#proftelepath

They had found a cure. If you had asked him, Erik would never have admitted that he had almost lost hope in finding anything worthwhile. But they did, and it felt.. strange. He was relieved of course-- but suddenly mutants were rising from the dead and Erik barely had time to keep up.

Erik had many nights to convince himself that the people he loved weren’t coming back. He used the pain and the loneliness and grief and anger to his advantage-- they were simply tools at his disposal. One death after the other, the cruelest pattern that made it’s way into his life, shaped him into who he was today. Erik Lehnsherr did not exist to love or to be simple and free-- he existed to serve a purpose. He was given a lifetime of hardships, shown the horrors of the world and the suffering that can come from it, to learn a lesson. It was his right to make sure that the future would be better, even if it meant that he lived not simply for himself, making enemy after enemy to do what needed to be done.

But despite it all, Magneto still had a heart. It loved and it cried and it felt much too deeply. All it had ever wanted was a family, a place to call home, a life surrounded by the people that meant the most. It didn’t have to be easy or perfect, but his one chance at it had been ripped away from him, right before his eyes. When everything in him had resolved to never again let attachments get in the way, Charles entered the picture and turned everything upside down.

There was too much that revolved around Charles for Erik to think about. Dead mutants were revived and began slowly walking the halls. Erik found it slightly unsettling, feeling the air full of nervous energy that only added to his own. It dawned on him that Charles Xavier was alive right along with everyone else-- how simple it seemed at first, but it was anything but simple. It forced him to pause, leaning lightly against a wall in a mostly empty hallway before he had even made it five feet towards where his resurrected friend was resting. 

It was easy to lose track of time when you held clashing realities in your head. Erik wasn’t sure how long he had been in this state of wandering about, somehow managing to successfully take up his role in the world. When he was in the heat of it all, there was nothing to worry about, and the dissonance that wracked his brain would subside for the moment. This was, after all, supposed to be his best self, placed exactly where he should be like the last piece of a once unsolvable puzzle. But there was always something new to get used to.

Before Wanda changed everything, Erik and Charles had split ways. He couldn’t quite remember the last time the two of them spoke, but after he found himself getting used to the routine of ruling he let his mind wander to things deemed less important than the political discourse and definable speeches that he constantly worked through. And once he let it wander it found itself wondering about Charles: where he was in this utopia of sorts, how he was doing, if he was alright. It was easy to find him, of course, since the man was destined to be a leader and teacher no matter what the circumstances.