Chapter 14: The Mirage and the Giant

Peter was just stepping through the door of Moira's apartment when it hit him. It was the same sensation that he'd felt through the link before Kinkaid's arrival, and now it was back with a vengeance. There was an intense wave of disorientation, accompanied by a reverberating, shrill sensation that blocked out all sound. He hadn't realized that he was falling until he felt someone catch him. It was over in less than a minute, but that wasn't very comforting under the circumstances. He looked up at Moira's shocked face, finding that she'd knelt down in front of him, then nodded his thanks to Captain Kinkaid for stopping his fall.

"Peter? Peter." Moira prompted, grabbing his shoulders then his head and staring worriedly into his eyes.

"Mmmm." Peter murmured in reply, trying to reorder his thoughts.

"What happened? Are you alright? No, you're clearly not alright. What was that?" Moira asked rapidly. Peter narrowed his eyes at her, not appreciating her verbal diarrhea. Wait. No, he can't be… Pietro gave up all pretence of paying attention, trying to project his thoughts toward me over our link.

"Peter!" Moira snapped upon noticing the way his eyes had glazed over. He ignored her, trying again. He had been doing this for years. It had become almost second nature to him to push his thoughts toward that impression of steaming Assam tea and cool metal that always lingered at the edge of his senses, carrying a faint scent of ozone. It wasn't there. Not faded, as distance tended to make it…

"Agent Frank?" Captain Kinkaid questioned as Cecily came up to watch them over his shoulder. Peter frowned and shushed him. He couldn't find any trace of me in his mind.

"He's gone." Pietro blurted suddenly. Moira frowned at him in confusion. "Something happened." He concluded unhelpfully.

"We saw." Cecily responded.

"Wh—No, not to me, to Francis."

"Who?" Captain Kinkaid asked looking to Moira.

"Xavier's kid." She clarified. Captain Kinkaid continued to stare at her. "It's a long story. How do you know?"

"Well, I think it would seem to be a bad sign that there was a telepath with me in my head and then there very suddenly wasn't." Peter replied in a tone that showed how incredibly obvious he felt this was. "He was cut off. He didn't leave willingly."

"So what do we do? We're dropping like flies! First you lose control, then Marie and Logan disappear, and now Francis…" Raven ranted nervously. "We can't keep going like this."

"Raven, all we know for certain is that Francis has been shielded from me." Charles said, trying to convince himself as much as her. " The others might have a good reason for waiting to return. I don't like it either but I don't think we should assume the worst."

"If the Shadow King were to attack us now—" Erik observed, not helping at all. Why do that? He's got us on the run as it is. Charles thought to himself miserably, before responding aloud.

"I am aware of the danger we are in. I have a plan." He assured them, a tad louder than necessary. He looked at Erik with a harassed expression but then just sighed, resting a comforting hand over Raven's.

There was a tapping at one of the dining room doors. Erik exchanged a look with the others, then turned and pulled it open with a wave of his hand. Jubilee came running in and jumped up into Charles' lap, burying her face in his chest. Darwin was trailing after her more slowly, looking chagrinned.

Erik looked expectantly up at the younger mutant.

"Sorry guys. She had another bad dream." At Darwin's use of the term 'bad dream' Jubilee let out a little indignant huff. "Sean and I tried to calm her down but she insisted that she needed to see the Professor instead."

Raven's brows lifted in surprise.

"Shh. It's alright. She just knows that monsters couldn't hide from me." Charles remarked, carefully returning her hug. Raven eyed them quizzically. "You're perfectly safe. It was just the wind." He continued to reassure the frightened child. Jubilee shook her head, sending her long, black pigtails cascading over her shoulders.

"Let's go have a look then, shall we?" Charles offered gently. "I promise I won't let anyone get you."

Jubilee considered the proposal carefully before nodding her assent and wrapping her arms around his neck so that he could carry her back to her room. Raven gave him a tired grin and passed him his cane. Even as stressed out as she still felt, she found the whole thing absolutely adorable. Erik got up and opened the door for Charles with a wave of his hand as he followed them out on his way to check on me, for what reason I could never fully understand. I mean as far as he was concerned I was in a coma, hardly interactive.

"Chess when you're finished?" Erik inquired quietly as he passed. Charles smiled and nodded, giving him a quick peck on the lips before he turned headed up the stairs towards Jubilee's room.

I squinted down at the childlike projection that was holding onto my arm. Then I gave the projection a withering look when the illusion smiled hopefully up at me. I'm no imbecile. I could see it was an imitation of the way my older sister must've looked in her youth; what that meant exactly was something I was yet to discern. I released my hold on the deep red curtains to punctuate my point as I confronted her… it.

"I know you aren't real. So, who are you and what do you want with me?!" I demanded, stepping forward with each word and backing the projection into the wall. The supposed 'little girl' pouted up at me for a few more seconds, looking like she might start crying. "Listen Love, you're really barking up the wrong tree with that tactic." I informed it.

"You're being mean to me!" The illusion replied.

"Spot on." I confirmed.

"She wants to go home, but she's not going anywhere."

I frowned. The projection looked calmly up at me. It even batted its bloody eyelashes at me! What the fuck.

"Who?" I asked. When the 'little girl' answered, there was an obvious coldness in its gaze.

"You're staying here with me." It announced. Its eyes darkened from the pale blue-gray until they were the color of blood. I narrowed my eyes at it, stepping back reflexively.

"No…"

It smirked and giggled.

"Welcome home!" The projection waved at me. I darted forward to grab it but it was too late.

"Fluke! No!" I heard Wanda shout, as the projection dropped the doll and disappeared. I stood there, staring down at Wanda's old doll in disbelief, before I managed to snap myself out of it and stormed over to the windows to yank open the drapes.

"What the serious fuck!" I cursed incredulously. Outside I saw the dilapidated and polluted, war torn landscape of the future… or well, my past. I took another moment or two to observe this in silence before considering "How are you doing this?"

There was no reply of course. I ran a hand through my hair, looking around at the replica of the 1960's version of the playroom around me and then back out at the warzone of 2012 as I began to calculate my next move. I froze at the blood-chillingly familiar, low, mechanical grind that broke the silence.

The giant's shadow fell on the snow and rubble outside the window. Even on the astral plane the sudden realization was enough to make my heart skip a beat. For a second I just stared, barely breathing, then I darted away at top speed into the darkened hallways of the mansion.

Peter pushed through the doors of the holding facility not even pausing as he showed the security personnel his ID on his way to Frost's cell.

"Agent Frank?" The Sergeant questioned, looking a bit confused.

"Yes, that's me. I'm here to see prisoner six." Peter replied quickly.

"I thought you were on leave, Sir."

"Sooner rather than later if you don't mind, Sergeant Tyler." Peter prompted. Tyler blinked, and nodded.

"Yes, Sir." He said apologetically, looking a tad dazed and let Peter into the holding area.

Peter narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the other man for a fraction of a second before continuing to his destination.

"Agent Frank." Emma Frost greeted when he reached the reinforced glass window to her cell. "What's got you so flustered, Sugar?"

"I expect you already know." Pietro returned coolly. Emma got up from her cot and stretched, giving him a teasing wink. He averted his gaze and fidgeted uncomfortably adding. "And don't call me 'Sugar'. It's too weird."

"Whatever you say, Handsome." She teased. He scowled at her.

"What've you done?"

Emma raised her delicate blond brows at him and looked meaningfully around at her heavily fortified prison.

"Don't try that, Emma. Telepathy isn't exactly common and the list of mutants with knowledge of my family is even shorter!" Pietro snapped accusingly. Emma's expression sobered.

"Someone hurt the kid?"

"So you did know."

"From the moment that I met you."

"I thought as much."

"Listen, I didn't touch him, I swear."

"Trying to be clever?"

"Listen Sport, do really think that I would have helped you in here to confront me if I was trying to screw you over?" Frost pointed out, stepping forward to stand just on the other side of the glass, facing him with her arms crossed over her chest. Pietro stared her down for only a moment before nodding and backing down. She took a deep breath and continued. "Your brother's not the only one this guy's screwing with." Pietro's gaze snapped back to her face. "I saw something weird a few nights ago after lights out, some kind of astral mirage. I've never experienced anything quite like it. It was five kinds of creepy, whoever projected it wasn't even giving off a signature!"

"I thought that was impossible."

"So did I, but that's what happened."

"Tell me what you do know, then." Pietro said leaning forward.

"Alright, I'll help as much as I can, but just so you know, you're running out of time. Stryker is on his way down." Emma warned. Pietro just nodded and watched her expectantly.

Charles finished shifting through the clothing in the old closet and looked back at Jubilee.

"See: no monsters there either. There's nothing to be afraid of."

Jubilee eyed the closet cautiously then nodded. Charles smiled warmly at her and shut the closet door.

"Alright. Back to bed, then. Don't worry." He assured her as he tucked her in again. Erik and I will be right down the hall if you need us. Erik stood silently in the doorway, watching Charles finish tucking the small girl back into her bed. Charles was just leaving when he caught a movement outside the window and turned back to look.

"Charles?" Erik asked. Charles looked back at him with a puzzled expression and crossed the room to peek out the window. He was sure what ever it was had been fairly large. He leaned closer. There didn't seem to be anything there, which made sense as they were on the second floor.

"Charles? What is it?" Erik whispered again, not wanting to wake Jubilee, who'd only just fallen back to sleep. There was a low metallic grind hovering at the edge of Charles' senses.

"Can't you hear that?" Charles inquired. Erik paused to listen, then shook his head, looking concerned. Charles caught another slow-moving shadow out of the corner of his eye and turned back to see the massive metal behemoth staring in at him with its glowing red visual sensors. He tensed briefly, but then relaxed and simply studied it. If it was really there, Erik would have reacted. He is a magnekinetic after all, and this giant was clearly not designed for a friendly purpose.

"What are you?" Charles thought aloud.

"What?"

"An astral projection… or a memory. Not from this time." Charles decided. Erik came to stand beside him as Charles put a hand up to touch the glass. He jumped back startled when my image took the place of his reflection for a split second. Shouting without sound: 'Dad!' Then he was staring out a normal old bedroom window into the fading light of a frosty autumn evening. Erik caught his arm.

"What happened?"

Charles rested a hand on Erik's shoulder, trying to calm his racing heart.

"I'm not sure… I saw Francis."