One of the many explanations for why Jubilee doesn't seem to be any older then fifteen.
Immortality's Joy.
"Jubilee, are you sure you don't want to come with us? It's not like it would be any trouble." Jean smiled at the young girl, who was currently sitting around watching the television.
"Nah, it's cool Red. Frosty said that she was gonna let us kids use her pent house in Florida for the summer. But thanks anyway. You adult X-ers need yer time off too." Jean smiled and ruffled the teenagers hair, to a squeal of indignation.
"Alright then, in that case you'd better get back to Massachusetts. We'll be leaving in a little while."
Jubes sighed and flicked off the TV.
"Kay. I've already said goodbye to everyone anyway. So I hope you have a fun vacation, Jeannie, bye." She gave the red haired telepath a hug, and then grabbed up her jacket and walked outside.
"Yo! Gateway!" As easily as that, the aboriginal man appeared. He nodded toward the telepath, and then turned toward Jubilee. Jubes waved and stepped through the portal that was made, yelling out 'Thanks Old Fella.' to the man. Jean sighed once more, as, again, she wondered why the aboriginal pygmy would always appear for the pyrotechnic, no matter how rude she was to him.
"Oh well…Bahamas get ready for the X-men!"
"-So I'm gonna hang with Wolvie and the others, Kay?"
"Of course Jubilation. And since you seem to be in such a good mood, do you think you could…ah…pull that prank you played on Banshee, on Scott as well?" Emma Frost smiled at the grin of Jubilee's face.
"Sure Frosty. Though I can't guaranty any pictures or anything. Seeing as that particular prank is better pulled in the dark. But anyway, I should get going; they'll be waiting for me. See you at the start of school."
"Have fun, Jubilation." The White Queen's voice seemed to echo with suggestions of fun, as the screen went blank.
Jubilee turned her terminal off and with quick finger movements, tapped in the appropriate code to remove the conversation from the vid-cam records. It wouldn't do for anyone nosy to wonder why she had snuck back into the X-mansion after a carefully timed hour to make a simple vid call.
With a satisfied sigh, she leaned back in her chair and looked past the console to where the aboriginal 'warlock' currently known as Gateway was waiting.
"Well, the X-men think I'm in Florida with Gen X and Gen X think I'm in the Bahamas with the X-men. I think it's safe to hightail it to Paris. Don't you, youngling?" Gateway smiled at the 'young' Asian mutant and nodded.
* I'd say so. Are you going to stop by the Cali-mansion first, or do you want me to take you straight to France? *
Jubilee tapped her fingernails on the console as she thought about it. Then with a decisive nod she stood up.
"Take me to Cali. I'll take a plane to France. I need to take some time to relax and get some real sleep before I deal with that jack off MacLeod. If it wasn't for the fact that Connor and Amanda had agreed to show, I wouldn't be going at all."
* Even though Methos will be there as well? Don't try to deny the fact that you miss him. Even if he doesn't remember you. He knows that you are old and that you and Cassandra had somewhat of a history. He was questioning me the last time we met you know. Fifty-six years ago, I think. Though he seemed to think I was your Teacher, instead of the other way around. *
"Sounds like Methi-boy. I just wish he hadn't suppressed all his damn memories about me. I mean, by the Darkness, you'd think he would remember his own Student." Jubilee let out a growl that would have scared off Sabertooth.
Gateway backed away slightly and kept a careful eye on his mentor of five hundred years. He knew how deadly she could be when she was like this. When he was new to this world, he had made the mistake of pissing her off even more. It had taken him four weeks to finally wash up on the shore of New Zealand.
* Ah…yes, you'd think. Would you like me to take you now? There is another person calling for my help so I'll have to go soon. * Gateway tried not to stutter in his mind, as he tentatively started to open a wormhole.
"You, dear Chendaro, are a very bad liar. But yes, I would like to go now thank you." She ignored his flinch as she used his real name. With a small grimace of apology, she stepped through his portal and said good bye as he fled the angry Immortal's immediate area. As soon as he had gone, and her expectations of feeling the buzz go with him, Jubilee came on alert. There was an Immortal somewhere around the grounds of her Beverley Hills mansion. Luckily who ever it was, was far enough out of range they wouldn't feel her presence unless they were far older then her. And the chance of finding any Immortal with the exception of Methos who was over four thousand years old was not likely.
Raising magik and mutant stealth shields, Jubilee slipped the lock on the patio door and stepped out onto the balcony. The buzz was coming from down near the gates somewhere. With practised ease, the four thousand-year-old Immortal flipped down the two-story jump and set off across the lawn. The gate was down a tree-sheltered drive, about half a mile away, and it was easy for her to slip through the trees to get there.
What she found was slightly surprising. There were no cars, no motorcycles and no other kind of transport waiting at the gate. What were there, sitting in two small baskets, were two small infants. And both of them were giving off enough of a pre-Immie buzz to be mistaken from a distance as one Immortal. As the realisation that there were no fully-grown, fully trained fighters waiting for her came, the realisation that there were two pre-Immie babies sleeping in front of her hit her upside the head.
"Oh Shit." Nervously fingering the dagger that sat in her belt, Jubilee punched in the code for the gate and picked up the baskets. As she pulled them in through the gate and onto the Holy Ground her home was built on, a note fell from one of the carriers.
Jubilee placed the still sleeping infants back on the ground and picked up the note.
To the Lady Keeper of the Resting Place of the Kehota Tribe.
Greetings, Chosen of the Spirits.
We, the remaining children of the Kehota have long been aware of your presence Lady, and are very glad that one of the Spirit Chosen, Immortal Childe, has taken it upon herself to keep the resting-place of our ancestors sacred. We are honoured.
Lady, the Shaman of our tribe, Grey Raven, saw in a dream your return tonight. For this we are thankful, because we do not know what to do now. Five nights ago, two of the children of the Kehota were out walking with the Shaman when they came across two babes, crying, naked in the woods of our remaining tribe land. Shaman saw immediately that they were Spirit Chosen, and it was decided that we should send then to you immediately.
We have never heard of two Spirit Chosen being found at the same time, and were worried that something was wrong, but Grey Raven tells that they are soul chosen as well as Spirit Chosen. We of the Kehota do not understand this, but we hope that you will.
Lady if you decree that the little Spirit Chosen stay with our tribe, the Shaman will be waiting for a dream message and we will come to get them. The females who have been taking care of them have become slightly attached. They will understand if you do not wish this. Either way, we are honoured that the Great Spirits remembered our loyalty to them and sent the little Spirits.
Kehota will always welcome the Immortal Childer to the tribe lands.
Toron Sea Wolf
Again the only response Jubilee could form, as the note fluttered from shocked fingers, was a simple,
"Oh, Shit."
Jubilee paced around her spacious drawing room, bouncing one of the infants of her hip. This was the female one right now. The male had only just fallen asleep ten minutes ago; long enough to give Jubilee a few minutes break before the female woke up.
"Oh come on Rory. What's wrong with sleeping? You've had dinner, dippers and a bath, and you didn't kick up a fuss. Now the sun is going down and it's time for all little Storm's to sleep." The little female looked up at her with a strange sort of sleep eyed content, that obviously meant she wasn't going to sleep until she had completely worn out her new 'mom'. It still amazed Jubes how much the newly named Rory looked so much like her new namesake Ororo. Rory's skin was not quite as dark as Storm's but the hair was most definitely the same shade of white. Her eye's however seemed to belong to Jean, they were such a bright green colour.
The boy had instantly been named Bishoen, an ancient word from a long forgotten language that translated roughly as guardian or protector. It wasn't just that he looked like Bishop, even though he really, really did. It was that Jubilee's magikal and mutational powers told her that this one would do anything to protect his 'sister'.
Her thoughts were interrupted as the doorbell sounded and Jubilee walked out in to the foyer. With a careful psychic probe she flung open the door and quickly surrendered the little girl to the gaggle of women standing there. They all bowed to her with respect and then completely ignored her as they started to swamp the pre-Immie with kisses and baby talk. The two males who still stood in the door looked shocked at the disrespectful behaviour. Jubilee just smiled.
"Bishoen's in the drawing room. He just got to sleep, so please, a little bit of quiet when you go and check on him." The gaggle of females nodded again and then swept past her to say hello to the sleeping boy. Jubilee smiled again and turned her attention back to the males. "I'm under the impression that female instincts have been running havoc in you tribe for the past week, huh?" The men started slightly at this casual address and then stepped forward.
"Lady," The elder bowed to her, as the younger one went down on one knee. "I am Grey Raven, and this is my grandson, Toron Sea Wolf. And yes, female instincts have turned nearly every male hair in the tribe grey." The voice held a weary sort of amusement, and Jubilee decided that she liked this man.
"My sympathies, really. Please, no obeisance while you are visiting. If you feel you are being disrespectful then I don't really mind the 'Lady'. But if you're comfortable enough, then you are both welcome to call me Jubilee." They straightened up and smiled at her.
"Thank you Jubilee. We don't really know that much about the Spirit Chosen, so we weren't sure what would offend. But may I suggest we go rescue the two Spirit children before the females overwhelm them?"
Jubes smiled and gestured for them to follow her. In the drawing room, the ladies were all goo-gaaing over both babies, now sleeping peacefully.
"Well, you're already doing better then I was. I mustn't have much in the way of maternal instincts." She laughed at the looks on their faces, and sat down on one of the high-backed chairs. "Who was looking after them for the last week?" Two young women stepped forward.
"I'm Jessica, and this is Cora, Lady."
"Good, then I have to ask, did you name them? It's quite all right if you did, but it is a small ritual among the Chosen to do the naming ritual within in a week of finding a Spirit child." Well that was a major lie. She hadn't heard of a single Immortal who had ever found a pre-Immie at this age. But it did used to be a ritual to rename an Immortal after the First Death, so she supposed it could be adapted to First Finding.
"No Lady. We didn't think it would be our right to name them…and didn't you call the boy Bishoen?" Jubilee waved a hand in dismissal of the fact.
"Just something to call him while I was waiting. But if you haven't named them, then they can keep the names I gave them as their Immortal names." Jubilee stood up and walked over to where a crystal chalice was sitting on the desk. Dipping a finger into the red liquid, which just happened to be her own blood, she walked to where the babes were asleep in their carrier baskets.
"The little girl is Ororo Grey. Also called Rory." She swept the red finger over the baby's forehead in a lightening bolt pattern. The blood that smeared on the dark skin of the child started to glow, and then disappeared. Dipping her finger in again, she moved to the boy.
"The little boy is Bishoen. Also called Bishop." The lightening bolt symbol disappeared again. She turned back to the watching people. "You can name them whatever you want now. It doesn't matter what they are called. When the time comes for them to take up their duties as Spirit Chosen, they will know the names I just gave them. They are yours to take back to the tribe and raise now." Tears were leaking from the eyes of the two women, and Jubilee knew she had guessed right. Pre-Immortals always seemed to end up in the hands of barren women.
"Now to more practical things. You mustn't forbid them to learn to fight. In fact, encourage them to learn the proper ways. When they are old enough, five or six, I will begin to train them myself. As for anything else they may wish to learn, let them. The more they know of the world, the better. I will set up a trust fund for the both of them. By the time they are Chosen, they will have enough to support them selves if they get in trouble."
The two women nodded in thanks and each picked up one of the babes.
"One last thing. If any of the Dark Spirit Chosen come looking for an easy conquest with these two, do what ever you can to get away from him or her. Go to the nearest Holy Ground, this place included. You two and the children are always welcome in my home."
The two ladies bowed, and then the others. Jubilee walked back over to the desk and picked up a sheet of paper.
"This is an emergency number for you to find me at all times, and if that doesn't work, then do what you can to send a dream message to me. There is already an account for emergencies, which can be used by the children and their families or by the entire clan Kehota if the need is great. If I've forgotten anything, and yes, I probably have, there is a number there that you can use to find another Immortal if you can't get a hold of me. Other then that…The Blessings of Dawn and Dusk on the Kehota." Jubilee bowed to them in what was obviously a firm dismissal. She held out the sheet of paper to the Shaman, turned around again and grabbed two small boxes from the table and then handed these to the new mothers. With another small smile she walked out of the room and into the interior of the mansion.
The women holding the babies looked at the gift boxes and the younger one carefully opened it. In the box was a pure gold chain, made from interlocking lightening bolts. A single giant bolt hung from it, sprinkled with diamonds and on the back of it were the words,
The Protection of the Light Lady on the wearer. The Wrath of the Dark Lady on the attacker.
She showed it to the Shaman and he placed it over her head and around her neck. Jessica shifted Bishoen to her hip and opened her own box. This one was a necklace made of interlocking gold starbursts, with a giant starburst pendant. The pendant held an opal the size of a fingernail and on the back were the same words. The Shaman placed it around her neck as well.
"She is giving you her protection as long as you take care of the children. Come, we had best go now." The females surrounded the new mothers and herded them out, followed closely by males. Jubilee watched them get in the cars and leave, hiding in the shadows of the balcony. With a sigh of confused relief as the buzz disappeared, she went back into her bedroom and began to pack a small carry bag. Silently though, part of her mind followed the two woman who were now in charge of two pre-Immortals. The bands of gold she had given to them were part of the sacrifice gift that had killed her, so many years ago, and she was intricately connected to each and every piece of gold, silver and gemstone that had weighed her down and drowned her. She knew where every single piece was on this planet. And for each piece a tiny part of her mind received information about its surroundings and what it was used for. That was the reason she had sent the pieces with them, not for their protection, but for her knowledge.
"Enough speculation. Time to get to Paris. At least I get to fly first class again. Economy sucks." Just as she thought it, the cab pulled up the drive and beeped its horn. "At least over in France, the cabbies have manners."