You Foolish Child

January 04, 2018:

Lorna had to poke and pry. And she got what she had coming for her. Because the truth can be more painful than any lie. (Magneto spoofed by Nate Grey)

Magneto's Base in Hammer Bay, Genosha

Characters

NPCs: The robot Ferris. Scanner cameos, too.

Mentions: Xavier, Eclipse, Mastermind

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Lorna returned to Genosha in a newly modified outfit, redone with new alloys and the assorted other bits and pieces. Including more knives. That seemed important after having been locked up without her powers for so long. It was a comfort at least.

Still, she returned in no mood to put up with Fabian or other acolytes, a bag slung over her shoulder and tucked close to her side, swung as she walked. At least with the time difference between New York and Genosha, she knew she'd be aiming for the end of the day, when Magneto had told her last time he'd be 'less busy'. Her step was determined and quick as she made her way to the base, and if not stopped toward Magneto's study.

She wasn't sure how much Phillip had said, wasn't sure when Phillip had gotten back or how. She'd been out like a light after the chaos of the rescue and coddled so thoroughly it was amazing she'd gotten into Genosha alone. Though the last part was less of a happenstance and more of a point of contention that she'd made on her own. She wanted to face Magneto about her mother's death. Along with the political avenues she had up her sleeve.

All she had to hope for now was that Scott and Jamie's concerns wouldn't come true.

*

Phillip insisted in returning to Genosha as soon as his injuries were treated, so Illyana ported him back in time to spend New Year with his girlfriend. Of course he had to report to Magneto. One could imagine the old mutant was not happy with Moreau at all, since going to talk to Zealot was his idea and they did it without even consulting him.

Polaris return to the base is watched with a degree of agitation by the troops and Acolytes that see her arrive. But no one dares to step in her way until she is close to her father study. She gets a few apprehensive looks, some seem angry at her, others smile. Most people seem nervous.

At the door of the office the blonde young woman, Scanner, is waiting, arms crossed. "He is waiting for you," she states without as much as a hello. "You should have called. He was worried; many of us were worried for you."

Scanner does sound upset and stomps off. Maybe Lorna had a few fans.

*

Lorna wasn't entirely sure what to expect when she arrived, though the fact no one stopped her as she made her way to the study was a good a sign as any, she figured. The green haired mutant didn't slow her pace, rather continued forward with her own determined step and squared jaw. It wasn't until she spotted Scanner before the door, that she slowed her step and halted.

Fully prepared to face down the other woman, she was surprised when Scanner stepped aside with as few a words as she did. "Don't think I have that number.." She drawled lightly, as she made for the doors, pressing them open and shutting them behind her as she made her way in.

*

"You did have the means," Magneto is in his office, but not behind the desk this time. He stands fully armored in the middle of the room. "Good afternoon, Lorna. You look well. We missed you for Christmas and New Year. My Acolytes insisted in celebrating when it was obvious you were safe, and it was… pleasant enough." Brief pause, "and I suppose congratulations are in order." Because yes, Zealot did threaten her life and her unborn child life.

*

Lorna had come on anger and no small amount of stubborn determination, to face her father, to get answers from him. But the mention of the holidays, of concern and congratulations threw her off. She shifted her weight on her heels, her hand dropping to her waist briefly. "Thanks, but I was still in jail on Christmas. So I didn't exactly choose to miss it. New Years, I was busy puking my guts up." She made her way to the chair she'd sat in before. No affection offered to Magneto, after all, it wasn't like he was an affectionate sort of father.

She shifted her grip on the shoulder back and settled it on her lap, looking back to her father. "Marcos and a few others want to come with me. To stay. We were talking about having the wedding and the baby here. If we can manage to get control of the island well enough in hand that is."

*

Magneto parenting skills are definitely very rusty. But he seems surprised when Lorna manifest his desire to settle in Genosha. Did he smile for a second? Surely not!

"Indeed?" He walks slowly back to his chair, settling behind the massive desk. "Genosha is to be a homeland for all mutants. Even the X-Men would be welcomed if they swear to respect the laws of the nation. Hopefully peace will be achieved soon. But Zealot has proven to be more dangerous that initially reported."

*

Lorna nodded, "Marcos and I spoke, Genosha could benefit from something as normal as a wedding and having a child born here would be good for morale. It would be good politically, and could be used as a show of stability. Again, if we can manage to secure the island…" She pursed her lips together briefly.

"Zealot seems to control anything that was created or from Genosha. And he has, I suppose, something empathetic going on with those from Genosha." She exhaled a breath. "I destroyed the facility he was keeping me in, but I assume he either abandoned it or rebuilt it." Green eyes lifted to her father.

"He has to be dealt with. He won't stop his attacks on mutants that come here…And I'm willing to do whatever it takes to secure Genosha's safety."

*

"You only destroyed the containment module for super-powered prisoners," replies Magneto. "Still, that prison was used by the previous, repressive regime, it is better if it is demolished."

He removes the helmet and sets it down on the desk, looking at Lorna directly. "Zealot fled underground with most of his followers when I arrived the Bastille, just minutes after the X-Men took you away. Obviously you are working with them, Lorna. It was obvious to me before, and it is obvious to all but the most dim-witted now. They are watching and protecting you, which I can't privately disapprove, but I am sure you understand it makes many people uncomfortable."

*

Lorna arched a brow and leaned forward to face her father. "They're my family too, and have been since I was young. They've been there for me when no one else was." Green eyes lingered on her father, the muted hurt that always remained with her was there too. The unsaid, they were there when you weren't was heavy in her pause. "That said, I didn't ask them to come here to save me. Zealot tried to use me against them, to get them to remove you from Genosha." She sat back and crossed her arms.

"Obviously they didn't agree with him either. Publically, the human governments can't know that there are ties, I'm well aware. But those on the council? They can get used to it. We're working toward the same goal, a place for mutants to be safe." Her lips pursed.

*

Magneto shakes his head. "Although it is true the X-Men want mutants safe, their way to proceed is very different to what we will do here. Xavier's beliefs are unrealistic. So we always clash about the means, if not the goals. Sooner or later you are going to have to choose between his way, the X-Men ways, and reality. Genosha will be reality. Whatever it takes, as you said."

For Magneto it is obvious Lorna will have to make an unpleasant choice sooner or later. He is telling her as clear as he can.

"Who else wants to come with you to live here?" He asks, assuming it is more people than just Eclipse.

*

Lorna arched a green eyebrow upwards. "I choose to make a country for my child to be raised in. One where they never have to be scared of who and what they are. As I said, I'm willing to do whatever it takes for my child to be able to live safely. Genosha is the best bet there is." Her lips pursed together and she very carefully pulled out the pieces of paper she kept in her shoulder bag and set them on the table.

"I don't know who wants to stay and who just wants to be there for me when the baby comes, or for the wedding. Of course, whether I have the wedding here or not is going to depend on something." She slid the papers toward Magneto.

"The reports on my mother's plane crash said that the metal was highly magnetized. You were in the country about that time. Know anything about that?" Her voice was quiet, clipped even.

*

Magneto glances at the papers, eyes narrowing, lips turning into a thin line. "Yes. I know everything. I was the first to arrive to the crashed plane."

He looks back at Lorna. "Foolish child. You couldn't leave this alone either, did you? We did all we could to shield you, but I suppose this," he shoves away the documents. "Was unavoidable. You are mature enough. No," he corrects himself, "you can't ever be mature enough, but perhaps you are strong enough for the ugly truth."

He leans back, looking for a way to make it less painful. "Mutants powers almost always manifest in adolescence. At least for first generation mutants. Sometimes they manifest at birth, maybe one in 10 times. It is extremely rare to manifest during childhood, and twenty one years ago I had never heard of such a case. You were only three when your powers manifested."

To the hell with being gentle. Lorna killed a woman he loved. "You killed your own mother," and THAT IS WHY I DIDN’T WANT TO RAISE YOU. Unvoiced. He is not -that- evil.

*

Lorna froze, her eyebrows furrowing sharply as her father admitted that he had been there and then continued into insulting her, calling her foolish and a child. Her lips parted, ready to leap to her own defense, her hands curling into fists at her sides. But as he continued, going into how mutants manifested powers, her hands closed around her stomach when he mentioned them manifesting at birth. How rare it was.

And then how early she manifested. When she was three. Her head slowly started to shake as she realized a breath before he spoke. "N-no. No. No!" She was shoving herself up to stand, knocking the chair back and shaking as her hands curled into fists at her sides. "That's not! No!" Her voice jumped in volume until she was shouting, as she shook her head and denied what Magneto had to say.

That she'd killed her mother. That when she'd manifested, she had killed her mother in the plane crash.

"You're lying!"

*

"You know I am not," replies Magneto, his expression stony. A heartbeat later he adds. "You were three, it was not your fault. Your hair turned green from brown that day. Repolarized melanin proteins. A family trait." His own turned white when he was thirteen. It was not the trauma or the hardships of the death camp. It was magnetism.

He stands up. "Sit down. Ferris, bring us tea." She can't even get drunk about this. "I had Wyngarde delete that day from your memories, and suppress the bulk of your powers. Although those mind-blocks have long faded. I am sure one of your telepathic friends can bring the memories to the surface by now. The trauma was strong enough even today you fear airplanes."

*

Lorna backed up a step from Magneto, shaking still with a cold sweat breaking out over her forehead as he spoke. Her chest pounded with her shallow breaths, suddenly feeling as if the room was upended and she was left reeling. Her hands spread out at her sides, and she continued to shake her head, tears stinging her eyes as the buried trauma of it all came crashing down on her. She couldn't remember. Couldn't refute what had happened. But it was there. It was there. In the lines of the investigation that Jamie had had concerns on.

Her breathing grew short, as she whimpered, and clapped her hands over her head.

She fell to her knees, gasping for breath and a bitter cry of 'no' followed as tears stung at her eyes and she fell apart completely. Her powers snagged and snapped at her hands, fizzling into being beyond her control.

*

Magneto clenches his jaw, extending his powers to keep Lorna's firmly contained. Too much steel around to allow her lose control. Perhaps she was not strong enough, after all.

He never was a real father for Lorna. His motivations perhaps more complex that he had admitted this far. But still he reaches for her, pulling her up gently and helping her back to the chair. "It was not your fault," he repeats, keeping his hands on her shoulders. "It will never happen again, Lorna."

*

Lorna's brief lapse of control was smothered under her father's directive, but she was busy crying now softly, her hands clasped over her features to notice or feel the movement. Even as he pulled her up gently, and eased her to the chair, her figure was left trembling. Her features now stained with tear tracts down her cheeks, her face reddened with her panicked, spasmed breath.

Her frame collapsed into the chair, her trembling hands rubbed against her eyes as she struggled to process any of it.

And then, to top it all off her stomach ached as if in reminder that she had her own child to worry for and her hands made to wrap around her waist. Her eyes squeezed shut as she struggled to breath, to calm down and breath, without hyperventilating. It was hard, impossibly hard, and she coughed as she managed to halt the panic that swam just behind her eyes in the depths of her mind.

*

This close up Magneto can feel the child too, which is not something he expected. But he says nothing, just supporting Lorna as she cries and trembles. Fortunately she looks to be calming down on her own, and he releases her shoulders and her powers slowly. "Please, stay for a few minutes," he doesn't want his Acolytes to see her like this.

Unfortunately Marcos is not here. But if he is in Genosha he will have him brought to the base immediately.

A couple yards away, perhaps concerned about magnetic blasts heading his way, the robot Ferris hovers with a tray with two cups of tea.

*

Lorna swallowed another choked sound from the back of her throat, and rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand. Her jaw clenching as she slowly regained control of her breathing and her father's hand came off her shoulders. Green eyes lifted as Ferris hovered none too far away and she coughed softly, her throat raspy and dry from her sobs and cries.

"Yeah.. that's.. fine.." Her voice sounded gravel fine even to her own ears. She curled up on the chair, drawing her legs close as she wrapped her arms around them and closed her eyes briefly. Tea was as good as she would get.

She was wrung thin, and rubbed at her nose again as she sat up and let her legs fall back to the floor after a long moment.

*

Now Ferris floats closer, to allow Lorna reach the tray. Magneto stays a step away, his expression his usual unreadable again. Giving her a minute to compose herself. "I suppose this conversation. This revelation. It was unavoidable, and I should have prepared myself for it. I should not begrudge your tenacity and need to find the truth."

"I would have done the same," he admits.

*

Lorna took the cup with a shaky grip, using both hands to slowly bring it to her lips and blow lightly on the edge before she sipped at it. She closed her eyes, struggling to block out the newst mantra in her mind. 'I killed my mother, I killed my mother' on endless repeat. Her anger was gone, there was no one to blame besides herself. Self-loathing was thick on her tongue as she lifted those green eyes once more to gaze at her father.

Her lips parted as she struggled to put thoughts to words. Lorna stopped for a long moment, lowering her gaze to her tea cup.

"I thought it was you.." Her voice trembled, "I'm sorry." The words came out in a choked whisper.

*

Oh no. Scowl.

Magneto would never have left magnetized chunks of steel from a destroyed airplane if he was trying to hide the deed.

Otherwise? Yes, the suspicion does hurt a little. Which is almost a pleasant surprise. He usually does not care what an X-Person thinks of him. Assuming the worst about him is normal for them. "I suppose it was a logical suspicion."

*

Lorna shifted, uncomfortably in her chair, carefully sipping at the hot tea as it burned its way down her throat. Her gaze lingered low and she grimaced as at the scowl that appeared on her father's features. Her toes curled in her boots and she swallowed another gulp of tea down, the cup clicking faintly against the saucer she held.

"I was warned, by Jamie not to bring it up. He thought.. well, I suppose it doesn't matter anymore." Her voice was barely more than a whisper, it was muted and broken and sounded oh so lost. Unsure what to do next. Unsure how to handle anything now.

*

Right. He could scowl further, but he controls himself. Did Lorna consider what would have happened if he had really murdered her mother and she was confronting him alone? "No. It is not important anymore. You are alive and you are a brave woman with strong convictions. You will be married soon, and then have a child. Focus in the future, it has the potential to be better than the past."

And that is an amazingly positive statement for Magneto, who always expect the worst and he is rarely wrong. But he is trying. "Where is Marcos Diaz? He should be with you now."

*

Lorna's expression pinched faintly at the rather, oddly good advice from Magneto, and she finished off her tea in one large, burning gulp of heat. It burned her raw throat, but it was something to ground her. To keep her in the present. In the conversation. Carefully, she set the cup down on the desk, her lips twisting into a faint, bitter smile.

"He didn't know about any of it. My looking into.. things.. or that I wanted to speak with you about it. I left him back with the supplies." Her expression soured further as she pushed her hair back from her face.

"He's too happy about.. about the baby. I didn't want to worry him."

*

"Yes, of course," agrees Magneto. He keeps secrets. Too many. This is not good advice. So he adds. "But he needs to know. He should be close to help you through the difficult days." And if Marcos doesn't, Magneto will magnetically toss him into the sun and blame Zealot.

"Come, I will escort you to your quarters," he offers. In the case Fabian Cortez shows up he wants to avoid the bloodshed. As everybody knows Lorna is pregnant, Zealot is not subtle.

*

Lorna stood carefully, and nodded as she leaned back against the chair's arm briefly. "I know.." She breathed, and pressed her hand against her lower abdomen briefly as she paused, seeming lost in thought. Before she pushed off from the chair completely and stood under her own power again.

As Magneto offered to escort her she grimaced faintly, looking downwards. Another nod followed and she waited for her father to essentially walk her to her room. It was strange, but when compared to the rest of her emotionally charged day.. it was nothing. Just another odditity in the mess that was her daily life.

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