"I prefer... Magneto," says Erik. And then everything slows down, Emma Frost's icy smile stretching into absurdity, and stops.
"Do you see?" says a voice that Erik recognises instantly as Charles'. He opens his eyes to find himself back on the beach; Charles, miraculously whole and unbroken, clutching the helmet, the missiles hanging in the air.
"You see?" he repeats. "That's what will happen if you let the missiles go. Now stop this, Erik. Please."
It very nearly brings tears to his eyes: Charles, his best and only friend, standing unharmed before him, offering him a way out of the nightmare his life has become. Until he remembers it's Charles himself who caused that nightmare.
"You invaded my mind," he says, still reeling. "You promised never to do that."
"I'm sorry," says Charles. "Please, Erik, stop this."
You're not the first person to break their promises to me, Erik sends. Others did too; Shaw the worst. But I thought you were different.
Charles blinks, and in the momentary flicker of doubt before his natural superiority reasserts itself, Erik lunges forward and reclaims his helmet.
"My friend," he says, "do you know the phrase 'self-fulfilling prophecy'?"
And he releases the missiles.
