Chapter Text
Chapter 12, Loyalty
Webster's Dictionary:
loyalty
faithful to a person to whom fidelity is due; faithful to a cause, ideal, custom, institution, or product
January 2006
Pyro watched as the newest members of the Brotherhood followed Callisto out of the underground meeting room at base camp. At any other time, he might've been amused by Magneto's instruction to Callisto to show the two men to their "guest" quarters (spare tents toward the center of the camp) since Pyro knew it must have offended her feminist sensibilities. But he was far from seeing any kind of humor at the moment. He turned his attention back toward Magneto as the door closed, watching his mentor accusingly.
Magneto cut straight to the point, raising an eyebrow and saying in that infuriatingly smug way, "We're at war, my boy. You certainly don't expect me to entertain the enemy here do you?"
"She wasn't the enemy," Pyro snarled. "How long?"
"What?" Magneto's eyes narrowed a bit.
"How long did you work together?" Pyro was flexing his hands, as if resisting the temptation to start something on fire. "How long was she loyal to you? How long did you just use her without really caring..."
Magneto was in his face before he could finish, causing Pyro a moment of panic. It reminded him of his childhood and he automatically flicked his wristlets and tried to bring his arms into an attack position only to find he could do neither. The ignition seemed to be jammed and his wrists wouldn't move. Metal in the ignitors! he realized, grinding his teeth in frustration, his panic rising slightly.
A cruel smile touched Magneto's lips before his whole face twisted in anger.
"Don't presume to understand anything about my relationship with Mystique," Magneto hissed, leaning in even closer to Pyro's face.
Pyro balled his hands into fists, tugging futilely at his wrists, his heart still pounding. The wristlets wouldn't budge, keeping him trapped in place and the look on Magneto's face was one he'd seen a thousand times before growing up. Magneto flicked his eyes down to Pyro's wrists and back up to his face.
Then the moment was over. The older man's face resumed its usual look of benevolent superiority and he turned back to his desk. Magneto had yet to release his bracers but Pyro still felt a swell of relief as his mentor moved away.
"We have much to prepare for." Magneto was saying. "You have an assignment. I'll give you the details before you leave. Be ready in an hour."
And with that, his wrists were released. Magneto dismissed him with a wave of his hand, patently ignoring Pyro in favor of some papers on his desk. After a pause, Pyro stalked across the room and made his way into the hallway, anger visible in every step and a feeling of betrayal welling up inside. Obviously, Magneto's gift wasn't just a reward for choosing the "right" side or an example of rewards to follow. It had once amused Pyro to think that Magneto's ulterior motive for commissioning the custom wrist-ignitors was because the constant flicking of his lighter had driven the other mutant crazy. Now, he realized it was much more than that.
But the feeling of betrayal warred with a feeling of guilt. Magneto was one of the few people to accept him for who he was. He had essentially taken Pyro in and encouraged him to be himself, to use his abilities for the mutant cause. He treated Pyro like his prodigy, taught him about leading, about controlling his emotions, and about knowing when to be ruthless and when to show mercy. He could only remember one other person who'd shown that kind of interest in him but that was before his mutation manifested. The feeling of guilt blossomed, all but drowning out the betrayal. Did he even have the right to question Magneto's decision in this?
Pyro shook the thoughts off, as he stepped out of the main room and into the hallway to his bedroom, itching to remove the wristlets as quickly as possible. Guilt may have won the battle but the question of whether he'd ever get over the feeling of betrayal continued to whisper in the back of his mind.
As soon as Magneto heard the door slam, his shoulders drooped and his mask of indifference dropped, leaving a look of intense sadness in its place as he stared unseeingly at the papers in front of him.
Pyro walked into the meeting room from his quarters exactly two minutes before the hour was up. He only had one bracer on and a lighter in his left pocket, just in case. The other bracer was tucked in the very bottom of a drawer in his room, underneath some clothes and a couple of books. He'd come very close to burning them both to a pile of ash when he got back to his room but finally decided he couldn't ignore their advantage so he kept one out to use and saved the other for a backup. He'd gone from guilt back to betrayal, anger and not a little fear before settling on loyalty with caution. Magneto had been doing this a long time and John couldn't deny that he really knew very little about Mystique, so he had to trust that Magneto knew what he was doing. He would never allow himself to be in such a helpless position again but the Brotherhood, this fight-he wanted...no, he needed it to be right.
He was surprised to find quite a few mutants milling about the room when he arrived. He'd been under the impression that Magneto wanted to find the Class 5 mutant Callisto had told them about but he certainly wouldn't need that many people for the job. Juggernaut was standing against the back wall laughing with Tectonic. The Alchemist was slinking around one of their newest members, Sognatore, not that Pyro could blame him.
Sognatore (she liked to be called Sonya) was drop-dead gorgeous with long legs, all the right curves and a sultry voice that could send shivers down your spine. John didn't think there was a person here who wasn't affected by her in some way. Even Magneto had taken an interest, though Pyro was sure it was mainly because of her power (and possibly the affect she seemed to have on others). Sogna was a dreamwalker. She was an Italian mutant, Class 3 according to Callisto, who could enter other people's dreams and influence them. The possibilities for manipulating people is what appealed to Magneto the most, based on what he'd shared with Pyro about her.
Arclight and Quill were talking together, apparently with another mutant that Pyro couldn't see on the other side of the two of them. Magneto was behind his desk having a private conversation with Callisto, who smirked at John as soon as she saw him walk in. Magneto, caught her look and turned toward Pyro with an, "Ah, you're here. I need to speak with you a moment," before pulling him to the base of the stairs away from the other mutants.
John shot Callisto a dirty look before following Magneto but she simply gave him a smug smile and then moved over to join Arclight's little group. As Pyro turned his attention back to Magneto, he caught him looking at his bare left hand and resisted the temptation to hide it behind his back or in his pocket. Instead, he lifted his chin defiantly and waited to see his mentor's response. Magneto nodded with a small smile and looked up at John with approval. His defiance turned to surprised and then puzzlement as he tried to work through what Magneto was thinking. As usual, his mentor handled things head-on.
"You recognized the liability and changed to alter the circumstances. You didn't ignore it and hope it wouldn't happen again or try to curry my favor to keep it from happening and you didn't hide what you did. Bravo, my boy."
Against his will, John felt a swell of pride at Magneto's words. The man was a master at manipulation and John knew this was probably just another way to keep him in line but the praise felt good.
"Now, something has come up. A job I need you specifically to lead." John's eye slid toward Callisto again. She was talking but still looking towards Pyro with that infuriatingly smug look on her face. Before the...thing with Mystique came up, John thought his position in the Brotherhood was secure. He'd still found himself, more than once, feeling like Callisto was competing with him, trying to push him aside to step into his position. Now, even moreso after seeing Magneto turn away from Mystique so easily. He was no longer under the illusion that his mentor wouldn't turn on him as quickly if he thought someone else were more useful.
Magneto's next words hit him like a bucket of ice water. "I've obtained some information about a research company I believe you'll want to look into-Jameson Research Corp."
John's eyes narrowed as he looked at Magneto searchingly, his hands clenching as everything else around him faded. Juggernaut and Tectonic both went silent, looking curiously toward the stairs as the temperature in the room seemed to increase suddenly. Even The Alchemist and Sonya paused a moment in their flirtation to see what was up. Callisto was looking particularly pleased at the situation and John wasn't paying attention to any of them as he stared at Magneto, waiting for more information.
Magneto was watching John carefully. "They seem to be trying to reactivate their branch of research dealing with mutants." He paused, then continued quietly, "They've also apparently been looking for you."
John sucked in a breath at that but still didn't move, continuing to watch Magneto. The temperature surrounding them increased again slightly. Magneto held out a large envelope to John.
"I believe you'll be more interested in following this lead than going to visit an old friend," he murmured with an almost gentle smile. John took the envelope and pulled out the few papers contained within, skimming quickly over the information as Magneto continued.
"That's all the information I was given, though I suspect the...source has more."
John looked back at the first page, realizing Xavier had passed this info onto Magneto with a note to keep an eye on John since he appeared to be a target. He didn't even look at the date, just went back to the other pages to see what information might be useful. There really wasn't much. No location for the company at present, no specific employee names. There was a name of some low-level bureaucrat in D.C. with an address scrawled underneath in messy handwriting, a mention of Jameson working with Worthington to disperse the cure, and some other information that didn't provide anything useful to John-specifically where he could find the company's main facility and how he could get inside to burn the whole fucking thing down.
"...and Callisto's been handling job assignments so I had her choose a couple of mutants to go with you….Unless you have a preference?" John tuned back in as he realized that Magneto was waiting for a response.
"Whatever," he said, impatiently shaking his head. "As long as they can fight, I don't care."
"Pyro," Magneto's stern voice finally brought John's attention back fully to his mentor. He looked up and Magneto continued, "You need to gather some information first. Don't go off on a rampage until you're sure you've got the right location. I want you to find out all you can first, bring back the information to me, and then we'll determine how to take them out."
As John opened his mouth to argue, Magneto continued, talking over his protests, "I know what this means to you, Pyro. How important this is. I understand your need to take deal with this but I want it done right. Understood?"
At John's begrudging nod, Magneto swept by him toward his desk, "Let's get started then, shall we?"
John followed behind more slowly, looking over the information again before taking a breath and stuffing the papers back into the envelope. As he reached Magneto's desk and looked toward Callisto's group, he received his second shock for the day. The mutant they'd been talking to that he couldn't see was Ivy. While he stood there with his mouth hanging open in surprise, she looked up and saw him.
Ivy went white and then flushed an angry red before looking away. He couldn't catch her eye again, as she blatantly avoided looking his way. If Magneto noticed any of this, he ignored it and began laying out their upcoming missions. John listened with half an ear, his mind reeling as he tried to make sense of everything.
Jameson-the company that destroyed his life. And now they seemed to back. He had no idea all this time that they been looking for him. As crappy as everything had been, it seems he'd been lucky in that regard. He wondered, not for the first time, about the other mutant children-how many had there been? How many had Jameson managed to take and experiment on?
And now...Ivy. Here in the Brotherhood's camp. He couldn't decide if he was happy about that or not. He was thrilled that she was alive but knew that if he'd had a choice, he probably wouldn't have wanted her within 100 feet of this war. Ironically, he'd be happier if she were at Xavier's. Guilt and anger churned together in his gut as Magneto finished up and he'd barely heard 3 words. He wasn't even sure who was supposed to be going with him until Ivy suddenly bit out, "No! Absolutely not!" and then stalked across the room and up the stairs.
The silence was thick as every eye in the room turned toward John. They all looked stunned except Callisto, who looked thoroughly satisfied. John turned to watch Ivy as she reached the top of the stairs and disappeared. He braced himself before turning back toward the room but was saved from having to explain anything when The Alchemist spoke up from the back.
"I'm going." John gave him a relieved look before exhaling heavily, hoping Magneto wouldn't press the issue. Unsurprisingly, Callisto spoke up.
"I don't think it's a good idea to send three higher class mutants on a mission like this, with Pyro and Sonya going. I can find someone else to replace Ivy since she's so against working with him." The last was said with a bite to it, John assumed to emphasize the issue between he and Ivy.
"I'm going," The Alchemist repeated, tilting his head slightly and giving Callisto a look that said 'don't cross me.' John decided right then that he would never tease the guy about his name again, even if The Alchemist was doing this just so he could be with Sonya.
"I appreciate it," Magneto said, nodding toward the other mutant. "I'm not sure what this company has been doing over the last several years but they appear to have a vested interest in taking Pyro and I'd like to avoid that at all costs. Be careful and assume the company is well-funded, aggressive and ruthless until we find out otherwise." Magneto's eyes rested on John again, speaking to him more so than the others.
Juggernaut stirred at the sudden silence, "Well that was...interesting," in a tone that said it was anything but. "Now can we get this fucking show on the road?"