Ch 2

*Hank*

The school was slowly being built up, though Charles made sure to not room me with anyone, he was the only one who knew of my animal fits. They didn't happen as often as before, but when I started to think of Her, I couldn't even think her name anymore, I felt the pain. The pain always started in my chest, but was soon replaced by numbness when I would go into an animal rage, most of the time I could get out to the forest before anything drastic would happen.

My love, or so I thought, had left me, for good reason too. I had practically called her ugly, I had preferred her fake self over her real self, I was selfish. I was only thinking about what I could do for her, I should have known. I should have been better to her, I should have seen that deep down she didn't really want to be changed.

I should have known.

But she was gone and I was stuck here teaching younger student, understandably of course. If I came across her again, she would probably try to harm me or worse. I had been cruel and selfish to her, and she had left, as had everyone else I had known.

I had a commitment to this school and Charles, and I don't think I could bare to let him down again. Having Her go was bad enough for him, if I were to go he would have to find a whole new teacher and partner. Erik wasn't much help, he ruined Her.

And now I was stuck here in my own self pity, as selfish as ever, looking out my window as a new student arrived. Charles was usually the one to welcome them, as I sometimes scared them away and frightened the children's parents.

Today, though, Alex was out to meet them. Charles trusted Alex, Sean, and I above all other students, we were the golden three. The first three, though I was usually the third wheel. Alex had stopped teasing me after Raven left, he didn't understand what it felt like to loose her, but he could tell I was at the end of my rope.

When I wasn't teaching class or training, I was in the lab working on new designs and alarm systems for the school. Charles never told me I should make them or even suggested it to me, but after what happened in Cuba, I knew people would be coming, when they found us of course.

After Cuba, we would never be safe. Charles was the first one to get out of the shock of what happened. He started to organize the school and find fellow mutants, he lost the most, he was the only one of us that trusted Erik and when he saw Erik's fall, it broke him. He lost his sister and his lover, yet he still managed to pick himself up and keep going. He was a brave man and I think I'll always look up to him after that.

He was kind to all the students and would try to make them feel at home, though that wasn't that hard when most of the student were already acting like a family. A family I've never had, but a family all the same.

The water balloon fights were always something the student in my class looked forward to. I taught science and math, so the students ranged from 12 year olds to 18 year olds. I preferred to be called Hank, though some of them would call me Beast, but I gave out as little personal information as possible.

Alex, Sean, and Charles were the only ones who knew that I was only 18 myself, though I think I act a little more mature then Alex and Sean's teenage behavior. The pranks never stopped for the two of them, they usually tried to get the older boys and sometimes would take along a little 12 year old to show them the ropes.

The girl in the drive way had long black hair that went to her mid back, she was gorgeous, but there was something off about her. Her tanned face looked around the grounds like she was seeing something the rest of us couldn't. With my animal senses, from here, 30 yards away and three stories up, I would see that her eyes were fiery red. Unnaturally so.

Alex was speaking to her, though I couldn't hear him thought the wall, and she was nodding her head, though her eyes were still fixed on something across the grounds. She pushed her hair behind her ear and grappled her bags off the ground. Alex took the rest of her bags and they headed inside.

*Alex*

Charles hadn't told me much about this girl, Claire. All I knew was her name and that her mutation enabled her to see things others can't see. He didn't enlighten me on what that means, and I could tell from the way her eyes searched the grounds that she could see a lot more then I could.

After picking up her large duffle bag, I led her to the second floor and to the girls side, all the while explaining where everything is.

"So the kitchen is downstairs and next to it is the den where most people will hang out when they're not in classes or training. This is the girls' side of the second floor and the boys' side is to the right of the stair case. The door has to be open if boys are in the girls' room and vise-versa. The classrooms are on the third floor next to the staff dormitory, and the training rooms are in the basement and first floor. Prof. will come by to help you chose what courses you will take and where exactly they are. He might even have a map if you lucky." The map part was a complete lie, Charles would never waste time doing something as stupid as making a map when he could just mentally contact the lost student, though for some reason he never helped me when I got lost.

Maybe because I should know my way around after two years of living here, maybe. Meh.

Claire was standing over her bed looking at it and shifting the sheets around. This girl is odd, I mean, who messes up a made bed?

"If there's anything you need, don't be afraid to ask or whatever," I said without much care, she better not come bother me. I've had enough little students to deal with, I don't want another 16 year old coming to ask me where the training rooms are. Sure I'm only 18, but I might not be as mature as Hank, but I'm mature enough to hate younger kids, if that's mature and it it isn't well whatever.

"Well there is one thing that I would like to ask," Claire said not looking up from the bed, "I would like to know who stayed in this bedroom before me. She stayed here for some time, and I was told this school has only been open for about a year and a half."

"I don't know, ask Hank or Prof. They might know." Why does she care? Gosh this is going to be a long year.

*Charles*

I was looking through Claire's mind and seeing out of her eyes as Alex led her to Raven's old room. I should have known the day would come when something occupied it, but I didn't expect it to be someone like Claire.

Claire could see where Raven had been, she could see how much Raven used the window seat in the corner of the room, she could see how Raven had bounced on the bed as a child she could see almost all of Raven's essence in there.

A form of Raven was practically in her mind; an outline of Raven's true form was in the dusty gold that Claire saw all the past things in. Claire's gift intrigued me; she could see paths in gold of where people had been, if there was enough of one person in the room, like right now, she could almost make out the whole person. Claire had spent all 28 years of her life seeing this, it amazed me, and I could see there was something more to her mutation, something she hadn't tole me when I talked over the phone to her.

She didn't seem to age, like Hank once told me about Raven, she looked to be 16 but I could see the thought process of her mind. She was much too mature to be in the student dorms, but she came here trying to act like a 16 year old and she still seemed content with just being a student, I would have to search deeper sometime to see why she so wanted to not become a staff here and what she seemed to hide from me.

The golden dust image if Raven stayed frozen in my mind as I withdrew from Claire's mind. The thought of her still brought me pain, for with her came the thoughts of Erik and what he might be doing right now. The lives he might be ending.

I tried ever day to find him or one of his members from the Hell Fire club, but Cerebro couldn't find them. Though that seemed to be Cerebro's only flaw, with it, I had found the students and teachers to build a school.

The students were the easy part, it was the teachers. Older mutants had families and tried to forget as much about their mutation as possible. I had only been able to get Jane so far. She taught history, while Hank taught both math and science, which left me with English. I wished to find a math, English, and Spanish teacher by the end of this year, but only few mutants were educated and wanted to be reminded that they were a mutant.

I helped Alex and Sean train some of the older students, though I hoped that one day I would be able to train and teach the mutants about the outside world. Most mutants here viewed the school as a safe haven, and were protected, but soon I would have to bring back to them the reality of the real world.

How my mind wonders, hmm.

I must get down to dinner so I can help Jane prepare the food, that reminds me that we also need a chef or someone to cook the food, and we need to start a choirs list or the school will be a mess soon.

Help! It was a soft cry but it penetrated my thoughts, so I spread my telepathy field across the whole school ground but I couldn't find any students in distress, so I tried to forget it.

*Hank*

Charles seemed distracted the whole meal, he almost forgot to introduce the new students, whose name I found out was Claire. He wasn't himself.

After dinner ended he headed up to his room on the third floor, using the elevators I had built for him.

I wanted to follow him but knew that I could be about Her. She was always haunting my mind and this new girl, Claire, didn't help. She was in Her old room. It scared me how much it hurt that someone else was in Her room. I almost wanted to hurt Claire, but logic won over and kept telling me that it wasn't Claire's fault. It wasn't, but her staying there made it all so real that She was gone.

And that hurt. It hurt too much.

I ran into the forest. Trying to get away.

Trying to forget.

*Charles*

Raven, in her blue form, was running to me, away form some dark shadowed monster behind her. She screamed to me mentally:

Help! Help! Help!

But I couldn't move. I watched in horror as a hand reached out from the shadows to take her, but Raven slipped away. But her blue from changed, it started in her hands and she was soon that of a slightly smaller girl was red skin that I can only describe as dragon skin. The girls hair was dark and had red streaks in it, and the horror from Raven's face vanished when this new girl came.

She had a look of steel in her red eyes and as she turned around to face the monster, everything went white.

Sweat was poring down my face and chest as I sat straight up in bed. The lights overhead had turned on and Jane was at my side looking at me with concern.

"Charles, Charles!" She whispered squeezing my hand. "What is it Charles? I could hear you moaning from the hallway. Was it a dream? Charles?"

"I don't know," I whispered looking her in the eye, her light brown hair partly in her eyes but she shook her head to move it away. "I've never had a dream like that. I just don't know."

Dunnn dunn DUUUUNNNNN!

What could it be that has Charles' afraid. What was the dragon girl in the dream? Is she friend of foe? Is she even real?

Well you gotta keep reading to find that crap out.

I would like to thank my first reviewer! You are awesome!

Setting a great example there, for EVERYONE ELSE to review!

You know you want to, and really you should! We all hate/love Beast deep down.

So review and all that jazz.

Hope you enjoyed!