maskormenacelogs | closed; facing the days of future past

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closed; facing the days of future past

WHO: Rogue & Magneto
WHERE: De Chima
WHEN: End of July
WHAT: Mutant things
WARNINGS: TBA, but probable talk of war

It's been too many months since Erik Lehnsherr arrived in this universe. Four months of not seeing him, of not searching him out, of not telling him that she exists. For a while, she could fool herself into believing it was fine, he was a man of secrets himself, but those secrets are becoming a burden too heavy to bear now. She can't hide from this any long, can't put it off for another day that will hopefully never come. It isn't fair when she might be able to help him in some way and repay the debt she owes.

A few inquiries is all it takes to learn where he works, and a logical assumption that with school starting up again soon, he'll be there. Maybe there are summer programs or lesson plans to be made or... Something.

Hopefully, there aren't too many kids around. That's what she keeps repeating to herself as she pulls into the parking lot and heads inside. That and, hopefully, he doesn't mind someone from a future he'll never know showing up out of the blue.

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When she makes her way to his classroom, she'll find the door ajar, with music coming from the other side. Someone is obviously inside, and chances are it's him.

Peeking through the crack in the door shows that he appears to be checking the supplies in the room.

Well, at least he's here.

Taking a deep breath, she knocks loudly enough to be heard over the music before pushing the door open. No gloves today, she really only wears them to the support group meetings now, but the rest of her is still covered in unusual summer fashion. Offering an apologetic smile, she tells him, "Sorry to just barge in, sugar, but I thought I might find you here."

When someone comes in, he stops the music with the wave of a hand (it's incredibly handy that metal is everywhere). He remembers her, from their brief meeting when he arrived. He hasn't done much about keeping up with most of the people he talked to then, and that mostly doesn't matter to him, but mutants who know him are a different story.

"Can I help you with something?" She's obviously not a student.

No, she hasn't been a student in a very long time.

"Actually, I'm here because I was wondering if there's anything I can help you with." Stepping into the room, she crosses her arms over her chest self-consciously, feeling almost awkward and uncertain as she worries whether she's made a mistake. "It's been a few months since you arrived and I really should've been in touch sooner."

"Me?" That was not a question he was expecting, especially from someone who knew who he was before coming here. (Although there hasn't been a lot of trouble with that since arriving here, so he's really not sure what to make of this place.) "You want to help me?"

She nods and walks over to lean against the edge of his desk, loosening her arms to fold her hands together. It's not surprising that this is his reaction; this version doesn't seem to be all that different from the one she'd known.

"We have history, you and I. You saved my life not too long ago."

This is either something that happened in a different world, or when he was here before, because it's something he remembers nothing about. "That sounds like a story." Which might explain why she's trying to help him in some way.

She can't help but laugh at that, though it's not happy by any means. If anything, it probably gives away a hint of just how broken she is because of that story.

"It's a complicated one. You also tried to kill me at one point, but that's a completely different story." One she'd gotten over a long time ago.

"Kill you? Why would I do that?" Killing mutants isn't his intention, and tends to go against his beliefs, anyway. Except Shaw, who deserved it, and was never a mutant in Erik's mind. Or trying to do it to Mystique that one time, which he's really sorry about and glad didn't work out, but would have been done to protect the future of mutants.

"That's two stories now. Should I see if I can find us some coffee?"

That was the eternal question, wasn't it? Why did Erik ever do anything he did. She understood some of it now more than she had at the time, but that never helped with the nightmares.

"Coffee would be great," she agrees with a nod and a small smile, pondering at the back of her mind how difficult it would be to climb out one of the classroom windows while he was gone. But no, she'd started this, she's finishing it.

"I'll be right back then." He heads out of the room to the teachers' lounge, which usually has at least one pot of coffee on, to find some, and returns a few minutes later with two mugs of coffee and few packets of sugar and creamer. He sets it all down on one of the desks. "I didn't know how you take it."

The window option is debated at least once more while he's gone before she forces herself to sit down and wait until he returns. She jumps up again when he does, feeling awkward and nervous and determined and so relieved at the scent of the coffee.

"Thank you," she says with a smile, taking one of the mugs and adding both sugar and creamer. Knowing all too well about the coffee usually provided by schools, the sweetness would help cover the subpar coffee. (Any coffee was better than no coffee, of course.) And then, while waiting for the drink to cool, she carefully asks, "Where do you want me to start?"

He drinks his black, substandard as it is. It's been a habit of his for years, and he's certainly had worse things to drink. He's more interested in the caffeine than anything else, anyway.

"Why don't you start with why you feel like you owe me something?"

Wrapping her bare hands around that coffee cup, she takes a deep breath and nods. Sure, that was as good a place as any.

"I don't know if we're from the same universe," she begins, feeling the distinct need to make that caveat. "Or even from the same timeline. But on my Earth, there was a war between baseline humans and mutants and we were losing."

"That sounds like something that could happen on my Earth." And if anyone would listen to him about it, they could be prepared for it, because he doubts that they would be able to prevent it somehow. Not with being so outnumbered by the humans.

"From what I've heard, it's pretty plausible on most worlds with mutants." There's a sadness and almost resignation in her tone, but there's nothing they can do about that. "I guess it doesn't matter what universe you're in, people always find a way to hate each other."

But the point of this conversation isn't to philosophize about the sad state of humanity, it's to tell her story. Their story.

"Things were bad in the war. We were hunted down, along with any humans who helped us, and eventually, any humans who would have mutant children or grandchildren. They were trying to erase all trace of us from the planet. You and Charles were trying to stop them by sending someone back in time to stop the war from ever happening."

"The Sentinels." This much of the story is familiar to him. It's been ten years, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like that long.

"I went on Charles' word, and he went on the word of someone we'd never met before, so it is good to hear that the information we had was actually correct."

The Sentinels. It didn't matter how many years passed, the horror of those metal monsters would never not feel like it happened yesterday.

"You met Logan," she surmises with a soft smile. Even with the revelations of that last day, the man still meant so much to her. And, that means they're possibly from the same universe, or at least similar ones. "He's the one they sent back. We sent back."

"That was his name." They hadn't gotten along very well, but he doesn't think he needs to mention that. "And me saving your life has something to do with those events?" He doesn't remember her from ten years ago.

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closed; facing the days of future past

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