Just a little tidbit that popped into my brain! X-Men: First Class, how it might have ended!

Boring Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, I own nothing, blah, blah, blah.

"He's back!"

Charles moved back to the window, eyes fixed on the scrap heap that was all that remained of Shaw's submarine. His mind raced across the intervening space to the tiny pinprick of Erik's mind shining out of the blank spot in the sub. The touch was tenuous, Charles couldn't do much more than brush Erik's mind, as if he was only just barely within his reach. But it was there, and Charles knew that Erik could hear him.

Excellent! I don't know what you're doing Erik but keep doing it!

For several seconds there was no reply, then Charles practically fell into Erik's mind, the barrier he'd been fighting now compromised. That's good Erik I'm beginning to see but I can't yet touch his mind. There's still something blocking me.

Moira MacTaggert and the remains of Beast's jet faded away. Erik was his eyes and ears now. He could see the inside of the submarine, that room of mirrors, some now shattered by Erik. I wonder why that works. He wondered in an absent little corner of his mind. Erik had his back to the wall, watching the man on the other side of the room. Charles focused his attention there.

Shaw.

He looked different than he did in Erick's memories of the camps, younger, more fit. But even if Charles hadn't seen this younger version in the students' memories of Shaw's attacks on the CIA base or in Miss Frost's mind when he'd interrogated her, he still would've recognized this man just as surely as Erik had. That first night they'd met Charles had been unable to protect himself from the memories playing through Erik's head. He hadn't been lying when he'd told Erik that he'd felt his pain. Oh yes, Charles recognized Shaw.

Shaw was coming after them now.

Erik was trying to fend him off, trying so desperately to keep this dangerous man away. Girder after girder broke through the walls or dove down out of the ceiling. Shaw pushed them away contemptuously, his form almost seeming to crackle with the energy he'd absorbed. Erik tried to push back, but the girder kept coming closer and closer until it was pressed against his chest, pinning him to the wall.

"Why do you fight me Erik." Shaw murmured, his voice deceptively tender as he moved into Erik's personal space. "Why do you fight for the weaker species? Humanity is facing its own extinction. We are the future. We accomplished so much together Erik, and we could do so much more. Everything I've done, I've done for us. For mutant kind."

Erik turned his head, looking his captor and former tormentor full in his cold black eyes. "You made me. I am the weapon I am today because of you."

Charles could see the idea in Erik's mind, and a smile touched his lips as Erik confirmed once again what he'd proven in chess so many times before. Erik Lensher was a very formidable opponent.

You couldn't turn your back on him for a second.

"You are my creator." Erik finished. The cable snatched the helmet off Shaw's head, and Charles and Erik savored the look of horror and understanding as Shaw realized that Erick wasn't alone.

Charles made a grab for Shaw's mind.

"Charles! Charles are you alright?!"

"Moira be quiet, I can only control this man for so long!"

Back in the wrecked jet Charles gritted his teeth. He had learned from his dealings with Emma Frost that a person's physical mutations could affect how he dealt with their mind. With Miss Frost, her diamond form made it impossible to get into her mind. It was painful to even try. Shaw couldn't repulse and injure Charles the way Emma could, he wasn't a telepath. But the incredible amount of nuclear energy Shaw had just absorbed was effectively supercharging his mind. Making it stronger, just like it made his body stronger.

In the sub, Erik pushed the girder away and let it drop to the floor. He slowly walked around Shaw and took the helmet from the cable.

No Erik! Don't! Be the better man Erik! Erick…!"

"Not that I don't trust you Charles."

And then he was gone. Charles couldn't feel him anymore, couldn't hear the voice of Erik's mind! He frantically focused all of his attention on Shaw, insinuating himself even further into the man's psyche until he could see and hear through him.

Charles slammed his hand against the side of the ruined Jet. "Damn it Erik, don't do this!"

Erik stared into Shaw's eyes. "If you're still in there somewhere. I want you to know, I agree with every word you said. Mutants are the future of mankind." He strode away a few steps, and for a moment Charles thought Erik might have reconsidered killing Shaw. But then he stopped. "Unfortunately, you killed my mother."

Charles moved away from the window, two fingers still pressed against his temple, eyes staring sightlessly ahead. "Erik, please don't do this."

Erik held up a silver coin, and Charles felt his breath catch. He knew the significance of that coin. And just as he knew Shaw through Erik, he recognized that silver mark. He had no doubt that this was the same coin from Erik's memories. Shaw recognized it too.

"Here's what we're going to do." Erik stated, his eyes cold. "I'm going to count to three. And then I'm going to move the coin."

Charles tuned out Shaw's angry thoughts. Erik! Don't do this! This won't bring you peace! Even as he thought the words, Charles remembered saying the exact same thing just the night before. To which Erik's answer had been blunt. Peace was never an option.

"One." Erik counted.

The coin left his fingers, floating slowly across the space between them. Light from the holes in the sub's hull glinted off the sliver disc. Inside the prison of Shaw's head, Shaw's thoughts morphed from angry threats to out and out panic. He redoubled his efforts to shake Charles grip.

Charles would have none of it.

All the while that silver coin floated ever closer.

Charles hoped he would never have to experience something like that ever again.

He slowly dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his cheeks as he stared vacantly ahead. Someone tried to catch him, a pretty brunet in a tan uniform, a pair of dog tags hanging around her neck. Some distant corner of his mind felt that he knew her, that he should remember her name. But the only thought he had in regards to her was that it was kind of her, trying to break his fall like that.

She kept calling him Charles.

Charles. Yes, that was his name. At least, he was fairly certain it was his name. He must know her then, if she was on a first name basis with him. Shouldn't he? She was getting worried now. He hadn't meant to worry her. Darkness was encroaching on his vision, and things didn't sound right. Words left his mouth, and he hadn't the faintest idea of what they meant.

"Help…Erik…"

"The enemy is out there my brothers and sisters!" Erik pointed out at the ships. "I feel their guns in the water. Their metal. Pointed at us." He looked toward the jet, intending to have Charles confirm for the others what Erik already knew. But Charles wasn't there. Erik felt a stir of unease.

"Where is Charles?"

Mystique's head whipped around, frantically searching for the kind young professor who had been her first friend. The little boy who had caught her stealing and had given her a home when by all rights he should've called the police. Her gold eyes met Erik's. She was supposed to protect Charles! Raven darted away to the jet. "Charles?!"

Charles didn't answer her.

Erick took three steps towards the jet and froze. He felt it. Mere seconds later he heard the reports of the guns, confirming what his mutation had already told him. The Americans and the Russians had just fired in concert, directly at the beach. Directly at them.

Erik turned to face them.

He waited patiently, letting the missiles get close, until there was no chance that he would miss a single one. Then he held out his hand. Gone was the rage that had fueled him before. Shaw was dead. From deep within his memories, he could still hear Charles' voice coaching him as he turned the satellite dish, or lifted the submarine from the depths.

The place between rage and serenity.

I found it Charles. I found it.

The missiles hung dead in the air, the rockets spent. Erik smirked. "My turn." He turned the rockets in the air preparing to send them streaking back to the ships, to wreak his revenge on those who had fired them.

"Erik!" Raven raced out of the jet, her face pale with terror. "Erik, Charles is hurt! We can't wake him!"

Erik stared at her in shock. "What?!"

She skidded to a stop at his side. "Charles is hurt. Unconscious. We can't wake him." Erik glanced at all the missiles he still held motionless in the air. Raven shook her head. "Erik. I don't have any particular reason to love humans either, but we don't have time. Charles needs us now."

Still Erik hesitated. The pitiful creatures out there had tried to kill him and his fellow mutants. It was only right that he respond in kind. But Charles… Charles needed him.

"Erik." Raven put a gloved hand on his arm, her gold eyes earnest. "What would Charles do?"

Erik stared at her, then nodded. He gave a gentle wave, and the missiles were softly lowered to the sand, laid out on the beach in neat rows. He cast one last look at the ships, then headed for the crashed Jet. "Angel, take to the sky. Warn me if they try any more nonsense."

Angel shook her head. "I can't. Havok scrapped my wing." She gave the blonde a dirty look. He shrugged, not particularly seeming to care. She'd been trying to hurt, if not out and out kill, him and Banshee.

He didn't really hold out any sympathy for her.

Erik looked to Banshee. The ginger shook his head, holding up an arm to display the burn hole in the wing of his suit. He was just as grounded as Angel was. Erik growled. "Fine. If you can't fly then get up on top of the sub and keep watch. Anyone who picks a fight with a fellow mutant will answer to me." Then he ducked into the remains of the jet.

He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it wasn't what he found.

Moira was kneeling on the floor of the jet. Charles lay against her, his legs curled as though he had been kneeling in front of her when he'd passed out. His head rested against her shoulder. Again, unease twisted Erik's gut as he realized that Charles' face was tear streaked.

His dark eyes captured Moira's. "What happened?" he growled.

She shook her head. "I don't know. He just… started screaming. Then he dropped, and I tried to catch him, but he wouldn't answer me when I called his name. I'm not sure he even knew me! He said something about you, and help, and then he passed out! I thought he meant that you needed help, but…"

"It was close, but I'm alright." Erik answered truthfully. If he hadn't realized the helmet was what protected Shaw from Charles, Shaw would've won. "Hank?"

The blue furred mutant had already moved in, checking Charles over for any more obvious injuries. He shook his head. "As near as I can tell, he's just unconscious, but I couldn't tell you why or for how long. Either way, we need to get him away from here."

"Alright." The metal manipulator looked to the mutants who had worked for Shaw. The red one, the one who looked like a demon from a renaissance painting. "You. You're a teleporter right?" The mutant nodded, flicking his tail. "How big is your range?"

"More than enough for our needs." Moira answered grimly. "He transported a general over three thousand miles in a matter of minutes. Getting us to the mainland shouldn't be an issue for him."

The red skinned mutant cast her an irritated look, but nodded agreement. Once the two lookouts were called back, he flicked his tail and held out his hands. "Link hands."

The smell of sulfur overwhelmed them as soon as they had, and reddish black smoke enveloped them. Nothing was left on the beach but the crumpled remains of a submarine, and a smashed up jet plane.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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