Dark Beginnings - X-Men: Apocalypse

Chapter 4:

Langley, Virginia

"So you really haven't seen her in all these years?" Alex asked as the group - he, Charles and Nina - all entered the CIA building. 

"Nope," Charles affirmed. 

"You never looked her up? Not even in Cerebro?" 

"Alex!" Nina cried, especially to his hinting tone. 

"Yes Alex," agreed Charles.  "What do you take me for? Some kind of pervert? I - yes, I looked her up once. Twice! But not in a very long time, all right?"

"How'd you leave things? Any hard feelings?"

"Not likely. Everybody take a break!" Around them, everyone in the office stopped what they were doing and froze,  thanks to Charles. "I wiped her mind of all memories of us. The beach, Cuba. That whole time, and our whole friendship. It was so long ago, before the world knew about mutants. Only we knew. I felt it was the best thing for her."

"And for you?"

Charles shook his head.  "Didn't really matter what was best for me." 

Nina gave him a sympathetic smile and squeezed his shoulder - she knew how hard it had been for him to lose such a close friend as Moira. 

He cleared his throat and smiled as they entered Moira's own office. "Moira MacTaggart, hello! Allow me to introduce myself: I'm Professor-"

"Charles Xavier," Moira finished. "I know exactly who you are." 

"You do?"

"Of course I do!" She reached across her desk to shake his hand.  "I've read all of your papers! It's an honour to finally meet you." She shook each of their hands. 

"Alex Summers."

"Nina Nova."

"It's wonderful to see you again - to meet you again, for, for the first time - you have a son?!" Charles stumbled over his words. 

"Yes..." Now Moria appeared confused.

"D-does he have a husband - do you have a husband?"

Alex and Nina exchanged a glance. 

"Had a husband," Moira explained. "But it's hard to do this job and make it home in time for dinner."

Charles grinned. "Good, good."

"We all make choices, right?"

"Yes, we do..." Now Charles appeared deflated. 

"Professor," Alex prompted.

"Yes? Yes... I was - we were - hoping that you could tell us about what happened yesterday in Egypt."

"I'm afraid that's classified information. And I don't mean to  be rude but how did you get in here?"

Charles flashed a grin.  "I have level-five clearance."

That was all it took. Next thing they knew Moira was slapping down a hefty file on the desk before them.

"Ever since the world found out about mutants in '73 there have been cults who see them as some kind of Second Coming or sign of God. I was tracking one of them - they call themselves Ashir En Sabah Nur-"

Nina's head snapped up suddenly.

Moira noticed.  "You know it?"

"Heard of it, yes..."

"Well any additional information you can provide would be greatly appreciated.  It's named after an ancient being they believe to be the world's first."

"The world's first what?" asked Alex.

"The world's first mutant," Moira clarified. 

"I thought mutants didn't evolve until this century."

"That's the common theory, yes, but these guys believe that the first mutant was born tens of thousands of years ago. And they believe he will rise again. They've been searching ancient sites all around the world for clues." 

Nina's mind was racing - how could she have not known about this?

Well, she had put that whole part of her life behind her, or at least tried to, and as far as she was concerned she had been rather successful in it. 

Moira continued, withdrawing some photographs. "These hieroglyphs describe a specific set of powers greater than any man could possess."

"They think he lived all that time?" cried Charles.  

"Yes and no. They believe he had the ability to transfer his consciousness from body to body and whenever he was close to death he would just take on another new body. Some of these may have been the bodies of mutants allowing him to take their powers amassing various abilities over the years."

"An all-powerful mutant," breathed Charles.

"Exactly.  And wherever this being was he always had four principle followers. Disciples. Protectors he would imbue with powers."

"Like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," stated Alex.  "He got that one from the Bible."

"Or the Bible got it from him," Moira suggested.  "And, wherever he ruled, eventually, it would end in disaster. Cataclysm. Some kind of apocalypse..."

"The end of the world," said Charles softly, his voice barely a whisper. "That's what Jean said she saw in her nightmare..."

Their conversation was fading into background noise as Nina zoned out, her mind racing at full speed now. 

"Nina Love?" Charles's gentle touch on her back snapped her back to attention, back to the present moment there in Moira's office at the CIA. Away from all those centuries ago in Ancient Egypt, there with him, ruling at his side... "Are you all right?"

She jumped. "Yes, yes," she managed to stutter out.  "I-I just need some air - I'm finding it awfully stuffy in here. Excuse me-"  With that she fled from the office.

It couldn't possibly be a coincidence, it was all too close to the real thing...

Ghosts from the past indeed... If so, if this was all pointing to what she feared it meant, to what all affirmed, they were all in grave danger. 

(I love the whole archaeology aspect of this movie, it's so cool! 

And Charles all tongue-tied and awkward when with Moira is too cute! I've made it so that they were close friends before he erased her memories in First Class in this version - the joys of fanfiction! 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :))