Chapter 3: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Otherworld
Betsy liked diamonds. On her tenth birthday, her father gave her a shining, gleaming diamond necklace, her most treasured possession. Throughout her tumultuous life, she’d strived to find diamonds that equaled or surpassed the luster of that gift. Before the elder Braddock passed away, he told his daughter about the necklace’s mystical origins and how it was a one of its kind item. Thus, she failed in her search, but the failure didn’t matter. After all, Betsy liked diamonds.
She just never knew that diamonds would be her salvation one of these days.
As Amahl Farouk the Shadow King prepared to feed, Emma Grace Frost activated her secondary mutation. Thanks to a genetic flaw, whenever Emma turned to diamond, she became psychically mute, unable to access her powers or allow others to invade her mind. Also, her new form blunted her sensations and emotions, stripping her ability to feel. Things that normally earned her ire slid off of her, comments that incensed her went unheard, and immense pressure fell to the wayside.
Emma’s transformation cut Farouk off from the outside world where he drew his power from. Her emotionless state prevented the Shadow King from feeding off of her. Her psymute mind froze all telepathic activity. The change in Emma’s mindscape manifested itself as diamond encrusting everyone and everything.
Emma had Betsy and Farouk trapped.
But Emma’s form wasn’t perfect--see aforementioned genetic flaw. She also had never attempted her transformation while others were inside her head. The analytical part of her, the only one active at the moment, looked upon this as a learning experience.
*Emma,* Betsy called out. *Emma! Can you hear me?*
*Interesting. You can still communicate.*
Interesting indeed. Being psymute didn’t hinder Betsy’s words. Maybe it was because Betsy really was in Emma’s head and not trying to get in from the outside. Maybe it was because of another genetic flaw. Maybe it was because she continued to evolve after her mutation.
But that line of thought was destined for another time.
*Emma, can you get me to Farouk? I can harm him if he’s weakened.*
Another interesting thought. *How do you know he is being weakened as we speak?*
*I saw everything when I came into your mind.*
A beat of silence. *Everything?*
*Yes, everything from your miserable childhood to what you want to accomplish with this plan of yours. You’re hoping to cut him off from his power source and starve him. And I’m telling you, it HAS to be working. The Shadow King needs a great deal of negative emotions to sustain him, so if he isn’t in contact with other minds, he’s starving.*
*If you saw everything, then you know I cannot access my telepathic powers. Us conversing is already an anomaly.*
*But you haven’t done this before! You were just thinking that before I called out to you!*
*You... you heard me thinking to myself?*
Betsy did her best approximation of a scowl, but being surrounded by diamond made the attempt moot. *Do you want to be stuck like this forever? We have to act if we want to survive. Every second we waste is another second Farouk has to try and escape.*
*Fine, Elisabeth. What is your suggestion?*
*We can merge our abilities so I can navigate through your mind. Hopefully, you can maintain your form while I attack the Shadow King.*
*That is only wishful thinking.*
*No. Jean and I, we tried something like that when she took some of my telepathy and gave me her telekinetic powers. We used the power gathered from Farouk and the Phoenix to combine our consciousness then separate ourselves out.*
*We don’t have the energies of two cosmic beings at our disposal,* Emma scoffed. *At the moment, we only have one, and he is not cooperating.*
*We don’t need that much energy because this won’t take long... if it works.*
*And what are the risks?*
*Our minds never separating from each other? Both of us becoming brain dead? I don’t know. I’ve only tried this once, and the only time I did, I succeeded.*
If Emma could feel emotions, she’d guess she’d be feeling annoyance right now. Yes, annoyance, right up there with uncertainty and fear. What was better? To be the prison of the Shadow King or his mid-day snack? How about none of the above? Choices, choices...
*Do what you must,* Emma acquiesced.
Not like Betsy wasn’t going to try with or without Emma’s consent. For too long she’d lived under Farouk’s influence. For too long she’d been a mere hanger on. For too long she’d been deprived of peace, the one thing she thought she’d get when she died. For too long she’d watch that... that... thing use her against her own brother.
She walked a bitter road. Belasco entrapped her soul with his magic, shoved her into a demon’s body, then tortured her for what seemed like an eternity. Her boundless rage fueled the Shadow King’s power, allowing him to slip past her control. In turn, Belasco fed Farouk, making him cloud her mind and submit to the demon’s will.
No more. Brian banished Belasco. Emma had Farouk trapped. Now, Betsy needed draw on the remaining telepathic abilities Jean left behind to put her bane away forever.
Easy. Like killing an elephant with a butter knife.
Betsy tried to find some part of the White Queen vulnerable to mental abilities. They could communicate, so that meant something somewhere allowed a measure of psychic manipulation. If she had more power and infinite time, she might figure out everything, but working under these conditions amounted to searching for a needle in a haystack while handcuffed, blindfolded, and drugged. Basically, in a word, impossible.
Then again, X-Men lived on the ragged edge of impossible.
*Think,* Betsy mumbled to herself. When Jean did it, she entered Betsy’s mind and deconstructed a small part of herself--in essence, her telekinetic powers--sending it to replace the bonds which held Farouk. To reform herself, Jean had to take the aforementioned excised bonds--which was most of Betsy’s telepathy--and claim it as her own. During the exchange, Betsy felt the enormity of Jean’s powers and saw the Phoenix burning through her, waiting for the right time to rise to its full strength.
And for that moment, Betsy felt like the Phoenix was part of her too. It seared her soul, almost like it wanted to claim her, to gift her with its all-consuming power. Later on, Jean would say that while Betsy saw the Phoenix, the redhead herself experienced the burden of the Shadow King’s presence. Wanting to escape, she pooled all the energies present and separated herself from Betsy. In the process, both women collapsed, Farouk’s incessant mental shrieks quieted, and the Phoenix became silent.
Hoping to make progress, Betsy began to deconstruct her mental image. Her uniform rippled, eventually becoming a swirl of pink that enveloped her body. She sent the energies outward and was rewarded with a shudder of surprise from Emma.
*What are you doing?* gasped the blonde.
*I don’t know, but I’ll tell you when I’m done.*
Unable to feel those energies anymore but encouraged by her host’s reaction, Betsy deconstructed more of herself. The diamond surrounding her moved in, occupying the space her mental image formerly held. Soon, her entire being became a nebulous cloud, and with an imagined deep breath, Betsy spread her consciousness into her host.
Between the layers of diamonds lay tiny corridors snaking through Emma’s mind. They led to each facet of her life, her experiences. On her way in, Betsy had viewed all of the White Queen’s memories, but the nature of her psychic knife masked the emotions behind the memories, her interaction restricted to what she described as a fast-forward screening of her victims’ life.
Now, she felt all of Emma. Felt every joy, every pain, every death of her student, every triumph of her company.
Betsy cried with Emma when the blonde’s family turned against her brother. Betsy cackled with Emma when the blonde held the world by its throat when she was the Hellfire Club’s White Queen. For lack of better terminology, Betsy was Emma.
The reverse was also true.
With a detached eye, Emma saw Betsy’s hurt at the hands of Belasco. Emma saw Betsy’s dying moments in Hank’s arms. Emma saw Betsy’s happy family at Braddock manor. Emma saw Betsy’s first lover, Tom, being murdered. Emma saw Betsy’s joy at taking over the Captain Britain mantle.
The blonde found all the scenes intriguing, but a small part of her dreaded her emotional response when she’d eventually have to shift back to her flesh and blood body. After all, Emma had seen one case of total psychic integration before, and the results... well, they just weren’t good.
Trepidation aside, she felt confident. Free even. Like a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She reveled in the extra presence, which as the seconds wore on, didn’t seem to be a second presence anymore.
Funny. Her diamond form precluded her from emotions, but here she was now, feeling. All of it... so amazing to have suddenly lived two lives, to suddenly know so much more, to be so much more powerful than she was.
Telepathy flooded her. Telepathy wrapped her in its comforting and familiar arms. Telepathy formerly closed to... Betsy? Or was it Emma? No matter. The warm, soothing hum of other minds buzzed again. The imposing barriers protecting her erected themselves through her diamond laced mindscape. She heard Brian’s faraway thoughts.
She heard the Shadow King’s curses from inside his prison.
*Damn you, mutant!* the formless thing yelled. He stretched and warped and wrangled, but he couldn’t break free. For every act of struggle, he grew weaker, his mental manifestation losing cohesion.
*You hurt me,* said Betsy and Emma, their voices separate but spoken together. *There is no mercy for you.*
Mental attacks would only strengthen him. He had no physical form. Unfortunately for him, he was in her mind and without a foothold, let alone an advantage.
She drained energy from him. This wasn’t a siphoning or borrowing but rather a malicious, forceful theft of energy, ripping it from him chunks at a time. The Shadow King existed as pure psychic form, and for the first time in his existence, he’d been trapped with no way to recharge. His ferocious yells degenerated into pitiful cries for help, and then oddly enough, into pleas for mercy.
As his body shrunk, his diamond prison shrunk with him, crushing him, suffocating him, reminding him of his impending doom.
The voice, now a single voice blended with Emma’s sultry enunciation and Betsy’s British accent, sounded from all corners: *I’ve robbed you of you. Now, I will destroy your awareness and your consciousness. Then, I will use your energies--your body--to make me strong. Die, you insidious piece of shit, and don’t come back.*
Silence. The Shadow King disappeared, his energy gone, consumed by Betsy and Emma. What remained of him was a wealth of unidentifiable power thundering through her mind, and she was happy. Genuinely happy.
Revenge. Power. Knowledge. Excitement. Victory. All in a day’s work, but even the best days had to end.
The diamond lattice shifted, returning to its former state--a darkened no-place with one spotlight. Underneath the spotlight, a mixture of Betsy and Emma stood. Long blonde hair framed Asian eyes. Psylocke’s X-Men outfit remained, only, it was white. A white caped draped over her shoulders.
Suddenly, she blurred. Two hazy forms replaced one. The pair became clearer, sharper, until coming to focus.
Betsy collapsed. Emma stumbled but remained standing. Both clutched their heads in pain and exhaustion.
Without preamble, the mind link fizzled, returning the two to their physical bodies. Emma’s eyes flashed open in shock, the gamut of emotions her diamond form phased out now hammering against her. She couldn’t breathe or think. Unable to handle the mental overload, Emma screamed.
Betsy fainted face first into the swamp.
*****************
Kitty blinked. Ok, so maybe she wasn’t dead.
Amanda’s face popped out from the edge of Kitty’s hazy vision. “How are you feeling?”
“I don’t know,” Kitty groaned. “How am I suppose to be feeling?”
Amanda disappeared for a second. “Hey everyone, she’s awake!” She reappeared, this time wearing a grin. “The Doc patched you up himself, so you’ll be up and around in no time.”
One question ran through Kitty’s mind. “What about Illyana?”
The grin faltered. “Not so good,” Amanda admitted, running a hand through her hair. “Stephen undid Belasco’s magic just before she got a chance to hurt you even more, but her body’s falling apart because she wants to go back to her afterlife. She also wants to talk to you though. When you feel up to it...”
Of course she felt up to it. When Illyana needed her, Kitty was there. Her presence might not have been enough, but damn it, she was there. She’d always be there.
Wobbling to her feet, the brunette steadied herself on the... bed? “Where are we?”
“My home,” Amanda replied, offering her arm for support. “Don’t worry. We’re safe here.”
Mystical baubles lined the green marble walls. Torches lit every corner of the room. Scents of all sorts wafted through the air. Everything looked either mysteriously archaic or tastefully medieval. In fewer words, the place looked like it belonged to a magician.
The bedroom opened up into a large, ornate space. Stone carvings, strange statues, ancient tomes, and various blades lent it a hallowed aura. Amanda must’ve did her more complex spells here. Apparently, the room also doubled as a nice reception area. Meggan, Brian, the Black Knight, and Doctor Strange hovered around Illyana, who lay on a stone table. Meanwhile, across the way, Emma--arms crossed, eyes glowering--stood by Betsy’s body which occupied another slab of rock.
Whatever pissed Emma off could wait, Kitty decided.
“Illyana,” she called out, forcing a smile to her face.
Said woman turned her head to the voice, sighing in relief. The dark circles around her eyes made them look like they’d sunken into her skull. Pale lips strained with effort to produce some sort of positive expression, but they failed. Without her demonic features, Illyana looked like a frail, frightened girl, too small to support the armor she still wore.
Kitty broke away from Amanda, stumbling the last few feet to Illyana on her own. She took the blonde’s hand and squeezed it, reaffirming her friend’s existence to herself. Everyone else took a cue, stepping back and giving the two women a little privacy. Kitty nodded in thanks to the group as they carried on with meaningless tasks and idle chit-chat.
“I’m so sorry, Kitty,” whispered Illyana.
“Don’t say that. You have nothing to be sorry about.”
“I do. I’m sorry for hurting you and-”
“No, Belasco made you do it. I know you’d never hurt me.”
The blonde closed her eyes. “But I’m going to hurt you again.”
“How?” asked Kitty, shocked. “Why?”
“I don’t want to be here. Piotr was with me. My parents were with me. I was happy, and Belasco took me away from them again. He gave me this body and... and... it hurts to be here because I’m not happy anymore.”
She tightened her hold on Kitty’s hand. “I’m leaving,” she sighed. “And I’m sorry because I know seeing me like this again is going to hurt you.”
“Don’t worry,” said Kitty, tears running down her cheek, “As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”
“You don’t have be strong all the time, Kitty. I know how you feel; I feel the same way. Maybe some day, some time in the future...”
The words trailed off. Doctor Strange moved to Kitty’s side, his voice comforting as he spoke.
“One of the hardest things in life is letting go. Illyana just wants to make sure you can accept that before she passes on. While we may fear death, it is not the end. You two will meet again, and hopefully, next time will be on better terms.”
What could anyone say to that? There was nothing in the world Kitty would begrudge Illyana of, but simply letting go felt like such an empty gesture. Nonetheless, Illyana wanted Kitty’s acceptance of her death. Her slightly pleading, laboring tone hinted their friendship was what made Illyana hang on for as long as she had.
“Live,” Illyana mouthed quietly, “Piotr and I... we see you all the time and you don’t live...”
She coughed, air rushing out of her lungs and failing to come back despite her best efforts. Strange chanted in Latin as an eerie purple light passed from him to Illyana.
“A spell,” the Sorcerer Supreme whispered, “it eases the pain.”
The woman’s strained face relaxed, her coughing eased, and the crushing grip on Kitty’s hand loosened. Serenity descended upon her, and the smile which earlier couldn’t form blossomed. The hurt disappeared.
Finally, her eyes glazed over, open and unseeing.
Kitty slumped. She let go of Illyana’s cooling hand. Meggan tried to offer some condolences, but the brunette stopped her.
“Thank you,” she said, backing away from Illyana’s body. “But I... I just need a little space. I’ll be out for a few minutes.”
Without waiting for responses, she phased through the walls, off to another part of the stronghold. Distraught over her friend’s reaction, Meggan called after Kitty, even going so far as to chase her. Amanda halted the blonde with a shake of her head.
“Let her go. I can watch her from anywhere in Limbo, so she’ll be safe.”
“But Kitty is our friend and she needs us!”
Although he hated to contradict his wife, Brian concurred with Amanda. “Kitty’s also a private person, luv. She’ll come to us when she’s ready.”
Emma’s bitter words sliced through the soothing, sensitive atmosphere. “Interesting how you satisfied the kitty cat with half truths.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Brian, puzzled.
Unimpressed, the White Queen leveled her most intimidating glare at each person present. “Don’t play dumb with me, Mr. Braddock. I’ve read the files on Excalibur--you and your lovely wife have the ability to save Illyana. Where are the spells? The contacts? One doesn’t rise to your station of power without some advantages and friends. Speaking of friends, Doctor Strange himself could’ve easily preserved Illyana’s life. Xavier’s dossier of his sometime astral chess buddy has enough proof of that.” Her voice lowered, accusing. “Why hold back?”
The Black Knight rose to the occasion, stepping in front of his friends to defend them. “We did all we could,” he barked. “Magic isn’t simple and Belasco isn’t a simple villain! How dare you accuse us of leaving one of our own to die?!”
“Dane,” Doctor Strange said as he pulled the man back. “Ms. Frost has a good point. Her concern is certainly grounded in fact, and as such, we must address them as best we can.” He turned back to Emma, smiling apologetically. “Dane is a very passionate man and doesn’t fully measure all of his words. I am sorry for his outburst.”
“The grown man has a mouth of his own. Unless mommy is still changing his diapers, let him apologize for himself.”
The Black Knight almost lunged at Emma, but reason--along with Brian’s steady grip--reined him in. He settled down and resorted to scoffing. If Emma wasn’t so keyed up, she’d laugh at his childish behavior.
“I’m waiting for your answer,” she said, tapping her foot.
“Simply put,” explained Doctor Strange, “she didn’t want to live anymore. Yes, we could have helped her, prevented her from dying, but she didn’t want that. Illyana is already dead and passed on to her afterlife where she is happy. It was her choice to live on or return to her blissful state: she chose the latter.”
“I didn’t hear anyone pointing that out to her when she woke up. I didn’t hear anyone saying ‘We can help you.’ The poor girl probably didn’t even know she could be saved, and you didn’t feel it necessary to tell her otherwise. In that situation, her choosing death was not a choice but rather the only option revealed to her.”
Brian wedged himself into the debate to prevent it from escalating. “No need to get chippy now. Kitty might’ve been out like a light, but you were there, Emma. Illyana only wanted to go back and she made no mystery of it.”
“I didn’t hear a word of encouragement for her to stay,” Emma pointed out. “I don’t have to be an empath to know all of you are holding something back.”
“We’ve done this plenty of times,” said Brian, “After all, Belasco did get his legion this way. Every single one of those spirits Belasco corrupted wanted to return to their afterlives after we freed them. Their place is not with the living anymore, and they know it.”
“And the spirits must return to their rightful places,” added Dane. “Their absence shifted many things in the realms outside of earth, and we are just putting it right.”
Emma frowned. “So the ugly truth comes out. Not only is letting these people die again is humane, but it’s also a convenient solution to whatever rocked your Otherworld boat.”
Instead of accepting the bait, Brian calmed himself, putting his arms at his sides in a most unthreatening way. “If it’s a fight you’re looking for, you won’t get it. Tell me, why are you saying these things?”
“Your sister doesn’t want to go back, Mr. Braddock; she desperately wants to live. Her afterlife consisted of seeing Bishop then being kidnapped by Belasco. Now, she’s unconscious and probably won’t wake up for a while, so in her best interests, I want to know if you’re going to treat her like you did Illyana.”
“How do you know this?! You don’t know anything!” asked the Black Knight, disbelief in his voice.
“Dane!” Meggan chided. “Hush! You’re awfully headstrong today.”
Fixing her icy stare at Dane, Emma said, “I know more than about her than you ever will. Our minds melded together during the fight with the Shadow King. So before you go around twirling your attitude around me again, check that mouth of yours or you might find yourself on the painful end of your little toothpick.”
“Ladies, gentlemen,” interrupted Doctor Strange, “I believe our conflict is easily resolved. Ms. Frost does not approve of our methods. Brian and Meggan, I don’t think you want to leave Betsy’s side at the moment. So, I propose this compromise...”
******************
- To be continued...
Deviant Hearts Archive | Back to main index