Chapter 15 - The Fall of An Icon
After everything that had happened in the last couple of months, just about everyone was coming into Westchester to be with family for the holidays. Most of the LA and Chicago staff had come… Alex and Lorna, Billy and Teddy - everyone was there. It was usually the case that they only had those huge get-togethers every other year, and last year had been big, but considering how close they'd come several times to losing some of their members, and considering the fact that the Summers and Howlett families were still wary with Sinister out there again - it was just a good idea to have everyone come to the institute.
Erik was doing better after a week or so after the rescue, which was good, considering Billy and Teddy's twins were mobbing him for attention - when Lydia wasn't sitting in his lap babbling to him.
James and Peter were both making the rounds, camera in hand - but while everyone was watching Peter, James was doing his thing - very off the cuff and well blended in to the group. He stopped for just a moment after he'd managed to get a picture of Peter - taking a picture of Lydia and simply turned the viewfinder so May could see it without a word spoken, which just prompted May to smile warmly at him and pull him closer into a quick hug as she kissed his cheek.
America, meanwhile, had dropped into the seat next to Billy as he was watching his twins with Erik and let Santiago climb up beside Billy and snuggled his godfather. "How's the stargazing, Teddy?" she asked with a crooked smile.
"Still my favorite pastime," Teddy said without missing a beat.
"Sure you even get any face time lately?" America asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, it seems like it's constant crisis time over here."
Billy just chuckled and shook his head at her. "Nothing world-ending yet," he said.
"Uh huh." She shook her head. "You need to get your eyes checked, chico."
"Really. You can ask Pete if you want. The Avengers, SHIELD - with Viper out of the way, we're cleaning up nicely right now."
America tipped her head to the side, then smirked. "Shame. I like it when you go full floating terror and destroy everything. You should invite me next time."
"I'll think about it."
"Billy." America leaned over and put her finger in the center of his chest. "You should invite me next time."
"Right." He nodded, and Teddy just started laughing beside him.
"You missed out on the after," Logan told America. "More entertaining than the floating terror." he picked up Santo, who was pulling at his leg. "Someone punched a spent bullet into Viper's face."
"And I missed it?" America looked completely betrayed.
"All that was sticking out was the chain attached to it," Logan told her with a pleased sort of smirk just before he took a drink of the beer in his hand.
"Why the heck was there a chain attached to a bullet?" America asked, wrinkling her nose.
"She said 'heck'," Santiago giggled in Logan's ear. "Cuz Uncle Billy's kids don't say hell."
Logan smirked wider at him and nodded. "Most don't," he said to Santo before he answered America. "Viper had pulled it out of Gerry and was wearing it like a trophy."
America's eyebrows shot up, though it was Teddy who said, "You've got to be kidding me."
"Nope. So … K gave it back to her." As he thought about the very idea of it, the smirk he'd been wearing stretched into a smile and he tried to cover it by finishing off his beer.
Teddy shook his head. "Yeah. That - she earned that. The hard way."
"Not to mention coming after my best friends' kids," America muttered. She shook her head. "We sure we have to let her go to trial? I'm not an Avenger or an X-Man…"
"If K don't go back for her," Logan said under his breath.
Teddy tipped his head to the side at that. "You could always extradite her," he said. "I mean, didn't she kidnap a Kree? I'm just saying."
"We could - but then you'd be robbing my wife of mutilating her bit by bit? And that'd be your funeral," Logan replied. "She's got a thing about taking Viper down herself."
"No idea why," Billy said dryly, though there was a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
Logan shrugged one shoulder up as Santo curled in. "Territorial, maybe."
"I guess it's a mystery we'll never solve," America said airily.
Logan gave her a look over Santo's shoulder as the little boy let out a sigh - clearly drifting off to sleep.
"Oh please," America said, waving her hand at him as she leaned back. "Your wife is scarier than you are."
"Never said she wasn't," Logan replied. "You wanna take your kid now?"
America just grinned at him and picked up the sleepy little boy. "Thanks for settling him out. He's been trying to keep up with Malin and Kade all day."
"Like you didn't tell him to come to me," Logan said, shaking his head.
"You have me confused with my delusional best friend who thinks you need help getting small children to come to you," America said in that same airy tone.
"I … I need help?" he said, looking perfectly shocked. "You two …"
America just grinned. "So you're saying you don't need help with children coming to you?" she teased. "Think carefully, now, because one answer gets me twenty bucks."
"I'm gonna work on gettin' a beer to come to me," Logan said before he turned and just walked off.
"So close," Teddy teased.
"Oh please. She was the one who bet he'd admit he was a kid magnet. I am twenty dollars richer now."
K made her way over to Erik with a glass of warm spiced wine to slip into his hand. "I figured the Glögg was going to be too much tonight. Mulled wine instead."
Erik smiled warmly at her. "Thank you, my dear," he said and gestured for her to take a seat next to him.
"How are you doing tonight?" K asked as she lifted her mug to her lips.
He waved a hand. "Well enough," he said. "It doesn't take much to simply enjoy my family, and it's nice to have the time."
"You have all of them here, too," she said, nodding.
He nodded with a little twinkle in his eyes. "You know, I believe Michael might be more magnetic than he realized… but I'll let him figure it out on his own."
"He's got Lorna too," she pointed out. "I'm sure she'll help."
"Of course she will," Erik said, still smiling. "I don't know that she's seen it yet, though - it was just this morning when he reached for a spoon for his cereal. They'll see it more plainly soon, I'm sure."
"And you? You didn't really answer me."
He let out a breath. "I'm tired," he admitted, then smirked her way. "I know I look it."
"You look a lot better with the family around you."
He nodded and leaned back a bit to watch Magda and Charlie giggling together over something or other. "I only wish I could give them a better world," he said quietly.
"Oh, they'll get it," K said just loud enough for him to hear.
"Certainly better than the one we were raised in," he agreed. "And yet there is still so much more to be done, and so many steps backwards in the progress the X-Men have made." He shook his head. "You'll have to forgive me; I can't help but think if I were twenty years younger…"
"Erik … I will make sure none of this nonsense slips any further than it already has."
Erik raised an eyebrow and turned fully her way. "You and I both know that it can and will."
"No," she replied, meeting his gaze. "It will. Not."
He held her gaze for a long moment before he finally nodded. "Then they're lucky to have you," he said with a smirk, tipping his head toward where the youngest kids were playing.
K didn't respond more than to sit back again and tip up her glass of warm, spiced wine as the two of them fell into companionable silence - at least until Lydia came over to say hello to them.
"Hi!" she said, waving at K as she climbed up Erik's knee. "Wuv Erik."
"Who doesn't wuv Erik?" K said, smirking at the little girl.
Lydia giggled and shook her head. "Silly."
K smiled at her then got up to leave them alone. "Let me know if you need more wine," she called back to Erik, though she didn't get far into the group of heroes before Billy caught up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"You're amazing; you know that?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll take the compliment all the same," K replied.
Billy just grinned, gave her another quick hug, and then headed off back to Teddy and America.
For the most part, things had been quiet for the holidays, though Peter had been incredibly busy after Hanukkah and hadn't been around quite as much, since SHIELD was making a big push to dismantle the trafficking rings before anyone new could step into Viper's position running the business.
So when he had a little time the day after New Year's, he surprised May and took her out to lunch just the two of them - to catch up and have some peace and quiet to themselves.
He was just walking her home when all of a sudden, everything metal on the street started to float a couple feet off the ground.
"Oh crap," Peter muttered, looking toward May, who was already pulling out her cell phone to call Hank.
By the time Hank picked up on the other end, though, the situation was already escalating, with everything not only floating but moving, going toward May's house as the two of them followed the line of metal. "Dr. McCoy," May said in an incredibly businesslike tone, "if you could come to my house again - I think Erik's had another stroke."
"I'll be there before you know it," Hank promised.
May let out a breath, "Thank you," she said before she hung up the phone and turned to Peter with a distinct frown on her face, and he just pulled his arm through hers.
In the few moments it took for Kurt to arrive with Hank, the metal was starting to converge - trash cans and street poles and anything remotely metal-lined starting to spin into something like a vortex around the little house in Queens, moving in tighter and tighter circles and feeding into the house itself, right through walls and the roof.
Kurt and Hank glanced at each other. It would be difficult to get anywhere close to Erik, with sharp-edged metal all around them. The damage to the house itself was a testament to that - and when Kurt experimentally teleported a bit closer, he only saw the interior of the house with a literal storm of metal for an instant before he had to teleport away again to avoid being impaled.
Until it all very suddenly just stopped and hung there for a moment - and fell.
Inside the house, Erik wasn't aware of all that was happening around him. Truth be told, he wasn't aware of much at all, until it seemed to him that everything was suddenly much lighter - not quite like the dizziness he had just experienced before he fell, but more like an airy feeling.
He frowned a bit as he looked around himself, unsure of what to think, until he saw a familiar figure striding toward him and quite simply couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Charles?"
"Hello, old friend," the familiar voice replied. "It's been a long time."
Erik couldn't help but shake his head and smile. "Far too long for my tastes," he agreed.
"It's time for you to finally let go, Erik."
Erik watched his old friend for a long time. "There's still so much that needs doing."
"And we can trust them to do it for us," Charles replied.
At that, Erik finally nodded and took two steps forward to simply embrace his old friend for a moment and then step back. "In this instance, I believe I'll follow you."
When Kurt arrived in Westchester with May, he was sure to teleport her to where he knew K would be with the younger kids - Malin and Kade were just getting ready for naps and were curled up nearby, sharing a blanket and even snoring quietly.
When K saw the expression on May's face, she just looked at Kurt and shooed him off with both hands and got up to bring May closer to the kids. "Are you alright?" she asked.
May sat down heavily beside K and took a deep breath before very quietly shaking her head. "I will be," she said at last.
K looked crestfallen before she went ahead and pulled May into a hug. "I'm so sorry."
May wrapped her arms around K and simply buried herself in the hug. "We always knew it would happen sooner or later."
"It doesn't make it any easier," K replied.
May shook her head lightly and simply lost herself in the hug for a little while.
And meanwhile, Kurt had gone to get a bit of help for Peter and Hank, who were still at the remains of May's house. They wanted to get everything in order before the authorities arrived, though Peter had already called SHIELD to let them know - so that he was taking jurisdiction over the scene so no local police would stick their noses in.
When he returned to the scene, he had both Scott and Logan with him. "Kate is calling Billy and Tommy," he told Peter. "Lorna knows already."
Peter just nodded. "How's Aunt May?" he asked.
"With K," Kurt told him. "And you know she'll watch over her."
Logan dropped a hand on Peter's shoulder - and in a breath, Peter had simply turned it into a hug. And Logan didn't correct him either.
The five men worked in silence for a while, thankfully uninterrupted beyond the few times that Peter had to play the SHIELD card to turn away interested parties, until they were finally able to salvage the living room - which had been at the center of it all.
Surprisingly, there was almost no damage to that part of the house, with Erik at the center of the room and looking almost peaceful. He was close to the fireplace, which was still standing - and so were all of May's pictures sitting on the mantle, of not only a young Peter and Ben Parker but more recent ones like Lydia and both of Billy and Teddy's twins.
"I've got him," Kurt said quietly, and in a moment, he and Erik had disappeared, leaving the other four to collect the few important things that had survived - like all of May's picture books and the hand-crafted cane that Tommy had bought Erik for Christmas.
From there, the rest of the men went with Peter as he tried to salvage what he could of Aunt May's things and headed over to his house before the whole group -plus Peter's family went back to Westchester, leaving SHIELD to clean up the damage.
Everyone in the mansion was dealing with Erik's loss in their own way, but Krissy and Sying had managed to drift into each other's orbit again because they were both struggling with the same problem: feeling like they were responsible for Erik's downfall.
Neither of them said as much out loud, not to each other, since they both sort of understood implicitly that they were both feeling that way. They just stayed close to each other, feeling pretty crummy.
"Wow. I'm so glad I brought enough ice cream for six people because you two … need extra," Billy said shortly after simply appearing across the room from Sying and Krissy.
Sying shook his head but stole some of the ice cream from Billy all the same. "No one believes you just 'happened' to bring extra," he said as he dug in.
"Well maybe they should," Billy said. "Mandatory amounts of ice cream for certain levels of misery." He handed Krissy her share then sat down next to her. "Is there a reason you're both hiding?"
The two kids glanced at each other and then shrugged in tandem. "We're not hiding," Krissy said.
"You are," Billy argued as he took a bite of his own ice cream and pulled his feet up.
"We're not," Sying said. "We just wanted … we're just …"
"You're wallowing in guilt that doesn't belong to you," Billy said. "So you're hiding."
Once more, Krissy and Sying glanced at each other and had an entire conversation in only expressions. "He had to spend time in the hospital wing after he came to get us," Krissy pointed out softly.
"He had to spend time in the hospital wing every time he over stressed himself over the past … almost ten years," Billy pointed out.
"Yeah, and we're the ones who over-stressed him," Sying said softly.
"No," Billy said, shaking his head. "He over stressed himself. He was looking for a fight."
"Billy," Krissy said over the top of her ice cream, "don't play it down."
"Krissy," Billy countered. "Don't play it up. Don't you think that I would have stopped you or stepped in if it was anything that you would have done?"
"Okay, that's… a good point…"
"He was happier than he'd been in years when he had the chance to go strike the fear of Magneto into those creeps," Billy pointed out, then closed one eye as he amended himself. "Well not happy … but … he had a purpose again for a few hours that didn't revolve around tea time."
"He just seemed so happy with May," Sying said. "And she's so upset now."
"He was!" Billy promised. "He loved her, he did … but he was always a fighter. It was hard for him to see himself slow down." Billy set his spoon down for a moment and watched both of them. "Aunt May will be alright. It was a shock, but she's a lot stronger than pretty much anyone."
"She is," Krissy agreed. "Which is why it hurts to feel like we were part of what made her that sad."
"You weren't though," Billy said. "He didn't lose one minute of the time he had left by going to help you."
"Are you saying that as the Demiurge or as our Uncle Billy?" Krissy asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Yes. It was more of a timer than an hourglass issue. Shaking the glass didn't change a thing."
"Fair enough," Sying said, stealing some more ice cream to add to his own bowl. "But … we can still feel crummy, right? Because we do."
Billy held up his bowl of ice cream. "So do I. And I knew it was coming. I knew for a long time that it was coming."
"Then I'm sorry about that too," Krissy said, leaning over to rest her head on his shoulder, with Sying doing the same on his other side. "Love you, Uncle Billy."
"Love you too," Billy said. "I just couldn't stand by while you blamed yourself for nature."
"Thanks for the reminder," Sying said. "And the ice cream."