Hey guys! I was so excited and happy to see all the reviews when I got home from work last night, and it made me stay up a little late to finish this chapter until I couldn't keep my eyes open so I had to finish writing it this morning and finally managed to type it all out today. Thank you all so much for the reviews, favs, and followers. It's the best encouragement a writer could have. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 11
Saigon
The Colonel made his way over to the hut labeled Quarantine. He heard the other soldiers talking that it was where they placed the "freaks" after their latest mission. Who knew what the medics were doing to them inside.
He tried to enter, but was blocked by the two men guarding it. "Can I help you, Colonel?"
"Just here to give our boys a proper send-off," he answered.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we have orders. This is quarantined area."
The Colonel suppressed the anger inside him and looked hard at the guard. "Stand aside, soldier. That's an order."
The men moved aside, opening the door for him. He pushed the plastic aside as he entered.
"Atten-hut!" The men in the room stood up when they saw him.
"At ease," he quickly told them, feeling a little uncomfortable. He looked at the soldiers sitting in their cots, watching him warily as he passed them. He looked at the ones deemed "freaks". One of them had tattooes on his face down to his arms, one of them with unusual spike like hair and dark eyes, one that resembled a toad with goggles, and one that he recognized as Alex Summers. He winked at him, causing the young man to look at him weirdly and uncomfortably, but the Colonel continued to the desks where medics were going through paperwork and bloodwork.
"What is all of this?" he asked them.
"Lab reports, blood tests," the medic answered. "It's all getting packed up and shipped back."
The Colonel picked up one of the files. "Where's it going?"
"Same place they are," the medic motioned to the privates. "Trask Industries."
The Colonel looked through Alex's file. They had done a series of blood tests and examinations, all under the orders of Trask Industries. The Colonel had a bad feeling about this. He wasn't able to continue looking through the file further when a voice boomed into the room.
"Let's go, gentlemen! I'm taking you out of this shitshow."
The Colonel turned and saw a young man, a major come in with a few other soldiers.
"Shipping home?" Alex asked.
The major checked his watch. "Not just yet."
One of the men opened a case, holding a series of syringes.
"What are you doing with those?" the toad man asked.
"Something to make the ride a little smoother," the major answered. "I'm transferring you to a private facility."
They were abducting them, the Colonel realized. The major's words convinced his suspicions. The men looked at the syringes, suspicion and worry showing on their faces. The Colonel couldn't let the major or his men take these soldiers to be experimented on like rats. "You men are not military," he said.
The major held out a slip of paper. "Private outfit. We're authorized to remand these men."
The Colonel looked at the paper. It was orders and permission to do what the major was planning to do. He couldn't let that happen. He looked at the major. "These troops are going home," he told him.
The major grinned amusingly. "Well, Colonel, I don't believe you have jurisdiction in this matter."
The Colonel smirked. "I'm afraid I do, Son."
The major frowned. "I'm sorry, who are you?"
"The question is, Major," the Colonel said, picking up the dogtags the major wore around his neck. Stryker, William Jr. they said. The Colonel could remember the senior Stryker and his hatred for anything different. He looked back at the Major, Stryker. "Who are you?" He ripped the dogtags off the young man's neck.
At the same time, he suddenly shifted before everybody's eyes into a woman with blue-scaled skin, red hair, and amber eyes. She glared with menace at the man before her as surprise and fear filled his face.
Men began to pull their weapons out, but the woman, Mystique moved much faster than them. She punched a man in the throat. Wrapping her arms around Stryker's neck, she kicked one of the guards into one of the lockers. Still hanging on to Stryker's neck, she spun around, kicking any man that came near her, before flipping Stryker onto the ground. Turning around, she grabbed a man's hand as he pointed his gun at her, wrapping her legs around his neck and then flipping them down on the ground. The mutants around her began to fight back, taking out and subduing the people around them. Mystique snapped the man's arm, breaking it. He screamed in pain.
She saw Stryker moving to grab his gun. Getting up, she moved, grabbing his arm with the gun, and held his throat with her other hand. Hatred and anger filled her as she watched him struggle to breath. She saw his hatred for her kind, and it made her want to see him suffer. She squeezed harder.
"Raven!" Alex's voice distracted her, but she refused to let go of Stryker. "That's not my name," she told him. She was no longer Raven. She was Mystique.
Red energy suddenly threw Stryker away from her and onto the desks. She turned furiously at Alex. "I had that."
He grinned at her. "I know."
She couldn't help, but soften and smile back at her old friend for one brief moment. Then she pushed her feelings aside. Someone would come in and check on them. They had to get out of here. "Let's move out! Come on, let's go."
"Where's Erik?" Alex asked.
"I'm on my own now," came her curt reply. She shifted back into her Colonel disguise, Alex and the other mutants following her as they exited the hut. They could hear the engine of a plane starting up. They had to hurry.
"Hold that plane!" Mystique shouted. "Wouldn't wanna leave these boys in this forsaken country!"
The mutants were able to board. Alex, however, stopped, looking at his old friend. "You're not coming with us, are you?"
"My war's not over," Mystique told him. "The enemy is still out there."
Turning away, both mutants went their separate ways: Alex on the plane back home, and Mystique on her own mission. Mystique shifted into a female soldier's disguise, watching amusedly as Stryker burst out of quarantine, trying to find the mutants.
Now, to get to the bottom of what Trask Industries wanted with mutants.
000{{*}}000
The sign on the front gate said Private Property Keep Out. the sign that should have said Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters was down on the ground, covered in weeds.
Logan had woken in the past, apparently after sleeping with some mobster's daughter and after a struggle, had managed to get a car that could take him to find the professor at the mansion. But when he got there, instead of the school filled with students he had lived in for years, the place was run down, and not a soul in sight. What happened?
He got out of the car, and headed to the front door, and knocked. It took a couple of minutes, but the door was finally opened. The person who answered was a young man with dark hair, and kind of a geek with those glasses of his in Logan's opinion.
"Can I help you?" the young man asked.
"Uh…" Logan looked around. Was it just him and the professor here? "Yeah, what happened to the school?"
The man looked at him like he was crazy. "The school's been shut for years. Are you a parent?"
Logan scoffed. Him a parent? That was a kicker. "I sure as hell hope not. Who are you?"
"I'm Hank. Hank McCoy. I look after the house now," the young man explained.
Logan took his glasses off in disbelief. This was Hank McCoy, the mutant who proudly showed his blue hair mutation while he worked in politics? "You're Beast?" He grinned. "Look at you. I guess you're a late bloomer."
The young Hank looked uncomfortable. "I don't know what you're talking about, but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
He tried to slam the door shut, but Logan stopped it. "So, where's the Professor?" Logan asked as he struggled against the door.
"There's no professor here," Hank quickly told him.
"You're pretty strong for a scrawny kid," Logan observed. "You sure there's not a little Beast in there? Come on, Beast," he taunted.
"No," Hank insisted. "He's not here."
Logan finally managed to push the door open, pushing Hank out of the way, and allowing him to go inside.
"Hey!" Hank shouted. "I said the school's closed. You need to leave!"
"Not until I see the Professor," Logan told him, looking around the place.
Hank grabbed his arm. "There's no professor here, I told you that."
Logan turned to face him, impatience filling him. "Look, kid. You and I are gonna be good friends." He punched him in the face, and he fell to the floor. "You just don't know it yet."
He climbed the stairs and called out for the Professor. The place was easily quiet, so unlike the noise he was use to hearing in this place of students going about their days. He called out to the Professor again. Where was she?
He heard movement behind him. He turned around and saw Hank in his blue Beast like form swing from the chandelier, roaring as he tackled Logan. Logan was totally unprepared to be battling a younger and more hot headed version of Beast. The guy practically handed his ass to him, throwing him into the stairway, grabbing him and throwing him onto the table in the entryway. Beast jumped and hung from the chandelier, roaring at him.
"Hank?" Both men stopped at the sound of a young and feminine voice. "What's going on here?"
Logan looked up and was surprised by what he saw. A young woman walked down the steps. She was wearing pajamas with a robe and carrying a glass with some kind of liquor. Her dark ebony hair was long and disheveled, and no makeup on her face at all. Not only that but there was a sad hopelessness in her despite the carelessness she seemed to be trying to give off. She couldn't be more different to the professor he knew.
"Professor?"
The woman grimaced. "Please, don't call me that."
"Why? You know this guy?" Hank asked, pointing at Logan.
Charlotte cocked her head. "Yeah, he looks slightly familiar." She noticed Hank still hanging off the chandelier. "Get off the bloody chandelier, Hank!" she scolded.
He let go and landed on his feet beside the table.
Logan looked at the young woman before him, standing on the steps. Standing. "You can walk."
"You're a perceptive one," she remarked, sitting down on the stairs.
"I thought Erik-" he tried to say but was interrupted as Charlotte continued.
"Which makes it slightly perplexing that you missed our sign on the way in. This is private property, my friend," she told him as he got up from the table. "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave."
"Well," Logan said, wincing a bit at his bruised muscles even as they healed. "I'm afraid I can't do that, because, uh, I was sent here for you."
"Well, tell whoever it was that sent you that I'm… busy," she told him.
"Well, that's gonna be a little tricky," Logan explained. "Because the person who sent me was you."
"What?" Charlotte asked, confused.
"About fifty years from now," he added.
What?
Charlotte laughed. This guy had to be high on something. Hank was grinning as well.
"I know," Logan said. "Stay with me."
"Fifty years from now?" Charlotte asked. "Like 'in the future fifty years from now'?"
"Yeah," Logan answered.
"I sent you from the future?" she asked, incredulously.
"Yeah."
She looked at Hank, and he shook his head. "Piss off."
"If you had your powers, you'd know I was telling the truth," Logan said.
"How do you know I don't have my…" she stopped. She looked at him more seriously now. "Who are you? Are you CIA? You've been watching me?" she demanded.
Logan shook his head. "No, I told you. We've been friends for years." He walked up closer to her even as she tensed up. "I know your powers came when you were nine after you loss your father. I know you thought you were going crazy when it started, all the voices in your head, and it wasn't until you were twelve that all the voices were in everyone else's head. I also know that in 1963 during a recruitment mission in Transia you gave birth to twins, and they were taken from you by members of the High Evolutionary. Do you want me to go on?"
Charlotte was frozen, tears burning in her eyes as this man revealed personal details only the people closest to her knew. She refrained from attacking him at the mention of the babies she had lost, too numb to do anything. "I never told anyone that," she whispered.
"Not yet, no," Logan said, looking at her sympathetically. "But you will."
Charlotte took a shaky breath. Maybe this man wasn't so crazy as she first thought. "All right, you've piqued my interest. What do you want?" she asked him.
"We have to stop Raven," Logan told her.
Raven. That name struck both Charlotte and Hank's hearts of the girl they had both cared for and missed these last ten years.
"I need your help," Logan said. "We need your help."
The hope in Logan's eyes was too much, reminding her of the young, hopeful woman she had been before she lost everything she held dear. She pinched her wrist, wincing a little from the pain. "I think I would like to wake up now." She got up and headed towards her study. She needed another damn drink.
Hank watched his friend leave with sadness before turning back to Logan. "What does she have to do with this?" he asked as he reverted back to his human form.
000{{*}}000
"So, you're saying they took Raven's power, and what? They weaponized it?" Charlotte asked after Logan told them his story.
Logan nodded. "Yep."
"She is unique," Hank said softly.
"Yeah, she is, Hank." She knew that all too well. She wasn't the only person in this house who had trouble letting go of a loved one. That was one of the reasons Hank was such a good and understanding friend.
"In the beginning, the Sentinels were just targeting mutants," Logan continued to explain his story. "Then they began to identify the genetics in non-mutants who would eventually have mutant children or grandchildren. Many of the humans tried to help us, but it was a slaughter, leaving only the worst of humanity in charge. I've been in a lot of wars. I'd never see anything like this. And it all starts with her."
Charlotte had sat down on the couch in front of the unfinished chess game she kept, sipping the alcohol as she listened to him. It all seemed like a fantastical horror story you would read in novels, but why would he make all of this up? And Raven? She would be the cause of all this? Charlotte knew they had their differences ever since Cuba, but Raven was her sister. She liked to believe that she knew her. She knew her as being incapable of killing someone. Even when they were kids, and their stepbrother Cain tormented them, Raven never thought further than defending herself from him. Charlotte didn't want to believe her darling little sister whom she helped nurse sick animals back to health was capable of cold blooded murder.
"Let's just say for the sake of…" she paused, trying to find the right word for it. "The sake, that I choose to believe you, that I choose to help you. Raven won't listen to me." She sighed. "Her heart and soul belong to someone else now."
Erik. That son of a bitch who took her heart, shattered it, and burned it to bits.
Hank looked down, hurt, and Charlotte felt bad for saying it like that in front of him.
"I know," Logan said, standing up. "That's why we're going to need Magneto too."
Hank and Charlotte both looked at him incredulously. "Erik?"
Hank looked at Logan like he lost his head, and Charlotte started laughing insanely.
"You do know where he is?" Hank asked Logan.
"Yeah."
Charlotte felt a stitch in her side as she laughed so hard, standing up from her seat. She finally stopped and glared at Logan. "He's where he belongs," she spat. She started walking away. That was enough bullshit.
Logan watched her leave. "That's it? You're just gonna walk away?" Was this happening?
"Ooh, top marks," Charlotte said in fake cheer as she headed towards the stairs. "Like I said, you are perceptive."
"The professor I know would never turn her back on someone who'd lost their path," Logan told her as she walked away. "Especially someone she loved."
Charlotte froze before the steps, turning to look at Logan. Her glare would have made even the devil quake, and if looks could kill and Logan could die, he'd be a shredded mess deep in the ground. But then she grinned.
"You know," she said, walking back towards him. "I think I do remember you now. Yeah. we came to you a long time ago, seeking your help, and I'm gonna say to you what you said to us then: f*** off."
Logan grabbed her shoulders, his temper finally snapping. "Listen to me you bitch!"
Hank stood up, but Charlotte wasn't afraid. Not one bit.
"I've come a long way, and I've watched a lot of people die. Good people. Friends. If you're gonna wallow in self-pity, and do nothing, then you're gonna watch the same thing, you understand?"
Oh, she understood, but she didn't care. She hadn't cared since she lost her babies, Erik walked away from her, and she lost her students because of the war. Caring brought nothing but pain in her life. Logan's anger didn't scare her because she no longer cared what happened to her.
She pulled away from him. "We all have to die sometime," she told him coldly. She turned away and headed back upstairs.
Logan watched her.
"Told you there was no professor here," Hank said from behind him.
Logan couldn't believe this bitter woman was the same wise and kind-hearted professor who'd helped him and so many others. He turned to Hank. "What the hell happened to her?"
"She lost everything," Hank explained. "Erik, Raven, her legs, her children. We built the school, the labs, this whole place shortly after Cuba when we found out that she was pregnant. We were all happy and excited for her. Then late into her pregnancy, we received a tip of a mutant in danger in Transia. Charlotte went with us, and then she went into labor, and… during the chaos, the midwife who helped us, took the twins, but we were never able to contact her again. Charlotte was devastated. She tried searching for them with Cerebro, but there was no luck. The school was the only concrete thing she had left, so she held onto it. Then, just after the first semester, the war in Vietnam got worse. Many of the teachers and older students were drafted. It was the last straw. It broke her. She retreated into herself. I wanted to help, do something, so I designed a serum to treat her spine, derived from the same formula that helps me control my mutation. I take enough to keep myself balanced, but… she takes too much. I tried easing her back, but she just couldn't bear the pain, the voices. The treatment gives her her legs, but it's not enough. She's…" Hank paused, taking a deep breath before looking at Logan again. "She's just lost too much."
000{{*}}000
Charlotte sighed as she injected a dosage into her body. Not hearing the voices, the pain should have given her some kind of peace, but it didn't. It just increased her guilty conscience. Erik, Raven, her babies… no matter how hard she tried, not a day went by that she didn't think of them.
She picked up the twin teddy bears on her bed: one gold with a blue ribbon and one black with a pink ribbon tied around their necks. It was ridiculous: a grown woman going to bed with stuffed animals, but they had been given to her by Sean as a gift before he died and she lost her children.
Her darling babies.
She could remember the pain she went through during their birth, and the fear she felt giving birth in a place she was unfamiliar with. Then when she saw them both for the first time, it was all gone, replaced by love and awe at the sight of them. They were so beautiful, so perfect. All the pain she went through, and all the heartache that happened when Erik left her had been worth it. Her son had white blonde tufts of hair that kind of reminded her of her mother Sharon, while her daughter had dark auburn curls she remembered Erik's mother having when she looked into his mind and saw the memories of her. They were a beautiful blend between her and Erik, and she couldn't believe they had been able to create those two perfect lives.
Then they were taken from her.
There had been a fire, and Charlotte didn't want to believe that they and the midwife had been unable to get out, but she couldn't find them even with Cerebro. She had been forced to accept the fact that they might be dead, and she was all alone in the world.
She set the teddy bears down, then her eyes caught the picture of her sister, Raven. Sweet Raven smiling so happy and innocent. The girl had been her best friend for so many years. She remembered the night they met in her kitchen. Little Raven, so tiny, scared, and malnourished. Then becoming Raven's sister, promising to protect her and to never let her be alone. Even after Raven had left her, Charlotte continued to love her. They were sisters. No matter what pain they caused to one another, they'll always be sisters and they'll always love one another.
It was with that, Charlotte got up and headed back downstairs where Logan and Hank were still in her study.
"I'll help you get her," Charlotte told Logan. "Not for any of your future shite, but for her."
Logan nodded. "Fair enough." He could live with that.
"But I'll tell you this," Charlotte warned him. "You don't know Erik. That man is a monster. A murderer." She learned that the hard way years ago. Saving Raven was one thing, but Erik… she tried and failed to stop him from destroying himself. "You think you can convince Raven to change? To come home? That's splendid. But what makes you think you can change him?"
"Because you, Erik, and your children all sent me back here together," Logan answered her.
Children.
Logan could see a spark of hope in Charlotte's eyes and knew it was the right thing to say. Revealing too much of the future would change it a lot, but that was the point. If Charlotte had that spark of hope then there was hope for all of them.
000{{*}}000
So what do you guys all think? I hope I have a lot of you on your toes. Stay tune. The next update will be coming soon. Reviews are the best encouragement a writer can have.
