A Vulnerable Position

To say the last ten years have been awkward would be an understatement. Charles school was going amazing. He had many students and he was starting to make a difference in the world, in his own way.

Hank, maybe in spite of Erik, developed a drug that could delay his heats to only happen once a year. Which was great for Charles and every other omega in the country. However, now he didn’t have his excuse to keep a very close eye on Charles and vice versa..

He still came, to his own insistence for every one of Charles' heats, but he had moved to an entirely different country. Charles didn’t spy on his life; Erik made him promise him that he wouldn’t a few years back, but he did know that Erik was hiding something major from him.

Magda knew, of course. She was pretty angry at him about it at first, but she is a beta and wasn’t missing out on any bonding. She understood what he was doing, even if she didn’t really like it. And then she died. His daughter died.

When that ancient mutant showed up and gave him an opportunity for revenge on humanity, how could he pass that up. He went with Apocalypse. In Hindsight, it wasn’t exactly his best idea. But hey, his entire family had just died. Again. He’s allowed to make a few bad decisions.

When he felt Charles in his mind, he knew he needed to keep him secret. Keep him safe from this mutant. So many people think of Charles' mutation as ‘helpful’ or ‘cute’ and ‘mostly harmless’ or ‘good for information’. That’s because they haven’t seen what Charles could do if he wanted to or they didn’t have the imagination to think of what he could do. Erik did know what he could do and he also knew that this new mutant would have the imagination. He would know that Charles could bring down nations in an instant and he made Charles do exactly that.

Erik didn’t know what Apocalypse made Charles do, but he could feel Charles screaming at him to stop. He could feel him screaming in pain and the horror of having his power used without his permission. He could feel the moment Charles passed out.

There have been very few times in Erik's life when he has made a mental connection with Charles. The majority of this time was when he was courting Charles when they first met. God he was so cute back then. Fresh out of college, uniting mutants. But, all of their mental connections have been personal. Sharing memories and thoughts.

Once, when they were undercover at a omega bar. Erik had Charles in his lap, they were (not) stalking a mutant that worked there. He remembers the feeling of Charles' hips under his hands, whispering about the mutant behind him in his mind. It was the closest he had, has, ever felt to a person.

Now his mind was aching absent with Charles' pleading ringing in his mind. He could hear Apocalypse ranting something about unimaginable power behind him. He felt almost violated, but that was probably Charles' feelings leaving an after taste in his brain.

He snapped back to attention when he was being addressed, “Erik. This mutant friend of yours is extremely powerful. I need him for my plan.”

Erik didn’t really know what to say other than, “He’s kind of attached to humans. He’s not about to join our side very easily.”

Apocalypse waved him off, “He’ll come around. I need him. And he is a mutant. He will do as I please.”

It constantly surprised him that after everything, Charles would sit in a metal wheelchair. I guess he was slumped in a metal wheelchair. After everything, I guess he really believed I would never use his disability against him. He’s right. Erik would never do anything to him that he couldn’t do to anyone else. This includes quickly kidnapping them.

Summoning the wheelchair was easy. Seeing Raven’s, Hank’s, and Alex’s look of shock was not. And then they were gone. Out of the mansion and in the middle of the freaking dessert.

Erik gently set the wheelchair down and walked up to a still unconscious Charles. His nose was bloody and his hair tousled from that machine. He pulled a small handkerchief out of his pocket, because he is a gentleman thank you very much, and whipped away the blood. He smoothed down his hair a bit and turned back to the rest of the group. They were all looking at him, curious as to what exactly he was doing. Apocalypse, in particular, was intrigued.

“You have good taste. He is a very powerful mutant. Please lay him on the ground. There is no need for a wheelchair with a tracking device in the desert.” Apocalypse motioned for a only bed shaped area of rock.

He does have a point. A tracking device would just make it easier to find them if they already don’t have their location. He picked Charles into his arms and laid him down on the sand and rock. He made sure his legs were straight and hips were square with his torso. He wanted to say something. But what would he even say at this point. He’s too far in.

He stepped back and watched on with the others. He should wake soon.

Low and behold. He could see Charles' eyelids flutter, but no further movement. Until…

“Ahh. How are you doing that?” Charles held a hand to his temples and pushed himself up onto his elbows.

“I can shield my children from you. It is one of the many abilities I have picked up over the years. However, too see into a man’s mind. That is your power.” Apocalypse standing, in all his pompous grandeur, on the tallest rock, looking down upon them all.

“And? What do you want?” Charles scoffed.

“Simple. All I want to do is save my children. And I want you to join me.” Apocalypse gestured out to the world with his arms spread wide.

“No. I saw what you want. You want the end of the world. You want to kill every human and mutant who doesn’t stand by you. You’ll have to kill me before I would ever think of joining you.” Charles, tough as ever.

Apocalypse sighed. Erik did warn him that Charles would never join. “This would be so much easier if you weren’t an omega.”

What. WHAT? Charles' brain must have short circuited too because all traces of emotion left his face before they came slamming back with rage.

“Did you just kidnap me to insult me about being an omega?” Charles seethed. Erik was pretty close to seething too, there were a lot of things he was willing to put up with, but bigotry was never one of them.

“I don’t think your ability could have come about in any other sex than an omega. Your ability requires you take on everything that everyone is feeling and respond to it as they would no matter how awful or deranged it is.

“Most telepaths, and I have met many telepaths before, have secondary abilities to attack others or shield themselves. But you, you leave yourself exposed and that openness allows you to see to control the entirety of their minds. Alphas and betas do not have the empathic abilities and emotional range to dig as deep into a mind as you can.”

Charles was listening for a while there, always eager to talk about mutations. But when he tried to claim that alphas and betas were less emotional, well that was a bit too close to derogatory terms.

“Okay. Wow.” Charles looked to Erik, “What are you doing? Working with him. You are better than this Erik.”

I’m not better than this. I have always been a murder and will always be a monster. He wanted to say, ‘I’m not right for you. I’m a monster. You deserve better. I am so sorry.’ But all that came out was, “This is who I am.”

Charles made eye contact with them. Those eyes never ceased to dig into his soul. “This is not who you are, Erik. I am so sorry about your family, but this is not what they would want.”

He shouldn’t have brought them up. Erik looked away, “It doesn’t matter what they would have wanted. They are dead now, because of the humans.”

“Erik.” Charles' voice broke.

“Enough.” Apocalypse cut through their bond. “I have a message for you to deliver.”

Charles sized him up, seeing if there was any way he was going to get out of this. There wasn’t. “Fine. Who do you want to give the message to?”

Apocalypse looked at him like he was stupid, “The world. Everyone.”

Charles scoffed, “Even if I wanted to. Which I don’t. I can’t do that. I don’t have cerebro.”

Now it was Apocalypse's turn to scoff. “You don’t need that machine. You have me.”

Then Charles was gasping, his eyes turning black for a second. The message was delivered. A threat to the world and Charles' message to the world. To protect the humans.

Apocalypse hissed, “Don’t think you can trick me omega.” He turned to the group, “They are coming from him. Attend to your stations.”

Erik looked to Charles, who was massaging his temples. Apocalypse needed him too much, Charles would be fine. Right?

He took off and left to destroy the world.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mystique. He could hear her calling him from outside his bubble of metal particles.

“Erik! Erik!” He pushed away enough metal to clear his head and folate down to her.

“What do you want, Mystique? You know I am not going to stop.” Erik said.

“You know why I’m here. This isn’t what you want Erik.”

Erik scoffed. “What I want is for my family to be alive.”

Mystique shook her head. “You really don’t see it do you? Look, I am sorry for your loss. But not all your family is dead. You have me and you have Charles and Peter. I’m going to go help my family. Are you going to come with me?”

Erik didn’t stop. The bottom of a bridge halfway around the world finally gave way, tearing into the sky. “Who is Peter?”

Mystique looked at the kid she was with. Erik remembered him from the prison break. He was a bit busy to really remember who he was.

“I’m.. I’m your son.”

What. For some reason he didn’t think he was lying. He knew it was true, but he didn’t really know why. I guess he was the father of some adult kid who lives in his mother’s basement.

Erik still hadn't said anything.

Mystique must have though he was going to do something back based on the dirty look that she shot him.

“Let’s go.” She held onto the kid’s arm and then they were gone.

He had another child. He still had a child that was going to get killed by that sexist asshole. He didn’t even want to think about what could have been happening to Charles at the moment. Apocalypse couldn’t kill him, but he was a fool to think that he wouldn’t hurt him.

He has never done this before. He never dared to try. He reached out through their dwindling bond. He could feel Charles reach out back. Fear. Charles didn't get scared very often. He wasn’t afraid for himself earlier, but now. He was terrified.

The pyramid. He just knew exactly where he needed to go. He floated across the plains abandoning the metal. Abandoning all of the magnetic forces he had been contorting around the world to bring his full focus to their bond and only to their bond.

He followed it through the winding walls of the pyramid until he reached the room. One one was in it, exactly Charles. Chained to a block of cement. He could smell it as soon as he entered the room.

“This is just really great timing Charles. Absolutely fantastic. You aren’t even due for a heat for the next five months.” Erik gritted through his teeth.

“Oh bloody hell, Erik. It’s not my fault. I’m not the one that manipulated my powers, KIDNAPPED me, surrounded me with alphas, then FLOODED my body with alpha pheromones. What the hell did you think was going to happen?” Charles yelled.

“What?” Erik stopped trying to free him to walk to Charles’ head.

“What? You didn’t know about his plan to take my body and powers?” Charles spat.

“What? No.”

Charles' face softened. “Yeah. Apparently, he doesn't want to be an omega, so he was trying to prepare my body for his essence. This apparently included injecting him with alpha pheromones. It’s not have the effect he wanted.”

Erik still can’t find any way to free him. “Going into heat is the exact opposite of becoming an alpha.”

Charles laughed, “It’s pretty funny that his sexism delayed his own plans. He could have already had my powers if he didn’t have to wait for the pheromones to take hold.”

Erik looked back to the door when he heard someone coming through. It was … I have no idea. Some blue kid. He knew the professor, however judging the way he yelled his name and ran up to him. As if an afterthought, he stopped about 10 feet away and looked at Erik.

Charles couldn’t see what was going on, but he surely guessed and said, “He’s fine, Kurt. Just get us out of here.”

Kurt appeared next to Charles' side and held out his hand for Erik to take. The only thing he hoped that it didn’t have the same effect that that kid at the prison’s mutation had on him. His kid.

They were in the pyramid, then they were in an airplane with Hank, Raven, Jean? And some other kids. And his kid.

Charles sighed and promptly passed out. Erik moved a jacket under his head.

Hank from the cockpit, looked back at Erik, “Is he…”

Erik nodded. Hank swore and turned his attention back to flying the plane.

Raven put her hand on his shoulder. “You are doing the right thing.”

Then the entire plane shook; it was so loud. It was struck by lightning. The engines broke. Stalling out. He did his best to hold the plane up, but he was too drained. It wasn’t going to happen. He guided their descent as slowly as he could, but they were still quite literally, falling out of the sky.

Once they touched down, Hank moved out of the cockpit and scooped up Charles like a rag doll into his furry arms. Erik was a little hurt by that, but he understood. This was after all, kind of his fault.

They ran into a house nearby, taking the second floor for safety. When Hank put Charles down, he murmured and woke up.

“What’s happening?” He mumbled.

Jean was at his side, “Plane went down. We are hiding you from Apocalypse.”

Charles moved his hands to rub down his neck. The entire team must know by now what’s happening and that it only was going to get worse as time went on.

Then they hear, “CHARLES. COME OUT CHARLES. YOU CAN’T HIDE FROM ME.”

Charles shook his head. “No. No. Get out. Get out.” Jean had to stop him from banging his head on the floor.

Erik Looked to Raven. Hank looked to Peter and Scott. They sprung into action.

Peter and Raven fought and they were laying aside. Erik was trying to formulate a plan, but he had nothing. He did the only thing he could. He made a stand or more aptly. He made an X.

“You dare betray me?” Apocalypse roared.

“No. I betrayed them.” Erik said, his words echoing around him.

Then they were going all out. He was firing every metal he could, the laser kid was in a staring contest. But he was going to get away. After everything he was going to get away. Then lightning. Storm.

Still it wasn’t enough. They needed… They needed something, someone more powerful. They needed Jean.

There she was. Jean, floating in mid air. Unleashing the beast. The phoenix.

Then it was over. Jean came down and ran to Scott. Hank ran to Raven and Peter. Erik, Erik ran to Charles.

When he got there, Charles wasn’t in heat so much anymore, as he was in a drop.

Erik pulled Charles into his arms and Charles. Charles buried his nose into Erik’s neck.

They just sat there. He didn’t know who else was around them.

Raven came up to them later and told Erik they had a plane to take them back home. Erik stood up with Charles in his arms and folate them to the plane.

Once they were on the plane, Charles was slowly but surely shifting out of drop and into a heat. This was going to be a very long plane ride.

“You know, I just never imagined they would be together. Like that. You know.” Erik could hear Scott talking to Jean.

Jean looked back at him, “You have no idea. I, unfortunately, have known this the entire time.”

Raven, seeing an opportunity to tease her brother, joined in. “At least you never had to deal with them when they first met. Charles was all..” Raven turned herself into Charles and batted his eyes. “Oh Erik. What a big strong alpha you are. Join the mutant revolution with me.”

Charles turned around, still on Erik’s lap. A bit too out of it to be embarrassed. “Stop that. It's disturbing. And no I was not. That was Erik.”

Raven laughed, “Oh yeah.” She shifted into Erik. “Oh Charles. You are so sexy with your mutant abilities and science. You are the first person to ever get into my head with your telepathic abilities which I find very sexy. Let me bite you and we can be together forever.”

Erik rolled his eyes, “Raven. Stop telling these children lies. We have never mated and I was never like that.”

Hank scoffed and fist bumped Raven, now in her natural form.

“Wow. I still can’t believe that you would be dating Magneto of all people.” Scott shook his head.

Peter, eating a sandwich, looked up. “Dating? Aren’t you married?”

Charles frowned, “No we aren’t dating and we aren’t married. I would appreciate it if you kept this from the other students.” He fixed his eyes on Peter, “I don’t like my personal life being gossiped about.

Peter shrugged and went back to his sandwich.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once they arrived back at the school. Erik carried Charles into the elevator and up to his room. He gently laid Charles on the bed and sat down next to him.

“How are you doing?” Erik asked, cringing at the sound of his voice in the silent room.

Charles didn’t make eye contact with him, “I’m fine.”

Erik thought ‘BULLSHIT’ very loudly and Charles turned towards him, looking at the hem of his shirt. “Really. I. Am. Fine. I am” Charles looked away from Erik’s shirt and into his eyes. “I am going to be fine.”

Erik took his hand, stopping it from trembling. He raised his eyebrow. Charles sighed and looked towards the coroner of this room, where his backup wheelchair laid.

“It’s just all those hormones. It’s causing some… quite a bit of discomfort. And probably eventually some really bad acne. However, it will go away and my body will return itself to my natural hormone level with time.”

Erik just stared at Charles who was staring at nothing. There were a lot of things he could think about: his dead family, his alive son, the fact that Jean apparently has some primordial creation/destruction mutation. But right now, all he wanted to think about was Charles. His…, his friend, who he hurt once again. All he could focus on was the way his blue eyes drifted across the room and his hand was tucked into his own. The way he was slightly, subconsciously leaning into Erik.

Erik wanted to pull Charles into his chest and keep him safe in his arms. He wanted his scent to overpower all the scents of the alpha in battle today and the sickly scent of fear. He wants to. He wants to make him feel good, have him on his knot, then claim him, as he should have all those years ago. He wants Charles. He wants a life with Charles beyond heats.

Erik has never allowed himself to ever dream of that possibility, but with everything that has happened. He couldn’t deny it anymore. He was in love with this omega and needed him in his life forever more.

Charles was now leaning his head against his shoulder. His breath evening out, his eyes drifting shut. Good. He needed to sleep. It had been a very long day and it was only going to get longer when his heat started. Who knows what the effects of a heat brought on by alpha pheromone injection would be like.

Whatever happened, he would be here for it. He would take care of Charles till his pheromones evened out. Then, and only then, would he try to repair all the damage he had done. He was going to get Charles back. Convince him that he is a good mate and make up for everything he had done in the past. It was going to be difficult, no doubt. But he would do it. He knows what he wants and he will do whatever he can to get that. To get him back.