In the end, the full extent of the enemy's plans was revealed in the shape of a physically clearly weakened high-ranking politician showing up at the mansion's gates the next morning. Senator Kelly, who had just recently attracted the X-Men's negative attention in the U.S. Congress for advocating mandatory registration of all mutants, had turned even more mutants against him, as it turned out. He'd just escaped being a captive of the Brotherhood.

With considerable scars.

This was it, then. With the help of some mysterious machine and Marie's gift, Magneto was trying to turn the rest of humanity into mutants. Even in their worst nightmares, none of the X-Men had expected that. And not even Magneto himself seemed to be aware of the true extent of the danger the city, and the whole world was in.

That this certain machine was not functioning properly, Kelly's pitiful condition revealed at first glance. The very same process that had forcibly altered his genes had made him seriously ill, and his condition was steadily growing worse.

Initially, Katja couldn't feel particularly sorry for the guy. As one of the worst mutant opponents in the government, he might indeed have earned himself such a thoroughly just punishment.

But the longer she watched Kelly in a small single room of the sick bay, together with Ororo, to not leave her friend alone with this so very burdensome job, the less anger she felt for Magneto's first target.

The Senator's cells literally started to dissolve, as if he was sweating away his life with his high fever. An unpleasant smell of rotting flesh infused the room despite the air filters working at full force.

Kelly was barely speaking; the moments when he was fully lucid became steadily rarer. What was relentlessly destroying his body was also clouding his mind. He was passing over, with each passing minute more.

And with each of them, Katja felt her hostility towards at the leader of their enemies grow, whom she had not even met yet. So this was Magneto's idea of how to solve the conflict between humans and mutants? Experiments that could only make victims?

While Kelly's human shape turning into a fleshy mass more and more made her nauseous, she could hardly look away or leave the room. The other X-Men were feverishly busy finding Marie. Ororo could use some company right now. When her stomach turned every now and then, she firmly rubbed her forehead, swallowed thickly a few times, and then forced herself to look up again. She didn't think it would make much of a difference now, but she didn't want to give Kelly that very same feeling that mutants so often had to experience: that others didn't even consider one worth a look, especially when one was feeling like shit.

And her motives weren't only noble. She wanted to show the guy how wrong that attitude of his was that had been an example for millions of people. Thanks to her mother, Katja knew very well that there was another way. And her mother might soon suffer the consequences of the actions of someone like Kelly and Magneto just like everyone else.

"What are you thinking about?" After Ororo had once again wiped the patient's forehead with a soft cloth and Kelly seemed to have fallen into a restless sleep, she sat down next to Katja.

"About home." Katja wiped her eyes in agitation, straightening up. One of the reasons for her being here was trying to prove that she was strong enough to eventually become a part of this team. She wanted Ororo to see how serious she was about that. "Mom never even asked about the details of my mutation. She wants to come here in the summer. Just thinking that Magneto could use this weapon anywhere around the world ... Are we the only sane people left in this whole madness?"

"Not quite, no." Not quite so easily fooled about the probably quite greenish color of Katja's face, Ororo comfortingly stroked Katja's back. "But we will always have to fight to make people understand our point of view. That is our real job. Physical conflicts are only a tool for emergencies. There's not much hope for improvement on either front right now, though, as you can see," she added with a cynical nod at the dying man.

During Xavier's speech about his goals the other day, Katja had had the feeling that Ororo shared all of the Professor's idealistic views. Only now, she let it slip that the many years of unsuccessful fighting both intolerance and the aggression of hostile mutants had left their mark on her after all.

Katja tried her best to regain that vague optimism that the first days in her new home had given her. Otherwise, she would henceforth live only in fear for those she loved. "If there was none at all, the Professor could have just put me in his office instead of sending me to Scott's boot camp, right?"

"You could be right about that. And I'm happier every day that you want to give the insanity of our team a chance. If Magneto keeps this up, we'll be glad for all the reinforcements we can get." Returning her smile, Ororo squeezed her hand firmly one more time.

The two of them understood each other. After all these years of meeting most people with distrust, Katja began to appreciate more and more how much that was worth, especially on such difficult days.

That it was but a few hours before Ororo and Katja had to watch Kelly die, only confirmed that urgent need for mutual support then. The last of doubt was therefore erased: Whatever the Brotherhood was up to exactly: Everyone affected by it was in grave danger.

The situation getting worse at least made Logan a little more cooperative. As patiently as he could, he waited with all of them for the Professor to use Cerebro's powers once more, as he had earlier when he had found out where a completely distraught Marie had fled to.

And he honestly seemed as startled as the rest of the team when a terrible accident with this usually so useful device took the Professor out within seconds.

For endless seeming minutes, only helplessness remained. Not only among the X-Men but also among the children, who had good reason to worry about the Professor who was so important to them, who had helped them all so much.

There was nothing Jean could do for him for the time being. Xavier had fallen into a dangerous coma.

Without any clue as to what exactly had caused it, they could neither help him nor stop the Brotherhood. Especially since they didn't even know where to look for the latter.

It took Katja a while before she managed to head Scott off outside the sick bay. She wasn't exactly thrilled about disturbing him, since he was surely about to check on Xavier, but she wanted to let him know that he could count on her help since he'd already ignored it earlier which had not exactly gone well.

It hurt, seeing him so upset, so worried, that he could barely find a second to stop beside her. She could only imagine how horrible it must be for him, witnessing such an unscrupulous attack on his mentor, who was the only family he had left besides Jean.

Xavier had given Katja, too, both a home she no longer had in Germany and the chance to do something useful with her life. The prospect of helping to prevent psychopaths like the Brotherhood members from putting the world and especially her family, too, in danger.

She was finally going to start doing it. She no longer had the luxury of waiting until she'd mastered a perfect right hook. "Scott, let me work with you. This is what I'm here for."

"Wrong. You're here to relearn how to live a proper life." Scott wearily motioned for her to clear the door.

An annoyed crease showed between his brows when she made no move to listen to a gesture he might use to get the little ones at school under control, but not a woman barely much younger than him.

"The Professor said ...," Katja began defiantly, determined not to be sent away this time.

"The Professor said you were a possible candidate for our team. So are many kids at school," Scott replied harshly. "I already failed to speak up when last he was so eager to throw you in the deep end. I usually don't make repeating mistakes a habit." Just for a moment, his tense features softened. Katja thought she could read guilt in his always half-hidden face.

But then why had he pushed for so much training, trusted her with internals matters? She'd obviously been right: Scott didn't have the slightest idea what he wanted, and now it was too late to break her stride. "You're older than the others, but you're still a student here. Don't forget that."

"Yet the Professor wanted me to help you guys." Katja wasn't going to win this argument, but she needed to try at least one more time. Scott's moods were starting to give her whiplash. As long as he couldn't seem to make up his mind whether he'd rather lock her in her room or give her a crash course in saving the world, she wasn't going to be intimidated.

She instinctively tried to back away but felt only the cool metal of the door at her back when Scott stepped closer, his lips tight with irritation, coming so close that Katja could once again feel the heat of his body against hers ... But this time there was no hint of passion. Instead, she had healthy respect grow inside her for a relentless leader who had been thrown off course by a bad incident and who simply had no nerve for her stubbornness right now, no matter the good intentions. He would push her away from the door with gentle force if necessary.

She preferred to step aside voluntarily to that, with her head lowered and her lips pressed together in sadness.

She was about to leave and turned around in surprise when Scott abruptly spoke up again.

This time, his voice was trembling, his shoulders a narrow, tight line. His gaze went through the closed door toward the person lying in that sick room. "The Professor also wanted us to end this conflict with Magneto quickly and without bloodshed, because the two of them are very close. They used to a thing, you know. It was a long time ago, but even the friendship that came after it survived a lot before Magneto became so extremely radicalized. Charles tends to still idealize him. He didn't see that stinking Sabretooth bastard threaten Storm, or how that toad ripped my VISOR right from my eyes. Do you have any idea how many people could have died there at the station?" A visible shudder ran down Scott's back.

When Katja silently, tentatively put a hand on his shoulder, he held onto it as if it had been a while since someone had done that last before straightening up again and pushing her away, gently enough. But not without very fleetingly grazing the back of her hand with his lips. This time, she couldn't even bring herself to be angry about it.

"I've been lucky this time, that's all. That hasn't always been the case. And next time, it might be you in the way if this happens to me again, because you have no idea about our tactics and how we work together as a team. This is not worth it. The Professor couldn't have known what kind of terrible war with the Brotherhood we would be really facing, especially not so soon. That's not something I can drag a beginner into. Someday, Flashwind, maybe."

With that, there was no more to say.

Scott also didn't change his mind when Jean – thanks to some desperate attempt to use Cerebro alone for the first time, despite her still underdeveloped mental powers – found out that the Brotherhood had taken their prisoner to Liberty Island, where a meeting of many more high-ranking politicians from around the world would take place that evening.

Once again, Katja was ordered to keep still while the X-Men prepared for the dangerous mission at the Statue of Liberty.

Only Logan was allowed to come, who, in spite of all his previous lack of interest, suddenly seemed to care very much about at least Marie being saved. He even agreed to put on a uniform of his own. Logan's massive body wrapped in tight black leather, admittedly – Jean wasn't the only one to look twice, even though she definitely did so the longest.

Katja couldn't help a sarcastic grin as she watched the others prepare to leave from a secluded corner of the hangar, receiving a few brief instructions from Ororo regarding the supervision of the children during the others' absence. While in case of an unlikely emergency regarding Westchester, Katja's first task would be mainly to call said Doctor McCoy and the number of another mutant school across town so that Mutant High wouldn't be without qualified guardians for more than a few hours … Periodically patrolling the house and gardens to keep an eye on everything would at least distract her from the fact that she'd actually much rather be standing over there next to Logan right now, being briefed by Scott.

After everything that had happened in the last few days, it bordered on a minor miracle that Scott had even agreed to bring someone along who caused such obvious turmoil in his work and private life. When an enemy was so openly trying to start a war, one could probably not be picky about the selection of potentially useful teammates.

When Logan looked at Katja briefly and grinned back unabashedly, obviously knowing exactly what she had just been thinking, she turned away with her lips pressed together. There was nothing more she could do here anyway. She was happy to leave it to Jean to stroke Logan's ego, which was already far too big.

From the corner of her eye, she thought to see Scott briefly raise his hand in her direction, but she didn't react. The bitter discussion a moment ago was still sounding too loudly in her ears. The man had taken a decision from her that she would have made quite differently, against all reason, sure, but wholeheartedly. And if there was one thing Katja couldn't stand, it was being deprived of her freedom.

Her footsteps drifted aimlessly through the basement until finally, she was standing right in front of the sick bay again, without realizing that her legs had carried her there. And yet it was exactly the right place, perhaps the only place for her at the moment. Until now, she had not dared to enter the room where the Professor lay. It was high time to see with her own eyes how he was doing after he'd been so perfidiously injured.

How Magneto's people had managed to manipulate Cerebro would probably remain an unsolved mystery. Katja admired Jean for actually daring to use this machine herself after this incident, which according to Scott's words was far beyond her powers anyway.

Outside the sick bay, there were a few of the mutant kids standing around, Artie among them, and also the strawberry blond little girl, Siryn, who could have taken out dozens of enemies at once with her shrill signal scream. Maybe someday, if the little girl decided to follow the X-Men's example.

Right now, all these minors were nothing more than shocked students who missed their principal and were completely alone after the team had left. That they were not allowed to enter Jean's little realm alone, they knew, and they had too much respect for their teachers to defy such rules, but that didn't stop them from waiting in the cool, unfriendly hallway in their thin nightgowns though they should have been in bed by now, waiting for some good news regarding someone they loved very much.

The haunted expression on faces so young hurt Katja, especially because she realized quickly, as she had yesterday with Artie, that this was not the first time people experienced such a thing here. The children seemed gloomy, not surprised. Of course. Almost all the students here, just like Katja, had been cast out of their homes or even disowned by their own families. They had had to learn how to deal with that early. These little ones had already seen far too much bad in this world. And now they were in danger of losing the one who had supported them during this difficult time.

Katja would have loved to tell the students something encouraging, but she still didn't want to lie to them. She had a pretty safe feeling that with mutant children, that was the worst mistake one could make. Of course, one had to be careful with them, but at least you didn't have to come up with any excuses.

That was Katja's instinctive impression, anyway; and at that moment, she felt more than ever that spending more time with the little ones could indeed be something that would give fulfillment and motivation in this mansion in the long run. Just a few weeks ago, the mere thought of such a job would have had her panic, given how many bad experiences Katja had had with teenagers in her own school days.

But these people couldn't compare to these lost souls here. Katja had seen these children here at play, had seen them be cheerful, open to strangers, curious. And yet so thoughtful, so very grown-up.

She could easily understand why the X-Men were so happy to be there for the students. Being able to teach something that you probably often had trouble believing yourself, could nurture your own hopes as well.

And right now, there was no one else around to do this job. "Hey, you guys." She knelt down next to the group. "Don't you short stuffs ever get tired?"

"Does the Professor have to die?" Siryn asked instead of an answer, in that unpleasantly high, shrill voice that you could immediately tell from that something was wrong with it.

But above all, what you could hear was, and that counted a lot more for Katja, that this voice was trembling with held back tears. Such a cruel question from such a young person ...

At first, it was tempting to avoid the truth, after all, to say that everything would be all right ... But if it wouldn't be, the little ones would never trust Katya again. She took Siryn by the hand cautiously, not yet sure how she would react to being touched and was relieved that the girl didn't flinch any more than Artie had yesterday. "He's sick. He's not doing very well. But Doctor Grey is taking care of him. She's good at that kind of thing. I'm sure she'll help him get better. I'm sure she's helped you recover many times, too, hasn't she?"

"All the time," Artie exclaimed in agreement. Understanding him was entirely possible if one simply listened carefully, as Katja had discovered by now. If one was actually interested to. From the database, she knew that his parents hadn't been. "She made me a cast when I broke my arm. And she's painted Spider-Man on it!"

"See? And now your arm is fine, isn't it?"

Katja got up again with a smile and touched the two little ones encouragingly on the shoulder each before eyeing the others, but they, too, seemed a little more reassured now.

A few children yawned furtively to themselves. For all their worry, it was definitely too late for the little ones.

"I'm very much hoping things will be fine soon. But the Professor needs rest now so he can heal. You want me to take you upstairs?"

"As if you can find the way," Artie returned snottily, but immediately ducked his head to avoid possible punishment for the ill-mannered remark.

Katja had to laugh. The word about her lack of sense of direction seemed to have got around. "Well, you can always show me around the mansion tomorrow, what do you say?"

"Deal!"

Pleasantly surprised at not being reprimanded, Artie pulled Siryn along with him. "Come on. The Professor needs rest," he imitated Katja's tone.

With an affectionate shake of her head, Katja watched the children leave. These little beings already had more personality than many a normal teenager in the outside world who were far too often guided by prejudice and shallowness. She could only hope that she had not promised them too much. Time to see.

She found it hard not to turn back immediately when she finally could bring herself to enter the sick room.

Now she understood why Scott had looked so bad after his visit here earlier. To see such a strong, such a gifted man as Xavier in such a helpless situation, deathly pale, motionless, hooked up to tubes, trapped in a state somewhere between coma and nightmare ... That scared Katja almost more than the X-Men's reports about Magneto's plans.

For the life of her, she couldn't imagine Xavier ever being that close to Magneto. The Professor was trying to be there for all mutants selflessly and even to mediate between them and normal people ...

Magneto, on the other hand, wanted to reach his goals by force. And thanks to Marie's unwilling help, he had the best chance of achieving what he wanted tonight. One way or another.

After all, humanity was already living in fear of the mutant world. What would happen when the public learned what Magneto was up to? Even if the X-Men managed to stop him? Would war actually come then?

The situation threatened to escalate ... And Katja was only allowed to watch.

Something in her head clicked so loudly that she all but startled. She suddenly realized that she had actually made a completely different decision than to comply with Scott's wishes a while ago.

"I'm sorry, Professor." Her hand trembled when she carefully touched Xavier's bare arm, irrationally hoping he might hear her, that he would wake up ... Of course, nothing happened. "I just have to do this. I can't leave the others alone in this. This is my world too, threatening to fall apart." Her hand wandered carefully upward, and came to rest on Xavier's high, smooth forehead. She was relieved to feel his skin pulsating alive and warm.

Not everything was lost yet. The Professor would wake up again. He just had to ...

And in the meantime, Katja would do what he had hoped she would do when she'd come here. "You understand that, don't you? I'll do my best, I promise."

Determination growing, she stood up and left the room with quick steps. All she needed now was a plan. New York wasn't exactly next door. Katja knew that many of the X-Men cars and motorcycles were equipped with alien, hyper-fast engines, thanks to Scott, the mansion's very own tech geek, and the help of the Shi'ar, but to try out one of those, she would have needed a key first.

She stopped in front of the garage entrance in frustration and dropped on the bench next to it, wondering which of the older students she could ask without drawing attention to herself.

"Am I interrupting something?" A girl around 17 with black hair and pretty almond eyes, styled very distinguishingly in neon yellow and green clothes, approached her.

"Jubilee?" Katja immediately recognized the somewhat funky voice from the phone.

"That's me. Unfortunately, when you arrived, I didn't have time, and then the others hogged you all the time. So I figured I'd just come to visit you now."

Jubilee shook her hand briefly and then sat down next to her. Despite her colorful outfit, she was looking anything but cheerful. "I'm worried about the others." She drew her knees up and put her arms around them, playing with one of her long strands of hair. "I wish there was something we could do ..."

"We can. You can go back to the office. I may very well need you tonight to alert whoever's in charge of being backup for the X-Men at the moment. Or at least Jean's colleague, that one doctor." In the last few days, Katja had completely forgotten how to think first and then act. Let Scott get angry again, this time, she didn't care. Jubilee's fears, so similar to Artie's yesterday, had given the last necessary push.

These kids here needed their X-Men, not as superheroes, but as teachers, as caregivers. They were learning from the day they came here, that they would always have to fight, all their lives ...

And Katja would do the same. "I'm going there now. I won't just wait."

"You? Do you have any military experience?" Jubilee stared at her, dumbfounded. Even her bubble gum burst with surprise, leaving pink marks on her softly tanned skin.

Katja's shrug only made her eyes widen further. "You serious? Do you know what the Professor will do to you if you try something like that?"

"The Professor isn't available right now. So I'll have to do what I think is right."

Katja stood up with her fists clenched but realized at the same moment that she could and should indeed make this decision only for herself. None of these young people here could be put in danger by it. "Just say you didn't know about anything before I left, will you? I'm not dragging you into this. But with your help, I'd get there faster if you help me hijack some car around here."

Jubilee was visibly torn between admiration and serious doubts about Katja's sanity. "Professor Summers is going to kill you. He's going to kill me. You really think you can do that? From what I hear, so far, you've only run through the gym a couple of times, sparring for bruises."

"I'll hold back. I just want to make sure they're not in trouble."

'They,' Katja said, but it was Scott's image that was on her mind first and foremost when she said those words. There was no point in denying that it was him she was most worried about. Which didn't make the situation any easier.

"So? You think you can get me a ride?"

"I'll do you one better. I am your ride. Now, don't you give me that look. I can call Hank if I need to. I got a cell phone for my birthday. Somebody's gotta be left if you're all gonna get yourselves killed. I haven't had enough training to join in yet. But at least I can get you there. Otherwise, you'll end up in Egypt and never find your way back. I can't do that to Professor Summers." Jubilee's eyes were already flashing with amusement again.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Katja growled, torn between whether she should accept the offer or whether that already meant, getting a teenage girl into a danger zone where she had no business being.

"Of course not." Jubilee jumped to her feet as well. "At the main gate in ten minutes. Oh man, you are definitely insane."

"A little optimism would really help right now."

Nevertheless, Katja was relieved that the girl didn't insist on entering this battle as well. She knew from Jean that young people in here often overestimated themselves when it came to these things. Recent events had probably put a healthy damper on that enthusiasm.

"I wouldn't know where to get any." Jubilee rummaged in her jacket pocket for a moped key with her head down. "The crisis the mutant world is in is growing by the day, just like the Professor always says. There's going to be a war someday, he knew that long before we did. What if someday, we're not safe here either? I'm scared, Flashwind."

Katja comfortingly took the teenager by the wrist so that she would stop scratching her fingers with the sharp-edged metal in her fears. "His powers and the ones of the others will protect this house, I'm sure. And we can do our part."

"We can try at least. Oh man, the others will be so jealous when I tell them later. Hurry up, come on! We need to leave!" With that, she ran ahead into the garage.

Katja watched her with a grin and then hurried into the house. With flying fingers, she put on her uniform. It worked much better than the first few times. Just the gloves and the high-heeled boots, which she had insisted on to compensate for her small size ... Hopefully she did not break anything in those while running. Just throwing all doubts to the wind, she was about to leave her room, eager to enter the exciting world of mutant warfare, when she suddenly saw her mother in her mind's eye.

What if there would never be a summer reunion because Katja was just recklessly getting involved in a completely mad quest? What if she tried to do something for peace, to protect her family, only to not be able to witness whether it would actually still be safe? What was she getting herself into?

And for what? To satisfy a thirst for adventure? She couldn't even name some respectable or comprehensible reasons like former persecution by mankind, apart from the fact that she had been banned from entering her own home country by now. This was all about battle, about being able to make a difference. Was that enough of a reason to put herself in mortal danger?

But there was also an image of Scott in her mind, being knocked out by Mystique. That brief moment of fear when the explosion had threatened him. And his smile, which had completely bewitched Katja during a brief dance in the attic at the latest.

She realized she was having far more than a little crush on that guy. She had fallen in love, as irrational and unreasonable as that might be. And even if this was a relationship that would never have a future anyway: She couldn't just wait for something to happen to this man.