Chapter Eleven

The Failure of a King

Hampshire, England

Marcus stood with Granite and Blink, prepared for what was to come. His newest recruits were with him as well. They were waiting on the harbor as Truth and Nightmare approached. It wouldn't be long until the reporters arrived. Nightmare delivered positive news.

"The Navy crews on duty are fast asleep in the midst of terrible dreams. They won't wake to interfere."

He smiled and motioned to a vessel. "Take the ship the two of you can pilot yourselves. We'll meet you out there."

Truth returned his smile. "Towards the dawn of a new world."

The pair headed in their preselected direction and Marcus turned away at the sound of vehicles. The police were here. How irritating. Ah. Behind them news vans were incoming. It was almost showtime.

Westchester County, New York

"I think you make mistake."

Charles stopped by the bottom of the stairs to look at the Brotherhood member who trailed him from the kitchen. He was dreadfully tired of talking but it would be impolite not to hear the man out. So here he was, lowering his foot to the floor and standing with arms at his sides.

"What mistake would that be?"

"Magneto needs you around. You need him around. You both stay together."

He raised an eyebrow at that and laughed a tad unpleasantly. "There was a time when I believe I did need Erik, but then he abandoned me."

Azazel averted his gaze to the floor. "The day on beach, working for Shaw, was peculiar time. Mistakes were made. Like one you're about to make."

He sighed. "You stand with the Brotherhood. You know our beliefs are too different to reconcile without one of us giving in what we can't."

"If you believe this, I think, then, you will be surprised what Erik would do for you."

Now he was frowning, brow furrowed in a fair amount of confusion. "I don't understand you. Your group seems so together, yet so divided. Was this the grand plan of Magneto? Everyone do as they wish and there won't be any consequences? No wonder the future appears to be troubling."

"The future troubling, yet you'd turn from potential allies to stop it?"

Automatically his telepathy reached out to touch the surface thoughts of the teleporter and beyond. He pulled away before he could read anything. Curiosity was getting the better of him. It was his common practice not to read minds unless necessary. People tended not to appreciate invasion into their minds.

When Azazel stepped closer and nodded in his direction, he was puzzled. "What?"

"Go on. Look."

He hesitated a moment before focusing and diving in. There was nothing quite like exploring a mind belonging to someone else. This mind in particular was like no mind he'd ever been inside. He learned Azazel took pride in loyalty, honor, and bravery. Charles was surprised to uncover a whole section walled in the mind concerning him and everything the man collected on him. That wasn't the most surprising discovery.

"I'm curious, Azazel, why you've chosen this world to be your home. There are, it would seem, many to choose from."

What a miraculous revelation.

The man didn't respond, shifting from one foot to the other and then moving sideways. Charles saw what he failed to notice while rifling through Azazel's mind. The group in the kitchen decided their new place to make him uncomfortable was the foyer. They were all standing near the door, staring at the red-skinned mutant in a suit with mixed expressions of shock and disbelief.

"Oh dear. My apologies. I've done it again. They didn't know."

"You're from another planet?!" Raven squeaked out, shrill and astonished.

"Another dimension," Charles corrected, pausing to wonder if he should have said and acknowledging it was too late. "He's much older than he looks."

While he stewed over revealing a second secret, Azazel countered his worrying using unusually perfect speech.

"This planet never ceases to amaze. The capacity for humans to love, hate, forgive... Humans never cease to amuse me. They have genuine potential to create a great world so I remain. An amazing world would be something worth bearing witness to."

Well that was mind-blowing. Azazel still managed to be terrifying, but now Charles could see he was a creature of dignity. He kind of liked him, the man who was his supposed enemy.

"Eh, professor?"

His eyes found Sean and meaningfully looked at him until he went on.

"Since when did your eyes glow?"

He hadn't been expecting that. He didn't know the answer.

"I don't know. When I use a lot of power, or mental strength if you will, they just start glowing. I suppose it's part of the mutation."

"Do you think any of us can have our eyes glow if we're using enough power?" Alex wondered aloud, sounding like he thought it would be groovy.

When Charles didn't reply immediately, Shaw answered for him. "No, child, because you don't have enough power for your mind to expel visible signs of energy use through the eyes."

Alex appeared offended being called a child. He traded it for an impressed look. Clapping Sean on the back, he grinned at Charles.

"See, we knew you were still cool."

"Yeah, cool and bleeding," Sarah said, directing attention to his gunshot wound.

Right. The bullet that clipped his head. There was stinging pain he hadn't felt until now. He reluctantly faced Tom when his student approached him and Azazel.

"Mind if I take care of that, professor?"

He relented, tilting his head downward in Tom's direction for easier access. The touch of the young man's hand was warm. A brief tingling sensation and the side of his forehead no longer felt damp from blood, pain receding to nothing.

"A marvelous ability. Thank you, Tom."

"Anytime, professor." He seemed to think better of it. "But don't make a habit of getting hurt."

"Healing. So awesome!" Raven was delighted.

Tom looked at her, shrugging. "I can only do the small stuff. Cuts, bruises, a couple broken bones are my thing. I wish I could heal more, like your cancer, Sarah."

He was ashamed. He shouldn't be. Charles put a hand on his shoulder.

"There are some things out of our control, Tom. Sometimes we cannot change things, or heal people, as much as we wish we could."

Charles forced his gaze to steer clear of Erik's heated one currently staring him into the ground. He didn't have time to mull over anything because he was sensing trouble. Vaguely, he listened to Tom agreeing with him, his ability taking his mind elsewhere.

"I know. I get it. I mean, you had to kill your step-father because otherwise he would have ended up killing you, or Cain, or... That situation was a hopeless one. I guess, what I'm trying to say-"

"Is that we get why you did what you did," Sean finished. "You were a scared kid. And we all know what it's like to be a kid coming into a power, feeling scared and alone."

"Or being in a tough situation with your family, not knowing what to do to get away and feel safe," Alex added.

He heard this and smiled at them appreciatively. Then he regarded the sole person in the room who could pick up on what he was learning. Emma met his gaze and thinned her lips, letting on she knew what he knew. She used their shared condition to speak with him privately.

"We knew of these mutants. We'd been planning to approach them for recruitment purposes."

"Until I lost my mind and ruined everyone's week?"

"Something like that, darling."

"I can't seem to get a direct read on any of them, only the fear and panic of those near."

"It's the same for me. They have some method of blocking our telepathy. It's annoying how frequent that's been happening."

"How do you mean?"

"Wouldn't you like to know. Well, you can imagine we've been busy monitoring government facilities and what the CIA may know. Good work preventing them from learning anything too useful by the way. You're really very talented."

"And you're more kind than you behave, Ms. Frost. Why is that?"

"Kind, to those I like. You can call me Emma. You're smart, handsome, charismatic-"

"Quite enough flattery, Emma. It won't distract me from knowing the Brotherhood's activities over the years have resulted in recent government action. Perhaps leading to the war we fear will happen?"

"I wasn't."

"Hm?"

"I wasn't distracting you. But now, I'm afraid I must. The situation is escalating. We should inform the others and go?"

"Looking to help innocent civilians, Ms. Frost?"

"Call it looking for excitement and glamour in this often dreary world."

"There is much more to you than you let on, Emma, and you are right. Further discussion may be continued at another time."

Charles snapped out of his telepathic conversation and observed those in the room. There wasn't opportunity to formulate a plan or even to suit up. They needed to act before the situation in Hampshire worsened.

"Azazel, I must ask a favor, if you would be so kind."

"Ask it."

The willingness was surprising but he didn't question it. He transmitted images of the location held in his head.

"I ask for a temporary alliance, Erik." He observed Azazel. "And transport. Portsmouth Harbor. Navy home of Britain. Those who have come to call themselves the Reapers are there, and foolishly look for an audience. We will grant it to them."

Hampshire, England

They appeared, fourteen of them, behind the crowd filling the area along the harbor. The people gathered were varied in their reception of those seeking to captivate, but captivate them they did. Some were enthused and invested in cheering for the six men and women standing on an elevated platform. At least a dozen cameras were fixed on them. Others in the crowd were either wary, suspicious, or just plain fearful of self-proclaimed terrorists keeping them transfixed to the spot.

"Good people of Hampshire, hear me. Listen to what I have to say. Here we display to you a taste of our power. Where is your precious Navy? They are asleep in their beds. They will not come to stop us. And-" Sharply the speaker tilted his head to eye a handful of officers pushing their way through the crowd. "Should the police attempt anything, they will be neutralized just like the Navy crewmen before them."

The police hesitated but began moving forward again out of a sense of duty or pride. Charles reached with his telepathy to stop them. They would get themselves hurt or killed if he let them continue. He had little choice.

"Hear me, good people. Together, we, the Reapers, will make a new world. The weak will perish, mutant or not, but the strong will flourish."

Murmurs in the crowd pondering whether this was good or bad news for them. A few were adamant they should leave, a few spoke in favor of the opposite. There was resultant shuffling of restless minds and nothing more. The best of people could be indecisive, and Charles was no different.

He watched Magneto take charge of his people, Emma remaining where she was at her leader's side. Riptide, Angel, Raven, and Azazel spread out among the crowd, moving closer to the front of the dozens of people grouped together. Soon the very red Azazel and the very blue Mystique attracted attention.

Charles studied the man who targeted the Royal Navy. He was lowering his gaze to examine the distinct and new members of the crowd. It seemed wise to find what he was thinking. Attempting to enter Marcus Smith's mind, he found he couldn't.

He tried entering the mind of the tall, lean woman stood behind Smith's left shoulder. Nothing. The man next to her, the same nothing. It was as though no one was there, no mind to seek. Emma apparently was experiencing similar results. She looked his way and then at Magneto beside her.

"The vests they wear. I think there's a sort of psionic shielding." Emma physically pushed two teenagers out of her way in order to be seen by those on the platform ahead. "Psionic shield vests. That's incredible. How did you do it?"

"We didn't," Smith replied, glad to do so. "Our benefactors did. These vests are made of non-metal alloy with crystals woven in the interior to shield against psychic abilities. I very much suspect you and your Brotherhood of Mutants were the cause for such efforts to be prolonged until achievement..Magneto."

Magneto adjusted the helmet on his head to ensure it was firmly in place and moved through the crowd. They parted to create space for him, many of them beginning to back away. It would appear they felt violence brewing. A few quick peeks told Charles he was right. They could feel something bad and it was frightening them.

"Of course," the leader of the Reapers went on. "I don't actually require a special vest, ability such as mine, but I do like how it goes with my cape. Don't you find it splendid? I thought if you could get away with walking around in one, why not give it a go myself?"

Erik didn't view the man's comment as a compliment. He looked annoyed and a bit impatient. For what reason his old friend was feeling impatient, he could only guess. Marcus Smith was doing a fine job ruining the Brotherhood's efforts to solidify a following to their cause.

"People like you need to hear this most of all, Magneto. When the new world comes, mutants will be rulers, leaders, gods. Mutant is power. Many mutants are capable of being gods. Mutants are the future."

"Mutants are a sign that evolution is at work, Smith, but your methods are more symbolic of a cult. You cannot win this way," Magneto said.

"Call me Shield," Marcus told him with a slight smirk before adding, "Watch this."

The leader of this new uprising stepped to the side so everyone could better see what was about to happen. Charles was as worried about what was coming as the people in his surroundings his telepathy picked up on. Their worry and fear magnified his own tenfold. It wasn't pleasant.

The tall woman strode to the edge of the stage farthest from the crowd and stared in their general direction. She began to twirl around and around and when she finally went still again, her skin had become a shade of light blue, her hair darker blue. She'd frozen head to toe, eyes glowing an icy blue color before fading. Charles thought her body resembled Raven when she was in her deep blue form without any clothes on, as she was presently.

This woman's skin was a much lighter, paler blue. She wore clothing unlike Mystique, skin freezing and turning to ice causing it to plaster to her in a form-fitting manner. Her hair had frozen a darker shade and into thick strands at the back of her head. Her lips upturning in an assured smile were the same color as her hair.

Raising both hands straight up and partially crossed over one another above her head, she swung them around and spun to face the water. Buildings and docks lined the pier. Palms outward, she aimed for the Navy ships and smooth ice shot out of her hands. Every last one of the ships and buildings were coated.

The poor people inside... A single motion and this woman ended hundreds of lives. He had to do something. Charles walked toward the platform and Magneto sidestepped to stand partly in front of him. He'd done it in such a casual manner that it could be construed as incidental.

Charles knew him better. Erik was attempting to keep him out of harm's way. He wasn't a child. He wasn't naive and helpless. He wasn't!

He started to move around Erik but the crowd began to scream and panic. Another of Shield's mutants was lifting his arms, electric bolts surging from his hands and arms into the sky. He leveled the electricity toward the watching crowd, who scattered and fled in terror. Cameras and microphones were abandoned as newspeople fled too.

When Smith hopped down from the platform, a woman with auburn hair and an arrogant-looking guy copied him. They stood at their leader's side and Charles saw his followers did what they did to get a desired outcome. The humans had run off and the fourteen mutants in the crowd were left exposed.

"Allow me to introduce some of my most trusted allies, Magneto. This is Granite and Blink."

Granite was the smirking man, head shaved, dark eyes. Blink was the woman with big eyes and a confident smile worn well.

"The three up there are Shiva, Surge, and Fenrir. Believe me, they were given their names for obvious reasons. Now Shiva, isn't she a thing of beauty?" He stared proudly up where she was elegantly balancing on the tips and balls of her feet. "She is truly a goddess in her own right."

He clapped his hands together, expression of awe transitioning into one of solemnity as he looked at the people remaining. "So, which of you is the leader?"

Charles glanced to Erik and back to Shield. He was startled to see the Britain-born terrorist staring. He swallowed uncertainly and checked Raven, then Angel and Riptide, who shifted to be a little nearer to him from behind and to his left. He didn't understand at first, and took a step away to regard Erik openly.

Sean said out loud what Charles was trying to say with his directed stance. "Magneto is. You know. He leads the Brotherhood."

"Mm-mm," the man disagreed. "They appear to obey that one, but they protect him."

Shield was pointing at him and he understood now.

"You protect him, and you always protect your king."

Charles stared at the man who stared back. Oh no, he could practically hear the gears grinding in Smith's head. He didn't enjoy when people looked at him like they were digesting him. It was unnatural and unnerving.

"I am a god. You are a king. Kings fall, and in this, sooner is better than later. I can't have leaders around to threaten my desire to guide people to a new world. Kings will have to go to make room for the gods."

"Tough talk but I won't let you touch him," Magneto declared.

A mutant appeared to break up the tension building. Or perhaps to amplify it into a fight.

"You don't want to make us your enemy, Charles."

The young, blonde-haired woman looked a little worse for wear this time. She had shadows under her eyes but she stood tall and refrained from hunching or leaning. He was prepared with a response in the case he saw Apocalypse again.

"A glimpse into the past. A time, an event. It happened to my future self. He told me this when he managed to astral project himself through time to talk to me. He told me if we can stop things from getting worse between humans and mutants, we can change the future. We can prevent the things that lead to a terrible war. You must understand then, that I will do everything I can to stop the war from happening."

"Charles, you-"

She halted her words when they saw a flash of metal brought upward. Bullets hammered into the body spreading itself in front of Erik and him. Mostly he was spread in front of Charles. He could hardly breathe as he ignored the machine gun and peered into the agonized eyes of his dear student.

Sean's emotions flooded his head in droves of pain, fear, and surprise. The man dropping to his knees, Charles let himself drop with him. He gripped his forearms as if his own life depended on it. He refused to look away from Sean's eyes. Eyes desperate to hold on and he realized why when a voice spoke in his mind.

"Professor... Cover your ears. Cover your ears!"

"Cover your ears!" Charles shouted, forcing himself to drop the arms so he could cover his ears.

Banshee held out another few seconds and then screamed. His screech remained piercing and painful even with ears blocked. Their unprepared foes cowered and stumbled. A final rattling death cry and Sean was keeling over. Everything after that was a hazy recollection.

He caught Sean, who'd fallen bloody and limp on his shoulder. The death so close to him, in more ways than one, his mind was abuzz with the feel of a death that felt like it was his death. It was his beloved student, X-Men, and friend, so it might as well have been.

There was movement around him of which he was barely aware. A sob caught in his throat. There was the pressure of a hand on his shoulder. The world turned upside down, smell of sulfur faintly touching the single sense of his not overloaded in this moment. When the world turned right-side up, everything was still so wrong.