Persistence of Memory
folder
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,478
Reviews:
68
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
X-Men - Animated Series (all) › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
57
Views:
7,478
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.
56
Persistence of Memory Chapter Fifty Six (NC-17)
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…*email energy * InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are all
kinds of wonderful for archiving. J ProPhile is a loverly smutmuse. Morgan…still alive, right? Readers/Reviewers: *dance of happiness
* Thank you so much for reading and
reviewing! I really appreciate it and
do many strange little wriggles of joy whenever you review. *g * Oh, and Dracena…email me about what you said…*very interested
* ParkerFloyd---you still there?
Magneto was
torn between being pleased and irritated.
On one side of the coin, they would not be able to wriggle free of any
accusations now, but on the other, they were seriously disrupting the grand
gesture. Resigning himself to their
presence, Magneto stepped forward and addressed Professor Xavier. “So you’ve decided to come to the light, as
it were?”
Professor
Xavier smiled thinly and made an open handed, dismissive gesture. “We’ve decided to see for ourselves just how
well the world handles your…escapade.”
Magneto
sneered a little at his old friend’s terminology. “You know it did not have to come to this, Charles. Years ago… we used to be of the same
mind. Why did you ever diverge?”
“I saw the
light,” he answered mildly. Behind him,
his students were milling in a vaguely uncomfortable manner. Scott was trying to make them look organized
but their general air of nervousness was palpable. The Professor looked past Magneto and towards the open front door
of the grand house and the dark void beyond.
Piotr and Evan hovered guiltily just out of clear sight. “It is never too late to change your mind,”
he said just loud enough for them to hear.
“There is nothing wrong with having a differing opinion from those you
care about. It’s your actions that
matter most right now.”
Magneto’s
gaze followed his. “Ah, yes. Your defectors. How piquant.” His smile
became decidedly edged as he nodded to Sabretooth, the lumbering man
disappearing around the side of the house on some unknown but planned
mission. “Piotr had the most moving
reasons for wishing to join us…however, his latent guilt over a certain bastard
granddaughter of mine and a German girl are growing quite irritating. It gives
Scatterbrain the worst headaches.” He
smirked as Kurt started forward, only to be stilled by a quelling look from
Kitty. “Evhowehowever, is a bit of
mystery. Tell me…Storm…” He pitched his voice to carry to the Blackbird, where Storm stood
conversing in muted tones with Logan. “Do
you feel betrayed by your own flesh and blood, or have you excised him already,
like some flawed limb, a tumor on your soul?”
Storm’s
eyes flashed white and thunder rumbled softly in the distance. “Evan was never rejected, no matter what he
might think…” Her voice broke slightly.
She had no idea why Evan had left and desperately wanted to drag him,
kicking and screaming if need be, back to her fold and shake him until he saw
sense. “He will always be my flesh and
blood. Always part of my heart and soul.”
Magneto’s
expression became thoughtful. “I’ll
keep that in mind.”
Professor
Xavier glanced at the news crews, still setting up their equipment and
generally gawping at them, before addressing Magneto in an urgent undertone. “Eric,
you’re not thinking clearly. You’re
desire for acceptance has always been your weak spot. Don’t let it destroy you…us.”
“Incubus
should have done a better job,” Magneto sighed. “I must remember never to use his services without making sure he
has fed well first. I am a bit
surprised at how well you resisted Scatterbrain though. You and Emma both. Either he underestimated
you or I estiestimated him.” He raised
a brow. “No matter. Very soon, even the weakest mutant will have
more respect than the strongest…what shall I call them? Homo sapiens[1]
gives them too much credit. I think I
prefer Homo inferior[2].” He seemed very amused at his own joke.
Logan
ambled up beside the Professor and nodded greeting. Some unspoken communication flashed between them and Magneto
frowned deeply. Finally, the Professor said,
“You don’t know what you’re doing, Eric.”
“I believe
you have lost the right to call me that, Professor Xavier,” Magneto responded frostily. He turned his back and strode towards
Mystique and Saint Anna, both conferring over some detail.
“Now?”
Logan asked mildly.
“I’m afraid
so. We don’t have much time. They have to hurry.”
Wanda
sighed resignedly. “I never wanted to
see this place again and here I am.
Here. Again.” She looked around and sighed again. “He could at least change the wall paper.”
Kitty
frowned and muttered, “Time…we’ve got to keep moving!”
Wanda made
a face that bespoke irritation and memory before heading down the darkened
hallway, Kitty, Rogue, Amara and Jean in tow.
It had not been a hard thing to get into the house. It had been more
difficult to keep Kurt from coming along; he had a death grip on Kitty’s arm
until Leech all but wailed, “You promised you’d stay with me!” He had let her go regretfully but with such
a longing sigh that it made even Wanda feel bad for making him stay with the
other group.
Jean
finally broke the still silence in Wanda’s head with a question. How do you know where we’re going?
Wanda
stiffened slightly before answering. “He’s
always kept his little experiments in the sublevels. Can’t hear anything through the floor,” she muttered. “It’s huge down there. All metal…creeps me out.”
Kitty
stumbled, holding her stomach briefly. “Sorry. Twinged.”
She sighed. “These staples are
metal.”
“Magneto
would have to know you had them,” Jean assured her. “Besides, I don’t think surgical steel is magnetic.”[3]
“Good to
know…” Kitty exhaled slowly. “Okay.”
Wanda led
them silently onward down several more hallways before stopping at a seemingly
dead end. “If I remember correctly,
this is the old entrance. I’m sure he’s…improved…things
by now.” She pressed some spot on the
oak paneling of the wall and a hidden door swung open.
Amara
raised an impressed eyebrow. “I need
one of e foe for my room…”
Wanda
rolled her eyes. “Come on.” She led them down a short flight of dusty
stairs that ended in another hallway, more narrow than the last and obviously
part of the home’s original architecture.
“Pietro and I used to play down here all the time when we were little,”
she said with a harsh sigh. “It was the
servants’ passageway between the old kitchen and the dining hall back when the
house was first built during the eighteen hundreds. We used to pretend…” she cut herself off with a sharp jerk of her
chin. “Here we are.” She pushed against the wall to her left and
it slid open. Gleaming, silvery metal
nearly blinded them, reflecting some hidden light source. “This is the old part.”
Jean vented
a low whistle as they edged into the low-ceilinged room. She could reach up and touch the ceiling
with very little effort. “What was this
place?”
Ro Rogue,
silent since they deplaned[4],
muttered, “Does it matter? It ain’t
gonna be around much longer.”
Wanda shot
her a glance and breathed, “This isn’t my home anymore. It hasn’t been for a very long time.”
Jean had
closed her eyes a moment after they entered the room and was actively
scanning. “This way.” She lead now, following the impulse of a
telepathic power greater than her own, the activity of several minds fussing
and worrying over some detail she could not see. Theyl inl into a line and followed her, Wanda opening passages
that Jean did not see through her psychic eyes. Finally, they reached a large white room, the control room for
Magneto’s Cerebro. “Here we are,” the red head sighed. “That hurt.”
Amara flexed
her fingers. “Now?”
“No…we have
to wait… Wanda, are you sure you can do
this?”
“Very.” Her face was set in lines of grim
determination. “Are you sure you
can do this?”
Jean
nodded. “I can tell when he’s donom
om
here. Are you okay, Kitty? You look
sick?”
“I’m just
trying not to think about what’s going to happen if this doesn’t work.”
A sick
silence settled over them as they crouched, waiting, each trying not to think
about their loved ones outside, or what Scatterbrain might be doing. If it all went according to plan, it would
be over in minutes. The cleanup would
take much longer, though. Kitty
adjusted her crouch to take pressure off her stomach and muttered to Jean, “What
if the Professor can’t…”
“Don’t
think that,” Jean ordered softly. “Just
wait.”
The hum of
energy started beneath their feet and Amara closed her eyes involuntarily. Rogue eased forward, poised for the moment
of necessity. Kitty grasped her
uniform-clad wrist. “Wait for me,” she
whispered.
The hum
stopped as suddenly as it began and a moment later, the door to the chamber
began open, Scatterbrain barely visible.
“Now!” Jean snapped, and everything became a blur.
A/N Hee Hee. I’m
evil. Next chapter, some loose ends
will be tied up, then one more for thelogulogue then…NEW FIC!!!!
[1] We are Homo
Sapiens sapiens or Knowledgeable man/human. Sapiens being intelligent or knowledge.
[2] In the
movie, Magneto refers to mutants as Homo superior so I figure non
mutants would be “inferior” to his way of thinking.
[3] Well, my
navel ring is surgical steel and it doesn’t stick to a magnet so…
[4] Why do they
call it that? It sounds like
delousing.
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST
WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta…*email energy * InterNutter, TC and Maxwell Pink are all
kinds of wonderful for archiving. J ProPhile is a loverly smutmuse. Morgan…still alive, right? Readers/Reviewers: *dance of happiness
* Thank you so much for reading and
reviewing! I really appreciate it and
do many strange little wriggles of joy whenever you review. *g * Oh, and Dracena…email me about what you said…*very interested
* ParkerFloyd---you still there?
Magneto was
torn between being pleased and irritated.
On one side of the coin, they would not be able to wriggle free of any
accusations now, but on the other, they were seriously disrupting the grand
gesture. Resigning himself to their
presence, Magneto stepped forward and addressed Professor Xavier. “So you’ve decided to come to the light, as
it were?”
Professor
Xavier smiled thinly and made an open handed, dismissive gesture. “We’ve decided to see for ourselves just how
well the world handles your…escapade.”
Magneto
sneered a little at his old friend’s terminology. “You know it did not have to come to this, Charles. Years ago… we used to be of the same
mind. Why did you ever diverge?”
“I saw the
light,” he answered mildly. Behind him,
his students were milling in a vaguely uncomfortable manner. Scott was trying to make them look organized
but their general air of nervousness was palpable. The Professor looked past Magneto and towards the open front door
of the grand house and the dark void beyond.
Piotr and Evan hovered guiltily just out of clear sight. “It is never too late to change your mind,”
he said just loud enough for them to hear.
“There is nothing wrong with having a differing opinion from those you
care about. It’s your actions that
matter most right now.”
Magneto’s
gaze followed his. “Ah, yes. Your defectors. How piquant.” His smile
became decidedly edged as he nodded to Sabretooth, the lumbering man
disappearing around the side of the house on some unknown but planned
mission. “Piotr had the most moving
reasons for wishing to join us…however, his latent guilt over a certain bastard
granddaughter of mine and a German girl are growing quite irritating. It gives
Scatterbrain the worst headaches.” He
smirked as Kurt started forward, only to be stilled by a quelling look from
Kitty. “Evhowehowever, is a bit of
mystery. Tell me…Storm…” He pitched his voice to carry to the Blackbird, where Storm stood
conversing in muted tones with Logan. “Do
you feel betrayed by your own flesh and blood, or have you excised him already,
like some flawed limb, a tumor on your soul?”
Storm’s
eyes flashed white and thunder rumbled softly in the distance. “Evan was never rejected, no matter what he
might think…” Her voice broke slightly.
She had no idea why Evan had left and desperately wanted to drag him,
kicking and screaming if need be, back to her fold and shake him until he saw
sense. “He will always be my flesh and
blood. Always part of my heart and soul.”
Magneto’s
expression became thoughtful. “I’ll
keep that in mind.”
Professor
Xavier glanced at the news crews, still setting up their equipment and
generally gawping at them, before addressing Magneto in an urgent undertone. “Eric,
you’re not thinking clearly. You’re
desire for acceptance has always been your weak spot. Don’t let it destroy you…us.”
“Incubus
should have done a better job,” Magneto sighed. “I must remember never to use his services without making sure he
has fed well first. I am a bit
surprised at how well you resisted Scatterbrain though. You and Emma both. Either he underestimated
you or I estiestimated him.” He raised
a brow. “No matter. Very soon, even the weakest mutant will have
more respect than the strongest…what shall I call them? Homo sapiens[1]
gives them too much credit. I think I
prefer Homo inferior[2].” He seemed very amused at his own joke.
Logan
ambled up beside the Professor and nodded greeting. Some unspoken communication flashed between them and Magneto
frowned deeply. Finally, the Professor said,
“You don’t know what you’re doing, Eric.”
“I believe
you have lost the right to call me that, Professor Xavier,” Magneto responded frostily. He turned his back and strode towards
Mystique and Saint Anna, both conferring over some detail.
“Now?”
Logan asked mildly.
“I’m afraid
so. We don’t have much time. They have to hurry.”
Wanda
sighed resignedly. “I never wanted to
see this place again and here I am.
Here. Again.” She looked around and sighed again. “He could at least change the wall paper.”
Kitty
frowned and muttered, “Time…we’ve got to keep moving!”
Wanda made
a face that bespoke irritation and memory before heading down the darkened
hallway, Kitty, Rogue, Amara and Jean in tow.
It had not been a hard thing to get into the house. It had been more
difficult to keep Kurt from coming along; he had a death grip on Kitty’s arm
until Leech all but wailed, “You promised you’d stay with me!” He had let her go regretfully but with such
a longing sigh that it made even Wanda feel bad for making him stay with the
other group.
Jean
finally broke the still silence in Wanda’s head with a question. How do you know where we’re going?
Wanda
stiffened slightly before answering. “He’s
always kept his little experiments in the sublevels. Can’t hear anything through the floor,” she muttered. “It’s huge down there. All metal…creeps me out.”
Kitty
stumbled, holding her stomach briefly. “Sorry. Twinged.”
She sighed. “These staples are
metal.”
“Magneto
would have to know you had them,” Jean assured her. “Besides, I don’t think surgical steel is magnetic.”[3]
“Good to
know…” Kitty exhaled slowly. “Okay.”
Wanda led
them silently onward down several more hallways before stopping at a seemingly
dead end. “If I remember correctly,
this is the old entrance. I’m sure he’s…improved…things
by now.” She pressed some spot on the
oak paneling of the wall and a hidden door swung open.
Amara
raised an impressed eyebrow. “I need
one of e foe for my room…”
Wanda
rolled her eyes. “Come on.” She led them down a short flight of dusty
stairs that ended in another hallway, more narrow than the last and obviously
part of the home’s original architecture.
“Pietro and I used to play down here all the time when we were little,”
she said with a harsh sigh. “It was the
servants’ passageway between the old kitchen and the dining hall back when the
house was first built during the eighteen hundreds. We used to pretend…” she cut herself off with a sharp jerk of her
chin. “Here we are.” She pushed against the wall to her left and
it slid open. Gleaming, silvery metal
nearly blinded them, reflecting some hidden light source. “This is the old part.”
Jean vented
a low whistle as they edged into the low-ceilinged room. She could reach up and touch the ceiling
with very little effort. “What was this
place?”
Ro Rogue,
silent since they deplaned[4],
muttered, “Does it matter? It ain’t
gonna be around much longer.”
Wanda shot
her a glance and breathed, “This isn’t my home anymore. It hasn’t been for a very long time.”
Jean had
closed her eyes a moment after they entered the room and was actively
scanning. “This way.” She lead now, following the impulse of a
telepathic power greater than her own, the activity of several minds fussing
and worrying over some detail she could not see. Theyl inl into a line and followed her, Wanda opening passages
that Jean did not see through her psychic eyes. Finally, they reached a large white room, the control room for
Magneto’s Cerebro. “Here we are,” the red head sighed. “That hurt.”
Amara flexed
her fingers. “Now?”
“No…we have
to wait… Wanda, are you sure you can do
this?”
“Very.” Her face was set in lines of grim
determination. “Are you sure you
can do this?”
Jean
nodded. “I can tell when he’s donom
om
here. Are you okay, Kitty? You look
sick?”
“I’m just
trying not to think about what’s going to happen if this doesn’t work.”
A sick
silence settled over them as they crouched, waiting, each trying not to think
about their loved ones outside, or what Scatterbrain might be doing. If it all went according to plan, it would
be over in minutes. The cleanup would
take much longer, though. Kitty
adjusted her crouch to take pressure off her stomach and muttered to Jean, “What
if the Professor can’t…”
“Don’t
think that,” Jean ordered softly. “Just
wait.”
The hum of
energy started beneath their feet and Amara closed her eyes involuntarily. Rogue eased forward, poised for the moment
of necessity. Kitty grasped her
uniform-clad wrist. “Wait for me,” she
whispered.
The hum
stopped as suddenly as it began and a moment later, the door to the chamber
began open, Scatterbrain barely visible.
“Now!” Jean snapped, and everything became a blur.
A/N Hee Hee. I’m
evil. Next chapter, some loose ends
will be tied up, then one more for thelogulogue then…NEW FIC!!!!
[1] We are Homo
Sapiens sapiens or Knowledgeable man/human. Sapiens being intelligent or knowledge.
[2] In the
movie, Magneto refers to mutants as Homo superior so I figure non
mutants would be “inferior” to his way of thinking.
[3] Well, my
navel ring is surgical steel and it doesn’t stick to a magnet so…
[4] Why do they
call it that? It sounds like
delousing.