CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE —
( There there, child, everything will be alright. )

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Lydia groaned as she rolled over, coming to turns with being conscious. She felt someone tapping her cheek. "It was just a bad dream, Avery. Go back to sleep," Lydia mumbled.

Someone laughed. "I'm definitely not Avery."

"Then fuck off, Peter. I'm trying to sleep," Lydia mumbled as she kept her eyes closed.

A scream came from Peter and Lydia's eyes immediately snapped open. She sat up in a flash and watched as he scrambled away. "What's wrong with you? Is that going to happen to all of us?" He asked, referring to the fact that Hank was in his blue beast form.

Lydia snorted. "He is a mutant, is he not?"

"That's his mutation?" Peter asked as he observed Hank. "Weird."

"Damn, I left my meds in the house," Hank groaned as he stood up.

"The now non-existent house," Lydia pointed out.

"What happened? Where are we?" Raven asked as the rest of the group stood up, even Moira and Alex.

"What the hell?" Alex mumbled as he looked around.

Lydia did a quick sweep on the green-lit room they were in, not seeing Avery anywhere. "Avery...Where's...where is she?"

"Hey!" Raven yelled up at Stryker.

"Hello, Mystique," the man smirked. "Miss Xavier."

"Major Stryker," Raven sneered.

"Colonel Stryker," he corrected.

"Where are the students?" Lydia immediately called out, hoping as hard as she could that Stryker didn't abduct a whole school full of children and her daughter.

"Still at the school, probably waking up from headaches," he immediately responded.

That calmed Lydia down instantly, knowing that Avery was away from wherever they were and was probably in the care of Sophia and the other children.

"I wouldn't get too close to the wall if I were you," Stryker quickly warned, noticing Alex approaching the sides of the room. "It may create some....discomfort."

"I'm Moira MacTaggert. I'm a senior officer at the CIA," Moira smirked at him as if she thought she was going to go anywhere with that.

"I know who you are, Agent MacTaggert," Stryker said.

"You cannot keep me here, in this...."

"Actually, I can," Stryker said. "A psychic event just destroyed every nuke from here to Moscow. That event emanated from exactly where we found you. At the home of the world's most powerful psychics," Stryker informed them, although they already knew that. "So, you are going to tell me, where is Charles Xavier? And if you don't comply, I will just make little Lydia face the consequences instead."

"I'm not little, I'm thirty!" Lydia said.

"That's still younger than me."

Lydia frowned. "It's not my fault that you're old," she mumbled.

Peter wrapped his arm around Lydia. "There there, child, everything will be alright." Lydia glared up at Peter.

"It's not him you should be worried about," Moira told him. "There's someone else. Someone more powerful. If you let us out of here, we can help you."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Stryker asked.

"Well, I can always show you if you want. You just have to get down here and let me do my voodoo shit to your head," Lydia told him.

"Nice try." Stryker looked at his watch and then walked away.

"Lydia, control him!" Raven quickly said.

"I can't reach anything past this barrier. Our powers are only limited to this room," Lydia looked above at the window at all of the men watching them. "That's not creepy at all."

"I could try mine to get us out of here," Alex said.

"What the hell? Do you want this room to burn down?" Lydia asked.

Alex looked down and shook his head. "No, mother."

"Hey Moira," Hank started. "Was it true when you said their was someone more powerful than Charles? Than Lydia?"

Moira nodded with a sullen look on her face.

"What if we need to go to the toilet?" Peter suddenly asked. "I mean, I really need to wiz."

"Please, for all of our sakes, hold it in," Lydia told him.

Hank began to walk to the wall and checked out the wires. "Did you know him?" Peter asked Lydia. "Magneto?"

"I did for a short while," Lydia said. "Is this about—"

"Yeah, it is," Peter mumbled.

"It's true?" Lydia asked, eyebrows raised.

"Yep."

"I used to know him," Raven spoke up. "Not so sure anymore."

"What was he like?" Peter eagerly asked. "Was he, ah, like they say he was? Was he the....bad guy?"

"No," Raven replied instantly. "I mean, yeah. He was..." she stopped talking for a few seconds. "Why do you care so much? You see his speech on TV or something?"

"Yeah," Peter nodded. "but ah...." Peter took a deep breath as he glanced at Lydia. Lydia smiled lightly at him and nodded and he turned back to Raven. "He's my father."

"What?" Raven asked, eyes wide.

"Well, there's this thing called sex when a mans penis—"

"I know what sex is!" Raven cut Lydia off. "But, are you sure?"

"Yeah," Peter nodded. "He left my mom before I was born. I met him ten years back, but I didn't know it was him. By the time I figured it out, it was too late. Then, this week I saw him on TV again and I came to that house looking for him, but by the time I got there....Late again," he sighed. "You know, for a guy who moves as fast as me, I always seem to be too late."

Peter may back been smiling in that moment, but Lydia knew exactly what he is feeling. Literally. Her telepathic abilities allowed her to do that. He was upset that he didn't get to see his father again and to tell him. He was upset because Erik walked out on his mother before he was born. Erik left Peter's mother to raise Peter up for 29 years, leaving a normal human to raise a speedster who had a tendency to break the law.

Lydia wrapped an arm around Peter's shoulder. "Let's hope not this time," Raven said.

"Yeah," Peter nodded and wrapped his arm around Lydia's waist.

"Hear me..." everyone in the room flinched from the sudden noise, but Lydia was use to it growing up with Charles, so she instantly recognised the voice as his. "inhabitants of this world."

"What is that?" Alex asked.

"This is a message."

"It's Charles," Lydia told everyone.

"A message to every man, woman, and mutant in the world. You have lost your way. But I have returned. The day of reckoning is here. All your buildings, all your towers and temples, will fall.  And the dawn of a new age will rise, for there is nothing you can do—"

"Lydia...Jean.."

"—to stop what is coming."

"Lydia, Jean, if you can hear me, focus on my voice," Lydia subtly held her fingers against her forehead. "Cairo. Find us, Lydia and Jean. Find us. Cairo. Find us."

"This message is for one reason alone. To tell the strongest among you that those with the greatest power....protect those without. That's my message to the world."

"How was Charles doing that without cerebro?" Hank asked.

"Obviously that blue guy enhanced his abilities," Lydia said. "But, Charles just sent me a message."

"I'm pretty sure he sent everyone a message," Alex said.

"No, no, a secret message. One only Jean and I could hear," Lydia said.

"Why's that?" Alex asked.

"We're telepaths, genius," Lydia rolled her eyes. "But I know where they are."

A knock on the window above them diverted their attention. "I know that voice," Stryker said.

"Well done, do you want a medal?" Lydia asked.

He ignored her. "It's Xavier, isn't it? What's going on?"

"We don't know!" Raven yelled at him.

"We don't know, bro!" Peter yelled out.

Lydia shook her head and turned to him. "Child..."

AUTHORS NOTE