Thursday morning, Pietro and Marie

[x-ccelerate.livejournal.com]

Pietro and Marie meet accidentally out on the grounds, and--rather unexpectedly for both of them--air a painful subject. They both find a little closure.



Marie had decided to go for a quick flight around the grounds after her morning meditation. The winter air was a tad cool, but ever since she'd developed the ability to fly, she hadn't gone a day without. It was no wonder to her that so many people wished for that particular mutation. Spiraling down, she revealed in the feeling of freedom she got from flight, landing on a snow covered hill with arms held up, like a gymnast sticking a particularly difficult landing.

Measured applause sounded from a little way down the hill behind her > > as Pietro came into view. "Ten from the judge without a country," he called, only a hint of his usual sarcasm in his voice. "And a nice day for it--I half-expected to catch Crystal out taking the air."

Cheeks flushing red, Marie's eyes widened when she realized who her audience was. "Ah, uh, yeah. Pretty day." She would not turn tail and run she would not turn tail and run she would not... "Um. Been enjoying the mansion?" What else did you say to the son of the man who tried to kill you?

Pietro shrugged. "I'll enjoy it more when I have alternatives--which should be very soon now, I'm happy to say." A raised eyebrow flickered, the expression there and gone again in an instant. "I'd imagine there are a few other people who'll be more comfortable when I'm no longer confined to the grounds, too. If only so they don't run quite as big a risk of a random encounter."

"Ah'm sure it'll be nice for you to get off campus some as well," Marie said. "Can't be easy being cooped up here." Aren't you tired of avoidance yet? "And, well, Ah know Scott reassured me about what you're doing here and your background and all that...but it's still...Ah can't help the memories seeing you brings up."

"I don't expect you to. Or anyone, really; it's one reason I tend to keep to my suite, at least for the moment." It was Pietro's turn to look a little uncomfortable. "But perhaps you more than anyone else, considering I didn't turn on him until after Alkali Lake."

"Did you know?" Marie asked, surprising herself. She'd wanted to know ever since she'd heard Pietro had come to the mansion, but she never thought she'd get the nerve to ask - of course, it probably helped that she was being prodded internally to speak up while another all too familiar voice jeered.

"I knew about the device, yes. I knew what he planned to do with it." Pietro's smile was a twisted, humorless thing. "I thought it was a rather elegant plan, actually: if the world's leaders were mutants, then pure selfishness would lead them to implement mutant-friendly policies." He sighed. "I didn't know the induced mutation was deadly. My father was convinced that it wouldn't be, and--let's face it--was not particularly inclined to listen to 'because we say it is and have one data-point to prove it,' especially not from the X-Men."

He paused for a long moment, gaze steady on Marie's face. "I knew he was going to use you to power it. But he lied to me--not for the first time, and not nearly for the last--and told me you had volunteered, that you were willingly sacrificing yourself for the cause. And if you'll remember, we never met. I had no reason, then, not to believe him."

Marie was quiet, processing. It wasn't the answer she'd been expecting, though she couldn't quite name what exactly that had been. She'd almost wanted him to given an answer where she could assign some blame to him, so that she could have a place to direct the anger she still felt and yet never allowed herself to face. But Pietro's words rang true and even the mocking voice she forcibly pushed away wasn't denying the validity of his words. "If you'd known...if you'd known that Ah hadn't volunteered...would you have done something?"

"I don't know. Probably not." Pietro's voice was stark, and neither asked nor gave forgiveness. "I wish I could say otherwise, but at the time I was much under my father's spell, and he's charismatic enough even to people who haven't idolized him all their lives. I would likely have convinced myself that if the greater good required the sacrifice of one life to save many, then it didn't necessarily matter whether it was a willing sacrifice--and that if the life happened to be that of a high school dropout, an aimless drifter with no prospects, rather than my beloved father, so much the better." He dropped his gaze. "After Alkali Lake, things were different. If it had happened after . . . I would have done what I could. But I'd imagine 'if' is a cold comfort; it is to me. I look back on those days and I hardly recognize myself."

She'd wanted honesty and she'd wanted someone to blame and he'd given her both. Yet somehow she couldn't bring herself to hate him the way she wanted to. Marie reached up to touch the white wisps of hair framing her face, Magneto's permanent gift to her. She'd told Logan those years ago she'd kept them because she liked them, but really it was her way of defying Erik. Part of her hoped he felt some guilt as to what he'd done to her and what he'd almost done, but she knew he didn't - that he felt completely justified and would try it again in a heartbeat if he felt it would work.

When she finally spoke, her voice sounded distant in her own ears. "Ah wish you could say otherwise too. Ah wish Ah lot of things sometimes...and if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride." Did it really matter that he hadn't done anything then? What would her life had been like if he had? She'd moved past that day and built a life for herself and a puzzle piece in her brain finally clicked into place as she came slightly more into focus, brown eyes meeting his blue ones. "The past can't be changed - what your father did to me happened and Ah will never forget...but Ah also won't let it own me." Anymore.

Pietro let out a breath he hadn't quite realized he'd been holding. For the most part he didn't care what the mansion residents thought of him or his past. Self-righteous second-guessing with the benefit of hindsight was a waste of everyone's time. But he was beginning to realize that there were people whose opinion mattered, whose forgiveness held value, and on that short list Marie was very near the top. "That's a lesson I'm still trying to learn, myself," he said quietly. "There are days my past feels like chains."

"Ah don't think that's a feeling that ever goes away completely," Marie replied, casting her eyes down. She may have decided not to let what had happened drive her anymore, but that didn't mean there wouldn't still be days of doubt. "But if you let the past rule what happens now, well, then he wins."