Apologies for the tremendous delay. Hopefully you'll enjoy this one! Full of action, angst and coolness!

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The 'Go To Hell' Conversation

The peaceful darkness abruptly made place for the horrid present when two knees fell onto his stomach with great force, knocking him conscious. Charles let out a pathetic sound as only a resemblance of the pain he felt. It soon appeared to be too much when he felt his mind retrieving him back to the nothingness he had been in for almost two weeks. Two hands pressed against his clavicles prevented that though.

"Wakey wakey." Charles groaned before he finally faced the head lingering above him for a fourth time. And probably the last.

Elison checked him over, pleased to see the mutant was coming back to the living. Only to put him back to sleep for good. When the impatience built up, he went for the another boost to wake the telepath up completely.

The skin underneath his hands began to warm up and soon blisters were forming on it. Only when the mutant cried out in pure agony, his hands turned cold again.

"So, you were planning on escaping all along, weren't you?" Charles didn't respond but remained motionless since he was too tired and weak to struggle.

"Care to tell me who your friend is?" He swayed his head to the right and the professor moved his head too. Only then he took notion of the still unconscious form of Erik's body. No.

"You…." His lungs didn't allow him to say more. The CIA agent grinned.

"You what? You want to tell me something?" Without the ability to speak, move or fight, Charles felt helpless and defeated once again. Another wave of heat was sent through his body, two new burn marks developing on his scarred chest. He couldn't bring up the effort to scream again. Instead, he felt his eyes watering up.

Elison's face was now inches away from his' and Charles retched from the smell coming out of the agent's mouth. The smell of pure hatred.

"Now… I asked you a question, 99. If I were you I'd want to live so you better answer me. Who's your friend and what's his ability?" Charles held his tears back, not wanted to give the other man the pleasure of seeing him broken. Never would he see him broken.

"I'm counting to three before there will be consequences." The telepath felt the anger now. Anger so strong he had never felt before.

"One…" He now knew why Erik always had been so full of anger. Why his life had the sole purpose of killing someone who didn't deserve to live.

"Two…" Erik had been through this suffering for years, he only for some weeks. Years of mindless suffering and torture at the hands of someone who clearly was completely insane. But it wasn't just the torture. It was also the loneliness. Sooner or later, everyone who endured such a thing was sure to believe he was indeed a monster like their captures told them so. A monster not supposed to live happily among the others. Among the humans. Those people were so mean and cruel that they were able to let us self believe we are the bad ones, the wrong people, the aliens… the mutants.

"Three…" The realisation hit him with a new force of energy. They were never able to live among the humans. Everyone would see them as different, and everyone would always hate them just like this guy Elison was hating them. And although not everybody would imprison them or do things to them that couldn't see the light of day, they would never be safe and happy. Never.

With that thought, he let the burst of energy leave his mouth with his last words. It came out smoothly and serene.

"Go to hell."

Elison now slowly stood up, his feet next to Charles' legs. His expression was playful.

"Well, well well. No need to be so rude, my dear." He saw that the agent held his hands up, palms facing the ceiling. Small balls of fire were developing en were growing bigger every second. In any other situation, Charles would've been intrigued by the guy's ability, the fact that his hands didn't burn and didn't even turn red. But now that he was facing death, his curiosity has left him, being replaced by a surprisingly calm feeling.

He had tried. Maybe not hard enough, maybe not long enough, but at least he had tried. He had put Raven to safety, and even the doctor would now be able to return home, reunite with his wife. Charles didn't mind to die now, because it would be okay. Everyone and everything would be okay. He was roughly pulled out of his dying thoughts when the other man started speaking again.

"I told you there'd be consequences. You'll pay for this." The telepath closed his eyes, awaiting for his faith to come. Elison saw the peaceful look on the mutant's face and his anger boiled up. He wasn't about to give this guy a peaceful death.

The fire never came. He was confused when, after a long silence, not the sound of burning skin filled the air around them, but a voice. He opened his eyes again, and was filled with shock and terror.

Elison was now pointing his hands towards the unconscious Erik, and Charles panicked. No, no no. Not him. Not Eric. Not my everything.

"Let's make this a little game shall we. Do you care more about your friend than yourself, 99?" Charles was too shocked to respond.

"Let's find out." The fireballs rose up in the air, angrily pointing towards his friend's face. Charles felt his body starting to tremble violently but Charles couldn't acknowledge the pain, completely consumed by fear and anger. A sudden tingle started in the big toe of his left foot, slowly becoming more pronounced when the trembling continued. The feeling in his left leg returned when the tingle, driven by adrenaline, made its way towards his hip.

Just when Elison was about to release the fire, Charles' left leg started to move. One violent movement to the right and his foot ended up in Elison's calf. The agent lost his balance and fell sideways with a surprising cry. The balls of fire made it ways towards the other end of the hallway, missing Erik's head within a hair's length to end up in the wall. The wall started to smoulder, a fire started to develop.

The loud noise and the warming heat caused Erik to stir and he slowly made his way back to the present. He felt the cold concrete against his right cheek while the left side of his head was heating up and a sharp pain entered into his skull. He blinked with his eyes to grow accustomed to the bright light.

When his vision returned to him, the sight before him was a scene alike one of his worst nightmares.

Elison was stumbling onto his feet, his face red with anger, a droplet of sweat dripping down his temple. He growled something unintelligible before he faced the man on the floor next to him. Between the bright flashes of the fire starting to develop in his hands, Erik saw Charles' face imbedded in sweat, his gaunt chest filled with new burn marks only ever so slowly rising up and down. Up and down, up and down. His friend was facing him, his eyes now locking with his'. A shudder cursed through Erik's body when he saw the empty eyes, drowned from every string of life. Eyes who were lingering towards death, not towards life.

With a loud scream he didn't recognize as his own, he threw his hand up, and all the metal around the agent's body caused him to be violently hit against the wall. Again, the balls of fire had escaped his hands, now missing Charles' head with mere inches.

Erik swung to his feet, pushing the head of the CIA more and more into the wall. He heard the guy beg and scream for his life when Erik's large hand squeezed around the man's neck, forcing the air out of him.

"Please.. please don't kill me. I didn't mean any harm. I was trying to protect you. To protect us. Please…" Erik gritted through his teeth while pushing his fingernails more into the skin of the agent's neck. He saw the man struggling to get air while his eyes sent out a pleading cry of help.

"Your begging is pathetic. You are pathetic. I should put you out of your misery once and for all." His voice was full of control and calmness. Erik had been looking forward to this exact moment for so long, for as long as he had been separated from Charles. From the only one who had ever meant something to him in his life after his mother's death.

"No, you don't understand, I wanted us good mutants be safe from the ones like that one." Erik followed Elison's gaze to where Charles was lying.

"Don't you see? He exposed us. He showed his ability to the normal people and ended up killing them. I prevented him from doing any further harm." Erik felt it difficult to turn away from the telepath's ragged body but faced the CIA agent nonetheless, hissing under his breath.

"Prevented it by taking away his ability? Taking away his only way of living.. his destiny?" Elison was still struggling for air since Erik didn't lose his grip for a second.

"I took away his ability so nobody would ever know he had one. I could explain to the rest of the world that it had all been a mistake, that there's no such thing as mutants and the rest of us could keep living in peace like we did before all this happened." The magnet's eyes were spitting fire and his grip tightened. Elison eyes grew wide with shock and confusion, still believing in his own strategy.

"You really think they would believe you? They saw it with their own eyes… And even if they did believe you… You have no right to take away a part of someone's life, the best part. We wouldn't even need be to hiding at all if there weren't people like you." Elison was getting desperate now, feeling his own ending coming closer with every argument he lost.

"But he killed a woman, a cop! He fired those missiles to hundreds of innocent humans! He deserves to die and to rot in hell!" Erik closed the distance between them, finally letting a smile escape his lips. The power he had felt when he had killed Shaw, the moment of magnificence filling his entire existence… the magnet felt exactly the same at this moment.

"See, you're wrong about that. You're wrong about everything, you know. He sacrificed himself for our sakes, even for yours. He claimed to be responsible for the murder of that disgusting human being of a CIA agent, a lowlife. He…", Erik now pointed at Charles with his free hand, "wanted you to blame him for something he didn't do. Because… he didn't kill her. He didn't turn those missiles towards the ships. I did."

If it wasn't for the shock it was from the lack of air that Elison was looking up in shock and terror towards the tall and slim Erik Lensherr. He finally gave in to the pressure and let out his last breath while his eyes were still filled with horror and disbelief.

Suddenly finding the man in his arms disgusting, Erik quickly retrieved his hand from the man's neck, the limp figure of the CIA agent making a loud thud when it made contact with the floor. Only then, Erik allowed himself to look at Charles, who hadn't moved an inch since the ordeal, his eyes now closed. The magnet kneeled down and was relieved to find his chest still rising, although dangerously slow.

With caution, Erik shoved his arms underneath the small body, easily lifting him off the ground. While he started walking towards the exit with a slow pace, he felt the adrenaline wearing off, his own eyelids becoming heavy and his muscles aching while his head started pounding hard. But when he looked at the figure in his arms, he was determined to set himself aside and do everything in his power to bring Charles to safety. His Charles.

Erik found himself mumbling while he made his way to the exit that was already cleared by Raven, the doctor and the other mutants.

"Everything is going to be okay, Charles."

Everything is going to be okay.


Do you agree with Erik? Will everything ever be okay? Let me know!