Video; Charles has his research nerd on again.
[This time when the data pad feed comes on, Charles is not sitting at his usual table in the library but rather he's at one of the tall library windows that looks out across the Coruscant night skyline. His expression is contemplative and it looks as if his mind is anywhere but with his body there in the library. For a long moment, he stands and
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As if there's anyone here worth trusting, Charles. A universe like this, where you have so many players... [ And a part of Erik truly realized just how small of a scale he was accustomed to. They had barely made it off Earth and there were, multiple planets and who knows what else.
He had barely adjusted to the realization that he wasn't alone, that Erik was barely the only mutant back home, and they had been thrown into this galaxy, where it truly was more than just the two of them. ]
We could though, Charles. [ Looking up, Erik hunched his shoulders as he began to explain his line of thinking, foolhardy as it was, and he doesn't hold back the rush of emotions, guarded as they usually are. ]
You saw what future we have back home, a lifetime of fighting each other over a battlefield that doesn't seem to ever stop. At the very least, there's some chance of acceptance here. [ A chance that Erik wouldn't have to look at Charles every time, knowing he was responsible for putting the man in a wheelchair and then fighting against him. Going back home, the guilt of bearing that burden had been at times, overwhelming for him.
He brushed it aside, dealt with it because his entire life up until then had been about coming out the stronger man, but Charles was altogether someone different. If Charles was anyone but his equal, this wouldn't have been difficult to handle, losses were made in war, after all, but that wasn't who Charles was, now was it? And here he was, throwing out what was possibly the single worst decision he had ever made in his life -- going after Shaw's submarine was second. ]
What if it was up to us to make that difference?
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Before his hand had lifted from the pawn, he was looking up at Erik's words, his expression stilling as the man paints a picture that, well that touches something within Charles. A desire to do just this thing, to stay here, where he still had Erik, still had his legs, where they stood shoulder to shoulder. A desire to stay here and try to make a life that wasn't lonely and where he would his life at the age of sixty.
At least, Erik will be there... Charles thought to himself, thinking that at least he would not die alone, his old friend would be with him.]
We have to be back there, my friend. If we aren't, then there is no hope for our kind. [He said softly, though his expression showed how much he liked his lover's idea.] Maybe we have a chance to make it different when we return.
[His eyes softened and Charles quickly looked down at the chess board.] If I wish for anything out of this, I wish for that, Erik. That there could be a chance we could not live a life apart back home.
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But to physically hear the rejection had crushed him. Charles was right, without the two of them, there truly was no hope for mutant kind.
Mimicking Charles' motions, he turned his attention at the board. Inanimate pieces that could frequently war against each other and not feel the repercussions of their actions. Despite what would happen as Erik lifted another pawn and moved it two steps forward, freeing his other bishop, there were no consequences of taking Charles' queen. ]
It's a foolish wish, Charles. [ Erik's tone easily gave way to the lie he constructed, that despite the words he spoke, he desperately wanted to believe otherwise. ] If we can't make a change here, who's to say we can't change anything back home?
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No wish is foolish, Erik. If we don't wish, we can't hope.
[Shifting forward, in one of those restless motions of his, Charles' expression was intense.]
Who says we can't make a change here? Who says we won't be able to make a change at home? Erik I do not believe that I want to be standing across the battlefield from you. If circumstances pushed us in that direction, then damn to circumstances, we can be the better men.
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[ He had seen far too many incidences of it being futile, the constant wishes from his family, the prisoners, of course his mother's persistent optimism until her death. As far as he was concerned, the thought of hope was pointless. ]
I don't want to fight you either, my friend, but I won't give up what I believe to be true for this. What matters is making the change back home, it's irrelevant here if it's only temporary.
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My friend, hope is the one thing we should always have, should never give up on. If you give up on hope then what are you fighting for?
[Despite the intensity, his voice is gentle and the expression in his eyes is a genuine concern for Erik and that Erik would feel hopeless.]
We will do our utmost here, Erik and if what Scott, Jean, John and the others say, we are certainly not passive back home.
[They might be at odds, at war with each other but they were not apathetic to the needs of their species and if Charles knows nothing else, he knows that apathy would be worse than fighting, for both of them.]
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I gave up on hope a long time ago, Charles. I fight for mandatory change and a future that hope alone can't achieve.
[ They could fight, and would, but they cared and that was what mattered in the end. ]
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