Persistence of Memory
folder
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,467
Reviews:
68
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0
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Category:
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,467
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.
45
Persistence of Memory Chapter Forty Five (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…*Germhocohocolate
high * Are those round ones supposed to
fizz? INuttNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink
are fanfreakingtastic for archiving. J ProPhile is smutalicious (to use his word
for it). Though personally I’d go with
smut-tastic. Readers/Reviewers: *swoon
* I’ve come over all Southern Belle
now… I do declare… Thank you for reading and reviewing and I
really do read your reviews on AFFN, really! *happy thank you dance that looks
disturbingly like a Snoopy dance *
“Hey,
Kitty.”
“Jean,” she
yawned. “When’d you get here?”
“About
twenty minutes ago. We got stuck in
traffic then Forge had to come out with the spare jack because we got a
flat…long story,” she sighed. “How’re
you?”
“You’re a
little psychic. You tell me.”
Jean smiled
thinly and sat down in the chair recently abandoned by Kurt. “I heard what happened here this morning…I’m
kind of glad I broke Mister Green’s catheter.”
“Ouch.” Kitty cringed in appreciative sympathy. “What’s going on upstairs? I’m not allowed to leave.”
“You
look…solid.”
“It’s the
weirdest thing…My phasing went out of control for what seemed like forever but
I get back here and pumped full of drugs…”
Kitty managed a shrug. “I don’t
know. But I have a theory. Hey, do you think you could sneak my lap top
down here? Beast said I couldn’t be on
it until I can sit up for longer periods of time, but there’s some stuff I want
to run through…”
Jean raised
an auburn brow. “I’ll do it but if I
get in trouble, I’ll have to do something telekinetically awful to you.”
“Understood.”
She shifted a tad uncomfortably and said sotto voce, “Tell Kurt I need to see
him, like, pronto.”
“In your
condition?”
“Not like that!” Kitty felt the blush creeping up her cheeks
and averted her gaze under Jean’s smirk.
“And tell Remy and Jubes I need to see them, too.”
“Can I ask
for what?”
“Plausible
deniability, Jean. If I tell you, you
won’t have it.”
“Why do I
get a sinking feeling in my stomach when you get that look on your face?”
“Trust me…”
“Now I know
we’re in trouble.”
“How do you
now?” Logan asked gruffly. He had the
first nigglings of a headache, a rare occurrence for him, and he did not like
it at all.
“Incubus is
not as strong as he’d like to think,” the Professor said lightly. “And Magneto has grown foolish in his
desperation.”
“Desperation?” Storm leaned forward, interested. “What exactly is going on?”
The
Professor and Emma exchanged glances, some unspoken communication flying
between the two of them. Emma went
first. “Magneto has decided to force us
out into the open. He’s made a version
of Cerebro that is…incomplete. It’s
based on an old design that needs refinement—severe refinements.”
“I have
discovered something very important missing from my study. An old photo that concealed some information
I wished to keep…hidden. It’s the one
flaw in Magneto’s version of Cerebro.
An error in the programming that, instead of simply revealing and
connecting to the other mutants in the world, triggers an electrochemical
response that takes control of the mutation away from the person and puts it
into the hands of the operator of Cerebro.”
Logan knew
the Professor was grossly oversimplifying the purpose and workings of Cerebro
but was glad for the lack of technobabble.
“So what’s the old man going to do?”
“From what I’ve
been able to gather from Incubus,” the Professor reported after a brief
run-down of the events he and Emma had experienced earlier that day, “Magneto
plans to use a telekinetic telepath called Psylocke to operate Cerebro. However, he has two others on his side that
could prove to be potentially harmful.
Mesmero is relatively weak in terms of psychic ability but has the
ability to…hypnotize…and one called Scatterbrain is going to be the most
difficult.”
“Scatterbrain?”
Logan sneered. “What the Hell is wrong
with mutants these days?”
“I don’t
know…aren’t wolverines little furry things with sharp teeth and bad
tempers? Like badgers with bad p.r.?”
Banshee asked lightly. “They nibble you
to death, right[1]?”
Logan
growled deep in his chest at the Irishman, earning a fearful grin. “What’s the plan?” he said aside to the
Professor after Banshee looked away, still grinning.
“That’s
what we’re here to discuss.”
Emma
shifted to her feet, her arms folded across her chest, frowning. “We haven’t actually had much discussion on
this yet, but we thought…”
The
Professor picked up where she left off.
“We thought maybe we should give him what he wants.”
There was a
moment of painful silence before Forge spoke.
“What the Hell?”
“Magneto
wants to reveal the mutants…” Emma
smiled faintly. “He did not specify
which ones, exactly.”
“He wants
to reveal all of us,” the Professor said in a mildly quelling tone, “but I
think that can be amended.”
“To what?”
Storm asked, slightly aghast.
Professor
Xavier’s smile became sad and genuine at once.
“Remember, Ororo. Be careful what you ask for because you just might get
it.”
Firestar
stared out the window somewhat wistfully.
She knew why she was there and she knew why she could not leave, but
somehow, it did not reconcile her to her guilt. It’s my fault Empath died, really. That girl was just the conduit for my irresponsibility. I could have tried to make Emma see…I could
have tried to get her to change. I
should have tried harder. Proudstar was right.
We held the key but never used it.
The door opening behind her made her turn, her expression carefully
neutral. “Yes?”
“Magneto
needs you to run an errand for him.”
“I thought
you were away.”
Mystique
raised a brow. “My comings and goings
are my own affairs. However, I am going
back to Bayville in an hour. You are to
come with me and perform a task for Magneto’s benefit.”
“What would
that be?”
“Emma Frost
is at the Institute. He requests and
requires[2]
her presence here.”
“Emma?” Firestar tried to sound as if she did not
care, but the name made her twitch ever so slightly. “Has she joined them now?” she asked in bland tones.
Mystique’s
other brow crept up to join the first. “Why
do you care?”
“Who said I
did?”
“Hmmm. Be ready to go in an hour. And do not think you can seize this chance
to break your ties. You still owe him
your presence.”
Firestar
nodded curtly and remained at a strange sort of attention until Mystique shut
the door between them again. “Shit,”
she breathed. What she owed Magneto
could not be worth her honor.
Rouge
ached. She was warm, though, and dry,
and for that she was happy. Her stomach
growled loudly and a cramp spread through her belly, making her wince.
“Brought
you some soup.”
“Todd?” she
said thickly, opening her eyes slowly.
“I ain’t
talkin’ to you.”
“Where’s
Amara and Lance?”
“Hidin’,” saidsaid shortly. “Soup.”
“Todd…you
don’t understand…”
“You couldn’t
tell me you were leavin’ cause you didn’t trust me.” He shrugged. “I get
it. An’ I still ain’t talkin’ to you.”
“Todd,” she
sighed, closing her eyes again. The
soup did smell good… “Could you
hand me the bowl?”
Whatever he
was expecting her to say, that was not it.
Silently, he handed it to her and rocked back on his heels,
watching. After a moment in which she
stared at the bowl of liquid, he blurted, “Damn it to Hell, Marie, why’d you do
that?”
“It was
happenin’ again,” she murmured. “I
couldn’t control it, I couldn’t stop it…it was just like when I was in
Meridian.” She tipped the bowl to sip
at it, eschewing a spoon. After several
sips, she continued, “I didn’t wanna be here an’ hurt people. Back home, I hurt Cody and that was bad
enough. He was in my head then; he
still is. But this…it’s st wst worse,
ya know? At least with my usual
problem, I just get one at a time. But
with Empath rattlin’ around in here,” she tapped her head, making a wry face, “it’s
like a soccer riot.”
“I thought
we trusted each other,” he said plaintively.
“I thought you knew I’d help you…”
“I
panicked, Todd.” She drained the soup
and stifled an unladylike belch. “That
was good…who made it?”
“I did.”
“You?”
“It ain’t
rocket science…open a can and add water.
Nuke it and you’re done.”
“I knew I
loved you for a reason,” she said, grinning faintly.
“If you
love me, you won’t run ever again.”
“Todd…”
“Stop being
such a scared little kid, Marie,” he ordered, drawing himself up to his full if
somewhat minimal height. “You ran from
Mississippi and it brought you here and now you want to run from the one place
where you ain’t gonna be kicked out of?
That don’t make any sense, even by my standards.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Then
explain it to me!”
“I can’t!”
“Then you’ve
got nothin’ to complain about!” he huffed, taking the bowl from her and putting
it on her nightstand. “You know I don’t
like talkin’ about home much, but you know why? That’s cause I don’t think I’ve ever really had one before
now. Even when I was with Ma, that wasn’t
home. That was just…somewhere to crash.” He scrubbed absently at his face, very ti and and worn from his worry and frustration over Rogue. “If you run again, you’re an idiot.”
Rogue
stared at him, agape. “All I could
think of,” she said finally, “was that first time, with Cody. My own body betrayed me…I had no
control. And Irene…she knew and she
never told me…” She took a deep,
shaking breath and finally made eye contact.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah,
well,” he shrugged. “Memories make us
act dumb sometimes. Don’t let it happen
again.”
“Todd, I…”
“Want some
more soup?”
“…sure.”
“Marie?”
“Yeah?”
“I love
you, too.”
[1] Old ep of
Northern Exposure. The New York doctor
was warned about camping and wolverines.
“What are they? Little wolves
that crawl into your sleeping bag and nibble you to death?”
[2] Took a turn
for the imperial there…Oops.
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…*Germhocohocolate
high * Are those round ones supposed to
fizz? INuttNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink
are fanfreakingtastic for archiving. J ProPhile is smutalicious (to use his word
for it). Though personally I’d go with
smut-tastic. Readers/Reviewers: *swoon
* I’ve come over all Southern Belle
now… I do declare… Thank you for reading and reviewing and I
really do read your reviews on AFFN, really! *happy thank you dance that looks
disturbingly like a Snoopy dance *
“Hey,
Kitty.”
“Jean,” she
yawned. “When’d you get here?”
“About
twenty minutes ago. We got stuck in
traffic then Forge had to come out with the spare jack because we got a
flat…long story,” she sighed. “How’re
you?”
“You’re a
little psychic. You tell me.”
Jean smiled
thinly and sat down in the chair recently abandoned by Kurt. “I heard what happened here this morning…I’m
kind of glad I broke Mister Green’s catheter.”
“Ouch.” Kitty cringed in appreciative sympathy. “What’s going on upstairs? I’m not allowed to leave.”
“You
look…solid.”
“It’s the
weirdest thing…My phasing went out of control for what seemed like forever but
I get back here and pumped full of drugs…”
Kitty managed a shrug. “I don’t
know. But I have a theory. Hey, do you think you could sneak my lap top
down here? Beast said I couldn’t be on
it until I can sit up for longer periods of time, but there’s some stuff I want
to run through…”
Jean raised
an auburn brow. “I’ll do it but if I
get in trouble, I’ll have to do something telekinetically awful to you.”
“Understood.”
She shifted a tad uncomfortably and said sotto voce, “Tell Kurt I need to see
him, like, pronto.”
“In your
condition?”
“Not like that!” Kitty felt the blush creeping up her cheeks
and averted her gaze under Jean’s smirk.
“And tell Remy and Jubes I need to see them, too.”
“Can I ask
for what?”
“Plausible
deniability, Jean. If I tell you, you
won’t have it.”
“Why do I
get a sinking feeling in my stomach when you get that look on your face?”
“Trust me…”
“Now I know
we’re in trouble.”
“How do you
now?” Logan asked gruffly. He had the
first nigglings of a headache, a rare occurrence for him, and he did not like
it at all.
“Incubus is
not as strong as he’d like to think,” the Professor said lightly. “And Magneto has grown foolish in his
desperation.”
“Desperation?” Storm leaned forward, interested. “What exactly is going on?”
The
Professor and Emma exchanged glances, some unspoken communication flying
between the two of them. Emma went
first. “Magneto has decided to force us
out into the open. He’s made a version
of Cerebro that is…incomplete. It’s
based on an old design that needs refinement—severe refinements.”
“I have
discovered something very important missing from my study. An old photo that concealed some information
I wished to keep…hidden. It’s the one
flaw in Magneto’s version of Cerebro.
An error in the programming that, instead of simply revealing and
connecting to the other mutants in the world, triggers an electrochemical
response that takes control of the mutation away from the person and puts it
into the hands of the operator of Cerebro.”
Logan knew
the Professor was grossly oversimplifying the purpose and workings of Cerebro
but was glad for the lack of technobabble.
“So what’s the old man going to do?”
“From what I’ve
been able to gather from Incubus,” the Professor reported after a brief
run-down of the events he and Emma had experienced earlier that day, “Magneto
plans to use a telekinetic telepath called Psylocke to operate Cerebro. However, he has two others on his side that
could prove to be potentially harmful.
Mesmero is relatively weak in terms of psychic ability but has the
ability to…hypnotize…and one called Scatterbrain is going to be the most
difficult.”
“Scatterbrain?”
Logan sneered. “What the Hell is wrong
with mutants these days?”
“I don’t
know…aren’t wolverines little furry things with sharp teeth and bad
tempers? Like badgers with bad p.r.?”
Banshee asked lightly. “They nibble you
to death, right[1]?”
Logan
growled deep in his chest at the Irishman, earning a fearful grin. “What’s the plan?” he said aside to the
Professor after Banshee looked away, still grinning.
“That’s
what we’re here to discuss.”
Emma
shifted to her feet, her arms folded across her chest, frowning. “We haven’t actually had much discussion on
this yet, but we thought…”
The
Professor picked up where she left off.
“We thought maybe we should give him what he wants.”
There was a
moment of painful silence before Forge spoke.
“What the Hell?”
“Magneto
wants to reveal the mutants…” Emma
smiled faintly. “He did not specify
which ones, exactly.”
“He wants
to reveal all of us,” the Professor said in a mildly quelling tone, “but I
think that can be amended.”
“To what?”
Storm asked, slightly aghast.
Professor
Xavier’s smile became sad and genuine at once.
“Remember, Ororo. Be careful what you ask for because you just might get
it.”
Firestar
stared out the window somewhat wistfully.
She knew why she was there and she knew why she could not leave, but
somehow, it did not reconcile her to her guilt. It’s my fault Empath died, really. That girl was just the conduit for my irresponsibility. I could have tried to make Emma see…I could
have tried to get her to change. I
should have tried harder. Proudstar was right.
We held the key but never used it.
The door opening behind her made her turn, her expression carefully
neutral. “Yes?”
“Magneto
needs you to run an errand for him.”
“I thought
you were away.”
Mystique
raised a brow. “My comings and goings
are my own affairs. However, I am going
back to Bayville in an hour. You are to
come with me and perform a task for Magneto’s benefit.”
“What would
that be?”
“Emma Frost
is at the Institute. He requests and
requires[2]
her presence here.”
“Emma?” Firestar tried to sound as if she did not
care, but the name made her twitch ever so slightly. “Has she joined them now?” she asked in bland tones.
Mystique’s
other brow crept up to join the first. “Why
do you care?”
“Who said I
did?”
“Hmmm. Be ready to go in an hour. And do not think you can seize this chance
to break your ties. You still owe him
your presence.”
Firestar
nodded curtly and remained at a strange sort of attention until Mystique shut
the door between them again. “Shit,”
she breathed. What she owed Magneto
could not be worth her honor.
Rouge
ached. She was warm, though, and dry,
and for that she was happy. Her stomach
growled loudly and a cramp spread through her belly, making her wince.
“Brought
you some soup.”
“Todd?” she
said thickly, opening her eyes slowly.
“I ain’t
talkin’ to you.”
“Where’s
Amara and Lance?”
“Hidin’,” saidsaid shortly. “Soup.”
“Todd…you
don’t understand…”
“You couldn’t
tell me you were leavin’ cause you didn’t trust me.” He shrugged. “I get
it. An’ I still ain’t talkin’ to you.”
“Todd,” she
sighed, closing her eyes again. The
soup did smell good… “Could you
hand me the bowl?”
Whatever he
was expecting her to say, that was not it.
Silently, he handed it to her and rocked back on his heels,
watching. After a moment in which she
stared at the bowl of liquid, he blurted, “Damn it to Hell, Marie, why’d you do
that?”
“It was
happenin’ again,” she murmured. “I
couldn’t control it, I couldn’t stop it…it was just like when I was in
Meridian.” She tipped the bowl to sip
at it, eschewing a spoon. After several
sips, she continued, “I didn’t wanna be here an’ hurt people. Back home, I hurt Cody and that was bad
enough. He was in my head then; he
still is. But this…it’s st wst worse,
ya know? At least with my usual
problem, I just get one at a time. But
with Empath rattlin’ around in here,” she tapped her head, making a wry face, “it’s
like a soccer riot.”
“I thought
we trusted each other,” he said plaintively.
“I thought you knew I’d help you…”
“I
panicked, Todd.” She drained the soup
and stifled an unladylike belch. “That
was good…who made it?”
“I did.”
“You?”
“It ain’t
rocket science…open a can and add water.
Nuke it and you’re done.”
“I knew I
loved you for a reason,” she said, grinning faintly.
“If you
love me, you won’t run ever again.”
“Todd…”
“Stop being
such a scared little kid, Marie,” he ordered, drawing himself up to his full if
somewhat minimal height. “You ran from
Mississippi and it brought you here and now you want to run from the one place
where you ain’t gonna be kicked out of?
That don’t make any sense, even by my standards.”
“You don’t understand!”
“Then
explain it to me!”
“I can’t!”
“Then you’ve
got nothin’ to complain about!” he huffed, taking the bowl from her and putting
it on her nightstand. “You know I don’t
like talkin’ about home much, but you know why? That’s cause I don’t think I’ve ever really had one before
now. Even when I was with Ma, that wasn’t
home. That was just…somewhere to crash.” He scrubbed absently at his face, very ti and and worn from his worry and frustration over Rogue. “If you run again, you’re an idiot.”
Rogue
stared at him, agape. “All I could
think of,” she said finally, “was that first time, with Cody. My own body betrayed me…I had no
control. And Irene…she knew and she
never told me…” She took a deep,
shaking breath and finally made eye contact.
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah,
well,” he shrugged. “Memories make us
act dumb sometimes. Don’t let it happen
again.”
“Todd, I…”
“Want some
more soup?”
“…sure.”
“Marie?”
“Yeah?”
“I love
you, too.”
[1] Old ep of
Northern Exposure. The New York doctor
was warned about camping and wolverines.
“What are they? Little wolves
that crawl into your sleeping bag and nibble you to death?”
[2] Took a turn
for the imperial there…Oops.