X-men: As the World Falls Down Part Two
Part One
The fever ratcheted Raven’s temperature up to deadly levels. Erik worked with Azazel to keep Raven covered in ice, trying to cool her off. Raven was delirious through it all, skin shifting under Charles’ hold on her hand. He could feel her disjointed thoughts, her pain, her fear as Hank’s antidote battled with the weapon that had been injected into her veins.
“The forced mutation of the genes is what created the necrotic cells,” he heard Hank’s whisper. The young man had been forced into a corner by Azazel. “In humans, who have no genetic adaptation, it makes them puppets of a biological weapon. Mutants have a higher chance of living through a bite, but the numbers are scarcely better than a regular human’s. I - I made a serum, once, it was supposed to help me and Raven, but it ended up enhancing our mutation instead of controlling it. She’ll be different,” he heard his voice break. “I don’t know what her mutation will do, hopefully nothing if I’m correct as the weapon and my serum will cancel each other out, but I can’t be sure. I just - I can’t be sure.”
Hours ticked away. Alex and Sean visited, both with uneasy glances for Erik. Riptide and a pair of twins joined them at one point. The children hid behind a protective Riptide, but the man came to see how Raven fared, nonetheless.
The entire time Erik did not move from Charles’ side. The mansion felt tense, a current of panic running through all his students, but Charles couldn’t seem to gather the resolve to walk away from his sister to reassure them. Not until he knew Raven would be all right. Not until she opened her eyes and blew a raspberry at him, telling him he was such a worrywart, an old fart in a young man’s body - he wasn’t leaving until she opened her eyes and made fun of him - and she’d better damn well open her eyes…
“Charles,” Erik’s rough voice came from right next to his ear. “You’re projecting.”
“I don’t care,” Charles grit out. Open your eyes, Raven. Open them. Come on. Fight. Fight! Fight or I’ll - I’ll throw out that ridiculous poster of yours, the one with all the teen idols you cut out and -
“Don’t you dare,” golden eyes slit open a fraction. “Don’t you dare get rid of that,” she rasped.
“Raven!”
Charles laughed, tears blurring his eyes as Hank and Azazel crowded the other side of the bed. Raven squeezed his hand and it felt like he could breathe again, like some great weight had been lifted off of his chest. All the while Erik leaned against his side, warm and secure, his tether to the world.
~*~
“Her mutation has grown,” Erik’s voice came from the door. Charles turned his head from his study of the curtained windows. They didn’t dare open them, now. Every window in the house was blackened, sealed tight against any hint of light, bottom floors sealed to prevent the walking dead from entering the house.
“I know.” Charles turned, studying the man, Erik, Magneto’s helmet gone, vanished somewhere Erik would not name. “She can take the shape of anything, now. She is…unsettled, but she assures me she will adapt.”
Erik stepped into the room, the door clicking shut behind him. “Hank has told me that the cure will work on humans.”
Charles bowed his head. “With a price.”
“Yes.”
“To live, but become a mutant. Or die and become a horror,” Charles closed his eyes. “I wish to contact what is left of the government.”
“Charles.”
“In return for our people,” Charles rolled over Erik’s protests. “In return for a signed treaty, for complete freedom from every law they have passed on our kind, for every one of our people trapped in their facilities, I would offer them this cure,” he opened his eyes and looked at the other man. “I will not horde it, Erik. I cannot. I just - I cannot do that. But I will have them answer for what they have done. I will have justice for those they have hurt, and those who have suffered under them. I,” he pressed his lips together. Raven’s pain and terror in that government camp had seared its way into his mind. All that she had suffered, so had he. It was all he could do from tearing down the house in his rage.
“Calm yourself, my friend,” Erik was there, taking his shoulders and giving him a gentle shake. “I agree with you. With all your points. We cannot keep this for ourselves,” he swallowed hard. “Even though I hate them for what they have done. This weapon, this horror that has been unleashed, strikes with a blind eye. I have seen what it can do, to even children, Charles. No, I will not keep this cure from the humans, but I am afraid of their response.”
“Yes,” Charles sighed. “I know.”
“It pains me to see your hope stripped from you, my friend.”
Charles laughed. “I would have thought you would welcome my new practicality.”
Erik shook his head, eyes never leaving Charles’ face. “I would have you the way you are, my friend. Just the way you are and always have been.”
“That naïve young man is lost, Erik.”
“Not completely,” a warm hand came up to cup Charles’ cheek. “You would still offer an olive branch to those who had tortured your family. You still hope to create a peace between our kind and humans. That hope is the core of you, my friend. I will not see you lose it.”
Charles closed his eyes. “It is becoming harder and harder to hope.”
An arm slid around his waist. “I wish for us to stay, Charles. To stay here, with you and this school you have fashioned, to keep you safe, so that your hope may never leave. I will shoulder the cynicism, my friend, while you work to create a place for all of us in this wreckage of a world. If you would have us stay.”
Charles opened his eyes. “Stay,” he said. Erik’s lips met his. Charles fisted his hands in Erik’s sweater, holding on with all he had. Stay. Stay forever. Please. Erik. Stay.
~*~
“Raven! What are you doing walking around by yourself?” Charles hurried to his sister’s side.
“I’m not a baby,” she swatted at him. She scowled as her arm wobbled, blurring between human and something that looked like melted wax. “Damn it!”
“You’re getting there,” Charles hovered at her side.
“It’s all wobbly,” she stamped a foot and then growled as her foot squished out into a puddle on the floor. “This is so frustrating!”
“You’re getting there,” Charles repeated and then offered her his arm. She rolled her eyes at him, but slid a mostly human-looking appendage through his.
“You’re not grossed out by the melting bits?”
“You are learning to control a new set of abilities, Raven. You have never and will never disgust me. Say that again and I will dump you in the fountain.”
“You’d try.”
“And I would succeed. You will simply have to concentrate more in order to keep me from doing it.”
“Concentrate,” she huffed. They made their slow way, hampered by her unsteady feet and his lame leg, to the lounge. “Any word?” Her golden eyes were sharp as he settled her onto the couch.
Charles sighed and shrugged. “They have decided to think our proposal over.”
“And the others? The ones that were in the camps with us?”
Charles felt his smile grow sharp. Raven blinked. “I believe they had a - how did they describe it? Ah, yes. A tornado wiped through the entire camp, leaving behind no survivors. They send their apologies and promise that other such facilities are no longer sanctioned and will be shut down, one by one.”
“Really.”
“Of course, now that we know all the locations of these facilities,” Charles narrowed his eyes. “We can make sure they are properly taken care of.”
“What…” Raven’s eyes flicked away. “What about that little boy?”
Charles lowered his eyes to his hands. “We were unable to rescue him.” A lie, but not the first between them and probably not the last. Charles had tried, tried so hard to reach the little boy, but his mind had been like Emma’s, white noise and empty, so achingly empty - Erik had had to shake him, ordered Banshee to scream at them, to rouse Charles from his trance. Erik had not left his side for a week, after. There had been nothing they could do for the boy. He hadn’t been in the facility with the others, Charles could tell that much. But his true location, that was unknown. The ache of that failure, his inability to help yet another mutant, had joined the host of nightmares that dogged his sleep.
Erik had proved to be a steady distraction from the horrors that would haunt his dreams. Erik had entrenched himself in Charles’ life, carved out a place for himself and the mutants he had found in Charles’ home, until Charles could not picture the mansion without the sound of Wanda and Pietro’s laughter at Janos’ antics, or seeing Hank and Azazel doing their own, strange version of a courting dance, always centered around Raven. The joy of hearing Alex reunite with his little brother Scott, or finding a lost, terrified little girl who had walked, ghost-like, right through the walls of the house to take shelter inside what she thought was an empty building.
They had offered their cure to what remained of the human government. The United States was ripped into separate territories; the north eastern corridor was still governed by what remained of the former United States of America. They were still on rocky terms with each other, but Charles…Charles hoped.
“You look better,” Raven said.
He blinked at her. “I look better?”
She smiled. “Yes. You do. Happier.”
Charles drew in a breath and then paused. He let it out. “Yes,” he smiled back at her. “I think I am. I have you back. I have my family back. That makes me very happy.”
Her grin turned sly. “And that happiness wouldn’t have anything to do with Erik coming out of your room this morning, would it?”
“Raven!”
She sat back on the couch. “You don’t have to shout. I’m not a kid, you know. You can’t confuse me with books and essays from medical journals anymore. I,” she said with relish. “Have had sex.”
Charles covered his face with his hands. “Raven, as I love you, please, please, please stop. For my sanity. And yours.”
Her laughter rang out through the house.
He lowered his hands and watched her laugh. Yes, he looked up as Erik and Janos entered the room, a twin attached to each man’s leg. I am happy. I have all that I have loved come back to me, and more. He met Erik’s smile and hoped.
The End
The fever ratcheted Raven’s temperature up to deadly levels. Erik worked with Azazel to keep Raven covered in ice, trying to cool her off. Raven was delirious through it all, skin shifting under Charles’ hold on her hand. He could feel her disjointed thoughts, her pain, her fear as Hank’s antidote battled with the weapon that had been injected into her veins.
“The forced mutation of the genes is what created the necrotic cells,” he heard Hank’s whisper. The young man had been forced into a corner by Azazel. “In humans, who have no genetic adaptation, it makes them puppets of a biological weapon. Mutants have a higher chance of living through a bite, but the numbers are scarcely better than a regular human’s. I - I made a serum, once, it was supposed to help me and Raven, but it ended up enhancing our mutation instead of controlling it. She’ll be different,” he heard his voice break. “I don’t know what her mutation will do, hopefully nothing if I’m correct as the weapon and my serum will cancel each other out, but I can’t be sure. I just - I can’t be sure.”
Hours ticked away. Alex and Sean visited, both with uneasy glances for Erik. Riptide and a pair of twins joined them at one point. The children hid behind a protective Riptide, but the man came to see how Raven fared, nonetheless.
The entire time Erik did not move from Charles’ side. The mansion felt tense, a current of panic running through all his students, but Charles couldn’t seem to gather the resolve to walk away from his sister to reassure them. Not until he knew Raven would be all right. Not until she opened her eyes and blew a raspberry at him, telling him he was such a worrywart, an old fart in a young man’s body - he wasn’t leaving until she opened her eyes and made fun of him - and she’d better damn well open her eyes…
“Charles,” Erik’s rough voice came from right next to his ear. “You’re projecting.”
“I don’t care,” Charles grit out. Open your eyes, Raven. Open them. Come on. Fight. Fight! Fight or I’ll - I’ll throw out that ridiculous poster of yours, the one with all the teen idols you cut out and -
“Don’t you dare,” golden eyes slit open a fraction. “Don’t you dare get rid of that,” she rasped.
“Raven!”
Charles laughed, tears blurring his eyes as Hank and Azazel crowded the other side of the bed. Raven squeezed his hand and it felt like he could breathe again, like some great weight had been lifted off of his chest. All the while Erik leaned against his side, warm and secure, his tether to the world.
~*~
“Her mutation has grown,” Erik’s voice came from the door. Charles turned his head from his study of the curtained windows. They didn’t dare open them, now. Every window in the house was blackened, sealed tight against any hint of light, bottom floors sealed to prevent the walking dead from entering the house.
“I know.” Charles turned, studying the man, Erik, Magneto’s helmet gone, vanished somewhere Erik would not name. “She can take the shape of anything, now. She is…unsettled, but she assures me she will adapt.”
Erik stepped into the room, the door clicking shut behind him. “Hank has told me that the cure will work on humans.”
Charles bowed his head. “With a price.”
“Yes.”
“To live, but become a mutant. Or die and become a horror,” Charles closed his eyes. “I wish to contact what is left of the government.”
“Charles.”
“In return for our people,” Charles rolled over Erik’s protests. “In return for a signed treaty, for complete freedom from every law they have passed on our kind, for every one of our people trapped in their facilities, I would offer them this cure,” he opened his eyes and looked at the other man. “I will not horde it, Erik. I cannot. I just - I cannot do that. But I will have them answer for what they have done. I will have justice for those they have hurt, and those who have suffered under them. I,” he pressed his lips together. Raven’s pain and terror in that government camp had seared its way into his mind. All that she had suffered, so had he. It was all he could do from tearing down the house in his rage.
“Calm yourself, my friend,” Erik was there, taking his shoulders and giving him a gentle shake. “I agree with you. With all your points. We cannot keep this for ourselves,” he swallowed hard. “Even though I hate them for what they have done. This weapon, this horror that has been unleashed, strikes with a blind eye. I have seen what it can do, to even children, Charles. No, I will not keep this cure from the humans, but I am afraid of their response.”
“Yes,” Charles sighed. “I know.”
“It pains me to see your hope stripped from you, my friend.”
Charles laughed. “I would have thought you would welcome my new practicality.”
Erik shook his head, eyes never leaving Charles’ face. “I would have you the way you are, my friend. Just the way you are and always have been.”
“That naïve young man is lost, Erik.”
“Not completely,” a warm hand came up to cup Charles’ cheek. “You would still offer an olive branch to those who had tortured your family. You still hope to create a peace between our kind and humans. That hope is the core of you, my friend. I will not see you lose it.”
Charles closed his eyes. “It is becoming harder and harder to hope.”
An arm slid around his waist. “I wish for us to stay, Charles. To stay here, with you and this school you have fashioned, to keep you safe, so that your hope may never leave. I will shoulder the cynicism, my friend, while you work to create a place for all of us in this wreckage of a world. If you would have us stay.”
Charles opened his eyes. “Stay,” he said. Erik’s lips met his. Charles fisted his hands in Erik’s sweater, holding on with all he had. Stay. Stay forever. Please. Erik. Stay.
~*~
“Raven! What are you doing walking around by yourself?” Charles hurried to his sister’s side.
“I’m not a baby,” she swatted at him. She scowled as her arm wobbled, blurring between human and something that looked like melted wax. “Damn it!”
“You’re getting there,” Charles hovered at her side.
“It’s all wobbly,” she stamped a foot and then growled as her foot squished out into a puddle on the floor. “This is so frustrating!”
“You’re getting there,” Charles repeated and then offered her his arm. She rolled her eyes at him, but slid a mostly human-looking appendage through his.
“You’re not grossed out by the melting bits?”
“You are learning to control a new set of abilities, Raven. You have never and will never disgust me. Say that again and I will dump you in the fountain.”
“You’d try.”
“And I would succeed. You will simply have to concentrate more in order to keep me from doing it.”
“Concentrate,” she huffed. They made their slow way, hampered by her unsteady feet and his lame leg, to the lounge. “Any word?” Her golden eyes were sharp as he settled her onto the couch.
Charles sighed and shrugged. “They have decided to think our proposal over.”
“And the others? The ones that were in the camps with us?”
Charles felt his smile grow sharp. Raven blinked. “I believe they had a - how did they describe it? Ah, yes. A tornado wiped through the entire camp, leaving behind no survivors. They send their apologies and promise that other such facilities are no longer sanctioned and will be shut down, one by one.”
“Really.”
“Of course, now that we know all the locations of these facilities,” Charles narrowed his eyes. “We can make sure they are properly taken care of.”
“What…” Raven’s eyes flicked away. “What about that little boy?”
Charles lowered his eyes to his hands. “We were unable to rescue him.” A lie, but not the first between them and probably not the last. Charles had tried, tried so hard to reach the little boy, but his mind had been like Emma’s, white noise and empty, so achingly empty - Erik had had to shake him, ordered Banshee to scream at them, to rouse Charles from his trance. Erik had not left his side for a week, after. There had been nothing they could do for the boy. He hadn’t been in the facility with the others, Charles could tell that much. But his true location, that was unknown. The ache of that failure, his inability to help yet another mutant, had joined the host of nightmares that dogged his sleep.
Erik had proved to be a steady distraction from the horrors that would haunt his dreams. Erik had entrenched himself in Charles’ life, carved out a place for himself and the mutants he had found in Charles’ home, until Charles could not picture the mansion without the sound of Wanda and Pietro’s laughter at Janos’ antics, or seeing Hank and Azazel doing their own, strange version of a courting dance, always centered around Raven. The joy of hearing Alex reunite with his little brother Scott, or finding a lost, terrified little girl who had walked, ghost-like, right through the walls of the house to take shelter inside what she thought was an empty building.
They had offered their cure to what remained of the human government. The United States was ripped into separate territories; the north eastern corridor was still governed by what remained of the former United States of America. They were still on rocky terms with each other, but Charles…Charles hoped.
“You look better,” Raven said.
He blinked at her. “I look better?”
She smiled. “Yes. You do. Happier.”
Charles drew in a breath and then paused. He let it out. “Yes,” he smiled back at her. “I think I am. I have you back. I have my family back. That makes me very happy.”
Her grin turned sly. “And that happiness wouldn’t have anything to do with Erik coming out of your room this morning, would it?”
“Raven!”
She sat back on the couch. “You don’t have to shout. I’m not a kid, you know. You can’t confuse me with books and essays from medical journals anymore. I,” she said with relish. “Have had sex.”
Charles covered his face with his hands. “Raven, as I love you, please, please, please stop. For my sanity. And yours.”
Her laughter rang out through the house.
He lowered his hands and watched her laugh. Yes, he looked up as Erik and Janos entered the room, a twin attached to each man’s leg. I am happy. I have all that I have loved come back to me, and more. He met Erik’s smile and hoped.
The End