Chapter 6: I See Right Through Me

Annabeth saw Rogue walking out of her class with a boy and instantly felt suspicious.

Rogue saw her and waved. "Hi,"

"Hi, Rogue. Who's this?" Annabeth smiled back at the girl.

"Bobby Drake. Nice to meet you." The kid held out his hand toward Annabeth.

"Annabeth Chase." She tried to make her tone less frosty. Rogue could walk out of classrooms with boys. It wasn't any of Annabeth's business who Rogue dated. Still, the telekinetic gave Bobby a quick once-over.

He had sandy blond hair and warm brown eyes and looked to be about Rogue's age. He seemed nice enough. She automatically reached out with her mind.

'Wow, that's Annabeth Chase, she's taller than I thought'

'It's kinda hot in here'

'Rogue looks beautiful'

Annabeth pulled out, her face feeling warm. She shouldn't have done that. How did he know who she was already?

None of Bobby's thoughts showed on his face. "You're getting pretty well known around here." He grinned at Annabeth.

Evidently. "I am?" She said instead. Just when she was getting used to being in a place where she wasn't hero-worshipped.

"Yeah," Rogue said. "The telepath that the professor's giving private lessons to. From what I hear, he hasn't done that for a while."

"People are calling you Owl." Bobby said.

Annabeth panicked. "What? Why?"

Bobby and Rogue both gave her strange looks. Annabeth inhaled. "Why... why are they calling me Owl?"

"Your earrings." Rogue said. "Plus, they're supposed to be smart. You know, it's like brain stuff.

Annabeth touched her ears. She had worn the dangling owl earrings that her father had given her on the trip to Niagara, and she hadn't taken them off. "Oh." She paused. "Does everyone give each other nicknames?"

Bobby shrugged. "Sort of. A lot of us don't want to go by our old names, but it started catching on to everyone else, too. People call me Iceman. Not super creative."

"I assume that means you can do something with ice?" Annabeth asked drily.

Bobby's ears reddened. "Yeah. Storm says I can harness the water in the air and freeze the molecules. Or something like that. I'm not really great at science."

"Storm?"

"Ororo, but everyone calls her Storm. She's the only other Class Three mutant besides the Professor, Jean, and... well, you, I guess."

"Class three? What's that?"

"It's how they classify power levels." Rogue broke in. She glanced at Bobby. "Sorry. I just learned that."

"Class One is when one has very limited power, maybe a slight appearance change." Bobby said. "Most Ones don't learn that they're mutants until they're adults, and some don't discover it at all."

"You have any Ones here?"

"Uh..." Bobby shrugged again. He seemed to do that a lot. "Yeah, Artie Maddocks. He's... got a blue forked tongue."

"And?"

"Nothing else that we know of."

Annabeth hummed, filing the information away for later. She wasn't aware that there were mutant classifications.

"So... class two?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, that's what I am." Bobby made a cloud of ice appear above his palm. "It's the most common. A moderate amount of power. Class three is power that starts becoming dangerous to the mutant itself without training. Most mutants that die from their own abilities are class three or above. It's also where the power levels start to become a little murky. Professor X implies he's class three, but we're all pretty sure that he and Magn—um. That he's four."

Annabeth noticed the slip. "What were you about to say, Bobby? Professor X and who?"

Bobby avoided her gaze. "Look, I should get to class—"

"I could just read your mind." She tried to joke, but it looked like it fell flat because the boy looked mildly terrified. Whoops. Well, if it got her answers...

"We're not... supposed to... talk about it." His hands started to look blue-tinged, and part of her mind wondered idly if it was a nervous reaction. "I don't know much, but there are rumors of a group of mutants, like us. Except they believe that a war's coming with the humans, and that we should come out on top. Which is ridiculous, of course." He added hastily. "Professor X says that they'll start accepting us soon enough. Anyway, Magneto's supposed to be their leader."

"That's quite a name." Annabeth murmured. "It works as an alias, though, if he wants to keep himself secret."

Could this be why Professor Xavier kept speaking of using her abilities in battle? Was there a war coming between these two groups? If there was, then she was taking Percy and getting out of here. She had already lived through two wars. She wasn't about to go through another one that she could avoid.

"Let's get to class." Rogue tugged Bobby on the arm with her long white gloves. They suited her.

Bobby seemed more than happy to get away from the scary blond girl who asked too many questions.

The halls were clearing out, and Annabeth's feet carried her back and forth down the hall. Charles Xavier hadn't mentioned anything about Magneto, so either he wasn't dangerous enough to be a threat, or he was so large a threat that he didn't want anyone to find out and panic. She hoped for the former, but counting her normal luck, it was probably the latter.

She swore quietly. Percy was getting better by the day. Now that he was awake, they could safely use some water to heal him a little, so it wasn't suspicious that his ribs healed too fast. They could leave, right now, forget about this place and its people. Hide Annabeth's telepathy and not speak about it again.

You fate is tied with the rest of the worlds.

The gods and their prophecies. She couldn't really blame the Triumvirate for wanting to—

There was a loud crash, and Annabeth whipped around, her hand going to her dagger. The hidden elevator that led to the infirmary slid open and standing there was a wild looking man wearing a school hoodie that didn't seem to fit him very well. He had some serious sideburns. His gaze locked on hers, and Annabeth couldn't help but take a slight step back.

The first impression she got from him was a man who had been broken, fused together, and then broken again. Her second impression was dangerous.

"Where am I?" He demanded.

"Who are you?" She shot back.

"You're the kid who was at the crash." The man didn't seem to have heard her. "Why are you here? Where's Rogue?"

Suddenly she remembered why he looked so familiar. "We thought you were dead. You were lying on the snow!"

"Yeah, well," He muttered. "I seem to have a habit of not dying when I'm supposed to. Seriously, kid. Where am I?"

"This is Charles Xavier's School for Gifted..." She sighed. "Youngsters."

He raised a single eyebrow. "Yeah? Do you have wands?" He flinched, and spun around once.

Annabeth was seriously starting to wonder if she was trapped in the hall with an insane man. "What?"

"There's this... voice. In my head. You don't hear it?"

Annabeth opened her mind slightly to his and was immediately assaulted by a rush of images.

Pain, drowning—

'You'll be called the Wolverine'

'You're an animal, Logan. That's all you'll ever be.'

'Get out of my bar, freak'

"What are you doing?"

The last voice was clear in the jumbled mess of Logan's mind. She pulled out, gasping like she'd been thrown into cold water. It was normal for thoughts to be running over each other, fading in and out of existence, chaotic. The mind wasn't a book where you could flip pages to find what you were looking for. But this man's mind... She'd never seen anything like this before.

Annabeth looked the man over once more. He was dangerous, certainly, but she didn't get the feeling it was pointed towards her.

"That's the headmaster."

"Excuse me?"

"Charles Xavier. Look, it'll probably be easier if I just show you. He's in his study." Probably teaching a class.

She put a hand to her temple and reached out with her mind to find the Professor's. His brain was always distinct in comparison to the sea of others. Well, his and Jean Grey's.

'Professor—' She started to think.

'I know, Annabeth. Bring him in.'

Logan followed her, his eyes darting around—a cornered animal looking for a way out. She frowned. Bring him in? She wasn't a secretary. She pulled open the double doors leading to Xavier's study and found it full of students. They blatantly stared.

"Good morning, Logan." The Professor said, as if the other man was an old dinner guest who had unexpectedly dropped by. He turned his attention back to the students.

"So, I'd like your definitions of weak and strong anthropological principles on my desk by this Wednesday."

The students filtered out, Kitty Pryde among them. She gave Annabeth a curious smile.

Logan stared at the students leaving like he'd never seen anything like them before, and then turned that wild look at the Professor.

"Physics." The man said brightly. "I'm Charles Xavier, would you like some breakfast?"

"Where am I?" Logan asked abruptly.

"Westchester, New York. You were attacked. My people brought you in for medical attention."

"I don't need medical attention."

"You were lying in the snow, bleeding into the floor when they found you." Annabeth leaned back against the wall. "Yeah, you did."

Professor Xavier swiveled his eyes to Annabeth's for a moment.

'Let me handle this, please.' He spoke telepathically. Annabeth was suddenly struck by his resemblance to Chiron greeting a skittish new demigod, and she reacted the same way she had done when Chiron dismissed her.

She folded her arms and stayed in the room.

"Where's the girl?" Logan asked.

"Rogue? She's here, she's fine." Xavier said. Logan scoffed in obvious disbelief.

The double doors swung open once again, showing Scott and Ororo. Annabeth hadn't seen them since the day she'd arrived. Neither of them glanced at her, and she would have guessed that the Professor had called them up.

"Ah, Logan, I'd like you to meet Ororo Munroe, also called Storm, and Scott Summers, also called Cyclops."

Scott Summers held out a hand for Logan. The other man merely looked at him and didn't take it. Scott put his hand down awkwardly.

"They saved your life." The Professor said softly. He cleared his throat. "You've met Annabeth Chase." There was a noticeable lack of 'also known as' after her name, which was a mild relief. Logan gave her another once-over and nodded curtly, which was more than he'd given the Professor.

Annabeth inclined her head.

The doors were still closing when Jean pushed them open again.

"I believe you've already met Doctor Jean Grey." Charles Xavier said.

Annabeth looked back and forth between Xavier and Logan. Xavier, who'd already known Logan's name, already knew that he'd met Jean. The man was putting forth a lot of effort to keep Logan there. What was so special about Logan, and how did Charles Xavier know him?

"You're in my school for the gifted. For mutants." He wheeled his chair out from behind his desk. "You'll be safe here from those who attacked you."

"Do you know who that was?" Logan asked.

The Professor's eyes went to Annabeth so briefly that she wondered if she'd imagined it.

"He's called Magneto."

"What's a Magneto?"

The Daughter of Athena was forcibly reminded of Percy and her lips twitched despite of herself, but quickly she felt her smile disintegrate. So, Charles Xavier was telling Logan immediately of Magneto, someone who Annabeth had had to dig up to find. It wasn't like the information wasn't related to her—she'd been at the attack too. No, something was going on here.

Xavier didn't hesitate. "A very powerful mutant who believes that war is coming between mutants and the rest of humanity. I've been following his movements for some time. The man who attacked you is an associate of his called Sabretooth."

Logan stared at him in disbelief. "Sabretooth?"

Charles nodded.

The other man turned and pointed mockingly at Ororo and Scott. "Storm and Cyclops." He looked back at Charles. "What do they call you, Wheels?"

Annabeth coughed in an attempt to hide a laugh. Logan shook his head. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard." He moved to leave, but Scott stood in his way.

Logan's sneer faded, revealing the face that Annabeth had seen first—the face of a very, very dangerous man. "Cyclops, right?" He seized Scott by the shoulders. "Wanna get out of my way?"

"Logan." The Professor's voice rang. "It's been almost fifteen years, hasn't it?"

The other man froze and released Scott.

"Living from day to day, running from place to place, with no memory of who you are."

Of course, that was why his mind was so jumbled, Annabeth thought briefly, but then the full impact of what Charles had said sunk in. He was deliberately using his abilities to manipulate Logan, using what he knew to stop the man in his tracks. It was clearly working, because the other man was a deer caught in the headlights.

"Shut up." He said fiercely.

"Give me a chance. I might be able to help you find some answers." Charles Xavier said softly.

"How do you know?"

The Professor didn't answer aloud, but Annabeth could feel him entering Logan's mind.

'You're not the only one with gifts.'

Logan turned, slowly. "What is this place?"