To Angelpaint07: who asked me to update today, it's the shortest chapter I have published, but you got it! I updated! :) I hope you enjoy it!
Please enjoy,
Taunting Repartee
Chapter Sixty-One.
Magneto sat with his children in the restaurant he owned on the Hawaiian island of Hilo. Alex Masters had just left them.
"So, do you like him?" Lorna asked: while she looked at him hopefully.
"I would like to get to him know him better. But I currently do not disapprove of him," Magneto answered. Lorna was beyond happy with his answer. "There is something else I would like to discus tonight. The subject is rather personal so I waited for Alex to depart," he said to say.
"Father, is everything alright?" Wanda asked. "Are you alright?" she asked, concern in her voice.
"I am perfectly fine," he said reassuringly.
"Is this about your past?" Pietro asked. He saw Wanda's eyes lite up in interest. His past was a taboo subject, all his children were aware of that.
"Yes," Max answered. "Decades ago, before any of you were born, I was a fugitive on the run from various governments. It came to the point was I unable to use my name. So, I adopted the alias, Eric Magnus Lehnsherr," he said as all three of his children eyes widen in shock. "For the last fifty years or so that has been my name," he explained.
"However, recently I have started to use the name my parents gave me and I thought you should all be aware of that," he said. Pietro and Wanda glanced at each other. It was clear neither of them were sure what to say to that.
"Is is because of Rogue?" Pietro asked hesitantly.
"Yes," Magneto answered with a smile.
"The commodore?" Wanda asked.
"Yes," Magneto answered again with a slight chuckle. "Last year when Anna used her abilities on me, she absorbed a copy of my memories into her mind. She gained access to very intimate secrets I have never told another living soul, never mind someone who at the time I regarded as an enemy. She and I have had several conversations about it, of course. Through those conversations we have built a friendship. I'm the only person who regularly calls her Anna and somewhere along the way she started to call me by my given name as well. Which is Max Eisenhardt. Of course, I would still prefer if all of you would call me dad, in some variation," Max finished lightheartedly. The three of them let out a soft laugh.
"Daddy, why were you on the run?" Lorna asked.
"He said he was fugitive," Wanda answered.
"Yeah, but what happened?" Lorna asked.
"Lorna," Wanda reprimanded lightly.
"It's a fair question," Max said as his children glanced up at him. "But the story of my past is a long painful one. I do plan to tell you all, but- ... perhaps not for a few more years," Max said.
"Father, whenever you would like to tell us, we would like to hear it," Wanda said.
"Thank you," Max said with a smile.
It was Friday afternoon as Charles Xavier let out a sigh from inside his Cerebro unit, which was currently being kept inside a small closet area. The room also had a small desk. He had been using this room as his office since the mansion had been destroyed.
'By Magneto,' he thought in anger. He took a deep breath. Those thoughts were not going to help anything. He had more important things to be thinking about.
Once again, he was trying to find Irene and once again he found himself unable to do so.
'Rogue, told me she wasn't expecting it to work,' he thought to himself as he let out a tired sigh. 'But why won't it work?' he asked himself. He closed his eyes, altering his focus on a different target. This time searching by location instead of attempting to find one individual. His attention was centered on where Amelia's home of ward-way children should be, but he found no mutant activity within a two mile radius of the facility.
'It's a Friday afternoon. I cannot believe that not one of Miss. Voght's charges are not using their powers. How many people have access to this technology?' he thought in frustration as he lifted the helmet off if his head. He placed it back on it's stand.
He knew Magneto was well able to cloak his mind from him. He must have shared that technology with Amelia Voght to keep her charges safe. 'Magneto's future army,' he reminded himself grimly.
He needed to know more.
'And I can't ask Rogue,' he thought frustrated. All of his questions that she would have the power to answer would require a search in her mind for answers. 'I can't ask that of her, not now. Not until she decides she is ready to resume her own questioning. It could very well be months before that she feels up to undertaking that task,' he thought as he turned to his desk. A large stake of papers rested on it. On the top of it was a copy of a brochure for Amelia's home. 'Perhaps, there's another way,' he thought before he picked up the phone off of his desk and dialed a number.
Saturday morning Rogue followed Magneto into the back room of the cafe. She took a seat on the couch as she watched him glance around the room. A few moments later he sat down on the couch beside her.
"We're secure," he told her. She let out a sigh in relief as she rested her head against his shoulder and yawned. "Tired?" he asked.
"I haven't been sleeping that well this week," she told him.
"Is there anything I can do to help?" he asked. She took his hand in hers, before she leaned up and kissed him.
"You already do a lot," she told him. He smiled at that as she laid down on the couch. Putting her legs over his lap. "How was dinner?" she asked as he rested his hand on her leg.
"A great deal of fun," Magneto said pleasantly. She smiled at that. "Thank you," he added.
"Your welcome," she said.
"You're welcome to look at the conversation later," he said.
"I don't need to know everything," she said.
"Since when, precisely?" he asked with a smirk. She playfully punched his side as he let out a chuckle.
"Did you tell them your name?" she asked.
"See? It took you less than half a minute to ask me another question," he laughed.
"I can't ask?" she laughed.
"Of course, you can," he smirked.. "And yes, I did," he answered.
"But nothing else," she guessed.
"We were having a pleasant evening. I did not wish to ruin the mood with talks of the Holocaust," he said simply.
"I don't blame ya," Rogue said. Magneto let out a sigh.
"We should talk about Raven," he said.
"Yeah, I know," Rogue sighed.
"Are you-" he started to ask.
"There's really nothing I can do about it," Rogue said. "It still hurts, but- It's not like this is the first time she's let me down and I doubt this is gonna be the last fucked up thing she does to me. So, I'll deal," Rogue shrugged. "Last thing I wanna do is talk about it," she added. He nodded.
"But is there anything else I should know?" he asked.
"I don't think so," she answered. "Do Victor find anything else missing in your base?" she asked.
"Twelve days worth of supplies of the solution I was using to keep Raven sedated was taken," he answered.
"Great. She gave us a time frame," Rogue said annoyed as she rolled her eyes.
"Next Saturday," Magneto nodded. .
"Oh yeah," Rogue said with a slight smile.
"Yes?" he asked.
"Institute's suppose to be up and running by then. Prof wanted me to ask you if we could meet at five pm next Saturday. He wants me to be there while we're putting the house in order," she told him.
"Do you want to be there to put the house in order?" Max asked.
"Yeah," she answered with a smile.
"Five pm it is," he said with a smile.
"Maybe you can help me move my stuff into the house," Rogue teased with a smirk.
"Oh yes, Charles would absolutely love that," Max said dryly as Rogue let out a laugh. "Actually, I've been meaning to ask you," he started to say.
"Yeah?" Rogue asked.
"Your belongings are still waiting for you in Jericho. Would you like any of them returned to you?" he asked.
"I don't- I don't know, Max-" she started to say: feeling guilty all of her stuff had survived the destruction of the mansion.
"It's alright, Anna," he said reassuringly as he rubbed her leg. "There's no time frame that must be adhered too for this issue. Take all the time you need, my girl. You are always welcome in my house and your belongings are not going anywhere unless you wish it," he said.
"You are so good ta me," she said with a smile.
"I've been trying, at late," he said. She lifted herself up. His arm looped around her waist supporting her as she kissed him.
"You've been getting it right," she said before their lips meet again.
Charles Xavier sat in his car with Hank. They had been driving for some time now and were now sitting outside of Amelia Voght's home for Wayward Children. Once again he used his powers to scan the area, he did not sense a single living thing. But now, glancing at the grounds himself he could see a number of children and teenagers running about.
'How?' he asked himself in frustration.
"Charles," Hank said from the drivers seat; pulling Charles our of his thoughts. "Are you certain this is a good idea?" he asked. "We are at peace now, aren't we? Perhaps we shouldn't rock the boat," Hank suggested. Charles let out a sigh.
"We are just going to have a conversation, that's all," Charles said as the front gates opened.
"You two talked over the phone, didn't you?" Hank asked.
"Yes-" Charles admitted. "And Miss. Voght agreed that we should meet in person," Charles to say as he continued to glance at the Miss Voght's many wards, "please dri-," he started to say as he caught slight of one of the last people he ever thought he would see. "What?" he muttered to himself in confusion.
"Charles?" Hank concerned. It was then the young girl in question caught slight of them. She glanced up, meeting Charles gaze like a deer caught in the headlights. "Charles, what are you looking at-" Hank started to ask- "Is that Jubilee?" he asked confounded.
"Yes, I-" Charles started to say, as a look of pure fear crossed Jubilee's face, "yes, I believe that is," he finished astounded.
"Oh, my stars and garters... What is she doing here?" he asked. "She went home with her parents, didn't she?" he asked.
"I had thought so. I watched her leave her them," he exclaimed. "But then- but then again, I have been mistaken about so many things I thought were true lately. I don't suppose I should be surprised anymore," Charles muttered wearily, mostly to himself. Charles shook her head, trying to gain a hold of himself. "Hank, please drive," Charles finally finished.
That's all I have time to write right now! Usually, this would be the first half of a chapter, but I'm so pressed for time right now. I only have one more exam to go and then I will have tons of time to write again! I hope you guys enjoyed it, please review!?
Speaking of which:
Angelpaint07: Thank you for both reviews! I hope you enjoyed this teaser of a chapter :)
Warrioroftheseventhstar: Thank you so much! My family dinners are all kinds of funny and I tried to capture that with the mood with Pietro and Wanda, a lot of history and real emotions between the two. I'm so glad it worked! Thank you for the feedback. :)
Marigab: They won't be happy for too long. There's not way it can last more than a week :p God knows there are way too many plot twists I still need to reveal in the fic. Yeah, I still don't know when Max is going to tell his kids about how involved he is with Rogue. He really doesn't want to, and Rogue has no problem with keeping things low-key in public. It might be a while...
sissiewest: Thanks!
Zombie Pixel: Thank you!
Sun: Thank you very much! I've been trying to keep a balance and just have all the characters be themselves. :)
musicaddict1700: I'll try to keep writing more! Seriously, there is not enough Rogue/Magneto fics out there. Other people need to get in this bandwagon! I'm pretty sure I've read all of them and OH MY GOD do I want more! I guess I'll have to keep writing :) Thank you very much for reading my fic!
And as always, thank you to everyone for reading!