This is part two of X-Men: The Sins That Haunt Us. If you want to understand this portion, I suggest you read the original first. You can find it below:
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/UltimateMarvelMovieFan/news/?a=104911
If you have already read part one, feel free to enjoy part two of X-Men: The Sins That Haunt Us!
As the two remaining X-Men ran back toward the base, Magneto arrived in the area that held the imprisoned mutants. Of course, he was immediately face-to-face with Fred and Unus.
“Gentleman, if you would kindly step aside,” Magneto said as he slowly elevated himself off of the ground.
“No way, buddy! There ain’t no way you gettin’ past us!” Fred exclaimed. “Once I plant my feet on the ground, ain’t nothin’ that can knock me over!”
“And you won’t even be able to touch me,” Unus said, “my force field prevents anyone from getting near me.”
Magneto shook his head in disapproval. “Why are you fighting against your fellow mutants? I would like to offer you a chance to join my Brotherhood, so that you can fight for your people, instead of against them.”
“No way! Buddy, we already fought one flying guy today, we got no problem fighting one more.” Fred said.
“As you wish,” Magneto said, then he turned to Fred, “you say that once you plant your feet on the ground, nothing can move you? And what happens when the ground beneath you moves?”
Fred looked puzzled for a moment, and looked at the ground. To his bewilderment, the ground underneath him started to peel upwards. It tilted backwards, causing Fred to fall over, and hit the ground behind him. That ground was peeling as well, in fact, several chunks of the ground lifted up and wrapped around Fred. Fred struggled with all of his might, and made a lot of progress, since he was super strong. However, the pieces of the metal floor were wrapped so tightly around him that struggling became very difficult very quickly. It also did not help that Magneto was holding him upside down.
Unus looked nervous as he watched his friend become wrapped up tighter than a mummy. Finally, the master of magnetism turned his attention toward Unus. “Tell me,” Magneto said, “how big is this force field of yours? Can you make it bigger?” And with that, he manipulated the remaining metal on the floor to rise up and form a bubble around Unus, adding several layers to make it harder for his force field to burst through.
Magneto levitated both metal masses in the air, and said, “Gentlemen, if either of you ever manage to free yourselves, you are still welcome in the Brotherhood.” Then he made both metal masses smash through the roof, and hurled both of them more than a mile away.
Magneto lowered himself to the ground, and walked toward the now guard-less cages. He waved both of his hands, and simultaneously opened all of the cages. He had planned on making a speech, telling the newly freed mutants who he was, why he was there, and end it with an offer to all of them to join the Brotherhood of Mutants.
Instead, everyone ran as fast as they could. Several of the newly freed mutants bumped into Magneto as they ran past, puzzling him to no end. Erik did not try to stop them, he knew what it was like to be caged, he had felt the burning desire to be free at all costs. However, there was one person he was not going to let leave, at least not without talking to him first. He was easy to distinguish from the crowd, as he had very bright, golden skin covering his entire body.
“Joshua Foley, stay where you are! I need to speak with you!” Magneto said, and to make sure he would, he manipulated several bars to hold him in place.
Joshua’s arms were free, so he held up his hands, as a gesture that he meant no harm. “I never asked for these powers,” he said, “so whatever you’re offering me, I’m not interested.”
Magneto manipulated the bars to turn Joshua around so that they were face-to-face. Joshua had spoken with a shaky voice, because he felt intimidated by Magneto’s power. Erik’s face softened. He had expected a fully grown man, confident in himself and his abilities. Instead, he saw a frightened teenager, and was reminded of himself at that age.
Magneto put his hand on Joshua’s shoulder. “No one ever asks for these powers,” he said, “we are merely blessed with them at our birth.”
“I’ve been here for more than a year, I’m pretty sure my powers are a curse.”
“I believe that a mutant power is never a curse. The very fact that you exist is something that I consider to be a blessing. I know you have the power to heal any disease or injury, and that’s a skill any doctor would kill to have. You are a god among insects, never forget that.”
“Alright, you have my attention, what do you want me to do?” Joshua asked.
“Long term, I would like you to join my Brotherhood, and help me fight against people like Bolivar Trask. However,” as he said this, Erik took off his helmet, so that Joshua could get a better look at his face. He continued, “for right now, I am only asking you- no, I am begging you, please heal my sick daughter.”
Joshua nodded. “I’ll heal a little girl,” he told Magneto, “just don’t ask me to hurt anyone.”
“Of course not, Joshua,” Erik said, as he put his helmet back on. “I would never ask you to do anything that makes you uncomfortable.”
“Actually, you can call me Elixir,” Joshua said, “pretty much everyone does.”
“Then that is what I shall call you. Now, come with me, Elixir, for several of our brothers are running around without a leader. Let’s do our best to guide them.”
There actually was a large group of escaped mutants that had managed to avoid capture by the guards, and they were running through the hallways of the facility, hoping to find an exit.
What they found was an intense battle between Riptide and several security officers. Many of the escapees paused, not wanting to go back, but knowing it was too dangerous to go forward.
Luckily for the mutants, Riptide managed to knock out all of the guards in the vicinity in a matter of minutes. He transformed from his tornado form back into his human form, so that he could speak with the escaped mutants. He could see that many of them were frightened, so he was going to tell them not to worry. He was going to tell them that he would protect them, that no harm would befall them, and that everything was going to be alright.
Just as he opened his mouth, he was shot in the back.
Riptide’s mouth was open, but nothing would come out, except a grunt of pain. Since he did not fall down immediately, the security guards behind him continued shooting, and he was hit repeatedly.
Riptide was dead before he could hit the floor.
Magneto and Elixir arrived in time to see Riptide’s lifeless, bullet-riddled body fall to the ground. After he fell, the security guards turned their attention to the escaped mutants, and began randomly firing into the ground. At the very least, they tried to fire into the crowd.
Magneto froze all of the bullets in mid-air, then he stepped forward, and declared, “Far too much blood has been spilled this day, and not enough of it human.” With that, he sent the bullets flying back at the guards, killing them instantly.
Then Magneto turned his attention toward the escaped mutants, most of whom were still frightened and confused. “These homo sapiens have kidnapped you, they have made you prisoners, and they have treated you like animals,” Magneto paused for emphasis, then said, “never again.”
Then with a gesture of his gloved hand, Magneto beckoned the mutants to follow him, and began to move swiftly down the corridor. Joshua and the crowd quickly followed.
Meanwhile, Angel and Emma had just returned from one of the many empty cages in the facility. They were disappointed that they had made no progress, but hoped that the others had been more successful. Emma would have telepathically searched the facilities herself, but it would be mentally exhausting, and she probably would not have been able to reach the entire building anyway. Emma was powerful, but not nearly as powerful as Professor X.
They were walking down a corridor in search of another room full of cages when suddenly Emma stopped, and put her hand on Angel’s shoulder to indicate that she should stop as well. “Wait,” she said, “I can sense more security guards coming.”
Angel looked forward, then behind her, then asked, “Where?”
Emma closed her eyes for a moment, in order to concentrate. Then she said, “Everywhere,” as she opened her eyes to see dozens of security guards pouring into the room from the front and behind.
Angel immediately lifted up into the air, and began spewing fireballs at the men, who were already shooting at them. At the same time, Emma transformed into her diamond form. She knew there were far too many of them to use her psychic abilities, at least without getting shot. In her diamond form, she was completely bullet-proof.
Emma was stronger in her diamond form than in her flesh-and-blood guise, but she was not exactly super strong. Magneto suggested that she study martial arts so
that she could defend herself in situations like the one she was currently in. The reason Magneto suggested this was because he and Professor X had been able to physically overpower her when they came into conflict in Russia the year before. This was back when Emma was still part of the Hellfire Club, Erik was still part of the X-Men, and Charles could still walk.
Emma kicked and punched every guard in sight, but she worried she would be overwhelmed by their numbers. She looked up to see Angel flying around the room, trying to evade the guard’s gunfire. Unlike Emma, she was not bulletproof, and had to move constantly to avoid getting shot.
Unfortunately, today she was not fast enough.
Angel cried out in pain as a bullet struck her in her left ankle. The pain was too much for her to continue to concentrate on flying, so she fell to the ground. The guards surrounded her, but did not continue firing, as they believed her to no longer be a threat.
“Angel!” Emma exclaimed as the men gagged her and handcuffed her, and began to lead her away. Emma wanted to use her telepathy to help, but the guards were still shooting at her, and she was afraid that if she turned into flesh-and-blood for even a moment she would be killed. Instead, she tried to chase after the men who captured Angel. Unfortunately, there were so many guards that she quickly lost Angel in the crowd.
“Angel! Angel!” Emma repeatedly called her friend’s name, while simultaneously fighting Trask personnel. Emma quickly realized she was hopelessly outnumbered, but still fought as hard as she could. However, she was distracted by her search for Angel, and the security guards took advantage of that. Instead of shooting at her, several security guards started tackling her, and pinned her to the ground with their combined strength. Emma knew that the fight was over once a guard started to put handcuffs on her wrists.
That was the moment that Azazel teleported into the room, his arm around Mystique. Azazel grabbed the man who was attempting to handcuff Emma, and socked him in the jaw. Then he grabbed one of the men on top of Emma, teleported him away, and slammed him into one of the walls. He did this repeatedly, sometimes taking two at a time, sometimes yanking them away with his tale. Mystique contributed as well, pulling off several guards and punching them until they lost consciousness.
When there were only a few guards holding her down, Emma managed to hurl them off of her. Immediately after doing so, she said, “Azazel! Angel’s been captured!”
“Where?” he asked.
“I don’t know! Somewhere in the building!”
“I will find her,” Azael replied, and with a puff of smoke, he disappeared.
Emma and Raven stood together awkwardly for a few moments, until Magneto, Elixir and his group arrived.
“Magneto!” Emma exclaimed. “Have you seen Angel?”
“No,” he replied, “what happened to her?”
“She was captured by the security guards!” Emma said.
Just then, Azazel reappeared. “I cannot find her.”
“Well, keep looking!” Emma said.
“No, there’s not enough time,” Magneto said, “I have severely the weakened the support structures in this building. We have less than ten minutes to escape.” There were several audible gasps from the crowd of mutants that had been following Magneto, as he had neglected to mention this.
Emma grabbed Magneto by the collar. “So you’re just going to let her die?”
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of Beast, with Havok shortly behind him. Havok was out of breath, and said between pants, “Guys… Banshee… he’s…”
“Banshee has been kidnapped,” Beast said, clarifying Havok’s statement.
“Yeah, that,” Havok said, pointing at Beast.
Beast said, “It is of utmost importance that we leave immediately and return to the mansion so that the Professor can find him with Cerebro.”
“No, we need to find Angel first!” Emma declared.
“Are none of you listening to me? This building is going to collapse in a few minutes! We don’t have time to find anyone!” Magneto exclaimed.
Havok crossed his arms. “It would have been nice to know this beforehand.”
“Why can’t you just hold up the building until we find Angel?” Emma asked.
“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Mystique said sarcastically, “and while he’s at it, why not move the Golden Gate Bridge to an island.”
“Raven makes an excellent point,” Magneto said, “even my powers have limits.”
“We can’t just leave her to die!” Emma said.
“I saw Banshee loaded onto a jet that took off before I could reach it, perhaps she is being flown away as well,” Beast told them.
“Then Charles can locate both of them,” Magneto said, “but at the moment, we are all present and accounted for, so I suggest we start moving toward the exit.”
Before they could, Raven spoke up. “Wait a minute, where’s Riptide?”
Magneto cast his eyes downward, before replying, “Dead. He has already been avenged, so that is one less thing we have to worry about.”
Both Mystique and Azazel’s eyes went wide with shock and sadness. Emma’s face fell even further, as she realized that they would lose two members of the Brotherhood that day. Beast and Havok were saddened as well, as they were reminded of their own loss.
“The same thing happened to Thunderbird,” Havok said, his eyes downcast, “this mission has been a total failure.”
“Not completely,” Magneto said, as he looked at Elixir. Everyone else turned their gaze toward him as well, most of them noticing him for the first time.
“I guess I should be flattered that you guys came here to rescue me,” Elixir said, “but can we go now?”
Moments later, Magneto was leading the group of mutants toward the exit. They had only minutes to spare, so they were running as fast as they could. They turned a corner, and found a man in a Sentinel exoskeleton battle suit.
“Well, if it isn’t a pack of muties!” The man exclaimed as he sneered from the head of the suit. “And you’re all lined up nicely, ready to be squashed like bugs!”
It had been a rough day, and Magneto was at the end of his patience. He had been in a poor mood earlier, but now, he was mad. “You miserable little cretin! Do you have any idea what we’re up against?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I know is I’m about to crush some-” but before he could finish his sentence, Magneto crushed the head of the battle suit, killing the man instantly.
“Humans!” Magneto said with distaste. “Now come on!”
A few minutes later, the group of mutants exited the building. Less than a minute later, the building caved in on itself. Emma choked back tears.
Beast offered the mutants that Magneto had rescued to come to the mansion, and Magneto suggested that they join his Brotherhood. Most of the mutants decided to go their own way, but a handful elected to go to the mansion.
So what remained of the X-Men and the Brotherhood, plus Elixir and the new recruits, filed into the Blackbird, and returned to the mansion. It was nearing sunset when they arrived, and almost immediately after they did, Magneto announced that he would be leaving immediately.
“Don’t want to explain to the Professor how badly you messed up?” Havok retorted. “Sounds like you.”
Magneto merely glared at him, then addressed the group as a whole. “I am on a mission to heal a little girl. Elixir, you are coming with me.” Joshua nodded. Erik continued, “Tomorrow, we will mount a full scale invasion into Trask Industries in order to rescue Banshee and Angel. Tell Charles to find them with Cerebro. We will return before dawn tomorrow, I expect all of you to be ready.”
“Erik, before you go, take a look at this,” Mystique said, as Azazel handed him a file.
“Thank you,” Magneto said to both of them, “I will read it on the way. Now, Azazel, bring a chair for Elixir.” Azazel nodded, and momentarily disappeared, then reappeared holding a metal chair.
Magneto indicated that Elixir should be seated. He did, but he was still puzzled. “Why do I need a chair?”
“Because we are flying,” Magneto said, as he began to levitate both himself and Joshua off the ground.
Elixir swallowed in fear. “Does this thing have any seat belts?”
In response, Magneto removed one of the armrests and fastened it around Elixir’s waist.
“Perfect,” Elixir said sarcastically, before they both were whisked away by Erik’s levitational abilities. The two mostly stuck to rural areas, as the sight of two people flying was always bound to garner attention, especially near the city.
Magneto could easily fly while doing something else, as levitating himself plus another object did not require much concentration. So he read the report that Mystique and Azazel had given him on the way.
Unfortunately, he was so absorbed in his reading that he did not hear most of the things Elixir said. “By the way, did I mention I’m afraid of heights? And flying. And this ‘seatbelt’ is making me feel claustrophobic.”
Magneto chuckled, to the great annoyance of Elixir. “You think this is funny?
“Hm?” Erik asked, finally paying attention to his passenger. “No, I was just reading what Raven gave me. For several months, I have been looking for evidence that the United States government has been illegally working with Trask Industries.”
“And you finally found it?”
“No, just the opposite. It turns out that the Kennedy administration has been investigating Trask Industries, and they are building a lawsuit.”
“Really?” Elixir replied, surprised. “I figured the politicians in D.C. were too distant to care about mutants.”
“As did I,” Magneto replied, and a part of him wondered if he had been too harsh with the entirety of the human race.
Soon they arrived in the city where Magda lived, and they had to walk the rest of the way.
“Um, won’t someone see us?” Elixir asked. “I mean we don’t exactly blend in. You’ve got the helmet and cape, and my skin is kind of gold colored.”
Magneto waved his hand in a gesture of nonchalance. “This is a fairly small town, even if someone does see us, they probably will do nothing about it.”
“I don’t know,” Elixir said as he looked around nervously. “Being incautious, and walking around in public was what led to my being captured by Trask in the first place.”
Joshua was still worried, but he continued to walk with Magneto until they reached the Maximoff residence. Magneto politely knocked, and Magda opened the door.
The moment she saw Magneto, she exclaimed, “Erik!” and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He hugged her back, as she whispered, “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you as well,” Erik said, before moving away and indicating toward Elixir. “This is Joshua Foley, but he prefers to be called Elixir.”
Magda shook his hand. “A pleasure to meet you,” then she turned to Erik, “is this the guy who can…”
Erik nodded. Magda’s smile brightened. “Come in,” she said, beckoning for the pair to follow her indoors. They did, and they both sat down on the couch next to Magda. Magneto removed his helmet and placed it on the coffee table, so that she could see his entire head, not just part of his face. They made small talk for a few minutes, until a little boy with very light hair ran into the room.
“Metal man! Metal man!” The boy exclaimed with giddy excitement.
“Pietro!” Erik said, getting up from the couch with a smile on his face. He picked up the boy and lifted him high in the air, while saying, “You’ve grown so much!”
The boy laughed hysterically. “Move the metal! Move the metal!” he shouted.
“Okay,” Erik said as he put Pietro on the ground. Then he slowly levitated his helmet off of the coffee table, and passed it back and forth in front of his own face. Pietro laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world, then scooped the helmet out of the air, and ran to his room.
“Did he just steal my helmet?” Magneto asked Magda.
“Oh, he likes to take things, but he always gives them back, it’s nothing to worry about.”
Magneto nodded, his mind on other things. Magda continued, “By the way, his name is actually Peter.”
Erik was confused. “But his birth certificate says-”
Magda cut him off. “Yes, I know that’s his birth name, but we’re in America, not in Europe, so we’re calling him Peter.”
Magneto nodded once again. He had not come to argue. “How is she?”
“Wanda? She’s a little better than she was last time you saw her, she’s been eating more. But the doctors say there’s still nothing they can do.”
Erik placed his hand on Magda’s. “That’s what he’s here for.” he said as indicated toward Elixir, and both of Wanda’s parents looked at him hopefully.
Elixir laughed nervously. “No pressure, right?”
A few minutes later, Magda, Erik, and Elixir all walked into Wanda’s room. She was a little girl with red hair, extremely thin, around the same age as Peter. In fact, she was the exact same age as him, as they were twins.
Magda sat by Wanda’s bedside, and said, “Wanda, honey?” The little girl faintly opened her eyes. “This nice shiny man is Elixir. He’s going to help you feel better, okay?”
The little girl faintly nodded, and Magda beckoned for Elixir to step forward. Joshua walked toward the little girl, visibly nervous. “Hi, I’m just going to put my hands on your shoulders. They might feel warm, but I promise I am not going to hurt you. Is that okay?” The little girl nodded again, so Elixir went behind the bed, and gently placed his hands on her shoulders.
For a few seconds, there was no visible change. Then Elixir’s hands began to glow. Normally, his hands were as shiny as the rest of his skin, but at the moment, they were actually glowing of their own power. Wanda did not appear to change for a few minutes, but gradually color was restored to her face. Her thin frame gained more fat, and she began to look healthier than she had in months. Finally, she opened her eyes completely, an her eyes looked like they were full of life, the way a child’s eyes should look.
“Mommy, I’m hungry!” Wanda said, sitting up. Then she noticed that her mother was crying, and said, “Mommy, why are you sad?”
Magda shook her head. “I’m not, I’m just crying because I’m happy,” and with that, she ran forward and hugged her daughter tightly.
Wanda stayed silent for a few seconds, before reminding her mother, “Mommy, I’m hungry!”
Magda wiped her eyes, then quickly ran to the kitchen, and returned with food for the now healthy girl. Magneto’s eyes had also become moist, and he patted Elixir on the back. “Thank you,” he told him.
“No problem,” Elixir replied, “that’s what I’m here for.”
Magneto returned to the mansion the next morning with a feeling of contentment he had not felt in quite some time. Elixir came to the mansion with a feeling of satisfaction that he had not felt for a while, as there were not that many people that he could heal as a prisoner.
Most of those happy feelings disappeared almost immediately after their arrival. The duo walked into the building to find Alex and Hank arguing with Professor X.
“No, I don’t care what you think, I’ve already lost Darwin, Thunderbird, and Banshee, I’m not going to lose you two as well!”
“What’s going on here?” Magneto asked.
The three turned their attention to Erik. Beast sighed and shook his head, as he walked past Magneto. “What?” Erik asked him, but he received no response.
Havok quickly followed. “Don’t even try to reason with him,” Alex said as he walked past Erik.
“Charles, what are they talking about?”
“That place is a death trap,” Charles replied, “and I am not condoning, no, I am not allowing any of my students to return there.”
“But two of your former students are out there right now, being held prisoner!” Magneto said.
“Oh, Angel was a student of mine for about five minutes,” Professor X replied as he poured himself another glass of whiskey.
“So because she doesn’t agree with your doctrine, you’re going to let her die?”
“No, you’ve already done that,” Charles said, “I’ve spoken with Emma.”
“That was… a necessary evil.” Erik replied, not willing to meet Charles gaze.
“Oh really? Go ahead, tell me how you managed to avoid killing anyone while crushing the entire building.”
“Do you know what kind of people died? People who tortured our brothers, slaughtered them like animals!”
“Uh, I’m gonna go now…” Elixir said, slowly walking out of the room. It did not really matter, both Magneto and Professor X were too busy arguing to notice or care.
“Oh yeah? How do you know all of the mutant captives escaped? How do you know they weren’t holding more in another part of the base?” the Professor asked.
Erik stopped for a moment to think. The truth was, he had not actually considered this before.
“The way I see it, you are no better than the people at Trask Industries,” Charles said.
Erik was hurt by Charles’ comment, but he did his best not to show it. “So you hate me, but at least find Angel and Banshee with Cerebro so we can save their lives!”
“No! You don’t know what it’s like, losing two students because you weren’t there to protect them.You don’t understand the guilt that I’ve felt.”
Magneto sighed. “Actually, I do. Riptide was shot by Trask’s men. I arrived just in time to watch him die, but there was nothing I could do to stop him.”
For the second time in as many days, Professor X felt sympathetic toward his worst enemy. He gave Erik a look of compassion, which quickly turned to confusion. “Riptide…?”
“He’s a member of the Brotherhood, he makes tornadoes. He rarely spoke, but he was a good soldier. He always followed orders, and he never complained.” Erik was no longer looking at Charles, but he had a faraway look in his eyes, as he remembered his fallen comrade. He chuckled as he said, “You know, I never even knew his real name. But he died fighting for my cause, and for that, I am forever in his debt.”
Charles nodded. “So you understand why I can never let any of my students return to that place.”
“But it can be different this time! You can come with us, you can freeze everyone in the building before we arrive!”
“I can’t freeze that many people at once, my abilities do have limits!”
“Then at least find them with Cerebro! Beast and Havok don’t have to come with us!”
“No! I refuse to do that, because if Hank and Alex have any idea where they are, they will gladly give their lives trying to save him, no matter what I say.”
Erik was starting to become angry. “I used to believe the man I once knew was crippled. Now I know that the man I once knew is truly dead.” After saying this, Magneto turned around and walked away.
“Leave Raven out of this!” Charles yelled as he walked away, but Erik ignored him.
He walked down the hallway toward the kitchen, where he found Havok, Beast, Emma, Elixir, Mystique and Azazel.
“What did he say?” Havok asked.
Erik did not look at him, but replied, “Alex, why do you bother asking questions to which you already know the answer?” Magneto paused for a moment, then said, “Charles will not help us on this mission.” Then he scanned the room, looking at the faces of the mutants gathered there, before settling on Emma. “I am afraid we will need you to operate Cerebro.”
Emma shook her head. “No way. There are a lot of things that I can do, but operate Cerebro is not one of them. My powers just don’t work like that.”
Erik placed both of his hands on her shoulders, and looked directly into her eyes. “I know you can do this. We built Cerebro specifically for Charles, but any telepath can use it.”
Emma was unconvinced. “I can’t! There was a reason I didn’t try to fight Xavier with my telepathy when you two attacked me last year. I am not as powerful as he is.”
“The only thing I am asking you to do is to try. For Angel.”
Tears were beginning to fall from Emma’s eyes, but she slowly nodded.
A few minutes later, Emma and Magneto were inside Cerebro, but the rest of the mutants remained in the kitchen, absorbed in their own private conversations.
Havok and Beast were talking quietly in one corner of the kitchen. Both were worried about Banshee. “Do you think she’ll be able to find him?” Alex asked.
Beast shrugged. “I really don’t know. It’s true that we designed Cerebro to be easy for Charles to operate, but there’s no reason she shouldn’t be able to use it.”
“And what do we do if she can’t?”
“I don’t know,” Hank replied, putting his head in his hands, “we just hope and pray that she can.”
Havok nodded, then said, “As you watched John’s plane fall, did you think of Darwin?”
Beast thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No, did you?”
“It’s just that I knew that we were watching his last moments, and I couldn’t help thinking of Darwin’s last moments.”
“I was already in another room when he died,” Hank said.
“But I wasn’t, and I still remember the look on his face as he died. It’s like he knew these were the last moments he would ever spend with another human being, and he didn’t want to take them for granted.”
Both men sat in silence for a few minutes, neither one knowing what to say. Finally, Alex asked, “In his last moments, do you think John regretted joining the X-Men?”
For this question, Beast did not have to think long. “No, I don’t think he did. When he spoke of his time in the war, he told me that a part of him wished he had died then. Many of his ancestor’s had died in battle, and he had wanted to live up to their example,” Hank paused for a moment as he looked out the window. He continued, “I like to think he died content, knowing that he finally received his warrior’s death.”
Alex looked around, to make sure no one was paying attention to them, then turned back to Hank. “Don’t get me wrong, I am worried about Banshee, but I’m also worried about Angel.”
Beast looked puzzled. “Why?”
“Well, I know she betrayed us and all, and we’ve fought her more than once, but I still care about her. She’s different than the rest of the Brotherhood, I feel like she actually cares.”
“Though it might seem difficult to believe,” Hank replied, “I think I understand. I know what it’s like to care for a girl that has already betrayed the X-Men.” As he said this, he briefly glanced at Raven, who was resting her head on Azazel’s shoulder.
Alex glanced at the couple behind him, then turned back to Beast. “Well, at least the girl I like has never tried to strangle you.”
Only a few feet away, Raven was trying to relax, but she was having difficulty. She couldn’t stop thinking about Riptide’s death. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, readjusting her head against Azazel’s shoulder.
“Is something wrong?” Azazel asked as he shifted his head to look at the outline of her face.
“It’s just that I keep thinking about Riptide. It just seems so shocking that one of us could die.”
“We are mutants, we are not gods,” Azazel replied, as he gently stroked Raven’s hair.
Mystique sat up, no longer comfortable, and said, “I know that, but it was just a reminder that we could die at any time doing what we do.”
Azazel shifted closer, and put his arm around her shoulders. “I have seen many comrades fall in battle. It is just part of this life.”
Mystique rested her head on his shoulder once more, and tried to relax. “I just wonder if this is a safe environment to raise a child.”
“Maybe, after this mission, we quit this job, and move to California.”
Raven giggled. “Why California?”
“So kid can grow up seeing movie stars!” Mystique laughed again. Azazel continued, “We will settle down, buy nice big house, and I will get real job.”
“Where are you going to work?”
“Maybe I will become American clown. Something with a lot of makeup.”
Raven closed her eyes. She was finally able to relax.
Elixir laughed out loud. He was reading a comic book, and ignoring the other conversations.
Eventually, Magneto and Emma returned, the latter being visibly shaken. Magneto announced, “We have found both Banshee and Angel. They are both alive,” Erik paused for a moment as he sensed the audible sense of relief in the room after he said those words. The he continued, “but we are unsure of how injured both of them are.”
“When do we leave?” Havok asked as he stood up.
“As soon as possible,” Magneto replied. Then he turned to Elixir. “I would like to extend an offer to you to join us.”
Elixir shrugged. “Why not? I hate Trask Industries, and I’d certainly like to hurt them in any way possible.” Then he realized that his comment might seem insensitive, so he added, “But I’m sure those guys you keep talking about are nice too.”
“Then it is settled. Ladies and gentlemen, follow me to the Blackbird.” The group of mutants followed Erik to their mode of transportation, and they were soon in the air. Erik sat near the front of the jet to help Beast with navigation, as Emma had already told him the location of the base. This left Havok alone with Elixir, Azazel, Mystique and Emma.
To lighten the tension, Alex asked the couple, “So, if you two have kids, what color would they be?”
Mystique and Azazel did not reply, they merely glared at him. Havok decided that maybe making small talk was not a good idea.
Elixir tapped on Alex’s shoulder, causing him to turn around in his seat. “After I was born, my parents said they had discovered the secret to alchemy!”
Alex pretended to smile, then slowly turned back around. “Get it?” Elixir continued. “Because they made gold!”
Havok decided that making small talk was definitely not a good idea.
“That’s fairly clever,” Emma said. She was sitting directly across the aisle from Elixir, making it easy to speak to him. “Did you just make that up right now?”
Joshua shook his head. “When you are being held prisoner, you have lots of free time. And since I have gold-colored skin, I tend to come up with a lot of jokes about alchemy.”
“I was a prisoner of the CIA for a few months,” Emma told him, “I don’t think I came up with any jokes about diamonds. At least I was being held by the American government, and there are laws that protect me, but I can’t imagine what kinds of things Trask Industries might do to Angel.”
Elixir nodded. “Judging from my experience, the sooner we rescue her, the better.”
It was only a few hours before they arrived at a Trask Industries base in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Magneto quickly devised a strategy. Seeing as the previous strategy of splitting up had proven unsuccessful, he had decided that they would storm the base together.
So Magneto, Elixir, Beast, Havok, Azazel, Mystique, and Emma all walked into the base after Magneto knocked in one of its walls. The room was already filled with multiple security guards, a few had even been crushed by the wall. Of course, they immediately opened fire on the intruders.
“Why exactly did we give up on the stealthy approach?” Havok asked as he blasted several guards with cosmic energy.
Beast realized the irony of his own words as he replied, “Because it didn’t work.” Immediately after saying this, he roared and ran on all fours toward the guards, and pummeled the men using both his hands and his feet.
Mystique ran toward the guards, as did Emma, who had already transformed into a diamond. Both of the two women joined Beast, and attacked the guards using their signature styles.
Azazel turned toward Magneto, a glint of playfulness in his eye. “Swords?” he asked, unsheathing one to place emphasis upon it.
Magneto nodded. “We are not abiding by Charles’ rules today.”
No longer having to worry about upsetting his boss, Azazel teleported toward his girlfriend, and joined her in battle against the guards.
Elixir was still standing next to Magneto, partially because he did not know what else to do, and partially to avoid getting shot.
“Why don’t you just take away their guns?” he asked.
“I could,” the master of magnetism replied, “but the others seem to have the situation well in hand, and at times I like to try new ways to use my abilities.” Immediately after he said this, several guards turned their attention to the two men who were standing still. Before they could shoot, Magneto caused a section of the roof to cave in, crushing the men instantly. Magneto smiled, then looked at Joshua. “Like that.”
The security guards that were fighting the mutants must have rang an alarm, because it did not take long for the room to become flooded with even more security guards. In the chaos, Emma, Havok, and Beast were separated from Elixir, Mystique, Azazel and Magneto.
The two X-Men and Emma fought their way through several corridors, all the while searching for their missing teammates. When things had quieted down, and all of the security guards had been defeated, they had time to talk. “Emma, can you scan the next room to make sure there are no security guards waiting to ambush us?” Havok asked.
Emma shook her head. “No, I can’t use my telepathic abilities while in my diamond form. Besides, I haven’t been able to use my telepathy ever since I used Cerebro. Every time I try, I find myself in mental anguish.”
“Are you sure it’s a physical issue, and not a psychological one?” Beast asked, as he walked a few feet ahead of the other two. “If we weren’t so busy here, it would be an intriguing thing to study.”
“Yeah, sounds about as interesting as tossed salad and scrambled eggs,” Alex said wryly.
“No thank you, honey,” Emma said, “telepaths don’t usually like it when someone tries to mess around with their head. Besides, I didn’t think psychiatry was your field of expertise.”
“I like to dabble in all scientific fields,” Hank replied, but before he could say any more, several security guards arrived, guns a-blazing. Havok quickly ducked for cover behind Emma, who quickly put her arms up to protect him from the bullets.
Beast, however, needed no such protection. He smacked the closest guard directly in the face, then grabbed the shoulders of the next man, and used him as an acrobatic launching pad. The man crumbled under Beast’s weight, but it did not matter, as Hank was already running along the side of the wall. He knew he could not stay there long, as gravity would catch up to him, so he used the wall as another launching pad, and tackled the next guard. Then Beast swung the man he was currently holding toward the guard in front of him, causing both to fall on the floor in a heap.
By the time Havok stepped out from behind Emma, Beast had already finished. Alex smirked. “That’s why we call him Beast.”
Not at all tired by his recent display of athletic prowess, Beast beckoned for the others to follow him, and all three ran down the corridor.
Meanwhile, Magneto, Mystique, Azazel and Elixir had not ran into much opposition since their initial entry of the base. As they were walking down through several corridors, Magneto noticed a room filled with files. He turned to Mystique and Azazel. “You two go on ahead, I am going to check in this room.”
“Of course!” Mystique said, then she grabbed Azazel’s hand, and they continued walking. Erik shook his head. It always amazed him how the two of them could be in the middle of a combat situation, and still pretend they were on a date.
Turning his mind back toward the mission, Magneto entered the room with the files. “Um, I’ll stay with you, I guess,” Elixir said, as he followed.
“If you so desire,” Erik replied, as he began to look through the cabinets.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what are we doing here? I thought this was a rescue mission.”
“As I told you yesterday, the United States Government is currently in the process of shutting down Trask Industries. I want to see how much progress they are making.” It did not take long for Magneto to find what he was looking for. As he read the file, he felt his blood boil, and once again, he marveled at the hatred and intolerance of humanity. He knew that he had to leave for Texas immediately. He would take the jet, but flying by himself was a much faster mode of transportation. Magneto knew he would have to intervene, have to do something.
There was no way he going to let them kill the president.
At the same time, Mystique and Azazel had found cages that contained mutants. They saw plenty of strange looking characters, but none of them were Banshee or Angel. These mutants were being held in a cell block entitled “Extremely dangerous mutants.” Azazel and Mystique briefly discussed whether it was safe to allow a bunch of violent, and possibly insane super-powered beings to run free.
Then they had a great laugh, and Azazel quickly went to work freeing the prisoners. He teleported from cage to cage, unlocking the doors as he went. Most of the mutants did not hesitate to leave after their doors were unlocked, but one still remained.
“Hey, are you going to let me out of here?” the man cried, with a slight British accent. Azazel had not noticed him before, as his cage was mounted on the wall. The man couldn’t move any part of his body, with the exception of his head, due to his constraints.
“Nice helmet,” Azazel said, as began teleporting pieces of the man’s constraints away.
“Thanks,” the man replied, “it prevents telepaths from messing with my head. My stepbrother is a telepath, and they didn’t want him to find me.”
By this point, Azazel had finished freeing the man, and asked him, “And you take it off now?”
“No, I don’t want my stepbrother finding me, either. His morality speeches were incredibly annoying. Listening to him was almost as painful as not being able to move for months.”
“I am thinking, it is now time for humans to feel pain, no?” Azazel asked, once again displaying one of his swords for emphasis.
“Man, they don’t call me the Juggernaut for nothing!” The man who was apparently known as Juggernaut replied, before turning around and running through the wall, creating a hole the size of his body. Azazel grinned, then teleported back to where Raven was standing. He took her hand, and they began to walk out of the room full of cages.
“You know, some of the mutants that walked past me seemed angry, and fairly crazy,” Raven said, a worried tone in her voice.
“At least they are angry with Trask,” Azael said.
“Yeah, hopefully,” Mystique replied, “there was one guy who really creeped me out, he kept babbling about chimichangas…”
Not far away, Havok, Beast and Emma were still searching, without much luck. It was at that moment that someone else found them.
“Guys!” Elixir exclaimed as he ran toward them, “Magneto’s gone!”
The three mutants turned around to look at him. “What do you mean he’s gone?” Emma asked.
“He made a hole in the roof, and then he flew away! He was reading from some file, and I guess decided it was more important than remaining here!”
Havok sighed in disgust. “Well, that’s just grea-” he began to say, but he was cut off by the sound of an explosion. “What was that?”
“There is one simple way to find out,” Beast said, and he began running in that direction, quickly followed by Alex and Emma.
The three of them arrived in the next room, and were witness to a tremendous battle. It was humans versus mutants, as Trask Industries’ security fought an army of escaped prisoners. The mutants were killing the guards in a variety of ways, some with energy projection, some with brute strength, and some were just too fast for the guards to keep up with. Of course, the security guards were hardly helpless, and many were shooting and throwing grenades at the mutants.
“These mutants are not exactly the same as the victims we saw yesterday,” Emma remarked.
“No, many of them look like they know exactly what they’re doing.” Beast said.
“I almost want to help the security guards,” Havok said. Even though he had fought plenty of the employees of Trask Industries over the past two days, the X-Man in him could not help but see a bunch of humans that needed to be protected from mutants.
“Wait, look!” Beast exclaimed, as he pointed across the room where the battle was taking place, toward an adjacent room. It was hard to make out, but there appeared to be a room that had the words “Recently acquired” written on the door.
Havok and Emma both strained their eyes to see it. “Do you think they could be in there?” Emma asked, a glimmer of hope in her voice.
“There’s one simple way to find out,” Havok said as he glanced at Beast, a look of determination on his face.
“Are you sure?” Hank asked, “I’m fast enough to evade their ammunition, Emma is bulletproof, but Alex…”
“You can stay on my right side,” Emma said, “I’ll deflect any bullets that come near, and we’ll just have to hope that none of the mutants throw anything worse at you.”
“It’s still a substantial risk,” Beast said.
Havok stared straight into the war zone ahead of him, and said, “The Professor refused to help us, Magneto appears to have abandoned us, we can’t find Elixir, Azazel and Raven probably released these monsters, and Thunderbird is long gone.” Then he turned to look at Beast. “We’re all he has left.”
Beast nodded. “If given the chance, Sean would have done the same thing for us.”
Havok allowed himself a small smile. “He would have attacked everyone in this room if it was necessary to rescue us.”
Realizing they were as determined as she was, Emma said, “On the count of three. One, two, three!”
The three mutants ran out from their hiding spot, into the battle royale, running as quickly as they could. Of course, Beast, who was running on all fours, quickly gained a lead on the other two. Havok and Emma ran at nearly the same pace, with the diamond-fleshed woman protecting the fairly vulnerable man.
Unfortunately, Emma was so focused on running that she did not notice when Havok tripped. A shotgun casing happened to lie in the middle of their pathway, and Alex slipped on it. He hit the ground hard. The wind was knocked out of him, and for a moment, he had trouble breathing, let alone getting up. Alex cringed, waiting for the hail of bullets that he knew were inevitable.
Instead, someone picked him up. This person lifted Havok off the ground, carried him through the room into the adjacent hallway, and dropped him off there. She was getting tired, so her dropoff was not gentle.
Once again, Havok had the wind knocked out of him, so it took him a few seconds to turn around and see his rescuer.
By the time he was able to do so, Emma was already running toward her with open arms. “Angel!” Emma exclaimed as she transformed into her flesh-and-blood guise right before wrapping the other woman in a big hug. Angel hugged back, but remained airborne.
Havok got up, and waited for Emma to release Angel. Then he hugged her as well, and whispered, “Thank you,” into her ear.
“No problem,” she replied as she squeezed him tighter. Eventually, Alex pulled away, but Angel left one of her arms draped around him.
“Um, would you mind holding me up?” she asked. “My leg is still kind of…” she let her words trail off, and indicated toward her leg, which was in a cast.
“Oh, of course!” Havok said, putting one arm around her shoulder to support her.
“I can still fly, but that can be become tiring.”
“Right, I understand. I’ve broken my leg before.”
“Do you want me to help you with your other arm?” Emma asked, figuring that the more support, the better.
“No, it’s fine, I think Alex can do it,” Angel said.
Emma raised her eyebrow, then smiled mischieviously. “Oh, I understand now. You know, I didn’t see it until now, but Angel was right when she told me how cute you are.”
Angel blushed, and stared at the floor, averting her gaze from Alex. Havok raised his eyebrows, very much hoping that she was telling the truth.
Emma did not want to stop embarrassing Angel, so she continued, “Tell me, Alex, do you have a brother?”
“Well, my parents do want another son, but even if my mother was pregnant right now, he would be way too young for you,” Havok replied.
“Fair enough,” Emma said, “how did you get free, Angel?”
“A bunch of the more powerful mutants somehow busted out of their cages, and were freeing others,” Angel replied, “after they did, I joined my fellow mutants in an attempt to make Trask Industries extinct. That was when I saw you guys.”
“It’s kind of funny,” Alex said, “we came here to rescue you, yet you ended up rescuing me.”
“We actually came here to rescue a second person as well,” Beast said, speaking up for the first time since Havok’s rescue.
“Oh, right,” Havok said, suddenly remembering his still missing teammate. He helped support Angel as the three of them followed Hank.
“Let me tell you,” Angel said as they walked, “you have no idea what kind of weirdos you will meet here.”
Unfortunately for Elixir, he knew all too well. The moment he heard the grenade go off, he had immediately ran back toward the room filled with files, and hid behind a filing cabinet.
He knew it was not the most brave of choices, but he decided that it was the one that would most likely allow him to remain alive.
Of course, he no longer felt that way when another battle between mutants and security guards began right outside of the room he was hiding in.
Elixir was in the middle of wishing that he had never come back, when he heard someone enter the room. While his footsteps made some noise, what really gave away the intruder away was the fact that he could not stop talking.
“Files and cabinets? Those don’t belong in a supervillain lair! Where is the mad science, where are the magic potions, where are the evil-but-hot babes?” Then the man spotted Elixir.
Elixir wanted to shrink back against the wall, as this man definitely looked dangerous. He was tall, well-built, and carried two swords. Elixir cringed, expecting the worst.
What he did not expect was for the man to drop one of his swords, extend his arm, and shake Elixir’s hand. “Hi there! I’m Slade Wil- no, wait, that’s who I’m ripping off. I’m Wade Wilson, what’s your name?”
Elixir warily shook his hand, not sure what to expect. “I’m Elixir.”
Wade sat down on the ground next to his new friend. “I am really athletic, and I kill a lot of people. What can you do?”
“I can heal people.”
“Really? I’ve always wanted a healing factor, mostly so I can blow my own head off, then have it grow back again. Or, even better, cut off my own head, and then reattach it! But if it doesn’t go back on the first time, I won’t try to reattach it a second time. You know why?”
“Why?” Elixir asked, though he was not sure he wanted to know the answer.
“Because I would quit while I was a head!” Wade said, then proceeded to slap Elixir’s knee, and laughed like he had just told the funniest joke in the world. Elixir sensed the madman wanted him to laugh, but all he could manage to do was grimace.
“So tell me, Laxative, why are you in here hiding, instead of out there, fighting the bad guys?” Wade asked.
“It’s Elixir, actually, and I do know how to create sores on people’s flesh, but I prefer not to, since I usually kill them, and I don’t want to kill anyone anymore.”
Wade was confused. “You don’t want to kill anyone? Really? I love killing people! Why, just the other day, I was saying to my friend Bob-” then he paused in mid-sentence, suddenly wondering where Bob was. “Did I… kill… Bob?” He slowly said to himself, and he seriously pondered that question for a few minutes.
During this time, Elixir stared at Wade with an expression of undisguised terror, as he seriously worried for his life. Eventually, Wade noticed, and said, “Would you believe this, true believers? This guy has shiny golden skin, yet he’s looking at me like I’m the freak.”
“Who are you talking to?” Elixir asked.
“It’s not important. Anywho, all this talking of killing reminds me that there is something I need to do, and that something is kill more people!” Then he got up, picked up his sword, and ran out the door, crying out, “It was nice to meet you, Electro!”
Once outside, Wade immediately killed two security guards, took both of their guns, and began firing back at the security forces of Trask Industries. “Woo-hoo!” he hollered, “I’m having so much fun, I don’t care that I’m going to become a mouthless abomination in twenty-two years!”
He continued to scream and holler, as he fought, and he even shouted, “Fan-fiction Deadpool is ten times cooler than Origins Deadpool! Yeah!!”
Elixir heard all of this from his hiding spot behind the cabinet. His meeting with the madman had made things perfectly clear.
He had to get out of there.
Meanwhile, Beast, Havok, Angel and Emma successfully made it through the door marked “Recently acquired.”
They immediately found a man in a Sentinel exoskeleton battle suit waiting for them. Emma turned back into Diamond, and Angel let go of Havok and flew into the air.
“I never thought I would say I missed Magneto,” Alex said as the pilot of the Sentinel began to give a lecture on how he would kill them all.
“You two go on ahead, we’ll take care of him,” Angel said as she spewed fireballs at the metal monstrosity.
“Hey, wait, no one’s going anywhere!” the pilot exclaimed.
“Listen, honey, the two of us are going to be a handful already,” Emma said, before she dug her diamond fingers into the Sentinel’s legs, and began to climb it. As she did this, Angel shot fireballs at the head of the battle suit. It did not penetrate the bulletproof glass, but it partially obstructed the pilot’s view.
Using the distraction provided by the women to their advantage, Havok and Beast ran down the corridor. The found a series of rooms, none of them properly labeled, and preceded to search each one. They found plenty of scientific research pertaining to mutants, but they did not find Banshee. Beast was sorry that he could not spend more time investigating what they found there, but there were more pressing matters at hand.
Finally, there was only one door left, and they entered it, hoping against hope to find their missing mutant.
Instead, they found two mutants, and neither of them were Banshee. Both stood in front of another door, which was labeled “Mutant captives.” Both Beast and Havok realized that all that stood between them and Banshee were the two mutants standing in front of them.
Unfortunately, Fred J. Dukes and Unus the untouchable would not be easy to get past. “Well if it isn’t a couple of mutants that have returned to rescue their buddy.” Fred said, a cruel grin on his face.
“A shame neither of you will survive,” Unus added.
Havok turned to Beast. “I’ll take Little Red Riding Hood, you take the Blob.” Havok said, and Beast nodded.
Fred had heard this exchange, and with a hurt expression on his face, he said, “Did you just call me... Blob?”
“Yeah, I did, blubber boy. What are you going to do in retaliation, eat me?”
Fred was furious, but he did not move from his post. Instead, he remained directly in front of the door that the two X-Men wanted to enter. With a roar, Beast attempted to run past him, but Fred swatted him away using his massive, fat-covered arm. Hank winced as he hit the ground, but he got right back up, and attempted to climb over the obese man. Once again, Fred was able to pluck him off of his enormous torso, and hurled him into a wall. Beast was in a lot of pain, but he knew he could not stop now, Banshee depended on him. He attacked Fred once again.
While those two were fighting, Unus was taunting Havok. “Come on, bullseye, show me what you got!”
Havok smirked. He had a plan, but he could not put it into action here. “You know what, I think I’ll take another path. I’ll just blast a hole through a few walls.” Immediately after saying this, Havok turned around, and ran back the way he came.
“Hey! Come back here!” Unus exclaimed as he ran after him.
Meanwhile, Azazel and Mystique were on the front line in the midst of the battle between security guards and mutants. Mystique was taking out as many men as she could, using non-lethal means. Azazel teleported around her, kicking, stabbing and strangling any guards that tried to catch her off-guard. He was, of course, using lethal means.
“You know, it’s not that I mind having dozens of mutants fighting alongside of me,” Raven told her boyfriend as he teleported around her, “it’s just that with others fighting them, and doing just as good a job as we are, it makes me feel less special.”
Azazel was not really paying attention, as he had just spotted a security guard that was taking aim at Mystique from a considerable difference. He teleported toward the man and was busy killing him when he noticed that a grenade had been thrown directly at Raven’s feet, and it appeared that she had not noticed it yet.
Azazel immediately teleported in between Mystique and the grenade, wrapped his arms around her, and teleported away. It was fitting that with a loving embrace, he had managed to save the woman he loved.
It was also the last embrace they would ever share.
The grenade went off right before Azazel could teleport them both away. He managed to shield Raven from the grenade’s explosive effects, but all of his legs and most of his back were badly burned. On top of that, the concussive force of the grenade had broken several of his bones.
After he teleported Mystique to safety, Azazel was in so much pain, the only thing he could do was fall over. Mystique caught him before he could hit the ground, and cradled his head in her arms as tears began to fall from her eyes.
“Azazel,” she said, knowing that she had little time left with him, “you shouldn’t have done that.”
Azazel spoke slowly, his breath coming in labored gasps. “I am glad that I did… I had to save my family.”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” Raven said through the tears.
With his dying breath, Azazel told her, “Make sure Kurt has a good home,” and then he was gone.
Raven held Azazel’s lifeless body close to her, and sobbed loudly, no longer caring if anyone would hear her. She sat there, cradling the corpse of the of the man she loved for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, she came to a decision. She would not seek revenge on the men who had killed Azazel. She had not actually seen the man who threw the grenade, and she knew that he was actually trying to kill her, not her boyfriend. Even more important, she realized that those men were merely employees, henchmen. If she was going to kill anyone, she was going to kill the man who was responsible for the death of not only Azazel, but also Riptide, Thunderbird, and countless other mutants.
As she stood up and wiped the tears from her face, she made a solemn vow. She would continue her stance on not killing anyone. There was only man she wanted to kill, and his name was Bolivar Trask.
With that belief firmly held in her mind, Mystique confidently walked toward the battle, intending to finish it.
That was when the labor pains struck.
Meanwhile, Magneto was already standing in the middle of Dealey Plaza, in Dallas, Texas. He was wearing civilian clothes, which he had had to steal. He was not proud of this, but he knew that in full costume, he would stick out like a sore thumb.
He stood along the side of the rode with at least a dozen other spectators, and several more on the other side of the road. Most were watching the parade, but Magneto had his mind on other things. None of the spectators looked like assassins, but it was often hard to tell.
As Erik was searching the crowd for any suspicious activity, he heard a voice in his head calmly ask, “Are you here to kill me?”
Erik was certainly surprised, but he had enough experience with Charles and Emma to know when a telepath was speaking to him. He mentally replied, “What? Who are you?”
“My name is John Fitzgerald Kennedy, but you may know me better as the President of the United States. So, tell me, are you here to kill me? It’s not unheard of for Trask Industries to hire a mutant.”
Magneto was still bewildered, as he could not see Kennedy yet, since his car was still in the back of the parade. “Of course I’m not here to kill you, I’m here to protect you! And how did you know I was a mutant?”
“Because I am as well,” Kennedy said telepathically, “my gift is my ability to sense mutants within a three-mile radius.”
“Since you are also a telepath, why don’t you just read the minds of the people around, and find your killer that way?” Erik asked, or rather, thought.
Magneto was not certain, but he thought he could hear the President mentally sigh. “I can only speak to people telepathically, I can’t read their minds. And I can only do it with mutants. If Trask knows this, then it makes sense that he would send a human to kill me.”
“I had no idea you were a mutant,” Erik said, still in a state of shock, “I knew that you were trying to protect mutants by shutting down Trask Industries, but I never guessed it was because you were one.”
“I believe in equality, and I like to think that even if I was a human, that I would still do everything in my power to protect mutants. As it is, I’ll never really know.”
Erik nodded, even though the President would not be able to see him do so, because he completely understood. “You never asked for this gift, it was merely given to you at birth.”
“Exactly,” Kennedy replied, “and I hate what Trask is doing to my people, so I am doing my best to shut his company down. Because of this, I believe they are going to assassinate me.”
“At the very least, they are going to try,” Magneto said, “I have the ability to manipulate metal, and I will do everything in my power to protect you.”
“Then you have my thanks. I will be at your location in a few minutes, tell me, can you detect the presence of any handguns within the vicinity?”
Magneto looked around, and reached with his mind in an attempt to sense the presence of guns in possession of the bystanders on either side of the street.
He quickly responded to the President. “Yes, I can detect the presence of several guns, held by several different people on both sides of the street. Do you want me to take all of them away?”
“No, that would cause too much of a scene. And most of them are probably undercover secret servicemen, but since I can’t see what you’re seeing, I can’t tell you who.”
“There has to be some way to figure this out!” Magneto said telepathically. He was getting desperate, and he frantically looked at all of the present spectators, trying to guess which one was the assassin.
It was at that moment that the car that Kennedy was sitting in with his wife, Jacqueline, turned the corner and started driving along the road where Erik was standing. Kennedy was smiling at the crowd, pretending that he was not frightened for his life. As he passed my Magneto, he briefly made eye contact with him, and said telepathically,”If they manage to kill me, make sure nothing happens to my wife.”
As the car drove past Erik, he noticed that several feet ahead of him, a young man had removed his gun from his holster, and had taken the safety off. knowing he had only precious few seconds act, Magneto ran toward the man, snatching the gun away from his hands with his powers at the same time.
It was at that moment that a shot rang out from one of the buildings. “No!” Magneto screamed as he realized he was too late to stop the first three bullets, as the second one hit Kennedy in the neck, and the third hit him in the skull.
Magneto had just screamed as the President was shot, and he was holding a gun. Both of these things made him appear to be very suspicious. Several secret servicemen tackled him, and pinned him to the ground.
Just as Erik came to the realization that he had completely failed, a fourth bullet was fired. He could barely see it, but he realized that the bullet was about to hit Jacqueline Kennedy, so he curved it to make it avoid her.
Erik had the small satisfaction that he had managed to save the President’s widow, and this was the last thought he had before one of the secret servicemen clubbed him in the head, and he lost consciousness.
Back in Indiana, Havok was leading Unus on a wild chase throughout the building. Finally, when he reached a large, empty room with plenty of exits, Havok stopped, and Unus did as well.
“Decided to stop running, huh? Decided to stop acting like a scared little girl?” Unus said.
“Oh, believe me, I am terrified of you,” Havok said as he rolled his eyes, “and to prove how frightened I am by your awesome power, I am going to make you even more powerful.” After saying this, Alex removed a mechanical device from his pocket, and moved a switch.
Unus narrowed his eyes. “What are you doing?”
“Actually, a better question would be, what did I just do? I made your force field larger, by moving this switch.”
Unus did not believe him, but he still said, “Then you are digging your own grave,” and he stepped closer to Havok.
Havok unleashed a blast of cosmic energy, hoping to push the force field backwards, Unus with it. Unfortunately, Unus continued to step forward, and Alex began to worry that his plan would not succeed.
Suddenly, Unus stopped, perplexed by something Havok had said. “Wait, how did you know I have a force field?”
“Oh, Magneto told me,” Havok said as he moved the switch on the mechanical device a little bit higher, “you know that guy who wrapped up you and your fat friend in metal, and then sent you flying away? Well, we’re buddies,” this was not actually true, but he was trying to sound as confident as possible, “and he told me all about your powers. Another friend of mine is very smart, and it turns out he had been working on a way to fight a mutant with a force field for quite some time now.” Alex pointed at the device he was holding. “You see this little gadget? It disrupts the frequency of your force field, making it larger.”
Unus scoffed. “I still don’t understand how this is a bad thing.”
Havok was slowly backing up toward the open door, and he had successfully distracted Unus from paying attention to this by talking. “Oh, you’ll understand in a moment,” Havok said, and right before stepping through the door, he added, “it also makes it impossible for you to control it.” Then he ran through the door, and immediately turned up the switch on the device to the maximum.
Instantly, Unus’ force field expanded, smashing into the walls, roof and floor, and leaving Unus suspended in mid-air.
“You can’t leave me like this!” Unus cried out, his mouth being the one part of his body that he could move.
“Oh. don’t worry, it will wear off in a few hours,” Havok replied to his now trapped enemy, “but you should know, if you ever bother the X-Men again, my friend is working on a device that would make this condition permanent, and he won’t hesitate to use it.”
After saying this, Havok quickly ran back to the room where he knew Beast was fighting the Blob. He arrived just in time to see Beast tackle Fred’s leg, in an attempt to knock him off balance. Fred merely kicked the poor furry mutant away.
Hank flew threw the air, and landed right next to Alex. “Having fun?” Havok asked as he helped his teammate up.
Beast shook his head. “Did my force field disruptor work?”
“Like a charm,” Havok replied.
“You morons ready to give up?” Fred asked. Neither of the X-Men responded, instead they merely glared at their obese enemy.
Fred laughed. “So you guys are silent. Just like your flying, screaming friend was when I wrapped my hand around his little throat.”
“You did what?” Havok said, feeling his blood begin to boil. Beast was equally angry, and he even began to growl.
“You heard me. I held yer scrawny friend’s neck while my boss stabbed him in the gut.” Fred grinned. “It was fun.”
Upon hearing this news, Havok unleashed a devastating blast of cosmic energy on the Blob, lashing out with all his anger. Fred simply stood in the same place, and was almost completely unaffected by the attack.
“You can’t hurt me! In fact, nothing can move me! You’ll never make it to see your friend!”
Of course, Beast did not agree. Previously, he had only tried to make it past his massive foe, but now, he took the offensive. Moving even faster than his
normal speed, he ran toward the Blob, and climbed up the man’s torso, then climbed over his shoulders and wrapped his arms around Fred’s neck, squeezing his throat as tight as he could.
Fred tried to pry Beast away, but it was difficult for him to reach that high, especially with a lack of oxygen in his lungs. Fred attempted to free himself from Beast’s grip several times, all the while trying to breathe, and ultimately failed at both. Finally, he passed out, and fell forward, hitting the ground with a thud.
“Looks like you found a way to move him,” Havok remarked, but Beast had no reply. He was too distracted by the fact that the entry to the door marked “Mutant captives” was no longer blocked, and the two X-Men walked through it together.
Immediately after entering, they were delighted to see Banshee.
However, delight soon turned into horror after they realized he was dead.
After they had witnessed the death of Thunderbird, both men had remained strong, and kept their feelings bottled up, as they knew they still had another teammate who was in trouble, and they concentrated their efforts on finding him. However, over the past two days, so many horrible things had happened, they knew that there was no longer any point.
There was only two X-Men left, and both of them wept bitterly.
At the same time, Raven was also mourning the death of a loved one. The difference was that she was distracted from her emotional pain by her physical pain. She had already escaped from the base into the forest outside, and she was currently in the middle of labor.
Unbeknownst to her teammates, Mystique was actually nine months pregnant. The only other person who knew was the father of the child, Azazel. She had used her shape shifting powers to hide her ever-enlarging belly.
She had not gotten far, as the pain of childbirth made it difficult to her to stand, much less walk. Finally, she collapsed on the ground, no longer having the strength to move. Worse yet, she no longer had the will to move. Azazel was dead, and she believed that there was no one in the world who cared about her.
Fortunately for her, a family of German tourists found her only a few minutes later. They were good people, an honest, hard-working Catholic family. The youngest daughter asked why the pregnant lady was blue in their native tongue, but her mother quickly shushed her.
The father and the two oldest sons began to lift her off the ground, and Raven was too weak to object. After they did, the mother came up to Raven’s head, and gently stroked her hair. “We... take... girl… hospital,” the woman said slowly, in broken English.
“Thank you,” Mystique whispered.
At the same time, Emma Frost was fighting a Sentinel. She had been separated from Angel, who was currently fighting several security guards that had attacked them.
Emma did not know exactly what area Angel was in, but she had bigger problems at the moment. She was using her diamond fists to repeatedly punch the bulletproof glass that protected the pilot of the battle suit. She had managed to climb to the top of the construct, avoiding being snatched by one of the Sentinels arms.
She felt a sense of grim satisfaction as she delivered a final blow to the glass, breaking it completely. It was in that brief moment of celebration that the pilot caught her off guard, and grabbed her with one of his robotic arms.
The fact that she needed to learn how to defend herself was not the only thing Emma had learned while in Russia the year before. She had also learned that her diamond skin was not indestructible. She had made the same mistake that many people made, in that she assumed hardness also equaled toughness. It was true that diamond was the second hardest substance on earth (with adamantium being the hardest), but it could still be chipped and cracked if struck at the right angle, or squeezed with the right amount of force.
Emma had discovered this at a fairly inconvenient time, as it was when Magneto was slowly tightening a bedpost around her neck.
Emma was reminded of this occurrence at an equally inconvenient time, as the Sentinel began tightly squeezing her with both hands. She tried to pry open the hands with her own, but she could not. She could make her hands very sharp when she needed them to be, but she could not make herself stronger than the Sentinel. He squeezed her so tightly that her diamond skin began to crack. Eventually, she was in so much pain that she went limp.
So the man in the Sentinel exoskeleton battle suit dropped her on the ground. Then he repeatedly stomped on her with his massive metal foot. He took advantage of the cracks he had already made in her diamond flesh, and made them open even further.
Finally, the pain was too much, and Emma could no longer even remain in her diamond form. She turned back into a human, and expected to be immediately crushed. Surprisingly, the man in the exoskeleton battle suit stopped, and walked away.
Emma did not understand, but she was not sure if it even mattered. Her injuries in her diamond form were so severe that she even had them in her human form. She could do nothing but quietly lay there as she slowly bled from her open wounds.
At the same time, Angel was having a lot more success fighting the security guards. Even though her leg was injured, she could still fly fast enough to avoid their gunfire. In fact, she had just finished off the last security guard with a fireball when she heard a scream coming from the next room. She was unsure what was going on, so she flew in that direction.
What she found was about a dozen interns that had been cornered by a green skinned mutant with long spikes on his arms.
“Please!” one of the interns begged, “we’re just completing our internship here! We didn’t know people were being held against their will!” The other interns cried out in agreement.
“I don’t care,” the mutant said with an evil smile that revealed several rows of sharp, pointy teeth, “the only good human is a dead human.” Then he slowly walked toward them, murder in his eyes.
However, his attempt to kill the young men and women was interrupted when Angel flew in between him and his potential victims. “You want to kill a human?” she asked him, “Why not go kill some of the people who deserve it.”
“I think I will,” he replied, and Angel smiled, happy that she had been able to reason with him. Her happiness did not last long, as he said “starting with you!”
Angel started to lift higher into the air, but the green skinned mutant was too fast. He ran directly toward her, and stabbed her in the leg. Angel cried out in pain, as the man used the spike that was embedded in her leg to drag her to the ground, and stabbed her in the stomach.
Havok and Beast arrived at that moment, several seconds too late. Beast immediately ran toward Angel’s murderer and tackled him, while Havok ran to Angel’s side and tried to help her off of the floor.
“Don’t worry, we are going to find Elixir, and he’s going to save you-”
Angel cut him off mid-sentence. “Alex,” she said, “it’s too late. Just... hold me for a moment.”
He did not want to believe it, but Alex did as he was told, and wrapped his arms around her.
“Did you find Banshee?” Angel whispered.
Havok nodded solemnly. “He didn’t make it.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He was already dead when we arrived. But you didn’t have to die, why did you fight another mutant?”
“I didn’t have to, I chose to. He was threatening a bunch of innocent people. I had to show the world that we’re not all like them.”
Havok understood now. “I’m proud of you, Angel,” he said as he blinked back tears, “you died an X-Man.”
Angel smiled. It was the last thing she ever did. She died in his arms.
Alex sat on the ground, and held her for several minutes. He finally released her when Beast came back. “Do you want revenge on the man who killed her?” he asked.
Havok shook his head. “I may be a violent man, but I’m not a killer. I do want to surrender him to Trask security, I don’t want him to ever kill anyone with those spikes again.”
“I believe I have already solved that conundrum. I ripped his arms off,” Beast replied.
This came as a surprise to Havok, as Hank was usually a fairly gentle person. Then he looked at Beast’s face, and realized that he was just as hurt and angry as he was.
“Let’s get out of here,” Alex said, “I never want to see this place again.”
Beast nodded, and the two men headed toward the exit.
The next morning, Erik Lehnsherr awoke inside a cell buried under a hundred floors of solid concrete. His power to manipulate metal was completely useless, as there was nothing for him to control.
He knew that he would almost certainly be found guilty, as he was holding a gun at the time of the Kennedy’s murder. There was also the fact that Magneto had bent one of the bullets, and the forensic report was likely to show this. Despite the relative autonomy he had enjoyed with the Brotherhood over the past year, Erik knew that his powers were well documented. He had worked with the CIA for a few months, not to mention the time he almost killed hundreds of American and Russian soldiers with their own missiles.
While the idea of being in prison for years because of a crime he did not commit was not exactly an appealing idea, far worse was the thought that Trask Industries would continue to experiment on mutants. Now that Kennedy was dead, the driving force of the government shutdown of the company was gone as well. The hatred and intolerance of humans against mutants would continue, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Erik sighed and picked up the only two items in his empty, white cell. They were the only things he had requested. One was a copy of “The Once and Future King,” by T.H. White. It was Magneto’s favorite book.
The second thing was a newspaper. Magneto knew that the invasion of Trask industries which took place the previous day would be big news, as he knew that there was probably multiple surviving witnesses. He was not disappointed, as it was on the front page.
Unsurprisingly, the paper made no mention of the experimentation on mutants, nor did it mention mutants in general, as they were something of a taboo issue. The paper only said that several unknown assailants had attacked Trask Industries.
The paper also added that they were all dead, along with autopsy photos of Angel, Azazel, Emma, Banshee, and Riptide.
An ordinary man would be sad after learning that the people who had been his constant companions for more than a year were dead. Of course, Erik was no ordinary man. He simply became angry. He was angry at Trask Industries, angry at Charles, angry at the United States government.
Magneto was angry at the world.
Mystique would have been equally upset if she had seen that newspaper, but she did not, as she was busy recovering in the hospital that morning. The labor had been long, and had ended in the wee hours of the morning. Raven had only gotten a few hours of sleep, and when she woke up, she immediately wanted to see her newborn child.
The nurse brought in the baby, and gave the child to his mother. As Mystique held her son in her arms for the first time, she marveled at the way he was a combination of his parents. He had blue skin like Raven, but it was slightly darker than hers. His skin was also smooth, like Azazel’s, he had no scales. He had slightly pointy ears, like his father, and yellow eyes, like his mother. Mystique smiled as she realized he had one more physical trait in common with a Azazel- a tiny, pointed tail.
After about ten minutes, the nurse entered and said that she had visitors. Raven was not certain who to expect, but she agreed to see them anyway. Only moments later, the family of German tourists entered the room. Mystique was worried that they would see her baby and be horrified, but in fact, just the opposite happened.
“The baby is beautiful!” the mother exclaimed, and the father agreed.
The two older sons smiled, and the little girl asked something that roughly translated to, “Can I have a blue baby doll?”
Realizing that this family was one of the kindest she had ever met, she asked them, “Would you like to hold him?” The father said yes, and she handed him the baby. Raven watched as the man held the baby, and the other members of the family crowded around him, all of them admiring the newborn.
As she watched, she began to wish she had a family like this when she was growing up. The closest thing she ever had was Charles, and she had burned that bridge long ago. She wondered what kind of person she would have been had she grown up in a large, loving family, instead of having only an adopted brother that cared about her.
The more she thought about it, the more she realized that her son’s situation would be even worse. She would be the only one to take care of him, he would have no father, no siblings, no aunts or uncles. Mystique already doubted whether she would make a good mother, because she had already devoted her life to fighting for mutant rights. She now realized that giving up on that goal, and settling down with Azazel, was nothing but a fantasy. She would always be a freedom fighter, and she doubted that she could successfully raise a child while doing so.
“What is boy’s name?” the father asked.
“It’s Kurt,” Raven replied, then she continued, “what’s your name?”
“Christian Wagner,” the man replied.
“Would you like to take care of him for me? I don’t think I will be able to. If you want, he could be your son.”
Once again, Raven did not know what to expect, and once again, the family exceeded her expectations. Immediately, humongous smiles broke out on the faces of the mother and father. “We would be much honored, thank you,” the father said.
The mother was practically giddy. “Just wait until we return to the Munich circus! They will be so excited!” she said in German.
Mystique smiled. She knew that the decision to give up her baby was one she would likely regret in the future, but for the moment, she was just happy to know that Kurt would grow up in a family where he was loved and accepted.
Bolivar Trask was walking down the corridor of a Trask Industries facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was flanked by two security guards, and he would have had more, but he did not feel like he was in any danger. The previous day this particular base had been invaded by a group of mutants who had freed other mutants that were held captive in the base. This led to a massive battle between the freed mutants and Trask personnel, but that situation was largely under control now. Trask had decided to come in person to survey the damage, and also to meet with one of his employees.
“Mr. Trask,” his employee said, extending his left hand to shake Trask’s.
“Mr. Stryker,” Trask replied as he shook his hand, “you’ve looked better.” He said this as he indicated toward his right arm, which was in a sling, and his face, which had several burns.
Bill Stryker laughed. “I was actually in a plane crash, I’m quite lucky to be alive.”
“It’s a luck that many of my employees do not share, after what happened yesterday,” Trask said as the two men began to walk through the building together.
Stryker nodded. His full time job was as a member of the CIA, but he also worked for Trask, mainly because he payed a lot better. “But before we talk about business, tell me, how is your son?”
Trask smiled, opened his wallet, took out a picture of an African American baby boy, and showed it to Stryker. “I took care of the last paperwork yesterday. In less than a week, my wife and I will take home Bolivar Trask Jr.”
“That’s wonderful,” Stryker replied, “I’m sure you will both make great parents.”
“Anyway, how is your son? I’ve heard he is quite interested in the study of mutants.”
“Oh, you mean William? He is now in his senior year of high school,” Stryker said.
“They grow up so fast,” Trask said.
“Yes, they do. And you are quite right about his desire to study mutants, in fact, he wishes to work for you someday.”
“I would be happy to have him here,” Trask said, and it was then that they both stopped, as they looked at what remained of a Sentinel exoskeleton battle suit. It was covered in several finger-sized holes, like someone had been climbing it. However, the most noticeable change was the fact that the bulletproof glass at the head of the battlesuit was shattered.
Stryker was perplexed. “Aren’t these things designed to fight mutants?”
Trask sighed. “Yes, they are. This is not even the worst damage that one of these things has sustained. Apparently there is a mutant who can control metal, and he has been destroying them at some of my other bases.”
“Are you going to stop making them?”
“No, we are going to start over. We are going to shorten the name to Sentinels, we will no longer build them with any metal whatsoever, and we are no longer going to use human pilots.”
Once again, Stryker was confused. “How are they going to function without pilots?”
“We will use artificial intelligence. We do not even have to develop it in-house, as we made a trade with with the Irish government for the A.I that they have already developed.”
“What did you trade?” Stryker asked.
“We traded them a young mutant who has the power to scream at sonic levels, and also fly.”
For the third time that day, Stryker was bewildered. Trask continued, “If that sounds familiar, it should, considering you stabbed him in the stomach two days ago.”
“I had to make an example of him in front of the other mutants,” Stryker said defensively, “besides, I thought he was dead? I saw a picture of his corpse in the papers.”
“One of our medical teams was able to save him, no thanks to you,” Trask replied, “however, we did not want any of his mutant friends to come back and attempt to rescue him, so we put hydrochlorothiazide into his system. It made it appear that he was no longer alive, so that we could take a photo of him and print it with the article we ran.”
“The pictures of the other mutants, are they actually alive as well?”
“As you know, we would never purposefully kill a mutant, as they are far more valuable for research purposes while still alive. However, there were a few accidents, and the red teleporter, the girl with wings, and the man who could create tornadoes actually died. The woman with diamond skin is actually still alive, but she is in critical condition, and it is likely she won’t last long. We are very close to the area where she is being held, would you like to see her?” Trask asked.
“Of course!” Stryker said, “I used to know a woman who could turn her skin into diamond, I am interested to see if it is the same mutant. By the way, congratulations on the successful assassination of the President.”
“Thank you. He was becoming bothersome, he needed to be eliminated. Now, if you will just enter this door,” Trask said, as he indicated toward the area where Emma was held.
Stryker and Trask both walked inside, and were surprised to see that the bed that held Emma was now empty. Not only that, there were several security guards lying on the floor, their flesh covered in boils.
Of course, the reason she was not there was because Elixir had rescued her. He did not like having to kill those security guards, but he knew it was the only way to save Emma. He did not want to let her die, as she had been nice to him, and that was something that few people did.
Unfortunately, by the time he found her, the majority of her organs had been damaged on the cellular level. At this point, the damage was too great for Joshua to heal, at least in the way he normally did.
Elixir could actually do more than just heal people, he actually had the ability to manipulate human anatomy on the molecular level. The way she was now, her cells could not be repaired. The only way to fix them was to de-age them, and that is exactly what Elixir did. He successfully turned back the clock on all of her cells, turning Emma into a baby. At the exact moment that Stryker and Trask were wondering what happened to her, Elixir was carrying her away.
Joshua knew that it was not safe to leave the infant version of Emma at Trask Industries, and he also knew that he would not make a very good parent, as he was just a teenager. However, he did know a family that had wanted another daughter for quite some time now, and he figured they would be the best ones to take care of the baby.
Elixir knocked on the door, and greeted the man who answered it. They chatted for a few minutes, until the man asked why he was holding a baby.
“That’s the funny thing, Mr. Silverfox,” Elixir said, “remember how you always said you wanted a little sister for Kayla?”
Meanwhile, Fred and Unus had both recovered from the events of the previous day, and they were talking.
“That guy really hurt my feelings,” Fred said.
“Oh, please,” Unus replied, “you’ve been called far worse.”
“Yeah, well that was a wake-up call. I’m gonna go on a diet, lose at least a hundred pounds.”
“You’ve tried this before,” Unus replied, “even if you do manage to lose it, you’ll gain it all back. Your job is to stand still!”
“I’ll start exercising regularly! I’ll take up boxing!” Fred said.
Unus just shook his head.
Alex and Hank had returned to the mansion late the previous day, but they only had the courage to talk to the Professor the following morning. Part of the reason they wanted to talk to him was to tell him that they had tried to rescue Banshee, but failed, and partially because they wondered why the mansion seemed so empty.
They found Charles in his room, his back to the door. “What are you two doing here?” he asked without turning around, not trying to hide the bitterness in his voice.
“We came here to tell you we tried to rescue Banshee, but our attempts were unsuccessful. He was already deceased when we found him,” Beast said.
The Professor turned around, and looked at his two remaining X-Men. They could tell by the redness in his eyes that he had been crying. “How surprising,” Charles said sarcastically, then he turned back around.
“Also, what happened to all the students?” Havok asked.
Charles did not even bother to turn around as he said, “I sent them away. I’m closing the school.”
Beast and Havok were both shocked. “You can’t do that!” Havok exclaimed, “Some of those kids have nowhere to go!”
“Wherever they go has to be better than here,” Charles replied, “I will not send any more mutants to their deaths.”
“And where are we supposed to go?” Alex asked, “Is Hank supposed to go back to the CIA? I’m supposed to go back to prison?”
“I don’t care!” The Professor shouted as he turned around, “Just as long as it’s not here!”
Havok wanted to say more, wanted to tell off the man he had once admired greatly, but instead, he just shook his head, turned around, and left.
As he left the building, Alex realized that he had plenty of options. He could become a geologist, he could lead a team of mutants for the CIA, he could even join the army. However, at the moment, the only thing Alex Summers wanted was to be an X-Man.
Charles Xavier regretted ever having agreed to help Magneto. He regretted ever meeting the man, and he regretted ever starting the X-Men, ever starting the school. If he had not done this, Banshee, Thunderbird and Darwin would still be alive, and Charles would be a professor at a normal school, where students did not graduate and then die.
He had closed down the school because he had realized just how ineffective it was, and he did not need any more deaths on his conscience. Not only that, but the combination of the liquor and the stress had led to an inability to control his powers. He could hear the thoughts of everyone in the building, with no way to filter them.
“Some days I wish I was not born a mutant,” he told Beast.
Hank believed that the Professor was being extremely foolish, but he did not see him as an enemy, like Havok did. Instead, he saw a friend that had been hurt many times in the past year and a half, and he pitied him.
“Professor, I’m staying here,” He said.
At this point, Charles had calmed down, and he said, “There’s nothing here for you, Hank.”
“I can continue my research in the lab downstairs,” Beast said, “and I can take care of the mansion.” Since Charles did not reply, Hank continued, “I’ve actually been working on a serum that will allow you to walk again for limited amounts of time, but it will also nullify your powers.”
“Thank you, Hank,” Charles said, “right now, I would give anything to hear nothing but my own voice.”
That was my fan fiction! What did you think? Let me know in the comments!