X-Men: Fate
Flowers Grow Out of My Grave
Sorcha and Armod had gone to a movie. Reva, Reth, and Adrian had disappeared, but Sorcha figured they were conducting business: whatever might be required of the X-men team. She invited Armod out as a cover for them, but she also wanted to speak with him privately. After having monitored him the past couple days, she found she wanted to learn more about him, get to know him better: for herself but for Reva too.
Armod liked Sorcha. He found that odd. He wasn't much of a people person, and mutants tended to put him on edge. However, he enjoyed Sorcha's company. She was sort of a breath of fresh air. She was calm, mature, had a nice sense of humor. He appreciated her character, and he could see why she was someone Reva kept close.
Adrian, Reva, and Reth had left the premises. It went without saying they were mutants new to the X-men team. As three of the most popular students of the school, for better or worse, they couldn't make too many moves without someone taking notice or talking about it. The trio's constant disappearances, training sessions, independent studying, and counselings with the professors had everyone intrigued. No one had answers for their behavior. Armod did. Sitting beside Sorcha as Armod drove, he wondered if Sorcha did too.
Armod couldn't decide whether it was a coincidence that Sorcha invited him out. This was a perfect opportunity to find out what she knew. She was slowly becoming a part of the trio's inner circle. If he could get her to talk or on his side, he could use her to end the next generation of the X-men team before it got completely off the ground: maybe even use her to end the school.
"You're a Purifier," Sorcha said.
Armod had to admit she took him off guard, but he didn't let that register on his face. It wasn't a question either. She was confident. She sounded sure. He didn't look at her.
"Reva is part of the X-men," Armod said. "So are Adrian and Reth."
Sorcha didn't respond. She breathed. She knew she had to dance with Armod. She couldn't confirm anything. That could potentially mean trouble: for everyone.
"Why?" Sorcha asked.
This took Armod off guard. This time he glanced at her. She looked to him.
"What do you mean?" Armod countered.
She smiled.
"I mean," Sorcha said, "you can't hate mutants. You wouldn't have accepted a mission to live with them. You wouldn't have fallen for one. If your feelings were deeply tied to their rhetoric. Purifiers think mutants are monsters."
"Mutants think Purifiers are monsters," Armod said.
"I get the point you're making Armod," Sorcha said, "so why you?"
"Mutants refuse to recognize how dangerous they are," Armod said.
"You don't think the existence of this, the school, the compound, proves that's untrue?" Sorcha questioned him. "I can't speak for all mutants, but I came here to learn control. I don't want to hurt anyone or myself."
"If you had the choice," Armod said, "would you stop being a mutant?"
"If you had the choice," Sorcha countered, "would you become one?"
Armod stopped his truck right outside the school's gate.
"So many lives have been lost," Armod said. "I don't expect you to understand."
"I do," Sorcha said. "I understand so much I realize that the concept of this issue having sides is mind-blowing. Both sides have contributed to loss of life. Purifiers and Mutants are dangerous. People are dangerous. However, individuals cannot be responsible for a whole group, or community's, actions. You have feelings for Reva. You miss your friend Adrian. And you and Reth's shared past connects you two, whether either of you likes it or not. Whether you're Mutant or Purifier, everyone's in danger if things remain as they are. And if you need, or the Purifiers require more convincing, if the X-Men cease to be, who will be there to stop the mutants that have no regard for nonmutant lives."
"It's not wrong that some non mutants want to fight to protect themselves, their livelihoods, their families," Armod said. "They're acting in the interests of those Mutants that want to be normal. Not normal. That want to go back to the lives they had before."
"I agree," Sorcha said. "Unfortunately, most Purifiers aren't doing just that. I guess I just believed they wouldn't purposely want to place themselves in so
much danger, who would. That isn't the case."
In that moment, Sorcha and Armod came to the same answer and conclusion. That both sides truly were just trying to fight for what they believed in. But both sides also had their outliers. Neither the X-Men nor the Purifiers should have to exist, but they needed to exist. They were enemies, even though they shouldn't be.
"I don't see you as a Purifier," Sorcha said. "I see you as Armod. Those two are fundamentally different."
"I don't hate Mutants," Armod said, "and I'm not a monster. I have a lot to learn, and I plan to put that knowledge to good use." He drove through the gate and toward the garage.
"I won't let you use me against them," Sorcha said. "I'll help them any time they need me. I'll also help you any way I can."
Armod couldn't help glance toward her: a little surprised by her words. Sorcha only smiled and nodded. They both wondered what this would mean for them going forward.
Ororo watched from her window as Armod and Sorcha returned.
~!~!~!~
"Should we worry about those two?" Emma questioned Ororo in her head.
"Not at all," Ororo said. "With Jean taking my position as Reth's second mentor, this puts me in a position to act as mentor for Sorcha. She has been impressing me of late."
"You're considering her as a recruit?" Emma questioned.
"I would not go that far," Ororo said. "Armod and Sorcha have been impacted by our trio, as we have. Kurt will take over for Forge in regards to Adrian, so Forge can mentor Armod. Sorcha and Armod are important as they will impact our trio: in ways that hopefully will ensure a better future for every living being on the planet. That is why they impress me and have my attention."
"I'll admit that their inclusion to the school left me curious," Emma told her, "but I'm beginning to understand that you're making moves with a lot more information than the rest of us have. It's strange being on the other side of this for once."
"Forge keeps you out of my head," Ororo told her. "For your own good. No one should know everything. For now, that is best for everyone. For the greater good. Fateā¦"
