Running for Home - 64. March 6, 2022

March 6 2022

Emma called a meeting of the entire staff today. At first I was pissed because who the fuck calls a meeting on a Sunday morning? But when Bobby and I arrived, I was shocked to see the X-men who weren’t members of the teaching faculty all present too. Something was up. Something big. At first I wondered if there was some fallout after the protest in Birmingham on Friday, apparently but that wasn’t the case.

Magneto called Emma yesterday evening. Somehow he’s found out we’re holding Dominik, and he’s none too happy about it.

When Emma informed Magneto of what Dominik did to me and about the telepathic virus, he was resistant to believing her at first. She told him we were best equipped to handle his recovery, and that until it was clear that he wasn’t a danger to himself or anyone else he would be kept here. That wrankled Magneto. Erik Lensherr doesn’t like being told by anyone how things are going to be. He always has to be the decision maker.

He informed Emma that he has mutant healers perfectly capable of solving any problems Dominik might have, and that the Acolytes could keep him under control. He was providing a valuable service to the mutant community running that bar and safe space for mutants, and Magneto did not want to see that ruined. Emma said she agreed that the bar was important to the community, which is why it was being run at arm’s length right now by one of her Frost Foundation charities, with the profits still going into Dom’s bank account. Everything was being taken care of, which is much better than Dom would have gotten if they had just turned him over to the police.

And that was the pickle, wasn’t it? X-Factor didn’t just keep the scene secure and call the police when they rescued me. X-Factor and Bobby just went all superhero and did everything themselves and then took Dom with us back to the School for whatever reason. Fuck the open missing person report. Screw the fact that the police were supposedly investigating - even though we all know they weren’t, not really, not investigating the disappearance of a former terrorist. Good fucking riddance, right? But we were fucked as far as normal legal channels went, and Magneto knew that. Would Magneto clandestinely drop a report to the police that Dom was missing, and that we were suspected of kidnapping him?

Fuck me.

I was getting more and more tense. Bobby was holding my hand, glancing at me every once in a while with increasing worry on his face.

And then Emma laid out the reason for the meeting: Magneto was giving us until the end of the month to get Dominik back on his feet and then release him. If we didn’t, there would be consequences.

That sent a chill over the room. No one here wanted a battle with Magneto and his Acolytes, and especially not here at the School. There were too many innocents that would be caught in the crossfire, even if so many of them were more than capable of defending themselves. This place was supposed to be a safe haven for the students, a place where they could grow into their powers and into themselves without the harsh pressures of the world weighing down on their daily lives.

Magneto had not specified what he planned on doing, so it could be anything from picketing in front of the school to an all out war. But would he really go to such lengths over one person? Was Dominik really and truly that valuable to him?

Fuck, there was a time, oh so many years ago, when I was Magneto’s protege and he regarded me with an almost paternal gaze. I was his personal bodyguard, belonging to the inner circle. In my warped teenage mind I thought he trusted me more than anyone else, save Mystique. Had my personal journey - which had turned me away from Magneto’s cause and brought me back to the School - had it injured his regard for me so much that he would rather have my kidnapper and rapist on the loose running his stupid bar than paying for his misdeeds?

Well fuck him.

The discussion started there but I kept quiet, stewing. I might have been Brotherhood once, but I honestly don’t have a clue how Magneto runs things with the Acolytes. I have my own ideas about how he would approach this, but I don’t think he’s stupid enough or callous enough to start a battle at this school. That seemed to be the consensus they were reaching without my feedback, anyway, so I didn’t speak up. Still, they needed to prepare for the worst. They were going to run some emergency evacuation drills with the students and step up the Danger Room training for the seniors. The one thing that we did have, at the very least, was a little time to get the house in order before this shit hit the fan.

Soon enough, the meeting was over - though I didn’t notice at first. I was too wrapped up in my thoughts. Bobby touched my shoulder and I flinched, my whole body a mess of tension. He asked me if I was okay. I shook my head.

“If Magneto comes here, I’ll kill him.”

The words escaped my mouth before I even knew what I was saying. All activity in the room stopped. Bobby opened his mouth to say something but no words came out.

I took off out of there. I couldn’t stand them looking at me like that, like I’d said something so completely wrong. No matter what they said, Magneto was still one of the significant barriers to peace between mutants and humans, considering he still after all this time was preaching mutant dominion over the Earth. He may not be trying to start a war anymore, not lately anyway, but his overall philosophy hadn’t changed. He was a threat that loomed large in the eyes of those who saw mutants as a danger. And he was a threat to the mission of this School - a place where we taught peaceful coexistence.

It didn’t matter how right or how wrong I was about the old man, though. I had just reminded them all of who I am, who I actually am. The Pyro. A perennial enemy of old. A reformed terrorist. How many of them were in there reconsidering whether or not it was a good idea to have me under their roof now? Who the fuck cares if I’d changed. Maybe in the end I hadn’t changed enough. I was just weaker now, weak and full of psychiatric problems. As if that alone shouldn’t be enough to make them want me out of here.

I could feel my anxiety building up and out of control. Not going to fucking happen. I took off down to the sub-basement to see if the Danger Room was free. It was, thank fucking God. I proceeded to spend a good hour letting loose and blowing shit up. It made me feel better, but not much - mostly just tamped down on the anxiety.

When I went to the locker room, Bobby was there waiting for me. He gave me a sweet kiss and asked if I was okay. I shrugged noncommittally. I wasn’t out of control, but I wasn’t in a happy place either. He asked me if I was serious about killing Magneto. I looked Bobby in the eyes and said that I was. If Magneto comes here and threatens this School and what it stands for, I will do whatever it takes to protect it. Not out of any misguided sense of vigilante justice, just out of pure instinct to protect that which is important to me.

Bobby asked if that was all it was, or whether it was also because I felt betrayed by him. I sighed. Bobby was probably right about that. Magneto had played the role of father figure for me for a number of years, that was true, and it really stung that he was siding with Dominik over me in this case. Magneto might be a murderer and a terrorist, but he lived by a strict moral code. To be frank, I was having a hard time seeing how letting Dom go free fit with Magneto’s sense of justice. Maybe Magneto was just losing it. He was already an old man when I first met him, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he was becoming irrational with old age. Developing dementia, even.

Fuck, that would be just what we need, wouldn’t it? Magneto with dementia, still commanding a legion of followers. Fucking scary and dangerous.

Bobby asked me if I could live with myself if I killed him. I laughed. It would affect me, certainly, but would it haunt me? I fucking doubt it. I’d divorced myself from his influence long ago. I reassured Bobby that I wasn’t going to go out looking for a fight. If there was an attack here, we would all have jobs to do, and I’d do mine. But I wasn’t going to think twice if the situation arose where I needed to take a life. I wouldn’t relish it, but I’d do it.

Bobby seemed somewhat mollified by that. I told him I was taking a shower and he was welcome to join me. He blushed and made an excuse about not wanting to be caught in the locker room showers when Pete and Jean-Paul finished working out in the gym. Bobby said he was going to go hang out with Sam for a bit, if I was okay. They’d developed a decent friendship over the years, and Bobby had been a little shaken up by the near miss Sam suffered the other day. He figured Sam probably needed some relief from Dani, since she hadn’t left his side since they returned from Birmingham. Bobby said he plotted with Xi’an and Rachel to get them to take Dani out shopping today and get her mind off it for a while. The trip had just been delayed a little by the meeting Emma called.

I kissed Bobby and sent him on his way, and then took a long, hot shower. As I dried myself off, I found an idea crystalizing in my head - an idea I felt strong enough to take on. Before I knew it, I was at the door to the medlab where Dominik was being held, my heart beating out of my chest.

I hesitated.

What the fuck was I doing, anyway? What was going to see Dominik, now, going to solve?

Fuck it. I went in anyway.

He was asleep on the bed in the power-dampening chamber they were keeping him in. He looked like a rat in a cage. Fitting. I slammed my hand against the tempered glass a few times, rattling it. He woke up, startled, and looked at me blearily.

“You fucking cunt. How dare you bring Magneto into this!”

Dominik looked confused.

“Did he know you were kidnapping me?! Did you tell him all about your plans to have some one jump me and then drag me into that hellhole?! Did you tell him you were going to rape me?!”

Dominik cringed, but didn’t respond. He looked down at his feet.

“Answer me, goddamn you!”

“What do you want me to say?” he muttered.

“I want you to answer my goddamned questions! Why the fuck is Magneto so hell bent on getting you out of here that he’s threatening us?!”

Dominik looked stumped. “Magneto… wants me out of here?”

“Don’t for one second think that it’s going to happen,” I hissed. “You kidnapped and raped me, you bastard. I don’t care how much you supposedly love me. I will never fucking forgive you for this. You knew, you knew exactly what it would do to me after everything that happened to me in Iraq and you fucking did it anyway! I don’t care how fucked up your brain was. I don’t care if you were going insane. How the fuck am I supposed to fucking forgive you, someone I loved more than anything else after you fucking cheated on me, then ran out on me, and then fucking kidnapped and raped me?!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t,” he said, barely above a whisper. He turned away from me. I bristled, and suddenly I found myself rushing inside that chamber, picking him up by collar of his hospital gown, forcing him to look at me.

“You don’t get the fucking luxury of turning away, Dom. You hurt me. You hurt me so fucking bad, I don’t know if I will ever fully recover from this. Do you even know what that means?”

He burst into tears. Dominikos Ioannis Petrakis was a broken man. It was pathetic.

I threw him down to the floor and walked out, slamming the door to that chamber behind me. I was out of the medlab and into the elevator before my mind could catch up with my emotions. I started sobbing. I hit the emergency stop button and sank to the floor.

What was the fucking point? What had I even accomplished? I felt so fucking stupid, so fucking useless. I wish he would just disappear, but he can’t. I wish I could fucking forgive him, but I can’t. I wish I could hate him, but I can’t.

I wish I could stop loving him, but I can’t.

I spent a good five or six minutes there before I got myself back under control. I had better things to be doing than fucking crying my eyes out over that bastard. I restarted the elevator and went to my office, locking myself away to try and get shit done.

Bobby came looking for me at supper time. He immediately knew something was up. I don’t know why. I didn’t say a fucking word to him. He just walked into my office, looked at me and knew something wasn’t right.

I wanted to lie to him. I wanted to leave him out of my drama for once, but just looking into his eyes I fucking couldn’t. I don’t fucking deserve him.

I told Bobby I went to see Dominik. He asked me if I was okay, even though he clearly knew that wasn’t the case. I told him I wasn’t okay, but I was strong enough to handle it. I told him it was probably a stupid idea to have gone and done that, but in the moment I needed it. I needed to fucking confront Dom and show him I was stronger than he was, that he couldn’t break me. Not that Dom had ever meant to break me… that much was clear.

Fuck.

Bobby asked me if I wanted to get away to the city for a couple days. We could stay in his condo, get a couple subs to take care of our classes. Emma would probably be fine with it. Of course she would. Bobby probably already had permission from her for such an eventuality in case something came up. In case I needed it. But I didn’t need it. Not right now.

No, I needed to be strong. I needed to focus on real life, on the real things that needed to be done and not on the past. I needed to leave that shit behind and move forward, even if Dom was here rotting away in the sub-basement. I needed to not feed into my victimhood, and instead be a fucking survivor and a damned good one at that.

I’d be strong. Stronger than my parents. Stronger than Dom.

Stronger than all of them.