Stalemate(s)

Stalemate(s)

“Let me sit under the shades for a while. I’ve been cooped up inside the study for too long.” The headmaster gave her a reassuring smile as the Omega-Level Telepath put her hand on his shoulder with a firm squeeze before she departed to get back to her tasks for the day.

Distant chatters from the junior year students rang from across the lake, while Bobby and Remy LeBeau paired with one another to a parkour course around the mansion as well as utilizing their powers to gain the upper hand.

Logan is off at the side under the Willow, lying atop one of the thicker branches with something nursed in his mouth while lecturing the students there with him about some fun facts of the first-hand history lessons he can share with them.

Katherine phased herself through the mansion from ground level to reach the antenna above following Henry’s instructions.

Scott led a caravan of The Gold Team members in a leisure run around the backyard garden.

“Such a peaceful illusion you’ve cast for them, old friend.” A familiar voice greeted him from behind, and it brought a sad smile to the headmaster’s lips. Erik Lehnsherr made himself known only to the Optimist and not everyone else as he cast his narrowed eyes onto the ignorant occupants of Xavier’s estate. “How are you feeling? The headache’s gone?”

“Mostly,” Charles nodded along with the answer, observing the tall man dressed in a deep burgundy shirt and a long coat with curiosity in his eyes.

“Speak your mind, Charles,” Erik teased him while tapping his index at the side of his temple where a ridge of something hiding underneath the skin was prominent enough for searching eyes.

“How are you?” the headmaster smiled softly as he asked the question, and averted his eyes following the Survivor’s gaze. A pair of black and white swans, Valet and Baroness lazily sauntered about upon the lake’s surface under the warm sunlight.

“Bother me with such a mundane query, truly?” Erik retorted lightheartedly, parting his coat aside to put his left hand inside a pocket “…What do you say to a game?”

“Right now?” Charles averted his eyes to the decorative chessboard with a full set of pieces made from steel.

“No time’s like the present.” With little to no effort, Erik reset the pieces to their appropriate places on the tables “Who should go first?”

“I won the last time, so you.” Charles smiled warmly and bowed to his friend a little.

“Very well,” Magneto chuckled with a slight shaking of his head then he asserted his mastery of magnetism so subtly that Charles could barely feel it. “White pawn takes D-4,” he announced to the headmaster and moved the piece silently with his power.

“I follow with D-5,” Charles informed the tall man and the piece complied.

“Pawn to C-4,” Magneto announced.

“I would like to decline the invitation, old friend; Pawn to E-6.”

“Ever the cautious mind.” Erik praised with a chuckle, then made the next move “Knight to F-3.”

“Black Knight to F-6,” Charles calmly followed along with the strategy deployed earlier by the Master of Magnetism.

“Another Knight to C-3,”

“Rook takes E-7.”

“Very well; Rook C-1 to F-4.” A ghost of a smile graces the long-haired man’s lips as he quietly studies the next move while the man in the wheelchair silently watches. “How further do your…disciples, have to wait in the shadows for a chance of freedom?”

“Not too long,” Charles replied, thinking for a little before speaking again “Knight B-8 to D-7,”

“Speculatively, I presume?”

“Hopeful would be a better terminology, my friend.”

“What is hope but a fool’s dream?” Erik retorted and moved his piece, then he waited for the bald headmaster.

“It is a sustenance of the soul,” Xavier paused for a little before informing the opposing party of his intention “…with it, a man can move a mountain.”

“Many of us can do the same without lifting a finger, Charles. Do not apply lowly sapiens’ words to our kind; it’s degrading.” Magneto flicked his wrist softly and the piece moved according to his will.

“We share the World with them, Erik.”

“As were once the Dinosaurs and the Mammalians,” The Jewish survivor shrugged his shoulders dismissively at his friend’s reasoning “until nature runs its course,”

“Erik, I implore you; do not forsake your human—"

“It died a long time ago, Charles.” Erik finished his latest move and averted his eyes toward the worried man in a wheelchair next to him “And the humans you cherish so tortured it off of my heart.”

“You might wish that to be the truth, my friend…” The headmaster ignores the ongoing chess game to fully address the man standing under the shade with him; a man who was once the caring and loving headmaster of the Institute “…but even then, the contradiction to that statement still exists in Wanda Maximoff.”

“I wouldn’t even care if she were to be born a human,” Erik said with untamed pain in his voice, a glance revealed the confused expression on the bald telepath, which brought a smirk upon the corner of his lips. “Curious as to why I am not bothered by your information?”

Now, both forego the match and just contemplate one another, standing closer than they have in years yet so far apart it might as well be a call from across the globe.

“…Promise me that you won’t harm him.” The prominent eyebrows on his forehead drawn into one another, paired with a determination shining through his posture were enough to give the Master of Magnetism a deeply endearing chuckle.

“Charles,” Erik shook his head slowly in mockery “Who did you take me for?” his eyes cast away until they landed on one of the people living at the mansion, and then those sharp eyes turned briefly into longing. “…Anna-Marie and Mister Wagner are like siblings, what kind of a father would I be if I intentionally hurt one of them?”

Magneto let the silence stretch on as he watched Anna-Marie interact with Kitty and Eleanor, seemingly trying to come up with a formation to rival Colossus’s and Wolverine’s Fastball Special.

“…I hope,” Erik smirked a little at the contradiction he had brought upon himself “that your students are prepared, my friend.” That statement sent a shiver down Xavier’s spine.

“Erik—”

“Save the speech, old friend,” Magneto smiled sadly at the telepath and started walking out of the shades while looking up at the sky, closing his eyes to take in a deep inhale of fresh air into his lungs “and convince your children to join me in a quest for the future of our kind.” With arms casually stretched to the sides, Erik levitated himself off the Institute’s ground before shooting off to the South while cocooning himself in a field of magnetism.

“Magneto!” Scott came rushing with his fingers hovering above the trigger of his visor, yet he noticed Charles’s raised hand as a command to stop. “Professor, why was he here?!”

“…Call the Team, Scott,” Xavier took a minute to collect his words “The Brotherhood is on the move.” His eyes wandered to the decorative chess board and saw the stalemate of the pieces on it.