'Six years later…'
Rhea followed Logan and Storm out of the Blackbird looking around the latest hiding spot for the X-Men. Logan lit up a cigar taking a deep pull as they looked around the abandoned cliff temple in China.
Rhea was part Frost Giant of Jotunheim, although not a giant in stature like her father she was of a more average height and her Frost Giant metabolism granted her superhuman levels of physical stamina in practically all activities. She possessed physical attributes equal to a fit member an Asgardian, giving her enhanced strength; stamina, speed, durability, durability enough to harmlessly withstand high-caliber bullets; and immunity to all known diseases and toxins, as well as resistance to magic.
Rhea possessed a genius-level intelligence with vast knowledge of technology and had extensive training in magic. Her father Loki imbued Rhea with magical abilities that enable her to withstand injuries that would prove fatal to another Asgardian.
Rhea looked around in mild interest while they walked up to Bishop. She glanced up to where she knew Warpath was lurking on top of one of the pavilion like structures. Sunspot walked out standing next to Bishop as Warpath jumped down landing next to them.
"Professor." Bobby called out as he walked past Bishop clapping him on the shoulder.
"Bobby." Storm greeted as they hugged.
"Hey Storm." Bobby smiled.
"Hey, how about a hug for your favorite niece?" Rhea smiled as Bobby enveloped her in a tight hug as well with a small laugh. "Good to see you."
"You to." Bobby smiled as he pulled back.
"Hey kid." Logan nodded as Bobby looked to him.
"Professor, you made it." Kitty said as she too came out with Peter. Bobby walked over to her taking her hand in his, the latest generation of X-Men stood before the Professor, who smiled softly at them.
-0-
They all sat around in a small back room of the large temple, the room lit by a few scattered assortments of different lights they had acquired.
"So how exactly do you get away each time the sentinels attack you?" Rhea asked as she leaned back.
"Whenever the sentinels attack, Warpath spots them then I send Bishop back to warn us before it happens." Kitty replied. "Blink scouts the next sight and then we leave before they ever know we were there."
"Because we never were." Warpath said.
"What do you mean you were never there?" Logan asked in confusion.
"She projects Bishop back in time a few days to warn the other of the coming attack." The Professor answered.
"So she sends Bishop back in time." Logan summed up.
"No, just in consciousness, into his younger self, into his younger body." Charles explained.
"Wow." Rhea remarked her eyebrows rising as possibilities started to run through her head. "It could change everything."
"This might just work Charles." Erik commented.
"What might work?" Kitty asked.
"The sentinel program was originally conceived by Doctor Bolivar Trask." Charles began. "In the early seventies he was one of the world's leading weapons designers, but covertly he had begun experimenting on mutants using their gifts to fuel his own research. There was one mutant who had discovered what he was doing."
"Mutant with the ability to transform herself into anyone." Erik took over.
"Mystique." Peter said with a nod.
"I knew her as Raven, we met when we were children, grew up together. She was like a sister to me. I tried to help her, but only succeeded in driving her away." Charles said bitterly. "She hunted Trask around the world and at the Paris Peace Accord in 1973 after the Vietnam War she found Trask and killed him. It was the first time she killed."
"It wasn't her last." Logan said. Rhea elbowed him giving him a sharp look, then pointedly looked to the guilt ridden Professor.
"But killing Trask did not have the outcome she expected." Charles went on. "It only persuaded the Government of the need for his program. They captured her that day, tortured her, and experimented on her. In her DNA they discovered the secrets to her powers of transformation. It gave them the key they needed to create weapons that could adapt to any mutant power and in less than fifty years the machines that have destroyed so many of our kind were created, but it all started that day in 1973, the day she first killed, the day she truly became Mystique."
"You want to go back there." Kitty summed up.
"If I could get to her, stop the assassination, keep her out of their hands then we can stop the sentinels from ever being born." Charles said adamantly.
"And end this war before it even begins." Erik added.
"I can send someone back a couple of weeks, maybe a month, but you're talking about going back decades." Kitty shook her head. "You have the most powerful brain in the world professor, but the mind can only stretch so far before it snaps. It would rip you apart, I'm sorry; no one could survive that trip."
"What if someone's mind has a way of snapping back?" Logan spoke up gaining everyone's attention. "What if someone can heal as fast as they're ripped apart?"
"That's not enough." Kitty said gripping her hands together. "I can hold Bishop's consciousness a few weeks in the past, but to hold you that far back, I'd need an anchor, something to help me hold you there."
"I'll do it, if I can twine my Magic with Logan's consciousness I can physically follow it back in time and help hold him there." Rhea said as she crossed her arms. "It will also take some of the strain off of you and allow us to stay longer."
Everyone exchanged looks coming to a decision to go forward with the plan.
-0-
They closed up and barred the main room where a stone table was standing in the middle of. The others were on guard outside while Bobby, Kitty, Erik, Rhea, and Charles all gathered around the table where as Logan walked up.
"So I wake up in my younger body, god know where, with Rhea, then what?" Logan asked as he stood next to the table.
"You'll need to go to my house and find me, convince me of all of this." Charles answered.
"Won't you just be able to read our minds?" Rhea asked cocking her head to the side.
"I didn't have my powers in 1973. Logan, you're going to have to do for me what I once did for you. Lead me, guide me. I was a very different man then, you'll have to be patient with me." Charles explained making Logan scoff.
"Patience isn't my strongest suit." Logan commented.
"Then it's a good thing I'm coming to." Rhea with a grin.
"You'll need me as well." Erik said.
"What?" Logan turned to him.
"After Mystique left Charles she came with me and I set her on the dangerous path. A darker path. It's going to take the two of us side by side at a time when we couldn't be further apart." Erik said as the Professor nodded in agreement while Logan and Rhea exchanged looks.
"Great." Logan said. "So where do we find you?"
"Well that's complicated." Erik admitted.
"Of course it is." Rhea ran her hands through her hair.
"Rhea." Charles took her aside. "You know that by going back in time physically that once this timeline is erased…"
"I'll be trapped in the past in this new timeline we create since my own timeline will have ceased to exist, but another me, a younger me will still be born and raised in this new timeline. In short I will be a walking talking paradox." Rhea nodded as she cut him off, she didn't want the others to know, she hated goodbyes. "Don't worry, I know."
"You cannot come into contact with you parents or anyone else from your past as well, at least not for fifty years from 1973." Charles said softly taking her hand in his comfortingly.
"There is a whole universe out there Professor, I'll have plenty to stay occupied with until I can come back for a visit." Rhea smiled then leaned down hugging him. "Try not to miss me too much."
"Good luck." Charles said as he hugged her tight before releasing her as Logan lay down on the table.
"Basically your body will go to sleep while your mind travels back in time." Kitty explained to Logan as he lay on the stone table and Rhea walked up behind her. "As long as you're back there past and present will continue to coexist, but once you wake up whatever you've done will take hold and become history and for the rest of us it will be the only history that we know. It will be like the last fifty years never happened and this world this war…the only person who will remember it is you and Rhea." Kitty took a breath. "All right Logan I need you to clear your head and stay as calm as possible."
"What? What do you mean?" Logan asked as he looked up at her.
"If your mind gets rocky it could be harder for me and Kitty to hold you and you could start to slip between the past and the future." Rhea said nonchalantly as she flexed her hands which started to glow with swirling blue green lights.
"What if I need to get a little rocky?" Logan asked. Kitty and Rhea looked at each other shrugging slightly.
"Think peaceful thoughts?" Kitty offered.
"Peaceful thoughts…" Logan echoed. "Do you have any good news?"
"Well you don't really age so you'll pretty much look the same." Kitty said.
"Kitty, he asked for good news." Rhea jokingly admonished her making her laugh a bit.
"Funny Princess." Logan scoffed.
"You won't have much time in the past the sentinels will find us." Bobby said bringing them back to point. "They always do."
"And this time we won't be able to run." Kitty said looking back to Logan. "We'll have no escape, this is our last chance."
"See you all soon." Logan said as he got ready and Rhea placed her hands on Kitty's shoulders.
"Unitatis Animo!" Rhea's eyes flashed.
"This might sting a little." Kitty said placing her hands on either side of his head and as soon as the glow from her hands touched Logan's head Rhea disappeared in a flash of light, the last thing she heard was Logan's scream and the sound of his claws coming out.