Now on to a chapter that I'm not pleased with at all. But I can't rewrite it, I'm too lazy, and the story need it...
So please, be patient, I'll do better, I promise!
A reaction as natural as life was Logan's first idea to attack this enemy. Growling he brought out his claws, ready to defend his friends, but the Professor raised a hand and stopped him;
"Logan, I understand if Raven as evil but please listen to me first."
Thinking for a moment Logan slowly relaxed and pulled the razor-sharp pieces of metal back into his arms, but still kept an eye on the woman (who, of course noticed that). The Professor, however, didn't seem to care;
"I understand that you already know who this is, so I'll start explain instead. Raven here has been cured by accident and abandoned by Magneto. She's given us some very important pieces of information about his plans, and she's promised to help us in any way she can."
Logan snorted;
"How the hell are we supposed to trust her? And didn't Storm say that the cure isn't permanent?"
The Professor nodded;
"Your right about the cure Logan and we think that she'll be back as normal in a week or so. However, I can, as the telepath I am, know if she tells the truth or not. If you don't trust her that is fine, but can you at least keep it to yourself since I hope you can believe in what I tell you?"
With that the old man wheeled around Logan and continued towards the door which led to the magnificent room called Ceribro.
Logan continued to glare at Mystique while they in the background could hear the 'Welcome Professor' and the opening and closing of the door…
Inside Ceribro the Professor took his place at the controls, put the helmet on his head and started it. Through the blur of minds that suddenly filled his brain he tried to search for something that felt like magnetism. Not finding anything, as expected, he searched for something that was thinking of it, and not in a way that he'd learned that scientists thought. He found a small trace and took his chance. The potential dangerous mutants Eric had freed from their transportation didn't give him that much information, but a quite good picture of where he was. Hiding until he could strike fast and hard at the humans and hopefully bring them towards the end...
But the mutants Xavier had found didn't know that much about his plans. Instead he found some suspicious thoughts about some mutant Magneto had told them about who could read your mind, and that's why they couldn't know too much…
Satisfied he now began his search for fire. Turning away from the horrid scene of people dying in a burning house he followed every thread he could find. In the end he got his mind on a trace that felt familiar enough and followed up. He kept getting closer, he could feel it, but suddenly couldn't get any further. It was as if a wall of glass stopped him, invisible but still harder than diamond; he'd reached the end of Ceribros power, and John's soul was somewhere on the other side. This was bad. The only people whose minds were on the other side were those of the dead, but still, this wasn't the same. The Professor could almost see John looking at him, teasing him to come closer. But the Professor knew he couldn't, if he broke down the wall he'd leave his body, which only would lead to his own death. The mind of fire was beyond his reach, as close to death as you could get by pure will, and he could do nothing about it!
With a frown on his face Xavier turned of the magnificent machine, put down the helmet and turned his chair. He then stopped to collect his thoughts. It was easy to lose yourself when you had other peoples minds inside your head, and if he used this creation for too long periods he couldn't separate what was his own mind and others a while after.
When he was himself again he slowly got back, out trough the door, past the couple outside, that now was glaring at each other but not uttering a word, and quickly gathered the teachers in his office.
On his way back the Professor had so much on his mind he almost wheeled past his own door, but he caught himself and entered, to find all his teachers there. Making his way over to the desk he didn't say a word before he was behind it, watching is now grown-up students.
The old man then let out a sight;
"This is worse than I ever thought." He once again fell down in silence and looked down at the desk. The teachers knew better than to disturb him, so the room was quiet for about a minute. You could hear students outside the room, running in the building, laughing at friends and enjoying the freedom they had been given at this small place. They didn't know that two of their own right now was laying just a few floors up, both unconscious and one of them close to death. They let life go on and enjoyed themselves in the meanwhile, just as any child should…
Then Xavier looked up at the other people in there, slowly moving his eyes from one to the other. He wore an expression of tiredness and almost hopelessness no one had seen him with before. I made him for once look older than he was, placing more years of work, worries and problems on his shoulders than he'd actually experienced, but probably were to be expected…
"John is beyond my reach, he's passed the line…"
Storm put a hand over her mouth in shock and Scott gave Jean a quick glance before asking;
"Is there no way to bring him back, nothing we can…?"
"No Scott, not this time. Even if young Pyro's heart is so strong that his body have survived his mind has passed on. If he doesn't come back on his own, he never…"
The professor suddenly stopped himself, remembering some thing else; didn't he send Rogue down here before they had gotten into the hospital? But no other minds than the ones of the teachers were in here, he could feel that…
With a suspicious tone in the back of his head he quickly scanned the mansion. The young girl was nowhere to be found! But what did he expect from that little mutant? To run away from her problems seemed to be her favourite way of dealing with things; keep away and take them on sometime when you're strong enough to break it down and take it peace by peace, or when time has made them go away...
Once again the Professor let out a sight, but now more in frustration. He then asked Jean to go and check Rogues room. She just gave him a questioning glance, but could read some of his emotions and thoughts and hurried of. She soon gave him a message in his mind that confirmed his suspicions; she was gone, but had left a note that after many dramatic apologies asked them not to search for her. "This was a task for her, and her only, so she must…" Jean stopped reading, the rest only seemed to be drabbles to her.
"Shall we search for her?" Jean asked the professor through her mind, walking back to the office.
"Since she doesn't want it there is nothing we can do." Was the only answer she got. Jean muttered something under her breath, now the Professor was tired and he'd be worse than a 4-years-old at bedtime, and then thought;
"She wants us to, but she didn't want to write it, it's obvious! She knew how stupid it would sound!"
"Then she could have stayed. I won't move the whole mansion just to keep her out, she can come back whenever she feel for it."
Then the Professor broke the contact and send the teachers of to bed. Logan grumbled something about not being a child, and therefore got the task to show Raven where she could sleep; more grumbles!
Not much to say, I'll soon be up with the next one, okay?