Whispering Overture

Posted on Thu Dec 14th, 2023 @ 12:29pm by Charles Xavier

967 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: X-Mansion | War Room
Timeline: August 21st, 1990 - very early morning

Professor Xavier awakened with a start. It was not often that he held dreamless sleep, but after the events of the previous day, it wasn't unexpected. The startled feeling was largely due to not being in his own bed. He was down in the infirmary, connected to monitors and recuperating from...

Yes. Memories were returning to him now. He went to Boston where he had debated Reverend Stryker. The man's mind was difficult to penetrate while focusing out the intense emotions of the crowd. Events turned destructive. An explosion. No, an impact. The ceiling gave way. The dais was smashed. Darkness.

Evidently the X-Men had rescued him and brought him here. Charles smiled. They had come so far. Of course, it didn't hurt that Scott and Bobby had been on the scene to lend their assistance, but even so, their teamwork was coming together splendidly.

Charles carefully but deftly removed the medical sensors from his upper body and sought out his chair. It was across the room, but the discreet mind-machine interface he'd had reverse-engineered from the would-be alien conqueror who had crippled him allowed for his mind to summon it from across the room. The chair wheeled itself to his bedside where he hoisted himself into it and sped away to Cerebro.

The quick hop from the infirmary to the War Room allowed him to awaken his mind with some mental exercises he often utilized before the heavy lift that was Cerebro. Cobwebs were quickly swept from his thoughts as he donned the helmet and prepared for the expansion of consciousness.

With his mind free from the confines of the mortal coil, Charles could feel the minds of his sleeping students. Some of them were recovering as he had been, but for the most part he had born the brunt of the fallout. The swell of pride returned as—wait, where were Aurora and Scott? They were not at the Mansion. They were en route to the City with...

Charles gasped when he intuited their intentions. This was grievous indeed. What were they thinking? How could this have happened right under his nose? He knew they were facing their separate struggles but somehow they had skipped every single intermediate step and jumped straight to the end. How could he have failed them so utterly?

It was tempting to remove Cerebro, but then something else caught his attention.

There was someone in the Danger Room. Not just anyone either. It reminded him of the last few seconds before he had been knocked unconscious. This was a mutant, that much Xavier knew. Curiosity compelled a closer look.

This was a mutant. Cerebro confirmed that almost immediately. His mind was dormant but his body was raging. The power within this mutant was multi-adaptive, fighting against its prison. By remotely checking the Danger Room settings, Xavier found that its safety settings were overridden to keep the temperature well below freezing. That should be fatal, yet by all readings, this mutant was barely stalemated.

"What happened?" the Professor mused aloud.

Time to delve.

Closing off his physical senses, Xavier channeled his focus solely into his thoughts. The familiar sense of weightlessness overtook his mind. He focused on the Danger Room and he was there at the speed of thought. What the internal sensors had clocked as a block of ice contained a bright, burning soul. Xavier pressed closer in the realm of the mind.

"Hello, friend. My name is Charles."

Surprise. Fear. Anger.

"Don't be afraid. I am here to help you."

Doubt. Disbelief. Pain.

"No one is going to hurt you. Not again. Not while I am here."

Confusion.

"Let's start from the beginning. As I said, my names is Charles. What's yours?"

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

Silence.

Armando.

Charles beamed with a knowing smile. Could this be the same Armando his students had rescued from the mob in Baltimore? Cerebro's profile scans confirmed that it was. How fortuitous... in the best sense. Much destruction had surrounded this poor soul.

"I'm pleased to meet you, Armando. Let us talk of how you came to be here."

Pain. Fear. Confusion.

"That is quiet all right, Armando. We can work backward. What brought you to Boston?"

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

The negative outcry was almost deafening. "I understand, Armando. You did not choose to go and do what you did. Can you tell me who compelled you?"

Images of none other than the Reverend William Stryker filled Xavier's mind. The realization was stunning. Of course Charles had been expecting a trap, but this was beyond even that. Stryker had sought Xavier's demise so surely that he nearly guaranteed his own.

"I will see that you are released, Armando, just as soon as everyone's safety can be assured, including your own."

Doubt.

Charles smiled. There was no trust within this Armando's subconscious mind, but why would there be? Life had been especially cruel to him with agents of evil placing him as the fall-guy for a heinous act of terror. Trust would have to be earned. Professor Xavier prepared himself to do just that.

"I will return soon, Armando. When I do, justice will follow with me. I promise you that."

Disbelief. Caution. Hope.

That brought another smile to the Professor's face. He began searching out Reverend Stryker. The man's church was in upstate New York, that much he knew. There was a compound out of town guarded by militia. Purifiers. That was their nom de guerre. This was going to require delicacy.

Charles disengaged from Cerebro and made his way to his bedroom. He needed to dress himself. He needed to review matters with his attorneys. He needed tea. There was much to do and so little time in which to do it. Today would be a day of reckoning.

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