>>5361680 You suppose you had it far, far easier than John ever did since you had people like Matt and Bernard to support you, even for all of the times you stumbled and gave in to your secondary half.
John, on the other hand, was completely and utterly alone.
Eddie's death notwithstanding, John breaking-- turning himself in-- was inevitable.
"I wasn't lying that time on TV when I said I was dangerous. I don't think I could ever forgive myself if I hurt either of you." John's voice interrupts your thoughts. "Even now, they got me locked up in the toughest cell they could find. All these months I tried to fight it was a losing battle--" He stops, swallowing back whatever words he'd been about to say.
There's a long pause, as John attempts to recollect his roiling, tumultuous thoughts. The only indication he hasn't hung up yet is the staticking of the phone like.
"...I'm honestly glad it was m̸͉̞̺͓͈e͕..."
There's a rough, animalistic undertone to his voice that causes the hairs on your neck to stand on end, your instinct buzzing in warning.
"I don't even know what I'd do if you or Matt were mutants," He manages to grit out, but hearing the words 'you' and 'mutant' in the same sentence sends a jolt like lightning throughout your being, which you heartily try to ignore. "But this isn't something I'd wish on either of you."
"At least the job kind of takes my mind off of things. I'm sa̸vin͟g m̢ut̡a̸nt̸s̀..." Again, your muscles tense like a coiled spring as your body wages war on whether to fight or flight. "I'm saving mutants, I mean." John repeats, this time managing to keep his voice level.
Still, those lapses in control that had hardly failed to escape your notice make you wonder...
"Are you really okay with what you're doing?" You ask him carefully, and there's a million-and-a-half layers to the question.
However, the fact of the matter is that they all boil down to is the fact that John now plays a hand in one the thing he had been trying so desperately to avoid: the harm of other mutants.
Now, by taking mutants from Maranzano and bringing them into a worse hell than the one they'd been in prior, he's as guilty as everyone else who works within those whitewashed walls. This, you're certain John knows for a fact.
>(2/3) 