Paris was as beautiful as everyone said. Even though unfortunately they didn't have time to appreciate its beauty. They were on a time crunch and it seemed like the entire city wanted to be apart of the treaty signing.
Ivy was only mildly surprised to learn that Erik spoke French fluently, as he easily requested them a rental car, and he seemed to have a decent grasp on the city's geography as he drove them through the city. Charles in the passenger seat, while she was in the backseat jammed between Hank and Logan.
Finally pulling up to the embassy Erik stopped at the security booth when prompted but instead of signing in, he simply waved a hand and the metal beam rose in response and he continued to drive them through.
"Stay behind me." Erik instructed placing a hand on her back as he passed her, Ivy nodded and quickly before anyone noticed or could warn her that it was a bad idea, which she already knew. She took a Erik's hand deporting two metal balls in it, without breaking stride he slipped them into his coat pocket.
He lead the group up the stairs and down a long, carpeted hallway and as until they finally approached the conference room, where there were shouts of alarm from inside. Before they could rush in, out rushed a gaggle of an Vietnamese delegates. They pushed through the large doors entering into quite the chaotic scene. Men in uniform were on the floor, crouched in pain, and Raven was perched on the table in her natural blue state aiming a gun right at a small man's forehead.
"Raven!" Charles snapped, distracting her for just long enough for her eyes to turn to the doorway and a second later thin threads of silver were shot at her and she convulsed, falling to the table's surface, thanks to the lieutenant on the floor with his taser.
"Raven? Raven!" Charles cried in worry as he rushed to her side.
"Erik?" Ivy called and he immediately used his powers to yank the threads from her neck and into the man's neck that fired at her in the first place.
"Raven?" Charles repeated gently stroking his sister's hair, she was still slightly thrashing still feeling the aftershocks of the taser.
"Charles?" She breathed at the sight of her brother.
"We've come for you, Erik, and I..." Charles explained. "Together." He added in a whisper.
"I never thought I'd see you again," Raven whispered tenderly.
"I made you a promise a long time ago that I would protect you," Charles reminded her. "I'm going to keep you safe. I'm going to keep you out of their hands,"
Ivy heard an unfamiliar groaning and turned to see Logan falling back against the wall staring down at he man still twitching on the floor.
"Logan?" She asked gently. "Are you okay?" Before he could respond something floating through the air beside her caught her attention. It was the handgun that Raven had been holding as it floated right into Erik's waiting hand.
"Erik..." Raven asked, her voice trembling.
"Erik? What are you doing?" Charles echoed extending his hand, as if that would be able to stop his old friend.
"Securing our future," He answered coldly, loading the gun.
"Erik don't do this." Ivy almost begged but he didn't even spare her a glance.
"Forgive me, Mystique. As long as you're out there, we'll never be safe," Erik stated a serious expression, Raven looked utterly terrified, looking from Charles, then back to Erik
"Erik," Hank warned.
"Use your power, Charles!" Raven ordered nervously, since logically that would be the best course of action."Stop him!" she begged, as Charles let out a shaky breath.
"He can't," Erik stated plainly, ominously.
Raven shot up, making a run for the window on the far side of the room and leaping off the end to jump out of the window.
Then several things happened at once, the gun went off which seemed to startle Logan to the point where his claws shot out of his fists, he fell back against the wall, unfortunately Ivy was right beside him as he lashed out and his claws sliced into her shoulder, as they retracted again.
Her bleeding shoulder came in second to Raven running along the table then leaping through the window, the bullet followed her courtesy of Erik who remained unphased even as Hank tackled him. The shattering of glass echoed throughout the room as Raven broke through the window, the bullet following her. Screams could be heard from the street below.
"Where am I?" Logan questioned, causing Charles to look over to him in confusion.
"Huh?" Charles asked confused, looking over his shoulder, immediately catching sight of Ivy and rushing to her side, "Are you alright?"
"It was an accident." She told him quickly catching the lost look on the taller man's face.
"How the hell did I get here?" Logan asked again, with wild eyes
"Charles, something's wrong," Ivy told him.
"What? You came to us," Charles corrected, still confused.
Logan looked at the room in confusion and fear, before suddenly grabbing Charles roughly by his jacket.
"Who are you?" Logan practically shouted as he eyed him up and down.
"Charles," Charles answered absently, and Logan grabbed the lapels of his jacket, nearly lifting him from the ground. "Charles Xavier!" He exclaimed, staring with wide eyes at the older mutant.
"I don't know you!" Logan exclaimed loudly, as he narrowed his eyes at Charles again.
"What?" Charles said, still very confused.
Logan's eyes suddenly widened, "What the hell is that?!" He exclaimed, stepping back, and both Ivy and Charles turned to see the familiar blue form of Hank's beast.
Hank growled at Logan, more than insulted, and Charles turned to look at him, "Whoa. Whoa," held his hands up between the two men to calm them down. "Look, I can deal with this go. Stop Erik!" Charles ordered, snapping his attention back to Logan.
Hank looked at Ivy then down to her wound and back up, when she nodded he roared before sprinting across the room, jumping out the same window Raven had moments ago. The colonel on the ground finally pulled the prongs from his neck and stumbled to his feet, casting one more glance around the room before he quickly ran out.
"That's Hank McCoy, I'm Charles Xavier you're spent that last few days with us," Charles rushed out trying his best to placate whatever had come over Logan, "You're acid?" He added after a beat, "Someone gave you really bad acid, yeah?" He shrugged, Logan was starting to calm down but Ivy doubted that it had anything to do with what Charles was saying, "Hold onto that, we'll get through this."
Charles went back to tending to Ivy as Logan's mind finally began to clear and his claws retracted, "Where did you go?" Ivy asked carefully as Charles took of his jacket wrapping it around her shoulders to cover up her bloody appearance.
Logan looked like he was about to answer but then his eyes suddenly widened, "Kid," he began carefully.
"Its alright," she told him immediately, "It was an accident."
"We need to go."
Unfortunately there weren't any medical supplies suitable to fix her up on the plane, so instead Hank had to make due with the meager first aid kit patching up her shoulder to stem the bleeding and from that point all she could do was wait silently nursing her pain until they got back to New York.
It was quiet as they walked into the mansion, Hank was supporting Ivh as they walked, but the moment they entered the foyer Charles suddenly collapsed to the floor, crying out in pain. It was just like in Cuba, the same action.
"What happened?" Logan asked running forward. "Why can't he walk?" The gruff mutant asked again, as Ivy let go if Hank so he could help Charles up from the floor.
"He needs his treatment," the scientist explained.
"Hank, I can hear them," Charles whimpered putting a hand to his head, as Hank leaned him against a pillar.
Hank and Ivy glanced at each other both feeling hopeless, "It's okay, I'll make it stop, I'll get it," he said quickly, before running up the stairs.
Charles let out another groan of pain, hands over his head in a futile attempt to keep his mind silent.
"Hey, hey, pull yourself together," Logan attempted to reassure, while looking Charles up and down, a mixture of concern and distain on his face. "It's not over yet," he assured.
"You don't believe that," Charles said with a bitter laugh as he looked Logan over.
"How do you know that?" Logan asked in surprise.
Charles gave him a calculating smile as his hand trembled by his leg, "As these goes," he motioned to his legs before steadily raising his hand and pointing to his head. "This comes back," He then seemed to physically wince as a fresh wave hit him. "They all come back!" he cried out.
As much as Ivy didn't enjoy Charles' use of his medication she didn't enjoy seeing him in such much pain even more. She moved to sit beside him on the steps and took his hand. He squeezed it tightly. Turning to bury his head into her shoulder, Ivy's heart broke at the amount if pain her friend had to have been in.
"Look, I'm...I'm still here. She's still out there. But we need your help, Charles. Not like this, I need you. We can't find Raven, not without your powers,"
Charles' turned to glare at him before shrugging off his jacket and started to roll his sleeve up.
"I added a little extra cause you missed a dose," Hank informed rushing back down the stairs, before he hesitantly handed Charles the needle full with the translucent yellow serum.
He dropped Ivy's hand and took the needle staring at it almost hungrily, even licking his lips.
"Charles," Logan called sternly.
Ivy shared another disappointed look with Hank who hung his head shamefully. Charles caught the look between them then looked back at the needle, he sighed heavily before placing the syringe down onto the steps.
Ivy looked back over at him in shock, he took her hand again before looking up at Hank, "Hank do me a favor, would you help me to my study please?" he asked, already starting to sound like his old self.
Hank smiled a little before pulling one of Charles' arms over his shoulder, easily supporting his weak, helping him over to the study.
It wasalmaot incredible how quickly Charles lost the feeling in his legs once more, by the time they'd arrived to the study Hamk was nearly carrying him. Ivy went ahead of them and opened the door to the closet in there to reveal a dusty wheelchair that hadn't been used in a very long time. Charles stared at the thing like it was a nightmare.
Hank looked down at him,"Are you sure about this?" Hank asked with concern.
"Absolutely not,"
Ivana Bocanegra: Hey love, so Ivy's powers would be more similar to Earth Bending I guess, or Geokinesis is you will. I didn't want to limit her abilities to just "plant manipulating" because I think that people get a very vivid picture in their minds if the vines and things like that and with what I have planned for Ivy's future I didn't want to limit her. So I'd say more similar to Earth Bending.
pigless9: Thank you so much, welcome to the family.
Big time apologies for the lateness on this chapter, my computer has died so I had to finish this chapter on my phone and will probably have to finish this book on my phone which I do not look forward to. But I'll make it work.
Do you guys wanna see a quick checkin with Alex? What would you guys like to see go down during the final big stadium battle?
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.
Stay safe everyone.