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 hair until I fell asleep.

I rolled over and looked at the alarm clock by the bed. It was five minutes after noon. 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 when I reached the bottom.


He smiled at me, “Hey there,” His hand shake was strong and hard, though something in his expression read that he didn’t mean for 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.”

“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 snapped just a bit, holding myself back as much as possible. “I’m pretty sure I’m old enough now that 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 ‘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 word safe that had bothered him. It was the word we used whenever we had to refer to the secret we shared… The reason he sent me away to begin with.

But I couldn’t stop myself; I went off. “Why haven’t you told them, Charles? Why haven’t you told your beloved students, the only family I have ever known, WHY you sent me away?! How can you keep this from them STILL, after all this time?! You can’t honestly believe they haven’t spent the last seven years wondering why I was EXILED from the ONLY HOME I’VE 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 and it seemed as though everything stopped.

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 sighed.

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. It wasn’t easy for Sarafina to discover this. She knew it would mean that she would die in childbirth, and her powers would pass on to her daughter.”

“…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. And Star discovered her powers by the time she was six. And even then, they were beyond anything I had ever seen before. Ever since then, it’s been a matter of suppressing them; any time she used her gifts, I found an excuse to make her believe it wasn’t actually her doing it.” Charles explained. “When she was thirteen, she started to figure out what I had been up to, and the only way to keep her from using them was to tell her the truth. I made her promise to keep it a secret, because if anyone discovered what she was, what she could do… It would be Eric and Rogue all over again, but on an even larger scale.”

“Before, 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 and legal guardian, so that she could leave the baby in my care. I said yes, but I refused to stop 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 like she never had before. Then… She was gone.”

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. But raising Star brought a piece of my heart back, I can say now. And seeing her last night, all grown-up and believing she has lost her abilities for good, has made me realize the seriousness of what I have done. Sending her away, the secret I made her keep… It’s no wonder she’s so angry. Hurt.”

“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.