The End of the Beginning

Erik landed and Amelia watched him in awe. "Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters. The real enemy is out there." He pointed to the fleets. "I feel their guns moving in the water, their metal targeting us. Americans, Soviets –humans. United in their fear of the unknown. The Neanderthal is running scared, my fellow mutants!" Erik turned his head to look at someone but Amelia kept her eyes glued on him. "Go ahead, Charles. Tell me I'm wrong."

Charles… Charles wouldn't like this… He'd think what Erik wanted was wrong…

Was it?

The missiles from the fleets fired. They would all be dead.

Erik stopped the missiles. He saved them.

And slowly the missiles reversed –aiming for the fleets.

Charles called to Erik. "Erik, you said yourself, we're the better men. This is the time to prove it. There are thousands of men on those ships. Good, honest innocent men! They're just following orders."

Erik froze. Amelia could feel how Charles' words affected him. Charles had said the wrong thing. "I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again."

Erik released the missiles.

"Erik, release them! No!" Charles charged at Erik. They were on the ground. Some of the missiles exploded.

"I don't want to hurt you." Erik elbowed Charles in the face. "Don't make me!" He was on top of Charles. The recruits made as if to brake up the fight. Except Amelia –she stood there. "Stand back!" Erik pushed Hank, Alex, and Sean away with the metal from their belts. Raven was left alone. "Charles, that's enough!" He regained control of the missiles.

"Erik, stop!"

Erik punched Charles and stood to better guide the missiles.

Was this right? The humans wanted them dead and they were just fighting for survival. But was killing them necessary?

Suddenly a gun was being fired.

Amelia turned to look. It was Moira –she was aiming at Erik.

Erik deflected each of the bullets.

This wasn't right… They were friends… Was she trying to kill him?

Charles screamed. Amelia blinked and he was on the floor.

A bullet… Charles had been hit with a bullet…

Erik rushed to Charles and pulled the bullet out. The missiles were forgotten –they exploded. None of the fleets were harmed.

"Charles I'm so sorry." Charles gave a groan. "I said back off!" Amelia blinked. The other recruits had immediately tried to get closer to Charles. Erik looked at Moira. He was livid. He wanted to kill her. "You. You did this."

Moira's dog tags sprang around her throat –choking her.

Amelia didn't think. She just ran. Moira was her friend.

She reached Moira and tried to pry the necklace from her throat. It wouldn't budge.

Amelia distantly heard Charles and turned to look. "Erik. Please. She didn't do this, Erik. You did."

Erik looked at Charles and then he turned to look at Amelia.

He was disappointed with her. And angry.

Erik released Moira's necklace. Moira fell to her knees and gasped for air. Amelia tried her best to help her. Erik and Charles continued to talk. Amelia helped Moira up and they saw as Erik gestured for them to come over.

Moira ran at full speed and Amelia followed hesitantly close behind.

Moira took over Erik's position. "Charles! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She held Charles and Erik got up.

Charles comforted Moira even though it was him that got shot. "It's all right. It's all right."

Amelia remained standing. She looked at Erik. He was facing the other groups of people.

He spoke. "This society won't accept us. We form our own. The humans have played their hand. Now we get ready to play ours. Who's with me?" He held out his hand. He was speaking directly to Raven. "No more hiding."

Amelia had often wondered what life would be like if she abused her power. She had seen the result in Erik when he tried to kill Moira. It would be a life ruled of impulsivity and the aftermath would be devastation. She knew now she couldn't do that.

She couldn't join Erik either. Moira was right: mutant, not mutant, black, white, male, female –it didn't matter. At the end of the day they were all just people. She wasn't a killer.

Raven walked over and kneeled next to Charles.

Charles looked up at her. "You should go with him. It's what you want."

It sounded like Raven was holding back tears. "You promised me you would never read my mind."

"I know. I promised you a great many things, I'm afraid. I'm sorry." He kissed Raven's hand and Raven kissed the top of his head.

Raven addressed Moira. "Take care of him." Raven took Erik's hand and stood up. The leaderless Hellfire Club joined Erik. Raven called out. "And, Beast, never forget: Mutant and proud."

Hank looked away and gave a growl of disgust at Raven's betrayal.

Erik gave a nod to Azazel and the group disappeared.

He was gone.

Hank, Alex, and Sean rushed over.

Moira called to them. "Help me out, come on." She looked a t Charles. "I'm gonna get you to a hospital." Charles tried to get up and gave a grunt.

Hank was worried. "Wait, Charles. Charles, don't move, okay?"

"I won't. Actually…" Charles stammered. "I can't feel my legs."

Moira was disbelieving. "What?"

"I can't feel my legs." He paused. "I can't feel my legs."

Four weeks later…

It was the weekend of Thanksgiving and Amelia was up in the lab with Hank.

The holiday had gone smoothly enough. Moira and Hank did most of the cooking and they had taught Amelia what they knew. Hank had needed all the help he could get (in the beginning he had had to stop breakfast duty –they had kept finding blue hair in the food. But Hank eventually got the hang of it.)

They looked out the window. Charles was being pushed in his wheelchair (a present from Amelia once she was able to get access to her bank account) by Moira.

Amelia spoke. "Do you think he's going to do it today?"

Hank sighed. "Probably."

Everyone knew Charles was going to send Moira back. It was just a matter of when.

Hank spoke again. "Do you miss him?"

Amelia had told Hank about Erik. He was her closest friend now. And didn't matter if Charles picked it out of mind. Charles had told her some time ago that he had seen her in Erik's mind during when he tried to help Erik with his abilities.

"Sometimes… I miss… I miss how everything was before."

"Yeah. Me too." Hank was still pining after Raven even though he didn't want to admit it. Also, he still hadn't fully accepted the blue fuzzy thing.

Amelia paused. She wasn't sure how to say this. "Hank…" He looked at her. He could hear the seriousness in her voice. "I'm going too."

"What?"

"I don't belong here…"

"Yes you do! You're a mutant! You don't want what Erik wants!"

"I know. But I still don't belong here. I don't want to go about things the way Charles does. If I could have I would have killed Shaw." She gave a lopsided smile. "I didn't even get a code name."

Hank was desperate. "You want a code name? I'll give you a code name! You'll be –"

Amelia cut him off. "It's not about code names. I just –I can't be here. Erik was right –the world isn't going to want us. But the world doesn't want a lot of people." She pulled out the pamphlet she was given outside the market. "What makes us so special that we want equality when the rest of society doesn't have it?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I still have my leave of absence. I need to talk with my parents and then I think I'm going to travel for a while." She smiled at him. "I'm thinking of working in the government or getting into politics. I'm going to change the world."

Hank gave a small smile.

She left the next day.

She wore a green A-line dress, a black wool coat, and she had her pursed strapped to her shoulder. She left everything else behind. Charles was opening a school –maybe a few runaways could use her clothes. Everything could be replaced.

Alex and Sean drove her to the nearest bus station and waited with her.

The bus came and she hugged the boys. Alex was teary eyed. She laughed and Sean gave a reluctant chuckle.

She walked in and took a seat.

Erik had opened her eyes. The world was a messed up place filled with messed up people. She was going to do her best to fix it. Even if it wasn't the way he wanted.

A/N: This is the end for now… Depending on the XMFC sequel, I may or may not bring Amelia back. For now she's saving the world.

And thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you to all the lovely people who reviewed, put this story on their alert/ favorites list, and took the time to read it. Getting emails alerting me about this story always made me unreasonably happy.

Also –sorry if this didn't turn out the way any of you hoped. I don't care how hot Michael Fassbender is –Amelia could never be a villain. She'd totally make out with him –but she wouldn't actually side with him. I did say she was a pain in his ass…