September 4, 1974
Alex put out a hand, stopping Lorna before she could move forwards. He put his finger to his lips and she immediately shrank back. Alex moved back with her as the sound of feet filled the tunnel. They moved behind a rock column and Lorna peered down, seeing the four soldiers moving forwards beneath them.
Behind them she could just make out Sinister. He was fiddling with his coat cuffs, looking both irritated and excited. Lorna looked over at Alex, whose face was set.
"Looks like we're agreed then," Lorna said, her voice quiet.
"As long as you want to go after him," Alex said, keeping his own voice low.
She nodded.
"What do you think we should do?"
He raised his eyebrows.
"Are you looking for my leadership Trixie?" he asked, amused.
Lorna rolled her eyes.
"Don't be stupid. You just know more about fighting him than I do," Lorna said.
"I don't know much," Alex said, "Remember, Beast was the one who ripped him apart."
He moved to drum his fingers against the rock column, but he stopped at the last moment. She couldn't help but smile: he was trying to keep his sound down.
"He won't want to harm me, at least I don't think he will. Something about my bloodline. He'll probably be more open to attack from me if he's trying to avoid causing damage," Alex said, "Which means that you should probably go for the soldiers. Is that alright?"
Lorna paused. A few months ago she would have argued. However, she did trust Alex's judgment. She knew now that he wasn't in it for personal glory, and she shouldn't be either. While they both had different ideas about getting there, both of them were in the battle for the good of their species.
She was starting to wonder if that was truly what the Brotherhood was in it for, or at least if their methods were correct. They could have good intentions, but the fact was she was starting to doubt if they had the right ideas. As usual Lorna would have to wait to examine her feelings on the subject.
"Sounds good," Lorna said.
Alex tilted his head, smiling.
"You know, I really didn't expect you to say that," he said.
"I'm not dumb you know," Lorna said, "As long as you beat out where Boom-Boom is then I'm fine."
Alex put his hand over his mouth, stifling laughter.
"What?" Lorna said, irritated, "It's not funny when that asshole has one of my teammates."
Alex sobered.
"Of course not," he said, "But…that's her name? Boom-Boom?"
Lorna scratched the back of her neck.
"Yeah," she said.
"Did she pick that?" he asked.
"Yeah," Lorna sighed.
Alex stifled more laughter. Lorna tried to be serious, but she couldn't help the smile spreading on her face.
"Let's hope she grows out of it," Lorna said.
"Yeah, let's," Alex said.
He looked down. The group of soldiers and Sinister were almost directly beneath them. He turned to her.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Ready," Lorna said.
Lorna moved forward and pulled out her knives. She paused for one moment before jumping off the upper shelf of the rock. Lorna flung her knives out, feeling their progress through the metal in them. One struck a soldier in the throat, the other in his chest. She summoned them back before sending the other two out as she landed.
The remaining soldiers had begun firing, but Lorna ducked and weaved. She saw that Alex had jumped down, blocking Sinister's path. He fired a blast at him but Sinister dodged it, looking more amused than scared at what was happening. Lorna longed to wipe the smile off his face, but there were still two more soldiers.
Lorna cartwheeled and kicked one of them in the face before jumping onto her feet and sending one of her knives after the last solider. She sensed it hit home and summoned it back to her hand, slotting it into place in her vest with the fourth one. The other two returned to her hands as she rushed to join Alex.
Sinister was still dodging, not attacking. He laughed and another group of soldiers came around the corner. Lorna swore and sent her knives out. They began firing. Lorna dodged, feeling for any metal in their guns. She hadn't expected there to be any, but it was still annoying and made things harder.
She looked over at Alex. He jerked his head towards the soldiers and sent out another blast at Sinister. He brought his other hand around and fired a blast at the soldiers, but the message was clear. He could only give her minimal back up as long as he was fighting Sinister. That was fine. Lorna didn't need help.
Lorna ran up to the soldiers and began sending her knives out. In the distance she could hear Sinister talking, his voice grating on her ears.
"Working with Magneto's daughter yet again?" he asked, "You'd best be careful. You wouldn't want this to become a habit."
"Shut the hell up!" Alex snapped.
Lorna reached out and punched a soldier, feeling his nose break. Another grabbed her arm and she slashed at him with her knife.
"Oh, are we in a forgiving mood at the moment?" Sinister asked, "I'm surprised."
The soldier recoiled. Another soldier grabbed her around the waist and slammed her into the wall. She felt dizzy, but she kicked off from it and sent the soldier holding her into other soldiers. She felt him stumble. Lorna turned around and jammed her knife into his collar bone. He screamed and Lorna threw her knife at another soldier.
"You know, Black Tom was an idiot," Sinister said, "But he did love to talk."
Lorna could hear blasts, showing that, in the very least, Alex was still trying to shut him up.
"And he told me of a rather interesting incident. How many scars did it leave?"
Lorna stabbed the last soldier in the rib cage. Her knife stuck for a moment, but with enough effort she pulled it out. Lorna kept it in her hand as she wiped sweat off her forehead. She couldn't afford to let her guard down, not even for a moment. In the distance she could see Alex with Sinister. She stepped over the fallen soldiers and hurried to help him.
"How long did they keep you?" Sinister asked, "How long did they cut away at you, trying to find what your precious Professor had blocked? How long did you refuse to tell them?"
"Shut up!" Alex screamed.
Lorna saw a larger blast leave his hands. It smashed into the rock wall, sending pieces flying everywhere. She felt something chilling her, but she kept moving on. Sinister saw her coming and laughed, his hands stuffed in his pockets. At the same time, his expression was curious. She hated that.
"And now you're working with their favorite daughter," he said, "What does that say about you?"
Lorna felt pain stab into her chest, causing her to stumble. The words tumbled around in her head, but she took a deep breath and threw her knives. Sinister moved out of their way just as Alex sent another blast out. She summoned them back, feeling weak. From somewhere further off soldiers began firing at them.
They moved in front of Sinister, who took off. Alex sent a blast at the soldiers and Lorna began kicking and punching, desperate to get Sinister's words out of her head. She wanted to hurt him, to get him to take back what she had said, but when the soldiers were down and she looked around, he was gone.
She looked at Alex who stood amidst a pile of soldiers, breathing heavily. Lorna swallowed and slotted her knives back into her vest.
"What was he talking about?" Lorna asked.
"Not important," Alex said.
"What was he talking about?" Lorna screamed.
Alex looked away, his expression guarded. Lorna took a deep breath.
"I need to know," she said.
Alex took a deep breath, his eyes still riveted on the floor.
"We were on a mission once. My brother was in charge," Alex said, "It was supposed to be simple. We were just finding out some information about some politicians. I didn't…we didn't know that the Brotherhood was interested in what we had. We didn't know it was important."
Lorna felt her veins fill with ice water.
"I got separated and captured. They…the Professor puts these blocks in so other people can't get into our mind," Alex said, "It's saved my skin more than once."
Lorna closed her eyes, bracing herself from what was coming next.
"So Emma couldn't get at it," Alex said, his voice bitter, "And then…well, you know how stubborn I am. I wasn't going to tell them anything they wanted."
"They didn't torture you," Lorna said.
Alex looked up at her, his face hard. As soon as his eyes made contact with hers the hardness melted. Lorna wondered just what he had seen on her face that had made him change what he was about to say. She didn't want to think about it, didn't want to hear what she knew he was going to tell her.
"They're not like that," she said.
Alex didn't say anything. He unzipped his uniforn down to the middle of his chest and pulled it to the side. Lorna saw the thin white scars that decorated his chest, stretching around his collarbone. Lorna remembered seeing them only a few hours earlier, wondering at how precise they were. She looked at the thin white scars and a new horror rushed to her mind, one that she desperately tried to force down.
"How long?" she asked.
Alex sighed.
"Three days," he said, "After that I saw an opening and got out. Made it back to Westchester."
He began to zip his uniform back up but Lorna walked forward and put her hand on his chest, stopping him. He stared at her as she touched the white scar on his collarbone. It was thicker than the others.
Lorna knew that the wounds would have hurt long after they were first inflicted. Even after that Alex had refused to tell them anything, his stubborn heroism keeping him from betraying anything. She could only admire that kind of strength.
At the same time, those terrible wounds had been inflicted by her family. More than that, she had the feeling that they had been inflicted by one person in particular.
"How long ago?" she asked, her voice soft.
"Three years," Alex said.
She continued to stare at the scar.
"You wouldn't tell me earlier," Lorna said, "Why?"
She looked up at his eyes.
"You must have known that I didn't know," she said.
"I knew," Alex said.
He looked uncomfortable, and she could see anger there, but it wasn't directed at her. It surprised her.
"No one knows," he said, "Just me, them, and the Professor. I wanted it to stay that way."
"Why?" Lorna asked.
He glared at her.
"It took my brother a year to get over letting me get captured," Alex snapped, "If he knew this happened…"
Lorna swallowed.
"I understand," she said, "You kept it inside to protect him."
She took her hand away.
"It was Azazel, wasn't it?" she asked.
He nodded slightly. Lorna swallowed, confirming her worst fears. The man who had trained her, taught her cards, and laughed with her had been torturing people while he preached a message of honor. Lorna could feel the tears and the shame welling up inside her, could see that one of her hands were trembling.
"My father didn't know," Lorna said.
It was the last thing that she could hold onto. Her father was the best man that she knew, a man who, although she knew she didn't agree with as much as she did recently, would never advocate this. He was the one who had picked her from the ashes of her last life and carried her into the light. Her father was the one person that she could depend on no matter what. No matter what anyone said, he was the hero, just in a different way.
However, when she looked into Alex's eyes, she knew the answer. Lorna sucked in a deep breath, although it felt like it didn't reach her lungs. Her legs were trembling and she could feel the tears stopping. The knowledge she had been given left her beyond crying, in a place that she didn't know how to describe.
"How can you even stand to be around me?" Lorna said.
Her words were thick and choked.
"Lorna…" Alex said.
She looked up at Alex. He actually looked sorry for her.
"You're not like them," he said.
Lorna took a shuddering breath, deciding to ignore that he had called her by her real name. She stepped away from him.
"Let's get moving," she said, "We have people we need to save."
Alex looked at her uncertainly, but he nodded. She was grateful. There was too much going on inside her head to talk or even think about. However, she began to wonder if Alex was right: maybe she wasn't like her family. Lorna didn't know what to make of that.