Marie sat in silence chewing on her food. Victor had gone back to his paper.
They had at least come to the agreement that if the Sentinels couldn't be shut down, then they needed to know how to destroy them before leaving for Genosha. Marie planned on contacting Bolivar soon.
Victor finally spoke up. "How's Jimmy?"
"Good, I guess. Before I lost the telepathy, he seemed sure of everything, but I sensed he was starting to wonder about things."
Victor nodded, staring into his plate.
"He doesn't remember who you really are."
"Well, I'm not going to be telling him anything anytime soon. We separated for a reason."
"True, but he also said he's been in and out of labs since then."
Victor raised his eyes in curiosity.
"We shared a moment of clarity," Marie said, pouring herself coffee, "I mean, we didn't swap stories, but the sentiment is there."
Victor was silent for another moment.
This time Marie was prompted to talk. "Victor….I…those years….when we…"
"I thought we agreed it was in the past, Runt."
"I know, but sometimes I can't help but wonder…about things…"I stole your life force...your powers—"
Victor folded his paper and started to eye his nails. "We agreed not to talk about these things for a reason. You were a kid. And I'm still here. We managed."
"True. I was a kid. But I spent three years there. Father came a year later and you a year after that. I already had an adult woman in my head. I had no choice but to grow up."
Victor gave her a quick glance before turning back to his nails. "Why are you bringing this up?"
"I…it's just that sometimes I get confused with everyone's memories in my head."
"I thought you had control."
"I do. God, yes I do, thanks to Emma. But sometimes when I sleep, they come out. When I wake up…I'm slightly disoriented. But essentially everything you let me see has become a part of my life."
Victor growled. "I thought I didn't let you see anything."
"You let me see things until—"
"Until I realized how I was hurting you. That lab wasn't easy for me. I did things before that I don't think can ever be forgiven. But when I was in the lab, I had so many drugs being pumped through my system that I was no longer in control...but I knew I never wanted to be that monster again and I didn't want anyone else seeing it. That's why I didn't let you see anything else."
"You've really mellowed out, haven't you?"
Victor gave her a devilish grin. "Don't tell anyone that. Emma has really turned me into a pussy..cat."
Marie laughed.
A serious look came over his face. "But you too...It was you. I see this frail little girl always following me around. I know she's not crazy, but she must have seen something in me to stick around. I figured as long as my past didn't come up, I could be the hero she wanted. No one else looked at me the way you did then…the way you still…you all do. Being around people who cared never really happened to me. All my life people told me I was an animal. No one told me I was still a man. No one said that the animal was a part of me, but I was still a man."
Marie took his hand. But Victor was still Victor and took it back. Marie wasn't offended.
"What do you want to know?"
"I'm confused with some things…especially since you blocked things out….why did you want to make Jimmy forget?" Marie asked thinking of the echoing voice in her head.
Victor's eyes widened. He looked away and everywhere else before focusing on Marie again. "Jimmy and I were together…fighting wars and doing stuff."
"For Stryker?"
"Yeah…for him. Things got bad. Jimmy left. And the next thing you knew, the love of his life is dead and Stryker has them pumping metal onto his skeleton."
"I know that part. But why did you…"
"Jimmy took down a lot of shit as he escaped that place. Stryker wanted to redo the experiment, but since he didn't have Jimmy, he went with the next best thing."
"You," Marie said quietly.
Victor solemnly nodded. "Stryker still had his eye on Jimmy. I never did anything for my brother, but the least I could do was give him a life back. Spending a eternity with blood on your hands….it ain't pretty. So I told Stryker that I'd do it on the condition that he'd make Jimmy forget everything."
"Why?"
"Like I said, runt, I wanted to give him back his life. At least make up for some of the stuff I made him do."
Marie nodded in understanding.
"I guess it was all for nothing. Jimmy still went in and out of labs, so even though Stryker made him forget, he still had his eyes on Jimmy. And now Jimmy does the same thing we did before, but this time with false intel and under Charles Xavier."
Marie snorted at the mention of Xavier. "Did you know that he told father that he had given me to the Dan-to family?"
"Huh?"
"Yeah. Father and mother spent years searching for where the Dan-to family disappeared to until they decided that Xavier game them wrong info. Xavier probably mispronounced the name on purpose."
"I've heard the rest of the story," Victor continued. "Erik attacked Xavier in his office. Emma and Jean were there at the time because Jean accused Emma of using her powers on the other students…specifically Scott. "
"Yup. And then Jean pulls off father's helmet and Xavier paralyzed him."
"Lucky your mother was able to escape with Emma who had enough sense to figure things out when Jean went a little crazy."
Marie eyes her cup of coffee. "That son of a bitch locks father up in a plastic prison where he was just a sitting duck for Stryker to come take."
Victor nodded. "True and I hear that reflected badly on Xavier with other mutants. That was how Raven and Emma were able to round up enough people to come stop Stryker on Liberty Island from killing every mutant with his Cerebro-like machine.
"I hate Xavier."
"I'm sure he hates us too," Victor said smiling and giving Marie a glance at his razor sharp canines. "He's probably insane, too. Hearing everyone's thoughts, trying to control them, amplifying them through Cerebro….yup, he's definitely crazy and it explains a lot."
"Hey! Emma's telepathic, too."
Victor laughed, "But she ain't crazy. She knows exactly what she wants and goes after it. Makes her way more stable than anyone at that mansion where they supposedly teach you how to control your mutation."
"Yeah, Emma helped clear out a lot of stuff for me…but now that you say it, I wonder about the X-men. Do they have a reversal block in place because of Xavier and Jean's telepathy?" Marie asked.
"I don't know. Things are too fucked up in that mansion for there not to be."
Before Victor could reply, an annoying ring startled both of them. Victor took a cell phone out of his pocket. "It's Emma."
Marie nodded and began to clear away her plate as Victor answered.
He barely got another word out when Emma's furious stream of words cut him off. Victor waved her over and Marie could hear her keen sense of hearing.
"…son of a bitch….Charles wants to get rid of another man. He sent Kurt to keep tabs on Bolivar to figure out why we're interested in him. Kurt says that regardless of his report, Xavier is gonna have Wolverine take Trask out…and that Stryker is holding Trask in captivity…."
Victor and Marie rolled their eyes in exasperation at yet again Stryker entering their lives and Xavier trying to disrupt them.
By the end of Emma's call, where Kurt had also added his two cents, they had all begun to strategize how to rescue and protect Bolivar Trask, the unintentional creator of the Sentinels.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Italics = thoughts
Bold = either used for emphasis or flashbacks...
Bold = either used for emphasis or flashbacks...