Chapter 3 – While you were gone part 2
"So, how did you come back to life?" asked Ororo.
"Like I said Ro, it's complicated." replied Charles, he knew he should give them an explanation but wasn't sure whether it would just add to their already apparent confusion.
Every single person in the room was looking anywhere but the three reincarnated mutants, they were silent whilst waiting for the Professor to continue.
Storm and Hank were trying to keep busy, making teas and coffees for anyone that wanted one hoping that if they kept active then the time for Charles to give them some answers would come sooner; Bobby was sitting on the large armchair with Kitty on his lap whispering words of comfort to one another (they were very confused about the fact that their once dead teachers were now standing in front of them); Jubilee, Remy, Piotr and Warren were in one corner of the room trying not to stare at the three mutants who were now alive where as Rogue, who stood by herself, was watching them warily as well as trying to calm the Charles that was now in her head.
She stared on, watching Jean, Scott and the Professor exchange glances with each other. Rogue could see that whatever had occurred to bring the mutants back was not one they really wanted to discuss and as such, she knew that the X-Men needed to know.
"Come on Charles, I have enough memories from Eric to realise you haven't always been a saint." Rogue exclaimed, "Just tell us, we all need to know what happened if we are going to be living in the same house again, don't you think?"
Charles look dumbfounded due to the girls (no woman's) outburst. "I know I'm not a saint my dear but we do not have to tell you anything. This is my school."
"Oh, I know Charles. I just want to make sure we aren't living with a shape-shifter who has turned themselves into you. I am only being cautious due to the children."
"I understand. I will try to explain as best as I can." The Professor was going to need to be cautious, once they found out about Jean, all hell could break loose.
"That's all we ask." Rogue walked up to the chair next to Charles and perched herself on the end. "Please, begin."
Charles explained that before Alkali Lake he had noticed a difference in Jean and as such knew that when she sacrificed herself that the Phoenix would take over. Once Jean returned from the dead the first time he could see that something catastrophic would happen and that he needed to be prepared.
Before Jean killed him, he had transferred his mind into that of another body – this body was a clone of his own which would mean that it wouldn't take as much time for his mind to adjust. This clone was created just before Alkali Lake.
About four months after Alcatraz, Charles awoke in his cloned body. It took him the rest of the time from then until their return to the school to locate Scott and 'resurrect' Jean. He had then gone and found Scott with the help of his old friend Moira MacTaggert.
It was at this point where Charles began to clam up, he knew that telling the X-Men about Jean could ruin everything but he didn't want his beloved friends to be distrustful towards him.
Jean didn't need the help of the Professor to come back to life – the Phoenix did all that – what she did need help with, was controlling her. When Charles found the Phoenix using his telepathic powers, he located her reforming body in a Hospital in Alberta. The body was not that of the woman whom Logan killed but a replica that had used the last of the Phoenix's energy to be created. As such, the body was in a coma.
The Phoenix needed to replenish her strength which gave the Professor a window of opportunity to try and lock the Phoenix in a box in the recesses of Jean's mind. Charles did this and when Jean woke up one year later, she was once again the Jean everyone once knew and loved. However, the Phoenix was still in her mind and would at a later date, using other telepaths, need to be purged from Jean's mind completely.
So, one year later after the shock arrival and three after Alcatraz came the omen that only Charles and Marie knew about.
Which was why he was coming home!
When Charles had told Rogue about Logan's impending visit she nearly ripped the whole mansion apart – how could Charles just expect her to be okay about this? She was furious, mostly at herself, for letting the hairy and beasty man get to her but she was in love with Logan and thought that she could get over him with time. Unfortuantely, getting over your 'one and done' is a lot harder than people might think and to top it off she could touch now, so it was going to be even harder keeping her hands to herself.