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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 10:09:18 GMT -4
Kevin MacTaggart was born on Muir Island and it was years before he ever met his father.
The day they met, Kevin killed Joe MacTaggart.
Moira knew in her heart that what happened to her wasn’t her baby’s fault, but he was a daily reminder of her helplessness. Of her husband.
And try as she might, Moira struggled not to be as harsh and desolate as the last remaining piece of her inheritance.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 11:03:54 GMT -4
For two years, Moira labored to build the laboratory on Muir Island. Xavier spared no expense and he would often come to visit her.
His friendship and his trust in her meant more than his money ever could.
Long sensing Moira’s emotional struggle with her son, Xavier brought along a gift in the hope that it might strengthen the bond between Moira and young Kevin. A puppy.
As Moira gave Xavier a tour of the work on their facility, little Kevin and the puppy got acquainted.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 11:40:31 GMT -4
Charles Xavier’s mind has been called the most powerful mind on Earth. Xavier himself was a mutant and his interests in Moira’s skills as a biogeneticist were to help him identify and understand those who exhibited various forms of genetic mutation. Their goal was to help those who might have powers that they could not control.
As they toured their new facility, Kevin MacTaggart became the first to need their help. Moira’s son, it turned out, was a mutant.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 12:19:16 GMT -4
A psychic scream cut through Xavier’s brain as Kevin’s mutant powers manifested. The two adults rushed to the toddler’s side.
Xavier’s puppy was twisted into a charred and unrecognizable husk.
Kevin MacTaggart was unconscious in his playpen, fire streaming from his open eyes.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 14:09:29 GMT -4
Moira often wondered what might have happened if Charles hadn’t been there to control it.
She often wondered if Charles being there somehow triggered it to happen in the first place.
Kevin’s powers had disastrous potential. He was an immensely powerful psionic. He could change matter with a simple thought. And he was a living battery always thirsty for more power.
So very much like his father.
Only the power that fed Kevin MacTaggart’s insatiable thirst was the life essence drawn from living beings.
With no other sources available to it, Kevin’s powers began to feed on his own.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 15:19:00 GMT -4
They found a way to isolate him and keep others safe from his terrible abilities.
They found a way to feed him using fields of energy.
So Kevin came into awareness in a tiny cell meant to keep him and others alive. The only faces he knew were those on the tiny, blurry television screen.
And the photo of his mother.
And the only man strong enough to ever look Kevin in the eye and live. Charles Xavier.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 15:53:56 GMT -4
Time passed, and Xavier’s responsibilities took him elsewhere.
Time passed, and Moira’s research began to bear fruit.
Kevin MacTaggart lived alone.
Starving for attention.
Starving for affection.
Starving for power.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 17:44:11 GMT -4
Moira immersed herself in her work. She worked to find ways to help countless mutants control and understand their abilities.
Ruby quartz. Telepathic dampeners. Psychic amplifiers that were the basis of a system Xavier wanted to use to help find mutants before they needed help.
None of which brought her any closer to her son. She worked tirelessly to try to find a way to free him.
And she made some remarkable discoveries. Her efforts were breaking ground in areas no one else was even looking.
Tentatively, she decided to publish some of her work.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 20:53:31 GMT -4
She took the scientific community by storm.
Moira was still considered an outcast, but the brilliance and the innovation in what she was doing was undeniable. Despite her past, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this new work was all her own.
The press began to take notice.
That’s when Joe MacTaggart came to pay his wife a visit.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 9, 2004 22:21:01 GMT -4
He broke into the facility very late at night and caught her totally by surprise.
He shattered many months of her research.
He took from her everything she had tried to rebuild within herself.
He took every shred of her dignity.
But he left her something, too. He left her in the hospital for more than a week.
And he left her bearing yet another of his children.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 10, 2004 1:16:28 GMT -4
By the time Christine arrived nine months later, Moira’s flesh had healed but not her spirit.
She found it no easier to connect with her daughter than she had with her son. Neither of which their father knew existed.
She never spoke of what had happened with Charles Xavier. She didn’t have to. And he never tried to speak of it with her. He never mentioned he had been to see her husband, either.
And Joe MacTaggart never really thought much about Moira ever again.
Not until the day he met his son.
Not until the day Kevin took his father's life.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 10, 2004 10:11:57 GMT -4
Christine never lived within a prison like her brother, but there was a wall between the girl and her mother just the same. Moira hid her pain behind her research. She hid herself within her lab. She did for each of them what she had to do and nothing more, and it was several years before she really learned to smile once again.
Kevin grew, and his powers grew with him.
The little girl spent her days alone in a playpen or a crib and though a wall would always separate brother from sister, Kevin soon discovered that he could see inside Christine’s young mind.
He soon discovered that he was no longer alone.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 10, 2004 10:57:22 GMT -4
By the time Christine was four, Kevin found in her almost everything he so desperately needed. She was his constant companion and he adored her. Though they lived in separate rooms they did everything with one another.
He talked to her. He walked with her. He often sang her to sleep. He shared her dreams.
He never thought about the hunger. Almost never.
He saw the outside world through his sister’s eyes. He learned to live. He learned to love.
Kevin would have done anything for Christine, anything to protect her. He wanted to spare her all of the pain and unhappiness that he had known.
And so he gave her everything she didn’t have. He put it straight into her mind. And Christine grew up believing what Kevin painted for her. He gave her a home like on TV, a caring and affectionate mother. And like Moira had once told him, she believed her father passed away.
In truth, they rarely saw their mother. But Kevin grew to understand why.
He found out that he could sometimes see inside Moira’s mind, too. When he did, he took her pain away for awhile. And he learned the truth about his father.
That was how Kevin MacTaggart learned to hate.
Based on her constant devotion, Moira’s professional reputation flourished.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 10, 2004 17:16:34 GMT -4
Those days were filled with fairy tales and pirate ships, as Kevin and Christine grew up together. They made up stories and they lived them out. And most days, she made him sing her to sleep.
He could refuse her nothing, and there was nothing he couldn’t give her in her mind. She gave him back a way to leave his harsh and lonely cell and see the world beyond it through her eyes.
And for a while, at least, they were happy.
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Post by mutantx on Oct 10, 2004 18:25:34 GMT -4
Christine had a favorite game she loved more than any other. Kevin struggled to understand it, but he indulged her time and again.
There was a toy she always carried, a stuffed and fuzzy character from some cartoon. She almost never let it go and it showed signs of wear and love. One of its ears was even torn and missing half.
Kevin couldn’t remember if it was a Cookie Monster or a Smurf, but Christine always insisted that he was an elf.
It never mattered to her when Kevin tried to tell her elves weren’t blue. In her mind, he was a prince.
Together, they were pirates seeking treasure. They sailed the open seas. Together, they would always find true love.
And Christine and the fuzzy blue elf lived happily ever after.
But one day, everything changed.
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