Chapter 16: Legacy

Even with SHIELD locking down the area, it wasn't long before the news had picked up the story of Erik's death. After all, the entire street in Queens had suddenly experienced a magnetic event; it wasn't hard to find the story there.

The reactions were… mixed, to say the least. It was hard for those on the outside to know how to feel about it, especially given Erik's mixed record as the head of the Brotherhood, as an X-Man, and as a retired supervillain. There were a few sympathetic reports on the airwaves, obviously focusing more on his later actions as well as the progress that he forced the world to make in human-mutant relations. There was no denying that even at the height of his worst tendencies, he forced the issues facing mutants to the forefront of public consciousness.

But not everyone was so sympathetic. In fact, there were plenty of voices who couldn't — or wouldn't — get past the Magneto that had taken extreme measures, that had threatened humanity itself in the name of protecting mutantkind. Some of it was fair, and the X-Men knew it — they'd experienced it themselves. And some of it was bitter. One report in particular called Erik's death "the end of an age of terror," and he didn't stop there.

"It's time for the world to move past the dictatorial tendencies of his way of thinking — an 'us versus them' mentality that told mutants they were superior to humankind. The world has moved on from outdated hatred," the reporter was saying, before going on in his report to detail all of the worst Erik had done as Magneto and claiming that he'd led so many others to such extremes that the "damage" would go on for generations.

K finished her coffee, looking as if she hadn't heard a word on the television as she took her mug to the sink and then grabbed Logan's keys off of the counter. "I'll be back before too long. I need a new dress for the funeral," K said. "I'd like to get something with a little red."

She barely glanced around the room before she silently made her way to the garage and then simply headed out to take care of business.

The X-Men were good at funerals.

The group of them had made the arrangements for Erik quickly enough. There wasn't a question that he'd be buried at the school, of course, and with the holidays being so recent, so many of the X-Men were already close at hand to be there.

Most of the real work was in being with his family, though. Peter hadn't left May's side, looking crestfallen as he held her hand. He hated to see her alone again. Even if he and Sara had already put her belongings in their home… he still hated to see it. He made it a point, too, to keep her away from the news, especially anything that was tearing Erik's legacy to shreds.

Lorna was of course a quiet mess beside Alex, and Magda hadn't taken her hand off of the pendant that she and Erik had made as she learned better control. They would shape and reshape it in their lessons until it was back into the cursive, beautifully-formed "M" as always. And Michael was sitting close to his big sister and letting her rest her head on his shoulder.

Billy's little family was faring a bit better. He'd known that it was coming, and he had done what he could to warn the twins that their great-grandfather wasn't going to be around forever. But that didn't change the fact that the twins looked downhearted, and even Billy had lost a lot of his usual sparkle. The galaxies even seemed slower as they turned in his eyes as both of his foster parents sat beside him and Teddy, on either end of the couple, simply being there for them.

But Tommy … Tommy was inconsolable. He was sitting out in the yard with Cassie Lang beside him, his head in his hands and his devastation dripping off his shoulders. He'd been so close to Erik for the past few years — and he'd been planning to take Cassie to Erik and May's place that weekend after she'd finally agreed to go out with him on New Year's.

It wasn't just family that was mourning, either. Most of the X-Men were shaken up by the loss — to varying degrees, of course. It was odd for Jubilee, for example, to have just learned how to use Cerebro from him and then to lose him. And Scott obviously had taken it hard — especially since Charlie had adored Erik since she was little.

The mood in the mansion was somber as everyone gathered for the funeral - though K's absence was finally apparent when the services were nearly ready to start.

They were just minutes out from the start of the funeral when K came in - perfectly coiffed and in an outfit that absolutely looked fitted as she slipped in next to Logan and took his arm with a kiss.

"I thought you needed red," Logan said with a raised eyebrow.

She took half a step back and picked up her foot to show the red soles on the heels. "Just a touch. It took longer than I thought it would." But the expression on his face clearly read that he wasn't buying it at all.

"What the hell were you doing?" he asked quietly as he leaned into her hair.

"Shopping. Of course." She frowned at him and let him put his arm around her. "What else would I be doing?"

But before anyone could give her grief about it, Billy made his way over to her, away from where he had been seated with his family, to take K's arm and kiss her cheek. "Thank you," he whispered to her.

"Love you boys," she replied before she kissed him right back. "Go on. We'll be here. Out of the way."

He smiled softly and gave her another quick kiss on the cheek and a hug before he went back to sit with Teddy and the twins - and gently nudge Sammy to go hug her uncle.

It was a beautiful service, of course. Lorna and May both spoke, and Tommy managed to pull himself together enough that both of Wanda's boys were able to speak as well - and by the time Scott gave the eulogy, the whole group was really starting to feel the weight of years on them. After all, it was easier to think Magneto would have gone out in a fight, not because of age.

The group didn't immediately disperse as many of the X-Men and family and friends stayed behind to simply look out for each other. But while Scott had been sort of quietly hanging back, he was surprised when May pulled him aside and into a warm hug, her eyes shining as she pressed something into his hand.

He was surprised when he looked down to see that she had handed him, of all things, the cane that Erik had started to use the past few years, since his last stroke.

"I know you won't use it often," May said. "But I think it's a bit tall for me." There was a small twinkle in her eyes. "And besides, it's high time you took a little better care of yourself. He trusted you with that dream - you need to stick around and defend it." With that, she simply gestured him down to her level so she could kiss his cheek and then took Peter's arm and headed over to where Billy's little twins were.

While May was playing with the twins, though, Peter had gotten a call from SHIELD, and Billy frowned a bit when he saw Peter standing off to the side taking the call. He slipped around Teddy and Tommy to go stand by Peter until the car was over and then tipped his head to the side. "Something important?" he asked.

"Graydon Creed's kid - that loudmouth reporter? - just died about an hour ago. Massive stroke," Peter said.

"Doesn't seem like a SHIELD issue," Billy pointed out.

"It's a little suspicious, the timing," Peter said. "I mean, we've been keeping an eye on him - he's trying to revive his dad's old organization. He's got files on the most 'dangerous' mutants and all the best ways to kill them."

"You'll forgive me if I don't mourn," Billy said.

Peter shook his head. "There's a few files that the Friends of Humanity won't be able to salvage. He spilled his coffee all over them."

"Shame."

Peter looked up at Billy, though it was hard to read his expression with the galaxies there. "Okay, Mr. All-Seeing Eye. What's up here?"

"Oh, nothing. I just won't step in if I see someone like that on a rocket trajectory to dying," Billy said with a shrug. "Could have been bad if he didn't, but he was never going to get that far."

Peter raised an eyebrow at Billy. "Yeah, that's not making this seem any less suspicious, Billy-boy."

Billy shrugged and then put an arm around Peter's shoulders. "That wasn't what I wanted to talk to you about anyway, and I'm really not going to waste any time during my grandfather's funeral caring about a guy who hated everything he stood for, okay?" he said.

"Fair," Peter said with a small nod. "So what did you need?"

"I just wanted to check on you," Billy admitted. "You're part of the family - or I'm part of yours. However you want to consider it." He shrugged. "And I can see SHIELD throwing their all into trying to break up the trafficking rings with Viper out of the picture, and that's great - I just wanted to make sure my cousin-in-law or whatever you want to call yourself has his head on straight."

"My head's just fine," Peter insisted.

"Uh-huh." Billy tipped his head to the side, the stars in his eyes swirling a bit in the way that usually meant he was looking into the future. "I just thought you should know - even if SHIELD had stepped in sooner, even if Viper's operation had been broken up and Erik never had to step in, he was still on his way out. I saw it a long time ago, and it's just been getting clearer ever since. Even if he hadn't gone all out getting Krissy and Sying, we'd be holding this funeral in a couple months, three at most."

Peter frowned Billy's way for a moment before he finally just had to nod. "That… actually is helpful. Thanks."

"Got your back, Director," Billy said with a little smirk.

"Assistant Director."

"Not for much longer," Billy said, the smirk widening before he simply disappeared before Peter could even really process it, reappearing by Lydia to get her to giggle madly at his teleporting trick.

And meanwhile, Logan was still muttering over K's shoulder all the way up to the house in a hushed urgent tone that she was flatly ignoring every step of the way. He'd heard what Peter had said, put two and two together and was not happy about it.

"You're being paranoid," K said easily. "And not the cute paranoid. The ugly, ugly one."

"I'm not being paranoid," he argued. "I'm pointing out that you can't do crap like this."

The two of them had stopped near the stairs, which was where Scott found them as he was headed in to find a place to put the cane May had given him, though he paused and frowned when he saw the expressions on both of their faces and heard the last comment Logan had made. "What's going on here?"

K rolled her eyes and shook her head lightly. "He's being paranoid."

"I'm busting you out and you're pretending nothing happened," Logan growled out. "Stop trying to lie to me."

Scott looked between them both and seemed to try to diffuse the situation with a smirk K's way. "Are you really pulling 'I didn't put my hand in the cookie jar' with Logan?"

"That would be ridiculous," K replied, but it just seemed to irritate Logan more. "I know I can't lie to him." She gave Logan a smile, but by then he was just growling outright.

"Alright, K, really. What's going on?" Scott asked with one eyebrow raised.

"Nothing of note," K said, squaring up to both of them and putting one hand on her hip.

"Then you won't mind sharing," Scott countered.

"It took a little longer to find my dress than I'd expected. I was late." she shrugged. "Sue me."

"You've never taken a shopping trip longer than what's barely necessary," Scott pointed out.

"True. But it took longer than I thought to find what I wanted," K said. "That does happen from time to time, and usually when I'm in a rush."

"Which is where the lies come in," Logan said.

"K, we just talked about this with Viper," Scott said, shaking his head. "Let us help."

"Scott, there is nothing to help with," K said in a nearly pleading tone. "Honestly."

"Then tell me, honestly, what is actually going on here?" Scott said, crossing his arms.

"Currently, I am trying to go upstairs to change."

"K." Scott shook his head. "You're leaving out the part where you're apparently lying to Logan - and claiming there's nothing to help with? Clearly, there is."

"No there isn't because I'm already done."

At that, Scott raised an eyebrow and stepped slightly forward. "With what?"

"It really doesn't matter at this point."

"With what, K?" Scott repeated.

"I really thought I'd get upstairs first?" K replied. "Quieter setting. Less witnesses. That kind of thing."

"Yes, well, that didn't happen," Scott said.

"Because you tried to frikkin' lie to me," Logan pointed out, but that only got a narrowed eye glare from K.

"An opportunity presented itself to take out some trash."

"Who?" Scott asked.

"A hateful creep that had a laundry list of best ways to kill everyone on the team and who was pushing to fire up the Friends of Humanity again."

Scott shook his head. "That's something we could have helped with, K."

"Not without pulling yourself into the spotlight for it," K pointed out. "As it stands, the files were destroyed and the coroner's report reads natural causes."

"K."

"What."

"That's not how we do things," Scott said.

"Which is why I didn't involve you."

"K, you're on my team!"

"If it'll ease your conscience, I'll quit."

Scott stared at her for a second. "Oh come on."

"His plan for you was to blind you first," K said. "And not with a blindfold. After that there was nothing quick or humane that was on the checklist." She turned to gesture to Logan and then to herself. "Nothing too imaginative for us … decapitation. Mostly. Along with some less than creative mutilation of the corpses. Then there were the plans for Storm - I wasn't very impressed there either, but this creep found out about her claustrophobia - simple case of bury her alive where she couldn't reach any atmosphere. It goes on and on. So. Tell me how I am wrong."

Scott looked clearly taken aback for a moment before he finally took a breath. "We're not the executors of justice," he said.

"No. We're not," she agreed. "But you were the one to say this was a family. And I'm not letting anyone screw with that."

"If you knew this, you should have told the team. We can deal with it without resorting to murder," Scott argued.

"Oh, sure. And maybe I would have if the guy didn't have a plan in place - and people set to put it in action. They were mission files. Not speculatory." She tipped her head and opened her purse. "If you want to be involved - here are the names of the guys that were set to start coming after people." She held the paper out but didn't drop his gaze. "Of course - if you don't want to be bothered with chasing legal routes of people that are actively stalking kids, you can just let it go."

"K, we have to be better than them," Scott said quietly, frowning at the paper in her hand, though he did take it.

"I understand that. But when you're dealing with people that refuse to even consider that an entire section of the population is even human … you can't reason with people that want to kill you."

"That describes just about everyone the X-Men have had to deal with," Scott pointed out.

"And how many of them actively are seeking ways to kill you?"

"Beyond the MRD and their ilk - it seems the popular option is more to capture lately," Scott pointed out.

"He kept the list of names of mutants his father killed," K told him. "It's framed. On the wall. Like a trophy."

Scott frowned and was silent for a moment, obviously weighing it out and leaning on Erik's cane without even thinking about it.

"One hundred and forty seven lost souls to one person." She gave him a moment to weigh it out. "I'm not talking about the whackos that look at it like an idea, Scott. I'm looking into actual monsters."

Scott was still quiet for a long time before he finally dropped his shoulders a bit and handed the list back to her. "If word gets out," he said quietly, "I won't leave you hanging. But no one else on the team knows. Agreed?"

"I can tell you when I get back."

"I want to know when you leave," Scott said. "You can't expect - when we're in the middle of this nuclear arms race with mutants caught in the middle, when Sinister just escaped - you can't expect me to sit by if you're missing. I want to know when you leave."

"And I want to know the rest," Logan added.

K looked between the two of them for a moment and finally nodded as she let Logan lead her away.

A/N: We've reached the end of yet ANOTHER Volume of the 714 Universe! We (I) may have been a little slow in updating this one but there are other things happening in my world, so bear with me. In the meantime, if you'd like to continue the love affair with this universe (I sincerely hope you do) then keep your eyes open on robbiepoo2341's profile for the next Volume: "Charlie"