Chapter 5: Oblivion Calling Out Your Name

"I expect them both to make a full recovery." Jean Grey finished her report, sitting in the plush chair directly opposite Charles Xavier's.

"Excellent." The Professor said briskly.

Jean stood, and then hesitated. Charles rearranged some files. "You had a question?"

"Yeah." The red-haired woman drummed her fingers on the desk. "I was just wondering... how's Annabeth?"

"Ah." Charles hummed. "First name basis, already?"

"She visits her boyfriend daily—we've gotten to know each other."

"I see... Well, she's proceeding remarkably quickly in terms of her abilities. She picked up shielding faster than you did." He added, blue eyes twinkling.

She rolled her eyes like she was still the teenager he had taught. "Is she settling in?"

"As well as anyone can. I've never taught someone like her before. She clearly has someplace she wants to get back to, and she won't tell me anything about it. She's brilliant, untrusting, and powerful, but... she's got a good heart."

"You think she'll stay?"

"I'm unsure. Jean, the first thing she asked me was how to shield her and others' minds."

"She's not the first to have trust issues." Jean muttered. "We could use her. Magneto's planning something."

"Yes, I know." Charles ran his hands along his wheelchair. "But I won't force her into a war that's not hers."

"She's a mutant, Charles. It's going to be. Do you think she has something to hide?

"The question isn't if they're hiding something. It's what they're hiding, and why."

"Why don't you look into her mind?"

"At this point, her shields are too strong for me to probe without feeling it and lashing out. Jean, she's a class three mutant at least, perhaps even class four."

The woman's mouth tightened. "Are you sure?"

"Completely. Doing something like that would drive her away, and she doesn't have the training to keep from hurting herself and others, yet. Three weeks isn't nearly enough time." He finished in a hum, as if speaking his thoughts aloud.

"Jean, from the brief glimpse in her mind that I obtained, I know that she has great pain in her past. Violating the small amount of trust that she's given me will only make things worse."

Jean's gaze drifted out the window, towards the lake. "I don't want a conflict, either." She murmured. "Is this our destiny? To be pursued? Always running from what the humans think of us?"

"There is hope. I promise you."

"Hope doesn't win wars." Jean Grey left.

Percy was drowning.

He was in a river that was pulling him in, and every time he tried to breathe, the water rushed into his lungs.

Suddenly Annabeth was there, reaching out a hand, but when Percy went to take it, she drew back. He looked into her eyes, desperate, and saw fear there.

"You're a monster." She whispered, and she turned and disappeared.

Then Achlys appeared, choking on her own tears. "Always... always alone, Jackson." She coughed and her lips drew up in a smile. "You've killed me, but you've killed yourself, too."

He tried to scream, but water rushed greedily into his open mouth, and everything was black.

His eyes shot open, and his eyes flew, taking in a different environment. He tried to sit up, but he felt wires tug on his chest.

"Calm down." A pretty woman with dark red hair and a stern expression approached him. She didn't seem like a threat, but he didn't relax. "You were having a nightmare."

"Who are you?" He was in some sort of a medical room, lying on a bed. There was a door behind him and to his left, but they looked automatic. If he tried to leave, would they open?

"Jean Grey. You had quite the injury. I've been caring for you."

The memories flooded back. Fighting that bear-monster, but there had been blood on the snow next to a body, and suddenly his sword had felt like lead. The bear-man had slashed him, and he'd hit the ground hard. Everything after that was blurry, but he remembered Annabeth looking at him...

"Where's Annabeth?" If he had another slip like that in battle, he might not wake up again.

"Calm down." Jean Grey repeated. She was fiddling with some medical devices. "She's all right. I can call her down, if you want. I'm sure she can explain better than I can."

Percy eyed her. He'd woken up getting supposedly healed before, and last time it hadn't stayed pleasant.

"Don't get up," she said in that tone that wasn't exactly chill, but not friendly, either. "You broke three of your ribs."

He cursed quietly and felt his side. Yes, he'd felt that pain before. He had bandages all around his chest.

"How long was I out?"

"Roughly three days."

He made an oath under his breath. He'd healed from worse injuries than this faster than that. Despite her warnings, Percy tried to sit up, and at once felt a stabbing pain.

"Okay, where am I?" He touched his side gingerly.

"A private school—Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters."

Percy sighed quietly. A private school. Who named their institute a 'school for gifted youngsters'? He could have thought up a better name than that.

He looked around. A private school that had a first-class medical lab... If Annabeth really had brought him here, she wouldn't have just gone to a school to get him healed.

"Are you a doctor?" He asked finally, mainly to fill the silence.

"I'm a lot of things." He raised his eyebrows, and she shrugged. "Not officially. I've had... a lot of practice, though."

There had to be a story there. This was not an ordinary school.

He was still alive, though. He supposed that counted for something. He wasn't going to sit up again—he'd learned his lesson—but he rose slightly on his elbows. "Jean Grey, you said?"

"Yeah."

"Where's my girlfriend?"

"What are we doing today, Professor?" Annabeth folded her arms around herself. These classes had been instructive, so far, but she wondered if Professor Xavier would try to hold back information in hopes of keeping her there longer.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, it might work. She had found herself settling in at this place, even enjoying it.

I'm going to leave once Percy's healed, she told herself firmly.

The older man managed to make a lecturing tone seem kindly. "Today, we're going to move on from shielding."

That was a relief. Yesterday they'd spent another hour and a half practicing with her shield. She could tell it was helping her, however. Her mind was almost completely silent excepting her own thoughts.

"You're going to practice finding others' minds. Find five people and tell me their names, and their favorite colors."

Annabeth felt her eyebrows lifting. "Isn't that a little... violating?"

"Hence why they and I would appreciate it if you only found the things I ask you to. It's an exercise in control. Their names will be in the forefronts of their minds, but the color will not. If you do this correctly, five people will find themselves inexplicably thinking of their favorite colors."

She rubbed her neck, but closed her eyes, concentrating.

"Oh, and if you could? Don't close your eyes. If you're using your abilities in a fight, it's often helpful to use your sight."

He kept mentioning using her powers in a battle. Did he know something about her... circumstances? No, he would have said something. Still, it was a little disturbing.

This time she kept her eyes open, focusing on a point at the wall and not on the Professor's gaze that made her feel like her mind was transparent. Which it wasn't. Because she was shielded. But sometimes that was... hard to remember.

She reached out with her mind and was met by the whirlwind of minds and thoughts. This time, it was easier. She could ignore what wasn't important. She picked randomly and found the mind of a boy that seemed familiar. She entered his brain cautiously and tried to avoid finding thoughts that seemed private. There was... a fair number of memories that seemed to be locked away, shoved down, and most of all she got a large sensation of anger and... and fire.

After cautious searching, she came up with a name—John Allerdyce. She would have expected the favorite color to be red, but instead it was silver. Well, no accounting for taste.

She pulled out, and it felt like she had been doused in cold water after the raging heat of John Allerdyce's mind.

"Well?" Charles Xavier was watching her closely.

"John Allerdyce." She steadied her tone. "Silver."

"Ah yes, John." The Professor's blue eyes looked slightly sad. "Continue, then."

She returned her eyes to the window and continued until she had found four others. She was certain she could recognize those on sight, now. Every mind had a different feel to it.

"Excellent." Professor Xavier said briskly, when she was done. She was startled to see that an hour had already passed. "Now, I think—"

He cut off abruptly and his eyes narrowed.

"Professor?" Annabeth asked, falling into a ready stance without realizing it. "What's-"

Then she felt it too. Suddenly a sharp sense of pain entered her mind, but it wasn't hers. She was certain it was Percy's. He was... He was having a nightmare.

She had no idea his fear of water had gotten so strong.

"I think that your friend is waking up." Professor Xavier said mildly.

She moved towards the door without a second thought and searched with her mind for him. It was easy to do, with the echoes of emotion he was throwing out. Her heart clenched for him.

Locating his mind, she pulled mental shields around him so that the Professor wouldn't gather any information from his nightmare. He'd said he wouldn't look into their minds without permission, but she wasn't about to take chances.

Striding to the elevator, she pressed a button that seemed to lead down. She was so distracted by her worry about Percy that she didn't notice she was gripping the steel bars with white knuckles. She was breathing quickly.

Neither she nor Percy had enjoyed elevators very much, after Tartarus.

Finding her way to the infirmary, she opened the door. There, she found Percy arguing with Jean Grey.

"Listen, you have to let me out of here—" Percy stopped abruptly when he saw Annabeth, who took his appearance in eagerly.

His normally sun-tan complexion was now pale, and he had a cut down the side of his temple that was healing but would probably leave a scar. He was still sitting on the bed, which probably meant that he was too weak to stand. He didn't look excellent, but Annabeth had seen him looking worse.

How was he feeling emotionally? She could know what he was thinking, now. She could find out; it would be as easy as—

No.

That was... that would be violating his privacy. She shook herself, her hands going up to finger the Camp Half-Blood necklace that wasn't there. She brought them back down forcefully. These abilities—they had become natural to her so quickly.

How was she going to tell him?

"Annabeth." said Jean in obvious relief. "He's... well, he's been wanting to see you."

The daughter of Athena forced a smile on to her face. She may as well not have—Percy had learned to see what smiles she was faking long since. He studied her, concerned, as if she was the one who had gotten her ribs broken.

"How are you?" Annabeth walked to him and sat down next to him.

He seemed to pull himself out of some reverie. "Yeah, I'm... I'm alright. You?" She supposed she would have been a bit distracted in much the same way, had she been in his position.

"Great." Annabeth glanced at Jean out of the corner of her eye. The woman was apparently checking some monitors, but Annabeth was sure that Jean was listening. "Could you... give us some privacy, please?"

The other telekinetic's lips thinned a minuscule amount, but she covered it quickly. "Of course." She exited through a different door, likely one leading to other patients.

Percy watched her leave. "Annabeth, what are—where are we?"

"How much do you remember?" She asked, her voice low.

"We fought with that, uh, bear-monster, and then... not much." He admitted.

She cleared her throat to give herself more time to formulate what she was going to say. "You were hurt pretty bad, and I had no ambrosia. I'm not sure if you noticed, but some people came and helped fight the Bear-Guy off. They said they had a hospital, and... you were unconscious. I didn't have a lot of options."

"I'm sorry." Percy said instantly. "If I hadn't-"

"Don't apologize, Seaweed Brain. Not your fault."

He was silent for a moment. "Annabeth." He looked up at her with those haunted green eyes—those eyes that knew her too well. "You didn't say where we were."

"It's a school."

"Yeah, Jean Grey said. It's not a normal school."

"It's... it's a school for mutants.

Percy breathed out in a loud sigh and fell back on his pillow. "You're kidding me."

"They seem peaceful." Annabeth told him. "They haven't done anything aggressive—the opposite, really. The principal just wants to keep his students safe. You know how everyone feels about mutants these days."

"Yeah, I know." Percy's gaze drifted to the door where Jean Grey had left. "Was she—"

"Yeah. Telekinetic."

"Tele-what?"

"She can move things with her mind."

"Oh." A pause. He was clearly digesting this new information. "Is everyone here—"

"Yep. Mostly just kids who've got no home to go to." Why couldn't she tell him? It was like her tongue got stuck to the roof of her mouth whenever she tried. "Percy, I'm..." It was Percy. He wasn't going to shun her just because a genetic ability had just a surfaced.

"What's wrong?"

"Percy, I'm a mutant."

He stared at her, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly. "You're... huh."

Without pausing, she launched into the story of the last few days. By the time she was finished, Percy was sitting up again, his green eyes the sea before it transformed into a tsunami.

"Your mom suppressed it. Like it was... like it was something wrong with you."

"Well..." Annabeth spread her hands and projected her words into Percy's mind. "Maybe it is."

His eyes widened briefly. "Of course it's not."

"No?"

"Annabeth... it's sort of awesome."

She couldn't help laughing, relief spreading through her chest. "You think so?"

"Uh, yeah! What can you do? Can you, like, control people's brains? Can you lift stuff with your brain?"

"That's telekinesis."

"Whatever. Seriously, though, Wise Girl. You're crazy smart and now you have brain powers. You're practically unstoppable. It's cool."

She smiled, not only because of his adorable attempts to cheer her up, but because this was evidence that he could still have the excitement that two wars had stolen from him. Her smirk faded, though. "Percy, I can read your mind. That isn't disturbing to you?"

And he looked at her. "Annabeth, I hope you never need to read my mind to know what I'm thinking. Yeah, your powers are new. We haven't dealt with them before. But you had never dealt with a kid who could control water before, right? Wise Girl, I'd never be disturbed."

"I'll be shunned from society." She argued half-heartedly. "Ridiculed. People aren't exactly charitable towards them... us."

"Then we'll show them that there's nothing to be afraid of."

Annabeth ran her fingers through her hair and admitted something she never would have admitted to anyone but him. "Percy, I'm scared. Of... of this."

"Well, I'm not." He took her hand. "It's just a part of you. It's like being afraid of your sword arm. You've just got to train it."

She stared at him. Boyfriend was such a trivial word. It suggested a casual fling, a month-long high school romance that you didn't expect to last. Them belonging to each other was so natural that it was strange to discuss it being anything else. It was like remarking on the fact that her hand was connected to her arm. Unnecessary.

"We've won everything that's been thrown at us." He said. "We'll win this too."

She pulled him towards her and kissed him. His lips tasted like the sea.

A/N Percabeth 3

Sorry for the couple day late update. I can't even speak of writer's block as an excuse, just plain old procrastination and life.

This chapter will be the last of the set-up, and then we'll really get into X-Men. Thank you for reading and sticking with me so far! If you could leave a review, it would mean the world! I tentatively plan on the next update being Friday, but if not expect it before Monday at least.

Have a wonderful day!