Cavatina

Chapter 1


"Whatever he had found, it made him a better person. Maybe that's what love was, finding the person who brings out the best in you and eliminates the worst"

-Diana Holquist

"You know this isn't a decision to take lightly? If you choose not to go through with it, we can figure something else out. You have done us a great service here at this school and I cannot thank you enough, but I want to make sure that you know that you don't have to do this…"

Professor Xavier sat back in his chair and removed his hands from his desk to rest them on his lap. His elderly eyes softly connected with light green ones that were watching him. He took in the woman that was standing in front of him. Her ashy blonde hair framed her delicate features and stopped just above her shoulders. However, Charles knew better than to think of the girl in front of him as just another pretty face.

If he had to rank the strength of the female mutant standing in front of him, she would have to be one of the strongest, if not the strongest, mutant that he had ever have had the pleasure of knowing. However, what he was asking to the woman in front of him was not something light; it was something that could change history forever—literally.

"Professor…"

"I understand if you need some time to think this through. Please don't rush into anything, Harper. I don't want you to regret making this decision because there is no coming back if you do plan on going through with this…" Charles spoke softly trying to make Harper feel at ease with any decision she would make.

Harper shifted back and forth on her feet, letting her eyes flutter shut. She knew that she didn't have to do this, but if she didn't, what would be the state of the world? Hell was closing in around them and this was one of the last strongholds for protecting mutants. Humans had threatened mutants with machines that could track them down, and the worst ones were yet to come, according to the government.

Thanks to her powers, she was able to safe guard the school from most of the onslaughts that enraged humans would put together. However, this always came with a price—a price in which she usually fainted from straining her powers to the maximum. Opening her eyes, Harper found the Professor's once more, knowing what decision she needed to make but she needed a few questions answered first.

"I only have one question about this whole thing… Well two, actually…"

The professor indicated for her to continue, as he saw Harper move her head swiftly back to move the hair that was in her face.

"If I leave, if I do go and travel to the future, will it still be safe here for everyone without my shield? And… If I do choose to go… will everyone here in this time forget who I am?" Harper hesitantly spoke and caught her breath at the last word, awaiting the professor's response.

Catching Harper off guard, the professor just smiled at her in response. She wasn't expecting him to smile at her questions but now that she thought about it, that was something the professor would do when he was trying to help someone make a tough decision for themselves.

"I may not be able to give you direct answers to your questions, Harper. However, I can promise you that there are many capable people here that will have no issues defending the school. I know that you feel that if you leave then you will be putting us all in jeopardy. If that was the case, I wouldn't have asked you to be the one to go through with this mission…"

Professor Xavier paused to take a breath and Harper slightly relaxed knowing that lives weren't going to be in jeopardy if she left... but at the same time they still were in jeopardy because she needed to go back into the past and make enough of an impact that the mutants weren't losing the fight—that they could be hand and hand with the humans around them, not fighting them.

Harper took a deep breath and she realized that the professor was waiting on her in order to continue his answer. She met his gaze and nodded her head as if to indicate to Xavier that he had her full attention.

"Now, to answer your second question, I don't know what will become of our memories of you, if you leave. I know that we will always carry our friendship and love towards you in our hearts… but I cannot guarantee that if you change the past, you can come back. You may not be in the future's timeline anymore."

Harper nodded her head at the professor's reply. She figured that that was going to be the case—that many of her friends and colleagues would forget her or the fact that she even existed. She just needed to hear it from someone else's lips. Not many mutants could time travel and so this was all a new thing for everyone involved, so it was a risk that she had to be willing to take to save everyone.

Closing her eyes again, Harper took a deep breath. She had a few friends in this time and she was lucky enough to be close to those few friends. Close enough to call them family. However, she knew that she needed to do everything in her power to save them, because she didn't want them to fade from her life like her biological family did.

Feeling her features tense in thought of her deceased family, Harper rotated her head from side to side to alleviate any of the agitation that was building up. Gradually, she opened her eyes and took a relaxed stance in front of the professor.

"I'll do it" Harper said forcefully, trying to mask any doubt that would escape from her vocal chords.

Charles nodded his head in response and pressed his lips into a tight line. He knew that Harper was going to make this decision, based on her personality, but he knew that jumping and living in the past would be no easy feat.

"Professor?"

Charles blinked and returned his thoughts to Harper.

"Heh, Well I guess that you didn't hear a word I said?" Harper said while scratching her head.

Smiling at the girl in front of him, he blew air through his nose in a laugh, indicating to Harper that she was correct.

So, she repeated herself: "Well, I suppose that I should take my leave from your office now. I want to pack, the little that I can bring with me, and say goodbye to a few people before I go…"

"I think that sounds like a good idea… I don't mean to keep you so long in this old man's company."

Harper smiled at the professor's response and turned on her heel to exit the door, but just as she was about to push it open, she heard the professor speak once more.

"Harper?"

Harper turned around to look at the elder who had called her name and for the first time, she felt like she saw Charles actually show his old age, as if their conversation, and her travels, brought on the onslaught of age.

"Yes, professor?"

"When you tell Logan… Please don't get too angry with him… He still cares deeply for you."

Harper glanced down as a sad smile spread on her face knowing that what the professor spoke of was true.

"I'll try not too…" Harper said under her breath.

Nodding her head once more towards Charles, she proceeded to push open the door and go to her room to gather her things for the long journey she was about to embark on.


"What the Hell, Harper?!" Logan screamed across Harper's bedroom.

Harper's eye, the one closest to the enraged man in her room, twitched as if her eye was reacting to the sudden increase in sound. Sighing, Harper placed a finger in her ear to block out the sounds of Logan's tantrum that he was about to start.

"Could you be any louder? You're going to wake up the whole mansion at this rate…"

Logan turned to look at Harper and she could clearly see the vain that popped out in his forehead when he was irrationally angry.

"Again… WHAT THE HELL HARPER?!"

Harper pressed her lips into a line and stopped packing her duffle bag full of her basic necessities.

"What do you want me to say here Logan?" Harper said, while gesturing to the man.

"What I want you to say is that you are not going… Actually, I really mean that. You are not going, end of discussion. We are going to go tell Xavier that you changed your mind," Logan gruffly replied while grasping Harper's wrist in a strong hold.

Harper let Logan take two steps with her wrist in his grasp before she yanked it out. She told the professor that she would try not to get angry with Logan, but sometimes it was so damn hard to do so.

"Logan! You have no right to tell me what to do! I already told the professor I am going and Hank is already getting the machine ready for my departure… You lost that chance of having a say in what I do with my life when you left me!"

Now it was Harper's turn to scream at the man standing in front of her. They had been in a relationship that had lasted about two years until Logan came back from a mission, about eight months ago, and broke it off. She couldn't fault him for it either since the tail end of their relationship was rocky and they tried to get away from each other as much as they could. Since then, the two had tried to remain friends but it was evident that they still had some issues to work through even though they weren't pining over the other anymore.

Logan looked at Harper, who was breathing heavily, with wide eyes as if he had forgotten the nature of their relationship. Taking his own deep breath, he stood in front of the short girl, and looked into her green eyes.

"Harps… I…"

"Don't you dare, Logan. I have already made my choice and you can't stop me from going. I need to do this to save everyone and I cannot let everyone perish—"

"Okay."

Harper stopped talking and shook her head as if she didn't believe what she was hearing. This was the first time that Logan had ever let her decide something that he didn't like without putting up more of a fight.

"Okay?" Harper quizzically asked.

"Okay. I won't pressure you into making a different decision. As you said, it isn't my place anymore…"

Surprise was still written all across Harper's face. Never in a million years would she ever expect Logan, the wolverine, the man notorious for picking a fight, to ever act the way he was acting. She studied his face and saw a brief flash of sorrow cross it and she scrunched her eyes together not knowing why she saw that emotion flicker on his features.

"Just promise me one thing…"

Harper cocked her head to the side and looked at Logan in a way that indicated him to continue. As Logan spoke, he picked up Harper's hand again, and this time he pushed back the sleeve of her shirt, exposing a leather bracelet with five green beads on it. The color of the beads were a light jade, that matched her eyes almost perfectly.

"When you get to where you are going, try to put yourself first for once… Can you try that for me?" Logan said nonchalantly, like he didn't have a care in the world anymore.

Harper licked her lips and watched Logan finger the beads on the bracelet. She didn't know why, but after all this time being apart from one another, she had still kept the only real gift Logan had ever given her. When the two of them parted ways, she couldn't bring herself to throw it away. It was like the accessory would always be a part of her now—reminding her of both the good and bad times the two of them shared together. Even if they weren't in a relationship anymore, the two of them still tried to be close friends.

"Logan…"

"I mean it Harper. For once in your life, try to be a little selfish and be happy. You're always concerned with everyone else, and saving everyone, but where you are going you're not going to have anyone who has got your back. It is going to be different and I just—"

"I know, Logan… I know" Harper stated softly not looking up to see Logan's facial expressions.

She never truly loved the man she was in front of, but he was family to her and if anyone at any point could make her go back on a decision it Logan. She valued his friendship and his opinion, but this is something that she had to do herself, so that was why she couldn't bring herself to look at him in the eyes. One look and she would falter on the decision that she was making.

And with that comment, Logan dropped Harper's wrist, as it swung down back at its resting position by her waist. Harper instantly felt colder from the sudden loss of contact, but she knew that if she tried to reach out to Logan now, it would only complicate things between the two of them even more. No, she was going on this mission and she was going to change the future.

Harper looked up at the last moment, seeing Logan leave her room. She shifted her gaze back to her bag and glanced around for any last minute items. She knew that going into the past meant that she couldn't bring a lot of things with her, but somethings she thought she could get away with. Sighing, Harper slung her duffle bag over her shoulder and walked over to the corner of her room.

There sat an elegant violin which had delicate engravings and patterns etched into it. Harper traced her fingers down the smooth wood, and decided that if she had to choose only one thing to take with her, it would be this instrument. Carefully, Harper grabbed the violin by the neck and placed it in it's hard-bound case.

After reassuring herself that the metal clasps were in place with an audible snap, Harper picked it up off of the ground and carried her things with her; out of her room, down the hall, and into the science wing where Hank and the professor were waiting for her.


"Okay Harper, I need you to step up onto that metal plate for me."

Harper did what Hank instructed, as he went around the device with a clipboard. Eventually, Hank's hand wasn't moving anymore and he looked up to Harper.

"You know, there is no coming back from this…"

Harper gave Hank a sad smile, "I know Hank… But like you told the professor, I'm the only one who had the potential to survive your machine."

"The potential Harper. I mean what happens if my calculations are wrong…"

Harper stepped out of the machine and went down to floor level and wrapped her arms around the first friend she had ever made while staying here at the mansion.

"In all my years of knowing you Hank… you have never once got a calculation from one of your inventions wrong" Harper said simply, feeling Hank return her hug.

"You know you—"

"Yes, I do know I don't have to do this; I need to do this. If this is the only way to change what is going to come, then I would gladly give my life to save thousands more."

Hank stepped away and nodded, giving a sad smile to his best friend.

"You know, if we keep up all this sappy stuff up, I may cry" Harper laughed punching Hank in his blue, furry bicep.

Hank returned the gesture and laughed right along with Harper, however, the small moment seemed to fade once the professor showed up in the doorway and started to roll down the ramp where the pair of them were.

"Anyway, Harper can you step back up there? It is almost time to leave."

Harper nodded her head and stood back up on the metal platform. She slung her backpack over her shoulder and picked up her violin case once more. She watched Hank say a few words to the professor and he simply nodded at the blue beast.

"Okay Harper, I have the machine set to 1961 so you can try and find Charles, Mystique, and…" Hank said with a pause and then picked up again, "…Magneto. I gave you an extra year before the events of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, just in case…"

"Thank you Hank" Harper said with a smile on her lips.

She placed her free hand over her one that was holding the handle to her violin case, because ever-so-slightly her nerves were starting to shake; which of course, didn't go unnoticed by Charles.

While Hank did last minute preparations, Charles wheeled up onto the platform and came to be just in front of Harper. Harper looked down, into the eyes of Charles knowing all too well that this was their last goodbye in this time.

"Thank you for everything, Professor."

"You shouldn't be thanking me; I should be the one thanking you Harper."

This garnered a smile from the girl. Charles was about to leave the platform before a thought popped into his head that he needed to discuss with Harper.

"Hank told you right?"

"Told me what?"

"That if you do this, you are going to lose your regeneration that you got from Logan… You will be aging and take the same amount of time to heal from your wounds, just like any other human would."

Harper blew air out from her nose as if she was chuckling at something, "Yes, Hank told me professor, just you forgot one thing here."

"And what is that?"

"We aren't humans; we're mutants."

Charles smiled at the woman in front of him, her comments and thoughts always surprised him. Maybe it surprised him because in his long life, he had never been able to freely read Harper's mind; unless she let him in and that only happened a few times. When he was in her head, she still controlled where he went and saw—she was truly a mutant who had mastered not only a warrior like offense, but a true defense as well.

That was why Charles proposed Harper for this job. He knew that she could physically handle it, but he also always felt that this time period seemed off for Harper. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he always felt like she was holding back or fighting something here.

"That is very true, Harper."

"Glad I could catch you off guard one more time before I left" Harper said smiling at the elderly man.

Charles shook his head back and forth and proceeded to roll down the platform to stand by Hank.

"Okay guys, everything looks correct, now all that is left is to fire this thing up. Just waiting on you Harper to give me the word."

Harper looked around the science wing one more time before her eyes landed on Hank and Charles one last time. Yes, she was going to be seeing them in the future, but she wouldn't be as close to them as she is here. Before she could change her mind, she nodded to Hank to turn on the system.

Harper closed her eyes and swallowed waiting for what would happen. After what seemed like forever, Harper made the mistake of opening her eyes to realize that the system was just now starting to move and come to life. Then, it was like lightning touching her skin and Harper couldn't figure out if she was screaming or if the noise was in her head.