Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Characters: Moira MacTaggert and Charles Xavier Setting: The X-Mansion Content: Politics, most likely. Summary: Moira rebuilds her bridges.
For almost five years, Moira had been off the radar. Cooped up in her lab, studying and researching, she'd barely stepped outside once a month. She'd turned down every invitation and interview that required her to leave the UK, and turned her back on the world, for reasons she didn't want to share.
The interview that had brought her to New York had been a small one, barely a five-minute timeslot, but the specific topic made her accept. The legislation against mutants had already gotten farther than she'd realized, and it had all the signs of a brewing war, with too many fingers in the political pot. Not the sort of thing she wanted to just sit back and ignore.
She'd contacted none of her old friends, just booked the flight and a hotel in New York, did the interview, and then was surprised to find herself in a foreign country, a foreign city, taking sides on a war without laying down a single plan about how to proceed. The first step was obvious: Xavier had always been her greatest ally, when it came to mutant rights. Sorting out her purse and dressing herself in pumps and a prim wool suit, she hired a cab to drive her out to the mansion.
Finding it in the middle of rebuilding was a surprise. Perhaps the war had already started, here, or perhaps it was just one of those events that seemed almost routine, with the amount of enemies Xavier and the X-men seemed to obtain.
She introduced herself at the gate, explaining that she was here to see Professor Xavier. The guard there was young, and didn't recognize her or her name, so she had to wait while things were sorted. At last, someone led her through the wreckage, to where Xavier was waiting in his make-shift office.
"Really, Xavier, I can't say I like what you've done with the place," Moira said, stepping into his office. Her lips quirked in a smile, pleased to see an old friend again after several years. Oh, look, a joke. She'd forgotten she knew what those were.