Faces in the Stone, Part 2
" My god. I should've done something. I should've done something…"
Mystique sat, shaking her head, beside Toad on his ledge in the cave. He was slumped against the back wall, his eyes faraway and lackluster, but he still dragged up the strength to speak. His voice was quiet, almost a whisper, and it rasped painfully from his tortured throat. " It's not your fault."
" Yes, it is."
" You couldn't have done anything." He sighed. " And it's not your place to."
" Still…"
" No. You would have risked yourself. I couldn't bear that. Not after you've proven to be my only friend."
Mystique lifted her gaze from the floor and met his calm, dark eyes for a moment. Soon the sadness was too much to bear, and she began dabbing at the wound in his head with the cloth she had brought, moistened with the water that dwelled below her. The silence that followed was only broken by the whispers that swirled up above, in the shadows where the eye was useless.
After listening for a while, she said, " They sound just like people, don't they?"
Toad nodded. " I guess sometimes I like to think that they are. Like guardians, watching over this place, keeping me safe." He looked away as Mystique met his gaze once more, and fidgeted with shame. " I know it's only the wind, though."
" But it's a lovely thought." Her hand went to his own, and patted gently. " You know, you shouldn't be so afraid of what others are going to think."
Toad sighed again, his thoughts turgid. Finally, he pulled his hands away from her touch and clasped them in his lap.
" I think Magneto's going to kill me soon," he said.
Mystique only looked at him for a long, long time. She nodded almost imperceptibly and set down the cloth. Without a word she got up and went to the ledge, where she sat down and dangled her feet over the edge, her back to him. After a while she spoke, her voice softer than he had ever heard it before. With horror he realized that she was on the verge of tears.
" Why, Mortimer? Why is he doing this to you? What did you say to Jacob that was so terrible?"
" I made him doubt Magneto."
" But why?"
" Because he needs to learn the truth," he replied simply, " before he's molded into a killer just like we were."
Slowly, she turned to face him. " But your words aren't going to change his mind, not if Magneto can help it. Why do you try to rescue him from this fate and yet still dislike him so much?"
There was another long silence, and then Toad said, " I guess I should tell you. I don't know when I'll have another chance."
" What are you talking about?"
" I was angry at Jacob," he said, " because he exposed something that I've been trying to keep hidden for all the time that I've lived in this place."
" What?" Her brows creased. " What were you hiding?"
Toad heaved a sigh, and got to his feet.
" Follow me," he said.
* * *
" Magneto? Can I talk to you?"
Magneto looked up from his desk to see Jacob standing in the doorway, his expression unreadable, his clothes disheveled. With a frown he beckoned to the chair. " Of course. Come in and sit. Tell me what's on your mind."
" I saw what you did to Toad," the boy said directly.
" Did you." Something flickered in the steel-gray eyes, like a demon stirring within. It flashed there for a moment and was gone, hidden behind a wall of aloof authority.
" Yes, I did. Magneto…why did you do that to him?"
" Toad must learn his lessons like every other person."
Jacob shook his head angrily. " But every other person isn't taught their lessons that way. And he should be no exception. He's a living thing."
" He is a danger to the Brotherhood." The voice was laced with steel. " And you, young man, know nothing of discipline and consequences. You've only been here for two days. You are not one to be spouting your opinions to me." The balls on the desk began to sway back and forth, clacking, as Magneto tried to ease the fury that was building up inside of him.
Suddenly, they stopped moving.
Magneto tried to budge them, but they hovered rigidly, held by Jacob's own force. He looked up into the boy's eyes and saw the familiar glint of power and resolve, and suddenly felt his own give way.
" Well, I think it's wrong," Jacob said, and cast his hand downward. The balls dropped out of the air and spilled onto the floor. They hit with considerable force and made loud noises as they rolled frantically on the slick floor.
When Eric looked up from where they had fallen, Jacob was no longer there.
* * *
" They…they're beautiful…." was all Mystique could say.
The faces in the stone gazed out omnipotently, their creator standing shyly off to one side. He was looking out at the dark water, still feeling strange that someone was seeing them with his consent for the fist time ever- something he had promised himself he would never do.
" Can I touch them?"
Toad shrugged. " I guess. The ones you can reach, anyway."
" Why did you do these?"
" Because I don't read much, I don't write. I don't draw. This is the only way I can think of to remember the ones who have changed my life. I used to steal clay on art days at the orphanage when I was little. I sculpted a lot, but I always destroyed them and sneaked the clay back so they wouldn't notice that I took it. So I guess I got a lot of practice."
She ran her fingers over the rock's surface, a smile on her lips. " I just can't believe you can do this," she whispered. " I would have never pictured this. Who else has seen them, besides Jacob?"
" Magneto."
Mystique's hands fell away from the stone upon hearing this and she turned to face him, shocked. " Magneto? How has he seen them?"
" Jacob showed them to him."
" Oh…" The light of understanding dawned in her yellow eyes, seeming to illuminate her from within. She nodded slowly. " I see now."
" I suppose it wasn't his fault," Toad said. " He had no way of knowing."
" No, he didn't." She studied him for a moment. " So you're mad at him because he saw these."
" More because Magneto did."
" Did Magneto really react to them?"
" No," Toad shook his head. " But still. It's hard to know what he thinks, and when he's going to decide to let me know."
" I don't think he'll care much."
" Well, you didn't think he'd do this, either," Toad snapped, tugging at the collar. He saw Mystique's face fall and sighed regretfully, placing a bloodstained hand upon her shoulder. " I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. None of us knew."
" I understand," she whispered. " I can see how much it hurts you, and I'm not talking about just your body."
He didn't say anything for a while, and neither did Mystique. She walked around the wall, peering up and into the shadows. She frowned at some of the faces she saw, disfigured almost beyond recognition, the eyes the only things unharmed.
" There are bad people here," she said softly.
" Yes."
" Why? Are you afraid you'll forget what they did to you?"
" No," he said. " I'll never forget what they did to me, even if I want to. I'll never forget my hatred for them, either. But I put them in the stone because here they can't hurt me- only I can hurt them. Which is why they're all marked up. It's my revenge. I keep them under my control, chained up, I guess, and I put marks on them, just like they did to me."
" I've never thought of getting revenge that way." She reached out and touched the small relief of the boy shying away from the demon. " What's this for?"
" I killed someone when I was young," he answered quietly. " I didn't mean to, but that doesn't change things. I think that's what he saw just before he died. This is here so I can remember what I did to him, and so that I'm reminded never to underestimate my power." He paused for a moment, then added; " It's the only killing I've ever regretted."
" Looks like you're the only one to have done so," Mystique said.
" You've never?"
" No." She shook her head.
" I don't believe that. I think that somewhere inside you regret at least one." He stepped closer to her. " Not regretting your actions doesn't make you tough, Mystique. And even being tough doesn't make you infallible."
" Those are deep words for someone who's had to be tough all his life," she said, smiling sadly at him. When she spoke again, Toynbee could not help but frown at the regret in her voice.
" Who knows. Maybe I can learn a lesson or two from you." She paused, looking up again at the carvings, her eyes shining with an emotion only she could understand. After a moment, she said, more softly,
" Maybe we all can."
* * *
Jacob found Sabretooth sitting in the lab, where the grass grew in emerald abundance and glowed with the pearls of sunlight that the small hole in the roof allowed. The giant mutant was cross-legged, his head down, perhaps dozing. His immense size did him no justice in comparison of the prodigious stone walls that surrounded him.
Sabretooth's head snapped up as Jacob neared, and the catlike eyes met his mistrustfully. He growled softly, baring his fangs.
" It's okay," Jacob said, holding his hands up placatingly. " I want to ask you a question is all."
" Make it quick," Sabretooth growled, eyes traveling over him, still dark with mistrust.
" I saw what Magneto did to Toad."
" He deserved it." Sabretooth cut him off gruffly.
Jacob shook his head angrily. " Nothing he could have done should have been enough for Magneto to do that. He told me that this place is a haven for people like us."
Sabretooth stared at him, but did not reply.
" And then I see this," the boy whispered. " Doing the very thing he said would never happen here. People do that to mutants. Mutants should never do that to mutants."
" Are you doubting him?" growled Sabretooth.
Jacob didn't miss the menace in the giant mutant's tone, but suddenly all traces of the fear he felt for this leviathan were gone, replaced by a dark and indignant anger at the hypocrisy he had witnessed.
" I don't know," he said, biting off every word. " Maybe I am."
With that he glared deeply into the other mutant's eyes, and then whirled round and headed for the door, stiff-legged with fury and indignance.
Sabretooth watched him go, disturbed at the way the child was behaving. Maybe he was more powerful than he let on…and more dangerous.
Even so…Magneto must be told.
* * *
Toad and Mystique watched intently as Jacob approached them.
The boy's face was dirty, as though he had been among the bushes, and his clothes were disheveled. There was a darkness in his eyes that disturbed both of the Brotherhood members- seasoned though they were, neither had seen such intensity in the gaze of any youth they had encountered.
He approached them without hesitation, and his stride was purposeful.
" I want to talk with you," he called to them.
" What seems to be the trouble, Jacob?" Mystique asked, leaving Toad to stand in the shadows while she greeted the boy. She glanced behind her to see his eyes gleaming, his body crouched and waiting.
" He told me the truth," Jacob said, thrusting a grimy finger at Toynbee.
Toad stepped out of the shadows then, his brows furrowed with concern.
" What do you mean?" Mystique asked.
" He told me not to always believe what I hear. I thought he was lying to me, trying to make me go away." Jacob's voice became heavy with condemnation, and soon he was shouting, " But I saw what he did to you! I saw what he said would never happen here! He told me this place was a haven for people like us and that I'd be safe here alongside him and he lied to me!"
" Jacob…"
" No! Listen! I never trusted anyone before him, and everything he said was like God himself had said it, right to me! And then I saw what he did to you…I hid outside that door and I saw the blood and the metal and Magneto's little smile- always that goddamn smile! He's a liar and a monster and he makes mutants look like killers, every one of us! Can't you see that he's going to bring this place down around his head, and take every one of you with him?!"
Mystique silently watched the tears stream down Jacob's cheeks, leaving trails of clean flesh that stood out like streaks of lightning in the dirt that coated his face. Behind her, Toad stood speechless, his body no longer coiled. His arms dangled at his sides and his eyes were like moons in his pale green face. His lips parted in a pained effort to speak, to say something to assuage the burning of hatred in the youth's eyes, but before he could utter a word another voice, strong and powerful and achingly familiar, penetrated even the deepest crevices of the lair.
" So I'm a liar, am I?"
Jacob whirled to see Magneto in the doorway, Sabretooth, as always, at his side.
" You," he hissed.
" Yes, of course. Isn't it always me?" The smile was on his lips, maddening and frightening, more dangerous than any weapon. " Too bad you don't like the way we run things here in the Brotherhood. Because, you see…if you're not with us, you're against us."
" I don't talk to liars," Jacob spat.
" And I'm not here to listen to you," Magneto answered simply, his smile gone. He turned to Sabretooth. " Bring him here."
Sabretooth advanced, growling, but the snarl on his lips was soon turned into a grimace of pain as one of the metal tiles wrenched itself free from the wall and hit him on the shoulder. More soon followed, and the mutant was pelted from all sides as Jacob's power propelled them with all the force of his fear and anger. After a moment of this, he choked out a sob and whirled, running across the chasm in the next room to the holding cells. Metal tiles flew up under his feet and fell away as soon as his shoes parted contact with them, much as Magneto had done when he had gone to visit the late Senator Kelly.
Magneto followed, his angry footfalls echoing in the chambers surrounding him. Sabretooth joined his side and Mystique and Toad trailed behind, horrified at what was transpiring but helpless to do anything to stop it.
The bridge Magneto controlled did not crumble, and all crossed it in pursuit.
* * *
Jacob ran into the nearest room, and stopped dead as he beheld the metal grate that blocked his access to the outside. With a strangled cry of rage he used his power to wrench it free from its stone cloak…only to reveal the drop that promised only one escape: death.
Jacob whirled to find Magneto, Sabretooth, Toad, and Mystique in the doorway. Magneto was smiling again, the same, maddening smile.
" I didn't think of you as the type to overstep your bounds," he said. " But even I can be wrong sometimes."
The razor-edged metal tile that flew through the air whistled, singing the song of death as it hurtled towards Jacob…
…and stopped in midair as the two mutants, one young, one old, let their powers clash.
Mystique, Toad, and Sabretooth stood transfixed as it spun slowly, searching for a target, straining in the air. Waiting for one side to weaken.
Sweat began to bead Magneto's brow, and his cry was almost a shriek:
" Sabretooth! Get him!"
Sabretooth rushed forward with a roar and Jacob looked up, eyes shining with panic. The metal tile whizzed just over his head… just enough to knock him off balance and send him toppling out the window.
* * *
Toad surged forward as soon as he saw the boy fall, and in less than a second he was on his belly, leaning over the edge, his hand clasped with the boy's while the wind howling through the chasm below began to tug eagerly at their clothing.
" Don't let go," Toad gritted, struggling to hold on to what little he could.
But Jacob only stared up at him, his eyes strangely calm. He made no effort to do the same. When he spoke, there was no longer fear or anger in his voice.
" I'm sorry I did what I did," he whispered.
" But you didn't-"
"…and I'm sorry you think you have to live with Magneto in order to survive."
" Jacob…"
" I can't live like this, with no place to go and no one to trust. I just can't stand it. I wasn't meant to be here. You were right, you know. I don't believe everything I hear anymore." He took a breath. "Let me go, Toad."
Toynbee stared at him, shocked. " What?"
" I said, let me go." The voice was growing ever more quiet, and Jacob's tears began to flow again.
" I can't." Toad shook his head. " No, I can't do that." He felt Jacob let go of his hand and he clutched harder, prepared to use his long tongue to catch the boy, if needed.
" Please let go," Jacob said, crying now. Their eyes met and Mortimer could see the pain and sadness there, mixing with the betrayal that had shattered Jacob's fragile world.
" Please let me go," the boy whispered again, and this time Mortimer Toynbee did.
Jacob fell without a sound, and died with his eyes closed and a smile on his lips, free at last.
* * *
Toad watched the boy die with tears upon his cheeks, shining like diamonds in the moonlight that bathed the scene.
He felt Mystique pull him into a sitting position and felt the warmth of her body next to his. He heard Magneto's voice from somewhere far away:
I was wrong about you, Mortimer. Here I was thinking that you were protecting him from me. I could have never guessed it was the other way around.
He felt the collar around his neck loosen, and then its touch was no more upon his flesh. But all he saw were Jacob's dark eyes, thanking him for what he had done.
But what had he done?
Mystique's voice eventually brought him out of his stupor, and he looked around in surprise to find that Sabretooth and Magneto had departed. He felt her arm around him, comforting him. He looked up to see tears standing in her beautiful eyes.
" We've been here a long time," she said softly. " Magneto apologized to you, but I don't think you heard him."
Toad was silent for a long, long time, listening to the waves crashing far below them. At last he dragged up the will to speak.
" Mystique?"
" Hmm?"
" I told myself I'd never regret another killing. I lied. Oh, God, how I lied…"
He leaned into her shoulder, feeling her chin resting on the top of his head, and then Mortimer Toynbee cried like he never had before, wrapped in the strong embrace of the only true friend he had ever known.
* * *
The next night, in the main room of the lair, the moon seeped in from the cracks in the ceiling and a new face was slowly illuminated. It was the face of a boy whose eyes were far older than his apparent years, and it held court high above the ground where only the shadows, and a mutant named Toad, could ever reach. Below it, scribed in rough, unpracticed letters, were the words,
…And the Truth Shall Set Ye Free.
THE END