So, just an idea that came to mind when I should have been doing homework, thank heavens for morning study hall!
The island had been found one morning by one of the X-men. Charles had been real quick in assigning a team to go check it out, no doubt they would meet his dear old friend while there, or at least he had hoped that as he boarded the jet and they took off for their new find.
As they got closer, no body noticed the way Scott's muscles tensed. He recognized the island before them and he knew what had transpired here. It was when they landed that Charles finally remembered himself.
It was Three Mile Island.
His hopes had been confirmed when they had met up with Magneto and his Brotherhood at the gates of the facility. Professor X and Magneto spared each other a glance, an entire conversation passing between them in one simple look, and the lock on the doors melted away under Wanda's touch. The others were quick to enter, as were their leaders, and so, no one noticed the two left standing there.
No one saw Cyclops or Quicksilver stare at the long flood light lit corridor before them. Chills running down their spines. The two 'enemies' exchanged looks, they may not agree with one another, but they shared a similar secret. One that they would take to their graves.
With one final look at the inviting warm sun, the two walked into the doors and back into the hell they had thought they had left behind them.
Nobody noticed their absence nor their return. The younger mutants were off in pairs exploring the new find while their mentors (leaders) were side by side for the first time in a long time, looking at the building together and talking. They found the lab, the needles left where they were laid. The dark blood stained sheets, the files, the sheets, the bindings.
Some of the younger one made faces and noises of disgust at the blood soaked tissue and sheets. Jean, at Scott's side, bent to pick up a metal piece from a table to her left.
Glasses.
Or what looked like a strange syfy version of glasses.
She turned to Scott, meaning to ask him what he thought they were, but he beat her to it. His hand shot out and froze above the thing, the blinders he had been forced to wear after they had dug into his eyes to see what made them full of plasma. He picked it from her hands and stared down at them as if reliving a bad nightmare. Unbeknownst to the others, he was.
"Scott?"
He looked up a the tone of Professor Xavier's voice, the pity and concern, so he knew did he. He remembered as much as Scott had. With a look of utter disgust, Scott flung the glasses to the side and fired his lasers at them. Taking in the delight as they bent and melted. Ignoring Charles pondering expression, the young mutant spun on his heal and walked away.
As if he knew the place.
They found the cages next.
The very things that two of each teams members had called home for years. Magneto and the Brotherhood watched as Quicksilver walked down the main path, hand lightly tracing its way beside him, feeling to cold settle metal. Magneto, not thinking much of his son's antics, rolled his eyes at the slowness and scoffed it off as dramatics. The Brotherhood followed similar in their leaders ways. Even Wanda thought it tob e dramatics, even if it was weird to see the normally fast boy so so slow.
Charles watched in well concealed concern and wonder.
Concern for Pietro, and wonder at how Erik (and Wanda) would respond should they found out about their son/brothers actual knowledge of the place.
Having noticed the boy's stop at a particular cage, Lance and Wanda wandered over to him. They stood at the open cage door as the speedster slowly walked inside, feeling the crumbling bungee cords, fingering the cuffs above them. It wasn't until a comment was made that the boy had reacted in any way.
Lance had said something about looking him in there and Pietro snapped. Faster then they had ever seen him move, the silver-haired boy spun around and punched the older boy in the nose, the built up kinetic energy sent Avalanche flying backwards. Almost into Wanda, had she not stepped out of the way when she had. Charles and Erik made their way closer as the toehr students started congregating on the two.
Erik made to reprimand Pietro for his actions, but was cut off by Scott, of all people. Having turn to face Lance, who was still sprawled on the ground holding his bleeding nose.
"Don't say things like that, don't say it because it sounds funny, You know nothing"
Everyone was torn between the fact that Pietro had actually punched his own team member, and, that Scott had actually stood up for him afterwards. Erik looked back towards his son, only to see him facing towards the cords again, knuckled bruising on one hand. Wanda watched her brother, slowly walking into the cage, coming up behind him.
"Pie, why did you hit Lance?"
But he ignored her as his hand curled around the cord it was feeling and pulled. The connector piece, covered in rust, broke immediately. He screamed out, shocking the ones around him as he dd so, and grabbed at more bungee cords and pulled them out just as he had the one before them. Wanda backed up slowly in shock at her brother, no longer thinking that he was being simply dramatic.
Thinking harder on the whole thing; this was an island that mutants were held captive and experimented on. Pietro, and Scott, had both shown emotions that suggested that they had-No.
"Pie, was-was this your cage?"
Erik looked up at her question, surely Pietro was simply being dramatic as always. He held himself still as his son choked on a sob and fell to his knees. But there was no reason to, it was not like Pietro had seriously been trapped here, experimented on, caged in that cage with the bungee cords.
Right?
Charles rolled up beside him, silently as he always did, and reached a hand out to place on the boys shoulder. Feeling Erik's eyes watching him, he froze half way. He knew why he recognized this place, why Scott had reacted to those glasses in the way he had, why Pietro (who was now trying to be calmed by Wanda) had done what he had.
He should have remembered.
Looking up at Erik, he realized something, something that the man should have known about his son but was never told.
"You don't know, do you, old friend"
Erik frowned, eyes moving between his emotional child, his sister, and Charles. What ever could he mean, he would have known everything he needed to know. He knew everything he needed to know, Pietro was simply being dramatic. He tried to convince himself that this was true even though that little niggling voice in the back of his mind told him other wise.
"Know what?"
Charles looked at him for a moment before nodding (sadly?) and turning back towards Erik's quivering son. Gently he bent down and softly whispered in the boys ear a question. Pietro shook his head at the a speed one below super, until it started to eventually turn itself into a nod.
Charles patted the boys shoulder sympathetically, reaching up to place a hand on his forehead. Before anyone could ask what he was doing, their surroundings melted into something different.
It was the same room that they had been in when they had first arrived, except everything was still fresh and there was people all around. The room widened out as Charles concentrated revealing the person that the memory belonged to.
Erik actually gasped at who lay on the table, strapped down, tears streaming down their face, staring at the machines and things before him.
It was Pietro.
They watched as he screamed and begged to be let out, as the needles withdrew blood and tests were taken.
They watched as his boy, finally worn from the screaming and experiments, was dragged from the table by two soldiers, and taken to the same cage they had been standing in moments ago.
They watched as he was forced to run on a treadmill at speeds that rivaled that of which he could reach, and sometimes as he wiped out and went hurdling into the wall.
Erik watched and winced at the scream his child, his only son, gave when they broke his legs to test how fast he would heal, when they made his bones break and bend to see if they would go back into place and mend, and when they didn't, as they broke them again to reset them and watch as they healed themselves then.
They all watched as they attempted to break him, to 'find what made him tick' but never succeeded.
It was when they were left with him hanging by the bungee cords in this cage, that the boy finally forcibly pushed the Professor from his mind. His memories.
His nightmares.
"Stop! No more! Please, Charles, No more!"
Tears were streaming down his face, blood actually dripping down his silver locks as his fingernails dug into his scalp, as if he was trying to pull the montage of memories from his very head.
Pietro's sobs calmed to whispered hiccups of the same mantra of 'No more' over and over again.
It was then that Erik realized something about his son.
He didn't know him at all.
He never knew any of that had happened. He had always just assumed that his hatred for small spaces had stemmed from his speed, never from something like this.
But it all made sense now.
All of it, or at least most of it.
Erik finally allowed himself to move, he walked slowly and calmly to his childrens sides inside Pietro's cage and knelt down beside them.
"I'm sorry"
That was all he murmured as he pulled the quivering boy into his chest. Pietro sobbed and latched on to him.
It finally made sense.
Hope ya enjoyed! Good Night!