Early the following morning, Xavier sat waiting in his office. His fingers drummed out a tune recognizable only to him as his eyes gazed blankly out the window. At the sound of the brassy doorknob turning, He bolted back into a proper upright position, mentally scolding himself for not paying attention. It seemed to be happening more and more these days; he would just drift off in his own little world.
The door slowly opened to reveal a somewhat agitated looking Katie. He smiled at the sight of her and gestured for her to sit down. She complied, still looking rather angry. He looked down and shuffled through a few papers on his desk, silence thickly hanging over them. Finally though, Katie spoke up.
"You insist I attend classes, but before I can get to the first one you call me up to your office?" She questioned, her voice showing her annoyance.
Xavier chuckled, still organizing his papers.
"Well?" She asked after another moment.
"I thought," He began, looking up at her from behind his desk. "That you might possibly be interested in meeting one of the others." He said slowly.
Katie stared at him, wondering what exactly he meant. Other students? Staff? Or humans?
"Humans, dear." He said, breaking through her thoughts.
Her face involuntarily brightened. "Really?"
Xavier smiled. "I would not lie about that," He replied. Katie watched as his eyes slowly turned to focus on the window before snapping back towards her. "Well, if you are interested in going, Nightcrawler can take you."
"When?"
Xavier glanced down at his watch. "I would say…in about five minutes. Shall I call him?" He questioned.
Katie opened her mouth to speak but before she could, Nightcrawler was already there. He smiled, and gave a quick two-fingered wave.
"Kurt," Xavier began. "Could you take Katie down to the island? I want her to meet Neil." He said, eyes focused intently on Nightcrawler. Katie guessed his was communicating telepathically with the mutant.
Kurt's face brightened and he gave a quick nod. "Ja," He said with his thickly accented voice. He held out his hand, which she timidly took as she stood.
"Try and be back before too long," Xavier said vaguely. Kurt saluted to him and with a puff of smoke, they were gone.
_______________________
Instants later, Kurt and Katie appeared on a small island in Washington's Puget Sound. Katie quickly stumbled to the ground when Kurt released his hold on her. She rolled over on to her back and gazed upwards. When she had heard the Professor mention an island, she had assumed he meant a tropical island. This was anything but. Pine trees loomed overhead and a glacier about the size of a small car stood nearby.
"Where are we?" she asked, pushing herself up out the dirt, the feeling of motion sickness gone.
"The island," Kurt told her softly.
Katie forced a smile. "I can see that, but where is this island?" She said through gritting teeth as she stood.
"Oh!" Kurt said, realizing what she meant. "In the Pacific Ocean, off the Washington Coast, I believe." He murmured, looking around. "Ah, there is the cabin!" He cried, gesturing off into the distance.
Katie squinted. "I don't see…" She was interrupted when Kurt grabbed on to her arm again and teleported in front of a good-sized house, built in an old-fashioned style. Moss covered decaying piles of firewood sat propped up against the sides and an overgrown garden grew rampant all around the cabin.
As she was studying their surroundings, Nightcrawler was knocking on the door with a slight impatience. Finally though, it was answered. The rusty door hinges let out a loud screech as the person within powerfully pushed open the door. Katie stared from where she stood several yards away. The owner of the cabin was an older man; he looked to be about in his mid-forties. He bore a graying, receding hairline and pale skin. Dark blue eyes offered a cold contrast to his otherwise faded looking face. She watched as Nightcrawler talked quietly with the man. She was unable to hear them, but witnessed a flamboyant exchange of gestures before the man seemed to give in. Kurt turned and gestured that she should come over to them.
"This is Neil Branch. Neil, Caitlin Becker." Kurt introduced with a smile. Katie eyes drifted between the two expectantly.
Neil loudly cleared his throat. With a gruff voice, he voiced the quick statement, "I hear you survived too."
Katie's jaw involuntarily dropped as she heard him say that. 'Too,' she noted. He…He must be…No. She kept on staring as she argued with her self over the possibility of this being the human Xavier had produced. Before she knew it, Nightcrawler and Neil were ushering her inside the cabin.
The inside of the cabin was certainly nicer than she had expected. All new furniture and decorative pieces made the living room appear to have just come out of a showroom. Looking past the welcoming tones of the living room, she could see the kitchen. All new stainless steel appliances were crowded into the room, with a pair of whitewashed doors leading somewhere unknown.
Neil told her to feel free to sit down. She looked around and plopped herself down on the closest cushioned seat she could find. He went into the kitchen and returned several moments later with a tray laden with a brewing teapot, several mugs and a few muffins. He set it down on the oak coffee table and offered a cup of tea to Nightcrawler, who accepted.
"Kurt, would you mind giving Caitlin and I sometime alone?" Neil asked as he passed the mug over into the scared, blue hands of Nightcrawler. Kurt nodded as he wrapped his hands around the mug. He looked down at the steaming liquid inside and took in a deep breath of steam. He flashed the two a smile before he teleported out.
Once the last of Nightcrawler's smoky residue had faded away; Neil turned back to her. They sat across from each other, the coffee table between them.
Neil let out a sigh after a moment and leaned forward to pour himself a cup of tea. When he reached forward, the arm of his red flannel shirt slid up his arm, revealing inches of scar tissue. Katie's eyes widened slightly.
"How…?" She began to ask, trailing off. He looked down and realized she meant the scar. He let out a chuckle and leaned back comfortably in the couch.
"Long story, Caitlin." He said, taking a sip.
"Katie, please." She corrected quietly.
"Oh, sorry." He said. He took in a deep breath. "Well, since I've got the time, and I'm guessing you do as well so I might as well go into it. You may find it interesting." He said with a slight shrug.
"Anyway, these scars are from what saved my life." He cast an upward look. "The ol' NASA shuttle. Endeavor."
"You were an astronaut?" She questioned.
Neil gave a content smile "Yep. I was up there when Xavier's mind nuke hit. Didn't go that high up I guess. The five of us were in the middle of a radio conference with Mission Control, when it hit. They were all screaming bloody murder for a few minutes and then it just went silent. Scared the shit out of us. We all thought that War on Terror had finally gone too far and somebody finally dropped a WMD. Close enough, I guess." He said, pausing. "We didn't know what to do. Stay up there until we run out of supplies and starve, suffocate, of dehydrate…Or one of several other scenarios, or try and fly down a see what the hell happened. We, quite obviously, decided to come down. With no guidance whatsoever from the ground, we managed to crash. " As he was saying this, he began to roll up his sleeves, revealing crepe-like scar tissue that completely covered his arms.
"I'm the only survivor of that crash. God," He paused, eyes in a faraway daze. "I remember my crewmates screams as we hit. Everything seemed okay for a second, and we thought we had actually made it. Then something, dunno what- just blew from behind. We were on fire much more than you'd expect for a machine that has heat shields on it. Oh yeah. Well, a few minutes later, and we've managed to get the hatch open and me and Chrissy Hopkins are out. She's really badly burned and half-unconscious. Everyone else is dead, and we're out in the middle of a field. We must have overshot the runaway by a few miles. It was awfully cloudy, so I don't blame our pilot. Like I was saying, there I was with Chrissy, who's practically dead when here comes Xavier. He's got his little band of handymen; the X-men, they are appropriately called. He says his little spiel and tells me I'm the first human he's seen in weeks. I started freaking out as he tells me how he single-headily killed everyone with the wrong genetic info and well…Long story short, I'm here." He finished with a half smile.
"Wow," Katie said, studying the man.
"How about you kid? I'm sure you've got a story too." He said with an encouraging grin.
Katie shrugged. "Not really. I was down here. Went through it just like everyone else."
"Then why are you…" Neil began but Katie cut him off.
"Still here?" She finished. She shrugged again. "I don't know. I was going to ask Xavier, but I have trouble getting into his office without somehow getting taken away by a student or Nightcrawler."
To that, Neil nodded. "I know that feeling. Xavier's a busy man, saving the world from his people. Dealing with what he did. It may have been seven years but it might as well have been seven days for that man," He explained, shaking his head.
"You know him quite well then?" She asked, curious.
Neil waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "He studied me, I studied him. We ended up on opposite ends of the coast." He said lightly, getting up to refill the teapot.
"Has he ever found any others?" Katie called, leaning back in the couch so she could still watch him in the kitchen.
"To my knowledge, yes." Neil answered when he returned. "Though I think it's unlikely. Xavier has this way of finding anyone and everyone in the world. I'd have thought he would have found a way by now. Then of course, it really could be just you and me, kid. The spaceman and the anomaly. Now there's a match made in heaven, Eh? Tea?" He finished with the question.
Katie quickly shook her head no and he poured a cup for himself. She found herself gazing up at the high ceilings and looking around. She turned back slowly to Neil.
"Why did Xavier…?" She asked trailing off.
"Build all this? Lavishly redo the furniture every season? Give me a private island? I think it's simple. Xavier is the game hunter, or the crazed zoologist. Either one, he's in search of a long-lost specimen. When he finally found it, why kill it? Why not keep it hidden away from civilization in a place where he can always be watching safely over it?" Neil said slowly, with a bit of a smirk.
"In this case dear, we are the endangered species. Our time may be running out, but our watcher wants to keep us maintained." Neil finished darkly.