A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.
-Lao Tzu
°°°°°°
EMILY SHUFFLED THE DECK OF CARDS WITH SKILLED FINGERS. Her eyes trailed over Edith's face, worried and concentrated in avoiding her sister's glance.
"Chance called. Mum said to tell you that he was sorry and that he needed to see you." the twelve-year-old spoke, getting only a hum as an answer.
Neither of the twins spoke again, the room only filled by the lyrics of Total Eclipse Of The Heart playing in the background could be heard. Edith tapped her fingers to the rhythm of the ballad, one of their mum's favourites. The sisters were alone, though. Not like either of them disliked that fact.
"It's been a while since you did a magic trick, Eddie." Emily pondered as she split the UNO cards between her and Edith. The blonde looked at the ones in her hand lazily.
"Yeah, I think I should pretend I have no powers."
"Why?"
"I don't know, I feel like a freak sometimes. I don't want anyone finding out."
"Eddie, no!" Emily put her cards down and ignored her sister's confusion, hugging her tightly "Don't say that! You're not a freak. You should appreciate yourself, because you're amazing."
Edith patted Emily's head affectionately.
"How are things going at school?"
"Good!" the younger answered. The siblings had discarded their cards, content by the conversation "I had a fight with Sue and Luna last week but we worked it out."
"You argued? What happened?" Edith felt bad she didn't find out earlier.
Emily looked a little embarrassed to admit it.
"They were rambling about mutants being evil." Edith's eyes widened as the brunette spoke "There was this guy in my class, John, he did this weird thing with fire. Fire! It was so awesome but everyone was so scared. He hasn't come back ever since."
Emily thought for a moment. Edith found her very mature for her age and smiled proudly.
"I don't know what's so wrong with mutants. If they're all as nice as you then they must be good."
"It's not about what species you are or are not." Edith had thought about it a million times "Who you are doesn't make you good or bad. I haven't met any mutants so I wouldn't know."
Emily noticed Edith's strong denial and frowned. Neither of them had ever called Edith a mutant. It was avoiding the obvious, the blonde knew it. But until someone pushed the facts onto her, Edith would not accept it.
"What happened then?" the older sister asked.
"Oh, right!" Emily focused "I defended John, obviously. I never really talked with him but he seemed like a nice guy. And then Sue and Luna said I had to be evil because I was taking his side! Can you belive that?"
Edith couldn't. Like she couldn't understand the hatred towards mutants.
"But its okay now. They apologised and we're back to being friends."
"I'm really happy for you." Edith smiled widely, hugging her sister tightly "Now! I challenge you to the ultimate battle of UNO! Prepare to have your ass beaten!"
Emily laughed and went back to pick her own cards up. Both teens sat in front of each other as the game continued smoothly.
"Ellen and I argued too." Edith mentioned.
"Oh? That's so bad." Emily pouted. She was secretly thankful, Edith didn't let her in when it came to her life outside their house "Have you talked it out? It helped me!"
"We haven't." Edith put her cards in order quietly, dropping a special one "We will, though."
"Good! Everything's going alright for the two of us."
Edith guessed the younger was right.
°°°°°°
A week passed by before Edith's time was up and she was practically forced to attend her first classes. It started little by little, with Hank giving her private tuition about what she had missed in her senior year. Charles then stated to talk her into attending some of his speeches about physics. Edith accepted hesitantly. Not too soon afterwards, she was sitting in a classroom packed with students. It was as bad as she had expected.
Before Edith's mutation appeared and she had the wild idea of becoming a cheerleader, the blonde considered herself a good student. Maybe not the best, but certainly good. Specially when it came to psychics and chemistry. She always thought it was nice to study something that made so much sense. Although after two years of being nonchalant about her academic life (adding another one of being an executioner) Edith was rusty and felt like she was in middle school all over again. Everyone knew each other, she was a stranger. Someone who had just crashed in and expected her life to be different. Thankfully, Ororo and Jean helped her out a lot when it came to studying and Peter was around whether she had a break.
Kurt, though, was avoiding her. Which kind of pissed her off.
It soon became clear that the teen needed a lot more help than everyone originally expected. Between her whines about not being good enough and her insecurity in class, Hank McCoy and Charles Xavier ended up taking it upon themselves to manage the teen's education. Everyday Edith walked into the library early in the morning and Hank handed her book after book (science, literature, maths). Later on she'd go to class, and once it was over she would hang around Professor Xavier's office and he'd answer every doubt and question.
Then more lessons, eating and training in the bunker. It would've been monotonous and annoying if Edith didn't get to experiment and improve her powers more and more day by day.
Her beams of energy could now take different shapes, although she felt more comfortable with Hank's idea of a sword and Jean's of giant fists. Edith felt really proud of herself, she had never improved that much when it was Mr Taylor helping her out.
"EDDIE!" Peter's voice rang next to her ear, startling the sleeping teen. Studying greedily to get the best grades she could possibly get had kept Edith busy though she tried her best to finish as soon as possible. Which meant losing sleep, Edith was just like a normal high-schooler already, accidentally falling asleep in the library and everything.
"The hell, Peter?" Edith rubbed her eyes as Peter started picking up the book she had been reading.
"Astronomy? Boring. Come hang out with me." the silver haired male whined and tugged on her arm.
"I can't. I still have have to read four chapters." Edith argued back, trying to take the book out of his hands. She failed miserably, forgetting Peter was much faster than her "Besides, it's not boring. Astronomy rules, dumbnut."
Peter pouted.
"But, Eddie. We're going on a mission later today and we probably won't return in like a thousand years."
"Good. Then I'll be able to study."
"You're so mean." Peter sighed dramatically, hugging Edith out of the blue. The contact made her feel flustered and she tried to get away quickly, feeling extremely embarrassed "What if I die? Can't you give me something to remember you by in my last moments?"
"No." Edith deadpanned.
"You're awful." Peter faked wiping a tear away "I was so going to give you a souvenir and everything."
"You weren't."
"Okay, maybe I wasn't. But you don't have to rub it in."
Edith chuckled, picking up all of her books and putting them in her backpack. She knew about the mission, Jean had mentioned it, though she didn't know they were about to leave "Who's leaving with you?"
"Doctor McCoy, Jean, Ororo and Kurt." Peter answered quickly "We'll be back in a few days though, I hope Scott and you don't murder each other."
Edith rolled her eyes playfully and punched his shoulder before deciding to discard her reading and wondering where she could find her new friends. Social interactions weren't her forte but she guessed she should at least say goodbye, wish them luck and all of that. She made her way towards the Danger Room then.
The teen didn't know if she felt jealous about the X-Men and their missions. Sure, she wanted to go out and try her powers out. But maybe that was the problem, the trying. She couldn't possibly risk ruining the mission, so she kept quiet and hoped to improve quickly. Force fields and energy blasts came and went at her will now and she wasn't as tired whether she controlled gravity. Edith often wondered just how much she was able to do. She hadn't felt that greedy ever since Mr Taylor filled her with determination years ago. Charles Xavier had asked her to take it easy and she wondered if he knew something she didn't.
Edith walked into the control room of the Danger Room, where she found Logan and Raven monitoring the training. She remembered Logan from her rescue and Raven from TV. The blonde didn't really speak to neither of them much and only knew their names because Jean had done a very good job filling her in.
"Hey." Logan answered her with an angry grunt as Raven turned around surprised. Edith dropped her backpack and watched as the other teens practiced in harmony.
"Shouldn't you be in class?" the blue woman asked harshly.
Edith raised an eyebrow, tilting her head.
"I should, but I'm not." Raven opened her mouth, about to retort "The Professor gives me a free pass because I missed a year of high school. Chill."
Raven frowned at her, clearly displeased by her actitude. Although she seemed like she wanted to say something, she didn't.
Edith drew closer towards the window where part of the X-Men rehearsed their training. She had already seen them like that a few times already, although she felt impressed and awed everytime. Jean seemed to read her thoughts and turned towards her briefly, waving slightly before she went back to fighting (Raven scoffed, muttering a complaint about Edith distracting her students). Edith found Kurt and felt slightly sad about screwing things up with him.
"If you want to train, the kids are gonna be done in a few minutes." Logan turned to her, his face expressionless. Although he certainly looked bored. Charles Xavier probably assigned him no matter how much he complained.
Raven hummed, "Name?"
Edith pronounced her first and last name awkwardly, avoiding the blue woman's intense glare.
"I know her now. Charles told me about Duncan." she said to Logan. Somehow, she didn't make it sound like it was a good thing "She's under Hank's training. No Danger Room for her."
Logan grumbled "Who cares?" he then turned toward the short teen "Do you want to? I ain't got all day."
"Oh, no, no. Professor Xavier did actually say I'm not ready for that thing." she watched with a tremor as a flamethrower appeared out of nowhere extremely close to Jean "Give me a few years to prepare myself mentally."
"See? She's going to get herself killed."
Raven crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly distracted by a mistake Jean made. She scolded the redhead loudly, talking into a microphone.
Logan snorted: "Xavier's not here to stop you."
She expected him to continue with a "I'm stuck here anyway", but he didn't. Under Raven's disapproving glare, Edith considered it for a moment. She weighted her options (how high her ability with defence was, the whole gravity control...). With determined eyes, she nodded.
Somehow, Edith felt like Emily would've been really proud of her.
The teen looked at her clothes and found them good enough to risk to the danger room. Then sounded an announcement. Training session was over and Logan turned the level down. Edith peeked over his shoulder and checked the number. Four. Her friends had been training on a nine. The teen kind of felt thankful about the trust of any level higher than two.
"This is a mistake." Raven's words were ignored, although she did nothing to stop Edith and Logan.
"What are you waiting for?" as Logan spoke, Edith nodded quickly and rushed to greet the others.
°°°°°°
"What are you doing here, Eddie?" Ororo wiped the sweat from her forehead, looking surprised to see the blonde.
The blonde raised an eyebrow. Peter had seemed to spread the nickname he gave for her. Although it wasn't Peter's, it was Emily's. Edith didn't know if that filled her with homesickness or dread.
"Just wanted to say goodbye and wish you good luck." Edith smiled under Jean's, Ororo's and Kurt's eyes "Goodbye. And good luck."
"Peter told you." it wasn't a question. Edith nodded at the redhead.
Jean engulfed her in a quick yet warm hug. It didn't sound like the mission was dangerous, so Edith must've really slipped with her thoughts. Maybe Jean saw something weird and noticed the blonde needed some kind of comfort. Nevertheless, Edith felt really thankful towards the taller teen.
"You better give me some kind of souvenir. Peter said he wouldn't." the blonde's pout made Ororo snort.
"We're not going on a vacation."
"Still~" she whined. If her old friends saw her now they'd be looking at a very different person "I love The Who and though Jubilee is a genius when it comes to clothing she didn't buy any merch."
She wiggled her eyebrows jokingly.
"You're coming over later?" Jean chuckled as she asked. Edith nodded quickly "Good! I'll bring cornflakes if you bring the UNO cards."
Ororo's eyes widened "You're a telepath, Jean."
"Yep, but that won't be why I'll kick your asses."
Edith noticed Kurt busying himself to avoid even looking at her. It made her feel upset and abandoned, wondering if she had said something wrong.
"Girl scout, the Danger Room is ready. Get in." Logan's sarcastic voice was loud and startled the four teens.
Edith smiled timidly as both girls turned towards her, surprised expressions on their faces. The blonde noticed how one of Kurt's eyebrows rose then and he looked at her with worry. It was Ororo who spoke, though:
"I thought you weren't supposed to train without Doctor McCoy supervising you." she was teasing and Edith felt glad. She didn't really need the worry, she could handle herself. When she made eye contact with Kurt, he looked away and Edith decided not to bother with him.
Maybe the level four thing made her a little nervous. Wasn't she supposed to start from the beginning, level one? Perhaps, but with everyone watching over she wasn't about to ask to have it lowered.
Edith made her way inside the Danger Room and took a deep breath as the door closed behind her. She rushed and rolled her sleeves up, feeling as her arms tingled with energy. Whatever she was about to face, she felt ready.
Although there were no flamethrowers, a group of ten robots inched towards her. Edith tilted her head, feeling the space around each machine. Instead of lifting them, Edith narrowed her eyes and started to pressure the air around them, feeling their joints breaking. The metal made a horrible screeching sound, but Edith didn't lose her concentration and didn't stop until she felt they wouldn't move anymore. Once she thought it was over, the Danger Room surprised her with an arachnid-like robot. It was enormous and chills went up and back Edith's back as she watched it crawl towards her.
Before the blonde could react, the square where she had been standing lifted harshly, startling Edith. Her eyes widened and she fell to her knees, rolling out of the way once she noticed the platform wasn't about to stop. Panic filled her chest as she noticed she was falling headfirst towards the ground and Edith could only hope her instincts kicked in to save herself. Fortunately, her body stopped abruptly and the blonde realised she didn't have to focus as hard as she felt the space around herself.
Instead of using her gravity on the spider, she used it on herself, raising her body above the robot who hissed a metallic warning. It rose its long legs, threatening the teen. Edith fell on top of its cold and hard body, creating huge fists of energy the size of one of those big Earth globes from her geography class back in year nine. The spider's head snapped under the strength of Edith's energetic punch and fell to the ground, its body limp.
The door opened and the teen felt like that had been a joke.
"Wait, that's it?" Edith called out.
Jean gave her a grin and thumbs up.
°°°°°°
"That was too easy." Edith kept complaining a while later "You didn't lower the thing did you? I was totally capable of handling the four. I was not terrified or anything."
Jean and Ororo shook their heads.
The three of them had ended up in the redhead's and the silver-haired's shared room (there were many female and male rooms, most of them having between four and five beds. Edith was happy having her own), enjoying their last moments of free time before the X-Men (minus Scott, who had to stay behind because of some reason Edith didn't really care about. Small team or something) left do their thing. Rescue someone or something.
"It was still incredible. You've improved a lot." Edith beamed quietly at Ororo's praise. The older teen was really cool and Edith looked up to her. She kinda felt sorry about eating her ice cream.
Their UNO game was filled with complaints from Ororo and Edith whether they felt Jean prying inside their minds. The blonde tried her best to think about something, anything else, but it was hard when she was looking at the cards. In the end, Jean won.
"I haven't cheated, I swear." she said innocently, smirking as she kept talking "Though we should bet next time."
Before anyone could say anything else, the door opened and Kurt walked into the room.
"Jean, Ororo, doctor McCoy said-" he noticed Edith staring directly at him, a hard look in her big blue orbs. Kurt's eyes widened and he mumbled the rest of the phrase "We have to leave now."
As he bamfed away, Edith wondered what the Hell was wrong with him.