Soft strains of music broke into the soothing rhythm of rain falling
on the roof of Robert J. Parma's home, programmed to begin playing
precisely at five am. Robert liked to wake up to music, had spent an
exorbitant amount of money on an alarm clock that would allow him to choose
what sounds intruded upon his sleep rather than be held victim to an
annoying buzzer or random sounds from a radio channel.
With a savage snarl, the attorney tore the clock from the wall and hurled it across the room, taking some small satisfaction in hearing it break apart against the far wall. For the first time that he could ever remember, he desperately didn't want to get up. All of the joy he took in life, even during the bad times, had fled him entirely. Wishing he could deny the soft gray light seeping into his windows as the sun slowly began to awaken in the eastern sky.
He was going to lose an important case today. He'd know that going in, of course. With the clever manipulations of certain highly placed people across the world, despite the best attempts of Charles Xavier to integrate mutants into society peacefully, any mutant who hadn't become literally enslaved to the government and public service was pretty much suffering open season. No one questioned anything people did to them, they all just looked the other way. And when one killed a normal human, it ceased to matter that he was defending himself. Just like the mutant was going to be sentenced to death today. It didn't help that he looked like a mutant, sullen and strange with his green tinged skin, lanky body, too large hands and feet on a slender frame made for leaping.
What he hadn't known going in was how much it was going to change him. How deeply the life of this one mutant was going to affect his own. Hardly more than a boy, really. Twenty-five short years old. Only a little older than Robert's own lost son had been.
It was Jeffrey that had prompted Robert to take the case, pro bona. He knew the kid sitting in jail didn't have any real money, or any real hope of a decent defense from a court appointed lawyer. Jeffrey had been born with the now infamous X-gene as well, and his powers manifested from the stress of his mother being killed by a drunk with a gun. A wave of bitterness rose up in him. They hadn't sentenced him to death for taking a gun out into the street and firing it wildly for kicks while on another in an endless series of alcoholic binges the kind only a career drunk could have. He hadn't even been defending his own life when he took that of Katherine Parma, and indirectly a seventeen year old boy. Because Jeffrey's mutation ate him alive, ravaging his body faster than he could heal, and soon Robert had been burying his only child next to his lost wife.
He saw something of Jeffrey in this other young man. Some strange common trait he really couldn't define, even to himself, but he could feel it. Wanted to protect this boy no one cared about, that no one would miss. Mutation sometimes ruined lives, not improved them. Made them the objects of disgust, hatred, and spite. So he defended him as zealously as he would his own child, trying to make it up to Jeffrey somehow.
Then again, maybe someone would miss him. The much adored MindDancer, member of the X-men and good little mutant who followed the rules, had walked into the courtroom to plead for leniency, practically in tears before the sentencing jury. Robert had thought the picture of her that was in his client's pocket constantly was a symbol of something, what his life could have been, a woman he hero-worshipped, something. It had astonished him that his strange client had actually known the woman.
But as much as the public loved Arica Jenner, they feared more thanks to some well placed propaganda and a few carefully planned paid assassinations. Arica played by the rules, spending her life dedicated to serving the public, keeping the peace, and doing whatever the government told her to do. She played by the rules and in exchange was allowed something of a normal life. It had shocked the hell out of him when she showed up, standing up for a mutant murdered, risking quite a bit of the public goodwill that protected her own life.
Robert finally got up slowly, ready to face the listless look in the deep jade eyes of Todd Tolensky. There was no hope in the prisoner, he'd one day gone so far as asking Robert why they even bothered going through the motions of the trial and the sentencing hearing. Todd knew he was going to die, knew they would find him guilty. Not of the murder, not really. Guilty of being a mutant, guilty of simply being born, and being so vastly different.
As the case progressed, Robert learned a lot about the life of this boy. It was enough to destroy his own faith in the good of humanity. Todd had never had a chance, abandoned at 13 in New York City by parents who didn't even care enough to put him into foster care. Left alone in the Hell that was the New York City streets for two years, stealing what little he could to eat and occasionally get a cheap hotel room to sleep in relative safety. Being found by Magneto and Mystique, only to end up being used by his supposed saviors over and over again, and then abandoned by them again when it suited their purpose. It was a miracle the boy had graduated high school at all.
Todd often remarked the only good thing in his entire life had been Arica Jenner, but he woudln't explain what he meant, or even let Robert contact her. The day she showed up at the sentencing hearing unannounced to plea for mercy on Todd's behalf had been the first real emotion Robert had seen in those green eyes. Eyes that never once left her the entire day, as she sat behind him just looking back at him. He'd still been staring at her as they dragged him away, and for a horrible moment Robert thought she was going to fight to stop it. But she hadn't, she'd just hung her head and broken down the moment they took Todd away.
He knew she would be there today to hear the jury's decision. To rub their faces in guilt with her presence if they chose the death sentence, which they would. He'd seen it in their faces. Todd had snubbed them by wanting to live his own life, not serving them, and they would get their revenge in return.
Sighing, he got up to get dressed for the courtroom. Best to at least go through the motions, he supposed. Be there for Todd until he couldn't be anymore. He wondered what was between Todd and Arica, and mourned with them for the loss of whatever connection they had to the mass hysteria of the public. Individuals may be brave, but the masses were always inherently cowardly. It was a simple fact of human behavior, he reflected as he drove towards the courthouse, having done nothing more than get dressed and pick up his briefcase. He hand't been able to face the thought of breakfast, the paper, or any of his other normal morning routines.
Today wasn't normal. They were sacrificing another life on the alter of fear.
With a savage snarl, the attorney tore the clock from the wall and hurled it across the room, taking some small satisfaction in hearing it break apart against the far wall. For the first time that he could ever remember, he desperately didn't want to get up. All of the joy he took in life, even during the bad times, had fled him entirely. Wishing he could deny the soft gray light seeping into his windows as the sun slowly began to awaken in the eastern sky.
He was going to lose an important case today. He'd know that going in, of course. With the clever manipulations of certain highly placed people across the world, despite the best attempts of Charles Xavier to integrate mutants into society peacefully, any mutant who hadn't become literally enslaved to the government and public service was pretty much suffering open season. No one questioned anything people did to them, they all just looked the other way. And when one killed a normal human, it ceased to matter that he was defending himself. Just like the mutant was going to be sentenced to death today. It didn't help that he looked like a mutant, sullen and strange with his green tinged skin, lanky body, too large hands and feet on a slender frame made for leaping.
What he hadn't known going in was how much it was going to change him. How deeply the life of this one mutant was going to affect his own. Hardly more than a boy, really. Twenty-five short years old. Only a little older than Robert's own lost son had been.
It was Jeffrey that had prompted Robert to take the case, pro bona. He knew the kid sitting in jail didn't have any real money, or any real hope of a decent defense from a court appointed lawyer. Jeffrey had been born with the now infamous X-gene as well, and his powers manifested from the stress of his mother being killed by a drunk with a gun. A wave of bitterness rose up in him. They hadn't sentenced him to death for taking a gun out into the street and firing it wildly for kicks while on another in an endless series of alcoholic binges the kind only a career drunk could have. He hadn't even been defending his own life when he took that of Katherine Parma, and indirectly a seventeen year old boy. Because Jeffrey's mutation ate him alive, ravaging his body faster than he could heal, and soon Robert had been burying his only child next to his lost wife.
He saw something of Jeffrey in this other young man. Some strange common trait he really couldn't define, even to himself, but he could feel it. Wanted to protect this boy no one cared about, that no one would miss. Mutation sometimes ruined lives, not improved them. Made them the objects of disgust, hatred, and spite. So he defended him as zealously as he would his own child, trying to make it up to Jeffrey somehow.
Then again, maybe someone would miss him. The much adored MindDancer, member of the X-men and good little mutant who followed the rules, had walked into the courtroom to plead for leniency, practically in tears before the sentencing jury. Robert had thought the picture of her that was in his client's pocket constantly was a symbol of something, what his life could have been, a woman he hero-worshipped, something. It had astonished him that his strange client had actually known the woman.
But as much as the public loved Arica Jenner, they feared more thanks to some well placed propaganda and a few carefully planned paid assassinations. Arica played by the rules, spending her life dedicated to serving the public, keeping the peace, and doing whatever the government told her to do. She played by the rules and in exchange was allowed something of a normal life. It had shocked the hell out of him when she showed up, standing up for a mutant murdered, risking quite a bit of the public goodwill that protected her own life.
Robert finally got up slowly, ready to face the listless look in the deep jade eyes of Todd Tolensky. There was no hope in the prisoner, he'd one day gone so far as asking Robert why they even bothered going through the motions of the trial and the sentencing hearing. Todd knew he was going to die, knew they would find him guilty. Not of the murder, not really. Guilty of being a mutant, guilty of simply being born, and being so vastly different.
As the case progressed, Robert learned a lot about the life of this boy. It was enough to destroy his own faith in the good of humanity. Todd had never had a chance, abandoned at 13 in New York City by parents who didn't even care enough to put him into foster care. Left alone in the Hell that was the New York City streets for two years, stealing what little he could to eat and occasionally get a cheap hotel room to sleep in relative safety. Being found by Magneto and Mystique, only to end up being used by his supposed saviors over and over again, and then abandoned by them again when it suited their purpose. It was a miracle the boy had graduated high school at all.
Todd often remarked the only good thing in his entire life had been Arica Jenner, but he woudln't explain what he meant, or even let Robert contact her. The day she showed up at the sentencing hearing unannounced to plea for mercy on Todd's behalf had been the first real emotion Robert had seen in those green eyes. Eyes that never once left her the entire day, as she sat behind him just looking back at him. He'd still been staring at her as they dragged him away, and for a horrible moment Robert thought she was going to fight to stop it. But she hadn't, she'd just hung her head and broken down the moment they took Todd away.
He knew she would be there today to hear the jury's decision. To rub their faces in guilt with her presence if they chose the death sentence, which they would. He'd seen it in their faces. Todd had snubbed them by wanting to live his own life, not serving them, and they would get their revenge in return.
Sighing, he got up to get dressed for the courtroom. Best to at least go through the motions, he supposed. Be there for Todd until he couldn't be anymore. He wondered what was between Todd and Arica, and mourned with them for the loss of whatever connection they had to the mass hysteria of the public. Individuals may be brave, but the masses were always inherently cowardly. It was a simple fact of human behavior, he reflected as he drove towards the courthouse, having done nothing more than get dressed and pick up his briefcase. He hand't been able to face the thought of breakfast, the paper, or any of his other normal morning routines.
Today wasn't normal. They were sacrificing another life on the alter of fear.