The first thing we hear is silence and the faint hum of an empty tape. Silence, followed by the sound of wood scraping against wood, then someone who sits down in a chair.
More silence, then a deep breath.
Female voice (F.V.): It's the twenty-third of July, two thousand and eight. Some would say that this is a day of celebration...to others, this day will live forever in infamy.
Pause. In the background we hear the sounds of footsteps. The sound is oddly muffled, and tells us that a heavy door separates us from whoever is out there.
F.V.: I guess you're wondering who I am, but my name...it doesn't matter. Not anymore. Not after today.
Another deep breath.
F.V.: I'm twenty-two years old, and I'm a mutant. That's all you need to know. I'm a mutant, and I live...*lived*...at Professor Charles Xavier's School for the Gifted - a school for mutant kids.
I came to this place when I was seventeen. I was a runaway, a hitchhiker who'd spend nearly a year surviving on my own. They took me in - Professor Xavier. Ororo Munroe. Scott Summers. Jean Grey. Henry McCoy... and Logan. But you probably know them as the X-Men.
The sound of wood scraping against wood as she gets up and starts to pace.
F.V.: No reason to keep it a secret anymore...the government found out about it. How, we don't know. But then again...there've been a lot of things lately that we didn't know about.
A short, bitter laughter.
F.V.: Big, mutant-hunting robots. Big, *purple*, mutant-hunting robot. How...how could we possible have missed them? We're supposed to protect people, but we can't...we can't even protect ourselves.
She stops her pacing, and we can hear from her breathing that she is fighting back tears.
F.V.: They call them Sentinels. They can...they can track down any known mutant. They track them down, and they attack, and then there's nothing left. Everything's...destroyed. Just like that. No warning, just...destruction.
She pauses, and we hear the sound of almost inaudible crying. A few, deep breaths tell us that she's trying to get her emotions under control.
F.V.: They attacked a mall two days ago. It was in downtown New York. They destroyed it completely. They killed...they killed fourteen humans and injured forty-seven others, just to get to the two mutants who were in that mall.
I saw the pictures, you know. It looked like...like an earthquake zone or something. It was destroyed. Everything.
She pauses again.
F.V.: Luckily for us, they don't have a lot of Sentinels...it gives us enough time to get out of the country. We're splitting up, and leaving this place. Phoenix and Cyclops...they took a plane to London just a few hours ago, along with the Professor and some of the younger kids. Gambit and Storm left for France. Jubilee, Pyro, Iceman, and Shadowcat went south - Mexico. Hank left for Sydney...said he had some friends there. Logan and I are going north -Canada and Alaska.
Hopefully, none of those countries will get the same idiotic idea as our government, but...
She doesn't finish the sentence, but her voice is full of doubt.
F.V.: Before we split up, we promised each other that we would get together again...but I think we all know that this is goodbye. We'll be scattered across the world, hiding from the humans we tried to protect...
She sighs.
F.V.: Maybe Erik was right...but it's too late for that now. The Brotherhood went underground before the Sentinels showed up. Maybe they will finish what we couldn't - create a world where mutants can live in peace.
A bitter laugh.
F.V.: Or maybe the humans will have us all killed. First us, and then themselves. Scott said that the Sentinels were programmed not to hurt humans...someone obviously fucked up. Legions of renegade, insane Sentinels...now that's a cheery prospect, huh?
We hear footsteps approaching, then the door open.
Male voice (M.V.): We have to leave now, darlin'.
F.V.: I'll be there in a sec. I have something to finish.
The woman sighs.
F.V.: Where was I? Oh, yeah. Listen, you can choose to believe me, or you can decide that I'm nothing but a lying, manipulative mutie - I don't care. No matter what they write in the history book, no matter what creative excuses they think up in order to blame us...this is what really happened. The X-Men are gone, but we can give you one last thing...the truth.
She stops and sigh again.
M.V.: You ready to leave now?
F.V.: Yeah...yeah, I am.
We can hear the sound of footsteps as the woman follows the man out of the room. One of them closes the door, and we hear the muffled sounds as they walk away. A low murmur of a conversation reaches us, but the words are impossible to make out. The sounds fade away as the two move out of our hearing range.
We hear the muted sound of a door being closed.
Then silence.
The Wolverine & Rogue Fanfiction Archive
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Story Notes:
I was bored, and wanted to try something different. Don't worry, this style won't become a habit. To Nadja, for telling me this didn't suck.