━━ HER FUTURE

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 they cannot defeat.

The clouds of night shrouded the world in darkness. Silence filled the air with a quiet roar. Everything was always quiet now. Silence was the enemy to all. If it was too quiet, and a footfall landed the wrong way, it could mean either death or a punishment worse than that. Sentinels, large, man-shaped beings of metal and steel, scales and fury, stood watching out over the hill in a region of China. Temples were constructed along the mountaintops, abandoned since the many purges had swept through the world.

Or so they thought.

Above in the sky, a jet silently streamed through the mists. As black as a cat with an ebony coat, and an engine near silent, like the soft feet of a panther, it flew through the hills, hoping, waiting, daring to reach its destination.

Everyone inside the jet was silent.

They did not dare speak, did not dare move. For the silence was their enemy, just as everything else. The pilot made the descent, his movements precise and weary. He knew that one wrong move could give away their location, and it was his responsibility to make sure they landed without being noticed. The lights of the jet were a necessary risk, and the jet landed. From inside the temple door, shadowy figures emerged. A dark-skinned man with a large red and black gun watched the occupants leave the jet. He did not smile, but on the inside he was relieved.

The first to emerge was a bronze-skinned woman, tall and lanky, with close cropped hair of flashing ivory and eyes like a summer storm. When her feet hit the ground, she looked from one side to the other, eyes clouding over as she scanned for something the man did not know. When she was satisfied, Storm, as most called her, stepped off to the side.

The next was a large, hulking man. He wore a sour expression and streaking black hair that jutted from his face like the puffs of smoke he now lit with his cigar. He took a long drag and watched everyone with a suspicious eye. Logan Howlett, or Wolverine, was always suspicious, it was what kept him safe. It was what kept him alive.

One of the last to come down the steps was the one the young mutants had been waiting for. Suspended several inches above the ground came an aging man with no hair and wise eyes. A slight smirk seemed to play on his lips as he descended the jet, and though he did not speak, a thousand words seemed to be set alight in his eyes. Charles Xavier, Professor X, was weary and tired, but he did not show it. He needed to be strong and brave and share knowledge with the others, for their time was short he did not know how long they would have.

The last one to emerge was someone no one could reason with, and they regarded with utmost distrust. He was a villain, a man of conflict and rage, and one more powerful than most in his company. Erik Lehnsherr walked with his head down and shoulders set. He was also growing old, wrinkles lining his weathered face and grey hair styled neatly atop his head. He did not speak, he did not dare. No, his mind was elsewhere, someplace where none of these events had happened, where he was safe in a house with the people he loved and with a life he cherished. His thoughts strayed back to the mission at hand. If their plan succeeded, his wishes might just come true.

They walked through the temple and towards the man with the large gun. Logan's ears perked up as he heard someone on the roof above him. He did not speak, but he knew that the other sensed the arriving presence as well.

A man with dark hair and ivory skin came up beside the man facing them. The boy on the roof jumped down, landing light on his feet, and from inside the doors to the temple, a blonde haired man walked towards them. He placed a hand on the man holding the blaster, and gave a sad smile towards the four figures in front of him.

"Professor!" he called. The man walked towards Storm and gave her a hug.

"Bobby." she exclaimed, and he welcomed her. When they released, Bobby turned to the Wolverine.

"Hey, kid." Logan said gruffly, voice like footsteps dragging through gravel. Bobby nodded towards him while Wolverine eyed the boy cautiously, just as he did everyone. Before Bobby could reply another voice rang out from the entrance.

"Professor!" they all turned to see a young woman walk out of the temple. She stepped carefully down the stairs and took Bobby's hand. "You made it." One side of her mouth quirked up, and Charles watched Kitty Pryde with relief flooding his senses.

Charles smiled and nodded. They all went inside. Erik entered last, keeping his thoughts to himself and his face placid. Inside, a war raged. He wanted to start the mission as soon as possible, but knew that if he appeared too hasty, the others would turn on him immediately. He was already an outsider, an antihero, and if anything more occurred, they would be quick to blame Magneto.

Once they were all situated inside the temple, light flickering upon a tabletop, the X-Men gathered to start discussions, and Kitty explained their predicament.

"Whenever Sentinels attack," she started. "Warpath spots them, and I send Bishop back to warn us of the attack before it happens." Erik frowned slightly, finding it difficult to keep track of all the names. "Blink scouts the next site, and..." she paused. "Well, then we leave before they ever know we were there."

The boy called Warpath spoke up. "Because we never were."

Logan's eyebrows went up at the explanation. "But what do you mean, you were never there?"

Charles moved his head up to face Logan, who stood beside him. "She projects Bishop back in time a few days to warn the others of the coming attack."

Logan frowned. "So she sends Bishop back in time—"

"—no just his consciousness. Into his younger self, his younger body." Charles explained.

Logan was silent for a moment, then replied. "Wow."

There was silence, and finally Erik dragged himself out of his thoughts to speak up for the first time. "This might just work, Charles." everyone sat up straighter at his words. Erik had that effect on people, he'd come to realize, and fell silent once more.

Kitty asked. "What might work?"

Charles sighed and forced himself to smile. He had been expecting this. He had long been waiting for the day he would be forced to tell the story, however much it pained him. Erik looked away as Charles began to talk. "The Sentinel program was originally conceived by Dr. Bolivar Trask. In the early 70's, he was one of the world's leading weapons designers." The words were thick on his tongue.

"But, covertly, he had begun experimenting on mutants." tears brimmed Charles' eyes at the thought of his fallen friends, but pushed them away. "Using their gifts to fuel his own research." Charles shifted in his seat. "But there were two mutants who had discovered what he was doing."

Erik felt he needed to speak, and looked up finally. Logan saw a sheen of sweat break out across the old man's forehead. "One mutant with the ability to transform herself into anyone..."

"Mystique." the mutant named Sunspot spoke up. Erik nodded.

"And the other..." he paused for a moment, trying to collect his breath and force the words out. "A girl. A young girl with the power to manipulate emotions and dark energy at will." he spoke slowly, carefully, as if he were treading on eggshells. Kitty sat up.

"Are you talking about Phantom?" she asked.

Charles looked down at his hands. "Yes." his features grew soft. "Though we knew them as Raven and..."

"Leena." Erik finished. Charles shared a look with the other man.

"Raven and I met when we were children. Grew up together. She was like a sister to me." Charles could not speak of the other. "I tried to help her, but only succeeded at driving her away."

"And Leena?" Kitty asked. Erik flinched, as if her words physically stung.

Charles said. "Her too." he realized he would need to speak of the young girl, so he sat up and took a deep breath. "Leena stayed with me at the school for years, but one day it grew too much. I was not the man I should have been to her, and she left. She found Raven and together they hunted Trask across the world, and at the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, after the Vietnam War, they found Trask." Charles was shaking now. "Once they got there, Leena found herself hesitating. But Raven didn't. She killed Trask."

"It was the first time Raven had killed." Charles said.

"It wasn't her last." Logan put in.

"But killing Trask did not have the outcome Raven expected." Charles balled one of his hands into fists. "It only persuaded the government of the need for his program." Charles continued. "They captured Raven that day, and while Leena had fled, they caught her soon enough as well. They tortured them. Experimented on them." He did not put in that Leena was already weak from past experimentation, a thought that made him sick to his stomach. "In Raven's 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," Charles kept his voice steady. "The machines that have destroyed so many of our kind were created..."

Bobby placed a comforting hand on Kitty's thigh and looked at the Professor. He almost didn't want to ask the question that he knew was playing in everyone's minds.

"What happened to Phantom?" he spoke quietly; carefully, apprehensively. They could all see that both Erik and Charles were weary to speak about the young Leena Talley, but they needed to know.

This time it wasn't Charles that spoke up, but Erik. "She died." those two words sent a shock throughout the room. "The government did not know that she had already been experimented on before. They did not know her history of how Sebastian Shaw had brought the girl closer to death. They dug too deep into her body, hoping to find the secret to her abilities in controlling emotions. If the already unstoppable Sentinels were able to manipulate the emotions of humans and mutants alike, they would become indestructible." Erik smiled weakly. "But... despite being at death's door, Leena never gave up her power. She kept it hidden, and eventually, when they'd torn too much from her, she was gone."

The room was silent. No one dared speak. Charles was stiff and Erik was on the verge of tears. Erik found his voice hoarse and he could not speak again. The pain was too much. He remembered exactly where he was that day, so many years ago, when he'd heard the news of her death. He was still young, still reeling after losing her on the beach in Cuba, and feeling like a failure because he had lost the one person he loved.

When he sat in his cell in the Pentagon and the security guard told him that the young girl from the beach had died, Erik imploded. He'd wanted to kill the man for telling him, he'd wanted to destroy every possession in his room just to let out the rage that boiled under his bones. He'd wanted to murder everyone that ever touched Leena just to feel close to her again.

Instead, when he'd escaped and all that had happened before made him the villain in the world's eye, he did all of it for her. Now he saw his mistakes. Saw how his blind promise to a dead girl had brought so much suffering to the world. The amount of people he'd killed brought a heavy weight upon his shoulders, and Erik Lehnsherr was broken because of the blood on his hands.

"It all started that day in 1973," Charles found his voice again. "The day Raven first killed. The day she truly became... Mystique."

The silence —an enemy to all— was thick as perfume. Charles and Erik were wounded, their hearts were a weight of lead and their bones felt as if they were crumbling under their skin. For so long Erik had blamed Mystique for what happened, for so long he'd pointed a finger at her and thought; that is the woman who killed Leena. That is the woman who killed my girl. But as time wore on, Erik started to realize who the real enemy was: Himself. If he had only fought harder, if he had only tried to win Leena back more that fateful day on the beach, then maybe she wouldn't be lying dead in a grave somewhere. Maybe Leena would be standing beside him right now, a comforting hand on his shoulder, her wide eyes and messy mop of hair as dark as night illuminated in the firelight, her infectious smile that brought him so much joy would be plastered across her freckled face. Erik grinned a little at the thought.

"You want to go back there." Kitty said.

Charles leaned forward. "If I can get to them, stop the assassination, keep them out the governments hands," his voice grew louder with each word. "Then we can stop the Sentinels from ever being born."

"And end this war," Erik said. "Before it ever begins." And hopefully get Leena back, he thought sourly. It was a long shot, a flimsy plan built on hope, but it was all they had left, besides each other, and Erik was already teetering on the edge of losing them as well.

Charles nodded in agreement as the young mutants looked at each other nervously. Logan watched the two older mutants, the two men who had fought against each other for so many years. He watched as they looked at each other with the same pain written across their face, a pain brought from the girl they called Phantom. Logan had heard little about the young mutant, only in passing the halls of the school, where black and white photographs were posted, did he recognize her name. Logan could see just how much Leena had meant to Erik and Charles, and he realized how determined they were for this plan to succeed.

"I-I can send someone back a couple weeks." Kitty said nervously. "I mean, maybe a month, but you're talking about going back decades." She looked to Charles. "You have the most powerful brain in the world, Professor, but the mind can only stretch so far before it snaps." Charles and Erik's faces fell, their eyes growing dark. "It would rip you apart."

Logan scrunched his brows, brain whirring to life. An idea formed at the back of his head, a faint spark.

"I'm sorry." Kitty finished. "No one could survive that trip."

Logan cut in. "What if someone's mind has a way of snapping back?" they all turned to look at him. "What if someone can heal as fast as they're ripped apart?" Charles' face lightened and he turned back to Kitty, who was deep in thought. Everyone sat up straighter, and Erik, from where he now stood beside Storm, felt his bones mend back together. His heart beat faster, and this new feeling made his fingers crackle with power.

Hope.

Logan closed the door to the temple and barricaded it with a block of wood, then turned slowly to face the other mutants. Storm, Warpath, Blink, Bishop and the others were still outside, keeping watch and guarding those still in the temple. They would need all the time they could get.

Logan walked into the other room where a stone table was laid out in front of him. Erik and Charles stood to the side, and Kitty waited for Logan to lie down. He set his jaw.

"So I wake up in my younger body, God knows where." he said. "Then what?"

"You'll need to go to my house and find me." Charles answered. "Convince me of all of this."

Logan turned to him. "Won't you be able to just read my mind?" he asked, confusion rippling through him.

Charles shakes his head. "I didn't have my powers in 1973." he was ashamed to say the words out loud. "Logan, you're going to have to do for me what I once did for you. Lead me, guide me. I was a very different man then." He sighed. "You'll have to be patient with me."

Logan scoffed. "Patience isn't my strongest suit."

Erik stepped forward. "You'll need me as well."

"What?" Logan said.

"After Mystique left Charles, she came with me, and I set her on a dangerous path." He looked to Charles. "Darker path." Charles looked away. "It's going to take the two of us, side by side at a time when we couldn't be further apart."

Charles paused, debating whether or not to say his next words. "But there is one, who will help you."

Logan looked down at him. "Who?"

Charles whispered. "Leena." Erik stiffened and looked like he wanted to protest, but Charles continued on. "Leena was with me before the Paris accords, she was with me until a couple days before, when she finally decided to leave." His eyes grew dark. "Keep her safe, but convince her. You'll need her for this to work."

"Why?" Logan asked.

Erik looked up at him, face going slack and tears brimming his eyelids. "Because she is the only thing that will hold us together."

Logan looked between the two men, and realized that they were both set on this. Logan sighed. If they were truly going to save the world, then he would need this Leena, this girl that died because of the Sentinels and someone that both Charles and Erik cared very much about.

"Great." he muttered, and turned back to Erik. "So where do I find you?"

Erik said. "Well, it's complicated." he said, then proceeded to tell Logan the worst news he could have possibly imagined. Charles was silent and studied the table, mind whirring. He watched as Logan laid down before Kitty and she explained to him the rules of time travel.

As Logan closed his eyes and Kitty began the process, Erik put a hand on Charles' shoulder. Charles snapped out of his daze and looked straight ahead.

"You really think this will work?" Erik asked.

"I have faith in him." Charles answered slowly.

"It's not him I'm worried about, it's us." Erik replied. Charles nodded softly. He had been thinking the same. "We were young. We didn't know any better."

Charles didn't speak for a moment, then said. "She will help us." Charles smiled softly as Erik remembered the days when they were brothers rather than foes. Those were simpler times. Times he wished to relive now more than ever.

"She always did." Erik finished, and he watched with hopeful eyes as Logan was sent back into the past.

He would see her again, Erik thought.

He had to see her again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE... 

WELCOME TO ACT TWO!!

sooooooo here's the first chapter... AND I already killed Leena off... sorry? Right so Leena is now dead in this timeline, having been killed by the government while trying to help Raven, and I'm honestly so sorry because it's probably the worst death for her. I mean, she was literally experimented for YEARS by Shaw and now I just swooop in here and kill her by experimentation. seriously, I'm sorry, but I warned you that this whole book is just going to be SO MUCH PAIN!

As always feel free to comment your thoughts, theories, or any feedback (as long as it's respectful) and constructive criticism you have so far! I don't know when I'll update this next because I'm focusing on other projects right now but I really wanted to publish this because I just had a major spurt of inspiration for this book!

SIDE NOTE: this act was originally a completely separate book, and I only decided to merge them after I'd published like 7 chapters on there. because of this, I lost a lot of heartfelt comments that made my day, I've saved them, and might post them because they are so incredible, but for now if you've already read these chapters I would really appreciate it if you re-vote and maybe re-comment? 

hope that cleared up any confusion...

Love you, Mal