Disclaimer: Here we have it, the next part of Incendiarism at last! Thank you so much to everyone who left a review. Hope you all enjoy this, please read then leave a review.
I don't own X-Men. All I own is Spark and a John clone. (I wish.)
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Incendiarism.
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Part 6:- Old Sins Cast Long Shadows
~~~
The darkness was all around him. It encased him, covered him so there was nothing but the darkness. He didn't know if there was any floor or any walls, there was no visible surfaces anywhere. For some reason though, he could see himself.
If John raised his arm, he could looked down in the darkness and see his arm with his attached hand as if he was standing in clear sunlight.
Time passed. It was impossible to tell how much had passed, it could have been mere minutes, it could have been days. Time seemed to move differently in the place where John stood. After what seemed like forever to him, footsteps sounded behind him.
A man stood behind him, maybe a year or so older than John himself. And John's mind screamed, refusing to accept what he was seeing. For what he was seeing was something that didn't exist, that had never existed.
It had meant too once, nine years ago this body was a possibility, was someone's destiny. John was looking at the body of Andrew, the one who had died at the age of eleven.
"Surprised?" Andrew asked. His voice had changed too, it had broken and become deeper, husker. Of course John had only seen Andrew once, when he was on the operation table but the sleeping gas had taken effect almost instantly and after that John only heard Andrew in his head, ranting on about this or that. After a while, thanks to the scientists, even that had stopped.
Years had passed. All too soon the memory of Andrew had faded as had the memory of his past. It was hard to remember pain, after the encounter the feelings slowly vanish like a shadow on your mind. Yet here was Andrew, his blond hair had grown longer and was tied back into a ponytail. The eyes were the same though, deep, dark green eyes that had stared at John with such hatred before becoming drug filled and slowly closing forever. All this passed through John's mind in the time it takes to blink.
"Where are we?" John asked. He didn't bother to ask how any of this was possible.
"It is a bit drab isn't it?" Andrew said, waving a hand lazily around the blackness. "This is your mind, or is it our mind? So hard to tell sometimes." John put his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath.
"He has Rogue." John said simply. Instantly the calm expression on Andrew's face was shattered. He took a few steps forward and grabbed John by the shirt.
"What do you mean?" Andrew hissed. John mealy looked at him, letting the other mutant have a look at his most recent memory. Andrew let go of the shirt and backed away.
"I have an idea." John said, wishing desperately that this mind him had a lighter. Sadly, the dream him came with clothes, shoes and memories but no sliver lighter with a shark on it. Andrew gestured at him to get on with it.
"Magneto wants something from us. It could be something you have or something I have. It might even be something we both have. So we work together. We help each other until she is safe."
"Then we end this." Andrew added. John looked at him, his fingers making the monition they would make to flick his lighter.
"You'll right. This has to end one way or the other." John agreed. He extended his hand and looked at Andrew. The other boy roughly took his hand and shook it.
Then the world exploded into color and light.
~~~
Bobby tried to open his eyes. It was a mistake. The light bit into the slits where his eyes were burning at the tender eyeballs. He gave a weak mumble, letting his eyes close again.
"No, Bobby, don't shut your eyes. Stay with us Okay?" The Professor's voice floated over him, urging him back into the land of the living. Bobby didn't want to try and wake up again, it was a lot more peaceful in the quiet darkness of his own mind. Still, something about the tone of the man's voice made him try and force his eyes back open.
"Professor?" he asked, forcing his eyes open enough to see the man sitting in a wheelchair by his bed.
"Bobby, it's good to see you awake again." the man said with a smile. "Just try and relax." Bobby let his eyes drift shut.
"Rogue!" he gasped trying to climb out of the bed. He fell back onto the soft sheets with a scream of pain.
"Bobby, calm down. I know all about Magneto, John and Rogue." Bobby stared at him, understanding growing on his face.
"Spark told you?"
"No... Young Miss. Spark has yet to regain conscious." Xavier said, wheeling his chair a little away from Bobby's bed. Bobby looked over to the space which Xavier had moved from. Lying on the bed next to his was Spark. She was lying on her back, her eyes closed. "I'm afraid I had to read your mind to gain the information, however you were screaming it out loud to the world." The Professor said dryly. "I think we need to work on your mind control." Bobby blushed. He looked back over to where Spark lay, so perfectly still.
"Will she be okay?"
"She should be. From what we could tell, she was hit in the head with a metal sheet. The force of the blow knocked her out. Unfortunately as she fell, she teleported. I assume it was a instinctive reaction, I doubt she would have tried to teleport with a head injury if she could think clearly. She ended up impaling herself on a broken chair before Scott and Kurt found you both." The Professor allowed a rare smile to flit across his face. "Now rest, as soon as she wakes up we will be able to devise a plan to save both Rouge and John." Bobby tried to nod but the pain was too much. He settled instead for a weak smile and closed his eyes again. This time he didn't open them and soon slipped off into a light sleep.
Once Professor Xavier was sure that he was asleep he wheeled his chair over to the office, where Hank was standing, looking over some charts.
"Hank." Xavier said. The blue haired man-beast looked up at his name. "When will she wake up?"
"If she wakes up." Hank corrected him. "Why did you tell Mr. Drake that she will be fine? You know only too well, that the injuries she sustained were extensive and that she should have woken up hours ago."
"I had to tell him something."
"You'll right of course." Hank said, bowing his head. He looked through the door of his office to where Spark lay on the bed. "She could wake up at any time. It's just... the longer it lasts, the less likely she is too wake up."
~~~
Bobby slept for roughly two hours. It was a light, refreshing sleep. When he came too, the first thought that invaded his mind was 'why had he just allowed himself to fall asleep when his two friends, Rogue and John were in terrible danger?' the answer came to him like lightning. "The Professor." There was no way Bobby would have fallen asleep if Xavier hadn't been there. Sighing Bobby turned his head and watched Spark.
"g..." The sound came faintly to Bobby, so faintly that he wasn't even sure if he had heard it.
"Spark? Spark can you hear me? Come on you gotta wake up." Bobby pleaded. There was no repose, the only sound being the steady beeping of her heart monitor.
"John needs you Spark. Come on, he needs you. Rogue needs you. Please wake up..."
"J'hn?" a weak voice asked, unable to form a complete word. Spark's eyes were slightly open and she was looking at him.
"Yes, Spark, John needs you." Bobby said. Her eyes opened more as she stated first at him, then at the bed she was in.
"Doctor!" Bobby called. "She's woken up!" He was grinning from ear to ear, now they could do something.
~~~
"Damnit!" Spark cursed, grimacing as she clutching at her wounded stomach. "I hate it when I get impaled!"
"What, you've had experience?" Bobby joked. Spark gazed at him, a clear, cool look, which had no humor in it.
"Once or twice."
"Oh." said Bobby completely at a loss. Spark grimaced again then gave him a smile.
"Don't worry 'bout it. I've had worse." She turned her gaze over to where The Professor was siting, calmly waiting for her to finish. "Okay, Baldie, let's get this show on the road."
"Where do you thing you'll going?" Xavier asked as Spark tried to get out of the bed. She glared at him from under some stray strands of hair.
"We need to find Pyro and Rogue right?" she asked. "I know where the bases are, so you need me to tell you how to get there. So let's get started shall we."
"You are in no fit condition to be going anywhere young lady." Hank said, appearing by her bedside. Spark's eyes widened ever so slightly as she gaze dat the tall blue man-beast that was looking at her.
"I'm going to take a wide guess here, but you'll not Nightcrawler are you." she asked, sounding almost sad at the thought. Hank nodded. "Humm, you must be new." she said, more to herself than to anymore else. She transferred her gaze back to Xavier. "I'm coming too." she said simply.
"Spark, what help would you be to John if you'll injured?" Xavier pointed out. Spark's eyes narrowed.
"Don't you ever dare to tell if I would or would not be able to help John. You can't stop me coming... besides I... I just have this feeling. I need to come." Xavier continued to stare at her, his gaze uncertain. "Please." Spark added.
~~~
"Do you love him?" Bobby asked. They were sitting in the X-jet, waiting for take off. Storm, Wolverine and Cyclops were already there and they were just waiting for Nightcrawler. Xavier had deiced that a large frontal attack would be foolhardy so instead, he was sending four in to find John and Rogue and then get out. Bobby was coming to make sure Spark would be OK and Spark was coming because it was impossible for her to be left behind. As she pointed out, even if they left her behind in the mansion she would try and follow them and surly it would be more dangerous for her to use her powers when she was weak? In the end they had reached a compromise. She would go as long as she stayed in the jet.
"What?" Spark, asked slightly started. She turned her head from where she was watching out for Nightcrawler to look at Bobby. "Do I love who?"
"Do you love John?"
"Of course I do. He's my brother in everything but blood and name." she smiled fondly. "When he first came to live with us, my dad made the mistake of calling him St. John. He had to endure an hour long lecture as John told him it was pronounced Sinjin. John looked so serious. Why do you ask?"
"I... I don't know. I guess I just wanted to know how you felt about him."
"I love him so much, he's the only family I have now. I just... I just hope he doesn't make a deal with the devil." Spark finished. Bobby's ears perked up at her last comment.
"What? You mean make a deal with the Brotherhood?"
"No." Spark hesitated. "You see... John loves Rogue." there was a short silence. Finally Bobby nodded, once. Spark hurried on.
"Of course, John would never had said anything while you were going out with her, after all you'll his best friend. But... well... John forgot about Andrew. Not forgot as in didn't remember him but rather he blocked the thought of him from his mind. Because of this, he didn't try and protect his thoughts from someone who was in his head so Andrew knew everything John did."
"What's your point?"
"The point is when John left it was more than just protecting everyone in the mansion. Andrew loves Rogue as well. He would talk all the time about the things he wanted to do... to her." Spark shook her head. "It was horrible, right after I joined the Brotherhood. John was having a meltdown."
"So when you say 'make a deal with the devil', you mean Andrew?" Bobby guessed.
"That's right. John might be stupid enough to try and make some kind of deal with Andrew to save Rogue. And Andrew is obsessed about her enough to keep to it... at least until she's safe. Then he will turn on John." She said it quite simply, without trying to soften what she was saying. If was as if she was reading out from a menu about the different brands of wine instead of telling him the John was in deep, deep trouble.
Spark turned away, so that he wouldn't see the anger in her eyes. She had tried to remind neutral when she told him about Andrew but it was hard. Because she was so angry at Bobby. Angry at him for not knowing, angry at him for not fixing her brother and most of all angry at him for caring. It was much easier to hate him when she could pretend that he didn't care about John.
She was distracted from her thoughts but the arrival of Nightcrawler. He appeared in the cockpit, muttering sorry. The jet slowly began to power up and Spark let her thoughts drift.
To Bobby, who was watching her, she looked very pale and ill. Her gaze would sometimes be unfocused. Once or twice on the flight, she lifted a hand to her head as if it was causing her some kind of pain.
~~~
The truce or whatever it was they had, wasn't working. Both John and Andrew had let any mind blocks that had put up to separate each other fall and the result was the two were starting to merge into one person.
//We need to put our mind blocks back put.\\ Inner-John augured. He could feel the frustration in inner-Andrew, could feel the inanity bubbling just below the surface, inviting John to come and play to let it all go. Inwardly inner-John smiled, he couldn't believe that he was being the rational, sensible one.
//You mean boring one.\\ Inner-Andrew said. //Why don't you just let it go and have a bit of fun?\\ He then eased up a few weak walls, inner-John doing the same.
//Shut up, just follow the plan.\\ hissed inner-John, trying to ignore the temptation. Inner-Andrew was laughing at inner-John's attempts to ignore him. Outside, John's face remained neutral as the battle raged within.
//Why are you trying to ignore me? It's because you know I'm right. You want to have fun but you don't think that Rogue would approve. Man, you've turned into such a wuss. She gets off on it! Why do you think she likes Wolverine?\\
//Shut up, shut up, shut up!\\ chanted inner-John. The augment ended as Magneto entered the room where John was imprisoned.
"Pyro. Good to see you awake." Magneto said. Blank eyes answered him. As soon was Magneto had started speaking, Andrew - who had been in control of John's body at the time - lost interest in what he was saying and started up the argument again.
"Pyro?" The eyes remained blank as the two fire users fought each other. Erik raised his arm and slapped John hard on the cheek. His head snapped round as the hand made contact with the skin but there was no other reaction. A minute passed. Finally the augment going on in John's head ended.
Suddenly John blinked.
"Pyro."
"Magneto." John said softly. "Where's Rogue?"
"You can talk to her in a minute. First of all... I want to speak to the other fire user in your head. Ash, I believe he's called." Magneto almost purred. John closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a stranger was looking out of John's brown eyes. Ash struggled against the bonds the body was in.
"What do you want?" he snarled. Magneto studied the boy for a few seconds before waving his hand. The restraints came off. Ash stopped struggling and stared at Magneto.
"What do you want?" Andrew repeated, moving his arm around. Just under his skin inner-John muttered something about it not being his arm. Andrew ignored him.
"How would you like to be in control for good?" Magneto asked. Andrew smiled.
"What do you want me to do?"
~~~
This was the fourth possible hide-out. The first three had all been empty. Bobby was starting to loose it, he really was. How hard could it be to find them? They could always find the X-Men.
//Ah, but the mansion isn't really hidden is it.\\ he thought.
The jet descended into a forest. The four adults left and moved towards the place where Spark said the base was. Back in the jet, Spark studied the floor, looking any where but Bobby.
"So, John was having a meltdown? What was that like?"
"What was that like?" snapped Spark. "How do you think?"
"Oh come on." Bobby scoffed. "It couldn't have been too bad, this is John we'll talking about."
"You don't know!" she yelled. "You weren't there, you have no idea!" she snapped her head up from the floor, her gaze angry. The expression changed to a glazed far away look as she moaned softly in pain.
"I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" she asked, her gaze still far away. Bobby started at her in horror.
"Spark, are you all right?"
"Why shouldn't I be?" she replied, a puzzled expression on her face. She slowly raised her head and looked up at the roof. "This is the right place."
"How do you know, some kind of physic power you haven't shared yet?"
"No. I just saw Toad swing over head. We have to stop him before he raises the alarm!" she said, staggering over to the door, Bobby a few feet in front. They exited the jet and moved through the forest. A few hundred meters away, Toad was watching something, his back to them. Bobby sent some ice flying at him. It hit Toad in the back, sending him flying. The mutant spun round, using his tong to jump into a tree. The two fought for some minutes before Bobby gained the upper hand, knocking the other out. He turned to Spark, only to find she wasn't there.
"Oh man..." groaned Bobby.
~~~
Spark had found her way into the compound with out any real difficulty. She teleported through the empty rooms, searching. Every few rooms she would have to stop and rest for a moment.
Spark felt terribly lightheaded.
She was on the lower levels. Spark hadn't been in this part of the compound before which meant she couldn't teleport without risk of finding herself in a solid wall. Creeping along a corridor, she saw one of the brotherhood, a mutant named Gambit leave a room and lock the door. He seemed troubled.
"I don't like this." he muttered, twirling a playing card between his fingers. Sighing he walked away, down the corridor, away from both Spark and the door. She crept to the door and put her ear to it. Inside she could dimly make out faint sounds. Spark backed away, a frown on her face. She couldn't risk teleporting, knowing her luck, Magneto would have made the door extra thick to stop such an attempt. Spark looked at her hand, flexing it open and shut. She closed her eyes.
//Thanks a bunch!\\ she cursed before holding her palm erecting. It slowly began to glow a faint blue. She gasped slightly, but held the hand stiff. Tiny sparks of blue electricity started jumping out of her hand before a larger spark flew to the lock. Using the electricity she unlocked the door. Her knees buckled. The door opened.
"Spark!" Rogue gasped, running to the kneeling girl. Spark shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs in it.
"Hey." she croaked. Rogue smiled.
"Hey yourself. What are you doing here?" she questioned.
"Looking for you. Have you seen John?" Spark answered. Rogue shook her head.
"Tell him."
"Pardon?" Rogue frowned. Spark coughed, then repeated her sentence.
"I said, tell him. Tell him while you can." she smiled weakly. "He feels the same."
A shout echoed down the hall towards them. The voice was that of John. Rogue turned to Spark, her eyes shining. Spark gave a tiny nod.
"Tell him."
Rogue ran down the hall towards the voice, a smile on her face. Spark followed at a slower pace. She entered the door Rogue had ran into and bumped right into the girl.
"Rogue? What's th-" she stopped, taking the in the scene in front of her. There was a chair in the middle of the room, Magneto was thrown to the side, badly burned.
And in the mist of all this was John, his arms outstretched, flames dancing all over the room.
"It's show time." he said, Rogue gasping at his words. The accent was instantly recognized
Andrew was in full control.
TBC...
Thank you for reading, lot longer than a normal chapter for me.
Please leave a review.
I think there will only be two more parts to this.
Let me know what you thought about this part!
~Sethoz
I don't own X-Men. All I own is Spark and a John clone. (I wish.)
~~~
Incendiarism.
~~~
Part 6:- Old Sins Cast Long Shadows
~~~
The darkness was all around him. It encased him, covered him so there was nothing but the darkness. He didn't know if there was any floor or any walls, there was no visible surfaces anywhere. For some reason though, he could see himself.
If John raised his arm, he could looked down in the darkness and see his arm with his attached hand as if he was standing in clear sunlight.
Time passed. It was impossible to tell how much had passed, it could have been mere minutes, it could have been days. Time seemed to move differently in the place where John stood. After what seemed like forever to him, footsteps sounded behind him.
A man stood behind him, maybe a year or so older than John himself. And John's mind screamed, refusing to accept what he was seeing. For what he was seeing was something that didn't exist, that had never existed.
It had meant too once, nine years ago this body was a possibility, was someone's destiny. John was looking at the body of Andrew, the one who had died at the age of eleven.
"Surprised?" Andrew asked. His voice had changed too, it had broken and become deeper, husker. Of course John had only seen Andrew once, when he was on the operation table but the sleeping gas had taken effect almost instantly and after that John only heard Andrew in his head, ranting on about this or that. After a while, thanks to the scientists, even that had stopped.
Years had passed. All too soon the memory of Andrew had faded as had the memory of his past. It was hard to remember pain, after the encounter the feelings slowly vanish like a shadow on your mind. Yet here was Andrew, his blond hair had grown longer and was tied back into a ponytail. The eyes were the same though, deep, dark green eyes that had stared at John with such hatred before becoming drug filled and slowly closing forever. All this passed through John's mind in the time it takes to blink.
"Where are we?" John asked. He didn't bother to ask how any of this was possible.
"It is a bit drab isn't it?" Andrew said, waving a hand lazily around the blackness. "This is your mind, or is it our mind? So hard to tell sometimes." John put his hands in his pockets and took a deep breath.
"He has Rogue." John said simply. Instantly the calm expression on Andrew's face was shattered. He took a few steps forward and grabbed John by the shirt.
"What do you mean?" Andrew hissed. John mealy looked at him, letting the other mutant have a look at his most recent memory. Andrew let go of the shirt and backed away.
"I have an idea." John said, wishing desperately that this mind him had a lighter. Sadly, the dream him came with clothes, shoes and memories but no sliver lighter with a shark on it. Andrew gestured at him to get on with it.
"Magneto wants something from us. It could be something you have or something I have. It might even be something we both have. So we work together. We help each other until she is safe."
"Then we end this." Andrew added. John looked at him, his fingers making the monition they would make to flick his lighter.
"You'll right. This has to end one way or the other." John agreed. He extended his hand and looked at Andrew. The other boy roughly took his hand and shook it.
Then the world exploded into color and light.
~~~
Bobby tried to open his eyes. It was a mistake. The light bit into the slits where his eyes were burning at the tender eyeballs. He gave a weak mumble, letting his eyes close again.
"No, Bobby, don't shut your eyes. Stay with us Okay?" The Professor's voice floated over him, urging him back into the land of the living. Bobby didn't want to try and wake up again, it was a lot more peaceful in the quiet darkness of his own mind. Still, something about the tone of the man's voice made him try and force his eyes back open.
"Professor?" he asked, forcing his eyes open enough to see the man sitting in a wheelchair by his bed.
"Bobby, it's good to see you awake again." the man said with a smile. "Just try and relax." Bobby let his eyes drift shut.
"Rogue!" he gasped trying to climb out of the bed. He fell back onto the soft sheets with a scream of pain.
"Bobby, calm down. I know all about Magneto, John and Rogue." Bobby stared at him, understanding growing on his face.
"Spark told you?"
"No... Young Miss. Spark has yet to regain conscious." Xavier said, wheeling his chair a little away from Bobby's bed. Bobby looked over to the space which Xavier had moved from. Lying on the bed next to his was Spark. She was lying on her back, her eyes closed. "I'm afraid I had to read your mind to gain the information, however you were screaming it out loud to the world." The Professor said dryly. "I think we need to work on your mind control." Bobby blushed. He looked back over to where Spark lay, so perfectly still.
"Will she be okay?"
"She should be. From what we could tell, she was hit in the head with a metal sheet. The force of the blow knocked her out. Unfortunately as she fell, she teleported. I assume it was a instinctive reaction, I doubt she would have tried to teleport with a head injury if she could think clearly. She ended up impaling herself on a broken chair before Scott and Kurt found you both." The Professor allowed a rare smile to flit across his face. "Now rest, as soon as she wakes up we will be able to devise a plan to save both Rouge and John." Bobby tried to nod but the pain was too much. He settled instead for a weak smile and closed his eyes again. This time he didn't open them and soon slipped off into a light sleep.
Once Professor Xavier was sure that he was asleep he wheeled his chair over to the office, where Hank was standing, looking over some charts.
"Hank." Xavier said. The blue haired man-beast looked up at his name. "When will she wake up?"
"If she wakes up." Hank corrected him. "Why did you tell Mr. Drake that she will be fine? You know only too well, that the injuries she sustained were extensive and that she should have woken up hours ago."
"I had to tell him something."
"You'll right of course." Hank said, bowing his head. He looked through the door of his office to where Spark lay on the bed. "She could wake up at any time. It's just... the longer it lasts, the less likely she is too wake up."
~~~
Bobby slept for roughly two hours. It was a light, refreshing sleep. When he came too, the first thought that invaded his mind was 'why had he just allowed himself to fall asleep when his two friends, Rogue and John were in terrible danger?' the answer came to him like lightning. "The Professor." There was no way Bobby would have fallen asleep if Xavier hadn't been there. Sighing Bobby turned his head and watched Spark.
"g..." The sound came faintly to Bobby, so faintly that he wasn't even sure if he had heard it.
"Spark? Spark can you hear me? Come on you gotta wake up." Bobby pleaded. There was no repose, the only sound being the steady beeping of her heart monitor.
"John needs you Spark. Come on, he needs you. Rogue needs you. Please wake up..."
"J'hn?" a weak voice asked, unable to form a complete word. Spark's eyes were slightly open and she was looking at him.
"Yes, Spark, John needs you." Bobby said. Her eyes opened more as she stated first at him, then at the bed she was in.
"Doctor!" Bobby called. "She's woken up!" He was grinning from ear to ear, now they could do something.
~~~
"Damnit!" Spark cursed, grimacing as she clutching at her wounded stomach. "I hate it when I get impaled!"
"What, you've had experience?" Bobby joked. Spark gazed at him, a clear, cool look, which had no humor in it.
"Once or twice."
"Oh." said Bobby completely at a loss. Spark grimaced again then gave him a smile.
"Don't worry 'bout it. I've had worse." She turned her gaze over to where The Professor was siting, calmly waiting for her to finish. "Okay, Baldie, let's get this show on the road."
"Where do you thing you'll going?" Xavier asked as Spark tried to get out of the bed. She glared at him from under some stray strands of hair.
"We need to find Pyro and Rogue right?" she asked. "I know where the bases are, so you need me to tell you how to get there. So let's get started shall we."
"You are in no fit condition to be going anywhere young lady." Hank said, appearing by her bedside. Spark's eyes widened ever so slightly as she gaze dat the tall blue man-beast that was looking at her.
"I'm going to take a wide guess here, but you'll not Nightcrawler are you." she asked, sounding almost sad at the thought. Hank nodded. "Humm, you must be new." she said, more to herself than to anymore else. She transferred her gaze back to Xavier. "I'm coming too." she said simply.
"Spark, what help would you be to John if you'll injured?" Xavier pointed out. Spark's eyes narrowed.
"Don't you ever dare to tell if I would or would not be able to help John. You can't stop me coming... besides I... I just have this feeling. I need to come." Xavier continued to stare at her, his gaze uncertain. "Please." Spark added.
~~~
"Do you love him?" Bobby asked. They were sitting in the X-jet, waiting for take off. Storm, Wolverine and Cyclops were already there and they were just waiting for Nightcrawler. Xavier had deiced that a large frontal attack would be foolhardy so instead, he was sending four in to find John and Rogue and then get out. Bobby was coming to make sure Spark would be OK and Spark was coming because it was impossible for her to be left behind. As she pointed out, even if they left her behind in the mansion she would try and follow them and surly it would be more dangerous for her to use her powers when she was weak? In the end they had reached a compromise. She would go as long as she stayed in the jet.
"What?" Spark, asked slightly started. She turned her head from where she was watching out for Nightcrawler to look at Bobby. "Do I love who?"
"Do you love John?"
"Of course I do. He's my brother in everything but blood and name." she smiled fondly. "When he first came to live with us, my dad made the mistake of calling him St. John. He had to endure an hour long lecture as John told him it was pronounced Sinjin. John looked so serious. Why do you ask?"
"I... I don't know. I guess I just wanted to know how you felt about him."
"I love him so much, he's the only family I have now. I just... I just hope he doesn't make a deal with the devil." Spark finished. Bobby's ears perked up at her last comment.
"What? You mean make a deal with the Brotherhood?"
"No." Spark hesitated. "You see... John loves Rogue." there was a short silence. Finally Bobby nodded, once. Spark hurried on.
"Of course, John would never had said anything while you were going out with her, after all you'll his best friend. But... well... John forgot about Andrew. Not forgot as in didn't remember him but rather he blocked the thought of him from his mind. Because of this, he didn't try and protect his thoughts from someone who was in his head so Andrew knew everything John did."
"What's your point?"
"The point is when John left it was more than just protecting everyone in the mansion. Andrew loves Rogue as well. He would talk all the time about the things he wanted to do... to her." Spark shook her head. "It was horrible, right after I joined the Brotherhood. John was having a meltdown."
"So when you say 'make a deal with the devil', you mean Andrew?" Bobby guessed.
"That's right. John might be stupid enough to try and make some kind of deal with Andrew to save Rogue. And Andrew is obsessed about her enough to keep to it... at least until she's safe. Then he will turn on John." She said it quite simply, without trying to soften what she was saying. If was as if she was reading out from a menu about the different brands of wine instead of telling him the John was in deep, deep trouble.
Spark turned away, so that he wouldn't see the anger in her eyes. She had tried to remind neutral when she told him about Andrew but it was hard. Because she was so angry at Bobby. Angry at him for not knowing, angry at him for not fixing her brother and most of all angry at him for caring. It was much easier to hate him when she could pretend that he didn't care about John.
She was distracted from her thoughts but the arrival of Nightcrawler. He appeared in the cockpit, muttering sorry. The jet slowly began to power up and Spark let her thoughts drift.
To Bobby, who was watching her, she looked very pale and ill. Her gaze would sometimes be unfocused. Once or twice on the flight, she lifted a hand to her head as if it was causing her some kind of pain.
~~~
The truce or whatever it was they had, wasn't working. Both John and Andrew had let any mind blocks that had put up to separate each other fall and the result was the two were starting to merge into one person.
//We need to put our mind blocks back put.\\ Inner-John augured. He could feel the frustration in inner-Andrew, could feel the inanity bubbling just below the surface, inviting John to come and play to let it all go. Inwardly inner-John smiled, he couldn't believe that he was being the rational, sensible one.
//You mean boring one.\\ Inner-Andrew said. //Why don't you just let it go and have a bit of fun?\\ He then eased up a few weak walls, inner-John doing the same.
//Shut up, just follow the plan.\\ hissed inner-John, trying to ignore the temptation. Inner-Andrew was laughing at inner-John's attempts to ignore him. Outside, John's face remained neutral as the battle raged within.
//Why are you trying to ignore me? It's because you know I'm right. You want to have fun but you don't think that Rogue would approve. Man, you've turned into such a wuss. She gets off on it! Why do you think she likes Wolverine?\\
//Shut up, shut up, shut up!\\ chanted inner-John. The augment ended as Magneto entered the room where John was imprisoned.
"Pyro. Good to see you awake." Magneto said. Blank eyes answered him. As soon was Magneto had started speaking, Andrew - who had been in control of John's body at the time - lost interest in what he was saying and started up the argument again.
"Pyro?" The eyes remained blank as the two fire users fought each other. Erik raised his arm and slapped John hard on the cheek. His head snapped round as the hand made contact with the skin but there was no other reaction. A minute passed. Finally the augment going on in John's head ended.
Suddenly John blinked.
"Pyro."
"Magneto." John said softly. "Where's Rogue?"
"You can talk to her in a minute. First of all... I want to speak to the other fire user in your head. Ash, I believe he's called." Magneto almost purred. John closed his eyes. When he opened them again, a stranger was looking out of John's brown eyes. Ash struggled against the bonds the body was in.
"What do you want?" he snarled. Magneto studied the boy for a few seconds before waving his hand. The restraints came off. Ash stopped struggling and stared at Magneto.
"What do you want?" Andrew repeated, moving his arm around. Just under his skin inner-John muttered something about it not being his arm. Andrew ignored him.
"How would you like to be in control for good?" Magneto asked. Andrew smiled.
"What do you want me to do?"
~~~
This was the fourth possible hide-out. The first three had all been empty. Bobby was starting to loose it, he really was. How hard could it be to find them? They could always find the X-Men.
//Ah, but the mansion isn't really hidden is it.\\ he thought.
The jet descended into a forest. The four adults left and moved towards the place where Spark said the base was. Back in the jet, Spark studied the floor, looking any where but Bobby.
"So, John was having a meltdown? What was that like?"
"What was that like?" snapped Spark. "How do you think?"
"Oh come on." Bobby scoffed. "It couldn't have been too bad, this is John we'll talking about."
"You don't know!" she yelled. "You weren't there, you have no idea!" she snapped her head up from the floor, her gaze angry. The expression changed to a glazed far away look as she moaned softly in pain.
"I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" she asked, her gaze still far away. Bobby started at her in horror.
"Spark, are you all right?"
"Why shouldn't I be?" she replied, a puzzled expression on her face. She slowly raised her head and looked up at the roof. "This is the right place."
"How do you know, some kind of physic power you haven't shared yet?"
"No. I just saw Toad swing over head. We have to stop him before he raises the alarm!" she said, staggering over to the door, Bobby a few feet in front. They exited the jet and moved through the forest. A few hundred meters away, Toad was watching something, his back to them. Bobby sent some ice flying at him. It hit Toad in the back, sending him flying. The mutant spun round, using his tong to jump into a tree. The two fought for some minutes before Bobby gained the upper hand, knocking the other out. He turned to Spark, only to find she wasn't there.
"Oh man..." groaned Bobby.
~~~
Spark had found her way into the compound with out any real difficulty. She teleported through the empty rooms, searching. Every few rooms she would have to stop and rest for a moment.
Spark felt terribly lightheaded.
She was on the lower levels. Spark hadn't been in this part of the compound before which meant she couldn't teleport without risk of finding herself in a solid wall. Creeping along a corridor, she saw one of the brotherhood, a mutant named Gambit leave a room and lock the door. He seemed troubled.
"I don't like this." he muttered, twirling a playing card between his fingers. Sighing he walked away, down the corridor, away from both Spark and the door. She crept to the door and put her ear to it. Inside she could dimly make out faint sounds. Spark backed away, a frown on her face. She couldn't risk teleporting, knowing her luck, Magneto would have made the door extra thick to stop such an attempt. Spark looked at her hand, flexing it open and shut. She closed her eyes.
//Thanks a bunch!\\ she cursed before holding her palm erecting. It slowly began to glow a faint blue. She gasped slightly, but held the hand stiff. Tiny sparks of blue electricity started jumping out of her hand before a larger spark flew to the lock. Using the electricity she unlocked the door. Her knees buckled. The door opened.
"Spark!" Rogue gasped, running to the kneeling girl. Spark shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs in it.
"Hey." she croaked. Rogue smiled.
"Hey yourself. What are you doing here?" she questioned.
"Looking for you. Have you seen John?" Spark answered. Rogue shook her head.
"Tell him."
"Pardon?" Rogue frowned. Spark coughed, then repeated her sentence.
"I said, tell him. Tell him while you can." she smiled weakly. "He feels the same."
A shout echoed down the hall towards them. The voice was that of John. Rogue turned to Spark, her eyes shining. Spark gave a tiny nod.
"Tell him."
Rogue ran down the hall towards the voice, a smile on her face. Spark followed at a slower pace. She entered the door Rogue had ran into and bumped right into the girl.
"Rogue? What's th-" she stopped, taking the in the scene in front of her. There was a chair in the middle of the room, Magneto was thrown to the side, badly burned.
And in the mist of all this was John, his arms outstretched, flames dancing all over the room.
"It's show time." he said, Rogue gasping at his words. The accent was instantly recognized
Andrew was in full control.
TBC...
Thank you for reading, lot longer than a normal chapter for me.
Please leave a review.
I think there will only be two more parts to this.
Let me know what you thought about this part!
~Sethoz