{Author's Note: Well, this took longer than normal. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you're getting curious as to how many chapters are left in this fic, honestly me too. I have no idea. It would be kind of cool if it ended with the same number of chapters as the first part, but I'm not going to try to do that. There might be more, there might be less, there might be the same number. Your guess is as good as mine at this point. I know what I want to cover and where I want to end it, but I don't know how long it will take to get there.}
ERIK POV
He felt it long before he saw it. The metal in the air. They were over Cairo now—at the epicenter of it all.
If he hadn't been in such a panic, he would have realized that he had been feeling it all day, since shortly after returning to the school. But now, it was crushing.
The magnetic waves surging through the air and earth alike were unfathomable.
It was overwhelming.
Alarming.
Intoxicating.
And the sight of it was something to behold.
There was metal everywhere. The power so clear that even someone without Erik's ability could see the shape of the magnetic fields in the air.
"My god." Erik breathed out.
"No. Not god. Your daughter." Alex replied next to him. "That's Lorna."
Erik knew that, of course. He knew it had to be his daughter.
"Is there anything—can you stop this?" asked Alex as he flew around a column of swirling debris.
No.
That was the short answer. Erik was only barely keeping their jet shielded from the destruction. Although Lorna's focus must have been concentrated enough that it wasn't pulling every piece of metal into its path—yet—just what she needed, which was more than enough to shape a new world, he still felt its steady pull at their aircraft.
It was shocking to see his daughter's power on display. The most impressive thing Erik had ever done with his powers was raise a baseball stadium. This . . . this was leaps and bounds beyond anything he would ever be able to do.
"No I—I can't." Said Erik at last.
"Then we need to find her." Said Alex, and after another moment, "We—we'll have to stop her."
"I know." Said Erik.
"I don't know how we'll do that." Alex admitted quietly. "But she's destroying everything . . ."
No. Erik thought. He had already done that. It was his choices that led Lorna down this path of destruction. Hadn't he done the same all his life, albeit—arguably—on a smaller scale?
Erik was the one who had destroyed everything. Just by being their father, Erik had destroyed all of his children's chances at having happy and normal lives.
So Lorna might be the one wielding the hammer, but he had forged it long ago.
Erik didn't know if he'd be able to stop her. To stop Apocalypse. To stop the end of everything. But he had to try. He had to salvage what was left of his family—not for himself, but for them.
He felt panic threatening to overwhelm him once again. Pietro might be down there somewhere, amid the destruction. He had to make sure he was okay and had a world to grow up in.
And Lorna . . . well he couldn't blame her for her actions. Maybe he should, but if things had gone differently, Erik had no doubt that it could have just as easily been him causing the destruction around them.
Ten years ago—or however you wanted to measure the time that had passed—if Erik had never found out about Pietro, Wanda, Nina, even Lorna, and a powerful mutant had offered him a chance to build a better world, to purge it of those who stood against his kind, well . . . Erik knew his flaws well-enough to know that he would have accepted that offer with barely a question. Why would he have even considered turning his back on such an opportunity? Back then, he had nothing left to lose. Maybe Charles or one of the others would have been able to talk him out of it, but maybe not.
Probably not.
But what might have been didn't matter now. What mattered was that Erik did have children. More than that, he had a family. And one way or another he wasn't leaving here without them . . .
Erik scanned the ground as best he could as Alex guided their jet forward, his knuckles white on the controls as he gripped them tightly.
After a tremulous few minutes, they both spotted her at the same time—a beacon of green below amid a dull landscape.
"Lorna." Alex breathed out, his focus diverted to the girl—the woman—he was so clearly in love with it was a little frightening. But Erik's gaze had moved on, spotting another pair of figures even farther below them. One was a blue imposing mutant that could only be Apocalypse—En Sabah Nur. Next to him, crumpled on the ground, was a much smaller figure: a boy with silver hair—Pietro. His son. And though Erik couldn't hear him, it was clear that he was screaming in unbridled anguish.
Erik was standing now, gripping the dashboard. He reached out with his powers, desperately trying to gain control of some piece of metal close enough to his son and En Sabah Nur to drive it through the latter's heart or maybe his head in case he didn't have the former, but it was no use. Every time he gained a smidgen of control of metal even somewhat in the vicinity of the people below, it immediately slipped away. Erik's powers were impressive, but they were nothing in comparison to Lorna's. He didn't know if En Sabah Nur had done something to her, or if Lorna had just been born that much stronger than him despite having similar abilities, but either way it was clear he wasn't going to be able to save his son from afar.
"Alex! Get us down there NOW!"
PETER POV
Through his pain and panic, Peter could tell that the ancient mutant's little 'come to Jesus' moment, didn't go the way he had planned.
Whatever the mutant had done to Peter immediately caused him to crumple in pain.
His head was on FIRE. If Peter could form a rational thought, that would be the one at the forefront of his mind. It was there enough now actually that Peter wondered why no one was attempting to put the fire out. They were screaming, but the fire was still there, fast and furious with no end in sight.
Or was Peter the only one screaming? Had he ever not been screaming? Or did he come into this world shrieking and had never stopped?
Images flashed through his head. Too many too fast even for him to begin to sort through, but just slow enough to—to hurt.
Peter clutched his head. "Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop." Peter chanted to himself, or was he saying it out loud? Where even was he? Egypt? A prison? A farm? An airport? A protest . . .
"Nonononononononono. Stopitstopitstopitstop. MYHEADMYHEAD. WAAAAANDA!"
There was a huff of disgust somewhere above him. "Useless. A shame. You are weaker than I thought. Your power wasted. But don't worry my child. I will not let you live with this shame."
Peter felt a hand on his head, pulling him up to kneel again. It hurt, the sudden movement gasoline thrown onto his already flaming head. But maybe it wasn't even real? Maybe this was pain he had already experienced? Maybe Peter's power had finally caused him to lose the ability to discern the fine intricacies of time.
That's why the next words from the apocalyptic being's mouth didn't matter to Peter. If it was a memory, it would just be more of the same—more pain. And if it was real . . . at least the pain would be over.
Peter's head was wrenched back, and then, with an air of finality, the voice above him spoke.
"End him."
LORNA POV
Mystique was foolish. Her words were just that—words.
And the boy was foolish too for trying to stop En Sabah Nur.
Neither understood that this was the only way forward. The humans would never accept them. Would never give them a life they deserved.
The only way for mutants to get what they deserved was to build a new life from the ground up.
They would start a new world where mutants—not humans—ran things.
This was the way.
This was right.
It was.
But whythen, why was she even questioning it? Why couldn't she get Mystique's voice—or the boy's face—out of her head?
Despite the growing sinking feeling in her stomach, Lorna continued her destruction as she watched and heard the boy cry out again below her.
En Sabah Nur had broken his leg.
Lorna winced but did not falter in her task.
She understood that En Sabah Nur had broken his leg to stop the boy, but it still made her cringed. His power was impressive, nothing compared to En Sabah Nur's power, but once he realized the path they were forging was the right one, he could be very useful. And he was old enough that she could be a decent mentor to him, unlike the failure she was to Nina. In a few years, maybe she could even trust him to watch her back in a way that she had never quite trusted Alex to do despite her love for him.
Lorna let out what was meant to be a calming breath. It would be okay. There was no reason for En Sabah Nur to kill the boy. Without his speed, he was no longer a threat. He would recover. And when they were finished here, there would be a new world waiting for him. For them. He could be part of it, in a way that Wanda—the sister she barely had a chance to know—never had the opportunity to because it was taken from her.
Lorna looked away. Focusing back on metal in front of her and around the planet.
But then she heard another scream, and she couldn't help it; she looked back at her leader and the boy.
En Sabah Nur had his hands on the boy's head now. On her brother's head.
She knew he was her brother from the moment Mystique implied such, even though Lorna had always declined to see photos of her siblings when Mila had offered. Lorna had seen no point in dwelling over the dead (or presumed dead) . . . excluding Magneto of course. But even so, it was impossible to ignore the fact when it was so clearly present in the cut of his jaw and in his eyes. The eyes that it seemed all of her siblings had inherited . . . except for her.
The boy was in extreme pain. That was clear enough too, but whatever En Sabah Nur was doing, it had to be for her brother's own good. Maybe he was helping him see his vision of the new world, just as he had shown her.
That had been painful too, but necessary. And now she saw things more clearly. . . . didn't she?
No longer even attempting to appear as though she was keeping her attention elsewhere, Lorna watched them intently now, both eager for her brother to reach the same level of enlightenment as she had . . . and, perhaps especially, for him to stop screaming.
He did, eventually, but it didn't seem to be a choice as much as he simply no longer had the strength to continue. There was no look of understanding on his face though, no spark of hope for the future—only more pain and maybe confusion.
No matter. He would see when they were finished.
They all would.
She went to turn away, but then Lorna saw Psylocke approaching, sword in hand. And, for some unknown reason her heart skipped a beat in fear—not for herself, but for her brother.
Lorna's grip on the metal across the world faltered just a bit as En Sabah Nur grabbed her brother's hair, pulling him to his knees.
She watched as the ancient mutant said something to the other woman and pulled the boy's head back, exposing his throat.
No.
It didn't make sense, he wouldn't have her kill him.
He was just a kid.
A mutant kid.
Her brother.
But the woman drew back her sword, and he made no move to stop her. He just held out the boy's neck like a pig for slaughter.
And just like that, Lorna and En Sabah Nur's visions for the world diverged.
Fortunately, her brother's would-be executioner turned out to be Mystique, not Psylocke. She changed to her natural blue form almost immediately when En Sabah Nur grabbed her by the throat. Lorna hadn't known it was Mystique when she had started swinging her sword, but she had felt the metal flying upward toward En Sabah Nur, rather than down toward her brother, so she'd let it continue its course, hoping it would cut down the ancient being without Lorna even having to lift a finger.
But of course it didn't because that would have been too easy.
By the time En Sabah Nur had lifted the woman by her neck, the wound on his own neck had already begun to heal.
Lorna didn't make a scene to show En Sabah Nur where her truly loyalty lie. She didn't give him time to expect her rebellion—she was smart enough not to—but somehow he still did. Lorna flung everything she had at him, forcing the metal that had been swirling upward straight down at the ancient mutant. But he saw it coming. He dropped Mystique—she fell to the ground unmoving—and then he blocked everything she threw at him with some sort of forcefield.
While fending off her attack, En Sabah Nur still managed to address her calmly, but with it seemed genuine surprise. "You betray me?"
"No. You betray him." Said Lorna never ceasing her attack as she nodded her head at her brother where he lay withering on the ground, clutching his head.
"He is foolish child. Lost, beyond repair. I admit, it is not his fault, but he will never share in our vision, so he is of no use to me." replied En Sabah Nur as calm as ever.
"Yea? Well I don't share your vision now either, so fuck off asshole!" Lorna yelled and increased her onslaught, drawing on reserves she didn't know she had.
But it wasn't enough. Despite everything she threw at him, En Sabah Nur—Apocalypse—was too strong.
Lorna gritted her teeth. She had to end this now. There was no turning back. Eventually, she could wear him down right?
And maybe, with her newly enhanced powers, eventually, she would have.
But that was not what happened.
Instead, she lost focus. Her attention drifted to the appearance of another man, flying and then, when that was no longer possible due to the metal in the air, running, not toward her, but toward her brother.
It was Magneto.
Erik.
Her father.
It was only for a second that she looked away. Only a moment did her attention drift to the man who had given her powers, purpose, and life itself, but it was enough.
En Sabah Nur took advantage of that moment, not only blocking her attack, but forcing it back on her.
Lorna felt it coming and she blocked almost every piece of debris.
But almost wasn't all.
Lorna didn't know what it was, some metal piece of a building or maybe a car. But whatever it was, it hit her like a bullet, entering one side of her chest and coming out the other.
And then she fell.
{Author's Note: Hanger meet cliff.}
