Chapter 10: Wake

Pyro jolted awake and found that, except for Eden, he was alone. He looked down at the figure on the bed; she was unchanged. He held her cold white hand in both of his. By the look of the day outside, he guessed it was after noon. A salty breeze blew in from the open window. It chilled him. He pulled the covers tighter around Eden and went to close the window.

Below him, the sea churned and doubled over itself, splashing and dashing against their fortress of steel and stone. He thought about all that had happened since he'd first seen it from the inside of a helicopter—he had been so sure of Magneto and of everything that the Brotherhood stood for—acting with a righteous anger against those that had persecuted his kind for a decade or more.

He remembered that fateful day, at Bobby Drake's house, when the police had shot Logan and ordered the rest of them to hit the ground or get shot, too. He remembered Rogue and Bobby getting to their knees, prostrating themselves in front of those less powerful than they, those men with their guns. He remembered exactly what he'd thought. They'd yelled at him to 'get down, they didn't want to hurt him!' And he had known, at that moment, that, yes, they did want to hurt him and he, more than anything, wanted to hurt them. He had refused to bow. It was on that day that his powers had exploded from inside of him in a way that Xavier had never allowed them.

Pyro leant his head against the window bars. "I am a god among insects," he whispered aloud, recalling the words Magneto had said to him on the X-Jet. A shuffling noise behind him brought him back to the present. He turned.

It was Toad.

"Get out of here!" he yelled at him.

Toad was leaning over Eden's bed, not touching her and clearly having difficulty looking at her. He looked up, bleary-eyed, at Pyro. "Is she sleeping or…." He choked back the end of that sentence.

"Sleeping," Pyro answered, furious. "Now get out."

Toad looked down at her again. "You know, I did that," he said, pointing to her bruises. "Me." Pyro said nothing. He just watched. "I hurt her," he went on, with surprise in his voice. "My Eden…" He reached to touch her, but could not bring himself to go through with it. "Will she be alright?" he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"I don't know," Pyro answered. "She almost died."

Toad grimaced. "Will you…tell me when she wakes up?"

"If she wants me to," he replied, stiffly.

Toad nodded. "Right. You're her protector now, is that it?"

"Somebody has to protect her from you," he found himself saying.

Pyro was sure that if he had said something like that to Toad yesterday, he would have had a serious fight on his hands. Now, all the other man did was consider Pyro's comment and nod, as if agreeing with it. Then, he turned and left the room.

Quicksilver appeared seconds after. "Pyro, Magneto's having a pow-wow."

"What?"

"He wants you there. In his office. Me, Juggernaut, Hawk, you…Rogue'll stay with Eden."

Pyro shook his head. "No, I'm staying here."

Quicksilver tilted his head. "You can't, man. He asked for you. The Senate passed that declaration of war thing. The President has to sign off on it."

Rogue stepped into the room. "It's alright, John. I'll watch her."

Pyro bit his lip and looked over at Eden. "Goddammit. I'm coming." Rogue stepped up to Eden's bed. "Be careful. Toad's around."

Rogue looked very serious. "Yeah. I can handle him."

"Ok," he said. He took one more look at Eden, and then followed Quicksilver out of the door.

Rogue leaned her chair against the wall, putting her head back. She was exhausted, but refused to sleep. It occurred to her, just then, that until this moment she had had almost no time to herself, to be with herself and think…alone. Eden was there, but she wasn't there. Rogue's memories and thoughts poured over her, unbidden and overwhelming.

First, she thought of Logan, and how disappointed and angry he must be with her. She pictured the day she'd met him, the fight cage, the hideous trailer…how he'd almost left her in the middle of nowhere, and then helped her out anyway. How he'd become a protector to her, her only friend during a time when friendship was as necessary to her survival as food and water.

She remembered how afraid she had been when she'd first seen Magneto, when she'd realized that Logan was powerless in front of him, and how absolutely alone she had felt in that moment. Waking up in the helicopter, being bitten by Eden and put under again. She remembered pleading with Toad to led her go…and how he had laughed.

But the other, stranger thing that she remembered was when, just before Magneto had transferred his powers into her, he had said, "I'm sorry, my dear." She had thought at the time that he had been mocking her. Now, she could not be sure.

Rogue did not love Magneto, or Toad, or any of the members of the Brotherhood. She had a kind of affection for Pyro, built on an older association with him. She cared about Eden and it bordered on a love for her, because she had been so helpful to her. She was starting to like Juggernaut because he made her laugh.

But, no, she did not love them. Rogue loved Logan, and Bobby, and Storm and she had loved Scott, Jean and the Professor. She loved them so much. But her love for them was not enough to make them right—they were wrong about everything. About humans and mutants co-existing, about pandering to human perceptions of their kind, about Magneto and the Brotherhood.

They were wrong. Magneto was right. He had almost killed her, he had hurt everyone she had ever loved—but he was right. She was strong enough to look beyond her own personal vendetta against him and see the bigger picture. What she saw was a majority population of non-mutants who felt threatened by mutants, and the memories downloaded into her brain from Magneto's tortured mind was enough to reveal to her what that meant for the minority if they just sat back and waited.

Rogue knew she had been forcibly brought here by the latent memories of a dead woman, but now that she herself was here, she knew she would not leave. She also knew that she would have to fight against those that she loved to stand up for what she believed in.

"Deep…thoughts?"

Rogue blinked and looked over at the bed. "Eden. You're awake!" She was happy to see her awake, happy to know that Eden had survived such an ordeal. She walked over to her. "Are you…are you alright?"

From underneath the oxygen mask, Rogue saw Eden smile without the familiar pointed teeth protruding from under her top lip as she did so. "Sorry…if I…scared anyone…" she murmured breathlessly.

Rogue shook her head. "Don't…just…just don't do it again," she said.

"Is she awake?!" Pyro cried from the doorway, rushing to her bed.

"Yeah…yeah…" Rogue answered. But he had seen for himself, and ignored her. She watched Pyro try to hold back the emotion she knew he was feeling, as he grabbed her hand in joy and kissed it. It was best, she felt, to leave him alone with her. She departed, unnoticed.

"Would you…take this stupid thing…off me?" Eden asked.

"What? The O2 mask? I don't think so."

Eden nodded. "Please," she begged. "Just for a minute. I don't…need it."

He sighed and reluctantly did as she asked. He put it beside her. She breathed in shallow, aching breaths. Suddenly, she frowned fearfully. "Pyro…" she said with panic in her voice.

"What is it? You ok?"

She raised a hand in front of her face. "I don't know. I keep…I keep seeing these dark flashes."

"Dark flashes?"

She nodded, blinking furiously. "It's like…there…it keeps happening. There's sudden darkness every couple of seconds." She blinked again. "There! It happened again."

"Oh Jesus," he said, laughing, "you're blinking, Eden."

She stared at him as he laughed. "I'm what? What's happening?"

Still laughing, he pointed to his own eyes. "Watch," he instructed. He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Blinking," he said.

Eden touched her eyes, poking at her eyelids. "Oh God…" she said, "what the hell did I do?"

He turned suddenly serious. "You Cured yourself." He crossed his arms. "You gonna tell me why?"

"You wouldn't understand," she answered.

He curled his lips. "Is it because of Toad? Some convoluted plan to save him?"

"You wouldn't understand," she said again.

"What wouldn't I understand, Eden?!" he yelled. "Tell me! Let me try! 'Cause, what I understand right now, is that last night, you almost died, and that if I hadn't've come when I had, you would've died! What the hell kind of hold does this guy have on you that…that you'd fucking kill yourself to make him feel better?! That's sick, Eden, you know that! It's fucking sick!"

She was quiet. He almost regretted what he'd said, but he thought it might be sinking in. She looked up at the ceiling, trying to keep her eyes open as long as possible before she was forced to blink. Then she said, "Has he…did he come? Has he been here?"

Pyro's heart boiled. He wanted to scream. "No," he said. "He never came. He knew and he didn't come," he said.

Eden's eyes reddened and flooded. A single tear escaped.

He took her hand. "But…I've been here. All night. All morning. I left for twenty minutes because Magneto wanted to see me, that's all though, I swear. Besides that, I haven't left your side. I haven't slept."

She said nothing. She continued to stare at the ceiling. Then she said, "What did Magneto want to see you about?"

Pyro felt a choking sensation in his throat and released her hand. "The…um…Senate passed that war declaration. The President just needs to sign it. Magneto wants to set up an offensive to be ready to attack D.C. if he does. He wants some people in D.C. to keep track of the situation. I'm going. Or at least, he wants me to."

At last, she looked at him. "Why you?"

He shrugged. "'Cause I look human. Me and some other normal looking mutants are going to stay inside the city. One of them has super hearing, the other can walk through walls…actually, he can kind of become part of walls, which could definitely come in handy."

"And you?" she asked.

"I'm in charge. Keep people in line."

"He trusts you again."

"Yeah, I guess he does."

She nodded. "That's good."

He gazed intently at her. "Yeah." He got up.

"Where are you going?"

"I better pack, if I'm going to D.C." He walked to the door and she called to him. "What?" he asked.

"Thank you…for taking care of me," she said.

Pyro tried to think of a reply, but none came. He simply nodded and left.

Magneto walked out onto the roof. Toad was crouched on the ledge looking out at nothing, rocking gently back and forth. His mouth was moving slightly, as if he were speaking, but Magneto did not hear any words.

As Magneto neared him, he heard him say, "Finally."

"Finally what?" Magneto asked, stopping.

"You've come to kill me. For what I did."

"No, Toad, I haven't."

His hands flew to his face. "Why not?!" he hissed through his fingers.

Magneto stepped up just behind him. "Because I won't make it that easy for you, Mortimer."

Toad shuddered at the sound of his own name. Magneto sat down on the ledge beside him, dangling his feet over the edge. "Do you remember when I came for you? At the orphanage? You had just killed someone. You remember?"

"Yeah."

"A boy…your age. You'd kicked him inside out, completely by accident."

"I remember," Toad answered hoarsely.

"And I asked you, why did you do that, Mortimer? And you answered—"

"Because I needed to," Toad finished, looking over at him.

Magneto nodded. "I asked you how you felt about it. Do you remember what you said?"

Toad looked away. "No," he said stiffly.

"You do, you just don't want to."

"I was a kid," he said.

Magneto put his hand on Toad's shoulder. "'I liked it, sir. It felt pretty damn good. I'd like to do it again.'"

"Jesus Christ," Toad whispered. "What the hell am I?"

"You never cared about what you were until you met Eden. You never questioned yourself or thought about what you did, or why you did it. Eden is the first person you didn't enjoy hurting."

"I love her."

"I know. Soon, though, I'm going to need you back. You, Toad…the killer who doesn't think about who he kills, who enjoys killing, who wants to kill, who needs to kill. I need that man back."

Toad nodded. "You've got him. You always will."

Magneto stood up. "We've all hurt the people that we love, Toad. All of us."

He looked up at Magneto. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was pale green. "She…she'll be alright, won't she?"

"I don't know."

He gazed out into the bleak sky. "What do you need me to do?"

"What you do best."

"Kill."

"Yes," Magneto answered solemnly.

"I'm a killer."

"We can't help what we are."

Toad nodded. "I'm a killer. You're a leader." He looked up. "What is she?"

Magneto looked down at Toad, at that most loyal soldier, that most ruthless man, and all he saw was the fear of a young boy peeking out from behind the madness that lurked just behind the hearts in his eyes. "I don't know Toad."

Magneto turned away and came face to face with Pyro. "Something wrong?" he asked.

"She's awake."

Toad nearly fell off the ledge. "Is she alright?" he asked.

"She's ok," Pyro answered. He looked back at Magneto. "She doesn't want to see him," he said.

Magneto looked back at Toad. "Did she say that?"

"Yeah," said Pyro, "she said 'Don't let him come near me.' I thought I should tell you," he nodded towards Magneto, "since I'm leaving soon and I can't protect her from him while I'm gone."

"Oh, no, no," Toad moaned, hiding his face in his hands.

"I'm going down to see her," Magneto said to Pyro. "Don't do anything stupid."

Pyro glared at Toad. "Yeah," he answered.

When Magneto was gone, Pyro smiled and said, "I didn't want to tell Magneto her exact words. You want to hear them?"

Toad said nothing, but he looked up at Pyro with wild eyes.

"She said, 'Don't let that bastard come anywhere near me. I hate him. I hate him.'"

"She didn't say that."

"Yeah, she did."

Toad sobbed relentlessly into his hands, mumbling incoherently. It was pathetic.

Pyro flicked his lighter and brought a ball of fire close to Toad's face. "Come on, give me a reason. She said she hated you and that she loved me."

"Shut the fuck up!"

"She hates you. She wants to be with me."

Toad seethed. He had his hands balled into fists and his teeth bared like an animal.

Pyro stood closer to him, so that the fire in his hand seemed to glow in Toad's eyes. Then, he let it go out, and turned away, walking towards to door. "Oh, and she said," he laughed, turning back, "she said I'm ten times better in bed than you."

For a moment, it seemed that that had worked. That he'd provoked Toad to the breaking point. He rushed at him, hands ready to snap Pyro's neck. Pyro ignited a fireball, also ready. But, then, Toad just stopped. "I can't…" he said. "She loves you. If I kill you…it'll hurt her…I can't…."

"You fucking coward!" Pyro screamed. "Fight me!"

Toad ran, but away from Pyro, not towards him. He jumped off the roof, and into a nearby tree and disappeared.