She left for the gym early, with all the activities and the closing ceremony planned for today, it will be especially crowded in the gym locker room. Marie is hoping to do her changing before she can become a hazard in that rather enclosed space. Since her arrival at the school, she has been keeping accidents at a minimum, even the few times where it happened she’s managed to keep the contact brief enough to avoid serious injuries. She is rather proud of her safety record and hopes to end the school year on a high note.
“Ms. D’Ancanto,” Magneto’s flat, controlled tone immediately puts a damper on her mood. She has been successfully avoiding him since she returned from the raid. But despite the size of the school, she knows completely avoiding him is impossible. Today he seems to have been waiting for her, just outside the gym locker rooms. It is strange that despite all her training, despite the fact that Magneto is not a man that fades into the background, she never seems to notice him when she needs to.
“Mr. Lehnsherr,” Marie stops mid-step and turns to return the greeting. Magneto is still looking immaculate and intimidating, that part of him in her mind still trying to exert his influence whenever it can, especially now. Even after months of association, she still feels that commanding presence and sinister aura wherever he is near. However, since her first real mission, Marie finds herself with a newfound confidence. All the practice in the world can't hold a candle to what it feels like in a real mission. After going to through a life or death situation, a boogeyman from her dreams no longer seems as menacing. “What can I do for you...sir.”
Marie knows he gets some kind of a sick enjoyment of her calling him that but a lifetime of etiquette training is hard to shake. He has that grin when he speaks again, in a rather patronizing tone, “I’ve just gone over the mission reports. You’ve acquitted yourself surprisingly well during the attack at the lab.”
She could not help but feel insulted. She worked hard during all those training sessions and feels a need to respond to his condescending tone. “We’ve all trained very hard for it, and it paid off.”
“True, but what you have experienced in training, pales in comparison to what actually happened.” His tone is still smug, but what he said throws Marie for a loop. She was just thinking along the same lines, and it is truly disturbing to think that Magneto continues to have a far larger influence on her than she might realize.
“We had a good team.” She is not sure what Magneto’s intention here is, but she knows it can’t good, and she is not going to just wait for it to happen. Memories of a rather testy exchange between Logan and Magneto pops up in her mind. Realizing she can use Magneto’s dislike of Logan to her advantage, she makes a quip. “And a good leader.”
“Yes…” His eyes narrow at her reply, while she did not mention the specific leader she knew he would catch her implications. His response once again catches her off guard. “You do seem very responsive to Wolverine’s commands.”
It is rather strange that he would be focusing on her and Logan, not the animosity shared between the two men. Her mind kicks into high gear, she is in the middle of a wide hallway made of mostly stone and wood. Classes are going to be done soon, and this hallway will be filled with people. It is obvious from the quick tactical assessment that she can not have a more advantageous location for a confrontation unless she actively planned for one. Magneto obviously took her hesitation for weakness, he takes a step closer, just like Marie expects. She stands her ground and hides her smile when she sees a flicker of confusion in his eyes. “Sir?”
“I’m curious what exactly is your relationship with Wolverine.” Undeterred by Marie’s unexpected resistance, Magneto looms closer, a gloved hand raising towards her, but it stops suddenly and he seems to think better of it. Lowering it to his side, Marie can see his jaw clench in frustration. He must have noticed as well, this situation does not at all favor him.
Of the various encounters she’s had with Magneto, this is the first time she sees herself in such a favorable position. Her confidence is surging, and she wants to exploit this, to get a better measure of what kind of a man this Magneto actually is, to show that she is stronger now. “I don’t see why that's any of your business, sir.”
For a moment Marie thinks she might have pushed a bit too far. The look in his eyes darkens and she can feel him tense up. And it might just be her imagination but she thinks she can feel the pulse of magnetic power emanating from him. Since they’ve met, this is only the second time she’s defied him, and it is the first time she directly challenged his authority in the school. Thankfully the tense standoff is broken by the sound of the class bell ringing. Magneto quickly steps back as the rush of students start filling the hallway. Before he can do anything else Marie takes advantage of this opportunity, quickly escaping into the girl's locker room.
Marie exits the locker room dressed and ready for her last class of the semester. The invigorating feel from that impromptu little ice cream social last night is completely gone, thanks to her recent run-in with Magneto. From the parting look, he gave her she knows he won’t just let this go. Nevertheless, she intends to enjoy the festivities on the last day of the school year.
Today is a school-wide sporting event followed tightly by the closing ceremony. Marie appreciates some physical activity at the end of the long week of exams, it gives the students a chance to let loose and vent some stress. Marie spots her friends in the crown near the basketball court and jogs to join them, hoping to have a little chit-chat before the class starts. Instead, she arrives to the sight of Irene and her entourage, entering the gym.
Despite being blind Irene somehow always knew when and where Marie was at home, Marie always thought of it as a mother in her own domain type of thing. But now in a large gymnasium full of activity and students, Irene still walks unerringly towards her. With her security guards flanking Irene she makes for an intimidating sight parting the students before her.
“Umm, Marie? What did you do?” Jubes looks at her curiously, and by her side, Kitty silently mirrors Jubes' question. There is little doubt that Irene is heading towards them now. Marie fights off the urge to deny everything, it really irks her that both Jubes and Kitty automatically assume that she is the one who did something.
Marie looks around the gym and considers the crowd around them, most of the students in the gym don't seem to recognized Irene. She holds back a sigh of relief and gives thanks to the powers that be who made most teenager uninterested in politics. Unfortunately, Kitty is not one of those teenagers, she lets out a surprised gasp, as Irene’s security detail draws near. “Wow! That’s Senator Adler.”
“Marie!” As if on cue Irene calls out to Marie, making her glad to have kept herself in check. If her mother is here calling her name then something serious must have happened. And if things are going to spin out of control soon, at least Marie can be the one to tell her friends about this little secret of hers.
“Hi Momma,” Marie smiles at Irene and walks up to give her a hug.
Out of the corner of her eye, Marie sees Kitty in shock mouth a question to her, “Your mother?!”
Marie nods back with a sheepish smile, knowing that there is a great deal of explaining to do in the near future. Before she can make much of an explanation or even introductions Mr. Summers tries to steps in, yelling from beyond the circle of security guards now around them. “I’m sorry but class is in session here miss, you will have to wait on the side.”
Irene keeps her attention on Marie, her hands roaming over her shoulders, checking for something. It hit Marie all at once, the reason Irene is here is because she somehow got wind of her participation in that Lab raid. And right as the sense of impending doom sinks into her stomach Irene finally responds, in a tone of voice that brooks no argument. “I’m Senator Adler, please inform the Professor I would like to meet with him now.”
Logan sits silently in Xavier’s personal office with the three other founding members of the X-men, waiting. They have been here for quite some time, pouring over the latest news from Colombia. Preparing for a meeting with Xavier’s primary benefactor. A chastised Scott opens the door carefully, and Irene enters the room, at last, a frown etched onto her face. She doesn’t even sit down or wait for Scott to close the door before she makes her displeasure known. “I did not send my daughter here and give you large annual donations so you can wage a private war, Charles.”
“Irene.” Rising to his feet in greeting, Logan can sense Xavier apprehension, by the slight tremor in his hand, but as Logan expected Xavier quickly regains his composure and speaks in an otherwise even tone. “ It is always a pleasure to have you with us.”
Irene stops and tilts her head towards Xavier, “Who else is here? Mr. Logan? Erik? And Raven?”
“Perceptive as always.” Walking over to his liquor cabinet Charles pours a double shot of bourbon and offers it to Irene. “How are things on Capitol Hill?”
Much to Logan’s amusement, she downs the liquor all in one gulp. Setting the glass upside down on his desk, Irene then folds her arms and frowns at Xavier. “Don’t change the subject, Charles.”
Xavier seems to be taking things in stride now and gives her an indulgent smile, “The lab was doing very unethical research, Irene. I couldn’t possibly stand by and do nothing.”
“But you could have done it quietly Charles, and without involving MY daughter! It’s on the damned news for god sakes!” She stops abruptly in a huff and sit-downs, rubbing her forehead in irritation “You all just made yourselves a target for every FOH anti-mutant nutcases out there! Which means you’ve made my daughter a target!”
“I understand your concern about her safety, Irene. That is why I have already made arrangements to send the students away for summer recess, by the time they return for the fall semester things should have quieted down.” Xavier is using his most soothing tone of voice, trying his best not to irritate Irene even more. Money makes a big difference everywhere, Xavier might be rich but Irene is on a whole other level, keeping deep-pocketed donors happy can be considered Xavier’s primary occupation. “And you should be well aware that some of the most powerful mutants in the world live here in this school. There is nowhere else she is safer.”
“Most of those powerful mutants you speak of are always somewhere else running missions on your damned crusade,” Irene glares at Charles, then huffs in irritation almost as if she can see the pleasant expression on his face. “If I knew this was going to happen I would have just kept her home.”
“Irene, please. Things are not nearly as horrible as you say.” Charles seems to be making some progress in calming Irene down despite her objections. Apparently changing her mind Irene signals for another shot of bourbon. She knocks the second shot down and lets her other hand worry over her oak walking staff.
“AIM is claiming you attacked them in conjunction with a rival cartel.” Irene straightens herself out in her chair and the well-polished politician in her begins to shine through. “Their CEO is already pledging full cooperation, they're going to claiming ignorance.”
“That is ridiculous, we caught them red-handed!” No one finds Mystique’s sudden outburst surprising. Out of all of them, she has been working the longest to root out these labs, even before the four of them collaborated as X-Men. And Logan’s past lives notwithstanding the only one among them that has personally experienced the labs
“Raven...” Xavier walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder. “This is what we wanted, an investigation.”
“But this is not the investigation we planned for is it Irene?” Magneto bristles at the sight of Raven leaning back into Xavier’s touch. Logan finds the reaction curious, Magneto and Raven haven't been together for years, not since the early eighties, he did not expect Magneto would be one to be so sentimental.
Irene sighs and nods at Magneto’s remark, “They already offered up their Chief of Operations and most of the upper management of their South American branch. I have no doubt that they will try to bargain and to point their fingers right back at us.”
“The entire South American branch?” Xavier walks back to his seat and examines the flat screen monitor in from of him. “This could turn out to be a very complicated situation”
“You are the brains behind this operation Wolverine. You coordinated with FARC, you alone bear the responsibility for this.” Magneto levels an accusing glare in Logan’s direction
“I planned a covert op, ya all wanted to start a war.” As usual, when things have gone to shit, as it often does especially when too many people think they are in charge, fingers get pointed every which way. “Plus I ain’t that sloppy, there is no way anyone can trace FARC activities to me or us for that matter.”
Despite Logan’s denial Magneto seems to sense an advantage and presses on, “But it would be a rather amazing coincidence that FARC forces attacked the same day we did.”
The accusations are familiar, Magneto accused him of similar things right after the Paris Accords in ‘73 when they finally ended Trask’s operations. Back then Logan passed it off as inexperience on Magneto’s part, now there is no excuse. Logan is not a novice at this and to be accused as such is infuriating. “I had them step up their operation for months, easy to pass off that day’s activity as circumstantial.”
“Logan is correct,” Irene interceding on his behalf is not something Logan expected or needed, but he wasn't about to turn down help to knock Magneto down a notch. “We are not being accused of cooperating with FARC, rather it is a new cartel whose leadership you should be familiar with Erik.”
“You're accusing me of cartel connections? Preposterous.” His eyes narrowing, Magneto’s goes stiff at Irene’s words.
“Jacob Lashinski and the three Kleinstock brothers.” Irene smoothly retrieves a stack of dossiers from her bag all marked top secret. She spreads them out on Xavier’s large Mahogany desk.
Magneto’s jaw tightens at the pictures on the documents and finally, after a long minute he relents, “Perhaps these names might sound... familiar.”
“They use to be a part of your brotherhood before they decided on a more lucrative cause.” Irene smooths out her skirt and starts to relax. Everything seems to be playing into her hands. “This connection could be exactly what they need to discredit us all.”
“Irene,” when Charles speaks up again his voice is low and a troubled expression taints his face, perhaps of all of them Xavier has the most to lose from an investigation like this one. “Surely as committee chair, you could steer the investigation away from us.”
Smoothly Irene deflects the suggestion, no one here can deny that her position on that Committee needs to be protected at all costs. “My re-election is coming up next year. If I am seen as soft on the Drug Cartel, I would easily lose my seat.”
“We just could deny this, as they have.” Raven speaking up again, having been mostly silent through the meeting. It is not unexpected Raven is perhaps the most uncomfortable of all of them when it comes to politics.
“The investigation will still deal significant damage to our reputation,” Irene concludes smoothly. Logan is now certain she planned this, and it is all leading up to one thing. “Someone will have to take the blame.”
Things could not be clearer at this point, Irene more or less marched them all down to this path, to the exact point she wanted. Of course, Irene is probably betting on Logan’s loyalty to the cause. She couldn’t be more wrong, he couldn’t care less about the cause. Still, this is no small feat, Logan’s estimation of Irene has gone up to formidable from this maneuver alone, “Might as well be me, already in the trenches, ain’t gonna get muddier than where I am.”
Simply put PR might matter to Xavier who runs a charity and a school for mutants, and Erik with a political party whose mantra is mutant supremacy. It even matters to say a revolutionary group dedicated to the rescue mutants from oppression, like Raven’s MLF. But Logan’s line of work is different, there is no room for goodwill in the contract killing business. For most of Logan’s clients, a good reputation is a code word for inefficiency.
Normally he wouldn’t give two shits about this ‘problem’, Chuck more or less dug his own grave here by co-operating with Magneto. Unfortunately, this will soon be Irene’s problem. Because not only is she a major donor to Chuck’s cause, she also the Co-Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Mutant Affairs. Irene has many enemies in the Senate, and if the connection to Xavier is revealed an investigation is almost certain. Sooner or later Irene’s problem will eventually become Marie’s problem, and that means it will be his problem.
“I know what an inconvenience this will be Logan. I want to apologize first and to thank you for agreeing to this, from all of us.” Xavier’s apology and gratitude sound genuine, given Logan’s extended dealing with the Professor it probably is actually genuine. But it is also an unspoken directive. This issue is settled no further discussion will be tolerated. As the meeting moves on to other more arcane political concerns, Logan lets his mind wander, enjoying the few moments of peace before the shit hits the fan.
Irene asks to see him right after the meeting. Logan has a good idea of what she is going to ask, and he knew this day would come. He just did not expect it to be so soon, he is honestly beginning to enjoy his time here at the school with Marie. He won’t hesitate to do what needs to be done though, he accepted long ago that the path he has chosen to walk would more than likely lead him away from Marie. To have spent the time he already has with her is more than he could have hoped for.
Irene is seated in a large leather chair, waiting for him when he enters the side office Xavier offered to them, looking calm and professional. But she can't hide her heightened heart rate or the scent of distress her body is releasing. Logan takes his own seat across from her and waits for her to begin. “Mr. Logan, I am extremely grateful for what you did, to safeguard my daughter.”
Logan lets slip a grunt to let her know he is listening. Irene continues with a slight pause, “Your tenure as Marie’s head of security has been immaculate. Nevertheless due to the consequences of what happened, consequences that can negatively impact my re-election campaign if they were to be revealed to the public...”
Irene trails off, and Logan realizes what is causing her distress. Irene is worried that he might seek revenge if she were to dismiss him outright, especially after he made the offer to take the blame for the Lab raid. If she was anyone else he might have to, just to make a point, but this was done for Marie’s sake. He's long since prepared for a way to make a clean break from her, in case there is a backlash from one of his missions or from his past. He pulls out a packet of documents from his bag. “I already made the arrangements, here is my letter of resignation, dated months before this incident, and a list of security companies that I know can handle the job.”
Irene takes the packet and places it in her briefcase. Logan can sense her relaxing just slightly, and a small smile appears on her face. She stands up and walks towards the door. Just before she steps out she turns to him with a sympathetic look, “Logan, I’m sorry it has come to this.”
He couldn’t help but chuckle, “Shit happens.”
Logan waits until he can't hear her heartbeat before he pulls out his phone. Things need to move quickly from here, all traces of his presences must be erased from the mansion and he needs to start fabricating a ground presence to cover the time from when he was supposed to have resigned to now. Most of the work was done beforehand, and all ready to go but the last few bits have to be done personally.
He finds the contact he is looking for and pauses. With a deep breath, he lets the icy calm settle over him as much as possible before pressing the call button, the phone only rings once. “It’s me, need a pickup.”
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Chapter End Notes:
Up next, a parting.