Erik and Hank spent the morning finishing putting Cerebro-II together. The entire time he was working on it Erik kept running over last night's conversation with Charles. The two main points sticking with Erik were Charles's insistence that he was viewing the Mutant and human situation through the lens of what had happened to the Jews, to him, in World War II, and that somehow he was still trapped in the past.
As Erik tightened another connection on the frame of Cerebro-II he couldn't deny that those events had forever shaped his life. They'd also set him on a path of revenge and now vigilance to ensure it never happened again. The implications of Charles's words were that he'd never really been freed from the fear caused by those events. Erik hated this idea and he wanted to reject it utterly. He also hated that maybe Charles was right and it made him uncomfortable.
Reaching out a hand and using his powers he called the wrench to him from the work table. Charles had also insisted that wanting to hope was enough. That Erik needed to want to believe in a future, in things being alright because what was the alternative, death? Erik rejected death as a future. He remembered the faces of the children at the breakfast table that morning, happy, safe, smiling. Very suddenly, and powerfully a feeling swept over Erik. He wanted that happiness to continue, he wanted those children to have a future, to have hope. For a moment that old sense of drive came back to him, only it was not choking the life out of him like before, it was instead a path with a purpose set out for him to walk.
He twisted the bolts tight as he could with the tool. Erik wanted to protect these kids, wanted to protect all Mutants, by taking Trask out of play. But he also wanted to hope, he didn't know if he could ever believe in real hope again, or the world as a place not fully populated by forces seeking to destroy him for being different. But he wanted to.
"It's done!" Hank shouted with glee as Erik finished with the last bolts. A moment later Erik was standing in the empty basement laboratory as Hank ran up the stairs, almost like a child, two at a time, to tell Charles.
Charles was sitting with Raven in his office when Hank came in puffing slightly and said in a rush. "It's done."
"Brilliant Hank, good man." Charles quickly made for the elevator with Raven at his heels. Hank, on seeing Raven, didn't follow them into the lift and instead seemed to have taken a moment to go get Moira and Mr. Black because ten minutes later they were all assembled in the basement, standing before the new Cerebro-II.
"Is it going to work, this one is smaller and shaped differently?" Raven asked.
"Yes, it's going to work!" Hank snapped, sounding personally offended.
"Okay Charles, do your thing, Trask has been at large for too long." Moira gestured for him to approach the metal feedback cap. Rolling forwards Charles locked his wheels and placed the cap on his head trying to ignore the slight amount of anxiety he felt doing this. He had used Hank's first machine with a little anxiety as well, with so much riding on it. Of course at the time he hadn't known that, but this time it felt so much more important, he had to locate these Mutants and save them.
"I'm turning it on," Hank warned and flipped the switch. Suddenly Charles was plunged into a pool, an ocean of minds. He could feel each one, the range of this machine far more expansive than the previous one and it was overwhelming. If he hadn't used the first version of the machine before, Charles might have freaked out a little now.
"Hank there are too many minds, please focus the range to the larger New York State area," Charles told Hank while he tried to sift minds.
Charles heard a dial clicking somewhere and Hank asked "Okay, how's that?". The amount of minds seemed to lessen from an ocean to a lake and Charles found it much easier to sift through for one that felt familiar to him. The first mind he felt that was familiar to Charles was that of his step-father in New York City. Smiling a little at the brief feeling of a family member's mind, Charles moved on. He was at it for a bit before he felt another mind that was familiar to him.
It was Angel, her mind was strangely sleepy, and there was something not right about it. He wished he could get inside and see what was going on, like he had with Emma Frost in Russia, but he needed to be there in person to do that. His powers, even with Hank's machine, could not reach that far.
"I've found Angel," Charles said.
There was a ripping sound as Hank tore the printed out coordinates off the machine as the location of Angle was spat out. "I got the location." Hank quickly rushed to his work table to look up the address on a map.
Charles took the cap off his head, feeling the vastness of all the other minds vanish, for a moment it made him feel very isolated, but then the feeling of his friends around him set back in and Charles felt alright again. He wheeled his chair over to where Hank was. "What do we have?"
"It looks like some kind of area outside of Albany," Hank pointed on the map.
"That's probably the main office for Trask Industries, they have locations in just about every major city," Mr. Black said.
"If that's where Angel is it stands to reason the other Mutants that have been taken are there too." Charles turned to Moira, "we need to go there."
"I agree," Moira said and turning to Mr. Black she added "this might be our only chance to get Trask, if we can prove he'd been kidnapping citizens, or behind these pro-communist attacks, we can take him down. Can you get a search warrant?"
"Against Trask?" Mr. Black asked very skeptically.
"We have to make this stick," Moira insisted.
"Let me call a few people, I might know a judge who could sign off on one, but I'm not sure." Mr. Black shrugged.
"I am not waiting for a warrant," Erik said.
"Erik's right," Charles said. "Mr. Black when that warrant comes through, call Moira on the car phone." He rolled towards the lift, "Oh and don't let anyone into the house Mr. Black, we will be gone most of the day I assume. You can handle everything while we are away."
"Wait, what, you're going?" Mr. Black blinked in surprise.
"Yes," Charles said, ignoring the implication that just because he was now using a wheelchair he was not capable of rescuing others.
Ten minutes later, Moira, Erik and Raven, were in the car and rolling out of the drive with Hank and Charles in the van following.
...
Hank pulled the van up outside the large gates of the Trask Industries compound which lay in an industrial area outside the city. It looked like an everyday kind of office place, but Charles was sure that whatever was going on with Trask's interest in Mutants was inside the building. The hand radio clicked a moment then Moira's voice came over "Charles, can you see if Mutants are in there? Over."
"Of course." Charles put a hand to his temple, a gesture which helped him focus and concentrate when using his powers. Charles reached out and tried to get an idea of who was inside the complex. Charles picked up the radio, relaying information to Moira who was in the car. "I can feel Angel and Azazel, but something isn't right, they might be drugged, there are other minds in there too."
"Okay, thanks Charles," Moira's voice clicked back. "When our warrant comes through the plan is to locate the Mutants being held captive there, and document as much as possible of Trask's crimes, over." Moira said as the two vehicles pulled up to the gates of the Trask facility.
"When might that warrant come in?" Charles asked.
"I don't know, over," Moira replied.
"I'm sorry Moira, that's not fast enough," Charles put down his radio and exited the van with Hank and met Erik and Raven, who'd ridden in the car, at the side of that vehicle. "It's going to be dangerous. Trask has some way of putting Mutants to sleep," Charles pointed out to the group.
"What is the plan?" Erik asked.
"We go in as quietly as possible, I don't know anything about Trask, but I don't want to take chances he might hurt the captive Mutants. So I think a side-door for our entry point." Charles looked up at Hank, "You're more familiar with these kinds of industries, what are their usual interiors set up. Where would they keep prisoners?"
"Well it's not standard practice to keep prisoners in these industries. But if they're experimenting on them the labs are usually in the basement. You said, they seemed drugged so um," Hank thought for a moment "I think the basement would be the best bet for finding the Mutants."
"It's a place to start." Charles turned to his sister. "Raven dear, if we run into anyone, can you turn into Trask and insist that we're all right. The fewer alarms raised the better."
"Okay." Raven nodded.
"How's that warrant, Moira?" Charles asked, glancing at the woman sitting on pins for a phone call to come through on the van phone.
"Not here yet," Moira said, "but I have my contacts in the F.B.I. waiting to move on this at a moment's notice."
"If the warrant does come through please do come after us. I'm afraid we cannot delay any longer." Charles turned to the gates.
"I personally advise against this, that said, be careful." Moira glanced around the small group of Mutants.
"Erik," Charles didn't have to say more, the other Mutant unlocked the gate and left it ajar for Moira after they went through. Charles was really hoping that the warrant would be given and Moira could come and arrest Trask and that would be the end of all of it.
They went across the smooth black parking lot that surrounded the building and went around the side. Erik put his hand to the latch and unlocking it held the door open for the rest of them. Charles needed Hank's help to get over the lip of the frame and inside the building. He ignored the little bit of anxiety it inspired in him, given that if things went very, very wrong, Charles would be trapped in the building and unable to get out on his own.
"The elevator is probably this way." Hank led them to the back part of the building where a freight elevator was installed.
As they slowly descended, the machine making a hellish amount of noise, Charles said to Raven, "This is going to be our only way out." Really, Charles's only way out, the others could take the stairs if needed. "And I need you to make sure it's left open to us."
"Are you trying to make me stay behind where it's safe, Charles?" Raven gave him a displeased look. "This isn't Cuba, I can take care of myself, I don't have to be left to guard the plane."
"No Raven, but if we can't use this elevator I can't get out of the basement on my own," Charles pointed out. "And I needed you to guard the plane entrance in Cuba, not because I didn't think you could handle yourself, but because I really did need you. When I'm using my abilities I can't defend myself."
Raven nodded, "Okay." The conversation ended as the elevator reached the bottom of the shaft with a slight squeal of unoiled parts.
Erik opened the door and exited with Hank and Charles, leaving Raven to hover by the elevator, ready to dash in as Trask if needed, but until then guarding the way out.
The hall they'd come out in had a staircase at both ends that led back up, and in the middle of the hall opposite the lift was a door marked LAB . The three of them proceeded through the door and found themselves in a large basement room. Inside were work tables scattered with files, mechanical parts, and laboratory equipment bubbling over burners.
"I don't see anyone?" Hank said his voice showing the uncertainty that was starting to prick at the edge of Charles's mind, something wasn't right.
Erik moved to the other end of the room and paused by a small smelting pot, "It's adamantium."
"I thought that was a rare metal?" Charles asked, rolling further into the room.
"It is, supper, super rare, I had to steal mine from the C.I.A." Hank moved over to where Erik was standing and started examining the metal bubbling as well.
"Where are the Mutants?" Erik looked around the room, his attention no longer on the metal.
"I don't know," Charles said, he moved to the laboratory equipment and frowned as he saw it was running a separation process that was extracting a clear liquid out of a dark red one. Picking up one of the vials of what was clearly blood Charles read 'subject A1, Emma Frost', with the date of when the blood was taken. A cold chill ran through Charles. Picking up the file laying by the bubbling equipment Charles quickly scanned it and felt a stinging, sinking feeling. The blood that had been taken from Emma had been developed into some kind of mind control serum. Emma had died in the process, this was horrifying in and of itself, however Charles now suddenly sure he knew why Trask was so interested in him. He needed a new telepath to manufacture his serum from.
Trask walked quickly down the hall, his assistant Anderson scurrying along with him babbling excuses. The three freaks, Angel, Azazel and Riptide, he'd recently captured in Detroit, trailed in their wake. "The process only just finished a few hours ago, I don't know if the subject will be ready in time for this afternoon's celebration. I think we should postpone-"
"The Fourth of July only comes once a year. We're not postponing," Trask cut his assistant off, "the attack has to take place during the public festivities. I have a Russian smuggler coming for the Mutants after the attack. It's now or we lose the opportunity to start this war. Being attacked on the Fourth of July by communists cannot be ignored by the U.S."
"We're still perfecting the machines, and the mind serum, we only have so much, we need a new supply-"
"I'm working on tracking down a new subject." Trask frowned a little, his people as of yet, had not been able to locate Charles Xavier. "When I do, be more careful with this one," he scolded his assistant.
"I will," Anderson gulped a little. The five of them walked into the basement hall from the side doors. Trask paused when he saw a pretty blonde woman he didn't know standing just outside the freight elevator watching the door to the lab.
"Excuse me, who are you?" Trask was confused, and moved towards the woman. The blonde lady put on a charming smile, but she didn't look like any of his employees. They should all be off for today.
"Oh, I'm just waiting for my boyfriend, he works for you." The woman tried to charm, she leaned against the elevator as if trying to appear comfortable while waiting.
"Well, we have a very nice visitors lounge, upstairs on the 3rd floor." Trask gestured with one hand to the ceiling above his head. The woman glanced up at the same time as Trask reached a five foot radius to her and heard the telltale beep of his Mutant detecting device as it registered the atomic difference of a Mutant. She was one of them!
"Subdue her!" Trask ordered. A gust of wind was blasted from his weather freak Riptide's hands and knocked into the woman with almost alarming force. Her body was slammed into the corner of the elevator frame and she collapsed to the ground.
Quickly turning to the lab door, it was clear the woman was some kind of look out, Trask waved to his freaks and Anderson to come with him.
On entering the lab, Erik left Charles and Hank to look around the larger room and made his way to the back where a door without a label was. Unlocking it with his abilities and stepping through Erik entered a small room, the walls were all mirrored and in the center of it, strapped down by leather belts to a lab table was James Logan.
For a moment Erik hesitated, his heart suddenly racing, the sight of the lab table sent phantom pains racing through his memory and crawling over his skin. He caught his own reflection staring back at him. This room mirrored the one in Shaw's submarine, all reflective glass showing him someone he didn't quite recognize.
The plaintive little growl that came from Logan drew steel into Erik's resolve and he ignored his racing heart. Moving quickly to release the other mutant when he touched the strap buckles Logan growled in anger. "It's alright, you're free now." Erik used a soft tone, and he placed a gentle hand on the hairy shoulder trying to sooth the man. The angry savage eyes looked into Erik's and after a long moment seemed to relax a little. Tension left his body and he didn't struggle as Erik got the straps off. Putting an arm under the shorter Mutant's shoulders, Erik helped Logan off the table and out into the lab room, they only made it just outside the door before Erik lowered the other man to sit down on the cement floor.
...
Charles told Hank to go look inside the large chest coolers along the far side wall, and made for a file cabinet by the door. "No one's inside," Hank reported as he opened the first lid, "just experiments in bottles."
"Check all of them, I'll see if I can find out what happened to them in these files." Glancing up from the folders he was rifling through Charles saw Erik disappear on the far end of the lab into another room. He was about to put his papers aside and follow Erik when Charles was surprised by a voice behind him.
"I see you've found your way to me after all Mr. Xavier and as I've just run out of telepath blood this could not be more perfect timing for me." A cold voice came from the door leading into the hall.
Charles heard Hank give a squeak of surprise, and turned quickly himself, worry spiked inside him, where was Raven?
Trask was standing at the lab door, Angel, Azazel, Riptide and his skinny assistant Anderson in a white lab coat standing with him. Charles recognized the assistant from their previous meeting in the office building.
"Where are the Mutants you've taken?" Charles's voice held the firm note he used when taking control of a situation. "And what do you want with Mutants?"
"You, Mr. Xavier, will learn all about my plans for Mutants in due time, you'll be an integral part of what's to come." The smaller man smiled a cold but genuine smile, the kind the keeper of a snake gives when feeding live prey to its pet. "Telepaths are fascinating." Trask moved further into the room putting his hands into his pockets. "You know from Miss Frost's crystalline blood, I've been able to come up with a serum that allows me to control the minds of others. Just simply fascinating." Trask sighed, clearly self impressed with what he'd found.
Revulsion coursed through Charles at Trask's words, the other man saw him as a resource and not a person.
Removing one hand from his pocket Trask spoke into a small radio receiver, "Please, take them all alive if you can." And he waved his free hand forwards. Angel and Azazel sprang at Charles and Hank. Riptide stayed by the door to block them from leaving.
...
Upon exiting the small mirrored room and depositing Logan on the floor, Erik's attention was pulled to Trask standing at the door at the other end of the lab. He was speaking into what looked like a walky-talky. Erik felt the metal move a moment before a fist made contact with his jaw. Logan had jumped up from the floor and struck him from the side. Staggering away from the blow, Erik tried to right his awareness of where he was in space again. Logan growled and leapt like an animal at him forcing him to move back quickly to avoid the other man's attack.
...
Trask had taken the opportunity of Angel's and Azazel's attack to run across the lab to the back room Logan had been in. A moment later his voice was heard over a loudspeaker from that room directing his mind controlled Mutant's in their attacks. "Bring me Xavier, and Lehnsherr, alive." Trask's assistant Anderson ran back into the hall outside the lab.
Charles put a hand to his temple and caught Angel in his mental grip as she dove at him from above. She fell from the air and was frozen in Charles's grip as he took control of her mind with his own. It was not an easy task.
"Charles, stop Trask!" Hank grunted as he avoided Azazel's spear-like tail by ducking under it and shuffling back.
It was hard to fully take control of another person. Angel's mind felt sleepy and she wasn't fighting him as much as he expected. Instead, her mind struggled against him like that of a sleepwalker, whose body might fight you when you try to prevent them from moving but whose mind is unaware of what's going on. Her mind felt asleep, and Charles was trying to wake her up; he was sure this would break the mind control.
"Charles, get Trask!" Hank called again as he was forced to back into the chest coolers he stood by to avoid Azazel's tail again.
Charles reached out for Trask with the part of his mind not holding Angel, but he couldn't find the other man, it was like a void again, just like in Cuba. "I- I can't." Charles said panicked a little. Just remembering Cuba suddenly made a slight ache start behind his eyes.
"What do you mean you can't!" Hank squealed, jumping further out of Azazel's reach and quickly kicked his shoes off and stripped his feet from their socks.
"I can't touch his mind." Charles's voice was strained as he struggled to free Angel. "Damnit Angel, wake up!"
Charles glanced over his shoulder for a moment to see what had become of Erik and saw the other only for a brief moment diving out of the way of the powerful punch by Logan. As soon as his mental grip loosed even slightly on her, the sleep-walking mind of Angel resisted him and she tried to rise from where he'd been laying on the floor after falling from the air.
The lab door still guarded by a motionless Riptide opened again and Anderson came in, this time with Raven, the assistant holding a small radio receiver. "Get them," he pointed at Hank, Charles and Erik. Raven and Riptide both charged forwards.
"Damnit, no!" Charles stopped trying to find Trask and reaching out he seized his baby sister and the weather Mutant's mind. His heart was pounding with fear for his sister. Holding three people immobile was an immense strain and very difficult, Charles was sure that if they all hadn't felt like their minds were asleep then he couldn't have done this many people at once. Holding the sleep-walking minds in his metal grip Charles tried to wake them up. Tried to get past the deep heavy haze and make the mind's alert again. It was like trying to press through a thick foam wall, and as he made his passage through the dense structure to try and find the minds underneath there were also sharp fragments of crystal cutting at him as he moved deeper into the minds of the others. Charles focused on his task and ignored the ache in his head, it was difficult to do while he was also preventing these mutants from moving.
...
Hank was getting the worst of it from Azazel, the teleporting Mutant grabbed hold of Hank and threw him into a wall, then vanished before Hank could hit back. Before reappearing again and throwing him into one of the lab tables knocking beakers and inactive bunsen burners to the floor. Hank saw out of the corner of his eye that Erik wasn't faring much better against Logan. "Charles, stop Trask!" Hank called again.
"He can't," the voice boomed over the loudspeaker. "Within Miss Frost's blood during my research I found the rare crystalline structure that blocks the abilities of telepaths. Your resistance is futile, in a matter of minutes my own private security force will be here and you will be detained. I'd rather you give up now, I don't want my specimens damaged."
Azazel wasn't quite as fast as he'd been in Cuba, Hank noticed, feinting to the right when the red Mutant swung at him. Hank used some of the boxing he'd learned last year and clocked the other. Using his feet, Hank grabbed hold of Azazel and exercised his new form's strength and overpower him. Physically holding the red Mutant down Hank made it easier for Charles to take control of Azazel's mind and not worry about holding the other mutant immobile as well.
...
Being called a specimen, something that was of use, but ultimately disposable and not sentient, not a person, this sent familiar fear and anger racing through Erik. The fear this lab room inspired in him, the rage it brought to the surface concentrated his mind into one goal, stopping Trask. Logan was in the way of that, but a part of Erik did not want to hurt the man that had liberated him all those years ago.
Erik avoided another swipe of Logan's metal claws, which on their first appearance a minute ago had taken him off guard. Erik used abilities to move a lab table between them to give himself a moment to breathe in the fight. Logan cut through the table shearing off parts of it altogether and threw it to one side. Erik could feel the metal in the man's body. With a ripple of horror washing through his blood, Erik realized the man's whole skeleton seemed to be metal. His mind focused on the task at hand, stopping Trask, Erik took hold of the metal in the grip of his abilities and forced Logan back, forcing him to kneel down and hold still with Logan growling and grunting the entire time. The other mutant was almost foaming at the mouth as Erik held him still then willed one of the wrecked metal tables to wrap around Logan like a straitjacket. Practically howling with rage, Logan struggled to free himself.
"I've got him," Charles's voice was strained and Logan froze in his animal-like fury. Charles had gone very rigid as well, sweat had broken out on the other Mutant's skin. Erik knew Charles wouldn't be able to hold the four minds at once for much longer.
Erik was panting from the physical effort of fighting off and then restraining Logan with his abilities before Charles had taken over the other Mutant's mind. The heightened emotional state he was in, Erik knew, was bringing his full power to the surface. Reaching out with his abilities he ripped the door off the wall that led to Trask. Entering, Erik was back in the mirrored room, and once again his mind flashed back to Shaw's submarine. Trask had opened a panel within the wall that appeared to be the controls for the loudspeaker system, among what also looked like other electrical systems for heating, cooling and fans. Trask jumped in fright as the door clanged to the ground and Erik entered. The fear was obvious in Trask's face as Erik moved towards him.
"When you look at us, what do you see?" Erik asked, his voice calmer then he felt. His heart was racing, his mind was racing and yet focused so solely on Trask, on stopping this murderer and everything else, all the racing thoughts and images, memories and fears, were background noise.
"Stay away." Trask quickly shuffled to the side of the mirrored room.
"Animals, products?" Erik coldley asked before answering his own query "Profit." He concluded as he moved to the center of the room. Trask, now on the far right hand wall, pressed his back against the mirrored surface, smudging it with sweat from his scalp as he turned to keep Erik in sight.
"It's nothing personal," Trask's voice was agitated as he shuffled sideways, clearly hoping to make it to the door.
"It's very personal." Erik hated this man who hunted his kind, who made him afraid, who'd ordered children be kidnapped. The tick, tick, tick, click, click, click, of Trask's pacemaker seemed almost audible to Erik as he felt the metal in the man's body. Erik knew if he reached out a hand he could easily stop the machine, or rip it from Trask's body, it would be death instantly. Trask was almost to the door now, his back pressed against the mirrored wall.
Erik's mind went to the Mutant children he'd found in the cargo crate, then further back to Jewish children in a cattle car. For an instant Erik was in the past, on a train platform, in an office, in a lab, Shaw before him- Shaw, not Trask. A frightened cry brought Erik's attention back to present.
Trask had given a little cry as he looked out the now open doorway, clearly realizing even if he escaped Erik, he'd have to face the other Mutants out in the lab room.
Terror was visible on Trask's face. Through the open door Erik could see Charles, struggling to hold the mind controlled Mutants, struggling to save everyone. Charles's back was to him but the part of their conversation about wanting to hope even if Erik could not hope outright came back to him suddenly. Their conversation about believing that Mutant children had a future, that they all did. Believing that the past was not replaying itself and that things would be different this time.
Erik turned his eyes away from Charles, when he looked at Trask that was all he saw. Trask was not Shaw. Lifting a hand Erik reached into the walls, he felt the pipes behind the mirror wall Trask was standing closes too, exerting his abilities over the lead, Erik willed the metal, as if alive under his will, to break through, shatter the mirrors of that wall, splintering the reflection of Trask's fear stricken face and Erik's own visage into small particles which resolved into dust and some portion of the past with it. The metal, like living hands, wrapped around Trask and held the man fast even as he screamed and tried to jerk his body out of the cold iron-like grip.
Erik turned away from the pathetic little man and moved to exit the smaller room and go back into the lab. He caught his own reflection in the mirrored crystalline walls for a brief moment again, and on looking this time he didn't see a monster, or a weapon, he just saw himself, possibly for the first time in more than 18 years.
It was over.
...
Now that Trask's voice no longer vibrated through the Mutants and the crystalline serum he had created to control them, Charles found their minds fought his less their bodies without direction lapsed into stillness. Without having to mentally hold them physically still, Charles was able to exert more focus on the parts of their sleep-walking minds and mentally shake them to consciousness.
The hand radio that Raven had clipped to her belt clicked and Moira's voice came over it. "We have the warrant, the F.B.I. are inbound in six minutes, get out of there now. Over."
Raven, Logan, Angel, Riptide and Azazel all shivered and seemed to come to themselves again. Hank let go of Azazel and hurried over to Raven.
Charles lowered the hand from his now sweat-damp temple. Physically, Charles was exhausted and the idea of having to wheel himself back out of the building, even just to the lift, seemed a task he'd rather pass on. "Where's Erik?" Charles looked around, hoping the other man was all right.
There was a terrific crashing sound behind him and suddenly Charles was aware of Erik and Trask's presence as well. Taking a quick breath to steady himself, Charles grabbed Anderson and Trask both by the minds and commanded them. "Wait here and when the authorities show up, confess to everything you've been doing."
Everyone that had been affected by the mind serum seemed groggy. "Are there any other Mutants?" Erik asked Charles as he came out of the smaller room.
"No." Charles shook his head. "I had a look around Trask's mind, this is all."
Erik went to Logan and freed him from the metal binding him in place and helped the man to walk. Staggering slightly, the little group of Mutants made for the cargo lift. When they exited the building's side door sirened vehicles were screaming into the parking lot.
"Azazel, get us over to that white van," Charles ordered. The teleporting mutant didn't argue, just followed orders.
Moira gave a little scream of surprise when the seven of them suddenly appeared out of thin air right next to the side of the van where Moira was standing.
Turning quickly to the three mutants he'd had first gone looking for when this had all started Erik quickly commanded them, "Azazel take Angel and Riptide and get out of here." The red demonic Mutant did as ordered and grabbing hold of Angel and Riptide vanished into smoke.
The remaining Mutant's piled into the van and car they'd taken to the lab and quickly headed for the mansion leaving Trask to the descending Feds.
1962 - MIAMI, FLORIDA, HOSPITAL
Lying in hospital, wounded, alone, his body repeatedly examined and touched by perfunctory medical personnel, Charles was pretty sure he hated Erik. And yet, he would have given quite a lot to see him again, if only so he could throw something at the stupid man.
Laying on his stomach, Charles hated laying on his stomach, he stared out the window at the bright Miami fall day. The strangeness of only being able to feel half his body still not something he was used to yet. He kept half expecting to be able to get from the bed and walk out some of his pent up frustrations. Instead he was forced to lay there, in which time he played Cuba over in his mind, again and again. He didn't understand how everything turned out so wrong. Erik had called for a war on humans, had become a stranger, the man Charles had thought he'd known best, he was now sure he hadn't known at all.
Closing his eyes to the fall day a moment, Charles tried to block out the desperate look in Erik's eyes when the other man had been holding him after the careless deflection of Moria's bullet. He didn't know what to think or feel about that event other than anger at Erik's actions. Charles knew the bullet was an accident, but the coin, that coin hadn't been. Just thinking about it and Charles's head started to hurt, he tried not to think about what had happened inside the submarine and tried not to think about the cold metal touching Shaw's skin and, phantom like, his own.
"Erik, why?" Charles asked the room softly and again wished the other man would materialize for even a moment so Charles could vent some of his feelings. Make Erik understand how much damage he'd done and demand the other Mutant explain himself.
"Darling, Mummy brought you some nice tea, it's right here if you want it." Charles opened his eyes to see his poor mother whom Hank had called. Charles's mother had never been quite right after his father's death in the Blitz during the war. His father's death had driven her further into herself and she'd drown her pain in gin and pills and Charles had not been intending on telling her about his accident until after he was out of the hospital. Her large, concerned eyes showed that she'd been off her usual daily gin and would, in all likelihood, have a melt down before long. Yet she chose to sit there by his bedside, she was trying so hard right now for him. Charles smiled at her as best he could through his own pain. Charles could tell, with and without his Mutant abilities, that his accident had scared her very badly. And even for all her flaws he loved her deeply, it meant a lot to him she was there. Still he would have preferred to not deal with managing her and figuring out his own new life all at the same time.
"Thank you, Mother," Charles said. He was still cross with Hank for calling and bringing her there. Didn't the fool know that anything bad was to be kept from his mother? His step-father Henry had shown up too, for a few days, all the way from who knew where, dropping business and coming to see that Charles was okay. It was lovely to know his family cared about him, but Charles right now missed Raven. His best friend and baby sister, and would have preferred her to be there than either of his parents. He didn't even know where she was. So far, she had not called, not that she knew he was in a Miami hospital. If she did call it would probably be the house, he supposed, and with no one there she'd not be able to get through.
"Do you want Mummy to read to you, like when you were little?" his mother asked, not taking her worried eyes off of him. Charles could tell she was feeling that if she did he might vanish.
"No, Mother, I just want to rest, thank you." Charles gave her another little smile, trying very hard to keep up his spirits in front of her.
"Alright, are you cold, or too warm?" she asked.
"I actually would really love a notebook, I left my diary at home." Charles maneuvered, he knew the request would get rid of her for a bit and he could be alone while he tried to sort out everything that had happened since Cuba.
"I'll go buy you one. I'll be back soon, just stay here and rest." His pretty blonde mother quickly snatched up her handbag and hurried out, she was all nervous and worried. Charles added Hank - maybe unfairly - to the list of people he hated today, his mother was going to go gray through her hair dye before Charles was out of the hospital.
1962 - DETROIT, MICHIGAN
A state of numbness had taken hold of Erik since Cuba, after the immediate aftermath of Cuba, of feeling hunted and needed to find a safe place to hide, or to be on the move at the very least, a numbness had set in. Shaw, Shaw, was dead, gone, Erik had completed his life's goal and it barely felt real. Shaw was gone, no more hunting, searching, putting everything else second as he found this man who had taken his mother, who had made him a monster. What did he do now? Erik did not know.
Raven sat at his side as they went over the lease agreement for an apartment in Detroit. "And you are Mr. and-?" the man across the desk let his words trail off as he eyed them.
"Mrs. Lehnsherr, I'm his wife," Raven cut in offering her hand to the man with a pretty smile. Raven's silly lie did not even cut through Erik's feeling of numbness.
"Wife?" The man gave a skeptical look at Raven's ringless hand. "Where's your ring then?"
"We had to pawn it in order to afford this place," Raven said scathingly. The man still did not look like he quite believed her but he stopped asking about it.
Erik signed the paper and went up to the apartment without feeling anything but the shock of it all. What now? He wanted his Papa to tell him what to do, or his Mama, Erik ached for a loved voice from the past to tell him. But those people were gone, taken, like everything else was, his home, his community, his family, his sense of self, to a certain degree, even his identity as a Jewish person. Shaw had taken everything and left him only a monster, a weapon, that was all. What did a weapon know of its purpose?
Putting his hand out to the door latch, Erik paused, catching sight of a scrape, mostly healed, on the back of his hand. The hand he had used to deflect the bullet into Charles. A sudden deep regret, and anger at himself washed over him, it was the only thing that penetrated the numbness. He had never wanted to hurt Charles, yet his own hand had done just that. He would never see Charles again, never have, see, or speak to the man who understood him so well, again.
"Everything okay?" Raven asked. Erik did not answer her, instead he opened the door. Erik would regret leaving Charles behind for the rest of his life. He had never asked anyone to come with him before. He had never wanted anyone so badly as he wanted Charles to be with him now. But then why would Charles want him? He had shot Charles, did not listen to Charles, had shown Charles that he, Erik, was nothing more than a monster. Charles had seen it, had said it, 'We are nothing alike.' The words hurt still, but they were true. Erik knew it, he was a monster, and no one should want anything to do with him. Erik had not expected peace, or happiness after killing Shaw, but he hadn't expected the nothingness. He had everything he should want, Shaw was dead, Erik had avenged his mother, and himself; he was not alone, he had other Mutants with him now. But all that didn't matter because Charles had been wrong, Erik was alone.
