Persistence of Memory
folder
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,453
Reviews:
68
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,453
Reviews:
68
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own X-Men Evolution, or any of the characters from it. I make no money from from the writing of this story.
32
Persistence of Memory Chapter Thirty Two (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess
Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse,
Hamster Witch, and Uberbeta… I think I’ve finally poi’d myself silly. *sigh *
InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly. J They archive. J ProPhile is an extra-special smutmuse. J Damn, I use those smiley faces a lot…
Readers/Reviewers: I’ll be jiggered, but the armadillos have started wearing
kilts. They claim to have discovered
their Scot her heritage… I’m worried for their sanity, mainly because
armadillos originated in South America.
And mille grazie for reading/reviewing!
Wanda
stretched and winced as her back popped.
Lucas was snuffling softly in his travel crib, batting at his bottle in
his sleep. “Damn it, Tabby,” she
muttered. “Don’t leave that in there
with him…” She grabbed the bottle and
paused as the baby sucked in a deep breath.
When he did not start bawling, she picked up the receiver end of the baby
monitor set and went downstairs to put away the cold bottle. “Thought you’d be here,” she said as she
passed her girlfriend, sitting at the kitchen table.
“I knew
he’dokayokay with you,” Tabby yawned.
“I can’t sleep here. I want to go home.”
Wanda
sighed. “I know. But Logan wants us to stay here until this
media crap dies down.”
“That’s
stupid. We weren’t even at the
school…”
“But we’d
be seen leaving here,” Wanda pointed out, setting the baby monitor between them
as she took the seat opposite Tabby.
“Point.” She yawned again, poking at her own
stomach. “I’m all kinds of saggy. Damn. I wish I had Mystique’s powers just
this once.”
“I’d never
kiss you if you were blue,” Wanda said dryly.
“Besides, a little bit of tummy is kind of sexy.”
Tabby
snorted. “You’re weird.” She stood and stretched again, her shirt
riding up to reveal fading stretch marks on her sides and below her navel. “I’m going to the Danger Room. I want to work some kinks out.”
“You have a
baby upstairs, you know.”
“I have a
lot of stress, you know,” Tabby snapped, then frowned. “Sorry.”
“Eh. You’ve been better.” Wanda stood, too, and handed the monitor to
Tabby. “Go to bed. You can’t breastfeed if you’re exhausted.”
“When did
you start getting all caring?”
“Insulting
much?”
“I mean…”
she ran her hands through her short blonde hair. “It’s just, you’re so hard on the guys from the Boardinghouse
and…well, everyone else.”
“I don’t
love them,” she shrugged. “I love you.”
“Ah…”
“Still
bothers you?” Wanda turned to glance at
the dark rec room behind her and sighed.
“Okay. I can respect that.”
“It doesn’t
bother me…” She frowned
again. “People always say they love
someone but it never ends well, does it?”
“It can,”
Wanda said carefully. “But it doesn’t
have to end badly.”
“You can
say that to me after having Magneto for a father and Pietro for a brother? Have you ever felt loved in your life?”
“Until
about ten seconds ago,” she snapped.
“I’m going to bed!”
“Wanda!”
Tabby wailed. “Wait! That came out wrong!”
“Good
night!”
“Well,
fuck.”
“You kiss
your son with that mouth?”
“Lurk much,
Piotr?”
“Lately,
da.” He sidled into view, surprisingly
invisible for such a large person.
“How long
were you eavesdropping?”
“I was just
coming in from the lanai. I wanted to
watch the stars.” He smirked faintly
and headed towards the refrigerator for a bottle of water. “Lover’s spat?”
“Fuck off,
steel for brains.”
“You really
put your foot in it, you know.”
“Thank you
for pointing out the blindingly obvious.
Good night.”
“If you
can’t sleep,” Piotr said quietly, stopping her in her tracks, “Evan is still
missing. We could use some help
looking.”
“I thought
you were watching the stars.”
“I lied.”
Tabby
snortedRemiRemind me to teach you about
when and where to lie.” She turned back
to face him. “What’s the big deal? Freak boy probably just went off to skate
somewhere.”
“Hmmm.” Piotr drained the bottle in one swig. “Scott picked up some signs that Evan evaded
security to get out…And he wasn’t alone.”
Tabby
shrugged again. “Eh. He’ll be back.”
“Still,”
Piotr said slowly, “I’d like to talk with you about something and I think we
could best do that while looking for Evan.
No one will bother us that way.”
Tabby
narrowed her eyes at him. “In case you
haven’t noticed, I have a girlfriend.”
I think.
“That isn’t
it,” he laughed, as if the idea weomehomehow amusing and repulsive at
once. “You aren’t for me.”
“Kitty’s
not gonna leave Kurt for you.”
“Ah,
Katerina… No, she is forever beyond my
reach. Though there is someone else
Kurt knows…” He cleared his
throat. “I would like to speak with you
about your time with the Brotherhood.”
Tabby felt
her eyes open wide. “About…huh?”
“Just…curious,
you could say.”
“I could
say a Hell of a lot more than that,” she began, but a tinny cry from the baby
monitor in her hand cut her off. “Wait
here. I need to check on Luke.”
Piotr
nodded vaguely and left as soon as Tabby was out of sight.
“Charles!”
“Eric…my
God, is it ten already?”
“No, no…I’m
just early.” He smiled and clasped his
friend’s hand firmly. “Hope it’s not
too inconvenient.”
“Of course
not! I’m glad you’re here. I’ve
discovered something amazing…” Charles led
his friend into the massive estate home, chattering excitedly. “I used those equations in Cerebro and found
they’re hideously wrong!”
“How is
that something to be excited about?”
Eric could not help but laugh a little, too. Charles’s humor always had been infectious.
“Well, that
part itself was a bit disappointing, but you should see what it does with the
wrong information to process!” They had
arrived at the door guarding their precious invention and Charles opened, as
always, with a tinge of caution. The
room was starting to take shape, metal plates shielding some of the wall but
bare beams exposed for most of the expanse.
The heart, the brain of Cerebro, however, was gloriously intact. “When I tried it out earlier, instead of
detecting mutants, it…activated their powers.”
“What?” Eric felt his eyes go very wide. “How?”
“Watch…” Charles slipped the helmet-like device over
his head and activated Cerebro. Eric
immediately felt like his entire body was in a gravity well, like he could not help
the pull he was exerting. Rivets began
popping off the metal plates, which themselves began peeling from the walls. As
soon as it started, it stopped, Charles looking sheepish as he removed the
helmet. “That was very stupid of me…metal…. Magnetism…”
“No, no…”
Eric gasped, kicking aside some of the rivets that had flown to him. “That’s…very good to know.”
“There’s
one small problem, though.” Charles
cradled the helmet in his hands, looking very embarrassed. “Out of that very long string of numbers and
variables…”
“Don’t tell
me,” Eric groaned. “You don’t know…”
“It’s a
matter of going through the entire string,” Charles explained. “It’s my mistake. I’ll fix it.”
“B “Breakfast
first, then fix,” Eric declared, striving to keep his temper and elevated
mood. “I’ll buy.”
“The
problem is,” Charles said around a mouthful of eggs, “there’s too many
variables.”
ow dow do you
know that’s the problem? Maybe it’s one
of the numbers.” Eric pushed his empty
plate aside and peered at Charles intently.
“Maybe it’s something else entirely.
Your headaches…”
“It’s
nothing,” Charles dismissed. “Cleared
up.”
“Are they
worse now that you’re using Cerebro more?”
“Yes,”
Charles answered finally.
Eric
sighed. “Stop then. This isn’t important right now. First, we had best work on erinering others
like us to our side, showing them the…”
“Our side?”
Charles made a sharp motion with his hand.
“We are on the same side.”
“Not this
argument again,” Eric groaned. “You
remember…you know.”
“I remember
here. You were over there during the
Shoah. Not me. I understand the anger, the rage, but…” Charles sighed. “I can’t hate people for not being mutants. I can’t alienate myself from them just
because theght ght not understand.”
“Charles,
you’re being irrational about this,” Eric said in a low, tight tone. “You know what will happen if we’re ever
discovered. You know.” He slammed his arm down on the table,
turning it sot tht the row of blue numbers showed on his wrist. “It will be no different this time.”
“It will,”
Charles said urgently. “I have some
faith in humanity, Eric. I have faith
that things are different now. The
world has seen what ignorance and hate can do…”
“You are
naïve,” Eric said, standing with some finality, dropping some bills on the table
for their meal. “You would let us be
rounded up like cattle, destroyed for it.”
Charles
stood slowly, dropping his napkin on the table. “Let’s not fight about this now.
There’s a lot of work to be done on Cerebro. And I still need to show you that new horse.”
Eric
sighed. He loved Charles as a brother
and could recognize his avoidance tactics from miles away. “I know you hate my views on this, but you
know I am right.”
“Only one
person knows if you’re right, and it isn’t me,” Charles said, glancing upwards.
Eric
sighed. “I see your faith extends to
other things as well.”
“I see
proof every day, Eric.”
“I do, too,
but I remember, Charles. I believe, but because I remember, I have no more
faith in Him.”
Charles
shook his head. “One day, Eric, we’ll
see eye to eye.”
“Not for a
long while, Charles…”
“Now do you
remember?” The voice was cool and
feminine, wending it’s way into his subconscious.
His eyes
flew open and he sucked in a painful breath.
He could not feel the legs he had just been using, he could not feel the
youth that had just been coursing through his veins. “Yes,” he said. “I
remember.”
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess
Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse,
Hamster Witch, and Uberbeta… I think I’ve finally poi’d myself silly. *sigh *
InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are loverly. J They archive. J ProPhile is an extra-special smutmuse. J Damn, I use those smiley faces a lot…
Readers/Reviewers: I’ll be jiggered, but the armadillos have started wearing
kilts. They claim to have discovered
their Scot her heritage… I’m worried for their sanity, mainly because
armadillos originated in South America.
And mille grazie for reading/reviewing!
Wanda
stretched and winced as her back popped.
Lucas was snuffling softly in his travel crib, batting at his bottle in
his sleep. “Damn it, Tabby,” she
muttered. “Don’t leave that in there
with him…” She grabbed the bottle and
paused as the baby sucked in a deep breath.
When he did not start bawling, she picked up the receiver end of the baby
monitor set and went downstairs to put away the cold bottle. “Thought you’d be here,” she said as she
passed her girlfriend, sitting at the kitchen table.
“I knew
he’dokayokay with you,” Tabby yawned.
“I can’t sleep here. I want to go home.”
Wanda
sighed. “I know. But Logan wants us to stay here until this
media crap dies down.”
“That’s
stupid. We weren’t even at the
school…”
“But we’d
be seen leaving here,” Wanda pointed out, setting the baby monitor between them
as she took the seat opposite Tabby.
“Point.” She yawned again, poking at her own
stomach. “I’m all kinds of saggy. Damn. I wish I had Mystique’s powers just
this once.”
“I’d never
kiss you if you were blue,” Wanda said dryly.
“Besides, a little bit of tummy is kind of sexy.”
Tabby
snorted. “You’re weird.” She stood and stretched again, her shirt
riding up to reveal fading stretch marks on her sides and below her navel. “I’m going to the Danger Room. I want to work some kinks out.”
“You have a
baby upstairs, you know.”
“I have a
lot of stress, you know,” Tabby snapped, then frowned. “Sorry.”
“Eh. You’ve been better.” Wanda stood, too, and handed the monitor to
Tabby. “Go to bed. You can’t breastfeed if you’re exhausted.”
“When did
you start getting all caring?”
“Insulting
much?”
“I mean…”
she ran her hands through her short blonde hair. “It’s just, you’re so hard on the guys from the Boardinghouse
and…well, everyone else.”
“I don’t
love them,” she shrugged. “I love you.”
“Ah…”
“Still
bothers you?” Wanda turned to glance at
the dark rec room behind her and sighed.
“Okay. I can respect that.”
“It doesn’t
bother me…” She frowned
again. “People always say they love
someone but it never ends well, does it?”
“It can,”
Wanda said carefully. “But it doesn’t
have to end badly.”
“You can
say that to me after having Magneto for a father and Pietro for a brother? Have you ever felt loved in your life?”
“Until
about ten seconds ago,” she snapped.
“I’m going to bed!”
“Wanda!”
Tabby wailed. “Wait! That came out wrong!”
“Good
night!”
“Well,
fuck.”
“You kiss
your son with that mouth?”
“Lurk much,
Piotr?”
“Lately,
da.” He sidled into view, surprisingly
invisible for such a large person.
“How long
were you eavesdropping?”
“I was just
coming in from the lanai. I wanted to
watch the stars.” He smirked faintly
and headed towards the refrigerator for a bottle of water. “Lover’s spat?”
“Fuck off,
steel for brains.”
“You really
put your foot in it, you know.”
“Thank you
for pointing out the blindingly obvious.
Good night.”
“If you
can’t sleep,” Piotr said quietly, stopping her in her tracks, “Evan is still
missing. We could use some help
looking.”
“I thought
you were watching the stars.”
“I lied.”
Tabby
snortedRemiRemind me to teach you about
when and where to lie.” She turned back
to face him. “What’s the big deal? Freak boy probably just went off to skate
somewhere.”
“Hmmm.” Piotr drained the bottle in one swig. “Scott picked up some signs that Evan evaded
security to get out…And he wasn’t alone.”
Tabby
shrugged again. “Eh. He’ll be back.”
“Still,”
Piotr said slowly, “I’d like to talk with you about something and I think we
could best do that while looking for Evan.
No one will bother us that way.”
Tabby
narrowed her eyes at him. “In case you
haven’t noticed, I have a girlfriend.”
I think.
“That isn’t
it,” he laughed, as if the idea weomehomehow amusing and repulsive at
once. “You aren’t for me.”
“Kitty’s
not gonna leave Kurt for you.”
“Ah,
Katerina… No, she is forever beyond my
reach. Though there is someone else
Kurt knows…” He cleared his
throat. “I would like to speak with you
about your time with the Brotherhood.”
Tabby felt
her eyes open wide. “About…huh?”
“Just…curious,
you could say.”
“I could
say a Hell of a lot more than that,” she began, but a tinny cry from the baby
monitor in her hand cut her off. “Wait
here. I need to check on Luke.”
Piotr
nodded vaguely and left as soon as Tabby was out of sight.
“Charles!”
“Eric…my
God, is it ten already?”
“No, no…I’m
just early.” He smiled and clasped his
friend’s hand firmly. “Hope it’s not
too inconvenient.”
“Of course
not! I’m glad you’re here. I’ve
discovered something amazing…” Charles led
his friend into the massive estate home, chattering excitedly. “I used those equations in Cerebro and found
they’re hideously wrong!”
“How is
that something to be excited about?”
Eric could not help but laugh a little, too. Charles’s humor always had been infectious.
“Well, that
part itself was a bit disappointing, but you should see what it does with the
wrong information to process!” They had
arrived at the door guarding their precious invention and Charles opened, as
always, with a tinge of caution. The
room was starting to take shape, metal plates shielding some of the wall but
bare beams exposed for most of the expanse.
The heart, the brain of Cerebro, however, was gloriously intact. “When I tried it out earlier, instead of
detecting mutants, it…activated their powers.”
“What?” Eric felt his eyes go very wide. “How?”
“Watch…” Charles slipped the helmet-like device over
his head and activated Cerebro. Eric
immediately felt like his entire body was in a gravity well, like he could not help
the pull he was exerting. Rivets began
popping off the metal plates, which themselves began peeling from the walls. As
soon as it started, it stopped, Charles looking sheepish as he removed the
helmet. “That was very stupid of me…metal…. Magnetism…”
“No, no…”
Eric gasped, kicking aside some of the rivets that had flown to him. “That’s…very good to know.”
“There’s
one small problem, though.” Charles
cradled the helmet in his hands, looking very embarrassed. “Out of that very long string of numbers and
variables…”
“Don’t tell
me,” Eric groaned. “You don’t know…”
“It’s a
matter of going through the entire string,” Charles explained. “It’s my mistake. I’ll fix it.”
“B “Breakfast
first, then fix,” Eric declared, striving to keep his temper and elevated
mood. “I’ll buy.”
“The
problem is,” Charles said around a mouthful of eggs, “there’s too many
variables.”
ow dow do you
know that’s the problem? Maybe it’s one
of the numbers.” Eric pushed his empty
plate aside and peered at Charles intently.
“Maybe it’s something else entirely.
Your headaches…”
“It’s
nothing,” Charles dismissed. “Cleared
up.”
“Are they
worse now that you’re using Cerebro more?”
“Yes,”
Charles answered finally.
Eric
sighed. “Stop then. This isn’t important right now. First, we had best work on erinering others
like us to our side, showing them the…”
“Our side?”
Charles made a sharp motion with his hand.
“We are on the same side.”
“Not this
argument again,” Eric groaned. “You
remember…you know.”
“I remember
here. You were over there during the
Shoah. Not me. I understand the anger, the rage, but…” Charles sighed. “I can’t hate people for not being mutants. I can’t alienate myself from them just
because theght ght not understand.”
“Charles,
you’re being irrational about this,” Eric said in a low, tight tone. “You know what will happen if we’re ever
discovered. You know.” He slammed his arm down on the table,
turning it sot tht the row of blue numbers showed on his wrist. “It will be no different this time.”
“It will,”
Charles said urgently. “I have some
faith in humanity, Eric. I have faith
that things are different now. The
world has seen what ignorance and hate can do…”
“You are
naïve,” Eric said, standing with some finality, dropping some bills on the table
for their meal. “You would let us be
rounded up like cattle, destroyed for it.”
Charles
stood slowly, dropping his napkin on the table. “Let’s not fight about this now.
There’s a lot of work to be done on Cerebro. And I still need to show you that new horse.”
Eric
sighed. He loved Charles as a brother
and could recognize his avoidance tactics from miles away. “I know you hate my views on this, but you
know I am right.”
“Only one
person knows if you’re right, and it isn’t me,” Charles said, glancing upwards.
Eric
sighed. “I see your faith extends to
other things as well.”
“I see
proof every day, Eric.”
“I do, too,
but I remember, Charles. I believe, but because I remember, I have no more
faith in Him.”
Charles
shook his head. “One day, Eric, we’ll
see eye to eye.”
“Not for a
long while, Charles…”
“Now do you
remember?” The voice was cool and
feminine, wending it’s way into his subconscious.
His eyes
flew open and he sucked in a painful breath.
He could not feel the legs he had just been using, he could not feel the
youth that had just been coursing through his veins. “Yes,” he said. “I
remember.”