Chapter Twenty-Four: Brutal Revolution

A/N: Only a few more chapters left, guys! Remember, reviews will speed up the process of me editing ;)

He had once been Elliott – but now he was Snatch. Charles and the others had never really appreciated him, and when Snatch was called to speak with Bishop alone, he felt that finally his talents had been recognized. The dark-haired young man was waiting for Snatch in Bishop's office. Snatch closed the door quietly behind him and Bishop turned to smile at him.

"Ah, Snatch. I've been meaning to speak to you for some time now." He paced back and forth across the room, his shoulders tense and his hands clasped behind his back. Snatch nervously took a seat.

"Really? Why?"

Bishop stopped pacing and tilted his head to the side with a dry smile. Snatch seemed quite shrewd. He was very aware of what was going on around him and Bishop planned to use him for his own benefit.

"You know the mutants. I want to know what their weaknesses are. I want to know how to bring them down should they attempt an uprising."

Snatch licked his lips nervously. He'd had no qualms about betraying the others – but giving out personal information was something else. It would be like condemning them to die…and although Snatch greatly disapproved of the young mutants, he had no wish to see any of them dead.

"Uhh…well, if anything was to happen to the others, Charles would be devastated."

Charles Xavier. Bishop smirked at the mention of his name. The oh-so-powerful telepath had been confined to his room. He was trapped, unable to reach out and help his students. How frustrating that must be for him.

"Well, that's an obvious one. What about the others?"

"Umm…" Snatch looked uncertain. "Zelda's afraid of the dark?"

Bishop sighed heavily and rolled his eyes. These weren't the kind of answers he was looking for. Snatch shuffled uncomfortably in his seat, evidently aware that he wasn't being as straightforward as Bishop would like. The dark-haired mutant leaned down, slamming a fist on the desk.

"Look, Snatch. You've chosen your side. I commend you for that. But now you have to stick to your decision. Sever all ties with the mutants you once called friends. If you don't strike them, they will certainly strike you…for they will never forgive you for betraying them."

Snatch suddenly realized how thirsty he was. What he wouldn't give for a glass of cold apple juice right now. The bottle was half-empty down in the fridge.

"If you're going to use anyone against each other," he stated slowly, glancing down at his feet, "Then you'd probably be best to keep Alex and Tobi separate. He's totally in love with her and I know she feels the same about him."

Bishop nodded slowly, consideringly. He knew that he couldn't suppress the mutants forever – and he certainly couldn't control Danni, Hank and Alex. He needed a strong hold over them, an iron grip that would never break…and to achieve that, he needed to be utterly certain that he had something that would render any rebellion impossible.

"They might not bring the file back," Bishop muttered aloud, more to himself than Snatch, "And if they don't, we need to be prepared…"

"You could use Tobi as a hostage," Snatch pointed out, trying to win Bishop's favour once more. "That way you know you've rendered Alex powerless."

A small, cruel smile started to spread across Bishop's lips. Of course, he already knew of the connection between Alex and Tobi…but what would happen if he severed it?

"That's a good idea," Bishop acknowledged, grey eyes glinting.

"What if Alex rebels anyway?" Snatch inquired, beginning to find flaws in his own plan. "He might think you're bluffing…"

Bishop threw back his head and laughed.

"Oh, that's easy. If he rebels anyway, I'll kill her."

"Lucie, what do you think you're doing?"

The girl nearly dropped the bottle of vodka she held. She pressed her hand to her heart and exhaled deeply as she noticed Snatch standing in the doorway, his arms folded across his chest as he watched her.

"Elliott. You scared me."

"I'm not Elliott anymore," Snatch snapped, advancing on her, "I'm Snatch. What don't you get, Lucie? I'm not on your side."

Lucie was undeterred. "Look, I've come to get a drink…Snatch or Elliott or whoever you think you are. Can't you just leave me alone? Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be plotting away with Bishop? Because that's what you do now, isn't it?"

Snatch growled. "You don't want to try me, Lucie."

"Oh, yeah?" Tobi was leaning against the pantry door, inspecting Snatch with narrowed eyes. He nearly jumped out of his skin. Powerless or not, the girl still had the ability to unnerve. "Why's that, Snatch? Go back to your master, you little snake."

Snatch snarled angrily, lunging forward, but Tobi shoved Lucie back into the corridor and yanked out her gun, pressing it to the mutant's temple. Snatch froze, his eyes widening in fear.

"Yeah, that's right," Tobi sneered at him, green eyes blazing, "I'm not as defenseless as you thought, huh? So why don't you just stop trying to play the big man and crawl back off to your little hole. Stop intimidating Lucie, or you'll have me to deal with."

Snatch held his breath until Tobi withdrew the gun, nodding curtly and then whirling around to stomp off down the corridor. He panicked, pulling out his phone and calling Bishop's mobile even though it would most likely irritate him. Bishop was only a floor up – however, Snatch felt frozen to the ground where he stood. He couldn't move for sudden terror.

"What is it?" Bishop demanded in annoyance.

"Tobi," Snatch whispered into the phone, a cold shiver running down his spine, "She has a gun."

A roaring fire burned in the hearth as the group of young mutants sat in front of it. A grim silence had fallen over the group, for although they'd managed to escape their rooms, they knew what would happen if they tried to escape the mansion. So now they played poker over bottles of vodka snuck up from the kitchen, attempting to think up a way out.

"So what's the game plan?" Sean asked, reaching across for a handful of Smith's chips and shoving a crumbling handful into his mouth before flipping out a nine of hearts, "What, we kill Bishop or something?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Lucie snapped across at him, her eyes narrowing, "That's suicide. Anything we do to him, he's going to use the energy he's collected and turn it right back against us."

Max shook his head from where he sat across the chessboard from his sister. His tongue was poked out in concentration as he slowly moved his rook across the board.

"You're wrong. Bishop can't do shit, and neither can we, because none of us have our powers."

His depressed tone prompted Tobi to reach for the bottle of vodka, allowing the liquid to burn a trail down her throat and clear a path in her mind. Alcohol always made Tobi feel more rebellious. It actually made things clearer for her.

"You don't need to have powers to have true grit."

Tobi knew that this wasn't about playing the hero. All she wanted to do was get rid of Bishop and the others. All she wanted was Alex back, to make sure that he was really okay. Because despite the fact that the external scars had healed, Tobi was certain that the mental ones would take far longer to recover from.

"Like we'd stand a chance without them," Perry responded with grim amusement as he continued his poker game with Sean. "Besides, we can't aim for Bishop. We'd have to get rid of Ghost first, and how are we supposed to do that without our powers? This is just crazy."

Tobi felt sick to the stomach as the steel pressed against her skin became more prominent. She could still remember the feel of the gun in her hand, the loud firecracker sound as it went off and the bullet pierced the Scottish mutant's face. She hadn't even known his name. She had killed him.

"Ha!" Lucie grinned as she moved her king triumphantly forward to take Max's bishop. He scowled in displeasure. "Got you now, Maxie."

"You wish," Max scoffed, looking for another move to make.

Zelda glanced across from where she had been watching Perry and Sean's game of poker. Her eyes were solemn as she examined Tobi, glinting ominously in the firelight.

"Would you really have abandoned us, Tobi? Were you really trying to escape like Bishop said you were?"

Tobi shook her head vigorously as suddenly, all eyes were on her. It was strange, not being able to sense what any of them were feeling. It also scared Tobi.

"No. It wasn't like that. I was trying to head to the Brotherhood…to convince them to help us."

Sean couldn't help but feel glum. To him, it looked they were running out of options fast. They would probably need Charles's help – and the Rogues were making sure they stayed far away from the telepath for that precise reason.

"There is another option." Tobi's tone was rather dark and she reached into the waistband of her jeans. Lucie, who had been with Tobi in the kitchen, thought she knew what was going to be pulled out – yet her eyes widened nonetheless when she saw the revolver in Tobi's hands, glinting in the firelight.

"My God," Perry whispered, half-terrified and half-awed, "Where the hell did you get that?"

Tobi merely shrugged as if it was of no consequence. She examined the gun just as intently as the others and allowed it to be passed around into admiring hands. When Max reached for it, he frowned and then stared across at Tobi.

"There are five bullets in here. Have you…did you…?"

Tobi inclined her head seriously. "One of the Rogues tried to stop me from escaping."

It was all that needed to be said for them to become aware of the fact that Tobi was a killer. Sean examined her with shock. He'd known her the longest out of all of them, yet he'd always known that there was a darkness inside Tobi – a darkness that was great and terrible, and that he never wanted to see unleashed.

"What do you plan to do?" Lucie asked, handing the gun back to Tobi, "Shoot Ghost?"

Tobi hadn't been entirely sure until she had allowed the gun to be passed around. Now she knew the path that she had to take and the gun shook in her hands as though the bullets were straining to break free of the metal that encased them.

"No. There's another way."

She was suddenly cold all over, and still shaking violently. She examined the gun carefully, watching as it glinted ominously in the firelight. The others watched her with wide eyes, prompting her to smile wryly. They were innocents, the lot of them. They didn't know what it was like to live as she had, on the very brink of insanity. The things she had done and witnessed…they never needed to know.

"By the way, Max?"

He looked up at her from where he and Lucie had been finishing up their game of chess, with Lucie as the victor. She was chattering gleefully, attempting to tease her older brother. It was such a child-like thing to do, it so conveyed the bond between the two siblings that it made tears well in Tobi's eyes.

"Yeah?"

Tobi swallowed hard and reminded herself that she was saving them. She had failed before and she couldn't afford to do so again. All she could hope was that the huge risk she took would be worth it.

"I'm sorry."

A frown came over Max's face and he opened his mouth as if to ask why, yet it was already too late. Her lips pressed into a tight line and her eyes completely hard, Tobi raised the gun level with Max's stomach and pulled the trigger with a firecracker bang.