Chapter Text
Moira Mactaggert fires her gun with the precision of an executioner, and Erika Lensherr deflects the bullets that rain down on her like hellfire with the precision of someone who is desperate to see this through to the end. The bullets veer off course, altered by the metal benders will, but a bullet always finds a way to its mark regardless. Shrapnel buries itself near the base of Charlotte Xavier’s spine, and everything seems to explode at once.
Erika has enough time to snap back into focus, to hear a startled cry escape Charlotte’s lips, hear her go down with a sickening thud, and a pit forms in her stomach when she realizes she’s not getting up. Time itself slows as she throws herself towards her beloveds direction and drops down on her knees, her hands hovering and waterlogged like she's made of glass. Charlotte squirms, tries to find leverage against the hot sand, her beautiful blue eyes spilling with tears as they lock onto hers. Erika feels her own eyes sting as she gathers her up into her arms, murmuring pleas and apologies into her long brunette hair.
"I didn't mean to, Gott- I'm so so sorry...." She murmurs, and suddenly she feels as though she's a kid again and that she hasn't come that far at all, Sebastian Shaw’s presence breathing down her neck beyond the grave. Charlotte gasps something in response, blood spilling from her full lips instead of words, and suddenly she's reaching upwards, fumbling for Erika's helmet as if she's stumbling in the dark. She lets her, and once it's discarded on the hot sand, her mind unravels.
Pain and anguish seep into the cracks and seams of Erika's brain, ingrain themselves into every inch of her being. Hot phantom pain spreads from the small of her back and climbs like tendrils up her body, her joints locking up, then tingling, then going numb, and she realizes too late this is the mildest projection of what Charlotte is feeling in the moment. It leaves her dazed regardless, bending over the girl's body in order to gain composure and missing the moment she tries to speak.
"It wasn't meant to be this way." And it’s honest.
"..Erika.."
"I only wanted to- I wanted to show them what it was like." And it’s nothing but the truth.
"..Erika."
"I wanted them to hurt for what they did to us. To you." And it’s bitter jealousy at the entirety of the human race.
"Erika."
Erika stares down, words caught in her throat. There's something in Charlotte’s eyes, something in what she's projecting, that spells a bad omen.
It takes 5 words for everything to go wrong.
"I can't feel my legs." Something just above a whisper, like it's a secret, like it's unbelievable, like it's taboo.
5 words, and Erika Lensherr's world crashes and burns.