Logan, Charles, and I break off from the tour group and head down a stairwell. I'm careful not to let my reassuring nod to Hank get caught on camera. We make it to my hallway first. The floor is really gross, for a second I debate backing out. Then I remember how much of an effort it takes me to use my ability in any sort of useful capacity beyond making an apple when I'm hungry.
"Are you sure about this?" Charles asks as I make sure my contraption is placed correctly.
"It'll be fine. Worse comes to worse I'll just wake up from this crazy dream," I tell him, brushing off his worries. I'm pretending I don't have his worries. The whole different world thing is weighing heavily on me. I just hope being bad at staying dead is a multiverse thing that would be one unanticipated way to go out. "Get going. You have a minute to get out of here."
Logan pulls him away and gives me a nod. I turn and walk back the way we came, slowly, until someone appears. Then I stumble into a wall as loud as I reasonably can to draw attention and hit the button. I hear shouting after I hit the ground and then it's all gone.
It comes together slowly. Like re-emerging from underwater after you've been holding your breath for a while. One big deep breath in that I hope no one is noting. I'm always confused in those first few moments, especially if it's a shorter "down time" but following personal protocol when I wake up has me slipping away unnoticed. So I do as soon as I hear shouting at one end of the hall.
I use the chaos and blend in with the congested hallway when I remember what I'm supposed to be doing. A few more turns and I yank my homemade heart stopper out from under my shirt and toss it into the garbage bin as I make it into the kitchen.
"What's up ladies?" I call out throwing the door open to see Charles, Logan, Peter and I assume Erik, standing near three incapacitated guards. He's handsome, honestly they all are, but Erik is my type. Tall, blue eyes, strong jaw line, and resolute in his ideals.
"You're alive," Charles says in astonishment.
"If I had a dollar for everytime I heard that, I could buy this place," I tell him with a smirk. "Now, are we done arguing or would you like to wait for the five armed guards to get here too?"
Charles fixes me with a glare that I ignore. Instead my eyes sweep over Erik. He looks like he belongs in a mental institution but he pulls it off very very well. Logan gives me a firm nod and I move on to the next part of the plan glad they didn't ask any further questions. My eyes narrow as I focus on the four of them. Then I snap my fingers and hope it works. The sprinklers stop and I sigh in slight relief. Hopefully they didn't freeze too.
"So that's how you did it," Peter states and I smile, not letting my focus waver.
"No, I've only been able to do this for two minutes, you're just predictable, Einstein," I tell him. "Now let's go, I can't hold it forever."
They rush ahead of me, Logan tapping me on the shoulder as he does. "Charles," I call out, stopping him. I need him to guide me. The more people I freeze, the lower my framerate gets so to speak. Everything gets out of sync the more I move.
"What's wrong?" He asks worried. I just reach out and grab his arm.
"Don't lead me into a wall," I tell him in explanation and he realizes I'm not quite all here in this moment. Our feet move and I don't clip any walls so I assume he's actually helping me.
"It's alright, Beth, we're out," he says softly.
Everything snaps back into place and I stumble a bit, my balance realigning. I look at the four concerned faces and then wave them off. Flipping my hair back, I fix a smirk onto my face and measure their reactions.
"Anyone got an apple?" I ask, relaxing before rubbing my eyes to fight the drowsiness. Once we make it to the plane I'll be able to sleep.
"You don't look so good," Logan says.
"He was right, you really are perceptive aren't you? Food of any kind? Please, before I pass out? I may not have taken into account the amount of rest I've had before I did that," I explain, as soon as we make it to the car, Peter is holding an orange, a twinkie, and a granola bar in front of my face.
"Couldn't find an apple," he explains and I smile.
"Thanks Peter," I tell him, sliding into the back seat. They follow my lead and we wait for Hank. "So how do you feel about robots?" I ask the kid as I peel the orange.
"Well, they're going to take over the world someday so I try not to speak badly about 'em," he says with a shrug.
"Don't trust them, kid, you'll end up shot," I tell him seriously, ignoring the concerned looks. "The only robot you can trust is Vision, and even then, he still doesn't mind his business. You two probably wouldn't get along, he's even more self righteous than Mr Xavier over there. And I think he's dating your sister, at least he was, but I haven't seen them in months."
"Is any of this supposed to make any sense?" Erik asks Charles.
"Long story," he mutters.
"You can get it after I nap," I say once I've got the peel off and am picking off the pith and tossing it out the window.
"You're not asleep now," Peter points out. "And I did get you food."
"Fine. You've figured out my weakness. I'm from a parallel world in the year 2018. Some purple hobgoblin sent me here because me and a few of my friends decided we didn't want him to wipe out half the universe. You are the first overlap I've encountered besides some vague events," I summarize pointing to Peter at that last part.
"Really?" He asks in surprise. "What's parallel universe me like?"
"Well, for starters, dead," I tell him. That kind of stops the conversation short. I smirk. "What? You didn't see that coming?"
"How'd he die?"
"Saved a kid and another one of my friends from a hail of bullets. I didn't know him very long but we were fast friends. Steve kind of hated him. Pietro didn't have his abilities for very long, still learning. A mad scientist experimented on him, gave him his powers. He wasn't as fast as you. Maybe someday he could have been with proper training," I murmur softly. "So don't trust the mad scientists either."
"What's it like? This other world of yours?" Logan asks.
"I was born in '83 so I don't remember the 70s, obviously, and my take on the 80s isn't very reliable. But my team went public in 2012. We kind of had to. Aliens invaded New York. They were going to nuke the whole city but we worked around it. Things were great for a little while after but we uncovered a nazi organization entangled in the government. When we took them down, things got messy. We stopped another global disaster, where we lost Pietro. But this time, all of the politicians whose pockets took a hit when Hydra went down weren't on our side and it only built up from there. The team disbanded. Argued about putting the avengers under the UN. Broad strokes of course. There was more to it.
"I was visiting a friend when aliens invaded New York again. Chasing after the Infinity Stones. A dude named Thanos wants to collect all six and then use their power to destroy half of all life across the universe. He thinks that if he eliminates half of everything then the half that's left will flourish. Why he doesn't just double the resources is beyond me. I don't know how that one ended, kind of got sent here during the fight," I continue.
"People knew about your powers but...they weren't afraid?" Peter asks carefully.
"Not afraid, no. Angry maybe. The media put its spin on everything. If you associate people like us with death and destruction then yes. Of course people will fear you. Get them in the media saving the world from aliens, you get a lot more fan clubs. There's Hank," I add ending story time.
"Time to go," Charles commands.
"You speak like it's a media war," Erik whispers to me softly.
"That's because it is. Did you watch the first televised presidential debate?" I ask him, he nods. "Did you know that most voters when confronted by their two views on paper actually preferred Nixon? He didn't know how to play the game though, he looked weak and sick because he didn't put on stage makeup. Without those televised debates, Kennedy would have never won. And that's just one country."
"Is that how you suggest we solve this mutant problem?"
"If you're asking for my opinion, first, stop calling it a problem. If you call it a problem then other people will think it's a problem and it isn't. Second, get a camera crew and go save some orphans."
"And Raven?"
"Nothing you'll like," I tell him grimly, staring out the window and finishing off the orange and starting in at the granola bar.
"How'd it go?" Hank asks as we drive off.
"Unfortunately, it went well," Charles mutters.
"Hank," Erik greets, receiving a nod from the man.
We pull up next to the plane and I waste no time before boarding and promptly passing out. It will still be an hour before take off as they clear out a flight plan. I'm sure take off will wake me up.
XxX
We'll lose.
And how many do we win?
I've heard about you.
You deserve better, Anna.
The little girl that death rejects.
I'm sorry.
I guess I'll have to try harder.
You know, you used to say it back.
It's about staying together one more day.
Yes.
Do you even see me anymore?
One.
Then we'll do that together too.
I don't even recognize you anymore.
Goodbye, little girl.
"Beth, Beth wake up," I look around frantically and jump to my feet as the world steadies as I wake up. I look at Logan on the ground and frown. I think I put him there. A glance at my hands shows bolts of energy flickering through them and I take a deep breath. Once I calm down the energy seems to disappear back into the air.
"You were shouting in your sleep," Charles explains.
"I'm just glad you weren't armed," Logan mutters, rubbing the muscles up and down his arm.
"Sorry. I guess I could have warned you," I say absently, sitting back down. "How long was I out?"
"About three hours," Erik answers. "Who's Tony?"
"My least favorite best friend."
"Who's your most favorite?" Charles asks with a frown.
"Natasha."
"You were calling out for him," Erik elaborates.
"He was fighting the purple hobgoblin with me. Actually that's when I met my brother for the first time too. Well, half brother. He was abducted by aliens when I was five."
"You have a lot of contact with aliens in your world," Charles muses.
"Yeah, I guess so. Hey, have we landed on the moon yet?" I ask because I can't remember when that happened.
"Yes. Few years ago," Charles responds.
"Right, we're in the middle of the Cold War. I'll be honest it never really interested me too much. I mean if you're gonna hold a gun to someone's head at least fire it at some point," I mutter with an eye roll.
"So nothing ever became of this tension? What about the war?" Erik asks.
"Vietnam or Korea? We lost one of them, I think Vietnam. Doesn't really matter. It's all about the propaganda anyways. Cold war's going to go on for another seven years though. Wanna know how we win?" I ask with a smirk. The answer is going to blow their minds.
"How?" Erik asks dryly.
"We beat the Russians at a hockey game."
"I beg your pardon," Charles says in shock.
"I think the score was five to something? They call it the miracle on ice. No blood shed or anything. Pretty sure there wasn't even a fight."
"You're lying. There's no way this doesn't end in a fight," Charles says firmly.
"Well after all of the finger pointing with McCarthyism, everybody gets tired of the paranoia. The American people just need a victory and the USSR's hockey team was set to win. Completely blew our team to dust in the scrimmage beforehand ten times something. Then we somehow won when it counted," I explain with a shrug.
"What do you do in this new world besides fighting aliens?" Logan asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Worked with the government for a bit. CIA type job. Then that whole Hydra fiasco happened and the avengers kind of became its own thing. Past year or so I was waitressing, hiding from the government...and my—. I was on my own for the most part," I say softly, stopping myself before I mention the ex. It's not their business. "You do what you have to."
"I suppose we all do," Charles murmurs, staring Erik down with something I can only describe as hatred. There's something big between them.
"How did you lose them?" Erik asks him, his eyes still on me although he does try to be discreet.
"The treatment for my spine affects my DNA."
"You sacrificed your powers so you could walk?" He clarifies.
"I sacrificed my powers so that I could sleep," Charles bites back. "What do you know about it?"
"I've lost my fair share."
I share a glance with Logan. This isn't going to end well. I stretch out as their conversation grows in tension. Erik stands up first and I lazily follow suit, power slowly humming to life as I do so. The plane starts to tip and I roll my eyes and freeze time, not bothering with any of them.
I go to the cockpit and make sure Hank is alright before stepping up into Erik's personal space. I unfreeze him and he stumbles back from me in shock before glaring and trying to fuck with the plane some more.
"This is my game, sweetheart. You don't get to play when you're in time out."
"And yet you didn't include Charles."
"He's not the one trying to flip the plane upside down," I point out. "Whatever happened between you, put it on the back burner."
"Easy for you to say. You don't know what happened. What I've lost. They slaughtered my team and he could have stopped it. I could have stopped it. They were captured, experimented on, butchered. Our friends. You have no idea what that's like. You with your happy little world."
I set my face into something neutral and pull off the jacket I'm wearing then stretch down the turtle neck. The scars are always there. One big jagged line going all around my neck from where I was decapitated. That one isn't the one I'm concerned about now. Two almost identical marks stretching nearly the height of my neck on either side of my windpipe. I trace them with my free hand so he knows which I'm referring to.
"I got these when I was ten. The doctors found it easier to control me when I was trying not to drown in my own blood," I explain with a cold detachment, covering my neck again before pulling up my shirt revealing a scar the size of my fist. "When I was fourteen, to keep me from running away after some people tried to get me out." I turn my wrist and reveal a list of names cut into my skin. "This is everyone I was too late to save. People that came to help me, friends stuck in the same hell, just as talented. You're not special for preaching on your soap box and demanding blood in revenge."
"And you allowed those men to get away with what they did?" Erik accuses. My neutral expression gives way to a smirk.
"Of course not. And I'm not trying to convince you not to kill your own demons. I'm telling you to get your head on straight and stop pointing fingers at the pacifist. Your heart's not in it and we both know it."
"He's not going to like your plan you know," Erik states and I cock an eyebrow and smirk. Handsome and smart. I should keep an eye on this one.
"What plan is that?"
"Killing Raven before she can get to Trask."
"No, she's probably already in Paris. Do you know how much DNA you can get from a dead body? No, Raven isn't the problem, the problem is Trask and his handy dandy iron man knock offs. Tell me Erik, are you willing to become the enemy to save the enhanced?"
"What are you asking me?" He asks with a tilt of his head and furrowed brows.
"Do the ends justify the means?" I ask, meeting his eyes as the world starts to blur. Our time is running out.
I explain the plan as quickly as possible. Thankfully it isn't hard enough to convince him. He's used to being the fall guy. I stumble back to my seat in the uneven terrain. Freezing time isn't exactly a cake walk.
"Are you sure this will work?" He asks and I smile.
"It will," I tell him using his eyes to center myself. Time resumes and he's sitting where he was before he decided to play model plane. Charles looks around frantically before settling his eyes on him as he acts like their argument hadn't even happened. Fuming, he goes to the cockpit with Hank.
"So you were always an asshole," Logan points out and I chuckle. Erik gives him a judgmental glare.
"I take it we're best buddies in the future," he states as Logan lights up a cigar.
"I spent a lot of years trying to bring you down, bub."
"How does that work out for you?"
"You're like me. You're a survivor. You want to pick all that shit up?" Logan asks Erik nodding to the mess he made when he began to tilt the plane.
"Isn't it illegal to smoke on planes?" I ask him flatly.
"Not yet," he responds with a smirk and I give him a point for that.
"Of course, you know they'll kill you?" I continue and he nods with an amused smirk. "Not quickly either. It'll be drawn out and slow. Your lungs will rot but they can go on for a while. The extremities are what you lose first. It's all very ugly."
"If it will kill me I'll try it," he states and I roll my eyes.
"Well isn't that promising," I drawl.
"Do you ever shut up?" Logan asks.
"Not on days that end in y."
XxX
"Are they seriously playing chess? I just aged ten years," I tell Logan flatly when I wake up after a short catnap. Banner tried to teach me a few times but I didn't have the patience for it. My plans are better made when the pieces aren't limited by stupid things like movement.
"They do that a lot," Logan responds leisurely.
"And what do you do then? Knock the board over when they start arguing?"
"I teach history. Are you usually this antsy?"
"No, I'm just bored to death. Usually my fi—I mean Steve is going over the plan for the millionth time and I'm filling Thor in on the culture gaps or challenging Sam to a dart game while Barton can't join," I answer with an eye roll.
"Who's Steve?"
"No one," I state firmly, daring him to pry with a look.
"Any idea how to get back?" He asks instead, deciding to move on. It's a healthy choice.
"Just to go looking. Hell, maybe I'll find the Thanos of this universe and throw him through the wood chipper. Sounds therapeutic actually. I'm sure I'll find something along the way. Maybe Strange is in this universe somewhere, there's got to be more overlap than Maximoff."
"I didn't kill the president," I hear Erik say and I turn sharply to look at him.
"The bullet curved, Erik," Charles points out, not looking at him.
"Because I was trying to save him. They took me out before I could," Erik explains and I get excited.
"All is right in the world," I tell Logan who's just giving me a judgmental eyebrow raise. Yeah he's probably a pretty good history teacher.
"Why would you try and save him?"
"Because he was one of us," Erik states.
"You must think me so foolish. We've always said they would come after us."
"I never imagined they would use Raven's DNA to do it."
"You know, in my universe, it was the evil government parasite that killed JFK. I know the assassin too. Heck of a lot of brainwash there. Anyone that gets in his head just starts crying—all two of them so far. WW2 veteran and—cherry on top, he has a metal arm. So I really, really, hope that holds up in this universe because I will never drop it," I tell Logan, ignoring their conversation now that it turned personal.
"You and me both."
"Tell me about your world Logan."
"Isn't that against the rules?"
"Well I am only 85 percent positive I won't be able to find a way back to my world, and you're here to change your future anyways. So why not break some?"
"15 percent?"
"I've always been an optimist," I tell him brightly like the numbers I just gave him are much better than they really are.
"We find family. It takes me a while to get with the program and then the sentinels drove a wedge in that. Destroyed the school, sent everyone on the run."
"No way to hack them?"
"No, not after they evolved anyway. People tried but anyone that made it close got killed."
"You guys have such a community. Probably have enough numbers to shake the world, but everyone is too afraid to take that first step. Especially with all the violence the media throws at anyone different. When New York happened, I mean the first time, some kid in my apartment building started sneaking off and cracking down on street crime. Found a lot of missing pets, that sort of thing. Something's got to hit the water first if there's going to be ripples."
"In this case it's a shapeshifter killing a sadistic tech millionaire," Logan replies dryly.
"I could kill him first," I state with a shrug. "Then she can kill me to take the edge off-everyone's happy as long as it's off camera."
"Good luck convincing Charles."
"I'll just point in the other direction and yell about a sad orphan. Anyone got a picture of Trask by the way? I usually have a dossier for a mission like this," I ask louder. "You guys are alarmingly unprofessional and I once accepted a job where I got paid in waffles."
"You're not killing anyone Miss Quil," Charles reprimands absently.
"You're not my captain, Mr Xavier. Besides, I only sometimes listen to my captain's orders. I wish Romanoff was here. You'd get a kick out of her—she's Russian too. Obeys orders even less than I do. Although she does listen to Fury."
"Who is on that team of yours?" Erik asks with a frown.
"Tony, he's iron man. A genius and possibly the only billionaire I'll ever respect. You two would hate each other. Thor, he's asgardian. The very same dude from all that Norse mythology. Barton, his field name is Hawkeye. He's got this thing with the bow and arrow. Honestly not the most useful but he keeps everyone level headed. Natasha, black widow, she's a super spy. Raised in this weird pseudo orphanage that turned out assassins. No super powers—like Barton, but she'd still lay every single one of you out on your ass. Bruce, he's got like fifteen different doctorates and an anger management issue. He turns into this green rage monster the size of a hummer called the hulk whenever he gets angry. He's not the dossier type like Bruce, we just point him in the direction of the bad guys and hope Stark's wallet can cover the damages. Kind of like Hank actually, only bigger, angrier, and we're not sure a nuke would take him down. Then there's Steve, he uh, super soldier. That's his deal...team captain too. That's the original team. We gained some members over the years."
"Like Peter?" Logan asks.
"Peter came along later. Stark dug him up. He's just a kid, so Tony kept him out of the action but he ended up fighting Thanos with us, hopefully the poor kid makes it home...wait. You meant Maximoff?"
"Yep."
"In my universe, he was Pietro. From Sokovia with his twin sister, Wanda. They volunteered for experiments, not their brightest moment, a Stark weapon blew up their home so they figured enhancements were the only way to get to him. I infiltrated the base they were held at and we made friends before it all went to shit...how long until we're there?"
"What? Afraid you'll accidentally say something personal?" Erik points out.
"I've always revealed more in between the lines, learn to read," I counter, my lips twitching. He knows enough though.
"Your world is a dream," Charles states dryly and I just chuckle.
I open my mouth to disagree when I catch Erik's eyes on me. The chess board in front of them makes a lot more sense. I feel like I'm on one side with the both of them staring back at me. This was a move in Natasha's playbook too. I shut my mouth and smirk. There's nothing for me to prove and they're just looking for weaknesses. Good play though, I'm sure they must've worked very well with each other before whatever bad blood between them settled.
"You want to know something real?" I offer them twenty quiet minutes later after they've moved on. "The last time I was in Paris was on the day I was supposed to get married."
"What happened?" Charles asks when I don't continue.
"I suppose it was a dream," I say fiercely. That's what they get for baiting me. Erik chuckles in my peripherals.
A/N: Yeah this one is long, I edited it instead of working.