"What should we do with them, Professor?" Jean looks thoroughly exhausted as she and Scott enter my classroom.
"I am not sure, Jean. I will have to look into their minds to see if they can be saved. If not, we cannot keep them here."
"I agree, Professor." Scott and Jean sit down at two desks, waiting for me to look into the minds of the new arrivals.
I mentally reach out to the medlab, where Hank and Logan are monitoring the new arrivals. As I enter the first mind, the one called Maverick, I feel the chill that invariably comes when I invade a person's privacy. I look around in his mind, and find an incredible amount of emptiness. It seems to be neat and ordered, most unlike the other minds I have visited. His main thought appears to be a kind of a tape playing the message, "Kill the targets. If you are captured, lay as if dead until you can escape. If no escape is possible, destroy yourself." It plays over and over again, and I move on. I search for his humanity, his memories. I find a bank of memories, but it contains only battle memories and instructions given different circumstances. I know that not all memory is stored in the same place, so I continue to search. I find a bank of short-term memory, with only one thought in it, "Lay still until a means of escape appears." I continue, and find something very promising: a thread of life. There is little other way to describe it, just a small trail of light, saturated with a feeling of humanity. I approach it but it is too thin; I am unable to hold on to it. I find another bank of memory, which begins with memories of absolute terror and pain, being tortured, but progresses on to memories before the program, a picnic, school. It is no more than a handful or memories, mixed in with hundreds full of pain and terror, but I take it to be a very good sign. Even now Logan has no more memory of his past than that, and he did not even complete the training. Yes, I am sure this one can be saved, with time and effort.
Moving on to the large man, Sabretooth, I am struck with a sense of foreboding even as I enter his mind. I feel the same empty orderliness, but instead of nothing, like with Maverick, I feel a heavy sense of evil here. Memories assault me, showing his glee as he attacks the X-Men, managing to rip flesh, Storm's and Logan's. He derives an absolute and terrible pleasure from causing pain. I continue, but find only horrible memories of destruction, death, and glee. I find a set of memories filled with pain, even terror, but this time no other memories are mixed in. There is no sense of humanity here, but I refuse to give up. Eventually, I sense something new, the scent of a woman in his memory. He was just finishing up in a cage fight when he smelled her, and he was filled with curiosity tinged with lust. After his final victory, he went to the bar and watched her watch him. She was pure, innocent, ripe for the taking. When he was attacked, he did not kill the attackers, strangely, but left, knowing she would follow. She did, and he grabbed her and brought her back to his truck. He was taking her into the woods, to a safe place he knew. After he stopped, as soon as he finished removing her clothes, a van pulled up and he was shot with something through the window. He managed to get out of the truck and break one man's neck before he fell unconscious. For me, that is enough. Any man capable of rape is not fit to be here, as he was, even before the training. Or was it? It was before he and Rogue were taken, but what if he had already been conditioned, then escaped, which was why they were looking for him? I look for memories to test this theory, perhaps naively believing the man could not be capable of that kind of cruelty without the conditioning. However, I do find something interesting, vague memories of escaping. Well now, he could not see, but he could smell the two guards near him. He ripped open his restraints and killed them. He pulled off his blindfold and ran. He saw more guards, was shot. He kept running, and found a way out, a window open to a courtyard. He dove through it, and was most of the way to the fence when he was shot at again, from high above. Two bullets connected, but he dove over the fence anyway, not caring about the razor wire at the top. He remembers that he was in the low- security complex, because they had thought they had eradicated his will to escape. He was too strong for them. He had retained his will to escape, and easily did so from the low-security complex. After two more fences, he was leaving a blood trail and men were already hopping into jeeps, but he was in the clear. He made it into the forest and ran until he collapsed, many hours later. So I was correct; he was already conditioned before he met Rogue. So the question remains, can he be saved? If he can be, I am unable to see how. Two full rounds of conditioning had their desired effect: he is now a nearly invincible fighter, taking immense joy in killing others, without conscience or fear. He simply fights to kill. Which means that our only option is to imprison him in an attempt to change him back, or kill him. If we left him go he will cause incalculable damage. I am not willing to kill him yet, but I will discuss it with my students.
Leaving Sabretooth's mind, I enter Rogue's, and a feeling of profound relief washes over me to be out of Sabretooth's mind. Rogue's mind is far more like Maverick's, empty, and without that feeling of evil. She kills and destroys when she is ordered to, and does not go out of her way to, as Sabretooth does. She subconsciously hates having to absorb people. She has already absorbed six, and their personalities are in here with her own, hidden behind the powerful and inhuman force controlling her. I look around, and her most vivid memories, other than the recent fight against the X-Men, are of absolute and all-consuming terror and pain, like Maverick's but worse. Her memories are even stronger than Logan's when he was implanted with the metal skeleton and...that is what is happening to Rogue in her memories. Dear God. They forced her to absorb Sabretooth, then implanted her with an adamantium skeleton to equal Logan's. She remembers lying in freezing cold water, unable to move. She remembers mind-numbing pain. She remembers more, but I forcibly separate myself from those memories and continue. I try to focus on the personality that I feel submerged. I locate it, and the other personalities with it. I try to draw it out, but it can't follow. It feels me, calls for me, calls for someone...Logan. She can feel Logan near her, watching over her, and she is calling him. She recognizes him from some distant memory from one of the other personalities, and silently calls out, "Wolverine!" She is strong, very strong. I think that if I were to bring Logan into her mind we could free her right now. I am eager to talk to my students, and so I disengage.
I open my eyes, my head spinning after all I just learned. Scott and Jean look at me with concern. They had been having a conversation in low tones. "Professor, are you alright?"
"Yes, Scott, I am just a little dizzy. I learned an amazing amount."
"Can they be saved?"
"Well, Rogue certainly can. Maverick probably can be also. But for Sabretooth, I need to consult you. He is not ready to be saved. He was put through the program twice, and as a result he is further gone than I could have imagined. He takes pleasure in causing pain, and spends all of his time trying to provoke situations in which he will have the opportunity to cause pain. If we let him go, he will do incalculable damage. That leaves two options, to imprison him and attempt to change his ways, or to kill him."
"Is there any way that keeping him here would result in undoing the conditioning?"
"There is no way to know. It is quite possible that he has no memory of anything else and no wish to be anything else. I will not be able to change him to that degree against his will."
"We can't kill him. Professor, is there any way we can take him to Sing Sing, get them to rig a special cell he can't get out of? We can accommodate Maverick for awhile, and it sounds as if Rogue can be unconditioned right away."
"Yes, to take him to Sing Sing is the best option."
"I am not sure, Jean. I will have to look into their minds to see if they can be saved. If not, we cannot keep them here."
"I agree, Professor." Scott and Jean sit down at two desks, waiting for me to look into the minds of the new arrivals.
I mentally reach out to the medlab, where Hank and Logan are monitoring the new arrivals. As I enter the first mind, the one called Maverick, I feel the chill that invariably comes when I invade a person's privacy. I look around in his mind, and find an incredible amount of emptiness. It seems to be neat and ordered, most unlike the other minds I have visited. His main thought appears to be a kind of a tape playing the message, "Kill the targets. If you are captured, lay as if dead until you can escape. If no escape is possible, destroy yourself." It plays over and over again, and I move on. I search for his humanity, his memories. I find a bank of memories, but it contains only battle memories and instructions given different circumstances. I know that not all memory is stored in the same place, so I continue to search. I find a bank of short-term memory, with only one thought in it, "Lay still until a means of escape appears." I continue, and find something very promising: a thread of life. There is little other way to describe it, just a small trail of light, saturated with a feeling of humanity. I approach it but it is too thin; I am unable to hold on to it. I find another bank of memory, which begins with memories of absolute terror and pain, being tortured, but progresses on to memories before the program, a picnic, school. It is no more than a handful or memories, mixed in with hundreds full of pain and terror, but I take it to be a very good sign. Even now Logan has no more memory of his past than that, and he did not even complete the training. Yes, I am sure this one can be saved, with time and effort.
Moving on to the large man, Sabretooth, I am struck with a sense of foreboding even as I enter his mind. I feel the same empty orderliness, but instead of nothing, like with Maverick, I feel a heavy sense of evil here. Memories assault me, showing his glee as he attacks the X-Men, managing to rip flesh, Storm's and Logan's. He derives an absolute and terrible pleasure from causing pain. I continue, but find only horrible memories of destruction, death, and glee. I find a set of memories filled with pain, even terror, but this time no other memories are mixed in. There is no sense of humanity here, but I refuse to give up. Eventually, I sense something new, the scent of a woman in his memory. He was just finishing up in a cage fight when he smelled her, and he was filled with curiosity tinged with lust. After his final victory, he went to the bar and watched her watch him. She was pure, innocent, ripe for the taking. When he was attacked, he did not kill the attackers, strangely, but left, knowing she would follow. She did, and he grabbed her and brought her back to his truck. He was taking her into the woods, to a safe place he knew. After he stopped, as soon as he finished removing her clothes, a van pulled up and he was shot with something through the window. He managed to get out of the truck and break one man's neck before he fell unconscious. For me, that is enough. Any man capable of rape is not fit to be here, as he was, even before the training. Or was it? It was before he and Rogue were taken, but what if he had already been conditioned, then escaped, which was why they were looking for him? I look for memories to test this theory, perhaps naively believing the man could not be capable of that kind of cruelty without the conditioning. However, I do find something interesting, vague memories of escaping. Well now, he could not see, but he could smell the two guards near him. He ripped open his restraints and killed them. He pulled off his blindfold and ran. He saw more guards, was shot. He kept running, and found a way out, a window open to a courtyard. He dove through it, and was most of the way to the fence when he was shot at again, from high above. Two bullets connected, but he dove over the fence anyway, not caring about the razor wire at the top. He remembers that he was in the low- security complex, because they had thought they had eradicated his will to escape. He was too strong for them. He had retained his will to escape, and easily did so from the low-security complex. After two more fences, he was leaving a blood trail and men were already hopping into jeeps, but he was in the clear. He made it into the forest and ran until he collapsed, many hours later. So I was correct; he was already conditioned before he met Rogue. So the question remains, can he be saved? If he can be, I am unable to see how. Two full rounds of conditioning had their desired effect: he is now a nearly invincible fighter, taking immense joy in killing others, without conscience or fear. He simply fights to kill. Which means that our only option is to imprison him in an attempt to change him back, or kill him. If we left him go he will cause incalculable damage. I am not willing to kill him yet, but I will discuss it with my students.
Leaving Sabretooth's mind, I enter Rogue's, and a feeling of profound relief washes over me to be out of Sabretooth's mind. Rogue's mind is far more like Maverick's, empty, and without that feeling of evil. She kills and destroys when she is ordered to, and does not go out of her way to, as Sabretooth does. She subconsciously hates having to absorb people. She has already absorbed six, and their personalities are in here with her own, hidden behind the powerful and inhuman force controlling her. I look around, and her most vivid memories, other than the recent fight against the X-Men, are of absolute and all-consuming terror and pain, like Maverick's but worse. Her memories are even stronger than Logan's when he was implanted with the metal skeleton and...that is what is happening to Rogue in her memories. Dear God. They forced her to absorb Sabretooth, then implanted her with an adamantium skeleton to equal Logan's. She remembers lying in freezing cold water, unable to move. She remembers mind-numbing pain. She remembers more, but I forcibly separate myself from those memories and continue. I try to focus on the personality that I feel submerged. I locate it, and the other personalities with it. I try to draw it out, but it can't follow. It feels me, calls for me, calls for someone...Logan. She can feel Logan near her, watching over her, and she is calling him. She recognizes him from some distant memory from one of the other personalities, and silently calls out, "Wolverine!" She is strong, very strong. I think that if I were to bring Logan into her mind we could free her right now. I am eager to talk to my students, and so I disengage.
I open my eyes, my head spinning after all I just learned. Scott and Jean look at me with concern. They had been having a conversation in low tones. "Professor, are you alright?"
"Yes, Scott, I am just a little dizzy. I learned an amazing amount."
"Can they be saved?"
"Well, Rogue certainly can. Maverick probably can be also. But for Sabretooth, I need to consult you. He is not ready to be saved. He was put through the program twice, and as a result he is further gone than I could have imagined. He takes pleasure in causing pain, and spends all of his time trying to provoke situations in which he will have the opportunity to cause pain. If we let him go, he will do incalculable damage. That leaves two options, to imprison him and attempt to change his ways, or to kill him."
"Is there any way that keeping him here would result in undoing the conditioning?"
"There is no way to know. It is quite possible that he has no memory of anything else and no wish to be anything else. I will not be able to change him to that degree against his will."
"We can't kill him. Professor, is there any way we can take him to Sing Sing, get them to rig a special cell he can't get out of? We can accommodate Maverick for awhile, and it sounds as if Rogue can be unconditioned right away."
"Yes, to take him to Sing Sing is the best option."