Authors´note to everyone still reading this story:
I am deeply sorry that it took me so long to update this story. I personally hate it to read a long story that is left on hiatus at some point. So I told myself, that I had to finish this one, even if I had problems writing this chapter. But from now on it is just one more chapter. So it should be finished in the next week or so.
Disclaimer: The characters and concepts of X-Men are owned by 20th Century Fox, creator Stan Lee and Marvel comics. I own nothing and this is just for fun!
- Chapter 11 -
The sun was shining on his face while he was lying in the bed. Nice. Just one more minute in this peace, please.
Suddenly John came awake again. And found himself confronted with reality.
The reality that he was in a hospital and that agent Peerson was sitting in a chair at the window, looking out of it.
"So, you are finally awake? I don´t know many people who can sleep through the morning routine of a hospital."
"Maybe normal people have not lived in a boarding school? What do you want?"
The agent turned to him. "Mhh... I have spoken with one of the doctors. They think that you can leave their care today. They check in the morning. But then you are free to go."
John was tempted to comment on the free, but he kept that to himself. In his position he should not get cynically. At least not outspoken. That could only make matters worse. So he simply nodded.
There was silence for some time.
"Why are you still here?"
John´s head came up. "What kind of question is that?"
The agent was looking out of the window again. "You know what I mean, kid. The last few days nobody was watching you too closely. And still you are here."
John was trying to fathom why they had this conversation. But finally he gave up. "Is that not what you wanted? You can finally get me into prison. You know you made a mistake the first time around, when you let me go."
There was a moment of silence.
"Did I? I am not so sure about that. And why did you change your mind?"
John knew that they were now speaking about Mystique.
"I did not really want it in the end. Going back with them. Fighting. Fighting with the Brotherhood. Guess their influence is too strong again."
"They?"
"My friends from the school."
After that there was silence again.
"You know that you put me into a difficult position?"
Now John was confused. "Why?"
"You helped us fight her. Might even have saved our lives while defending yourself against her... On the other hand we have your agreement to go with her on tape. That is something I can not ignore. I wonder what would have happened if it had not been Mystique but Magneto at you doorsteps?"
John thought about it. "I don´t know."
"I thought so."
Agent Peerson stood up and walked to the door. Before he left he turned around.
"But it does not matter what I think about it any more. They called me back from your case and you will be leaving after the doctors give their go... And John, don´t try to run now, there are too many agents on the grounds. You would not make it."
Then he left John to his own thoughts.
John watched himself in the mirror as he dressed. His hair had nearly lost all it´s blond colour. But beside that, he looked nearly as he had at the school. Just a little older. And of cause he was missing his lighter.
The door opened and two agents came into the room. He had not seen them before but after the attack he assumed that they would sent some new forces. One of them had a handgun drawn.
"Go back and face the wall."
That procedure again. And before they put the cuffs on, they searched him for hidden weapons. Like some random criminal. But maybe he was just that.
He had no fight left in him. And so he let them guide him out of the room and out of the back entrance of the hospital. There stood a delivery van and some other cars. They opened the back door and pushed him through. Gesturing to sit down in the back, chaining him to the van before the car stared to move.
John doubted that this time there would be an attack again. Surely the X-Men had seen to it, that Mystique was busy. But why should he tell this people? They would not believe him anyway.
It was a long drive and he got bored, sitting in the back of the car with nearly nothing to see beside the two agents that sat there with their guns in their hands. One normal gun and one cure-gun. After hearing from Mystique that the cure was failing in the long run it had lost some of it´s horror. But he still would not like to loose his powers, even for a while.
And just as he had thought, they reached their destination without any trouble. When the car stopped and the agents gave him the sign to get up he stumbled to his feet. They were in a parking garage somewhere underground. And he had no idea, where the hell he was. John doubted that this was one of their official buildings.
Nobody knew he was here and nobody could help him, if things went wrong. If they simply decided to kill him. He got nervous.
He was shoved into an elevator. After a short ride the door opened to an unoccupied hall. Just some doors there. The directed him to one of the doors, opened his cuffs and shoved him into the room. Then the door closed with the sound of doom.
John looked around. This was some kind of holding cell. Effectively a room with no windows and just one door. But there were cameras there to watch him. Why had they brought him here and not to their agency or an official prison?
At least he could move around a little and stretch. Some small comfort. His arm still felt stiff. Never show weakness, Pyro, said a little voice inside his mind that sounded very much like Magneto. He smirked, let them watch him at their monitors. Finally he just sat down on the small cot and waited.
And he had to wait long. Too long in is opinion. Judging from the intervals they brought him food, it must have been a week by now. And simply nothing happened. They did not talk to him. At all. As if they were trying a new approach to get him crazy.
John was ready to go up some walls. If it would help.
Maybe that´s what they wanted. To drive him over the edge and place him in mental care.
He stood up from the cot and started to wandered around like a lion in a cage, blowing off some steam. To hell with the cameras and the people watching his every move. He had to do something before he broke. But he simply lacked an idea.
He had already tried to find a weakness in the security that surrounded him, but had found non. Even with the training he had received from Mystique.
Suddenly the door opened and a dark skinned man dressed in a long coat came through it. He stood there for a moment, watching him. An imposing figure and totally unexpected. Who was this man and what did he want?
"Sit down Mister Allerdyce."
Johns thoughts were running hot in his brain. One question after the other, but finally he complied and sat on the cot he normally slept on.
"Who are you?"
The man ignored him for some time while shrugging off his cloak. Then he folded it together and deposited it on the small table. Then he sat beside it.
"Who am I? You can say that I am your judge and your jury. So try to impress me."
There was no malignity in the words. Just a simple statement. And John was taken aback. What should he answer?
"I was under the impression you could speak."
"I can."
"So, why don´t we speak a little about yourself and who you really are."
"Who I really am?"
That got the man to rise on of his eyebrows.
"Mr. Allerdyce, your position is difficult, at least. Nobody besides me and my men knows where you are. And if you pose too much trouble you will disappear forever. On the other hand I don´t kill without a reason. That is not my job. So please make it easier for both of us and start talking."
John looked into his eyes. He could see that this was no one to fool around with. This man meant what he said. So finally he subsided.
"What would you like me to talk about?"
"Begin with something easy. Why did you join Magneto? As far as I heard, you were on of Xaviers students."
John suddenly thought back to his talk with Bobby. How long ago?
"I... it seemed the right thing to do at the time. We had been running after the soldiers had taken over the school and he was the only one who did anything. He offered a chance to fight back. The professor would never have stood for something like that."
"And it seemed like a good idea to hurt innocent people? Humans and mutants?"
Not so long ago he would have said yes. Without any doubt. If it was necessary for the fight. For the cause of mutant supremacy.
"Back then I thought that it was necessary."
"You thought? Not very convincing, if you asked me... And what do you think now?"
What to answer? To say that he had renounced the old ways? Nobody would believe that. Especially not the man in front of him. But after spending time with the X-Men and living out on the streets, he was not sure if he could do it all again. Not like before.
"I...I don´t know... I don´t think I would do it again."
The man was starring into his eyes, judging his words, his behaviour. But John could not tell if what the man saw was good for him or not. Then the man nodded.
"So, if you think that you would not go back to fighting us, why would you join Mystique?"
Again this question.
"Why wouldn´t I? She would have killed me, if I said no. And she will kill me now, if she gets to me."
After that there was a moment of silence. The man was just staring at him.
"What do you want me to say?"
"The truth."
"That was the truth."
"Part of it. But I think, we can talk about that another time." And suddenly the man changed the topic. "Do you know, your friends are looking for you?"
John was stunned. "My friends?"
"Not the Brotherhood, if you still call them friends. No, your friend from the school. The X-Men."
While John was still thinking about this news the man got up and took his coat.
"This is the reason I talk to you. They would not be searching like this, if you were just another member of the Brotherhood. They did not do so the last time you left to fight for Magneto."
The man went to the door. When it opened, he stopped.
"You know, I should know. It is my job to know everything about Mutants and your little games..." He smiled a little. "And I think I should finally introduce myself. You might have heard of me. My name is Bolivar Trask."
With that he finally left and the door shut with a loud bang.
Johns was petrified. Of cause he had heard of the man. This human was one of the prime enemies of Magneto.
The old man had warned him, never to underestimate this man, even if John was tempted to do so. This man knew his game. Bolivar Trask had not become the minister of homeland security for nothing.
It took the minister about a week to return again. A long boring week with absolutely nothing to do except staring at the walls and walking up and down.
Then suddenly the door opened and Bolivar Trask walked though it.
John sat up from the cot.
"What will be happening now?"
The man´s eyebrows went up.
"A little anxious, Mr. Allerdyce? When you have something, then it is time. Where would you rather be?"
"Out of here."
John knew he should be more civil but that was simply not him.
Bolivar Trask removed his cloak, laying it on the table again, but stood still, contemplating.
"You do know my job, Mr. Allerdyce? It is to make sure nothing bad happens to this country and it´s people. I would not feel good to let you go. You are not one of his pawns."
"His pawns?"
"Magnetos likes to play chess, don´t he? I do play it a little myself. I have seen the tapes from Alcatraz. He had held you back, like one of his better pieces. Jane Gray was his queen, the last and most dangerous figure to move. But you worked with him in the end."
"What has that to do with anything?"
"If we let you go and you return to him, then he will be more dangerous. Now he is only an old man whose powers are slowly coming back. Maybe he will never be like he was before. If word goes out to the mutant community that his old followers are coming back, then that could be a new signal to join him again to bring more terror to the nation."
"Then you are telling me that you will bury me alive for the greater good of the nation?"
"If you want to view it that way."
"Why? I have made no move to go to him. I just tried to live. "
The minister waited a moment, as if thinking about it and then replied.
"I have heard about that. But the situation is different now, with the cure failing."
John was suddenly up on his feet, pacing around in front of the minister. He hated this situation. He simply should have stuck with one of his decisions. Always changing his ways had brought him to this place.
The Bolivar Trask watched his movements but did not move away from his position.
Finally John stoped. Even if it was no use he wanted to explain himself.
"I know this is your call and I have lost. I have turned the wrong corner. But do you know why I had not fought with Mystique against your men? Even when I knew that the cure is failing? I thought of my friends in school. That I would rather go back to them and not to the Brotherhood. Part of the reason I decided to stay in the hospital and not try to make a run for it was because I did not want to go back."
John stood there for a moment, lost in his own misery.
When he looked up he could see the minister watching him closely. Then the man nodded and picked up his cloak. So the jury had decided. The door opened to let him go trough.
John felt panic gripping at him. The rest of his life, looked up in this cage.
So he started to talk again, before his last chance was gone.
"Minister. If you will not let me go, if you have judged that I am to dangerous for that... could you at least get me to a normal prison? I will go crazy in here, locked up without anything to do or anyone to talk to... Please?"
The man looked back at him with an unreadable facial expression. Then went through the door.
Then the door shut behind him.
John sat down on his cot and put his face in this hands.
Maybe it would have been better if he had died in Alcatraz. Going out in a last flash of fire and glory would have been so much better then this. Then he had been sure of his ways and what he wanted. Now he was just torn, lost in his misery.
As a short note: I follow the film with the figure of Bolivar Trask. There he seemed to just do his job, not hating mutants.