The Professors (Reader x Charles Xavier)

3.6 Earlier in Cairo

~3rd person POV~

Charles wakes up and feels the hot sand below him. He is in Cairo, Egypt. He looks up and sees Apocalypse and his minions with him, and Erik. Charles tries to get up but he can't. He frantically looks down at his legs; Charles can't feel them. He's paralyzed again. He shifts uncomfortably as everyone watches him struggle, observing his movements. Apocalypse gets up and stands over him.

"The legs, I undid the work on it. Quite difficult it was but, it worked. I would love to know who possesses that sort of power." Apocalypse states.

"You're blocking me. How?" Charles asks him, ignoring the question

"I can shield their minds from your power. It's one of the many gifts I have acquired through out the millennia." Apocalypse explains and then looks to Charles, reaching his hand out. "But to... see... inside a mind. To control it. That's your gift. You saw it, didn't you? The glory of what's to come." Apocalypse tries to sell to Charles but he won't take it.

"Are you going to take part in all this killing? Destruction?" Charles turns to Erik with a pained gaze. Charles waits for Erik to respond

"It's all I ever known." Erik says, pleading with emotion behind his careless facade.

"No, it isn't. You've just forgotten." Charles tries, wanting Erik to see what he sees.

"No, Charles, I remember. Your way doesn't work." Erik swallows his sentiments.

"I showed him a better way. A better world." Apocalypse enters the conversation but is quickly shut out by Charles.

"No, you just tapped into his rage and pain. That's all you've done." Charles states to Apocalypse but refuses to face him, his gaze remains fixed on Erik. "I told you from the moment I met you, there's more to you, Erik. There is good in you too." Charles explains

"Whatever it is you think you saw in me, Charles. I buried it. With my family." Erik fights, not expecting what Charles has to say next.

"What about her?" Charles asks, only Erik and Charles know that he refers to Y/n. "What would you do if SHE was here." Charles argues.

"It wouldn't matter!" Erik shouts, the mention of
Y/n causing him to heat up. Erik breathes to control himself. "She was never mine Charles." Erik responds coldly. Suddenly Charles's eyes light up and he starts squirming in his seat.

"What did you do with it?" He asks frantically and there is no response. "Erik what did you do with it?!" Charles gets angry.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about?" Erik responds genuinely confused.

"Oh come on...the ring?? It's been sitting in my pants pocket for years, why'd you take it?" Charles pressures him.

"I didn't take your ring." Erik answers.

"Well then who did, it's not in here Erik. It had to be you." Charles snarls.

"I didn't take it, you didn't have it on you when you arrived." Erik sighs. "I'm guessing it's to marry her." Erik deduces, causing Charles to scan his face for a response.

"Y/n," Charles mumbles.

"I beg your pardon?" Erik says, not hearing him.

"Y/n, her name is Y/n. And yes, I was going to ask her to marry me. Yes, we would have a wedding. Maybe we'd have children." Charles responds. Erik looks at him coldly. Silence hangs over them for a period of time, until Charles delivers Apocalypse's message, and his secret message to Y/n.

"A gift... From the past you left behind. And the future that lies ahead." Apocalypse forms Erik's old helmet from sand. "You, will reach down, my son, deep into the Earth. Rip everything they built from the ground. Wipe clean this world. And we will lead those that survived. Into to a better one." Erik nods as he begins to walk away. Charles looks over at the city of Cairo, turned to dust in an instant.

"And me? Am I to play a role in this madness?" Charles asks, clearly confused, and denying any part.

"You have the most important role of all." KApocalypse gives a sinister laugh. Erik begins to rip all of the metal from the ground, places all over the world are feeling the shift.

"You're just another false god. And whoever's left to follow you when this is all over. They will betray you again." Charles tells him, squirming a bit, still not used to his legs paralysis returning.

"You're wrong, Charles. For the first time in a thousand lifetimes... I have you. For all my gifts, I've yet to possess the one I needed most. To be...everywhere. To be...everyone." Apocalypse explains and Charles's eyes show a glint of fear. Charles will be sacrificed. Apocalypse transports them to the inside of the pyramid, and lays Charles down on a sacrificial table. Charles struggles but apocalypse binds his hands to the table.

"It is beginning." Apocalypse says, raising his hands into the air and laying himself down on the table.