"Wait, don't take out the mutant team!" Alex shouted, stopping Azazel and Shaw from finishing his defeated friends.
"What's wrong, Alex? Can't stand to see them go?" Shaw said, turning to him.
"No, it's not that," Alex replied, leaning on his supposed foresight. "My power says they can't die."
Shaw was skeptical of Alex's claim, though he valued his ability. He nodded to Emma, signaling her to check Alex's mind.
Emma used her telepathy, slipping into Alex's thoughts. She instantly saw his words were a lie. But before she could speak, a flood of memories rushed into her mind—Alex's hidden past. She saw his three years surviving the zombie apocalypse, his awakening, and his arrival in the X-Men world. Most shocking, she glimpsed Alex's memories of the X-Men movies.
The truth hit Emma hard: her world was a movie, with a scripted ending.
"No… Impossible…" Emma mumbled, reeling. She realized Alex's "foresight" came from knowing the X-Men story. The idea that her world, her life, was fake shattered her. "This can't be real…"
"What's happening? What did she see?" Shaw, Azazel, Raven, and the defeated mutants stared, confused. Emma had just probed Alex's mind—why was she breaking down?
"No, it's not real! I don't exist? This world's fake?" Emma cried, her mental defenses collapsing under the truth. She stumbled back, muttering in a daze.
"Emma, where are you going?" Shaw yelled as she bolted.
But Emma's mind was gone. She ignored him, running off frantically, lost in her breakdown.
Everyone stared at Alex, gasping in shock. Emma, a powerful mind-reader, had lost her mind? How did Alex do it? If he could counter telepaths, why wait until now?
"What are you waiting for? Attack!" Alex shouted, snapping Hank and the others out of their stun. Despite Charles and Eric's leadership, Alex had earned respect too.
At his command, the mutants sprang into action, targeting Shaw, Azazel, and Janos. Azazel's teleportation was tricky, but the team knew to grab him to stop his sky-drops. His blades were the real danger.
Hank swung his 100-pound iron rod at Shaw, while Raven and Lucas tackled Janos. Angel and Sean flew above, ready to catch anyone Azazel dropped.
Suddenly, Azazel teleported in front of Alex, grabbing for him. Alex seemed the weakest, an easy target. But his recent training paid off. He seized Azazel's wrist, and a steel cable, controlled by Alex, shot up from the ground, striking through Azazel's chest.
"What…?" Azazel gasped, staring at his wound, confused. Wasn't Eric trapped? How was Alex doing this?
"No!" Shaw yelled, horrified. Azazel's teleportation was his escape plan. Without him, Shaw and Janos were stuck.
The fight turned one-sided. Hank and Raven used physical attacks on Shaw, bypassing his energy absorption. Alex even controlled Azazel's blades, slashing at Shaw. With no energy to absorb, Shaw faltered. Soon, he and Janos were captured.
"We won… we actually won!" Angel landed, amazed.
"Without Charles or Eric, we pulled it off!" Lucas and the others beamed with excitement.
With Charles unconscious and Eric gone, they'd been hopeless. But Alex had somehow broken Emma's mind, turning the tide single-handedly.
Recalling Emma's collapse, Raven and the others eyed Alex with awe and curiosity.
"Let's wake Charles and find Eric," Alex said, dodging their questions.
The team rushed to find Charles in the castle while others questioned Shaw and Janos about Eric's location.
"Alex, what did you do?" Shaw asked, despite being a prisoner. "What did Emma see in your mind?"
Alex hesitated, guarding his secret.
"I left Eric in a plastic room with hundreds of thugs and non-metal weapons," Shaw threatened. "Go late, and you'll only find his body."
Thud! A coin shot through Shaw's head, killing him instantly. Eric, bloodied and battered, staggered in.
"Your trap held me, but Azazel brought those steel cables," Eric said, smirking vengefully at Shaw's body.
The battle was over. CIA agents soon arrived, alerted to the fight. Moira sighed in relief seeing Charles and the team but frowned at Shaw's body. His death complicated proving his nuclear plot.
The CIA took Shaw's body and Janos, the sole survivor. Eric's face darkened, stepping forward. "What are you doing?"
"These are criminals," a senior CIA official said. "Janos, the last evil mutant, must face trial."
"No," Eric said firmly. "We mutants handle our own."
Eric glared at the CIA agents, his eyes cold. He'd worked with them against Shaw, but to him, mutants and humans were separate. Only mutants were his allies. With his revenge complete, he refused to let the CIA take mutant bodies—or Janos, still alive. He knew the CIA would experiment on them.
"The CIA has authority," the senior official said, his tone hard. Higher-ups demanded the mutant corpses and Janos for study.
"Your authority means nothing to us mutants," Eric cut in sharply.
"Wait, let's talk," Moira said, stepping between them. She signaled Charles to calm Eric down.
Alex stood silently, sighing inside. Some things were bound to happen. Despite their friendship, Eric and Charles had opposite views. Both fought for mutants, but their methods clashed.
Charles, with his mind-reading, grew up trusting human kindness. Eric, scarred by a brutal past, saw humans as cruel, believing violence was the only answer.
Alex stayed out of it. Their conflict was too deep for anyone to fix. If it didn't erupt today, it would someday.
The argument heated up. The CIA stood firm, and a fight loomed. Janos, seeing Eric's stance, acted for his own survival, unleashing a whirlwind at the agents.
Charles instantly froze Janos with his telepathy. But gunshots rang out. Bullet wounds appeared on Janos's body, and he fell, killed by the CIA while immobilized.
"What have I done?" Charles gasped. He'd only meant to stop Janos, not cause his death.
"Kill them all!" the CIA official shouted, knocked down by the whirlwind. All agents but Moira opened fire.
Eric, enraged by Janos's death, stopped the bullets mid-air with a wave. He sent them back, cutting down the agents. Over a dozen fell; the rest fled.
Fueled by his distrust, Eric donned Shaw's helmet to block Charles's telepathy and prepared to leave with Raven, Angel, and Darwin.
"Alex, come with us," Eric said, turning to him.
Alex shook his head.
"You don't agree with me?" Eric asked, disappointed. Alex had joined him initially, yet now refused.
"It's not that," Alex said. "I see both your side and Charles's. But Charles helped me train and fixed a flaw in my powers. I owe him."
Eric had helped Alex avenge Shaw, so they were even. But Charles's aid left a debt. Alex valued loyalty.
Eric respected choices, though he regretted losing Alex's power. Without forcing anyone, he left X Academy with Raven and the others.
Charles watched them go, heartbroken.
----------------------------------
A week later, Lucas and the others were mostly healed, but the team's mood was low after Eric's exit.
Alex and Charles sat over a chessboard, chatting about Eric and mutant-human relations.
"Eric's not wrong," Alex said. "You both have valid points. Your kindness builds bridges with humans, while Eric's strength keeps them in check. Together, it balances out."
Charles nodded thoughtfully. "You might be right."
"By the way," Charles said, "during the fight, Emma probed your mind and lost it. What happened?"
Alex grinned but stayed quiet. He'd had no choice but to risk everything. In the X-Men comics, Charles once collapsed learning from Deadpool that their world was fictional. Alex used that trick on Emma, and it worked. The truth—that her world was a movie—broke her without warning.
People in this era, unlike Alex's apocalypse survivors, weren't ready for such mind-blowing truths from novels or films.
"That's why I said no when you offered to read my mind," Alex said, smirking.
"Fair enough. Everyone has secrets," Charles said, shrugging, respecting Alex's privacy.
"This world's huge, and—" Alex started, but his palms suddenly warmed, like holding a hot pack. A computer-like pattern in his hand shattered, forming a glowing vortex.
Alex couldn't resist. The vortex pulled him in, and he vanished from the X-Men world.
"What was that? Another power?" Charles stared, stunned, as Alex disappeared.
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