The Blood Phoenix 2: An X-Men: Days of Future Past Fanfiction

Chapter 2: Hell Reigns

China. 2023. 

'Professor!' Bobby yelled, running up to the jet, where Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Ororo Munroe, Logan Howlett, Charlene Xavier, Edith Xavier and Charlie Xavier were descending the steps of the jet, minus the Professor, who was in a levitating wheelchair. Magneto's cape swirled about him as he descended with Storm and Wolverine to meet the last of their mutant brothers and sisters. Kitty Pryde soon joined Bobby, followed by Colossus, another of the mutants. 

'Bobby,' Storm replied. The two embraced. 

'Hey Storm,' he said softly. 

'Hey kid,' Logan said, nodding his head to Bobby.

'Professor, you made it,' Kitty said, coming up behind Bobby. 

In the temple...

'Whenever the Sentinels attack, Warpath spots them... and I send Bishop back to warn us of the attack before it happens. Blink scouts the exit site, and then we leave before they ever know we were there,' Kitty said to the four.

'Because...' Warpath began to say, '... we never were.'

'What do you mean you were never there?' Logan asked gruffly. 

'She projects Bishop back in time a few days to warn the others... of the coming attack,' Charles replied. 

'So, she sends Bishop back in time?' Logan asked. 

'No, no, just his consciousness. Into his youngster self. His younger body,' Charles spoke. 

'Wow.' 

'This might just work, Charles,' Erik spoke from where he was standing next to Charles, his dear old friend. 

'What might work?' Kitty asked. 

'The Sentinel program was originally conceived by Doctor Bolivar Trask,' the ageing professor explained. 'In the early '70's, he was one of the world's leading weapons designers. But covertly, he had begun experimenting on mutants... using their gifts to fuel his own research. There was one mutant who had discovered what he was doing.' 

'A mutant with the ability to transform herself into anyone,' Erik spoke. 

'Mystique,' Colossus finished for them. 

'I knew her as Raven,' Charles spoke with a sad note in his voice. 'When we were children, we grew up together. She was like a sister to me. I tried to help her... but only succeeded in driving her away. She hunted Trask across the world. And at the Paris Peace Accords in 1973, after the Vietnam War, she found Trask... and killed him. And she did it with the help of another. Another mutant. My wife. Adelaide Lehnsherr.'

'My daughter,' Erik added, the pain more evident in his voice. 

'The Blood Phoenix,' Logan spoke. 'I've heard of her. You spoke of her often, Professor. One of the bravest mutants you had ever met.'

'We had three children together. We were so happy. Charlene, Edith and Charles. Those were their names.'

'It was the first time they had both killed.'

'It wasn't their last,' Logan spoke. 

'But killing Trask did not have the outcome she expected. It only persuaded the government of the need for his program. They captured her and my wife that day... tortured them... experimented on them. In Raven's DNA they discovered the secrets to her powers of transformation. In Adelaide's DNA they unlocked the secret to battling telepathic powers in mutants. It gave them the keys they needed, to create weapons that could adapt to any mutant power. And in less than 50 years, the machines that have destroyed so many of our kind were created. My wife came back after that, her soul completely broken. Her body broken. We continued to raise our child and we had two more children after that, but then she went under in 1991. And then she died from her coma. And I lost her forever after that. But it all started that day in 1973, when they first killed, the day they truly became... Mystique and the Blood Phoenix.' 

'You want to go back there,' Edith said. 

'If I can get to them... stop the assassination, keep her out of their hands... then we can stop the Sentinels from ever being born.'

'And stop this war before it ever begins,' Erik spoke. 

'And save our mother and Auntie Raven,' Charles (or Charlie, as they liked to call the young man) spoke. 

'Uh... I can send someone back a couple weeks. Maybe a month. But you're talking about going back decades. You have the most powerful brain in the world, Professor. But the mind can only stretch so far before it snaps. No one could survive that trip,' Kitty said with uncertainty in her voice. 

'What if someone's mind has a way of snapping back?' Logan asked. 'What if someone can heal as fast as they've ripped apart?' The mutants all looked to Logan. They knew who he meant.