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Chapter 19

(Angela)

The week following Evie's full manifestation was a tense one for all of us. Logan, Kyro and I cancelled our next planned mission because we felt it was best if Evie had both of her parents there for her in case she needed us. Charles did something I'd never seen him do before and exercised his full authority as the headmaster of the school, pulling Evie from all of her normal classes and having other members of the staff cover his own classes so he could work with her full-time on controlling her powers. I was startled by this, since I'd never seen him do this for any other student and I was on my way to ask him not to give my daughter special treatment when I was waylaid by Scott. "Angela, can I have a word with you?" He asked, steering me gently by the elbow to the lounge.

"I don't have time, Scott," I replied, "I'm on my way to see Charles."

"Actually, that's why I want to talk to you." He took a seat on the couch and gestured for me to join him. "He knew you were on the way to talk to him and asked me to explain for him."

"Allrighty then." I said, taking a seat. "Does he know how annoying it is that he always knows, well, everything?"

Scott laughed. "Yeah well, he says that you were projecting so loud it's surprising even the non-gifted couldn't hear you." He replied and I smiled. "But he wanted me to tell you that Evie's not the first student he's done this for."

"Really? And who else has gotten his undivided attention?"

He took a deep breath and a flicker of pain crossed his features. "When Jean first got here, her powers were pretty strong and she couldn't control them very well. If she got upset, stuff would fly all over the place and everyone could hear everything she was thinking. Did you know she manifested early too?" I shook my head. "She came into full power at about ten, when she witnessed her best friend killed by a hit-and-run accident. Granted, there were only about six or seven of us here at the time, but she still needed his undivided attention to get it under control."

"I had no idea." I whispered. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for a ten-year-old to see something like that and have her mutation come on fully manifested all at once. "It must have been terrible for her."

"It was. It took a while, but Charles taught her how to control it, how to shield her mind from unwanted thoughts and to keep her own thoughts from leaking out. It wasn't easy and there were days she wanted to kick his ass I'm sure, but she got it eventually."

"Did the Professor do anything to her?" I asked, a thought occurring to me.

"What do you mean?

"Well, a while back, he offered to block her powers telepathically, said he could set them up to erode over time, let her get used to her powers. Did he do that for Jean too?"

Scott frowned in thought, then shook his head. "No, not that I know of. If he did, they never told me about it. But I remember her saying that her powers were still growing, that she sometimes had trouble controlling her telepathy just before…well, you know all about what happened."

"Yeah, I do. You don't have to go there."

"No, it's all right. I mean, I miss her, everyone does, but I can talk about it now. She was my first real love, but she's gone and she's not coming back." I nodded and we sat there for a moment, then he took a deep breath and went on. "Anyway, we had a theory that all the changes in her powers were caused by Magneto's machine. Her telekinesis was almost unlimited, but her telepathy wasn't very strong. A few days after Liberty Island, she had trouble focusing, said everything was getting through, but even her telekinesis was getting out of hand. The Professor had some testing he wanted her to do, but then Stryker invaded and…"

"The rest is history." I finished for him. "Scott, you know that if it had been you that was the only one able to save them all, you'd be the one everyone mourned."

"I know, I know. And we've talked about that. But it's still sometimes hard to remember that part, no matter how happy I am now."

"I know." I gave his hand a quick squeeze and we smiled. "Now, I'm still gonna go talk to Charles about this. It's not fair to the other students, you know."

"Ah, but you assume I was done with my story." He replied with a smirk. "There was another student who came through here, a couple years after Jean showed up. She was a telepath too, had some trouble controlling it. By then, we had about thirty students and Erik was the only teacher besides Charles. But they both figured it was more important for her to learn control than it was for the Professor to keep teaching, so Erik taught everything while Charles helped the girl."

"I didn't know there'd ever been another strong telepath through here. Who is she?"

"Her name's Emma Frost." I felt myself go pale when I heard the name and Scott gave me an apologetic smile. "Yeah, I know. That's why we've never mentioned her. No one wanted to bring up bad memories for you. And well, she left here years ago and now she's in charge of her own school in Massachusetts."

"Thanks, I suppose." I murmured, looking down at my hands. I took a few seconds to compose myself, then looked back at Scott. "But you said she's another telepath. How do we know that any of his methods will even work for Evie?"

"Well, we don't," he admitted, "but the Professor has the best shot of anyone we know. And we still have the names from the underground of some of the other precogs, we can call one of them in if we have to." He leaned forward and took both of my hands. "Angela, I swear to you, this is the best thing for your daughter and Charles will do everything in his power to help her. This is nothing he wouldn't do for any other student here in the school, she's not getting any kind of special treatment because of who she is, only what she is."

"And what is that, Scott? What is she really?"

He took a deep breath and smiled. "She's probably the strongest psychic any of us have ever known. If she were telepathic, she'd be stronger than Charles." He gave my hands a squeeze and let go. "But don't worry, he'll teach her to control it, so it'll only work when she wants it to, all right? Just trust him."

"I already do. I guess I just wish there was more I could do for her myself."

"You are. The best teacher of psychic gifts on the planet is teaching her. Trust me, by the time this is over, she'll wish she had some other gift. She'll know how special she isn't and might just curse the day he was born. He'll make her work hard for control and he won't stop until he's satisfied that she has it."

"Ok. I'll leave it alone then, for now." We stood up and I gave him a quick hug. "Thanks Scott."

"Anytime Angela. We owe you so much, both of you." He smiled again and went off to whatever class he had to teach at the moment. I was still a little concerned about all this special training, mostly because I didn't understand exactly what was going to happen, but I had to trust the Professor. He'd never do anything to hurt any of us, I've always been certain of that, but even after all that time it still didn't come easy.

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"Oh my head hurts, Mommy." Evie was complaining a few days later. Charles had been working with her six hours a day for about a week and already the change was amazing. Marie had loaned her a pair of gloves to wear and for the first few days she only took them off to bathe. Now, she could leave them off for up to an hour before her control got too shaky for her to trust touching things without them. Once they'd figured out how touch affected her gift, they started focusing purely on that aspect. Everything else, Charles had said, could wait.

"I know, sweetheart," I replied, "but before you know it, you'll be able to touch anything you want with the gloves off and won't that be nice?"

"Yeah, I know. But it still makes my head hurt." She looked out over the lawn where the other kids her age were playing and sighed. "Do I hafta go back after lunch?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid you do." She pouted and I laughed, gathering her into my lap. Nine years old and she was almost as tall as me. "But Uncle Charles says you're getting better at this every day. You keep doing this well and you'll be back in your regular classes before you know it."

"Oh." She sat there thoughtfully for a minute, then looked at me with a cheeky grin. "I think I might start having trouble with learning about my powers."

"You are absolutely not allowed to do that!" I said and she started laughing. We sat there for a few more minutes before the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch hour. "Ok Evie, time for you to go back."

"This sucks." She pouted, but gave me a quick kiss on the cheek anyway. "See ya later Mommy."

"Be good." I waved as she disappeared back into the mansion, then sat back down heavily. I didn't know exactly what they were doing in their sessions and Hank assured me that there was no real way to explain it that would make much sense to a non-psychic. The best he'd been able to do was compare it to building a wall inside her head that had a series of doors in it, so she could open whatever door she needed to get the amount of power she wanted, from a tiny trickle to a huge flood. He was right, I didn't get it and wasn't sure I wanted to. Then again, I have a wild animal inside me, almost rabid in its own way that I had to learn how to cage until I wanted it to come out. But it's different for people like me, Logan and Kyro. Either the animal is out or it's not, there is no middle ground.

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see Kyro standing there. I smiled and patted the grass next to me and he took the seat with a smile. "Logan-san said I might find you out here." He said.

"Logan is very wise in the ways of me." I replied. "Delta team has a strategy practical today and if their in-class solutions are any indication, we'll be in there until at least dinnertime. I've already told all the others not to expect them for afternoon classes."

"Are they really that bad? I can not imagine they would not know what is expected of them after all this time."

"Oh yeah, they're that bad." I shifted so my back was leaning against the low wall behind me. "I think the problem is that only two of those kids lived here when Stryker invaded, so they don't have a basis of comparison. I never thought I'd miss the days of Julian slacking off and Jamie trying to send copies to class so he could sleep in."

Kyro laughed. "Ah, but if things stayed always the same, you would have grown bored long ago and left this place, yes?"

"Yeah, probably," I admitted with a grimace, "except that this place needs me too damn much to just take off."

"I have been thinking much about that lately and I have wondered if perhaps there are too many of us here."

"The hell you talking about Kyro?"

He sighed and looked me in the eyes. "When first I came here, I had other motives. The Professor and Logan-san helped me to learn what was me and what had been put into me and I knew my motives were not correct. Now, you and Logan-san teach the children to defend themselves, to strategize, to protect others and all I do is teach them to speak Japanese. Logan-san could do that just as easily as I. Perhaps it is time for me to go and see what there is out there for me."

"Kyro, where is this coming from? I thought you loved being here."

"I do, Angela, it is the best home I have had since my own was taken from me. I have done as much as I could to regain my honor, but there are times I think perhaps I have not done enough." He shook his head and looked down. "I am confused, Angela and I do not know what to do about it."

"Is it Chasca?" I asked and his head snapped up. "Is there something going on between you two?"

"No! I promise, Chasca and I are doing just fine. This is something in me that feels unsettled, as though there is something I should be doing and have forgotten."

"Kyro, listen to me. We need you here as much as you need to be here. The kids love you, you fill in for me or Logan whenever we're off doing something else and gods only know you've got as much reason to bring down Weapon X as he and I do." I took his hand in mine and leaned forward. "Look, there was a time when seeing your back would have made me the happiest woman on the planet, but that wasn't you. It was something that was done to you. You swore yourself to my side, to protect me and whatever I hold dear at the cost of your own life if need be. There's something coming, something that Evie saw and she made me see it, too. People are going to come and try to take her away. We've already got a plan in place to keep that part from happening, but I'm pretty sure those men are still going to come here and try. We need you here to stop them."

"And after that, what? I am not nearly as old as you and Logan-san, yet the gift we have will most certainly make it so I do live much longer than those I love. I wish to see the world with Chasca before the day comes I must let her go, because I will go on when she can not." He stood, pulling me to my feet and bowed low. "You have the wisdom of over a century. Compared to you, I am but a child taking his first steps. I will not abandon you or your quest to avenge the wrongs done to us, for that would dishonor my vow to you. But the day will come when that quest is over and when it does, I will go into the world with my love and see what there is to see. And one day, I will return and perhaps be a better man because of it."

"Kyro, you couldn't possibly be a better man than you already are. I do understand what you want to do and you don't need my blessing or my permission to do it. I only ask that you wait until we see if Evie's future holds true."

"You have my word." He bowed again and quietly took his leave. I watched as he walked back inside, still marveling that after all this time, he still felt like he had to make something up to me. I understood his desire to regain his honor in his own eyes, but he'd already done that a thousand times over in mine. I just hoped that once this was all over and he'd seen the world he wanted to see, he would come back and realize that for himself.

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Another week went by and the Professor had Logan and I meet him in the study for an update on Evie's progress. Once we were settled in – Logan near the window and the ashtray, me on the sofa with a cup of tea – he opened a folder, looked at us and smiled. "I know there is no reason to tell you that you have a most remarkable daughter." He began.

"Hell, we knew that ages ago, Chuck." Logan quipped, tapping the ash from his cigar. "You coulda just asked us an' saved yourself all this trouble."

Xavier chuckled, but the smile stayed on his face. "Logan, your little jokes aside, what I have to say here is very likely the most important thing you'll need to know about her." He looked down at the file again before continuing. "As you both know, Genevieve began to manifest her mutation very early. We have reason to believe that it was active prior to birth, as evidenced by dreams that Angela had during pregnancy, as well as the anecdotal evidence of similar situations during her previous pregnancy."

"Charles, with all due respect, can you please get to the point?" I asked with a touch of impatience.

"Very well." He said with a slight nod. "Dr. McCoy wanted me to explain a system of classifications he's come up with to describe the varied degrees of mutant power. A Class One, or Alpha-level mutant has abilities that are slightly above those of other lower-level mutants; enhanced strength or agility, a healing factor, energy manipulation, things of that nature. The two of you would be considered Class One, due to your enhanced senses and healing in addition to your physical mutations. At the other end of this spectrum are Class Five, or Omega-level mutants, whose powers are without any discernible limits. I consider myself supremely lucky to have met three Omega-level mutants in my lifetime."

"And who would those be?" Logan asked.

"Joshua Foley, Robert Drake and Jean Grey." Logan dropped his cigar and I just stared. I had no idea that we'd known anyone that powerful, much less that two of them had actually been students of mine. "I know, it's astonishing."

"So are you tryin' to tell us that Evie's Omega-level too?"

"No, I'm not. By our reckoning, Evie is a Class Four, or Epsilon-level mutant. In our sessions, she has been able to tell me things from my childhood relating to objects I've given her to hold, things that I have never told anyone before. However, after consulting with several of the precogs from the underground, we are unable to determine how far into the future she will be able to see with any accuracy."

"Why's that?" I asked, sipping my rapidly cooling tea.

"It is a common misconception that time is a fixed, linear thing. It is actually quite fluid and can be changed by seemingly minor occurrences at any time. For example, the decision you made over ten years ago to stop in Angela's bar for a drink rather than another on the same street took both of your lives in a direction neither one of you could have foreseen." Logan nodded, looking thoughtful and I just continued to sip tea. "So the future can change at any time, for any reason no matter how small. Evie may be strong enough to see many different outcomes with equal clarity, but it is doubtful that she'll be able to predict everything with complete accuracy."

"So what makes her a Class Four then?"

"It's her ability to see into the past by touching an object or person. I have never personally met anyone with her particular gift, which should tell you how rare it really is, and the only gift that comes close to it is clairvoyance, which is limited to knowledge of what is occurring as it occurs."

"Sounds pretty useless." Logan snorted.

"On the contrary, it can be quite useful. Imagine how much easier it would have been to find the Master Mold if we only had someone here who could have looked at the schematic and told you exactly where it was. Or who could have found Erik prior to the DC Metro incident simply by holding a photograph of him." Logan looked away and chewed on the end of his cigar. "As I was saying, clairvoyance is the only thing close to it and that is almost as rare as psychometry. But in addition to catching residual images and thoughts by touching an object, Evie can see the entire history of an object, all the way back to its creation. I imagine the same would hold true for when she touches a person, hence the incident a couple weeks ago when she caught the image of the bonding process from you, Logan."

"So you're tellin' me she coulda seen a lot more if she'd held on longer?"

"Yes. In time, I believe she'll be able to use her gift as a means of getting information from reluctant witnesses, crime scenes, the possibilities are endless."

"Whoa, wait a minute here Chuck. Ain't you supposed to be teachin' her all kinds o' ethics about her power? How's she gonna do all that an' still keep it all on the up an' up?"

"The same way a telepath would, with a person's permission. Of course, at a crime scene, she need only touch inanimate objects, which naturally have no rights to violate."

We sat there in silence for a moment, contemplating everything he'd told us. I was a little surprised that her power was already so strong, at such a young age. But if I understood the things I'd been told about Jean, powers that manifest early tend to be stronger sooner. "So, how's she doing on control?" I asked.

"Remarkably well, considering that she's only been working on it for about two weeks. If she continues to progress at this rate, I believe she'll be able to do without the gloves inside of six months, eight at the most."

I breathed a sigh of relief, a feeling that was reflected on Logan's face. "What about the other stuff, her dreams?" He asked.

"That, I'm not so sure about. Since dreams are controlled by the unconscious mind, it is unlikely we'll be able to do anything about blocking out only the precognitive ones. To be perfectly honest, I don't think we should even try."

"How come?"

"Her dreams seem to be the source of her most accurate visions to date. In my opinion, this is because her mind uses them to interpret information she receives in regards to events that may not be changed significantly by things that happen in the present."

I sat forward in alarm. "Wait a second here. Are you saying that the mansion will be invaded again? That there's nothing we can do to stop it?"

The Professor's mouth thinned to a grim line and his eyes lost a bit of their usual sparkle. "Yes, I'm afraid that is exactly what I'm saying."

Logan cursed and ground out his cigar as though it offended him, while I just lowered my head to my hands. Here was the one thing we were the most afraid of, confirmed once and for all. The mansion would be invaded. Everything we'd done was in vain. Weapon X was coming for my daughter.

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