Author: Feathersofthewinged.
Disclaimer: I own nothing other than the characters and things you don't recognize. Everything else belongs to Marvel, damn them. This story takes place before and after X-Men First Class.
It used to be just Cadence and Erik against the world, until she was taken away from him. This is the story of how Erik learned to love and how Cadence came into his life and completely changed it.
The room was cramped, cold and stank with the stench of slowly decomposing bodies as sin surrounding frail bones tried to scoop whatever was in the bowl in front of them. Others just huddled together for warmth; their thin clothes did nothing to stop the cold from chilling their bodies. Tall guards in Nazi uniforms sneered and shoved them, barking harsh words in German until the Jews cowered away like the rats they were called. It was painful, moreso for the females…and one in particular.
She was a new-comer along with her mother who sat beside her on the frozen bench, vainly trying to stomach the food in front of her. It slid down like sand and mud; she didn't doubt that's what it actually was. She looked like a Jewish girl; dark hair and eyes and fairly tanned skin…but her pitch black hair was from dye gone wrong and her tanned skin was from being in the sun as a small child in California. American. But nobody believed the quiet duo, her mother was small in stature but the girl had seen her move cars with a flick of her tiny hands. They had moved a lot and had been on their way through Poland when their train was overrun by the Nazi's and that had been it; they had been wheeled away to the camp and forced into the biting cold.
"Eat up." Her mother whispered while she wrapped an arm around the young teenager as men patrolled the aisles. Her daughter said nothing, just stared down at the bowl.
The mother ran a hand through the dirty hair, heart beating as people watched them. Families had been split up going through the gates, they were the lucky two. They needed to get out of here soon, she could feel hem growing closer to their location. Ten years on the run and now they were straight in the palm of the enemy. Cadence sighed against her mother and Mary squeezed her closer. She could feel the end coming for both her and her daughter.
The door to the cafeteria opened and several Gestapo's entered coolly, it was already silent but the silence turned dead as the men slowly stepped into their space. Mary hugged her child closer; the tingling that had begun in her palms began to shoot up her arms. She wasn't finished yet though her daughter needed her.
"Mom?" Cadence followed the men with their eyes as they mumbled to the other guards and conversed before slowly walking towards where they were. Everyone averted their eyes in fear. The other people around her began to weep silently and her own heart began to beat wildly under the thin clothes she had been forced into, "Mom, they're coming."
"We'll get through this together," Mary kissed her cheek and smiled as the Gestapo's came to their table, faces stony and boots gleaming with polish as they clocked together. Their eyes were cold and unforgiving. Mary stared at them, face calm as Cadence cowered behind her, shivering.
"Come with us." One Gestapo ordered, voice cracking from the broken English as his cloned face flashed to the woman.
The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he stared at the mother and daughter below him. Herr Schmidt had only wanted the girl but the mother was already obviously not going down with a fight. His knuckles crack beneath his leather gloves. What Schmidt wanted with them, he had no idea. They were rats, not even close to their Aryan perfection.
"Nein."
His men bristled behind him at the mother's refusal but he raised a hand, keeping calm himself. He had expected that. He ran his hand over the needle in his pocket, Schmidt had been very insistent to take down the mother though, should she make any problems. He grinned, enjoying the way the other prisoners shied away and how the mother's eyes narrowed in suspicion and uncertainty.
"Get the girl. Holen sie sich das Madchen."
In a flash, the mother had leapt up, throwing her hand out and yelling at the top of her lungs in English for her child to run. But he had been expecting that as well. He reached out violently, jabbing the needle into the woman's neck as his men dove for the stumbling girl. He kicked the mother down to the ground and they slammed the butts of their pistols into her body. The woman kept slapping at them as if she could throw them away with a single touch.
"Cadence!"
"Mama!"
The girl was fighting in his men's arms valiantly, hands clenched and teeth bared as she pounded on their arms and any other place she could reach. The prisoners around them had evacuated the area, ushered outside to start their day. The other simply stared, saying nothing, they knew better than to try and play the hero. Liquid squirted out of another needle as the Gestapo man walked over the bloodied woman on the ground, stepping on her hands and crushing them.
Mary was on her stomach, blood leaking out of her mouth and head as she watched the Nazi walk up to her child. Cadence was screaming and fighting, eyes wide in fear and adrenaline as he got closer. The shot had completely numbed her body, numbed her abilities as well. She could barely move. Mary watched in complete pain as the man stooped down and watched Cadence shout furiously in the man's face, cursing and struggling helplessly. They watched in amusement until the Gestapo laughed cruelly and whispered something. Cadence looked to her mother suddenly in fear and pain and Mary knew what the picture must look like; her on the floor in a bloody mess, unable to move and save her child any longer. The floor was so cold.
Cadence could feel the anger, the pain and the biting fingers digging into her flesh from the Nazi's as her mother began to fade into the ground. He Gestapo man simply watched her, holding that needle carelessly in front of her face. She growled, feeling the energy wash through her like adrenaline as the bowls on the table began to shake and rattle.
The Nazi's shouted in surprise as tons of bowls began to shoot off the tables and straight for their heads. One smacked the Corporal in the face, snapping in half as Cadence focused eyes wide and beginning to go fuzzy. She grinned as bowls. Silverware and glasses began to break and viciously shoot around, flying in midair then changing directions.
Now was enough.
The Lieutenant drove the needle into the girl's neck as well; the side of his face was numb from a fork scraping across it. Was zum Teufel passiert? What the hell had happened? He pulled the needle out and tossed it to the ground.
So that's why Schmidt was so adamant about these two, he looked to the mother, already passed out then he looked to the trembling girl as the drugs took over her body and wreaked havoc.
"Mom…"
He snapped his gun across her face and she fell forward, landing hard on the floor besides her mother, completely out cold. He wiped his face and his uniform before looking out the trashed tent, everyone was petrified…but he couldn't take the risk of these swine talking to other about what happened and forming some kind of hope. He fixed hi collar and began to walk to the entrance.
"Greifen die beiden und bringst sie zu Herr Schmidt. Gas den Rest. Grab those two and take them to Klaus. Gas the rest." He barked to the young cadet who had snapped to attention before turning and nodding. He walked forward, shouting in anger at the men and women and children.
His men dragged he girl out along with the mother and carried them to the military house on the opposite side of the bent metal gates. He looked to see the Jews shuffling in and the others towards the showers in fear. He turned up his head, pulling his hat down further before making his way to the building as well. Rats, the whole of them.
When the young girl came to her sense, she already knew that her future would be short lived. She knew that escape would be near impossible and she also knew that she'd never see her mother again. She also knew that surprises would be few and far between, torture was something she could easily predict though.
What she didn't know or predict and that surprised her, was a boy a few years older than her sitting in the corner of the room where he was focusing on a metal spoon with a book in his lap. He didn't move, didn't even look up at her as she sat up in the bed and pulled on the metal handcuff on her right wrist. He just stared at the rust, old spoon.
Her body hurt, every single nerve and muscle was shot and sore like she had been working in the camp for years. She felt so damaged, vulnerable for the very first time. She tried to get that rush going through her system but her mind just wouldn't work with it, she was scared, her new abilities wouldn't work. She pulled in the handcuff again; the clink of the metal rang in the room. She tossed the sheets off of her, unsurprised to find them dirtied from her clothes. The boy finally looked up at another harsh clang of the metal on metal; she let out a pained whine as the metal rubbed raw against her already raw skin.
"Sie werden sich selbst verletzt. Stop. You'llhurt yourself. Stop. " The boy set the spoon and book down and walked to her carefully. She glared at the German boy and his grey-blue eyes. He stopped and stared back, his mouth formed words but nothing came out. He sighed and clenched his fists before tilting his chin up higher, "You alright?"
His American accent was scratchy so he obviously barely spoke English. She blinked as the boy sat down close to her, she shouldn't trust this guy, fellow teenager or not. Men were the worst to women, her father had been living proof of that…but he seemed…different.
"Do you…speak…"
"Yeah. I'm American, you're not." She nodded and the boy's lips twitched upwards for a second, "I'm Cadence."
"Erik."
"Do you mind…helping?" she held up her hand, still chained and still hurting, Erik stared for a second in confusion before focusing and pulling a key out of his pocket and quickly undid the cuff. The chain fell to the floor with a thud and she rubbed her wrists gratefully, massaging blood back into her wrist. Erik sat down again, this time closer. She pulled in on herself, "Uhm, thanks. Uh-danke."
"Let me." He pulled her wrist away and she let him as he looked over her red-cut skin and she felt a tingle shoot up her wrists as he gently traced the cuts. He was warm next to her and the metal headboard behind her seemed to vibrate as he leaned back and continued to rub her wrist. She could smell something static in the air, she only smelt this when she was around her mother.
"You're one of me, aren't you?"
He said nothing, merely ran a gentle hand over the bruises. There was a knock and both of their heads snapped up to watch an older man come through with a gentle smile…armed by four not so gentle guards. Erik tightened his hand around hers, their palms fit snugly together as the door snapped shut behind the man.
"Good to see you awake my dear. My name is Klaus Schmidt." The man smiled, Cadence bristled, "I do send my apologies about you and your mother but your people don't go quietly."
She was pissed, anger clouded the-
Klaus was slammed back by the lone chair in the corner, his entire body cracked against the wall as the chair legs cracked and blocked him in. Cadence moved her hand in an arch, getting up from the bed and letting go of Erik. The soldier's guns flew from their hands and into their faces, knocking them out cold. She flattened her palm in the air and the chair pressed harder as Klaus' body. Her pupils flared with hate. Klaus smiled.
"Cadence." Erik barked, the girl faltered. Klaus easily fell out from the chair legs and the wall as Erik contracted the metal in the chair back, settling it back in its place on the floor gently.
"Where's my mother?!" s fumed angrily, as Klaus straightened his uniform and smoothed back his hair. So much for the guards, "What have you done with her?"
"Now Cadence, my dear. You need to cal-"
"No!" she boldly pushed her hands out again and every loose thing in the room began to tremble. Her voice scratched, Erik stepped away wisely, eyes wide, "Tell me!"
Klaus just watched in fascination as the objects crowded around her defensively, she was in complete control yet such an amateur. Her mother must have trained her day and night for the young girl to control her abilities like this. They had been on the run continuously from the U.S. government and it had obviously paid off for the thirteen year old girl…the trick now would be trying to calm he down and get-
"Cadence, your mother is alive. I feel her, she's one of us. You need to listen to my voice." Erik pushed past the change and objects around her, completely unharmed as he grabbed her reddened wrist softly. The objects wavered and a few dropped to the ground, "You're safe."
She dropped her hands in defeat and Erik himself smiled smugly as everything clattered to the floor. He instinctively pulled the metal towards his feet, the metal crowded around his torn leather shoes and vibrated in warning.
Klaus picked up a fallen gun from one unconscious soldier and in a flash Erik had pulled the gun through the air and put himself between Klaus and the broken girl. The young teen's eyes were on fire and his chest heaved, Klaus simply smirked and clapped his hands together.
"You two will be quite the team." And he walked out, kicking the men awake as confidence filled his every por. The men groggily got up and followed in confusion and the kids were shut out, alone. Quite the powerful team indeed.
In the room, Cadence had collapsed on the bed again, all energy had washed out of her and Erik followed suit.
"I'll stay. By your side." Erik grabbed her hand softly and squeezed. It had been so long since he had company…and now here she was…another mutant like him. Another freak but she was still alive and living, using what she knew to survive. He couldn't have felt more content. Cadence looked to their hands then to him, eyes softening and he nodded, "I promise."
"Thank you Erik…I…I promise too then."
They stayed there, staring at each other and suddenly, the world wasn't so cold and biting anymore even in the middle of war.
My life was going to change by you, wasn't it? Cadence looked outside.
You were going to alter my future, our future. I know it. Erik watched the snow begin to fall.
Hope you like what I have so far, the next few chapters are gonna be great! I used a translating app for the German so if there's any mistakes please tell me and I'll correct it. As always, reviews and feedback are much appreciated, if i got anything of ERi's past/Magneto's past wrong, again, please tell me and I'll make the corrections. This was un-Beta'd. Onward to Chapter 1!
p. else going crazy for the release of Days of Future Past? Becuase I've annoyed my friends so much by talking about it. Fassbender away!