The End of MindCrack

Chapter 18: When a Plan Comes Together

 "What's the matter?" Xavier taunted as Christy turned to leave, Jacobs trailing her. "You're only going to beat me up? Not question me?"

 "What are you doing, Xavier?" Blame hissed, too quiet even for Xavier to hear him.

 Christy paused mid stride and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "Why? Is there something you'd like to tell us?"

 "I might," Xavier replied, lisping slightly through puffy lips. "You haven't asked."

 "Well, I'm listening."

 "What would you say if I told you that at this moment, you're already doomed. Your whole plan is already foiled right now."

 "I would say that you are bluffing. Because you are and very poorly, too."

 Xavier shrugged as much as his bonds would let him, tipping his head to the left to accent the movement.

 Blame had to take a moment to to appreciate that even after being beaten for a good fifteen minutes, he had enough courage to risk it again. Or that he was stupid enough.

 "Maybe," he replied easily. "Maybe not. The question is, are you willing to risk it?"

 Christy's hand twitched in a signal and Jacobs' fist slammed into Xavier's face, just below his right eye. Xavier braced himself, expecting to feel the flexible but firm eye patch drive into his flesh. It never did. Although he had bigger things to worry about, he spared a moment to morn the loss of his patch. That must look really beautiful, he thought.

 Xavier's numbed reactions, surprised by the loss of his eye patch, finally registered the pain and he whimpered slightly. Something was going to break soon. If not his mind or spirit, certainly his body.

 Jacobs punched him again and then something finally did break.

 The door behind Christy and her minion flew in and the men who poured through had to catch it on the rebound. Someone screamed. Xavier assumed it was Christy. A deeper voice was rattling off the Miranda rights.

 "You have the right to remain silent. Anything-" Xavier stopped paying attention. His head was throbbing. His throat hurt where Vechs had tried to strangle him. He'd probably have finger-shaped bruises to explain later. Then again, maybe everything Jacobs had done to him would cover them up. Maybe he would just be one giant bruise.

 Not that that would be any easier to explain.

 The next thing Xavier really knew, Etho was standing by his shoulder, touching him gently and saying, "Xavier," over and over.

 He turned to look at the Canadian and vaguely registered the look of shock on Etho's face. Dimly, he wondered why.

 "What's going on?" Xavier asked. Or he tried to. He wasn't sure what exactly he said. But now that the adrenaline of the moment was gone, he felt drained and tired, dazed.

 "The police," Etho said, sounding as if he wasn't quite sure what was going on himself. "The police found us and they're arresting the kidnappers. I don't know how they found us though."

 Xavier felt the ropes around his arms go slack and he unconsciously reached for his pocket. Moving gingerly, painfully, he pulled out the phone. The call was still running. An emergency number that, when no one spoke, had brought the cops running.

 "Dad used to tell me that emergency services could track cell phones," Xavier muttered with a crooked grin. "I've never had an excuse to try before."

 The world was getting fuzzier and fuzzier and Xavier was almost glad when the paramedics appeared and gingerly lifted both him and Blame onto stretchers to load into the ambulance. The last thing Xavier could remember clearly was Vechs pressing something almost round into his hand.

~~~

 Xavier woke up in a hospital. "This is getting to be a bad habit," he muttered. His throat felt dry, but there was nothing to drink near his bed. One hand brushed his right eye. Someone had refastened his eye patch.

 Awkwardly, Xavier sat up. The doctors had put a cast back on his arm. Xavier had removed the old one when he travelled to Canada, but between wrestling kidnappers and being tortured for information, the doctors had apparently decided it needed to be back on.

 His free fingers probed his throat, arm above the cast, and face. If the pain could be trusted, both Vechs' fingers and Jacobs' fists had more than left their marks.

 Laying back, Xavier dozed off and on. Every time he would wake to the same empty hospital room. The last time, the setting sun was shining through his window, tuning the room's white walls golden.

 "You're awake!"

 Xavier, about to fall asleep again, bolted upright and stared wildly around. Sitting in a chair in the corner, Blame didn't look too much better.

 "What are you doing here?" Xavier gasped.

 "An interesting question. I've always been a terrible patient. But I'm beting careful. I even got the nurse's permission before I left my room." Blame paused, regarding Xavier with an expression the younger man couldn't read. "I know I was helping you, but we both know I came for Etho. And you proved yourself to be one of the most reckless, headstrong partners I've ever had to work with. You could have got us both killed."

 Xavier said nothing. It was true, but even now he couldn't see a better course of action. He didn't think he could've lived with it if sitting around and waiting for the police had meant Blame's death.

 "But you know, you're also one of the bravest, and I owe you a lot. We all do," Blame was continuing. Xavier almost missed the words, so caught up in trying to find a better plan was he. "Thank you, on behalf of all the MindCrackers."

 "Thank - thank me?" Xavier stuttered and Blame nodded.

 "Sure. What you did, any of the MindCrackers probably would have done. But you're not one of us and you were still willing to risk your own neck." Blame glanced at the fingerprints on Xavier's neck. "Literally."

 "It's no big deal," Xavier said, feeling his face go hot. "I just- I just kinda want to go home. I've been away too long. And I still don't know how I'm going to explain all this."

 Blame stood and limped towards the door. He pulled the door open and paused, hand on the edge of the door, and looked back, a faint smile on his lips. "You know, I have a funny feeling that such things have a way of resolving themselves."

 The MindCracker left, pulling the door shut behind him and Xavier slumped back down again, happy to be alone, to be able to pretend that he hadn't just missed being grounded for life on virtue of 'technically' being an adult. Maybe things would work out, but with a long list of personal injuries, a furious family, a heartbroken sister, and an amnesiac Etho still on the problems list, Xavier certainly couldn't see how.