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▎ BEAUTIFUL CRIME ▎
»»————-　act one. a hero's journey
CHAPTER NINE━━ war is coming

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♯ ❝SO MUCH FOR DIMPLOMACY! ❞ 
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AFTER HER SUCCESFUL DISPLAY OF POWERS IN THE DARKNESS OF THE NIGHT, MAGGIE FELT A SENSE OF SERENITY FILL HER, and after a long and thoughtful conversation she had with Charles to clear the air, it seemed their mutant avenge team was coming together quite well. Alex finally seemed to be able to control his powers to his advantage, instead of unleashing hell upon anything in the vicinity, Sean was actually flying—after a terrifying fall courtesy of Erik's impatience and even Erik had taken the time to try and better himself with the help of Charles.

And today, as the sun shone brightly, encasing the brunette in a warm glow, Maggie was slowly starting to fall back into her old self, the one with hopes and dream, the one who thought her powers were a gift.

Her hazel eyes flicker up and away from the glistering lake to look back at the mansion where she heard voices softly in the distance. But she almost fell over trying to stand up when she saw exactly what Charles and Erik were doing. "Are you two totally of your rockers!" She shouted out, quickening her pace to run up the stairs to meet her friends. "this is looking an awfully lot like murder."

Erik only blinked impatiently at her worried tone, and instead the woman turned to look at Charles—who was holding a gun to Erik's temple and he at least had the decency to look unsure about this whole ordeal. "You are not actually thinking about this, are you Charles."

And the way she stood with her arms crossed over her chest, eyebrow quirked and eyes narrowed into a ferocious glare made he immensely contemplate his course of action. She looked about ready to blast him into the next century, but still he held his arm raised, finger ghosting over the trigger as he turned his attention back to Erik. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Erik nodded, a flicker of excitement in his tone.

Maggie's brows creased together and she raised her own arm to forcefully lower Charles' arm. "No you are not doing this."

Charles sighed out, a small breath of relief passing his parted lips, secretly quite glad for Maggie's interruption. "No. No I can't. I'm sorry. I can't shoot anyone point blank, let alone my friend."

"Oh come one!" Erik berated the man, pushing Maggie hand away from Charles' arm and raised it back up so the gun was pointed at his face again, "You know I can deflect it." He stated surely to both Maggie, who was worryingly biting her lip and pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear and Charles who now seemed completely against the whole idea at this point. "You're always telling me I should push myself."

This time Charles lowered his arm himself, "If you know you can deflect it, then you are not challenging yourself." The telepath argued, "Whatever happened to the man who was trying to raise a submarine?" He challenged, making the woman standing close to them wonder how the two of them had met.

"What? I can't." Erik denied with a forceful shake of his head, "Something that big? I-I need a situation, the anger—"

"The anger is not enough." Charles cut him off quickly.

"Well, it's gotten the job done all this time." Erik replies evenly.

"It shouldn't." Maggie added softly, feeling quite out of place in this moment between the two friends. "Anger only leads to suffering. I would know." Her advise comes from her heart, her anger only brought her pain and it turned her into a meek and scared woman.

"It nearly gotten you killed last time." Charles pointed out before his attention is directed elsewhere and he urges Erik to follow him. "Let's try something a little more challenging."

Maggie remains standing on the gravel as she watches the two man approach one of the stone fences, the telepath having found a new spurt of excitement. She does not quite catch what they are saying, but she got an idea as both man look at the large satellite in the distance—the same one Erik had thrown Sean so carelessly off of.

Erik—unlike Maggie when she was first faced with such a big challenge seemed easily swayed to try it out as he raised both his arms to try and force the satellite to move, but after a couple of seconds, her let his arms drop bis his side in exhaustion and turned back to Charles. She expects the man to give up, but she should know by now that Erik isn't one to give up.

But when she sees Charles raise his hand to his temple, Maggie uneasily watches all sorts of emotions rush through Erik. She knows the feeling and the pain it brought her only days ago—but after contemplating and talking about it with Erik in the middle of the night, she actually feels closure when she thinks about that memory.

She watches as he subconsciously clutches his left wrist with his right hand, like he tries to hide or hold on to something hidden beneath his grey sweater sleeve as he talks to Charles before the brunette man gently nudges the man to try again.

This time Maggie watches in amazement as Erik raises a single arm, the loud sounds of metal bending ringing out over the vast landscape as the satellite moves slowly to face them all and a large and surprising laugh escapes her mouth as she bounds over to the duo slinging her arms over their shoulders in glee. "Holy shit you did it!"

But before anyone can say anything else, Moira's voice resonates from behind them and the CIA agent hangs out the window, "The president is about to make his address."

Maggie exchanges a nervous look with Erik, who seems to look more bitter than anything else as the follow after Charles and the brunette grasps his wrist, unbeknownst the same one he had been clutching earlier as she holds him back for a moment.

Erik stops walking, eyes flicker towards her hand that his holding his arm so delicately and back up to look her in the eyes. She can see a dozen and more emotions swirl inside his eyes, ones she can't decipher, and ones she can. She doesn't comment on them, and she gives him a moment to gather himself. "You good?" She asks cautiously. She knows his track record with normal human beings hasn't been great—he hadn't told her, but she knows, she been in the same position too and clearly recognises the distaste he tries to cover up.

"Yeah." He nods once, firmly and leaving no room for arguing and she gives him a gentle smile like she is silently trying to tell him she understands.

"Let's get to back to the others then."

When they get inside, the President has already started his address and they quietly join the group, she only catches Charles' eye, and they hold a glimmer of knowing. What she does not know as the telepath glances between the duo.

"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—"

"That is where we're gonna find Shaw." Erik cuts in, pointing at the television screen where Kennedy's face is displayed.

"How do you know?" Alex frown, turning his head to the side.

"Two superpowers facing off, and he wants to start World War III." Charles answers instead, already knowing where Erik is going.

"So much for diplomacy." Maggie scoffs, crossing her arms curtly.

"I suggest you all get a good night's sleep." Erik addresses the group before turning to leave the room.

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DARKNESS HAS FALLEN, AND A FEELING OF ANXIETY IS HOLDING HER PRISONER AGAIN AS MAGGIE SITS SILENTLY IN THE KITCHEN, fingers mindlessly drumming against her cup of tea and her other hand supporting her head as she stares ahead of her. Almost everyone else had already gone to sleep, however she did spot Raven earlier, a solemn face and a hint of hurt on her expression as she rushed passed her to grab something to drink and throw out a hurried goodnight.

But now as the seconds tick by slowly and her thoughts drift she started to wonder before her eyes settled on the cold tea in front of her and the fingers that were randomly drumming became more calculated as she started to control the liquid with ease, letting it dance over her skin as her eyes slowly fluttered close.

She was startled however when the hand holding her head up was moved to the side by an unknown force and she fell forward, barely catching herself before her head would slam into the wooden table. "Shouldn't you be asleep."

A small grin crept up on her face when she recognised the voice and she twirled around in her chair to face Erik who stood in the doorway, an amused look on his face.

"Well it seems hard to come by when there are man here disturbing me from it." She countered softly, hazel eyes rising up to meet his steel blue gaze.

Erik didn't say anything as he approached her and took a seat next to her and tension filled the room, and Maggie being—well Maggie, she couldn't stand the quiet for long. "Why are you still up?"

Erik didn't reply and instead busied himself with her cold teacup, almost nervously fiddling with the thing in his hand. Unbeknown to him, Maggie took this as the opportunity to truly look at the man. He looked tired, but not really in appearance, more so in mind as she caught his eye for a fleeting second. His lips were pursed and there seemed to be a permanent frown etched on his face.

Slowly her gaze travelled from his face down his arms until they paused at his left wrist, that was exposed now that he wasn't wearing his usual long sleeved sweaters and a frown found its way on her face and it seemed that her suddenly tense figure alarmed Erik as he turned his head to the side and followed her gaze down to his exposed wrist.

Already his right hand was moving to cover up the painful reminder of his past, but Maggie was quick to reach out and stop him from doing so. "You shouldn't have to hide it." She says, unsure on how he will react to her.

But Erik doesn't protest and let's his arm drop, but Maggie's hand remains attach to him, and he doesn't want to admit he likes the feeling of her skin against his.

Almost cautiously, she reaches out to his left wrist, running a gentle finger over the numbers on his wrist. "Awful people did this to you Erik." She speaks the words before she can process them. "But you should never be ashamed of them, it just shows us how strong you must have been."

He resists the urge to pull his arm back as her finger glided over his skin and like she just realises what she is doing, Maggie retracts her arm quickly, a faint blush coating her cheeks. "Sorry."

"It's okay." Erik shakes his head, a faint smile on his lips and before he knows what he is doing he is already speaking again. "They killed my mother."

Maggie blinks, eyes growing before she quickly masks her surprise. The first day she had confided in him about her past he barely let anything slip from his own. She would never expect him to trust her so much as he was doing now.

"They killed her because I couldn't make a coin move."

She doesn't know what to say, only a meek I'm sorry comes from her mouth.

"I will kill him with it." Suddenly she watches as a small coin rises in the air, hovering between them and she can see a fire lit in his eyes and her heart aches for her to ease him of the pain he is holding in his heart.

And she worries about the path Erik will go down on.

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