There's a quote that I found but never got to use. "True friendship is when two friends can walk in opposite directions, yet remain side by side." I wanted to throw it here because it seems so perfect for Charles and Erik, but it never fit in the story. So there you go.
Also, I should have mentioned this ages ago, but someone made a video for "A Spark Neglected". The title is "Dark!Charles/Onslaught A Spark Neglected (Fanfic Inspired AU)". It's on youtube. Check it out. It's only 0:39.
This is it. The last chapter. I don't know whether to have a party or sob in a corner. Probably sob and be sad I'm losing all my reviewer friends. I have a note at the bottom after the comic references and other author's notes with my thoughts. Thanks so much for reading! It's been real.
icanhearthedrums: I answered you already, but I just want to reiterate how much I liked DOFP. So much awesomeness!
History101: I'm a sucker for a happy ending. Couldn't leave anyone too bad off.
MirrorFlower and DarkWind: Thanks! Hopefully this last one ends it well. :)
Epilogue: The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost)
Two months after Phoenix's defeat, seven weeks after Charles and Erik awoke, everyone was fully recovered from the debacle. As far as reconciliations went, Charles and Erik's was going well. Ground-shaking arguments (literally, now Charles had full control over the power Onslaught gave him) had dwindled over the weeks, much to everyone's relief. On the surface, their interactions now dealt with debate and strategizing for the future. Those who knew how to look deeper could see more...the efforts at rebuilding the friendship they had lost over the years.
That didn't mean the two men didn't recognize what had to happen. Erik, while tempered to a degree, still had militant tendencies. Charles, while willing to fight, was not willing to allow the Brotherhood to be traced to his school and endanger his students. They could recover there, they could visit, but it would never be their home base. Not like it was those first years of the two leaders' acquaintance.
Sometimes, Charles wished it were different, would stare after Erik as he left their chess matches, would feel Erik's mind stray back towards him, and wish they could live like they had in the beginning again. But, as Onslaught was always quick to point out, things change and mutants adapt. The past was the past and attempts to recreate it always ended in disappointment. All they could do was move forward.
The afternoon before the Brotherhood was to depart, everyone was out on the lawn taking in the bright summer. The children were playing while the older students, the X-Men, and the Brotherhood, taking the example of their leaders' cooperation, sparred and ate. Jean and Scott sat curled around each other under one of the nearby oak trees. Ororo and Janos had formed an unlikely friendship and could be found experimenting with their powers in the form of a faux battle some of the children split off to watch.
Alex, Hank, Sean, and Raven sat on the front stoop of the mansion. Hank kept peaking at a set of reports he'd brought out with him. His task was made especially challenging by Sean, who insisted on trying to smack the papers out of his hands whenever he became too distracted. Anyone else, McCoy probably would've gotten fed up with, but the grin on Sean's face made it impossible and all the beast could do was laugh and occasionally get revenge by hitting him with the papers.
The fifth time Sean managed to knock the papers to the ground, Hank gave him a good whack over the head with them once he'd regathered them.
"Watch it!" Sean said, chortled. "You're going to give me a paper cut!"
"You'll deserve it."
"Never get between a scientist and his science," Raven said. "Something I learned the hard way while Charles was finishing his dissertation."
"That's a story I'd like to hear."
Raven leaned back on her elbows, taking in the scene. "Next time I'm back." She nudged Alex. He'd gone quiet a few minutes ago, staring solemnly through the crowds on the lawn. "What's up with you?"
He kept staring, elbows resting on the knees he'd pulled to his chest. "Scott is going to propose to Jean."
Sean sat up from where he'd tipped over in his attempts to escape Hank's scientific wrath. "So? We've known that since about a month after they met."
"They're too young."
"You're just saying that because he's younger than you."
"They're actually above the median age of marriage," Hank added. "They've gone through more than most couples endure in a lifetime. If anyone can handle marriage, I'd bet on them."
"Since when do you know so much about love, Bozo?" Alex scoffed.
"Since students started coming to talk to me about their relationship problems while I was headmaster," Hank said with a grimace. "Also, love is simply a complex set of chemical reactions-"
"Please don't start," Sean said, collapsing dramatically onto his back. "The Prof tried to teach me more physics yesterday. I can't take any more science."
"Speaking of," Alex said. "Wonder what that conversation is like." His gaze was on Erik and Charles, who were moving around the side of the mansion towards the wall overlooking the satellite dish.
"They're probably talking about chess or reaching a point between rage and serenity or something," Raven said. "They've reconciled."
"Yeah, for now. How long will it last? Until Erik decides to do something crazy? Until Charles decides that Onslaught is more fun than the rest of us?"
"We'll just have to make sure that doesn't happen," Sean finished.
"That may be easier said than done," Hank said, picking up his papers again.
"Then we'll do the best that we can. We don't have much of a choice, do we?" Raven answered.
They sat, watching the place where they two men had disappeared around the corner for another few minutes, before Sean, eyes never leaving the corner, reached over and smacked the papers out of Hank's hand.
"Damn it, Sean!" Hank yelled.
"Ha! I got him to curse! You owe me five dollars, Havok!"
They'd have plenty of time to worry about the future later. For now, well, Havok owed Banshee five dollars.
Erik and Charles stopped in front of the satellite dish. Charles was looking around at the ground as if he expected to see something there. What he was expecting, Erik wasn't sure. Maybe he saw something the magnokinetic couldn't. His eyes hadn't lost the supernatural tone they'd acquired during the Phoenix incident. A reminder that Onslaught was ever-present.
"You know what he calls himself, right?"
"I don't."
"That Which Will Survive."
Erik huffed. "That's not at all arrogant."
"Yet surprisingly accurate. As long as I am alive, he will be also." Charles' gaze became distant. Erik couldn't help but recall his time in Charles' mind, Onslaught watching Charles as they sat across from one another playing chess, excitement at the challenge to best Charles once again.
They'd talked a lot over the past weeks, some of it unpleasant, but nothing as unwanted as Charles' admission that Onslaught might still cause problems. Charles was important for their cause. He could do great things for mutants and humans alike. If Onslaught were to manifest again, all of that could be ruined. Not only that, but the only one powerful enough to stop him might very well be Erik and he needed to be prepared to do what needed to be done should that occur. Even Onslaught agreed that, should his mind become corrupted again, an intervention would be needed.
"If I ever forget, if I try to repress him again…we may have to deal with that some day."
"We may, but the Brotherhood and the X-Men, will do everything in our power to avoid that. My people have become surprisingly fond of you."
"It's my charisma and my hair."
"If I start feeling threatened, I'll just have to hope you go bald, then. Or make it so," Erik deadpanned.
"You will not touch my hair," Charles said, lifting a stern finger.
They sat in fond silence. Children were laughing in the background.
Charles glanced around. The look in his eye told Erik he was seeing far more than the present. "Everything started here."
"Yes, I have fond memories of tossing Sean off the top of that satellite dish."
Charles snorted. "He's never quite forgiven you for that. Won't go anywhere near you if you're higher than the second story even though he learnt to fly a decade ago." They paused, taking in the environment again. "If we hadn't met, if we hadn't come here, who knows where our cause would be today."
"There's no use in wondering. We're here now, leading our people into the future."
"A future that's considerably brighter with Phoenix gone and Onslaught as an ally. We saved the world from certain destruction."
"Again," Erik cut in with the toothy grin that intimidated everyone but Charles, Emma, and Raven.
"We've saved the world from destruction, again, the Brotherhood and the X-Men have a tentative truce. Two of our first students are getting married."
"Scott asked Jean?"
"Not yet, but he will."
"Will they invite me, do you think? I'm fairly certain they've both tried to kill me an equal number of times despite the fact that I helped recruit them."
"Don't be ridiculous. They were only trying to maim you. If they'd been trying to kill you, Scott would have blasted your helmet off and Jean would have killed you with her mind. They work quite well together as a team. It bodes well for their marriage."
"Comforting."
"We'd better get back. If we want to eat something other than junk food, someone will need to start cooking."
Charles gave the satellite dish one more good look, a small smile forming, before he turned and headed back. Erik stood a moment longer. The past had been filled with trials…far more trials than a decade should hold. The future…he wished he could be as optimistic as Charles. He turned to leave, but as he did, something caught his eye. When he looked again it was gone, but he knew what he'd seen. A faint outline of Charles leaning against a tree, there but not there, with eyes like burning coals.
A parting reminder that Onslaught was always watching.
"I don't know why we have to leave at the break of dawn," Mystique grumbled on the front lawn, arms crossed over her chest.
"We have work to do and we need to get back into a schedule," Erik replied. "We've become complacent. We wake at dawn every day from now on."
"I changed my mind. I'm staying with Charles."
Charles shook his head with a chuckle. "I'm afraid you'd be bored, my dear. We don't do nearly enough gymnastics for your taste."
Raven heaved a put upon sigh. "Fine. I'm coming back every week though. Every meeting you have with Magneto. You're my brother and I'm not letting you go again. Besides, I want to talk strategy with Alex. We may not live together, but I expect we'll be working together far more often now."
"Of course." Charles kept a straight face, but Raven could read through him now with the practice the past few months had given her. He was happy. Happier than she'd seen him in a long time. The bags under his eyes were gone and, while the worry lines remained, a weight seemed to have been lifted from his shoulders. She hoped it would stay that way.
The rest of the Brotherhood approached, all preparing for Azazel to teleport them. Emma hung back close to Charles' side with the rest of the send-off party. It didn't go unnoticed.
"Come, Emma," Erik said. "It's time we leave."
She inhaled, paused, then, "I'm not coming with you."
"You wish to stay here?" Charles' shock was about as well-masked as Erik's, which was to say not masked at all.
"You wish, sugar. I'm a telepath who can turn to diamond. I didn't sign up for getting thrown around and stabbed. If you need me, Magneto, I am happy to help, but my days of waltzing into battle are done."
Charles' brow furrowed. "If you aren't staying with the Brotherhood and you won't be here, then what will you do, Miss Frost?"
"Actually, I was thinking I might start a school."
Reactions ranged from raised eyebrows to dropped jaws to a choked laugh that got Alex a steely glare.
"What? I like what you're doing here. We disagree on a few issues, though, and I think young mutants should have options."
"That…actually sounds very good of you," Erik stuttered.
"Another school for mutants. How wonderful!" Charles said, grinning, just as Erik leaned to Charles' ear.
"What were you saying about Emma's Onslaught being uncharacteristically nice?"
Emma glared at Charles' cough, which sounded suspiciously like a smothered laugh.
"I think that's a lovely idea, Miss Frost. Where will you go?"
"I was thinking the Boston area. I have connections there. Family and land. I may not be as well off as you, but I can certainly hold my own. Perhaps you and I can discuss the finer details of the process, Dr. Xavier."
Raven threw her arms in the air. "Will you two ever start calling each other by your first names?"
They looked at each other and frowned. "That just wouldn't seem right, now would it," said Charles.
"Not at all," Emma deadpanned back.
"Well, now that that's settled, it's time we take our leave. I'll see you next week."
"Yes," Charles replied, "I believe we have a facility to liberate."
They shook hands, offering each other professional smiles. Raven could see their eyes though. They were more at ease with one another than they had been in ages. As awful as the Phoenix debacle had been, it had led them here. To Erik and Charles shaking hands as friends not acquaintances or leaders. To her knowing her brother as her brother and having her family back. To a future where mutants could work together towards their cause in different ways without fighting one another…at least not all the time.
Charles, ever poetic, had told her early on in his quest for non-violence that he was taking the path less traveled. Erik had told her the same once they'd become the Brotherhood, saying that standing up for their people and making a name for themselves was the unbeaten path. Looking at them now, she couldn't help but think that maybe both of them were wrong. The path less traveled was actually the path walked together.
Compromise.
The past certainly seemed to dictate that was, in fact, the path less traveled. Charles would like that. She'd have to tell him next time they saw one another.
Yes, two roads diverged in a yellow wood. But one never knows where the road will lead. It may come together again, it may split apart from time to time, but in the end, you cannot know where it will go until you take it.
Notes:
Random: Median age of marriage was 23 for men and 21 for women in the early 1970s. I googled it. In this universe, Scott is about 25 and Jean about 24. I have a timeline and everything to make sure I counted right.
Comic references: Emma is the headmistress of a school (Massachusetts Academy) in the comics. I can totally picture her being smart with Charles about picking a name that's not crazy long and obvious ("Well, I don't want draw attention, so I thought I'd pick a name that fits in with other schools and didn't have the word 'Youngsters' in it").
Also, in the comics, my understanding is that Erik definitely works with the X-Men on occasion and the two groups cooperate with each other when they need to. So I ran with that to make my moderately happy ending. No, Erik and Charles can't stay together, but they stay friendly. Was it a little kumbaya? Maybe. Oh well.
My parting piece:
Well, that's all folks. It's been a journey. I'm pretty sure I haven't gone more than 24 hours without thinking about this story since First Class came out almost 3 years ago. I've earned one degree and started another, moved 700 miles away to a new town where I had no friends, dealt with weddings, illnesses, and a few deaths, yet this has been a constant that I could always fall back to when I felt unstable. It's been surprisingly motivating.
I'd like to thank each and every one of you who has stuck through it, especially my reviewers. Going through and re-reading reviews helped inspire me and get me through some hard times. I feel like I'm losing friends now that I won't have you commenting on my work anymore. Seriously, you are the best.
Anyway, thank you all so much for reading. I'm really proud of what came of two little scene ideas I had back in June 2011 (believe it or not, this all started with the first chapter of "A Spark Neglected" and the climax of chapter 17 of "The Road Not Taken" (Let us go then you and I Part II)). Crazy!
DoFP rewrite: I mentioned doing a rewrite of DoFP in the notes of a previous chapter. I'm going to give that a shot. I actually really like what they did in the movie, so I'm trying not to lose that essence and just make it Onslaught for the sake of Onslaught, but I definitely have some ideas I've been jotting down since I've seen it. I'll need to run it by a beta to make sure it's all legit and not me trying to force it too much. Keep an eye out, though. It'll probably be called "The Good Fight". I'll add a chapter to this story with a teaser if/when I start posting.
Thanks again for reading (including this massive end note). See you in the fandom!