Here's my swift update after chapter six (about ten minutes if anyone's counting). Not much to say here, just the usual disclaimer that I don't actually own Eragon, or X-men, and that I have nothing worth owning so please don't sue me. Also, reviews are greatly appreciated.
Chapter 7
The crowd stared in fear and awe, unblinking in the face of the impossible fight they had just witnessed. Arya groaned loudly as she regained consciousness only to be greeted by a vicious head ache. As the spectators dispersed Eragon bent down to help her up, but she waved him off and pushed herself to her feet.
"What are you?" She whispered, looking at James with a piercing stare.
"I'm just a human, why?" James tried to cover his super human performance. His abilities weren't something he wanted to be common knowledge. Arya wasn't buying it, and neither was Eragon.
"No. You're not. You were dodging my attacks before I even made them. That's not possible." She accused.
"Yeah," Eragon added, "and your eyes were glowing. I thought I was imagining it, but Saphira confirmed it. Your eyes had this gray glow around them from the instant the fight started." Arya nodded in confirmation.
"Well spotted," Eragon beamed at the compliment, "Eragon is right," she continued, "the only thing I've ever heard of that glows like that is a rider's gedwey ignasia. Have you somehow been touched by dragon magic?" She asked seriously. James laughed bitterly at that.
"Hah! Dragon magic? Hell no. It's..." He abruptly caught himself before he could accidentally spill his little secret. Now why the hell am I acting like this? He asked himself. I should be laying low, not challenging elves and rebel leaders. Did Sinister fuck with head that much? Or is it just because it feels so damn good to actually have some power of my own for a change? Arya and Eragon leaned forward slightly.
"It's what?" Eragon prompted eagerly. James remained quiet for a few seconds, working through the possible outcomes of telling them, or not. Well, if I don't tell them, they may bring this up with Ajihad or other magic users who'd then pester me to reveal my secret, or possibly just try and pull it straight out of my head. Unacceptable. If I do tell them, they might still bring it Ajihad, but there's less of a chance of them bringing it to some one like the twins. And neither of them seem to like the twins very much, so I could probably convince them to keep this on the down low. Only other option is to kill everybody on the field to ensure no witnesses. That's out for obvious reasons, not looking forward to a manhunt in an enclosed caldera like this. Fine. James realized he'd been quiet for almost a minute now and his two interrogators were starting to get impatient. Or at least Eragon was.
"Fine. I'll tell you, on one condition. This has to remain absolutely secret, for reasons that will quickly become apparent. Only you two can know, and if you breathe a single fucking word, I'll know. And if that happens I swear, I will kill you and anyone you might have spoken to. And no, you will not, in fact, be able to stop me. Do you understand?" He stared at the two of them, his face set with grim determination. They both nodded warily.
"Say it. Out loud." He insisted. They both solemnly swore to keep what he was about to reveal between the two of them.
"Alright," James sighed, still feeling very nervous, "I'm a mutant. A chronokinetic, to be precise." Arya and Eragon stared at him with extremely confused expressions.
"It means I can control time." He explained.
"And yes Eragon, it is possible." James continued, using his powers to answer Eragon's question before he asked it.
"To answer the question you're about to ask Arya, a mutant is a human who is born with special powers thanks to a unique gene called the X-gene. Genes are...well... let's call them instructions for how your body is built. They determine your hair color, eye color, skin color, height, how good your eyesight is, everything." He explained rapidly. Ayra and Eragon looked stunned.
"So, these powers..." Eragon paused and waited to see if James was going to answer his question again.
"You can keep going. Constantly responding to future conversations can get pretty damn confusing, which is why I don't do it very often." James told him.
"Right, so these powers, are they like magic?" Eragon asked.
"Yes and no. Their like magic in that they allow us to do some fairly impossible shit, but unlike your magic, mutant powers are biological. They're a part of us. You require words and spells to cause a magical effect right?" James started to explain. Eragon and Arya both nodded, urging him on.
"We don't. To a mutant, using our power is like using our arms or legs. I don't have to say any thing or perform a complex ritual to stop time, I just do it."
"I still find it difficult to believe that you can manipulate time like that," Arya complained, "assuming it is even possible, it should require vast amounts of energy to do so."
"It should," James agreed, "and for anyone else it would, but my body is simply wired in such a way that I can just skip past all those boring rules of physics and common sense." He finished his sentence with his arms draped over Arya and Eragon's shoulders. They both jumped back, startled by his apparently instantaneous movement.
"Just like that." James smiled.
"But why would you want to hide this?" Eragon asked. "With your powers the Varden could..."
"Let me stop you right there kid." James interrupted, "I don't give a single flying fuck about your revolution. I'm here because I have nowhere else to go and Ajihad is paying me to fight. And the reason I hide my abilities is because if I didn't people would never leave me alone." Eragon looked caught between annoyance and bewilderment, while Arya just looked annoyed...again.
"But... Galbatorix is..." Eragon started to say.
"Is evil? So? Not my problem." James cut him off. The kid's black and white morality, and constant vocalization of such, was really starting to grate on his nerves.
"What makes you think people would never leave you alone?" Arya asked. James suspected she already knew the answer and was just changing the subject to stave off an argument.
"Because in my experience people are rather intolerant of things that they don't understand." James replied, working his way up to the classic human-mutant relations speech. Unfortunately Eragon cut in before he could get very far.
"What? But most people don't understand me, and I'm not treated badly." Naivete poured off the kid like a tidal wave. James ground his teeth and Arya screwed up her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, apparently trying to fight off a headache.
"That's because, from what I've seen, they've been conditioned to believe you are their holy savior." James explained slowly, as if talking to a particularly stupid child. Eragon flushed with anger but James continued regardless.
"You're special, and wherever you go you are followed by hordes of groupies and ass-kissers. You may have the patience for that, but I do not. And how do you think those hordes of people, or the Varden's magic users, would respond when I inevitably told them to fuck off and die? I'll tell you. They'd get all butt-hurt that I'm not willing to bend over backwards to supply them with prophesies to help with their inane problems. They'll lash out, thinking they can control me by force, which they can't by the way, and I'll respond in kind and it will all end in tears. Specifically children's tears because I'll have killed all their parents." James finished his brief rant. A childhood spent avidly following the X-men followed by a lifetime under Apocalypse's thumb had taught him two things: that people would always lash out a what they feared and couldn't control, and that absolute power corrupted absolutely. Eragon scowled and opened his mouth, presumably to spew some more poorly thought out bullshit, but his dragon just nudged him and he shut it again.
"Fine. Whatever. As long as you fight for us." Arya had clearly had enough of this conversation and evidently didn't want to spend any more time in his presence. She spun on her heel and started walking in the direction of a nearby hill, gesturing at Eragon to follow her. Eragon continued looking at James for a few more seconds, as if he wanted to say something else but thought better of it, before turning and climbing onto his dragon's back. The giant blue lizard glared at James and he wondered for an instant if it was, in fact, far more intelligent than it appeared. His suspicions only grew when it blew a cloud of smoke in his face. He replied with a raised middle finger and the beast growled, buffeting him with powerful flaps of its wings as it hurled itself into the air after the retreating elf.
