So. Uh. Hi. To apologize for my recent lack of updates, I give you a rather lengthy chapter! Whee! And we are finally starting to wrap up this story! (I know, almost sixty chapters just isn't long enough, but, I'm sure you will find some way of surviving.)

Anyway. WHO HAS SEEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST? DID YOU ALL LIKE IT? I for one, thought there needed to be more Charles and Erik interaction, but that's just me. I will undoubtedly write more oneshots about that in the future.

The next chapter will hopefully be up relatively soon. I'm excited to write it, and I'm on summer break now, so, hopefully, things will work out for the best.

In the mean time, enjoy this chapter! Fair warning: The first part is a little rough and is the reason why it took me so fricking long to update, but I'm rather fond of the second and third parts of this chapter.

Thank you all for reading! And to everyone who is new to the story and has left me countless reviews, I love you all. Thank you. And to everyone who has been here from the beginning: Thank you as well. You are beautiful people and I'm sorry I've been such a shitty updater lately.

The Perks of Being a Telepath

Chapter 55: This Is, In a Word, Bad

Hank could only stare uncomprehendingly at the sight in front of him. Raven, with her arm wrapped around Charles' throat, and murder in her eyes.

What the hell had happened?

"H-Hank, don't just stand there. D-do something!"

Charles' frantic wheeze broke through the scientist's stupor. The fur on the back of his neck began to rise, and he curled his lip into a snarl, preparing to attack. While he was loathe to fight someone he knew and cared for, he refused to let anyone-not even Raven-hurt the professor.

Raven shifted her stance ever so slightly, applying more pressure to the professor's prone neck.

"Take one step closer, Beast, and I will break his neck."

Hank froze, unwilling to take that chance.

Judging by the devastated look on Charles' face, the telepath clearly hadn't known who his attacker had been, which clearly meant telepathic interference. Such things were possible, but very unheard of.

Shit.

This was, in a word, bad.

The scientist ran through a multitude of scenarios simultaneously in his head, trying to quickly figure out a way to get out of this without hurting either Raven or Charles. There was nothing he could think of.

Before Hank had the chance to speak his distress, though, Charles moved in a way the scientist didn't think was possible. The telepath caught Raven's stomach with his elbow, and before she had the chance to recover from her initial surprise, he had managed to wriggle out of her grasp and pull away from her. He hesitated for the briefest of moments before sending his elbow into her temple. She collapsed without a sound.

Charles sank to his knees beside her, catching her before she hit the ground. He was breathing heavily, the effort of the fight obviously taking a lot out of him.

Hank stood there dumbly, uncertain of what the hell had just happened. While he had known the professor had been undergoing training, same as the rest of them, he hadn't realized that Charles knew anything in terms of self-defense, nor had he realized the telepath was that good at it.

It made him wonder what exactly Erik and Charles were doing during their 'private training sessions.'

Then Charles looked up at Hank, and the fact that the older man knew how to defend himself was suddenly the least of his worries.

There was only one other time where Hank remembered the telepath looking this completely wrecked, and that was shortly after Alex had died.

The scientist swallowed hard, not wanting to go down that particular road at the moment.

Charles' voice was rough when he spoke.

"Go see if you can find any sign of the others."

It wasn't worth mentioning that Hank had already searched the rest of the house and there was no sign whatsoever of where the others had went. He growled in acquiescence and prowled up the stairs.

When he returned ten minutes later, still having found no sign of the others, Charles was on his feet. Raven was no longer in the entry hall; she had been moved to the couch in the parlor. She looked completely peaceful, despite the bruise now gracing her face.

Hank hated the look on Charles' face. It spoke of defeat and self-hatred. Those two things never boded well for anyone.

"What do we do now, Professor?"

There was a brief moment of silence. Charles' eyes were glued to the unconscious form of his sister.

"Raven is beyond my help. Something—someone—has toyed with her mind. Her memory of me has been erased."

Hank struggled to find something to say, but realized that there was nothing that didn't sound completely wooden.

It didn't seem to matter; Charles pressed on.

"She believes she was sent here to kill me, that I am completely human and am working against the mutant cause."

"Can you do anything to fix her?"

Charles' eyes were too wide and sad as he looked sorrowfully at Hank. He shook his head.

"Whatever—whoever—erased her memories set the equivalent of mental booby traps. If I try to rectify what was done to her, I could very well trip one of them and erase everything of who she is."

In short, she would become the human equivalent of a vegetable.

Hank growled in frustration.

"There has to be something we can do!"

They couldn't lose Raven. Not now, not when things were finally, finally beginning to work out for the mutants.

Charles let out a shaky breath.

"Cain did this."

Those three words were enough to make Hank's blood freeze.

Although they really didn't know much about the synthetic mutant's powers, but from what they had found in Cain's victims, he was a very powerful, very rare form of telepath. But where Charles used his powers sparingly and probably honestly didn't know the true extent of them, Cain used his to pulverize any mind that came into contact with his own. He created entirely new identities for people, such as he did for Raven, and made it almost impossible to undo them completely.

Charles had tried, several times, but had never had any success. The mental booby traps that Cain set were dangerous, not only to the victim, but to whoever tried to undo them as well. There had been one time where Hank had thought they had lost Charles for good—he had fallen into a coma and almost didn't wake up again.

The telepath's face was white as he continued, his voice shaking violently.

"There's more. Cain has Erik."

Hank felt as though he were in the plane during free fall.

Whatever Cain had done to Raven, if he did even a tenth of that to Erik, it would spell horrible news for everyone. Erik, pushed back into the mentality he had had before Charles, or worse, was impossible to imagine.

The scientist got out one word.

"Where?"

There was a small room in the attic, more of a cupboard than an actual room. It was barely big enough to seat two young children, hiding from their abusive stepfather and stepbrother, let alone a full grown woman.

Yet it was here, curled up in the small space with her nose stuck in a book and looking frighteningly young in the dim lighting that Charles found Raven.

She was in her natural blue form, which was barely worth mentioning nowadays. The book she held with almost white knuckles was a battered, torn sliver of a novel, barely more than a hundred pages.

She barely glanced up from her reading, even as he sat down beside her. Clearly, whatever the shapeshifter was reading was more entertaining than her older brother.

Charles knew better than to disturb her. She had a stubborn set to her jaw, and even without the almost violent waves of frustration and sheer determination rolling off her, Charles wasn't even going to dare trying to touch her. Regardless of what everyone else seemed to think, he actually did not have a death wish.

So, he sat quietly, with his legs stretched out in front of him, and focused on not listening to her thoughts. Whatever she was thinking about, it was clear that an invasion of her mind was not welcome at the moment. And Charles, for all of his faults, really did try to control his telepathy, especially around Raven.

He wasn't sure how much time passed-to not read Raven's thoughts, he focused on little more than his own breathing and the occasional rustle of turning pages from Raven-and somewhere along the lines, must have dozed off. A small poke in his side woke him from his stupor.

Dark yellow eyes peered out at him, both curious and cautious. Charles blinked hazily as he stretched his now stiff arms.

"What time is it?"

Raven's mouth quirked into half a smile.

"Almost dinner time. You should sleep more, Charles. You look like crap."

The telepath rolled his eyes.

"For god's sake, all I do is sleep."

He didn't mention the fact that when he did, it was plagued with nightmares-both his and others'-and no matter how much he tried, he couldn't drink himself into a dreamless sleep.

Raven gave him a look that showed how entirely unconvinced she was.

Charles decided a subject change was in order.

"Why are you up here?"

They hadn't been up here since Kurt's death and Cain's supposed death. Or at least, Charles hadn't. Then again, Charles made it a point to actively avoid reminders of terrible things in his life as of late.

Raven looked away.

"I just..."

The answer was plain in her mind and Charles couldn't help but see it. She saw this cupboard as a safe place, somewhere she could hide out from the world. Somewhat contradictorily, the attic cupboard was also a constant reminder of what she couldn't control in her life and all of the things that had hurt Charles over the years that she hadn't been able to prevent. The memories were kindling to the fire that was burning inside of her-the passion for revenge against Azazel and Angel for what they had done to Erik and what they were trying to do to Charles.

Charles went very still.

"Raven..."

She was already shaking her head.

"I know what you're going to say, Charles. You're going to tell me that revenge isn't the answer, that I'm only going to get myself killed. Well, I'm not. I have a plan. I am going to stop them."

There was steel in her voice, the very same hardness that led her down the path with Erik after Cuba. It was sharp and painful and worst of all, Charles knew it was going to end badly. It always ended badly.

"Revenge won't bring you peace, Raven. Nor will it fix anything that's happened."

The words were hauntingly familiar to those he spoke to Erik on the eve of the events with Shaw, and it was that pain that made his voice raw and cracked. The mere thought of Raven plunging into that very same darkness that once consumed Erik was horrifying. While Charles knew Raven was no longer the innocent young girl he had brought into his home all those years ago, she was still very much his sister and it was his job to protect her from everything. Including herself.

Raven glared, her yellow eyes almost glowing in the dim attic light.

"I don't want peace, Charles. I want justice."

Charles forcefully pushed away the memories of the ill-fated chess match with Erik and focused on the present.

"This isn't justice! You want to retaliate for what they want to do to me, and that is the very definition of revenge."

"I can't sit by and do nothing while people plot to kill you! I won't!"

He understood where she was coming from. He truly did. And he loved her for wanting to protect him, but she had to understand that what she was planning wasn't going to solve anything.

"Killing Azazel and Angel isn't the answer."

Raven snorted.

"Oh and hiding in the library, drinking scotch until you pass out is?"

He barely registered the insult.

"You are going to get yourself killed, Raven!"

"I'm not a little girl anymore, Charles! I can take care of myself. And I know what I'm doing."

"No, you don't. You have no idea what you're getting yourself into, and you are going to get hurt, or worse, killed!"

"When are you going to realize that I am not a child anymore?"

"When you start acting like an adult!"

The shout surprised them both, and Charles immediately regretted the words.

Raven's jaw snapped shut and she pulled herself out of the cupboard.

"Raven, wait."

She ignored him, stepping over him and moved to leave the attic. Charles-in a last ditch effort to stop her-reached out and caught her hand.

"Please, Raven."

"Let go of me, Charles."

Her voice was cold and emotionless, threatening violence if he didn't remove his hand immediately. Charles knew his sister better than to push it.

He let go of her hand.

I'm sorry. I didn't mean it.

He projected the words as she stepped away from him, but she didn't stop to acknowledge them. She pushed open the door to the stairs and vanished.

She was going to leave. The plan was plain in her mind-she had had a bag packed for weeks, ever since Charles had told the truth about Azazel and Angel. She had just been waiting for the right time to do it.

Charles pushed himself to his feet, swearing colorfully as his shoulder let out a painful throb. Erik had been right earlier when he had told Charles the telepath was overdoing things.

But that didn't matter now-he needed to get to Raven and apologize and convince her that she needed to stay. He couldn't lose Raven in the same way he had once lost Erik.

Somewhere below him, the front door to the mansion opened, and an influx of excited minds told Charles that the others had returned. He breathed a sigh of relief as he headed down the stairs as fast as he dared. Raven wouldn't risk a huge emotional confrontation in front of everyone. He still had time to convince her to stay.

Erik was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs, looking grim.

"Charles."

The telepath looked up, blue eyes meeting saddened green ones, and Charles knew the truth without reading his friend's mind.

Raven was gone.

Smoke curled lazily from the roof of the abandoned building, a complete juxtaposition from the angry fire that was quickly growing inside.

Charles knew without a doubt that Erik and Cain were inside that building.

"Professor, you can't go in there!"

The telepath was already halfway to the front door of the building before he remembered the others with him.

He turned to Hank, who had spoken.

"I have to, Hank."

The scientist shook his head.

"The smoke alone is going to kill you."

"Erik is in there!"

Hank's face tightened with sadness, betraying how he truly felt. Clearly, he had given up hope on finding Erik after the disaster with Raven.

Charles swallowed heavily.

"I have to do this, Hank."

He was running for the building against before anyone had the chance to stop him.