originally posted here at AO3
Charles, the very first thing you have to know about us bonded
Draconians
is that we never really die.
Instead, we get reborn
Funny how Emma Frost could utter the sweetest words right at
the end of the world. However, in this moment of clarity and understanding,
Charles never saw a female Draconian more beautiful and her uttered words were
equally so.
Years after the end of the world, said world was slowly
rebuilding. The wounded slowly healed, the torn slowly mended and the ones
responsible for the failed annihilation were banished. A bright future’s
promise is slowly dawning.
*******
Charles, are you there
yet?
Raven, you’ve been
asking the same question for the last half hour. Relax, my dear.
How can I relax when you've been on the road for hours with still no sight of any weird
meteorological phenomenon?
Don’t worry, my dear,
I’ll get there.
Eventually.
Eventually.
What do you see?
Well, a road... a
seemingly never-ending one. And pastures, flowers... just greenery really.
Tell me if anything
changes.
Yes, ma’am.
Certainly, ma’am.
*****
Charles always thought that the winged-people—the
Draconians-- were products of myths. Yes, he has read about them in children’s
stories and old-wives tales but he never believed of their existence in this
human-filled planet. They were collectively a metaphor, he thought- for purity,
beauty and bravery. Surely, none of these creatures could actually exist at
present for the present is presenting a story of opposition to their
metaphorical idea. And just, really, people with wings? People who could fly?
Even he, who has been in the military intelligence for years, never thought
that this could be possible.
Until now.
Until now when he’s falling, plummeting towards an abyss
with no hope.
With his arms and hands reaching out for nothing.
When all he can see is the glare of the light and nothing
else.
And suddenly, there was darkness
and a pair of wings, a pair of hands grasping his arms,
embracing him, drawing him towards a warm body, saving him.
“I’ve got you, Charles”, the angel said.
*****
When Charles was a child, he shared a house with two other
orphans—Raven and Henry. They treated each other like they were brothers and
sister. They loved each other very much even though they never really knew much
about each other. Unfortunately, they were adopted by a selfish, tyrant king
who ruled a large portion of the planet. Consequently, there were factions that
aimed to rebel against his rule and overthrow him from his throne. The three
children, innocent to their adoptive father’s sins, never really had any inkling
about what is happening beyond their home until that single night.
A fire broke out inside the house and the three children
were left without help. The three of them were separated during the escape. As
far as he knew, Charles was alone and was trapped in a room fully surrounded by
fire. He could not even control his telepathy due to his nervousness so
communicating with his siblings was futile. Charles’ memory of this night was
unreliable and hazy but he swore he saw a boy and that boy held out his hand
for him and saved him from the fire. The next thing he knew he woke up alone,
tired, warm, with soot all over his body and skin. A necklace with a spherical
metal pendant was hanging in his neck.
“This must be of the boy’s,” Charles muttered.
Remembering what happened the night before—the fire, the
cacophony of distressed voices, the loss of his siblings suddenly hit him hard.
Will he ever see them again? And the boy, the boy who saved him, he never even
knew his name.
“He even had wings,” Charles realized.
*****
Steve Rogers of The Avengers, an elite mercenary team for
The Rebellion, believed in unity of all the factions of The Rebellion and this
is why he was walking towards The Brotherhood’s team leader for a briefing for
their new allied mission. Overthrowing a long-sought tyrant king was never easy
and that was why Steve understood that with more people, the success rate of
this current mission will be extraordinary.
Steve’s stepbrother and second-in-command, Charles Xavier,
was excited for this union but he had complete opposite feelings towards
meeting the commander and leader of The Brotherhood.
“Seriously, Charles,
don’t be ridiculous!”
“I am not being
ridiculous! I’m a telepath, remember? I may not read other people’s minds
without consent but I cannot help but hear how they feel about him.”
“And that is?”
“They fear him. They
fear him very much. Immensely. He has
so much blood in his hands that I’m afraid that he’s killing and gutting the
bad guys and actually enjoying every second of it!”
“Charles, you know
they are just rumours right? You, of all people, should know that rumours do
not make a man, that rumours are just what they really are—rumours!”
Steve was not actually alone in walking towards the leader
of The Brotherhood. Right by his side was Charles, matching his strides and
holding his head up high. From this aspect, Charles could only see the back of
the The Brotherhood leader but it was still unnerving.
Seriously, Charles,
his back? His back is unnerving?
“Good morning, Commander Lehnsherr!”
Then he turned towards Steve and Charles.
“Good morning too. Commander Rogers, I presume.”
Steve, with his bright blue eyes and bright white-teethed
smile, said “Yes, I am Commander Steven Rogers of The Avengers but please, Commander,
call me Steve.”
Contradictory to Steve’s expression, Commander Lehnsherr’s
was bordering between disdainful and murderous.
Until he turned his head towards Steve’s right and saw the
one standing beside him.
Then he smiled, gradually, like a predator seeing its prey.
Now THAT is
unnerving, Charles thought.
Then Commander Lehnsherr gestured towards Charles and asked,
“And who might this be?”
As if snapped out from his deep reverie, Charles started
clearing out his throat and stuck his right hand out as a greeting.
“Good morning, Commander Lehnsherr. I am Charles Xavier,
Commander Rogers’ stepbrother and second-in-command for The Avengers.”
With the way that Commander Lehnsherr’s gaze was fixed on
him, Charles thought he would never shake his hand. He was, of course, totally
wrong for Commander Lehnsherr shook his hand... and then some.
“Oh please, Mister Xavier, call me Erik. I believe, Mister
Xavier and Commander Rogers, that we will have a splendid time working together
for one goal.”
*****
Henry, are you sure
I’m on the right road?
Positive, Charles.
Then why have I been
driving for hours without any storm in view?
You’re near it.
How near?
Just a couple more...
Hours? Miles?
Maybe?
Hank, please tell me
the truth, am I lost?
No, Charles. Just,
trust me on this. You’ll see him.
Eventually.
Eventually.
*****
Right after meeting Commander Lehnsherr, correction—Erik,
for the first time a frown that Steve has never seen in his whole life was
settling in between his stepbrother’s brows.
“What are you thinking about, Charles?”
The frown deepened and Charles closed his eyes for a moment,
shook his head and opened his eyes again but the frown was still there.
“Steve, there is something wrong with Commander Lehnsherr.”
“What is wrong with him now? Too scary? Too murder-looking?
Too shark-like?”
But the joke had no effect on Charles, instead, he looked
more troubled than before.
“No, it’s not that. I can’t read his mind, it’s like he’s
never even there. It’s like he’s never even real!”
*****
Plunging towards your almost-death was a million times more
horrific than jumping out of a helicopter with no parachute on. It was quite an
adventure yes, but Charles was not thinking about that at that moment.
“You have wings! Ho—How—How—Wha— “
Of course, gesturing wildly with his hands-- although
animatedly-- did not help one bit.
“Charles, calm down. I know you almost died so please calm down.”
“But Erik, you have wings!”
“Yes, I know.”
“And you saved me.”
“Correct again, as gravely evidenced by our intact, standing
bodies.”
“So, winged people do exist. You’re a Draconian, correct?”
“Yes.”
“You’re amazing.”
Yes, amazing. The Draconians were actually beyond amazing to
the point where they were considered mythical figures by modern people.
However, his thoughts on this matter were backhanded by his thought of the
immediate present—seeing Charles, falling, helpless, plunging towards his
death.
It was unacceptable. His life-long secret was not worth it.
Charles saw his wings once, he will then see it again. This was worth it,
Charles was worth it. That was the very reason why he gave his heart to him
from the start without doubt or question. The world needed Charles and Charles
needed him right now.
The look on Charles face was... well, priceless. Erik never
saw such utter look of wonderment before, it was like seeing him for the first
time... again. But, Erik thought, nothing would compare to what Charles’ face
did next.
He smiled, like Erik was the only thing and person in the
world, like seeing Erik was the only thing that kept him alive. Erik swore
Charles’ blue eyes were actually twinkling and there were no fairy lights in
the immediate are.
“Thank you, Erik, for saving me.”
Erik was, for the lack of a better word, in love.
All
Over
Again.
Damn those eyes.
*****
Charles was exhausted riding his motorcycle for hours. It’s
quite funny, actually, because he would never have allowed himself to ride on
his motorcycle if it not for Erik himself. He has been on the road for what
felt like forever and Charles was losing patience. What encouraged him to keep
driving was his nonsensical calls through his comm with Raven and Henry, their
voices more like a white noise against the loud ones bombarding his mind.
What if Emma was wrong?
What if I am on the
wrong road?
What if I was too late?
What if
What if
What if
What if I will never
see him again?
*****
The odds were working spectacularly and unquestioningly
against Charles. One moment he’s incandescently happy being reunited with his
long-lost siblings—Raven and Henry and right in the next he loses the one he
was growing to fall in love with. Typical, really. It was like the world was
pulling a prank on him. But Erik’s death—a sharp sword entering his back,
piercing his heart and exiting through his left breast—was no joke at all.
Charles shed tears enough to wash the floor clear from a Draconian’s blood. The
tyrant king’s soldiers were to blame for this and Charles will make sure they
and the tyrant kill will feel his rage.
His happiness towards seeing his sister and brother again
was overshadowed with his mourning. Everybody in his radius felt his immeasurable
sorrow, affecting all his colleagues including Commander Munroe of the faction
Storm. It rained profusely for days.
*****
“Charles, what do you remember during the night of your
escape?”
Charles and Erik are now enjoying a relaxing evening in front
of a fire with a chessboard separating them. This was days after Charles was
saved from the fall by Erik. Charles feels closer towards him. What he doesn’t
know was that Erik felt likewise.
“I’m not sure, I was very young then. All I can remember was
that there was fire that I think started in the kitchen. Me and my siblings
were separated, so we did not escape together. I was trapped, my telepathy was
weak and the air was thin. My memories in the subsequent events were unreliable
obviously for the lack of oxygen in my brain, I thought I was hallucinating
quite a bit.”
Silence, although comfortable, was not an enough response
especially coming from Erik for Charles right after his answer.
“Why the sudden interest in my past, Commander?”
“I was wondering where you got that necklace, the one you
always wear.” Erik said, pointing towards Charles’ neck.
On reflex, Charles felt the necklace’s pendant through his
sky blue cardigan.
“Well, this is probably the concrete evidence of my
hallucination. Forgive me for I know this would be quite confusing. The one who
gave me this necklace was a boy, a boy who I thought was also in that fire many
years ago, who I thought held out his hand and helped me escape. And
then—then—he helped me escape, yes—because we flew... but how did we even fly,
I cannot remember...”
And then realization hit him like the harsh sound of a train
on a track. Charles was near breathless when he said his next words.
“That boy... who gave me this necklace... that boy... had a
pair of wings.”
When Charles looked up, the person across him was smiling.
It was his first time to see the other mine smile with such transparent
happiness.
“I’m happy you still remember.”
Charles knew, right then and there, that what he felt for
Erik was so much more than love.
It felt like this—no matter what past, what present, what
future, what alternate universe they would be stuck in, they will always find
each other and fall hard for each other.
*****
It’s really just funny how perfect Emma Frost’s timing was.
She came, right at the climax of the end of the world, in all her shining,
white-hot glory and her blond halo hair. Her wings were off white, evidence to
how much she has been involved in The Rebellion for almost all her life. The
death of the tyrant king marked the rise of the new world, the end will bring
forth the new beginning and a chance for the everybody to rebuild and remedy
the destruction that the tyrant king has inflicted upon his kingdom for a very
long time.
Commander Frost was at the front line of this rebuilding and meeting
Charles was now a chance for her to see who one of the leaders of the new
world. Charles, on the other hand, was tired and he thought no vacation could
satiate his hunger for rest. But the world was rebuilding and he will be needed
at every step of the way.
“Commander Frost, how are you in this lovely morning?”
“Pleasant as always, Mister Xavier. You are as charming as
the first time I saw you.”
Charles chuckled, recalling a memory. “Why, the first time I
saw you, you did not have those wings!”
Emma guffawed at his exclamation. “A necessary secret, dear
Charlie, to protect ourselves from manipulative humans who want us only for our
wings. But, enough about me. How are you, Charles? Am I looking at the future
leader of this new world?”
With a sigh, Charles said, “I still haven’t decided yet. I
want this to be a democracy, I want people to choose me. If I become the
leader, it would seem like I only killed my father for the throne which is a
message so opposite to what I am trying to send to the people.”
Emma nodded. She was an observant woman and she could not
help but notice the energy coming from a piece of Charles jewelry from around
his neck. Then, she gestured towards Charles’ neck, inquiring:
“Charles, who gave you that necklace?”
“How did you know someone gave this to me?”
“It’s not important, just tell me who gave that to you.”
Charles couldn’t help but draw his brows together, creating
a crease in the middle. As if on reflex gained from many years ago, he grasped
the necklace’s pendant with his fingers.
“Commander Lehnsherr gave this to me.”
A look of shock passed through Emma Frost’s
calm-demeanour-face.
“Commander Lehnsherr,
as in, Erik? Erik Lehnsherr? Of The Brotherhood? Erik Lehnsherr who is now—“
“Dead. Yes, he died two years ago.”
Emma’s face was similar to her family name—frozen. She did
not speak for seconds. When she regained her composure, her calm demeanour was
in display again.
“Charles, did you know that Erik was like me?”
“Like you... like a Draconian? Yes, yes I did.”
“Do you know that Draconians, aside from weaving elemental
magic, are also capable of making bonds?”
Charles only shook his head as a response.
“A Draconian can form a bond with another person—Draconian
or human and this enables us to know where our bonded is at any time as long as
that person is wearing something that once belonged to us. In your case, it is
the necklace that you are wearing around your neck right now. How long have you
been wearing that?”
Charles held the pendant tighter. “Ever since the beginning,
ever since he gave this to me.”
“Well that figures how you were reunited after the fire
incident.”
“Emma, why are you telling me this?”
Charles was not sure if it was just him or it was really
happening, but he saw Emma’s eyes opened wide with wonderment.
“Charles, the very first thing you have to know about us
bonded Draconians is that we never really die. Instead, we get reborn.”
Unable to comprehend at such moment, Charles was found
speechless and silent with his mouth gaping and his brows creasing in the
middle. So, Emma continued.
“We live for our bondmates, we only die when our bondmates
die. But if they continue to live and we die, we get reborn. The ‘being alone’
part could take weeks, months or years... nothing is really certain but what
stays constant is that the bonded Draconian will always come back.”
Finding the right question to ask next was no difficulty for
Charles.
“How do you get reborn, exactly?”
“We are born from the eye of the storm in a clear, bright,
sunny day. It’s a perfect combination between chaos—lighting, thunder, dark
clouds and tranquillity—the clear sky and the rays of the sun. And when we get
reborn, the very first thing we do is to find our bondeds no matter how near or
far they are.”
*****
Raven! Henry!
What? What?
I see it! I see it!
It’s beautiful!
Charles has been on the back of his motorcycle for hours in
this lonely, silent provincial road. A day before, Henry told him that there
was a strange build-up of love pressure in the area of the province and it was
gradually increasing to increments that would be verging on strange. Suddenly,
Henry became, albeit, an unreliable meteorologist in a short span of time. So,
without unnecessary questions, Charles rode his motorcycle down the direction
that Henry plotted for him.
At present, he’s seeing the one thing he has been searching
for—the eye of the storm. It looked like a miniature cyclone but the rumblings
of the thunder and the flash of the lighting made it look so violent. But
Charles had no fear, only hope for this moment. He parked his motorcycle right
outside the perimeter of the dark, circling clouds and walked towards the
center of the cyclone. It was absolutely glorious seeing a small storm in the
middle of a clear field, it was a beauty done by nature. What a great entrance
for a Draconian rebirth, Charles thought it was only fitting.
Charles, what do you
see?
A small cyclone, in
the middle of the field, my dears.
Well that cyclone
sounds very angry from here.
Yes it does, and it
looks equally angry too.
And just when the storm grew more violent—more thunder and
lighting, Charles started to hear strange whooshing sounds from behind him. He
turned but didn’t see anything.
What’s that sound?
I don’t know.
And then suddenly he can see it. Not “it”, rather “them”.
There must be hundreds of them—Draconians and the whooshing sound came from the
flapping of their enormous, magnificent wings. Overwhelmed, Charles couldn’t do
anything but stare as the winged people flew overhead towards the eye of the
storm.
Charles, what are you
seeing?
Draconians, Raven!
Hundreds of them!
*Gasp* Really? You’re
so lucky!
I’m very lucky,
indeed!
And then a familiar Draconian flew towards him without
landing on the ground.
“Charles, what are you waiting for? Run!” Emma then flew off
again towards the gathering at the eye of the storm.
Without any more thought, Charles ran like his life depended
on it. He ran and then ran some more until he arrived just outside the center.
It was amazing, he thought, how there were so many awaiting the rebirth of one
single Draconian. This was an event he will never forget.
And then, the storm grew violent again and when he looked up
he saw a body with a pair of massive wings covering him, looking like it was
protecting him. The body was plummeting ungracefully, it looked lifeless. For a
moment, this worried Charles.
Charles, what’s
happening?
Oh Gods, Raven, he’s
not spreading his wings... he’s falling!
And then three Draconians caught him and held him. He was
now being slowly placed on the ground. The problem was, these other Draconians
were too tall and Charles could not bloody well see.
Ahck! I cannot bloody
well see!
Go after him, you
idiot!
Charles, then fought his way towards the center. It took
forever for these Draconians were definitely hard to push. And when he finally
arrived in his destination, Charles couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Erik. It was Erik. Who looked like he was still trying to
regain the strength of his legs and was grimacing while trying to stretch his
wings. He was busy fumbling with his wings and totally oblivious to the fact
that Charles was right in front of him. Charles never did mind, for he too was
busy ogling the once-dead man before him.
Of course, it took Emma for them to come back to reality and
finally notice each other.
“AH-HEM. AH-AH-AH-HEM.”
“What?” And the Erik looked up and finally noticed who was
in front of him.
Then, with barely a whisper, he said. “Charles.”
Charles, with glistening eyes that are now leaving tear
tracks down his cheeks finally uttered, “Erik.”
Erik walked directly towards Charles, not breaking eye
contact for fear of ruining the moment, until he was mere inches from him—his
bondmate.
Then Charles smiled, and Erik thought it was the greatest
welcome the world has given him from being reborn. This was enough. More than,
even. Charles continued to smile, then chuckled which drove Erik to mimic said
actions too. Until Charles said,
“I found you.”
Erik nodded while sheepishly smiling, leaned forward,
meeting both their foreheads together as if saying hello and “I love you”
simultaneously for the first time and then took Charles’ hands and held them
together. Charles’ telepathy was on fire, he gasped in surprise—Erik’s mind was
so open and everything on it was so golden, bright and beautiful. Then, Erik
muttered,
“Yes, you found me.”
FIN.
