1963-10-30 - Try Another Way
Summary: After getting the bomb removed from his head, Akihiro goes to see Heather and they discuss his options — and his opportunity to make the right choice.
Related: Pending
Theme Song: None
akihiro heather 


It's been several hours since Akihiro had the bomb removed from his head down at the pier, and only now that he's sure he isn't being observed in any way has he made his way to the Baxter Building. He's met most of the floor, and he has a legitimate reason to come calling this late, but he still chooses to scale up to the fourth floor. He sniffs around until there's no doubt he's at Heather's, then proceeds to knock on her balcony door.

*

Heather is awake. She's working in the living area and, when the knock comes, she — maybe surprisingly — isn't startled. It's not who she's expecting but that's okay. The moment she gets a clearer look at Akihiro, she hurries over to open the door.

"Akihiro! What — nevermind." Heather holds up her hands. "If you want to tell me, you will. Come in. If you need to clean up, the bathroom is that way. Do you need to eat?" Once he's inside, she closes the balcony door behind him.

*

"Most of this isnt mine," Akihiro assures Heather, flashing his first honest smile all week, "Kitty found me. Got the bomb out my head, but that armed it. So I'm pretty sure they know I'm loose." Thankfully he swiped some clothes on the way, so most of the blood is on his face and hands.

"So I appreciate it, but I don't think I can eat right now. Hopefully you've been better?" Is asked on the way to the bathroom where he takes the opportunity to get the blood from his goatee and hair.

*

"I'm just fine." Heather takes the time to close up her folders and tuck her work away in her satchel. "You need to stay here for a while? The security here is excellent. They're not going to let that adamantium go unless it's not worth their while to get it back. Let me know if you have any ideas how to proceed."

Akihiro isn't hungry but there's a stocked bar — Heather grabs a bottle of the Macallan from the bar and a couple glasses. "Drink's on the table," she says, pouring two glasses. She leaves his on the table with the bottle and takes one for herself. "Have you talked to your father?"

*

A few moments pass before Akihiro emerges once more, clean faced with his hair pulled back. "I just wanted to check in. Sitting back and hiding doesn't sit well with me." He takes the glass with a thankful nod before draining it. "May take the fight to them. I hate being used."

*

"There are so many of them, Akihiro. And you can't be sure to come out unscathed. Some kind of truce may be your best option." Heather does need that drink, yes. "They will keep using you as long as you let yourself be used — even the attack on them that you want…that can be used against you, and people like you, to justify what they did to you, to David, to Kitty."

Yes, another drink. She comes over to refill her glass and his, then she sits down at the kitchen table, staring thoughtfully at the bottle in front of her. "If they can't keep you as an asset — and that leash was thin, at best — then they'll just want the metal back. That's not possible, not without hurting you badly, so there's got to be a way to make them willing to write you off as a bad investment. Anything else you wanted from them, you'll have to get some other way."

*

"Just the claws, I don't imagine it grows back." Akihiro dips his head thankfully as the glass is filled, following after to take a seat as well. "Well, everyone at the school hates me, including Logan. So it makes fighting easier, don't really mind if I get hurt, lost a leg in a fight the other day."

*

"I mind," Heather says tartly. "On principle if nothing else, Akihiro. We are better than people like Stryker and Colcord. You are not some asset, you are a person. Did you have a contact in the program? A handler? I can arrange for someone to contact them. If you keep going after them, this is all going to end in — I'd say tears, but tears are a luxury these days. It'll end in blood. Yours and other people's. I think we can convince them to write off the adamantium. You're going to cost them in publicity, security, and resources. If you want more out of them — the full treatment, information on your mother — then you'll need to be patient and work with others to take a more elegant route to the core of their program."

*

"I've tried being nice and playing along with them. All I can do now is leak a story and lay low." Akihiro focuses on the liquor in his glass, huffing quietly. "I know where to get the gear I need, don't need too much help if I focus on their soldiers that couldn't get adamantium. I just killed thirty or forty men earlier tonight."

*

"The Weapon X program is a spiderweb. It's international. There is no point at which you, by yourself, can beat them. You can kill hundreds of people who are each doing nothing more than what they believe is their job, it won't get you closer to your solution." Heather pours herself another drink. "You didn't "just" kill that many men. You disrupted that many families. You left however many children without fathers, mothers without sons. You're a one-person natural disaster right now. And this is your chance to stop. To make your own path. There is no "just" about killing people, and I don't say that sentimentally. I mean it pragmatically. Logistically. Long term. This is a bad war. If there's a way to get them to stop coming after you, will you take it? Will you go about your own business and let other tactics prevail when it comes to Weapon X? Let us find other ways to get you what you need?"

*

"They deserved what they got." Akihiro downs the scotch in front of him. "I'll stop when I have the director's head. That's all I want, then I'm done fighting." He begins cracking his knuckles, still not looking Heather in the face. "I know it's not right, and that it's stupid. But I can't sit here and let them keep doing the things they have been."

*

"No one wants to let them do anything. All you're going to do is give them a reason to crack down on mutants. And if they catch you — they will catch you eventually, Akihiro — they will find a new way to use you as a weapon, if they don't simply lock you up and use you for your genetics like some kind of breed stock." Heather shakes her head sadly.

"You are better than doing the wrong thing. You know it's wrong. Your mother's memory is better than you doing the wrong thing. Someone killed her, Akihiro. She died for some useless piece of politics or revenge that is so lost to time that you can't find it — almost no one remembers. I didn't know her, you didn't know her, but I cannot imagine anyone of any decency wanting their child to grow up to embark on an immoral, fruitless, reckless killing spree. Even if you take the director's head, it will only possibly make you feel better for a moment or two." Heather slaps her hand on the table, angrily. "This is the point at which you get to choose, Akihiro. Please don't choose this. There is no way this ends in anything good. It may not end until the people who care about you are the ones who have to stop you. Please don't do that."

*

"As many men as I've killed since I arrived in New York, I imagine she's already disgusted." Akihiro pushes back up onto his feet. "This is all I know how to do. I'll try another way, but I can't promise I'll stay away from a fight." He heads back to the balcony door, looking out the glass.

*

Heather gets up to follow him and reaches out to put her hand on his arm. "Akihiro. It's what we do with our free will, with all the information, that matters. And that's where you are now. The moral choice you make now — it matters. I will help you get free of them, I will help you find who murdered your mother, I will even help you find some way to finish the adamantium process if that's possible. But if you go on some fruitless, terrible killing spree that endangers others, that endangers you, that gets you nothing? Then I will do what I can to stop you — because I believe you can be better than that. And I won't do it by sending someone else. I'll do it myself — for what little that would be worth. Because someone has to be there for you."

*

Akihiro is silent for several moments, before nodding. "Thank you. I suppose I'll just hide out and do some work until it's safe to be out in the open again." He turns to look at Heather once more. "I'll try to keep the killing to a minimum. If you can find a way to get my skeleton bonded.. I may take you up on it. Be useful."

*

"I haven't forgotten any of it. I will do my best," Heather promises. She looks worried but she's not about to get in his way, wherever he's off to now. "Don't be a stranger. Whatever happens, I'll always hear you out and I'll try to help if I can. Okay?"

*

"Will do. I need to go make sure I have clothes." Akihiro pats Heather's shoulder, "I'll be fine. Nothing to worry about."

*

"I'm going to worry anyway." Heather gives him a little smile. "Someone needs to do it and I have the time. And I think it's worth it. Keep your head down. I'll find a way to let you know if anything new comes up."

*

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