Withering Wishes . • . X-Men Fanfic . • . BOOK 2

douze

Chapter Twelve:

Xavier's fingers drummed the desk incessantly as he occassionally glanced out the window. He saw children playing loudly outside, their cries and joyous laughter somehow had the opposite effect of affection on him. Xavier turned away bitterly, looking back at the workload at his desk.

His door opened and Hank stepped through, looking quite worried. Xavier looked up immediately, "Is everything alright?" He asked, noticing Hank's expression. "Did they find her?"

"No, I..." He sighed, closing the door. "There's a rumour going around about Ekka. Apparently, you found a monster under the school." Xavier sighed, running a hand over his bald head. "Are you alright?"

"No," he huffed. "Sitting here isn't finding Ekka any faster."

"Charles," Hank sighed. "You need to be here."

"I know," Xavier replied, fingering through a few pages. "I know, but... She's out there, and the staff have been searching all night. They're already hindered because the staff with specialties in tracking can't help."

"We can't help that," Hank argued. "Charles, her mutation is practically created to oppose that kind of mutation."

"I know, but..." Charles exhaled helplessly.

"We could try Cerebro," Hank suggested. "Reach her mentally, speak some sense into her."

Xavier thought it over, then nodded, moving his wheelchair out if the way. "Are you going to try?" Hank asked.

"It wouldn't hurt," Xavier replied, rolling towers the door and quickly out of the room.

~.•*•.~

Xavier led the way down the end of the quiet hallways. Hank walked behind his wheelchair as he put in the code to open the doors to Cereboro.

Cereboro was a machine Hank invented several years before had had been perfecting ever since. It allowed telepathics --- but mainly Charles --- to expand their range of their mutation. This allowed him to use the device to see all the mutants in the world.

It had been a bit... Nauseating, when he and Hank first developed it, but over time, he perfected the device. Now, he was able to use it with ease, a major step up than before.

Hank watched as Charles zoned in on Ekka. She was walking down a street several miles from where the school was, and still far ahead of the teachers. Xavier tries to communicate with her.

~.•*•.~

Ekka walked beside the street quietly. Brownie was nearby, but had thankfully been hidden by the foilage of the woods. Ekka stopped, feeling as though she was being watched. She looked around, and so did Brownie, but she saw no one.

Then, she felt it. The feeling of something crawling into her mind like a snake. Ekka screamed, rather loudly, grabbing her skull with both hands and falling to her knees.

'Ekka,' She heard Xavier say into her mind, but Ekka didn't respond, she couldn't think straight. Father was back! She assumed. Father was coming back for her! He was going to kill her now!

'Ekka, calm down,' Xavier assured, but Ekka didn't listen. Tears filled her eyes and she sobbed loudly. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to die!

Suddenly, Xavier's prescense in her mind disappeared, leaving Ekka alone and on the side of an empty road to cry. Brownie came to her, licking her face as she cried into her hands.