The Gaze and the Glance

Author's Note: Well, for how much effort this one took, the finished product isn't very long. :/ Bear with me, as I spend way, way too much time trying to smooth out my fight scenes. :) Sometimes they get really crazy and I have to pull myself back out of fantasy land where physics don't apply. Anywho, this is getting rather close to the end of the line for The Gaze and the Glance, I think I've got ideas for one or two more chapters, and then maybe I'll start looking into the sequel, which will, I think, be shorter. Much shorter. It's been quite a ride, but this is almost too long. So much has happened since chapter one and Kurt falling through tables. :) Oh, and I should mention that I finally uncovered where I got the term "The Gaze and the Glance," it's from an article I read (by the same name) by a lady named Kathleen O'Gorman. It's a critical analysis of a play called "Not I" by Samuel Beckett. Interesting stuff about view points and the gazer vs the looked upon, etc. Kinda fitting. Also please forgive me for another generic terrorist bad guy. I suppose I feel the need to make them unsympathetic to readers. :) Anyway, before I chat your eyes out further, please enjoy the new chapter. :)

Chapter 26

Eclipse realized, quickly, that this was going to be nothing like working with the X-Men or the Brotherhood had been. These people were strictly business, all the time. This was little more than a run-of-the-mill mission for them, they didn't have anything more than a paycheck riding on it. They were all calm, collected, and they all regarded her with the same look of contempt. As far as the SHIELD agents were concerned, she was nothing more than a civilian they were being forced to take along; never mind that she had mutant powers and had been part of one of the best-known super hero groups out there. To them, she was still just a liability.

So, Eclipse kept to herself in the transport bus, keeping her eyes down and her fingers laced, and tried to get comfortable in the bodysuit she was wearing. Plain, black, and completely covering everything but her head and neck, it felt very confining, though she imagined it was simply so she would blend into the dark a little better. She missed her X-Men suit; of all the costumes she had worn so far it had definitely been the most comfortable, and had worked the best with her powers. She was suddenly aware of booted feet entering her line of vision, which meant whoever the feet belonged to was standing directly in front of her. And they were awfully small to be one of the soldier's feet.

She glanced up and met green eyes and red hair; the female team-leader of this special little Op.

"They tell me you're a mutant." Her voice was accented with Russian as she nodded her head toward the others that formed the team.

"Yes. I am. Is it going to be a problem?" Eclipse answered, sarcasm tinging her voice. You'd think they could put aside their discrimination for twenty flipping minutes-

"No, not a problem. I was simply curious." She shook her head. "Although, they also told me you were with Magneto before."

"Sort of. It's a long story. Don't worry though, I promise I don't plan to turn on you and exterminate all humans or anything like that."

The red-head tilted her head slightly at Eclipse, as though trying to measure her up. "But you once betrayed the X-Men."

Eclipse felt her eyes narrow into a glare. "Don't you think 'betrayed' is a little harsh? I never betrayed them, I just stopped following the path of least resistance. I threw a Purifier off a roof, not one of the X-Men, okay?"

"Okay." She nodded simply. Then added: "Sometimes morals have to be sacrificed in order to truly make a difference. In order to accomplish something. We are alike, you and I."

"Lady, I don't even know you. And I know I can't trust anyone in SHIELD, so skip the making friends phase please."

"If you know you can't trust us, why are you here?" She tilted her head at Eclipse, as though somehow amused by her surly attitude.

"Because Purifiers are bad enough without bombs to help them kill people. And because it's not like I can get into any deeper shit than I was already in."

"Desperate," The red-head said simply.

"Maybe." Eclipse shrugged, though she honestly didn't feel too desperate. She felt more like she didn't care about much of anything beyond securing Kurt's protection. Which, if Fury had kept his word, should already be done. "What about you? Why are you on this particular mission? Unless I miss my guess, you're the infamous Black Widow. Isn't this sort of thing beneath you?"

The woman's perfect lips curved into a smirk. "I see my anonymity is starting to fade. But no. It isn't beneath me. I'm here to deal with you, should you decide to go back on your end of the agreement."

"Deal with me?"

"Yes. If necessary, I will eliminate you." She said it so candidly and confidently, Eclipse didn't doubt she would be able to, somehow, should the need arise.

"The bargain wasn't for me. I'm just here to finish what I started, so as long as you don't interfere with that I won't be a problem."

"Heh. I think I may be beginning to like you."

Black Widow left her, and started back toward the driver's end of the van, asking about the ETA. Three minutes. Eclipse shifted forms, much to the discomfort of the man in the seat next to her. It made her smile just the smallest bit.

The rogue SHIELD agent, for Eclipse had never been told their name, was holed up in a rather new office building in a suburby part of Los Angeles. It had been rented out under a false name, but SHIELD had easily been able to track the bomb sales back here. Made her wonder just how often her own privacy was invaded by the super-FBI, which in turn made her wonder whether America would start feeling like 1984 someday.

The SHIELD team was mostly just there for a combination of guard duty and as a back-up plan should Eclipse fail or become a threat rather than an ally; they weren't even going into the building at first. Once she was in, Eclipse would be nearly on her own other than Black Widow reading the building schematics to her and guiding her over the radio. SHIELD didn't want to risk any of its own being exposed to too much radiation, should the situation escalate, and none of them really doubted it would. As soon as the rogue realized what was happening, they would also realize they were cornered, and Eclipse knew that then they would likely do something desperate. Not good when there were bombs involved, which she supposed was why Nick Fury had sprung her out of jail to recruit her in the first place.

So while they set up their perimeter, Eclipse was warping her way around the back door, after wedging her ear-piece through the mail slot. The building itself was only five floors, but Black Widow had asked Eclipse to take a tour through the building and get an idea of what kind of inventory they would be dealing with.

The first two rooms she poked her head into were empty of anything unusual; there were some cubicles, some desks, and boxes of office supplies.

"Anything on the bottom level?" Black Widow's voice questioned in her ear.

"Nothing. No traces of radiation that I can feel either."

"...You didn't mention you could do that."

"Well, nobody asked. I kinda assumed SHIELD had that in my file or whatever." Eclipse shrugged, though she knew her guide couldn't see it. "I mean, you knew pretty much everything else about me."

"We don't keep active files on everyone. Only those that may pose a threat to us."

"Right. Well, now you know. I'm heading to the basement."

In response, Black Widow muttered something in Russian that sounded a little impolite.

Eclipse chose the basement next for two reasons. One, people usually hid things in the basement in her experiences. Two, she didn't want to get up to the top floors and realize the rogue had slipped past her while she was unable to hear them on the upper floors. In the small, concrete room at the bottom of the stairs, she found some equipment that may have been used to build some of the radiation-based weapons, she could feel little lingering traces of radioactive material when she passed her fingers over the tools and boxes, but nothing that was actually dangerous. There were also signs that someone had packed up in a hurry, the basement seeming cluttered, boxes overturned and papers scattered about in a hectic fashion. Had they known SHIELD had caught on? Did they know someone was in the building already?

Could be bad news either way.

"Eclipse, we've got movement on floor three, get up there!" Black Widow's voice burst into the silence of the basement.

She huffed a sigh as the volume made her wince slightly, but Eclipse had already started toward the stairs at a sprint as she replied with a semi-serious: "Yes ma'am."

The stairs were narrow, barely enough room for one person, which made Eclipse think that warping up them probably would have been prudent. There was no space for her to maneuver if the agent realized she was coming and decided to try and stop her. Falling two flights would hurt, even in her energy form, and she didn't want to risk the structural integrity of her transformation and be forced into human form, or to break apart, before she knew whether there was a bomb lingering around the building somewhere. She started to charge her body, but as she had feared, another form came hurtling at her from the floor above, driving a shoulder into Eclipse's mid-section and throwing both of them back down approximately five stairs, it probably would have been more if Eclipse hadn't warped out of the other person's grip, out onto the flat surface of the second floor.

Eclipse landed on her feet, and was surprised to see the agent had as well. He was tall, but was slender in build, and his face was delicate, almost feminine, wearing a suit that was rather like Eclipse's own. His blue eyes narrowed in a sneer.

"They didn't even send SHIELD agents? Guess they don't want me all that bad."

"Sorry to disappoint."

The auburn haired man tilted his head slightly, as though only just now noticing Eclipse wasn't quite normal-looking. "One of Fury's super-freak pets? Pfft. Should have known."

Eclipse frowned, liking this guy less and less the more he spoke. "Look, much as I love the standard witty banter and all that, I'm just here to put a stop to this arms-selling business of yours." Eclipse's fingers began to morph into their talon-like claws, to which her opponent only smirked.

"Give it your best shot, freak." The word was laced with emphasis, he was trying to play mind-games, and Eclipse wasn't about to let him. She warped toward the ex-agent, arm pulled back and prepared to strike, but with lightning-fast reflexes, the ex-agent caught a hold of her the minute she solidified, judo-flipping her back to the ground.

For a vague moment while she was staring at the ceiling, Eclipse wondered if all SHIELD agents were this well-trained, but realized it was unimportant as she scrambled up to avoid being hit across the face with the guy's boot. She had never been grabbed immediately after a matter-displacement that way, usually they were too stunned by the instantaneous movement to even react to her attack. Clearly, Eclipse didn't have nearly as much an advantage as she had thought coming into this fight. She didn't have the training the SHIELD agent did, nor likely the experience, and as she had just seen, her mutant powers weren't going to be nearly as effective.

"Still there?" Eclipse suddenly realized Black Widow had been talking to her through the ear-piece for the last several seconds. "What have you found?"

"Got my hands full at the moment," Eclipse grunted, her momentary distraction earning her an open palm hit in the chin, snapping her head back in such a way that she imagined it had been meant to break a few vertebrae. Fortunately, plasma didn't break the way bones did, and this seemed to frustrate her opponent, who had backed off, likely evaluating his next approach.

"Do you need assistance? Agent Lance was black ops for SHIELD-"

"Okay, see, it would have been nice to know the black ops bit before I got here!" Eclipse practically snarled, not bothering with her powers at first this time and running at Lance, or so she assumed she could call the ex-agent, and managed to surprise him by warping behind him at the last second. He still ducked under Eclipse's claws, the attack only grazing his head, and caught Eclipse in the ribs with the heel of his foot, sending the mutant stumbling back again. This dude was seriously crazy good, and Eclipse was getting her ass handed to her.

If she had known she was going to be throwing down with one of SHIELD's elite, she probably would have told Nick Fury to shove it someplace inappropriate. Black Widow was chatting in her ear, and with an impatient flick of her head, Eclipse pulled the ear-piece out. This was no time for distractions, even if it was advice from another elite assassin. She dropped the tiny radio to the floor and tried to focus, tried to remember all the things Logan had taught her throughout the time she had been with the X-Men. It wasn't going to be kung-fu, or anything close, but sometimes it came down to fighting dirty in order to come out on top, not matching your opponents skill levels. If she could win once in awhile against Wolverine, she hoped that meant she could pull out a win now; she just needed to concentrate, think, wait for ex-agent Lance to show any sort of advantage she could exploit, no matter how small.

One of the things Logan had always been adamant about hammering into her was not to rely on her warping. Believing that she would always be able to dodge an attack made her sloppy, made her forget what it was like to get hurt once in awhile. He had always, always given her hell and knocked her on her ass when she telegraphed a warp, and she knew that she had probably been lackadaisical, thinking she was only going to be fighting a regular human.

If her demeanor changed, Lance didn't show any sign of noticing it. He was watching Eclipse with hard eyes, likely unsure of how to kill her. Eclipse didn't take the initiative this time, she waited for Lance to advance on her. She needed to get in close, and it was easier for her not to telegraph in a static, defensive position.

Lance lunged at her suddenly, and Eclipse tensed the way she would before warping, and it seemed she was believable. Lance obviously expected another warp, and feinted to the left without actually taking a swing at Eclipse, this was her chance, he was within arm's reach now; Lance had expected Eclipse to fall for the feint, but he had fallen for hers. Her hand shot out with unnatural speed -a partial-warp of only her arm to ensure that she caught him- clasping around his throat, nearly taking him off his feet from his own momentum. She jerked with all her might, and slammed the ex-agent backwards into the ground, Lance's foot sweeping up towards her head with surprising speed -considering Eclipse was fairly certain she had knocked the wind out of him- and she instinctively raised her arm to block the blow before it connected with her head.

She was surprised, however, to hear Lance groan in an almost panicked way. "Wh- What the hell? What did you do?" Lance was up on his feet in a flash, but his right leg was dragging awkwardly behind him, and for a moment Eclipse was unsure as to why. When she glanced to her own side, she was rather shocked to find that her claws had evidently transferred; she had a six inch spike of ebony energy protruding from her elbow, which she appeared to have made without any conscious effort.

She had never done that before. And she had certainly never done such a thing without concentrating on it before; her mutation had always been primarily defensive, using the energy offensively had always required Eclipse to exert her will. Had the MRD's power dampeners somehow lessened her control over her powers? Or had it somehow, like the stress of absorbing radiation for the first time, awakened some new potential?

Or had she simply been getting her butt kicked so hard her subconscious had kicked into some kind of survival mode?

She would worry about it later. Right now, she planned to press the momentary advantage the elbow-spike had given her, feeling that the difference in skill mattered less now that Lance was limping. Lance was too preoccupied with his seemingly useless leg to notice that Eclipse had approached -none too stealthily at that- until the mutant slammed her fist into the back of his skull, aiming for the base of his neck; the auburn-haired man crumpled, but as though he was too proud to truly fall, he caught himself so that he was kneeling on his good leg.

Eclipse circled around, and crouched so that she was level with Lance's face again. "Tell me why."

"Why what, mutie?" He practically spat in response, and his face said that he was struggling against the numbness caused by the blow of negative energy to his spinal cord.

Eclipse tried to refrain from clawing him in the face, though it was a powerful urge. She set her jaw firmly, and reigned her temper back in. "Why you stole the bomb from SHIELD. Why you sold it to the Purifiers."

"I'm not telling you shit," He spat the words. Frowning again, Eclipse slowly, deliberately, poked a talon of dark energy into Lance's good knee. He screamed, though, as was usually the case, it was more in imagined pain than real agony. People thought it should hurt when they were stabbed that way, but Eclipse knew that the nerves died before they felt much of anything. Mind over matter and all that.

Lance seemed to scream until he ran out of breath, collapsing to the floor -as neither of his legs worked anymore- and panting. His arms flailed about, pulling him towards the stairs in a desperate fashion.

"If you're going for a bomb remote or something, you should know it won't kill me, I can just absorb it. Why do you think Fury sent me after you in the first place?" Lance appeared to ignore her, and Eclipse grew frustrated. "All I want is an answer damnit! This isn't about SHIELD, I honestly don't give a shit what they do to you now. Why do you hate mutants so much?"

Lance snorted derisively in response, which only served to make Eclipse angrier.

"Typical mutie," Lance said, his voice laced with bitter mirth, "-always thinking you're the victim. You think I did all this just to kill a few mutants? Please. You little gene-freaks are only part of the problem, I didn't just sell them to the Purifiers. I sold bombs to Al Queda, to the white supremacists down south, to the wannabe crusaders, hell, even to a couple of mutant advocate groups, so don't get too high-and-mighty about the Purifiers."

Eclipse felt a swirl of confusion and disgust, which in turn mixed with something else, something that curled in her gut like an angry snake, such a powerful emotion that it was practically physical pain. But she couldn't label it to save her life; she just knew that she couldn't wrap her mind around just who in the world Lance was trying to hurt. "But why?"

"Because humanity is sick. It's a disease. Might as well kill 'em all off at once instead of doing it a little at a time, group by group the way we do now. I'm just helping along the natural progression. Humans love to kill each other, we do it all the time."

"So that's it? You just want to watch everyone die? Every single person on the planet?" Eclipse's voice was quiet, and she didn't know why.

Lance just scoffed. "Too much for your delicate sensibilities freak-girl? Still trying to play superhero, is that it? Give it a few years, you'll outgrow that naivete of yours eventually."

"Naivete?" The painful emotion was quickly replaced with anger. "What could you have possibly suffered that mutants don't go through on a daily basis, huh? Don't you dare make it sound like I don't know how ugly humans can be. Even if I didn't, I'm starting to get an idea."

Again, infuriatingly, Lance only chuckled at her, rolling himself onto his elbow to sneer at her again. "At least I had the courage to try and destroy the ugly. And I'm not the one head-hunting for SHIELD, am I?"

"Some things in this world are still worthwhile. Still beautiful. I happen to know at least one person I want to save."

The last thing Lance felt -the last thing he would ever feel- was the ice-cold shock of Eclipse's energy blades tearing through his synapses, plunging him into a dark, cold void.

When they had lost radio contact with Eclipse, the SHIELD agents and Black Widow had given her the benefit of the doubt and waited. Five minutes crawled by, they could catch snippets of movement in the shadows on the second floor, but not enough to merit charging in. Ten minutes later, a scream was heard, even outside where they were posted, and Black Widow began to try and reach their mutant operative once again. At fifteen minutes, she gave the order to enter.

They found Eclipse leaning against a desk with her arms and ankles crossed, staring down at another person in a SHIELD uniform, who was twitching like they were in immense pain. Her hair swirled around her head slowly in a steady pattern, almost like a water current, as though it was interpreting the thoughtful expression on her face.

"Is he dead?"

Eclipse glanced up as though only just then noticing the others in the room. The movement of her hair changed, looking more like smoke that simply drifted with the motion of her head. Black Widow honestly found that particular feature wholly unnerving; something about the way her hair defied most laws of physics irked the super-spy.

"Death would have been too easy for him." The mutant answered. Black Widow frowned slightly, unsure of what the exact implications of the sentence were, but didn't make an observation aloud. She merely began to direct the clean-up; sweeping the building for any remaining bombs, evidence as to where they went, and, naturally, getting rid of any traces of Lance left in the building. Eclipse watched all this with an almost bored disinterest.

"There aren't any more bombs here," She stated, Black Widow turning toward her, "-no more radiation. Or at least, none with a source, it's residual. He sold them all. And probably the plans too." This was acknowledged with a nod, and silence passed between the two women for a moment. Then, Eclipse spoke once again. "Did you know him?"

"Who?"

"Lance. Did you know him at all?"

"He was...on my team. For special missions."

"What kind of special?"

"SHIELD must occasionally intervene in conflicts to prevent their spreading. Mutant/human confrontations, civil wars, coups in allied countries-"

"The dirty work," Eclipse muttered. "No wonder."

Back in her flesh-and-blood form, Julia followed the SHIELD agents out of the building, the pair behind her towing Lance on a gurney. She didn't know what they were going to do with him now, and she thought that maybe it was better she didn't know. She might start to feel bad for him if she did. She didn't want to.

"So what's next? Are you taking me back to the MRD?" She questioned Black Widow instead.

"No. My orders are to transport you to a location of your choosing. Within the US of course." Black Widow shook her head.

"What? But-"

"Director Fury's orders. He said to call it compensation for not warning you about Lance's black ops training. Don't worry though, the other half of your deal went through as well."

"And why is SHIELD doing me so many favors?"

"Because you saved us a great deal of trouble."

Hmph. I'm sure. No doubt a year or two from now I'll have SHIELD operatives showing up on my doorstep reminding me that I owe them said favor. Julia thought bitterly. She was tempted to tell Black Widow to screw her part of the deal and to take her back to the MRD; that was starting to seem like it would be better for her in the long run. She had only wanted to try and redeem herself a little anyway, insofar as Kurt was concerned. She had gotten him into the mess she had created, and she had tried to get him back out. Now she was beginning to wonder if she hadn't just dug a deeper hole. Still, she supposed for now at least, she would go along with Fury. She wasn't under the impression he was going to give her much choice anyway.

"There was...someone I wanted to talk to."

Destiny knew Julia would be coming. She supposed she had known since she had revealed her original vision to her. Destiny had seen her, slithering through the spaces in the window like a dark miasma, before finally coming to rest, standing before Destiny, who had been waiting for her.

"Did it change?" Julia was the first to speak.

"Did what change?"

"Your vision. The one where we die. Did it change?"

"Unfortunately, I can't answer that. They don't come at my bidding, they happen when they will."

"You have no clue if anything I did made a difference or not?" Her voice gave the impression of utter despondence. Destiny felt something akin to sympathy for the poor girl. She wanted so desperately to do right by him...

"I wish I could Julia, but I can't. Not right now anyway. There is a chance I'll see a second vision and it will show a different future, but as I'm sure you've guessed, the future is not such a simple thing to command."

"Yeah, so I'm starting to see." There was a sound of shuffling, and Destiny was under the impression that Julia had invited herself into the nearest chair.

"May I ask how you found me?"

"I've kinda...had a run in with SHIELD. They dropped me off here. Don't worry, they aren't after you or anything. I think they just keep your address because you're one of the few people Mystique hasn't tried to kill." There was a quiet exhale from Julia, not quite a sigh, but close. Inwardly, Destiny felt the tiniest modicum of guilt. She had been the one to set Julia on this road, the one so full of painful choices. She had felt obligated to share her vision with Julia, because she too felt an attachment to Kurt; if only because he was Raven's son. True, she hadn't known what would happen if she revealed the future, but she had at least hoped it would allow the pair to take steps against getting killed. She had never imagined what extremes Julia ended up going to.

"What will you do after this?" Destiny questioned.

"Honestly I don't know. I...I really want to see Kurt. I want to go home...but after everything that's happened...I don't know if I have a right to."

"I think you're well aware that Charles is not the sort hold a grudge. If you ask him to return, he'll very likely let you."

"But it's completely unfair of me to ask him for that. After all the trouble I caused..."

"Hm." Was all Destiny said for a moment, her mind wandering. "Will you accept some advice from the woman who set you on this path in the first place?" Destiny questioned.

"At this point, I'm willing to listen to just about any advice."

"As I said, I don't know whether the vision has changed, but I haven't seen it again; that's a good thing. And, considering the sort of lives mutants are forced to live in this world...we run the risk of being killed every time we venture out into the open, every time we are revealed as being what we are. Maybe you should simply...take advantage of what time you have, and try to spend as much of it as possible with the people you love."

"But...you were the one who told me to stay away from Kurt in the first place," Julia's tone was indignant, to say the least.

"I know. At the time it seemed like the most logical choice. But now...I think that it isn't so simple as that. Seems to me that trying to avoid one future only created another that was nearly as bad. And before you ask, no, I don't think it's any better for Kurt."

Julia was silent for a moment. "I just...I just don't want to cause him anymore pain."

"Then you should probably go to him. Let him know you're alright."

There was more shuffling, it seemed Julia was standing up again. "I don't think I can thank you for the first vision. But I can say thanks for the advice. And...sorry about breaking in, but I wasn't sure you would talk to me if I just knocked on your door."

"I understand. But I would recommend you avoid returning any time soon, Raven is on a bit of a vendetta for you."

"Thanks, I think. I'll keep that in mind." Julia's footsteps echoed across the room and down the stairs to the front door, and Destiny could only hope she was going home.

"Best of luck, Julia."