Sword and Shield | E. Lehnsherr

11. Past and Future

It has been decided. The plan will work or else they are all doomed.

As Charles watches Logan seal them in the ancient sanctuary, he can't help but reach out in his mind towards the pain he has felt for the past several years. It used to be worse, unknown, before he had seen the newest upgrade for the Sentinels. Since that day, he had tried his best to figure out how but he is always met with pain.

He hopes his presence brings her comfort in her torture, wherever Ria may be.

"So I wake up in my younger body, God knows where," Logan muses as he stares at the stone slab before them. "Then what?"

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

"Won't you just be able to read my mind?"

"I didn't have my powers in 1973. 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. You'll have to be patient with me."

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

From behind him, Charles can feel his old friend step forward. "You'll need me as well."

"What?"

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

Pursing his lips, Charles says, "We'll need her as well."

Erik shakes his head, muted pain filling his expression as it tightens. "No one knows where she is, even at that time. She disappeared for good. Do you truly believe they'll be able to find her?"

There are many things Charles never told Erik about the years following their separation, namely about the enigma they both knew of as Ria. In his youth and arrogance, he lost contact with her after the war tore the school apart, too pained to face her disappointment when he gave up. For years, he thought she was simply living elsewhere, staying away from his wars with Erik.

When Hank had been killed, Charles learned the truth in the form of a frantic call Hank had saved all the way back from 1973.

"Hello? This is—this is Ria. I need your help. I know we haven't spoken in years, but I—Hank or Charles or whoever gets this, please, I'm in—There are too many of them and I can't—"

The call had ended with a gunshot, Ria's gasping breaths, and Stryker's poisonous voice ordering restraints and transport back to their laboratory along with a shout to someone else to keep her alive at all costs. That to use real bullets was a mistake and someone would pay for it.

It hurt to know, to finally realize, that in his pain, he forgot about her's.

It must have taken the humans years to finally break her since the Sentinels only gained her shielding ability recently. The day they found the Sentinels using crystal shielding instead of their adaptive, shapeshifting hardware had been one of the hardest since the war began. He knows Erik believes her to be dead now, but Charles knows better.

He knows better because he can feel her pain halfway across the world, her mind wide open for any telepath to see.

After all this time, he finally knows who she is, but not because she told him. The only guess that had been right was the guess he made when half-drunk, never believing it to be serious.

If this plan works, Logan will need to find her before they take her, but Charles isn't sure if Erik can take knowing where she's been for decades when they never looked.

With a sigh, Charles shakes his head. "Perhaps together, we'll be able to find her. After all, she would come out of hiding for you, don't you think?"

"Who are we talking about?" Logan asks.

"There was a woman with us who balanced us out," Erik reluctantly says. "No one knows where she is in 1973. Her name is Ria."

"Why do you say that like it's a bad thing?"

"Because her mutation allowed her to create impenetrable shields of emerald crystal," Charles says. "As in the Sentinels' latest upgrade."

Logan takes a deep breath and turns away. "Great. So where do I find you and her?"

"It's complicated," Erik mutters.

"As for Ria," Charles says, clearing his throat. "Hank McCoy can help you with that." He can feel Erik's gaze on his face and hear his confusion through his mind. After all these years, Erik's mind still remains the same: filled with thoughts of his own past mistakes mixed with whims of a better life he could have had if he just listened to the calm voice of reason. "Erik, would you give us a moment?"

Erik glances between them before reluctantly nodding and moving away. Logan wears a frown as Charles approaches him and motions for him to lean down. "Ria will trust you," he says softly. "But you will need to get to her after getting Erik. I fear that without him, we may not be able to save her from her fate."

"Which is?"

"The day before the peace accords where Raven kills Trask, my manor received a call, not that anyone answered," Charles keeps his voice quiet. "I think part of why Raven was so reckless was because she knew."

Logan narrows his eyes. "Knew what?"

"That the moment they broke Ria, it was over. She is an instrument of war in her own right, but when controlled by another? It would be catastrophic. It is catastrophic. You see what's happening now."

"Professor, you keep talking about her like she's alive."

"Because she is."

Logan scoffs. "No one survives the Sentinels."

A small, insincere smile spreads on his lips. "How about an ancient shield made for the gods themselves? How do you think she'll hold up?" As Logan straightens up, Charles purses his lips. "You must brace yourself, because convincing Ria to stop another war may take more effort than the two of us combined. While Erik and I hate each other, we were never afraid. She is."

"Afraid of what?"

"The one who broke her."

✤ ✤ ✤ ✤

Onward we go into Days of Future Past. This'll be a fun ride.

Hope you enjoyed!

-L