Rivetra Week Day 3: Crossover

X-Men AU

Isabel kicked her legs and hummed as she speared her pancakes with a fork. "And then," she continued, syrup dribbling down her chin, "I jumped off the swings and landed perfectly in the sand."

"Nice job, kid," Levi ruffled his sister's fiery hair. "But you're not going to be able to do it again if you don't get to school soon."

"On my way big bro!" She quickly rushed upstairs to grab her backpack and jacket, while Levi dumped the soggy remainder of her breakfast into the trash.

"Tch," he muttered affectionately. "Always puts too much syrup on these."

"I'm ready!" Isabel sang, pulling her hat over her ears.

"Alright, let's go."

Making sure to lock the door behind them, Levi held Isabel's hand tightly as they walked down the cold streets of New York City. He was probably going to be late to his first class, at this rate, but Isabel was telling him about the snowman she built the other day and he didn't have the heart to hurry her. Sometimes he wished he were back in elementary school - high school was literal hell.

"Levi!" Isabel suddenly gasped, stopping on her tracks. "There's an angel!"

He groaned internally and tugged insistently on her hand. "That's nice. We're running late Isabel, let's go."

"Aw, but there was an angel," she whined.

"Hm, what did they look like?"

"Giant wings!" She spread out her arms to demonstrate. "Big and white and fluffy."

"Guess they were watching over you."

"Yeah," Isabel sighed happily. "Angels are always watching over us, big bro."

He wished they were, honestly. Then maybe his mom would still be around and Farlan wouldn't be gone.

"Bunny!" Isabel squealed, suddenly bolting in front of Levi in pursuit of a brown ball of fluff.

He rolled his eyes - at least this was faster, and ran after her. They ran a block before the bunny decided to take a left turn into the street. Right into incoming traffic.

"Isabel!" Levi shouted in horror, extending a hand as if he could pull her back. She didn't even realize what was happening, only that she was so close to being able to pet the animal.

"No!"

There was a loud honk and Levi could only watch as three cars tore into pieces, exploding with Isabel at the center at it all.

When the smoke cleared Levi coughed, rushing into the street as his heart pounded in his chest. He couldn't lose her too. No. This couldn't be possible. She wasn't old enough, it didn't-

He was greeted by the worst possible sight. Isabel sobbed, hands clamped around her ears as she lay in the middle of all the soot and debris.

There wasn't a scratch on her.

"Oh no," he cursed. "No, no, no!" He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her arms away from her head. She looked up at him with a tear streaked face and opened her mouth to say something, but there was no time for comforting. Not now.

"Isabel," he said sternly. "We have to go. Now."

He picked her up and ran out of the street before anyone could catch them, before anyone could ask them what had happened. She was covered in soot - they would know that she was there. Unharmed. And he was never going to let them take her.

But he didn't get far.

He ran right into a man wearing a trenchcoat. Backtracking, Levi gasped for breath, thinking of all possible ways to escape this situation.

The man raised an eyebrow, staring at the teenager and his crying sister. Guilt was written all over their faces.

"Please, sir," Levi desperately grasped at straws. "My sister, she's terrified from the accident. It happened all of a sudden and she was caught at the sidelines. I just need to get her home."

"I saw what happened back there," the man said quietly.

"Alright," Levi growled. He kicked his heel into the back of the man's knee and ran, towards home, towards safety. Whatever 'safety' was, anyways. He looked behind him to make sure they weren't being followed. Thank god, no one was there.

Suddenly, there was a gust of wind, and Levi was knocked into a side alleyway, all the breath knocked out of him.

The same man in the trench coat landed next to him, with massive white wings and golden hair.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Levi sighed.

"My name is Warren," the man said. "And I'd like to talk to you, Mr. Ackerman."

-x-x-x-x-x-

Petra rushed through the hallways, still trying to keep her hair in place while clutching a slice of bread between her teeth.

"Where are you going in a hurry?" Hanji asked, running up beside her.

Finally securing her hair in place with a bobby pin, Petra removed the bread from her teeth and gasped, "I'm really running late and Mr. McCoy wanted me to give him these samples but now Professor Xavier wants to see me too, he called me ten minutes ago and wow I'm really a mess."

"Hey, slow down!" Hanji laughed. "I'll take the samples to Hank. Go see what the Prof has to say."

"You're the best," Petra sighed gratefully, handing over the samples.

Hanji winked and walked away. It really paid off to have a best friend with telepathic abilities.

Petra fixed her shirt and swallowed the last of her bread before knocking on the giant wooden doors. She really hoped her hair looked alright.

"Come in, Petra."

When she opened the door, she found Charles Xavier sitting in his usual place behind the desk, along with someone she didn't know. Short black hair, a blank expression on his face and the nicest grey eyes she had ever seen.

"Petra," Xavier smiled. "Thank you for joining us."

"Sorry about the delay," she apologized, sitting down in the chair next to the unknown individual. "I was running a bit late…"

"It's alright, Levi and I were just talking. Levi, this is Petra Ral. Petra, Levi Ackerman."

"It's nice to meet you!" she put on her best smile and put out a hand to shake. After a moment, he shook it firmly.

"Mr. Ackerman," Xavier continued. "On the day of the accident, something rather interesting occured. Cerebro, my primary aid in finding mutants, detected a new mutant signature in upstate New York. I sent Warren to check it out, and then...well you know what happened after that."

"Isn't Isabel too young?" Levi asked. "The gene doesn't manifest until puberty."

Xavier shook his head. "I'm afraid you must be mistaken. It wasn't your sister - it was you."

"What?" He slumped down in his chair.

"Your family has a long history of mutants," Xavier nodded. "Your father and brother both displayed powers."

"And people died because of it," Levi muttered. "People always die because of it."

Folding his hands, Xavier lead over the desk comfortingly. "I can help you learn how to control your abilities, Levi."

"He can!" Petra nodded. "I...um, I used to be unable to control my own. It was really bad, actually, I used to make things explode on contact," she laughed nervously. "But Professor Xavier helped me learn how to keep it under control."

"What can you do?" Levi asked. "If...you're comfortable sharing…"

Petra glanced at her hands. After all these years, she was still shaky about it. "I can do chaos magic," she said. "Making things explode...yeah, that's my thing."

Turning to Xavier, Levi asked, "Is that what I've got?" She flinched at his words; he treated it like some sort of affliction.

"No, yours is a little different I believe," Xavier replied. "From what Warren witnessed, it's some sort of telekinesis and the ability to manipulate metal."

Levi paused to let it all sink in, then shook his head. "I can't leave Isabel. She's got no one left."

"You've been living alone with your sister?" Petra gasped.

"Only for the past year," Levi muttered. "I turned eighteen so I managed to avoid the radar a bit."

"Isabel can stay here with us," Xavier said. "You won't have to worry about her, and you'll be able to see her every day."

She watched him struggle - it didn't take a telepath to tell that he didn't know if he should accept help or not. His world had been turned upside down and everything was going to change, whether he liked it or not. Petra remembered the feeling.

"Alright," he conceded. "Thank you."

Xavier smiled. "Welcome to the X-Men, Levi."

-x-x-x-x-x-

By the end of the week, Levi had learned how to form scraps of metal into simple shapes. Jean said he learned fast, and Isabel glowed whenever she talked to him. Thought he was a hero.

"Something's holding you back," Petra said softly. She found him in one of the many study rooms at the Institute, standing by the window and looking out as everyone played outside. Fireballs were being tossed around, everyone using their abilities. One big, happy community.

"Why aren't you outside?" he asked.

She raised an eyebrow. "Why aren't you?"

"Did you come here to ask me questions?"

"No, I just wanted to talk. Get to know you better." She chuckled. "Sooner or later someone's going to come up and try to get in your face, and believe me, you'd rather it be me instead of Hanji. She has this way of getting into people's faces."

"Is she the energetic, hyper one?"

"Yep, that's her." Petra laughed. "And since I can't read minds like she can...why don't you tell me what you're thinking about?"

After a long pause, he finally spoke. "It's amazing how they can all be so comfortable with their abilities. I've never been comfortable with mutants, and now...I am one of them. All I've ever seen is that mutants and their powers lead to more pain and destruction. I'm...I'm afraid I'll become one of them."

"Professor Xavier mentioned that...a lot of people in your family have abilities," Petra began slowly. "Is that why?"

"Yeah." Levi clenched his fists tightly. "My dad was the strongest man I knew. Did a lot of manual labor, but one day he got fired because his strength got out of control. Turns out he was a mutant - he knew about it - and it was starting to get out of control. He was the reason my mother left. I think she knew that since he was one...all of us would be too. He just lost it. Losing his job, my mom, drove him crazy. He started breaking things around the house, and drinking. He never hurt any of us, but seeing him deteriorate...that hurt us more than anything."

Petra sat silently, listening as he poured out all the memories he'd been hiding, the doubts that had been creeping for the past ten years.

"My brother Farlan and I protected Isabel as best as we could," Levi continued. "She was just a baby back then. One day my dad went to a bar, and didn't come home. In the news we read about a man who had been mangled to death - virtually unrecognizable. We figured...we figured my dad had done that. Probably couldn't live with that anymore."

"You think he's dead?" Petra whispered.

"Probably," Levi sighed. "Or arrested somewhere. We lived with our grandma for a while, and everything was normal for a bit. Then Farlan started showing signs when he was a freshman. I was just a sophomore then. He'd be waking up at night screaming and strange things kept happening at our house. My grandma was always superstitious, and with stories of mutants on the headlines every day well...she freaked out."

He had to pause then, to take a breath. "They got to him," he choked. "Guess that was one mutant Xavier couldn't find in time. They came to our house and took him away."

"Oh god," Petra breathed. "I am so sorry."

"It's not your fault," he growled. "I should have protected him better. Should have found help - good help. A place like this...he would have loved it here."

"Don't blame yourself." Petra leapt up. "Every person who's like us has experienced things like this. It's terrifying, I know, and sometimes you think that you're the root of the problem, but you're not. With every tragedy comes a story of people who were saved by mutants. Haven't you heard those? We can do good. Save people from terrible accidents - look how you saved your sister."

He laughed bitterly. "I'm not a hero."

"No." She placed a hand on his arm. "You're not. But you have a good heart. I believe that. Your father, Farlan, they did too. By coming to the Institute, you're helping give mutants a better reputation. So that people like your family...they won't have a reason to be afraid anymore. They can look for help, and they will find it."

"You're a lot more hopeful than I am."

"Maybe I'm overly optimistic," Petra's lip twisted upwards. "But I've felt first hand what it's like to get powers...and what it's like to have someone like Professor Xavier help me. I want that for everyone, all the mutants everywhere."

"Me too," Levi whispered. He imagined what it would have been like if he hadn't come here. If Isabel had manifested the x-gene and he would be stuck trying to cover it up. Like his father tried to do. That may have made things worse for her.

"You with me then?" Petra asked.

He sighed heavily. "Well, I think your cheeriness is starting to rub off on me."

She punched him lightly. "I know you're secretly a softie on the inside."

"Sure, sure."

They stood there for the rest of the night, watching fireworks shoot into the sky, and for the first time, Levi had just a little spark of hope.