Chapter 3

Logan choked on his drink and spitted it out over the table. "Wh't you sayin'?"
"We have reason to believe the Cure is losing its effect," Xavier repeated deadly serious. "I just got a call from Hank in Washington, they're trying to find out more about this."
Talyn raised an eyebrow. "Can't you just inject it once more?"

"They've tried. More injections, stronger doses, different elements in the Cure in case the body had become immune to it… Nothing is working. The mutants who got the Cure are getting back their mutation. It comes back slowly, but steady."
"Why?' Logan asked.
"We don't know yet." Xavier was still deadly serious and didn't even pull a muscle. Talyn hadn't seen him this way in the short time she knew the man. He was always friendly and smiling with his warm, dark eyes. This didn't suit him.

"So what do you want me to do?" Logan asked.
"Actually, I'd like to ask you for a favor," Xavier said while turning his head to Talyn.
Talyn looked at him in surprise. "What, me?"
"Yes. I know you just arrived here, but I think you can really help us with this." Xavier paused and then looked at Talyn intensely. "We think the Brotherhood might me involved."

Talyn stood up abruptly. Her chair fell hard on the ground and made a loud noise in the room. Xavier still looked at her, not blinking his eyes. Logan just stared, one raised eyebrow, having no clue what all of this meant.
"Fuck you, I'm leaving," Talyn scoffed.
"This is a very important issue," Xavier said calm, "a war could start between human and mutant."
"Whatever, I don't care."

She turned around as abruptly as she had stood up, but within a second turned around again and pointed her finger at the professor.
"You promised not to go there," she said, and pointed her directed finger at her own head. "You promised." She turned around once again to walk to the door.
"I never did. Erik told me about you before we even knew each other."
"Erik told you?" The disbelief was all over her face when she was stopped on her way out, again.
"Yes, we are friends."
She laughed, not sincerely. "You and Erik are friends." She laughed again, but her eyes were empty. "I can't believe that."
"Our history goes way back, Talyn, he might not consider me a friend anymore now, but we used to be. He told me about another mutant like Logan, but a girl."
"I don't want have anything to do with Erik ever again."

"May I interrupt here," Logan growled. "Who the fuck is Erik? An ex-boyfriend or something?" He added smirking.
Xavier turned his head and faced Logan. His eyes still serious. "Erik Lensherr is Magneto's real name."

Logan choked and raised both his eyebrows to the max. "Magneto?" He paused for a brief moment to look at Xavier and then at Talyn, who was now standing in the doorway. "How do you know Magneto?"
"It doesn't matter, I'm not going to talk to him."

Before the professor could even try to convince her, she smashed the door behind her. Logan could hear her walking away, until her footsteps faded away when she went upstairs.

"That's fucked up," Logan said. He was still staring at the door Talyn just disappeared through. "How does she know him?"
"I don't know," Xavier started, "I saw only fragments of her memory, I promised not to dig into it."
"What? Why not dig a little bit deeper when you saw Magneto in her brain?"
"I wanted her to tell it herself, eventually," he sighed deeply, "but with this situation going on right now, it is important we know as much as possible."
"Does the kid something have to do with it?"
"I don't think so," Xavier answered, but his voice had a little tremble.
"Coincidence that she shows up, then the Cure stops working?"
"I don't know Logan. We need to find out. But I think she might need a little more time."
"What she had to with Magneto?"
"I could only see fragments of her memory," Xavier sighed, "but I don't know. It was only his face sometimes. Fragments of her emotions back then, mostly fear, indifference…"
Logan sniffed. "Indifference I can see yeah."
"She needs a little time," Xavier repeated.

Talyn plumped down on her bed. She thought she was done with her past, with Erik and the Brotherhood, now all this shit was coming up.
Why had the Cure stopped working? And how could she ever do anything about it?
If this really was Magneto's work, there was nothing really she could do about it. Though she couldn't think of a way he could have stopped the Cure from working.
She sighed again deeply. She would never go back there and talk to Erik. The Brotherhood was something from the past, not the present, she was done with that.

"Hey kid, you in there?" the deep voice startled her.
"Leave me alone!" she yelled back. She wasn't in the mood for talking right now. Especially not about Erik and the Brotherhood. And not to these people here.
She heard the door open anyway.
"Fuck off."
Logan still walked in and leaned against the wall, he looked at her for a moment.
"Who would have a thought a kid like you knew Magneto."
"Why aren't you leaving?" she said annoyed.
He grinned. "Did you work for 'm?"
"I'm not talking about this. Go away."
"Or did he held you prison?"

She rolled her eyes and stood up from the bed. This guy was even more annoying than Erik would ever be. She walked towards him until she stood in front of him.
"You don't know anything," she hissed, "so stop digging in my past. I'm not having any contact with Erik anymore. And I won't get in touch with him just to ask around about that fucking Cure."
"That Cure can start a war," Logan said casual, like he was talking about the weather.
"I'm not going there," she repeated. Her eyes flamed and Logan saw the beast inside her that he hadn't seen in her yet. Well, at least it was there.
He raised both his hands and she backed off a little. "Okay kid, not gonna force you."
"Good."
"You should get some rest," he growled. Then he looked at her once more for a short moment, making sure she wasn't packing her stuff or something, and then turned around and left.

Now she was alone, Talyn could definitely feel she was tired. Thinking about all this stuff made her even more tired than she already was, after she woke up earlier on the iron table.
She changed her clothes and fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow of the bed.

"You little scumbag."
What, where did that voice came from? Talyn tried to look around, but that wasn't possible, because she wasn't really there. She could see nothing but black space, smell absolutely nothing at all, but the voice was definitely here. She recognized it vaguely.
"It's been a long time, Talyn," the same voice said.

Where was she, what was going on?

"Since when did you become so quiet?" the voice laughed. The laugh was not sincere, more dark and cold. "Don't you remember me, after all I've done for you?"
That's when it hit her.
"Erik, what the fuck is going on!"
He laughed again, not something she had heard much and not something she wanted to hear more.
"I found someone who can place me in your dreams, don't you like it?"
"Oh my god, I thought I was done with you and now you're in here as well, can't you just leave me alone?"
"No darling, not now you joined Charles' team."
"I didn't join them," she said annoyed, "I'm just staying here for a while."
"Well, while you're there, I'd like you to me a little favor."
Now it was her turn to laugh. "Are you kidding me? I thought I had been clear on this, I'm not on your side anymore."
"I'm not asking this as Magneto," Erik said, "I'm asking this as me, you owe me, Talyn, I've done a lot for you. Now it's time to return the favor."
Talyn sighed. "I'm not going to kill anyone."
"That's not what I want."
"Well, what do you want?"
"I want a boy called Leech."
"Why don't you get him yourself?"
"Because he is there, with Charles," he said, as if it were obvious. "He's protecting him."
"Why do you want him?"

It was quiet for a short moment, then he answered serious. "I want him, because then we can make the effects of the Cure undone. For always."
"The Cure?" she sniffed curiously, "so you do know more about that?"
"Of course darling, I'd have great benefit when it would stop working."
She had heard Erik had lost his powers when he got hit by the Cure, but she never had it confirmed.
"So it's true, you lost it?"
He remained silent, his answer after over a minute was almost an angry whisper. "Those ordinary human know nothing. They don't know what they've done and they'll pay for it."
"What has the boy got to do with it?"
"He made it," Erik said slow, "his body is used to make the Cure. He has the power to take mutations away when you come to close to him."
She thought she knew where he was going. "You're not going to kill 'm are you?"
"Of course I am darling," he said, and then; "remember, you owe me."

When she woke up, she was soaked in sweat and the blankets were lying on the ground. A cold shiver went down her spine. She could still hear his voice in her head, still felt the cold of the void she just was in, even though it had only been a dream.
She knew she owed Erik. Big time.

But did she want him to stop the Cure from working?
Did she want him to get his powers back?

She sighed deeply and let her head hit the pillow again, drifting away in a dreamless sleep this time.