InsaneJournal

WHO: Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, and Raven Darkholme
WHAT: Raven wakes up her older, powerless self and wants some answers.
WHEN: Late evening
WHERE: The X-Mansion
RATING: PGish, to be safe
STATUS: Complete; Log

Although she had certainly been confused upon waking up in the mansion, not to mention her old bedroom of all places, it hadn’t taken Raven too terribly long to sort out what was going on. The PDA on her bedside table had provided quite a fair number of answers and, although they were difficult to believe, she had certainly seen enough in her time to know that there was very little that was utterly impossible. Of course, just because she accepted what had happened - that she had somehow wound up on another planet - didn’t mean she had to like it. Nor did it mean she had to stay in the bedroom where she’d woken, either. True, it was possible there were quite a number of people beyond her door that would want to cause her harm, but she had never gained anything in life by being meek or hesitant and she wasn’t about to start now.

Stepping out of her room, the path from the wing that housed the bedrooms to the rest of the mansion having long since been ingrained into her long-term memory, Raven navigated the twists, turns, and various corridors with ease. She had thought, perhaps, that she might make it out of the wing and to the front door without anyone any the wiser that she was there. However, as she’d rounded the corner that led past Charles’ room - the memory of her now dead brother causing a swell of sadness to rise within her and keeping her from even considering looking inside to see who occupied it now - she realized that her hope of getting out of the place without being noticed was not going to come to pass.

Granted, the two people she spotted at the end of that corridor were enough to make her heart skip a beat and her eyes to widen ever so slightly. Her mind screamed it was impossible, nevermind that moments before she had believed nothing was truly impossible, but even as the thought flashed through her consciousness she was already moving closer, and closer still, until finally she was only thirty feet or so away from the duo. And it was there that she paused, unable to move forward out of fear that the hallucination (since that’s clearly what it had to be) would end.

It had been unsettling, spending time with this older version of Erik. In all honesty, Charles had avoided it rather more than he would have liked to admit. There was just so much pain in the other man. It was overwhelming, and he had a hard time even looking at him. But more than that, it was uncomfortable to look at him and not see his Erik. And he couldn’t even begin to think how difficult it must be for Erik to look at him. He knew that he was dead in the other man’s time, had learned as much from Rogue the first time she was in the city. Beyond that, it was impossible to say. They had apparently been enemies for decades before his death, and now Erik was faced with him and he knew it couldn’t be easy. But he had done his best to keep out of the other man’s head. It wouldn’t have been right otherwise.

He was in the middle of attempting a conversation with the man - attempting because it felt awkward and stilted and Charles would have given anything to escape it as unfair as that was - when he noticed a presence a short distance down the hall. He turned to see who it was, expecting to see one of the teenagers, and froze at the sight, all words leaving him. As different as she looked, as different as she felt, he knew who she was in an instant. He always knew her, because she was his sister and nothing could change that. Still, she looked older and there was something he just couldn’t place that felt wrong. His attention completely removed from Erik now, he took a step forward then stopped, frozen by indecision.

“Raven?” he asked, not sure how to proceed.

Erik hadn’t really known how to deal with the sudden shift of his location. He had had more than enough adjustments to make since the final stand for freedom had ended in him getting downed by those traitorous rodents who dared to impede the progress of their own kind of the sake of the cancer known as humanity. Old and relatively harmless without his powers, the committee that he had been placed in front of after the battle had determined that he was no longer a threat to humanity and that to be one of what he had hated among the masses was far greater a punishment than putting him back into his plastic prison. Stripped of his supporters, many of whom had died and far more who were detained and imprisoned (some, he had heard, taking the option of the cure over jail time), Erik Lehnsherr was little more than a fragile, bitter old man anymore. And even as he stood in this place, this place that was seemingly free of the sort of violence and hatred against their kind that their own world had been teaming with, he found himself placed in an awkward position of trying to find a comfortable position between what he was now and what these people expected him to be.

That was why he had been attempting to talk to Charles, to try and gain some footing between the two of them, even as much as it hurt to look at the man as young as he was and remember everything that they had lost over the years. But their attempt to talk seemed to be interrupted swiftly, Erik’s gaze following Charles’s as it turned until his eyes came to rest on the one person that he was both elated and alarmed to see.

“My dear,” Erik said, raising his hands at the approaching woman, a very slight smile gracing his features even as anxiety soaked into his eyes, “you look quite well. Just arrive?”

For a long moment after both men had spoken, Raven simply continued to stare. She knew what she'd read over the PDA, how people showed up who were from various points in time and how some of them were even dead in their own reality. She had thought she'd understood, had even accepted it. But now that she was faced with a much younger version of her brother - one who not only still had his hair but also use of his legs - she realized that she hadn't really believed it at all. Her heart ached when he spoke, vision swimming for a few brief seconds before the other man spoke up.

When her gaze flickered to him, the emotion that shone in her eyes was not one of heartache but rather one of the hardened gaze of a soldier facing down a superior who had been caught committing treason. Her jaw clenched ever so slightly and her back straigthened a bit as she thought back to that fateful day when she had risked her life to save a man she had not only followed blindly but truly loved with every fiber of her being, only to have him cast her aside like some sort of broken toy that no longer caught his eye.

Not speaking, at least not at first, Raven simply forced her legs to keep moving her forward toward the two men. "Hello, Charles," she said quietly, only a slight waver to her tone. Her gaze remained focused on Erik even as she addressed her brother, her recently dyed blonde hair bouncing slightly as her footsteps covered the distance remaining between her and the duo. It wasn't until she was a few scant feet away that her intentions became clear. And that was when Raven did the one thing that she had never done not even once in all of the years that she had known the man.

She balled her hand into a fist, drew her arm back, and punched Erik Lehnsherr directly in the face.

Then she finally looked back to her brother, wariness warring with a desire - a need - to believe it was really him as she calmly said, "It's good to see you, Charles. I won't pretend to understand how it's possible, but it's good nonetheless."

Charles stared at his sister as she approached, stunned into silence. She was older, but still as beautiful as she had ever been. And yet, he couldn’t quite look at her. She was lovely and blonde and anyone would agree she really was a stunning woman, but she wasn’t Raven. Not as he knew her. His sister was comfortable in her skin, and he knew that only became more true with age. With what he knew of the future, there was only one reason he was seeing a pale, blue-eyed blonde now and not a blue-skinned woman with scarlet hair and golden eyes. She had been cured, distasteful as the word felt in his mind. They weren’t something to be cured, to be fixed as if there was anything wrong with them. He felt a swelling of compassion for his sister and how difficult this had to be for her, but didn’t let it show. She would likely take it as pity, and he didn’t want that.

“Raven, I -” He trailed off as his sister hauled off and punched Erik square in the face. He was more certain than before that he was missing something, and he just stared at the pair in shock for a long moment.

“Raven!” he exclaimed. “You can’t just hit people! What...why would you...what on Earth is going on? Dear lord, Erik...are you all right? She hits rather hard, and I can only imagine that has become more true with age.”

Erik hadn’t been expecting her to punch him. Yell, scream, curse his name, tell Charles exactly what he had done and turn the man against him once again, but the punch had not been on his list of things to expect. That was likely why it connected as fully as it did and pushed him right off his feet, leaving the older man to tumble backwards onto the floor and stare up at the two of them as they remained standing. Raising a hand to delicately touch his nose, thankfully finding that nothing seemed broken, before moving a hand to quietly wave off Charles’s concerns.

“It’s all right, my friend,” Erik said, shifting to sit up on the floor and shaking his head. “She hasn’t damaged anything too irreparably,” He said, moving to standing back up and sparing a glance over at Raven as he did. “My dear Mystique... Raven,” He said, quietly correcting himself as he realized that their code names might not be nearly as appropriate now. She had always stuck to calling him Erik, after all, and even as he had consistently used her name of choice instead of the one with which she was born, it seemed almost a necessity to default back to Raven now, considering their mutual condition. “I think it might be best if we discuss this later,” He said, looking over at Charles. “Outside of ears which aren’t aware of it.”

It was impossible to tell, after all, just how Charles would react. Though, really, Erik had a good idea that his old friend would blame him entirely for the decision that he’d made, the mistake that he’d made, in leaving Raven to fend for herself, naked and curled up on the floor of a wrecked police van.

If Erik had remained where he'd fallen, Raven might have simply snapped at him to shut up and left it at that. After all, it wasn't as though she really wanted to tell Charles what had happened. Not because she was worried that he would be angry with Erik but rather because she knew the sort of pain it would cause him. He trusted Erik, considered him a dear friend. To learn of the truth, the way that Erik had cast her aside, would upset him greatly and Raven was willing to do virtually anything to keep that from happening.

However, Erik didn't remain where he'd fallen and, as such, Raven's desire to protect her brother was overridden by her desire to hurt the man who had hurt her in ways she wasn't sure she could ever truly vocalize. Narrowing her blue eyes, she snapped a dark, "I am not your dear and there is nothing to discuss, Lehnsherr."

And then she punched him again.

Shaking off the pain that had spread from her knuckles all the way to her wrist, she looked to Charles. Opening her mouth to say something, she closed it again with a snap. With a puff of air born from frustration, she grit her teeth for a few seconds before finally managing a simple, clipped-sounding, "Don't feel sorry for him, Charles. He doesn't deserve it."

This was surreal. It was entirely surreal. Charles couldn’t imagine a situation where Raven would ever be so angry at Erik, let alone where she would come to blows with him. Or at him, rather, as the older man thankfully wasn’t handing out any of his own. The closest he could think of was just days ago when she had told Erik in colourful detail, and in front of him for that matter, exactly what she would do if the other man ever hurt him. It had involved some very graphic imagery that he hadn't imagined his sister capable of, and he'd been both impressed and flattered by her creativity. Of course, they'd both been younger then and Raven had, he hoped, been joking, so it really wasn't the same.

“Raven,” he said gently, “could you please stop punching Erik? Even if he does deserve it, and I’ll hardly comment on that when I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going on here, this is a school and there are children here. Children who need to remember that not all problems need to be met with violence. So, please, for my sake, could you stop hitting him? I really would appreciate it.”

He turned his attention to Erik. “As for you,” he said calmly, “while looking at me like I’m some sort of naive child is marginally better than looking at me like I’m a ghost, I would appreciate not being kept out of this if it’s all the same. You’re my dearest friend and Raven is my sister. I desire to know what’s going on here.”

This time, Erik had the sense to stay down. His face would certainly be tender in the morning, and he didn’t need to antagonize Raven anymore than he already had. She might actually do him serious damage if he continued to persist. Turning his gaze between the two individuals above him, both of them the only people he could have ever counted as individuals he trusted, before he sighed, his gaze settling on Charles at his insistence he be told what was going on, “I made a rather large mistake, my friend,” Erik said, sitting up again and running a hand through his hair. “One which she has every right to be angry about,” He said before slowly turning his attention to Raven. “But I can hardly change the past, my dear. No more than I can see what our future holds for us. All I can do is say that I made the decision I did and must live with the consequences.”

If Charles hadn't asked her to stop for his sake, Raven likely would have literally kicked Erik while he was down. As it was, she considered the fact that she wasn't finding something large and metal to beat him with - if only due to the sheer irony of the fact that she could use such a weapon against him now - to be exhibiting rather remarkable control on her behalf. However Charles had requested she stop being so violent and, while she really wanted to simply ignore him and continue to pummel Erik until he was nothing more than an unrecognizable blood mess, she refrained. Instead she continued to glare at him, her expression not softening in the least when he finally admitted that he'd made a mistake in turning on her as he had.

Narrowing her eyes slightly he replied in a low tone, "If you live that long, you mean."

She wasn't truly intending on killing him, of course. No, if she were going to do that, she would have done so already. Her loss of her abilities, while still something she struggled with daily, did not prevent her from taking the life of another. However, when it came to Erik, she also knew she couldn't, wouldn't, do such a thing. For no matter how much she despised him for his actions on that police van, she still cared deeply for him and couldn't imagine a world where he wasn't in it.

Sighing softly, she finally tore her gaze away from him and looked to Charles. "He turned on me," she said simply. "After an entire lifetime of loyalty, when I needed him most, he turned on me." She didn't elaborate beyond that, instead shooting Erik a somewhat smug look as she tacked on, still clearly speaking to her brother, "So I, in turn, told the government every last, glorious detail of his plans in exchange for my own freedom."

Charles hadn’t expected that. Of all the things he had imagined Raven might say, that hadn’t even made the list. This was Raven. And Erik. And, even though it had broken his heart to have them leave him, he had been secure in the knowledge that they would look out for each other. He had figured that would always be the case, but apparently he’d been mistaken in that regard. Seeing Raven’s anger and pain, Erik’s guilt, and they way they were so very broken, he wished all the more that he would never leave Colligo. Here they were a family. Back in their own world, they were all so very alone.

“He turned on...” Charles couldn’t even finish the sentence. The idea was so impossible to him. So horrifying. This was his sister, and Erik was supposed to look after her. He felt sick at the thought of how alone she must have felt, betrayed and abandoned, and he wanted to hit Erik himself. But he didn’t. He’d abandoned Raven just as completely as Erik had, and so much earlier. Even if that wasn’t true here, it was there and he still felt guilty about it every day.

He couldn’t think about what Erik had done without feeling angry, so he focused instead on Raven. “If it’s any consolation,” he said gently, “and I hardly imagine it is, you look lovely. Even if blonde is hardly comparable to blue.” It was the closest he could come to telling this Raven that he would love her no matter what she looked like.

“But it’s better than brunnette,” Erik said, a sad attempt at humour as he rubbing a hand over his face and peered up at Raven for a long moment before heaving a sigh. “May I stand now, my dear, without being knocked back down?” He asked. “We’ve quite a lot to discuss, and I’m not sure that it can be done with me sitting here on the floor at the end of the hall.” Not to mention, they were all probably rather firmly in the way if anyone else happened to want into this area of the house. Not that blocking the way was much a concern to him so much as those who were blocked wondering what was keeping all of them in such a place to be so much of an obstruction.

“As it is, I’m certain Charles would appreciate some details to try and clarify the situation,” Erik said, shifting and getting up on one knee before waiting for assurances that he wasn’t going to get knocked back down before moving further. “And I wouldn’t mind finding somewhere to sit.”

Raven stared at Erik for a long moment before finally nodding her head ever so slightly. As much as she wanted to tell him that no, he could remain on the ground where he belonged, she also knew that Charles wouldn't approve. And for all of the terrible things she had done to her brother over the years, she didn't want to upset him no anymore than she already had.

Turning her attention away from Erik as he rose to his feet, she looked to her brother once more. There were so many emotions she felt as she stared at him, far too many to name and certainly too many to properly express. Ultimately, she simply focused on what he'd said, snorting in derision at the compliment.

"I look just like any other human walking around," she stated flatly. Then the wall that she'd put up, the one that kept her from truly expressing any emotion that might be viewed as a weakness, cracked ever so slightly. Her blue eyes shone as she admitted softly, "It's taken some adjusting, but I'm managing it well enough now." Even if there were still days that she could almost forget what had been done to her... right up until the moment that she tried to shift into another form, that is. Then it all came rushing back, just as painful as the first time the realization had hit her that she was no longer who she was meant to be. And that she would never be that woman again.

Scrubbing a hand down her face, she sighed heavily. "I would really appreciate it," she finally stated, voice wavering ever so slightly as the surreality of the situation finally began to set in, "if someone would please explain what is going on." Her attention flickered to Erik. "You look like you're meant to look." Then she looked to Charles. "You, however, are standing. And you aren't from before you were shot, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever." She couldn't say for certain how she knew he was from after that point in time. She simply knew it was true and had learned, long ago, never to doubt her own instincts.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Charles insisted, moving over to his sister and reaching up to touch her hair. “You could never look ‘just’ anything, dear.” It hurt him to see Raven so uncertain, and he would do anything to help with that. He just wanted her to know that, while he didn’t prefer her as human, he wouldn’t reject her for it either. As Erik apparently had. He still couldn’t reconcile himself with the fact that his best friend had hurt his sister so completely. He couldn’t imagine his Erik doing that to his Raven. But, apparently, a great many things had happened over the years that he couldn’t imagine.

It was easier, therefore, to focus on Raven’s confusion rather than his own. “I need you to be patient, Raven,” he told her, “because this is going to sound...fairly insane actually. This place is called Colligo. It is located in the Alpha Carinae system, in a parallel reality, and people are brought here from various times and universes. Sometimes things happen here and people are affected...as is happening now. Normally you and Erik are much younger here. You’re just being affected by whatever is happening now, making you older.” He sighed. “As for me standing...I was healed by someone in the city. Well...that’s not quite how it went. Actually you and Erik stabbed me with a vial full of regenerative blood when I wasn’t looking because neither of you saw the merit of asking.” He stopped. “But that’s not the point. You’ll likely only be here temporarily. These things rarely last long. In the meantime...this city is quite...I suppose unique is the word for it.”

Erik stood, cautiously putting a bit of distance between himself and Raven, before turning his attention back to Charles. He was in a much better position to explain what was happening than he, himself, was, particularly since Erik was pretty certain that the only thing Raven likely wanted to hear from him at the moment were several plaintive apologies and declarations of just how wrong he had been and how he had made himself into a rather obvious fool by leaving her behind. “I would say that unique is rather an understatement, Charles,” He said before sighing and gesturing back towards the study. “Shall we move ourselves to somewhere more comfortable and less likely to be overheard by little ears?” He asked before glancing at Raven and taking a deep breath.

“You already know about the cure, Charles,” Erik said, quietly moving towards the study and holding open the door for the two of them. “And as you can see, we’re both rather unfortunately afflicted with it at the moment. Only Raven took a dose earlier that was meant for me,” He said, shifting his gaze to her. “And they had promised they weren’t going to use it as a weapon. The damage that it did,” He said, shaking his head slowly. “But I think I did far more by leaving her behind.”

"And we all see where his best thinking has gotten him," Raven spoke up, casting a positively lethal look at Erik as she sauntered past him and into the study. Looking around, she was struck silent for a moment at how familiar, much like coming home, the room made her feel. It had been a few years since she had been inside the mansion, and many more years before that since she'd been in this particular room. Yet, as far as she could see, very little had changed since then. It was almost like coming home again.

Almost.

Moving to an available chair, she sat down and crossed her legs. Fixing Erik with a baleful glare, she then turned her gaze to Charles. When she looked at him, she wasn't at all hostile. Yet her expression was still rather guarded. It hurt, to see him as he was now. To know he was alive, and well, and free of everything that the world had thrown his way between the age he was currently and the age he had been when he'd died.

"Such a shame," she finally said in a flat tone. She desperately missed the days when she could make her voice sound like others. Shoving that feeling aside, she continued. "She was so beautiful." Her attention flickered briefly to Erik, the pain she'd felt at those words apparent in her blue eyes for the briefest of seconds before it was once again masked by hatred. When she looked to her brother once again, however, the loathing was replaced with a careful mask of indifference that she knew he wouldn't believe for even a second.

"That's what he said," she explained. "After I took a dart filled with that..." Her upper lip curled. "Cure that was meant for him, that's what he said. Then he left me. Naked, alone, helpless, and right at the top of the government's most wanted list." Her chin rose a notch as she looked back to Erik. "And you think leaving me behind did more damage than what they did to me?" Her lip curled slightly once more. "You're pathetic."

Charles sighed, resigning himself to dealing with Raven and Erik's bickering. The tension was uncomfortable, if only because he was so used to they way his sister and his...whatever Erik was now...interacted. Walking over to the side of the room, he poured himself a generous glass of scotch, giving both his companions a look that dared them to comment on it. "I need this to remotely understand what's going on here," he said, taking a long swallow of the drink. At the very least, it kept him from punching Erik himself. If he did that, he might drop his scotch. Still, he shot his friend a baleful glare.

"You think it did more damage?" he asked incredulously. "Really? Because I don't imagine you were thinking at all. Then again, you always were an appalling hypocrite." The old argument was comfortable at all. "You promised me you would take care of her, and you abandoned her! After everything she did to you. And why? Because of something she never asked for? Something she had no control over? I swear, my friend, if she hadn't already given you a sound thrashing, I would do it myself." He took another drink from his glass, suddenly very glad for his work with Annie on controlling his telekinesis. Otherwise he was sure the room would have been shaking with how angry he was on his sister's behalf.

"You were beautiful," he told Raven with conviction, turning his attention away from Erik and toward his sister. "And you still are. No matter what, you always will be...because of what's on the inside. No matter how you look, you'll always be the most beautiful girl I've ever known." He gave her a small, fond smile. "I know I messed up rather phenomenally with you. And we may have worked past it here, but I don't know that we ever did back there and...I just really need you to know that. I've always thought you were perfect, Raven. Just as you are...no matter what that means."

Having Charles call him an appalling hypocrite was probably the icing on the guilt cake that had been forming in Erik’s gut. Erik had known what he was thinking when he’d walked away. He’d been thinking that Raven, despite it not being her own choice, was now a much a part of humanity as all those who stood against them now. She had no reason to fight with them, no motivation to try and build their new society because she wouldn’t be accepted within it. She was human, and she had the one thing that she had wanted for so very long. She could be accepted into the world without anyone protesting that she wasn’t part of it.

But it had occurred to him after being cured himself, after standing in front of a collection of individuals meant to judge his danger to the world, and he had been sent back out to live among people now that he was ‘one of them’. He would never be one of them. No matter that his powers had been stripped from him, humanity was still the enemy in his mind. They would never be people that he considered himself one of. They would always be that them who kept him and his kind down, who judged them without knowing them, who saw them as threats even when they were only trying to live their lives. And as he looked over at Raven now, he couldn’t help but assume that that was just how she had felt, placed in the life that she had to lead now.

“I’m an old man with no family, no friends, and nothing to drive me anymore,” Erik said after a moment, folding his hands in his lap. “Of course I’m pathetic.”

Back in their own reality, after she'd read the news reports of the Magneto at long last being apprehended and the threat he posed 'neutralized', she had envisioned how their conversation would go. She had pictured herself hitting him, much as she had done here. She had also imagined a great deal of their conversation to date, give or take a few changes due to Charles being present when that had been all but impossible, there. However never once had she imagined Erik agreeing with her assessment of them. Especially not so easily.

And, as angry as she was at him, as heartbroken as she felt that he had abandoned her after she'd given everything she had and then some to stand beside him in a cause she had supported - and still did support - fully, she found that she actually felt a touch of guilt that he seemed to think as little of himself.

"You had friends," she said quietly as she peered at him. Her tone was carefully neutral and her expression much the same. Her eyes, however, shone brightly with a heady mixture of heartache, betrayal, and sorrow. "You had one, at least."

Unable to look at him without feeling as though she might break down from the force of her feelings, Raven purposefully turned to her brother instead. It didn't help overly much; she could feel the pain that the news of his death had given her each and every time she looked his way. However it was at least marginally better than looking at Erik, at least for the moment.

"You may have thought I was perfect, Charles," she finally said, her tone surprisingly even, despite her emotions being akin to a whirlwind inside of her. "But you also expected me to look like..." One of them. The words stuck in her throat, refusing to be spoken. She was one of them, now. Swallowing her bitterness, she instead finished with, "Everyone else around us, when we weren't behind closed doors. And I couldn't do that." She paused, frowning slightly. "No," she corrected herself, "I shouldn't do that. It isn't right, to expect me to pretend to be someone that I'm not meant to be simply because society can't accept me for who I truly am." Not that any of it mattered now. And not that she expected Charles' opinion of that particular debate to have changed, either. He was still the same idealistic man that he'd always been; no relocation to some strange little planet would ever change that.

Charles sighed. They were both such damaged people, and he wanted nothing more than two help them. Because they were the two most important people in his life, no matter what had changed for them. He loved the pair of them more than anything else in the world. And they were hurting in ways he couldn’t fix. It wasn’t an easy thing for him to accept, so used to helping people or at least doing his best to do so. Here he found himself at a loss, and he hated that.

“You had friends, Erik,” he said gently. He knew in his heart he had seen Erik as his friend even to the very end. And, in spite of his apparent death, that hadn’t changed. But he didn’t put that into words. It was so hard sometimes to verbalise the thoughts in his head, and he wasn’t sure this Erik would be open to a telepathic connection. If nothing else, it seemed like a cruel reminder of what the other man had lost. “Never doubt that.”

He’d had this same argument with his own Erik regarding Raven before, and he told his sister the same thing he had told him. “I stayed out of your head, Raven,” he said with a sigh, finishing off the scotch. “And in doing so, I made a number of mistakes. I thought you wanted to pass, so I did my best to support what I believed would make you happy. But...yes, I also did want to protect you. In a perfect world, you would have been able to walk down the street as your true self and nobody would bat an eye. But the world is far from perfect. Perhaps one day, but it will never be easy. In trying to protect you, I lost sight of the fact that you were a grown woman, perfectly capable of deciding what was best for you.” He gave her another small smile. “I know well what mistakes I made with you. They’re still quite fresh in my mind.”

“None of us are perfect,” Erik said quietly as he looked between Charles and Raven, a sadness shifting into his blue eyes as he did. “And we could discuss who made the biggest mistakes or the worst decisions until we’ve wasted an entire day. Perhaps we should just enjoy each others’ company while we have it. Without all of the issues that eventually came between us getting in the way,” He said before glancing over at Raven with an affectionate yet apologetic look on his features. “I did try and look for you, my dear. But I imagine you were as capable of disappearing into the crowd without your abilities as you were with.”

Turning his gaze back to Charles, Erik nodded, “I know I had friends, Charles. I watched them be taken from me, one by one, or lost to my own lack of forethought,” He said. “But in the end, all I had were a bunch of pawns to fortify a fruitless assault.”

It had been years since Raven had spoken with her brother in any real capacity. Since that day on the beach, when she'd made her decision to join Erik's cause, she had exchanged maybe a dozen or so words with the man. She had known she couldn't have it both ways. Her place was beside Erik, helping to form a world where humanity couldn't pose a threat to them any longer. However, that hadn't stopped her from thinking about what she would say to her brother if she was ever given the opportunity. She had spent many nights pondering such a thing, imagining what he would say in return. Yet of all of the conversations she had envisioned, never once had she expected it to go like this.

Erik was right, though, as much as she was loathe to admit it. Her time in this place was only temporary. All too soon she would be returning to a world where she was very much alone; a world where her brother was dead and gone. It was best they just made the most of what little time they did have here, rather than sitting around and debating what mistakes had been made. Besides. She was tired of being angry at the world. She really did just want to rest.

After a long, thoughtful moment, she silently rose to her feet and moved toward the bar. "So," she drawled as she poured two drinks, "how is it that Erik and I were affected by whatever happens in this city yet you weren't, Charles?" Turning around, a drink in each hand, she silently held one out for Erik before glancing back to her brother. "And how long do we have?"

The whole situation was strange and terribly uncomfortable, but these were still two people who Charles loved dearly. As awkward as it was to be with future versions who were estranged from him, Erik and Raven were the two most important people in his life and he could not ever see that changing. Still, it was strange being here with them. He wasn’t sure how to act, what might upset them or set them off on a rant that would end up angering everyone. He hoped to avoid that if at all possible.

He focused on Raven rather than what Erik, finding it easier to deal with her as present. “The average for this sort of thing is two weeks,” he said, “though sometimes it’s longer and sometimes it’s shorter...the last few bits of confusion lasted a week or less, but somehow I don’t imagine that will be the case this time.” He shrugged. “As for why I’m unaffected, I imagine because it’s less entertaining for our...host...if there’s nobody to react to the change.”

“Or it’s just giving you the opportunity to feel as uncomfortable as possible before affecting you as well,” Erik said, offering Raven a thankful smile as he took the drink. This situation certainly could do with a bit of a hazy mind to deal with it. “It does seem to be staggering our transitions somewhat,” He said, glancing over at Raven with a bit of a smile. “You reacted somewhat benignly to my elder appearance when it first occured, my dear. I had thought that I might be able to get off light,” He said, smiling and raising his glass in a salute to her. “Seems I was mistaken, of course, but one cannot be right about everything.”

Taking a sip of his drink, Erik turned his attention back to Charles with a slight quirk of his eyebrow, “I would hope I’m not that difficult to look at, my friend. I only got old. We all do it eventually.”

Although still extremely angry with him, Raven couldn't help but smile slightly at what Erik had to say. Of course, it was the very fact that she really couldn't continue to loathe him when in his presence that had led to her leaving town as soon as she'd been given clearance by the government to do so. She had known, the second she'd heard that he'd been given the 'cure' as well, that he would likely seek her out and she simply hadn't been ready to let go of her anger to allow that to happen.

Now, though, it didn't seem to matter quite as much. Forgiveness was still a long ways off, if it ever happened, but she didn't have to actively try to kill him for what he'd done. She really felt no urge to do so, either. The punches, at least, had been effective in that regard.

Raising her own glass and tipping her head slightly at him in acknowledgment, Raven took a sip of her own drink and replied simply with, "Of course I did." After all, up until the moment he had abandoned her, she had positively adored the man. It made perfect sense to her that the younger version of herself that was in the city, a version who did not know of his betrayal, would feel much the same way.

Glancing to Charles, she found that her feelings were as muddled as ever when it came to him. She wanted to say that she hoped whatever had changed them didn't end. She certainly felt that way. However she also knew that this couldn't be easy for him and therefore another part of her did hope that it ended sooner rather than later, if only for his benefit. Rather than comment on such a thing, though, she raised her glass to her lips. Just before taking another drink, she asked, "So we all stay here, then? That actually works?"

She couldn't hide the faint surprise, as well as skepticism, in her tone at that particular idea. Her, Erik, and Charles - plus his students - all under one roof? It seemed too bizarre to even contemplate.

Charles hadn’t exactly meant to avoid Erik, but he had and now the older man had pointed it out. And his friend knew why, of course, he just apparently felt like making things more uncomfortable than they already were. “It isn’t that, my friend,” he said quietly. “This is just...quite the complicated situation. I’m certain you’ll agree.” He felt as awkward with Raven as with Erik, but he didn’t let that overwhelm him. Raven was his sister, and she needed him to be there for her right now. He could push aside his own feelings for her sake. It wasn’t so simple with Erik.

Focusing on Raven, he smiled slightly and nodded his head. “Yes,” he said, “we do. There are quite a few students here, both mutant and human. I would hardly say it is a perfect arrangement, but the conflicts tend to find their root more in the interpersonal conflicts inherent in young adults cohabitating and not in genetic differences.” His mind went to Timothy and Damian and their constant squabbles. He debated holding back his next words, but ultimately decided it would be good for Raven to hear them. She needed to know that relations with humans didn’t always have to be antagonistic. “You...or rather, my Raven actually has quite the close friendship with one of our human residents.”

Erik laughed. He couldn’t help it, but the idea that Raven had even a tolerant relationship with a human was all but ridiculous. They had both left that possibility behind themselves a long time ago. Then again, they were both their younger, more idealistic selves here, ones who were willing to think that things could work out in the end if they stood up for who they were and what they stood for. He had had his moments of thinking that maybe some of humanity was worth it in his younger days, until he’d watched them prove again and again that they weren’t, and he couldn’t help but assume that Raven had felt the same way.

“I certainly hope she doesn’t expect us to behave as we might as our younger selves,” Erik said with a wry chuckle and a sip of his drink. “Otherwise, she may find herself sorely disappointed, Charles. And I would so hate to crush the spirits of one of your recruits. They do tend to be so horribly idealistic.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Raven replied flippantly. Her eyes sparkled as she directly contradicted Erik’s comment. “I could easily see my younger self capable of such a thing.” Truth be told, Raven wasn’t all too sure what her younger self might be capable of, depending on the circumstances. However, the fact that Erik had voiced an opinion to the contrary made her all the more willing to consider her younger self capable of such a thing. Granted, it would take far more than her brother no longer confined to a wheelchair and all of them relocated to another planet for such a thing to even be close to feasible in her mind, but she supposed anything was possible.

Turning her gaze to Erik, she commented in little more than a murmur, “I hardly have any room to judge these days, after all.”

Charles's expression, already somewhat wary of how they might react, turned stern and disapproving. He had thought Erik's philosophies might prove to be a problem, but he'd done his best not to force his ideals on the other man. So far, at least, he hadn't done too much damage to the other students. Stephanie's feelings were somewhat hurt by him, but she'd had Raven around. Now, with Raven changed as well, he didn't want her and Erik to do irreparable damage to their respective friendships with the girl.

Raven, at least, seemed to be willing to make an effort. That was a relief, because he wasn't sure that he could have fought them both on this. For all that Erik was his best friend and Raven was his sister, he wouldn't allow them to treat his students with anything less than respect and compassion. He knew that neither of them would want to come back to find bridges burned and friendships destroyed. He was taking the stand he was as much for their good as for anyone else's. Still, he didn't enjoy having to be so hard on them. They were both out of sorts here, lost and confused and dealing with so much, and he didn't want to make it harder on them.

"Thank you, Raven," he said softly. "I...Hank is here...and quite young. If he says anything too foolish, as you know he may well do, please don't hesitate to tell me. I won't stand for him making you feel uncomfortable."

That said, he turned his attention to Erik. "You are a guest here, my friend," he said calmly, an edge of steel to the quiet words. "This is my students' home. You will keep a civil tongue for as long as you remain in this place, or you are more than welcome to find other accommodations for the remainder of your time here. Whatever you might think, I will not have you causing any damage that my Erik would regret. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

Erik shook his head at Raven with a slight smile at her last words, “No, my dear, we still have every room to judge. Just because we are not powered now does not mean that we are no longer the individuals that we once were,” He said, knowing all too well that the words were testing fate when he had turned on Raven so spectacularly under the assumption of the exact opposite. Turning his attention after from her and back at Charles as he started to talk, though, Erik found himself rather quickly daunted by the intensity of Charles’s statements.

“I see,” Erik said, carefully and evenly as he peered over at his friend. It wasn’t entirely surprising that that was the way that Charles felt. It wasn’t the first suggestion that he find somewhere else to be from this version of Charles. Last time, when they were younger, it had been a less forceful request, but it had been equally as heartbreaking. Not to say that Erik had found himself at all at home here since he’d changed, but the idea of having to find somewhere else to go in a place where his surroundings were unfamiliar, and the only people that he knew were back in the place he’d just been kicked out of. “I don’t imagine I have caused any damage, Charles. I’ve merely done what I always have, expressed my opinions. I’m sorry that you seem to have an issue with that.”

Here they went again. The more Erik and Charles spoke, the more irritated Raven felt herself becoming. Honestly, they had been going back and forth with their opposing opinions for decades with neither giving an inch. Frankly, she was sick of it. It was those opposing sides that had caused her to turn on her brother and side with a man she had believed held the answer, only to be betrayed by him when she had needed him most. And, thanks to her idiot brother getting himself killed by one of his little pet students gone insane, she hadn't even had the option of going back to her childhood home afterward.

It was ridiculous, all of it, and she wasn't about to sit around and listen to the two of them start the cycle all over again. Not when Charles looked as young and idealistic as she remembered him looking and Erik was without his abilities. It was stupid, all of it, and she'd had enough.

"Right," she said as she drained the last of her drink and rose to her feet. "Well I, for one, am hungry. I'm assuming the kitchen is where I remember it being?" With a glance at her brother, then another at Erik, she turned on her heel and strode from the room with every intention of fixing herself a sandwich, finding a bottle of booze of her very own, then retiring to her room until either her liver gave out or she woke back up in her tiny apartment in her own reality. Whichever came first.