"A warning to the prophet, the liar, the honest
This is war.
To the leader, the pariah, the victim, the messiah
This is war."
~ "This is War", 30 Seconds to Mars
... ...
If someone asked Erik who he hated most in the world, for many years Erik Lehnsherr would have said Sebastian Shaw. Even after the man was dead, Erik's hatred remained because, though his search for Shaw may have led him to find Charlotte, it was Shaw who initiated the division between them as well.
Until recently, however.
Erik was surprised at himself, at the boiling pit of hatred he felt whenever Stryker came to mind. Stryker, who had a brainwashing serum that overpowered Erik's control and his loyalty to mutants—to Charlotte, even—and made the secrets spill forth.
Erik was in the middle of The Once and Future King when he heard the guard approaching. He took a steadying breath, knowing what was next. "Mr. Laurio, how long can we keep this up?"
"How long is your sentence?" The guard replied, closing the book for him.
The word was bitter in Erik's mouth. "Forever."
"Not necessarily forever, Mr. Lehnsherr." Came Stryker's loathed voice as he strode into the room. "Just until I've got all that I need."
That was one thing Erik disliked about Stryker. He was insistent upon using his real name instead of calling him Magneto like everyone else. Erik hated that. It seemed to him that Erik Lehnsherr died many years ago and only Charlotte could resurrect that side of him again. Only Charlotte could he tolerate calling him Erik Lehnsherr. From anyone else's mouth...
"Mr. Stryker." Erik greeted coldly. "How kind of you to visit. Are you here to make sure the taxpayer's dollars are making me comfortable?"
Instead of replying, Stryker pulled the tell-tale serum from his pocket and the guard slammed Erik down to the desk by his neck, pulling his collar back. He struggled, but he was old and not as strong as he once was. Against the guard, he felt even weaker.
The serum burned into the skin of Erik's neck. By now, he was certain it had left a scar: another scar from another tyrant.
Erik's muscles went nearly limp.
"You can go." Stryker told the guard and pulled Erik back in his chair. "Mr. Lehnsherr, I'd like to have one final talk about the house that Xavier built and the machine called Cerebro."
Erik had never realized how many of Charlotte's secrets he knew, how many things he knew that could be used to destroy her, until Stryker had stolen them all.
Erik wished the serum would kill him; that would be better than this.
...
"I need you to watch over the children tonight, Logan." Charlotte told him. It wasn't a question. "Scott and I are going to visit an old friend."
Logan laughed. "You want me to be your babysitter?"
"Think of it more as...extra security while I'm gone." Charlotte replied with an amused twitch of her lips. "Not being a nanny and tucking them in. Just watching over the mansion to be sure the students are safe."
...
"I've got her from here." the guard offered to a reluctant Scott. He allowed him to take charge of the Charlotte's wheelchair.
Charlotte was patient as they scanned her first for metal and finally wheeled her into the prison. It was old hat now because of how often she's visited. She'd made a point to visit every Friday for a talk and the possibility of chess. But it was a Tuesday.
"Charlotte Xavier, have you come to rescue me?" Erik asked. It had become his usual greeting.
Charlotte did not smile as usual. "Sorry, love. Not today." She replied as she wheeled over to the table.
Erik glanced at Charlotte curiously over his shoulder. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"The assassination attempt on the President." Charlotte replied. "What do you know about it?"
With Erik's back to Charlotte, she could see a scar at the nape of his neck, just below his hair. She wondered how long ago he had gotten it, if it was one of her students, one of her X-Men, who gave it to him...
Erik's response was quick and honest. "Nothing. Only what I read in the papers. You really shouldn't have to ask, Charlotte."
Charlotte met Erik's gaze and she could feel his sudden guilt and horror but nothing distinct. Concerned, Charlotte leaned forward in her wheelchair. "What's happened to you, Erik?"
"I've been getting recent visits from William Stryker." Erik replied grimly. "You remember him, don't you?"
Confused, Charlotte wheeled closer. "William Stryker?" She quietly repeated.
"His son, Jason, was once a student of yours, wasn't he?" Erik remembers.
Charlotte nodded. "Yes...years ago. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to help him. At least...not in the way his father wanted."
Erik stood and began pacing. "And you think taking in the Wolverine will make up for your failure with Stryker's son? You haven't told him about his past, have you?"
"I've put him on the path." Charlotte replied. "Logan's mind is still fragile..."
Erik snorted. "Is it? Or are you afraid of losing one of your precious X-Men, Liebling?" He gave Charlotte an urgent look. She looked to his mind in concern.
'Read me.' Erik thought to Charlotte.
Charlotte did.
Stryker—armed with some sort of serum that burned...his tongue loosening of its own volition...secrets spilling from his mouth ... information about his and her pasts ... even something slipped out about their little names for each other, 'love' and 'Liebling' ... the truth about Wanda and Pietro Maximoff's actual parentage... the truth about her mutation, her school, her power, her students ...the truth about that, too... and then her school...
"What have you done, Erik?" Charlotte said in horror.
Erik's grey eyes were regretful, horrified. "I'm sorry, Charlotte."
"What did you tell Stryker?" Charlotte asked.
Erik's reply was shaky. "Everything."
Charlotte clenched her eyes shut and curled her fists on the armrests as her breath caught in her throat. She did not look at Erik. "I must go immediately. If the school is at risk, there's no time to waste. Not with Stryker. I need to ready our security and defenses—"
"Charlotte." Erik said.
Reluctantly, Charlotte looked to Erik, guarded and torn. "Erik."
Erik stood and met Charlotte's eyes regretfully. "I'm sorry."
"I know." Charlotte said.
Erik stared at Charlotte with pained grey eyes. "I am, Liebling."
"I know." Charlotte repeated sharply, turning her chair to face the exit. "You said. I feel your regret, Erik. I know you well enough after these years...even without reading your mind. I know."
Charlotte's lips thinned, white in her unusually pale face as she tried to signal the end of her visit to the guards. They didn't seem to notice.
Erik reached and grasped her hand. "You know I would never have betrayed you if I had the option. Stryker—"
"What do you want me to say, Erik?" Charlotte interrupted, nearly shouting as she pulled her hand from Erik's grasp. "I know you'd never have betrayed me. I know you have no option. I know. What more would you have me say? That I forgive you?"
Erik's shoulders dropped slightly. He didn't need to reply. His entire mind sang with YES!
"I can't forgive you for this, Erik!" Charlotte exclaimed. "Not if—if—"
Charlotte's voice broke and she closed her eyes as she struggled for the words. "If someone is killed, if any of my children are hurt, if my school is invaded while they are there...I will never forgive you. I cannot. I will not. Not this time."
"Charlotte—" Erik's voice cracked. "Please."
"No." Charlotte snapped and turned to look at Erik with pained but resolute eyes. "I should have wiped it from your memory—Westchester, the mansion, the school. After Cuba—once I recovered, I wiped it from Moira's mind. The children suggested that, when we next saw you, they fight you until they ripped that damn helmet from your head so I could make you forget—for our own protection. I refused because I thought it was safe with you. Because I trusted you."
Charlotte's blue eyes were furious and heartbroken as she looked at Erik. "I was wrong."
Erik's eyebrows rose in surprise. "And yet, I recall my identity being betrayed to the government some years ago." Erik's tone was cool, his eyes sharp.
"You were about to ignite a war with the Friends of Humanity and every other human out there!" Charlotte spat. "A war mutants are hopelessly, laughably outnumbered in! There was no chance—there is no chance of mutants winning a war against billions of humans!"
"I forgave you nevertheless." Erik snapped. "Even after you recently assisted the government in keeping me here."
Charlotte's serene façade was gone, burned away in her ire. "You might have just killed them all—all my children, all my family, my children!" She screamed. "The twins might be captured, hunted, tortured, killed now—because the mansion is vulnerable and Stryker knows who they are! I don't care if Stryker knows about the mansion—I care that he knows who lives within it!
"I only gave your name because I knew they had no chance of catching you. And now, I only assisted because I know you won't remain in here forever." Charlotte told Erik.
"Still confident in me, then." Erik remarked dryly.
Charlotte's lip curled if Erik didn't know any better, he'd have thought it a snarl. "I know you, Erik. After all these years, I know how you think. You won't let little thing like this plastic prison stop you. I know you, Erik Magnus Lehnserr. Once you set your eyes on a goal, you grip it tight and will move heaven and earth to achieve it, no matter who you have to hurt to get there!"
Charlotte, once incited, had a fury to match Erik's, though it was never seen. Now, in that tiny plastic prison, as she forced the guards' minds away from the shouting thankful that there were no cameras, her rage surfaced past her calm, professorial mask. But Erik was never one to be impressed by the intensity of her anger.
"I'm doing this for you—for the twins—for all mutants!" Erik yelled. "Don't you—"
"For me?" Charlotte spat. "Don't you ever say you are starting this war, committing this terrorism, killing these people in my name! You think you're helping us—helping me?
"All you've ever done—all you ever do—is hurt me! It's like every time you touch me...something breaks. Something in me. Every time you get too close or I let down my guard or try to trust you. My hope that we could work together for a common goal—you broke that in our last chess game before Cuba. My spine, my ability to walk on that beach. And ever since...it's only ever been slowly killing my heart."
The words tasted like ash and Cuban sand in Charlotte's mouth. There was a pain in her back; she wondered if it would ever leave.
Erik deflated suddenly, like the air let out of a balloon. "Charlotte." He whispered remorsefully. "If I had known—if I had been there..."
"You were never there!" Charlotte snapped. "Not after Cuba—not after helping put a bullet in my back, not after making me paraplegic, not after Anya died! You weren't there! Not when the twins were born—or cried in the middle of the night—started walking—got their powers—or grew up. You were never there when I needed you most. You hovered nearby, just out of my peripheral vision—always present, like a ghost, enough to distract me, but never within reach. Which, in the later years, was probably for the best." Her tone turned bitter.
"There was a time." Erik said softly. "That you called us 'bookends to the same soul,' Charlotte."
Charlotte let out the air from her lungs slowly as a single tear pooled in the corner of her left eye and slipped down her cheek. "Yes." She agreed softly. "But do you know what bookends never do? Touch."
Erik bowed his head and said nothing as one of the guards finally arrived to escort Charlotte from the cell. Erik couldn't help projecting one last thought to Charlotte as she left.
'You should have killed me when you had the chance, Charlotte.'
Charlotte gave no response.
Erik wondered if Charlotte agreed.