A.N.: Hey guys! Clodagh here with chapter three! Hope you guys are enjoying so far, and please let me know what you think! See you with another update on Wednesday!

Hope you enjoy!

You said you'd wait forever

But I blinked

And the world was gone.

-Snow Ghosts, 'And The World Was Gone'.

CHAPTER THREE

X.x.X

"Okay. How'd the Professor, Jean and Scott come back?"

"That one is easy. You," he replies. You blink at him, frowning. You tilt your head to that picture of you and Jean, hoping it has the answers. It doesn't, but Peter does. "I don't know how you got the idea. You were with Storm at the graves one day and you just….got it. You told Storm something, and she thought it was impossible. Then….you tried to do it yourself," he grimaced.

You're scared and alone and you may have won the war, but you lost it too. You lost so much, too much. If only things were as they used to be. If only you could turn back time.

"Turn back time," you murmur, and Peter's head snaps up to look at you. You furrow your brow, feeling the thought there but it's like trying to grasp smoke. Peter gives you a small smile and continues.

You're bringing them back. If you go back to Alkali Base with the other jet you can save them all.

If you can phase through walls, you can phase through time.

Peter hears you scream from his room and bursts out the door and almost tears your door off your hinges, already in metal form. "Kitty?" he asks, striding into the room. "What's wrong?" He finds you curled up in a ball on the other side of your bed, your hands clutching either side of your head, small white wisp's curling around your hands. He changes back into human form and bundles you up in his arms and lifts you onto your bed, shaking your forearms lightly. "Kitty, snap out of it. There's nothing wrong, you're safe."

"I'm not sure you're right," says a voice from the doorway, and Peter glances round to see Jones in the doorway, staring at you in concentration. "There's something wrong with her….it's like she's…fuzzy. Get her back," he exclaims sharply. "Get her back now, Peter." Peter looks back down to you, and you look fine to him, except for your low whimpering. Peter sits on the bed and gathers you to his chest. "Listen to my breathing, alright? Feel the inhale and exhale. I'm here, I'm real. Come back, Kitty. Come back to me." Slowly, painfully so, your body calms and Jones nods.

"She's back," he says decisively. Peter gestures his head.

"Come in and shut the door before anyone sees us," he instructs, and Jones does so as you start coming round. "I know how to get them back," you mumble, and they both do a double take. "Scott and Jean, The Professor. I can get them back."

"How?" Peter asks gently. "Kitty, they're gone."

"Oh my God," Jones exclaims, and Peter looks frustrated that he's the only one who doesn't understand. "You weren't getting fuzzy because you were dying, you were getting fuzzy because you were on a different wave length. Or trying to be."

"Different wave length- you aren't making any sense," Peter frowns before turning to you suspiciously. "What were you trying to do?"

You take a deep breath before telling them. "I was trying to go back in time."

"So….I sent myself back and saved them?" you ask hesitantly, because while that's pretty much what you did in your future-or so you think- something doesn't seem right. Peter pulls a face and says

"no, not exactly. You couldn't concentrate enough to send yourself back to the right time because the pain was excruciating….so…."

"You're not doing this alone," Peter states and Jones crosses his arms.

"I'm not bringing anyone else in, it's too dangerous," you argue. "I don't even know what you're doing."

"Exactly, you don't know what you're doing. It's dangerous for you to be the one to be sent back when you're sending yourself."

"What do you want me to do, Peter, go bully one of the little kids?"

"No! God no. I mean use me," Peter explains and you pale.

"No way."

"Yes way," he confirms, and you could laugh. Or cry. Or maybe both.

"I'm serious, Peter. I don't know what I'm doing, I could kill you!" you stress, because Peter really doesn't seem deterred.

"No, you can't," Jones pipes up. He eagerly steps closer to the bed and says "when you started shifting through time, your frequency messed up and I couldn't sense you as well, but you were jerking back and forth. I think if you go back, it should just be a clean break. I think I can focus and direct you in the right direction," he finishes, and Peter appraises him.

"Nice work, Jones. That would be great if you could help us."

It's then you're pretty sure you're stuck with them.

"We pulled it off, eventually. You sent me to some pretty dodgy places first," Peter grinned, not looking the least bit scarred, which you take as a good sign. "You sent me back, I took the kids back to the school, got the other jet, flew the other jet," he grimaced.

"Not very well?" you ask wryly, and he runs a hand over the back of his neck.

"There's a reason I'm not Hank's first choice to pilot any of his jets. But I flew to Alkali Lake, got everyone on our jet in the nick of time, and made sure Jean stayed on the freaking jet this time," he grumbled. "No war with Magneto, no more than usual anyway. The only ones who know what had happened are me, the Professor, and Jones. He figured something was weird with my frequency and I had to tell him before he gave himself an aneurysm staring at me. And now you, I guess."

You frown. "I didn't know before?"

Peter takes a moment before replying. "No. Their deaths, they devastated you. The war changed you, took away your innocence. I decided not to tell you."

It's almost as if he sees the punch coming before it happens, yet he sits there and takes it. It probably hurt you more than it does him, but it's worth it. "You do not get to decide what I can and cannot handle," you hiss, and Peter lets out a sharp laugh.

"Unsurprisingly, that's not the first time you hit me over that."

X.x.X

"What was it like?" Peter asks, "In that future?"

You can't even look at him. Instead you look out the window and focus on it, remembering the horror and devastation you've seen. You can't look at Peter because he's always been able to read you like a book. He'll see the horrors you've seen but also the longing, because that's the one world where you had a place. And you shouldn't miss a future where everyone you love is dead, should you?

"It was…dark. And cold. And there was blood, so much bloodshed, and anger. Rage. Hatred. Fear. I wouldn't wish living that that, feeling like that, on my worst enemy."

"Was there anyone left?" he asks curiously, and you shudder.

"A few. From the Institute it was you, Bobby, and me. Storm, Logan, Xavier and Magneto. A few others we found along the way."

"No one else made it?" he asks, and you can sense the betrayal in his voice. How could you have let all the others die?

But Peter doesn't understand.

You don't live through that and be the same person you were at the start.

You buried her when the others burned.

You turn and look him in the eyes.

"No one else made it."

X.x.X

"No." The one word tore out of Bobby, getting louder and echoing around them like a whisper, a whisper of pain and death and loss.

"I'm sorry-" Bishop starts, his clothes torn as Blink patches up a wound on his arm.

"NO," Bobby repeats, pacing. He's like a tornado, you know he's dangerous and deadly but you can't stop looking at him, you're stuck to the spot. He's pure power and pain wrapped up in the shape of a man, ravaged and moulded by war, as you all are.

You've suffered losses before.

But not like this.

"There was no way we could have got to her, she was too far away-" Bishop reasons, and Bobby shakes his head and turns away from them.

"Blink-" you start, and she shakes her head with tears in her eyes. "I would have brought sentinels with us. We don't have another site scouted yet, it would have killed us all," she says mournfully, "I'm so sorry. We couldn't get to her in time, it was too late."

Peter speaks up for the first time since he, Blink and Bishop had arrived back from looking for supplies, a trip that had gone terribly wrong. "I tried, Bobby," he says quietly, leaning forward in his seat, "I tried to get to her, but it was too late. It- it was quick," he chokes out, and you feel tears streaming down your own face.

You'd all lost so much. Too much. The X-Men were either dead or in hiding. The students were dead. Mutants and mutant sympathisers everywhere were being captured and killed. But this was different. This was personal.

As Bobby finally breaks down and falls to his knees, you can't help but think:

This was the mess Rogue had left you all in.