Still

[everambient]

Characters: EVIL!ALEX; OPEN
Date&Time: August 17/night; after THE BREAK UP
Setting: NYC
Summary: What is this new feeling? Oh yeah, heartbreak.
Rating: ;_;
Status: open.

Comments

[everambient]

"Are you here to set me back on the right path?" Alex asked, his deep voice echoing a bit with irritation. "Help me find my way back to the light? I just had a couple of weeks of that shit, Hank, and now that I'm home I would really just rather skip that part alright?"

He sighed, glancing around before looking back at Hank. No one had recognized him yet, but that was only because they were too focused on the damaged statue. That didn't mean that Havok could stay hidden for long though, and Alex standing there near the docks was an open dare for someone to recognize him.

Like he wanted to be caught, thrown into another cell.

"Lorna's dead," he explained, his tone casual even if his eyes showed the sorrow there. "Amara wants nothing to do with me, Erik destroyed the Wolverine, half the Guthries are dead, Ben doesn't have all ten fingers any more, and I just spent the last couple of weeks in an alternate universe where my brother was actually still alive!" Alex was yelling now, not caring if he caught someone's attention. "So please, explain to me which fucking side I should be taking, or why I shouldn't take one?"

[donotmockme]

"How did they die?" Hank asked, his own voice almost painfully calm. "Was it a desire for becoming better men? For knowledge? Peace? You created the war that killed them Alex, just as did they. Mohandas Gandhi once said that 'Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.'"

He paused, pulling a tissue out to clean his glasses, "The only ones who survived that battle intact, are the ones who did not fight in it. My 'costumed freaks' of friends are in tact, as are countless others who did not heed the call. Think on that."

[everambient]

He reached forward, grabbing Hank's shirt to pull him in close so that he could glare at him eye to eye. "They didn't choose that fight, it was forced on them. Because of him, that other me, the one that ruined everything."

Alex rested his forehead against Hank's, closing his eyes as if internally struggling with what he was about to say. "Do you know what it's like to realize that I am the reason that they're both dead?"

[donotmockme]

The term 'bro hug' would not become common place for another fifty years, but there was little better suited for what Hank offered his one-time friend. His hand clenched into a fist, he brought it around to squeeze at Alex's back tight.

"You're going to have to learn forgiveness Alex." Hank warned him. "Otherwise this will destroy you."

[everambient]

Alex let go of Hank's shirt and shoved him away from him. "Forgiveness?" he asked quietly, staring at Hank in disbelief. "Hank, I almost had a family, a daughter--and don't you fucking ask me how I know she would have been a girl, but she would have--and now that chance is gone because Lorna and my little girl are both dead. The kind of dead you don't possess a redheaded telepath to overcome, Hank. The permanent kind!"

[donotmockme]

"You've already heard my suggestion Alex." Hank held both hands up in surrender, he wasn't going to fight a grieving man. No matter how much it might be something Alex wanted.

"I have no stronger words for you than that."

[everambient]

"I never asked you for anything," Alex pointed out, and then his tone softened a bit as he continued, "What am I supposed to do now, Hank? I've lost everyone I care about, and I can never face Erik again. Not after the damage that other me has caused this world. For the second time in my life I...I don't know what my purpose is."

[donotmockme]

"In books and films, this is usually when the hero goes off on some quest. Something to give them a purpose until they find one to live for. I'm not saying you should, but it is an option."

He turned to regard his one-time friend with an almost sad expression. "Did you learn anything different in that other world? Even something that has no reason to help you now?"

[everambient]

"I'm not the hero, Hank," Alex reminded him bitterly. He sighed, looking up at the helicopters that were now surrounding the statue, trying to find the source of it's defacement. "I learned..."

What had he learned? Way too much, and none of it good.

"When Erik comes to you looking for me--and he will," Alex concluded, since Hank was the only one of their former friends he wouldn't kill on sight, "tell him I'm in Alaska. He'll know where."

[donotmockme]

"Alright, I will. But I want you to take my card." Hank replied, pulling out his wallet to dig out a business card to press into Alex's hand. "And if you need anything, anything don't hesitate to call. We may not share a 'side' but you're still my friend."

That was a promise that was rather weighty to say these days, but it was one that Hank knew to be true.

[everambient]

Alex looked at Hank for a moment, as if trying to figure out if he was lying or not. He finally decided that Hank meant it. Despite everything that had happened between them over the years, the alliances they'd made and enemies alike, Hank meant it.

Havok took the card, then extended his hand for Hank to shake. "Thank you," he told the other mutant. It wasn't something he said a lot, but he meant it.

[donotmockme]

Hank took Alex's hand in his own over-sized one, giving it a proper shake before patting his friend's (yes. friend.) upper arm. "I'll be expecting to hear from you before too long, one way or another. I still want to hear about inter-dimensional travel."

He looked over to the growing ruckus across the bay with a stiff frown. "You better get going however, before they decide to expand their search too far."

[everambient]

He almost laughed, managed to smile a bit, because of course Hank wanted to know what had happened. "You brought me back," Alex realized all at once. He knew Hank had been responsible somehow. "Thank you, Hank. I owe you one." A favor from Havok was not easy to come by either.

Pulling his hand back, he nodded and turned to leave, easily disappearing in the shadows of the night.