CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE —
( So much for being a survivor. )

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        Lydia kept a close eye on what was happening outside with the Sentinels arriving. Erik lifted up the jet that they arrived on as hundreds of Sentinels began to fly towards the building they were in. Storm concentrated on her lightning abilities and struck down on the jets core, causing it to explode and destroy majority of the Sentinels.

"Is everyone okay?" Storm asked as everyone crowded around together.

They all glanced at Erik who pulled out a shard from his stomach, eyes tearing up when out of nowhere a Sentinel came up from behind Storm and stabbed her.

Lydia let out a gasp as she felt Ororo leave her mind, rendering her dead.

A whole bunch of Sentinels began to fire at Bishop, who consumed their powers. He began to turn red and overdrive, before exploding. Lydia let out another gasp as she felt him disappear from her mind.

"What is it, mum?" Charlie quickly asked.

"Storm, Bishop," Lydia felt her throat begin to tighten, then her face turned to one of determination as she looked at her children. "Avery, Charlie, I love you with everything I have in me. Never forget that."

Avery frowned when she realised what her mother was going to do. "Mum, don't you dare leave us."

"Baby, you know I have to," she said softly.

Charlie quickly shook his head. "No, you don't. Ma, please don't."

"I'm stronger than everyone out there," Lydia told her son, before looking down at Charles. "I have to."

Charles smiled softly up at his younger sister before grabbing onto her hand. "It was a pleasure being your older brother and watching you grow up to be the woman you are today."

Lydia smiled lightly back. "I love you, too, Baldy."

Then Lydia stormed out of the room to help out the other mutants.

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Erik landed in the middle of the stadium with some of the Sentinels following him, with the remainders flying to the tops of the stadium to aim their guns down on the outside world, almost as if they were guarding them.

Logan placed Charles down somewhere safe running up to where Hank and Lydia had hidden themselves. It was silent as they watched what was happening in front of them, trying to figure out what to do. "I'm probably not supposed to ask this kind of thing, but in the future, do I make it?" Hank asked Logan.

"No," Logan said. Lydia snorted as Hank turned to look at him. "But we can change it, right?"

Hank, who was standing beside Lydia, started to transform into his blue beast form. He grew larger muscles and his suit began to rip, hair covering every part of his body as a set of fangs replaced his teeth. Hank growled and that brought Erik's attention towards them.

Erik turned towards a Sentinel. "Do what you were made for," he commanded.

The Sentinel turned around and faced the trio, aiming his gun at them. Just as it began to fire, Lydia held get hands up and made a green barrier so it would shield them from the bullets. The Sentinel flew over them and took a hit at Logan, who grew his claws and tried to fight the robot.

Hank jumped out of nowhere and grabbed the Sentinels head. "I've got this. Go!"

Logan and Lydia turned around and began to run towards Erik but Erik turned around to them and began to fire metal objects at them. Lydia easily used her telekinetic abilities to make them fly off, when something knocked into her back. She fell onto the floor with a thud and then looked at Logan and saw that Erik and stabbed several poles into him. She was going to help Logan when poles began to wrap around her wrists, neck and hands, keeping her trapped.

"Erik!" Lydia yelled at him as he made Logan levitate into the air. "Stop doing this! We're just trying to help the future!"

"The future can't be changed," Erik looked down at her. "Humans are still going to try and find ways to kill us all. It will only be a matter of time." He then turned to Logan. "So much for being a survivor." He then pushed his hand and controlled Logan to fly out of the stadium and into the river outside.

Erik then began to hold his hands above the ground and closed his eyes. The ground began to shake, and seconds later, the Presidents bunker that used to lay under the White House flew out towards them and landed on the grass. Erik opened up the door and then proceeded to rip the wall off. He controlled all of the men's guns to fly away from them and aimed them all at America's leaders.

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Lydia smashed open the door that was shut for everyone inside's protection. She turned to Erik who stood beside her and nodded at him before he controlled the metal around the area to shield the door shut and then walked back through a portal Blink created to return to the others.

Colossus went up against several Sentinels, but came up unsuccessful as they grabbed onto his steel limbs and ripped him apart.

Sunspot began to go up against Sentinels as well and shoot his fire at them. The Sentinel looked to be getting weak until it turned its body into a crystal like surface, completely blocking off his fire blast. He fired at another Sentinel when it turned itself into stone, cutting off Sunspot's arm. He didn't stop fighting as they all surrounded him, and then proceeded to stab him with several metallic swords from their fingers.

Several Sentinel's tried to take down Blink, who constantly placed her portals out in front of her when the Sentinel's fired. A Sentinel came up from behind her and stabbed her, then one in front of her also, and then another one behind her.

Some of the Sentinel's began to turn towards Lydia and she quickly and easily began to move her hands and watched as her green magic ripped some of them apart. Realising that Lydia was a much stronger mutant than most of the others, many of the Sentinel's turned to her at once and charged at her. Lydia did her best at quickly ripping them apart, but found that her reflexes weren't as quick as they used to be. She then sensed a group of Sentinel's charging at her from her right, so she held her hand out and used her energy manipulation to push them all back, and then another group approached her from her left and she held her other hand up and did the same to push them all away from her.

It wasn't until Lydia looked in front of her and realised she had no my hands to block off the Sentinel's attacks did she realise she lost. A Sentinel stabbed her stomach, and Lydia lost all concentration as she gripped onto her midsection that began to ooze with blood. She angrily looked up at the Sentinel that towered above her and watched as it opened up its face before letting out a scream that was so loud that it caused the building to shake. Her green magic shot out of her body and teared apart majority of the Sentinel's around them, before she stopped and collapsed onto the ground, dead.

Charles let out a gasp from inside the temple after the whole building shook, feeling the life leave his sister's body. He gripped onto his wheelchair's handles as everyone instantly turned towards him.

"Charles, what is it?" Erik asked him with a frown.

When Charles didn't respond, Avery clenched her jaw. "Uncle Charles, what is it?"

Charles reluctantly looked at Charlie and then at Avery, tears in his eyes as he realised his baby sister was dead. "Your mother, she's-she's—"

Erik sighed softly and hung his head in respect, having known how wonderful Lydia was ever since he met her when she was ten.

Charlie instantly began to shake his head in denial, his eyes beginning to tear up. "No. No, she isn't." Avery immediately pressed her face against Logan's chest and sobbed. "She can't be. Not her as well."

"Charlie, there's nothing more I can say," Charles said softly. Charlie then came to the realisation that his mother was dead as well as his father and hung his head down into the crook of Kitty's neck and sobbed.

"All those years wasted fighting each other, Charles," Erik sighed. "To have a precious few of them back." He reached out his hand's towards Charles and grabbed onto them, the two of them sharing a sad smile.

The room shook as the Sentinel's began to break through Erik's metal barrier. Bobby looked towards Charles and then walked out of the room.

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Erik then held his hand up towards Lydia and she suddenly began to levitate into the air with several more poles wrapping themselves around her, keeping her secure. "So not fucking cool, Magnet."

"Shh," Erik stopped her. "You are on live television." Erik turned towards the men in the bunker. "You built these weapons to destroy us. Why?"

"Because you're afraid of our gifts," he continued. "Because we are different. Humanity has always feared that which is different. Well, I'm here to tell you—to tell the world, you're right to fear us. We are the future. We are the ones who will inherit this earth and anyone who stands in our way will suffer the same fate as these men you see before you. Today was meant to be a display of your power, instead I give you a glimpse of the devastation my race can unleash upon yours," Erik looked straight into a camera.

"Let this be a warning to the world and to my mutant brothers and sisters out there, I say this: no more hiding, no more suffering. You have lived in the shadows and shame and fear for too long. So come out. Join me. Fight together in the brotherhood of our kind. A new tomorrow. That starts today." During Erik's speech, Lydia felt the hold on the metal around her weaken and then she eventually landed onto the floor.

"That's a bit of an overreaction, if you ask me," Lydia spoke up, making Erik look at her and the cameras turn towards her. "Why do you think the humans are afraid of us, Erik? It's because of the types of things you do. If we lived peacefully with them, civilised, then they will not see us as a threat. They will see us just as the type of people we are; humans with abilities."

"That doesn't mean that they will stop experimenting on us," Erik countered.

"It doesn't, but it means that the government and army don't need to lock all of us up or send out these sentinel weapons to take us out. They will trust us. They will know that we mean them no harm," she said.

"Stand down!" President Nixon suddenly said. Lydia turned around and watched as he advanced towards Erik, but she instantly knew it was not the President, but Raven. "You wanna make a statement?!"

Lydia shrugged. "I'm pretty sure he already did."

"Kill me, but spare everyone else," Ravens/Nixon's eyes met Lydia's, giving her a knowing look before looking back at Erik.

"Very heroic, Mr President," Erik smirked as he walked up to her. "But you have no intention of sparing any of us. The future of our species begins now."

All of the guns cocked.

AUTHORS NOTE