At the same time that Harry and Ororo were having their moment together Emma Frost had arrived home. She first caught a flight on the family's personal jet then drove home in her Ferrari, uncertain of the reception she would receive. After all, she knew that her father knew she had gone to Switzerland to see if she could somehow free up some of her money and get away from his control, but on the other hand he knew that would fail, and she had been gone a little longer than she said. But on the other hand, she had called ahead about the kidnapping attempt.
After checking in with the mansions outer security and being let in, she parked her car in the huge garage next to one of her father's armored limos and then made her way into the foyer. Emma found her father and her older sister, the only two in her family really interested in the business, waiting for her there. Her brother wasn't for various reasons, and her mother, well those few hours where she wasn't on her prescription drugs were becoming more and more infrequent. Her younger sister might eventually be interested in the business but she was too young, too flighty, to be a part of any decision making now.
"Hello daughter," Winston Frost said, his voice controlled, measured and highly upper class, without a hint of actual care or concern for Emma showing in either stance or tone. Winston was a man who lived for one thing, to make more money and expand his family's business empire. He saw all of his children as tools to that end, with him holding the strings even as he officially retired. His son was a major disappoint in that, though both his oldest daughters showed promise. His middle daughter was cold as she should be, controlled and finely tempered with a ruthlessness that he had carefully cultivated over the years in various ways. Her mutant power was a major asset as well, though one he was careful to call upon rarely (and one he was secretly glad she was unable to use on her family for some reason, their shared genetics gave them all immunity). But her independent and headstrong nature worked against that. His oldest daughter however, while as cold and calculating as he could want, reveled in cruelty large and small. She was also far too egotistical and her own powers of psychometry, the ability to discern an item's past as well as how to use it, were not nearly as useful as Emma's own.
"Sir," Emma replied, her face as hard and blank as she could make it. That was the rule of this household, be cold, be frost to protect yourself from the rest of the family, reveal nothing to outsiders, and always remain in control. It was a lesson Emma had learned very well indeed.
Without another word Winston led the way to his office, a place of extremely expensive, well chosen pieces but as little actual character as the owner himself. He waved Emma into one chair while Adrienne took another to the side of the desk as he sat down in his padded chair. "You phoned ahead about some kind of issue, a team of kidnappers?"
Emma nodded, then briefly summarized the conflict, leaving out Harry's involvement as much as she could. She described him as a mutant with the power to caste illusions with an incredible car she wanted to race (one of her well known hobbies, and something her father could see easily) that she had met by chance, a cover she felt would protect him from further interest, and one who could also be used to cover her involvement with him in the future, useful but not useful enough for her father to take a closer look at.
The ruthless dispatch of three of the four attackers, with the fourth 'running away' impressed Winston, though Emma could tell Adrienne found something was off about the tale, her usual intense dislike and rivalry with her sister making her immediately suspicious of anything that Emma said. That and the fact she showed no surprise at all when Emma talked about her attackers and their various powers made Emma wonder how exactly the team of super powered kidnappers and Hammer industries had known to expect her in Switzerland. After all, it was sort of a spur of the moment thing, with only my family knowing I was gone, let alone where I was going….
Winston asked some questions about the battle, mostly focused on how effective Harry's 'illusions' were, but Emma downplayed them as much as she could, saying they worked best on someone who was already concentrating on something else, like say one of her telepathic pain blasts. She made certain he knew it was mostly her use of her own power that saw her through. Well, that and the fact they were fighting alongside a handy cliff.
After a moment Winston leaned back, his fingers tapping on his armrests thoughtfully. "Hmmm, I will have to think of some way to tweak Justin Hammer's nose for this. Business is business but such an overt move is in poor taste, rather graceless, though obviously we'll need confirmation he was behind it first. You will of course be going to school tomorrow, let no one see any weakness in you. I trust you can come up with your own excuse for your absence. Now leave me." And with that he turned to some paperwork on his desk, dismissing his daughters. Both Adrienne and Emma stood and left. Not once had Winston mentioned any concern for Emma's safety or how she was coping with having killed someone. In this family showing concern for one another was seen as weakness, and it wasn't as if Emma hadn't killed before.
Adrienne turned to her younger sister as soon as they were in the hallway. "Such a pity that you weren't kidnapped Sister dear, after all you've been wanting to get away from the family ever since Father named you his successor." The words came out precise, clipped and cold yet filled with venom. Adrienne absolutely hated the fact their father had passed over her to choose Emma to succeed him. More she had always hated Emma anyway, since the moment Emma's powers had awoken and outstripped her own.
Emma let a little smirk appear on her face. "It would have been if I had set it up myself, yet I wonder who informed Hammer Industries of my movements. It's almost enough to make one paranoid don't you think?"
Adrienne's eyes narrowed slightly but she shook her head. "Clumsy Emma, clumsy, you should be more careful in 'subtly' questioning someone. I didn't have anything to do with it. After all, if I had it would certainly have been organized enough to overcome any random passerby's involvement. After all in such things you can only be guaranteed a few such opportunities, you should take that to heart for your own dealings."
Emma's smirk widened a little, knowing that Adrienne was lying as soon as she spoke. She only tried to condescend to her when she was trying to cover something up. "Oh, don't worry Adrienne, If I get even one shot at anyone that will be all I need."
After seeing the kids off to school the next day (with Kitty, Kurt and Rogue all asking him for rides in his car) Harry spent the time until they got home tinkering with his new toys. First he added a ever refilling rune on the inside of the fuel tank, something that took quite a bit of doing given he couldn't exactly remove it, he had to inscribe it where it was. Thankfully he had picked up a few devices for that purpose, including a crystal of quartz that allowed him to funnel his magic through it easily enough, as well as a set of long pliers to hold the crystal in place. A small light set at the bottom of the tank allowed him light to work with.
After that he warded the Huayra to give it an anti-theft protection. If anyone touched the car with intent to steal it, they would be shocked badly. After that he cast an unbreakable charm on it, then drove it for a bit to make certain the spell hadn't had an untoward effect on its performance. It hadn't and after that Harry had a car that could survive smashing into a brick wall without a scratch.
Next he began to put together what he would need to inscribe what amounted to a tattoo that would allow him to fly. Harry wanted it a part of his own body, as that way even if his Crisis suit was damaged, ripped or whatever, he could still fly. The problem was that he had never tried making a magical tattoo. Magical marks like the late unlamented Corpse Botherer's had were tricky, part runic creation, part permanent charm and not something he had ever looked at, well except for ways to identify them. Normal runes were inscribed on a non-magical object, like a rock, piece metal or what have you then were infused with magic after that. But a wizard's body had magic already in large amounts. This meant that using runes on his own body might have odd effects that he didn't want, so he had to be very careful.
Figuring out what he wanted to do and how to do it took him the rest of the day, by which time the kids were at home.
Harry then led them through a team exercise. Everyone showed improvement from when Harry had arrived, but none more so then Jean and Rogue. Jean's power had risen beyond anything Charles had ever thought to see from her, and Rogue's permanent absorption of Juggernaut's powers had made her go from someone with limited utility to the team powerhouse. Even Scott, who still wasn't willing to really listen to Harry thanks to the tension between him and Charles, had gotten a little better at using his powers and at leading the team, becoming a bit more flexible in his tactical thinking. Unfortunately he still wasn't really willing to listen to others in the field and was still playing favorites, but Harry thought that Jean would handle that eventually on her own.
After that Harry made the reservation for the next day at the Italian restaurant that Mystique had named.
The next evening however he ran into problems when he asked the kids who wanted to come with him and Ororo. After explaining what he wanted to have happen, and getting Charles to endorse the idea (Charles was certain that any reasoned, well thought out argument would back his own position when it came to mutant integration in normal society) he asked "So, who wants to come with us?"
Jean frowned. I would really like to but… "Sorry Harry, I'm going out tonight on a date with Duncan." Duncan wanted to make up for his recent gaffes, and she had agreed to let him try. They had after all been going out for a while now, and she didn't want to let that die just yet.
Rogue shrugged, not at all interested. "ahm going tah New York City with Kurt and Logan for some errands after school, so not me, sorry." Kurt nodded agreement.
Evan shook his head quickly. "Not interested Harry, besides there's a skateboarding competition going on down town after school, me and some of my friends have been organizing it for weeks.
Scott frowned. "I was going somewhere, but this sounds more important so"
"Oh no you don't!" Jean interrupted, glaring at him from where she was sitting next to Ororo. "Taryn's my friend, and you're not going to stand her up on your first date. You are going to take her out and show her a good time, am I clear?" Scott nodded cowed and she sat back with a pleased expression on her face.
Kitty grinned. "Well I'm free, so where are we going for this shindig?"
Harry chuckled. "An Italian place by the name of Spogeo, do you like Italian?"
Kitty gulped. "Um, I like Italian well enough, but I don't have anything I could wear to a place that fancy here. Er, I suppose we could take a trip to my folks though?" She finished a little hopefully. She hadn't brought her full wardrobe when she moved in, and they had never gone back to get more.
Ororo and Harry looked at one another, Ororo raising an eyebrow and Harry first cocking his head then shrugging. After that Ororo nodded and turned to Kitty. "We'll pick you up after school Kitten and go shopping, I don't actually have something that fancy either after all."
"Or I could always transfigure something for the both of you." At their scoffing glares Harry shrugged, "Just a suggestion." With that sorted breakfast broke up and the kids left for school.
Rogue walked through the corridors of the school to the principal's office during the lunch period, and nearly ran into Principal Darkholme walking out of her office. She fell back and would have fallen if the older woman hadn't reached out and grabbed her by the elbow and halted her progress. That brief skin to skin contact activated her power momentarily, but Mystique let go before anything could happen. Rogue shook her head, and as quickly as her power activated, it went away. "Thanks," she muttered, looking at a window to make certain her appearance hadn't changed or anything.
"Not a problem Rogue," Raven replied a little breathlessly, before she shook it off. Rogue's touch was powerful, but that small a moment had thankfully not been enough to drain her more than, say running up two flights of stairs. "Were you looking for me for some reason?" She asked, and then cursed at how hopeful her voice sounded. She wanted to reconcile with her adopted daughter, but on her own terms, not when she was still following Charles and his foolish dream of coexistence.
Rogue frowned a little then shook her head. "Ah was just told tah tell you that Mistah Potter and the others will meet you at Spogeo's downtown at seven."
Raven looked around and seeing that there was no one nearby nodded understanding. "alright, myself and one of the others will meet them there. Who is it?"
"Kitty, Storm, and Mistah Potter," Rogue recited then the two looked at one another. Rogue had never been all that close to Mystique, she was a hard woman to care for, so standoffish and stern, but she had been the only family Rouge had ever known, and the distance between them still hurt. Yet at the same time it was Mystique and her attempts to manipulate Rogue that caused that rift, and Rogue refused to be the first to reach across the divide. "I, I'll see ya round Ms."
Raven opened her mouth to say something, then closed it and nodded and the two turned away from each other, neither willing to take that first step to reconcile or even knowing how.
After school Ororo and Harry did indeed pick Kitty up from school causing another commotion but neither cared about it this time. Kitty got into the car and was surprised that there was enough space in the back for her to sit comfortably. She looked up at Harry who winked and whispered "Space expansion charm." Kitty nodded, awed anew at what magic could accomplish.
The three of them drove to a rather high class clothing shop, the kind Kitty had never been to and that Ororo would never have cared to go to. She was a woman who cared not at all for fripperies, clothing styles, what was in or what wasn't, she simply dressed appropriately in something she liked and was comfortable in, and that was all.
With Kitty gleefully leading the way the two girls soon lost themselves in the strange world of shopping while Harry simply took out a paper on different metal classifications and plunked himself down in the waiting area.
After the two picked up a few dresses to try on and went into the dressing rooms, Ororo asked, "So, have you come to a decision Kitten? About whether or not you wish to remain with the current, setup, shall we say?" They had to speak obliquely of course as they were in public.
Kitten sighed. "I… I was able to work out with the team when we were training the other night, but, but every time I think of it being real I just seize up. I, I'm afraid that if I was asked to go out for real I'd refuse."
"Remember what Harry and I said Kitten," Ororo said, pulling the shorter girl into a one armed hug. "No one will judge you if you choose to no longer play in the real games. You can help your team in other ways. Your mind can be one of the best weapons in your arsenal," she leaned in to whisper in the younger girl's ear, "Even if your name isn't Jean." Kitty giggled and Ororo pulled away, holding up one of the dresses she chose to her body and Kitty nodded firmly in approval, but Ororo's mind was still on the conversation. "Have you asked your parents for some advice? I know you prefer to write to them, but still for something like this calling them would be a good idea."
Kitty bit her lip worriedly. "But, but should I really talk to them about, about that kind of thing, I can't, I mean, would they even understand, could they give me real advice about it?"
"Kitten," Ororo said firmly, turning and dropping the very expensive dress on the ground uncaring as she reached out to grasp the younger girl's shoulders. "Your parents love you, and they agreed to have you join us. Do not ignore them or try to compartmentalize your life like that. Ask them for advice, and I am certain they will take it seriously and help you make a decision you can live with."
Kitty smiled back at her and the two went back to trying on clothing. After a time they came out and made their purchases and the trio went back to the mansion to prepare for their night out.
Harry had a quick shower and then put on his crisis suit and his regular clothing over that, transfiguring it into a suit much like he had in Switzerland, not really caring to buy any new clothing just yet. After that he tried to comb his hair, but after a moment it went back to its normal unmanageable mess so he sighed and went to wait in the main hall for the two girls. They obviously took far longer than he did, but when they came down they looked a lot better too, at least in his opinion.
Ororo was dressed in a slinky black number with silver lines on the edges that went down to her ankles that was cut high up on the side but hugged her in all the right ways, including her chest and shoulder, being tight around the upper arms. She disdained any makeup, but then again she didn't need any, nor had she done anything with her hair, which fell to her shoulders in its normal wave. The sight of her coming down the steps was almost enough to make Harry decide to cancel the night out and simply grab her and go back to bed, but he manfully refrained.
Kitty was dressed in a far more chaste dress of white that had wide straps over otherwise bare shoulders that flared out around her ankles. Her hair still looked a little frizzy but she had obviously done something with it, and he saw a hint of makeup in the form of eye shadow and pink lipstick.
Harry looked at the two of them and whistled aloud. "I think I'm going to have guys dying with jealousy tonight, sitting with the two most beautiful women there."
Ororo chuckled at his compliment while Kitty blushed a little, wishing again that Harry was her age (and y'know not with Ororo).
Charles too added his compliments and Logan looked at Storm and groaned aloud at missed opportunities, a sound that had her chuckling just a little louder. After that the three left, and drove to the restaurant. Harry dropped the two ladies off at the entrance to the truly ritzy restaurant, and then went to park his own car.
Mystique showed up in the body of a drop dead gorgeous blond bombshell, wanting to keep this meeting separate from her Darkholme persona, as well as put a distance between it and her relationship with the Brotherhood. She wore a strapless white and black stripped dress that was tight up top and hugged her hips, coming to a little below her knees. After all, it wasn't often that she had the opportunity to dress up.
She had chosen to bring Lance with him, not trusting Pietro to not pull something or keep his cool. He was dressed in a suit that was a little too big for him, but it still looked good on his spare frame. His hair too was combed for once. All in all he dressed up pretty well, and Kitty looked at him approvingly. Lance too looked at her with interest. Ororo was hot, but also older and with the Potter dude, and Mystique, well the whole shape changing thing sounded great until you got to know her, then it was just freaky.
The four of them looked at one another a little awkwardly, not knowing what to say to one another in a public setting like this or any situation like this. Harry joined them swiftly, and the five of them went into the restaurant. Lance sidled up to Kitty and, after making certain Mystique was concentrating on Harry, whispered, "Um, you look fantastic Kitty, really great."
Kitty grinned a little. "You don't look so bad yourself Lance." The ice broken the two fell into a discussion about school, a safe topic for now, and the two followed the adults to the table.
Ororo and Mystique eyed one another warily, but neither were willing to be the one to start something and made do with talking about their dresses. Well Mystique did, Ororo just let her talk.
Harry set at the head of the long table, waving his hand discretely with a spell that pinpointed anything odd, and unsurprisingly there was a small something on the side of a flower pot in the center of the table. Another slight hand wave hit the flower jar with a muffilatio, which would make it unable to hear anything. As everyone sat down, getting some odd looks from other patrons since they were an odd group, he whispered, "Let's order before we get to talking. I'll use a notice-me-not spell to cover us after the food arrives."
At the word spell Lance's eyes widened then narrowed angrily as the confoundus spell Harry had hit the Brotherhood with after the battle with Juggernaut failed. Kitty however grabbed his arm and made him sit down before he could cause a scene. Once Lance set down though his eyes locked on Harry and he growled out "You asshole what the…"
"You were an enemy at the time kid, and I figured an aimed Confoundus was better than killing you out of hand." Harry's voice was a whisper but it carried to Lance very well, and his emerald eyes were hard over his smile, causing Lance to flinch and look away.
After that the conversation turned to safer things as a waiter came by first with their menus and after that to take their order. The group made small talk in two groups, Lance and Kitty talking at one end and the adults at the other, mostly discussing the economy, and the big news at the moment, that of well-known industrialist Tony Stark's disappearance in the Middle East on a routine marketing trip. Harry had heard of Tony from Reed Richards, the two weren't close, but they knew eachother from Reed having sold a few of his patents to the industrialist, and Harry wondered if that would be enough to get the FF involved in the search for him, but he didn't expect so.
The food soon arrived and when the waiter retreated Harry nodded to Mystique and waved his hand in the air. A brief shimmer moved across the floor underneath them and he nodded. "No one can hear us now, everyone in hearing range think we're talking about schooling, sports and other random things. No one will notice anything different, in fact they'll find our table very hard to notice at all."
Mystique frowned a little, she hadn't seen Dr. Voodoo using spells like that, and certainly the wannabe's she had seen hadn't had something like that. But she nodded. "Very well, do you want me to start my, what did you call it, my shtick?" Harry nodded and Ororo leaned back, willing to listen even though she knew she would never agree with her opinion.
"Well first let me just point at humanity's history with minorities. Homo superior isn't the first minority in the world. Look at what happened to the Christians when that religion first began in ancient Rome. Look at the persecution gypsies have to deal with in Europe even today, or blacks in America in places, and gays everywhere, let alone the Jews, who have faced persecution since, well, forever! It is human nature to fear, to hate and to persecute those that are different. I have seen it hundreds of times, have felt it myself dozens of times." Most of those were obviously because she was a mutant, though two of them occurred when she was openly in a relationship with Irene. Some things never changed. "When Hitler started his campaign he used the Jews as a scapegoat, a visible enemy that was just different enough for people to latch onto. How much easier would it be to do the same thing using mutants who are often visibly different who have powers beyond the understanding of normal humans? No, mutant kind must stand together against homo sapien aggression, which will be coming! We must be ready to protect ourselves, and if necessary to conquer them before they can subjugate us!"
By the end of her speech her voice had changed from calm and deliberate to passionate, and she took a moment to collect her self-control before going on. "You can see it already happening now. How many hate groups have already latched onto mutant kind as evil simply because we exist? The Friends of Humanity may be the loudest, but they aren't the only one, and has there been a single nation that has said 'no this is mindless bigotry', no there hasn't. Russia already has pogroms going after mutants, and there have been a few incident in America, especially in the south that were just ugly." She knew that as her leader had gathered another group like the Brotherhood from the south; she knew of the group though that was all, as he believed in compartmentalization, something she agreed with. "No, it will be up to mutants to protect mutants, because no one else will."
For a moment Harry lost himself in a memory from when he was leading the New Marauders, right after Voldemort had slaughtered the last of the Order of the Phoenix that still followed Dumbledore. He had decided to attack Diagon Alley to parade the old man's broken body to show the masses, and Harry had been there on a date (having escaped from Hogwarts). The girl was a Gryffindor named Alicia, not as close to him as the other two of the Flying Foxes, but still a nice girl. When Voldemort appeared everyone was running away, but Harry moved toward him and his forces, determined to do what he could (though not in a head on charge, he was a Ravenclaw after all) and Alicia had tried to stop him, saying he should let the Aurors handle it. When he pointed out that the Aurors had swiftly retreated into the ministry building she said to let the adults handle it. He pointed out that they weren't and that they never had. She asked him why he had to be the one to do it, and he had answered 'because no one else will.' The battle after that, with Harry keeping to the shadows and striking out at them from hiding with lethal spells, had been just enough to keep Voldemort and his followers occupied while the crowd ran for it before he apparated out too. Within a week Alicia was pulled out of Hogwarts and her family moved to France a few days after.
He shook himself and came back to the here and now as Mystique finished up. "That defense must be organized, it must be trained and it must be ready. That is the reason behind the Brotherhood, behind everything. Because the only way to protect a population as diverse and spread as we are is to show the norms that we are too strong for them to mess with. That will mean war, and us being possibly being the one to start it, because if we do and we get a hard enough initial blow off, we might not need another one."
Ororo spoke up then, not able to stand it anymore, "And that is the reason you used your own step-daughter so badly? Why you tried to sour her towards us the moment we tried to recruit her in such a underhanded manner?"
"Yes," Mystique answered simply. "I wanted her to join the Brotherhood and get the training she needed to know when homo-sapiens begin to turn against us, and I knew that as young and naïve as she is that Charles' dream would sound much better than my own side." She looked at Harry. "That worry about training has gone away since you arrived Potter, but I still think she's on the wrong side of things."
Harry nodded thoughtfully, taking a bite out of his lasagna, which was too excellent to ignore. On the surface, especially with the history she sited to back her position up, it makes a lot of sense. But then she sort of ruins it by her methods and using that that phrase 'conquer'. Still he had given his word she could try and persuade them, and he wanted to hear from one of the younger set.
"Lance, what do you think about all this?"
Lance chewed at his chicken parmesan, which was very good, wondering how to say this in such a way that he didn't alienate Kitty or get him in trouble with Mystique. Kitty was immensely hot all dressed up, she was cute normally but dressed up she was, wow. Lance was incredibly happy Mystique had chosen to bring him over Pietro. "Um, well, I would say that most of us in the brotherhood know firsthand about discrimination. My family was poor, my dad left us years ago, and everyone looked down on me because of that. You know how that works, a poor kid in a good high school. My powers give me something to say, 'hey I'm special, I don't have to be pushed around', and let me push back. What kids like Fred and Todd, who look strange thanks to their powers, what they go through is pretty bad at school, what'll happen to them when we go out into the rest of the world? Nothing good I bet."
He sighed, looking down at his plate. "If you're talking about war, that I don't really know about. I'm all for protecting ourselves, maybe even taking out any of the hate groups or anyone else who want to threaten us, but going after someone else first, that I don't know about. Maybe a preemptive strike sort of thing if we knew they were going to come after us, but not as part of a whole world war. I just don't see how mutant kind could win something like that, there's not enough of us. Not yet."
Mystique frowned but didn't say anything. She knew with her boss's powers such a war was winnable, but she didn't want to mention him or his powers here. Kitty though asked "But do you want to really, y'know, let your power be the only that defines you? I don't want to be defined just by my powers I want to make a difference with my mind too."
Ororo beamed at the younger girl proudly. Lance looked thoughtful, while Harry nodded too, giving her a thumbs up. "Yes, that's it exactly, you need to be defined by your deeds and your sense of right and wrong, not just by your powers. If your powers are the only thing you define yourself by, then that is a very sad life indeed. Magic is something I can do, it does not define who I am, nor should you let your powers do that to you." Harry turned to Ororo. "Your turn luv."
Storm nodded, finishing up a sip of wine. They had ordered a bottle that Mystique recommended for the table, and allowed the two teens two glasses each. "I understand where you are coming from yet I think you are looking at things through the looking glass of your own experiences. Yes, it is human nature to want to hate that which is different but not every human thinks like that. Not every German believed Nazi propaganda, not every Roman wanted to throw a Christian to the lions."
"No," Mystique retorted, "They just wanted to watch on the sidelines, not caring or worse simply enjoying the show. I fought in that war and I was betrayed, not be the so-called bad guys, but by the good guys. First it was everyone looking at me like I was some kind of exhibition at a circus, then it was my superiors, looking at me as if I would turn on them, then putting me in a position to be killed as often as they could. I saw firsthand that humanity is untrustworthy, ask Logan if you don't believe me. The weapon X program would have used him, Creed and the others until they died if they hadn't broken the indoctrination. Humanity cannot be trusted to deal with us fairly, not as a race and not as individuals."
"Perhaps," Ororo said sedately, "And I am not saying this to belittle your experiences. My own childhood wasn't exactly peaceful, and I could see myself in your position far too easily after how badly I was treated as a random street urchin on the streets of Cairo. Yet even after my power manifested and before I left the city I saw the good in humans as well as the bad. For every Hitler we have a Schindler who works against them, for every Stalin there is a Gandhi, that is a fact of humanity, we are such a diverse species we are impossible to quantify. Nor do I see us a distinct separate species as you seem to because of our power. We are all human, it is just we have certain added abilities, and we can get over this, like humans have learned to ignore our differences for thousands of years. If we work with them, work to police ourselves and to protect ourselves and them from super powered enemies such as the Juggernaut and others we can earn their trust. If we earn their trust groups like the Friends of Humanity and others will become marginalized and looked at like other hate groups. If we work toward the betterment of all not a just few with our powers and our minds we can create a better future for everyone."
Kitty nodded firmly. "That's what I want most, I want to make a difference, I always have, my power doesn't change that, it just gives me another tool to use to do it."
Harry nodded, stapling his fingers on his lap and leaned back looking between the two women, gathering his thoughts before speaking. Out of the side of his eyes he noticed Lance frowning in thought as he sipped at his second glass of wine. Sales pitches can go both ways after all. "You are passionate about your position Mystique, but you do not persuade, not me anyway. You might have if you hadn't said you wanted to conquer humanity to make it so humanity couldn't do the same to you. That reminds me too much of the Pureblood Supremacy I fought back in my old dimension."
He then went on to explain the war he fought against Voldemort, the problem with the Ministry, and the beliefs espoused by the extremists, Dumbledore and those in power. All four of them even Ororo listened enthralled at the story, as she had only heard brief blurbs of this story before, never the whole thing at once. All four of them reacted to the story differently. Mystique looked at harry with respect plain on her assumed face. Kitty cried for the friends he lost and that a boy her own age had to take a stand like that. Lance looked at him with shock and respect, wondering inside if he and his fellows were being set up as the Purebloods or the New Marauders.
As he finished his eyes nailed Mystique to her chair, hard, and unyielding, full of passion, the very air almost throbbing with his power. "What you talk about is the same general idea, the the privileged few ruling over the many, chosen not be election or money or anything but simple random genetics. And I will fight that with every spell, every thought, word and deed that I can, that is a promise. Do you understand?" Mystique nodded, not scared exactly, but very worried about what this wizard could do if he wanted to not just to her but to the cause she followed. "If on the other hand mutants are persecuted, I will help them. I don't care where, or when, or about borders or laws, I will help them with all I can however I need to with as much force as I have to. That too is a promise." He leaned back, calming down and the other people around the breathed easier with the pressure lifted. Ororo was looking at him with desire in her eyes, loving this passionate, commanding side of him, and she promised herself sometime that night for the two of them.
Mystique saw his charisma and his power and shook her head. "No wonder there is a new path to the future." She muttered. She wasn't certain though if she is willing to work with him just yet, after all his powers came from his magic not his mutation. More her leader was a certain bet, with his plans for the future already set and a worldwide network of agents and followers while Harry was alone and hadn't shared any certain plans with her.
Harry looked at Ororo wondering how she took his speech, and his eyes widened at the look in her eyes, and he looked rapidly away to keep from losing his cool, then his eyes narrowed as what Mystique muttered registered. "Wait, what? What do you mean a third path to the future?"
Mystique frowned realizing she had spoken aloud and wondering what to say. In the end she decided to share a bit of the truth. "I have a friend whose mutant power can see into the future, not very far" she lied, "but my friend can see paths into the future."
Harry's breathing eased back to normal as no prophecy was mentioned, and then his eyes narrowed. "This person is a real proven seer? How is she defended? Good god, do you have nay idea how powerful an asset a seer could be in the wrong hands!"
Mystique's lips twitched and her face hardened into grim lines, an unusual look on her assumed face. "Oh yes, we've seen several people over the years that would misuse her power. I killed them all." She said it blandly but her eyes were hard as she stared at Harry. Indeed, she made certain that only her leader out of all their organization knew her powers, and even he didn't know their full extent, how specific they could be or how far. No one knew that but her, and Irene was defended by that anonymity just as much as by Mystique's guile and her own power.
Harry relaxed further. "I'd offer to give you some magical defenses, but I doubt you'd trust me enough to take them." Mystique laughed and nodded agreement so Harry just shrugged. "Anyway, I won't go out of my way to fight you but I will stop you if you use your powers to attack mundanes. The school is off limits and you keep the fighting in areas without any bystanders if you want me to keep to that neutrality. And that will go for the X-men I'll come down on them if they start anything too." Ororo shrugged, knowing that the students and Charles would follow that idea easily enough. "In return, I'll give your team leader some pointers on leadership and team tactics, as well as a few pages worth of ideas of how to use their powers from what I saw when we fought Juggernaut."
Mystique frowned, but since she didn't actually want the Brotherhood to pick random fights with the X-men, which was one thing she and Charles agreed on, keeping a low profile was necessary for mutant kind right now, she saw no reason not to agree. "Alright, I can agree to that. I'll make my group tow the line if you make good with your end."
Harry nodded firmly. "Done, now Lance, you're the team leader right?" He had seen the others in action after all and only Pietro seemed to have a good head on his shoulders, and he was far too egotistical to be in charge of anything. Frankly from what little he had seen he reminded him of Draco Malfoy a little too much.
Lance nodded in reply, pleased Harry had picked that out, and Harry rattled off a few book names Lance should look into and then the talk turned to other things and Harry removed the notice me not spell so the waiter could approach and they could order some dessert.
During the rest of the meal the adults made small talk and shared a few stories about mishaps, with Harry dominating the discussion with stories about his pranks. Lance and Kitty flirted a bit, causing the trio of adults to smirk a little to each other. Thus the evening ended on a high note for all of them, even though Mystique hadn't persuaded Harry to join her side.
As they were leaving, Lance pulled Kitty to a stop a little bit of a blush on his face. "Um, look, I had a lot of fun, I, um I was wondering if you might want to have a night out on our own sometime?"
Kitty looked at him, giggling a little and blushing slightly. "Sure, I'd like that a lot, just, um just make it pizza or something simple okay, I saw the bill for this place and it was scary."
Lance nodded firmly. "Deal."
Mystique paused on the walk to the parking lot, looking over at Ororo. It was obvious to the weather goddess that the shapeshifter wanted to say something, and she stopped as well, looking at her. After a moment of wrestling with herself Mystique spoke. "My, my daughter Rogue, please, I, tell her I still care about her? Look out for her please. I doubt she wants anything to do with me anymore, but I still want her to know I care. I'm not the best at showing that, but it's still true."
Ororo nodded, inwardly wondering how Mystique could have ever thought that manipulating Rouge as she had was a good way to show she cared, but the woman in her wouldn't let her say it. "I will." She looked at the other woman and decided to throw her a bone. "If you truly care for her, Rogue may come around eventually, and eventually you tow can reconcile. These things tend to pass, and the fact that you're on opposing positions on the future of mutant kind will only get in the way if you let it." Mystique frowned, looking away with sadness plain on her assumed face before leaving without another word. With that the night ended, the two groups going their way.
In the back of the restaurant a man with close cropped dirty blond hair cursed inventively. Thanks to bugging the Xavier mansion's phone they had found out about this little shindig, though who the blond woman was they didn't know. It was pretty clear she had something to do with the so-called Brotherhood of Mutants, but what was a mystery, just like the identity of their leader. That secret was one Fury would cheerfully murder for, the known objectives of the brotherhood was a threat to national, indeed international security.
If only he had been able to overhear what they talked about, but the mini-microphone he had placed on that table (it had been easy to keep that table clear and shunt the group to it, basic spycraft 101 that) but it had failed right before the group sat down. Maybe one of them had some kind of power that did stuff like that to electronics? He didn't know. What Agent Barton did know was that his boss was not going to be happy.
Saturday morning started out a very bizarre day for many of those at the mansion. To start off everyone's normal morning routine was interrupted by a scream from Rogue's room then a loud crash. Everyone (Save Ororo who Harry told to wait and get dressed before joining the rush) congregated in her room, shocked to see she had lashed out in her sleep and destroyed the outer wall which her bed rested alongside. She was now sitting up with Kitty and Jean carefully giving her hugs on either side of her laying their arms along her pajama clad shoulders. "It was just ah nightmare," Rogue muttered, "but it was so vivid, like ah was really there."
"what was it about?" Scott asked, patting her knee, which was under the blanket.
"I, I was a woman, and I was carrying ah baby, runnin' away from some castle, but soon some wolves started tah chase me through the woods. They somehow got ahead of me and pinned me on a rope bridge over a river between them. They attacked, I tried tah hold 'em off, but I got bitten on my arm and forced tah drop the baby down into the river. The dream ends there."
"Was there anything unusual about the scene other than how vivid it was?" Charles asked, wheeling himself towards the bed, his face concerned yet inquisitive.
Rogue thought for a minute then nodded. "Ah couldn't make out any of mah own features, but the baby, the baby had blue fur!" She looked up sharply at Kurt whose eyes widened. "Ah think it was Kurt!"
"Me? But who could have been carrying me vhile running away from a castle? Especially vhen I vas a baby, from what they said the Roma found me about that time. I wonder vhat relation I had to this woman."
"Hmmm," said Charles. "Perhaps later today we should look into this further, it might be possible if I probe your mind we can see more detail." Rogue nodded agreement, and Kurt looked on hopefully, wanting to know more of his birth family.
"Well then, I think I'll go and start breakfast, waffles I think." Harry said with some finality, leaving his hand and using a reparo spell on the wall.
Swiftly the wall was back to normal and Rogue smirked a little. "You're an awfully useful man tah have around Mr. Potter."
Ororo smirked. "Indeed, in so many ways." Harry smirked back at her while the guys rolled their eyes (except for Evan who frowned) and the girls giggled a little. None of the kids noticed Harry stare hard at Charles, this being the last day of his ultimatum to the older man. Charles sighed a little then nodded and mouthed the word later. Harry walked off with Ororo, satisfied for now.
After breakfast the kids were handed over to Logan for endurance training, then had free time until a lesson with Ororo for the girls that evening and with Logan for the boys. Harry would take them on in his team challenges all day Sunday. He wanted to start on his runic flying array/tattoo today.
After lunch however Jean's free time was interrupted by Charles asking him into his office. Wondering what this was about, and wondering why her instincts told her it was going to be about something important, she knocked and when told to entered the third story office. "You wanted to see me sir?"
Charles sighed, wheeling his way around his desk to take up position close by one of the chairs facing it. "Yes Jean, please sit down." Jean sat down, now certain this was going to be something either important, unpleasant or both. "I, I have a bit of a confession to make. Do you remember when I first found you?"
"Yes sir," Jean said slowly, "It was about two weeks after my powers woke up in me." That had been caused by the traumatic effect of seeing her best friend as a child die, run over by a car after just playing with her in her backyard. "You stopped by every now and then until my parents allowed me to move in here two years ago." In actuality they had been just as worried about how it would look if they let their young pre-teen daughter move into a full time boarding school as they had been about her wellbeing, perhaps more so. After all, there was a reason they never bothered to initiate contact with her now that she was away, anything outside the norm was something they couldn't really handle.
"I told you at the time that it was your own power that alerted me to your presence, but that was not the whole truth. I felt something else as well, a powerful alien entity that had, when I investigated, taken up residence in your mind." Jean froze in shock at that and he went on, "When I investigated I found that the entity had bonded with your mind and I could not force it out no matter what I tried. I then made the decision to seal it there, locking it way from the rest of your mind, so that it could not influence you in any way."
Jean shook off her shock and began to get angry. "I, I've got an alien entity in my mind, you've known about this for years and you never told me!?"
"Jean please calm down, I kept it a secret because I wanted to let your mind fully mature before learning or your unwanted guest. I also wanted you to have a normal childhood, Mutant children have a hard enough time having a normal childhood without knowing there is something else odd about them." Charles said placatingly, his hands making calming motions.
Jean stood up angrily beginning to pace around the room, trying to keep control but her power began to spark off her, picking up random items around the room and toss them too and for aimlessly. "Oh that's just great, never mind the fact that I'm a fucking telepath and my mind should be sacrosanct! Why the hell did you think it was good idea to still keep it from me when I began to mature? It wasn't your damn call to keep something like this from me, this is my head we're talking about here! Mental blocks, foreign mental blocks in my head, no matter the reason that is just, wrong, just I can't tell you how this makes me feel! Good god professor, this is why I've been having problems with occlumency isn't it, this thing inside my head is interfering somehow!"
She froze for a moment as she thought of the tension between Harry and Charles, which had started right after she showed his mental projection around her mind…. "Potter found out didn't he? He wanted you to tell me, that's what the countdown and the tension between you was about, wasn't it?" Charles sighed but nodded and Jean's eyes narrowed angrily. "So if he hadn't been pressuring you, would you be telling me about this entity in my head even now?" Xavier looked away, not willing to meet her accusing gaze. "I see. If you'll excuse me professor, I think I'm going to go now. We will be talking again later, after I've calmed down." Charles nodded sadly, wondering how badly this had hurt Jean's trust in him, and where they would go from here.
Jean knew where she wanted to go, and stormed off to find the other target of her ire.
Harry had placed a mufilatio around his workroom so he wouldn't be bothered as he tattooed the runic array that would let him fly onto his back. When he was done it would be a circle of runes around the middle of his back, then he would cover it up by tattooing a design around it to look like a sun or something, he wasn't sure what just yet. He had solved the problem of not letting foreign magic impact the process by using two carefully tilted full length mirrors, one at an angle in front of in front of his face as he laid face down on a table taken from the medical wing, and the other directly above him. This way he was able to see what was going on while he used his magic to direct the half iron (which did not conduct magic) half regular metal pliers that held the crystal (an unused one) he was using to carve the design.
It was lucky he had when Jean barged into his room without knocking for a second time. "You knew, and you didn't tell me!"
When she saw he was lying down half naked and apparently very busy with something that looked very tricky she paused, tapping her toes angrily on the ground.
About ten minutes later, time which did nothing to appease her anger, Harry finished the rune he was working on and allowed the leviosa spell to slowly fade, reaching out to catch the pliers as they fell gently to the ground. He stood up from the bed, looking at her quizzically as he negated the Mufilatio spell. "You really need to work on knocking don't you Red?"
Red flushed a little at the sight of Harry's chiseled abs and his oh so interesting scars then shook it off. "Never mind that, you knew about this, this thing in my head, and you never told me about it, why!?"
Harry sighed a little happily. "So baldy really did get up his courage to tell you, huh, that surprises me, in a good way admittedly. I'm not used to leaders who admit their mistakes. And if I had mentioned it when I first saw it, would you have believed me?"
Jena frowned a little. It was true she hadn't known Harry that well at that point, but… "I would have at least brought it up with the professor if you had told me. Gah, the idea I have some foreign thing in my head is just… brrr. Still, I guess I can see why you didn't want to be the one to tell me. But that and the idea of someone else's mental blocks in my head, that is just wrong. It feels almost like, well almost like a rape, something precious has been defiled, my mind has been changed without me agreeing to it or even knowing about it!" She stood there hyperventilating for a moment and Harry simply waited, letting her recover from her outburst. "Have you, have you run into anything like this before?"
Harry frowned heavily but then nodded. "I've run into two such. One was on my godfather, we were never certain what the reason was, but the effect was to make him extremely impulsive, almost to the point of being suicidal." Dumbledore had put a mental block on Sirius at some point well before he was sent to Azkaban to enforce loyalty. Unfortunately for the meddling old coot, Harry's mother and father had insisted Sirius take the old version of the godfather oath, which demanded the man do all he could to protect Harry with all of his magic, consciously or unconsciously, meaning the man's own magic would work to protect Harry even if the rest of him didn't. When the block and the oath came into conflict, he became incredibly impulsive and almost manic whenever he knew Harry was in trouble, his own magic pushing him to do something, anything even if it went against his trust of Dumbledore, hence why he finally broke out of Azkaban when he saw Peter with Weasley. When Harry began to show Sirius how to use occlumency the block was easy to find when the man organized his mind and they broke it then. The other block Harry had seen was on Narcissa Black, and was part of the marital agreement between the two families, and it disappeared when Sirius, as head of the Blacks, annulled the marriage. After that she willingly helped them lead her former husband and son into an ambush. One had been a rapist and abuser, the other nearly his carbon copy, and she had shed no tears for either. Harry had often wondered why Dumbledore had never tried to place a block on him, and had never found a satisfactory answer. He supposed that such a step was a dangerous one, and by the time Dumbledore realized he needed it on Harry he had already learned to defend his mind with his imagined invisibility cloak.
"So they can have an impact on the person well beyond what was intended?" Jean asked, biting her lip worriedly.
"Oh yes," Harry said grimly, comparing Sirius before and after the block was removed. Before Sirius was almost childish, wild and impulsive and far too trusting of Dumbledore in every way except about how to help Harry. Afterward he resembled the dangerous and very competent Auror he had been before being sent to Azkaban though admittedly more manic, and his love of pranks didn't change. "I honestly can't tell you if Charles' block is more efficient or has a limited effect, but I am a little worried about it, hence why I wanted you to know about this alien entity in your head and the blocks both."
"Could you maybe try and get rid of this thing in my head? Without it there the blocks can be removed."
Harry looked at her hopeful face and sighed. "I don't know. Charles said it's a foreign entity, but I'll be honest, I never saw any indication of that. I just saw it as another part of your mind. Why that is I don't know, but if it is a foreign entity, maybe we should try to talk to it. After all, even if it couldn't communicate when Charles first found it, it has been in your mind for years and it might have picked up human speech in that time."
Jean frowned, the idea of talking to something inside her own head was a really odd idea, but she sighed. "Can we do it now please?" She asked plaintively, and Harry looked at her again, looking past her anger about being lied to and saw her fear this time.
Jean was desperately afraid of whatever this was in her head, and with good reason. If I had something in my brain that wasn't me I'd be terrified too. Sure, let me put on a shirt and we can start." Jena nodded, looking away at this reminder that Harry was shirtless.
A moment later Harry came back and conjured two comfy chairs for the two of them. They sat down, and after a moment Harry nodded, indicating he had pulled back a corner of his invisibility cloak. Jean came into his mind and, like last time, transported his mental projection into her mind, bypassing the belsham-trees which caused Harry to chuckle and wonder what Luna would have thought of them while Jean merely smiled, her worry about the rest of her mind not letting her take pleasure in her defenses.
Jean looked around her barely organized mind, frowning in concentration, then shook her head. "Even knowing something is there I can't see them, Charles hid them too well."
Harry nodded, then grasped her hand and pushed it at the place where a locked down book was held on its pedestal. She resisted at first, then as their joined hands came into contact with it gasped as suddenly she could see the chained book and the fissure below it on the mental ground of her mind. She looked around and saw two other books set along the fissure, and the large staples of some kind that were trying to keep the fissure closed. "This, was all in my mind and I never knew?"
Harry shrugged. "I guess so, though the books might have grown out of the original block, the metal bar thingies. Whatever the thing it's supposed to keep under control is inside that fissure."
"According to those occlumency books you gave me, the further down you go into your mind the more emotions and elemental thoughts you'll find." Jean frowned, now really wondering what was down there.
"That's the way it normally works until you force your own organization on your mind, but regardless, we'll need to go down and find this entity, whatever it is."
Jean nodded and looked at the hole, then with a deep breath reached out and forced the block apart, just enough to let them down into it. A flash of heat and flame shot out, and for a moment they both could feel something stirring below them, but then it settled down, as if waiting for them to make the first move. The two looked at one another then Harry smirked and bowed grandly. "Allow me to go first milady, I shall brave the dragon's cave first, taking all the danger onto myself before I let thee come to harm."
Jean shook her head, but there was a smile on her face as she did. "Nay good sir, we will face this danger side by side for I cannot send someone else to face this danger without me."
Harry, still smirking held out his hand as if asking for a dance at a fancy ball, and Jean looped her own arm with his and together they stepped forward over the fissure, and jumped down into the fire.
They fell for a few seconds through the fire which burned, but did not injure. A moment later they touched down, seemingly floating above a pool of fire which spread endlessly in every direction that looked like the surface of the sun, roiling and pulsing with heat and fire and power. "Hmm, this is not what I was expecting."
Jean looked at him askance and stepped away, looking around. "You were actually expecting something in particular?"
"No not really."