I don't own anything. Just so everybody is clear with that.

I've recently got into the X-men series since the tv show The Gifted came out last fall, and I've been recently reading a lot of X-men fanfics. Over the past few months I've thought of writing an Erik/Charlotte fanfic and have played around with several ideas in my head. I hope you all will enjoy this.

P.S. I thought the new movie the Dark Phoenix was coming out this fall, but then I found out it comes out next year which ticks me off.

Mind and Metal: First Class

"Who are you?" "My name is Charlotte Xavier." "You're not alone. Erik, you're not alone." Charlotte and Erik didn't know it then, but their lives were bound together forever. As friends. As enemies. As lovers. No matter what.

Prologue:

Poland, 1944

You could hear the shouts of German soldiers and the barking of dogs as they herded groups of Jews fresh from the train cars through the concentration camp known as Auschwitz.

Among the many Jews was a young boy named Erik Lehnsherr. It was raining and the air was so cold it chilled him to the bone as he walked alongside his mother, his father, and his people. The fourteen-year-old boy couldn't understand why this was happening.

Throughout the war, his family had been hiding from the Nazis until they had been caught and sent to the camps. During their years of hiding, Erik would hear his parents talking in the night when they thought their children were asleep. The Great War had left Germany in a state of turmoil until the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler rose to power, promising to lead the Germans into a new era. He had convinced them that it had been the Jews responsible for their loss in the war, and the devastation to their beloved country. Just like that, friends and neighbors had disappeared whether from fleeing the country or worse. Children whom Erik had known for years treated him and his sister differently, calling them horrible names.

Tears stung his eyes as Erik remembered his sweet innocent little sister, Ruth. She had been among the unfortunate ones not able to survive the journey here in the train cars where they had been filled in so tightly it was difficult to breath. When they left the train cars the Nazis had taken his sister's body, despite his parents' pleas and tossed her among the other poor souls that didn't make it. The last image Erik had of his sister were her beautiful auburn locks she had inherited from their mother sticking out amongst the dark clothed corpses around her.

As Erik trudged down the muddy paths into his unknown fate, he saw the prisoners who had been here longer through the wire fences. They were all dressed in the same ragged blue striped outfit, and their heads were either covered with a cap or shaved. They were skinny and pale from the lack of nourishment and a sad resignation in their faces as they worked to fulfill their tasks despite the rain, the mud, and the cold. What caught Erik's eyes were the numbers tattooed on their arms like a brand.

He was unable to look more as his family reached the gates where soldiers shoved people on different paths: those who lived and those who died.

Erik was separated from his parents and pushed on to a path while his parents were taken to a different path with many others. Erik struggled not to trip and fall into the path as he was pushed among the crowd away from his parents until he found a spot where he could see his parents as they were being herded in the opposite direction.

His father's eyes found him, and he looked to be in a state of shock as he and his wife were separated from their only son and surviving child. Erik's mother cried out to him and tried to push through in a desperate attempt to reach him.

Erik was on the verge of crying as he realized he was on the verge of losing his parents, his family. If they were gone, he would be all alone.

Soldiers stopped his mother, but she pleaded and begged as she desperately tried to reach her son. Erik ran to the gate, calling out to his mother.

He tried to reach it, but he was stopped by one of the soldiers before he could make it, his hand outstretched towards the gate as it closed and was locked. Erik struggled in the soldier's grasp, trying to reach the gate that separated him and his parents.

Anger filled him at these monsters who took his parents away and kept him from them. Erik didn't know what was happening as a power surged through his being.

Another soldier came to hold him then another until there were four soldiers holding on to him as he continued to reached out towards the gate and it started to bend. He didn't care what was going on as this new power brought him closer and closer towards the bending gate.

The men holding him watched in fear and astonishment as the metal gate bent like clay, and the boy they were holding on to dragged them through the mud, until a sergeant brought the but of his gun and slammed it into the boy's face. The men fell back into the mud from the sudden release.

Erik Lehnsherr laid on the ground, muddy and unconscious as the rain poured down on him, unaware of the eyes watching him.

000{{*}}000

Westchester, New York

Charlotte Xavier woke up with a startled gasp. She had been dreaming of a boy in pain lying on a muddy ground, rain pouring down on him when she woke to a commotion downstairs. To a normal person they wouldn't have been able to hear it in the large mansion, but Charlotte Xavier was no normal person. At this hour in the night her mother and step-family would still be sleeping as would the servants in their quarters.

Getting out of her bed, Charlotte crept down the dark halls in her home, grabbing her step-brother's baseball bat so she would have a weapon on hand. She followed where her senses were leading her until she reached the kitchen. Bat raised and her heart racing, Charlotte entered the kitchen when she recognized the figure of her mother rummaging through the fridge.

"Mother?"

Relief filled her even though she felt slightly foolished and annoyed with herself as she put the bat down.

"What are you…? I thought you were a burglar."

Sharon Xavier-Marko leaned on the fridge and smiled apologetically. "I didn't mean to scare you, darling. I was just getting a snack," she said sweetly. "Go back to bed."

Charlotte felt uneasy. Ever since her father's death and Sharon's quick marriage to his partner Dr. Kurt Marko their relationship had been strained.

Noticing that Charlotte had no intention of leaving, Sharon asked, "What's the matter? Go on, back to bed."

When Charlotte still wouldn't leave, Sharon bent down to her level, smiling sweetly. "I'll make you hot chocolate."

Now Charlotte knew what was wrong. Even when her father had been alive, her mother never acted this loving towards her.

"Who are you?"

She glanced at the picture hanging on the wall of her and her mother. She was wearing the exact same dress with her pearl necklace. Looking back at the person posing as her mother, Charlotte demanded, "And what have you done with my mother?"

My mother has never set foot in this kitchen in her life, Charlotte projected into the imposter's head.

The imposter suddenly started backing away fearfully, holding her head.

And she certainly never made me hot chocolate. Unless you count ordering the maid to do it.

The imposter had realized the voice inside her head was coming from the girl before her. Her eyes turned to a bright amber color, her blonde hair to ruby red, and her skin to a scaly blue. Her height changed too, and Charlotte found herself staring at a scared little girl maybe younger than herself. She smiled in astonishment.

The young shapeshifter looked at her in fear, expecting her to be screaming and running away like others who had seen her in her natural form, but she didn't.

"You're not... scared of me?" she asked, surprised and feeling a rising hope within her.

"I always believed I couldn't be the only one in the world," Charlotte said softly. "The only person who was...different. And here you are."

Charlotte suddenly remembered her manners and offered her hand to introduce herself. "Charlotte Xavier."

The younger girl took it. "Raven."

Charlotte held her hand and realized how small and skinny she was from lack of food and nourishment.

"You're hungry and alone," she realized out loud.

Raven nodded.

Charlotte motioned to the entire kitchen. "Take whatever you want. We've got lots of food. You don't have to steal," Charlotte said.

Raven smiled at her generosity.

"In fact, you never have to steal again." Charlotte smiled warmly and Raven beamed at her.

Charlotte didn't read her mind in respect of her privacy. She couldn't imagine what the poor girl had been through in her young life, but she would make sure she had a happier life. She would be a big sister and protect her. They would no longer be alone in the world, Charlotte promised herself that as she wrapped her arms around Raven, her new sister. They were different, but they would never be alone.

000{{*}}000

Poland

Once Erik had woken up, he had woken up, he had been cleaned and dressed in a clean set of clothes. The whole time he had been wondering where his parents were and if they were alright. His face hurt from where the soldier had hit him from his gun but, and Erik tried not wince as he felt it.

Once he was cleaned and dressed, Erik had been taken to the head of the camp's quarters. The man had introduced himself as Dr. Klaus Schmidt, and he was a thin man with light brown hair, a thick mustache, and grey eyes with a pair of glasses. When he looked at Erik, the boy felt sick to his stomach.

Schmidt had music playing as he sat down in his desk chair. "Understand this, Erik," he said. "These Nazis, I'm not like them."

He began to open a bar of chocolate, continuing on. "Genes are the key, yes? But their goals? Blue eyes? Blonde hair? Pathetic."

He bit into a piece of chocolate before pushing the bar towards Erik. "Eat the chocolate. It's good. Want some?"

The last time Erik ever had any chocolate had been two years ago during Hanukkah when his father managed to smuggle a bar for Erik and his sister to share. Just thinking of that reminded Erik of his family and the worry he had earlier returned.

"I want to see my mama," he said to the doctor. He knew his father could handle anything, but his mother… she would be worried as well.

Schmidt took the chocolate bar back and licked his fingers. "Genes are the keys that unlock the door to a new age, Erik. a new future for mankind. Evolution. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

Erik didn't understand so he shook his head.

Schmidt continued, "It's a simple thing I ask of you. A little coin is nothing compared to a big metal gate, is it?"

Erik swallowed painfully hard and tried not to show his fear. He didn't know how he had been able to bend the gate. He knew it was extraordinary, but how could he do it again? He had to try. He focused hard on the metal coin Schmidt had laid out on his desk, willing it to move. He reached out like he did with the gate but nothing. The coin remained still. Erik was dismayed, and from Schmidt's expression he knew that the doctor was disappointed.

"I tried, Herr Doctor," Erik apologized. "I can't… I don't… It's impossible."

Perhaps the bending gate was something else entirely.

He looked down in shame as Schmidt tsked. "One thing I can say for these Nazis is that their methods produce results. I'm sorry, Erik." He rang the bell on his desk.

The office door was opened, causing Erik to turn around. Two soldiers came in, dragging a woman in a blue striped dress. Erik's heart leapt to his throat. It was his mother!

"Mama!" he cried. He ran to her arms.

She was filthy, her graying auburn locks gone replaced by a red cloth wrapped around her head, and there were bags under her eyes. Her state worried Erik, but he was so relieved to know that she was still alive, and happy to finally be in her arms again.

"My darling," she whispered before wrapping her arms around her son. Erik loved the warmth and feeling of love and protection he felt in his mother's arms.

"Are you alright?" his mother asked him.

Erik didn't have the chance to answer her before he was shoved out of her arms, and she was pulled away from him. Erik turned back to Schmidt, the tension he had felt since he first came in here returned.

"Here's what we're going to do," Schmidt explained as he pulled a gun out of one of his desk drawers. "I'm going to count to three, and you're going to move the coin. You don't move the coin, I pull the trigger."

He pointed the gun at Erik's mother. "Understand?"

Erik was so scared and a desperation filled him as he tried to focus on moving the coin again.

"One…"

Erik looked at his mother. "Mama."

She looked worried and there was a hint of fear in her eyes, but also faith. Faith and love for him. "You can do it," she said.

Erik concentrated harder and harder, but the coin wouldn't move.

"Two…"

He glanced back again. The soldiers released his mother and stepped back. "Everything is alright," she said, trying to assure him. Erik focused on the coin again, hearing his mother's reassurances as he focused and concentrated with all his might to will the coin to move. Move! Please move! Please! The coin remained unmoved.

"Three."

A shot then a thud.

Erik looked numbly behind him, knowing what he'd see, but compelled to look back. There was his mother, his sweet, loving, and compassionate mother Edie Lehnsherr crumpled on the floor like a ragged doll. He could remember once when he was little before the war walking home from school with his little sister Ruth. they came into the kitchen to their mother's singing as she baked her delicious apple strudels. She had smiled lovingly at them, and they had hugged her despite the flour covering her, and she caressed their cheeks. "Mein Lieblings."

Now she's dead. Ruth's dead. And for all Erik knew his father was dead as well.

Grief overwhelmed him, but something stronger than that followed it.

Anger.

Rage.

As he looked at Schmidt he wanted the man-No- monster to suffer. Power surged through him. The same power he realized that made him bend the gate in the first place. The metal bell Schmidt had rung smashed flat.

"Yes! Wonderful!" Schmidt exclaimed in delight.

Erik roared and raged. He felt the metal cabinet of files and it crumble, imagining it as Schmidt.

Schmidt was smiling excitedly as Erik lashed out. "Excellent!"

Erik looked at the soldiers who had brought his mother to him to be slaughtered like a lamb. They were no better than Schmidt for following him. Erik felt the metal in their helmets as they looked at the boy in fear. He squished their helmets into their skulls even as they screamed. The whole time all the metal in Schmidt's medical lab rumbled as Erik killed the men until they stopped moving. Erik screamed in anguish, feeling the power within him move everything that was metal in the room fly like a tempest and destroying everything in its path until it stopped.

Now that the anger was gone all that was left was Erik's grief as he looked at the destroyed room before him.

Destroyed just like he was inside.

He sobbed. The tears he had been holding since the loss of his sister fell along with the fresh ones from his mother's death. They were gone. Dead. his mother was dead because he couldn't move a single coin. It was all his fault. If only he had tried harder. Moved that coin. Stopped the bullet that killed her.

Schmidt placed his hand on Erik's shoulder, very pleased at what Erik had shown with his powers. "Outstanding, Erik. so we can unlock your gift with anger. Anger and pain," he said opening the lab doors and bringing Erik along with him to look closer at the wrecked room. Sobs continued to escape Erik, barely registering Schmidt's words. "You and I… we're going to have a lot of fun together."

The words sent a shudder through Erik. schmidt was smiling as he placed the coin that had costed Erik his mother's life into his hand. Schmidt patted his shoulder and left him in his office with the corpses of his mother and the two men Erik had killed, and the wreckage of all the metal he had thrown.

Erik looked at the coin in his hand as tears fell down his cheeks. This tiny thing out of all the big pieces of metal he had just manipulated that had caused more suffering than he could have ever imagined. He had lost his mother because he hadn't been strong enough to move it. He was all alone now, a prisoner, but he promised himself he would never be weak again. He would become more powerful and stronger, and he would kill Schmidt.

Heaven and hell help anyone who stood in his way.

000{{*}}000

And there you have it! The first chapter of Mind and Metal. I hope I did the camp scenes justice. I can remember back in high school reading Elie Wiesel's "Night" and Gerda Weissmann Klien's "All but my Life" on their experiences during the Holocaust so I wanted to make those scenes accurate. R.I.P. to all the souls who have suffered in the Holocaust.

I'll try to update as often as I can this summer between my Skywalker Adventures series, and show you some of my ideas. Please let me know if I'm off to a good start.