Bloody hell it's been a while hasn't it? I've been insanely busy and, while I was supposed to be studying for my physics exam today, I just couldn't and decided to go back to writing this instead.
I have gone back and cleared up mistakes from previous chapters including spelling, grammar and continuity mistakes. Nothing dramatic has changed, it won't affect your reading of the story in the least. I've just straightened some things out so you might want to have a quite read back over them, no need to though if you'd rather not.
I think I'm getting back into the writing zone and my exams finish at the end of this week so it shouldn't be too long until another update.
I hope you enjoy the turns this story is taking and let me know what you think!
It was a midnight raid, no one saw it coming, not even Charles Xavier. He was too tired, too grumpy, too frustrated at Erik to focus on anything other than attempting to sleep. Raven tried to contact him as she approached the mansion in the convoy, but her brother was too far gone into the land of dreams to hear her calling to his mind.
Peter and Wanda were both fast asleep, lying top and tail in the same bed – comforted by each other's presence – with Lorna, rolled up in a little snoring ball, tucked in between them. As he slept, the final scars on his body began to fade into nothing and the torn up muscle within his leg finally fully knitted itself back together.
It was two teams, just like the attack on the Maximoff house, though they were armed with plastic guns. If Magneto was here Stryker would not have the chance for a kill shot jeopardised. Raven had been lucky in that she hadn't been checked yet by Merriot, if she had then her cover would have been blown and she would have had to assume another form to remain close to Stryker, perhaps even Merriot's form.
Erik was sat in the study, wide awake. He'd dozed off when Charles had left the room, leaving Erik alone with a throbbing ache in his shoulder. He hadn't stayed asleep for very long, rousing a half hour later and pouring himself a brandy. Though he wasn't along for much longer as Magda had entered and they'd spoken, voices hushed, about the twins – about what trouble they had been growing up and what trouble they still were. They talked and talked, finally beginning to feel like their old married selves again, until Magda stood up with a yawn and declared she was off to bed. Erik had stayed in the study, alone once more with a half empty glass of brandy in hand, mulling over his thoughts.
Raven looked up as the dark shadow of the mansion loomed overhead, hating the fact that she was part of a convoy about to attack the very place she'd once called home. No, it hadn't been her home, it had just been a place she'd lived. She had to remind herself of that. She'd left it behind as a home eleven years ago in Cuba.
Hank was sat on the edge of a young mutant's bed, whispering gentle words of comfort as they whimpered from the nightmare they'd been having. "It'll be okay." He told the young mutant, "Tomorrow, when we both wake up again, I'll come find you and we'll work on something to help you control your powers."
"I don't want to hurt anyone." The young boy whimpered, white linen bandages covering his eyes.
"You won't." Hank assured, rubbing gentle circles into his shoulder, "Just keep that on for now and try to get some rest. Come morning I'll do everything I can for you. Things are finally starting to calm down."
The young boy, whose name Hank still didn't know, nodded his head and curled into the covers, trying to sleep once more.
Raven knew it in herself what she had to do, it didn't matter that her cover would be blown; she would not fight her kind and assist the humans just to keep Stryker for herself, there was no honour in that. None whatsoever, it would make her as bad as Erik had been, and as bad as Stryker was.
Think of the devil and it seemed he would speak. Stryker's voice crackled through their radios: "Kill shots are a no unless aiming for Lehnsherr." he told them sternly, "All mutants will be taken alive. Prioritise Lehnsherr and the Maximoff boy."
He wasn't gunning for Charles, that made Raven let out a tight breath she hadn't known she'd been holding in. That meant he didn't know who and what Charles was, she could use that knowledge to her advantage. But Erik… he was in serious trouble. Even after all this time, even after their brief meeting in which she shot him, Raven still felt something towards Erik. And it wasn't love, it wasn't her silly giddy crush on him she'd had when they first met. It was something different, a polar opposite feeling. Respect was a word too weak for it. You respected your elders, you respected your kind. Yet admiration was a word too strong for it. She had admired him in Cuba, but no longer, she'd seen what sort of man he was, what sort of woman he'd made her. Nevertheless, she didn't truly believe that he deserved to suffer under the hands of a man who was only interested in mutants for his own gain. No one deserved that. Not even Magneto.
Then came Stryker's voice again, cracking through the radio as they rolled silently up to the front door of the mansion, "Get ready boys." Within moments they were out of the car, not giving a damn about subtlety any longer and slamming the car doors shut behind them as they readied their guns and charged in through the door.
"Lehnsherr and Maximoff. Find them." He instructed and the troops began to peel off down the various corridors. All except for Johnson. "What are you standing there for, boy? Go!" he snapped.
"I don't think so." Raven replied as Johnson, a small smirk creeping over her lips as blue scales rippled and she transformed back into her natural blue form.
Erik heard the car doors slam and was instantly on his feet, slamming the glass down onto the table before striding hurriedly through the mansion towards Charles' bedroom. He rapped twice on the door before entering, not caring whether Charles was presentable or not.
"Get up." He snapped, slamming his palms down onto the footboard of Charles' bed, making the topless telepath jerk awake in surprise.
"Erik… what are you…" he didn't have time to finish his groggily spoken sentence before Erik stalked straight towards him and manhandled him into his wheelchair.
"They're here. And so is Raven. We need to fight. Get the others, I'll see to the twins." He ordered as though Charles were simply another member of his brotherhood before stalking out of the room towards the room that the three Maximoff siblings had insisted upon sharing.
Hank? Charles called as he pulled on a jumper and wheeled himself out of his room, They're here. He didn't wait to see if Hank had registered his message or not, simply rolled towards the landing to see what the raucous was. The sight that greeted him made him wish for his legs more than he ever had before, purely so he could stalk down there and punch the shit out of Stryker himself.
Erik flung the door of the twin's room open so hard he completely destroyed the hinges, "Peter. Wanda." He called, shaking the pair awake with rough, calloused hands, "They're here. So take your younger sister and stay out of trouble."
Peter was on his feet in an instant, a slowly waking Lorna now cradled in his arms, "But I can help."
"We can help." Wanda corrected as she climbed to her feet.
"You'll do no one any good if you're both dead." Erik scowled, shaking his head, "Stay hidden." He commanded and stormed out of the room once more, jogging quickly down a side staircase into a corridor on the bottom floor where he strode towards Stryker and his people. He knew it was unlike him, telling kids to hide from the fight, to not use their powers to help. But this paternal instinct to protect that had bloomed inside of him made him want those kids as far away from the battlefield as they could get. As much as he hated to admit it, he could now see things from Charles' point of view, he now understood why Charles refused to let the younger mutants assist them. For Erik, war had always been about the fight, yet for Charles it had always been about protecting those who couldn't protect themselves. And now Erik was at sea, lost in the middle of these two extremes of opinion as a result of his fatherhood.
Raven and Stryker were in a brawl more feral than one between wild beasts. It was more vicious, more brutal than anything he'd seen on animal documentaries. Blue limbs were tangled with pale clothed ones and Stryker's men were fast approaching from all angles. Without hesitation, Charles lifted a finger to his temple and delved into the minds of all the men, Freeze. He whispered. And they did. Raven scrambled to her feet and staggered back before casting a sharp look up to the balcony where Charles was located.
"Charles." She breathed, it really was good to see him again, despite the circumstances, "Thanks." She said eventually and gave him a curt nod.
"Raven!" Hank exclaimed, shocked, as he sprinted out of the hallway very much blue. "You're here. I… wow. It's good to see you again."
"You too, Hank." Raven nodded her head politely, she couldn't allow herself to get attached again, "But just because you've frozen them I don't think we're in the clear." She informed Charles.
"Why ever not?"
"I'm why not." Another voice called from the ground floor and a woman, dressed head to toe in military gear, stepped out of the shadows. The moment she emerged, she raised her hand into the air and electromagnetic waves, of a frequency so high they caused Charles to cry out in pain and clutch his head in his hands, bore down on the telepath. His grip over the minds of the soldiers was gone.
Hank was furious. He rushed to the edge of the balcony and leapt over with ease, "Stop that, or you'll regret it." He growled, fiercely protective over the Professor. But all the men raised their plastic guns towards Hank and he froze, one bullet he could handle, even two, but a tirade of bullets he knew beyond a doubt that he could not.
"You were the one who was stopping me before." Charles groaned, lifting his aching head to look at her with a contained rage.
"Yes." She replied as she moved over to stand by her boss, Colonel William Stryker, "An excellent mutation don't you think? I don't even need Magneto's helmet to keep out telepaths."
"Speaking of." Stryker said as he retrieved his gun from where it had landed during his scuffle with Raven, "Where is our favourite metal-bender? I'd rather like to have a chat with him, his son, and you, Mr Xavier. Your telepathic powers could prove quite useful to me." In all honesty, he couldn't believe he hadn't known about them beforehand. What a goldmine he had been missing out on.
"You're not going anywhere near Charles." Raven growled, stepping out protectively in front of him.
"If you do," came Erik's eerily calm voice from down a ground-floor corridor as he stepped out into the foyer, "Well, you don't want to know what I would do to you."
"Oh yeah?" Stryker asked, levelling his plastic gun at Erik's head as he whirred to face him, "Will that be before or after I shoot you?"
"We're helping." Peter told his sister as their youngest sibling yawned into his shoulder, "We'll leave Lorny with mum and go help Erik. We'll go help dad."
"Damn right. We're helping." Wanda confirmed with a nod of her head and Peter vanished in a blur, taking Lorna to the room in which their mother was holed up before returning to his twin's side before she's even managed to blink.
"Let's go." The twins said in unison and Peter moved a hand to support Wanda's neck.
"Wait." Wanda said before Peter began running, "You have to promise me one thing, Pietro."
"What?" Peter asked, scowling slightly.
"You won't get hurt. Because I swear, if you do I'll kill you. And then I'll let Lorna decorate your coffin."
"Fine." Peter grumbled, "But the same goes for you. You don't freaking dare get hurt."
"Fine." Wanda agreed, nodding her head sharply. And, with that, Peter took off.
He ran them through the corridors, pausing on his way to check Lorna was still with their mother – leaving Wanda hovering in the air – before continuing to the balcony where Raven and the Professor were.
They arrived just as the gun was levelled at Erik and Peter took off down the stairs, leaving Wanda behind before she could even think about stopping him. He made to snatch the gun from Stryker's grip before dashing around the others and taking all their guns off them as well but when he reached the woman he stopped in front of her, recognition dawning upon him. Peter swung a fist into her face, sending her flying slowly backwards before he moved around and punched her again, and again, and again, sending her soring slowly through the air.
"Take that Alves you bitch." He spat and moved over to Stryker, taking his gun from him and levelling it at Alves before slowing himself back down and slipping into regular time again.
Alves was send flying into three soldiers and took them all crashing to the ground with her. Stryker turned his head towards Peter, a wild fury in his eyes. But he knew better than to be distracted by the boy. Erik, on the other hand, felt worry and pride surge through him at he turned his head to face his son. But he spent too long with his attention focused on Peter and a left-hook from Stryker caught him wildly off guard, sending him crashing to the ground. He felt his stitches tear as he landed, hard, on his injured shoulder and could feel blood already beginning to seep out.
Merriot snapped into action and ran at Peter, who was distracted by the punch his father had taken, he wrapped his arms around the younger man's waist and tackled him to the ground. The gun was sent skittering into the centre of the room.
Charles watched wide eyed as he fought against Alves' frequency. The knock she took had severely weakened her, allowing Charles to latch onto a few minds that she hadn't bothered to protect so well, and freeze the soldiers in their tracks before they could do anything to hurt any of his friends or his family. He maintained steady eye contact with the doctor, head throbbing as he fought against her, but going by the bloody grin on her face, it was clear she wasn't giving up without a strong fight.
"Peter!" Wanda yelled and threw herself over the edge of the balcony. She didn't care if she broke a bone or two, she had to get that brute off her brother. Wanda landed hard on Merriot's back, eliciting a loud crack that could be heard by everyone in the room, and fell forwards onto the floor. Scrambling to her feet, she shoved the still form of the man away from her brother and pulled Peter into an embrace, "You okay?" she asked and he nodded.
"I'm fine Wandy, are you okay?" he asked in return, eyes darting over her for signs of injury.
"Pete, I'm good." She assured him, a gentle smile gracing her features.
Stryker's eyes held the fury of a caged beast and he swung another punch at Erik's head, causing the man to drop backwards onto the floor gripping onto consciousness by his fingernails. The metal in the room around them began to hum and rise into the air, but slowly. Blood loss and head injuries were never a good mix, regardless of how powerful a mutant you were. The floating metallic item's reflected in Stryker's enraged eyes as he dashed over to the gun Peter had dropped and picked it up whilst the teens were comforting each other. Growling, teeth bared, he knelt on Erik's chest and pressed the barrel of the gun to his head.
The metal melted onto Stryker, wrapping around him in snaking tendrils as Erik attempted to force the other man off. But his head was spinning. Black and white dots were swarming over his vision. Blood from his shoulder was steadily pooling out beneath him.
"Erik!" Raven yelled, gripping the edge of the balcony tight before beginning to sprint down the stairs.
"No! Erik!" Screamed Charles, helpless to do anything. Styker's mind was too well defended by Alves, there was nothing he could do.
"Dad!" Peter roared, leaping to his feet and running for his father.
Stryker cocked the gun.
And a resounding boom enveloped the foyer of the mansion.
Peter didn't make it to Erik before he dropped to his knees.