Author's Note: Okay. So here it is everyone. This fic is like my baby so I'm very excited and nervous to publish it. This is primarily a Band of Brothers fanfic, but it takes place in the X Men universe and features a couple X Men characters, so I suppose it counts as a true crossover even though it feels more like an AU. You don't need much of a knowledge of the X Men universe beyond knowing basic facts that Charles Xavier runs a school for mutant children and Erik is building up a mutant camp to overthrow the humans. But what really matters here are the Easy boys and how their friendships and lives are shaped by having these superpowers and being forced to fight each other in some cases.

There are quite a few instances throughout this fic where things seem inconsistent. Names are always changing, but there is a reason behind that. Every chapter is focusing on a different character's point of view and each of them calls everyone something different. In this first chapter here, Winters calls himself Richard because he doesn't have his nickname yet. But during Nix' chapter, he's called Dick. And during any of the kids' chapters, he's referred to as Winters. It's always changing and I really hope that doesn't get to confusing. Just letting you all know so nobody gets lost or calls me out on inconsistencies. Also! A lot, if not all, of the Easy Company boys are at least mentioned in this fic. The ones tagged just happen to play a larger role in this fanfic than the others. If I've left out your favorite, I am extremely sorry! There are just so many!

I love this fic so much and I've put everything into it so please tell me what you think in the comments. Also, be sure to thank the amazing (secretspy0404).(tumblr).com for her incredibly helpful collaborations on the development of this story. I could never have done this without her. Here it goes!

Richard Winters, age 11, is a miracle

The crisp autumn wind was rustling through the trees and making the tall, brown grasses sway and whisper. And a lithe, pale figure was running through the grasses as fast as his feet could carry him, panting from the panic and exhaustion. The rising sun was reflecting on his bright red hair and his eyes started to burn from staring into the light. The boy had stopped running and was frozen in place, his eyes starting to water from the sun's rays. He sank to his knees on a particularly dirty patch of ground and put his face in his hands. The cold months coming in were making the leaves on the trees beautiful, but all of the greenness from summer was dying. Everything was dying.

Richard Winters was slowly lowering himself to the ground, his chest heaving with sobs and his fingers frantically running through his hair and down his face. His father had died when Richard was a baby and that presence had been something he had never truly missed in his life. The Winters family lived on a quiet farm in the country and Richard had never felt the need of anyone but his kind and loving mother to parent him. They had been everything to each other for Richard's entire life and now his mother was gone. And Richard had never felt more lost and alone.

"It's nothing to worry about, darling," she had said mere days ago. "The flu always comes and goes when it gets colder. I'll be fine in a week." But for the only time that Richard could recall, his mother's soft assurances had been wrong.

The sun continued its slow ascent into the sky and Richard was still lying on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest and crying a steady stream of tears. His head was beginning to ache because of the force of his sobbing, but the pain of it was only making him cry harder. He felt stuck in some sort of torturous loop between tears of sadness and pain and it seemed like he would never break out of it. But eventually he did. Richard's sobs slowed down, his breathing returned to normal, and everything around him was still.

He sat back up feeling strange, as though his body wasn't his own and was being controlled by some other mind. But his thoughts were too muddled and his head was too heavy for it to concern him much. Instead, Richard's attention was focused on a small, yellow flower that he hadn't noticed earlier despite it having been right in his line of sight. He had been so distraught, it stood to reason that a flower wouldn't have caught his attention, but it wasn't the season for flowers to be growing anywhere, especially in the barren patch of dirt he knelt in. And people always tend to notice the smallest things at the strangest times.

He leaned closer to the flower, deciding that it was probably a chrysanthemum, and smiled slightly to himself. Something small and beautiful still had the will to grow despite all the death around it. But then out of the corner of his eye, Richard noticed other flowers. These were different kinds and colors and he was certain that they hadn't been there before. He recognized marigolds, wild lilies, and poppies all mixed together and blooming as if it were the peak of springtime.

Richard got to his feet, stumbling slightly with the suddenness of his movement, and walked over to the large patch of flowers. He had never seen anything like this, even in the most plentiful gardens, and especially not out in the wild when autumn was beginning. He huffed out a few breaths, not really laughing and not really crying, but just reveling in this miracle of nature he had wandered into. It could have been a sign from his mother, from god, from something telling him that everything would be alright.

As he started to leave the field, his heart filled with a peaceful sense of calm that had been missing since his mother had first gotten sick, more flowers started to appear just outside of the range of Richard's vision. He turned around quickly and gaped at the many flowers that were blooming into existence from nothing along the path that Richard had walked. The calm feeling evaporated and Richard was suddenly filled with a sense of panic and confusion at the completely inexplicable phenomenon happening right in front of him. Just as he had entered the field, the boy ran again to try and escape whatever was going on. But he had only made it several seconds of sprinting before he realized that it was useless.

Every time Richard's Converse shoes had touched the ground, dozens of flowers were appearing and spreading out in every direction. With every step, their expanse became wider and dozens turned into hundreds. Richard watched in disbelief as every color and variety of flower that he had seen in his life, as well as many he was sure he hadn't, began to grow and take over the brown and grassy field. In what could have been anything between several seconds and a whole lifetime, the entire field had been filled with beautiful wildflowers in full bloom. Richard was breathing hard and his forehead was creased, but he could only think of one way to explain this. He had been given a miracle.

Two days later, when Richard's whole family had come to bury Edith Winters, Beloved Wife and Mother, in the family plot, every single flower in the field behind their farmhouse had died. Richard sat at the dining room table, listening to his cousins move around in the upstairs rooms and trying to ignore the words his aunt and uncle were exchanging in the kitchen while preparing dinner.

"Don't know what to do with him," he heard his uncle whisper.

"Just a boy," he heard his aunt whisper back.

And though Richard wished with all of his heart that he couldn't hear their voices anymore, that things could just go back to the way that they were when his mother was still alive, he was sure he heard the words "Can't take care of him anymore."

Just then, the entire house started to shake. Shelves were rattling and picture frames were falling off of the walls and shattering on the floor. His cousins were shrieking above him and Richard heard his aunt shouting at him to get under the table. He did so, but it seemed as though his limbs were moving of their own accord again rather than from any command that he had given them. The moment Richard got under the table, however, the shaking had stopped and silence rang in his ears.

Everyone in the house quickly recovered. Richard's aunt ran up the stairs to check on her children and his uncle started to clean up the glass shards from the floor. Richard felt as though he was unable to focus on anything until eventually he heard a voice from the television report a small earthquake having just occurred in Lancaster County without warning. That snapped his world back into reality with a terrifying jolt.

Richard had no idea how it could have happened, or even why he was thinking it. That earthquake could not have been caused by him. His mind was telling himself that it was impossible, but the incident with the flowers was just as unlikely of an occurrence. It hadn't really felt like the flowers had been caused by him. Though maybe he had just been hoping very hard for it to have been some sort of miracle. And though Richard could never begin to explain how or why, it truly felt as though he had caused the earthquake.

It took only 24 hours for there to be a knock on the door. Richard was sitting at the dining room table again, scarcely having left it since his mother's death. He no longer wanted to spend time with his cousins or the rest of his family, but rather just sit where no one would disturb him and read books about history, his favorite subject. Today he was scanning a very exciting novel about World War II that would have fascinated him if he'd been reading it a week ago. But a week ago his mother was alive and his life still made him as content as could be. Today he watched his aunt open the door to a bald man in a wheel chair with a steady smile on his face.

"Hello," he said in a distinctly English accent. "You must be Mrs. Winters, Richard's aunt. My name is Charles Xavier."

He held out a hand for Richard's aunt to shake, but she only gazed at him, confused. "How do you know Richard?" she asked.

"Well Mrs. Winters," he began. "I am the professor of a school for very special children. Orphans mostly, but all of them extremely intelligent and gifted. We think Richard would be very at home there."

At that explanation, she stepped aside and let Professor Xavier into the farm house. "Please," she said. "Get comfortable. Anything you need. Richard!" she called. "Honey, there's someone here to see you."

Richard wrinkled his nose, but set his book down and came into the living room anyway. Professor Xavier opened his mouth to introduce himself, but Richard cut him off. "I heard everything. And I think I'd like to go to your school, Professor. If my family can send me, that is."

Professor Xavier smiled softly and nodded. "I would love to discuss the specifics with you in private, Richard. If that's alright with you, Mrs. Winters."

"Oh yes of course," she nodded. "I'll leave you two alone." And she quickly scurried off, no doubt to find her husband and inform him that their problem with housing Richard might be solved.

Richard sat down in the chair his mother had always favored, an act that he had never dared perform even when she was alive. He always felt more respectful that way. But if this professor would really take him away to a school, this might be one of the last times Richard would ever get the chance to sit here and be reminded of his mother. At least, he planned it to be that way.

After a moment of silence hung between the two, Professor Xavier just smiled in that calming way of his and said "You are very special, Richard. I hope you realize that."

"Thank you sir," Richard said with a nod. Though he was mostly just being polite, Richard didn't feel special at all. He felt cursed, like those changes over the earth were some sort of punishment from a higher power, piled on to the punishment of having his mother taken away from him.

"It isn't a curse," Professor Xavier said.

Richard stared. "How did you know—?"

"I'm like you, Richard," he said. But the words were not spoken aloud. Rather, they echoed inside of Richard's head, as though Professor Xavier was speaking directly to his mind. "There's no need to be scared of me or yourself at all. Not anymore."

There was a pause for a very long time before Richard sighed. "So I'm a mutant then?"

"You are," Professor Xavier confirmed. "And that is nothing to be ashamed of. As I've demonstrated, I myself am a mutant. Everyone at my school is one, you are taught there and trained how to handle yourself and your powers. With the proper treatment, there is nothing to worry about."

Richard nodded, but he was still skeptical. "How did you find me?" he asked.

"A long time ago, I developed a program called Cerebro," the Professor explained. "It allows me to use my powers to locate mutant children across the country. When we heard that an earthquake had struck Lancaster County with no obvious causes, it became clear that a new mutant was living in the area. Many natural disasters and strange occurrences can be traced back to children who are scared and alone finding their powers."

"So then…" Richard began, his eyes trailing to the ground, "Am I dangerous?"

The Professor's face became very serious at that and he leaned forward in his chair. "Your powers are exceptional, Richard," he said. "They are very strong and it is very easy for them to get out of control. This leaves us with few options." Richard nodded, expecting as much. "By going to my school, you would learn to control these powers. But it would take lots of time and practice and I realize how greatly you fear hurting anyone without meaning to. What I think you would most prefer is for me to do is restrain some of your more dangerous impulses, the ones that can cause extreme natural events, until you are able to control them."

"Restrain them?" Richard asked, his forehead creasing in worry.

"It wouldn't hurt you a bit," Professor Xavier promised. "I can put up a mental block that will prevent you from exercising your full strength. Most mutants would wish to keep their powers in full, but—"

"No, no, I want that," Richard said eagerly. "Whatever is safer for everyone else."

Professor Xavier smiled. "That's very good of you, Richard. All that leaves is the matter of what to tell your family. It is, of course, completely up to you. And I will help in any way that I can."

Richard nodded. "I overheard them saying that they can't afford to keep me. At least, not now that my mother isn't here." He paused, needing a moment to gather himself again after saying it aloud for the first time. "They'll want to send me to your school. I just. I don't know what they'll say about my powers."

"It's all up to you," the Professor said, placing a reassuring hand on Richard's arm. "Should I give you some privacy?"

"No, it's fine," Richard shook his head. "Please stay. I'll just go get them."

"Hi there!" A boy with curly hair and a gap toothed smile stuck out his hand for Richard to shake. He appeared to be older than Richard, maybe thirteen, but Richard thought he was already taller. It was hard to tell. "The Professor just told me that we're gonna be roommates."

Richard nodded. "I'd shake your hand but you're a little bit out of my reach," he said.

The boy laughed and lowered himself from the ceiling until he was hovering just a few inches off of the ground. "I'm Harry Welsh," he said. "I've been here almost a year, ever since my powers developed. My parents wanted me to get a good education and this school really is the best. And you're Richard Winters?" Richard nodded. "Well it's good to meet you."

Despite still feeling a little bit too sorry for himself, Harry's enthusiasm was infectious, so Richard found himself smiling right back at him. "You too, Harry."

Harry grinned and started to float absentmindedly in slow circles around Richard. "So what is it that you can do?" he asked.

Richard shrugged. "I can make plants grow," he said. "And do a few other things."

"Cool!" Harry replied. "Though I wouldn't trade gravity manipulation for anything. I don't understand how people can just walk everywhere. And why bother picking things up when you can just float them around? It must suck."

Richard chuckled slightly. "I've never really thought about it like that."

Harry shook his head. "No, I guess you wouldn't. But anyway, you'll really like it here. The teachers are all so great and sometimes I get to work with the little kids. It's amazing!"

"So there are lots of students here then?" Richard asked. But he was only sort of interested in the answer. He walked over to the bed that was going to be his and started pulling things out of his backpack. The repetitive motions were calming and Harry's voice filled the potential silence.

"Oh yeah," replied Harry. "The other kids our age are great. A lot of them want to come back and be teachers like I do. Lipton's only a few years older than me, but he's already talking with the Professor about colleges. College! Can you imagine? I just can't wait."

When Richard had finished unpacking, he sat down on the bed and encouraged Harry's descriptions of the other students, the scary gym teacher who he was convinced didn't age, and his own dreams of one day being an elementary teacher. "It's what I'm always wanted to do," Harry explained. "I just love kids so much. And my powers only make everything better! Imagine how much fun playing Superman with kindergartners will be if I can literally fly them around the room. And I can throw books at troublemakers in detention. Gosh, I can't wait!"

It went on like that for a while. Harry would go on about his big ideas for the future, Richard would calmly follow along, and they formed a wonderful friendship. Richard finally felt like he had a place in the world where he could be truly comfortable on his own. His family had not accepted him and it broke Richard's heart. They were good people, the best and kindest around, but some just couldn't handle it when they found out a mutant was living in their home. They were not angry when he had told them, or hysterical or disappointed or anything like that when he explained his mutation. But rather, they were afraid. Not in the way that so much of society was where they would call for the persecution of every mutant in the world for their own sakes, but in a way that Richard knew would create a gap he could never bridge no matter how many years went by.

He was truly an orphan now, so listening to Harry go on and on about his loving and supporting parents and his plans for children of his own in the future made Richard feel wistful and filled with hope that he hadn't felt since before his mother's death. Sometimes it hurt to think like that, but most of the time it was nice to be around someone whose positivity could help Richard be the same way. The two boys did everything together and balanced out each others' personalities effortlessly.

Carwood Lipton joined their friendship as well and when he did finally go off to college, none were more excited for him than Richard and Harry. They'd all braved Speirs' gym class together, eventually learning to excel at combat training and working off of each other's fighting styles, so after that there was no way that getting an education degree could be any scarier than what they'd already been through. Harry followed suit soon after, bouncing through the air with delight at finally taking the next step towards being an elementary educator. Richard, however, stayed behind.

He had always loved learning about history more than anything and the teacher was Professor Xavier himself. Other than Harry and Carwood, Richard's closest bond was with the Professor. He had become like the father Richard had never been able to grow up with. Most days, Richard would sit in on his lectures hanging on to every word and sometimes they would just spend a casual afternoon together discussing their favorite notable events of the past. Going to college for an education degree so that he could one day take over for the Professor was something that Richard would have loved, a secret dream of his, but after leaving his family it just wasn't possible. So Richard tried his hardest to content himself with being Professor Xavier's teaching assistant and helping out with the younger children in Harry's absence.

And though Richard would have rather been teaching or going to college like his two best friends were, he had a passion like Professor Xavier did for helping children adjust to their new lives at the school for mutant powers. New students came every year and it was always a different story. Usually there was an influx of students during the summer months when the Professor was able to devote all of his time to searching for mutant children in need. They were from all over the country and their powers were as differed as themselves. But Richard loved getting to know them all and delighted in the friendships everyone would make.

Richard would especially never forget the range of emotions he felt when they managed to bring two young boys who had been hiding out in a cave for several months back to the mansion safely. One had the power of super speed and the other was able to reduce or enhance mutations in others, making them able to quickly travel around the country and away from dangers for a long time before the Professor had been able to pinpoint their location. When they had been brought in and cleaned off, their astonishment and gratitude at being accepted by other people like them had elated Richard to the point of near tears.

The extreme cases like those two boys were brought in urgently from their abusive homes or hideaways on the run, always looking battered and terrified. But just as many were dropped off by their smiling parents, though it was hard to tell whether they smiled in support or ignorance of their child's mutation. During the New Year, a boy named George was dropped off by his extremely large family. Richard was very impressed with his mimicry and illusions, but he had to control his impulse to make the whole room shake when he learned that George was lying to his parents about being a mutant.

"They just think I have a scholarship," the boy explained. "None of them know I have powers. It's better that way."

"But why didn't you want to tell them?" Richard asked, helping George bring all of his bags to his second floor dorm.

The boy shrugged. "I don't want them to be mad at me."

Richard frowned, remembering how sure he had been that his family wouldn't change how they acted around him when they learned of his mutation. It still hurt to think about, and that had been eight years ago. He hadn't seen them since. "Well no matter what you tell your family, you are safe here. All of us want to help you learn and grow."

"What about the old man?" George asked.

Richard's forehead creased. "Professor Xavier? Well of course, this is his school. No one wants to help you succeed more than he does."

George shook his head. "No," he insisted. "The other one."

"Other one?" Richard asked, though his blood had run cold. "George, what happened?"

"Professor Xavier came to our house at Christmas to tell my parents that I could go to school here. But yesterday another old man came to our house. He said he would bring me here, but my parents were bringing me today so they said no and he left."

Richard set George's bags down and turned around to face him. "George," he asked urgently. "What did this man look like."

"Like this," George responded in a perfect imitation. Though when he changed his voice to sound like the old man's, he projected an illusion as well. Standing before Richard was a man he had seen before, but never in person. Every since he had arrived at the mansion, Richard had been warned that the Professor's old friend would try to take his powers and turn him against his friends. It was Magneto.