Fell

Standard Disclaimer: Theirs, not mine.

Author's Note:

Shortly after I finished my first XME fic, "The Demon Bottle," I realized that I had presented two of the characters rather two-dimensionally. The first, most obvious one, was Storm, who simply held the role of a background character, providing a domestic influence within the school. The second, oddly enough, was Jean Grey. Jean is very much a hub that the other X-men tend to turn around and I found myself somewhat 'stretching' her telepathic abilities.

This story just appeared in front of my eyes.

Radical Nike

Part Five

Jean felt herself freed, deadweight she didn't even know she had being swept away in the wild currents that surrounded her.

Kicking hard, she surfaced.

There was a woman above her, standing above the plane of chaos Jean could feel herself trapped in. She was surrounded by light so intense that her silhouette was a mere flicker of movement.

The shadow held out her hand. "Jean, come to me. It's safer up here."

But how could she? The fine control she had of her telekinesis was scattered across the waves the way light danced on water. "I can't! You need to help me!" she cried. She lifted one hand out towards the woman.

Darkly transparent fingers reached out and gently brushed hers. They were no heavier than a sigh. "There is only so much I can do, Jean. This place is far beyond any element I can control."

"S-Storm?" Jean gasped. "What happened? I can't remember!"

"You fell, child. You fell into your mind and you took nearly all the X-men with you. Do you remember rescuing Kitty?" She was kneeling now, her fingertips still touching Jean's.

There was a memory...

A reality of sorts slowly began to form around her. Jean found herself floating in limbo once more, the bright stars that were the minds of her friends and teachers orbiting her in spectacular streaks, emotions and memories trailing behind them. Storm hovered before her, tethered to Jean by their linked hands.

*Are you in control again, Jean?* the weather witch asked hopefully.

*Yes. I'm not sure how I lost it to begin with.* She looked out towards her captive minds, caught in her strange, but irresistible, gravity.

*Did you panic when you merged with Kitty? She was in a state of utter hysteria. In such an intimate... situation, her emotions could have been mistaken for your own,* Storm suggested.

*Kitty! Is she all right?* Jean felt a stab of conscience.

Storm raised her other hand to her face, holding her cheek. *Do not focus on that right now. We can discuss when all are free of this place.* She touched a finger to Jean's mouth when she was about to speak. *Your strong emotions are what are prohibiting you from control, Jean. You must center yourself and move beyond them.*

Jean tried, but it was very, very difficult.

Kurt's watch beeped. It was now nine o'clock, nearly three hours since Storm and Scott had re-entered Jean's mind. He had spent the first fifteen minutes or so of his lone vigil tensely watching Jean and Katzchen, hoping that something would change. Then, in an effort to keep his mind occupied, he had teleported around the grounds, gathering the other fallen X-men and laying them gently in their rooms.

Then he had returned to the Danger Room control center to wait.

The suspense was killing him.

It was creepy, the way Jean and Katzchen floated like a pair of ghosts. He didn't dare touch them; if he became lost in their minds the way the others were, there was a chance that no one would ever re-awaken. At any moment, he thought with a twinge of alarm, it was possible that Jean (or Katzchen?) could draw him back in.

He glanced at his watch again. Nine-oh-three. He tapped a pair of thick blue fingers on the arm of his chair restlessly, his tail curling itself into knots.

Being left behind was very lonely.

*Jean, you need to relax,* Storm said after some time had passed. *The others know where they belong. The Professor once told me that a spirit's natural state is to be within its own body. It seems to me that all these minds are trapped like butterflies in a butterfly net. If you let your shields down for a few moments, perhaps they will fly free on their own.*

Jean sighed, her hands still clasped in the other woman's. *It's worth a try. I wish the Professor were here.*

*As do I. You must remember, though, that he may not always be around.* She looked away, studying a point so distant that it could only be found inside herself. *I know that it took me many years to gain full control over my abilities. Even now, it slips from time to time, but, ultimately, I have no one but myself to rely on. Or blame.*

Bowing her head, Jean lowered her shields.

Evan Daniels woke up from a strange nightmare of being lost at sea, bolting straight out of his bed, panting hard. Taking in the sight of his own bedroom, he shook his head once. "That was weird."

He peered around the room, trying to make sense of his disjointed memories. "Uh, went to wake up Kurt, couldn't, went to find the Prof, he fainted—" He made his way out of his room. "Man, why can't things ever be normal around here?"

"Normal is what happens to other people, Evan," a voice said from further down the hall. It was Scott, in his uniform. "Sorry. Couldn't help overhearing."

"So, what's, like, goin' on, man?"

Kitty drifted beneath the surface of the waves, her eyes closed and her arms limp. The terror was gone; the water was quite soothing down here, where the harsh storm could not affect her. She was dimly aware that the shadows had floated away, but she could not bring herself to muster any kind of concern about it.

Then, unexpectedly, she slowly began to rise. It wasn't troubling. She could feel the cool air on her face as she broke free of the stilled ocean. She took a luxurious breath—

—and squawked, her eyes popping open as she felt herself falling.

She landed on something furry and loud, an oomph escaping from her lungs.

"Ach, Katzchen, you're heavier than you appear," a Teutonic voice mumbled from underneath her. A small cloud of sulfur was dissipating around them.

"Kurt?" Kitty yelped. "Like, what are you doing?" She leapt away from him like he had fleas.

"I do not advise disturbing Jean," he stated calmly, straightening himself gingerly. He pointed directly behind her. "If you are quite finished being startled, we've been dealing with a real emergency."

Kitty spun and saw Jean Grey floating in mid-air, a gentle psychic wind blowing around her. "Like, what happened?"

Kurt explained the situation succinctly: "Jean lost control of her powers when she tried to help you take control of yours. She currently has—or, at least, had—most of the X-men trapped inside her mind. You included."

Kitty thought about her odd dream, which, unlike many dreams she had had in her life, actually became clearer the longer she was conscious, instead of fading away. "Um, okay."

Usually Kurt Wagner paid her the utmost attention, but at the moment he was watching Jean with narrowed eyes. "No offense, Katzchen, but could you go around the school and check on the others? They were all unconscious, so I put them in their rooms. Check on Ms. Munroe and Scott, first." He settled into a crouch. "I'm sure that it wouldn't be a problem, but some distance between you and Jean would make me a lot less nervous."

Kitty wasn't going to argue, though Kurt's unspoken assertion that somehow she was responsible for the entire situation made her guts turn uncomfortably. "Uh, sure. No problem." She let herself out of the Danger Room hastily, paranoia fluttering around her ribcage uneasily.

Kurt watched her go and saw the defensive slump in her shoulders. He cursed himself for an insensitive boor. Sorry, Katzchen.

Slowly, the stars blinked out, one by one by one. Soon, only Storm was left, and Jean could fell her fading away, even as she held her hands.

*I—I never want this to happen again, Storm.*

Her teacher smiled before she faded away. *We'll help you, child. Until you can do it on your own.*

Morning came to the Xavier Institute. A light shower pattered gently on the windows and random sunbeams made the sky glow with the colors of the rainbow.

Professor Xavier was addressing his students, hiding his private self-recriminations over the events of yesterday. Teachers were supposed to be prepared for every contingency, but this one had caught them all flatfooted. He forced himself to pay attention to his own words.

"Since Jean's abilities are, in effect, enhancing your own, we are going to be adding some guided meditation sessions to the roster every week. Either Storm or myself will be leading them." Several of the students let out audible groans at the prospect of more lessons. Xavier frowned. "We cannot run the risk of any of us triggering this sort of event again," he said in gentle rebuke. "Consider it a small price for living with telepaths. We are very careful not to intrude on your thoughts. Now that the tables have the potential to be turned, please try not to invade ours."

There was nothing anyone could say to that, Xavier knew.

A little later, Storm and Jean were both walking the grounds. Despite the falling rain, neither was wet.

"Thank you, again, Ororo."

"It's a matter of discipline, Jean. It's also a matter of exploring all the possibilities," the weather witch replied.

"Kitty is avoiding me. She feels completely responsible."

Storm stopped. "Fly with me a moment, Jean." A wind blew up around her and she rose into the air. "Let me show you something."

Confused, the telekinetic teenager followed her instructor to a vantage high above the school.

"Look at the city." Jean did so, studying the wet rooftops that gleamed faintly in the distance. "When I look at Bayville from here, I can see how the elements affect it. I can see where the river is eroding one side of the bank, hope the rain is wearing away the bronze on City Hall, where the cemetery is slowly sinking below sea level. I see how fragile the houses are when the wind blows away the shingles on the roofs. I see how the people huddle under their umbrellas to keep dry. I can see how my power can affect others, even when I am doing nothing with it." Her face was dispassionate. "What do you see, Jean? My powers only affect the physical environment." A gust of wind blew her cape out behind her. "Your abilities are only going to become stronger, child. They will continue to affect the people around you, and those closest to you most of all. What happened with Kitty was inevitable—and it could have been anyone."

Jean listened to her words, watching the people of Bayville go about their daily affairs, ignorant of the not-quite-goddesses watching them with solemn eyes.

"I know, Storm. I know."

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Author's Note:

Angst, anybody? That ended on more of a downer than I had anticipated. It's awful to feel responsible for something you didn't mean to do and even worse when you realize that you probably could have prevented it. That goes for the Professor, as well as Jean and Kitty.