Secrets in the Stars

“She’s unconscious,” Steve said, glancing up at everyone. His eyes fell back down at the girl in his arms and he brushed some of her long, colorful hair out of her face. Something about the girl in his arms was… Enchanting. He couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off of her.

Charles moved to her side with Logan in tow. “Take her, Wolverine,” He commanded. “We need to get her home before things get any worse.”

Logan reached for Star, but Steve held onto her a little tighter, standing up and taking a few steps away from the mutant.

“You really don’t want to do that, bub,” Logan snarled.

“I think I do,” snapped Steve.

That was when Logan raised his fist into the air; a sharp “snikt” sound rang through the air as long, impossibly sharp sets of claws released from his hands; from between his knuckles, more accurately.

Logan pointed the set on his right hand towards Steve and gestured with his left, “Give me the girl before this gets any uglier.”

Clint Barton suddenly appeared with a bow from behind Steve. “Oh, I don’t believe it could get any uglier.”

Logan pulled back his balled fist and moved to hit—until thunder roared above them and Storm spoke, “Boys, I think it’s time to relax.” Her eyes had gone white and chances were she would strike down a bolt of lightning at any moment.

Logan put his fists down by his hide (without putting his claws away) and Clint lowered his bow. They kept watch of each other with Steve continuing to hold onto Star.

“We’re going to be needing some sort of explanation before we hand her over, Charles,” said Tony. “Clearly there is something happening with this girl that you’ve been trying to keep a secret for years. That’s why it took me so long to find anything on her when she was a kid. You’ve kept her under lock and key, even when you sent her to the other side of the country. You’re hiding something.”

“And what concern of that is your’s Stark, I wonder?” Charles snapped. “You gave my goddaughter a place to sleep when she was a fifteen year old runaway. That is all.”

“I also gave her some advice, in case you didn’t hear the whole story. But my guess is that you never actually ‘heard’ it at all.” Tony was clearly making a comment on Charles’ psychic abilities.

Charles glared at his opposite—the Stark family had quite the history with his cause. Howard had wanted something once… Something Charles had refused to give him. Charles thought for a moment, that perhaps Tony didn’t know of his father’s actions. Chances were he didn’t know much about Howard at all, considering how Howard spoke of Tony during those days. But even still, Tony’s attitude and previous life choices hadn’t helped Charles’ opinion of the Stark’s change. He was willing to admit that Tony was doing some good for the world—well, until Ultron appeared, of course.

“Tell me, Mr. Stark,” Charles began. “What exactly is your interest in my goddaughter? The tabloids say you’re taken, so… ‘Romance’ can’t be your end game. Or… Do you not even know what it is you see in her?”

Tony was taken back by this. For seven years, he thought of this girl. Not always—not everyday, but often enough that he wondered when, or if, she would come back into his life. No, he didn’t know why he thought about Star; the “why” wasn’t something he had felt the need to overly analyze. But now the question had really taken shape in his mind. Did Charles have the answer?
 “Why…” Tony began. “Why come after her now? This time? Because you’re right—there is something about Star that gets to me. And something about her has kept me quite interested in your secrets, Professor. For seven long years I’ve had questions and, well, I’m not a man who deals well with an unfinished puzzle—“

“Right, Stark,” said Charles. “And didn’t that lead to the creation of Ultron?”

Tony chuckled. “Yeah, you got me there. I screwed up—I’ve screwed up a lot. But clearly, over the last few years, I’ve been trying really hard to make up for my mistakes. And I’m going to make up for another one right now; you’ll either tell Star the truth, and you’ll tell us who she is, or I’ll put her someplace safe—and it’ll be far away from you.”

Logan moved swiftly over to Tony, taking an arrow from Clint as he pressed a set of claws under Tony’s neck. He used his free hand to pull out the arrow, letting his healing factor handle the wound.

“You’re REALLY going to need to rethink that idea.” Logan snarled.

“STOP, LOGAN!” Xavier shouted.

Logan turned his head slightly toward the Professor, realizing the beautiful red-head had a gun pointed at the back of his.

“You can go ahead and pull that trigger, sweetheart.”

“You really want that?” asked Natasha.

“Sure. Wouldn’t be the first time I took a bullet to the brain.”

“Oh really?” She asked sarcastically.

“Healing factor.” It was all he had to say.

“LOGAN!” Xavier shouted again. “I SAID STOP!”

Natasha, slightly confused, lowered her gun and Logan put his claws away. He turned to Charles and walked over to him. “This is ridiculous.” He muttered.

Steve took Star and walked over to the nearest couch, getting her into a comfortable position with her head in his lap. He felt an overwhelming need to protect her, and to keep her close. But he had questions of his own; he had never seen people like these before.

“I’m not going to ask you again, Professor,” Tony had reached his limit. “Who is she?”

“I’m afraid you’re asking the wrong question, Stark.” Charles said, watching Captain America cradle his goddaughter. “It’s not ‘who’ is she; it’s ‘what’ is she.”

***
My eyelashes fluttered open at an unknown hour, completely unsure of where I was. I couldn’t remember much from the night before, just that the last thing I had seen were the stunning blue eyes of Captain America.

Once I sat up, I began to observe the room. It didn’t take me long to realize it was almost exactly the same as the room in Tony’s apartment five years ago, only the set-up was a little different, as was the view.

I was still in Avengers Tower.

But almost the second my feet touched the floor, the door opened. Xavier entered, and flashbacks of the night before ran across my mind like a wildfire in a dry field. Yet, words couldn’t come out of my mouth, almost at all. I was thinking too hard and feeling as though I was about to have a panic attack.

The Professor entered alone, which seemed a little unlike him lately. It was almost as if he was afraid to be alone with me sometimes.

He was completely silent until he reached stairs at the bottom of the platform that the opulent bed sat on. He looked up at me, tears in his bloodshot eyes. My heart sank, but my head raged. I wanted to reach out and hug him, to cry my eyes out like I was a little girl again. But my eyes simply narrowed at my godfather, my entire body shaking just as it had the night before.

“What?” I barked. Apparently I couldn’t control my mouth as well as my body.

“Star, as I said yesterday, we need to talk.” His eyes were sad, as well as his voice.

“We already had that talk, remember?”

“No, we left it quite unfinished.” Before I could say anything, he spoke up, “I told them, Star. Everyone. Even Stark and his Avengers.” He looked away from me and down at his hands, which were trembling in a way I had never seen them do before. “I have asked you to keep many secrets, my dear. And those secrets have cost much; now I fear that they may cost me you—and that is something I couldn’t bare.”

I had never seen my godfather, my Uncle X, like this before. He looked as though he was suffering; emotionally destroyed. “What is going on, Uncle X?” My tone had finally softened. I felt as though I had some control again.

“Star, when we agreed that you would leave the school, my only hope was that you could find a normal life, and never get in touch with your powers. Since becoming your parent, my only goal has been to make sure you lived a long and happy life.”

I had heard this speech so many times before. “I know, Uncle X. That’s why I’ve stayed away for so long. I waited until I was twenty one, just like you said. I’ll be twenty-two next week! And I haven’t had an incident with them in years. I’m sure they’re gone.”

I tried my absolute best to smile through the pain I was feeling. I grew up in the company of the world’s most extraordinary people, never getting the chance to harness my own abilities or experience the same kind of elation the other students did when they realized they had control. Growing up in that world was always hard… Especially once I knew the truth about me.

According to Charles, I had gifts that could change the world, but using them meant I would die, because I wasn’t human… What exactly I was, we didn’t know.

Suddenly, Xavier said, “I wanted you to live a normal life, and the only way that could happen would be to make sure you never knew what you really were. But the older you got, the more your powers began to show… I covered it from you as much as possible, using the powers of the students and the teachers as an excuse whenever you showed yours. Like last night, with the storm—that wasn’t Storm, it was you. You caused the rain, the lightning that caused a power outage in the lower half of New York City. But manipulating weather isn’t all you can do… From what I know, you can do anything.”

“…What? I—” I was stunned.

“Star,” Xavier interrupted me. “There’s more—“

I stopped him, “You’re kidding, right?” I could feel my entire body filling with rage. “How on earth can there POSSIBLY be more? More what—secrets, lies? Excuses for why you let me feel like a freak in the only home I would ever know? You told me FOR YEARS that you KNEW I’d be safe by now, as long as I NEVER used my powers! But you knew… You KNEW there was no stopping it!”

Xavier was quiet for a long while, and I could see tears dripping down his face. His sadness was somehow fueling my fire; the walls around us began to shake, and I knew now that it was me.

“That’s not the only thing I kept from you, Star.”

The walls stopped shaking; I began to listen very closely.

Xavier sighed, continuing. “It took years to find out what you are, Star. By the time I did, I had already made up my mind about keeping you from finding it out yourself… It was something far more dangerous than even I had predicted. It’s why I sent you away… I couldn’t ever risk you finding out. It was better to have you believe we’d never know anything more than that you’re not human. But Star, I know now how huge a mistake that was. You see, your existence isn’t even based on science… What do you know about magic?”

My blood was boiling, but I kept my composure. “Besides what I’ve read in Harry Potter? Nothing, because it doesn’t exist.”

“When you were a little girl you didn’t believe that. You believed in everything.”

It was my turn to be quiet now.

“In the world of magic, their belief in the elements—Water, Earth, Fire, and Air—and how they interact isn’t far from what we believe in science. There must be balance; harmony. As far back into history as I could go, I discovered a ‘forgotten’ element—the reason there are five points drawn on a star. That element is Spirit. It has no form… Well, had no form.

“Hundreds of years ago, the Spirit element disappeared. It could no longer be harnessed. It’s been said that it disappeared because people were mistreating and misusing the element, abusing the immense power it could bring. So, the Spirit element took a form… A human form. From what I could find, her name was Elea. The form originally had consciousness, knowing what it—she—was. She discovered that in a human form, she could learn to control the other elements, and after control of the elements came so much more—the details of that I’ve never been clear on. As time wore on, Elea’s connection with humanity overcame her. She fell in love, she had a family. The women in your family lost touch with their abilities, and somewhere along the way the choice came to be; live a normal, mortal life, or connect with what you truly are. The history is unclear is certain places… I’ve tried everything to decipher it all. But, I guess, all that really matters is that you know what you are.

“Star, you’re not human because you are the physical embodiment of the element of Spirit. Some would call you a witch, but more so you are what witches and wizards of old tried to master and control. Your power, at least the potential for it, is limitless. You are essentially the only proof of the existence of magic. You are the most dangerous, most powerful, and most coveted being on this planet—possibly in this galaxy. Now that you know the truth, you can finally choose your own path. And Star, my dear… My daughter, I want you to know how sorry I am for keeping the truth from you for so long. Please, forgive me.”

Xavier began to sob. I put my head in his lap and cried with him…

Everything Xavier had said was overwhelming. I felt my stomach twist and turn, my heart somehow racing and not even beating at the same time. I’ll admit, I always wanted to be a mutant—to be like the heroes I admired and the kids I was raised with. I wanted to train with the X-Men and become a superhero.

But this? This was too much. I wanted to be part of the next step of evolution, not literally made of… Magic.

Here I was, being handed a dream; something from right out of the pages of one of the books I read as a lonely child.

And I was a coward… Terrified of it all.