Charles leaned back in his seat, his eyes meeting Logan's again before he allowed himself to look at Izel. Her expression was oddly a mixture of being concerned but also cold. He was going to make sure that their relationship is not entirely ruined, he would rebuild the mistakes made.
Izel shifted her weight on her feet while looked down at Charles, "Did you find what you were looking for?" With her words the lights in the room lit back up, indicating Henry fixed something.
Henry came walking back in the room, not noticing how Charles kept a focused expression on Izel, "The power's back on."
"Yes." Charles agrees while growing a determined expression, "Yes, it is." He rolled past Izel to get to Cerebro, placing the helmet back on his head. He kept his eyes open while he searched for Raven around the world, finally able to find her.
Raven sat in an airport, using the same form she used when growing up, something she used to seem normal. She looked around at all the normal civilians passing her, that was something she once craved. To be normal.
"Raven, stop."
Raven scrunched her eyebrows together and looked over at an elderly lady staring at her.
"Stop running."
"Charles?" Raven pondered, "Where are you?"
"Back at the house." Charles states calmly while Izel nears him, "Where you should be. I need you to come home."
"I know what I need to do."
Charles connected to someone else, "If you kill Trask, you'll make countless more like him."
"Then I'll kill them too."
"Those are Erik's words, not yours."
Raven stared at the man for a moment before turning away from him, bumping into a flight attendant, dropping hers and the woman's items.
"The girl I grew up with wasn't capable of killing." Charles spoke through the flight attendant, "She was good, fair, full of compassion."
"I have compassion, just not for Trask." Raven shot back, snatching her passport away, "He's murdered too many of us."
Logan could tell it was getting nowhere, "Shut her down, Charles. Get in her head."
"She's not letting me in." Charles struggles, "I'm not strong enough, I am barely holding on."
Izel held her hand out for him to take, "Here." When he didn't move she took his hand in her own, intertwining her fingers with his, "Borrow mine." She allowed her energy to seep into Charles.
Henry stood in silence and watched his sister in awe, she had learned her powers so well over the years.
Raven stopped in her tracks at the sight of Charles standing ahead of her, then her eyes grew wider at the sight of Beth standing next to him, holding his hand. It was like the day she met her.
"I know what Trask has done, but killing him will not bring them back." Charles told her allowing his eyes to make contact with Raven's, "It will set you on a path, which there is no return."
"And in this cycle... you'll be killing us." Izel said, being able to use Charles' mutation to communicate with her as well, "You'll kill every mutant until there is nothing left of our race."
"But we can stop this, you and I." Charles urged, "You just have to come home."
"I have to." Raven was almost moved by their words, "You haven't changed at all, Charles. Like I said, I know exactly what I have to do." She started to walk closer to them, "And stooping so low to create an illusion of Beth..."
Izel released Charles' hand the moment Raven walked away, she shut her eyes and sighed heavily. While Charles pulled the helmet off of his head, tears forming in his eyes.
"Where is she?"
"She's in an airport." Charles ran a hand down his face, "Boarding a plane."
Izel blinked a few times at his words, "A plane to where?"
"Washington DC."
Henry looks between them as something clicks in his head, "Hey, guys, there's something I need to show you."
"Show the way." Izel lifted her hands in the air and followed closely behind Henry.
Charles rolled in his chair after them, his eyes falling on Izel's hand. To feel her hand in his, how well they fit together. Even when it was only to find Raven, he wanted to be able to hold those hands again in his.
"I set the system I designed to record any news about Paris. Over all three networks and PBS."
"All three." Logan crossed his arms and whistled, "Wow."
Izel pinched his arm at his sarcastic comment, not particularly finding it as any use to the conversation.
"Yeah..." Henry cocks an eyebrow up, not entirely getting why Logan was being like that, "And PBS." He shrugged his shoulders, "Look at what I found."
The monitor flashed on, "Tomorrow in front of the white house, the President will make his announcement. He will be joined by secretary of defense, and has even sought the help of the renowned scientist Bolivar Trask. His special advisor to combat this mutant issue. The white house has asked-" Henry paused the monitor before it could continue to reveal what would be happened tomorrow.
Charles moved his hand from his face but his eyes stayed on the empty screen, "Raven doesn't realize that if she kills Trask at an event like that with the world watching..."
Izel released a long sigh, leaning her body against Henry's equipment, "Then we came a long way for nothing."
"And there is more bad news." Henry continues, watching as Izel puffs her cheeks out, "I saw on a report that they found traces of her blood in Paris. For all we know, they already have her DNA. She's all they need-"
"To create the sentinels of the future," Logan concludes.
"Well, there is a theory in quantum physics that time is immutable, it's like a river. You can throw a pebble into it, create a ripple, but the current always corrects itself. No matter what you do the river... the river just keeps flowing in the same direction."
"Henry..." Izel whispers, she knew this theory and was not exactly pleased to be thinking about it.
Logan, on the other hand, was absolutely confused and didn't get it, "What are you trying to say?"
"What he's saying is, what if the war is inevitable." Izel slowly looks over at Logan, "What if Raven is meant to kill Trask and there is nothing we can change about it."
Charles kept his gaze fixated on Izel now as the words of himself, "Just because someone stumbles, loses their way, doesn't mean they're lost forever." He releases a soft laugh at his own words, his energy lifting at the smile that formed on Izel's face, "No, I don't believe that theory, Hank. And I cannot believe that is who she is. Ready the plane, we are going to Washington."
Izel ran a hand down her chest as she walked onto the plane, Henry had helped Charles to his seat while she sat down in one. She pressed her head to one side as the plane started, Izel decided to sit near Charles. There was no use of her hiding since he already knew who she was. Her head lifted up after a few minutes to see him rubbing his thighs, "Are you alright?"
Charles flinched at her voice, he had not expected her to speak to him, let alone see how he was doing, "G-Getting there."
Logan walked over and sat parallel from Charles, "Whatever happens today... I need you to promise me something." He did not mean to cut into Charles and Izel's conversation but he needed to let Charles hear this, "You've looked into my mind and you've seen a lot of bad but you've seen the good too. The X-Men, promise me you'll find us. Use your power, bring us together, guide us, lead us. Storm, Scott..." Logan struggled to get the next name to leave his lips, "Jean, remember those names. There is so many of us. We will need you, Professor."
Logan's words only made Izel curious to what life would have been like if she had stayed with Charles all those years ago. She had been a teacher before her departure, she wondered how it would have been to have Logan as a student.
"I'll..." Charles was unsure how to react to this, Logan hadn't called him Professor since the day they appeared to him, "...do my best."
"Your best is enough, trust me." Logan got up and moved away, feeling as if it was best to leave the two of them alone with one another.
Izel watched as Charles looked away from her and out of the window of the plane, "Charles." His eyes flickered to look into hers, "What-" She swallowed, "What happened after I... left?"
Charles had not expected that kind of question from her, he believed that she would not even care to know. His eyes grew sorrowful as he remembered, he opened his mouth to explain but nothing would come out.
"If you can't..." Izel shifted in her chair and leaned her body forward, "Show me."
He looked at her skeptically now, before leaning towards her and gently placing his hands on her head.
Charles read the note again, then reread it, and reread it, right before he crumbled it up and threw it across the room in a rage. His breathing became ragged as he glared at the wall in front of him. That was Erik's handwriting.
Henry, who did not get the chance to read the note, walked over and flattened the paper out as he whispered the contents of it, "What are we going to do?"
Charles' eyes land on his dresser, he took Raven from him and now he took Beth as well, "We are going to do nothing."
"What?"
"Nothing?" Henry exclaims, "Beth has been taken, we can't just sit here!" His inner beast was showing again, skin beginning to shift into a blue color.
"This is her problem." Charles shot back his voice growing deeper at how angry and torn he was, "She left on her own accord. This is not our problem."
Sean scrunched his eyebrows together, "Why on earth are you being so damn cold about this?" His arms crossed over his chest as Alex opened the door to see what was going on, "You love Beth, how can you just leave her when she needs us?"
"She chose this herself!" Charles' voice boomed throughout the house, no one had ever heard him get this angry before. Items around the room lifted in the air and slammed against the walls, "Get out!"
"Charles-"
"I said get out!"
Charles recoiled back from Izel, his body slamming into the seat from how much force he used to move away from her, "And... then Sean and Alex were drafted shortly after... along with so many of our students... I just-"
Izel tensed her jaw and looked away from Charles for a second, but her eyes were building up with tears. She had basically witnessed that memory as if she was standing in that room, "I never meant for..." She sunk into her seat now, "I never meant for something like that to happen."
"It was my fault." Charles was having a hard time looking at her now, "I had overreacted so greatly, I-"
"Still." Izel cut him off, "Even after I had escaped, I never did go to find you. To confront you and demand... why? I was so enraged by the abandonment-"
"Please..." Charles whispered softly, "Please, stop yourself from thinking of such things. It is not you to blame for my mistake."
"Charles." Izel reached out and took his hand, "Read my mind."
"What?"
"I know you want to know why... why I had even remotely agreed to go with Erik."
Charles could not bring himself to do it, he slipped her hand out of his, "I can't... Beth."
Izel paused at this, she did not complain about being called Beth but she spoke again, "I saw you kissing Moira. I am not even sure what the student said to me... but one of the students said something and I just had to walk out... Get some air and that's when Erik found me and... you know where that story ends."
Charles released an exasperated laugh, "I had erased Moira's memories. I-I could have done it in a better way, I know that now..." He covered his mouth with his hand and rubbed down his face, "All of this calamity over such intricate misunderstandings."
"Misunderstandings are the things that cause the most problems, especially when the people who cause them never get the chance to actually explain their truth."