Final Chapter UPDATED (1/2)
MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH FOLLOWING.
Every so often, Jean dreams of things that can't possibly be true, or untrue. She thinks these are the last wisps of Phoenix's fire in her, but she can't be sure. At the funeral she had said in her speech that that the first vision she sees before waking up is the Professor smiling at her. When she opens her eyes, he is dead.
A warning.
By his example, Charles Xavier had ensured that Jean Grey would have the life he took from himself. The Professor would rather die than allow Onslaught to control him; he had, and destroyed Onslaught as well.
What Jean didn't tell the world was that Charles had implanted this fear of death into Phoenix, even as he played Onslaught.
"You wouldn't dare!" Phoenix had shrieked as Onslaught held her shining form in the palm of his closing hand. "I'm the better—the best part—of Jean! She can't take a breath without me!"
Onslaught stroked the crown of her head with a finger. "Yes, my dear little bird. I would agree, but our good Professor here is rather adamant that Jean is to be in control. Per our mutually binding agreement, I must insist you blink out, so to speak."
On the other side of Onslaught, Charles bent in close and whispered to her words that Onslaught could not make out. Phoenix shivered, and grew dim. "Prove it, and I swear on my existence, I will not act apart from Jean Grey again." She cast a furtive glance at Onslaught, who only grinned. He knew there was nothing Charles could do to alter a single word of what he had promised to give over—himself, as a vessel.
"It's going to be alright, Jean. I promise," Charles reassures her, holding the sobbing young woman in his arms and stroking her long red hair. "Remember ... don't let it control you." He releases Jean and steps back, smiling gently. Then his eyes begin to frost a lighter blue and his mouth is curling into a hard smile when suddenly he gives a great shudder and slumps to the ground; simultaneously, there's an enormous white explosion behind everyone's eyelids. When the mental debris clears several minutes later, Jean leans over his fallen body and shakes him. "Professor? Professor!" she shrieks, patting his slack face in a panic.
The others rush over. "I'm sure he's probably just exhausted," Hank says in an attempt to calm himself and everyone else.
"No. He's … he's gone," Jeans says blankly, in shock. Then her face crumples, and she goes into hysterics. "He's … he's …gone! He's gone!"
In his terror, Erik grabs her shoulders and shakes her. "What do you mean!"
Jean's mouth works, and it is a long minute before she can speak further. "It's like … it's like a telepathic nuclear bomb went off just now. And then he … the Professor … he shut down." She sobs at the last.
Standing at some distance, Frost says in a neutral tone, "She means to say that Charles is dead. He must have created a mental failsafe in case Onslaught took over. Defeating the Phoenix only to have Onslaught as a menace to the world would have been much worse than useless."
Eyes widening, Hank checks Charles' pulse and heartbeat. "It's … it's true," he says, very quietly. Alex and Sean, Charles first students, stare at their mentor's peaceful visage and still body. It's a nightmare version of the terrible day at the beach.
Sean shrieks, and the others cringe. "Do something! Jean, Frost, there must be something—"
Frost shrugs, though there is some admiration buried in her cool expression. "Unless someone here has the power to raise the dead, there's really nothing any of us can do. Anyway," she continues reasonably, "there would always have been the strong probability that Onslaught could prevail, and I'm sure your dear professor wanted to avoid that—"
Alex breaks in, blazing red hot until everyone is forced to pull back, shoots to his feet. "This can't be happening," he whispers. "He's sacrificed so much already."
Of them all, only Mystique is silent, tears trickling down her face. Erik turns to her. "Did you know this would happen?"
Mystique gulps back sobs.
"Did you know!" Erik shouts, losing control, the metal in the room yanked off clothes and anything else, and coming to hover around his former first lieutenant.
"I—I thought he might," she whispers, almost inaudibly. "You don't understand—he was so desperate to find a solution to everything—there was no one in whom he could confide-"
"You should have warned us—we would have stopped him-!" Erik snarls, rising to tower over her.
"And then what?" Mystique yells back, expression twisted with guilt. "There was no other way, and he knew it! You were the one who made this situation, and he had fix it! Now he's dead, and it's your fault!"
Logan slouches against the wall, arms crossed nonchalantly, but his voice is huskier than usual as he orders, "Stop bitching! That means fucking everyone." He clears his throat and jerking his head to where Charles is quietly lying, growls, "There's someone more important than that kind of shit."
You did this.
Stunned with this revelation, Erik sinks back to his knees. He gently gathers Charles' body into his arms, and cries in desolation, as he had not done even at his mother's death, for in this case there is no one else to blame.
The actual funeral is a quiet affair, attended only by those present at the final moments. Afterward, the children leave wreaths around the coffin. Erik and Mystique makes brief speeches, though bitterness is evident against them, everyone knows that the two were closest to Charles. There is a separate presentation for the world, for which the students make a video of themselves avowing the Professor's dedication to the cause of mutant-human peaceful relations.
TV stations broadcast the news for weeks afterward. Reactions from mutants and humans alike are overall very positive; some are less so.
"If the freaks hadn't started it, that kooky mutant professor wouldn't have needed to get himself killed," one U.S. senator informs the cameras.
A hollowness permeates the mansion. Despite the great number of people currently living in it, without Charles' mental voice bustling about, things are strangely quiet. Erik sits on the armchair in the study, across from his old friend's seat, the chess board before him.
More astonishing than Charles's last show of his powers, already impressive enough, was the thoughtfulness that had gone into small expressions of affection for each inhabitant of the Xavier Institute. Coming back to her room for the last time to clean out her belongings, Rogue cries when she sees her note, an apology from Charles that that they hadn't found a solution for the less desirable effects of her mutation, and that he understood her decision to take the Cure. Bobby he chides for being an insensitive teenage boy, though of course he couldn't help that, but his Ice Man form would surely benefit from longer exposure to the abilities of a fellow mutant, Roberto aka Sunspot, as opposed to hanging out with Pyro all the time, that one needed some guidance, perhaps a few lessons in not being a bully …
Raven and Erik found nothing waiting for them, and both knew why. Charles had already said, many times before, what he had wanted to say to them.
Charles had almost won when they were interrupted by the reports of Phoenix ravaging the city, Erik realizes only slowly. He has been staring sightlessly at the chess board for over an hour. With a small, humorless smile, Erik makes the last two moves on Charles's white piece.
The game is finished.
7 years later.
Erik looks out the windows to the vibrant grounds, filled with children whooping happily, playing while recess is in session.
Charles would have wanted to see this. The unbidden thought casts a melancholy gray over the jovial scene. As Charles had wanted, they had spread his ashes over the estate. He is home, now, with them all.
Ororo, now a beautiful young woman, comes to stand beside him. "Things are going well, aren't they, Erik?"
He turns to her and smiles. She'll make a fine headmaster after he's gone. "I think so," he agrees. Hank has taken his place in the senate as the youngest representative ever, and Alex is now a fiery activist for mutant rights who manages to stay just within the law but definitely does much for the cause. Shockingly, Sean studied hard to become a social studies teacher at the school when he is not working with students to improve their handling of their abilities.
Jean has never fully recovered from her role in Charles' death, but she puts on a brave face and travels the world raising mutant awareness, educating mutants and humans alike on living together in harmony. Unsurprisingly, though Scott shyly hovers around the issue for an irritating amount of time, she and Scott married. Scott proves to be an effective leader in the field, though he and Logan often go head to head on how exactly to approach matters on the occasions they work together.
Logan occasionally drops by the school, grumbles about how soft everyone has grown, terrifies the students, and then leaves for his wanderings. Erik doesn't inquire how he spends his time, but every so often the mutant grapevine whispers
that another dubious "science facility for the study of mutants" and "unofficial camps" have been taken down. As for Mystique, she eventually regains her powers, and melts away into the mass of humans, and returns to the school only once a year, the anniversary of Charles' death.
Sometimes Erik still gets the urge, when an interesting matter arises in international affairs on the news or a student is especially troublesome, to consult Charles. Then he remembers that he cannot, and the sorrow comes back as strong as the day of his friend's death. And he knows that Charles would not have wanted him to grieve so much for so long, but there is no way out of this self-made prison of mourning.
Charles had been far from perfection, but his occasional dark moods, manipulative tendencies, and sometimes unbearable arrogance had been so very finely tempered by his great kindness, understanding patience, and idealistic vision of harmony. Even now, as a strong leader in full maturity and mastery of his powers, Erik wants to beg for forgiveness and weep like a child for an absolution that will never come, because Charles is not alive to give it.
He remembers, too, their mutual promise: no matter how bad things got between them, how viciously they each fought for their differing ideals, one would never keep the other against his will again.
Ororo looks at him and sees that he is lost in thought. "I'll leave you alone, then," she says kindly, exiting the room and softly closing the door.
Erik barely notices, lost in his musings. He can't adhere that promise either, though he's tried with all his waning strength; the years have passed so very painfully, and he is tired of fighting. He keeps Charles tucked away in his heart, safe from the world and its injustice and cruelty, for the rest of his life.
END, part 1/2, tbc (2/2 will encompass my creative response to Apocalypse)
PREVIEW
"It's good to see you, Raven," Charles smiled widely, expression bright and hopeful. "Welcome home."
"This was your home," Raven said flatly. "I just lived here."
Charles looked at her. "You came to me," he said eventually, after a pause. "Do you remember?"