Chapter 3 - X-Mansion

Westchester County, New York

Standing underneath a busted lamp post in the dead of night, a dark figure, namely Vali had had just located the X-mansion, granted it took quite a toll on his finances.

"Damn, I must seem like some sort of creep right now plus the fact that this is a school for children..." Vali mumbled dissapointedly to himself.

'Whatever, I'll come back tomorrow, it is a little creepy showing up in the middle of the night unannounced.' Vali thought to himself before disappearing into the night.

The next day came quite fast and Vali quickly check out of the hotel and made his way back to the X-mansion and stood exactly where he stood the night before.

"Nope! still doesn't feel right, anyone standing underneath a busted lamp post is a creep!" Vali shivered slightly before stepping foot onto the premises of the school.

The school was still pretty far away, the land surrounding the school was so huge it felt like the school was completely isolated from the rest of the city.

"Truly only the rich could achieve this." Vali sighed as he turned his pockets inside out and watched as the lint get carried off by the wind.

When he got within a certain distance from the school he felt the air somewhat change. Vali looked up to the sky and saw that the clouds were slowly gathering and darkening.

It was truly a mystical scene, seeing how the perfectly clear skies had instantly turn cloudy and dark just on the whims of a single person. Ororo Monroe, aka storm!

"I'm just here to talk!" Vali shouted out to seemingly no one but as soon as he said that the doors to the mansion like school opened up and out came 3 people.

The first person was a bald man in a wheelchair, he was accompanied by another man who was completely covered in blue hair and lastly, standing beside him was a dark skinned woman with long white hair.

"Who are you!" The woman took the initiative to ask.

"My name is Vali Ferguson, I've come here to propose a benifical deal to you!" Vali answered calmly not at all fazed by the dark clouds that were seemingly closing in on him.

Hearing what Vali said, Ororo frowned and was about to ask another question when the man in the wheelchair put up his hand to stop her.

"My friend, will you come in so we can talk about the deal in detail?" The old man, Charles Xavier asked with respect.

Actually, while Vali was talking, Charles tried to pry into his mind but when he got in all he saw was darkness which startled him and he immediately left.

Charles knew Vali wasn't simple and he couldn't be careless about how he handled the matter at hand since he knew nothing about the opposition. If the other party didn't have any bad intentions, why purposely provoke him?

Vali simply nodded and accepted Charles hospitality, "alright, there's a lot to be discussed."

Walking into the mansion like school, Vali calmly looked around. It was a lot like how the movies portrayed it to be only he saw a few things that weren't shown in the movies.

There were many prying eyes as the group made their way towards Charles office, some wary but most of them curious about the unknown person following behind their teachers.

"Sorry about that, the kids haven't seen many new faces for a while now." Charles apologized.

Vali in turn gave a smile and said, "no worries, I'm used to it."

"Ah yes, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Charles Xavier the founder of this school, over there is Ororo Monroe and the one beside her is Hank McCoy."

Vali nodded and greeted, "its nice to meet all of you."

Hank smiled and reached out his hand for a handshake while saying, "nice to meet you." Ororo also reached out her hand for a hand shake and apologized, "I'm sorry about before, it was rude of me."

"Don't mind." Vali shook his head, he never took it to heart at all. There was no way she could have hurt him after all.

After Vali also gave a firm handshake to Charles they all sat down and Charles was the first to speak up, "so mr. Ferguson what's this deal you're offering us?"

Seeing as the mood changed, Vali got down to business and said, "actually my deal is pretty straight forward and I'm pretty sure it'll benefit both of us..."

Vali paused a bit before continuing, "I have some bad blood with an old friend of yours... actually wait, what exactly is your relationship with magneto man, are you guys like friends or enemies, it's really hard to tell?"

Charles was dumbfounded. The sudden question threw him off, isn't it pretty clear they're enemies? But wait, then why doesn't he hate magneto very much?

To be honest he had many chances to end his old friend but doesn't do it, it was also the same the other way around as magneto also had many chances to kill him but never does it so what exactly was their relationship?

Ororo and Hank on the side also started wondering after Vali asked, there were in fact many truths about what Vali was saying and they witnessed it first hand.

They both looked at Charles with a questioning look, they were also curious on how Charles would answer. Charles lips twitched as he felt all eyes fiercely directed at him waiting for an answer.

Shaking his head Charles firmly answered, "enemies, we're definitely enemies!"

Vali looked relieved then asked, "ok, so then you wouldn't have any problems with me killing him then, right?"

Charles frowned when he heard the word kill come out of Vali's mouth, "kill? Is that really necessary?" Ororo and Hank also frowned when they hear Vali talk about killing.

"Then should I let him live? Even after all the suffering he's caused, after all the countless lives he took?" Vali derisively asked.

All of them went silent. What Vali said was all true, magneto has truly done some horrible things to a lot of people weather they were innocent or even those of his own kind, he was certainly irredeemable.

"Still, what you're suggesting isn't any better, you'll be just like him if you kill him!" Charles countered, still feeling that killing wasn't the way to go about this.

"Yes, I wouldn't be any better than him!" Charles nodded thinking that he was getting through to Vali but was completely thrown off when Vali continued, "but I don't mind stooping to his level and killing if it means there's one less piece of trash in the world."

Seeing that he wasn't getting through to Vali, Charles suddenly got defensive for some reason and warned Vali, "I'm sorry but I can't let you do that!"

"Oh? Who's gonna stop me, just you guys?" Vali derisively asked in a condescending manner. He finally put down all pretenses after Charles suggestively threatened him with his words.

"You know, I actually don't really understand why you're so against me killing magneto, you claim you're enemies but here you are protecting him? You realize the problem right? It's you Charles!"

"Do you think you're doing the right thing here by protecting magneto? Don't you realize you're jeopardizing the health and safety of the kids here every time magneto shows up and terrorizes the school?"

"Who do you think pays for the feud between yours and magnetos differing beliefs? Do you think you're protecting these kids when all you're really doing is confusing them and harming their minds with all the danger you constantly expose them to?"

It was getting harder and harder to rebuke Vali with all the valid points he was making, even Ororo and Hank started to get swayed by what Vali was saying, they even started to question weather what they were doing was the right thing or not.

Charles on the other hand reclined back into his wheelchair and masked his face with his hand before he sighed and asked, "after you kill magneto, then what? Another magneto will just appear again!"

"Then I'll kill the next magneto and the one after him and I'll keep killing until all the magnetos of the world perish, the more the merrier!" Vali gave a contemptuous smirk as he said this.

He didn't mind having powerful enemies, no, he welcomed them with open arms after all they'll only make him stronger once he kills them. In fact he would be more worried if there weren't any enemies at all.

Killing isn't a problem for him, if it was why would he chose to have the powers of the shadow monarch? He would be a joke if he wasn't ready to kill after receiving these powers.

Hearing Vali's reply, Charles frowned while Ororo and Hank looked a little unsure of what to make of him. "Killing? Is that your solution to everything?" Charles asked while looking a little irritated.

"Pretty much yeah, as long as the problem can be solved by killing why not? It's not like I'm saying I'll take innocent lives, hell I'm even willing and let a person reform if they want to but if they can't why keep them around? That's just looking for problems." Val plainly stated.

"Still you can't—"

Before Charles could finish his words Val abruptly stood up and said, "that's it, there's no point in arguing with you, I'll just end it with this, will you help me with killing magneto or not?"

There was a deathly silence in the room, Charles had his head down as he was thinking while Ororo and Hank sat by the side waiting for the choice Charles would make.

After a bit of time, Charles looked up and into Vali's eyes that were now completely full of irritation, "I... I'll help you but let me do it, let me kill him!"

Vali was surprised, why would Charles suddenly agree and he even wants to do it himself. There was definitely something more to this.

Vali narrowed his eyes and stared at Charles for a good while before answering, "Alright, it doesn't really matter who kills him as long as he's dead but know this, I don't take kindly to those to betray or lie to me. So tell me Charles, are you thinking of betraying me?"

"...No, It's my fault he's become like this, I couldn't save him so I should be the one to take responsibility!" Charles sullenly said.

Vali clasped his hands together and exclaimed with a big smile, "Great! I'm glad to see you've come around, happy cooperations!"