'It is not in the judgements we make,
It is not in the actions we undertake,
It is in our thoughts where evil resides,
An it is there and only there we can control
it's hold on our hearts.'
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Evening came around quickly, Logan himself got a few hours of sleep after he'd heard the plans and the parcel of land that was waiting for them all. British Columbia, out of the way but somewhere they could see for miles. If they didn't move soon they'd not get through the autumn storms.
The kids had been avoiding him, they let him move along the camp but they kept out of his way, dodging his footsteps as he walked through their ranks. He knew something had been said, a rumour was running riot through them all and if they were leaving for parts unknown it was somehow important for them to know why they were running. Emma had asked for the adults only to be at the judgement, but Logan knew that some would follow them and want to see what was going on.
So as he walked around he mumbled the location out as he went, the difficulties they might have keeping prying eyes away. The various people he spoke to, the nearly adult members of the school hadn't wanted to look at him but his very closeness had forced them to recognise him. The smaller kids around them had heard every word, an no doubt there'd be a more than a few younger kids watching what happened to Xavier later.
They had to know what had been in store for them, for their own safety, not to trust men who offered the world without price. When the end result was usually the very heart of the thing they were offering to protect. And so as Logan walked through the camp, looking at the faces that had last seen him carrying a soldier away. He saw their judgement of him laying on his skin like an invisible cloth. He'd saved them, he'd been the one to help them when it had mattered and even now they hung back from him. Knowing that he was only a passing force, an untamable thing, he couldn't be held down, forced to be a leader when all he cared for was wrapped up in one skin.
One kid, Jones he thought it was, the kid that never slept walked with him for a while, mirroring his footsteps. He did it in silence, echoing his movements, not close but not too far away to be a brat just being a dick. He was learning from him, as he moved back toward the tents Jones went with him, Logan gave Jones a look. Usually the kids paled and ran when he looked at them, but not this time. Jones met his gaze head on, he let it settle in him and he even smiled at Logan, a true honest smile. One that Logan never thought would ever be directed at him from one of Xaviers little 'clones', Jones whispered as he turned away knowing he'd catch the words spoken. "Thanks Logan, we know what you did but we don't care. You helped us, that's all that matters to us now."
As the sun reached the far ridge of mountains, Logan knew the time had come to get the show on the road. Steeling his body he went into the tents, by the end of tonight he'd be free from one nightmare. He could only pray that the next one wouldn't be as painful.
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Marie, Jubilee and Kitty were going over the plans that had been thrashed out over the last few hours. Tomorrow the kids would be leaving in groups, ten at a time with an escort of Emma's own people. They'd fade out, get lost, mingle into the rest of the world and be safe. Get new names, some even new countries and families, but they'd be safely away from here.
The television and radio hadn't been quiet, the whole country seemed to be a powder keg just waiting for the final spark to go up. Marie went over the maps the routes that the kids had come up with for their journey's, overall they weren't too bad. She'd changed a few routes but apart from a few rest stops they should all get away okay.
Jubilee was showing a talent for thinking like the police, her radar sense of where they'd be expecting a large group of travellers was backed up by several others. The route to the land parcel they had was going to be a little circuituos but it'd get them there safely. Kitty showed them the description of the land parcel and brought it up on Google Earth.
The whole place was enough to lose several mansions in but Marie knew it would only support around fifty people if they were living off the land. Inside her head she was already doing the calculations for the rationing of supplies, the ground looked good but the altitude worried her. There wouldn't be much but pine forest up there and as pretty as it looked it wouldn't feed you through a winter. She voiced her worries and was told that they'd be pulling supplies together as they went toward the place.
It sounded like a good plan but the question was evident in the unspoken air, would the rest of the world even let them get there in the first place? Logan interrupted her thoughts by walking in, his bulk seemed to make the rest of the tent seem unreal to Marie. That he was the only solid thing around and in a way he was, he'd already proved his worth to her many times over. Everyone else hadn't, not even Jubilee yet, Kitty had her own concerns.
Emma and Storm were working hand in hand at the moment but Marie knew that Storm was being watched. It was in the way Emma always had someone near the goddess, someone she could trust. Marie caught Emma's calculating stare hit her and she straightened her back, putting her fists at her sides and let her mind growl out her threat. She wouldn't be threatened by her, she was a telepath and as such Marie would never trust her completely. She made her nervous and Marie knew the thought was mutual.
"Is everyone ready?" Logan's voice cut through the chatter and the quiet that followed it was heavy with expectation. Emma just nodded and she waved a man near the tent flaps to leave, he did so and they knew that the 'court' would be gathered soon. Marie wound herself around to his side, letting her hand slip into the back of his jeans. He needed her presence, she felt him calm a little as she stroked the skin of his lower back. Emma quickly got everything together, the laptop from Kitty, the paper evidence she'd been gathering. Facing Logan she met their combined looks, there was no going back after this. When this was over the alliance between Emma and Logan would be finished, Storm could trust her if she wanted to but she was a telepath and Logan would never trust one again.
"Come on, lets get this over with," Marie's voice reached him as she pulled him toward the flaps of the main tent. Going out into the red light of the world, colouring the entire ground with a hue that looked so much like blood. There'd been so much death, so much to be coped with that the sight of it made her eyes water. Logan felt her stutter in her steps and he just pulled her closer to him and purred nder his breath. She knew it would end soon but she hoped the things she'd learned from her digging would be heard. The truth needed to be told, even if it ripped apart those who thought they knew better. Her gaze locked onto Storm and Marie caught the edge of the old Storm, the one who'd done her masters bidding. She was a Goddess walking among the mortals and Marie knew that after tonight she'd be as mortal as the rest of them.
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Hank had had help to get Xavier ready, the drugs in his system were enough to keep him lucid but the cocktail that he'd been given would keep his powers low. He could still use his powers but not to overwhelm those around him. He was at a level where he could communicate but not hurt, he'd given them both a taste of his views when him and Francis had been setting him up in a chair.
Calling them 'Ugly bastards who should know better than to touch him,' Hank got the brunt of his mental tirade. The litany of abuse was varied and colourful, yet it was the pictures that he put into Hanks mind that upset him the most. The pictures of him strapped to a table, being examined, shaved of his hair, skin samples taken, blood taken from various points in his body. Yet the image was so complete, so perfect in detail that he had to wonder how Xavier knew to use a number three canula for the thorassic artery. This was something Xaiver had *seen*, somewhere in his past Xavier had seen this in action, even to the way the phantoms in his mind moved around him laid out on the bed.
This Xavier was filled with hate and spite, as if the old version had been ripped away by this new one. Destroyed in favour of this one, when they finally got him seated in the small clearing the sun was beginning to colour the world red. Hank could hear the approach of the rest of the refugees, Hank took his place next to the seated Xavier. He'd be looking after the man who'd once opened his hand in welcome to Hank, only to find the offer had been one of slavery and death. He looked at the seemingly calm face of Xavier, "They're coming now Charles, I hope they have the sense to do what is right." A small smile lit his features, ghosting over his paper thin skin and for a second a glimpse of hope rode over his face. As if he were tired of fighting, tired of the world. And as the form of Logan came into sight for them both Charles whispered to the wind he thought would take his words away from ears that were sensitive to them.
"It's all I could ever hope for."
Hank saw the rest of the camp following and he took a step back from the man he'd kept alive, only to hand him over to his death now. For that was what this was, it was a death sentence, not a judgement, evidence would be heard yes but the outcome was always settled. Between Logan and himself, they'd known how this would end, one way or another Charles would die today.
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It didn't take long for everyone to get settled, sitting on the grass, leaning against trees, standing in groups but they made a circle around the man who'd sold them out.
Emma spoke first, walking a few paces forward she faced the man who'd once been her tutor, her mentor. In her hand she held a file, walking slowly around the circle she made eye contact with every single person there. Her voice ringing clear out over the scrubland, "We're here to pass judgement on someone who once sold himself as 'the saviour of mutant kind'. And beleive it or not he was once, but that has changed, over the years, over the decades his views have shifted." Emma took a moment to look at the crumpled form of Charles, her mind opened fully into his own. She could see the defences he had, the way they were barely holding his own madness at bay. His Id threatening to overpower him, the darkness he'd been unwittingly allowing to influence him until it had poisoned everything he'd once been proud of.
Taking the initative Emma projected the things she'd seen in his mind into the brains of those who were there. Even the kids who were hiding to the left of the pines, she knew they were there and it was a fitting thing that they would find out the truth. They needed to know for themselves and this way they'd be able to understand just exactly what they were killing. It was like a dog that had contracted rabies, you killed it because it was suffering, not because you wanted to. Thats what they had here, a mental rabies case, he infected those he came into contact with and those he couldn't he destroyed.
"We're here to hear the things that have been kept from you all, those of you that have been living under Xavier's protection and those of you who managed to evade his influence." Her hand raised the documents to show them all, "While I read this you'll all be able to see it, I'll be projecting what I see directly to you *all*. What lays in here is graphic, disturbing and sadistic, everything Xavier was supposed to be protecting you from." Emma turned to see the man whom she'd once trusted sit in silence, his head resting still on his neck, gaze locked to the middle distance. She could've been talking about the weather for all he was concerned.
"Lets begin shall we?" There was a slight murmur as the group steeled themselves for the information. Kitty was being held by Pieter, Jubilee was stood next to Marie and Logan her eyes resting firmly on Hank's broad shouldered form. Kurt was perched above Storm, his tail touching her shoulder letting her know she wasn't alone out here. The rest of the older kids were clustered in their friend groups, mingled between them all were Emma's own 'family'. When this was over they'd seperate, go their own ways, try to find a life in a world that would be forever changed by this action.
Emma opened her mind as she let her eyes run across the page. It listed a statement of account, sums of money were on the right hand side, the left had names, peoples names and codenames next to them. Dates of aquisition were listed as were the fund transfer, they were in the early 1970's the first few, then they increased in amount, Emma turned the page over, revealing the back. They dated upto six months ago on this side, names were now initials and there were several on each line. When everyone had the information Emma turned to Xaiver, her voice cold and her mind honed sharp like a razor.
"What happened to the people Xavier? Where did they go?" The head of the prisoner didn't move he just smiled softly and turned his gaze to Hank. The voice that they'd once loved to hear made their skin creep as he answered the first charge.
"Perhaps you should ask the good doctor here, he's been working with the remnants for a few months."
Hank bristled and tore his gaze away from the man he was guarding and came face to face with Emma.
"Hank? Perhaps you could elucidate?"
Clearing his throat Hank began, "I was doing research into the mutagenic chromosone, so I had to have samples from every organ that had been 'mutated'. I was told that the samples had come from 'donation', willing donation, not prisoners or medical experimentation. As soon as I found out what had happened to my research....it's enough to say that some of the samples I recieved couldn't be taken while the subject was alive. I recieved whole livers, kidneys, hearts, colon's, digestive systems, I beleived they were from morgues who'd been cleared by the lab. It was only later that I found that the subjects had been 'sold' to the other experimental labs and that the research I'd been conducting was off the bodies of those still imprisoned or killed by the labs. I'm not proud of what I've been part of, it was on Xavier's orders that some of these people 'disappeared'. *My* research caused suffering that for as long as I live I'll never be able to forget or make up for. Several of the names and intials I recognise from the paper in Emma's hand, what I know of the labs....." Hank stopped talking his voice clouded with tears and emotion, "I wouldn't hold out any hope for the ones that went there. I'm sure there are better people than me to tell you about them." His eyes went to Storm, Pieter, Kurt and Logan, keeping his gaze locked onto Logan's own, Hank continued.
"You have my word that if I'd known....if I'd even suspected....." The tears he'd been holding back began to flow over his furred skin, the softness that he encountered in Logan's own eyes told him enough. He didn't hold him responsible, he hadn't known and when he had he'd been angry, disguted and sick to his bones.
Emma could feel the pity for Hank fill the air, she turned to him and gave him the folder. "There's more than one page in there everyone, theres at least twenty. Twenty pages of names, numbers and pictures, property to be bought and sold." Emma's gaze then went round the entire group, her eyes landing on Logan and she saw him stand a little straighter as he realised he as up next.
"But that isn't all he did, there was something else, something much worse. Logan if you would?" Looking at him move forward, his steps slow and Marie's hands falling away from his body, leaving her alone to grasp onto Jubilee.
The entire place was itching with tension and it filled every sense he had, they needed to know all of it, every dirty deed he'd done and had done to him. After this there would be no more secrets and everyone here would know the darkness he held inside himself. Many would run from him, others would judge him again and find him wanting, yet there would be a few who would understand and it was those he was hoping for. If they understood why, maybe he would too eventually. Seeing everyone waiting he cleared his throat and spoke.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Xavier's true self is revealed to everyone and it's a very dark ride.