Chapter Three: The Announcement
The black full sized van comes to a screeching halt in front of a scene of horror. Ororo, the driver, leaps out of the vehicle and runs to what remains of the silver Jaguar that her friends left in earlier this evening. The twisted metal scattered out and flattened causes her to cover her mouth. She cannot believe what she sees. It was only hours ago that she had seen this driver and passenger. She now fears she will never see them again.
Inside the passenger seat of the van, Charles Xavier sits quietly, scanning the area for some trace of Scott and Jean. His desperate attempts fail, as he feels no trace of either one. He is in disbelief, however. These two people are as close to his heart as anyone he has ever met in his life. Although it appears that they are dead, he knows that he would have felt it. He would know it in his heart.
"Storm..." a small, frail and sorrowful voice calls out.
"Jean? Jean!" Storm replies with a great feeling of relief. "Where are you?"
"We're here!" Jean calls back.
Charles Xavier looks up, as if out of no where, Scott and Jean's presence has returned.
"Where?" Storm asks frantically.
"Let me guide you through my eyes," Jean reassures.
A slight tingle runs through Storms mind as her eyesight becomes doubled. Not only does she see that which is before her, she can also see exactly where Scott and jean are. In a hurried rush, she runs around the remains of the jaguar, across the ditch separating the road, and into an open field on the other side of the trees. There she sees Jean holding Scott's body. Jean appears unharmed, but Scott doesn't look to be in a good a condition.
"By the Goddess," Storm says under her breath. She kneels beside jean and looks at Scott, bruised and battered. Shards of metal and Ruby Quarts decorating his face. He doesn't move. He doesn't speak. "Is he?"
"Dead?" Jean fills in the missing word. A single tear runs down her face. "No...he is still alive."
"Oh, thanks be to the Bright Lady." Storm says as she begins to cry.
"Storm, you have to help me, now," Jean adds. "I need to get Scott back to the medi-lab now. I want you to bring the van as close to the ditch as you can and open the rear doors."
Storm nods and runs as swift as the wind back to the van. She puts the van in reverse and within seconds has opened the doors and stands prepared for anything.
"Okay," Jean says as she looks down to her severly injured fiance, "We're going to have to get you back to the mansion, baby." Jean stands up and moves back from Scott's body. She looks down on him and uses all her powers to hold his body still as she lifts him and guides him through the trees and into the van. She follows his path and also gets into the van with him.
Charles Xavier turns to look upon the face of the man whom he loves as a son. He cannot control his feelings as he begins to cry. He scans his mind to see what condition he is in. He can feel a slight trace of Scott, but he has been so badly damaged that he cannot muster the strength to speak, or at this point, even think.
Storm floors the van and this team, this family, returns home.
Jean sits silently beside her soon to be husband, watching his every move, seeing if there is any change, scanning his mind for some force of being. At this point he is apparently comatose, and no one, neither Doctor nor Psychic, nor both, can determine his recovery.
Jean feels a slight revulsion when she must remove the metal and glass imbedded in her fiance's body. Running from head to toe, he has small pieces here and there. She asks the others to leave the room during this. There are some places on his body that he would rather be kept between he and Jean.
As she undresses him, careful not to move him to drastically, she notices that on his chest, above his nipple there is a small burn, in the shape of an eagle, a raptor even. She is puzzled by this burn, as she cannot remember there being a fire at all during the crash. As a matter of fact, she cannot remember the crash at all.
"Could save yourself, but not him, hunh, Jeannie?"
Jean looks up and turns. It is that same damn voice that haunted her the night before, at the restaurant, and later in the car. This time it seems to be taunting her again.
"Enough, damn it!" Jean shouts in anger. "Just who the hell are you!"
"Ha ha ha...Oh, Jean....can't you figure it out?"
Jean turns from Scott and looks in every corner, trying to find someone or something that could be doing this to her. "Listen, you," Jean begins, "I have enough problems now as it is, without you trying to screw me up!"
"I don't want to hurt you, Jean," the voice counters, "I just want to lead you into the future."
"Well," Jean states in her most casual manner, "Thanks for the offer, but I would rather find my own way."
"Suit yourself, firebird......."
Jean turns back to Scott and resumes her work.
"Firebird?"
Ororo enters the lab and comes over to where Jean sits desperately, waiting for some sign of life. She puts her hand on Jean's shoulder. Jean reaches up and takes her hand as well, showing the unique bond between these women.
"Jean," Ororo begins, "you know that I love you as I would love my sister."
Jean smiles. "I know, Ororo. I love you as much."
"It is because of that love, Jean, that I want you to get some rest." Ororo's tender words of caring and compassion seem to fall deaf of Jean's hearing.
"I can't leave him like this," Jean replies. "I feel responsible for it. I made it out okay, without even a scratch, and Scott...he....he....." Jean falls to tears as Ororo cradles her in her arms.
"Jean, I know how this upsets you, but you can do him no good by depriving yourself of much needed rest." Storm rationalizes.
"But," Jean replies, "what if I am gone when he wakes up. What if he opens his eyes for only a moment and I am not here to smile at him and tell him he'll be okay. What if I am not in here and he...he..."
Ororo lifts Jean's head. "You cannot think like that, Jean. Scott will be all right. You must believe that in your heart. He needs you now as much as he has needed you before, but he would no approve of you treating yourself like this. Please, go to bed, for only a few hours. I will stay with him."
Jeans sobs begin to break up. She nods and stands. She bends down and kisses him on the forehead. "I love you, Slim."
After a few hours of rest, but no sleeping, Jean rises from her bed and takes a long hot shower. She is keeping her thoughts open to the lab below so that she can monitor any changes. The hot water running over her body is relaxing. After the tension of the past few weeks, and despite the circumstances of the moment, she feels relieved.
After indulging herself to the point of wrinkles, she comes out of the shower. She reaches up to remove the steamed fog of the mirror, and wipes it away as best she can to see herself. She looks into her own eyes, and for a second, she does not recognize the eyes staring back at her. After a moment, she shrugs it off as sleep deprivation and puts on her clothes.
As she walks out the door, she doesn't turn to notice, but the shape of the removed steam appears to be, oddly enough, in the shape of a giant bird. More specifically, a firebird.
Jean steps out into her room. On the corner of her night stand, she sees her DNA report she had been working on. It appears to be finished, but she doesn't quite remember finishing it, or for that matter, even bringing it into her room.
And then, as if something has come over her, she feels troubled and lifts it up. She examines it, and notices that the words on it are as alien to her as the words of a novel she has never read. It is her handwriting, but it doesn't feel like she wrote it. None the less, she feels it is time to show Charles.
She takes the papers in her hand and begins walking down the stairs. She goes down the elevator shaft to the lab to check on Scott. Both Charles and Ororo are there.
"Has there been any change?" Jean asks, already knowing the answer.
Xavier gives a swift cross, indicating nothing has changed.
A moment of silence passes as Jean takes Xavier's hand. "I need to speak with you Charles."
"Certainly, Jean." Xavier turns to Ororo as she immediately agrees to stay with Scott. Jean and Xavier leave the lab and move into another room.
"Charles," Jean begins "....I really want you to see this." Jean pulls the papers up and reluctantly hands them to Charles.
Charles examines the information before him. "What does all this mean, Jean? I have seen these arguments before."
"Well, Charles," Jean begins, "you haven't seen the last page."
Charles looks down to the last page and his mouth gapes open in amazement. He can hardly believe what he is looking at. On this final page, Jean's DNA is shown at three stages in her life. The first is when she realized she was a mutant, a scan done by Xavier himself. The second was taken a few months ago, whenever Jean began to redevelop her telepathy. But the last one, taken only a week ago, appears to be drastically different than any of the other ones.
"Jean..." Charles begins, left speechless by what he sees. The acids and genetic codes are like none he has ever seen. "What does all this mean, Jean?"
Jean hesitates at first, and then replies. "I don't know Charles. It frightens me a little. I cannot figure out what it all means."
"Neither can I, Jean," Charles adds.
At that moment, the doors of the room slide open as a stunned Ororo falls through them. Xavier and Jean both look up and see a sight that sends shivers down their spines.
