Participants:
| Scene Title | How I Saved The World |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Magnes finally lets Elaine in on… everything. |
| Date | August 25, 2010 |
Siann Hall: Elaine and Magnes' Apartment
Elaine's been getting a lot of Magnes' attention lately, with dates and breakfasts, dinners, and just generally taking a walk occasionally. But since his talk with Quinn, he's been thinking a lot, and as he sits in bed watching a movie with her, he reaches over and places a hand on her's. He's only wearing a pair of blue boxers, though has the blanket over his waist. "Elaine… I need to know, are you happy? Do I need to change anything? Tell me what you want."
Dressed in a pair of pajama shorts and a t-shirt, Elaine turns to look at Magnes a bit. "Of course I'm happy." She peers at him a little bit. "You're worrying or something." She leans in against him a bit more. "I'm happy with you here, that's all…"
"Do you worry that I'm using you, or that I don't care?" Magnes asks as he reaches up and touches the necklace, wrapping his other arm around her waist. "You know this does mean I love you, right? I wouldn't just get it if I didn't love you…"
Elaine smiles. "Magnes, I don't think you're capable of just using anyone. You've got a good heart. You wouldn't just use me… and you care. I know you do. You bought me this necklace and you fought off someone who could have hurt me. I'd say those are two very good ways of determining that you love me."
"I'm not keeping any secrets from you anymore. I'm going to tell you everything I never told you before. I know you won't tell, and hell, if a telepath wanted to know something, they'd have gotten to me by now." Magnes tries to pull her over into his lap, then tug the blanket up to wrap it tightly around them. "Before I start telling you, is there anything you've really been wanting to ask?"
The redhead curls up happily in his lap, leaning in against his chest. Elaine smiles softly. "Nothing specific, really." She murmurs against him. "I'm just glad you don't want to keep things from me… makes me feel like you trust me."
"I'll start with the biggest secret, how I helped save the world." Magnes keeps his arms around her as he speaks, relaxing. "It all started when a group called the Vanguard, who were previously stopped from ending the world, started their last resort. They were going to launch a nuke called Munin and flood the world by destroying the ice caps. The government both invited and kidnapped a lot of us, I was one of the people kidnapped. Then they made a team to go to three different countries. Mine was the Argentina team, Team Alpha…"
"Sounds kinda crazy, when you think about it…" Elaine murmurs, but she nods. "So you were kidnapped and then sent to Argentina? Guess the government really does owe you. Didn't even have a choice about saving the world…"
"Yeah. When we got there, we travelled through the jungle to meet up with some soldiers, but they were all killed except for one person. We were stuck there, except for me, and I could fly out one person, but I was needed on the team, so that was a last resort. We were intercepted by some of the freedom fighters were, Evolved who were hunted and branded, and we all kept going through the jungle to get to the Vanguard base." Magnes burries his face into her hair, apparently needing the comfort for the story. "We didn't know if the nuke was there or not, but one day we walked into these traps, they tested if you were Evolved or not, and suddenly these robot lion thing came out and started hunting us. It had some weird screech… it was just so strange. I said there were probably robots when I saw the trap, I remember the Sentinels from X-Men, but no one believed me until a few seconds later."
Elaine's happy to nestle in against him, shutting her eyes as she lets him just relax against her. "Funny how people never seem to take that kind of thing seriously from you despite the fact that you're the perfect person to go to for those kinds of things. Funny how life isn't like a comic book and then sometimes it is, huh?"
"People keep saying life isn't a comic, but there isn't a whole lot I've seen in comics that's very different anymore, except for the lack of costumes and aliens." Magnes lays back against the headboard, then continues. "So we were chased by the robot, then more came out, and there was this huge llama robot. It was all so insane, and Kazimir, or Peter, whoever he was, had just taught me to use my ability without having to touch something. So I destroyed the robot with my gravity. We basically lived out there with the freedom fighters for a whole month, surviving off the jungle and being pretty dirty. Meanwhile, I kept getting more depressed. The last time I saw Claire with her memories was on the boat where we got debriefed. And I kept thinking 'I can't wait to see her again', and 'I hope she's alright'. And well, you know how that part ends already…"
Elaine reaches up to stroke his head softly, turning just slightly to look at him. "I'm sorry. That's not the kind of thing anyone should be stuck going through. In any case… I am glad I at least get to be happy with you because of it, even if it wasn't because of great circumstances."
"I know, everything kind of turned out alright in the end for me. I wish that were true for everyone else." Magnes sighs, hugging her to him a little tighter, then loosens up a bit. "So we encountered robots a few more times, there were even robot fish in the water, and I had to destroy one of the llamas by dropping down into it. But my entire body got tangled up and badly damaged. So Kazimir transferred the life energy from a tree into my body to heal me. Then we holed up in a building and Vanguard men started attacking us. One kid got dragged through the jungle on a rope behind a horse…"
"Jesus… it's almost unreal. That's a lot of shit to go through." Elaine looks back at him, fingers stroking up into his hair. "Did… a lot of people die? People you knew or people that were there alongside you?"
"We thought a lot of people died later, but most of them came back. Kazimir died, my Claire died, but thankfully most people came back, for better or for worse." Magnes answers with a thankful sigh of relief. "We had to interrogate one of the Vanguard men, and after a while we had new orders. We had to get a man named Hector Steel, he was the one building the robots, and we needed him to disarm the nuke that we now knew was in Antarctica. We went up to the base, Hector showed up by killing a robot with a lightning gun, and the base was going to self destruct, so we ran through the halls and eventually made our way outside. But then the government said they were also going to bomb the base, so we were a bit screwed."
One of his hands move up to tangle into her's, mostly for his own comfort. "When we got out, these little raptor robots, dozens of them, maybe more, started swarming out of the base, attacking us, that's how I lost my eye, I'm not sure if I had that healed when I met you. It was all really crazy, and Raith came riding one of the llama robots, shooting the things. But the craziest part was when the guy, Iago or something, came out in a giant crab robot tank, shooting flame throwers and god knows what else."
"Seriously, Magnes? What the hell. This is…" Elaine laughs. "If I didn't know you were serious I'd say it's all total bullshit. It's… bizarre." She leans in for a moment, kissing his cheek. "I don't remember you having anything wrong with your eye when we met… I would've remembered if you were a pirate. Pirates beat ninjas."
"But in the end we all teamed up and took the crab down. Cardinal was there, Gillian was augmenting me, I don't think there's anyone else you'd know. The base was already starting to explode and we had no way out, plus the jets were coming, so we all rushed into the crab and Gillian augmented me enough to take control of the entire machine. I wasn't sure if I could do it, but I took the pilot seat and managed to fly it out of there as everything was exploding." Magnes leans down to kiss her forehead, shaking his head. "I know how hard it is to believe, trust me, and I was there. We eventually made it to safety and were picked up by chopper, taken to the U.S.S George Washington."
"That's crazy… it really is." Elaine murmurs, looking back over at him. "Shows that you had to have a lot of teamwork, though… which is a big thing, I think. You all helped each other and you managed to get everyone out okay."
"But that's only the first part of the mission. All of the teams got together on the ship for Operation Apollo. That's when I saw Claire, and, well, everyone kept telling me to suck it up, so I just started getting drunk a lot. I almost slept with Gillian, but it didn't happen. I was just completely broken up. When the actual mission started, it was just more mental trauma piled up. I ended up having to kill so many people like a machine, storming and securing facilities. I even briefly had a penguin when we were docked, before we went to Antarctica." Magnes shifts a bit under her, straightening the blanket when it loosens slightly.
"Things were exploding all around us in Antarctica, since we had entirely new teams doing different things. My team was freeing captives, but in the end everyone was rushing to the nuke. When we finally got down there. it was practically a Mexican standoff, and there was an Evolved man who could instantly steal your ability if you were just near him. He was jumping through bodies and it was just… crazy. Claire shot herself again to keep herself from being taken, I think. But in the end we weren't able to stop the nuke, even if we stopped the guy, and I'd quickly gotten everyone up into the chopper again." But of course, how was the nuke stopped? He doesn't let her wait, knowing this might change her opinion of Cardinal, at least somewhat. "When we couldn't disarm the nuke, Cardinal wrapped his shadow around the entire thing, and it exploded into one giant shadow all over the sky, completely covering the moon and everything. We thought he died, but he managed to come back somehow. I heard he was stuck in shadow form for a long time. But that's how we saved the world."
Elaine winces. "Claire gets shot a lot, doesn't she." It's not really a question, more of a statement. She leans in to kiss his cheek again. "Well, I guess I have more respect for Cardinal in that aspect, but I still think he's an asshole."
"Claire once made me shoot her in the heart so I'd stop worrying about her. Irony is that a gunshot is why we're not together anymore." Magnes shakes his head at that, starting to roll her over on her back, undoing her pajama pants. "After everything that happened to me, I walked up to Kershner, the person in charge, and I said I don't want taxes, ever. I told her I didn't need an apartment, so she gave me the money, that's why I have so much money now. And I have my scholarship to any college in the country, and a full pardon from anything I may have done."
Elaine lays down on her back, still watching him. "Sounds like a good deal, at least. Doesn't make up for what you've lost… but you deserved it. You deserved a lot of stuff. And you've got a lot of money saved up. You can do pretty much anything you want, Magnes."
"I know, I haven't decided what to invest in yet, I haven't had a lot of time to think of it." Magnes pulls the covers over his head, then leans himself to start kissing her neck. "Right now I think I'll just do you and be happy."
The redhead tilts her head to the side to expose her neck more. "Yeah? Well… I hope I honestly make you happy then." There's a smile. "I want you to be happy… so you know, if I'm doing something wrong, tell me, okay?"
"Just don't be afraid to tell me if you're unhappy or need something from me, the only thing you could do wrong is not talk to me, or not feel like you can tell me what you're feeling." Magnes starts sliding his hands up her shirt, sighing as he moves up from her neck to look down at her. "I love you, Elaine."
Elaine wriggles out of her shirt when he pulls back from her neck, and she looks back up at him. "I'm just bad at this talking thing. I never want to talk if it's something I'm not sure how you'll take… I mean, everything's always fine if I bring it up with you, but… I just get nervous. I like this and don't wanna mess it up somehow."
"The only thing that could mess it up is if we don't communicate, then we might go for years with something bothering the other, and be unhappy in the end. That's why we have to show whatever wounds we have so we can quickly get to healing them and be happy again." Magnes starts to grin, running a finger over her ear. "Can you talk like a Vulcan for me?"
The request almost causes Elaine to go into a coughing fit as she tries not to laugh. Clearing her throat, Elaine looks back over at Magnes. "Alright, alright… but we are never to speak about it. And no bad puns. And if you call me Spock, I'm leaving."