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It was very late. Raven had been on the grounds briefly, though no one would really know that she was there. Charles might have, if he wasn't out doing god knows what.. but she's checked his office twice and thrice, he was no where to be seen.
When the moon raises high into the sky; she let her hair down. Her entire body shifting from that of a child to her normal tone; blue. Scales decorating the necessary parts of her to keep herself hidden, her red hair dangling along her shoulders to the middle of her back was gripped with a dark hand to toss along her shoulders. The breeze was cool in which she draws a breath, eyes closing to take it all in, her bare feet striking forward upon the patio to grasp the chair which was soon dragged to the edge, positioned, and sat upon.
It was rare, in moments like these, she was able to allow her true self to relax. Even in a place so secluded as the Insititute, she felt the need to hide her true demeanor..
..but when everyone was asleep?
She had free 'reign'.
*
Some distance away, on the other side of Breakstone Lake, there is an active quarry. Erik departed for this quarry just before dusk, moving on foot.
He was gone a very long time.
There's no telling just what he's been up to. No sight or sound of anything amiss, until, upon the far horizon, something passes in front of the moon. There is a slight glisten, like that of something reflecting off a sharp surface.
Magneto can see Raven before she's likely to see him; the effect of having the moon at his back, casting dim light upon the grounds below. His flight toward the mansion slows when he sees her; something he was clearly not expecting to see.
He'll eventually become visible, floating through the air toward the rear grounds. His torso, arms, and legs are encased in metal armor that seems impossibly sleek, seamless, and positioned in such a way that it supports his frame. Clearly, he's using magnetic fields to move the armor, which thusly moves him.
Ice blue eyes literally stare at Raven while he draws closer.
*
Raven doesn't howl at the moon. She bathed in the light of it, eyes closed. One leg crossing over the other as arms lift and draw back against the knot upon the back of her head. Her eyes were closed, a little smile upon her face as her toes flex and wiggle, bopping to a song only known to her.
She does not see him.
In parts, this was her childhood home.. well.. as altered as a childhood home could get. Floundered with and run down by children picked and plucked from their own parents, discarded because they were different, taught to live among another and to use their gifts in solace. This was her home. There was no need to take guard.
But instincts were that, after all. She's lived long enough to know that there is something, or perhaps someone looming on the horizon. Her yellow eye lifts to stare out towards the field, both legs cocking open, hand planted in between as shoulders lift to near her ears with a slight lean forward to scan the distance. Logan wasn't chopping wood.
The little hairs upon the back of her neck stood up; but it was different when Charles was near. No. This was danger. A slow boil of danger that looms near the surface whenever he speaks. No matter how kind he was to her, how soft, how gentle.. there was danger there. Untapped rage.
Her eyes finally lift as the glint catches her, her yelled eyed gaze narrowing as Erik makes his approach.
"Ich stehe ich Ihnen , mein lieber zu begren? Oder sollte ich bleiben in meinem Platz."
*
"When have I ever asked you to do something that you don't wish to do?"
Erik smiles, hands stretched out to either side of his body, while guiding the magnetic field to lower him gently into a graceful landing. No matter how he smiles, there is still that lingering sense of danger, a thing that rests close to his skin in most part due to the fact that he's felt it necessary to even build such a thing.
"My dear Raven." He steps closer to her, a certain sadness in his eyes. He is happy to see her, but under the circumstances…
"Warum haben Sie Polizist Auge nehmen?"
*
Chills.
There are very few things that positively scare Raven, very few. But for someone to carry themselves as Herr Magneto does, there were chills. Chills enough to send those tiny little scales a ripple, her fingers clutching along the chair as she slowly resigns herself to a stand. A man like Erik, in her thoughts, needed to be an on even keel. If he stood over her, the intimidation factor would be real and she would possibly have gotten angry. Or scared. The emotions were too close to each other in her mind to tell.
As he lands, she stands, arms hung loosely at her sides, her hand lifting to halt him in his approach as she resigns herself to meet him instead.
Each step there was a change, a change of the color of her skin, the flourish of blonde hair, the human visage she carries around Charles and Erik on a good day yet with a black t-shirt and slacks to boot.
"Sei nicht traurig , mein ser. It breaks my heart.." And it really does.
It took her a moment to answer, her lips forming into a thin line, her brows following suit with a lowering, her expression grave. "Auge um Auge, Erik . Er blendete seine eigene Welt mit seiner Wildheit . Ich habe es nur eine Wirklichkeit gemacht."
"Besides. He flinched during my giving him a lobotomy. I warned him to stay still."
*
With the ripple of scales, Erik's eyes move, following the rippling. It was fascinating to him, a sign of her true beauty.
The sadness lingers, especially with her transformation into a more 'human' form, though there is a touch of humor that crawls past the skin around his eyes when she makes her joke.
"My dear Raven." Erik reaches out a hand to touch her hair. "You are safe here. You don't need to hide behind skin that is not truly yours." He turns the blond locks for a moment, lips curling with the slightest touch of disappointment- no, disgust.
"I'm not sad that he lost an eye. He likely deserves worse than that. But, my dear, now they're all going to believe it was a mutant who did it. Do you really want to start a war with them?"
*
Where Raven could have moved, she didn't. Blue eyes follow the path of his fingers, right into the very thick of her blonde hair, her eyes immediately darting towards the side as she takesn in a breath. She couldn't look at him, knowing that he disapproves of her change, perhaps it was a little lick of defiance or true shame at what she truly is.
"I know." Her words were quiet, her head leaning back so that her hair could fall from his grasp, her arms lifting to wrap around herself as her skin sheds yet again. Blue now. The clothes still remain, her yellow-eyed gaze soon looking towards Lensherr just in time to see the look of disgust..
And then she turns.
"There is already a war, Erik. I'm attempting to get ahead of it before it reaches these very doorsteps." She gestures around towards the Institute, peace among the stars. "I'm only here to take in the peace before there is none for me."
*
She's said nothing yet of his armor. Erik frowns when she turns away. He doesn't exactly disagree with her, but he hasn't completely lost hope yet. There's still a part of him, a larger part than the other, that still believes in Xavier's dream.
"Of all people," he asks her, "do you think I don't understand that?" There were very few who knew the true horrors of his past; who knew the true source of his self contained hatred.
The man who muttered his mother.
"Sometimes, in trying to prevent war, one only makes the fighting worse." Erik shakes his head. "We took the fight to them, Raven. You were there. We turned the Earth against them, to stop them. But we didn't attack them. We didn't mutilate them… we didn't exact revenge."
He lifts his shoulders then sighs deeply. "If there is a war… it will end on these doorsteps."
*
*
"No." Raven says cooly. "I don't think you do. Not anymore."
She turns slightly, her jaw tense, clear anger in her features but there was sadness there as well. Fear and sadness. She's seen what he could do. And if provoked just right? He'd be a monster.
"I never said that I was attempting to prevent the war, Erik. I want to prevent it from coming here." She turns slightly, her hand reaching out to curl fingers against the other, flicking them out so that her nails could catch upon the armor. She knew what it was, though what he was doing with it? It was suspect.
"Their hands need to be forced. Too long have we laid down and not struck back. We only stopped them, yes. But it is still ongoing. A never ending circle that drags the dregs of the human race against the 'high supreme', the entitled.." She shakes her head slightly.
"We're in desperate need of a liberation, Erik. Und kein Betrag der friedlichen Gesprche wird uns helfen, diese Auflsung erreichen."
She inhales, then takes the step closer, breaching the personal space, so much so that the clothing she's manufactured with her gift brushes along the metal. "Tell me.. mein schatz, will the death or turning of one of these children you so fight to protect and coddle be the catalyst for your turning?"
Not that she'd make it so..
*
The armor is impressive. It is light as aluminum, but strong as steel. Stronger, perhaps, for while he's been mining the materials from the earth itself, he's also been… experimenting. Pushing the molecules into space they weren't meant to inhabit.
The sound of Raven's fingernails against the armor draws a coy grin from his face. No metal on earth has quite that sound.
He considers her words, without answer. He cannot find himself to agree, and yet disagreement doesn't catch hold, either. Raven's sudden closeness halts the turning of his mind. He's still more man than mutant, it seems.
Her words summon a shiver to crawl up his spine and into his head. She's right… it would be his undoing.
"I do not know what the future holds for me, Raven. I do know where I am, right now. I am… cautiously hopeful, foolish as that might be." His gaze turn down to her; there is a wonder there, and something subtly animal, should she allow him to catch hers.
"You'll go, won't you?" he asks, with remorse. "Before Charles learns you're here."
He wishes she wouldn't, but he knows he's right.
*
Interesting.
He could probably tell from that look upon her face that she was curious. If he could read her mind, he'd know that she was wondering -just- what he was up to. Perhaps he was further down -that- rabbit hole than she thought..
"He does tend to draw that out of people." Her hand draws around his side, latching onto that piece of armor, feeling it beneath the palm of her hand yet it serves to tug him just a little bit closer. Nearly flush. Yes. He was a man alright, one who favored this look above all others. It was not a fetish upon his part, she believed. She truly believed that he was the only one in the world to find her true form beautiful.
And it was baffling.
Fingers tip-tap against the armor again, her face crumbling with amusement, her head shaking as she takes those steps back to gain a little distance. "I thought about staying." She confesses. "Being a family again." She finally turns, glancing up towards the Institute with a slightly forlorn look. "But in truth, Erik. My brother frightens me." She laughs a little, her head shaking. "Makes me want to be a better person."
The last line was a gift, one that causes her to turn upon her heels as she takes a chance to cross through her former home one last time..
"Wenn ich eine richtige Schild zu sein, dann muss ich aus dem Herzen weit weg zu sein."
*
%r%r"Then be a better person," Xavier says from behind them, blue eyes shooting daggers at Raven. "It is not hard. It is a choice. And torturing police officers is beneath you." He throws the paper in his hands down towards Raven's feet. Clearly, Xavier is upset. There's a quick glance towards Magneto, but then it's all eyes on deck towards Raven.%r%r
*
"Then be a better person," Xavier says from behind them, blue eyes shooting daggers at Raven. "It is not hard. It is a choice. And torturing police officers is beneath you." He throws the paper in his hands down towards Raven's feet. Clearly, Xavier is upset. There's a quick glance towards Magneto, but then it's all eyes on deck towards Raven.
*
There is the slightest of lidding, Erik's eyes closing a hair when she touches him again. She is persecuted because she is different; feels she must hide herself to exist in this world. It's a sentiment Erik understands all too well, and it lends him to enjoy her at her most normal. She's right. It is not fetish on his part.
Erik opens his mouth to speak, but Charles catches them both by surprise. The tall fellow turns to look at his best friend, suddenly feeling a flash of shame at the armor he wears. Clearly, he was preparing for a fight.
As was Charles.
"Charles," he scolds, disdainfully, fearing the man may drive her away. Again.
*
Ouch.
Age old games of hide and seek turn real as she faces down Xavier, her skin immediately rippling different hues; blue first to brown, to light tan and to peach pale.. hair from black, to kinked up bantu knots to blonde that ripples down her shoulders. He startled her, sent her emotions a spiral as her eyes cut towards him and down towards the newspaper at her feet. She stares at it for a moment, a ghost of a smile hinted there but..
Charles..
"That's what -you're- for." She snaps back, her foot rearing back to kick the newspaper in his direction. "He beat one of our own. He -MURDERED- a little girl. I would have done the same thing even if that little girl was human."
But wisely, she backs away, putting herself in the middle of those two men. It was almost symbolic, one that had thoughts to fight and the other who spoke of peace. And the angered, damned woman in the middle. Who was going to get drawn in first?
*
Charles seems to ignore Erik's chiding as his emotions get the better of him slightly. She can act as if she was taking the high ground all she wants, but Charles isn't going to take that lying down. "People are murdered every day. Mutants are murdered everyday. This was political and a choice and you made it only because it advanced your cause. That's about you, not about us. Not about our people."
Charles takes a breath and finally looks to Erik. Clearly he is frustrated. Perhaps everything with Moira is also a factor. He'd never admit that, of course.
*
For a moment, Erik considers removing the armor. He opts to let it be, knowing that the manner in which he would have to remove it would be far more of a statement than leaving it on.
"You can't blame her for being angry," he tells Charles. "For wanting to take action. To avenge."
He breaks from Charles, now turning his strong demeanor upon Raven. "But you, my dear Raven. You're smarter than this. Abducting the officer has only made things worse. Taking his eye? That's akin to throwing the first firebomb."
*
*
"Yes. People, little brother." Still, she doesn't move, even though her feet were aching to do so. To stand up, to march right up to the point of contention to not spit in his face, but to grab him, shake him, and make him see reason. Her side.. as selfish as it was.
"Not just mutants. People. -CHILDREN-." Her lips curl as she shakes her head slightly, breaking the straight line to take that step aside to keep both of the men in her sights, her back to the open air just as she likes it, and no one behind it. "Do you think so little of me that you feel that I'm doing this -just- to fuel my own agenda Charles? I'm doing what you -fail- to do on a daily basis."
Though Erik admonishes her, her hand rises up to attempt to halt his words. "That's where you are -wrong-. The death of that little girl was enough catalyst that we all need to stand up and act. A scared girl, who in her last moments watched as they attempted to take away someone that she's loved her whole life. A scared girl who was -killed- JUST because she was scared, Erik. Taking his eye? That was the pinnacle of my mercy. Of -our- mercy. He still lives, breathes the air while she does not."
*
"What you are doing, these missions of hate. These objects of revenge. They do not make things better. They bring more hate, and more misery. Your failure to see that is astonishing to me. Your willingness to discard everything we have strived for astounds me. I find it shocking you could find it in yourself to do something like this and I am even more disheartened by your unwillingness to see your fault in it." Charles is getting louder and already one bedroom light in the school has turned on, to see what is happening. "You are no revolutionary, Raven."
*
"Stay with us." Erik raises a hand, hoping to quiet them both. His voice is strong, stronger than most; even without raising his voice. "Let us train the X-Men, as we always talked about doing. Let us prepare to fight, to defend, to avenge, while searching for every reason not to."
Erik looks between both, and as he does, the armor around his body vibrates. An unnerving tone somewhere between sharp and flat, the material vibrating and trembling against his clothing beneath.
"I could have fashioned a blade," he explains.
*
His words draw her back, her shoulders rising nearly instinctively as if she were being met with a lash. She couldn't look at him. Deep down, and he could -feel- it, she knew that he was right. But also, the conviction that -she- was right was just as strong, strong enough to bring her eyes to a slight burn and create a nearly pinkened backdrop against the blue hue. "You would do well to lower your tone against me, Charles Francis Xavier." Her eyes glance up towards the light that draws itself on, then back down towards the man as she gives a shake of her head.
It hurt. His words cut like knives. But still, she tried to stand true. Tried. "Neither are you, but you do -not- see me admonishing you for your inaction."
She turns away from them both now, trust allows her to do that, even in the face of anger, her hand drawing up so that she could place the side of her digit in between her lips to bite down hard. Pain re-directed to physical, stopped almost immediately. "You could have fashioned a blade?" She questions quietly, glancing towards Erik. "You eventually -will-."
*
"Or you'll do what, Raven? Will you torture me? Will you take one of my eyeballs? Or something worse? Because that is what you do now that you are judge, jury, and executioner." Charles shakes his head, "I will do no such thing. You compare teaching children to use their powers with the torture of a human being. In what world does that even make sense? You are hardly in a position to admonish anything."
"You mean to tell me that this does not bother you, Erik? That you would just welcome her back as if nothing had happened?"
*
"Perhaps," Erik answers. "Perhaps you're right, Raven. Some day, one of them will turn. Some day, God forbid, one of them might become the victim. It crossed my mind, you know. To kill them all." He shakes his head, about to defend the position of peace.
Instead, Charles challenges him. He turns to look at the man, eyes flaring. "If we are unwilling to welcome back those who have made mistakes, those who have gone astray? Those we love?" His arms lift to the side, pointing outward. "Then what are we?" His eyebrows rise. "Don't tell me that animal you brought here, with the skeleton of metal, doesn't bear a history of violence and mistakes. He wears it like a necktie."
*
"That's not fair Charles.." Raven hisses quietly, "..you and I know that the man deserved every little bit of pains he gets now. That reducing him to nothing more than a babbling beast is a -blessing-. His heart beats." She says matter of factly, her head shaking.
But she has to turn and take a look at them both, her eyes darting from one man to the next, her mouth opening and closing as she shakes her head, hands falling to rest upon her hips which dig in to inflict more pain that would remain hidden. And then he brings up Logan. The man was walking death and there was a hidden history there.. one that she keeps locked up tight. Like most of her time before meeting Charles, living with him, calling him family. That was one place that she does not touch.
"Erik.. quiet.." At least she was mindful of the sleeping few..
*
"The difference, Erik, is repentance. There is none of that here," Xavier explains, shaking his head and folding his arms over his body. "His heart beats so that you can feel as though you have the high ground. There is no other reason that you showed him mercy. We both know that."
"We both know that man deserves a lot of things. To be judged by his peers. To be held accountable in a court of law, not a court of Raven. You call me inactive. You are a tyrant. Worse, you will bring retribution upon mutants everywhere."
*
Erik Lensherr knows not just how deep Charles has looked into his mind. Were he to look deep enough, he would know; Erik will one day become a murderer. He will one day find the man who killed his mother, and he will not leave the man's heart beating.
But that's personal. This is different.
"I hope you haven't looked deep enough to realize how full of shit you are," he murmurs toward Charles. He cannot; he will not believe Raven to be as Charles describes.
Raising his hand, he becomes Magneto; the seamless armor groans and cracks, peeling away into pieces that continue to crack apart and mold together until they are a dense, heavy ball of unstable elements, kept from exploding by a small, ferocious magnetic field. It's so powerful that the hair on his head bends just so, drawn to it as it floats up to hover above his left shoulder.
Charles once told him that true power lies somewhere between rage and serenity. If one were brave enough to look into his eyes, that is what they would see as he turns and walks back toward the mansion.
"Good night, Charles. Raven…?" He turns to look at her, stopping for a brief moment. "I will miss you. Dearly." A pause. "And… don't ever silence me again."
Turning, Erik resumes his retreat, wanting no more of this tonight.
*
There were a few things that both men knew about Raven; she loved almost all things lemon, she had a penchant for black and white movies and stories told over the radio. She loved to read and listen to Charles lecture when he stood on his beloved podium, and her laugh, her laugh was incredibly melodic and infectious. Her capaticy to feel ran deep, but to express these emotions were truly that. A hard thing, one that she's kept close to the vest.
But they were also possibly the only two who had the ability to wound her with words that any cut could not contend with. To break the devil down, kneeling and in tears, to defeat her with a gaze. It is perhaps why she doesn't look at them directly, how her gaze fixes to points upon their chest or seem far off. Now was one of those moments. Oh how she wanted to repent.. to come home. To be a family again.
And she fucked that up the moment she attended the riot with her comrade in arms..
As Erik departs, a slight chill runs down her spine, her arms instinctively hugging herself which soon stops in the face of.. well -Him-. Her movements were quick, the few steps it takes to put her close to Charles, her hand reaching out to carefully brush a bit of errant hair away from his ear if he didn't move.
"I love you, baby brother.."
Her tone was soft, quiet, defeated in the sense that she lost it all and had nothing left. Her cause? Especially if left unchecked? Would ultimately lead her to her doom. This was her goodbye.
Instead of crossing through the Institute to darken the halls once more, she leaves the backway without a single glance over her shoulder.
The line had been drawn a long time ago.. and it's taken her this long to finally cross it. There was no going back.
*
As Raven walks past him, Xavier has tears in his eyes. Within two weeks he's lost two of the most important people in his life. And this time around it is Raven. Back again, then gone all at once. Usually a peaceful man, even Xavier has his limits. It's been an extraordinarily hard week for him, and this is all the harder. In a fit of rage he shoves a potted flower off its resting podium and it crashes upon the ground leaving a thousand pieces and a mound of dirt. As well as a plant, fitting to die. He walks back into the mansion.
*