Chapter 040 – Devious

[2009 – June]

Opening the Professor's office door after knocking and being called in, Jean saw him sitting behind his office desk in his wheelchair.

"You wanted to see me, Professor?", Jean asked.

"Ah, Jean, come in please.", Charles greeted.

Doing as he asked, she closed the door behind her, before sitting down on the right one of the two chairs standing before his desk.

"I have heard about yesterday's mission from Ororo and your teammates, Jean.", Charles began, causing her hand to tighten their grip on the armrest as he continued, "I know how traumatic it can be to encounter a case like that and I do understand your anger. But you know that the X-Men only exist to help people in need, not to pose as judges and executioners, don't you, Jean?"

"I know.", Jean said, a trace of anger in her tone, "But that doesn't mean that I have to be happy about just letting them off like that."

Sighing audibly, the Professor voiced out: "Alerting the authorities would have only led to the girl being sent to an orphanage where she might have not been better off. Giving her a new home, where she is safe and secure, while not having to be afraid of being special, don't you think that is worth more than seeing her parents be punished?"

Jean couldn't help but realise how hollow the Professor's words sounded after she had 'seen' and 'felt' the memories of the girl and her parents, and the vile evil that hid under their human skin.

Elijah's words rang through her mind, as she thought about those events.

…

"It's about consequences, Jean. I could live with the burden of having taken their lives, but knowing that I could have stopped them from hurting someone again and not having done so, is a much harsher truth to live with."

…

An angry look in her eyes, Jean questioned the old man before her: "What about if they hurt another child, Professor? Will you simply send us again to pick it up and leave them be? And what about after the next one? And the one after? You are right that we shouldn't play judge and executioner, but isn't it our goal to protect these children, instead of just taking care of them after they were mistreated?"

"Killing for what you think are the right reasons, doesn't mean it's right to kill someone, Jean. This path is one that leads to darkness, slowly but surely, until you can't even differentiate between right and wrong. It's a vengeful path that ends with you turning into something, you can't even recognize anymore.", the Professor explained in a soft and gentle tone, but his voice didn't manage to find the resonance inside her that had been there before.

…

The Phoenix had to give it to the old telepath, even it – a cosmic entity, that had devoured whole galaxies once – had never met someone as devious as him.

Normally it was easy for one telepath to create mental barriers in the head of another being, but if the target was another telepath then it wasn't so easy as all telepaths were inherently resistant to such things. And when the target was an even stronger telepath, then most normal strategies wouldn't work at all.

It was why the old telepath had been using methods even the Phoenix found repulsive, as he had laid down barriers that were linked to Jean's emotions, especially anger, as only a barrier with a strong enough foundation would persist over long periods of time.

The really devious part was that by using mental tricks and hypnosis, he had installed trigger words, for example, darkness, right, and revenge, to have her subconsciously power those mental barriers herself and suppress her feelings of anger.

But this time, as the Phoenix heard the old telepath use his trigger words while listening in on her host's conversation with him, it was the cosmic being that laughed deviously.

Thanks to Jean subconsciously tapping into her power several times over the last two days, the Phoenix had managed to access Jean's mind without having to break through all these mental barriers first.

And the first thing it had done, was to turn all triggers and suppressors to ash so that the mental blocks in Jean's mind wouldn't be able to grow anymore and her anger was no longer incapacitated.

With Elijah's protection of her mind, Jean would soon be completely unshackled and there was nothing that the bald telepath could do to stop that.

…

Hearing about darkness, right and wrong, while her strong mind forced her to remember the burn scars on the nine-year-old girl's back forever, Jean couldn't help but find it ridiculous.

Elijah had been right, this wasn't about good and bad but about consequences.

Being wholly disillusionised and having come to a decision, Jean stood up from her seat and locked eyes with the elderly man across the table as she stated with calm anger: "You're wrong, Professor. If by following your rules, I can do nothing but hope that they will not hurt another child, instead of acting and preventing such a thing from happening for sure, then I no longer want to be an X-Men."

Shock appeared on the Professor's face, as he hurriedly voiced out: "Jean, I am sure we can fin-"

"Please tell, Ms. Munroe that I will not be attending her lessons anymore. I will tell my team the news myself.", Jean interrupted the Professor, as she simply turned around and left the office, ignoring his voice calling out to her.

…

Feeling his telepathy being rebuffed by an impenetrable barrier as he tried to reach the young Miss Grey, Xavier was shocked that none of his tricks worked even after he was forced to try and calm Jean down using such underhanded means.

His words, whether they be verbally or mentally spoken simply didn't reach her anymore.

For more than ten years he had known the girl, but this was the first time he had so utterly failed to connect with her.

Leaning back into his chair, Xavier sighed as he thought about how wrong this meeting had just gone.

From his initial attempt to pacify Jean, after having felt her inner turmoil yesterday via Cerebro until she had just quit her position as an X-Men recruit.

This was a complete disaster, as Jean was quite possibly the most powerful mutant on this entire planet, and losing her as an X-Men would leave others, like Erik or Emma, the chance to recruit her.

Charles' thoughts couldn't help but turn towards the one he believed responsible for what had occurred in his office only minutes ago – Elijah Frost.

He remembered clearly the feeling of his mind barrier and it was the same that now shielded Jean's mind from his interference. The young man had obviously learned to defend the minds of others even without being present, which was an amazing and very problematic thing in itself.

Jean had also spent the last night with the boy, where they had no doubt talked about her mission and it was probably at that point that her mental blocks had started to fail.

It was not surprising, as this had happened several times over the years since he had taken Jean into his care. It was easy enough to fix it with a few minor uses of his telepathy.

But this time he couldn't even enter her mind at all, which meant Jean's mental blocks would only continue to deteriorate and considering what they protected her from, Xavier was sure that this would have grave consequences.

Thinking about it, Xavier realized that his only chance was to convince Elijah to cooperate with him, which shouldn't be too hard. Considering his infatuation with Jean, Elijah was sure to do as he was told to, to keep Jean safe.

Though it would probably be for the best to let the situation cool down for a few hours to avoid unnecessary suspicion, so Xavier planned to have a talk with the boy later that day.

[A/N: 'What a bad Professor! How could he?!' Well, if any of you know just a bit about his comicbook-self, you should know that this is rather mild in contrast.

Still, this is a very slow-paced story so don't just judge the characters on a few short appearances. They may seem deviant and such, but things aren't that simple most of the time. The Professor may seem very evil but his motives and reasons are not something that can judged so easily.

He had done to Jean largely out of fear and helplessness, as he had realized that incredible danger the Phoenix Force represented if left uncontrolled and in the hands of a young child. Jean could have easily killed millions if angered while in a large city, not to mention that the Professor was also worried that she might get possessed by whatever force had been hidden in her body.

Does this excuse his actions, past and present? I honestly don't know, though I guess this depends from which perspective you look at it. Though from Elijah's perspective, who holds great affection for Jean, well, you can guess what he thinks about the Professor just messing with her mind.]