Chapter Twenty- Nine

Heyyyyyyyy, so this is the next chapter- obviously. We've got some cute stuff that's not exactly Peter and Allie but also our fave telepath. Also we have a short appearance of our fave illusionist: Martinique… gotta love her… sorry that was painful to say. Every time I have to put myself into like, some bitchy mindset in order to get her dialogue correct, I literally want to jump out a window. And that goes for honestly everything that has happened in this story. I'm constantly having to torture my little protagonists to create the drama element and it's such a pain. But right now this chapter and the next are about taking breaks and helping each other out, so we all will be able to relax and just enjoy the personalities of the story for a short time.

Also, thank you Emilee and my elusive Guest for reading the story and giving your positive feedback on the last chapter (and of course thank you to all who have given your reviews; it's much appreciated and is what keeps me going on this project). I'll of course keep updating this particular story, as I'm going to use it as a sort of outline for the revised one after the next X-Men movie comes out. Since that one, I think, is going to sort of be a more conclusive film, I'll be able to find a good place to end this story. Don't worry though! I love sequels as much as the next guy, so you can bet your ass that'll be in the future of Allie and Peter's adventure, need there be an end to this one. Though I'm very unsure as to where they're headed at this point in time, so I'll just play around with the different issues I have running through the storyline right now.

On another note, Martinique's father is Jason Wyngarde, who is also known as Mastermind. For a little while there I was looking to introduce new characters that weren't just made up ones, like Stacey was, for example. So I came across Regan Wyngarde and delved far enough to discover her other family members, Martinique and Jason. I really enjoyed the chemistry I was coming up with, as well as ideas as to how the characters would interact with each other, so I decided why not add them into the quarrel. Of course, there was some other reasons Jason would be a fine addition… but we shall get there eventually.

We have too many kidnappings and riots going on to handle yet another issue, and like I said, these next chapters are gonna be chill. So anyways, I've yapped enough, please enjoy the story thus far.

Charles, who had encountered many people in his life, had never met anyone so ignorant before. It could be comical to him if not for the fact that he needed to treat his students respectfully- especially under the idea that this one in particular had a father in the staff. They needed all the help that they could gather, and losing Jason's expertise in various teaching subjects would definitely hurt them.

"She started it, I was just trying to like, state my opinion," Martinique defended herself sorely, Charles having already watched the scenario that had occurred through and through took her words with a grain of salt. He understood why Allie got angry, as he knew the depth of her agony with the 'mutation' comment. Had it not been for that level of malice on Martinique's part, he truly didn't think that the blonde would've done anything as drastic as slapping the other girl.

Though, the Professor did indeed think that in either sense the brunette deserved what was given to her. Unfortunately he had to keep his personal opinions scattered in the back of his mind as there were quite a few telepathically inclined mutants within his presence at that very moment. Being a biased man was not a part of a leader's code.

"Martinique," he said lightly, but sternly. "Do not lie." Mr. Wyngarde just closed his eyes in exhaustion and sighed out his nose, full well knowing the deception that his daughter was capable of; through an unsuccessful degree, of course. He wished that she'd think about the importance of being before the man who could do the impossible with just a thought alone. Lying to him- and thinking that she could get away with it- was not a good impression, by any means.

Not that she'd ever done anything different in her life, her father only wished that one day she'd snap out of whatever sort of rebellion that was taking her over. Left and right she would cry out about some situation that, after some evaluation from him, was clearly her fault. But he did what he could to help as he did love his daughter to bits and would do anything to protect her.

Thoughts in mind, Jason turned to her, "please don't do this now." She just looked at him with a frown, rolling her eyes upon looking back to Charles.

"Okay," she pouted. "You probably saw what happened, I guess. So let's hear what you have to say."

Allie, who was also present at that time, smirked and silently paraded in the fact that she was probably going to be let off the hook. It was about time Martinique would be put into her place… she'd likely gotten away with much grander bullshit before.

"Both of you will be serving consequence for this altercation," was Xavier's final verdict. Allie's mouth made a petite 'o' shape while Martinique simply stared at her manicured nails. Jason, in the corner, nodded to himself and figured that there wouldn't be any sort of grueling task to be given. Maybe hall duty or something simple as that. "The books in the library… they haven't been sorted in quite some time. I would like for the both of you to put them in alphabetical order. Let's say you work on it… two hours a day."

Well, that certainly didn't capture any sort of delight from anyone in the room.

"Niiiiiice," Allie muttered while scuffing her shoes on the carpet.

"So are we done here?" Martinique asked in a despondent tone. Charles nodded curtly, watching as the daughter and father duo made their exit. He looked up to Allie as the door closed, instantly smiling apologetically.

"I'm sorry for having to put this on you too," he admitted in remorse, though he knew that such fits would be thrown if he punished only Martinique. Allie sighed before allowing a smirk to creep up on her face.

"Don't worry about it, I used to file papers for my teachers sometimes back in high school," she reassured him. Xavier appeared more relaxed then and leaned back in his wheelchair.

"I apologize for what she said to you- about your fingers… and everything that stands behind that." Allie was taken aback slightly by the warm gesture, but was quick to shut down any apology on Charles' behalf. What had gone down was definitely not his fault in any way, shape or form.

She laughed. "Do be sorry Charles, and as for what she said, well, yeah that sucked. But it was only words." He lifted his fingers slighting from the desk top.

"Your hand in her face wasn't, so be them words, they still stung. You can't tell me otherwise," he staked his claim, knowing that it affected Allie more than what she was letting on. Seeming to realize that she too couldn't hide what was being revealed by her thoughts, the girl decided it was better to be honest that bottle up the feelings.

"Hmm, yeah, you're right. It's just more so the fact that she doesn't know. Like, she doesn't know what all happened and I don't want other people to look at me like she does," the blonde explained in a sort of nervousness over what other's opinions were of her. In fact, as she went on, she was kind of getting choked up. "I just wish people would be more considerate. I've dealt with this before- these kinds of people. That was my school career before shit hit the fan, but now I've been broken on the inside and out."

Charles couldn't help but feel the waves of sadness and insecurity that were being released off of her with strong pulsations. It put him in her shoes, almost forcing a tear or two to fall from his ever moistening eyes.

"I used to be strong enough to handle that sort of thing. Like I said, just words. Now it's words that hurt the most because I've endured the torture brought on by evil and actions may speak louder but when their words are that cruel- it's torture too." She had to stop herself as she was only getting worked up about it, realizing it when she needed to wipe away a few tears from her cheeks.

It was silent for a long moment before Charles answered, "and that is why I'm sorry. I know the pain that you go through but you are also right when you say they're just words. But that doesn't stop the hurt that follows them, meaningful or not. You lace a teddy bear or an arrow with poison and shoot it at someone, it'll still cause damage." Allie laughed at the last comment.

"Lacing a teddy bear with poison? I need to try that," she mumbled the latter statement. Xavier cocked his head in a disapproving manner, though didn't speak on it as a smile caught his words. Yeah that was a weird comparison, but thinking on the fly didn't always supply the greatest of analogies. "Um, thank you, Charles. For a lot, actually. You've been there for me and Peter for quite a while."

"This painfully sounds like a goodbye," the telepath observed. Allie shrugged.

"Well I was gonna leave to go to my room after this," she retorted.

"Ah, aside from that, you're welcome, Allie. It's been a pleasure from the start and I hope that we continue the trend until the end," he smiled.

"Don't go making me cry now," the blonde giggled. Charles only smirked further.

"We've certainly found the true power of words then, haven't we?"

"I think so…"

The next day…

"This is really lame," Peter said with a stack of books in his arms, struggling to get low enough to the ground to set them down without the pile falling over in the process. They'd just begun to labor through Allie's two hour period of organizing all the books; quickly it became a massive pain in the ass.

Though luckily for them, everyone decided to pitch in. Scott, Jean, Kurt, Angel and Peter all figured they might as well help Allie make some progress in the huge library. They couldn't just stand there and watch he take on a punishment she didn't deserve, and at the same time didn't want to leave the mess to Martinique because they knew then that the task would never be accomplished.

"That is definitely no lie, mate," Angel sighed while slapping down a couple books, being in charge of putting the 'B' pile in order. As things were coming together, Jean would whisk the novels up onto the shelves using her telekinesis. Everyone else just simply filed through the books and organized them to the best of their abilities. Scott, who had a tough time remembering the order of the alphabet, had to keep rehearsing it's jingle until he came to the letters he needed to know the location of.

"Wait, wait, what comes first again? M or N?" He asked everyone, too lazy to repeat his ABCs in order to discover the answer.

"M," they all replied in unison. He nodded in thanks and kept going along with his task, tossing a couple of large books off his pile with a thud.

After another ten minutes of silent working, Peter huffed and looked to both Kurt and Angel. "Look, I can get this done pretty quick. I just need you guys to help get all of these books off their shelves, then I can do some speedy sorting. And then Jean can get them up for us." The duo nodded in compliance and began reaching for all the stories they could hold; Jean herself worked to both put books back and take the unsorted ones off the shelves.

No ten minutes later all the books were on the ground, taking up pretty much of the surface area of the library's floor. Peter smiled and looked to everyone, hands on his hips like a superhero preparing to fix the mess left up to him.

"Thanks, I'll probably be done in like, three minutes. So go have a snack break or something," he told the rest of the mutants, elbow propped up on a tall stack of books which caused it to fall over. "Well, now I'm going to have to make that three minutes and two seconds."

"Nice one," Allie chuckled while stiffly standing up, stretching out enough for her back to crack. Everyone else around them began heading out to the kitchen to make lunch, though Allie stayed for a moment. When the rest of the mutants were absent from the room, she strode up to Peter and put her arms around his neck, laying her head upon his chest with closed eyes. He embraced her back, resting his chin atop her blonde hair. "Thanks for helping me," she said in gratitude.

He smiled and rubbed her back. "Of course, it's honestly nothing for me to sort through all of it. I've gone through worse things." Allie shrugged from beneath his arms.

"I mean, so have I," she told him. Peter just chuckled.

"Well yeah, but you deserve a break."

"Well yeah," she copied him. "But you deserve a break too." Okay, so was this some sort of battle of who was going to be pampered the most?

"Well yeah," Peter drawled out, pulling away from Allie to look her in the eyes pointedly. "But you deserve a break more." There was a short moment of silence as they both stared at each other before neither could keep a straight face any longer, and the room was filled with their laughter.

Allie pulled away, almost accidentally running into another stack of books had it not been for Peter speedily grabbing her from the minor disaster. It was there that the couple was broken up from their brief minutes of fun when they both noticed that Charles was loitering in the doorway. The two mutants turned to face the Professor, questioning thoughts leaning into his telepathy.

"I couldn't help but overhear your playful argument over the void," the man sighed with a smile, moving forward slightly before realizing it'd be a mistake to try and meander through the city of books surrounding them. He'd be much better off not making a complete fool of himself; in fact, Charles had a collected reputation to keep- not a clumsy one. "So I came to visit, naturally."

The couple smirked. "Yeah, Peter's gonna speed through the work that Martinique hasn't come by to help with," Allie informed the Professor, not hesitating to throw that bitch under the bus. Charles frowned and made a sort of snorting noise in lack of amusement.

Waving his hand dismissively, he said, "of course. Just leave the books as is and I'll have her come down and do the rest. You've already gone a completed a good deal of it already." Peter made an exaggerated sigh of relief, bending his knees slightly as he did so.

"Thaaank Goood," he cried out, as if it was going to be a great deal of pain for him to do what he said would only take a mere three minutes to accomplish. "You have no idea how happy I am, Professor."

Charles just made a face at the boy's antics and turned to look at Allie. "So I heard that you deserve a break," he said with a contemplative smirk. It made him look younger, like when Allie had first met him back in the seventies. Something about the thought made the blonde double back mentally, having not expected the rush that came with the form of deja vu she was experiencing. The image she received was of Charles who walked up the ramp onto the private jet in which would take them to Paris. He was smiling down at her in thanks for what they had done in the Pentagon, all the while reassuring the girl of the help that she offered.

Allie remembered standing there, apologizing for her lack of aid and telling him that she'd give him anything he needed in the future. And right there in that moment, Allie felt like he needed her help. She didn't get to see that younger smile from him often, because he was overloaded with so much trouble due to everything that was going on. All she wanted was to see him happy, and she felt that he found those short moments by being around her and Peter's positive energy. Why else would he come curiously into the library after sensing their banter?

"Yeah… say, Charles, you wouldn't want to… like, come and get away for a weekend with us, would you?"

Being a telepath and all, Allie was surprised by how unexpected the Professor seemed after she made the proposition. Even he seemed surprised.

"I- well- I have a lot of responsibility here," he countered in a way that she could tell he hated the fact. He actually began to try and talk his own self out of saying no. "Though surely the school full of powerful mutants could protect itself… except it got blown to bits once and everyone would've died had it not been for you." He gestured to Peter, who just timidly smiled while they both waited for the man's final answer.

"It was just a simple question, you can certainly say no if it'll be too much of a hassle," the girl reassured him, not wanting Charles to think that they'd somehow be offended by his rejection of the offer. She sprung a vacation on a man who was the Professor of a school that was basically under attack at all angles. It would be a harder yes than a no.

"Well…" there was an extremely long pause. "It's just- it's just a weekend. Where's the harm in that?"

"Wait, really?" Allie asked excitedly, having not expected the outcome at all. Charles only nodded, still trying to convince himself of his words.

"Yes, I suppose I could use a mere moment of rest. Especially with my two favorite children," the telepath laughed in an adoring way, making Allie's heart flutter. His two favorite children… it was like she had a father after all, it just took her a long time to realize it. And Peter as well, although Erik was the true parent, he still had a dad within Charles.

"Remember the conversation we had about the severity of words?" Allie questioned the man. He nodded as if offended that she'd think he'd forget.

"Of course, like it was yesterday," he replied jokingly, as it was in fact yesterday when they'd discussed the matter. She laughed along for a moment, using it to buy herself time to remember what she was going to say… but then she sort of lost it.

Shit, that was going to be a cute moment. "Ugh, yeah I don't know where I was going with that." Beside her Peter snorted.

"Way to go, dipshit," he said, acknowledging that she completely tossed a couple of perfect lines out the window. Charles' mouth was agape due to the boy's comment, to which he placed his bald head with one of his hands.

"Lord," he laughed. "Find yourself a man who will both argue about giving you a break and call you a 'dipshit'."

"It's the best kind of man, I'll tell you that," Peter declared.

"The one that knows how to wield his words correctly, I believe," the Professor hummed.

Allie simply smiled.

Two days later…

Raven had been sitting proudly in Charles' big leather chair, eating an apple lazily with her feet propped up on the desk when Kurt popped suddenly into the room. The woman jumped out of her skin practically as the boy struggled to find the location of the desk through his quickly evaporating smoke.

"Ah!" He said once finding that he was facing the right way. Raven just stared at him, frozen in place with her apple fitted between her teeth. Slowly she removed it from her face to appear less awkwardly placed in front of the mutant. "Someone is at the door and since none of us kids are permitted to open it, you must."

As duty called, the woman stood up and gently set the apple onto the desk, walking towards Kurt as she figured he'd just teleport themselves to the entrance of the school. "Where is Hank?" She asked.

"Giving Angel a check up on his little wings," the blue mutant answered her before reaching down to hold her wrist and whisking them off to the opposite end of the mansion. Raven coughed through the smoke once they'd landed in front of the big oak doors, hearing another round of knocks come from whoever was on the other side.

"Alight, who the hell…" she muttered to herself while reaching for the handle. Upon pulling it back, a familiar face appeared through the thin crack of the doorway. "Oh, Erik."

"Morning," he greeted Raven curtly, looking at her impatiently as he was waiting to be welcomed inside. The woman sighed, opening the door up the rest of the way so that he could cross the threshold into the school. As he did so, he wasted no time in questioning the Mystique. "So where's Charles?"

Well, how unfortunate. "He left this morning." The fact didn't seem to phase the metal manipulator in the slightest.

"Okay, where is Peter then?" Erik asked. He sounded almost urgent as he ran his hand through his hair, turning to look Raven head on with seriousness. She curiously wondered why he'd be looking for Peter of all people. He didn't find out about their relation, did he?

"With Charles. Him, Allie and Peter all went down to Virginia to stay the weekend with Peter's family. Or his mom, I guess," Raven explained. She wasn't even finished before the man began walking back towards the front door. "Where are you going? Why do you need to know?"

He only ignored her as he continued on down the steps and out towards where his car was parked.

Erik was going to have to get a hold of a plane ticket, and fast.