Chapter Seventeen

The transformation midair cleared any confusion, at least for those of us mutants.

"Raven, no!" Charles shouted, hand flying toward his temple. Raven dropped to the ground, spitting like a mad cat.

"You can't let them get away with this!" she screamed, still visibly straining against his mental hold.

"They won't, Raven. They will not get away with all they've done," Charles assured. "But killing them does no good. It only gives credence to their cause. Do not become like them."

"What- Who are you? Where's General Chapman?" Chairman Wheeler demanded. "What have you done with him?"

"Or have you been him this whole time?" General Johnson wore a horrified look as he took in Raven in her natural blue, and very naked, form. "You haven't been pretending to be a man-"

Trask, however, was transfixed. "She's magnificent," he breathed. "She's the key to all I need for my Sentinels."

The door to the chamber flung open, and in walked a man with a cruel smile and long, thick fingernails, followed by several other men, all bearing weapons of some sort. "Sorry we're late to the party," he said, "but it seems like the crew's all here. Even Jimmy, though I didn't really expect to see you."

Logan instantly growled, his claws coming out. "Sabretooth," he spat.

"Ah, Jimmy, that's no way to greet your brother, now is it?"

The two of them launched themselves at each other, from across the room, snarling and snapping as they clashed. The other new arrivals spread out, cutting us off from Trask and Stryker. "Well, this is gonna be a lot more fun than Stryker originally thought," the tall one with katanas said, swinging his swords as he cracked his neck.

Erik rolled his eyes and pulled the swords out of his hands, followed by all the guns in the room.

"That's cheating," the chatty one pouted, then charged ahead anyway, with his companions following behind.

One man could teleport, like Kurt or Azazel, and had the swift, sure hits of a boxer, while another seemed to move faster than a normal person. This one also seemed to not be terribly affected by any blow, even though Hank took him on with his massive strength. The chatty one also moved ridiculously quickly, though he moved his mouth even more, dodging every blast Alex shot at him with uncanny accuracy. The one who jumped straight for Erik didn't seem to even notice when Erik slammed a filing cabinet into him. The fifth one stayed back, behind his companions. "Lights out," he cackled, then the room went dark.

His teammates were clearly used to this, as they continued in their assault on my team. We were all thrown off, but Lotta immediately began to sing, and I joined her. I also focused on the unfamiliar energies I could feel and pulled on the one that felt strongest, since he was pulling all the electricity into himself. I heard a gasp, instantly followed by the light going back on. I grinned and pulled more on his power, and on those of his team. The teleporter grunted as he appeared in front of Alex and stumbled, clearly not where he had meant to go. And when he tried to teleport away, he couldn't go anywhere, and Alex's fist met his face.

Lotta and Moira stayed in front of Charles and me, guarding us as we took out Stryker's team. Charles was able to stop about half of them, and I got the rest just as Erik slammed the filing cabinet into the immovable object of a man once more. That man went down hard, and he didn't get up. "Thank you, meine Geliebte," Erik grinned at me.

Logan roared once more, throwing his opponent across the room and into the wall. Just to be on the safe side, I tugged on this Sabretooth's energy, enough to knock him out. And then I tugged on Trask's, just enough to keep him from being able to leave the room, like he'd been trying to do, under cover of the fight around him. "I don't think so," I said sweetly. "You'll have to stay here and face the natural consequences of your actions."

The backup the guards had called when Sabretooth burst into the room arrived just in time to help cuff Stryker, Trask, and his men. "What about all of them?" one of the new arrivals asked as he pointed to us.

General Johnson's response was immediate. "Arrest them, too! How do we know they aren't all working together?"

"Because they just wiped the floor with them," General McConnell said dryly.

"And I'm not about to arrest one of Helm's spooks," Secretary McNamara added. "That's a headache I'll avoid when I can."

In the end, the generals all decided against arresting us, though they were all quite keen on arresting Raven. If they could find her. To be honest, I wasn't sure if she had left, or had transformed into one of the guards, but I didn't care, and Charles clearly wasn't saying one way or the other. He did verify that General Chapman was alive, but unconscious, in his office.

There were hours of questions from the Joint Chiefs, though we were finally allowed to leave. By the end of it, I was nearly buzzing with all the energy I had pulled from the other mutants, not to mention all the electricity from the electric one, and I could feel it scratching away at the inside of my skin. I was so distracted that I was entirely unaware of what was going on around me. I came to when Erik cupped my cheeks in his hands. "Schatzi, give me some of it," he demanded, though I could hear the worry in his words. "Give me some. You don't have to keep it all in."

I stared at him, completely dumbfounded. "Give it-"

"Give me some of the power, schatzi," he murmured, stroking my cheeks with his thumbs. "You can't keep it contained until we get back to the school, and you are going to explode. You're shaking the plane, my love. Give it to me."

I turned away from him slowly, taking in the sight of the plane we were in, and our friends all around us. Lotta clutched my hand to my right, with a fierce sort of determination covering the fear on her face. While Hank wrestled with the yoke of the jet to keep us in the air, the rest of the team all clutched at their seats. Each one of them looked the same mixture of fear and determination as Lotta. "It will be alright, Bianca," Charles said, soft encouragement coating my mind with his every word. "Give some of it to Erik. It will help."

"Give each of us some." Alex suddenly jumped up and joined Lotta and Erik in front of me. "Give us each a little bit, that way you can let it go without overcharging Erik. We can all use a little pick-me-up, anyway," he added with a wry smile. "Let us help you," he whispered as he took my other hand.

I looked from him to Erik to Lotta, and I saw nothing more than love and determined support radiating from each of them. So, with a shaky nod, I let go of the power I held so tightly coiled inside me, just the tiniest bit. I focused on my hands, where Lotta and Alex held me, and my face, still in Erik's hands, and nudged a small amount towards each one, a tiny trickle.

All three instantly reacted, a small straightening of their shoulders that proved they had just the smallest bit of extra energy that had been lacking after our fight. It didn't seem to hurt any of them, so I let go of a little bit more. Slowly, in spurts, I was able to give the three of them enough of my excess energy that I was no longer in danger of downing the plane. And everyone relaxed.

"Thanks for not killing us, B," Hank called back to me over his shoulder, sparing me a huge grin.

"I'll always do my best to keep that from happening," I laughed, much lighter now. Slumping into Erik, who had moved back into his seat next to me, I closed my eyes. I still had more energy than usual, but it was a much more manageable amount. I would be able to make it until we got home, and then I could safely expel the excess.

Janie and Thompson met us at the air field, and she was bouncing. "I still can't believe you let me do that!" she squealed, tackling me with a hug. "You let me help with a mission!"

"Which won't happen again," Charles admonished, but none of us listened to him. It may have been his school, technically, but we all knew that we would be needed again. Whether he wanted to admit it or not.

"You delivered it to both The Times and The Post?" I asked her, instead of listening to Charles.

Janie puffed up with pride at having performed her part well. "I did. I put it directly on the editor in chief's desk, for both papers. Both seemed a bit startled to have papers show up on their desks out of nowhere, but neither really questioned it for more than a few seconds. If we're lucky, Trask and Stryker should make the evening editions."

"You did a fantastic job, Janie," I told her with a grin. "Now, even if Trask and Styker could cover up the horrible things they'd done in the name of science, the entire nation will know that they were double dealing with the Viet Kong. There's no way they're getting out of that."

I was still a bit… not quite up to my normal standards, so it didn't hit me until Janie asked, "Where's Logan?"

I paused stepping onto the bus to look around. "Yes, where is he?" I repeated. My memories of Washington were a little fuzzy after Stryker and Trask were arrested, but I thought he had been with us the whole time.

Charles sighed. "It would appear that he changed all that was needed, since his elder consciousness left once Trask was arrested. The poor man had no idea where we were, or even who most of us were. I had to… I had to take control of his mind to get him to leave peacefully, and I had to plant false memories for the last few days. He has no idea he's been with us, or that he helped to save all mutants. Instead, he's on his way back to his apartment in the city. I don't think we'll see him for several years."

"Are you trying to tell me Logan was from the future?" Janie laughed. When we didn't join her, her face fell. "You mean that gorgeous man was actually super old?"

Charles smiled, in that way that told all of us he was trying not to laugh. "Logan was born in 1832," he said kindly. "So, even without being from the future, he was 'actually super old'."

Janie scrunched her nose. "Well, at least he was pretty," she sighed.

"Don't worry, Janie," Lotta said as she wrapped her arm around her. "Sean's still available."

"And has no idea that I exist. Thanks for that reminder."

AN: And here's another chapter! With some guest appearances by some other canon characters, even. I moved the events of Wolverine Origins back just a little, to bring Stryker's team together a little earlier than they were in the movies, and then of course, threw what didn't work for my story completely out the window. I hope I was explicit enough to give a clue as to who everyone was, but in case I wasn't, the chatty one with the katanas was Wade Wilson, the teleporter was John Wraith, the immovable object was Fred Dukes, the one who moved really fast was Agent Zero, and the electric one was Chris Bradley.

Translations: meine Geliebte means my beloved, and schatzi means sweatheart. Erik's a big softie!

Thanks for reading, and a big thanks to brigid1318 for your review! And yeah, sadly that crap still goes on in today's military, where jerks with commissions are believed over nobody privates. It sucks.