Chapter 2
Professor Charles Xavier was scanning the news, as part of his daily routine before heading downstairs for breakfast. He turned on the television after finishing the paper; sometimes the television had something a little more recent than the paper did. Charles wasn't sure what he was looking for. He just had this feeling that he should be looking for something.
The main story was a kidnapped young woman, about 25 miles from where he lived. He was about to change the channel to another when he saw pictures of some of the damage that had been done to the house. "Magneto," he said aloud. Magneto was the only person who could have done such damage. He scanned the area around the fortress where Magneto resided but picked up nothing. It appeared he would have to visit the fortress and find out for himself what was going on.
Natalie had spent a long, restless night trying to sleep. She had finally fallen asleep, but she was having this odd dream.
It started out okay. She was in a room full of books, and she was seated comfortably on a recliner in front of the fire. The scene changed, and suddenly she was in the plane that had come close to crashing a few years ago. Those events were unfolding again, in her dream. She looked out the window, and she could see the storm clouds brewing. A voice over the loudspeaker said to fasten their seatbelts, and everyone did so. She could feel the fear in the cabin; it was palpable. Natalie could see the lightning flashing, and there had already been a few near misses with the wings of the plane. So far, everything had turned out all right. Spoke too soon, she thought. A brilliant flash of light accompanied the smell of ozone in the air. She could feel the rush of air and realized that there was a hole in the cabin. It was fast losing pressure, and she could see that the plane was going down. She freaked out and looked down. She realized how high up they were, and she thought they were going to crash. The plane was plummeting towards the ground, and then Natalie woke up with a scream.
She sat up in bed and wiped her face with one hand. Natalie did not enjoy reliving that experience. That was why she was so afraid of heights. She shuddered and stood up, suddenly feeling the need to pace. She walked the length of her cell for a bit. Natalie stopped and stared outside. It was beautiful tonight. If only she had been free. Then she would've been able to go out. She watched the waves crashing against the beach, thinking of how to get out of here. No matter her silly attraction to Magneto, she couldn't stay. She had to find a way out.
Yawning, Natalie realized that she needed more sleep. She crawled back into her bed and cuddled her blanket. Within a few minutes, she was back asleep again, this time with no dreams.
Magneto was sitting in his favorite place on the roof. He often went up there when he needed to brood. No other beings could get up there, perhaps with the exception of Toad, and Toad knew good well not to bother him when he was on the roof.
He knew that Natalie was angry about Senator Kelly's death. He had not meant for that to happen; he only wanted turn him into a mutant. He went over the machine and could not find any flaws. For now, he had decided to suspend the transformation. He did not want anyone else to die.
A whoosh of sound interrupted his thoughts, and he flew towards it. A ship was the source of the noise, he realized. That ship looked familiar. It was the Blackbird, the X-men's ship. What could they possibly want? Charles did not condone the destruction of anything, so he knew they weren't here to destroy the machine. Magneto also knew that Charles knew of the machine, as he had read Kelly's mind. He was surprised to see Charles exit the ship. That was not at all what he was expecting. Touching down gently next to the ship, he nodded to Charles.
"What brings you here, Charles?" he asked. Charles brought himself closer to Magneto.
"I am here to see a girl I suspect you have in your home. She does not belong to you. You should not have taken her, Erik."
"You won't take her from me. I will allow you to see her, though. She is probably in need of some company about now. She saw Kelly's death," he said with some regret. The sun was slowly starting to rise, and it lit up Magneto's weary and devastated face. He was too tired of hiding his feelings. He gestured to the house. "I expect you know the way, Charles."
"Thank you, Erik," Charles said gently. He was worried about the state of this young woman now. He had no idea when he saw the news report that this girl was a Seer. He simply knew that she was kidnapped. He could tell from Magneto's expression that he cared about her. Charles might not have been able to read his mind, due to the helmet, but he was able to read facial expressions and such. Magneto looked like he had lost everything. She might be the one person who can save him, he thought excitedly. He had always hoped that Magneto would turn away from evil eventually. Charles and he had once been good friends. Perhaps there was still hope that they could be that way again.
He moved through the door and towards where he knew the cells to be. He reached the bridge easily. Crossing it, he finally gazed on the form of the kidnapped young woman. She was sleeping peacefully, curled up with what appeared to be her favorite blanket. Regretfully, he spoke her name softly. "Natalie, wake up." She must have been a light sleeper, as her head popped up instantly.
Recognition crossed her face. "I remember you from the vision I had. You're the guy who read Senator Kelly's mind, right?" She didn't need confirmation. She recognized the wheelchair and the bald head.
"Yes, Natalie. I am Professor Charles Xavier. Everyone's worried about you. How are you doing?" He put on his paternal face. Everyone tended to respond well to that.
"I'm fine, for the most part. Magneto hasn't hurt me in any way." What she was saying was true, she thought. Other than that incident with Kelly, and that hadn't really hurt her, he had not harmed her. "I just want to leave." This was true and it wasn't. She was still a bit fascinated by him, despite what he had done. It disgusted her in a way. She sighed. How could she still feel this way, even after she knew what he did?
"I'm glad to see that you're okay," he said at last. "I am concerned about what happened to Senator Kelly as well." She glanced up at him in shock.
"Were you reading my mind?" she accused. He shook his head.
"I am incapable of doing so here. Erik has placed certain safeguards that will not allow me to use my telepathy here. I can see by your face that you are thinking of him. You are divided in your heart. Part of you wishes to continue to seek him out, after what he has done. Part of you wishes to run away. Only you can choose what you are going to do. I feel compelled to say, in his defense, he was not aware of what his machine was truly capable of. He thought he was only turning humans into mutants. He was not aiming to kill anyone. I suspect he is feeling quite horrible about now. Erik is capable of that particular emotion, and I feel quite sure he is feeling it now. You two are rather well suited. Both you and Erik are fairly intelligent people. I can tell you, just to let you in on a secret, he has a huge library here." Natalie's eyes lit up. Libraries were one of her favorite things. Charles could see that he had her attention. "I understand that right now, you're fighting your growing attraction to Erik. You are in a hard situation. Under normal circumstances, you would be attracted to him, if that makes this any easier." Natalie appeared to be thinking about what he had said.
She could see that he was telling the truth. Natalie suspected that Magneto had tried to tell her the truth earlier, but she had refused to listen. Sighing, she realized that she would have to speak with Magneto. "Will you tell Magneto I would like to speak with him, please?" She wasn't sure what she was going to say yet, but she figured she'd muddle through it. Charles nodded his assent.
"You'll have to come visit me at the mansion. I'll let Erik know that he'll have to take you. I must leave now; I shouldn't leave my students alone forever," he said wryly. "My students will probably get into too much mischief if left to their own devices for too long. I will see you again." Natalie nodded to him, and he carefully turned his chair around and left. She figured she had a few minutes before Magneto would be here. She panicked, not knowing what she was going to say. She hated apologies. They were so hard for her, even when she knew they were necessary. The minutes appeared to go by like seconds, and before she knew it, she heard the familiar tread of Magneto's on the bridge. She looked up, and there he was. She felt a little flutter in her heart, but her face remained calm.
"Look, I'm sorry." Natalie shifted uncomfortably, looking away from him. She heard the bars part, and Magneto stepped in. She backed away, not because she was afraid he was going to hurt her, but because she was afraid to be so close. An expression of curiosity crossed his face but was quickly masked, before she saw him.
"It's all right. I realize now that I was wrong." His comment came out grudgingly. Both he and she did share one thing in common. They were not good at admitting they were wrong. She looked at him cautiously. His bright blue eyes glowed with sincerity. She took a long look at him before she nodded.
"May I take you to your quarters now," he asked tentatively. He wasn't quite sure if the crisis was over, but he recognized that a peace offering was needed.
She thought about it and said, "I would like that very much." Natalie saw what Magneto was trying to do, and she didn't mind. Putting out her own olive branch, she said, "they are beautiful." Magneto stepped back through the bars, and she did the same after grabbing her blanket, stopping again at the edge of the bridge. Creating that same disc, Magneto stepped upon it and waited for her to join him. She did so, careful to avoid touching him. He did not push the issue this time, as he didn't want to scare her anymore than he already had. The journey was silent, both wrapped up in their own individual thoughts.
The disc stopped moving, and both stepped off it. Magneto and Natalie walked side by side down the corridors and back to that door again. This time, it was she who pushed it open. She grinned, happy to be in a more hospitable room. Natalie ran to the bed and flopped down on it, relishing the comfort. "I love it," she said happily, and Magneto felt his heart expand just a little. It was almost like that human Dr. Seuss story "The Grinch". His daughter Anya had loved that story. It always made her giggle. Speaking of books…
"Natalie, would you like to see my library? I imagine that spending all your days staring into space will get quite boring." Magneto mentally hit himself. Why did he have to stir up trouble by mentioning her spending the rest of her life here? She didn't appear to notice though, and he carefully began breathing again, not having realized that he had stopped.
"I'd love to," she said with such enthusiasm, he gave her a grin of his own. It appeared that she had been distracted by mention of books. "Professor Xavier says that he has a library too…is it as big as yours?"
For his ego's sake, he was tempted to say yes, but it just wouldn't have been right. To lie about that was to open the door for other lies, and he wanted to be as honest with Natalie as possible, even on a matter as silly as this.
"It's bigger. Charles was more the academic than I. It is not to say that I was totally disinterested. He also had more money than I did. It was easier for him to indulge his book fetish. I am still proud of my own collection. A large bulk of it is in German, as that was the language I grew up with. I do have a nice selection of English stories that you can read," he continued, as they began the walk to his part of the fortress.
Natalie began to be a bit dizzy, walking through all these corridors. She had no idea which way they had gone, and she would need his help getting back. Finally they reached a set of double doors, and she stepped aside so he could open them. Her mouth gaped open again when she stepped inside. Books lined the walls, and she realized that there were no ladders to get to the books that were very high. As Magneto could fly, it was really a non-issue. She found a nice armchair near the fire and sat down in it, soaking up the warmth. She cuddled with her blanket and enjoyed the atmosphere. If she were a kitty, Magneto felt quite sure that she would have began purring at any moment. He sat down in a chair near hers but made sure that she had her space.
"Well, if I'm to spend any quality time with you, I'd like to know a bit more about you. Is your family still alive?" She knew the instant that she asked that it would have been better if she had not. A look of acute pain crossed his face, and she instinctively reached out to soothe but pulled back, afraid of her reception.
"They died in the camps," he said at last. She gasped. Remembering reading about the Holocaust wasn't the same thing as actually knowing someone who had been through it.
"That must have been really terrible for you," she said, attempting to empathize. It was a hard thing for her to conceive.
Magneto took her comfort in the spirit it was meant, and he didn't comment on the lack of effectiveness. "I don't even know when they died. I simply know I was separated from them and my sister, and I never saw them again. Believe me, I looked. After the Allies freed us, I scoured the earth for them, on the idle hope that they might still be alive. I found nothing. I knew they were dead…even though no evidence was found, I know this to be true." He cleared his throat. "Onto you, Natalie. What are your parents like?" He was eager to change the focus onto her.
"My father left us when I was 9. My mother had to raise my younger brother and me by herself. We lived on food stamps and hand-me-downs. I never understood why my father left us. We were such a happy family. I realized later that there were things going on that I didn't know about. I always thought it was my fault. Later, I learned it was a thing that kids went through. They think it's their fault when it's really the parents' fault. I love my mother; she was the one who got us through everything. She was always there for us, even though she worked so much. She always considered us to come first, which was a hard thing to do. When I applied for a scholarship to Harvard, she was the one who encouraged me. I took the LSAT and passed with flying colors. Soon enough, I had my law degree, but I still wanted something more. I am currently working on my Masters Degree in Library Science and am thinking about going back to school to get my Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice." Magneto looked amazed. This girl, woman, he corrected himself, had done all this in 6 years, and she still wanted more!
"Most impressive," he told her. Natalie grinned.
"I was offered an internship with one of the most prestigious law firms but had to turn them down when my mother got sick. I ended up going to school, working, and taking care of my mother and my brother. She recovered after a few months, and I was able to focus solely on myself again. It was really frustrating, having to juggle school, work, and my mother. I resented my mother for a while, even though I recognized that it was an unfair thing to do. She doesn't know, although I imagine she has her suspicions. I felt guilty about being so selfish, but my school was so important to me. I don't resent her anymore; I've had some time to work past my feelings. Mom and I have a great relationship again." Natalie sat back then jumped up again. "Oh my god, I've been so insensitive. My mother is probably panicking with worry about me, while I'm sitting here so comfortable. Is there a way I can contact her?"
Magneto looked up at her thoughtfully. "Charles, I imagine, will be able to reassure your mother. You do remember, of course, that he has telepathic capabilities. He will be able to successfully get her to accept that." Natalie's face lost some of its worry, and she sat back down with a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, I kind of forgot about that. He did say that he would let everyone know I was all right." She looked a little uncertain, and Magneto reached out to touch her arm, but this time it was he who pulled away, uncertain of her wishes. She didn't appear to notice, too wrapped up in her own thoughts and feelings. They sat in silence for a moment or two, until Natalie broke the silence with a sigh. "This just seems so surreal. Is this even happening? Maybe I knocked my head or something and this is all a dream." She didn't sound too hopeful. This didn't really feel like a dream," she thought.
Magneto was unsure as to how to respond. It was an unusual situation to find himself in. He was always sure. "Perhaps we're all in a dream," he replied quietly. How he wished it were so…although this was a rather bad dream to wish oneself in, he further reflected. He dreamed of a place where all mutants were looked upon as humans' betters, where they belonged. He caught Natalie yawning and realized she was probably tired.
"Why don't you get some sleep, Natalie? There is plenty of time to talk later when you are more rested." Magneto stood up, ready to leave. Natalie hadn't realized how late it was. She yawned again. Nodding sleepily, she laid down, cuddling her blanket with her. Magneto turned the light off to her quarters and closed the door softly.