Chapter 2
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Rogue tried to adapt to "Xavier's school for gifted children." It was in a mansion, so definitely nicer than any other school she had ever attended. But in most respects it was like any other school. She attended classes on history, math, science. Rogue made friends here, like Bobby, Kurt, Kitty, who generally preferred to be called Iceman Nightcrawler, and Shadowcat. The teachers seemed okay, Kamala, Danielle, Caitlin. Caitlin wasn't a mutant, there was a joke that she was the token human at this school. Her children were both mutants, but she only began fighting for mutant rights after she learned this fact. Rogue was also taught how to keep her powers under control. This was not like other schools, she didn't have to hide the fact that she was a mutant. After the "incident" she had been terrified that her classmates would learn the truth about her. She had heard them talk about mutants, how they had no place among "normal" humans. And they told jokes about mutants, and Rogue had gone along with them, hadn't stood up for mutants, not until she learned she was a mutant herself. Even then, she didn't really stand up for mutants, she was too scared of revealing herself. After she had to leave home, Rogue had done what she had to do to survive. Xavier was a telepath, had he read her kind, or had he truley respected her privacy? Rogue wondered if he would protect her if he knew the truth about all that she had done. There were some who asked about Wolverine, some missed him. But two teachers, Scott and Jean Summers, they seemed uneasy when Wolverine's name came up. Whatever that was about Rogue tried to stay out of it. One day Rogue was in Jean's history class and an interesting discussion emerged. A student named John, whose nickname was Pyro, brought up an interesting point.
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Jean: For centuries after the emergence of Christianity christians suffered persecution at the hands of the Roman government, which was controlled by pagans. The persecution of christians ended when the emperor himself converted to Christianity.
John: What happenned to the pagans in the Roman Empire after that?
Jean: Unfortunately peaceful coexistence between christians and pagans was short lived. By this point the christians represented a sizeable minority. Although the government was soon run by christians, they were unable to force everyone to become christian.
John: Not yet anyway, but over time they did.
Jean: Yes. The chritians would eventually persecute the pagans just as the pagans had persecuted them.
John: Was long term peace actually possible?
Jean: Perhaps not yet. But we have freedom of religion in this country. In this very school we have both monotheists and polytheists. Both are free to worship as they see fit.
John: What about mutants and humans. Are we just destined to fight, with our side eventually persecuting the normal humans the way they persecuted us?
Jean: I hope not. That is what professor Xavier is trying to avoid. It might not be easy, but I like to believe that humans and mutants will one day be able to coexist peacefully.
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After he dropped Rogue off with professor Xavier Wolverine once again wandered, until he found a new place he could blend in, a place to hide. He had wanted to take Xavier up on his offer, but he had made a promise to Jean, and he needed to honor that. Back when Wolverine fought with the Xmen, he had fallen in love with Jean, even though she was married to Scott. That was one reason why he had never gotten along with Scott, but Wolverine figured if it weren't for the fact that both men loved Jean, they would have found other reasons to hate each other. Wolverine let Jean know how he felt, and he told her that she could decide how far their relationship would go. If she wanted to have an affair with him, he was up for that. If she asked him to walk away and never come back, he would do that. Eventually Wolverine and Jean had an affair. When Scott found out she wanted to repair her marriage, and she asked Wolverine to leave and never come back. Wolverine honored his word, his dropping off Rogue was the first time he saw Xavier in almost two years. Ever since then there were repeated news stories of human versus mutant confrontations. A lot of it were road rage incidents, humans were pretty quick to assume that the mutants were responsible. The people still remembered six months ago when a teenage mutant lost his temper and nearly destroyed his highschool. Fortunately is was after school hours, noone was hurt. But a lot of people started saying "Next time kids could be hurt. No mutants in our schools." And that jackass senator Kelly had no problem exploiting this for his upcoming presidential campaign. Wolverine feared he would ride this wave of fear straight to the White House. Wolverine still had great respect for Charles Xavier, but the truth is he didn't agree with his philosophy of protecting the very people who feared and hated them. Wolverine actually believed Magneto was right about one thing, there probably was a war coming, and Wolverine wasn't even sure what the right side was.
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Erik Lehnesherr was able to purchase this old building for an affordable price. It was an old office building, but the neighborhood was run down and few here could afford to rent an office. Those who did, Eric was able to pay them to leave and find other accamodations. The only exception was Benson, an old janitor. He said his company told him this was part of their department, and until they told him to go elsewhere he would keep doing his job. This put a crimp in Erik's plans, and he was on a schedule. So Erik befriended this old janitor, even had lunch with him a few times. Benson only ate salad, he wanted to live a long time and play more with his grandchildren. Even if he hadn't told him, Erik would know that Benson had a pacemaker. Benson seemed like a good man, he didn't seem particularly subseptible to the anti-mutant hysteria that so many humans fell for. Erik knew from experience that not all humans were bad, much like how not every german just stood by while the nazis perpetrated the greatest crime in history, to date. But Erik's plan was time sensitive, and Benson had to be taken off the board. So one day, Erik used his power to make Benson's pacemaker malfunction, giving him a mild heart attack. This raised less suspicion than if he were to dissapear. Erik called 911 for Benson, was even relieved when the doctors said he would likely recover. Erik's plan didn't require Benson to die, only to be removed from this building. But if neccessary, he absolutely would have murdered this innocent man to keep the plan safe.
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Like any other highschool it became clear that there were different cliques at Xavier's school. John was part of a clique that seemed to think that Magneto was right. Rogue did wonder sometimes. She began talking to him about this.
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Rogue: You think it's true, that humans and mutants can't peacefully coexist?
John: Maybe. It seems to be that way through history, group A persecutes group B. Then B becomes more powerful and persecutes A. Or maybe group C by that point. Xavier said it himself in a paper he wrote back in college. "Peaceful coexistence between neanderthals and homo sapiens, if it ever existed at all, was short lived. Homo sapiens were stronger and smarter and soon wiped out their more primitive cousins." That's what's happening now between homo sapiens and homo superior. It's a fact of evolution, I'd like to believe it won't happen again, but I think it will. Truth is I guess I can't blame the humans, they're just fighting for their survival. But inevitably they will lose.
Rogue: You realize the flaw of that logic. Eventually we'd be the primitive cousins, and something will replace us.
John: They probably will, but that's thousands, maybe millions of years from now. So maybe, we mutants should enjoy being in charge while we can.
Rogue: What if Xavier's right? What if we can change hearts and minds and put an end to that kind of fighting forever?
John: You think Xavier is the first person to preach peace? Jesus of Nazareth preached peace, and they they nailed him to a cross. His message survived, but most people ignored it. And what about Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr? Both men were assasinated for preaching peace. People garner their image but ignore their message. How many politicians and preachers praise these leaders and denounce the nazis, yet in the very same speech they will advocate doing to us what the nazis did to the jews. Believe me, I wish I could believe that Charles Xavier is the exception, that somehow he will convince people to simply take his advice. But the realist in me tends to doubt it.