Sins of the Father

Sins of the Father Chapter Eighteen (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply


A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE (tm), Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta...*plots slashiness for you * InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, and Dracena are pepperminty goodness for archiving/hosting! :) ProPhile is a loverly smutmuse and Morgan gets extra glomps for nondorkhood. Readers/Reviewers: *glomp * Thanks!!! And the Killer Kitties (tm) have hidden ReiMars...be afraid...



Professor Xavier stared into the remains of his tea, pondering the few leaves that had escaped the infuser. "I wonder," Emma said lightly, "if Wagner can read those for you and foretell a pleasant end to this situation." She crossed her ankles primly at his stern look, adding nothing further to her statement.
The Professor set the china cup down on it's matching saucer and folded his hands across his stomach. The room was lit only by a single Tiffany lamp, which gave the old wood walls a rich glow. Emma's perfume, something oriental and spicy, was so light as to be tantalizing, distracting him from what he knew had to be done. Forge did not say anything aside from a barely audible "hmph" as Beast shifted in the chair nearest the window. The Professor sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. "Where's Sean?" he asked finally, glad for a legitimate delay.
"Family trouble," Emma said dismissively. Her favored white outfit made her glow against the backdrop of the distinctly masculine furnishings. She rather enjoyed the effect, she decided as she looked at her reflection in the window. She added, "He found out Theresa and that blond boy were going at it like bunnies every chance they got. Apparently, Sean does not remember being seventeen."
Logan snorted from his spot in the dimmest recessed of the room, furthest from the window in the old, beaten wingchair that had been around longer than the Professor had. "All these kids need a cold shower and a dose of saltpeter." He leaned forward, bringing his face into the light, and asked, "Did Storm ever call to say she'd made it, Chuck? I was expectin' it about two hours ago..." He did not want to see so needy but damn it, he thought, he was worried. She had not been the same since Evan left, letting even the easiest to care for plants in her greenhouse go for days without proper care and feeding. She had stopped singing in there, he knew, and that worried him almost more than anything. "She's usually pretty good about that sort of thing," he rambled and realized he was rambling. He cleared his throat softly and examined his nails as if in nonchalance.
Professor Xavier smiled briefly. "She hasn't called. But cell phone reception is notoriously bad in the hinterlands. I wouldn't worry, Logan." Glancing around the room once more, he nodded as if to himself and sighed. "We'll begin without Sean. Emma, catch him up later. Seriously." Emma nodded, smirking faintly. He knew she would do it but he just had a feeling she might put it off for a while. Can't be helped, he thought to himself before forcing the words he knew he had to speak out of his mouth. "As you know, Beck was here again this morning... It seems that our new students are going to require special treatment."
Logan cut him off before he could complete the thought. "It's bad enough we had to take them on. What the Hell kind of special treatment are the brats going to need?" He rose to his feet and began pacing. "I don't like them being here, Chuck. It's dangerous for the kids."
"They are kids," Beast sighed. "Not one of the four over seventeen, biologically speaking." He had gone over and over their files, save for Poena, until he felt they were burned into the back of his eyelids. Part of him was amazed and impressed with their histories, the detailed procedures that made them so...them. But a larger part was repulsed and revolted that they were so human now, in the guise of children. "And they all have very special medical needs. I've never seen hormone and protein levels so low in a living creature before," he sighed, shaking his head sadly. "I'm frankly amazed they can function."
Emma raised a platinum brow. "Is there a genetic cause for this?"
The Professor sighed. "Aggie, Annie and Ernie are all that remains of the Pantheon Project's last run. They have not been indoctrinated in the manner of the old ones and are, for all intents and purposes." The sudden shift of the atmosphere in the room was palpable, from tense curiosity to sheer anger.
"They are what?" Logan growled, his fingers flexing. "You'd better be lying to us, Chuckles."
Professor Xavier closed his mind to Emma's burgeoning intrusion and frowned. "Logan, sit down. Doctor Beck is the titular head of this division of the project and felt the children could best be served here, learning to live among other mutants and learning how to integrate into a society that does not know what we are or fears us."
Logan's jaw worked. The room was eerily silent, the other occupants watching the interplay between the two men as if it were a tennis match. Logan exhaled noisily and said, "I'm startin' to see Kitty's side of things right now. You misled us, Chuck. We thought they were fosters, abandoned like some of the others....Not some lab monsters!"
"What about Poena?" Emma asked suddenly. "She didn't come in with the others. Is she one of Beck's, too?"
Professor Xavier sighed. "No. She is not one of his. She is a diplomat without portfolio1, as it were." He glanced at Logan again, still hovering over him and continued. "Poena is an entirely different matter. Hank has found some anomalies in her bloodwork as well but not quite to the severity of the other three. Beck has assured me on pain of ingenuity2 that Poena is not of his labs."
"Fine," Logan snapped. "Then we just have three of these Frankensteins walking around! Fanfuckingtastic!" He turned and stalked to the window, pressing his hands against the frame. "Anything else you haven't told us, Chuck? Maybe you're turning this place into a strip club on weekends or something?"
Professor Xavier did his level best not to snarl. "Nothing so outlandish, Logan. I am now the acting head of the Pantheon Project. I was asked to oversee the dismantling of it and to ensure Magneto does not pull a fast one with diversion of funding to other, less savory labs."
Emma rose slowly to her feet, looking every inch the Ice Queen. "Charles, I'm sure I understand your intentions but you must know...hiding this from the students will only bite you in the ass in the end." She strode dismissively to the door, turning when her hand was on the knob. "To be absolutely 700 Club3 about it, the sins of the father will be visited upon the son.4"
Professor Xavier let his control over his temper slide a little. "Emma, you of all people should comprehend the need for this."
"That's just it, Charles," she said as she opened the door, her voice a soft purr. "I do."


1 Lifted from "A Civil Campaign" by Bujold.
2 Another phrase lifted from Bujold, lol
3 Religious show in the states. *SHUDDER *
4 Exodus 34: 6-7 (yes, the witch has read that and didn't burst into flames or melt or anything!)