Chapter Four - MAGIC

Rachel was not in her room. Logan tasted the air. He could still smell her, but the scent was old. She had been gone for some time. Who knew how much distance she had put between them?

Logan ran down the corridor and started beating on the door to one of the bedrooms.

'Rogue, darlin', wake up. I need your help,' he yelled.

'Go way,' a weak southern-tinged voice called back. 'Too early.'

'Sorry girl, but I need ya to help me track Ray,' Logan replied. With one kick, he knocked the door open, making a mental note to apologise to Jessica next time he saw her.

'What the hell do you think you're doing?' Rogue yelled. She sat bolt upright in her bed, holding her sheet up with one hand to cover herself. Then, seeing who it was, she mellowed. Slightly. 'Aintcha enough of a gentleman to give a gal her beauty sleep?'

'I'm sorry, darlin',' Logan apologised, 'but it's an emergency. Rachel's gone and I'm not fast enough to find her on my own.'

Rogue shrugged resignedly, then smiled at him, her head cocked to one side. 'Well in that case, sugah, will you at least be enough of a gentleman to turn your back while Ah get dressed?'

Logan actually blushed.

* * *

'Auf Wiedersen, Fraulein. Take care. I love you too. Bye.' Kurt concluded his telephone conversation.

'Anyone we know?' Ororo asked, having just returned from the garden.

'Amanda,' Kurt replied.

'Ah, that explains the grin splitting your face.' Ororo smiled. 'How is she?'

'Very well,' Kurt responded, a little chagrined that his girlfriend could get by without him. 'Unfortunately, she won't get to spend any time in New York for a few more weeks yet.' Amanda's busy schedule as an Air Stewardess – not to mention Kurt's time-consuming heroics – meant that the two lovers rarely got to spend much time together.

'You will let her know that she is welcome at the mansion any time, won't you,' Ororo said.

'She already knows,' Kurt answered, 'but I prefer to keep her for myself.'

Ororo shook her head. 'Aside from discussing your love-life, did Amanda have any other news you'd like to share?'

'As a matter of fact,' Kurt said, 'she may have given us the break we need to crack our latest problem.'

'Just let me clean up and we'll convene in the lounge to discuss it.'

* * *

'Logan, sugah, I think we're attracting attention.'

Rogue and Logan stood on a street corner, or rather Rogue stood. Logan was on his hands and knees sniffing the pavement.

'How so, darlin'?' Logan asked.

Rogue sighed. 'Beats me.'

Rogue folded her arms across her chest. It had been like this for the past hour. She and Logan would fly in a particular direction until he ordered her to land. Then he spent time sniffing the ground before setting off on a new path. Quite frankly, Rogue was bored.

'Logan,' she said, 'remind me again why we're doing this?'

'We're trying to find where Rachel went,' Logan replied without getting up.

'But why?' Rogue persisted. 'She's a big kid now, she can look after herself.'

'Just humour me, kid, okay?' Logan replied, getting to his feet and brushing dust from his jeans. 'That way next I think.'

'To think I joined the X-Men to become a glorified cab service,' Rogue muttered.

'What was that?' Logan asked, not really paying attention.

'Nothin',' Rogue replied, placing her gloved hands beneath Logan's arms and lifting him high into the sky.

'Look,' Rogue said after they had been flying for a few minutes, 'if you're scared why don't you say so? I won't tell anyone.'

'Scared? I ain't scared.'

'Coulda fooled me,' Rogue persisted. 'Hey you're always telling the rest of us how it's okay to be scared so why not take a bit of your own advice?'

Logan just grunted.

'I just don't see what you've got to be afraid off, is all,' she continued. 'I mean, Phoenix is one of us, isn't she?'

'Why don't you just mind yer own business, kid,' Logan snapped.

'Well, pardon me for breathing,' Rogue retorted. 'I just call 'em like I see 'em. Wonder who I picked that up from?'

'You wouldn't understand,' Logan insisted.

'Yeah, like I ain't heard that one before.'

'There's no way you're gonna leave me alone, is there?' Logan said.

'Well, I could drop you,' Rogue replied.

'Very funny, kid. I'm just dyin' with laughter here.' Logan did, however, sport a slight smile. 'Look, I know you weren't here when Jean Grey was around, but how much have you picked up from the others about her?'

Rogue thought about this. 'She was one of the first X-Men. She was in love with Cyclops. And she died shortly before I joined the team. That's about it really.'

'No-one tell you how she died?' Logan asked.

Rogue shook her head and then realised that Logan could not see her. 'No,' she said.

Logan grunted. 'I'm not surprised. It's not something any of us like to talk about. Where to begin. The X-Men had just defeated the bad guy, but it looked as if we were gonna die anyway. Jean offered to sacrifice her life in order to make sure the rest of us got home safely. Only she didn't die. Instead she merges with this thing called the Phoenix Force. Seems the Phoenix needed Jean in order to save the universe.'

'Save the universe!' Rogue laughed. 'You're kidding, right? You're not kidding. Tell me again why I signed up for this?'

'Same reason we all did.' Logan laughed in turn. 'You got sweet-talked by the Professor. Now, do you want to hear this story or not? So we saved the universe, not that anyone thanked us for it, and that should have been the end of the matter. However, Phoenix decided she liked being Jean and refused to leave. She wanted "new sensations". Well, power corrupts and Phoenix/Jean had near absolute power. She destroyed an entire plant full of people.'

'No way! Jean Grey blew up a planet!'

'Not Jean,' Logan insisted. 'Phoenix. Jean wouldn't have harmed anyone if she could have helped it. But Phoenix, she was like a kid with a new toy. She just wanted to see what she could do. Jean didn't have much control left in the end. Just enough to' Logan choked. 'Just enough to kill herself.'

Rogue had no response to that.

'I loved Jean,' Logan continued. 'I loved her and I had to watch her die. And now I've got to go through it all over again.'

'So Rachel's got this Phoenix Force now,' Rogue said.

'Part of it anyway,' Logan agreed. 'Where do you think she got all that power to fight the Beyonder. She's following in her mother's footsteps and she just to stubborn to admit it.'

'Hey, Ray's not Jean,' Rogue responded. 'Things might be different this time round.'

'Yeah, kid, they might,' Logan said, 'but that doesn't mean I ain't afraid. I'm afraid that this time I'm going to be the one to kill her.'

* * *

Magneto had joined Ororo and Kurt in the lounge.

'I hear you have a theory that might help us,' Magnus said.

'Well, it's Logan's theory really,' Kurt admitted. 'He thinks that there may be a group of wizards operating in San Francisco.'

Nobody laughed. It was no more fantastic than anything else they had been asked to deal with in their time as X-Men.

'And you contacted Amada for advice on how to track them,' Ororo surmised.

'Ja, exactly so,' Kurt agreed.

'And what does Miss Sefton suggest?' Magneto asked.

'Ley Lines,' Kurt replied.

'Of course,' Magnus responded in excitement. 'I should have thought of it sooner.'

'You know what he's talking about?' Ororo asked Magnus.

'Well, the basic principles,' Magneto admitted. 'Ley lines are related to lines of magnetic force after all.'

'They also chart channels of mystical energy,' Jessica said from the doorway. 'Sorry, couldn't help overhearing.'

'Not at all. Join us,' Magneto invited.

Ororo held up her hands. 'Am I the only one here who doesn't know what you are talking about.'

'The occult's a bit of a hobby of mine,' Jessica confessed. 'It formed part of a case I was working on a while back and I've been reading up on it since.'

'I'm sure that's all very fascinating, Miss Drew,' Magneto interrupted, 'but hardly relevant to the problem in hand. Please continue, Kurt.'

Kurt rubbed his hands and fidgeted uncomfortably. He was perfectly at home performing in front of others where physical feats were concerned, but he was less than comfortable lecturing.

'Well, Amanda seemed to think it highly unlikely we were dealing with anyone in the Doctor Strange class. All that means is that to achieve any powerful manifestations – such as last night's fireball – they would need to boost their own energies through other means.'

'Such as?' Ororo asked.

'Working with others,' Kurt suggested. 'Ritual might help as might certain artefacts. The other important point is location.'

'Magic isn't a consistent field throughout the planet,' Jessica continued. 'It pools in certain places.'

'Let me guess,' Ororo interjected. 'Ley Lines.'

'Precisely,' Kurt agreed, slamming a fist into the palm of his other hand. 'The most likely spot for our wizards to be based is a place where several Ley Lines cross!'

'Which would be much more useful,' Magnus commented dryly, 'if we knew where these Ley Lines were.'

'I thought you said they were magnetic,' Ororo put in. 'Can you not track them.'

'I'm afraid not, my dear,' Magneto apologised. 'I said they were related to magnetic force. Unfortunately, the relationship is too fuzzy for me to be able to provide any accurate readings.'

'Perhaps I can help?' Jessica suggested. She had left the sofa and was now examining the bookcase. 'No, not that one. Hmm, no I don't think so. Aha! Here it is.'

She opened up a large hardcover book on the coffee table.

'It's a map of the Ley Lines running through the city,' Kurt said, rather redundantly.

'I told you I'd been reading up,' Jessica said.

The four leaned closer to examine the map.

'I can see a problem,' Ororo said.

'Yes,' Magnus agreed.

'Well, are you two going to keep Kurt and me in the dark?' Jessica demanded.

'There are several places where the Ley Lines cross,' Magnus explained. He turned to Ororo. 'Are we going to have time to investigate them all.'

'That may not be a problem,' Kurt interrupted. 'Um, Jessica, you don't happen to have a crystal pendant by any chance, do you?'

* * *

Rachel sat squeezed in between two elderly women on a bus. The two women were talking to each other across her, but Rachel ignored them. Outwardly, she was a picture of calm. Inside, she was screaming.

She knew that Logan suspected that she had caused the fireball. She was a telepath, how could she not know? Just as she knew that Storm was resentful every time she saw Rogue take flight or that Kitty was jealous because Ororo looked so good in black leather, Rachel's mind was constantly bombarded by a thousand and one different thoughts and sensations. That kid over there was angry with his mother because she had refused to buy him an ice cream. That girl was upset because the boy she liked was dating someone else. That man was concerned because he had just been refused a loan. That woman was depressed because blue really was not her colour.

All the sensations. All the images. All the thoughts, the emotions. Hates, loves, fears, desires, all rammed through her tiny skull. And now matter how far she ran there was no escape. Small wonder she felt she was losing her mind.

Logan was right to distrust her. She had not caused the fireball. She still knew herself well enough to know that, but perhaps Phoenix had. How do you explain to someone what it is like to have another person inside of you, one governed, not so much by a lack of morals, but by morals so alien they defy mere human understanding? And how do you tell them that you fear that she is beginning to dominate your actions? What if your dreams, your nightmares and fantasies, are not dreams at all? What if they are realities, realities brought into being by the Phoenix ruling you, mind, body and soul?

She was a danger to her friends. Always had been. In her own time, her own universe, she had been used as a hound, her talents employed to track down her fellow mutants. And then the mutants were – what was the phrase? – 'relocated'. They were sent to death camps. They were sentenced to die all because Rachel wasn't strong enough to resist her masters. Just as now she was not strong enough to resist the Phoenix. So she was running away. She did not have the strength to kill herself like the Jean Grey of this world, but at least she could distance herself from her friends and pray they would not be hurt when the time came, when she finally succumbed completely to the monster inside of her.

* * *

Caven was throwing bread to the gulls down on the beach. They had time to kill before their next ceremony. They had to wait for the stars to come out. Caven folded his massive arms across his barrel chest and sighed. How he hated the waiting.

Caven had always been resentful of the other members of the society. Just because you were born with an ability to perceive the web of magic did not mean that you were any good at it and Caven was always bottom of the class. The only discipline he showed any talent for was divination and even then only a little. Still, to a young lad resentful of his peers, it was enough. Enough to strike back at them for succeeding where he could not. He could divine their secrets, spread rumours, crush reputations, all with a carefully placed word here and there. He became a master at manipulating others, so much so that he often did not bother to use his magics to learn if the stories he was spreading were indeed true at all.

Finally, he went to far, misjudged himself and gossiped about the wrong people. One complaint followed another and Caven was expelled from the society with little to show for the experience. Little but a well-honed talent for the despicable.

One after another, each and every gull burst into flame. Green flame.

'Hello, Tomas,' Caven said without looking up. Caven was unimpressed. Tomas' powers may be flashy, but he, like Caven, was a second-rate talent at best. The difference was that Tomas knew how to improve himself, knew that rituals and times and places that could boost his grasp of the power. And when he had found Caven he had shared his knowledge, in return for Caven's fealty.

'Greeting's, Caven. How goes it?' Tomas enjoyed lording it over others. Caven liked to see them suffer, enjoyed their pain. Tomas craved their respect, their servitude. He saw himself as an ancient noble and dressed accordingly.

'You do realise the X-Men are in town?' Caven said without preamble.

'You've seen this?' Tomas asked.

Caven nodded.

'I expected as much,' Tomas admitted, 'but it's nice to have ones suspicions confirmed.'

'They'll interfere,' Caven commented.

'Well of course they will,' Tomas replied. 'You don't have to be a seer to see that. That's what "heroes" do – and they do see themselves as heroes despite what the press might have you believe. But have no fear, Caven, I have already taken steps to eliminate them. Why don't you take a "look" to see if we win?'

'You know that's beyond me, Tomas,' Caven snapped. 'Now, if you were to donate one of your artefacts'

'No, I don't think so,' Tomas replied. 'We'll need them all for the ceremony. Besides, who needs magic to confirm what we already know.'

* * *

Jessica did indeed have a crystal pendant. 'A souvenir from that case I was telling you about.'

Kurt took it gratefully. 'Danke, fraulein. Now, to see if this really works. According to Amanda, crystal is strongly linked to mystical force so if I let the pendant swing above the map and concentrate on what we want to find, it should point to our quarry.'

'You're not serious,' Jessica exclaimed.

'I thought you believed in all this?' Ororo said.

'I said I was interested,' Jessica replied. 'I didn't say I took any of it seriously.'

'Hush, ladies,' Magnus admonished. 'If Amanda says it will work then I for one am prepared to trust her judgement.'

'I didn't know you knew Amanda,' Ororo said.

'I knewher mother,' Magnus explained.

'You know Margali?' Kurt responded.

'A great woman,' Magnus replied. 'Now, Kurt, if you are ready to begin, I see no need to delay any longer.'

Kurt took a deep breath to centre himself and then released it. He wrapped the chain of the pendant once about his fist to give him a secure grip, but leaving enough to allow the crystal to swing free. Then, closing his eyes, he thrust his clenched fist out over the book. The pendant started to swing. It traced long lazy arcs as it explored the map. Jessica was about to say something, but Magnus hushed her. Together, they waited. Slowly, Kurt began to move his fist, allowing the crystal to draw him where it willed. Was it his overactive imagination or could he really feel a physical force tugging at him, dragging his across the paper? He hardly dared breath lest he break the spell.

Then he felt the pull cease. The crystal was now only swinging in tiny circles. Kurt opened his eyes and looked at the map.

'There,' he said, stabbing a finger onto the book beneath the swinging pendant. 'That's where they are.'

'In that case,' Ororo said, verifying the position on the map, 'I think it's time we paid them a visit.'