Chapter 7: All of My Enemies Started Out Friends

"Professor, can I speak to you?" Annabeth was proud to say that her tone was perfectly civil.

"Of course, Annabeth." The other man stacked some papers and stored them inside the desk.

"I'm getting the feeling you already know what I'm going to say."

"Enlighten me." He said mildly.

"This man, Logan."

"Mm?" She swore that he looked almost tired.

"You used your abilities on him without his permission."

"I needed to know if he was a threat. I seem to recall you doing the same thing."

Annabeth felt her lips thin. "You went into his mind and purposely manipulated him using what you found."

The other man cocked his head slightly.

"Why do you want him?" She demanded. "What's so important about a mutant you found on the side of the road?"

"Magneto has been following him." The Professor said, again in that mild tone. "It's safe in this school—I didn't want to give Erik a potential weapon."

Annabeth filed that name. Erik. Xavier spoke as if he knew Magneto personally. That would make sense; old friends made the best enemies. However, while the logical part of her brain was coldly calculating, most of her felt hot.

"Were you planning on telling me about Magneto anytime soon?"

"Annabeth..."

"A mutant that's actively planning war against you? Seems like the type of thing your students should know about."

"Annabeth, is this about when you first arrived? I swear to you, I saw only glimpses of your mind."

"Glimpses?" She automatically checked her shield; it was still strong.

"I saw one memory." He said. "It was of you and your partner falling... somewhere. I swear to you, that was all."

She felt her knuckles clench, but she forced the memories away.

"Annabeth, you've only been here five days, and you need training. I admit that I didn't tell you about Magneto initially because I did not want to frighten you away."

She went from hot to cold in one sweep across her body.

"Charles Xavier," she quietly. "I have seen things that would send you and your X-Men running for safety. I have witnessed events that would make you wish you could erase your mind so to not wake up with nightmares. So don't worry about frightening me. I assure you; it would be difficult."

She stormed out of the room.

Annabeth's grey eyes were as stormy as Percy had ever seen them, which was the first warning sign that she was seriously mad.

Even though Annabeth was even more terrifying when she was angry—or maybe because of, she was also pretty cute when she was angry—Percy was relieved to see her. He got bored in the best of times, and this was not the best of times.

Though he had gotten moved to a room in the main building—which he was overjoyed about, because he was starting to get tired of the stark white walls in the infirmary—he was not allowed to strain his ribs, which pretty much meant always staying in his rooms.

He'd tried to escape once, but Jean Grey and Annabeth had caught him. Neither had been happy. Why did Percy always have to run into terrifying women?

"What's wrong?" He asked. She ran her fingers through her hair and sat down next to him, which was when Percy realized that she wasn't only angry, she was hurting, as well. She was silent for a long moment, and he didn't break it.

"You know the guy who helped us fight the bear-guy?"

Apparently, the man that they had thought was dead during the attack of the Bear-Man had healed up remarkably well and was now storming into classrooms. Unfortunately, it seemed that their host might not be as unassuming as they had hoped.

"He purposefully manipulated Logan." Annabeth said. "This power... Percy, it's violating. I try not to use it, but sometimes it becomes automatic. This was different. It was calculated."

"What do you think?" Percy met her eyes. Should we get out of here before we're pulled into something else?

Annabeth shrugged one shoulder and lay back in his bed. "Percy, I don't know. It's... the thing is, I feel like the Professor is trying. I don't think he's, like, plotting to overthrow the world or something."

"Oh, good."

"Yeah, so we can remove that from the list. And... I like the people here. It's like camp, but without the gods."

"Wise Girl, I'm getting pretty stir-crazy in here." He said, half-joking.

"It's good for you."

"Uh, no it's not." They both laughed, but it was bitter and ended quickly. They'd learned to laugh, learned to have this gallows-type humor that kept them going. Taking everything seriously would have killed them years ago.

"There's... there's something else." She said and told him what she had told Charles Xavier before storming out.

"Huh." Percy fingered Riptide. "Do you think that he suspects anything?"

"I'm certain he knows that there's something different about us, but I don't think his mind is going to leap immediately to Greek gods."

"Kind of a weird conclusion to jump to."

"Mm." She exhaled. "I'm so tired of not trusting people." She turned her head so he couldn't see her eyes. "I want to, but it's like... I see danger everywhere."

"I get it." Percy said softly and lay back on the pillows next to her. "So, what'd you think? Should we go back to my mom before Christmas and pretend none of this ever happened?"

Annabeth laid her arm across his chest, like she just wanted to feel him there. "I think... we should give it a few more days."

"Okay." Percy gripped her hand tightly.

The night after her argument with the Professor, Annabeth woke up to the sound of screaming.

She sat up, her hand going to the dagger on her nightstand, and jumped out of bed. She reached out with her mind, immediately looking for Percy. She found him right where she expected him to be—in his bedroom. That was good, but why wasn't he awake?

It was only then that she realized that the screaming wasn't audible. It was in her mind, and it was... it was Rogue.

Annabeth wasn't sure how she had managed to sense the girl, who didn't have any telepathic abilities as far as she could tell, but Professor Xavier had said that at times when someone was feeling an emotion very powerfully, telepaths would sometimes be able to feel it, even if they were shielded.

She shoved on a jacket over her pajamas and threw open the door, exhaustion disappearing as adrenaline bubbled up inside of her. She hesitated briefly and left her dagger on the nightstand—hopefully she wouldn't need it. And, she realized, she could defend herself without it.

The screaming hadn't dissipated—if anything it had gotten louder—so she had no trouble finding Rogue.

"Help, someone help!" That was Logan. Annabeth slammed open the door to his room, and her hand flew to her mouth.

Logan was holding Rogue, who had a hand on Logan's cheek, and had bleeding wounds that had gone all the way through her body. Annabeth felt a shock go through her own.

Silena, bleeding out on the sidewalk, her eyes going glazed—

Luke, his shroud being carried by Hermes—

Jason—

She took a breath. She'd already lost too many people. She would not lose Rogue. She marshaled her thoughts into calm lines. Jean—Jean was a nurse.

Without bothering to try and find the woman's mind, Annabeth sent out a general telepathic shout, hoping it was in her direction. 'Jean!'

"What's happened?" Annabeth demanded, her voice shaky—but Logan didn't seem to be able to talk. Rogue's color was returning, and Logan's was draining away. Blood appeared on his own skin as Marie's wounds closed.

Marie could absorb abilities—and Logan could heal.

Annabeth could hear footsteps thudding down the hall—'I'm coming, Annabeth'-and about half the school was suddenly in the doorway.

Marie's wounds were completely closed, but she wasn't letting go, and Logan was looking worse by the second. Making a split-second decision, the telepath pulled Rogue off Logan, and both the girl and the man collapsed to the ground.

The screaming stopped, and Rogue seemed to register where she was.

"A-Annabeth?" She said weakly and tried to sit up.

"Stay down." Annabeth said sternly. "Are you all right?"

"I... I think so."

"What happened?"

Rogue opened her mouth to explain, but Jean appeared next to them and started checking the girl for wounds. "I'm fine." Marie said, her voice getting stronger. "Logan... I think I hurt him."

Jean gave Rogue a disbelieving look and glanced at Annabeth, who nodded.

"What happened?" Annabeth asked again while Jean moved to the other man. Scott was shooing the students back to their beds.

"Logan was having a nightmare, and I heard him, so I came into his room, and he—" Rogue shuddered and touched her stomach. "He's got these claws that he can make come out, and he stabbed me."

"He stabbed—"

"It's not like that." Rogue said quickly. "It was an accident."

"An accident that could have killed you."

"I'm fine." The girl insisted. "But I touched him, and I think I absorbed his powers. If you hadn't pulled me off... I think I could have killed him."

"Well, he's not dead. I think he'll be okay." Annabeth rubbed her eyes. Now that the adrenaline was fading, she felt exhausted. Jean, having finished checking Logan, was levitating the man out the door with her own abilities.

"Rogue, come with me to the infirmary. I need to make sure you're all right."

"I'm fine." Marie insisted.

"I'll be the judge of that," said Jean. She smiled tiredly at Annabeth. "You'd better go to bed, too. You've got your lessons with the Professor tomorrow."

Annabeth felt a jolt but felt no need to tell Jean what had happened the day before. "You'll be okay?" She checked.

"Yeah, I can handle this." The telekinetic sighed. "Never a dull moment."

Instead of going to her own bedroom, she went into Percy's, who was still sound asleep. He could have slept through an earthquake.

Careful not to wake him, she settled into a spot against the wall and rubbed her temples. She doubted she would be able to sleep tonight.

A/N Sorry for the late update! As an apology I will have the next chapter up tomorrow. I already have it all written, but it needs some more editing. Also, my computer decided to lose all of it, so... that was brilliant. Don't worry, I have a back-up, but it will take some time to re-write it all, otherwise I would have it out today.

Thanks for reading. Please leave a review if you have the time!