{Author's Note: Once again, I sadly do not own X-men, but I have come to terms with this fact.
If you haven't read Part I of this series (i.e.: What Was Forgotten), you might want to do that before you continue reading, otherwise you may be confused and encounter some spoilers…but you do you. I'm not going to try to tell you how to live your life. Either way, please enjoy!}
ERIK POV
Erik slammed into the ground face first, a good deal of water hitting the earth with him. Erik felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him and as if he had run a marathon at the same time, all while being pulled in every direction. It was a feeling he had experienced only one other time: when his daughter had torn them from their own universe into another.
Gasping—not so much from having pushed his lungs to their limit underwater, but from the aftereffects of multi-dimensional travel—Erik quickly pushed himself off the ground, the scent of fresh cut grass hitting him as he did so.
"Wanda! Pietro!" Erik's voice came out as an indistinguishable desperate croak. His fear that Wanda had not saved them, but instead that their transportation had been but an after effect of her death, manifested in his voice. The world seemed to be spinning around him, and he didn't know if it was his fear or disorientation, but then he heard pained coughing beside him, followed by a groan that brought him to his senses.
Erik turned in time to see Pietro coughing up some water while a terribly exhausted and concerned looking Wanda patted his back.
"Ohhh, that sucked."* Said Pietro, his coughs finally ending, as he rolled over onto his back. His limbs sprawled out all around him and he closed his eyes as he lay back.
Pietro and Wanda were a few yards away from Erik, too far for him to reach out to see if they were truly real. Truly alive.
Erik continued to stare at them for several seconds before finding his voice again.
"Are you alright?" Erik asked directing his question at both of his children as he stumbled over to them and kneeled down beside his son.
At the sound of Erik's voice, Pietro's eyes shot open and he sat bolt upright, and when his eyes met Erik's, the boy broke into a grin and threw his arms around his father's neck.
"Dad!" said Pietro, his voice full of relief.
Erik pulled his son close, having to remind himself to be gentle even though all he wanted to do was hold onto the boy and never let go for fear of losing him. Then Pietro's thin arms suddenly withdrew from around his neck and a moment later Erik felt slight hands pushing against his chest.
Confused, Erik released his hold on Pietro, and when he did, Pietro stopped pushing against him and instead punched Erik in the shoulder with a surprising amount of force. Erik gazed at his son's pale face and wet mop of silver hair nearly covering his dark brown eyes, shocked to see anger in those eyes that were normally so filled with kindness.
"You jerk! I'mmadatyou!Youfuckin'leftus!" Pietro's voice was loud and angry, but then he quieted and what next emanated from his mouth was a choked whisper. "You left us."
"Pietro, I—" started Erik reaching out to his son again, but the boy just scooted away toward Wanda.
"Stop it." Said Pietro. "I don't want to hear your excuses or an apology. I'm not going to be mad at you forever because your family and family forgives each other, but I am mad at you now, so just leave me alone, Erik."
Erik flinched when his son said his name. He'd grown accustomed to Pietro calling him dad, and the sudden return to being addressed by his name sent knives jabbing at his heart. But he deserved it. Whether he had left his children behind again for the right reasons or not, that didn't change the fact that he had left them. Pietro and Wanda had every right to be angry at him, so Erik didn't even bother to attempt any contact with Wanda, since even if she wasn't angry at him, she probably wouldn't have wanted him to hug her.
Ignoring Erik, Pietro turned to his sister who was sitting beside him with her arms wrapped around her legs and her face pressed into her knees. "Wands? Are you okay?"
Wanda raised her head to look at her brother. "I'm fine, Pete." Wanda responded, looking anything but. "I should be asking you that. I'm not the one who just coughed up a lung. How's your head?"
"I'm good! Just wet. My head's fine! I've got a thick skull." Said Pietro turning his back to Erik completely and knocking on his skull as if to demonstrate said thickness. "And my lungs are all good too. I can still talk fasterthanyouwouldlikemetoo. See?"
Wanda just looked at him skeptically.
"Really! I'm fine! Stop looking at me like that! Where are we anyway? Not that I care too much. As long as you didn't take us to the secret lair of some whack jobs, I'm not too picky. Dry land is a lot better than drowning that's for sure!"
At the inception of Pietro's question, Erik stood up and turned away from his children for the first time to look around. It was night-time, but with one cursory glance around, it was obvious to Erik where they were, and the knowledge was enough to push some of the sadness at his son's rejection away, if only momentarily.
Lips curving into a small smile, Erik turned back to where his children still sat on the grass. "I know where we are." Then breaking into a full grin he added, "You did it Wanda. you brought us back home."
At this Pietro shot to his feet, stumbling a bit as he did so. Erik reached out instinctively and steadied the boy as his sister stood up, albeit much more slowly. After regaining his balance, Pietro shoved his father's hands away once more.
"Pietro, I think it might be best if you let me help y—" Erik began, concerned that Pietro had further aggravated his head injury and possibly his leg. He would feel much better if the boy just let Erik carry him.
"No. I'm good. I don't need your help." Pietro shot back, but he didn't push his sister away when she slid an arm around his waist to steady him.
"Are we really home?" Pietro asked Wanda, while he looked around into the night. "I'm pretty sure I've never been here before because I think I would remember if I had."
"You haven't been here before, Pietro. But this is our universe. Your sister brought us back." Said Erik looking at Wanda now, trying to meet her gaze, but she was avoiding eye contact. "Thank you, Wanda, for saving us all."
Wanda looked at her father, meeting his gaze with worried eyes but then quickly looking away. "No I—I didn't—We're not—I think I messed up."
Erik was confused. What did she mean she messed up? She had clearly brought them back to their own universe, and not only that, but she had saved herself, her brother, and him from drowning. He was so proud of her.
"Nonsense. What do you mean? We're home. You did it."
Wanda just shook her head, and tightened her grip on her brother, her knuckles turning white where she gripped his jacket.
"No I didn't." Wanda said finally, but she didn't elaborate and Erik thought it useless to argue with her any further, not while she and Pietro were both shivering due to their wet clothes and the cool night air.
"Well we will have to agree to disagree then. For now, I think it's time we wake up the owner of the premises. I don't think he'll be too perturbed by us arriving announced in the middle of the night." Said Erik.
"You know who lives here?" asked Pietro without a hint of malice in his voice, forgetting to be angry amidst his growing curiosity.
"I do. As does Wanda. And you've meant him before too." Said Erik turning to look at the grand mansion whose lights cut through the blackness of the night.
CHARLES POV
It was too late for Charles to be up. He knew that. He had an 8am class in the morning, but he couldn't sleep. So why should he stay in bed when he could get some work done?
But he wasn't getting any work done either. He had been staring at the same paper trying to grade it for the past hour. But he couldn't focus. His mind kept wandering…wandering to the past.
He shouldn't be surprised that he was unable to focus. No matter how much time passed, the overwhelming feeling of sadness and loss always remained within him, overtaking his mind, though it was particularly bad this time of year.
Charles set the paper he was attempting to grade back down on his desk and sighed, closing his eyes in defeat. He was on the edge of falling asleep at his desk, when he was forced back awake by the presence of two waking minds, one quite unlike anything he had ever encountered that was already giving him a headache, and another impossibly familiar but nearly just as difficult to read.
Charles sat up, and started wheeling himself toward his office door, but before he reached it, it swung open on its own accord, revealing someone he'd never thought he'd see again.
"Hello, Charles."
Charles gaped at Erik, who stood in the doorway, sopping wet and dripping water onto the mahogany floor from his cape. He was wearing his full battle gear, including his helmet, as if it had been but a day since he had disappeared.
Behind him stood the source of the unreadable minds that were scratching at Charles' consciousness: Wanda and Peter. Wanda looked just about the same as the last time he'd seen her, except where she had appeared strong and determined as she set out to rescue her brother, now she looked almost…guilty.
Peter, on the other hand, looked quite a bit different. His hair was shorter and styled differently—though that might just be due to the fact that they were all three soaked—and he looked too thin and a little wobbly on his feet, but apparently he still held the same happy disposition, as he grinned and entered the room behind his father.
"Cool place you got here, man. You look better now too, except now you sorta look like a librarian, but I guess that's better than a junkie. What's with the wheelchair? Sorry. That's impolite. Sometimes I don't think before I speak. I probably shouldn't just ask people why they're in a wheelchair." Said Peter as he gazed around the room, before letting go of his sister and going over to the globe Charles kept in the corner of his office, giving it a spin.
Charles couldn't think, let alone answer the boy's questions. He had to be dreaming. This wasn't real. They were dead. They were all dead. But as the seconds passed, Charles knew it couldn't be a dream. Everything was too real, and he would never be able to dream up the feeling of the minds of Erik's children. They were too extraordinary.
Charles stared at his old friend then enemy then friend once more. Now convinced that he was real, but he was still struggling to form a coherent thought.
"Really Charles? Don't look so shocked. I know it's been a few weeks, but you didn't really think I could be killed that easily, did you?" asked Erik raising an eyebrow and one side of his mouth to form a half smile.
"Oh my old friend." Said Charles finally, as a tear trailed down the side of his face. "It hasn't been a few weeks. It's been ten years."
{Author's Note: So there you have it. That's the bombshell I've been waiting to throw at you all for quite some time. Maybe you saw it coming. I don't know, but I hope you enjoy Part II of this series nonetheless. Thanks for reading. As always, reviews are welcomed and appreciated, but not mandatory. Thanks to the guest(s) who have left reviews in Spanish on What Was Forgotten too. My Spanish isn't great, but between what I know and google translate, I think I got the gist of what you've said. (:
*A reference to The Amazing Spider-Man from the sewer fight scene against the Lizard. People hate on those movies, but I liked them for the most part. But I also just really really like Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield isn't half bad, so…I may not have the most unbiased opinion. I'm still really excited for Spider-Man: Homecoming though!
I may update the description of this story before the next chapter, but I didn't want to give too much away in the summary before people who read What Was Forgotten regularly had a chance to read this.}