The Familiar and the Strange
Author's note: Hi, everyone! This here is a followup to another one of my oneshots, entitled Some Small Changes. This was partially inspired by a review I received on that story from BlueRubyBeat. If you want to, go and read that oneshot for some context.
Throughout the fic are a few things marked with a symbol like this: [x]. I've included a few comments at the end of the fanfic on each of these subjects. Most of them are simply my thoughts on the matter or explanations
Enjoy!
Logan walked out of Charles Xavier's office, mind still whirling.
Their plan had worked? The Sentinels weren't out wreaking havoc?
He was a history teacher?
How was he supposed to teach? The best teaching experience he had under his belt in this timeline involved his attempts to center and comfort Charles from the past. Unless the class was comprised of self-loathing, already-adult mutants in need of a bit of support and a conversation with their future selves, even that wasn't going to help much. Besides, that had involved quite a bit of good luck and the assistance of a certain professor on the other side of the temporal gap. Not to mention the fact that all this had only happened in the past two or three days.
From his perspective, he'd had something of a rough week. However, looking around the hallway at the faces of passing mutants, ones he knew and had lost and ones he'd never before met, he couldn't help but feel it was worth it. Why, there was Peter, older than when Logan had last seen him but still most definitely Peter, walking past. If there had been any doubts that the silver-haired mutant was in fact the speedster, the wicked grin he gave him as he passed cleared them up. Logan smiled back, remembering all too well the mouthy teen he'd only just parted with. While Peter had been alive and well the last time he'd seen him in the original timeline, he had never been to the Mansion as far as Logan knew. It would be good to have him around.
He bumped shoulders someone. That someone, as it turned out, was John Allerdyce [1].
…what the hell?
Hadn't that little pyromaniac been trying to kill him last time they'd met? Looking at him now, though, Logan saw no trace of residual bitterness, just a slightly more neutral expression than some of the happier mutants. Well, if he had one less problem to deal with in this timeline, that was just fine. Heaven only knew that there would be more to deal with. The younger mutant nodded politely, if rather coldly, and continued walking.
"Good morning, Logan."
He knew that voice.
Slowly, Logan turned around to be faced with the very last person he expected to see.
Erik Lensherr, known better to Logan as Magneto, was walking down the corridor. He had a surprisingly kind expression on his face, and a warm smile for Logan, not to mention a polite incline of his head. The other mutant simply stared. He'd never liked Magneto. Even though he had formed an alliance with the Professor when the Sentinel Attacks had gotten bad, there had been a good deal of distrust on Logan's part. The metal bender hadn't done anything to exacerbate that feeling, but at the same time, Logan had spent entirely too long opposing the man to act like all the years of antagonism hadn't happened.
Not to mention the fact that Logan had learned as of a few days ago that his younger self had been even worse. The feeling of having metal twisted through his body had not been pleasant.
Even so, he managed a nervous smile and walked away quickly. He was going to need to find more out about this later. For now, he had a class to teach.
Vaguely, he remembered where the history room was, and set off in that direction as quickly as possible. Even though he saw a few more familiar faces (read: he caught Kurt appearing in the middle of the hallway and Psylocke arguing with a redhead who looked enough like Peter that he assumed she was his sister [2], among others), he tried to keep himself from reacting too much.
As he walked into the history classroom (thankfully, he'd gotten it right), racking his brains to remember something about Ancient Egypt, he tried picking up on some chatter to see anyone was discussing the class and where it had left off.
"I can't remember where we were supposed to stop reading!"
Well, that wasn't helpful in the slightest.
"Page two hundred and thirty-nine," another student supplied. Logan surreptitiously took out a book on his desk that had to be the textbook, flipped it open, and started scanning the page, meanwhile continuing to listen to the students.
"Math last night was a real challenge. Professor Summers never lets up on us!" [3]
"I don't want to learn any more about the pharaohs! How's that going to help me when I join the X-men?!"
"Did you see the project we got assigned yesterday? Professor Lensherr is evil!"
Logan snickered at that one.
"Damn right, kid," he said under his breath.
Well, all this would take some getting used to. Clearly, things had changed for the better, though, and Logan would roll with them as usual.
As soon as he got used to the fact that Magneto was now apparently Professor Lensherr.
Author's note: I've been wanting to write a followup to Some Small Changes for quite a while now. I know it's been almost a year since I wrote that, but I've been having a very busy life. However, school's out for me at this point, so...yeah. Here it is. I'll probably be publishing slightly more often now, but that's neither here nor there.
And now, as always, here are a few notes:
[1]: I figure that with Erik on Charles' side and the Brotherhood of Mutants either nonexistent or considerably weaker, Pyro wouldn't have turned. Either he would've had no side to turn to, or simply would have been less tempted. Maybe he'd still be a bit less...pleasant than a few of the others, but wouldn't be an outright villain.
[2]: A lot of people think that the little girl Peter had been holding while watching the news was either Wanda or another sister of his...Lorna Dane, I believe? I'm afraid my comic book knowledge is poorer than it should be.
[3]: I looked him up and as far as I could tell, Cyclops taught math at the Xavier Mansion. If anyone has information to the contrary, don't hesitate to call me on it!
So what did you think? Any questions, comments, suggestions for me to continue this (probably) AU? Please review!