CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR —
( There gramps goes. )

────────────────

        "Honestly, I've had enough of travelling around now," Lydia sat in the same seat she had previously sat on in the plane, but this time they were on the way to Washington DC.

"You stay at the mansion for majority of the time that I've known you," Logan said before glancing at Charles who was massaging his leg. "You alright?"

"Getting there," Charles sighed.

"You're in pain again, aren't you?" Lydia asked him. Charles nodded so she walked over to him and held her hands above his head so that she could make his brain think that his lower back and legs were pain free.

"Thank you," Charles mumbled as Lydia sat back down in her seat.

"No problems," she smiled at him.

Logan sighed. "Whatever happens today, I need you to promise me something," he began. "You looked into my mind and you've seen a lot of bad, but you've seen the good too. The X-Men."

Lydia smirked as she glanced at Charles. "Throwback much."

"What do you mean?" Logan asked.

"Well, on our first ever mission to save the world, a group of us mutants came up with a name for ourselves," Lydia said. "There was me, Alex Summers, Raven, Sean Cassidy and Hank. There were a few others but one switched teams and another died."

"Must be where you came up with the name," Logan said before looking at Charles. "Promise me you'll find us," Logan leant forward so his elbows were resting on his knees. "Use your power, bring us together. Guide us, lead us. Storm, Scott, Jean, and Avery. Remember those names. There's so many of us. We will need you, Professor."

Charles nodded, a small smile on his face. "I'll do my best."

"Your best is enough," Logan said. "Trust me."

"Wait wait wait, Scott Summers? Alex's baby brother?" Lydia asked Logan who nodded. "Another mutant Summer's." She shook her head with a smile. "One was enough to handle."

"I agree with Lydia on that," Hank called from the front seat.

Lydia smiled as she looked towards the front. "Bozo," she mimicked, causing Hank to laugh.

"You all might want to take a nap while you still can. You're going to need it for tomorrow," Hank called from the front.

"You don't need to tell me twice." Lydia got a blanket from her bag and placed it over her. She was almost out like a light.

────────────────

The group continued to wait while Logan changed the past, hopefully altering it for the good. "Twelve carriers inbound. Ten miles," Lydia heard Warpath say from the roof.

She groaned. "Mother fuckers," Lydia mumbled. "They found us," she announced to the group.

"Language," Charles warned her. Lydia teasingly rolled her eyes.

Erik looked at them all individually, then walked out of the room. "Erik, buddy, don't leave," Lydia called out. He continued walking. "Or do, you know. Without saying goodbye."

Erik stopped and then turned around. "Pleasure knowing you all," and then left.

Lydia pouted. "There gramps goes," Charlie and Avery mumbled.

Lydia nodded. "There gramps goes."

────────────────

The group of four mutants made their way through the event, watching as hundreds of Americans cheered and talked excitedly to one another about what the government had in store for the future.

The line in front of them began to shorten as people walked through the metal detector and showed their invites. When it was the quartets turn, Lydia pushed Charles through with his wheelchair and heard the metal detector beep.

"Can I see your invitations please?" The guard asked.

Charles held his fingers subtly against his forehead as if he was massaging a headache. "Of course," he smiled at him as he controlled the man to let them through. "These three are with me."

"Go ahead," he replied so Lydia pushed Charles ahead. When Logan walked through the metal detector without a beep, he turned back around and looked up at it.

"Come on, Logan. Got to get good seats." Logan turned back around with a frown before following after Lydia. "You use to have adamantium claws, right?"

"Yeah, I'm just not use to walking through the detectors now without it going off," Logan shrugged.

"I guess that would be annoying. Almost as annoying as if you had a metal prosthetic limb."

They got a good position due to Charles needing a wheelchair, and once they were set, Charles and Lydia raised their fingers to their foreheads and searched the crowd for Raven. Lydia bit her lip in annoyance as she hadn't found her yet, and also because she was focusing on keeping everyone else's voices out of her head also.

"Haven't found her yet but she has to be here," Charles informed them.

"The President of the United States." President Nixon walked onto the stage, his body guards following closely behind him. The crowd cheered for him as he made his way up to the podium.

He held his hands up to silence the crowd. "My fellow Americans."

"But I'm not American," Lydia whispered to the boys.

"Today, we face the greatest threat in our history. Mutants." Lydia continued to go through everyone's head. "We have prepared for this threat. In the immortal words of Robert Oppenheimer. Behold. The world will never be the same again." The sheet behind him dropped, revealing monstrous purple sentinel robots.

All of the army men held their hands up in salute. Lydia searched through the crowd and the men up on that stage, until she heard Raven's thoughts loud and clear. "This is for you, brothers and sisters."

"Bingo!" Lydia called out as she stopped Raven from pulling out her gun. "I got her."

"Let me go, Lydia," Raven told her.

Lydia pointed towards the secret service man on the side of the stage. "There she is!"

Charles also got into her mind so that he could talk to her. Suddenly all of the Sentinels began to turn on and fly upwards. The crowd all cheered and clapped at the wonderful sight. "Raven, please listen to us," Charles said. "We've been given a second chance to define who we are."

"Please don't do this, Rav. Please," Lydia begged.

The Sentinels suddenly began to fire at the police cars and Lydia lost her connection with Raven out of shock. What was happening to them? Lydia looked towards the Sentinels and realised what they were doing: killing humans. "Erik! For fucks sake!" Lydia yelled out.

Lydia looked around the area to see where he was, until she saw a baseball stadium flying in the sky with a little figure flying above it. The stadium flew above them before it came to a stop. Suddenly, the stadium began to fall from the sky and Lydia stared at it in shock before coming up with a last second decision to hold her hands up above herself and Charles to use her green magic to hold the stadium away from them.

"Lydia! Charles!" Lydia heard Logan yell. Lydia concentrated on keeping the debris up in the air as Logan quickly ran up to the pair and grabbed onto Charles. He ran off with Charles in his arms and Lydia let out a little grunt in pain before letting go and sprinting as fast as she could towards the middle of the stadium, just in time for it to collapse around the White House.

AUTHORS NOTE