Vietnam (The Cotati III) Part 13

Psylocke led us to a secret passageway behind a temple mural.

Upon entering, we began to spiral down the stairs towards the place where the Cotati were.

Mantis is nervous. Seeing her state, I say to her:

"Don't worry too much, I'll take care of them if they get annoying"

She just nods her head.

After two minutes of going down the stairs, we arrived at a kind of orchard.

It is this place we saw a lot of trees

They looked normal, but some of them had what looked like faces.

Some of those trees moved their branches.

Seeing his actions, I simply raise my eyebrow.

Psylocke notices my confusion and says:

"They are mentally communicating with us"

The others nod their heads.

This bothers me.

"Speak, I don't have time to waste it with you" I said to the Cotati.

One of the Cotati with its branches and producing a sound of static begins to speak saying:

"This one is very sorry if he bothered the guest, but these ones haven't spoken using their voices for a long time"

I nod my head in understanding at his words.

"Why did you call us?" I ask him.

"This one wants the guest to allow her to stay in this place" he answered as he points one of his branches at Mantis.

Shaking my head, I say:

"Are you an idiot? I don't control the destiny of Mantis, she is the one who decides if she wants to stay or not"

The Cotati falls silent.

Mantis is surprised to hear my words and moved she says:

"Mantis wants to go out into the world to meet and learn from it, she doesn't want to stay in this place anymore"

"But Mantis has a great destiny. From her will be born the most important being in the universe, the Celestial Messiah" the Cotati said.

Mantis falls silent and feels confused.

"So you only want her for the child she will have and not for her? You really are bastards" Polaris said as she glared at the Cotati.

"No, she is very important to these ones" the Cotati replied.

Looking at him with indifference, I say:

"Alright, don't justify yourself, she's already decided. But if you decide to stop us, I promise you that for your race I will be the Celestial Demon and I will be the most feared being for your race"

The Cotati is silent for a few seconds before saying:

"Guest is making a big mistake"

"I don't care about that. If fate gets in my way, I will destroy their illusions with my fist" I said while pointing to the sky with my right fist.

The Cotati just fell silent.

//

Seeing Alex say those words, Irene glimpsed some images in her mind.

She saw an emotionless older Alex sitting on a throne, wearing a worn cloak and on his left hand was a gauntlet with six stones embedded in it.

As she saw that vision, that Alex smiled at her, this sent a shiver down her spine.

To her peace of mind, no one noticed.

//

Alex Wayne POV

When I finished talking, we left the place. The Cotati did nothing to prevent it.

Leaving the temple, we went to look for the quinjet. Upon boarding it, we flew in the direction of Genosha.

Not before leaving Natasha in London, apparently, she had a job to do there.

On the way back to Genosha, I noticed that Irene kept looking at me.

It seemed something was bothering her.

Instead, Mantis looked around curiously.