Burning Brightly

Author's Note:

Welcome back. Here we see some of the behind the scenes tensions within the Brotherhood. John struggles to deal with the changing power dynamics and his new relationship with Martha.

As always please rate and review. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Warnings: Some profanity.


Chapter Six: The Taste of Ashes

We were just getting dressed when someone came looking for me. Didn’t know the guy’s name, but I knew his face. Shit. Should have known better than to let Psylocke handle things. She’d gone and reassigned people in the tents above ground and some of them weren’t happy. Way outside what I told her to do. The guy didn’t wait around and I shut the door behind him.

“I gotta go take care of this, before it gets bad. Magneto will be pissed if he comes home to a riot.” I looked over my shoulder to see Martha picking her shades up from my nightstand and sliding them on.

“That’s all right. I’ve got to check on the communications equipment, see if there’s anything new.”

So I went topside to deal with the mess. The Omegas had taken over the biggest and best tents and the guys that were kicked out were pissed. Guess I would be too. It was all I could do to keep from screaming at them. Straightening that out took a while and by the time I was done, I was wondering where the hell Psylocke was.

It didn’t take me long to find her. She was standing in the middle of Martha’s room watching her pack her things into boxes. The door was standing open and they didn’t see me at first.

“I’ll be sure to tell Magneto how generous you were, giving up your room. Very Brotherhood of you.” Psylocke’s voice dripped with venom.

“Nobody touches my stuff. Some of this is sensitive equipment.” Martha sounded edgy. She picked up one box and headed for the door. She was moving so fast I almost had to jump back.

“What’s going on here?”

“Ask her.” Martha brushed past me and down the hall, towards her office.

“What the fuck are you doing, Psylocke?” I stepped in the room and glared at her. “First you just about start a riot with the grunts and now you’re kicking Mesmer out of her room? Who the fuck do you think you are?” Most of Martha’s things were already gone; there were just a couple of boxes left.

“I’m the one you put in charge of making room for the new recruit. You said something better than a tent. And that’s down here.”

“You’ve gone too far. You are going to help her bring her stuff back.” I advanced on her, but she held her ground.

“I don’t think so. I’ve already talked to Magneto on this.” She held up one of the communicators Magneto had given us. “He’s expecting this room to be ready when they get here.” She smirked at me.

“When are they getting back?”

“They’re supposed to be back any minute now.” She sidestepped me and turned on her heel to look around the room. “Almost ready. Just need to get the rest of this junk out and change the sheets.” She tapped a box with one foot.

“Where the hell is Mesmer supposed to sleep? Not in some tent topside.”

“Why not? Callisto does.” She crossed her arms and looked at me with another one of those smirks. “I suppose we could shove a cot in her office. But, I figured she’d probably stay with you, seeing as how you’ve been screwing her. Convenient, don’t you think?”

“It’s none of your business who I’m screwing. You damned well should have asked first.”

“You? Or her?” She looked past my shoulder and nodded towards the open door behind me. Before I could turn around, Martha brushed past me and grabbed a box from the floor and pulled it up with a jerk.

“Just get out.” I growled at Psylocke and tried to catch Martha’s attention, but she refused to look me and hurried out the door.

“I’ll send someone in a minute.” Psylocke looked at the bed and wrinkled her nose at it. “To change the sheets.” Then she left.

“Bitch.” I muttered and grabbed the last box. Too late to fix this, Psylocke and Callisto had won this little battle.

Fuck. I’d just gotten Martha to chill out enough to have some fun. Now she was pissed. I hurried to follow her to her office. That had to be where she was putting everything. I caught her in the doorway on her way back out.

“Hey! Come on Martha, I didn’t know she was going to do that.” I pressed the box against her chest until she backed into the office reluctantly. She took the box from me and turned her back to me adding it to the stack next to her desk.

“I know.” She started rifling through the box like she was looking for something. “Thanks.” Her voice was cold.

“You’re mad at me.” I replayed the last part of my conversation with Psylocke. What parts did she hear? “Just a little while ago things were going really good.” I moved up behind her and put my arms around her waist. She stiffened.

“Screwing? Is that what we’ve been doing?” She picked up a book then tossed it back into the box.

“That was Psylocke trying to start trouble, that’s all.” I leaned closer and rested my chin on her shoulder. “It didn’t mean anything.” I could have killed that bitch for fucking this up for me.

“Is it just screwing to you? That’s what you called it.” I heard her voice hitch and wondered if she was crying. “What is this John? Are you just playing with me?”

“Martha…” Damn. I heard footsteps going down the hall and voices. Magneto was back. So was Callisto. Sounded like he was giving a tour to Dr. Grey…Jean…Miss Grey…I wasn’t sure what to call her now. Anyway, the voices were getting closer.

“I just want to know if that’s all you want out of me.” She twisted in my arms and turned around to face me. “If it is, you can just drop the damned act.”

Shit. She was crying. What was I supposed to say? I bet Bobby would have known what to say. I was just playing her wasn’t I? Just say what she wants to hear. I reached out and wiped the tear from her cheek where it had slipped below the shades. I could hear footsteps outside the door and Magneto’s voice.

“I don’t know what this is…” I could tell that I’d taken too long to answer and she pulled away from me and turned her back to me again.

“Ah. There you are.” Magneto’s voice came from the open doorway. I turned around. He stepped inside and a woman followed him. She looked different from what I remembered. Her hair was longer and there was something alien in her expression. Something cold. Dr. Grey had always seemed so warm and…nice. Callisto hovered in the doorway behind them.

“I believe you know Pyro.” Magneto waved a hand in my direction.

“Hello, John.” Her eyes slid slowly over me and around the room. No. This definitely wasn’t the Dr. Grey I remembered. I got the sense she could squash me like an ant and never even blink. You could almost feel the power rolling off of her. It made the room feel way too small.

“Yeah. Hi. Welcome to the Brotherhood.” Not much of a welcome, I guess. But, the timing was pretty bad.

“And this young lady is Mesmer. Who I understand has been kind enough to give up her room for you.” He gestured at the stack of boxes. Martha had turned around to meet them.

“You remind me of someone.” Jean reached out a hand and Martha’s shades were lifted from her face and moved slowly through the air. Martha started to grab them, and then froze, her silver eyes following their progress anxiously. Jean plucked the shades from the air and studied them for a minute. Her expression darkened with some emotion I couldn’t quite put a name to.

“Jean, I would like you to see the rest of our camp.” Magneto frowned and gestured towards the door.

“Yes. Of course.” Jean turned to follow him, letting the shades slip from her fingers. They didn’t fall to the floor; instead they hung in the air tumbling slowly.

Callisto watched silently as they passed by her. She stared at the shades, then she looked at me. She turned her head to watch them walk down the hall.

“I need to talk to you, Pyro.”

“Yeah. In a minute.” I turned to look at Martha; she was watching the shades tumble. The look on her face was somewhere between fear and fascination.

“You can talk to your little girlfriend later, this is serious.” Callisto’s tone was urgent and she leaned through the doorway.

“I said. In a minute.” I grated out between my teeth. Shit. I really needed to get this straight with Martha. I stepped over and grabbed the damned shades and folded them up. Then I shut the door in Callisto’s face.

“Martha…”

“You better go. Sounds important.” She sat at her desk and turned on her monitor.

“Where are you sleeping tonight? You can’t sleep in here.” I looked around. With all of her stuff shoved in here, there wasn’t room for a cot or anything.

“I’ll figure something out.” She didn’t look at me, instead she started typing something. I watched her for a moment. I heard a knock at the door, Callisto wasn’t going away.

“Come to my room later tonight.” I set the shades down on the desk beside her. She was still pissed at me. Callisto’s little crack hadn’t helped any.

“Is that an order?” She glanced at the shades but didn’t stop typing.

“Does it have to be?” I still wasn’t sure why this whole thing bothered her so much. Who cared if people knew we had something going on?

“You might want to be careful. People might think I’m trying to influence you.” She stopped typing and reached for her shades. She put them on and turned around to look at me. “With or without my powers.”

“I don’t give a fuck about that.” There was another knock at the door, louder this time.

“I do.”

“We need to talk about this…Just come to my room later. All right?”

“Fine. Just go before Callisto barges in here. I’ve had about enough of her and her Omegas for one day.”

“O.K. Later then.” I wondered just what Psylocke had said to her, to get her so upset. But, Callisto didn’t give me much chance to think about it. She was waiting just outside the door.

“What is so important it couldn’t wait a few minutes?”

“It’s about that class five.”

“What about her?”

“This is a mistake. Her power is completely unstable. And so is she. She killed that Xavier guy. Pulled him apart. There’s nothing left of him to bury.”

“She killed the Professor?” I was stunned. The Dr. Grey I knew practically worshipped the man.

“Yeah. She killed him. I’ve never felt anything like the kind of power she’s got. She’s more powerful than this whole camp put together. Magneto is playing with fire. He should never have brought her here.”

“He’s used to playing with fire.” Was she for real, or was this more of her competitiveness? Surely Magneto knew what he was doing.

“You’re nothing but a wet match compared to this chick, Pyro.” She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “You’re not the biggest dog in the yard anymore.”

“So, what do you want me to do about it?” I crossed my arms in front of my chest. She had a point, but I didn’t like this talking behind Magneto’s back.

“I want you to help me talk some sense into him. Try to get him to see that we’re better off without her. Or at least to be careful. Not to trust this chick.”

“Why should I trust you after the shit you and Psylocke pulled?”

“How do we know Mesmer’s not pulling your strings? You two have been getting awfully cozy lately. Would you even know if she was using her power on you?”

“This thing with Mesmer is my personal business. Not yours. Not Psylocke’s.”

“It is if it affects the Brotherhood.” Callisto shot a look at the closed door behind me.

“That’s not what this is about. This is about you wanting to be the alpha bitch.”

“Bull. Shit.”

“No. It’s not.”

“You telling me you couldn’t find someone else to fuck? Anyone else? You settled for that washed out little wall flower?”

“You better back off, Callisto.” I got right up in her face. I was pissed. “You want to know something? Most of the chicks here are either too bitchy or freaky-looking or both. Or they just want something from me.”

“I’ll bet she wants something.”

“She hasn’t asked me for a damn thing. And these stupid games you and Psylocke are playing are pissing me off. See, I like getting laid. After all this shit, I’m going to have to do some serious sucking up if I want to get laid again anytime soon.” I pulled my lighter out of my pocket and flipped it open.

“And I’m getting a little…frustrated. When I get frustrated, I burn things.” A flick of my thumb brought the flame to life.

“You wouldn’t.” She looked from the flame to my face.

“Try me.” She didn’t answer. After a moment I closed the lighter and put it away. “Anyway, she’s no threat to you. All she’s interested in is doing her job and me. You can’t do what she does and she can’t do what you do. This shit is stupid.”

Callisto seemed to think about it a moment.

“O.K. Then. A truce. You help me talk some sense into Magneto and we’ll lay off you and your girlfriend.” She glanced again in the direction Magneto had led Jean.

“Fine. When?”

“No time like the present.”

Magneto was walking back toward the center of camp when we found him. We could see Jean standing alone outside the circle of tents, watching everything. The old man looked a little tired, maybe even worried.

“I see you have made a few changes during my absence.” He gestured toward some of the Omega’s tents.

“That was Psylocke’s idea. A few people didn’t like their new tent assignments, but I got that straightened out.” I glanced at Callisto out of the corner of my eye. I knew he wasn’t going to like what we had to say.

“She shouldn’t be here with us. Her power’s completely unstable.” I thought maybe that was a little blunt. Typical Callisto, I guess.

“Only in the wrong hands.” He wasn’t going to give in easy. All right, my turn then.

“You trust her? She’s one of them.” I know I didn’t trust her. The Dr. Grey I knew would never have joined the Brotherhood. And whoever this Jean was, the way she looked at us gave me the creeps. Like we were ants or maybe cockroaches.

“So were you once.” He spoke again.

Callisto shot me another look. Did somebody forget to tell her that little detail? Shit. Like I didn’t have enough trouble already.

“I stuck with you all the way. I would’ve killed the Professor if you’d given me the chance.”

I knew it was a mistake as soon as it came out of my mouth. With all the shit that had happened today with Psylocke and Martha and Jean coming back from the dead…I guess I just wasn’t thinking straight. Not to mention I was pissed that he hadn’t taken me. Maybe he didn’t trust me.

Magneto stopped me with a hand on my chest and gave me this look. Like he was disappointed in me. Like I had failed him maybe. Even Callisto looked a little shocked.

“Charles Xavier did more for mutants than you’ll ever know. My single greatest regret is that he had to die for our dream to live.”

He looked older and more tired than I’d ever seen him. Sometimes I forgot how old he was. He seemed so strong and powerful. He had that kind of presence that made people stop and listen to him. Like the Professor had.

I tried to think of something to say. Something that would erase that disappointment. Make it better. But, he turned and walked away before I could come up with anything. Callisto didn’t seem to have anything to say either.

“What the hell was that? I thought they were supposed to be enemies?” Callisto watched him walk away.

“Sometimes I forget they used to be friends. Maybe they never stopped being friends. They both wanted to make this fucked up world safe for mutants. They just couldn’t agree on how to do it.”

“Xavier was wrong. That’s why he’s dead. Should have listened to his friend.” Callisto crossed her arms and glanced the way Magneto had gone.

“Yeah. Guess so.” I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Especially not with her. I walked away. She didn’t stop me.

I couldn’t believe the Professor was dead. The XMen must be devastated. I would have killed him for Magneto if I had to. At least I think I would have. But, I’m glad I didn’t have to.

Maybe the boss did me a favor. I’m not sure even Bobby could have forgiven me for that. Fuck. What did I care if Bobby forgave me for anything? We were enemies right?

Fire and Ice. That’s the only way it could be in the end. Enemies. Sooner or later it would come to a fight. One of us was going to go down.

I wondered if Magneto was glad that he hadn’t had to kill the Professor himself.

I didn’t want to kill Bobby. But, I couldn’t imagine him just giving up. Not Bobby Drake. Iceman. He’d go down fighting. Or I would maybe.

I pulled out my lighter and flicked it open. The little flame helped. Something to focus on. A little light to chase away the gloomy thoughts running through my head.

It wasn’t quite enough, though. I needed something larger. Something brighter and hotter.

So I headed for the camp dump and let the flames come.

Pure brilliant heat. Fire. Beautiful, cleansing fire. It swept away the ugliness, drawing it up and making it into awe-inspiring radiance. I let it burn until there was nothing but ashes, the ground swept clean.

It was dark now. My eyes had been dazzled by the flames, making it seem even darker. The wind was rising, sucking ashes into the air. I could feel the breeze on my face, in my hair.

I headed back to my room, wondering when or even if Martha would come. I felt tired and empty. The taste of ashes filled my mouth.