Hey, you guys! I am very sorry it took so long, almost a month (AHHH!) but I am very thankful for all your lovely reviews, they really got me back to writing when I was in the middle of a bit of a difficult time mentally. Thank you all very much again, and here is the next chapter!
Erik's hand stretched toward the sky, pushing the missiles through the air before they angled themselves at the many military ships that awaited their fate with bated breath. Laurien blinked unseeingly as time seemed to slow to a snail's pace, with the explosives moving inch by inch as Charles' panicked voice rang eerily in her ears.
"Erik, release them!" He yelled, hands curling into tight fists when Erik didn't budge. Laurien shook her head slowly with disgust, clenching her jaw unconsciously as she felt the sensation of intense power emitting from the man, as pungent as the strongest cologne imaginable. She knew full well that he wasn't going to give up this opportunity. Not when he was still riding the high of his revenge.
She took a step forward, each breath more painful than the last as she tried to muster up the courage to do something, anything. What that was, she didn't know, but whatever could possibly get his concentration off of the missiles would do the trick.
Suddenly, a strong arm wrapped tight around her waist and held her back. Fire clawed up her ribcage and invaded her lungs with a subtle popping sound as she cried out in pain. Whoever had grabbed her released her instantly, letting her collapse to the ground in a heap as she dug her nails deep into her arm to cope with the agonizing sensation, creating deep gouges in the sleeves of her jumpsuit.
Her chest heaved mightily as she gasped for air, but found that she could only grasp small wisps of oxygen before it escaped through a bloody hole in her suit, gouged open by a large piece of glass.
"Shit" She managed angrily between shuddering breaths, clamping her hand carefully over the gaping wound before she looked up to see Erik glance back at her at her cry, mixed fear and concern embedded in his steely blue eyes. Finding his opportunity, Charles took advantage of the distraction and charged at him. A sharp cry was ripped from his lips before he caught Erik around the middle and dragged the other man to the ground in a tangle of yellow and blue limbs.
Laurien saw the missiles plummet the moment Charles had tackled Erik, spiraling down towards the ocean surface while others collided with one another and exploded in mid air. She grimaced as she saw the power of the destructive beasts that had been meant for them only a few seconds ago.
Erik grunted loudly when his back hit the sand, drawing her attention back to the fight as Charles took the opportunity to get his hands on the helmet. Realizing what he was doing, Erik tried to roll away from him, but Charles yanked him back sharply, his fingers fumbling over the smooth metal around Erik's head.
"I don't want to hurt you." Erik growled under his breath before slamming his elbow into Charles' jaw. "So don't make me."
Charles fell heavily to the side, clutching his face with a gloved hand as Erik gained the upper hand and straddled the smaller man. She noticed the other mutants make to move towards them in the corner of her eye, but before they could get more than a few feet, Erik extended a hand towards them.
"Stand back!" He commanded, sending the boys flying back towards the ruins of the airplane, notably leaving Raven and Laurien untouched.
Raven dashed over to Laurien the best she could with her noticeable limp and grabbed onto her arm as if her life depended on it. "You all right?" She fretted, staring wide-eyed at the blood-sputtering wound.
Laurien suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to break down laughing at the complete ridiculousness of their situation at that very moment. If someone had told her a few months ago that she'd be wearing a blue and yellow jumpsuit on a beach in Cuba, surrounded by the wreckage of a futuristic airplane and a submarine while the entire American and Soviet navies sat watching in the distance, she would have run away as fast as she possibly could.
But her bitter amusement was quickly replaced with something strangely familiar as she saw Erik's hand stretched out towards the ships where a decent amount of missiles were still airborne while his other was wrapped tightly around Charles' throat. She glanced quickly up at Raven, who stood frozen in place and met her gaze with wide yellow eyes, before putting on a brave face, which was the complete opposite of what she felt so very intensely at that moment. "It's just a punctured lung." She mumbled, getting to her feet with difficulty as she brushed off Raven worrying hands. "It's alright, I've had one before."
Laurien gritted her teeth, pushing down the pain until she felt herself go numb, before she summoned enough reckless abandon to fuel her and she reached her powers towards where Erik was pinning Charles to the ground. As time suddenly sped up, she grasped his suit with her powers and threw her entire might into removing him from Charles. The vicious impact pushed him off of the other man and sent him tumbling towards the shallow lapping waves of the ocean as Laurien fell to the side with a ragged outtake of breath at the physical exertion.
She tried her best to recover quickly, and pushed him back again when he tried to get up, knowing that she had to keep him incapacitated for as long as it took for the last missile to fall below the waves of the ocean. He stumbled back into the water, sputtering when he accidentally swallowed a mouthful of saltwater when his head sank beneath the surface.
When he resurfaced, Laurien's heart seemed to stop, as she saw that Erik's face had suddenly been replaced with Dan's, leering at her knowingly, the way he had through the window as he waited for her to come up the stairs and face him for the last time. She stared at him with terrified blue eyes, chest burning as she had ceased breathing. She finally managed to take a shuddering breath before she clenched her fist, allowing the threatening red wave to engulf her and numb her entire body before she held him beneath the waves with her powers.
Someone cried out behind her as the bombs spun out of control and exploded in the distance, but the sounds of the blasts were all white noise to her as she got to her feet with immense difficulty and slowly walked over to the water. Dan's face burst through the surface of the water, gasping for air and looking around wildly as she neared him. She once again grabbed onto the collar of his jumpsuit with her powers, and pushed him back down below. She could feel him struggling in her grasp, but she didn't care.
Whatever this sensation was, felt something akin to her insides being filled with boiling water, Laurien hadn't felt it for quite some time. Everything hurt, but it felt wonderful, she thought hazily, as she heard an animalistic growl growing in her chest and her blood coursing heatedly through her veins like wildfire, only to slowly seep into the shallow water surrounding her.
Through the anger and betrayal that clouded her eyes, she felt something suddenly pull her out of the fog. She released her hold on him and stared unseeingly at the man below her, her chest heaving mightily from the heat of the sun bearing down on her and exertion of using her powers, which only upset her ribs and lungs further.
Erik's face now stared back at her with unwavering steely blue eyes; a subtle look of surprise and blazing pride burned within them before a wave of guilt radiated off him as he suddenly grabbed her wrist and pulled her forward, brutally digging his fingers into her bloody side.
Laurien screamed as the previously numbed pain slammed back into her in full force. She ripped her wrist out of his grip and backed away from him as fast as she could, tripping over her feet and falling heavily into the water.
The noise tuned out as her head fell beneath the waves, her eyes stinging painfully from the assault of salt water. She burst to the surface, gasping for air as her lungs and side ached from the vicious pressure of Erik fingers into her wound. She barely noticed him getting to his feet and raising his hand to take control of the few remaining missiles, letting them continue on their course to destruction. The pain was indescribable, her eyes screwed up tight as she choked in her effort for her breath, but found only emptiness.
Laurien flinched when she heard the unmistakable metallic bangs of bullets being fired unbearably close to her. She curled in on herself, sinking beneath the surface of the water and shielded her head from the shots before the explosive sounds suddenly died out.
She resurfaced, wondering who had been shooting before she glanced up at Erik, only to find him staring back towards the shore of the beach with a horrified expression etched on his face. She followed his gaze, eyes searching, before they rested on Charles and she raised a hand to cover her mouth. Charles back was arched unnaturally in pain before he collapsed face first onto the ground, hand clutching his back where a spurt of blood emerged from behind his fingers and splattered over the golden sand.
Erik was quickly by his side, rolling him over and seemingly pulling something from his back. "I'm so sorry." He said, cradling Charles' body against him, salt water dripping from his soaked suit and onto the telepath.
"I said back off!" Erik yelled savagely when Alex, Sean, Hank and Raven took a few steps towards them.
"You." He growled at Moira, who, to Laurien's shock, was holding a gun in her hand. "You did this."
Laurien's mind raced as she stared wide-eyed at the gun, wondering whether she had shot Charles accidentally or… Her thoughts faded away when she saw Moira clutching her throat, as her dog tags had tightened around her neck, choking her.
"Please." Charles pleaded with Erik, who was seemingly the cause of Moira's distress. "She didn't do this, Erik. You did."
Erik glanced down at him, angry tears in his eyes as he slowly lowered his hand and released his hold on the CIA agent. Moira collapsed to her knees, gasping and coughing as her necklace loosened.
The two men quietly conversed as Laurien watched breathlessly from the shallow waters of the ocean, waiting for a wave of pain to subside before she got to her feet with difficulty. She groaned in frustration when she felt a sharp twinge in her chest, wishing that she could just rip out her lungs and be done with the pain, because honestly, after all these years, she was sick of it.
She trudged to the shore, stopping short when she saw Erik glance quickly at her before looking back down at Charles and closing his eyes slowly, as if he were surrendering to some inner demon. He beckoned Moira over to him and gently passed Charles over to her before getting to his feet and addressing the rest of them.
"This society won't accept us," He pointed at Charles and Moira. "So we form our own. The humans have played their hand, now we get ready to play ours."
"Who's with me?" He stared them all down individually, before letting his gaze rest on Laurien, making her stomach squirm uncomfortably as she unconsciously touched the wound on her side, letting the pain remind her of what he'd done to her to get what he wanted.
He raised a hand towards her, but she only stared tiredly at it, hearing the subtle rattle of her breathing before she shook her head. His eyes fell as he saw her gesture, blinking quickly and slowly moving his hand to face Raven instead, twisting the knife even further.
"No more hiding." He murmured just loud enough for her to hear.
Raven limped toward him, before diverting her course to bring her to Charles instead. Laurien felt a small swell of hope that she might stay before it was crushed when Raven bid Charles goodbye with a quick kiss on his forehead and took Erik's hand.
Shaw's former brotherhood soon joined them, holding each other's hands in a line, ready to leave, before Raven called over to Hank. "And Beast, never forget." She said, her yellow eyes sparkling in the sunlight. "Mutant and proud."
And then they were gone.
Gah, it's done. Well, at least this part. I'm excited for the next couple of chapters because it means that I get to have a bit more creative license with what happens next and I don't really have to keep any movie events in mind until the storyline reaches DOFP. So anyways, have you all seen Star Wars: The Force Awakens yet? I've seen it twice already! I believe that I have a major crush on everyone in the movie, so I can't quite decide on who's my favorite, but Rey, Finn and Poe are at the top of my list (of course!) Merry late Christmas and even later New Years, by the way! Thanks again!