11.

The Past

Chapter Theme Song: Somebody to Love - Queen

The mansion was big, old-fashioned, at the centre of a large estate. Seeing it with his own eyes did nothing to sway Nathan's already present and strong sense of uncertainty about this.

"Please, at least give it a chance," his mother had insisted, although he were a child again, moving schools. "You might find it really helps. Your father and I came a long way from studying there. We learned a lot."

"I'm not going there to learn," he'd countered.

"But you may still learn a lot. And, all of our friends are there."

He had come here to help train the students. He wasn't sure how much of a help he would be, but here he was nonetheless. He knew from his time spent there what the distant future held - a dark, empty future - so he needed to help them battle that and be as best prepared as possible for it.

He had arrived at the school a couple of days earlier than expected. He thought it would give him some time to settle in before starting work. He planned on keeping to himself mostly for those days.

"Nathan Summers?"

In the entrance hall, Nathan turned at the sound of an English accent, and found the Professor wheeling up to him. Charles Xavier gave him a smile. "You're early."

"Wanted to get settled in."

"Well we're very glad to have you." Xavier held out his hand to shake. "Welcome."

"Hope it's okay that I'm early."

"Certainly! We can get a head start on things. Come, let's go to my office. We'll discuss things further there."

In the office, Xavier smiled at him. "You look like your father. And I sense a bit of your Uncle Alex in you too. Now, onto business. We've got a room for you, and you can asses our training facility and adjust as you see fit-"

A knock at the door sounded then.

"Come in," called Xavier.

A red-haired young woman peeked her head in. "Hi Charles, I have that folder you were looking for-" She stopped when she saw Nathan. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were in a meeting."

"No worries, thank you, Nina. Come in, I would like you to meet our newest addition." Charles waved her in. "This is Nathan, Jean and Scott's son."

The woman's jaw dropped. "Oh! You're Nate Summers! So nice to finally meet you! We've heard so much about you! I'm Nina. Welcome to the School for the Gifted!" She was obviously very passionate about this place. From what his parents had told him, she had been here since the '60s.

They shook hands. "Thanks. Nice to meet you, too. You're Night Witch, right?"

"Yeah, that's me. Or 'Wicked Witch of the West' as Wade calls me."

"I'm sure that's not true."

"Thanks. You haven't met him yet?" Nathan shook his head. "Oh boy, you're in for a treat."

"Nina's a teacher here as well," Charles explained.

"That's right, I am. I teach history."

"Sounds like you'd be good at that." Nathan nodded. "The woman from the past."

"Hope so."

"Nathan will be helping with training," Charles told her.

"Oh, excellent! Always more people to train in the ways of being X-Men." She grinned, and Nathan smiled back.

They stayed that way for a few moments until she remembered the folder in her hands. "Oh, right!" She set it down on Charles's desk - the whole reason she had stopped by. "Well, nice to meet you, Nathan. I look forward to seeing you around."

"Thanks, you too." With one last smile, she was gone.

The start of something new and great, though neither knew then just how great it was going to be.

"Ms. Nova, Ms. Nova! Will you show me the cool magic, please?!"

Nina smiled down at the little girl, one of the younger students, and knelt down so that she was more level with her. She held up a hand of ringed fingers and waved them, energy rippling around her fingertips.

The look on the girl's face was priceless: big, wide eyes, and huge smile. "Wow! It really is magic!"

Nathan smiled as he watched them. He was standing on the staircase, overlooking the wall covered in framed photographs from every decade since the school's opening.

He had now been at the school a couple of weeks, was all settled in, and enjoying it more than he thought he would. It was hard work, but he had been trained in that. And the welcoming, supportive environment the school carried was refreshing and reassuring. The next generation of mutants was going to be just fine.

Nina noticed him and gave him her signature big smile and wave. He returned the gesture, waving his metal hand.

"So you were sent into the future to deal with this?" she asked him, nodding to his arm. She was obviously very curious.

"Yeah." He bent and unbent his metal fingers.

"Did it help?"

"Well, they taught me to use it to my advantage, plus that's where I did most of my training. And they added all the gadgets, like the shield and my eye."

"Wow..." She stared up at him. Then she looked away. "Sorry, you probably don't like the staring." He probably got it a lot.

He shrugged. "It's okay. I don't mind you staring."

She caught his emphasis on 'you', which was partially intentional and partially not. She smiled.

He turned back to the photo he had been staring at, one of the original X-Men back in 1962, before the divide between Xavier and Lehnsherr. The group, then small, stood out in front of the mansion in a line, arms around each other, smiling for the camera: Xavier, Lehnsherr, Nina, Hank, Raven, and Alex.

"Uncle Alex." He nodded to the photo.

"Yeah, we called him Havok. He was great."

"Yeah, wish I'd had the chance to meet him. Most of you are still left though, from his photo."

"Yeah, and we've grown."

"Yeah." They turned and watched as students filled the halls between classes.

She smiled contentedly. "There's no place I'd rather be."

"Think you'll ever leave?" he asked, curious. He was amazed at how long she had been here for, her love for it obviously unwavering.

She shrugged. "If I found the right reason, I suppose. But I don't know what that would be. It frightens me to think of leaving, but I'll always find my way back here. It's home."

This took me a lot longer to update than I wanted, but between stress with school, power outages, and weather issues, I wasn't feeling very inspired! But, here we go, finally an update!

I just saw 'Bohemian Rhapsody' a few weeks ago (I know, so late!) and I absolutely loved it and I have been listening to Queen's music non-stop, so I definitely wanted to include one (or more!) of their songs in the chapter theme songs! (I've even started a BoRhap story...)

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)