![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
In Fevered Dreams Truth is King (The Whole thing in one shot)
In Fevered Dreams Truth is King
The whole thing in one shot. I am putting it behind a cut because if it almost 8000 words long.
Now-He holds his friend’s body in his arms and feels him shutter in pain. His anger builds but his friend stops the explosion within from manifesting. His concern mounting as he watched his friend struggle for breath with crimson lips parted. Memory is a funny thing and he found himself going back to the last time that they had been in this position
Then-
Singapore had been a total bust. Considering the distance that they had traveled to find a mutant that Charles had insisted on recruiting but that didn’t want to have anything to do with them. He had expressed his displeasure to them with three choice words.
“Now what?” he asked his entirely too cheerful companion.
“Now what what?” came the response.
“We’re on the other side of the world. Do we go home or try that git again?”
“Home, I think. I have this feeling that he will eventually come to visit me.”
“Charles, were you playing in his head?”
The sly smile slipped across his lips, “Only a little. Just enough to save us all some trouble.” He paused and put two fingers to his temple and focused.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to find a good place to eat. I’m rather peckish.”
He observed his friend slip into that place where he was there but not there. His blue eyes went slightly vacant. Then his focus snapped back into place, “That way I think.”
Erik sighed a sigh in resignation and followed his friend.
They walked through the narrow street. Erik felt his old instincts kick in as he kept an eye out for danger. People seemed to sense that getting out of the way was a good idea or maybe Charles was planting the idea in their heads either way they were making good time. Charles pointed to his right and Erik was dubious about the place. Dump would be a word up from how the exterior of this place looked.
Charles suddenly slapped at the back of his neck, “There are days I wish I could convince the animal world to leave me alone.”
The two men entered the doorway of the eating establishment. If they had stayed out just a little longer, they might have seen a bamboo tube pull back behind a curtain.
Erik had to admit that Charles was right. The exterior gave no hint to the opulent restaurant that was behind the curtain. They were shown to a booth and a parade of excellent food starting crossing their table.
“How did you know about this place?” asked Erik.
“I came here years ago with my step father and step brother,” replied Charles with a hint of sadness in his voice, “I remember the dumplings as rather divine.”
‘Step father and brother?’ thought Erik, ‘There is some new information.’ He could tell by the look on Charles’ face that this was not the time or place to push for more information.
They ate their meal and talked about various subjects keeping it very casual. Erik noticed that Charles kept rubbing his neck where he had slapped at the insect.
“Charles, are you all right?”
“Right as rain. Shall we go back to the hotel and continue our game?”
Erik gave Charles a look of concern.
Charles laughed and said, “Don’t worry. Now let’s pay up and get out of here.”
They grabbed a bicycle taxi back to the hotel and retired to the bar where Charles set up their chess set from where they had left their game. Charles had his usual scotch neat and Erik had a very dry martini stirred not shaken.
The game went late into the night. But for both men the game was secondary. Conversation, discussion, debate was the reason for the board between them. They had started playing when they had spare time at the CIA base and quickly found out that they were good competition for each other.
“Erik, I believe that at our core we are good people. It is the old argument of nature verse nurture.”
“I believe I am a prime example of that,” said Erik with a twinge of irony in his voice.
Charles rubbed his forehead and sighed, “I don’t seem to be up to form tonight.”
Erik looked at the board. He had the game in three moves. Concern started to fill his being. This was not Charles at his best or even his distracted best.
“I think I need a glass of water,” said Charles signaling the waiter. The waiter brought them a large glass bottle of French water that had been chilled along with two glasses. The two men alternated between water and their drinks through the rest of their game and the beginning of the next one.
The further they go into the second game the more concerned Erik became about Charles. The bar was dark and maybe a little warm but Charles was visibly sweating and Erik couldn’t remember a time except after their runs that he had ever seen Charles sweat.
Charles drained his Scotch glass and said,” I think I am done for the evening. Can you pack up?” He stood up and staggered a bit. “I didn’t think I had that much to drink,” he said with a laugh and carefully walked out of the bar area. Erik picked up the chess pieces and put them back into the traveling chessboard. He sat back in the comfortable overstuffed chair and slowly finished his martini as a cold feeling started up in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong with Charles and Erik had a feeling that things were only going to get worse.
Erik took the stairs rather than the elevator. He ran up them to his floor for a little exercise. He felt like he had been sitting too much recently. He got to the suite that Charles had booked for them, fished for his key in his jacket pocket, and opened the door.
It was obvious that Charles had started to pack. The suitcase open on the couch had been a big tip off. Erik took the chess set from under his arm and put it on Charles' briefcase so that they wouldn't forget it tomorrow. He started packing up his briefcase and travel bag. Years of travel had taught him how to pack light. He looked at his watch and wondered how much time he had before they were off again. He stretched and yawned. He turned to go to his bedroom when he heard a rather loud crash coming from Charles' room.
He went to the door and knocked "Charles, are you all right?"
He listened for an answer but it came in another form. He felt a pressure in his head. It felt like his brain was being squeezed in a vise. Then the whispering started. He could only make out bits and pieces of what he was hearing. The bad feeling that he had earlier was only getting worse.
He pounded on the door "Charles! Charles please!"
From within the room he heard another crash. That made up his mind and got rid of any doubts that he needed to get into the room. He tried turning the knob but it was locked from the inside. The voices in his head were getting louder and the vise grip on his brain was increase. He backed up a bit and rammed his shoulder into the door. The door flew open and Erik fell into the darkened room.
The light from the living room dimly illuminated the room he was in. He could see Charles on the floor next to his bed. There was broken glass on the floor. He stood up and carefully made his way to Charles. He touched his friend's back gently. He could feel heat radiating from Charles. He rolled Charles over carefully. Charles' eyes were open and very glassy. His breath was in short bursts.
"Charles, can you hear me?"
He watched his friend's eyes try to focus on him. A flicker of recognition flew across his face.
"Erik is it really you? I am afraid I am not quite myself right now."
"Charles, you are burning up."
“I feel so cold. And my head. I can’t…I can’t”
“Shhhhh…It’s alright. Do you think you can get to the bed?”
“I’m not on the bed?” Charles tried to sit up but that set off a violent set of the shakes. At first Erik had been concerned that he was having a seizure. Erik picked Charles up carefully and was amazed at how light and compact his friend was. He put Charles on the side of the bed that was not soaked in sweat. He heard Charles mutter “No Doctors. No Doctors.”
“We have to bring that fever down.” He stripped his friend out of his wet pajamas and covered his naked frame with the duvet. He went into the living room and picked up the phone. “I need ice and a lot of it.”
Erik looked around the room. He picked up a bottle of vodka and sighed. “What a waste. It was a good brand,” he thought. He went into the bathroom and grabbed some towels then walked back to Charles’ bedroom. He pored the vodka into the ice bucket he found on the floor. Then he soaked a washcloth in the vodka and started to bath his friend in the alcohol. While he was doing that, he checked to make sure that Charles hadn’t cut himself on the broken glass.
Charles was babbling at a rapid rate. Erik tried to make out what he was saying but it was a jumble of words. Then the images started in his head. They were broken and fragmented but they carried with them terror. The one image that was repeated was a large hand coming straight at his head. He felt small and scared and confused.
“Charles!” He shook the man. “Charles, snap out of it.”
Charles moaned a low moan. His eyes opened and he finally focused on Erik. “Erik? What are you doing here?” He took in his surroundings and realized something, “And why am I naked?” he said with a smirk in his voice.
Erik let out a sign of relief. “You…” he started when he heard a knock on the suite’s front door. He went to the door and found four bellmen each with two wine buckets of ice. “Put it in the bathroom please.” The odds looks he got didn’t register at the time because he was so concerned about Charles. Later he would realize what they were probably thinking. He tipped the men and went back to Charles’ bedroom. He stepped through the door and descended into hell.
_----
Erik was very disoriented. He felt small and defenseless. He could see a very tall man standing over a woman who was cowed by him. His hand was back and he let go and hit her in the face hard.
“Kurt, please, “pleaded the woman, “I don’t care what you do to me but don’t do this to Charles.”
“Shut up” said the man “Your son is a freak and a menace. He should have been put away the first time you realized what he could do.”
Erik tried to step forward but found himself held by a larger boy with a very cruel face, “Where do you think you are going freak? And don’t try anything or I’ll break your arm again.” Erik felt his arm being yanked up behind his back.
“Kurt, I don’t know what you are talking about. Charles is not a freak. Yes, he is an overly smart child but he…” Her sentence was cut off by another slap by the man.
“He screws with people’s minds Sharon. He is dangerous. Little sociopath.”
“You better have your eyes open pipsqueak. I’ll fucking break your arm and your leg if you close them.” He felt a hand in his hair pulling his head up and back.
His head hurt so much. There was a pressure building inside. Erik recognized the rage and helplessness that was building. He watched as Kurt pulled the woman to her feet by grabbing her hair. She screamed in pain. Charles screamed in anger and fear, “No! Stop! I’ll be good. I promise I’ll be good. I’ll never do that again.” He pleaded and begged for the woman he called mother. Another ringing slap was delivered and the woman went limp. Kurt let her go and turned to Charles.
“Now to deal with you” he said advancing on Charles.
And at the moment of sheer desperation, Charles came into his own. Kurt froze with his hand upraised. In his eyes was terror that Erik recognized from his own life.
“What the fuck did you do? What the fuck did you do to my father?” the pain in his shoulder increased until the arm popped out of its socket. Charles took his heel and stomped on the boy’s foot hard. Bones broke and the other child howled. Charles was let go and he ran to his mother only to be grabbed by Kurt who started to throttle him, “I bet you can’t do that if you are unconscious.” Charles eyes opened wide and his mind went into Kurt and he screaming inside the older man’s head. Kurt dropped him and grabbed his head screaming in pain. Charles got to his mother’s side but he was too small, he couldn’t move her. “Mother. Mother please get up. Mother we have to leave.”
She made a slow moan and started to rally to and saw what was going on around her.
“Charles, did you do this?” she asked carefully.
“Yes mother. I had to.”
“Charles, this is very wrong. You told me that you stop this. You made me a promise.”
Erik was incredulous. She was blaming the boy for saving her life? He felt the shame welling up in Charles. He wished he could tell Charles that he is not awful or evil. He is a good man to the core.
The scene shifted and changed. He found himself in Singapore but he is older by several years. He is walking into the establishment where he and Charles had dinner but with Kurt and a rather surly looking lad who looked the part of a bully.
“Charles stand up straight. We must make a good impression here. You know what I want you to do.”
“If I do this then I can go back to Harvard and you will forget that I ever existed?”
“I have signed the paperwork already Charles. All I have to do is give it to you.”
Charles straighten up.
“Mr. Marko, your table is ready.”
They followed the greeter to a booth where two men and a teenager sat.
“Mr. Li.” Kurt Marko extended his hand to one of the men who stood up. They shook hands. “These are my sons Cain and Charles.”
Mr. Li gestured to the other people at the table, “These are my sons Wen and Hong.”
They sat down facing the other family. Charles put his mind out and probed the Li family. He was horrified at what he learned. Mr. Li was a local warlord who rules with an iron fist. He saw women and children of rivals being killing in front of their husbands and fathers before he killed his rivals. The children were not much better. The younger took particular pride in his ability to torture and keep the victim conscious. This was the bottom of the cesspool of people. The older boy looked at him in surprise and much to Charles’ he pushed back.
Charles could see what was happening before him. Kurt Marko needed nuclear material for his experiments and Mr. Li had access to some. All Charles needed to do for his freedom was “convince” Mr. Li to sell it to Kurt at a reasonable price. But there was a problem for Charles in all this. Sort of a moral dilemma. He knew how Mr. Li and his boy would obtain the material and it wouldn’t be pleasant indeed. What Kurt was going to do with it concerned Charles more. He put his fingers to his head to concentrate only to find Cain’s heel on his boot pushing hard in on it. Cain looked daggers at him and mouthed one work “Don’t”. Cain picked up his heel and slammed it down into Charles foot hard. The same foot that Cain had broken a couple of years before and Charles knew he would do it again. Then the headache started and Charles had to bite his cheek to keep from screaming. He focused on just keeping his head together when through the hazy he heard his stepfather say, “Oh good god, go clean yourself up. You look a right mess.”
Charles put his hand up to his face and felt the blood gushing from his nose. He looked at the younger Li boy who had a sadistic satisfied look on his face.
Charles excused himself to the washroom. He wiped the blood from his face praying that the pain would ease. ‘No.’ came the thought into his head. ‘No. I don’t think I am going to let you go. You are too much fun to play with.’ Then images of what that boy wanted to do to him flooded his head. Charles threw up in the sink and then steeled his mind and pushed back very hard with his mind. ‘Get The Fuck Out Of My HEAD.’ He capped it with a mental punch. The pressure on his mind eased and he drew a breath of relief. Then the washroom door burst open and Cain came charging through with fists being the first thing to connect with Charles.
“You Fucking Freak!” Cain roared, “You have ruined everything.” And proceeded to batter Charles into unconsciousness.
At that point Erik was able to break free of Charles’ mind and come back to the hotel. He smelled vomit and blood. He put his hand to his nose and realized that the blood was his own from his nose. He pulled off his shirt leaving him in a tank top. He went to the bed where Charles was in a fetal position also covered in blood and vomit.
“Oh Charles, you are a man of layers,” said Erik as he picked up his friend and took him to the bathroom and put him in the bathtub. He put cool water in the tub and washed his friend off. He let the tub fill and started putting ice in it trying to bring Charles’ fever down. He went to the sink and washed his face. He took off the tank top and stripped down to his underwear since his clothes were covered.
He took a towel and put it under Charles’ head. In picked up Charles’ head he noticed the red circle on his neck really for the first time. He passed his fingers over the spot only to feel a slim piece of metal in Charles’ neck. He carefully pulled the needle out with his powers trying to be gentle. Charles moaned a low moan as the barbed needle was removed. Erik didn’t touch the needle but let it hover over the palm of his hand. The needle was two colors and that told Erik all he needed to know. Charles had been poisoned and now Erik had to figure out how to save his friend’s life.
Erik looked at his watch again. 4:27 AM. Charles had been having seizures in the tub but the ice seemed to be helping keep his temperature from rocketing up. Erik ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He had to come up with some plan of attack but he could barely put two thoughts together. Charles let out a low moan from the tub. Erik knew that a hospital was out of the question especially since he knew that someone had it out for Charles. Erik checked on Charles and added some cool water into the tub putting the last of the ice buckets into the water. He knew he couldn’t keep Charles in the tub and there was a chance that this was making him worse. All Erik knew is that the seizures seem to be less often and intense since he got Charles cooled off a bit.
He tucked a dry towel under Charles’ head and stepped into the living room of the suite. He picked up the phone and had the front desk dial a number for him. He needed help and he really had only one place to go for it.
“Fitch’s Wicket Company, how may I direct your call?” a young lady’s voice said.
“Sherry, it’s Erik. I need to talk to Opie.”
There was a slight pause and she said, “I’ll see if he was in.” Erik knew that pause was her turning on the recorder and wondering if she dare ask why Erik and not Charles was checking in.
Opie wasn’t his name. It was his initials but somewhere along the way Erik and Charles had given him the nickname so he went with it. Not having his name attached to those two seemed like a good idea for the long term. He straightened his tie and picked up his phone, “Erik, good to hear from you. A little longer than I would like. Did..” Much to his surprise Erik cut him off.
“Opie we have a serious problem.” The tone in Erik’s voice spoke volumes to his CIA contact.
“What sort of problem? It is that mutant Charles was so hot to get to come in?”
“No, that was over in less than ½ a minute. Charles has been poisoned.”
“Poisoned?”
“I believe so. Currently I have him in the bathtub trying to get his temperature down. He is seizing and losing control.”
“Losing control?”
“Of his gifts. You know how tightly wound our boy is. I can’t take him to a hospital. It is too dangerous. Someone wants him dead and they may have succeeded.”
“Erik, let me make some calls and get back to you.”
“I suggest they be short ones Oliver. I don’t think he has much more time.”
“Erik, he means a lot to me too” said Oliver. Erik heard the click and put the receiver down.
Oliver shouted to his secretary, “Sharon, get me the Chief. We have a problem to solve.”
Erik went back to the bathroom to find that Charles had slid further into the tub. He ran to it and pulled his head out of the water. ‘Stupid. Stupid. Stupid’ he thought.
‘Not really,’ came the familiar voice in his head, ‘I was trying to get out and slipped. Don’t seem to have the strength to do anything.’
Erik felt a feeling of relief that his friend was talking to him. Well, sort of talking to him.
‘Erik, something is still very wrong. I honestly don’t know how much longer I am going to be able to hold on.’
“You were poisoned” said Erik out loud.
‘Poisoned?’ came the thought with much confusion. ‘Who would want to poison me?’
Erik was concerned that Charles hadn’t spoken or opened his eyes. Charles picked up his concern. ‘Don’t have the strength. Can barely breath. Poisoned?’
Erik said, “Do you remember Mr. Li and his two sons?”
‘The head of the Yellow Dragon Tong, yes….how did you know about that?’
“You showed me.”
‘I…’ Charles started to shiver and Erik could feel the seizure building up. He picked Charles up and held him close to his chest. He took Charles into his room and laid him on the bed. He held his friend as the seizure shook his entire body. Charles looked not much longer for this world. He had to do something but he couldn’t leave Charles alone.
At that moment both the phone rang and there was a knock at the door. Erik swore under his breath in German and decided phone first.
The voice at the other end said, “Erik I got you some help. They should be there soon.”
“Thanks Opie. I think they are knocking now.”
He looked through the peephole and saw two men and a woman in US military garb. He opened the door.
“Mr. Lehnsherr?”
“Yes.”
“We were told to tell you that Opie sent us.”
“Come on in.” Erik stood aside and let the three in with their cases.
“Where’s the patient?” asked the taller of the two men.
“Professor Xavier is over here” said Erik pointing to his bedroom. He followed the three into the room.
The shorter man pulled a stethoscope out of his pocket and started to listen to Charles’ heart. The other two opened their cases and started laying out all kinds of medical equipment.
The woman asked, “Is there a table we can bring in here?” Erik went into the living room and with the help of the tall soldier got the coffee table into his room. The woman took out a notebook and a pen and turned to Erik as the soldier set up the medical equipment. He put together a drip stand and loaded a bag of saline on the hook.
She said, “Maybe we should step out for a minute. I want you to tell me all that you know about what is happening with him and what you have done for him so far.”
Erik didn’t want to leave Charles with strangers but he nodded slightly and went into the living room.
“I’m Captain Grace” she said, “That is Lieutenant Houseman and Colonel Cohen. Your friend is in good hands. We deal with the weird around here. We are all licensed Doctors with different specialties. Now what do you think happened?”
Erik told Captain Grace all he could remember with a few choice details left out that he felt didn’t need to be told. He showed her the needle he had extracted from Charles’ neck. She took a pair of tweezers and carefully pick the needle up.
“Colonel, you need to see this” she said as she walked to the bedroom. Erik followed her. They had Charles on an IV drip and a blood pressure cuff was on his arm. Charles’ eyes looked like they had sunk all the way into his head. He looked so pale and so frail.
“How did your friend piss of the Yellow Dragon Tong?” asked the Colonel as he examined the needle.
“How did you know that?” asked Erik.
“I have seen a couple of these during my tour here. Nasty piece of biological warfare combined with some serious toxins to create a cocktail of dead. It is a miracle that you have kept him alive so far. But he doesn’t have much more time before his body is going to start shutting down on him. There is only so much we can do to keep him going.”
“Are you saying it is hopeless?”
“Did I say that? No, there is an antidote for the toxin.”
“So let’s get that.”
“Not so easy,” said the Lieutenant in a very gravelly voice, “The only people who have it are also the only people who have these darts and they are not inclined to help those they have marked for death.”
Erik felt the pressure build in his head, “He is about to have another seizure.”
“How?” but the question was cut off by all three soldiers dropping to the floor in pain.
Erik crossed to the bed and grabbed Charles and shook him. “Charles, they are friends. Let them go. Charles, you are killing them.” Then he remembered how Cain had broken the connection and he, with much regret, open his hand and slapped Charles across the face hard. Charles’ eyes snapped open with a look of anger and betrayal. Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he went limp. Erik turned and saw that the Captain had put something in his IV line.
The Colonel picked himself up from the floor, “Well it wasn’t if Oliver hadn’t warned us about him. Should have done that sooner.”
“Just out of curiosity did he say anything about me?”
“Just not to get you mad. We wouldn’t like you if you got mad” said the Captain.
“So where can I find the Yellow Tong?” asked Erik with a bitter edge to his voice.
“Honestly we have no idea. That is one of the most elusive of the tongs to find.”
Erik thought back to the restaurant that Charles took him to “I might have an idea where to start.”
“If you are going to do anything I would do it sooner rather than later. The Professor is living on borrowed time right now.”
“Can you?”
“Take care of him? That’s why we were sent. Oh, you might want to put on some clothes before you leave the suite” said the Colonel with a bit of a chuckle in his voice.
Erik had totally forgotten that he was in his underwear. “Ah, well that might be a good idea indeed.” He went to his drawers and pulled some clean clothing out and put it on. He grabbed his wallet, keys and jacket and headed out to find the cure for his friend. He just hoped he could do it in time.
_-----
Erik left the hotel and started working his way back to the restaurant. He had a good sense of direction and had, out of habit, been very observant of his surroundings. It was something that he had developed in his search for Shaw. He tugged at his jacket and felt the hunter within emerge. It was like he was a tiger that had finally slipped his leash. It was strange not have Charles there next to him or the feeling of Charles being in his head. His morality was dying on a bed in the hotel he just left.
He walked down the narrow streets with his five sense heightened. People can tell when a tiger walks in their midst and they tend to get out of the way. He made good time back to the restaurant and enter the narrow door.
“We are closed Sir” came the curt answer from the greeter who hadn’t looked up from his paper.
“I was here earlier this evening with my friend.”
“Did you lose something?” came the question.
“You might say that. Is Mr. Li in? I think he and I need to have a conversation” Erik purred.
The greeter’s head snapped up like he had been pulled up by his hair. He looked at Erik rather startled and began to babble, “No Mr. Li here. No. Wrong place. We are closed. Please leave.”
Erik reached out and got a hold of the chain around the man’s neck with his mind. He started to squeeze slowly so that the man could have a chance to realize how much trouble he was in.
“Let’s try that again shall we? Where is Mr. Li?”
He felt the knife coming behind him and casually reached out and grabbed it with his left hand, flipped it around and returned it to the gut of the man who had thrown it at him. The man screamed in pain. “I will tell you that I am not a very patient man and right now I am a bit on the clock. So this will be your last chance to have enough breath to tell me what I want to know before you stop breathing all together. Do we understand each other?”
The man nodded and said in a very choked voice “I am dead either way.”
“Well don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.” He tightened the chain around the man’s neck. The man’s eyes bulged in their sockets and Erik heard the sound of the neck cracking. He dropped the corpse to the desk and shouted, “Li, I am Erik Lensherr. I am here to talk to you about Charles Xavier.”
A voice came from a balcony, “Charles Xavier? Have you come to report his death? Take your revenge? It would be fitting.”
“I came for the antidote Mr. Li. Charles still lives and if you know what is good for you, I strongly suggest that you comply with my wishes.”
“And I strongly wish his death. So we are at an impasse” giggled the disembodied voice.
Erik plucked the needles that were shot at him out of the air and hovered them over his hand. He then returned the needles back to whence they came. There were cries from all over the restaurant as they hit their targets and a lot of swearing in various languages. Metal throwing stars and darts were next and they were quickly dispatched as Erik crossed the restaurant towards the voice that he heard. A couple of waiters attacked him but were quickly dispatched with the metal vases that lined the walls of the restaurant.
“I grow tired of this. Show yourself” demanded Erik. He then started to feel a pressure in his skull. ‘Charles?’ he thought and then realized that this felt very different. He grabbed some metal pots still on the tables that the waiters who were now writhing on the floor or unconscious had been clearing and threw them with his mind as fast and hard as he could with his mind. The pressure grew greater. He felt like his brain was cooking inside his head. Then he felt the pressure vanish.
He ran to the steps leading upstairs to the balcony and worked his way from curtained booth to curtain booth. He grab some metal knifes along the way. He figured he hadn’t much time. He opened one curtain to find another curtain behind it. He went through that one into an alcove and from there into an office.
The man behind the desk was wearing yellow silk and had a traditional hat on his head.
“Mr. Lensherr.”
“Mr. Li I presume”
The man behind the desk nodded slightly. Erik carefully assessed his enemy as he believed that his enemy was doing the same of him. The man behind the desk was younger than him but older than Charles. His black hair was slicked back under his hat. The mustache looked right out of a Fu Manchu movie. He was pale and his fingernails were very long and lacquered. This was not someone in the picture of health. Erik idly wondered what Mr. Li thought of him.
“214782” said Mr. Li.
Erik felt cold to the core “What?”
“The tattoo on your arm. You have suffered much Mr. Lensherr. Seeing your family die. Being tortured.”
“I strongly suggest you get the out of my head.”
“I have suffered too. At Charles Xavier’s hand.”
A burst of cold laughter escaped Erik’s lips, “Charles? Are we talking about the same Charles Xavier?”
Mr. Li screamed, “Charles Xavier killed my brother and almost killed me!” Mr. Li pushed back from the desk. He was in a wheel chair with his legs twisted and useless. “My father was never the same. He lost his position and it took me years to regain what my family had and put the Yellow Tong back to its feared position in the triads.”
Erik looked at the man in disbelief, “Charles did this?”
“You think he is such a noble man. Such an honorable man. Did he ever tell you what he did with his father?”
“Step father,” Erik said rather absently. “Kurt Marko was his step father and apparently you know nothing about why Charles was there.”
“He was there to cheat my father.”
“Again you are wrong. So was it you or your brother who went into his head in the bathroom?”
“How do you know about that?”
Erik flipped a knife up with his mind and slammed it into the man’s right hand. Mr. Li screamed. “This is taking too long” said Erik, “let me simplify this for you. You will give me the antidote and I will let you live which is a better deal than I have given many others in your position.”
Mr. Li’s face started to blank out like Charles. Erik took another knife and pinned the other hand to the wheelchair armrest. Li screamed again. “Care to probe my mind and figure out where the third one is going to go?” Li shook his head in the negative.
Erik felt the metal heading at his noggin. He deflected and rebound it on the person that had dealt the blow. The third knife when to in front of Li’s left eye. “And I think you can figure out where the fourth one will go if I have to use the third. And I strongly suggest that the people that are behind me back off or I might slip.”
Mr. Li shouted out orders in Chinese and Erik heard people move back. “Antidote.” He pulled back the knives from Mr. Li but left them hovering with the implication of grave bodily harm. Mr. Li opened a desk drawn and pulled out a silver vial.
“Here. This will save your thrice cursed friend. This is not over yet.”
Erik picked the vial up with his mind and put it in his pocket. “No Mr. Li. This is over.” He flipped a knife over his shoulder and it went into Mr. Li’s chest. There was no one in the restaurant when he left. He went rapidly as he could back to the hotel praying all the way to his long forgotten G-d that Charles was still alive.
Erik practically ran back to the hotel. The sun was up and the merchants were put out their goods for the day. 7:30 read his watch. He knew that time was running out for Charles and in his pocket was the one thing that could save him but only if he was in time. Erik grunted in frustration and ran up the hotel steps. The bellman opened the door for him. Erik went to the stairs not trusting the elevator to be fast enough. He wanted to be in control but felt so out of control.
He fumbled with the key in the lock and finally got it open. His ears heard sounds that he hadn’t heard in that room when he left. He also found himself facing a gun. His reflex of seizing the firearm and using on its owner almost kicked in but Captain Grace’s voice brought him back to see that he was looking at a Marine.
“Please tell me you succeeded.”
Erik pulled the silver vial out of his pocket. The Captain took and went into his bedroom. He followed quickly just a few paces but what he saw made his heart drop to his knees. Charles looked so small in the bed like he was wasting away to nothing before his eyes. The new sounds were electronic equipment that hadn’t been there when he left. Charles’ face was obscured by an oxygen mask. His eyes were stunk into his head. He looked for all intents and purposes dead.
“What happened?” asked Erik in a very hoarse voice. The silver taste of fear and panic filled his mouth.
“He went into cardiac arrest and we had to get him back a couple of time. Then he stopped breathing for a bit. Mr. Lensherr, your friend has gone through some pretty traumatic incidents this evening. I am praying that you got here in time but I must warn you that your friend might not be the man you knew if he does pull through this.”
“Colonel, how are we going to get him to swallow this?” asked the Captain.
“We’ll have to un-sedate him and hope we can get through to him to swallow some how.”
“Let me do it” said Erik.
“What? Why?” asked the Colonel.
“We have a connection at it were” said Erik. The Colonel looked at the Captain who shrugged. They started to try to bring Charles back to consciousness.
Erik sat gingerly on the bed cradling his friend’s head in his lap. He thought, ‘Charles. If you are in there and listening please do this for me and drink this.’
Charles started to thrash around a bit and the headache that Erik knew for an oncoming seizure started to tickle his brain. Erik thought hard, ‘Charles! Charles listen to me. LISTEN TO ME! You are safe and you will be well but you HAVE TO DRINK THIS. DRINK THIS.’ He put an image in his mind of Charles drinking the vial in his hand and made it the only thing in his mind. Charles seemed to calm down and slightly opened his mouth. Erik poured the potion into his friend’s mouth. The Captain massaged Charles’ throat encouraging him to swallow. Which, miracle of miracles he did. Then the seizure starting in full force only to be cut off by sedation and the return of the oxygen mask to his friend’s face.
“I pray that does it. Because there is not much more we can do medically to keep him here.”
“What now?” asked Erik.
“We wait and see” said the Colonel.
They brought Erik a chair and he sat down next to the man who had saved his life that dark night on the water. Erik hoped he had done the same for Charles. He held Charles’ hand in his and thought all kinds of thoughts to Charles and about Charles. Eventually, just through sheer exhaustion, he fell asleep in the chair his head on the bed holding Charles’ hand.
The next thing Erik felt was someone touching his hair. He sat bolt up right and looked at Charles’ blue eyes looking at him. Charles gave a half smile that Erik could see under the oxygen mask. ‘Good Morning Sunshine. You look like six kinds of road kill’ came the thought into his head.
Erik felt a sense of relief, joy and about half a dozen happy emotions all at once.
The Colonel came into the room “Ah, you are awake. Professor Xavier wouldn’t let us wake you.” Charles nodded and smiled again.
Erik looked at the Colonel with concern on his face.
The Colonel held up his hand, “Nothing to worry about Mr. Lensherr. We have checked him over. The antidote removed all the toxins from his system. The oxygen is just precautionary.”
“And the mask is a pain to wear,” said Charles in a rather hoarse voice as he tried to sit up but failed.
“Take it easy Professor. You still have some cracked ribs from when we had to perform CPR on you. We can tape them up but they are going to hurt for a while” said the Captain as she removed the oxygen mask from his face.
“I have had worse” said Charles slightly sadly.
“Rugby player?” asked the Colonel.
“Front four if you can believe it” chuckled Charles.
Erik laughed a half laugh. His throat felt very dry. He desperately needed something to drink.
Charles looked at him with some concern, “I am so sorry Erik.”
“For what?”
‘For putting you through such hell’ came the thought in his head but he also heard Charles say, “For slowing down the trip. I didn’t expect to get sick.”
“Professor Xavier, you are a very lucky man” said the Colonel.
“They say that a man’s luck can be measure by his friends and I am very lucky indeed.”
The Captain came in with a glass of water and handed it to Erik. He thanked her and downed it in a couple of gulps. She took the glass from him and refilled it with a pitcher that was on the dresser. He sipped this one a little more slowly.
“I’d like to keep an eye on you for the next 24 hours but after that I think you can travel if you need to.”
They removed the machines and their other equipment with military efficiency. The Captain was chosen to stay behind to keep an eye on both men. Housekeeping was let in to change the sheets and clean up Charles’ room. Erik went to Charles’ bed since Charles’ was in his and took a long dreamless nap.
When he finally returned to consciousness, he found Charles sitting up on the couch in the living room hitting on Captain Grace and doing a rubbish job of it. ‘Well at least we know that hasn’t changed’ thought Erik.
‘Hey! That’s not fair’ came the thought into his head, ‘I am not at my best.’
Erik laughed.
Captain Grace asked “What’s so funny?”
“Private joke” said Charles with a grin.
“Well Professor..”
“Call me Charles.”
“Well Charles, you seem on your way to recovery. I leave you in the hands of Mr. Lensherr,” she said standing up and motioning to Erik to follow her to the door. Erik did as she bid.
“Keep an eye on him and call me at this number if there is any change. He seems fine to me. Other than that, it was nice meeting you and I honestly hope to never see you again.”
“Captain Grace, can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“What are you a doctor of?”
“Genetics and Mutation. And I must say you are both interesting examples of both.” And with that she said her good-byes and left the two men alone.
“She was a looker,” said Charles.
“Hmmm” said Erik absentmindedly as he flopped down in the overstuffed chair across from Charles. “I honestly hadn’t noticed.”
Charles’ face took on that serious look, “Erik, I want to thank you. You save my life last night.”
“Call it even. You saved mine in Miami.”
Charles chuckled, “I didn’t think we were keeping an accounting on this.”
Erik could feel Charles’ tickling around the corners of his head, “Out. I don’t need you in there right now.”
Charles looked slightly hurt but nodded, “You will tell me what happened?”
“Eventually,” said Erik.
Now:
He can feel his friend struggle for each breath. Waves of pain radiate off of him. Then the cruelest blow of all. Total rejection from the man he called friend. He motioned Moria over and handed Charles to her. He gathered his troops and left his morality bleeding on a Cuban beach.
The whole thing in one shot. I am putting it behind a cut because if it almost 8000 words long.
Now-He holds his friend’s body in his arms and feels him shutter in pain. His anger builds but his friend stops the explosion within from manifesting. His concern mounting as he watched his friend struggle for breath with crimson lips parted. Memory is a funny thing and he found himself going back to the last time that they had been in this position
Then-
Singapore had been a total bust. Considering the distance that they had traveled to find a mutant that Charles had insisted on recruiting but that didn’t want to have anything to do with them. He had expressed his displeasure to them with three choice words.
“Now what?” he asked his entirely too cheerful companion.
“Now what what?” came the response.
“We’re on the other side of the world. Do we go home or try that git again?”
“Home, I think. I have this feeling that he will eventually come to visit me.”
“Charles, were you playing in his head?”
The sly smile slipped across his lips, “Only a little. Just enough to save us all some trouble.” He paused and put two fingers to his temple and focused.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to find a good place to eat. I’m rather peckish.”
He observed his friend slip into that place where he was there but not there. His blue eyes went slightly vacant. Then his focus snapped back into place, “That way I think.”
Erik sighed a sigh in resignation and followed his friend.
They walked through the narrow street. Erik felt his old instincts kick in as he kept an eye out for danger. People seemed to sense that getting out of the way was a good idea or maybe Charles was planting the idea in their heads either way they were making good time. Charles pointed to his right and Erik was dubious about the place. Dump would be a word up from how the exterior of this place looked.
Charles suddenly slapped at the back of his neck, “There are days I wish I could convince the animal world to leave me alone.”
The two men entered the doorway of the eating establishment. If they had stayed out just a little longer, they might have seen a bamboo tube pull back behind a curtain.
Erik had to admit that Charles was right. The exterior gave no hint to the opulent restaurant that was behind the curtain. They were shown to a booth and a parade of excellent food starting crossing their table.
“How did you know about this place?” asked Erik.
“I came here years ago with my step father and step brother,” replied Charles with a hint of sadness in his voice, “I remember the dumplings as rather divine.”
‘Step father and brother?’ thought Erik, ‘There is some new information.’ He could tell by the look on Charles’ face that this was not the time or place to push for more information.
They ate their meal and talked about various subjects keeping it very casual. Erik noticed that Charles kept rubbing his neck where he had slapped at the insect.
“Charles, are you all right?”
“Right as rain. Shall we go back to the hotel and continue our game?”
Erik gave Charles a look of concern.
Charles laughed and said, “Don’t worry. Now let’s pay up and get out of here.”
They grabbed a bicycle taxi back to the hotel and retired to the bar where Charles set up their chess set from where they had left their game. Charles had his usual scotch neat and Erik had a very dry martini stirred not shaken.
The game went late into the night. But for both men the game was secondary. Conversation, discussion, debate was the reason for the board between them. They had started playing when they had spare time at the CIA base and quickly found out that they were good competition for each other.
“Erik, I believe that at our core we are good people. It is the old argument of nature verse nurture.”
“I believe I am a prime example of that,” said Erik with a twinge of irony in his voice.
Charles rubbed his forehead and sighed, “I don’t seem to be up to form tonight.”
Erik looked at the board. He had the game in three moves. Concern started to fill his being. This was not Charles at his best or even his distracted best.
“I think I need a glass of water,” said Charles signaling the waiter. The waiter brought them a large glass bottle of French water that had been chilled along with two glasses. The two men alternated between water and their drinks through the rest of their game and the beginning of the next one.
The further they go into the second game the more concerned Erik became about Charles. The bar was dark and maybe a little warm but Charles was visibly sweating and Erik couldn’t remember a time except after their runs that he had ever seen Charles sweat.
Charles drained his Scotch glass and said,” I think I am done for the evening. Can you pack up?” He stood up and staggered a bit. “I didn’t think I had that much to drink,” he said with a laugh and carefully walked out of the bar area. Erik picked up the chess pieces and put them back into the traveling chessboard. He sat back in the comfortable overstuffed chair and slowly finished his martini as a cold feeling started up in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong with Charles and Erik had a feeling that things were only going to get worse.
Erik took the stairs rather than the elevator. He ran up them to his floor for a little exercise. He felt like he had been sitting too much recently. He got to the suite that Charles had booked for them, fished for his key in his jacket pocket, and opened the door.
It was obvious that Charles had started to pack. The suitcase open on the couch had been a big tip off. Erik took the chess set from under his arm and put it on Charles' briefcase so that they wouldn't forget it tomorrow. He started packing up his briefcase and travel bag. Years of travel had taught him how to pack light. He looked at his watch and wondered how much time he had before they were off again. He stretched and yawned. He turned to go to his bedroom when he heard a rather loud crash coming from Charles' room.
He went to the door and knocked "Charles, are you all right?"
He listened for an answer but it came in another form. He felt a pressure in his head. It felt like his brain was being squeezed in a vise. Then the whispering started. He could only make out bits and pieces of what he was hearing. The bad feeling that he had earlier was only getting worse.
He pounded on the door "Charles! Charles please!"
From within the room he heard another crash. That made up his mind and got rid of any doubts that he needed to get into the room. He tried turning the knob but it was locked from the inside. The voices in his head were getting louder and the vise grip on his brain was increase. He backed up a bit and rammed his shoulder into the door. The door flew open and Erik fell into the darkened room.
The light from the living room dimly illuminated the room he was in. He could see Charles on the floor next to his bed. There was broken glass on the floor. He stood up and carefully made his way to Charles. He touched his friend's back gently. He could feel heat radiating from Charles. He rolled Charles over carefully. Charles' eyes were open and very glassy. His breath was in short bursts.
"Charles, can you hear me?"
He watched his friend's eyes try to focus on him. A flicker of recognition flew across his face.
"Erik is it really you? I am afraid I am not quite myself right now."
"Charles, you are burning up."
“I feel so cold. And my head. I can’t…I can’t”
“Shhhhh…It’s alright. Do you think you can get to the bed?”
“I’m not on the bed?” Charles tried to sit up but that set off a violent set of the shakes. At first Erik had been concerned that he was having a seizure. Erik picked Charles up carefully and was amazed at how light and compact his friend was. He put Charles on the side of the bed that was not soaked in sweat. He heard Charles mutter “No Doctors. No Doctors.”
“We have to bring that fever down.” He stripped his friend out of his wet pajamas and covered his naked frame with the duvet. He went into the living room and picked up the phone. “I need ice and a lot of it.”
Erik looked around the room. He picked up a bottle of vodka and sighed. “What a waste. It was a good brand,” he thought. He went into the bathroom and grabbed some towels then walked back to Charles’ bedroom. He pored the vodka into the ice bucket he found on the floor. Then he soaked a washcloth in the vodka and started to bath his friend in the alcohol. While he was doing that, he checked to make sure that Charles hadn’t cut himself on the broken glass.
Charles was babbling at a rapid rate. Erik tried to make out what he was saying but it was a jumble of words. Then the images started in his head. They were broken and fragmented but they carried with them terror. The one image that was repeated was a large hand coming straight at his head. He felt small and scared and confused.
“Charles!” He shook the man. “Charles, snap out of it.”
Charles moaned a low moan. His eyes opened and he finally focused on Erik. “Erik? What are you doing here?” He took in his surroundings and realized something, “And why am I naked?” he said with a smirk in his voice.
Erik let out a sign of relief. “You…” he started when he heard a knock on the suite’s front door. He went to the door and found four bellmen each with two wine buckets of ice. “Put it in the bathroom please.” The odds looks he got didn’t register at the time because he was so concerned about Charles. Later he would realize what they were probably thinking. He tipped the men and went back to Charles’ bedroom. He stepped through the door and descended into hell.
_----
Erik was very disoriented. He felt small and defenseless. He could see a very tall man standing over a woman who was cowed by him. His hand was back and he let go and hit her in the face hard.
“Kurt, please, “pleaded the woman, “I don’t care what you do to me but don’t do this to Charles.”
“Shut up” said the man “Your son is a freak and a menace. He should have been put away the first time you realized what he could do.”
Erik tried to step forward but found himself held by a larger boy with a very cruel face, “Where do you think you are going freak? And don’t try anything or I’ll break your arm again.” Erik felt his arm being yanked up behind his back.
“Kurt, I don’t know what you are talking about. Charles is not a freak. Yes, he is an overly smart child but he…” Her sentence was cut off by another slap by the man.
“He screws with people’s minds Sharon. He is dangerous. Little sociopath.”
“You better have your eyes open pipsqueak. I’ll fucking break your arm and your leg if you close them.” He felt a hand in his hair pulling his head up and back.
His head hurt so much. There was a pressure building inside. Erik recognized the rage and helplessness that was building. He watched as Kurt pulled the woman to her feet by grabbing her hair. She screamed in pain. Charles screamed in anger and fear, “No! Stop! I’ll be good. I promise I’ll be good. I’ll never do that again.” He pleaded and begged for the woman he called mother. Another ringing slap was delivered and the woman went limp. Kurt let her go and turned to Charles.
“Now to deal with you” he said advancing on Charles.
And at the moment of sheer desperation, Charles came into his own. Kurt froze with his hand upraised. In his eyes was terror that Erik recognized from his own life.
“What the fuck did you do? What the fuck did you do to my father?” the pain in his shoulder increased until the arm popped out of its socket. Charles took his heel and stomped on the boy’s foot hard. Bones broke and the other child howled. Charles was let go and he ran to his mother only to be grabbed by Kurt who started to throttle him, “I bet you can’t do that if you are unconscious.” Charles eyes opened wide and his mind went into Kurt and he screaming inside the older man’s head. Kurt dropped him and grabbed his head screaming in pain. Charles got to his mother’s side but he was too small, he couldn’t move her. “Mother. Mother please get up. Mother we have to leave.”
She made a slow moan and started to rally to and saw what was going on around her.
“Charles, did you do this?” she asked carefully.
“Yes mother. I had to.”
“Charles, this is very wrong. You told me that you stop this. You made me a promise.”
Erik was incredulous. She was blaming the boy for saving her life? He felt the shame welling up in Charles. He wished he could tell Charles that he is not awful or evil. He is a good man to the core.
The scene shifted and changed. He found himself in Singapore but he is older by several years. He is walking into the establishment where he and Charles had dinner but with Kurt and a rather surly looking lad who looked the part of a bully.
“Charles stand up straight. We must make a good impression here. You know what I want you to do.”
“If I do this then I can go back to Harvard and you will forget that I ever existed?”
“I have signed the paperwork already Charles. All I have to do is give it to you.”
Charles straighten up.
“Mr. Marko, your table is ready.”
They followed the greeter to a booth where two men and a teenager sat.
“Mr. Li.” Kurt Marko extended his hand to one of the men who stood up. They shook hands. “These are my sons Cain and Charles.”
Mr. Li gestured to the other people at the table, “These are my sons Wen and Hong.”
They sat down facing the other family. Charles put his mind out and probed the Li family. He was horrified at what he learned. Mr. Li was a local warlord who rules with an iron fist. He saw women and children of rivals being killing in front of their husbands and fathers before he killed his rivals. The children were not much better. The younger took particular pride in his ability to torture and keep the victim conscious. This was the bottom of the cesspool of people. The older boy looked at him in surprise and much to Charles’ he pushed back.
Charles could see what was happening before him. Kurt Marko needed nuclear material for his experiments and Mr. Li had access to some. All Charles needed to do for his freedom was “convince” Mr. Li to sell it to Kurt at a reasonable price. But there was a problem for Charles in all this. Sort of a moral dilemma. He knew how Mr. Li and his boy would obtain the material and it wouldn’t be pleasant indeed. What Kurt was going to do with it concerned Charles more. He put his fingers to his head to concentrate only to find Cain’s heel on his boot pushing hard in on it. Cain looked daggers at him and mouthed one work “Don’t”. Cain picked up his heel and slammed it down into Charles foot hard. The same foot that Cain had broken a couple of years before and Charles knew he would do it again. Then the headache started and Charles had to bite his cheek to keep from screaming. He focused on just keeping his head together when through the hazy he heard his stepfather say, “Oh good god, go clean yourself up. You look a right mess.”
Charles put his hand up to his face and felt the blood gushing from his nose. He looked at the younger Li boy who had a sadistic satisfied look on his face.
Charles excused himself to the washroom. He wiped the blood from his face praying that the pain would ease. ‘No.’ came the thought into his head. ‘No. I don’t think I am going to let you go. You are too much fun to play with.’ Then images of what that boy wanted to do to him flooded his head. Charles threw up in the sink and then steeled his mind and pushed back very hard with his mind. ‘Get The Fuck Out Of My HEAD.’ He capped it with a mental punch. The pressure on his mind eased and he drew a breath of relief. Then the washroom door burst open and Cain came charging through with fists being the first thing to connect with Charles.
“You Fucking Freak!” Cain roared, “You have ruined everything.” And proceeded to batter Charles into unconsciousness.
At that point Erik was able to break free of Charles’ mind and come back to the hotel. He smelled vomit and blood. He put his hand to his nose and realized that the blood was his own from his nose. He pulled off his shirt leaving him in a tank top. He went to the bed where Charles was in a fetal position also covered in blood and vomit.
“Oh Charles, you are a man of layers,” said Erik as he picked up his friend and took him to the bathroom and put him in the bathtub. He put cool water in the tub and washed his friend off. He let the tub fill and started putting ice in it trying to bring Charles’ fever down. He went to the sink and washed his face. He took off the tank top and stripped down to his underwear since his clothes were covered.
He took a towel and put it under Charles’ head. In picked up Charles’ head he noticed the red circle on his neck really for the first time. He passed his fingers over the spot only to feel a slim piece of metal in Charles’ neck. He carefully pulled the needle out with his powers trying to be gentle. Charles moaned a low moan as the barbed needle was removed. Erik didn’t touch the needle but let it hover over the palm of his hand. The needle was two colors and that told Erik all he needed to know. Charles had been poisoned and now Erik had to figure out how to save his friend’s life.
Erik looked at his watch again. 4:27 AM. Charles had been having seizures in the tub but the ice seemed to be helping keep his temperature from rocketing up. Erik ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He had to come up with some plan of attack but he could barely put two thoughts together. Charles let out a low moan from the tub. Erik knew that a hospital was out of the question especially since he knew that someone had it out for Charles. Erik checked on Charles and added some cool water into the tub putting the last of the ice buckets into the water. He knew he couldn’t keep Charles in the tub and there was a chance that this was making him worse. All Erik knew is that the seizures seem to be less often and intense since he got Charles cooled off a bit.
He tucked a dry towel under Charles’ head and stepped into the living room of the suite. He picked up the phone and had the front desk dial a number for him. He needed help and he really had only one place to go for it.
“Fitch’s Wicket Company, how may I direct your call?” a young lady’s voice said.
“Sherry, it’s Erik. I need to talk to Opie.”
There was a slight pause and she said, “I’ll see if he was in.” Erik knew that pause was her turning on the recorder and wondering if she dare ask why Erik and not Charles was checking in.
Opie wasn’t his name. It was his initials but somewhere along the way Erik and Charles had given him the nickname so he went with it. Not having his name attached to those two seemed like a good idea for the long term. He straightened his tie and picked up his phone, “Erik, good to hear from you. A little longer than I would like. Did..” Much to his surprise Erik cut him off.
“Opie we have a serious problem.” The tone in Erik’s voice spoke volumes to his CIA contact.
“What sort of problem? It is that mutant Charles was so hot to get to come in?”
“No, that was over in less than ½ a minute. Charles has been poisoned.”
“Poisoned?”
“I believe so. Currently I have him in the bathtub trying to get his temperature down. He is seizing and losing control.”
“Losing control?”
“Of his gifts. You know how tightly wound our boy is. I can’t take him to a hospital. It is too dangerous. Someone wants him dead and they may have succeeded.”
“Erik, let me make some calls and get back to you.”
“I suggest they be short ones Oliver. I don’t think he has much more time.”
“Erik, he means a lot to me too” said Oliver. Erik heard the click and put the receiver down.
Oliver shouted to his secretary, “Sharon, get me the Chief. We have a problem to solve.”
Erik went back to the bathroom to find that Charles had slid further into the tub. He ran to it and pulled his head out of the water. ‘Stupid. Stupid. Stupid’ he thought.
‘Not really,’ came the familiar voice in his head, ‘I was trying to get out and slipped. Don’t seem to have the strength to do anything.’
Erik felt a feeling of relief that his friend was talking to him. Well, sort of talking to him.
‘Erik, something is still very wrong. I honestly don’t know how much longer I am going to be able to hold on.’
“You were poisoned” said Erik out loud.
‘Poisoned?’ came the thought with much confusion. ‘Who would want to poison me?’
Erik was concerned that Charles hadn’t spoken or opened his eyes. Charles picked up his concern. ‘Don’t have the strength. Can barely breath. Poisoned?’
Erik said, “Do you remember Mr. Li and his two sons?”
‘The head of the Yellow Dragon Tong, yes….how did you know about that?’
“You showed me.”
‘I…’ Charles started to shiver and Erik could feel the seizure building up. He picked Charles up and held him close to his chest. He took Charles into his room and laid him on the bed. He held his friend as the seizure shook his entire body. Charles looked not much longer for this world. He had to do something but he couldn’t leave Charles alone.
At that moment both the phone rang and there was a knock at the door. Erik swore under his breath in German and decided phone first.
The voice at the other end said, “Erik I got you some help. They should be there soon.”
“Thanks Opie. I think they are knocking now.”
He looked through the peephole and saw two men and a woman in US military garb. He opened the door.
“Mr. Lehnsherr?”
“Yes.”
“We were told to tell you that Opie sent us.”
“Come on in.” Erik stood aside and let the three in with their cases.
“Where’s the patient?” asked the taller of the two men.
“Professor Xavier is over here” said Erik pointing to his bedroom. He followed the three into the room.
The shorter man pulled a stethoscope out of his pocket and started to listen to Charles’ heart. The other two opened their cases and started laying out all kinds of medical equipment.
The woman asked, “Is there a table we can bring in here?” Erik went into the living room and with the help of the tall soldier got the coffee table into his room. The woman took out a notebook and a pen and turned to Erik as the soldier set up the medical equipment. He put together a drip stand and loaded a bag of saline on the hook.
She said, “Maybe we should step out for a minute. I want you to tell me all that you know about what is happening with him and what you have done for him so far.”
Erik didn’t want to leave Charles with strangers but he nodded slightly and went into the living room.
“I’m Captain Grace” she said, “That is Lieutenant Houseman and Colonel Cohen. Your friend is in good hands. We deal with the weird around here. We are all licensed Doctors with different specialties. Now what do you think happened?”
Erik told Captain Grace all he could remember with a few choice details left out that he felt didn’t need to be told. He showed her the needle he had extracted from Charles’ neck. She took a pair of tweezers and carefully pick the needle up.
“Colonel, you need to see this” she said as she walked to the bedroom. Erik followed her. They had Charles on an IV drip and a blood pressure cuff was on his arm. Charles’ eyes looked like they had sunk all the way into his head. He looked so pale and so frail.
“How did your friend piss of the Yellow Dragon Tong?” asked the Colonel as he examined the needle.
“How did you know that?” asked Erik.
“I have seen a couple of these during my tour here. Nasty piece of biological warfare combined with some serious toxins to create a cocktail of dead. It is a miracle that you have kept him alive so far. But he doesn’t have much more time before his body is going to start shutting down on him. There is only so much we can do to keep him going.”
“Are you saying it is hopeless?”
“Did I say that? No, there is an antidote for the toxin.”
“So let’s get that.”
“Not so easy,” said the Lieutenant in a very gravelly voice, “The only people who have it are also the only people who have these darts and they are not inclined to help those they have marked for death.”
Erik felt the pressure build in his head, “He is about to have another seizure.”
“How?” but the question was cut off by all three soldiers dropping to the floor in pain.
Erik crossed to the bed and grabbed Charles and shook him. “Charles, they are friends. Let them go. Charles, you are killing them.” Then he remembered how Cain had broken the connection and he, with much regret, open his hand and slapped Charles across the face hard. Charles’ eyes snapped open with a look of anger and betrayal. Then his eyes rolled up in his head and he went limp. Erik turned and saw that the Captain had put something in his IV line.
The Colonel picked himself up from the floor, “Well it wasn’t if Oliver hadn’t warned us about him. Should have done that sooner.”
“Just out of curiosity did he say anything about me?”
“Just not to get you mad. We wouldn’t like you if you got mad” said the Captain.
“So where can I find the Yellow Tong?” asked Erik with a bitter edge to his voice.
“Honestly we have no idea. That is one of the most elusive of the tongs to find.”
Erik thought back to the restaurant that Charles took him to “I might have an idea where to start.”
“If you are going to do anything I would do it sooner rather than later. The Professor is living on borrowed time right now.”
“Can you?”
“Take care of him? That’s why we were sent. Oh, you might want to put on some clothes before you leave the suite” said the Colonel with a bit of a chuckle in his voice.
Erik had totally forgotten that he was in his underwear. “Ah, well that might be a good idea indeed.” He went to his drawers and pulled some clean clothing out and put it on. He grabbed his wallet, keys and jacket and headed out to find the cure for his friend. He just hoped he could do it in time.
_-----
Erik left the hotel and started working his way back to the restaurant. He had a good sense of direction and had, out of habit, been very observant of his surroundings. It was something that he had developed in his search for Shaw. He tugged at his jacket and felt the hunter within emerge. It was like he was a tiger that had finally slipped his leash. It was strange not have Charles there next to him or the feeling of Charles being in his head. His morality was dying on a bed in the hotel he just left.
He walked down the narrow streets with his five sense heightened. People can tell when a tiger walks in their midst and they tend to get out of the way. He made good time back to the restaurant and enter the narrow door.
“We are closed Sir” came the curt answer from the greeter who hadn’t looked up from his paper.
“I was here earlier this evening with my friend.”
“Did you lose something?” came the question.
“You might say that. Is Mr. Li in? I think he and I need to have a conversation” Erik purred.
The greeter’s head snapped up like he had been pulled up by his hair. He looked at Erik rather startled and began to babble, “No Mr. Li here. No. Wrong place. We are closed. Please leave.”
Erik reached out and got a hold of the chain around the man’s neck with his mind. He started to squeeze slowly so that the man could have a chance to realize how much trouble he was in.
“Let’s try that again shall we? Where is Mr. Li?”
He felt the knife coming behind him and casually reached out and grabbed it with his left hand, flipped it around and returned it to the gut of the man who had thrown it at him. The man screamed in pain. “I will tell you that I am not a very patient man and right now I am a bit on the clock. So this will be your last chance to have enough breath to tell me what I want to know before you stop breathing all together. Do we understand each other?”
The man nodded and said in a very choked voice “I am dead either way.”
“Well don’t say I didn’t give you a chance.” He tightened the chain around the man’s neck. The man’s eyes bulged in their sockets and Erik heard the sound of the neck cracking. He dropped the corpse to the desk and shouted, “Li, I am Erik Lensherr. I am here to talk to you about Charles Xavier.”
A voice came from a balcony, “Charles Xavier? Have you come to report his death? Take your revenge? It would be fitting.”
“I came for the antidote Mr. Li. Charles still lives and if you know what is good for you, I strongly suggest that you comply with my wishes.”
“And I strongly wish his death. So we are at an impasse” giggled the disembodied voice.
Erik plucked the needles that were shot at him out of the air and hovered them over his hand. He then returned the needles back to whence they came. There were cries from all over the restaurant as they hit their targets and a lot of swearing in various languages. Metal throwing stars and darts were next and they were quickly dispatched as Erik crossed the restaurant towards the voice that he heard. A couple of waiters attacked him but were quickly dispatched with the metal vases that lined the walls of the restaurant.
“I grow tired of this. Show yourself” demanded Erik. He then started to feel a pressure in his skull. ‘Charles?’ he thought and then realized that this felt very different. He grabbed some metal pots still on the tables that the waiters who were now writhing on the floor or unconscious had been clearing and threw them with his mind as fast and hard as he could with his mind. The pressure grew greater. He felt like his brain was cooking inside his head. Then he felt the pressure vanish.
He ran to the steps leading upstairs to the balcony and worked his way from curtained booth to curtain booth. He grab some metal knifes along the way. He figured he hadn’t much time. He opened one curtain to find another curtain behind it. He went through that one into an alcove and from there into an office.
The man behind the desk was wearing yellow silk and had a traditional hat on his head.
“Mr. Lensherr.”
“Mr. Li I presume”
The man behind the desk nodded slightly. Erik carefully assessed his enemy as he believed that his enemy was doing the same of him. The man behind the desk was younger than him but older than Charles. His black hair was slicked back under his hat. The mustache looked right out of a Fu Manchu movie. He was pale and his fingernails were very long and lacquered. This was not someone in the picture of health. Erik idly wondered what Mr. Li thought of him.
“214782” said Mr. Li.
Erik felt cold to the core “What?”
“The tattoo on your arm. You have suffered much Mr. Lensherr. Seeing your family die. Being tortured.”
“I strongly suggest you get the out of my head.”
“I have suffered too. At Charles Xavier’s hand.”
A burst of cold laughter escaped Erik’s lips, “Charles? Are we talking about the same Charles Xavier?”
Mr. Li screamed, “Charles Xavier killed my brother and almost killed me!” Mr. Li pushed back from the desk. He was in a wheel chair with his legs twisted and useless. “My father was never the same. He lost his position and it took me years to regain what my family had and put the Yellow Tong back to its feared position in the triads.”
Erik looked at the man in disbelief, “Charles did this?”
“You think he is such a noble man. Such an honorable man. Did he ever tell you what he did with his father?”
“Step father,” Erik said rather absently. “Kurt Marko was his step father and apparently you know nothing about why Charles was there.”
“He was there to cheat my father.”
“Again you are wrong. So was it you or your brother who went into his head in the bathroom?”
“How do you know about that?”
Erik flipped a knife up with his mind and slammed it into the man’s right hand. Mr. Li screamed. “This is taking too long” said Erik, “let me simplify this for you. You will give me the antidote and I will let you live which is a better deal than I have given many others in your position.”
Mr. Li’s face started to blank out like Charles. Erik took another knife and pinned the other hand to the wheelchair armrest. Li screamed again. “Care to probe my mind and figure out where the third one is going to go?” Li shook his head in the negative.
Erik felt the metal heading at his noggin. He deflected and rebound it on the person that had dealt the blow. The third knife when to in front of Li’s left eye. “And I think you can figure out where the fourth one will go if I have to use the third. And I strongly suggest that the people that are behind me back off or I might slip.”
Mr. Li shouted out orders in Chinese and Erik heard people move back. “Antidote.” He pulled back the knives from Mr. Li but left them hovering with the implication of grave bodily harm. Mr. Li opened a desk drawn and pulled out a silver vial.
“Here. This will save your thrice cursed friend. This is not over yet.”
Erik picked the vial up with his mind and put it in his pocket. “No Mr. Li. This is over.” He flipped a knife over his shoulder and it went into Mr. Li’s chest. There was no one in the restaurant when he left. He went rapidly as he could back to the hotel praying all the way to his long forgotten G-d that Charles was still alive.
Erik practically ran back to the hotel. The sun was up and the merchants were put out their goods for the day. 7:30 read his watch. He knew that time was running out for Charles and in his pocket was the one thing that could save him but only if he was in time. Erik grunted in frustration and ran up the hotel steps. The bellman opened the door for him. Erik went to the stairs not trusting the elevator to be fast enough. He wanted to be in control but felt so out of control.
He fumbled with the key in the lock and finally got it open. His ears heard sounds that he hadn’t heard in that room when he left. He also found himself facing a gun. His reflex of seizing the firearm and using on its owner almost kicked in but Captain Grace’s voice brought him back to see that he was looking at a Marine.
“Please tell me you succeeded.”
Erik pulled the silver vial out of his pocket. The Captain took and went into his bedroom. He followed quickly just a few paces but what he saw made his heart drop to his knees. Charles looked so small in the bed like he was wasting away to nothing before his eyes. The new sounds were electronic equipment that hadn’t been there when he left. Charles’ face was obscured by an oxygen mask. His eyes were stunk into his head. He looked for all intents and purposes dead.
“What happened?” asked Erik in a very hoarse voice. The silver taste of fear and panic filled his mouth.
“He went into cardiac arrest and we had to get him back a couple of time. Then he stopped breathing for a bit. Mr. Lensherr, your friend has gone through some pretty traumatic incidents this evening. I am praying that you got here in time but I must warn you that your friend might not be the man you knew if he does pull through this.”
“Colonel, how are we going to get him to swallow this?” asked the Captain.
“We’ll have to un-sedate him and hope we can get through to him to swallow some how.”
“Let me do it” said Erik.
“What? Why?” asked the Colonel.
“We have a connection at it were” said Erik. The Colonel looked at the Captain who shrugged. They started to try to bring Charles back to consciousness.
Erik sat gingerly on the bed cradling his friend’s head in his lap. He thought, ‘Charles. If you are in there and listening please do this for me and drink this.’
Charles started to thrash around a bit and the headache that Erik knew for an oncoming seizure started to tickle his brain. Erik thought hard, ‘Charles! Charles listen to me. LISTEN TO ME! You are safe and you will be well but you HAVE TO DRINK THIS. DRINK THIS.’ He put an image in his mind of Charles drinking the vial in his hand and made it the only thing in his mind. Charles seemed to calm down and slightly opened his mouth. Erik poured the potion into his friend’s mouth. The Captain massaged Charles’ throat encouraging him to swallow. Which, miracle of miracles he did. Then the seizure starting in full force only to be cut off by sedation and the return of the oxygen mask to his friend’s face.
“I pray that does it. Because there is not much more we can do medically to keep him here.”
“What now?” asked Erik.
“We wait and see” said the Colonel.
They brought Erik a chair and he sat down next to the man who had saved his life that dark night on the water. Erik hoped he had done the same for Charles. He held Charles’ hand in his and thought all kinds of thoughts to Charles and about Charles. Eventually, just through sheer exhaustion, he fell asleep in the chair his head on the bed holding Charles’ hand.
The next thing Erik felt was someone touching his hair. He sat bolt up right and looked at Charles’ blue eyes looking at him. Charles gave a half smile that Erik could see under the oxygen mask. ‘Good Morning Sunshine. You look like six kinds of road kill’ came the thought into his head.
Erik felt a sense of relief, joy and about half a dozen happy emotions all at once.
The Colonel came into the room “Ah, you are awake. Professor Xavier wouldn’t let us wake you.” Charles nodded and smiled again.
Erik looked at the Colonel with concern on his face.
The Colonel held up his hand, “Nothing to worry about Mr. Lensherr. We have checked him over. The antidote removed all the toxins from his system. The oxygen is just precautionary.”
“And the mask is a pain to wear,” said Charles in a rather hoarse voice as he tried to sit up but failed.
“Take it easy Professor. You still have some cracked ribs from when we had to perform CPR on you. We can tape them up but they are going to hurt for a while” said the Captain as she removed the oxygen mask from his face.
“I have had worse” said Charles slightly sadly.
“Rugby player?” asked the Colonel.
“Front four if you can believe it” chuckled Charles.
Erik laughed a half laugh. His throat felt very dry. He desperately needed something to drink.
Charles looked at him with some concern, “I am so sorry Erik.”
“For what?”
‘For putting you through such hell’ came the thought in his head but he also heard Charles say, “For slowing down the trip. I didn’t expect to get sick.”
“Professor Xavier, you are a very lucky man” said the Colonel.
“They say that a man’s luck can be measure by his friends and I am very lucky indeed.”
The Captain came in with a glass of water and handed it to Erik. He thanked her and downed it in a couple of gulps. She took the glass from him and refilled it with a pitcher that was on the dresser. He sipped this one a little more slowly.
“I’d like to keep an eye on you for the next 24 hours but after that I think you can travel if you need to.”
They removed the machines and their other equipment with military efficiency. The Captain was chosen to stay behind to keep an eye on both men. Housekeeping was let in to change the sheets and clean up Charles’ room. Erik went to Charles’ bed since Charles’ was in his and took a long dreamless nap.
When he finally returned to consciousness, he found Charles sitting up on the couch in the living room hitting on Captain Grace and doing a rubbish job of it. ‘Well at least we know that hasn’t changed’ thought Erik.
‘Hey! That’s not fair’ came the thought into his head, ‘I am not at my best.’
Erik laughed.
Captain Grace asked “What’s so funny?”
“Private joke” said Charles with a grin.
“Well Professor..”
“Call me Charles.”
“Well Charles, you seem on your way to recovery. I leave you in the hands of Mr. Lensherr,” she said standing up and motioning to Erik to follow her to the door. Erik did as she bid.
“Keep an eye on him and call me at this number if there is any change. He seems fine to me. Other than that, it was nice meeting you and I honestly hope to never see you again.”
“Captain Grace, can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“What are you a doctor of?”
“Genetics and Mutation. And I must say you are both interesting examples of both.” And with that she said her good-byes and left the two men alone.
“She was a looker,” said Charles.
“Hmmm” said Erik absentmindedly as he flopped down in the overstuffed chair across from Charles. “I honestly hadn’t noticed.”
Charles’ face took on that serious look, “Erik, I want to thank you. You save my life last night.”
“Call it even. You saved mine in Miami.”
Charles chuckled, “I didn’t think we were keeping an accounting on this.”
Erik could feel Charles’ tickling around the corners of his head, “Out. I don’t need you in there right now.”
Charles looked slightly hurt but nodded, “You will tell me what happened?”
“Eventually,” said Erik.
Now:
He can feel his friend struggle for each breath. Waves of pain radiate off of him. Then the cruelest blow of all. Total rejection from the man he called friend. He motioned Moria over and handed Charles to her. He gathered his troops and left his morality bleeding on a Cuban beach.
no subject
no subject
Erik is kicking ass, and Charles is like an onion
it is nice to see the step-dad subplot from the comics making an appearance (not that Mr. Marko is a nice person to see under any circumstances), the movie shows Xavier as privileged and it's a big part, IMHO, of why Erik dismisses his peaceful stance. the difference in their experience - domestic abuse vs death camps - is still enormous, but Charles is neither as pampered nor as innocent as he pretends to be. he could have done better with Erik if he showed him that part of himself.