A/N: An utterly AU genderbending plot-bunny that would not leave me to rest, even as I was lying awake in bed, trying to sleep. So here it is. XD
Cherik femslash. Rated M for various content, but no direct sex. AU, but with similar plot and scenes as First-Class film, albeit rewritten for an entirely genderbent cast, every character included.
I.
Charlene meets the other girl when she is about to die.
Not Charlene herself, of course; the stranger, the other girl, is the one dying. She is stubborn and strong-willed, and after revenge. Charlene senses her, and can't sit by and watch idly as this stranger nearly drowns.
So Charlene does what she can: she hastily strips off her pea coat and slides off her heels, and then dives right off the CIA ship and into the chilly water.
The girl, Charlene discovers as she connects minds and starts to project thoughts to her, is named Erika. Erika Lehnsherr, an only child, a World War II Holocaust victim, and a very callous, angry young girl of twenty-eight, merely two years older than Charlene herself.
Erika, please! Calm your mind. Listen to me, Erika… you need to let go of that submarine and calm. You. Mind. I'm here now, and I've got you. You are quite safe with me, but you need to heed my warning: you will drown unless you release that water vessel.
Erika lets out something akin to a roar, but does as she's told. The second the magnetic force from her hand is disconnected, she's dragged upward by Charlene's caring arms and together, they break the water's surface, treading water.
"Get off me; I said, get off of me!" Erika screeches, and she shoves Charlene away. She gasps for breath, choking a bit with a sputtering cough, and then looks at Charlene in the beam of the spotlight from the boat above them. "Who… Who are you? You – You were in my head! How the Hell did you do that?"
"Erika, I'm like you! But please, you still aren't calm! Relax. You're in good hands, now." And Charlene offers a warm, comforting smile, her baby blue eyes twinkling.
Erika gasps, still forcing out water, and she slowly exhales, her legs kicking furiously beneath the water. She calms herself, then says in a gentler, quieter voice, "I thought I was alone. I thought no one else could do weird things like I can."
Charlene is genuinely smiling now. "You're not alone, Erika. There are plenty of people like us in the world, plenty of mutants." She doesn't miss how the metal-bending girl across from her repeats the word with her lips but without sound, awe in her grey-green-blue (what the artist's term, Charlene tries to recall? Glasz?) eyes.
They are hauled back up onto the ship and given blankets, since there are no dry, clean clothes on board, and Erika's black wetsuit appears to be too stuck onto every curve of her body to be pried off, anyhow. They shiver and sit together in a cabin below deck, away from agent Mark McTaggert's watchful eyes, or anyone else's, for that matter.
"Proper introductions are in order, I believe," the rescuer of the two begins. "My name is Charlene Xavier, a graduated professor from Oxford University in the field of genetic mutations. I, like you, am a mutant, and my gift is telepathy." She holds out a hand to shake.
"Erika Lehnsherr," the other girl introduces with a boyish grunt. She leans back on the cot they're perched on and hugs her blanket tighter around herself, rejecting Charlene's proffered hand. "But I bet you already knew that, huh, Telepath?"
Charlene chuckles, not offended in the slightest. "Yes, I did delve deeply enough into your mind there in the water to learn a few things about you. Your name, your place of origin, your ability – metal bending through magnetism; quite impressive, I must say – and a few… other things."
"Like what, exactly?" Erika spits back, not moving because she is shivering and cold, but very eager to get out of this conversation. No one is supposed to know about her; no one can know that she is going after Sebrina Shaw, that she is out to avenge her father, nor that she has the history she does, and has done the things she has. No one.
Charlene clears her throat and shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Erika. I didn't mean to pry or make you go on the defense. I only know vague things, not specifics. But know this: you are among friends now, chiefly me. I am here to help you, because I am working with the CIA to help capture that woman you were after. I am a fellow mutant, and I want what's best for people like us." She smiles, and offers her pinky finger this time. "I promise you that nothing will become of you, and that I am not here to be an enemy."
Hesitantly – Erika hasn't made a pinky-promise since she was eight, before the War, and definitely hasn't willingly touched another person is nearly as long – the metal bending young woman reaches out her hand from under her blanket. She extends her pinky, and slowly links it with Charlene's. It feels childish and odd, but somewhat comforting.
The telepath gives a cheerful smile and tightens her grip reassuringly on Erika's finger. "And I promise that, with me, you never need to be alone again."