Hey, Bandon here! I know it's been a while (not as long as I usually leave for, so at least I have that!) But anyways, I'm sorry it's taken so long! Oh, and the false alarm yesterday; I removed a portion of the previous chapter because I thought that it was a better end. I place portions of it here, but I edited a great bit. I hope you all read and enjoy.
I know that I would normally put my thanks for reviews up here, but I'm just going to send you all PM's to let you know that I've updated. R/R! Or just Read, anything you want. ;}
Bandon-Makes-A-Start
After hours, or maybe days, they all met in the same conference room as before. Augustus glanced guiltily towards the new chairs.
"I want to be as clear as possible," Hank was saying, "If anything makes either of you uncomfortable, we will break this meeting for however long it takes to regain control."
Augustus and Pyro both nodded, sitting in their assigned seats.
"And three," Logan said, holding up his fingers to finish the countdown.
"Good evening, Augustus, Pyro," Johnston said, nodding his head.
Both young men nodded in return, shifting to get more comfortable in their seats.
"What I want to discuss with you, boys," Hank said as he shuffled some papers about, "Is your initial confinement."
"We already have a pretty good idea about what Pyro went through, but we know next to nothing about the screening process for incoming mutants." One of the military advisers said.
"When I was brought to the facility," Pyro began, "I was judged by Augustus and then taken to a medical bay where I finished healing. After that it was pretty much what I showed you in our last chat."
More than one person shuddered at the reminder. Hank coughed, trying to distract from the unpleasant images in his mind, "You said that Augustus 'judged' you."
Pyro nodded, waving for Augustus to continue.
Rubbing his hands down his thighs Augustus cleared his throat, "One of my psychic abilities allows me to see other people's powers." Shrugging he took a deep breath, "If I determined that a mutant was a threat I was supposed to alert the doctors so that the subject could be . . . disposed of."
Johnston and many others paled, "How could you do that?" he asked in revulsion, "Pick and choose who got to live . . ."
Augustus slid his eyes closed, a bitter smile tracing his lips, "It's easy to say what you would do," He whispered, "But you'll never know, not for sure." Resting his hands on his thighs he sighed, "Not until the firing squad's got you in their sights."
Augustus opened his eyes and he looked so tired, so weary. So needlessly worn and weathered. "When you're back hits the wall and the only thing keeping you going is the animal in you that refuses to die."
Johnston and many of the veteran cabinet members nodded, "I know what war is. I've stared more than a few bullets in the face and I promise you I remember what it felt like."
"War," Augustus spat, palms sliding against his thighs, "The things I did were not acts of war, Mr. President; they were acts of survival. I didn't do any of what I did for a grand cause." Shaking his head his eyes turned haunted, "I stole the lives of hundreds to further my own goals." Augustus smiled bitterly, "By the time I was ten their influence wore off, but the stronger I got the stronger my connection to Jason Stryker grew."
"And was he able to control you?" Johnston asked, "By using his powers was he able to manipulate you into doing the things that you did?"
"Jason Stryker was no more than a doll, Mr. President, wheeled around for the amusement of a man who held no humanity." Augustus said quietly.
"Then how was this connection between the two of you utilized?" Johnston asked, "If he couldn't move or think for himself how could it have influenced you?"
"When I grew strong he would leech my powers, drawl them into his body. Whenever this happened he would try to move, try to function."
"So he was still present, in his mind?" Johnston said, rubbing a hand down his face.
"His mind still worked," Augustus agreed grimly, "But only on a fundamental level. Due to William's tinkering he was a perpetual child, trapped until the end of his days with a child's mentality."
"And this was how he tracked you?" One of the senators asked, confused, "When you escaped he did what? Tattled?"
"In a sense," Augustus agreed, "Whenever I left he would connect to my mind; see the world through my eyes. Those images he would then transmit to William."
"And then William would find you." Johnston said, finally understanding.
"And I would be punished, yes," Augustus said, "By the men who should have been my family."
Silence rang through the room, turning the very air awkward and tense.
"I think we need a break," Hank finally said, jostling to his feet, "a cup of tea for me and a bite of lunch for the others."
"Very good," Johnston said, ushering his members from the room.
When everyone but Augustus and Pyro had fled the room only a companionable silence remained.
"I wouldn't have been able to tell them something like that." Pyro said finally, moving his chair closer, "I wouldn't be able to bring myself to it."
"You would," Augustus said with a sad smile, "If something important were on the line."
Pyro tilted his head back, looking at the ceiling, "Maybe," He mused, "For something I cared about."
"Like you care about Augustus?" Bobby said, standing defiantly in the doorway, looking between the two.
Pyro's face closed off as he stood, blocking Augustus from the other teen's view, "And what business is it of yours?"
"You know why I care," Bobby said softly, coming into the room and shutting the door, "You know that I love you, John."
"If you knew him at all," Pyro snarled, "You would be able to recognize that he no longer resides in this body."
"I do know him," Bobby said, moving to stand in front of Pyro, "That's how I'm able to see him standing here, just like he always has." Running his hands up Pyro's sides he pulls the other teen to him, "It's how I can feel him in my arms, different than he was, but still there for me to hold."
"You think you knew him," Pyro whispered, tilting Bobby's head up, "You think you knew who he was." Leaning down he ran his tongue from Bobby's collar bone to the edge of his jaw, "Why, then" Pyro growled huskily, biting along Bobby's jaw, "Did you leave him?"
With a feral growl he gave a biting kiss, devouring the young man in front of him. Breaking the kiss he left a trail of blood falling from Bobby's split lip. Grabbing a handful of Bobby's hair he yanked his head back, exposing the other teen's neck, "I hate you," Pyro whispered into Bobby's ear, "I hate you for leaving him on that rock, and I hate him for leaving Augustus to that hell." Pushing Bobby away from him he glanced back at the boy in question, "And Augustus hates me for not being him." Bending down he kissed Augustus tenderly on the lips, running a hand through his soft hair, "And he loves me for it, too."
With a snarl for Bobby he left, crossing the room in no more than three strides, slamming the door on his way out.
Bobby stared after him, lost, adrift. He didn't seem to breathe as he felt something inside of him break.
"John won't come back," Augustus said softly, "Pyro is all that remains."
"Then why do you cling to him?" Bobby asked after a moment of stillness, still not looking away from the door, "Why do you continue to follow him?"
"You already know why," Augustus said softly, "It's the same reason that you hold onto the fragile remains to a childish love." With that he stood.
"I betrayed the man," Bobby whispered just before Augustus could cross the threshold, "And you betrayed the monster."
"And now we are both drawn to this perverse mix of the two." Augustus said as he disappeared into the outside light, leaving Bobby feeling desolate in the dark.
Bandon-Makes-A-Break
They ate and reconvened, settling into their seats just as the sun was at its highest.
"Okay, Augustus," Johnston said eventually, "I need you to tell me about the process you spoke of earlier; this 'judging' that you did." Shifting uncomfortably in his seat he continued, "Why did you do it?"
Hank coughed, warning the President that his line of questioning was getting too direct, but Augustus nodded before he began to speak.
"I hardly had a choice, in the beginning," Turning he displayed several round scars running along the back of his neck. "My biological father was used to create a drug that could control mutants."
"We know that William made a drug," Johnston said, "But we didn't know that Jason had anything to do with it."
Augustus nodded, "Jason Stryker's brain secreted a highly volatile chemical. When that chemical is harvested from the spinal cord it can work as the mutant version of a roofie."
"Wouldn't that have paralyzed him?" One of the cabinet members asked, "Why would he be willing to go through that?"
"He didn't have a choice," Augustus said, "William kept him in suspended animation until he could be controlled. And after . . ." Augustus shook his head sadly, "There wasn't much left of him by the time I came along. Just a lifeless dolls."
"That's sick," Johnston said, horrified, "To his own son."
"And there's the problem," Pyro said, "William didn't see Jason as his son, he was just a mutant. He and Keith refused to acknowledge that they could be related to a creature." Pyro smiled bitterly, "I'd much rather suffer my entire captivity again than live five minutes of Augustus' life."
Faces paled but Pyro refused to elaborate, looking pointedly at Augustus, waiting for his friend to explain.
After an eternity of awkward silence Augustus cleared his throat, "I wasn't kept like the others, at first." Rubbing his hands down his thighs again he swallowed, "When I was young they kept me in a small, sterile room. I was fed and changed; I slept with a stuffed toy." Eyes growing distant he smiled softly, "When I used to cry a woman would come into my room and hold me, sing to me in a lovely voice. I thought that she was my mother."
"Who was she?" Hank asked.
"A worker," Augustus said, sadness creeping into his voice, "Someone who pretended to love me for years. I loved her, like I've never loved anything else. I was young and gave the pure, innocent love that can only spring from a child's heart."
"What happened to her?" Winona asked, leaning closer.
"When I was six it all began to change," Augustus whispered, rubbing his thighs in what must have been a compulsive habit, "I began to dream about my caretakers. When they left my pin I still saw them, heard them."
"Your powers awoke," Hank said, "Before puberty?"
"It was odd," Augustus answered, "I hadn't had any kind of emotional shock, so I shouldn't have gained my powers then, if I ever did."
"What do you mean?" Someone towards the back asked, "Don't mutants all change at puberty?"
"Not all," Hank answered, "Mutation is evolution; brought on by a need."
Augustus nodded towards Pyro, "It's when you go through intense physical and emotional strain that the change occurs. For most this happens during puberty, when hormones and social adjustments happen naturally."
"So," A balding man from the front row asked, "The change between mutant and human only happens to a certain percentage of children, not all?"
"Correct, Senator Naylor" Hank said, "According to data collected in a ten year study, the age at which a mutant comes into their powers is directly linked to economic status. Few children from upper-middle class households ever know about their powers, and those that do learn of them when going through puberty."
"God," Naylor said, rubbing a hand down his face, "I'd always just assumed . . ."
"That it was something unnatural?" Augustus questioned icily, "That only freaks did it?"
Naylor looked away from those chilling dual-colored eyes, "I just never knew that mutation was a result of trauma."
"Mutation is an adaption, Senator," Pyro said, standing, "it's how humans choose to deny us that goes against the natural order of life."
Uneasy glances swept the room as Pyro walked out.
"He's coming back," Johnston said hesitantly, "Isn't he?"
Everyone looked to Augustus, who shrugged, "I have no control over what he does."
"He will be back when he is ready," Hank said, "for now the only one we need answers form is Augustus."
As Johnston opened his mouth to answer a blast sounded from the front of the mansion.
Locking eyes with Hank Johnston nodded, calling out orders to his own members.
"Move!" Logan yelled, racing past them with his claws extended, "These fuckers are going to learn not to mess with us."
The others tore after him, forging into the cacophony of blood curdling screams and gun shots.
Bandon-Makes-A-Break
Chaos surrounded them; unknown soldiers swarmed in through a hole in the outer wall, flooding the mansion like rats from a sewer. Children ran between them, trying to escape, trying to fight, as gun blasts sounded and bodies hit the floor. Logan's agonized scream came from the middle of the throng and Storm froze. She wasn't a soldier; she wasn't a leader, not like this.
"Hold your ground!" Pyro shouted, manipulating his flames to surround an incoming wave, "Don't let them get to the children!"
In a flash the students stopped and turned, brandishing their powers as they took out the forces. Strom saw one of the new children take down several attackers with poisonous darts while others ushered the youngest children from the room. Strom rushed forward, using gusts of wind to knock the men back, "Don't kill them!" She screamed over the fray.
Pyro looked at her, his eyes blazing crimson, "When they try to kill us?" He questioned, distracted for the space of several seconds, just long enough for one of the men to aim at him. Before the shot could go off Bobby was there, shielding the other teen with his crystalized body, "Be careful, John!" He shouted as he froze the man to the ground.
"I'm not John!" Pyro said back, encasing another group in flames.
Bobby smirked, an expression that looked wrong on his face, "Agree to disagree," He said blandly before disappearing into the fray.
"Take them down," Pyro ordered, "Do what you have to, this is war!"
Strom screamed for him to stop, for the others, for these children, to halt this bloodshed. No one paid her any attention as more men seemed to pour from unseen spouts, flooding them. Storm tried to force them out with buffets of wind, tried to freeze them with gales, but they kept coming, kept shooting.
And then she saw it; one of the soldiers she had spared raised his gun, aimed it, and pulled the trigger. A scream lodged in her throat as agony ripped through her, searing its way through her body. The world began to fade as she fell back, landing on top of something soft. Trying to lift herself she turned enough to see. She wished she hadn't; lying under her was a boy, no older than fifteen.
"Artie?" She asked softly, shaking his shoulder, "Artie are you okay?" Sobs wracked her body as she shook him, pleading for him to open his eyes, for him to move. "Please," she moaned desperately, dragging him into her lap, "Please wake up." In the chaos around her she saw what she had always feared the most; her student lay upon the floor, some suffering and others already dead. With a mournful cry she clung to the young boy in her lap, clung to him as though the force of her grip would bring him back.
"Strom," A voice said above her, "Storm you have to get up,"
Storm shook her head, refusing to meet Hank's gaze, "I can't" she choked, "I can't let him go."
"We have to leave," Hank said, pulling at her arm, trying to drag her away, "We don't have enough resources to combat these men."
"But we're X-Men," She gasped desperately, "We're trained for this."
Hank knelt down, "We're not," He said sternly, and for the first time Storm noticed that he was bleeding, "A handful of untrained mutants can't hope to contend with hundreds of madmen."
Looking into the violence around them Storm caught Pyro's attention. She saw the pain in his eyes as he took in the body lying across her lap. Curling a hand through Artie's hair she felt her resolve harden, "Kill them," She whispered harshly, "Let them burn."
Hank was talking over her, urging a retreat but she knew that Pyro had understood. She saw the grim determination I his eyes as he nodded. In the blink of an eye the incoming swarm was engulfed, ablaze. Agonized scream deafened her but she didn't look away. She watched as the invading men smoldered before her and she felt nothing for them. Holding this child to her chest she felt nothing as their flesh melted and their bones turned to ash.
"Burn you bastards" She whispered, clutching Artie's lifeless body, "And may god have mercy on your souls."
Because she wouldn't, she couldn't. Surveying the wreckage of her home she knew that there was no going back. As she placed Artie gently on the floor she followed the others outside, intent upon destroying every last one of the monsters that were invading her home.
Bandon-Makes-a-Break
It was almost an hour before Johnston's taskforce got there. By then the wounded had been cared for and the few surviving attackers were bound and gagged.
Stepping gingerly around the charred remains littering the floor their commander stopped in front of Hank, "Sir," He said, shaking Hank's hand, "I'm Captain Blake." Looking around him he said cautiously, "What happened?"
Hank laughed mirthlessly, "War happened," With a heaving sigh he motioned to the remains, "Just minutes after the blast we were overrun. As far as we can ascertain over two hundred men and women swarmed this school and the surrounding areas."
"Where did they come from?" The men asked.
"They're civilians," Augustus said, "Most of them were, anyways."
"What do you mean 'civilians'?" Blake questioned.
"Citizens," Augustus answered, "Work-a-day people."
"But why would they attack a school?" Blake wondered aloud as he surveyed the damage.
"They were part of the movement," Augustus answered, closing his eyes, "They were looking for mutants to kill and one of them had known how to get here."
"But children," Blake spat, eyes landing on one of the young bodies.
"Children with the ability to take down two hundred grown men," One of the SWAT operatives muttered.
Blake cast him a withering glare, "Out, Rodgers."
Rodgers frowned at him but did as he was told, leaving through the hole that had been blasted through their wall.
Hank nodded his head in Rodgers' direction, "That is what happened, Captain Blake; men who know no better start dissent. Maybe they don't mean anything by it, maybe they do, but this is the outcome."
Blake nodded his head, "I cannot excuse my man's behavior, sir, but he will be dealt with."
Hank sighed, "That is hardly the most important matter on hand, but I thank you for your diligence, Captain."
Blake nodded, "What were the losses, Sir?"
Hank flinched, "How many young lives were lost?" When Blake nodded grimly he continued, "Five. Two girls and three boys, ranging in age from fourteen to seventeen."
"Have you contacted anyone else?"
"No one to contact, I'm afraid." Hank said sadly, rising to his feet, "Most of the children here have been abandoned by their parents or were forced to run from unhealthy environments."
Nodding Blake motioned for his men to take the prisoners, "If we get any information out of them we'll let you know."
"Not necessary," Hank said, motioning to where Augustus still had his eyes closed, "Young Augustus here has been shifting through their minds since the fighting stopped."
"Can you tell us anything, Son?" Blake asked Augustus, though the other never opened his eyes.
"There are no more of them, if that's what you're worried about." Augustus said distractedly, "They were a combined force of a little less than a thousand before they attacked a Brotherhood base of operations. Less than a hundred managed to retreat when that plan failed. Shortly after that they decided to attack us, gathering as many fanatics as they could on their way here from around the Great Lakes."
"Why come all the way here, though?" Captain Blake asked, "They would have had to cross a great distance to make it here, and with two hundred troops that's no mean feat."
"They were looking for Leech," Augustus said, finally opening his eyes, "They were going to force him to make the cure." Laughing bitterly he continued, "They were nothing but simple fanatics, their plan was doomed to fail." Sighing he ran a hand through his hair, "Leech doesn't know how to make the cure, and even if he did they had no access to the tools that would be needed to produce it, even on a small scale."
"Where is the boy?" Captain Blake asked, "Does he need to be taken to a secure area?"
"Leech is with Magneto," Augustus said, "He has been since the start of the war." Moving to stand near Hank he continued, "They went to the Brotherhood base looking for him, and when that failed they figured that there was a chance that he would be here."
"Do you have an exact number to report?" Blake asked.
"They had one hundred and eighty-six people in their group, and only the seven here have survived." Augustus answered.
Blake nodded, though the eyes of his men showed trepidation, "If you can, I would like a detailed report of the casualties and any kind of information you can spare about this faction."
Augustus nodded, though he walked away, "If I find the time, Captain, I'll get it to you."
Blake said nothing as the teen walked off, simply watching him go. Turning back to Hank he let out a weary breath, "I hate to be the one to say it, but that kid is scary."
Hank chuckled, "He is something else, Captain, I'll grant you that."
Blake gave a slight smile before turning serious again, "We need to discuss things, Sir, before the press gets wind of this."
Hank nodded, ushering the men to his study, prepared for a long, boring discussion. The saddest thing was that he couldn't remember the last time he had been able to sit like this. It almost made him long for the days when he had needed to do hours of paperwork over simple things. Biting back a sigh he hoped that those days would be back soon, but he knew that it was a fools dream.
As the faces of their dead charges flitted through his mind he knew one thing for certain; there was no going back.
Bandon-Makes-An-End
Mucho de love!
-Bandon
