Justice, Part One

by Rossi

It only takes a moment for everything to come crashing down.

That was the thought running through Rhane Sinclair's mind as she watched her adoptive mother work feverishly to save Pete Wisdom's life. It had been only a few short hours ago that Excalibur had been at the pub, laughing, talking, even dancing, heaven forbid. Being, for the first time in a long time, friends rather than just team-mates. Now that camaraderie was gone, smashed as easily beneath Colossus' fists as Pete Wisdom's skull.

"Another swab, lass," Moria instructed, her surgical scrubs splattered crimson across the front.

"Are you all right, Mum?" Rhane asked, seeing Moira's hands tremble as they handled the scalpel.

"I will be, Rhane love, once I get this spaleen's head pieced back together." Moira spared a moment from her work to meet Rhane's concerned eyes. "Don't fret lass. A strong coffee will see me right."

'And a cure for Legacy.' Rhane didn't voice the thought, choosing instead to ask; "Will he be all right?"

"God and his own stubbornness willing." Moira laid the scalpel in the instrument tray with a clink. More crimson pooled against the stainless steel. "I've relieved the pressure on his brain; the rest is up to him. If he survives the night, he's got a good chance. Sutures, if you please, love." Moira's brow furrowed as she began stitching. "I've done what I can. It's in God's hands now."

Rhane glanced towards the door of the medlab, where a small pale face hung framed by the observation port.

"Poor Kitty. She must be going through all kinds of hell."

***

Kurt paced uneasily up and down the corridor, tail swishing in an agitated arc behind him. He spared another worried look at the girl -no, young woman now - standing so still at the door to the medlab, her fingers white as they gripped the edge of the port. She paid no attention to Kurt's pacing, her whole existence focussed almost completely on the battered body almost hidden by the array of medical equipment.

"Nightcrawler." Captain Britain's return halted another circuit.

"How is Meggan?" Kurt asked in a low voice with another glance at Kitty.

"Better for being out of range. Kitty's anger, her despair. well, you can imagine how it affected Meggan." For a moment the hero mask slipped, and Brian Braddock was simply a man concerned for his empathic beloved - and his friends. "Any news on Wisdom's condition?"

"Nothing yet. Moira and Rhane are still working on him." Kurt ran a three-fingered hand through his hair. "Poor Katzchen. After everything they went through during that Black Air business, to have this happen."

"It didn't just 'happen', Wagner. Wisdom was deliberately attacked. By one of your ex-team mates." Kurt shushed Brian with a gesture.

"Don't start that now. Not here," he said with a nod towards Kitty. "At least wait until we have news of Wisdom's condition."

"I doubt that will change the situation." Brian began, but then Kitty spoke.

"Why not here and now?" she asked suddenly, turning from her vigil. Her face was white, but composed, and her eyes were red-rimmed, burning in her thin face. "Why shouldn't we discuss this now?"

"Katzchen, you are hardly in a fit state."

"'State'? I'm perfectly rational. Rational enough, considering my lover has practically been beaten to death by the man who dumped me years ago."

"But." Kurt tried again, but this time it was Brian who cut him off.

"Let her speak, Wagner." Giving Kitty a long appraising look, he added; "So, tell us what you think should be done."

Kitty's normally warm brown eyes were hard as she turned back to the window. In a clear, precise voice, she said; "I want him charged."

***

"'Charged'?" Moira gave voice to the shock they all felt. Leaving Pete under the careful observation of her staff, she was looking tired and wan even after a shower and one of her special brews of coffee. The tension in her small study was palpable. Even Douglock looked uncomfortable. "Are you sure, lass?"

"More sure than I have been of anything in my life." Kitty sat apart from her team mates, the armchair seeming to engulf her suddenly fragile-looking form.

"But, Kitty, to involve the police. What will the X-Men say?" Rhane ventured timidly. She'd always been a little uncomfortable around the other girl, who, despite being of a similar age, had been a superhero for many years. Shades of the old rivalry between Kitty and the X-Babies, she supposed.

"Right now I don't give a shit what the X-Men say." Anger kindled in Kitty's eyes, burning brighter than the fire in the fireplace. "Piotr deserves to be punished for what he's done, and you know as well as I do that he's not going to get it from the X-Men or Professor Xavier." Rhane flushed at the tone, and the language.

"Now Katzchen, that's not fair." Kurt protested from his perch on the arm of the sofa.

"Neither is what happened to Pete!" Kitty retorted, her voice rising. "Do you think it's fair that he's lying in the medlab with his head smashed in?" Despite her best efforts to remain in control, tears were burning in her eyes. "All he did, all he wanted, was to love me. And for that he could die!" Kitty's voice turned bitter, and Meggan winced, turning her face to Brian's shoulder as they sat side-by-side on the sofa. The emotion stung, like acid across her psyche. "So don't tell me what's fair or not, fuzzy-elf."

"I'm sure he didn't mean it that way," Moira said, soothingly, her Scots accent like thick honey. "It was a terrible thing Peter did, but d'ye really think the police are the best people to deal with it? After all, Peter is an X-Man."

"Was." Brian had made it clear from day one he thought Wisdom was vulgar, uneducated, a boor, but now he seemed to be supporting Kitty. "He left them to join Magneto and his Acolytes, remember? And he chose to remain with them, even after Moira treated the head injury everyone blamed for his defection. He has committed a criminal act, broken the law. Why should we treat him differently to the other mutant criminals we have apprehended?"

"Would you really want that for Peter, Kitty?" Kurt asked softly. "He could go to prison." If he had hoped to appeal to her sense of compassion, he failed.

"It's for his good as much as anyone else's," she replied. "Don't you see, Kurt? It's not the first time Piotr has almost killed someone because he lost his temper - we've only let him get away with it because they were 'villains'. And he's gotten worse since 'Yana died. The X-Men haven't helped him, because they keep pretending nothing is wrong. And if he keeps getting away with it, he'll never stop. What happens when he loses it with an ordinary person? He could kill someone - are you willing to allow that?" Holding Kurt's eyes with her own, Kitty added. "He needs help, and the X-Men aren't going to give it to him."

"Self is confused," Douglock's somehow flat electronic voice broke in. "Designate: Spoor did wrong, and has been punished. Why is Designate: Colossus different?" There was no malice in the question, only simple curiosity.

"It's complicated, Dougie," Rhane said hesitantly.

"It shouldn't be," Kitty added. "Kurt, I need to do this, and I need the team to support me."

"Katzchen, understand this is difficult for me. Piotr is my friend."

"Then be his friend, and help him! It's gone beyond patient words and patting his hand. This could be the wake-up call he needs!"

"It could also destroy him. Are _you_ willing to accept _that_?" In that moment, it was as if only the world had narrowed down to just the two of them, holding its breath.

"If I have to." Kitty's face grew hard. "Your religion preaches forgiveness, Kurt, but it also preaches justice."

"The line between justice and revenge is very fine, Katzchen. I can only hope you know on which side you stand. But. I will do this. For Peter's sake." With a defeated sigh, Kurt stood and crossed to Moira's desk. "If I may?" he asked, indicating the phone. Silently, the doctor nodded. All eyes were on Kurt as he dialled the number.

"Hello, police? I wish to report a crime."

***

The detention cells of the Muir Island complex had been designed to house mutants of all kinds, of any power level. They were state of the art, incorporating technology both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, gleaming scientific wonders of stainless steel and white tile. They could almost be mistaken for hospital rooms, if it weren't for the low hum of the energy-shielded doors.

Colossus lay on the too-small cot, staring up at the ceiling, his impassive metal features disguising - as they had always done - the tumult of human emotion within. Moira's skills had repaired the damage done to his spine by Wisdom's hotknife, but the wound in his heart was still there. His Katya. Kissing another man. A coarse, rude excuse of a man. It was almost beyond comprehension. All through the dark times, when he had wandered lost and alone, the knowledge that his Katya was there, would always be there, had been his beacon. To finally return to her and find another had taken his rightful place.

A small sound interrupted his spiralling thoughts. A slow turn of his head revealed Kitty standing at the entrance of his cell, pale and lovely.

"My Katya!" The twinge of pain reminded him of how close he had come to paralysis, and he carefully levered himself upright so he could cross to the doorway. "You came at last!" He raised his hands as if to take hers through the glowing bars. She took a step back, out of his reach.

"Don't call me that." Her voice, the same voice that had whispered in his dreams, was cold now. "I'm not your Katya, or don't you remember? You broke it off. And then you went and joined the enemy."

"I was foolish, a boy too afraid to be a man. But I have returned, Katya. To be with you." The first tiny seed of doubt began to grow inside him. Why did she look at him so, with barely concealed contempt? Surely that puny weed of a man had meant nothing to her? "Katya?"

"Stop calling me that!" She turned the full force of her anger upon him, brown eyes fairly flashing with fury. "You stupid man! Don't you see? It's over, it's _been_ over for years, and I'm not the naïve school girl whose heart you stepped on! You're chasing some dream that doesn't exist, that won't ever exist again! I. Don't. Love. You. I _love_ Pete Wisdom, and you might have killed him! And you don't even care about that! You haven't even asked! All you care about is your precious selfish self!" She paused for breath, panting with the force of her words, and her anger. Then in a slightly calmer voice, she continued: "Moira says Pete will probably live, if he makes it through tonight. You'd better hope he does, because otherwise the charge will be more than grievous bodily harm. It'll be murder." She turned away, crossing to the intercom on the wall. "Okay, they can come and get him now. I'm finished."

"Kat-- Kitty? What is happening? Who did you speak to?" Colossus' brow couldn't wrinkle in his armoured form, but the confusion was plain in his face nonetheless. "What do you mean, 'charge'? What have you done?"

"Something which should have been months ago," Kitty replied. "I'm sorry, Piotr, but I couldn't let you get away with it again." She moved aside, no longer blocking his view of the corridor, to reveal several uniformed police, led by a slight, red-haired man in an ill-fitting grey suit.

"I'm Detective Constable McLeod. Is this our man?" he asked Kitty, his Scottish accent almost impenetrable, it was so thick. She nodded.

"Kitty? What is happening?" Colossus asked again, more bewildered than aggressive.

"Piotr Nikolovitch Rasputin?" DC McLeod said, coming forward, stumbling over the unfamiliar Russian syllables. "I'm arresting you for assault occasioning grievous bodily harm. You don't not have to say anything, but anything you do say will be taken down in evidence."

"Kitty?!" Even as the uniformed police stepped forward and placed the inhibitor shackles on him, all Colossus could do was seek out his former love. His face, all-too-human now as his powers left him, was the face of a child who finds himself in trouble for something previously tolerated.

"Good bye, Peter," she said, and went up the stairs without turning back.

[next part]

back to Rossi's stories | X-Men archive | comicfic.net