Chapter 9

That afternoon Bella awoke to the feeling of someone stroking her hair. And just as she felt a set of lips brush her own, she quickly tackled the fucker so they were underneath her.

"What the fu-"

She'd thrown back a fist to land a punch but instantly stopped seeing who it was.

"Charles?" Bella frowns.

"Hello darling." Charles chokes out, seeing as one of her hands was around his throat.

Darling? When did he start calling her darling?

"What are you doing?" Bella asks him before glancing round at her surroundings to find that they were in her room. "How did I get here? I was at the hospital."

"I brought you here. I needed to speak with you urgently and I'm sorry, but it couldn't wait." He says sitting up.

"What is it?"

Bella then notices the heart rendering look on his face and immediately is concerned. Charles must have a damn good reason for basically kidnapping her like he had, which wasn't like him.

"Charles?"

Instead of answering her boyfriend just continues to stare at her face with his eyes now wet from tears.

"Charles talk to me. What's going on?"

"Beautiful." Charles utters.

"What?"

He lifts his hand up to cup Bella's cheek.

"Your eyes. I'd almost forgotten just how stunning they are." He says smiling a watery smile.

"Charles your scaring me. Wh-"

Immediately his lips were smothering Bella's causing her to freeze in place as she was unsure of what to do. Charles then pulls back after a minute having took notice of how stiff she had gone under his touch.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to be so abrupt. It's just that... I've missed you, so much. You don't even know how much." Charles says shedding a tear.

"You only saw me yesterday." Bella says.

Charles then shakes his head.

"I wish it was only that. No. Try fifty years from now."

Bella rapidly blinks a couple of times in confusion.

"What are you talking about?" She asks him.

Charles sighs.

"There's so much you need to know Bella, and I'm sorry. I am so so sorry but... The only way for me to explain is to show you exactly what's going to happen without sparing any details. Bear in mind this will be an awful lot to take in, or more over understand. But I promise you that everything your about to see is the truth." He says in clear sincerity.

"Show me what?" Bella asks, nervously.

"Please, forgive me." Charles pleads, placing his fingers to his temple as he opens his mind to her.

Flash forward

After Erik drops Shaws lifeless body on the beach the group then watch on as he turns his attention to Chris.

"Take off your blinders Brothers and Sisters. The really enemy will always be humankind." He sneers at the young man.

Bella then runs forward.

"Erik don't!" She yells at him.

Erik stops and looks over his shoulder at her. Wondering why she was still trying to save him.

"Why?" He asks her.

"Just, don't." She tells him, apprehensively.

"You brought him in. Trusted him. And he betrayed you. He betrayed us all, Bella." Erik growls getting irritated.

"I know that! But he's still my Brother. Despite everything he's done." Bella says.

"And I'm your Father. Would you choose him over me?" Erik asks her.

Bella shakes her head.

"You can't ask me that. Its not fair." She argues feeling the sting of tears in her eyes.

"ANSWER ME ISABELLA! WOULD YOU CHOOSE HIM OVER ME?!" Erik yells, emotionally.

There was a pause before Bella gave her answer.

"Yes, I would." She says, tears falling down her cheeks.

Upon seeing the betrayed look in Erik's eyes Charles didn't need to read his mind to know that this wouldn't end well. That's when Erik then turns back to Chris, lifting him in the air by the silver chain around his neck.

"Erik no!" Charles shouts.

"CHRIS!" Bella screams in horror at the sight of her Brother being choked to death. "LET HIM GO!" She yells before harnessing her energy to throw her shield out at Erik who was knocked a good distance away from Chris. Bella then races over to her Brother who had dropped to the ground like a rag doll. "Chris? Chris? Talk to me. Please, tell me your ok." She pleads helping to roll him over on his back.

"I…" Chris tries but has a coughing fit holding his throat that burned from lack of air. "I'm… fine." He says with a strained hoarse voice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know he was going to do." Bella says watching him move to his knees.

"Well… that's t-the thing Bella. You just… never know… what a m-maniac… is capable of." Chris chokes out.

Before she knew what he was doing Bella felt him jab a knife in her gut, watching as he smirked in her face before throwing her to the side.

"Bella!" Charles yells running toward her.

"What is they say? An eye for an eye?" Chris says looking down at Bella with a sinister look on him.

He then pulls a gun out his back pocket and lines it up with Charles. Bella seeing this could only watch on in terror feeling a cold icy hand grip her heart.

"NOOOO!" She screams, struggling to get to her feet.

Too late. Chris had pulled the trigger as they all watch in horror as Charles is hit in the middle of his chest sending him stumbling backwards. It was like time had suddenly slowed down as Bella quickly ran to his side, catching him before he hit the ground. The others follow in hot pursuit while Erik makes quick work in snapping Chris's neck for his final ghastly deed.

"Charles? Charles?! Stay with me!" Bella pleads holding him to her chest whilst putting pressure on his wound.

"B-Bella?" Charles gasps out.

"I'm here. I'm here baby, everything's going be ok. Your gonna be fine. I promise." Bella says between sobs.

She then moves to balance his head on her chest and takes out the syringe she kept on her person for matters such as this. Beast guessing her plan moved to help her. They make quick work in withdrawing as much blood from Bella as possible before then injecting it in Charles's chest.

"Please work. Please god work." Bella prays over and over.

A minute went by though and the wound hadn't healed. Two minutes. Then three. Still, there was no change and Charles continued to bleed out.

"It's not working. Why is isn't it working?!" Bella shrieks in fear.

Of all the times for her power to fault, why now? Charles's life literally hung in the balance and her stupid healing process suddenly decided it didn't want to work.

"Maybe it needs more time." Beast suggests.

Bella shakes her head.

"We don't have time. It should have fucking worked!" She cries.

"B-Bella. I… It's alright." Charles shakily tells her.

"No. No its not alright. I've failed you Charles." Bella sniffles feeling her heart breaking. "It's all my fault."

Charles then cups her cheek looking Bella straight in the eyes.

"None of this w-was your fault. D-do y…you understand? You did what any of us could. Charlie and R-Renee would be so p-proud of you. I know I am." He softly says as his eyes begin to close.

"Charles? Charles! Baby stay awake! Don't close your eyes!" Bella panics giving him a shake seeing his eyes open again. "Stay here. Stay with me, please."

The others watch on in sorrow as he coughs up blood, which Bella carefully wipes away with her sleeve.

"Bella, listen to me." Charles says doing his best to ignore the pain. "I just want you t-to know that m-meeting you was the greatest thing to h-happen to me. I want to t-thank you."

"What for?" Bella asks.

"For l-letting me be your f-friend. For giving me t-the chance to hold y-your heart. I s-should have t-told you sooner. B-but I l-love you, so much. I only wish w-we had more time." Charles says, smiling in contentedness.

"I love you too Charles. I love you so much. That's why you can't go. We have a future together, remember. We're gonna travel the world looking for other mutants, and we're gonna show them that there's nothing to be afraid of. That there are people who care. We're gonna tell them our story just like we said we would. How you found me and made me better. You fixed my heart and put the broken pieces of my life back together again. And I fell madly in love with you because of it. I want to marry you Charles. I want us to have babies and watch them grow up together." Bella sobs, literally pouring her heart out. If this was the last chance, she needed him to know how she felt.

"Th… that sounds w-wonderful." Charles says smiling through his tears.

"And it will be. Our future. It's everything, you know that. The love we feel for each other, it will survive. It has too. Because I'm not gonna let you go, Charles. I can't. I won't survive without you. You are my life now." Bella says softly stroking Charles head. She then leans down to place a gentle kiss on his lips, tasting the tang of blood.

'Please god. Please help him. He doesn't deserve this. I'll do anything as long as he stays. Just help him now.' Bella mentally prays harder than she ever had before.

"Oh my god." Moira gasps, eyes widened. "Look."

Everyone besides Bella then saw what she was referring to. They witness as the bullet that had hit Charles repelled out of his chest. Once it was fully out the broken skin began to fully heal.

"Its working. Bella, its working!" Beast tells her in pure amazement.

Pulling back from the kiss Bella and Charles both looked down at the wound that was now nowhere to be found. All traces of blood were gone. It was like nothing had ever happened, despite the blood and torn hole on his suit that is. Charles then pears up at Bella with a huge smile on his face.

"You truly are amazing, my precious girl." He says as tears of gratitude overcame him.

Bella smiles through a sob and helps him to sit up.

"I love you." She tells him.

"I love you too." Charles says.

Their noses brush gently together as they share another kiss. Only this time passion inflamed from near loss, admiration and more over relief. Only did they break apart when they heard clapping. They turned to find that everyone beside Erik was smiling down at them with tear filled relieved expressions.

"Please say this means you two are still getting married." Raven says, smiling.

Charles and Bella laugh at this. Only Raven would put them on the spot like that. They then come to a stand and exchange hugs with everyone. Raven cries and thanks Bella for saving her Brother giving her the biggest embrace of all. And while Charles was speaking with his Sister Bella walked over to her fallen Brother. She didn't know whether to feel despair that he was gone or enraged at what he had done to Charles. She had begged of Chris to give her a chance to fix their relationship for the sake of not just them but their parents. She had let him in, and he had thrown in all back in her face.

"Bella," she hears and looks over her shoulder to see Erik standing behind her. "I'm sorry," he says.

Bella nods.

"Me too," she says.

"I know you must hate me right now. But I couldn't allow him to get away with what he had done." Erik says.

"I didn't want it to end this way. If anything, I would much rather he be alive and thrown in jail for his crimes. But like you said, he betrayed me. I took him in thinking he wanted our relationship back. But it was all a ploy. My inability to let my Brother go almost got us all killed." Bella says, sorrowfully.

"As Charles said, it wasn't your fault. He was Brother and you trusted him. It just brings me to my point that humans…"

"Don't Erik!" Bella snaps cutting him off before taking an intake of breath. "Please, I just… I just wanna go home and put this fucked up day behind me."

Even though Erik wanted to argue and make his daughter understand that humans were bellow them, he sighed and decided that maybe she was right. After everything that had happened now was not the time. Charles who had read Bella's thoughts made his way over and took her in his arms.

"Are you alright?" He asks glancing down at Chris's body.

"I'm fine," Bella says smiling at him in appreciation. "I just wanna get off this island so I can respectfully lay Chris's body to rest and move forward with my life."

"And we will. We'll give him a proper send off." Charles says.

"You're not mad?" Bella asks him, nervously.

Charles frowns at this.

"Mad? Why would I be mad?" He asks her.

"Because he nearly killed you." Bella says.

"That wasn't your doing. Chris chose his path, and sadly it wasn't the right one. However, that doesn't mean we can't give him a funeral. He's still your Brother, and you'll always love him. That's what siblings do. And I will never think anything less of you because of it." Charles says bringing her the assurance she needs.

"How did I get so lucky having a man like you in my life?" Bella says feeling her heart swell at his comforting words.

Charles chuckles.

"I've been asking myself that very same question since we first met." He says giving her a kiss.

"Charles could you please refrain from sticking your tongue down my daughters throat before I kill you myself." Erik says wrinkling his nose at the two.

The couple laugh his comment off, too lost in the moment to care if he was being serious or not.

Suddenly without warning Azazel appears causing everyone to stiffen in place. He smirks upon capturing Bella in his sights. Charles taking notice of this felt a cold chill go down his spine. However, before anyone could react Azazel took out what looked to be a dart gun and quickly fired it off toward his target. Charles and Erik fought to get Bella out the way. Despite that though, their efforts were in vain. Bella being the stubborn mule she was had pushed them both out the way taking the hit.

"BELLA!" Erik and Charles both yell in terror as the impact threw her back into their arms.

Beast and Alex then quickly Azazel tackle the ground before the son of a bitch had a chance to escape. Raven, Angel, Banshee and Moira run over as they see Charles and Erik lower Bella to the ground.

"My god. Bella? Bella can you hear me?" Charles panics as he spots the dart stinking out above her heart.

"What is that?" Erik asks carefully taking the dart out.

"Charles," Bella utters.

"I'm here my precious girl." Charles assures, holding her against his chest.

"I… I feel… strange." Bella says, breathlessly.

He fast notices how pale she had gone within seconds of that dart having entered her body. She looked sick, which was not like Bella. She didn't get sick, she was immortal. And yet right now she didn't seem to be healing.

"What's… happening t-to me?" She asks becoming fearful as she felt an excruciating pain surround her heart.

"Bella? Bella!" Charles is suddenly alarmed as Bella's whole body begins to convulse, watching as her eyes roll back into her head. "No no no no! Bella hold on! Hold on! Please!" He cries keeping a tight hold of her.

"What's happening to her?!" Erik shouts in distress, feeling powerless to help his daughter. That's when he peered over at Azazel and immediately got to his feet charging over at the man. "YOU! WHAT DID YOU DO?!" He bellows snatching the teleporter up by the scruff of his neck. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?!"

Azazel feeling unaffected by this stupidly laughs in Erik's face.

"You can't save her. She's a dead woman." Azazel says seeming truly pleased with himself.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!" Erik shakes him.

"It's your all your fault. You killed Shaw, and now you have killed your own daughter. Her death is on you." Azazel says breaking out into hysterical laughter.

Erik losing it that point roared in rage before throwing back a fist and punched Azazel knocking him to the ground unconscious. He was about ready to kill the bastard when Beast stopped him.

"GET OFF ME HANK!" Erik yells trying to fight the Beast off.

"Erik enough! Bella needs you right now and we need him alive if we're to find out what he's done!" Beast tells him.

"She's not breathing!" They hear Raven cry out.

Erik wastes no time in running back over to his daughters side where a gut wrenching sight awaited him. Bella's entire neck and face was covered in sickening black veins. Her skin paler than ever, like a ghost. Her lips blue. And as he took her hand in his own Erik flinched at how cold she was. Charles swiftly laid her on the ground and began doing CPR.

"Bella no! Don't give up!" He pleaded pumping her heart before pinching her nose and breathing as much air in her as he could. "Please! Please! Please! Stay with me!" Charles feels the tears stream down his face as he continues his efforts to wake her up. "Bella, come back to me! I need you to come back!"

The entire group struggle to watch as Charles fights to keep their fallen sister alive. All the while they knew the crushing truth. Bella was gone.

Beast then comes over and puts a hand on his friends shoulder. "Charles," he says.

"No!" Charles dismisses him.

"Charles, please." Beast implores shedding tears.

"No! I won't give up!" Charles says refusing to believe it.

"She'll come back. She will. She has to." Erik says placing a kiss on Bella's limp hand.

"She's not coming back this time." Beast says.

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT! WHAT EXACTLY ARE YOU DOING TO HELP HER?! YOU'RE A DOCTOR FOR GOD SAKE AND YET YOU STAND THERE USELESS!" Erik yells at him.

Beast shakes his head.

"There's nothing I could have done. Even if I could, she wouldn't have survived. It was already too late. I'm sorry, so sorry." He says.

"No! No no no no no no!" Charles weeps bringing Bella's limp body into his arms as he rocks back and forth in hysterics. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO! BELLA NO!" He screams into her neck squeezing his eyes shut as the pain of his broken heart takes him over. "Come back. Please don't go. Don't leave me, please."

Next to him Erik was in a flood of tears as he too was overcome by his own agony at losing his only daughter. They'd only just begun and now she too had been snatched away from him just like his Mother.

"Not my baby," Erik sobs into Bella's hand.

End of flashforward.

Author's Note: Anyone need a tissue? That was a lot in one chapter ay? So in the next part we will see Bella's reaction to this and what will be do to change the future.

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