Disguise
By Tracy (biancaheart@yahoo.com)
Character: Scott
Universe: Movie Verse
Rating: PG-13 or so
Disclaimer: The X-Men belong to Marvel, 20th Century Fox, and such. I don't own them, and I'm not trying to make a profit. No suing, please.
Summary: One soul, two names.
Author's Note: Props go up on this fic to Mythica's Iris, an incredible new writer and one of my real life best friends, who's "Marie vs. Rogue- When Worlds Collide" provided the plot bunny for this fic (look for her fic under Mythicas Iris). Feedback if you will.
One soul, two names. One a name a disguise that he wears for survival. It is a costume that he's become accustomed to wearing over the years. It is a second skin, one that provides him with a strange sort of comfort, a source of belonging. The other is his true self, something he protects strongly. He doesn't go out seeking friends, but they seem to find him nonetheless. Few know him intimately, and few dislike him. He is a loner, an enigma, and he likes it that way.
He is a mutant. His gift is more deadly than explosives or TNT. His skin serves as a barrier for the great power within his body. He is strong. Eyes are his Achilles' Heel. Even opening them up the slightest bit could take out walls, or even a mountain. He has a great amount of self-control, and it's a good thing for the universe that he does.
He was born Scott Summers. Raised an Air Force Brat, he's lived in more places than he can remember. A slight twang of a Nebraska accent lingers in his voice. Once Upon a time he had a little brother, a blond twerp that he both protected fiercely and beat up on heartily. He had a happy life until it shattered one day, with fire and falling and loss.
Scott was left all alone. He lived on the streets for awhile. He doesn't like to look back on those days; he forces himself not to. Thinking too much would drive him insane. And he can't, he won't loose control.
Scott Summers has blue eyes. Those eyes had gotten him attention as a teenager- before his power kicked in. They got Scott into a lot of trouble. Blue Eyes make Scott beautiful.
Scott has a love of colors. He remembers sitting on his mother's lap as she painted. He remembers the smell of the paint and how squishy it felt on his fingers. Slapping the paint on the canvas. His mother with multicolored flecks of paint in her hair. Blue was cool because his father flew up in the blue, blue, blue sky. Brown was the color of their dog, Rusty. Yellow looked like Alex's hair, and Momma's too. Green like the grass outside, with all the dandelions to blow and watch soar in the sky. Scott didn't like red. It was too icky of a color, too bright. Bad things were red- like fire hydrants and fire engines and blood.
Scott discovered that he liked the color red when he met Jean Grey. Her hair was red and beautiful, nothing like a fire hydrant, engine, or blood. It suited her.
Scott is a bit of a packrat. The past has made him a bit paranoid. He doesn't like to throw anything away. He believes that everything has an alternate use- even that two-week-old pizza box. Piles of stuff are all over the room, until Jean gets fed up and does his cleaning for him. He is not neat, and never will be. He likes it that way. He swears to himself, that one day, when he marries Jean, she won't force him into that library science sorted way of living that she adores.
He is a teacher. It is not the vocation that he would choose, but the one that has chosen him. More and more mutants are being born, through some science theorem that he couldn't give a crap about. He cares about the kids. Scott wants them to have a second chance, to have something to believe in. He teaches them how to hope, and in turn, they teach him how to dream.
The brown haired man in the mirror is also known as Cyclops, a name that seems like a cruel joke. He has more than one eye, and he's showed villains an up close and personal view of both of them, ridding them of their disbelief.
He hates being called One-Eye.
The X-men know to call him Cyclops, or sometimes Cyke or Slim.
Cyclops has a family. It is a strange family, with each member strange and stranger than the last. A girl who can walk through walls. A boy who can turn everything, sometimes himself included, to ice. Another, who when he sneezes, acts like a human Xerox machine. A woman who can control the weather. A Canadian with an attitude and long metal claws. A family called the X-men. He would die for any one of them.
They would die for him too.
Cyclops is continually looking through rose-colored glasses. He has no choice. His identity came with the visor. He can't rid himself of them without destroying himself or the life he has made. Time has weakened the urge to try. His world is red, a cruel, harsh, and unforgiving color.
He sees a cruel, harsh, and unforgiving world.
He fights in battle because it is his duty. He is the leader, chosen by Xavier. His teammates trust him.
He doesn't forgive himself for getting them hurt.
Each scar, each death, they linger in his mind. They keep him up at night when the school is sleeping. They cause him to sneak down and finish up the little bit of Baskin-Robbins that Bobby Drake leaves in the fridge.
The man looks in the mirror and is confused at the image. The man wears a visor, but somehow he knows that it hides blue eye. Lines from worry and stress line his face. There's a scar from that time they faced Juggernaut on his neck. His world is red, but he hates the damn color.
This man has two names. One is a façade.
The only problem is he's forgotten which is which.