"No."

Kevin's voice wobbled as he spoke. Charles searched for words to say, the taste of blood still in his mouth. It was gone from his face, scrubbed by his hands. Raven had searched for any signs of it or the tears before she'd allowed him up to see Kevin. She'd even tried to give him time to let the swelling his eyes go down.

It wasn't enough, but he knew it would only make things worse to let Kevin see him as Raven had seen him. As it was, he knew Kevin was already frightened. He wished he could protect the child from the knowledge, but Kevin wouldn't thank him for shielding him from this. Moira wasn't his friend or lover. Moira was his mother.

Soon, Levine would be well enough to call her boss. Soon, they would have to plan their own counterattack. But they all knew what could happen, what might have already happened. It wasn't an outcome Charles wanted to think about or acknowledge, but it felt like it was always there, trying to shimmy its way into his thoughts.

"Kevin," Charles said, struggling to keep his voice calm, "I-"

"No. She said she was gonna come back soon," said Kevin, "It was okay. She'd won."

"Kevin, it came out of nowhere," Charles said, trying desperately to find something comforting to say, "We tried to save her-"

"Where is she?" asked Kevin, "What did they do? Did they hurt her?"

Unbidden, Charles saw Kevin's thoughts. A face slammed into the table. Charles flinched, desperately hiding his own thoughts. Joe had been a monster, but Charles knew better than to think the cruelty of the people who had Moira would stop at the level of abuse she'd suffered at his hands.

"Where is she?" asked Kevin, "Where?"

"Kevin," pleaded Charles, "We...we don't know."

The child stared at him. Kevin didn't scream. He didn't shout. But Charles felt the child's emotions bubbling up, saw the furniture wobble around him, the tears start in his eyes. The child didn't know half of what happened, but even the few scraps he knew were destroying him.

Charles reached out, held him when his tears finally poured over into his shirt. Kevin gripped back immediately. Charles felt his own feelings of despair threatening to spill over. He'd failed her, and he'd failed Kevin too.

In that moment, he felt himself teetering on the edge of a precipice. It was one he'd spent years wallowing in when the school closed down, when his closest companions were the bottle, a drug that gave him use of his legs, and his own feelings of inadequacy.

Since then he'd always found reserves of strength when he needed to push his feelings aside for the sake of his students. It had often been difficult, been painful, but he'd found it somewhere deep within him.

It hadn't been this hard to gather up that strength since Logan had walked into his life.

"Charles?"

Kevin's voice was so broken. It added another crack to Charles's heart.

"You're gonna find her, right?" he asked, "This isn't...she's gonna be okay. Things are gonna be alright, right? Please?"

He closed his eyes, trying to find strength somewhere, anywhere.

"You here," he said, "Twenty years sooner. Maybe having the courage to be with you when you returned to the CIA, or begging you not to go back at all, to stay with us."

"That would've been dangerous," said Moira, folding her hand over his.

"I know," Charles said, "But...it would've been good Moira."

"It wouldn't have been safe, not for you, not for the boys," said Moira, "Even I knew that. Besides...I don't believe in holding onto the past. And you shouldn't be either."

"It can be hard sometimes," he said.

"Trust me, I've been there," Moira said, "But the future can be good too."

She leaned in, her face touching his.

"Especially when there's so much to look forward to."

He held Moira's son closer, the son that wanted him to be his father, the son he could've had and still could. He gritted his teeth together, remembering yet another promise he'd made, not to Moira, not to Kevin, not even to Logan.

I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to my school... looking for trouble.

"Yes," he whispered, opening his eyes, "Yes we will Kevin."

"So, success?"

Regan nodded and switched her earpiece off.

"Kestral said they managed to grab her in the middle of the gunfire," she said, "There was a bit of a problem with the telepath in the escape, but he managed to shake him."

A soft snort.

"I did tell him he might run into trouble. But, of course, all of Stryker's pawns get a little overconfident. One sniff of power, of the means to operate beyond their usual mien."

He snapped his fingers.

"And it's terribly easy for them to lose control. How did Zero do?"

"Sounds like he ran into some trouble too," Regan said, taking a seat, "Said there were a bunch of mutants who came out of nowhere, tried to stop them."

"Given what we know from Cairo, this makes sense. Which base did they take her to?"

"The one in Scotland. And they had to use a medic. Apparently Kestral's got some scars on his cheeks where she tried to claw his face open," said Regan, "Honestly, from her pictures, I didn't really expect that."

"Underestimating her was Stryker's mistake. It won't be ours."

"I thought you said his mistake was letting her go."

A chuckle.

"He made a lot of mistakes. But he had two of the greatest minds on mutants in his clutches a week ago. And what did he do? Pump them for information? Ask about their research? We have evidence to suggest McCoy might have changed his mutation. Did he even try to figure out how that was done?"

One of his hands made a sweeping motion in the air.

"No, he didn't. Because he has no vision. And he let go of a woman who had seen twenty years of classified information on mutants, more. She has copies of files long since destroyed in her mind."

"I get it, I get it," Regan said, "But I have no idea why you felt the need to have Martinique interrogate her instead of me."

Another chuckle.

"Goodness, you two really need to find some sort of balance, an accord. I can't have my two bodyguards fighting like this."

"Then why do you trust her with MacTaggert?" snapped Regan.

She was aware that her voice was becoming slightly whiny, but she couldn't help it. Her older sister was picked on almost all the important missions, and she never failed to lord it over Regan, making her feel small. She was just as smart as Martinique, as fast, as talented. They both had the same mutations.

So why was she the one who always got honored?

"I thought that was clear. You need to stay here with me."

"I don't need supervision," she said.

"No, not supervision. I don't need you doing missions almost any illusionist can do. Give Martinique a target and she'll run at it, shattering it upon impact. Ask her to think on her feet and she she'll be the one who shatters."

Regan smiled to herself. Well then.

"I'll be going to Scotland myself soon anyway, overseeing the preparations. They've been getting sloppy over there, and they might need some correction. And who knows? Perhaps MacTaggert shall cooperate."

"If Stryker's right about her and that telepath, then probably not," said Regan, "Do you think we should do something about that, by the way?"

There was a moment where she swore there wasn't any sound besides her own breathing. She knew better than to think she could hear him breathe. Sometimes Regan thought that he didn't, that it was only a show when he was around other people.

"Perhaps, if these mutants Zero and Kestrel encountered are truly his. If they took down Nur in Cairo, then we can't count them out of our equations. Not just yet. I would hate to damage McCoy's mind, or this Xavier's."

She laughed. He turned slightly.

"What is so amusing?"

Regan stopped.

"It may not always be apparent, but I am in this for a higher purpose. Talent like theirs is rare, truly. It would be a sin to wipe them from the world. Xavier might not be as smart as McCoy, or in the same way, but he is one with the most vision I've ever seen in an individual."

"He runs a school," said Regan.

"A school that has managed to endure when members of the Brotherhood forced into hiding or arrested. A school which has been churning out mutants confident and bold in who they are. He's been winning in his own way Regan, not something I think you can understand. Not yet."

He turned fully, moving to his desk.

"And it is his children who destroyed Nur, the strongest mutant I've ever heard of. No Regan, he doesn't just run a school. He never will just be someone who runs a school. The world may see the Brotherhood as the most powerful, but they don't understand."

He rubbed his chin, a pleased gesture.

"And I might have something he wants. Just that would warrant being a little more gentle with MacTaggert."

"How much?" asked Regan.

A thin smirk appeared on his lips.

"Not too gentle. Another reason to go. Martinique, like you, is talented in her abilities to convince our guests to see reason. But she can...perhaps be too zealous. We can't have MacTaggert too broken."

Regan shrugged and got up, brushing her hair away.

"So, are we headed out?" she asked.

"Yes. I'm afraid Kestral won't be transporting us this time. Stryker needs him back soon, and I think we can afford to take a plane while he concentrates his efforts on other matters. A little pain might convince MacTaggert to soften when we get there."

"You're going to let him go back?" asked Raven, "He's terribly valuable."

"Oh, I know. But Stryker will prove a valuable distraction. It's likely they'll think he did it."

"What did you tell him those two are being used for anyway?" she asked.

He shrugged.

"I forget. Martinique will fill them in. I don't think they'll talk, but we didn't get this far by trusting people to act in their best interest."

She opened the door. His secretary looked up, shuffling her papers.

"Your jet is waiting for you sir," she said.

"Oh come now," he said, laughing, jolly, "Five years working for me and I can't get a Nathaniel out of you."

His secretary sighed, and gave Regan a long-suffering look. Regan gave her a sympathetic expression in return. Stupid woman.

"I can always settle for Dr. Essex," she said.

"Good woman," he said, clapping her on the shoulder, "Wish me luck! The weather around Scotland can get a little choppy around this time of year, or so I hear."

"Have a pleasant journey."

He smiled and they continued down the hall. Regan drew level with him, making sure no one was around.

"How long do you think they'll focus on Stryker?" she asked.

"Long enough, I think," he replied, "We just have to be sure to keep MacTaggert quiet and shielded. Stryker might not be good for much, but those fences, goodness."

He shivered.

"It's been a long time since I've had such an opportunity, and such a challenge," he said, "We're placed very well, but we have so many other players in the game. Right now, we've got more pieces on the board but..."

He shrugged, with a glint in his eye she recognized as delight.

"They still have to make their move," he said.

"But we've planned for this," said Regan.

"Yes, yes we have," he agreed, "Which is, of course, what makes it so exciting."

With a smirk that turned into a grin, he flung open the door to the courtyard.

"If we play our cards right, we'll have all three of them."

A/N: Thank you to everyone who's been reading! This fic has been really intense to write, and, as some of you might have guessed, it's not over. Some of my long-term readers will know that I have a fondness for two things: very long end-of-story author's notes and trilogies. And that's the plan right now.

Usually I wait two weeks in between my stories. However, all things considered, I've decided that the sequel to this, "Sinister," will premiere in five days. And yes, I do get the irony in having a character played by Rose Bryne act as mother to a child with supernatural abilities in a story titled that. However, when that briefcase closed in that clip after the movie, I kind of lost my mind. Essex Industries. Bryan Singer, you genius.

I've always loved Charles/Moira, and his shyness and utter desire to be with her in the movie really inspired me. Add the inclusion of Kevin, a child who will one day become a powerful mutant, and there's a powerful family dynamic there.

Not to say other people don't have their own issues to work through, and I'll continue to include that. I dislike having other characters be window dressing in stories, not just because it seems unrealistic, but also because X-men is, at its heart, an ensemble cast. Everyone influences each other, their own stories weaving together. Raven's back at the school, but I don't think she's home yet. She sees her own son every day but can't bring herself to talk to him.

I have to say that I was actually considering not writing any more fanfiction after my last story. My life had just gotten so busy, and my well of inspiration had run dry. As soon as Apocalypse came out though, I had people messaging me, and after I saw it, I couldn't stop myself. I've said it once and I'll say it again, thank you all for that nudge. This has been a great ride.

Thank you to all my readers, both those I could and couldn't respond to, depending on whether or not they had their private messaging turned on. This has been my most well-responded to fic I've ever written. Now, for my shoutouts: Coyote Blues, whose portrayal of Mystique never failed to inspire me, knightphoenix2, Courtenae727, savedbygrace94, BROSMP, Chocolate and Caramel Princess-Amon-Rae and Floralina Starling! See you all in five days!