Disclaimer: I do not own x-men first class. If i did...well, there would be a LOT more slash. Just sayin'.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews! :) Sorry this chapter isn't so long, they'll grow progressively longer as the story goes on.
Two days. Raven had been keeping track. Two days since they escaped, and it was only now that the medication that they had given Charles' had started to kick in. His head was reeling. It was like the worst possible migraine, two boulders mashing his head into mushy bits, and he couldn't even find his voice to scream. He clutched at his hair, fingers frantically scratching against the tender skin of his scalp, and the voices of everyone within a hundred mile radius felt like they were screaming. They were loud; the voices were so so loud… and even as Raven tried to comfort him it only made the screaming in his mind worse. Images flashed, so bright and fast that Charles could barely make them out. But in the end, he really didn't have to. They were memories of the labs, of doctors and their groping hands, of nurses who promised sweet things and delivered it with pain, of medicine and duplicating DNA, bodies dead, they were falling like flies…
"Charles! Oh god, what did they give you this time?" Her voice was blending in with all the others, the thoughts too intense, so personal, so direct that he couldn't breathe. Charles' gasped out, head hitting the plastered wall, and a dull thud echoed around the small room. The voices slurred for a moment, but they stopped, and Charles' needed that result again -for them to cease. His head struck the wall again, and soon again, and even though he felt Raven's hands gripping his shoulders to pull him back he needed that release once more.
"Stop it! Charles, that's enough!" He tasted the blood from his nose, the metallic taste sending him spiraling back into reality and he collapsed onto Raven. She stumbled backwards, trying to hold him up and to not fall and hit her spine on the corner of a nearby nightstand table.
"Charles?" Her voice was hoarse, terrified and shaky, and Charles could feel his hands quivering uncontrollably.
"I…" He was dizzy, and nauseated, but the voices had tuned down to their usual quiet buzz. "I believe I am-" But he couldn't get the words out. Not over the fierce hot bubbling in his stomach and he rushed over to their bathroom, retching nothing but stomach acid into the round porcelain toilet. Raven came up behind him, holding back his bangs and rubbing soothing circles on his sweat drenched back as he hurled again and again and again.
"God, what did they do to you?"
Sebastian Shaw. Owner and founder of the labs, idealist of a world free of "parasites" and according to top news reporters today he was living in his own room off of one of the labs in Chicago- what the perfect place to be. Erik wiped the blood from the tips of his fingers; some of the crimson caked dry under his nails so there was no helping that. It had taken more effort to find out where exactly this lab was located though, and for that Erik was slightly frustrated. He blended in well with the crowds of humans, keeping his jacket pulled up over his forearm to hide his mark. Thank god it was chilly out. Fall maybe? Erik adjusted his jacket slightly, turning and walking toward an alley jutting off of one particularly busy street. He passed a small candy shop on the way, bright and colorfully exultant, but the sign on the door ruined the stores fake cheer: "No dogs, No mutants."
His eyes narrowed at that, his blood pounding slightly louder in his ears but he said or did nothing. He would not draw any attention to himself here, not in the midst of all these people. He turned into the brick walk between two tall buildings, the noise from the street dying down somewhat. It was strange, this alley. The roofs of the buildings seemed to dip toward each other, over and down, as though to hide this little passageway from aerial view. He was nearing the end, dumpsters and garbage all but disappeared, and the only thing he could hear now were the sounds of his shoes clacking against the bricks. There was nothing ahead of him when he looked up again. Just a wall, blocking all his motives in one fell swoop-had it always been there? Erik turned, studying the wall to his left and then his right, a small metallic box catching his eye. He strode towards it, noticing how the rust affect of the box could make it seem as though it was part of the brick.
There was a dim keypad under a thin screen, numbers on square metal buttons. Erik didn't hesitate to punch in his number: 214782. The wall disappeared.
"What did they do?" Charles rested himself up against the tiles on the bathroom wall, trying to calm his mind and catch his breath. He could think again, at least.
"I'm not sure." Charles' flinched at how rough his voice sounded. "It was just like reliving my time there, Raven. I felt absolutely everything." Her eyes darkened considerably, teeth gritting together in a snarl and blue flashed over her skin.
"Sick, dirty bastards!" Her voice echoed harsh around the bathroom and she reached forward to feel Charles' forehead. "You're warm." She hissed, eyes shifting yellow, and Charles gave her a weak smile.
"Raven, my dear, calm your mind." Her eyes hardened and then she sighed, the blue tint leaving her skin with time. After a moments thankful silence she spoke again.
"Just erect a barrier like you did with me, Charles. It keeps my darkest memories out. Do the same for you." Her voice was almost pleading and Charles studied her concern-laced eyes.
"Its hard enough to do it to one person. I highly doubt I could do it to myself." He gave a small smile, sad and worn and he slowly rested his head on the cool wall.
"I'll just have to go mad." He said this lightly, teasing almost, but Raven just felt her heartbreak…and Charles heard it.
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