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[ While Betsy has done her absolute best to just ignore everything, it's starting to reach a point where even her talent for burring shit deep within her isn't working anymore. It's not helped by other things that are going on and making a mess of the shit that's already fucked in her head. Although one thing it has at least made clear is the fact that Gambit does actually deserve to know the truth about Warren. Not just about Warren, but also about the child.

So tonight while she's traversing through Exile, she finally sucks it up and tentatively slips into his mind. Whether or not he's awake doesn't really register to her. It's a moment of do it now or keep hiding it. ]

Do you still want to know the truth about Evan?

[ He is asleep, so she can be treated to a strange mindscape that is a collection of places in Willow, partnered with sweeping mountain scenes full of walking, very similar to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. It takes him a minute to realize what's going on, and then another to register what she'd impressed on him. ]

Course I do, he's a student, and he's a good kid.

[ Well, this isn't entirely unexpected of his dreams. For a moment she thinks about just severing the connection. But she doesn't. She does pause to take care of a creature that's come up to her before she continues. ]

I told you we found Clan Akkaba. That the Horsemen had resurfaced with a resurrected Apocalypse. What I didn't mention was that he was a young boy. Evan's age.

[ She's seen a lot worse in his head, and out of it. This is totally harmless. But, since he's here and lucid now, he's going to have a seat on that boulder. ]

Does seem like you left that part out.

We fought over what to do with that information. Warren, Logan, and Fantomex thought we should go through with it. Deadpool seemed uncertain. I was dead set against it.

In the end the child was killed.

[ while she wants to place the blame all on Fantomex she knows she can't. Not entirely. If she had been more focused on him she could have actually prevented it. If she had tried harder. ]

You killed the child Apocalypse?

[ He pauses for a moment before crossing his arms. ]

Okay, I got a feelin' I got an idea, but what's dis got ta do with Evan?

I tried to stop it, but Warren lost control and I had to turn my attention away. Fantomex did the deed while we were distracted.

[ And everyone absolutely hated him for it. There's some silence as she dodges what she's fighting. ]

In order to prove that he was right, that the child was already too far gone to be saved, he created Evan. Used the DNA from the child we killed to clone him and raise him in the World with perfect parents. To prove that a child raised to be good would be good. Thus proving a child raised to be evil, would have been evil.

Mon deiu, dat's one way get around an ethics committee.

[ A be now Remy's pragmatism is warring with his moral compass. On the one hand, the idea of killing a child, any child, but especially a mutant child, made his stomach roil, even if that child was the reincarnation of a man who had caused untold suffering across multiple versions of their world. On the other, he's had the pleasure of teaching Evan, and he is one of the nicest and most polite boys he's met in years.]

I see how dat's tough to process.

[ There's a long stretch of silence. Whether she's fighting or just not sure what else to say is left to his imagination. ]

I hated him for doing that. We all did. What did we expect from someone with a brain made to hunt us? Yet...

[ Yet, she couldn't bring herself to fully hate him no matter how hard she tried. Nor could she fully ignore the fact that maybe, just maybe, she could have stopped it. If she'd just been focused on the child and less focused on Warren, maybe... ]

That's how it happened. How Warren ascended. Turns out the bloody monster put a failsafe in Warren when he created Archangel all those years ago. If there was no Apocalypse to carry out his goals, the failsafe would activate in Warren. It was sorted until the Shadow King arrived. Evidently making me suffer wasn't enough for him this time. He unleashed Archangel fully and I couldn't cage him again.

[ Sorted was an exaggeration but they were managing, they were making it work slowly, figuring out ways to keep that persona of Warren's contained. Until the Shadow King realized he could both cause chaos and finally get his revenge on her by destroying everything she loved. ]

Don't know if I could come out of it not hatin' him, either, cher.

[ Even if he knew it needed to happen, he wouldn't really be able to stomach the idea of it, he was fairly certain. Stranger things had happened, but it seemed pretty unlikely. ]

'Course it was the Shadow King.

[ He breathed a sigh. ]

An' Warren had ta be stopped.

[ And yet her feelings for Fantomex were...well, complicated to say the least. ]

Demon's made a bloody career out of showing up when one of us is at their most vulnerable.

[ Be it her, the professor, Storm, or others, he feeds on people at their weakest. ]

Not soon enough. Tabula Rasa was Archangel. Me.

Wouldn't be surprised if he'd got us on speed dial.

[ There was a beat before he responded. ]

So which was it, den? Archangel or you?

He ordered it done. I had several chances to prevent it and couldn't bring myself to take them. I accept that I have some responsibility for it happening.

[ He shakes his head. ]

If you didn't hesitate to stop him, Betsy, I'd be more worried 'bout you. Sounds like that sort of thing should be an easy choice, but I know it's not.

More than five thousand people were slaughtered in an instant because I hesitated. That doesn't take into account the people that came before when he was slipping or after.

[ Regardless of how hard it might have been to do to, something still should have been done. Nobody can deny that inaction had been the incorrect move here. ]

I know, and I know no one person should have that weight to bear. I ain't saying don't feel responsible. I'm just sayin' it's easy to judge a body after de fact, whether it's yours or somebody else's and I ain't in a place to.

[ she pauses for a while before bringing the connection back ]

Thank you. Now you know what happened though.

Reckon I do, oui.

Where are you, 'cause I know it ain't anywhere near here.

Exile. I'm trying to work some things out.

Like Tabula Rasa, or something else?

[ She's silent for a few minutes again. He's really the only person here from her world, the only person that also knew Warren, that knew their history. Besides that he's someone she knows has plenty of experience with complicated all by himself. ]

I miss Warren. I don't think I've felt a pain quite like knowing someone's still... there in some way and yet you can never have them again. That you mean nothing to them. Something has left me thinking about it a lot.

[ So does Remy, if he's honest, but this isn't about him. ]

I can't imagine, Betsy, but I know it's hard talkin' to him like he's not a body you know.

[ After a beat. ]

What's that somethin'?

I know everyone's having to adjust to it.

[ But she is the only one that slept every night with him. It's a bit different. Still, she does feel selfish for only thinking about how it impacts her. ]

Something I'll figure out. I'll let you get back to sleep.

It ain't the same.

[ He knows that, and he knows visiting the school at all has to be one of the hardest things she's ever done.

He frowns. ]

D'accord, mon cher. Be safe out dere, eh?

I always am.

[ no, she's not, but she does end the connection. ]

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