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The rush of euphoria at feeling Erik lift the submarine out of the water quickly turned into fear as the whirlwind struck the airplane. Charles was knocked abruptly out of Erik’s mind at the same time as he hit the wall. Pain shot through him, centred on the base of his spine, then there was more as he was thrown onto the floor and a heavy weight landed on his back.
Erik, he realised, grabbing hold of the man’s wrist. Erik had turned himself into a magnet in order to keep them both from flying around inside the spinning aircraft. More pain flared in his back every time Erik’s weight pressed against him but Charles ignored it; it was most likely just a strain.
He didn’t notice the thick jagged piece of metal sticking out of the wall nearby, or the blood on it.
When the plane finally stopped rolling a few long seconds later, Charles was relieved. He could feel the others’ fear permeating his brain and it made it difficult to keep his mental shields up. That was one of the downsides of his gift - when people shouted in their minds, it was harder to block them out.
As Erik drifted both of them slowly down to what had been the ceiling, Charles put his shields back to normal but remained linked to Erik; a surface link only at the moment, to help ground himself. As recent lovers, Charles had been connected to Erik much more deeply before, but they couldn’t afford that kind of link at the moment.
Charles managed to roll himself off Erik but no further. Pain ripped through his spine and for a brief moment, down his legs, before settling as a sharp ache at the base of his spine.
Strong hands gripped his shoulders and then a face came into view. “Charles?”
“Argh!” Charles gritted his teeth again the pain and forced himself to think clearly. “I’m fine, just… sprained a muscle or something. Is everyone alright?”
“They’re fine,” Erik replied, looking closely at his friend. His lover, more precisely, for all of one week. It had taken a while to convince Charles that their attraction towards each other wasn’t wrong, although the other man was still hesitant about it. He could feel pain coming through the link with Charles and it worried him. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yes,” Charles lied. He needed to be alright for his team and therefore he would be. It was just a sprained muscle, that was all. As the other members of the team gathered around (Alex had got out of his seatbelt and then helped the others), Moira told them about the radiation levels and Charles knew what that meant. “Erik, you need to get into the sub, disable the nuclear reactor, and then take Shaw out. Hank, Alex, help him get there. Raven, you stay here and guard the door.”
“But-” Raven started to protest but one pained look from Charles silenced her. As the fear receded, she realised that Charles was injured - possibly more than he was letting on - and he was asking her to protect him. She nodded once, letting him know that she appreciated the trust he was placing in her. She wouldn’t let him down.
Charles nodded back, pleased that he would be able to keep Raven out of the fight to come… at least, until Shaw’s people decided to attack them here in the plane. Charles shifted slightly, ignoring the pain, and turned his head towards Erik as the latter spoke to him inside his head.
‘I know you don’t want me to kill Shaw…’
‘I know Shaw has to be stopped,’ Charles replied. ‘I don’t agree with killing him but I will help you anyway.’
‘Thank you,’ Erik projected back with a measure of gratitude. It meant a lot to him that Charles would do such a thing when the other man was adamantly against killing anyone. Erik slid his hand down Charles’ arm and then squeezed his hand. “I’ll be back soon.”
“You’d better,” Charles replied with a pained grin. He watched Erik leave with the two teenage boys, Raven following them, and then let the grin fall from his face. He had come to the realisation the previous night that he loved Erik - not in the way one loved a brother or a friend, but more. And with that realisation had come the knowledge that he would do whatever it took to help Erik with his revenge, even if it meant helping to kill someone. Whatever it took to get Erik to move past that stage of his life and look towards one that they could share together.
Charles had hidden the anger and pain that had come with those thoughts so that he could function today. He hated that his love for Erik was going to make him compromise his morals but he had to put that aside or it would eat him up inside. Once this was all over, he could help Erik be the man that Charles knew he could be, to be a good man, not just one who killed in the name of vengeance. He had seen into some of the dark corners of Erik’s mind but he had also seen the beautiful bright spots. Hopefully, together they could create more of the latter.
He shifted slightly and bit his lip in pain. ‘Stop it!’ he berated himself, ‘concentrate on the mission, just concentrate.’
Brushing his fingertips to his temple, Charles entered Erik’s mind fully and looked through his eyes. Everything else faded out: the pain in his back, the murmur of his teams’ voices outside. The only thing that mattered was guiding Erik safely through this so they could avert a war.
As Erik passed through the submarine, Charles stretched out his senses and guided him into shutting down the nuclear reactor. He could feel a void in the centre of the submarine and so he told Erik to go there.
“There’s nothing here!” Erik exclaimed angrily when he reached a bright white room. He spun around in a circle, small items made of metal rattling under the force of his anger.
‘He has to be,’ Charles replied. ‘This is where I can’t sense him. Just calm your mind and look for a hidden door or something.’
Erik opened his mouth to say more when, as Charles had predicted, a hidden door opened, and he turned to see Sebastian Shaw standing in the middle of a mirrored room. Anger boiled up inside him from the bottom of his soul, and he advanced on Shaw, ignoring Charles’ protests in his head.
Charles banged his right fist against the floor as Erik suddenly disappeared from his mind. “No! Erik, don’t go in there!” he shouted even though he knew that his lover couldn’t hear him.
“What’s going on?” CIA agent Moira McTaggart asked. She had been quiet up until now, monitoring broadcasts on the comm unit, but curiosity had got the better of her at Charles’ outburst.
“He’s gone into the void where Shaw is! I can’t help him!” Charles replied angrily. How dare Erik do this to him! Charles pushed himself into a sitting position only to have the pain in his back flare again. And then, through that pain, he realised something.
He couldn’t move or feel his legs.
Panic burst inside him and Charles struggled against it, his breathing ragged as he tried to bring himself until control again. No, this couldn’t be happening, it couldn’t be real!
“Charles?” Moira noticed the panic and moved closer.
“Wait!” Charles managed to get out as he carefully reached behind his back to see if there was any injury. When he drew his left hand back, he saw blood on the glove. Something had pierced his back, possibly even his spine.
Charles glanced around the interior of the plane, searching for the culprit, and found it almost directly opposite him. There, coated in his blood, was the piece of metal that had caused his injury. I must have fallen on it when that whirlwind hit the plane, he realised in dismay.
“Charles?” Moira persisted. His expression, and the blood she could see, worried her. She reached out a hand to help him and was startled when Charles knocked it away.
“Don’t touch me,” Charles warned, his head reeling from the possibility that he might be paralysed. He lifted his head to look at Moira, and swallowed hard. “I can’t feel my legs,” he admitted shakily. “I can’t feel my legs.”
“Oh god,” Moira muttered, temporarily at a loss of what to do next. “Are you sure?”
A huff of humourless laughter escaped Charles. “Considering they’re attached to me, pretty sure.” He took several deep breaths, pushing back the hysteria he felt rising inside him. A battle was raging outside, mutant against mutant, and Charles needed to be ready to assist any of them with his mind. He could fall apart later but right now, his team needed him.
Charles stretched his awareness outside. His team were all engaged in battles and Erik…
Sharp awareness of Erik slid back into his mind. Hope replaced panic as Charles focused his thoughts. ‘Whatever you’re doing, Erik, keep doing it!’ Charles felt a touch in his mind, Erik’s acknowledgement, and he strained to see what was going on.
The cracks in the void opened wider, allowing Charles to hear what Shaw was saying to Erik. How proud he was of his creation, of how he expected Erik to join his mission to destroy the world. Charles could feel part of Erik’s soul resonating with those words and he projected his own thoughts towards his lover in counterpoint. ‘Don’t listen to him, Erik! You are a good man, you are not what he wants you to be! There is good in you, Erik!’
‘How can you be sure?’ Erik replied, uncertain and bitter. Shaw had shaped him to be a weapon and that was all he had been for nearly twenty years.
Charles mentally took a deep breath and stated, ‘Because I wouldn’t have fallen in love with you if there wasn’t.’
Inside the submarine, pressed against the wall by a metal frame, Erik froze. Charles loved him? Yes, they were lovers and yes, Erik loved him, but he had never expected to hear those words from Charles. ‘You love me?’
‘Yes, I do. Now let’s finish this. Together.’
Erik’s eyes hardened. He reached out to a metal hose nearby and used it to grab Shaw’s helmet. “Now, Charles!”
Back in the airplane, Charles used all his mental strength to freeze Shaw in place. He could feel Erik’s intent and braced himself for the pain. ‘Just make this quick,’ he said to Erik. ‘I don’t know how long I can hold him.’ Or whether he would be able to maintain his hold while in more pain that just his own.
Some of that thought leaked through to Erik. ‘Charles?’
‘Just get on with it, Erik. Please,’ Charles pleaded, biting his lip to distract from the pain elsewhere.
‘Allow me to take some of the pain,’ Erik requested. He knew - Charles had told him - that being in a dying mind was painful enough, let alone feeling the pain of someone sending an object through it. He didn’t want Charles to suffer this alone. Erik was the one doing this; he should know how it felt as well.
Charles opened the link wider. There was a few moments of silence as he saw the coin roll towards Shaw’s head, and then there was only pain. Charles screamed, and he could hear the faint echo of Erik doing the same, and then all of a sudden Shaw’s mind wasn’t there any more.
Gasping, Charles lessened the link and made his body relax; his muscles had tensed up to cope with the agony he had been in. “He did it,” Charles informed Moira when he had enough breath. “Shaw is dead."
Moira sagged back, relief at that part of the mission being a success. “I’ll let my superiors know. Are you alright?"
Charles nodded and then focused his thoughts on Erik again. ‘Let’s get our team and go home.’
Erik caught a hint of lingering pain underlying the words. ‘Charles, what’s wrong?’ He received a flash of an image, a glove streaked with blood, and he was running out the room as fast as he could. “Charles!"
Charles winced at the panic he felt in Erik’s mind; he hadn’t meant to send that image. But there was nothing he could do about that now, just wait until Erik came to him.
Erik burst into the damaged plane less than a minute later and straight away went to Charles’ side. “Where are you hurt?” he asked as he knelt down. He noted the traces of blood on Charles’ temple but saw no signs of an injury.
“My back,” Charles replied, grasping onto Erik’s hand, pleased that the man he loved was there. “I injured it in the crash. I can’t… I can’t feel my legs.” His voice broke on the last word.
“No,” Erik breathed, horrified at the thought. He shifted to sit behind Charles and carefully enfolded him in his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“We needed to complete the mission,” Charles replied, his eyes filling with tears. He angrily wiped them away; he was not going to cry over this. “You need to check on the kids, make sure they’re okay."
Erik leaned in and kissed the side of Charles’ head, even though Moira was watching them. He knew about the attitude of many humans towards two men being together but he wasn’t going to indulge her possibly prejudiced feelings while Charles was hurting. “I love you even when you put your own needs last,” he murmured into his lover’s ear. Then he froze as his metal sense detected a horrible turn of events.
“What is it?” Charles immediately wanted to know.
“The ships… they’re all aiming their missiles this way.” Towards them. Erik’s protective instincts rose; he wouldn’t let the humans kill any of them, especially not Charles.
Dread settled in Charles’ stomach and he stretched out his senses. Touching the minds of the various captains, he found that both sides had been given order to ‘kill the mutants’.
“I warned you, Charles,” Erik growled, his anger rising again. “I told you that they wouldn’t care, that they would be afraid of us!”
Charles hated admitting that he had been wrong and so he didn’t. “I can’t stop hoping, Erik.”
“No.” Erik knew that Charles wouldn’t be the man he was without it. “But I can.” He carefully lay Charles down and then headed towards the exit.
“Erik.”
The urgency in Charles’ voice made him stop.
“Those men out there don’t deserve to die,” Charles stated, not caring that he sounded like he was pleading. “Please, whatever you do, don’t kill them!”
Erik glanced over his shoulder. Charles looked so pale lying there, so much in pain and yet so beautiful at the same time, that Erik just wanted to go back and kiss him, and die in his arms as the missiles hit the beach. But he wouldn’t because this time, he was going to save the ones he loved. “We’ll see,” was all he said before disappearing outside.
Moira, who had been pretending not to watch them too much, raced over to the comm unit and frantically tried to call whoever was in charge. Charles listened to her efforts for a few moments, then said, “They’re not going to listen. Go outside. I need you to be my eyes.” He could have used one of his students but he didn’t want to invade their minds for this. As for Erik, well, he didn’t want to be accused of influencing any decisions.
Without questioning why he wasn’t using Erik for such a thing, Moira nodded and then scrambled outside. Charles entered her mind and looked at the scene. Alex, Hank, Sean and Raven all stood together, battered but not badly injured that he could see. Shaw’s henchmen stood further down the beach, and Erik was between the two groups.
And they were all looking at the dozens of missiles heading towards the beach.
Erik stretched one hand towards the missiles. He felt every single one of them as they slowed down and then stopped, still pointing at the beach. He breathed deeply for a few moments, at war with himself as to what to do next. Part of him, the part that had been shaped as a weapon, wanted to send the missiles back to the ships and destroy them. The other part, the part that sounded suspiciously like Charles even though Erik couldn’t feel him in his head, wanted the missiles destroyed without harm to anyone. He should listen to Charles but the cynical part of his nature reminded him that the humans wouldn’t give them the same consideration.
But… maybe there was an in-between, a way to send a message to the humans without killing them.
Erik turned the missiles around and sent them back towards the assembled ships. He could hear Charles calling his name, obviously thinking the worst. ‘Trust me,’ he sent to his lover. He felt rather than heard the reply, something that wasn’t quite convinced but wanted to be. That was okay; he knew that Charles would understand why he was doing what he was.
Inside the airplane, Charles could only look through Moira’s eyes as the missiles approached the fleet. He felt Moira lift her gun, ready to shoot Erik in order to make him stop, and he forced her to lower it. Charles wanted to trust Erik but he knew what the other man was like. On the other hand, he needed to trust Erik if there was to be any relationship between them. So Charles held his breath and watched, hoping that Erik wasn’t going to commit mass murder.
Just before the missiles reached the ships, they all exploded in mid-air. The men on the ships breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Charles. Erik didn’t kill them; he had simply shown the men that although they had great power, there was no need to be afraid of mutants, that not all mutants were like Shaw, willing to indiscriminately kill humans.
Erik felt a wave of relief and pride emanate from Charles, adding to his own satisfaction. Lesson delivered, he thought smugly before turning to Shaw’s people. “Shaw is dead. You’re welcome to join us or leave, I don’t care which, so long as you help us get off this beach.” The teleporter would come in very handy to get Charles to a hospital. Erik watched them glance at each other before the red man nodded. “Good. Charles is injured, he needs a doctor urgently.”
“Charles?” Raven was up and running before Erik finished speaking.
By the time Erik caught up, Raven was kneeling next to Charles, tears threatening to spill from her yellow eyes. “I’ll be fine,” Charles was saying, obviously trying to protect his sister from the truth. Blue eyes looked up at Erik. “Thank you.”
Erik inclined his head, then took his place next to Raven. “Shaw’s teleporter will take us to a hospital. I don’t know what they’ll do from there.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Charles stated, trying to grin but not succeeding. Raven’s worry was bleeding through his flimsy shields and he was finding it tiring. He flicked his eyes up to where Shaw’s people were entering the plane, closely followed by the X-men and Moira, then he looked back at Erik. No matter what happened next, at least he still had his sister, the man he loved, and the young men he had grown to care for. If he had lost any of them, things would have been much worse.
Charles looked at Raven, then at Erik, the two people in the world whom he loved the most. Yes, things could have been much worse.