Last chapter before the epilogue!

MirrorFlower and DarkWind: Yay! Thanks! I hope you like more talking because there's a lot of talking in this chapter. Haha

icanhearthedrums: Salvador Dali was exactly what I was going for! I forgot to mention that in the comments. Thanks for reminding me. I put a note at the bottom of this chapter. :) Fingers crossed on the Days of Future Past rewrite. We'll know after this weekend. Maybe I'll wait to post the epilogue to this until after I see it so I can give a more definitive answer on whether another fic can be expected.

Chapter 18: Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves (Henry David Thoreau)

Charles appreciated the chance to get to know his friend again. He hadn't realized how long it had been since he'd truly considered Erik his friend…since he'd considered Erik anything other than Magneto really. They were both accountable for actions they shouldn't be proud of (which, unfortunately, didn't preclude that they weren't).

Onslaught, at least, seemed as willing as ever to compromise (possibly because he was getting exactly what he wanted),and Erik appeared open to accepting the same (however grudgingly). Perhaps their collaboration had helped the magnokinetic finally see that there was more to Onslaught than domination and death. There was also the issue that they had done this behind Charles' back…that Charles was unaware of what Onslaught had known. Onslaught had long been developing opinions of his own, which brought into question how dependent his alter ego truly was upon his personality. Yet, it seemed whenever one of them got too "out of whack" as Sean would say, as had occurred over the past few months, the other pulled them back. He'd need to discuss the issue with Hank. Checks and balances and what not. Speaking of-

The scientist was looking better than he had when Charles had first woken 12 hours earlier. To Charles' misfortune, both Hank and Raven had been in the lab when he'd first blinked back to consciousness with a strangled cough. The first sounds he'd heard were papers fluttering to the floor and the harsh scrape of a chair rocketing backwards before it hit the floor, casualties of Raven's haste to get to his side. The fact that Hank didn't spare the chain of papers snaking off the desk a second glance before he joined her spoke to how serious the situation had been.

After a thorough check-up that involved much more prodding than Charles had thought strictly necessary, Hank had moved to Erik. Raven had stayed by his side. To throw off the world's most powerful telepath (It's a fact. Why should we be modest about it? Onslaught had asked one day and Charles couldn't find an argument against him) was quite a feat, but here Raven was, doing just that. The woman didn't quite have tears in her eyes, though that might have been sheer force of will. Mystique doesn't cry after all. She'd barely hugged him since before Alkali Lake and he certainly couldn't imagine that his threatening to disown her had endeared him to her. Yes, they'd resolved their differences to a degree, but this?

Mystique kept her distance.

Mystique didn't allow herself to show emotion.

Mystique certainly didn't show open affection for the brother who had accepted a being she considered psychopathic.

Yet here she was, leaned over him, cupping his face with both her hands and touching their foreheads together, carefully avoiding jarring the sensors still attached to him.

"R-Raven?"

"You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice again." Her breath smelled like she'd drunk all the coffee Colombia had to offer. He almost commented on it, but the barely noticeable tremor in her voice stopped him. She pulled back, barely, just enough to look him in the eye. "Are you alright?"

"I think so. How long has it been?"

"Eight days. Eight days, Charles." She stood up. "I'm going to slap you as soon as I know your brain is healthy enough to take it."

Charles chuckled. There was the girl he'd grown up with. "I'm sorry if I worried you."

"Worried us? Worried us?! You nearly died! You-" The tears made a second surge. She stood, staring resolutely at the corner of the ceiling until they receded. "Where were you?" she finished, quieter with a touch of desperation.

He dragged a hand up and tapped his temple, the difficulty telling him that, yes, he had probably been bedridden for eight days. "Up here."

Raven scoffed and grabbed the hand at his side. The gesture, once again, startled him. He stared at the hand for a good two seconds. "I should nearly die more often."

"Don't you dare. That's not funny," she said though her smile betrayed her. The laugh that accompanied it was halfway to a sob.

They sat like that for a moment, Raven perched on the edge of his bed holding his hand, not daring to meet his gaze while he took in the emotions flickering off her. For the first time, he thought about what the past few weeks had been for her. Dealing with an attack by Phoenix, taking over as leader of the Brotherhood while Erik was out of commission, making the decision to come to her brother then being faced with the person he had become while her back was turned. Reconciling, training, leading a battle to stop the apocalypse, stopping the apocalypse but losing the brother she'd just reconciled with and her leader, dealing with the fallout and taking over the Brotherhood again while simultaneously helping run the school.

Far more than she ever should've had to deal with.

She'd handled the situation with grace. Almost anyone else would've been a blubbering mess on the floor. An overwhelming sense of pride grew in his chest. Possibly he projected it because she finally looked up at him again, puzzled.

He lugged his other hand across his stomach to put over hers. "I am truly sorry, Raven. It seems…it seems we have a lot of talking to do."

He wasn't sure it was the right thing to say. Even with his telepathy, he never knew with her. Apparently, he'd chosen wisely though because she gave a relieved exhalation accompanied by a genuine smile. "You bet we do."

Hank shuffled a few of Erik's readouts, reminding them that they weren't, in fact, the only two people in the room.

"How is he? Is he waking up too?" Raven asked.

"Not from anything I can tell. His vitals aren't in sync with Charles' anymore though."

"Our vital signs were in sync? How fascinating! All vital signs? Was there ever a point where one of us was stressed and the other counterbalanced? Did you make notes-"

"Slow down, Charles, you've barely regained consciousness," Hank said, pressing down on Charles' shoulder where he'd started to rise. "Science can wait. Right now, I just need you to tell me what you know about his condition then get some more rest."

Explaining what had happened took much less time than he thought it might. Hank nodded along, scribbling a few notes and Raven stood to the side passing glances between the two bedridden men.

"He'll wake in his own time," Charles finished. "He spent quite a while in my head after a very taxing rescue. He's situating to being in his own mind again."

Hank gave a short nod. "I know you just woke up, but you're still recovering. No leaving the bed, no strenuous telepathy. Get some more rest."

"I'll rest if you rest. You look exhausted."

"Running a school isn't easy."

"It isn't, but it helps considerably to have a full night's sleep. We're both okay. You've done a fine job with the school. Rest. Both of you."

Charles hadn't realized how much waking up and interacting with Raven and Hank had exhausted him until he woke up ten hours later. Erik still wasn't conscious. Stretching his mind, he could tell Hank and Raven weren't either, both thankfully getting the rest they deserved.

They weren't the only ones worried. It seems all of our X-Men need a good rest.

He was standing at the satellite dish with Onslaught at his side. The sky was bright blue and the trees budding and blooming, though the ground was still littered with pieces of Erik's machine and Onslaught's Cerebro as it had been last time he and Onslaught had met here. Onslaught paid no attention to the rubble now, instead focusing his hard stare on the satellite dish.

"It seems we made quite a mess of things," Charles said.

"Possibly, but it was worth it at the end. We saved the world."

"Yet it was partially our fault it was nearly destroyed in the first place and our students…they've gone through so much these past few months. How did I let myself get so wrapped up in Erik and Phoenix and you that I forgot the effect this would have on the others? They're exhausted. They're having to run a school-"

"And they're doing it. They'll face far more strenuous circumstances in the future if Erik's predictions about mankind are even halfway correct. Consider this training."

"Strenuous circumstances are acceptable. It's when they're a direct result of my actions that I take issue."

"Change is never easy, Charles. You and I both know that. We're mutants, though. We're adaptable. They may be exhausted, but they're still managing."

"It can't happen again. I can't…become you."

Onslaught turned from the dish and sat on the wall that separated them from it. "And I have no desire to become you. It's about balance. Before, when I was first created up until Stryker, you put everything you hated about yourself in me and shut it away. We ended up with Cuba and Alkali Lake. After that, you kept too much for yourself and we started to change places. Just because you accept that you have the thoughts doesn't mean you have to become them. So long as you don't deny me and what I represent of you, the balance will be maintained and we will remain in our proper places."

"And if I don't? If I lock you away again and throw away the key?"

Onslaught nudged a piece of what appeared to be Cerebro's helmet with his foot, a haughty smile unfolding across his face. "Keys are never thrown away and you've allowed me to grow far too much to lock me away. If you try, perhaps I'll turn the tables again. Come out to play."

"Let's try to avoid that, shall we?"

" Let's."

A storm cloud floated in front of the sun while Onslaught peered at the rubble in the grass. The cloud drifted a while longer then dissipated.

"We lived through our battle with Phoenix," the entity said, squinting orange eyes in the sunlight. "Now what?"

"Now, you and I continue to coexist and we hope Erik doesn't decide to return to his old ways."

"Yes, I'd hate to have to do something about him. I feel we've made such progress. He didn't try to stab me with a rafter last time we talked. It's almost as if we're friends."

Onslaught seemed pleased with himself, but the thought gave Charles pause. Now that the danger was past and the two of them weren't at imminent risk of death, everything that had driven them apart was coming back. He'd wager the same would happen with Erik when he woke. Onslaught offered him a reassuring smile, which in itself was disturbing…that Onslaught needed to be the reassuring one of the pair of them.

"It's different now," the entity said, standing again and returning to his previous observance of the dish. "You agreed to work with me in order to keep Erik in check before. Now you've accepted me in my own right. It's not just a reflection of your acceptance of yourself. You believe in Erik enough that you've taken your finger off the trigger. You've done your part. It's up to him to keep his side of the bargain."

There was nothing Charles could say to that. Charles felt he was compromising and it was up to Erik uphold their truce. Erik would feel he was compromising and that the task of upholding the truce was up to Charles. Yet the mindset that they were categorically different, always opposing one another, would do him no good. If they were to move forward, Charles would need to regain the hope that he'd once held about his relationship with Erik.

"Hank is awake and he'll be down soon. I should-"

"Yes, yes," Onslaught waved, "go talk. I'll be here."

It was both a statement of fact and a threat. I'll be here. Always waiting in the wings. They both liked the power that working together provided. Possibly too much. It was addicting…addicting enough that Charles had to push away concerns that the greater threat now wasn't Onslaught, but rather himself accepting too much of what Onslaught represented, Onslaught becoming his conscience and him becoming a monster. Balance had never been more important and, to maintain it, he would likely need Onslaught, Erik, and his X-Men to keep him aware of where he stood. No doubt his life would be difficult. Then again, he was never one to back down from a challenge.

Hank had nodded to Charles when he'd come in, then gone straight to Erik's bedside.

"It won't be long now," Charles said.

The scientist looked at the readouts again, confirming, then put them down and came to Charles' bedside, checking reflexes and his own mental readouts in silence.

"There's something else bothering you."

McCoy avoided looking at his face, instead focusing on making a few notes on his chart. "I need to see how your powers are recovering."

"Very well."

Everything that wasn't bolted down rose a foot in the air, including the beds and Hank. Hank looked decidedly unimpressed.

"You know as well as I do that it's the smaller tasks that cause you the most trouble." Everything set back in its proper place. Hank brushed off his lab coat and glanced at the equipment by Erik's bed to make sure it was still functioning properly. "Show me your control of fine detail and we'll go from there."

Paperclips and tacks shot from a table to Charles' outstretched hand, stopping a few inches from his palm before starting to weave a pattern in the air. A few wavered and shook, but they remained on their path.

"Good. Keep doing that for ten minutes."

"You're angry with me."

Hank paused then took the seat beside Charles' bed. "Not angry. Just- You gave me the school, Charles."

"I did."

"You gave me the school and then you went to your death after lying to us for two years. Magneto…he isn't the only one who feels betrayed."

One of the tacks wavered, dropped a few inches. Charles winced. It took far more effort than it should to get it back in alignment. "Loath as I am to admit it, I'm not perfect, Henry."

"I know-"

"You knew, but you didn't believe. The final step to becoming a true leader is recognizing that your mentors are as flawed as you are. I'm a powerful telepath who has been able to run a school and lead a group of talented young mutants into adulthood. That doesn't mean I don't misstep. Leaders aren't perfect. Erik and I certainly aren't. Yet here we are heading our respective groups. Perfection is not what makes leaders great. Learning from their mistakes and trying to be better is."

"I- why me?"

Puzzled amusement crossed Charles' face. "Why not? You were the obvious choice."

"It's just- I'm always in the lab. Alex is the one who leads the team."

"Which is closer to a military venture than anything else. He commands the respect and has the charisma a commander must, but those are not what one needs to run the school."

"Ororo-"

"Is much too young and inexperienced for now, though she'd be a fine second-in-command. You know how to reach out to those who don't understand mutants. Science and knowledge…that's how we will win this war, as Erik insists on calling it."

"After you two reconciled, I thought maybe…"

"Aside from the fact that I'm certain the entirety of the X-Men would have staged a mutiny had Erik taken over the school, did you really think after everything that's happened that I would choose Erik as my successor just because we came to a tentative understanding a few days beforehand? An understanding that, you should know, is very tenuous at present."

Hank remained silent, fidgeting like he had back in the early days of their acquaintance.

Charles continued, "Above all, the school is to be a place of peace and learning where we teach co-existence and cooperation. As much as I value Erik and his friendship, he could never lead the school the way it is meant to be led. You are the perfect candidate. You've grown so much over the years, gained the respect of all your peers, and you have the scientific mind to make the arguments for mutants in my stead. Honestly, I wouldn't want to see the school in anyone else's hands but yours."

Hank sat dumbstruck, jaw working a few times, before he finally stuttered out a "Thank you, Charles. That means a lot."

"I should thank you for taking such good care of the school in my absence."

"I'll need to- oh-"

The man was no longer looking at Charles, but rather the items he'd been tasked with moving. Two remained obediently following their pattern. The others were orbiting at varying widths with a majority on the blanket covering Charles' legs.

"Damn," Charles said. "I suppose I still have a bit of recovering to do. Do you mind holding onto the school for a few more days?"

"It's my pleasure."

Hank had left him with the stack of genetics journals he'd been meaning to catch up on, so at least he had entertainment. He was almost halfway through the third one, jotting notes in the margins, when he felt a twinge of awareness from the bed beside him. Putting the pen in the pages, he set the journal on his lap and turned his attention to the magnokinetic, whose brow was furrowing as he blinked and took in his surroundings.

The moment he realized he was in the infirmary rather than Charles' or his own head, he shot up. Or he would have if he weren't recovering from a days-long coma. Instead, he got halfway up before falling back to his pillow with a groan. The chuckle Charles couldn't smother was enough to draw Erik's attention. At least his keen sense of hearing wasn't damaged.

"Charles," he said, relief evident. Then, with a wry smile, "We have to stop meeting like this."

"At least it was me awaiting your return to consciousness this time. As I said, it was becoming tiresome to always be the one indisposed. It's rather refreshing being on the other side of it."

Erik scoffed. "You act as if you weren't injured as well."

He reached for the glass of water Hank had left by his bed in the event that he woke. It was too far and he pulled back with another groan as it stretched ribs that were still barely healed from his first engagement with Phoenix and had probably been reinjured during the excitement of the battle. He lifted the blanket to find his side freshly wrapped. Charles could feel his mind performing a methodical check of his body, assessing his other injuries.

Bandaged hand. Charles had said he'd nearly broken it in his attempt to break down the door, so that was no surprise. Ribs sore, bruising but no more than what was usual following battle. His head felt…open. Like a jagged wound half healed that still stung in the air-

The glass of water he'd been reaching for floated into his view. Erik stared at it, giving it the evaluating stare Charles had seen him give enemies when he judged whether they were a threat.

"Showing off, are we, Charles?"

"Just practicing my fine motor skills. They're still recovering and Hank said it would do me good. You'd better grab it. I could lose control at any second and you'd get a face full of water."

"Completely accidentally, I'm sure," Erik said as he grabbed the water and took a sip. "Are you otherwise recovered?"

"I am. My head feels much as I imagine yours does, but that will get better with time. You performed quite a feat. Any other non-telepath would have died."

"I'm stubborn."

"As am I." They paused to offer hesitant conciliatory looks that they broke almost immediately. Still, progress. "I've alerted Hank that you're awake. He'll be here in approximately 90 seconds."

"Fantastic. You know how I love being poked and prodded by doctors."

"You trust Hank, as loath as you are to admit it."

Erik withheld his smile and took another drink of water. Charles could feel an air of giddiness about him though. He knew the feeling. They had both survived. Now that they weren't trapped in his mind, they'd have to face the differences they'd been avoiding: Charles' lies, the continued (and permanent) existence of Onslaught that they had acknowledged but somehow had yet to discuss in detail, and the fact that Erik's ambition and Charles' stubbornness had nearly gotten all of them killed. Their smiles and the residual giddiness faded, stifled by reality.

"We've made progress, but…we aren't going to be alright for a long time, Erik."

Hank's footsteps could be heard down the hall. Erik nodded, his usual stoic countenance back in place. "But we must start somewhere."

Charles inclined his head. "We must."

Hank entered and made a beeline to Erik. Raven joined them soon after, threatening Erik with the same slap she'd threatened Charles with before hugging the visibly shocked man, who flailed like he didn't know what a hug was before hesitantly patting her back. Then she was pulling back and yelling again. Between Raven's yelling and Hank's prodding, Erik was nearing previously unknown levels of impatience. The impatience in the air dissipated every time Charles snorted at Erik's frustration or they shared a look that said more than any snide comment could. They had a great deal of things to fix, yes, but for now they would celebrate their victory and the truce that seemed to be becoming less and less tentative by the second.

Notes:

I hope that wasn't too boring and the ending wasn't too similar to the last chapter. I realized after the action finished that I needed to wrap a lot of stuff up and my main characters are bedridden, so conversation is really what we have left. Oh well. I hope it was tolerable. Just the epilogue left now. I wanted to get it out before Days of Future Past opened, but I think I'll miss my goal by a couple of days. I'll try to get it done by Sunday night. At least the completion of this series can coincide with opening weekend.

The melting clocks in the last chapter were, indeed, a reference to Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" (as one of my reviewers noted). I forgot to mention that in my notes. The Penrose staircase speaks for itself.

Previous story references: "We've got to stop meeting like this" is a reference to what Erik told Charles when he woke up in Chapter 4 (I took a walk around the world to ease my troubled mind). The last time Onslaught and Charles met at the satellite dish version of their mindscape was back in chapter 10 (You think you have the best of intentions, I can't shake the taste of blood in my mouth (Part II))

Movie references: Hank mentions Ororo as a possible successor to Charles. In X3, she takes over the school after Charles "dies".