A/N: An update? Gasp! It's been FOREVER! This fic is not dead! I promise! I have to bring this series into Apocalypse, don't I?

I'm calling Pietro Peter from now on. It just sounds weird calling him Pietro (not that that's a weird name, but it's making the story read in a weird way).

Yes, I realize the timelines are a little out of whack now. I'll go back and fix the other chapters eventually.

Anywho, get ready for a golden surprise in this chapter!

kanna does not own Shinkenger or X-Men. You know who they belong to.


"I cannot BELIEVE you just duct taped that security guard to the wall of an elevator," Kotoha muttered to Peter as he grabbed a tray of food from a line of trays. He scribbled a quick note onto a piece of paper and stuck it on the tray. While Kotoha wore her street clothes, Peter had changed into a security guard's uniform upon duct taping one guard to the wall of an elevator.

"Got a better idea, pretty?" Peter asked flirtatiously as the two walked.

"Yeah. Stop flirting with me. I have a boyfriend."

The two walked on in silence until they reached the room Erik was being held in. Peter and Kotoha looked at each other before Kotoha nodded and Peter slid the tray down a hole in the ceiling. The two watched Erik as he noticed the tray and read the note that said, "Mind the glass" in big letters.

"So, how do we get in?" Kotoha asked. "I can manipulate earth, but cement is a whole other story, and I'm not about to rip the Pentagon apart."

"Relax," Peter said. "Watch this." He got down on his knees and placed his hands on the glass. He started to tap on the glass at an incredible speed. After about a minute, the glass ceiling broke, and Peter and Kotoha helped Erik climb out.

Erik hadn't changed too much over the course of ten years. If anything, he looked a little paler. His blue eyes widened when he saw Kotoha, but he said nothing about it. Instead, he said, "In three seconds those doors are going to open and twenty guards will be here to shoot us."

"I know," Peter replied with a smirk. "That's what I'm waiting for."

Erik raised an eyebrow. "Just roll with it," Kotoha sighed.

Peter grabbed onto Erik and Kotoha's necks and Erik asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm holding your neck so you don't get whiplash," Peter replied quickly.

"What?"

Peter sighed. "Whip...lash." The guards came just as Erik had predicted, but Peter was one step ahead. He held on to Erik and Kotoha's necks as they moved at top speed past the guards into the elevator. Peter quickly changed back into his street clothes as Erik looked like he was about to vomit. "You're good, it'll pass. It happens with everyone. So, what'd you do? Huh? Why'd they have you in there?"

"For killing the President," Erik replied.

Peter nodded before he turned to the duct taped guard and mouthed, "Shit."

"The only thing I'm guilty of is fighting for people like us," Erik explained.

"You take karate? You know karate, man?"

"Peter, I'd shut up now if I were you," Kotoha said.

Peter ignored Kotoha's warning as he remembered something. "They told me you control metal," he recalled.

"'They?'" Erik asked.

"You know, my mom knew a guy who could do that." It didn't take long for Kotoha to put two and two together as she realized what Peter may have known, but Erik definitely didn't. She remained silent.

The elevator door soon opened and revealed Hank, Alex, Charles, and Logan. "Charles?" Erik asked after seeing his old, former friend for the first time in years, only to be hit with a punch in the face from Charles. Kotoha gasped as the others looked on. Charles clenched his hand in pain as Erik rubbed the spot where it hurt. "Good to see you too, old friend, and walking."

"No thanks to you," Charles growled.

"You're the last person in the world I would have expected to see today."

"Believe me, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have to. If we get you out of here, we do it my way, no killing."

"No helmet," Erik pointed out. "I couldn't disobey you even if I wanted."

"I'm never getting inside of that head again. I need your word, Erik." Erik nodded.


After thanking Peter for saving their necks in the Pentagon, they sent him off with the rental car as Hank, Alex, Kotoha, Logan, Charles, and Erik all got on the jet to Paris. All they had to do was hope they got there in time to stop Raven from killing Trask.

Hank piloted the jet as Logan sat reading a newspaper. Alex and Kotoha sat next to each other and were a few seats away from Erik, who sat across from Charles. Charles seemed to be giving Erik quite the death glare. The other mutants could practically feel the tension between the two as they all sat in silence, before Erik asked, "How did you lose them?"

"The treatment for my spine affects my DNA," Charles answered coldly.

"You sacrificed your powers so you could walk?"

"I sacrificed my powers so I could sleep..." Charles trailed off before he asked, "What do you know about it?"

"I've lost my fair share."

Charles scoffed. "Dry your eyes, Erik." Kotoha and Alex exchanged a look as they realized the situation they were in had the potential to get much worse, and there was nothing either of them could do about it. "Doesn't justify what you've done."

"You have no idea what I've done."

"I know you took the things that mean the most to me."

"Well maybe you should have fought harder for them."

"If you want to fight, Erik-" Charles rose from his seat, as did Erik.

"Sit down!" Logan cut in.

Charles ignored him as he continued with, "I will give you a fight!"

"Let him come," Erik said as he, too, ignored Logan.

Charles grabbed Erik by the lapels of his shirt and shouted, "You abandoned me! You took her away and you abandoned me!"

Kotoha and Alex stood up and were about to walk over to try to break things up when Erik spoke. "Angel. Azazel. Emma. Banshee," he listed. "Mutant brothers and sisters, all dead!"

Kotoha's fear of heights started to take over as she fell to the floor and started hyperventilating. "Dammit," Alex muttered as he looked for oxygen masks on the plane. "There have to be oxygen masks here somewhere!"

Erik's anger caused the plane to decompress and it started to fall. "Erik!" Alex yelled as he looked for an oxygen mask for Kotoha. "Stop it!" Alex finally found an oxygen mask and placed it over Kotoha's nose and mouth. He sat her up slowly. "Just breathe," he said to her gently as he rubbed her back. Kotoha nodded and the oxygen bag started to inflate and deflate.

Erik shouted, "Countless others experimented on, butchered!"

"Erik!" Alex, Charles, and Hank, who was starting to lose control of the plane, shouted. The plane was headed right for the ocean and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Where were you, Charles?" Erik continued. "We were supposed to protect them! Where were you when your own people needed you? Hiding! You and Hank, pretending to be something you're not!"

"Erik, for the love of G-d, shut up and look!" Alex shouted with anger he didn't know he had towards the metal manipulator. Alex held onto Kotoha's shoulders as she continued to breathe into the oxygen mask. He was thankful for the training he received before he left for Vietnam.

Both Erik and Charles turned to look at Alex holding Kotoha as the plane finally started to level itself out. Erik started towards Kotoha to make sure she was okay, but a death glare from Alex told him to back off, so he kept his distance.

Charles started towards Kotoha before Erik whispered, "You abandoned us all." Charles glared at Erik. He knew he was right, but didn't want to think about it. He and Alex helped Kotoha back to a seat as her breathing leveled itself out. Erik kept his distance as he asked, "Is she okay?"

Alex turned to look at Erik. "That depends," Alex said. "Would you define being 'okay' as hyperventilating to the point of needing an oxygen mask inside a jet that was making a nosedive into the ocean 'okay?'"

"Well, no, but I-"

"Just shut up." Alex turned back to Kotoha and gently rubbed her back as she continued to breathe into the oxygen mask. "I got her," Alex said to Charles. Charles nodded as he walked into to the cockpit.

"So you were always an asshole," Logan commented.

"I take it we're best buddies in the future?" Erik asked.

Logan laughed. "I spent a lot of years trying to bring you down, bub."

"How's that work out for you?"

"You're like me. You're a survivor." Erik looked at Logan for a moment before Logan pointed to all the broken things on the floor of the jet and asked, "Want to pick all that shit up?"

Once Kotoha's breathing leveled out enough, Alex took the oxygen mask off of her. She breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks," she sighed as she leaned into Alex. "I hate heights, and we were falling..." she trailed off.

"It's over now, Kotoha," Alex said.

Erik picked up the broken bits that were on the floor in silence before he went to sit down and set up a chessboard. Alex glared at Erik the entire time. "I know what happened was partially his fault," Kotoha said, "but you don't have to constantly glare at the guy."

"Even so, he killed JFK."

"I didn't kill the president," Erik countered.

"The bullet curved, Erik," Charles said as he moved to sit across from Erik.

"Because I was trying to save him. They took me out before I could."

Alex, Logan, and Kotoha looked at each other with wide eyes before they turned back to Charles and Erik. "Why would you try and save him?" Charles asked.

"Because he was one of us."

Charles sighed and put his head in his hands. "You must think me so foolish. You've always said they'd come after us."

"I never imagined they'd use Raven's DNA to do it."

"When did you last see her?"

"The day I left for Dallas."

"How was she?"

"Strong...driven...loyal."

"How...how was she?"

"She was...we were..." Erik trailed off. "I could see why she meant so much to you. You should be proud of her, Charles. She's out there fighting for our cause."

"Your cause," Charles corrected. "The girl I raised, she was not capable of killing."

"You didn't raise her, you grew up with her. She couldn't stay a little girl forever, that's why she left."

"She left because you got inside her head."

"That's not my power. She made a choice."

"But now we know where that choice leads, don't we? She's going to murder Trask, they're going to capture her, and then they're going to wipe us out."

"Not if we get to her first. Not if we change history tomorrow." Erik sighed. "I'm sorry, Charles, for what happened. I truly am."

Tears started to fill Charles's eyes as he looked down at the chessboard and sighed. "It's been a while since I've played."

"I'll go easy on you, then. Might finally be a fair fight."

"You have the first move." Erik moved one of his pieces with his powers.


As soon as the jet landed, Kotoha jolted sharply when her feet touched the ground. Her eyes changed color and she froze in her spot. "Kotoha, what's wrong?" Alex asked. Logan looked on, concerned.

"There's...a room. Important government people are in there," Kotoha described. She gasped. "I see someone talking."

"What's going on?" Everyone but Charles asked.

"There are times when she can see and hear through another person's eyes and ears," Charles explained. "They can also speak through her. I thought this could only happen with mutants, though."

"What if there's a mutant there?" Erik asked. A look of realization dawned on everyone else.

Kotoha's voice changed, as did her eye color. Her eyes changed to a grey-ish brown, and with another voice, she said, "There is a new enemy out there, an enemy that will render your arsenals useless, your armies powerless and your nations defenseless."

Kotoha continued in the other voice, "You'll need a new weapon for this war. I call them Sentinels. Named after the ancient guardians that stood at the gates of the Citadel. A genetic guidance system that can lock onto a mark half a mile away and won't trigger unless it's identified the target." The others assumed that whoever was talking was the creator of the Sentinels and was talking about their programming.

"With this weapon, there will be no human collateral damage. If I turn it on, the system couldn't even activate in here." Kotoha's eyes turned back to normal, and described in her normal voice, "I hear something...some kind of beeping." Her eyes widened as they changed color again. "Unless," she said in the other voice, "there's a mutant."

Kotoha's eyes and voice returned to normal. "We have to hurry. Raven's in there. She's impersonating a government official. Raven's the one who caused Trask's device to react."

"Trask?" Logan asked. "You sure?"

"Positive," Kotoha replied. "We have to hurry. Raven could be in serious danger by the time we get there. Get in the car!"

The group piled into the car as they drove to the Paris Peace Accords. Erik used his powers to get past the security guards and open up the gate so that the car could go through. "Kotoha, can you find her?" Logan asked.

"My telepathy only works if both people are standing on the ground, or the first floor of a building, since that's on the ground. Let me try," Kotoha replied. She closed her eyes and concentrated as she tried to hone in on Raven. "I found her! Stop the car! She's on the first floor of this building!"

The group entered just in time to see her change from a Vietnamese general into her natural blue form. She fought off several of the guards by herself before she grabbed a gun and aimed it at Trask. "Raven!" Charles shouted as he, Alex, Logan, Hank, Erik, and Kotoha burst through the door. Suddenly, a guard recovered and shot his taser at Raven, which caused her to fall to the floor in pain. Erik used his powers to throw the taser off of Raven and onto the guard.

"Charles?" Raven gasped.

"We've come for you, Erik and I, together."

Logan looked around and with a look of recognition, he suddenly collapsed to the floor. "Logan!" Kotoha shouted as she and Alex ran over to the clawed mutant. She tried to read his mind, but it seemed to be slipping between present and future. "I can't read his mind clearly; it's like he's slipping between the present and the future!" She turned to Alex. "Stay with him." Alex nodded. Kotoha walked towards the other mutants.

"I'm going to keep you safe," Charles said to Raven, "I'm going to keep you out of their hands."

Kotoha noticed a look of realization cross Erik's face as he used his powers to grab the guard's gun. He aimed it at Raven. "Erik," Kotoha cautioned. She was thankful there was a potted plant in the room. She used her powers to get the dirt to become rocks that circled around her head as her eyes changed to a yellow color. "Whatever you think you're doing-"

"Securing our future," Erik said. "Forgive me, Mystique. As long as you're out there we'll never be safe."

"Erik?" Hank asked.

"Charles, use your powers," Raven begged. "Stop him!"

"He can't," Erik said coldly.

"Kotoha, please!" Raven begged.

"I'm so sorry...I don't know how to. I only know how to read minds," Kotoha sadly explained. Just as Erik was about to shoot the gun, Raven jumped out the window and Hank went in for the tackle, which ultimately caused the gun to fall, but a shot was still fired. The bullet followed Raven out the window and hit her in the leg as Kotoha helplessly watched her fall to the ground.

Kotoha continued to watch as Erik floated out of the window and started pulling Raven towards him. Suddenly, Logan jolted in surprise. He looked around in confusion before he asked, "Where the hell am I?"

"Huh?" Kotoha asked. She looked at Alex, who shrugged.

"How the hell did I get here?"

"What?" Charles asked. "You came to us."

"Who are you?" Logan asked.

"Charles." Logan grabbed Charles by his shirt. "Charles Xavier!"

"I don't know you."

"Huh?"

Logan then noticed that Hank had transformed into Beast. "What the hell is that?" Logan shouted as he backed away.

Beast looked at Logan angrily before Charles managed to calm him down and told him to stop Erik. Beast jumped out the window and Alex, Charles, and Kotoha stayed with Logan. "You're Logan, that's Hank McCoy, they're Kotoha and Alex. You spent the last couple of days with us," Charles explained. Logan continued to look on in confusion. Suddenly, Charles had an idea. "You're on acid. Somebody gave you really bad acid. Yeah?"

"'Acid?'" Kotoha asked Alex, who only shrugged.

It took a minute or two for Logan to come around, but when he did, he said, "Professor?"

Kotoha, Alex, and Charles all breathed a sigh of relief. "What happened to you?" Kotoha asked.

"I just saw someone who's going to bring me a lot of pain someday. Where's Raven?" Logan asked.

"Gone," Charles answered.

"What?"

"We have to get out of here. I can hear reporters outside," Alex said. "No doubt they saw Beast trying to kill Erik and Erik trying to kill a blue woman who could turn into other people."

Just as they were about to leave, they heard a voice saying, "Sorry I'm late! The sushi took longer than I thought, and I-" He stopped in as he not only looked around the wreckage of the hotel room, but noticed Kotoha for the first time. "Koto-chan?" he asked.

"Gen-san?" Kotoha gasped. She shook her head. "We have to go. Now. I'll call you and explain everything later. Now isn't the time for a reunion." With that, she grabbed Alex's hand and all the mutants ran out of the building.


A/N: Unfortunately, my friends, we are slowly but surely nearing the end of Days of Future Past. No worries, I have plans to bring this into Apocalypse and whatever other X-Men movies come out. I'm thinking about 1 or 2 more chapters before this ends. So we'll have lots of Kotoha/Alex action, and maybe appearances by the other Shinkengers? Only time (and my writing muse) will tell.