The next morning Ivory's eyes popped opened at 8:30 sharp. She laid there for a moment trying to figure out what jarred her from her rather restful sleep. She blinked and then realized that today was supposed to start training day, so she assumed that Charles must have sent a message via his telepathy so she unraveled her sheet from around her body and started climbing out of her large bed.
As she headed to the washroom to clean up she noticed a piece of paper resting just in front of her closed door, as if pushed underneath it from the outside. Curious she picked it up and read it over quickly, then following the notes instructions opened the door and sitting just outside of her door were a bundle of gray and a pair of white sneakers. Hearing a door open, Ivory looked up and the door across from her opened, and Alex stepped out looking down at his own bundle before looking up at her he gave her a half smile, clearly just having woken up, like her, which she returned.
Then he bent and picked up his clothes and Ivory's eyes widened when he straightened up, her mouth hung open and he went to give her another smile, but his expression morphed into confusion at the look on her face. Before he could open his mouth question her expression she had already clutched her clothes to her chest and scurried back into her room closing the door behind her and leaning back against it as she tried to control the blush crawling up her neck. With the image of a shirtless Alex Summers burned completely into her retinas, Ivory sighed and went to go and splash some cold water on her face and get dressed for the day ahead.
So many abs.
Charles told everyone during breakfast that the next few days would be spent with everyone doing individual training with him so that he could get a feel for each of their powers then further develop individual training regimes for them.
Currently, Charles was leading Ivory out of the mansion into its sprawling backyard casually walking with his hands in his pockets as he spoke to her about her mutation.
"You see, Ivory nature is unique. And like most living things it tends to have a mind of its own. Growing and flourishing, often without interference. Your mutation, is to change that."
"When you say it like that, you make it sound so easy."
Charles smiled, "I already know how well you control your powers Ivory, and that's quite condemnable. But now you'll learn to enhance them, expand them." He stopped them in front of a large tree, "This tree was planted by my grandfather many years ago, I daresay that it's my favourite tree. But as you can see its years are starting to show." Ivory hummed, "Why don't you give it a go?"
"Really?"
Charles nodded kindly with an expectant look. Ivory nodded as well and took a breath, before holding out her hands and focusing her powers on the tree she slowly let out the breath she took in and as she did, the brittle cracked looking trunk of the tree slowly began to expand, the dreary branches elongating and the leaves turning bright green again.
The tree was almost fully restored when suddenly Ivory began to have flashbacks of what happened when she was a child, hers hands shook then her concentration broke, before she let out a sob and dropped down to her knees covering her face with her hands and trying to take deep breaths in and out.
In a second Charles was there down on a knee by her side and running a soothing hand up and down her back.
"There, there. It's alright my dear. Deep breaths." He cooed.
Ivory sighed and lowered her hands looking up at the tall tree, "I've haven't done something that big in a long time." She lamented with a sniffle.
"I can imagine. Ivory," he said sternly but still kind, prompting her to look over at him, "You must have more faith in your abilities, you can't keep letting your fears control you."
She smiled without humor shaking her head, "You wouldn't be saying that if you knew what I've done."
Charles hummed, "Will you let me?" he requested.
Ivory sighed and thought it over, but nodded eventually. If she was going to trust Charles to train her properly then he deserved to know everything. Charles looked intrigued as he slowly brought his fingers to his temple, as if giving her time to change her mind, she didn't she he carefully delved into her head.
Ivory felt the unfamiliar fluttering sensation in her mind, but did her best to stay calm and keep herself relax as she could feel Charles gently sorting through her memories searching for the one that was the source of her breakdown. When he found it he paused letting the memory and the emotions wash over him. She closed her eyes as she was forced to relive that horrendous memory yet again, this was different that just telling Erik what had happened, now she was seeing at all once again and it was just as awful as she remembered.
After what seemed like a lifetime of Ivory reliving the moment she killed her classmates, Charles slowly slipped from inside her mind and she opened her eyes to see him looking at her with sadness and utter regret.
"Ivory-"
"I don't want your pity." She snapped cutting him off and standing up, he was quick to follow suit and slid in front of her when she started to make her way back to the mansion.
"I'm sorry you had to experience that, no child should have to go through what you did, but Ivory," he continued placing a hand on her shoulder, "I will help you get past your fears, and you will learn to control it. I promise."
Ivory looked into his blue eyes and saw nothing but hope and honesty, then she nodded, "Alright." She said before sniffling again, "Can I go?" she asked shyly.
"Of course dear."
Ivory brushed past him, quickly making her way back to the mansion, barely making it past the threshold before the tears came, she ignored the group sitting in the living room and the calls of her name as she made a dash up the stairs.
Meanwhile in the living room the group of mutants and a CIA agent sat and stood confused for a moment, before seemingly everyone jumped into action at once. Raven was the one who called Ivory's name first so she was the first one to try and ran up the stairs after her friend followed by Alex, but it was Erik who breezed past both of them, "Ivy!" he called worriedly, taking the stairs two at a time as Charles came back through the front door.
"Don't," he said sternly stopping the remaining mutants in their pursuit, "Let Erik talk to her." He continued calmly closing the door behind him, the young mutants hesitated but ultimately nodded and followed the professor back into the living room.
Charles knew that Erik would be best suited to talk to Ivory at this time, since it seemed he was the only other person that knew of her past, as the accidental glimpse into that particular memory had shown him. And he trusted that Erik would be able to provide her the comfort she needed right now.
Despite his mad dash up the stairs Erik composed himself as he came to a stop outside of Ivy's door, he was without a doubt concerned for his young friend, but could hazard a guess as to why she had come back sobbing from her session with Charles and could only assume that right now she wouldn't want to rehash that particular memory a third time in just a few days.
"Ivy?" He called softly knocking on the door.
"Come in." a timid voice called from the other side, slowly Erik pushed the door open and peered inside Ivy was sitting on her bed Indian style twirling her fingers around each other, "Charles knows." She said simply.
"I figured as much." Erik responded softly, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him. "How do you feel?" he questioned taking a seat on the edge of the bed next to her.
"To be honest, I kind of hate myself right now." She answered with a mirthless laugh.
"That's not true."
"I hate what I did." She lamented.
"As you should." He agreed before reaching out to place a hand on her knee and shake her leg, "Ivy look at me," she rolled her neck to the side to lock gazes with him, "Do you think that anyone here is going to judge you, or treat you any different because of what you've done?"
She didn't hesitate, "No."
"Then why are you so afraid?"
"I'm afraid of doing it again." She admitted, "I don't wanna hurt people that I care about."
"You won't." Erik said with such conviction that she almost believed him.
"How do you know that?" she challenged.
"Because you just said that you don't want too." He pointed out with a hint of a smirk forming, "And I think most of the people here would be rather hard to kill."
A real smile tugged at Ivy's lips, "Do you think I should tell them?"
"I think you should do whatever you think is best." Erik responded cryptically.
Ivy snorted, "Thanks."
"You're welcome, now I've got just the thing to cheer you up." Erik said patting his thighs and standing up.
"What is it?"
"Charles seems to think that Sean's screams have the ability to make him fly." He explained offering his hand, "They're going to test it today."
"How?"
"Throwing him out of a window."
Ivy's eyes widened in amusement, before quickly standing and taking Erik's offered hand and letting him lead her from her room and down to Hank's lab. They arrived just in time to see Charles and Hank strapping Sean into black and yellows striped wings, the ginger glancing back at the wings nervously before questioning Hank.
"And you're sure that this will work?" he asked skeptically.
"Anything's possible," Hank answered with a shrug, clearly not noticing the look of increasing panic appearing on Sean. Hank continued talking, regardless. "I based the design on-"
Charles however did notice the look of panic on Sean's face and cut Hank off entirely, "Hank, stop talking," Charles commanded, as he finished securing Sean and gave him an encouraging pat on the back, "Come on," he said, leading Sean to the windowsill.
"Oh this is going to be beautiful." Ivory mumbled to Erik as they took up the other window.
Sean dragged his feet along with Charles and Hank as they made their way to the window the he would be jumping out of, until he jolted back like something frightened him.
"I trusted Hank with something far more serious than this. You'll be fine," Raven's reassuring voice stated, sliding the window open.
Raven joined Ivory and Erik at the other window followed by Alex who just entered the room, Raven leaned up against the window next to Erik leaving Alex to lean over Ivory's back in order to see out of the window, a fact that both of them were acutely aware of and did their best to temper down their blushes. But if the look on Raven's face was anything to go by that was exactly what she was hoping for.
Erik though was less than impressed, though he did hide his disdain from Ivy.
Sean swallowed nervously as he sat on the ledge, looking down at the green hedge below, "Promise me one thing," he began, swallowing nervously again as he turned to look at Charles. "When I die jumping out this window, you gotta bury me in this."
"Pull yourself together, it's only one story," the telepath stated, looking down at the ground before returning his gaze to Sean.
"I can still break an ankle or something," Sean shot back sarcastically.
"Yes you could," Charles before agreed quickly moving on, "Now, remember. Scream as hard as you can,"
"You need the sound waves to be supersonic. Catch them at the right angle and they should carry you," Hank added to Charles's explanation, but it did nothing to quell Sean's fears.
"They should carry me. That's reassuring," the ginger huffed out.
"Good luck and don't forget to scream," Charles reminded him, patting his back.
Hank and Charles moved away from the window. Sean looked over at the other group for some encouragement but was met with amused faces instead. So he took a deep breath, made a cross over his chest and then spread his arms and leaned off of the windowsill only to let out a pitiful scream that was more of a squawk than anything and face plant into the bushes. The four mutants in the window burst into laughter at the sight of the Sean-shaped indent in the bush, even Charles looked amused, but Hank looked disappointed that his device didn't work.
"You're alright," Charles shouted down to Sean before, ducking his head back inside.
Erik was right, Ivory thought to herself, that did make her feel better.
"What's with the family meeting?" Sean questioned dropping down into one of the plush couches in the entertainment room later that night, holding a bag of frozen peas to the side of his head. Ivory had asked all her friends after dinner to meet her, so she could tell them about the reasons behind her breakdown.
"I need to tell you guys something." Ivory responded.
"What's wrong?" Raven asked immediately, sounding concerned.
"Nothing's really wrong exactly." Ivory said taking a breath in.
"It have anything to do with why you came back to the mansion crying earlier?" Sean asked bluntly and straight to the point receiving a swat in the stomach from Alex for it, but Ivory only smiled.
"Actually it does." She told them and they all quieted down at her admission, but Ivory didn't mind, in fact she was happy that she actually felt relaxed enough to confide in her friends like this, "I told Alex when I was seven I got my powers," she said glancing at the couch across from her where the blonde sat, "But I didn't tell him the full story." And with that, she launched into the full story of how her powers manifested, she shed a tear or two, but wasn't full on sobbing like she had been previous times.
Ivory had a feeling that she wouldn't ever tell the story of how she accidentally killed a group of her classmates without crying, but she did feel better about telling her friends, of her past. It was a burden she no longer had to bear.
"Now, I'm just a mess." Ivory finished with a pathetic sniffle. She did peek up to gauge her friend's reactions. Raven was beside her and had taken her hand halfway, through her story, had tears shining in her own eyes, Hank who was sitting in the arm chair with his head on his fist looked a mixture of disbelieving and sad, Sean was shocked and Alex was the only one who seemed like he understood what she was feeling.
"You're not a mess Ivory." Raven said squeezing her friend's hand, "You were a scared kid, who didn't know any better. I'm sure all of us know what that was like." She added to be met with various sounds of agreement from the boys. "Charles isn't my real brother." Raven admitted.
"What?"
The blonde nodded, "I was probably around the same age that you were when I came to the mansion, looking for food." Raven went on to explain how she had turned herself into the mirror image of Charles' mother, only for the young genius to figure out her rouse right away and call her out on it, "He was one of the only people who accepted me for what I really looked like."
"What do you mean?"
Raven huffed out a breath blowing her bangs, before blue scales rippled over her skin before they took over her body completely, and the blonde bombshell transformed into a scaly blue women with fiery red hair and yellow eyes.
"Wow." Ivory gasped, "Raven that's awesome." The blue skinned mutants smiled before changing back into the blonde they'd come to know.
From there it seemed like it was share-circle time, as the boy's each took turns telling the story of how they came into their mutations. Alex's story, like hers, was rather sad though with considerably less death involved, while Sean's was more lighthearted confessing that he didn't really have a problem with his mutation from a young age, even discovering if it had been an accident, it was a fun one. While Hank confessed that his family only recently learned about his mutation a few years ago, stating that he hid it from them in fear of being ridiculed, and bullied. Which was the driving force behind his attempt at creating a serum that would his the physical effects of his mutation, both his and Raven's apparently.
Once everyone had finished their story-time Sean blow out a loud breath, "This is not how I imagines a girl's sleepover to be." He joked breaking the heavy atmosphere and getting everyone to laugh successfully.
"Oh Sean," Ivory cooed, "You've got it all wrong, first we bare our souls," she said reaching back and grabbing a throw pillow off the couch, "Then we have the pillow fight." With the last word she launched the pillow at Sean's head, and everyone sprung into action snatching pillows up off the couch and going to town on each other.
Even with the heavy confessions moments ago, the atmosphere within their group changed noticeably, now that everyone was aware of each other's darkest secrets, it seemed to have made them closer. Well as close as a group of kids could be while currently trying to behead one another with couch cushions. But regardless, the dynamics between them would be forever changed.
Ivana Bocanegra: I could never forget about you guy's. Yes I did see Endgame, yes she was awesome in it.
AlexisDumbee: Welcome and thank you so much! –sighs- Kids man, what can you do?
Not a lot of Ivory/Alex development in this chapter but I promised there with be in the next one. Which I'd love to hear what you guys think should happen as training continues?
As always let me know what you think and what you'd like to see in the future.