"Will you quit poking my eye?"
"I'll quit poking your eye, An, when you stop squirming!"
"I wasn't squirming, Kat, till you started poking me in the eye!"
Evan reclined on Anna's bed just opposite the vanity mirror where the girls were finishing their makeup and was dressed in a strange green body suit with drawn on black sharpy scales. "It's productive conversations like these I value most about our time together." He tossed Anna's stress-ball in the air and caught it.
Kitty pushed down on Anna's cheek with a gloved hand to better reveal the waterline of her eye. "Do you work on being a 'D-bag' when you talk, Evan? Or is it something that just comes naturally to you?"
Evan threw the ball again and caught it. "A 'D-bag?'"
"Douche-bag," Anna answered for her. "Kitty, while I admire your weird commitment to never cursing, even I have to admit it gets a little confusing sometimes."
"My Nan taught me cursing is for girls who can't count past the fingers on their hands and women who don't want to marry a good man."
"I never saw myself as the whole husband, white picket fence, and 2.5 kids type, so I guess I'll keep cussin'. Sides, what numbers are really all that important past my fingers? It's why God made calculators.'"
Kurt, lay on Kitty's bed, and spread his long blue digits. "Am I allowed to count my fingers and toes? I think I can get through algebra with at least that much."
Kitty brushed a bothersome hair out of her face for the fifth or sixth time and back behind her ear. "Nan never got that specific."
"Ev, would you marry me if I couldn't count past -" Kurt finished counting his toes," twelve?"
"Every time. I'd marry you for your body, Kurt. Not your brain."
Kurt shined a wide pointed tooth grin. "What about my personality?"
"It'll work. Looks don't last forever after all."
"Jeez, Ev… You really know how to make a boy feel special."
"Done!" When Kitty pulled away Anna got a full look at her Bride of Frankentine's Monster look. Her face was white as fresh canvas, eyebrows flawless that ended with the sharpened point of a pencil tip, and on one cheek had a tastefully done lightning bolt that David Bowie would be proud of. Her lips were full and black, and her eyes had a sort of haunting definition that made them appear to nearly float in their sockets.
"Wow, Kitty." Anna leaned in close to the mirror for a better look. "This is… incredible!"
"I got inspiration for that old movie from the 30s with a little touch of Kitty Pryde!"
Anna looked up at Kitty whose hands rested proudly on the hips of her gold skirt with black detailing. Her similarly decorated tunic revealed just enough midriff to raise an eyebrow or two but not enough to upset any of the adult's more modest sensibilities. Kitty's black bob wig and little golden tiara shifted back and forth as she shuttered with excitement.
"Your Cleopatra is on point too!"
"Thanks!" She waved her fingertips near her eyes where eyeliner formed cat eyes and purple eyeshadow filled in the spots below her eyebrows. "The outfit was easy, it was the makeup that was a real 'B.'"
Anna turned in her chair and looked at Evan. "And which Ninja Turtle are you supposed to be?"
He stood with a huff and gestured to the light green midsection of his otherwise sold green suit. "Do you see a sash or weapons? I'm not a Ninja Turtle, I'm a Lizard Man." He spun around and pointed at a little triangle extending from his rear. "See my tail?"
"The hell is a 'Lizard Man?'"
"An alien species. They live in the tunnels under L.A. and are at least half our politicians."
Anna tilted her head to one side. "Ev, you don't actually believe that do you?"
"…no. Of course not. That would be stupid…"
Anna turned her attention to Kurt, "And who are you -"
Kurt lept up from his reclined position on the bed and struck a pose. His open-chested black tunic and bright purple ascot fluttered in the shifting air, and his leather belt, heavy with little trinkets, clanked on his hips. "I'm Zerzer the Bloodless! Captain of the Dauntless, conqueror of the 7 great seas around the great content!"
"Huh, I didn't even think of doing my D&D character. Nice choice, Kurt."
"Kurt isn't here!" Kurt drew a foam cutlass from his belt and pointed it into the air. "I am Zerzer! Destroyer of the Dominion! Commander of all vessels with a sail!"
"Well alright, Zerzer." Anna stood, feeling a little top-heavy with the wig. "Let's get going before the party gets started without us."
"Wait!" Kitty snatched up her phone from her nightstand and gathered everyone in a group behind her. She raised her phone as high as she could above them. "Say: Happy Selfie!" No one said anything as her phone clicked twice and she brought it back into orbit.
"Ugh," Evan shook his shoulders. "Selfies are so cringe."
"You're 'so cringe.'" Kurt took Evan's hand and smiled at him. Evan smiled back.
"Alright!" Kitty raised her hands in the air. "Let's go!" Without any hesitation, she turned and ran through the closed door, phasing through without an issue. Anna looked back at the boys, shrugged, actually opened the door, and followed her roommate into the hallway beyond.
The main hall of the mansion was unrecognizable from even the night before. Little black bats on wires hung from the lofty ceiling and dangled upside down on the banister of the staircase. Plastic pumpkins with big grins glowed orange on tables draped with purple tablecloths. A carpet ran the length of the hall that featured witches on broomsticks, black cats, and vampire castles in little patterns. Dangling above the main entrance was a great sign reading 'Happy Birthday Anna!' in alternating orange and black colors. Next to the sign and all around the room were yards and yards of fake spider webbing which someone had stuck little photos of different students and mentors inside as if they were trapped within. As soon as the others saw Anna approaching from upstairs, they all raised their glasses and cheered 'Happy Birthday!' Even Logan was there, dressed in a cheap-looking black cloak next to Ororo who looked like the human embodiment of the Egyptian god Rah.
Standing up there above it all, having all those below and around her cheer for her, it was unlike anything Anna had ever felt in her life. She was surrounded by people, once strangers, now friends all calling her name. When she reached the floor, Scott and Jean pulled out a black frosting cake with the words 'Happy 17' drawn in purple frosting on a silver cart. The cake was so tall she had to climb a step later to blow out the candles. After they showed her a pile of beautifully presented gifts near her height. Her fingers had hardly even grazed the wrapping paper of the first one before she began to feel tears roll down her cheeks. When they did, Kitty, Kurt, Evan, and even Scott and Jean wrapped her up in the greatest group hug she had ever received.
The rest of the evening was a blur of dancing, a game of darts Logan set up that everyone got a little too competitive with, and a strange interactive hologram video game that Xavier had bought from Korea that no one could make heads or tails of.
At one point, Ororo took Anna aside and asked if she ever wanted to fly. When Anna asked what she meant, Ororo led her to the roof, strapped her into a gliding suit and simply asked if she was ready. When asked 'for what?' Ororo commanded an updraft of wind that pulled Anna off her feet and into the air. When she was done screaming for her life, she eventually realized she could use the wings of the suit to navigate and was soon soaring high above the grounds of the mansion. After, she was still screaming, but this time with utter elation. Never before had she felt so free. When she touched back down, she had to admit she was a little depressed to hand the wings back.
Back inside, the party still raged on but it was Jean who caught her this time. She pulled to a pair of chairs resting around the perimeter of the room and folded her hands neatly in her lap. "I wanted to apologize." Anna eventually heard Jean say over the pounding music.
Anna looked back into her blue eyes. She had to admit, she still felt an ample amount of fear of meeting the other girl's eye after what happened in Xavier's office, but there was something different there this time. Something almost mournful.
Before she said anything else, Jean pulled something shaped like a book out from under her chair and handed it to her. It took a little while for Anna to fully see what it was in the low light. She eventually saw a black book cover with white decorative lacing and an old-school photo of an outlaw on the front. "A History of Gangsters - The 30s" Anna read off the cover's screaming font. She turned it over. "John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Bonnie and Clyde, and more."
"I heard you've become quite the history fan thanks to Mr. McCoy." Jean smiled. "I saw it and I thought you might like it." She bent over one more time. "That's not all!" She then produced a small black box with a silver ribbon keeping the lid closed.
Anna took the box, pulled the ribbon loose, and opened the lid. "Woah! Holy crap! Jean, are these a pair of brass knuckles?"
The other girl laughed she full heartedly her face turned bright red. "Yep!" She nodded. "Thought a kick-ass lady deserved a kick-ass gift." She tilted her head. "Didn't really occur to me I just bought you a weapon for your birthday till now but…"
"Jean!" Anna tried on the knuckles and protected her chin like a boxer. "These are so cool!"
"I'm glad you like them! It's also part apology. I've been doing some reflecting and realized I haven't been a very good friend to you."
Anna put the knuckles back in the box and looked back at Jean.
"I've been hiding behind a bunch of excuses with the stress of being busy, then there was the bathroom and what happened with the office." Jean shrugged with her hands. "Well, I want to apologize for my actions. You are a good person with a good heart, Anna, and I'd like the chance to have the privilege of getting to know that person better."
Anna couldn't help but smile. "I'd like that too, Jean. I'm… sorry too. I haven't always been the easiest person to get along with."
Jean held out a hand. "Friends?"
Anna took her hand and shook it. "Friends."
The other girl embraced her in a hug and then stood. "Please try not to punch anyone out with those, alright?"
Anna showed her teeth and bounced. "No promises!"
Jean just shook her head as she joined Scott, who was dressed as a hot dog, on the dance floor.
Anna watched them talk for a while, then her eyes bounced to Logan sitting alone in a corner, to Ororo tearing up the dance floor with Kitty. She eventually found Xavier with his chair parked next to a silver trolly. He was snacking on a slice of cake while the festivities continued around him. It was a little weird to watch the man do something so… normal.
When her eyes fell back on Jean's gifts resting in her lap, her stomach fell. Evan's Jump-drive felt like it was burning a hole in her pocket. Her watch vibrated. When she looked she saw she had gotten a text from Evan: 'We doing this?'
She looked around and caught the eye of Kurt and Evan standing together on the stairs, and they were both looking back at her. She then realized how hard she was biting her lip. She took a breath and gave them a single nod. Immediately the boys swooped down to the trolly next to Xavier, took a handful of snacks from it, and started chatting the professor up. Once she was sure he was good and distracted, Anna set the gifts down on the chair next to her and quickly made her way past the kitchen, and to the elevator leading to the lower floors. She hammered the down button until a car arrived, darted in, and punched the button for the appropriate floor.
As the music from the party grew further away, she could more clearly hear the pounding in her chest. The sweat from her hands made the inside of her gloves feel slick. When the elevator eventually 'dinged' and the doors split before her, she had to coax her legs to move. When they did, however, it was at a near sprint. The sounds of her footfalls vibrated off the metal walls like gunfire and her tall wig struggled to hold on to her scalp. When finally she ran the length of the long hall leading to Cerbro's door, her limbs and fingers felt cold and like they were full of lead. She stared at the great steel door and could just see her reflection in the smooth surface. Her face was split down the middle by the seam of the closed door and she saw her hands were curled into fists.
"It's now or never." Her voice trembled as she raised her watch to the sensor. The screen of her watch flashed green and the doors pulled back to reveal Cerebro's great spherical chamber. The smooth surfaces of the curved walls were barely illuminated by a white light from a source unknown. Before her extended the long walkway where at its end a great jagged black mass the size of a car dangled by dozens of wires from the room's impossibly high ceiling. Just below the mass was a bank of computers with only a handful illuminated. Before it was a chair whose back faced her and a man's head's smooth head eclipsed the blue light of the monitors. The head bobbed as if to acknowledge her entrance followed by the sound of electric whining as the chair spun to reveal Professor Xavier's stone-like face.
Anna's feet had grown roots and she felt her face shape an image or horror she could never hope to replicate. The rest of her body was a glass statue, helpless to defend itself against whatever the professor saw fit to do to her. She momentarily forgot how to breathe as the little motor in the wheelchair got louder the closer the man got on the narrow walkway illuminated solely by soft snow-colored light. He stopped mid-way on the path, took his hand off the controls to his chair on the armsrest, and joined his hands together on the weathered green blanket resting on his lap. "Hello, Anna."
She didn't answer. She couldn't. All she could bring herself to do was stare into the man's crisp blue eyes and feel the same fear she imagined an antilope did on the Sahara before a cheetah jumped upon it and snapped its neck.
Xavier's face softened and eventually even a weary smile played across his lips as his chin gently lowered towards his chest. "You and the others have been busy lately."
A spark ignited in her chest and flew up her throat. "The others have nothing to do with this!" She said with the same urgency as if gasping for air. "Ah did everything by myself for my own interests."
"I'm sure. As I'm sure you're the one who figured out how to hack the doors, gain access to my office computer, sneak into my office without anyone seeing you…" He raised his head. "It's impressive. However, the execution needs a little work."
She swallowed a mouth full of dry air. "How did you get down here so fast? You were still at the party when I left."
"That's what you saw, yes. I believe in the next few moments you will get a message from your associates that I've vanished."
Sure enough, a few seconds later her wrist vibrated. She glanced at the message from Kurt and read the first few words. 'Uh. Don't know what happened, but we were just talking with the prof and he just went poof! We're looking for him but you better -'
She looked back at Xavier. "How did you do that?"
"I've been doing this a long time, Anna."
She lost all feeling in her legs and her stomach began doing summersaults. "Did Jean tell you what we were up to?"
"Jean has told me nothing. She didn't need to. When you broke into my office you didn't log out of the computer, my desk papers were not as I left them, my books were disorganized… and that's just a few of your miss-steps."
She felt as if she was on the verge of tears staring the man in the eyes. "What are you going to do to me?"
He smiled and his eyes crinkled with something that looked close to sympathy. "Well, I've never been one to judge someone for being curious. Frankly, if I were in your shoes, I'd likely done the same."
"You've said that before."
"And I imagine I'll say it again because I have done precisely what you did when I was your age. It's how I've gotten so good at it." He rested his forearms on his knees and leaned forward. "I haven't been the most forthcoming with you or the others. There are many reasons for that, but I must admit, a part of it is in my nature. I grew up in a very cold house where children were seen and not heard. I had my primary education in a boarding school and rarely wanted to go home during the summers or even during Christmas. When I did, I made it a sort of game to peak in on my father's comings and goings. He worked for the arms industry, and through him, I learned a great many things I wasn't ready to learn about the world… and about my father.
"These lessons I learned so young are what I've been trying to shield you and your fellow students from. I realize now how clever you all are. Far more clever and smart than I was when I was so young. You all have this lust for life and forged such incredible bonds with one another… I don't want to sully it with the nastier facets of reality. Of course, I forget many of you have already been forged by the hard fires of life."
Xavier lowered his head. "I thought by removing myself from your lives, I was protecting you. I hoped by keeping you all out of the loop, I was giving you the space you needed to grow. I can see now that all it has done is sow the seeds of fear and mistrust. I will tell you the truth, Anna. I don't wish to be like my father. I don't want you all to have that same house I was raised in."
He looked back at her. "In time, you and the others will learn all. All that I can offer will be yours. That time, however, is not right now. You all are still in school and still trying to just get your feet under you as individuals and eventually as adults. I ask that you allow Ororo, Logan, and myself to serve as both your mentors and guardians for a time longer. In exchange for that trust, I will answer the questions you've been seeking to the best of my ability."
Anna pressed her hand to her chest. "You'll answer my questions?"
"I will tell you what I can."
She gave a little nod as she tried to summon words and feelings beyond fear to her mind. "At our school… the principal… she works for The Brotherhood, doesn't she? She was the one that sent me to that mountain?"
Xavier inhaled slowly. "Yes, she is a Brotherhood agent."
Anna's eyes narrowed. "You knew?"
"I knew she was there, yes. However, I had no idea she would put you and Scott in danger."
"She's with The Brotherhood! Why wouldn't she put us in danger?"
Xavier laced his fingers together. "The… political situation with The Brotherhood," Xavier said, seeming to make a point to make his voice as level and natural sounding as possible. "Is a complicated one. They have agents in strategic places and I have mine." He paused. "I understand what your principal did was outside of Brotherhood orders. I understand too should she try such a thing again, there will be consequences not only by The Brotherhood but by myself."
"Where are those 'consequences' when it comes to going after The Brotherhood when they openly rob places? We ran into those dumbass boys at school and one of them was calling us pussies for not stopping them! I didn't even know they were doing that!"
"The Brotherhood can sally forth more resources and manpower than we can. What you see here is by and large what we have. We don't have the ability to go after The Brotherhood every time they move. We would only deplete ourselves with little much to gain in the name of progressing mutant protection."
Anna continued to rub her chest and averted her eyes.
"This is an example of why I have elected to keep you and the others in the dark about the complexities of our world. In time you will come to know all of this… but right now," Xavier shrugged and in rare form gave a little laugh. "Well let's at the very least try to get you all through your primary education."
Anna paused a while before continuing. "We found… the family portrait."
He nodded, "I see. I suppose I should have seen that coming considering the amount of time you four spend in the attic."
"You know about that?"
"Of course I do. Who do you think used to hide away in there before you?"
"Right…" Anna touched her massive wig. "Well, we saw the other boy in the portrait."
Xavier didn't say anything for a while. Instead, with his fingers laced together neatly in his lap, he watched as he pressed his thumbs together hard enough for them to lose their color. "I have a younger brother." He said after a while. "A half-brother. My father had a mistress and he was her child." When he didn't follow up, Anna opened her mouth to ask but was cut short. "This is as far as I will go with this question for now."
Anna momentarily paused and closed her eyes to recuperate from the whiplash of the answer. "Okay…" Anna shook her head, "Jean. She can do more than move things without touching them, can't she? She's like you."
"Like a doctor with a patient, I can't speak freely to even her fellow students about what Jean goes through or the extent of her particular gifts. If you want to know more, you'd need to ask her. I'm only here to guide you all as you find your path with your powers." He leaned back into his chair and sighed.
"I've met many mutants with many extraordinary abilities." He started. "However, I've experienced this too with my personal development. Those with mental gifts, telepathy as an example, struggle. It's easy to see it as something of an ultimate power. An ability that could topple nations if used correctly. The reality is different. What tends to happen more often than not, is people fear you. People don't know whether they are ever acting under their own power or not while around you. Your once closest friends become your greatest skeptics and sometimes even enemies." Xavier pursed his lips. "When I worked with The Brotherhood and helped train the few gifted with such abilities… we had more than one took their own life. Be it from the feeling of their fellows turning on them, learning to shut out so many voices, or even the sheer stress of the training itself as mental abilities are rarely ones you can just 'turn off' and be done with for a time.'"
He looked up at her. "If someone were to have such a gift. I think it would be understandable for them to keep it to themselves."
Anna walked over to the railing of the walkway and clung to it. She looked over the side and saw where the sphere met its end below them. She then squeezed her eyes shut hard enough for them to hurt. "What happened that night when Kitty and I found that broken bust?"
When she didn't hear anything, she let go of the railing and looked back at Xavier. His typically stoic face was clouded. He rested his arms on the rests of his chair. "I could tell you, or would you like to see for yourself?" Before she could ask, he raised his hand to her as if to shake.
She stared at his extended arm as if it was a sword. "What are you doing?"
"Take my hand." He said simply," There is no way that I know of that I can hold back from you when you use your abilities. I want to turn a new leaf with you and the others, and I'd like to start here."
"You know what my powers do, right? How you will feel after?"
"I'm aware."
She slowly approached him at the midpoint of the walkway and carefully slid off her glove. "Are you super sure?"
"I am of sound body and mind giving you permission."
"Okay," she whispered and connected her hand with his.
With what felt like a wave of water crashing over her body, ripples of anxiety, fear, and emotions too complicated to put into words vibrated her bones and stimulated every nerve ending in her flesh. Her hands felt like they grew in size, her fingers longer and more narrow. Her neck and shoulders were stiff and her lower backstabbed with pain.
When next she opened her eyes she was in the room overlooking the Danger Room watching Jean begin to levitate off the floor. Jean's face was screwed up with concentration and her flight was uneven, but it was the furthest progress they had made that year. She was always proud of her, but today was an amazing step.
She blinked and was in Jean's room with Scott. Jean's hair was shorter and there were a few fewer circles under her eyes. Jean was rocking back and forth on sweat-stained bedsheets with tears rolling down her cheeks. Anna heard herself order Scott to peel off one of the hands Jean had clamped to either side of her head. When he did, Jean's ear was exposed and she screamed with a shriek she had never heard a human emit before. Anna clamped on one of the turquoise earrings and after a while Jean seemed to calm. Eventually, she poked out one of her eyes in Anna's direction.
Next, she was on some sort of airbase with a helicopter descending on a pad in front of her. She watched as the sleek black vehicle descended and hated herself for how thankful she was to be leaving the retched place. Still, it would only be another week till she was back. Back for what, she wasn't sure. If it was forgiveness, she should know better by now.
Next, she was sitting in Xavier's office. The light of day had long since given way to darkness and by now they were closer to the next sunrise than set. She would give anything to lie in her bed. She knew sleep was an impossibility, but at least there she would at least be a little more comfortable. Sure enough, the typical pounding came to the door. She didn't even answer before Logan threw the door open and all but slammed it behind him.
"You wished to speak." Anna heard herself say in Xavier's voice.
"Yeah, I wanted to 'speak.' All I've ever wanted to do with you is 'speak,' Charles."
She gestured a lazy hand to one of the chairs but Logan ignored her suggestion to sit. Instead, he paced the room before her. "Do I need to even ask?" He said after a while.
"You wish to storm the Sentinal factory -"
"There!" Logan stopped and jabbed a finger in her direction. "There you go again. 'Storm,' 'Attack', It's all you think I'm capable of!"
"Then what are you asking to do to the contrary, Logan?" She heard her voice, Xavier's voice, raise. "You want to go in there, tear up the place, and destroy their progress? Do you think their work is just limited there? Do you think they don't have redundancies and backups elsewhere? You'd be swatting an ant and leaving the anthill for what, Logan?"
Logan slammed his hands on the desk. "To give us breathing room from the noose slipping around our throat!" He backed off and started pacing again. "Sitting here, doing nothing, what's that going to give us?"
"The election is next year. The Niijima ticket is progressive and if she wins, the Senate and the House -"
"She's a politician. She'll fold to whoever is paying for her ride to the White House. Politics and legislation isn't going to give us dick."
"We don't know that till we try."
"I've already seen it! I've seen this country crumble under less! The only way we save our skins and give these kids a chance -
"Is by trying every possible angle," Anna said with the conviction of an apostle.
Logan smiled and shook his head. "That optimism is going to get you hurt, Charles. And I mean just you because I'm not letting anything happen to these kids."
"Nor will I."
A sneer replaced Logan's smile. "So what then? We keep clutching our pearls till someone pulls the rug from under us?"
"No. We think and don't be reactionary. If we act on impulse it will not only be the death of us but of our movement. I thought that was something you understood or has your recent visitor distracted you from that fact?"
Logan growled "Excuse me?"
"Simply an observation that your hackles have gotten kicked up again after your recent visit from Sabertooth."
Logan rested his hands on the desk and leaned over it to get nice and close to Anna's face. "You knew?"
"Of course I did. He was hardly subtle. He set off the silent alarm and when I was sure he wasn't coming to the mansion, I set the defenses to passive."
"Thanks for having my back there, Chuck."
"You were gone and I didn't want to frighten the students. Besides, he would never dream of hurting you."
"He wouldn't put a bomb in my car, no." Logan shoved himself off the desk. "But he put a pretty good scratch in it."
Anna ran her thumb and forefinger across her brows. "Are we through here, Logan?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, Charles, I'm I stopping you from getting you're beauty rest? Because I'm trying to make sure we don't get skinned by a private military with very big guns pointed at us!"
"Do I need to say it again?" She ran her hand the length of her scalp. "We will act. When we do it will be with purpose and will best forward our cause with the people. Blowing up a building and putting ourselves in the line of fire isn't showing the populas at large Mutants aren't people to be feared."
"That's easy for you to say, Chuck. You get to sit up here in your fucking ivory tower while us grunts bleed on the streets for your goddamned dream!"
"None of you are grunts or pawns to me."
"That right?" Logan walked toward the door. "I guess that's why you won't let us do anything to save these kids till it's YOU who's good and ready. Right, chief?" He slammed the door shut, causing the paintings the sway on the walls. A moment later there was a loud crash from beyond the door.
Being thrown back into her own skin was like being shoved out of a chair. As Anna disconnected from Xavier's hand, she would have fallen to the floor behind her if she hadn't managed to grab hold of the railing. When the world stopped spinning she caught a glimpse of Xavier who looked to be in a mental tailspin of his own.
Xavier clung to his head with one hand and his chair with the other. He panted a short while till eventually his breathing leveled. He looked up at her, his hand moved from his head to his chest. "Are you alright?"
Anna nodded, staring.
He wiped the sweat off his lip with a handkerchief he produced from his pocket. "I'm not sure what all you saw… but please know typically the conversations between Ororo, Logan, and myself are a bit more clear-headed than my exchange with Logan that night. We were both very tired and -" He hung his head, his hand still pressed hard into his chest.
Anna righted herself and stood back on her feet. "It's why you've kept us out of the loop. Kept things just between you three."
Xavier's shoulders were low, and his whole body curled inward slightly. Never before had she seen the man so vulnerable looking before. "Yes. That's right." He made an attempt to push himself upright and made it halfway there. "If you will excuse me, I think I will call it a night." He stole a glance at her before taking the control of his chair. "Goodnight, Anna." He started to roll and paused. "And happy 17th birthday." He continued on and Anna watched long after he passed through the doors and they shut behind him.
The room felt different without him there. All the energy had seemingly been drained out of the room and she felt simply like a hanger-on long after the party had ended. All the information she had taken in was swirling around in her head in one giant gooey vat. After a time she turned and faced Cerebro at the center of the room. She limped more then walked toward it and once she was at its center console. She looked up at the jumbled-up wires and blinking parts suspended above her humming.
A tentative hand snaked into her pocket and withdrew the black jump-drive. She ran her finger along its slick plastic surface till she hit a button and with a soft click, a little metal square popped out the other end. Her eyes scanned the complicated surface of the keyboard before her till she eyed a spot that looked the right size and shape for the jump drive in her hand. And it was there she continued to stare.