>>5315456Matt might be speaking in the hypothetical sense, but he’s wrong all the same, which is why you tell him outright, “That wouldn’t have changed the fact that he’d still be a mutant, and he’d still be right under Atticus Charles’ thumb.”
Telling John your secret wouldn’t have changed a thing– at least for John himself, it wouldn’t have– whether or not he told you his own secret in kind.
“Maybe…” Matt mumbles, not quite looking you in the eye.
“Maybe what?” You echo, wondering what Matt has to say on the matter.
“Maybe he would’ve helped you with, you know…” He pauses, hesitating over his words. “...your instincts and… and everything else.” <span class="mu-i">Like the hunger.</span> “Even if he can barely control his powers himself, like you said, maybe it would’ve been easier to manage. For both of you.”
“Who’s to say he wouldn’t have taken me straight to FutureLabs if I told him?” You fire back. Even if it was out of misguided kindness, you can’t help but wonder if FutureLabs would’ve been John’s first go-to.
“He wouldn’t–”
“You don’t know that!” You cut him off heatedly. “What if he thought that’s what was best, and then I’d be no better off than… I don’t know– Conduit, Caesar?” At best, you’d become a prisoner, trapped in one of FutureLabs’ many containment cells with the occasional visitation from John and held over his head forevermore. Worst case scenario, you’d end up like Caesar– a plaything for the many scientists who roam the whitewashed halls.
“Then we’d have to think about all the people that’d be enslaved or dead without us. You like that idea?” And that would be between both the Crux <span class="mu-i">and</span> FutureLabs.
For someone who thrives off of counterpoints, Matt doesn’t have anything else to say. Because he knows you’re right.
>(1/?) 