There was a stunned, and somewhat horrified silence.
‘Oh my God.’
Jean was doing a pretty good job of voicing Rogue’s thoughts. Everyone in the room was watching the girl, who had lost all interest in the proceedings and was currently plaiting the tail of a miniature horse into tiny plaits, humming happily. Freddie lay on the floor eyeing the tiny pink creature with a mixture of superiority and disgust. Even the previously expressionless faces of Hank and Piotr showed alarm. Tia seemed to sense this because she stepped forward.
‘Leyna isn’t a threat yet. She’s too young for that. She doesn’t have the requisite mental control to permanently erase or permanently create events or people. Like you said, she’s just a child.’
No-one looked particularly reassured, and it was Logan that spoke next, asking a question that showed unusual perceptiveness in Rogue’s opinion.
‘There’s something I don’t understand.’
‘Only something? Lucky you.’ Jubilee’s muted murmur was still loud enough for the people around her to hear, and Logan glowered.
‘Shut it, yella.’ He paused. ‘They say mutations manifest at puberty because of the increased emotional stress. Leyna’s seven. I don’t understand why she has manifested. Her power shouldn’t be active for another four or five years yet at least.’
Tia closed her eyes briefly.
‘I was really hoping you wouldn’t ask that.’ She turned to Alex, clearly hoping he would explain. He shook his head, mouth curled in distaste. After a moment’s silence, the taller man, Marcus, stepped forward and spoke properly for the first time.
‘The reasons for Leyna’s manifestation and for our switching alliance are the same. As Alex said, we travelled and fought as part of Magneto’s Brotherhood for the better part of three years before we met Leyna. Magneto believed us loyal, and we had given him no reason not to trust us. When he first told us of this weapon we were just as intrigued and exhilarated at the potential as he was. We were put in charge of her care and her training, a task we agreed to whole-heartedly, the idea of an unstoppable weapon being fatally attractive. Mystique was sent out to collect this weapon.’
It was Jean that interrupted this time.
‘Correct me if I am wrong, but are you saying that you willingly agreed to turn a little girl into a killing machine in order to achieve your own ends?’
Tia replied, her tone heated.
‘No, of course not! We were aware that this weapon was a human female, but at the time we had no idea of her age. We believed that what Magneto was doing was morally right and that whoever she was; she would be honoured to serve his cause.’
After a pause, Alex continued the story, Marcus having stepped back, making it clear that he had told his section of the tale.
‘When Mystique arrived, we got a bit of a shock. We had been expecting, I don’t know, some kind of Goddess…’
His sentence was interrupted by every female in the room snorting in disgust. Alex grinned.
‘…so you can imagine our surprise when they produced a seven year old girl, and not only a seven year old girl, but one that showed absolutely no sign of any kind of mutation. She was completely human, normal as they come.’
Logan’s frown was even deeper now.
‘So she was jus’ a normal kid when you got your hands on her?’
Alex nodded.
‘We expected Magneto to be upset, angry, disappointed. His ‘great weapon’ was the most ordinary little girl any of us had ever seen. But he was strangely upbeat. Seemed excited. We were confused, of course, but we had faith in our leader. However, the next day, he received word of a FOH incident down South in Mississippi, and so he sent Marcus and I down to deal with it.’
He paused, closing his eyes briefly.
‘When we left, Leyna was just a little girl, scared, terrified even, and confused, but normal. When we returned she was…not so normal anymore.’
‘She manifested?’ Rogue figured that was a reasonable guess.
‘But why?’ Logan appeared to be reading her mind.
‘Mutations normally manifest at puberty purely because, with all the excess hormones flowing, periods of emotional stress are frequent and much more extreme. However, that is not to say that a mutation cannot manifest earlier, if the correct amount of pressure is applied using the correct methods.’
The room had fallen completely silent, and Rogue was grappling with the strange feeling of being overwhelmed with curiosity and a desperation to know more, and the feeling that somehow she really didn’t think she wanted to know what happened next. Logan looked devastated.
‘What do you mean the ‘correct pressure using the correct methods?’ He snarled.
Alex closed his eyes again, and Tia stepped closer to him. He wrapped his arms around her. Again, it was left to Marcus to fill in the silence.
‘Let us just say that white hot irons being branded onto skin again and again would cause ‘a period of heightened emotional stress’ even in the toughest of adults. You can imagine what something like that would do to a seven year old.’
Oh God. Oh God. A wave of horror rose in Rogue and she drew in a couple of shaky breaths, tears pricking her eyes and threatening to spill over at the very idea that someone would, could, do that to a little girl. She was just a little girl.
Marcus’ smile was grim.
‘She was just a child. They took her from the foster home in the dead of night, scared her half to death, and tortured her, just so that they could use her as a weapon to destroy thousands of innocent people.’
At these words, a strangled sound escaped Logan’s throat, and he left the room, movements rushed and jerky. The door slammed shut behind him, rattling on its hinges.
Rogue looked at the Professor. He shook his head.
‘Let him go.’
There was silence for a few minutes, everyone trying to digest the horrific reality of the situation, until Tia spoke again.
‘Marcus and Alex had left the camp. I…I…I could hear the screaming. Every night, but I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t do anything to stop him. By the third night, it went silent, but somehow that was worse, because I knew she had to be broken. When they went into feed her that morning, there was a wolf by her side. Magneto was ecstatic. He had his weapon. He had broken her, and now she was his to brainwash, to use, to destroy.’
She looked up at the X-Men.
‘We had to do it, had to try, we couldn’t let him have her. We just couldn’t.’
‘So you ran.’
‘Yes.’
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Chapter 9! Sorry it finishes so abruptly but it became very very long so I had to cut it into two sections. Thanks to AnnieHowlett, MoonlightStorm and rhiannon_avon for the reviews!