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»CHAPTER FOURTEEN
❛cairo❜
( part three. second chances )

༻✦༺ 　༻✧༺　༻✦༺

𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 𝗘𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗘𝗬𝗘𝗦
opened again, she found herself on a rather cold metal floor. A bright green light was shining down on her and she narrowed her eyes.

"What?!— What's wrong with you!", Peter's voice screamed from besides Elenor. The ginger haired woman finally lifted her head up, realizing that Hank had changed back into his beast form.

"Is that going to happen to all of us!?", the silver haired boy questioned the other's in fear. 

Hank looked down on himself and sighed annoyed, "No. I just left my meds in the house."

Moira seemed pretty confused, "Where are we?"

Raven got onto her feet, screaming at the people above them in anger while Elenor covered her ears.

"Hello, Mystic"

"Major Stryker."

"Colonel Stryker. I wouldn't get to close to the wall if I were you. It may create some discomfort", the man corrected her calmly. His eyes were cold.

"I'm Moira McTaggert. I'm a senior officer at the CIA", the short haired brunette spoke up annoyed.

The man interrupted her unimpressed, "I know who your are, Agent McTaggert."

"You cannot keep me here, in this—"

"Actually I can. A psychic event just destroyed every nuke from here to Moscow. That event emanated from exactly where we found you. At the home of the worlds most powerful psyichc. So, you're going to tell me, where is Charles Xavier?"

Elenor had enough of this man, she was wasting her time in this cell. Instead she should be out there, looking for Eric.

The ginger took a step forward, looking up at the dark figure, "It's not him you should be worried about."

Moira gave the woman a warning look before she continued for the mutant, "There's someone else. Someone more powerful."

"If you let us out of here, we can help you", Raven stated as she came to a stand besides Elenor.

"Do you really expect me to believe that? You can put on any face that you want, but I know who you are. What you are." His voice was filled with disgusted, before he disappeared from the glass plane.

Hank seemed rather worried when his gaze shifted to Moira. "Hey, Moira. What did you mean when you said someone more powerful than Charles?"

The short haired brunette told them from her discovery in Egypt and who she thought was behind the nuke event.

The group fell silent after that. No one knew what to say.

Elenor was worried about the fact that Eric was involved with this creature. This was not her Eric. This Eric had lost his way. 

Suddenly Peter spoke up from besides her and Raven. "Did you know him? Magneto?"

"I used to. Not so sure anymore", Raven answered hesitantly, while Elenor just continued looking at the grey haired boy.

"What was he like? Was he like they say he was? Was he— the bad guy?", Peter continued, his gaze now laying on Elenor.

The ginger took a small moment to think about their past.

"No. I mean, kind off—", the ginger stopped before she exhaled. "But only because the world wouldn't let him change. He has a good heart."

The boy gave her a curious look, which made Elenor feel weird. "Why do you care so much?"

"You see his speech on TV or something?", Raven joined in again.

The boy seemed hesitantly, "Yeah, but um—" He cleared his throat awkwardly, "He's my father."

Raven's eyes widened immediately, "What?!"

Elenor's eyes widened as well, her mouth hanging slightly open. "Yes. What!?"

"Him and my mom, they did it", he stated as he made an awkward hand motion. "No, I know— Are you sure?", Raven interrupted him.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. He left my mom before I was born. I met him 10 years back but I didn't know it was him. By the time I figured it out, it was too late. Then, this week I saw him on TV again and I came to that house, looking for him— but by the time I got there—"

He exhaled deeply, shaking his head. "Late again."

Elenor's face expression showed the empathy she was feeling for him and the boy sighed, "You know, for a guy moves as fast as me— I always seem to be too late."

"Let's hope not this time", Raven stated simply and the boy nodded. "Yeah. Seriously."

Suddenly a very familiar voice spoke up, "Hear me inhabitants of this world. This is a message."

Elenor quickly realized that it was Charles, who spoke in their heads.

"A message to every man, woman and mutant in the world. You have lost your way. But I have returned. The day of reckoning is here. All your buildings all of your towers and temples will fall. And the dawn of a new age will rise. For there is nothing you can do to stop what's coming. This message is for one reason alone."

"Elenor", his voice whispered in her head. "Cairo. Find us! Elenor!"

"To tell the strongest among you, those with the strongest power— protect those without. That's my messages to the world."

His voice disappeared and the mutants looked at each other. "How was Charles doing that without Cerebro?"

Suddenly Stryker pointed against the glass plane above them. "I know that voice. It's Xavier, isn't it? What's going on?"

"We don't know!"

"We don't know, bro!"

Elenor knew that Stryker was listening to every word they were saying, so she couldn't tell the others what Charles had just did without exposing his position to the agents.

Suddenly the Agents behind the glass plane started shouting at something, catching the groups attention.

Gun fire started and people were colliding with the gals palne. But then the silence returned.

They were all staring up at the bloody glass plane, waiting for something to happen but for a while there was nothing.

Out of nowhere a blue skinned boy, Elenor didn't recognize appeared behind the glass.

"Kurt?"

The boy pointed at something and his lips moved but they couldn't hear anything.

"What?", they all said in unison, pointing to their ears. The boy's gaze moved around, searching for something.

"Stay away from the—", his voice was hard to understand. "What?"

"The do—Stay away from th—"

"Get away from the door!", Raven suddenly shouted and everybody moved out of the way as fast as they could.

"On three. One— two—" Suddenly the thick door exploded into pieces.

The group of mutants didn't hesitate before they quickly climbed through the large hole.

Jean and Scott already awaited them. "We know where the Professor is!"

Elenor had just stepped out of the cell, looking at Jean, "So do I."

"I think we might have a way out of here", Scott then replied and Elenor raised her brow. "Well, you've been busy."

"We had a little help", Scott said, seeming pretty overwhelmed. Elenor was a bit confused at his statement but followed after the boy as he lead them down the corridor.

They all started running and Kurt appeared in the middle of the group, making them jump.

"Jesus!"

"Oh, sorry!"

Scott rounded the next corner, "This way!" They came to a stand infront of a thick iron door, which opened with a little help from Elenor.

There was a gigantic jet in the middle of the room, looking like it was only waiting for Hank to be used.

"Nice. Hank, you can think you can fly this thing?", Raven questioned him. The blue skinned man shrugged, "Yeah, I can figure it out."

"Hey guys. Flight suits", Scott stated as he revealed a couple of silver and black suits to the rest of the group.

"You got your warplane. Let's go to war", Raven stated as she exchanged a look with Hank.

         𝗔𝗡 𝗛𝗢𝗨𝗥 𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥
Raven and Elenor sat besides Jean and Scott in the plane. There was completely silence, no one was saying a word.

Elenor was deep in thoughts. She knew that she would have to face Eric as soon as they'd found him and the other's.

He was consumed by grieve and hatred towards humans, but the ginger was convinced that if someone could bring him back from that, it would be her.

"Were you scared? That day in D.C, were you scared?", Jean's voice suddenly pulled her out of her thoughts.

The young redhead looked at them, expecting a reassuring answer, but Raven face expression remained blank. "No."

The blond looked away from them, uninterested in building a conversation. But Elenor gave her a small nudge with her shoulder and shot her a glare.

The blond mutant looked back at Jean and Scott, "But I was scared on my first mission. Elenor and I were on a plane like this with our friends. About your age."

There was silence before she continued, "We called ourselves the X-Men." A smile made it's way onto her lips. She looked over at Scott. "You're brother was there."

She and Elenor grinned at each other before the redhead made eye contact with Scott, "Yeah. We used to call him Havok. He really was a handful—"

She stopped before the smile disappeared from her lips, still staring at the young boy. "But when it came down to it, he was always the brave one. I — we could always count on him."

Kurt looked at the two former X-Men, "What happened to the rest of the kids who went with you? The X-Men?"

A shiver run down Elenor's spine while thinking back to Angel, Darvin Shawn and Alex.

"Elenor, Hank and I are the only ones left", Raven answered for her, knowing that Elenor probably couldn't.

"I couldn't save the rest of them. I told you, I'm not a hero."

"Well you're a hero to us", Jean answered her quickly. "Seeing you that day on TV changed my life."

"Mine, too", Kurt and Peter agreed immediately, catching Raven's attention. "I mean, I still live in my mom's basement but, you know— everything else is—"

The silver haired boy exhaled, smiling, "It's pretty much the same." Everyone else smirked at his words before he went on. Making them all chuckle in amusement he said, "I'm a total loser." 

Time passed by and soon the group arrived in Cairo. Everywhere they looked, metal debris were flying through the air in large stripes.

Hank steered carefully around them and as soon as they had passed the debris, they spotted the gigantic pyramid in the center.

"He has the professor in the center of the pyramid", Jean informed the other's. "He's going to transfer his consciousness into the Professor. If he does that he'll have the power to control every mind in the world."

They flew past the pyramid and Elenor immediately spotted a man with a barrier off debris surrounding him.

"What the hell is that?"

"That's Erik."

Peter immediately appeared next to Hank and Elenor, looking out of the Jet.

"You guys help Nightcrawler get into the pyramid. Get Charles", Raven instructed the young mutants before her gaze landed on Elenor. "Elenor, you take care of Erik."

"How are you gonna get through that?", Hank questioned Elenor with a raised eyebrow.

"I can get her in there", Peter stated simply, looking at the two women. "I came here for him. Let me help you."

Raven nodded before she looked back at the others, "The rest of you get Charles on this plane and get him out of here."

"We're not leaving without you", Kurt stated, still sitting in his seat.

"Don't worry. We'll catch up", Peter assured him confidently. "Hold on", Hank warned them before he landed not far away from Erik. 

As soon as everybody was out of the Jet Raven contiued with the her instructions. "Hank, you go with the kids. Moira will be waiting on the plane."

"Wait", Scott stopped them. "Not all of us can fully control our powers."

"Then don't. You need to embrace them. We all do", Raven replied, changing into her blue natural form.

Peter grabbed Elenor carefully by the back of her neck and before the ginger could say anything, they were already standing right infront of Erik.

Elenor leaned forward as she felt sick to her stomach. Her breathing was heavily but she inhaled deeply and tried to hold her breakfast down.

Erik seemed like he hadn't even notice them yet. His eyes were closed as he contiued to let the debris float around him.

Elenor's eyes remained trained on her husband, while Peter tried several times to break through the magnetic field the man had built around himself.

"The magnetic field is too strong. I can't get us in there", he informed her, shaking his head in defeat.

"Maybe we don't have to", Elenor whispered more to herself. Her eyes were darting over Erik's body.

Her throat was dry and her heart sunk to her stomach. "Erik!"

She saw how Erik frowned under his helmet, before his gaze finally met her's.

"Elenor?"

The ginger exhaled deeply, holding eye contact with the man infront of her. He seemed confused.

"Yes, it's me Erik. I'm here", tears stared to whelm up in her blue eyes.

The man eyed her curious, before he shook his head, trying to fight the tears that wanted to escape his eyes.

"Erik, look at me! I know you
think you've lost everything, but
you haven't!", the tears slowly started to roll down her cheeks.

Erik met her gaze and Elenor continued. "You have me. You have Charles and Raven." Her eyes wandered off to Peter, who just shook his head at her slightly.

The woman gluped quiet, locking eyes with Erik once more. "You have more family than you know. I understand your hurt. I understand it."

"You've never had the chance to save your family. Neither did I. But now you do", she tried to make him understand as she took a step towards the magnetic field.

"You're not alone! I'm not going anywhere!", she now exclaimed a bit louder, because of the upcoming wind.

"And you?", Erik's eyes shifted towards Peter. The young boy gluped as he held eye contact with the man. "I'm your—"

He paused, "I'm here for my family, too."

In that moment the jet of the X-Men went down, exploding by the impact.

Elenor's eyes widened as she watched the scenery. She turned back to Erik quickly, "I love you. Despite everything. I'll always love you!"

The man stared at her, hurt in his eyes. There was silence before he shook his head. "Whatever it is you think you saw in me, Elenor. I buried it with Nina."

The woman could see in his eyes, that deep down the man didn't mean the things he was saying. She knew that he only Reid to push her away and that he would stand by her in the end.

"Erik, she was my daughter too", there was a long moment of silence. Whipping her tears away she continued. "I'm going to fight for what I have left. — Are you?"

The woman gave him one last look before she spun around. Letting the red mist twirl around her fingers before she flew into the air.

At the same time Peter ran towards the blue ancient mutant, that was currently on his way to Charles.

Punching him several times he ran around him. But before he could finish his plan, the earth opened up and caught the boy by his feet.

"Foolish child", the blue mutant shook his head at Peter. He slowly approached him before breaking his leg with one kick.

Peter screamed out in pain, holding his leg as he went to the ground.

Meanwhile Elenor still flew in the air, hidden behind a ruin.

One of the female mutants that followed the powerful mutant appeared. Swinging her sword she smirked evil.

The dark haired woman exchanged a look with the blue mutant, "End him."

She smirked once more, swinging her sword before she sliced the ancient once throat without hesitation.

The ancient mutant stared at her, immediately grabbing her by the throat, as if nothing had happened.

His wound started quickly healing by itself and he held the dark haired woman into the air.

The woman gasped for air but he didn't let go of her. Her face went slowly red, before she suddenly changed into Raven's blue form.

"Raven", Elenor immediately landed besides the two. Making the dust fly through the air, she moved forward. 

She moved her hands, the red mist twirling around them. She formed a red ball and as she approached the mutant she threw one after the other at him.

The mutant let go of Raven, making the blue skinned woman fall to the ground.

He stumbled backwards as Elenor flew into the air, concentrating all her power on one blast.

She pressed her teeth onto one another and let out a battle cry. The red blast hit the mutant, but after it was gone he grabbed Elenor by the foot and threw her to the ground.

"Charles!", the mutant started screaming as he grabbed Elenor by the throat now. Lifting her into the air he looked around. "Will you do nothing?"

Elenor gasped for air, holding onto his hand, trying to fight him.

But suddenly the mutant got a clouded look. He let go of her and Elenor fell to the ground next to Raven.

There was a moment he didn't move, he just remained in his sitting position. But a small moment after, he stood up.

Moving his hand he made the house walls right infront of them disappear. Revealing Charles, Moira, Hank, Jean, Scott and Kurt.

The mutant took a step forward and Elenor slowly got onto her feet, ready for the next round as suddenly two large metal bars landed infront of them, forming an X.

The mutant turned slowly towards Erik, who was now floating above their heads. "You betray me?"

Erik shook his head as his eyes found Elenor's, regret filling them.

"No. I betrayed them."