Warning for Attempted Non-Con later in this chapter.

Location Unknown - February 16th, 1958

Two days he had been laying on his back vertically with limited movement on the bed he was strapped to. Just the previous day Charles had started to manifest his power, late at night his captors had heard him start to scream and thrash as the pain enveloped him as it had his other Cluster-mates only days before. As if to test it Shaw had sent a young lady into the room, almost immediately as she had stepped in her mind was invaded without Charles meaning to.

The power felt all-consuming during the pain and Charles' mind both lashed out and tried to cling to any other mind it could for comfort, hers being the first it could find with the walls of the room seemingly blocking out everything else in the world. As the young brunette lady collapsed to her knees and held her head she heard only screaming, Charles, on the other hand, felt his mind rifling through her memories like a teacher fingering through a student's many paged paper.

Charles wasn't sure how much time had passed but he could remember the girl in pain, blood started to pour out of her nose like a faucet, soon it started coming out of her ears and not long after it filled her eyes with bloody tears. She collapsed on the floor and still laid there even currently, the pain had subsided long ago but Charles still leaked occasional tears...he had killed someone.

A person he did not know in life but knew through her memories, she hadn't deserved to die at the hands of his own mind. Her name had been Elizabeth, only twenty-five years old, young and confused when a handsome and powerful man like Shaw had approached her asking for her expertise in being a nurse. Her intent had been to help him when she had stepped into his room, and in return, Charles had killed her.

By then her blood had pooled and started to dry on the concrete floor of Charles' room, he hadn't slept a wink and probably looked a right mess. Slightly greasy and messy hair, tears streaked and dried from his eyes and all over his face, his eyes bloodshot, red and puffy, pale, and surely it felt like he had bitten his bottom lip bloody in several places.

With no way of telling time in his room the young man wasn't sure when, but Shaw stepped into the room at some point. Stepping directly into the bloody mess on the floor whose name had once been Elizabeth. Having been passive for a while Charles started to pull at his restraints and thrust his mind at Shaw's with intent to harm him. "You bastard, let me out of here!" he cried out.

His mind attempted to touch the older man's, only to find it blocked by a metal helmet made of similar material to what surrounded his room. Shaw grimaced and stepped over the collapsed body and over to Charles' bed, "She's a pathetic human, not worth our time. Now, calm down. I'm sure you'd like to eat something instead of being pumped full of IV fluid, and wouldn't you like the catheter taken out?"

The calm and almost sweetness to the man's voice was chilling, it only meant bad things for the newly formed telepath. Laying still Charles nodded, "I want to sit up."

"Wonderful, let's get you more comfortable and perhaps you'll be in the mood to talk. I have good news, I've found the location to your dearest Erik and guess what? He is on a plane and currently on his way here. Funny enough I'm actually familiar with the boy, hard to imagine I know but I did work for the Nazi's in their concentration camps for a time." Rubbing his thumb down Charles' pale cheek a laugh bubbled in the man's throat, "You'll behave if you don't want us to shoot him in the head on sight when he arrives."

A partial relief washed over the telepath's body, Erik cared and he was on his way to come help. With no other choice, he would be passive, at least until there was a proper opening.

Erik's Flight - February 16th, 1958

With combined efforts on his and Hank's part, they had narrowed possible locations for Sebastian Shaw to a few places. The one in France Erik could remember being one of the man's most frequent, he had a feeling that would be the place to check, his chest squeezed tightly in concern that he might have chosen wrong. His other companions he could feel on the edge of his mind always now since their visiting had become constant over the past days, Erik didn't mind it nearly as much as he had expected to.

Sitting on a flight was obnoxious to the young man, he was constantly bouncing his knee to the point where it had annoyed the person sitting next to him so much they had moved to another open seating. More peace for him to think about all of the ways he would kill Shaw for hurting Charles, so he didn't mind the space.

Catching a glimpse of white next to him Erik perked up, expecting it to be Raven since he'd noticed some blond hair. "He-oh...you?" he said quietly, "I thought you died." Erik meant nothing rude by it, Emma had the good conscious to warn all of them with what she could and for that alone he was grateful. The older woman smiled a bit smugly at him just as she had in their first meeting.

"This is just my echo, I have no control over it but I believe what is left of me inside of you called me out in want of comfort." she said, Erik immediately made a scrunched face at the word comfort as if he'd been disrespected. Giggling Emma gave a small wave of her hand, "It's just between the two of us sugar, don't be embarrassed."

Forcing his shoulders to relax back Erik leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs the best he could in the small space in the plane. "Alright then, talk."

Her lips turned down into a slight frown, "What a warm welcome to someone who birthed your Cluster, I suppose you aren't the heart. You're more of a...muscle." Rolling his steely colored eyes the young man turned his head away to glance out the window he sat next to, clouds moving by not fast enough by his standards. "What does that even mean Miss Frost?"

"Long time ago, after seeing quite a few other Clusters be born and grow together a few of my own Cluster and myself started to notice patterns in the births. Everyone within the Clusters are born on the same day, same hour, same minute, you get the picture. Not only that, everyone within the groups brings something to the table. You're devious, muscular, don't mind getting your hands dirty."

Well, he definitely couldn't argue with that, it certainly summed up what he was good at. "Fair point I suppose. If I had to describe Raven she would be...finesse and grace I guess. She's not extremely strong but she has enough finesse to use her own fighting styles against others, she mentioned that she can also cry on cue sooo...I'm guessing she's a decently talented actress in situations." All of those things were quite handy, the lovely lady in America had caught Erik's eye and he was already very fond of her feisty nature.

"See, now you're getting where I'm coming from." Emma agreed, "Dear Hank, such a sweet thing. His powers have given him great speed but his connections at his work along with his pure genius intellect is unmatched by most. He's the one who helped you find Sebastian's location isn't he?" Erik nodded, he had to give credit where credit was due.

Hacking and working things like that may seem like such a side job but Erik knew if it weren't for Hank he would never have found the right safe house to confront Shaw. He couldn't say that he felt the same connection for Hank as he did for Raven and Charles, but Erik knew if push came to shove he would take a beating for him or even shoot someone if necessary, maybe more but time would tell.

"What would that make Charles?" touching his chin Erik had to really think about it, "He's smart, unbelievably but in a different way than Hank. He's smarter when it comes to practical things and biology in specifics. That all seems way too particular to be what's special about him."

"Charles...my poor thing, he's been blessed and cursed with a similar role that I had. I knew it as soon as I met him the first time, he was going to emerge as a telepath like myself and have great powers. Despite what Sebastian insists, a telepath's most important job is not controlling people, gathering information on enemies and being pregnant." her voice spiked slightly at the end of her sentence, a sensitive subject.

Turning to look back at the woman in white Erik found himself newly interested, he hadn't known Charles was going to be a telepath nor did he know what was so special and drawing about the young man, he had to know. "Go on." he urged.

Brushing some hair back from her face Emma continued, "He's what I would describe as the heart of the Cluster. He is especially special, Charles would have been even without telepathy as he has a natural way of connecting with others he just meets. As I'm sure you've noticed. Being a telepath makes this easier but Charles is already quite empathetic towards others." His face started to become warm thinking about the other man, Charles did naturally give off quite a warm presence.

With a more warning tone, Emma's voice seemed to be fading along with her body. "Before I go, remember that even if something does happen to Charles-" "It won't." Erik grunted out quickly. "If something happens to him, the Cluster can survive but it will be hard on all of you. And when you manage to save him, because I know you will, please take good care of him Erik. Better care than Sebastian took of me, I trusted him with my gift and my heart...he did not treat either kindly."

Sighing as he was left alone before he could ask or comment more, Erik leaned his head back onto his seat and stared at the ceiling for a moment. A telepath, that was worrisome due to circumstances but also amazing in Erik's eyes. A beautiful awakening if he could say so, he wished silently that he could have been around to soothe Charles' pains when he'd been going through them.

It was early morning when Erik's plane arrived on the ground and he left, going to a local hotel and setting his suitcases on the bed. As agreed upon at an earlier time, 6 am rolled around and then both Raven and Hank were standing inside of his hotel room each looking antsy in their own ways. Raven tapping her foot on the floor, Hank had jittery hands as if he'd been drinking constant coffee.

"Ok, go over the plan one more time." the blond girl requested, "I just want to make sure we're all 100% on what our jobs are."

"I will be getting us in without being noticed using the tips Hank gave me on their security systems, despite the facility being labeled as shut down I'm sure all of it works perfectly." Erik started off with.

"We can't afford for Charles to be taken to a hospital and them thinking he's sick like what happened to Raven, or for them to phone for back up. So I'll be monitoring all incoming and outgoing electronic messages and phone calls to block them as needed." Hank nodded in agreement.

"And I...wait." Raven huffed and crossed her arms. "If you get into trouble we combine your manly strength with my fighting skills and take out anyone who stands in our way...and potentially kill Shaw for daring to touch Charles."

Giving a sly smirk and a short nod he said, "Yes, exactly. I don't plan on it but if things go south...both of you hit the eject button and get out of my head, both of you go into hiding or get somewhere safe where Shaw can't find you. I'm fine risking myself but I won't risk either of you or Charles if possible." All of them knew that was quite a sentimental thing for Erik of all people to say.

Even knowing each other for such a short time the others were impressed. Raven grabbed Hank's arm and then Erik's, "This is all going to be ok, we have each other's backs so we can do this. I'm scared to death but I have faith in you Hank, and you Erik. And...I have faith that Charles can take care of himself until we get in there to kick ass."

"Can't believe I only met you guys this month still and yet I feel..." Hank started and Raven finished for him saying, "Like we've known each other for years." "Feels like I've known you guys maybe a few months." Erik said stubbornly but he wasn't fooling the others, he had been the most worried over Charles and it had only a small amount to do with his big crush on the other teen.

Renting a car with a fake ID and accounts Erik drove for several hours to where he knew Shaw's very discreet hideout was, he had dreamt of coming here to murder the man quite often when he'd been younger. Now he had come for a different reason but may have gotten his chance to kill the Nazi sympathizer all the same. Parking far away he walked the rest of the distance to the building, wearing a black spy-like suit and carried only what he thought he would need.

Such things included several knives strapped to his legs, a single pistol at his hip and equipment he would be ditching soon in a bag in order to break through the security fence and ID doors. The fence, piece of cake, but the back door as it wasn't guarded had great coding written into the ID pad so it was difficult to hack. With Hank at his side, he was able to make it inside, closing the door behind him.

~.~.~.~.~

"That helmet looks ridiculous." Charles said in a slightly bitter tone, "You must be quite frightened of what my power can do if you won't take it off." he was being dragged down a long hallway by Shaw's hand that was on his arm and holding tightly. Wearing nothing but an ugly eggshell colored hospital gown that fell just passed his knees and was slightly open in the back.

At the moment, Charles couldn't find the energy in himself to worry if anyone saw his ass. Everything that had happened since his kidnapping had felt like a mixture of nightmare and dream that passed by so quickly laying strapped to the bed, but now that he was up and walking around all of his senses seemed to be returning.

His new power still felt blocked, parts of the building were made of heavy metals like Shaw's helmet and the room he had been held inside of. Areas where his newly powered mind could not penetrate, there was a large lower floor that he could sense on the other hand with quite a few minds there. Charles' mind seemed to be working this power on its own as he walked, feeling firstly the awake minds which consisted of two women and one young man that were nurses much like Elizabeth who had been taking care of Charles.

The telepath could also feel other minds that were deeply asleep and drugged, he felt them nonetheless, but could not tell who they were or anything about them. He only could tell that there were four of them. Logging the information to memory Charles relayed none of this to the man briskly walking him down the hall, finally stopping at a room and all but shoving Charles inside.

Lights flickered on when they sensed motion, the room was set up much like a bedroom. A twin sized and very basic bed in the corner, a table with chairs that had two plates of food on it already, and a bookshelf. "I hope you like this, it will be your new room once you decide to cooperate. Sit and eat, you look like you're ready to pass out." Shaw ordered.

Taking a seat Charles sat on the edge of his chair and took the glass of water first, downing almost all of it to wet his dry throat. The IV had kept him hydrated but it wasn't as satisfying as drinking a nice cold glass of water. "Ah..." he let out a relieved sigh. Similarly, his stomach growled softly at the sight of food, a plateful of vegetables that Charles picked up and slowly nibbled at without a word.

"There's a good boy." Sebastian stepped behind him and patted his hair gently, the hand trailing down to the small tie on the hospital gown halfway down Charles back. It was the only thing keeping the clothing even semi-closed and the telepath somewhat decent. The tie was pulled open and Charles could feel the fabric over him shift without being held, slipping down his shoulders just barely before his hands reacted and caught it, pulling the gown further over himself again.

"Tsk tsk, so shy." the man noted, spotting a blush starting to curl its way down Charles' neck. "I'm afraid the only clothes I can lend you are my own." Shaw almost snorted when he saw fierce blue eyes glare at him from a very slight glance that Charles gazed back at him. "Better than a hospital gown isn't it?"

"I'd prefer the gown than wearing anything that has been on your body." finally finding some of his spunk and voice as his mind had cleared and body felt more of himself, Charles took another bite of a carrot and crunched it loudly on purpose. Shaw stepped over to the bed where he had left freshly folded clothes, brought them over and set them in front of Charles next to his plate of food.

"You will wear these, or you'll be walking around naked instead. And trust me, I have no problems with that." Standing up briskly Charles continued to glare, now more directly at the older man but reached and snatched the pair of sweatpants from the pile. "Fine, if you're going to get pleasure out of this either way I might as well keep myself modest."

Slipping on the pants under his gown before shedding the eggshell-colored fabric all together Charles had to re-tie the drawstring so that the sweatpants wouldn't fall off of his hips. Then proceeded to pull on the white shirt which was one or two sizes too big for Charles, "Happy?" he held his arms out in gesture. Nodding the evidence was obvious on Shaw's face that he was happy, "Very. You may finish your food now."

Sitting in mostly silence Charles ate hungrily, keeping an eye on the other man who was eating slowly. Shaw also seemed to keep his own watchful eye on his prisoner, partially for his own pleasure and partially to keep any escape attempts under wraps. As he ate Charles paused briefly, he hadn't gotten used to his power at all but it acted like a radar so far.

It was as if suddenly a blip on the radar went off, one that felt very familiar. Quickly catching himself Charles kept eating, acting as if nothing felt different. Trying to guide his mind to connect with this other person's it almost brought tears to his eyes, it was Erik. Live and in the flesh, Erik, who had come to rescue him.

Inside of his third eye spectrum, Charles could see Erik stop and pause in the middle of a large room he had been walking through to continue his trek through the building. Charles? the man's familiar voice resonated in his head, unsure how to answer of if answering would alert Shaw made Charles keep silent.

That didn't stop him from being able to send a mental picture of an elevator, he and Shaw had briefly passed one on the way to the room they currently sat that had been labeled B3. All he could hope would be that Erik understood and wait it out. "So...how does this birthing stuff all work again? You explained it but I'm not quite sure I understand."

Seemingly thrilled that Charles was asking questions instead of voicing harsh insults pleased the older man. "Telepaths are amazing creatures, they are the only ones capable of creating other Clusters. As far as my research went this is what I can say is most likely, but unconfirmed since I'm still unable to measure the precise brainwaves I need to."

Clearing his throat as if to give a speech the man continued, "Telepaths are capable of absorbing mental energy, even if they don't know it is happening but if you were an expert like my Emma you could do it at will and speed up the process. Creating Clusters takes a lot of mental energy to be collected so the most sure-fire way is to be connected to another very powerful person. Such as myself."

Drinking the last mouthful of water in his glass Charles set it down and tapped his chin, "Because of the mental links, people in Clusters create much more mental energy than normal humans. So it wouldn't be impossible to collect energy from humans for a long time and birth a Cluster?" he asked.

"I would think that is possible, but disgusting. Clusters should only be born from our own kind, who knows how it could affect them by...mixing." Charles had to notably scoff at the disgust in the man's voice, he sounded like a racist old grandpa who had just discovered their grandchild would be marrying someone of a different race.

Tapping a finger absentmindedly against the glass he was still holding instead of his chin the young telepath asked, "So the birth, is it like an actual pregnancy or...?" Charles hated asking questions such as this but Shaw might have been the only person he could potentially ask about himself since apparently telepath's were not born very often.

"From my experience, Emma could sense at a certain point that she would give birth to a Cluster. From that point, it usually took around two months for it to actually happen. The actual birth is quite similar to pregnancy, it took hours sometimes and she was in pain. Quite a lot of pain." Shaw answered without any hint of guilt in his tone.

Feeling in his mind that Erik was getting closer, not taking the elevator but having found stairs to keep himself more discreet left a jitter of excitement in Charles' heart and in his veins. He would get out of here, and he was going to get to meet Erik in person for the first time along with it. A laugh echoed throughout the room as Shaw held his stomach, suddenly bursting out laughing like the madman he was.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Charles asked in a callous voice.

"Oh, nothing haha! I was just thinking of my dear Emma. Conception always seemed more accurate during sex, she always insisted it was because that was when both of us let all of our shields down and our true love for each other could create something beautiful for us. How ridiculous!" Leaning back in his chair Sebastian crossed his legs, "I agree with part of that, but not because of true love. Just because when her shields were down she could collect so much more mental energy."

Gripping his glass tighter as anger started firing up inside of Charles veins he asked in a stiff tone, "How do you know it wasn't because of how much she loved you?" He could sense from what he knew about the blond woman and what he had the chance to speak to her of, she had truly loved Shaw. The young telepath would not think that was a smart or wise thing to do, but the heart often wanted what it wanted despite what your brain could tell you.

"Cute, you telepaths are all so sentimental. I can't believe-" the man went off on a tangent and it was at that point Charles started to ignore his voice altogether. He could feel Erik's presence getting so close, on the same floor as he was and getting closer with every moment. Glancing around the room Charles mentally cursed, the room was very bare of anything he could use to defend himself.

Books were no good, nor the bed or table or chairs as they would all take too long to do anything with. Standing up slowly to convey a non-threatening motion, Charles took his plate and Shaw's almost-empty one that hadn't been touched for awhile to pile them together. "Just cleaning up, I hate clutter." As he stepped behind Shaw he felt an unwanted hand give his ass a playful slap.

Turning on instinct Charles smashed the ceramic plates over the back of Shaw's head. Flinching at the blow, it hadn't done nearly enough surprise as the young man had wanted. Seconds passed before his blue eyes before strong hands grabbed him and were shoving him down onto the small circular table he had been sitting at moments ago.

"Nn!" he grunted with the sharp pain when his head slammed back against said table. Struggling as fiercely as he could Charles found his movements limited. "Let go of me you bastard!"

With a now stoic face that was only barely hiding the fact that he was livid, Shaw held Charles against the table with both hands containing the smaller man's wrists and his lower body pinning Charles' legs. "I thought you might be good for me, but now I see we're going to have to do this the hard way. The first time is always the hardest to handle, you'll learn to like it!"

Moving Charles wrists to be held by one hand, Shaw's unwanted touch pulled at the baggy sweatpants and yanked them down to Charles' ankles along with undoing the zipper of his own trousers. Tears started to prickle at blue eyes and he started to struggle harder from the adrenaline rushing through his veins. "Stop stop stop! Get off!"

Panick ripped through Charles' mind as he saw Shaw pull off his ugly metal helmet. "You don't know how to control anything yet which is perfect, I can mold your mind to accept me. I may not be a telepath, but I know how they work probably better than anyone."

It was true, on instinct and being naive Charles' mind latched onto the closest thing it could for support, that being Shaw's mind. Gasping loudly Charles turned his head to the side with wide eyes and tried to force the memories, thoughts, feelings out of his head to no avail. Lust. Want. Control. Dominate. Were the main feelings repeating throughout Shaw's mind as the man pressed his body hard into Charles', even pressing his forehead to the side of Charles' own. "Don't worry, you're going to like it."

Stop him with your power, you're strong enough! Emma's urgent voice echoed like static in his mind.

I can't. I can't! I can't concentrate or think!

With one last powerful yank to his wrists, the young man managed to free a single arm from Shaw's grasp, feeling down the table for anything to save himself. His hand found purchase on his empty water glass and smashed it over Shaw's head, like the plates it didn't do much but make the man flinch. Being left with the base of the glass that had jagged shards still connected to it, so he repeated the motion.

This time with the sharp glass Charles slammed it as hard and deep into the older man's cheek, blood splattered and Shaw let out an almost animalistic cry of pain, lifting himself off of the younger man to pull the glass out and throw it to the ground. Cradling his bleeding cheek, the cut wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been due to his own power that Charles had no idea about, but it still hurt like hell and would probably leave a scar and possibly need stitches.

In a flash of a moment, Charles stood up and pulled his pants with him before bolting from the room and down the hall. A figure downwards stifled a smile on his face as he ran closer, "Erik, over here!" The figure had been moving slowly and checking empty rooms since he had no idea which Charles would be inside of.

His head turned at attention hearing his name before both men moved quickly towards each other like magnetics pulling at their opposite connecting forces. Practically throwing himself into his friend's arms when he got close enough, Charles didn't cry but his body was shaking. "We have to hide o-or something, I stunned him but Shaw he's...he's-!" trying to turn and point down the hall to the room he'd left the door open Erik simply responded by holding Charles tighter in his one-armed hug.

The arm that wasn't holding onto Charles was gripping a gun at his side, ready to shoot. "No hiding. I'm going to put a bullet through his head and that will be that."

Charles had always been able to pick up certain feelings from his Cluster-mates but for the first time in a very clear voice, he heard Erik's personal thoughts. I have to kill him, or Charles will never be able to sleep peacefully at night.

Almost on cue Shaw came stumbling out of the room, the glass removed from his cheek but blood dripping down his face. The glass had hit further up his cheek than Charles had imagined, tearing part of Shaw's lower eye and eyelid and leaving deep and cruel drag marks on the left side of his face. "You think you can just run away with him, do you, Charles?"

He came closer and Erik lifted his arm to point the gun threateningly at Shaw, waiting for a distance to close between them for better aim. Erik had shot people before but it had been quite a long time since handling a gun and he wasn't going to risk missing or non-fatal shots with his limited ammo.

"Others are coming." Charles whispered softly, the henchmen must have been in one of the rooms that were blocking his senses because it was out of nowhere they had appeared. Three of them but only two were headed in their direction, they weren't far so it wasn't too much of a stretch to think they had heard Shaw's screams of pain from the connecting hallways.

A single gunshot sounded in the hallway, it had been aimed perfectly at Shaw's forehead but seemed to disappear with no impact. Leaving the man simply laughing, "I absorb energy, glass isn't lethal but it can harm me. Gunshots? Much easier to absorb."

Thank you to everyone who favorites and subscribes to the story. Reviews/comments are very much welcome and I appreciate all of it.

This story is probably something I will re-write when I'm finished to make it all more coherent, I tend to write chapters by the chapter and not as a whole series. Which is why I don't often write multi-chapter things.

I'm planning about two more chapters of this, but I'm also planning on eventually writing a sequel or possibly two connected to this one and still focusing on Charles and Erik+Cluster but some years skipped ahead.