She had sat down on deck, folding her legs underneath her as she rested her back against the metal wall. She'd closed her eyes as he sat down beside her, his back resting against the same wall but his legs outstretched in front of him. He'd said nothing for a few moments, choosing to stay in silence.
He didn't know why he had sat beside her after. She didn't know how he could stand to be near her. She knew that she couldn't be near him for much longer. She felt disgusted about what her father had done. She was scared now. She truly was worried about her own father.
"I was a boy."
Grace managed to snap herself out of the daze which she had wanted to stay in for the rest of her days. Her gaze painfully found his well defined face.
"I was a boy when he shot my mother in front of me. I couldn't move the coin away from him. My mind wouldn't let me do it. Even when he brought my mother in, I couldn't do it. I don't know why. I look back on it. I look back on that day, and I know that I could have saved her. I could have done something to save her."
Erik paused, taking a deep breath as he explained what had happened. He never told anyone of his story. He refused to tell anyone about what had happened in the camps. He especially didn't know why he felt the need to tell the girl next to him.
She pulled the blanket around her tightly, her body shaking.
"That's why I intend to kill him," Erik said and he saw her squirm, her eyes shutting and she visibly winced. "I will kill him, and you cannot do anything to stop me."
He stood with haste, pushing himself to his feet and walking away from her. She watched him leave, his hands raking through his hair as he went. The annoyance radiated through him because of his story. The story which he should never have told her.
...
"Where is she?"
Emma rolled her eyes as she heard Sebastian snap at her again. He had been annoyed ever since he realised that his daughter had gone missing. He had rushed down to the submarine, making Azazel check her room on the way down. By then she had gone. By then it was too late.
Azazel had come back to tell Sebastian that his daughter was nowhere to be seen. It was safe to say that the red mutant had suffered the full wrath of Sebastian Shaw.
"She's with him," Emma said to him.
Sebastian was moving around the plush sitting area in the submarine whilst Emma rested on the sofa, looking to the coastguard ship which was pulling into the harbour.
"She knows everything. There's another telepath on board. He's shown her what Erik showed him." Emma admitted.
Sebastian slowly moved then, walking the length of the room with his hands balled into fists. His mind worked quickly, trying to find a way out of the mess which had been created. He could lie to her again. It would be easy enough. He could tell her that the Nazis had forced him to do it.
Grace was easy to manipulate. She always had been until college. And even now, at the age of twenty two, she still wanted affection. Sebastian could give her that to keep her on side. He didn't know why it was so important to keep her in favour with him.
He suspected it had something to do with the fact that she was his daughter, after everything said and done.
"Can you narrow down her location?"
"With ease," Emma spoke.
"Have Azazel go and collect her. I won't have her with him and his new friend."
"Of course," Emma said. "Although her mind seems to have been swayed. The telepath has gotten to her."
"Grace's mind has always been vulnerable. I doubt that will ever change for her. I'll see to it that she changes," Sebastian drawled, opening the brandy bottle on the desk. "And tell Azazel not to come back if he fails."
...
"I've never been with him since I was five." Grace explained to Charles.
He was sat next to Moira and the agent in black whilst Erik skulked around the back of the room. All that was in the small space was a desk and a few chairs which had been grabbed from other rooms on board the ship. Grace had finally begun to dry off from her time in the water, yet her body was still numb and cold.
"He put you into boarding school?" Charles checked with her.
He sat on the other side of the desk as Grace nodded at him. Her hands had begun to play with her curled hair, tugging the length of it slowly whilst she looked down to the desk. Erik had watched her for some time now. He knew that she avoided eye contact when she was nervous.
"Yeah, he said that it would be for the best. He wanted me to have the best education possible. He took me to look around colleges when I turned eighteen. That was when he said that law would be the best option for me...he said it was a safe degree to have...I agreed. I was pathetic, I know. I did it for him. I spent a year studying something I hated before I finally dropped out. I found an apartment and began waitressing for three years. Dad rarely spoke to me in that time."
Erik watched her, wondering how Schmidt could have managed to spawn a girl like Grace.
"He's manipulated you through the years," Charles told her, his gaze kind.
Raven stood at the back of the room, loitering in the corner as she watched the scene unfold in front of her. The girl was about the same age as she was, yet Raven pitied her more than anyone she had seen in Oxford.
"I never thought he was capable of this," Grace suddenly panicked, looking back to Charles. "I didn't think he could be so cruel...I mean...I look at him...I think about him, and I still can barely believe it."
"He left you alone," Erik told her, all eyes turning onto him. "He's a cruel man."
Grace caught his gaze again, her eyes widening as she did so. She continued to look at him whilst he stared back, unable to glance away from her large orbs.
Stop it, Lensherr. She is his daughter. She is his blood. She deserves no pity.
"Anyway," Moira said, "we're taking you into CIA custody until this is all over. Your father is a threat. It would be best for you to stay away from him."
Moira continued to speak about the terms of her custody and Erik found his mind wandering away. It wasn't until he saw a familiar shadow in the corner did he speak again. The red mutant made its presence known in a small noise and Erik's jaw tensed.
"Charles!" he shouted, noticing the red creature move towards Grace.
Charles looked away from the brunette in time to see the mutant. Erik moved his hand hastily as Grace fell from her chair and moved with haste, doing her best to stay away from the red mutant's extended limbs. Erik moved the lamp from the desk, hitting the mutant and causing him to vanish again.
"Get her out of here," Charles snapped, pointing to Grace.
Moira grabbed hold of the girl as the agent in black opened the door and urged them to leave. Raven quickly transformed, turning herself into a clone of the girl as she noted the red creature at the end of the corridor. It looked at the pair of them, trying to weigh up which was the original.
"Who are you?" Charles demanded to know, pushing his way to stand in front of the huddled group. He pressed his fingers to his temple, trying to control the mutant, but it vanished again. Grace began to grip hold of Moira's upper arms harshly before Azazel reappeared in front of Raven.
The cloned girl moved to hit him, but he grabbed her wrist, his tail sinking into her side and she yelled out, turning into her blue form again.
"Raven," Charles called out, his mind distracted as he saw his sister collapse to the floor.
Azazel tossed her aside and advanced towards the real Grace Shaw, disappearing as he went. Moira dragged the girl further back down the corridor whilst Erik looked around, waiting for the red creature to show himself again.
It took only a few seconds before he did. His hand slapped Moira with harshness, the shock of his appearance catching her off guard. Azazel grabbed Grace's wrist, only to be stopped by Erik.
The metal bender took hold of his other wrist, punching him across the face as Grace tumbled from his hold. Erik grabbed onto her waist, drawing her back down the corridor and staying a safe distance from the mutant. He moved his hand outwards, the rage encompassing him as he moved his open palm to the ceiling and made it fall downwards, the metal crumbling down and hitting Azazel.
Erik continued moving back, Grace moving behind him as he went. The ceiling continued to crumble on the mutant and Azazel knew that he had to disappear again. He had no way of getting to the girl. He could feel the telepath trying to control his mind, only failing due to the falling ceiling interrupting his efforts.
Azazel's eyes caught Grace's before he vanished once and for all.
Erik didn't entirely believe he had gone. He kept his arm around Grace's waist whilst she panted for breath, the shock of what had just happened still coursing the adrenaline through her veins.
"Has he gone?" Charles was the one to ask.
He was still knelt by Raven, looking at the shallow wound. He saw the bent metal on the floor as Erik and Grace stood the other side of it.
"I don't know," Erik called back.
The agent in black tended to Moira, making sure that she was safe.
Grace looked around, her eyes scanning every possible area there was. She didn't believe that Azazel would be gone for long. All that it took was one touch. One touch and she was back with her father. Back with the man who had lied to her for so long.
"I should have gone with him," Grace whispered, only Erik hearing her. "He'll be back...he'll come...and hurt them..."
"No," Erik shook his head. "What do you think would have happened if you went with him?"
"No one would have been injured," Grace said, her eyes looking at Raven.
Erik moved his hand to grab hold of her chin, drawing her gaze to his. Grace couldn't help but think of how soft his hands were as they held her clammy skin.
"So long as you stay here then he is weak," Erik told her. "That means we have more of a chance to catch him."
Grace searched his gaze as he dropped his arm from her waist, his hand still holding her chin as he moved to stand in front of her. She continued to look into his harsh eyes, trying to figure him out as a gulp ran down her throat.
"You mean to kill him?" Grace whispered and Erik arched a brow.
"And would you try to stop me after everything he did to me?" Erik asked from her. He received no reply from her. He supposed that made a difference instead of listening to her yell at him. "You're going nowhere, Grace. I promise you that."
He moved his hand from her chin, running the back of it down her cheek in a smooth motion. She shivered at his touch before he grabbed her elbow and steered her back down the corridor. If the mutant came back for her then he would be taking Erik with him. He didn't intend to let go of the thing that could take him straight to Schmidt.
...
A/N: Thanks to anyone who is reading! I do hope you will let me know what you think so far!
