So, this is more of a filler - sorry.
The party'll start with tomorrow's chapter.
Find My Way Back Home
Part II: Away, I know
After those disasters that were Paris – and just why did Charles not use his powers to stop those stupid humans? Another bout of misplaced morals? – and DC (and yes, he does feel bad for basically having dropped a whole stadium on Charles, but there is no changing that now) it takes Erik a whole four months to find Mystique again.
By then their respective wounds have healed, and they are both wanted criminals on the run.
Ahh, nothing new there.
The Logan they met, it seems, has returned to his own time, and did everything go smoothly? There is no telling, of course.
Mystique is hiding in an old warehouse in Argentina, and when she returns from doing god-knows-what and finds Erik in her hideout preparing dinner she immediately attacks him. (He did try to kill her, so he supposes he understands.) He barely manages to stop her, and only when she is bound by a number of thick metal wires he is now taking wherever he goes she finally seems to be ready to talk.
"What do you want?" Or snarl, rather.
"Your help," he answers, calmly finishing up the sandwiches.
"And why would I help you?" He has never seen her that hostile. (But once again he understands.)
He walks over and hands her one sandwich, unbinds her left hand so far that she can eat.
Her yellow eyes are dark with fury as she stares at him, completely ignoring dinner.
He shrugs. "Last time I checked, we wanted the same things. Also, we're both on the run, and while we certainly shouldn't run around in large groups, we are safer together then alone. Safer, and more efficient."
She calms a little as she obviously recognizes the truth in his words.
"And what're you trying to do, that you need my help in order to be more efficient?"
"What I always do," he answers, and takes a bite of his sandwich, chewing calmly. Only after he has swallowed, under her impatient eyes, he continues: "Try and protect our kind against the humans. When we busted Trask, we found quite a lot of information on the Mutant Genome Project" – and she flinches at that – "as, apparently, he was involved quite deeply. No surprise there." He feels the anger return, anger at what this person has done, how he tortured countless mutants under the mantle of research.
"Of course, the information went to the governments, but I remember quite a lot – enough that we can go and mix some of the facilities up. I doubt that they'll be closed down anyway, and maybe we can rescue a few of ours."
As always, he believes in the worst of humanity.
Mystique, he knows, does too.
"You promise never to shoot me again?" Her wide eyes are filled with hope – hope that he will.
"I promise. And – I'm sorry I did try. I didn't want to kill you, I really didn't. I never worked with anyone the way I can work with you." That is a lie, and both of them know it. "I just thought… that it was our only chance."
"I do understand that," she whispers softly. "But – never again?"
"Never again," he immediately affirms.
"Alright, I can work with that. But – we'll need a team."
"I agree," Erik nods, commanding the wires to release her now that she is no longer attempting to attack him. "We'll assemble one, then, and do some research in the meantime. I remember the approximate locations of three facilities, we'll have to scout them, find out the security details. As soon as we're ready, we move in – and maybe we'll find more details on other institutions there. We save whoever's still alive, and collect any useable evidence."
Sighing, Mystique lets herself fall onto her makeshift bed – made up of an air mattress and a few blankets – and finally begins to eat her sandwich.
"Alright, I'm in. I even know where to find a few capable and very useful mutants who might want to work with us."
A small sound of surprise escapes him.
"And where would that be?"
The grin he receives as an answer is rather dangerous.
"I went to visit our troops in Vietnam some time ago… and met the 'special department' of mutants they'd drafted. I managed to keep them out of yet another facility… and sent them home. I…" She hesitates for a moment. "Havoc was among them."
Erik's smile is understanding.
"You know how to contact some?" he diverts the topic from the young man both of them had once considered family.
"Yes, and they should remember me. I… mixed the place up a little, when I stopped that one guy from taking them."
"Can you contact them, then, while I go scout out the first location?"
"Where would that be – the US?"
He gives her a toothy grin. "Of course not. Trask had all his illegal labs outside the country. Too much risk to be detected, I suppose… One's in South America, actually – in Bolivia, so not too far from here. The second one's in China, and the third one in the UK, surprisingly. Wales, to be more precise."
She raises an eyebrow when she hears of that odd one out, but simply nods. "Alright. I'll leave tomorrow morning, and go find some of them. We'll meet again – how?"
"In two months' time, here," Erik decides, and Mystique nods again.
"Fair enough. I'll go to bed, then, so that I can leave early tomorrow."
With that she crawls underneath her blankets and, without another word, closes her eyes.
Shaking his head about that Erik darts her another glance, before leaving the warehouse.
He makes it to Bolivia fast enough, and after he has crossed the border what was uncomplicated before becomes downright easy. Chuquisaca, a department in the South, and its capital Sucre are not exactly hard to find, and after he has reached the town all he needs to do is go west for a few miles, until he reaches an abandoned airport. The labs, he knows, are supposed to be in one of the old hangars, and the next two weeks he spends trying to find out which one, and whether there are any security measurements in place, without being seen by anyone.
When he returns to Mystique's old warehouse he is fairly certain that the facility is abandoned, and that they will have an easy enough time going in and making sure no one, nothing is left.
The shapeshifter's hideout is quite cramped when he arrives there, and Mystique introduces three mutants who served in Vietnam together with Havoc – they call themselves Toad, Ink and Quill – and one the latter brought along: Vanisher. According to her she explained what Erik is planning to do, and as most of them barely escaped imprisonment in such a facility themselves they are eager enough to help.
Also, neither of them has qualms about removing the humans involved with the labs.
And they now have the help of a teleporter once more.
Thinks are looking rather bright, actually.
They move out the next day, Erik being quite proud of this new Brotherhood, and take a detour over Paraguay, where they basically ruin a lonely, bleak valley as they train for three days and learn how to work together.
They move on to Sucre, then, and when they reach the abandoned airport they do not waste any more time with scouting.
With Vanisher as a backup to get them out should something go wrong Erik enters first, a not inconsiderable number of metal spikes ready to be fired.
The hangar, which looks like any other from the outside, has been converted into a real maze of rooms and corridors, labs and holding cells.
It is also completely abandoned.
As they try to find anything which might at least be used as evidence they realize that – while having been done carefully – the departure and cleaning-up must have happened at haste. There is nothing left to point out the kinds of experiments that were performed, and equally less is to be found on the identities of the experimented-upon mutants, or what happened to them.
What they do, however, find is one folder containing data and results, and quite a lot of hints at other labs.
Content that they have something, if not satisfied for the lack of fighting, of killing, of helping, Erik collects the evidence and sends all of them ahead to the old farmhouse in the Southwest of China, the cellar of which houses another lab. He, in the meantime, takes yet another detour and stops in one his old hideouts in Egypt, which is still intact, and – hopefully – secret.
There he leaves what they found in Bolivia, before following his teammates to their new target.
When he arrives Vanisher and Mystique have already scouted the location, while the other three took care of procuring them food and some clothes.
They go straight in once again, and while this lab is abandoned as well, they find a whole lot more this time. Apparently everything but the most dangerous information was left behind, and as they collect all that might be used as evidence, some day, various cries of fury and anguish resound in the old cellar. Whenever one of them finds some details, sees the pictures-
Erik is so angry, he wants to tear the world apart.
TBC