rey

“But— if that’s true, wouldn’ it just make it harder for you? To get ‘em to agree?”

“It is, in fact, exactly the evidence I needed to get the UN on my side. With mutantkind in their own sanctuary, a place to be free and calm, there is one less debate between the members of battling countries and congresses. They know I am correct.”

The professor’s fingers tighten against his fork.

Scott tilts his head at Jean, trying to signal for their group to wrap up, before the shouting and the floating starts.

Jubilee starts to shovel potatoes in her mouth, in an attempt to clear her plate faster. Kitty has to place her hand on her arm and give her a disgusted look before she stops and chews.

Lehnsherr looks across the table to Charles. “It may have taken entire lifetimes, but the Homo sapien species seems to be settling into the idea of our continued existence. I stand by everything I have done to get me here today. I recognize your stance on war and its necessity, but I got us here, Charles. I hold hope in my heart that you will grow to trust me, now that you can see that my goal is to better the lives of mutantkind.”

“Yes, Erik, I have always seen that. The problem is that you have always been all too willing to dismiss the needs of humankind as well as ours.”

“Can you truly blame me? When the reason for our entire existence is to eradicate theirs? We are the superior men, Charles. You feel no pity for a roach you step on as you walk to work. Why should this be any different? They are nothing, in the grand scheme of things.”

The professor shakes his head. He looks more disappointed than Scott has seen him in a long time. “How is it that, after all these years, all these arguments, you still cannot see? It is the same query as that of the chicken and the egg. The egg came first, without a doubt, but it took years of genetic mutations, survival of the fittest, before the predecessors of chickens were, in your own words, ‘eradicated.’ The newly evolved chickens did not kill their ancestors— they simply lived. And in living passed on their mutation for generations until all had an easier time for survival. Homo superior do not exist only to kill all homo sapiens. They exist on the principle of survival. We do not exist to eradicate mankind, Erik, but to better them.”

“Have you not lived long enough to realize that these people will never be better? It is just as I said. Time passes and ideas recirculate again, and again, and again. You have lived in America for enough time to realize this, surely. Politics become more liberal during the war. They move back to conservative in the 50s, 60s. The 70s are an era of ‘freedom’ and ‘liberation.’ In the 80s, back to hateful, Christian values. Around and around and around until we die, Charles.”

“But why resort to death, and destruction? Why not try to fix the errors in the world, instead of kill them? Diplomacy is just as effective a weapon as a gun, Erik. What you choose to wield is what you become, just as what those men in power chose, they became.”

"I have chosen diplomacy, Charles!" He shouts. "I have ceased all lethal operations. I have repented for my previous crimes." The chandelier begins to rattle. "I have made peace with the U.N. I have given us a space to be free. I have done it all for mutantkind and for you, Charles, and still it is not enough!"