Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, alerted, and favorited this story! I greatly appreciate the feedback.
Now, here's Chapter 2. Just as a forewarning, the story does diverge from First Class a bit. I hope you enjoy, and thank you for reading!
Erik was starting to lose his patience as he waited for the debriefing to begin. He was sitting at a round meeting table with Charles and CIA agent Moira MacTaggert to his right and a plump man in a suit across from him. Soldiers stood at both exits to the room, apparently to protect its occupants from potential threats. But the guards looked young and inexperienced to Erik—hardly capable of offering any protection from an opponent like Shaw.
Another strike against these soldiers was that they seemed to view Erik as one of the threats rather than one to protect, especially based on their cold, judgmental stares. By now, all of the military men at this facility had heard of what had happened in Miami, and Erik didn't need Charles' telepathy to know that they regarded him as a freak because of it. He could see it in their eyes—eyes that he could easily blind with a few well-aimed metallic pens from the table.
That's enough, Erik. Just stay calm, and maybe we'll be able to give these men reason to be more open-minded, Charles told him telepathically before turning his attention back to Moira. The two were carrying on their own conversation, leaving the man in the suit to ramble Erik's ear off. The man was with the United States government and had a keen interest in mutants. He was the one who'd brought Charles to Miami to try to find Shaw, and he currently was advocating for the further use of mutants in government operations.
The man was now on his fifth reason as to why this facility of his was the perfect place to launch a new 'mutant division' of the CIA. With this nonstop chatter and the annoying looks from the boys pretending to soldiers, Erik found he couldn't help but reach for the coin he always carried. Shaw—back when he was called Schmidt in Auschwitz—had given the coin to Erik after he'd failed to lift it from a desk to save his mother's life. Now the coin served to remind Erik of the purpose behind his actions. Everything that he went through—everything that he subjected others to—all of it was to bring him one step closer to Shaw.
Erik spun the coin around his fingers, trying to stay calm and focused. He knew that Charles and the other mutants at this facility were his best chance of getting to Shaw. They could help him get past Shaw's minions and finally attain his life's pursuit. But if Erik had to keep dealing with these humans, he didn't know if he could handle sticking around for much longer. The benefits weren't worth the cost to his pride or his sanity.
Just then, the door in front of Erik opened, and two women walked in—Charles' sister Raven and Shaw's former captive Viola. The latter looked much better than the last time Erik had seen her. A pair of long, tight jeans and a black, boat neck top helped to cover most of her bruises and cuts. Her hair had also been cleaned and styled into a bun on top of her head. And except for a bandage wrapped around her foot and partially concealed by her flat-heeled shoes, Erik wouldn't have known that Viola's leg had been injured. The steadiness to her walk either meant that the wound wasn't as bad as Erik had originally thought, or that Viola was a woman who knew how to overcome pain.
Erik felt a sudden need to stand as the two women entered, even though he wasn't usually one to offer gentlemanly courtesies. Such displays were generally a waste of time that could be better spent hunting Shaw, but he felt that these women, as fellow mutants, deserved his respect. When the women neared the table, Erik used his ability to pull out the chairs on his left, and Viola took the chair nearest to him. As they sat down, her eyes met his and she whispered, "Thank you."
Before Erik could respond, the man in the suit interrupted. "Well, let's get started," he began. "What we're hoping to do today is get some information on Sebastian Shaw from you, Miss Curtis, and you, Mr. Lehnsherr, given that you both seem to have a history with him. Other than the kidnapping charge from Miss Curtis, the CIA only seems to have speculation about Shaw. We have reason to believe that he has been engaging in treasonous activities, but we need more solid leads and evidence if we're going to stop him. We also believe he may have had some connection to the recent disappearance of Colonel Hendry, but again we can't prove anything."
"Hendry's dead," Viola spoke up. "Shaw killed him."
"Did you actually see the murder?" Moira asked.
"Technically, I didn't see anything, rather I sensed Hendry's death," Viola replied, but the humans looked confused by her response. She continued, trying to explain what she meant, "I have an ability not unlike the Professor's. For the most part, I can read people's minds unless someone or something blocks me from doing so. One of Shaw's associates, Emma Frost, could block me, so she kept me out of the minds of Shaw and his team. But whenever someone came onboard the ship whose mind I could read, I usually paid attention so that I could get some idea of what was going on."
"So what happened to Hendry?" the man in the suit asked.
"Hendry was angry about something that Shaw had made him do, so he came to the ship to confront Shaw about it," Viola replied. "I couldn't determine all of the details, but Hendry was angry enough to bring a live grenade onboard to try to kill Shaw."
"What happened?" Moira asked.
"You don't know about Shaw's ability?" Viola asked, but again her audience responded with blank expressions of uncertainty. Even Erik didn't know what Shaw's ability was. Shaw had left Erik in the hands of Nazi scientists after he had destroyed Shaw's lab. Erik had figured that this was most likely because Shaw feared retaliation from his test subject. The experiments performed on Erik—however painful and grueling—had provided Erik with greater strength and control over his ability. And no doubt Shaw knew that Erik would have used that more powerful ability to kill his captor if given the chance. For that reason, Erik only met Shaw once, but that one instance was enough to scar Erik for life. He listened eagerly as Viola continued, hoping to find out something that could help him bring down Shaw.
"Shaw can absorb different forms of energy and then redirect that energy as he sees fit," she explained. "If he directs it at a person or thing, he can be quite destructive. That's what happened with Hendry. Shaw let the grenade go off, absorbed the energy from it, and then used that energy to kill Hendry. When Shaw directs energy inwardly, though, it has the opposite effect. It rejuvenates him."
"So basically no explosive weapon would kill him because he could just absorb the energy from it?" Charles asked.
"Bullets wouldn't work either," Viola replied. "Shaw can absorb the kinetic energy behind them so that they wouldn't hurt him."
"And if he were able to get to an energy source, his ability would allow him to heal any injuries he might have?" Charles asked.
"And prevent him from aging," Viola added.
"What?" the man in the suit asked.
"Shaw's ability allows his body to regenerate to the point where he doesn't age," Viola replied.
It now made sense to Erik why Shaw looked just as he had in Auschwitz. He had thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him the other night in Miami, but now there was a logical reason for it. And there was also one more thing for Erik to figure out before he faced Shaw again—how he was going to kill the bastard.
"So if he doesn't age, how old is he?" Moira asked.
"I don't know for certain," Viola replied. "I managed to glimpse into his mind occasionally, and it looked like some of his memories were from the 1800's based on what people were wearing. Whether he was born before that, I can't say."
"If he's been around since the 1800's, I'm surprised we don't have a larger file on him," the man in the suit said. "It's just been recently that Shaw has been engaging in criminal activity."
"That's because he hasn't always gone by the name Sebastian Shaw," Viola replied.
"And he hasn't always operated in America," Erik added. He then explained to them about Shaw's time with the Nazis as Klaus Schmidt, informing them of how Shaw used to experiment on mutants but leaving out the more personal details. Despite his omissions, though, Charles and Viola still looked at Erik with sympathetic eyes, clearly aware of the horrors he had lived through at Shaw's hands.
"So, Shaw has shown a continued interest in collecting mutants," Moira commented. "Is that why he kidnapped you, Miss Curtis?"
"In part," Viola answered. "It also had to do with my father's past dealings with him, when Shaw was going by the alias Michael Shane."
"Michael Shane," Moira repeated. "That name sounds familiar."
"He was an associate of a few well-known mob bosses in 1920's Chicago," Viola replied. "That's when my father met him. My father was a 15 or 16-year-old orphan at the time trying to use his ability to survive in the city."
"What could your father do?" Charles asked.
"He was telepathic. It helped him to persuade people to give him food or shelter when he needed it, but he always tended to live like an outcast. He thought he was some sort of freak because of what he could do. And that's when he met Shaw.
"Shaw had money and power and influence, and more importantly, he welcomed my father into his home with open arms. My father was so happy about being accepted that he didn't dig very deeply into Shaw's thoughts to find out the sort of person Shaw really was. But it didn't take long for the darker side of his new friend to become apparent."
"What happened?" Raven asked.
"Shaw brought my father down to his basement one night, and there was a man on a table in the center of the room. Shaw said that the man wasn't being cooperative, so he wanted my father to go into the man's mind and retrieve the information that he was looking for. My father tried to refuse, but Shaw just threatened to kill him and the man on the table if my father didn't do as he asked. So my father did as he was told and got the information, but then Shaw killed the man on the table anyway.
"After that night, my father ran. Shaw pursued him for a few years, but my father used his ability to always stay one step ahead of him. By the mid-1930's, my father hadn't sensed Shaw in years, so he settled down and had a family, thinking that Shaw had given up on finding him."
Viola became quiet for a moment, her eyes saddening as she seemed to remember something painful. "But Shaw didn't give up, did he?" Erik asked, trying to encourage her to continue.
"No, he didn't," Viola replied, her voice wavering a bit. "One night in 1948, my father sensed Shaw. He was close—too close for all of us to try to make a run for it. My father thought it would be best if he stayed behind to face Shaw alone, while my mother and I left. But my mother wouldn't leave him, so they sent me away to stay with a few mutant friends of theirs."
"Do you know what happened to your parents after you left?" Moira asked.
"The papers described it as a tragic fire that took the lives of the Curtis family, but I had a strong enough link with my father to see what really happened. My father tried to gain control over Shaw's mind to stop him, but Shaw had several other mutants with him, and my father couldn't control all of them at once. Shaw killed my parents when my father again refused to do his bidding, and then he burnt their house down."
"Did Shaw try to come after you then?" Charles asked.
"Yes, but he didn't have a telepath at the time and he had no knowledge of the friends that my parents had sent me to. That meant I wasn't easy to find. And as soon as I was old enough, I stayed on the move, and I avoided using the name Curtis wherever I went."
"How did Shaw end up kidnapping you then?" the man in the suit asked.
"Shaw has always been on the lookout for new mutants for his collection, and about five weeks ago, he found my parents' friends—the mutants I had stayed with as a child. Shaw's telepath managed to uncover most of their secrets, and I was one of them. I had seen them only about a month before and had told them I was staying in the nearby area. All Shaw's telepath had to do was project her thoughts outward for a few miles, and I heard her. I went to try to help them, but with her blocking my telepathic abilities, there was little I could do. Shaw killed them and then locked me up where you found me."
"I'm sorry for your losses, Miss Curtis," the man in the suit said, trying to sound sympathetic. Yet Erik doubted that this man could possibly understand what Viola had suffered. The man's comment seemed like fake sentiment to lead into his next question, "Is there anything you can tell us about where Shaw is going next?"
"I don't know where Shaw is now, and I don't know exactly where he's going," Viola replied, and Erik had to admit he was disappointed to hear it. He wanted to go on the hunt for Shaw as soon as possible, but it didn't sound like he would get a location as Viola continued, "I do know Shaw's endgame—nuclear war. Everything he's been doing has been to cause a nuclear war."
"Why? What good would it do Shaw if the world were destroyed?" Moira asked.
"Not all of the world would be destroyed," Viola began. "And, according to Shaw's theory, the people who survived would more likely be mutant than human, given the way Shaw's seen the mutant population increase with nuclear advances."
"So Shaw thinks genetic mutations are activated through exposure to nuclear radiation," Charles said with a worried expression on his face. "This could be bad."
But Erik didn't think it necessarily was. Creating a world for mutants actually sounded like a good idea to him. The only problem with the idea from Erik's perspective was that it belonged to Shaw, and Erik couldn't stand behind anything that had Shaw's taint on it.
Then one of the soldiers in the room let out a frustrated scoff.
"Is there something wrong, corporal?" the man in the suit asked.
The soldier didn't respond, but Charles spoke for him. "He doesn't think the government should be working with mutants. He thinks our kind should be locked up or exterminated."
"That's right," the corporal said. "You freaks are going to end up getting good, normal people killed."
Erik had heard enough. He pushed back his chair and tried to decide how best to hurt the corporal to teach him a lesson. Yet, before he could stand, Erik felt something grip his forearm. Don't, he heard in his head, only this time it wasn't Charles' voice. He looked to his left and saw Viola with her hand upon his arm and her grey eyes fixed on his face. The look of pleading in her eyes froze Erik to his chair. He didn't know why she wouldn't want him to defend mutant-kind, but he felt he couldn't refuse her request.
"Perhaps now would be a good time for the tour," the man in the suit interrupted. "I'll take you all to meet the head of our science and technology department, Dr. McCoy. And, corporal," he said turning to the soldier at the door, "you and I are going to have a discussion later."
They spent the rest of the day touring the facility and meeting its staff, one of whom—Hank McCoy—also turned out to be a mutant, with animalistic features and agility.
Yet, by the end of the day, Erik had very nearly left to go back to working on his own. The bothersome comments and looks from ignorant humans around him did nothing to encourage him to stay. Then there was Viola. She didn't know where Shaw was, nor did it sound like Shaw would come after her here while he was trying to start a nuclear war.
And on top of everything, Erik was certain that she had taken over his mind to stop him from hurting that human in the meeting room. It was aggravating for him to have lost control of his body like that.
All of this pushed Erik toward the door, but then Charles caught up with him, arguing that some good could be done here for mutants. The professor also reminded Erik that Shaw had friends—friends that could prevent Erik from getting within ten feet of his goal. Charles' words were enough to stop Erik in his tracks. He knew he needed to be smarter the next time he faced Shaw, and he needed to have allies of his own.
Erik then went back into the facility, but couldn't bring himself to go to sleep. He had too much on his mind, and he needed some sort of relief. He went to his room, stripped off his clothes, and pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a tank. He then headed for the gym he had seen earlier during the tour.
Erik had expected the place to be empty, given how late it was getting, but a few of the lights were on and Erik could hear something in the back. He followed the noise through the near darkness and soon discovered that it was Viola, attacking a punching bag. Her back was to him, and Erik just stood there for a moment, taking in the sight of her. She wore a tank top and sweatpants rolled up to her knees to cover her fit yet curvy figure, and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She was barefoot, allowing Erik to more clearly see the bandage on her right leg. It extended from her foot to her calf, but she didn't seem to be holding back because of it.
"Do you need something, Mr. Lehnsherr?" she asked suddenly, as she turned around to face him. Erik then wondered how long she had known he was there. "Basically since you entered the room," she replied. "It's not exactly easy to sneak up on a telepath."
"Apparently not," Erik said, as he considered leaving the room. He had come here to work through his anger with physical exercise, but he doubted that Viola's presence would allow him to do that.
"So I take it that you aren't interested in having a sparring partner help you deal with whatever issues are bothering you?" Viola asked.
"Not if you were to be my sparring partner," he responded coolly.
"Oh, really? And why is that?" she asked.
"Because you would cheat," he replied. "You would know my moves before I made them, or you could get inside my head and control my actions like you did at the meeting table. Your abilities would give you the advantage."
Viola looked taken aback by his comment, but then laid into him. "First of all, I didn't take control of you earlier today. Robbing decent people of their freewill isn't something that I do. At most, I'll try to calm someone down, but only so that they can think more rationally and avoid doing something stupid," she retorted, sounding a bit heated. From the way she spoke, though, Erik couldn't help but believe her. "Secondly," she continued, "I wouldn't cheat in a fair fight, and I don't appreciate you suggesting that I would."
Viola took a breath and seemed to steady herself before she made her last point. "And if my telepathy bothers you so much, I can give you my word that I'll never use it on you again, unless there's an emergency."
"You can actually do that?" Erik asked. "You can stop yourself from reading a specific person's mind?"
"You can stop yourself from moving all the metal around you. It's a similar concept for me," Viola replied. "It doesn't mean that I wouldn't be able to sense you when you enter a room, but I wouldn't try to go any further than that. I wouldn't read your thoughts or manipulate your mind in any way if I gave you my word on it. It's a rule I live by."
"And how often do you make exceptions to this rule?"
"Rarely," Viola answered. "If I'd given my word to someone to stay out of their head, I would only use my telepathy on that person if I had no other choice, or if the person gave me reason to break my word."
"What reason would make you break your word?" Erik asked.
"Well, if the person turned out to be evil or cruel, then I might be inclined to break my word."
"Then why would you even offer to give your word to me?" Erik asked. "You can see into my thoughts. You know the sort of man I am and how I've hurt people. You would end up breaking your word to me in a matter of hours."
"I obviously know more about what sort of man you are than you do, Erik," Viola said, moving closer to him. "I saw into Shaw's mind the night he killed my parents. He's what I consider evil and cruel, and you're nothing like him. I know you're obsessed with vengeance, Erik. I know you've done horrible things to try to take your vengeance, but I can see beyond that. Your vengeance isn't who you are. It's more like your occupation, and people change their occupation all the time."
"Oh, really?" he said mockingly.
"Yes, really," Viola stated firmly. "Over the last eight years, I've changed my name, my home, and my occupation half-a-dozen times, but that doesn't change who I am."
Erik didn't know how to react to the look in her eyes. She seemed to honestly believe that he was a better man than he had ever imagined he could be. He had long thought that there was too much blood on his hands for him to be anything other than a monster, but for some reason, she saw him differently.
"Erik Lehnsherr, I give you my word that I will not use my telepathy on you unless absolutely necessary," Viola said. "Now, do you still want me to go?"
He regarded the woman in front of him for a moment then smiled at how her trusting nature surprised him. He took off his shoes and stepped onto a nearby mat, before saying, "If you go now, you won't be able to prove that you're keeping your word to me." He motioned toward the mat and asked, "Are you still willing to spar with me, even without your ability?"
"I never turn down a challenge," she replied, joining him on the mat.
Erik couldn't deny his curiosity about this woman. She puzzled him. Her life hadn't been so different than his, but she didn't seem to crave revenge the way he did. She hadn't tried to hunt down Shaw; instead, she had spent her life running from him. But it didn't make sense. She wasn't weak. She wasn't turning down Erik's offer to fight him now.
As they began their dance, Erik couldn't stop himself from questioning her. "Why didn't you ever go after Shaw? You could have found some moment when he was without his telepath and killed him. Why didn't you ever seek retribution?"
"Retribution wouldn't have gotten me anything," Viola replied as she blocked Erik's hits. "My family would still be dead, and more people could have been hurt in the process."
"And so you just ran," Erik said, grabbing her wrist as she took a swing at him. She tried to break free by spinning away, but Erik kept a firm grip on her and managed to pull her closer to him. He trapped Viola in his arms, her back pressed against his body. "You preferred running to killing the man who stole your family and friends," he whispered into her ear. For some reason, he felt upset that she hadn't fought back against Shaw. "No wonder you let him keep you as his pet for over a month," he added.
With that, Viola elbowed Erik in the ribs and then hit his jaw with the back of her head, causing him to release her. He staggered back for a moment, and Viola took the opportunity to knee him in the stomach. The blow knocked the wind out of him and brought him to his knees. With another kick, Erik went face-first into the mat. Viola then got onto of his back and twisted one of his arms behind him, pinning him to the ground.
"I didn't let him keep me," Viola said angrily. "You're right, I am strong enough to try to take Shaw on. I was even strong enough to escape from his ship within a day of him kidnapping me, but not ten minutes after I'd left, Frost started projecting images into my head. She showed me a boy they'd grabbed off the street, and before I could even tell them to stop, Shaw shot him through the heart. Frost told me they would do the same thing again every half-hour I stayed away, so I went back and let him keep me, as you describe it."
It was then apparent to Erik how Shaw had managed to imprison someone so strong-willed—he had found her weakness and had used it against her. Viola was clearly still upset by what had happened because she wasn't loosening her grip on Erik after talking about it. But Erik wasn't going to let her stay wound up like this, nor was he just going to surrender to her. Instead, with his free arm, he grabbed her injured ankle and squeezed. She winced, and Erik managed to flip her onto the mat while she was distracted by the pain.
Erik quickly moved to straddle her waist and pin her wrists above her head. Viola struggled to break free, but Erik held her down tightly. "Why didn't you just keep running?" he asked her, his face inches from hers. "What would it have mattered if Shaw had killed a few more humans?"
"I didn't want Shaw killing anyone because of me, Erik," she replied vehemently. "Anyone."
At those words, Erik once more felt strangely upset with Viola for how she had yielded to Shaw, but again Erik couldn't understand why. It shouldn't matter to him that some mutant would endure weeks of torture just to save a few humans, even though a human would be unlikely to do the same for a mutant. Yet for some reason, the thought of the woman beneath him being made to suffer at Shaw's hands was making Erik's blood boil.
In fact, Erik was bothered to the point of distraction, leaving himself vulnerable to Viola's counterattack. She jerked her hips up violently, throwing Erik off balance enough to flip him over and reverse their positions. "Have you had enough, Erik?" she asked from atop his waist, as she now held down his wrists.
But Erik knew he hadn't had enough of her. She unsettled him in a way no one else ever had, and oddly Erik wanted more of the feeling. There was a pull to it—not unlike the way a magnet drew in a piece of metal. There could be tension and resistance and conflict, but there was something more powerful behind it—something that Erik wanted to grab hold of. He managed to free one of his hands and tried to reach for her face, but Viola quickly pulled away, scrambling off of him.
"I wasn't going to hurt you," he said, sitting up.
"I know," she said, looking away from him.
"I thought you weren't going to read my mind anymore."
"A woman doesn't always have to be telepathic to know what a man is thinking," Viola replied, her tone serious. "But Erik, you should know that no matter what sort of mistaken impression you've taken from our sparring this evening, I don't date mutants."
She rose and went to grab her jacket from a nearby bench, as Erik asked, "Is that another rule you live by?"
"Yes," she answered without turning toward him.
Erik then stood and said, "Well, I suppose I shall just have to wait and see if you also make exceptions to that rule."
She froze for a moment, as if she wanted to debate with him further, but eventually she continued walking, saying only, "Goodnight, Erik."