Truth Telling
After Kyle shows up at the Brotherhood House, there's more than one explanation needed. Now, Sabertooth and Mystique have to tell the truth. A filler between parts 8 and 9 of my "Playing House" series
My stories, their characters, "Nuff said
Truth Telling
Toad shook his head. Outside, the rain was beginning to come down just like Vic said it would. The noise made a soft rustle on the wood beams as Victor Creed aka Sabertooth and Raven Darkholme aka Mystique finished.
The young man known as Kyle followed slowly behind smiling sheepishly to the rest of the Brotherhood. As far as they were concerned, he was the newest member of their house and at that, the least known. He would have to integrate himself before they really knew him but in the mean time, he took the opportunity to sit at the table outside of the rain and listen.
It wasn't easy for him. Even with the noise of the rain and the occasional clap of thunder, it was hard for anyone in the Brotherhood House not to miss a word of what was being said.
When Victor started, everyone paid attention.
Around the table, it was quiet. The newest member of the Brotherhood sat quietly on the clapboard bench that served as the kitchen table. He was in between Blob and Toad also known as Fred Dukes and Todd Tolansky. Across from him were Piotr, John, and a bored looking Remy, who was flipping cards up and down in a bored game of solitaire.
When it first started raining, Victor had brought all of them together into the kitchen to finish what he started and to make introduction to the newest member of the Brotherhood, Kyle, his genetically engineered son.
Kyle, on the other hand, only listened. The more he heard, the more he couldn't comprehend what was being said.
This had to be the most dysfunctional family he had ever met.
And that meant something being a test tube baby of super villains raised in a laboratory.
Still, he had to know what he was becoming a part of. His 'parents', as he knew them, were more than willing to tell the whole story even as ugly as it was.
For the rest of them, what they heard was beyond their wildest imagination.
Victor Creed and Raven Darkholme had very, very, very, dark pasts.
It was worse than what they knew about.
"I don't get it?" Toad finally said. Along with the rest of the Brotherhood, they didn't exactly choose to live with Vic and Raven, it was more or less thrust upon them. Now that they were settled in their roles, the new kid came along bringing new drama to their lives. "How can you be a lesbian when you're like, you know, sleeping with Vic all the time?" He said
"Yeah, all the time."
"Like. All. The. Time."
"Shut up! I don't have to explain anything to you." Raven spread her hands across the wooden breakfast table. She could put up with a lot of things but questions about what she did or the reasons she did them, she wouldn't take from a bunch of teenagers. "It's none of your business."
"Dude, she wants the D…."
"More like she wants the V." John, aka Pyro, snickered. The kids grinned where Vic sat at the head of the table trying to finish the rest of his story.
How do you explain to a bunch of teenagers a lifetime of shit that went on before they came along? It wasn't easy. The kids, being kids, were pretty self centric. If it didn't involve them, then it didn't happen.
He tried to start with East Berlin but after trying explaining that once upon a time there was an East Berlin and a West Berlin, history seemed to be elusive. He gave up trying to tell them the difference.
"That was the first time we met." He took a drink of his beer waiting for Raven to say something. She nodded and sat down. It was unspoken that he would be the one to tell them everything. Coming from his lips, maybe they would listen for a change.
Inside the Brotherhood House, the kids leaned forward, waiting with anticipation for the rest of the story. If stories were reality, then this would be more farfetched than anything they had ever heard. They leaned closer to hear what Victor had to say.
He looked at Raven. Not much had changed since they first met nearly sixty years ago but in his mind, as always, she was still his. No matter what.
"First time?" It was more than one voice as they listened to the rest of the story. Outside, the rain began to fall harder.
Vic began.
"Well, yeah. It's sorta complicated." He said. In reality it was more than complicated. It was impossible. Never in anyone's wildest dreams did he ever expect to be explaining himself to a bunch of teenage mutants that each and every one of them looked up to him as "Father".
It just sort of happened that way.
Inside he sat at the beginning of the table trying his best to explain their fucked up lives.
He was Victor Creed, an operative in East Berlin, and she was Leni Zauber, a so called scientist he was sent to extract. The next six weeks were a blur of passion, ecstasy, and the sounds of jazz on the AFN* in the background. They didn't have to know the particulars; they only had to know that it was how he and their pseudo-mother met.
To this day, he still couldn't listen to jazz without certain memories coming to his head. And for a man that didn't have very many memories, each one was a precious thing he tried his hardest to hold onto.
In the years that followed, it was all he could do to forget her. Each mission became more and more dangerous as he was led down into a black pit of insanity that still lingered at the base of his skull. The insanity helped him forget. The insanity kept him from remembering.
It was decades later that the same familiar smell would come back and grab him back into reality. Even though he knew it was impossible, the smell of her was unmistakable. But how could a dead woman smell like the one in front of him?
Scent, they say, has the longest memory. Even though his eyes said it wasn't her, and he could tell by the way she walked, his nose still remembered the way she smelled against his body.
He spent days trying to deny it, that it was impossible. Until he realized that the impossible was nothing and a promise from an old friend would tell him the truth.
Raven was Leni and Leni was Raven.
It took him months to find out the truth but by that time, he also found out he had a son.
And that son was bat shit crazy. Just like him.
His loss was un-emotional in a detached way that people reserve for other people that they didn't know very well. The only loss he felt was the loss of being a part of his sons' life. For a long time he resented Mystique for keeping him from him.
For her part, she never did have the 'time' to grieve for her son before the FOH came to hunt her down.
It wasn't until years later that she had the time to grieve and when she did, the pain was almost unbearable.
It was two children she had lost and she never had the time to grieve for either of them. One had been taken from her, and the other had grown to resent her. The first was Kurt and the second was Graydon. Her adopted daughter, Rogue, had nothing to do with her.
"Gee, I can see why that would fuck you up."
"She's a lesbian mom that throws you off a waterfall? Really who wouldn't have problems with that?"
"If you had to live with her, you'd have issues too. Jesus."
"You sure you wanna be here Kyle? You could be next."
"Pay attention Goddammit!" When Vic roared, he really roared, making the kitchen sound very quiet around him. "Come on, babe, come back…." He reached out and pulled Raven closer. For teenagers, the boys could be pretty cruel and insensitive being the only woman in the house.
They would thankfully never know the sacrifices a mother does for her children or the reasons behind them.
He sat her on his lap where she put her arms around his neck and hid her face. At more than a century older than even the oldest of the brotherhood, not a one of them would know what it was like to be able to love more than one person at a time. But being as old as she was, Vic knew how it was.
It was hard to explain and easy at the same time. He was never jealous or afraid of Destiny, her lover, and probably the only true love she ever knew. There was a trust and purity that only they knew together that he never asked about. It didn't make her any more of a lesbian for finding a person that knew her truth, and accepted it, than it did for them to be together now.
In Vic's mind, that's as simple as it was.
So Raven found a love in her earlier years that just so happened to be a woman. Big deal. It didn't make any difference to their lives now. If she had found a lover that was a man then it would equally be no concern of his. What mattered was what they were now.
Around the table, the teens were still giving snide little comments and staring. They were starting to piss him off. Especially because he could feel the pain and hurt feelings that Raven was emanating. They didn't understand one word he was saying.
He made a fist, slamming it down on the table. It barely cracked and creaked making a long split line down the center of the table in a gesture that pointed at each and every one of them until it ended where Kyle sat silent.
"Enough!" He yelled. "You ain't even listening!"
The kids would be lucky in one life to find one person that loved them. Let alone be lucky enough to find two in one lifetime. Whether that meant a man or a woman was beside the point. They didn't know enough pain to know that love, in any form, was a gift regardless of who it came from. To find that once was a miracle. To find that twice, was damn near impossible.
The kids straightened up stopping their murmuring. By the sound of his voice alone, this meant it was serious or they were in deep shit. In fact, it meant both.
Vic pointed with his claw out. "Ain't one of you old enough to know what being in love is like and I hope to fucking God you do. I hope ya'll live long enough to regret a broken heart and to know what it feels like. I wouldn't wish you to know what it's like to lose someone close to you and to feel that kinda pain. I hope ya'll live long enough to find these things out. I fucking wish you know what it's like. And then when you do, I hope someone laughs at you for it!"
The kids sat there, almost too stunned to speak. They'd never heard Vic say anything about love or even make an argument for it. They were surprised to say the least. If anyone would have something to say, it would be him. After all, Mystique dumped him for her Destiny faking her death shortly after she found out she was pregnant. That had to be hard core to fake your own death in order to get away from someone.
"Wow Vic, harsh much?" A small voice whispered with regret.
"Yeah man, we're like, you know, sorry and all….." Another one said.
"Raven, we're….you know….we're sorry about what we said….."
Just the look of pain and hurt on her body was enough to give them guilt. None of them really thought about her feelings much but this conversation really over stepped the bounds. Taking on how a mother would raise her children was universally an off-issue. No one ever said anything about it.
When you're the Mother of the Household, no one really thinks about your feelings much.
On his shoulder, Raven squeezed her eyes. She wasn't big on crying no matter how painful of memories came to her. She wasn't about to let a bunch of teenagers make her cry. They didn't know her life. They didn't know the sweet times or the hard times, the day to day times that came with truly loving someone. All they knew was their teenage dreams and lack of life experience.
She gave Vic a kiss on the cheek in gratitude. He was the last one she would expect to come to her defense after everything she did to him. That was what made their bond all the stronger. He knew her and she knew him, and, even with their past, they still kept going. That was what love was all about.
That was truth telling.
The End