First of all, this is the last chapter of "something is wrong with Charles, let's all bitch about it." I think this chapter both sums it all up and adds a little more, while simultaneously making it the most redundant plot line I think I've ever written. Anyway. This is the last one expounding about that. We shall move on after this.

Secondly, for those of you feeling like there hasn't been nearly enough Erik/Raven interaction in this story... there is a ton of it in this chapter. Enjoy. And, as a point of fact, this might be one of the final ones not written in Charles' POV... though I'm not entirely sure if it is the last.

And finally, the point of this story. As I mentioned in the last chapter, Charles is off to rescue mutant children at Three Mile Island. For those of you who have seen Origins: Wolverine, you'll know that that's where Stryker had a lot of mutant children and experiments going on (and Deadpool, and Remy and a bunch of others)... and those of you who have seen that movie will also know just how out of sync that movie was with all of the others. And truth be told, XMFC was really out of sync with the others too (No, really. Watch Last Stand and you'll understand what I mean. Pay special attention to the flashback scenes with little Jean. Charles was walking in some of them... which would be impossible, given his gunshot wound at the end of XMFC). Now, what this story was originally intended to do was to fill in all of those plot holes. In some ways, that still is (as you'll find out in the next chapter), but it's not it's sole purpose anymore. I had a little too much fun creating my own universe.

That said, I do have an epilogue written that ties this story in with the original trilogy, and thus, tie all of the movies together. But... that is no longer my sole intention, so any mistakes I do make in concerning both the adventure to Three Mile Island (which will be the main focus of the next chapter) and in the epilogue tying everything together will just be because this is now it's own little world.

And on that note, I want to say this story really isn't an AU to XMFC... so I shall now be taking the AU out of the plot summary.

I apologize for being so talkative tonight... but hey, you do get a fourth chapter in five days. Enjoy. :)

The Perks of Being a Telepath

Chapter 48: Erik and Raven

Raven had been gone for too long.

Erik had retreated to his room not long after Charles, Sean, and Hank had left for Three Mile Island. Raven had eventually found him there, bringing with her a bowl of soup and coffee. When he had finished, Raven volunteered to take the dishes back to the kitchen and left.

That had been over an hour ago.

Unless Raven had gotten lost on her way back to Erik's room, something had happened. Something bad. And Erik's instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong.

He slowly climbed off his bed, gritting his teeth while waiting for the world to stop spinning. Charles hadn't been wrong earlier when he had told Erik the metal bender was still too weak to go on a mission.

Outside his bedroom, the mansion was silent. A little too silent, given how loud Raven tended to be when she was at home.

Out of habit, Erik reached out with his powers, doing a sweep of all the metal in the house. While he wasn't a telepath and couldn't sense people's minds like Charles, Erik was fairly adept at being able to tell when there was extra metal in the house, which generally tipped him off to a stranger in the house. Half of the time, Erik could figure out when there was someone else in the house before Charles, which was saying a lot.

Sure enough, in the entrance hall of the mansion, there was a lot more metal than normal. Erik guessed the metal belonged to a handgun, and the handgun belonged to whoever had silenced Raven.

There were no immediate weapons in the house—Charles didn't like to have them around the children. Not that any of them truly needed weapons… but still, in moments like this, Erik wouldn't have minded a little extra backup.

He crept through the house, hoping and praying that none of the children woke up before he could subdue the threat.

Part of Erik thought to alert Charles to what was going on, but a larger part of him pushed that away. Even sick, he was fairly certain he could take down whoever was waiting for him downstairs.

He stopped when he reached the stairs, pausing to peer down the staircase.

Raven was nowhere in sight. Instead, there was a face Erik had only seen once in person, but countless of times in CIA photographs.

Cain.

The synthetic mutant immediately sensed Erik's presence.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are, little metal wielder. I know you're watching me."

Erik swallowed hard. To say the least, this was bad.

He straightened, forcing back the dizziness that threatened to overcome him. He walked slowly down the stairs, searching desperately for an escape route in case things went south.

Charles, if you're listening, you need to come back. Now.

It was his last thought before something stung the back of his neck and everything went black.

Sean disappeared the moment he and Raven reached the main level of the mansion. For a brief moment, she considered going after them, but decided against it. After everything that had happened that day, he deserved a little time to himself.

She let out a weary sigh, before heading into the library. It seemed unnaturally big without Charles' presence filling it, but it still felt far more welcoming than any of the other rooms.

Raven crossed room and sat down in Charles' usual chair. The book he had been reading was still on the coffee table.

All of this had suddenly become too real for her. Sure, there had been that time she had spent in jail, being tortured, but that was nothing compared to the stark fear she had felt as Erik had carried a nearly unconscious Charles out of the CIA facility.

People were going to get hurt. People she cared about and never wanted anything to happen to would get hurt. Some could even die.

The thought hit a little too close to home, especially after how close of a call Texas had been.

A single tear slid down her face. Raven was quick to hide it at the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs, not wanting anyone to see just how much this had rattled her.

Erik walked into the library, clearly lost in his own thoughts, for he didn't notice Raven until he was standing right in front of her.

The metal wielder blinked and looked slightly apologetic.

"What are you doing in here?"

Raven shrugged. He was perhaps one of the only two people in the entire world she would actually give an honest answer to.

"Hiding from the world."

He smiled slightly, taking the chair opposite her.

"Charles is going to be fine. He's sleeping now."

She curled her knees up to her chin.

"Is he going to be okay?"

She didn't mean just in the short term, about her brother's back. That, Raven was confident would be all right.

No, what was troubling her now was his mental state. It was obvious, at least to her, that Charles had been suffering since Texas. Raven had gone to Hank, the one person outside of Erik she trusted to give her the truth, and what he had said had alarmed her.

Hank had mentioned bits and pieces about Charles' growing powers and their toll they were having. Hallucinations, apparently, were becoming more and more common. More often than not, Charles would reference conversations he and Hank had never had, and wouldn't realize what had happened until someone said something. He apparently had constant migraines whenever he overused his telepathy, which, in itself wouldn't be that alarming if they hadn't started lasting for days, if not weeks after the fact. Charles seemed to be losing control over his telepathy, too, which would cause backlashes in his emotions, causing him to do stupid things such as punch walls when he became angry or drown his sorrow in alcohol when he became depressed.

This wasn't normal Charles behavior. At least, not the Charles Raven remembered from before the Cuban Missile Crisis. There had to be something happening, some evil that was causing Charles to be like this. This couldn't be the normal progression of telepathic powers. If Charles continued on like this, according to Hank, the man would be dead within a year.

Raven refused to sit around and watch her brother kill himself. Not if she could stop it.

Erik shrugged slightly.

"I don't know. Some days… some days, he's fine. Other days, he goes to Texas and shoots another telepath in the head, discovers his dead step brother isn't actually dead, and then goes on a suicidal romp through a CIA base."

Sarcasm did little to mar just how concerned Erik was.

She shook her head, tears stinging her eyes once more.

"It was too close, Erik."

The taller mutant let out a weary sigh.

"I know."

"Do you?"

Her soft spoken challenge made Erik wince. Raven immediately felt guilty—she hadn't intended to hurt him.

"I'm sorry, Erik. That's not what I meant."

He shook his head.

"Charles is your brother. I would have to be an idiot to not understand what that means to you."

There was a dark sadness in his voice, one that Raven had heard countless of times before. She knew that there were things in his past, things that not even Charles knew about, that often caused Erik to feel more remorseful than anyone thought him capable. She had seen bits and pieces of this Erik during their year together, but she had never fully appreciated what it meant until now.

A soft sigh escaped her.

"He's as much a brother to you as he is to me. I know you would never want to see him hurt."

Erik scowled slightly.

"I wish he would understand that."

Raven smiled softly.

"He's Charles. He never realizes just how much he means to other people. Or how his blatant disregard for himself effects those around him."

"He's just trying to help."

She swallowed hard around the sudden lump in her throat. Yes, that was the truth, but the harsher reality was…

"He almost got himself killed. He almost got you killed."

Erik closed his eyes.

"Your brother, for all of his intelligence, is a moron. His greatest enemy will always be himself."

"We can't lose him, Erik. I've tried living without him… it didn't work. I don't want to do that again."

A muscle in Erik's jaw clenched, alerting Raven to the fact that she wasn't the only one who had been thinking along those lines as of late.

The older mutant let out a weary sigh.

"I can't promise you that we won't lose him. But I will do my best to protect him."

A year ago, Erik would never have been in a position to make that promise. The fact that he said it now and meant it showed just how much of an affect Charles had had on him in recent months.

Raven took comfort in Erik's words, knowing they were the truth. Of all Erik's faults, lying had never been one of them, and because of that, she found herself more able to accept his word than anyone else's.

That, and they both knew just how much they would lose if they lost Charles.