Requiem
Setting: Three years after PD Season 2. A few years back in the 'corrected' post-DOFP universe.
Summary: Ned discovered his mutation when he was nine. He was lucky enough to find a partner that thought his power was a gift, not an abomination - even more so when his powers brought back his childhood sweetheart. But nothing lasts forever. There's nothing left for him in Papen County. This is the end. Or is it?
Warnings: Angst like whoa. Character death. Suicide and overall dark themes at the beginning.
lasciare suonare
allow the sound to continue, do not damp
An uncomfortable silence hung heavily on the flight deck of the Blackbird. Jean kept her gaze focused on the instruments before her, not ready to make eye contact with Logan since he'd returned from scrubbing the wide-eyed mutant's blood off his hands.
He could think of a couple of ways the extraction could have gone worse, but the clench of Jean's jaw and the flare of her nostrils mirrored his assessment of the situation. They'd pretty much blown it to hell.
Jean leveled off the plane as they approached cruising altitude. Westchester was a relatively quick hop away, though they'd have to swing south from Poughkeepsie to avoid a storm over Manhattan. She brought the communications system online and let out a measured breath, a rare sign of strain from the collected doctor. There was nothing left that would delay their report - besides the colossal task of figuring out how to explain that they had spooked their target into attempting suicide (literally) at Logan's hands.
Logan sniffed. This whole mission stunk. A couple of bigots chasing after a mutant wasn't unheard of, but this was something else entirely. This one guy had led Purifiers on a merry chase across the continent. Anybody else would have gone to the cops, to another mutant, perhaps even gone quietly and hoped for the best. This guy, Ned, not only knew that the Purifiers wanted him alive - he was ready to kill himself to prevent that from happening.
He'd grown accustomed to spending the odd weekend extracting endangered runaways, but this mission was different. There was a reason the Purifiers wanted Ned so badly. There was a reason the professor wanted him kept safe. The mission briefing covered none of those reasons, and if there was one thing Logan hated, it was being kept in the dark.
Logan was the first to break the silence, keeping his voice low. "What's this kid's deal? What makes him so special?" Though the thin briefing they'd received placed the target's age around 35, there was something about Ned's deer-in-headlights terror that made him seem especially young. Besides, compared to Logan, everyone was a kid.
"He's important to the professor. I don't know." Jean replied tersely. "I'm not on the inside of this."
"What, and you didn't take a look around upstairs when you had him pinned?" Logan asked, tapping his temple.
A crease appeared between Jean's eyebrows. "No. The professor trusts me. Why would I break that?"
"Oh, I don't know - because maybe this kid's powers could kill us?"
Her frown deepened, as though she were offended by the suggestion of infidelity. "Firstly, he's hardly a child. Secondly, the professor said he's not dangerous. If Ned's powers were relevant to our role in the mission, he would have told us."
Well, his suspicions might offend the pretty doctor's sensibilities, but they had kept Logan alive. His lip curled slightly. "Yeah, nothing Xavier likes better than sharing intel." Logan undid his seat belt and stood up, steadying himself with his chair as he turned back to the cargo bay.
"Where are you going?" Jean asked, her eyes flickering towards him before returning to the task at hand.
"That's classified." Logan said, walking away.
Alright, he wasn't being entirely fair to her or the professor, but maybe he was still a little rattled by the guy who'd tried to impale himself on Logan's claws a couple of hours ago. He paused before entering the cargo bay, shaking the tension out of his shoulders and trying for the life of him to look non-threatening.
Ned had sprawled out across the fold-down seats lining the walls, his long legs dangling awkwardly over the edge. He lay facing the seat, his bandaged - and likely broken - hand clutched protectively to his chest. Though his eyes were closed, the intermittent tremours that coursed from his arms down through his back couldn't be making it easy to sleep.
The plane shuddered against a gust of turbulence and Logan braced himself against the wall. Swallowing an unfavourable remark against the vindictive pilot, he spoke quietly. "Hey, k- uh, Ned, how's it goin' back here?"
The lanky mutant's shoulders made an odd motion that was probably a shrug.
Fair enough, it was a stupid question. "How're the arms doin'?"
Another shrug.
This was about as productive as talking to Cyclops. He thumped his fist lightly against the wall, searching for words. "Well, I just wanted to check an' see if you're- whatever. It'll take maybe three hours to get to the Institute. We'll be landing around eight. Professor Xavier'll wanna talk to you once we get there. Should be alright after that."
A heavy exhale, almost like a scoff. Ned muttered something under his breath.
Unfortunately, Logan's ears were pretty sharp. His dark brows pulled together. "What was that?"
Fatigue-lined eyes snapped open. Ned rolled onto his back, staring up at him in defiance. "I said, 'Yeah, right.'"
Squaring his shoulders, Logan fought to keep a sneer off his face. "Listen, the professor is the one who sent us to pull your ass out of the fire. You're alive because of him - the least you could do is show a little gratitude."
"So what? You were too late, anyways." Ned replied venomously. Hard lines of bitterness twisted as his expression shifted into something painful. He dug his good hand into mussed brown hair, breathing out, "Chuck's gone."
Right, the dead girl. The briefing had touched on her without any particular depth of insight. Curiosity overrode his sensitivity. "Who's Chuck?"
"My girlfriend. My- everything. I lost my home, my friends, my family - and now I've lost her." Ned's soft features were tainted with accusation as he turned his focus onto Logan. "Do you have any idea what that's like?"
The depth of the other man's loss brought Logan's aggravation to a halt, but it wasn't like life was rosy for mutants anywhere. Logan thought about the scattered pieces of his broken past that he had painstakingly assembled. "Yeah, I do."
His past was too personal to share, too fractured to explain. Then Rogue's face came to mind and for once Logan knew what to say. "This world's chock fulla ignorant folk who think that being a mutant means you're not a person - and mutants who think the same thing about humans. Makes trouble for all of us and more often'n not, it's the kids that get caught in the middle. They know what it's like to hide who they are, to lie to their families. They run away. They get kicked out - and they come us. Xavier's Institute is probably one of the few places out there with people who get what you're going through. Anyway, a school's as good a place as any to learn how to start over."
Ned let out a sound that fell somewhere between derision and hope. "How am I supposed to do that?"
Logan shrugged. "Beats me. You can ask some of 'em when we get there. And who says you have to figure it out today?"
Some of the harsh edges faded from Ned's face. He nodded, thoughtful.
Tapping the wall with the heel of his hand, Logan straightened his back and took a breath. "You should get some sleep. We got a ways to go."
notes.
Welp, I def didn't think I would complete this before the end of today. Happy Easter Monday to everyone - I cut this scene out initially because I couldn't think of a fitting way to end it that would be in character for both of them. Still working on the interlude, I just finished this up to keep myself from getting rusty in the meantime.
Thanks for your favorites, reviews, follows, likes, and tumblr reblogs. Knowing that other people are as interested in this universe as I am encourages me to keep going.
Don't write the story. Live the story.