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[mistressofelements]

What it says on the tin.

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[mistressofelements]

She watched him pace without following, giving him space.

"I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want you to have to hurt me. I want... I want us to be a team."

[prefers_magneto]

"I've asked you for that. I even brought you with me to find you a cure for the cure and you betrayed me. What do you mean, you want us to be a team? What sort of team?" Erik asked, stopping his pacing to level his gaze at her.

[mistressofelements]

"What you have tried is to make me do things your way, to turn me into another member of your brotherhood. You never really listen to me."

She met his gaze, proud and fierce even though she felt a twinge of regret at having betrayed him, even if it was to save lives.

"I don't always think you're wrong, but I want to be your partner, not your follower."

[prefers_magneto]

He stilled completely, watching her for a long, wary moment.

"Explain how that would work."

Not a 'no', but he did want to know how it would be different from just doing things her way.

[mistressofelements]

"We stop trying to steamroll each other. When a problem comes up we talk, we plan missions together. Like you and Charles used to do."

Though hopefully with a less tragic end result than what happened between the two friends.

[prefers_magneto]

That sounded good. Almost too good to be true. He'd liked the back and forth with Charles. He'd liked the challenge. But did he even remember how to collaborate in that way? After they parted, he'd returned to his old fallback of relying on himself.

"Talk. And if we can't agree?"

Does she tell him to fuck off like Charles had all those years ago?

We want the same thing.

I'm sorry, my friend. But we do not.

"Then what?"

[mistressofelements]

"We figure it out. Together. If we can't then... We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

It most likely would not sound particularly reassuring to him, but it was what she had to offer.

[prefers_magneto]

He watches her for another long, wary moment.

"Figure it out. Tell me about the lab, then. What if it was you I consulted about that?"

[mistressofelements]

"While I did like the thought of burning the place to the ground, what I would have recommended would have been to infiltrate the place and find out what they know, and what they were going to do, and I would have made sure that the information spread. Then I would have watched the situation to see what happened."

Not good enough in his eyes, she knew that, but she was going to be honest with him.

"You know, you should spend some time with Kurt. You could learn a lot from him."

[prefers_magneto]

"Mystique did infiltrate the place." He crossed his arms. "You think going public with what they were doing would have helped us? You don't think the overwhelming response to 'they're weaponizing the cure to destroy all mutants' wouldn't be met by a collective human sigh of relief?"