Aggressive Negotiations [8/14]

[shadowcat]

Title: Aggressive Negotiations
Author: enochiansigils and not_from_stars
Fandom: X-Men
Pairing/Characters: Dani Moonstar/Mikhail Sorokin
Rating/Category: R
Warnings: One scene of consensual sex between a minor who is older than her years and a an adult.
Summary: Danielle Moonstar was raised by Magneto and his Brotherhood and became a member of the MLF at a young age. She met and fell in love with Mikhail Sorokin. But the course of true love never does run smooth and when Dani dies as the result of a mission gone wrong, Mikhail is left to pick up the pieces of his life. Five years pass and Mikhail learns that things are not as they have always seemed.
Words: 31,122
Notes: Written for au_bigbang 2011. Thank you very much to queenmidalah for the wonderful art and fanvideo she made for us! We've loved writing this story and have very much enjoyed taking part in the challenge this year.








"We'll get her back with us and then do some research on who is currently with the MLF." This meant Kitty would use her skills and hack into systems belong to people known to fund MLF. She would have said more, but that was when Wolverine and Storm arrived in the room.

"What's going on, girls?"

Kitty moved aside slightly so that they could see the dying young woman on the floor in front of them.

"That's Moonstar," Logan said quietly, sniffing the air. "What the hell happened to her?"

"The only names she gave us before she lost consciousness were Concussion and Reaper." Kitty responded. "Her team apparently turned on her because she saved a human."

"This must not have been the first time she tried to do that, then," Storm said. "The team had to have ambushed her. We've seen her directing teams in fights and they would not have been able to do this to her if she was expecting."

Kitty looked at her teammates and foster parents as she and Tamsin stayed crouched by the fallen young woman. "She mentioned Concussion more than once. We think she's giving up on fighting to stay alive because he betrayed her."

"I know she has," Tamsin said stubbornly. "I can feel it. She doesn't want to die, but she doesn't care if she does."

That made Wolverine snarl a little.

"We have to save her," Tamsin said. "She can't die here, not like this."

Kitty agreed with her. "She's only a few years older than us and obviously she was trying to save people."

"We don't doubt she can change, Shadowcat," Storm responded. "She's a child and we won't let a child die. We just don't know if we can save her -- much less move her without causing more trauma."

"We have to try, though," Tamsin said.

Kitty tapped the communicating radio again. "Phoenix..."

"Shadowcat, you don't have to use that thing, you know." Rachel smiled from where she was walking through the door. "I always monitor you and Colt when you go somewhere I wish you wouldn't." The smile on her face belied the stark worry in her eyes.

"So... constantly, then?" Tamsin grinned for a second before looking back to Moonstar.

"I can use my telekinesis to wrap around her and keep her carefully in stasis so that we can get her back to the mansion."

"Good plan."

"We have to go now, though, Storm. She's fading fast."

Tamsin looked at Moonstar again. "Hang in there," she murmured.

Shadowcat nodded. "You are not allowed to die."

And disobeying those two never ended well, especially when they had Wolverine backing their play.

"Let's get out of here," Ororo ordered.

Tamsin nodded, pushing herself to her feet quickly.

When they got to their feet, Rachel looked at Dani and then her body slowly started to rise -- encased in what looked like an orange and blue cocoon of flame.

"We'll get her to the Blackbird and then the mansion."

Tamsin just nodded, moving closer to Kitty as though for comfort.

Kitty reached out and took Tamsin's hand. They both needed the comfort after seeing this. Kitty would probably be sick later when she remembered how Moonstar looked when they found her.

"Logan?" Kitty whispered once they were safely in the Blackbird and heading away from the exploding building.

"Yeah, Kitten?"

"Will our people be able to save her?"

Logan gave her a tight smile. "If any one can save her Kit, it's our people."

"She's going to be fine, Kitty," Tamsin said softly.

Kitty nodded, leaning her head on her best friend's shoulder. "How could anyone do something like that to a member of their own team?"

"I don't know," Tamsin said softly. "It just... doesn't make any sense."

"It doesn't. I don't understand."

Tamsin sighed. "And not just because they're the bad guys. It... you don't do that to your team, no matter what kind of problems you have with them."

"Exactly! No matter what, you don't try to kill people on your team. It's a betrayal of trust!"

"You find some way to deal with it but you don't do that." Tamsin took Kitty's hand in hers and squeezed it.

Kitty nodded. "We can't let her die, Tam. Not after this. She needs to know that not all people are like that."

"She's gonna be fine," Tamsin said firmly. "She'll make it. We've got people who can save her."


Mikhail wasn't sure how he'd managed to get back to base, or how he'd gotten to Danielle's room. All he was aware of was getting into her room, shutting the door, and then collapsing on the bed that they shared almost more than they shared his.

It couldn't be true. She couldn't be dead. He wouldn't allow it. He couldn't have lost her after so few years, he just couldn't.

Sighing, he buried his face against her pillow and let the tears come, let the pain overwhelm him and the anger flow freely. He let the emotions happen as they came, running the gamut quickly and stalling quite hard on grieving. Mikhail Sorokin didn't cry, hadn't cried -- truly cried -- in years, not since he was a teenager. But now he was faced with a loss he couldn't cope with and so he did the only thing he could think of.

He wept.

He wasn't sure how long he cried for, exactly, but he was distracted by the ringing of a phone. His cell phone. He bolted upright, startled; he hadn't realized he'd left it in Danielle's room in the first place. He reached over to grab it off the nightstand. "Hello?"

"Hello, Mikhail."

Mikhail winced. Just what he needed, a call from Danielle's father. Only question was, was the older man speaking to him as Magneto or as Erik?

"Hello, sir." Because he'd be damned if he wasn't going to show a grieving father some respect. Especially this particular one.

"Are you all right?"

"I lost Danielle, sir. So no, I'm not all right." And then Mikhail winced; snapping at the other man -- be he Erik or Magneto -- was a pretty stupid move.

"Fair enough. I suppose the question, then, should be how are you holding up?"

"Not very well," Mikhail admitted, flopping back onto the bed. "I shouldn't have lost her. She was part of my team, damn it. I should have been able to protect her."

"Why weren't you there?" Curiosity, with the potential to become more.

"I got detained," Mikhail explained. "Too many blasts going off, they kept me from getting to her. By the time I was even close... it was too late."

"She loved you," Erik said gently. "Don't ever forget that, no matter how hard it gets for you. And I won't lie to you, Mikhail, it won't be easy. Losing those you love and who loved you in return is never easy."

"I know she loved me, sir. She was never shy about showing me. I just hope she knew how much I loved her." How much he would always love her, because that kind of love never died and never faded. Settled into something a little different with time, maybe, but never truly faded.

"She didn't talk to me about her feelings much, but I think I can safely say that yes, she knew how much you loved her." Erik's voice was gentle but pained. "I could hear it in her voice the times we talked, no matter what was said about you."

"Good things, I hope," and then he was kicking himself mentally because how could he possibly make a joke at a time like this.

"For the most part, yes," Erik said dryly.

Mikhail wasn't entirely sure whether the older man was joking then or not; Erik had a notoriously dry sense of humor at times, this possibly being one of them.

"That's Danielle for you," Mikhail said, fondness coloring his voice. "She never minced words. If she had an opinion, she said it -- and not always in the gentlest words." Which didn't mean that Danielle had ever meant to hurt anybody, because she wasn't that kind of girl. She was -- had been -- the kind of girl who never saw the need to pull her punches, verbal or otherwise.

"You two were well suited to each other," Erik said. "You complemented each other."

"I like to think so," Mikhail replied. "All I know is that when I was with her, I felt more complete than I felt when I wasn't with her. It was like she made my entire world and everything I was just make sense." His voice broke slightly. "I don't know what I'm going to do without her."

"The same thing I am," Erik said gently. "You go on. You survive. You live. You fight. She would not want you to give up the fight, give up so much of what makes you who you are, because she is gone."

"No, she wouldn't," Mikhail agreed reluctantly. "She would want me to fight so that everything we've tried to accomplish wouldn't be in vain. I just don't much feel like fighting without her here to fight with me."

"She would hate that," Erik said. "She would want you to go on. At least enough to fight for the things she believed in."

Mikhail didn't know what to say. He wasn't going to try telling Erik that he just didn't understand, because Erik more than understood. But what did he say?

"I can fight for her," he said after a moment. "Because I can't fight for myself right now. I don't have it in me. There's a part of me that wants to hide away for a while. I can't do that, I know, but part of me wants to. So it may be a while before I fight. But when I do, it'll be for her. For everything she stood for."

"Stay strong, Mikhail," Erik said. "I have faith in you."






Chapter Seven || Chapter Nine