For being the highest security building on the East coast, it was incredibly easy to sneak out of the Pentagon with the mass-murdering, metal-controlling convict in tow. As it seemed, all the remaining guards in the place had headed straight for the kitchens, only to arrive at the sight of their colleagues lying unconscious on the wet floor. Meanwhile, the group of five had walked out of the front door almost as easily as they had come through it twenty minutes prior, merging in with the final crowd being evacuated from the building.
As planned, Hank had been waiting for them in the car park, twiddling the rental keys in his hand as he sent Erik a stare, moderately annoyed that the mission had succeeded. Sure, it meant that they were a step further away from global annihilation, but Hank had never once pretended to be a fan of Erik's, and he wasn't going to start now, not after he just risked having to spend the rest of his life in jail just to break him out.
Without even a word exchanged the group had bundled into the car and left the grounds as quickly as possible, and the only sign they had ever been there was the shrill screaming of the alarm. Caring as ever, Hank had made sure that Jennifer was feeling alright before allowing her to get in the car, and despite his extreme curiosity, he withheld asking what it was exactly that had happened during the otherwise uneventful tour – truthfully, he feared the answer.
It took twenty minutes for the tension to rise to the level where breathing seemed hard on the lungs, but luckily by that point, the car had reached its destination. It pulled to a stop on a strip of tarmac that ran just under a mile in either direction, and thanks to an old friend of the Xavier's, a private had been taxied out for the next stage of their task – stopping Raven, who according to the intel Jennifer had received on the journey into the Pentagon, was the catalyst of the apocalypse.
Before the tyres had even come to a stop Charles was out of the car, shortly followed by everyone else, all desperate for some air that didn't hold grudges, stares or resentment. Jennifer was the only person who wouldn't minded staying a bit longer in the vehicle, having been rather comfy resting her head against Peter for the ride. After everything that had occurred that day, especially the heart attack, she was tired, but when her pillow had rushed away to look inside the plane – claiming that it "probably had some cool gadgets or one of those candy machines limos have" – Jennifer had been forced outside to where she was now leaning against the bonnet of the car, Erik joining her a moment after.
The past nine years of mushy food and white walls had been incredibly bleak, and then out of the blue he had been pulled out of the loop of boredom and plotting, only to be shoved into a ditch of confusion. Charles was walking, he was being broken out of prison, Jennifer was alive and somehow the same age, and he was almost missing the sweet nothingness of his cell. With Hank checking the planes navigational systems, Charles getting changed out of his soaking shirt and Logan the other end of the runway lighting a well deserved cigar, now was a good a time as any to get some answers.
"What happened to you kid? We looked everywhere." His head was tilted towards Jennifer, who remained with her gaze cast to her scuffed shoes. With his voice consumed by grief and emptiness, hollow yet shaky with each word, she had no idea how to respond – so he continued. "Two weeks later Angel and Azazael were taken by project WideAwake. They were torn apart, studied under microscopes like rats, dissected in the name of science, and they were kept conscious for the entire thing. Emma accused you of selling us out in exchange for safety or a way home." He shook his head, sighing as he flutily tried to rid himself of the negative emotions that were swarming around his mind almost as strongly as the day the events occurred. "I knew she was wrong, and while I knew you didn't approve of our methods, I knew you wouldn't willingly put anyone through that type of torture. So what happened kid?"
Taking a deep breath, Jennifer raised her eyes to meet those of Erik. "I...I," she paused for a second, trying to find a way to explain the events that had occurred. "I uh, passed out on the way back from the shop, and when I woke up I was in nineteen seventy one."
Erik's brow creased, unable to tell if she was joking or not. Time travel definitely wasn't one of the possibilities he had considered when thinking over what had happened, and even seeing her standing before him, looking almost identical to the last time they saw each other, Erik was having a hard time depicting fact from fiction.
Sighing, Jennifer shook her head lightly. She couldn't expect him to understand what she had gone through, not when it had taken her months to come to terms with it. "It was Charles. He wanted to know where you where and he used me to find out. The energy that cerebro used to reach me, to travel that distance, it somehow or other powered up a space-time rift. Well, that's the general theory at least, and don't bother asking how it works cause I honestly don't have a clue."
As her explanation had gone on, Erik's jaw and fist had clenched tightly, and now that she was finished, he was staring at Charles who was standing at the top of the stairs leading onto the plane, talking about something with Hank. She could quite easily understand his fury at the man, having felt the same for the past few weeks, but after all the hassle she had gone through today, she couldn't let it go to waste. If there was a higher cause preventing her from throwing Charles out of a window, then it would apply to Erik as well.
"Listen," she sighed, wishing she had kept her mouth shut. "As much as all this sucks, there's a bigger picture at the moment that needs you two to work together. So I sorts need you to refrain from doing something stupid that will end up killing us all, alright?"
Erik faced her, eyes crinkled in a mix of confusion and disbelief. "He ripped you away from your life, and you're fine with it? You've just let it go, and you expect me to do the same?"
"No, no, of course not. I'm pissed at him, I really am. You can whack him over the head, beat him to a pulp, leave him stranded in the middle of nowhere – I don't care. But make sure the future is in safe hands first, cause revenge isn't worth the entire world. And you heard what Logan said, its going to take you and Charles together to reason with Raven, because if you do it alone she won't listen, and then everyone's going to die. Not just the humans, and not just us - everyone. And that wouldn't be good cause I've got a friend whose on the homecoming committee and she will kill you herself if she finds out the party's cancelled because you couldn't let a feud go for two minutes. So don't screw this up, please." Her eyes were pleading, because although this wasn't her fight, she still had a part to play, and she wasn't going to let everything go down the drain on her behalf.
Carefully taking her words into consideration, Erik nodded solemnly. She trusted him to save the world, so he would, and then he would decide what to do with Charles. Part of him was still struggling to envision Charles, his Charles, who would believe in humanity till his final breath and strive to unlock the best aspects in people, had been the one to inflict so much pain and suffering on him and Jennifer. The other part of him knew how unstable Charles could be, what risks he'd take to ensure the safety of the majority. He was a utilitarian, and when you where in the minority, the effects of his choices were catastrophic.
"I'll do my best," he spoke gravely. It wasn't a promise, because he couldn't bear breaking one to Jennifer, but it was a reassurance, and that was all she needed.
"So," he started, his voice lighter than before. "You have a friend on the homecoming committee -does that mean you're at school?"
She nodded enthusiastically, glad for the change of subject. "Yeah, pretty sure I broke a few laws to get in, but what else is new. I got a job too, at a music shop, also illegally, but the managers cool, he wouldn't care if he found out."
"That's...disturbing." He laughed, probably for the first time in years. It might make him a bad guy, but he wouldn't deny how proud he was of Jennifer. He had a better silver tongue than most, but he had only ever used it to keep himself out of trouble, mainly as a boy, before he learned how to use his mutations to his advantage. But Jennifer, she'd lie to get herself into situations that no one wanted to be in and be completely fine with the fact that it could get her arrested or shot. And the thing was that she wasn't born a liar, wasn't raised a liar, but yet had perfected the skill to the point she could squeeze past the highest security measures. It made her a danger to herself, but if it had allowed her to start a new life, then who was Erik to pull her up on it?
"What about that silver haired kid? What's his deal?"
"Peter? He's a speedster. I met him almost a year ago. God," she shook her head softly. "It doesn't feel like that long ago, but I suppose, taking everything into consideration, it has been. But yeah, Pete's really sweet, a bit of an idiot too, but a lovable idiot."
"So you two...are a thing?"
"Hmm? Yeah, yeah we are. He took me on a date to look at the stars, it doesn't yet much better than that."
Without prompt, Jennifer suddenly moved around the side of the car, leaning through the open window of the drivers seat and returning a moment later with a business card and pen in her hand, both of which had been conveniently tucked into the sunshield panel. Leaning on the bonnet of the car, she quickly scribbled across the back of the paper.
"Here," she said, extending the card out to Erik, who took it curiously. "Once this all blows over, come visit us."
"Us?," he repeated dubiously, reading over the address in his hand before placing it in the safety of his pocket.
Jennifer nodded. "Yeah, you don't expect my weekend shifts to pay for a place of my own do you?"
Glancing at the time on her watch, she sighed. "You better get on that plane before they leave without you."
"How long do you think it would take for them to notice?," he asked her, a grin covering his face.
"Let's not find out," she laughed quietly.
Erik turned his body to fully face the seventeen year old, encasing her body in his arms. The damp dog smell still stuck to him despite his earlier change of clothes, but Jennifer didn't mind. For an entire year she had wished for a familiar face, to be reunited with people from her past, to let Erik know she was alright – and now she had it all. She wasn't home, she wasn't with her mum, but she had people who cared about her, and after everything, the embrace of Erik was enough to tell her that everything would work out.
"I'm glad you're okay," he murmured, just loud enough that Jennifer could hear it. Clearing his throat, he took a step back, removing his arms from around Jennifer. He examined her once more, checking that she was still real, frowning when he noticed the piece of red fabric tying her hair back. "Is that ...?"
Jennifer brought her hand up to where he was looking, realising what he had. "Yeah. It was still tied to the pillar when I woke up. A bit dusty, but I uh, I kept it. It was the only thing I had left. The only thing that proved I had a life before nineteen seventy two."
Erik shook his head delicately. "I'm sorry kid, I should've just sent you home, saved you all this grief."
"Don't," she replied sternly. "Don't apologise. I chose to be there as much as you let me. We all made mistakes and we all paid the price for them. We weren't soldiers or warriors, and we shouldn't've been the ones to carry the future on out backs. That wasn't our fight, and neither is this, but if we chose to take part in it then we have to be prepared for the consequences. What happened to me was not your fault, so stop taking the blame for it, alright?"
Erik nodded in understanding, albeit a little surprised at the speech, but accepted the words anyway. "Alright. I better go. I'll see you later, then?"
"Yeah," Jennifer smiled, glancing up at the plane. A part of her wanted to step inside, go off and save the world, but that wasn't her life anymore. She was going to go home and hope that things worked out. She had a life to live, a life that shouldn't be interrupted by missions and time travel. She had lived through the consequences of choosing the fight over the peace, and she didn't intend on doing it again.
Erik turned to walk away, but before he could reach the stairs, Jennifer called out after him. "Hey, can you tell Raven I said hi when you see her?"
He chuckled at the request, but his eyes didn't match the sound, almost like he knew something she didn't. "Sure kid."
Then he mounted the stairs, disappearing around the corner as he took a seat in the cabin. It didn't seem like they had had long enough, not when there was so much Jennifer wanted to tell him, but at least he knew the important things. It was a short lived reunion, but a reunion nonetheless. He would come back, she knew that much.
A gust of wind interrupted the silence, and a fraction of a second later Peter had taken Erik's spot, leaning against the cool metal of the car.
"How was your adventure?," Jennifer asked him, hopping up onto the front of the vehicle.
He shrugged. "There wasn't a candy machine, so pretty rubbish. But I found this."
A small glass decanter was being held between Peters fingers, the liquid inside rippling as he swayed it infront of Jennifer, whose eyes had grown as wide as saucers.
"Pete! You can't steal alcohol!"
"Why not? You break the law all the time. I mean, we literally just broke some guy out of prison."
"That's different. It's for the greater good."
"Maybe this is for the greater good too," he reasoned. "Think of it as preventing those guys from getting drunk and crashing the plane. Its saving lives. Besides their not gonna miss it, there's like, ten more of these."
Jennifer bit her lip, taking a deep breath. Someone really had to explain to Peter that part of a good argument wasn't rendering it pointless at the end. "Then just put it back Pete."
"Nope," he said, planting the decanter of the hood of the car. "It stays. C'mon, we could give it to my mom. It's her birthday in a month."
She sighed, exasperated at the argument. "Put it back Pete."
"Put what back?," Charles asked, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.
"Nothing," the two teenagers replied in unison, Jennifer sliding off the car to hide the alcohol behind her back. As much as she disapproved of Peter's actions, she wasn't going to let him go down for them, though it was tempting to rat him out when he sent her a grin that so clearly said that he thought he had one the debate.
Charles shook his head at the suspicious behaviour but didn't ask any questions. It wasn't his job to keep teenagers out of trouble, maybe once, but not anymore. Besides, he had places to be. "Alright then. Thank you both, so very much. You've helped us lot, and without you I doubt we would've made it this far." He turned his head slightly. "And Jennifer, I - "
"You don't have to say anything." Déjà vu hit her, was she really having this conversation again? "You made a mistake and you regret it, I know. It doesn't make what you did right or moral in any way, shape or form, and if you want my trust back you've still got a long way to go. Maybe start by realising that your apologies and reasoning mean nothing to me, because it still hurts. Build a new wall, don't build upon the already broken one, cause it'll just crumble again."
"Right," he nodded, glad to have received advise rather than a punch to the face. "Well, I suppose we better go."
Peter pushed himself upright off of the car. "I saw the fight plans. Why are you guys going to Paris?"
Jennifer frowned, trying to remember why Paris rung like a bell in her head, why it was important. Then it hit her like a train. "Raven's going to the Paris Peace Accords? It's televised event, the entire world will see her." Realisation dawned on her face. Raven was the catalyst of the apocalypse, not the cause, and with all the officials right next to each other, it would be the ideal way for her to blend in and attempt to stop the future. But everyone would see it fail, and panic and fear would only rise. That was how it began in Logan's timeline. "Everyone will see her."
"Hopefully we can stop her before that happens," Charles replied solemnly, though there was a glimpse of hope in his eyes. This was his sister they were talking about, a sister who had left him paralysed ten years ago and had yet to visit him. It wasn't easy for him to come to terms with the fact that the person he loved most was likely to destroy the world, but he refused to give up on her.
Climbing back up the stairs, Charles left the two teenagers at the car, but just before entering the aircraft he turned around weighing something in his hand. After a moments hesitation, the object flew through the air, Peter catching it in his hand loosely, jingling as it made contact with him. Car keys.
"And Peter, take it slow," Charles shouted as Hank began to close the door. Peter just grinned, too obsessed with the opportunity to take the words into account.
Jennifer kept her eyes locked on the plane for a moment longer. Within it sat four men, and by her luck, Jennifer knew she would see them all again at some point down the line, hopefully over a meal or a coffee. The world was a funny place, and everyone's path was interwound with everyone else's, but for now, Jennifer's path had diverged from theirs.
Peter nudged her side, pulling her attention away from the metal cabin. "You ready for the best driving you've ever seen?," he asked, his grin still firmly planted on his face.
That caused her to laugh. Seeing the confused tilt of Peter's head, she brought her hand up to try and muffle the sound. "Sorry, it's just you don't know the first thing about driving. You'll stall the car."
"Oh yeah? Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?"
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Peter Maximoff, born January 17th 1956, was the worst driver in the world. Every corner was cut, every speed limit was broken, going round bends, at least one of the wheel left the ground, and the seventeen year old was yet to learn that breaking was supposed to be a controlled procedure, not slamming your foot down at the last available moment.
Thankfully, after Jennifer had almost gone through the windshield five times, Peter decided to heed Charles' advise, obeying the speed limit. The driving still wasn't great though, so when they became stuck in a traffic jam Jennifer nearly wept tears of joy.
If she had the slightest idea how to, Jennifer would've offered to take the wheel twenty minutes ago, but after looking at the interface for a minute all her confidence dissipated. Seventies cars were vastly different to sixties cars, and despite being in the era for so long, this was the first time she had ever sat in the front seats. There wasn't a chance in hell she'd be able to tell the difference between the accelerator and the window wipers until she was driving at ninety miles per hour with a rain covered view.
Tugging on the brim of the Pentagon security hat that was still on his head, Peter diverted his gaze away from the taillights of the numerous cars infront of them. "So that Erik guy, how well do you know him?"
Jennifer frowned, wondering why he had asked such a random question. "Umm, not very. He's not exactly an open person, but I probably know more than a lot of people. Why?"
"I think...did he ever mention having a kid, or anything like that?"
"Nope, as I said not very open. What's with the interest?"
"I think he's my dad," he blurted, almost too fast for Jennifer to decipher.
He kept his eyes on her, waiting for her to reply to his claim. It was like he was a little again, sitting in an aquarium watching as the goldfish continuously opened and closed its mouth for no discernible reason. It was very rare that Jennifer was caught off guard and speechless, and with the frown etched onto her forehead, it was clear to see she was having difficultly processing the information.
Trying to help her understand where he was pulling the connection from, he took a mental step back. "Mom doesn't really ever talk about my dad, but get a few drinks in her and," he swooped his hand over his head, whistling as it went. "She said that he could control metal, and I was seven at the time, so I didn't really believe her, and when I got my mutation I thought about it a lot but I didn't really see the point in caring cause what were the chances I'd ever meet him y'know? But in the elevator, something just clicked. I dunno, I sounds stupid, I know but - "
"No, no I get it," Jennifer interrupted him. She had made her own wild connections in the past and he had believed her, so it was only fair that she should do the same. "Things don't jump out at you until they do. I just, didn't see that coming."
There was a blank silence as Jennifer wrapped her last few braincells around the idea. Outside, cars were honking and beeping as if it would make the traffic move any faster, and inside time was moving slower than Jennifer thought it would without going at super high speeds – for a moment she felt what it was like to be Peter.
Another moment passed, and Peter decided he couldn't stand the emptiness. "This is weird isn't it?," he gestured between them. "Us dating, I mean. Not sitting in traffic in a rental car."
"No." She shook her head eagerly. "He's your biological father, if you're right that is. You have his DNA and his X-Gene. You're his blood and your family, I'm just some kid he met ten years ago who decided he would make a good parental figure. No relation, no blood, just a person of common interest. We're good."
"Good, cause I'd hate to have to break up with you because of some metal controlling whack job."
"A metal controlling whack job?," she repeated, stifling a laugh. "I'm gonna tell him you said that."
"Go for it. He doesn't even know I exist." His tone has lost its light, now glum and empty, borderline depressed. Peter had never met his father, had never had someone to play soldiers with, had never had a dad to look up to. Then by a stroke of luck he had the chance to meet him, and they had walked away from each other with less than two sentences exchanged between them.
Jennifer was cut from the same cloth – no dad, single mum working every shift they could – but they didn't have the same story. Her dad had died serving Queen and country, saving lives in return for his own. Everyone remembered him as a hero, a solider, a good man. Peter's dad was a man with a troubled past, who had come into town and left the next day. He hadn't loved Laura Maximoff in the way Richard Jones had loved Mary Howard, and he hadn't spared a thought about the possibility that soon became Laura's life.
Erik Lehnsherr was not a perfect man, but his issues shouldn't have effected anyone else's lives, should never have made a seventeen year old boy feel so hollow inside. It was hard enough to grow up without a father, even harder when the reason was because the didn't care. Erik had a lot to answer for, and with the new angle, Jennifer knew that she would never look at him in quite the same way as before.
The road ahead was still blocked by an unknown cause, but only a small distance away was a slip road that lead to a building that sat under a glowing sign, filled with colour. It was a beckoning them to come off the road, to take a well deserved break and enjoy themselves for a while.
Jennifer pointed over to it, grinning. "Fancy a burger?"
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I am so sorry about the last month. What with tests, procrastination and lack of effort to do anything, I couldn't bring myself to write because when I did, it sucked - like, really sucked. On that note, if there are any issues with this chapter please tell me so I can get them fixed.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this *extremely* long chapter. I gonna try and get back on track with the Friday updates for the last few chapters so fingers crossed for next week.
~elizabeth