Magnetic

Chapter Eight

"Blown Away"

Charles Xavier and Hank arrived at the Blackbird at the same time, both with exasperated looks on their faces. Xavier could have easily read his friends mind to find out what was wrong but there was too much trust between them for him to ever violate his friend like that.

"What's wrong Hank?"

Hank regarded his friend for a moment and sighed. "Just had a chat with Raven."

"I can only imagine how well that conversation went."

Hank gave his friend a half smile. "About as well as I would expect any conversation between you and Eric to go."

Charles looked away toward the Blackbird. Of course the conversation hadn't gone well at all. They were unable to talk about the one thing that still hung between them. The dreams and the feelings. Were they real at all? Could Charles be having these thoughts and somehow project them onto Eric? Xavier shook his head.

"You are right about that my friend."

Before the two friends could say anything else, Emma Frost showed up.

"How much longer until we can get this over with and go back to hating each other?"

Charles motioned for Hank to go onto the Blackbird while he dealt with Emma.

"Shouldn't be long. By the way…No one said we had to stop hating each other."

Emma smiled. "Oh I suspect there's a lot more then hate between some of us."

Xavier just ignored her statement, which had been made simply to goad him into making some kind of statement about the unsaid feelings between Eric and himself.

"Whatever you say Emma."

The White Queen laughed and boarded the jet, probably sensing that Eric and Raven were heading towards them. Charles looked at Eric and so many thoughts entered his mind. He wanted to grab him and kiss him and never let him go but the reality of the situation was that after this mission they would once again go their separate ways. He then switched his gaze to Raven. They had been childhood friends and it hurt when Raven had made that choice to follow Magneto. Charles thought about ways he could have changed her mind about leaving but he realized that there had been nothing he could have done. Xavier let Eric board but as Mystique began to pass he gently grabbed her arm.

"I really have missed you Raven."

"It's been an adjustment not being around you all the time or having you to talk to. Things are very different with Eric and Emma.

"Then when this mission is over why don't you stay?"

"I'm not Raven anymore Charles. It'd just be too difficult. I can't just come back because you missed me."

"You will always be Raven to me. The girl I found in the kitchen that night. The woman who stood by me through everything."

"You will always be important to me Charles but too much has happened. We have all made choices and for better or worse we need to stand by those choices."

"If you say so but I want you to know that if there ever comes a time when you need me I will be there and I will always give you the benefit of the doubt."

Raven smiled. "I appreciate it Charles."

He smiled back at her and realized that even though they were on different paths they would always have a connection. Xavier let her board the jet first and quickly followed. The door was closing as Azazel appeared out of nowhere.

"Nice of you to join us."

Azazel scowled and took a seat next to Emma. Charles shook his head and wheeled his chair next to Hank.

"You have the coordinates right Hank?"

"Yes. They are preprogrammed into the computer and we can stay on autopilot a majority of the way."

"All right then. Let's get going."

Hank pushed a few buttons and the Blackbird came to life. Before long they were in the air and on their way to the Savage Land. A land where things were about to change for all of them.

Hank was awakened by an alarm going off and quickly began assessing the situation. The others around him also began to stir and Charles looked at Hank.

"What's going on?"

"I'm trying to figure that out! The system is going crazy and I don't see anything on the...Wait a minute. I see two blips on the radar."

"Could it be other aircraft?"

"It's possible but they don't look like aircraft."

Eric got out of his seat and walked toward them.

"Charles...Those aren't aircraft. Their homing missiles."

"What?"

"Two homing missiles heading right towards us. Safe to say that any element of surprise we could have been hoping for is long gone."

"Can't you manipulate them?"

"Of course but you might want to change our trajectory really quick before one of them hits us."

Hank complied and began evasive maneuvers as Eric concentrated on manipulating the missiles. There was a loud boom as they hit each other and Charles smiled.

"Great to have you with us."

Emma frowned.

"Don't get too cocky yet. Whoever we have come here for knows we are here and I doubt they will stop trying to shoot us out of the sky."

Raven nodded. "I don't agree with her much but she is right about this."

Before anyone else could respond the alarm started going off again.

"Uh Eric?"

"Don't worry I can handle it."

Eric began concentrating and the incoming missiles once again hit each other instead of the Blackbird. One of the blasts came too close to the Blackbird though, and hit one of the wings. As the Blackbird began spiraling out of control Hank kept his composure and fidgeted with some of the controls.

"I'll bring us down as safely as I can. Azazel?"

"Yeah?"

"Think you can help by teleporting people out of here?"

"Of course."

Azazel grabbed Emma and Raven and teleported out.

"Well at least chivalry isn't dead."

"I don't think he was trying to be chivalrous. I think he was trying to prove a point that when it comes down to it we are very much on our own."

Charles looked at Eric and realized that Hank was right. The jet began falling more rapidly and it became apparent that Azazel wouldn't get back to get them in time.

"Brace yourselves!"

Charles and Eric looked at each other but before they could act the jet split in two. Eric was relieved that it didn't look like too much of a fall.

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay in getting the next chapter up. Took me some time to get back into the writing spirit but I promise I will be updating more frequently and should have the story done soon. This is meant to be another filler chapter mostly to get them to the Savage Land. Wanted to address the unresolved tensions between Raven and Charles and show that their is still a lot between them even though they have landed on different sides. Next chapter will deal with a lot of Eric and Charles stuff exclusively.