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Chapter Fifteen

A knock sounded on the Professor’s door. “Come in,” he called.

Cyclops was right on time, per what they had agreed the previous day. The two had discussed having breakfast together in Xavier’s quarters, and Cyclops now entered carrying a tray of food.

This was good, Xavier mused as Scott sat down beside him and spread the food out on the small table. Both men were lonely, both missed someone they loved, both carried the burden of trying to solve earth’s problems and oust FOH once and for all. Xavier was glad that Cyclops was here. Isolation didn’t help anyone, he believed.

“How is your research going?” Scott asked

“I have gathered quite a bit of data,” the Professor answered as he poured his cup of Earl Grey tea. “I plan to begin reading through it in depth today, looking for strategies and ideas that we can use”.

The Professor had told Cyclops of his research plans a few days ago. He was studying movements throughout history which had changed a culture, and he hoped that the X-men could glean some ideas on tactics from them. They needed to learn how to win the war for the general public’s hearts and minds so as to convince them that mutants were not a threat and deserved to live in peace alongside non-mutants.

“Are any of the subjects of particular interest to you? To us?”

“They all make for fascinating reading. Gandhi’s fight against colonization, the Black Civil Rights movement in the United States, struggles for religious freedom throughout history. They achieved goals that had been considered impossible”.

Xavier looked at the expression on Scott’s face. “Are you thinking that the scenarios are too different for us to gather anything useful from?”

“I guess so,” Scott admitted. “FOH is so powerful, they have turned everyone against us. We may have powers, but there are so few of us”. He paused. “Sometimes I despair at the idea of us being able to change anything”. Scott didn’t admit the second part of his thoughts. He doubted whether the hearts and minds of the public could be changed without Xavier using his powers to tap into their minds either. He thought the situation had deteriorated far too much for any less drastic tactic to be effective.

“We must not lose hope. Each of these social movements that I am studying experienced numerous times when the prospect of success looked bleak. But we can do what may seem impossible now”.

“I hope so,” Scott said, as he spread a thin layer of butter on a slice of toast. “I really hope so, and I will do whatever it takes to make it happen,” he added, though he certainly did not need to convince the Professor of his sincerity. The fact that he had left his wife and son behind spoke volumes.

“So, how is Moonstar’s training progressing?” Scott asked, changing the subject.

“Very well. She is bright and eager to learn, and her powers are strong. She has not had any formal training before, but we are progressing slowly and steadily”.

“Colossus told me that he’s working on something to brighten their room. Like a drawing on a huge sheet of paper. He said he’ll frame it to make it look nice “ since replicating a frame won’t use up that much dilithium. I thought that was nice of him. I feel bad for our two new ““ he searched for the right word “well, I guess they are our guests “ to be sleeping in those ugly barracks”.

“Colossus is always so thoughtful,” Xavier remarked. “I am sure that Moonstar in particular will appreciate the gesture”. The Professor paused. “How are you, Scott?”

“Oh, the same as yesterday”. Scott paused for a moment, debating whether or not to open up. Describing his feelings would be stating the obvious, but he also thought it would somehow help. “I feel like my heart’s been torn open. I thought every day apart from Jean and the baby would get a little easier, but I can tell you that it hasn’t”.

“I am sorry that you are in so much pain, though I certainly understand why. What are you doing to help you manage your pain?”

“The same thing you’re doing to manage yours, Professor. Fighting, helping the team improve, and hoping for a better future”.

***

Wolverine reclined against the headboard. He was content. Spent and tired, and very content.

Storm emerged from the bathroom. “Would you like me to bring you something to drink?” she offered, as she wrapped a bathrobe around herself. Wolverine wished she would remain unclothed instead. “I could use a cool glass of water myself”.

“You don’t gotta leave the room for that, darlin’,” he answered. “There’s a pitcher right there on the desk,” he gestured.

“Oh,” Storm responded, looking “ Wolverine thought “ sincerely embarrassed at having forgotten. “Of course”.

She poured water into a glass and touched her fingers against it, summoning ice to make the drink more cool and refreshing. She then brought the glass to the bed and resumed her earlier position, cuddled up against her lover.

Logan liked having her near him. They hadn’t altered their sleeping patterns “ some nights they spent together in his room or hers, other nights they slumbered apart. Today he felt quite mellow as the sweat on his body cooled and he savored the relaxing sensations his body had generated. He wondered if he might fall asleep, when Ororo asked him a question.

“Did you enjoy it?”

Logan chuckled. “You gotta ask, ‘Ro?”

“I suppose I do not”.

“You seemed to like it”.

“I did. Very much so”.

Ororo was silent again. Logan again reclined, as his lover rested her head against his chest. He shut his eyes and started to experience the pleasant sensation of his body drifting off to sleep.

Ororo spoke again. “You are not angry with me, are you Logan?”

He was jilted from the possibility of a nap by her question. “Where’d that come from?” he asked. “I ain’t makin’ you feel like I’m mad, am I?”

“No, no,” Ororo insisted. “It was just…a feeling I had. Of course I do hope you would come to me and try to discuss it if you were upset about something. As difficult a conversation as that might be,” she added.

Wolverine nodded. He wasn’t angry with Storm. But he didn’t know how to share with her what he had been feeling lately. He did wish that Storm was less restrained, and he wished she had more of a sense of humor and would laugh more freely. He wished she would let her guard down around him more often. Sometimes their interactions seemed so formal. Of course in the bedroom she was completely unrestrained “ which he loved “ but that was the only time and place he saw that side of her.

But when Wolverine thought about trying to share this with Storm, he felt a slight stabbing at his heart. As if this would hurt her needlessly, and he didn’t want to hurt her at all.

`Can’t change a person,’ he said to himself. `At least can’t change ‘em too much. Tellin’ her this is just gonna upset her. If we act a little formal together, hell we ain’t been together that long so that explains it’.

So Logan just said, “I love you, ‘Ro”.

“Love you too, Logan,” she whispered.

He enjoyed being cuddled up against her and sensed that she soon drifted off to sleep. He stroked her hair but remained awake.

***

Hank received a subspace communication one afternoon. It was an invitation from Emma.

He surprised himself with the fact that he took a moment to seriously consider it. She certainly was a beautiful woman, and who knew whether he would ever get another chance? But he responded the way he knew he would: he declined it. He didn’t like Emma, didn’t like the memories of the X-men’s run-in with the Hellfire Club, no matter how many years ago it may have occurred. And he had gone for this long without sex; he could certainly go for longer. He didn’t judge those who chose to “visit” Emma but he himself didn’t want to engage in meaningless sex with her.

Hank didn’t mention the invitation to anyone and took pains to delete Emma’s invitation from Victory’s communication logs. Her invitation did, however, bring the general subject of sexuality to the forefront of Hank’s mind.

***

Gambit, Rogue, and Bobby stayed up late one evening. They were in the rec room, leisurely enjoying a board game. Gambit’s bridge shift would start soon, and the other two were keeping him company until the night shift would begin.

“Is dat a yawn?” Gambit teasingly asked Bobby.

“Sorry,” Bobby mumbled. “I guess it is. Maybe I should turn in for the night”. He stood up. “But if you do find yourself falling asleep,” he said to Gambit, “just call me and I’ll get to the bridge and bring you some coffee, play a few more card games with you”.

“T’ank you”.

The X-men frequently did what they had to do to stay alert when on the bridge, even if they sometimes needed to call someone else to keep them company. Three days ago the Professor had telepathically detected an FOH vessel. Due to its strong cloaking device, it had never shown up on the ship’s sensors despite most of the X-men crowding onto the bridge and looking at every sensor on board. The FOH ship gave no sign that it could detect them either. And yesterday during Beast’s bridge duty shift, he had caught a swarm of pea-sized asteroids on a collision course with Victory. The asteroids were small enough that they would have passed through a regular scan, but having someone on the bridge, running detailed scans and staying alert had allowed enough time for the tiny menaces to be detected before they would have ripped Victory’s hull, having the same effect as thousands of powerful bullets. Both events served as a reminder that the X-men needed to remain vigilant at all times.

“Goodnight,” Rogue bid Bobby as he turned to leave the rec room. As the doors to the room slid open, Cyclops entered. The X-men’s co-leader greeted the others in the room.

“You stayin’ up late?” Gambit asked. He had decided to take the high road following his altercation a week ago with Cyclops in the Danger Room. He had let it go, given Cyclops’s understandably depressed and irritated condition. He had, however, spoken to Storm and Xavier. Both had assured him that his fighting skills appeared as strong as ever. When Gambit had recounted the incident to Rogue, he had glossed over it and vastly toned down Cyclops’s words so as to avoid an abrasive Rogue-Cyclops fight.

“I can’t sleep. I thought I’d see if there was anyone in here who might want to play a game or something,” Scott said, holding a drink and sounding very dejected.

“Sure, we’d love to. We got 35 minutes till Remy’s on the bridge,” Rogue said. “Heck, if we’re havin’ fun we could always take the game on the bridge. While of course makin’ sure we keep our eyes on the sensors too,” she quickly added, though she noticed that Cyclops did not seem at all concerned about the possibility of them not paying enough attention while on bridge duty.

Cyclops pulled up a chair as Gambit set out the game board. The three started to play.

Rogue and Gambit exchanged a look. Cyclops rested his head on one hand, glumly and slowly moving his game piece across the board and mumbling the words when it was his turn to pull and read a card. Sitting closer to the man too, they could see uncharacteristic stubble on his face. They were playing one of the more fun and lighter games “ it wasn’t competitive “ but Cyclops definitely did not appear to be enjoying himself. Although they couldn’t see his eyes through his visor, the rest of his body language left little doubt as to his feelings.

“Cyke,” Rogue said, after a while, gently laying a gloved hand over his. “You okay? You wanna talk ‘bout it?”

“What’s there to talk about?” he asked. “I miss my wife and son and I can’t do a damn thing about it”.

“Could you dough?” Gambit asked. “If is dis bad, maybe you take a shuttle and go back to Haven”.

“I can’t do that,” Cyclops said, sounding irritated. “I have a duty to be here, to take this fight against FOH to the end. Given what FOH is doing on earth…how can I bail out?”

“”Cause you’re human. An’ maybe you have a hard time really bein’ effective if you dis hurt”.

Cyclops was silent for a beat or two. “I’m fine,” he insisted. “I’m not suicidal, I’m not depressed “ I just really miss Jean and John. Like a part of me is missing. At least Jean and John are safe on Haven though. I have that to be thankful for”.

Rogue shook her head. “Sad to see so many folks missin’ others. Bobby’s startin’ to get all worried ‘cause we haven’t heard from Alpha Flight yet. He really misses Northstar. Poor guy “ he’s real sad too”.

Cyclops muttered, his tone harsh, “That’s not the same thing”.

At Rogue and Gambit’s questioning looks, he then amended, “I didn’t mean to sound that nasty. I just meant that he and Northstar haven’t been together that long, not anywhere near as long as Jean and I have”.

“I do reckon it’d be harder to be separated for a couple that’s been together a long time,” Rogue said.

Gambit looked at Rogue and then at Cyclops. “When you really love someone, dat don’t matter so much. Missin’ someone you love hurts the same no matter any dat stuff”.

Rogue began to say how glad she was that she was here with Gambit, but then stopped herself. She didn’t want to add to Cyclops’s misery and had no idea what she could do to help him.


***

I don’t know if it was just me or not, but time passed really slowly. Maybe it was because we had spent so long on Haven, and there had just been more things to do on Haven and a more beautiful setting in which to do it. Victory was nice, we had all the amenities we needed (and with the supply of dilithium we got from Magneto, we splurged slightly more often on goodies like desserts or alcohol), but it still got boring.

Maybe it was because each bridge duty shift you had to sit through just made your whole day feel longer.

I sat next to Hank at lunch one day and asked him if he knew how long it had been since we left Haven. He was about to open his mouth to reply when Cyclops, sitting across from me, said, “Four weeks and three days”.

Poor guy. He’d been a grouch the whole trip but I didn’t blame him at all. Being light-years away from the person you loved was no fun.

And I’ve already written about it so I won’t say anything more. I missed Northstar like crazy. I thought of him all the time, thought of things I wanted to tell him. I thought of his facial expressions, his accent, even the way he walked and I so desperately wanted to see and hear them again. I had gotten used to sleeping alone again, as I always had, but I didn’t like it. I wondered if he missed me as much as I missed him, and how his sister was doing.

I did some mental calculations and realized that if it had been four weeks since we X-men had left Haven, that meant it had been more than three months since I’d seen Jean Paul. We had had less than two months together on Haven. Sometimes I felt sad because those two months now felt like so long ago. It was starting to feel like we’d been apart since forever. I wondered how often he thought of me, but I didn’t wonder too much “ my gut told me he thought of me as much as I him.

With each passing day, I began to feel a mixture of excitement and anxiety. I wondered when we’d hear from Alpha Flight again. Would the Professor tell me he had made telepathic contact with Alpha Flight? Would I be sitting on bridge duty one day and detect the Maple Leaf? Or would someone wake me up in the middle of the night during their bridge shift to tell me that the ship had been contacted? Would we get a subspace message from the Prevail telling us that Caliban had detected Alpha Flight?

But none of these events happened and I started to worry. The others noticed it. I’d get sympathetic pats on my hand during meals or friendly slaps on the back during Danger Room sessions. “Space is really big,” people reminded me. “It might be taking them a while to find the others on earth”. And of course, “Their ship is slow. Remember they can’t travel as fast as we do”.

I tried not to worry. Worrying wasn’t my usual thing anyway “ I was usually pretty relaxed about things in general. But with the long, slow days and not a lot to occupy my head, I did worry.

On the gossip front, there wasn’t a whole lot going on. I didn’t hear of any big fights or observe any tension among the couples. The most interesting thing was a discussion I had once with Jubilee. She said that Emma had invited Colossus over for “a visit”. Colossus had asked Jubilee beforehand what she thought of it, and she’d said that given their arrangement, he was free to sleep with whomever he wanted. So he went over once and Emma has yet to invite him for a return trip. Jubilee then added that she’d given him some coaching and that, perhaps combined with whatever Emma may have said or done, had improved his performance somewhat. Meanwhile, Cannonball and Forge continued their visits to Emma. On most days there was one shuttle going from one ship to the other.

But the Professor didn’t go over to meet with Moira, nor did Moira come here.

One day, not long after Cyclops had told me we’d been gone from Haven for over four weeks, the Professor, Cyclops, and Storm made an announcement at dinner.

“We will be going to the Prevail to meet with Magneto tonight,” the Professor said. “Now that we are close to earth, it is time for us to have a discussion on tactics”.

“Why are you going there?” Wolverine asked. “There’s one of him and three of us. Shouldn’t he come here?”

“I really don’t think it matters,” Cyclops said. “He let the Professor read his mind. He doesn’t have any plans to deceive us”.

“I was hoping I might see Moira over there as well,” the Professor admitted. “Perhaps I can talk to her. We do still want to learn all we can about how FOH replicated her husband’s and Siryn’s powers”.

I saw Jubilee look down at her plate. “I know you said there’s nothing to be worried about,” she began. “But for some reason, the thought of all of you going over there makes me nervous”.

“If Magneto had any plans to attack us, he’s had weeks to do so,” Storm said. “Especially given that we will not be the first X-men to board his ship”.

She said the words straightforwardly but there might have been a smirk or half-grin on a few faces, I noted.

Storm continued, “And of course, we have every confidence in the Professor’s ability to determine Magneto’s intentions”.

“So there’s like no chance Emma could be using her powers to like block Magneto’s real thoughts or anything like that?” Jubilee asked.

“No,” the Professor said. “I would be able to detect it. My powers are far stronger than hers, and I say that not as a conceit “ merely as a fact”.

“Good. So we don’t have to worry about you”.

“Not at all”.

***

The shuttle bearing the Professor, Storm, and Cyclops docked inside the Prevail. A fourth passenger was aboard as well; Cannonball decided to join them for his visit to Emma. It only made sense to make as few trips as necessary. Magneto may have given the X-men copious dilithium but they still found it wise to conserve the energy source as much as possible.

Emma met the group in the shuttle bay. Storm’s composure remained as calm and steady as always, though she had to nearly bite back an eyebrow raise at Emma’s revealing attire. Storm thought to herself that there was a time and a place for sexuality and she couldn’t imagine wearing such a get-up on a daily basis, and outside of the boudoir no less.

However, Storm didn’t judge Sam, or anyone else, for going to Emma. Sexuality was a basic need that most humans felt and there was no alternative for Sam or Forge. Forge had indeed tried to pursue a relationship with Storm herself and she had turned him down, months ago. And when Sam had had an alternative “ a relationship with Jubilee “ he had enthusiastically pursued it as well. Though a part of Storm had felt a bit of sadness to see the ending of that relationship, she was glad that Jubilee had realized what she did and did not want and was going after what she wanted. And Storm reminded herself that Jubilee could always change her mind and decide someday that she wanted a more conventional relationship.

“I’ll take you to Magneto,” Emma said, and turned for the others to follow her.

At those words, Storm silently chided herself for having her mind on matters of the heart and reminded herself to focus on the task at hand.

“I had hoped we might see Moira as well,” the Professor said.

“Did you tell her that you were coming?” Emma asked.

“Yes,” the Professor admitted, suspecting where this was going.

“Then I’m sure if she wanted to see you, she’d be here now. She hardly leaves her room, Xavier”.

“That is why I’d like to talk with her”.

“Can’t make someone do something they don’t want,” Emma said, as the group walked down the corridor. “If she wants to be left alone, you have to abide by that. Those FOH bastards, damn them for doing that to her and Siryn. Magneto’s right, you know, when he says that’s what they’ll do to us all. Put all mutants in camps, rape every last female, before they kill us all. They live for that”.

“Well, we’re going to stop them,” Cyclops said.

Storm turned and looked at her co-leader. His voice conveyed more determination and fire than she’d detected from him in a while.

The layout of the Prevail appeared identical to Victory’s. Emma led the group to a conference room, in which Magneto sat, and then left with Sam’s hand in her own.

A couple of hours later, the Professor, Storm, and Cyclops waited in the shuttle for Cannonball to return so that they could head back to Victory. The Professor telepathically contacted Moira again and received the same frustrating silence that he always did.

Storm mused that it was a bit awkward as Sam knocked on the shuttle’s door and, hair rumpled, entered. She thought that Bobby would crack a joke now, ask Sam whether he had had good sex. But her present company was not in much of a mood for humor and Sam quietly strapped himself into his seat.

***

So, our leaders returned and gave us the scoop. Basically they agreed that our first approach would be to infiltrate FOH’s headquarters, gather evidence as to what they had done against mutants, and use their communications equipment to broadcast that evidence widely.

If that didn’t work, we would switch to Plan B. The Professor would use his powers to open the minds of FOH leaders and get them to change their attitudes on mutants. He might also need to do so for other world leaders, not just FOH. He had always been so loathe to use his powers that way but apparently he thought that he might not have a choice now.

Hank said that he had perfected a psionic shield that would protect us from powers similar to Banshee’s and Siryn’s if FOH did use that weapon. The Professor was trying to get Siryn to help us test it but she refused to be contacted. Hank was pretty sure that this defense would work, though. Magneto, we were told, was very glad for it.

“Did you get into any specifics?” Rogue asked. “Like for Plan A, any ideas how we gonna get into FOH’s headquarters?”

“We’ll work out the details when we get closer and know more about the situation there,” Cyclops said. “But our initial thought is that some of us will provide a distraction and others will do the infiltrating”.

“We think that perhaps a smaller team should infiltrate the headquarters while most of us are distracting them,” Storm said. “We began to think of who we would want in the group doing the infiltrating of FOH’s headquarters. Some ideas we had were Forge and Beast, because of their technical prowess “ that would help in terms of gathering the evidence against FOH and using their communications equipment. Gambit, because any mission calling for stealth has his name written all over it. Nightcrawler’s teleportation might come in handy inside as well “ though we are, of course, not certain about that as we know it is harder for you to teleport when you are not familiar with the place previously, Kurt. Our other thought was that it might behoove us to have a telepath on that team as well, so perhaps Emma would be part of it. It would be useful in any circumstance to have a handle on the minds and thoughts of those around”.

“Can we trust her?” Nightcrawler asked.

“Yes,” Xavier said. “I know that she has fought us before, but I firmly believe we must leave that in the past. I read her mind again. She *wants* this mission to succeed and has no plans to turn on us”.

Cyclops then said, “If the rest of us are creating distractions and fighting FOH during the infiltration, we will need to train in the Danger Room with Magneto’s team. We need to get used to fighting alongside them. So they will be coming here tomorrow to work with us in the Danger Room”.

So that was that. Now the big battle wasn’t an abstraction, it was actually going to happen. We were going to fight FOH, we were going to create a diversion, going to have some of our team infiltrate their headquarters “ despite the fiasco last time we went up against them. Between thinking about all that and my now-constant worry about Jean Paul, I must have looked how I felt “ like crap. Hank went right up to me after the meeting.

I have this rule. I try to not initiate touch with straight guys given that most straight guys, even the non-homophobic ones, don’t particularly like being touched by gay guys. But I didn’t even think about that, as soon as we were alone I just kind of collapsed into Hank’s arms and let him hug me.

***

“All will be well, Bobby,” Hank insisted. The two were alone in Bobby’s room, minutes after the meeting had ended. “Remember that we X-men have fought and triumphed against powerful opponents. Even when the odds seemed insurmountable, we won the battle. I assure you that there is no need for you to worry”.

“No need to worry?” Bobby croaked. “We got our asses kicked last time we fought FOH!”

“But this time we have a defense against their main weapon. And we have been training relentlessly for months. You are stronger and more powerful than ever. I have every confidence in you and the team”.

“Well I don’t feel so confident, not when I don’t even know where Northstar is or what happened to Alpha Flight”.

Hank reached for Bobby and again pulled him into a hug. He patted his back and quietly said a few soothing words. “I know this is a time of great anxiety for you, but I strongly feel that we will triumph. I feel that weeks from now, you will look back on this day and smile when you realize how far you have progressed. Try to relax”.

Bobby relaxed into the hug. His insides still swirled with anxiety but he appreciated his friend’s gesture.

“Is there anything we can do to help you relax?” Hank asked, again his voice low. “You always enjoyed brushing me “ would that provide you with a soothing, rhythmic activity?”

“Um, yeah,” Bobby said, amused at the way Hank phrased the sentence. Hank’s near-bombastic word choice always made Bobby want to smile. “I guess so”.

Bobby broke away from the hug and searched for a comb. He found one on his bathroom’s countertop. Meanwhile, Hank seated himself upon Bobby’s bed.

Hank was perceptive. Bobby did find the activity of brushing his hairy friend to be comforting. It was such a vast task “ moving that comb through the dense fur on Hank’s large body that Bobby was often able to put aside his worries as he did it.

“I guess you’re right,” Bobby said, after he had begun brushing Hank’s back. “We’re the strongest team of mutants out there. We have an amazing telepath, we’ve got incredible fighters, and we even have Magneto on our side. I can hold my own in battle. I can do it”.

“That is the attitude, my friend. I assure you that we will fight well against FOH. We will defeat them”.

“I hope so. It’s just hard because so much is unknown “ who knows what will happen when we actually go up against them? And I’m just so worried about Jean Paul. I keep thinking that we should’ve heard from Alpha Flight by now. And there’s nothing I can do about the whole situation except wait for the Professor to detect them. I guess I just need to accept that. And try to be patient, but it’s hard. And “ hey, do you want me to do your legs after I finish your back?”

“I would enjoy that. Thank you. The backs of the legs are difficult for me to reach, despite my agility,” Hank replied.

The two continued to talk, both of them bolstering Bobby’s confidence as Bobby continued to run the brush through Hank’s fur. When Bobby finished Hank’s back, the larger man lay face down on the bed so that the backs of his legs could be combed. They continued to talk, Hank enumerating the many possible “ and harmless - reasons why the X-men had yet to make contact with Alpha Flight.

As they spoke, Hank felt a subtle shift overtake his body. At first he questioned what he was feeling. But as the moments passed, he realized that his body was beginning to respond in a new and somewhat shocking manner to the sensation of the combing.

`It is nothing,’ Hank told himself. `I can ignore these stirrings’. But as the sensations slowly built, Hank had to reason with himself. `I must be having this reaction because I rarely experience touch. Perhaps my body is starved for it, in a way, and it is only reacting accordingly. I only fantasize about women, not men; I certainly do not have any inappropriate feelings towards my friend. I believe this must be a fluke’.

Hank soon began to realize, however, that he would need to gently extricate himself from this situation somehow.

“You got awfully quiet,” Bobby said. “I guess repeating the same reassuring stuff to me over and over has gotta get boring after a while”.

“No, no, not at all,” Hank assured his friend. “I simply lost myself in the pleasurable sensations from the brushing for a moment. I ““

Hank was cut off by the sound of a communicator. “Hank? It’s Forge. Just wanted to see if you were okay. You were supposed to relieve me of my bridge duty shift ten minutes ago”.

“Oh my stars and garters!” Hank exclaimed, immensely grateful. “My apologies, Forge. I lost track of time. I shall be there as soon as possible”.

Thankful for the cue to exit, Hank abruptly stood up and faced the door. “Thank you, Bobby,” he said, over his shoulder. “Please visit me on the bridge if you would like to continue our discussion”.

“You want me to come with you and brush you more?” Bobby asked, speaking to Hank’s back.

“No, thank you,” he responded, quickly. “I must focus on the sensors. Thank you, my friend!”

As Hank left and the doors slid closed, Bobby shrugged and said, “Okay “ bye then”.

***

Light-years away from the X-men, Jean Grey sat on a rocking chair on Haven’s porch. She nursed John as she watched the sun set.

Her days were long, peaceful, and quiet. After living with the X-men for most of her adult life, the experience of sharing a tranquil place like Haven with only one other adult required quite an adjustment for Jean. She and Heather got along well enough to make the situation somewhere between tolerable and good. Heather’s personality and temperament, Jean noted, were similar to her own, which functioned as both a positive and a negative. The two coexisted peacefully enough but also tacitly agreed that time apart was necessary as well.

However, given that both women had a newborn baby to which to tend, Jean knew it was a blessing to have someone else to share the work with. While Brianna kept to a regular sleeping schedule now, John didn’t sleep through the night no matter what Jean tried. Jean was very grateful that Heather would keep an eye on both babies so that Jean could occasionally doze during the day. She returned the favor when Heather needed it.

Jean checked the calendar. Less than five weeks had passed since the X-men departed. As much as Jean enjoyed the calm and the unending time to bond with her son, it truly felt to her as if Scott and the others had been gone for ten weeks, not five. As fulfilling as Jean found the work of parenting, she wished she had other pursuits with which to occupy her mind as well.

“We knew we’d have to make sacrifices when we joined our teams,” Jean said to Heather later that day as they ate dinner on the porch. She often longed to eat each meal earlier and earlier in the day just to give herself something to do. “And we knew there’d be greater sacrifices still when we decided to have children. But I am really finding it hard to be away from Scott, and all the others”.

Jean was, of course, making an understatement. She had cried herself to sleep more than once. Without Scott’s arms around her, she sometimes didn’t fall asleep at all.

“I know,” Heather said. “Sometimes I wish I had a normal life”. She paused and added, “I really miss James. Our marriage isn’t perfect “ I know you know that. Heck, he’s not perfect, and neither am I. But I really miss him. He always has such a strong sense of purpose, sense of direction. It’s hard to not have that now”.

Jean nodded. “I also feel bad for Scott. I know it’s killing him that he’s missing so much crucial time in our baby’s life”.

“We just have to keep praying that our teams will return safely “ and soon”.

Jean listened to Heather’s words. It wasn’t anything that they hadn’t expressed countless times during the past few weeks. Jean’s life was so absent, she knew, without Scott. She had the baby to devote her energies and attentions to, and she loved the baby wholeheartedly. But with Scott, she shared such a passionate, continual, consuming love. Her days were odd and empty without him, even though she had her son to dote on and bond with. But she was without Scott, without the man who still “ after all these years “ could cause her to catch her breath, so intense was their love.

***

Jubilee narrowly dodged a blast from a simulated FOH soldier. “Watch out, girl!” Rogue hollered, as she flew through the Danger Room, picked up a simulated truck, and dumped in on top of a band of FOH.

“Thanks, Rogue!” Jubilee called. She forced herself to snap out of her daze. She pivoted and mustered energy to blast more advancing soldiers with her fireworks. Some of the simulated soldiers were knocked out, one turned and fled, and the remaining two were finished off by a charged card that Gambit lobbed at them.

After the session, Jubilee walked back to her room. She had lost her focus for a few moments there, and she knew that she could not afford such a mistake during the impending battle. She suspected it had to do with what she had seen in the Danger Room earlier that day: Wolverine training Marrow.

Wolverine had certainly thrown himself into his self-appointed mission of training the young woman in combat skills, Jubilee noted. She had seen the two working together several times now. It was completely irrational, Jubilee knew, but she missed his attentions. When he wasn’t working with Marrow, he tended to naturally spend his free time with Storm. Wolverine’s attitude towards Colossus “ and the fact that Jubilee had had to confront him regarding it “ didn’t help matters any.

Mentally, Jubilee played back the consoling words that she knew Storm would say to her: `Your skills are at a level where you don’t need one-on-one training any longer, and Wolverine knows that. And you are making adult decisions now in all areas of your life, which is certain to change all of your relationships with the others’.

But was it wrong for Jubilee to miss the days when Wolverine taught her to drive and doted on her in his gruff manner? Jubilee had no idea how to get that type of relationship back.

***

Back on earth, Northstar flew through the air. He reached a speed that was inhuman; it should have been impossible. He flew so fast that if someone from the ground were to look up, they would not have seen a person “ at most, they would have seen a ripple in the sky and felt a gust of wind.

As he flew, Northstar desperately wished that Alpha Flight had a telepath on their team. He had to find his sister. Aurora had run away once since the team had covertly landed on earth. Northstar had found her and brought her back to the team. Now she had run away again and he was determined to once more retrieve her. James thought that FOH was closer and closer to realizing that Alpha Flight had returned to earth, and was now hot on their trail. Northstar had to find Aurora, fast.

His stomach made a rumbling noise. His clothes were damp from flying through rain. Northstar wished he was back on Haven, safe and satisfied, with Bobby in his arms. Some sense of duty had compelled him to return with his sister to earth, and now duty again had him scouring Canada for any sign of her. He wondered if he truly had made a mistake in returning to earth.

Just over 24 hours later, Northstar’s communicator sounded. “Hurry!” Puck urged. “We think FOH detected us. We had a glitch on the bridge and our cloak dropped for a few seconds. We’re starting up the engines and getting ready to take off if we need to. I think they’re sending a ship this way”.

“We’re on our way back,” Northstar answered. “I found her”.

He flew with Aurora in his arms. She had somehow injured her arm. This time she didn’t resist when her brother carried her. She didn’t yell at him or kick him, but she didn’t make any attempt to fly herself either.

Northstar pushed himself harder and faster. His hunger, general fatigue, and the strain of carrying Aurora slowed him down considerably. He flew at a fraction of the speed he had the day before.

The twins reached the spot where the Maple Leaf had been hiding. Northstar looked at the indentations in the ground and he somehow knew that the cloaked ship was gone. He tried his communicator “ a low-range device that would only pick up those in North America “ and received no reply, no matter how many desperate times he tried.

“They’re gone,” Aurora breathed. “They left us here”.

Northstar’s ears perked up. He grabbed Aurora and flew higher into the air. Two FOH trucks roared through the wilderness and reached the area that the Maple Leaf had been hiding. Soldiers dispersed and began to scour the area. Northstar, still holding his sister, flew away as fast as he could manage.

***

My communicator sounded just as I was walking towards the gym to begin my boring every-other-day weights workout.

“Bobby, it’s the Professor. Can you join me in my room please?”

“I’ll be there right away,” I said. I kind of half-walked and half-jogged towards the personnel quarters. I couldn’t think of too many reasons why Xavier would be calling me. He had never summoned me to his room before. I hadn’t been playing any practical jokes or doing anything that could get me in trouble, so I started having both fears and hopes about what this could mean.

“Please, sit down,” he said, gesturing to the chair as soon as I stepped through the door.

“What is it?” I asked. I realized I was a bit winded and it obviously wasn’t just from the fast pace I used to get to his room.

“I just made telepathic contact with James Hudson. He is in a starship with most of Alpha Flight; they left earth several days ago and should be rendezvousing with us soon,” the Professor said.

I couldn’t read his expression, but I hung onto every word. “Most of Alpha Flight?”

“Northstar and Aurora are not with them,” he said, plainly.

“What happened?? Are they dead?” Oh dear god. All the fears and worries I had over the past few weeks bubbled up. I knew my heart was racing. I tried to make myself just breathe. Then I had to make myself focus and listen to what the Professor was saying.

“James does not know”.

“Doesn’t know?? So they might be dead??”

“I know this is difficult. Please try to listen; I will tell you what happened, based on what James told me. He said that the team reached earth and began to search for their loved ones. During that time “ and they were on earth for many days “ Aurora ran away. Northstar and the others went off in search of her, and after a while, Northstar found her and brought her back to the team. By then, FOH was beginning to realize that Alpha Flight had returned and was close to tracking them down. James says that Aurora ran away again, and Northstar again went in search of her. The Maple Leaf took off when an FOH ship attacked it. He said that he didn’t have a chance to ensure that everyone was accounted for, and that the FOH ship damaged their engines. They made it out of orbit and have enough power to cloak and move at low warp speeds. James felt that it was not safe to return to earth and look for Northstar and Aurora”.

“Not safe?? What kind of asshole leaves his people behind like that?!”

“I share your frustration, Bobby. James told me that he had to make a decision based on the good of the majority of his team, who were on the Maple Leaf when FOH attacked. He said that had their ship not been damaged, he would have returned to earth to retrieve the twins. He felt that he couldn’t risk his team being captured by FOH again”.

I forced myself again to breathe and try to get calm but my heart was thudding. My throat was dry, I felt a bit dizzy, and was glad that I was sitting down.

“Can you sense them? Northstar and his sister?”

“We are too far from earth for me to sense anyone on it. I am sorry, Bobby. When we are close to earth, I should have that ability and I promise you that I will let you know as soon as I have something definitive”.

“What about Caliban? Why didn’t *he* sense Alpha Flight earlier? Can he tell us where Northstar is?”

“I believe that his powers allow him to only sense mutants whom he has met. He met several X-men before but apparently has not met anyone in Alpha Flight”. Xavier took a breath. “For all we know, Northstar and Aurora might be fine. There is a good chance they are evading FOH. Both are strong fighters with many years of experience in combat. Their powers to fly at hyper-speed should be a great asset in helping them resist capture”.

“But with Aurora being all mental, I’m sure she’s not in the best condition. And a big part of their plan was to use the cloaked ship as their base on earth. Without that, they don’t have that many places to hide. And FOH probably still has that Banshee-like weapon, and the twins don’t have a psionic shield to protect themselves from it. After all, they “ and all of Alpha Flight “ was captured by FOH once before”. Despite the dread I was feeling, I was forcing my brain to think and function.

“There are plenty of places to hide. And fortunately, it is only two of them who have to hide - and they should be on familiar territory. I knew this would be difficult news for you to take, Bobby, so I wanted to tell you first. Here is what I can promise you. When we get closer to earth, as I said, I will attempt to reach them telepathically. I will also insist to Magneto that our first order of business be to find them, when we reach earth. Convincing him may be a struggle as he is eager to defeat FOH, but I assure you that I will do everything I can to get him to agree to doing so”.

I guess I was feeling all emotional or whatever, so when Xavier said those words, I got off my chair, reached over and bent down to hug him. “Thank you”. Then I stood back up. “What if he doesn’t agree?”

“I will do everything I can to convince him, Bobby. If I can’t, then we can explore other options such as breaking off with Magneto. I would prefer to keep that as a last resort”.

I nodded. The Professor reached for one of my hands and gave it a squeeze, which was not a characteristic behavior of his.

“Be strong, Bobby. I encourage you to both hope for the best while mentally preparing for the worst. If FOH has captured them, there is a good chance that they would leave them alive for a while. They did so with both the X-men and Alpha Flight when they had captured us before”.

“They didn’t leave Banshee or Kevin alive when they had them,” I said. My heart again fell to the floor.

“Based on what Moira shared with me, FOH waited weeks before executing them. But remember that we do not even know if FOH has captured Northstar and Aurora. They might be doing quite well hiding and waiting for a rescue”.

The Professor paused and then said, sounding more business-like, “You are the first person I have shared this information with “ I have not yet told Cyclops or Storm that we’ve made contact with Alpha Flight. I would like to do so now. Come with me; I am going to summon everyone to the bridge. We must discuss our plan”.

Obediently I followed his wheelchair. I tried to focus. Xavier’s tone and actions somehow kept me from breaking down and crying. But as I walked to the bridge, with my head down, I had to remember an article I read years ago. It was by this woman who waited her whole life to find her soulmate. She found her soulmate and the soulmate died within a year of cancer. Decades had passed and she’d never met another “ that had been her one chance, her one soulmate. I wondered if I would have the same kind of luck.

We got to the bridge, Xavier made an announcement, and everyone else was there within a minute or two. I slid down into one of the chairs as everyone else milled about and waited for the news.

So Xavier basically told the others what he told me. He said that he estimated Alpha Flight’s ship to be about four days away. When he gave them the news about Northstar and Aurora, Hank and Jubilee went right up to me. Hank put his hand on my shoulder.

I had been so wrapped up in thinking about Northstar, that I hadn’t cared too much about the others in Alpha Flight or who was on the ship with them. The Professor said that all the others who had set out for earth were now back on the Maple Leaf, including Angel. In addition, Angel had located Psylocke. Years ago she had spent about 15 months with the X-men before leaving but apparently now she wanted to rejoin. They had only a few others with them: Sasquatch’s son and Heather’s parents. Alpha Flight had not had much luck regrouping with the rest of their team. While on earth, they had learned that three members had died. Marrina and her husband had elected to remain on earth.

And that was that. The Professor said he would talk with Magneto in person. Apparently another shuttle was already scheduled to go from our ship to his; Forge was going to be on it to pay Emma a visit. Someone muttered something about Emma being “one busy and energetic lady” but I was so crushed over the news on the twins that I didn’t crack a smile.

***


TO BE CONTINUED

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