Chapter 17
Dean and Tony stood inside the small dungeon, where they tied Dark Steve in a chair with an unholy number of chains and a glowing collar around his neck, still unconscious.
Outside the cell, they could hear Natasha and Bucky talking with AU Hank, while AU Alex Summers was with them inside the cell, eyeing the both of them suspiciously, with a tinge of fear in his eyes. They tried their best to ignore his looks.
“Well, our situation just keeps getting worse.” Tony sighed tiredly, while pinching the bridge of his nose. “It seems like the universe insists we die by Nazis one way or another.”
“I am more confused on why the hell do I keep getting stranded with you?” Dean raised an eyebrow at him in frustration. “First in the forties, then on a hunt, then when our husbands were pulled into another world and now this. Seriously, what the hell? At least let me get stranded with Cas once in a while. Or Steve. Any kind of change.”
“Jeez, Dean, tone down the love, you will suffocate me with it.” The genius rolled his eyes at him with a shake of his head. “I don’t know, maybe the universe thinks it’s hilarious to strand us together in weird ass places. It’s annoying. It’s frustrating. Just accept it and shut up.”
“Someone is grumpy.” Dean frowned as he looked over at Tony, frown deepening.
“Sorry.” The genius muttered, trailing his eyes towards the chained, unconscious soldier. “It’s just- I am more worried than usual. Our situation this time is not encouraging.”
“All our situations are usually not encouraging, to be honest.” The hunter shrugged, looking tired and almost on his limits. “Nothing new here.”
“Why are you calm? They are planning to take Cas’ heart. You were panicking twenty minutes ago.”
“I am tired of panicking.” He murmured, eyes sad and exhausted. “I am now hanging on the hope that maybe our friends back home managed to save Cas and took him to safety. Or maybe we will get back in time to do that, I don’t know. I am trying to stop panicking so much.” He turned to Tony desperately. “Do you think Charles will manage to convince AU Magnets?”
“I am not sure.” The genius chewed on his lower lip nervously. “That Magnets seemed to be a lot colder and harsher than our Magnets.”
“No wonder. He must have lost his Charles in a tragic way.” The hunter murmured, looking a little dazed. “I don’t really blame him for being in that state.”
“Hey, what are you two whispering about?” AU Summers called out harshly, eyeing them carefully.
“Relax, Plasma Boy, we are not plotting to kill everyone or something.” Dean rolled his eyes with a snort, not really in the mood to deal with this.
“Don’t call me-!”
He was cut off by Dark Steve, who gasped suddenly awake and jerked in his seat so hard that made all of them jump, startled.
“Fucking hell, he is awake!” Dean exclaimed, as he took a step back, dragging Tony with him.
“Hank! Get in here!” AU Alex shouted in panic, as they stared at the soldier who was still thrashing in his chair.
AU Hank, Natasha and Bucky rushed inside, while Tony was looking hard at the Dark Steve, studying his movements. Noticing his wide eyes, his shaking body and look of fear on his face.
“Wait, he is not trying to release himself to attack. He is panicking!” Tony exclaimed suddenly, as he moved to rush towards the thrashing soldier.
“What do you think yourself doing?” Dean shouted at him, pulling him back by the arm.
Dark Steve heard their shouts and his eyes flew to them, landing on Tony.
That managed to make the situation worse.
“No! no!” Dark Steve shouted in pure fear, his thrashing now included trying to get away with his chair as far away from Tony as possible.
“Hey, hey, calm down! No one will-“ Tony tried to calm him and took a step towards him, hand stretched out.
“Stay back! Don’t-don’t touch me! Stay back!” Apparently-Not-Dark-Anymore Steve screamed in pure fear and panic that froze both Tony and Dean in their places, as the soldier still tried to get away with his chair.
“So, I guess he can talk after all.” Tony murmured weakly; eyes trained on the version of the love of his life, that apparently fears him like he was the devil himself.
“Calm down! You will hurt yourself!” Dean yelled as he marched towards the thrashing soldier.
“You!” he gasped, his face getting more and more panicked by the second. “Y-you. No, no, no.” he hunched in himself, like he was trying to make himself smaller or maybe even disappear.
God, it was heartbreaking to see a version of Steve in this state.
“Move away! You both have the faces of the people who ruined his life and took everything from him. You will give him a heart attack.” Natasha exclaimed as she and Bucky rushed towards the panicking man. AU Hank and Alex were watching the whole scene, looking lost and unsure of what to do.
Dean took Tony’s arm, who had a heartbroken look on his face, and moved with him to stand behind Former Dark Steve, out of his sight.
“Hey, hey, you can calm down now. No one will hurt you anymore.” Bucky whispered calmly to the chained man, who was avoiding to look at anybody.
At the sound of Bucky’s voice, the soldier’s eyes shot up, wide in confusion as he trailed his eyes between Natasha and Bucky.
“B-Bucky?” Former Dark Steve murmured in a choked voice, eyes widening even more. “You-you are alive?”
Bucky exchanged a look with Natasha, then with Dean and Tony, who shrugged at him, not knowing what to do either in this situation.
“Kind of? I don’t know how to explain it.” Bucky chuckled nervously, heart hurting at the lost, confused look on the man’s face.
Seriously, this was unbearable to watch.
“How much do you remember?” Natasha asked carefully, eyeing the soldier.
The soldier’s eyes turned to meet hers, then back to Bucky and the two mutants watching the scene.
“Everything.” He murmured in a weak voice, head hanging towards his chest in exhaustion. Body hunched down on itself. “I remember everything.”
Dean looked at Tony, who had an unreadable look on his face, that made the hunter nervous.
“Tony?” he called out in concern.
The genius turned to Dean, his expression not changing.
“I am going to kill him.” He said, his voice filled with anger and disgust. “I am going to kill my bastard of a doppelganger.
***
“So, I am guessing your talk with Bitter Magnets didn’t go as you hoped?”
Clint raised an eyebrow at Charles, who he found pacing in a room while muttering under his breath in frustration.
The telepath turned to the archer and sighed in exhaustion.
“No, it did not.” Charles shook his head sadly and looked away, a guilty look on his face. “I am sorry. I failed everyone.”
“Come on now, man. You do nothing but help us all the time. Always trying to save our asses.” Clint gave him a small smile as he walked towards him to place a hand on his shoulder. “We will figure something out. Everyone in this team is a resourceful, strong and smart bastard. Don’t worry.”
“I really thought I will be able to talk him out of it.” Charles stared at the floor miserably, Clint could almost hear his heart breaking. “But he is too blinded by anger and grief, he is refusing to wait a second longer.”
“I might not completely understand it, but I can imagine it.” Clint shrugged with a sigh. “The guy lost his lover to those people. You of all people should understand how he feels.”
“I do. I really do. But this makes me think about my Erik.” Charles shook his head sadly as he leaned tiredly against the wall. He had been abusing his legs a lot lately, that it was starting to take its toll on him. “I don’t want Erik to become like this, if I never managed to come back to him. Just imaging that kills me.”
Clint just gave him a long silent look before sighing.
“I really wish I had someone back home that will fall apart, if I didn’t return to them.” The archer smiled bitterly, as he leaned on the wall too next to Charles. “I really didn’t realize what I am missing.”
“I thought you like being single.” Charles murmured, turning to him with a small frown.
“I thought that too. Spending my time making inappropriate comments on the unholy number of couples I am living with, was satisfying for a while. Sorry about them by the way.”
“You never made a comment about me and Erik, I think you were worried Erik might throw something sharp at you.” The telepath chuckled softly, looking down at the floor.
“Yeah, that’s true. You have to admit that Magnets got some scary looks when he wants to be terrifying.” Clint smiled a little then it turned into a small frown. “But then Nat is about to get married. It didn’t seem real until the wedding is actually here. I see how happy she is. The woman that once upon time, refused the idea of love and marriage, is actually happy she is about to get married. It kind of put things in perspective to me.”
He turned to look at Charles square in the eye.
“I want what you, Dean, Tony and Nat have. Hell, even what Bucky has, his fucking weird relationship with winged Sam. Maybe even what Thor and Bruce have, now that is a weird relationship, but endearing really. The point is, I am tired of being alone.”
Charles gave him a long look for a few seconds, then looked away.
“We will have to get home first so you can do that. Otherwise, we will spend the rest of our lives in this godforsaken world, away from everyone we ever loved. Destroying the relationships you just mentioned.” The telepath murmured with a sigh.
Clint looked positively horrified at the prospect.
“Charles, what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, Clint. I honestly don’t know.”
***
“It’s my final decision, Raven, I am not going to change my mind.”
AU Erik said firmly, not bothering to look up from the map he was staring at on the table.
“So that’s it? We will let those poor bastards lose their one-way home ticket?” AU Logan said indignantly, trying to catch his eyes.
“It’s your commander’s orders, obey them.” The Metal Binder stated in a cold voice, still not looking up.
“If Charles was here, would you still make that same decision?” AU Raven asked firmly, looking directly at him.
That made AU Erik look up, only to give her a hard look.
“Charles is dead, Raven, he had been for years. Because of those bastards I am trying to stop from coming back to our world. Helping a version of him will not bring him back to us.” He snapped harshly, giving her a cold hard glare.
“I know he is gone, Erik. I know he is not coming back.” She murmured softly, but still stood her ground against his glare. “Maybe helping that version will ease some of that pain. Knowing a version of him is alive and happy maybe will be enough.”
“Why are you pushing this?” he demanded, his glare intensifying. “We have fought, bled and sacrificed for this war. And then these strangers show up and you are willing to throw everything away for them?” he stared at her indignantly. “The fate of the world is at stake.”
“So are the lives of their loved ones!” AU Raven snapped as she took a step closer to him. “Do you really want the tragedy that happened to us, repeat itself in an innocent world that had nothing to do with this?”
“So what? It is time for another world to deal with the horrors we dealt with all this time!” he snapped back, getting highly frustrated.
AU Raven was now right at his face, staring directly into his eyes.
“There is an Erik in that world, who is desperately waiting for his Charles to come back to him.” She whispered emphatically, successfully getting his attention. “And another Raven. Do you really want to live, knowing that you did to another version of you the same thing that happened to you? Taking away the only person who kept him sane? Do you want to create another bitter, angry version of you?”
AU Erik went silent as he stared at her silently, then trailed his eyes towards AU Logan, who was watching them carefully, then back at the shapeshifter.
He looked away from her and glanced down at the map in front of him, but his focus was obviously elsewhere now.
“You two are dismissed.” He ordered, no particular emotion in his voice. It made the other two mutants nervous.
“Erik-“ AU Raven called out carefully.
“Dismissed, Raven.” He cut her off firmly, giving her a long look that she didn’t understand.
She exchanged a look with AU Logan, before sighing with a nod and they both left the room.
After they left, he stood frozen for a few seconds, then pulled out a ring from his pocket, bringing it up close to his face.
A ring that had a little ‘N’ engraved on it, meant to mean ‘North’. His had a ‘S’ on it for ‘South’.
The ring he never got a chance to give Charles.
He knew Charles would have said yes. They could have built a life together. They could have built the school Charles always dreamed about.
But the world was cruel. It left him stranded. Alone. Wondering what would have happened if he didn’t get caught by the bastards. If he was more careful.
He placed the ring over the map, finally letting a tear slid down his face.
That other Erik did marry his Charles.
That other Erik, apparently, managed to make his Charles walk again. Or maybe didn’t even cost him his legs in the first place.
Can someone be envious towards himself? That sounded absurd, even to him.
He spent the next few minutes, staring down at the ring. Letting his mind wander.