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[homo_superior]

This is Erik Lehnsherr. I'm not available, so please leave a message.

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[danzan]

[ Logan doesn't speak, but Erik can probably hear the way his breathing changes, subtle though it may be.

It's... a lot to take in. And if Erik thinks it's his fault for not being able to keep Logan restrained, then Logan's damn sure it's his fault for not being able to keep himself from going into a panic attack at the mere sight of William Stryker.

Even weirder is the name "Bobby"-- he's sure he knows who that is, and in his head he thinks of Rogue and how there used to be a boy around her, but. Why can't he remember what the boy looks like?

Shaken, and his throat dry (he swallows with a dry click), Logan whispers: ] I'm sorry.

[ The timeline may have changed, and none of it ever happened now, but Erik had been there. And Erik had seen it all himself. ]

Jesus... I'm so sorry.

[homo_superior]

You did all that you could. We both did.

[Still, Erik thinks, he could have done more. If he hadn't been wounded by the shrapnel, he could have fought to the end. He'd never given up before, and even in the face of so many Sentinels, he could have done something more.

He doesn't like to think about what happened to the others. Most of them were dead, but Rogue, Kitty, Charles... would they eventually find their way here? Perhaps this was a place for those displaced from their own timelines. He hoped so. If he could see Charles, just one more time, tell him just once more how he felt, that would be enough.]

[danzan]

[ Erik's right, naturally. And Logan no longer thinks it's a bad thing when he is.

But he's still got a hand covering both his eyes, the fluid pressed tight enough to his ear it hurts.

Tentatively, and with some self-directed anger, he mutters: ] ...I saw Stryker. That's it. That's the only reason Kitty got hurt. I saw him and remembered Weapon X and.

I just stopped breathing. [ He's breathing a little harder at the mere memory of it. ] It didn't have to get that bad. Storm, Colossus-- they didn't have to...

I know we changed the future but it.

God. [ Fury and despair make for words through gritted teeth. ] It didn't have to end like that.

[homo_superior]

Stryker. It would be him.

[He should have known it would be something like that. Stryker's actions continued to ripple outwards after he was long-since dead. Damn that man. Magneto should have done worse than chained him up and left him to die.]

We were going to stop. But Charles, he received a message from the past, his younger self somehow contacting him. After that, we knew we had to continue no matter what.

[danzan]

[ His head lifts slightly at that. He remembers that conversation well enough. ]

...yeah. [ In the haze of guilt and self-loathing, more sober thoughts come to him in kind of a blur-- thoughts like the memory of young Charles with his hands to Logan's temples and his presence filling his skull. ] Yeah. I hit a wall and asked him to read my mind, and he...

[ He brings his hand down, running it over his mouth before it falls away. ]

You think when we escape this place, you and I'll just disappear?

[homo_superior]

That's a very good question. I'm not entirely keen to find out the answer. But at least your mind has a body to return to in the new timeline.

[Magneto would likely just disappear into the ether. So even though this place was a hellhole, he wasn't particularly inclined to leave it.]

[danzan]

You know I don't wanna go home without you.

[homo_superior]

I'd like to say you won't have to, but this place has very little regard for what we do or do not want.

[danzan]

God. It's just... [ A brief moment's hesitation, and Logan sighs quietly. ]

I have all these pictures but they're not mine. And I see myself but it's not me.

You understand? What I'm getting at...? [ He can't put it into words. ]

[homo_superior]

I know. You're afraid you'll be going back to a place where you don't belong.

[That had always been a theme throughout Logan's life, trying to find a place he truly belonged.]

[danzan]

And I'm going to kill the version of me that deserves to be there.

[homo_superior]

You can't think of it like that. We did what we had to.

[Something Magneto has always believed wholeheartedly.]

On the pessimistic side, perhaps neither of us will leave here alive.

[danzan]

[ He laughs, quiet. ] Hell, I'd rather die with you than live without.

[ And sure, that can be taken literally, but it applies to everyone Logan left behind. Will leave behind, most likely, if he survives this.

The smile on his lips is tired. ]

...but at least we did it.

[homo_superior]

[Magneto is silent for a moment before slowly shaking his head.]

Such sentiment, Wolverine.

[But he gets it, he really does. They're the last two soldiers in a war no one except Logan will ever remember.]

[danzan]

With the fucknut timeline we come from, I figure sentiment goes pretty far. [ He's not necessarily feeling... better, per se, and chances are the new world's going to keep depressing him whenever he remembers there isn't a real home waiting for him. But there're more important matters to discuss. And in the end, at least he'll have family here now, and he'll cling onto that until he can't any more. ]

Thanks for calling. And telling me all that.

[ Even if it had been depressing. Logan was going to find out eventually. ]

...hrrngh. I got things to do. I'll talk to you later?

[homo_superior]

Yes. Keep in touch.

[While Erik doesn't have quite as many of the hangups as Wolverine does with what happened, he's got his own demons to face. Being here was the first time he'd hadn't had to fight for what he wanted in a very long time. He'd do what he could to protect those he cared about. It was all he could do.]