Chapter Text
The News
Charles Xavier yawned loudly, as he stretched his arms over his head and smiled towards Erik, who pushed open the bedroom door and carried in the tray full of hopefully delicious breakfast he had just made. Honestly, retiring to Genosha had come with a surprising amount of perks, but having Erik regularly make him breakfast in bed MIGHT be his favorite.
The man had always known how to make good pancakes.
“I found some of the jam the kids made at school last month.”, Erik grinned and put the tray on its legs and in the middle of the bed, before slipping under the covers himself.
Pity, Charles thought briefly, because watching Erik walk around bare-chested might be his second favorite perk. Why that man managed to look like THAT while in his 60s was possibly mutantkind’s greatest mystery.
“Is it from the school’s strawberry garden?”, Charles asked quickly, when Erik looked at him expectantly. Yes, yes, he had gotten lost in thoughts again. But honestly, who wouldn’t?
“It is, yes.”
The first couple of times they had spent basically the whole day in bed, Charles had felt a little guilty. That’s not what you were supposed to do, after all. You got up early, so you had more time to do stuff. That’s how life was supposed to be.
But now? He just didn’t care. He didn’t have many responsibilities left, other than possibly helping out at the little school or helping Erik water his precious tomato plants. After all, he was retired now. Occasionally, they might take his old private plane on a trip or go to a conference, but… because he WANTED to, not because he HAD to. And that made all the difference.
They were happily eating their delicious, incredibly late breakfast, and at first Charles didn’t notice their visitor approaching. Genosha was so full of people and no one was ever far away. But there was a brain hurrying towards them, their anxiety so loud, it was hard to ignore.
“Something is wrong.”, he told Erik, “We have a visitor.”
Erik immediately got up and hurried outside, leaving Charles to transfer himself to his chair and throw on a shirt.
Corey. The visitor was Corey, who mostly handled Genosha’s outside trade, mail and everything that needed to be checked.
Charles made it to their living area the moment Corey knocked, and a now dressed Erik threw open the door.
“What’s wrong?”, he asked, and Charles saw the answer in Corey’s mind before he could even say it.
“Holy shit!”
Erik turned around to stare at him, but Charles was too shocked to function. No way. No WAY!
“The paper.”, Corey stuttered and pressed something in Erik’s hands, before bolting. Not that Charles could blame him.
Corey had tried really hard not to think anything Charles could really work with, the only thing he had gotten was “Dear God, Erik has a son. Erik has a son. Erik has a son, oh, dear God.” Honestly, that was enough for Charles. He’d get the rest from Erik.
“What does it say?”, he asked carefully, while Erik was still staring more at him than the paper.
“Charles, what did you…”
“Just read the bloody thing, man!”, Charles interrupted him.
“It’s a report on a rogue government agency they recently busted. And about how they were apparently running experiments and… why is there a picture of me, I haven’t…”
Erik froze. His eyes went wide, his face lost all color.
“Erik?”
“It… it says… it says the files contain a lot of new information. Like the infamous Magneto being the father of one of the X-Men.”
That… was not what Charles had expected.
“What? Who?”
“Peter. They are talking about Peter.”
“Peter?! But… oh dear.”
Erik’s mind was one big ball of fear, hope, terror, anger, grief… everything all at once. Charles did his best to shield himself against the onslaught, but Erik… Erik was in turmoil. And Charles was… Charles didn’t know what he was. Drama first. Deal with the emergency. Get everything settled. Then take time to process.
“It might not be true, Erik.”, he tried to caution, as Erik finally threw the paper on the coffee table and started pacing.
“Oh, it’s true, alright.”
Charles hadn’t expected that answer. At all.
“Did… did you KNOW?”, he couldn’t hide the note of betrayal in his voice. Erik wouldn’t have kept this from him, would he?
“Of course not!”, Erik snapped angrily, “The first time I met Peter, he said his mother knew a guy that could control metal and then… later… in Cairo, he told me he had come for his family. He started saying something else, I’m your … I just never… I never… I didn’t think it was THIS!”
“Okay, Erik, we’ll take the plane, okay? We’ll fly to Westchester and…”
“No, we won’t.”
“We won’t?”, Erik didn’t want to march into the mansion and see his son?
“Cairo was 13 years ago. I’ve been here. If he’d have wanted me to know about our connection, I’m sure he would have told me himself. I’m not going to force my company on someone, when it isn’t wanted.”
“I’m sure that’s not… Erik, you don’t know if that’s even what happened.”
“That’s exactly what happened. I’m going for a run.”
The front-door opened and Erik stormed off, leaving behind a helpless and bewildered Charles. He reached for the article and read it for himself. There wasn’t much more there than Erik had said. Other than that, they had gotten the files from an inside source. And that there was potentially more coming. Lovely.
Charles reached for their phone and dialed his old office. It was still early in Westchester, but he really hoped Hank might be up.
“McCoy.”
“Hello, Hank, it’s me.”
“Charles! I was expecting you halfway here by now.”
“Yes, well… how is Peter doing?”
“Not good.”
“Erik thinks Peter already knew.”
There was a heavy silence on the other end.
“Hank?”
“He didn’t say anything to me, but I’ve been thinking about that since I read the article.”
“And?”
“I think he might be right. Do you remember how… how Raven always had a soft spot for Peter? How she’d sometimes make weird comments? I always just thought it was because she liked him or because of him and Kurt. I never… Now that I think about it… I’m not so sure, Charles.”
Hank was right. Raven had always had a soft spot for Peter. She’d always been close to him. He had thought, it was just a mentor thing…
“If Raven knew he was Erik’s son… after everything Erik went through, she’d have protected him with everything she had.”, Hank continued quietly, “I think we can agree on that.”
“Yes. Yes, we can. But… surely she would have told someone. You, at the very least!”
“Raven was good with keeping secrets. Especially other people’s secrets. Just so you know: I went down to the lab and checked. I have Peter’s and Erik’s DNA. It’s definitely true. No question about it.”
Charles closed his eyes, rubbing his aching forehead. This headache would be a doozy.
“Anything else I need to know?”
“You know about Wanda?”
“Yes. I’ve used Cerebro to try and find her. No luck. She wasn’t in the article, so I’m looking forward to telling Erik about his OTHER secret child.”
“I’ve made a few calls. It looks like they had access to Wanda. The splinter group, I mean.”
Charles felt sudden tears in his eyes, “They experimented on Wanda?”
“Not just her.”
“Hank, I swear… I can’t take much more of this.”
“They linked three sets of DNA to Erik’s. Peter, Wanda, and another woman. Her name is just listed as LD. She seems to have Erik’s powers. It looks like they were both moved from the facility two weeks before it was discovered. I told Peter an hour ago, he left immediately. I was planning on calling you for help, I just… Charles, if this is true, then Erik has two daughters that are currently being held captive. I wasn’t sure what exactly I was about to unleash on the world.”
No. Charles wasn’t sure what this would do to Erik, either. But he damn well knew what it did to him.
“I’m on my way. Get me in a room with someone I can question.”
He’d crush them. He’d bury them all so deep into their own damn minds, they’d never recover. Screw this. Screw them.
“Best fly directly to Washington. I bring the team. We have your info, we’ll be in contact.”, and just like that Hank hung up.
Which left Charles with a task he really didn’t know how to accomplish.
Instinctively, he reached for Becca, the young pilot that often helped them out.
“Becca, I need your help. Can you ready the plane?”, he spoke directly into her mind. Worry, fear… but no surprise.
The news had spread already.
“On it.”, she replied, and Charles left her mind, instead searching for Erik’s.
Apparently Erik was running the coastline and REALLY needed to find his equilibrium, but Charles didn't exactly have much choice.
“Erik, I am so, so sorry. But I need you back at the house. Right now. I found out more.”
He half expected Erik to argue, but all he got was a sense of horror and the knowledge that Erik was turning around.
He contemplated telling Erik about Wanda and LD once they made it into the air, because honestly, this probably wasn't going to be pretty. At least on the plane, it would only be them and Becca in trouble, not the whole of Genosha. Then again, he doubted Erik would let it go that long, now that Charles had told him new information.
So instead, Charles got properly dressed and returned to find an eerily quiet Erik sitting on their couch, still in his pajama bottoms and a shirt.
“I told Becca to prepare the plane.”
“I know, I can feel it moving.”
Oh, of course.
“You better get dressed for this, Dear.”
“I told you I didn't want to go, so what happened? It must be big.”
“Several things. One thing I didn't get to tell you earlier, but that I knew about. And then I talked to Hank.”
“Charles…”
“Peter has a twin. Her name is Wanda. She ran away shortly after we broke you out. No one has seen her since. I looked for her sporadically over the years, but nothing.”
Erik took a deep breath. His hands were shaking.
What's their last name? I never learned Peter's last name.”
“Maximoff.”
Erik closed his eyes and let his head fall back to rest on the couch. Breathe. Breathe.
“Hank checked your DNA. It's definitely true.”
“Yeah. It would be.”
“There is more.”
“Of course there is. It's that kind of day.”
“The splinter group had a lot of information on Wanda. No. More accurately, they have Wanda.”
Erik immediately set up straight, “What?!”
“Erik…”
“So she didn't run away? They had her for more than 20 years?!”
That was a horrifying thought Charles hadn't even entertained yet. He’d worked with the assumption that they must have picked her up somewhere, later, not… THIS.
“I don't know. But… there is more.”
“How exactly can there be more? Charles… more bad or good?”
“You seem to have another daughter. She's being held with Wanda. She has your powers. Her name is only listed as LD.”, Charles just blurted out. He had expected flying objects. Creaking metal. Yelling…. Instead, he got a blank stare from Erik and… nothing much from his brain.
“Erik?”, Charles moved himself closer and carefully took his hand, “Erik? Did you hear me?”
Erik still didn't say a thing.
All Charles got was a wall of blank fury.
“We’ll find them, Erik. We’ll find them. And in a year or two I’m going to start teasing you about safe sex, okay?”
It was a stupid attempt at humor, and he regretted it the moment he said it.
“Erik, Darling, please look at me. Or say something.”
Erik was still just… staring.
“Come back to me, please.”
“They’ve had my daughters for who knows how long while I've been just SITTING here enjoying life and… they hurt them. They hurt them and I didn't do a thing!”
“You didn't know.”
“No. I did not.”, finally Erik’s eyes turned towards Charles. Ice called rage was all he could see. No Erik in sight.
“We’ll interrogate the prisoners. Someone will know where they were moved to.”, Charles tried again, “And everything they know, I’ll know.”
Erik just nodded.
“Becca will need a moment. I’m taking a shower.”, and he simply brushed past Charles.
This wasn't going to end well. They needed to find the girls, fast and in good condition or Hank was right, they’d unleash Magneto on a very unprepared world.