X-Men: First Class 2011 © Marvel Studios
Three hours later, all three of the residents were sitting in the dining room. The room would have been completely silent if it weren't for the scraping of silverware against expensive china. They were only thirty minutes into dinner and the silence made it seem like a lifetime. As they all ate, they each exchange glances between each other. It was Raven's clearing of her throat that engages a conversation between the three of them.
"So, Aurora, mind if I ask how you learned two languages so fluently?"
Aurora glances up from her plate and looks at Raven. She sets her fork down and licks her lips.
"No, I don't mind," she smiles. "As a kid, I got tossed around my relatives' houses a lot. My father was always away with business and my mother didn't have time to care for me because of the farm. The relatives that I got sent off to were fluent in English and often spoke it at home, so they just ended up teaching me. It's useful. That and I was born here in the U.S."
Raven nods and continues to eat her meal. Charles sets down the wine glass he was drinking from and furrows his eyebrows. He opens his mouth to ask a question that he has always been so curious to ask every mutant he will ever meet.
"How did you find out you were a mutant?"
Aurora's body tenses and a chill runs down her spine. Out of nowhere, her body feels cold and clammy. Her palms begin to sweat and she starts to play with the edges of her nails. Aurora promised herself that she wouldn't think about this memory again. It would only cause her to panic and shut down completely. Her mind was going out of control and began to replay that frightful memory.
All of the elementary school children were gathered around her and a young girl named Mai.
"What's wrong, Liu? Are you going to cry like the big baby you are?"
She turns around and tries to get out of the circle, only to get pushed back in by the other children in the crowd.
"Oh, now you're trying to run away from me?" May walks up to her and shoves her. "You're a freak, Aurora. You're weird and that's why nobody wants to be your friend. That's why you're family doesn't want you! You're always so quiet in class and you never talk to anyone. What are you?! Some kind of monster?"
Aurora looks up from the ground to face her bully. She had enough. Enough name calling and enough constant reminders of being different. She stares Mai in the eyes and quickly connects to her mind. Images of memories flash in her head. Aurora searches until she has found the core of her thoughts. Aurora focuses and soon, Mai's eyes widen.
Within seconds, Mai falls to the ground on her knees with her hands tightly grasping the sides of her head. Her facial features contort into feelings of pain and discomfort. Slowly, the pain grows more and more. It was similar to having a pole speared through your skull and having it slowly being taken out.
Mai cries out in agony. Her tears were falling quickly from her eyes as she begged for it to stop.
"Stop! Please, it hurts too much! Aurora stop it, please! No more! I can't take this! I'm sorry, I won't do this again! Just please, STOP IT!"
The young girl's pleas went unheard as Aurora's anger was brought out. She wanted her to hurt. "She deserves it" is what she tells herself. Angry thoughts are pushed through Aurora's mind into May's. Their thoughts were now each other's. Aurora had blocked her way of feeling she was feeling.
Mai was now on the gravel covered ground crying and screaming in agony. With words coming out slurred, she continued to beg and please to Aurora. She was curled up into a fetal position and everyone around them was too scared to help. Slowly, her consciousness was fading. Her end was near.
If it wasn't for the teacher that came up to them and pushed Aurora away from Mai, Aurora would have killed her. Aurora watched her teacher pick the little girl's limp body up off the ground. Realizing what she had just done, Aurora panicked and ran from the piercing gazes and glares of the other children. When she stopped running, she lost her composure and cried.
Both Charles and Raven's concerned voices called her out of her frightening nightmare. She blinked a few times and tried to calm herself. She looked up to return their worried gazes and pulled a smile to put their worries at ease. Charles apologized for asking the question, not knowing that she went through that.
Still shocked from the reliving of the event, Aurora weakly mutters, "Did you see any of it?" Charles nods and says no other words, clearly guilt stricken for entering her mind against her will. An uneasy feeling rings throughout the dining room. Everyone continues to eat, in hopes of a short recovery from the ordeal.
Raven reaches over and gently rubs Aurora's hand when she seems to have calmed. She looks over to Charles and nods to signal him to say something. Charles sees the signal and speaks up.
"I presented my thesis on genetics earlier today and got approached by a CIA agent named Moira MacTaggert. She wants our help with the capture of a dangerous mutant named Sebastian Shaw."
He takes a sip from his glass and looks at Auora in the eyes.
"I just wanted to know if you're going to be okay with traveling somewhere again so soon,"
Aurora nodded and agreed to going with them. After all, it was their home that they were bringing her into. They settled with the idea and finished up dinner. Afterwards, they all cleaned up and washed the dishes in the kitchen together. Charles was the first to leave upstairs for bed. He wished both young women a goodnight and walked off.
After small chatter between a cup of tea, Raven and Aurora made their way upstairs to get ready for bed and for the coming day.
Aurora stood outside her bedroom door with her hand hovering over the cold metal of the door knob. She was trying to muster up her courage to go talk to Charles and clear up any unnecessary tension. She jerks her hand away from the knob and rushes over to where Charles said his room was.
Standing before the large door, she holds her hand up in a fist getting ready to knock. Before her knuckles could make it to the hard wood of the door, it swung open to reveal a drowsy looking Charles in a bathrobe.
"Oh. Hello, Aurora. Did you need anything?"
Charles leans against the door frame and waits for her reply.
"I was hoping that maybe we could talk about what happened at dinner earlier."
Charles nods and steps out of the way and gestures towards the desk. Aurora soon realized that she was in his study. She takes a seat on an arm chair and crosses her ankles. Without noticing it, Aurora fiddled with her hands.
Charles shuts the door and walks to the chair that was opposite of her. Aurora took in a deep breath and began to speak.
"It wasn't your fault Charles. You didn't know about that and you didn't know that anything could have triggered it." She says softly.
Charles stays silent for a minute and he seems to be thinking about what to say. Aurora sighs and smiles.
"I'm guessing you're curious as to why I was so upset?"
"A bit, yes." He looks up to face her.
Aurora pulls her legs up to the chair and curls up with her knees to her chest.
"She told me to stop. I could have stopped the minute she wanted me to, but I didn't." she pauses for a moment and licks the inside of her lip. "I showed no mercy. I have no mercy. The moment I kept torturing her, I became the monster that I always fear I may become."
Charles bent over and rested his elbow on his knees, furrowing his eyebrows out of concern.
"I can help you, Aurora. I can help you control your mutation and have that control over when to stop and when not to. Please, just let me."
Aurora narrows her gaze at him and furrows her eyebrows.
"How can you help me Charles? I've grown up being shunned and feared by people I thought loved me. I was raised knowing that I wasn't normal and that I was a disgrace to society. What can you possibly do to make me better?"
"Teach you how to control. Control is all you need to be able to master your mutation. Your mutation is amazing, Aurora. If I could somehow find out more about it, I can bring out the best of you through your ability."
The young girl stays quiet for a moment and processes the information. Averting her gaze from his blue-eyes, she mutters an okay. She wants to learn how to control her power. What person wouldn't want this? If she wasn't the monster she really was, then she would be able to take orders under Charles' watch.
The blue eyed man smiles at her. She stands up and looks down at him and nods slowly.
"You should get some rest, Aurora. We're going to CIA quarters tomorrow."
He too stands up and gently places a hand on her back. She looks up at him and smiles genuinely.
"Thank you, Charles."
"Anything to help you, Aurora,"
She walks out of the door and to her own. Charles watches her walk away from him and silently fist pumps. His first study and now his potential first love.