Eloi

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> Eloi Chapter Fifty Eight
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> Disclaimers Apply
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> A/N Goddess Foxfeather, Queen of Mad Plotbunnies, BUSIEST WOMAN ALIVE ™, Prophetic Muse, Hamster Witch and Uberbeta… OW. InterNutter, TC, Maxwell Pink, Dracena and Greywolf are loverly and wondermous for archiving/hosting. J ProPhile: Sending you something later… Morgan: You there? Readers/Reviewers: I have company coming in from out of town this week, down for a few weeks, so updates might be slow some days. Thank you *so * much for reading/reviewing!
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> “So when are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
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> “You’re the psychic… you tell me.”
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> “Sarcasm does not become you, Eric.”
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> “…liar.” Magneto took a lingering sip of his coffee, strong and black and slightly bitter. “Your Cajun has been supplementing the blend with chicory. The Charles Xavier I know would only use pure ground Kona.”[1]
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> “The Charles Xavier who has students to look after and an institute to run uses Folgers,” the Professor replied, raising a brow at Magneto’s vaguely amused expression. “It’s just coffee, Eric.”
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> “It’s emblematic, Charles. But you know all about that, being a professor and all.” He paused, the cup midway to his lips. “You seem to live your life in the dark these days.”
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> “I suppose this is your way of seguing into matters more weighty than my caffeine habit.” Professor Xavier set his mug carefully on the coaster at the corner of his desk. “Tell me, Eric.”
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> Silence fell for a long stretch between them, Magneto turning his own mug around in his hands, examining it, it seemed, from every angle short of turning it over to look at the bottom. “I fear that I have made a grave error with Essex.”
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> “To hear Wanda tell it, we both did.”
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> “Is she…sedated?” Magneto asked, his tone suddenly sharp and, the Professor thought, concerned.
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> “Doctor McCoy is seeing to her… And Tabby.” Professor Xavier frowned. It was getting entirely too baroque, he decided. “Rogue will be ready to talk to me soon. I want to hear your side of things first. She can only tell me what Wanda knows…” He trailed off suggestively, the implication that Wanda’s version would not be complimentary hanging heavily in the air between them.
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> “Nathaniel Essex is a brilliant man. We see eye to eye on many things. His total lack of regard for life is not one of them.” Magneto drained his coffee mug in one long, oddly elegant, draught.
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> “Pot. Kettle. Black.” Professor Xavier pushed his mug away and leaned forward, fixing his old friend with a piercing glare. “I don’t seem to recall you having much regard for human life lately. I can count on my hands with fingers to spare how many of our recent meetings have not been because of an attempt on someone’s life, either directly or because of some scheme of yours going wrong.”
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> “Please, Charles,” Magneto sneered derisively, “you make me sound like that Lucy woman we used to watch on television.”
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> “Stop being oblique, Eric, and tell me what’s happening. The Morlocks are on a rampage, there seem to be two Tabbys and Wanda is suffering a psychotic break! If you do not give me some answers soon…”
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> “You’re going to what?” Magneto supplied, a simple mental tug bringing the Professor’s wheelchair closer. “Scold me? Read my mind? Please. Do it and get it over with. It will make this entire visit less painful.”
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> “Your world is crumbling around you, _Magneto, _” Professor Xavier said in low, tense tones. “Who is at your boardinghouse? Who is at your home? Your lab is destroyed. All mutants are under attack, not just those of us who disagree with your theories of superiority.” He leaned back in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. “Now is not the time to be cocky, Eric.”
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> Several things flickered across Magneto’s face: rage, annoyance, amusement and lastly and most disturbingly, defeat. “Essex has been experimenting. He is a brilliant geneticist, Charles. At first, I accepted his help, now that Incubus has vanished…” He sighed heavily, sounding and feeling his age. “My health has come at a price. He has access to numerous tissue samples, garnered over the years in my search for some remedy for my deterioration. He has access to several samples of your students, Charles.”
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> “What are you saying, Eric?”
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> “Read my mind, Charles,” Magneto said with a hint of his usual tone. “He’s decided to perfect mutantkind. Build his own little army of perfect soldiers, starting with replicas of existing mutants.”
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> “Impossible.” Professor Xavier shoved himself away from the desk, rolling towards the window in his version of pacing. “It takes ages to make a clone and even then, you have to allow time for growth and development…”
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> “Essex is a brilliant scientist,” Magneto said softly. “I’ve harbored a viper to my bosom and now he’s unleashed on the world.”
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> “Is he behind the attacks?”
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> “What? Those? Oh, no… That really is the Friends of Humanity. Simpletons.”
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> A knock on the door silenced the two men. Beast’s shaggy head appeared around the edge of the door frame, his voice ragged and tired. “Rogue is ready to talk.”
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> “What of Wanda?” Magneto asked suddenly. “Is she..alright?”
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> “She’s heavily sedated,” Beast practically snapped. “She was becoming violent. It was the only way I could clean the wounds on her back. It looks as if she has been shocked with high voltage, applied in linear patterns.”
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> “What are you saying?” Magneto demanded, paternal fear and anger writ large in his voice.
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> “Someone used a shock stick on her. Like a cattle prod,” Professor Xavier supplied. “She’s been tortured.”
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> Silence fell for a sparse moment, then all Hell broke loose. The windows, drawers and anything with metal in it or on it began to rattle, trembling as if in silent rage.
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> “Magneto,” Beast said quietly, “she’s going to be fine.”
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> The room seemed to explode then, metal flying from fastenings, knickknacks lifting and spinning through the air. Magneto’s rage was uncontrolled. Professor Xavier’s chair flipped over, tipping the man onto the floor as the device joined the rest of the metallic cacophony. “She will,” he snarled, “but he won’t!”
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> [1] http://www.hawaiicoffeestore.com/public/kona_expense.cfm