10. Borealis
Medical Wing,
Mutant Underground Headquarters
By nature, the woman known as Sage was coldly analytical. Her power only enhanced this aspect of her personality. So when faced with the prospect of trying to restore the damage done to the psyches of nearly an entire squad of Mutant Underground agents, she began to gather data. Appraising the sources did not take a long time. The squad members themselves could contribute once the first had been restored but until then, she had to rely on the incomplete data provided by Monet as to the nature of the attacks. The woman herself was in medical as well, a physical rather than a mental injury incurred during the incident. Gaining access to her was not simple, her path barred by fierce medical attendants who cared for the injured Mutant Underground officers. Retreating for a few days, she formulated a basic therapeutic plan susceptible to refinement once more data was added. This was going to be a long process.
Some days later, Sage managed to get past the guardians and in to see Monet. The woman greeted her calmly. "I need to know the exact circumstances of the incident, all available data." Sage said emotionlessly. Monet nodded and Sage reached out, resting her hands on the woman's temples as she began to receive information. The blur of images sped through Sage's head, the operation at the steroid factory, seeing Domino and the children there. The bruises on Blink and the menacingly terrified impressions from Chamber. Domino's vicious violence. Jean-Paul's actions after his release from medical, teleporting to England, being hit by the teleporter in the woods, their imprisonment, their escape and confrontation with Domino, Blink and Chamber. Jean-Paul screaming and convulsing as someone tore through the minds of his team mates, her own desperate attempt to protect the integrity of her mind leaving her physically vulnerable. Waking up in the snow and the exhausting flight to reach the Washington branch of the Underground. Bishop and Vanisher, breaking through Cecilia's shield, the arrival back at base, finding out from Bishop that all of her friends had to be kept heavily sedated to stop them from screaming constantly. Cecilia too, her stopgap attempt at help hadn't been enough. The orderly's refusing to allow her to visit them. Sage cut of the information forcibly. Monet apologized. "My control has still not returned. I'm told once the lingering affects of the concussion fade, I will be…repaired." Sage nodded to the woman and left the room without speaking again. The medical staff had refused to disclose the information to her, she would have to speak to Bishop about getting a medical clearance. The data she had acquired from Monet indicated even more danger than she'd originally thought.
Some days later, the thoroughly chastised medical staff allowed her into Cecilia Reyes' room. Sage had decided to begin with Cecilia, as the woman had the least damage thanks to Monet's attempted quick fix. Entering the private room she had been moved to, Sage sat down and composed herself momentarily. This would not be easy. For the first time in years, Sage uncurled her own telepathic powers from where they rested, wrapped in hundreds of layers around her mind. This was not something she did often. Dissolving booby-traps, sophisticated telepathic mines that made Monet's attempts look like digging tiny holes on a path, she set aside her current mental configuration. Reaching out mentally, she entered the preliminary layers of the mind of Cecilia Reyes.
Cecilia's Mind,
"You will do what I want, Cecilia. I'm afraid that if you don't, well, your daughter may just develop a terminal case of…ooh I'm sure I can think of something. The words repeated over and over, the fear and terror associated with them buffeting Sage like a storm. Her surmise had been correct. This had been a memory-based resurrection of past pain. Requiring a great deal of power and skill. Delving in, Sage found the source of the memories, Sinister and his capture of Cecilia's daughter. Using her telepathy like a scalpel, Sage located the memory and faded it. She did not remove it, that would leave a gap in Cecilia's memory and the MU had trained in traps to suppress memory implantation. She simply…dimmed…the pain and fear associated with the memory. The whipping storm of hurt and fear and pain did not recede though. Sighing, Sage delved deeper, feeling the next memory of pain. Guilt. Her time with the Nasty Boys had given her a kind of survivor-guilt for the people she had killed or permitted to die. Repeating the process, over and over, she hoped the woman possessed the strength of mind to overcome her own past.
The Medical Wing,
Mutant Underground Headquarters,
Sage blinked slightly, eyes feeling grainy and tired. Her mind was exhausted. Turning, she saw an orderly adjusting Cecilia's drip. She asked, "How long?" The orderly answered, "Nearly three days." Sage sighed. Three days. The amount of damage her quarry could do in three days was terrible and Cecilia was the least damaged. Sighing, Sage really wished the Underground would get its hands on another decent psychic. She couldn't support the entire network herself, not and chase after her prey. Stretching stiffly, she stood and headed to her quarters but something stopped her. She looked at Cecilia who had opened her eyes and mouthed the words "Thanks you." to her. She nodded politely and left the room.
After resting for two days, driven to exhaustion by Cecilia's healing, she completed the process on Morph will little difficulty. The man had lived a life remarkably pain-free for an MU officer. His healing had taken less time in total than Cecilia's. She had rested for two days and then attempted the procedure on Shard. Bishop had insisted on being in attendance. This had taken much longer; the effects of Sinister's programming lingered in her mind and this trauma had only increased the pain, undoing some of the reconditioning work. She managed to remove the memory-loops without dislodging Shard's persona but it had taken as long as Cecilia and left her even more drained. She required nearly three days of rest.
Sage chose to attempt Chamber's healing next. It was still unclear how the squad had gotten back from England although logical deduction suggested Blink. Unconfirmed data, however, had tripped Sage before and she didn't make a mistake twice. How would Blink have overcome her identification with her abuser to teleport not only herself but six other people to the other side of the Atlantic, most likely in an exhausted state? It remained unclear. There were however, no reports of Chamber undergoing any kind of psychic attack. Sage focused herself in his room where he had been kept sedated as the others had been. He had not regained consciousness since being brought back from Canada. Sage focused herself and dove into his mind. Unlike the others, Chamber possessed mental powers of his own and his shields were not inconsiderably. There was also…ahh. Monet had mentioned the boy had been wiped and programmed. A vicious telepathic trick, one requiring even more power and skill than the memory loop. Sage dug and dug and searched for remnants of the boy's original personality and was struck by a terrifying pattern of similarities. The technique…..Focusing, Sage removed herself from his mind. She opened the door and said to the orderly waiting outside, "He must be taken to deprogramming. I've fixed what was making him stay unconscious and now an intensive deprogramming protocol will be necessary." Then she left to rest again. Tomorrow, she intended to investigate the mind of Jean-Paul Beaubier.
The next morning, Sage entered Northstar's room and sat down. The medical staff, well used to her routines by now, ignored her, removing themselves quietly from the room as soon as they had finished their duties. Sage focused herself. This would be the most difficult, as Monet's information, backed up by more data gained from the recovering squad members, indicated that Jean-Paul had been assaulted first. His mind had been in the grip of its memory-loops the longest. She sent a tendril of thought out and entered his mind, only to be immediately buffeted out, thrown back to her body. Such pain, she thought. She had only managed to try and assess how many layers of loops there were and had found an incredible number. So much pain in one life. She decided to attempt a healing on Blink first; Northstar might be a lost cause. Leaving the room, she padded next door into Blink's room. The vicious bruises that had covered her entire body had faded during the time she'd been in hospital care, the cuts on her forehead closing up and healing. Sitting down and focusing herself, Sage entered Blink's mind.
Blink's Mind
Sage entered into Blink's mind, finding none of the dramatic emotional interference she had encountered with the others. Sage realised that this wasn't Blink's mind, merely the outer level of a set of shields much more powerful than expected. Boring through them like a drill, Sage penetrated layer upon layer until she reached the edge of a memory loop. Blink had indeed been attacked by the telepath but had definitely 'ported them all back to North America. How? Sage began to deal with the memory layers, paying only half a mind, the rest of her power going deep into Blink to investigate the events of that night. Suddenly, a buffeting, tearing sensation ripped through her. Her whole mind snapping back to the memory loops, she discovered the final one had not been completely placed. Examining it, Sage discovered the flaw. To place these, a telepath would have to view them briefly from an observer's perspective. They could separate themselves from the hurt but they couldn't ignore the memory itself. This was the clue she needed. When setting the memory, the telepath had been caught up in Blink's traumatic power manifestation. Sage experienced it too, her years of shielding protecting her from the same fate as the other telepath. Watching on as Clarice Ferguson's powers manifested, a room full of family torn to pieces by a wild teleporter, the teenage girl's mind retreating deep into a primitive, feral shock. She felt the girl's pain brought up again by the killing of one of the Strong Guy clones. She felt the girl' s pain and as quickly as possible, contained the wildly flailing memory loop and dimmed it as she did the others. She felt Blink's mind struggling to rise out of its slumber and she withdrew.
The Medical Wing,
Mutant Underground Headquarters,
Sage felt the now-familiar stiffness when she returned to her body and saw Clarice Ferguson looking at her with wide eyes. Nodding to the girl, she stood up and nearly fell, completely exhausted. Regaining her control instantly, she saw the girl had noticed her weakness. "Clarice, you're back in a Mutant Underground facility. How much do you remember of the last few weeks?" she asked. The girl looked at her and replied slowly, "I remember Domino. Domino and her. They took us, Chamber and me, and they were making us do jobs. Domino was beating me," she said softly. She continued, "He went to investigate. When he came back….he hasn't spoken in a long time…" she trailed off. Sage said, "Chamber is being deprogrammed of whatever the telepath put into his mind as we speak. Do you remember Jean-Paul?" Blink nodded, more assertively now. "He came for me. The factory…he tracked us down but Domino was ready for him. She had me…" she shuddered. "Is he ok?" she suddenly demanded. Sage looked at the girl, trying to assess how much she could take. "When Jean-Paul came to you," she explained, "he brought a squad of MU agents with him. He is an agent now." At the girl's surprised glance, she continued. "The entire squad was captured. There was a confrontation, between the squad and you, Chamber and Domino. You were defeated. They were attacked by a very powerful telepath. It has taken me some time to restore them. Jean-Paul is not yet restored." Blink looked up sharply at the last sentence. "I remember…" she began but Sage cut her off. "Don't try to, please. You also suffered under the telepath before managing to get them back to Canada." Blink nodded slowly, eyes thoughtful. "How is Jean-Paul?" she asked rapidly. Sage decided the girl needed the facts. "Comatose. The telepath tore up the memories of the entire squad and used a very nasty trick on them. I've managed to restore them so far and I was going to attempt Jean-Paul today but…he has suffered a great deal in his life. The telepath's attack may have been too much. I do not know if I can restore him." She said. Rapidly changing the subject while the girl processed the information, she asked, "Who is the 'her' you mentioned?" Blink, looking at the floor as she realised Jean-Paul might have been ruined trying to rescue her, answered without thinking, the months of having the obedience beaten into her coming to the fore. "The name we used was Jean Grey." Sage processed this data. Not him. But the similarities…maybe a pupil? The connection was too obvious, the technique to similar. But the MU knew about Jean Grey already. She was one of the X-men, gone rogue some years ago. She hadn't been active in some time. Sage said to Blink, "I will let you get some sleep now." And walked quietly out of the room, leaving the girl alone with her thoughts. She returned to her own quarters and slept.
Four days. This was getting worse and worse. Four more days and she still hadn't dealt with Northstar. Sage felt frustration rising, knowing what her quarry could do in these weeks she spent here. But she was learning things she hadn't suspected before. Such a risk. Entering Jean-Paul's room again, she sat down. Focusing herself, she had a quick flash of the last time she'd tried to enter his mind, the seething maelstrom of pain and torment. Steeling herself, she dove in.
Jean-Paul's Mind,
The whirling vortex of damage and pain seethed through Jean-Paul's mind like a hurricane. Sage felt battered and buffeted, struggling just to endure the emotional storm. She got to work immediately, throwing herself at the first loop. The emotional storm focused itself into bitterness and self-hate, Jean-Paul robbing a man on the street, needing money for his next fix. Dealing with it, Sage moved deeper. The shaking and hatred he'd felt after he beat Daredevil, the fear of the liking for the vicious power and the feel of bone snapping under his blows. Sage dimmed it back, severing the loop and moving on. Flash of a training room somewhere, Daredevil holding a girl up, Maria and racing towards her, too late as he snaps her spine with a crack. Sage persevered. Brief flash of a warehouse, Blink looking at him as he gave the same girl a horse, the terrible fear and crushing sadness of knowing he couldn't do anything to save her from the deteriorating mental condition. Forcing her way past, Sage cut the loop and continued. The same childlike girl coming back with Blink covered in the blood of Senator Cockrum. Dealt with. Flash of another girl, in a straight jacket throwing herself at him with a speed nearly equal to his, biting and kicking, screaming words at him, "Devil! Abomination! You cannot tempt me, fiend!" Passing through, Sage continued. The same girl, screaming and yelling as she is strapped down in a straight jacket after something terrible fragments her broken mind even more. Flash after flash, years' worth of visits to this woman and girl, watching a descent into madness in reverse. The desperate physical assaults, the scathing shrieks, "Abomination! Your sins have damned you to hell!" The knowledge that he can't do anything for her, coupled with the grief for Maria. Sage severed these, releasing them to the basement of the mind where they could be dealt with. The first time he'd been clean, the terrible withdrawal. Two months of convulsions, uncontrollable thrashing whenever anyone touched him. The same girl, hissing viciously, "This is where your sins have taken you. Impure!" A suicide attempt, pills and alcohol, a rush to a hospital for the disgrace. Being kicked off the Canadian ski team after testing positive to numerous recreational drugs. Sage severed these and moved on. Moving through Jean-Paul's entire life, she dredged each dirty memory of the loop where the telepath had placed them, returning them to where they belonged. Right back to childhood, pain and trauma. A suicide attempt, slashing his wrists when he realised he wasn't like everyone else, there was something wrong with him that couldn't be fixed. Waking up in the hospital, his sickened foster-parents telling him that he couldn't be gay, they'd raised him properly. The rejection and the sting. The subsequent suicide attempt, trying to hang himself in the hospital. The nurses had cut him down. Sage sliced through the loops, staggered by the pain in this man' s life. Right back to the deaths of his parents at age four, he had known little else. Struggling to the core of his mind, she felt the tiny, broken sense of self that Jean-Paul had tried to protect from this hideous onslaught. Waking that up, returning it to mental power, she withdrew exhausted. She barely made it back to her own body. She tried to stand and couldn't, incapable of movement. Her attempt had caught the attention of a nurse who came in. Answering Sage's question before she asked it, she said, "You've been here for nearly five days. You ate when we fed you, just like normal." Leaving the room, she shut the door quietly. Sage dropped back in the chairs and looked over at Jean-Paul who was looking at her with cold blue eyes. He tried to speak but couldn't. She was too tired to communicate, collapsing into sleep in the chair.
Two Days Later,
Mutant Underground Medical Facility,
Jean-Paul Beaubier sat in bed and looked at his visitors. His squad had all gotten out of bed earlier than he had even been healed, they were all still off-duty though. Chamber was up and about, almost completely uninjured- physically. Deprogramming still wasn't letting him wander without a number of guards. Blink was staggering around on crutches, something about allowing a damaged ankle time to heal properly. Blink hated the crutches. She'd 'ported three pairs, or at least, parts of three pairs to parts unknown and refused to bring them back. She was sitting in the uncomfortable chair where the strange woman who'd braved the depths of his mind and brought him back to reality had been sitting two days before. She'd been carried out some time ago once the staff realised she was back in her own body, just unconscious. He'd been told that she had yet to wake up. Jean-Paul shivered. He didn't like anyone in his mind, for any reason. She knew…she knew everything about him. All his secrets, more than Blink and the Canadian Ski teams and drug authorities knew. Shivering again, Jean-Paul dragged himself back from introspection to reality. Monet was standing in the corner, studying him. He returned her probing stare with a bland look and said, "So am I in trouble?"
Shard gave him a flat look while Cecilia gave a small chuckle. Shard turned her stare on the woman but she just smiled again, shaking her head. Sighing, Shard turned her attention back to Jean-Paul. "Bishop was…displeased at the result of the mission," she said, "but once Sage restored us all, he calmed down. The objectives were accomplished, after all. Blink and Chamber were rescued but, perhaps even more importantly, we learnt something else about Domino." Facing Blink, she said, "I know you don't want to talk about the other woman but you need to tell us something." Blink glared at her furiously. Shard had been trying to extricate information from her since she woke up and Blink wasn't ready to tell anyone about what had happened. Shard, however, stood in front of the door and with the damned crutches, Blink doubted she'd get around.
Jean-Paul watched Blink's face harden at the question. The other woman? Must have been the telepath he thought to himself. About to speak up when Shard caged Blink in the room, he didn't bother because she vanished a moment later, her crutches rattling to the floor. Sighing, Shard slouched, posture relaxing from the rigid position she'd been holding herself. Glancing at Jean-Paul, she said "Stop looking at me like that! It needs to be asked! Don't you want to know who did this to you?" Looking at her, Jean-Paul slowly said, "I don't ever want to meet the woman again in my life. Ever."
Jean-Paul recovered slowly. When Sage woke up a week later, she went to see him to check no lasting damage had been done to his psyche. His body had come through the torment whole and he was allowed out for flights now. But his mind…. Sage knocked briskly and entered the room. She wished to be back on her own case, anxious to be out of HQ. But her mental defences had been removed and she needed time to build them up again. So she stayed. She monitored her patients' progress of course, but with all the others, that had no longer been necessary after a week. Jean-Paul, however, she was worried about. Traumatic as the other's pasts had been, Jean-Paul had been the worst of all of them. That kind of pain required heavy coping mechanisms and or some serious repression and Jean-Paul had opted for the latter. But this kind of trauma…repression wasn't enough. Not when it was all at once. Sage was worried that Jean-Paul's mind had cracked under the stress. The man's power was considerable, and if he grew violent, he would be very hard to stop. Seeing Jean-Paul standing at the large window, one leg out, she sighed. It was like a teenager trying to sneak out. Looking back at her, Jean-Paul nodded and sat on the windowsill, delaying his departure. The silence stretched. Eventually, Sage spoke up. "Jean-Paul, I already know just about every bad thing that happened to you in your entire life. So when you are ready to talk, I am available." Deciding not to keep him here, she helped him out the window. He nodded to her, thanking her silently for the assistance and dropped off the sill, taking flight. Sage turned and went to one of the computer labs. It wouldn't take much to track that beacon she'd palmed onto Northstar and she wanted to know where he headed.
Two hours later, Northstar arrived back in his room and Sage sat at a terminal in the computer lab. He'd gone to Canada. Montreal. More specifically, an asylum just outside of Montreal proper. Getting into their patient database hadn't been difficult and scanning through files, Sage searched for who he would be visiting. An old flame? She doubted that. The telepath hadn't spared any effort on Northstar and anyone significant enough to him to make him visit an asylum would have had some pain associated with them. Otherwise they wouldn't be in an asylum. Scanning the list of patients for initial clues, Sage stopped dead at almost the top of the list. His memories hadn't given her any clue of this. Or had they?
That night when Northstar was sleeping, after conferring with Bishop, she had silently entered his room and tranquilized him. Then, after a very short surgery, healed with the aid of a mutant, she left Jean-Paul alone again, tiny tracking device in his shoulder. She wanted to know how often he was going back to Canada.
The next day, Jean-Paul took another flight. Straight to the asylum. He returned the day after, missing the next two as he resumed training. He started going at night. Nearly every night. Sage was concerned and in a meeting with Bishop, expressed this. "Lucas, he's going every single night. Not missing one. That's consistent with compulsive behaviour, addiction and any number of other things that disqualify him for working with the MU. We need to know what's going on." Sage had not told Bishop who she found in the patient list at the asylum.
Montreal,
Canada,
With Bishop's assistance, Sage had Telford Porter drop her off in Montreal and managed to conceal herself near the woman's room in the asylum. Jean-Paul arrived shortly after. Sage used her telepathy to keep herself unseen by the orderlies and patients in the asylum, ghosting along the corridors in the half-light. She found the door she had been searching for and crept in. The woman known as Jeanne-Marie Martin sat on the floor, deep in prayer. Taking the room in at a glance, Sage began to analyze. The room was stark but not confining, a large window covered half the wall. Reinforced plastic rather than glass but a window without bars nonetheless. The walls were bare, spartan, and the only furniture other than a cot and a toilet was a small setting in the corner to which the woman had been praying. A statue, enormous, nearly two meters tall, Christ on the Cross, naked heart exposed and blood from the crown of thorns dripping down the face. Looking at it, Sage felt a chill. Such a gruesome piece dominated the setting, yet statues of the Virgin mother, red heart exposed staring solemnly yet benevolently from beside her dying son, smaller than the horrific figure, a symbolist's nightmare. But she wasn't here to try and fix the woman's problems. She was here to find out what was wrong with Northstar.
Some time later, Sage was wondering if he was going to do anything other than float outside the window a hundred meters away and watch. The woman had not moved her head from her prayer. Probing towards Northstar's mind with her telepathy, Sage nearly gasped aloud. Psychic shrieks of abuse, words and raw emotion were filling the air, flying from the woman to Northstar. A bond. Psi-link. Sage frowned. Why would he have a link with someone who hates him this much? Paying closer attention to the abuse, Sage detected a trend. MONSTER! FIEND! DEVIL! ABOMINATION! Wincing faintly, Sage blocked out the vicious abuse, the waves of raw hatred and hurt rolling of the woman directly at Northstar. She hadn't detected any of this in her healing. Northstar floated outside the window, tears trickling down his cheeks. Enduring the abuse. He did not once try to speak to the woman. Eventually, he left, returning to the Headquarters. After a few moments to observe the woman, Sage returned to Montreal and summoned Vanisher.
The next night, she once again secreted herself in Jeanne-Marie's room and observed the terrible silent insults directed from the woman to the man floating outside. Sage endured as long as Northstar before gratefully retreating again after his departure. One more night would establish a creditable pattern to speak to Jean-Paul with. The next night.
On Wednesday, Sage once again placed herself in the room, the terrifying statue of Christ brooding down at her menacingly. Expecting to find Jeanne-Marie in prayer as was her custom, Sage was surprised to find the woman pacing the room at a superhuman speed. She also had the mutation. Northstar appeared at his customary time and Sage began to probe with her telepathy, feeling the bond between the two. The insults and hatred weren't present immediately tonight. Sage was worried. This was not in the pattern. She felt the woman's thought. Jean-Paul A greeting. The man outside did not reply. Jean-Paul! the woman inside shrieked mentally. JEAN-PAUL!" screeching furiously, the woman began to sob brokenly, her physical body almost completely at odds with the mental projects flying to the man outside. He floated, face frozen. Please Jean-Paul, the mental voice changing tone. Please, you have to get me out of here you have to get me out havetogetmeouthavetogetmeout! The frantic pleading made Northstar's face twist but he made no move towards her. Jeanne-Marie collapsed on the floor, weeping brokenly. The mental silence was ominous but no sound came from the woman on the floor except breathing. No thoughts flew to wound the man outside. He retreated at his customary time and Sage left as well. This was very troubling.
The next night was a repetition of the first two, the woman not moving from prayer all night and the vicious thoughts, the waves of hatred rolling off without pause. Jean-Paul arrived and departed at his customary times. Sage watched on.
On Friday, Sage arrived and found the woman sitting motionless on the bed. No sign of the previous two types of nights. Jean-Paul arrived shortly after and the woman slammed into the reinforced window, a blur of motion so fast that Sage couldn't follow it until the impact slowed her. Viciously scratching and kicking the plastic as superhuman speeds, the woman attacked until her hands and feet were bloody. Jean-Paul floated outside, weeping. He left at his customary time. Sage stayed to watch as the orderlies arrived and cleaned up the woman's arms.
A week later, no more than the original three reactions to Jean-Paul occurred. Sage decided that a confrontation with Jean-Paul was in order. When she summoned Vanisher for her ride back the Headquarters, she wondered what other shocking revelations that would unearth.
The Next Afternoon
Mutant Underground Headquarters
Sage knocked on Jean-Paul's door and entered without waiting. Once again he was half way out the window. This time, however, she wasn't letting him go. Reaching out, she snagged a foot as it lifted off and with a yelp, Jean-Paul slid back into his room to land on the floor. "Sage!" he snapped. "What the hell are you doing?" Ignoring him for the moment, she slammed the window shut and seated herself in the room's only chair. Composing herself, she said, "You aren't going to Montreal tonight." Jean-Paul's mouth shut with a click. "Telepath. I should've known," he said bitterly. Flopping down in the other chair, he sat staring furiously at the floor. Minutes ticked by. Sage waited patiently. "Fine!" Jean-Paul snapped suddenly. "What do you want, Sage?" Looking up from her hand where she had been studying her nails, Sage said, "Why do you keep going back to her?" Shaking his head, Jean-Paul barked a harsh laugh. "You really do know everything," he said, resigned. "Or do you? Why do you think I keep going back to my sister?" Studying him, Sage replied carefully. "You're looking for something. Something I, Blink, you can't provide yourself, so you go searching. You're hoping she might give it to you." The strength seemed to flow out of Jean-Paul, his anger fading away. "Tell me about her," Sage pressed, following the advantage. "Fine, " snapped Jean-Paul. Turning to face the window, he looked…sad. "My sister's name is Jeanne-Marie Martin. She is my twin and she suffers from dissociative disorder. Severe. She was adopted out through the welfare system after…things happened between me and my parents. The first and second times. We were fourteen. You know what I'm talking about." Sage nodded, the grim memories flashing through her head with a wash of pain. "But we raised you properly! How could you be…like that?" Shaking his head faintly, Jean-Paul continued. "I was adopted out too but that hardly mattered. Jeanne-Marie was a shy girl, very religious. When we manifested, she did not take it well." Sensitizing herself with her telepathy, not probing but feeling the general feeling Jean-Paul was giving out, his vibes as she'd heard a child say once, she found pain. So much pain surrounded the man. "She flipped out. Completely. But I didn't know at first, our adoptive parents had no control. We went where we want, when we wanted. It didn't matter. This was before I got into drugs, when clubs and sex were new to me. We went out, wild and reckless. We have a psi-link, a connection. It made everything we did together more intense. Nothing bizarre,you understand, not any more than any other mutants, but we pulled a few stunts. But then one night, it backfired. We were out, I wasn't paying attention to the link. I realised I couldn't see Jeanne-Marie. Not anywhere. I reached out and found.… Out the back of the club. He'd spiked her drink. She…she was hurt badly. I took her to hospital. But she was broken on the inside as well now. It really came out. Jeanne-Marie came back. I'm not explaining this very well. Jeanne-Marie was the quiet religious girl. When she manifested, she just snapped. Mutants were an abomination in the eyes of the Lord. She couldn't be one, she went to church every Sunday, said her prayers every night, all the things a good Christian is supposed to do. How could she be an abomination?" His voice harshened noticeably on the last word. Sage had another flash: "ABOMINATION!" the psi-link shrieked, on the first night she'd spied on the twins. Jean-Paul spoke again. "After what happened, Jeanne-Marie came back. She pushed Aurora right down, suppressed her as much as she could. Aurora was her nickname. Claimed she was going to light up the north. But Jeanne-Marie put them in a covenant, hiding them away from the world. Then, in the covenant, Aurora cracked. Aurora had come about to dissociate Jeanne-Marie from her mutancy. The third one, we never really named her, she came about to dissociate Aurora from Jeanne-Marie's life as a nun. What she saw as the boredom. She was vicious, cruel. Jeanne-Marie had always been sharp but Aurora hadn't been anything like the third one. They were as different as Jeanne-Marie and Aurora. Eventually, the third one went insane, locked in Jeanne-Marie in the nunnery, stuck with Aurora raving about how boring it was. She went…vicious. She broke out, hijacking the body almost, and did a little damage. No-one dead but…can you imagine what I could do to a nunnery? Aurora isn't as fast as I am but it hardly matters. She was caught when Jeanne-Marie got the body back and turned herself in. She got herself that nice room in the asylum and that pretty statue of Christ to keep her company and she sits and prays her life away. Aurora is cracking, the nunnery and the asylum, it's too much for her. She's going to die and then it will just be Jeanne-Marie and the psycho. The psycho likes it in there. She gets the body more often because Aurora never wants it. She's getting more control. I don't know why I keep going back. I just watch. I can't help it. Every night, one of them greets me, in her own way. Every single night, I nearly break down because I'm helpless." His voice caught with a catch and he began speaking rapidly, so Sage could hardly understand him. "I couldn't help her that first night in the club, I couldn't help her balance Aurora and Jeanne-Marie, I couldn't help with Daredevil, I couldn't help her with the third, I couldn't help her with the nuns. I can never help. I'm always letting her down." Tears were trickling down his cheeks now. Sage studied him, comparing data. "Jean-Paul before you joined the MU, how long had it been since you had seen your sister?" Shaking a little but much more in control, Jean-Paul replied "A...a long time. A lot of things happened to me and I just…repressed. Since you know about her already, I assume you've seen her reactions to my presence. So when I suppressed the psi-link, she was overjoyed. It hurt. A lot. But when she joined in, actively suppressing as well, it affected our memories I think. I just…shunted it off to the side with all the other stuff I didn't need to rehash. Then, with that telepath…." He trailed off. Sage nodded. It made sense. Stirring through repressed memories was bound to bring up something. Reviewing the data from this interview quickly, she noticed something. "Jean-Paul are you aware you said you couldn't help your sister with Daredevil?" Looking up at her sharply, he replied, "My sister never met Daredevil. I never said that." Sage opened her mouth but Jean-Paul's voice emerged. " 'I couldn't help her that first night in the club, I couldn't help her balance Aurora and Jeanne-Marie, I couldn't help with Daredevil,'" she said, masculine voice disturbing coming from the female body. Jean-Paul flinched at the repetition. Sage continued in her own tones, "You clearly, although possibly subconsciously, latched on to Maria Callasantos as a substitute for your own sister, with all the protection you could provide for another girl who had more than one voice in her head. You failed. She's not going to get better. So what are you looking for? Another crazy girl? Blink? Good luck. She may be suffering from significant trauma but she's not crazy. She could probably take care of you. So if you're not looking for another…object, what your looking for is something more intangible." Jean-Paul leaned forward, face twisting. "Absolution." The word snapped out like a whip. "Middle English, from Old French, from Latin. From absolutus. Past participle of absolvere. The gift from religion to the people, forgiveness for their sins. Christ dying on the cross, the ultimate absolver. Why do you seek absolution, Jean-Paul? What sin have you committed?"
Jean-Paul Beaubier stared at her. She'd been through his darkest memories, all the pains of his life and she asked him what sin he'd committed? Was she insane? "What the hell do you mean? You know what I've done! I've killed people, I've failed to honour my mother and father and so on and you ask me what sin?" He stared at her as she slowly replied, "Perhaps I should phrase it more directly. What have you done wrong that you think your sister can forgive you for?" His mind whirled. Jeanne-Marie growing up together, their manifestation and the different reactions to it. His by far the more brutal. Almost identical in a way, her reaction manifested through the fragmenting of her mind, his in a desperate attempt to ruin his body. Both seeking to escape their mutations. Flash to the club Where are you, Aurora? The horrible feeling when he beat the man who'd done that to her to death. The similar feeling, suppressed though the memories were when he beat Daredevil, punishing him for another little girl. What was he looking for absolution for? He realised that even unconsciously, he didn't know. That knowledge made him as sad as anything that had ever happened to him.
Sage watched Jean-Paul Beaubier realise something. What it was, she didn't know and she knew that she might never. But as long as he knew, it would be ok. "I think I can tell Bishop you're fit to command your squad now," she said softly. Standing quietly, she walked to the door, leaving and closing it behind her with a click.
Jean-Paul sat alone in his room and looked out the window. He wouldn't go to Montreal today, probably not again for a few days but he knew he wouldn't stay away. He had to find what he was seeking to absolve. Not out in the world, not from his sister but from himself.
Epilogue,
Bishop's Office,
Mutant Underground Headquarters,
Blink, Chamber and Northstar sat in Bishop's office, awaiting his decision about their future. Facing them, Bishop looked pensive. "All of you have come to the Underground from painful circumstances. This does not make you unusual among the misfits that make up our agents, however. In light of recent events, we are putting together a squad to hunt down Domino. There are disturbing similarities…well, never mind. We are putting together a squad and we would like you to lead it, Northstar." Jean-Paul looked resigned. "JP, you know this was coming, you're bright enough to have recognized what happened in England, I got the reports from Shard and the others." Sighing, Jean-Paul nodded. Turning, Bishop looked at Blink and Chamber and said, "I'd like you two to involve yourselves as well. You can't go back to Domino; with the training you've been through, it would be almost impossible for you to live normal lives. You might as well stay." Chamber nodded eagerly but Blink only sighed. "Are you in, Clarice?" Bishop asked and after a moment, Clarice said, "I don't like it. But it's probably for the best." Nodding, Bishop said, "Sage will stay for a few more days and give you some heavy anti-telepath training. We don't want a repeat of what put you in the med wing." Bishop waived them out and the two newest Mutant Underground agents followed their squad leader out of the room.