Flickers (Charles Xavier)

Chapter 6

"Where's Iris?" Hank asked as the group of mutants and Moira sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Iris' seat was empty. It had been for two days.

Silence followed, and everyone looked at Charles. He put his glass down, closing his eyes, "She's going through a difficult time at the moment- she doesn't feel up to training."

Alex looked up, "Did you unlock all of her memories of her powers?"

Slowly, Charles nodded, and the others all looked down at the table, wondering what it could have been that had caused Iris, the energetic girl that they had met just over a week ago, to not leave her bedroom.

When they left the kitchen, dispersing and preparing to train for the day, Erik followed Charles out onto the gravel path outside the front of the house.

"What did you find out? You and Iris?" He asked, and Charles leant against the fence, shaking his head.

"Sebastian Shaw discovered her ability when she was young and took her away from her parents, training her up into a weapon that could be used against his enemies. His final... 'test' was to show how powerful she was to her parents. But she had made a promise years ago to her parents that she would not be used as a weapon, and she kept to her promise, realising what she had become. Shaw killed her parents."

Erik lowered his head in shock, turning away so that Charles could not see his expression.

"She is just as damaged as the rest of us," Erik shook his head, "I thought... I thought that perhaps her ability would show itself and that as she had no recollection of it, it would provide no distractions when fighting. But now she has... this."

Charles closed his eyes, "Now I know why she's so good with a punch bag. She was trained not just to use her ability but to fight. She was weaponised. Shaw experimented on her, almost tortured her to the point where she had no idea who she was anymore until she saw her parents again."

Erik sighed, "Charles... she's not going to fight with us now, not unless you speak to her. If you can get through to her and help her to start training again- there could still be hope for her. Shaw would have blocked her powers for a reason- because she was powerful."

"I feel like I should have left her in that coffee shop," Charles whispered, "I've damaged her more than I've helped her to discover her power."

"Then change that," Erik finally turned back to face his friend, "Help her."

*

The forest was beautiful at any time during the day, and as Iris pushed leaves and branches aside, she felt the calmest she had felt in the past two days. She leant against one of the trees, playing with the scarf looped loosely around her neck and taking a deep breath.

"The forest has a certain solitude to it, don't you think?"

Iris recognised Charles' voice but did not turn around. She gulped anxiously, squeezing her eyes shut to push away the memories that Charles had helped her discover.

"I should have become the weapon that Shaw wanted me to become. I should have gone against my parents, even if it wasn't what they wanted."

Charles' voice was soft, "It was over ten years ago, Iris. You cannot change the past. But what you can do is feel confident that, in the end, you did what your parents desired most."

"Am I not just becoming a weapon in the end, though? Working with you to fight Shaw- you and Erik are just using me as a weapon." Iris spoke bitterly, and at this Charles stepped forwards, pulling on her hand to spin her around to face him.