Last time...

"Okay. First up, you all should know she isn't a mutant." Tony began.

"I know what I saw." Mystique insisted with a frown.

"You really don't." Tony countered. "Look, I've been given sanction to tell you all this stuff by a secret society I didn't even know existed before I met her. So when I say I know what I'm talking about, I mean it. She isn't a mutant, but that's how we'll have to portray her, given how public a figure I am and how exposed to that public she'll be. That society I spoke of isn't ready for all the people they protect to be outed. She's their slow way into public awareness."

"Why slowly?" Magneto inquired.

"Has the fast and loose approach been working for you?" Tony reposed, noting that no one looked happy about that. "Look. Your approaches aren't working, either of them. You (he points to Magneto) want instant acceptance, and possibly to lord over how much better than the mundanes you are, and you (he points to the Professor) want to hide mutants in plain sight until acceptance has been reached. No one is going to accept what they can't see, not like this, and no one is going to instantly accept entire populations that can do things we can't. It's basic humanity 101. What we don't understand, we study, weaponize, or eliminate. I want to change that. She wants to change that, and maybe through your people, hers can find that acceptance too."

Chapter 53

"Howlett?" Hera blurts, unable to help herself when she sees who's in the room, upon entering the living room where Tony and the others were meeting.

"Who?" Tony asked for clarification, and Hera pointed to the man.

"That's James Howlett of the Howling Commandos. The group fought alongside Captain America and Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes in World War II. I saw it in the files Hydra had from William Stryker." Hera informed him, fibbing a little there at the end as she gave him a meaningful look, before looking to the man in question. From the look he gave her, Tony already understood what she meant by that, at least in part; she'd have to tell him the rest later. "You should know that when you went to wipe out Hydra, you might have missed a few."

"I don't remember that life." The man stated roughly. "I go by Wolverine or Logan these days."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to assume." Hera insisted with a grimace.

"That's quite alright." Another man insisted gently, comforting her. "My name is Charles Xavier. This is Eric-"

"Magneto." The man interrupted.

"Brothers?" She hazarded a guess.

"Deep bonds of friendship, though brothers would be an apt description. We parted ways when it became clear our ideals were too different to maintain what we had." Magneto explained. "Charles has never accepted that some things can not go back to the way they were."

"I know someone like that. I would like to tell you he'll get better, but all things considering, I highly doubt it." Hera nodded solemnly, before holding out her hand to him. "Hera Potter. It's nice to meet you, Magneto."

"Likewise." The man nodded with a bemused smile, shaking her hand before letting go.

"You're like me!" She gasped upon seeing the next person, shifting to blue. "Can you shape shift? I haven't worked that part out yet, but I know I can do it. I grew all my hair back when it was shaved off once! How about ice? Do you not get cold like everyone else? Do you have a Jötunn ancestor? You sort of have lines like me, but why are your eyes yellow? Why don't you have horns? How good are your reflexes? What-"

Magneto starts chuckling despite himself. "It appears you have a fan, Mystique."

"Guess I got a little carried away there." Hera mumbled, blushing in embarrassment.

"I…don't know what a Jötunn is, I'm afraid, but I suppose it is possible to have one as an ancestor." Mystique admitted. "Is that what you are? Your brother said your people are in hiding."

"Sort of? I am a Jötunn, but none of the others are. I'm sort of an odd case." Hera admitted. "My apologies. That was terribly invasive of me. Incidentally, why aren't you wearing clothes?"

"There's no need." Mystique allowed with a slight smile, choosing to sit nearer to her. "I can not affect ice, no, but I am told that when I shift it looks like frost is quickly covering me. I do have much better reflexes than most. As for clothes, my skin tends to shred them, the lines being as they are. Unless I am shifted into someone else, this is easier."

"Would you like to be able to? Wear clothes, I mean?" Hera inquired. "Tony could probably design something durable that will shift with you, but only if you want."

Mystique tilted her head and regarded her.

"I didn't mean anything by it!" Hera insisted, waving her hands in front of herself frantically. "I was just trying to be nice, I swear! I'm going to shut up now."

…

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The comment had seemed an odd one. The young girl had gotten into an in depth conversation with Mystique, something the woman seemed rather bemused by. Her brother had soon joined the conversation, adding a query or two in the interest of his sister's health and happiness. Magneto would normally think the man as being opportunistic to weaponize mutants, being that he was interested in Mystique the way Hera was, and his given profession. Yet Magneto could see no falsehood about him. How novel to see a mundane truly wishing for nothing more than intellectual conversation with someone he knew was a mutant!

"My mind is not a place one should tread lightly, Xavier." Hera warned, looking off into the distance. Ah, Charles was meddling again. That would explain it.

"He isn't going to stop, I'm afraid." Magneto informed her genially. "It's his ability, and although Charles has expressed that we must learn to control the powers we have in order to blend in, he has a deep seated need to…meddle. As his ability is not so obvious, he sees little reason not to do as he sees fit with it."

"You mean he wants to know how I'm blocking him so he can figure out how to work around it." Hera snorted. Magneto could only grin in amusement and nod. "Figures. The Headmaster at my school is like that too."

"I love my friend dearly, but I created this helmet for a reason." Magneto commented. "Do you also have the ability your sister has, Dr. Stark?"

"You know…You're the first person I've ever actually heard call him that." Hera mused, catching Tony's attention. "What? You have all these Ph.D's, and yet everyone calls you Mr. Stark, like they're trying to demean your accomplishments or turn you into Howard."

"She gets rather defensive of me." Tony grinned in explanation to her comment. "It's nice, having family, a sibling."

"Anyway, Tony's a genius. So even if Xavier can get into his mind, all he'll see is white noise." Hera shrugged, and then her eyes widened. "Oh dear."

"Are you doing this?" Wolverine asked, worried and on edge. Charles' expression was locked in one of intense concentration, but what was more worrisome was the blood that had begun to drip from his nose.

"My dear, if you've hurt him-" Magneto warned.

"I'm not doing this. He is. I warned him. There are places within my own mind I don't go, and your friend just managed to trap himself in one of the worst pockets of it." Hera snapped, glaring at him.

It didn't quite reach her eyes, likely because she understood that Magneto still viewed Charles as his friend despite their differences.

"Can you get him out?" Wolverine asked, looking to Hera. "I know we haven't really talked about your abilities, or what you are, but…Can you get him out?"

"I…" She looked from Wolverine to Tony, who gave her a bracing grip on her shoulder as if to steady her, before looking to Charles. "I can try."

…

"Tony?" Hera looked to him now with silent inquiry.

"I'll call Snape if it looks like you need help." Tony replied, and she relaxed. At least if she made a mess of things, Snape would be able to pull them out…hopefully. "You can do this, Hera."

She nodded in thanks, and stood before the professor. His eyes were glassy, wide with fear now, yet unseeing. She had no doubt that he'd managed to stumble into one of the worst parts of her mind, and she wasn't sure she could pull him out. There was a reason she didn't go poking around in there, especially not with things trying to settle. Taking his chin into the crook of her finger, she tilted his head enough that she had direct line of sight, and prayed that this would work.

"I want you all to know that I've never done this before, and I don't know what I'm doing, or if this will work at all. I'm not even sure the state his mind will be in if I can get him out. So, here goes." She informed them all, before locking eyes with the professor. "Legilimens."

…

He'd thought that with the distraction of the others, she wouldn't notice him trying to look into her mind. It was something he did with all possible students, to assess how best to help them, but even Charles had to admit he might have bitten off more than he could chew here. What he found reminded him strongly of what he'd discovered within Gene's mind, only far more dangerous. The screams…Oh dear God, the screams…cries for help to anyone who could hear, and he couldn't help but follow after the sound. Only…when he finds the man screaming, he is absorbed into the scene, and it is he who cries out for someone to help him.

"You really are seven different kinds of arse, you know."

The torture abruptly stops, and in place of the man who'd been torturing him was the girl. She is not happy to see him, but other than the one comment, she does not speak to him. Instead, she chooses to take apart the clasps he'd become bound by, helping him up when she'd undone them all. She even gives him a moment to get his bearings, a chance to look around at the scene he'd landed himself in. He wonders who that man had been, wonders if she will tell him; wonders if he even has the right to ask after he'd so thoroughly disregarded her warnings and violated her mind.

"That man…he…Who was he?…Did he…Did he do this to you?" He manages.

"He is both the tortured and the torturer, Xavier." Hera explained coolly. "He is who he is and will be, who I once was, and that is more than you will ever deserve to know."

"I did not mean-"

"Yes, you did!" She shouted, and her words echo like thunder in space they are in. After a calming breath, she continues. "You shoved your way into where you were not wanted, because you have mistakenly interpreted your ability to mean that you must know everything, that you are entitled to that knowledge. You violate the minds around you like a rapist, caring not for their privacy or wishes as you pilfer through their most private and sacred of places, justifying it all 'for the Greater Good'."

Charles winced, having heard that comparison from Eric often enough. "My apologies. If it matters at all, I only wanted to assure myself that you are indeed well and cared for here, that your abilities were not a danger to yourself or others. My school offers such training to those in need of it."

"Please. Your habitual need to know everything rivals that of my own Headmaster." Hera snorted derisively. "Just take your lumps, and admit you were wrong."

"I was." Charles acquiesced, looking around again. "Are you sure…"

"I am not in danger from my own mind, Xavier." She sighed. "I simply don't go to these places, because it will pull such thoughts to the surface, and I can't risk those thoughts being exposed to people who can read such things whenever they want. It's dangerous for others to know some of what I know. You're the first person that's ever slipped under the natural defenses my mind set up."

Charles blinked owlishly at the thought.

"What? Did you think you were one of only a few?" Hera snorted, arching an eyebrow at him. "Not only are there others who have the natural ability to read minds like you do, my people have the capability to learn it as a skill. You're not unique in that regard. Now, do us both a favor and GET! OUT!"

He came back to himself, staring into the vibrant green eyes of the girl whose mind he'd entered.

"You plan on being that stupid again?" She asked, no sympathy.

"I believe that was a lesson learned." Charles nodded to her in understanding.

"Good." She concurred. "I wouldn't recommend it. I won't save you should you try that again. Now, dinner?"

"That would be wise, considering what you just did could have depleted your magical core." Came a voice that had her wincing. "You will need the nourishment."

"You were in there for over an hour." Stark shrugged, unrepentant when Hera looked at him indignantly. "I panicked."

…

After that, things went a bit more smoothly. With Snape there to explain the society she was a part of, Hera found it easier to talk about being a witch. She spoke of the history, why they'd hidden, and how things had been shaped since. Snape explained that what Hera could do was not the norm, that she was far more gifted than the average witch or wizard, while Hera argued that they could be if they stopped getting all hung up about boundaries and what they thought wasn't possible. Hera was unique in her Jötunn nature among her people, but it was this ability that could help them stop isolating as they have been.

"I am rather curious how it is that you are one of the beings of frost." Magneto admitted, and Hera being who she was could not pass up the opportunity to rag on him.

"Well, when two people lust each other very much, they give each other a special hug." She says, completely deadpan. Both Wolverine and Tony start coughing, as they'd each been taking a drink from their glasses at the time.

Thankfully, nothing else disastrous beyond Xavier's blunder happened, and dinner progressed positively. Both factions understood why she would need them, and both were willing to sit down with her to help improve relations between mutants and the mundanes. If mutants could establish a relationship with the magicals, it could open up a lot of possibilities for everyone. Snape left momentarily, only to come back near the very end of the evening with two books. He handed one to Magneto and Xavier each.

"Perhaps, if you can learn to keep your sticky mind out of other people's thoughts, your friend might be more inclined to tell you things." He said to Xavier. Giving the next book to Magneto, he added. "This is for when he inevitably fails at that, so you have a backup plan that doesn't involve the worst case of helmet hair this world has ever known. Might not scream super-villain to all and sundry then too."

The looks on their faces had certainly proved entertaining.

"So, a witch huh?" Wolverine asked, as he sat by the kitchen island. He'd come without the professor this time. Xavier was apparently really taken with trying to learn the exercises in that book, and was a bit busy.

"Yup." Hera nodded enthusiastically, unfazed by his gruff nature. "Pointy hats, cauldrons, magic wands, dragons, the whole nine. I would say they don't sacrifice babies, but some nutter trying to kill me when I was barely over a year old is how I got the scar on my forehead."

"And the memory thing you did?" He asked, a bit more on edge than he'd been before. "You called me Howlett. I've dealt with William Stryker. I wasn't in the files I found. I didn't start really remembering things till you said that name, and it's only been flashes since then."

"You don't remember me, and that's fine. I'm not that person anymore either, not really." She smiled ruefully. "I doubt even Fury will remember me when we meet again."

"How is that possible? You…Whoever you were…How are you…you now?" Wolverine asked, choosing to sit at the bar.

"Might get a bit dicey explaining that." She hedged. "Best to leave it, I should think. Tempt the Fates one too many times, and they tend to do something about it. I might be willing to play a little fast and lose with the weave, but even I'm not that stupid. To put it simply, who I was died, and I was born as I am now."

Hera plucked up a thing of Asgardian goat mead, and poured them both a drink. The man took a swig of what he had to assume was apple juice or something, to humour her, and coughed at the unexpected kick the mead had. She only smirked as she continued to sip on her drink. Even Aberforth had to dilute this stuff in order to sell it. None but her had been able to drink the stuff straight. She'd have to send some of this stuff to Hagrid.

"Holy shit, kid, you drink this?" The man wheezed. "Why?"

"It's gonna make me taller one day." Hera replied with aplomb, amused at his reaction. She sighed, getting back to the seriousness of the conversation. "The person I had been was…bored, and went wandering, found you and the Howling Commandos. It was easy to get swept up in the fight, to glory in battle once more, especially with shield-brethren so devoted to each other, who didn't look at him with disgust whenever he performed some bit of magic. You adopted him as one of your own without a thought, and that kind of acceptance…He didn't have that where he was from, but he couldn't stay, couldn't have told you all who he was…who he really was…not then…Not that he didn't try, mind you…"

She did the only thing she could without saying a name the man wouldn't have known anyway, considering the group had given him a name of their own choosing, tracing the runes onto the countertop facing him, making them light up for a moment.

ᛚᛟᚲᛁ

...

"You crazy son of a bitch." Logan cursed, as a hazy almost memory hits him. It's a flash, gone in an instant, but it's enough that he knows; even if he doesn't understand. The shit they'd pulled… "They'd get a kick out of seeing you now, I'm sure. They're all dead now though."

"They're actually not." She reveals, shocking him into silence. "I did mention Fury, did I not? Steve Rogers and James Barnes are also still alive. One's on ice somewhere in the Atlantic, I think, and the other is a brainwashed assassin under Hydra's thumb, though he too gets frozen from time to time. Not sure I'd call either of those states living, but they are alive, and they're more like you now than you think. They'll live as long as you will, maybe, given what was done to them. I'm not sure how Fury's flown under the radar all these years."

"So if I went looking for them…" He trailed off. She shook her head in the negative.

"Rogers is encased in ice in the middle of the ocean, remember?" She reminded him. "Barnes is under lock and key. Unless something changes, it's going to take me some time before I can get close enough to free him. Fury would be the only one you could get to, but I'm not sure how much he remembers of himself. Wade's alive too, by the way, but he's not someone you just find. He tends to find you. It's what he does."

Logan stilled as the longest snake he'd ever seen slowly made its way over some kind of tree branch thing on the walls. He hadn't thought what those might be for, but now he realized their purpose. Every instinct he had told him to kill it, that it was kill or be eaten, and he only just managed to control that part of himself. It wouldn't do to attack someone in her home, not after the stunt the Professor pulled. Even so, his claws had broken skin; ironically being the thing that pulled him out of his internal struggle.

"Jör is just trying to get a rise out of you." Hera stated, already dabbing at his knuckles with a wet washcloth. He hadn't even realized she'd moved. "Don't worry about him. That snake is a big baby."

Said snake made a show of extending their fangs and dislocating their jaw to be as intimidating as possible.

"Big. Baby."

Jör moved from the tree branches, shrinking down as he did so, just to wrap himself around the girl. Hera just chuckled at the snake's antics, hissing back to it like they were…Fuck it, for all he knew, they were having a conversation. That was nothing compared to the absolutely huge wolf that came morphing in out of his peripheral, growling low as it stalked towards him. Hera's chortling brought him out of his internal struggle there, placing her hand in the wolf's mouth as she rested her forehead against its own, a soft smile on her face as she closed her eyes. An owl swooped in to land on a nearby perch, staring at him imperiously, and he had the distinct impression that he was being judged as less than the dirt under their talons.

"That's it. If you break out into song, or they start cleaning your house, I'm leaving."