A tour of the pentagon sounded much more exciting than it actually was, since it was such a high security prison the tour really only included hallways, many, many hallways and doors. Doors with names and accolades that their tour-guide robotically listed off. Finally the hallway to the right gave way to a stairway and since they were at the back of the group Logan and Charles quickly split and headed down them, Ivy followed them but paused long enough to give Hank's hand a quick squeeze.
Since Erik was being kept so far below ground they had to go down many flights of stairs, instead of taking the elevator so as to not arouse suspicion. The repetitiveness was almost as annoying as the many hallways they'd seen. Alarms blared above just as they got to the kitchens and sprinklers followed almost immediately when they entered the room.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!" Charles started, sliding past a cook who was soaking wet. "This is a code red situation," he continued paying no mind to the guards that had started to approach them, "We are evacuating the entire floor so that we—my, uh, associates and I can secure the prisoner—"
"Who are you?" one of the guards demanded.
Charles shifted awkwardly. "We are, uh, Special Operations CB-FB-CID." Ivy raised a brow at her friend's fumbling, "Look, perhaps you didn't hear me, we are in complete lockdown situation."
Ivy looked up in time to catch Logan's impatient sigh before he took a large step forward and easily dispatched of the guards with a few quick punches followed up by a few swats with a frying pan. When he was done the room was cleared of the cooking personnel and the two guards were unconscious.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Logan snapped sarcastically at the professor. "Were you finished?"
Ivy couldn't help the giggle the escaped her "I like this guy," then proceeded to ignore Charles' incredulous look as she skipped forward and knelt by one of the guards, sifting through the loops in his belt before pulling out a key and handing it over to Charles.
"I'm sorry," he said, looking over his shoulder to address Logan as he accepted the key and inserted it into the lock before twisting it. "I'm just not very good with violence."
The doors opened like an elevator with a ding, making the professor whip his head around to come face to face with Erik Lehnsherr. "Charles?" Erik said, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion as he titled his head.
Charles responded by pulling his arm back, only to bring it forward again and punch Erik square in the jaw. The force of his hit sent him tumbling into the elevator, while Erik collapsed onto the floor.
"It's nice to see you too, old friend," Erik spat pressing a finger to his lip. "And walking!"
"No thanks to you," Charles responded bitterly exiting the elevator with shaking out his hand.
"You're the last person in the world I expected to see today," he stated.
"Believe me, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have to." The professor snarled, "If we get you out of here, we do my way. No killing."
Erik gestured to his head and raised an eyebrow. "No helmet."
"I am never getting inside of that head again," Charles said his voice trembling in the slightest, "I need your word Erik."
Before his word could be given the doors at the other end of the room burst open. "Nobody move!" a command came as six guards rushed into the room, followed by more, their guns already trained on the mutants standing by the elevator.
"Charles," Erik urged.
"Hands up!" the point guard ordered. "Or we will shoot!"
"Freeze them, Charles," Erik said.
"I can't," came the professor's reply.
Erik glanced at his old friend in disbelief before, the metal objects in the room started shaking and the walls caved in slightly when Ivy reached out for the earth that lay beyond the pentagon.
"No!" Charles roared grabbing Ivy's hand intending to pull her back to stop both her and Erik's destruction, everything happened within a matter of seconds and suddenly bullets whizzed past them hitting the walls behind even as they flinched instinctively. Grunts of pain and noise of pots and pans landing on the floor and bodies hitting the floor. The kitchen was a wet mess, but past all the water droplets and spilled sauces, Peter Maximoff was stood at the other end of the room, looking nonchalant as he pulled his earphones out and pulled off his goggles placing them on top of his newly acquired cap.
"You alright?" Charles asked Ivy.
She nodded, "You?"
"Never better," he said sarcastically before starting towards the door, Ivy turned to her other side where Erik was staring suspiciously down at Logan's claws as they retracted.
"C'mon, we've gotta go." She said shaking his arm and he nodded before following Charles out the door, Logan looked at her and she shrugged before heading for the door as well, she paused for a moment though to give Peter a quick hug and peck his cheek, "I knew you'd pull through kid." She said patting his chest before exiting the room as well.
"Don't get too excited there bub," Logan warned the blushing teen, "C'mon," he said grabbing him by the shoulder and turning him around, "Good job." He mumbled patting him as he led them out.
Ivy had heard about Charles' private jet before, he made several promises during his relatively few bouts of sobriety to show it to her, but hadn't gotten around to it. Until now it seemed, honestly despite being his close friend for so many years it was so easy to forget how ridiculously rich Charles actually was. The fancy private jet being a testament to that.
"When we get back, you've gotta teach me how to do this." Ivy gushed as Hank messed around with the controls as he prepared for take-off.
"You wanna learn how to fly a plane?" Hank teased as he eased the jet along the runway.
"Why not?" Ivy shrugged, "I think I'd make a great co-pilot. Especially on the jet."
"If you help me finish building it, I'll teach you to fly it."
"Deal." Ivy grinned.
"You should head back." He said nodding his head back towards the main part of the cabin.
"Alright, if you need me don't be afraid to shout." She tossed over her shoulder as she exited the cockpit into the cabin. At the same time Erik left the small bathroom on board, now out of his stale grey prisoner's garbs and into the clothes that Ivy had packed for him he paused glancing up at her and she nodded her approval of his clothes, then she turned to have a quick word with Charles.
Erik leaned down in an attempt to snag the newspaper off of the table in front of which Logan sat, but the burly man put a stop to that when his claws sprang out and held down the paper.
"Imagine if they were metal." He mused slanting as Ivy breezed past him to take a seat on the bench to the right of Logan. The other mutant scoffed retracting his claws and settling his cigar into his mouth. Erik then turned his attention to his old friend and took note of the way he was rubbing at his thigh uncomfortably. "How did you lose them?" he asked curiously.
"The treatment for my spine affects my DNA." Charles answered shortly.
"You sacrificed your powers so you could walk?" Erik asked with a frown.
"I sacrificed my powers so I could sle-" Charles said, though he trailed off on the last word, squeezing his eyes shut as if uttering it caused him immense pain, and despite the fact that she didn't fully agree with him using Hank's medication in this way, Ivy felt sympathy for her friend. "What do you know about it?" Charles finally bit out.
"I've lost my fair share."
"Dry your eyes, Erik. It doesn't justify what you've done."
"You have no idea what I've done."
"I know you took the things that meant the most to me."
"Well, maybe you should have fought harder for them."
"If you're looking for a fight, Erik, I will give you a fight." Charles growled, suddenly rising from his seat and advancing toward Erik.
"Sit down." Logan demanded loudly, but neither Charles nor Erik made any effort to move.
"Let him come." Erik stated, his voice low and calm as Charles charged at him.
Charles grabbed him by the front of his shirt and shook him violently. "You abandoned me!" He screamed. "You took her away, and you abandoned me!"
"Angel. Azazel. Emma. Banshee." Erik recited, seemingly unfazed by the other man's reaction, though his own voice grew louder and more forceful as he continued. "Mutant brothers and sisters, all dead! Countless others experimented on, butchered!"
Suddenly, the plane started to pitch forward drastically. Multiple ear piercing alarms erupted from the cockpit as Hank struggled to control the plane. Ivy tilted from the drastic shift before her seatbelt suddenly tightened around her to the point where it was nearly painful. "Where were you, Charles?" Erik practically roared, staying completely upright despite the nosediving plane as Charles stumbled backward onto the couch. "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 please." Hank begged from the cockpit as the beeps grew louder and louder.
"You abandoned us all!" Erik snarled, and a few moments later, the plane gently levelled out and returned to its normal cruising.
Charles slowly got to his feet releasing his death grip on the couch, and with a final look towards Erik he disappeared into the cockpit with Hank. Erik watched him go, his tightly curled fists relaxing as he blinked and finally looked away.
"So you were always an asshole." Logan said nonchalantly, placing his ashtray back on the table in front of him and taking a new cigar out from his pocket.
Erik scowled and turned to face him and asked sarcastically. "I take it we're best buddies in the future?"
Logan cocked his head to the side, shaking it slightly as he flicked his lighter. "I spent a lot of years trying to bring you down, bub."
"How does that work out for you?"
The other man smirked as he took a deep drag from the cigar between his lips. "You're like me. You're a survivor." Ivy perked up at that and she and Erik shared a look before Logan spoke again. "You wanna pick that shit up?" He asked, gesturing toward Erik and the trash strewn about the plane, both of Erik's eyebrows raised at the command but he did take note of the mess he'd made of the plane.
"You know," Erik's voice spoke into the silence hours following his outburst, Charles was still up in the cockpit with Hank and Logan was fast asleep sitting upright with his arms folded across his chest in his chair, "If I ever saw you again after getting out of the godforsaken place, I was expecting to see a little one running around."
Ivy scoffed a laugh, "You and me both," she responded moving her legs off of the bench so he could take the seat beside her, then she just threw them across his lap, "Though not for lack of trying," Erik grimaced and she laughed softly before admitting, "I can't have children, or at least I'm pretty sure I can't."
Erik's face dropped and he looked truly remorseful, "Blume," he began, placing his hand on her knee.
"It's alright," Ivy said, shaking her head, "I've made peace with it. We both have."
He nodded, "How did you find out?"
"How does anyone?" Ivy sighed sifting in her spot taking his hand, "I was pregnant, barely a week in, and then I just wasn't." She shrugged, "Couple of days later Alex got drafted, and then before he was deployed," she trailed off and Erik just nodded, "Few weeks later the same thing. He still doesn't know about that baby."
Erik nodded in understanding, "When was the last time you spoke to him?"
"Almost three months now."
He squeezed her hand, "I'm sure he's fine."
She smiled at his attempt at comforting her, "I know he is, I just want him to come home." He nodded squeezing her hand again, "Thank you for sending Azazel."
"I did promise that I'd watch out for you didn't I?"
"Something like that," she smiled softly ducking her head and began playing with his fingers if he minded he didn't say anything, "Is he really dead?"
Erik sighed, "Yes."
She nodded, then decided to change the topic, "You know, it's never too late to fix things?"
"It's been ten years, we haven't been together for ten hours and things have gone to shit."
"Better late than never. You're both either too stubborn or proud to admit it, but this isn't going to work unless the two are together."
"How?"
"You're clever, you'll figure something out."
After that their conversation slowly fizzled out until they both fell asleep. Shortly after that, Charles finally exited the cockpit and paused at the sight of them together, he knew that Ivy was important to Erik and vice versa so it would only make sense that Erik's future self would need her by his past self's side.
Sometime later after everyone had woken up and remained in a tense silence, Erik broke it by walking over to Charles and setting down a brown box, which he opened to reveal a chessboard with the white and black figures already set in their respective positions.
"Fancy a game? It's been awhile," Erik offered, behind them Ivy nodded approvingly at his chosen olive branch.
"I'm not in the mood for games, thank you," the telepath responded shortly as he sipped from his glass of whiskey, turning his head away from his friend to stare outside the window.
Erik reached over and picked up his own glass and poured himself some of the amber liquid. "I haven't had a real sip in ten years," Erik lamented, perching himself on the table as he took a swig of the alcohol. His eyes closed as he savoured the expensive drink before he looked down looking at Charles. "I didn't kill the president,"
"The bullet curved, Erik," Charles argued.
"Because I was trying to save him. They took me out before I could."
"Why would you try and save him?"
"Because he was one of us," Erik answered easily, Ivy glanced at Logan who only shrugged in response, apparently even in the future that wasn't common knowledge.
Charles' face softened, letting out a scoff as he stared at him in shock, "You must think me so foolish," he muttered. "We've always said they would come for us," he added, shaking his head.
"I never imagined they'd use Raven's DNA to do it," Erik admitted, looking down to the floor, ashamed.
"When did you last see her?"
"The day I left Dallas,"
"And how was she?"
"Strong. Driven. Loyal..."
"How...How was she?" Charles clarified, closing his eyes.
"She was... We were-" Erik couldn't find the words to say the right thing. "I could see why she meant so much to you. You should be proud of her, Charles," He stated, with a smile. "She's out there fighting for our cause,"
"Your cause," Charles immediately corrected. "The girl I raised, she was not capable of killing," he reminded.
"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," Charles said slowly, leaning forward over the table.
Erik smiled slightly, then shook his head, "That's not my power, she made a choice," he added.
"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," Charles almost in a whisper.
"Not if we get to her first. Not if we change history tomorrow," Erik paused, looking into his old friend's eyes. "I'm sorry, Charles," Erik finally admitted, his voice a much more gentle tone. "For what happened. I truly am."
Charles clearly didn't take the apology as well as he closed his eyes taking a deep breath before he downed the rest of the alcohol in his glass. "It's been awhile since I've played," Charles started, clearing his throat.
"I'll go easy on you," Erik teased before he picked up his own drink. "Might finally be a fair fight," He took a drink and Charles almost smiled, but it was gone just as quickly as it came.
"You have the first move."
They began to play silently and Logan looked to Ivy with a raised brow as if to say 'That's it?' to which Ivy responded with a shrug. Right now. It was as good as they were going to get.
ZabuzasGirl: Thank you, and yes I'm doing much better.
Fin-Fish Jun-Tenshi: The biggest loop so far.
Ivana Bocanegra: Me too.
cl9763: My mistake, thanks for pointing it out.
On we go into DOFP, the prison break scene was super far to write, and what do you guys think about Ivy's somewhat friendship with Peter, and her ever-evolving one with Erik? Also would y'all like a quick check-in with Alex, and what do you think is gonna happen in Paris?
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.
Stay safe everyone.