T/W: Mention of su*cidal thoughts and scars from experimentation and torture. Note* It's very brief, but you have been warned...

CHAPTER TEN... 

The sun beats down on my pale, freckled cheeks, bathing us all in a heavenly glow.

We stand outside what has to be the most beautiful house I have ever laid eyes upon. There must be at least 3 floors with large, stained glass windows facing outwards, accented with decorative stone. Large spires rise up from the top, and several junctions jut out like towers. It looks like something out of an antique painting. My mouth drops open.

The landscape is almost as beautiful as the house, with sprawling fields of emerald green bordered by lush, dense forests. Bushes cut to look like triangles dot the lawn, and far in the distance a large, glistening lake rests in the ground. The water is perfectly still and clear as day. The sun washes upon it like liquid gold, and for a moment, I want nothing more than to jump in, feeling the water rush over my tired bones, pulling at my limbs, bringing life back into my body.

The world comes into focus as I turn my attention back to the group in front of me. Charles and Erik stand at the front, looking up in the shadow of the manor. Moira stands behind them, with Raven and Alex beside her. Hank hangs at the back, while Sean and I stand to the side. Sean crosses his arms and peers up at the mansion in wonder. I look at him, then quickly avert my eyes when he turns to meet mine.

We left the facility five hours after Charles and Erik arrived back. In an instant, everything went into chaos. One minute, Charles is letting us fight and train, the next, we're crammed into several army vehicles and were driven off to a private jet, taking us to New York, where Charles explained his family home was situated.

The plane ride was hot and uncomfortable, all eight of us and several CIA officers crammed into the private jet. There was very little room. I ended up being crammed between Erik and Hank, who kept glancing over to where Raven was sitting with Sean and Alex. Charles sat further up, conversing with the flight attendant.

Several times during the flight, between Hank's incredibly annoying and strangely adorable snores, Erik whispered to me, asking about what happened the night Shaw infiltrated the building. At first, I couldn't speak, the excitement and adrenaline rendering my voice practically useless. But after I calmed down and forced him to get me a cream soda from the mini bar because I was too scared to ask the stewardess, I worked up the courage and pushed down the bile rising in my throat.

I told him everything.

I told him about how my fight to gain control over the shadows caused me immense fatigue that got me captured by Shaw. I told him about Angel, and how she was getting in over her head by going with Shaw. I told him I wasn't afraid anymore, I wasn't the weak little girl that Shaw wanted. I was Phantom, and I wanted to fight.

Erik had said nothing, simply stared deep into my eyes, as if he was trying to find a flicker of fear, any hesitation in the words I was telling him. There wasn't. I wasn't backing down. That much was clear.

Erik had nodded his head, giving none of his true thoughts away. The only thing he said was a faint whisper, almost as if he was saying it to himself.

"I'm proud of you." I'd smiled at that, turning back to the seat in front of me. Night had fallen over the plane, and my eyes had grown heavy with sleep. In moments, my head fell to the side, resting on Erik's leather clad shoulder.

Now we were here, the army vehicles behind us, waiting to leave.

I straighten, blinking several times, realizing I've been staring off into space for a while.

"This is yours?" Sean asks. I smirk.

"No," Charles says, turning back to where we stand. "It's ours." We peer back up at the house. Moira's face is impressed. The only person who seems mildly uninterested is Alex. The blonde boy looks about ready to throw a punch. I remember Darwin, and understand why.

"Honestly Charles," Erik says. "I don't know how you survived, living in such hardship." I hide my smile behind my hand. Out of any of us, Charles has probably had the most leisurely upbringing, something I criticized him for the night they left for Russia. Growing up away from the war, living in a mansion big enough to fit a hundred people. For some reason, I want to smack that smug smile off his face. I shake my hands out and wrap them around my waist.

I shouldn't think like that. Charles has done nothing but try and keep me safe all this time. I shouldn't go criticizing him for something he can't even control.

"Well, it was a hardship softened by me." Raven says, coming up between the two men. Charles tugs at her waist and plants a soft kiss in her luscious golden locks. I see Erik stiffen slightly, and a wave of unease makes it's way over to me. I push it away, trying not to dwell on the fact that Hank is also watching Raven, his face visibly distraught.

"Come on." Raven says, pulling away from her brother. "Time for the tour." She heads up toward the house, skipping across the stones. We all start to head up to the house where a large, wooden door is propped open. I take one last look at the gardens, then walk into the house that I'll soon be staying in.

I stop dead in my tracks when I see the foyer. A crystal chandelier hangs precariously over the marble floored room. The walls are a beautiful mahogany, decorated with gold trim and decadent paintings. I feel as if I've walked into a dream. A dream where anything is possible, and nothing bad ever happens. The light from the ceiling glows and casts strange, twisting shapes on the ground.

I turn in a circle, my feet clunking against the tile. They ring out like a chorus, and it takes me a moment before I realize I'm alone in the hall, and everyone else has left down the corner, where I hear their footsteps along the corridor. For a second I don't move, I simply let myself breath.

It's been a long time since I've felt this calm. Since I've felt this ready.

Ready to try and use my powers again. Ready to fight. Ready to win. It's something I've dreamed of since the apartment door closed on my hysterical body, where Shaw locked me back into the house that felt like torture. Every day, the thought of winning, of beating Shaw, slipped farther and farther out of my reach.

It was a spark with no wind, a star slowly imploding into nothing. The embers had died down, and all that was left was exhaustion. I was tired of living with Shaw. I was tired of being a lab rat. I was tired. For a few aching months, up until a certain metal-bending man grabbed my hand and jumped with me off the side of a yacht, I wanted to rest. No matter the cost.

It seems preposterous now. It was a foolish idea, and a terrifying one. Because I'm not ready to die. Not now, not when we're close to finding him again, not when this is the first time I've ever felt truly alive.

The sound of footsteps on hard ground causes me to stir and turn around. I find someone I wasn't expecting, but I welcome it nonetheless.

"Are you coming?" Charles asks, his hands in his pockets, his eyebrows permanently knitted together. "I saw you were no longer with us. Are you all right?"

I pause for a second, letting the words wash over me. For five years, no one cared about me, not in the way Charles and Erik do now. Shaw would comfort me when I cried, but it never helped, it was never truly compassionate.

For five years, no one made sure I was ok. Now I have more people than ever before, and the thought brings tears to my eyes. Charles starts forward in alarm, his face twisting. I hold up a hand, laughing through the tears falling down my face.

"For so long." I say, my voice steady. "I've had no one. I had no control over my life. I didn't even have control over myself..." I wave a hand around the ornate room. "And now I have all this..."

Charles smiles sadly, his face softening. "I never doubted you, Leena." he says.

I grin back. "I know."

Charles nods, and I can see his eyes shining. A soft giggle bursts forth from my lips before I can stop it, and Charles stiffens. This only causes me to laugh harder, and my face breaks into a wide grin that seems to touch both ears.

It's silly to be laughing at such a time; when Shaw and his followers are still out there; when America is on the brink of Nuclear war; when I could be dead tomorrow. And yet, I laugh. I laugh and smile more than I've ever before. Because I'm free. I'm in control. And I'm finally letting my emotions take control.

So I laugh and walk over to Charles, who has always cared for me, made sure I was safe, and kept his distance when he knew I needed it. I pull him into a hug, drawing him towards me. Charles wraps his arms around me. The bare scars up and down my forearms touch the flesh of his neck, and he freezes.

I pull back. For once, I'm not wearing long sleeves. Instead, I've pulled on the light blue dress I wore when we first came to the facility. Then I had a rough cardigan slung over me, hiding my wounds from the world. Now, I let the scars of the past experiments show.

Why, I couldn't say. But I'm not afraid to hide anymore. I'm no longer a skeleton, stripped of everything that mattered.

"We're gonna get Shaw, Charles," I say. "I know that now."
Charles' face falls, his head careening to one side then the other. "I don't know, Leena." I grab one of his hands.

"We will." I say more urgently.

"They're kids, Leena. You're a kid." he says. "Will training really help them?" I think for a moment. When Shaw attacked the facility we lost. We lost Angel, we lost Darwin, but that was before. That was before we had the determination. That was before we wanted revenge.

I know Charles won't see it that way. I know he'll just say that mercy is better than malice. He'll say we should be fighting for humanity, not ourselves. And deep down, I know he's right.

Erik is driven only by revenge. Revenge on Shaw for killing his mother and for ruining his life. Revenge has been what's driving him since the start. But where Erik is bloodthirsty, Charles is passive.

And where they are opposites, I sit in the middle, ready to fight for vengeance... and the greater good.

"I don't know if the training will change us, Charles." I say. "But I know it will help." Charles frowns at my comment, as if he doesn't really understand what I've said, like he wants to get inside my head and figure it out.

Even if he tried, he wouldn't have much luck. The walls around my mind feel stronger than ever, and the darkness shields me from any one's mind games. The cold is bearable, though slightly irritating. I'm unreadable, even to a strong Telepath like Charles.

"It will help." I repeat.

Charles sighs. "If you say so."

"I know so." I reply.

Charles looks at me, then nods towards one of the adjacent halls. "We should probably catch up." he says. I nod and follow after him. When we finally reach the rest of the group, they've moved upstairs to the second floor, where hallways upon hallways face out toward the jewel green gardens. I marvel at the delicate craftsmanship. When we reach a closed door, I hastily want to open it and see what else awaits us.

Raven reveals the room inside, and my mouth drops until I'm practically scraping it off the floor. Revealed past the door frame is an exquisite library, complete with rich mahogany shelves lined wall to wall with ancient looking volumes. Each one is perfectly polished, in rich colours that draw my eyes left and right.

Bright magenta, forest green, and ocean blue. I want to stay in this room forever, I want to read every single book and lose myself in worlds entirely my own. I could let my imagination run wild, enter and exit story after story, forgetting everything around me.

The books I had with Shaw were thrown into a pile at the foot of my bed. Every week, he would come into my room, a new novel under his arms. On lucky days, he would simply throw the books on my bed, say nothing, then leave. But most days, I would need to use my powers, I would need to complete a task before he would hand me the book.

The books were like a lifeline. They were one of the only things keeping me afloat. They would help me escape when I was still a prisoner. They would help me forget my troubles, even if it were sitting in the same room as me.

So when Shaw asked me to use my abilities. When he asked me to grab his hand to enhance my empathic powers and find Emma or Azazel somewhere in the house, I obliged. It hurt like hell, and afterwards I would be too tired to move, but he would hand me the book and leave me alone.

On the nights I was left by myself, locked into my bedroom, my only source of light in a world of darkness were the stories. There were tales of heroic princes and swoon-worthy romances. There were tales of love and loss and tragedy. As the years wore on, The number of pages in the books grew. They became increasingly challenging, more advanced than anything else I'd ever read.

I remember the last book Shaw gave me, the night before Erik found me on the boat. It was a thick book, with a marvelous red cover and an outline of a man and a woman walking towards each other. The book was called Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, and when I opened up the novel to the first page that night, I was thrown into a countryside of family drama and girls vying for a husband. A man too grumpy for his own good and a heroine I wanted to be; headstrong and confident.

The book is gone now, probably destroyed on the yacht when Erik ripped the anchor though it. I wonder if there is a copy in this library. I walk around the corner table and step up onto the ladder.

"What are you looking for?" Erik asks me. I turn around to find only him, Charles and Moira. I hear Raven talking excitedly down the hall. I'm going to miss the entire tour if I don't stop daydreaming.

I smile. "This is the most beautiful room I've ever seen." I tell Charles. He nods his head and grins. There is silence for a moment, then dread creeps along my spine. I frown. I know one of them is feeling it, because I could practically jump for joy at this moment.

My face falls and I slowly climb down the ladder, turning to the group of adults in front of me. I look from Moira's kind eyes to Erik's chiseled frown, then to Charles' soft smile. They all look at me hesitantly, as if there is something wrong. Knowing me, there probably is.

"What?" I finally ask, breaking the silence that held us in place. Charles let's out a breath.

"Leena, before our conversation in the hall, we wanted to talk to you about--" Charles begins.

"No, nothing has changed." Moira cuts in. Her voice is stern, and I notice how she holds herself more tightly, like a wound up doll.

I know why she's like this. I understand why she feels she has to act like the boss, giving orders instead of asking. After what I saw from the agents in the facility, to offhand comments other agents made with Moira present, it's not hard to assume she's like this because of her work.

She must face adversity every day, with each man she meets talking to her like she's inferior to them (except maybe Charles, who looks at Moira like she's a goddess from the heavens). No matter how many times I've grown annoyed with the way Moira sometimes acts, I can't help but feel sorry for her.

I know what it's like to be seen as something less.

"What did you want to talk about?" I ask again, staring intently at the woman, waiting for her response.

But instead of her, it's Erik who speaks up. "We were going to say you won't be training." his words knock the breath right out of me. "We were going to say you're not fighting with us."

"What?!" I exclaim before I can stop myself. "But I can! I know how to now! Why would you--"

"Leena!" Charles yells, stopping me mid sentence. "I said we were going to tell you."

"Why?" I ask. "Why can't I fight?"

"Because unlike almost every person here, you are a child." Moira says, her voice calm and collected.

"But so is Sean!" I say.

"Sean turns eighteen this year." Charles explains. "He's practically an adult."

"But he's not." I reply, and Charles lowers his head. "He's not, and I can help! I can fight!"

Erik says. "I know."

My face is skeptical. "You do?"

"Better than anyone." his words catch me off guard. There is a tenderness to them that I've not heard his use before. I don't have time to dwell on his warm tone however, because Charles speaks up again.

"We know you can fight Leena." Charles says. "That's why I've changed my mind." I whip my head back to him, surprise masking my features.

Both Moira and I say. "What?!" a flicker of a smile passes on his lips, and Charles continues on.

"When we had our first discussion about whether you would help or not, Erik hadn't told me you'd somehow gained control over your powers, which I'm just a little sore about, you really should tell me about those things. But When he did tell me on the car ride here, I started to wonder." I frown. "And my thoughts were confirmed after our conversation down in the hall."

"What thoughts?" I ask, my voice soft and wispy.

"That you are stronger than we thought." Charles replies. "Not in build or physique. But in mind and soul." Erik nods in agreement. "You're stronger than any one of us, Leena, and there are no limits to what your power will accomplish."

I'm at a loss for words. For so long I've felt like Charles has been the one doubting me. I always thought he was the most apprehensive in letting me help. It was always Erik that encouraged me. Moira was trying to protect me, but it felt like Charles was always unsure. Always uneasy about letting me join. And while I know he was just keeping me safe, it still hurt.

But now, as I think back, Charles never doubted me, he just didn't know how to help. He had been the one to tell me about Shaw's plans. He'd been the first to offer me shelter. He'd been the first ever person besides Shaw to call my abilities amazing. Charles knew what I was capable of, he just didn't know me.

"Thank you." I say, my voice thick. "Thank you, Charles." the man nods, his eyes softening at the tears glistening in my own.

After several moments, Erik speaks up. "So that's settled then." I jump at his voice, and immediately feel guilty for forgetting her was there.

"What is?" Moira asks indignantly, her hands on her hips. For a moment, she looks like a woman who could take on the world, and I take a step back instinctively. Erik turns his head and gives Moira a cool look.

"Leena will train." He whirls back to me, and pride hits my chest like a cannonball. "And she will fight." 

AUTHOR'S NOTE... 

Kind of a short chapter, but these next few parts will be a lot of relationship building and character development. Then everything go downhill, so be prepared...

Thanks for all the comments and votes, they mean so much to me. These chapters have only been edited once through, so if their are any grammatical errors or inconsistency I would love if you could point them out, thanks. 

Well, that's all, hope you enjoyed this chapter! 

Love, Mal