CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE —
( Combat this mutant issue. )

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Lydia opened up her eyes as she slipped back into reality, a small smile on her face as she stood up and hugged Logan. "Thank you so much for showing us that," she told him.

Logan chuckled before she let go. "So you've always been a hugger," he smiled before turning to Charles who opened up his eyes. "Find what you were looking for?"

The lights all suddenly turned on, meaning Hank had finally got the engine up and running again. "Damn," Lydia said, placing her hands on her hips. The men all looked at her with a frown. "I age well." Logan and Charles chuckled and shook their heads. "But in all seriousness, ten years ago when you said that you will probably become bald, I knew you were right."

Charles shoved Lydia with a small smile. "Hilarious, Lyds." She could now see that the light returned into his eyes. The light that hadn't been there since all of the students left.

"Power's back on," Hank informed them, walking up to the trio.

"Yes," Charles looked at Logan. "Yes it has."

Charles took a deep breath as he glanced at the Cerebro. He was going to do it for his family. He was the mutants of the future's only hope. He had to conquer his fears for them.

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After what happened with younger Charles coming back to have a little chat with Charles and Lydia, they all waited quietly on the side lines and watched as Charlie tried to stop the blood that was flowing out of Kitty's body.

After watching his love whimper too much from the pain she was in, Charlie and Bobby switched places so that Charlie could pull the eldest in the room aside and into the next room. "Kitty's lost a lot of blood," he shook his head. "I don't know how much longer she can keep this up for."

"We have no choice, Bobby," Erik told him.

"We have to wake him up." Charlie went to walk past Lydia when she stepped in his way.

"We can't do that. Not yet, anyway," Lydia told him. "I know it hurts, Charlie, but they need more time."

"Lydia and I had a glimpse into the past," Charles said.

"We talked to forty-year-old Charles, funnily enough," Lydia said.

"If we wake Logan now, we may set off on an even darker course," Charles sighed. "They need more time."

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After his first crack at the cerebro after Charles' little talk with his older self, Charles found Raven at an airport, ready to board an airplane. He went into a ladies mind that was a metre away from Raven and turned to her.

"Raven, stop," Charles made the older lady say. "Stop running."

Raven turned towards the old woman, her mouth agape. "Charles? Lydia?" Then she looked around the room for them. "Where are you?"

"Back at the house, where you should be. And it's Charles talking to you," the old lady replied. "I need you to come home."

"I know what I need to do," Raven got up and walked away.

Charles then made his way into another man's head. "If you kill Trask, you'll be creating countless more just like him," he said as Raven walked past him.

"Then I'll kill him too," Raven walked off.

"Those are Erik's words, not yours," a teenage boy told her.

Raven bumped into a flight attendant and dropped her passport. The two of them bent down to pick it up when the flight attendant looked at Raven. "The girl I grew up with wasn't capable of killing," the woman said in a monotone voice. "She was good, fair, full of compassion."

Raven froze for a few seconds, letting Charles' words sync into her. "I have compassion. Just not for Trask. He's murdered too many of us." Raven snatched her passport from the woman's grips and then walked off.

"Come on, Charlie. Get in her head," Lydia placed her hands on Charles' shoulders.

"She's not letting me in," Charles said. "I'm barely holding on. I'm not strong enough yet."

Raven walked through the airport and looked up, shocked to see Charles standing just metres away from her. But it wasn't him, it was a spirit version of him. "I know what Trask has done. But killing him will not bring them back. It will set you in a path from which there is no return. An endless cycle of killing. Us and them until there is nothing left. But we can stop it right now, you and I. You just have to come home."

Raven just shook her head. "I have to," she mimicked. "You haven't changed at all, Charles. Like I said, I know exactly what I have to do." And with that, Raven walked straight through Charles' spirit and away from them.

The lights turned on in the cerebro and Lydia groaned. "God damn it, she's so stubborn," she said as Charles took off the cerebro helmet.

"Where is she?" Logan asked.

"Sh-she's at an airport, boarding a plane," Charles shook his head.

"A plane to where?" Logan asked.

Lydia thought back to the passport that Raven dropped and the flight attendant picked up. "Washington DC," she replied

"Hey, guys," Hank spoke up. "There's something I need to show you."

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"This is the system that I designed to record any news about Paris over all 3 networks and PBS." Hank led the three mutants into his computer room where he tend to design random machines in his spare time.

"All 3? Wow," Logan sarcastically said.

"Yeah....and PBS," Hank shrugged. "Look what I found." He turned on the television screen in front of him.

"Tomorrow in front of the White House, the President will make his announcement," the TV reporter said. "He'll be joined by secretary of defence Laird and has even sought the help of renowned scientist Bolivar Trask, his special advisor to combat this mutant issue."

Hank stopped the video from continuing.

"Mutant issue my arse," Lydia scoffed.

"Raven doesn't realise that if she kills Trask, at an event like that with the whole world watching...." Charles thought out loud.

"Then I came a long way for nothing," Logan mumbled.

"And there's more bad news," Hank continued. "I saw a report. They found traces of her blood in Paris. For all we know, they already have her DNA, which is all they need..."

"To create the Sentinels in the future," Logan finished off for him.

"Oh for fucks sake," Lydia slapped her head.

"Language," Charles said almost instantly. Lydia stuck her tongue out at him.

"Now there's a theory in Quantum Physics that time is immutable," Hank stopped them. "It's like a river. You can throw a pebble into it and create a ripple, but the current always corrects itself. No matter what you do, the river just keeps flowing in the same direction."

"What are you trying to say?" Logan asked almost reluctantly.

"What I'm saying is, what if the war is inevitable? What if she's meant to kill Trask? What if this is just simply who she is?" Hank asked.

"Then we are going to be in a lot of shit in the future," Lydia said.

"Just because someone stumbles, loses their way, doesn't mean they're lost forever," Charles said and then a smile broke out onto his face.

Lydia patted his back. "Now you're quoting the older version of yourself."

Charles shook his head at Lydia and then looked up at Hank and Logan. "No, I don't believe that theory, Hank, and I cannot believe that that is who she is." Hank nodded in agreement. "Now ready the plane, we're going to Washington."

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