VIII: Live By The Sword Julian was born to a rich family of Beverly Hills, but his parents were not always as well-off as he had known them, making both William and Elizabeth extremely conscious about getting James and Julian good educations to prepare them for the future. The eldest of the two brothers, James, seemed to take to the lessons of responsibility and dedication to heart and quickly became his parents' favorite child, the one to carry the Keller name and fortune on proudly. Julian was not quite there, and he inherited from his well-off status the vices of many children who are raised without adversity: Julian quickly learned to chase trouble, knowing he would be able to avoid all troubles thanks to his parents' fortune. Repeatedly the young man returned home on the backseat of a police car, or involved himself in fights at school, and yet his parents tolerated the young boy's antics. By any definition Julian was a hellion and all his friends knew the boy for his strong personality and charisma. During a particularly bad year, Elizabeth and William sent their youngest son to New York to spend some time with his older brother, hoping some of James' own behavior could rub off on Julian. During that winter Apocalypse attacked the city, and Julian's X-Gene manifested itself. Instead of hiding, the young man instead protected the people of James' office when he could have hid his mutation and left with his brother. Openly revealing his mutation was not a problem for Julian as he took down a few of the Akkaba drones aiming for the humans around him, enjoying the use of his powers and discharging all his energy at will. IX: Die By The Sword Elizabeth and William were glad to see James and Julian returned to California alive after Apocalypse retreated, and after quite a few payouts, Julian's secret was safe for the time being if he could just not use his mutant gifts and pretend to be just another kid once more, under the threat of being disowned by his parents. Surprisingly, it worked. Unsurprisingly, it only worked for a while. Soon enough, with news flowing in of the X-Men warring against Genosha and its government, the anti-mutant sentiment was suddenly heating up even in California. Most of the populace did not even budge when the lid was blown on the abysmal treatment of mutants in the African country, and in Julian's school the commentaries started to get to him. Unable to keep his secret anymore, the young man trashed a parking lot's worth of his colleagues' cars in a display of his mutant powers after hearing disparaging comments about the homo superior. Unable to risk their status for his own son, William and Elizabeth did as they promised and disowned the boy, leaving Julian to inherit absolutely nothing as the Keller businesses were highly affected by the revelation of their mutant child. Thankfully, Julian had options, even if he did not realize then, while he decided to crash with his few friends while deciding what to do with his life. X: Showing How It's Done Julian spent the best part of his year observing as the big events took place. The Genoshan Genocide was too much for him to comprehend, but Julian, by that point, was a well-known mutant in his community and every single protest he could attend there was the young man, flying and chanting for mutant rights. Not that Julian was ever, or would ever be, socially conscious, but deep inside the boy held a deep resentment over his parents, and after Genosha that had spread to most humans. Every time he was ready to fight and make a point about how mutants would not be bullied, not on his watch, not while he was one of them, and just in time, before the young man got into serious trouble he was approached by Roberto da Costa. The man offered Julian an opportunity to be with his people, to be in peace, to learn how to master his powers, and the Californian denied every single one of these opportunities. Roberto, however, was not one to easily quit, and much to the dismay of Professor X months later, Sunspot said that it was a school for X-Men. The opportunity to become one of the legendary mutants agreed with the young man, and to the Habitat he left, eager to show how a true mutant did things. On his way there the two stopped in Colorado to pick up Sofia Mantega, Julian's first contact with another fellow student of the Xavier Habitat for Higher Learning. The two began fighting almost immediately, marking the young man's future as a bright one. Maybe.