Work Text:
06/04/2018
Raven couldn't suppress a sigh of relief when the last of her followers had left the meeting room and she had a few minutes to herself for the first time in days. With a lazy snap of her fingers, she deactivated the cool neon light on the ceiling before opening the window blinds, the usual precaution in all rooms of this base, so that not even the smallest ray of light from Watergate could attract the attention of ships passing in the distance. The view of the open sea, the high waves slapping against the facility's massive stilts, almost had her close the protective metal panels again immediately.
God, how she hated it out here. As much as she also despised having to deal with these smelly primitives of normal people, by now, she was almost looking forward to flying back to Washington every time. The Oval Office at least didn't make her claustrophobic. It was a good thing that her time in the sewers back then had prepared her for her current accommodations. Living underground, she was being used to. And if everything finally went as planned for a change, the time of hiding would soon be over anyway.
Some days it was hard to wait for that, however. As much as Raven hated to admit even to herself ... After all these years of leading not only her own little army but this whole damn country? On some evenings, even someone who could modify their own cells into a condition of reloaded energy if necessary, could feel exhaustion trying to take a toll on her, at least mentally. And the only person she had ever been close enough to, for them to give back her usually steeled soul the new necessary motivation in such rare vulnerable moments ... Getting that woman back into her life, she was still no closer to than she'd been a year ago, when she'd last visited the location of the necessary device to fulfill such yearnings. In this regard, Raven had no choice but to continue to be patient, and to keep on rationing her fluctuating strength levels until then. If as a first goal, she wanted to be sure of one hundred percent success with her currently most important invention, she couldn't delay the whole thing forever.
And if everything went well with that, she would have enough time afterward to devote herself to her even more important, very personal endeavor.
The right people to carry out the project that was her primary focus at the moment, she had found over the years; the emergency meeting with Everett a minute ago had once again proved that. The selection process had been lengthy, but by now, Raven was now quite confident about this small group of her most trusted allies. This was no longer a provisional arrangement, as it had been in Magneto's time. These people were all driven by hatred and revenge, had the guts to drill the rest of Raven's fighters, and the necessary gifts to keep their plans hidden from the world for as long as necessary.
That now something as mundane as an artificially created virus, of all things, was interfering with said plans, that seemed to have wiped out an entire damn mutant camp not too long ago, wasn’t something Raven was particularly happy about, but she couldn't just ignore it. Not that she usually would have let herself be affected by the deaths of a few weak mutant children so deeply, but in this case, the Brotherhood was in danger, so she had to act. When she'd taken over the group after Erik's disappearance, she'd sworn to protect it at all costs. To continue the dream of the man who'd been her part-time lover back then. In this case, that meant a trip to Alaska. She'd invested too much time, money, effort, and work in Watergate to possibly lose its residents to the primitive attack of a few fanatical humans. Not right before the first of her sought triumphs.
With regard to the big picture, this matter was just as unimportant as Raven's unsuccessful search for a new double, but it was getting on her nerves even more, which was a remarkable achievement in itself. It was half-time until the next presidential election, and so far the selection of potential candidates for this so crucial position of doing Raven's political job for her under her strict guidance, whenever she couldn’t, was extremely meager. At least Raven could hold on to the justified hope these days that in two years' time, diplomacy might no longer be necessary anyway.
One of Erik's most important legacies had finally been completed in the last few weeks, and the first tests had been successful. If everyone here did their job and finished the final work on the shield device, Raven might only have a few days to soldier through before she'd move into a whole new headquarters. A very special one.
But first, this matter north had to be taken care of, no matter how little drive she had in this regard; Everett and her as about so many things, agreed about that, too. Having a backup plan had become a necessity in the course of her career, and this distasteful tragedy of New York II presented a perfect opportunity for that. If Raven's people would work quickly enough, they might be able to solve the case before the usual idealist groups could, who were undoubtedly already frothing at the mouth in their search for the people responsible. That would have meant another positive publicity boost for the Brotherhood in the most important political and media circles. As long as you hadn't won yet, you had to lull the peasants into a false sense of security.
Besides, these insects in Westchester hadn't meddled with the Brotherhood's affairs in a long time. Raven wanted to make sure it would stay that way. In the shape of a possible hostile encounter, this mission might give her people an opportunity, too, to see how capable the X-Men's current team and their potential successors were.
Threatening exhaustion or not: That was one of the last things Raven actually had to be certain about before she could think of actually using her latest weapon. Underestimating this plague, that was one of the few mistakes Erik and she had made far too often towards the end.
Raven herself had a few important meetings with her other staff this week though, and Senate votes that required her personal attention. She couldn't fly to New York II personally.
She had to send Toad and Pyro. Toad wasn't an issue; that guy had always done everything he was told, as long as the pay was right. But Pyro, even after almost 20 years, was still unpredictable.
Reluctantly, Raven tore herself away from the pleasant silence and took the elevator up to the landing pad, where her least favorite employee who unfortunately was also one of the most powerful ones was busy with preparations at the helicopter.
“You know the rules.” She impatiently brushed a few of the heavy raindrops off her forehead and leaned against the unadorned gray machine, looking Pyro straight in the eye. ”Melt, examine, take with you what we need. If they show up, fire a broadside and get out of there. We need information, not corpses.”
“You're getting sentimental, Mystique.” Pyro let out a dry laugh and turned away, continuing to load equipment into the cargo hold as if she wasn't even there. His shoulder-length dark blonde hair was dripping wet, appearing almost as jet black as the shadows under his eyes in the shade of the many machines around them. The boy, too, hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few weeks, since Toad had been constantly putting him to work on the Field. And Pyro's mood always got even worse than it had been anyway since he'd been a teenager when he didn’t get his beauty sleep. “I hear Magneto talking. But you're the boss.”
“Exactly.” Raven yanked him roughly around by the arm and growled a warning when Pyro's fingertips instinctively moved to the trigger of one of the flame throwers on his wrist. This subject, they'd actually already clarified shortly after Erik's disappearance. Thanks to a few scars from Raven's hands, Pyro should indeed know by now who was in charge here.
“If you feel the need to slaughter someone, find yourself some normal humans to play with. We don't kill mutants unless we're attacked or it's absolutely unavoidable.”
“Don't get your non-existent panties in a knot.” Pyro's smile grew increasingly vicious. He knew full well how little Raven liked these rules herself, which she was only following because of someone who was no longer around. And that there were a couple of exceptions anyway who should never fall into Raven's hands regardless of the honor of Erik's memory. ”When was the last time I disobeyed one of your orders? I don't give up as easily as all these other losers you've driven into burnout already, do you still not realize that? I'm still here despite us keeping on falling on our faces, because the Brotherhood is the only group with a real chance of reshaping this world. And I want to be there when that happens.”
“Correct again.” That was all Raven needed to hear for the moment.
She nodded sharply inside the building when Pyro made a move to get comfortable in the vehicle hold. "Who said you could rest? You'll be in charge tomorrow, so prepare your team the fuck yourself. I want you out of here before sunrise. And if you're so keen on dragging your bed bunny along, don't forget the thermal jackets. I'm not interested in anyone freezing any vital parts off while I still need them.”
She didn't like it one bit that Jedda had set her mind on going on her first mission tomorrow of all times. Raven would much rather have liked to lock the girl in her quarters until she'd finally get what she wanted from her. But not only did the girl have to dig said information out of her psychopathic subconsciousness herself first, she also had to give it up voluntarily then, unless Raven might finally find a well-trained telepath who wanted to work for her. So being cooperative was inevitable.
Let Pyro play with that young stupid thing a bit if it helped his ego, and allow the girl by his side to gain a little badly needed close combat experience. He was Raven's assurance that the girl wouldn’t get herself killed. Pyro knew exactly what would happen to him if the Phantom's rebellious daughter earned as much as a scratch.
Her temporary second in command casually ignored that lecture, too, but at least he followed the other one, closing the helicopter hatch and heading back inside. “But nobody said we had to go easy on them, right?”
Raven allowed herself a smile. In some regard, the boy was a fast learner after all. Maybe for the moment that was enough of the reassurance that she needed that everything was going as she'd needed it to, even in these sparse moments when it felt that she was reaching her limits. ”You got that right, too.”