Hank stares at me. We've been working on the suit for about six hours and now he's staring. I know what the stare means. It means he doesn't think there's anything we can do. It means Bogie is out of commission. Maybe Erik could figure it out. Animate it using his abilities but that's a long shot. Erik is brilliant and can exercise such control but this suit is a work of Tony Stark. Tony doesn't like to lose.
Strange knew what he was doing. He had to have seen me end up here. Maybe this is just a storm I need to wait out. One chance to defeat Thanos, this might be the part of the plan where I just need to have faith.
I pick up my hood from the table Bogie is laid out on. Tony is still there. I don't trust Strange, but I trust Tony with the safety of the world. Especially if Bruce is there. Yeah, with Bruce on Earth and Tony in space, they'll figure it out. They've got to. I look up from the hood and meet Hank's eyes.
"Can you keep this here? Tuck it away in a closet somewhere so that some tech junkie doesn't ruin the course of history? I'd hate for the government to start building iron man suits. Especially in this decade."
"Yeah, no problem," he says with a nod. "The safe thing would be to destroy it," he points out with a sympathetic gaze.
"Too much waste. Besides, I might need it, something from my own universe to point the way."
"Would you mind if I took a look at it?"
"Take proper precautions. Don't twist it into anything beyond recognition. This is material from an alternate universe so who knows if there's anything stemming from a problem of that nature."
"Of course," he agrees amicably.
"I've got to ask," Hank adds when I step away from the suit. I turn to him and give him my full attention. "What if you aren't meant to get back? Have you considered that maybe you're meant to be here now and that a return trip isn't possible?"
"My old mentor once told me something about breaking into a place, he said that you should never go somewhere without a plan to get out. I think he was always worried I'd get trapped in a lab, they'd cut into me and he'd have a whole lot of paperwork for the next month. But I'm in the dark here. Everything I know is just slightly wrong. Like blue raspberry. There's no such thing as blue raspberries. It still tastes good, it's just not right. So here I am, coming up with hypothesis that might not even be possible in this world. That's just what happens when there's no exit strategy I guess."
"What's your next plan?"
"I'm going to find my Mom," I tell him. That's what makes the most sense. Find my mom, keep my distance, wait for Ego. While I'm waiting, figure out the best way to arm wrestle a planet into doing my bidding.
"Would you like any help?" He offers.
"I guess I could use it. My method is guesswork now, given the fact that I am limited by the current time period. I've realized that I am far too dependent on the internet."
"Internet?"
"Ah, Hank, you're gonna love it," I tell him with a smile.
XxX
"Hank said I'd find you here," I announce stepping around the corner from Hank's office a few days of research later. Charles sat in his chair outside of a vault-like door, staring at it with what I decided was nervousness. "Right here. Contemplating," I add.
"Has he told you what it does?" Charles asks, his bright blue eyes locking onto mine.
"And that it would work better if you shaved your head," I state, drawing a laugh from him.
"Never."
"But, no one has actually explained what it is that you do. Erik mentioned that you're a telepath but never went into detail. I've met enough telepaths to know that it's quite a broad skill."
"You're right. I do not know how best to elaborate though," he says but his lips don't move. A second later I realized he said it in my head. He explains with what I imagine to be some of his own memories. Tracking down mutants, reading minds, controlling people, freezing people, and even the potential to kill as gleaned from the timeline Logan came from.
Must be nice not needing to vocalize that. I think at him like I would if Wanda were here. He smiles and nods.
You have a weird head, he responds and I arch an eyebrow. Hopefully that's not an insult. Your mind is slippery, hard to read. It's like I can sense you're here, I can see you but your head is like a ghost. I confess when I've looked for you and Erik in cerebro I couldn't find you.
"Maybe it's because I'm not from here," I state aloud.
"Then you shouldn't give up all hope of getting back to your world."
"However, it could also be due to my abilities, or even something Wanda did. She's been able to protect from mental attacks before and it wouldn't surprise me if her work is still in tact."
"And I can't read a dead mind," he points out with a shrug.
"Right. So maybe we'll never know…care to tell me why Hank knew you'd be sitting out here in the hall contemplating instead of in there searching?" I ask him, turning the conversation around.
"What if we're doing more harm than good? Bringing mutants together? Perhaps we're better off in hiding."
I contemplate the question before I answer. There's so many variables in play making it different from the avengers but it's not so different either. My gut answer is yes, everyone is stronger together than apart. But that didn't work out so well for the team. Many of the enhanced in this world don't have the ability to play normal though. Yes, coming together is a good idea. Of course, creating a team of highly talented individuals, or in this case a sanctuary, does tend to create an equally strong force of opposition. The individual should have the right to choose, and Charles will have the ability to silently give them that choice.
"Standing up in front of the world and being yourself is always going to be difficult. Even for the ordinary. Some people prefer a life full of normalcy; they'll discover they can control fire or something equally strange and decide to forget about it, pretend they can't do it. Others will decide it's a waste of course, try to turn these people into weapons. The point is, it's not your choice, Charles. It's theirs. But they'll benefit from having a safe place. People like Trask win by making us think we're alone, that we're minorities. Show them they're not."
"You've made quite an impact on the kids here you know. Are you sure you wouldn't like to stay? We could use some teachers," he offers.
"I'm not someone kids should be looking to for guidance. I give them unrealistic expectations. One moment I'm teaching them how to throw a strong right hook, next thing you know they think they can survive a jump from a tall building or something equally dangerous."
"I bet you're better than you think," he promises with a smirk and narrowed eyes.
"Oh stop trying to recruit me, old man," I drawl with an eyeroll. Fury's recruitment speech was way better. Even if he did only give it to me to be passive aggressive. Stark enjoyed it too, it was quite the bonding experience hacking the Shield agent's computer and watching cartoon reruns instead. Steve disapproved. Thor was talking through the entire thing and Nat and Clint escaped before the presentation even started. Banner took a nap. The good old days.
"I'm not old," he states, absolutely affronted by the mere thought. I laugh.
"Erik told me you guys would play a game of chess every night, if that's not an old person habit, I don't know what is."
"Chess is a game of strategy. You just don't have the patience," Charles retorts with a frown, wheeling back to the elevator leading above. I follow.
"Well that's fine, old people have to have patience 'cause they can't do much else," I continue to tease the man.
"You know what, I'm teaching you. Chess isn't boring," he scowls as he leads the way into the elevator.
"I already know how to play. Erik taught me when we had this same argument. In the end he agreed with me," I tell him smugly. Hopefully he doesn't peek into my head to see how that game went though because it was not rated PG.
The only way he convinced me to play was if it was strip chess. Lose an item of clothing for every piece you take excluding pawns. Erik agreed that chess was boring since there were other things we could be doing. I managed to come back from the brink of death by promoting a pawn and distracting him with my chest. That tactic won't work in this case.
Charles's scowl has taken on a new level so I assume he looked into my head. I laugh and smirk at him.
"That's what you get," I tell him smugly.
"Nonetheless I'm glad you found each other. You balance him out and soothe his more brutal impulses," Charles admits once we reach the ground floor. I follow him towards his study. He's actually going to make me play chess. Can I admit defeat now or do we have to go through with the formalities?
"He's a great man, he just holds a lot of anger and needs to learn how to channel it in more productive ways."
"He'd be a great teacher," Charles says slyly.
"You know better than I that he won't come back here. It's not something you want either," I correct.
"I suppose you're right."
"He'd be a wonderful teacher though. You're right about that," I allow. Erik is amazing with kids. It's something I try not to think about. There's too much trouble to think about that, it's only been three months since I got to this world. Less since we started dating or whatever it is we're doing. Mutual pining? Does breaking and entering on a mass scale count as dating? He's so good with those kids. Patient and gentle, comforting them but still gets them where they need to go. Damn I've got it bad.
"Raven though, you should try to convince her. She would be a great influence on the kids. Not many were caught up on current events, but the few that saw her and recognized her, their faces just lit up. These kids need to know they can do good. Before the media is painting them as bad guys again," I add although it's not where my head is. No, I'm thinking about a different set of blue eyes than the ones that look at me now. It's been five days since I've seen him. Five days too long.
"She doesn't want to hear from me. But I do try," he decrees.
"Patience," I tell him with a smirk. He scoffs and rolls his eyes, nodding to a board already set up on the coffee table of his study.
"Were you waiting for the chance to beat me in chess?" I ask him.
"No but I know Erik and I know you're probably tired of losing to him," Charles admits with a grin.
"I don't lose, I cheat."
"Yes, alright, maybe you shouldn't teach children then," he agrees. "Are you feeling any better by the way? Hank said you were quite ill this morning? Something about food poisoning?"
"Yeah, I ate some questionable eggs last night. Probably should have cooked them longer. I'm used to everything being idiot proof."
"We do have a resident cook for the children you know," he chides and I roll my eyes.
"Calm down little rich boy. I was just impatient."
"Now settle in, let's see what you know."
"Be prepared to win tragically."
AN:
Beth and Erik's sing is The Last of the Real Ones by Fall Out Boy because of the lyric "I was just an only child of the universe, and then I found you."
I know it's been a minute, what happened was I skipped to what comes after before I finished this. Now I've just got to edit but I'll be honest, this chapter and the chapter from the other day were not edited with a clear head.
I promise I will finish this fic in a timely manor.
Thanks for your patience, please like/follow/favorite/review or whatever *finger guns*