Charles and Ellie have met before. They just don't remember it. After all, changing and stopping time always has consequences.
| Connected with Living on a Prayer |
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
~*~
Gulf of Mexico, 2029
"Hey, Lady?" A voice calls out to her. It's no one she recognizes. "Lady! Can you hear me?"
She opens up her eyes, wincing as a harsh light blinds her. Something is hitting her repeatedly, right across her cheek, and she blinks to get a better view of the sillohute in front of her.
"Lady? Come on," he pleads with her.
"W- where--?" She tries to talk, but a sharp pain spreads across her left shoulder, and she cries out.
"Hey, hey, it's alright," he says in a soothing voice. "You're gonna be alright, okay?"
She couldn't answer him. She passes out before she could.
The voices have been going in and out of her head. She can hear snippets of conversations, and shouting, until they fade away as she shuts her eyes.
She keeps seeing flashes of an island, someone pleading to her, sobbing as they're clutching on to her, fire and smoke everywhere. She can still see the fight so vividly in her head that she thought she was still there.
Ellie gasps awake, and lifts her head of from the pillow she'd been laying on. The walls around her were made of metal. No windows, but a soft breeze from an air conditioner is nearby. This looks nothing like the mansion, or Moira's prison facility, or the ocean she'd been drowning in.
"Hey, hey, you're alright," the same voice that had spoken to her before belonged to a bald headed man who looks like he's seen better days, and had the palest skin she's ever seen. He smiles weakly at her, but is standing far away as if he'd been expecting to get hit. "You're alright! I'm Caliban. I'm the one who found you."
She slowly sits up, wincing as bright spots flash in her eyes.
"Where am I?" She asks softly, just as wary of him as he is of her.
"You're in Mexico," he frowns. "You don't remember how you got here? Do you remember your name?"
"It's Ellie," she replies. That she does remember. "Ellie Brookes."
"Do you know the year?"
She tenses at this. The year. Oh, God, don't tell me. Her heart is beating faster than normal. Charles? She holds in her breath as she waits for his reply, and her anxiety only got worse when he doesn't answer. Charles!?
Nothing. Caliban repeats his previous question calmly. She takes a few deep breaths to calm herself down, but her shoulders are still trembling.
"What do you remember?"
"Drowning, there was a fight," she stammers. "What's the year?"
"2029," the man frowns. "What year are you from?"
"1962," she swallows hard, "you believe me, right?"
"Considering you fell from the sky, and you don't look a day over twenty," he nods towards her, "I'm willing to believe anything."
Future. She's in the future. How the hell did she travel to the future!? Ellie has to remind herself to calm down before she panics. She couldn't think rationally when that happens.
Sean is looking for you right now. You hear me!? Sean is looking for you! Charles. That is Charles' voice. She glances around, only to find the man who had rescued her, giving her a look of worry.
There's a hesitant tug in her mind. It's going through all of her thoughts, and memories, and it stops as soon as she thinks of the island.
Charles? She calls to him. What happened to everyone? Was he even still alive in the future?
The tug is gone. Had it been her imagination? It was there; she'd felt it!
"What fight was it?" The man asks her, what was his name again, and snaps her out of her thoughts.
"Cuba," she answers heistantly. "We were in Cuba, trying to stop some guy named Shaw."
"Shaw," wrinkles appear on his forehead as his eyebrows furrow in thought. "Cuba..." he scoffs as recognition flickers in his eyes. "Yeah, you're definitely from the past alright. That fight happened way back in '62. Wait, don't tell me, you know Charles Xavier," he says dryly.
Her ears had perked up as soon as he mentioned Charles, "you know Charles?" She asks him hopefully.
"Yup, you definitely know Charles," he answers dryly.
"Where is he? Is he alright?" She stammers.
"Hey, calm down, lady," he says, and she frowns at him. That's probably one of the worst things to say to someone in distress. "He's ... alright. He's here."
She doesn't like the way he says alright. He'd said it in a questioning tone, almost hesitant in a way that suggests Charles is anything but alright.
"Can I see him?" She asks. She's already getting out of the bed. Her heart is pounding wildly. "I need to see him right away."
"I don't know if you want to do that, lady," he sends a sympathetic look her way.
"Why?" She asks. She isn't sure if she wants to know the answer.
