The Ties That Bind

The Ties That Bind
2/9

Perched on the highest level of the Mansion roof, Scully thought that she knew why these people sat came here when they were troubled.

From up here, you could see forever.

The world stretched out around her, laying bare to her its secrets in the pale light of a quarter moon.

She and Ororo had taken Bobby

Bobby.

Down to the medlab. Scully had hooked him up to the right instruments, checked him over again. Ororo hadn’t asked any questions, despite the curiosity written all over her face, something for which Scully was grateful. Scully’d left the room when the others had started to arrive. She couldn’t take all of it right now, all of them, their pity or their blame or their quiet sympathy or the sound of all that breathing and all those hearts beating between the walls.

She’d been up here for an hour now. Either no one was looking for her, or they hadn’t thought of searching here.

They had telepaths, and they had Logan, so they probably knew where she was. What did that say? That they were giving her space, or that they didn’t want to talk to her?

But Bobby...

God, Bobby.

Her hands felt a little far away.

The wind was picking up. She saw what looked like an eagle a mile of so off. Concentrating, she brought it into a closer view. She was watching its path when a patch of white shot into her view, surrounding glowing silver eyes. Scully jumped, taken off guard. She reached her hands behind herself to brace, forgetting that she sat on the peak of a roof. Her arms hitting the roofing tiles below the level of her waist, she felt herself begin to skid.

A hand grabbed her ankle, stopping her before she had the chance to see if she could stop herself. She looked up to see Ororo crouching above, at the peak. The other woman offered Scully her free hand, which Scully took, and pulled her up to a sitting position again.

“Are you all right, Dana?” She asked.

“I’m fine, considering.” There was an awkward pause. “You really shouldn’t be asking me that, you know.” Neither of them said anything for a time. “How is he?”

“Almost as good as new. He’s asking to see you.”

“How long has he been awake?”

“Only a few minutes. He came out of it and wanted to talk to you.”

“I’m not sure that he really wants to see me.”

“He told us what happened.”

“Oh,” Scully said, not meeting Ororo’s eyes. She braced herself for the worst.

“He said, and we agree, that it wasn’t entirely your fault.”

“Really? I... He wasn’t a threat to me, Ororo. I wasn’t in danger. I didn’t even try to... I am supposed to be a doctor, Ororo. I am supposed to be a *healer*.” She paused, studied her hands resting quietly, ever so quietly, against the shingles. “Did you tell him that I was sorry? I’m going to. I will. Just not now. He doesn’t want to see me at the moment, Ororo.”

“Let me ask you one thing, Dana. Did you want Bobby to hurt at the time?”

“No,” she said softly. The word seemed to hang in the cool night air.

“Then you should tell him yourself,” Ororo said finally.

“I know.”

“Dana, with all powers come the ability to use them for ill. The Professor or Emma, they can put a mind back together that’s been completely broken, completely shattered. But they are more than capable of reversing that, or of doing serious harm. They do not like to, but they could if they had to. Do you think that Xavier never accidentally lashed out at someone? You learn to control it, Dana. That’s all there is.”

And they sat there for awhile, just starting up at the stars so far out of their reach. Steeling herself, Dana rose and brushed herself off. “I’m ready.”

*

People milled inside the crowded Dominion Bank, a multi-coloured crowd bright against the white marble. The lines for the tellers reached all the way to the door. Ted LeDuc smiled as he reached over the counter for the next customer’s teller slip. Being around people still invigorated him, even four years out of university. He’d worked here almost since he’d graduated, and had just found out that he’d gotten the promotion he’d been aiming for. Today was his last day down on the floor. “Busy day, huh?” he asked the man. “I guess I don’t need to tell you that though. You and your friends came in here almost forty-five minutes ago.” Ted had noticed the group of three when they’d first entered. The one hairy man with them had to be at least six foot four, and the other one hanging behind them was definitely hunchbacked. Ted continued to chat at them amiably, hoping to cheer them up. The one in the lead looked about ready to blow. There was something in those blue eyes that Ted didn’t like.

“Can we just get on with this?” the man snarled. Taken aback, Ted shut up. To tell the truth, the man scared him a little. He looked at the slip for his name.

“Well, Mr. Banks.....” Ted trailed off as the blue eyed man glared at the hunchback, who was chortling softly, and took a closer look at the slip.

Mr. Robin Banks.

*Okay,* he thought. *It’s just a coincidence. This is way too cliche to be happening. The guy on his last day on the job......* He flipped over the slip, reading what was written on the back. *This is a....*

*There is no damn way.*

But he looked at the trio, and his breath stuck in his throat. There was a bulge in the tall man’s jacket which looked alarmingly like a gun. The object of his attention noticed his gaze and smiled nastily.

The bank’s policy on hold ups was concrete. Don’t panic, press the silent alarm, don’t let the other customers know what’s going on, and above all, give them the money.

“I’m just bending down to get the money bag,” he whispered, feeling the give of the silent alarm against the toe of his second-best pair of shoes.

“Don’t mind that,” the hunchback said, plopping a briefcase on the counter. “Fill ‘er up.”

Ted slowly filled the case with money while the customers behind the three robbers tapped their feet impatiently. If they’d known what was going on, chances are that they wouldn’t have been in such a hurry to get up there with them. He moved as slowly as he could without raising suspicion, waiting for the undercover guard to move in behind them. He almost sighed in relief when he saw Clark appear, winding his way through the disgruntled patrons, but he fought to keep an unfailing expression. If these people saw Clark, they’d know that something was up. Ted didn’t want to think about what would happen after that. He saw the tall, hairy one sniff the air. The blue-eyed man turned to face him sharply, and nodded.

Ted filled the suitcase, faked a smile, and said, “Thank you for banking with Dominion.”

Clark reached the trio.

Then the tall one swung around with his hand out, and Clark fell to the ground, blood spreading in a pool around him. When the assailant faced his fellows again, Ted saw didn’t quite connect at first. Someone must have let a dog in or something, because he could see claws, shiny with blood under the flourecents.

People were running and screaming.

Ted stared at the claws, his gaze gradually travelling upwards. The dog was wearing a coat. His eyes reached the straggling hair falling over the collar, the tall man smiling (snarling) with teeth which suddenly seemed to resemble fangs rather a lot.

The rest of the security force was fighting their way against what had become a mob. Ted wanted to yell at them to watch out, that these people were not normal, but the glinting of the man’s claws paralysed him.

He finally found his voice when the first of the guards reached them. He opened his mouth, then something slimy wrapped around his throat, jerking him forward. He looked down to see the hunchback’s tongue had somehow stretched to an amazing length and circled his neck. He could see that the blue eyed man had disappeared into the crowd somehow, taking the briefcase with him.

Ted watched the guards start to go down as the world dipped into black.

*

Mystique, still in the face that she’d used to escape the bank, waited at a window table in the McDonalds just down the street from the Dominion. She watched in amusement as the cops pulled in front of the bank, sirens flashing, and started to yell demands through a bull horn. They didn’t know that in every likelihood, there wasn’t a single living soul left inside the building.

She hoped that they’d end up throwing tear gas grenades in before they figured it out.

The gaping crowd almost completely blocked her view. She took another spoonful of her McFlurry.

“I leave the three of you alone for half a day. . .” a voice came over her shoulder.

“Erik. Why don’t you sit down, have some of my ice cream? You can barely taste the chicken feathers.”

Erik Lenscher ignored the proffered McFlurry, but sat down on the bench across from her. “You know, when I heard about it on the radio, my first thought was that you’d have more sense than that.”

“I was bored,” she said, picking up the briefcase from where it sat on the bench between her and the wall. She set it on the table, leaving one protective hand upon it. “Besides, Mortimer and Creed needed to kill something. They’ve really been quite restrained lately.”

“This isn’t going to go unnoticed, Raven. If they connect it to the Brotherhood, they’re going to come after us.”

“They never have before, Magneto.”

“That’s no reason to push the envelope. The more clues they get, the sooner they’ll put them all together. Never mind that if one of you had been taken, it would’ve been forced out of you, and we’d all be done for. Do I have to remind you what the government does to captured mutants? And while we’re out in public, it’s Erik. Always Erik.”

“There’s enough in this case to keep us going for months. Where exactly do you think that we get our money? We’re not exactly a government funded organization, Erik,” she said, stressing his name.

She sat there, her eyes flickering as she traced the path of the condensation down the outside of her ice cream cup.

Erik studied her carefully. She was still out for blood over Rogue’s death. She just hadn’t turned her anger on Xavier for some reason. “Speaking of Mortimer and Creed, where are those two idiots?” Eric asked absently.

“They should be back soon,” she replied. “They had to get far enough away that they could double back without suspicion.”

“They shouldn’t have much trouble with city cops.” Erik paused, and his eyes flickered. “You’re training them, aren’t you? You’re trying to get them ready for something.”

Mystique’s face was impassive. He hated trying to read her when she was shifted into someone different. New visage, new set of expressions to interpret. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Erik.” She picked up her cup, still half full of ice cream, and tossed it. The spoon, sticking up clearly from the sides, twirled on its axis and seemed on the verge of breaking free, but the cup dropped neatly into a cleaning cart standing by the door, taking the spoon with it.

Mortimer and Creed appeared beside then with a crashing of boots. They looked down at the two, now sitting silently, and decided against slipping onto the bench. They were both grinning in a rather unpleasant manner. The sight of so many teeth made Raven want to shudder. “Any trouble after I left, boys?”

“Nothing we couldn’t handle,” Creed said.

“I think that the three of you have had quite enough fun for today,” Erik said coldly. “Are you ready to go?”

Mortimer nodded while bouncing slightly, Creed said a disappointed yes, and Raven inclined her head.

Erik hung back while they made their way out to the van, his eyes narrowed slightly at Mystique’s back. What ever she was planning couldn’t be allowed to go through.

He still couldn’t believe that they were driving around in a minivan.

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