Part 16- ‘Old Friends…Same Fight…’
The chess board hovered between the two cages, Charles keeping the board and the chess pieces aloft telepathically, he sat cross legged on the floor of the cage, still a little surprised that Arrington had acquiesced to allow him to communicate with Magneto like this.
Eric wore a frown of concentration, he was without his powers, instead he was forced to call out his next move to Charles who took to moving the piece for him, and the uselessness of his situation rendered the once proud Magneto nauseous. He likewise mirrored Charles stance and sat cross legged on the floor of the cage, his head tilted to one side, his chin resting in his palm, and getting angrier by the minute.
‘Rook to C3…’ he called out eventually, Charles complied and the chess piece lifted effortlessly and floated over to the new position. Eric suddenly laughed, and Charles looked up at him surprised. ‘So Professor Xavier, are you still going to argue for the good of humanity?’
Charles smiled and sighed softly, ‘What do you wish me to say Eric? That, though my faith has been shaken, my resolve remains?’ He shook his head, ‘I cannot be sure Arrington’s motives, but perhaps Eric they are not so dissimilar to yours.’
Magneto looked up angrily, ‘The man is a sadistic animal, my efforts have always been to ensure the survival of my race.’
Xavier smiled wider, ‘Through the destruction of theirs?’
‘And what if I had succeeded Charles, what then? If I had successfully removed the threat of that poison they called the cure, would the prospect have been so very distasteful? We would not be trapped in these cages now, countless mutants would not have been sold a false truth, and your precious Marie would not be hunted down like an animal.’
Xavier was unmoved, it was no less than he would have expected from Eric, all the fury, the rage burned still in an old friend, and in the face of all that had happened he could not place blame, but still he held fast to the truth that compassion, that a semblance of truth existed in us all, he could not lose his faith, could not afford to have it shaken even when he had been forced to call upon a nineteen year old girl and coerce her into succumbing to her death.
A sacrifice that was not his to make, a life that was not his to take, and in the face of such underlying truths, there is nothing to hold onto but a faith.
‘The world does not seek its redemption through its destruction, there will always be those who seek to sure us Eric, or use us, or pity us. They don’t choose to understand, but what are we to do, isolate them all, convert them, or destroy them in return?’
Eric scoffed, ‘Surely not even you would seek to explain this, or to forgive their actions? Not even you could be cursed with such a blind sycophantic love of humanity, or else that truly would be sickening.’
Charles stared at him sternly, ‘Humanity is not lost Eric, and there are those amongst them whom we can call friends.’
Eric laughed out right, ‘Oh yes of course, your precious Dr Moira McTaggert, and look how well that has worked out for you, I apologise Charles, and you may trust that you have converted me at least.’ His bitter sarcastic tone was biting.
‘Nothing could excuse this, I will not attempt it Eric, but what of Arrington’s motives, the safety of the human race through the misguided notion that he must create of his own army of mutants? Whatever it is, I know that he has lied to me; he has no inclination, no desire to take over the world. It is something more intrinsic, baser to his nature, he lied…Marie is important, much more than just her mutation; otherwise nothing would justify this effort, this expense.’
‘Trust you Charles, to attempt to make sense of a man’s madness…’
‘And what of your madness Eric…?’ Xavier grew angry, ‘Marie was important to you for the same reasons not so long ago, enough to put her inside that machine of yours, enough to kill her, a child Magneto, that you consented to kill, that you allowed to die.’
Magneto smiled, unmoved and unrepentant, ‘If you’re not ready to die for it, take the word freedom out of your vocabulary.’
Charles smiled recognising the words instantly, ‘Malcolm X, you have always aspired to loftier aspirations Eric, except you weren’t ready to die for it, you were ready to kill her.’ Magneto shrugged in response, the Professor continued, ‘remember that same man also said, ‘Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.’
Eric laughed outright, ‘Yes by all means Charles, let’s educate the poor misguided fools, maybe that way lies peace and harmony, we can live together and tomorrow can belong to us all, mutants and humans alike.’ He continued laughing, the sound echoing around the vault, ‘perhaps the next time Arrington enters, you can educate him on his mistakes, and point out to him what a naughty boy he’s been.’
Charles shook his head quietly, ‘Compassion is not dead Eric, even here, it strives still, perhaps it simply requires that spark of recognition, what do you say Lieutenant Bishop?’ The young lieutenant stepped out of the shadows, his eyes narrowed and his look questioning, he watched as a Charles smiled.
‘I’m a psychic, how long did you think you could hide your presence from me?’
Bishop simply stared at him, ‘Maybe I don’t agree with everything he’s doing, I don’t agree with his methods,’ he cast an eye up and around the varied suspended cages, ‘but only because he risks unnecessary exposure. This procedure, it’s necessary, we still need Marie.’
‘Bishop…?’ Magneto called out questioningly, ‘Wasn’t he the second in command when Stryker led that raid against the mansion?’ He looked back at Charles and then once again at the lieutenant.
Bishop suddenly became defensive, ‘We had no choice, the mutant threat against National security was too great to ignore, and we had to act before it was too late, we had to do something.’
Eric laughed, ‘So if that was a counter attack Lieutenant, then what’s this…the pre-emptive strike?’
Bishop turned to walk out of the vault, he stopped before he reached the door, ‘I’ll talk to the board about reining the General in, but other than that nothing will change.’ They barley caught the words he muttered after that, but Charles believed they were something along the lines of, ‘I’m sorry…’
Eric smiled as the young man left, he turned back to the chess game, ‘Humanity huh Charles?’ He stared across the space between them, through the glass cages that held them both, two important men, two old friends, same old argument and both of them rendered useless. Eric stared deep into Charles eyes, ‘Knight to G4…I believe that’s checkmate.’
The Buick rattled along at its own uneven pace, Marie chewed her fingernail nervously, something about the situation didn’t sit quite right, the buzz from the beers she had drank was slowly beginning to ebb and she was finding herself on edge once more.
The weather did nothing to help, pitch black; the heavy downpour was only illuminated by the occasional strike of lightening, and every time the sky rumbled Marie was sure the next strike of thunder was closer.
Like bombs raining down, only there was nowhere to run, nowhere to seek shelter. Exposed and vulnerable to the elements Marie hated the sensation. She watched as the raindrops hit the windscreen, a torrent of epic proportions, and the fierce wind only driving the rain harder and faster.
It was a hellish sort of night, with the storm raging outside and the uneasy air that had settled inside the car. The route they had decided to take was up alongside of the river, the heavy rains had swollen the river to more than twice its size, icy cold and fast flowing it would swallow up and wash away anything that fell in. She was glad for the wooden barriers that separated the top of the embankment from the river below.
Marie did not know what to say to Logan, she wasn’t even all that angry with him, thing was she wasn’t all that much of anything with him anymore; she was slowly beginning to settle for being indifferent.
Logan equally had things on his mind, having shaken off the soldiers, and not had anything chase them other than the fierce rain; he couldn’t help but think back as to how all this had started, back to how it all could have worked out so differently. There’d been so many mistakes and nearly all of them his.
He was ready to admit to that, the mistakes, the false steps, the wrong directions all had been his, had he not wasted his chances, had he had the guts to see his feelings through, had he even had the balls not to stand aside over a year ago and stopped her from taking that damn cure.
It could have been such a different story, for all of them.
He sighed deeply, strange in all the years he hadn’t felt this tired, but right now it seemed his healing was working at half it’s pace, like he was breathing with half a lung, and only that morning he had even begun to think that things might turn out alright, he should have known, ain’t nothin’ gonna work out jus’ right, for some reason the gods jus’ didn’t see fit to make life easier for either of them.
Logan turned to look at her, the purplish bruises mottled her legs and arms, her face was turned to the side, but he knew he’d left a mark of his own, another bruise, another mark another reason to remind him jus’ how thoroughly he had fucked things up.
‘I’m sorry kid…’ his words barely carried above a whisper, and for the longest moment she didn’t reply.
‘For what…?’ she asked at last.
‘For all this…for not bein’ there for ya more this past year, for not doin’ more to stop ya goin’ for that cure, for all this…’ He would have said more, but she interrupted.
‘Don’t…’ she spat out angrily, he looked at her confused, she laughed a little, ‘figures…should have known that ya’d manage to make this all ‘bout you.’ She turned on him angrily, her eyes narrowed and flashing bright.
He gritted his teeth, ‘What ya sayin’ kid?’
‘Gotta turn this into another one of your personal crusades huh Logan…ah’m the one bein’ chased across state lines, ah’m the one with the crippling headaches and the blackouts, but no, we gotta turn this into another one of your fights. Logan, the tortured soul, the man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, the one who chose a side and has lived to regret it ever since.’
He stared at her wide-eyed as she continued her tirade, ‘So don’t, don’t turn this, don’t turn me into another one of your causes, your fight, your next bid to play a hero, sorry but ah ain’t gonna play the damsel in distress, not this time Logan, not now.’
She crossed her arms over her chest and turned to look out of the window again, his grip on the steering wheel tightened, her words slamming into him one after the other, another chance to play hero, one more chance.
He kept his eyes on the road this time as he carefully formed his next words. ‘You know what your problem is kid?’
‘No, but ah guess it must be serious if ah need a man as insightful as you to tell me…’ her tone was bitter and sarcastic.
‘Hey, ah’ve got insight…’ he retorted defensively.
She smiled as she turned to look at him, ‘No Logan, you’ve got hindsight, perfect 20-20 fucked up hindsight, the kind that makes ya think ya have to apologise for things that are out of your control. Ya wouldn’t know insight if it came up and pissed on your leg.’
He shook his head, ‘Your problem kid, you wanna box up your feelings, stack them up, lock them away in neat little boxes, you think it works for ya, think it makes you jus’ as tough as you have to be. You leave them on all the shelves in your head, lock them in and shut the lids down tight, and then you let them die, so they’re not hanging on, nothing to hold you back, nothin’ to tie you down.’
Marie looked at him closely before she laughed out loud, ‘Yeah, well ah got three words for ya Logan.’ She counted them on her fingers as she spoke, to make her point. ‘Pot….kettle....black.’
He ignored her, ‘thing is kid, you’re lettin’ too much die, too busy playin’ the cold hearted bitch to see it ain’t you anymore Marie, spendin’ too much time lettin’ the compassionate, the givin’ side of you go…too busy killin’ off the girl I remember, the girl you are.’
She was cold and unmoved, ‘Nice speech Logan, what happened, ya find the time to take psych 101 class in between screwing your next blonde?’
Logan’s knuckles whitened but he kept his voice steady, ‘Ya haven’t come to term with it yet have ya? Thing was kid you were so desperate to get rid of your mutancy, ya didn’t know what to do once it’d gone. You figured everythin’ would fall neatly into place; you’d get everythin’ you wanted, only it didn’t work out like that, and turns out you don’t like her any better, with or without the mutant powers, you still couldn’t work it out, what or who you were supposed to be. Somehow simply bein’ Marie just ain’t enough is it?’
He turned to look at her, his words had cut deep, it was clear, she was staring back at him, biting down hard at that bottom lip and practically shaking with anger, but the best way to win an argument, the best part to deal with the hurt was to reflect it back.
She’d learnt that a long time ago, to cut back with the same jagged edges, the same rusty blade, use the same piece of broken glass to strike back, reflect it back, make him hurt as much as he thinks he hurts you.
‘Ya came to terms with it huh? Your mutancy, you came to terms with it? Is that why ya wasted those years lookin’ for the answers to it, is that why ya hold onto those tags? Ya really tellin’ me Logan that ya honestly didn’t think ‘bout it? Didn’t think ‘bout takin’ the cure for yourself, jus’ to let the pain go, jus’ to be allowed to go back, to remember something of what ya once were, or what ya once might have been?’
‘Cause ah don’t believe ya, ah don’t believe it was that easy for ya to come to terms with, ah remember what ya said to me once, when ah asked if the metal hurt, if the mutancy hurt, ya said ‘every damn time’, ah remember Logan, so fuck you and fuck comin’ to terms with it.’
She spat the words back at him, pieces of broken glass to draw blood, and she was unrepentant. Logan didn’t reply, she was an expert at this, spitting out the venom, and nothing was gonna change it; she was who she wanted to be, bitchy, vindictive, unforgiving Marie.
She smiled and moved closer to him, he kept his eyes firmly fixed on the same spot on the windscreen, she spoke softly almost whispering in his ear, ‘Ya know the difference between me and you Logan? Ah saw somethin’ ah wanted, and ah went for it, no holdin’ back, all out, and ah don’t regret a single minute of it. Maybe that’s somethin’ ya could do with learnin’…shame it’s too late.’
Her lips brushed past his ear, her soft sigh passing gently over his neck, before she moved back to stare at him, he looked at her at last, his eyes narrowed and his brow furrowed in concern. ‘Marie…’
‘What?’ She hadn’t expected the surprised, concerned look on his face; if anythin’ she had half-expected to be slapped again. When he did reach out for her, his fingers brushed over her top lip, they both stared at his thumb under the dim light of the Buick; a viscous red liquid was smeared across his finger.
Blood, running her tongue across her top lip she tasted the familiar copper tang, sitting back in her seat she ran the back of her hand across her face, it was everywhere now, the back of her hand, smeared across her cheek, and running down from her nose.
She caught her reflection in the rear view mirror, the briefest of glimpses before the image blurred, snapping her head back, she braced her hands either side of her face as she started screaming.
The pain, an excruciating pain burst in the back of her head, throbbing aches as she gritted her teeth and fought to open her eyes.
At last the pain abated, into a dull throb then resounded like hammers pounding away, but her thinking, her sense and her vision was as clear as it had ever been, and in a way she almost expected what happened next.
A fierce crack sounded deep in the night air, not the lightening, something much closer and just as deadly, she ducked down into her seat as the back window of the Buick shattered, tiny shards of glass flying inwards and showering the inside of the car.
‘Shit!’ Logan floored the gas pedal of the car instinctively and the Buick burst forward with a sudden influx of speed that belied its rundown state. But it was not enough, the black SUV bore down on them, its strength and speed the Buick could never hope to match.
‘How the fuck didn’t we see them before?’ Logan screamed above the sound of the fierce wind and rains that blasted through the shattered rear window and drowned the inside of the car. The road they had been travelling had been deserted for miles, nothing ahead or behind them, he should have spotted them.
Marie had the Glock in her hands in an instant, loading the gun as she spoke; her voice was eerily detached, cold and expert as she thumbed off the safety, rolling down the window of her door, Logan had to strain to catch her words.
‘Modified engine and exhaust so the SUV runs silent, hands-free night-vision goggles for the driver and everyone else inside, no need for headlights, extensive satellite navigation systems, and most importantly it’s bullet proof…’
Logan stared at her; she seemed to be listing off the attributes of the SUV, almost as well as if she was actually sat in the damn thing! He watched as the black truck rolled up alongside them, the passenger seat window wound down a few inches and the barrel of what looked like a high powered rifle resting on the recess.
‘Marie!’ he shouted out a warning to her, but she wasn’t listening, she waited until the last moment, the SUV almost level with the Buick, the metals of the two cars grinding against each other, extended her arm outside the car, she sighted down the muzzle, her arm remarkably steady, the crosshairs of her vision and aim almost expanding right in front of her, until the target wasn’t in a darkened, heavily protected truck, through the few inches of glass, but right in front of her, merely a few feet away.
Her pull on the trigger was gentle, her aim steady, she smiled as she fired, past the rifle muzzle, around the passenger and to her intended target. The scream from the SUV carried above the sound of the lashing rains and wind, and the SUV swerved as the shoulder of the driver exploded in a bloody pulpy mess of shattered bone.
The rifle disappeared inside the truck as the passenger fought to take hold of the wheel, the truck swerved towards the Buick, pushing the smaller car towards the edge of the road and the barrier that separated the steep embankment and the rapidly flowing river that raged below.
Logan slammed the brakes hard, the wheels of the Buick screeched as the car began to spin, the SUV seeing its advantage rammed into the spinning back tail of the Buick, a loud bang resounding as the back of the small car was crushed.
It was impossible to stop their momentum as the car continued to skid across the road slick and treacherous from the rain, the back wheels were flat and useless, the metal rims crushed and bent. The Buick hit the wooden barriers headfirst crashing through and nosedived down the embankment, overturning and rolling a few times before it plunged into the icy cold river water and began to sink…
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
Barely Legal Since 2000
Author's Chapter Notes:
She smiled as she turned to look at him, ‘No Logan, you’ve got hindsight, perfect 20-20 fucked up hindsight, the kind that makes ya think ya have to apologise for things that are out of your control. Ya wouldn’t know insight if it came and pissed on your leg.’
A/N: Magneto has often been likened to the militant Malcolm X, the chance to quote the great man proved too tempting even for a throwaway piece of fic like this.
Ok here it is WARNING! Horrible cliffie...jus' horrible
A/N: Magneto has often been likened to the militant Malcolm X, the chance to quote the great man proved too tempting even for a throwaway piece of fic like this.
Ok here it is WARNING! Horrible cliffie...jus' horrible