Chapter Twenty-Six: The Price of Defiance
A/N: I hope you're all having fantastic holidays! Thanks as usual to those who left a review :)
Charles watched, his lips pressed into a firm and unyielding line, as Bishop paced agitatedly across the study with his hands clasped behind his back. Despite the sheer anger that coursed through Bishop's veins, there was also a buried terror that he was unwilling to acknowledge. Charles didn't have to use his telepathic power to know that inside, the defiance of the teenage mutants had pushed Bishop over the edge. He had been so confident that he held them all in his iron grasp – and then, this had happened.
Charles had been devastated when he had learned that Max was dead. Of course, Bishop had spat the words forcefully and attempted to pin the blame upon Tobi, accusing her of shooting him in the first place. While Charles didn't think he was lying, Charles also thought that Tobi had known what she was doing. What she hadn't counted on was Bishop, unable to deal with her unpredictability, killing Max. If she'd known that may have happened, Charles knew Tobi wouldn't have gone through with her escape plan.
"It's Tobi's fault," Bishop sneered across at Charles, his grey eyes glimmering. Ghost had pulled up the negation of powers once more, and been instructed to kill anyone who tried to escape. Charles had to admit, he had been rather unnerved when Ghost was revealed to be in possession of his revolver, which was three bullets short of full capacity.
"I refuse to believe that," Charles stated calmly from where he sat in his wheelchair, staring across at Bishop, "You may try and tell me that Tobi is to blame for Max's death, yet you also tried to tell the others that Tobi tried to escape when I know she was going to get help. You don't seem to understand that your methods aren't working. Your control over my class is not as great as you seem to think."
"Shut up," Bishop snarled across Charles, glowering at him and gritting his teeth. "I could crush you. If I had my power, I would suck the energy from you and blast you into oblivion with it. How would you like that?"
Charles laughed softly. "But that would mean I would also have my power, and I can assure you, I would decimate your mind before you even had the chance."
Bishop's hand fisted in his pocket and he drew something out, unravelling it like a thin black snake. Charles recognized it to be a whip and Bishop smiled nastily as he uncoiled it, gripping the handle and waving it lazily.
"Do you think I'm afraid of that?" Charles asked almost in amusement.
"I know you're not," Bishop shot back at him, "This isn't for you. I hope you know that I'm going to use this on Tobi. She's going to pay the price for her defiance. Maybe I should even bring her in here and make you listen to her scream."
Bishop had expected apprehension, yet instead Charles's eyes were hard as flint as he laughed quietly. The younger man clenched his teeth and began to grow even more furious as the telepath shook his head slowly.
"Do you really think your threats frighten me? I know what you have done to Alex, and I know you would do the same to Tobi. What do you think that telling me is going to achieve?"
Bishop was finally silenced, and he loathed Charles for it. He had expected to provoke sheer horror from the telepath, and while he knew that the man cared what happened to his students, he was not about to fight the inevitable. He knew that Bishop would hurt Tobi as he had hurt Alex, yet he knew there was nothing he could do about it.
"How do we know this is going to work?" Hank asked, examining the torch rather apprehensively. Ahead of him, Alex and Mystique crept silently through the tunnels that ran underneath Charles's mansion. "What…what if Bishop's people know about the tunnels?"
"They wouldn't," Mystique replied with a confident smile. "After all, you two didn't, and you've been living at the mansion for how long now? I'm the only other person apart from Charles who knows about them. Apparently his step-father was paranoid about them being attacked and had a secret escape route built."
Hank still muttered uncertainly to himself, but Alex stalked ahead at a determined pace. It had been decided that while Magneto attempted to discuss terms with Bishop – terms that Alex knew Bishop would refuse – several of the others would infiltrate the mansion and start the fight on the inside…the fifth column, so to speak. Now, all Alex could think about was liberating Tobi and the others.
"Slow down, Havok," Mystique called as the blond boy ventured fearlessly into the darkness. Alex had always been rather serious – spending time inside a military compound could do that to you – but now, after being tortured by Bishop, he was even more so. Mystique knew that he was terrified his friends, Tobi especially, might have met a similar fate.
"What do you expect to find?" Hank asked quietly of Mystique when he was sure Alex was out of earshot. The mutant's yellow eyes were troubled, but she simply shrugged her shoulders and continued through the dank underground.
Alex didn't mind the darkness. He'd spent a lot of time in darkness – both as a willing prisoner in the military compound, and a not-so-willing prisoner of Bishop and his Rogues. Alex didn't fear the darkness, or the slimy, skittering creatures that might dwell in it. He feared those who crusaded in the light.
"He's certainly determined, isn't he?" Hank muttered under his breath.
Mystique couldn't help the smile that crossed her lips. If Tobi had been harmed in any way…well, she wasn't exactly sure whether she wanted to see Alex's wrath unleashed or not. After all, curiosity killed the cat.
"So you're Magneto."
Bishop's contemptuous gaze raked over the tall man standing before him. He was clearly unimpressed, yet Magneto smiled indulgently. He might want to rip Bishop apart, as he had Shaw – but he had learned from his encounter with Shaw. Here, subtlety was the key. Magneto had to wait until he was certain that Mystique and the others were inside the mansion before he made his move.
"And you're Bishop. You're not too impressive yourself, you know."
Bishop sneered. "Whatever. Besides, I doubt you're here to hand over my father's file, or you would have already done so."
Magneto fell silent. He had already known that Bishop was allegedly Shaw's son, yet hearing the words come straight from the boy's mouth unsettled him. How had Bishop escaped years of torture and abuse? Would Shaw have abandoned his son if he'd known the boy would grow up to be a mutant?
"So why are you here, Magneto?" The question was a taunting one.
Magneto smiled grimly. "I'm here to warn you. If you let Charles and the others go, if you walk away, there's still a chance. Things are only going to get violent from here. I'm giving you one chance. You're never going to get the file, you might as well accept that. So you're done here."
"You don't tell me when I'm done," Bishop spat the words out like they were poisonous, his grey eyes glimmering with anger as he glared at Magneto. "Who do you think you are? You think you're powerful? You have no power here. You will fear me, Magneto…just as you did my father. You just wait."
The young mutant turned on his heel and stomped back across the gravel towards where the rest of the Rogues stood watching in silence. Bishop was practically shaking with the rage that consumed him. Magneto had denied him the file, and it had been like a slap to the face, an acknowledgement that Bishop had lost…and Bishop never lost. If he couldn't have the file, then at least he would have satisfaction.
"Kill Charles's kids," Bishop snarled at Ghost, his hands clenching into fists of incensed fury, before his voice rose to a high, insane scream: "KILL ALL OF THEM!"
Ghost stared at Bishop as if seeing him with new eyes. He had only ever seen the young man controlled – even when he was enraged, he was controlled. But now, Bishop had lost it, and all of the students in the mansion were going to pay for it.
"Except Tobi," Bishop amended, a sadistic grin crossing his face his eyes shone with a mad delight, "She's mine."
Tobi knew something was up when she heard the chaos occurring throughout the mansion. When she opened her door and stared out, pandemonium had indefinitely erupted. She could hear screaming and thumping and Rogues shouting out to one another…and she knew that something drastic must have happened.
She rubbed ruefully at her sore head. Having the energy stolen from her hadn't been a very nice process. The guilt of Max's death still burdened Tobi, weighed her down like a tonne of bricks, yet now she was shivering in anticipation, for she feared her actions may have had even worse consequences.
"Help!" It was Lucie's piercing scream, raw and full of terror, "Someone, help me!"
Tobi started down the hall towards the girl's room, where the door had been flung wide open. A dark-haired girl flitted into Lucie's room and suddenly, new hope coursed through Tobi's veins – that had been Danni, she was certain. Danni, who was supposed to be with the Brotherhood. There was the heavy sound of someone colliding with the ground, followed by a grunt of pain.
"Stay away from her," warned a cold voice that was indefinitely Danni's. "You…"
Tobi broke into a run as the end of her friend's sentence was cut off, followed by a horrible choking noise. When she reached the door to Lucie's room, Tobi could see Lucie cowering in a corner, frozen with terror – and across the far side of the room, Ghost had clambered to his feet and caught Danni by the throat. The girl's dark eyes were widened as she clawed at the mutant's hands, attempting to pry him off her.
"Little bitch," growled Ghost, lifting his arm even higher. Danni's feet skimmed the ground momentarily, before she was dangling in the air, her eyes bulging with fear as Ghost's grip on her tightened. Tobi stood in the doorway, petrified with horror, as Danni choked for air, her face slowly starting to turn blue.
Then she saw something that glimmered bright in the sunlight, and Tobi started to cross the room quietly, knowing instantly what she needed to do. Ghost's attention was focused completely on the girl he was trying to strangle to death, so he noticed nothing.
"You must be one of Magneto's group – the Brotherhood. Well, Bishop said kill the students – but I've got no problem killing you as well."
Danni's eyes were starting to become unfocused, her struggles weaker. Her face was going from blue to purple as Tobi snatched the revolver up off the ground – the revolver that Ghost had clearly dropped during the struggle – and aimed, narrowing her green eyes. Once her arm was level with the back of Ghost's head, she fired first one shot, then another.
Tobi grimaced as the blood spattered across a shocked Danni's face. Ghost's fingers slithered from the girl's throat and his form hit the ground heavily. Tobi lowered the gun, her expression one of complete astonishment. Now, they had their powers back. One bullet left…and she knew who she was saving it for.
"Tobi?" Danni wiped the blood onto her sleeve and stared incredulously across at her friend, then down at Ghost's motionless form. "That was you?"
Tobi merely shrugged. Even if it had been Ghost that she'd shot, killing was still a daunting task. Across the room, Lucie finally managed to stagger to her feet. Danni grimaced and massaged her throat, where red finger-marks were starting to become prominent. They'd probably bruise.
"Come on." Tobi jerked her head towards the door, stowing the revolver into the waistband of her pants. In the corridors of Charles's mansion, the screaming and shouting continued. The wave of emotions that now attacked Tobi's consciousness threatened to overwhelm her. "Let's stop this once and for all."