Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Blah, sorry for taking so long again. Would have gotten this up yesterday, but I had to go to my cousin's high school graduation sweatdrop I'm taking the liberty of deciding the kid's name and gender, but I thought I'd leave it up to you to decide on her power ^_^))

"Oh, wow!"

"Elly, don't run off!"

Elinor Harding stopped short with her arms outstretched as if she could embrace the entire Academy and everyone in it. She stood frozen for a moment, beaming, then skipped happily up the path towards the magnificent mansion, periodically calling back to her parents to hurry up.

But Anna and Oliver, hands linked, took a more leisurely pace up the gravel path they both knew so well. As the gate clicked shut behind them, Oliver felt as though they were once more enclosed and embraced by the world they had left but never forgotten. They could hear laughter and voices and the bouncing of balls from the basketball court behind the Academy, and a few students hung out under the trees on the front lawn. To his surprise, Oliver could see the pale purple of a lilac bush peeking out from behind the corner of the building, and indulged in a secret smile. Those were his lilacs.

When they had left the Academy, they had left as normal humans, all of their power burned out of them. He had found a job writing for a newspaper, and had tried to put that life behind him, but he had always kept a garden in their backyard. As if hoping he could someday feel that connection to the earth again, that at a motion from his fingers he could draw vines and trees from the ground.

His garden always did well, but it was only in the last five years that he began to wonder. At first it seemed like wishful thinking, but he slowly realized that if he sat very still with his fingers in the earth, he could feel something. It was very faint, like a familiar whispering sound he couldn't quite place, but it was there. And if he exerted his will towards the plant that whispered to him like that, he could adjust its growth. It was nothing to his former power - he could no longer make a plant spring up from nothing or make a tall oak tree reach to the sky in the space of a minute - but he could make his plants grow abnormally large or small, or produce their crop more quickly than they naturally would, or grow in other ways that were unnatural. It was a slow, sluggish process, but he reveled in it, his own secret guilty pleasure.

There were many times that he looked up at Anna across the dinner table and was on the verge of telling her what he had discovered, because he longed to wonder aloud with her why his power hadn't been completely burned out of him, even though it was unnatural power to start with and he had just reverted to his natural state. But he always stopped himself before he could get the words out, because how would it make her feel? She had spent so much longer with her powers, and had taken their loss so much harder. The early years of their marriage had been a lot harder than either of them anticipated, as the usual problems of a young couple were compounded by them trying to cope with this loss. Some very ugly words had been passed back and forth in those days, words of bitterness and blame. Even though they had resolved those differences long ago, Oliver was afraid of opening that wound again. He didn't want her to grow bitter over this unexpected resurgence of his powers.

So he kept silent. And then, to their surprise, when Elly had hit puberty at the age of eleven, power began to manifest itself in her. Oliver had assumed, since he and Anna had been artificially mutated, that they wouldn't pass on the mutant gene to their daughter, but apparently he had been wrong. He was just glad that Elly didn't have to endure the lies or rejection that he and Anna had faced in their childhoods. Elly had been upset at first to find out that they had hidden from her that they were mutants, but eventually she accepted that they had to keep the Academy a secret in case she didn't turn out to be a mutant as well. Since then, it had only been excitement in the Harding house as they prepared to bring her here. Even though most of the students were at a high school level, Elly needed several solid months to get her powers under control, so they had decided to send her on ahead. There would be a few students her age, and at least she would be with people like herself. She was cheerful and gregarious, so he knew she would soon make new friends.

Elly was waiting impatiently for them at the front door. "Come on, guys, hurry up!" she whined. "I wanna meet the Professor!"

"Feel what?" Oliver asked in surprise, but Anna shrugged it off and they continued. Elly had to be reminded a few times to be quiet as they passed the classrooms, where some of the students were taking their lessons. She also had to be dissuaded from trying to peek through the little windows in the doors, to see if she could see anyone using their powers.

But finally they made it to the Professor's office. A thrill ran down Oliver's spine as he heard the familiar voice of years long gone say calmly, "Come in."

The office looked much the same as it always had, and though Xavier's head was wrinkled and spotted with age, his gaze was just as steady and piercing as ever. His whole face lit up with a smile as the three Hardings came in, and he rolled out from behind his desk to shake their hands. "Wonderful to see you again," he said warmly.

Once they were all seated comfortably, Anna and Oliver on either side of Elly, and had exchanged pleasantries about their work and how the Academy was doing, the Professor turned his attention to the reason they had come in the first place.

"Well, Elinor," he said, giving her an understanding smile as she fidgeted during the grown-ups' boring conversation, "how about you tell me more about this power of yours?"

((You're up twisted ))

((Don't worry, it's not stupid! xd ))

Xavier straightened a little when Elly lost control, but for the most part remained calm throughout the demonstration. He nodded thoughtfully at the empty space where, moments before, there had been a block of wood. "This is a strong power you possess, Elinor." He leaned slightly towards her, capturing her gaze with the intent look Oliver was so familiar with. "But you must understand that the stronger a power is, the more responsibility you have to keep that power under control. Carelessness will only lead to many people getting hurt. Do you understand me?"

Elly's satisfied smile slowly vanished, to be replaced with a determined frown. She nodded seriously. "Yeah, I get it. I don't want to disinty-grate a person by accident."

Oliver shared a look with Anna. It had come pretty close when her power first began to manifest itself; he remembered one incident in particular where Elly had been angry with her mother, and he had barely managed to pull her away from that disintegration beam in time. The faucet on the kitchen sink they could replace, but if Elly ever turned her power on other human beings, there would be no turning back.

"Exactly." Xavier smiled again. "And that is where the Academy, and myself, come in. Don't worry, Elinor. Many students have come through here with powers completely out of their control - and left this school with discipline, focus, mastery over themselves. There are many exciting things to learn here. I think you'll like it."

The excited smile curled her mouth up again, and Elly was practically bouncing on her seat while Xavier concluded the interview and handed over the key to her room. Oliver hesitated a moment when he stood up, wanting desperately to consult with the Professor about the slight return of his powers, but Anna was turning away and Elly was already at the door, so he merely smiled, shook the Professor's hand, and followed his family out of the office.

After they closed the door behind him, Xavier steepled his fingers and said to himself, "Hmm. Interesting."

((Where should we end this? It feels like we're close to a conclusion to me.))

Elly twirled around in the middle of the room. "I love it!" she cried - as Oliver had known she would. She was prepared to enthusiastically embrace everything about the place.

Smiling, Oliver set down the suitcase he'd been carrying all this way next to the empty bottom bunk of one of the beds, next to the only small desk that wasn't filled with the inevitable clutter of a young girl. "Now, you work hard," he told his daughter. "And don't worry, we'll call you on Saturday, and before you know it, it'll be time to come home for break."

He wanted to say more, but with an explosion of excited giggles, the other occupants of the room crowded in and happily exclaimed, "It's the new girl!" They immediately started chattering, and Elly grinned around at them just as excitedly. The tallest girl suggested giving her a tour of the school, and the rest eagerly followed her. Elly was about to rush off with them, but remembered herself at the last minute and turned to give her parents a quick hug. "Bye Mom, bye Dad!"

And then she was gone. The happy sound of rushing feet faded away down the hallway, and they were alone and out of place. Oliver smiled wistfully at his wife and took her hand. Casting one last glance at the room that was now his daughter's new home, he turned and led the way slowly back downstairs. Oliver hadn't realized how quickly Elly had grown up. It seemed like just yesterday he was holding her for the first time. He remembered thinking at the time that after he had lost the power to cause plants to sprout up from the ground, he had been given the power to create human life. Elinor Harding was more amazing and wonderful than everything he had ever done with his powers.

As they stepped through the front door and started down the gravel walk, beginning to leave this old familiar world behind again, Oliver decided that it didn't matter if his powers were returning or not. Because he had lost them, he had been able to live a normal life with Anna and raise his beautiful daughter, a life he might never have known if he had been a mutant all along, fighting against Magneto and the ghosts of his past. And there was no greater joy, no greater contentment, no greater fulfillment than that.

Oliver turned in surprise when Anna stopped short. "What's up?" But even as she started to reply, her vision seemed to focus on something else, and she cupped her hands as if holding something in them. A slow suspicion began to creep into Oliver's mind as he watched, afraid to speak and break her concentration. It had been years since he'd seen her do anything like it, but the old memories stirred, and he began to wonder.... Then he noticed her eyes. They seemed to flicker for a moment, going between the deep color he had grown so used to, and a flat colorless gaze like someone long blind.

He held his breath until Anna dropped her hands with a sigh and looked up again. She was smiling ever so slightly, sad and hopeful at the same time. "You too?" he breathed. She looked surprised for a moment, then embraced him.

"What now?"

He hugged her back and rested his chin on top of her head. "We live on as we have," he said slowly. "This is a gift - our powers are returning, just slightly. I don't know if they'll ever be as strong as they used to be. But I don't think that matters anymore. We don't have to fight anymore. We can just live."

Oliver pulled away and looked down at Anna with a contented smile. This was all he had ever wanted. "Let's go home."

((...And that's the end, I guess o.o Wow. Thank you so much for this great roleplaying experience; this is the first rp I've ever finished, because you were the first person who actually was dedicated enough to stick with it for this long and not forget about it or lose interest after the first few months. Thanks so much! I'll never forget you or this story heart ))