Author's Note: Dear God, when was my last update? Oh, August? As in before this school year started? Oh, wonderful.

Yeah, I have absolutely no explanations for this little disappearance. I'm not dead. Not comatose. Not magically transported to Westeros, as much as I wish that would happen. If not Westeros, I'd take Thedas or even the Firefly universe. But nope. Still here.

No excuses. Just writer's block, senior year school drama, and worst of all, the Second Crash of CSF's Jump Drive.

Three. Freaking. Chapters. Dead. Gone. AND THREE CHAPTERS OF THE SEQUEL…

Technology, y u hates me? (My attitude for most of this year)…

I'm now backing up on four different computers. If this happens again, I'm so killing someone off in this. Probably Sean. Or Miranda. They were hard to write in this chapter for some reason. So yeah. If my story crashes again, someone will DIE.

Please forgive me, my loves. And remember: I will never abandon this story. Even if it takes forever, I will write the next chapter. And since we're heading into the home stretch… well, fasten your seatbelts. Things are about to get nuts. Erik will be awesome, Charles will be the only sane man, Miranda will change some major things, Katie will have an awesome BAMF moment and Daniel…

Well, you'll all find out why Daniel is my favorite original character. Ever. Even more than Miranda.

I don't own First Class. Only my OCs. But please answer this: did anyone else have a nerdgasm when they heard Tyrion Lannister is going to be in Days of Future Past? Well, Peter Dinklage. But still. He's amazing.

Please review, loves, and enjoy as we begin the stretch to Cuba.

Chapter 26

Turning Tables
Erik glared at her. "You haven't even heard my plan yet." "I don't need to. It involves boats and a sociopathic doctor. It won't end well." With a partner in his vendetta against Shaw, Erik Lensherr thought things would change. He was right. Erik/OC

Norfolk, Virginia
1957

The moment he walked into the house, he knew he wasn't alone.

The intrusion didn't do more than make him pause for a second. His heart didn't start beating hard, his mind didn't go into overdrive, and his instincts did not tell him to run. Running away would do nothing right now. The best word to describe him in this instant was acceptance.

He set the briefcase on the table in the kitchen, nodding calmly to the arrival. "Make yourself at home," he said, his tone oozing with sarcasm as he went over to the counter, pulling a mug out. "Don't… oh, I don't know… wait until I'm home to let yourself in or anything like that."

"Your wife wasn't home, either. What else was I supposed to do, wait outside until one of you came home?"

He stiffened instantly. His wife had nothing to do with this, and if this monster in front of him wanted to bring her into this, he was going to have to go through his dead body. But then again, he was sure that the monster would be more than happy to make that true.

His soul be damned, his wife was not going to be harmed from this.

"You're here to find out my choice?" he asked.

"It should be obvious." He snorted, and the interloper continued, "You and I are better than them. You have a gift. You need to use it. Follow what your blood gave you; it's our destiny to do so."

"I don't believe that." He shot the monster in front of him a dark look. "We got out of a war just over ten years ago, and here you are, eager to start another one. How many more people have to die?"

"As many as it takes."

"No. That's too high a price." He snorted, brown eyes flashing with defiance. "You are just as crazy as I thought you were," he taunted, eyebrow raising in challenge at the man in front of you. "You know my choice. What are you going to do about it?"

"Honey, are you here?"

He froze. Oh God, she wasn't supposed to be here yet. She was supposed to be away from here. What was she doing home so early? His stomach dropped even further when he saw the look on his enemy's face. Rage buried itself in his gut a moment later.

He whirled, glaring at him, rage in his voice and a threat in his eyes.

"Leave her out of this."

Those were the last words David Holloway ever spoke.

Westchester, New York
1962

"You look like you're in a bad mood."

It was barely eight in the morning, and Katie just stared at a blue-skinned Raven as the exhausted blond entered the kitchen. Raven's smirk didn't leave; instead, it grew. Pushing Katie's buttons had become something of a running gag between them all. They had all adopted the tiny blond as their baby sister, so they all acted like her siblings.

Even though Sean and Alex had made it their personal mission to drive her crazy.

Katie gave a groan of annoyance as she whirled at Raven, eyes narrowed. "I am so sick of this stupid house with the stupid trees everywhere, and Erik's stupid brooding, and you and Hank being stupidly adorable, and Alex and Caroline being stupid and pretending that they didn't kiss and obviously aren't head over heels for each other, and stupid Moira being two doors down from me and snoring so loud, and feeling like civilization doesn't exist because we've been at this place for over a month!" she ranted, running a hand through her blond hair.

"And Sean for just being stupid?" Raven asked, giggling.

"Shut up." Katie groaned as she sat down across the breakfast table with Raven. "We haven't been outside this mansion for nearly a month. Shaw hasn't made a move for over a month."

"Makes you wonder what he's planning." Katie and Raven both turned to the doorway as Hank entered, shoeless and exhausted, carrying a plate of food. He sat next to Raven, scowling deeply.

"Nothing good," Raven murmured, looking thoughtful. She bit her lip as she mentioned, "Miranda's getting worried."

"About Daniel?" Katie asked, ignoring Hank's glare as she swiped an apple slice from the plate he had in front of him.

"Who else?" Raven bit her lip. "I'm just saying if Charles had been in the hands of a murderous psycho for a month? I'd be freaking out too. I'm surprised she hasn't bolted off to try and get him."

"I'm sure she's tried and Erik stopped her," Katie murmured, flashing back to the captured teenaged boy she remembered from over a month ago. She hesitated. "I wonder if Angel's alright."

"She made her choice," Raven reminded her, noticing Hank stiffen a bit out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, well, that doesn't mean I can't still worry about her," Katie replied, her tone defensive as she crossed her arms against her chest. She bit her lip. "It's something Caroline and Alex argued about a few weeks ago. Caroline and Angel were close before… before you know. Both were from Baltimore."

"Did they know each other?" Hank asked, pulling his plate away as Raven attempted to steal some of his food.

"From around. They lived like a block from each other and worked less than a mile apart, so they did know each other by sight… but Caroline misses Baltimore." She shrugged. "I'm not going to lie. I miss Boston. I miss my brothers and my parents and sister. But I know I can't leave until it's done."

"You're thinking about leaving when it's over?" Raven was somewhat surprised. Katie had taken to her powers quite well, and was slowly becoming one of the most dangerous of them. But there hadn't been any indication that Katie was unhappy at the mansion.

Katie hesitated. "I don't know," she replied honestly. She looked at the two mutants, a solemnness both were unaccustomed to in her eyes. She squirmed a bit before adding, "I mean… I just don't know. I miss home so much but… everyone here is family now."

"Stay or leave, you're leaving a home behind," Hank summarized. He bit his lip before adding, "My mom raised me on her own. Dad died over in France, on the beaches of Normandy. I was a little kid." He gestured down to his feet. "This terrified her. But… she did her best."

"She didn't do too badly," Raven murmured. She shrugged. "My parents just wanted me out. I was a runaway… then Charles found me. I've been here ever since."

Katie smiled, in a way that was almost too dark for the excited, innocent Katie that had made her way to the Agent's base barely a month ago. "Any way you look at it, each one of us has a story." She looked out the window as she added, in a sadder tone, "None of them are that good."

"You can't do this."

"Watch me."

"You have no idea where they are."

"I do, actually. They're in the middle of this storm."

The suitcase on the bed was half packed, and for a bizarre moment, Erik could remember himself planning to leave this all behind only a month ago. But now, things had changed, and it was a strangely frantic Miranda who was trying to make her escape.

But like Erik, she had one destination in mind: wherever Shaw was hiding now.

"He could be anywhere in the world, Miranda," Erik pointed out, struggling to remember how Miranda usually calmed him down.

It was around that moment that he had a new appreciation for what he had put her through over the years.

Miranda shook her head as she tossed her gun into her bag, shooting a look at Erik. "He'll be in the one place that the rest of the world is watching," Miranda replied, her tone calm and confident. "The rest of the world is watching the Soviet Union and the United States. And dammit, Erik, I am tired of leaving Daniel in this situation. I need to get him out."

She made a move to close her bag, but Erik stepped forward, placing himself between her and the bag. For a few moments, the two stared each other down. Out of the corner of his eye, Erik watched tiny blue sparks fall from Miranda's clenched fists. Her powers had grown considerably over the past few weeks, to the point where she was throwing lightning.

Erik had taken to that development with a combination of horror and pride.

But now, their positions had changed, and Erik was the one being forced to confront the reality that if he couldn't talk his partner down, she would most likely get herself killed.

There was no force on heaven or earth that would stop him from keeping that from happening to her.

As Miranda made a move to get around him, Erik grabbed her shoulders, holding her still as she glared up at him. "I know this is killing you," he replied, trying to appeal to the logical side of Miranda that he knew was still somewhere there. "But if you run off and get yourself in trouble, you aren't helping anyone. Not Daniel, not any of us."

Miranda didn't fight him, but her glare remained. "So I leave him in Shaw's hands? He could be dead, Erik."

"Exactly. And then you'll give yourself up for nothing. Everything that you have been through the last five years will have been for nothing. Daniel's pain will have been for nothing. Everything you have done for this group will have been for nothing."

For a second he hesitated, knowing that his next point would be like a bullet in her heart. He said it anyway. "David's death will have been for nothing."

Miranda reacted pretty much as he thought she would at that accusation. She moved her arm as though she meant to slap him, but seemed to lose that urge a second later as her shoulders sagged. She bit her lip, green eyes strangely bright as she asked, in a flat tone, "I don't know what to do. I just don't know."

Erik hesitated. "Trust me," he told her, his voice lower as he kept his hand on her arm. "Trust everyone here that we're doing our best to find Shaw and Daniel."

Miranda laughed bitterly. "We don't know if he's alive."

"No, we don't," he admitted, fully aware that the possibility had crossed his mind several times. "But hoping that he's still alive is better than declaring him dead."

Miranda hesitated, and then nodded. "He'll make a move. Soon. Then what?"

Erik's eyes narrowed grimly as he gave his reply. It was an answer that both had known was coming for a long time. It was an answer that was in truth, the only response possible to what Shaw had done to the two of them and countless others over the years.

"Then we fight."

"So when are you and Caroline going to talk again?"

In the underground bunker a few hours later, Alex stiffened slightly as he shot a warning glare at Sean. "She and I don't have anything to talk about," he replied. A scowl set itself on his face as he shot a blast of energy towards a target on the far side of the room.

Sean rolled his eyes as he watched, sitting cross-legged on the floor, currently on a break from his own training. "Of course it doesn't. Just like how Erik and Miranda didn't have anything to talk about."

Across the room and leaning against the wall, Miranda rolled her eyes. "As the local expert on unresolved sexual tension, trust me, it's better to admit it and get it out of the way before you both go crazy," she advised, smirking as Alex turned a very light shade of pink. "You're teenagers. It's normal."

"And Caroline's cute, so that makes it doubly normal," Sean piped up, smirking as Alex's scowl deepened. "So you kissed her. Should you be excited?"

"It's complicated," Alex replied shortly, trying his best to ignore Sean.

"So is life. Deal with it. Now go talk to her."

"When you talk to Katie."

"Considering the fact that there's absolutely no sexual tension between Katie and I, we're good. Go talk to Caroline."

"One word, Sean. Denial."

"That's rich, coming from you."

Miranda rolled her eyes. "It is something in mutant DNA that makes us so determined to swim in denial for as long as we possibly can?" she wondered aloud, making a mental note to ask Hank later. She ignored the glares of both teenage boys as she glanced up at the stairwell.

A breathless Moira came down the stairs. "The President about to make his address," she managed to get out, nodding back at the stairs. "You're going to want to see this."

Miranda sighed, knowing that this address could potentially give them all a clue to what was going to happen next. "I'll find Erik and Charles." She gestured over towards Alex and Sean. "You all head to the living room and I'll meet you there." She smiled briefly at Moira as she passed, and headed up the stairs.

A calm Sean turned to Alex, grinned, and then said, "Denial."

For a brief moment, Alex considered whether it would be worth it to kill the redhead now. "Shut up, Cassidy."

Sean smirked. "Make me, Summers."

It didn't take long to find the boys.

She hesitated when she did find him, however. The looks on Erik and Charles's faces were serious and almost grim, and she knew that interrupting this conversation was the last thing she wanted to do. So for now, she settled for waiting and watching, letting her mind wander for at least a little bit.

Miranda leaned against the wall, watching the two with a pensive look on her face. Things were going down quickly. She had been restless over the past few weeks. She was terrified that Daniel was dead at this point.

For all they knew, Shaw had killed Daniel minutes after the teens had seen him during the attack on the CIA base. For all they knew, Daniel was in an unmarked grave anywhere in the world, or had been thrown into the ocean. None of them knew whether or not Daniel was still alive.

Part of Miranda hoped that he was still alive. The other was terrified at what Shaw might have been doing to him for over a month.

But all of her feared what sort of Daniel she would find.

Shaw had broken Erik as a boy. God knew what kind of man he would be today if he had never gotten his hands on Erik. But Erik had been young then, and innocent. Daniel was nearly twenty, had been jaded considerably by David's murder, and knew what kind of monster Shaw really was.

In that moment, Miranda realized that Daniel probably knew more about this whole situation than anyone else involved.

For now, she pushed those thoughts out of her head, and instead concentrated on Erik and Charles. And then, before her eyes, Miranda watched in amazement as the satellite Sean had jumped off of a week earlier moved towards them, guided by her own partner.

Pride exploded in her, and she couldn't stop the grin. Peals of Erik and Charles' laughter rang over for her, and she shook her head as she realized she was going to have to break up this moment. But for a moment, she let herself be so proud of Erik, and thrilled that he had let others in after years of hiding behind walls.

"Hey, boys!" Miranda called over. Both turned their attention to her, and for a moment, Miranda could have sworn she saw tears in Erik's eyes. She dismissed it as a trick of the light a moment later, and then continued, "Kennedy's about to make his address. Are you coming?"

"Absolutely," Charles replied, shooting her a cheerful grin. He patted Erik's arm as he walked back to the house. The hunter was only a few feet behind him, and they had reached Miranda's position in a few moments.

As Erik did reach her side, Miranda glanced at him and hesitated for a few seconds. "You okay?" she asked, cocking her head as she watched Erik carefully.

He nodded, looking calmer than she had ever seen him before. "Fine," he replied, and then added, with a half-smile, "Maybe even more than fine." He watched her for a moment, and then took her hand as they entered through the door.

For now, she let go her questions and just held his hand.

Everyone was tense.

There was not one mutant present who had not realized that there was probably a very good reason that Shaw hadn't made a move for a month. There was not one person present who hadn't realized yet that they were outnumbered, probably severely outmatched, and incredibly out resourced.

Alex had realized weeks ago that Angel had probably told Shaw everything about them; powers, backgrounds, and most importantly, weaknesses. They knew next to nothing about the mutants fighting for Shaw. After Darwin's death, Alex had thought things couldn't get worse. And then he realized how much of a fight this was going to be.

Erik had realized that some of the people in this room might not make it out of this fight alive. As strong as the group had become after months of training, they were still young. Despite the immeasurable bounds that she had taken, Katie was barely sixteen years old. Caroline had gained so much control, but could still get flustered and mess up. Hank was still hiding half of who he was, while Raven's search for a balance was proving to be a flop. Sean and Alex were Sean and Alex, which meant their creativity was as much a weakness as it was a strength.

Moira wasn't even a mutant. Erik knew that she wasn't the weakest link here, but she could be a liability if the battle ended up getting her involved. Charles and Miranda could handle themselves, but there was no way he was not going to look after them in this.

With a jolt, Erik realized he was worried about the people surrounding him.

He pushed the thoughts back, mentally blaming Charles and Miranda's influence, before turning back to the address. Miranda stood next to him, with Moira and Charles sharing the coach in front of the television. Alex stood nearest Miranda, with Raven, Hank, Katie, and Sean in a row next to him. A tired-looking Caroline stood on the far side of the room. The fact that no one was speaking was testament enough that they realized how serious this was.

Even Kennedy seemed to be exhausted. "It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile crossing the embargo line that surrounds Cuba as an attack by the Soviet Union on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union…" the President stated, his voice a mix of solemnity and finality.

With a shake of his head, Erik turned down the volume. A second later, he turned his gaze to Charles and Moira as they sat on the coach. "That's where we're going to find Shaw," he said, his voice firm and confident.

"How do you know?" Alex asked, glancing at the older mutant.

"Two superpowers facing off and he wants to start World War III." Charles shook his head as he murmured, "He won't leave anything to chance."

"You know he has a plan for this," Miranda murmured. She ran a hand through her dark brown hair as Caroline swallowed nervously. "And a damned good one. He'll have all his bases covered in this."

"So it's up to us to stop him," Caroline summarized. She and Alex were on opposite sides of the room, and it was clear that whatever had happened to the two of them to get them like this still remained.

"So much for diplomacy," Erik commented dryly, shooting an almost smug look at Charles. He turned his attention to the nervous-looking younger mutants next. "I suggest you all get a good night's sleep." With those final words, he walked out.

Katie snorted darkly as she muttered, after Erik had left, "Yes. Sleep. That's so going to be possible with a nuclear war hanging over our heads, not to mention a psychopathic murderer who is playing two superpowers like they're puppets." She looked at Hank as she added, "Do you have anything that can knock someone out for a few hours?"

"I'm not drugging you, Katie."

Katie frowned. "You're no fun." With those words, she left the room without another word.

Sean glanced at the others as he added, "Katie talks a lot. That's obvious." He hesitated, and looked almost older as he added, "But when she rambles like that… that's when you know she's really scared." The redhead left the room, clearly following after the younger blond.

Hank bit his lip before looking at the other three adults. "There are a few things I want to run through with you before we're ready," he admitted, nodding towards the door. "We should do it now."

"Lead the way," Moira replied. She followed Hank out of the room, Charles and Miranda not far behind them.

For a few awkward seconds, Caroline, Raven, and Alex remained in the room, completely silent. Raven watched Alex and Caroline in turn, an eyebrow raised as she waited for one of the two to break the silence.

Honestly, she thought this argument of theirs was absolutely stupid. Raven also knew that Caroline and Alex were smart people, and would hopefully be able to figure out their relationship on her own. If it came down to it, she had no qualms about playing mediator.

But she honestly hoped they would work it out on their own. It was more fun that way.

Caroline bit her lip before shaking her head. "I'm going to bed," she said shortly. She walked out without another word, and without a glance towards Alex.

The shapeshifter cursed mentally, scowling slightly before another plan formulated in her mind.

"You know, if this ends up going bad…" Raven murmured, looking back over at Alex as she turned her gaze from where Caroline had exited. Alex stiffened slightly as Raven continued, "If this goes bad and something happens to her or you, are you going to regret not figuring out what's going on between you?"

Silence was the only answer she received.

Author's Note: Please review, loves. Hope you enjoyed. :)