Brotherly Love
By: Edana
ni Emer
Sabretooth snarled quietly to himself as he stalked out of Magneto's office. He wasn't about to do it any louder where the old man could hear him. Guy may be old and feeble physically, but when he can rip your body apart by the iron in your blood, he gets a bit of respect anyway.
"I'm going to work on the mutate device. It's nearly finished. If not for your bungling, we would almost be ready." Magneto said, then turned and stalked off.
Sabretooth snarled at his back, tensing as Magneto paused before continuing on.
Hearing a muted snicker behind him, he whirled, clenching the dog tags inscribed with Wolverine's name in his fist hard enough to leave imprints in his skin. Toad. Little bastard. His 'comrade in arms', his 'brother in mutantcy' was crouched in a shadowed corner of the room, clearly enjoying Sabretooth's impotent fury.
"Boss not too pleased, eh?" he smirked. Finally given an outlet for his frustration and fury, Sabretooth leaped across the room in a single bound, grabbing the surprised mutant by the throat before he could leap away.
Toad at once opened his mouth to spit the obnoxious green goo that would seal off Sabretooth's mouth and nose, and incapacitate him long enough for Toad to get away. Instead, he found himself strangling as Sabretooth's grip closed around his neck in a grip of iron.
"I don't think so, you little punk. You open your mouth again and I'll pinch your head off, you got me?" To emphasize his point, Sabretooth tightened his grip around Toad's neck until Toad thought he was going to pass out. Just as black sparkles began to dance their way across his vision, Sabretooth eased up, allowing Toad to breathe again. He swore to himself. It would have been better if he'd passed out. He wasn't looking forward to what was about to happen.
As Sabretooth's fist buried itself in his stomach, Toad sighed in relief, with what little breath he had left, and prayed that the beating wouldn't stop anytime soon. As each blow landed, he retreated a little farther inside himself, drawing back from the pain and from the thought of what was soon going to happen. It was something he'd learned long ago, soon after Magneto had taken him in. It was a defense mechanism that had stood him in good stead.
His mutation had been visible at birth, his greenish skin and extraordinary tongue marking him as different from the moment he drew his first breath. Apalled and disgusted, his parents had given him up for adoption almost before the afterbirth had been delivered. Their action had condemned him to a life of misery. After all, who would adopt a mutant kid when there were so many normals in the orphanages?
He had grown up cynical, embittered, and angry, hating normals as much as they hated him. Then Magneto had come. His savior. When he was fourteen he had lurked in the shadows as a tall, (to him, anyway) silver-haired man had come to the orphanage seeking his 'brethren'. The thought of belonging, of being somewhere where he wasn't a freak, had drawn him like a magnet, and he had joined Magneto's cause. He believed in it. He believed in the man.
What he had trouble believing in, sometimes, were the others that served
Magneto's Dream. Mystique, the blue-skinned shapeshifter, had looked him
over casually when he arrived, and proceeded to ignore his existance.
She was rarely there much anyway. Her skills were useful to a degree
that Magneto could rarely afford to let her rest. The other though,
Sabretooth, had given him shivers from the moment they had met. The
large felinoid mutant had circled him several times, sniffing him as he
stood stock-still.
"Kinda runty, ain't he? And he's scared half to death. Can't say he'll ever be any use to you. I ain't even doing anything and he's about to pass out." the hulking mutant had snarled. Toad had blinked nearsightedly and shuddered at Sabretooth's hot breath against the back of his neck. Magneto had put a gentle arm around his shoulders and drawn him away.
"He may have a greater potential than you can see. I want you to train him." Magneto had said, ignoring his shudder. "Mortimer, I would like you to choose a descriptive alias. We may be more powerful than humans, but there are still many more of them than there are of us. Therefore we need codenames, to protect ourselves."
He hadn't even needed to think. "Toad. That's what they all call me. Toad."
"Very well, Toad. I'll give you a few days to get settled in, and then we'll start your lessons. Sabretooth, show him to his room." At Toad's flinch Magneto had smiled kindly. "The two of you need to get used to each other. You will be working together for a long time."
It had only been a few months later that he had shown up to a training session to find a very angry Sabretooth raging, destroying everything in sight. He'd tried to sneak away, but Sabretooth's heightened senses had detected him before he'd managed more than a step.
Snarling, the powerful predator had leaped upon him, pinning him to
the ground. Blows had rained down on him and before long, everything had
gone fuzzy and distant. Much of it he didn't even remember. One thing
that remained crystal-clear, however, was the moment when Sabretooth had
rolled him over on his stomach and ripped the back of his pants off his
body with a single powerful yank. A bit of spit was the only
preparation he got before he was nearly split in two. He had howled his
agony, only to recieve a cuff on the back of the head and a snarl to shut
up.
Every thrust sent burning pain throughout his entire body, and Sabretooth
seemed to enjoy the cries of pain he couldn't stifle no
matter how hard he tried. He bit nearly through his bottom lip
in an effort to silence himself, but to no avail. The pain as he
was virtually pounded through the floor was excruciating, but worse was
the feeling of shame and humiliation. Of degradation. Of disgust. He finally
gave up and sobbed brokenly into the exercise mat under him as Sabretooth,
grunting, finally finished and pulled away.
He curled into himself as he watched Sabretooth wipe himself off with a towel and adjust his clothing. He looked at Toad with an expression between a sneer and a leer, and turned to walk away. As he closed the door behind him, he flung a single word over his shoulder.
"Wimp."
Toad had dragged himself back to his room as quickly as he could, cleaning his wounds as best he was able. The combination of the beating and... the other, made it difficult and painful to walk for several days. Later he found out the reason Sabretooth had been so enraged. Magneto had chastised him harshly for getting into a fight with another mutant. In Magneto's eyes, all mutants were brothers, and even a mutant that had shown himself to be Magneto's enemy would not be killed unless there was no other way.
Sabretooth had encountered an old enemy of his, and they had done their level best to kill each other. Toad breathed a prayer of thankfulness that he hadn't succeeded. If Sabretooth had killed another mutant without just cause, Magneto would have been furious, even angrier than he had already been, and he would have punished him severly. And Toad would have been in even worse shape.
He had been barely fifteen.
Pain brought his attention back to the present, when he wished heartily he could have remained in the past. He had lived through what had happened then. It was still up for questioning, as it always was until it was over, whether he would survive this time. He firmly squelched the tiny voice inside that wished he wouldn't. He would survive. He had to. Sabretooth had to pay.
His body's violent invasion made him grit his teeth against a scream. It was easier now than it had been the first time, but that was like saying that getting shot with fourteen bullets was 'easier' than getting shot with fifteen. He didn't fight anymore. By the time he had turned sixteen, he had realized he wouldn't win anyway, not if his first attack was unsuccesful.
Even if he did get away, Sabretooth would only try again later. Besides, Sabretooth enjoyed it when he fought. That was reason enough not to do it.
Finally, it was over. And explosive grunt and one final flash of excruciating pain and Sabretooth was finished. He pulled away and cleaned himself off, then stalked away, apparently still angry, but not homicidally furious as he had been before. Toad dragged himself into a dark corner to recover enough to go get cleaned up himself. He looked up, blinking myopically when he heard a low chuckle. His stomach clenched as a fuzzy blue blob stepped close enough to resolve itself into Mystique. Shit. She knew.
He blinked again, squinting slightly to bring her into clearer focus. What he saw disgusted him as much as Sabretooth did. Her mouth was slightly open, her breathing quick. The look in her strange eyes was unmistakably hungry.
"Quite a show there. I wonder if his mutation leads itself to a quick recovery time?" she looked at him coyly. "You wouldn't happen to know, would you?" He could only gape at her. "I suppose not. I think I'll go find out for myself." With that she sauntered out of the room. Toad thought he was going to be sick, but managed to keep his stomach under control.
Dragging himself back to his room, he took a shower, scrubbing at his skin until it was raw. He still couldn't seem to feel clean. When the water started to run cold, he got out to dry himself off. He sat on the edge of the bed, towel around his waist and shook with residual terror, pain, and revulsion. When the shakes had run their course, he clenched his fist and slammed into the bed.
"Enough!" Taking a deep breath, he started shoving all the emotions
his encounter with Sabretooth had brought to the fore. All the weakness,
fear, revulsion, depression, self-hate... all of it. The only thing
he didn't supress was the burning ball of icy hate that roiled in his gut.
It didn't matter that Sabretooth was his 'brother'. It didn't even matter
what Magneto would do to him if he took his revenge without telling him
why first.
The only thing that mattered was that, whatever it took, he would make
Sabretooth pay.
The End
Chaos, panic, disorder. My work here is done!