"May I ask you something?" The calm tone of Shaw did little good to put Erik at ease as the door behind him finally slid to a quiet close. He did manage to glance back one last time, he frowned gently and looked a little worriedly at Liesel. He wasn't so much worried for himself, rather, he was worried about what she could possibly get up to now that she was out there on her own. He wouldn't put it past her to go find a fight to get involved in.
Looking slowly back in Shaw's direction, Erik merely gave the slightest of nods. Honestly, he wasn't wholly caring about what question was going to get posed to him. Any question was surely going to be something highly idiotic, right? Since when had Shaw ever really spoken any sense? Erik struggled right this second to pinpoint a particular nugget of truth and honesty that he'd ever spoken to himself.
Shaw smiled though, seemingly happy and content that Erik had allowed him to continue talking. Not that he expected otherwise. Shaw knew that deep down a small part of Erik was curious. He was curious about what Shaw had to say. He was somewhat curious as to why he had taken to doing these actions. Shaw had said that they were all back together again, and though it was the blatant truth, he did mean it that way. He wasn't being sarcastic to get a rise out of either of them, even though that seemed to happen anyway. He knew, though it sounds presumptuous, that those two imprisoned Jewish children would appear at the end of his little mission here. He knew that they'd cross paths. He'd set them on a path, and they really didn't disappoint.
"Why fight for a doomed race who'll hunt us down as soon as they realise their reign is coming to an end?" Shaw retreated from his thoughts. He couldn't keep getting lost in thoughts, not with everything that was going on around him. And especially not now that in return he could exorcise the niggling curiosities that lurked within him over Erik's choice, and even maybe Liesel's, with siding with the humans.
The tone he used was void of anything. He would freely admit a small part of him was somewhat ashamed of them. The last thing he truly expected though was the retort to come in the form of a fist. Erik punched Shaw and stood back in a small amount of shock as the attack was simply absorbed. Liesel had briefly explained what happened when she attacked him, but he had not seen it first hand. Now that he had, truly he could admit that it was more interesting, and startling than he expected.
Shaw sighed casually, "I am sorry for what happened in the camps." He continued on as if nothing had really happened. Erik's composure was slowly returning as he registered what was being said to him. The usual frown and emotionless expression he had previously, returned as he simply stared at Shaw with unblinking eyes. "Truly, I am." Shaw furthered on, he expected Erik to react to that simple sentence. Yet he didn't. He remained unmoving, or at least he was unmoving until Shaw unleashed the absorbed attack and sent it back at him.
His form flew backwards in the small brightly lit space, and collided with the mirrored wall behind him. The reflective material didn't stand a chance, and shattered with his body impacting against it. He crumpled to the floor, with shards of glittering mirror falling with and around him. Clearly the sound was heard outside, this space was evidently not soundproof because banging commenced where the door was.
"She sounds worried. Sure I can't invite her in too?" Shaw glanced stoically from Erik's form, even as he slowly pushed himself up, to the door where Liesel continued to hit and shout for him.
"You're not hurting her. Not again. Not ever." Erik said while finally recovering enough to find his voice and answer.
"Erik, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. It's starting to work." Charles's voice encouragingly sounded in his mind. With a frown, Erik looked about. The only thing different was the shattered mirror. Looking about again with sudden realisation, he shook his head. So the void was slowly breaking, one mirror at a time. In other circumstances Erik was sure he'd smirk over the moment at hand, but that moment was lost because he continued to stare Shaw down.
"But everything I did, I did for you, and for Liesel. Do you think you two could do half of what you can without me, and without my help? For instance, before I met Liesel, she could barely create a spark. Once wired up to enough terminals, and generators to keep a small factory going; she was more than able to not only short circuit it, but to keep it running. Instil a current, take the current away and use it for her own gain. Okay, I won't lie, things got a little messy along the way...mainly with you, things got a little out of hand that I could admit. But look how far you have come now, Erik. So different to that scared little boy, standing in that cold dingy lab." Shaw said, purposely going all out on Liesel, because he knew as well as Erik did: she was somewhat of a weakness for him. And the cheap shot worked, Erik's eyes narrowed dangerously at him, which naturally caused him to smirk. "Get up, Erik." All the while he'd been talking, Erik had been merely kneeling and looking at him with a look that could surely kill. Shaw sighed and rolled his eyes, seeing as how he wasn't moving from his knelt position, he leaned down and touched a finger to his shoulder. In a second Erik went hurtling to the other side of the room, shattering more mirrors as he went. Shaw had to admit, in ways of confrontation, it was disappointing. "You know, I surely thought you'd take more of a chance here, Erik. You seemed all gun ho and daring back in Miami. What happened? Weakened sense of point of view been suddenly instilled in you or something? That's what happens when you spend so much time around them."
Erik let out a quiet pained noise under his breath. Moving slowly he glanced at the shards of mirror that fell off of him, as he looked up at Shaw. "It's working!" Charles sounded more than pleased, Erik rolled his eyes and looked about at the remaining mirrors. Of course Charles was content, he wasn't the one being thrown about. "I'm starting to see him. but I can't yet touch his mind." The sudden pleased tone disappeared to one of serious annoyance. Erik pushed himself to kneel, again. That would be because of the ridiculous helmet Shaw seemed to be parading about it. Even at first glance Erik suspected it was not all that it seemed, and apparently he was right.
"You've come a long way from bending gates. I'm so proud of you." Shaw said while taking a slow step forwards, only to find himself batted to the side by a piece of metal beam work. There was a small plus to being thrown about like a rag doll: the structures underneath the mirrors were now visible. Each mirror was situated on large beams, these large beams were now accessible, so Erik reached up and commenced pulling them free and throwing them in Shaw's direction. "And you're just starting to scratch the surface. Think how much further we could go, together." Shaw said as if none of the metal around him concerned him at all. He moved freely, and ended up pressing against the main beam in front of Erik. In return Erik placed both hands against it and pushed back. Shaw placed another hand to the beam and seemingly didn't put any effort into pushing back, Erik's arms were starting to ache from fighting back against the force bearing down on him. Eventually his arms slackened and he was pinned to the wall behind him. "I don't want to hurt you, Erik. I never did. I want to help you. This is our time. We are the future of the human race. You and me, son. This world could be ours." Shaw whispered while leaning further against the beam, and closer to Erik.
With struggled breaths, and a lot of effort, Erik managed to register his surroundings before looking to the man in front of him. "Everything you did made me stronger. I notice how you've temporarily forgotten Liesel in the mix of everything; so I shall remind you, that you most likely made her strong too. You made us weapons, unwillingly to start with, accepting of it now. It's the truth, I can't even disagree with you there. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't be what we are now, and we certainly wouldn't be here." Erik paused, trying to speak when pinned under a beam was incredibly hard.
He watched the amused look suddenly appear on Shaw's face, he was pleased to see that him talking was working as a distraction. Erik was more than certain that if Shaw could see what was happening behind him, he wouldn't look so pleased with himself. Through all the scattered debris of the room, Erik had managed to manipulate some cables. Splaying the cables apart he managed to form them into a small claw-hand like structure. Slowly but surely it raised higher in the air before it was level with Shaw's head, and yet the man still looked at him with that idiotic content, smug expression.
Erik managed to tilt his head slightly to the side and give a nod, which hurt considering he could hardly move. "You are our creator." And with that the wires shot forwards and plucked the silver and grey tinted helmet straight off of Shaw's head. "Now, Charles!" Erik all but shouted out as he lowered the beam away from himself with a quiet groan. He placed a hand to his chest, the constricting feeling still remained, but it slowly disappeared as he looked slowly up at the frozen man in front of him.
Shaw stood motionless, one arm outstretched to retrieve his stolen helmet, while the other remained at his side. With a step forwards, Erik appeared in front of him. He just looked him up and down, it was pathetic in a way that his downfall seemed to truly come because he'd lost his headwear. Yet, with a tilt of the head, Erik gestured to the cables and moved to collect the helmet himself. Turning it over he looked it over, it seemed simple enough. Nothing too elaborate to it. "Sorry, Charles." He said quietly while turning it over again.
"Erik, please! Be the better man! You have it-"
"It's not that I don't trust you," Erik said rather bluntly. He moved the helmet in his hands one last time before reaching up to place the helmet on his head.
"Erik, there will be no turning back!" Charles said sounding rather desperate, only to get suddenly blocked out by the helmet, now sitting firmly on Erik's head.
With a sigh, Erik looked to the side. Reaching out he gestured to the door, it swung open noiselessly. The room beyond looked empty, which caused him to frown suddenly. "Liesel?" He called out, after a second her face peered around the door. "What are you doing?"
"Breaking things." She answered simply with a nod.
"Having fun?"
"Not as much fun as you, clearly." Liesel looked to Shaw, "He...sorry what's wrong with him?"
"Charles." Erik replied while his eyes slid over to Shaw. "I don't know if he's still here." Liesel went to say something only to get cut off. "Mentally, here, Liesel. I know he's physically here." Erik shot her a look, she stepped for the first time in the room. Her boots crunched against broken shards of mirror, she had to awkwardly climb over a beam, but eventually she appeared by his side.
Looking up at him, she looked rather worriedly at slight cuts, now hidden by the helmet. If it wasn't for blood tracks, she wouldn't know he was hurt at all. He merely glanced at her and then at Shaw, Liesel frowned. He seemed...different. Something had changed in his disposition, and she didn't quite know what it was.
"By the way, in the small likelihood that you are still there, I'd like you to know that I agree with every word you said." Erik admitted with a nod, he looked away from Shaw's blank expression to Liesel. "We are the future." She in response blinked slowly and looked from Erik to Shaw. "But, unfortunately, you killed my mother." Erik said while glancing around at the chaos around them. "Come on, Liesel."
"We're just going to leave him?" Liesel asked confused, yet she turned and followed after him. She didn't really have an option, seeing as how he'd reached down to hold onto her hand and pull her gently away.
"No," Erik smirked and looked at her like she had asked something truly idiotic. In part, he supposed her question was silly. Turning and looking back to Shaw, he used his spare hand to rummage in his pocket for something. Liesel looked down at his hand when he opened it up, looking at the old coin she looked back to Erik. He looked from her to Shaw, "This is what we're going to do," he explained in a simple tone while Shaw's empty gaze just looked at them. Erik held his arm up and opened his hand, "I'm going to count to three, and I'm going to move the coin." Erik said, he may not have been able to achieve this task when he was a child. But he certainly didn't struggle with it anymore. Shaw was right, he was capable of so much more. "One," he said as the coin left his hand and drifted slowly over to Shaw. "Two," it neared his head, with a simple tone he continued counting, "Three." He said just as the coin passed through Shaw's head, coming out the other side covered in blood and brain matter. After it had passed through, it merely clinked to the ground and twirled a few times before landing on one of its sides.
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Edited: 13/June/2019
Reedited: 20/August/2021