhatsgoingonIwanttoknowwhatsgoingon."
His body and the sword glowed blue, then the sword seemed to melt into Yana's body, leaving Billy to just stare at where it had been. "What the fuck was that?!"
"What the heck was that!?" Kitty echoed, jumping back with a sharp gasp.
"I...I don't know! Her body just literally absorbed a sword!" He glanced over Yana again, wondering if having a sword in body would do anything, but Yana remained completely out of it.
Then something occurred to him. "Wait...if Yana is down for the count...does that mean we're stuck here?"
Kitty glanced around them, then nodded slowly. "We need to find some cover. If I phase her, she won't be heavy to carry. Have you got everything?"
"Yeah, hold on." Billy quickly grabbed the few things they had brought with them and glanced around for any kind of shelter or anything. What he found was what looked like it used to be a small beautiful hedge maze, now was brown and leaning in a little which would give them good cover and hide them at least for a little bit.
"Come on, over here."
Kitty nodded, getting her arms up underneath Yana's body, then phasing them both, sprinting for Billy. Good thing she'd been working on holding her breath. If she dropped her phase here, she might end up dropping Yana, and she couldn't afford to do that.
Billy waited until Kitty had carried Yana under the dead hedge before moving in behind them, making sure they were far enough back that they couldn't be found immediately if something were to come their way.
He sighed and took the bags off his shoulders, turning towards Kitty with a grin look when he pulled out his phone. "I mean, not that I didn't expected it, but my phone is completely glitching out."
He held up the screen to show her that the screens pixels were all messed up.
Kitty made a little face as she caught her breath. "Yeah, sorry about that. Remind me to make you a phase-resistant phone."
"Okay, side note, why are you so freaking awesome? Main note, what are we going to do here? Should we just wait till she comes to or I guess I could try using my magic to get us out, but I doubt that would work well."
Billy sighed and sat back against one of the itchy dead hedges. "Maybe I could try waking her up with it?"
Kitty brushed Yana's hair out of her face, trying to think. They were stuck in Limbo. There were demons everywhere. Yana was the only one who knew how to traverse the land safely, or how to get them out. Kitty suddenly wished she knew anything about medicine. Or magic. She looked up at Billy with a frown. "Try. See if you can wake her up. If not, we'll go from there."
Billy nodded, scooting a little closer to Yana and placing his hands in the air above her chest as he closed his eyes.
"IwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeup."
His body glowed blue and for a moment he felt like it was really going to work, but when he opened his eyes and saw that Yana's were still closed he sighed. His body stopped glowing and he dropped his hands back to his sides. "Damn it."
Kitty swallowed hard. "Okay. So, we've got to hope that she's going to. Maybe she's just exhausted. In the meantime, we guard her body and stay out of sight."
"We can hope." Billy muttered, but agreed with her plan and did his best to set up a small barrier, big enough to cover the three of them just in case.
------
Billy jerked awake when he thought he had heard something, listening intently to see if he could hear the sound again, but all that he could hear was the soft breathing from both Sleeping Kitty and still unconscious Yana.
He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. His back and neck killed from sleeping for so long in the weird huddled position and he quietly wondered how long they had been there. He was about to try and see if his phone would do anything at all when he heard the sound again.
It sounded like something shuffling outside their small hiding spot. Billy held his breath as the shuffling continued, then stopped completely. He waited, and when no more noise came, he quietly reached over to grab Kitty's shoulder, making sure she didn't make any noise when she woke.
"Something is out th-” His rushed whisper was interrupted by a horrifying shriek from outside.
Kitty jerked awake at the touch, then nearly stopped breathing at the sound of the shriek. She wanted to scream. To cry. To run. But she couldn't do any of those things, because Yana was there, unconscious, and Billy still needed her help. Swallowing hard, she made a 'wait' hand sign to Billy, then phased out and slowly phased just part of her phase through the hedge.
The sight was horrifying. Several four-foot-tall demons were sniffing around the hedge - all claws and jaws and reptilian eyes that swiveled in their sockets. They were the size of small ponies, and slashed and gnashed at each other like raptors from the Jurassic Park movies. But one...one was staring right at her. She pulled back just in time for claws to shred through the hedge. "Billy!"
Billy reacted faster than he could blink when Kitty yelled his name, reaching over and grabbing Kitty's arm to haul her out of the way as he sucked in a deep breath and let his electricity go.
A large bolt of blue lightening hit the monster that was trying to slash its way towards them, causing it to scream horribly in pain as its smoking body fell to the ground. "Kitty! Phase with Yana and get her away from them!"
He took a terrified breath when their location now caught the attention of all the other ones that had been roaming around.
Kitty started to argue, but there wasn't time and he was right. She needed to make sure Yana was safe. "Be careful," she told him, then ducked down and wrapped her arms around Yana, phasing out and putting her in a fireman's carry as she fled through the maze, desperate to find a place to hide her.
He watched as they phased out and ran, making sure he gave them as much coverage as he could before Kitty's breath ran out.
"I'll try." He muttered even though Kitty couldn't hear him. He thought about trying to use magic to blow them all up at once, but they were too quick for him to have time to think about the correct words let alone let him chant it.
Instead he let them get as close as possible before using himself as a giant living tesla coil.
Kitty dove out of the hedge maze, gasping for air as she phased back in. Yana's weight was suddenly a lot more, and she had to phase back out again to be able to handle it, holding her breath once more. Looking around, she ended up being in a very barren area of Limbo, with grey, scrubby plant life, huge rock formations, and several crevices that seemed to be shooting fire. Wow, remind me not to book my next vacation here, she thought as she raced for one of the largest of the rock formations.
So, turned out that using a large electric attack four times in a row tended to be a strain on the body as Billy fell to his knees on shaky legs. Now he knew how Pikachu felt all those times. He groaned when he noticed that a few of the demons were still getting up after the third shock, only about two, but still! Damn it!
At least they were slow enough that Billy could probably get a spell in before the attacked. He quickly shut eyes as he saw the two start a slow crawl towards him and thought about what he wanted. "IwanttheseassholesgoneIwanttheseassholesgoneIwanttheseassholesgoneIWANTTHESEASSHOLESGONE!!!"
His body glowed bright blue and the demons and their dead companions vanished with a blink of blue light. Billy panted and glanced around to find himself alone again. "Oh, thank god."
Then he promptly fell face first into some dead plants.
It could have been a minute or an hour before Kitty's hands were on him, squeezing, shaking him. "Billy. Billy, wake up. Oh god, oh god, Billy, please..."
Billy cracked his eyes open at the sudden shaking of his body, a plant shoved into his face and his body feeling like it had been run through a taffy puller. "Ugggghhhhh....yes. Yes, I'm here. Kitty, I'm here."
He pushed himself up into a sitting position slowly, his head feeling like it was stuffed with cotton as he glanced over to see Kitty. "Oh good. You're okay. Wait, where's Yana?"
Kitty reached out to help support him. "Safe. I think. Better than you. I had to get back here quick. Where are the demons? Are you okay?"
Billy groaned, shaking his head to clear out the dumb foggy mind feeling and frowned. "Umm...I'm really not sure where they went since I wasn't really specific on that. They could come back since I didn't kill them all, I don't think."
He took a deep breath and stood up on wobbly legs. "I'm okay. Just tired."
"Come on. I found a place to hide for a bit," Kitty told him, putting an arm around him and phasing out, shouldering him across the terrain to the shallow cave in a large rock formation where she'd left Illyana.
When Kitty had gotten Billy to her hiding place, Billy sat down gratefully and glanced over at Yana's prone body with worry. "Still no response?"
The only thing keeping him from panicking about that was that she was breathing, he could see her chest move, but she had still been out for who knew how long which couldn’t be good. He shifted over to the packs they had brought and pulled out two granola bars, tossing one over to Kitty before tearing his open. "I wonder if I could try opening a portal to get us out of here...obviously I'll have to wait a bit, but I could try."
Let's just, you know, take a breather, okay? I don't have a lot of demon-killing power on me right now, so you are all Yana and I have got." Which...really took a lot for her to admit, because she wanted to believe that she could protect them too, but really, all she really had were two sticks and some very wimpy muscles and absolutely no training whatsoever.
"Hey, but you did something vital. You got Yana out of there when it was dangerous. I could probably pick her up, but I could never have carried her far enough where she would have been safe."
Billy leaned his head back and took a bite of his granola bar, chewing for a little bit before swallowing and shifting over to Yana. He took another bite as he studied her still form, trying to figure out what the hell was going on with her. "What do you think that sword was?"
"Her weapon, I'd guess," Kitty sighed, taking a bite into the granola bar. "The real question is: how do we get it out of her?"
"Herm..." He finished his granola bar and dusted off his hands on his jeans before moving into a cross legged position beside Yana. "I wonder if I could try getting it out?"
He held his hands out over Yana and let his eyes go blue as he tried to sense anything from Yana that would give them some kind of clue. He didn't really get anything, so he dropped his hands and his eyes went back to normal. "Quick question for you. Did you feel anything when she summoned the sword? I kinda felt a little sick and stuff."
Kitty nodded. "I felt it too. Right before she finished whatever she was doing. What's that mean?"
Billy frowned a little, wishing he knew more about magic than his basic spell casting, and sighed a little as he tried to think what both of them feeling similar thing could mean with the sword. "Maybe the sword is...not all together good? Which is why we felt like that when it was being summoned? But the feeling went away after it was here, right?"
"Yeah, I'm not sure that tracks," she frowned. "Hold on..." Reaching out, she phased her hand, squinting and inwardly apologizing to her friend as she phased her hand through Illyana's chest.
Okay. Billy knew Kitty wasn't actually digging her real hand into Yana's chest, but even without blood or gore, Billy had to cringe at the sight. Ghost hand or not, it was weird to see.
Kitty didn't know how, or why, but as she slowly pulled her hand out, she was gripping the sword, fingers wrapped carefully around the hilt as she pulled it free.
"What the hell?" Billy gaped at the large sword being pulled out of his friend's chest by his other friend. It made absolutely no sense, but then again magic never made sense. "Holy shit, you did it! You got the sword out of her."
Billy watched her hold it and had to smile. "You kind of have the Warrior Princess vibe going while holding that. Can you do the weird war cry too?"
Kitty raised an eyebrow at him. "Billy, no. Not even in an alternate dimension filled with demons. Just no." She turned the sword over in her hand. "It's heavy though. I wish I'd had any sword training at all. But I think if we're going to survive here, both of us need to be able to fight. And I need to watch your back when you inevitably fall over."
"And as we have both seen that it will happen." Billy cracked his neck loudly before moving closer to Kitty to look at the sword. "Maybe you should try practicing with it a little, can you swing it without falling over?"
Kitty made a face. "Man, I wish they had weapons training at the school." Carefully standing in their little cave, she hefted the sword, giving a test swing. It definitely swung her center of gravity around. She wasn't great with it, but she managed to swing and keep her footing. She gave another swing, concentrating on the weight and the feel of it in her hands.
"Well, look at this. The Baby Boss is back - and she brought some friends for me to play with." S'ym took a puff off his cigar and smirked as he emerged from the shadows, where he literally hadn't been just moments before. At over seven feet tall and built like a defensive lineman, he was an imposing sight - even when you didn't factor in the purple skin, horn, and tail. "Belasco'll love to hear about this, but he won't care if I play a few games with you first."
He smirked and picked the dark-haired kid who had an aura of magic around him up by the front of his shirt. "First game - let's see how well you fly." With an almost negligible flick of his wrist, he sent the kid flying, then turned towards the girl with the sword. "Little girls shouldn't play with pointy objects. Didn't Darkchylde there teach you nothing?"
It all happened so fast that Billy barely had time to take a breath before he was crashing into the ground, his clothes luckily saving his limbs from getting too scraped up while the side of his face took a pretty good beating. He gasped as his entire body flared up in pain, instinct telling him to curl into a ball, but instead he raised his head to see the demon face Kitty.
"S-Shit. No!" He felt something leak from his nose and knew it was blood.
"Billy!" Kitty shouted as he was thrown, but then the massive demon was bearing down on her and she took a step back, trying not to let her fear show. She knew enough by the sight of his huge, muscled form that she had no chance of hurting him head on. He'd grab her sword and toss her aside like he did with Billy. On instinct, she dove through him instead, turning to slash the sword at his back.
"What the-" whatever else S'ym might have said was lost, as his form shimmered for a moment, then exploded in a shower of greyish ash.
Billy stared as it seemed Kitty had just defeated a demon more than twice her size and he quickly stumbled to his feet to get over to her.
Kitty stared at the space where the demon had just been, her heart pounding hard in her chest. She felt frozen in place, at least until she spotted Billy getting up and she dropped the sword point toward the grounding, turning toward him with wide eyes. "Are you okay?"
He limped back towards where she and Yana were, letting out a soft hiss as he sat down next to Yana's body. "I'm....feeling like hamburger meat."
Kitty looked around them, frowning. "If he found us, someone else will too. We can't stay here." She looked pointedly at his limp. "How is your leg?"
Billy frowned down at his leg and fiddled with the tears in his jeans where the ground had torn them up, only a few scrapes and probably huge bruises. "I think my legs fine, it's not broken, just really sore."
He reached up and touched his face, hissing when the salt from his fingers burned the raw bloody skin. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate, muttering under his breath that he wanted to be healed. His body glowed blue and he was thankful that, while the magic hadn't healed him completely, at least his face no longer stung like hell. "Okay. You want me to carry Yana this time?"
Kitty watched him heal, her eyes widening slightly in wonder. "If your power can heal...could it find a safe place? Maybe somewhere there's water?"
"Erm...maybe?" Billy replied more than a little unsure. "My magic is better here, but it's also not a hundred percent reliable."
He thought about all the things that could go wrong if his magic decided he said something wrong, or it just wanted to be an ass. "I can try though, if you want."
She sighed, looking around them. "I'm just not sure what other options we have. It's been hours. We have no idea how long it's going to take Yana to wake up," and she didn't say 'if ever'. "We either try to make a portal home or find a place that's safe enough to camp for a few days."
"Okay. Okay, let me try this." Billy made sure to grab Kitty's hand and take hold of Yana's limp one just in case his magic decided to fuck up and send them all to different places. He tried to think of the right words to speak, something that couldn't be confused or twisted, and took a deep breath.
"IwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafeIwantustobesomewheresafe."
-------
Billy sighed, his busted lip and black eye stinging as he shifted the small cup of melting ice and handed it to Kitty for her to drink. Turned out, water in Limbo was undrinkable, at least to humans and also turned out Billy's magic refused to be nice and just give them water bottles. So, instead it had given them bags upon bags of grocery store ice, which was fine, sure whatever, just took forever to actually get any water.
Didn't help that they had been attacked four more times, almost losing Yana twice and Kitty and him practically dying each time. "Ya' know, besides the constant fear of my skin being ripped off by demons or dying from dehydration, Limbo is a fantastic Vacation spot. Top notch."
Kitty shifted uncomfortably on the ground, her legs and abdomen screaming in pain every time she did. She was pretty sure she'd dislocated her knee. At least the clawed gash across her stomach had clotted up beneath the flannel shirt she was using as a bandage. Taking the melting ice, she tipped some back into her mouth and crunched on it, wincing at the movement of her jaw where she'd been clocked by a large bear-like creature. "I can't believe Yana survived here as a little girl."
"God." Billy breathed, shifting carefully what he could swear was a broken wrist closer to his body as he moved to sit next to Kitty and watch Yana's thankfully unharmed body. "I don't even want to think about that. Every time I do, I get mad and just want to blow this place up."
She was a god damn child. He thought bitterly and winced as he moved to look at the wound on Kitty's stomach. "Are you doing okay? You look kind of pale. I could try the healing stuff again, even though last time it only just stopped the bleeding a bit."
He never again wanted to see Kitty's face screwed up in pain while his hands were covered in her blood.
As the two teens reflected on Illyana's past, a line of baleful green fire split the air, no more than a few feet away, its malevolent crackle like the cacophony of dozens of bones splitting and splintering at once. The line rotated in the air until it formed a circle of supernatural flame, the bizarre landscape of Limbo transformed into an even more unsettling contrast of sickly red rock and hungry shadow in an instant. A vague, amorphous figure appeared within the furnace, a figure which soon resolved into the shape of a man, tall and cloaked in scarlet, as it stepped forward.
At least ... it had once been a man, possibly. The figure's skin was ruddy to match the blood-colored clay of Limbo, the eyes set deep within his lean face a glowing yellow, as if lit from behind by the same molten rock which split and cracked the surface of his home. Two horns curved upward from his highbrow, and a forked tail occasionally snaked angrily from beneath the hem of his long cloak. When he stretched forth an arm to place it over his chest and offer a mocking bow of greeting, it was immediately clear that the opposite limb had been sheared away at the shoulder at some point in the past.
"Children," he rasped, "you've survived. Good. Good." It was an inhuman mockery of a human voice, an impossible voice that combined the hiss of the acrid sulfur vents around them and a frigid echo from a fantastically deep pit. "I had hoped to thank you in person for returning my apprentice. My realm is ... not terribly welcoming of guests." He gave them each an appraising look, and his lip curled back in a fanged half-smile. "But I think you may have noticed this, yes?"
However pale Kitty might have been before the figure appeared, it was nothing compared to how she looked when all the blood drained from her face, her heart starting to pound in her chest as she scrambled back against the wall and dragged Billy with her, unable to take her eyes off of the demon. Demon sorcerer, she corrected herself. Because she knew, instantly. "You're Belasco," she breathed.
The creature was like something that only one's mind could make, and Billy took a deep breath as the ice cold feeling of fear moved through him. When he heard Kitty say the demon's name, Billy immediately reached for Yana's limp body and dragged her over towards them.
They weren't much protection, but they were better than nothing. "You aren't getting her."
Billy's words were punctuated by the fingernails-over-slate sound of the archfiend chuckling. "If you know me for Belasco," he said, "then you know I already have her--in soul, if not always in body." Clawed fingers toyed idly with a heavy gold amulet, studded in dull red stones, which lay over his chest. "Which do you imagine counts for more? But the fate of my apprentice is not in question here. The dilemma before us is just what I should do with the two of you, hm? As I said, Limbo is not welcoming--and that is very much by design. My design.
"Still, I do owe you some small gratitude for coaxing the Darkchylde back home and keeping her relatively intact." The demon's cloak swirled as he raised his arm, and the air shimmered, rippled, and eventually broke apart with an awful crack, like rotted cloth tearing. Within the rent was the small park which had been one of Illyana's more frequently-revisited destinations in recent weeks.
"Step through the portal, and return to your gentler world. Remember Limbo only in your nightmares.”
Kitty was scared. Terrified, really, and longing to go home. She didn’t know if that portal some terrible trick or exactly what he said - a reward, but she knew, deep down, that it didn’t matter. She would never leave Illyana alone with Belasco again.
“Billy, go.” It took Kitty three tries to form the words as she pushed herself painfully to her feet, positioning herself in front of Yana’s body. She’d stowed the sword back inside her friend after the last fight, but she could get it back easily enough.
"Are you joking?" He rasped out, watching Kitty stand on wobbly legs and having that panicked thought that Belasco could easily do away with her. He didn't think he could stop another wound on Kitty's body and then he would lose her, that terrified him more than thinking about what Belasco could do to him.
He grit his teeth and stood as well, his hands sparking blue even though he held the broken wrist to his chest, and glared at the horrible creature in front of them. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily, Pryde."
The verdant and tranquil scene within the hole Belasco had ripped between dimensions grew fainter as his fingers curled. He eyed the pair with aloof curiosity--less interested in them, particularly, than their unusual responses so far. "You wish to remain in Limbo, then?" he asked, and shrugged indifferently. "If that is your choice, I will give you leave to stay--though I afford no special protection to those who do so of their own free will. This is a realm that devours weakness. And your strength has yet to be proven very far."
Around them, the air shuddered again, and suddenly the three mutants and the demon magician were surrounded by black basalt walls and oppressive gloom. They had returned to Belasco's citadel. His fingertips curled, beckoning, and Illyana rose from the ground, wreathed in emerald energy. "My apprentice can rest in her room, for now," he hissed. "You ... may do as you will. The stronger demons rarely venture here unless summoned, but the weaker ones may attempt to test you. My thanks, again, children."
"She's not going anywhere with you - her room or not," Kitty growled, then reached out to catch Yana's arm with one hand and Billy's with the other as she phased all three of them out of Belasco's magical grip. She hoped.
Billy tried not to panic when his breathing was cut off, able to tell himself that this was Kitty phasing them and not Belasco suddenly suffocating them.
"Ah," Belasco said, as though suddenly understanding. Illyana slipped through the binding rings of energy and fell into the arms of the other teens. "You wish to resist. My apprentice has seemingly told you just enough to lead you here, but not enough to keep you alive. How unfortunate." The demon's eyes flared, and the corridor in which they stood was suddenly wreathed in emerald witchfire. "Pass through that, if you can. I don't recommend it, though. Unless you have a limb or two to spare." He seemed to notice his own missing arm at that moment and laughed uproariously, soul-shivering and filled with loathing more than mirth. "Not that you have anywhere to run. All roads lead back here, for you."
Kitty eyed the fire uncertainly. Was he bluffing? She knew she could pass through regular fire, but she had no idea what that green stuff was, or what it could do. And, they were all three running out of air. Rather than risk Illyana's brain death, she finally dropped them back into solid shift, but reached out, pulling the sword from Illyana's body to brandish at Belasco in defense. "Let us go. All of us."
When air was finally allowed back, Billy took a greedy breath of it in and glanced over to watch Kitty pull out the sword again. He took a moment, hoping to god it wouldn't be his last before he raised his working hand out, blue electricity crackling to life as he glared at Belasco. "What she said."
He wondered how hard he would have to wish for Belasco to die.
"And just what do you imagine you're going to do with that, child?" Belasco demanded mockingly, though the venomous glow in his eyes had taken on a somewhat curious undertone. "I suggest you put it away before you hurt yourself." He looked between the two teens and sighed. "You two may leave whenever you wish; it signifies exactly nothing to me. But my apprentice stays. It will spare me the inconvenience of having to collect her again later."
The demon sorcerer seemed to swell menacingly, the shadows around him deepened, but his tone was more thoughtful than threatening as he said, "I suppose the most expedient thing will be to just kill one of you." His gaze fell on Billy. "Him, I think." The fire in Belasco’s fist flared again, and in response the flames wreathing the walls and floor rose up in grasping tendrils, circling around the defiant teen and drawing every inward with deadly promise.
"Billy!" Kitty yelled, desperation clouding her thoughts as she tried to figure out how to slash at a thing that just kept growing and shifting. All she could do was think that they needed Illyana. Now. "Wake her!"
Billy grit his teeth as he watched the flames come towards him, he knelt beside Yana and closed his eyes. He laid his both hands on her chest as he started to chant, his body glowing bright blue immediately in response to his panic.
"IwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIwantYanatowakeupIWANTYANATOWAKEUP!!" Yana's body started to glow and without warning a strong current of electricity shot from his hands and into Yana.
Illyana's previously prone body convulsed, and she let out a scream of mingled pain and anger as her eyes popped open. "What the-" she began, then broke off, her eyes widening as she took in the scene in flashes. Billy, looking pretty much dead on his feet, threatened by eldritch fire. Kitty, holding a sword and looking as if she were about to topple over. And beyond them...
Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit...
Without any further thought than that, Illyana called up a stepping disk large enough to encompass herself and both her friends, concentrated on the "now" it had been when she'd last paid attention to time, and let the disk swallow them up.
"What happened?" she blurted as they reappeared in her and Kitty's room at the Institute and she scrambled to her feet.
Kitty looked around furtively and quickly started to hyperventilate. They were back. They were back, they were back, and Yana was awake and they were back, and she slid to the floor, the room spinning a little. The sword fell out of her hands and she gulped air rather than pass out.
Billy had been about to cry when he noticed that they were back home and not surrounded by the hell that was Belasco's home, but when he heard Kitty's irregular breathing he quickly moved over to her. His body screamed as he kneeled next to her, good hand going to her back to rub soothing circles as he shakily tried to talk to her. "Kitty, i-it’s okay. Breathe, you need to breathe. Slow. In and out."
Illyana looked from one to the other, and bit at her lip, trying to figure out what she could possibly say. Or do. They'd obviously been stuck in Limbo for some time, and they looked like shit, and Belasco...
Later. She could freak later. Right now...she pulled out her phone, pulled up Sharon's contact info, and called. "Sharon? It's Illyana. We need help, in my room. Now." She glanced over at Kitty and Billy, her eyes haunted, and added, "You might want to call Moira, too." Because somehow? She had a feeling any healing spells she could cast here wouldn't do it, and there was no way she was taking them back to Limbo.
Kitty looked up at Illyana as Billy helped her breathing slow. "The sword. Hide it inside you."
"What?" Illyana went over and picked up the sword, realizing only belatedly that it was the one she'd created. "How do I do that?"
Only when he was sure that Kitty wasn't going to pass out and her breathing had slowed did Billy look up at Yana. "It came from inside you. Kitty was able to pull it out and put it back in."
He decided now was a safe time for him to finally lay down, the hardwood floor feeling awful against his aching body, but he didn't dare move.
Kitty nodded, leaning back against her bed as she caught her breath. “You passed out. I don’t know how long we were there. Billy wished us ice to drink from. We killed a lot of demons. That sword...it’s really powerful. I think it killed S’ym. But you can hide it inside your body.”
"Hold it - the two of you killed S'ym?" Illyana gaped at them, then shook her head, trying to clear her mind. "Right. The sword. It worked, then." She looked down at the sword in her hand, took a breath and pressed the point into her chest. There was a slight headrush, and she wavered a little, but sure enough, pushing it in further didn't hurt.
She took a deep breath once it was gone, then came over and sat down with them on the floor as the rest of what Kitty'd said sank in. "I'm sorry," she offered, knowing even as she said it that it wasn't anywhere near enough.
"Technically, she killed him." Billy raised his good wrist and nudged Kitty's thigh with it. "I just got thrown a good few yards by his gross self."
He was surprised he could be so light hearted about it even as he felt like he wanted to throw up the entire contents of his stomach. He heard Yana's apology and tried to make himself shrug, but when the stiffness of his limbs made it painful, so he gave up. "It's fine, Yana. We went cause we wanted to."
Yeah. So, had Ashake. And Cat. Illyana looked from one to the other, swallowed hard, and got to her feet. "I'm...gonna go see what's keeping Sharon," she said lamely as she headed towards the door, but before she even got there, Sharon rushed in, asking questions and fussing.
Feeling as if she were caught up in a nightmare of her own, Illyana just pressed back against the wall and watched.
