Everything had been normal…well, as normal as they could be given the circumstances, when within the blink of an eye Logan found himself airborne, his claws extending automatically his hands rising to in front of his face slashing midair air the chairs, bed sheets, medical equipment and whatever the impromptu hurricane gale force winds were whipping up. What made things even worse for him was that even in all this….the other three occupants of the room were as calm as if nothing was happening around them.
That and the fact that it was Ororo, their Ororo who was causing all this….without even being awake.
THUMP!! He hit the far side wall only to have the winds pick him up again and pull him towards the center.
His first reaction in trying to get a grip on any projected surface to pull himself down failing, the second of yelling at the top of his voice to try to rouse Ororo not working either, he did the only thing he could given his ‘cow in a tornado’ situation…he sent out a telepathic yell, hoping that it would be loud enough to wake up the asleep Jean.
---
“Yauzaa!!” Stepping over the debris, his wide eyes stare trying to take in everything, Bobby Drake stumbled nearly falling on his face as he reached the only non-affected part of the infirmary. “What happened here?”
“I’m sorry,” Ororo apologized from her own prone position over at a makeshift bed that Logan and Scott had prepared for her while Jean ran an entire array of tests on her too.
Arriving at the infirmary, with Scott close behind her, Jean couldn’t believe her eyes at the state things were in and the way Logan was crawling along the ground, keeping at least on hand around anything that was bolted down. A couple of minutes’ quick explanation and a quick apology from the just waking up Ororo, not to mention that after being comatose for almost three days, Xavier was coming out of it, with Jean finally able to sense him on their telepathic link…everything else took a backseat to both Ororos’ condition.
“Ororo,” seated next to his student, feeling almost up to hundred percent, Xavier’s concern sounded clear to everyone. “Can you tell us something about how you are feeling?”
“And what’s going on with her,” Jean offered as an addendum, worriedly glancing over her shoulder at their guest…their guest who even now, right before their very eyes, was rapidly fading into thin air.
“I feel….” Even though she was lying flat on her back, one would assume that she was flying high, riding on her winds, free from the forces of gravity….as free from any other bind. “I feel free.”
“Free?” Jean echoed. Even though she hadn’t said it out aloud, she knew what that sort of feeling meant having experienced it herself….when she was taken over by the Phoenix entity. It had not only increased her powers multiple times over, it had also brought a sense of being, of feeling almost everything at the same time. From what she could sense from Ororo, she too had experienced something similar, only that it wasn’t quite as blazing as the Phoenix. It was much more peaceful….fulfilling….earthy.
“Yes.” Ororo nodded, her head tilting towards her older counterpart. “I’ve never felt like this before…never. It was like I didn’t just affect the weather, just didn’t manipulate them, but was literally feeling it, almost as if I was linked to it….a part of it.”
At the stupefied looks she got from her teammates, she tried to elaborate, stumbling over words in an attempt to get them to understand. She wanted them to feel as she had….happy…utter bliss. That and something else, something that she had almost forgotten, even in her memories….safe, safe in the way a newborn child felt in his/her mother’s embrace.
“It was her,” she forced herself to sit up, still not accepting Logan’s offered hand, albeit not consciously this time, but still making him feel as if she was turning away from him, causing him to take a step back towards the wall…behind everyone else. Truth be told, seeing her the way he had, he had both been amazed and fearful…fearful for her. Even though the winds weren’t affecting her, she was floating, still in her horizontal position, her arms stretched to her sides, an ethereal glow surrounding her.
“What do you mean?” Scott was the one to sound the question now while Jean checking the stats on the other Ororo. It was more of a formality as even the naked eye could see that there was something seriously wrong with her. What had started with a barely noticeable shimmer, one that only Logan’s enhanced senses caught….starting just before Xavier started to come out of his coma, had progressed to where she was almost fifty percent transparent. The only things not changing were the clothes she was wearing…the ones that the younger Ororo had given to her. Even her engagement ring seemed to vanishing into thin air.
“She made me feel it…” Ororo answered almost reverently. “Showed it to me.”
“Showed what Ororo?” Scott asked again. It wasn’t only her that he was worried for. Along with her, and her older twin, Xavier also seemed to have been affected by whatever had happened to him. Usually it would have been him who be doing the questioning, but with the lost look on his face, Scott wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. If he had to guess, he would say that the Professor, one of the if not the most powerful telepaths in the world…was trying to remember something or trying to understand it.
“She showed what I could be…..what I am.”
“Is it just me or is any of you also getting weirded out by this,” Bobby piped up, a confused look on his face. “Hey Storm, how about trying it in something we can understand….English would be nice.”
“Shut up Bobby,” Scott snapped at the teenager, internally agreeing with his words. Truth was, he too wasn’t sure what to make of it. Maybe if the other Ororo hadn’t come here, things wouldn’t have gone wrong the way they did. It was with she that the Professor had been with before it all started. Whatever she did and maybe was still doing to their Ororo was causing her to behave erratically. At first, she didn’t leave the infirmary, not ready to get more than ten feet away from her. And now….now she was talking as she was high on some sort of drug.
Walking over to Jean, he leaned closer and whispered into her ear. “Check for drugs in her system.”
“Scott,” Jean hissed at him. “She is not high.”
“Then what is it?” Scott spared a look at the Professor. “And what is happening to the Professor?”
“I…” Jean also turned towards their mentor. “I don’t know. I know he is well, but other than that, he has completely closed off himself. Before he did, I had a chance to get a look and my head is still aching from the feedback.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Scott leaned in further. “You feeling okay.”
“I am fine Scott,” Jean gently caressed his cheek, taking respite for a second before turning back to the matter at hand….towards the fast fading Ororo. “I don’t know what do to stop this change in her. I don’t even know what is causing this change. And…”
“And? What and Jean?”
“I am not sure…” Jean hesitated for a second. “I mean I am not even sure if the sensors are able to detect it….”
“What Jean?”
“She is not even pregnant anymore.”
“WHAT!!”
Any hopes of keeping it under wraps were lost at Scott’s exclamation.
“What happened?” Kitty piped from her bedside seat.
“Nothing,” Scott shook his head. Tilting his head towards Wolverine, he silently gestured to him.
Walking up to them, his face set in a frown, Logan spoke with a barely contained growl. “What?”
“Check her,” Scott nodded towards the older Ororo.
“Check her? Check her fer what?” Logan scowled at him. “I ain’t no fuckin’ doctor.”
“Smell her…hear her…do your thing. I mean how you sensed her the first time. We want to know…”
However, even before he could complete his sentence, Xavier’s voice sounded from behind them.
“That won’t be necessary Scott.”
“Professor.” All three X-Men turned towards their leader, with Scott and Jean hurrying to his side, while Logan once again lingered in the back, his frown growing deeper as he took a deep breath. Even from this distance, he still couldn’t get a reading, no smell, no hearing nothing. It was as is she was not dead, but not quite there either….just occupying that physical space. Just there.
“Scott ready the Blackbird,” Xavier was straight to business. “And I will be taking the controls.”
“Professor?” This was the first time that Xavier had expressed such a desire/order. It was usually Scott who did the piloting, and in his absence Jean. They weren’t even sure that Xavier knew how to operate the controls.
“I’ve read everything from you and Jean what you know about piloting,” Xavier laid that doubt to rest. “Get it ready. We leave in one hour….and Jean,” he turned to the redhead. “Please make the appropriate arrangements for Ms. Monroe. She will be accompanying us.”
“If she’s going, I’m coming too,” Ororo practically leaped off the bed.
“Ororo…” Scott started.
“Very well,” Xavier cut in. “Wolverine, Colossus, Rogue, please get ready. You will be joining us.”
“Professah…” Surprised at being chosen, Rogue started to say something, only to stop, nod and start towards the door, close behind the already leaving Colossus.
“What about us?” Not happy at being left back again, Bobby sounded his displeasure. Plus, the fact that Rogue was going was an added incentive for him to try and gain a seat on that plane.
“You will stay back, safe guard the mansion…” Xavier too started towards the door, making one last comment as he exited through the room.
“…and please clean this mess up.”
-----
Back on the other (Movie) Earth,
“Whatd’ya want?” Rogue screamed at the closed door, finally giving into the incessant knocking.
“Rogue,” Jubilee’s subdued voice answered from the other side. “Its us…me and Kitty. We wanna come in. Can we?”
“No.” Rogue’s response was quick and direct, her voice throaty after hours of crying. Ever since Henry had told her about…told her about… “Leave me alone,” she cried out. She did not want to even think about both Logan and Ororo being gone, and seeing the others, listening to them, it would only drive it home that she was never going to see either of them again…never going to get to attend their wedding….never getting to baby sit….play with their kids. She was going to be THE cool aunt, the untouchable but still coolest aunt of all the aunts. They were going to be a complete family. And now, now she was alone…again. And this time there was no Logan to save her. No Ororo to talk to her…guide her. Nothing. No one.
“Come on Rogue,” Jubilee didn’t let up. “You haven’t even eaten dinner, or lunch. We’ve got…”
“No. Ah’ don’ want anything.”
“Either you open this door, or I am getting Kitty to phase us in.” Jubilee fired back. She had been the ones who had kept the others away until now. She knew that Rogue needed the time alone and she made sure that she got it. However, now was the time to get there….get her back. So, here she was, and she was not leaving until she got to see the girl inside and got her to eat everything that was on the tray in Kitty’s hands.
When there was no answer for over a minute, she grabbed Kitty’s hand and phasing through the door, both girls entered the near pitch dark room. As their eyes grew accustomed to the room, they caught sight of Rogue sitting on the floor, her knees drawn to her chest, her hair falling around and hiding her face.
“Rogue….” Kitty whispered softly. Walking to the bed, she set the tray on the side table and settled down beside her friend. Even though things hadn’t been the same between them ever since what went down between her, Bobby and Rogue, that didn’t matter at present.
“Roguey,” Jubilee sat down alongside her, and gently reached a gloved hand towards their friend. Even though she had shed her own tears in the privacy of her room, seeing Rogue brought them back.
Getting no response except a garbled mumbling and then silence, she moved her, and draped her arm across her shoulder.
Silence reigned in the room as the three friends supported and drew strength from each other.
----
Even as they neared and finally landed, neither of the X-Men were quite sure where they were. Xavier had not only piloted the plane but had done so without any co-pilot, being overtly secretive about their destination.
“Where are we?” Scott inquired as he drew up the hood of his jacket, the intense cold biting at him, as if going down right down to his bones.
Without answering, Xavier merely navigated his special hover-chair out of the jet and onto the virgin snow. He remained silent for a few more seconds as if trying to reach out to someone.
“What are we doin’ here?” Wolverine leapt off the edge of the hatch. Drawing a deep breath, he let it out through his mouth. He knew this place. “This is…”
Whatever he was going to say was lost as a wolf leapt out from the bushes. He was joined by a second one, then a third, a fourth, going on until finally over a dozen growling, snarling canines appeared before them, spreading out as if for an attack.
-SNIKT-
Claws out, his own fangs bared at the animals, Wolverine quickly calculated the order in which he cold take them down before they got to the others.
“Logan…” Ororo started towards him, her steps halting as another louder, more ferocious roar sounded over that of the wolves…causing them to stop immediately, step back almost as if making way for whatever the other thing was.
Wide eyed and with bated breath, everyone present watched as a much larger, bi-pedal figure appeared and emerged through the shadows
--
“What the fuck?” Wolverine.
“Huh.” Ororo
“Oh my!” Jean
“…” Scott.
“Logan?” Peter.
“Wolverine!” Rogue.
--
With the wolves gathering around him, the stranger stomped through the snow, heading towards and stopping in front of the Professor. Raising his hand Xavier greeted him.
“Its nice to see you again…Logan.”
"You KNOW him!!"
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