As The World Turns Cold

Shrapnel Hearts

Mercy froze. Her eyes scanned the crowd, looking for the man she feared most. Her gaze locked with his and the air rushed out of her lungs. She felt like she couldn't breathe. Every attempt at breathing was lost as she looked at the very vile person that was her undoing.

"You're supposed to be dead." 

She denied his very presence. "You can't be alive. I killed you." Her voice trembled with an edge of fear.

His deep, maniacal laughter reverberated off the metal walls and Mercy shuddered.

Even amongst the last sounds of the crowds screams, his laughter stood out the greatest. Mercy's knees buckled and she felt her body quake as she dropped to her feet and cowered.

"I had been saving up a few healing concoctions. I'm very upset that I had to use them because of you, but oh the joys of seeing that kind of change."

The doctor she had feared for years was feet in front of her. His wicked eyes gleamed with black-hearted intent.

"That was truly a stimulating encounter." He spoke before laughing again and Mercy quivered at the repetitive sound.

She was strong. She wanted to prove to the world that she was capable of holding her own against any who stood in her way, but this was pathetic.

She was trembling, cowering, under the presence of the doctor. Mercy had thought she killed him days ago. She didn't think she would ever see him again. Yet he stood in front of her, staring at her like she was the last puzzle piece to his unsolved mystery. Which, she supposed she was as Mercy was his test subject.

Her hands fisted underneath her as she crouched on the floor. Mercy screamed in rage. "I will not fear you." She muttered, trying to convince herself more than the doctor. "You have no control over me."

"What was that, dear? Was that a call for mercy?" He guffawed at his terrible pun. "Or were you begging for another dose of pain?"

She grinned. His dry humor made her feel more powerful. She would not let this doctor who had spent years prodding at her and torturing her, make her feel weak.

She still felt the lingering emotion of fear creep through her, but she refused to cower any more than she already had. She was not going to let this man have power over her any longer.

"I will not fear you!" She screamed, fire boiling in her blood.

Her cry of rage shook the complex and she felt Rogue as he shifted closer to her. He was her grounding point. With him she felt more in control.

She pushed to her feet and slipped into a fighting stance. Mercy took a deep breath and felt the burn of her inner dragon reaching out. She let go of the fear and the agony she felt at seeing the doctor. She concealed those emotions and plastered a smile, so wicked that she may as well be watching the world burn, on her face.

"Silly, doctor, puns are for children."

Her words came out with wisps of smoke. "You have no control over me anymore. I have something worth fighting for and you cannot take that away. Not this time. Not ever. I am done being a puppet in your little experiments and I will defeat you once and for all."

The doctor's smile fell from his face and he scowled. "I always have control over you, dear. You never truly escaped me. I've always been watching. There are spies everywhere."

The doctor's eyes filled with malice as he looked at her companion. "Don't you think you've done your job, Mr. Ashmore? There's no point to keeping up your charades."

Rogue stiffened at her side. Mercy saw his hands clutched tightly into fists at his sides. He hesitated before he glanced at her. His eyes shined with unease.

"Drop the games. There's only one scheme here and it ends along with you." Rogue spoke confidently, but there was a crease in his brow to show his worry.

"What is he talking about Rogue?"

The doctor smirked and gestured to Mercy. "Go on; enlighten the girl on why you really tried to help her that night."

"As if you would know. My intentions are far different than yours." Rogue barked out in anger.

"If you won't tell her I will." The doctor announced. He turned to Mercy as he spoke. "Your friend here is one of my agents. He works under my orders and has for quite some time."

Mercy's mind filled with rage. She shook her head in disbelief, unwilling to believe it. Mercy knew Rogue had been hiding something, but she had never imagined it would be something like this. It was impossible and could not be true. The argument was all wrong.

"Rogue?" She cautioned.

He shook his head vehemently. He looked terrified as he went to address her. "Please, Tiger, this isn't what you think."

Mercy grimaced. She felt her heart beat violently inside her chest. "It's true then?"

Rogue sighed heavily and brought a hand to his head. "Partially. I did work for him at one time. For my family," he pleaded.

"Let's not skirt around the issue, Mr. Ashmore." The doctor chuckled. Turning to Mercy, he insisted, "Don't you want to know where you fit into this intricate, little puzzle?"

His wicked grin was still in place. "He worked for me for several years, but then he found out about you. All those tapes and cries of yours caused him to grow a heart." He smirked. "A pity, really, as he was doing so well at being my little pawn."

"Oh look. The doctor is actually speaking the truth. And here I thought you would have spun an even grander web of lies to make her distrust me." Rogue hissed.

"When I'm done with you, boy, she will," the doctor insisted. "I watched you act as a double agent for weeks, feeding information to your little mutant friend. As soon as you stepped out of line, I made sure that connection was permanently destroyed. She's another name to add to the list of people you've killed. But," he paused, "Mercy always did inspire more emotion from you. Does she know that you were the one that set up her cell in the file center? Or that the bodies we had washed up on the shore were your doing?"

"What the hell is he talking about, Rogue?" Mercy shrieked. "You played me this entire time? Were you pretending to be my friend to gain my trust only to destroy it once you had me?"

"No! I was forced to create that chamber before I knew you. And you never killed those men. I did. He had me set the scene up to look like a monster had attacked them. At the time, I didn't know it was to make you feel the way you do, I was focused solely on my loved ones. There was always the threat of my family involved. Everything I did for this bastard was to keep them alive," Rogue pleaded.

"I didn't think you would ever be contained there and I had long since forgotten about it when we were there. I did every terrible thing for the lives of my family." He paused, careful to choose the right words to say. "When I drew the straw at torturing you, they killed my every one that meant something to me. I never looked back."

Mercy reached up as she felt a tear slide from the corner of her eye down her cheek. Her head was pounding with all the emotions at war within her. She shook her head. "I don't know what to believe or think. This is absurd. I hoped I knew you well enough, but I always assumed you were hiding something. I wasn't expecting this."

Mercy felt like her soul had been ripped in two. On one half, she felt her connection with Rogue. He was a comrade for her and most recently she had come to think of him as a friend.

The other half of her soul had come unhinged at the news she had received. All of this information was like shrapnel to her heart.