X-men- First Class -

But the coin moved. Slowly at first, then with the finality of a guillotine. It punched through Shaw's skull. The helmet fell. The man fell. And the silence that followed was more terrible than the explosions.

"Erik, don't!" Charles screamed, reading the intent like a black sun rising in his friend's soul.

Shaw, now a power-behind-the-throne advisor to the Soviets, had engineered the standoff. His goal was simple: ignite World War III. In the chaos of nuclear fire, he believed mutants—who would survive the radiation—would rise as the new gods. X-men- First Class

As Erik led his Brotherhood into the ocean, Charles heard one last telepathic whisper, soft as a goodbye.

They trained on a secluded beach. In the mornings, Charles taught them philosophy and control. "Anger is a jet of steam," he'd say. "You can let it blow the lid off, or you can use it to power a locomotive." In the afternoons, Erik taught them the hard edge. "Survival," he'd say, as he made a satellite dish buckle with a flick of his wrist, "is not a philosophy. It is a reflex." But the coin moved

"You're thinking about Shaw," Charles said, removing the helmet. His eyes were kind, blue as a summer sky, but weary.

The CIA called it "Operation: Cerebro." Charles Xavier called it the most beautiful sound in the world. It wasn't a sound, really. It was a feeling—the psychic murmur of a thousand lonely, frightened, brilliant minds scattered across the globe like radio static. The helmet fell

The war had begun. But so had the dream.