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' opinions always help me to improve my work!

Another day, another chapter. For the next one I am not promising anything, I may publish it tomorrow as well as next week, I hope I can find time to write because the words are all in my mind, I just have to transcribe them.

A hug

Mini

14. Too late

"I insist," Jean said, "If you have found some information that can be useful to us that's fine, now though you need to rest and think about something else, you can't strain your mind more than that."

"I agree with Jean" said Erik "Charles, I'm upset with myself, I can only imagine how you must be feeling!"

Charles shook his head.

"I told you I'm fine. I'm be-"

He stopped suddenly, faltered, and had to lean on Erik, standing next to him, to keep his balance.

"See, you're in too much pain," Jean scolded him, "Lie down."

"I will later, right now I want to go check something," he said but, when he made to get up, his head turned and he fell back, lying on the bed.

"Go to sleep, Charles," Jean told him in an authoritative tone, "Please."

He seemed to want to retort, but then nodded and closed his eyes, and within moments he was sound asleep.

"Let's all get out, let him rest."

Erik nodded, wiped away the last of his tears and left the room only Raven remained sitting next to Charles.

"Raven?" called Jean to her.

"I'd rather stay here," she replied, taking Charles' hand.

Jean hesitated, then smiled and nodded.

"As you prefer."

"You know, what I saw, those memories ..."

Jean had reached the door but paused to listen.

"For years I wondered what he was afraid of, what Dr. Milbury was doing to him."

"He never told you anything?"

"No, never," Raven replied, shaking her head, "I could see he was afraid, but he never told me anything about what was going on. When he came home he was often strange, asking me to leave him alone for a while, then coming back and it was him again, the usual smiling, reassuring Charles."

Raven burst into tears.

"For years I thought he was too protective of me, that he wanted to control me ... now I realized he only wanted my good. Even though he had erased those memories from his memory he continued, even unconsciously, to protect me. I was so unfair to him ..."

Jean went back and laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I loved him, I hated him ... now I feel so guilty ..."

"You don't have to," Jean reassured her, "I'm sure he loved you too from the first moment and never stopped loving you. He has always protected you, now you can reciprocate."

Raven was staring at Charles's face, turned sharply toward Jean, who returned the gaze with a smile.

"I'll leave you two alone."

Raven turned back to look at Charles.

"I'll watch over him."

Charles slept, from time to time the shadow of a nightmare appeared on his face, Raven squeezed his hand, and he seemed to calm down.

She watched over him for a few hours, then began to feel tired, and although she tried with all her might to fight against sleep, without realizing it she fell asleep.

She realized that many hours had passed only by looking at the clock, she must have slept all night, the dawn light was filtering through the curtains, someone was stroking her head, she barely moved it to see and saw that it was Charles, now awake, smiling at her.

"You've been beside me all this time," he murmured, "Thank you."

She smiled at him.

"I couldn't leave you alone."

Charles smiled in turn but immediately the smile vanished, replaced by a grimace of pain.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, startled.

Charles remained with his eyes tightly shut for a few moments, then relaxed and opened them.

"Everything is fine," he replied, "Just a little headache. I telepathically called the others, I'll meet you in my office shortly."

"Are you sure? Don't you want to rest some more? You look beat?"

Indeed it was true, despite the hours of sleep, Charles still looked in pain.

"I'm fine, don't worry," he told her, with a forced smile, "Everything will be fine."

He felt incredibly tired; walking from his room to the study cost him a lot of effort, partly because of a constant headache that, from time to time, would sharpen, causing him to lose his balance and force him to stop.

They had just arrived in Charles's study when Raven spoke after minutes of silence.

"Charles, you are overexerting yourself!" she scolded him "Can't you rest a little longer?"

"No," he replied, going to sit behind the desk, "We don't have much time. Oh, there you are."

"Are you better, my friend?" asked Erik "You look even older than me right now."

"Yes, I am," he admitted with a tired smile "I'm not at my best, but I'll have time to rest when I tell you what I found out."

Charles clenched his fists and closed his eyes.

"Is something wrong?" asked Jean, worried.

"Just a little headache," he replied.

"Just a little headache?" asked Raven "It's been since before ..."

"As I was telling you yesterday," said Charles, ignoring Raven's question, "The memories you saw are only part of it. Milbury began with those kinds of experiments long before I met Raven. I was six years old when he first took me to that laboratory ... along with my father, Brian Xavier."

Erik paled, horrified.

"Your ... your father?" he asked.

"That's right. Dr. Brian Xavier. At that time he worked with Dr. Milbury, who was actually named Nathaniel Essex. Milbury or Essex, whichever you prefer, was the first to do research and experiment on mutants, as early as one thousand eight hundred and ninety. If you wonder how I know all this, it is simple: I read his mind at the time, then forgot. He worked closely with my father, so he started using me as a guinea pig for his experiments."

Charles took a few moments to regroup his thoughts and emotions.

"A year later my father died under circumstances that were never fully clarified, and his place was taken by Kurt Marko who not only continued my father's research with Milbury but married my mother."

Charles stood up, he felt he could not sit still, he needed to move so as not to be overwhelmed.

"Marko was an extremely paranoid man but also very practical. As soon as he moved into this house he had our bags packed and took us to Europe for at least three months. We were guests at many universities, in which Marko gave lectures, conferences or simple consultations. When we came back everything had changed."

Charles paused again; he needed time to bring back those memories.

"During our absence Marko had fired all the staff ... yes, Erik," he said with a sneer, noticing that his friend had raised an eyebrow "Did you really think my mother was the classic housewife? We had a cook, a butler, a maid and a gardener and, when my grandfather was still alive, even a gamekeeper. Marko had sent them all away and hired trusted people in their place. That was not the only change; he had had bomb shelters built under the mansion and a huge safe installed: he forced my mother to close all the bank accounts she owned and take home everything in them. The room that now houses Cerebro at that time was full of banknotes, gold bars, jewelry. When Marko also died, his son Cain took his share of the inheritance and left, Raven and I deposited everything that was left in a bank and moved out."

"Do you think the documents we are looking for were in that safe?" asked Erik.

"There were no documents," said Raven, "I remember it well."

"In fact, they weren't there, they weren't even in the safe in the study."

"Could he have left them somewhere else?" asked Jean "Not here."

"No. Marko would never have done that, he didn't trust anyone. I think ... I think they are here, but not in the mansion."

Charles walked over to the window and looked out.

"When my mother and I returned, we noticed that Marko had had the gardener's old house renovated. Brown, the gardener who had been hired by my grandfather, had this little house that he used for storage. It had been there for many years and was clearly in need of maintenance; when we came back it was as good as new."

Charles looked at Erik.

"I think, in addition to the shelters down here, he also created a safe room under the little house in the garden. By going up there would you be able to find out if there is anything underneath?"

"If it is a metal vault, yes, I could easily find it," replied Erik.

"Very well," said Charles, starting toward the door, "Let's go."

Charles was very pale, he was struggling to walk, Raven was beside him but despite this he seemed to be trudging under the weight of years of buried memories which, having come back to light, had overwhelmed him like an avalanche.

With him were Raven, Erik, Jean and Hank, who had joined them to lend a hand in case they found anything. It took a while, but they finally arrived at the shack. If it had just been fixed up in the 1950s, it now appeared old and dilapidated.

"Maybe it could use some restoration," Charles said, smiling faintly, "Let's go inside."

Once inside they looked around, the little house was modest in size and consisted of a single room in which were placed very neatly with all the garden tools, some recently used, others that looked like they had been there for decades.

Dust and cobwebs reigned in every corner.

"Can you sense anything?" asked Charles to Erik.

The man had closed his eyes and concentrated.

"Yes," he said, "There is something under the floor, it looks like a huge metal room ... wait ... there! I found the entrance!"

Next to the fireplace was a large chest, Erik stretched out an arm and, with his metal manipulation powers, managed to trigger a mechanism. The chest moved to the side, revealing a steep staircase that led to an underground room.

They all descended and reached an armored door, which Erik was able to open without any problem. Everything inside was dark, but Erik immediately found the panel with the switches that, despite years of inactivity, still worked.

In a few moments all the lights came on, leaving those present open-mouthed: in front of them was a huge storage room, larger than the area occupied by the small house that concealed its entrance. On the shelves on the left were stored gold bars and crates that probably contained money and valuables, while on the right were files overflowing with documents.

"We found them," Erik said, approaching "What they were looking for is all here ... Do you think we should keep them or destroy them? ... Charles?"

The telepath had stopped suddenly, Erik turned toward him, and at that moment he cried out in pain, bringing his hands to his head and collapsing to his knees.

"NO! NO! GET OUT! GO AWAY!"

Jean approached him and squeezed his shoulders to shake him.

"Charles! CHARLES!" he shouted, "What's going on?"

Raven approached and hugged him from behind, hoping to reassure him as Hank and Erik looked on, helpless.

"GET OUT!" shouted Charles again, "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

"Who are you talking to?" asked Jean, who was trying to get inside his head to understand what was going on "Who's there?"

Charles had his eyes closed in a grimace of pure pain and terror; it was obvious that he was struggling with something extremely powerful. With considerable effort he managed to open his eyes; they were shiny and red from crying.

"It was a trap ..." he muttered in a hoarse voice "V-please ... KILL ME ... before it is too late ... KILL ME! KILL ME!"

Everyone stared at him stunned and frightened, Raven squeezed him even tighter.

"STOP IT! STOP SAYING THOSE THINGS!" he shouted.

"What are you talking about?" asked Jean "WHY WOULD WE KILL YOU?" she asked, panicked "CHARLES!"

By now Charles was gone as a red rumble appeared on his forehead, the grimace of pain was replaced by a triumphant, evil grin that did not belong to him, then he spoke.

"Too late."