X-Series 2 Ch. 7

      Magneto entered a hall of cells from a stout iron door at one end.  He paced halfway and then paused to look through metal bars at a once powerful man.  Jack Reynard stared at the floor, disheveled with the beginning of a beard on his chin.  It appeared the businessman’s stay in the Brotherhood’s lair had broken him.  Magneto raised a brow and tasted his thoughts of success.  It amused him how fragile humans were.
Reynard lifted his eyes to the mutant leader holding him captive.  He could see the delight in the elder man’s face.  Despite his age, Magneto proved the stronger.  Reynard bit his tongue.  In the day or so since his capture, he had learned the safety of silence.  All ideas of being untouchable left his mind.
“Have you rested well, Mr. Reynard?”  Magneto tried not to mock the wealthy human, but failed against his true spirit.
“Quite well,” Reynard replied, rather complacently.  
Magneto raised a brow, only half convinced his prisoner’s dominance was thwarted.  Upon their arrival, Reynard had been full of derision.  Worn by the annoyance of the rude banter it created, he ordered his guest barricaded in a cell.
“I had hoped to avoid such extremes as this when I asked you here,” Magneto rationalized.  
The bars arched under no apparent pressure, making an opening Magneto easily stepped through.  Magneto then sat on the stark bench across from Reynard, carefully observing him.  The cell bars straightened.
“You mentioned you had a proposition for me regarding Maya Keegan,” Reynard spoke.  His heart pounded in his chest, concerned with all the displays of power he had been seeing.  Faced with such a threat, he felt his strength, if not audacity, returning.
Magneto almost laughed, put at ease by the man’s more familiar demeanor.  
“Indeed I had,” Magneto said.  “My associates have been looking into your past a great deal.  To our surprise, we discovered your connection with Miss Keegan, Gemini, as she is properly known—a connection that didn’t go deep enough for you.”
Reynard studied the mutant leader’s features for a clue as to where he was going with the information.  He wanted to stay one step ahead of this dangerous game.  He could easily guess the future held danger, but was the danger worth risking for the prize?  As much as he wanted Maya, he wanted to hold onto his good fortune more.  Besides, he highly doubted this group of mutants could aid in the matter.
“What if I said, I could resolve your differences,” Magneto lowered his voice, drawing in his audience.  He crossed his legs and arms, pursed his lips and gauged Reynard’s malleability.  “For a small service of course.”
“Maya despises me, for reasons I cannot understand or won’t admit to myself,” Reynard heard himself making more sense about the matter than ever.  Perhaps he truly cared about the woman.  “There’s nothing anyone can do to change that woman’s mind,” Reynard despaired.
Magneto’s eyes lit up.  He held a silence, watching his plans so easily fall into place.  Desperation was the key to the man’s flexibility.
“I can,” Magneto told him, tapping his desperation.
Reynard looked to him in stunned silence.  Such a declaration was very dangerous to the already precarious ground he stood on with the girl.  Yet, it allured him, like her beauty.  And so, his trap was set.  Reynard’s eyes shifted nervously.  
Magneto gained his feet.
“Come with me,” he murmured, seizing the moment.
Magneto stepped from the cell through the bars once again bowed.  Reynard reluctantly followed, expecting treachery at every step.  Magneto frowned and turned from him, stalking toward the blank end of the cell block.  The blank wall stared at them until they stood only paces away.  Then, it parted in the center, slipping half up and half down.
Reynard’s question died on his lips and his eyes widened.  He quickly forced his expression straight.  He would not let them know he was afraid or surprised and provide them with anymore means of torment or use.  The shame was enough to check his emotions.
The pair walked the corridor on the other side of the hidden door, wrapped in the cadence of each step.  Another strange doorway opened and they turned to enter the room beyond.  Magneto slowed and held out his hand for Reynard to proceed past him.
The circular room held several noteworthy items.  Reynard’s eyes swept over the polished steel wall opposite where he stood.  In the center of the room, what appeared to be an operation table and medical instruments glinted dazzlingly in a brilliant overhead lamp.  
The rasp of feet on polished stone caught Reynard’s ear.  Again his heart was set to racing.  Between the site before him and the idea of another mutant in the room, he was ill at ease.  
Reynard looked to the source of the quiet sounds coming from his right.  Dark clad workers hung in the shadows, disguising their diligent purpose and telling features.  Reynard scanned the surreal scene, guessing the lab rats were at work on some new scheme given them by their boss.
“Over here,” Magneto’s voice echoed in the chamber.
Reynard obediently followed.  Fear clung to him, but not tight enough to defeat the curiosity.
Magneto stood before the blank polished metal wall that created the back arch of the chamber.  He paused for Reynard to appreciate the piece with the eye of his profession, allowing his pride to play.  Then, Reynard turned expectant.  
“You brought me to see a wall?” Reynard asked unimpressed.  “How is a wall going to help me with Maya?”
“Not the wall, Mr. Reynard,” Magneto said.  “What’s behind it,” he half smiled.  
Magneto held his hands out before his chest.  The wall melted to glass, revealing cells and rooms beyond.  On the same level as their chamber directly before them, was a cell of particular interest.  Low light and crude furnishings drew Reynard’s attention closer, until he stood at the rail meant to keep things at a safe distance.
Reynard peered hard into the dusky stretch.  At the back, a cot rested.  On top of the cot, wrapped in a shabby blanket, clutching a worn stuffed toy, was a child.
“This doesn’t make it any clearer,” Reynard said.
Choked by fear, he stopped speaking.  His eyes stared at the kid.  Magneto had kidnapped someone’s child for something he knew would destroy his career and any chance with Maya he could have had.
“What’s the kid for?” Reynard managed to ask.
“That child is the next step in your evolution,” Magneto explained, coming to stand beside him.  “Her blood can change any man, woman or child into one of us.”
“So why are you showing me?  What does that have to do with Maya?”  Reynard asked, already piecing the puzzle together.
Magneto smirked, wiser to his way than he knew.  He stepped back toward the operation table.
“Kidnapping is a serious offense,” Reynard warned.
“She has no family, and the only people seeking her have worse intentions than you or I could imagine,” Magneto spoke disinterested in the man’s worry.  “I’m merely trying to give her a new home and see that she meets the potential she was meant for and save her from your kind’s fear.”
“And what does that mean to me and Maya?” Reynard asked with more force.  He disliked the way Magneto danced around the point.
“Jai Jiang needs a mother and father,” Magneto told him, with sparkling eyes.
Reynard’s jaw fell slack.  The ideas running through his mind crippled his voice.  Yet, the entire picture was still shady.  
“Me and Maya, you mean,” Reynard breathed.  The idea of it was beyond anything he had thought before in regard to the woman he desired.  It was the furthest thing from his plans, in fact.  Besides, Maya was a mutant.  “She’ll never want me for a husband, even to help that kid.”  Reynard turned back to the cell.  The little girl had climbed from her pitiful perch.  She stood close, running her hand across the smooth surface of the wall separating them.  He wondered for a moment if she could see him and panic struck.  He stepped back, afraid she would know his features, and he would be implicated in the kidnapping as well.  “I’m not about to raise someone else’s brat,” he sneered, making himself not care that the opportunity to gain all stood right before him.
“Maya would not object if you were more like her,” Magneto said, pretending to study the instruments on the tray beside the table.  He looked to watch his lure pull Reynard back.  “You know that’s the only objection she’s ever really had for you.  You can’t understand her, but what if you were like her?”
One of the lab workers approached Reynard and his host.  Her cat eyes made Reynard recoil inside.  Dressed as a nurse, hardly made her seem tame.  The needle, with what he guessed to be the kid’s blood, was clutched threateningly in her hand.  Reynard’s eyes shifted over her, realizing he was not really Master of his will.
“Just a few drops, and you can tear down every barrier she’s put between you,” Magneto crooned.
The temptation grew strong in Reynard’s gut.  He set his mouth, gritting his teeth with indecision.  His fists clenched, knowing there was only one choice.  Still, there were so many reasons to refuse them, though they would just go ahead.  
Reynard stared into Magneto’s icy eyes, weighing his possibilities.
“Well, Mr. Reynard?” Magneto asked, almost smiling.
“What will I become?” Reynard whispered the question, afraid of the answer.
“That’s determined by your make up, as it was with natural mutants,” Magneto replied.  
Reynard found the lab rats ushering him to the table without a definite answer being given.  They wanted the procedure over before he could think it over for too long.  Reynard allowed them to move him, too wrapped up in his thoughts to fight.  
Magneto paced closer as they strapped him down.  His features were drawn gravely serious.  
“Relax,” Magneto told him.  
Reynard’s eyes went to the glass.  The girl was pounding her hands on the surface.  Her mouth worked on inaudible cries that probably shook the stones of her cell.  Reynard’s heart began to race.  If she could see them, it was too late.
“This had better work,” Reynard said.  “Or you’ve just made a huge mistake.”
Magneto raised his eyebrows at the daring statement.  It went without saying, but more from the aspect that they wasted it on him, than he could cause any further or substantial harm.  Perhaps his choice of test subjects had been poor, but the necessity was upon them and Reynard was a solution to many ends.  There was no reason to fear the man.

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Maya pulled a freshly lit cigar from her mouth.  Her eyes searched the black crater, as she sat on its edge.  It wasn’t hard to find the point of impact.  A plume of smoke billowed around her head.  Her eyes sparkled with the usual light, but a certain essence of fatality had changed them.  Her mouth frowned deeply.  She checked her wrist watch.  Not much time had passed, but it felt agonizingly forever.
The silence shrank back from a strange cracking noise.  Maya puffed on the cigar again.  It had surprisingly survived the fall in one piece.  She rolled the brown form between her fingers, unsure of what he saw in them.  Always, she preferred the smoke of a pipe.  Still, the more pungent scent of the cigar comforted her while she waited.
The smoke rising from the impact zone along with the suspended dust whirled in a breeze, allowing the darker crater to reveal itself.  Maya held her breath, staring into the inky dark mouth.  It had taken all her strength to keep herself planted on the edge, instead of running down there to where he laid, most likely a twisted wreck.
The sound of movements beyond her penetrating eyesight quickened her heart.  The cigar smoked, held up in one of her small hands.  Her glowing blue eyes stared expectantly from a hard expression.  
The haze was blown down and away again.  Maya’s eyes remained where she hoped he would soon stand.  Where she knew he must emerge.  Then, the tell tale outline appeared against the apocalyptic scene.  Her eyes slid over the points of his head, lit by the moonlight.  Her mouth drew into a flat line.  She puffed on the cigar before her gut made her say something stupid.
Logan was alive.  After everything that had happened of recent, however, she would not celebrate.  Her stomach twisted in rebellion.  Her eyes stung just before the breeze blew the cigar smoke across her eyes.  She told herself it was just the smoke and nothing more.  The lie was effective, quieting her need, until her hands begged to touch him, and her body followed into yearning.
Logan’s boots scraped on the ground, as he turned to make his way out of the depression.  He paused, catching sight of Gemini’s frame perched on the crest of the crater, and the smell of his cigar burning in the cool night.  He almost smiled, relieved that she had been thrust to safety in time, but recalled his actions in China.  Resisting a growl, he continued out of the hole, intent on the cigar.
Logan knew he had to fix things, before his impatience and gruffness left a gaping wound in his life that would never heal.  His expression softened as he neared her.  She remained staring at the hole, smoking his cigar.  The moonlight across her back made her crimson hair sparkle.  A memory of a night not long before flashed and his gut leaped up sick at the loss of what had been.
“I could have saved you all that,” Maya murmured.  She studied the cigar wrapping, needing to keep her eyes off him, to keep her hands off him.
Logan stepped to her side.  His imposing figure just might force those jewels to look at him, and then he would know how far he had fallen.  She looked across the earthen gash to the dark forest around them, but never up.  Logan sighed, both for knowing he was on the edge of losing her and her words.  She was not yet strong enough to help on either front.
Logan touched the tattered sleeve of his uniform.  The flesh beneath was clear of any mark.  He realized the pant leg of the same side hung partially open.  It was of little comfort to know how he landed.  Shifting his shoulders, he recalled the rest.
Maya puffed on the cigar again and then frowned at it.  She wondered why he had not claimed the piece yet.  Her frown deepened.  He had not even claimed her yet.
“What do you see in these things?”  Maya asked, diverting herself from the real questions on her tongue.
Logan took the cigar with two fingers and eyed the sky.  What could he say?  He put the cigar between his teeth.  Everything was too quiet for comfort, not to mention they were finally alone.
“We better start walking,” Logan growled.  What else was there to say?
Maya got to her feet.  Her eyes took in his tattered uniform with a quick glance.  More for the sake of not being embarrassed if seen with him, than the fact that he was a pitiful site, she decided to fix it, as best her powers could.  She reached within, carefully stretching toward the fabric and not the flesh, the hair and not the bone.  Her eyes lifted, catching his.  Her mouth popped open to speak but nothing came out.  Her power vibrated on the edge of control.  It was like standing in the garage all those months ago, waiting for the first touch.
Logan raised an eyebrow, finally seeing what he had needed.  Her anxiety stunk as strong as his own.  The moment was too much and he felt himself rebel against it, as he had for weeks.  Biting his tongue, he reminded himself they were alone and safe.  He felt his uniform reform about him.  His hair prickled back into place and the dirt fell away like water.  Her power coursed over his skin, bringing with it memories of late nights.  The cigar was no longer the craving he wanted satisfied.  Logan threw it into the depression, quickly taking hold of Maya.  Her shocked eyes looked up at him, round and shining like stars.  Her power nearly stung, humming in his core.
“I’m sorry,” he breathed painfully and pulled her closer, crushing her to his chest and closing his mouth on hers.
Maya’s power rose before it eased off, just on the verge of causing him injury.  He refused to set her down until she gave in.  
Maya clutched his shoulders, afraid to let go of her anger.  His kiss melted her barriers until she wrapped her arms about his neck, accepting the sudden apology, as if he had used her favorite wrench without returning it.  The days of torment faded to shadows of bad dreams, asking her if it even happened.
Quite sure the moment was only going farther, neither expected to hear the sound of sirens in the distance.  Logan broke the kiss.  His eyes searched the darkness enclosing them.  Blue and red flashes in the distance warned of little time to make their exit.  They had to leave before the authorities detained them.
“We better leave,” he mumbled and released her to the cold night.
“You dropped something,” Maya said.  
Logan looked back to her.  She held the smoldering cigar he had discarded.
Maya smiled softly.  
“Lets get out of here, before we spend the night answering the wrong questions,” Logan said.
Logan took the offering and her hand.  Together they darted into the trees, using the night to hide them from the searchers.  Hopefully, their team would get to them first.
The pair continued through the endless wood, up hills and down, until the sounds of the search party were nearly out of reach of their sensitive ears.  Feeling safe from delay or discovery, Maya drew a cell phone like device from her uniform pocket.  She pushed the top apart from the bottom and her face was suddenly lit blue like her eyes.  Pressing a series of buttons, she watched the screen and filled the silence with almost whimsical beeps.
“I’ve activated the tracking,” Maya mumbled to Logan’s questioning glance.  Much of what she used was not yet in the hands of the team, as Xavier liked her and Lyr to test the devices in the field before implementing them.  There was no sense in straying from something reliable in their business.
“The further we’re picked up from those lights, the better,” Logan responded.
Maya clicked the device closed, falling behind him.  She pocketed it, letting her eyes flick over the dark forest.  Logan’s silhouette rambled ahead, with an attitude that questioned his attentions earlier.  Maya drew a deep breath.  His touch so easily scattered her mind.  They were no closer to resolving the issue, only caught up in a moment.
Jai Jiang was of more importance than her heart. Maya focused on the little girl, trapped in Magneto’s clutches somewhere out there.  Her fears were probably suffocating her, and there was no one to rescue her but the X-Team.  Who in the brotherhood could or would console an orphan?  After all, their intentions were never warm and fuzzy.
Rubbing the ache forming in the center of her forehead, Maya tried not to let her past stir her out of control.  Time was important and even more so, clarity.  Her eyes rose to Logan’s strong back.  Impulsive by nature, he was sure to understand her desire to move toward the objective without the help of the others.  She was sure they had already decided the same.
“Maybe we should continue after the girl,” Maya said.
“We’ll return to the institute and pick up the team there,” Logan surprisingly said.  “Magneto will have her in his cave somewhere safe from everyone.  If we go in alone,” he looked toward Maya and stopped speaking.  “She may lose her only hope.”
Maya’s eyes burned with strong emotions he could only guess at, knowing what little they all knew of her history.  The words rolled around her mind like a lost hub cap.  They were falling apart in so many ways.  
Logan scrubbed a hand over his face.  Those words were not going to fix things between them.  Perhaps too much had changed too quickly to go back.  He grit his teeth at the dark and stalked on.  When the hell did he stop for the team’s help before?
Logan thought of how he went after Jean, so blinded by his feelings for here.  He blinked slowly.  He thought he felt more than that animal drive for Maya, and yet he acted with such little care.  
Magneto would not expect them alone.  He would expect the team and would be prepared for such an onslaught.  If they could slip inside and find the girl without notice, they would have the best chance of rescuing her than any other plan.
“You’re right,” Maya said before he could agree with her.  Her voice was quite controlled as she continued.  “The computers will have information on the Brotherhood, which we’ll need to infiltrate their hive.”  Maya wandered closer to him, putting her arm about his waist. “Let’s try to find a safe hiding place to wait for the others.”
It felt strange to hold him, so unlike mere minutes before.  A twinge in her chest said it all.
Logan looked down at the top of her head.  He reluctantly rested his arm about her shoulders, allowing her closer.  The scene was all too familiar as they walked slowly forward.  His hair stood on end with foreboding.  Maya was planning something.