The Quad: Walking Below the Stars

[Paris Bennett]

Exodus exits the bar, breathing in the night air.

"I apologize," Exodus tells Morrigan, "I didn't expect to cause problems amongst your students."

[Samantha McManus]

"That and your little lecture to them both strike me as a bit dishonest. Even though some of them had shields, can you really say that much of that was unexpected?"

[Paris Bennett]

"Very little these days is unexpected, Morrigan," Exodus says, "But I'm always disappointed when our kind spends more time at each other's throats then working towards making a better world."

[Samantha McManus]

"You've made yourself out to be a man the humans should fear. I think the reputation has become an impediment to your goals. You're past the point where you could win their hearts. The ones you could convince were already yours, and the remainder are galvanized by your presence. There's no middle ground, no dialogue. All they see is the man who can, and nearly did, snuff out the lives of everyone on Genosha with his power."

"Small wonder you seem an enemy to ones who want to be heroes, aye?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"What I would like to know," Ryan said, his carefree voice gone as he landed a few yards away, fully aglow, "Is what you know about 'making a better world.' Or about anything that we do toward those ends. In particular, what in-depth revelations you've gotten from seeing us, for a great, profound ten minutes, in a bar."

[Paris Bennett]

"I was hardly the one standing in the bar casting judgments," Exodus says, "I came here with good intentions under the invitation of your patron. I suppose it was foolish to expect children to respect the traditions of hospitality."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"And, in the spirit of hospitality, I've done my duties, doing what I can to prevent confrontations or public backlash. But your presence here is going to undo the better part of two months of work establishing goodwill, and we're going to probably have protestors at our gates for weeks now. So no, I'm terribly sorry, but I'm not pleased that you came here when our administrators invited your boss to speak."

[Paris Bennett]

"I apologize if I made it difficult for you to play lapdog to the flatscans," Exodus says, sneering at Ryan, "Maybe if you posture some more while we're here they'll let you return to being a good little servant when we leave."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan quirked an eyebrow, folding his arms. "Now who's being a child?"

[Samantha McManus]

"This is why I said what I did, Bennett. The ones you can reach here are the ones you already have..."

[Paris Bennett]

"Do you really think so, Morrigan?" Exodus says, "Are you really blind to the number of our kind that sit on the fence?"

"People may fear me. See me as a villain," Exodus says, "But how many people look at Xavier and see you embrace the humans over and over again only to be betrayed and destroyed each time. How many times have your dreams and hopes led to the corpses of your friends and loved ones?"

"There are students here that have had enough of that sort of life. That are waiting to be shown that they don't have to be weak. That they don't have to be the only ones to sacrifice."

"And sooner or later, they'll come to us."

[Samantha McManus]

"Your problem is that you try to force them to choose. Time and again you've been there as the Sword of Damocles over their heads, and for everything you've seen you still haven't grasped that you make them feel weak. You're the force of nature they can't prevail against, and they're the people you're trying to save."

[Paris Bennett]

"So you think you speak for the entire mutant race now?"

[Samantha McManus]

"It's a habit quite a few have picked up, aye?"

"All I am saying is that you scare away a great many of them. Yes, there are many looking for direction, but sometimes they need the shepherd and not the wolf."

[Paris Bennett]

"And sometimes they need a warrior and not a diplomat," Exodus says, "Your arguments are hardly new."

[Samantha McManus]

"I'm a product of my mentors. Unabashedly. As are you."

[Paris Bennett]

"Of course," Exodus says with a nod.

[Samantha McManus]

"And given the circumstances, you and I may end up having this conversation many times after said mentors are long gone."

[Paris Bennett]

"I hope it's always under such peaceful circumstances."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Reasoning with a bigot is an exercise in futility," Ryan said to Sam. "He'll see what he wants to see, because he doesn't want to look." He turned back to Exodus. "Well I have. I've gone out to look, to see for myself what the humans are really like everywhere, just like I've made a point to go see what the mutants are like everywhere. And you?" He chuckled. "You're no different from the redneck lynch mob bigots I kept running across in southern America. We're no better than the 'closed minded' humans, and you prove that."

[Paris Bennett]

"So your viewpoint is more nuanced and refined then mine because you've spent a year or two traveling?" Exodus says looking amused, "Maybe in another decade or two you'll have a point, boy."

"You speak of my bigotry and closed mind and yet you judged me the moment I walked into the bar. Why? You don't know me. You've heard stories. Read news articles. You weren't standing where I was. You didn't see what I saw. And you don't live with my mistakes."

"You're just a loud mouthed adolescent just beginning to become an adult. You see the world in a cynical and bitter light and believe yourself to know everything you need to know."

"Tell me, are you here because you truly wish to discuss this? To stand as my judge? Or are you hoping to vanquish the terrible villain and prove to your school how great you are?"

"Just how deeply does your arrogance run, child?"

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Oh, I'm not going to begin saying that I've experienced as much as you have. But my viewpoint has the advantage that I'm still willing to change it. Yours? You've gone beyond being a bigot. You don't even sound like you remember what it's like to be a person. 'Petty squabbles' like what happened downstairs? That's life. That's what happens during it. All of our pursuits are supposed to be to secure a good life for ourselves and others, and I don't want any part of a regime that puts itself before a person's ability just live their life. And I'm also not willing to discount that 'flatscans' as you so politely put it deserve their own peace of mind or their own good lives."

"I don't want to be a ruler or a god or whatever the hell else you're trying to push mutants to be. Hell, I don't even care if I don't get to be a hero. What I do want is to be able to make a good life for myself, my family, and eventually some day, God willing, my children. So I'm going to keep working to make sure that everyone I care about can, hopefully some day, live without people being afraid of them."

[Paris Bennett]

"Then you'll walk your path and I'll walk mine," Exodus says, "You'll spend your life apologizing for crime you've never committed. Prostrating yourself in front of a world that will hate you."

"And I'll follow the path of halting the abuse....the murder of our species. By whatever means necessary."

"And until our paths cross and we find ourselves taking arms against each other, I would find it polite if you quit harassing me."

Exodus nods to Morrigan, "It's been a pleasure. However brief."

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear exits a few minutes after Ryan, standing next to him as he verbally sparred with Exodus.

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan, his jaw set, didn't reply. And who's crimes will I be appologizing for, who's going to be the one making them hate me, he restrained himself from saying. He glanced at Sam, giving her a familiar 'yes, I'll shut up now' look.

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear grasped his hands, looking into his eyes.

"Ryan.. there are better places to hash this out."

[Samantha McManus]

"Nothing to be ashamed of, Ryan."

"There will be other opportunities, aye?"

[Paris Bennett]

"I hope so."

And then in the blink of an eye, Exodus was gone.

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Smug bastard," Ryan growled once Exodus was gone.

[Samantha McManus]

"You would be too if you'd been alive since the Crusades."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"This is where I respectfully submit that age doesn't necessarily equal infallability."

[Samantha McManus]

"Certainly agreed there."

[Ryan Gabriel]

Ryan seemed to be trying to take great lengths to calm himself down. "I should have just kept my mouth shut, shouldn't I?"

[Samantha McManus]

"You did what he expected. He may act aggrieved, but if it wasn't you it would have been someone else."

[Ryan Gabriel]

"Well, for whatever that's worth, he didn't say anything I didn't expect, either," Ryan replied. "God, and that's what people think about now when they think about Genosha," he growled.

[Samantha McManus]

"Exodus isn't a new development, and what he did to threaten Genosha he did before Magneto ruled it."