Rachel's POV

The moon is sinking beyond the horizon as we land in DC. The sky above us is a blueish black, with no stars in sight. The edges are polluted by the lights of the city. It casts an eery, orange glow in the early-morning mist.

"I will start with the Pentagon workers and go from there," I tell Magneto, unbuckling from my seat."Most will be asleep at this time. It will make it easier to persuade them."

I step towards the exit, trying to keep my knees from knocking together. I try to take a deep breath, but my chest is tight. My arms tingle. I step down the ramp. It's cool outside, almost too cold to be without a jacket. It stings against my skin, a shiver climbs up my spine.

And then it starts. I hold my fingertips to my temples to focus and magnify my powers. "Don't fail me now," I whisper. Then I shut my eyes.

I'm traveling through everyone's minds. It's overwhelming and similar to Cerebro, only more muted. I cannot reach as many people, but I can reach those I need to right now.

I just need to sort them out from the hundreds of thousands of other minds. That's the hard part.

Breathe and focus.

A little help?

At my request, the Phoenix gives me aid. With the celestial being's help, I find my first victim. Even asleep, his mind is filthy. I wonder how he can sleep so peacefully with these crimes he's guilty of.

The hatred is strong with this one, and it is not only aimed towards mutants. It seems he carries hatred towards every minority. How could someone this hateful be responsible for defending the nation? No wonder the MRD was granted such a large budget.

Now for the hardest part. I have to rewire his mind. I dull the anger and replace hatred with love. It is difficult to do and requires me to reeducate him on many things. He clings to the things his parents taught him during their broken marriage and holds grudges against people that I cannot fix. I can fix the main thing though; his hatred towards mutants.

He still needs therapy, but at least this will prevent any more mutants from needing it.

Once I am certain I have completed the task with him, I move on to the next Pentagon employee. I have no concept of time of how long I'm taking. I keep carrying on, the list of minds I have to alter feeling like it is never-ending. The trauma and hateful memories I witness are painful. Fifty people later and I still do not understand how anyone can live thinking their kind is superior to any other living being.

But through all the minds I go through, I find a connection. There is one thing they all have in common. Fear.

It is human nature to fear what they don't understand. That fear transforms into hate. Some minds have feared mutants for longer than they can remember. They don't even know why they hate us. Some learned this fear from their parents and are teaching the same fear to their own children.

It's passed down from generation to generation, just like mutations are. And just like mutations, fear can be deadly in the wrong hands.

Once the list of minds is finally shrinking, my work is getting sloppy. I am not as gentle as I was with the first ones. I'm going through their minds to get the job done instead of actually caring for them. I know that this can cause trauma to their minds, but at this moment I cannot feel guilt. I've picked up too many of their emotions to feel my own.

What I can feel is exhaustion. Even with the Phoenix, I am straining my powers to the max. Each mind is getting harder and harder to rewire. I travel through the Pentagon, all of the cabinets, and finally, the White House. The President of the United States is my final mind.

His mind is powerful. He is no mutant, but he does have power over the country. His thoughts show it. It's harder for me to get what I need to be done, and I am unsure if it is because of his mind, or because at this point I'm draining the last of my energy.

I do the same I have for the rest of the minds, and just like that, I have succeeded. In a few hours, the members of the government will wake up in a new headspace. And those who are awake are already fixing their previous mistakes.

But some people still hate mutants. I know this. I think back to the people in TJ Maxx, how angry they were when I lost control of my powers. All the protestors. How can they protest against someone's life?

The government can only do so much.

I muster the rest of my energy and I send one thought to every human mind in the nation.

Do not fear mutants.

And then everything goes dark.

Jean's POV

I bolt out of the cafeteria. I don't think I've ever run this fast in my life, but the thought of my daughter maxing out her powers sent a jolt of panicked energy through me.

I break through the doorway into the crisp night air, looking around for Rachel. Her power was so strong. She should be here.

She's nowhere to be seen.

What's even more shocking is that the MRD soldiers, who had been fighting the mutants moments ago, are standing down. They're laying their weapons done, and even helping mutants up?

I see Scott and run up to him. "Where's Rachel? and what the hell is going on?!"

He seems just as confused as I am, his brows knit together above his shut eyes. "Rachel went to Washington D.C. with Magneto. She's trying to change people's minds about mutants."

"What?" I exclaim, horrified. If I wasn't panicking before, I am now. "She's thirteen! She can't- oh god! That power surge was her! How could you let her go!?"

I know this isn't Scott's fault, but I'm too upset to think straight.

"She's a telepath, Jean. How could I have said no?" He sounds defeated. "Are there any more soldiers left?"

"They're standing down," I dismiss. Then my eyes widen. Why are they standing down? Did it have to do with Rachel's power surge? If she was changing everyone's mind about mutants, is that why the MRD is behaving like this?

Did it work? How could she have done that? How did she reach us all the way from D.C. with that much power?

"Does anyone know what's going on?" Alex asks, coming up to us. He has a nasty bruise over his left eye, his lip split open, and knuckles bloody.

"Rachel went with Magneto," I explain before I try to telepathically find her. The silence is deafening. "Oh god, I can't sense her."

"If she's with Magneto, she's safe," Alex says. "He'll rarely let a mutant get hurt if he can help it. And Rachel can probably defend herself against him too."

"Probably!?" I repeat.

He nods. "Alien-possessed teenage girl against an old man with a bucket on his head. She stands a good chance."

I know very little about Magneto, but the thought of my daughter being with him only makes me feel sicker.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see an MRD soldier coming over towards us. He has his helmet tucked under his arm, and Scott's glasses in his free hand. "Here," he offers them to Scott. "Sorry, we took them."

Scott takes them, confusedly, and puts them on his face. "Thanks," he warily says.

"We'll shuttle you all back to your homes as well," the soldier continues. I see now that he has a dazed look in his eyes. "Boss says we're shutting down. Sorry for the inconvenience we've caused you."

"What the fuck?" Alex gawked as the soldier walked away. "Wasn't he just trying to kill us?"

"Whatever Rachel's done, it worked," I say.

Sure, it worked. But at what cost? Is my daughter okay?

To Be Continued...

Author notes: Sorry about the delay. I broke my laptop a few weeks ago and then my family ended up contracting covid so I haven't been able to bring my laptop to the shop yet. It is much more difficult to write on my phone then it is on a computer lol, especially when this chapter was already hard to write. Anyway, hope you enjoy! The next chapter should be up sooner then this one was!