Oh my goodness, words can't express how happy your response to this story have made me! To everyone who has read, especially those who have favourited and followed - thank you so much! And to those wonderful people who have left me a review, I love you all so much!
I'd forgotten how wonderful it feels to be validated by strangers on the internet, and your response definitely gave me a boost when writing this!
This chapter is a bit shorter than the last one (and a bit more boring I think), but the story should pick up in the next chapter - which should be posted on Thursday or Friday.
I know I haven't written in quite a while, so constructive criticism is more than welcome from all of you.
Thank you so much, and on with the story!
Chapter Two
It takes just under half an hour – and two … not entirely legal changes of car – to arrive at Warsaw airport, but instead of making their way straight into the terminal, he sits for just a moment – allowing Nina a few final minutes in the escape of sleep before he has to wake her up again.
But they only have so long before everybody in the world is looking for him, and he has got to get at least out of Poland before that happens.
Buying plane tickets for the both of them is easier than he remembered, although many years had passed since he had needed to fly on a commercial plane – and the passports for Henryk and Nina Gurzsky (the passports he would consider most 'real') were accepted without question.
Their tickets were to Paris – it being the first flight out of the airport that was destined for a vaguely useful airport – and they almost don't have enough time to make it to the plane before departure, managing to be the last two people to board the flight.
Still tired, even the thrill of her first time on an aeroplane could not keep Nina awake for longer than twenty minutes after take-off, and she had soon drifted off once again.
Erik on the other hand remained awake and perfectly motionless for the entire two hours of the flight, the feel of the metal humming beneath his skin. It had been a long time since he allowed himself to truly feel the extent of his powers, and even if he wasn't manipulating the metal, it was exhilarating none the less.
When the plane lands, their limited luggage and Erik's many years of experience with the … less savoury side of the law allows them to disappear into the crowd of Charles de Gaulle airport within minutes, even at the current late hour.
He procures a second pair of passports from within the suitcase – this time claiming them to be Max and Annette of West German origin – and two tickets for a flight to London that departs within two hours are soon bought as well.
This second flight is even less eventful than the first, with the vast majority of the passengers at least dozing on the hour and a half long flight – with the marked exception of one incredibly inebriated English passenger, which was an interesting sight for Erik to watch as time slowly passed, due to his reluctance to close his eyes for even a moment.
Leaving the plane at close to half midnight local time, Erik allowed himself to loiter more so than he had following the first flight, with Nina fast asleep in his arms.
It was because – he rationalised to himself – whilst he had been operating on instinct until this point, he wasn't sure what his next course of action should be.
Actually, that was very much not true – he knew what he had to do, he had always known what he had to do. He just didn't particularly want to admit it.
However much he may wish to deny it, Erik knows there is only one place that is truly safe for mutants. And that means he must face demons he ran away from – unashamedly and as fast as he could – almost exactly ten years ago.
It was back to Westchester - back to Charles - he had to take himself.
The tickets for the final flight are bought shortly after – at a price he considers inordinately expensive for a flight that leaves a five in the morning, although to be fair, he is buying them at one in the morning on the same day, so that possibly factors into the cost.
According to their passports, they are Americans this time and (as far as the overly cheerful woman who sold them their tickets is concerned) needing to get home in a hurry following the sudden death of a family member.
It isn't too far from the truth, if you fudged the meaning of the word 'home', and the location of the dead family member.
Eight hours, a voice in his head supplied, eight hours since she died.
He ignored the voice, knowing that if he acknowledged his grief just yet, he would be of no use to any one, least of all his daughter.
Hours pass in silence, business men and holiday makers passing by, arriving and departing, and living their own lives, with their own hopes and dreams and wishes, without the merest thought that a wanted terrorist was sat only feet away from them.
It's almost three in the morning when they arrive. He doesn't recognise any of them – not that it was surprising, given his incredibly limited contact within the mutant world for the last decade – but they were obviously mutants, the kid with wings and blue skinned … man (Erik thinks it's a man – or at least, he's reasonably sure it's not a woman) gave that away easily enough.
But that doesn't explain what they were doing in Heathrow airport, having obviously singled him out, nor how they had found him in the first place.
The spiel reeled off by the blue skinned leader is one that he obviously believes – and one that Erik himself had subscribed to only a few years' prior – subjugation of humans, mutants ruling the world, taking their rightful place and so on and so forth.
It would have been so easy to go with them; to continue what he had attempted a decade before – especially if he had no daughter to tie him to any particular plan. But he did have a daughter, did have a Nina – and the front lines of a war was no place for a child, and definitely not a place for his child.
So when offered the chance to follow them into the glowing purple light, and a new future for the strongest of mutant kind, Erik forces Magneto down and turns his back.
They don't force him to come, but he can feel their … pity on his back until the quartet has disappeared.
It is at that point the boarding call for their flight to New York is announced and Nina stirs into wakefulness again, forcing Erik to put the weird encounter out of his mind.
It's a long flight – over eight hours – and it's been a very long time since he had to fly for such a long period of time in such confined positions such as the economy portion of a commercial flight.
His penchant for rich friends, he mused silently, had some unintended consequences.
It was amusing to him in an 'I haven't slept in over a day' sort of way.
Once again, he didn't allow himself to sleep, didn't allow himself to take his eyes off his daughter for longer than milliseconds at the time, contenting himself with watching the jet black of the pre-dawn sky slowly bleeding into the brightness of day, as the sun rose.
It's as they are about to exit the airport that Erik notices the news report entirely by accident – the purple of his suit from the day of his misguided attempt to secure a mutant future, catching his eye as he passes the television screen.
The callousness with which the reporter discusses not only his previous … less sensible plans, but the death of his wife and the officers who had killed – going as far as to be stood outside his home. He knew reporters would make their way there eventually, once they heard of Magneto's whereabouts, but he hadn't thought it to be so soon.
At least, he reasoned – walking away before he did something he would regret and would endanger not only himself but Nina as well – in addition to there being no mention of a daughter in the reporter's narrative, they would have found Magda quickly, that she would be able to have a proper burial, despite himself and their daughter not being able to be there.
The winter sun was bright as they finally exited the airport – only eight o'clock in the morning, despite their internal body clocks insisting it was closer to two in the afternoon.
"No English," he told Nina quietly in Polish, as they headed towards the taxi stand, the more legal method of making their way to Charles' home when compared to … borrowing someone else's car.
It's easier than he would have thought to hail a cab – whilst everybody appears to be on edge for the appearance of Magneto, no one suspects Erik. Privately, he thinks it probably has something to do with the beard, the lack of purple attire, and the daughter – and they are off on their journey in only a matter of minutes.
Erik doesn't dwell on the ease that he remembers the address of the mansion, despite the many years that had passed since he had visited.
An exaggerated Polish accent, ensured that the driver didn't try to talk to either of them too much during the just over an hour long trip – and allowed Nina to fall asleep yet again. It was beginning to worry Erik how much she was sleeping, but there were many different ways to begin the process of grieving, and at least it was a bloodless method. Besides – at least one of them was sleeping, Erik mused as he realised he was approaching 36 hours without sleep.
The father and daughter duo are dropped them off at the gates to Charles' refurbished school – the gates that are supposed to only open with a code, but which Erik obviously made quick work of.
It's only a short walk of a few hundred metres to the front door, but Nina has no real desire to walk, and he has no real desire to allow her out of his grasp – so it's no real strain on him to carry her in one arm, while he carries their suitcase in his other.
He can hear the playful yells of children somewhere nearby, but he cannot see them – and not for the first time, he wonders what the completed 'mutant school' looks like – whether it was as impressive as his and Charles' late night discussions over twenty years ago had intended it to be.
Pausing for only a moment, he made the metal door knocker rap itself, and braced himself for whomever would open the door.
It's Hank that ends up opening the door – noticeably not blue again – and the younger man's smile drops away when he sees just who has appeared at the doorstep.
Erik's face remained perfectly bland – at least on the outside.
"I don't suppose the Professor is in."
Thank you for reading, and please leave me a review!
Mia.