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title — as the world caves in
fandom — xmen
movie — xmen; apocalypse (mentions of first-class and days of future past)
pairing — charles xavier x oc (monty delaney)
characters — monty delaney, charles xavier, erik lehnsherr, raven darkholme, jean grey, moira mactsggert, scott summers, peter maximoff, apocalypse, the horsemen.
prompt — as the world caves in by matt maltese
theme — songfic
word count — 2010
notes — ocs belong to my fic 'home away'. monty can control animals (zoopathy/zookinesis) (she's also practising how to control humans since they are animals too).

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and here it is, our final night alive

MONTY DELANEY HAD DEVOTED HER ADULT LIFE TO CHARLES XAVIER. She had seen all his highs and all his lows, and the latter are images that would never leave her mind. She watched as he helped her focus on her animal manipulation powers. She watched as he grinned at her improving skills. She watched as his blue eyes shined with joy as she upgraded from controlling butterflies to birds, to cats, to bears. She watched as Erik directed a bullet into his back in Cuba. She watched as he collapsed in the sand in agony. She watched as he gave up his legs for a wheelchair. She watched from a window as he kissed Moira. She watched him inject himself with a makeshift serum that Hank made so he could walk again. She watched as his dream school for mutants become rundown as his powers faded with each injection.

Yet she stayed by his side even as the sight of him broke her heart. It was shortly after Charles lashed out at Monty for something she didn't do when she gave up on him and left. It was a few years after she left when Charles, Hank, a muscular man she didn't recognise and a silver-haired teenager came to her door, asking for her to come back and help them release Erik and find Raven. She did regret going along with it, especially since Charles was still standing and looking like a mess. She still believed he loved Moira but he in fact loved Monty. It took a lot for him to persuade her that she was mistaken about his feelings, especially as he couldn't get into her head to show her exactly how he felt about her. But after months of trial and error and loving actions, he managed to keep Monty this time around.

The year was 1983, and after years together, Monty and Charles were happy together. Charles had given up the serum and said hello to his wheelchair and powers once again, and Monty was by his side once again. Charles school was finally open and thriving. He claimed he wouldn't be able to be the man he was without Monty, but she never believed it even if it made her happy to appreciate her.

Their fight was never over to protect the world. And currently, their fight was against an ancient Egyptian mutant who had managed to round up a few skilled mutants to join his journey in destruction and power. One being Erik. When Monty discovered that Moira was involved in the appearance of Apocalypse, she knew that Charles would want her back in his life.

When Charles used Cerebro to find and talk to Erik, hell broke loose. Charles' blue eyes ghosted over with a black haze and the usual red holograms turned purple as if infected with a virus. Hank and Monty desperately tried to break Charles from the trance that Apocalypse had trapped him in. Raven, Moira and Alex watched worriedly as Charles began to murmur utter nonsense.

Monty tried to take the helmet from Charles' head but a pained scream stopped her. Eventually, it took Alex wreaking havoc upon Cerebro, destroying Hank's creation. Even though it was Charles' idea, he still screamed in agony and gripped Monty's hand tightly. The room was in flames and the telepath had fallen unconscious from the overuse of his brain. Monty wheeled him out of the room with urgency. Out of the room, Monty knelt before him, cupping his face in her hands. "Charles, wake up, hunny. Come on, Charles," she whispered to his sleeping form. She hated the sight before her. Him defenceless and weak. He looked dead, unmoving and at peace. She never wanted to see him like that. Not even if it were their last night alive.

A purple portal appeared at the opposite end of the hall, catching the x-men's attention. There stood the ancient Egyptian mutant himself, Apocalypse. By his side stood his four horsemen — Erik, Angel, Storm and Psylocke. Erik looked at the group before him, his eyes saddened as he saw Raven in her human form rather than her natural blue skin. Raven sent him a desperate look, one begging him to rethink his actions and stop.

But he didn't. With an extended hand, he forced the metal wheelchair that Charles was collapsed in towards his group. Monty shouted, stretching her own hand out too, trying to reach into Erik's mind like how Charles was teaching her how to. He was hoping that one day, that they could tap into an unknown power of hers and she could hopefully begin to use Cerebro — but he knew that he had to take baby steps before then. She was still learning and hadn't perfected it yet, but there was a brief pause in Erik's mission, halting the floating wheelchair halfway down the corridor.

Apocalypse tilted his head at the struggling woman on the other end of the hall with curiosity, then to his buffering ally who appeared brainwash from whatever Monty was doing to him. Using the same trick he used on Charles, he entered Erik's head and forced his way into Monty's with more ease than the prior, causing her to fall in a heap to the ground. Using one of his many powers, he levitated Monty's limp body off the ground, floating her towards him. She landed in Charles' lap, her head landing on his padded shoulder, her legs over one of the armrest. Raven, Alex, Moira and Hank ran towards them, desperate to help their two beloved friends, but Apocalypse had already opened a portal and Angel had already walked through it, wheeling Charles and Monty through.

and as the earth burns to the ground

Both Monty and Charles awoke after what felt like a century of unconsciousness and found themselves on a hard, rocky surface, burning under the blasting sunlight of the desert. Monty helped Charles sit up as he groaned from the pain shooting to her brain. He placed a comforting hand on Monty's low back as he looked towards the ancient mutant. "You're blocking us."

"And why me?" Monty asked with confusion. "I'm not the biggest threat when it comes to that," she tapped her temple, suggesting the power of telepathy that Charles possessed.

Apocalypse approached her, making her crane her neck up to look at him. "You possess greater powers than just animal manipulation, my child. You are denied such power from the ones you think love you. You can control every creature in this universe, yet you doubt yourself. You are destined to watch the world burn with me and my children."

"Don't listen to him, Monty," Charles spoke, glaring at the blue immortal. "He doesn't know you."

"I do, my child. He used you to make butterflies fly, you were made to have every being on this earth below you."

Monty brain span with the possibility. The thought alone was terrifying. "Even you?" She bit back.

Apocalypse glared down at her bitterly. "To see into a mind and control it. That is your gifts. One of you knows it, the other doesn't," he spoke. He directed his next statement to Charles. "You saw it, didn't you? The glory of what's to come."

Charles thought back to the visions that flashed through his head as Cerebro was being taken over — all the fire, all the destruction, all the death. He looked towards Erik. "You're going to take part in all this killing and destruction?"

"It's all I've ever known," Erik replied.

"No, it isn't," Both Monty and Charles scoffed in unison.

Erik chuckled under his breath. "Neither of you have changed. Still so similar, yet so different. Your way doesn't work, Charles."

"I've shown him a better way," Apocalypse spoke. "A better world."

Monty could see Charles' anger bubbling inside of him. She'd usually calm him down with a pat on his shoulder but she decided against it, believing his anger was understandable. After all, she was experiencing the same anger as he. "No, you've just tapped into his rage and pain. That's all you've done. I told you from the moment I met you," he spoke to his old friend. "There is more to you, Erik. There is good in you, too."

"Whatever you think you saw in me, Charles... I buried it... with my family," Erik spoke with anger and bitterness and pain dripping from his tone.

oh, it's you that I lie with / as the atom bomb locks in

After Apocalypse had forced Charles to send a worldwide message to all humans and mutants, informing them of the danger that awaited them, he and Monty remained sat on the rocks. Without his wheelchair, Charles was unable to move and Monty didn't want to leave his side. She used all her strength to make him more comfortable with the help of his upper body strength so they could shift around on the mountain range that they seemed stuck on.

"I'm sorry," Charles whispered to Monty.

The woman furrowed her brow. "Sorry? Sorry for what?"

"I hate to admit it, but he's right," he nodded towards Apocalypse who had turned away and looked over at the town he was about to destroy with Erik's aid. "I should've pushed you further with your controlling powers. When we first discovered that you could control birds after butterflies, I knew then that you'd be able to control anything, humans included. I shouldn't have kept that from you."

"Do you think it would change the person I am today?" Charles remained silent, thinking over the possibility. "No, it wouldn't. I wouldn't dare stray from your side or leave the x-men or use those powers for evil. I don't think I'd ever really use those power unless I really needed to."

Charles smiled. "I don't think you'd do any of that either, darling. But I do you think you'd use it more often. Imagine the next time one of the children misbehaves in your class, all you'd have to do is tap into their brain a bit," he chuckled to which Monty gasped quietly and punched his shoulder.

"I'd never, Professor," Monty spoke offendedly. "It's borderline child abuse," the two smile to each other as if the world wasn't about to end and they were simply sitting in a field after a picnic. Charles dreamed of giving Monty such a life, but both knew with their line of work, such a luxury would only happen if all evil was rid from the world and all mutants didn't require their help.

"If this is my last moment alive, I'm glad I got to spend my last dying breath talking to you," Charles whispered.

Monty felt her cheeks warm up beneath her dark skin. "You don't mean that."

After all these years — after all the happy memories the two shared together as friends, co-workers and lovers, she still doubted herself. "I do mean it. With all my heart."

The two smiled before turning to see Apocalypse destroy the town before him with ease. The buildings turned to dust and formed a large pyramid in the middle of the wreckage.

"I love you, Charles," Monty uttered as Erik began ripping metal from the earth's core and cresting an entirely new magnetic force around the town, no doubt destroying millions of metal structures around the world with his actions.

"I love you, Monty."

as the world caves in.

THE END