Feel No Evil

[deadpool]

Deadpool looked over at the Senses, all five of them fuming with rage and hatred. They must've known. They must've remembered. Even if he lied, they'd tell her... what could he do?

He could hope they didn't recall the specifics, that's what he could do.

He sighed. "I didn't want to tell you this, Mercy... but thirteen years ago, your mother and brother were killed in a car accident. They were in a cab. I was too... but I was there to kidnap you. My plan was to follow them closely, keep an eye on you... I never got the oppurtunity, actually. The car careened out of control... it was raining... I dove out, taking you with me. It was just dumb luck that they were there that night, and that I was there to take you... otherwise, you'd have died with them."

He didn't quite look her in the eyes.

"I couldn't save them from the burning wreckage. They were too far gone. So I took you... I took you and God help me, I gave you to them. See I was like you were an hour ago. I had faith in my government, that they wouldn't do anything wrong, and besides, it was my job... I never saw you again when I turned you over to them."

It was mostly the truth. He left out the part where he was there to kill the mother and brother of course, and left out the fact that the Taxi careened because he had killed the driver, and even left out the fact that he had planted the explosives that blew everything to smitheens, scattering the fake parts of her anatomy they put in the car, to make it seem like she died too.

Aside from all that, it was basically the truth. Oh, except for the faith in the government thing. That was only half-true.

[Mercy]

Mercy was beyond words. Beyond tears, beyond logic. Her own pain and anguish was mixed with the lesser pain of the Senses, who'd already known what he'd done, and their strong anger. They were going to make an illusion, grenade regardless.

Mercy panicked. And without knowing how she did it, she took control of them for a split second. It was all it took for her to force them to be reabsorbed back into her body, caged once again.

And then she ran to Deadpool. She barrelled into him, shoving him, as tears blinded her and he became a blur of red and black. She pounded at his chest over and over again as she sobbed indistinguishable words. She knew none of it was hurting him, could tell by the way it hurt her hands each time she hit the armor, but she kept hitting him. Among the cries were "You could have saved them...I had a family...You ruined everything..."

[deadpool]

Deadpool had lived his life as a ruthless mercenary so far thanks to a few specific understandings, and the overall coincidence of never having to see the horrible side affects of any of his work. Killing Mercy's family was a low point in his life, where cancer threatened to kill him very soon, and he was beginning to work for the darkest sorts of government operations. As far as he knew, he honestly was just doing Uncle Sam's dirty work... in all actuality, he discovered, Stryker was a mad man working on his own agenda.

So now, seeing Mercy, a girl who's life was completely ruined – who'd experienced a fate worse than death probably time and time again, who'd been tricked into believing she was a prostitute, just so her humiliation and shame could live that much longer – Deadpool couldn't help but feel a massive wrenching in his chest.

Wow. He was a mercenary, sure. He was even a rat bastard, yeah... but this...

“Hey!” he shouted, pulling her close to him, wrapping his arms around her. “Hey hey... calm down... I know, I know you hate me, I know I'm responsible for... for this... I know you probably want to kill me, and I know I deserve it. I know I deserve it.”

He couldn't let her go... but what could he do? Could he try to make it better? Could he somehow take her in, try to turn her around, make up for some of the things he'd done? Was there a making up to be done? Maybe if he put the grenade in his mouth it'd actually do him in.

“For what it's worth, I'm sorry... I was in a bad place, and I didn't know Stryker that well... I didn't know this would happen to you. I want to try and make it better...”

[Mercy]

When Deadpool pulled her close to him, Mercy struggled against him, planting her hands on his chest and pushing herself away. But she was no match for his strength, and her resolve to fight him weakened until she gave up, collapsing against him with her hands on his shoulder and her face in her hands.

"Hey! “Hey hey... calm down..."

As Deadpool continued, Mercy found herself preoccupied by his words. 'Calm down. Calm down.' It repeated in her head. And despite all odds, she found herself calming down. Her heartbeat slowed, and the tears stopped coming. She took a deep breath as she stared down at her hands in front of her face. She was still plenty angry with him, and overwhelmingly anguished at the knowledge of what had happened to her life.

As her rage dissolved into quiet misery, his words began to reach her. Whereas most people would have walked away at that point, she hung her head on her hands and listened morosely. To say that he was the last person she wanted to go to to help her find out about her past was a moot point, because he was the only person she could go to.

"Was that all of my family? The ones in the car?" she asked quietly, but because her mouth was close to his ear she was easier to hear.

(ooc: He should probably say he doesn't know, whether you want him to really know or not)

[deadpool]

Wade could see her visually calm herself down, an act of conscious choice, not the typical run-out of emotional upheaval. It showed a lot of willpower... or maybe the senses pushed her into it? He couldn't tell whether or not this was good or bad.

Still, he knew the simple fact that he was the only person she could go to now. The only one with a connection to her past, and the desire to want to help her. That fact alone made him feel even worse.

He pulled her back, and looked into her eyes.

“No, I'm afraid.” He said, truthfully so, “I was given limited intelligence on your and your family. My job was to grab you and bring you to Stryker. That's all I know.”

It seemed like the training session was pretty much over for the day.

“Well, look. I know this seems like a real shit-fit, and that you should probably wax me now for my involvement... but you're still welcome to come with me. I was a different person back then than I am now, a lot has happened. A lot's changed. That doesn't erase what I did... but if you stick with me, I'll do what I can to help you out, alright?”

[Mercy]

Mercy looked up at him with hurt eyes, finding herself faced with the decision of whether or not to go with Deadpool for the third time. Each time, it seemed to get more and more difficult to choose.

Despite all he'd told her, she still believed that he was telling her the truth in it's entirety. He hadn't killed her family. He had planned to kidnap her, but not to kill her or any of them. And he had saved her--though she couldn't find it in herself to be grateful for that.

"You'd better tell me everything. All of it. Everything you know about me, where I was, who you sold me to--" Mercy let her arms drop from his shoulder, and stepped back. "They'll tell me if you're lying."

She was silent for a moment, her gaze never leaving Deadpool's masked face. "I want to learn how to control these...monsters in my head. And I want to find out who I was. And I want to learn how to fight. Because a four-year-old can't defend herself against a guy like you. But I want to be able to."

Her voice trembled at the end, and she turned and stalked back to the car, where she opened the door, got in, and slammed it behind her.

[deadpool]

The gamble: Did the Senses know what she was going through even though she was unconscious. Well damn, probably yes. Your sense were still active in your sleep, they just go into your subconscious – which is likely where the buggers were stored in her.

He watched her stomp back to the car, and realized that he was going to have to tell her the truth.

He sighed, hoping it didn't end in death, and put the grenade back into his pack. He walked to the car, opened the door, and held his arm out in a sweeping gesture.

“Get out. There's more. Now I'll give you the whole truth – then you can decide what you want to do.”

She got out, and stood next to the car.

“Okay. Here's the real truth, since you're just going to find out anyway. I figure if we get this out, get it taken care of, and see what happens, we can put it behind us... at least sort of.”

He took a deep breath.

“15 years ago I was diagnosed with terminal skin cancer, and was going to die. Not something I wanted, so when the option team with Stryker on an experiment called 'Weapon X', that could potentially allow me to live... well, forever... I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, he had a few tasks for me first. I was told about you, your mother, and your brother. Stryker told me the two of them were carrying something.... how'd he phrase it? A 'Polymorphic Psychonullifier' – it was, basically, a genome in your DNA that latched on to other people's DNA, at random, and eventually drove them to madness, then death. It was a mutation, caused by your mother, he said. He also said that there was no cure, and it was affecting people now... that she'd escaped the authorities many times thanks to her mutant abilities... of course, years later I discovered that Stryker was full of shit. None of that was true at all – he just knew that if I knew they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, I wouldn't...”

He paused, looking at the sand.

“I wouldn't kill them.”

This was the God's honest truth.. and it felt incredibly liberating to tell it. Even though the thought of what he'd done, even for 'good intentions' still made him sick to his stomach.

[Mercy]

The last shred of belief that Mercy had had in Deadpool--That at least he had told her the truth--disappeared as he told her his story. She couldn't trust him, but there was nothing she could imagine he'd be lying about now--there was nothing worse he could have done back then.

The color drained from Mercy's face, and she stepped back from Deadpool as though he'd hit her harder than she'd ever imagined anyone could hit. Even as her foot stepped down behind her, the Senses came. They were all around him, but he couldn't see them. Mercy didn't try to stop them, wasn't sure if she wanted them to hurt him or not.

But Mercy's Touch gave her no time to decide. She projected into Wade Wilson's mind what it felt like to be skinned. The top layers of his skin slowly, excruciatingly peeled from his limbs, his head, all over his body. Mercy's Touch projected the sight of his tortured body to him. Then, it was as if hooks cut all over his body, into the bare muscle and sinew beneath, and simultaneously tore out.

[deadpool]

“YYYYEEEEEOOOOUCCCHHHHH!!!!!” Deadpool screamed, lost in the agony of his hideous Torture. His mind was a flare of burning pain, unable to process little beyond the sheer physical and psychological trauma attached to the illusion.

“Stop... stop iittttt!” He managed, falling to the ground, spasming with the pain. “Gaaahhhhh!!! You crazy broads! Noooooo – get outta my head Charles!!”

He rolled about on the sand, trying to get the pain out – yet secretly knowing he had it coming, deserving every second of it. “For fuck's sakes it burns! This is worse than the time I met Winona Ryder! Ahhhh! Well, almost! Ahhhhhh it hurts!”

Finally, unable to stand it any longer, he drew his silenced pistol, and shot himself in the head.

Deadpool lay in the sand, now still, now at peace.

Of course, his regenerative properties would kick in, and repair the damage after a while... but the wound was very severe, and he'd be out for a few hours.

William looked between Mercy and he, unsure what to do.