#gmutant

[ambervc13]

equivalent exchange.

Everyone has their breaking point. Lucky for Amber, she already had hers.

Despite the reputation that graced her, the scientist was not always as mad as everyone thought she was. In fact, fresh out of college, Amber thought she was going to change the world. Like all scientists, she dreamed of the advancements she could help with. Especially for mutant-kind.

Amber wasn't a mutant. But her son was.

"Mama," her son would asked her with a smile, "Do you think I'll get to play with the other kids soon? I hope they like me."

Amber was only eighteen when she gave birth to her son, Jayden. His father pulled the disappearing act almost as quickly as he came;  Amber hadn't expected much from him, not after he lied about being 'safe'. The fault was hers but the presence of her son in her life was far greater than the resentment she harbored for the man that disappeared. Her son was the reason the woman focused on genetics.

The work of a single mother was far more than she could have expected. Between classes, theories and disserations, experiments and failures, the woman would sit up with her son and tell him stories of heroes that came from Ceres. She would encourage him to be who he was and expand himself - there were so many people in the world outside that said 'No' to her son even before he got the chance to ask a question. Mutants were discriminated against through paranoia and cowardice - humans always recoiled from anything their mind couldn't handle.

But not Amber.

She would smile at her son. Her fingers would brush away his bangs as she reassured him, "Baby, they are going to love you. You're going to have so much fun, I promise."

Originally, the woman was against sending her son to daycare but she had been offered a job a Hyrian's Home and they offered it to her for free. How could she not accept? She could see her son while she worked. Wasn't that what mothers wanted?

At the time, Hyrian's Home hadn't earned it reputation. Not yet. During this run, Hyrian's Home was established as a home to help mutants and other powered beings learn to control their powers and abilities; it claimed to be a safe haven for all. Fresh out of college and her focus on genetics, it made sense that Amber would have been scouted by Hyrian's Home - "We want to get a better understanding of the mutant gene," they had told her, "We want to become better equipped to handle their abilities, their mutations. We want to be able to help them when they are in need of help."  Words were believable when the right person said them.

The woman's lab had been kept away from their 'students'. She came through a separate entranced, greeted by a different staff and the moment she entered, they ushered her son to away.  Every time, Amber would hug her boy - "Mama loves you, baby. I'll see you in a few hours. Have fun." - and she wouldn't see him until it was time for her to clock out.  At first, she would ask to see him but as time went on and she furthered herself into her work, she never caught the break to see her son.  

God, did she wish for the work hours to end.

Her work was solely focused on the ability alter DNA. The scientist thought it was a strange request - why would a home focused on helpin gmutants want to focus on genetic modification?  She would work hours on combining DNA and then separating it. At one point, she had gotten close to removing the strands of the mutant gene but ultimately, the DNA proved to volatile - it ended in failure and the moment it happened, the truth of Hyrian's Home became clear to her.

No one was in the lab at that time. There had been an incident that required Hyrian's Home to dedicate a majority of her staff to handling - something about a vigilante mutant hunting them? She wasn't sure. Left unattended, the woman headed beyond her lab and as she stepped into the forbidden areas of Hyrian's Home ...its horrors were finally revealed to her.

The studies she had been told were to help mutants were being used on the children this home was supposed to care for. All of those studies were theories and yet, as she walked through the cells, these children were being tested upon. Her heart raced but ultimately dropped as she walked further. 

These were young children, someone's baby and then ...her own.

"No," the word barely came out her as she touched the clipboard, 'Jayden Rhee, age three. Mutant. Volatile. Abilities: Multiple. Status: Deceased.' "No, no, no, no."

Amber ran into the cell and fell to her knees where her son had laid. Cold, unmoving, taken before he even got a chance to live. She ripped the IV out of his arm, removed the tubes that had been forced into him. Her fingers brushed against his cheek - bloodied, bruised and too tender for a child of only three years. Her breathing ran rapid, racing as she tried to figure out what happened - why? Why? Why? They were supposed to take care of him, to help him gain control.

"Jayden, I'm so sorry,"  she cried out as tears fell. The only warmth that came from her son were the tears that she shed. Amber stayed, holding her son and apologizing for not helping him earlier. "I'm so sorry, baby boy. I'm so sorry."

The woman hadn't noticed the passing of time until a guard from Hyrian's Home came to collect her - her work wasn't complete and they needed her to finish. Gently, she laid her son on the ground. She removed her lab coat and covered him. The woman forced herself to walk up to the guard. She stood in front of him, reached for his gun and in a swift movement, pulled the trigger with the gun aimed at the guard.  She returned to where her son was and picked up him up.  As she walked through the halls of Hyrian's Home, she shot at every guard who attempted to stop her - "Consider this my immediate resignation," she announced and left her work undone. 

She vowed to never let it be completed.

The days after were the hardest. 

Amber planned a funeral but couldn’t bring herself to bury her son. He was too young to have his life ended. The guilt that ate away at her began to destroy her; it ate away at her heart and with each memory of her son, it let her heart break. Grief was an awful motivator, especially for a scientist.

In the past, there were scientists who studied alchemy. 

Desperate to revive her son, Amber had thrown herself into studying alchemy. It was the scientific technique of understanding structure, decomposing it and then reconstructing it - in theory, it made sense: The Principle of Equivalent Exchange - only one thing can be created from something of a certain mass. In standard practice, The Principle of Equivalent Exchange can be divided into two parts: The Law of Conservation of Mass, which states that energy and matter cannot be created from nothing but at the same time, cannot be destroyed, and The Law of Natural Providence, which states that any object can only be trans-mutated into something with the same properties.

With this study in mind, Amber attempted to resurrect her son.

She drew the transmutation circle, etched into the ground with her own blood before she gently put her son in the center. It required energy and through the years, the woman had gathered energy from other entities: humans, mutants, mythical creatures from this world and the next. In that moment, she set them around the circle.

“Mama loves you, Jayden,” she said before she began the ritual. 

Resurrection through Alchemy never worked. In theory, it made sense but the practical attempt to bring back the dead never worked - the human soul could not return if it passed over.

As the ritual reached its end and the brightness of the energy faded, Jayden’s body stayed frozen and Amber lost her breath as she fell to the ground. Why didn’t it work? What happened? Why? All she wanted was the return of her son.

“Fuck,” she shouted. Amber hated crying but the woman had no choice. She couldn’t hold back as the weight of her failures fell upon her. She buried her face into her hands as she gasped through her sobs - what was the point of being a scientist when she couldn’t even help her son? “God fucking damn it.”

“Mama,” the voice was small, raspy and tired. “Mama loves me.”

Amber looked up through tear struck eyes. The boy still laid where she had left him but the sound came from him - she was sure of it.

“Mama loves me,” it repeated as it sat up slowly.

It wasn’t Jayden.

The different energies she had gathered from across the planets merged into her son’s body. He wasn’t human anymore, he took on the mixed form of the creatures she had culled energy from. Her son wasn’t a monster, not until she turned him into one.

“Yes, Jayden,” Amber forced herself to smile as she stood up from where she fell. Her movements were slow as she reached for her desk. “Mama loves you, baby,” she said as she opened the drawer to pull out a gun. She aimed the weapon at this creature, “Mama loves you so much, Jayden. Mama will always loves you.”

“Yes, mama loves me,” the creature repeated with a smile that mirrored her son’s, “Mama loves me so much.”

Through tears, Amber pulled the triggered.

“Mama loves you, Jayden. Forever.”

Amber was a scientist but through The Principle of Equivalent Exchange, the woman’s attempts to bring back her son caused her to lose her sanity and she gained her reputation as mad.