Flickers (Charles Xavier)

Chapter 25

Charles hadn't actually expected her to go.

When Iris had hurt Hank like that, Charles had to admit that he had been afraid. Not afraid of Iris, though. He'd been afraid of the strength of her power – the way it had come out of nowhere only a few days before, and yet was already getting stronger by the day. It had hurt so much, seeing Iris that afraid of herself again after so many years of learning how to be comfortable with her abilities.

It had hurt even more when she'd told him to wipe her memories. The thought of doing that again pained him so much. It was without a doubt the biggest mistake he'd ever made in his life. Not only had he done it against her will, but he'd done exactly what Emma and Shaw had done to her as a child by wiping her memories. The worst part of it all was that he'd made her powers more unpredictable, because such a large part of her life she hadn't even known she'd had them. She'd lacked the consistent control and training that so many other mutants had developed throughout their lives.

He'd never put her through that again.

When she'd kissed the top of his head and told him how much she loved him, he'd naively thought she'd stay. He'd never in a million years imagine Iris would leave him. He loved her too much.

It had hurt the most when Hank had walked into his study with that piece of paper with three words on it that had broken his heart.

I'm sorry, Charles.

He'd tried so hard to stay calm in front of Hank, but the moment his oldest friend had bent down beside him and hugged him, he'd finally broken down.

He didn't know how long they'd stayed like that. When Hank finally broke away and promised to rearrange the class rota so that the two of them could cover Iris' lessons, Charles couldn't imagine how they'd go on running this school without her. It had been a labour of love for the three of them.

The next day, when Jean came into the training room for her private session, she instantly noticed Iris' presence.

"Hello, Professor," Her eyes darted around the room, her eyebrows furrowing, "Where's Miss Miracle?"

There was a moment of silence.

"I'm afraid Miss Miracle..." Charles broke off, quite unable to finish his sentence. He tried again, but his voice still broke, "Miss Miracle has left us, Jean. She needs to be on her own."

Jean walked across the room, sitting opposite Charles in silence. Any other student would have moved on, but Jean couldn't. She could feel Charles' pain in her own head, so much so that tears spilled over onto her cheeks.

"I'm sorry," She whispered, reaching out and squeezing Charles' hand gently.

"So am I," Charles murmured gently, "I know how close the two of you had become."

Jean cleared her throat and wiped her cheeks in embarrassment, "Will she come back, Professor?"

There was a pause.

"I don't know, Jean. I just don't know."

*

Iris had got as far as getting to the city and checking into a hotel before she'd started to wonder if she'd made a terrible mistake. Charles had been right in asking her where she would go and what she would do. She'd answered the first question easily enough. There was something about a hustling bustling city that she had missed. She'd worked in the city for at least ten years as a journalist, and had always thrived off of being surrounded by so many other people.

The question of what she was going to do, she wasn't so sure about. Sit in this hotel room trying to control her abilities and doing nothing else? That hardly seemed appealing, but she reminded herself that doing it alone was better than doing it with Charles and the students close to her.

To try and distract herself, she switched on the TV in the hotel room, flicking through the channels absentmindedly. Just as she flicked past the news channel, her ears picked up the word 'mutant', and she flicked back.

An older male reporter was standing in front of a school, his expression sombre as he spoke.

"Yesterday afternoon, a young girl at this school in New York revealed herself to be a mutant, terrifying many of her classmates and teachers when she viciously lashed out at them. We have a parent here of one of the students to shed further light on the situation. What can you tell us about the young girl, Mrs. Reed?"

The woman was glowing with excitement to be on camera, "Well, Jonathan, the young girl has always been a very strange one. I've always thought she got her strange behaviour from her parents myself. Behaviour breeds behaviour and all that. I suppose mutants breed mutants too!" She laughed, and the reporter laughed with her, gesturing for her to continue.

"It was an afternoon science class, they were building circuits I believe, when the girl began to scream. Her kind teacher went to help her, but she completely turned on them, obviously thinking they were less worthy than her, and electrocuted her poor teacher. She'd absorbed the electricity from the circuit and used it to attack her teacher! The man's in intensive care, and the girl hasn't been seen since. She's obviously a serious threat, and needs to be watched out for."

"Thank you, Mrs. Reed," The reporter smiled at the camera, "Once further information about the identity of this girl is allowed to be released, we will make sure everyone is aware so they know to avoid her. Mutants are a threat to the human race, and we need to stay away from them as much as we can. Back to the studio."

Wordlessly, Iris turned off the television set in shock.

Part of her had missed being a journalist when she'd moved into the mansion with Charles ten years ago, although many of her desperate questions about mutants had been answered in those few days with Logan, Charles, and Hank before the incident at the White House. She hadn't needed to be a journalist anymore, because the questions she'd been so interested in had been answered for her by getting her memory back. Running the school and looking after the children had seemed so much more important to her at the time. She remembered the conversation with Charles – she'd wanted to help other scared mutants like herself to have somewhere where they could be safe and learn how to harness their gifts responsibly.

She only realised now that – while their school was something special – they were living in a bubble. Outside of Westchester, mutants around the world were suffering, and facing resentment and oppression from those without mutant abilities. Wasn't that why she'd wanted to be a journalist in the first place? It hadn't just been to answer questions of her own. She'd wanted to use her position to shed light on the situations of those that were less fortunate than her - on those who deserved to live a better life. Without realising, she'd given up on journalism for selfish reasons. She'd learnt about mutants, and had thought that that was enough.

But looking at the news on the TV screen in front of her made her realise that it wasn't enough.

There was still time, she told herself, to change people's perspectives on mutants. 

The world didn't need to be like this forever.