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"Because you and Erik sent me back here together. You can take a look in my mind if you want." Logan explains reeling from seeing a walking Charles Xavier. The shaggy man looks over at the former government scientist; Hank gives Charles a small nod as Charles leaves.
"Charles doesn't have his powers anymore," Hank whirls to face Logan. "I can attempt to convince him to get Erik out, but neither task will be easy." The young man explains, plowing on. "Magneto," Hank chokes out recalling when Raven and the younger ones came up with the code names for Charles and Erik while the two were away. "When he was captured for killing President Kennedy, he was put into a prison under the Pentagon; scared of inciting a third world war made it out of cement and concrete, no metal. Reason why he has never broken out before. As for Charles, he and Erik. . . they were very close. Closer than I've seen anyone, and when Cuba happened and they parted Charles tried to remain hopeful but after Kennedy's assignation. . . things took a turn for the worst and only went even further down once the war with Vietnam started. Come on, Charles should be ready now."
"Ready?"
"He's willing to look into your mind, he just has to delay his dosage for the night."
Up in his room Charles lies on his bed his inner alpha howling at the thought of seeing Erik again. Memories flashing in his mind, meeting in the ocean, convincing Erik to stay, the road trip, everything that happened eleven years prior. He can still feel Erik's lips on his, the warmth of just being near Erik like Charles was. . . finally found a. . . then Cuba happened. Charles desperately wanting Erik to not kill Shaw, at the very minimum not block him out while he did it. Then Erik's mind disappeared, wearing that ridiculous helmet.
Charles knew he lost Erik then. Knew it was going to be a matter of time before he lost Raven too, better to have encouraged her to leave then force her to stay, wake-up one day and suddenly she's gone too. Alex, Hank, and Sean have tried to cheer him up. Sean went on a secret mission one night and hasn't returned, Charles wonders if maybe he joined Erik or Raven. All he knows from Alex and Hank is he was going somewhere, meant to come back, then go somewhere else before coming back home. Then Alex was drafted. They keep in touch, as much as they can. Charles using a pseudonym as to not alert any anti-mutants to the manor and attack the other students and teachers. Though Charles has stopped his communication via his own handwriting, Hank still does. Hank writes for them both now.
Thinking of the others brings Charles's mind back to Erik. They talked about how nice it was to have the younger mutants around, maybe even starting a small pack of their own. They talked about how the child would be raised the names tossed around. private schooled, homeschooled, and public school were argued between the two of them. If everything during Cuba had gone right, then Charles and Erik would be too busy to homeschool their child, but Erik refused to let the others teach their child. Even Raven.
Charles mutters a "come in," hearing a knock on the giant oak doors. Hank pops his head in confirming Charles is ready to take a peek inside Logan's mind. Charles really wants to tell them to both fuck off. He doesn't want to see his future self. He doesn't want to see Erik again. Erik deserves to be underground and never see the light of day again. One thing the Xavier siblings seem to agree on. Raven hasn't broken him out which means that something had to have happened between them, there is no way Raven -who idolized Erik - would leave him if something didn't happen.
Beckoning Logan towards him, the gruff man kneels down. Gently placing both hands on the side of the Wolverine's head, Charles connects their minds. He can see that the others are in some sort of hiding place, Logan on a table, a young woman near his head, brow furrowed in concentration.
"Ah, you've come to make visit. Much earlier than I anticipated." Whirling around, Charles sees a man with his similar blue eyes, wearing all black, yet bald and in a hovering wheelchair.
"Hank seems to think we should help, Erik. Logan is very adamant about it. Though I don't know why. Especially Hank. He hates Erik."
"Hank doesn't hate Erik."
Charles just looks at his future self. Charles recalls very much hearing Hank's thoughts being very firetruck red when thinking about Erik between October of 1962 all the way to when Charles opted to first take the very first dosage of the serum that cures his spine. None of the thoughts good. Though he much preferred that over all encompassing fierce red boxed cinnamon rolls from a local bakery when the younger man thought of Raven. Charles likes Hank, thinks he might be a good companion for his sister, still doesn't mean he hundred percent likes the thought of his sister dating, much less dating his best friend. Well, his best friend after Erik and then Raven herself of course.
"Believe me he doesn't. Though there are moments in which he does want to kill Erik, but he doesn't hate him."
"Hmm." The younger Charles isn't so convinced.
"I know Erik has done many things, many things we disagree with him about, things we wish he changed but he needs to be saved."
"Saved. Right. The great big bad Magneto needs saving."
Someone makes a noise and both Charles's look over at a man wearing black and a cape. The man puts his hands up in surrender looking away from them.
"Look, I am not saying you have to forgive him now or forgive him a decade from now. But Erik. . . He is going through things. Things I wish I could send Logan even further back in time to prevent. He is going to need his pack, his family, his alpha, you." The older Charles glares at his younger self. "Erik has already been hurt enough by humans, don't prolong his freedom and continue his pain. You'll both only hurt in the end."
The younger Charles looks at his older self. Every bone in him screaming to be as defiant as Erik was in the events leading up to Cuba. He can't help it, though, as his inner alpha snarls at the fact of Erik being hurt wanting to tear those who cause him any harm limb from limb. Charles sees no point in arguing with himself any longer and agrees. Slowly he eases his way out of Logan's mind and finds himself back in the manor, Hank standing at the foot of his bed, Logan still kneeling next to him.
"Fine." Charles grunts out. "I'll help break out. For now, I need a moment alone."
Charles barely speaks to Erik at the Pentagon, only telling him that he can't freeze the guards. He only speaks to him once they are on the plane and have been in the air for only a couple of hours. Erik has changed into a blue button up and some pants that Charles can't tell you what kind they are all he knows is that they do wonders for Erik's arse.
"Your powers, what happened to them?" Erik hesitates. Disbelieving that he's out of the Pentagon, that Charles has come for him. He has the urge to button-up the shirt the entire way, like he wore turtlenecks over a decade prior. But he doesn't. Then it was for safety, and for Shaw to guess if Erik was mated or not. It's different with Charles. He wants Charles to see that he is clean. Clean as he can be anyways, clean that he doesn't have mate and hasn't met anyone and that Erik still wants him. His inner Omega purring being near his alpha again.
"The treatment for my spine affects my powers." Charles huffs out, preferring to stare at the clouds and sky versus his almost-mate.
Erik scoffs. "You got rid of your powers so you could walk?"
"I got rid of my powers so that I could sleep." Erik doesn't get it. He never understood Charles's powers, always keeping him at a length, only wanting to talk telepathically at moments when Erik didn't want to speak. Perhaps it is a good thing they never mated. Charles has always been an outcast among humans and their small gaggle of mutants showed he's even an outcast among them. His sister and lover both rejecting his powers, only sometime before the others followed suit.
Erik's yelling at him now, Charles can't hear him, distracted by marks he sees on Erik's chest, nowhere near where a mating bite would go but close enough, and even more scattering and possibly even lower.
"Who hurt you?" Charles grits, thoughts of anyone mutant or human lying their hands on Erik flashing through his mind. Erik trying to fight off but not at his full capacity, no metal near to help.
The plane stops shaking, Erik halts. Rubbing his biceps as if cold. Erik doesn't say anything as he sits down, Logan leaves for the cockpit.
"Erik?"
"I don't want to talk about it." They don't.
Several hours later, the sky has turned a dark indigo scattered with stars. Erik approaches Charles with some good whiskey, after all it has been a decade since Erik has had a good drink. Gently he brings a glass to Charles then oh so carefully, bringing over the chess set that hasn't been touched since all those years ago, but with the game reset. Despite being white, Charles offers Erik the first move. His Omega purring at the generosity of Charles.
Still, Charles's hushed cold voice of asking who hurt him earlier rings in his head. The flashes of what happened. He was given one maybe two weeks of peace, undoubtedly due to Mrs. Kennedy advocating for him to be reformed not killed. He knows she did all he could, trying to get him free. Most saw her advocacy as strength and grief talking. Not as her knowing the truth that Erik didn't kill her husband. Erik was close to his heat at the time, and ever since Charles told him to leave Cuba the urge to be around the alpha was stronger than ever. Erik is sure that Raven was ready to ship him off to the castle once they met up again. She probably would have had Erik not insisted on being the one there and had both President and First Lady Kennedy not insisted on him either.
But the peace was the only good thing about his time in prison, that and his heats. During his heats were the only times the guards didn't mess with him. Physically. He can still hear them. The several voices over the speakers.
"The mighty Magneto brought down by his own biology. I bet you need a knot."
"Want a litter? I'll give you a good litter. Then again maybe not. Wouldn't want my kids to be half prisoner."
"Who even wants you as their Omega?"
"Heard about you and those freaks in Cuba. Want to know about Charles? He has kids now, probably mated someone of his social class."
Each a stab to the heart. Specifically, Charles mating someone else and having children with them. Erik never thought Charles's heart would change so quickly. The more they mentioned Charles the more Erik's heart broke and then eventually became numb to it. Any torcher they brought to him, the more Erik went inside his own head, imagined far different from the one he lived. Sometimes his parents were with him, most times not. Most times he imagined Charles, playing chess and taking strolls in the garden, arguing over their politics. Teaching the younger ones at the school, Raven popping in on occasion, being celebrated by the other mutants and idolized by a few in the crowd that have a mix of Charles's and Erik's features. Raven yelling at them for being parents to half the school.
"Erik?" Charles is looking at him, concern in his oh so blue eyes, blue eyes that he has never forgotten and wants to keep in his life for as long as he can.
"The guards." Erik says after some time, Charles getting ready to make his fifteenth move. "Earlier, you asked what happened to me. It was the guards." The younger man looks at him face lacking any emotion. "It started two weeks after my arrest. I was in my heat so the most they started with was emotional stuff. They brought you up so many times I lost count," Erik eyes Charles, it isn't common for alphas to wear mating bites though Charles was as eager to get one from whoever he would mark, he can't see a bite but unlike Erik, Charles is fully buttoned up. Erik muses that Charles is just being proper, even the rare amount of alphas that do rare bites don't exactly show them off.
"Once they deemed me 'safe' and off my heat they would come into my cell. Claws, nails, I'm lucky they didn't bring in knives made of titanium or who knows what. Some even. . ." Erik looks down. He knows he should tell Charles, tell Charles that he didn't want it and that Erik is somehow still worth being his mate any other mate of Charles's be damned. "Some even sought their own pleasure with me, me denying them only spurred them on further," Erik can't speak anymore, the torment of what happened to him, it's all too much. Erik felt like the same little kid that was in Shaw's custody.
Charles a noise. The magnetic man whips his head to see that the alpha is snarling. Of course. Of course, Charles is upset with him, Erik is stronger than some of the guards he should have fought harder. Any scars and bruises were nothing compared to what they gave Erik; yet none of that could mean anything to Charles. For some, any Omega that has 'been around the block' is not an Omega worth mating, much less being friends or acquaintances with. Charles was brought up in the upper class, anything goes wrong and Charles is not really scathed just a light scratch at best. Undoubtedly, Charles probably has thoughts of someone who he nearly bonded being with others, even unconcentually, is likely something he's looking down at Erik at.
Fine then. Charles wants to look down at him; Erik isn't worthy of being his mate so be it. Erik doesn't need Charles. Erik did things on his own since he was a child freed from the camps well into adulthood, he hasn't become so reliant on Charles that Erik has forgotten and is going to be going around like a little lost puppy.
"I'm going to go back there." Charles growls. Erik stares at him. "I'm going to go back and tear them all limb from limb. They touched you, touched you without you wanting them to, without care. They deserve to be twelve feet down."
"Charles."
The former telepath lets out a breath. "You deserve to be cherished; you deserve to be loved and touched only when you want it. Once we're done, I am going to go find all those guards who touched you and make them regret even laying eyes on you much less their hands."
"First we need to stop Raven and Trask." Charles agrees, their drinks and game forgotten. Erik opts to lie down on one of the sofas, yearning for Charles to join him yet the alpha stays up a bit longer, Erik knows the look of Charles thinking of multiple things at once. As much as Erik despises the fact that Charles got rid of his powers, he is grateful. He didn't delve deeper into Erik's mind and honestly that is a good thing. Erik can't risk Charles discovering his plans. Charles wants to reason with Raven, but Erik knows her better. Once Raven is set on something there is no arguing with her. No reasoning. Charles doesn't see that for as long as he's known Raven that's one of the few ways Charles even surprises Erik.
No.
The only way to stop Raven and Trask is to kill them both.
Erik lost Charles once, he doesn't really have him back either. And he will Charles forever once he knows of Erik's plans. So be it. They were high on infatuation once, better to be high on the reality now then to get crushed later.
Charles is still passing when Erik's eyes shut.