DA REVELATIONS

Episode 18 – Broken

Chapter One – Genetics Lesson

Kitty Pryde had just staggered into the Professor's office in time to catch the phone before it's final ring. "Xavier's," she yawned, glancing at her watch and noting it was nearly midnight.

"Kitty!" came a loud and almost excited tone which made her nearly drop the phone. She recognised the tone at once, sighing, she sat upon the edge of the desk.

"Hi, Hank. The Professor's not at home right now, he's gone to Maine for a conference," she stifled yet another yawn.

"I forgot..." said Hank, sighing.

"Is Jessie okay?" Kitty asked, she pinned the phone between her ear and her shoulder and picked up a rubber band from the desk tidy to pull her sleep-mussed hair back into a messy but efficient ponytail.

"She's fine," Hank advised.

"I can't believe she ran off like that...she was supposed to be in bed, and no one even thought to check on her...then you call after you get to Muir Island and it's like, suddenly we realise she's not even here."

"She's a crafty little thing, isn't she?"

"Remind you of anyone?" Kitty made a face.

Hank laughed on the other end, "I keep saying it – she's her father's daughter...oh, I nearly forgot...Remy is fine. He's healing up amazingly."

"I'm glad he's doing better...Rogue said he was so close to death's door that I was worried you wouldn't be able to pull him back..." Kitty said. She tried to feign the relief she felt in the news that Remy would be okay, while at the same time trying to sound cold and aloof. She still hadn't quite forgiven the man for bringing drugs into the mansion – especially when there were young children at home – and especially after the story he had told her about kicking a drugs habit years before.

"Kitty...Jessie saved Remy's life...quite literally."

Kitty straightened up, catching the phone in her hand and putting it back to her ear quickly "huh? What are you talking about."

"Didn't Rogue tell you when she called?"

"No...she was too busy yelling at me for not telling her about Jessie..." Kitty muttered. "How did Jessie save him?"
"When we got here, Remy was in bad shape – and I mean bad shape," Hank explained from the other end. "Like you say, he was nearly at death's door. But while myself and Moira were looking over her research we made a somewhat fascinating discovery about why the process went so wrong..."

"And?" Kitty asked, she was starting to lose patience now, she was tired and hadn't slept very well for many nights thanks to her son who'd taken to crying every time any sound in the mansion occurred – which was quite often. She wished she'd stayed in bed instead of rushing to answer the Professor's phone, which she'd heard from her bedroom directly above.

"There was a third DNA type that was being used between Remy's DNA and the synthetic DNA in the clones..."

"A third DNA..." Kitty asked curiously.

"It fixed the problem..."

"I'm not with you," Kitty rubbed her head.

"Third DNA made the healing process move forward...only the third DNA hadn't been accounted for in Moira's calculations...which is why everything went wrong."

She yawned loudly, "so...taking the third DNA out is like...taking the battery out of a remote control and making it useless?"

"Imagine two sides of a city – one residential and one industrial, with a river in between and NO bridge," Hank tried to explain. "The residents can't live on the industrial side, and the industrial side can't be right next to the residential side without contaminating the power and water supplies..."

"Wait, is this a genetics lesson or a tutorial for Sim City 4?" Kitty asked confusedly.

"Just stay with me on this!" Hank instructed. "So, you have residents with no job, no income, and then a failing industry? What do you do?"

"Build a bridge," Kitty tried.

"Exactly!" said Hank, "the bridge lets the residents go through to the industrial side and prosper, while the industry doesn't contaminate or pollute the residential areas...do you follow me now?"

"Wait..." Kitty yawned again, and rubbed her eyes, "so...the third DNA is a bridge between..."

"Between the synthetic and Remy's DNA. The synthetic DNA was contaminating and polluting Remy's body with illness, and reversing the healing process...it damn near killed him..." Hank explained. "The third DNA became the bridge between the two, it prevented the pollution and let the two different DNA's work together. You see?"

"Ohhhh," Kitty said, it certainly seemed clearer now. "But...wait, how does Jessie fall into all this..."

Hank sounded even more excited now, "well that's the astounding thing, Kitty. Jessie's DNA was the bridge. And it worked perfectly...you should see the rate Remy is healing at now."

"So any DNA could be used?" asked Kitty.

"No...it had to be a certain DNA...and that's what is so amazing. After taking a careful look at all of Moira's research, I have discovered that Jessie's DNA exists in every single one of the clones..."

"Hold on a sec..." Kitty shifted uncomfortably on her desk, "are you saying...those clones had Jessie's DNA...before we even found out about them? Before she even came to us..."

"Yes," Hank said grimly on the other end, he gave a sound that was half sigh, half grunt.

"What does that mean, Hank?" Kitty felt a sudden fear slip deep into her stomach, it made her shiver all over, she held onto the phone tightly.

"It means...I'm not sure."

"Is Jessie some kind of clone...of Gabrielle? Did Sinister get a hold of the baby's DNA and do what he did to Remy?"

"No..." Hank replied quickly.

"Thank god, 'cause, really...that would be about the sickest and lowest thing anyone could do with human remains..." Kitty felt shaken with disgust just thinking of someone doing that.

"Jessie isn't a clone...I'm certain of it."

"How?"

Hank sounded somewhat exasperated now – as if he'd spent too much time explaining this and was too tired to feel like repeating himself. "Because the clones have synthetic DNA...and Jessie does not." He explained. "There's nothing synthetic about Jessie's DNA. I must have looked over it a dozen times to make sure she was related to Remy. While I can't find a match for her mother, it's most likely her mother was human. She inherited the mutant gene from Remy, quite obviously..."

"And blue eyes and blonde hair from her mother," Kitty reasoned.

"We don't know that for sure; for all we know, if Remy hadn't been born a mutant, his eyes may have been the same off-blue that Jessie's are. As for her blonde hair...well...Remy may have had blonder hair as a child...a recessive gene from Remy's parents? For all we know, Jessie may have the blue eyed gene from Remy's mother or father...whoever they were. Not that it's important. The real matter is her DNA being in those clones...it completely threw me off."

"It's crazy," Kitty agreed. "I mean, how is it possible for her DNA to be in those clones? Do you think...that Sinister knew about Jessie before we did?"

"It would seem so," said Hank thoughtfully. "How long he's known about her though, is unclear...it can't just be a wild coincidence that he picks a random orphaned child to fill in the bridge between the synthetic DNA and Remy's. How he knew about her though is another matter – one we'll need to look into further...but how I'm not exactly sure."

Kitty shivered, the cold was creeping in through the window behind her but she wasn't sure if that was what was giving her the odd chills in her spine. Somehow, she doubted she would be sleeping easy tonight either way.