I washed the dishes from breakfast in the kitchen sink. I looked over my shoulder at the dining table where the children were finishing up. Shawnen was currently babbling to Bucky about what ever he could think of, while Arrow was trying to laugh at the young soldier's flustered face. I smiled. It was good to know that some of my other kids were welcoming the young man.

There was a sudden touch on my shoulder. I turned around, finding Nico standing uncomfortably close to me. I stared confused at him, briefly wondering if he wanted to hug me, but I stowed that thought away after a moment. Nico wasn't much of affectionate fellow anymore, and his expression was nothing but serious.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"We need to talk," Nico answered, nodding at me to follow him.

I nodded and shut off the facet. Quickly but not rushing, to meet Nico in one of the first-floor bedrooms.

"Alright, now what's so important that you had to pull me away from the dishes?" I asked.

"Please refrain from making jokes, this is not the time."

"Okay, I'm sorry."

Nico nodded, "You're going to have to tell them about him."

The mood quicky became somber. I knew whom Nico was referring to, the Counseling. I would have to tell them about Bucky, and with the reputation that Captain America has in the mutant communities, this would not be an easy conversation.

"I know, and I understand that they might not be enthusiastic about it. But what ever they have to say won't matter, Bucky will stay here until fully recovered, or until he choses to leave." I stated.

"What you're talking about could be considered treason. If the Counseling doesn't agree with your decision, then it could mean both the boy's life and yours," Nico countered, "Please Christin do not make me the caregiver to your six children."

"Well, you'd always have Kate's help."

"While your sister-in-law is helpful, she is not someone I would wish to deal with alone on a daily basis."

I chuckled, "Do not worry Nico, I'm not asking them to welcome Bucky in to the Counseling, I'm just letting them know that I have another refugee staying with us. Besides other then the resources we contribute and what we receive in return, they can't control what happens inside of our clan."

"That maybe true, but be careful this could hurt your image in their eyes. And making enemies of our fellow clans will not be beneficiary."

We left the children to walk themselves to the hospital. I wasn't all that worried about them. Arrow knew where she was going, and there was little to no crime in Nexus, especially in broad daylight. Besides we had other people to see.

The large mountain loomed over head as me and Nico entered the palace that was carved out of the marble inside. No matter how many times I walking into this place it would always amaze me. Generations ago, the first ancestors carved out this dormant volcano, forging the only center of history, culture and politics for our people on the planet.

We walked through the large entrance what was reminiscent of a cave's mouth. The platforms metal, met the stone flesh of the mountain and the large corridor led us to the center of the volcano's main vent. The main vent, that led from the chamber to the hole at the top, was the epicenter of the palace; all of the rooms, whether it be an office, bed chamber, kitchens they all lead here. And the vent itself wasn't disgraced when the construction began. A large column of sunlight poured out of the top of the volcano, and flowed down all the way from the top to the chamber in the belly of the mountain. We lined each floor we carved with a balcony placed in the vent allowing up to look up to the sky and down into the chamber.

I walked over to balcony and took a deep breath staring up at the majesty of what was in front of me. The gleaming white marble flesh of the mountain practically made everything around me. Every now and again there would be a blue or purple opal deposit resting in the walls, that brought a bit of color into the room. I didn't even know if it was possible for opals to form in marble, but like the people who lived on it this isle wasn't into what was considered possible. Gentle passionate hands had worked tirelessly to build this palace for hundreds of years some of those hands didn't even get to see the finished project. But their work is seen and remembered by everyone who has touched this isle.

"Brother?" Nico walked up to me.

I sighed, "It's good to be home."

He nodded, "We must make haste. Being late is not a good impression."

With that said we walked away from the center of the palace and into the suffocating halls. The palace was more like an ant's next rather then a castle. The halls were small, with the walls taking on the tunnel shape rather then the tall echoing, empty hallways that one would usually expect. They needed to be carved like this otherwise the mountain would become too structurally unstable. There were no torches or electric lights that kept the halls from darkness. Rather small white flames that burned on their own sat in small nooks in the ceiling.

The stairs were hard cold and slick, but I had to walked over many glaciers in my life so this wasn't all that difficult. We heard voices ahead of us, one of them very familiar. We rounded a corner, and found three women chatting, in front of my office door. Two of them were young and I recognized them as part of the maid staff, then the other, whom I recognized for a much different reason.

The other was much older then the first two. She was small, no taller than five feet. Her complexion pale as fresh milk, and she had sliver hair that was cut short. Dressed in pale to bright blue robes, and any kind of jewelry one could think of. She turned to me and Nico, clearly having heard our approach, her grey eyes sparkling, before she turned back to dismiss the ladies in front of her.

"Boys," she called out to us, "You have returned."

"Hello mother," Nico greeted as she ran up to hug us.

"Hi mom," I said as she kissed my cheek.

"It's so good to see you both again. How did it go how did our little flame preform?" mother asked eagerly.

"Arrow did well for her first time," I said.

Mother nodded.

"However, she has not stained her hands yet," Nico said, bringing down the mood.

Mother nodded this time more slowly, "Her time will come, Nico. Though, I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy. I don't want my first granddaughter to be a killer just yet," she shook her head, "Now, did anything else happen?"

"What makes you say something did," I asked innocently.

"Because, Christin you have the same look in your eyes right now, that you had the time you broke my blue humming bird plate when you were seven," she raised a brow.

"Well," I looked around and then motioned towards the heavy double doors, "Let's talk in here."

Mother nodded confusedly, and followed.

The doors creaked open and I shut it behind us with a click. My office was about the side of a decent bedroom. There was a large window on the back wall, with a large sword fish sculpture above it. A large red rug was in the middle of the floor. My desk was simply made of dark wood, with a large spinning black office chair. There were extra chairs on the left wall, and on the right wall was a tall messy book shelf.

Mother turned to us, concern now evident on her face, "Alright, what's going on. Did you find something? Is the Clan in danger?"

"No, mother," Nico quickly said.

"No mom, there is no danger. The clan is going to be fine. But we did find something," I said.

"Well, out with it. What did you find?" Mother demanded.

"Well, we found someone, a kid." I rubbed the back of my neck.

She raised a brow, "A kid. Christin if I'm going to have another grandchild, please just be straight with me."

"Well, no. He's not a child. He's a young man," I quickly said.

"Young man? I'm pretty sure, he's older than her," Nico chimed in.

"Not helping, Nico," I grumbled.

Mother looked at us with a bewildered expression, "So, wait you found not a child, a young man, that is older than me? Did you find someone with slowed aging?"

"No, mother. He doesn't have slow aging. He was either frozen for 70 years, or fell through a time vortex that was caused by a rocket that was rigged with a bomb flying over the ocean," I quickly said.

She shook her head, "Christin, sweetspark you are not doing me or yourself any favors. Start from the beginning, and tell what they heck you found on that mission."

And so, I did. I told Mother everything, from where we found Bucky, to how we saved him and how him and who he was. Mother only sat quietly and listened. Her face remaining neutral, which was both a relief and worrying to me. Mother was a very old fashioned and proper woman, she played the role of my father's right hand and wife, and she took that very seriously. Meaning that she had to uphold the Counseling laws, and she was still well respected, by the current Counseling, for being firm with those laws. So, how she reacted to Bucky's presences here, could have an effect on the other clan leaders' opinion on my discission.

Once I finished, Mother remained silent for a moment, before speaking, "Do you believe that the boy is telling the truth about who he is?"

"Mom, if you are thinking about him being a plant? I don't think that would be possible. We found him missing an arm," I stated.

"Freshly torn," Nico said.

I nodded, "Our enemies maybe capable of horrid things, but they wouldn't slice off their own agents' limbs."

She nodded, "Does the boy truly have nowhere else to go?"

"His own century was ripped away form him. Any family he had there are dead, or will be in the next few years," Nico said.

Mother hummed, "It's your discission Christin, I will support you. But I want to meet this boy. Make sure, that he won't be much trouble," she got up from her seat.

"Thank you, mom," I said.

"You're welcome, dear. Oh, and I will be stopping by the farmhouse later today, I need to give Arrow her masking gift."


The meeting with the Counseling went better then I was expecting. Frost mist, Prowler, Shi-qui-qui, and Lennox were open to Bucky staying. However, Alkeli, like I suspected, completely objected to the entire situation. Alkeli had a bad, bad experience in the normal world, so I could understand why he was hesitant. But Alkeli was also a hothead who believed in the most extreme of mutant law. Many times, I was worried that he would actually do something rash, even though I knew that he couldn't do something like that in his position. It was still worrisome.

I was now sitting in my office, the sun slowly setting behind me. I had already completed most of the tasks I needed today. The clan was happy to hear of my return, and I spoke with King T'Chaka about the new trade routes. The only that I hadn't done, was make the last phone call to the professor.

I dialed the number into the computer on my desk, then sat back in my seat and waited. A light cheery tone, alerted me that the other side had picked up.

"Hello?" A familiar voice came through.

"Yes, Hello, Professor. How are things going on in Bayville?" I answered back.

"Uhm I'm sorry, Christin, is this you?"

"Yeah, sorry I didn't warn you. We had to switch out the phone numbers again."

"Oh, it's no problem. And to answer you question things have been as quiet as they can be over here. I'm sure you're just here for the yearly conversation about the summer camp?"

"Charles you just read my mind."

Professor X chuckled.

"So, how many of your little monsters are you sending our way this year?"

"Well, the institute had quite a flush of new students this year…"

"And like always you gave them all the choice."

Professor X laughed, "Yes, yes I did. You currently have 12 to 15 of my students joining your program this summer."

"Oh, boy! We will actually have to prepare all of the cabins."

"And if you mind, may I ask you something."

"Shoot."

"We recently have taken on a new faculty member."

"Oh! That's exciting."

"Yes, it is. I may have told him about your program and he has been quite interested. I was wondering if I might bring him along with the other students."

"What's this fellow's name?" I asked pulling up search engine.

"Hank McCoy."

I typed the name to search, and to my shock I found quite a few different achievements made by this man. Degrees in biology and chemistry, and even teaching credentials, which he used to get into the institute's nearby high school.

"Where is he on the power scale. Elemental, psychic?"

"No, animalistic."

"Physically effected?"

"Yes."

"So, a shapeshifter?"

"No."

"A halowatch then?"

"No, he's never any such decive."

"Well, I do wonder how a physically effected animal class mutant, managed to snag multiple degrees. Was he dormant all the way until adulthood?"

"No, I found him when he was younger, but refused my initial help. He somehow engineered a serum to suppress his abilities."

I flinched, and inhaled sharply, "You know how I feel about anything that's made to quote unquote suppress, mutant powers."

"Yes, I know. But Hank needed to deal with this his own way, before he came to me again."

"Let me guess, his 'fix' stopped working?"

Professor X, sighed, "I'm afraid so."

"I'm not surprised, hundreds of souls before him had tried to reject their gifts and find 'miracle cures', all of them either don't work or make things worse."

"While, I agree with you that suppressants are not a permeant answer. Hank's serum did work for a surprising number of years."

"That may be true, but they would have never lasted forever."

"What makes you say that."

"One of the comparisons we tell younger children, is that our powers are like wild animals, if you try to keep them contained with un-conventual means then they will adapt and come back stronger. The only way to keep them under some form of control, is through accepting them."

"That does sound similar to what happened to Hank."

I sighed, "As long as you trust him not to spoil our little secret, I don't see why Mr. McCoy couldn't come. But do me a favor and ask if he destroyed the serum formula."

"Thank you, Christin. And I will ask about the serum. Has anything happened on your end recently?"

"Well, Arrow isn't a little girl anymore."

"That's right she graduated last winter didn't she."

"Yeah, she won't be around for at least the first month this summer. She's being deployed again."

"Will we at least be seeing her on opening day? I have yet to give my congratulations."

"Oh, yeah, she's not being shipped out until the morning after opening day, so you'll get to see her again."

"She will surely be missed; I still remember her and Scott blowing things up on your training courses when they were younger."

"That's what happens to kids, Charles they don't stay small for long," I sighed, "To think next winter Timothy will be graduating too. Then I'll only have two who are still kids."

Professor X chuckled, "Yes, they do grow up to fast. Scott's a Senor now, soon he'll be a teacher here."

"Good on him."

"I am afraid that I am out of time, Christin. I need to go over the lesson plans for tomorrow."

I glanced over to clock on my wall, "As am I. I need to get back home. My mother wanted to join us for dinner."

"Oh, then by all means don't let me keep you."

I laughed, "Oh! Wait before you go. Is Logan still with you guys?"

"Uhm, yes why?"

"Could get him to come to the Camp this year, I have something I need to show him."

"What would you need Logan to see? Should we be concerned?"

"No, it's just some thing he needs to see."

"Is it urgent? We can come early if needed."

I groaned, "No, it's not urgent. It can wait, in fact it's probably better if I give it time to settle."

"Giving what to settle?"

"You know what don't worry about it. Just make sure Logan comes."

"Christin?"

"Bye." I cut the call.


A/N:

Ah, a Christin Chapter, I was missing these.

I hope, everyone enjoyed the cameo of Professor X. And take a guess at what Christin wants Logan to see.

And for clarification! I will be using X-men characters from the Evolution cartoon, from mid-season 2. I know that those aren't canon with Avengers EMH, but I prefer this cartoon over the one that actually canon with Avengers EMH. And this fanfiction so I can do whatever I want!