xp_logs | Fiddler's Green: New Dawn

Summoned to the main ecovillage of the New Dawn movement in Brazil, Jean and her team finally find out why Mariana Machado was targeted by Taygetos a year ago. But even as old mysteries are resolved, new challenges are presented.

It was a fairly straightforward flight, as Blackbird flights went. They weren't in a particular hurry to get to Brazil, they weren't flying through any unfriendly airspace, and from what Mariana Machado had said, what was waiting for them was a conversation, not a fight. Still, for the woman to have called out of the blue, nearly a year after the events in Central Park, something significant had to be up.

While Jean was curious about why Machado had called them, she'd long ago learned that it did no good to worry about things she would eventually find out anyways. Instead her focus was on the flight, enjoying being behind the controls for once as she let the calm blue sky settle her nerves.

Angelo was sitting just behind her, watching what she was doing. It couldn't hurt to get an idea of how the Blackbird's controls went, if he ever wanted to learn it properly in the future. In one of the other seats, Angel was looking towards Jean - but then back again, wide eyed, at the entire plane. She'd seen it before, she'd helped build parts of it, even, but this was the first time she'd ever been up in it. And it was the first time she'd been tapped to go as a trainee.

"This is so cool," she muttered quietly to herself, looking gleeful whenever Jean smoothly moved the plane. It was obvious that Angel's love of flying encompassed every kind of flight.

"Speak for yourself," Lil growled under her breath, her eyes closed in feigned slumber. Flying was not on her list of favorite things, even when the plane afforded room for someone of her size, and she'd much rather sleep through the flight when possible. And an excited trainee didn't lend itself to Lil's plan. "Can't even smoke on the damned thing."

"And this is different from any other type of non-self-propelled flight how?" Jean asked over her shoulder, smiling slightly at Angel's enthusiasm.

"Somehow, I was under the impression that the Blackbird was beyond 'any other type' of flight. I was hoping that evolution included a cigar room," the giantess returned without opening her eyes.

The younger girl grinned but leaned forward. "So, who's this Maraschino..." Angel paused in thought. "No, sorry, that's the cherry. Who's this Machado lady and what does she do?"

Jean couldn't quite help the little snort of laughter, but she did manage to explain. "Marianne Machado created Alvorecer Novo, a pro-mutant communal living arrangement in Brazil. The easiest explanation is that she's an acquaintance of Nathan's."

"She's good people", Angelo spoke up. "I met her last year at that expo in the city. Believes in people as people, not mutant or human."

Lil couldn't help but snort again. Sleeping seemed to be a non-option with the way the three kept going on. "Well, at least she ain't gonna shoot at us, then. Nice change of pace," she said, sitting up a bit straighter in her chair as green eyes flickered open. Maybe she could find time to sneak a cigarette when they landed. "We talking communal living like the mansion or like 'here's some spiked punch, we'll see you when we all ride away on the tail of a comet to our everlasting peace' kinda set up?"

Jean just shook her head. "By your standards I'd say it's on the spiked punch side, but actually it's not. It's an experiment in sustainable living - they do grow their own food, but they also have compounds powered through wind and solar power."

"Wait, does that mean things like no TV and internet?"

Angel sounded positively scandalized.

"No", Angelo said, laughing. "Or not necessarily. They've still got electricity, just not from the normal power stations."

The blonde's face went serious. "If they don't have alcohol, I'm flying this plane back to civilization with or without you."

===

The New Dawn ecovillage, rather surprisingly, had its own airstrip, complete with a welcoming committee of two friendly young women with very good English to guide them into the compound itself. And the guides were necessary, in the end; it was a much bigger operation than one might have expected. There were crops and gardens and greenhouses, with the living quarters integrated harmoniously into the whole. There was even a central 'town square' of sorts, with larger buildings - a medical clinic, one of their guides pointed out, and a school, among other facilities.

It was, all in all, an impressive community. Neither of their guides had said a word about precisely why Machado had invited them there, however, and seemed uninclined to do more than play tour guide. Eventually, however, they led the small group of X-Men towards one of the houses situated among the central gardens. One of the young women beckoned them to follow her around the back, where an arrangement of obviously handcrafted benches beneath an equally lovely gazebo were clearly meant to serve as a gathering place of some sort.

Mariana Machado sat on one of the benches. She wore a sleeveless shirt and long skirt of light cotton dyed a pale blue, and a wide-brimmed hat to protect her head from the harsh sun. Her head turned towards the X-Men as they approached and she gave them a faint smile and a nod. But even as she rose, her gaze strayed back towards the four young people she had been watching.

None of them were older than their mid-teens. All had very short hair that looked like it was still in the process of growing out from a buzz cut. They didn't so much as look in the direction of the newcomers.

But the sharp, bright patterns of their minds were instantly recognizable by the sole telepath in the garden.

Jean's eyes widened as she stared past Machado, ignoring her completely for the moment. The conditioning was unmistakably that which Taygetos used, she would know it anywhere. And yet... there was definitely something off about it. Even aside from the fact that they were simply sitting in the garden peaceably rather than, say, trying to kill someone. A slightly deeper probe provided the answer - for whatever reason their conditioning was incomplete.

Machado gave her a faint, sad smile. "Now you know," she said to Jean. "Last September wasn't the first time I'd seen such children. Obviously, we need to talk."

===

"There's more to it than the children. But I think you guessed that, didn't you?"

The room Machado had taken her to somehow managed to be both elegant and comfortable. All the furnishing were clearly handmade - and with care, and the bay window overlooked the ecovillage's gardens. Fans spun soundlessly on the ceiling, cooling the air. Machado sunk down into one of the chairs, looking more tense and tired than she had outside with the others.

"It seemed likely, yes. The children are enough to worry about, certainly, but you seem extra worried, although you were covering well out there. What's going on?" Jean herself simply leaned against the back of one of the other chairs.

Machado sighed, folding her hands together in her lap. "The children were brought to me by a friend," she said slowly. "My friend was a telepath. A talented man, but one who... fell in with bad company, when he first started to explore the profitable uses of his gift. He was hired. By the people who created the children."

Jean's eyes narrowed, although she managed to keep most of the 'death death death' that was going through her head off her face and all she said was, "... All right."

"I didn't know this. He and I had been out of contact for years. I'd warned him, when he began such work, that it could lead him down a very dark path." Machado closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath and then letting it out. "He showed up on my doorstep a year ago, with the children in tow. He begged me to look after them - I agreed, of course. He was going back, to free more of them, he claimed. I tried to talk him out of it, to convince him to go to the authorities. But he claimed these people were beyond their reach."

It was only as her grip on the back of the chair began to relax that Jean realized how tightly she'd been holding on. "I can hardly believe you've heard from him again, under those conditions, but something must have happened for you to call us...?"

"Nothing from him." Machado's voice was desolate for a moment. "Not for a year. Exactly a year. And until exactly a year went by, I truly had nothing more to tell you. I was his insurance, Dr. Grey."

Jean's eyebrows went up at that, and she finally moved the chair, taking a seat and leaning towards the other woman. "He implanted something in your mind?" she asked, tilting her head curiously and telepathically reached out to gently trace the edges of her mind. "Or... no, hid something. Hid it from you as well as the rest of the world."

Machado opened her mind in a deliberate way that suggested she'd had rather more experience with telepaths than might have been assumed. In her memories, a handsome, middle-aged man with haunted dark eyes sat across from her, her hands in his, speaking in a low, urgent voice.

I have to do what I can, he said, his deep voice hollow with pain. To try and make up for what I've already done. I have no right to ask this of you, Mariana-

Javier-

No. I'm already putting you in danger by bringing the children here. I won't lay this burden on you unless there's no other way. His dark eyes held hers, imploring. You need to forget, until there's no other option but to remember. And then, you need to get in touch with Charles Xavier. Only him and his people, Mariana, do you understand? In a year, if I don't come back...

It had been a wise precaution, that was clear, and Jean doubted that Machado had any hope of seeing her friend again... all she had now were memories. And now she had more. Jean slipped inside the other woman's mind, admiring the delicate structure which had been the blocks, although they were breaking down now, dissolving seamlessly into the rest of her mind - he'd clearly taken some care that she wouldn't be hurt by what he'd done.

In another memory, Machado knelt beside Javier, helping him to bury a steel box in the gardens. A flash, and she was digging it back up again, her eyes blurring with tears. Inside, a heavy folder, the sort you carried documents in.

They're here. Machado's mental voice was as clear as a bell, unusual in a non-telepath. She reached beneath the table in front of them, lifting a stack of yellowed papers and setting them in front of Jean.

Reaching over, Jean thumbed through them briefly, eyes skimming along and then suddenly she stopped, leaned forward. Reread whatever it was that had caught her, and then again, before looking up, eyes wide. "Have you read these? Do you know what this means?"

"Some of it," Machado said. "The information on how the children are trained, yes." Her eyes fell on the page Jean was reading. "That," she said slowly, "I did not understand. I hope that your Professor Xavier does. I have... an awful suspicion that it's what they want." Her delicate features tightened, the strain showing through even more clearly. "I received a call, several days ago. They identified themselves as Javier's employers. I don't know how they could know that I had these-" But the sudden brightness in her eyes put the lie to that. She had quite clearly drawn the obvious conclusion. "I didn't even know, at the time! I had no idea what they were talking about, what files they wanted from me. Not until two days ago. Until the year had passed."

At the mention of others seeking this information Jean's hands tightened on the papers and she shifted them back into their original pile, the page which had so thrown her hidden innocuously inside. "I need to get these back to Charles immediately. We can bring the children to the mansion, although they may need to go to Dr. MacTaggart at the Muir Island Research Facility. But they'll be safe. And so will these." Again her hands clutched at the papers.

Machado looked abruptly like she was going to cry. But she set her jaw. "I know it's best," she said hoarsely. "For now, it's safer for them. And they've been like ghosts here, no matter what we've tried." But they're all I have left of him. The thought wasn't directed at Jean in any sort of conscious way, but again, was as clear as day.

Jean tensed slightly, easily understanding Mariana's feeling but hesitating. "I... You know you would be welcome as well, but it would be... less safe, for everyone. Particularly the children. If you left here, sooner or later they would notice."

Machado met her eyes, her own widening very slightly as the moment of silence dragged on. Then, with a pained, unsteady smile, she nodded. "I fear you're right."

===

Machado and Jean had been gone for a full ten minutes when one of the kids finally deigned to notice the presence of the three outsiders. The other three kept right on doing what they were doing - one working doggedly in the garden, two sitting in the shade and poring over a single book - but the fourth, a slim blonde girl with deeply tanned skin and bright blue eyes, was definitely trying to get a closer look at them. She was doing it in a very odd way, however. Walking along the edge of the garden, sort of coming at them sideways, her eyes flickered towards them every so often - and away again, as soon as she made eye contact with anyone.

She wasn't the only blonde whose gaze flickered over the scene.

Lil kept her eyes glued on the child as she wandered; the giantess' face full of frigid distrust. Legs propped up on the other end of the bench she'd claimed but despite her relaxed pose, the Amazon was anything but. "I don't like this," she muttered to her companions though she never took her focus from the girl.

Angelo was watching the girl too, but with much less hostility. Glancing at Lil, he muttered back, "They're not tryin' to kill us, an' that's a new one on me. I think they're actually safe." He managed to make eye contact with the young girl, and smiled encouragingly.

The girl sidled closer, her attention increasingly focused on Angel, the closest to her in age of the three strangers. She lowered herself gingerly onto the bench, a foot away from the red-haired girl, and made an interrogative noise, eyes flickering sideways to meet the other girl's.

"Hi," Angel said in response, knowing the steps to take if something actually did go wrong. If the girl went crazy and tried to take her, Angel would go straight up and let Angelo take care of it. But the girl looked harmless and Angel was just as interested in her as the girl was in return. She waved in greeting as well, trying to figure out if she could give her real name or was stuck with the stupid trainee name.

"Mmm." The girl reached out very hesitantly and lifted a lock of Angel's red hair. She fingered it in wonderment. Her own blonde hair was wispy and short, much like that of the other three.

"It's nice," Angel said with a grin, "you can find me in a crowd pretty easily." She was keeping still, allowing the girl to come to her and not spook her. The kids around them looked so serious - Angel wanted to see them be kids for a moment or two.

"Careful," Lil warned under her breath while cracking her neck, trying her best to look disinterested in the whole scene. "She may grow too attached and decide to scalp you in your sleep. Make a pretty wig for herself."

"They're programmed, not psychotic", Angelo pointed out quietly but firmly, watching the scene with approval. "This is progress."

The blonde girl let go of Angel's hair, tilting her head like a bird and gazing into the redhead's eyes speculatively. "Mmm," she said, and raised her other hand to show she was holding something - a small, white star-shaped flower that she'd clearly plucked off one of the bushes at the edge of the garden. Her hand darted out again, tucking the flower behind Angel's ear.

Instantly Angel's face lit up in a delighted smile, her hand reaching up to gently touch the flower behind her ear. "I think I've made a friend!" she exclaimed, feeling rather pleased with herself. And the fact that the other girl seemed to be coming out of her shell. "Awesome."