Erik shifted awake, turning his head slightly. It was only when nothing greeted him that he leapt up. Lilia was gone. They had made an unspoken agreement to wait for the other to wake before moving. Especially today, she wouldn't change that.

He rushed to where he knew Charles would be, bursting into the room. "Lilia's gone."

Charles froze. His mind raced through the house, but while normally he could feel the twinge of her mind even if he could not enter it, there was nothing. "I'm sorry."

"It's Shaw. I know it is." Erik clenched his fists.

"There's nothing you can do now. Continue with the plan. If she's with Shaw, we'll find her, I promise."

Her muscles ached from the cuts and the bruises that riddled them. They had chained her legs down as well, stuffing her mouth with a gag. Her arms were pulled above her head and locked so tightly that blood squeezed out. The eyes that normally swam with colors were closed as she tried to shut the pain away with no use of her mutation. She had never had to do that before. It was more difficult than she thought.

Shaw came to her throughout the day. He clutched her face and turned it side to side, grinning maliciously. "When you were younger, I couldn't get you to use your mutation because you barley knew how to use it yourself. Now, I know for a fact you can use it," he spit out every word. "So now, I know I can make you."

After every time he left Azazel and Riptide came again with knifes and dug even deeper than before, immune to the cries of pain that managed to seep through the gag. Occasionally Shaw would stand and watch her whimper. "All you have to do is use your mutation. Then everything will be fine," he would say, his face twisted into an apologetic expression.

Even if it meant her death, Lilia swore to herself that she wouldn't use it. The moment she did Shaw would win; she knew it. Even if she didn't know what he would do to her once she used it, the only fact she was certain of was that it was not good. For anyone.

Especially not for Erik.

"They're not here Charles! Shaw's not here; Lilia's not here! He left the sub and took her!" Erik's fists were clenched by his side as he looked at the empty room before him. Charles told him she was there and she wasn't.

What! He's got to be there! Where else could he be? Charles' voice echoed in his head. It sounded like he was screaming.

"And I'm telling you he's not!" Erik turned around so that his back was to the room.

"Erik."

Lilia tensed at Erik's name. She looked at the wall before her that she knew led to the room where Shaw stood. Shaw wouldn't just say his name out loud. Erik had to be there.

Erik turned around slowly at his name. A door had slid open, revealing a mirrored room behind it. Shaw stood there, a helmet on his head. "What a pleasant surprise. So good to see you again." Erik slowly approached him, until he was in the mirrored room as well. The door slid closed behind him. "May I ask you something? Why are you on their side?" He was speaking slowly, with a pause between each sentence. "Why fight for a doomed race who will hunt us down as soon as they realize their reign is coming to an end?"

Erik's fist shot out towards Shaw's face. The force only made Shaw's face ripple with the radiation.

"I'm sorry for what happened in the camps to you and her. I truly am." Shaw raised one finger and tapped Erik's forehead. He shot backwards, crashing into the mirrored wall behind him.

Lilia jerked at the thud. She knew Erik wouldn't have enough power to do that to Shaw. It was Erik who had crashed; Erik who was hurt; Erik who was losing. And she couldn't do a single thing to help him.

"But everything I did, I did for you." Erik slowly pushed himself back up to his knees to look at Shaw. "To unlock your power. To make you embrace it." With a single flick of his wrist Erik flew to the other side of the room, crashing into the mirror again.

Lilia curled herself into a ball as the glass rained down on her. Carefully she opened her eyes to see Erik on the floor before her, with Shaw standing behind him. Lilia whimpered and Erik turned his head slowly to see her.

Lilia! Charles voice appeared in her head. Oh, thank God you're alive.

She ignored Charles' voice, only focusing on Erik. Hello Erik. Lilia stood inside Erik's head. She was much more welcome then Charles. Good to see you again. I'll be fine. Focus on Shaw.

Erik pushed himself standing again. "You've come a long way from bending gates. I'm proud of you."

Pipes began to fly out from the walls around them, shattering the mirrors as they crashed through them. They landed around Shaw, trapping him in what looked like a cage. The chains around her wrists broke from the wall, giving her the ability to rub her wrists as the newly released blood flowed into the small puddle around her.

Get out of there Lilia. You can leave now. Leave and come to me. Charles voice echoed again in her head. Erik can handle himself now.

She laughed in his head, sending a small twinge of pain that felt like a pinch. As if I'm going to leave when the man who tortured me is finally paying. I'm going to watch.

"And you're just starting to scratch the surface." Shaw began to walk towards Erik. The rest of the pipes began to fly backwards. "Think of how much further we could go," Erik was only holding Shaw back by one pole, "together." With a shove, Shaw pushed Erik against the wall. Lilia cowered, reaching out hands with her mind to help Erik. Her own hurt too much.

You'll get out of this, I promise. You will get out of this and you will kill him.

"I don't want to hurt you Erik." Shaw was close to Erik, with one hand pressing the pole backwards. "I don't want to hurt Lilia. I never did. I want to help you." His eyes flickered down to look at Lilia. She had crawled to be by Erik's legs, hiding behind them and peering through. Blood still trickled down her legs and arms from the open wounds she refused to take the pain from. Splotches on her skin were stained the rusted red. "This is our time. Our age. We are the future of the human race. You and me, children. This world could be ours."

Erik slowly felt his pain dripping into Lilia. Don't. She froze. His thoughts had whispered to her, stretching the distance. Slowly she stopped, but she kept the pain she already had. It distracted her from her own. Other people's pain had always felt different than her own. It hurt differently.

"Everything you did made us stronger." Erik's voice sounded forced. "Made me the weapon and her the poison we are today." She hated that he called her a poison, but she knew it was right. She was a poison that would kill and who could make each death as painful as she wanted to. He took a deep breath. "It's the truth. I've known it all along." Slowly, his head turned to look Shaw in the eyes. "You are my creator."

The helmet was plucked from Shaw's head by a wire that stretched across the room. Shaw turned to grab it. "Now Charles!" Shaw froze, one hand reaching out to grab the helmet. The pipe that pressed Erik against the wall fell and he stepped forwards, leaving Lilia crouched in her space. Carefully, she crawled out, cringing with each movement.

"Sorry Charles." He took the helmet from the wire. Lilia could hear Charles' voice screaming franticly. "It's not that I don't trust you." She watched in silence as Erik put it on. Her mind reached out for him, but found nothing. Instead, she found Charles.

What happened? She asked quietly, watching as Erik approached Shaw. What has he done?

Charles' voice was quieter than normal, all his energy focused on holding Shaw. It blocked off his mind. There's nothing we can do unless he takes it off.

Erik's head tilted to the side until it rested on Shaw's outstretched hand. He seemed to be ignoring Lilia. "If you're in there, I'd like you to know that I agree with every word you said. We are the future." Lilia allowed her mind to join Charles' inside Shaw's. She could hardly do anything to help, but she took over the simplest of things. She had felt Charles struggling. Now it was slightly easier. "But." Erik turned around, glancing at Lilia, "unfortunately, you killed my mother and tortured the woman I love."

Lilia was only half paying attention to what Erik said. Shaw was fighting back. His voice managed to get into Lilia's head. Why are you helping him? Join me and you can become more powerful than you can imagine.

Instead of responding, she sent pain to only the section of the mind that Shaw still sat in.

Erik held up a coin. Lilia could feel Shaw's fear. She helped it flourish. "This is what we're going to do. I'm going to count to three. And I'm going to move the coin." The coin began to float through the air. "One."

Lilia knew that she should leave Shaw's mind. She knew what Erik was about to do and she knew she should leave to save herself from that pain. But she couldn't make Charles suffer through it alone. She could feel Charles' worry. He was straining, trying not to pull away.

Don't. Please Lilia. Leave.

Even when he focused so much on not leaving Shaw, he was still able to plead with her. Lilia didn't listen.

"Two." The coin was halfway to the head. Lilia could watch through Shaw's eyes if she wanted to, watch as the coin came closer and closer. But she gave that section of his brain back to Shaw. "Three." The coin pierced through the skin, entering the brain. Immediately she began to scream, clutching her head. She curled herself into a ball, clutching her head between her legs as she screamed. Automatically, she had taken almost all the pain into herself. It was a natural instinct. She could feel the coin forcing its way through her head. With any strength she had left, she sent the pain back to Shaw, keeping most of Charles' in herself. But she knew Charles was still screaming.

Erik didn't seem to hear her, only focusing on the coin. She whimpered for him, but he made no reaction. As soon as the coin left Shaw's head, Lilia drew herself back. His body jolted and fell to the ground, Charles having left his head as well.

The death seemed to break through the wall that Erik had built up against her. She whimpered one last time before Erik put his hand on her shoulder. She tensed, breathing deeply. "Lilia?" he lowered himself so that he was on her level. "Are you okay?"

Slowly, she drew her hands away from her head. The gag still hung from her neck and he pulled it off, tossing it to the side. "Thank you for killing him." Her voice was weak, fighting through the pain she had lost control of in the shock. She wrapped her hands tightly around the chains, gripping them.

"You're hurt." Erik hovered one of his hands over the largest cut.

She laughed. "I know. And I can't send the pain away because then it won't heal." Erik pulled her into his arms. He held her for a moment. "Charles is in my head right now. He wants us to come out." Erik kissed her head before drawing away. He turned and lifted Shaw by his arms into the air, moving him so that Shaw drifted in front of him.

"Can you walk?" Erik looked down at her, curled on the ground. She was still dressed in her pajamas, only they were ripped now. Lilia looked down at her legs, running a finger along one of the deepest cuts.

"I don't think so."

Erik raised one hand towards her, lifting her gently by the chains. She floated slightly above the ground. It took a moment for her to adjust, but she smiled at him. "Thank you."

The three of them began to move towards the side of the sub. The wall before them began to break apart, peeling away to reveal the outside world. Shaw floated farther forwards then Erik and Lilia. He moved Lilia slower and gentler. As he moved Shaw distant from the sub, he gently lowered Lilia to the ground.

"Today our fighting stops," Erik spoke from above them all, floating slightly in the air.

Oh God. Lilia, what happened? Charles opened his mind slightly to Lilia, allowing her to see his worry and confusion.

Not now. I'll tell you later. She whispered back, watching as Shaw fell to the ground with a crunch. She smiled at that. Finally, he was dead.

Erik lowered himself to the beach besides her. The chains around her arms loosened enough for her to free herself, but she let them remain there.

"Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters." He stepped forward. "The real enemy is out there." He pointed towards the boats that moved in the water. Lilia looked at them in shock. She hadn't expected there would be so many. It had floated to the back of her mind how important what Shaw had done was to the humans. It hadn't occurred to her before that there were people outside the world of the mutants right now. "I feel their guns moving in the water. Their metal, targeting us. Americans. Soviets. Humans. United in their fear of the unknown."

Both Charles and Erik began to move towards the coast line. The others began to follow. Without wanting or meaning to, Erik began to bring Lilia gently forwards as well. Erik looked forwards, while Charles looked towards him. "Neanderthal is running scared my fellow mutants." He turned to look at Charles. "Go ahead Charles. Tell me I'm wrong."

Charles raised a hand to touch his forehead. His hand was shaking slightly when he dropped it. He looked back at Moria, who ran towards the plane they had traveled to the island on. Everyone was still as they waited. In the distance, they watched as the guns began to rotate towards them.

Lilia had managed to get herself onto a higher position. So it was together that they watched as the missiles emerged from the guns, shooting towards the beach. Erik shot his hand out to stop them, forcing them to freeze in the air. The trails of smoke behind them sputtered off. Carefully, they began to rotate so that they faced the ships again.

"Erik, you said yourself we are the better men." Charles turned back to look at Erik, his mind screaming out desperately. Only Lilia could hear it. "It's time to prove it. There are thousands of men on those ships. Good, honest, innocent men that are just following orders."

Lilia laughed inside his head. Bad choice of words. So many men following orders have tortured us.

"I've been at the mercy of men just following orders," Erik confirmed, though he hadn't heard Lilia's voice. "Never again." With a jerk of Erik's hand, the missiles began to fly back towards the ships.

"Erik release them!" They were halfway there. "NO!" Charles ran and tackled Erik. The two fell to the beach.

"Erik!" Lilia shouted out, reaching out one hand. She hated that she couldn't hear his mind, couldn't help him. Whenever she reached for him she only found darkness. A few missiles fell to the water.

Somehow, Charles had turned Erik so that he was on his back. Charles' hands grabbed for the helmet, but he couldn't get it off before Erik spoke. "I don't want to hurt you." Erik elbowed him in the face. "Don't make me." Erik pushed himself standing, holding out a hand. Raven, Hank, the ginger and the boy with blond hair had been walking forward, but they stopped when he held out his hand. "Stay out." They shot backwards, landing with thuds on the ground.

Lilia reached out to all of their heads, calming them and ordering them to stay. She warned them not to interfere. Upon her request, Hank came over to her, pulling off the chains for her. She whispered a thank you. He was strangely now blue, but she didn't care. The rest of the chains were off.

Erik and Charles had begun to fight again, with Erik above Charles now. The missiles shot towards the boats, Erik having one hand outstretched.

"Erik stop!" Charles shouted, but he was quickly silenced by a punch to the face from Erik.

Charles! Lilia couldn't help herself. She sent the pain of the punch away. The missiles had fallen with the punch, but Erik had caught them again. He was standing now. Lilia was leaning as far as she could without pain towards him, as if being closer would allow her to enter his mind and stop him.

A gun began shooting. Moria held a gun in front of her, firing towards Erik. Erik pulled his attention from the missiles to the bullets, deflecting them into the air. He didn't seem to notice right away when he sent a bullet into Charles' back, but he turned as Charles began to scream.

Lilia forced herself into Charles' mind, but all she found there was the pain and shock. His mind had shot into disarray with the bullet. As carefully as she could, Lilia began to organize it again for him. She knew he would have wanted it, if he had even the slightest ability to speak. She could hear everything he could hear perfectly. Without wanting too, she felt tears falling down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry." Erik had pulled Charles into his lap, resting one of his hands on Charles' chest. The others had begun walking forwards again, but Erik held his hand out again. "I said back off!" They stopped. He didn't seem to notice that she still lay curled on the sand, stretched almost completely flat with a hand reaching towards them.

Erik turned to look at Moria. "You. You did this." It was the anger he sent at Shaw. He raised his hand again and forced the chain around Moria's neck to strangle her. Moria clutched her neck.

"Erik. Please." Charles' voice echoed in Lilia's head, though she knew he had spoken the words out loud. He had gained some control back, but most of it was sent to dealing with his pain. She continued organizing it, moving slowly and carefully. "She didn't do this Erik. You did."

Moria's chain fell from her neck as Erik looked back to Charles. He placed his hand back on Charles' chest. "Us turning on each other, it's what they want. I tried to warn you Charles. I want you by my side. We're brothers, you and I. All of us. Protecting each other. We want the same thing."

"Oh, my friend," Charles laughed slightly. "I'm sorry. But we do not." Lilia pulled herself out of his mind.

Erik gestured for Moria to come over, and she rushed there. "Charles." They changed positions, with Erik standing and Moria having Charles' head on her knees.

Erik walked over to where the rest of them waiting. "This society won't accept us." He pointed towards Moria. "We form our own. The humans have played their hand, now we get ready to play ours. Who's with me?" He held out a hand to Raven. "No more hiding."

Raven walked forwards, looking between Charles and Erik. Hank walked over to Lilia and lifted her into his arms. She wrapped herself around him, clutching his chest and resting her head on it. She grit her teeth against the pain. Raven rushed to Charles. They spoke for a moment before Raven kissed Charles on the forehead and stood. Erik pulled her by her hand.

Riptide, Azazel and Angel walked over to Erik, talking his hand as well. It was only then that Erik looked towards Lilia. He held out a hand to her, separating his hand from Raven's.

"Lilia," his voice pleaded with her. "Come with me."

She shook her head gently. "I'm sorry." There were tears falling down her face. "I can't." He had become too much like Shaw, too against humans. Lilia almost wanted to go with him, just to be with him if nothing else. But she couldn't. Not when he wanted humans gone like Shaw had wanted them gone. She clutched Hank tighter.

Lilia didn't hate humans. She had been raised by one who loved her, for goodness sake. Mutants didn't deserve final power; some of them could be just as terrible as some humans. The special abilities didn't make them perfect. They weren't a perfect race. They were all just as broken.

Hiding was better than destruction.

Erik took Raven's hand again. "And Beast," Raven called out to Hank. "Never forget! Mutant and proud." Erik nodded to Azazel and they disappeared into a cloud of red smoke.

The rest of them rushed over to Charles, Hank putting Lilia on the ground right next to him. She grasped his hand, shooting herself into his mind. Do you need me to do anything?

"I'm going to get you to a hospital." Moria began to adjust Charles so that Hank could lift him.

Please. Let me help. I can help.

"Wait." Hank held out a hand to stop Moria. Charles tried to say something, his breathing heavy. Lilia went into his head again and took control of parts of it, allowing him to give more attention to speaking. "Don't touch him."

You can do this.

"Hold on." Charles' voice was heavy, but he was able to speak easier. Lilia couldn't help herself; she took some of the pain from the bullet into herself. It burned in her back, but she didn't adjust herself. "I can't…actually…I can't." Each word still seemed difficult to get out. Lilia began to help him, forming each word for him and helping him along slightly. "I can't feel my legs," he said the words as if in shock. "I can't feel my legs." He clutched her hand tighter. "I can't feel my legs."

A/N: I am so very sorry it has been so long I've updated this story. I truly don't know why. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you for each of the reviews all those months ago.