Chapter One
"Lotta, you know exactly why Nonno wants you to stay here for a few more weeks," I said, exasperation bleeding through my patient façade. Though, since the girl had known me her entire life, she probably knew already just how fed up with her I really was. "The cartel has to be dealt with, and this is the safest place for you right now."
"Why couldn't I have gone to Italy with Zia Giada?" Lotta whined, still refusing to look me in the eye.
"Yes, so you can play with all the boys there," I laughed bitterly. Surely, I had never been that bad as a teenager. Of course, Zio Lorenzo was far more indulgent than Nonno had ever been with me. "No, you're staying here, which means you have to abide by the rules here."
"Bianca, may I see you in my office, please?" Charles's crisp accent floated through my mind. I hardly paused to reply that I would be there in five minutes before turning back to Lotta.
"You cannot play with people's emotions here. It is not right, and it is not fair. If you do it again, you will be expelled. And we both know how Nonno feels about that," I told her.
It might have been a low blow, but guilt flooded her face for a brief second, before she shuttered herself off. "Whatever. Can I go now, Miss Serena?"
Sighing again, I nodded. She was out of the chair before I finished the motion, slamming the door behind her. I let my head drop to my desk in front of me and took a few deep breaths. When that didn't calm me any, I contemplated slamming my head against the desk several times, but as I already had a rather pounding headache, I decided against it. Instead, I went to see what Charles wanted.
Once I knocked and he invited me in, I immediately launched into a complaint as soon as I opened the door. "I'm going to kill her, Charles. She pushes me far more than I can handle. I was never that-"
Charles stopped me with merely a look. "We've got guests, Bianca."
I stepped fully into the room. And nearly walked right back out once I saw who was there. "Hello, Bianca. It's good to see you again."
"What on earth is he doing here, Charles?" I spat, turning my back on the man who had done so to us five years previously.
"Erik needs our help, Bianca," Charles said patiently. "And we've sworn never to turn away any mutant, regardless."
"How about international terrorists?" I scoffed, moving closer to my friend.
"You were right, Magneto, she really doesn't like you," a third man, who I hadn't noticed, was sitting in the corner of Charles's office, looking rather amused.
"Who is he?" I asked, noting the leather jacket and thick scruff. It easily gave him the look that poor Alex had always striven for, and fallen far short of: a bad boy, rebel without a cause. I did have to admit, however, that his was far more attractive than James Dean's. And rather more believable, as well.
"I'm Logan, and I'm from the future."
I couldn't keep my mouth from dropping open. It was clear that the man, regardless of how attractive he was, was mad. Sadly, that seemed the way it went. All the attractive ones had some sort of major flaw.
"He's telling the truth, Bianca." Charles's voice drew my incredulous gaze away from the stranger. "I've seen it. He is from the future."
His absolute certainty wiped out all doubt in my mind, though its absence left me reeling. "How-" I suddenly needed to sit, and was glad to find a chair behind me.
"I'm from 2023," Logan began slowly, obviously picking up on my mental distress. "A mutant I know was able to send my consciousness back here to my past self so that I can warn you all of a terrible danger. Hopefully, we can change the future, keep us all from the disaster that it had become."
It took a bit of mental acrobatics to figure out just what he'd said, but once I had, I asked, "Just what kind of disaster are we looking at?"
"Near mutant extinction, and over half of all humans dead, as well."
His blunt words pulled a startled gasp from us all. But before anyone could say anything else, Logan continued. "Two scientists, Bolivar Trask and William Stryker, who also happens to be a major in the U.S. Army, started working together about two years ago. You might have noticed a few mutants suddenly going missing, with no one able to find them after. It's these two. They take mutants, experiment on them, see what makes them tick. Trask is afraid of mutants, well, they both are, but Stryker is also fascinated with us. Stryker wants to figure out ways to weaponize us, create new combinations of mutations to try to recreate that Super Soldier Serum. Trask wants to find a way to exterminate us all."
My mind whirled at this news, with thoughts of those we'd lost contact with flowing through the muddle. "It almost sounds like these two are working at cross purposes. Won't they somehow... cancel one another out?"
Logan's smile was sad. "It might've, had Trask not been assassinated. Or rather, will be. Mystique's the one to do it, trying to stop his work, but it convinces the government that mutants are a threat, so they make the weapons he's working on, anyway."
"No."
My one word stopped him dead. "What?"
"I am not cleaning up Raven's mess," I stated emphatically. "She's a big girl. She can take care of her own mistakes."
Charles sighed, but his response was cut off by a small snuffle. I saw a small child, bright blue, toddle over to Eri- Magneto and gesture wordlessly to be picked up. "Another of Raven's messes," I scoffed. "You two did get close."
Magneto cuddled the boy closer. Then, the little one looked to me, a grin breaking across his face. "Ama!" he cried, and then suddenly, he was in my lap, cuddling into my neck, his tiny tail wrapping happily around my arm.
Magneto simply raised an eyebrow. "Does that tell you who his father is?"
"Azazel." The answer came from me, but also from Logan.
"Hello, Kurt," he continued, grinning at the little boy. The boy simply waved his tail, not moving the rest of his body from where it rested in my arms. Though I froze, not knowing what I should do with him.
"Kurt?" Charles asked softly, wide eyed. "I have a nephew?"
Magneto looked uncomfortable. "Yes, he's Raven's," he finally said. "And Azazel's. And don't worry, Bianca, Kurt calls every woman Mama. It's nothing personal."
"Why?" It was the first word I had said directly to Magneto, rather reluctantly. Almost as reluctantly as my hands moving to lightly rub down Kurt's back. But I found that once I started, I couldn't stop. The little boy cuddled in further, giggling softly when I brushed across his ticklish ribs.
"Because he saw his mother transform many times," he replied. "Before she left."
"Left for where?" Charles asked, eager for any scrap of information on his sister.
"To kill Trask, I would assume," I guessed bitterly.
"She's not wrong," Logan grunted. "She's in Vietnam, planning on killing Trask."
The telephone rang before anyone could say anything else. Charles gave me a look, as if to remind me to behave, then answered. "Xavier's… Oh, hello, my darling… What? No! Is he… Is Levine sure? Alright, travel safely, and give David my love. Yes, I'll see you tomorrow. I love you."
"What happened, Charles?" I pounced the instant he finished speaking. Levine wouldn't have contacted Moira for something little, therefore, something was terribly wrong.
But Charles didn't answer right away. Instead, he let his head fall into his hands and rubbed at his forehead. Finally, just as I was about to beat it out of him, mindful of the little boy in my arms, he looked up at me. His eyes held more pain than I'd seen since David's birth. "Alex is hurt. And… And Sean…"
"Sean is dead," Logan finished softly.
AN: I know, it's a bit mean to leave the first chapter there, but it felt right. I hope you guys like this sequel, and for those of you who haven't read The Call of the Siren, you might want to. This won't make sense without it!