Pyro walked back into his room where Rachel was waiting for him. He had a weird look on his face
"What'd he say?"
"I thought you said he didn't like talking about the camps."
"He doesn't."
"Well, he just did. A lot. He was detailed. He said I needed to understand. Was he telling the truth? He was tortured for being a mutant?"
Rachel was shocked. She had sensed Erik's discomfort at even the most vague mentions of the camps. He had just told her how much pain those memories still caused him, and how he didn't like telling people about those memories for fear of seeming weak. She wondered why he had described the details of what he went through to Pyro.
As far as Pyro's question, Rachel didn't know how to answer. It was true to an extent. Erik had been selected for torture because of his show of power at the gates. But it wasn't discrimination against mutants. Klaus Schmidt, the madman responsible for Erik's torture, had himself been a mutant. Schmidt had chosen Erik to learn about his own mutation. He hadn't told Erik that. Erik hadn't even known his tormentor was a mutant until years later. Of course, it didn't matter to Rachel whether the man was a mutant. No one had the right to harm any child like that. Erik hadn't technically lied in telling Pyro he was tortured for being a mutant, and Rachel trusted there was a good reason Erik had phrased what he said that way. She decided to confirm it without clarifying the truth.
"Yeah. He was."
"Ugh. Why can't Xavier and people back at school see? People have hated mutants even before they knew how many of us there were. Even before they knew why some people had powers they hated us. They were scared. Stupid. Anyway, I don't know how Magneto survived that."
"He told you what they did to him?"
"Yeah. I wasn't really paying attention. I mean, it wasn't that I didn't care. I just didn't want to hear about all that. I mean, I did just eat breakfast. Seriously, I could barely listen to what he was saying, and he had to live through it. I don't know how he did that."
"He was strong."
"You can say that again."
"Well, does Magneto have any tasks for us today?"
"No. He said we're still waiting for word on that alleged cure thing."
"Alright. Well, if I'm not needed, I think I'm going to go back to my room."
"Alright."
Rachel went back to her room feeling as though she now understood what Erik meant by turning his greatest weakness into his strength. Instead of feeling pity for him, Pyro was impressed by Erik. Rachel was too, but for a different reason. Of course, she agreed that it was impressive that a young boy could survive such terrible things, but that's not what impressed her the most. Magneto had learned how to tell his story in such a way that it impacted each person the way he intended it to. He had paid enough attention to who Pyro was and responded accordingly. Not only did he shape the story to be about their mutant cause, he got Pyro to be impressed by his strength rather than pity his weakness. Rachel was a telepath, but Erik seemed to have better powers of persuasion than her. Now she understood why Erik felt comfortable using such horrible things to his own advantage: it worked. Granted, Pyro was already on their team, but Erik had now sealed the deal.
Rachel didn't pick up on the fact that Magneto had done the same to her. Being a telepath had many advantages, but there were some weaknesses associated with it too. She recognized that she could be too compassionate and felt things too deeply because she had been in other people's minds. But there was a flaw that Magneto had recognized before she did: over-confidence. She forgot that she too was vulnerable to being manipulated. She forgot that just because she could read people's minds didn't mean she knew everything about them. She only knew what she chose to see, and she sometimes forgot that this didn't necessarily give her the full picture. Xavier had tried to warn her many times not to let herself fall into this trap, but she hadn't understood what he meant.
She hadn't known that he had learned from experience. He had been too quick to trust Erik. He had believed he would be smart enough to keep Erik from acting on the darker sides of his mind. He had lost the use of his legs for believing in Erik too much. He hadn't wanted to tell her all that. He hadn't really told any of the children that he and Erik were friends. He hadn't thought it would be necessary. He had underestimated Erik's abilities as a salesman. He had underestimated how easy it would be for Erik to lure his pupils.
After Rachel left the school, Xavier had become completely preoccupied with finding her again. He knew what a dangerous path she was going down. He was worried for her. It had taken him getting paralyzed to get over his hubris of thinking he could handle Erik. He didn't want Rachel to be hurt. And that was even if she figured out Erik's plans were evil. What he truly feared was her never realizing she had been duped. He knew he had to save her. Not so much from Erik, but from herself.