· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ BEAUTIFUL CRIME ▎
»»————-　act one. a hero's journey
CHAPTER ELEVEN━━ bury your ghosts

ᵒ .༄ ࿐ ࿔* 🌊♟💦
♯ ❝LET'S DO THIS! ❞ 
⋆⋅ ━━━━ ‧ ༻✩༺ ‧ ━━━━ ⋅⋆ 

FINDING HANK TURNED FROM BOY TO BEAST WAS NOT ON HER LIST OF TO-DOES TODAY, BUT AS MAGGIE SAT INSIDE the jet the immensely smart scientist made in a matter of weeks staring at the cockpit where a blue furry head peeked out she felt completely flabbergasted. Of course she had seen her fair share of strange, mutants were after all everything but ordinary—and in some cases extraordinary looking. Her gaze shifts, brown eyes flickering up to look at Erik. The man is seated directly across from her, like a cruel twist of fate, pulling them in each other's orbit but never letting them get too close to touch. She knows in a way that it is her own fault, her own decision, but a small flickering part in her heart still wishes to kiss him like she could have only two hours ago.

Her thoughts swirls with possibilities, what ifs—maybes. She will hold on to his lingering words, maybe in another lifetime. It's sounds poetic and sweet, and completely opposite of what he was about to do—about to commit. But she can't find it in herself to blame him. The ghost of his past, the one that holds him in the realm of yesterdays seems to be stronger than anything she can offer him as solace. The remnants of his history have left him with a thirst for vengeance and he doesn't have it in his heart to bury it among the rumble of his shattered childhood.

Maggie can relate to that at least, the sharp shards digging in her heart at the memories of suffering for who you are. To feel alone in a world that should have embraced her and celebrated her gifts instead of cursing them as work of the devil or any other force of evil. But her heart blooms with hope—a difference that can be made. She had wondered what was to be after this. After Cuba, after Schmidt, after everything. And she found her after. Her purpose.

Maggie Hendrix was going be the one thing she had always needed as a guideless child brought into the adult world far too soon.

"Looks pretty messy out there." Hank announces as he glances out the window and observes the dozen or so ships in the water.

Maggie watches as Charles gently touches his temple, his own powers coming in to play as he closes his eyes and reaches out beyond their aircraft, beyond the air and into the hearts of the ships in the water, "Crew of Aral Sea are all dead. Shaw's been there." He relays to the team as they nervously glance around. For a moment, the chestnut haired woman catches Alex' eye, the normal confident and loud kid is reduced to a pondering mess of nerves even though he tries to hide it—and does very well. But she has been with all these people long enough to see beyond their façade.

Once again her eyes are drawn back to Erik, the two staring at each other like no one else is in the room, no danger, no war—no Shaw.

"He's still here, somewhere." Erik breaks their eye contact, like he is brought back to his own senses, his own given purpose as he speaks up loud and clear.

"He set the ship on course for the embargo line." Charles continues making Moira turn around in her seat.

"If that ship crosses the line, our boys are gonna blow it up." She announces firmly, "and the war begins."

"Unless. . . " Charles ponders, brows furrowing together in contemplation, "They are not our boys."

Maggie's breath hitches in her throat when an alarm in the jet starts ringing loudly, faster ever second and with a forceful pull, Hanks stirs the jet to the right, but he does not stop there and instead continues to go until they start to define gravity and hang upside down. Her eyes are wide as she clutches her seatbelt tightly while Raven's screams echo around the aircraft.

"Hold on. Hold on."

A rather large explosion bounces around, and Maggie can almost envision the fiery orange and yellow ball that is most likely the destruction of one of the ships.

"A little warning next time professor." Hank turns around begrudgingly to address Charles whom has opened his eyes up again.

"Sorry about that." He apologises quickly, head directed to his left where Raven is seated to check on her. "you alright?"

The blue tinted girl nods, her soundless answer to his questions as she breaths heavily.

"That was inspired Charles." Moira compliments him after a moment.

"Thank you very much, but I still cannot locate Shaw."

"If I were a psychotic maniac trying to start world war three on the coast of Cuba, where would I hide." Maggie speaks up, eyes drifting towards the window and the ocean and she closes her eyes, letting her powers completely take over for her as everyone observes her with curious eyes.

She reaches, searches and dives all at the same time, trying to feel something, anything. Her heart feels heavy, like a  new weight has been places upon it and she knows she'd found something. "He's in the water." She breath out, "A submarine—he, he's close by, but I can't pinpoint where." She smiles sheepishly. "I don't know how to get a closer location."

Charles smiles at her, wide and bright and full of awe, "Great job Maggie," He compliments her like a proud teacher.

"Is there anything unusual on the radars or scanners?" Hanks asks Moira but the CIA agents shakes her head sadly.

"No nothing."

"Well, obviously we don't have sonar." Hanks sighs and Maggie deflates slightly in her seat, sad that she can't be of more help. "All I know is that he is close by, I can feel is presence in the water, but there is just so much."

"Actually." Sean speaks up, sitting up straighter, "Yes we do."

"Yes we do." Charles echoed brightly, pushing of his headset and unbuckling his seatbelt as Erik and Maggie do the same, catching on to their plan. She springs up, helping the two man get everything ready.

"Hank!" Charles shouts out, "Level the bloody plane!"

Sean joins Charles, but the moment Erik tries to get closer the redhead throws his hands up, "Whoa, you back right off."

Maggie laughs as Erik innocently holds his arms up and she brushes quickly passed him, shoulders touching as she does. The square panel of the bomb bay doors open up, as the familiar scent of the oceans infiltrates Maggie senses.

"Where?" Charles asks and Maggie concentrates once more before finding the general location and she point to the right, "Over there."

Sean nods, and swallows nervously as he watches the raging ocean as Charles gently touches his neck, "Remember," He shouts over the harsh winds, "This is a muscle, you control it. You'll be in here the entire time!" He motions to his own head, giving Sean all the confidence he needs as he takes one final deep breath.

He jumps, his screams loud and full of purpose as he dives inside the cold water and it is only in a matter of seconds that Charles looks up at Erik and Maggie, "Banshee's got a location on Shaw."

Both mutants approach Charles, determination flashing in their eyes, "You two ready for this?"

Maggie doesn't say anything, only nods in confirmation, happy to finally having found confidence in her abilities. "Let's find out." Erik replies, a small smirk creeping up on his face as Charles once again orders Hank to open up the bomb doors.

Maggie breathes in deeply, shaking away all the left over nerves at the metal panel slowly opens up. Carefully she and Erik grab a hold of the landing gear as it comes out. Arms stretched out in front of them. The chestnut haired beauty follows Erik's gaze, seeing as he can easily detect the metal presence of the submarine and when he pauses she knows he has found the exact location.

"Let's do this." Maggie nods at him, letting her powers take control of her as she focuses all her attention on parting the water, her face contorts painfully from the amount of strength it takes, but finally after a minute, the ocean slowly stops moving, until suddenly it parts to the side—like the lake she had once parted as a little innocent girl with big dreams.

Taking this as his cue, Erik thrust his hand forward, a grunt escaping his parted lips as he pulls the metal of the submarine upwards, his own face developing a grimace from the amount of force needed. The two X-Men both shout out, trying with all their might to make this plan work, "Remember the point between rage and serenity." Charles words echo in their heads, giving both the final push they need as the submarine comes into view.

A disgruntle groan leaves her lips as she let's go of the water that she is forcing apart. The wall of water collapses and she almost falls right of the landing gear from exhaustion but she luckily catches herself while Erik holds the heavy submarine up in the sky.

Her eyes widen when she notices the tornado coming their way, thanks to one of Shaw's lackeys. "Erik!" She shouts, seeing at the man is still oblivious to the approaching danger. "Watch out!"

Seeing what the woman is talking about, Erik eyes widen a fraction but he refuses to latch onto the landing gear with both arms until the very last second as he drops the submarine on the coast of Cuba and it tumbles further away from the water.

"Erik! Maggie! Take my hand." Charles shouts out as Hanks starts to lose control of the aircraft.

Maggie contemplates as they come closer and closer to the water, and knowing that Charles can only pull back one of them she makes her decision easily.

"You go Erik." Maggie shouts over the howling wind, determination flashing in her eyes as she looks at the water below her. "I'll be fine."

Both look up again to meet each other's gaze, almost like a silent conversation and he nods, barely visual, but he nods. He knows her, he trusts her abilities and she smiles before she lets go. She almost gracefully goes down and with one flick of her wrist the water parts, swallowing her whole.

But the X-Men have no time to stand by as Charles barely manages to haul Erik back inside the plane before they crash into the Cuban shore, shaking the aircraft and them in all directions

In a flurry of water, Maggie emerges from the sea, arms outstretched and the group watches in awe at her display of power. It is completely mesmerising to watch as she comes closer and closer to the beach before letting the waves drop her back on her feet.

She doesn't hesitate to run to her friends, eyes wide and almost giddy in excitement from her previous trick, but she turns serious fairly quickly when she spots Angel and Shaw's other lackey ahead of them.

"What's the plan?" She breaths out, fairly exhausted already.

"I'm going to guide Erik through the submarine." Charles says, eyes flickering to the chestnut haired woman, "We need to keep them busy to buy him time to stop Shaw."

Maggie frowns at Charles choice of words—stop Shaw, no she thinks bitterly, kill Shaw. For a moment she catches Erik's gaze and she knows that he is thinking the same thing.

She still hopes, optimistically delusional even that Erik will change his mind. Maybe for her, if her really does like her. But she knows that all Erik has known since a child was to get back at Shaw. To make him pay for something he hasn't disclosed to her even if they were close.

And she feels at peace with him making this decision. She knows he can't let go of his past. Of this ghost that haunts his heart. Maybe he needs to kill the ghost to finally bury it.

Maybe he'll find a new purpose—a better purpose after it.

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⊱ ────── {⋅. AUTHORS NOTE .⋅} ────── ⊰

omg one chapter left of act one! Whoop whoop 🥳 what do you think Maggie will do after Cuba? 🧐 any guesses? I already have the end of this act written, now I need to actually write everything else leading up to it! I am already proud of Maggie's desicion! My girl finally found what she wants! What did you think about this chapter? Anything you would love to seen in Days of Future passed?