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 "So, here's an awful thought. Consider the Horsemen, mind control, that whole motief... is this Nur character the same 'Apocalypse' we faced in Manhattan in the old world? Or is this some new asshole using the same Spirit Halloween for his villain ideas?" Kane said to Marius as he rubbed his chin absently. "The ocean doesn't explain itself to plankton." Marius' voice was still flat, but one of his hands tugged against a cuff. "He's old. Can't even comprehend how old. Our lives, they're like the blink of an eye to him. You see yourself that way, too, once he has you. Disposable. Even Akkaba is ready to throw themselves away for him. Those that came knew they'd be cut down with the rest, and they were glad to do it. Human lives are brief. Him, though? He's eternal." "Akkaba?" Rogue's entire point of being there was as a bodyguard. Once upon a time, many moons ago, they'd absorbed each other and as such, she was forever one of those weird Marius experts (as limited as that was). Why they needed a bodyguard now, she didn't know but since none of this had anything to do with her (and considering she was leaving soon), she'd tried to tune out and be respectful of his confidentiality. But this? "Frainchement, Marius ....qu'est-ce que t'as fait? How'd you end up with him? Tabernac..." The French startled him. Marius looked back and seemed to notice her presence for the first time. His confusion coaxed a little life back into his response. "J'ai fait un erreur," he responded. "I was sick. Full myelosuppression. You know, same issue as brought me here originally. I was referred to a hematologist in Toulouse. Credentialed, decent body of research, impeccable work history. All above board." He laughed without warmth. "Maybe it would've stayed that way if I hadn't been responding to the treatments as well as I did, or hadn't quite so useful a mutation. As it was, turned out the good doctor was embedded there for Akkaba's benefit. One day he just slipped something in the IV. Passed out at Clinique Lentz, woke up who knows where. Then they did . . . the rest of it." Marius tugged at the cuff again. "Know they found someone else that way, though I suppose he might've been more willing than I was. Doesn't matter. We all end up the same." "Abraham Kieros?" Marius would have remembered the other, failed Death - Marie-Ange thought. Hoped. "Former soldier, paralyzed, he was War to your Death. We have less information about Pestilence and Famine, perhaps they also explored other options with regard to injuries or mutations." She tilted her head towards Rogue - and perhaps strangely, Doug, rather than Garrison. "I trust if we remove those restraints, you will neither betray us, or make any more unwise decisions about your own health?" The room was free of anything sharp, walls padded. Her concern was more philosophical. Marius gave another humourless laugh. "Just get me off this bed. Keep me manacled, put a muzzle on me, I don't care. Just--" He paused, a thought clearly occurring to him. "Did anyone pull a CBC on me?" The words came out with the reluctance of a man pulling razor wire from his own throat. "If my platelets have hit 90,000 I'll need to line up a donor before I've got a chance to crash. If it's lower . . . leave me tied until you find someone." "At last check your platelets were at a reasonable level," Doug informed Marius, his voice a bit clipped and flat. "And we intentionally stationed watchers who would not appeal to your tastes until we determined whether you were still under this Nur's influence." There were a few people now that would work as donors in the room, but he was still in his restraints. "So, welcome back to the X-Men." Kane said. They had gotten the answers they needed. Marius was a victim and if he wasn't, the telepaths in the mansion would find out soon enough. "Some people didn't survive the experience." It was a shitty comment and he knew it, but he was beaten up. The death toll in District-X had been better than it could have been but it wasn't marginal. And once again, they'd all been too little and too late against their enemies. Marius turned his head to stare at Garrison. His chest burned from the swaths of skin he'd clawed from Akkaba's brand. "Yeah, well," the younger man said, "guess time will tell on that one." "Enough." Marie-Ange cut off the conversation. "Someone please release Marius from his restraints." She eyed the man in the bed, his healing injuries and shadows under his eyes. "Please order him a sandwich. Vegetarian, I believe he will not want to be responsible for any more death in the near future." The one-time X-Man flinched. For just an instant his face twisted as if he were on the verge of something — a denial, or burst of rage, or scathing self-recrimination — but only a moment. Expression smoothing, Marius shrugged against the bed. "Well," he said, his tone closer now to its normal ease, "can't say I didn't deserve that. I will admit a caprese does sound good at the moment." He rolled his shoulders against the mattress, forcing the muscles slack, and took a deep breath. "At your discretion, then." |
