Work Text:
"BREAKING NEWS: ABANDONED CANNING FACTORY UP IN FLAMES, MUTANT TERRORIST RESPONSIBLE IN CUSTODY"
And there he was, a grainy picture of his face alongside several other mutants, Guy.
He was pale, head shaved, malnourished, his skin dry-looking and cracking in places, but it was Guy; Greg would always recognise him. Even through the shitty picture and Greg's even shittier TV screen, he could see every detail of his brother's face, how even through distant eyes, his short brows were set into a defiant scowl.
He dropped everything and immediately dived for his burner phone and his notes on everything he had found related to the area where the explosion took place to see where the nearest government facility was; maybe they would be holding Guy there? "Erik, it's me. I need to see you as soon as possible."
Magneto, like the twat that he is, doesn't respond for several days, and in that time, Greg had barely slept. He was run ragged, upright and walking through brush and undergrowth through pure spite and conviction alone. He couldn't falter now; he was as close as he had ever been. Erik turned around in the clearing before Greg could call out, that annoying smirk that said "I know more than you, I am better than you" tugging on his lips as he locked eyes with Greg. Greg really fucking hates him.
"Well, what is it, Gregory?" He spoke, a teasing lilt to his tone, "Find another false report of blue people falling from the sky you humans make so often?"
Greg thrust a printed-out picture of Guy from the report into Erik's chest as soon as he got close enough, the quality worse than the original, but at least recognisable, "It's him. It's Guy." He stated, voice rough from disuse and shaking slightly.
Erik fumbled for a beat to grab the picture, that small moment of simple humanity almost enough for a smirk of his own to sneak onto Greg's face, "I have the full report with me and my notes from previous leads I was looking into in and around the area where they found him, there's nothing on where he is now, but I think if I can-"
Erik huffed and cut him off, "Quit your blabbering, give me the report." In any other instance, this would probably have been the moment they started trading fists, or at least the beginning of an argument that would eventually lead to punching each other, but not today. This was too real now. Greg was too close. He handed over the thick binder he had brought, containing the report inside, with several penned lines of annotations, crossed-out dead-ends, and circled words and locations and fabricated lies scrawled across the pages in what Erik could only describe as a madman's ramblings. There was another series of pictures, the full line-up of the captured mutants, Guy included, all in states of malnutrition and neglect, and the report had labelled them dangerous terrorists. Erik's nose curled in disgust, and his grip on the pages grew tighter, "This is outrageous."
"Well, then, you'll be glad to know that every trafficker in the building died in the explosion."
Erik was silent for a few moments more before he snapped the binder closed and tossed it back into Greg's arms. "I had heard about this, though I was unaware that it had anything to do with your brother. I had received word hours ago that the mutants rescued had been recovered from the Human Government."
Greg perked up, "So, you know where he might be!?"
Erik hummed to himself and looked up in thought, "Perhaps, there is one place I can think of that he may have been taken to... I'd have to make a few calls to be sure."
Greg stepped closer, "Then make those calls."
Erik raised his brow and looked down his nose at Greg, attempting to appear far taller, Greg could only guess, "Like I would just-"
Greg rolled his eyes before he could finish his sentence, and thrusted his pointer finger into Erik's chest, "Make those calls, now. I have spent the last six years thinking of nothing but where my brother is, and if you think I'm going to let you dangle this information in front of my face, then I swear to God, Erik-"
"Alright, quit your yammering." He stepped back from Greg, and towards the treeline, he stopped, as if internally debating with himself, before pulling out a strange-looking device from his blazer and holding it up to his ear, "...Yes, it's me... no, it's about the trafficking victims you spoke of earlier, I need to know where they went... hm... all of them? ...Yes, I thought as much... I'd rather you didn't, but I know that won't stop you... Yes... that is all." He sighed and lifted his hand to pinch in between his eyes as he tucked the strange-looking phone away.
He turned back to Greg then, a tired look now gracing his features, "I know where he is."
Greg stumbled over himself then, an overwhelmingly thick and heavy feeling that he ought to start crying beginning to crawl up his throat and block his airways. He dropped the binder and reached out with shaking arms towards Erik, taking no notice as his research clattered to the dirt at his feet, "You- where?"
A pained expression pinched Erik's face then, and he looked away from Greg, "I cannot say." He said solemnly, voice clear yet resigned.
Greg choked on his breath then, those tears threatening to suffocate him finally falling, yet he felt no relief at their release, "You- you won't tell me? Are you serious!?" He yelled, that thick, heavy feeling spreading through his chest in hot anger.
"Gregory, try to understand, I cannot go telling humans about mutant safe havens. It could compromise their secrecy." He tried to reason, this pleading expression Greg had never seen before, twisting up his features, his hands out in front of him in a placating manner.
Greg tripped up on his research as he rushed towards Erik, stumbling in the dirt and sending the binder skidding a couple of feet from them, "Then don't go telling humans about it, tell me! Tell me where my baby is!" He cried, his voice cracking as he pleaded.
Erik sighed and began to levitate, "I'm sorry, Gregory, but I will not risk my people's safety for you." He turned in the air, as if beginning to leave. But he couldn't, Greg wouldn't let him.
This felt final, like a cruel goodbye of sorts, like if Greg let Erik leave now, he wouldn't ever hear from him again, he wouldn't be able to find out more from him again, he wouldn't ever find Guy. He clenched his fists, that thickness bubbling now, spreading out and filling every available space left within his body with a furious and raging determination. He grunted, this ragged, startled sound, before pushing off the ground and leaping at Erik's feet in the air. He grabbed a tight hold of one of his ankles and refused to let go, "YOU BASTARD!"
Erik faltered and fell to the ground at Greg's struggling, the two of them crashing to the dirt in a heap of limbs and dried mud, "Ahck! Get- off, you stupid- human!"
Greg scrambled forwards and took Erik's lapels into his hands, his hold firm and shaking, "TELL ME WHERE HE IS! I won't let you ruin this, I WON'T FAIL HIM BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Erik grabbed at Greg's forearms where they held him up, and levelled a furious look of his own with Greg's, "Like you already have? You are the reason he's in this mess to begin with, whose to say it won't happen again in your care!?"
Greg's breathing was coming in quick and rough, his grunts of exertion sounding more and more like pained wheezing. He reeled back his fist and slammed it directly into Erik's face, the man below him's head snapping to the side. He cracked open an eye up at Greg, looking entirely like he hadn't felt a thing, "Pathetic. I refuse to fight you, Gregory, you're barely staying upright as is."
Suddenly, Greg's body went stiff, unable to move as it felt as though he was being pulled along by the very blood in his veins. It pushed him back and away from Erik as he began to collect himself to stand, dirt and dust clinging to his suit as he glared back at Greg, "He is safe, where he is. That is all you need to know."
And then he was gone, floating up and into the sky and disappearing above the trees, Greg's body remaining stiff and unresponsive until a few minutes later, but by then, Erik was long gone.
He cried, sobbing into the dirt as his last hope of finding his brother left with Erik, the sun high in the sky beating down on his weak form as he lay there, "...Guy... I'm sorry..."
Hours later, when his tears had dried and still there on the forest floor, the sky had begun to dim as the evening began. Greg got to his feet and swept his eyes across his surroundings before stopping on the crumpled heap of his binder a few feet away. He stepped over to it and bent to pick it up, the folder already opened to the page with Guy's picture, distant, defiant eyes looking up at him through blur and paper.
He stayed there, on the page, staring silently into his brother's large, angry eyes. Tearful, rusted brown meets fuzzy, shellshocked red. He was always so angry.
He reached out and took the picture into his hand, brushing his thumb over the collections of blurring pixels and colours in the shape of Guy, a renewed determination filling his lungs, "I won't stop. I won't ever stop." He brought the picture to his lips and kissed the paper, his eyes closed, "I will find you, I promise."
"And you're certain it was Erik?"
"Yes, I spoke with him myself. It was him."
"But why would he want to know about the victims?"
"He had been asking around these past couple of months. I think he was looking for someone."
"Who?"
"I reckon I know now. That Raynold kid we brought in, he was one of the victims."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive, he'd been asking about stretching mutations and if I knew anyone with one. I heard from the others that he had similar questions, though they couldn't say why. Now he's asking about the victims, and Raynold just so happens to have a stretching mutation."
"And you don't know why?"
"No, not yet. I asked the kid if he knew anything, but he isn't really... with it, at the moment."
"Hm... can you keep an eye on him? I would also like to be given regular updates about his recovery."
"Any reason why?"
"I ask questions, you answer; you don't ask."
"Right... yes, I can get some people on that. Anything else, sir?"
"No, that is all." He hung up on her and sighed as he leaned back in his chair. What are you up to, Magnus?