X-Men First Class: The Fox's War

Chapter 10: Magneto's demise.

*****

Symphony bounded happily through the leaves on the ground in the park, happy to just be a fox again, though she was fully aware of Charles and Hank watching her as Hank pushed Charles in his wheelchair to follow her.

Setting up a block, Symphony started what she'd come for.

Erik. She reached out, connecting with Erik's mind.

Symphony. Came the response. Come to torture me for hurting Charles? Magneto asked spitefully.

Symphony hopped on a pile of leaves to avert suspicion. No. Erik, I came to tell you that I know you were trying to save Kennedy. I even know why. She answered.

There was a pause. Can you get me out?

No. That would interfere with the future, and create a third timeline, and I can't handle that. I'm barely handling the two already. Symphony sighed mentally.

What do you mean by that? Symphony, what aren't you telling me? Erik came back, turning from Magneto to the man Symphony had known, if only for an instant.

Symphony sighed. I see the future Erik, and all the possible courses it could take. Here and now, there are two courses, and I have to try and keep it that way, for all our sakes. She explained.

Is that how you know I didn't kill him on purpose? Erik asked dolefully.

Symphony ran up to Charles, and then dashed away. Yes. I foresaw it. I saw the bullet curve. I saw you trying hard to stop it. I saw your panic stricken face when the president died. She answered.

Erik sighed. So why are you here? He asked, knowing there was more.

To assure you that you won't be here forever. Both timelines, you get out, but in one you get out sooner than you do in the other. If I can do anything to help it, I'm going to try and get that timeline to happen, though it will take great effort, and it'll cost all of us our lives, in one way or another. She finally admitted, snatching a stick from the ground, and carrying it to Charles. I have to go now, before Charles figures out that I'm in telepathic contact with anyone. He doesn't know that you're here yet.

Erik chuckled. How long?

Ten years if I have anything to do with it. Just hold tight. We'll get you out.

With that, the contact ended, and Symphony chased the stick as Charles threw it with a grin, no idea as to the conversation that had just gone on, right beneath his nose.

Down below, Erik looked up at the ceiling with a smile.

Knowing that he'd see Symphony soon, made ten years seem worth the wait.

After a while of running, Symphony changed back into her human form, and laid gasping in the leaves, grinning happily.

Charles chuckled. "I haven't seen you this alive in a while." He admitted.

Symphony looked over at him with her bright mismatched eyes. "I haven't been off the property in a while." She tossed back teasingly.

Charles just smiled, looking at his watch. "It's been almost three hours. We should head back to the mansion before the teachers start pulling their hair out." He joked, nodding for Hank to start taking them back.

Symphony turned into a common red fox, and trotted alongside Charles, obediently leading the way back to the car.

It wasn't until much later that night, when Symphony started dreaming again, that Charles even remotely suspected that their visit to the park had been about more than just getting out.