Part 14- ‘Seeing A Man ‘Bout A Car…’
The instinct to survive is the most intrinsic base of any creature, animal, human or mutant, we fight for it, we struggle for it and in the end we sacrifice any scruples we have for it, we survive, we fight, and we kill, we do what we must to survive.
Arrington understood that better than any man, he had seen it so many times, in the haunted gazes of men, caught in a battle, caught in the middle of a war, with the bombs raining down, with hell raining down on them you can see them burning on the inside, eyes darting back and forth, fighting…killing…to survive.
You do what you must, Arrington knew that, you do whatever it takes, fight whatever scruples you have, hold back any reservations all in order to survive, the base nature of anything that lives or breathes, you wanna keep on living, you wanna keep on breathing.
He circled the glass cage slowly, watching as Xavier sat silently, his long fingers tapping together, leaning forward in his wheelchair his head bowed slightly. You fight all your scruples, even if that means taking over the body of another, forcing your mind into the body of a comatose man, violating his right to survive by enforcing your own.
Arrington smiled gently, even the saintly Charles Xavier had limits, a point at which baser needs took over. The general had read the report, had read what there was of the bald psychic’s life, his struggles in integrating the mutant breed into the wider human community, his efforts in ensuring there was a safe haven for his students, the Xavier Academy, and his own moral standing. Xavier would never use his psychic abilities to force himself into the mind of another, would never abuse his power like that.
Shame he hadn’t instilled that same sense of loyalty into his students, it was one of his first that had ended it all for the scrupulous Professor, Jean-Grey, transformed into the Dark Phoenix, and killer of Charles Xavier.
Arrington had gone on to read the reports of how that fight had ended, had read about the dead and wounded, lives that had been changed beyond repair, souls dead and buried and mourned, and through all that he had read, all the pictures he had seen something, a niggling doubt had bothered Arrington, there had been something wrong, the picture wasn’t complete, something, someone was missing.
Dr Moira McTaggert, see when you study someone so completely, you read and re-read, you grow into their skin, you follow every step they would take, you stalk their shadows, you get into their habits, waking up when they did, eating when they did, everything is mimicked down to their favourite walk in the park.
Dr McTaggert had only been mentioned briefly in the notes on Xavier, she had been his once upon a time love, even going so far as getting engaged before she mysteriously broke it off and married that senator of hers. They had studied at Oxford together, had been in close contact for years afterwards, Moira proving her self to be one of the few humans who had a sympathy and understanding of mutants, but still, and here was the thing that bothered him, that had set Arrington on her in the first place.
For all their closeness, for all their history she had not been at the ceremony for the lately deceased Professor, she had not gone to say goodbye to a man she had once loved, to condole with those left behind, sent flowers or a card even, it was as if she just didn’t care, or as Arrington believed it was as if Moira McTaggert knew better.
As if somehow she knew that perhaps Charles Xavier wasn’t really gone, and if that was the case Arrington would find a use for the errant psychic.
Sure enough Dr McTaggert led him right to the truth; Xavier had tapped into that baser need and survived. And now he would prove his worth.
‘We need to get rid of this truck.’ Logan had parked in a ditch off the road, a map spread out across his lap and a red line marking out the route they would have to take. Seemed they would have to take the scenic route back to New York and the Academy, through the North states at least, they had agreed to stick to the dirt roads, the barley marked out backtracks hoping they would be able to avoid any more SUV’s and soldiers.
Down through Vermont, following the great rivers, down into the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and finally onto the state of New York, back to the Academy, a home of sorts, a place for their own reasons they had both sought to abandon, because like all other places and all other memories it lay haunted.
It was a lot of ground to take in, hundreds of miles to cover, long roads to cross, not all of them were gonna be deserted, hundreds of towns in between this place and that, dozens of chances for them to be hunted down, to be chased. A battered SUV with a missing door and a couple of broken windows was sure to attract attention.
Marie smiled at him, ‘Yeah, did ya learn to fly while ah was away, ‘cause other than that this mess of a truck is the only way we’re gonna make it back to New York.’
He jabbed at the map, she leaned over and peeked at the point he indicated, ‘Here, there’s a small town, nothing more than an outpost really, place called Woodward, ah sorta passed through the last time ah was down here.’
She looked up at him, her eyebrow quirked, ‘Sorta?’ she queried.
He screwed up his face, ‘Yeah, it ain’t the sort of place ya wanna stick around.’ She waited for him to elaborate, expecting him to tell her it was a rough town, the sort of place ya saw on old fashioned westerns, not so welcoming of strangers.
He looked up and grinned at her, ‘Woodward doesn’t have a piss-hole to its name.’
‘A piss-hole?’ She shook her head, not sure she had heard right.
‘A bar…’ he explained, ‘Woodward doesn’t have a bar.’
She stared at him a while before she burst out laughing, no wonder Logan had wanted to leave in such a hurry. ‘Yeah that’s the place we wanna go, one where ya can die of thirst. Hey Logan, quick thought, how ‘bout we jus’ go ahead and make a wide berth round good ol’ Woodward huh?’
He shook his head, ‘Sorry kid, but not havin’ a bar ain’t the only thing Woodward is famous for, turns out at there’s a grease monkey out there, a mechanic, sorta has the speciality of making a deal on trucks nobody legal is gonna want to touch, ya know cut and shut jobs, filing off the VIN numbers.’
‘They don’t have a bar, but have a wrench head that’s happy to take back handers?’
Logan nodded, ‘Yep go figure, there’s a small diner, we can get somethin’ to eat, stock up and a new set of wheels to boot. What d’ya say?’
Marie shrugged her shoulders, ‘Sure Logan, lets go see a man ‘bout a car, jus’ make sure as hell we don’t stay any longer than we have to. A town without a bar…’ she shuddered at the thought, ‘makes me feel dirty jus’ thinkin’ ‘bout it.’
Logan laughed, it wasn’t gonna be easy, they sure had a lot of road to cover, in more ways than one, but for the first time in a long time Logan was beginning to think they might just make it after all.
Moira had taken good care of Xavier, falsifying the reports that stated the body, the conscious he had taken over was dead, a body had been sent to the morgue, a death certificate forged and she had whisked him away to a place far into the Grampian Mountains, a haven high up in the Scottish hills, but even that had not been enough to keep him from finding them.
Arrington had fully expected them to run, and he’d enjoyed hunting them down even into another continent, the look on her face had been priceless, right before they’d injected her with enough of a dose of ketamine to knock her out and into a coma, ironic really, if one stopped to think about it. They’d then simply wheeled Xavier into a jet with no one knowing any better.
As far as the world was concerned Professor Xavier was still very much dead. Only he wasn’t, he was sat here in a glass cage, lowered from the ceiling and set before a man with white hair and a cold hard smile.
‘Charles, seems as if you’ve been misbehavin’ again, trying to contact Marie, trying to get inside that pretty little head of hers.’ Arrington had taken a chair from the outer room and was now sat in front of the cage picking fluff of his neatly pressed trousers.
He leaned forward and watched as Charles did the same. ‘I’m trying to help her, you have no idea what you’ve done, it’s a dangerous game you’re playing General.’
The smile on Arrington’s face slowly faded, ‘D’ya think you were any better for her? Tying her to that Academy of yours, making her think she belonged, but for only as long as she was useful right?’
Xavier bowed his head, ‘Mistakes were made, Marie…we should have taken better care of her, but there was so much, Jean and Scott, and…’
‘And just about everybody else, that was always a priority for you, but she always came last, funny how being untouchable makes people think you’re invincible. And you with all your insight couldn’t see what would happen, couldn’t see what the cure would mean for her, how she wouldn’t hesitate.’ Arrington finished his tirade and rising quickly from his chair stood up and crossed the stone floor to stand directly in front of the cage.
He scoffed and shook his head, ‘what’s it feel like Charles, knowing how easily you could have prevented all this, if you’d just let her know she was wanted, that she was needed. But it always was everybody else before her, you, Logan, Ms Monroe…everybody at that damn Academy pushed her aside, more so than ever when she was cured.’
He suddenly smacked his hand against the cold glass, the vibrations resounded around the vault, ‘Now you wanna tell me what the fuck all that was about? How does that happen, how does a kid go from getting everything she could possibly want, to finding that nobody wants her in return.’
Charles looked closely at Arrington his eyes narrowed slightly, ‘You think you’ve helped her, don’t you? You have no idea what you’ve done, you can’t understand, her mutation isn’t just a quirk in her DNA, everybody she absorbs is held in her head, not just memories and voices, but the very essence of them, if you don’t stop Marie will be gone, there’ll be nothing left of her, just a mess of everybody else.’
Arrington didn’t speak, he circled the cage once more, ‘I know what I’m doing, I’ve always known, I’m not stupid Charles, a mad sadistic bastard but not stupid. I don’t want Marie, I just need her potential, the husk, the mutation is what’s important…, turns out the body it’s encased in at the moment is inconsequential.’
Charles shook his head, ‘what right do you have, do you really believe that our mutancy is all that we are, that it is the be all and end all for us?’
Arrington laughed quietly, ‘Of course, what else sets you apart Charles? From the rest of us what makes you or Marie any different? Your mutations, nothing more…and you want to talk about rights? What right did you have to take this body, to transfer your conscious into this man, what right did you or Dr McTaggert have to steal this mans soul?’
Charles hung his head, ‘I saved his life….’ He murmured quietly, he had long suffered with the guilt of his actions, fought over the consequences of his decision.
‘Saved his life…or prolonged his misery?’ Arrington scoffed, ‘According to all the medical reports the man whose body you’ve taken is dead and gone, and you planned, you arranged all that…for fuck’s sake Professor, that man’s daughter wept over an empty grave thinking her father was being buried, and you want to talk to me ‘bout rights? You’ll forgive me if I’m a little bored with your attempts at theocracy.’
‘What do you want Arrington, apart from Marie’s mutation, what are you looking for?’ Charles looked up earnestly up at him.
Arrington smiled and shrugged, ‘Oh come on Charles, what’s every megalomaniacs wet dream? Perfection….dominance, and, now I know its a little clichéd, it’s an oldie but a goodie…a new world order.’
The general crossed over to the computer and hit a few buttons on the computer console, the whole vault was thrown into a blanket of an intense white light, Charles blinked against the brightness of it all before following Arrington’s gaze upwards and looking around at the ceiling.
He already knew what was there, but the sight shocked him all the same, hundreds of glass cages similar to his own, suspended from the ceiling holding others prisoner like himself, other mutants.
‘A town without a bar? Ya sure ‘bout this Logan, sorta thought that kinda of thing went out with the dark ages.’ Marie was sat back in her seat, her long legs propped up on the dashboard, the wind had eased at last, and the sun had come out at last but there was still a chill in the air.
They were parked in the middle of a deserted country road, nothing more than a dust trail really, looking out across the plain at a few ramshackle buildings, the garage; it was a pile of corrugated iron, with scraps of twisted rusty metal littering its yard.
Across the road from the makeshift garage was a rundown diner, an old fashioned Ford pick–up sat in its rather ambitious but abandoned driveway, Marie leaned forward, she could make out a few beat up board houses further down the road, nothing distinguishable, nothing interesting and she could swear she had seen some tumbleweed roll by. She wouldn’t be surprised if the damn place was abandoned, damn town without a bar now that was just wrong.
Logan rolled the SUV towards the garage, parking at an angle they climbed out of the truck and looked around vainly for a sign of life. The only sounds were the faint twangs of a country and western song playing on a radio.
‘Hey boy…what ya want here?’
They both turned at the sound of the voice, coming face to face with a man in his late sixties, short and balding slightly, wearing dirty overalls and armed with a heavy wrench. He approached them slowly, sussing them out.
He stared them down for the longest while, until at last he stepped forward and laughed, Marie’s brow furrowed, confused when Logan joined in and took a step forward as well, the older man dropped his wrench and stuck out his hand for Logan to shake.
Logan took it warmly and pulled him into a quick embrace, nothing more than a pat on the back, a manly display of affection. Marie smiled and shrugged her shoulders, typical; she half expected them to descend into a series of grunts, Alpha male like.
‘Ya two know each other? Maybe ah should leave ya love birds alone. All that affection you’re displayin’ is kinda makin me uneasy.’
The short mechanic ignored Marie and spoke to Logan, ‘Your gal bein’ sarcastic Logan? ‘Cause she must think ah’m too stupid to get irony huh, what with ma bein’ a greased up wrench head…’
Logan sniggered and Marie grew angry, ‘Hey asshole ah ain’t his ‘gal’ alright…’
He turned to look at her at last, ‘Don’t worry darlin’ ah’m jus’ messin’ with ya, ‘sides ah reckon ya ain’t his type anyway.’
Marie’s eyes snapped angrily to look at Logan; he was grinning wryly at her and shrugged his shoulders, ‘Look Eddie,’ placing his hand on the older man’s shoulder he steered him away from Marie who looked as if she was ‘bout ready to threaten violence, ‘we need a part exchange on this truck, we’re lookin’ for a ride, somethin’ that’s got more than a coupla miles in it, and some cash to boot.’
Eddie ran his hands along the rims of the SUV; he stood back and looked over the broken windows and door, ‘Whew baby, sure looks like they tore chunks outta ya huh darlin’?’
Marie threw a look at Logan that asked, ‘is this guy really talking to the truck?’ They stood and waited for Eddie to appraise their ride, he popped the bonnet and stood for a long while staring at the engine, he disappeared under the hood of the car before slamming it shut and grinning stupidly at them.
‘Well boys and gals ah think we got ourselves a deal.’
‘Bullshit…’ Arrington turned quickly, his surprise clear at the profanity that spilled from the usually measured and calm Xavier. He smiled and waited for the Professor to continue. ‘All that talk about a new world order, it’s a lie, that’s not what you want is it?’
Arrington sat back down in his chair, he leaned back and folded his arms across his chest, he chuckled quietly, ‘Well what d’ya know Professor, turns out ya haven’t lost your touch at all, but how ‘bout we leave all the psycho analysis crap to one side and really get to talking, don’t you want to know what the cure was really all about?’
Arrington paused and looked up again at all the cages and all the prisoners, ‘Ya know most of them will be going back to their old lives now, the cure is fading. But then again it was never meant to last, jus’ long enough to convince Marie that she was on her way to getting her life back. We added something extra for the special ones like Marie, a nano-chip, injected, it travelled through the bloodstream and attached itself to the cerebral cortex, here at the base of the neck.’
Arrington tapped the back of his head as an intrigued Charles looked on. The general smiled and went to stand in front of the glass cage again, ‘You know all about the cerebral cortex right Charles? It’s the part of the brain responsible for all the memories, for your senses, vision, touch, hearing, the part that holds your thoughts, holds your sanity together. This little chip delivers a toxin directly to the brain, slowly like a fucked-up poisonous IV drip, slowly, slowly working its way into every part of the body.’
Charles eyes grew wider as he realised the implications of Arrington’s words, ‘Why..?’ he whispered.
‘Call it a fail-safe, if we ever found ourselves at the crossroads, like we are now. I activated the chip over five months ago, every month that we’ve taken Marie since we added the antidote, keeping the toxin redundant, but the chip remains, our back up if you will. But here’s the thing Charles, Marie hasn’t had her hit of the antidote this time round, even as we speak the toxin is slowly making its way into every inch of her, drip…drip…drip…’
Professor Xavier shook his head, ‘Stop it…stop!’
‘We’re working on a tight schedule Charles, she’s already missed one dose, missing a second one is potentially fatal. You wanna know how the toxin works, it attacks the central nervous system, a sense of numbness overcomes, splitting headaches, blurred vision, loss of hearing, it’s a slow death Charles, very painful, very messy.’ Arrington’s smile beamed down at the fallen Professor.
‘What do you want Arrington?’ Charles called out weakly.
Arrington didn’t reply, he looked again at the cages suspended from the ceiling, crossing over to the computer console he talked over his shoulder as he went, ‘Every single mutant here has been injected with the same toxin, they’re all running on the same tight schedule as Marie, and what d’ya know, turns out I forgot to hit them with the antidote this month as well, now wasn’t that careless of me?’
He pressed the few buttons on the computer console, waited for the command to be processed and watched as a second cage was lowered to the floor next to Charles. The Professor turned to look at the cage, he watched as a haggard, tired face with hollow eyes stared up at him.
Eric Magnus! Arrington had brought Charles face to face with an old friend, a fellow mutant, Magneto!
‘Here’s your chance Charles to play that saviour to your people, but hey, no need to walk on water, no need to feed the five thousand, what I want from you is much simpler…’
‘What?’ Charles voice had fallen to barely a whisper.
Arrington came to stand in front of Magneto’s cage, he stared at Charles as he spoke, ‘Very easy Professor, just keep talking to her…’ he tapped the side of the glass, ‘but be careful what you say, convince her it’ll be in her best interests to come back to us, she might not be able to see the consequences of making a wrong decision, but I’m sure you do by now, don’t you Charles?’
Professor Xavier could only nod, as he found himself battling his conscience once more, only this time it was to ensure the survival of others, and that survival meant the disintegration of one girl, he had to bring her back, her death for Magneto, and for the countless lives of others.
One for many, Marie for everybody else, Charles shut his eyes against the monstrous smile that was painted on Arrington’s face; a solitary tear fell helplessly down his cheek.
‘Marie…forgive me…’
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Arrington didn’t speak, he circled the cage once more, ‘I know what I’m doing, I’ve always known, I’m not stupid Charles, a mad sadistic bastard but not stupid. I don’t want Marie, I just need her potential, the husk, the mutation is what’s important…, turns out the body it’s encased in at the moment is inconsequential.’
A/N: Decided to hold out on ending with a major cliffie here, turns out my cerebral cortex was beginning to hurt after all the madness.
And don't ya just hate when a character thinks everything is gonna work out? It's like a cardinal sin, ya just know the fat lady is warmin' up to do her solo!
A/N: Decided to hold out on ending with a major cliffie here, turns out my cerebral cortex was beginning to hurt after all the madness.
And don't ya just hate when a character thinks everything is gonna work out? It's like a cardinal sin, ya just know the fat lady is warmin' up to do her solo!