And The World Trembled
Chapter Four

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, New Mutant's Wing

It rang. He started to hang up, then forced his hand to be still. The floor began to tremble.

"Hola?"

Tears stung his eyes and closed his throat. Three years. Three long years, and her voice was still the same.

She hadn't come for him. She didn't want him. This was stupid.

"Hola? Who is this?"

Mexico

He was scratching a mark into the wall when the door opened. Julio didn't bother looking up.

"Got you a new movie," Skinny said.

Julio dug the dirt out from his fingernail, looking at Skinny from underneath his bangs. His hair was getting long.

"And a book, too. Don't want you forgetting how to read or something." Skinny lifted the book, then set it back on the tray and set the tray on the cot. "Enjoy."

The door closed. Julio stared at the tray, then slowly went over and began to eat.

He guessed he'd been here for two weeks before he figured out the mark-on-the-wall thing. It had been another four weeks since then. He'd given up hope of rescue. Skinny was probably right. His mother didn't want a murderer.

He still didn't know why he was here. But, true to Rodriguez's word, no one had touched him. Well, not like that. And as long as he took his pills, no hit him--

He stopped. No pills. Skinny had forgotten to give him his pills. His first inclination was to focus, to see if he could escape. But if the drugs were still in his system, it might not work. He'd wait. He'd wait, and when the time was right, he'd escape. Or be buried alive. Either would be better.

Rodriguez came down the stairs around lunch. Julio stood slowly, sliding off the cot. The jingle of the chain around one wrist had become normal, now, and the only reason he noticed it at all was because the cuff rubbed the raw spot near the base of his thumb.

Rodriguez didn’t speak. He walked to the end of the cot and pulled tiny keys from his pocket. Then he unlocked that end of the chain, and tugged. "Let's go."

Julio didn't really have any way not to move. He could plant his feet, but guessed that Rodriguez would just drag him. He followed the man up the stairs.

There was a little house above them; a shack, really, stuck out in the middle of scrub desert. They were nowhere near the beach, from the smell of things, and so nowhere near his uncle's house.

They got in a jeep and drove. Half an hour later, the scenery was almost exactly the same. They stopped, got out.

Julio looked around, half curious and half terrified.

"Do it," Rodriguez said.

Julio looked at him. "Do what?"

"Make an earthquake."

Julio stared. "I don't know how."

"You did it before." It obviously hadn't occurred to the man that this might be a problem.

"I don't know how. And I destroyed a city."

"No cities out here to destroy," Rodriguez pointed out, sweeping his arms to either side grandly.

"But I still don't know how."

Rodriguez stared at him. Julio shifted uncomfortably.

"Try," the man ground out finally.

Julio swallowed and looked out at the desert scrub. He imagined it shaking. Nothing happened. He shook his body. Nothing happened. He willed it to tremble. Nothing happened.

Julio looked up at Rodriguez, slightly sick, and shrugged helplessly.

"Madre de Dios," Rodriguez snarled. "Do something!"

Julio flinched. The ground trembled.

Rodriguez smiled slowly. "You can do it."

Julio felt the blood drain out of his face at the smile. "I don't know how I did it, though," he whispered.

"Liar. Do it again."

Julio licked his lips and tried to do it again. Nothing happened. He looked up at Rodriguez and swallowed. "I--I--"

Rodriguez stepped forward, and Julio stepped back, flinching. The back of that meaty hand smashed over his face, and he rolled with the blow, crashing to the ground. "I don't know how!" he cried again. But the ground was shaking beneath him.

"Obviously, you do," Rodriguez growled. "Do it again."

Julio dabbed at his nose, certain it must be bleeding. It wasn't. "I don't know how," he said again, softly. They were never going to believe him. He couldn't lie his way out of this. He closed his eyes, afraid of what would happen next.

Rodriguez's foot caught him in the ribs, sending him slamming back against the wheel of the jeep. Julio yelped, then turned to scramble underneath. A sharp yank on the chair around his wrist brought him back out, knees scraped by desert gravel.

A fine tremor was running through the earth now, constant but not deadly.

"Make a crack in the land, over there." Rodriguez pointed, lifting Julio to his feet.

He tried not to cry, failed, wiped dirt and snot from his face with the back of his free arm. He was about to be hurt badly, and he knew it. "I don't know how!"

"Stupid damned--" Rodriguez hit him.

Julio rocked, but didn't fall; the man's hand was still in his shirt. "I don't!" he cried again, arms over his face. "I swear I don't!"

"Liar," Rodriguez snarled. He nearly threw Julio against the jeep, holding him there while he spoke over him. "Give me your belt. Now!"

"Let go!" The knowledge that he couldn't escape, that fighting would only make it worse, didn't keep him from trying to get free. Julio twisted, and Rodriguez smashed him back against the jeep. His legs flailed, kicking and pushing and trying to bolt. Rodriguez released him suddenly, and he ran. The chain caught him up short; the man yanked him back, grabbing his wrist and slamming it against the jeep, fingers splayed.

"Take off your shirt," Rodriguez growled.

"No!" Julio screamed back, trying to get his hand free.

Rodriguez just shook his head, face grim, and pulled the little knife from his pocket. The blade whisked out, and Rodriguez pressed it against Julio's pinky. "Take off your shirt."

Julio screamed and tried to tear away. The blade cut into his skin painfully, Rodriguez's grip tightening enough to leave bruises. Julio stopped fighting. "Don't--" he said. The blade pulled out, leaving a shallow cut, and Rodriguez lined it up against the knuckle. Julio sniffed and tried not to cry. "No," he said again, but there was a tremble in his voice this time.

The blade sank into his skin, and he screamed. Somehow, he managed words--stop, stop, I'll do it--and the blade retreated. Shaking, he pulled off the T-shirt he hadn't changed since arriving, cradling his injured pinky against his chest. He eyed Rodriguez, watching him like someone else might watch a cougar. The man was holding onto the end of the chain, which left Julio a good eight feet of moving room. He swung the leather belt experimentally, eyes watching Julio from under bushy brows.

Julio swallowed and sniffled and thought about how much he hated Rodriguez. And he could hate him from here. There was no way he was going to stand still and just let Rodriguez hit him with that, and there was eight feet of chain. He was brave, like his mother had told him to be, and strong, and--and he just had to hold on and someone would rescue him. Someone would find him.

Rodriguez smiled and looped the chain through the bars on the side mirror. He yanked.

The chain jerked Julio toward the jeep, smashing his hand against the mirror. And then the belt hit him.

He screamed and twisted away, but it only hit somewhere new, hard enough to make the skin rise, red and angry. He covered his face with his arm and felt leather strike his stomach, and Julio dropped into a fetal position. The belt hit his back again, and he screamed louder as pain blazed through him. He was cursing and screaming and crying when it stopped, and he realized the world was shaking. He crouched, trying not to sob like a child, hiding his face in his arm, and felt the earth rock beneath his feet.

"Shit--" Skinny said, from the other side of the jeep.

"Focus it on the ridge," Rodriguez barked.

Julio looked up, his cheeks streaked with dirt, and glared at the ridge. Nothing happened; the ground under them was still shaking. A crack appeared in the earth not far away.

"Damn it, boy!" Rodriguez swung the leather belt, and it caught Julio across the face. He yelped and hid again, his eye feeling like it was going to explode. "The ridge!"

"I can't!" he shouted into his arm. The belt struck him again and again, and he screamed every time, but they were drowned out by the sound of the earth cracking nearby. The trembling got worse.

"The ground's breaking up!" he heard Skinny yell.

"Stop the quake!" Rodriguez bellowed in his ear.

"I can't!" Julio cried again. He realized, suddenly, that this would kill him, too.

"Damn it! Stop him! He's going to shake us all apart!" Skinny yelled.

"I will fix you," Rodriguez hissed. Then his fist drew back and hit Julio in the face.

X-Factor Headquarters

He had told Jean he would, so he sat down on Bobby's bed and picked up the phone. He stared at it. Put it to his ear. Listened to the dial tone. Then, slowly, he put it back down again.

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