Memories

Chapter Seven

"Charles Xavier, sir, has been hard at work. He's rescued eight children in the span of a few mere weeks. He's accomplished much more than we have," Emma said after returning from a mission with Azazel that Erik had sent her out on.

"Eight children, eh? Good. He'll protect the mutants that are too young to protect themselves. How is he?" Erik asked, his fingers tapping mildly on his desk. "As good as can be after... The events," Emma replied; she knew of what happened in Cuba. Raven couldn't have kept the telepath out for long. Charles might have taught her how to keep telepaths at bay, but Raven was not skilled with her mind enough to keep them out for long periods of time.

Erik assumed by the statement that she meant he was merely depressed- or angry. Erik, sitting there in his helmet- his shield against those who wished to reached out to him with their minds- was none the wiser about his ex-lover's condition.

Emma Frost knew she should tell her boss. No matter how icy her heart may be, she still knew of the pain of not being able to see your love. Though her conscience pleaded to tell him, their mission came first. Magneto would not be able to carry on destroying mankind if he truly knew how bad the great Professor X had gotten. She's protecting their vision- Magneto's dream.

"Tell the group to be prepared for morning. Be ready at 8 in the morning. We have a mission. Leave me," Erik ordered, and Emma nodded and left her boss's presence. Erik put his elbows on his desk, rubbing his temples as he felt the onset of a migraine.

Emma went to the living room, seeing them all crowding around Azazel and talking in hushed voices. Azazel looked uncomfortable and overwhelmed, and Emma knew he was close to a panic attack.

"Alright, everyone, enough! Give him room," Emma snapped, and the group immediately spread out, and Azazel let out a sigh of relief. Frost's eyes scanned the group, her eyes as cold and calculating as always.

"We have a mission tomorrow. You all need to stop gossiping and get some sleep. Be ready at 8 in the morning," The icy telepath ordered the team stonily. "But Emma... I want to know how my brother is," Mystique pleaded, but at Emma's sharp look, she quieted down and ducked her head a bit.

But Emma knew the look in Raven's eyes; Raven wasn't giving up on finding out about Charles. She was simply biding her time, waiting to take their argument behind closed doors.

"What about their team?" Angel burst out, unable to hold in her own worries. Though she'd joined Magneto's cause, some loyalty still lied with Professor X. Emma sighed. Riptide was standing close to Azazel now, clearly his own way of comforting his teammate.

Magneto's mission and Professor Xavier's cause might have been poisonous to the other's on the surface- they might appear to never be able to coexist peacefully to others- but Emma Frost knew the truth about both teams.

They couldn't exist without the other.

The teams were so intertwined that they would destroy themselves if they tried to destroy their opposite. Charles was the ex-lover of Erik and the brother of Raven. Erik helped create Charles's team. Angel and Raven were two of the first members of Charles's and Erik's team.

Erik, Raven, and Angel could never destroy Charles and his team, and it's against Charles's nature to hurt others. Also, Erik would never allow for them to hurt other mutants, especially Charles. So, the two groups are at a standstill, and they will forever be unless Charles becomes violent or Erik decides to forsake his own views and kill mutants that oppose him.

But both things will never happen.

"They're all fine, now go to bed," Emma snapped, and she glared at them until they finally left the room- except Mystique. The shape-shifter still stood in the room, her arms crossed across her naturally blue chest.

"That includes you, Mystique," Emma stated, leveling her chilling gaze on the girl. "Is my brother alright?" Raven asked again, her yellow eyes flashing with stubbornness. Emma sighed. "Raven, your brother is as good as can be expected," Emma said, then left the room herself, not wanting to tell her of the bitter truth.

Charles was crippled- most likely for the rest of his life- because of Erik.

That information would destroy their team, and this was all Emma had anymore. Also, she could tell without even using her powers that Charles most likely didn't want Erik or Raven to know, and if she told either, they'd just go rushing off to see him. If Charles was to mentally heal, which Emma also knew he needed without using her powers, he needed space.

Emma sighed, getting a drink from the minibar in the library; Shaw liked to be able to get a drink in practically every room in the house, so he put minibars in almost every room. It came in handy when you wanted to drink without the others around.

Once Frost had finished off her drink, she went to bed, wishing she could ignore the voices that constantly plagued her own mind. Her mind, unable to fight the pull, wandered into Magneto's mind once the man went to sleep, finding herself trapped in his nightmares which she herself had suffered from for many years before meeting Erik.

Sometimes she wished he would still sleep in the helmet.

With all the voices pounding in her head, she was always thankful when one was shut off from her.

Now she is forced to relive nightmares she'd long-since stopped having on her own.

Telepathy works wonders for nightmares.

But Erik would never let her in his mind to stop his nightmares.