August 23, 2018:
Back Dated to August 11th. Magneto emits by Scott. As Lorna leaves Genosha Magneto attempts to convince Lorna he needs her help.
Hammer Bay- The Spire
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions: Pietro, Wanda, Scott, X-men
Plot:
Mood Music: [*\# ]
Fade In…
Genosha - Hammer Bay
The fortress laid out before Magneto is one of his own reconstruction, not a Spartan nightmare of no taste like it once was it now hosts gardens, hanging plants, waterfalls, fountains… it is beautiful and a testament to the man's apparent intentions to re-imagine Genosha in to a mutant paradise. One where they do no suffer under the yoke of 'mankind'.
The white haired man who is strikingly underaged for his advanced years stands with his back to the inside upper chambers, an area reserved for himself, his family and his most trusted. The purple on red iconic outfit he wears worn, it's symbolic, it is him. He summoned Lorna Dane, Polaris, though it is not rushed, she is leaving soon and he knows she'll visit before she departs. He already seen the black winged carrier of his foes, his best friend and greatest enemies' X-Men, those misguided unfortunates…
*
To say that Lorna had mixed feelings about Genosha was an understatement. What had been meant to be a paradise to her, had turned into a responsibility. A duty. And a reminder that despite everything she'd fought for, and tried to do.. the world wasn't as safe as she'd have liked. That she'd had less control over the safety of those she cared for than she'd ever considered. The destruction of her wedding, and the knife's edge balance of her loyalties had left their marks on her beliefs.
Still, Genosha was healing, it was growing and becoming something more than just a war-torn island. And there was a certain sweetness to see that come about.
The green haired mutant though, hadn't gone out during her stay. She'd kept as low a profile as possible. Of course, having an emotion break-down didn't help..
The summons from her father wasn't all that surprising, and Lorna made her way to his chambers easily enough. A knock on the door as she stepped inside, green hair a long tangle of curls about her features. "Hey.." She peered about the room before her gaze fell on the figure of her father. It wasn't as if he didn't know she was coming.
It was an odd balance, how she felt and treated the man that was her birth father. What had once been used as a test of his patience 'Dad', had come more naturally after a few months spent with him training previously. It still gave her pause from time to time.
"You wanted to have a talk or something?"
*
"Good morning, daughter." Magneto say without turning around. His gaze fixated on the distance, looking over his domain as it were.
"I was informed you are leaving back to the States. You planned to depart without word?" The purple cape flutters left to right with a breeze, the weight of it usually underestimated, it is protective, weighted, his own power keeps it aloft.
"Charles students are already here."
*
A raised eyebrow follow as Lorna stepped over to her father and she peered down at the view from his spot. A tilt of her head followed and she shoved her hands into the pockets of her shorts. "I didn't plan to leave without saying bye, but you know how things are. Half the time we make plans to have dinner or chat. Or train.. and you get caught up in something. Some issue comes up. You forget to eat or sleep.." She trailed off. More than once while she'd been on Genosha previously she'd walked in on her father obsessing over something or he'd had to leave their training abruptly.
There was always something.
"I didn't expect them quite so soon.."
*
Below from his vantage she can see some of the mutates working together to terraform and mold a portion of the rear assembly. Tall, no longer balding and not confined to control suits, they look happy working. Free. Dedicated. Alive.
Magneto's sharp clear eyes turn to gaze upon Lorna, "Non nobis solum nati sumus… " He quotes dryly, "Our family is destined to serve as much as we are to lead. Now more than ever."
"They are eager for your return, perhaps." He regards, though they both know he doesn't believe it and nor would she. A quirk of his lips and he stares at her, "What you are doing with Aurora, it is the correct choice. She will be raised without need of fear and the freedom to grow strong, to foster her power under my watchful eyes." A rare moment. Magneto's hand lifts to rest upon Lorna's shoulder, one thumb caressing her chin.
"It will never be an easy thing to go without your child but what I am going to ask you will not be either."
*
Magneto had moods much like she did. The whole planet's magnetic fields running through their brains.. well, bipolar was as close as anyone would come to describing it. He was one of the few that knew and understood what that felt like. There was a magnetic bond between them, there always had been. Lorna could feel it as surely as she could magnetic north. A lodestar in her senses.
Even as she looked down at the mutates below, watched them work and a faint smile tugged at the corners of her lips, she knew he was watching her. His words drew another quirk of her eyebrows, and she turned, tilting her frame half way to peer at him as she leaned her hip against the side. The 'our family' drew the dry reaction, given that he'd refused to acknowledge it before. Still the sardonic look faded as he continued and spoke of Aurora. She sobered, and her arms crossed as she glanced away.
"I know it is. She'll have a chance at a normal life." She murmured, her jaw tightening and working over the tension, even as his thumb brushed against her chin. She'd come to the conclusion that she couldn't keep her daughter before her father had suggested it. With registration laws and threats at every corner.. her life wasn't one for raising a child. Much less a mutant one. Even with that logical assertion in her mind.. it wasn't any easier.
Green eyes flickered upwards to regard her father, drawn from her own thoughts as he moved from one subject onto another. Ask.. her .. what? Her eyebrows furrowed, and her gaze narrowed faintly. "Ask me what?"
*
"To betray the X-Men." Magneto states bluntly. The hand upon her drops back down to his side and both fists rest on the balcony rail, leaning towards it. "To lead and serve as only we are capable."
*
Lorna stared, her lips parting as she slowly stepped back, her hands falling back to her sides. Aghast, the green haired mutant stared openly at Magneto, her head slowly moving back and forth in a negative. "No! Are you serious? No. I'm sorry if you forgot, or wanted to forget it.. but you weren't there to raise me. They were. The Professor took me in when I was a teenager. He taught me. He was there. I'm .. I'm not.." She broke off, exhaling a rough breath. She seemed to struggle for composure, pursing her lips and shifting her weight upon her toes. She swallowed a lump that formed at the back of her throat.
"Look.. I disagree with a lot of what they do." She dragged her hands through her hair, the open statement.. just out there. She'd gone against the X-men's ideals, beliefs.. tracked down on unofficial missions to kill former Genosha scientists.. but to say it as he had stunned her. She shook her head again.
"You're my father. For better or worse.. and trust.. To be clear, our trust is a thing that is actively being worked on." She stepped back, her lips pursed into a thin white line from the pressure she exerted. Part of it was shock that he'd just been so honest and open with his manipulations. Part of it was anger. How dare he assume that she'd go along with it? How dare he … make her confront that.
*
"And look where that has gotten you? Here with me even briefly, you returned. They are soft Lorna, they do not have the conviction to see through what is going to come. As with the Genegineer Moreau, it took one /us/ to make the final call."
"You've murdered, you will again. When it happens will they still forgive you?" Magneto sighs and turns once more so he is facing her, "I am not asking you to even harm them, nor am I demanding you end lives, that is your own choice. You will make the correct calls. I am only asking that you act on my behalf and report to me what they know, they're a danger to more than just themselves with their narrow-minded idealistic… " He clenches his jaw, another exhale.
"This is not a time for peace. The humans have decided this is a conflict while Charles' brood play house. Shake hands with politicians. Give pretty speeches about a hopeful and naive future… "
"Do you realize I am under threat of death if I so much as step foot off this island? They presume I am trapped in some gilded cage and complacent… no, Genosha was only the beginning but I need your help, we… need your help." With the word 'we' his right hand waves out towards the mutates below. "If we are to truly safeguard your daughter and what we have accomplished here, we cannot sit idle."
*
The coldness of his words doused whatever was left in the indignant outrage stirred by his first words. Lorna faltered, staring as her shoulders fell and each of his words hit home. She looked away. How many people had she killed? Her mother, her step-father, a possible sister.. and while Logan and the Cuckoos had prevented her from actually delivering the killing blows.. She'd fought in Genosha. She'd killed Magistrates without thinking too deeply about it. It had been a war after all..
He wasn't wrong.
Still, his old issues weren't a selling point for her to listen to him. To believe him. Much less trust him. She'd heard it before. From both sides. But she did agree with him on the lack of progress for their kind Xavier's methods had achieved.. But neither did she think the Brotherhood's methods were working either. After all, how many decades had either opposing force been trying to accomplish a better future for their kind?
She exhaled a breath. "Gee, well, thanks for that vote of confidence…I'm well aware what the UN would do if you left the island. I haven't forgotten." She muttered, her expression pinched as she looked out at the mutates below. His admittance.. his claim that he needed her help didn't particularly move her. He hadn't needed her, her whole life.. She didn't buy that he needed her now. But the mutates.. Genosha. What she had fought to build for her daughter. That mattered a great deal to her.
"It's not like there's all that much going on that you don't already know." She huffed, but her voice was muted. "Why aren't you asking Pietro or Wanda? You gave them the Brotherhood. They're doing a great job blowing up Trask's factories, bases.." She drawled, looking back to him. "You don't need me.."
*
"And you shouldn't. They look to you as my heir and the same. Scott Summers and the X-Men are public apes now, shaking hands with the DEO, SHIELD, former sympathisers of the Human Right. The same people who sent in hit squads to even the score here or entirely denied assistance to the Genoshans when they needed it most, those same people who now have an armada stationed off our coast, weapons aimed and ready to drop death upon us." Magneto is heated, there is some anger breaking the surface.
"I know enough and you're more an asset than simply being a mole feeding me crumbs."
"Consider your own question, why haven't I asked them?"
"Ponder that a moment as well as the idea of me being a man who asks for something. The story tells its own."
"Think on it, wait for word from me and when you and I speak again, we shall see where you stand then, I will indulge more of my designs."
"They are likely to grow impatient if you linger overlong." A dismissal, no warmth in it, the only present is a lingering glance from those steel azure eyes.
*
Lorna arched a brow, her arms crossing as she considered her father. Her lips pursed slightly, as she looked from the view outward, stretching her senses as far as she could.. but even as an island, Genosha was too large for her to sense the entirety of. Too large for her to sense the blockade-like ships that patrolled the international waters around it. She knew they were there though. She'd seen them as she'd come through. Though refugee boats were able to pass freely.. it had spooked most of the people on board.
She didn't argue against his feelings on the matter. She'd fought tooth and nail to get sanctions lifted. To get medical supplies. It had landed her in hot water.. and she didn't feel all that bad about it still. She'd done the right thing in her mind's eye. And she wouldn't hear otherwise still. Perhaps father and daughter were more similar than they were different in that respect.
The green haired mutant shifted, and uncomfortable with some of the notions his later comments inspired. Her eyebrows furrowed and as he dismissed her she was fell standing there, staring. She frowned.
"Are you kidding me? You start with wondering if I'd leave without saying goodbye.. and You go on with needing me, and betrayal and asking me to be your eyes and ears.. and .. and .. helping Genosha and how important it all is.. and now you won't even tell me how or what for or.. what the hell you actually want me to do?" She exhaled roughly through her nose. Her fingers twitching and the spike in the fields around her denoted just how emotionally wound Lorna was. She shook her head, the dismissal soured whatever had been warmed in her tone.
"I'm not some fawning puppet.. some Acolyte who worships everything you do…" She muttered, her voice taut. Insults came and died on her tongue, a reactionary measure to cover the confusion. He'd spun her around so many talking points that she'd barely had time to process it. But she lingered, even as she took a step, two.. away from the balcony's edge.
*
"I want you to open your eyes." Magneto snaps, "You'll see. When we speak again, I'll ask of you once more. Maybe I will be satisfied with what I hear and we can fin…" He shuts his own mouth, clamping off any further sentence to hurl his hand up, slamming open the doors beyond, "I tire. Until you've shown me more, cryptic is where we stand… " Prove yourself. It is in there. Its always in there not from just her father… unfair perhaps, exhausting maybe… but Lorna Dane has chosen the hard path. That middle road…
*
The green haired mutant's lips twisted, and though she didn't have her father's coloring, there was a mirror to his own loss of patience. A sneer pulled at her lips. "You're the one that said you needed me. That Genosha needed me. If you want something from me..?" She rolled her eyes, and shook her head once more. She made her way all the way to the doors that her father had flung open, leaning against the frame briefly as she looked back to him.
"I'm not exactly sure how that means I have to prove anything to you. You're the one with a short list of people you trust." She exhaled roughly, closing the doors behind her as she went. "Bye Dad." She called over her shoulders