X-Men: The Gifted Ones

52. TRAINING ROOM, XAVIER MANSION, WEST CHESTER, NY

Charles gathered his X-Men in the training room as soon as the students had went to bed. It had been challenging to carry on as normal, but he felt no need to worry the children. He had his X-Men seated at a large table. Jane was to his right, Hank was at his left. He looked down the table on Jane's side and saw Banshee, Polaris, and Cannonball. Havoc, Sway, and Impetus sat on Hank's side. Wanda, Magneto's Scarlet Witch, sat at the far end. Her face was determined.

Charles had briefed them on what Scarlet Witch had told them. "I have to say the information that Wanda provided will be extremely useful!"

Scarlet Witch looked at him intently. "They plan to use your people to sabotage the war! They found a company of troops with your people in them! They're already angry and bloodthirsty; they hope to cause a massacre!"

"How can we be sure she's telling the truth? She could be leading us into a trap!" Polaris asked her, skeptical.

"No," Sway countered. "I did a retrocognitive projection on her. She is telling the truth."

"Don't forget, she also let me access her memories, too," Charles reminded her.

Polaris still wasn't convinced. She didn't trust anyone who would be connected with Magneto. "But you mentioned before that Erik has a telepath. How do we know she didn't plant any illusions?"

"Illusions feel different, foggy. This was clear. Magneto had Azazel teleport her away in a fit of anger." Sway retorted.

"Sway is right," Charles said. "Illusions have a different feel to them. The important thing is how they want to get us involved."

Scarlet Witch looked at all of them. "They could already be on their way there, or there already to start trouble. They're going to abduct Mercy as soon as they're ready to go to Vietnam."

"Charles had a glimpse of their intentions before. Are they still... the same?" Jane asked.

Scarlet Witch nodded. "The plan is to keep you alive at all costs. You would only be... killed... if he or Mystique is injured enough to die, because I do not think he'd use you to spare the others. He doesn't trust them."

"Erik doesn't trust anyone," Charles agreed.

"He only trusts Mystique. Otherwise, Jane was intended to heal wounds and stay alive, nothing more. Magneto said she was no use to him dead."

"That still doesn't sound reassuring to me."

"Magneto doesn't want you harmed, either."

"Possibly kill my wife," Charles scoffed bitterly, his voice sarcastic, "but keep me alive... Yes, I feel so much better knowing that. What on earth does he even want to get involved for? What is his goal?"

"He's hoping to use this war to turn humanity against one another, drive them to hate people like us and force you to join him. He wants to make the world hate this war so they destroy one another. We need to act quickly if we want to stop him! Otherwise we risk getting there too late! We should leave now!"

Everyone looked at Charles. It made him uneasy. Why did he have to be the one making the difficult choices? "No matter what we do, we'll be involved in this war," he conceded. "No, we're not leaving now. We have three good X-Men on the ground there. I allowed Forge, Warpath, and Thunderbird into the US Army for a reason. They're strong men. They could end the uprising before it even begins, or at least buy us some time to get there. No, Wanda. We're not leaving now. I have to let my men on the ground act first."

Scarlet Witch gasped as everyone looked at Charles. Jane reached over and took his hand. She trusted him to make the right decision, even if it weighed heavily on him.

Hank looked toward the group. "He's right. If we all leave now, we could only make it worse. We need to rely on them to stop it first. They were trained well and have advanced their powers to be more effective than even our own artillery."

Charles looked into the eyes of each of his X-Men. He saw confusion, horror, indignity glowing in their eyes. Was he taking the fool's choice? Was he deciding the right course of action by doing nothing for the time being? "Let's live in peace while we still can, and hope this war doesn't touch us. In the meantime, we need to keep training, and not let our guard down for one second. Push yourselves to the brink of your abilities. Hank, Cannonball, and Impetus, keep developing your arsenal. I'm afraid some of your ideas will need to be rushed. And Jane? You need to practice more than anyone else. I want you to have extra trainings with Havoc, work on projecting."

Havoc grimaced. The sound of his broken forearm still echoed in his brain. Then he remembered how quickly and thoroughly Jane had healed it.

"What about me?" Scarlet Witch asked.

"Yes, what about her?" Polaris wondered.

Charles looked at her. "Let me find out more about her powers, what she can do. Then we'll decide how she will train."

"Train? With us?"

"Yes, with us. You heard the girl," Charles snapped. "If humanity turns against itself, they will eventually turn on us. If the Brotherhood found out what she has told us, she needs to be able to save her own life!"

"I can save myself," she sniffed.

Banshee glared at her. "Can you, huh?"

"That's enough," Charles commanded. "Wanda, I want you to meet with Hank and me. We'll decide how best to use your skills. In the meantime? Life in the school, in the rest of the mansion, has to go on as close as possible to normal. The children must never know something is wrong, or that any of us are in danger. We don't need to worry them. We keep our daily routine the same. We train as soon as the children are in bed, we train during every free moment during the school day. We will trust our men in Vietnam to handle the situation until we are given no more options. Do I make myself clear?"

He was answered with a chorus of "Yes, Professor" and "Yes, Charles."

Mollified, Charles decided it was time to go to bed. If, indeed, the plan was to abduct Jane, he wanted to spend as much time with her as he could before she would be taken away to the unknown.