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Raven strides into his office, swift and smoothly as a cat.
“What is it, Charles?” she asks, yellow eyes full of impatience. “I have a defense class starting in ten minutes.”
Sighing, Xavier beckons her to sit in the leather bound chair in front of his desk.
“Raven, I already told Hank to start the class without you. We need to talk.”
After the events in Cairo, he and Raven had sat down and agreed to teach the students together. Charles would cover the academic aspects of the school, while Raven covered “defensive” techniques and prepared the students for the potential perils of the outside world. As the headmaster, he had the final say in everything, but he had never had to exercise this right until now. He promised he would never try to control her again, but the students are another matter.
“Raven, it's been six months since you returned and while I'm thrilled to have you back-”
“Cut to the chase, Charles,” his sister says, impatiently tapping her nails on the desk. Blue nails on blue skin, he's forgotten about that little detail in the twenty-something years that she's been gone. Not that he ever paid attention to her natural blue form after a certain age. Now he rarely sees her outside of her natural guise, although he was forced to ask her to “wear” clothes after a few of the students, mainly Kurt, decided to imitate her.
“Raven,” he blurts out, “You're working the students too hard. This is the second time in the last month that Kurt's landed in the infirmary and now Scott's joined him. We're going to have to restrict your classes to three time a week and Hank will be installing new safety protocols into the Sentinels' software.”
“Charles,” she says with barely contained anger, “you're cutting my program in half. Have you listened to anything I told you about my years on the outside? Every day that we sit here in this comfy little house, other mutants are dying on the streets. We need to be ready, somebody will come looking for this school any day now.”
She sounds just like Erik. Once again, Charles is grateful his old friend refused his invitation to stay.
"They're just children, Raven, not an army for us to build! This is supposed to be a sanctuary for our kind. I promised their parents I would keep them safe. Once they've turned twenty-one, they're free to make their own choices, but for now we need to tone things down.”
She looks at him and shakes her head.
“I was no older than them when we went to Cuba, Charles. Ororo nearly helped Apocalypse destroy the world and she's just turned fifteen. Half of your students don't even have parents.”
“Raven, I'm not-”
“Forget it, Charles,” she says, cutting him off. “You get your wish. Classes are cancelled indefinitely. I'm going out for a little bit. I told you when we started that I couldn't stay in one place for long.”
He wants to reach out to her and beg her not to go, to tell his sister that he loves her and can't bear to lose her again. Twenty years of pain and loss stand in his way. Instead, he silently watches her walk away.
….
In the beginning, they were closer than siblings. Raven was his first mutant, the first to accept him for who he truly was. He could tell her anything and she would accept it.
Then came Oxford and with it an endless variety of new experiences. At some point, between his studies and all the men and women he dated/slept with, he stopped paying attention to Raven. It never occurred to him that she might have changed too...until it was too late.
….
She returns two months later with a green-haired girl in tow.
“I'm Lorna Dane,” she says nervously, “Mystique says that I-I can control metal.”
“Fantastic,” he exclaims, enthusiastically shaking her hand.
…
He assigns Jubilee to watch over the newcomer. Lorna isn't as powerful as Erik, but she can still break her bed into pieces when she has nightmares. Charles makes a mental note to schedule meditation sessions with either Jean or himself so Lorna can get her powers under control.
He's not surprised in the slightest when Peter shows up in his office a mere two days later.
“Why didn't anyone tell me? She's got magnetic powers and she never knew her father! Is it possible, man? Could she be his kid, too?”
“Specific powers are not genetic, Peter, only the mutant gene,” he replies sternly, “but if she's willing, Hank will run a DNA test.”
A few days later he receives a report from Hank's lab and nearly chokes on his morning biscuit. How many other illegitimate children does Erik have running around?
Lorna herself is confused, but happy. She's been an orphan for most of her life and is thrilled to have an older brother to bond with. In a way, Charles envies them. He has yet to get through to Raven.
…
Raven agrees to push her trainings down to three days for the underage kids, but refuses to modify the Sentinels. He gives in to the compromise, but asks Hank to monitor them as her silent co-teacher. Her classes are as rigorous as ever, but no more of their students land in the infirmary.
She comes and goes over the next two years. Sometimes, she comes back alone. Other times, she brings more students; Rahne Sinclair, Ilyana Rasputin, and Jamie Maddox. He's always happy to have new pupils, although Jamie Maddox causes more trouble than Quicksilver with his self-replicating ability.
“It's good to have you back, Raven,” he says as he spots her in the kitchen one night during a rare craving for a midnight snack. She nods and continues to stuff her mouth with last night's leftovers. Whatever happened on this latest trip has obviously left her famished.
He wheels himself past her, reaching for Hank's secret stash of twinkies...only to see them pushed to the side by a blue foot.
“Naa-uh,” Raven says teasingly, Hank told me you're on a diet. Have a banana, I'll peel it for you myself.”
He grins. For the first time in decades, she sounds like the old Raven, the one he grew up with. Suddenly, an idea springs into his mind, one so obvious he's amazed he hasn't though of it before.
“Would you deny an old man a treat for his birthday...or should I say our birthday?”
Raven doesn't know her birthday, her biological parents left her to die the day she was born. Charles had decided to share his birthday. So many joint parties with just the two of them and a lemon cake with vanilla frosting! After Raven left, he had stopped celebrating their day altogether.
“Come on, Raven, let's go out for a picnic tomorrow, just you and me, like old times.”
“Old times, huh?” she replies with a smile. She stands up and stretches.
“I guess I could use a break after my trip to Genosha.”
…
“A kite, Charles? You're such a dork.”
Raven's in her usual guise, blonde haired and blue eyed. He's surprised at how much he prefers her natural blue form, but they can't afford to draw attention to themselves in a public park.
His sister is the one who unwraps the kite, but he's the one who flies it. (At one point, a strong gust of wind almost knocks him out of his chair.) They spend the day talking and laughing, just like old times, except for the haunted look in Raven's eyes.
As the day draws to a close, they put the kite away and Charles finally gets the chance to reveal his real purpose for bringing her here.
“Remember how I promised you, all those years ago, that I would never read your mind?”
“Oh course,” Raven retorts, “and you did a shitty job keeping it.”
He draws as close as he can to her with his wheelchair, so they're eye to eye.
“I never offered to share my thoughts with you. I've been trying to reconnect with you over the past few months, but I haven't been able to say the words. Last night, I realized that, with my power, I don't need to say a thing.”
Raven draws back in alarm.
“I think I'll pass, Charles. I don't want to know what's inside that head of yours.”
He takes his hands in hers.
“Trust me, Raven, I'll keep the more unpleasant memories to myself.”
By some miracle, she nods her head in consent and the link begins. Charles can't form a full telepathic connection with Raven like he can with Jean, but perhaps that's for the best. It enables him to filter out some of his more embarrassing memories. Together, they experience his joy at meeting her for the first time. Then, he shows her their years apart. His pain, his sorrow, his regret...and finally his fervent desire for them to fully reunite as brother and sister.
“I'm so sorry, Raven,” he says out loud, “for everything.”
Raven looks at him with tears in her eyes and embraces him.
“Charles,” she whispers,” I missed you so much.”
She opens up to him, but not telepathically. He holds her as she tells him of her years on the run. There were times she nearly died and times she wished she had. Charles hears all of it and says nothing but words of assurance.
…
Wolverine once told Charles about the other Mystique from the timeline they both helped prevent. That woman was captured by Trask and subjected to countless medical nightmares until Erik came to rescue her. Twisted and emotionally damaged, she became Magneto's right-hand woman... until she was killed by the sentinels her DNA helped create.
Charles hopes he and his sister can have a happy ending this time around.