Matthew took deep breaths. It took a lot of effort to stay calm in the situation he was in. They entered a building, he could tell that much, and guards with deep voices ordered everyone to stay calm. They were in the Kirkland Corporation. Now was the time for the plan to go into action. He fought not to open his eyes or move at all. He just had to hope that Alfred was there, that he didn't get split up from the others. He collected his thoughts quickly before he reached out to the others.
Ready? He sent out a message to the others telepathically. He had made sure they were all linked before they began this whole thing, despite how Gilbert and Elizabeta protested to having each other in their heads. Matthew made sure that no random thoughts went between them, just focused thoughts that were meant to be heard.
Bring it, Gilbert said easily.
Da, Ivan said. Matthew noticed that Ivan never quite got the hang of this, speaking mostly in Russian, but they didn't mind.
I'm good, Elizabeta said, though she was a little nervous.
I am ready, Kiku said.
Matthew took a deep breath. They could do this. He could do this. It was going to be fine. He wouldn't get hurt, everyone would work to make sure no one got hurt. They could do this.
Go. Matthew thought.
He opened his eyes just as all of the stretchers they were strapped to slipped and he flinched when his clamored to the ground. He acted quickly, focusing hard on the straps holding him down and they eventually came undone themselves. It scared him how easily he could do that sort of thing, but he focused more on the matter at hand and quickly scrambled to his feet just to see Gilbert break out of his own holding. Kiku was already on his feet and Ivan was on his way there. Kiku went to help Elizabeta and Gilbert acted quickly, using an energy construct to hide them from the bullets that were already aimed at them.
Matthew looked around immediately to look for his brother and saw that Alfred was already on his way, running with a massive smile on his face. Gilbert opened the energy construct around them to let Alfred in, as well as Ludwig, and Arthur slid in as well.
"At least we're on track," Roderich muttered.
"Yeah, piece of cake," Gilbert muttered and Matthew noticed that he was already growing tired. He never thought of how much effort it took for Gilbert to make sure his constructs could stand against something like a constant barrage of bullets.
"Let's get moving now, then," Arthur sighed and they turned to the still open elevator.
"Let's hope it still works," Elizabeta muttered and they all quickly moved inside, Gilbert moving to having the construct only over the door.
"I'm really not up to bringing all of your asses up that high," Gilbert smirked as Alfred tried the button and it surprisingly worked.
"We don't know how long it will work for until Allistor notices something," Roderich said while the elevator moved up. This was going a lot smoother than Matthew hoped it would. It was almost eerie.
"You guys scared the shit out of me," Alfred snapped at about the twelfth floor. "Why'd you wait so long?"
"It was Birdie that waited so long to get us moving," Gilbert smirked. "Don't worry, we've got this."
"As long as you're sure," Ludwig muttered.
"There is no telling what else they will have for us," Ivan muttered. Matthew could tell he was scared of getting caught like the others. He was very uncomfortable with the idea of having his abilities known to others, especially an organization like this.
"Only one way to find out," Gilbert smirked. "Go in fighting."
"That will not always work," Elizabeta sighed.
"Yeah? It's worked for me this far," Gilbert said proudly.
"You were captured once," Elizabeta reminded happily.
"Quiet, both of you," Arthur snapped and Matthew noticed that the elevator had reached the top, slowing to a stop. Gilbert immediately put an energy construct back over the door. It was a miracle nothing stopped them on the way up there. That must have meant that there was something waiting for them at the top.
The doors opened and Matthew gasped when he saw the amount of people waiting for them, all of them holding guns. They opened fire immediately and Matthew took a startled step back.
"Jesus fucking Christ," Gilbert cursed and went to his knees. He gritted his teeth and the energy construct remained in place, surprisingly. "Just took me by surprise, I'm fine, don't worry."
"What now?" Alfred asked.
"Kiku," Matthew muttered, looking at the smaller mutant. "Do you think you could get us over to Allistor?"
"If he's still even here," Roderich said. "He might have escaped already."
"We can try," Kiku nodded. "I'm not sure how well it will work."
"I trust you," Matthew smiled at the man. Kiku carefully took hold of his arm before he carefully moved through the barrier Gilbert had made. It was a strange feeling when Matthew went through, but he ignored it easily enough. Matthew already felt bullets going through him, but never hurting him. And he moved quickly with Kiku. The men looked startled, trying to aim at them more than the construct, but none dared to shoot behind them, which made Matthew smile. They made their way through the closed doors.
A man Matthew recognized from his time in the basement of the same building stood from his chair, a look of fear mixed with rage tracing his face. And Matthew ran. Allistor pulled a gun from under his desk and Matthew slid over the wood, knocking papers and expensive looking trinkets to the ground. He gripped onto Allistor's head, despite the gun digging into his own stomach, and touched his forehead carefully to Allistor's.
And then he was no longer in the room. Matthew gasped slightly as he felt…odd. He knew immediately he was in Allistor's mind, though he didn't know how he could tell. The plan was to get control over him, force him to stop everything. But Matthew wasn't okay with that. He had another plan in mind, it would just take some patience and effort.
Allistor was already starting to fight back as Matthew moved, looking through Allistor's thoughts. Immediately, his hatred for mutants came across. Very clearly. He used many curse words and images to show exactly how he felt, but Matthew kept going. He went deeper into Allistor's thoughts and found a few interesting things, though he knew he couldn't stay on them for long. There was his love for his brother, which Arthur denied every day. There was a respect for the mutants he had for their willingness to go this far. There was fear not only towards the mutants, but also towards the future. Matthew learned about the will left behind by his father, clearly leaving the company in Arthur's hands.
Arthur hadn't told them about that, perhaps he planned to mention it after Allistor was under their control. Matthew moved deeper, despite Allistor obviously protesting and attempting to put up walls around him to stop him. Matthew easily moved everything out of his way. He reached Allistor's memories. His thoughts towards Arthur wasting everything on his rebellious phase. How scared he was when he was left to take over the company. His despair after the death of his father, which he blamed on a mutant. The fun he had had in Scotland, drinking to his heart's content and forgetting about his family. Everything was laid in front of Matthew and he felt almost bad, going so far into Allistor's private thoughts.
But Matthew eventually found what he was looking for. A simple memory, one that didn't look like much, but it was more than enough.
Allistor was 12, sitting with his family around a table while his father read the newspaper. They were still in England, but the company was about to move its base of operations to America. Allistor wasn't excited to move, but he looked at his brothers. They were excited to go to a new place and Arthur was smiling, talking all about how his imaginary friends promised to follow him. Their mother just nodded and said that was nice.
"Those damn mutants again," his father cursed and Allistor jumped when the man slammed his newspaper on the table, spilling his tea slightly.
"What's wrong, dad?" Allistor was the first to pipe up, their mother too scared to say anything against the man. He was terrifying, but Allistor was a big, strong boy now. Biggest of his brothers. He was fine.
"Ever since those freaks started showing themselves in the news ten years ago, they keep popping up," his father grumbled, glaring at his tea. "What good do they do? They're worthless trash. They're the ones that are causing the market to crash, I'm sure."
"Yeah?" Allistor asked. He believed every word his father was telling him.
"Of course they are!" his father snapped. He talked about a bunch of technical terms Allistor didn't understand. But he got the general message. Mutants were what was wrong with the world, they were causing all of the hardships. Allistor soaked it all in.
Matthew hesitated at first. It was the first solid memory Allistor had of mutants. It was what morphed his entire opinion at them. Allistor wasn't fighting back anymore. Matthew was too far back in his subconscious.
With a little hesitation, Matthew wiped away the memory. More specifically, he changed it. It took a lot of effort, but Matthew was able to weave a story that Allistor accepted and it locked into place.
"Those damn mutants again," his father cursed and Allistor jumped when the man slammed his newspaper on the table, spilling his tea slightly.
"What's wrong, dad?" Allistor was the first to pipe up.
"Ever since those freaks started showing themselves in the news ten years ago, they keep popping up," his father grumbled, glaring at his tea. "What good do they do? They're worthless trash. They're the ones that are causing the market to crash, I'm sure."
"Yeah?" Allistor asked, believing every word his father was telling him.
"Your father is just overreacting," his mother sighed, shaking her head. "Don't listen to him, mutants are fine, they're just people."
"No," his father snapped. "They're a menace."
"The only menaces you see are the ones that are serial killers and murderers, humans do the same thing," his mother hummed. Allistor nodded.
Allistor's mind quickly accepted this new memory, soaking in what Matthew was making his mother say. Matthew could tell that Allistor trusted his mother a lot, at least until she left their family when he was sixteen. Matthew knew that as a kid, Allistor would trust nearly everything he had his mother say. Just a little bit more pushing.
"Shut up, woman," his father snapped. "These killers are worse than humans, they can cause much more damage."
"Listen to me Allistor," his mother smiled softly at him. "All of you boys. Don't treat a mutant different because they can just do other things. Got it?"
"Yeah!" Allistor nodded proudly.
Matthew let out a sigh of relief. Allistor accepted it. His personality twisted just slightly. His father would go on rants about the mutants and Allistor simply wrote it off as the man going too far. When his father chased a mutant to his own death, he just viewed it as his old man going too far on his crazy dream again. All of the events of the past still happened, though.
Matthew worked hard to make it very clear to the man. Everything that had happened in the past really did happen. Allistor would be fully aware that Matthew changed his memory to change his mind, but he wouldn't know what the original memory was. Allistor would know how he changed, he would just forget how he used to feel.
Matthew felt himself slipping, he was getting tired. This was taking a lot out of him. He was washed forward by Allistor's memories, pushed into the present. Allistor's thoughts were now completely different. He was…confused. Conflicted. He felt horrible.
Matthew slowly opened his eyes, greeted by the bright green eyes of the man in front of him. They were wide as Matthew stared at him. He dropped the gun and it clattered to the ground. Matthew smiled faintly at him.
"I'm so sorry," Allistor muttered, shaking his head, and Matthew nodded.
And then he slipped again, the world going black.
I've done a twist like this in the past…Take the villain, change his memories, make him not the villain. I like this path quite a lot. Matthew wouldn't be okay with the original plan at all, which was forcefully taking over Allistor's mind and making him do what they wanted until Arthur could take over. Now's a more peaceful way that Matthew is much happier with, so we're all good. I hope the whole mind thing wasn't too confusing, I tried to make sure it made sense!
Anyway, please review!
