Come the Morrigan

Posted on Sun May 26th, 2024 @ 8:12pm by Charles Xavier & Maeve MacKenna

2,591 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 4: The Savage ConneXion
Location: Professor Xavier's Office
Timeline: September 2nd, 1990

Maeve was swinging her legs back and forth as she waited outside what she was told was the headmasters office, the professor, Charles Xavier. She didn't dispute it even if it didn't say so on his door but she'd been outside for a bit and was getting bored.

Just down the corridor there was a noise, a clatter, and she went to investigate. It was still close enough to the professor's office door that she could get back if she wasn't too distracted by what was going on.

As she approached the door where the noise came from she poked her head through to see someone playing with water. Making shapes and whatnot but she'd obviously knocked things over without realising. Maeve watched still as she'd never seen water moving that way, it was almost hypnotising.

"That's Hayden," the Professor said as he came up behind Maeve. "Her mutation allows her to communicate with water, one of the most elusive elements in the known universe despite the abundance of its constituent particles." He placed a gentle hand on Maeve's shoulder. "Come." Guiding her back to his office, he said, "Thank you for your patience. I've had a number of pressing issues of late. But I cannot overstate the value of you being here. Let's become more acquainted. You can tell me how you came to be here, and I will answer any questions you may have, such as how this school came to be."

Maeve got a bit of a startle as the professor spoke, a small rumble in the foundations followed that, but she quickly settled as he placed his hand on her shoulder as they made their way to his office. A large spacious room, she supposed that helped with the chair he was in and getting around. It was also old fashioned but she got the impression that was how he was.

"That's alright." She commented in regards to being patient. "All I had was time." Maeve shrugged a little and strange concern to being of value here when she'd only just arrived. "And how I came here? Like the US?" She asked rhetorically as her mind flashed back to the docks where she accidentally killed Artur's men (in her bio). "I came over on a ship, we got to the docks a few days or so ago and things didn't quite work out." she could feel the anxiety build in her over the attack and what she later found out they were being trafficked for. She was sure it had been on the news as she passed television stores, their windows aflutter with reports of an 'incident'.

For the moment she let that comment hang, she wasn't sure if she should even mention the metal men who attacked her. Hank and Mara had been nice enough to take her of her so far but she couldn't help but feel they were humouring her over how she took three of them out and ran.

"Yes, I had heard something about that." The Professor's smile remained, but his eyes turned grave with the knowledge of man's inhumanity to man.

~Don't be afraid~ His voice was suddenly inside her thoughts. ~I am a telepath. There will be times that I will know things that you unintentionally reveal to me, but I will never invade your mind or read your thoughts without your permission. One day, Maeve, you may need to discuss what happened, but that does not need to be today. Just know that I am aware and will be here for you until you are ready~

While projecting his thoughts to her mind, the Professor gleaned a horrible image. A giant, hulking mechanical image. "Is there something else that you had better tell me?" he asked aloud.

Maeve shook as a voice entered her head that was not her own. It was surreal, like something you'd see on a science fiction show. It was a little frightening to know someone could do that and the word invade stuck in her mind long after Xavier had said it.

Her upbringing was sheltered. No televisions, limited technology and very little of outside influence. Achill Island was her home, her world up until her mother died and she ran. It was almost overwhelming to begin with, hell it still is even now. Maeve had met a few of her own kind in the United Kingdom, the term mutant being used by normies like a slur and using their own fear to hurt them, hunt them. She learned to keep to herself, or try to limit how much she opened up.

However, she sat now in front of a man who could come into her very mind and open her up like a can of beans. Again a flash of the metal men when he asked if there was something else. His tone precise, his eyes piercing.

Subconsciously Maeve reached to her stomach, touching the now stitched laceration that Hank had kindly seen to.

"Well..." she began as she bit her lip. How would she say this? "Feck it..." she grumbled. She'd just lay it out. "A few days after the docks. I think it was a few days... I don't have a watch and I lost track of time, and I was hungry, and cold and you know people here aren't as nice as I thought they'd be, and the city... I feel it, the buildings groan and laugh at me..." she said going off on quite a tangent. The ramblings and attention span of a teenager replaying a stressful event, like a pressure release letting go as she felt Xavier was really listening to her.

"You will grow into your abilities," the Professor said in a reassuring voice, "and then it will be the elements of this world that listen to you instead of the other way around. "But go on, Maeve. Tell me what happened next."

"Yeah... we'll see." Maeve doubted his words. "But after a few days wandering around, trying to find somewhere to sleep, get things to eat, I was going through this car park and... well... I was attacked by 3 very big and ugly lookin machines. Horrible colours on them, don't know who painted them but they kept saying I was a target they'd acquired and I'd to surrender." A catch caught in her throat as she inhaled whilst bringing this memory back. "I got scared, panicked, and ruined a part of the city... sorry."

The Professor turned quite pensive at that story. "I was afraid you might say that," he said at length. "The news reported an industrial accident in the city but was rather sparse on the details. Those 'industrial machines' are known as Sentinels, mutant-hunting monstrosities that were supposed to have been decommissioned years ago. For them to have returned and to be operating in public does not bode well for matters..." He trailed off for a moment before adding, "not at all." He rubbed his forehead in distress. "If the Sentinels have returned..." No, it was better not to put that weight on a child fresh off the boat as Maeve was. He looked up at her and forced a wan smile. "Thank you for sharing with me what you have, Maeve. You just may have saved some lives today."

Maeve listened to the professor speak. He was smart, she could tell just by the way he spoke and quite frankly they called him the professor so... that said it pretty much as well. "I'm glad no-one got hurt," she commented. "Aside from myself." Sentinels was a funny word, she wasn't quite sure what it meant really but she trusted those older than her had experience with them. Maeve could see it in the professor's eyes. "You're welcome. I was just wonderin' why someone would make somethin' was so big and monster-like... it's not like they are hard to see or hit." She shrugged. "Makin them smaller, quicker and not so loud would make for better." shaking her head she looked up at the older man. "I overthink things sometimes," she added biting her lower lip.

"When the Sentinels were originally created, they were intended to be a symbol as much as enforcement," the Professor explained. "They served as larger-than-life reminders of the tyranny of oppression against mutants. Remember that not every mutant is gifted with abilities to defend themselves. Many of us, myself included, would be helpless against a Sentinel without aid from others." Her additional thought only heightened his concern, but he did his best to pass it off. "So, while you're right that smaller Sentinels would be more effective in many regards, they would not be the symbol of fear that was intended." His mouth ticked up in distress. "At least, not without good cause." Then he forced a smile to return to more pleasant matters. "Since you seem rather capable already, I would like to formally extend an offer to train with our team. The X-Men serve as crisis response specialists. We are not an army. We are interventionists. Saving lives and fostering peace are our two chief aims." His brow arched at his offer. "You don't have to answer right away and joining the team is not a condition of staying with us either. It must be your choice made from personal conviction."

"They sound mean and horrible. Who even makes things like that?" Maeve shook her head. As her hearing muffled he spoke and all she could make out was the word X-Men and she perked up. "Your superhero team?" she asked. "Oh I'm nowhere near as good as them. I don't know what I'm doing half the time and after what happened at the docks..." she rubbed her arm subconsciously as she felt a bit exposed. "I don't know how much control I have and I don't want to hurt anyone." She could hear the walls groan a little as her heart rate rose, a flash of a spike of earth firing through the chest of a man at the docks.

Setting the provenance of the Sentinels aside for the time being, the Professor focused on the matter at hand. "The X-Men have performed feats of heroism in the past, but calling them superheroes is a bit of a misnomer. They have trained to respond to a diverse range of hazards, disasters, and crisis events. I'm formally extending to you an offer to train with them during your stay with us."

"Ah, okay. Sorry." Maeve replied, she had no idea what a misnomer was but she took from what it sounded like is that to be called a superhero would be somewhat misinformed. "I think training might be a good idea. I'd like to not be scared of what gifts the Tuath Dé have given me."

The Professor arched his brow at that. Some mutants were megalomaniacs who believed themselves to be demigod figures, but Maeve did not present any sign of thinking herself divine. "Tell me more about, if you would," he said carefully. "Is that what you were told?"

"It was." Maeve raised an eyebrow. "I grew up in a place called Achill Island, just off mainland Ireland." she began. "Our community was led by the matriarchs of our coven and we've always had a connection to the earth in one way or another. For instance, my mother had these powers before I inherited them when she died." she said quite solemnly as she fiddled with the locket around her neck, a gift from her mother. "We lived a simple life without much need for some of the technology we have now. We prayed to Danu, and her children, the Tuath Dé. My mother became leader of our community but there were other elders who also helped her too. It used be strange because I never knew anything about these abilities until I got a bit older. My mum would tell me I was imagining it when I saw Elder Saoirse float, or Mother Niambh create fire for the stove without lighting a match or using flint. Eventually she told my sisters and me that we were chosen by the Tuath Dé, a special people blessed with a connection to the planet and its great protectors. There were even nights I swear when the veil was thin I could see spirits walking around the island, was weird as Hell." she realised she'd swore a little. "Sorry." she looked up at the sky for a moment as if hoping her mother wouldn't appear. "But when I left Achill," she neglected the part of running away, "after my mum died... a rockslide, can you believe it? A woman who can control rocks killed by them... that's why I'm scared of my power..." she got side tracked and shook her head. "When I left, I didn't realise there was a whole world who'd been granted abilities and how cruel people could really be..."

The Professor nodded with gentle understanding. "Did you learn anything of genetics?" His question was posed with a kind tone that fished for a clearer picture of Maeve's schooling. "Whatever the traditions of your people, the source of your gifts is found within you, in your very blood and marrow. Myself and other researchers have isolated the X-Gene within mutants which is responsible for everything from unorthodox appearances to remarkable powers. It is this gene which is gives you the power to speak to the earth and to hear it speak back. It sounds as though you have inherited it from your mother's line, and a wonderful tradition that is. But the deeper truth is that we represent the next stage in human evolution. And those who fear the future will opposite it, such as with the Sentinels you encountered."

"I can't say I know much about genetics sir but surely anything within our bodies is a gift from the earth. This X-Gene is simply power given to us by Tuath Dé or whatever Gods you follow. I was taught we are born of the earth and that if we look after it, it'll look after us before we return to it one day with the stories of our lives enriching the soil." Maeve replied with a smile as she remembered her mother's teaching. "But I have experienced the fear of some of the people I've met. From mainland Ireland to the UK to here... but I have seen some people who've been nice so I have hope that maybe we can begin to be kind to each other."

"Forgive me for being so prosaic," the Professor said graciously. So what if she described the same thing in different, some might say primitive terms? Truth was truth. "I can see that yours is a kindred spirit, Maeve, and I am glad to know you. It would be my honor for you to join my X-Men." He rubbed his chin in thought. "It's customary to select a codename for training and field work. In honor of your people, Maeve, I would like to give you the codename of Morrigan. I think it fitting as a protector and a queen of dreams. What to do you say?"

"Wow." Maeve was taken slightly aback by the quickness of the Professor's ability to give her quite so fitting a nickname, or codename as he called it. "Thank you sir. I'll try to not let you down." her cheeks flushed at the surge of emotion that ran through her.

Maybe she'd found a home, at least for a while.

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