X-Men: Changes

Chapter 15

Sinéad felt tears threaten to fall. Charles, really, looked awful. His eyes were the worst to look at.  His usually bright, blue eyes were now dull and watery. 

"W-what happened to you?" Sinéad asked in a whisper. Charles glared at her. He glared at her. "You did. You and Erik and Raven" //and Chad and and Steve and Stew and Layton and Mark\\

From across the room, Sinéad feel pain from Charles. His thoughts were loud. Louder than usual. Loud and foggy. Sinéad looked at Charles and subconsciously drifted into his mind. There she found something awful. 

"You don't have your powers?" She said loudly. Charles looked sharply at her. "No. I do not." Sinéad was confused. 

"What- Why not?!" Charles didn't answer for a minute. His eyes scanned the girl. "Get out." He said. 

Sinéad didn't move. "I said get out!" He snapped. Sinéad winced. A quick flash of regret appeared on Charles' face. 

Without another word, Sinéad quickly turned and left the room. Hank stood waiting at the bottom of the stairs, his arms crossed. He knew the conversation the two telepaths would share would not end well. 

Sinéad sat down on the stairs next to Hank. Hank stood up straight and walked over to her. He sat down next to her. Sinéad turned to him. "How did he get like that?" She asked. 

The young telepath hasn't gotten far enough into Charles' head to see that he had lohst the ability to walk. 

"Once you guys left, Charles realized he couldn't walk. The bullet had paralyzed him, thighs down." Sinéad's heart sank, if possible, even lower at these words. "He was devastated about you guys leaving. He asked me to try and come up with a way to heal his back for some time so he could walk. I was able to come up with a serum. But... he found out that the serum quiets the voices in his head. He started taking too much and eventually enough to stop his power completely. He still has his mutation. It's just not... active. He then began to drink to forget about you guys leaving." Hank explained. 

Hank looked at the small girl next to him. "You've changed, Sinéad. For the better." He said, with a small smile. 

—

Charles sat on the closest chair to him. He ran a hand through his long hair and heaved a sigh. He took a sip from the cup in his hand, emptying it. He pictured the girl he had just talked to in his mind. She looked so different. 

She stood taller and straighter. She had a sad expression on her face. There was a cold look in her eye. Her eyes showed the most emotion. They reminded Charles too much of Erik's eyes. 

Charles huffed and grabbed the bottle next to him. He poured himself another glass and took a swig. He stood up after a second. 

He made his way downstairs and saw Hank sitting on the steps. "Is Sinéad still here?" Charles asked, making Hank jump. Hank looked back at him and shook his head. "No, she just left." 

—

The journey back to the Hellfire Club's hideout was quiet and emotional. She had been told to get out by Charles. Charles fucking Xavier for god's sake. Her heart hurt, a lot. Sinéad knee with one glance inside the alcoholic telepath's mind that the thing that caused him to drink the most was his loneliness. Sure, he had Hank, Sean, and Alex and he loved them all dearly (in a teacher-student platonic way) but they weren't his family. 

So Sinéad, being the sort of Hufflepuff* she was, came up with a plan. What if she, Erik, and Raven went back. They could be a family. And if Erik and Raven still wanted to be apart of the Hellfire Club, they could deviate. 

But the girl just wanted to be home. With all her family. 

Sinéad opened the door to the home slowly and quietly. Her plan was to make her way up to her room, play her music, cry a bit while doing that, and then tell Erik about her plan when he came out to eat several hours later. 

Her plan was ruined when she, surprisingly, found Erik sitting at a table waiting for her to return. Sinéad immediately got angry parent vibes like the ones in movies where a teen would run off to do lord knows what without telling anyone. Sinéad wouldn't know that feeling because she is still an orphan. (Yay!! *sarcasm*) 

Sinéad felt tears threaten to appear again. Did Erik know about Charles' state of mental and emotional health? Did he still care? 

Erik looked up at her. His helmet sat on his head, unknowingly useless to stop the young female telepath from getting inside his head. "Nice adventure?" He asked, a sort of coldness in his voice. Sinéad winced ever so slightly. 

"It was alright." She responded after a second. "Where did you go?" Erik tilted his head. "Just into town." Not exactly a lie. 

"Oh, really?" 

Sinéad almost hated the cockiness in his voice. He had no idea what she had done. She had no idea what was happening to Charles. That thought made her snap. 

"Do you know how Charles has been? Do you know that he can not walk because of us? Did you know that he is now an alcoholic because he misses you. Did you know that he sacrificed his powers so he can walk. So he can go to sleep at night? Did you know that he feels like an empty shit hole because we left? That we gave him so much pain he couldn't bare it?" Her voice was loud and sharp. Anger shown in her eyes. 

Erik went silent. The mutant had been wondering how Charles had been and missed the telepath so much. Yeah, he did wonder how his wound had healed. But now that he knew, he felt awful.      

He shook his head lightly, not wanting to believe the girl and answering her questions at the same time. He had no idea what his best friend was up to. Or if.. Charles even considered Erik as his friend anymore. Honestly, this news made Erik feel awful. 

Sinéad's chest was moving up and down before her anger turned to sadness. "Erik... I just wanna go home. I want us to be a family all together."

Erik looked at the girl for a second before he opened his arms and Sinéad hugged him. "We can go home, Sin. We can try." 

//* do you guys think Sin is a puff? If not, what do you think she is? No arguments plz. Just a nice conversation.\\