Chapter 10: Burn

The pale, thin, white-haired boy stepped up to him with his arms crossed. He wore a skin-tight blue shirt that accentuated his chest and arms and a pair of fitted jeans, torn at the knee. He smirked and his lips were blood red against his snow-white skin.

"You're Magneto?" he said doubtfully. He spoke very fast.

Eric nodded. "I am."

The boy raised his eyebrows and looked him up and down. He smirked again. "I'm Pietro. Quicksilver. Nice speech you gave. Really convincing."

"And what do you do, Pietro, Quicksilver?" Eric asked.

The boy disappeared and reappeared. His arms still crossed, his lips still smirking.

"You can teleport?" Eric said.

Quicksilver laughed. "I can run. Here," he said, handing Eric a piece of paper. "It's the sign on the front door. Just grabbed it."

It was the sign. Eric remembered it. 'Mutants Only. Humans Get the Fuck Out.' "So you can run." Eric crumpled up the paper and threw it behind him into the Ring. "And?"

Quicksilver's smirk almost disappeared. Then he sensed the challenge. "And I can run as fast as you want, wherever you want and not get tired. I'm strong. I'm the best," he raised his head slightyly and his ellavated his chest.

Eric smiled to himself. There was something likeable about this arrogant prat. He turned to Eden. "What do you think?"

She shrugged. "He's the best," she said nonchalantly.

Quicksilver turned to her. "I am the best," he repeated defensively. "And what are you? What do you do? Shed skin?"

Her tongue was around his throat in a second and her teeth were bared. "I'm pretty fast myself," she grinned, the venom pumping. "We'll be quite a team."

He was out of her grip in a second. He rubbed his neck, observed with brief disgust the saliva she'd left behind. "Yeah. So," he turned back to Eric, "am I in, or what? You need a guy like me? You must need a guy like me."

Eric nodded. "I need a guy like you," he affirmed.

"And what about me? You need a guy like me?" Eric's insides froze. Was it possible? He braced himself for the worst.

He looked to where the voice had come from. "Pyro," he said quietly. "Pyro," he smiled and grabbed the boy's shoulders. "You're alive."

Pyro shrugged him off. "Yeah, no thanks to you," he spat. He grabbed Eric's wrists and there was fire in his hands. He held Eric's wrists with the fire swirling around like hand cuffs. Eric wanted to scream, but he held back. He hissed through his teeth as the pain shot through him. Juggernaut moved to shove Pyro out of the way, but Eric shook his head. "No! No, I deserve this," he managed to say. He looked Pyro in the eyes. "Go ahead, son, tear my flesh off. You owe me that much."

They locked eyes for a time and Eric thought he might actually do it, but the boy let go and fell to his knees. Eric clamped back his own hands, the skin was melted and red-raw. He breathed past the pain in sharp intakes.

"You son of bitch…you son of a bitch," Pyro wept. "You left me to die!" His hands flew to cover his face and hide the tears streaming down it. "You son of a bitch…" he said through his hands.

Eden took Eric's hands before he knew what she was doing and let her teeth penetrate the backs of them near the larger vein. The venom was enough to numb the pain without effecting him. He looked at Eden and at Pyro. "Take him to the car. Give him something to eat. He's a mess."

Pyro resisted Eden's gentle touch. The Juggernaut was less kind. He grabbed Pyro's collar and hoisted him towards the door.

"Guy's got issues."

Quicksilver was tapping his foot, leaning against the base of the ring. He grinned. "Really should take care of those burns. Could get infected."

Eric glared at him. "I'll take that under advisement." The boy continued to stare and his face changed rapidly as he did so. Amusement, concern, amusement again, confusion—all happened in quick succession as if his thoughts and feelings moved as fast as he did.

"Quicksilver," Eric began, looking down at his wrists, "how fast do you think you could get to New York City?"

"Three hours…went there a week ago, see the sites," he answered immediately. "Bored." He shrugged.

Eric nodded, smiling slightly. Quicksilver raised a white eyebrow. "Well, then I have a job for you."

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Pyro woke up in the back of a car with a pain in his head like he'd been hit with a tree. At first, he could remember nothing—where he was, why he was where he was, or what had happened to him. The sun was glaring in through the window. He raised his hand to block the light. It made his head swoon. He noticed a large neon sign just above the bottom of the window. It read 'VORTEX.'

He flopped back onto the seat. "Oh fuck," he mumbled to no one, as he remembered everything. Struggling with Juggernaut as he was lifted bodily out of Vortex…a solid slam to the back of his head…darkness.

"You awake?"

Eden.

She poked her head in through the window facing him. He sat up and opened the car door on the opposite side. He was dizzy. She followed him. The effort with which he massaged the back of his head proved futile.

"Pyro," she called to him.

He walked on. "What?"

She caught up with him and grabbed his arm. "Stop. Where are you going?"

Pyro shrugged her off, as he had done Magneto. "Get away from me."

She let him walk on some distance before she said, "You don't have anywhere to go!"

He stopped dead. He leant his head back and stared into the silver blue achingly bright sky. And he knew she was right. He kept his eyes on the sky but saw little of its beauty. He felt only the weight of his shame and the pain in his skull. "I came here to kill him," he called back to her. "And I couldn't do it."

"That isn't why you came." Eden stepped up just behind him. "You belong here, Pyro, with us. We are your family, your home."

He sighed and looking painfully over his shoulder at her. Her face was sincere, her eyes, though, were unreadable as always. He wanted her so much just then.

But she belonged to Magneto…would do anything for Magneto and he knew that and was more sure of it than he had ever been. "I guess you can't choose your relatives, huh?"

She smiled pityingly. He hated her pity. "I guess not," she replied gently. She looked down at the ground and then back at him. She put her fingers on his arm lightly, but insistently. "Come on," she urged, "come home." She extended her hand. He was reminded, almost unbearably, of the first time they had met…she had offered her hand to him then, to give him a tour of the Lair. That memory was as fresh and glaring as if it were happening at that moment.

And has he had done then, he did now. He took that hand and followed her wherever she led.

What else could he do?

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"Will he stand with us?"

Eden finished bandaging his wrists and looked up at Eric, her eyes wide and innocent and deadly. "He is with us."

Eric crossed his arms and leaned against the car looking up at the hazy, glowing sky. The world was still and waiting for something to happen…waiting in anxiety and anticipation. He felt the world and its hatred and its fear. And he hated it and feared it as it hated and feared him. Their laws, their promises, Hank McCoy as ambassador to the United Nation—what did any of it mean? Nothing!

The car shook and rose off the ground. He lost his balance and nearly fell. He caught himself and whipped around as the car thumped back onto the ground. "Did I—?"

Eden stared wide-eyed and open-mouthed. "Yeah…you did." She grinned excitedly. "It's back!"

He focused all of his energy on the car and it shook. It did not rise. He let go. "No…that was an accident."

"No! It wasn't! What were you thinking? What were you feeling? Just then…when the car rose up off the ground?"

Eric looked wryly at her. "I was thinking about how much I hate the world."

Without warning, Eden rushed at him and threw her arms around him. He felt her breathing against his chest, the rise and fall of her breasts against him. She held him tight and then pulled back, holding onto his arms with a firm grip. "You are Magneto," she said.

He lifted his left hand and took her hand in his. "Juggernaut told me you would remind him of his name while you were both prisoners of the Guard to keep him from going insane. Is that what you're doing now?"

"Is it helping?"

Eric brought her close to him and kissed her forehead. "Go and get some sleep. Try and find some place comfortable in there."

"I'll sleep in the car, if nothing else."

"Stay with Juggernaut, he'll keep you safe."

She nodded and walked towards the seedy entrance to Vortex. She turned. "I love you. You know that," she said.

Eric looked at her and then away from her. She did not wait for a reply, but went inside, disappearing into the haze of smoke and darkness and sounds and voices. He turned back to the night and leaned against the car, closed his eyes. "If you were waiting for her to leave, she's gone," he said.

He heard Pyro's step behind him. The boy walked hesitantly forward and made himself visible to Eric. "Why?" was all he said.

Eric stared at him. He was glad that this boy was alive. He was glad that he had come back to him. He seemed relatively unharmed, except for some bandages on his wrists and stitching in his forehead, and he was glad of that to. "Pyro," he began cautiously, "you must believe me when I say this—"

"I don't believe anything you say," Pyro interjected disdainfully. Hatred lined his every word, his every syllable.

"John, please," Eric raised his hands in a kind of surrender. "I am sorry that I left you behind, but there would have been nothing I could have done to save you had I stayed. You were conscious, you were moving, I knew you would get away. As for myself," he shrugged, palms out and up, "I am nothing. And at the time, I was even less. I ran for my life."

Pyro shook his head slowly and then more determinedly. "You're full of shit," he responded.

"Then why have you come back?"

"I'm not here for you!" he cried. "I didn't come back for you! I came back for her. To help her. To save her from you! She worships you! And you," he ran his hand through his hair in frustration, "you just let her! And you're nothing! You just an old man with a fucking power complex!"

It was his dignity now being challenged. His purpose and reason and strength. Pyro wasn't all wrong—but he wasn't all right, either. "You have no right to speak of her or myself in that way, Pyro," his voice was icy. This game was over. "No right at all." He stepped closer to the boy who was clearly intimated by this power-hungry "old man." "And what are you, hm? A boy. Full of rage, full of potential. You control nature's greatest power—fire! And yet there you were, losing to a preppy student who can make ice with his hands, whose only real function should be to cool people's drinks at a cocktail party…your arrogance disgusts me." Pyro made for to speak, but Eric stopped him. "And as for Eden, she would kill you before she let anything happen to me. That kind of loyalty is ever lasting. She was willing to sacrifice her chance of retrieving the man she loves on my say so. She does this of her own choosing. You know nothing about her!" He let these words stand and sink into Pyro's mind. "Nothing," he repeated. "And I love her, Pyro, more than you do. And you know nothing of that. You could not possibly understand."

Pyro was barely breathing. He was, with all his strength and power, attempting to control the fires that raged within him. It was evident in his face, in his eyes, which reddened and twitched, in his chest as it moved up and down quick with the anger that swelled inside him. He broke eye contact with Eric and spoke barely above a whisper. "You're right. I don't understand…I don't want to. But keep your eyes open, don't ever let your guard down, because one day, one day…I'm going to kill you."

"Idle threats do not fear create, my boy," Eric murmured. "Keep trying though, one day you may actually be able to go through with one."

His face darkened like a cloud. "There's only one that matters."

"Glow-boy giving you trouble, Magneto?"

Eric leaned away from Pyro and saw Cain behind him. "No. Everything is fine," he looked back at the boy and spoke so that only Pyro could hear him, "for now."

Pyro nodded slowly and walked away, the darkness making him all but invisible.

"He's gonna be trouble though, isn' he?" Juggernaut crossed his arms, watching Pyro as he walked away.

Would he be? Or were his feelings for Eden deep enough to keep him in check? He had always been angry and Eric had always encouraged, even fueled, that anger. It was to his advantage, as well as to Pyro's. Anger fed his power, made him stronger. But arrogance stifled it. There was such a thin line between the two. Would he be trouble? Eric shrugged. "Fire is always unpredictable," he replied, "Do keep an eye on him for me, will you?"

Juggernaut nodded. "With pleasure."

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"She's coming, you know," the Voice murmured placidly. "The one you've been waiting for. And another—the one I've been waiting for."

Toad's eyes were open and his head ached. He was awake and conscious. He saw nothing but brown-black darkness. Faint new smells surrounded him. He felt a sudden breeze, cool and fast, slip past him and he looked in its direction instinctually and, of course, uselessly. A new smell came with that breeze but it was gone in a moment.

"Who?" he asked faintly.

"She is. The one in your mind. The one you love, Mortimer. She's coming."

Toad swallowed. He could not remember the last time he had eaten. He was not hungry, but, God, he was thirsty. "Do…" his voice was scraping for want of liquid, "do tell her…that I say hello…won't you?"

The Voice chuckled to himself. Chuckled…it was the only appropriate word. "Mortimer, I'm not kidding around, it's true. She is coming. And so is he."

Toad's eyes were hot and tired and he closed them. "That's really great," he murmured, "could I get a drink?"

"Do you hate me, Mortimer?" the Voice asked.

"Yeah," Toad answered. "Can I get a drink?"

"I don't hate you. I find you fascinating."

"Fantastic, really. Can I get a sodding drink?"

The Voice stepped closer to him. He could feel it. "Why, Mortimer?"

"Why what?"

The Voice sounded too close. "Why do you hate me?"

Oh, this was a great game. Bloody brilliant. Man's a fucking genius. His mind swirled. If he weren't tied to this fucking bed, the things he would do to this freak! He recalled with pleasure the feeling of taking life, of bones breaking under his weight and he smiled. And all too suddenly, he was keenly and forcibly aware of the restraints on his arms and legs, the strong, immovable, unbreakable—and God knows, he tried—restraints. "Give me a drink," he hissed, his heart thudding like a ticking bomb. And then he felt the Voice touch him—touch his arm. He went to grab the Voice impulsively with his tongue, but could not extend it. In a whirl of violent thoughtlessness, he reached with his restrained hands to take hold of the Voice and felt the pull of chain and leather refusing to allow him to move as he would choose.

He screamed and screamed and pulled and pulled at the restraints until he drew blood. He smelt his own blood…and he did not care. His whole body shook with anger and hatred as he had never felt before. If he could only break them, if he could only get one hand free—just one! "AAAHHH!" With one foot he could kick, with one hand he could kill!

He did not know how long he fought. But, he became suddenly exhausted. He was panting and sweating and bleeding and he did not care. But he had to stop. His body demanded it.

Toad lay there, sweaty and bloody and barely breathing. And the only words that he could utter were the most desperate of his life. The only words he thought, the only plea he had left…

"Oh God…"

A light footstep approached him and a quiet, calm voice answered him. "There's no God here, Mortimer." He paused and Toad tried to breathe. "Now," continued the Voice, "would you like a drink? You look thirsty."

Toad could not tell if it was sweat or tears that rolled down his face, over and under his eyes…his blind eyes. "Yes," he whispered weakly.

Weak. I am weak.

And, oh God, they were tears.

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Within four days, the speed demon returned. Quicksilver looked proud and self-aggrandizing. He tapped his foot impatiently waiting for Magneto to finish talking to whoever she was…the green girl with the teeth.

"Hey, I'm back," he said. Magneto turned and faced him.

"Quicksilver, I'm glad to see you. Let's talk."

The older man led Quicksilver away from the other mutants so that he could speak to him alone. Quicksilver was more than eager to tell all and everything that he had seen and done.

"So, ok, I went to that address you gave me and that guy was there, the guy that said he was going to wait for you. I watched the apartment for four days and just like you said he would he left the apartment and I followed him. Hell, I followed him all over town, like he knew, or maybe he didn't know, maybe he only thought, he was being followed. Whatever. Anyway, he finally went into this building, it's like this abandoned warehouse, in Brooklyn, nothing there, really, just the warehouse and burnt out apartments and stuff and a few cats and it didn't really look like anything but," he paused for emphasis and Magneto waited, anxious to hear more, "but," he said again, "I went in and out real fast and, holy hell, there's a lot of shit in there. Mutants in little glass rooms with tubes and shit in them and wires and all sorts of crap and guys in lab coats. There was this one guy, a green guy, on a table in the middle of the room, and this lab guy was talking to him. I think he knows your coming. Or at least he thought you were. Maybe he doesn't know. I don't know."

He stopped and watched Magneto's face change and change again, he could see every alteration, the thoughts and feelings passed over his face in a way that only Quicksilver could see. "What did the man in the lab coat say?"

Quicksilver remembered it verbatim. "The only thing I had time to hear was, 'She's coming you know. The one you're waiting for. And another—the one I'm waiting for.' And then I went back outside. I was only in there for like a second."

The man nodded. He mulled the information over and stayed perfectly still while doing so. "Did anyone see you?"

"No," Quicksilver was almost defensive, "I'm too fast. They might've felt a breeze or something. But if they did, no one reacted. Except the green guy. I think he felt me go by. He looked my way. I almost thought he saw me but he couldn't have."

Magneto looked up. "Why not?"

"Dude's blind," Quicksilver replied matter-of-factly. "His eyes were all like white and shit, he can't see."

This news startled Magneto, but only for the briefest of brief moments. No one, other than Quicksilver, could ever have detected it. "What?" Quicksilver asked. "You know him?"

"I do," Magneto rumbled. "Yes."

"Sorry," he said quickly. His mood changed from excited to mellow to excited. "So, how'd I do?"

Magneto seemed lost in thought. He heard Quicksilver but did not reply for a few moments. Then, he looked up at him as if seeing him for the first time. "You did very well," he said, "very well indeed." He looked away. Quicksilver followed his gaze to the green girl with the teeth and then Magneto spoke again. "Would you be able to lead us back to that place?"

"Oh yeah, no prob."

Magneto nodded, thinking. "Good. We'll leave tomorrow." The man put his hand on Quicksilver's shoulder. He felt a shiver of pride. "Well done," he said and let go and walked away.

"Well done," Quicksilver repeated to himself, laughing, slightly giddy. Slightly hungry…very hungry. He wondered, was anything open this late?

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Are you there?

Can you hear me?

You're everywhere.

But are you near me?

God is not there

and the saints cannot hear me.

They keep me alive

and I'll try

but I'll die…

…without you near me.