Chapter One - The Labour of Heracles

Ingolstadt, Germany, the near future.

Rogue's voice rang loud and clear. "It's gonna blow!"

It was time. They had rigged the bomb, and it was going to send the sentinel manufacturing site crumbling to the ground, taking whomever and whatever down with it.

"Peter, take Blink; get the Alpha and Delta teams out!" he had heard his wife shouting at him from the catwalk high above. They had less than two minutes to clear the site before the whole goddamn place becomes nothing but a smoking crater. He didn't bother arguing, he knew that she was busy with her own task. Peter hated the plan, it was too damn dangerous, and it involved splitting up. He knew she could take care of herself, she always had, but he always disliked being apart from her. Though it had to be done, taking the site out would mean a large dent in sentinel production and would at least buy them several more months of safety. But it required a coordinated strike and would cost them a lot of lives, the sentinels were just adapting too fast, faster than their genetic mutations allowed.

Mutants were on the brink of extinction.

Peter Maximoff had made a lifestyle of running away from things, he liked to believe that he was just as fast now as he was in his prime. But he never could seem to run away from Zoe, his wife of over 20 years, not since the moment they met. He had just finished getting the last of Alpha team out and over to the rally point when a powerful blast sent him flying. It was followed by a massive dark energy field which blanketed the entire blast zone, containing it inside a bubble of its own.

NO!

For him, it happened too fast and unbearably slow at the same time. As much as he hoped he could race the blast, dread undeniably filled in his heart, it was the single most terrifying moment in his life. Because she had been at the epicentre of the chaos, she was the one who contained the field.

Peter sped back as fast as he could, penetrating the receding energy field he stumbled around the charcoal remains of the manufacturing plant. The survivors of Zoe's Beta team were reeling in shock; some rendered silent with tears in their eyes, a few collapsed to their knees sobbing with sheer hopelessness. Zoe was not with them, and her team merely stared into the smoking crater of the ruined building.

It was there that Peter found his wife in the middle of the rubble. Her powers had protected her from the blast, but she was not unscathed, a gaping hole punctured her abdomen, she lay there dying in a pool of her own blood. It despaired him to see the love of his life wasting away, and despite Rogue and the Beta team's protestations, he took his wife's body and ran. Peter ran aimlessly, knowing only that he had to get her out of there.

He ended up taking them into the middle of a dark forest, though he didn't know which, only stopping when he realised that he could only be making her injuries worse at this point. "Oh god, Zoe, baby, look at me. You're gonna be fine, we'll get you somewhere safe where you can heal yourself." He said, the tears springing easily from his eyes.

"C-can't." she answered, choking on the blood in her mouth. "...I don't have the energy for it."

"Stop, stop this okay? I need you."

"I adore you," she said. He tried shifting her to a more comfortable position, to staunch her bleeding with quick hands but it only seemed to pain her more. She made a grunt of excruciation.

Peter tried to calm her, stroking her hair, "Why? Did you see this happening? Why didn't you stop it - why didn't you tell me?" as he stared into her eyes he could see the light leaving them.

"I h-had to let it happen, baby. S-sorry." He found it cruel how she tried to smile now for his sake. He almost didn't notice that it had begun to snow, the January air sending flecks of it scattering in her hair.

"Why?" he sounded like a child. Indeed, he certainly felt just as powerless.

"W-we can't be selfish. Had to save everyone. Sentinels tried to get away. N-no other option. You w-would have stop-stopped me. More would have died." Zoe said, her hand reaching up to cup his cheek, she smiled.

"But you're mine." he started begging, "Don't go,"

"No tears, Pietro...Love you." she whispered, her voice growing quieter. He kissed her fiercely, he poured his love into it, praying that some way, it would be enough to heal her. She kissed him back...until she didn't. Her hand slipped away and her chest stopped moving.

"He wailed into her chest, rocking her body back and forth, clutching her hair as he tried to hold on to her as long as he possibly could. He was inconsolable when they finally had tracked them down, he still cradled her dead body in his arms. Rogue had tried to pry him away gingerly, but Peter just lashed out, lost in his grief. Pushing Rogue away, he carried his wife and disappeared for the last time.

Rogue had lost more than a friend and a mentor, Zoe was like a mother to her and so she mourned her in her own way. What she could not have known was that in hours, she will be captured, and the rest of the Beta team will be killed by a contingent of Sentinels.

It had all been in vain. Nothing had worked out as they hoped.

The following week, Charles Xavier informs his friend, Erik Lehnsherr of his son's death. They weep together, the war lost. That much they already knew. Despite how they tried to fight it, in all reality, they were doomed since Bolivar Trask and 1973.

It would take a Herculean labour to save their future.

"Better three hours too soon than a minute too late." - William Shakespeare

/A/N:

I blame Evan Peters and his beautiful face for making me obsessed with the Alternate Timeline X-Men Movies. That punk practically stole the show for Days of Future Past AND Age of Apocalypse.

In any case, this was a little prelude to what will become my X-Men fic so that's exciting. It should run throughout some of DoFP and AoA as well as what happens in between for some characters.

Have an opinion? I want to hear it. PM is always open for a chat, or leave a review if that floats your boat.

I do not own any characters you might recognise, they are the property of Marvel (and maybe Sony Pictures?). I do own my OC Zoe.

Many thanks! And happy fanfic hunting!

-HannahBananasxx

(edited 25/03/18)