Secrets in the Stars

I woke up the next morning quite late. I had fallen asleep the night before in Uncle X’s bed, crying my eyes out for… I’m not sure how long. He stayed by my side, stroking my head until I fell asleep.

I rolled over and looked at the alarm clock by the bed. It was five minutes after noon; time to get up. I stumbled out of bed and looked around. Everything was in exactly the same place as I had seen it last. Nothing had changed, even in five years.

My feet carried me to the door and led down to the staircase where I had ran into Scott and Jean the day before. At the bottom of the stairs I could see Scott, Jean, and Storm still arguing about my arrival. The Professor was next to them, discussing something with someone who had their back turned towards me. When Uncle X looked up at me, so did the others.

I saw the man, then. Someone who I hadn’t seen at the school before. He had a huge, muscular build—he looked as though he wouldn’t have to get a running start before beating down a door. His arms were folded across his chest, which was covered by a brown leather jacket and a white tank top. His dark brown hair was standing up on the sides. The guy was gorgeously intimidating, to say the least.

“Logan,” Xavier said, “This is my goddaughter Star. Star, this is Logan. He also goes by ‘the Wolverine.’”

The look on his face was as if he wasn’t sure what to make of me, but Uncle X suddenly added,

“Logan, please shut your mouth and don’t drool over her, thank you.”

I blushed and made my way down the stairs. I held out my hand for him to shake it when I reached the bottom, realizing how much taller than me Logan was, even though he was at about an average height. My face began to turn a deeper shade of red; at five feet, one inch, I hated how short I was.
Logan didn’t seem to mind. He smiled at me, “Hey there,” His hand shake was strong and hard, though something in his expression read that he didn’t mean it to be. “I’m sorry the Professor didn’t tell me about you before, or vice versa.”

“I’m not,” Uncle X muttered.

I smiled back, “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what else to say.

“Star,” Xavier looked up at me, a serious look on his face. “We need to talk.”

I had a feeling that the conversation wouldn’t be going smoothly.

*
“I never told you it was safe for you to come back here,” Xavier said coldly.

We were in the biology class room, just off of the greenhouse. I was watering the flowers, trying my best to stay calm. The other Professors and Logan had joined us. Of course, he had to have his trusty X-Men watch me—to make sure I wouldn’t run away before or during the impending confrontation.

“I’ll be twenty-one in a week, Xavier,” I snapped just a bit, holding myself back as much as possible. “I’m pretty sure I don’t need to ask your permission before making my own choices.”
Scott grunted in aggravation and I ignored him.

“You may almost be of legal drinking age, but that doesn’t mean you understand the gravity of making a choice like this, Star. I sent you away to keep you safe. With the enemies we all have made…“ He looked around at his team.

I spoke before he could continue. “Look, Uncle Xavier,” Logan snorted at the name and Storm gave him a dirty look. “I get it. I do. You have a school full of kids with incredible powers who can handle danger. And then there’s me—“

“That’s not what this is about—“

“—And you don’t have the time or the means to keep me, one average, normal person, safe.”
Xavier looked at me with hurt eyes, as if I had just forced a bee to sting him. I think it was my emphasis on the words “normal” and “average” that had upset him.

Finally, I went off. “I knew it. I always, ALWAYS knew why you sent me away, Professor.” He hated it only when I called him that. “You’ve always been disappointed about how I ended up being so ‘perfectly normal’, especially after my mom was so powerful. You wanted me to be just like her, right? Well guess what? SO DID I! I didn’t ask to be born into a world of heroes! I didn’t ask to be raised by the best of them all!” Tears were streaming down my face. “But that doesn’t mean I deserved to be exiled from the only home I had EVER KNOWN!”

Suddenly, I realized that the lights had been flickering and the walls were shaking. Everyone was looking back and forth, from me to the Professor. I took a deep breath as soon as everything stopped.

Jean spoke up almost immediately. “Sorry, my telekinesis acts up when people start yelling…”

Well, that was new. Emotions never really controlled her powers before. At least, not often.
I turned on my heal and stormed off, the X-Men no longer attempting to prevent me from leaving.
*

Charles looked down at his hands in his lap, stunned. “It’s happening…” He muttered to himself quietly.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Logan demanded. “Jean, you—“

“It wasn’t me.” She retorted.

Everyone looked over at Charles, who was trying desperately to remain cool and collected. But
his shaking hands were giving him away. “I…” Words were escaping him.

“Xavier! What was that—“ shouted Scott.

“PLEASE!” Charles exclaimed, covering his face with his hands. “Please…” He had to think. He had to reassess the plan—what was he to do now? She hadn’t been away long enough… Not long enough to stop it. Stop it from happening.

“Stop what from happening, Professor?” Jean asked him. She had been listening in on his thoughts, rather accidentally.

He felt as though his heart had stopped. The truth was going to come out eventually, and there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it. Especially now.

Charles took a long, deep breath, trying to decide if telling the X-Men was the right thing to do. Usually, making the right choice came so naturally to him—but now? This wasn’t the kind of circumstance where any choice could be made easily.

Charles thought hard for a moment, then took a deep breath and began to speak, “In my life, I have sacrificed much, and I have done so to not only protect the mutant population, but the people I love. But I fear that this time, I have sacrificed too much, and have failed to protect the one person who needed my protection the most.”

“Star…” Storm sighed.

Charles nodded and continued. “In our lives, we have to make choices. We can choose to do what’s right, or we can follow another path. I like to believe that in my life, I have decided to follow the path of goodness, because I believe it is the most important. But now I know… I haven’t followed it. Not when it comes to my goddaughter.

“When her mother arrived at the school twenty years ago, I was immediately captivated by her. Sarafina was enchanting—gifted with her abilities in a way I couldn’t believe for someone who had kept them a secret for so long. Every move she made came so naturally—as if she never had to second guess herself. It wasn’t something I had ever seen before… Confidence in herself and what she could do, not fear of it, and absolutely no rage in her. For someone so young, who had been through so much, Sarafina seemed as if she had only been touched by the light of Heaven… An angel walking among us.”

Logan was shocked. “You make it sound as though you were in love with her.”

Charles looked at him seriously, saying nothing. Logan gulped.

Charles went on, his head flooded with memories, eyes clouding over with tears. “She had learned early on about the passing of the women in her family; it was the reason her father abused her. She looked into it as much as she could—the women in her family had a history of dying during the births of their daughters. Sometimes, it would skip generations. When she got pregnant, Sarafina became desperate for an answer, terrified that her powers had something to do with it all.

“Eventually, she tracked down her only living relative on her mother’s side, who confirmed that the women of her family were ‘cursed’ with a great power, and their deaths could only skip generations when the women were raised without knowing of their abilities. If, by their twenty-first birthdays, they had gone without knowing of their powers and showing no signs of them, they could lead normal lives.”

“…That’s why you sent her away, isn’t it?” Scott asked. “If Star didn’t know about her powers, she could live a long, normal life. But living here—“

“Made her search within herself for something ‘special,’ yes.” Charles answered. “It wasn’t easy for Sarafina to discover this. She knew it would mean that she would die in childbirth, as her powers would pass on to her daughter.”

“But you said ‘curse,’ Professor,” inquired Jean. “A mutant ability shouldn’t be so powerful as to cause generations of death during labor, right?”

Charles nodded. “That’s what I thought, so I did my best to find answers. I used all the money and influence I could to find the man, the Uncle who told Sarafina about the ‘family curse.’ By the time I found him, he had passed away, and Sarafina was only weeks away from her due date. I needed an answer… She said she was at peace with it, and asked me to be Star’s godfather, so that she could leave the baby in my care. I said yes, but I refused to keep looking. Eventually, I found the answer, but not before I could save the woman I loved.

“Sarafina’s labor was one of the darkest days I could remember. Lightning in the sky, the hardest rain I could remember. The sky was completely black, except for the northern star and the brightest full moon I had ever seen. Sarafina turned to me and smiled… She asked me to name the baby Star. And in her final push, she heard her baby cry—took one look at her daughter and smiled ear to ear. Then… She passed away peacefully.”

Charles stopped for a moment and let himself cry. He was silent, but there was no hiding his tears. When he began to speak again, his voice was as calm as it had been before. “When Sarafina died, I felt like my heart had gone with her. I kept her secret, about the women in her family dying during childbirth because of their powers, and I made it my mission to keep Star safe from that fate—and to bury the secret of their family with her mother… Who never got to know why herself.

“But raising Star brought a piece of my heart back, I can say now. And seeing her now, knowing that I can’t keep her from her powers… It makes me realize the seriousness of what I have done.”

“What’s the secret, Professor?” Jean asked, concerned.

“Star… Isn’t a mutant. She’s not even human.”

The whole room became deadly silent, as if someone had sucked the air out of the room.

“…Then what is she?” Logan demanded to know.

“Something… Dangerous…” Charles said.

And then, he revealed the truth—something he thought he would never do.

Notes