For those of you who think you know everything about the comic verse… that's great. I know absolutely nothing, and like most authors, I tend to make up my own stuff. So… if there's any parallels to this story and the comic verse, it's completely coincidental.
Also, there is the beginnings of foreshadowing in here. Like, the faintest hints of a whisper of a foreshadow…
And one more thing: I'm soon going to be starting a new X-Men First Class story that has absolutely nothing to do with this fic that I'm super excited about (picture Charles in a skin tight black t-shirt with serious muscles and sweatpants...). I'll give you more details about it later. And look for a Christmas-y X-Men fic on Sunday... That one will be set in this verse.
Thank you so much to everyone who has read and reviewed! Your words mean the world to me!
The Perks of Being a Telepath
Chapter 21: The Truth and Lies of Charles Xavier
It was cold. Colder than he ever remembered being in his life. Colder than that rotten jail cell he had spent God knew how long in and colder than that snowstorm he and Erik had gotten caught in so many months ago. It was freezing.
Charles had to clench his teeth together to keep them from chattering. A shudder ripped through him as Moira and Erik had a stare down. Somewhere, in the back of his mind, he realized that he should do something to convince them that neither were to blame for this incident.
Charles shuddered again, closing his eyes and fighting against the urge to whimper as pain coursed through him. He was entirely unsuccessful.
"Charles?"
There was that bloody concern in Erik's voice again.
Charles forced his eyes open again. Moira and Erik were both staring at him with horror and concern. The gun had been dropped to the ground, a fact Charles was more than grateful for.
He hated guns.
"Wh—whe—Charles?"
Moira took a few hesitant steps forward, guilt pouring off her in waves.
Erik let out something akin to a growl, freezing the CIA agent in her tracks.
Charles struggled to diffuse the situation before Erik did something tremendously stupid.
"It's okay."
It took much more effort than it should have to get those two words out.
"She almost killed you, Professor!"
Hank's shocked voice reached Charles' ears in a disjointed mixture of sound and emotion. Charles more felt his indignation than heard his exclamation.
Moira's guilt and fear over what she had done and what was going to happen now were overwhelming as she sank to her knees, holding out a hand to him.
"I am so sorry."
Charles took as deep a breath as he could without passing out.
"It's okay."
That seemed to be the only thing he could say.
Erik decided it was his turn to weigh in on the conversation.
"No, it's not."
Charles could barely string two words together to make a coherent thought, let alone explain to an irate Erik why he had forgiven Moira.
"Please, Erik."
The dropped gun floated into the air.
This was starting to feel scarily familiar.
Identification. That's how it starts. And ends with being rounded up, experimented on, and eliminated.
If only Erik realized how true his words had been, how much they applied to Charles' own life.
Things had been fine with the Markos' family, right up until Charles accidentally revealed he was a telepath.
Everything went rather downhill from there.
Kurt had been a scientist. While he had been specifically a nuclear scientist, that didn't mean his curiosity for all things science related was killed. So when his step-son of his very rich wife accidentally wound up spilling secrets that he couldn't possibly know about, Kurt couldn't resist finding out how he knew.
Charles had no control over his abilities when he was younger. None of them did, except for Raven, and even then, her control was limited by her emotions. So, it was highly understandable how a child telepath, not much older than a decade, could intrude on Kurt's thoughts.
Kurt had plans to kill Charles' mother, send Charles and Raven to separate boarding schools, and steal the money left by the original Doctor Xavier.
Charles admitted to his mother Kurt's plans, and while she had never seemed to outwardly acknowledge that she believed Charles, it got back to him some weeks later that she had talked to Kurt about it.
She had filed for divorce.
Kurt blamed Charles, for Charles was the only one who Mrs. Xavier-Markos ever truly listened to.
"It was a horrible next few years."
Charles swallowed again, still refusing to look at Erik. While Raven knew the majority of what happened, he had never truly told anyone what really happened.
"Charles…"
There was hesitation in Erik's voice, where the metal bender was waning in his desire to know Charles' past.
Charles was too immersed into his story to acknowledge it.
The pulse beneath Hank's fingers was steadily fading. If they didn't get Charles out of there soon, he would die.
But getting out of the destroyed CIA base didn't seem like an option at the moment. Erik and Moira were having an intense stare down, with Charles caught in the middle.
Why did this feel so goddamn familiar?
Raven shifted back to her usual form, the radio call forgotten in the midst of the newest threat. Back up CIA agents they could deal with.
"You shot him. Again."
Charles made a noise that was somewhere between a whimper of pain and an indignant snort at Erik's poisonous words.
Moira, on the other hand, looked as though she were moments away from passing out. Hank really wished that she would so this whole situation would be over with and they could get on with saving the Professor.
"I'm sorry. I am so sorry."
Were those the only words she knew?
Be nice.
Charles' telepathic admonishment, as faint and as pain-filled as it was, shocked Hank. He didn't think the Professor had it in him to project like that.
"You don't get to be sorry. It's because of you that Charles is here in the first place."
"Erik."
The whisper could barley be heard over the static of the radio or the heavy breathing from everyone in the room, but there was enough pain, sadness, and edged with just the right amount of telepathic persuasion, that Erik's shoulders visibly slumped and Moira looked a little less teary eyed.
Had the situation not been quite so drastic, it perhaps might have been funny.
It reminded Hank once more how much they had all come to rely on Charles. How much they needed him.
"Hank, go find Sean. Raven, answer that radio call before the CIA gets the bright idea to send more reinforcements. Moi—Agent McTaggert, if there's anything you can do to stay out of my way, do it. Otherwise, keep a look out for anyone that might be willing to do us harm."
Moira nodded once as Hank felt an overpowering sensation of guilt as he realized they had left Sean behind. He was turning around and breaking into a run before it hit him that Erik's voice sounded distinctly more British than before.
Erik was going to be pissed when Charles finally released him.
It was as though saying the mere name Kurt Markos was the breaking point. Everything that Charles had ever experienced at the hands of that mad man came spilling out of him in hot, pain-filled waves.
Erik could only sit there and listen with wide eyes as the carefully constructed illusion he had about the telepath came crashing down around him.
It was frightening, to realize just how similar their childhoods were. The dark things Charles had always eluded to, but never explicitly stated came pouring out—the experiments, the tests, the sleepless nights, the abuse—all of it.
It was horrific, it was scarily familiar, and worst of all, it was true.
Charles showed him the scar from one unpleasant experience where Kurt had grown sick of listening to Charles' constant litany of I can't move things with my mind and thrown a priceless vase at the then fifteen year old Charles' head, giving him a concussion, sixteen stitches, and two days in the hospital.
Charles' situation was almost worse than Erik's. He had had Raven throughout it all, unlike Erik, who had been completely alone, but he hadn't been able to confide in her. Or anyone else, for that matter.
Kurt had made certain of that.
"If you tell anyone—and I mean anyone what I have done to you, then I will kill whoever you tell and make sure they know it's your fault that they died."
Charles had told his mother.
Three days after the fact, his mother had been involved in a serious car accident, where she fell into a coma at the hospital.
She didn't make it.
Charles had been sixteen at the time.
"Charles…"
Erik longed to say something, anything, but what could he say?
Charles looked at him with tortured blue eyes. Even years after the fact, he was still haunted by the ghosts of the past.
"That's not the worst of it."
Erik swallowed heavily.
What could be worse than this?
"Kurt is dead. Cain—I—Both Markos' are dead."
That should have been good news. They couldn't hurt Charles anymore if they were dead.
The look on Charles' face spoke differently.
"What happened?"
Charles looked away. When he spoke, it was barely audible.
"I killed them."