Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters
The bomb explodes and the world explodes with it.
Erik holds tight to Charles with one hand, the other clenched into an immovable fist, holding their metal prison in place around them. The outside world shatters to pieces but Erik holds firm against the onslaught. He fancies he can hear screaming outside, imagines Moira standing where they left her, skin melting from her face and bones blowing into ashes, but it's only the ringing in his ears.
Charles trembles beneath his arm. One of the boys sobs quietly in the silence.
The heat beneath the metal sheets is unbearable but Erik is unwilling to shed away their protection. Charles' skin blisters against him, Hank pants somewhere in the darkness, Erik sweats and grits his teeth and tightens his fist because he can feel his control on the metal slipping. Charles shifts like he's about to speak but Erik clamps him against his side and the telepath falls silent.
It's an age before anyone makes a sound.
It's Sean, of course, who speaks first, and Erik thinks that he's the one who was crying because his voice is thick and choked with tears.
"Is it over?" he asks in a tremulous voice and Erik suddenly feels guilty though he doesn't know why. 'It's because you wanted this,' a traitorous voice whispers in the back of his mind and he savagely pushes the thought away because he hadn't really. Not like this.
Charles shifts beside him and reaches out a comforting hand through the dark to grip the boy's arm reassuringly. "I think so," he whispers and Raven starts to cry. Erik can hear Sean's shuddering breath and suddenly he feels angry and ashamed. He wants to crush the metal down around them and keep them there forever.
'Erik,' Charles reaches tentatively towards his mind, 'I think we can come out now, if you would be kind enough to -' but Erik interrupts him with a growl. He can feel Alex's back pressed against his arm, can see Hank's blurry shape in the darkness. He feels protective, possessive, doesn't want to let them go.
'There is only horror out there,' he thinks and he can feel the calm rolling off of Charles like he's fooling them. But Erik can feel the panic in his mind when Charles reaches out to him again. 'We're safer in here.'
'I know,' Charles agrees and Erik is surprised, feels like he's won an important argument. 'But we can't stay here forever.'
X - X - X
The world is utterly different now. It's dark, though it isn't night yet and ash filters through the air like snow. The wispy grey particles fall soft as feathers to the earth; tangle in Sean's pale lashes, cling to Raven's crimson hair, coat Hank's fur until he looks like a yeti. Erik thinks he might laugh but the smell and the sight reminds him of the camps, of burning flesh and wide frightened eyes, so he concentrates on not being sick instead. Alex is watching him carefully, holding Charles' arm like he doesn't quite trust Erik not to fuck things up and suddenly Erik just wants to climb back into his little metal dome and hide there until he dies.
Charles is staring blankly at a blackened smudge on the earth and Erik knows with a sickening certainty that this is all that remains of Moira MacTaggert. Raven staggers to Charles' side, wraps slender limbs around him and buries her face in his neck. There is a soft thump as Sean falls to his knees. Erik can hear him praying almost silently under his breath. Charles doesn't speak but a tear slides down his cheek and hangs, shimmering, from the soft curve of his jaw.
"They're gone," Charles whispers, sounding bewildered, and Sean makes a choking noise where he's kneeling in the ash. Alex is still clinging to Charles' arm but Erik suspects it's for his own reassurance now - sees right through the boy's tough-guy facade to the scared kid underneath. "They're gone," Charles repeats and Erik feels irrational anger flare in his chest because Moira is dead and they can't change that now. They're still alive and Charles needs to remember that.
"Don't just stand there Charles," he snaps, and he knows he's being unfair but he can't bring himself to care. "We need to move, get off this island." He grips Sean firmly by the elbow and pulls the boy to his feet, keeps his hand on his arm once he's standing because he's frightened that he'll just collapse again if Erik lets him go. Hank shifts closer to him, until he can feel his fur tickling the bare skin of his arm. Alex and Raven look up simultaneously and they're all staring at him with wide, terrified eyes, looking like little lost kids. Erik feels the urge to wrap them in his arms and protect them from the world. Charles doesn't look at him but he moves into action, and Erik is glad because he needs him, even if it scares him to admit it.
X - X - X
He can't remember how they got off of the island. It was Hank that did it, and Erik is unendingly proud of him for it. He thinks, perhaps, that this is what it feels like to be a parent, only Erik wouldn't know because he's never been one before. He can't help feeling proud anyway and he tells Hank as much when they make it to the mainland, still in one piece, if a little shaken. The boy beams at him and Erik smiles back and for a moment he forgets that the world has been blown to pieces.
X - X - X
It's cold. 'Colder than it has any right to be,' thinks Erik as he huddles closer into his jacket. Raven had found the coats - had slipped into an abandoned house and found them secreted in a cupboard beneath the stairs. They had survived the explosion, mostly, and Erik is immensely glad of them now in the frigid night.
Charles rolls over until he's leaning against Erik and presses his freezing hands to the small of the metal-bender's back. Erik flinches at the unexpected touch, grimaces as Charles leaches away his heat, greedily spreading his hands across Erik's skin.
There's a small commotion at the back of the shelter that Erik had scouted out earlier that night and suddenly Raven's beside them, her eyes bright, breath misting in the cold. "You're awake," she whispers, although the boys are clearly awake too, their eyes shining in the darkness.
"Of course I am," Erik snarls, "I'm supposed to be on watch."
Charles rolls over, smiles kindly at his sister and Erik feels cold at the loss of his touch. "You're supposed to be asleep."
She huffs, pushes her way between them like a child. "I'm cold," she replies simply, curling her body tight around Charles. The telepath hums good-naturedly and strokes his sister's hair. Erik isn't surprised when Alex crawls over, a hesitant smile on his face and Sean and Hank huddled behind him. He thinks he should be, but the boys slip so easily into place beside Charles that it looks like they belong there. He smiles and for a moment it is as if they're at home - as if they're a real family.
'You haven't got a home anymore,' that vindictive voice in his head whispers and suddenly they're nothing but kids, covered in grime and ash and longing for a home that no longer exists.
X - X - X
Time passes endlessly. Hank had kept track of the days at first, counting them off in his head, announcing the tally each morning as the sun struggled through the ash laden sky. He had stopped counting eventually, though Erik can't remember why. No one remembers the day anymore.
X - X - X
He dreams - bright, vivid flashes - colours he hasn't seen in an eternity in the grey, endless winter. Blue and crimson and gold; sapphire eyes and full red lips and porcelain skin. Charles' mouth curves into a coy smile. Ash tangles in his lashes and clings to his chestnut hair. It smells like burning.
"Charles?" He asks and his voice echoes strangely in his head. The telepath turns to him with a grin, his teeth glowing in the hazy grey light.
A hand touches his arm and Erik spins around, his heart leaping into his throat. But it's only Raven, blue and naked and beautiful behind him. She smiles, presses her lithe form against him, rests her crimson head on his shoulder. Erik feels Charles' fingers wind between his own and smiles. Perhaps, he lets himself think, tonight will be a good dream.
Raven peels away from him and he watches the sway of her hips as she moves. Someone laughs teasingly, light and easy like a bird. Erik tries to catch the sound but it slips away from him. He thinks of Sean because he's the only one who laughs anymore, but he can't bring the boy into focus. There's too much ash in the air.
Charles lets go of his hand and suddenly Erik is lost. The colours are dying around him, smothered in ash and dirt and suffering. Great iron gates loom out of the shadows and he reels back, a startled gasp on his lips. The air itself seems to scream.
The children stare back at him from behind the twisted metal. No one is smiling anymore. Raven reaches slender limbs through the gate towards him and Hank roars desperately beside her, thrashing against the iron like a drowning man. She flickers - flits from form to form - his mother, his father, a thousand faceless humans screaming in agony. Pain flares in Erik's chest and he lunges for her. He's shouting but he can't hear the words past the screaming in his ears and someone is holding him back, strong arms like steel around him. Erik writhes helplessly in their grip, reaching for his family and the metal of the gates shrieks and bends.
"Erik stop!" A voice commands, sounding far away in the darkness. He slumps against his restraints. His face is damp and he hadn't realised he was crying but now he can feel the strangled sobs choking in his throat. Charles' face materialises above him and, God, he wants to wake up.
"I'm going to count to three Erik," Charles whispers and Erik jerks convulsively against him, "and all you have to do is move the coin."
Erik tries to speak but he can't fit the words past the lump in his throat. The telepath grins and a silver coin slips between his scarlet lips like a breath. Erik blinks at it stupidly, his chest tight with fear.
"One." The coin trembles against his mouth. "Two." Erik reaches blindly for the slip of metal, knows he can move it because he's done this a thousand times. "Three." The coin falls, flashing in the weak sunlight like a warning and the metal-bender grasps at it as it slips through his fingers. Ash puffs up in a cloud of grey when the coin hits the earth and Charles explodes into a thousand bloody pieces.
X - X - X
They've been walking for so long that Erik no longer recognises where they are. They never stop in any one place for longer than a day and they scavenge any food they can find. So far they haven't met another living soul.
X - X - X
Alex is sick. He struggles to keep up as they trudge through the barren wasteland. Erik can hear his laboured breathing, the rattle of his chest as the air tangles in his lungs. He watches the boy surreptitiously. Alex's lips shine with spit, his mouth gapes open as he gasps for breath, his forehead is slick with sweat. He stops and a hoarse cough racks his thin frame.
Blood slips from his parted lips and trickles down his chin like a crimson tear.
Erik stops abruptly, his heart squeezing painfully in his chest. 'Charles,' he thinks, reaching out for his friend because this can't be happening. Not now. Not when they've survived for so long.
'I know.' The telepath is already at the boy's side. His hand on Alex's back is soft and reassuring, he touches his face gently like a kiss, wide blue eyes radiating concern. Alex tries to push him off but he doesn't have the strength.
"Alex?" Hank's voice is rough from disuse, like a growl.
"I'm fine," Alex pants, though he isn't. More blood slips to the ground and the barren earth greedily drinks it up. Alex slumps against Charles as if he can't manage to stand.
Erik watches him carefully, considering. They can't go any further today, don't need to, Erik doesn't even know where they're headed. "We'll find somewhere out of the way, where you can rest. As long as it's safe we can stay there untill you're better." He doesn't say what he's really thinking, but he can see the words as clearly in Charles' expression as if he had spoken them - until you're dead.
Alex tries to push himself up again, grits his teeth, and when he snarls his mouth is slick with blood. "I'm fine," he says again, despite the fact that he's clinging to Charles like a child.
"It's not like we have anywhere to be," Sean says, trying to sound light-hearted. But his voice shakes when he speaks and his face is solemn and scared.
Alex acquiesces, slumps weakly against Charles. The telepath shudders and when he looks up at Erik his eyes are haunted.
X - X - X
Blood spills over Hank's shoulder. The boy pauses, looks down at the crimson stain on his chest with wide, frightened eyes and Erik can practically feel the panic rolling off of him in waves. Alex shudders against the blue mutant's back and retches again.
"Professor?" Hank whispers, turning to the telepath for reassurance, but Charles has none to offer.
"Lay him down," he says quietly instead and Hank rolls the boy carefully off his back. Alex doesn't stir. His chest rises shallowly and blood bubbles at the corner of his mouth.
"We shouldn't have moved him," Erik growls. Sean's head jerks towards him and the metal-bender cringes at the hopelessness in his own voice.
"We didn't have a choice," Charles replies calmly. He strokes Alex's hair off of his sweat-slicked forehead; his whole body is shaking and when he glances up Erik can see the abject fear in his face. He shudders, remembering the same fear as they had hidden in the darkness of their hiding spot, Erik's hand pressed cruelly against Alex's mouth because the boy was breathing loud enough to wake the dead. They hadn't been able to stay there once they'd been discovered.
Raven kneels beside them and touches Alex's face gently, like a mother. She's crying already, tears shimmering like crystals on her grimy cheeks. Alex's eyelids flicker at her touch but he doesn't have the strength to open them. His chest heaves.
"It's OK Alex," Charles whispers, his voice so choked that Erik can barely make the words out. He lays his hand across Alex's forehead and shuts his eyes. The boy moans before finally falling silent. His chest hitches, then goes still. His entire body relaxes.
'No!' Erik's vision is blurry and when he blinks he feels hot tears on his cheeks. He swipes angrily at his eyes, ashamed, and his chest hurts like his ribs are broken. Beside him Sean makes a choking sound and falls to his knees. Erik thinks he might be praying. 'No, no, no,' the word reverberates in his head because he hadn't cared about Moira, or the others, but he cares about Alex and this is fucking killing him.
"Is he -?" Hank stops, unable to say the word, and he sounds small and scared and vulnerable. Raven covers her face with her hands and keens. The sound pierces Erik's chest like an arrow.
Charles stands and he doesn't look at Erik but the metal-bender can see the pain in his friend's haggard face. "He isn't suffering anymore."
Sean sobs brokenly and ashy tears drip down his cheeks and melt into the bare, greedy earth.
Alex dies silently and the world keeps on turning.