Current Timeline.
<Eddie> Eddie paced the containment room, wincing at the whispering in his head. It had started earlier that day and for the life of him, he couldn't make it stop.
<Eddie> 'It was better there....we can't live outside. We have to go back. WE HAVE TO GO BACK.'
<Eddie> "For God's sake!", he spat, spinning around as if to challenge someone behind him, "We're NOT going back! EVER! We have to just face it, alright!?", he hissed, looking up and seeing nothing but the chrome wall, reflecting a blurry image of himself back into his eyes.
<Pietro> Pietro was a little unsure about this but he was making an effort to be friends with Eddie before all this mess and he may as well carry on with it now. He ran his free hand through his hair and stopped outside the room. He knocked lightly on the window to get Eddie's attention.
<Eddie> 'We have visitors...', Eddie sighed, looking over his shoulder, "....hi.", he managed, unsure exactly who it was come to see him. 'We don't remember? Hhhahahahaha...', he shook his head and moved to the side as if avoiding someone, "You. You look....vaguely familiar."
<Pietro> "My name's Pietro... we've known each other for a while... not always seen eye to eye but you're close with my wife..." He shifted his weight a little, "How're you feeling?"
<Eddie> "We're fi-...", Eddie sighed, rubbing his eyes, "I'm fine. I just...", he shook his head, sitting down on the bed, "...not even gonna lie: I feel like shit."
<Pietro> "Well... maybe these'll help..." he went to the shutter thing where they put the food tray through and slid the cake tin inside for him. "Cake always helps." he offered a smile.
<Eddie> Eddie approached the tin, "Y-you baked me a cake?", he looked up at Pietro, "Ok, you're like the second guy who's come here and said we 'don't see eye-to-eye' and has been what I can only assume is uncharacteristically nice.", he smirked.
<Eddie> "I...appreciate it. I really do."
<Pietro> "No I didn't bake it. I'm terrible at baking. No patience. Emma baked it." He laughed, "And I'm always nice just... to you is more of a recent thing for the sake of Illyana." He leaned his shoulder against the glass a little.
<Eddie> "Hm.", Eddie answered him, unsure of how to respond. The name 'Illyana' seemed somehow distant, too. As if it should mean something more, but somehow didn't. "Er....listen, w-would you join me for some of this? Maybe talk to me and refresh me on....anything?"
<Pietro> "Sure, I'll always say yes to cake." He glanced around, "One sec though, I brought some other stuff but left it upstairs." He was literally one second as he dashed back upstairs and returned with a sketchpad and some pencils. He shoved those through the hatch too. "Shall I come in or is that too much of an invasion?"
<Eddie> Eddie shook his head, "That's probably not a good idea.", he admitted, "They er...they probably don't want me with sharp things either.", he frowned at the pencils, "...I think I'd be safer without them.", he tapped the tin, "....c-could you bring a knife and cut that?"
<Pietro> "Planned ahead, already sliced." He smiled, "And don't worry. You won't hit me anyway but I can get a chair and sit out here if you'd prefer."
<Eddie> "Probably best.", Eddie nodded, opening the tin and lifting a slice of cake out, then sliding the tin back to Pietro's side.
<Pietro> Pietro dragged a chair over and flopped down onto it after taking out a slice of cake himself. "So... where would you like me to start?"
<Eddie> Eddie smirked, "Question of my life. Quite literally, given the subtext...", he bit into the cake slice he was holding and pondered the question, swallowing with a satisfied sound, "Oh, ok. Easy one: what 'issues' did you and I have?"
<Pietro> He sighed, "Mostly it was my issue... well I think it was though I suppose you'd take part of the blame. I didn't like how close you were with Illyana, and I suppose you thought I was bad for her because of some things my father did to a friend of yours that I was partially involved in against my will. We came to blows once - you broke my leg. Which, for someone with my powers, was the worst thing ever." he frowned a little.
<Eddie> 'That's right. We loved Illyana, and Pietro stole her away.', Eddie laughed a little, "Really? 'Stole her'?", he shook his head at the voice in his mind, "S-sorry, erm...let's talk about the girl, Illyana: we fought over her? Literally?"
<Pietro> He nodded, "Yeah... but it was pretty much done after that. You apologised in your own way and I imagine Illyana told you there was no point carrying on with that... and I kind of got revenge for the leg thing... though, in my defense, I was mind controlled at the time and probably wouldn't have done it otherwise."
<Eddie> "You got revenge or did I?", Eddie asked, "W-where does mind control come into it?"
<Pietro> "I did," he dusted off his hands, "There was a thing with an underground mutant fighting ring," he waved a hand dismissively, "We went in under cover to try and figure out who was behind it and it kind of went to hell at the end there. Turned out a lot of the fighters were mind controlled by the guy in charge, got some of us too."
<Eddie> Eddie snickered, "It's all fun, all the time here, huh?", he closed his eyes, taking another bite of cake and thinking back. Images of fighting played over in his head. 'We almost killed him.', he looked up at Pietro.
<Eddie> "Oh, Christ...you're another person I almost killed.", he frowned, "I remember...on the rooftops, I lost control and...", he sighed.
<Pietro> "But then you snapped right out of it and I'm still here... besides you wouldn't have killed me - I was holding back." He shook his head. "Look, I'll show you..." he got another chair and lined it up where Eddie could see before giving it enough of a jolt to make it explode into splinters. "Last resort. You'd have been fine but it would have taken you a while to pull yourself together during which I'd have hoped you'd have come to your senses."
<Eddie> "...huh.", Eddie nodded, "Well....I suppose that changes things a little.", he confessed, "...'sjust really difficult. I can't promise my control will stay. I-I'm not even sure what I'm doing with it right now..."
<Pietro> "You're better at it than you think - you're having a perfectly normal conversation right now." He pointed out as he retook his seat. "But control is something it takes time to learn and you've forgotten all your tricks. It'll come back to you."
<Eddie> Eddie nodded, "Yeah...it's easier sometimes. Other times it's....not so easy.", he sighed. Looking over at the damaged wall of the containment cell and shaking his head in dismay. "W-what about Illyana? How close are we?"
<Pietro> "Probably best friends I'd say... you drew comic books - she bought them all. I put some in that sketchbook so you can look at them. Maybe it'll help. She'll probably come and visit when you're less unpredictable... it's a bit much to risk right now..."
<Eddie> 'We would NEVER hurt her.', Eddie turned around as if to address someone else in the room, stopping before he spoke and turning back, "...y-yeah. Understandable I suppose.", he admitted, looking at the sketchbooks, "...I drew a comic book?"
<Pietro> "Yeah, not really my thing but Illyana loves them," he smiled, "You probably don't remember but... she's pregnant right now... due next month - twins. It's hard for her to get around. Honestly I don't think she'd go anywhere if she couldn't teleport."
<Eddie> "Pregnant?", Eddie thought the word over, blinking as memories followed it. "Wait...waitwaitwait, I remember...", he stood up, looking at Pietro with a darkness in his eyes, "You were with the X-Force.....you killed....a-and Illyana, you lied to her..."
<Pietro> He sighed, "Yes I did... but she knows now and she forgave me... she understands my reasons which I suppose can't be said for a lot of others."
<Eddie> 'SHE FORGAVE HIM.', Eddie gripped his head gently with one hand, "Why? You decieved all of us and murdered countless people! It wasn't even the first time!", he paced the room, trying to order his thoughts, "How could she forgive that?", he knew the answer as soon as he'd asked the question - he recalled the message he'd recieved.
<Eddie> "...she really thinks you're worth it, hm?", he asked, looking back on Pietro, "She loves you enough to look past the blood?"
<Pietro> "She does. And I'm extremely grateful for that. She's the most important person in my life."
<Eddie> Eddie cursed, "That's a fair world, isn't it, hm? I get brainwashed and cheat on my girlfriend, causing her to run away and leave me, and you get forgiveness for taking people's lives, huh?", he snarled, making a sound that seemed beyond human.
<Pietro> "I had my reasons for doing that. And I'm sure your girlfriend will forgive you - you weren't in your right mind. She can't hold it against you. Just give it time.... though it'd help you to be less confrontational."
<Eddie> "'Course you did! Because THAT'S what makes it all ok(!)", Eddie laughed, more than a little malice seeping past his smile, "Well, I suppose if you can be forgiven for that, I can be forgiven for my sins, too.", he sat back down, a hate for Pietro he wasn't sure was fair bloomed fresh in his chest.
<Pietro> "I may as well fill you in on that too because you've forgotten all about it." He raked his fingers through his hair and heaved a sigh. "In my first year here, my father abducted me and two other students. He experimented on them like Essex was doing to my friends last year. I was determined not to let that keep happening - it wasn't the first time Essex took people from here. He had to be stopped. That's why I signed up to X-Force."
<Pietro> He looked Eddie in the eyes, "And that's why I'm not sorry."
<Eddie> Eddie charged into the window, slamming against it violently as his back split into lashing tendrils and tooth-lined blades, "I spend EVERY hour of EVERY day trying to control myself, desperately fearing that I might snap and do the unthinkable, and you want to justify doing it?!"
<Eddie> "I know that there's evil out there, I know there's a want to just end their lives...but I would never, EVER do it.", his eyes betrayed the hate in his heart,
<Eddie> "It gets LOUDER and LOUDER in my head and I STILL bottle it with every fiber of my being, and you wanna preach to me how killing is alright?"
<Pietro> "I didn't say it was alright. I said I wasn't sorry. There's a difference. It's always wrong to end people's lives. But when you know they'd do far worse to other people if you let them go on it's hard to feel bad about it. I'm not asking you to understand or even to forgive me. I honestly couldn't care less if anyone else gets it. Just let it go. It's done."
<Eddie> Eddie pushed off the window, his back slicing around, leaving a slash in the window before snapping back into his body, reverting. "...why do I even waste my time trying to control myself, hmn? If I lost it and killed someone, do you think it'd just be overlooked?"
<Pietro> "Overlooked? No. Forgiven? Maybe... in time... it'd depend." he shrugged, "Look... Eddie... I'm sorry for what happened to you, I hope you get your memories back. Read your comic books, I'm sure it'll help you. But I'm probably not going to help you by staying here much longer because you'll just lose your temper with me."
<Eddie> "Then go.", Eddie waved a hand to dismiss him. The real kick in the stomach was that truthfully, the voice in his mind had smiled at the thought of killing someone for what had happened. Deep inside him, he was glad people who did this would die. And a horrible part of him wanted to be the one to do it.
<Pietro> Pietro pushed the cake back inside, "Read, draw, eat cake... I'll see if Illyana feels up to waddling down here..."
<Eddie> "Yep.", Eddie sighed in reply. 'WE should have joined them....we should kill Trask for this.', he winced, looking at his hand, which seemed to shake involuntarilly, 'KILL him, 'Edward'. KILL HIM!', the laughing made him feel sick.
<Pietro> "Just... let some of it go, Eddie. Holding onto things is what'll get you in the end. Trust me." He picked up the chair to take it back to where he'd got it.
<Eddie> 'Let us go....LET US GO. We're so vERy bOreD. . . . lEt uS Go. . . .', Eddie sat back in the corner in the shadows, slumping into it and hiding his face from the light. "....wish I knew how.", he muttered to himself, trying not to think.