Hello everyone! Before I start I would like to make a small preamble: this story is written in the original Italian and this English translation was made by an artificial intelligence, I hope to be able to correct any mistakes, if not I ask you to be lenient.

Enjoy reading and let me know what you think, readers' opinion always helps me to improve my work!

3. A new beginning

He was sweating. He was really sweaty, sweat was on his hair, on his clothes, on his face.

He was sweaty and happy.

Charles, exhausted, sat down on one of the garden benches to catch his breath and to look at the time: thirteen thirty.

"Not bad," he said, "Not bad ..."

"Hey, you, who are you? I've never seen you here ..."

Charles turned and saw Bobby approaching in the company of Rouge and Wanda.

"Believe it or not," said the latter, "This is Professor Xavier!"

Bobby and Rouge stared at him as he got up from the bench.

"Apparently Wanda's powers had an effect on my body," he explained, "She restored it to the way it was before I lost the use of my legs."

Rouge stared at him for a long time.

"You must have been very young when that happened!" he commented.

Charles exhaled through his nose. The memory of that day had always been vivid in his mind, with time he had learned to live with that pain, now instead he had a chance to overcome it.

"I was twenty-five years old," he said, "I had just graduated ..."

"How had that happened?" asked Wanda.

Charles had never told anyone about Cuba again; it had remained a memory confined to his mind; he decided it would continue to be that way.

"I would bore you," he said, "it was during a mission, a stray bullet, that's all you need to know."

"A mission?" asked Bobby "You were going on missions? I always thought of you as just a professor!"

"Of course I was going on missions!" he exclaimed, amused "I kept going even after that, then things changed, I started getting older and ... well, you know, until this morning I was eighty-four years old."

The three laughed.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go take a shower, finally."

Without waiting for an answer, Charles walked toward his room.

He had undressed, sniffed the smell of his own sweat on his clothes and tossed them into the laundry basket. How long had it been since he had felt that sensation? Too long. He laughed at himself, smelling his own sweat was certainly not an elegant thing to do, but how long had it been since he had sweated like that? Even in the shower he found old sensations again. He washed himself carefully, dried himself slowly and dressed. He did everything calmly, taking his time, then looking at the clock he saw that it was a little past fifteen, so he left his room and went to his study.

With each step he realized that everything was different from his new point of view, now he was no longer sitting, he was taller, freer, the stairs were no longer a limitation.

He arranged the papers he had left there the previous day and waited for the others to arrive.

Ten minutes had passed, during which Charles had rehearsed and rehearsed the speech he was going to give; he was excited, more so than he had ever been in his life.

"We're here," Hank said, when everyone had taken their seats: there was he, Logan, Jean, Scott, and Ororo. Charles had prepared a chair for each while he stood in front of them.

"As I have already anticipated," he said, enjoying that view, everyone sitting across from him while he stood "This physical transformation of mine has nothing negative about it; it was caused by Wanda's out-of-control powers. Obviously my first thought was to talk to her to help her deal with them because, as you might imagine, they might unintentionally be the cause of something unpleasant."

"Fair enough, she might say something wrong and ..." began Hank.

"Yes, the consequences could be beyond our imagination," Jean concluded.

"That's precisely why I'm going to follow her on a path of awareness, and thanks to my powers I'll help her keep her own in check," Charles added, in his usual soothing tone of voice.

"Now, having exhausted that topic," he continued, unable to hold back a smile, "let's talk about me. As you know, I am more than 80 years old, but currently my physique is that of a 25-year-old. That is why I have decided-and I will not accept any objections to this-that from now on I will actively participate in missions."

Everyone present looked at each other, then returned to stare at Charles.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Hank said, "You are ..."

"I am ... what, Hank?" asked Charles, slightly annoyed, "Weak? Is that what you meant?"

Hank nodded, Charles closed his eyes and exhaled through his nose to suppress frustration.

"Yes, it's true" Charles opened his eyes, calm again "I've never been brought up to fight and considering all the time I've lived paralyzed it would be natural to think I'm not ready for such a step. I know, I'll give you that, but this morning I ran for more than an hour and now I'm here, in front of you, full of energy. Mine will be a gradual re-entry, compatible with my possibilities, but if you think I want to stay here now that I have a chance to act actively well, you have misjudged me."

Logan smiled, stood up and walked over to pat him on the back.

"I'm proud of you, Charles!" he said, "I'll train you and you'll see that in no time you'll even be able to fight hand-to-hand."

Jean, Ororo, and Scott still looked uncertain.

"I know what you're thinking," Charles said, "You don't need to read your mind to figure it out. I'm not a fool, I'm not going to do more than I can and I'm going to proceed in stages."

"Another thing ..." said Jean "You, as you have already said, are over eighty years old, how do you plan to act? According to her real age or the age she shows?"

Charles smiled.

"I don't think I'm the first or the only mutant in this situation. Sebastian Shaw -when he was alive of course, Mystique, Logan ... all of them show a significantly lower age than their real age. Why should I be any different? Why should I be affected by your idea of me?"

Logan laughed.

"That's actually true," he admitted, "I might show in my fifties, maximum sixty years, I'm actually almost 180."

Jean opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it again; they were right.

"I will have to talk to all the students," Charles added, "So far there are few who are aware of my new appearance."

"Good idea" commented Hank "We'd better do that as soon as possible, don't you think?"

"I'll do it as early as tomorrow," Charles replied, "Before classes start."

The next day, as promised, Charles summoned all the students to the garden and explained the situation to them. When he had finished speaking everyone applauded, cheered and went to congratulate him, some went to get some food and drinks from the cafeteria and improvised a small party that extended far beyond the time Charles had planned to use, overlapping with classes, all of which began with a great delay.

Charles watched the last students enter the classroom, then turned to Logan.

"I see you understand," he told him, "Now you and I will practice. I won't be good, I'll let you know right away."

"Great," Charles replied, "That's all I ask!"

Logan allowed Charles to change and took him to the garden.

"We'll start with some running, then we'll get into weights."

"You got it!" he replied and, without waiting any longer, set off.

Logan watched him run, it was amazing how he had been able to regain possession of his body so quickly after decades forced into immobility, he seemed to want to vent so much pent-up energy, he was like a child learning to walk for the first time and, once he got the result, he wanted to fully enjoy the freedom he had gained. She ran him for about half an hour and when she saw that he was coming back after yet another lap around the house she stopped him.

"That's good enough," he said, "Get some rest."

Charles stopped but, although he had a bench in front of him and was definitely tired, he chose to stand. Logan noticed him.

"Don't do that," he scolded him.

"So com-ah," he said, guessing what he was referring to, "I don't need to. Really."

So saying, he walked over to the bench and began to stretch his muscles.

"You're going to have to sit down at some point."

"I see what you mean," Charles admitted, sitting down "Yes, I'm actually deliberately avoiding sitting down but, I assure you, it's a phase I have to go through. For me this whole thing," he said, pointing to his own legs "is all new, I'm rediscovering things I had forgotten and I want to enjoy it to the fullest!"

"Without hurting yourself though," Logan said, "Don't overdo it."

"I won't" he replied "I promise."

Charles took the water and took a long drink.

"Good boy. Now let's go to the gym and lift some weights!"

After a few weeks, Logan continued to train Charles consistently, taking great care not to overwork him. Charles responded well to training and was getting stronger day by day.

They had just finished a training session in the gym when Logan had an idea.

'Listen, I have a proposition for you.' Logan spoke slowly, looking slightly uncomfortable.

Charles, who was wiping sweat from the back of his neck, paused to observe him.

'My guess is you're ready for the danger room,' he said, 'Starting next week, you'll be training with the first-year students.'

Charles laughed.

'Sounds good to me.' he said, nodding 'I can't wait!'

Logan smiled, pleasantly impressed by his friend's reaction: if someone had told him to train with rookies he would have been immediately angry, but Charles was a reasonable man and knew how to recognise his own limitations; besides, Logan knew he wouldn't be with the young students for long and would soon be ready for real missions.