Again, I thank from the bottom of my heart those who took the time to review, namely bella (there are gonna be plenty of moments! *winks* ), bigred20 and Coyote Blues, I was sooo happy to see all of your comments! And a big thanks to those who favved and followed my fic. I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

My undying love and gratitude goes to my friend and beta-reader Enrica, one of the best people I know in the world. Thank you so much, honey! *hearts*

#3

At dinner, one night, Ororo announced her new friends she was going to stay at the school. Apparently, she'd talked with the Professor, and he hadn't been discouraged by her lack of basic education – nor by the side she'd taken at the beginning of the battle. The kids sounded happy with her decision, though nobody looked surprised: they all knew there would always be a place for mutants at Xavier's school – even for those who had made mistakes in the past, Raven thought exchanging a look with Erik, who stood at the other side of the hotel restaurant, stubbornly refusing to sit and have dinner with the rest of them.

She shook her head, returning her attention to the kids cheering around the table; to Scott, so serious behind his soft smile – such a contrast with his brother – and Jean, who clapped her hands like a little girl, so different from the powerful creature she'd been in Cairo; and to Kurt, who smiled the brighter as he welcomed the white-haired girl to the school he'd started feeling as his home right away.

She hadn't had any occasions yet to be alone with them and talk about what they'd done, how they'd come to the adults' aid after Stryker had kidnapped all the known faces he'd found; they didn't have to – more importantly, they didn't even have a proper training – but they had come anyway. She knew Charles had talked to them, thanked them, probably, but she felt compelled to do the same. Her gaze lingered on Kurt, and she whipped it back to her plate, afraid someone would notice.

(X)

After much insistence on her part, Peter had finally called home and reassured his mother he was fine – he didn't mention his broken leg, though, "'cause it's already healed anyway" – but no other step forward had been made.

When asked about it, he awkwardly changed the subject, putting off the moment he'd have to face his father. Almost a month later, with the school mostly rebuilt, Raven decided it was time to act and caught him by surprise entering his room early in the morning.

"What do you even care?" was the boy's snappy reply.

What did she care? She frowned. I have a revelation to make of my own and I'm scared shitless at the thought of a reject.

She was using him, she realized. Without a word, the shapeshifter turned on her heels and left the room.

She wasn't expecting to find the CIA agent in the hotel hall – back so soon? Her recovered memories had left her understandably shaken, and her disappearance after their return to America had felt like an escape. Not that Mystique had any right to judge anyone for that, she snorted to herself. Still, the hurt look in her brother's eyes when he'd found Moira had returned to the CIA – he'd managed to hide it just as it had appeared, but they couldn't pretend not to notice he'd asked about her as soon as he'd been able to – hadn't been easy to forget.

"Mystique," the woman recognized her in the hotel hall.

"Moira," she nodded her greeting.

The woman smiled politely, though uncomfortably.

"I went to the school and was told by one of the students that I could find… Charles, here."

Raven didn't miss her slight hesitation before her brother's name; she didn't comment though, just nodded and showed her the way to his room, where he was already awake and discussing something with Hank.

"Moira." He positively beamed at her when she appeared through the door.

The woman smiled – Raven was relieved to notice the expression didn't look as forced as a few minutes before – and took a seat on the chair just vacated by Hank.

"A committee has been named to discuss what happened. I managed to convince them that mutants were as much responsible for the defeat of the menace known as En Sabah Nur as for the destruction and body count," she started with no preamble. The atmosphere in the room changed instantly: Beast – he was still blue, having probably lost his serum in the explosion, but he looked at ease in a way he hadn't before – crossed his arms, a frown on his face; Charles straightened in his chair, the pleased look replaced by a leader's attentive one. Raven just started: she hadn't exactly expected the woman to have come back to rekindle her relationship with her lover of twenty years before, but she was still caught by surprise by her all-business approach. "Problem is that makes them as much killers as saviors."

Her brother nodded, inviting her to go on. Moira sighed.

"I managed to keep the school out, and I am confident Stryker won't step forward to reveal your – and his – involvement, but we all heard your voice in our head, Charles, and I can't change that." Her tone was very matter-of-fact, nothing in her manners giving away her thoughts.

"I imagined as much," he replied. And it was like watching a movie with no audio and no subtitles. A quick look to Hank confirmed he didn't understand any more than her.

"I gather you have a plan," the woman went on.

"That I have."

Raven was more confused than ever.

(X)

After the obscure conversation, Charles had asked her and Hank to excuse them for a minute while he and agent MacTaggert discussed some other things. She keenly hoped they would address the memory erasure – and overcome it.

"I would've never taken you for a romantic," her friend chuckled when she revealed her thoughts.

She didn't reply, 'cause neither would she. Still, she thought when she saw Kurt and his friends pass her through the hotel corridors, maybe she had always been one.

"He has blue skin. Like you." The comment startled her, causing a falter in her steps, but Hank didn't seem to notice. "… and me and a handful of other students. It seems a common mutation, like telepathy" he mused.

Raven managed a chocked yes but couldn't comment any further, too relieved to come up with a better reply. Her heart didn't have enough time to slow its sudden quickened pace, though, because her friend stopped and turned to her.

"And he has a tail and the ability to teleport."

His eyes were as gentle as ever, bearing down on her, and yet she felt cold all over.

Hank gave her a sad smile.

"You couldn't really think nobody would notice," he went on, and she wanted to leave, to run away and never look back. It had been a mistake, she should have never come back, she should have left already… "He doesn't know, though, right?" the other asked when she didn't reply, and sighed. "I wish you would trust me – or Charles, at the very least. But I'm not gonna judge you. I really have no right." He gave a soft, self-deprecating chuckle. "I hope I didn't make you want to leave with this: your secret is safe with me, I won't ever talk about it again if you don't want to."

He resumed walking, head down, shoulders slumped, leaving her behind.


The school was almost complete. Last part they rebuilt was the elevator to the basement and the parts of the underground structure that had been destroyed, but, since their existence was to be kept a secret from the students, the job fell onto Hank and Erik alone – not that the latter's involvement with the project had been welcomed without protests. In the end, though, Charles' word had been enough to placate all objections – again.

Thirty days after Cairo, the school was ready to open again.

The kids happily returned to the 1407 of Graymalkin Lane, chose new rooms and started decorating walls and surfaces with all the things that spoke of home. The lessons resumed, everything seemed to have gone back to normal.

And yet Erik didn't leave, though he had no intention to stay and had made it clear the first night they had played chess at the hotel: he wanted to make sure everything was fine, but Magneto would eventually leave. Charles had just nodded – a little sad, maybe, but aware he couldn't change his friend's mind. (Although he could, and every day Erik wondered why he hadn't, why the doubts and the will to go were still there.)

The library wasn't as full of books as it had been – Charles laughingly reassured him that he was taking care of that as well – but the chess set was back where it was meant to be. Magneto sat before it, waiting for his friend to finish his class. He picked up a piece and regarded it as if it contained the answer to his dilemma. Hank knocked on the door and entered, but froze when he saw him.

"I was looking for Charles," he uselessly explained.

"He's teaching."

Beast nodded. He briefly looked around, as if searching for a way to leave that wouldn't look too rude, but in the end sighed and dragged a chair to sit on the opposite side of the chess set.

"Why are you still here, Erik?" he straightforwardly asked. His blue form seemed to give him a confidence his other self wouldn't have; Magneto felt proud of him despite everything.

"You want me to leave?"

Hank scoffed. "Yes. But that's beside the point. I thought you would leave as soon as you could – hell, I expected you to leave in Cairo."

As I did.

"I don't need to explain myself to you." Magneto got up and walked to the window, turning his back to the other.

"No, you don't." The words were spoken slowly. "But the longer you remain, the worst it will hurt when you finally leave."

Erik frowned, looking back at him.

"Charles knows I'm not staying." But Hank just shook his head.

"I'm not talking about Charles."

(X)

Students of all ages crowded the corridors, swarming from one class to the next, chatting happily to each other, discussing teachers and assignments. They all looked so innocent, back among those walls that had protected them for years. And still, the world outside was changing again.

The events in Cairo had shaken the already precarious balance that Washington had created. Mutants had defeated the villain, but he had been a mutant himself. Erik clenched his hands glaring at the journalist on TV who was recounting the facts as if humans had no fault in what had happened.

"It is not a matter of faults, my friend," Charles distractedly commented moving his rook two squares ahead. Magneto turned his glare onto him; Xavier laughed. "I am not reading your mind. What you are thinking is quite clear from your expression."

The glare turned into a snort.

"There will never be peace, if for any one of us that makes a mistake they turn against our whole kind. They need to understand." He didn't need to reach out with his hand to move the metal bishop and capture the other's pawn.

"May I remind you of the role you played in said mistake?" The white rook was moved again.

There was no recrimination in his tone, yet Erik bristled. He didn't miss a beat, though, in replying, "And wouldn't you be mad if for my mistakes they blamed you? Aren't you?" Because, were it not for him, Nur wouldn't have gotten to Charles, wouldn't have delivered the false god's message, thus revealing the mutants' involvement in all the destruction.

The Professor sat back, fingers intertwined, elbows on the armrests of his chair.

"You can't prove them wrong by proving they have a right to fear us, Erik. We stopped him, like Raven stopped you ten years ago. One step at a time, my friend."

Magneto scoffed.

"You have too much patience."

"And you too little. I am astonished that you are so good at chess." He resumed the game pushing forward his other rook. They played in silence for a few minutes before Charles sighed. "And yet you are right on one account." The surprise was so great, Erik was distracted from the move he'd been planning for the last half hour. "I'm not as naïve as you like to think."

It wasn't until, one day, Hank announced he had rebuilt Cerebro and Erik found him and Charles in the basement late at night – he'd only gone downstairs because he couldn't sleep, and was suddenly glad he hadn't chosen to take a walk through the grounds – that the meaning of his words finally became clear.

"It's not yet as sophisticated as the one we had before, but it should do," the furred mutant was telling his friend and mentor, but he stopped as soon as he saw Erik exit the elevator. Laughably, he tried to block the newcomer's passage, but no way the Master of Magnetism was gonna accept to be kept in the dark like some student.

"I wish you would have just let it be," Charles sighed at last before allowing him to follow inside Cerebro.

After watching his friend connect to all the minds in the world and wipe out their memories of Nur's telepathic message, Erik wished he had too.

(X)

"And you let him? After last time?"

Erik had thought he had seen Mystique angry before, but realized now how wrong he had been. She'd always been short-tempered; her passion had always burned bright, primal, instinctive, making her a beautiful asset in the field, but completely unfit for anything requiring a cold mind – though she had grown more thoughtful and detached in the last twenty years, becoming a better strategist.

The rage she unleashed when Hank explained to the bemused sister why her brother was unconscious in the Beast's arms in the middle of the night, though, was different. It was visceral, pure – and frightening in a way the girl who'd been a part of the first Brotherhood had never managed.

To his credit, Hank didn't show any fear.

"It was his decision," he replied.

Wrong answer. For all her annoyance at her brother's will to protect her when she didn't need it, she was just the same.

"And you should have stopped him!" she snapped back. They were alone in the corridor and the kids' dormitories were in the other wing of the mansion, but keeping the conversation private didn't seem to be her priority anyway. Her sharp gaze turned briefly onto Erik, but with a deep breath she seemed to decide this wasn't a battle worth fighting. Her body changed into that of a man twice her build to take her brother from their friend – an arm behind his back, the other under his knees, gently cradling him to her chest like a child – and carry him to his room, leaving the two men behind.

"I guess that went well," Hank murmured, and Erik didn't know whether to laugh or reconsider his life, since he was now sharing jokes with Henry McCoy.


Raven liked to think she wasn't one who was easily scared. She'd been afraid on her first mission, when she'd been twenty-four and not nearly as mature as she'd claimed to be, but since then she'd traveled the world, fought in more wars than she could remember; seen the worst of human – and mutant – nature. So she wasn't easily scared.

But seeing her brother passed out in their friend's arms had sent her into a panic that had made her feel like a helpless child. Again.

She knew, better than anyone, that you couldn't stop Charles when he set his mind onto something, stubborn as he was – she firmly ignored the irony of their similarity – and him being a telepath didn't help matters any; but knowing he'd used Cerebro after what had happened last time, after being barely recovered from Cairo, had sent all logic to hell. She'd needed someone to blame, and Hank was just so easy.

Seeing Erik at his side had helped calm her. Whatever had happened she couldn't change. But she would be damned if she let them near her brother now.

"I'm turning into you," she whispered to Charles' unconscious form.

Or maybe she'd always been like that.

She sighed, leaning back against the armchair cushions, her gaze wandering around the room and never settling onto anything.

"I didn't really understand when you told Moira you had a plan," she went on; him being out allowed her to talk without any fear. "But maybe I was just trying to pretend I didn't. I just wasn't ready to face that you have changed: old Charles wouldn't have done it, used his powers like that." She paused, remembering that he'd erased the CIA agent's memories twenty years before. "Or maybe he would. I realize I didn't know you as well as I thought."

And this hurts.

She'd always been the one with secrets, the one hiding her real appearance, her true dreams; he was the transparent one, with no ambiguity, no dark sides. The one you end up underestimating because he always seemed so uncomplicated, so innocent, so naïve, so harmless.

He wasn't supposed to have secrets.

"I guess I was wrong."

She got up, determined to leave the room, but then changed her mind and turned back. She took one of his shirts to cover her nudity – she didn't need clothes, but she knew he would freak out if he woke and found his naked sister sleeping at his side – and climbed into his bed like she'd done countless times during their shared childhood, after a nightmare or a bad day.

"Sometimes I miss it," she confessed just because he couldn't hear her. There were so many things she wanted to say just because he wouldn't know, and she felt guilty for that.

I wish you would trust me – or Charles, at the very least.

But she did trust them… didn't she?

(X)

Come morning, Raven allowed Hank in to check on her brother, though she didn't leave the room. In the end, the furred doctor assured her that Charles was just exhausted after using his powers for the first time after what Nur had done to him.

"I'm sorry," he concluded, and though she still wanted someone to get mad at, she had no right to vent her rage onto the one person she knew was a real friend to her brother – the only one who hadn't left him after Cuba, and had stayed at his side for all the years after.

"I know," she softly replied. "I'm sorry too."

The silence was uncomfortable, but neither of them felt like breaking it, and in the end Hank left the room mumbling something about breakfast. To her surprise, Raven followed him.

"Does it mean we don't have anything more to fear from what happened in Cairo?" she asked.

The other shook his head.

"No, he just removed the telepathic message. He would've had to rewrite billions of minds, I don't think he could have even if had wanted to." He didn't seem bothered by the moral implications of that idea, and that thought sent shivers down her spine: what her brother could do with his powers was scary enough, what he was willing to do with them was frightening – but the fact that Hank didn't seem bothered at all by it cut her breath in her throat. She really had underestimated their devotion to the mutant cause. "And it's been a month, anyway: there have been interviews to witnesses, TV debates, footages from Cairo… it was all we could do."

"So… they still know it was mutant-related," she concluded.

Hank gave a short bitter laugh.

"What else could do that? An entire city almost wiped out from Earth, not to mention what Erik did to other places… And before that, the nukes all countries shot in the air – no human could've done anything like that." He made a pause. "There are some conspiracy theories, of course, but they're even crazier than an Egyptian god coming back to life after thousands of years to recreate his kingdom, if you believe that, so…" He shrugged, scratching his head, and despite his blue fur and six-foot-three height he looked closer to the scrawny babbling kid he'd been so long before.

That, more than anything else, reminded her of the first time she'd seen him again, when she'd taken Kurt to the school and gone to talk to Charles about Erik – the first time she'd been struck by how much time had passed, how much they'd grown. Changed.

"So they also still know that mutants saved them," she pointed out.

Hank sighed and closed his eyes.

"Mutants are the solution, but they're also the problem. We're back to ten years ago."

Yes, they were. And she knew the two of them weren't the only ones to notice, but it seemed nobody else had any intention to do anything concrete to fix things: Magneto seemed to have finally realized his ways were counterproductive, but his solution appeared to be playing chess with Charles every evening, and her brother… he taught English Literature, for fuck's sake!

"You still thinking about recreating the X-Men?" Her abrupt question made him open his eyes and give her a sharp look.

"We barely managed to rebuild Cerebro, we have no jet and no hangar either, but…" He sighed again. "Yes, I'm still thinking about that. And Charles still doesn't think we need it."

"What if we ask him together?"

She'd gone about it the wrong way, when she first came back: she'd expected to talk to an idealist, someone who wasn't smart – or brave – enough to understand what needed to be done and had to be shown the truth by force. But she'd been wrong: Charles knew what was necessary, and was ready to do anything to protect the people around him. He didn't want to endanger the kids, but was ready to fight on the frontline, if necessary – he'd proved it in Cairo, and again last night.

But what he didn't see was that the kids weren't kids anymore. And they needed to show him just that.

(X)

She and Hank had decided to start with the kids who had taken part in the events in Egypt – Charles hadn't erased their memories of the telepathic message, out of respect for the role they'd played – and eventually move to some of the older students, if they showed any interest in it.

She realized how much of a hypocrite she was when she changed direction after seeing Jean and Scott with Kurt. She'd meant to speak to the newly dating couple about the X-Men project, but the sight of her s… of the blue kid had stopped her in her tracks. She didn't want to endanger him. So sue her – she might have been a… a horrible mother, she firmly thought the words, but if she could try and protect him now, she guessed better late than never, right? So she just spun on her heels and exited the building, taking a deep breath of fresh air.

She found Ororo under a tree, reading something for one of her classes. The white-haired girl listened in rapt attention while Raven talked to her; the hero-worship was still clear in the her eyes.

"It's gonna be tough, and frustrating, and dangerous," Mystique emphasized. "And people aren't even gonna thank you in the end."

"But it will be the right thing to do," the girl concluded. "I have already chosen the wrong thing once. I will not do it again."

Peter was avoiding her, probably in fear that she would try to convince him to talk to Erik again. She sent Hank to talk to the speedster, and by the end of the day they had two members for their new team.

Scott didn't even need to be told about the risks: he only said "Alex said yes," and that settled it. Jean sighed, closing her eyes, and her young face looked ancient.

"I am scared. I've always been scared," she said. Raven reached out to comfort her, reassure her that no-one would judge her if she didn't want to take part in it. But the girl reopened her eyes and focused them into those of the shapeshifter. "I don't wanna be scared anymore."


Erik had refrained from addressing the events of a few nights back with Charles, aware of the shift that had occurred on his perceptions of his friend, and yet unable to process how he felt about that: he'd always accused Charles of being naïve, spat in his face what a coward he was – and yet, now that he'd seen how far the Professor was actually ready to push himself for their people, he found himself at a loss. Some part of him wanted to resent his friend for claiming a moral high ground that he clearly didn't have – or did he? He'd only done what he'd had to in order to fix something that was ultimately Erik's fault – but mostly he was in awe: of Charles' astounding power, of his ability to bend his own rules – and Erik knew how stubborn they both were, and how hard it was for them to concede defeat and do something against their beliefs.

He realized he'd underestimated his friend. Now he just had to reconcile the image of his friend in his mind with reality.

In the meantime, he was glad Charles didn't mention the swirling doubts he surely knew crowded his friend's mind; their conversations during chess were still focused on the school, some political debates, even literature. They even recalled some happy memory they'd lived at the mansion before Cuba.

(X)

When the group of kids entered the library, Charles frowned at them.

"Is everything alright?" he asked, putting down the bishop he'd intended to use. Erik could see the teacher worried about his students, but if he knew his friend there was just a smidgen of apprehension about the conversation that was about to happen: whatever it was they wanted to discuss, he wasn't gonna like it.

For his part, Magneto was just curious; especially when Mystique and Beast entered behind the four kids and closed the door after themselves. The woman looked at her brother in the eye as she introduced the new X-Men. There seemed to be something else behind those simple words, some history Erik wasn't privy to, but what was clear to him was that the new team looked even less believable than the first one had been. Dressed in jeans and colored t-shirts – Ororo was wearing a flowered dress, for God's sake – the four kids looked hardly the fearless soldiers he'd seen in Cairo. They looked like the children they were. And he knew Charles was seeing the same thing, because his look turned sharply onto his sister.

"Raven, may I have a word with you? With just you," he unnecessarily stressed.

The young Summers, though, took a step forward.

"With all due respect, sir, we are not leaving." Erik raised an eyebrow, impressed at the kid's guts. "We are here because we believe in what Mystique proposed to us. We fought with you in Egypt, we won. But one battle won't be enough."

"We are mutants," his girlfriend went on. "We have a gift, and we can use it for the good."

The Professor ran a hand through his slowly regrowing hair, sighing heavily.

"This isn't a game…"

"No, it isn't," Peter interrupted. "And we're not kids anymore, not after Apocalypse. We can't just go back to hiding." His gaze briefly met Erik's, but it returned to the teacher too fast to be interpreted.

"You may be older than the others, but…"

"It is not a matter of age. En Sabah Nur felt my rage and reached out to me. Others will be in need of a hand, and we can be that hand," Ororo echoed.

"People fear us, Charles," Mystique stepped in. "We need to be ready to protect ourselves. And we need to protect humans too, in case what happened in Cairo – or in Washington – happens again." Her expression softened. "You know that too."

Charles closed his eyes, hands clenching and unclenching on the arms of his chair. When he looked back up, it was to direct a silent plea to Erik. Magneto shook his head. "You know my point of view. It hasn't changed."

They're just kids! Charles didn't need to telepathically project his thoughts to express what he was thinking, but Raven knew there was no point in repeating what had already been said.

"We can and will hope for the best, but it's stupid to not prepare for the worst, Charles."

Hank's words sealed the Professor's capitulation.

(X)

While he usually spent his evenings with Charles in the library, Erik liked to use his days to either help a grudgingly grateful Hank set up the basement or take a walk around the grounds. Memories from twenty years before assaulted him in the familiar surroundings, intertwining with the more recent pain for his girls, and he gladly welcomed the anguish he knew he deserved. If he closed his eyes, in the silence of the trees, he could almost feel the beloved weight of Magda and Nina in his arms, could feel their last breath leave their bodies; the blood on the metal pendant he'd used to avenge them – but revenge couldn't give them back to him.

He watched the scene replay on the back of his eyelids, and missed them every day a little more.

That night, though, he found Raven standing by the lake in the seemingly endless Xavier property.

"I learnt how to swim in here," she told him without turning toward him.

Erik rolled his eyes. She was usually a very straightforward person when it came to giving lectures and discussing unpleasant matters, but sometimes she seemed to think she needed to test the waters first with him – a habit she surely had taken from her brother. Somehow, the thought amused him.

"What do you want, Mystique?" he asked, direct.

She gracefully spun around and looked up at him.

"Are you gonna stay?"

Erik scoffed.

"You know I'm not."

"And still, it's been a month, the school had been rebuilt – and you're still here."

This conversation felt already too similar to the weird one he'd had with Hank not long before. It irked him.

"Do you want me gone too?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You know I don't", the woman shook her head. "But I need to know your intentions. Especially now, with the X-Men."

"Ah, the X-Men." His voice turned mocking, because Magneto didn't like being called out on his shortcomings and always struck back when he felt exposed. "Nice speech, that was. Smart. Well-acted. Did you all rehearse it among yourselves before your performance in the library?"

Mystique's expression hardened. Her fists clenched, her entire posture changed.

"You said you agreed with us."

"And I do. They might've been kids a month ago, but they made a decision when they set foot in Cairo and fought Nur. But do you?"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? Of course I agree, I pushed for it, I…"

Magneto shook his head. "You prattle about doing what needs to be done, about being allowed to grow up and take decisions," he hissed, "and still you took the chance to do just that away from him."

Raven took a step back as if she'd been slapped. There was no point in pretending she didn't know who the him was.

"You and Azazel were part of my team, Mystique," Erik spat out the name like an insult, "you can't possibly think I wouldn't notice."

"Stay out of this, Erik. It's none of your business." But her voice trembled, her rage had shifted into something else.

He wasn't done, though; not there, among the trees, with the pain of losing his Nina still fresh – it would never go away, never go away, never go away…

"You are a mother, Raven. And your son is alive. Take on your responsibilities, act like the adult you're supposed to be."

"That's what I'm doing! I'm trying to protect him!"

"By preventing him from being what he is meant to be? By hiding what you are from him?"

The woman held her breath, and for a moment Erik thought she would slap him. She didn't though; just turned around and disappeared towards the mansion, leaving him behind, alone with his rage and his grief.

(XXX)

Yes, Charles is supposed to be bald – he's my favourite character, I should know XD Problem is McAvoy is so fucking hot with hair I needed to have it back. No, I don't care how shallow that makes me, I was very very VERY disappointed when the transference made all his hair fall in the movie (even though I was expecting it to happen since First Class) and decided to have it back for my fic. Sorry not sorry.

Another thing I feel that needs an explanation is my use of povs: in this fic, I chose to follow the stories of Raven and Erik – my povs and protagonists – and only write the other characters in relation to them. That's why some of the others' decisions and actions aren't as deeply delved into, while some others take the frontlines. I love the relationships Raven and Erik establish among themselves and with the others, especially with Charles, and I wanted to analyze all of these interactions from their point of view. I hope my intentions are clear – and that you like what I did :)

Finally, there's a deleted scene (WHICH IS AWESOME AND I'M HATING SINGER FOR DELETING IT) in which Charles asks Raven to stay at the school, and seems to realize on his own that "this place needs to be more than a school", thus finally embracing the idea of the X-Men. As I said in the opening notes to this fic, though, I'd already finished the whole story by the time the digital edition with all its special contents was distributed, and I should have rewritten too much of it to fit all the additional information; I hope my version works for you :)