round 3 overflow post

[starkmodistries.livejournal.com]

Round 3 Overflow Post

This post is for Round 3 fills only. We ask that when a round hits 8500 comments, fillers begin moving their fills to this post.

Format:
SUBJECT LINE -- Round #, short description of fic (ex: "Alex/Hank, lab partners")
--- Link to the prompt
--- Text of the prompt

--- Link to the fill
OR
--- Entire text of the fill

EXAMPLE:
Prompt: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/6437.html?thread=1038472#t2038174

Charles/Erik -- Charles is a bakery owner whose most frequent customer is Erik.

Fill: http://xmen-firstkink.livejournal.com/6437.html?thread=0139482#t4502942

Charles started off the morning the same way he always did...

Comments

FILL: The Better Men (23/24)

[turtletotem.livejournal.com]

Erik woke to a hoarse, blurry voice asking, "Are you going to kill me?"

And Shaw's answer, calm and matter-of-fact. "Yes."

The air tasted like Cerebro. Erik forced his eyes open, and they focused on the white marble altar, with Dolly Dursley struggling, weak and sluggish, against the straps lashing her to it.

"Why?" she asked, and Shaw, neat in professorial robes, leaned in to answer.

"Your sacrifice will lead to a new world, a better world, populated only by the better species of man. A world where every child has pure, strong magic and the right to use it openly. What kills the Muggles will only make us stronger." He gave her a considering look. "I'll understand if that comes as small consolation."

"You're so full of shit," Charles croaked beside him. "If you were really so righteous, it'd be you powering the spell."

"Come now, Professor Xavier," Shaw said, turning to them with a wide smile, "what purpose would that serve, when this girl is going to die anyway? And besides, there are so many more of these spells to cast – this one ought to cover all of the United Kingdom, and perhaps the coast of France, but that's only the beginning. Someone has to take charge."

Dolly's pink-and-gold masquerade costume was crumpled and torn, tears trailing down her round cheeks. She continued to tug and twist against her bonds, far too weakly to do any good; drugged, Erik realized, remembering the missing bottle of valerian extract.

He tore his eyes away from Dolly to look at Charles, and only when he saw that Charles was bound hand and foot, facedown on the floor, did he realize he was as well. Charles offered him a watery smile.

"Ah, so Professor Lehnsherr has finally decided to join us," Shaw said, moving away from the altar to loom over them. "Good morning, Erik – or evening – but then, it'll be morning again, technically, in a very few minutes." He prodded Erik with a toe. "Come now, up. You want to be clear-headed for this decision."

Erik laboriously managed to roll over and maneuver onto his knees. He thought of pushing to his feet, lunging – but his body language must have communicated his plan before it was half-formed, because Shaw said "None of that now" and was suddenly pointing a gun at Erik's head.

"Professor Xavier was carrying this, if you can believe it," he said. "I've also relieved you both of your wands, of course. Why, Erik, does this bother you? How interesting."

Erik had found himself utterly and unexpectedly distracted by the sight of the gun barrel, the black hole, the last thing his mother and father had seen. It turned his blood to ice in a way that a wand never could. He dragged his eyes away from it. "What decision, Shaw?"

"Whether to help me. Oh, I know you're going to protest. I had intended to keep you unconscious for the event, since you were so inexplicably working against me. But then I thought… perhaps it wasn't entirely inexplicable. Perhaps the problem was your rumored attachment to this particular Muggle-born." The gun barrel moved to Charles, now also on his knees, and Erik desperately wanted it back, wanted it pointed anywhere but there. Charles stared it down, as opposed to staring down it, looking grim and composed. "So I thought I would offer you a chance, Erik, to save your little friend. In exchange for performing the spell yourself."

Erik stared at Shaw. After a shocked moment, something resembling a smile cracked his lips. "The wand won't work for you. My wand won't work for you. Even after you defeated me – that's a debatable win at best, and you've had no trial to bond it to you."

"Oh, it'll work for me," Shaw said. "It does as I command. It only… drags its feet a bit. The spell might well go off without a hitch. But it might not – might have decreased range, or let a few survivors through. I don't want to risk that at this point in the game. So, Erik, your options. First, sit here in bonds, and watch your friend die only inches away. Or second, save your friend, cleanse the British Isles of their semi-human infestation, and take your place at my side as I always intended."