Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, but to Marvel and Fox.
Rating: No more violent than X2, really, although rather darker in tone. PG-13 for some bad words.
Author's Note: Written for Minisinoo's powerswap challenge. I may or may not have broken the rules, depending on how you look at it.
Many thanks to Kernezelda and Dr. Tristessa for the swift and helpful betaing, especially when it came to weeding out the Australianisms.
Secret Weapons
By Andraste
"They will come for us soon," Ororo said, setting her cup down gently.
Her words were spoken calmly, but they sent a chill through Charles Xaiver even in the familiar surroundings of his office. He wondered if they were a prophecy - sometimes even he couldn't tell - but she didn't elaborate. He had to assume that she was only speculating.
"I had no idea that the registration act would pass so quickly," he said, shaking his head.
He wondered how he had misread the mood in Washington so badly. Charles had never entered the mind of a politician deliberately to see how they would vote, let alone to change their opinion, but he was seldom far wrong. Even after what Erik did, he was surprised that they hadn't been more cautious. Mutant registration was the kind of policy that was popular in theory, but difficult to introduce in practice. He has expected more debate about the logistics of the program, at the very least. More chances to do something about it.
"Do you have any idea what happens next?"
Ororo tilted her head to one side, considering. She couldn't force the visions, but even her guesses were correct more often than not. "You know they will not be able to hold Erik and Raven forever."
Charles sighed. Of course she was correct. It was more than the night wind racing through the trees that had made him think of Erik tonight. In light of recent developments, perhaps he should visit the underground prison; but what would he say? He could only tell the man that he was right, and that would bring him no comfort.
Or, he could set his former allies free. Together, Erik and Raven were a powerful combination. When they had all worked together, the three of them had been almost literally unstoppable ... but it was too soon to consider anything so drastic. The wolves were not yet at the door.
Xavier was trying to frame a polite way to press Ororo about the question of timescale, when she dropped her cup and saucer. The heirloom china shattered and sprayed across the office floor, and he knew something was badly wrong before she spoke.
"They're coming," she said, and Charles was on his feet and moving toward the door in an instant. "I don't know how I didn't ..." she looked surprised, and on Oracle the expression alone was enough to instill fear.
"How soon, and how many?"
And that was when he heard the first of the helicopters. Xavier reached out with his powers to search for the minds he should have sensed long before, already suspecting what he discovered: nothing at all. They had found a way to block his telepathy, which meant that Siren's powers would be useless as well.
Which meant that Erik or Raven had told them about him.
There was no time to think about that. No time to do anything but run, and think later. He allowed himself a second of regret for his childhood home, and then let it go.
"I am sorry, Charles. I should have seen this before."
He shook his head, knowing that Ororo wouldn't see the gesture. "This is hardly your fault - you can't know everything. At least you warned us that there would be an attack one day."
With that, he reached out telepathically into the minds of every student and staff member in the school, waking those who were asleep as gently as possible. */The school is currently under attack. I want you all to remain calm and follow the evacuation procedure as we've practiced it./*
Next he searched for Jean and Scott specifically. */Siren, Aegis,/* he sent, */now isn't the time for heroics. I want both of you to get out with the students while you can./* For a moment, he considered contacting Logan as well, but there was little hope that the man would listen to him.
He could already feel the panic rising among the minds contained within the school, but at least they had been drilled on how to get out and to the safe houses. "Ororo," he said, "Go and calm down the younger girls. Then leave with them. We'll meet at the rendezvous point tomorrow."
"Charles, wait ..."
He turned to see her standing framed in the light suddenly streaming in through the window, a rare expression of uncertainty on her face. "Yes?"
"They didn't come here for us. They will take what they are looking for if you do not let them out."
He hoped, for a moment, that she was speaking of the captured Brotherhood members, but knew already that it wasn't that. Charles shouldn't have been surprised - of course she must have known his secret from the beginning. Ororo always saw more with her blank white eyes than she let on.
"You're certain? If they have Cerebro, then they must want me to use it." There were ways to permanently deprive them of his talents, if necessary.
She shook her head. "They have Jason, I think. The vision is unclear."
"Is he here tonight?"
"No."
It was only then that Xavier began to feel truly afraid. If Stryker - and surely it had to be Stryker - had found a way to harness his son's powers to his cause, then the passing of the mutant registration act was suddenly far more comprehensible. A telepath could encourage any number of Congressmen to change their votes. A telepath could make Erik talk, given time. A telepath could force Raven to help them construct helmets to block telepathy. Or a partial copy of Cerebro.
A telepath and telekinetic of Jason's caliber working against them was an enemy so dangerous that Charles might *have* to use all his resources in order to keep his children safe. If he wasn't here tonight, Stryker had other plans for him. If the general got hold of Cerebro, and if he had a telepath to use it, then there was no limit to the damage he might cause.
"Do as I said," he told Ororo softly. "Take the girls, and go. I will do what I must."
She nodded, but paused to squeeze his shoulder on the way out, her hand finding him easily in spite of her blindness. "Good luck, Charles."
Oracle hadn't seen how it would end.
After she had gone, he stood for a long minute - too long - trying to come to a decision. But of course they couldn't leave him alone to think in peace.
"Do you think Erik told them about us?" Cassandra inquired, feigning indifference. Or perhaps it was genuine - it was always hard to tell what Cassandra cared about.
Cain, always a step behind her, shrugged. "Way I see it, don't matter if he did. No way to block *my* powers."
"I can't trust you," Charles objected, but it was a token resistance. He already knew what had to be done.
"I might not like you, Chuck, but you know I'll protect the kids if you'll let me."
"And you, Cassandra?"
She smiled at him, showing far too many teeth. "I will protect *us*. Besides, it might be fun - I haven't stretched my legs in *much* too long."
He could see dozens of soldiers - from trucks as well as helicopters, probably - on the lawn outside already. There was no other way of adequately defending the mansion. Ororo had foreseen everything too late. Neither Siren's powers nor his own would work through whatever was blocking psychic interference. Of the other adults here at the mansion, Aegis could only be certain of protecting himself, and Logan would try to fight and probably die. Against so many, what chance did even a man of his talents have?
He was going to have to take the risk.
For the first time in years, Charles Xavier closed his eyes and simply ... let go.
***
In one sense, the evacuation of the mansion went off without a hitch. By the time the attackers had surrounded the place, most of the school had already fled to the tunnels.
Aegis had already checked the boys' dorms and made sure that all the kids - even the ones who wanted to stay and fight - were gone and OK before he headed up to the professor's office. He trusted Oracle and the older students to get the smaller children out and make sure they were safe, but his own place was here, whatever the professor might say. Few weapons could hurt him if he kept his shield at full strength, and although they might have gas he hadn't seen any evidence of it so far.
His top priority now was to get Xavier out of the way. Siren had told him that her powers didn't work through the helmets, and that meant telepathy would be equally useless. He'd had no luck convincing Jean to leave the defence of the house to those better able to deal with this threat, but maybe the professor at least would listen to reason.
Scott's first thought when he opened the office door and saw the figure standing by the window was 'why would Jean want to possess the Professor?'
Maybe it wouldn't have been so obvious if he hadn't spent ten years watching Siren do her stuff, but as it was, he could always tell, especially when the target was a man. Women carried themselves differently, and that caused a noticeable effect on men when they were mentally controlled by a woman. The change in the professor's stance wasn't even subtle. By the time he remembered that Jean *couldn't* take control of the professor, the impression had already become a certainty.
"Ah, Scott Summers." The pitch of the voice confirmed his instinct. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced."
The bottom dropped out of Scott's stomach. Not Xavier. Not Jean. Not anyone he knew. If the enemy attacking them had someone like Siren, but more powerful, or a telepath strong enough to take over the professor himself, they were screwed.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Let's say that I'm an old friend of Charles - a sort of guardian angel, if you will. You may call me Cassandra."
"Another telepath?" Scott's fear was complicated by confusion. Why would someone Charles knew do something like this to him now, of all times?
"Oh, no - Charles is the telepath. I have ... other talents." She strolled toward him until she was right up against the forcefield. It crackled in response to her solid presence. "You truly have the most astonishing blue eyes I've ever seen. And such lovely cheekbones. I've always wanted to tell you that," she purred.
He was even more disconcerted when she ran a finger over the contour of his face, as close as anyone could come to touching him. "Such a pity you're the veritable boy in the bubble."
Shaken as he was, Scott wasn't going to panic. His power had its benefits, and one of them was that he almost never had to worry about getting hurt.
"Listen, I don't know who you are, or what you're doing in the professor's head, but you need to get *out*. In case you haven't noticed, we're under attack."
'Cassandra' glanced down at the garden where three helicopters had landed, head tilted at an angle that looked all wrong on the familiar body. "So I see. Perhaps I might be of some assistance?"
Scott had no idea what to say to that ... but for all he knew, this woman actually *was* some old friend of Xavier's. She hadn't attacked him yet, after all. "If you're here to help, then do it."
Cassandra smiled. It was the most frightening thing Scott had seen all night - worse than the helicopters, the black-clad figures come to take away his adopted family, or the professor's body without the professor inside.
"Alright. But only because you asked nicely."
She actually *winked*. He regretted encouraging her even before he saw what she was going to do.
Then the first helicopter exploded.
***
Siren ran up the stairs with a growing sense of frustration. The comms were useless - no doubt the soldiers had a blocking device for those as well as her powers. She'd seen Ororo and most of the kids leave, but was annoyed as much as frightened when the seer told her that Charles Xavier had decided to stay behind. Her own abilities weren't of any more use right now, but she was field leader. Fighting off their attackers wasn't her mentor's job.
She only prayed that none of the kids had followed his example - some of the older ones might have it in their heads to stay behind and help, although if John had used his brains he could have run halfway across the country by now.
Jean hoped that Rogue was smart enough to drag Bobby away, at least. If he lost control at a bad moment, his chaos-inducing powers could hurt his allies as easily as his enemies. Jean doubted that the girl would be eager to use her own optic blasts against another human being any time soon.
If necessary, Siren would be willing to turn her powers on them and force them to leave. It was a constant temptation to use them even against her own team when they did something dangerous or stupid, but one she usually resisted. Tonight she would be willing to make exceptions.
Jean jumped and instinctively reached out with her mental 'fingers' as a soldier rounded the corner in front of her. She found a familiar mind inside the uniform even as the figure blurred, shifted and resolved itself into Logan.
"You need to get clear," he said gruffly, brandishing the gun he'd acquired, no doubt by killing its original owner.
"Not until I'm sure that everyone else is out."
"Not much you can do without powers, Jeannie."
She frowned at the nickname - it was hardly an appropriate form of address to the person in charge. "I can check up on the professor and maybe knock some sense into him. He's the one you need to worry about."
Logan shrugged and hefted the gun, shifting from his natural blue scales back into the form of a soldier and training his weapon on her. "Lead on. If we run into any hostiles, you're my prisoner."
They made their way to the professor's office cautiously at first, but when they heard the first explosion they both broke into a run without any consultation.
When they arrived, Aegis was already with the professor, but her second in command was backing away in fear, something she'd never seen Scott do before. Even as she drew to a halt, trying to read the situation, there was another explosion - and she saw through the window that it was one of the helicopters on the front lawn.
"Siren!" Scott shouted, "that thing is *not* the professor."
Even as he said it, she saw the evidence for herself. The way Xavier was standing was all wrong. The smile on the face that turned toward her was nothing like the one she knew. Jean's first assumption was that their attackers were assaulting the mansion psychically - but then, who was blowing up their helicopters?
"Ah," said the person who wasn't the professor. "Dr. Jean Grey and the mysterious Mr. Logan. I'm delighted to finally meet both of you." Female. Jean ran through her short mental list of telepaths without thinking of a single person it might be.
"What have you done with Xavier?" Logan demanded in his strange polyphonic voice, moving back into his own shape and advancing with the gun pointed aggressively. The only reason he hadn't fired it already was concern for the professor, Jean knew, but that would only go so far.
"Logan, stand down," she ordered him. "Now, what's going on here?"
She'd addressed the inquiry to Scott, but it was the thing inhabiting the professor that answered. "I'm Cassandra," she said, "and I'm here to help you."
"By killing dozens of people?!" Scott said. "Xavier would never do anything like that!"
"Exactly, dear boy. That's why *I'm* here to do it for him."
"I don't care who you are, or what kind of 'help' you're offering," Jean said. "Get out of his head *now* before I make you get out." She didn't know if she could actually deliver on the threat, but she was more than willing to try.
"If only that were possible. But no, I'm afraid that I'm stuck in here."
Jean should have known better than to take her eyes of Logan for more than a second, so she blamed herself for not watching him when he moved in to attack their mysterious visitor. It would have been a non-lethal assault - at least he'd dropped the gun when she asked - but Cassandra didn't seem to take it well. Jean couldn't stop herself from screaming as Logan's fists burst into flames halfway through a punch. The normally stoic mutant screamed along with her.
"That was very stupid," said Cassandra conversationally.
Siren didn't waste any more time giving the entity another chance to attack - she reached out with her powers, hoping not to run into the glassy barrier that normally surrounded the professor's mind. It was a shock to meet no resistance at all, but at first a welcome one when she tried to take hold of the unfamiliar mind. Yet even as she did, her grasp slipped in a way that felt nothing like the usual sensation of someone breaking her hold.
"Ah, that's better." Still not the professor's voice, but not whoever had just set Logan on fire. Surely that had to be an improvement?
The flames flickering around Logan's hands put themselves out suddenly, and Jean's medical instincts kicked in. "Logan, we need to get you to the med lab right away."
She went over to him, checking the damage. The air reeked of burning flesh, but it didn't smell quite ... human. Logan's physiology was bizarre enough to explain the difference.
"I'm OK," he gasped, miraculously still on his feet. The pain probably hadn't really kicked in yet.
"Like hell you are," she said.
"Uh, Siren?" Aegis asked, in a tone that would have been humorous in another situation. "What about ... him?"
The new thing in the professor's body was ... taking off his jacket and tie. "Thanks, babe, I needed the help." The voice coming out of Xavier's mouth no longer had a woman's pitch, but now it had misplaced his English accent.
"What *are* you?" Scott asked, a heartbeat before Jean could inquire herself.
"I'm Cain. I'm here to help."
"That's what the other one said, before she attacked Logan." Jean wasn't going to make the mistake of trusting whatever this was, but nor did it seem like a good idea to try her powers again before she knew what their likely results would be.
"That crazy bitch just likes to set stuff on fire - and believe me, I'd know. I'm not like her. I might not be Chuck's biggest fan, but this is my home too."
"You ... you've been here before?" Jean could hardly believe what she was thinking - she certainly couldn't articulate it.
"Always been here, sweetheart." He was *grinning* at her. "Known you since you were a kid, even if you didn't know me. Nice to finally talk to you after all this time. Chuck wouldn't let me so much as say hello before."
"Aegis," she said, not knowing what else to do, "we need to get Logan down to the med lab immediately - he's tougher than most, but those burns need attention right now."
"What we need," Logan said, with visible effort, "is to get rid of whatever the fuck this thing is, and then the black ops guys. They could be in here any second."
"If they were coming, they'd have come already," Cain said. "They're not really after us. Now they know we can defend the place they'll go for what's in the basement as fast as possible."
"If you ask me," Logan said, "you know too much about their plans to be their enemy."
Cain rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like I'd be standing here yapping if I wanted to hurt you."
The next moment, Logan was lifted into the air by some unseen force. "Hey!" he shouted, kicking and struggling. Then, abruptly, he went still.
"What did you do to him?" Aegis asked, moving forward in a way that meant he was planning an attack. Siren didn't know whether to order him to stop or not.
"Sorry," said Cain, "just gave him knock on the head with my powers - he'll be easier to move this way. Not to mention less annoying."
"You're a telekinetic," Scott said quietly, backing off a little. "Like Jason Stryker."
He nodded. "Between us, we've got all he has and a little bit extra. Too bad the extra has to be controlled by a nutball, but what can you do?"
"The question is, are you any more stable?" Jean considered her options, but there weren't many. They could try to get out, take Logan to a hospital ... but hospitals had bad attitudes toward blue people. She didn't have adequate supplies up here to treat him. The longer they stood here talking, the more urgent the need to move became.
Cain grinned at her again. "Don't know if I'd say I was stable - I've got a temper, and I'm not afraid to use my power like Chuck. But I was a real person once, not like Cassie. That helps a lot."
The lower levels would be full of soldiers by now, assuming Cain knew what he was talking about. Assuming he was telling the truth. They had to get Logan down there anyway.
"So, are we going to get out of here and get rid of these assholes or what?" Cain inquired.
Siren glanced at Aegis, but it didn't look like he had any helpful suggestions.
***
"What did you mean, when you said you were a real person?"
Now wasn't the time to be asking questions, Scott knew, but he might never get another chance if this manifestation disappeared like the other one had. Jean had gone ahead of them in the elevator to scout while he remained behind with the unconscious Logan, who was still disconcertingly suspended in midair. And ... Cain. He hadn't liked letting her go alone, but then, if their new friend turned on them he was probably better able to protect himself.
"I mean, I was alive - had my own body. Used to be Chuck's step-brother. Still am, I guess."
"You mean you ... live in there, now?" He glanced at Cain, who was rocking back and forward on his heels restlessly. The elevator was taking too long. If they ever got the professor back, he'd make him install stairs down to the subbasement.
"For most of our lives, yeah. He never told you how his powers manifested, did he?"
Scott hesitated. There was no reason to believe this thing was telling the truth, except that he usually had a pretty good sense for when a kid was lying to him. He got the feeling that Cain wasn't nearly as old as the body he was currently controlling.
"He told us that his mother died, but that's about it. He never wanted to talk about exactly what happened."
Cain looked straight at him, and smiled in a way that had nothing to do with being happy, or even amused. "I'll bet."
The elevator finally arrived, with a cheerful electronic beep that seemed incongruous in the silence. They were inside and on their way down before Cain started again.
"First off, he was only ten at the time. Too young to have his powers. Second, my old man - his stepdad - shoved Chuck's mom down the stairs."
Scott closed his eyes for a moment. It was all starting to make too much sense. "What then?"
"Chuck ... I'm not the right guy to explain it. His mind broke, I guess, and Cassandra came out. First thing she did was set my dad and me on fire."
After seeing her performance with Logan, he didn't have trouble believing that. "Why you?"
"Cassandra's thing is to protect Chuck, even when he doesn't want the help. We'd ... I hadn't been the best big brother in the world. Still, I don't think I deserved that." He said it so matter-of-factly that Scott had to assume that the casualness was fake. "Besides, she *enjoys* doing stuff like that."
The elevator stopped, and they got out into an empty corridor. Scott turned and punched into the panel the code that would lock the elevator in place. Electronics did have their advantages. It looked as if Jean had gone ahead to prep the lab for Logan. Or, he hoped that was where she was. He had to assume that some of the soldiers were down here, since it was much too quiet in the mansion above. Cain had been right so far.
"Anyway, I was dying," Cain continued. "But Chuck was sorry about that - I don't think anyone cared about my dad, know I sure didn't - and he kinda sucked me in with his telepathy. I've been here ever since."
A lot of little things started to come clear. Xavier's insistence on coming along on too many field missions, even though he had no offensive or defensive capabilities in the traditional sense. His uncanny way of not getting hurt on those missions.
They both froze for an instant when they heard the sounds; apparently at least one squad *had* found the elevator ahead of them. He just prayed that Jean had been smart enough to take the left turn away from the noise and toward the lab.
Aegis was going to take the right turn.
"Can you take Logan to Jean?" he whispered. It was an appalling risk to take, but so far Cain's story checked out.
"Sure," the other man said, shrugging in a way that moved Xavier's shoulders as Scott had never seen them move. "I'll be back in a second." He realised that he'd forgotten to ask if Cain knew his way around, but apparently that wasn't a problem.
Aegis turned the corner, and felt almost relieved when he saw the group of men in black converging on the door to Cerebro. It was good to find something he could actually *deal* with.
He threw himself down the corridor with a sense of ... not happiness, but satisfaction. In battle, he was safe and, as a result, completely fearless. He could do what he had to do. Some of the men were dumb enough to raise their guns against him, but their CO - was that Stryker himself? - shouted at them to stop.
Not that avoiding the complication of ricocheting bullets would do them any good. Scott's forcefield didn't just protect him, it made his own blows harder, and he had the training to use the reinforced strength well. He punched the first one and watched him fall, then kicked the feet of another out from under him. The rest crowded against his shield, but none of them could get closer than a couple of inches. This would be easier than he'd thought.
Aegis heard the first snap but didn't think much of it until he saw one man drop, then another, then another. He froze, watching as they dropped like stones all around his feet, their necks twisted at impossible angles. Within sixty seconds, all of them lay still.
Cain was standing at the end of the passageway. Scott felt a sense of unreality settle over him. Intellectually, he knew that there were all kinds of mutants who could do what Cain had just done. The professor's telepathy could have accomplished the same result, or Lensherr's lightning if he used it the right way.
He'd just never seen anything like it.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked flatly. He was somewhere past shock.
"Making sure they never come back," Cain said.
"I thought you were meant to be the sane one. This is *not* how we do things around here. It's not how Xavier does things."
"Why do you think I'm here?" Cain said in a sickeningly reasonable tone, the familiar voice making it that much worse.
That was the thought Scott had been trying to push away all night. "He *let you out*?"
"Cassandra and I exist to do what Chuck can't do - and I don't just mean handling the extra powers." The corridor was eerily quiet, the smell of dead bodies replacing the sounds of live human beings. "Now, are you going to come with me and help get rid of the rest, or stay down here with the doctor lady?"
He followed Cain around, and watched him ... clean up. It was all that Scott could do.
***
"Professor?"
Charles opened his eyes to find Jean looking at him with a mixture of concern and fear. Something inside him curled up and died. It would be so easy to just release them again, to flee the consequences of his actions.
"Are you OK? We thought it would be better to put you down here until ..." Her voice trailed off. They were inside the Cerebro chamber, which was proofed against psychic interference from outside. The walls would also prevent him from using his own telepathy on anyone outside, unless he put the helmet on.
Charles wondered if they had disabled it properly.
"I am as well as can be expected. How many did they ... what did they do?"
"They killed almost all the soldiers," said Scott, his voice empty of any emotion, "and one of them set Logan on fire. I think Stryker's dead, too."
Charles closed his eyes, telling himself that he could feel guilty later. "Will Logan be all right? Is everyone else safe?"
"Logan will be fine, eventually. We called Ororo at the safe house," Jean said, "and all the kids made it there except John. Somehow I doubt he's in government custody. We need to decide whether or not to move them back here."
"We need to decide a lot of things," Scott added. He looked pale and shaken, all boyishness stripped from him by the night's revelations. Charles didn't want to look inside his thoughts to find out just how bad the damage was. "And talk about why you didn't happen to mention your extra powers some time during the last ten years. Or why you've got two extra people living in your head."
"Dissociative Identity Disorder," Jean added, still a doctor even in moments like this.
"I don't expect you to forgive me," Charles said, "but surely you can see why I kept them a secret? If you find it impossible to trust me now, how could you have trusted me in the beginning if you had known the truth?"
"It isn't that," Jean said. "It's that you didn't trust *us* to do our jobs. I'm not useless just because my powers don't work, and Scott and Logan between them could have taken care of the situation. You only made things worse."
"How do we know you've managed to put them back in the box? Cain left voluntarily, but what's to stop him coming back? What's to stop him killing again?" Scott asked.
Cain hadn't gone anywhere, and nor had Cassandra. Charles doubted pointing that out to Scott would help.
"We can talk about this in the morning," Jean said, in the voice that meant she expected to be listened to. "Do you think we're safe here for the moment? I don't want to move Logan if it's not absolutely necessary." Her tone was far from friendly, but her pragmatism would keep her from any radical suggestions before she'd had a chance to think over the options.
"For now, I don't think they'll come after us. You should go and keep an eye on Logan while we ... I would like to be alone."
Jean simply nodded grimly and left, while Scott stared at him for a long moment with cold blue eyes before following. Not for the first time, he wished he could touch the younger man in reassurance. They shut the door behind them.
Once they were gone, of course, Cain and Cassandra came creeping back into the front of his mind. Charles dangled his legs over the end of the walkway and tried to ignore them.
"See? I told you I'd look after them. Cerebro's safe, the kids are OK, and we beat the bad guys."
"That won't stop them coming back, Cain," Charles said, appalled at his stepbrother's cheerful demeanor. Even Stryker's death wouldn't make any difference now. They had proven themselves monsters.
"I hope they visit us soon," Cassandra said. "It was *so* nice to get out again."
Charles said nothing, silently wishing that he could be truly alone.
The End
*Notes*
Charles Xavier = Legion. Has his son's powers - not just telepathy, but pyrokinesis and telekinesis as well - but also the Dissociative Identity Disorder (or Multiple Personality Disorder, if you prefer) that goes with them.
Erik Lensherr = Storm.
Raven Darkholme = Magneto.
Scott Summers = Cecelia Reyes, but he can't turn off the forcefield due to his brain damage. (If you're wondering how he eats and breathes, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself 'it's just a fic, I should really just relax.' Seriously, though: I'm assuming liquids and gasses can pass through the shield, since he hasn't suffocated or starved to death.)
Jean Grey = Karma. I changed her codename because Siren is a better name for a woman with coercive abilities. Karma never made much sense to me as a name. Apologies for any confusion caused; I hope I managed to separate her from Banshee's daughter Siryn clearly enough in the final version.
Ororo Munroe = Destiny. Precognition and attendant loss of sight.
Logan = Mystique.
Marie = Cyclops. And yes, she did blow David's head clean off when she manifested.
John Allerdyce = Quicksilver's super speed.
Bobby Drake = Scarlet Witch's chaos-inducing hex powers.
Jason Stryker = Jean Grey.
Rating: No more violent than X2, really, although rather darker in tone. PG-13 for some bad words.
Author's Note: Written for Minisinoo's powerswap challenge. I may or may not have broken the rules, depending on how you look at it.
Many thanks to Kernezelda and Dr. Tristessa for the swift and helpful betaing, especially when it came to weeding out the Australianisms.
Secret Weapons
By Andraste
"They will come for us soon," Ororo said, setting her cup down gently.
Her words were spoken calmly, but they sent a chill through Charles Xaiver even in the familiar surroundings of his office. He wondered if they were a prophecy - sometimes even he couldn't tell - but she didn't elaborate. He had to assume that she was only speculating.
"I had no idea that the registration act would pass so quickly," he said, shaking his head.
He wondered how he had misread the mood in Washington so badly. Charles had never entered the mind of a politician deliberately to see how they would vote, let alone to change their opinion, but he was seldom far wrong. Even after what Erik did, he was surprised that they hadn't been more cautious. Mutant registration was the kind of policy that was popular in theory, but difficult to introduce in practice. He has expected more debate about the logistics of the program, at the very least. More chances to do something about it.
"Do you have any idea what happens next?"
Ororo tilted her head to one side, considering. She couldn't force the visions, but even her guesses were correct more often than not. "You know they will not be able to hold Erik and Raven forever."
Charles sighed. Of course she was correct. It was more than the night wind racing through the trees that had made him think of Erik tonight. In light of recent developments, perhaps he should visit the underground prison; but what would he say? He could only tell the man that he was right, and that would bring him no comfort.
Or, he could set his former allies free. Together, Erik and Raven were a powerful combination. When they had all worked together, the three of them had been almost literally unstoppable ... but it was too soon to consider anything so drastic. The wolves were not yet at the door.
Xavier was trying to frame a polite way to press Ororo about the question of timescale, when she dropped her cup and saucer. The heirloom china shattered and sprayed across the office floor, and he knew something was badly wrong before she spoke.
"They're coming," she said, and Charles was on his feet and moving toward the door in an instant. "I don't know how I didn't ..." she looked surprised, and on Oracle the expression alone was enough to instill fear.
"How soon, and how many?"
And that was when he heard the first of the helicopters. Xavier reached out with his powers to search for the minds he should have sensed long before, already suspecting what he discovered: nothing at all. They had found a way to block his telepathy, which meant that Siren's powers would be useless as well.
Which meant that Erik or Raven had told them about him.
There was no time to think about that. No time to do anything but run, and think later. He allowed himself a second of regret for his childhood home, and then let it go.
"I am sorry, Charles. I should have seen this before."
He shook his head, knowing that Ororo wouldn't see the gesture. "This is hardly your fault - you can't know everything. At least you warned us that there would be an attack one day."
With that, he reached out telepathically into the minds of every student and staff member in the school, waking those who were asleep as gently as possible. */The school is currently under attack. I want you all to remain calm and follow the evacuation procedure as we've practiced it./*
Next he searched for Jean and Scott specifically. */Siren, Aegis,/* he sent, */now isn't the time for heroics. I want both of you to get out with the students while you can./* For a moment, he considered contacting Logan as well, but there was little hope that the man would listen to him.
He could already feel the panic rising among the minds contained within the school, but at least they had been drilled on how to get out and to the safe houses. "Ororo," he said, "Go and calm down the younger girls. Then leave with them. We'll meet at the rendezvous point tomorrow."
"Charles, wait ..."
He turned to see her standing framed in the light suddenly streaming in through the window, a rare expression of uncertainty on her face. "Yes?"
"They didn't come here for us. They will take what they are looking for if you do not let them out."
He hoped, for a moment, that she was speaking of the captured Brotherhood members, but knew already that it wasn't that. Charles shouldn't have been surprised - of course she must have known his secret from the beginning. Ororo always saw more with her blank white eyes than she let on.
"You're certain? If they have Cerebro, then they must want me to use it." There were ways to permanently deprive them of his talents, if necessary.
She shook her head. "They have Jason, I think. The vision is unclear."
"Is he here tonight?"
"No."
It was only then that Xavier began to feel truly afraid. If Stryker - and surely it had to be Stryker - had found a way to harness his son's powers to his cause, then the passing of the mutant registration act was suddenly far more comprehensible. A telepath could encourage any number of Congressmen to change their votes. A telepath could make Erik talk, given time. A telepath could force Raven to help them construct helmets to block telepathy. Or a partial copy of Cerebro.
A telepath and telekinetic of Jason's caliber working against them was an enemy so dangerous that Charles might *have* to use all his resources in order to keep his children safe. If he wasn't here tonight, Stryker had other plans for him. If the general got hold of Cerebro, and if he had a telepath to use it, then there was no limit to the damage he might cause.
"Do as I said," he told Ororo softly. "Take the girls, and go. I will do what I must."
She nodded, but paused to squeeze his shoulder on the way out, her hand finding him easily in spite of her blindness. "Good luck, Charles."
Oracle hadn't seen how it would end.
After she had gone, he stood for a long minute - too long - trying to come to a decision. But of course they couldn't leave him alone to think in peace.
"Do you think Erik told them about us?" Cassandra inquired, feigning indifference. Or perhaps it was genuine - it was always hard to tell what Cassandra cared about.
Cain, always a step behind her, shrugged. "Way I see it, don't matter if he did. No way to block *my* powers."
"I can't trust you," Charles objected, but it was a token resistance. He already knew what had to be done.
"I might not like you, Chuck, but you know I'll protect the kids if you'll let me."
"And you, Cassandra?"
She smiled at him, showing far too many teeth. "I will protect *us*. Besides, it might be fun - I haven't stretched my legs in *much* too long."
He could see dozens of soldiers - from trucks as well as helicopters, probably - on the lawn outside already. There was no other way of adequately defending the mansion. Ororo had foreseen everything too late. Neither Siren's powers nor his own would work through whatever was blocking psychic interference. Of the other adults here at the mansion, Aegis could only be certain of protecting himself, and Logan would try to fight and probably die. Against so many, what chance did even a man of his talents have?
He was going to have to take the risk.
For the first time in years, Charles Xavier closed his eyes and simply ... let go.
***
In one sense, the evacuation of the mansion went off without a hitch. By the time the attackers had surrounded the place, most of the school had already fled to the tunnels.
Aegis had already checked the boys' dorms and made sure that all the kids - even the ones who wanted to stay and fight - were gone and OK before he headed up to the professor's office. He trusted Oracle and the older students to get the smaller children out and make sure they were safe, but his own place was here, whatever the professor might say. Few weapons could hurt him if he kept his shield at full strength, and although they might have gas he hadn't seen any evidence of it so far.
His top priority now was to get Xavier out of the way. Siren had told him that her powers didn't work through the helmets, and that meant telepathy would be equally useless. He'd had no luck convincing Jean to leave the defence of the house to those better able to deal with this threat, but maybe the professor at least would listen to reason.
Scott's first thought when he opened the office door and saw the figure standing by the window was 'why would Jean want to possess the Professor?'
Maybe it wouldn't have been so obvious if he hadn't spent ten years watching Siren do her stuff, but as it was, he could always tell, especially when the target was a man. Women carried themselves differently, and that caused a noticeable effect on men when they were mentally controlled by a woman. The change in the professor's stance wasn't even subtle. By the time he remembered that Jean *couldn't* take control of the professor, the impression had already become a certainty.
"Ah, Scott Summers." The pitch of the voice confirmed his instinct. "I don't believe we've been properly introduced."
The bottom dropped out of Scott's stomach. Not Xavier. Not Jean. Not anyone he knew. If the enemy attacking them had someone like Siren, but more powerful, or a telepath strong enough to take over the professor himself, they were screwed.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Let's say that I'm an old friend of Charles - a sort of guardian angel, if you will. You may call me Cassandra."
"Another telepath?" Scott's fear was complicated by confusion. Why would someone Charles knew do something like this to him now, of all times?
"Oh, no - Charles is the telepath. I have ... other talents." She strolled toward him until she was right up against the forcefield. It crackled in response to her solid presence. "You truly have the most astonishing blue eyes I've ever seen. And such lovely cheekbones. I've always wanted to tell you that," she purred.
He was even more disconcerted when she ran a finger over the contour of his face, as close as anyone could come to touching him. "Such a pity you're the veritable boy in the bubble."
Shaken as he was, Scott wasn't going to panic. His power had its benefits, and one of them was that he almost never had to worry about getting hurt.
"Listen, I don't know who you are, or what you're doing in the professor's head, but you need to get *out*. In case you haven't noticed, we're under attack."
'Cassandra' glanced down at the garden where three helicopters had landed, head tilted at an angle that looked all wrong on the familiar body. "So I see. Perhaps I might be of some assistance?"
Scott had no idea what to say to that ... but for all he knew, this woman actually *was* some old friend of Xavier's. She hadn't attacked him yet, after all. "If you're here to help, then do it."
Cassandra smiled. It was the most frightening thing Scott had seen all night - worse than the helicopters, the black-clad figures come to take away his adopted family, or the professor's body without the professor inside.
"Alright. But only because you asked nicely."
She actually *winked*. He regretted encouraging her even before he saw what she was going to do.
Then the first helicopter exploded.
***
Siren ran up the stairs with a growing sense of frustration. The comms were useless - no doubt the soldiers had a blocking device for those as well as her powers. She'd seen Ororo and most of the kids leave, but was annoyed as much as frightened when the seer told her that Charles Xavier had decided to stay behind. Her own abilities weren't of any more use right now, but she was field leader. Fighting off their attackers wasn't her mentor's job.
She only prayed that none of the kids had followed his example - some of the older ones might have it in their heads to stay behind and help, although if John had used his brains he could have run halfway across the country by now.
Jean hoped that Rogue was smart enough to drag Bobby away, at least. If he lost control at a bad moment, his chaos-inducing powers could hurt his allies as easily as his enemies. Jean doubted that the girl would be eager to use her own optic blasts against another human being any time soon.
If necessary, Siren would be willing to turn her powers on them and force them to leave. It was a constant temptation to use them even against her own team when they did something dangerous or stupid, but one she usually resisted. Tonight she would be willing to make exceptions.
Jean jumped and instinctively reached out with her mental 'fingers' as a soldier rounded the corner in front of her. She found a familiar mind inside the uniform even as the figure blurred, shifted and resolved itself into Logan.
"You need to get clear," he said gruffly, brandishing the gun he'd acquired, no doubt by killing its original owner.
"Not until I'm sure that everyone else is out."
"Not much you can do without powers, Jeannie."
She frowned at the nickname - it was hardly an appropriate form of address to the person in charge. "I can check up on the professor and maybe knock some sense into him. He's the one you need to worry about."
Logan shrugged and hefted the gun, shifting from his natural blue scales back into the form of a soldier and training his weapon on her. "Lead on. If we run into any hostiles, you're my prisoner."
They made their way to the professor's office cautiously at first, but when they heard the first explosion they both broke into a run without any consultation.
When they arrived, Aegis was already with the professor, but her second in command was backing away in fear, something she'd never seen Scott do before. Even as she drew to a halt, trying to read the situation, there was another explosion - and she saw through the window that it was one of the helicopters on the front lawn.
"Siren!" Scott shouted, "that thing is *not* the professor."
Even as he said it, she saw the evidence for herself. The way Xavier was standing was all wrong. The smile on the face that turned toward her was nothing like the one she knew. Jean's first assumption was that their attackers were assaulting the mansion psychically - but then, who was blowing up their helicopters?
"Ah," said the person who wasn't the professor. "Dr. Jean Grey and the mysterious Mr. Logan. I'm delighted to finally meet both of you." Female. Jean ran through her short mental list of telepaths without thinking of a single person it might be.
"What have you done with Xavier?" Logan demanded in his strange polyphonic voice, moving back into his own shape and advancing with the gun pointed aggressively. The only reason he hadn't fired it already was concern for the professor, Jean knew, but that would only go so far.
"Logan, stand down," she ordered him. "Now, what's going on here?"
She'd addressed the inquiry to Scott, but it was the thing inhabiting the professor that answered. "I'm Cassandra," she said, "and I'm here to help you."
"By killing dozens of people?!" Scott said. "Xavier would never do anything like that!"
"Exactly, dear boy. That's why *I'm* here to do it for him."
"I don't care who you are, or what kind of 'help' you're offering," Jean said. "Get out of his head *now* before I make you get out." She didn't know if she could actually deliver on the threat, but she was more than willing to try.
"If only that were possible. But no, I'm afraid that I'm stuck in here."
Jean should have known better than to take her eyes of Logan for more than a second, so she blamed herself for not watching him when he moved in to attack their mysterious visitor. It would have been a non-lethal assault - at least he'd dropped the gun when she asked - but Cassandra didn't seem to take it well. Jean couldn't stop herself from screaming as Logan's fists burst into flames halfway through a punch. The normally stoic mutant screamed along with her.
"That was very stupid," said Cassandra conversationally.
Siren didn't waste any more time giving the entity another chance to attack - she reached out with her powers, hoping not to run into the glassy barrier that normally surrounded the professor's mind. It was a shock to meet no resistance at all, but at first a welcome one when she tried to take hold of the unfamiliar mind. Yet even as she did, her grasp slipped in a way that felt nothing like the usual sensation of someone breaking her hold.
"Ah, that's better." Still not the professor's voice, but not whoever had just set Logan on fire. Surely that had to be an improvement?
The flames flickering around Logan's hands put themselves out suddenly, and Jean's medical instincts kicked in. "Logan, we need to get you to the med lab right away."
She went over to him, checking the damage. The air reeked of burning flesh, but it didn't smell quite ... human. Logan's physiology was bizarre enough to explain the difference.
"I'm OK," he gasped, miraculously still on his feet. The pain probably hadn't really kicked in yet.
"Like hell you are," she said.
"Uh, Siren?" Aegis asked, in a tone that would have been humorous in another situation. "What about ... him?"
The new thing in the professor's body was ... taking off his jacket and tie. "Thanks, babe, I needed the help." The voice coming out of Xavier's mouth no longer had a woman's pitch, but now it had misplaced his English accent.
"What *are* you?" Scott asked, a heartbeat before Jean could inquire herself.
"I'm Cain. I'm here to help."
"That's what the other one said, before she attacked Logan." Jean wasn't going to make the mistake of trusting whatever this was, but nor did it seem like a good idea to try her powers again before she knew what their likely results would be.
"That crazy bitch just likes to set stuff on fire - and believe me, I'd know. I'm not like her. I might not be Chuck's biggest fan, but this is my home too."
"You ... you've been here before?" Jean could hardly believe what she was thinking - she certainly couldn't articulate it.
"Always been here, sweetheart." He was *grinning* at her. "Known you since you were a kid, even if you didn't know me. Nice to finally talk to you after all this time. Chuck wouldn't let me so much as say hello before."
"Aegis," she said, not knowing what else to do, "we need to get Logan down to the med lab immediately - he's tougher than most, but those burns need attention right now."
"What we need," Logan said, with visible effort, "is to get rid of whatever the fuck this thing is, and then the black ops guys. They could be in here any second."
"If they were coming, they'd have come already," Cain said. "They're not really after us. Now they know we can defend the place they'll go for what's in the basement as fast as possible."
"If you ask me," Logan said, "you know too much about their plans to be their enemy."
Cain rolled his eyes. "Yeah, like I'd be standing here yapping if I wanted to hurt you."
The next moment, Logan was lifted into the air by some unseen force. "Hey!" he shouted, kicking and struggling. Then, abruptly, he went still.
"What did you do to him?" Aegis asked, moving forward in a way that meant he was planning an attack. Siren didn't know whether to order him to stop or not.
"Sorry," said Cain, "just gave him knock on the head with my powers - he'll be easier to move this way. Not to mention less annoying."
"You're a telekinetic," Scott said quietly, backing off a little. "Like Jason Stryker."
He nodded. "Between us, we've got all he has and a little bit extra. Too bad the extra has to be controlled by a nutball, but what can you do?"
"The question is, are you any more stable?" Jean considered her options, but there weren't many. They could try to get out, take Logan to a hospital ... but hospitals had bad attitudes toward blue people. She didn't have adequate supplies up here to treat him. The longer they stood here talking, the more urgent the need to move became.
Cain grinned at her again. "Don't know if I'd say I was stable - I've got a temper, and I'm not afraid to use my power like Chuck. But I was a real person once, not like Cassie. That helps a lot."
The lower levels would be full of soldiers by now, assuming Cain knew what he was talking about. Assuming he was telling the truth. They had to get Logan down there anyway.
"So, are we going to get out of here and get rid of these assholes or what?" Cain inquired.
Siren glanced at Aegis, but it didn't look like he had any helpful suggestions.
***
"What did you mean, when you said you were a real person?"
Now wasn't the time to be asking questions, Scott knew, but he might never get another chance if this manifestation disappeared like the other one had. Jean had gone ahead of them in the elevator to scout while he remained behind with the unconscious Logan, who was still disconcertingly suspended in midair. And ... Cain. He hadn't liked letting her go alone, but then, if their new friend turned on them he was probably better able to protect himself.
"I mean, I was alive - had my own body. Used to be Chuck's step-brother. Still am, I guess."
"You mean you ... live in there, now?" He glanced at Cain, who was rocking back and forward on his heels restlessly. The elevator was taking too long. If they ever got the professor back, he'd make him install stairs down to the subbasement.
"For most of our lives, yeah. He never told you how his powers manifested, did he?"
Scott hesitated. There was no reason to believe this thing was telling the truth, except that he usually had a pretty good sense for when a kid was lying to him. He got the feeling that Cain wasn't nearly as old as the body he was currently controlling.
"He told us that his mother died, but that's about it. He never wanted to talk about exactly what happened."
Cain looked straight at him, and smiled in a way that had nothing to do with being happy, or even amused. "I'll bet."
The elevator finally arrived, with a cheerful electronic beep that seemed incongruous in the silence. They were inside and on their way down before Cain started again.
"First off, he was only ten at the time. Too young to have his powers. Second, my old man - his stepdad - shoved Chuck's mom down the stairs."
Scott closed his eyes for a moment. It was all starting to make too much sense. "What then?"
"Chuck ... I'm not the right guy to explain it. His mind broke, I guess, and Cassandra came out. First thing she did was set my dad and me on fire."
After seeing her performance with Logan, he didn't have trouble believing that. "Why you?"
"Cassandra's thing is to protect Chuck, even when he doesn't want the help. We'd ... I hadn't been the best big brother in the world. Still, I don't think I deserved that." He said it so matter-of-factly that Scott had to assume that the casualness was fake. "Besides, she *enjoys* doing stuff like that."
The elevator stopped, and they got out into an empty corridor. Scott turned and punched into the panel the code that would lock the elevator in place. Electronics did have their advantages. It looked as if Jean had gone ahead to prep the lab for Logan. Or, he hoped that was where she was. He had to assume that some of the soldiers were down here, since it was much too quiet in the mansion above. Cain had been right so far.
"Anyway, I was dying," Cain continued. "But Chuck was sorry about that - I don't think anyone cared about my dad, know I sure didn't - and he kinda sucked me in with his telepathy. I've been here ever since."
A lot of little things started to come clear. Xavier's insistence on coming along on too many field missions, even though he had no offensive or defensive capabilities in the traditional sense. His uncanny way of not getting hurt on those missions.
They both froze for an instant when they heard the sounds; apparently at least one squad *had* found the elevator ahead of them. He just prayed that Jean had been smart enough to take the left turn away from the noise and toward the lab.
Aegis was going to take the right turn.
"Can you take Logan to Jean?" he whispered. It was an appalling risk to take, but so far Cain's story checked out.
"Sure," the other man said, shrugging in a way that moved Xavier's shoulders as Scott had never seen them move. "I'll be back in a second." He realised that he'd forgotten to ask if Cain knew his way around, but apparently that wasn't a problem.
Aegis turned the corner, and felt almost relieved when he saw the group of men in black converging on the door to Cerebro. It was good to find something he could actually *deal* with.
He threw himself down the corridor with a sense of ... not happiness, but satisfaction. In battle, he was safe and, as a result, completely fearless. He could do what he had to do. Some of the men were dumb enough to raise their guns against him, but their CO - was that Stryker himself? - shouted at them to stop.
Not that avoiding the complication of ricocheting bullets would do them any good. Scott's forcefield didn't just protect him, it made his own blows harder, and he had the training to use the reinforced strength well. He punched the first one and watched him fall, then kicked the feet of another out from under him. The rest crowded against his shield, but none of them could get closer than a couple of inches. This would be easier than he'd thought.
Aegis heard the first snap but didn't think much of it until he saw one man drop, then another, then another. He froze, watching as they dropped like stones all around his feet, their necks twisted at impossible angles. Within sixty seconds, all of them lay still.
Cain was standing at the end of the passageway. Scott felt a sense of unreality settle over him. Intellectually, he knew that there were all kinds of mutants who could do what Cain had just done. The professor's telepathy could have accomplished the same result, or Lensherr's lightning if he used it the right way.
He'd just never seen anything like it.
"What do you think you're doing?" he asked flatly. He was somewhere past shock.
"Making sure they never come back," Cain said.
"I thought you were meant to be the sane one. This is *not* how we do things around here. It's not how Xavier does things."
"Why do you think I'm here?" Cain said in a sickeningly reasonable tone, the familiar voice making it that much worse.
That was the thought Scott had been trying to push away all night. "He *let you out*?"
"Cassandra and I exist to do what Chuck can't do - and I don't just mean handling the extra powers." The corridor was eerily quiet, the smell of dead bodies replacing the sounds of live human beings. "Now, are you going to come with me and help get rid of the rest, or stay down here with the doctor lady?"
He followed Cain around, and watched him ... clean up. It was all that Scott could do.
***
"Professor?"
Charles opened his eyes to find Jean looking at him with a mixture of concern and fear. Something inside him curled up and died. It would be so easy to just release them again, to flee the consequences of his actions.
"Are you OK? We thought it would be better to put you down here until ..." Her voice trailed off. They were inside the Cerebro chamber, which was proofed against psychic interference from outside. The walls would also prevent him from using his own telepathy on anyone outside, unless he put the helmet on.
Charles wondered if they had disabled it properly.
"I am as well as can be expected. How many did they ... what did they do?"
"They killed almost all the soldiers," said Scott, his voice empty of any emotion, "and one of them set Logan on fire. I think Stryker's dead, too."
Charles closed his eyes, telling himself that he could feel guilty later. "Will Logan be all right? Is everyone else safe?"
"Logan will be fine, eventually. We called Ororo at the safe house," Jean said, "and all the kids made it there except John. Somehow I doubt he's in government custody. We need to decide whether or not to move them back here."
"We need to decide a lot of things," Scott added. He looked pale and shaken, all boyishness stripped from him by the night's revelations. Charles didn't want to look inside his thoughts to find out just how bad the damage was. "And talk about why you didn't happen to mention your extra powers some time during the last ten years. Or why you've got two extra people living in your head."
"Dissociative Identity Disorder," Jean added, still a doctor even in moments like this.
"I don't expect you to forgive me," Charles said, "but surely you can see why I kept them a secret? If you find it impossible to trust me now, how could you have trusted me in the beginning if you had known the truth?"
"It isn't that," Jean said. "It's that you didn't trust *us* to do our jobs. I'm not useless just because my powers don't work, and Scott and Logan between them could have taken care of the situation. You only made things worse."
"How do we know you've managed to put them back in the box? Cain left voluntarily, but what's to stop him coming back? What's to stop him killing again?" Scott asked.
Cain hadn't gone anywhere, and nor had Cassandra. Charles doubted pointing that out to Scott would help.
"We can talk about this in the morning," Jean said, in the voice that meant she expected to be listened to. "Do you think we're safe here for the moment? I don't want to move Logan if it's not absolutely necessary." Her tone was far from friendly, but her pragmatism would keep her from any radical suggestions before she'd had a chance to think over the options.
"For now, I don't think they'll come after us. You should go and keep an eye on Logan while we ... I would like to be alone."
Jean simply nodded grimly and left, while Scott stared at him for a long moment with cold blue eyes before following. Not for the first time, he wished he could touch the younger man in reassurance. They shut the door behind them.
Once they were gone, of course, Cain and Cassandra came creeping back into the front of his mind. Charles dangled his legs over the end of the walkway and tried to ignore them.
"See? I told you I'd look after them. Cerebro's safe, the kids are OK, and we beat the bad guys."
"That won't stop them coming back, Cain," Charles said, appalled at his stepbrother's cheerful demeanor. Even Stryker's death wouldn't make any difference now. They had proven themselves monsters.
"I hope they visit us soon," Cassandra said. "It was *so* nice to get out again."
Charles said nothing, silently wishing that he could be truly alone.
The End
*Notes*
Charles Xavier = Legion. Has his son's powers - not just telepathy, but pyrokinesis and telekinesis as well - but also the Dissociative Identity Disorder (or Multiple Personality Disorder, if you prefer) that goes with them.
Erik Lensherr = Storm.
Raven Darkholme = Magneto.
Scott Summers = Cecelia Reyes, but he can't turn off the forcefield due to his brain damage. (If you're wondering how he eats and breathes, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself 'it's just a fic, I should really just relax.' Seriously, though: I'm assuming liquids and gasses can pass through the shield, since he hasn't suffocated or starved to death.)
Jean Grey = Karma. I changed her codename because Siren is a better name for a woman with coercive abilities. Karma never made much sense to me as a name. Apologies for any confusion caused; I hope I managed to separate her from Banshee's daughter Siryn clearly enough in the final version.
Ororo Munroe = Destiny. Precognition and attendant loss of sight.
Logan = Mystique.
Marie = Cyclops. And yes, she did blow David's head clean off when she manifested.
John Allerdyce = Quicksilver's super speed.
Bobby Drake = Scarlet Witch's chaos-inducing hex powers.
Jason Stryker = Jean Grey.