2013.10.20 - I Will Go

Nicole and Claudette have settled wonderfully into the Xavier Institute. It is the first time in their lives, Nicole feels, that they are not monsters.

The classes are easy. There is a lot of Monet in Nicole and, more than that, a desire to be like Monet. She excels. Claudette's autism is understood and accepted. Even the worst students favor avoiding her rather than picking a fight.

Most importantly, they are with their older sister. Nicole knows that Claudette also adores her. She is so much more alive around Monet. After all these years, after all they have been through, things are beginning to not only return to normal but also improve.

It is nighttime at the Institute. It is guarded by machines from the future and mutants from the present. Nicole and Claudette share a room in the proper student area. Monet has been afforded an adjunct teacher's room in another wing. The twins are asleep, but Monet is not. She rarely sleeps, these days. It is easy for her to hide how tired she is.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Comes a painfully familiar voice, smooth and oily, as it quietly murmurs from near the window. The man who speaks wasn't there a moment ago, but all it took is a bright flash of blue light and a subtle humming sound before he appeared, already staring out the window. "I do love the night. So quiet. So peaceful. I'd hate if anything disturbed that peace. Especially since it might wake the young ones." He turns to face Monet, and the light of the moon reveals that hated pale face, the face of Mister Sinister, a grin stretched across his lips. The threat is clear. No noise, or he starts killing children.

"I hope you and your sisters have been well, Monet."

Monet's room is more lavish than a student's, but it is largely a single room. She sits on a couch, legs tucked beneath her, intent on the laptop before her. The screen is the only illumination in the room. She doesn't need light to see.

The humming is not subtle to her. Humming three miles away would not be subtle to her, if she chose to listen and understood what it was. Monet is already looking up when Sinister begins to speak, her face a mask of fury--the anger of a cornered animal.

The laptop flies from her lap on invisible strings. She is suddenly standing, fists clenched, faster than sight but kept penned by uncertainty.

"They will come for you," she hisses, dripping venom. "They will come for you and destroy you. I have told them everything. They know what you are."

"But they do not know /where/ I am," Sinister replies with a casual smile, no more alarmed then he might be regarding a small child. "Save the threats, Monet. I've been battling forces far more intelligent than you since before your parents were even conceived. Before even their parents. You can not possibly have thought of something I have not already anticipated. You can't even /hide/ from me, let alone fight me." He holds up a finger, as if he knows his words are most likely about to incite Monet's rage. "Remember the children, Monet... I would hate for anything to happen to them... Especially your sisters."

"You are afraid to even step inside, you vampire! You know it will be your ruin."

Monet stares as if she could strike down Sinister with her gaze. Her mind is elsewhere. It is reaching out, further than she could hope to find a strange mind. She is not looking for a strange mind. She is looking for two girls who are so much like herself, two girls she knows better than perhaps anyone.

They are asleep, but they are reaching out, too. They just know, sometimes. They are already waiting to meet halfway. Monet feels their ease, knowing they are asleep. Safe.

"My sisters are well protected. You cannot even look at them."

"Oh yes, Monet, because walls have kept me out so well before," Sinister remarks, crossing to the other side of her room idly. "You do not know how long I've waited for this. This moment. History is about to be made, Monet," he says, excitement coloring his smooth tones. His mind is already extended, he can feel her push past the barriers of her own to reach for her sisters', and he smiles a small smile. With a faint flourish, he pulls a ribbon from his pocket, a ribbon all too familiar to Monet as it belongs to her sister, Claudette. "Not even they know how close I can get without being seen. Do you really want to risk it? I can take them instead. Force them to merge. Become you. It's not the same, but I can make it work if you'd prefer."

Her eyes go instantly to the ribbon. She remains focused on it while he speaks and, as the seconds pass, her anger falters. The Pale Man completes his threat and all the outrage has left her, banished by his prize.

Monet knows it is Claudette's. She, whose senses are so keen, cannot mistake it. She can see traces of her sister in it. Claudette wore it today.

Her lips curl in disgust. Her body tenses, but she does not move to strike. She digs her nails uselessly into her palms, wishing intently to draw blood while knowing that she lacks the strength to hurt herself. She has tried.

"Leave them, Sinister," Monet says, her voice carefully flat. "Leave them alone."

Sinister's eyebrow raises, his interest piqued though he doesn't exactly look shocked. "So you've learned my name? Discussing me with one of the others who have learned it? Tell me, is it time travel? Alternate universe? I'm curious," again, he maintains only a passing interest, failing to show any emotion other than friendliness, though it's a clearly a facade. A trick. "Though I suppose it hardly matters now. Soon the world will know me, or what's left of it, anyway..."

Casually, he tosses the ribbon towards Monet, intentionally letting it fall short so it drifts towards the ground. "I will leave them alone if you offer yourself in their place. You're the most important part of the puzzle after all, and it just won't be the same with them instead of you." The smile fades slightly, taking on a crueler appearance, "But... I'll make do if I have to. Nothing a few minor alterations wouldn't fix."

Monet does not move. The ribbon twists and flutters in the breeze until collapsing upon itself on the floor. Finally, she looks up. There may not be anger, but there is a colder kind of hatred shadowing her eyes.

Even with all of Dr. Grey's powers, even with all the knowledge and solidarity contained within the Institute, Monet knew somewhere that she was not safe. She enjoyed seeing her sisters believe themselves to be safe. That was a relief of its own kind, one that Monet could take up and hold to herself as a replacement for her own peace. The days she has spent awake begin to catch up to her.

"I will go."

The smile on Sinister's face is knowing. There could never be any other answer, of course. There never was. He always got what he wanted. "Good, good. Shall we depart then?" He moves towards her, but stops a bit aways, forcing her to close the gap as he holds out his hand, ready to teleport them both back to the very same lab that she once broke out of. "There's much to do if we're going to prepare you for your new role..."

"Death."