Hours later, when Magneto had gone and classes were finished for the day, Logan and the other 'old X-men', Jean, Scott and Storm, gathered in Xavier's office. Kurt had tagged along.
"Do you believe him?" Scott asked.
"Yes." Xavier said. "Sadly, I do. Even with the helmet, I know when Erik is lying to me."
"Then we need to be prepared for an attack." Storm said. "We keep as many X-men on site as we can, we write out logistical plans, hold points, retreat lines. We keep the kids on site."
"So we just wait." Logan said. "We just wait for them to bring the fight to us. There are almost a hundred kids in this place, if we wait for them to come to us, we risk them. If we go first, if we find them and stop them, we protect them."
"We'd have to find them first." Scott said.
"I could search for gatherings of mutants, I know where I'd expect them to be." Xavier said. "Any new ones… it would take time. But it might be possible. But without the plans for the base, I'm reluctant to send you in blind."
"We have the plans." Jean said. Everyone looked at her.
"What?" Scott said. "He refused to give them to us unless we agreed to fight with him, and…"
"Mystique." Jean said simply. "Magneto has a helmet that makes him immune to telepathy, she doesn't."
There was a very heavy silence. Xavier put the tips of his fingers together.
"What are you saying?"
"She was inducible, and she won't remember it, so there's no harm to her that way."
The silence stretched. Something was about to hit the fan. Scott had drawn his body away from Jean a fraction, Jean seemed to be starting to realise the trouble she was in.
"You forced her." The Professor said. Jean looked down. "She was here under truce, no threat to anyone here, and you forced her."
"You've-"
"Only at direst need. You know that. I'm astounded I have to even think about explaining this to you. You know how terrifying a thing it is to endure. Even if you removed her memory of it somehow, she had to endure it at the time. She had to be a spectator in her own body, betray her master and be unable to do anything about it. Jean…" He shook his head. She looked crushed, between the way Xavier, Scott, Storm, and Kurt, were looking at her. Xavier sighed heavily. "For the present, defensive lines. Cyclops, this is your prerogative, form a few plans for different sorts of attack. Evacuation routes, choke points, who you use where… I don't have to tell you this."
Scott nodded and got up. "Storm." She followed him out of the room. "And Logan." He called over his shoulder.
Logan, please follow him.
For Xavier, then, not for Scott. Logan followed.
"And Kurt, if you don't mind." Scott called over his shoulder again.
Kurt followed, leaving Jean alone with Xavier.
,
"Never let it control you." Scott told himself firmly. Right now, he had work to do. His task was to figure out how they were going to protect the students. Everything else would wait. Jean was with The Professor anyway. Not his present problem.
"Right." He said aloud. "Plans for the school are here." He spread the smallest scale map on the table. "Attack could come from any direction, but it's simplest to attack by the main gate, that's the best access to a road. I think our best option is to draw attackers on to choke points, thin them out with range attackers, Storm, myself, and keep the most resilient fighters, Peter and you, Logan, in the choke points."
"Okay." Logan said. "What happens with getting the kids out?"
"They all know their evac routes, it partly depends where we're attacked from."
"The problem we had last time was cutting off." Logan said. "You're right, all the kids knew exactly where to run once they figured out to run, but a few of us got cut off."
Scott looked up at Kurt. "That's where I was hoping you'd help us."
Kurt drew a breath slowly. "I… I am not a fighter."
"I'm not asking you to be. I'm asking you to get the kids back in the retreat phase. If you were also happy to move X-men about, to keep us from getting isolated, that would be very useful."
Kurt drew a breath slowly. "Alright. You are protecting the children. I will help you."
"Thank you." Scott said. "Now as for where the choke points are-"
,
They spent maybe an hour and a half going through plans. If they had all eight X-men, plus Kurt, plus the Professor using Cerebro to coordinate them, they should be able to outlast more or less anything, unless they were bombed out. Scott's feet started to carry him towards his and Jean's room. He was up to date with his marking, he'd normally seek Jean out now. But today wasn't normal. She'd forced Mystique. They hadn't been in danger from her, there was no excuse. The Professor had spent years driving it in to all their heads. If our powers make us stronger, we must use that strength wisely and compassionately. Our strength must never make us tyrants. Scott couldn't think of much that was more tyrannical than telepathic forcing, as The Professor called it. Scott remembered it. He remembered it so vividly that he still woke up shouting and sweating with the memory of it. And Jean knew that, he'd let her read it from him. His nightmares woke her too. She knew how… what it was like to see and feel yourself doing something you were horrified to be doing and not be able to stop yourself. He opened their bedroom door. She was sitting on the foot of the bed, looking up at him.
"Are you mad?" She asked softly.
"Can't you tell?"
"I'm not trying to read you, Scott."
He turned to look at her. "Aren't you?" She'd looked down. She looked… she looked desperately sad. She shook her head mutely. "And I'm supposed to trust that."
She sunk her head in to her hands. "Oh God." She said quietly.
"Do you understand why… this upsets me so much?"
She nodded once. Stryker's name hung in the air between them. "It's inexcusable." She said quietly.
"So why the hell-"
"I don't know." She looked up at him desperately, her eyes were shining with tears. How did she not know why she'd done it? "Right now, I can't even explain it to myself. It's…"
"It's what Magneto would have done."
"She's… She won't remember."
"That doesn't make it okay. She still had to live through it in the first place."
"You think I don't know that? I could feel her struggling."
"And you didn't let go."
Jean shook her head. "I couldn't tell you why." Why not? Because she was ashamed of herself? She certainly had reason to be. Because she genuinely didn't know? In a way, that would be worse.
Scott drew a breath slowly. "So what is this?"
"I don't know."
"You're a telepath who just did something really out of character. Do we need to be talking to The Professor about a latency breakout?"
"No." Jean said quickly.
"So, what? You just made a really bad decision?"
She nodded. "And I can't tell you how much I regret it." But she hadn't seemed to when she'd announced she had the plans. Was it possible that this was feigned? The idea made him cold inside. Surely not. This was Jean. She did not play at emotions for personal gain. She would not lie to make her life easier. Twenty-four hours ago, he'd have said she'd never have used her powers to force someone unless it was the only way she could save life.
"Are you coming to bed?" She asked after a minute or so. It wasn't an offer of sex, and he was grateful for that. He couldn't think of many times he'd felt less like having sex with her than right now. If she'd offered him sex after that conversation, he'd have been very sure something was very, very wrong with her.
"No." He said. He was not calm enough to lie down beside her and sleep right now. "Go to sleep, I've got stuff to do. I'll be up in an hour." He turned and walked back out, not waiting for her reply.
He'd find something to do. He always could. He had a couple of calculus lessons for next week he could plan out.
When he came to bed an hour later, she was asleep, thankfully, in nearly the middle of the bed. He lay down with his back to her, closed his eyes and took his glasses off.