"Peter, thank you very, very much." Charles said. "You take care."
"Hey, I saw your flight plan in the cockpit, why are you going to Paris?" Peter asked.
"Do me a favor and return it for me." Charles said tossing Peter the keys.
"Okay." Peter nodded.
"And Peter, take it slow." Charles said walking into the plane. Erik walked in finding Logan already sitting down across the aisle from Rhea, he reached for the paper only for Logan to pin it down with his claws. They locked gazes as Rhea rolled her eyes before Erik straightened up moving to another seat.
"Imagine if they were metal." Erik commented. "Were did they dig the two of you up?"
"You're going to find this hard to believe, but you sent us, you and Charles, from the future." Logan replied. Erik looked at them like they were crazy as they started to explain their story.
"You're going to need some clothes." Rhea commented.
"Well unless you can make some magically appear I believe I'm stuck in this." Erik replied then noticed her grin. "What?"
"Recensere!: Rhea reached out her glowing hand toward him and his prison clothes transfigured into a blue shirt, dark blue slacks, and dark blue shoes. Erik looked down at himself in complete shock then looked back up at her.
"Yeah, I know, an overabundance of blue, but it goes so well with your eyes." Rhea shrugged with a wink.
"How?" Erik breathed out.
"I'm a sorceress of course." Rhea replied easily.
"So you're not a mutant." Erik said, eyeing her in interest.
"Not sure, my mom was, my dad was a sorcerer. Not sure where one power ends and the other begins or if I'm just one or the other." Rhea shrugged as Hank and Charles came onto the plane. Soon enough they were up in the air with Hank flying, Charles sitting near the cockpit glaring at Erik while Rhea and Logan sat quietly.
"How did you lose them?" Erik asked breaking the silence.
"The treatment for my spine affects my DNA." Charles replied.
"You sacrificed your powers so you could walk?" Erik looked at him appalled.
"I sacrificed my powers so that I could sleep." Charles strained. "What do you know about it?"
"I've lost my fair share." Erik replied.
"Ha, dry your eyes Erik." Charles scoffed. "It doesn't justify what you've done."
"You have no idea what I've done." Erik said.
"I know that you took the things that mean the most to me." Charles said.
"Well maybe you should have fought harder for them." Erik shot back.
"You want a fight Erik…" Charles started about to come out of his seat. "I will give you a fight."
"Sit down." Logan ordered as they stood up facing off.
"No, let them let this out or they'll be pouting the whole way." Rhea waved Logan back down.
"Let him come." Erik agreed.
"You abandoned me." Charles yelled grabbing Erik by the lapels of his jacket. "You took her away and you abandoned me!"
"Angel, Azazel, Emma, Banshee…" The plane started to react to Erik's emotions erratically. "Mutant brothers and sisters all dead." The plane shifted to the side, dents appearing along the hall. "Countless others experimented on butchered…"
Logan was struggling to stay upright in his seat as Charles fell and Rhea was holding onto the table for dear life.
"Erik!" Charles tried.
"Where were you Charles? We were supposed to protect them! Where were you when your own people needed you?!" Erik demanded as the plane started to nose dive. "Hiding, you and Hank pretending to be something you're not!"
"Erik!" Hank called out struggling with the plane.
"You abandoned us all." Erik said as the plane leveled out. Charles looked from Erik to Rhea remembering her own list of the dead and couldn't take it, quickly retreating to the cockpit.
"So you were always an a******." Logan said as he lit up a cigar.
"I take it we're best buddies in the future." Erik turned around looking to them.
"I spent a lot of years trying to bring you down bub." Logan replied.
"How's that work out for you?" Erik asked with a glare.
"You're like me, you're a survivor." Logan said taking a drawl of his cigar. "Are you going to pick that s*** up?"
"Allow me. Reditus." Rhea snapped her fingers and everything returned to its previous positions of their own accord.
"Interesting." Erik commented as Rhea looked out the window. "And what about you?"
"Me? We're allies in the future I suppose, but I've only really known you personally during the war, before that all I heard were the horror stories about you." Rhea replied as she leaned on her hand bracing her elbow on the table in front of her.
"Horror stories?" Erik echoed with narrowed eyes.
"Oh yeah, mass murderer, anarchist, and crazy as heck." Rhea listed off. "In your pursuit for 'mutant rights' you painted a big target on their backs, caused a lot of death on both sides."
Erik fell silent looking thoughtful as he leaned back in his chair, turning his gaze to the window. Logan caught Rhea's eye, silently questioning if it was such a good idea to share that information, Rhea replied with a shrug, what could it hurt in the long run? Either he took the information and became something else or he ignored it and became exactly what he was before.
It wasn't long before the sun went down as they were still flying through the sky, dusk setting the clouds on fire with an array of warm colors. Logan was falling asleep in his seat while Rhea was leafing through a book called The Once and Future King, she hardly ever needed sleep thanks to her potent heritage and books were rare in the future so she was taking advantage of the plane trip. She barely glanced up as Erik walked by with a chess board and set it down in front of Charles.
"Fancy a game? It's been a while." Erik offered.
"I'm not in the mood for games, thank you." Charles replied setting his drink down.
"I haven't had a real sip in ten years." Erik said pouring himself a drink and taking a sip savoring it. "I didn't kill the president."
"The bullet curved Erik." Charles said.
"Because I was trying to save him, they took me out before I could." Erik replied.
"Why would you try to save him?" Charles asked.
"Because he was one of us." Erik replied. Charles looked to Rhea who glanced up from her book nodding.
"He had a low level telepathic ability that just made people trust him, he could literally charm anyone." Rhea said turning a page.
"How did you know that?" Erik looked to her.
"I knew the man who stopped you." Rhea replied as Erik stiffened. "It wasn't his fault, he was brainwashed. He was originally an American soldier from WW2." Rhea noticed their looks. "It's a long story and I can't even tell you most of it, I'd be in danger of polluting the time stream."
"They even turn against their own kind." Erik shook his head as Charles scoffed.
"You must think me so foolish. You always said they'd come after us." Charles said bitterly.
"I never imagined they'd use Ravens DNA to do it." Erik said shaking his head.
"When did you last see her?" Charles asked as Erik sat down.
"The day I left for Dallas." Erik replied.
"And how was she?" Charles asked.
"Strong, driven, loyal…" Erik listed off.
"How…how was she?" Charles pressed.
"She was…we were…I could see why she meant so much to you." Erik answered. "You should be proud of her Charles, she's out there fighting for our cause."
"Your cause." Charles corrected him. "The girl I raised was not capable of killing."
"You didn't raise her, you grew up with her." Erik said. "She couldn't stay a little girl forever, that's why she left."
"She left because you got inside her head." Charles argued.
"That no my power." Erik replied. "She made a choice."
"But now we know where that choice leads don't we?" Charles said. "She's going to murder Trask, they're going to capture her, and they're going to wipe us out."
"Not if we get to her first." Erik replied. "Not if we change history tomorrow." Erik paused for a moment. "I'm sorry Charles…for what happened, I truly am."
"It's been a while since I played." Charles said downing the rest of his drink and pulling closer to the board.
"I'll go easy on you, might finally be a fair fight." Erik said taking his drink down as well.
"You have the first move." Charles said and a metal pawn moved forward.
