Chapter 2
His face is wet.
No matter how many times he drys it
Tears don't stop coming.
Charles doesn't remember how he got in the facility everything's a blur, now he faced with a door, theres nothing important about it, is just an ordinary door, but it is the only barrier between him and the twins, he can hear them on the other side, the sound of their innocent laughter, the noises they make playing with their toys.innocent children’s joy He is about to ruin all of it.
Charles rubs his arms on his face, trying again to dry the endless tears of his face. He can't be crying while telling them, he must collect himself. He thinks about going to the restroom to fix his appearance but he can't face his own face in the mirror, the man reflected on the surface summons rage within Charles.
He takes a deep breath trying to get his emotions in check but his hands are not moving to open the door, he can still feel the stickiness from the blood. He can't do this, but he must. He hopes he can ease the news to the kids.
He opens the door with the weight of his duty on his mind. His heart is still bleeding heavily with sorrow.
“Uncle Charles!!”He hears the twins call out in unison, Erik thinks it is cute when they do that.
Pietro runs to embrace his legs, the little boy is full of affection and Wanda looks at him with a smile, not moving from where she is drawing on a tiny kids table, she is a shy one, always happy to keep to herself.
“Where is Vati?” Wanda asks, too perceptively. That would make Erik so proud. He is always proud of both of them, and all the little accomplishments they have made. To the other man, his children were the best thing that he had ever done. How much love Erik projected at every moment around the twins.
Charles cleans his throat before speaking. His mouth feels dry, and his hands sweat.
He looks at Wanda’s eyes and quickly diverges his gaze.
Her eyes are the same color as Erik’s, eyes that are now closed, but not forever, no, Charles can't accept that they may never look in his eyes, to have the last memory of it to be a look of anger and betrayal.
He feels the tears coming back, and Charles blinks it away.
“Hello my darlings, I-I need to have an important talk with the both of you” He takes Pietro by his hand and sits him on the table with Wanda.
“You both know me and your father were doing an important job-”
“Yes you and Vati are like the superheroes in the comics,” Pietro says excitedly, his silver hair flopping around the hyperactive boy.
“Please, don't interrupt me darling, but yes me and your father were doing-
“Did you catch the bad man?”Wanda interrupts Charles this time.
Images of Shawn's dead body pop into Charles's head, the pain of the coin killing the man still lingers in his brain, and the phantom pain he got from it will never leave him.
“We did,” Charles responds with no emotion.
The twins jump around hugging each other, all their lives the children spend going around the world with their father, not staying anywhere for too long, living the search for revenge that Erik raised them into, they don't know any better. They are not celebrating the death of a human being, they are cheering the death of their boogie man, the monster that haunted their father for all his life.
“So we can leave now? Is Vati waiting outside so we can celebrate? Is there Ice cream? Can I have chocolate?” Pietro asks in one breath
“I want chocolate too” Wanda agrees with her twin.
“Kid, please… I-I need to have a conversation, please sit down” Charles voices with much despair.
They look at each other and accept Charles' plea.
“There’s something wrong Uncle Charles?”
Everything.
“There’s been an accident…your father got hurt pretty badly on the mission, the doctors took care of him but he is in a coma, do you know what that is?”Charles tried to use the most soft tone in his voice, it was hard to get the words out of his mouth.
They both shake their heads, looking confused at him
.
“A coma is…is like a deep sleep, so he can heal better, he is in a very nice hospital with a doctor that will take care of him”
“Is he hurt too bad? We can go give him kisses, like when I fell and hurt my knee, it hurted the most but Vati made it all better with magic kisses, me and Pie can do it too.” Wanda’s innocent logic hurts his heart if only all the pain Charles caused could be fixed with such a simple solution.
“When is it going to wake up? “Pietro already has tears in his eyes.
“I don’t know, nobody knows…” Charles can't give them false hope, it would only hurt them more in the future.
“Did you try to shake him? Sometimes Vati does that when me and Pietro don’t want to leave the bed” Wanda tries again to fix the problem with her child logic, as stubborn as her father.
“I’m sorry my darlings but there’s no way to know when he is coming out of it”
“Can we see him?” Wanda asks if she is now clenching her twin's hand, something the girl does when she is scared, Charles can feel their confusion and fear.
“I’m sorry but no, is not safe for you to go see him now” Their father wouldn't want them to be there, Charles will do the best he can to fulfill Erik’s wishes.
“He will be scared to be alone Uncle Charles, Vati doesn’t like doctors or hospitals, please, please, we’ll be good” Wanda insisted.
Somehow the children look smaller.
“I want to see Vati” Peter began to cry openly now only.
“You are lying, Vati promised to be back” Wanda refuses to acknowledge all that Charles told them just now.
“I’m really sorry.’
The children are no longer paying him attention, both heavily crying. Wanda keeps wailing and screaming that he is a liar and Pietro just throws himself on the floor, tears and snot covering their faces.
So much pain, their emotion projects on Charles's mind, joining all the pain he already has in his heart. He doesn't stop the tears from his eyes this time.
Then it happened, first little red sparks flew out of Wanda’s fingers, causing the small toys in the room to float and spin around them, reacting to her emotions.
Then Pietro is vibrating on the spot, causing the floor to shake. There's just a silver blur where the boy used to be.
Hank had a theory that mutations first manifest in moments of great emotional distress.
Charles can see that Hank’s theory is right.
Now he had two very upset four-year-olds mutants in a CIA facility manifesting power for the first time.
“Please, please, you guys need to calm down” Charles reached out to Pietro first only to see the blur move in great sleep to the other side of the room, not.
A toy car flies at Charles' head, and Wanda's power continues to levitate more and more objects. Neither of the twins responds to his voice, they are getting more agitated.
“I’m so sorry” Charles puts his fingers to his temple and uses his power to bring the children to sleep.
The children fell asleep instantly, with their faces red and covered in tears.
Charles joins them on the floor, he feels too tired to stand. All he feels is pain and grief.