CHAPTER THREE
Mutant number two is a cab driver living in New York City. And after finding out that they will actually be flying there, Marianne becomes rather apprehensive and nearly sits this one out.
She hasn't been sleeping much; Erik's memories haunt her whenever she sleeps and cause her to lose control of her ability. She worries about the plane journey with her power currently tipping towards the unstable end of the scale.
But when she finds herself seated on the plane to the Big Apple, she comes to question her aptitude on making rational and sound decisions. Really? What is she thinking? Does she want to cause an inflight incident? Because she can totally imagine the headlines: PASSENGER MISSING MID FLIGHT!
It's just over an hour and a half, she tells herself. Surely she can control her powers!
It's probably the death grip she has on the arm rest. Or maybe it's the bags under her eyes. Or maybe its both. But Erik, who is seated beside her, notices that something is up with her and looks at her with a flicker of- concern? No, that's probably not it.
"I didn't know you were a nervous flier," he says. When she remains silent, he continues. "You do remember that I control metal, don't you? I won't let anything happen."
"No," she shakes her head. "It's not that." She pauses for a moment and clasps her hands together. "My power has been…unstable as of late," she admits. Erik goes unnaturally still at her confession, thinking perhaps that she's a ticking time bomb. "It's not what you're thinking," she hurries to explain, lest he gets the wrong idea. "I'm not going to explode or anything. My powers are not like that." She takes a quick glance around, her paranoia of being overheard is suddenly acting up.
"The worst that could happen is that I'll just simply disappear from this plane. Which will really just cause some problems. Can you imagine all the attention a passenger missing midflight will bring? You and Charles will have some explaining to do, although I'm sure Charles and his mind tricks can handle it. But I'd really really rather not have an incident. I mean, who knows where I'll end up? I don't really want to walk all the way to NYC if there isn't anyone around for me to hitch a ride with."
"I hope that you realise that you are not making any sense to me," Erik tells her dryly.
"What? Oh. You don't know what I can do, don't you? I've never mentioned it before. Well, I–I can turn intangible. You know, walk through walls and stuff. Anything really. So if I lose control, I might just…" She shrugs rather nonchalantly, "…accidentally phase out of the plane, that's all."
Perhaps she is being too casual about it but Erik seems to have turned pale. However, before she can assure him that she's not going to go splat into the ground – she can just phase again and jump right back up, their plane suddenly hits a turbulence. Marianne reaches out instinctively and grabs onto Erik's hand.
"Oops." She quickly retracts back her hand. "Sorry about that," she tells him sheepishly. Erik merely gives a nod in response and becomes pensive for the remainder of the journey. Fortunately, they reach NYC without any mishaps.
"Over there," Charles points to the street where there are at least seven other yellow cabs.
"Really Charles? You'll have to be more specific," Erik says sarcastically.
Charles easily lets the comment slide as he darts across the road, leaving the other two to chase after him. Do they really have to cross the street like this? Marianne frowns as the three of them maneuver around the busy avenue. He's gonna get them all killed.
She's being silly, really. She knows she can easily phase through any oncoming vehicles, not to mention the fact that there's a metal bender with them. But neither thought makes her feel any better following Charles around like this. So she promptly attaches herself to Erik, grabbing the sleeve of his leather jacket, so as not to get left behind.
Fortunately, Charles finds the particular cab before the lights turn and the cab drives away. He opens the door and slides in. Marianne slips in next after some prompts from Erik, inevitably finding herself sandwiched between the telepath and the metal bender. Yet again.
"Where to, fellas?" the driver, a mutant with dark skin, asks them.
"Richmond, Virginia, please," Marianne quips.
"Right, so you want, uh, airport, the station, what?"
"No, we were rather hoping you would take us all the way," Charles supplies.
"That's a six-hour drive."
"That will give us plenty of time to talk," Erik responds as he uses his power to move the cab meter. And Armando Munoz, also known as Darwin, becomes their second recruit.
Much to Marianne's relief, they do actually decide to drive back to the facility, laying over at the local hotel as night falls.
Marianne checks-in and collects the keys. "So boys, how are we doing this?" But before anyone can speak, Erik grabs both keys and tosses one over to Charles. Erik then leads Marianne away by her elbows.
"This it is," Marianne mutters to herself.
Erik hears her and raises a brow at her. "Unless of course, you would like to share a room with either Charles or Darwin?"
Marianne throws him a smile and hooks her arm with his. "I think I'll share this one with you," she winks. If her willingness to easily go along with him unnerves him, Erik doesn't show it. "Goodnight boys. See you in the morning," she does a little wave with her free hand to Charles and Darwin, both of them looking a little lost.
Erik leads the way to their shared room, wasting no time in locating it. "Wait!" Marianne suddenly cries, grabbing hold of Erik's hand just as he is about to open the door to their room. He throws her an inkling look as she shoos him away. Then, knocking loudly on the door three times, she gives Erik a nod of approval and steps aside. "Okay," she tells him.
The expression on his face is one of disbelief. But Erik recovers quickly and walks past her. He enters the room and turns on the lights. "What was that about?" he then demands.
"My grandmother's Chinese," she offers as an explanation. She ignores his look of puzzlement as she takes a quick scan of the room. "I'm taking the left side!" Marianne declares. She then throws her red scarf on the bed as a sign of reservation. Once she's certain that Erik will not fight over the bed with her, she drops the rest of her things at the side and strolls over to the bathroom for her customary inspection.
She's pleasantly surprised to find that there's a hairdryer – albeit an an ancient-looking one that resembles a vacuum cleaner – attached to the wall. At least she does not have to sleep with wet hair tonight, she thinks gleefully. The hotel can do with better shampoo though. She picks up and examines the small bottle provided. Gosh, and conditioner? Why doesn't this bloody hotel have one? Marianne briefly contemplates going down to a convenience store just to buy a bottle. But it's late and she's tired.
"You can take a shower first." She pokes her head out of the bathroom and calls out to Erik. But the metal bender seems to be preoccupied with something. What is he doing exactly? Checking for hidden assassins? Gosh, and Birkhoff says that she has it bad. But Erik makes her own paranoia look like it's almost non existent. She then thinks about her earlier actions. Nope. They cannot be compared. Paranoia and superstitions are not the same.
"You can take a shower first," she repeats when Erik finally turns to stare at her.
"Ladies first," Erik shrugs.
"I'll take really long inside. It's best if you go first. You'll be faster."
"I don't mind the wait."
"Well I do!" she says, a little exasperated. "I mean, I'll feel bad otherwise and then I'll have to rush my shower. So I really rather you go first."
"Fine." Erik concedes, picking up his things before he heads to the bathroom.
"Don't use up all the hot water!" Marianne reminds him. That's another thing about the past. She has learnt the hard way when the water ran out while she was conditioning her hair.
As she expects, Erik doesn't take all that long. He emerges fresh from the shower, damp and naked waist up. The damned metal bender only has a modest towel wrapped around his waist. Despite his obnoxious personality, Erik has a very attractive body and Marianne is not exactly immune to it. But she pretends to not let him affect her otherwise and instead busies herself with collecting her pajamas and essentials.
Of course, the rather eccentric person that she is, the first thing that she notices when she enters the bathroom is the lack of steam and foggy mirrors. That's strange. Erik did just have a shower. Did he not use any hot water? She pushes all her weird thoughts away as she climbs into the tub.
"You're awfully quiet tonight." Marianne says when she can no longer stand the silence.
She's positive that it has at least been an hour since Erik has been sitting on his bed, back against the board, looking pensive. Or brooding.
"I didn't realise I have to speak."
She pads across the floor and climbs onto his bed. She sits cross-legged in front of him. He watches her warily as she leans over to him, her eyes wide and curious. Unexpectedly, she reaches out and takes the knife that he has hidden under his pillow. His hand reaches out to stop her, but it merely phases through.
She looks at him amused. "Planning on murdering me in my sleep?" She scoots herself closer to him.
"That depends if you continue to annoy me."
"I'll try my best not to then." She examines the knife and her fingers trail along the inscription. "What does this mean?"
There is a pause before he answers her. "Blood and honour." He gauges her reaction as he continues. "I took that from a man I killed." He waits for her to flinch, or to at least look at him in horror and disgust. But she does neither.
"Why did you kill him?"
"He knew Shaw."
"So you kill everyone connected to Shaw?" It comes up neither as a question nor a statement, but something in between.
"No, but he was a Nazi soldier. He got what was coming to him."
His memory comes flooding back into her and she slowly reaches for his left arm. She pushes the sleeve back and lets her fingers brush across the numbers 214782 tattooed across his arm.
He clenches his fist. "I was a boy." There is silence for a moment. "And Shaw killed my mother when I couldn't move the coin."
A silver coin, one with an eagle and Nazi insignia, floats towards Marianne and lands onto her open palm.
"I could have saved her. But I didn't." He pauses, his fingers brushing across hers as he takes back his coin. "And then Shaw experimented on me, to see the extent of my powers." He then regards her, holding her gaze steadily.
"Make no mistake. I am going to find Shaw. And I will kill him."
"Wake up." She hears a familiar voice. "Marianne, wake up!" And she is brought back to the real world, not the horrible memories that she has been stuck in. She opens her eyes and sees Erik hovering above her. She lets out a few breaths before she phases herself back up on the bed. She props herself up and then combs a hand through her hair.
"Are you alright?"
She nods her head, choosing not to speak. It's a good thing he woke her up on time. She would have given the inhabitants below a nasty surprise otherwise. Erik passes her a glass of water and she accepts it, taking a small sip. He sits down on the edge of his bed and observes her.
"I'm okay. It's just a nightmare." She isn't sure who she's trying to convince. "I'm sorry for waking you up."
"It's not a problem."
"You should get back to sleep." She looks down at the clock and frowns. "It's still early."
"And what about you?"
"I don't think that's going to be such a good idea." The glass of water looks untouched as she puts it on the bedside table.
"What did you dream about?"
She looks at him, unsure if she should confess. "Ask me again another time," she finally decides.
He does not push her. And he completely surprises her instead with his next few words.
"Would it help if I were to hold your hand?" There is no mockery or sarcasm in his tone; his offer is genuine.
"I don't know… Maybe." They watch each other for a while before she decides to crawl over to his bed, tucking herself under his blankets. She doesn't wait long before he joins her and he slips in under the covers. They lie side by side and he reaches out first to take her hand. She gives it a little squeeze of appreciation before she closes her eyes and lets fatigue take over.
"Marianne, wake up." She hears Erik's voice again, but she pays him no mind and twists to her other side, burrowing her head on the pillow. "You need to get up." He shakes her shoulder and she responds by swatting away his hand. "Marianne, we are leaving soon," he says impatiently.
"Okay okay! I'm up!" she says, although her eyes are shut and her head is still buried onto the pillow.
"Marianne!" his voice edging to a final warning.
She suddenly sits up and their heads collide.
If Marianne is still sleepy, the pain in her temple has definitely woken her up.
"Ouch… That's gonna leave a bruise." She opens her eyes to see Erik clutching his forehead. He glares daggers at her, as though it was all her fault. She rolls her eyes at him. If it's anyone's fault, it's his. She was sleeping so well until he woke her!
Wait, what? OH. "I slept!" Her eyes are suddenly wide with disbelief. "Oh my gosh! I actually slept! Without any nightmares waking me up!" She then looks over at Erik. "Well, you don't count."
"It's good to know that one of us actually had a good night's rest. Get dressed. Charles and Darwin are waiting for us." She finds herself rolling her eyes again at his bossy nature.
"I did tell you not to eat it."
She can't help but shoot a look of resentment at Erik. She's already miserable enough and he's not making things any better for her. Her stomach continues to churn and protest. That pie really did not agree with her.
Oh gosh, her stomach churns painfully, and she slaps her hand to her mouth. "I think I'm gonna puke." At her announcement, Erik immediately pulls the car at the side of the road. She barely makes it out of the vehicle when she lurches forward. But nothing comes out. It's that lousy feeling you get when you want to puke your guts out but can't.
She barely notices Erik behind her as he gathers her hair and holds it back with one hand. And they stay in that awkward position for a while; she bending over as she tries to hurl without success.
"I think I can't puke."
"You have to throw it all out. You'll feel better afterwards."
"I can't." She slowly stands back up, accepting the handkerchief from Erik.
Of all the times to get food poisoning… She really has all the bad luck in the world. They are due to find their next mutant held at a government prison. But in any case, she's not in a very good state now to break him or her out of jail.
"Annie, are you alright?" Charles asks, concern laced in his voice.
"I've been better. That was some nasty pie." She then musters up a glare at Erik. "And stop saying I told you so! I'm miserable enough as it is."
Thankfully, she doesn't really have to break anyone out of prison. Charles, having other tricks up his sleeve, somehow manages to get the boy, or well, 18 year old, Alex Summers, released instead. Marianne briefly wonders if Alex's related to Scott; they do have the same last name.
Despite her food poisoning – thank goodness it's only a mild case, Marianne takes to the younger boy immediately. He's a good a kid, winding up in prison only because he had no one to help him control his powers. He even chose to be kept in solitary confinement so that he wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone.
Alex does remind her of some of the younger students back in the institute. She misses them, those kids. Actually, make that sometimes. And it's only when she doesn't have to do damage control and clean up afterwards. Those kids sure get in an awful lot of trouble.
"Aren't you going to eat?" She isn't really surprise to see Erik already eating breakfast at the CIA lounge. The metal bender is an early riser. In a few hours, they are going to set off for their final recruitment. Sean Cassidy is the previous mutant that they have recruited, finding the boy in the aquarium trying to impress a girl. It's quite cute really. Sean is young – the youngest they have recruited.
For a moment, Marianne frowns. The mutants they are recruiting seem to get younger and younger. She's not very comfortable with this but she's going along with Charles and Erik for their last recruitment.
"I'm not really hungry," she finally replies as she takes a seat opposite him. Her nightmares have returned. The same ones that never get old. It's starting to get frustrating really. They've completely ruined her appetite! And she loves food. It says a lot when she cannot even bring herself to eat.
"But you should still eat something."
She purses her lips and holds Erik's eyes for a moment. The man sure is annoying this morning. Maybe she should annoy him too. She leans forward and then takes his toast, eating from the unbitten portion.
"Happy?" she returns the half eaten toast onto his plate.
"No, that's my toast."
"You said to eat something." She sticks her tongue out at him.
"How juvenile."
Just to wanting to irritate him further, she reaches for his toast a second time and tears another bite from it. She throws him a smirk as she leaves the table, taking Erik's breakfast with her.
They enter a bar and Marianne has to hold back a giant smile when she sees him. He looks exactly like he did back in their time, which of course makes sense. Logan's healing abilities keep him from really aging.
Logan is seated by the counter and smoking a cigar as Charles and Erik approach him. The two have left her behind by the door. Why is she not surprised?
"Excuse me, I'm Erik Lehnsherr," she hears Erik introduce himself to Logan.
"Charles Xavier," Charles injects.
"Go fuck yourself."
Now, that was unexpected, Marianne thinks as Erik leads her away from the bar.
She contemplates briefly if she should go in there again to convince Logan otherwise. She ultimately squashes that notion of hers. She really shouldn't change too much of the past. Who knows how that will affect the future where they came from? If Charles and Erik can't convince Logan, then she better just leaves it at that. But then again, just by being here in the past, they have probably already messed up their future.
Argh. Time travelling is really very complicated.
"Plane leaves for Russia in an hour," Moira tells them as they stride through the corridor. The CIA has just gotten intel that Shaw is meeting with the Russian Defense Chief in Moscow. Moira has already met with the Senator to get clearance for all of them to come along and apprehend Shaw.
"I'm telling you, these kids are not ready for Shaw," Erik says.
"I have to agree with Mr-I-can-bend-metal here," Birkhoff adds.
Charles look at Birkhoff in surprise. "Birkhoff, I thought of all people, you would be supportive. After all, you and Marianne were younger still when you both first started in this line of work."
"But we had training Charles," Marianne interrupts. "These kids haven't. They're young and inexperienced."
"Well I think they're going to surprise all of you," Charles responds. "They're an exceptional bunch of young people."
Birkhoff looks at Charles skeptically as they approach the courtyard where loud music seems to be blasting away. Heck, the statue at the centre of the grass square has been blasted off.
"What the hell?" Moira exclaims while Marianne lets out a sigh. It seems that Raven and the others are all but a little drunk, dancing to loud dreadful music and showing off their powers.
"Come on! Harder! Harder!" Darwin encourages as Alex hits him with a bat.
Birkhoff nudges for Marianne to do something. But Moira beats her to it.
"What are you doing?" Moira barks at them, effectively getting their attention. "Who destroyed the statue?"
"It was Alex," Hank immediately confesses.
"No," Raven cuts in. "Havok. We have to call him Havok. That's his name now. And we were thinking, you should be Professor X," she points to Charles. "And you should be Magneto," she points to Erik.
Under normal circumstances, Marianne – and probably Birkhoff – would have marveled at the fact that she has just discovered how the two iconic mutants back in her time get their codenames. But unfortunately, the urgency of the Shaw situation has left her anything but amused.
Charles is wrong. They are not ready to face Shaw. And they shouldn't have to. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why Marianne and Birkhoff are here. So that these kids can remain young and innocent for at least a little while longer. Marianne is not completely naïve to the world, although she sometimes behaves as such.
"Exceptional," Erik remarks sarcastically and leaves.
Moira shakes her head in disbelief and follows Erik.
"I expect more from you." Charles tells Raven before he leaves as well.
Marianne looks at the younger mutants. They look disheartened and thoroughly chastised. The three older ones have been a little harsh on them. But there really isn't time for Marianne to do damage control now; the plane leaves in less than an hour.
She throws them her kind smile – the same one that she uses on the younger students back in the institute. "Get these all cleaned up alright? And be careful with the glass. Don't hurt yourself. We should be back by morning." She gently squeezes Raven's shoulder for comfort before she turns and leaves the compound.
"I think one of us should stay here," Marianne says to Birkhoff as they hurry to catch up with the others.
"And be one person short of fighting Shaw? We're already squeezing it tight as it is. Who knows how many more minions that guy has?"
"You're right," Marianne sighs. "And they're not exactly children. This place should hold while we're out."
Little does Marianne know, how wrong she is.
TBC.
A/N: Thanks again to my beta Goddessofwoman.
HisLordFluffiness: Thank you for leaving me your reviews. This chapter should clear up her powers. Marianne technically comes from the future with the revised timeline (after Logan saves everyone in Days of Future Past) and of course, it also has my own spin in it which will be revealed in future chapters. ;) I hope you enjoyed this chapter.