X-Men: Evolution
Blood Magics
25. Exchange
"Stop here." Xavier requested. Ororo gave him a puzzled look, but did so, pulling to the side of the road and stopping the car.
"Here, Charles?"
"Yes. It's a couple of blocks from here, I'll go the rest of the way myself."
"Are you certain this is a good idea? I don't like it."
"I know. But I think, based on his conversation with Rogue, that I may actually have a chance of speaking civilly on the matter with him… if I am alone. Any one else, and he's going to go on the offensive, perhaps attack outright. If it's just myself, it will be obvious that it's not a move of aggression on our part." Xavier reassured.
"Yes, because that worked so well with Apocalypse." She returned dryly.
"Apocalypse was an unknown. I know Magneto. While I can't yet say for sure if the visit will yield the results I hope for, I am at least certain that he will not attack if he sees that I have just come to talk."
Ororo was silent for a moment, then gave him a very serious look.
"Two hours, Charles. If I don't hear from you before that time is up, I am coming to look for you."
He nodded, willing to agree to those terms if that would reassure her. "Very well. I do not think that I will be that long, anyway. Thank you, Ororo."
She nodded back, and he got out of the car, then wheeled himself down to the warehouse a few blocks south of where he'd had her park. He kept himself aware of his surroundings, but kept any mental probing to himself as he entered the parking lot next to the warehouse; he full expected to be stopped before he reached it, and was therefore not surprised when flames sprang up and encircled him.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Pyro walked out of the warehouse towards him; grinning madly; with a gesture of his hand, the flames that encircled Xavier turned to shape a giant snake that reared its head, but kept both men inside the coil of its fiery body. "Where's your mates, eh?"
"They aren't here. I came to speak to Magneto. I came alone." Xavier said calmly. While he had suspicions that the fire- manipulating mutant wasn't really all there in the head, he also didn't think he would harm him unless either ordered to or he was attacked first.
"Big mistake!" another familiar voice roared as the huge, hulking form of Sabretooth leapt down into the circle from the roof of the warehouse.
Pyro might not attack without reason; Sabretooth was another matter. Xavier readied himself to use a psychic blast, but held back; Sabretooth stalked towards him, snarling, but Xavier felt reasonably sure that Magneto would order him to stand down before he got there. Still… he kept himself ready to strike out in defense just in case.
And Sabretooth came rather uncomfortably close, snarling and raising a hand intending to swat him aside.
"You think to come here like you own this place? Well, maybe you'll learn this time, you bald-"
"Creed!"
The voice came mere seconds before Xavier would have hit the man to prevent him from striking first. Sabretooth froze.
Pyro shifted his flame snake without another word being said; Magneto floated into the circle.
"If Xavier came here without his X- Men… we are obligated to at least hear what it was that he came to discuss. I will warn you now, if you have come to convince us to drop the cause we fight for and join you instead, as you have in the past, then I will ask Sabretooth to show you how much of a waste of time that is."
Sabretooth snarled, but moved to the side, still looming over Xavier but granting an unimpeded view of Magneto.
"Actually, I am here about a mutual enemy." Xavier informed him. He glanced around a little, then back to Magneto. "Mastermind isn't here?"
"He's a free agent, I hire him when I need to." Magneto said coldly. "So whom is it you wish to discuss? I can't imagine we have many mutual enemies."
"Oh, we have more than you might think, Magnus. However, the one I am here to discuss is a man who calls himself Mr. Sinister." Xavier said evenly, watching Magneto's expression. When he mentioned Sinister's name, Magneto's eyes first widened, then filled with fury.
"Where did you come across that name?"
"In some eighteen- year- old surveillance video footage that a friend greatly skilled with computers was able to salvage. One of my students, Kurt, or if you'd prefer, Nightcrawler, has gone missing, and our search for him led us back to that old laboratory. We think Sinister has taken him."
"And you thought I might know something about that?"
"I thought you might know something about Sinister. We've learned a little about his… affinity for experimentation, and I was hoping to find out whatever information that you might know about him. Any information that we can get on this man increases the chances we have of rescuing Kurt, and since this is not the first time this man has gone after Kurt, I was hoping to hear anything that you might know about what happened that night, as well. Please, Magnus. The life of one of my students is at stake."
"Why should we care about one of your pipsqueaks?" Sabretooth snarled.
Magneto, however, held up a hand, and Sabretooth growled, but said nothing else.
"I have long since been looking for that man, but he is quite skilled at disappearing. I found a few people he once experimented on, but only long after the point where they would have been in any shape to tell me anything about him." Magneto frowned.
Frowning a little himself, Xavier found himself asking, "Did you ever ask any of your Acolytes if they knew the name?"
Magneto's eyes narrowed. "No. Why do you ask?"
"Mm…" Xavier chose his words carefully. "I simply thought you might have. Hard to say who might have had a lucky escape. I'm just looking for anything we might be able to use to our advantage."
Xavier didn't want to tell Magneto about Gambit- that wasn't his secret to reveal. He also didn't want to give away the location that they had on his old lab, lest Magneto get there first and destroy or tamper with anything that might give them clues to where he might be now, however accidentally that might be. Though Xavier had no doubt that Sinister was a mutual enemy, that did not mean he could count on Magneto for Kurt's safe return.
But Magnus knew him as well as Xavier knew Magnus.
"You know something, don't you?"
Once again, Xavier chose his words carefully. "As I said, we believe he took Kurt. He appeared to use some sort of shadowy power to do so. This type of power, I have already learned from one of my students who has it, can't be tracked with Cerebro, so we have no idea where he is. However, if Sinister took one of my students, the rest are undoubtedly in danger as well, and I fully expect that he might try something to see if he could capture more of us. He may very well be keeping his eyes on my students even now. An encounter with him in the near future does not seem unlikely. I need every advantage I can get to protect my students from him before that happens. I thought perhaps that if you knew anything, you could tell me."
"And why, Charles, would I do that?"
"I have something you may want. I am also willing to give you any information we find on Sinister, as well." Xavier did not say that he intended to disclose the information that they already knew only after they had looked into everything themselves.
"Something I may want? As if I would fall for something as unspecific as that. For old times' sake, I will tell you one thing; I know nothing of consequence for Sinister, only that he seems to have traveled the world and left behind the dead resulting from his experiments wherever he goes. He leaves no other trace. The only advantage I may have is that long ago, when he tried to inject both Mystique and the baby she carried with a serum that appeared to be designed to give him complete control over those injected through the placenta, I was able to take what was left and reverse- engineer an antidote for it. I keep that cure secured in certain safehouses of mine in case a run- in with him requires it, but I am certainly not giving it to you nor any ideas on how to create it unless you give me a real reason to."
"That is an advantage I would prefer to have on hand as well." Xavier mused. "Very well. You wanted a sample of Dragon's DNA, didn't you? I will most certainly not give you the girl, but I will trade a vial of her blood for some of your cure."
That certainly caught Magneto's attention. He lowered himself to the ground and walked over to Xavier.
"You have some?"
"Not with me. But I am quite happy to bring a vial of it to an agreed- upon meeting place at an agreed- upon time."
"And how can I trust that it will be the girl's blood?"
"How can I trust that you will bring me the real antidote? We will simply have to trust that enough of our old friendship remains that we make the exchange true to our word. Think about it, Magnus. Something you want, in exchange for something else that will also benefit you. If we have a mutual enemy, then you giving us something that can be used against that enemy that won't affect you in the slightest- how is that not a second advantage to you?"
Magneto looked down into Xavier's face, his expression frozen and his eyes cold and calculating. There was no way to read what he was thinking, but after a long moment, he nodded.
"Very well. I see your skills of persuasion have not diminished with time. In most cases, I would care not for your preaching, but in this particular one, I suppose you are correct. I do have several vials of that cure made and ready to use in an emergency… sharing a few with you would not put much of a dent in my supply. How is the girl's blood currently being stored?"
"Refrigerated heparin tube." Xavier replied without hesitation.
"Good. Very well. I would like to meet back here, at six am in the coming morning to make the exchange. That will give me enough time to collect some from one of my safehouses. Does that work for you?"
"It does. But this time I would like to come into the parking lot in a car, so that I can be back preferably before my absence is noticed. This means I will need to have a driver with me. However, better a single driver than a host of my students demanding to know what is going on, yes?"
Magneto scowled; for a moment, the two adults merely looked at each other, though with Magneto it could be called a glare.
Finally, the master of magnetism crossed his arms. "Do not bring Wolverine."
"I have no intention of that." Xavier assured him with perfect truth. "Most likely the driver will be Storm. If not her for whatever reason, then it would be Beast."
"Very well. Then I will see you at six am. If I find any reason to suspect any kind of betrayal- whether you are attempting an ambush or trying to pass off a different sample- I will be paying your mansion a very destructive visit."
"And that's where you have the advantage, Magnus." Xavier said, unconcerned; he had no intention of trying to trick Magneto, not with so much at stake. "You know where I live. I'll bring a sample of Dragon's blood. You have my word."
"Very well. Then you can consider it an exchange of research information… just like old times." Magneto's voice was rather mocking on the last four words. Xavier, however, felt fairly sure that he would indeed bring what he had promised. When they were both much younger men, they had often shared research information and consulted with each other; any competition, at the time, had been friendly, and neither had been interested in sabotaging the other just for the sake of it.
Of course, things changed… they were on different sides, now. But Sinister was on a different side, still, and Xavier had been sensing the line between his people and Magneto's growing fainter- from Magneto's side, no less- for some time now. It was an unconfirmed suspicion, only, but he rather felt that part of the reason Magneto had remained in the area because his children were here. He'd seen the Brotherhood Boarding house fairly recently, and while it had once looked as though it were falling apart, he had seen some recent repairs made to it… repairs he suspected the Brotherhood could not afford on their own. And if Magneto was opting to remain where his children were, that spoke of in increased interest in being a father, which, in Magneto's particular case, also must have meant a decrease in interest in his terror crusade, since previously, there had been room for nothing else in his mind or heart.
No, Xavier didn't think that Magneto would betray him in the exchange. Not when he only stood to benefit, at the very least.
Kitty rose for the day after another night of sleeping badly. At this point, the way things were going, if they didn't get some kind of news soon, she was going to scream. The anxiety was killing her; not only was she finding it hard to sleep, but she could barely taste anything she tried to eat, half the time she felt nauseous after she did manage to choke something down, and she couldn't concentrate. She was making stupid mistakes both in school, and in Danger Room sessions, and she could tell that a couple people- Scott at the top of the list- were starting to get annoyed, though so far no one had said anything.
She was a bit surprised Scott hadn't said anything yet, actually. She suspected someone might have talked to him about it.
Heading down to see what she might manage to stomach for breakfast, she was surprised to find Professor Xavier speaking to Jean and Mr. McCoy in the hall; the professor had a silver- coloured briefcase on his lap. Mrs. O was also there, but she stood a little further away and observed them in silence.
Seeing them speaking with each other in the morning was not strange, but the briefcase caught her attention. The professor didn't normally move around with one, and she looked at it quizzically as she passed. For a moment, she debated asking if something was going on, but decided not to; she had enough to worry about already, even if it was stranger still when, just before the group of adults were out of her sight, Mr. McCoy took the briefcase from Professor Xavier's lap and headed down the hall with it, Jean following him.
Entering the kitchen, Kitty poked around a little, trying to convince herself that breakfast sounded good. She failed, but ended up deciding that a piece of fruit from the bowl on the counter would be the easiest thing to stomach, and she took a pear. The mansion had been stocking a lot of them in the last few weeks, for some reason. Taking the milk out of the fridge as well and ducking around Roberto, she poured herself a glass, then handed the carton to Rahne, who had just poured herself some cereal and started turning Kitty's way. Rahne took it with a thanks and a small smile.
"If I can have everyone's attention for a moment?" The professor's voice spoke in her mind; Kitty stopped what she was doing, and the others in the kitchen did the same.
If the professor needed to speak with them in the morning, he normally used telepathy; everyone was normally scattered all over the place for breakfast, sometimes even skipping it if they were running late, so it was the easiest way for him to speak with everyone at once at this time of day. The fact that he was addressing them in the morning, however, was unusual to begin with; normally, he spoke with them at dinner, when everyone was present and, generally, alert.
"I wanted to let all of you know as soon as possible that we have a location of interest regarding the man that we believe took Kurt. We have been looking into things, as you know, and we have discovered the location of a laboratory that this man appears to have used in the past. We do not think that he is there now, but I intend for several of us to make the trip there to see if there is anything to be found there that might give us more clues on where to look. We are not going today," He added just as Kitty's hopes rose that she might be spending the day looking for traces of Kurt rather than at school, and her heart dropped again. "There is something else that Hank, Jean, and myself are going to be looking at today; I believe it's of utmost importance to examine a few other things before we go. I am hoping, however, that we might be able to leave tomorrow. If this is the case, then I will call in to the school to let them know that Rogue, Kitty, and Bobby will not be going, as they are the ones who will be coming with us. I am hoping this will be the case; I'm letting you all know now so that you can prepare for that event. There is a chance that we will not be ready to go tomorrow, and if that is the case then we will make other arrangements, but I want all of you to be ready. Whether you're coming with us or whether you need to make changes in your arrangements to get to school, please be prepared tomorrow morning. That is all."
Kitty blew out a breath and forced her shoulders to loosen. Tomorrow. They might be looking for clues to Kurt's whereabouts tomorrow. She wished it was today, but getting worked up right now about it wouldn't help.
She bit into her pear, thinking about what to do for tomorrow. She couldn't afford to make any silly mistakes; she needed to somehow make sure she got decent sleep tonight, even though she could already tell sleeping would be the furthest thing from her mind. She would need to figure out how to calm down somehow.
Maybe… maybe it would help if she spent the night in Kurt's room. That could work…
All she could do was give it a try.
A/N: So Magneto has been searching with no good results... he should have thought of asking his own team ages ago, back when Gambit was part of it. XD
A trade between colleagues... Magneto gets Dragon's DNA, Xavier gets a cure for Sinister's control serum, which is probably going to come in pretty handy, with the way things are looking. About time something went relatively easily. If only the rest of the search would be as simple as the exchange...