Chapter 7

It didn't take long to find them. I decided to look for a job nearby and a place to stay. I decided to look for a clinic where I could work in medicine again. I managed to find a doctor that was in desperate need of assistants. I proved my medical knowledge and got the job. He would let me do most of the paperwork and only watch the surgeries he performed, but overall it was nice. I found a nice place to rent near the clinic so I wouldn't have to travel far. I stopped practicing my powers since I was surrounded with people here. I didn't have access to the mirror dimension since the Ancient One would create one for me when I requested to practice my powers in there. The Ancient One would just wave her hands and create an entry point like it was nothing. I could never even conjure a small crack. I just didn't have the affinity for it. Luckily runes are different and just required a high understanding in magic and rune applications theory. She was very fascinated with my abilities. In there, I was able to improve greatly. I could probably go toe to toe with En Sabah Nur for a few seconds before I ran out of energy.

Years flew by and I saw the events of World War I and World War II. I decided not to intervene in them. I could have met with James and Victor, but I wanted them to experience combat. What I can't let happen is for them to go to the Vietnam War. For World War I, I served as a nurse and I actually managed to attend college and get a degree to become a doctor by the time World War II came. I opened my own practice and helped the injured. I became well known for treating the sick and I also started to help people with psychological problems. I had built a very good reputation in both general and specialist practices.

It was now 1940. I had the perfect excuse to get to Charles. Since I was a doctor, a reputable one at that, I planned to go to the mansion and ask for blood from Charles. I always kept monitoring their family. Recently Charles has been complaining to his parents that he has been getting headaches and he would hear voices. The moment this started happening I jumped at the opportunity, but his parents beat me to it. Since I had already established myself as a well-known doctor, they sought me out. They explained the issue and were very concerned. I asked them if I could visit Charles and they immediately agreed. When I arrived, I was greeted by the parents and shown to his room. I asked them to wait outside the room while I examined him. As I opened the door, I saw Charles holding his hands on his ears as if trying to block out a loud noise. Poor kid, he probably is hearing all the thoughts of the workers inside the mansion.

"Hello Charles." I said in a light tone. He looked at me and saw what I was wearing.

"Can you make it stop?" He asked as he looked up at me. I could see his eyes were red from crying. I shook my head which looked like it devastated him.

"I can't make it stop Charles, but I can help you control it. Nothing is wrong with you Charles." I finished speaking before I felt his powers aimed at me. He unintentionally was trying to read my thoughts but luckily for me, thanks to En Sabah Nur's powers, my mental resistance abilities kept him out. He would need to become a lot more powerful before even giving it a try. His eyes opened wide when he looked at me.

"It stopped when I looked at you!" He said sounding excited. He didn't know that the reason he didn't hear anything was because he was trying to read my mind, but I was blocking him.

"That's good Charles. I'm going to go and talk with your parents for a bit okay?" I said and he nodded at me.

"Mr. and Mrs. Xavier, nothing is wrong with your son physically. I do need to take blood samples in order to find the cause of the problem. I would suggest you limit the number of workers you have inside the mansion just in case." I said. They agreed and let me take some blood that day. I continued to do this in subsequent sessions and stored the blood samples in my pocket dimension to keep it in a preserved state. During these sessions, I helped Charles gain better control of his powers. I explained to his parents that he was a mutant. They looked scared when they heard that word, but I explained that it was nothing to worry about. I reassured them that it was perfectly normal for humans to develop certain mutations. I pointed out that Charles' mutation triggered something in his brain which unlocked unique abilities, which is why he could read thoughts. They were amazed and were very thankful for the information. I did warn them in telling people as most would try to harm him because he is different. I'm glad they were understanding. Most mutants didn't have that luxury. Before I left to continue my practice, I gave Charles a gift.

"Charles, I made this for you." I said as I handed him a metal bracelet.

"What is it?" He asked curiously.

"It's a special bracelet! Whenever you don't want to hear those voices you put this on. The voices will stop and let you rest. Remember to keep practicing though. Don't let this power control you. You control it okay?" I finished saying as I gave him a box.

"You can put it in here when you're not wearing it." I said.

"Thank you Dr. Howlett!" He said as he hugged me. I put a rune on the bracelet to block brain waves from leaving whoever wears it. It basically makes a field of sorts around the wearer and prevents brain waves from entering or exiting. For a normal person it would have no effect other than to make them immune to weak mental attacks. For Charles, it will greatly help whenever he might lose control. The rune was weak—it would destroy itself after a couple of years.

I felt happy knowing what I've done. I don't think I messed too much with the timeline so the butterfly effect should be small but only time will tell. Charles should be meeting Raven two years from now and their friendship will start. I didn't want to gain Raven's powers. I don't know what it will do to my body if I injected myself her blood. My next target would be Erik Lehnsherr otherwise known as Magneto. For now, I'll continue to serve my duties as a doctor until the end of the war. I know Erik goes to America and sees the Statue of Liberty sometime in 1949 so I would be sure to see him there. I would most likely have to put him in a coma-like state in order to get his blood. I highly doubt he would freely give it to me. after what he's been through.

1945 came and the world saw the destructive power of nuclear bombs. This would trigger an arms race between Russia and the US, but I had no plans to intervene. After the war ended, I left my practice and transferred ownership to a fellow doctor. I left suddenly because I wanted to inject Charles' blood. I didn't know what reaction I will have so I left and created a portal using my sling ring back to Kamar Taj.

"Well, isn't this a surprise." The Ancient One greeted me as I stepped into area we first met.

"It's been a long time, teacher." I said and gave a bow. I respected her fully. To be able to use magic the way she does is quite beautiful.

"And you haven't aged a day. You're not doing something you shouldn't, are you?" She asked with a bit of concern. I laughed and shook my head.

"No, I don't age thanks to my mutations." I responded. I never told her about all my abilities. I was too engrossed with studying and practicing my other abilities that I never told her about the powers I was born with.

"I see. What did you come here for?" She asked curiously as she gestured to the table where she had tea.

"I need access to the mirror dimension. I am about to do something, but I have to take precautions. I am hoping you will help me." I asked.

"You're not opening a dimension to some demon reality, are you?" She asked with her brow raised.

"Never teacher. I am giving myself a blood transfusion and I don't know what might happen." I said.

"Very well. I am glad you still take precautions. We wouldn't want another robe accident, do we?" She finished saying and started to wave her hand.

"You're never going to let that go, are you?" I said as I took a step inside the entry she made while bringing a chair in.

"So, what exactly do you want me to do?" She asked

"Nothing, just keep an eye on me if I pass out." I said and she nodded.

I began to take the blood from my pocket dimension and set the bags on the hanger I stored as well. I connected everything together and sat down on the chair. I injected the needle into my vein and opened the connection for the blood to flow in. As the blood started to flow, I began to get sleepy. As I closed my eyes, the figure of the Ancient One became blurrier and blurrier until everything turned black.

I opened my eyes again and found myself still in the mirror dimension with the Ancient One still there. She looked concerned at me.

"What happened?" I asked.

"You attempted to attack me mentally, but I had protections in place to prevent that, so nothing happened. It was rather easy to maintain the mental barrier, so I just didn't think anything of it, but the intensity of the attack kept increasing. I had to conjure a spell to fortify the mental barrier in order to prevent that attack. What did you do exactly?" She asked. Only she could treat a mental attack like it was nothing. If it was anyone else, they would have surely died.

"I injected myself with someone else's blood and gained their ability." I said. The Ancient One narrowed her eyes at me. I lifted my hands up.

"I'm not power hungry! I just need to be prepared. You know my intentions are good." I said.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions." She responded with her hands at her side. She got me there. I sighed.

"I know…I have to prepare myself and others for the coming battles. I don't want the futures I know to occur." I said with complete honesty as I stared at her. Now it was her turn to sigh.

"Just be careful. I would hate to have to kill you." She said with a smile as her waved her hand and created an exit for us. God, that woman was scary when she wanted to be.

I took a bracelet out and attached it to me. It was the same one I made for Charles. I needed to control the power slowly first. The moment I exited this place, I would be introduced to all the students here. It would be a huge shock to my body. I wanted to start out small first and slowly work my way up. Only a few hours had passed by. That told me that based on the power I was injecting myself, determined how long I would be knocked out for. It also told me that the newly acquired power would activate while I slept and go out of control. This was good information to know when it came to getting Erik's blood. I thanked the Ancient One, went to the portal chamber, and took the London Sanctum portal. When I arrived, the guy that was here before was replaced with someone else. He just looked at me and nodded. I smiled as I headed for the exit. I changed from my hospital coat to street clothes. I had saved a lot of money as a doctor, so I had more than enough to book a trip to New York. This time, I flew. It had been such a long time since I'd been on an airplane. I was feeling quite nostalgic.

I arrived at JFK airport in New York. I had converted all my money to US dollars and rented a cheap place to stay. I decided to go to college again. I decided to study engineering and computers. I would eventually like to be able to build a suit of armor and make it advanced like Black Panther's vibranium suit or Ironman's nano suit. Because I was a doctor and had established myself in England, I was able to get into a good college easily. I took up a job at the hospital nearby to earn some money to help pay for the cost. I still wore the bracelet to prevent an overload of thoughts invading my head.

After a couple of days, I had a good routine down. I would do my shifts on some days during the week and the days I was off I would do my course. The weekends were the only days I had to practice my newly acquired powers. I would walk to a nearby forest and take the bracelet off. I was far enough from people that I couldn't hear anything. I began to practice by meditating and trying to focus on the area around me. I could sense something new off to the distance. I spread my energy wider to try to connect to this new energy. Once I connected, I could hear voices. I opened my eyes and looked at the direction of the energy I found. There were people hiking on a trail near me. The moment I opened my eyes the connection was cut off. It could've ended badly but I was in a calm state of mind. I began to continue this until I felt comfortable enough to remove the bracelet.

After a couple of months, I was now able to locate and concentrate on a target in a wide area. Thanks to the powers of En Sabah Nur the natural range of my mind abilities was wide. There was a different approach to this new ability I had to take. I noticed that if I forced the connection to happen, the person on the other side would experience pain from the brute force of trying to enter their mind. The first time I did it, I immediately cut the connection off. If I made the connection in a natural and slow way, I could hear thoughts and if I added more energy, I could gain control of the person.

Once I had control of my new powers, I began to search for James and Victor. The best way for me to do that would be to search for them with magic. I couldn't do what Dr. Strange did when he helped Thor in finding his father, but I could do something similar with runes. I applied multiple runes to the floor in my room and placed a strand of my hair in the middle. I formed two hand signs and activated the rune. It shined brightly before a portal appeared before me. I sighed in relief. If two portals appeared than that would mean they were in different locations. I walked through the portal. I was excited to finally see my brothers.