X-Men: Necessary Evil [4/?]
Title: Necessary Evil [4/?]
Fandom: X-Men: The Movie
Characters/Pairings: Pyro, Iceman, Emma Frost, others.
Rating: PG
Genre: AU
Word Count: Hell if I know.
Notes: Finally, the confrontation scene! ...And lots of politics. AU all the way. What would happen if Magneto had succeeded in killing all the humans on earth? Set after X-2.
Ms. Emma Frost is kind of a bitch, John learns on his first day at her Massachusetts Institute. She dresses in clothing that really isn't clothing, and speaks to him in a way that makes him wonder why the fuck she decided to teach.
Regardless, she gives him a room and a pat on the shoulder that is somehow reassuring.
More than anything, it feels like a new beginning.
--
Bobby stares at him, from the cast still on his left arm to the lighter in his right hand. His lips thin.
"What are you doing here, John?"
John shrugs. "Just enjoying the sights. Nice sculpture."
Bobby glances at his larger-than-life ice version of a very ugly caterpillar. "I meant in Massachusetts. Hell, in America."
Another shrug. John is shaking, but Bobby is much too busy being angry to notice.
"Needed a change of scenery," he quips.
"Change of -- Oh, dammit, John, don't think I don't know what you're doing. We're not best friends, I don't know if we were even friends period, but -- "
"We were. Don't change the facts on me, Bobby -- "
"--you left, John, and you didn't come back until a year later, after you'd become Magneto's poster boy for his Young Mutants! So stop it, okay? Stop following us. I don't want to -- "
"--want me to stop following you, then goddammit, Bobby, stop running! Just stop fucking running!"
The silence, angry and hurt, stretches out between them, long and awful.
Bobby's phone rings.
--
"--X-Men's Shadowcat and Iceman were deployed to Washington, D.C., today as peacekeepers after a terrorist attack on President Shaw this morning. Two psi-shielded assassins apparently got past Secret Service -- "
Emma Frost mind-sends,
And then, on a different psychic thread, one deeper:
<>
--
A deep breath. Sixty-one eyes bore into him. Not nervous, no, he will not be nervous.
Another deep breath.
"Hey." John clears his throat. "So. Since Ms. Pryde and Bo -- Mr. Drake were called away, I'll be covering this class. I'm St John Allerdyce. Ms. Frost says you've all read the two books by Magneto and Xavier, which I kind of doubt, but -- "
"You're a Sympathizer, right?" a girl with pink hair and an obvious attitude problem calls out. John blinks.
"I -- "
"You must be, right? You were part of Magneto's Young Mutants. Recruit and brainwash, recruit and brainwash, recr -- "
"No. Raise your hand. No, I'm not."
A boy with gold skin puts up a hand. "But you can't be an Separatist..."
"I can. But I'm not." John swallows. "America is America, Genosha is Genosha. Separate or apart, the citizens should choose."
"You're a citizen -- "
"Of Australia. Not here."
Silence. The corners of John's mouth twitch.
"What values of Anti-Unionism do you see reflected in Xavier's memoirs?"
The pink-haired girl is the first to respond: "Uh, everything? Xavier's work is the basis of Separatism!"
"Xavier wrote about burning posters and kicking the crap out of ex-Unionists?"
"Wh -- Well, no, but -- "
"How about pacifism? Where is that in Separatist culture?"
"Xavier wasn't a pacifist," someone in the back calls out. John realizes he never liked the hand-up rule anyway.
"Why not?"
"He created the X-Men, didn't he?"
"To promote peace among mutants," John replies, and the pink-haired girl clicks her tongue.
"Whatever! What do you know about Xavier's ideals, anyway? You're an ex-Young Mutant Unionist -- "
"I was in the X-Men for three years."
That shuts her up.
And for the first time in a while, John grins.
--
<> Emma Frost sends at the end of the day. <>
"Yeah?"
<>
"...Me? Wait, you know who you're talking to, right?"
<> A mental smile. <>
--
Bobby doesn't run.
There are many things about the next week and a half that matter, but the fact that Bobby comes back, and stays, and doesn't run away again -- that is what is most important.
They are still not talking, but that John can wait for.
As long as he doesn't run.
chapters: one | two | three | four | five | six
Fandom: X-Men: The Movie
Characters/Pairings: Pyro, Iceman, Emma Frost, others.
Rating: PG
Genre: AU
Word Count: Hell if I know.
Notes: Finally, the confrontation scene! ...And lots of politics. AU all the way. What would happen if Magneto had succeeded in killing all the humans on earth? Set after X-2.
Ms. Emma Frost is kind of a bitch, John learns on his first day at her Massachusetts Institute. She dresses in clothing that really isn't clothing, and speaks to him in a way that makes him wonder why the fuck she decided to teach.
Regardless, she gives him a room and a pat on the shoulder that is somehow reassuring.
More than anything, it feels like a new beginning.
--
Bobby stares at him, from the cast still on his left arm to the lighter in his right hand. His lips thin.
"What are you doing here, John?"
John shrugs. "Just enjoying the sights. Nice sculpture."
Bobby glances at his larger-than-life ice version of a very ugly caterpillar. "I meant in Massachusetts. Hell, in America."
Another shrug. John is shaking, but Bobby is much too busy being angry to notice.
"Needed a change of scenery," he quips.
"Change of -- Oh, dammit, John, don't think I don't know what you're doing. We're not best friends, I don't know if we were even friends period, but -- "
"We were. Don't change the facts on me, Bobby -- "
"--you left, John, and you didn't come back until a year later, after you'd become Magneto's poster boy for his Young Mutants! So stop it, okay? Stop following us. I don't want to -- "
"--want me to stop following you, then goddammit, Bobby, stop running! Just stop fucking running!"
The silence, angry and hurt, stretches out between them, long and awful.
Bobby's phone rings.
--
"--X-Men's Shadowcat and Iceman were deployed to Washington, D.C., today as peacekeepers after a terrorist attack on President Shaw this morning. Two psi-shielded assassins apparently got past Secret Service -- "
Emma Frost mind-sends,
And then, on a different psychic thread, one deeper:
<>
--
A deep breath. Sixty-one eyes bore into him. Not nervous, no, he will not be nervous.
Another deep breath.
"Hey." John clears his throat. "So. Since Ms. Pryde and Bo -- Mr. Drake were called away, I'll be covering this class. I'm St John Allerdyce. Ms. Frost says you've all read the two books by Magneto and Xavier, which I kind of doubt, but -- "
"You're a Sympathizer, right?" a girl with pink hair and an obvious attitude problem calls out. John blinks.
"I -- "
"You must be, right? You were part of Magneto's Young Mutants. Recruit and brainwash, recruit and brainwash, recr -- "
"No. Raise your hand. No, I'm not."
A boy with gold skin puts up a hand. "But you can't be an Separatist..."
"I can. But I'm not." John swallows. "America is America, Genosha is Genosha. Separate or apart, the citizens should choose."
"You're a citizen -- "
"Of Australia. Not here."
Silence. The corners of John's mouth twitch.
"What values of Anti-Unionism do you see reflected in Xavier's memoirs?"
The pink-haired girl is the first to respond: "Uh, everything? Xavier's work is the basis of Separatism!"
"Xavier wrote about burning posters and kicking the crap out of ex-Unionists?"
"Wh -- Well, no, but -- "
"How about pacifism? Where is that in Separatist culture?"
"Xavier wasn't a pacifist," someone in the back calls out. John realizes he never liked the hand-up rule anyway.
"Why not?"
"He created the X-Men, didn't he?"
"To promote peace among mutants," John replies, and the pink-haired girl clicks her tongue.
"Whatever! What do you know about Xavier's ideals, anyway? You're an ex-Young Mutant Unionist -- "
"I was in the X-Men for three years."
That shuts her up.
And for the first time in a while, John grins.
--
<> Emma Frost sends at the end of the day. <>
"Yeah?"
<>
"...Me? Wait, you know who you're talking to, right?"
<> A mental smile. <>
--
Bobby doesn't run.
There are many things about the next week and a half that matter, but the fact that Bobby comes back, and stays, and doesn't run away again -- that is what is most important.
They are still not talking, but that John can wait for.
As long as he doesn't run.
chapters: one | two | three | four | five | six