Layla

Chapter Seven: Layla

It seemed like hours, but Charles and Raven stepped out of the office. Layla remained leaning against the wall next to Hank.

"Sorry, everyone. Follow me." Charles smiled.

Hank and Raven walked behind the professor, while Alex walked beside Moira, and Layla lingered in the back. They all went down to the bottom floor where Cerebro was, and headed that way. The whole time Layla was curious as to why Charles was going to Cerebro. He had yet to fill her in on the details, and Layla was trying to fill in the blanks herself. So far, she knew that Alex had gone with Charles to get this agent, who was the person Charles knew. Raven and Hank both appeared to know of this Moira, but she knew nothing of them. Layla looked at the back of Charles's head.

"Interesting." She thought narrowing her eyes at him. She remembered Hank telling her about Charles being left at the beach, and there was an American agent that helped them stop these other mutants from setting off missiles. This had to be the American agent Hank was referring too. Who else could it have been? And going off the attitudes everyone had, Layla began to realize that there was a small chance Charles wiped the woman's mind. But why? If she helped them, why wipe her memories? Unless, there was more to the story.

Stepping inside Cerebro, Layla stared at the wide chamber in awe. She wasn't quite sure why they were here, but she'd figure it out.

"Moira, I'm going to have to ask you to keep this a secret." Charles hollered over to Moira who lingered in the back now. Layla made her way up front behind Charles, walking carefully across the thin blue platform.

"I don't even know what this," She said stopping to watch the giant steel doors close behind her. "Is." She finished looking a bit panicked, almost seeming to wonder what she had gotten herself into.

"It's Cerebro. The new model." Raven replied looking at Hank with hooded eyes.

"Yeah, I umm...based the color on," Hank stopped, looking up at Raven.

Raven looked at him with compassionate eyes, waiting for Hank to finish.

"Doesn't matter." Hank said shaking his head then he turned on Cerebro, while Charles placed the helmet on his head. Behind Layla, Moira watched with curious eyes, as the lights in the room dimmed, and the silver helmet lit up with bright blue lights trailing along the sides. Layla never liked the next part. Already, with the thin platform it made her dizzy and unsteady. What would happen next, only worsened that for Layla.

The room lit up displaying a map of the world like a satellite. Tiny white lights filled North America, appearing three dimensional to everyone who stood on the platform.

"What are those?" Moira asked looking around.

"Those are all the humans of the world." Charles replied focusing deeply. The map quickly changed to a ruby red. "And these," Charles paused looking at the screen with amazed eyes. "Are all the mutants." He smiled. "I'm connected to all of their minds." Charles added.

Everyone stood there looking at Cerebro in awe. Layla hadn't seen the new Cerebro system before, and couldn't believe what Hank had created. Cerebro was fascinating. Moira stood on the platform, arms crossed, smiling.

"The CIA would kill for this." She told him.

"I know they would." Charles said in a worried tone. "Where are you Erik?" Charles said outloud more to himself than anyone else.

Layla's attention snapped to Charles. They were all looking for Erik.

"Thanks, for the heads up, Charles." Layla muttered to herself.

All was quiet, then Charles spoke again. "Hello, old friend." He said out loud.

Charles had found Erik. Layla stepped closer to Charles, wishing she could see what he was seeing.