And here we are. Wow! I can't believe it. Enjoy!
Chapter 9
Maurice helped Charlotte back to her feet when she had collapsed from the pain. Together, they ran out of the jet and onto the beach just as Erik came out of the sub, levitating Shaw's body for everyone to see. Charlotte could feel everyone's fear and horror: Hank, Alex, Sean, Raven, Angel, Riptide, Azazel, Maurice, and her own as Erik dropped Shaw's body on the sand.
"Today our fighting stops!" he yelled. He levitated himself to the ground, looking at all the mutants. "Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters. The real enemy is out there!" He pointed at all the ships out in the sea. "I feel their guns moving in the water. Their metal targeting us. Americans, Soviets, humans, united in their fear of the unknown." He walked out towards the ships, Charlotte following. "The Neanderthal is running scared, my fellow mutants!" He looked at her. "Go ahead, Charlotte. Tell me I'm wrong."
Charlotte sensed the thoughts of the Americans and Soviets out in the water, preparing to fire all their missiles on the beach where nine mutants and one human were standing. She couldn't tell Erik he was wrong and that's what hurt her. She nodded at Maurice, and he ran back to the jet, trying to call off the attack. Charlotte could feel and hear his desperation then hopeless shock. She looked back at the ships as they fired their missiles. They came souring at the mutants on the beach. Charlotte could feel everybody's fear, but Erik's because of his helmet.
Just when the missiles were about to hit them, Erik held his hand out, feeling the metal the missiles were made out of and stopped them. He held them hanging in midair above their heads.
Charlotte could feel the fear and astonishment from the humans in their ships as they saw this.
Then Erik turned the missiles facing back to the ships.
Charlotte felt her throat tighten as she realized what Erik had planned to do. "Erik, you said yourself we're the better men. This is the time to prove it," she tried to tell him, but he didn't listen. She had to make him see the insanity and brutality in this. "There are thousands of men on those ships! Good. Honest. Innocent men!" They had lives, had friends, families, and loved ones. "They're just following orders!"
"I've been at the mercy of men just following orders," Erik's reply was sharp as a knife. He looked at her, and Charlotte felt her heart freeze. He wasn't Erik, the man she loved. He was Magneto. "Never again."
He launched the missiles back at the ships.
"Erik, release them!" Charlotte demanded. She could feel the fear of the men on the ships, screaming at her, thinking of loved ones as they resigned themselves to their deaths. She wanted it to stop.
She had to make it stop.
"No!"
She tackled Erik to the ground with all her strength, taking him by surprise. They collided on the sand. She tried taking the helmet off his head. She was smaller and weaker than him. He had the advantage. Her only chance was to get inside his mind and stop him. She couldn't let him kill all those men. She wasn't fast enough to remove the helmet before Erik recovered from her attack.
"I don't want to hurt you. Don't make me!" Erik growled. He elbowed her in the face, pushing her off him and onto the sand. Charlotte gasped, winded and in pain. Erik saw the children move in to help Charlotte. "Stand back!" Using the metal in their suits, he flung them back.
Charlotte's fury was ignited. She fought Erik, despite the fact that he was stronger than her, and tried to rip the helmet off his head.
He pinned her down and tried not to let her reach the helmet. "Charlotte, enough!" Some of the missiles had dropped and exploded from the distraction. Erik reached out to grab the ones that he didn't lose and resume their course to the ships, but he couldn't focus. Not when Charlotte was trying to stop him.
Charlotte's hands were on the helmet, but she couldn't get a strong enough grip to take it off. "Erik! Stop!"
Erik lost his focus for just one moment to punch her, leaving her winded, and allowing him to get off her and regain control of the missiles.
Charlotte reeled from the punch, both in shock and in pain. The missiles were getting closer. The men's fear growing even louder and causing her to stumble.
No one had noticed Maurice had left the jet until he fired shots at Erik with his gun. The first one hit Erik's helmet, bouncing off harmlessly. Erik turned to the agent as the man continued to fire at him. Erik easily deflected them. Charlotte could hear Maurice's thoughts, knowing that the effort was futile but working enough to distract Erik long enough for him to lose the missiles and save those men on the ships. Charlotte got up as Erik deflected the bullets away from him until he waved in Charlotte's direction.
Sharp, hot pain split into Charlotte's back. A loud noise filled her hearing. Who was screaming? Was that her? Maurice dropped his gun in horror. Erik felt himself freeze as he watched Charlotte fall to the sand on her stomach. Raven's hands were over her mouth, holding in the screams in her throat as she watched her sister fall down, and Erik rush to her side. Charlotte felt someone turning her on her side. The pain in her spine increased as she felt the bullet in her spine come out. She hissed in pain and tears stung her eyes.
The bullet came out crumbled and bloody into Erik's hand. Distantly, he heard the missiles he had launched at the humans exploding harmlessly in mid air, but he didn't care. Charlotte gasped in pain as Erik turned her, laying her head on his lap, his arms around her protectively. "I'm so sorry, Charlotte." He cradled her closely to him, glaring as Maurice and the children came towards them. "I said back off!" He wouldn't let anyone near her to harm her further. He would kill them first. The children stopped, worry evident in their faces. He looked at Charlotte who was in pain.
Through all the pain, Charlotte struggled not to project it onto everybody around her. She had never felt this kind of pain before and it threatened to tear her mental walls down. The fear from the men on the ships had stopped, and it was now replaced with the worry of everyone around her. She could barely focus as Erik turned his fury on Maurice.
"You." He glared at the agent whose gunshots had harmed Charlotte, the woman he loved. This human deserved to suffer. "You did this." His hand shot out towards the agent.
Charlotte felt Maurice's pain through her own and saw the dog tags around Maurice's neck tighten and begin to strangle him. She felt Maurice's struggle to breath. "No," she gasped. No more death. No more pain. "Erik… please."
Erik heard Charlotte begging him to stop, but he couldn't. He wanted this human to die.
Erik was going to kill Maurice if Charlotte didn't stop him. "He didn't do this, Erik," Charlotte said, knowing the truth would hurt him, but continued. "You did."
Erik looked at her as if she had slapped him. His hand fell down, resting over her chest, and sparing Maurice.
Charlotte was relieved when she heard Maurice gasping for air.
Erik looked into Charlotte's deep blue eyes filled with pain, sadness, and honesty that it felt like a million knives stabbing him as he realized the truth. Maurice may have fired the shot, but he was the one who directed it into her spine. He saw what he had always feared he would see in Charlotte's eyes: the look that realized that he was a monster.
Charlotte knew Erik hadn't meant to hurt her. He was only trying to defend himself, but it felt like someone had poured a bucket of icy water on her. Was this Erik? The man she met weeks ago and saved from drowning, the man who laughed with her as they played chess or helped train the children, the man who the night before she comforted and made love to? Was this the man she had fallen in love with?
Erik felt tears in his eyes as Charlotte looked at him with her sad blue eyes, making him wish the bullet had hit him instead of her. "Us turning on each other," he said thickly. The tears making it hard for him to speak. "It's what they want. I tried to warn you, Charlotte." He felt so exposed, so vulnerable as she looked at him with her tearful blue eyes. "I want you by my side. We're family, you and I. All of us, together, protecting each other." He shook her gently. "We want the same thing, Liebling."
Charlotte felt like she was drowning, both in physical and mental pain. The sadness, guilt, and pain she saw in Erik's eyes hurt her more than the bullet in her back, but she knew, sadly, that there was no other way. "My love," she said, a tear sliding down her face. "I'm sorry, but we do not."
Erik and Charlotte looked at each other with pain and regret, both wishing for things to be different.
Erik resumed the hard mask he had always worn and motioned for Maurice to come over. The agent wasted no time. Gently as they could, the men shifted Charlotte from Erik to Maurice. "Charlotte! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Maurice apologized to the woman he had become fond of these last few weeks.
Charlotte gasped painfully at the trade, feeling the guilt radiating from Maurice. "It's alright," she tried to reassure him. She struggled to keep a tight grip on her shields, but forced herself to listen through the pain as Erik addressed the others.
"This society won't accept us. We form our own. The humans have played their hand. Now we get ready to play ours. Who's with me?"
There was silence.
Erik saw Banshee, Havok, and Beast turn away from him, Angel pondering the decision, Riptide and Azazel turning to each other in silent questioning, and Raven… Raven looked like she agreed with him. He held his hand out to her. "No more hiding."
Raven walked forward. She looked at Erik, the promise of freedom, but then she saw Charlotte, her sister who had protected her all these years on the ground, injured in the human's arms. Raven found herself kneeling by her sister's side.
Charlotte opened her eyes and saw her sister next to her. Either her shields were so weak or Raven was projecting her thoughts too loudly because Charlotte could feel the conflict within her. Her longing to go with Erik, and her worry for her big sister. It was tearing Raven apart. It hurt more than Charlotte could say, but she knew she had to let her go. "You…" she breathed. "You should go with him. It's what you want."
Raven could see the pain in her sister's eyes, not just the physical pain but from this as well. She wiped a hand on Charlotte's brow. "You promised me you would never read my mind," she said tearfully.
"I know," Charlotte admitted, another tear escaping her. "I promised you a great many things I'm afraid. I'm sorry." There was nothing she could do. She wouldn't be the reason for Raven to stay out of guilt, but there was nothing else that could change her mind. However, that didn't stop her from telling her sister how much she meant to her. "I love you, Raven. Never forget that."
Raven's vision blurred with tears as Charlotte kissed her hand. She leaned down and kissed her sister's forehead before turning to Maurice. The man glared at her for causing Charlotte such pain. Raven didn't blame him. "Take care of her," she told him. He nodded.
Raven turned to Erik, glancing one last time at her sister before standing up and taking his hand. Angel, Riptide, and Azazel came and joined them. Raven looked at her former comrades: Havok, Banshee… and Beast. The only person who had understood her. "And Beast," she called out to him. "Never forget: mutant and proud."
Beast turned his head away from her. Erik looked one last time at Charlotte, his heart breaking as he saw her lying down on the sand. He loved her, and he would never be able to tell her. He turned away and nodded at Azazel. The five mutants vanished in a flash of smoke.
Tears flowed more freely from Charlotte's eyes. The pain of losing Erik and Raven overwhelming her. Alex, Sean, and Hank rushed to Charlotte's side.
"We're going to get you to a hospital," Maurice said to Charlotte as he and Hank tried to help her up.
Charlotte tried to get up when the pain in her spine increased, causing her to scream in pain.
"Wait," Hank stopped. "Charlotte, don't move, okay?"
"I won't," she automatically said. Then she suddenly realized something. "I… actually… I-I… I ca…. I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs." Over and over again like a broken record, she repeated it. All the pain she had been fighting flooded and overwhelmed her. Losing Erik, then Raven, and now her legs. Her vision blurred, and she stopped fighting the darkness and allowed herself to fall into oblivion.
000{{*}}000
Weeks later, Charlotte was finally back at the mansion. It had been a long, hard struggle but the boys had been able to take her to a hospital and transport her to New York for further treatment. There they had all learned the heartbreaking truth: Charlotte was paralyzed from the waist down and there was no chance of ever walking again. Charlotte had wanted to scream and cry, but she held it together for the boys even though on the inside she felt like a broken doll. After weeks of recovery and learning how to manage in a wheelchair, Charlotte had been released out of the hospital.
Now, she was being pushed by Maurice through the mansion's gardens. Dear Maurice, through all of this, he had stayed by her side and helped the boys take care of her. Now, his mission was done, and he would be forced to go back to the CIA.
"So, how many students do you think you'll have here once you get the academy up and running?" Maurice asked.
Charlotte smiled. "As many as I can manage. Possibly more."
They stopped in the middle of the garden. "You know, one day the government is going to realize how lucky they were to have Professor X on their side," Maurice said, coming to face Charlotte.
Charlotte laughed. "I suppose I am real professor now, aren't I? Next thing you know, my hair will be turning gray."
Maurice laughed.
"We're still on the government's side, Maurice," Charlotte told him. "We're still G-men. Just without the G."
Maurice shook his head. "No, you're your own team now. It's better. You're… X-men."
Charlotte laughed. X-men. That had a nice ring to it. She looked at Maurice. "Maurice? For us, anonymity will be the first line of defense."
Maurice kneeled before her. "I know. They can threaten me all they want, Charlotte. I'll never tell them where you are, ever," he swore.
Charlotte smiled softly. "I know you won't. I know." She leaned forward and kissed Maurice's lips. It was gentle and sweet, but nothing like the fiery passionate ones that made her heart soar with Erik, but it distracted Maurice long enough for Charlotte to erase his mind all memories of her and mutants.
As she watched him leave to go to his home, she let herself cry in despair and disgust with herself. It was for the best. She knew Maurice had developed feelings for her these last several weeks, but she couldn't return his affection. She cared for him as a dear friend, but her heart belonged to someone else. Maurice deserved someone who returned his feelings, give him a normal life, family, and happiness. Charlotte couldn't give him that.
She sobbed into her hands. Why? Why couldn't she love him? Why couldn't she love someone who cared about her and was willing to stand by her through everything? Why did she have to fall in love with someone else? Why did she have to love Erik Lehnsherr?
000{{*}}000
It was easy breaking into the CIA base. The Brotherhood easily found their way in and took out any agents that got in their way as they headed to where Emma Frost was being held. The woman heard the metal door of her cell being ripped off, and prepared for the defensive, shifting into her diamond form. A man walked in, dark cape and so familiar helmet that blocked her from reading his mind. She recognized the man who helped capture her.
"I know we've had our differences," his tone of voice telling her his dislike but willingness to work with her.
"Where's your telepath friend?" she asked.
"Gone," he answered curtly. "Left a bit of a gap in my life if I'm to be honest. I was rather hoping you would fill it." He turned his head to the door entrance. Emma followed his gaze. She recognized Azazel and Riptide and two girls with them. "Join us."
She returned her attention to the man before her, shifting back into her human form. "Erik, I believe."
"I prefer Magneto." He would forget Charlotte Xavier. Magneto would have no regrets, but Erik Lehnsherr… Erik Lehnsherr would have many regrets.
000{{*}}000
Charlotte watched the snow fall outside her study, fiddling with the necklaces around her neck.
One was the Star of David that she had found when she had been cleaning out Erik's room the day after she was released from the hospital. She had insisted to the boys on cleaning it out herself, and they had reluctantly agreed. Among those things she had found had been the Star of David she realized Erik must have made over the years.
The other necklace was a single metal rose charm. One day while Charlotte had been recovering at the New York hospital, she had woken to find it laying beside her on her bed. She knew instantly who it was from. The metal rose was made of what looked to be a red like iron. It was beautiful and it'd brought more tears out of Charlotte than any real life flower could.
Since then she had been wearing both necklaces around her neck, close to her heart. Who was she fooling? She couldn't hide it from the boys and she couldn't lie to herself. It had been over a month since she heard any news of Erik and the "Brotherhood" he had established. Just days after breaking Emma Frost out of prison, Angel had died. Rumors were going around that the government was hunting down and experimenting on mutants. Charlotte had tried to search for Erik and Raven, desperate to hear from them, and worried that something had happened to them, but Emma blocked her attempts to even see if they were alright. That was a twist of the knife in her back. Didn't they know how worried she was for them?
Charlotte took a shaky breath. She had to stop this kind of thinking. These last few days, her emotions had been everywhere, and she had been sick, throwing up every morning. Just a couple days ago at the boys' insistence she had gone to see the doctor and had yet to hear from him. These last several weeks, she and the boys had been busy preparing this mansion into a school. There was so much work to do: paperwork, construction work, supplies, and finding teachers and students. Charlotte and the boys had been working everybody to make her dream of turning this place into a school a reality. Only now did they take the break to celebrate the Christmas holiday.
A knock sounded on her study room door. "Come in."
The door opened to reveal Hank. "Dinner's just about ready."
Charlotte smiled as she gathered her papers up. "That's great. I'm starving." After days of throwing up every morning, she had finally regained her appetite and was ready to gorge herself on anything she could find.
Hank grinned, dimples showing on his blue furry face. "Well, you're in luck. For once, Sean and Alex didn't manage to burn anything."
"Well, that's a Christmas miracle indeed."
Charlotte and Hank laughed as she pulled her wheelchair away from the desk. Hank had done an amazing job building it and it was much better to the one she had in the hospital. She had just reached the doorway with Hank when her phone rang on her desk. She sighed, looking at Hank. "This will only take a minute. You can tell the boys I won't be long."
She wheeled back to her desk and answered the phone. "Xavier residence."
"Hi, may I speak with Charlotte Xavier?" the person on the phone asked.
"This is she."
"I'm your physician Dr. Collins. You came by earlier this week in regards to vomiting every morning and having severe headaches?"
"Yes," Charlotte answered.
"And a month ago and a half ago you were shot and paralyzed, yes?" the doctor asked.
"Yes," Charlotte confirmed. She saw from the corner of her eye, Hank, watching her. "Why? Do you think there's some kind of damage or infection from it?"
"No, I'm just puzzled," the doctor told her. "I've ran the test several times, but the results are the same. It shouldn't be possible."
"What?" Charlotte asked. She noticed Alex and Sean had joined Hank, and they were all looking at her with growing concern.
"According to your medical records, you were shot in the spine, lost a great deal amount of blood, and undergo two surgeries. It's astounding!"
Charlotte was losing her patience. "I know what was said after the doctors treated me, Dr. Collins. What's is it?"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Miss Xavier. It's a miracle. According to these tests, you're six weeks pregnant."
The phone fell from Charlotte's hand and it clattered on the ground.
000{{*}}000
Well, there we are. Wow! Now the fun part begins. I'm going to be working on my Silver, Scarlet, and Jade series that have scenes that take place in between the movie series. I hope you all have enjoyed this series so far. I'm going to continue to working on this with Days of future past throughout the summer, so stay tuned. Thank you all so much for all your support. It's helped me so much and cheered me on my worst days. Keep it up.