Firelocks

by BookLoverDutch

'Charles frowned, seeming lost in his thoughts for a moment. Then he turned to me. "Luka, I think we have discovered your special ability," he said. "You have the ability to see the future."' - X-Men: First Class, from a slightly different point of view. Slight AU.

Hi!

I know, this isn't a TMR story, but I saw First Class about a week ago and I just had to write something about it.

As I have already said, this is a slight AU, because of my extra character and because I couldn't remember what they exactly said in some parts. I tried my best, though, so please don't judge me on those parts! (And let me know what exactly I did wrong.)

Enjoy! :)

---

Sighing, I closed my eyes.

Damn, what was I even doing here? If someone I knew saw me here, I would be screwed.

I could imagine how stupid I must look, standing in front of a gigantic fish tank. I breathed in, taking in the water-ish air of the aquarium. I just had to clear my head.

It had been a hectic day, that day; the people at school were very annoying again, I had lots of homework which I couldn't finish (so I hadn't even started trying it), and my little half sister just wouldn't leave me alone. I just needed to get some rest, so I ran out of the door and went to the aquarium at the corner of the street. I had never been there before, only once, when my half sister had dragged me towards it. I remembered that there weren't many people here, so here I was standing.

Alone.

Or so I thought.

When I put my hands in my pockets, I heard a voice from next to me.

"They're awesome, aren't they?"

I opened my eyes and turned to the boy who was standing next to me. He looked about my age, maybe a little younger, and he was looking at me with a flirty grin on his face.

"What?" I asked, confused.

Who was this boy?

Why was he talking to me?

He put his hands in his pockets and looked at the fish tank.

"The fish," he said, as if it was the most logical thing in the world. "You like fish, I like fish, too. Maybe we should get a bite sometime and talk about it."

I had to do my best not to burst out laughing. Who was this kid, with his bad pickup lines?

Squinting a little, I studied him as he looked at the fish. He was quite tall, taller than me, and he had surprisingly innocent, blue eyes. A reddish-brown curl fell in front of his eyes as he turned to me.

"Well?" he asked, somewhat rudely. "Are you going on a date with me or what?"

I involuntarily smiled.

I knew that any other girl would say 'no' to such a question, maybe even make fun of the redheaded boy, but for some reason, I felt like I couldn't say no to him.

He was different. I knew that.

He was different, just like me.

I would swear that I heard someone curse behind me, but when I looked, I only saw two young men, looking at the sea horses.

I shrugged, turned to the boy and said: "Okay."

---

We ended up sitting in the aquarium's small cafeteria. The walls were covered in dried starfish and nets and seaweed.

The boy, whose name appeared to be Sean, was sitting in front of me, his elbows on the wooden table as he listened to me.

I told him about my school, my family, how I had moved here from the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago. He told me that he always came to the aquarium when he felt bad about something; he got bullied nearly every day.

"That must be hard for you," I whispered.

I had been bullied, too, when I was younger. The children at my school always made fun of my red hair, which was why I had dyed it blond at some point.

Sean straightened up.

"Yes," he said, using some strange, deep voice. "It is hard. But Super-Sean can handle it all!"

He did a karate-move, making me laugh. Then he froze, his left hand still a fist.

He looked over my shoulder, at something behind me. I turned around.

Two young men were standing behind me, the same ones I had seen earlier. The tallest one was the first to speak.

"Sean Cassidy?" he asked Sean.

He spoke with an accent, which made me conclude that he came from Europe. Germany, I guessed.

Sean gulped, then nodded.

"Yeah, that's me," he replied.

He looked a little scared, his blue eyes asking me: Do you know these guys?

I shook my head.

Then the smaller man spoke up.

"There is no need to be afraid, Sean," he said. He sounded much friendlier than the other man.

He turned to me.

"And you, Luka Jansen," he said, his voice still very friendly, his kind, blue eyes fixed on me in focus. "Should you not go home? Your younger half sister needs your help with her homework."

I involuntarily flinched. How did this man know all this?

I stood up, starting to walk away, but Sean grabbed my hand.

"Wait a second," he said to the men. "Luka and I are on a date. She's not gonna leave. Whatever you have to say, she can hear it, too."

The men frowned, looked at each other, then nodded.

The shorter man stepped forward and gave Sean and me a hand, introducing himself as "Charles Xavier". The other man muttered "Erik Lehnsherr", and I assumed that that was his name. He kept his hands in his pockets.

"All right," Charles said, looking at Sean and me. He stepped back. "Don't be scared."

I just wanted to ask what he was going to do when he moved his hand towards the side of his head and pressed two fingers against his temple. Immediately, I heard a voice inside my head – Charles' voice, very clearly speaking in my mind. Judging by the look on Sean's face, he heard it, too.

Listen carefully, children, Charles said in our minds. We are mutants. Erik – Charles gestured at the taller man - has power over all metal. I am a telepath. I have the ability to do things with someone's mind.

"Like you're doing right now?" Sean asked, immediately getting cut off by Erik's "Shh! Do you want other people to know?".

Charles nodded.

Yes, he replied. Like I am doing right now.

"So?" I asked. "What does that have to do with us?"

"It doesn't have anything to do with you," Erik snapped, and I could hear that he meant only me when he said 'you'.

"Erik," Charles interrupted, turning to his friend, "it has something to do with the both of them."

The confused look on the taller man's face was nearly funny; apparently, Charles knew something that Erik didn't. Maybe he had read our minds.

Charles turned to us again. Sean and Luka, he said, looking us in the eyes as he said our names, you are both mutants. And we need your help.

"W-What?" I stuttered. "I... I don't know... Sean, did you know about this?"

The boy's face turned as red as his hair.

"Yeah," he said slowly. "I knew that I was a mutant, or at least that I wasn't human. I knew that I was something different. I... I did not know that you're a mutant, too."

I turned to Charles, who was calmly watching us.

"This has to be some kind of mistake," I said, trying my best not to trip over my own words. "I-I'm not a mutant! I don't have anything of superpowers or whatever!"

Luka, calm down, Charles said inside my head. You are a mutant. Believe me.

It was silent for a couple of seconds before he continued: You never wondered who your father is, did you?

I shook my head.

Why would I wonder who my father was? I only knew that he and my mother met when they were drunk, and that I was born 'by accident'. My father left my mother right after that. I didn't need to know who he was.

Your father was a mutant, Charles said inside my mind. He gave you the special abilities that you have.

"I don't have any powers!" I yelled, losing my temper. Some people in the back of the cafeteria turned around to look. "I'm the most normal girl on the entire planet! Why don't you understand that?"

Because I am right, Charles said, still just as calm as he had been the whole time. You are a mutant. You just have not discovered yet what you can do.

I growled, frustrated.

"All right, then," I said after a while. "You better start explaining why you've come here."

Charles nodded and started to talk inside my head, and this time, he was also talking inside Sean's head, who looked rather confused by then, probably because he hadn't heard half of the conversation Charles and I were having.

Erik has been tracking a mutant named Sebastian Shaw, Charles said. He is a threat to the world, because he wants to begin World War Three.

Sean and I gasped at the same moment – probably because we both realized the same thing at the same moment.

A world war meant a nuclear war.

A nuclear war meant billions of people dying.

You already understand why this is quite a bad thing, Charles went on, and why Shaw has to be stopped. That is why we need you. Shaw is powerful. Only mutants are strong enough to stop him. We need to train you to help us.

"That is," he said out loud, "if you want to help us."

Sean and I looked at each other.

A message passed between two pairs of blue eyes.

I knew that we understood each other, and we said at the same moment: "We're in."

---

A couple of hours later, the car the four of us were in stopped in front of a building.

"We are there," Charles said before opening the door and stepping out of the car. Erik followed his lead, and so did Sean and I.

The two men guided us through a maze of white-and-grey hallways, into a room about as big as the living room at home.

Five people were sitting on the couches. They were all other mutants, there was no doubting that, even though I couldn't see it; I just felt it.

They were all a couple of years older than I was, most of them in their late teens or in their early twenties.

A blond-haired teenage girl looked up when the door opened.

"Hey, Charles," she greeted, "hey, Erik. Who did you bring?"

Then her look hardened. I would swear that I also saw a flash of gold in her eyes.

"Weren't you supposed to bring only him? Who's the girl?"

Her words made me feel uncomfortable, and apparently, Charles knew that, because he laid a hand on my shoulder, which actually made me feel even more uncomfortable.

"This is Luka," he told the girl. "Someone we -" he and Erik shared a look "- stumbled across. She had a date with Sean, and it would be rude if we would just leave her there."

The girl's eyes narrowed.

"But is she a mutant?" she asked. "She looks damn normal to me."

"Language, Raven," Charles corrected her calmly, making her roll her eyes. "And yes, she is a mutant. Definitely. She just does not know what she can do yet."

The girl – Raven – seemed to be fed up with the quarrel.

"Anyway," she said to Sean and me, "welcome to the club, guys. We are Team Good."

She rolled her eyes.

"I'm Raven. Those people are Darwin, Angel, Alex, and Hank."

She pointed at the person whose name she said, and they all held up a hand as a greet. Sean shyly waved back.

"Take a seat, children," Charles said to Sean and me. "I will ask someone to get you something to eat. You must be hungry."

He nodded, encouraging, before leaving, Erik following him. When the door closed behind them, there was a slightly awkward silence.

Then Angel moved aside, making some space on the couch.

"Come, we don't bite," she said, grinning. "You'll need your energy for the training tomorrow. You should get all the rest you can get."

And with those words, the ice was broken, and Sean and I walked forward to sit down next to Angel.

---

Late that afternoon, Raven suddenly changed the subject from 'why is there a fish tank inside this room' to "Maybe we should think up code names. We're government agents now, we should think up code names."

Everyone in the room nodded approvingly.

"Okay, I'll go first," Raven said. "I wanna be called Mystique."

"Damn," Sean protested, "I wanted to be called Mystique."

I grinned at him, thinking of the names we had thought up during the car ride. He had called me 'Firelocks', because he found that the outgrowing blond hair-dye and my natural red colour looked like fire. I had thought the name 'Mystique' up, though I wasn't sure why. Sean wasn't mysterious at all. Neither was Raven. I didn't understand why they both wanted to have that name.

"Too late," Raven said, smiling at Sean. "I've already called dibs. Besides, I'm way more mysterious than you are."

With that, her skin seemed to wave, and suddenly, Sean was sitting at her spot. No, Sean was sitting right next to me, and he looked really confused, as he jumped up and nearly spilled his Coke over his pants.

Raven had changed into Sean.

She was indeed way more mysterious than he was. Eyebrows raised, Sean started to applaud, and the rest of us followed his lead. In a second, Raven changed back into her teenage-girl self.

"What about you, Darwin?" she asked the dark-skinned boy on the other side of the room.

He shrugged.

"I don't know," he said. "Darwin's already a nickname, and, you know, it kinda fits. I adapt to survive and all."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Darwin stood up and walked towards the fish tank in the corner of the room.

"Here, check this out," he said, grinning at me. Then he put his head into the water. The fish all hurried away, but that wasn't what I was paying attention to.

Darwin's cheeks were changing, really quickly, until they had become gills. He opened his mouth, showing that he could breathe underwater.

"Awesome," I whispered, and we started to clap.

Darwin pulled his head out of the fish tank. The gills disappeared while he shook the water out of his hair.

As he walked back to his seat, he asked Sean: "What about you?"

The redheaded boy put his elbows on his knees.

"I'm going to be..." he muttered, seeming lost in his thoughts for a moment. "Banshee."

Hank raised his eyebrows, shifting on his seat.

"Why do you want to be named after a wailing spirit?" he asked, sounding surprised.

"Well," Sean replied, standing up, "maybe you'd better cover your ears."

He squatted down in front of his now-empty glass, which was standing on top of the table.

I was so confused that I totally forgot to put my hands over my ears; what was he going to do?

He looked at me over his shoulder, and mouthed: Cover ears!

I quickly pressed my palms against my ears as I was told.

Sean nodded, bent forward over his glass and opened his mouth.

The sound that came out of it, was higher and louder than I had ever heard. I would swear that I felt the tiny glass stones in my earrings shatter.

But instead of destroying the glass that was standing in front of him, Sean made the glass in the window shatter. He flinched a little, startled of what he had done, but the rest of us only laughed and clapped.

"Your turn," he said to Angel as he walked back to his spot on the couch.

The black-haired girl stood up.

"Well," she said, "my stage name is Angel. It kinda fits me."

She took off her leather jacket, showing the backless tank top she was wearing under it.

Sean whistled, and I poked him with my elbow, grinning. That boy thought he was such a lady-killer, it nearly wasn't funny.

Angel turned around, and as she did so, the tattoo on her back turned into real wings.

Raven's mouth dropped open.

"Wow, you can fly?" she asked, staring at the winged girl with huge eyes.

"Uh-huh," she replied, moving her wings. "And I can also do this."

She paused for a moment, cleared her throat, and then spat a small fireball. It landed on the statue that was standing outside, scorching the top of its head.

We laughed.

"Alex," Darwin said, "now it's your turn. What can you do?"

"I... eh..." Alex hesitated. "I can't do it in here."

Raven shrugged. "Then we go outside."

We climbed through the broken window. Sean laid his jacket over the glass splinters in the slot so that I wouldn't cut myself, which made me smile. He could act a little strange sometimes, but he could be kinda cute, too.

Alex put his hands in his pockets, seeming somewhat nervous.

"You'd better go stand behind that wall," he said, pointing. "You don't want to be hit by me."

We hid behind the corner, but everyone was bending forward so that they could see something.

"Stand back," Alex warned, but nobody did, making him sigh. "Whatever."

He clenched his fists and started to move his body as if he was hula-hooping, and immediately red circles started to appear around him. Before anyone knew what was happening, the circles flew through the air.

The first two ones flew through the air, over the building, to an unknown destination – I pitied the guys who had their cars parked there. The third circle shot towards the statue and cut it in half, leaving the two pieces burning on the ground.

Alex stood there, staring at the flames, out of breath. It was silent for a couple of seconds.

Then he turned towards us, the group of startled teenagers behind the wall, and said: "Do you now understand why I couldn't do it inside?"

The only one who reacted was Sean, who nodded with open mouth and huge eyes.

"We should call you Havok," Raven decided.

Nobody questioned it; being someone whose native language wasn't English, I didn't even know what 'Havok' meant, but it sounded cool.

As we went back into the room, Raven asked Hank: "So, what about you, Hank? What's gonna be your code name?"

Hank shrugged.

"I-I don't know," he said, looking at the ground as he sat down on the couch.

Alex snickered.

"Bigfoot perhaps?" he said, pointing at Hank's feet. The boy blushed. Raven shot Alex a glance.

"Hey, you know what they say about people with big feet," she said to him, "and, eh, yours are kinda small."

Now it was Alex' turn to blush. A half-laughing "oooooh" echoed through the room.

Sean snickered.

"So, Luka," he said when he was done laughing. Everyone looked at me, making me look at the ground in discomfort. "You're the only one who hasn't gotten her turn yet."

I swallowed difficultly. "Eh," I said, shifting my feet. "I... I don't know what my powers are."

Deadly silence.

"Well," Angel then said, "that doesn't matter, right?"

She looked around the room. Everyone nodded.

"Yeah," Darwin added. "I didn't have my powers when I was fourteen, either. Until someone tried to drown me and the gills appeared. I think you have to be in a situation where you need it to discover it."

I nodded; he was probably right. There wasn't one situation in my life where I was in danger. My mother was always super protective.

I shrugged.

"Maybe my code name could be Firelocks," I said, smiling at Sean. He smiled back – he had thought up that name.

"Yeah, that's quite a good one," Hank said. "Because of your hair, I guess?"

I nodded, flipping my red-blond hair as I did so. "Sean thought it up."

The redheaded boy stood up and bowed with an air of bravoure.

"Thank you, thank you," he said, grinning, as he listened to the sarcastic applause.

Raven got to her feet as well.

"Now that we've all got our code names," she said, walking towards the sound installation in the corner of the room, "we should celebrate it."

With one press on the button, music filled the room.

Angel jumped up.

"Oh yeah," she shouted out, "this is my song!"

Her wings shot out of her back and she started dancing, floating about half a metre above the ground. Raven followed pretty soon after that; she jumped on top of the table and sang along with the song.

The boys just sat and stared, looking awkward, until Hank took his shoes off – who would have thought that his feet were hands? – and started to dance upside down, hanging from the ceiling. Darwin appeared to be able to break-dance really well.

I just kept sitting; I couldn't dance, or sing, at all. Alex sat next to me, and he looked kinda uncomfortable.

Sean, on the other hand, was playbacking like his life depended on it.

It looked ridiculous, but after a couple of seconds, I realized that it looked ridiculous because he was standing there on his own.

I stood up and joined him.

He smiled, and we both let our lips form the words of the song, clapping our hands on the beat. I knew that it must look absurd, but at least we looked weird together.

It wasn't until the fourth song that we realized that someone was standing behind us. When that someone cleared his throat, everyone froze in place and turned around, very, very slowly.

Charles and Erik were standing outside, both with their arms folded and a strict expression on their faces.

Sean gulped.

"Who destroyed the statue?" Charles asked us, pointing at the smoking pieces on the ground. His blue eyes didn't look that kind anymore; he looked kinda stressed.

Nobody replied.

"He said," Erik growled after a couple of seconds, "who destroyed the statue?"

His tone made us all flinch.

"Alex did," Sean whispered. I couldn't blame him; Erik was utterly frightening right now.

"No, don't call him Alex!" Raven shouted, jumping off the table. "We have to call him Havok, that's his name now. And we were thinking you -" she pointed at Charles "- should be Professor X, and you -" she pointed at Erik "- should be Magneto."

Erik made a disapproving sound in the back of his throat. Charles just pinched his jaws on each other.

"I expected better from you," he said to Raven before walking away.

He left the blond girl with a shocked expression on her face. I didn't understand it, either; why was Charles so hard, suddenly? And why was the destroyed statue Raven's fault? Or was he talking about something else?

When Raven turned around, I saw that flash of yellow in her eyes again, and I thought that she was going to be angry again, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was: "Shit. He never talked to me like that before."

---

We remained calm for the rest of the evening.

Alex and Darwin were playing their ninety-ninth game of tic-tac-toe, Raven and Hank were quietly talking and Sean had decided to take a nap. His head was resting on my lap, and I absently let my fingers play with his curly hair. Angel was just looking utterly bored.

That all changed when we heard the screaming and the bangs.

I jumped up from my seat, waking Sean up as I did so. We were all on our feet just in time to flinch as a man hit the ground, just in front of our room. He must have fallen from the sky – how, we didn't know.

Raven stepped back, a look of pure horror on her face.

The man was dead, without a doubt. His uniform showed me that he was a guard. Another guard came falling from the sky and hit the ground with a horrible, crushing sound, and another one, and another one. Screams filled the air.

Guards came running onto the square, carrying heavy guns.

"Do not leave that room!" one of them yelled to us. "Stay there! Whatever you do, do not leave that room!"

He had barely finished his sentence when a red-skinned man with long knives in his hands appeared. He just appeared, out of nowhere, and he started to kill the guards, one by one.

They started shooting, but the man disappeared before the bullets could even hit him. Someone made the only remaining window shatter.

We ran to the other side of the room before someone could hit us, just in time to feel the wind of the hurricane that was raging by the other window. When the red-skinned man appeared again, we couldn't take it anymore.

We hurled out of the room, immediately getting put to a stop by the guards that were standing in the hallway.

"Get back!" they yelled, followed by Angel's and Darwin's "We can help!"

As an explosion shook the building, we ran back to the room, the only sound that reached my ears was Raven's screaming.

We were just in time to see a dark-haired man step through the shattered window. On the other side of the room, the man with the red skin stepped inside.

Sean pushed me behind him and bent forward, ready to attack if the moment would show itself.

The door swung open and a third man, his head covered in a metal helmet, stepped inside.

They had surrounded us.

We couldn't go anywhere.

The third man took off his helmet, showing his ruffled, brown hair. He didn't look dangerous, but I knew that he was. If he was strong enough to get here without getting killed, he would also be strong enough to kill us.

The man ran a hand through his hair.

"Good evening," he greeted us.

Sean made a sound between a squeak and a growl.

The man smiled at him, as if he found that very amusing.

"My name is Sebastian Shaw," he introduced himself.

The knot inside my stomach pulled itself tighter.

This was the man Charles and Erik had been hunting.

This was the man who wanted to start the third World War.

This was the man we were supposed to stop.

Why was nobody doing anything?

"I am not here to hurt you," Shaw continued, walking forward.

Darwin balled his fists.

Hank looked like he could explode any moment.

Sean and Alex looked angry, and Raven and Angel were just staring at Shaw with shocked expressions on their faces.

"My friends," Shaw said, giving his helmet to the red-skinned man, "there's a revolution coming. Mankind will discover what we are, what we can do."

He smiled as if he loved the idea of that.

"Each of us will face a choice," he went on. "Be enslaved, or rise up to rule."

He looked each and every one of us right in the eyes. I saw insanity in his grey-coloured eyes, madness, thirst for power. He smiled slightly when our eyes locked, making me shiver.

This man was crazy.

"Choose freely," he said, his voice nothing more than a whisper, "but know that if you're not with us, then by definition you are against us."

It was silent for a moment, probably to let us think about our choice, but I had already made it.

I was not joining this man.

Never.

"So," Shaw then said, "you can stay, and fight for the people who hate and fear you, or you can join me, and live like kings."

The corner of his mouth curled up as he locked eyes with Angel.

"And queens," he added, whispering.

I had expected Angel to get angry, spit a fireball in his face, but she didn't.

Instead, she walked forward.

"Come on, guys," she said to us. "We don't belong here. Don't you see it?"

Darwin shook his head, looking shocked.

"Angel," he whispered. "No. Don't do this. That man is crazy, can't you see that?"

Shaw grinned satisfied.

"Anyone else?" he asked. When nobody moved, he shrugged. "All right. It is your own choice."

He stepped through the window. His two friends and Angel followed his lead.

Alex and Darwin exchanged a glance, and before I had even realized it, Darwin walked forward as well.

Angel smiled at him.

No, I thought, not Darwin, too. Please, not Darwin.

He took Angel's hand, and before I knew what was happening, before anyone knew what was happening, he pulled her to the ground and bowed over her to protect her. Scales like an armadillo's shot out of his back.

"Alex, now!" he yelled.

Alex shot a red circle towards Shaw.

It was a perfect shot. He would've been dead if he wouldn't have the ability to absorb energy.

Unfortunately, we only found out about that then.

Alex' red circle changed into funnel-shaped flames between Shaw's hands. The flames streamed into his body.

Everyone was too startled to do anything.

Darwin stood up, ready to fight. Shaw smiled at him.

"Adapt to survive, hm?" he asked him. "Well, try to adapt to this."

He pulled Darwin's jaw downwards so that his mouth opened. Then a tiny, red-hot ball of energy appeared between Shaw's fingers. He smiled before putting it into Darwin's mouth.

The boy couldn't do anything else but swallow it.

Raven gasped.

Sean's eyes grew huge.

We all knew what was going to happen.

Darwin was going to die.

And it was our fault.

I would swear that I heard Shaw snicker before he, his two friends and Angel disappeared.

Darwin choked. His skin turned grey, as if it was made of ashes. The energy's bright glow filtered through it. Then the ashes crumbled off, and for a tiny moment, Darwin just looked like Darwin. He had just enough time to hold out a hand before the energy destroyed him from the inside and he disappeared.

The only thing that was left of him was a small heap of ashes on the ground.

Raven was sobbing behind me, but the sound seemed far away.

I felt my blood rushing in my ears. My eyes were open, but I saw only darkness.

And I heard a voice. My own voice, screaming "Dad!"

I sounded terrified.

It was like a dream, a dream while I was awake.

I felt hands on my shoulders, shaking me back to reality.

"Luka!" Sean's voice shouted. "Luka, are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah," I replied shakily.

That was the last thing I knew before I lost my consciousness.

---

"Luka. Luka, wake up."

A voice pulled me out of the blackness, which had lasted hours, maybe even days. I didn't exactly know how long I had been unconscious.

I opened my eyes.

Seven faces were floating above mine – Sean and Alex, Charles and Erik, Hank and Raven, and a woman I didn't recognize. They all sighed relieved when they saw that I was awake, except for Erik, who didn't seem to care much.

I propped myself up on one elbow.

"Wh-Where am I?" I asked, my voice hoarse and breaking on every word.

I blinked against the bright sunlight that was streaming into the room through huge windows. I was lying on a soft couch, in a room with a wooden floor, which was covered in carpets. I was pretty sure that I had never been here before.

Charles cleared his throat. "This is my home."

I frowned.

"Why are we here?" I asked, confused. "Why aren't we in..."

But before I had even finished my sentence, I realized it.

The facility had been destroyed.

Shaw had taken Angel and had killed Darwin.

I had had some kind of strange daydream of myself screaming about my father, but I didn't even know who my father was.

Was I going crazy?

Charles' expression changed – he must have followed all of my thoughts.

I suddenly felt stupid, though I didn't know why.

"Can you leave us alone for a while?" he asked the others. "Go train or something."

The others nodded and walked away. Sean gave me a worried look before leaving as well. When the door closed behind him, I sat upright.

"How..." I cleared my throat. "How long was I out?"

"Four days," Charles replied, sitting down next to me. "The others' training has already begun. We have got three days before Shaw will attempt to start World War Three."

He explained about the ship that was about to cross the line next to Cuba.

I remained silent when he was done; I didn't know how to react.

"But, eh..." Charles continued, "being unconscious for four days is pretty bad, Luka. Something serious must have happened to you. Can you tell me what happened?"

I frowned, wondering why he hadn't read my mind, but then said: "Well... Right after Shaw had killed Darwin, everything went black for a moment. It was like a dream, but I wasn't sleeping. I heard a voice, my own voice, screaming 'Dad!'. After that, I passed out, I guess."

Charles frowned, seeming lost in his thoughts for a moment. Then he turned to me.

"Luka, I think we have discovered your special ability," he said. "You have the ability to see the future."

I felt my mouth drop open.

"W-What?" I asked.

My mind raced.

If what I had seen was the future, then that meant that I was going to meet my father!

I only wasn't very happy with the fact that I was screaming for him in agony.

Something bad was going to happen. I could feel it.

I pressed my cold fingers against my forehead, trying to calm my mind.

"Okay," I said after a couple of minutes. "So I can see the future. So what? I don't know what I can do with it."

I knew very well what I could do with it. If I could see the future, I could warn the others when they were about to get in danger. But I couldn't control it, so I couldn't use my power.

Great, I thought. I finally have my power and now I can't use it.

Great.

Charles smiled at me.

"Of course you can use your ability," he said. "You just need to train, just like the others."

---

We ended up sitting in the middle of the room, on the carpet – which appeared to be really soft – facing each other, legs crossed.

Charles had told me to calm my mind, but it didn't really work.

What if I would pass out again?

What if I saw something I didn't want to see?

What if it doesn't work at all?

I heard Charles laugh softly.

"Luka, calm down," he said. "It will be fine. Just calm down and focus on unlocking the part of your brain that can see the future."

"Okay," I breathed in reply.

I closed my eyes and imagined my mind as a huge closet. There were drawers for memories, for fears, for emotions.

In the smallest corner of the closet, there was a tiny drawer with a lock on it. I imagined that I had a key, and that I was going to unlock that special drawer.

Just when the key touched the lock, the closet disappeared and everything went dark.

I felt that my cheek hit the soft carpet, though I didn't remember that I had lost my balance. Someone pulled me upright – Charles, I realized – and called my name.

"Luka. Luka."

I rubbed the side of my face and opened my eyes. My head hurt; maybe I had focused a little too much.

"That went well," I remarked sarcastically.

Charles smiled. "I did not expect you to succeed the first time," he said. "That would have been extraordinary."

It was silent for a moment. Then I said: "I wanna try it again."

We sat down on our spots again, facing each other. I closed my eyes again.

This time, it went easier; the closet appeared immediately. I made the key move towards the lock slower, now. I didn't really feel like passing out again.

When the key touched the lock, I forced it to turn, to make the lock go open. It was hard – I had to use everything I had to open that stupid, stubborn lock – but, eventually, it burst open.

The lock fell off the drawer. Now, I knew, all I had to do was open it. I forced the drawer to open, slowly, scared that I would lose my consciousness again. As soon as I caught sight of what was inside it, something clicked inside my head.

Inside the drawer was a mess of colours, like the Milky Way, but more colourful.

The closet disappeared and everything went dark, but I heard a familiar voice in my head.

My own voice.

"Dad!" I screamed, followed by Sean's voice: "Luka, don't. There's nothing you can do."

When I opened my eyes, I saw that I was still sitting upright. Charles was smiling at me from the other side of the carpet.

"I did it," I whispered. "I opened the drawer! I did it!"

"Well done," Charles said, smiling and standing up. "I guess that is enough training for today. I do not want you to focus yourself to exhaustion. Maybe it is better if you would get some rest."

I nodded, walking off.

"Oh, and Luka," Charles called after me, "Sean is outside, in the yard."

I turned around to see that he was grinning at me.

"Thanks," I said, because that was exactly what I was thinking about.

After he smiled back to me, I walked away.

---

"Hey, Sean."

I waved at him from the other side of the grass field. Sean looked up from the glass cup he was trying to break.

"Hey," he replied, running towards me. "How did it go?"

I grinned at him. "Well, apparently, I can see the future."

Sean's mouth dropped open.

"Awesome," he whispered. "So you know what's gonna happen? Are we going to defeat Shaw?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I still need to train. I don't know how to control it."

Sean shrugged. Then he brightened up.

"Hey, wanna see something awesome?" he asked me.

I shrugged. "Okay."

Sean grabbed my hand.

"Follow me," he said before pulling me with him.

---

"Are you sure you can do this?"

I looked at Sean, who was sitting on the window sill. His legs were dangling outside.

"Of course I can do this," he said. He moved his arms to show me the wings that were attached to his suit. "I've done this, like, a million times before. It has gone wrong only once."

I shifted my feet, still not reassured. Sean was going to try to fly. We were at least ten metres from the ground. If he would fall, he would break something. Maybe even worse.

I took a deep breath.

"Okay," I said. "But please, be careful. I'll kill you if you die."

Sean rolled his eyes, but nodded. He started to bend forward. After one last glance at me, he jumped.

For one frightening moment, he was just falling. Then he screamed, a nearly literally ear-splitting sound, and he stopped falling.

He was flying, now.

He was really flying.

Apparently, the sound waves he was producing were strong enough to carry him.

He waved at me, and I waved back, laughing.

Unbelievable.

Sean could fly.

I watched him fly circles above the fields for a couple of minutes.

Then the strangest thing happened.

In the back of my mind, I felt that the closet appeared again, though I was pretty sure that I wasn't doing it myself. The drawer jerked itself open, and for a moment, everything went black.

I only saw a dim light, and a clock. It was half past ten, and judging by the light, it was evening.

I heard a voice. Charles' voice.

"I... I cannot..." He sighed. "My telepathy does not work on her."

Then it disappeared and I was back in the reality. I blinked.

That was strange; I had never seen something in my head before. Did that mean that my power was getting stronger? I didn't know.

At that moment, Sean flew back inside through the window. He was grinning like an idiot and his hair was standing straight upright.

"I still love it," he whispered, panting.

Then he looked at me. I must have looked quite bad, because he asked: "Hey, are you all right? You're pale."

I involuntarily rubbed my face, as if I could rub the paleness off.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "I... I saw something again. Something in the future, I guess."

Sean frowned.

"What did you see?" he asked. "Something bad? No one's gonna die, I hope?"

I shook my head, laughing a little.

"No," I said.

I explained what I had seen and heard.

"I think I'm going to take a look, tonight. I'd like to know what he was talking about."

Sean nodded.

"I can go with you, if you want," he said, but I shook my head.

"No offense, but I think it's better if I go alone," I said. "Charles said that his telepathy didn't work on 'her'. There's a pretty good chance that he meant me. That would mean that he can't read my mind. Besides," I added, and it was one of the truest things I had ever said, "I don't want to get you in trouble. If my theory is wrong, I don't want you to be the victim of that."

---

It was twenty-five past ten and I was sneaking through the hallways of the gigantic house. I had to be quiet and careful; everyone thought that I was asleep.

If I ran into someone, then how was I supposed to talk myself out of this?

The big advantage was that most of the people in this house were asleep.

The big disadvantage was that I had realized how big this house was way too late.

How was I ever going to find Charles? Was he even here? What if I had seen something that was supposed to happen in a couple of days?

I gave up and started to walk back to my room, but when I went past the living room, I heard a voice.

Erik.

He was in the living room.

I quickly crouched next to the door so that he wouldn't see me.

"You wanted to talk to me about something, Charles?"

"Yes," Charles' voice replied. "It is about Luka."

I pricked up my ears.

"I... I cannot..." I heard that he sighed. "My telepathy does not work on her."

I knew it, I knew it, I knew it.

I sighed silently but relieved. If Charles couldn't read my mind, that meant that I was safe here.

"So?" Erik asked. "That isn't that strange, is it?"

"Well..."

I heard that Charles hesitated and I bent forward in curiosity. Unfortunately, I lost my balance while doing that and fell stretched-out on the floor, right in front of the door.

I looked up to see that Charles and Erik were looking at me with shocked expressions on their faces. Erik's face reddened.

"You weren't listening to us, were you?" he asked, his tone threatening.

Charles held up a hand.

"Calm down, Erik," he said. "Luka, why are you not sleeping? It is very late. You will need your energy tomorrow."

I tried to put on my best innocent-and-confused face.

"Eh, I remember going to sleep," I said, trying to let my voice sound hoarse. "A-And I woke up here. I think I've been sleepwalking again."

Erik didn't really seem to believe me, but Charles smiled a little.

"All right, then," he said. "Do you know the way back to your room?"

I nodded and wished the two of them goodnight. Then I walked back to my room, my mind spinning of what I had just seen.

Charles' telepathy doesn't work on me.

But what was he trying to say after that?

I would probably never know. Sighing, I opened the door of my room.

My dream already started before I had even lied down on my bed.

---

Rushing sounds reached my ears. Wind moving water, wind moving leaves, wind moving sand.

The sounds of the beach, I realized. It was peaceful, so peaceful.

Until the sound of a firing gun broke the calmness.

One shot. Two shots. Three, four, five, six shots.

I had no idea what was happening; I could only hear the sounds.

Right after the seventh shot got fired, I heard someone gasp.

Then everything disappeared and I fell asleep, this time for real.

---

The happenings during breakfast were some of the strangest things I had ever seen.

Nobody seemed 100% awake; especially Raven, who changed into someone else every time she yawned. It was freaking me out.

Erik was absently stirring his coffee with a spoon, not even touching it. He seemed to use his 'power over all metal' for quite everything. When Hank asked him to pass the sugar, Erik groaned in annoyance, so loud that he woke Sean up, who had fallen asleep again.

Erik wasn't the only one with a morning mood; the woman, whose name appeared to be Moira, had bags under her eyes that seemed to cover her entire cheeks. She was sitting next to Hank, drinking her fifth cup of coffee, while the young scientist was putting peanut butter on his bread, using both hands and feet. I wondered how that would taste.

Yuck.

Sean yawned, but his voice broke, and it hit such a high tone that his glass bowl shattered. His cornflakes and milk formed a mess on top of the table. He stared at it for a couple of seconds – I would swear that he was falling asleep again – before turning to Charles and apologizing.

At that moment, the door opened and Alex walked in. He looked as sleepy as possible, with his messy hair and wrinkled pyjamas.

"Morning," he mumbled as he sat down next to me.

"Good morning, Alex," Charles replied, friendly as always.

Alex shook his head.

"No," he said, "if this was a good morning, I would still be lying in my bed."

Sean snickered.

Alex ran a hand through his hair, making it even messier, if that was even possible.

"Did I miss something?" he asked, bringing his cup of tea to his mouth.

I shook my head. "Nope," I replied. "We're just having breakfast -"

I hadn't even finished my sentence as a loud bang sounded outside.

Charles jumped up, knocking over his tea as he did so. He rushed towards the window to see what was going on. When he turned back, his face had paled a little.

"The shed is on fire," he said before running out of the room.

Erik went after him; he seemed a lot less sleepy, now. After a moment of stunned silence, the rest of us followed as well.

My mind raced; why was the shed on fire, all of a sudden? Someone must have put it on fire.

But who?

And why?

And how?

Someone must have seen something, right?

We ran outside. Charles and Erik were already busy with the fire extinguishers. When the fire was put out, they sat down on the grass, but the calm didn't last long.

Before I even realized what was happening, someone was standing behind me, pressing a knife against my throat.

I saw a flash of red skin and I knew that it was the same red-skinned mutant who was at the facility. He was dangerous. Dangerous enough to be able to kill me immediately, if he wanted to.

Why didn't he?

There was a silence for a moment. Everyone was staring at me, unsure what to do; if they'd attack, I would get my throat slit.

I saw that Charles was moving his hand towards his head. As soon as his finger touched his forehead, the red-skinned man froze. I knew that Charles was controlling him, but I still couldn't go away, so I stayed there in my still state while the others came closer.

Charles looked utterly concentrated, and maybe a little worried. I wondered what was going on, and apparently, so did Sean.

"Charles?" he asked. "Do you know why he's here?"

The telepath nodded.

"Yes," he said, his voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper. "He is not here to do us any harm. They... They want her."

He looked at me, his blue eyes big and full of worry.

I gulped, which isn't easy when having a knife on your throat.

Sean cracked his knuckles. "I won't let that happen," he said, and I tried to smile. For some reason, I was incredibly thankful for those words.

Charles grinned at Sean.

"I agree," he said.

At that moment, the red-skinned man disappeared, and I stumbled and fell on the ground.

Sean rushed forward to help me up.

I heard Charles swear under his breath. It was the first time I heard him do that.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

He looked up, seeming scared.

"I sent him back to let him tell Shaw that we will not give up that easily," he replied, his voice shaking, "but I lost control. They are farther away than I realized."

I felt my eyes grow huge as I realized what that meant. Charles had lost control over the red-skinned man. He could come back any moment.

I prepared to fight, though I knew that it was no use. What could I, a fourteen-year-old girl with literally zero experience of fighting, do against a man who could kill us all in a second without anyone even noticing it?

It was completely silent for a moment.

Then a quiet poof sounded.

The next thing I knew was that Charles fell on the ground, unconscious. A red-coloured figure disappeared right behind him.

I wanted to run, either towards Charles or away, and I was pretty sure that I would have done at least one of those things if my feet wouldn't feel like they were glued to the ground.

I was such an incredible coward.

I looked at Sean – terrified blue eyes met terrified blue eyes – and at that moment, I heard a poof behind me.

I knew that the red-skinned mutant was standing behind me.

It was now or never.

I turned around and dove for the mutant's knife.

It was one of the most stupid things I had ever done in my entire life.

The man simply stepped away.

Sean yelled my name.

The next thing I knew was that the knife pierced my arm. Pain exploded in the whole left side of my body. I cried out in pain.

Someone – Sean? – furiously screamed.

My sight went blurry, and I felt that my head hit the ground, though I couldn't recall falling.

That was when I passed out.

---

I saw sand.

Just sand, and black sneakers on top of it. It was strange; I had never had a vision with an image.

I looked up. There were palm trees above me, and the sun was shining right into my eyes. It hurt.

I tried to see more, but it was like I could only look up and down; everything in between was blurry. I caught a glimpse of fabric, yellow fabric, and water.

I was on a beach. Apparently, all my visions were happening on a beach.

What was going on there?

Or what was going to happen there?

It must be important.

But I didn't get much time to think. The blue sky above me seemed to turn into water, and it pulled me upwards, until, eventually, I could breathe again.

---

I gasped for air as I opened my eyes.

My head hurt, and my arm hurt even more. I moaned and propped myself up on my right arm. My left upper arm was covered in bandage. It hurt when I moved it, but it was nothing compared to the white, hot pain I had felt when I had just been stabbed. That was horrible. This was bearable.

When I looked up, I saw that I was in my room.

Two chairs were pulled up next to my bed. Sean and Charles were sitting there, both asleep. They were leaning against each other.

Next to the thought I wish I could take a picture right now, I was happy that they were still alive. Aside from being a little bruised, they looked unharmed.

It was silent for a moment as I watched them.

Sean looked utterly adorable; he looked so peacefully. They both looked so peacefully.

I grinned slightly as an idea popped up in my mind. I couldn't resist it – I just needed to prank them.

I silently got to my feet and sneaked towards the small space behind the two chairs. Smiling mischievously, I put my hands down on the two sleeping mutants' shoulders.

My arm hurt when I did it, but the effect was priceless.

Sean jumped up, screaming, and started to punch the air, immediately followed by Charles falling off his chair. When they saw that it was just me, and not someone who wanted to kill them, their faces turned bright red.

Sean cleared his throat.

"Oh... Hi," he said, embarrassedly scratching the back of his neck. "How... How are you?"

I shrugged, a sarcastic answer already ready for use, but Charles replied for me.

"She is obviously well enough to befool people," he said, standing up. He had that special look on his face that my mother always used when she wasn't very happy about something and she was going to say something about it.

I braced myself.

"Luka, I am not very happy about this," he said. "What if something really happened to us? What if Sean had hurt himself or you while fighting a foe that was not even there?"

"Maybe," I pointed out, "it would've been smarter if you hadn't fallen asleep."

Charles shot me a very annoyed glance.

"My point is," he said, "you have scared us very badly. I am asking you not to do that again."

Sean stepped in between us.

"Whoa," he said to Charles. "Calm down. You act like her father."

Charles' face reddened, and for a moment, he seemed only stunned and not angry.

"No," he then growled, jaws pinched on each other. "I am not her father. But Erik and I are the eldest here, and this is my home, so please, behave!"

Then he stamped out of the room.

I turned to Sean.

"What happened to him?" I asked.

He shrugged in reply.

"I don't have the slightest idea," he replied. "Maybe it's because that red guy has hit him on the head. He's been acting strange since then, being all over-protective and everything. You know," he added, "actually, he's really behaving like some weird parent. I pity his kids, if he's ever gonna have them."

---

I spent the rest of that day training. Seeing the future seemed to get easier every time I tried it; I managed to warn Sean for the vase that was going to fall on his toes, while my eyes weren't even open.

Unfortunately, we ended up gluing the broken vase because we didn't want Charles to find out that it was broken – he would probably blame us for it, even though we hadn't even touched the vase, and even though he was able to read the truth from Sean's mind. I knew that when people were in that kind of mood, it was wiser to stay away from them.

Charles also didn't show up at dinner. Moira said that he was in his room, and that he was tired. Nobody asked questions about it.

Hank and Raven also didn't come; according to Alex, they were in the labs. Sean whispered that they were using those for 'non-lab-related activities', as he called it, which resulted in Erik kicking him under the table.

Erik was also acting weird. He kept shooting me glances whenever he saw me, as if he was wondering what I was doing here. I wondered if he even knew about the fact that I could see the future.

I thought about the conversation Charles and Erik were having yesterday.

What did Charles want to tell Erik?

Did their strange behaviour have something to do with it?

I didn't know, and I didn't have time to figure it out; the sound of an opening door pulled me out of my thoughts.

Charles walked into the room. His eyes were red-rimmed. Had he been crying? Why had he been crying?

He held up a hand as a greet.

"Excuse me," he said, "I am late."

He walked over to the chair on my left and sat down.

I looked away, unsure what to do. Feeling uncomfortable, I put a potato in my mouth. I only realized that he was talking to me when he looked at me.

"What?" I asked dumbly.

He smiled, something I hadn't seen him doing in nearly a day.

"I said," he repeated, "that I am sorry about my childish behaviour from this afternoon. I... I was just worried. I am glad that you are all right."

I stared at him for a second before closing my mouth, though I didn't know that it had dropped open.

"That's okay," I said. "I forgive you, I guess."

I'd swear that he looked relieved.

"Thanks," he said.

I shrugged. "Everyone's got that kind of days," I said. "To be honest, we all didn't have such a great start today."

He nodded. "Yes," he said, suddenly seeming absently. "Let's be glad that Erik was able to injure Azazel -" I assumed that that was the red-skinned man's name "- enough to make sure that he will not come back before it is time. And, on a side note," he added, "I do not care about the vase. That was not your fault."

I couldn't do anything else but blush.

---

Blue eyes.

That was all I saw, at first. Just blue eyes, huge, shocked.

Did they belong to me? Sean? Charles?

I didn't know.

There was a flash of metal, someone kneeled down by someone else, but the image wasn't clear enough to see who it were, or what had happened.

I heard the rushing sound of the sea on the background, followed by my own voice, screaming: "Dad!"

Freckled hands gripped mine.

"Luka, don't," Sean's voice sounded behind me. "There's nothing you can do."

He was right, I realized. There was nothing I could do.

That realization pulled me back to reality, though I would have loved to see more. But there was nothing I could do about it.

"I'm sorry, Charles. I just... I just can't do it."

I groaned frustrated as I stood up from the carpet after my thousandth attempt to see if we were going to win tomorrow.

It was so annoying; I couldn't find the focus to visualize the closet and pull that drawer open. I just couldn't. And it was driving me crazy.

Charles stood up as well.

"I am sorry, Luka," he said, "but I cannot help you. I need to go, now. I need to help others with their training. I am sorry."

I shrugged.

"That's okay," I said.

I needed some time alone, anyway. The constant presence of others was giving me a headache. To me, it didn't matter who those people were; I just needed some rest.

And I missed my family. My mother. My stepfather. Even my damn annoying half sister.

Charles gave me an apologizing smile before starting to walk away.

"Hey, Charles?" I asked him, making him turn around.

"Yes?"

"Could I call my mother?"

He paled - for some reason I didn't understand - but recovered quickly.

"Yes, of course," he said. "There is a telephone in the kitchen."

Then he walked away, leaving me with the strange feeling that something strange was going on here.

---

"Hey, Mom."

I was standing in the kitchen, fidgeting with the phone's wire. It had taken me a while to remember my mother's telephone number; I had never been too well with numbers, and that was the reason why I always scored bad with maths tests.

My mother's voice on the other side of the line replied: "Honey! Hi! How are you? Having fun at your new friend's place?"

This was Charles' work, I realized. Of course he wouldn't just leave my mother wondering where I was. He had made her think that I was staying somewhere.

"Yeah, it's awesome," I lied. "We're having a lot of fun."

"Oh, honey, I'm so happy that you've finally made some friends," my mother replied. "I know that it was hard for you to move from the Netherlands to the US, you didn't know the language, your friends..."

"Moooom," I said, rolling my eyes.

I had heard this, like, every day since we had moved here.

"I'm sorry, honey," she said. I could hear her laugh as well. "What have you been doing? Tell me everything!"

Oh, God.

"Well, eh..." I thought for a moment. "W-We've been playing l-lots of games, Monopoly, chess..."

God, I was so bad at lying.

"Honey?" my mother asked. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, of course, Mom," I replied, as innocently as possible. "How is Soph doing? And Carl?"

I asked about my half sister and my stepfather just to change the subject.

"They're fine," my mother said, sounding absently. "Are you sure everything's okay, darling? Do you want to come home?"

I shook my head, but of course, my mother couldn't see that.

"No, Mom, it's fine," I quickly said. "Sean -" I hoped that Charles had made my mother think that that was 'my new friend's name "- is good company, and his p-parents are really nice people."

Why did I keep lying?

"Oh?" my mother reacted. "What are their names? Perhaps I know them."

Shit, shit, shit.

I bit my lip, choking on the lie.

"Charles and Moira."

For some reason, that sounded really weird; it would have been so strange if Charles and Moira were Sean's parents. I stifled a giggle.

I heard my mother gasp slightly, though I didn't know why.

"Charles Xavier?" she asked.

I frowned; how did my mother know him? It was strange.

"Yes," I said, confused. "Why?"

My mother swore under her breath, something I had never heard her do before. Something serious was going on here.

"I-I've got to go," she said, her voice suddenly sounding hard.

"Mom?" I protested. "What's going on?"

But she had already hung up.

I lowered the phone.

My feeling that something weird was going on had only grown.

Why were all adults acting so stupid and mysterious?

---

That night, I was lying in my bed, just staring at the ceiling.

We had just watched the news. The Russian ship was about to cross the line. It would cross it tomorrow.

And we were supposed to stop it, to stop a third World War.

It sounded impossible.

Erik had said that we'd better get a good night's rest, because we would need our energy, tomorrow. Most of us had followed that advice; only Hank and Raven were still awake. Hank said that he had to do some preparations, and Raven was just hanging around somewhere in the house.

She had changed in the past couple of days. I didn't exactly know what was different about her. She was just... different.

And I was pretty sure that it had nothing to do with the fact that she had been walking around in her natural blue form for the past couple of days.

It was like something had snapped inside her. She wasn't who she used to be.

But we had all changed. Even I had changed.

I wasn't that innocent girl I used to be, anymore.

I wasn't the girl who whined about homework or her younger sister, or who read books and hoped to, someday, become like one of the heroes.

Now I was one of those heroes.

And I was ready to fight.

With that thought, I fell asleep.

---

My dream was clear.

It was strange, something I had never seen before; I could see exactly what was happening. And, to be honest, that wasn't quite great to see.

Someone was floating out of a wreck.

Shaw.

He had a nasty, ugly cut right in the middle of his forehead, and he was definitely dead. I had to fight the urge to throw up.

For a moment, everything went black – like I blinked or something – and then I heard my own voice.

"Dad!" I screamed, still as terrified as always.

I gasped as I realized it.

Shaw was my father.

Shaw was my father, and he was going to die.

I didn't even know how to react.

All my life, I hadn't known who my father was. And now, of all the seven billion people on the world, it had to be him, the man who had taken away Angel and had killed Darwin. The lunatic who wanted to start a nuclear war and kill everyone on the entire planet.

And I was his daughter.

Suddenly, I got very angry at my mother, though I knew that I couldn't blame her for this.

She didn't know. And they were drunk. It wasn't her fault.

It was Shaw's fault.

My urge to stop him got even worse. But we only needed to stop him, and not kill him.

I wanted him alive, so that I could punch the living shit out of him.

I had just enough time to be afraid of myself before the image changed.

This time, I was pretty sure that it wasn't a vision.

Why not?

Because I could see myself.

It was me, but it wasn't me at the same time.

She looked just like I looked right now, maybe a couple of days older. She was sitting on a chair, facing me.

She smiled.

"Hello, Luka," she said.

I smiled back and replied: "Hello, Luka."

It was strange to talk to myself.

"Why do I see you?" I asked. "I mean... this is just a dream, right?"

She nodded. "Yes, it is," she said. "I have a message for you, Luka. You'll need it."

I raised my eyebrows as she started to talk.

"Remember that time you warned Sean for the vase that was about to fall on his toes?"

"Yes."

"You saw that it would fall on his toes, right?"

"Yes."

"But when he stepped away, it didn't, right?"

"That's right," I replied, confused.

What kind of message was this?

"What do you mean with that?"

She smiled at me.

"I mean that the future is never set," she said. "When you see that the vase will fall on your toes, it will fall on your toes. Unless you do something about it."

I wanted to ask what she meant, but the dream already started to fade.

She waved at me for one last time before I was alone in the darkness.

---

"What?"

Sean stared at me with a mix of disgust and disbelief on his face. It was early in the morning, and we were sitting in his room, on top of his bed.

"I said that Shaw is my father," I repeated, unable to hide the fear and anger in my voice. "I... I saw it."

"That's horrible," Sean whispered.

I nodded.

He growled quietly.

"I'm going to kill that guy," he hissed. "I'm going to get him and then I'm going to kill him."

"No," I said, "don't. I want to yell at him and punch him first. After that, you can have him."

The surprised expression on Sean's face was nearly priceless, but I only felt scared, now.

Of course I hated Shaw for being my father.

Of course I hated him for trying to kill everyone on this planet.

But I also was afraid of him.

What if he had some way to brainwash me and make me choose his side?

What if he hated me for being his daughter and wanted to kill me?

What if...

"Luka?" Sean's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "Are you all right?"

"Y-Yeah," I replied, my voice shaking. "I'm fine. Just... Just a little scared to die, that's all."

Sean's eyebrows bowed up in sympathy. Before I even realized what was happening, he had wrapped his arms around me.

He surprised me at first, but then I hugged him back.

It had something comforting to be hugged by a boy who was taller that I was, especially when it was Sean. He never did something without meaning it.

"I'll protect you," he whispered in my ear. "No matter what."

I grinned into his shoulder.

"Never thought we would take part of this when we first met," I said. "Never thought that we would have to save the world."

"Yeah," Sean whispered back.

Behind me, a polite knock on the door sounded. Against our will, we let go of each other.

"Come in," Sean shouted.

The door opened and Charles walked into the room.

"I am sorry to interrupt you," he said, more serious than usual, "but I need to talk to Luka about a couple of things."

As he looked at me, his eyes were worried, maybe even scared.

I thought that I knew what this was about, and I stood up, only to realize that Sean was still holding my hands.

"Good luck," he whispered. His eyes moved towards my hair. "Firelocks."

It was the first time someone had called me that.

I kinda liked it; Luka was my quiet-introvert-teenage-girl-name.

Firelocks was my fighter-name.

I smiled and he let go of my hands. Silently, I walked out of the room.

Charles shut the door behind me.

"Luka," he said, "you have told Sean that Shaw is your father."

"Yes," I said. "I did."

He sighed, sounding frustrated. "Are you sure about that? What did you see?"

I explained what I had seen in my vision; Shaw floating out of a wreck, dead, and me screaming 'Dad!'

I didn't say anything about the dream I had after that. Charles didn't need to know about that.

He listened carefully, and after I was done, it was silent for a moment.

"You know," he said after that, "maybe it is better if you do not come with us."

"W-What?" I reacted.

Charles sighed.

"It is too dangerous," he said. "I do not want you to get hurt. You need to stay here."

I pinched my jaws on each other.

"Eh, no," I said fiercely. "I'm not gonna stay here and be on the sidelines. I'm not gonna wait and see if everything is gonna be all right. I'd hide and come with you for all I care, but I am not going to stay here and do nothing. Besides, I'm pretty sure that you guys need me. I can see the future, remember?"

Charles flinched, probably startled by my tone.

"All right," he sighed, sounding defeated. "You can come with us. There is only one problem."

"And that is?" I asked; even more problems?

Charles looked away.

"I, eh... I assumed that you would not come with us, so you do not have a suit."

---

About half an hour later, we were all standing in front of Hank's lab.

He had left a note on the door, in which he said that he had gone to the hangar, and that we had to look in the box marked with an 'X'.

When Charles pushed the door open, I felt my eyes grow huge.

The lab was a chaos.

Tables were thrown against the walls, glass was lying on the floor and the lamps were broken. In the corner of the room, there was a box with an 'X' on it, just like Hank had said in the note.

When we walked towards it and opened it, Alex made a disapproving sound.

"Do we really need to wear these?" he asked, glancing at the yellow-and-black suits that were in the box.

Sean smirked.

"They're absolutely fabulous," was all he said.

I smiled as well; suddenly, I was quite happy that I didn't have to wear one of those suits. I didn't look good in yellow.

Charles nodded. "Yes," he said. "We need to wear these."

With those words, he grabbed his suit and started to change clothes. I looked away when the rest of them also started to do that.

When they were done, Sean walked over to me.

He spread his arms to show me his suit.

"How do I look?" he asked, grinning.

"Less lanky," I replied. It was true; to be honest, the suit looked quite good at him. It also had wings under the arms, so that Sean could fly.

"You look amazing... Banshee."

His face darkened.

"You know," he said, "I still don't like the fact that Raven has stolen the name you thought up for me. It's unfair. I want a name you thought up for me, so that I can think of you."

I couldn't help but blush; he could be so cute. I thought for a moment.

"How about Seanie?" I asked teasingly.

He rolled his eyes. "Please, don't."

"But you've got to admit," Raven's voice said from behind us, "I'm way more mysterious than you are."

Laughing, we walked over to the hangar.

The jet was already standing ready for use.

It was quite a huge thing, about as long as two buses behind each other, but that wasn't what made me gasp. Someone came walking from behind the jet.

That someone had blue hair all over his body and was dressed in a yellow-and-black suit.

I couldn't help but stare.

"Hey, guys," he said, and finally, I recognized him.

It was Hank.

What had happened to him?

Next to me, Alex grinned.

"I think we've got a new name for you, Hank," he said. "How about Beast?"

Hank didn't respond, but I could see that he secretly kinda liked it. He turned to me with a surprised expression on his face.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "I thought you wouldn't come with us."

I shrugged.

"Change of plans," I simply replied.

"Okay, then," Hank said. "Let's go. I don't want to be late and be shot out of the air by a missile."

That didn't sound so attractive to me, either – and I surely wasn't the only one who thought about it like that – so we climbed aboard.

I was a little scared, because I had never flown before, but I trusted Hank more than any other pilot. Sean sat down next to me, and we fastened our seatbelts. Raven was sitting on my other side.

When we took off, I clamped my chair.

Thousands of thoughts flashed through my head; what if we'd crash? What if we were too late? What if something went wrong and the jet would explode?

Sean looked at me, a worried expression on his face.

"Hey, Luka," he said, "are you all right?"

I took a deep breath and nodded, suddenly feeling like I was going to throw up.

"Yeah, fine," I breathed. "I just have never flown before."

He smiled comfortingly and carefully took my hand. Immediately, he made me feel a lot better, but that feeling got washed away directly by the thought about Shaw.

I still couldn't believe that he was my father. It was just horrible.

And I couldn't believe that my mother... they had...

I was too ashamed to finish that thought.

They had made me.

It made me shiver. Apparently, Sean felt that, because he gently squeezed my hand. I squeezed back.

We sat there for about half an hour before we flew over a couple of ships.

"Here it is!" Hank shouted. "Your turn, Charles!"

The telepath nodded and made his fingers touch his temple; I knew that he was controlling someone right now. We couldn't see what was happening, so we waited.

One minute.

Two minutes.

I looked out of the window. The Russian ship was still moving forward.

Charles squeezed his eyes shut. I hoped that he would succeed in whatever he was doing.

We waited for another minute.

I had just started to lose hope – the Russian ship was about to cross the line – when it suddenly stopped.

At the same moment, Charles opened his eyes.

"I did it," he said, barely audible over the loud sound of the motors. "I stopped the ship."

Immediately, everyone started to cheer. I sighed, relieved.

Charles has stopped the ship.

There is no nuclear war coming.

My family is safe.

I didn't include Shaw in my family. He didn't deserve that, even though he was my father.

I hated him.

I got pulled out of my thoughts by Moira.

"That's great, Charles," she said, smiling at him.

He smiled back.

"Thank you very much, Moira," he replied, "but we still need to locate Shaw."

"He's down there," Erik shouted over the loud sound of the motors. "We need to find him, now."

Hank turned to Moira.

"Is there anything unusual on the radar or scanners?" he asked her, and she replied with: "No, nothing."

Hank sighed.

"Well, then he must be under water," he said, "and, obviously, we don't have sonar."

Erik growled quietly and cursed under his breath.

I saw that Sean smiled and I knew what was going on in his head.

He wanted to use echolocation. He had showed me how he did that once.

He turned to Erik.

"Yes, we do," he said.

Charles grinned.

"Yes, indeed," he said, "we do."

He and Erik undid their seatbelts, and so did Sean. They all stood up and walked towards the open hatch in the middle of the jet's floor, though Sean yelled at Erik that he had to back off – I didn't understand why. Maybe something had happened while I was out.

"Be careful," I whispered, though I wasn't sure if Sean heard me.

Charles said something to Sean, who nodded. Before I even realized what was happening, Sean jumped down.

I gasped involuntarily, even though I knew that this was the plan and that he could handle things like this.

Through the window, I saw him fly above the water and eventually dive into it. After a moment, he shot out of the water again.

"He found Shaw," Charles said. Then he turned to Erik. "Are you ready for this?"

"Let's find out," the other man replied before walking towards Charles.

I frowned as Erik sat down on the wheel, right under the jet.

What was he going to do?

But when I looked out of the window, I understood it, and it made me gasp.

Erik was lifting the submarine out of the water.

It looked incredibly ridiculous; our small jet with Shaw's gigantic submarine floating behind it.

I couldn't do anything but stare.

In the meantime, Sean had flown back into the jet. He was wet and shivering, but smiling.

Knowing that it was dangerous but not caring, I undid my seatbelt, ran towards him and wrapped my arms around him.

He was cold as ice, but I didn't care. I didn't exactly know why I was acting like that; of course I knew that Sean would come back, but there had always been a fear that something bad would happen to him. There was always that fear when he wasn't around.

I saw that he smiled and hugged me back.

"You're so cold," I whispered.

He smiled wider.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "Super-Sean, remember?"

I grinned at the reference to something he had said when we first met. It seemed like ages ago.

For a tiny moment, I felt completely safe.

Until I accidentally looked out of the window.

Next to the jet, there was a gigantic hurricane; I was pretty sure that that was the work of one of Shaw's friends.

When Sean followed my look, he immediately pushed me back to my seat. I quickly sat down and fastened my seatbelts, thinking that he was right next to me, but he wasn't.

I only saw that he was going to jump out of the hatchway when he had already done it.

"Sean!" I screamed, starting to undo my seatbelts, but Raven grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Don't," she yelled, "he'll be fine."

The jet started to tilt.

Moira, Hank and Raven screamed.

I saw that Charles pulled Erik back into the jet.

The jet tilted even more.

We were in the middle of the hurricane right now, and I was pretty sure that we were going to crash.

Erik pinned Charles against the floor.

The jet turned upside down; everyone was screaming at that point, even Erik and Alex.

I had never really known how agony felt. Now I knew.

You would expect that my whole life would be flashing in front of my eyes, right?

Wrong.

At that point, I saw something that hadn't happened yet.

I saw explosions, lots and lots of explosions.

Missiles hitting fleets, but I wasn't sure how I knew that. Nothing was left of them.

When the explosions had stopped, I saw Erik.

He was wearing a metal helmet, and he was laughing.

I didn't know why he was laughing; the fleets had just been swept away.

How could he possibly find that funny?

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to see anything more, as I got jerked out of my thoughts by a loud, crashing sound. The jet had hit the ground, just like Shaw's submarine.

Sand, dust and smoke blurred my sight, but I could still see that Erik and Alex ran out of the jet, though they both ran into another direction.

Erik jogged towards the crashed submarine. Alex sprinted towards a small figure, who was lying in the sand.

It took me a moment to realize that it was Sean.

I suddenly felt so stupid; I didn't even know how he had gotten there.

I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt and stumbled out of the jet, not caring about anything or anyone else at that moment. I only cared about Sean.

I ran towards him, half falling in the sand, and kneeled down by him. I must have looked really worried, because the redheaded boy grinned at me.

"What?" I asked, confused. "Why are you laughing? You know what, I don't even want to know. What happened?"

I knew that I was gabbling, but I didn't care.

Sean's face got a little more serious.

"Angel burned a hole in my wing with one of her fireballs," he said. "I fell down and twisted my ankle. It's all right," he added when he saw my even more worried face. "It doesn't hurt much."

Alex had kneeled down next to me by then, and he was looking at something in the sky. I followed his look.

A black-haired, winged figure was flying a couple of metres above us.

Angel.

I wanted to throw a brick at her.

Apparently, Alex had the same thought, but we didn't have any bricks. He stood up, aimed, and shot one of his dangerous hula-hoops at Angel.

He could aim pretty well.

The red circle didn't hit her, but the blast of air was strong enough to make her tumble to the ground.

Sean laughed, probably more relieved than happy.

"Come on," Alex said to Sean, bending over him. "Let's get you away from here. Can you walk?"

The redheaded boy struggled up, only to fall down again. Alex and I could catch him just in time.

"Apparently, not," Sean said.

I rolled my eyes at the sarcastic remark.

Alex and I had just started to half-drag him back to the jet when Hank shouted my name.

"Luka!" he yelled.

I looked up.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

I saw him gulp.

"You may want to see this," was all he said.

I quickly apologized to Sean and sprinted back towards the jet.

Charles was standing in the middle of the room, fingers pressed against his temple – he was controlling someone – and looking incredibly frustrated.

"Erik is about to kill Shaw," Hank explained.

He hadn't even finished his sentence yet when Charles muttered: "Erik, don't. Don't do this."

Hank cursed under his breath.

"Erik, do not kill Shaw," Charles went on. He only seemed to realize that I was standing next to him then, and he paled.

"He's blocking me out," he whispered.

It was silent for a tiny moment as I realized what was about to happen.

Erik is going to kill Shaw.

He is going to kill my father.

And there is nothing we can do about it.

I had never felt more helpless.

Charles was breathing heavily by then; whatever he was doing, was going horribly wrong. I didn't need to be able to read minds to know that.

He looked at me, blue eyes wild and huge.

Then he yelled: "Erik, NOOOOO!"

It was perfectly silent for one horrible moment.

Charles bit his lip.

"He killed Shaw," he then whispered. "Erik killed him."

I expected myself to cry, scream, punch someone, but I didn't do it. Instead, I felt numb.

I felt numb because I couldn't believe it, I didn't believe that Erik had killed Shaw.

I had only seen my father once.

And now he was dead.

All energy seemed to flow out of my body; I was tired, suddenly, so tired. I wanted to lie down and never get up again.

Charles laid a hand on my shoulder.

"I am sorry," he whispered. "I could not do anything. Erik is blocking me out with Shaw's helmet. I am so, so terribly sorry."

I didn't respond, because I was scared that my voice would break when I'd say something, so I just walked outside.

The others followed me.

Just outside the jet, Sean and Alex were standing. They were staring at something, mouths dropped open in a terrible mix of disbelief and disgust.

I knew that because I felt exactly the same when I looked and realized that I had seen this before.

Shaw was floating out of the wrecked submarine. There was a horrible cut on his forehead, as if someone had forced a knife or something through his head – which was probably what Erik had done.

I heard Sean gasp; he didn't know yet what was going on. I couldn't find the words to explain it to him.

Hank and Raven hurried towards Sean and helped Alex carry the injured boy, who rolled his eyes at the sudden help.

Angel, Azazel and Shaw's black-haired hurricane friend stepped forward as well, eyes huge in shock as they saw their dead leader.

Erik floated out of the wreck as well, right behind Shaw. He was wearing a metal helmet, the same metal helmet as I had seen in my vision, and the same metal helmet that blocked Charles' telepathy out.

He looked utterly satisfied as he lifted himself out of the wreck and looked down at us. Smiling a little, he dropped Shaw right before Azazel's feet.

The red-skinned teleporter didn't seem to know how to react.

"Today, our fighting stops," Erik yelled at us.

He put himself down in the sand and folded his arms as he looked at us with a nearly strict look at his face.

"Take off your blinders, brothers and sisters," he said. "The real enemy is out there."

He pointed at the fleets, kilometres away from us. As he started to walk towards the water, Sean bent over to me and whispered: "Damn, he's talking so seriously! Has he been practicing this?"

I didn't have the heart (or courage) to laugh.

"I can feel their guns moving in the water," Erik said, "their metal, targeting us. Americans, Soviets, humans."

He spat out that last word as he glared at Moira, who flinched. Charles glared back at Erik.

"They're united in their fear of the unknown," the helmeted man went on. "The Neanderthal is growing scared, my fellow mutants!"

He looked Charles, who was walking next to him, in the eyes.

"Go ahead, Charles," he said, looking on the edge of grinning. "Tell me I'm wrong."

The telepath seemed to hesitate, but eventually, he moved his fingers towards his temple. I saw him gulp, and I knew bad things were about to happen.

He turned to Moira and nodded.

The woman sprinted away, back towards the jet. I could hear her scream into the radio, but she was too far away to hear what she was saying. I was pretty sure, though, that she was panicking.

I had never seen her panic before.

Sean and I shared a look, his scared blue eyes met my terrified blue eyes, and we both knew that this could be the moment that we would die. He grabbed my hand.

"I love you," he breathed.

I felt tears pop up in my eyes as I realized that he really meant it.

"I love you, too," I whispered back.

Frightened, we turned back. It was terribly silent for a moment.

Then the most horrible thing happened.

The fleets started firing.

Missiles shot into the air, at least fifty of them. I stepped back. For about ten seconds, I was very, very sure that I was going to die.

Sean turned away, ready to run, but he didn't. I could hear my blood rush in my ears.

This is it.

This is the end.

I really thought that it was true.

Until Erik raised his hand.

One by one, the missiles stopped and hung still in the air, right above him.

I thought that, because he had saved us, he was good after all.

But I was wrong.

Before I even realized what was happening, Erik had turned all of the missiles around, so that they were aiming at the fleets.

Charles turned towards him.

"Erik, you said it yourself," he said, though his voice was trembling, "we are the better men. This is the time to prove it."

But Erik didn't seem to listen; it seemed like the helmet hadn't only blocked out Charles telepathy, but also his own goodness.

Charles seemed to become desperate.

"There are thousands of men on those ships," he yelled at Erik. "Good, honest, innocent men. They are just following orders."

Erik froze, and for a moment, I thought that he had changed his mind on what he was going to do.

I wasn't sure why I still believed in him.

"I've been at the mercy of men just following orders," he then said, his voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper. Then his tone turned hard again. "Never again."

With those words, he made the missiles fly towards the fleets.

"Erik, release them!" Charles yelled.

Erik didn't respond. The missiles were already halfway on their way towards the fleets.

"NOOOO!" Charles yelled hoarsely as he hurled towards his friend.

Before I had even realized what was happening, Charles had tackled him.

A couple of missiles exploded in the air, but not all of them.

Charles pushed Erik to the ground, trying to pull his helmet off, but Erik was too strong. He hit Charles in the face with his elbow, and the telepath fell on his back.

Erik growled something, but I was too far away to hear what he was saying.

Sean, Alex and Hank rushed forward as Erik pushed Charles to the ground, but Erik made them fly helplessly through the air with only one simple movement of his arm – they all had metal in their suits.

All of them, except for me.

I didn't have a suit.

I knew what was going to happen.

For a moment, I believed that I couldn't do anything about it.

Until I remembered the dream I had last night.

I could hear my own voice inside my head.

"When you see that the vase will fall on your toes, the vase will fall on your toes, unless you do something about it."

I could prevent the fleets from getting hit.

I could prevent a third World War.

Erik punched Charles in the face one last time and left him lying in the sand. He made the missiles go on.

He wasn't paying attention to me at all.

Without hesitating, I hurled forward. By the time Erik noticed me, it already was too late.

I jumped on his back, jerked the helmet off his head and threw it somewhere in the sand.

"No!" Erik yelled.

He threw me on the ground and looked down at me, a threatening look on his face. He bowed forward, ready to attack me, but before he could do that, he froze.

In the background, I saw that Charles had struggled up again, and that he was controlling Erik.

He had a nasty bruise on his forehead and he was bleeding, but he still managed to look happy.

"Go," he said to me. "Get out of here."

I saw the missiles explode in the air, and suddenly, I felt happy, too.

There was no war coming. My family was safe.

Except for Shaw, of course.

I nodded and ran away, back to my friends, who had struggled up as well. Sean hugged me. We didn't need words, and for a moment, I felt extremely happy.

Until I heard Charles yell: "Moira, don't!"

I turned around immediately and saw that Moira had grabbed her gun. She was pointing at Erik.

Apparently, she wanted to finish this.

I gasped as I realized what that meant.

She was going to kill Erik.

"Moira, don't!" I screamed.

She didn't seem to hear me, or otherwise she just didn't listen.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

Moira fired.

The bullet shot towards Erik's head. It would've been a perfect shot if Charles hadn't released Erik just in time.

Erik moved his arm to protect himself.

The bullet flew away.

Moira shot again.

Erik stopped the bullet.

It went on like that for about five seconds, though it felt like forever.

"Moira, what are you doing?" I yelled.

That was when it happened.

She looked at me and moved her arm a tiny bit to the left.

At the moment that she pulled the trigger, the bullet also went a tiny bit to the left.

I knew what was going to happen.

I had seen it.

There was that flash of metal of the bullet.

Erik moved his arm a tiny bit.

The bullet deflected, not to the right, but to the left, exactly where Charles was standing.

The bullet hit him right in the spine.

I screamed as his body whipped forwards because of the bullet's impact.

His blue eyes grew huge in shock and pain.

I felt something snap inside me, and I collapsed.

At that moment, the time seemed to freeze. There was only me and my thoughts as I was captured in some gigantic flashback.

Charles' conversation with Erik.

The way Erik looked at me after that.

The way Charles got incredibly protective when something happened to me.

The way he got nervous when I asked if I could call my mother.

The strange telephone conversation with my mother.

How Charles wanted me to stay out of this.

Shaw wasn't my father.

Charles was.

And I had realized it too late.

I finally knew what my visions had meant.

It was this moment. And I knew what I had to do.

With my voice breaking of fear, I screamed: "Dad!"

Erik squatted down by Charles as he hit the ground. Carefully, he took the bullet out of Charles' back.

"No!" I screamed, panicking. "Stay away from him!"

I didn't want Erik to hurt Charles even more. Sean grabbed my hands, carefully at first but harder as I tried to escape.

"Luka, don't," he said to me. "There's nothing you can do."

A sob escaped from my throat.

Moira dropped her gun and hurled forward. At the moment that she kneeled down by Charles, Erik stood up.

He started to talk to us, but I couldn't hear him over the rushing of my blood in my ears.

I only knew that Sean, Alex and Hank were looking at him with disgusted looks on their faces, and that, at some point, Raven walked towards Erik, just like Angel, Azazel and the black-haired man.

The only thing I heard was Raven saying: "Mutant, and proud."

After that, they all disappeared.

I didn't hesitate for a moment as I pulled myself out of Sean's grip and ran, stumbling and falling, towards Charles.

Tears blurred my sight as I kneeled down next to him.

"C-Charles," I whispered. "Dad."

I didn't care about how the others looked at me. He looked back at me, blue eyes incredibly blue in his pale face.

"You know about it," he whispered back, voice breaking. "How?"

I didn't reply because I also didn't know how I knew it.

I just felt it.

It was silent for a moment before I asked: "Are you all right?"

It was the dumbest question to ask at that point, but I still did – usually, you ask if someone is all right if it isn't so bad. Maybe I asked it because I wanted to pretend that it wasn't so bad, though I knew that it was.

Charles had been shot. Something serious was going on. I didn't need to be able to see the future.

My father nodded slowly.

"Yes," he whispered. "I am all right. In fact -" he swallowed difficultly "- I... I do not feel anything. I cannot feel my legs."

Hank's face changed from sad to alarmed.

"What?" he asked.

Charles squeezed his eyes shut.

"You heard me well, Hank," he said. "I cannot feel my legs."

---

"Okay, Charles. You've got a lot to explain."

Sean shut the door behind him after walking into Charles' room.

It was November 2nd, five days after the 'Cuba incident'. Everyone called it that because it was a little hard to say 'that day on the beach of Cuba that Erik killed Shaw and Charles got paralyzed and Raven and Erik left us and we nearly died', every time we talked about it.

We had spent the last couple of days either in the hospital with Charles or in the hotel right next to the hospital, but since yesterday, we were back at Charles' home. We hadn't really had time to talk yet, so I quite understood why Sean had gotten curious.

After all, I hadn't even explained yet that Charles was my father.

Sean walked over to one of the chairs next to Charles' bed; everyone was there so often that nobody even bothered about putting the chairs back where they belonged. That was also the reason why I was sitting on a chair that belonged in the kitchen and Sean was sitting on garden chair. We didn't care.

Charles smiled at Sean.

"I know," he said. "I am sorry that I have not told you anything yet. Not even you, Luka."

He looked at me.

"I'd like to hear the whole story," I said. "Not just the vague part that my mother told me."

Charles nodded.

"Okay," he repeated. "Well, really, your mother probably told you most of the story. We met each other when we were both seventeen. I was in Amsterdam with school, and my classmates and I were allowed to go out on the last night. Some of my friends and I went to a club. We got drunk, that kind of drunk that you do not know what you are doing. That was the night that I met your mother. A beautiful, Dutch, red-haired girl."

He looked at me.

"She looked a bit like you."

He paused for a moment before he went on.

"Well, eh..."

He blushed. I could see that Sean was doing his best not to laugh.

"Then..."

Charles cleared his throat.

"We were both drunk, and eh... we did it."

Sean made a sound between a squeak and a giggle.

I shot him a glance.

"Well, after a couple of hours, we left," Charles went on. "She went home, I went home. A couple of months later, she called me, telling me that she was about to have a child. She was mad at me, not because we had accidentally made a child, but because she found that I was a horrible father. And I was. She did not even give me the chance to say something. She just hung up. I did not have the courage to call her, so that was the last time I ever spoke to her."

He paused for a moment, looking at me, before he continued: "When we met at the aquarium, I immediately knew that you were my daughter. It was because I could read your mind, but even if I would not be able to do that, I surely would have noticed. You look so much like your mother."

I smiled a little.

"I only told Erik about it," Charles said. "Nobody else. I knew that it would be dangerous if I would tell too many people about it, so I only said it to the man that I trusted the most."

His voice sounded bitter, but the tone disappeared quickly.

"So, yeah, I guess that is the entire story," he said.

Sean shook his head.

"No, it's not," he said resolutely.

Both Charles and I looked at him with a confused expression on our faces.

"It can't be the entire story," Sean explained. "Stories are supposed to have a happy ending, right?"

---

Sighing, I knocked on the door.

I was standing in front of my home, along with Sean and Charles. Well, Charles was sitting, of course.

Sean had been grinning since we had left Charles' home; it was his plan to go to my home. I think he was just happy that I liked his plan.

Charles didn't like it that much – he was just incredibly nervous and had kept asking us questions like 'What if she gets mad at me?' or 'What do I have to say?'.

The sound of small feet on the wooden floor pulled me out of my thoughts. Then the door opened.

"Hi, Soph!" I greeted my half sister. I squatted down to hug her.

She pushed me away, giggling.

"Hi," she said. Then she looked over my shoulder.

"Who's that man?" she asked, sounding confused.

I stood up again.

"That doesn't matter," I said. "Can you go get Mom? Is she home?"

Sophie nodded.

"Yeah," she said, seeming a little shy with Charles and Sean.

Then she tripped away.

I smiled and turned around to my father and my friend.

"Come in," I said before walking into the house and showing them the way to the living room. The bright yellow and orange of the walls and furniture were so familiar, but after not seeing it for more than a week, it hurt my eyes a little.

"Cosy," Sean remarked, blinking.

I smiled, but my smile disappeared quickly when I saw my mother walk into the room.

How would she react?

When she saw me, she literally dropped everything she was holding – a book and an empty cup, which shattered on the floor – and hurled towards me to hug me.

I sighed, relieved. Thank God, she was in a good mood.

"Hi, honey," she greeted me.

"Hi, Mom," I said. I cleared my throat. "Eh, there's... There's something I need to tell you..."

But my mother had already seen Charles. She let go of me and hesitantly walked forward.

Charles gulped.

"Charles?" my mother asked, her voice nothing more than a whisper. "What are you doing here?" S

he looked at the wheelchair he was sitting in.

"A-And... What happened?"

She held up her hands as he wanted to reply.

"You know what, I don't even want you to explain," she said, turning to me. "Why is he here? Why did you bring him here? It wasn't by accident. You know about it, don't you? You know that he's your father. When did you find out?"

It were so many questions that I didn't know how to react.

"Eh..." I began, but Charles cut me off.

"Tessa," he said.

My mother turned around. I realized that I had never known what my mother's first name was. There was so much that I didn't know.

"Do not... Please, do not get mad at her," he said to my mother. "It is not her fault. It is my fault. I came to visit her. And... And I came to visit you."

My mother sighed and turned to walk away.

"Yeah, sure," she said. "I haven't heard of you in fourteen years. And now you come? You're too late, Charles Xavier."

"Mom, please."

I was nearly begging.

"Give him a chance. He deserves it."

Charles took a deep breath before adding: "Give her a father. She deserves it."

It was so unexpected that both my mother and I froze.

Very slowly, my mother turned around.

She still looked angry, but her eyes were kind again, as usual.

"Oh, who am I kidding?" she asked, more talking to herself than to anyone else. "You're right. Luka deserves a father. I... Oh, whatever."

Then the most unexpected thing happened. My mother turned around, walked towards Charles and hugged him.

"Thanks for coming back," she muttered.

When she let go of him, she looked quite uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry that I, eh... reacted like that."

"That is all right," Charles replied.

I put my hands in my pockets and smiled. It was nice to see my family like that. Happy.

Then my mother turned to me. She only seemed to notice Sean then.

"Please tell me that that's not your long lost brother," she said with the usual sense of humour back in her voice.

Sean and I laughed and I shook my head.

"No," I said. "Sean is my... eh..."

I didn't know what to call him. He was more than a friend, surely.

"Boyfriend," Sean finished my sentence. "I'm Luka's boyfriend."

Both my mother and I stared at him, my mother with open mouth and me with a huge smile on my face.

Then my mother smiled, too.

"Honey, I'm so happy for you!" she said, pulling both me and Sean into a hug.

With a muffled voice and a huge smile on my face, I said: "Yeah, I think this is a happy ending."

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Let me know what you think of it!

x BookLoverDutch.