We're more alike than you think

38. X-gene

"Stop it, Zemo!" you said to him harshly. He looked at you with shock in his eyes. This was not the reaction he thought he would get from you. He was used to you listening and bow down when it came to this part of his life, not to fight him. It was one of the few things he thought you knew he was vulnerable at, but you were done babying him. He had to understand that he was far from the only one who had lost something or someone. You had to step up for yourself, and do as Irka and Sam had been telling you, be brave.

"You need to stop blaming everyone for your personal loss. It's painful, and I will never understand what you have been through, but if you for one second think that being in MY shoes is anything easier than being in yours, you need to take a look around yourself!" you yelled at him. You could see that he tried as much as he could to hold in his temper, but he was boiling over. He reached for the candle holder on the table and threw it on you, but this time, unlike with the bullet, you reached your hand out and altered the magnetic field throwing the candle holder away. You walked towards him and with your powers threw him against the wall.

"My people... My people, Zemo, have been feared for decades. My people have been hunted down, killed, simply because of their existences! Thousands of thousands murdered by men who think exactly like you!" Your face was so close to him, almost spitting out every word. You never thought you would find yourself in a situation where you would be defending mutants. You had spent almost your entire life denying their existence. You had suppressed your own identity to please the society you live in. You breathed heavily and looked down at your hands.

"You can choose what you fear Zemo, but I could never choose my DNA."

Zemo tried to get control of his own body, but you had him locked in place. He didn't know what to say, because he didn't wanna admit to anything, not here and not now. Being with you, or just accepting you, felt like a betrayal to his past, to his family even if he knew deep down you were right. Still, the way you acted with his powers gave him doubts. It was the exact reaction most with powers would have. Pin their enemy down, instead of a fair fight.

"Then why are you using your powers like this?" he asked.

You wanted to scream in his face that literally two seconds ago he tried to throw a freakin candle holder at you, but instead of giving in to his fears, you took a few steps back and let him land on the floor. If he thought that the thing that made you dangerous was your powers, he was wrong. What made you dangerous was the hatred you had for yourself. It's because of your self hatred that you ended up as a bounty hunter, it's because of your self hatred that you choose to make others feel the same pain as you felt on the inside, it was never your powers. You smiled weakly looking over at him.

"Because I know I could've just as easily killed you without them."

You didn't even give him time to react before you took on your trousers and shoes. You walked straight towards the door when you noticed that he followed after you. You took your jacket, stepped out and immediately melted the metal on the door handle, locking him up inside or at least slowing him down. You looked around you, it was many miles until the next house so nobody had heard the two of you.