CHAPTER FOURTEEN —
( Two thousand and twenty-three (70 years old). )

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        A small group of mutants flew in a jet on their way to other mutant allies. Over the years while Magneto grew stronger in power and when Jean Grey caused massive destruction when her Phoenix form grew too strong to control, the humans grew scared of the mutants. So, they created these Sentinel beings using Raven's blood when she was captured in the seventies to take down the mutant race. Only so few were left now.

"I can't wait to see Kitty," Charlie, Lydia Xavier's son said as he sat in the jet with a small smile on his face. "It's been like, what, ten years since I've seen her?"

"Charlie, please quieten down your thoughts," Lydia chuckled, shaking her head at her son. "You are reminding me too much of your father."

Charlie scrunched his face up. "I did not need to know that about Dad."

"Nawwww, poor Charlie hasn't been snogged in oh so long," Avery, Lydia's daughter, pouted as she teased her younger brother.

Charlie narrowed his eyes at her. "At least it proves that I'm loyal to her."

"How do you know whether she's still in love with you?" Avery asked him. "No contact with her in such a long time. And you know her history with Bobby."

Charlie sighed softly. "I have faith."

"I don't know how I would survive without my love," Avery smiled sweetly as she turned to Logan, who, in return, grinned at her.

"I love you, Babe," he said.

Avery smiled back. "And I love you."

Charlie huffed as he crossed his arms. "Stop shoving your love in my face."

"Let them have it," Erik commented lightly, finally speaking up. "These have been dark times. It's always nice to have something good, even if it's between someone I've despised for some time and my granddaughter."

Logan chuckled. "Good to know I still have your approval, Gramps."

"And at least Dad liked him," Avery said.

"Your father liked everyone, Sweetheart," Lydia smiled lightly. "I think he just liked annoying Logan more than anything."

Logan chuckled. "Yeah, annoyed me for a while, then he grew on me."

Lydia read through Charles' mind as he used the Cerebro to track down the mutants while the other mutants continued to chat amongst one another. She watched as all of the mutant race was slaughtered, only a few of them remained. Screams of terror was the only thing she could hear.

"So few of us left," Charles sighed.

"Professor?" Storm asked.

"I found them," Charles announced, turning his chair back around to face the pilot's seat.

Lydia smiled. "China is is, then."

"I've always wanted to go to China," Avery said.

"I don't think we will be doing any sightseeing, though, sweetheart," Charles told her.

"I know, Uncle Charles," Avery sighed and rested her head on Logan's shoulder.

The flight towards China wasn't that long, considering they weren't far from there anyway. Once the jet landed, all of the mutants made their way out of the jet. Avery and Charlie immediately hurried ahead of the group. Logan, Storm, Charles, Erik and Lydia made their way towards the main building, where several mutants came out of the shadows.

"Professor, Lydia," Bobby greeted as he walked towards Storm.

"Hey, Frosty," Lydia smiled.

"That name is starting to get old," he laughed.

Lydia shrugged. "Not as old as Charles here," she said as she patted Charles' shoulder.

"Hilarious, Lyds," Charles said as he shook his head at her.

"Bobby!" Avery smiled as she attacked the man in a hug.

"Avery, what's up? How are things?" Bobby asked with a grin, pulling away from her.

"Things are great," Avery responded. "Logan and I are finally together, which only took the man a little while to come around to."

"And I don't regret a single thing," Logan spoke as he walked up to the pair. He nodded at Bobby. "Hey, Kid."

Bobby nodded back. "Logan."

"Professor, Lydia, you made it," Kitty smiled as she walked out of the building. She then paused upon spotting Charlie, a smile making its way onto her face. "Charlie?"

Charlie nervously chuckled and smiled, feeling his heart swell at the sight of the woman he loved. "Kitty." Kitty let out a laugh of happiness before running up to the man. Charlie, upon noticing her ecstatic reaction when seeing him, held his arms out and caught the girl as she collided with him. The two laughed and smiled in glee before pulling apart slightly only to come back together to kiss.

"God, I haven't seen you in years," Charlie said softly once they pulled apart. "I thought you would've moved on from me."

Kitty chuckled lightly. "I could never."

Lydia smiled lightly at her son's happiness, and then also glanced towards Avery and Logan conversing with Bobby. Storm walked up to Lydia and stood beside her, reaching out and holding her hand for comfort. "It's good seeing them all happy," she commented lightly.

Lydia smiled back. "I'm just happy that my children have found a love like I once had," she said. "All I'm upset about is how they will never be given the chance to savour it for years and start their own families."

"We are their family," Charles suddenly said, smiling up at his sister. "Don't ever forget about that."

Lydia looked down at him and smiled with a nod before the whole group walked into the building and sat around a fire after they were introduced to Warpath, Blink and Bishop, three other mutants who had been helping out a few of the mutants Lydia, Charles and Storm has taught back at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.

Kitty began to inform everyone on how they'd managed to survive for so long by themselves. "Whenever the Sentinel's attack, Warpath spots them and I send Bishop back to warn us of the attack before it happens. Blink scouts the next site and, well, then we leave before they ever know we were there."

"Because we never were," Warpath spoke up.

"What do you mean you were never there?" Logan asked.

"Kitty takes Bishop back in time a few days so he could warn them of the incoming attack. They would leave before the Sentinel's would arrive," Lydia explained to Logan.

"So, she sends Bishop back in time," Logan nodded, trying to wrap his mind around the situation.

"No, just his conscious into his younger self. His younger body," Charles said.

Logan stared at Kitty for a second with a confused expression, before nodding. "Well."

"Yeah, this is all confusing," Avery commented, leaning on the wall besides Logan and picking at her finger nails.

"This might just work, Charles and Lyds," Erik suddenly spoke. Lydia turned to face him and read through his mind before nodding at his idea.

"I agree."

"Mum, what is it?" Charlie asked.

"The Sentinel Program was originally conceived by Doctor Bolivar Trask," Charles told the group.

"He had a striking resemblance to Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones if anyone was wondering," Lydia said.

"In the early 70's he was one of the world's leading weapons designers. But covertly, he had begun experimenting on mutants, using their gifts to fuel his own research," Charles said. "There was one mutant who had discovered what he was doing."

"A mutant with the ability to transform herself into anyone," Erik said.

"Mystique," Colossus called out.

"That was back when Charles and I knew her as Raven—our sister," Lydia said.

"We met when we were children, grew up together. She was there when Lydia was born and was basically our sister until Lydia was ten," Charles and Lydia smiled fondly at the memories. "I tried to help her but only succeeded in driving her away."

"She hunted down Trask across the world and at the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 after the Vietnam war, she found him and killed him," Lydia spoke.

"It was the first time she killed," Charles sighed.

"And certainly not her last," Logan and Lydia called out together, then pointed at one another.

"But killing Trask did not have the outcome she expected. It only persuaded the government to believe in his program," Charles looked down. "They captured her that day. Tortured her. Experimented on her."

"Her DNA holds the secrets to her powers of transformation," Lydia said. "It gave the government the key they needed to create weapons that could adapt to any mutant power, and the results were the machines that have been hunting down our race to near extinction, and it all started back in 1973."

"The day she first killed. The day she truly became Mystique," Charles sighed.

"I was twenty back then," Lydia thought back to her adolescent years. "Crappy years."

"You could say that again," Erik said, frowning when he remembered how he was trapped in isolation back then.

"You wanna go back there?" Kitty asked slowly.

"If I can get to her, stop the assassination, keep her out of their hands, then we can stop the Sentinel's from ever being born," Charles said.

"And end this war before it ever begins," Erik finished.

Everyone shared glances with one another, secretly sharing the silent joy of the possibility of the war never happening. "I-I can send someone back a couple of weeks, maybe a month, but you're talking about going back decades," Kitty struggled to say. "You have the most powerful brain in the world, Professor. Both you and Lydia. But the mind can only stretch so far before it snaps. It would rip you both apart. I'm sorry. No one could survive that trip."

A thought in the room alerted Lydia's attention and she turned to Logan. "That could work," she looked hopefully up at him.

"What if someone's mind has a way of snapping back?" Logan asked Kitty. "What if someone could heal as fast as they rip apart?"

Avery's eyes widened at the possibly. "You're going to go back to the seventies?" She asked him.

Logan looked at the woman, a small smile on his lips as he looked at her with adoration. "It's the right thing to do. After all, you taught me how to be good."

Everyone looked at Logan, silently agreeing with him. If anyone could stop the war, it would be him. Lydia had faith.

AUTHORS NOTE
I love how everyone's commenting on how old Logan is and how he's ancient and whatever when everyone froths over Loki, Bucky, Steve, Thor + more in the mcu
hugh jackman is hot, nuf said