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The future, a dark, desolate world. A world of war, suffering, loss on both sides. Mutants and the humans who dared to help them, fighting an enemy we cannot defeat. Are we destined down this path? Destined to destroy ourselves like so many species before us? Or can we evolve fast enough to change ourselves, change our fate? Is the future truly set?
So few of us left.
“Whenever the Sentinels attack,” Kitty began. “Warpath spots them... then I send Bishop back to warn us of the attack before it happens. Blink scouts the exit site... and then we leave before they ever know we were there.”
“Because... we never were.” James interjected.
“She projects Bishop back in time a few days to warn the others... of the coming attack,” Charles explained to Storm and Erik. “Just his consciousness.”
“This might just work, Charles,” Erik mused, frowning.
“What might work?” Kitty asked.
“The Sentinel program was originally conceived by Doctor Bolivar Trask.” Professor X took on his lecturing voice. “In the early '70's, he was one of the world's leading weapons designers. But, secretly, he had begun experimenting on mutants... using their gifts to fuel his own research. There was one mutant who has discovered what he was doing.”
“A mutant with the ability to transform herself into anyone,” Erik elaborated.
“Mystique,” Colossus said, in no mood for games.
“I knew her as Raven,” Charles replied in confirmation. “We met when we were children, grew up together. She was like a sister to me. I tried to help her... but only succeeded in driving her away. She haunted Trask across the world. And at the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, after the Vietnam War... she found Trask... and killed him. It was the first she killed.” He paused. “But killing Trask did not have the outcome expected. It only persuaded the government of the need of his program. They captured her that day... tortured her, experimented on her. In her DNA, they discovered the secrets to her powers of transformation. It gave them the key they needed to create weapons that could adapt to any mutant power. And in less than 50 years, the machines that have destroyed so many of our kind were created. But that started that day in 1973 - the day she first killed. The day she truly became Mystique.”
“You want to go back there.” It wasn’t a question.
“If I can get to her, stop the assassination, keep her out of their hands, then we can stop the Sentinels from ever being born.”
“And end this war before it ever begins.” Erik finished.
Kitty looked almost ashamed. “Uh, I can send someone back a couple weeks. Maybe a month. But you're talking about going back decades. You have the most powerful brain in the world, Professor... but the mind can only stretch so far before it snaps. It would you rip apart. I'm sorry. No one could survive that trip.”
There was a silence.
Charles closed his eyes. “This is the last hope we have,” he said finally. “Our people are dying, we need…”
“What if the person had some sort of coping mechanism?” Erik interrupted.
The group looked at him with a frown, but Erik only had eyes for Charles. “Perhaps someone like the Wolverine…?”
“Maybe,” Kitty answered doubtfully, “but no one’s seen Logan since Tokyo fell.”
Charles looked down to his lap. “But the healing factor should work,” he mused to himself. “Logan has always retained the same personality after being shot, or blown up, or after any other injury he has sustained.”
“So we’re looking for people with healing factors,” Bobby clarified. “That shouldn’t be too hard. Mutants with healing factors are pretty much the only people left nowadays.”
Erik made a dissatisfied noise. “So you would think.” He pointedly glanced around the room. “When was the last time you saw someone with those abilities?”
Bobby’s face twisted.
“To be fair,” Blink said, “we haven’t seen many people at all before you flew in here.”
“Even if we could find someone to do this,” Lucas added. “We have no guarantee that they’d agree.”
“You think they’d prefer this life?” Erik replied in a bemused tone.
“The only people I can think of with a healing factor are Daken and Sabretooth, and I don’t see either of them helping us.”
“They are more likely to go back and kill everyone rather than stop Mystique,” Storm pointed out.
“I don’t see humans being eradicated as that great an alternative.” That was Kitty.
Erik made a noncommittal noise and Charles glared at him.
“She has a point,” Erik admitted. “We need a healer who will only stop Mystique.” He thought some more. “Most healers I know are very vicious in character.” He looked at Charles in askance.
They exchanged some non-verbal communication, the rest of the mutants shifting nervously. It wasn’t a good idea for so many of them to be in one place, after all.
“No,” the vehemence of the word made the others jump and stare at Erik.
Charles looked embarrassed. “It’s our only choice,” he offered aloud.
“It’s hardly a choice.”
Charles gave him a soulful look. “Erik, this is our chance to set things right. To protect mutantkind, humankind, all of us. This is our only choice.”
“I understand the implications,” Erik said through gritted teeth. “But does it have to be him?”
“Do you have any alternative?”
Erik was silent.
Charles nodded, then looked back to the X-Jet. “I heard he was last spotted in Hawaii.”
Erik cursed under his breath.
XXX
Erik glared at the hut silently.
“Of course he’d hide here,” Erik complained.
“Relax, old friend.” Charles told him as they moved towards the building.
“It’s a vacation villa,” Erik pointed out.
“I’m aware.” Charles hummed.
“How has he not been found yet?”
“He isn’t strictly a mutant,” Charles pointed out.
Erik scoffed as they reached the door. “Care to knock, old friend?” He asked in a mock gallant tone.
Charles gave him a look.
Erik reached up…
And the door exploded outward, knocking Erik off his feet and Charles back a few meters.
Their target stepped through the smouldering ruins. “Eat lead you pieces of-” He looked at the couple. “Oh,” he said, “hey Professor. Magneto.”
Erik pulled himself up with a glare. “You-”
“Patience,” Charles chided.
The man leant against what used to be his hideout. “Hey, sorry, you should have let me know you were coming. I would’ve put on some tea. And not blown up my house.” He looked at the ruins longingly. “You know the rent for a hut like this. I mean, if nothing else, the Sentinels have been really good for real estate.”
“Glad to hear the deaths of millions of mutants is working out for you,” Erik spat venomously.
“Someone’s got to profit,” the man replied, but there was a sadness to it.
“How would you like to profit from it?” Charles asked curiously.
The man frowned. “How’d you mean?”
“What if we said you could stop it ever happening?” Erik said.
Deadpool blinked at him, and a smile crossed his face. “I’d say sign me up.”