Lost, so close to home (open)

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby isn’t far from the camp… he can still feel its hidden warmth, if he concentrates, and he’s sure he’s in the range of one surveillance gadget or another… but it’s far enough that he can pretend he’s alone.

He’s practicing a new idea that occurred to him when he woke up, a way of getting greater precision with his ice-sculptures than the quarter-inch or so radius he’s accustomed to. He’s never been able to create a cryogenetic field with smaller dimensions than that, but he figures if he can create a bunch of lower-power fields that overlap slightly, he can freeze only what lies in the overlap… and if he can place the fields accurately enough, he can make the overlap as small as he wants.

Which is what brings him out into the woods again, a few hours after a rainstorm, trying to conjure ice shavings out of puddles.

He knows he’s not supposed to be using his powers out here, but he’s actually bothered to read up on the SHIELD satellites this time, and there’s no way they’ll pick up on what he’s doing. Heck, even someone standing right next to him wouldn’t be able to tell; for the most part he hasn’t done anything visible. Placing two small fields carefully in space at the same time turns out to be difficult.

Good thing I didn’t think of this a couple of years ago, he muses idly, or John would’ve lost a lot more clothes. He veers off of that thought, though… reminiscing about the months between Mimi’s and Baker Mansion is often pleasant, but never good for him in the long run. And why do I always think in terms of places, anyway? They all do that, he realizes: “Liberty Island” and “Alkali Flats” and “Alcatraz” and “Neverland” and all. They even say “Boston” when talking about their disastrous attempt to take shelter with Bobby’s family; even he does it, despite having lived there most of his life.

So is this “Warren’s Brotherhood Camp”? Or “the future”? He’s not at all sure how to think of it… and as he looks around, taking in the woods and the crispness of the air, he realizes he’s already started to think of the Mansion in 2007 as “back home.”

He’s felt this way before. After “Boston”, he remembers noticing for the first time that the crocuses in the Mansion’s front yard came in earlier than they used to back home, noticing that spring came in a few weeks sooner. It wasn’t a big deal for him, really… he’d always enjoyed winter… but it had felt significant.

And looking back on it now, he realizes that’s really when he started thinking of the Mansion as home, and of his family’s house in Boston as where he used to live. And it seems part of him, at least, has resigned itself to this strange dystopian future being “home.”

That scares him, as much because of what he’d be moving into as what he’d be leaving behind… but he can’t deny a pervasive sense of relief, as well. Yeah, no wonder. If we go back, fixing all this becomes our job. Granted, it’s not wine and roses if they stay, either… but somehow, even knowing that both the humans and the mutants hate him in this crazy upside-down future, it’s a less frightening prospect than going back.

At least, if I don’t go back, I don’t turn into him.

He wonders if that’s worth it.

[Toni Craft]

The role if Watch Supervisor isn’t nearly as exciting as it sounds. Toni had thought that it’d be fun, way back when she used to be fun, but after the whole fun part had left her life, so did the enjoyment in the job.

Usually her shifts were quiet — maybe the odd enemy scouting crew getting a bit too close for comfort or a piece of surveillance machinery would malfunction, but it wasn’t anything they weren’t used to. Exciting moments were few and far between and the average shift involved mundane tasks that Toni was really overqualified.

While in the middle of an intense session of drumming her fingers on the desk and milling through some report whose title had eluded her, Toni had gotten a buzz from Elliot. Apparently one of the visiting Pasties had decided to take a stroll. And leave it to Bobby to still have a hard time believe that he was “OMG uber evil!” in the future. He really needed to get over it. Shit happens. (Though too bad he pretty much got an entire farm’s worth of manure dumped on his icy little head.)

And he also needed to have the compound rules restated to him. Didn’t need him attracting unwanted attention or getting caught. God knows Toni didn’t want to have to go through another potentially time-space continuum collapsing rescue mission anytime soon. She also didn’t want to sit at that desk any longer than she had to. So the moment Elliot informed her of Bobby’s departure, Toni immediately volunteered to go out and retrieve him.

So there she is, following Elliot’s telepathic instructions, and wandering through the woods, grimacing at the dampness in the air and the soggy ground, which insistently sucks her feet down into the muck. The wetness would accelerate her body’s natural rust rate, but it was better than being stuck back in the compound.

“You know,” she says, rounding a tree and coming up behind Bobby, who seems quite perplexed by a puddle. “I’m pretty sure we told you that you’re not supposed to be out here.” Part of her wants to be joking, but her voice comes out as that serious tone she’s perfected over the years. Her expression doesn’t help things much, what with the annoyed scowl that’s become second nature and all. Toni pushes herself up onto a large exposed tree root in an effort to stop her sinking into the muddy ground.

[Bobby Drake]

> " You know, I’m pretty sure we told you that you’re not supposed to be out here."

Bobby wonders if he’s supposed to act startled, but the truth is he’s sensed Toni’s approach long before he heard her footsteps, and even that was quite a while ago. Until he sees her, though, he’s not sure whether it’s “his” Toni or “their” Toni, a confusion that she dispels promptly.

He’s a little more surprised by her comment than her presence, though. "Nope. Just that I’m not supposed to display my mutation outside. Which I guess doesn’t apply to you," he adds with a gesture at the way Toni is sinking into the mud.

Of course, the fact is he is using his powers outside, but Toni has no way of knowing that, and far more importantly neither do SHIELD’s surveillance widgets. And he’s not in the least interested in explaining either of those facts to New Toni.

"Just needed someplace to think. Don't worry, I'll text you before I betray all mutants everywhere and set out to rule the world."

[Toni Craft]

"Nope. Just that I’m not supposed to display my mutation outside. Which I guess doesn’t apply to you," Toni frowns and looks down at her feet, sneering at the thick coat of mud on her feet and legs.

“I can’t turn my mutation off, unlike you.” She puts her hands on her hips stubbornly, shifting herself on the tree root as it starts to sink into the ground under her weight. “I’d still rather you didn’t wander around. We can’t risk having you getting captured or killed...though, then maybe you wouldn’t turn into him and we wouldn’t be in this situation.” Toni adds with a shrug.

"Just needed someplace to think. Don't worry, I'll text you before I betray all mutants everywhere and set out to rule the world." She nods and scraps a dirty foot off on some tree bark.

“It’d be much obliged.” Sighing when the mud refuses to leave her pant leg, Toni glances back up at Bobby. It’s kind of funny how he looks so innocent, just standing there in the dewy forest. Hard to believe that this was the same guy that would eventually turn into the maniacal dictator-type that was trying to kill them all. “Besides thinking, what are you doing out here?” She nods toward the puddle he had been previously enthralled with.

[Bobby Drake]

> " I can’t turn my mutation off, unlike you. "

It’s not the words that like Bobby’s fuse… actually, the words are pretty innocuous. It’s the tone, the body language, the attitude. It’s the realization that even the people he’s closest t, even Toni – who fell all over herself to follow him when he led the data extraction mission to shut down the Camps and led the charge to free him from Magneto – think of him as an enemy.

But he doesn’t let his anger show, at least not blatantly. Anyone who knows him would recognize it in the deadpan expression, the flat tone of his voice… but he doesn’t really care. It’s not like any of these people know me, anyway. Or want to.

"Yeah, I noticed. Which makes it a lot riskier for you to be out here than me. Except, of course, that you trust you." He doesn’t really care that much whether he’s outside or inside or whatever, but he’s tired of being treated like the enemy, and has no great urge to cooperate in the process.

> "I’d still rather you didn’t wander around. We can’t risk having you getting captured or killed...though, then maybe you wouldn’t turn into him and we wouldn’t be in this situation. "

That actually surprises him. It was bad enough for kids like Timmy to put the blame for this whole stupid future on Bobby’s head, but Bobby’d expected better from his own generation, the ones who watched it all happen. Hell, if we’re this dumb, maybe we deserve it.

"Right. Because I’m the one who passed the MRA and designed the Sentinels and triggered the Washington Massacre. I’m the who shot Jack and blew up Matt and dropped the ruins of Xavier’s on Josh’s head. It's all me." Frustration bubbles up despite him, and it gets more and more difficult to keep emotion out of his voice, but he manages. "I’m the one who sent John to be executed. I’m the one who set up the Camps. I’m probably responsible for killing Scott and Dr. Grey and Professor Xavier, too. So tell me, Toni, if you can fix all the troubles of the world by crushing my traitor skull into a pink, frothy pulp, why am I still alive?"

[Toni Craft]

"Yeah, I noticed. Which makes it a lot riskier for you to be out here than me. Except, of course, that you trust you."

“And unlike you, I’ve been living here for god knows how many years now. I know what’s a threat and what’s not, and I know what to do when it is.” She shoots back, a stiff finger pointed at his chest. “Do you know what to do when everything goes to fucking hell out here?” Toni doesn’t know why she’s getting so angry with him. Maybe it was his cocky ‘I know everything because I’ve been here for a few days’ attitude or the fact that this was their enemy staring her in the face.

"Right. Because I’m the one who passed the MRA and designed the Sentinels and triggered the Washington Massacre. I’m the who shot Jack and blew up Matt and dropped the ruins of Xavier’s on Josh’s head. It's all me." Toni snarls at the mention of those horrific past events, blood rushing wildly in her ears. She fights back the urge to smash him into a nearby tree for speaking so carelessly of everyone she, and they, have lost. The temptation swells inside her chest to the point of rupturing, but then Bobby asks that fateful question.

“So tell me, Toni, if you can fix all the troubles of the world by crushing my traitor skull into a pink, frothy pulp, why am I still alive?" Toni reaches forward and grasps a handful of shirt in her hand, hauling him forward and off his feet.

“You think you know everything. You know nothing. You talk like you were there when Matty blew. And you know what? I’m wishing you had been. That would’ve solved a lot of our problems right there.” She’s not yelling, surprisingly. Instead, she has this low menacing tone, promising many unspoken things should he cross that invisible line again. Toni shoves him back and releases his shirt.

“You want to know why I haven’t killed you? Don’t think the thought hasn’t crossed my mind a few dozen times.” Toni points at him again, ignoring the fact that the saturated dirt is trying to swallow her once more. “Because to my people, you represent hope. Maybe, if we can somehow get you back to whenever you came from, you can stop all this,” A sweeping arm is meant to represent her dystopian world. “From ever even happening. Who knows? You might be the one guy to save us all. Wouldn’t that just be poetic.” She finishes with a sardonic laugh.

[Bobby Drake]

> "I know what’s a threat and what’s not, and I know what to do when it is. Do you know what to do when everything goes to fucking hell out here?"

Reluctantly, Bobby has to admit she has a point.

But it doesn't seem to matter -- any chance at reasonable shatters into a thousand pieces when she loses it. Bobby has never actually seen Toni kill anyone, but the look in her eye leaves him with no doubts that she's done so plenty of times and is perfectly willing to repeat the exercise with him.

It frightens the hell out of him. Not so much because of her strength and power... after all, Bobby reminds himself, he has gone up against the Juggernaut and survived, and after his experiences during the Camp breakout he's not sure he can be killed by any amount of brute strength... but because it's Toni, and he knows he's not willing to hurt her, and she's perfectly willing to kill him.

And that not one of her teammates will do anything but applaud.

> "Maybe, if we can somehow get you back to whenever you came from, you can stop all this from ever even happening. Who knows? You might be the one guy to save us all. Wouldn’t that just be poetic."

"Wouldn't it just." He's not at all sure what else to say... it appears they're no longer fighting, which is just as well, but in a weird way he misses the fear. It was at least something, better than this creeping numbness.

Which is not to say he's eager to have the experience repeated.

Finally, for lack of anything better to do, he sits back down on a tree stump.

[Toni Craft]

The look of fear Bobby expresses is more than satisfying for Toni. She’d rarely ever seen the emotion back when she was an X-Men and a simple teacher at the Institute, let alone when he went all SHIELD on their asses. The Bobby she’s used to is super-commando Robert Drake, Creator of Fear, not this little confused Bobby Drake, Victim of Fear. But still, she takes enjoyment in the moment.

"Wouldn't it just." And he resigns, letting her claim victory in their little spat. Toni watches, content that maybe he’s learned a lesson or two, as Bobby sits himself down.

The fight hasn’t phased her. She’s been through many similar ones with many other people around the compound, her own children included. She had to win the little battles, because she needs to let him know that she is the dominate one — the one in charge. It was something Toni had learned ages ago when life had permitted her to own dogs. When she couldn’t afford to have a dog anymore, she practically became the wife of the next best thing: Jack. He’d been a challenge to tame, but eventually she had prevailed and became the Alpha (for lack of a better word) for at least the times when there weren’t any full moons.

“Now,” Time to get back to the reason why she had dredged through over a foot of mud to get out there. “If you’re not too intent on sitting out here, let’s go back inside.” And to maintain her position of authority, her tone leaves no room for arguing.

[Bobby Drake]

> "Now, if you’re not too intent on sitting out here, let’s go back inside."

Bobby looks her over carefully, trying to make some sense out of the last few minutes.

He's pretty sure, now that he has a chance to think about it, that she's not stupid enough to miss the logical flaws behind blaming him for the Washington Massacre and everything that came out of it.

And he's pretty sure it isn't about how dangerous it is or isn't for him to be sitting on this rock, given that she was willing to come out here in the first place despite being a much more obvious mutant.

Which means this isn't about logic.

On the other hand, he's also pretty sure she didn't just make that up for purposes of threatening him, either... it came out too easily, too eagerly. Also, he's heard the same basic story from her son, which means she's been telling these stories about him for years.

So what's this about, then? Vengeance? Is he just her scapegoat, like he is Laurie's? It's certainly easier to blame an absent enemy for screwing everything up, even when the facts don't quite line up. Even if he used to be a friend.

Come to that, didn't the Professor and Magneto used to be friends? Bobby wonders if this is how Magneto felt when Bobby accused him of killing the Professor and Dr. Grey.

Which reminds him of the night he spent as Magneto's prisoner, tortured and powerless... and looking up at Toni's glare, he's surprised to find a commonality of expression, of tone. Magneto hadn't really cared about him as a person, or even as an enemy; he'd just wanted to use Bobby as a weapon against John and the X-Men. And it showed. And Toni has much of the same look in her eye. Not exactly the same -- she doesn't have Magneto's untouchable arrogance -- but the way she watches him, shifts to respond as he moves... there's a lot in common. Power, he decides, finally. This is about power.

Well, all right. Sure, he could turn this into a fight. He might even win. But he's fairly sure he'd trigger an alarm somewhere in the process, and bring SHIELD down on this site, and that's stupid. And there's no point in picking fights with her if he's not prepared to stand his ground.

On the other hand, he's got his pride. Magneto broke him... he's ashamed to admit it, but it's true... but Bobby'd made him work for it. Damned if he's going to do less for Toni.

So he shakes his head slowly, politely. "Sorry, ma'am. If you're ordering me inside, captor to prisoner, then say so." He shrugs. "Or, if you actually care how intent I am, then I'm going to sit out here for a while longer. But I'm not going to put up with you threatening to kill me and then pretending to make polite suggestions."

[Toni Craft]

[[ 'Tis a bit of a flonqing post... Old Toni is weeeeiiiiird to work with. Anger and annoyance does not a good writeable Toni make. ]]



"Sorry, ma'am. If you're ordering me inside, captor to prisoner, then say so." Toni narrows her eyes at the boy (which is an appropriate term for him, since he’s young, juvenile, and completely ignorant...at least to Toni). "Or, if you actually care how intent I am, then I'm going to sit out here for a while longer. But I'm not going to put up with you threatening to kill me and then pretending to make polite suggestions."

“Apparently you need to reevaluate your definition of polite.” She mutters, pulling her feet out of the mud with distaste.

She’d seen this type of defiance from Greg. He had always been the wild child. Timmy and Jackie were known to break some of her rules, but never to the extent that Greg did. Ever since Jack had died, their son had become a bit of a renegade. He cared for his family and looked after his siblings whenever necessary, but other than that, Toni had a hard time controlling him. The same seemed to be with this younger Bobby, but that wouldn’t stop her from trying.

Although any more abrupt comments about his inexperience in her world are cut off sharply as he remembers what this Bobby, and her old Bobby, is used to. She laughs to her self sarcastically as she remembers what she used to be like, back before she joined the Brotherhood and before the MRA was passed.

“Was I really so much of a push over that I let you get away with this much shit? You’ve been spoiled! You’re too used to what your Toni lets you do.” Toni chuckles darkly, shifting up onto a tree root again. “Seriously, Dra — Bobby, I’m not the same person that used to buy you booze when you were three years underage. I used to be an idiot that jumped into life-threatening situations willingly and on a regular basis. And in case you haven’t noticed, I like to avoid that sort of thing now. So in the interest of not making this any more life-threatening than it has to be, get your ass in gear and go inside.” Toni orders firmly, pointing back through the woods to the hidden base.

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby is careful to maintain eye contact and show no expression throughout her lecture. He listens to it, but really it doesn’t matter; she’s already staked out her position and he has his.

Not that he says any of that, of course. He certainly doesn’t point out that, the same night she’d bought him that booze, she’d also let him lead her on a covert operation against the government; doesn’t point out that it was never as one-sided as she makes it sound. There’s no point.

The old Toni, he’d have explained himself to; the new Toni won’t listen. No, it’s more than that – she’d listen, but nothing he might say would be of any value. She’s talking about power, obedience, control. He follows her will or defies it, and either way it’s all about her. Anything he might say about himself is irrelevant; she already knows everything she needs to know.

Not that he can blame her, really. He remembers the mournful tone in Josh’s voice when he was talking about the new Warren, and his own response… Warren isn’t a teacher anymore, he isn’t a mutant adventurer, he isn’t a political activist, he isn’t a husband. He’s a soldier. Same with Toni. Bobby doesn’t know that much about soldiers, but he knows they’re different.

And, under the circumstances, it makes far more sense to follow Toni’s orders than defy them. Not only will it get him into less trouble with her, but she’s absolutely right that she knows the local conditions better than he does. If she’d rather give orders than explain those conditions, that’s her right, and he’ll follow them. But you’d damned well better make them orders, Officer Craft. I can offer obedience or cooperation, but not both at once, and you haven’t earned my cooperation or told me enough to make it useful.

And, finally, she finishes explaining herself and does so. "Yes ma’am," he responds abruptly, heading back towards the base.