[The video feed clicks on to show Charles and Erik sitting on one of the couches in Charles’ room, obviously about to address the Barge about something. Erik in particular has been pretty scarce since the end of the kid flood and doesn’t exactly look thrilled to be here, but 1. when has he ever looked thrilled to be anywhere since turning up here and 2. it’s not the kind of grumpiness that warns he’s about to do something like, say, rip your arc reactor out of your chest. More importantly, he isn’t wearing his helmet, basically for the first time in public without the influence of a flood.

Charles speaks first, and is using what’s probably by now that familiar cadence that comes along with him explaining something, whether that be some science fact that’s caught his attention recently or rights for mutants.]

As I’m certain some of you know, approximately two weeks ago - starting on October 16th - began the anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. For those of you who don’t, in 1962 tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union became so pronounced that the world literally sat on the brink of nuclear war. The commonly accepted story of what happened - or, at least, what seems to be, based on the reading I’ve done since we got here - was that the Soviets were far behind the Americans in the nuclear arms race, and hatched the idea of positioning missiles in Cuba in order to act as a deterrent against a potential attack from the United States.

The Americans found out about these new missiles under construction in Cuba on October 15th, and after much deliberation, a naval blockade was set up around Cuba to prevent more Russian missiles from coming in, resulting in a thirteen day confrontation between the assembled Russian and American fleets.

[Erik snorts quietly, and straightens slightly in his seat, uncrossing his arms.] It didn't take thirteen days. [Right to the point, that's Erik.] It didn't even take three hours. And it certainly wasn't the Russians' idea to put missiles in Cuba.

[He glances back at Charles, only briefly, replaying how many people he mentioned Herr Doktor to and realizing he's decidedly glad that Klaus Schmidt changed his name..] It was at the behest of a man named Sebastian Shaw.

[Charles glances over at him until he finishes speaking, picking up on the edges of those thoughts - which was awesome, he’d desperately missed having this kind of easy communication with someone - before looking back at the camera.] Shaw wanted to start nuclear war between the United States and Soviet Union, believing that it would wipe out the human race and leave mutants to inherit the Earth. And aside from the obvious moral issues with committing genocide, the science just doesn’t work. Our mutations don’t make us any more or less vulnerable to radiation than a normal human.

[Erik cocks his head to the side, and looks almost amused - that is, if you don't pay too much attention to the dark look in his eyes. That look tends to show up as a precursor to ripping out fillings or necessary if extravagant pace makers.]

Some of us may, given the variance in our abilities. [His voice takes on a harder tone.] Shaw would have survived it. But he envisioned himself as a post-apocalyptic president for all mutant kind. He called us the children of the atom. [He's sounding harsher and harsher, and it's really a good thing the Admiral hasn't decided that Shaw is deserving of redemption, or the ship would be in bad shape right now.]

He didn't realize he'd have ruled over a handful of us at best.

[Alright, this is going in a direction Charles feels like he’s going to regret, so you’re getting frowned at before he’s just continuing with the story.]

We’d been working with the CIA trying to locate and stop Shaw for a few months before Cuba, but we weren’t certain where he would be making his final move until President Kennedy made his address to the nation about the crisis. The next morning – October 23 – the both of us, as well as a small group of our students, [And he’s careful not to let on how crappy that feels, because they’re not our students anymore, Mr. We Want the Same Thing.] went to stop Shaw from carrying out his plans.

[Erik's mouth quirks up at the corner, just a little, because he is ignoring that frown and the carefully hidden discomfort, because he likes to think he knows what he wants - and hopes that one day Charles will see things his way, too. But that isn't what's being discussed here, so he nods toward the camera.]

Meaning, you have us to thank for the avoidance of a nuclear - disaster. [There's the barest pause, like he was going to say holocaust and thought better of offering an extra reminder of the child he'd been.]

You're quite welcome.

[And Erik leans forward to kill the feed before Charles can add anything else, because he's a good friend like that.]