Chapter Text
"They'll find me here, where else would I be?" I scoffed as I paced the dark hardwood floors of the familiar study.
"I know," Charles nodded. "I know. I just prefer you here where I can make sure you're safe," He squeezed the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"I prefer to be here," I sighed sitting in one of the leather club chairs. "But it's too obvious, and they are not stopping till they get to me. They've already caused so much destruction, I can't wait around for that to happen to you guys,"
"You're right." Charles directed his wheelchair in my direction, "Where will you go?"
"I can't say," He looked at me disapprovingly, "You know I can't say, they have a clairvoyant like you, they will find out if they come here."
"Alright, so you've thought this out? You have a plan? You have a backup plan?" He questioned me.
"I've thought it out, I have a plan. And only one plan Charles." I stood up from the chair to leave the room.
"And if it doesn't work?"
"I'll figure it out!" I countered. "You know, I'm not the child I was when I first got here," I smiled.
"Oh, I know that," He chuckled in response. "Say goodbye before you go?"
"Of course." I left the room to pack up a bag.
For my whole life, I've been shuffled back and forth between my father and Charles. For the first time, I'm going to be on my own and making my own decisions. While the thought excited me, it also horrified me. Most kids feel this at the age of 18 when they go to college, but I'm not like most kids. None of us here at the school for the gifted are like most kids. At the age of 25, I'm going to be leaving my childhood home to finally be independent. The dark cedar wood that lines the halls will be a memory once I go on my own. My room with its maroon walls and beige accents that comforted me and raised me will be waiting for me when I return, Charles would never lend my suite to anyone else.
My suitcase is full of t-shirts, jeans, and sweatshirts, trying to zip it shut was a nightmare. Toiletries, socks, underwear, shoes... how much stuff did I even need? How long would I be gone? Everything in my life was currently a disaster. The Brotherhood needed me, they were coming for me, and stopping them was almost impossible. If Professor X didn't have the team he has now, I could never leave him. But he has a group of people that cared and protected him as I would.
"So it's true?" The familiar voice spoke from my doorframe.
I looked over at Alex. "I'm sorry. I was going to come to see you before I left," I began to explain.
"You don't owe me answers, Julia," He huffed while coming over to lean on my dresser. "I'm just... sad to see you go,"
"I don't want to go," I admitted sitting on my bed in front of him. "There's just no other choice. If I stay everyone here will be in more danger than they already are,"
"Yeah, I guess so," He confessed.
"I'm going somewhere where I think I will be safe,"
"Don't tell me where, Emma Frost will just get it out of me," He shook his head.
"I know," I said quietly. "If they come, Alex, please please promise me, you and Charles stay safe. I can't... I can't live knowing my existence hurt my two favorite people,"
"I'm your favorite person?" He smiled.
"Shut up," I smiled back smacking his knee with my hand as I stood up to finish packing. "Promise me?"
"Of course Julia," He nodded.
"And if you need me," I took a piece of paper out of the notebook on my dresser and wrote down the number of the shitty burner phone I bought at the gas station, "Please call. Only for emergencies?"
"Only for emergencies," He assured putting the piece of paper in his jeans pocket.
"Thank you," I hugged him tightly.
"I love you, Julia. I always will," He whispered,
"I love you too, Alex," I said as we pulled apart.
He squeezed my shoulder tightly before heading towards the door, "Good luck."
I nodded in response, knowing any verbal response would make me cry. Alex and I dated for years. We both thought we would be together forever. But, things happen. I did things, he did things. And after that, we went our separate ways. We tried to make it work, but it just wasn't the same. Being that we both are closest with Professor, we made it work and have become friends again. But leaving him was proving more difficult than I thought.
Leaving the school that I grew up in was difficult, to say the least. After my mom dropped me off here when I was a baby, the people here raised me. At the time, Professor X, Hank, Mystique, Wolverine, and Banshee were running the school and it wasn't as large as it is now. I was the youngest to ever arrive at the school, my mom knew my father was here often so she left me with his friends thinking I was in safe hands. Luckily I was in safe hands, but she didn't stick around long enough to make sure. Mystique left the school a few years after I arrived, so I never knew her well before she joined the Brotherhood. I get flashes of her and her blue skin in my room with me as a toddler reading me books and playing with me. Wolverine was always in and out and very closed off from the kids. Once his son, Daken, turned on us and joined the Brotherhood he disappeared. He fell into a great depression and tried for years to find him and get him to come back. He would return every once in a while, but he was never the same guy he used to be. Banshee was great fun and stuck around for a while till he left the X-Men to get married to a non-mutant. He knew my father well and told me stories of him when they first met, but the Erik he talked about and the Erik I knew were very different. Hank was always around, in the labs or teaching science classes. But, Professor X was the most prominent parental figure in my life.
After finally shutting my suitcase, I went to say my goodbyes to Professor. It was a quick goodbye, both of us on the verge of tears as I shut his study door behind me. Stepping off of the marble steps that lead to the entrance of the school I've called home for so many years was weird and felt wrong. My suitcase and I rose above the building, taking one last look before flying off to my next destination.
Although where I was going was only about 45 minutes south of the school, it felt like hours away. Eventually, I landed a few miles away from the previously abandoned warehouse. It was bigger than I imagined. Massive steel walls surrounded the area, a gate locking it all in. The steel buildings and multiple hangers for jets intimidated me, but this was my last resort.
I approached the gate, of course, a PA system was on the side to buzz me in. But no one here knew who I was, they wouldn't let me in if I begged.
I raised my palms and opened the gates myself, figuring causing a scene might give me some attention. Immediately as I opened the gates, alarms blared and red lights began flashing. A smirk crept on my face as I stepped past the steel walls onto the road that lead to the massive compound in front of me.
Something emerged from the roof of the building and was soaring in circles above me before landing in front of me.
"Stand down or we will shoot!" The winged man in front of me yelled.
I put my hands up slightly to show I was playing along.
"What are you doing on this property?" He questioned walking toward me.
"I'm looking to speak to a couple of people in there," I pointed to the building where he came from.
"Well, I don't think anyone wants to talk to you," He chuckled.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," I extended my arm and stopped the winged man in his tracks. All these superheroes wear too much metal.
Before I knew it, a red flying man and a man with a bow and arrow were aiming at me as I was holding back Mr. Wings. The Avengers intimidate most people they come in contact with. But as a woman with metal manipulating abilities, not many people could intimidate me.
I raised my right hand and stopped Vision and Hawkeye in their tracks as well.
"Listen, I don't want to be hostile," I began.
"Too late for that," Falcon exclaimed.
"I just need to talk to Wanda and Pietro," The three exchanged concerned glances. "Please," I dropped my hands to my sides letting them free.
"What business do you have with the Maximoffs?" Vision questioned.
I huffed and levitated myself to his level, for intimidation purposes sure, but also to be taken seriously.
"I'm their sister," I announced. They were left expressionless.