"Are you going to stay?"
Mystique hesitated. Her brother was giving her a look that was so hopeful and earnest that it was on the verge of breaking her heart. She cleared her throat and decided to answer the easy part of the question first.
"I know Logan's going to take Emma to Canada," she said, "They're um, they're going to give the Hellfire Club a message saying Essex tried to kill Emma or disobeyed her orders or something. Apparently that's enough to make him an enemy of the Lords Cardinal. After that he says he wants to give her a chance to start figuring out who she is."
It all sounded a little existential to her, and not something that Logan would deal with. However, Emma was Kayla's sister. Mystique had the feeling that he'd read poetry aloud if it meant that she had a chance to heal.
"I thought it might not be time for him to join us just yet," Charles said.
She wanted to ask what he meant by that, but the next question brought her up short.
"And you?"
She began fiddling with her jacket.
"I can't," she said.
"You can though," Charles said, his voice matching the look in his eyes, "I know the transition might not be easy for you, but you're welcome to stay here, by all of us. You saved Alex's life, and he takes that sort of thing very seriously."
"And Hank?" asked Mystique.
He answered quickly, and Mystique wanted to cry. He'd really been thinking about all this.
"He's hurt, but healing," Charles said, "If I'm to be honest, I would have to confess that it's unlikely the two of you would ever be...close again, but-"
"It's hard to trust someone after they cause you that level of hurt," said Mystique.
"I wouldn't say that."
She took a shuddering breath.
"You would have to talk to him about it more," Charles said, "I won't speak for him. But I know he will speak with you. He's a good man, one of the best I've ever had the privilege of knowing."
"I can't stay Charles," she said.
"I wish you'd reconsider," he said sadly.
Mystique squeezed her eyes shut.
"You don't understand," she said, "I have a son."
Her brother's gasp was so audible that she was sure it could be heard from the next room over. Mystique managed to open her eyes, but she immediately directed her gaze at the wall opposite her. She didn't want to see whatever it was that would be in his eyes.
"When-?"
"About twelve years ago," she said, "His father was...his father was Azazel."
There was no second gasp. She began to pick at her nails.
"He's been um, staying with some friends," she said, "I hear he's a good boy. I visit when I can but...I need to stop...be better..."
"He could come here."
She froze.
"I understand if you don't want to," Charles said calmly, "But I would love to meet my nephew, and the school is a good place for him to grow up, especially if he's a mutant. Is he?"
"Yes," Mystique said, still feeling frozen.
"Then I can even recommend some courses," said Charles, "Again, it would be quite a transition but-"
"Charles, why do you want me back?" asked Mystique, her fists clenching, "After everything, after hearing I'll be dragging along a son, why?"
It took a moment for Charles to respond. When he did, it wasn't what she had expected. Chuckles filled her ears and she turned, her eyes wide with disbelief. Charles was smiling and shaking his head back and forth, his eyes twinkling.
"Raven, I will always want you back," he said, "No matter what you do, I will always hope that we can work things out together. And if you have a son, well, that just means that the first person I cared about has given me more people to care about."
Mystique forced tears back.
"You can't just wave a magic wand and make all those years disappear," she said.
"No," Charles said.
He smiled again.
"But we can certainly do our best to move forward," he said.
Alex glanced at the door to the next room. He knew that Magda had gone in about an hour beforehand to talk to her children, and they'd tried to give her some space. Soon though, the real world would have to intrude again.
"So what does the blood work say?" asked Alex.
Hank didn't answer immediately, which worried Alex. His friend hadn't been very talkative after the ordeal, which Alex could understand. He looked different, bigger and, if possible, bluer, but that made sense from what he understood about the chemicals in the machine.
What he couldn't understand was the utter nervousness Hank seemed to convey.
"I think that, from now on, Peter will be faster," Hank said, "I don't think that there will be any other lasting repercussions for him."
"That's good," Alex said, leaning his back on the table, "He's an asshole, but he's still Lorna's brother."
Hank nodded and began looking at the papers in front of him. Alex paused, and then looked down.
"You know," he said, "You said there wouldn't be any lasting repercussions for Peter. Not for both of you, but for him."
The silence that followed felt uncomfortably thick.
"Hank," Alex said quietly.
"I tried my serum when we got back," Hank said, "Because I...no matter. It doesn't work."
Alex bit the inside of his cheek. While Hank's 'Beast' form held no terrors for him, he knew that it made him wildly uncomfortable. It was why he injected himself with it every morning, to make sure that no one else had to see it.
In some ways Hank was still that insecure eighteen-year-old with big feet who wanted people's approval.
"You could make another one," he said tentatively.
"I don't think so," Hank said, "It was a miracle that I was even able to develop that first one, honestly. Took me over a year and now that my form's advanced..."
He tapped his claws on the countertop.
"I think I'm stuck with this," he said.
Alex pushed off from the table and walked over so that he was standing next to him. Hank still wouldn't look up.
"You aren't 'stuck' with anything," he said, putting his hand on Hank's shoulder.
"Easy for you to say," mumbled Hank, "Your students will still recognize you on Monday."
It was crude, but also, unfortunately, true. Alex didn't know how many of Hank's students besides Lorna had seen his other form.
"I never thought this far ahead when I took those injections," Hank said, "And now...I don't know..."
Alex's hand tightened on Hank's shoulder. He had an ugly feeling where this conversation was going, and he wasn't about to let it reach its destination.
"Hank, I'm not going to pretend that the next few months won't be hard for you," he said, "Or the next few years. But I am always going to be there for you, as are the rest of the X-men. And..."
His voice caught.
"I can't lose you too Hank," Alex said.
Hank gave him a sad look. Alex could feel that both of their minds were years away, when a seventeen-year-old redhead had told them he'd be fine before running off into danger. Alex had never seen Sean alive again, and he wasn't going to let that happen to Hank.
"I'll be there for you when you start over again, no matter how many times that takes," said Alex.
"So I take it you won't be leaving the Institute again?" asked Hank.
It was said in a soft tone, possibly an attempt to lighten the conversation. Alex cracked a smile.
"For the foreseeable future," he said, "I've tried going it on my own and, to be frank, it kinda sucks."
Hank chuckled, and then looked over at the door.
"We still have to deal with the twins," he said.
"Yeah, business," Alex said.
He took his hand off Hank's shoulder. There was a struggle ahead, for all of them in so many different ways but, for now, it could wait.
"I talked to Charles a couple hours earlier while you were doing the blood work," said Alex, "And we have a few ideas."
When Alex walked into the room, followed quickly by Hank, Lorna thought that there was something about his stance that was off. Alex never really stood straight, his posture always slightly slouched and relaxed. Now, while he wasn't exactly standing at attention, there was a subtle shift.
"Not interrupting too much, are we?" he asked.
"Couple of years worth of major issues, but nothing that won't wait for an hour," Peter said.
She smiled: her brother's tone was almost cheerful. Lorna's mother smiled too, although she seemed rather nervous. It would take time to get her to be comfortable around her older children, she knew that, but it was time they had now.
"Good," said Alex, "Because we needed to discuss what happens next."
Lorna looked at Alex. It wasn't just his stance that was off: it was his tone too.
"Now, normally Charles would be here too, but he's busy dealing with some of his own family stuff," Alex said, "So, it looks like it's just going to be me and Hank. But, for now, we kind of have to deal with the fact that we have two members of the FBI's most wanted list residing underneath our roof."
A stony silence descended. Next to her Peter and Wanda began to look worried.
"Don't worry," Alex said, "We have no intention of turning you in. I know I have something of a reputation with you two, but we aren't in a hurry to create more mutant terrorist cases for our enemies to parade in front of the camera crews. And you just saved my best friend's life, and Lorna's too, and thousands of people's which counts for something."
He cleared his throat.
"At the same time, this is a school," he said.
Lorna gave Alex a long look, realizing what was going on. She had never really seen him in his role as leader of the X-mean. She'd only seen him when he joked around with the X-men's members, played with his cousin, or taught P.E. She'd never seen him calm and authoritative, his voice measured.
It felt distant, and she wasn't sure she liked it.
"I'm guessing we're going to have to hide for a while?" asked Wanda.
"Pretty much," Alex said, "At least for a year."
"A year?" her mother asked, worried.
"I know that's a while, but these tunnels are actually bigger than they seem," reassured Hank.
"It's plenty of space, we just can't risk the kids seeing you and getting chatty," Alex said, "We won't force you to stay here, but if you do we'll figure out times when you can go outside and so forth. If you still want to do something for the cause when you get better, then I'd be happy to retrain you in the Danger Room to avoid casualties, things like that."
"What, you want us to become X-men?" asked Peter.
"No, I don't think that's a path that we can pursue," Alex said, "If the X-men ever go public and people find out we have two ex-Brotherhood members on our team, it's going to look bad. We can't have people thinking we're two parts of the same militia."
He shook his head.
"No," he said, "I know you don't like them, but some of my contacts in the SSR, sorry, SHIELD now, say that they're trying to put together a team. Might take time, but my word still means something. You'd have to really sell the whole 'rehabilitated' thing, but it could work."
Her brother and sister shared an uncertain glance.
"We'll think about it," Wanda said.
"Good," Alex said, "I'll get going, I just wanted you to know-"
"And me?" asked Lorna.
Alex looked at her, surprised.
"Sorry?" he asked.
"And me?" Lorna said, "No offense, but over the past few days I've been possessed and dragged into a lot of things I really wanted to stay out of."
Alex's face softened, and Lorna felt herself relax. She'd really have to tell him to ease up on that stony Havok exterior of his. It made him much more approachable.
"I know," he said, "And I'm sorry-"
"So I think it's time I started training too," Lorna said, "As an X-man."
She could feel a ripple of shock around the room.
"Lorna-" her mother began.
Lorna reached out and grasped her mother's hand.
"Mom, for too long I've sat on the sidelines while decisions were made for me," she said, "And even when I had the ability to make those decisions, I still decided to shy away from what I could contribute. It's time I stopped stepping back and started stepping up."
She expected her mother to protest, but she just sighed. Lorna looked at Peter and Wanda who, to her surprise, were giving her encouraging grins. She looked back at Alex, who was regarding her with curiosity.
"So," she said, "When can I start?"
A slow grin broke out on Alex's face, and she found herself falling in love with him all over again.
"Just like everyone else," he said, "Soon."
A/N: That's it for this trilogy! I had a really fun time writing about all three of the siblings in all of their complexities. Their relationship was really multilayered and, to my surprise, it actually took three stories, instead of the two stories I planned to figure it all out.
I have had some people ask if I plan to do more stories. I know that I've left this story with a lot of beginnings but, in my mind, it's one way to set up for the next X-man movie, where a teenage Nightcrawler is going to be hanging out with a teenage Scott. Also, when we see Hank later, he doesn't seem to be able to change forms. I don't know what my next story will be, I'm going to be moving soon so I won't have a lot of spare time, but I should be writing new stories in two months.
I want to give a special thank you to remylebro, who was the one to suggest that I use Malice in one of my stories. However, they also suggested that, instead of the Alex/Lorna relationship being focused on like in the comics, I look at it through the lens of Lorna and her siblings. I also thought it would give Peter and Wanda something to really fight for, given their estrangement with their sister, and it provided Wanda with a chance to redeem herself.
For Peter's redemption, and Hank's sacrifice, I took inspiration from the comics. Hank actually did something like this there, which mutated him to his full "Beast" form. Given that there are some differences in the Kelsey Grammer and Nicholas Hoult "Beast" looks, mostly to do with permanence, this was my explanation. There are other reasons of course, age and so forth, but I thought this might help bridge the gap.
Magneto's final decision on his relationship with his children again was inspired from the comics. More or less, this seemed to be the line he took when the twins left the X-men to become Avengers, the team that Alex is referencing. Later in the comics, when the situation changed or when his parental skills are needed, I actually find that he's a pretty decent father, as Marvel Villain fathers go.
As for shoutouts, thank you to hippiechick2112, savedbygrace94, Lemonima, noamg, and ZabuzasGirl! See you in two months!