"Oh Raphael, I'm your father." Xavier said, smiling at his distrustful son. Raphael scrunched up his face, "My father?" He asked with a tentative tone in his voice.
Meanwhile, Xavier just laughed heartily, "My God, you won't even let down your guard for your old man." He stated while smiling softly at his son, "Well, I won't blame you for that, it's probably your mother who taught you that." He finished with a shrug and a smile still on his face, but this time shaking his head, his smile then grew wider probably reminiscing about his time with the no-nonsense doctor he fell in love with.
His son still looked at him skeptically. Xavier just raised his left brow with a smug smile on his face, "Raphael don't try you to deny it. You yourself can see the resemblance between us. Right now I look like you in about 28 years time. And I know you can feel it in your bones that I'm your father." Raphael just stared at him coldly before saying to his father in a sarcastic tone, "I want to believe you, but you can't just appear from nowhere - literally - and tell me you're my father and just expect me to believe you blindly. I'm sorry for the distrust but you're gonna have to give me proof before you tell me why we're here in this God awful bright place."
Xavier just sighed, frustratedly shaking his head at his son. Well, what does he expect from someone who was raised by Jessica Grey-Willis. The woman was so stubborn that it took him a month to convince her that he only wanted to be friends with her in their first year of med-school, well that was part of his elaborate plan to be with her:
Step 1: Be her friend.
Step 2: Ditch the friend zone.
Step 3: Date her.
Step 4: Marry her after graduation.
Step 5: Make babies with her.
What? Don't judge him, she was so beautiful and perfect in every other way that he knew, the second he made eye contact with her, that she was gonna be his, even though it took a lot of convincing on his part to get her to marry him. Well, marry her he did, but the very stubborn woman refused to change her last name from 'Grey' to 'Willis', she insisted that her name be 'Jessica Grey-Willis'.' What a stubborn woman she is.' Xavier thought with a wistful smile on his face.
"Fine, you want proof," Xavier finally said, "I'll give you proof." He paused dramatically, you know, for effect, then he continued, "On your left shoulder there's a mark, a very discreet mark that no one else knows, and when you become overwhelmed with emotion, it glows and you unknowingly release some of your magic in one form or the other. Say a closed book or door opening sharply on its own. Well, obviously not on its own, you do that with your magic, of course."
After hearing this, Raphael's eyes widened in surprise and his mouth was slightly open as well, "H...how....how'd you know?"
Xavier smiled smugly at his son's reaction, "Because I went through that as well, and I know about your little 'accidents' because as your father - albeit, your dead father." He tittered, "I feel your magic, the small waves of magic that you release, and boy, you are strong. And we haven't even unlocked your full potential yet." He said smiling broadly like the proud father that he was.
"Yes, you're quite strong for a half-human, half-witch-lock." He nodded agreeing with his own words.
"Witch-lock?" Raphael asked with his eyebrows knitted closely together.
"Yeah, witch-lock, you know, half-witch, half-warlock." He said with a matter-of-factly tone.
"OK," Xavier continued, "now that you've had your proof, which you'd better be satisfied with, 'cause I'm not in the mood to reveal all your secrets before you believe me," Raphael squinted his eyes at his father at his last statement, though he said it in all seriousness.
"The reason why I asked your mother to bring your soul here, was so that you could be educated on the ways of the Dark Witches, know their weaknesses and a little history lesson on how they almost took over the world and how they're ready to do it again." After saying this, Xavier waved his palm in the air and their formerly bright surroundings changed to a very dark environment, not as dark as their original surroundings, but still, quite dark. Or at least, not totally because Raphael could see a fire ahead of him. He looked up and saw that they were standing under the shade of tree, looked to his side and saw his father looking in the direction of the fire.
"Look." the only words his father said to him, words which he understood and obeyed looking back to the direction of the fire.
Around the fire, he saw people, both male and female, making a circle around the fire. One of them was in the middle making some incantations into the fire. Raphael was puzzled by this scenario that he couldn't reign in his curiosity in anymore and decided to start annoying his father with his questions, but he forgets that his father is a witch, his father, and that being his son, he inherited some of his traits, one of them is being annoying, and because of these reasons Xavier answered his son's lingering questions.
"They are performing a ritual," Xavier started, earning a glare from his son, "to release an ancient evil that will lead them into victory and all that crap." Xavier said while rolling his eyes, as if their plans were the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard. "Including to destroy all the Supernatural creatures and keeping humans as slaves. The woman in the middle, Ursula Fergus, is pouring blood into the fire. This blood consists of theirs and that of a virgin. Their blood, so that when they release the demon, it won't kill them as well. The virgin's, because it's a demon and it's sick in the head and enjoys drinking the blood of virgins. In other words they are to do this to appease it." His father said, finally taking a breather after the brief explanation, before he continued,
"They're using everything evil and dark to complete this ritual and they're also using one the most iconic and spiritually and supernaturally Important numbers as well: seven. Seven people, six around the altar, one performing the incantations, the ritual goes on for seven days, usually ends on the seventh day of the seventh month of a seventh year."
"Seventh year?" Raphael finally asked.
"Yes," his father said, "like say 1997, 2007, 2017 etc. As long as the year has a seven as the last number it's okay."
"Tell me about this demon. What's up with him? And also about these dark witches, tell me about them."
"Raguel. That's its name, like most principalities it lives on blood and fear and darkness and chaos, and most all fear."
"You've already said fear." Raphael countered.
"I know," Xavier replied "I repeated it so you can understand that when we face it, you are not to show any emotion, most especially fear, else it will feed off of it and destroy you in the blink of an eye, well, at least not before it messes with your head a bit. It answers to no one, because fear is a really powerful emotion, it can feed on it to fuel itself. Raguel is the spirit of fear itself. But right now it's in a cage, heavily guarded, heavily shackled. And only two entities can can release it: the demon who rules hell, or whoever caged it in the first place."
"Demon? Like Lucifer? Like the devil? Isn't he the king of evil, therefore he should rule hell?"
"Good point. But, no, he doesn't rule hell."
"Hold on, why not?" Raphael asked puzzled about the statement his father made.
Xavier said "Only the strongest of demons can rule hell, and since Lucifer is ummm, how can I say this, 'indisposed'. Something else has got to carry the weight of hell on its shoulders. Satisfied now?" He asked his son whose reply was a simple nod.
"Anyways, anyone -like these dark witches- who has the same agenda as Raguel: ruling with fear and wickedness, and also with the help of a special ritual such as this one can release it, it doesn't really matter what kind of ritual as long as it's dark, bloody and can instill fear."
"Okay," Raphael started, "I get the memo about this Raguel guy, and I also get the fact that this question came late, but what did you mean when you said Lucifer was 'indisposed'?"
Xavier smirked at the question before he answered it.
"Well, a couple decades ago when Luci boy finally decided to really take over the world by tryna 'take out' all powerful supes, Supernatural creatures that is, not superheroes, I'm trying to get that to catch on." Xavier said in a slightly playful tone, "Before finally taking over the entire world, it was either join him or die and the supes really didn't like that, so a whole lot of us joined forces and the non-magical supes gave their essence, that is the part of them that is Supernatural, it can be replenished so long as they're not emptied and the magical supes brought their natural magic and human essence into the picture, we made a spell and used it to drain Lucifer of his own essence but keeping him immortal, right now, I think he runs a strip club and casino in LA. Oh, and before you ask, yes I was alive during that time, I'm about 200 years old now." At that statement Raphael gaped at his father before regaining his composure and asking,
"Why do they have to 'take out' all powerful supes before they 'take over' the rest of the world?"
"You know how human beings depend on animals and plants for everything, food, shelter, clothes, etc?"
His son nodded at the question,
"Well, that's also the way supes depend on humans, for food, for rituals etc, and because of that supes, along with protecting their kind also protect humans, in the non-human realm that is, because without them, we cannot survive."
"So, even Witches live on humans?"
"Not exactly, we just need them to perform spells and rituals that are too strong for our natural power, we actually use the essence of dead humans for these kinds of scenarios. They're usually stored for a long period of time because Witches are quite powerful, especially half-breeds like us."
"Why are half-breeds more powerful? I thought pure bloods are supposed to be more powerful than us."
"Wow, you ask a lot of questions," Xavier said smiling at his son before finally answering him, "Okay, first of all, I need you to understand something, human beings are very, very, powerful. They can be turned into any supernatural creature under the right circumstances, they can be turned into werewolves, vampires, witches, they can use magic to enhance their essences to be on the same power level as nephilim.
They are the most important part of the supernatural eco-system. But they don't know this, so prideful and naturally powerful supes changed and manipulated the narrative to say that, supernaturals are more powerful than humans.
And that's true, for the physical aspect, but in terms of soul essence, humans hold the higher ground. As a result, the offspring of any supernatural creature that mates with a human being gets the physical or naturally magical powers of their supernatural parent, and the pure essence of their human parent enhances their powers.
Therefore, you can be EXTREMELY powerful, if your powers are honed correctly."
"Whoa." Raphael replied in amazement.
"Whoa is right, my boy. You have the potential to be the Superman of the supernatural world." Xavier said with pride pouring out of every pore of his body.
"Right now, we are the most powerful supernatural creatures in the planet." He finished with an arrogant smirk on his face.
"Okay, two questions, one: aren't Fae also very powerful too? And if you're dead, how can we both be the most powerful supes in the planet right now."
Xavier shook his head at his son, but answered him anyways,
"Fae are powerful, but only when it comes to healing. They can heal any kind of ailment at all, but when it comes to spells, like say making it snow in the middle of summer, they're pretty useless."
"What about us being 'the most powerful beings in the planet'?"
"Technically, I am dead but..."
"But?"
"A bit of my soul is still in my body and with the right spell and a very powerful being," Xavier said the last part looking meaningfully at his son, "It'll be piece of cake coming back to life and face the wrath of your mother."
Raphael just ignored that last part and said,
"I can really bring you back to life?"
Xavier just nodded his head affirmatively.
"I'll give you the spell after we're done here."
"Mom would like that," Raphael said looking back to the Dark Witches' ritual, "she misses you, a lot."
Xavier just stared at his son for a while before he too continued to look at the ritual, smiling at the thought that his wife misses him. He missed her a lot too.