"Wait Scott." Ororo was the first one who tried to stop Cyclops but she was quite far away. Nobody else was fast or brave enough to go toward Cyclops just when he was opening his visor for an all-out laser blast.

But 'miraculously' the laser never hit Xavier, not because someone had stopped him but because Scott was currently closing his eyes with a dazed calm expression on his face as the professor in front of him was sitting on his chair concentrating with the classic pose of his own forehead with two fingers.

Everyone present already had varied expressions on their faces when the professor's 'betrayal' to his students was revealed but now seeing him taking control of Scott's mind to save himself surprised them even more.

Although the action was actually very normal considering that Charles was just trying to save his own life, the simple show of power of taking away their free will so easily however reminded everyone present how easily accessible all their minds were to the professor. How completely defenseless they were to the do-gooder. This just increased their own subconscious fear and suspicion of Xavier.

None of them were too keen on anyone messing with their minds and memories. They weren't happy with the fact that their memories were or could be manipulated according to the professor's wishes.

They even began to doubt how many more of their own memories the professor had manipulated, suppressed, or straight-up erased.

"What you had done to your own students against their will and wishes could in one way be referred to as mind-rape, a heinous crime that is as disgusting as its physical version. You professor are a criminal even if you do not admit it, similar to your friend Magneto.

He too had his own ideology which he placed before everything else. He could go to any lengths to succeed in his dreams. That made him blind to how he was behaving, changing, and being twisted by his own ideology just like you are now. Correct yourself professor or this world will correct you. It has its own twisted form of karma after all." Rudeus said.

"You don't know what you are talking about." Xavier retorted desperately, not having any reason to give for his actions.

Truthfully I am not even angry at you. I am just disappointed. I wanted to initially punish you, maybe even kill you but now I just pity you. The decision of what to do with you depends on your own students, the ones who trusted you, the very people you wronged. I don't care. Ororo tell me where the incident with Jean happened." Rudeus turned to Ororo.

"Oh and also the quintuplets won't be coming back here. I don't think they deserve to remain here under the constant danger of being manipulated by someone like you." He said his final piece to Xavier. He was lucky that the Stepford Cuckoos were not in the School during the kidnapping since they had gone to France for a trip with their 'mother' who was actually trying to make use of her 'daughters' to attract Rudeus. Both mother and daughters knew this fact but nobody cared since they both were making use of each other to get the same thing, his attention.

Charles wanted to argue that the Stepford Cuckoos themselves had about the same raw telepathic power as him and he would not be able to harm them even if he wanted to since together in a unimind, they could even block him with Cerebro. Also, he had taught them almost everything he knew about telepathy and even told them a lot of things about the Cerebro itself.

But he didn't say anything in fear that he might get his remaining limbs broken as well by Rudeus if he was angered.

After Rudeus got the location of the place where Jean 'died' from Ororo, he just turned around and left through a boom tube without talking to anyone else anymore.

'I can't believe I was even thinking of curing the professor's legs using my new power. Tchh, mortals like him truly don't deserve my kindness.' he thought as he clicked his tongue in annoyance at his previous naive thought.

***

<(Charles Xavier, aka, Professor Xavier pov)>

How did this happen? I can't believe I am in this situation.

Everything was going well. The X-men was prospering. My ideology was spreading with more and more students coming. Although Magneto, my dear friend was sadly dead, I still didn't stop and tried my best to make my dreams come true.

All I wanted was for mutants and humans to live side by side, to achieve actual peace between our two races. And I was so close.

Even though Rudeus was indirectly ruling Genosha with the help of a council, it still didn't stop me. Even though I didn't get a seat at the ruling consulate, I didn't let it keep me down, I continued fighting for the rights of metahumans.

I continued taking in students from all over the world who needed me, who needed this school.

Whatever I have ever done in my life was for the purpose of this school, for the greater good. Even when I sealed that massive power inside Jean's mind, it was because it needed to be done. No one should have that kind of power. Jean wouldn't have been able to use it. Nobody can be trusted with a power like that.

So I 'helped' Jean. I helped her keep that power in control so that she didn't hurt herself or anyone else with it. That's why I even made her think that her best friend was dead, why I controlled her parents to give her up to me and to forget about her.

But no one understands, nobody understands the burden I have to bear. All they see is the faults and the actions but none see the results they bear.

I am not at all an evil person. I try to save as many metahuman lives as I can, whether good or bad. I even tried to save Magneto with the help of Cerebro when he was fighting Rudeus. When Erik died by his final blow, I tried my best to save him. Even though I was not able to save his physical body, I was still able to salvage parts of his astral self damaged by that last attack of Rudeus.

But of course, I am still storing those broken parts of my dear friend's mind away in my own mindscape hoping that one day I'll be able to use it and revive him. If Rudeus has the power of resurrection, others should as well. I'll just have to find somebody with a power like that. All I hope is just that I am not too late at it when that happens.

So I know I am a good person and my path is one of peace and truth. Even when Jean unfortunately died, I really did feel bad. She was my first student and my strongest one too. She was my secret weapon against any unseen and undefeatable threats. All I had to do was open the seal a little and she would perfectly take care of any X-men enemy we wouldn't be able to defeat. She was our safety net.

So I was grief ridden too at her death. I was sad about both the death of my strongest student and the loss of one of the most powerful members of my perfect team.

But then that 'god' forced me to reveal my biggest secret, the only smidgen of mud among all my perfect choices. But what none of them understood was that I took that decision to save their very lives from constant grief so that it didn't affect their performance. I made the hard choice here for the greater good.

I only manipulated their memories to give them better carefree and guiltfree lives, so that they do not have to suffer from the memories of their comrades' sacrifice.

But none of them of course understand the sacrifices and difficult choices sometimes you have to make in life. But I don't regret doing any of that. In fact, I'll do it again if I have to. Because that is my responsibility as the wise adult and the mentor of these children here.

Of course, they don't understand it, not even my most loyal student Scott. Even he has strayed from the path I showed him. They even removed me from my position as the principal of the school. Now I am practically under house arrest as I have been 'grounded' in my own room while deciding what 'punishment' to give me.

Huh, truly children indeed.

"A storm is coming" I utter as I see dark clouds slowly forming in the sky, probably an effect of Ororo's bad mood today.

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