"After the events of Washington DC, President Nixon officialized the dismantling of the Sentinels project and arrested Trask for having attempted to sell military secrets and crimes against the mutants", Professor X continued to explain, while sipping the tea he had prepared for him and Logan, "The gesture of a mutant saving the life of President of the United States has forever changed the perception of mutants by humans for the better".
Logan was still perplexed, but ultimately decided to let Professor X continue to explain and took a sip of his tea as well, which had long since cooled down, "What do you mean by for the better? What exactly happened after the events in Washington and where did Mag", but before he could've ended up his phrase, the door behind them opened up again and a figure wrapped in an old-fashioned coat and a hat as old as the overcoat she entered the room; Wolverine only needed a moment to recognize him, despite his advanced age.
A moment later, Logan was already pushing him against the wall, seized by an unstoppable rage, drawing the claws of his right hand against him and clutching his neck with the left hand, ignoring the protests of Charles behind him, "YOU! You have the slightest idea of what it feels like to get metal stuck in your skin and then sink into a river, you son of a", the insult never reached its conclusion, as there were some things that didn't add up: the first was that the elder Magneto he was pushing against the wall was staring at him with an expression that seemed genuinely shocked, as if he didn't expect that from him at all.
The second was noticed by Logan himself, when he glanced quickly at his claws, expecting to see them glisten from the layer of adamantium that covered them; what he saw instead was a trio of long, rough bony claws, the same ones he had when he first arrived in 1973.
Logan froze immediately, staring at those shocked claws as if this was the first time he saw them, when a female voice called his attention, "Grandpa? What's going on?", the two of them turned around to see a a girl who looked like she was eleven staring at them perplexed; she had short blonde-brown hair and his eyes were the same color as Magneto's.
"Everything's alright, sweetheart", replied Magneto with a calm tone to the girl as he freed himself, while Wolverine, who was looking shocked at both him and her, retracted his claws and backed away, "Your grandfather was having a little... Reunion with an old friend; go find Aunt Mystique, the others will be here soon".
"Okay", the girl replied with a smile and gave Magneto a hug, which left Logan speechless, before leaving the room, "Love you grandpa!".
"Grandpa?", the word slipped out of Logan's mouth before he could've realized it, "That kid is your" "My grandchildren, Raven", replied the ex-foe, while looking at him with a mix of confusion and perplexity, "You've known her since she was born, Jim; Magda and I even proposed you as her godfather, don't you remember?" "I was just informing Logan about several changes in this reality, Erik", said Xavier, as he closed up to them with his advanced wheelchair, "Apparently, he has some difficulty remembering the events of the last fifty years", the look between the two of them was signed by a silent nod.
"You are here", Logan pointed his finger at Magneto with disbelief, "You have a family, we are friends... No, it's all wrong, we should be mortal enemies, you should be on the run after the events in Washington!" "And so it was", confirmed Xavier with calm, "Erik was on the run and was considered a dangerous enemy... This at least before September 26th 1983" "What happened that day?".
"That day, at the height of the Cold War, the radar computer of a Soviet bunker, due to a malfunction, signaled a false alarm regarding the alleged launch of a nuclear missile from a base in Malmstrom, Montana and the Soviets in response launched a nuclear missle too, from one of their closest bases towards the east coast of the United States, to be precise on San Francisco; by the time they realized their mistake, however, it was too late to stop the missile, as it was now too out of range to be remotely deactivated or shot down".
"That day, millions of people who were enjoying the sun on a late summer day at that time would have lost their lives... If it hadn't been for Erik, who was just there by accident at the time", he pointed out Magneto, which received a incredulous look from Logan, "Who in the meantime had fled to Poland and had a family; he had returned to the United States with a new identity to take his family on vacation, however he had no idea where his journey would turn".
"By using his ironkinetic powers, Erik he stopped the missile before it hit the city, exposing himself to the world in order to save the life of his family; he was later arrested by government authorities and taken to New York for trial and among the few witnesses who testified in his defense, I was there too".
"I had decided to give my old friend another chance, despite everything that happened and in the end, although being responsible for an attempted murder of President Nixon, the Supreme Court acquitted Erik on the credit of averting a world catastrophe and saving the lives of millions of innocent people; Erik finally chose to return to the place that had always been his home, along with his new and old family".
"And how do you explain this?", Logan pulled out his bone claws once again, showing them to Xavier, "I clearly remember these were covered with adamantium, as was my entire skeleton; how is it possible that I don't have them? Stryker had me".
"General William Stryker was arrested shortly after Bolivar Trask for torures and crimes on the race of the Mutants", simply resplied Xavier, interrupting Logan's speech, much to his surprise than frustration, "He managed to escape from prison in the Nineties, before we managed to recapture him in the early two thousand".
"And you helped us into breaking into his secret base at Alkali Lake", added Magneto, "Don't you remember? Logan?".
Logan wasn't listening, as at that moment he was being hit by a long series of memories, most of them were similar to the first two adventures he had experienced with the X-men, but at the same time different: he remembered preventing the activation of the device that would kill thousands of New Yorkers on Ellis Island, only he and the group hadn't confronted Magneto, he remembered him on their side, but a black-haired man with a strange symbol on his forehead.
Other events like the aforementioned battle at the Alkali Lake and his trip to Japan were fresh and almost intact as well, although some detais seemed unfamiliar to him; before he could've questioned further about what else had changed, the door of the studio opened up again and Logan's heart made a triple jump when he saw the person that was holding Magneto's grandchild: Mystique.
"I came to tell you that the celebrations will begin shortly", replied the blue mutant while holding the girl, saluting Logan with an abnormal naturalness, as isf the two of them had known each other ever since a lifetime, "The others will arrive here shortly, although I suspect that Pietro may have already paid us a visit a few seconds ago; do you think you can reach us in time, Charles?".
"Me, Erik and Logan were just about to finish", responded the latter, "We could never afford to miss our favorite niece's birthday" "Of course, how could you?", responded Raven with a smile, before looking at Logan with concern, "Logan, is something wrong?" "That... Ring on your finger", he pointed out the golden object on Mystique's left hand, "Are you... Married?".
"Uhm, yes I am", responded the blue mutant with a frowned look at him, "I got married to Hank a few years after Washington; don't you remember? You witnessed with Charles", after that phrase, the images of a marriage with him and Charles, both dressed up with fashionable sevnties smokings, witnessing the private wedding of Beast and Mystique flooded his mind; he turned at Charles, who simply winked at him, before turning to Mystique, "Raven, why don't you take your niece downstairs? We'll join you soon".
After a few instants of exchanging of looks between the two of them, Raven mutely agreed and carried the little girl out of the studio.
Logan once again turned around speechless to Xavier, who simply smiled at him, "As you can see, things have changed for the better Logan and this is all your doing" "Is there anything else I should know?", asked the Immortal and, as a cue to his response, the window of his studio shattered and a man dressed up with a red and black spandex suit dropped right onto Xavier's desk.
The trio looked at the man, who looked at them before staring at a point of the ceiling as if there was a camera up there, "How the f*#k did I get here? Oh for the love of, it's a PG-13 fanfiction sin't it? This explains the censorship", he then got up and gasped as he saw who there was into the studio, "Oh my God! I'm so sorry, were you talking about something important?".
Xavier sighed with annoyance, "Wade, please give me a reason to not call Colossus" "Oh yeah, you see it's a bizarre story; it seems that a teenager had the brilliant idea of letting me in by breaking his window out of pure comedy", Wade began talking with a semi serious tone while still looking at a casual point out of the window, before pulling out a letter from his pants, "And I just happen to find this strange letter that should have been delivered by a postman who died five years ago... Or maybe two? I don't know, this timeline is so confusing" "Wade" "My name is Deadpool, Professor Spock", replied the mutant, while dropping the letter on Xavier's leggo and walking for the door, "I think I'll go home, otherwise Vanessa will kill me".
"Don't you want to stay?" "I'd love to, but you all know all too well that I'm not a hero for children; maybe I'll say hello to Colossus and Warhead Negasonic", replied Deadpool, "Oh, before I leave, I have one last thing to say: in a few years I will be the only one still existing from this universe" "What?" "Nothing!", and with that, he swung out of the studio and slammed the door behind him.
"I think I'll have to call a glazier to have that window repaired", said Xavier to a surprised Logan, "Deadpool is the last one of our recent joined members; Colossus always says that he's a bit unorthodox with his methods, but he's a nice person, despite his attitude... Logan?", the immortal was still looking at the door of the studio, while a hurricane of memories hurled into his mind.
"What? I'm sorry, I think I zoned out... What do you wanted?" "Nothing; now, what do you think about going downstairs to celebrate Erik's grandchild's birthday and enjoy the party?", the proposal that Xavier made was particularly tempting, yet Logan was not sure about accepting it.
There were still many of those questions going through his head that he absolutely wanted to answer, but as if he had the same powers of his friend, Magneto gently placed a hand on his shoulders, "We'll help you fill out every gap in your memories one step at a time; we will do it when you feel ready for it".
Those words had a calming effect on his mind and despite the fact that the gesture would have seemed unbelievable to his past self, he pulled a small smile at his old enemy, "You know what?", he looked down at Charles, "A party sounds fine to me".
"Then let's go", and with that said, the three of them left the studio of Xavier, who left on his desk the letter Deadpool had given him, bearing a large, circumscribed black A.
Author note; Happy holidays, everyone! This year under my Christmas tree I received a handful of great director's cuts of some of my favorite movies and among them, there was "X-men Days of Future Past: the Rogue Cut".
In my opinion, the X-men saga could easily have ended there; everything that came out after that (aside from Logan and the two Deadpool standalones, which were pretty crazy), was really disappointing for a franchise that had revived the superhero movies; what I wrote here was my final tribute to one of the best sagas ever and now that our dear mutants (along with the Fantastic Four) are back under the aegis of Marvel (controlled by Disney, of course) and Disney plus is opening up to R-rated movies, I just hope that things go well from now on and...
*Deadpool enters the conversation behind me* "I'll translate it for you; what this guy is trying to tell you is, "Dear Marvel Studios, please don't f*k up the mutants like Warner Brothers did with the Batman saga and the DC extended universe, okay?".
"What the heck are you doing here?" "Uh, hello? I'm the number one fourth-wall breaker here, You should have known I was going to be here... And don't censorship me up for what I say, okay? And by the way, the lines you made me say up there were super lame and i'm not even talking about how you introduced me and for how little you made me stay!" "Oh for pete's sake, you already have two standalones that last almost four hours combined all about you out there and there's already a third one in development! And if I'm censoring you and I made you say what I made you say, is because I'm trying to maintain this story on rating T!" "Haven't you seen the reviews of Once upon a Deadpool?".
"Don't change the subject, Wade, okay? Now, if you have nothing else to do, how about carrying your red spandex ass out of here, so I can close this comment?", in response, Deadpool groans with frustration, "As you want mister "I am the boss of all"; ah, for those following that stupid story of his that is currently underway, spoiler alert, the next chapter won't come anytime soon until this guy here has learned to spend more time writing than watching movies on streaming services and playing video games *whisper* and not just those".
"GO AWAY!" "Ahhh, f*#k you anyway" *Deadpool purposely leaves the room by walking slowly*.
"Finally, damn it!", I sigh in relief sitting on my chair, "At least he didn't do one of his usual stunts before he" *SQYEAK*SQUEAK*SQUEAK*SQUEAK*SQUEAK.
"What the heck is this", my eyes slowly open in realization with disgust, "Please don't tell me that you are still there and that you are really doing what I think you are doing" "I needed it after chatting with a d#*k like you!", he shouts from the other side, while the squeaking becomes more intense, "Oh, god yes here it comes, yes!".
I groan in frustration and slam my head on the desk, "He'll never change" "I can hear you, you know!", he replies, "Why don't you get distracted by playing the music and the credits? Ah, wait no, don't do it, it wouldn't do any good, it would make things worse and we'd all end up in trouble for copyright issues... Do you happen to have some toilet paper there?".