Title: Ignorance Is Bliss (chapter 2)
Author: The Duchess Of The Dark
Teaser: Companion piece set after 'Lucidity: Renascence'. First person monologue.
Rating: PG 13 for language.
Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Marvel Comics Inc. Helena Draven is mine.
Genre: General. For more fiction (not fanfic) visit my page at Illona's Place Vampires
Archive: Yes, but ask me first, please.
Notes: This is a companion piece to the X-Men trilogy comprising of 'Prelude: A Canadian Tale', 'Fugue: X-Men' & 'Lucidity: Renascence'. Read those, or you won't know who Helena Draven is, or the relationships between various characters! This second chapter is from Logan's perspective.
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Sometimes, I don't know why the hell I stay here at Mutant High. It's a school. It's got rules, regulations and damn authority figures coming out of its ears. I'm not good with authority, ask Hels, she'll tell you. Come to think of it, she ain't much good with authority either. I can see her biting her tongue when Scooter snaps out his orders sometimes. Me, I'd just punch him in the mouth and be done with it. I've been tempted a helluva lot of times. He struts about with his pretty boy haircut and designer clothes, playing Fearless Leader. Urgh. One thing about Cyke, though, he cares about his team, would never let us down. That's the only good thing about him. I used to hate him 'cos he's got Red… just thinking about him getting cosy with her every night made me wanna slice his ass into baloney. Now, I ain't so sure – I just don't see Jeannie that way anymore. Sure, she's hot, but she ain't Hels… What the hell you grinning at, bub?! Think it might be his cologne. I can smell the anally-retentive fuck coming a mile away.
And don't you sit there thinking I'm going soft. I mightn't be so rough around the edges these days, but I've still got it. Hels knows it, but she doesn't try to change me. We both learnt the hard way back in Canada that we're never gonna iron out each other's creases. Fought a lot, like cat and dog, or mebbe 'alpha male and female' as Chuck once labelled us. We still like a damn good fight, to get the juices going. Stops us losing our edge. Though since Hels and me took up living together, it's in the Danger, rather than bar, room. Saves Wheels having to bail me out. Always seem to be me who gets caught by the cops. Hels just turns on the TP along with the charm and gets away with it. Let me tell you, the faces on the kids, or Scooter when the pair of us tramp through the school, clothes torn, sometimes trailing blood behind us – it's priceless. They don't understand. They ain't got the instinct like us.
As far as muties go, we ain't that special. It's not like we control the weather like 'Ro, who is a woman and a half, or blow things up like Gumbo. Nah, even with Hels being a natural born multiple – kinda a swiss army knife of gifts – we've not got spectacular powers. The only thing that makes us different is these… some fuckers strapped me down and coated my skeleton with this shit. Chuck figures they're bone under there, like Hels are. I'm guessing from your expression you've heard this from her already – she told you how both our memories are fucked up good? Yeah, well, whatever they did to us, it's the reason she absorbed my adamantium and we ended up with matching sets of steak knives. Cute, huh?
We don't talk about it much, usually only when something new turns up – like those videotapes from Alkali Lake showing Hels on the rampage. She won't admit it, but that shook her up plenty. I think she talks to Chuck though. She'll talk to anyone, natter away about teenage crap with Marie and her friends, talk shop with Jean, have a bottle of wine or three with 'Ro – you ever seen a drunk goddess? But she there's certain things she won't talk about. You know when her face changes like that, when she gets kinda icy, that you'd best shut the hell up. The Cajun learnt that the hard way… I know that boy would try to get into her pants if I drop the ball. If he tries it, I'll gut him and make beef jerky outta his ass. Same thing goes if he hurts my Marie.
Other than that, he's an okay guy. I like him better than Boy Scout. If it wasn't for him, Hels would be six feet under. You ain't heard that story? Yeah, well, whaddaya say I give you the short version? Sabretooth jumps her in the park down in Salem Centre, kills some guy who used to teach here, grabs hold of Marie and forces her to make skin-to-skin contact with Hels. Damn nearly killed her. Remy kept her heart going until we got there, so I owe him. But not as much as I owe Victor fucking Creed. He's a dead man walking for what he did to my woman, and to Marie, who is too fucking young to have had so much shit happen to her.
I guess when it comes down to it, I stay 'cos I want to. I used to think I only stayed 'cos of Hels… I dragged my ass back from Canada just to see her. I kinda had one of those moments where everything's clear and you suddenly realise what a goddamn dick you've been – though try repeating that, bub, and I'll kick your ass so hard your kids'll be born bruised. I'm still not sure if I believe in Chuck's philosophy. Hels does, though sometimes she's gotta work hard at it when we get another abused kid come in who's been beaten half to death for being a mutant. The war between mutants and flatscans isn't just coming, it's here. We've all gotta do our part, even loners like me. It's either that or extinction, and I ain't planning on going the way of the dodo.
Yeah, so here I am at Mutant High. I teach a few classes, tinker about with the bikes and cars, generally make myself useful about the place. I'm as settled as I'm ever gonna be. Me and Hel's still take off a few times a year, leave cellphones and laptops and shit behind and wander. We've gone to the jungles in Guatemala and Venezuela, to Africa, India and Japan. There's advantages to having a billionaire like Chuck around. We have our fun while we can, 'cos the next time we go up against Magneto and his dumb fucks, we mightn't make it back. Having metal bones around the master of magnetism ain't exactly useful.
And one day, our pasts are gonna catch up and bite us in the ass. I know it, she knows it, and so do the rest of the team. I can't remember jack beyond about eighteen years ago. I don't know how old I am, if I have family anywhere, nothing. When I look in the mirror, I see a guy who looks about thirty, the same face I've seen for almost two decades. Hels figures she's about the thirty seven mark, though she doesn't look a day over twenty five. But she's not sure. Neither of us can be sure of anything much. She's quite happy to let the Prof go rooting through her head, I guess she understands the mechanics better, being a telepath herself. I don't like it, but I'll let him just so we can get one step closer to figuring stuff out. I wanna know what happened, though I know it's gonna be bad. We're not gonna come out of it smelling of roses, but I need to know… or at least I figure I do. Sometimes Hels says she'd rather not know, in that roundabout English way she gets, says that some things are better left to rot. Sometimes, I think she's right.