Chapter Text
It started with a woman showing up one morning and asking for a tour. Her black eyes had been a tad eerie to the students and staff, but what was odder was Xavier’s inability to read her mind. His attempts to read her mind were useless. The probes seemed to bounce off her like raindrops on a windshield. She didn’t even seem to notice his mental probes. Medusa had smiled when she saw the woman, and all but demanded that he take over her class so she could finish the tour. Xavier hadn’t minded, and the two women swept out of the class. At the end, the woman was very impressed and asked if a few of her children could attend. It wasn’t until she left that Xavier realized that he’d had a goddess in his school.
The following Saturday, five students arrived at his school. All with the same green eyes and black hair. Medusa later revealed that the goddess in question was Hekate. All five students ended up bunking in the same room, one of the larger ones with two bunk beds and an extra twin.
One student that Mystique found accidentally was said to be able to talk to animals. More specifically, flies. Flies seemed to avoid her, unless she specifically called for them. Her name was Nissa Reza, and Medusa almost missed the fact that she was a demigod. A rare child of Myiagros.
Xavier had been gone when the next immortal arrived, or two immortals. Storm had given them a tour, completely unaware of their real names. It was Jean who figured it out when she couldn’t read their minds. Aarthi Rachna, daughter of Hygieia, could see germs and completely sanitize anything she touched. Despite being only twelve, she refused to allow anyone else to empty the dishwashers and sanitizers in their kitchen after she moved in. Asclepius’ two children, Lúcio António and Fabrice Anny, each came with a pet snake they could speak to and the ability to heal people with touch. Neither one of them was old enough to drive, but they took over as the school’s doctors. They still had to have an adult who was certified; Lúcio and Fabrice seemed to know more about the students' medical issues than most of the teachers.
Percy had brought the most interesting student. Rachel Elizabeth Dare was not a demigod or a mutant. Medusa was sure she was not a demigod, and a sequencing of her genes did not show the X-gene. Still, that did not make Rachel’s prophetic-like dreams and visions any less accurate.
It was almost 18 months after Percy arrived that one of the properties next door to the Institute listed itself for sale. Xavier had barely considered buying the property when it sold. It was terrifyingly fast, within an hour of being listed.
The next day, the company that bought the property donated the land to the school. It has a large house, nowhere near as large as the X-mansion, but still quite large. It was the land that was more available. It not only gave the school more cover, but it also allowed for expansion. With the influx of not only mutants but also demigods, the area was sorely needed. He and his staff had been debating what to do with the house and land when the other property next door sold. Xavier hadn’t even known it was for sale. He found out when that property was donated to him. So, now he had two extra houses and a total of 1,000 acres of school property.
They ended up going to the students and asking them what they wanted. They were already discussing it when he asked.
The Institute ended up becoming the school. Bedrooms were changed into small classrooms, private study rooms, and student offices. The other two houses ended up as living spaces, the students splitting themselves up into bedrooms. The kids dubbed the first mansion, the W-Mansion, and the second, the Y-Mansion. Mystique had laughed until she collapsed when the students announced the names. Storm wasn’t far behind. He simply rolled his eyes at the two.
As for the land, well, the students already had plans for that, too.
A greenhouse was drawn up, and not a small one. An industrial-sized glass greenhouse. The students had begged and swore they’d work to fund the supplies needed, so Xavier caved and submitted the plans on a Friday afternoon. Monday morning, before 10 am, they were cleared by the county. Tuesday afternoon saw a delivery of enough materials to build three greenhouses of that size. Materials that neither he nor his staff ordered. By the following Monday, one of those greenhouses was built. Jean had taken instructions from the designers and put together the materials over the weekend. The other two greenhouses were standing by the end of the month.
The next thing the students had begged for was a small farm. A few goats, sheep, maybe some chickens. Antonio managed to get the rest of the students to approve bees. Again, the students swore they’d take care of all the animals. A few students even did a presentation looking at the benefits of fresh eggs, honey, and goat's milk. Again, he caved. Submitted a request seeking approval for the building of a barn. It was approved just after lunch, and the building materials were delivered the next morning, just after 9 am.
Xavier wondered if he was going insane. The local government was never this fast, and he couldn’t figure out who was buying the materials. Medusa had taken one look at the donation receipts and answered his question. “You took in the children of the gods.” She was trying not to laugh too hard as she looked at him. “You gave them a home, where no one judges them for who their parents are and what powers they have. What did you think was going to happen?”
Xavier had just blinked at his immortal history teacher. Honestly, he hadn’t thought anything would happen. He’d get a few extra students who had powers, but no X-gene. What else would happen?
Apparently, a lot.
The barn had gone up a little slower than the greenhouses. Jean had stepped back so some of the other telekinetics could practice. A chicken coup was added next to the barn, and fencing was installed to keep the animals enclosed in the designated space. He shouldn’t have been surprised when the animals just showed up. They strolled down the driveway and out of the woods like they were invited.
Antonio had a dozen hives by the time summer hit. The students had enclosed a space off, a ways away from the house. They filled the fenced-off area with all kinds of wildflowers. It wasn’t only honeybees that lived there. The dedicated “Bee Zone” had several bumblebee colonies and hundreds of solitary mason and carpenter bees. Apparently, they all had names, and many had favorite students they sometimes hung out with. On the bright side, the Institute had never had so much honey available to them.
The summer didn’t just bring bees to the Institute. By the time the school year let out, they were practically at capacity. He suggested reopening bedrooms back in the main manor, but the students shot that down before he even finished speaking. The only answer they would accept was to build more houses. Because, of course, that was the logical thing to do. What he hadn’t expected was for the students to have already anticipated this problem. A dozen designs for smaller houses were presented to him 15 minutes after he brought up the capacity issue. Twelve designs for the W and Y manors, sox for each house, to form an oval. They were much smaller than the large mansions that came with the properties. The mansions had 14 and 17 rooms, and even more bathrooms. The newer houses were more like cottages, with six to four bedrooms and bathrooms, a living room, a kitchenette, a fireplace, and a front porch. There would only be two stories, with very small basements that held the necessary utility equipment, laundry, and some storage space.
Everything had been planned. Materials required, necessary forms already filled out, and the spaces already cleared of trees and brush. They’d even put markers down. Jean was already on board with building the places. Honestly, Xavier was surprised they even asked him for permission before starting. Once again, he turned in the forms to the county, and once again, they were all approved within the day. He wasn’t even surprised when the building materials arrived before the end of the day. What surprised him were the materials themselves.
A large pile of sea stones was found next to one of the house locations. The kind that had pieces of seashells and coral sticking out and visible. Another pile was made of logs, thick tree truck logs that had to be centuries old. A third pile was of adobe and terracotta bricks. A fourth pile of a shiny black rock he later discovered to be obsidian. It went on, with none of the new building materials being typical.
Percy had flagged down Mystique and Medusa a few days later, a shiny black credit card in hand. “An early birthday present from his step-mother”, he said. Percy, and a group of students who lived at the Institute full-time for one reason or another, left the next morning with their two chaperones. They came back fourteen hours later with a 20-foot-long U-Haul truck filled with furniture and a new student named Leo Valdez. Enough furniture to furnish all twelve of the new houses.
Xavier had done the best thing for his mental health after that development. He collected Hank and Havok and started looking into the mutant signatures that Cerebro had identified. He still had six weeks until the school year started, and he was not going to spend it at the Institute. It was plenty of time to contact more than a few families. Besides, there were almost a hundred new beds now. They didn’t have to be conservative about student numbers. It was a productive month for them. Xavier found almost thirty new mutants and had twenty-six students arriving around Labour Day.
Charles Xavier returned on August 25th, just over a week before the school year started, to find more than one change. The first surprise was the herd of winged horses in his backyard. A ways away from the X-Mansion was a stable that had not been there when he left. Apparently, they now offer riding lessons to students. The second surprise was the large pool behind the Y-Mansion. The third major surprise was the cobblestone walkways all throughout the property. All three mansions, the twelve cottages, the greenhouses, the stables, and all of the courts. It made travel around the expanded campus quite a bit easier for him now. Finally, there were all the solar panels on the W & Y mansions, the barns, and several of the cottages. Enough solar panels to power the whole of the campus. They no longer had to pay for electricity.
Mystique had given him the tour, smiling the whole time. There were several smaller changes he hadn’t immediately noticed. The small lake on the W-Mansions property had been cleaned up. A wooden dock had been added, along with a handmade fishing boat, and several canoes. The greenhouses were teeming with plants. Fruits and vegetables that don’t usually grow in this area or this time of the year. The barn had gained many new residents. It seemed the Xavier Institute gained some ducks, several unicorns, and a few cows in his absence. They had fresh milk daily now. Logan had created an intense obstacle course that he could change quite often. The summer students were already being made to run the course at least twice a week.
Mystique had also hired another staff member in his absence. Kyriakos Takis would teach career tech classes. It seems in his time away, another building was added to his campus. The students could take classes in woodworking, forging, construction, carpentry, glasswork, alongside the basics of electrical and plumbing work. Kyriakos had worked with Mystique and Storm to develop education plans for some of the students’ powers. Ways to use them that even he had never considered. They’d already emailed students, and all of the classes were full. Kyriakos was a tall man, almost seven feet tall and muscular, with one eye in the middle of his forehead. He called Percy his little brother.
Ella had also been hired. A small harpy with bright red feathers who lived in the attic above the library. She had alphabetized his entire library by author and made an online list of all available books. She even created a checkout and reservation system for his large book collection, and every student now had a library card. Her reference knowledge was immense, and she never forgot when a student didn’t return a book.
The tour had also revealed a little about how the students had split themselves up. W-Mansion seemed to draw in the outdoorsy students. The ones who wanted to have gardens, farms, and a lake to swim in. Y-Mansion held more homebodies. They had their Friday D&D nights, monthly board game tournaments, and there were at least seven partially finished puzzles around the house. The students still crossed over all the time. Nearly everyone went to the monthly board game tournaments. Everyone had visited the lake to swim or canoe at some point. That being said, the Y-Mansion students were quite happy to avoid the rooster wake-up call in the morning after staying up until 2 am, and the W-Mansion students loved the chaos that was their farm-like yard.
As the school year continued, Xavier noticed several small things. A rainbow seemed to always be in their backyard, ending in the fountain. The gardens always seemed to be weed-free and bountiful. Despite knowing the items were being used, the Institute never seemed to be out of Band-Aids, cough drops, or everyday painkillers like ibuprofen. As soon as the containers emptied, they just seemed to fill up again. ot just regular Band-Aids or cheap coughdrops. They always had a variety of Band-Aids, which included the much-desired glow-in-the-dark dinosaur Band-Aids and the ones with princesses on them. Dust didn’t seem to exist anymore, and the windows were perfectly clean no matter the weather. Xavier swears that he hasn’t seen a single fly in months. The Institutes’ annual flu season passed without a single sniffle.
More obviously were the deliveries. Fresh, non-local fruits like lychees, kumquats, rambutans, dragon fruits, jackfruits, langsats, and more would appear every Monday morning in the dining hall. On the first of every month, a pile of cheese would appear in the X-Mansions' kitchen. The usuals like cheddar, Swiss, parmesan, feta, and provolone were always there. Alongside them were flavored goat cheeses, camembert, roquefort, and Havarti. Usually, there was one or two rare kinds of cheese. One month, it was the Mish cheese from Egypt. Next, the Brie Noir cheese from France. The third month had picked Nakládaný Hermelín cheese from Czechia for the delivery. Most recently was yak cheese. Antonio leads a cheese night on the first Thursday of every month now that students have started asking questions about the more unique cheeses.
Every other Sunday saw a meat and fish delivery to the same deep freezer that just appeared that first Sunday in September. Not typical meats either, he still had to buy large amounts of lunch meats from Costco. This meat was venison, elk, caribou, moose, wild boar, rabbit, duck, pheasant, quail, and more. It always changes. A few times, rarer meat like alligator, snake, emu, or kangaroo was left for them. The Sunday before Thanksgiving, they had five whole turkeys left in the kitchen. Following Antonio’s lead, Amelia Fox, a new student from Australia and a child of Britomartis, had a monthly BBQ night. She’d fry up whatever lesser-known meat was delivered so students could try it. Xavier had decided that snake meat was not for him. Most of the students agreed.
The students had made some changes as well. The demigod students had started giving sacrifices in a brazier he added in the dining hall. Soon, his mutant students started to do so as well. Not all of them, but many of them. Ancient Greek seemed like a secret language amongst the students. The demigods instinctively know the spoken and written language and teach it to the rest of the students. It was distinctly different from modern Greek, but similar enough that it made his head spin sometimes. Hearing words he knows he should understand, but can’t. The students seemed more aware of nature as well. Finding out that trees were alive does change one's opinion regarding nature. The students still used their powers freely, but they took more care when potentially altering the environment.
Sometime in the end of October, he notices a woman in the backyard, speaking to one of his telepathic students. He feels his heart skip a beat when his mental probes are bounced off, just like with Hecate almost a year before. He hunts down Medusa, who is completely unbothered. “That is Psyche, you could not ask for a better therapist for the children.” Her gaze fixes on him in that way that reminds him of how old she really was, "or for the adults. I know Logan has talked to her a few times.”
He had blinked at her. “Psyche?”
“The Goddess of the Soul and Mind. She’s also Lily’s mother. She’s the telepath you found in Texas last March. She’s been visiting on and off for the past six weeks. An unofficial therapist for the students. She talks to everyone, not just the demigods. I’ve asked them about it. They all seem to like her, and they feel safe talking to her.” Xavier blinks and then nods. If the students were happy, Psyche could visit as often as she wanted.
The most valuable was the gift of their knowledge. They had quietly taken a whole box of brochures from his office one day without a word. He wondered why until the first mutant showed up. A younger girl, just shy of thirteen, showed up one morning, one of his brochures clutched in her webbed hands. Her parents had kicked her out after she couldn’t hide the webbed hands and gills any longer. She said a hippy woman gave them the brochure with an organic muffin one morning. After she tried to throw the brochure away, it flew in her face repeatedly, until she agreed to go to the school. Percy, Cordelia, & Adrianna swooped in and claimed her for their cottage before the day was out.
She was the first mutant that the Greek world sent his way. She was nowhere near the last. Typically, they were young mutants with very active powers like Scott’s, or they were mutants who had been kicked out of their house when their powers were revealed. Each one showed up with a brochure they swore they couldn’t get rid of. Many of them say that a hippy woman in a tie-dye shirt gives them the brochures alongside organic and vegan muffins. However, a few say that a doctor they had never met before gave it to them after seeing their mutant traits. One says that a substitute dentist gave her the brochure. Another says that a bee remover gave him the brochure when he stopped at the family home. Antonio is thrilled when he learns that the younger boy can talk to insects; he practically steals the 10-year-old from his parents. Xavier has to do a lot of calming with that couple.
With each child that arrives, the school's belief in the Greek world grows. Outside the school, the beliefs aren’t obvious. All three mansions have brazers in the main dining area, and he knows all of the smaller cottages have the brazers as well. They never seem to go out or get smaller. Students seem to pray or give sacrifices. Food at meal times, thank you notes after therapy sessions, or helpful gifts, larger items around ancient festival dates. A few students start to wear pendants, and smaller shrines appear in important places. The medical wing has three shrines on its own. The main kitchen has four. The kids beg for an ancient Greek class, which Medusa eventually caves to. Xavier attended a few of the lectures. The information was far more interesting when you know the person speaking lived through many of the events.
Still, Xavier had not been expecting Rachel to drop in the middle of the dining hall one day and recite a literal prophecy to the student body. Even more unexpected was the immediate arrival of a man who looked exactly like Percy, but older.
“Percy,” Poseidon, because it had to be, says, “We need to talk about your 16th birthday.”