Keri Wilson

Dreams and Desires

Hell in Paradise

By September Senator Kelly had changed his opinion about mutants considerably. His daughter's earnest idealism touched him. He had never seen such a deeply held but benevolent value system.

"You're saying that this is what you learned and taught above all else?" the senator's amazement was obvious.

"Yes, ah believe with all mah heart that the only way we'll ever have any kind of decent future on this planet is if humans and mutants work together, an' stop hurtin' each other." Tara said emphatically.

"You still believe that despite what we have done to you?" When he said that Senator Kelly knew he was going to vote for that bill that would close the camps holding the infants, children, pregnant women, and mothers of children under two years old. And he would work on getting the bill out of subcommittee, which would close all of the camps. The only mutants that should be held were those on the list of out and out criminals. Right now he'd try to arrange for Tara's other children- his grandchildren- to be brought here.

Kelly wondered how he could have been persuaded so easily that his grandchildren should go to those camps- for that matter any of those children, they were obviously completely innocent of any crimes. It was doubtful that his grandchildren would feel very warmly toward him. But they needed their mother. He knew she needed them. The senator decided to try to arrange that right now. He stood up and told his daughter that he'd have to go now; he needed to make some phone calls and do some other Senate work.

Tara watched him go out of the room. He no longer even closed the door and he told her he had the cameras turned off. He even had the bars removed from that window. She could go anywhere within the house, or the fenced in back yard. It was a six foot high wood fence that no one could see over from the street, or the neighbors' yards. He dismissed all the extra security people.

One warm September night, when everyone else in the household had gone to sleep, Tara lay awake; it was hard to sleep now, she couldn't find a comfortable position, being so big with her pregnancy. She heard the metal latch on her window open with no one touching it. She knew who it was before he softly called her name.

She came to the window, and Magneto said, "Tara, I've come to get you free" He said this while floating outside her second floor window. She told him she couldn't go. She knew she had affected things just by staying here and convincing her father and some others in the congress that mutants weren't all bad or dangerous people. She was determined to at least get the kids freed from those camps. She had a gut feeling that she had almost succeeded. She put her hands on her abdomen, heavy with the babies. "For the children's sake it's bettah for me tah stay here Magnus."

"In that case, this will more than likely be the last time you see me, sweet Tara. We, my compatriots and I, are making sure the humans will not be able to use technology to destroy mutant lives. We will be as careful as possible to avoid human causalities, for the children's sake."

Tara knew she couldn't dissuade him from that certain suicide mission, but she would give him something pleasant to remember. She reached out the window and touched his hands. He moved as close to the window as he could and she quickly leaned just slightly out of the window and when their faces were level she gave him a quick kiss on the mouth, then moved back inside and told him goodbye. He looked at her and said, "Goodbye Tara, you will be in my thoughts until the last." Then he left. She closed the window and let the tears roll down her face.

The next night, right after she had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep, her door was flung open and Renard and Rowena ran in and jumped on the bed waking her. Tara hugged them tight, "Mah babies!"

Renard solemnly said, "No mama, those are your babies." pointing at her big stomach.

She smiled at him and then looked at Rowena and said, "Y'all will always be mah babies, everyone of you, even your big brother Richard, wherever he is."

"Maman, is that man in the hall really our grandfather?" Rowena asked.

"Yes, he is."

"Why did he send us to the camp then?"

Tara didn't know what to say to her daughter except, "Ah don't know why, shugah." Then she asked whom they had seen at the camp and how long ago. It eased her mind some to hear that they had seen several of their friends, their friends' parents, plus their siblings: Roger, Regina and Roman, their sister-in-law Lisa, and her baby Analise. They had seen them last a couple of days ago.

They had been with "Aunt" Jubilee, Lotan, and baby Gwen until two days ago. Nobody knew where Jubilee's other son Louis was though. They had heard that their big sister, Renee was in a work camp not far from where they had been and their half brother Andrew too. No one knew where Remy was though.

A week later Roger, Regina, Roman, were brought to the house, and Lisa and Analise were able to come too.

The first week of October, the relocation camps were officially closed and the congress was beginning a debate on closing the work camps. Senator Kelly was able to get Renee and her half brother Andrew out of the work camps and bring them to the Arlington house.

Tara and her kids all hugged Renee as soon as she came in the door, hugs she happily returned! Tara looked at Andrew and smiled warmly at him when he walked into the house. Lisa ran into his arms and hugged him tight.

Andrew had always felt slightly uncomfortable around Tara. Well, after all, he thought, his father married Tara, not my mom, but eventually that had become unimportant.

Andrew had become a reserve member of the X-Men, but he had also been trained as an OB/GYN, so was his wife Lisa. They had met while interning and had married as soon as their internships were nearly over, February of last year. Lisa had become pregnant soon after. Analise had been born on Thanksgiving, so they had to forego their usual trip to Baton Rouge for the holiday, and went at Christmas instead.

They hadn't been there when Richard had run off. Andrew had expressed some guilt about that. Andrew had wondered if he couldn't have said something to his half brother to calm Richard's anger and hurt feelings. Tara had told Andrew that nothing could have dissuaded him at that point. She had come to see that the others were right on that point. She still missed him terribly though and wished that he would contact them to let them know he was safe and well.

Andrew came over to his stepmom. "You had any unusual problems with this pregnancy?" He asked.

"Ah've been okay so far, didn't even have a bit of mornin' sickness, this time." No, the only problems I've had this time is ah was ripped away from mah home, mah husband, mah children, mah friends and their children; that's all, she thinks sarcastically. Then a quick smile crosses her faces and she thinks ah sound like Jubilee. Other than mah accent, that's exactly how she'd say it, in that exact tone of voice.

Andrew sees the smile but misjudges it for her relief that she hasn't had any problems this time. "Good, you look like you've gained the right amount, have you been able t' check?"

Tara smiled when she heard a little of Remy's dialect in Andrew's speech. Andrew had tried to eliminate his Creole accent, because he felt people outside of the school treated him with less respect when he spoke it. He had managed to eliminate the Creole, only to pick up a bit of his father's Cajun accent.

"Yes ah've checked mah weight gain regularly." She answered her stepson.

"You're getting pretty close t' term now, and especially with twins, we need t' keep a close watch f' any signs labor is immanent."

She could hear the concern under his professional tone, and she smiled. Andrew tended to be a kindhearted doctor, and like his father, he loved holding babies. Lisa was as warmhearted as her husband, if not more so. She called Tara, Mom LeBeau, and Andrew's mother, Mom Helene. That woman was still playing like she was too young to be called by her last name! Tara thought, exasperated.

"As soon as you feel the first twinge that you even think might be labor, be sure to tell us." Lisa said.

Senator Kelly came up to them then and said; "I think you should come in and see what they are showing on TV..."

They followed him back into the other room. The news was on," destroyed by rumored mutant terrorists..."

"Oh no!" Tara said.

"It appears so, the witnesses have claimed they saw several mutants on our 'most wanted' list. They were able to capture two, that while they weren't on the most wanted list, were still on our criminal list. A Rusty Collins and Sally Blevins. This hasn't been leaked to the media yet." The senator told them.

"Those two were always gettin' themselves more than waist deep in trouble, now they've really done it. Was anyone hurt?"Tara asked.

"No. Their leader, we think it was Magneto, from the witnesses' reports, apparently told his people to avoid harming humans, to concentrate on destroying the database. There was just one slight injury to a plant employee, who was a little close to computer when it was destroyed. Mr. Collins and Ms. Blevins were also slightly injured when they were captured. You know these people, Tara?"

"Slightly, each time they'd get into trouble when they were still kids, it would be excused as they were forced to do it, or they were brainwashed. As the years went by and they kept on makin' these choices, we finally realized it was actually them makin' those decisions and they, at least partly, knew what they were doin' all along. They wanted to be bad, somethin's wrong with them. Yah can't help someone who doesn't want tah be helped."

"We?"

"The X-Men. We tried time and time tah help them, but every time they'd go right back tah their old ways."

"So you would not oppose prison sentences for them?"

"No ah wouldn't, ah don't know if prison will teach them what they've done is wrong, but nothin' else has."

"Would you be willing to testify at their trials?"

"Ah guess so, as long as it's aftah ah have the babies."

"How much longer will that be?"

Andrew answers, "It could come anytime now with twins; you're what, a month from term?"

"Five weeks." Tara answers.

"Definitely anytime now," Lisa reiterates for Andrew.

Renee looked worried; she remembered well what happened last time mama was pregnant. And that time they had all sorts of medical technology to save Renard. Tara sees her oldest daughter's expression and figures out what she is worried about. She looks at her stepson and his wife and asks, "Even if they are born tomorrow will they be okay?"

Andrew nods. "This close to term with twins, yeah, they should be." He qualifies.

Should be, Tara thinks, I hope so.

Two weeks later Tara gives birth to a healthy boy and girl. Andrew and Lisa helped her through the birth, but she missed Remy more than ever. He would have been here at my side, if it weren't for those damn camps. Tara thought.

She named the babies what names she and Remy had already picked out: Rhiannon for the girl and Rhian for the boy.

Senator Kelly had watched his daughter have the babies. She had insisted on having them at the house, not at a hospital. She had also insisted, after they offered, on only having Andrew and Lisa as her doctors. He acceded to his daughter's wishes, but watched worriedly the whole time.

He hadn't seen Tara being born, hadn't seen her afterward either. He only had one photo of her, as a baby. Anabel had sent it to him after she left, when Tara was six. She sent it to remind him to send money. She had, in fact, in that letter, threatened to tell the media if he didn't. It had made him bitter towards both Anabel and his daughter, but he sent the money until Tara was eighteen.

He had only recently found out that Anabel had kicked Tara out, when her power first manifested itself, when she was thirteen years old. It made him angry when he thought about it, Anabel had used that money for her own pleasure,

while his daughter was with that woman, Raven Darkholme, who had given his daughter love, but had badly used her. He wondered if Tara had ever any of that money spent on her, since she was six years old.

He had kept the photo of Tara as a baby. He found it yesterday, buried at the back of a photo album. He had been looking in the album for photos of his family he could give his daughter. He had found a few and had reached empty pages in that album. When he started to close the album, he saw there was another photo hidden in the last few pages. When he opened it to the page, he remembered receiving the photo. When looked at the photo there was no doubt who it was, her face still looked so much like it did in that picture.

He doubted that Tara had ever seen this photograph; Anabel didn't have a sentimental bone in her body. He doubted if Anabel had any other pictures of Tara. He took the picture out, and saw in Anabel's handwriting, that by the date on the back of photo, that Tara was eighteen months old when it was taken. He decided to take all the photos to suite and let Tara and the grandchildren look at them. He realized when he looked at the pictures with them, that Tara looked a lot like his great grandmother, Margot Colum Kelly, whose parents had fled Ireland more than a century ago. Margot even had the same white streak in her hair that Tara had. He had always thought it was a problem with the film on the picture he had, but now he could tell by his daughter it was really there. His parents or grandparents never mentioned her odd hair coloring, and all the other pictures he had seen of great grandmother no white streak was visible in her youth, just this one taken when she was about sixteen. She must have dyed over it, just like his daughter. He never knew great grandmother though; she died when he was a toddler. There was one picture his mother had of great grandmother Margot holding him as an infant. Margot was the first of the Colum children born in the United States.

Unlike most of the Irish that fled at that time, the Colum family was wealthy and well educated. They had fled with their money just before getting caught by the English, for supporting the Irish Free State movement. He knew that they had continued to send money to the movement after they settled in the United States. The Kelly family sent money too. They weren't wealthy like the Colum family, but were merchants who became wealthy in the United States. Margot Colum and William Kelly had met at a pro Home Rule for Ireland rally in New York City, and had fallen in love. The Colum family had looked down on the Kelly family as nouveau rich dark Irish, but because their politics agreed and the Kelly family was rich none the less, her family allowed it. Right after the marriage they built a mansion in Georgia; their four children were born there. "My grandfather David Kelly was the oldest, he had three sisters. It was this house that you spent your first six years in, Tara." He told her.

When Senator Kelly told her about her great great grandparents' political involvement she was surprised. "Ah had no idea that my ancestors were so committed tah a cause."

"The family sent money to Senn Finn until the Irish Free State was established in 1922. We hushed that up, of course, when my father began his political career; he never made it to national office, being Irish Catholic, and trying before Kennedy succeeded in getting into congress. He did make it to the state legislature, though. The same office I had just won when you were born. When my father won, he was the first Irish Catholic member of the Virginia legislature, I grew up in this house while my father was a member of it. When I became an adult it became my house. My parents moved back into their favorite home, the mansion in Georgia."

"Ah think ah remember your mother, ah think ah saw her a few times

when ah was little. She never said anything to me though, just

looked at me, not smilin'."

"Sounds like my mother, your grandmother. She's still alive by the way, if you ever want to see her."

"Ah think it'd be bettah if you told her ah'd like tah see her, an' see if she's interested in seein' me an' the kids."

"Hmm, I believe that might be better, knowing my mother."

One week later Tara and her children were watching the evening news when the news reported devastating attacks on computer databases, destroying most information gathered on parahumans, and factories that were apparently creating devices to control or kill mutants and parahumans. Something went very wrong at the last attack for Magneto's group, the factory was destroyed, but apparently every member was killed. The news report said only apparently, because most of the bodies were charred beyond any positive identification. The only body easily identified was Magneto's. And Colossus's... When they said that Tara felt a wave of grief strike her hard. The children began to sob.

There were no more attacks on any databases or factories of any sort after that. Kelly was relieved, with Magneto and most of his group dead, the legislation to close the work camps was finally moving again, he believed he could get it through, at the latest, in a couple of weeks. Especially with a little evidence a friend had finally come through with. He had been trying for over two months to try to find out where they were keeping his son-in-law, with no luck; he had even questioned Gyrich. Gyrich had said he knew nothing about the man or where he was. Kelly could tell Gyrich was lying, because he looked so smug. But Kelly had an old friend in the bureau; he called up an old favor, and got the information. There was a secret camp, called simply number eighteen. In this camp they were torturing mutants and other parahumans who had been members of groups like the X-Men, the one his daughter and son-in-law had been in. He was going to blow the lid off this in the Senate tomorrow. He hoped that they had not harmed his son-in-law too badly for his daughter and grandchildren's sake.

Kelly was right. The uproar this had created in the Senate had been truly incredible. In two weeks the camps, including eighteen were closed.

The day the last camp was closed Tara and the children left to go home. Kelly asked his daughter if she could forgive him for the part he had played in this horrible time. She said she'd try.

He had found a large van for them to drive back to their home.

They drove on the main highway. They passed hundreds of people walking on the side of the road, all the way to New York. After they got outside of the city they didn't see that many people.

"Let's go to X-mansion first." Tara said at that point.

Andrew, who was driving, said "Okay." and instead turning off to another interstate that would take them to the farmhouse in Delaware County, they continued on the Westchester County, New York highway.

Fifteen minutes later, Renee screamed "Stop the van!" It startled Andrew so much; he came to a screeching halt, almost causing an accident. He then pulled over to the shoulder, and turned around to glare at Renee, but she had already flung the door open and was running back down the shoulder yelling "Papa! Louis!"

Tara jumped out then and followed her daughter, also running rather than flying.

Renee finally reached them. Louis had been walking and helping Remy, letting Remy lean on him. They had been walking for days, from camp eighteen. The two had broken out the camp just days before it was closed down. Once they heard the news that the camps were closed they stopped hiding out and started walking along the highway trying to get to the X-mansion at least. Much to the relief of Louis who didn't think he had the medical training to treat one his favorite teachers. Several of Remy's ribs were cracked; his jaw and one of his arms were broken. Louis had found some things to wrap his chest and splint his arm. Remy tried not to talk, to keep down the pain in his jaw. Louis was in much better shape due to his inheritance of his father's healing factor. Within a few hours of the removal of the armcuffs; that all parahumans over four years old had worn at all times in all the camps, Louis' healing factor was back to full strength.

The armcuffs looked like deceptively harmless wide bracelets, but once clamped onto a parahuman's arms, rendered them powerless, and they sent out a painful electrical shock if manual removal was attempted. The powerlessness lasted until a few seconds after they were removed. But Remy, master thief that he was had figured out a way to remove them, he just waited for the best opportunity and took it.

Renee and Tara helped Remy and Louis into the van. Tara gently held onto Remy as they drove the rest of the way to the mansion.

When they got to the mansion, they saw there had been some damage to the building's above ground floors. Inside the building, rooms were in shambles. When they went to the subbasement it was intact, and everything seemed to be fine. Jubilee came running around the corner, "Did you see..." then seeing her missing son, "Louis!" She hugs her son. Then she sees Remy being helped by Tara and Renee, "Kitty get that med bed ready, we are going to need it." She yells back the way she came.

"It's ready, who's hurt?" She says coming to meet them. Her eyes widen in shock when she sees how badly hurt Remy is. She hurries back into the infirmary to make sure everyone is out of the way.

They carefully laid him on the medical bed; he groaned and tried to talk. Tara told him, "Hush now, Remy, tell me once we get yah fixed up." Andrew told his father not to talk, that he could cause further injury to his jaw if he tried.

Renee says, "Rest now, papa."

They treated his injuries, and Andrew gave Remy a mild sedative so he'd get some rest before he tried to talk or move. Tara tells them that she'll stay with Remy. They can do whatever else needs to be done, "Just bring me the babies, ah can watch an' take care of both." They bring the babies in, but everyone agrees to check in on Tara every so often. "You know her tendency to try to do everything." Jean says to Jubilee. Then she asked, "Have you heard back from Logan and Lotan yet?" Jubilee answers, "No not yet." Just then her comlink buzzed, Jubilee touched it, and Logan's voice came out, "Jube me and the kid haven't found anyone yet, any luck on your side?"

"Yeah, Tara and Remy and all their kids just showed up, and so did Louis."

"Is he o.k?"

"Louis is, but they did a real job on Remy."

"I'm not surprised, he recovering?"

"Yeah, take a while though. You coming back in now?"

"For today, we'll go out again tomorrow, still a lot of us missing."

"Kay, see you in a hour."

"Probably be sooner, boy found a bike we got to work just before I called in."

When Logan and Lotan return, a conference is called about who has been found and who was still missing.

"Alright, Tara and Remy and their kids are all here now. Jubilee and Logan and their kids are all here. The kids and myself. Jean, your and Scott's oldest two kids are still missing, Joey is missing, but Galen and her kids are here. Is your husband still missing Galen? O.k. he is. Luna and her fiancé got here yesterday.

Luna pipes up, "Husband, we married three months ago."

Kitty continues "Correction, Luna and her husband. Ororo is missing, but her kids are here. Betsy is here and so is her son. Warren is missing, and so is Hank. Bishop is here but Forge is missing. Professor Xavier is missing. But I heard from Moira and Sean earlier today. They are fine, and are working on our reserve power link on Muir Island. Paige Guthrie was with them. But is now missing, they believe she took off to search for Jonothon. Jonothon was last known to be with Angelo and Everett on a mission in Nevada. Has anyone heard anything from Sam or Tabitha? No. We have Amanda, their youngest, but their other kids are missing. Theresa and James are still missing too and all their kids too. Nathan's missing also. Most of the members of X-Force and X-Factor in fact, are still unaccounted for. Kurt, Amanda and Mathias are still missing too. Jubilee have you heard anything from the other members of your class, besides Paige Guthrie?"

Jubilee replied "No."

"So they're missing too. That's a partial list. Like Logan told Jubilee earlier today, there are still a lot of us missing. We're all going to look for them."