The sounds of echoing ringing were slowly becoming clearer by the second, it was an alarm and Logan just found himself not wanting to move, no one knew what this whole thing would do to him; physically he seemed not much changed, mentally he remembered everything, but there was just this nagging exhaustion which was lingering. It was like he hadn't slept for a whole week, which to be honest, was something he was accustomed to in the future that befell on them all, along with the constant moving, and hunting, but it was a heaviness which was making it hard for him to move. Also didn't help the fact he was in an actual bed, throughout his long life, Logan had spent perhaps more time than he'd admit roughing it with where he laid his head to sleep. But soft pillows, warm covers, this was heavenly. It was a shame that he had to wake up, even when that thought entered his mind, his face actually buried more against the pillow with a quiet but content groan. Five more minutes wouldn't hurt, right?

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, he was on a time limit, thanks to him appearing now the three who dwelt in this large home were dragged into it too. Everyone was on a time limit, Logan was fine with working under pressure, that didn't affect him; Charles, Logan wasn't sure about, Hank would go where he was needed and Alethea was here for the adventure.

That was a little biased, they all, of course, wanted to stop Logan's future from being their future, but most of all they didn't want Raven to get harmed. They all had loyalty and love for the blue-skinned shapeshifter. Which was good, it meant that they'd do what they needed to ensure that this whole thing succeeded, if it meant keeping Raven alive, Logan knew they'd do whatever to keep that a fixed point in any timeline.

The ringing of the alarm was getting ever clearer now, Logan's mind well and truly more awake than asleep. "You know an alarm doesn't switch off, only because you ignore it, right?" A faint familiar voice asked, Logan sighed, more distant than he was moments ago; he was used to ghosts haunting him. A frown appeared on his face, his hand tightening against the pillow as his other arm shifted beneath it. "For pity's sake, Logan. Get up!" His eyes did slowly open, he stared at the curtains and rolled onto his back and waved his arm to the side, his hand roughly smacked the alarm clock to shut it up.

He did give it a glare for good measure, as if challenging it to make another noise. He dared it to as he pushed himself to sit, resting back on his hands he looked about his room. It didn't change all too much from now until when it was his again in the future. That was a little sad to think about, students made their rooms their own, he never really did here...did he always lowkey think he wasn't going to stay? A part of him was always used to being on the move, not having a stable place to call home...

Pinching the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh, he was at least pleased that the Alethea he knew had stopped nagging subconsciously at him to get up. Who needed alarm clocks, when trauma could kick in and wake him? Shaking his head, he didn't mean that, of course he didn't, but the heartache of hearing her voice caused trauma, even if younger her was somewhere in the house.

Throwing his legs over the bed, he looked down at his boots and raised an eyebrow. Truthfully, he'd just heeled them off last night after watching someone enjoy flying about, even from the ground he could hear the exclaims of wonder from Alethea. Someone was enjoying themselves up there. When the shower had finished, they had re-entered the manor, pretty much said night and went their own ways. Even if her way seemingly led to the kitchen, midnight snacking clearly happened. Why didn't he think of that? He did feel hungry, straightening out his white vest where it'd twisted in his sleep, he stood, tucking it into his dark jeans and looking about for his shirt and leather jacket.

It was odd, walking corridors he was so used to being busy and packed. His boots made way too much noise in the eerie silence, he couldn't help but wince and look about, juggling his jacket from one hand to the other as he pulled one arm in his shirt, then the other. This place would be full again, Logan had to believe that, or why else what was the point of this all? He was unsure he'd succeed, but he had to try and believe a better future would come from this. He just hoped he didn't screw the future up more...

Turning and walking down the other stairs, he slowly made his way to the kitchen. He draped his jacket on the banister in passing, raising an eyebrow when he got to the doorway, he dearly hoped the purple haired female within didn't spend all night in here. She hadn't, but even still the thought entered his mind. Leaning against the table reading a book, her hair was tied up and off of her neck, she was engrossed in reading to not notice him. She flicked the page of her book, even shaking her arm because the loose sleeve of her shirt annoyed her. The dark blue of it, coupled with the circular patterns in the colour of white and red suited her, went well with the high waisted dark jeans she had on too.

Logan let out a low cough, Alethea flinched, the spoon dropping into her cereal bowl and her glaring his way. "How long have you been there?!" She sounded accusing, like he'd been there for longer than she suspected and the thought of being watched worried her for some reason.

"Long enough to see that reading comes before eating." He moved about the room, frowning when he came to the conclusion that he could either join her in eating overly sugary cereal, or toast. The toast seemed the lesser of two evils, though double taking at her when she pulled her coffee close, he reached forwards and pushed the sugar bowl away from her. "Maybe wanna hold back there?" He sounded amused as he caught her practically shovelling sugar into her cup.

She looked over her shoulder at him and pouted, Logan just raised an eyebrow and moved away from her side to push the button down on the toaster. "Sugar is bad in the future?"

Logan scoffed out a laugh at that and shook his head, "I think sugar is bad in any time." Tilting his head, he narrowed his eyes a little. "Leave the sugar alone."

"I'm not doing anything!" Alethea exclaimed and sounded guilty. "Wait..." turning in her seat, she rested her arms on the back of her chair and frowned at him. "How'd you know I was doing anything?"

"For one, you just gave it away." Logan stated and turned and leaned against the counter looking at her. "I heard you." The quiet scraping of the sugar bowl on the table didn't evade his ears that's for sure. Her coy expression didn't help matters, remind him to never let her near a poker game, she'd be beyond rubbish.

Alethea tilted her head and turned back around, she quickly ate a few spoonsful of her cereal, she drunk some of her sugar filled coffee which, if Logan was honest, he didn't know how many sugars were in there even before he stopped her. She had this sense of thoughtfulness over her, so he didn't interrupt her thoughts and just sought to dealing with shutting his stomach up. Although a coffee did sound good, just minus that much sugar.

"Where's Charles and Hank?" Logan pulled the chair out beside her and sat down, Alethea flicked her eyes sidelong at him, she was doing a great hamster impression with her cheeks and cereal. Logan just blinked slowly and bit into his toast, did he need to remind her not to eat quickly or too much at once or she'll choke? The thought was amusing and him smirking absentmindedly earned him a finger to be pointed at him, he looked curiously her way then.

"You're like Hank." Alethea said instead of answering his question, she marked her page in her book and shut it. She gave a weird fidget in her chair; it wasn't until looking that Logan realised, she was sitting on her legs tucked up and underneath her.

"Yeah?" Logan replied distantly, he was trying to think of what she meant there.

"He hears stuff too."

"We're not hallucinating." Logan just wished to point out that she made it sound like they were making noises up.

She laughed, "No, Logan...I meant your senses are heightened too, like his, right?" She wasn't meaning to make them sound like they could hear things others couldn't. Alethea ate some more of her cereal as Logan chewed his toast with a thoughtful look before nodding, he was following now. Alethea tilted her head, her long hair falling over her shoulder a little as she drummed a finger on the table. "You have more than one mutation? Or...is one a byproduct of the other?"

"You sound like Charles," Logan laughed quietly, that man truly did find everyone's mutations interesting, and all of them were special and unique to him. Logan could appreciate how easily Charles approved and accepted whoever came through his door, no matter what.

"Sorry," she shyly smiled and drunk some of her coffee, Logan just shook his head. She didn't have anything to apologise for.

Thoughtfully picking up his coffee, Logan looked about the kitchen, he thought they were all going to get an early start, where Charles and Hank were, he could only guess still asleep. Alethea was clearly an early riser. "I don't know," he replied at length, slowly drinking his coffee and watching her look his way curiously. His abilities were always there, lurking beneath the surface somehow.

"Full of surprises then, hm?" Alethea just smiled his way, laughing a little when he straightened up in the seat. Well, she didn't mean to inadvertently catch someone out, or boost their ego, but she got a silent nod from Logan. "What else can you do?" Call her curious, but she hadn't met a new mutant for so long, and Logan was unfortunately going to take the brunt of her curiosity.

"Do you ask everyone who comes through the door that?" Logan turned in his seat and looked at her with a smile growing on his face. She sounded eagerly blunt, if such a thing could happen, she made it happen; but if he was anyone else, he could see them getting worried or displeased.

Alethea flicked her eyes to the door, she knew the layout perfectly well so she was imagining the foyer, which had up until recently had all sorts of mutants coming and going. "Well, yeah, why?"

Logan sighed and drunk his coffee, "It was intense."

"I can make it worse."

"I'd rather you didn't," Logan was trying to sound serious, but it was hard to do considering she was leaning against the table, trying so hard to get into his eye line. He got it, she was just staring unblinkingly his way, this was her being intense, he presumed. It was more humorous than intense, only because she had almost leaned into her cereal.

"Fine!" She slumped in the chair, her legs untucking as she did so and propped up on the chair underneath the table that was opposite to her. "A thing for a thing." She said casually with a wave of her hand, she suffered Logan looking at her confusedly. She leaned her head against the chair and smiled his way, she seemed proud of her suggestion, even if he looked utterly bemused.

He understood where she was coming from, wanting to understand whomever was before her, Logan wasn't some mystery to solve, but then maybe to her he was? "I can heal."

"How fast?"

"Fast. Would you like a demonstration too?" Logan rolled his eyes; he wasn't being serious. But at the same time, why would he not put it past her to say yes?

Alethea pushed herself up and looked at him like he was stupid, or rather he'd said something utterly idiotic. "If it means you purposely hurting yourself, no. Why would I want that? I don't want you to hurt yourself, just because this topic has come up."

Logan looked at her in quiet contemplation then, so much for him thinking she'd go the other way. But the uttermost concern she had for clearly thinking he was going to do something, just to prove a point, wasn't missed, if anything the worry wasn't hard to miss at all. He looked at her apologetically, which had her just looking at him pointedly. "Your turn," he said slowly, his voice sounded weirdly distant to his ears as his mind was still trying to catch up with what was happening here.

"Yellow," Alethea smiled, seemingly so very happy with her answer. Logan just looked confused, again. He was just trying to process that reply, he slowly found himself shaking his head, aware his expression was still utterly miffed. "It's my favourite colour."

His expression shifted then and he just shut his eyes slowly and put a hand over them. He shouldn't find how pleased she was with this being sufficient an answer, let alone on par with anything mutation based or related, but he found himself chuckling lowly. "Yeah, okay, why?" He felt he'd regret asking. He was expecting something else, not this.

"Sunflowers! Have you never looked at sunflowers, and just felt so..." Alethea said quickly, she couldn't even finish her sentence because she fidgeted in her chair, her hands fisting together as she let out a truly happy noise.

"No, can't say I have." Logan crossed his arms on the table and nodded her way, she was still enjoying the thought of sunflowers, clearly, a wide smile still on her face, she calmed eventually and looked at him like none of that moment even happened. He had to admit, he didn't know she was such endless energy, she really seemingly mellowed by the time they crossed paths. "There is a byproduct of healing though," Alethea just waited for him to continue, Logan inhaled slowly and pushed his empty plate away from himself. "I age slower, then you, Charles and Hank."

"Oh!" Logan just looked at her suddenly when he left his sentence hanging in the air and she exclaimed this. "I heal inside, all the time, my power is always burning. When I say I always have heartburn, I'm not joking. It's pure energy, it burns me inside and out. My hands are always burning, especially if I have to take energy back inside, it hurts." Alethea explained, rolling a purple hued hand his way and nodding along with her explanation. "It's also why my temperature runs higher than anyone else, see," at this she waved her hand his way again, she just smiled and nodded at him.

Logan uncrossed his arms from leaning against the table and reached up. He had already held her hand, when she introduced herself, but there was something different about doing it now. Her hand was so much smaller that his enveloped hers with ease; the rougher skin on his palm met smoother skin and Logan just looked at her, "How old are you?"

"Wow! Rude, Logan! You never, ever, ask a lady her age. Don't you know that?" Alethea at least tried to be offended and then looked at him scrutinisingly. "28." Though the way she said it had Logan thinking maybe there was a year or two discrepancy there, but he wasn't going to say something. But also, she seemed a little suspicious, wary even with answering.

"But you also heal quicker?" Logan frowned, this was confusing him now, throwing him through a loop as he was left having to piece this information together.

Alethea looked confused too, she wasn't following. "Inside, I'm always healing. I have to, or else my power will make my insides liquid. Being energy-plasma based is all fun until pain kicks in. Why?" Alethea wasn't sure what he was struggling with. Blinking slowly, she slipped her hand from his, completely forgetting they were even still holding onto each other, "Your Alethea, looks younger than she is and you never questioned why?" It suddenly clicked in her mind, and she asked her question with a hesitantly thoughtful tone, she could be wrong, but she was going to say that was the root of Logan's sudden distant disposition.

"I just never thought to ask, I guess." Logan tilted his head and could feel a headache definitely coming. Constantly healing organs that were being burned would definitely falter and tamper with how a person would age, cells always being recovered, anything damaged being repaired before restarting all over again. Now why did that sound a little familiar?

"How old are you then?" Alethea was curious here, again, not that she hadn't been remotely curious since Logan first came through the door or anything.

"140, at the moment, give or take a year or two." Logan rubbed at his eyes, hoping to get rid of the dull ache back there.

"You're a museum piece, Logan."

He shouldn't have laughed at that, but one slipped out and he looked her way deciding whether to be offended or not. In the end he just sat there looking simply at her, "Now who's being rude?"

"Least I'll apologise, unlike you; I am sorry, if I offended you."

"I've been called worse." Logan had a long list of insults he'd heard thrown his way still buried somewhere in his mind. To say he'd heard it all, was rather true. The pair went silent then, he was hoping Alethea had run out of questions, seeing as how she had taken to looking at her leftover cold coffee, he was inclined to say yes.

"You said...when you were explaining about them using Raven for a war against mutants, that you'd been in lots of wars." So maybe she hadn't run out of things to ask him, more she was clearly dwelling over something. Turning her cold cup around in her hands, she narrowed her eyes up at the ceiling, "Considering your age, as long as you're not fibbing to me, every conflict this country has been in, you've been in too, right?"

"Why would I lie to you? I don't gain anything from lying," Logan also didn't want to point out that if he was going to lie, why on earth would it be over his age? He could've lied about anything they'd spoken about thus far. "But yeah, I have been."

Alethea looked at him sadly then, a gloomy look appearing in her eyes making the usual brightness of them from moments ago, when she was clearly enjoying how light-hearted they had been talking, to disappear, to make the amethyst colour look almost black. "Don't you get fed up of always fighting?"

He tilted his head thoughtfully at that one, his own coffee was almost gone and he finished the dregs up in one before looking at her seriously. "When you're good at something, sometimes it's easier to just continue on doing that. Whether it is in the name of good, or bad; and trust me, I've done my fair share of both." Sometimes even because he got paid to, Logan had done many things he wasn't proud of, but equally he'd done many things he was proud of. The two sides of the same coin, in a way.

Alethea fully turned in her seat, crossing her legs as she did so, she rested her forearms against her knees and looked at him as earnestly as possible. Logan didn't quite like her expression, just because of the simplicity of it, the honest mask that she was wearing as her eyes just looked his way; at least now they looked a little less black. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

"Someone's gotta do it," Logan just looked away from her, he could faintly hear footsteps coming down the stairs.

Alethea rolled her eyes, "You're missing the point, Logan." She sounded actually fed up with him, his eyes flicked sidelong at her as she had an expression that matched her tone. "The point is that you don't stoop to the level of those you're fighting against, or else what is the point of you doing whatever it is you are doing? But also, all the bad, it sticks. I taught English here, Logan. I have plenty more quotes I could throw at you. I just felt that Nietzsche was appropriate." She shrugged at that and turned out of the chair and as quickly as blinking an eye, a wide smile appeared on her face at the sight of Charles. "Morning!" Even her tone was a lot cheerier, Logan just slowly looked away from her, well aware that a frown was on his face as he looked at Charles too.

He stood, at least dressed, patterned shirt not done all the way up so the vest he had on underneath could be seen. He had at least seemingly made an effort to look put together for a day of travelling and finding Peter. It also wasn't missed that he wore sunglasses already, he was quietly grumbling about something but did utter a hello before looking sceptically between them. The atmosphere here was awkward to say the least, so he took it that he stumbled into something here.

Alethea stood up and walked his way, Charles just wrapped an arm around her loosely when she sought to giving him a quick hug to go with her hello. She pulled away and straightened out his shirt collar with a sigh. She tapped a finger against the glasses and looked at him pointedly. "It's too early." Was all Charles could say, in truth, the sunlight hurt his sore eyes nearly on a daily basis. Hardly sleeping would contribute to this, but for all he knew the serum might not be helping, but the alcoholic drinks also could be a big factor. His lifestyle currently, was just not working, no matter how aware he was of it, he wasn't openly trying to change, at least not yet.

"It's half-seven in the morning." She laughed, she didn't wish to state that he looked more put together for dinner last night, than he did now. But she wasn't going to quibble, he was up, way earlier than what he usually was. Whatever he chose to wear, she was leaving him to it. She was just happy to see he had tried.

Charles let out a scoff, he patted her shoulder and moved around her, the smell of coffee was alluring to him. Food, not so much, but he could do with a strong coffee. Alethea turned on her heels and watched him move about, he seemed sluggish still, probably barely slept and realised what they were meant to be doing today and begrudgingly dragged himself out of bed.

"You were up a lot earlier when you had to teach."

"That also was a long time ago," Charles pointed over his shoulder, roughly in her direction but also a little off as he continued waiting for the kettle to finish boiling. Why was it when waiting, it took forever?

Alethea clicked her tongue, "Even before then you were always up early."

"Also, a very long time ago," Charles tilted his head and turned to look at her, the kettle was not boiling any faster and staring blearily at it was not making it go quicker. "Why are you so chipper this morning? What have you said to my sister to make her like this?" Charles ran a hand through his hair and stared Logan's way, he in turn held a hand up and was going to reply before Charles walked forwards and leaned against the chair Alethea was sitting in. He had spotted her cup, with a hum he just looked over his glasses at her. "How many?"

"One."

"No, I don't need my powers to know you are lying. The last thing any of us need is you in the back of a car buzzing and hyperactive because you've had too much caffeine."

"I'd more question the amount of sugar, than the amount of coffee." Logan piped up, honestly, he had caught her trying to shovel sugar into her cup before he stopped her, after all. He was tempted to answer Charles's question, he hadn't said anything to Alethea to perk her up seems their conversation suddenly took a turn.

Charles drummed his fingers on the chair and shot him a look. "Her tolerance for caffeine is low."

"It isn't that bad." Alethea said while moving back to her chair.

Charles laughed dryly, "I distinctly remember a time when we were with the CIA, and you went to Hank because you kept getting heart palpitations, but you also couldn't sit still, and you were panicking over everything." Charles heard the kettle finally boil and turned away from her, "And do you remember what he deduced? Too much caffeine." She stood there with her arms crossed not appreciating the lecture, Charles turned and nodded her way. "Plus, you get paranoid. Really paranoid." He shuffled past her then, coffee in hand and hooked a chair with the toe of his shoe and pulled it out.

Alethea ended up sitting down silently, and if Logan wasn't wrong, sullenly. "I don't get paranoid."

Charles blew on his coffee, pausing and deciding that he wasn't ready to burn his tongue yet and actually ended up taking his glasses off. It wasn't as sunny in the kitchen so his sore eyes were safe from being burned. "You do."

Making a disgruntled noise, she just picked up her book and glared Charles's way while opening it and deciding she didn't want to talk to him anymore. She felt called out, and he was being blunt because he was moody and awake already. They weren't letting him sleep in until noon like a teenager and he was just having a tizzy.

Logan felt awkward, looked rather awkward too as he just sat there not knowing what to say and do. Silence seemed to be succeeding, but it also seemingly added to the heavy atmosphere. By the time poor Hank walked through the door with a rectangular object in his hand, he just paused and looked around the room. Logan raised an eyebrow and shook his head slowly, Hank felt like he'd just been smacked by an invisible force; a really negative force.

He coughed quietly, Charles and Alethea looked at him with different expressions, Charles looking done in already, and Alethea trying to cover up being annoyed at Charles. Hank had admittedly caught them squabbling more times than he'd like to say. He usually played peacemaker, so he felt a little bad that Logan was having to be a buffer here. Little did Hank know that actually, Logan just left them to it. He didn't see what he could've done to stop their moment, but also, he wasn't sure he really had the right to stop them. "I have something for you," Hank smiled Alethea's way, she looked confused. Nonetheless she marked her page again, Logan wasn't sure she'd actually done any reading and was just actually sitting staring at the same page out of annoyance.

"And it isn't even my birthday, or Christmas." She joked lightly, sliding out of her chair again she made her way past Charles and stopped near Hank.

"It's just a little something, to help you when you need to go out." Hank sounded shy, a little shifty as he was clearly not used to giving presents, or he was used to making things when there was a team, but no one looked at them like presents like Alethea evidently did. "I've been working on it, off and on...stopped as, well, everything happened." Hank admitted, Alethea didn't look offended that whatever he had made her, he had stopped actually working on it because they all became shut ins. "Anyway, here," Hank held the object out, figuring he'd rambled on for long enough.

Alethea smiled thankfully at him and opened the rectangular thing; she wasn't expecting to open it and there be glasses in there. She didn't need glasses to read, or in general. Picking them up and putting the case on the table she opened the arms and looked through. Nothing seemed out of place, just glasses. Hank just rolled his eyes and left her to examining them, coffee also was calling to him, so he moved around her as she turned and watched him.

"Well, are you gonna try them on, or just stand there holding them?" Logan could see Charles side eyeing his sister, but also still being in sulky teenager mode, he was trying to look disinterested. Even Logan could see he was curious over what his friend had made for her, but he couldn't let that be known, of course not.

Alethea nodded and slipped the arms over her ears and looked about. "What is it? Do they look bad?" Alethea asked worriedly, Logan's expression didn't help her feeling like she looked stupid. He literally sat there looking like he was trying to make sense of something, that something being her and she didn't like it. The style was similar to Hank's, maybe not as thicker in the frames, a simple style that seemed universal, or apparently not because of Logan's face, they clearly didn't suit her!

"What? No! No...just, your eyes." Logan held his hands up, she stopped going to pull them from her face and have it out with Hank that he went and messed up, there was no tact there, she'd just ask what he was playing at. But Logan's words caused her a moment of thought.

"What do you mean?"

"Your eyes are a different colour, my dear. Hank's made you glasses that clearly adapt to light, so your natural purple eyes look green." Charles explained, seemingly not being able to stay quiet anymore as he found Hank's little tinkering project interesting.

"Really?!" All three males couldn't help but wince a little at her shouting, Alethea was jumping on the spot before literally flying at Hank, the taller male got a very tight hug and lots of thanks and gratitude's thrown his way before she actually went flying out the room to find the nearest mirror.

"Don't fly in the house, Thea!" Charles shouted after her, a trail of giggling excitement was following her. Shaking his head slowly, he looked to where Hank still stood at the kitchen counter. "Thank you, Hank. That means a lot to her."

"No problem, I meant to finish them sooner but..."

"None of us really go out, well you do, she does rarely. That's the good thing about being somewhere sunny, she could get away with sunglasses a lot." Charles said while looking from Hank to Logan and just seemingly more talking to himself than them, but both exchanged a look and could hear from upstairs more excited noises.

"Think you've gone and made her day." Logan commented while leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

"That and getting away with sneaking coffee." Charles offhandedly quipped, not meaning to sound sarcastic but it just seemingly became a default.

Hank sighed and hung his head, "Travelling is going to be fun," now who was being sarcastic?

Even if they wanted to talk about something else Alethea reappeared in the doorway, grin on her face and her feet finally landing. "These are amazing! Thank you so much, Hank." Not to say she was going to live in them, but she was possibly going to live in them.

"What is the plan for getting to DC?" Hank seemingly didn't care about how hot his coffee was, he just took to drinking it. He took her thanks with a small smile and decided seems they were all here, they might as well figure out a plan of action.

Charles rested his arms against the table and thought about that, "I'd rather us avoid anything that could come back to us." He started, watching as Alethea took her seat again, fingers still fidgeting with her glasses and Hank came and sat opposite to Charles.

"For the most part, people are still ignorant that we are here so..."

"No, Thea. There is no way that we are going to be unknown for much longer. As secretive as we can be, I'd rather take all precautions possible." Charles looked at her surely, she stopped playing with her glasses and put her hands in her lap.

"Powers to a minimal then?" Alethea asked, not that he had an issue with that. Hank had his control, and he had spent years getting that control to a fine art. Logan's claws were always hidden, and she would hope, even with what they were previously talking about, that he wouldn't use force unless he needed to. As for her, it was much the same, unless backed into a corner and she needed to defend herself, she'd stay as she was.

"If you wouldn't mind," Charles nodded, "But it is more than that. I hate to state it, but the cars in the garage, most of them haven't been used since Alex was playing around with them...the one Hank usually uses for when he goes out, it is registered to here."

"Rental?" Hank got what Charles was trying to say, if things went bad and if they managed to lie themselves out of any trouble, the car they'd be in would lead anyone straight back to here.

Charles nodded slowly, Alethea leaned her arms on the table and looked at him seriously. "I think it is the safest option." Charles said and sighed, he hated to think it, but if things did go bad, at least it wouldn't be his car to get wrecked...

"Well, I suppose we better get ready then." Alethea pushed herself out of her seat, give her barely ten minutes and she'd have her teeth brushed and all ready to go.

Logan seemed pleased to finally be moving, he stood up alongside the other males and it seemed like it was now officially happening, Logan didn't know how Peter would react to them rocking up, but he could almost imagine the reception. They all went their own ways to get ready and a few minutes later they were back in the foyer, Hank had keys in his hands even though it seemed like Charles was trying to get him to hand them over.

Alethea had a small rucksack on her back, Logan didn't know what she had crammed in there but he guessed stuff to occupy her while they travelled? Charles didn't succeed in getting the keys from Hank, and with a quiet huff Charles just followed the taller man towards the garage. There was a rental car place downtown, they could park this car up somewhere and go get one. The plan seemed relatively simple so far, the only hiccup when they actually got there was Alethea wanting to go get snacks.

"This isn't some picnic, Thea." Charles watched her slowly back up towards the nearest store, he had the rental keys in his hands, he got them before Hank could, or Logan.

"Listen, you two haven't eaten, and I don't want to listen to either of you moan that you're hungry halfway through our journey. Nor do I envision you wanting us to stop at a service station," Alethea said while pointing between Charles and Hank, then eventually at Logan. "Travel snacks are a must. So, I'm going to go get some, to share. Because if you boys don't look after yourselves, then I will." And with that said, she turned and walked off quickly, her long hair swaying behind her and bouncing with the spring in her step, she was clearly pleased with the fact that neither of them were stopping her.

The three of them were standing near the rental car for a few moments before all exchanging a look and following after her. It wasn't like they didn't trust her to get food for travelling, they just didn't trust they wouldn't be packed full of sugar. She had an incredibly sweet tooth, but none of them did. They split up and went looking for their missing companion, Logan ended up finding her looking over biscuits, saying her name and watching her look up as if she'd been caught out, Logan just frowned at the sight of a basket near her feet.

"It's a few hours, Thea. Not a whole week." Logan despaired, what was even in that basket? Furthermore, did she even have money? As bad as that was to imply, but really, he didn't know. She looked suspiciously around, eyeing up other things and Logan had to take the biscuit packet from her hand, stick it on the shelf and put a hand on her shoulder and pull her away.

"But why..." Alethea actually sounded like she was pining for her forgotten basket, or the biscuits, or both.

Logan looked down at her, "Few hours." He reiterated, she just looked back up at him with a small pout. With a sigh, he nodded at Charles and Hank, they eyed the pair up in turn and from the look on Alethea's face, Charles was just going to guess Logan had ruined her shopping for snacks.

Holding up an arm, Charles put it around her shoulders when she shuffled to his side. "I know you are excited for a road trip, but try not to make this into something it isn't." Charles didn't blame Alethea for getting excited and carried away, life had been ultimately so dull for her for so long, this was an adventure, but they were also trying to succeed in something, as in right now that was getting to DC.

She didn't say anything, she just silently nodded and slipped into the backseat, her rucksack was shoved between her feet and she just leaned her head against the window. Feeling the seat shift, she looked over at Logan, he looked hesitant about Charles driving and she just smiled, he was in for an absolute treat! Her smile was retorted with a firm look, Alethea just smiled more and looked back out of the window, she was interested watching the people go by, seeing buildings that were familiar to her change to scenery she hadn't ever seen.

—

Without Alethea's chatter, be it anything and everything that came to her mind to talk about, the ride was silent; they'd been on the road for over an hour, and she had surprisingly crashed. Charles was actually surprised, when he realised it was too quiet. Stopping at traffic lights a little sharper than what was normal, causing Hank to put his hand on the dashboard, and for Logan to grip onto the backseat, he watched Charles look over his sister.

Alethea had scooted her legs up onto the seat, they were tucked up but sleeping had caused one to slip, her hands rested on the seat between herself and Logan and her head was nestled against the headrest. He was surprised she went to sleep so quickly, but then she also had the horrid habit of finding travelling weirdly relaxing to go to sleep to. Charles guessed it was like babies and driving around, engine white noise, or something?

"Green light," Hank pulled Charles's attention away and started driving again, there was a judder but a look cast in Charles's direction by Hank showed he was just thinking all was okay. Hank didn't want to comment, but Charles was definitely more than rusty with driving.

"She said that in your future, she is dead." Charles had been dwelling on this whole thing, how could he possibly feel knowing one sister was tortured and used as an experiment to hunt out mutants, and that other died in an unknowing way to him. He'd lose everyone, and everything in the future. At the moment he was struggling with, well, everything. But in Logan's future, he lost everything.

Logan pushed his sunglasses up his nose, looking out the window as people went about their business. Hank was in charge of route finding and had a folding map in his lap, Logan gave them the address and just opted to be a backseat passenger for the travelling, for the most part. "Yeah, she is."

There was something with the way he answered that had Charles shifting in his seat, indicating to turn a corner he waited for traffic to ease up before he could. "How?" Would it honestly do him any good knowing? Probably not. But what if there was a chance for him to prevent it happening, if things didn't pan out like Logan thought it would.

"She died saving people, she died trying to still do good, in the face of such bad." Logan leaned his head back, his eyes looking up at the ceiling and sighing heavily.

"Was she alone?" Charles wasn't sure why he was doing this to himself, considering his heart twisted. They may not have always seen eye to eye recently, but he loved her. He couldn't imagine her going, or not being nearby. It hurt when Raven went, but Alethea was a consolation.

Logan looked forwards, his eyes flicking between the road and the back of Charles's head before looking Hank's way, the younger man was busy looking over the map to realise Logan was watching him. "No, she wasn't." She died with Hank, that was it, both went down fighting and trying to save people, and it cost them both their lives, and in truth; the humans too, the Sentinels got them, it was all such fruitless death, unnecessary death, not that any death was ever necessary, not really.

Logan looked slowly over to Alethea, she fidgeted a little in her sleep, her hands twitching on the seat, the quote from earlier came back hitting him like a train, she never became a monster, to fight monsters; even right through until the end, Alethea never lost sight of herself, of who she was, she never became worse than that which she was fighting against. He let out a short sigh and shook his head, English teacher, she was a smart one, seeing as how what she had said had come to mind and here he was musing over just that.

Feeling something against his hand, he looked down, absentmindedly it had just been resting on the seat, Alethea's twitching hands had come into contact with it and one of her fingers decided to hook around some of his fingers. Logan didn't mean to find himself frowning, but she was making trying to be nonchalant hard; irrevocably, much like how Charles felt about protecting her at all costs, that same feeling still dwelt within Logan. He had beaten himself up, berated himself about her death, how if he was with her and also Hank, that he could've prevented both from dying. Although, alternatively yes, they could all have died together and then Logan, and everyone else, wouldn't get a second chance. There was always a contradiction, always, things just couldn't ever be so simple. At least, Logan's life had never been simple, he was used to things going pear shaped without even trying.

She really did run hotter than everyone else, including his own temperature; her finger was this little warm comfort, just there against his hand as she rested peacefully in sleep. In truth, he didn't know when she drifted off, she just did. One minute she was enjoying watching the scenery, the next Logan knew, she was out for the count breathing slowly and deeply.

Charles let out a quick apology, he may have braked a little too hard and everyone in the car shifted suddenly and in a jerky fashion. The fact that Charles than sat complaining about the driver in front of him that apparently made him have to brake like he did, was truly something. Logan tilted his head when he swore, he heard Charles comment on the driver going to have a refresher. He couldn't help but blink slowly behind his sunglasses, Charles should probably listen to his own advice.

The sudden sharp movement though also made Alethea let out a disgruntled sleepy sound, her fingers gripped onto Logan's hand then, her unconscious self evidently registering she needed something to hold onto so the rest of her could wake and assess what was actually going on around her.

As if it was something that happened every day, or it at least it used to, his hand turned and his fingers wrapped ever so gently around hers, he held on and was literally expecting her to wake up, instead she smiled contently in her sleep, nestled against the headrest and just went back to sleep. Logan couldn't remember if the Alethea he knew was a heavy sleeper, but he also got the inclination that she hadn't really slept much since they parted ways after the meteor shower.

The alternative was that she was really excited about going someplace new, that she woke so early before anyone and had just been in the kitchen waiting for the others to wake up. Logan didn't know, it could have been either option really. The one thing he did know was that it was potentially dangerous to both his head and heart that they were both here, in this time, regardless of what it was they were even setting out to do, he still felt drawn to her kind ways and found himself just as interested in any conversation she would start, just for the sake of hearing her speak, watching her be so full of life and energy.

Matching this person with the one he knew wasn't hard, they were both the same, and unfortunately for Logan, it was rare he got a happy ending with anyone he loved, so a little piece of dread was always just lurking on the periphery for him, and knowing that just made socialising and getting close to her all the worse for his heart and head.