Chapter 3: Memories
…they sat in the center of the flames and it raged all around them. Everything was fire. The world was fire.
She held him in her arms. The two of them watched the flames as they licked the blue-black dome of the sky.
"It's beautiful," she said.
He smiled. "Yeah…" he kissed her. "Too bad it doesn't last."
The rains came and the fire dwindled into nothing and she shook with cold. "What's happening?"
He had gotten up and started to walk away. "I told you. It doesn't last. It can't last."
"Don't go."
"Don't stay."
They stared at each other. The rain fell on him and he began to shake. "Come with me," he begged. And then he melted into nothing…
"NO!"
Toad almost fell out of the bed at the sound of that scream against his extra-sensory ears. "The fuck!" he cried.
Eden sat bolt upright, reaching for something. Her eyes were wide and frightened and she was crying and shaking.
"Hey," he said, reaching for her, "you awake? Come on, you're dreaming."
He could smell the fear in her, the sadness. When he touched her, she started. Then she turned, and seemed not to recognize him. "I'm…sorry," she murmured, her body tensing, "did…I wake you?"
"Yeah, with a bloody great scream from hell. You alright?"
She swallowed, looked all around her, and pushed her hair back. "I'm a little disoriented," she said absently, "just a little—I had a bad dream."
He watched her gather herself, but the dream seemed to linger in her eyes and on her face. "Here," he said, putting his arm around her and pulling the sheet tighter about her body, "you're shaking. Let me warm you up."
She leaned into him stiffly, but without resistance. She was cold and clammy and she shook so. He kissed the top of her head. "Hey, it's alright, it's alright…I'm here."
"You're here," she repeated, as if she were reminding herself of something long forgotten. She looked up at him and touched his face. "You're here," she said again with confidence.
"Yeah," he frowned, "I'm always here for you. Always will be."
"You promise?"
"Yeah."
Eden turned away from him, began to look around again. It was early, the sun was silver-grey, coming in streaks through the hole in the wall that served as a window. She watched the sun glint of the metal and stone, then seemed to look past it, away. Her eyes wandered and the beams of light reflected in her slit black pupils. "You ok?" he asked, with concern.
Again, she seemed surprised that he was there, talking to her. She gave her head a little shake and came back to herself. "I'm sorry I woke you up," she murmured.
He stroked her hair. "It's ok." Suddenly, she reached behind her, took his hand away from her hair, brought it to her mouth, and kissed it several times. "I love you," she said.
He held her cold hand. "You can't sleep anymore, eh?" She shook her head. "Let's get some breakfast then, tea, yeah? You could use a cup a tea." She nodded. They dressed in silence and walked hand in hand to the kitchen.
Magneto sat contemplatively in front of the television. He leaned back into the couch and crossed his arms in thought. Footsteps behind him alerted him to another presence.
"You're up early," he said to Toad.
The other man shrugged. "Eden woke up."
"Ah," Magneto turned away from him. "Eden."
"Yeah, she's…in the kitchen, making breakfast. I heard the telly. Whatcha watching?"
"The news."
"Right."
"Today in New York City, a mutant terrorist, believed to be independent of the so-proclaimed Brotherhood of Mutants, attacked the United Nations building early this morning. This attack seems to have been merely symbolic, as the UN is not and will not be convening there for some time. Seventeen people were killed, several others seriously injured." A video clip of the burning UN building flashed onto the screen. The damage did not seem irreparable, but it did stand out quite a bit.
Magneto smiled grimly. "It seems we have inspired our brethren to the cause," he said.
"Messy," Toad said. "Wasn't thought about. I'd of done it during the afternoon, kill more people on the street, more people in the building."
Magneto turned around. "As always Toad, you present the obvious in the most uncomplicated manner."
Toad tilted his head to one side, confused as to how to receive this comment. Was it a compliment, or an insult? He gave it a moment's thought, and continued, "Who do you think did it? Anyone we know?"
"A single mutant, believed to have been involved in these attacks, was shot at the scene by an off-duty police officer. He remains in the hospital. His condition is critical." The police officer in question appeared on the screen saying, "I was just having a cup of coffee. I heard the explosion. I saw this guy, standing there, watching the building. He had—well, it looked like he had—like, a ball of fire in…in his hand. I told him not to move. He ran. I shot." The policeman shrugged. "I've heard of these mutants who can control fire. Thought he might be one of them."
The TV anchor went on. "Whether this attack was done by a single mutant, or a group, is unknown. Senator James Duro, of South Carolina, who, you will recall, was the primary catalyst in the passing of the new Mutant Registration Law, had this to say of this morning's incident."
"Ah, the good Senator," Magneto mused, "remind you of anyone?"
Toad grinned mischievously, but said nothing.
"I think this attack, like the one at City Hall last week," said the Senator, "is just a further example of why it was necessary to pass the new Mutant Registration Law. We need to know who these mutants are, where they are, we need to know their powers. Anyone who voted against the Mutant Registration Law must see now that their vote was in error, and if they don't, I can't imagine what dream world they're living in. Thankfully, the majority of us live in the real world and we're well on our way to controlling this mutant problem."
"Hm, what do you think of him Toad?"
"I think he'd look good plastered into the pavement."
Magneto laughed. He reached for the remote control to turn the television off, when the news anchor suddenly announced, "This is just in. We have footage from a security camera of the mutant terrorist just before the attack." The footage was on the screen. The mutant opened his hand. There was fire in it. It grew larger and then, became a projectile and the camera shorted out. They showed it again, slowed it down, and zoomed in. They had the face of the mutant frozen on the screen. "And there he is," said the anchor, "the terrorist."
"Oh my…" Magneto whispered.
"What?"
"It's—"
"Pyro…"
Both men turned and saw Eden in the doorway. She walked up to the back of the couch. "It's Pyro," she said.
"Who's Pyro?"
Eden ignored Toad. "They said he was in the hospital?" she asked, her voice high with concern, "critical? Is he going to die?"
Magneto shook his head. "They didn't specify where he was shot, or how many times."
"We have to get him out of there!"
"Eden—"
"Who's Pyro?"
"Sir, please," Eden begged, "we have to. They'll put him in prison. We can't, I know what he did, but we can't!"
"What did he do? Who's Pyro?"
Magneto stood up and turned off the television. Eden flinched, as if he had executed Pyro himself by making his image disappear from the screen. "Eden, I understand your concern, but Pyro made a choice. He betrayed us—"
"We betrayed Pyro!" she argued. Then she stopped herself. "I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, suddenly afraid. "I'm sorry."
"Eden," Magneto was stern, "Pyro is not our concern…he's not one of us anymore."
"Like Mystique?"
Magneto's voice caught in his throat at her words and Eden looked horrified. Terror and shame shadowed her features and her hands clamped over her mouth, as though she were not in control of her own words.
Her eyes were wide and her whole body tensed. Never in the years he had known her, since the day he had found her and taken her in—never had she ever said anything so scathing and so disagreeably cruel. It stopped the conversation. It stopped all possible activity but her turning around suddenly, unable to apologize, and racing out of that room in terror.
If there was anything Magneto depended on, it was her loyalty—her unabashed, unquestioning loyalty. And now it wavered. With those two, simple words, her loyalty wavered like an uncertain storm. And that cut him, so strangely and deeply and so apparent on the surface, that Toad was also speechless and immobile. He stood there, dumb, with his hands in his pockets and his mouth slightly open and his eyes on Magneto.
Magneto turned as abruptly and unapologetically as Eden had and somewhere past the deafening roar of uncertainty that echoed in his ears, he thought he heard Toad mutter behind him…
"Who the bloody hell is Pyro?!"
I changed today
And still may.
My mind is not my own.
I've changed so much, I've grown
beyond myself, my mind
and now I'm two of a kind.
Beneath me all the rage,
Above me steel-like cage,
Inside me, I can't say.
Oh, but I changed…I changed today…
How could he find her in the trees?
He hated when she hid in the trees.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. Sometimes, he loved it when she hid in the trees. Those times, it was worth the wait to find her, to chase her...and finally, to catch her. But this was not one of those times.
"EDEN!" he called. "Dammit, come down!"
No answer.
He sighed. "EDEN!" His own voice called her name back to him.
He heard something land softly behind him. "Ede—oh," he was disappointed. "What do you want?"
Hawk smiled. "I know where she is," he said. "You want me to tell you?"
Toad sighed. "Actually, yeah, this time I do."
Hawk looked disappointed. "Not playing a game today?"
"Not today."
"Too bad," he said in his thick, Middle Eastern accent, stroking his pointed black goatee, "she picked a really good spot this time." Without waiting for Toad's reply, he spread his big brown wings and ascended into the sky. Toad watched as his blurrying image flew and then hovered over a particular tree. He leapt from where he was towards that tree and as it zoomed into focus, he quickly pinpointed a perch.
Eden was just above him.
"Who's Pyro?" he asked.
Burn, burn, burn
Memories churn
Burn, burn, burn
It's your turn
Your turn, your turn
To learn
and burn, burn, burn…
They had left the tree and were walking aimlessly through the forest. He had heard the whole story and was determined to make her see his point. "We can't just go rescue somebody who may or may not be on our side. Eden!"
Toad took her arm and turned her forcibly around. "Listen to me, Magneto knows what to do. You shouldn't have talked to 'im like that."
Eden sighed. "I know that. I don't know what to do," she said helplessly.
"Apologize to him. He'll forgive you."
"No," she tried to explain, "I meant what I said…I don't want to mean it…but I do." She groaned in exasperation. "Pyro is one of us."
"Not from what you've told me. Not from what I've heard. He sounds like a sodding traitor."
Her eyes flashed with anger. The look loosened his grip on her arm. He had never seen a look like that in her eyes before. But her reply was quiet, "You don't know him."
Toad looked skeptically at her. "Do you?"
He never received an answer from her. Because at that moment, someone fell out of the sky and landed at his feet, in between them.
They both jumped back defensively and in different directions. Toad crouched low to the ground and Eden backed up against a tree.
The person on the ground was not dead, but they did not move for some time. "Hey, get up," Toad ordered, "who the hell are you?"
The person tensed at the sound of another's voice and lifted themselves off the ground into a sitting position.
The woman had long brown hair and her eyes were wide and frightened. On each side of her hair in the front there were long, white stripes that outlined her terrified countenance. Toad did not recognize her, but when the girl turned around to look behind her, Eden did.
"Rogue?"
The girl tensed more and examined her hands and body. She had no jacket on, for all it was cold and freezing outside. Her hands were tight and red with the cold and smeared with dirt from the fall. The rest of her body was shivering and thin and also bore its share of leaves and dirt from the ground. "Where am I?" she whispered shakily. "Where am I!"
Her voice rose to a terrified pitch. She did not seem to know what had happened, that she had just fallen out of nowhere, and conveniently landed on the outskirts of the Brotherhood's homebase. She had the look of someone who had just awakened from a nightmare…only to find that the nightmare was real.
"Rogue?" Toad looked at Eden. "That Rogue! We didn't kill her!" he exclaimed. Then he turned his gaze to the girl. "I'll fix that."
He made a move to approach her but Eden stopped him. "No," she said, "no wait." And he waited.
The girl, Rogue, looked around her desperately. The forest, the sky, reflected in her wild, tear-filled eyes and she clawed at the dirt and looked half-mad. Toad crouched level with her and watched her with some amusement, but with more incredulity. How had she gotten here? Where had she come from? And more important than anything else, why was she here?
Eden, with a small smile and a frown of concern, knelt down next to Rogue and touched her shoulder, careful to avoid bare skin. "Rogue?"
Rogue never looked at Eden, but she flinched at her touch and said, "Eden. I remember."
Eden looked back at Toad with a confused expression, then back at Rogue. "How do you know my name, Rogue?" she asked gently.
Rogue's eyes flashed liked lightning and changed color. "She knows your name—knew your name. I don't know—what I'm saying, I don't know. Who's speaking?" she looked around her again, like she heard another voice somewhere, but she was the only one talking. "You," she said to Eden, looking past her, "you bit me. You put me to sleep!" She paused. "You…you," her eyes changed again, "you…sewed up a cut on my arm." She grabbed her own arm and looked at it. "No!" she cried. "No, not my arm! Her arm!"
All of sudden, the madness she was drowning in seemed to lift, if only for a moment. Her eyes focused on Eden, bored into her, and she managed to say, "Help me!" She wrung her hands and clutched her hair and pressed the heels of her hands against her temples. "Take it back!"
Eden stood up and looked down at Rogue. Once again, the girl slipped away, rocking and muttering to herself incoherently.
It was no longer funny.
"Kill her!" Toad hissed.
Eden considered this, never looking at him, only at the girl. "How did she get here?" she mused in some amazement.
"We flew!" Rogue's head jumped up suddenly. "We flew!" she cried.
"She is flying," Toad muttered.
Eden didn't hear him. "Flew?" she asked.
Rogue looked confused again. "She flew…"she corrected herself. "I…flew?"
She pulled harder at her hair. Eden covered her own hands with her shirt sleeves and grabbed hold of Rogue's bare wrists and held them. "Rogue. How did you know where we were?" she asked in a low, pointed tone.
Rogue's wild eyes grew wilder still. "I didn't! I don't—where I am—here—home—let me—give it back!"
She pulled herself out of Eden's grip and folded into herself, wrapping her bare, shivering arms around her waist, heaving and whimpering, and rocking back and forth. "She's so sad," Rogue moaned.
Eden contemplated the pathetic figure for a moment, and a look of pity flashed over her features. Toad rose and took her arm. "We can't keep her," he said, as if regarding some kind of stray cat in the street. "Just kill her. She's mad anyway."
"She's not mad," Eden was pulled out of her reverie. She moved away from Toad and took Rogue by the shoulders, and eased her to her feet. The girl had begun to hyperventilate and was not visibly aware that she was moving at all.
Toad watched in disbelief as Eden passed him, supporting Rogue with what strength she possessed. He shook his head, but followed nonetheless, and being the kind of man he thought he was, he caught up with them, lifted Rogue off the ground and carried her, fireman style, to the Lair.
Eden did not look at him, but she smiled a cool, sarcastic grin. He looked forward and shrugged, "You never would have made it all the way."
She screamed—writhed—seizured and shook.
"SHE'S KILLING ME! SHE'S KILLING ME! LET GO! STOP!"
Sweat poured off of her in washes. Every muscle in her body tightened and she raised her arms to the ceiling. Her veins bulged.
Magneto watched casually, but cautiously. "I'm inclined to agree with you," he rumbled. "But how do you think it happened?"
Eden crossed her arms in a similar way that Magneto did, a trait she had unknowingly copied from the man. "She can take people's powers, but its always temporary. She's never killed anyone, as far as we know. So maybe, when she kills someone, she absorbs them longer—maybe permanently."
"That's quite a theory."
"It's the only one that makes sense."
Seeing these two now, one would never suspect the argument that they had had earlier. That they were, in fact, not quite sure of one another at that moment. Neither was angry at the other, but each was wondering if the other was mad at them. Each was wondering if they had, by their own volition, destroyed the relationship they had with each other.
Eden continued, "I think she's reliving Marvel's death," she mused thoughtfully, " 'she's killing me', 'let me go.'" She turned to the others. "Cain said that she held on to Marvel until she died."
The screaming stopped abruptly, as if someone had flipped a switch. Rogue lay motionless on the floor of the Lair. Her eyes were wide open and still.
"Is she dead?" Toad asked, with some hope.
Eden knelt on the floor, hid her fingers in her sleeve again, and pressed them against Rogue's neck. "No."
