Rhea blinked a few times orienting herself as she looked around the street she was now on, luckily no one having seen her sudden appearance. Speaking of appearances Rhea walked over to an out of sight area around the corner.
"Recensere." She snapped her fingers transfiguring her clothes.
She now wore white sheer bell sleeve off the shoulder crop top that was embroidered with green leaves and blue flowers with a green sleeveless v neck crop top underneath, a pair of high wasted bell bottom jeans with three bronze buttons going down either hip, a blue green scarf around her hips, and a pair of brown sriracha sandals. Her hair remained the same with a pair of round rose tented sunglasses resting on top of it, her tattoo barely noticeable except in the right light, her necklace now hung from a long leather strap and a pair of green stud earrings.
"Perfect. Now I just need to find Logan, can't be too far away." Rhea said as she looked around then she heard the gunshots followed shortly by the screams of grown men. She walked over to the entrance of an apartment and waited until the sounds of fighting that only her enhanced hearing could pick up from the street died down. A few more moments and Logan came out of the building. "Took you long enough."
"Had to get us some wheels." Logan said holding up the keys.
"Great, which car is it though?" Rhea asked as they looked around both of them spotting it at the same time.
"This one if I had to guess." Logan said as they read the license plate 'U-Lucky'. They both got in, Logan driving and Rhea in the passenger seat.
-0-
They pulled up in front of the dilapidated gates of Xavier's school for the gifted, but the plaque had fallen into the over grown bushes. Everything was over grown with weeds and other untamed plants while on the rusty gates there was a sign that read 'Private property, keep out.'
"Like heck." Rhea murmured as she rolled down the window sticking her hand out. "Butio!" She sent a blast of energy burning the sign as the gates swung open. "Keep out my foot."
"I thought you were supposed to be the one with patience." Logan commented as they drove in.
"I only have to be patient with the Professor, everything and everyone else is fair game." Rhea replied with a shrug as Logan shook his head. They came to a stop and stepped out of the car looking around at the sorry shape the school was in. "This sucks."
"Yeah." Logan breathed out going up to the front door, Rhea following, and knocked. A blue eyed boy with glasses cracked the door open looking out.
"Can I help you?" He asked as he looked between them.
"Uh…yeah, what happened to the school?" Logan asked.
"The schools been shut for years. Are you two parents?" He asked making them both scoff.
"I sure as hell hope not." Logan replied.
"And we are so not together like that." Rhea added, and then cocked her head to the side. "Who are you?"
"I'm Hank, Hank McCoy. I look after the house now." Hank answered much to their surprise.
"You're Beast?" Rhea said wide eyed as she perched her glasses back onto the top of her head.
"Look at you. I guess you're a late bloomer." Logan commented as he stuffed his sunglasses into his jacket pocket.
"I have no idea what you're talk about, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." Hank said as he tried to shut the door, but Logan pushed against it not letting him.
"So where's the Professor?" Logan demanded.
"There's no Professor here." Hank replied as they both struggled against each other for control of the door.
"You're pretty strong for a scrawny kid." Logan observed. "Come on, sure there's not a little beast in you?"
"No, he's not here." Hank pushed as Logan pushed back.
"Come on Beast." Logan taunted.
"No." Hank ground out.
"Oh enough, the fate of the world is at hand and you're having a macho contest." Rhea said pushing the door with one arm like Hank wasn't even holding it and brushed past him with Logan following.
"Hey, I said the school is closed." Hank snapped as he followed them.
"Well luckily we're not here to enroll kid, we just need the Professor." Rhea waved him off.
"You need to leave." Hank ordered.
"Not until we see the Professor." Logan replied.
"There's no professor here, I told you that." Hank said as he grabbed Logan's shoulder turning him around.
"Look kid, you and I are going to be good friends." Logan said then punched Hank in the face making him fall to the floor. "You just don't know it yet."
"Logan! Was that really necessary?!" Rhea snapped as she leveled an admonishing glare at him, but he ignored her and walked up the stairs.
"Professor." Logan called out as Rhea shook her head turning back to Hank who was struggling on the ground.
"Hank, you ok?" Rhea asked cautiously then saw the blue fur sprouting all over his body. He snapped to his feet in complete beast mode running past her and up the stairs. "That can't be good."
There was a roar followed by a series of grunts before Logan was thrown onto the grand stair case with a yell only to be pounced on by beast and thrown to the foyer on top of a table. Beast then leapt onto the chandelier above the table roaring down at Logan.
"Hank?" A British voice called out and Rhea turned to the man walking down the stairs in pajamas, loafers, and a dressing gown. He has long messy brown hair, un-kempt beard and tired blue eyes, all in all he looked like a wreck.
"Professor?" Rhea said in shock.
"Please don't call me that." Charles said coming to the landing.
"What? You know these guys?" Hank asked.
"Yeah, he looks slightly familiar." Charles said uncertainly. "Get off the bloody chandelier Hank."
"You can walk." Logan said as Hank flipped off of the chandelier.
"You're a perceptive one." Charles said walking down the stairs.
"I thought Erik…" Logan was still confused as Rhea walked over pulling him up off the table.
"Which makes it slightly perplexing that you missed out sign on the way." Charles went on sitting down on the stairs, drink in hand.
"No, I got it, straight through the center." Rhea replied as she crossed her arms with a smirk, her eyes flashing with power.
"Well this is private property my friends, I'm going to have to ask him to ask you both to leave." Charles said groggily.
"Well, I'm afraid we're going to have to tell him to tell you that we can't do that because we were sent here for you." Rhea said as she walked up to him.
"Well tell whoever it was that sent you that I'm…busy." Charles replied, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with the woman. For someone who was smiling quite happily she had a very judging gaze that seemed to shoot through him.
"Obviously." Rhea deadpanned.
"Well that's going to be kind of tricky because the person who sent us was you." Logan commented.
"What?" Charles looked between them.
"About fifty years from now." Rhea added.
"Fifty years from now, like in the future fifty years from now?" Charles repeated. "I sent you both from the future?"
"Yeah." Logan nodded.
"Piss off." Charles replied.
"If you had your powers you'd know that we were telling the truth." Rhea said with a sharp look surprising Charles.
"How do you know I don't have my…who are you?" Charles demanded.
"We told you." Logan replied.
"You CIA?" Charles questioned.
"No." Logan replied.
"You've been watching me." Charles accused.
"I know you Charles." Logan said walking over to him as Charles leaned back. "We've been friends for years. I know your powers came when your were nine and I know you thought you were going crazy when it started, all of the voices in your head and it wasn't until you were twelve that you realized all of the voices were in everyone else's head. Do you want me to go on?"
"I never told anyone that." Charles said.
"Not yet, no, but you will." Logan replied.
"And are we friends as well?" Charles looked to Rhea.
"In a student mentor kind of way, yeah." Rhea nodded with a smirk.
"All right, you peeked my interest, what do you want?" Charles asked.
"We have to stop Raven." Logan answered. "We need your help, we all need your help."
"I think I'd like to wake up now." Charles said walking past Hank who was losing his blue form and into the study.
"What does she have to do with this?" Hank asked looking to them.
-0-
Logan and Rhea had taken seats in the study in front of the desk as they explained their story.
"So you're saying what? That they took Raven's powers and weaponized it?" Charles asked as he fixed himself a drink.
"Yep." Rhea nodded.
"She is unique." Hank commented.
"Yeah she is Hank." Charles agreed as he took a seat on the couch.
"In the beginning sentinels were just targeting mutants then they began to identify the genetics in non-mutants who would eventually have mutant children and grandchildren. Many of the humans tried to help us, but it was a slaughter leaving only the worst of humanity in charge. I've been in a lot of wars, I'd never seen anything like this and it all starts with her." Logan explained.
"So we'd appreciate it if you didn't get drunk while we tell you about this nightmare that's our reality. Adiuuatur!" Rhea snapped as she snapped her fingers causing the liquid in Charles glass to evaporate. He looked from the glass to her in mild surprise be for setting it aside.
"Let's just say for the sake of…the sake that I choose to believe you that I choose to help you. Raven won't listen to me. Her heart and soul belong to someone else now." Charles said despondently and Rhea glanced over to Hank who also looked sad.
"Holy crap, I'm in a room of Raven Fan-boys." Rhea mumbled under her breath, passing her hand over her face.
"What?" Hank looked to her.
"Nothing." Rhea just smiled.
"I know." Logan said to Charles as he stood up. "That's why we're going to need Magneto too."
"Erik?" Hank questioned. "You do know where he is?"
"Yeah." Logan nodded as Charles laughed rocking to his feet.
"He's where he belongs." Charles said darkly as he walked back to the foyer.
"And that's it, you're just going to walk out?" Logan called out to him.
"Ooh, top marks. Like I said, you are perceptive." Charles mocked going for the stairs.
"The professor I know would never turn their back on someone who'd lost their path. Especially someone he loved." Logan said causing the professor to turn back to him.
"You know, I think I do remember you now. Yeah, we came to you a long time ago seeking your help. And I'm going to say to you what you said to us then." Charles said getting into Logan's face. "F*** off."
"Listen to me you little s***." Logan snapped grabbing him by his collar. Hank went to intervene, but Rhea put a hand on his shoulder holding him back. "We've come a long way and we've watched a lot of people die, good people, friends. If you want to wallow in self-pity then you're going to watch the same thing you understand."
"We all have to die sometime." Charles said when Logan let him go. Then he turned and walked back upstairs.
"Told you there was no professor here." Hank said.
"What the hell happened to him?" Logan turned to Hank and Rhea used their distraction to slip upstairs.
She walked down the hall listening as she did to Hank explain the loss that Charles had gone through. She came to the Professors room and leaned against the open door as she watched Charles inject himself then look over to a picture of who she assumed was Raven when she wasn't blue.
"You are pathetic. Your family is still alive and you sit there doing nothing, you have no idea what real loss is." Rhea said with a disgusted look causing Charles's eyes to snap to her.
"What do you know about real loss?" Charles said bitterly causing Rhea to stand up straight. She stalked over to Charles until she was towering over him hands clutched so tightly that they were shaking.
"My mother, my father, my grandfather, my grandmother, Jean, Scott, Rogue, Jubilee, Steve, Bruce, Kurt, Warren, Frank, Clint, Natasha, Nick, Sam, James, Maria, Phil, Happy, Rhodey, Sue, Reed, Johnny, Ben, Peter, Blaze, Matt, and so many more, all of them dead and what's left are probably dying right now." Rhea snapped her voice growing tighter with each name, the room shaking with her power, as Charles sank back in his chair eyes wide watching as a blue green glow shimmered from her body. "I will never see them again ever and you sit there on your butt shooting up just so you can have damn legs. My family is dust and what little of it that remains is hanging by a thread; so don't you tell me that I don't know what real loss is, its agony and torture that you will never understand until it happens to you and it will."
Rhea gave him one last disgusted look before turning around on her heel and storming out of the room and back down to the foyer.
"Rhea?" Logan looked to her in concern.
"I'm done, I'm done with him. We'll find and handle Raven on our own." Rhea snapped as her tattoo blazed over her eyes unable to stay hidden with her emotions so high.
"I'll help you get her." Charles said making them all turn to face him. "Not for any of your future shite, but for her."
"Fair enough." Logan nodded as Rhea merely crossed her arms.
"But I'll tell you this. You don't know Erik. That man is a monster, a murdered. You think you can convince Raven to Change? To change to come home, that's splendid, but what makes you think you can change him?" Charles questioned bitterly.
"Because you and Erik sent us back here together." Logan replied, obviously catching Charles by surprise.
"The real question is how do we get him out?" Rhea pointed out.
"The room they're holding him in was built during the second world war when there was a shortage of steel." Hank explained grabbing some blue prints and setting them out on the desk. "So the foundation is pure concrete and sand, no metal.
"He's being held a hundred floors under the most heavily guarded building on the planet." Charles said.
"Why is he in there?" Logan asked causing Charles and Hank to exchange amused looks.
"What he forgot to mention?" Charles scoffed.
"JFK." Hank told them.
"He killed…" Logan trailed off.
"What else explains a bullet miraculously curving through the air?" Charles pointed out. "Erik's always had a way with guns. Are you sure you want to carry on with this?"
"A. This is your plan, not ours and B. Erik did not kill JFK." Rhea said looking over the map.
"What?" Hank looked to her. "What makes you say that?"
"Because I met the guy who did." Rhea replied evenly. "Wasn't his fault though, he was brainwashed by Nazi Hydra people."
"You're serious." Charles looked less then convinced.
"Yes." Rhea nodded, but it was clear Charles didn't believe her.
"We don't have any resources to get us in." Hank brought them back to the issue at hand.
"Or out, it's just me and Hank." Charles said.
"Rhea, how about you?" Logan looked to her. "Could you teleport us with magic or something?"
"I can't teleport, it's not one of my abilities." Rhea said shaking her head. "My magic is not attuned to that branch of mysticism unfortunately."
"Magic?" Hank echoed.
"Yeah, magic." Rhea nodded.
"There no such thing." Charles said.
"That's what you think." Rhea replied.
"I knew a guy." Logan said bringing Charles and Rhea out of their starring contest. "Yeah, he'd be a young man now, grew up outside of DC. He could get into anywhere, I just don't know how the hell we're going to find him."
"Is Cerebro out of the question?" Hank looked to Charles, who looked away.
"Do you have a phone book?" Rhea questioned.
