(A/N) Thank you for the continuing views and reviews.
No-account-girl: Thank you very much for your praise. I don't know if you've noticed, but Destiny is in this story. Moira became Destiny. Was it somehow unclear? I didn't do something wrong, did I?
Random Under the Sun: Thank you for your high praise, as well. As for your desire, don't even worry about it. We'll get to that point. That was in the cards from day one. So now, let's move just a little closer to it…
How Do You Measure…
Chapter 6: Will I Wake Tomorrow?
As was the case with most well brought up little boys, Charles had been required to study music in his youth. He hadn't stuck with it, but he still remembered enough to teach Pele the basics when she'd insisted she had to learn. It had taken the professor a few weeks to gather all the materials, as all the old lesson books had gotten scattered over the years. He couldn't do much with them, but he felt confident that once he'd gotten her started, Pele would be able to figure it out on her own. Bad attitude or no, she was a very smart girl.
Pele walked around the grand piano several times when Charles showed her into the music room. There were several other old instruments scattered throughout the room, all used by past generations of Xaviers, but the piano held the central position. Charles had been meaning to get a tuner to come look at the thing, but Pele hadn't wanted to wait a minute longer. She wanted to at least know the basics.
Since Pele wasn't yet strong enough or tall enough to lift the piano's lid, Charles lifted it for her as she climbed onto the piano bench, fixing it in the open position so she could see the inner workings of the instrument.
"Try it out," he told her, smiling as she caressed the dusty ivory keys. Then she pressed them down hard and a harsh, discordant sound echoed from within the piano.
Catching the movement of the padded hammers as they struck the strings in order to create the sound, Pele quickly got up on her knees to have a better look. Trying out different keys, Pele watched the interior workings of the old instrument in acute fascination. The notes sounded somewhat sour to Charles, but Pele didn't seem to notice. Every inch of the old piano held wonder for her.
"Do you want to learn?" he asked, sitting down beside her. Pele nodded eagerly. "All right, then. The first thing you need to know is that the notes are arranged in sets of eight…octaves. Each note is named for a letter of the alphabet, A through G. An octave is a full set of notes from one A to the next A up. You also shouldn't worry about the black keys yet. I'm only talking about the white keys. Shall we go through them?"
Pele nodded, placing a finger on the key at the left most end of the keyboard. As she tapped each note, she named it, A through G, repeating, all the way up the keyboard to the highest C.
"Very good."
"What are the black keys for?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Variations in notes. The white keys are whole tones and the black ones are either sharp or flat variations in the sound, but like I said, don't worry about them right now. We'll get more into theory later. Most songs tend to be more in the range of the center of the piano, so the central position for your right hand begins with middle C. Can you guess where that is?" he asked, nodding down at the keyboard.
Counting out the keys to herself, Pele eventually selected the correct key, sounding the note out for her own amusement. Charles nodded. "Yes, that's right. You're getting it."
"What do I do with my left hand?" Pele asked as she laid each finger on the four keys proceeding middle C.
"It depends on the song. For now, I think we'll just worry about your right hand. You ought to master this position before we get into more complex melodies. Would you like to learn a small song for the right hand alone?"
Pele just nodded, waiting anxiously for him to continue.
"Okay. I'm going to play it on the next octave up and I want you to repeat what I do," he said. First he struck the C key three times, then the D and the E. Pele followed suit. Once she'd gotten then hang of that, he moved on, working through three more progressions of notes, repeating each one with her until she had it. Once she could play the whole thing all the way through, Charles sang the lyrics for her.
Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
Pele scrunched up her face in consternation at this. "Bit of a strange song."
Charles couldn't help but chuckle to himself at her expression. "It's just one song, Pele. The idea is to start off with something easy before you get into the more difficult things. That's how learning works."
"That's how learning works for other people. I'm ready for more now," Pele insisted.
Charles sighed, saddened because he knew how true it was. "Running before we can crawl is it? All right, I suppose I can teach you about note values next."
XxX
At first, he doesn't understand what he's hearing. It isn't like any crying he's ever heard before. The only thing he can think to compare it to is the wailing of a cat. Then he remembers Charles' words.
It…it's a baby.
The moment he realizes this, he finds himself in a burning house. The crying is suddenly hard to hear over the sounds of burning, splintering wood and roaring flame, but it still sounds faintly in his ears. He turns to see a cradle in the far corner of the room…as far from safety as was possible to be. A beam falls from the ceiling above, nearly crushing the small cradle.
"Nein!" he shouts for a reason he can't understand, dashing toward the cradle. He reaches inside, lifting the tiny infant from within. The crying lessens slightly when the little one's cradled protectively against his chest.
Protect him. Protect him, Erik. He needs you, a voice that sounds like Charles echoes in his head.
Not even thinking about it, Erik darts through the flames, somehow finding a way through while still shielding the baby boy. When he's breathing fresh air again, though, he hardly has a chance to feel relieved.
"Gib uns das Kind, Jude," a soldier says, pointing his gun at him. He's facing down a wall of Nazi troops, all armed and ready to fire.
Protect him, he hears the voice again. There's not a moment of hesitation…not an ounce of fear…like there has been before. He must protect this child…no matter what the cost.
He doesn't even dignify his enemies with a response this time. He has power now. They can do nothing against him.
"Nie. Sie wird ihm nicht schaden," he says firmly, raising a hand. At his call the guns fall to pieces and the helmets collapse in on themselves, crushing every head. The soldiers drop to the ground, all dead, and Erik smiles down at the little boy, who has fallen asleep in his arms.
I won't let anyone harm you.
Erik snapped awake with a small gasp. He sat up in bed to find the morning sun shining through the window and Charles already up. He could hear water running in the bathroom.
Just a dream…
It had been a good dream, but of course, even his good dreams would tend toward fire, blood, and Nazis. The surprising part, though, was that it was morning. Apparently, he'd actually slept through the night. All this baby business…perhaps Charles' talk was starting to rub off on him. It really was too bad they couldn't do something like that the natural way. Maybe…they could talk about…adopting? Some lonely little mutant child, like they had been. Yes…that would be nice.
Erik had been too lost in his own musings to notice the water had shut off. He didn't realize it until Charles exited the bathroom, towling himself dry on his way to the closet. When the telepath saw him awake, he smiled.
"Good morning, sunshine. Sleep well?"
"Very well, actually."
XxX
Reading was a skill that had easily been reawakened in Artemis' arsenal of human skills. As far as Charles could gather, she had been at roughly a fourth grade reading level in the time when her hidden memory stopped and she was rapidly advancing to the level she should be at. It was why Charles had decided that today would be a good day to show her the library. His study, where they held their therapy sessions, certainly had plenty of books, but they weren't quite right for a young woman just rediscovering the world of literature. He had only just begun to stock up on books for younger children: popular fiction, picture books, textbooks, and the like. If the Xavier library was not already grand, it was soon to become that much grander….and Artemis' expression reflected this when Charles threw the doors open.
Artemis stepped in slowly, her eyes wide with awe as they darted from row to row.
"There are truly…this many books…in all the world?" she whispered as she wandered up and down the rows of bookshelves.
"More even than this," he told her, unable to help smiling at her joy. "You can take newer books out of here, but I do have to ask you to stay in here if you're going to get into some of the older works. In the meantime, I thought you might enjoy this one," he started, going over to one of the shelves and pulling down a decently thick book.
"Bull…finch's…Mythology?" she read slowly once he'd set the book in her hands.
"Exactly. You'll learn more about your namesake, and many more besides. I loved it when I was younger."
"Thank you very much, Professor," she said. Even though she still spoke slowly, she could speak in mostly complete sentences. She was progressing quickly. Charles could hardly wait for the day she was ready for regular schooling. She would be their first real student. Pele would be a student, as well, but Charles could already see that she would be far ahead of the learning curb, especially once her telepathic abilities were restored to her. In some ways, Pele was already his equal in intellect, as evidenced by the fact that she'd already advanced to two-handed pieces on the piano and was starting to eye the violin in the corner. She had advanced past his ability to instruct her, and was learning purely on her own now, pouring through every lesson book he could provide. She just couldn't get enough of it. Artemis, on the other hand, preferred words to music notes, and she was starting to pour through books herself. Perhaps she would also be an accelerated learner…to a degree, anyway.
"You're welcome. You can hold onto that as long as you need to. It's a newer edition, and there are other books on mythology and folklore here if you find you enjoy it. I myself am partial to the Brothers Grimm."
XxX
All he can see is smoke and fire. He's tripping over rubble as the acrid air fills his nose, mouth, and lungs, drawing fourth deep, hacking coughs as he calls out in the glowing darkness.
"Luke!" he shouts. "Luke! Where are ya, man?"
Nothing…nothing but the sounds of the burning warehouse. He's got to be here somewhere. He's got to be! He can't have been shot.
"Luke!"
That's when he hears the groan. Burning debris falls from the ceiling and he leaps aside. In the brief flare of light, he sees his friend…his legs crushed beneath a support and his left arm badly burnt.
"A…Alex," he calls out, reaching his one good arm out to him.
Oh, God…
"NOO!"
Havok was still screaming when he woke from the nightmare. It took him several minutes to realize he was no longer in the warehouse. That was long past. The scent of fire still seemed to linger, though. This, he realized, was because the window of the room had been blown out by his latest plasma blast. Damn it, Charles was going to kill him. Except…this…wasn't his room, was it.
"No…" he whispered in horror, his gaze slowly drifting down from the destroyed wall to the figure lying on the floor before it.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, his heart repeated over and over again like a broken record. Please, God, no…don't let this be real.
Artemis lay there, whimpering in pain. From what he could see in the dim glow from the dying fire, her shoulder was burned.
"Somebody help!" Havok screamed frantically as he leaped out of the bed, falling to his knees beside Artemis and scooping her gently into his arms, minding her injured shoulder. "Artemis! Artemis, I'm sorry! God, I'm so sorry. Artemis…" he cried brokenly.
"Alex…" she whispered, reaching up to touch his cheek, whining softly in her wolf voice.
Help! Professor, please help! He screamed in his mind, projecting as much as he could.
Charles and Erik were the first to arrive, followed closely by Destiny and Mystique. Beast arrived only moments behind them, and Banshee and Pele came soon after.
Charles didn't ask what had happened. No doubt he had gotten a very clear picture of events from Havok's mind. He knelt before Havok, reaching out to brush the hair from Artemis' sweat-soaked face.
"Artemis? Artemis, can you hear me?"
Artemis nodded weakly, still clinging to Havok.
"Everything's going to be all right. Hank is going to fix you up."
Beast was soon among the small group on the floor, pulling supplies out of an emergency medical kit. "Does it hurt?" he asked her as he checked her pulse. Artemis could only nod, the language she'd regained deserting her in this moment of intense pain.
"That's good," the young scientist reported to the group. "If she can still feel it, it's not worse than second degree."
Slowly, Charles helped Havok to lay Artemis back on the floor in order to make Beast's work easier. The burn on her shoulder was an angry red color, spotted with patches of white. Once Beast had determined that it was the only injury she'd suffered, his first order of business was scraping away the damaged skin. Without any form of painkiller, it was extremely painful, and Artemis couldn't help but scream, clutching Havok's hand in a death grip all the while. He hardly felt it. He just squeezed back to comfort her…numb to everything around him except Artemis in pain.
I did this. I hurt her. It's just like before. Artemis…
Once the wound was cleaned, Beast rubbed a sour-smelling ointment all over it before wrapping it tightly in a clean bandage.
"That'll do for now," Beast said. "They both probably ought to stay in the lab tonight. Havok, were you hurt at all?"
Havok wasn't there to answer the question, though. While the bandage was being applied, he'd slipped out of the room, drifting aimlessly down the hall, vaguely thinking to make a run for it. How could he stay here…after this? What if the injury was permanent? It could happen again…he could hurt someone else…hurt her again. He couldn't let that happen.
Before he could even make the stairs, however, he froze in his tracks, unable to move. The next thing he knew, Charles was beside him.
Let me go, damn it! He hissed in his mind, unable even to talk.
"I'm not doing this," Charles explained, the look on his face a study in sadness. "Artemis is."
With that, Beast appeared on his other side, carrying Artemis in his arms. Weakly, she reached her good arm forward to touch his arm.
"When she realized you were gone, she started screaming. She insisted I couldn't let you go. She wants to speak to you," Charles continued to explain, placing his fingers to Havok's temple, and the fingers of the other hand to Artemis' temple, connecting their minds.
Don't go, she begged, her eyes filled with tears. Don't leave me here.
But I hurt you. I'm hurting you now. You shouldn't use your power to hold me. You'll sap all your strength. You ought to rest. Just let me go.
I won't! she insisted, squeezing his frozen arm. I can't let you go like this…not because of me. I can't accept that. If you really don't want to be here anymore, I'll let you go…but I don't believe that. You need this place…and I need you. We still need each other.
This isn't the worst that can happen, Artemis. If I…let this happen again…I might kill you. I've killed before. If you died…I couldn't bear it, he admitted to her. You have to live.
You won't kill me, Alex. I know you.
Do you, though? He questioned bitterly. You don't know what I've done…what I've been through.
Maybe not…but I still know you…and I know you can control your power. You just had a bad dream.
How did you know?
A wolf lives by her instincts. I sensed your night terror and woke up. I was trying to wake you when it happened…and I tried to move. I just wasn't quick enough. It could have been a lot worse. I'll know to be quicker in the future.
There won't be a future, he insisted harshly. This isn't going to happen again. I won't let it. This ends here.
Alex…if I can't…convince you to stay…will you at least wait…until I'm better? She finally managed to ask.
Havok honestly might have cried if he hadn't been frozen, but he eventually capitulated. Fine…but we aren't sleeping together anymore. I won't let myself sleep around you anymore.
Thank you, Alex. Thank you, she returned, finally releasing him from her hold. Almost instantly, she passed out cold.
"Artemis? Artemis?" Havok shouted desperately.
"She'll be okay," Charles said firmly, resting a hand on the young man's shoulder. "She just made herself tired. She's never done anything like that before."
"You should throw me back in jail," he said bitterly as he watched Beast carry Artemis away. "This is what happens…all the time…everyone gets hurt."
"You shouldn't…give up on yourself. She hasn't given up on you. She believes you can control it. I've seen you control it."
"Maybe I can control it…sometimes. But all it takes is one stupid fuck up…and someone winds up dead. I can't let that happen to her."
"She trusts you not to hurt her. That should be enough. Now, I'm fairly certain she'll want you with her tonight. Will you stay with her until she wakes?"
Stopping himself before he could argue, Havok simply nodded, heading down the stairs after Beast. Charles stared after him a long while before Erik found him like that. It took the metal-kine several minutes to coax him back to bed. As they walked, he couldn't help but ask…Erik…what's happening to us? Is it all going to fall apart?
No, Erik reassured him, kissing his cheek as they moved. You won't let it…and neither will I…and we're the strongest two people I know. We'll get through this…all of us. With you leading us, we'll make it.
XxX
Havok stayed with Artemis that first night, but after she woke, he took to sleeping in the underground bunker where he'd trained with Charles, not trusting himself around anyone should he happen to fall asleep. The easy friendship that had formed between him and Artemis came to a grinding halt and a thick pall spread over the mansion.
Artemis' room had been closed until they could get the material to rebuild the wall, so the wolf girl had taken to sleeping in Havok's old room, comforted only slightly by the scent of him. She took up the old habit of whining the night away, singing her sad wolf songs. At first, no one was really sure what to do, as it somehow felt wrong to be taking Havok's place. This went on for several nights before Pele finally came to her, silently offering her own brand of comfort, while Artemis waited in dread for the day Beast would pronounce her shoulder fully healed. It was during this sad time that Charles and Beast finally made the breakthrough they'd been striving so hard for.
Charles didn't struggle with the decision to tell Erik for very long. With the tension between Artemis and Havok, it almost felt inappropriate to be so happy, but then he decided the small family needed some good news after everything that had happened. So he opted to tell Erik the very next day.
Erik had no idea what Charles could possibly want when he telepathically summoned him to the lab that morning. His only guess was that it had something to do with the Artemis-Havok situation. He certainly wasn't expecting Charles to come right up to him and embrace him when he arrived.
"Having a good day, are we?" he asked uncertainly as he pulled back.
"You have no idea. Erik…do you remember when we talked about…having children?"
"Yes," the metal-kine said slowly. "Why? You aren't…going to tell me you have another mutation, are you?"
Charles chuckled at this. "No, but I do find it interesting that that's the first place your mind went. You see, Hank and I have been working on a little project these last few weeks. We've been working with samples from you and me-"
"Samples?" Erik interrupted as Charles led him into the lab. "As in…"
"Semen," Charles responded succinctly. "Honestly, Erik, it's not like it's all that hard to come by."
"Well…what have you been doing with these samples?"
"I wanted to see…if it was somehow possible…to combine our genetic material…to create…life."
"You mean…like a baby," Erik said calmly, seeing where this was heading.
"That's exactly what I mean. For the longest time, we couldn't figure out a solution. The combination of egg and sperm is essential to the reproductive process…but then I thought…what might a tele-kine be able to do with this?"
"Artemis."
"Just so. If she were able to take an egg, extract the genetic material from it, and transplant it with…say…my own…we could easily make something like this work.
"What do you think?" he asked after several minutes of stunned silence.
"You've…put a lot of thought into this…haven't you?" Erik managed to ask after a time.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked, gently running a thumb along his cheekbone.
"I didn't…want to get your hopes up…incase I failed," Charles said, not quite looking at him. "And…technically, I did ask for your permission."
Erik couldn't help snickering softly at this. "Technically true. I suppose I can respect that. Where would this egg be coming from?"
"Destiny," Charles explained, starting to sound hopeful. "She knew before I even asked her, of course. The eggs were harvested last week, per her instruction."
"And Artemis? Does she have any idea what to do?" he continued in a practical manner.
"She doesn't," Charles admitted. "I would have to control her in order for this to work, but she's already consented to it. She wants to help us."
"You're awfully confident, aren't you…that I'll say yes?" Erik said, briefly glancing away from his lover.
"Won't you?" Charles nearly whispered, his expression carefully neutral.
"I told you…I'd never even thought about anything like this before. But then…you started talking and I started thinking…and I thought…since it's you…maybe it would be nice," Erik said, turning back to Charles and taking his face in his hands.
"So you want to do it?" Charles asked, his voice breaking slightly.
"Yes," Erik whispered, claiming the telepath's dry lips with his own, moistening them with his kiss. The tender embrace was soon interrupted, however, by a few awkward coughs. Erik looked up to see Beast, Destiny, and Artemis all gathered in the doorway.
"Knock much?" he asked, slowly releasing Charles from his arms.
"Don't blame them, Erik. I was excited; I called for them."
Erik rolled his eyes, a wry grin taking up residence on his face. "Well, if we're going to do this, we'd better get to it."
The most awkward part of the whole process was actually harvesting the necessary specimens. The least mortifying solution Charles could come up with was for them to just lock themselves in the bathroom and…get each other off. Not that it didn't feel good…but that didn't make the whole business any less awkward.
"Don't worry…we'll do the real thing later," Charles reassured Erik, hastily pulling himself together so he could get the specimens to Artemis.
Taking control of the tele-kine's mind was yet another strange, new experience. Rarely had he sunk himself so deeply in another individual's conscience, using her body and power as extensions of his own. Artemis' power ran much deeper than even she had realized. Freezing Havok was only the beginning. As Charles had suspected, with her power, he could reach down to the atomic level, manipulating the specimens as he needed to. Once the genetic transplant had taken place, the altered egg was placed in a culture vial along with Erik's semen.
"What happens now?" Erik asked, staring at the small vial that would, hopefully, soon contain their future child.
"We wait," Beast answered. "At least twenty-four hours for fertilization to take place."
"And then?" Erik pressed.
"Still another twenty-four hours to be certain that cell division is proceeding as it should," Beast explained. "We don't want to inject the blastocyst into Destiny's uterus until we're certain it's working. Though…Erik…Charles…you do understand that this has never worked before, right? Doctors have tried…but human medical science just hasn't advanced this far yet."
"We understand," Charles said quietly, taking Erik's hand in his as the two of them watched the vial together. "We know…it might not work."
"What was that you said about human medical science?" Erik fired back, smirking again as he gently massaged the hand that held his. "We aren't humans, are we."
It was a trying forty-eight hours, to be sure, and everyone was doubly relieved that by the end of it, Beast examined the vial and announced, "We have mitosis!"
XxX
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Colonel William Stryker Jr. asked his father, CIA Agent William Stryker Sr.
"No. Unfortunately, it's the best lead I've had. No one else knows a damn thing about Xavier and his band of freaks."
A man who called himself only Mastermind had contacted him, saying he had information concerning the whereabouts of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr. They had agreed to meet about a mile from the CIA building, alone and unarmed, but Stryker Sr. wasn't exactly a trusting sort. Stryker Jr. was only a little better, being a colonel about to take charge of his first black ops unit. They'd been about to ship out for Vietnam, but his father had requested his unit especially for his vendetta against Xavier and Lehnsherr.
The only lights to be seen were the headlights of Stryker Sr.'s car. It was getting to be very late and both men were starting to wonder if their contact was going to show.
"Is putting these mutants down really as important as all that?" the younger Stryker asked, watching his father pace anxiously.
"Absolutely. You've seen the Cuba reports," the elder insisted.
"Yes, but it seems to me these guys would make good soldiers…good weapons. Why couldn't we use them to our advantage? Seems to me like it's a largely untapped resource. No one else is doing it."
"Because they're too dangerous. These freaks could destroy everything humanity stands for."
"Humanity? Heh, humanity doesn't stand for anything, Dad…not as a whole. All people really know is how to fight each other. You ought to know that."
"This is different," the older man started to say when two figures suddenly appeared in the glow of the headlights. Stryker Jr. automatically placed a hand on his concealed pistol.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Agent Stryker. I thought we had an understanding," a man's voice said, emanating from the taller of the two figures. They were both dressed in long, black, leather coats.
"You didn't abide by it either," the agent pointed out. "Who's your friend?"
"My compatriot. You may call her Selene," the man introduced as the shorter figure lowered the hood of her jacket, revealing a head of thick, wavy, black hair. Her skin was lightly tanned and her face was full and beautiful, but at the center of all this was the unmistakable glint of ice in her brown eyes. Selene was undoubtedly a hard woman.
"You got a name?" Stryker Jr. asked the man. "Apart from Mastermind, I mean."
"My name, gentlemen, is Jason. That's all you really need to know," he said, sweeping back his own hood to reveal a sharp, angular face and short, jet-black hair. A meticulously trimmed moustache adorned his face and his eyes were a deep shade of blue that conveyed a quiet sense of amusement both Strykers immediately disliked. The younger did find he liked the name, though; so, against his better judgment, he logged it away for potential future use, as his wife was due to have a baby in a few months' time.
"What would you say," Jason continued almost immediately, "if I handed you Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr?"
"I'd say what's in it for you," the CIA man replied instantly.
"I'd ask where your information comes from," young Stryker shot back.
"All in good time, Colonel. What you should know up front is that it will take a lot more than just a location in order to infiltrate the place you're looking for. Are you ready for that?"
"I'm ready for anything," the old man replied fiercely.
"Good," Jason said, an eerie smile taking up residence on his face. "In that case, I think we can do business."
XxX
(A/N) Still doin' it for ya? Definitely have a few notes for this chapter.
Translations: Gib uns das Kind, Jude = Give us the child, Jew. Nie. Sie wird ihm nicht schaden = Never. You won't harm him. (Maybe, anyway. This was, at least, my intention.)
In Vitro: Is it a bit odd in this scenario? Yeah, but I wanted to explore how this might work if neither of them had a convenient secondary mutation. (After all, this is what fan fiction is for, ne? Exploring possibilities?) Is in vitro fertilization a thousand times more complicated than I've portrayed here? Damn straight, it is. It wasn't even successfully implemented until 1978. But this is Hank and Charles we're talking about here. They could so do anything they set their minds to as far as genetics go.
Mastermind and Selene: Be forewarned, I know nothing about these characters except what my wikipedia research has been able to turn up, so…we'll just see what happens. These characters were requested, so I thought I'd try and use them. Got several ideas already, but first we'll see if I can even write them. If anyone happens to know, do tell me how I'm doing.
See you in the next chapter.