Disclaimer: I do not own x-men first class. If i did...well, there would be a LOT more slash. Just sayin'.
A/N: One of my loyal reviwers has requested that i upload the big battle in more than one chapters. How can I refuse a fan? So here you go, To Fight The Whole World Part 1…
Charles latched his arm around Erik's wrist, dragging him through deserted hallways and offices, down to the last standing basement and back up again. He could feel Azazel, the red man who had brought him here somewhere in the air, and he figured Shaw would be close at hand. The smoke was swirling, a thin layer at first around his ankles and then growing greedier as it slithered and snaked upward, tickling his chest and seeking entrance to his nostrils. It was getting harder to breathe.
"Charles, where the fuck are we going?" Erik's voice was coarse, and Charles could feel the burning sensation in his calf's start to weigh down, but he swallowed hard around the ever-consuming smoke and licked his dried lips.
"We're finding Shaw." He croaked, his voice raucous and raw.
"You sound like hell." Erik grumped, his voice matching the roughness of Charles' but carrying a bit clearer vibe. He was taller after all. But smoke rises fast, and as they carried on it just seemed to get deeper.
"Wait-I'll try to find him." Charles let his hand slide from Erik's wrist and he pressed his fingers to his temple, letting his mind open and stretch out. He was expecting the thoughts of others, he was prepared for that with so many people at such a close distance, but what he didn't prepare for was the noise. It was a terrible shrieking, an exploding pain, and it ripped through the tissues of his mind like an ax. He couldn't find his voice, and his hand just fell as he staggered back, tumbling down onto Erik who caught him with practiced ease.
"Charles? What-?" He interrupted Erik with a broken chuckle, wheezing off near the end in mock defeat and guttural pain.
"Too many thoughts. I can't…get a hold-" The metal encased them in a flash. It didn't have time to creak as it melted and formed into the shell casing of an iron egg, the time it took mere seconds. One of Erik's hands left him and was suspended above their heads. Charles' hands were tangled into the fabric of Erik's jacket, and he let the familiar musky scent calm him.
"Erik, what-?"
"GET OUT!" Emma's voice shrieked her words muffled by the metal and the banging of her fists against it. "COME OUT!" Her words broke off in dry raw throated pants, and her banging increased in her paranoia.
"She's lost it." Erik growled, fist jerking some and the metal flew away, shooting out like a snake as it coiled around Emma's bleeding pale body, her diamond form shattering at the contact. Charles sighed as Erik pulled him up, hand hesitating protectively on his waist for a moment before the metal wielder stepped forward toward the broken gem.
"I'll kill you!" She spat, one eye shut as blood poured down in a thick menacing gush. "I'llkillyouI'llkillyouI'llkillyouI'llkill-!" The metal pierced through her neck and she gurgled, blood spurting out like a sputtering hose. Her breaths were wet and short. Charles cringed turning away, as the smoke bellowed out, screams reaching his ears now in obscured abandonment. He heard the metal recoil and felt the soft thud of her body hitting the wrecked speckled tiles. Erik's arms were around him and they were walking again, Erik's jacket coming up like a shield and willing the smoke out of Charles' stinging eyes. It was getting harder and harder to breathe.
"How many mutants did we kill today, Erik?" Charles croaked, blue eyes searching in the hazy air for a familiar green gaze.
"I don't know." Erik murmured, steps quickening as the smoke roared. The two men dropped to their knees, crawling along the crumbling fire licked corridors when the smoke became to thick.
"I don't regret it." Charles whispered, and Erik turned to stare blindly at him.
"Nor do I." He alleged after a while. They both fell silent, their throats raw and red from the exertion of speaking, and they crawled on in their dying triumph.
Raven felt the fear like a corded vice. She had teamed up with two other girl mutants, both as lost as she, and they worked together in trying to get the guard's back. The first girl had brown hair. She didn't know her name. So Raven had given her one. She was shot in the first two minutes. The other girl remembered her name: Rose. She had an interesting gift. She could control your bones. She killed fifty guards, police officers, and civilians in five minutes. A falling building crushed her in six. Raven was alone again.
Dust caked under her nails like clay, and she had experienced her first punch. A police officer had lost his gun. His hand had shot out instead, slamming into her jaw and making her gums bleed, her brain rattle. It was an exhilarating experience. She had jumped up; spun around and wrapped her feet curved blue around his neck. One little snap and he had fallen. It was only when she spotted Azazel now, red mixed in with dull mortal colors, and his blue clear eyes had landed on her, had she felt fear. He was behind her in an instant, hands up around her neck and tail swinging in front of her face.
"People often mis-place the heart." He droned his voice dipped in a deep Russian rooted accent. "They believe it is on the left side of your chest." His tail scraped a deep gash over the left of her breast and she writhed, trying to scratch his skin to make him release her. He didn't move when her nails tore through him. Only continued. "It is here." He whispered, tail marking in between her chest and a little down in the same manner he did before. "It is here." And his tail whipped back and shot forward, and Raven didn't know what to do so she screamed.
When she felt the warm red blood splatter across her face she stopped. She felt no pain. Her heart was still beating, loud and shrill in her ears. Blonde short hair obscured her vision and the shield before her groaned before the tail was pulled violently out and the barrier collapsed. Raven's heart turned inside out. Her blood ran bitter. Her skin prickled. She couldn't think. Her eyes studied the crumbled bleeding body before her with paralyzed shock.
"Alex?"
Hank had lost his glasses in the confusion. He assumed he had stepped on them in the process of racing forward to find Sean, who, surprisingly, was not with Alex. The officials had calmed down most of the mutants in the area where he was, promising safe refuge and to relocate them to their families. Turns out the labs were known, but only as a spreading rumor. Mutants were though to live in the mountains of Utah and Kentucky.
Ridiculous.
The smoke was wafting through the air like water would in rain. Helicopters tried in vain to capture footage of the riot bellow. Fire trucks and some specialized water type mutants were trying to put out the fire. Hank had yet to see Raven. He had asked around, but had been too nervous to head up the street some ways into the midst of the brawl. With Sean though, pulling at his sleeve, and dragging him along it was somewhat easier.
They arrived through the rubble, some humans ran at them fumbling with bandages and water but Hank politely brushed them away. At least some mortals were on their side.
Hank's bare feet scratched against charred brick and slick cement, and he kept his head down as a wave of rock soared over him and latched onto a nearby helicopter. It crashed to the ground, propeller swiveling and bending and breaking through. Hank had only spotted Azazel after he had grabbed Raven. He raced forward without thinking, but a mutant crashed into him and knocked them both to the ground. Panic tore through him as he carelessly pushed the lifeless body off of him and stood, preparing to run at Azazel again as his tail zipped up.
Alex beat him to the punch.
Hank wished he had attacked. But then he remembered Raven would be blown to bits in fire as well and rethought his previous analogy. As Alex fell Hank rushed over, roaring like a beast and reached out, nails tearing through Azazel's skin and with a shout Raven pulled free from his hold. Raven rushed to Alex's side and Hank to Raven's but it was the scream that shattered the air and tore all things away that brought them back again.
Azazel was blown back, spiraling through the air, and as the red mist began to surround him again he collided with a building, head bursting open like a grape. His body buckled and he fell, hitting the burnt rubble ground with a sickening crunch. There were mutants running all around them, some coming up to stand by Hank and Raven and spit at them to stop wallowing and fight back. Sean stood rock still in the center of it all, finding no breath to breathe and no motivation to move forward. He could see the blood on Raven's hands from where he was standing; she was pressing them frantically against the hole in Alex's chest. Hank was rubbing at his eyes, hand caressing Raven's shoulder in a comforting motion as tears and soul shattering sobs escaped her.
Sean dipped his head down, staring at his empty hands and remembering how well Alex's had fitted perfectly into his. He let the tears fall.
"Goodbye Alex." He choked out, his voice rough and hoarse and so unbearably raw, but no one could hear him over the shouts to stop and the tumbling of brick and stone.
Charles hadn't realized when it happened.
In truth, he wasn't exactly sure where they were or had been going. But he had felt it all the same, that familiar sickening buzz of a presence. His hand shot out and he willed Erik to stop. They stood there for some time, surrounded by nothing but white white walls, until Charles spoke again.
"He's here." Erik stiffened, blood roaring in his veins and he couldn't keep the uncontrolled excitement and wrath from his eyes.
"Where?" He rasped, turning around and around and around again, as though by doing so the man they had been looking for would appear.
"I felt him for only a moment. I think he knows Emma's dead. She was his tool anyway but…" Charles let his fingers rest on his temple again and he took a deep breath, making sure his resolve was steel. He opened up his mind. In an instant Alex's death poured into his head and he gasped, stumbling some when he saw Azazel fly through the air and collapse again to the ground. These were the most prominent thoughts? He swallowed the lump in his throat and tried to push past that, past the recaps of what happened moments before, as the ringing grew intensely worse.
"Charles? What's happening?" Charles just shook his head; if he spoke he might loose it- the concentration he had finally achieved. Erik recognized the hint and fell silent. Charles could feel a slight prickle; a prick underneath the layers but it was gone as soon as it had arrived. He knew where it came from though, and without a word to Erik he ran in that direction.
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