Author's Note: I'm still disturbed by the lack of reviews, but this time, I'll update anyway. Next chapter will introduce some new students, all from the X-Men movies. The ages may not match up, but this is AU.

Chapter Three: Preparations

It had been nearly two weeks since Charles Xavier's death, and all of the residents of his childhood home, which would shortly open as a school, were stuck in a funk. No one had seen Moira since the funeral; she had retired to her room, and nobody knew how she got meals without anyone noticing.

Erik had stayed up for thirty hours straight, enabling him to finish the Danger Room much more quickly than expected. Since then, he had taken it upon himself to update the manor's security system, with the help of Hank's technology. He stood in the middle of the vast lawns of Xavier Manor, levitating the security cameras into the tall oak trees with his magnetic powers.

Securing the laser-equipped security cameras onto the front gate, Erik finished up the security enhancements. If any untrustworthy people stepped near the school, they would be instantly incinerated by the lasers. The lasers could only be set off manually, from inside the school, if an unknown person attacked, or if the security cameras picked up someone who was a known threat. Erik smiled—he would not let anyone else die on his watch.

The first day he had begun the security updates, Sean and Alex had offered their assistance. At the time, Erik had anticipated explosions and mistakes, and had done his best to politely decline their help, but he ended up yelling at the boys, who had not spoken to him since. Rather than being peaceful and relaxing, the isolation was daunting. It gave him way too much time to think about Charles.

Erik tried to think of other things, but his mind always floated back to Charles—his bright blue eyes, his kindness, his naiveté. Charles had not lived long enough to experience real hurt, sorrow, anguish—the kind of feelings Erik was encountered right at the moment. Breathing deeply, Erik tried to think of a more pleasant subject, other than Charles, but the best he could do was redirect his focus to his happiest memory of Charles. Closing his eyes, Erik could practically see the satellite in front of him as he recalled the time he and Charles stood facing it, both crying and laughing in their joy after Erik made a breakthrough with his powers.

"That's a wonderful memory." Emma Frost walked out onto the front lawn, daintily avoiding any spots of mud on the ground. She was dressed solely in a white robe, which was loosely tied, revealing her cleavage, and matching platform heels.

"You have no right to invade my thoughts!" Erik rounded on Emma, who backed up several inches, but did not let any semblance of fear appear anywhere on her face.

"I did not! You were broadcasting your thoughts so loudly I bet even Moira could hear them."

"Then you need to learn how to control your powers more. Luckily, tonight Hank and I are unveiling the school's newest addition—the Danger Room!"

"What a dreadful name!" Emma seemed bewildered that anyone would give a room such a name. "If it is a school facility, it should be given a proper name."

Erik suddenly felt a need to defend Hank's lame choice for a name. "Well, this is a school, so you should probably get a more… complete wardrobe. You don't work at a strip club anymore."

As Emma scowled, her white lipstick covered lips were reduced to a small, thin line. "You've made your point." She turned around and sauntered back into the school. While she did not appreciate Erik's attitude, Emma recognized that dressing so provocatively would be detrimental to the school environment. But at the moment, they did not have very many students.

Later, everyone gathered downstairs in the dining room for dinner. Somehow, Sean and Alex had coaxed Moira out of her room, and for the first time, she joined the others. Even Emma had been joining them for dinner every night, and Erik had to give her credit for trying to connect with them. He looked around at each face in the room and did not know if they were ready to become part of a school. When he looked over at Raven, who was sitting at the opposite end of the table, she immediately averted her eyes. Sighing, Erik delegated the responsibility of making the announcement to Hank and leaned back in his seat.

"Welcome to the first faculty meeting of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Erik will be the headmaster, so everyone will have to report to him. Erik and I have a very important announcement to make, but that will have to wait until the conclusion. I now have the faculty assignments: Emma, you'll teach English, Moira's teaching history, and I'll teach science, math, and technology." The two women in question nodded politely, although they were unsure why he took so many subjects for himself.

"Let me continue—Alex, you'll be the janitor—"

Alex shot out of his seat and frowned angrily. "What? You've got to be kidding me!"

Hank merely grinned devilishly, and Alex returned to his seat, rolling his eyes in annoyance. "Now seriously- have any of you graduated high school yet?" he asked, turning to the younger mutants in the room.

Sean shook his head no. "I would have been going into senior year this fall."

Hank nodded. "So you didn't finish junior year? We'll place you in eleventh grade level classes. Congratulations in being our first student!"

"I should be in junior year, too. I had just finished tenth grade when I was arrested," Alex pointed out, "Even though I'm already eighteen, I never graduated."

"I graduated high school." Raven looked at her two friends, upset that she would not be included in classes with them. "But I don't know enough to teach."

Looking at her kindly, Hank moved over to reassure her. "The school will need a janitor too!"

"Thanks for that, Hank, but it was only funny the first time." She rolled her eyes at him, and then whispered, "When I wasn't the brunt of the joke."

"Well, I'm sure I can add an art class or something to the curriculum, Raven. Now, we are in the process of getting the school accredited, so everyone who attends school here should be able to earn a high school diploma. It's up to you if you want to go on to college afterwards. I will now explain the most important part of the school—training young mutants on how to use their powers. Erik and Emma are the most experienced, so they'll teach this class. When the new students come, Alex, Sean, Raven, and I will be the teaching assistants, but we'll learn at the same time. Emma is also in charge of finding prospective new students with Cerebro."

Emma's confusion was evident on her face. "No one has actually told me what Cerebro is…"

"It's my invention, and it allows a telepath to see the minds of every mutant in the world."

"So that's what amplified Xavier's power so much that I could feel it from so far away." The mention of Charles's name caused a hush to fall over the room. After she realized the cause of the silence, Emma felt plenty stupid. She decided to seal her lips for the rest of night.

"That brings me to my announcement. I have finished building Cerebro 2.0, and it's ready for use! Erik has also finished building the Danger Room, which is our high-tech training room, equipped with guns, flame-throwers, rotating knives, and other astonishing obstacles!" Hank's look of pure giddy startled everyone else in the room, who were staring at him with gaping mouths, concerned with his sanity.

"You're suicidal, aren't you?" Alex asked. "You've taken Professor X's death harder than we thought you did, haven't you?"

This was Erik's cue to get to his feet. "Shut up! You need to mature and take more responsibility if you want this school to work. This 'Danger Room' is necessary for you inexperienced mutants to learn control over your powers!" Stomping away, Erik exited the dining room without a second thought.

Alex stared after Erik, narrowing his eyes. "Some headmaster."

Sean touched him lightly on the shoulder. "He's right, y'know. With Professor X gone, we need to step up," he whispered into Alex's ear. The two of them decided to go upstairs, so they left, too.

Yawning gently, Hank surveyed the remaining people in the room. "I guess our test drive of Cerebro will have to wait until tomorrow, Emma, I'm about ready to go to sleep. See you guys!"

Now, only the women remained—Emma, Moira, and Raven. Raven politely excused herself after finding it quite awkward to be with the two women. Moira and Emma sat staring each other down in contempt, until Moira broke eye contact. The other woman's cold, piercing eyes were unsettling Moira, so she hightailed it out of the dining room.

After everyone had deserted the room, Emma knew that it was the perfect time to visit Cerebro. Such a powerful tool, and from what she had gleaned from Hank's mind, right there in the basement. She slipped out of the room and headed towards the stairs to the basement. Nearby, Moira watched Emma from around the corner, trying to think about rainbows and magical unicorns and jell-O in order to keep Emma from reading her mind. But one thought kept surfacing to the top of her mind—they should never have let her near the school.

Author's Note: Uh oh! What's Emma doing?

If you want a say, leave a review saying which character you want to see being recruited. As long as it's not Wolverine, I'll take your suggestion into consideration. I'm looking for about five characters to add!