My take on the beach scene… R&R!

The Sacrifice

He felt his best friend, his only friend, colliding into him with all the strength he probably could've produced. His control over the flying missiles was momentarily lost and the people around them watched how the hateful objects either exploded in the air or lost their trajectory to fly uncontrollably.

With predictable ease, he managed to get on top of his friend, pinning him down on the hot sand.

"Don't do this, Erik." The voice of the telepath was pleading, an emotion he probably hadn't used much before since his ability made it unnecessary. Now his own head was covered with a strange looking helmet necessitating the man underneath him to use his pleading technique.

Erik glared straight into the blue eyes of Charles Xavier before telling him the remorseful truth.

"I really don't want to do this." The blue eyes he looked into so many times the last few weeks didn't radiate surprise when Erik's fist made contact with his cheek. A soft cry of agony escaped Charles' lips before another blow to his face paralyzed him temporarily and left his vision blurred. Erik turned around and stood up, sending the remaining projectiles straight towards the ships once again.

Again, he felt his body being jerked towards the sand by the younger man next to him. Without apologising this time, he hit Charles's face several times finding no resistance of the other man what so ever. He didn't recall the amount, but it was enough to leave the Professor lying down, a small stream of blood coming from a cut next to his eyebrow. While still towering above him, Erik kept the missiles in check before completely standing up. Only a handful projectiles had remained but with some effort, the Jew was sure he could eliminate all those people on those floating tanks in front of him.

They're innocent people only following orders!

He still heard Charles' words screaming into his ears. Deep inside he knew his friend was right, but his anger towards all those assumable innocent people following orders was too big to let the words reach his sane mind. He had been waiting for this moment for almost fifteen years now, he wasn't going to let this possibility slide to show the world how cruel it actually is. The only innocent people were the Jews, and now the mutants. They never had a chance to choose who to follow, whose orders to follow to save their own asses. They were bombed to enemies without one single logical reason why.

With the anger rising inside him, he stretched his right hand even more, the missiles fastening to their goal. Only when he heard her firing her gun, Erik turned around to see the female CIA agent pointing her gun at him. The first bullet he deflecting passed him on his left, the second on his right. He didn't know what he acknowledged first, the horrid look on Moira's face or the short but overwhelming cry behind him.

Erik turned his head back, the anger and his missiles completely forgotten. With three big strides, he slid down on the hot sand once more, this time voluntarily. While placing his left hand underneath his face, his right easily forced the deformed bullet out of the body in his hands.

"Charles.." He turned his best friend's body to face him, dropping the metal object. Erik saw Charles' eyes closed, his face struck in pain while he let out short breaths and hisses. Erik instantly knew it was bad. Really bad.

Although he tried to force it away, he felt the one emotion he had embraced and feared his whole life entering his body and mind with an amazing speed.

Anger. Anything that had ever happened to him he had processed with anger. The captioning of him and his parents, the death of his mother, the months of torture done by Shaw.. He had answered everything with anger. This time would be no different.

Erik looked up. His eyes, filled with hate and tears, found hers.

Moira.

"This is your fault." He focused on the metal necklaces, her police ID's, and tightened them around her neck. When he saw her struggling for air, he tightened the grip.

"Erik, no.." It was barely a whisper from the mouth of someone who's strength lay in talking. Without loosening his grip on Moira's neck, Erik slowly turned his head towards the sound, facing the once so bright blue eyes of his best friend. The sight of Charles lying in his arms, so vulnerable and in pain, only made his vengeful feelings worse.

"It's her fault, Charles. She shot you." Again, he tightened his grip, watching as the head of the CIA agent slowly turned blue while she kept struggling for air.

"It's.. not.. her fault.." His words came out like hiccups, the pain in his body making it hard to breath. Although Charles got Erik's attention, the human magnet never let go of his grip on the necklaces.

"It's.. yours." The words felt unreal to him, his mind unable to comprehend what his friend in his arms was saying to him.

"How can you say that? She shot you!" Charles tried to talk, but instead of words a painful cough came out of his mouth, followed by a scream. This sight only strengthened his anger and Erik forced the necklaces even more around the agent's neck. A smile crept upon his face when he saw her eyes roll, her attempts to breath lessen and her hands not so much fighting the strain around her neck anymore.

Unable to speak, unable to move and unable to use his power, Charles could only watch with tears in his eyes when he saw Moira slowly falling to the ground, letting out her last breath. He wanted to scream, he wanted to make Erik stop, but all he could do was cough and wince in pain. When she laid down on the doomed sand, her eyes still open without any sign of life in her, Charles stopped struggling. He watched her still body, tears now falling down, feeling his own life drowning out of him.

He didn't respond to his name nor to the chaos around him when the other mutants tried to come closer while Erik pushed them away so hard they ended up flying backwards in the air. Only when a hand covered his bloodied right cheek to force him to look upstairs, he broke away from the dead woman's sight to stare straight into the eyes of her murderer.

"Charles.. it's okay. You're safe now. You're going to be okay." Through his own tears and the moments of blackness surrounding him, he saw the eyes lingering above him filled with tears too. His body numbed and he could only force out one word.

"Why?" He saw the look on Eric's face turning into surprise, his hands still holding him tightly against his own body.

"Why, Charles? You're asking me why? She shot you. She wanted to save her own species while killing us. She tried to kill you, Charles. She'd always be a liability. Now she's gone and you'll be okay." Erik's eyes filled with fresh tears. "We're going to be great, you and I. We'll recruit new mutants, we'll help them control their powers. We'll let them fight against everyone who wants to harm them. It's what you've always wanted, Charles."

"Erik..." Another blinding flash of pain entered his body from his back, leaving him gasping for air.

"Shh… Don't talk. I'll get help." With all the energy he had left, with everything he had still left in his rapidly weakening body, Charles grabbed the yellow and black suit of his magnetic friend, forcing him to look at him, to listen to him.

"You… she tried to kill you… She tried to… prevent you from killing… so many people. She wanted to... save the rest of us. Nothing will... be the same again." The words hit him like a brick wall, forcing the air out of him temporarily. Erik looked into the drained eyes of the Professor, looking for any hope he didn't mean what he had just said. But he couldn't find it and his world crumpled.

"Charles…" The grip on his suit tightened.

"An agent was killed and... they will not rest... before they'll find her killer... You forced this... upon us. Upon them. They're just... children Erik. They will... blame all of us. The mutants. You unleashed... their hatred upon... them." The words were mere whispers, slight vibrations of the air around them. But Erik heard them loud and clear, and felt the truth behind those words. He scanned the beach, looking over the dead body of the CIA agent towards the seven frightened people standing in front of him. Seven frightened innocent children. When he looked at them, he knew why Charles was right. Mankind would never stop hunting them until they were all taken or killed. While he had been so angry all along that the Germans never gave them Jews a fair chance to prove their hatred thoughts of them were wrong, he had just done the same thing to those mutants. Without giving them a choice to join any side, he had made them the enemies of the human world now.

He hopelessly looked down again and saw his best friend fainting fast. A desperate cry for help was all he could manage.

"Now what, Charles? What have I done..." He saw the man in his arms trying to talk again and was struck deep down to his core when he realized that Charles would never give up on them. Whenever they had him on their side, nobody could ever master them.

The grip of the man's hand on his suit loosened his strength and Erik grabbed his arm, waiting till Charles would come up with the answer. Never had he expected...

"Leave me... here. Take them… to… the mansion. Teach them… They'll … find me and… leave you alone." Erik's face was struck with horror.

"NO! Never! I won't leave you here! I can fight them Charles… WE can fight them."

"We can't, Erik. They're with… too many. They'll keep… coming." Erik knew Charles was right, but wasn't willing to accept it.

"No, Charles. I won't leave you… I don't know what to do with them without you… Nobody can teaches them what you can…" Charles managed to smile only so slightly.

"Stop under…estimating yourself… You can… do this…" With a last teary stare, he fortified his next and last words.

"Take them… to safety Erik. I… trust… you." Tears were now freely streaming down Erik's face as he knew what he had to do.

"I'll come find you. I'll save you. Stay alive for me, Charles. I can't live without you." Without getting any response, he slowly lowered the telepath to the ground, gently lying him down on the hot sand that was now partly coloured red underneath them. With one last glare, he quickly stood up and ran towards the other mutants without looking back. He gathered them around him and before any of them had time to react, he forced them to take the hands of the ones standing next to them.

He himself took Raven's hand in his right and Azazel's in his left.

Just before the military helicopters came into sight and any of them could figure out what was going on, all of them disappeared from the beach with a soft 'poof'.

The military only found a dead CIA agent and an unconscious bleeding man on the otherwise deserted beach.

Let me know what you think… I'll only make this a multichapter fic when enough people want me to : )