CHAPTER TWO
An hour later, Rox found herself landing the small aircraft, in practically the middle of nowhere but thankfully the sky was clear and there was no sight of snow what so ever. So after she landed the craft, she flew through the cold air and when she finally stumbled upon Luke, She found him in a dark, cold, cave within the wall of a land glacier.
He had nothing to keep him warm but in his metal form, which he was, Luke never felt heat nor cold and neither could Rox at that moment for she had placed a formfitting telekinetic "bubble" to protect bare skin against the cold. At this moment in time, Luke's back was turned to the mouth of the cave and to Rox, so that she could not see the pain on his face but Rox didn't need to see his face to know the pain he was feeling.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" Luke asked without turning around. His voice was as cold as the air around them only to be exceeded by his body language.
"Luke I….." Roxie began was quickly interrupted.
"Luke is dead." He yelled standing to his feet and turning around to glare at Roxie. She had once been his friend but now he was seeing her in the same light as his worst enemy. After what she had done, how could he see her any other way?
"How the hell can you be dead when I am standing right here looking at you Luke?"
"THE NAME IS ASSASSIN !!!!" He screamed at the top of his lungs. Roxie simply stood in silence for she did not know what to say after he yelled at her that way. After a moment of silence, Luke lowered his voice and asked his question again.
"What the bloody hell are you doing here, Leader of Pheolvrom?"
This was going to take a while, Roxie knew. When anyone called her "leader of Pheolvrom", they were trying to do one of two things. One, get into her head for political reasons or two: mocking her right before they tried to kill her. Luke, Rox knew, was mocking her leadership but would he try to kill her over what had happened? She knew how he felt for it was the same way she had felt when she thought Eric was dead. When she thought Eric had been killed by Luke's hand. Rox would have done anything to get Eric back and as she thought about it now, she would have killed if it meant Eric would come back. Who was to say Luke would not do the same thing, just in a different way?
"I'm here because I am looking for you Lu….Assassin." Roxie finally replied when she found the words.
"Why?" Assassin asked, "So I can rejoin the team be a part of the new era of mutants?"
"Yes, actually."
"Well, you can just forget about it!" Assassin growled evenly, "I ain't followin' you anywhere after what you did to Orchird."
"What I did?"
"Don't act so surprised, Rox." Assassin said scoffing at his one-time friend. "I know you knew what was going to happen to her and yet you still left it happen."
"There was no other way."
"Don't give me that bull!!
"It's not a load of bull!" Roxie yelled, "And deep down you know it!"
"NO!!!" Assassin yelled, "You said you saw the future! You could have thought of another way that spared Orchird!!"
"Don't you think I tried?" Roxie asked softly, "Orchird was my best friend. I didn't want what happened to happen but I will admit to you that I did see the future to the point to where Apocalypse died. I saw Orchard's death but….."
"Why didn't you tell us what you saw?!? " Luke asked interrupting Rox.
"How do you think you and the others would have reacted if I told everyone what was to happen?"
"We would have tried to do something to stop it! I wouldn't have let Orchird come!"
"And see that's why I didn't tell you, Luke." Roxie stated, "If you had done that……"
"We wouldn't be having this conversation right now."
"Because we would all be dead! The whole world enslaved by Apocalypse and Pheolvrom and the morlocks all dead and gone. I couldn't let that happen. But believe me Luke when I say that I tried every scenario that I could think of but they all ended the same. With either all of us died and Apocalypse enslaved the world or a few of us live but get captured and Apocalypse still ruled the earth!!!"
"Tell me this," Assassin said, "When a few lived, did Orchird?"
Roxie closed her eyes as she realized that in all those scenarios, Orchird had lived but everyone else died. "You don't wanna know, Luke."
"TELL ME!!!! DID ORCHIRD LIVE?!?!?!?!?!?"
"Yes." Roxie finally said, "In every scenario where a few lived Orchird was always among those who lived. Luke, trust me, I know where you are going with this and I'm telling you, it would n ever have worked."
"Why not? Because you have no faith in the team?"
"No because Apocalypse would have taken your powers and then have you killed!!!"
"You still don't get it do you?"
"Get what?"
"The whole reason you let Orchird die."
"Luke I didn't….."
"ASSASSIAN!!!!" Luke screamed, "YOU LET ORCHIRD DIE SO THAT YOU COULD LIVE!!!! THE ONLY OTHER WAY TO KILL APOCOLYPSE WOULD HAVE BEEN FOR YOU TO LOOSE COMPLETE CONTROL AND DIE BECAUSE OF IT!!!!! YOU GOT SCARED!!!!! YOU ARE ONE COLD-HEARTED SELFISH BITCH!!"
Rox was stunned at the language Like had just used towards her. He had never treated her so harshly before. He had changed and was not going to listen to anyone yet alone Roxie, who he blamed for his love's death. Anger came quickly once everything had sunk in. She telekinetically threw Luke against the ceiling of the cave, brought him down quickly and then slammed him against the wall of the cave and began to choke him telekinetically as she spoke with a growl that she could only have gotten from her father.
"I ain't the one who's being a cold-hearted son of a bitch, bub!!!! I came down here to keep a promise to Orchird, your love and my best friend!!!! She knew there was no other way. She accepted that but she knew what it would do to you. She made me promise not to let you slip into the void but I see I am too late. So I will leave you down here for you to dwell in your own pitiful anger and cold heartedness. I wash my hands of you. Goodbye Assassin!!!" Roxie said as she left the cave, got in the ship and once she took off, Luke fell to his face gasping for air in the snow, left alone to his thoughts
ELSEWHERE:
The door slowly opened and the darkness in the room ran for its life when the light was turned on. A soft whistling tune filled the somewhat empty storage room as the doctor walked in. He was glad to be rid of that jail and that guard. Oh, if only that guard actually had known how much Dr. Drollwreh actually hated him before he had died. Oh well, that was a worry for another day. Right now he had to take care of what the Leader of Pheolvrom would not. True her mind had been preoccupied with the boy she had had in her arms but she had just shot his idea down and not even considered that controlling everyone on the planet was the answer to end this war.
"Well, she and her team will soon find out that my ideas are always the best ideas." Dr. Drollwreh said walking across the storage room to the back wall where there was a random painting. He removed the painting and pushed the red button and then replaced the picture, only to have the wall open up as a door, a second later. Walking into the room, the doctor saw that his life's work was still intact. He knew the feds would be fooled by the storage room and that's why he had placed his college's life's work in the storage room to protect the only thing he really cared about: His work.
His life's work was a tiny piece of grey technology in a clear box that was not yet complete. He had one more think that needed to be done, before he could truly say it was complete. He approached the box and looked at his work. It was no bigger than a half dollar and some would have wondered how this small piece of technology could do anything other than take up a small amount of space but science almost always was deceiving to the eyes.
"I've waited long enough for this day." Dr. Drollwrech said as he opened the box and picked up the grey half dollar like piece of technology. As soon as it touched the doctor's hand, it came to life but seemed afraid of the doctor's touch at first.
"It's all right." The doctor said as he gently petted his work as if it were a whimpering puppy looking for his attention. Slowly but surely, the technology, as if it were a dog getting used to a person's scent, it began to merge with Dr. Drollwrech's skin. Strangely, he was not afraid in the least bit. It seemed that this was what he had planned to do from the beginning.
The technology crawled up the doctor's arm and quickly spread through his whole body. Changing his white, frail skin grey and no longer human. His grey, nearly white hair became black circuitry, like something one would find in a desk top computer, and his veins no longer held blood but electric connections to his computer like brain.
Once this transformation was complete, he took a breath, found a mirror and looked into his red eyes and said, "This is it! My plan is ready to be executed. Now the day of mutants are numbered by the Phalanx!"
