As soon as Emily had seen her name on Charles Xavier's list of humans carrying some dormant mutant gene, she'd refused to believe it. How easy would it have been for him to create a random list of New Yorkers carrying the gene and type her name on said list? Grouping Emily with inhumans would be an excellent way for this professor to change her mind about her defense tactics, to manipulate her emotions in order to bend her to their side. But Emily didn't bend easily.
She did, however, believe what she had read about her DNA. Not because she'd noticed any innate biological difference or odd disparity over the years but because that list of carriers had been inside Stephen's locked drawer. And she knew Stephen wouldn't go to the trouble of creating a dubious list and locking it away. Not him. He would challenge her openly at every turn, but he would never lie to her. And that changed everything.
So Emily had left the matching folders on Stephen's desk and trudged out of 177A Bleecker Street. She barely remembered hailing a cab. Or greeting her doorman. Or making her way back inside her apartment. But once the door shut behind her, she gave herself the freedom to cry, to get all of the bottled up frustration and grief of the last few days out of her system. Then, she forced herself to get down to business.
There had been important information inside Charles's documents, information she could use to help her client. Emily pulled out her laptop and sat on her bed. She was just about to add what she'd read to her files when she saw one of Stephen's portals open up inside her living room.
Stephen stepped out. He was back in his sorcerer attire, she noticed. The red cloak was back as well. Around his neck, an enormous glowing emerald dangled from a bronze chain. It looked like a bright green eye staring right at her. Around Stephen's wrists were identical glowing bracelets in geometric patterns. The creepy green gem and bracelets were new, as was the dried blood caked around Stephen's nose.
Emily rose to her feet with a sigh and shut her laptop. "Are you all right? What are you doing here?"
He ignored her, his eyes trailing around her studio apartment like a safety inspector looking for violations.
She frowned. "You're bleeding. Did you get into a fight or something?"
He darted past her, his red sorcerer's cloak fluttering behind him. His eyes skimmed the walls of her apartment like he was searching for something.
Emily's attitude shifted from concern to irritation. "Is there something I can help you find?"
He didn't answer. He hurried instead to the nearest corner, then stood completely still, as if his proximity to that part of her apartment might make the walls move of their own volition.
Emily sighed. "Look, I didn't remove anything from your magic house. And I promise I didn't take pictures."
Stephen brushed past her.
She raised her voice. "Or make copies of Charles Xavier's folder the way you obviously did."
That got Stephen's attention. His eyes locked on her.
She waited for his reply.
But the reply never came. Instead Stephen turned his attention back to the walls of her apartment. "I know you're here," he muttered angrily. "Where the hell are you?"
She lifted an eyebrow. Had Stephen lost his mind? "I'm right here." She shook her head. "Listen if you're upset about my finding your folder, I'm sorry."
But Stephen wasn't listening. He had slipped into her closet.
"Hey!" She marched after him. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"
He came back out and finally stood in front of her. "I pulled you out of the time stream." He stopped. His eyes locked on the corner of her room where her bed met an exterior wall. "To find the second fear lord targeting you."
"The second… what?"
Something flickered in that corner. Stephen must have seen it, too. He whipped toward it, those intricate golden shields bursting from his fists. But then the flickering stopped.
"I'm too late." Stephen whispered.
"What do you mean you're too late?"
Stephen pivoted. He came straight for her.
Emily stepped back. "What are you doing…?"
Before she could finish her question, Stephen's shields grew. They burst forth in thick geometric patterns of diamonds, triangles, and squares, overlapping in complexity. It only took a second for the flawless patterns to lace together. The shields grew until they covered both of them, encasing them inside a giant sphere.
"We're out of time," Stephen said. "And I can't go back, not without risking unstable fluctuations in our timeline." His eyes met hers. There was something like pity behind it. "This is going to hurt."
Emily never got the chance to ask what he was talking about. The world exploded around her.
She was too frightened to even scream as the blast hit. It bounced off of Stephen's shields. Fragments of glass and concrete barreled toward them. Fear seized her.
"Look at me, Emily. Don't worry about what's going on around us. We're safe."
She tried to stay focused on Stephen as the air thickened with dust and debris. His eyes were like an anchor inside the chaos, a point of reference for her to hold on to as her apartment fell down around her. But while the shields kept them safe, some of the energy from the explosion pulsated through. She closed her eyes against the tremors of pain.
Emily was close enough to the emerald around Stephen's neck that whatever power emulating from it did a number on her skin. The gem pulsed with energy. There was something dangerous about that emerald. She instinctively twisted her face to get as far away from it as she could, but she didn't dare move her body. If she stepped out of the protection of Stephen's shields she had no doubt she would die.
From behind her eyelids, a bright light filtered through. She opened her eyes. Her apartment was completely gone. They were floating out in the open and in mid-air ten floors above the New York streets. Emily sucked in her breaths in strangled gasps. She'd never been a fan of heights.
The green gem around Stephen's neck slowly closed.
"Hold on to me," Stephen said.
He didn't have to tell her twice. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed her eyes shut.
They fell straight down.
Emily moaned in fear, expecting them to slam into the ceiling of the apartment below them, but instead they started to float. She opened her eyes again. Stephen's shields were gone, and a portal had appeared underneath them. The cloak around Stephen's neck glided them through. They landed inside the top level of the Sanctum, next to the circular window with the elaborate pattern etched overtop of the glass. The cloak around Stephen's neck went still as they landed on the marble floor.
Emily let go of Stephen and stumbled back. "What the hell just happened?"
"A fear lord just vaporized your apartment."
"I'm sorry?"
"A fear lord materialized inside your apartment. I reversed time with this…" Stephen lifted the closed bronze medallion around his neck. "And created a Mandalas shield to protect us when he vaporized your home. I apologize that I couldn't stop that from happening by the way. You're welcome to stay here until you can find a new place…"
"Wait, did you just say you reversed time? To stop a fear lord?" Disbelief battled against what she'd just experienced. She believed what he said about the shields. A tangible object like two shields was an easy thing to see, to believe. But some other-worldly being blowing up her apartment or reversing time…?
Stephen placed his hands an inch from the medallion resting on his chest. He steepled his fingers to form some sort of intricate diamond, and then gradually eased his hands together before stretching them apart. The bronze eye-like shape in its center opened. The green stone inside thrummed with power.
"This is the Time Gem, entrusted to the Sorcerer Supreme for safe-keeping. This allowed me to reverse time. I couldn't bind the fear lord, but stopping your death was more important."
She stumbled back. "Stopping my death?"
He nodded. "You died, Emily."
A tiny laugh escaped her throat. "I'm sorry, but I think I'd remember if I had died, for God's sake…"
"That future didn't happen. I used the gem to save your life."
His words were awash with kindness, but her mind refused to process them. She felt mentally numb. "But… I don't understand. If you could turn back time to save my life, couldn't you just use that gem again and go back to bind that invisible fear bastard, whatever the hell he was?"
"Turning back time again and again creates unstable dimensions, holes in space and time. Theoretically, I could have gone back to create a few more minutes to bind the fear lord, but it could have had disastrous consequences." Stephen steepled his fingers again and closed the glowing green gem around his neck. "And you're being alive was all that mattered."
Tears of gratitude filled her eyes. He'd come back for her, to save her. She had been drawn to him since that night back in her apartment when he'd soothed her tears. But she had no idea he felt the same. She smiled and reached out to caress his cheek.
Stephen stepped back as if she had suddenly contracted some deadly disease. "Oh. No, no... I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."
Her hand fell back to her side.
"I mean, I care about you. I do. But I didn't save you because of that…"
Emily understood perfectly. He cared about her in the same way she cared about whether or not a frightened animal was accidentally hit by a speeding car. She was an innocent bystander in a turn of events she didn't understand and couldn't control. And that was where Stephen's fascination with her ended. She didn't think she could take any more direct honesty from him. Her emotions were unstable enough as it was. Her home gone, her feelings rejected, She closed off her heart to recover from the emotional blow he'd just delivered, to allow her brain to take in his explanation.
Stephen seemed to sense the sudden change. He looked away from her to focus on the iron seal etched on that weird window. "Remember that night at the party when I told you I had a cauldron?"
She nodded, dazed, still trying to process his rejection.
"Its full name is the Cauldron of the Cosmos, and it can show me any point in time: the future, the present, the past… After the men distracting me disappeared, I ran to your building but your apartment was gone. I spent some time helping those injured by the falling shrapnel and asking questions of anyone who was willing to talk. I found out you were the only casualty. Which made me wonder why. I had just assumed it was a random attack by the fear lords to create terror."
"And I was dead this whole time…?" Her voice shook.
He didn't seem to hear her question, or the tremors in her voice. "So, I came back to the Sanctum and looked inside the cauldron. And I discovered why you were attacked. You're being alive is important, Emily. Very important."
"Why? Why is my being alive so damn important?"
Seconds stretched between them. When Stephen finally answered, the conflict in his eyes matched the brokenness in his voice. "A little knowledge can be a deadly thing. I can't tell you because I can't have you make a decision that could alter your future."
"But it's my future!"
"I'm sorry, Emily."
He sounded like he meant it, but it still hurt. She took a deep breath. Another. She'd almost wept once in front of him once. Never again. "Just to be sure I understand you…" Another breath. "You said whatever my future holds it has nothing to do with you personally, is that correct?"
He hesitated a beat too long. "That's right."
He wasn't telling her the whole truth, and after what she'd just experienced, she wasn't having it. "But you used that time gem and rewound time to save me. Is that part correct?"
"Yes, but…"
Emily cut him off. "I know, I know... you didn't save my life out of some ridiculous, unnecessary attachment. You don't have to repeat that part. But I'm grateful that you did save me all the same, even if you only did it for whatever role I have yet to play."
His expression was blank. Unreadable. And seeing it almost broke her.
But she smiled through her tears. "Well, at least the universe needs me."
"Emily…" His voice was gentle as he reached for her.
"Don't." She yanked away. "Just… don't. I'd like to be alone now. Please."
He nodded, dropping his hand. "Okay. There's one more thing though…"
She made eye contact with him, but didn't trust herself to answer without breaking down completely.
"The fear lords will try to kill you again. I'm sure of it. The safest place for you to be is here inside the Sanctum. So please don't leave. Wong will be back soon if you'd rather be away from me. You can go anywhere you'd like, just be careful."
"Fine." Her reply was a dagger.
"But whatever you do, do not go near the cellar."
And with those final words, he left her alone with her pain.
