Fic: How to escape from prison in 210 days (part 5/5)
Title: How to escape from prison in 210 days ( part 5/5)
Author:
ms_jvh_shuh
Pairing: Bobby/St John
Rating: R for dark themes
Summary: A few years after X3, Pyro has been imprisoned by the X-Men. He is... (it´s day 210, people!) no longer a prisoner.
Note I: Inspired by, though by no means fulfilling all requirements of, the post-X3 challenge
nightshade24 posted waaaay back.
Note II: I don´t care if "fruititious" is not a word.
How to escape from prison in 210 Days
Say not, the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, or faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
(From "Say Not, the Struggle Nought Availeth"
by Arthur Hugh Clough)
Day 210
The door opens, and Bobby limps in. St John thought before he couldn´t possibly look worse, but he does. He stumbles towards the cell, a metallic something falling out of his shirt. Stumbles and falls, doesn't hurt himself too badly, St John doesn´t think, but he doesn´t get up.
There is no sound, but something breaks.
St John watches helplessly as Bobby´s fist starts hitting the floor, weakly at first, but again and again and with more force, his lungs and throat letting out a mixture of a sob and a scream which sounds completely inhumane, and St John knows one of the children has died.
Magneto´s death tore the Brotherhood apart. Some will have continued to fight for the old man´s cause, sticking to the means Lensherr himself would have employed.
Some, Pyro doesn´t know how many, will not.
There was no accident, and the child´s death was not by human hand.
"Bobby, give me the keys." He realizes later that it´s the first time he's spoken to Bobby since he´s been captured. Bobby doesn´t react. "Bobby, give me the keys," St John says again, but there´s just sobbing and sounds that shouldn´t come out of a mutated being. "KEYS, ICEMAN," St John shouts in his most authoritative Brotherhood voice, and it works.
A minute later Pyro´s jeers at being out being out being out are pushed aside by St John kneeling next to a broken Robert Drake and holding him close. He´s never said "Shh" before in his life, but now he does, and eventually the sobs subside. The violent shaking doesn´t stop.
St John gets up and walks over to the easily picked-open medical cupboard, and is relieved to find a sedative he remembers Mystique calling mild because he´s not sure about dosage. Bobby doesn´t react, doesn´t flinch, perhaps doesn´t notice when St John shoves the needle into his arm, and then he´s passed out.
St John watches him for a while, making sure there´s nothing wrong with the way he is breathing. Then, noticing with satisfaction just how fruititious his endless mindless workout sessions have been, he has no difficulties picking the Iceman up.
***
Pyro provides the code to get out of the first prison section. At the second door, he holds Bobby´s hand against the scanner, which obediently equals the cryokinesis gene to authorized personnel. The third, for which he is sure he would´ve needed at least an hour to somehow fake an absence of drugs in Bobby´s eyes, miraculously is already open when he gets there.
The children all watch him as he carries Bobby across the corridor. They watch him wearily, but there isn´t a single exclamation of alarm. He´s Brotherhood, a member of which group just killed, murdered one of them, but they´re not afraid of him.
The older ones know him, they remember how St John used to live with them, they remember how Pyro and Iceman used to be friends. They also remember 189 days of Robert Drake regularly disappearing and have enough sense to understand the implications.
St John sees that there are mattresses laid out all over the dining hall floor, glimpses Jones positioned in a corner in front of a dozen monitors, but moves straight past to what he knows was Mr.Summers' and guesses correctly is now Bobby's room. He yanks the door open and gently lays the unconscious mutant teacher on the bed, drapes him in his bed sheets and puts a glass of water on the nightstand.
He rests his hand on Bobby´s cheek for a moment, then walks swiftly into the dining hall. He doesn't look at the children trailing after him as he wrenches open a cupboard and pulls out a box of candles. No-one says a word as he positions them along the walls of the large room, gaps of two feet between them.
Now. Where...
There is no gasp as he finds a set of matches and sends a small fireball to light them.
Only when every candle in the room is burning, St John turns to face the children. They are huddled together, frightened and grieving. St John meets the eyes of pigtail-girl, who he suddenly is sure must be Artie´s little sister.
His voice has barely been used for six and a half months, yet it´s steady and determined. "Anyone who´s trying to hurt you, they´re gonna burn."
* * *
This is it.
Not that they should be hard to find, but:
(I) Day 191 // (II) Day 194 // (III) Day 195 // (IV) Interlude
Author:
ms_jvh_shuh
Pairing: Bobby/St John
Rating: R for dark themes
Summary: A few years after X3, Pyro has been imprisoned by the X-Men. He is... (it´s day 210, people!) no longer a prisoner.
Note I: Inspired by, though by no means fulfilling all requirements of, the post-X3 challenge
nightshade24 posted waaaay back.
Note II: I don´t care if "fruititious" is not a word.
How to escape from prison in 210 Days
Say not, the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, or faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
(From "Say Not, the Struggle Nought Availeth"
by Arthur Hugh Clough)
Day 210
The door opens, and Bobby limps in. St John thought before he couldn´t possibly look worse, but he does. He stumbles towards the cell, a metallic something falling out of his shirt. Stumbles and falls, doesn't hurt himself too badly, St John doesn´t think, but he doesn´t get up.
There is no sound, but something breaks.
St John watches helplessly as Bobby´s fist starts hitting the floor, weakly at first, but again and again and with more force, his lungs and throat letting out a mixture of a sob and a scream which sounds completely inhumane, and St John knows one of the children has died.
Magneto´s death tore the Brotherhood apart. Some will have continued to fight for the old man´s cause, sticking to the means Lensherr himself would have employed.
Some, Pyro doesn´t know how many, will not.
There was no accident, and the child´s death was not by human hand.
"Bobby, give me the keys." He realizes later that it´s the first time he's spoken to Bobby since he´s been captured. Bobby doesn´t react. "Bobby, give me the keys," St John says again, but there´s just sobbing and sounds that shouldn´t come out of a mutated being. "KEYS, ICEMAN," St John shouts in his most authoritative Brotherhood voice, and it works.
A minute later Pyro´s jeers at being out being out being out are pushed aside by St John kneeling next to a broken Robert Drake and holding him close. He´s never said "Shh" before in his life, but now he does, and eventually the sobs subside. The violent shaking doesn´t stop.
St John gets up and walks over to the easily picked-open medical cupboard, and is relieved to find a sedative he remembers Mystique calling mild because he´s not sure about dosage. Bobby doesn´t react, doesn´t flinch, perhaps doesn´t notice when St John shoves the needle into his arm, and then he´s passed out.
St John watches him for a while, making sure there´s nothing wrong with the way he is breathing. Then, noticing with satisfaction just how fruititious his endless mindless workout sessions have been, he has no difficulties picking the Iceman up.
***
Pyro provides the code to get out of the first prison section. At the second door, he holds Bobby´s hand against the scanner, which obediently equals the cryokinesis gene to authorized personnel. The third, for which he is sure he would´ve needed at least an hour to somehow fake an absence of drugs in Bobby´s eyes, miraculously is already open when he gets there.
The children all watch him as he carries Bobby across the corridor. They watch him wearily, but there isn´t a single exclamation of alarm. He´s Brotherhood, a member of which group just killed, murdered one of them, but they´re not afraid of him.
The older ones know him, they remember how St John used to live with them, they remember how Pyro and Iceman used to be friends. They also remember 189 days of Robert Drake regularly disappearing and have enough sense to understand the implications.
St John sees that there are mattresses laid out all over the dining hall floor, glimpses Jones positioned in a corner in front of a dozen monitors, but moves straight past to what he knows was Mr.Summers' and guesses correctly is now Bobby's room. He yanks the door open and gently lays the unconscious mutant teacher on the bed, drapes him in his bed sheets and puts a glass of water on the nightstand.
He rests his hand on Bobby´s cheek for a moment, then walks swiftly into the dining hall. He doesn't look at the children trailing after him as he wrenches open a cupboard and pulls out a box of candles. No-one says a word as he positions them along the walls of the large room, gaps of two feet between them.
Now. Where...
There is no gasp as he finds a set of matches and sends a small fireball to light them.
Only when every candle in the room is burning, St John turns to face the children. They are huddled together, frightened and grieving. St John meets the eyes of pigtail-girl, who he suddenly is sure must be Artie´s little sister.
His voice has barely been used for six and a half months, yet it´s steady and determined. "Anyone who´s trying to hurt you, they´re gonna burn."
* * *
This is it.
Not that they should be hard to find, but:
(I) Day 191 // (II) Day 194 // (III) Day 195 // (IV) Interlude