DISCLAIMER: I do not own Wolverine and the X-men

A/N: Thank you to my new beta,Song Of A Free Heart updates will be slow

thoughts: italics

flashbacks: bold

Storyline

To save his Son, Gambit goes to the last people he thought would ever help him: the X-men

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Chapter Twenty- six

The Future:
Charles slowly made his way to the mansion the next morning. No longer used to the chair, he was trying to be extra careful. There was nobody around if he were to become stuck somewhere. Which was very likely, given the condition of the sidewalks and roads.

Clearly, infrastructure was not a priority for Apocalypse or Sinister. Everywhere he looked, things were falling apart. He saw no sign of whoever it was that had been caught out the night before, so Charles tried to push it from his mind, with any luck this dark world would shift within the next few hours.

Charles finally made it to the mansion and entered the building with caution. This was too important to wait for Logan to contact him, and he had learned that the easiest way to do this from his end was while he was at the mansion.

The Present:

Logan was sitting with the patients for Hank, so the doctor could grab a quick meal, when he felt the familiar tug in the back of his mind.

Sighing, he stood and asked Wanda: " Can ya watch em?"

She nodded, before heading to Charles' room.

~o~O~o~

Charles waited patiently for Logan, who arrived a moment later. The first thing Logan noticed was that Charles looked extremely agitated.

"Wha's up, Chuck? We kinda got our hands full here an-" Logan began in an impatient tone.

"I know, Logan. I'm sorry." Charles replied.

"What happened? The girl said-" Logan demanded, running a hand through his hair.

"She lied. She did it on purpose," Charles began, but continued quickly before Logan could react. "Do not worry, she isn't working for Sinister. She was worried that you wouldn't be able to rescue Laura. Or that you would be unwilling, I'm not sure which she was thinking. It no longer matters - the girl who made that choice no longer exists."

"She's not dead is she?" Logan questioned.

"No one really knows. No one here has seen any of the three of you in roughly seventeen years. Apocalypse rules this time. Sinister rules this sector. It's bad Logan." Charles stated, sighing heavily.

"How bad?" Logan questioned, unable to imagine just taking off again, if it had been that bad.

"We lost. We lost the war. We lost the X-men, and we lost Jean-Luc," Charles began. "The only ones left are Bobby, Remy, and An-Rogue."

"What happened?" Logan questioned, appalled.

"Scott and Remy went to the tunnels when they spotted Sinister with the baby. They didn't wait for you and Rogue. Emma realized where they went and followed. We lost Emma and Scott, and Remy was severely injured. Sinister blew up the lab, with Jean-Luc in it." Charles stated, without interruption.

"Okay," Logan said. "I'll talk to 'em. I'll keep a close eye on them too. We have five days by the original count...do you have any suggestions as to when-"

"Stay with the plan. He will relax, hopefully, when no one arrives in the first two days. He already knows you're watching," Charles stated, sighing.

"Yeah, I kinda guessed that, with him movin' out to the farm," Logan answered with a smirk, enjoying the idea of getting Sinister on the run.

"You need to take as many with you as you can Logan. Anything else we previously planned no longer matters. If they can't get to him before Sinister gets to the control room,everything will be lost," Charles warned.

"I'll see if Magneto can spare any bodies," Logan stated. "More likely he'll try ta drag his kid home though."

"Please do. I will try to contact him myself, though he is never easy to reach," Charles sighed, knowing Magneto preferred to avoid telepaths.

"Yeah, he still wears that bucket everywhere," Logan smirked.

"I am not the only physic in the world Logan," Charles admonished.

"Whatever. So I'll try ta get bucket-head to send some help, and I'll keep a leash on the other two." Logan grumbled. "Well three, really. Cause she's still bein' him half the time."

"Interesting... still, after, what over a week?" Charles mused.

"Yeah, real interestin' when she's blowin a hole in the back yard."

"Has Emma made a note of it?" Charles questioned, clearly interested.

"Yeah, she had the same reaction as you," Logan stated with a huff. Really he didn't understand the fascination. Rogue was Rogue, there was no need to make a big deal out of every little thing. Personally he thought that may be part of the trouble she had with control, everyone was always obsessing about it.

"It could be important to finding the key to her control Logan," Charles explained, sensing Logan's feelings on the subject.

~o~O~o~

Logan entered the admittedly small meeting a few minutes later. The only ones there were Scott, Emma, Remy, Rogue, and a very reluctant looking Wanda. Scott was scowling tightly, and Remy looked agitated. Emma and Rogue were talking quietly, but turned their attention to Logan when he came in.

"Alright. I just got back from talkin' to Chuck. We know what went wrong," Logan said. "We were set up. On purpose. But there's nothin' ta do about it now. She paid the price when she ceased to exist. Now Chuck had some disturbing news on the ripple effect of this whole mess. I know some of you have lost faith in him, but trust me: it ain't his fault this happened. "

He noted the near mutinous looks on Remy and Scott's faces at this statement.

"Chuck says, the thing to do he feels, is to go back to the original plan and hopefully everything will straighten itself out. Because the future he's in right now ain't any good at all."

"Pardonnez-moi, mais (forgive me,but), I feel dat placin' all faith in de crystal que-ball, is what got us in dis mess to begin wit' non?" Remy asked.

Scott nodded and said: "I trust the Professor. I do! But all these time shifts, they don't really help him stay in touch with reality. I think we should handle this the old fashioned way. Recon."

"Oui, and den if we need advice we come ta him," Remy agreed.

"I know y'all have had issues with what's happened in the last few days. But, we need to be smart bout this," Logan began again. "The worst thing we could do is go in unprepared. So I want ya both to agree not to go in without back up. I'm going to call Genosha, see if Buckethead, erm, Magneto can spare us some men. You two, don't go anywhere without the rest of us."

Reluctantly the men agreed and Wanda asked. " Do you want me with you when you contact Father ?" Logan nodded, and the pair left to make the call.

Scott and Remy were both in agreement that they needed to watch the feeds, so they left shortly after the other two. Emma then turned to Rogue.

"It's completely out of place. Do you want to have our session now?"

Rogue agreed, and they headed towards Emma's office.

~o~O~o~

Charles sighs with relief as things shift subtly. The walls take on a whole, though abandoned look. Clearly something had shifted again. Hopefully for the better.