Flare (xmen)

Chapter 27: "Raven, hand"

"Charles!" Raven screamed. After helping Sean up, The group began limping over to the remains of the jet.

"Ahh!" Ali winced. Alex had accidentally touched her broken hand.

After limping a few feet, Sean turned his head and paled out. "Guys, guys." When everyone didn't pay attention, he unwound his arm from Raven and pointed to the sub. "Look."

Ali turned and wasn't even surprised.

Shaw was dead. Good riddance. But it felt wrong. Erik dropped the body from the air and fell a few feet from them. Ali moved back disgusted. But Erik... that was something else.

Erik had that look. The kind that made him impassive, almost in a psychotic fashion. He just dropped the body and floated down. His face was impassive, a carefully placed façade. But his eyes held a sign of peace. He had been chasing this for a lot of longer than she had, and he hadn't given up like her. God, did she really look like that?

"Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters." Erik floated down toward the sand. The group stabilized Sean, limping. The other mutants, Angel, Devil and Cyclone guy had seemed to have recovered, as they were stabilizing themselves and walking toward the ocean. Moira and Charles crossed in front of them. Charles looked worse for the wear, with sweat beaded across his face. Maybe that was why he was screaming? "The real enemy is out there. I can feel their guns moving through the water, their metal targeting us. Americans, Soviets, humans. United in their fear of the unknown. The Neanderthal is running scared, my fellow mutants. Go ahead Charles, tell me I'm wrong."

Ali didn't need the Professor's ability to know that he was right. They were going to target them. But it wasn't just them. It was also the fact that on this beach, along with them, there were three mutants who flat out destroyed a CIA base, and God knows what else. And Erik's voice unnerved her. Reminded her of something.

Charles turned toward the group and faintly nodded. Everyone broke apart, and Ali could see the terror written on everyone's faces. She could faintly see that Moira had disappeared, but that wasn't her primary concern. She wasn't sure exactly how her shields would hold up against nukes, but she didn't imagine she could hold it very long. Regardless, she turned on her bracelets, and pulled the light beams, stretching them into a shield. Across the water, she could see-she didn't know, maybe it was part of her mutation, missiles being fired. Instinctively, she threw the shield, covering the group sans the Hellfire Club. Because seriously, who gives a fuck about those guys?

Ali lasted about two seconds before the pain clouded her eyes, and she brought her hands down and unraveled the shield, falling down. A pair of arms caught her stabilizing her. "Ali, Ali you okay?" Raven lifted her up.

Ali winced. "Raven, hand." She used her other hand to show her broken one. Raven made a light gasp before shifting. Ali tried to ignore the pain to see what was happening. The missiles were flying, tens of feet from hitting the beach before they froze in the air. Erik had held the missiles in place. Right, she forgot about that. She had a sinking feeling in her stomach that someone was going to not come out of this unscathed.

"Erik, you said it yourself, we're the better men. Now's the time to prove it." Charles tried. "There are thousands of men on those ships. Good, honest innocent men. They're just following orders." Ali honestly felt like punching Charles if her hand wasn't busted. What was he thinking? Yes Charles, tell a guy who had his life ripped away by men just following orders that people are just following orders.

"I've been at the mercy of men just following orders." Erik turned to face him. "Never again." He threw his hand forward and fired the missiles forward.

"Erik, release them!" Charles yelled. Ali panicked. The light bent, and a few of the missiles were cut in half when she brought the light toward them, encapsulating her. She released the light back. When the light cleared off, she saw everyone else had been thrown back toward the jet remains, and Charles and Erik were fighting. Charles seemed to be trying to wrestle the helmet off of Erik, and it seemed like it wasn't working. Ali used her bracelets to form a new beam, and reflected a beam onto Erik, burning him slightly. He winced before throwing her back.

Ali flew a few feet, landing on her hand. Her hand screamed painfully, the bones shifting in awkward positions. She swallowed her pain, and stood up. Behind her, MacTaggart ran toward the group. Ignoring the ringing, she got up and ran toward the beach. Moira ended up firing her gun, successfully distracting Erik. He deflected the bullets, but one went the wrong way and made impact.

Charles fell down, a soundless scream caught in his throat. The world paused for a moment, while Moira and Erik stared in horror. Erik ran toward his friend, gathering him in his arms like one of those Romeo and Juliet movies. Ali covered her hands over her mouth. Holy shit.

Ali had never seen Erik looked so heartbroken. Ali and the others tried to walk toward them, but he held his hand up. "Stay back!" He snarled. He cradled his friend in his arms before looking up at MacTaggart in pure fury, "You, you did this." He pulled her dog tags up to her throat, choking her. She cried out, trying to remove the tags.

"She didn't do this, Erik. You did." A weak voice whispered. That was the final blow. Erik dropped Moira, and she collapsed on the sand. His focus was completely on Charles.

"Us turning on each other...it's what they want. I tried to warn you, Charles. I want you by my side. We're brothers, you and I....all of us together. Protecting each other. We want the same thing."

Ali wrinkled her nose. Seriously? First of all, Erik deflected the bullet, even if it was an accident. The other mutants didn't seem too keen on working with them either. And she would sooner die than join with them. And those two definitely didn't want the same thing. These two were doomed, like the world's mutant version of Romeo and Juliet.

Charles lightly laughed. "Oh, my friend." He gasped. "I'm sorry, but we do not."

Ali didn't like this. She ran over toward the others, and hugged Raven. When they both withdrew, Moira was stabilizing Charles, and Erik had turned to face them.

"This society won't accept us. We form our own. The humans have played their hand. Now, we get ready to play ours. Who's with me?" He outstretched his hand toward them. "No more hiding."

Ali was now conflicted. Stay with Charles, or join Erik? Her decision was made quickly when Shaw's old followers joined him. Never would join the bastards. She looked hesitant at the others. To be honest, she was expecting Alex or Sean to leave. Hank didn't get on with Erik and she would have joined Erik if it wasn't for Shaw's other followers joining him.

But her heart fell and shattered when she saw who really did. 

A/N: This next chapter broke my heart, gonna be honest. 

-Lonelyhuman out