Sword and Shield | E. Lehnsherr

32. Peace In Death

 For Erik Lehnsherr, rage is all-consuming. He is not, nor has he ever been, a forgiving man. The loss of his family, the attempted genocide of his people, broke something in him long ago that was only beginning to heal when his wife and daughter were killed. Now, there is no use for a healed soul, not with the power he wields.

Part of him screams to find Athena and destroy her. The other part keeps him rooted in his bubble, his focus remaining on dismantling the world element by element from the inside out. The world will pay for its cruelty. It will pay for the death and the hatred of its people, and he will destroy it all. There will be time to deal with Athena as the world burns.

Every sound is muted around him. If someone were begging for mercy, he would not listen. If the world were screaming for peace, he would not hear. Yet, warm gold presses against his palm, and calming crystal radiates against his skull.

"Erik!"

That voice is much closer. Why should he dignify a response? Yet, he opens his eyes and looks down to see Mystique in her natural form next to the boy who saved him from the Pentagon. Peter, he heard Charles call him. "Mystique," he says.

Blood drips from her temple and her arm. Dust covers her cheeks as she catches her breath, her golden eyes darting from him to the carnage below. "I know you think you've lost everything," she says, her voice breaking through his metal barrier. "But you haven't. You have me. You have Charles." She glances at the boy. "And we both know that no matter what is going on with her, you have Ria. You have more family than you know."

Pain strikes at his heart. He is tempted to gaze out over the city, to find that streak of emerald, but he refrains, instead basking in the warmth pressed against his ear, the heat growing with each passing second.

"You never had the chance to save your family before," she continues, almost desperately. "But now you do. That's what I've come to tell you."

His head dips the smallest bit, the smallest nod of understanding against the rage toiling in his mind. "And you?" He asks of the boy.

Peter shifts his weight. "I'm your... I'm here for my family too."

Both of them turn as a plane rises into the air. All around them, grey vines grow along the sides of destroyed buildings as two of Apocalypse's horsemen leap onto the plane. Seconds later, it crashes into the ground in an explosion of fire.

"Charles," she whispers.

His heart constricts, though he does not want it to. Not his old friend—only friend—too. He can't just be gone, not like that.

"I'm gonna go fight for what I have left," Raven says. "Are you?"

Without an answer, she turns back to the carnage, Peter holding her head with a simple look back before they disappear in a blur.