"How are you today Ivan?" he looked at Xavier, who looked at him with a smile and an offered glass of water.

"Quiet... pain... dark... cold " he mumbled as he pulled at the threads of his sweater sleeve. "No sunlight..."

He felt Xavier's gaze on him as he took the glass of water, careful to avoid contact with the older man's hands. "Would you like to go outside?" Xavier asked, then fell silent as Ivan's whole body tensed up and he struggled to breath. Outside? Outside meant people, people meant voices. He couldn't block them out, he couldn't, "Calm yourself Ivan. I will be with you."

Ivan looked at him as he calmed down slowly, "Scared..." he whispered, "I don't want... him to hurt people..."

"He won't. And neither will you." he said.

Ivan nodded, then looked at his still bandaged hands, "M' sorry." he muttered, "I... don't want to... be a problem..."

"Do not apologise." Xavier said, "I understand your hesitation, but being locked up down here isn't going to help your mental wellbeing one bit." Ivan nodded again, "Are you able to head up now?"

He hesitated for a few minutes, trying to wrap his mind around the idea. He hated how slow his mind formulated and sorted information but Xavier was waiting so patiently he must have known his struggle. "What... what do I do if... if it goes bad?" he finally asked, "If... he... or I hurts someone..."

"You won't." He repeated.

"You... don't know that." he said, slightly harsher than he meant to. "M' sorry, just... really scared."

"I know." Xavier said, "Come, let us go upstairs and see the mansion and the other students."

Nodding Ivan slipped, somewhat less gracefully than he wanted, off the bed and stood slowly. He would have to control himself, control the voice and not hurt anyone.

The elevator ride was conducted in silence, but as they neared the surface level the voices filled his head. He gripped his head with one hand, limp hair tangling up in his thin fingers, while the other arm wrapped around his stomach and gripped his sweater in a white knuckle grip. "You're okay Ivan." Xavier's voice broke through the noise and the voices became muted.

The doors slid open and they entered the warm, sunlit hallway. Ivan looked around, every voice was something different but all along the same theme, education. A voice caught his attention and his eyes widened, "Russkiy chelovek?" he slipped back to his mother tongue. He looked at Xavier who smiled to him, "Who?"

"That would be Piotr." he replied. "Everyone is in class right now, would you like the tour?" Ivan nodded slowly.

The mansion was huge, Ivan noted, and full of noise. Classes were held in order to give mutant children a safe learning environment, or so Xavier said. He saw Storm, teaching a class of youth and he felt her warm aura radiating out from the room. He blinked and covered his ears as the loud bell rank, signifying the end of class. "Loud..." he muttered. They had just entered Xavier's own classroom that doubled as his office, when voices, actual human voices entered the hall. He looked around and saw nothing but a sea of people, talking and moving to the next classes. His heart hurt, but not the way it did when the bad voice came. He looked at these people, talking and laughing like normal people, even though they were anything but normal, and his heart longed to be like that.

"Ivan. Are you alright?" Xavier's voice entered his mind, and it was only then that he felt warm tears rolling down his cold cheeks. Whipping them away quickly, he turned away from the crowd and looked out the window. He wasn't normal, not even mutant normal, and he never would be. "Of course you will."

He muttered under his breath, wanting nothing more at that moment than to die. It was the same as before, the ungodly need to stop the pain and despair, maybe he could make it stop then. Maybe he could, "Ivan, do not wander down that path." he felt Xavier's hand on his arm.

"M' Sorry." he said, taking in deep breaths. "It's... hard."

"I know and I understand." Was the reply.

"But does he really?" the voice was back, clawing at his mind, "I wonder, would he be so nice if he knew what we'd do to his precious students?" He could feel the windows shake, "Kill them all." He looked at Xavier, not hearing what the older man was saying, all he could hear was the order to kill. Then another noise entered his hearing, giggling.

His own demented giggling. Giggling turned to laughter as he lost the battle of wills with the bad voice.