Hey! Sorry this took so long. A lot has happened over the last month, including exams, so it has been rather difficult to set aside time to write. Here's chapter 31! Enjoy!
The car ride back to the plane was awkward to say the least. After Hank had pulled up with the car at a back entrance of the Pentagon, Logan stuffed Erik unceremoniously into the trunk before shutting the lid forcefully. They all collectively ignored the subtle shakes of the metal surrounding them as they piled in.
"I'll meet you there." Peter said through Hank's slightly open window, almost not giving himself enough time to finish his sentence before zooming away.
Laurien grimaced as she settled herself in the passenger seat, her head still feeling like it was about to split open. She pinched the bridge of her nose, the heavy scent in the car becoming nauseatingly pungent.
"Logan, would you be so kind as to put that out, please?" Charles suddenly asked, from the back, startling Laurien into reflexively kicking the car door and emitting a loud thud for the rest of them to hear.
"Uh, sorry, is the smell bothering you?" Logan murmured awkwardly.
"No, well maybe, it's just that I used to smoke and it's still quite difficult to stay off it nowadays." Charles explained, as Laurien kept her eyes glued on the road, watching the other cars speeding past as Hank turned onto the freeway.
"Ah." Logan nodded in understanding and quickly put out his smoking cigar. "No problem."
"Thank you." Charles said, obviously trying to keep his voice light, but ultimately failing as it cracked noticeably.
She didn't know why, but she felt a swirl of guilt being deeply rooted in her stomach as she tried to avoid looking in the rearview mirror at him. She tried to shake off the sensation, but found that it didn't vanish until she got distracted as they passed a peculiar looking billboard. It was painted bright blue with the white outline of a T, and underneath read two words; Trask Industries.
"Is that the same Trask that Raven…?" She started to ask before trailing off.
"The one and only." Hank stated, looking over at her from his seat behind the wheel. "He's a big corporate business man, specializes in advancing human progress."
Laurien frowned. "What does she want with him?"
"Well, as Hank said, he's interested in advancing human progress, just not mutant progress as well." Charles murmured from the back, his heavy sunglasses hiding his eyes from view. "We've recently found evidence which suggests that it was his men who raided the mansion a few years back.
A jolt of fear sparked through Laurien's stomach, and her grip upon the car door handle tightened, fingernails digging shallowly into the soft leather. She struggled to keep her breathing under control as she saw the result of their actions in the mansion before her eyes once again, something that she'd worked so hard to suppress.
They continued on in silence for another ten minutes before a loud thumping from the back made them all jump.
"What the hell was that?" Logan growled, straining his neck around to see through the window behind them.
"Erik." Charles muttered, and Laurien was shocked by how much hurt seemed to be radiating off of the man as he uttered the metal bender's name.
The loud thumps occurred form the trunk again, though this time almost rhythmically.
"He's wondering where we're going?" Sera piped up abruptly from her spot squished between Charles and Logan in the middle seat, absentmindedly winding her thoroughly worn shoelace through her long spindly fingers.
Charles frowned. "How do you know that?"
"They taught us Morse code where I was stationed during the war."
"And where was that exactly?" Laurien wondered curiously, looking at her new relative in the rearview mirror.
Sera smirked slyly. "Nowhere of your concern."
Laurien scowled in disappointment and continued glaring out the window through her aviators as Sera tapped back a response.
"What did you tell him?" Charles asked.
"That we're going back to the plane." She mumbled in a derisive tone, as if it were the most obvious answer in the world.
The rest of the car ride was silent after that, which didn't do anything to ease the tension in the air surrounding them. Laurien almost breathed a sigh of relief when they drove onto the tarmac and she spotted the unmistakable figure of Peter Maximoff sitting on one of the wings of the plane.
She opened the door the moment that Hank pulled to a stop and wrapped her coat snug around herself, the cold January air hitting her like a sledgehammer after being in the warm and suffocating car for so long.
Logan made his way around to the trunk and popped the lid, before hauling out a rather flushed looking Erik. Logan didn't give him much time to adjust to his new surroundings before gripping his arm tightly and escorting him directly into the plane, Erik's eyes searching for the others as he was dragged. His gaze met Laurien's for an elongated moment, only for it to be broken as Logan gave him a particularly aggressive push that sent him stumbling into the plane.
Laurien turned her attention back to where Sera was tying the shoelace around her wrist before giving Peter a small salute as she then made her own way into the plane as well. Laurien made eye-contact with the silver haired mutant before he sped over to her and nudged her arm with his elbow.
"You expecting any more trouble from Mr. Prison Break?" He asked, puffing out his chest noticeably as he inhaled.
"Maybe." She murmured distractedly, eyeing the plane one last time before turning to the teen. "You've probably noticed that he's got a bit of a reputation for trouble."
"Well, assassinating the President will definitely get you a lot of news coverage." He said, tilting his head to the side curiously. "You've got some history with him, huh?"
She nodded, feeling her cheeks turn bright red, but he thankfully changed the subject.
"What do you guys need him for anyway?" He inquired.
She frowned, but shook of the uneasy feeling that the question had quickly built in her stomach. "Actually, I still have yet to find out myself." Laurien stated truthfully before giving him a small smile. "Thanks for your help, Peter."
"Anytime, gorgeous." He drawled in a mock western accent as he gave her a quick wink before speeding off toward Charles and Hank.
She entered the plane and passed Sera and Logan as she made to sit down in the seat next to the opening of the cockpit, only to pause when she noticed that Erik was nowhere to be seen. She glanced back at the bathroom, her heart jumping when she saw that a small ray of light was visible beneath the closed door.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Sera suddenly murmured aloud, almost startling Laurien as she intruded on her thoughts.
She shot a look over at her, as the redhead reclined lazily in her chair, cracking her knuckles loudly. "What?" Laurien asked, frowning in confusion.
"Don't play coy, it doesn't look good on you." Sera stated rapidly, clenching her jaw as one of her fingers bent at a painful looking angle. "You want to go talk to him, don't you?"
Laurien blinked, disappointment tugging at her chest at how off-putting she found Sera to be. The woman she had seen in the vision had filled her with warmth and comfort, a sensation far removed from what she currently felt. "Well, sure, why not?"
Sera shook her head. "Stay away from men like that. In the end, you either end up broken hearted or with a bullet in your head, there's no other way around it."
Jesus Christ. "How would you know?"
"I've been around a long time, long enough to see a few people with lead permanently embedded in their skulls, and it isn't something you forget easily."
Laurien grimaced, eyes flitting towards the plane door, wanting to somehow escape this conversation. "Why are you telling me this?"
Sera cocked her head to the side, her tone mocking. "Because I care, is that so hard to comprehend?"
"A bit." Laurien huffed a small bitter laugh. "Where was that sweet caring sentiment fifteen years ago, huh?"
For the first time since they'd met, Sera looked the least bit surprised, but she didn't say anything.
"Well?" Laurien prodded.
The redhead ceased bending her fingers and settled them in her lap before meeting Laurien's gaze. "I was busy." She claimed simply.
Laurien felt as if someone had just slapped her hard in the face. Her hands slowly curled into fists at her sides. "How about you come back later when you have a proper excuse."
Sera's mismatched eyes flashed fiercely and she leaned forward in her seat, as if she were prepared to pounce at any moment. "Look, I'm here now."
"Not good enough." Laurien muttered, ignoring Sera's glare as she got to her feet and headed toward the washroom.
"I was the one they called after Dan's accident." Sera said abruptly.
Laurien stopped dead in her tracks and spun around to face the other woman, her blood running cold at the mention of his name. "The accident? Is that what you call what he did?"
"I remember seeing you in the hospital, your entire torso covered in bandages, from your waist to your shoulders. You had quite the shiner as well." She stated, brushing her finger against her own cheekbone. "You were in a mighty awful state."
"Why didn't I see you?" Laurien asked quietly, her voice barely coming out above a whisper as her breaths escaped in small faint bursts.
"Well, I didn't really stay for all that long." Sera explained. "I had to go find Danny Boy."
"Sera, leave her alone." Logan's ruff voice chastised from his seat.
The two women ignored him. "Why didn't you stay?" Laurien asked, suddenly feeling lightheaded.
"I told you, I had to find Dan, I'd known the kid ever since he was born and you'd just buried a knife in his eye. Honestly, I was this close to finishing you myself."
"Then why didn't you? You could have saved me a lot of fucking time."
"You don't mean that." Logan urged, causing Laurien to turn on him.
"What the fuck do you know? I've only known you for what, not even two days and you think you know how I feel?" She unloaded on him, a crimson tinge staining her vision. "You fucking dragged us all back into this mess and–"
"Hey, you don't get to rip on Logan." Sera barked, his mismatched eyes flashing. "And I had good reason to go after Dan instead of you."
"Oh, and what would that be?"
"Well, I'd never even met you, why the fuck would I stick around?" She said coldly.
Laurien swore under her breath, advancing dangerously toward the redhead, only to be stopped abruptly by Charles' hand wrapping tightly around her upper arm. She hadn't noticed him enter the airplane with Hank, who stood nervously behind him before scrambling past them and disappearing into the cockpit.
"Sera, stop it." Charles ordered, raising a hand towards her in warning.
"What do you mean stop it?" Sera demanded, her lips curling into a snarl. "I'm just telling her what she needs to know. Which begs the question, since you knew all along, why didn't you tell her?"
A pang erupted through Laurien's stomach as she faced the man. "Charles?"
The other woman laughed. "You can't have thought that him happening upon you in New York was an accident, did you?"
"He used Cerebro, that's no secret." Laurien said, shaking her head.
"No, that's what he might have told you, but in reality, he learned about you from me." She stated, a deranged smile creeping on her face. "My only living kin. With your powers, or 'mutation', as he calls it, he couldn't resist." She then turned to Charles. "You really couldn't help yourself around a good mutation, could you?"
"Sera, please stop." Charles pleaded, his voice panicked and tense.
"He's such a flirt, really. Has he used that mutation line on you yet?"
"Sera, stop this now!" He roared.
"Why don't you make me, Charles?" Sera shouted back at him, before continuing, her voice frighteningly low and quiet, demanding for Laurien's ears to strain to hear her. "That's what you're good at, isn't it? Getting your way every fucking time. Oh, wait… Well, at least it's an even playing field for once."
The faint clicking of the bathroom door opening to reveal a normally clothed Erik then interrupted their argument. He was wearing a simple blue collared shirt and dark maroon pants, a strange combination, but Laurien had to admit that it looked good on him. "Am I interrupting something?" He wondered aloud innocently.
Sera's mouth twisted into a scowl as she gave them all one last look before shoving past them and closing the bathroom door with a bang.
They all returned to their seats, anger still simmering in Laurien's stomach as she kept her gaze locked upon where her hands rested in her lap.
"She didn't used to be that way." Logan said, shaking his head as he took a sip from his glass.
Laurien swallowed with immense difficulty before finding her voice. "What happened?"
"I'm not sure. I lost contact with her after the war." He murmured, his eyes flitting over to where Charles was holding his head in his hands, his straggly hair hiding his face from her view. His emotions would have been enough to knock Laurien off her feet if she wasn't already seated.
After they'd taken off, it was an hour before Erik asked from where they'd dragged Logan and Sera, the woman having since returned from the bathroom with a slightly glazed look in her eyes. Logan explained, but Laurien found herself tuning out his voice and playing a song inside her head. It was a tune that she'd often overheard her mother singing when she'd be rocking the twins back to sleep, but it had been such a long time ago since Laurien had last heard it, that in her head, the Dutch lyrics kept melding together with the English of Frankie Valli's Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You.
The song continued on for a while longer before Erik's voice brought her out of her trance. "I believe a congratulations is in order." Erik stated, gesturing toward Charles' hand, causing Laurien's stomach to plummet as she realized that he was pointing at the ring on his finger. "Who's the lucky person?"
Laurien tried to busy herself with looking through the window, and even though Charles didn't say a word, she knew that his eyes must have flitted over to her as Erik's potent emotions suddenly drilled a painful hole in her chest.
There was a long uncomfortable moment of silence before he finally spoke again. "How long were you two together?" He asked calmly. He must have noticed the lack of a ring upon her fingers.
To her own surprise, she found herself responding, the words spilling out past her lips without further thought. "Long enough for me to get pregnant twice." She stated blandly before letting out a small breath as she realized her mistake the moment it came out of her mouth, and apparently Charles did as well.
"Twice? What do you mean twice? There was only the one in '68, not…" He stated before trailing off, his mouth settling into a frown. "Have you been keeping things from me?"
Laurien finally looked him in the eye, her gaze heated and a deep crimson. "Oh, like you haven't had your own fair share of secrets over the years, Charles?" She accused, crossing her arms over her chest. "At least I kept mine for decent reasons."
"How were mine not the least bit decent?"
"Don't give me that bullshit, you couldn't stand being the only one without powers so you had to drag me along with you."
"What do you mean?" Erik asked; his eyebrows furrowed as he looked between the two of them, but his expression cleared, as he understood. "You didn't do anything to stop the men in the kitchen. How did you lose them?"
"The treatment for my spine affects my DNA."
Erik frowned. "You sacrificed your powers so you could walk?"
"I sacrificed my powers so I could slee–" Charles said, though he trailed off on the last word, squeezing his eyes shut as if uttering it caused him immense pain. A wave of guilt sparked within Laurien's stomach as she tried but didn't succeed in taking her eyes off of him. Charles' emotions were seeping through her skin, conflicting with her own and causing her head to throb painfully. The hurt in his blue eyes stabbed like a knife, but it still wasn't enough to overthrow the deep-set anger that was slowly rising to the surface within her. "What do you know about it?" Charles finally demanded.
"I've lost my fair share."
Charles shook his head. "Dry your eyes, Erik. It doesn't justify what you've done."
Erik's top lip lifted in a hint of a snarl. "You have no idea what I've done."
"I know you took the things that meant the most to me."
"Well, maybe you should have fought harder for them." Erik suggested firmly, before his eyes flitted toward Laurien. "And besides, haven't you taken something from me?" He said, his jaw clenching. "Someone?"
Erik then fully shifted his gaze to Laurien. "He injected you with that vile stuff, didn't he?" He asked, but she didn't respond, only staring back at him with tired eyes. Her silence inevitably gave him his answer and he looked back at Charles. "Did she even know about it?"
Charles hesitated. "No, but…"
"But what, Charles?" Erik exploded, his usually strong voice wavering ever so slightly. "What is your fucking excuse? You took away her natural defense system without her consent."
"I was trying to protect her." Charles retorted.
"Protect me?" Laurien repeated slowly, her fingers absentmindedly gripping the sleeve of her suede jacket. "You ended up doing the complete opposite. By doing that you prevented me from being able to protect our…" She trailed off, taking a deep breath in an effort to stifle the bubbling shame that twisted her insides.
"Our what?" Charles demanded. "Laurien, what do you mean by 'our'? You can't be saying that…" His expression suddenly changed to one of realization as his red-rimmed eyes widened in horror. "Oh my God."
Laurien found that she couldn't hold his gaze any longer and lowered her eyes, her vision of the surrounding items losing their distinct color as a dull grey infected them.
Erik's low voice cut through the tension between them like a razor. "You couldn't even protect those close to you, it's no wonder you lost Mystique as well."
"Erik." Laurien growled in warning, her head snapping up to face him.
"If you're looking for a fight, Erik, I will give you a fight." Charles snarled, suddenly rising from his seat and advancing toward Erik.
"Sit down." Logan demanded loudly, but neither Charles nor Erik made any effort to move.
"Let him come." Erik stated, his voice low and calm as Charles charged at him.
Charles grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him violently. "You abandoned me!" He screamed. "You took her away, and you abandoned me!"
"Angel. Azazel. Emma. Banshee." Erik recited, seemingly unfazed by the other man's reaction, though his own voice grew louder and more forceful as he continued. "Mutant brothers and sisters, all dead! Countless others experimented on, butchered!"
Suddenly, the plane started to pitch forward drastically. Multiple ear piercing alarms erupted from the cockpit as Hank struggled to control the plane. Laurien gripped the armrests of her chair as she found herself being pinned against the backrest of her seat from the force of the dive. "Erik!" She cried out, but he disregarded her completely.
"Where were you, Charles?" He yelled, staying completely upright despite the tilting plane as Charles stumbled backward into the nearby couch. "We were supposed to protect them! Where were you when your own people needed you? Hiding! You and Hank! Pretending to be something you're not!"
Charles started to lose his grip on the couch and Laurien immediately reached out and grabbed him with her powers before he could fall.
"You abandoned us all!" Erik snarled, and a few moments later, the plane gently leveled out and returned to its normal droning.
Laurien let out a small breath of relief, but when she turned to look over at Charles, who was staring at her with wide pained eyes, her chest constricted and she slowly released him.
The moment his feet were back solidly on the ground, Charles gave Erik one final look before disappearing into the cockpit with Hank. Erik watched him go, his tightly curled fists slowly relaxing as he blinked and finally looked away.
"So you were always an asshole." Logan said, placing his ashtray back on the table in front of him and taking a new cigar out from his pocket.
Erik scowled and turned to face him. "I take it we're best buddies in the future."
Logan cocked his head to the side, shaking it slightly as he flicked his lighter. "I spent a lot of years trying to bring you down, bub."
"How does that work out for you?"
The other man smirked as he took a deep drag from the cigar between his lips. "You're like me. You're a survivor."
"No, they're survivors. You and I just cheated." Sera stated; her voice laced with all varieties of poisonous context as she traced the lines of her veins with her fingers.
"Whatever, doll." Logan replied, taking another puff from his cigar. "Do you wanna pick that shit up?" He asked, gesturing toward Erik and the mess that lay strewn across the floor.
"He will." Laurien declared in a dangerously steady tone as she rose from her seat. "We just need to talk in private first."
Saw X-Men: Apocalypse, the only superhero that has made me cry. Erik's scene in the forest... Wow. Seeing the movie was also another reason why this chapter took so long, considering that I couldn't decide which direction I wanted it to go for future installments, but I think I have it settled now.
Thanks for being so patient with me, hope you enjoyed, and please review.