Chapter 3

Later that morning Charles and Erik had taken Isabella to the CIA's research base intending for her to meet the rest of their recently found mutant friends.

They'd just pulled up in Charles car and as the three of them got out Isabella took in the surroundings.

"Nice place, though I get the feeling that the outside is just the tip of the iceberg" she said.

"You'd be correct" chuckled Charles.

The boys then proceeded to guide the young woman inside to meet the gang who they found rounded up in the bases lounge area laughing from whatever they'd just been talking about before Charles and Erik entered the room with Isabella.

"Hey you're back"

Spoke a tall blonde hair girl who Isabella watched get up off the couch she was sat on and rush up to Charles providing him with a hug. Isabella would have been jealous were it not for the fact that she'd already seen in Charles mind who the girl was.

"You couldn't have missed me that much" spoke Charles teasingly.

"No not really" giggled the blonde girl who only just then noticed the brunette hiding behind her friend. "Who's this?" she questioned.

"Oh err everyone I'd like you to meet our newest member of the team" announced Charles leaving his sisters side to stand at Isabella's placing a hand on her shoulder. "This is Isabella Swan, Isabella I'd like you to meet my sister Raven" he said gesturing to the pretty blonde.

"Its nice to meet you Isabella" spoke Raven producing a polite smile.

"You too" said Isabella returning the gesture.

"And over here we have..."

"Alex. Angel. Hank. Darwin. And Cassidy" spoke Isabella cutting Charles to the quick as everyone in the room besides Charles and Erik stared at her in shock.

"How'd you know our names?" asked Cassidy from his perched position on the chair arm.

"I kind of looked into you're minds, I'm sorry its a force of habit" Isabella apologized.

"You're a telepath?" questioned Raven raising her eyebrows.

"Uh huh" said Isabella nodding.

"Is that your only power?" asked Angel.

"Nope, I also have telekinesis, invisibility, a physical and mental shield and a siren song" informed Isabella.

"You have invisibility!?"

"Lets hear the siren song!"

"No do the telekinesis!"

Rang different voices around the room, "whoa guys! Calm down and one at a time" announced Isabella raising her voice above theirs.

"What's a sirens song?" asked Alex kneeling on the couch leaning his arms on the head of it.

"A sirens song is a beautiful melody that lures in anyone who hears it to its rightful owner. It can be a useful talent to lure in the enemy, though I've never used it for such a thing" said Isabella.

"Can we hear it?" asked Angel.

"Err I don't think it would be wise, last time I used it I was in the park and a bunch of guys tried to grope me to death" explained Isabella pressing her lips into a line.

The entire room fell silent as all eyes went wide with shock.

"That actually happened?" asked Raven

"Yep, and its safe to say that after that I never used the song again" said Isabella.

"Understandable" said Hank envying the girl.

Though Charles on the other hand was intrigued by such a gift and wanted more than anything to help her as well as the rest of the team control their powers.

"Well I'm all for it" spoke Erik shrugging his shoulders.

"Me too" agreed both Cassidy and Alex in a smug manner.

"Ouch!"

"Geese!"

Cried both boys who'd each earned themselves an up side slap round the head by Darwin and Angel.

"Let me be frank boys and say that A. Its not going to happen and B. Erik if you do not cease with those vile thoughts I will gladly wrap my shield round your mind squeeze it like play Dow and give you the worst freaking migraine there is!" Isabella snapped at the man beside her.

"Well you shouldn't have been listening in the first place" shot Erik.

"I wasn't! You were the one projecting that porno shit so if anyone's in the wrong here its you!"

Now he didn't know why but just the thought of Erik having those kinds of wishful fantasies about Isabella made Charles want to break his friends jaw.

"Ugh! You're a pig Erik" said Raven wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"Porno shit, I love it" laughed Alex.

"So Isabella..."

"Bella"

"Sorry?" questioned Angel in confusion.

"Bella, I prefer Bella"

'Bella, indeed' thought Charles staring at the girl before him with dreamy eyes.

'Why thank you Mr Xavier'

Bolex! He forgot she was listening and damn near blushed narrowing his gaze down to his shoes in awkwardness.

"Well Bella, what's your story?" asked Darwin.

"Story?" questioned Bella.

"Yeah what do you do for a living?" he repeated rephrasing the question.

"Oh erm I have a weekend job at the hospital, I'm sort of a carer there" said Bella.

"Awesome, who's your main priority? The vulnerable or..." asked Hank.

"Sort of, I work in the kids ward so its kind of fifty fifty with the patient's medical status" explained Bella.

"I bet it has its moments" said Angel.

"Oh believe me it does, however mainly terrible ones" spoke Bella in a sad tone as she thought about each tragic loss she'd had to endure since the beginning of her career. Every loving memory and heartbreaking goodbye that would stay with her for the rest of her life.

"What about your family? Tell us about them" asked Raven.

While Erik pulled a grimacing expression rubbing his neck Charles squeezed his eyes shut mentally cursing as he looked at Bella who had fallen silent and narrowed her vision to the floor.

"Now's probably not a good time Raven" he told his sister who wore a look of confusion.

"No, its okay" assured Bella shaking her head.

"Are you sure? You don't have to discuss anything that makes you uncomfortable" said Charles.

"They should know, besides their gonna find out eventually so I may as well just get it over with" said Bella.

Charles admiring the girl's courage led her to one of the couches taking a seat beside her.

Raven watching her brother's every move wondered what was going on between the two, since he'd arrived it hadn't gone unnoticed how comfortable Charles seemed to be around Bella. The way he looked at her was almost like...no surely not. Right?

"Know what?" asked Alex.

"Shaw, the guy you're...well we are after, he murdered my parents when I was just a kid" notified Bella swallowing a lump in her throat.

"Seriously?" questioned Cassidy.

"Yeah, except I hadn't known of his identity until today finally putting a name to my parents killer after seven years" said Bella.

"I'm sorry" spoke Darwin sympathetically.

"Its okay, its none's fault except Shaw's"

"How old were you when they died?" asked Angel.

"Eleven, and my brother had been fifteen at the time" said Bella.

"You're brother?" questioned Hank and Bella nodded.

"Christopher, he was with me the night Shaw ambushed our parents. I'd been sleeping at the time when Chris came barging in my room telling me that he'd heard a commotion downstairs, I told him I'd go check it out and used my power to remain out of sight. As soon as I got to the kitchen I saw my Dad holding Shaw at gunpoint while my Mom was on the ground bleeding. My Dad just kept telling him over and over to get out and leave us all alone, Shaw just laughed and that's when my Dad fired the gun, only something weird happened..."

"He transformed the bullets into solar energy" interrupted Erik.

"Yeah, how did you know?" asked Bella.

"I've known Shaw for a long time and know exactly what he's capable of. His power is that he can absorb energy from any type of source and use it to his control"

"That's exactly what happened, he used the energy of that gun shot dashed it at my Dad knocking him right through the wall. I couldn't move, I'd been literally frozen to the spot. My Mom screamed and tried to grab a knife off the sink, but Shaw grabbed her by the hair and when he did that's my brother came rushing in and took a baseball bat to Shaw's spine. I tried to wrap a shield round Chris but Shaw grabbed his neck and head butted him knocking him out cold, Mom then got to grips with a glass pitcher and smashed it across the bastards face.

I remember running to my Dads side seeing blood gushing out his chest and his face was bruised and cut. He took hold of my hand and told me to get out, to take Chris and hide. I told him no and begged him to let me stay and help, but my Dad being him just shook his head and said it was important Chris and I get away before it was too late. He made me promise that once we went that nor Chris or I would look back, we just keep our heads down and stick together like family does.

So I reluctantly agreed, told my Dad I loved him and Mom so much and snuck Chris's unconscious body out the back door before Shaw could spot us. Once we were a good distance away I laid Chris down and was abdomen to go back..." Bella trailed off recalling that tragic night, "but before I could...the whole house had exploded"

Getting up off the couch Bella walked away from the now envious group and came to a stop in front of the wide screen window with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"I watched as my home as well as my parents went up in smoke all because of a man who made a decision that ruined both mine and Chris's lives, and I loathe him to hell for it" seethed Bella.

"What happened to your brother?" asked Raven.

There was a moment's silence before Bella answered, "I don't know. A week after what happened Chris and I were placed into witness protection and he hardly ever spoke to me, he made it clear that I was to blame for everything and said I could have done more to stop it. And he was right I could have but I didn't and instead coward away and allowed them to die, something that will haunt me for rest of my life. A few months passed and by that time we'd been fostered by a family called the Williams who were pretty nice folk and easy to get along with, however Chris to my unknowing had already made other plans.

One night while everyone else was asleep he'd snuck in my room and told me he'd had enough and that he was leaving. I pleaded with him not go and that we needed to stay together but he said in his own words that he could no longer see me as his sister, in his eyes I was just a pitiful freak of nature. He err...he tried to suffocate me and said that maybe if I died that he'd be doing humanity a huge favour, but after a minute he changed his mind and said that I deserved to live with what I'd done. After that he vanished through the window and never came back, I tried everything I could to find him and still do to this day but each lead I had ran cold. He's gone, and its all my fault" Bella's voice crackled as she lost herself to sobs.

Raven feeling truly heartbroken for the girl moved over to envelope her into a comforting hug.

"Its not you're fault, non of it was"

"She's right Bella you did the right thing, your parents knew what they were doing and by saving your brothers life you fulfilled your father's last wish. You're a hero" said Charles.

"No, I'm no hero. Just another coward" defied Bella shaking her head.

"If anybody's the coward it's Shaw. We will get him Bella, I promise you we will" said Charles trying to bring her some assurance.

"In all honesty I really couldn't give a rats ass about that spineless bastard, I just want my brother back" wept Bella.

"We'll find him, its what we do best. We help those in need" said Raven bringing her to arms length.

Besides Erik each person in the room couldn't help but admire Bella for not just her bravery and strength but also for the love she bared. Courageously searching for a sibling who had broken her heart and damn near killed her but still carried on the fight to retrieve her only remaining family member back, now that right there was loyalty.

"You don't have to do that you guys already have enough to deal with, I'll be fine" said Bella.

"Nonsense, anything that concerns you concerns us now" apposed Charles.

"We could use Cerebro" suggested Hank.

"I thought that was only for finding mutants?" questioned Bella.

"It is but we can tweak it a bit"

"Well er how exactly does it work?"

"How about we show you instead?" proposed Charles with a smug expression.

He along with Raven Hank and Erik led her to a bright room containing machines and in the middle was where Bella spotted a platform and above that hung a weird looking dome device full of wires and what not.

"What's that?" she asked gesturing to the device.

"That's Cerebro" said Hank.

"That thing is what's gonna find Chris?" questioned Bella in surprise.

"Well we hope so, but yes it is" said Charles as Hank went over to the machines to flick some switches.

"So how does it function?" asked Bella.

"Once Cerebro's activated it'll allow me to see and hear everything, it can be rather tricky depending on how strong the mind is but as long as I know what I'm looking for I should be dandy" informed Charles.

"So its not all bread and bacon, it could become scrabbled eggs just as easy" commented Bella.

"In a manner of speaking, yes" said Charles.

He slid off his jacket and handed it over to Raven before moving to stand under the device pulling it down so it sat nicely on his head.

"Don't you need like a picture of my brother or something?" asked Bella curiously.

"Don't worry, its all up here" said Charles pointing to his head.

"Cheat" Bella teasingly commented.

"Tell me about it" said Raven as both women chuckled.

Hank double checking the device was on properly then moved back to the machines.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Always" said Charles.

Bella observing the whole thing watched as the lights in the room dimmed before the head piece brightened up causing Charles to gasp grabbing onto the metal railing where he was stood, his eyes seemed to zone out like he was lost to a world of his own.

"Weird question, has this thing ever fried someone's brain?" she asked Hank.

"Not to my knowledge" he said shaking his head.

In the first few minutes it took Bella prayed Charles could find something, anything, even if it was just the name of a street or city she didn't care. This was her last shot to finding Chris and hopefully mending their broken relationship.

"He's got something!"

She heard Hank shout making her heart hammer against her chest watching as the paper printing out the machine was jotting something down. Once that stopped the entire machine closed down and Charles snapped out of his trance lifting off the headgear, Bella then watching as he stepped down from the platform to stand in front of her felt herself become overwhelmed again at the remorse she saw behind the mans eyes.

'Oh no' she thought to herself.

"Well? Did you…" she trailed off unable to ask.

"I am so so sorry to tell you this Bella but…"

"No no please no" Bella pleaded shaking her head feeling what was left of her heart crumble to pieces.

This wasn't happening! It just couldn't be! It was just a nightmare and she was going to wake up soon. There was no way Chris was…

"He's in Ireland"

In Ireland…wait what!?

"What?" Bella gasped, "y-you saw him?"

Charles smiling brightly nodded, "In Dublin to be exact under the name Michael O'Brien".

"And he's okay?"

"He's absolutely fine" assured Charles.

Bella sighing in utter relief felt herself brake out into a watery grin, "I don't what to say" she chuckled. Before she knew what she was doing Bella had leapt forward and thrown her arms round Charles bringing him in for a grateful hug. "Thank you, thank you so much this means everything to me" she muttered into his shoulder.

"Your more than welcome Bella" said Charles wrapping his arms around her petite body pulling her closer to him as he closed his eyes enjoying the feeling of this beautiful woman in his embrace.

Both Hank and Raven each found themselves smiling at the pair knowing without a doubt that there was something magical in the air and it had nothing to do with mutation, perhaps this was a sign of good things to come at last.

Or so they hoped.

Author's Note: The chemistry is building up between Charles and Bella and the long lost Swan brother has been found, hopefully nothing will able to spoil this time of...

Erik : Woman will you just tell them to review already and shut up!

Author: Oi! I will tell them to review when it damn well pleases me! You hear me Magnet boy?

Erik: I don't take orders from anyone, least of all you.

Author: What do you mean least of all me? I'm the bloody writer.

Erik: And a terrible one at that.

Author: Oh really? How about I just erase your sorry backside all together?

Erik: You can't do th…

-Delete-

Author: I rest my case, now where was I? Oh yeah.

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