Delving Shadows

Disclaimer: Characters are the property of Marvel, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back later.

Thanks for the feedback: Risty, DJ, Eboni, DemonRogue13, bitrona, Chia4, Sue Penkivech, Goofn1

Foggy Nelson and Matt Murdock walked through the hotel where the Bayville Police department had temporarily set up headquarters. "We'd like to see our client," Foggy said, "Lance Alvers."

Officer Rondell grudgingly led them toward the room that had been secured as a holding cell. The visiting X-Men packed the converted room to capacity.

Lance was still clinging to Kitty and anyone else close to him. "Lance. Lance! I need ye to let go so I can examine ye," Moira insisted.

"Damn!" Foggy swore as he got a good look at Lance. "We need to get a doctor in here to examine him."

"What do ye think I'm trying to do?" Moira snapped.

"Someone not affiliated with the X-Men," Matt clarified. "If Foggy's tone is any indication he's looking at our defense."

Moria grabbed the two men and pulled them out into the hall. "They made him think all his friends had been murdered. Ye'll be wanting a psychiatric evaluation to verify he was tortured. While ye're finding doctors get a hearing specialist. The lad is still bleeding from his right ear. Lance knows better than to push his powers that hard…"

Foggy snorted. "Alvers' health is the least of the reasons for him to keep his abilities in check. We aren't talking about incidental damage here."

"Ye think I don't know that?" Moira demanded angrily. "I've spent the better part of the afternoon treating the injured… Blame the people who screwed with his mind, not Lance. A lot of very bad things have happened to that boy. Just in the months that I've known him he's been shot, knifed, seen his friends attacked by their classmate, been targeted for genocide, the problems with his powers have caused seizures, comas, suicidal depression and I have never seen him anything like this. His entire sense of what's real is distorted. Charles won't simply erase those awful memories they forced into his mind so you two, the police, the jury, whoever, can understand what was done to him.

"Lance can look at his friends. He can touch them. He can't make himself believe they're really alive. And we can't take that pain away so that people like you can understand what he was put through. They used a halo-style brace to make sure he didn't take that helmet off; they drove screws into his skull! All that just to make sure that Charles wouldn't be able to reach Lance's mind until the damage was done," Moira exclaimed. "His wrists and ankles were torn to shreds when he fought the restrains. He clenched his fists so tightly his nails cut into his palms. He probably never even realized what he was doing."

Moira paused, "I never really hated Erik until today. I knew what he'd lived through, I knew why he couldn't trust in humanity's better nature. But there's no excuse, no justification for this."

Three police officers stood in front of the hotel they'd taken over. They carried rifles and glared half-heartedly at the mob gathered in the street.

"What's the point of a trial when we all know he's guilty as sin?" The mob's self-appointed spokesman yelled.

"What the hell do think this is? The Dark Ages? Go home and wait for the trial," Jensen ordered.

"What home?" someone asked angrily. Several other shouted similar sediments.

"If you want I can arrange a cell for you," Jensen said. "Of course if you have someplace else you want to be in the morning I suggested you take off now."

In the shadows Scott sagged with relief as he watched the crowd slowly disperse.

"Well what do ya know, something actually went right," Logan commented.

Officer McFadden surveyed the hotel's lobby. "Maybe if we move the front desk over by the wall," he suggested.

"I think we need some surveillance camera to set up in the rooms we're using for cells and a back up generator. The powers go down and we loose every security system we added to this place," Nelsen said.

"What's the point? How are we supposed to keep him here? He knocked down several dozen buildings, do you really expect the walls in this place to keep him anywhere?" Rondell complained as a woman walked into the converted hotel. "Another one of Murdock's expert witnesses or a reporter?" He asked the woman.

"Dr. Lian Shen, I'm with the FBI," she said and flipped out a badge. "I'm here with the answer to your prayers." She held up a vial of murky liquid. "We've been looking into dealing with potential mutant problems. This drug will render a mutant's powers inoperable. It's ready for a field test. I'm sure you're tired of relying on the good will of Mr. Alvers' friends to keep him under control."

"This sucks!" Todd exclaimed as he stormed into Xavier's office. Kitty, Fred and Pietro were right behind him. Jean and Scott followed them. Jean looked apologetic. Scott looked conflicted.

Kitty glared at Scott. "I thought you understood. I can't believe you let Jean knock me out," she declared her voice outraged.

"Kitty the police ordered you to leave," Scott sighed. "You refused to obey them. When the police tried to forcibly escort you out, you phased and struck your tongue out at them."

"I'm going over there right now," Fred said. "No one throws the Blob out of no place."

"Fred no," Xavier said. "I've called Matthew, he'll get this straightened out."

"Professor, you said we could break Lance out if anything went wrong. Now you won't even let us break in to keep him company. Lance is hurt and upset. This isn't fair, it isn't right!" Kitty exclaimed.

"Can't you see things have changed since I said that?" Xavier sighed. "The police are maintaining a perimeter around you when you help with clean-up around town. They're worried about another incident. I'm worried about you getting shot or stoned."

"So you're just going to sacrifice Lance?" Pietro demanded.

"No!" Xavier insisted. "When you were arrested the military put you on a transport to who knows where within two hours. We have no idea what would have happened to you if Rogue and your friends hadn't intervened. That is the situation I was afraid of placing Lance in, but after what happened he has to stand trial, for everyone's sake. We need them to understand that while a mutant was responsible for what happened to Bayville it wasn't Lance and it wasn't all of us. The police need Lance to stand trial because if he just disappears Bayville will assume he escaped. If we don't offer an explanation for what happened I'm afraid the town will riot."

"All right! We get it!" Kitty exclaimed. "We have to make them understand. Why do we have to leave Lance by himself? I can go back. How could they stop me?"

"We aren't going to help Lance or this situation by acting like we're above the law," Xavier said. "Matthew is trying to resolve this…"

Xavier broke off as Jean contacted him mentally. /Officer Jensen called. He said they need you and Moira to come see Lance. It's urgent./

"Excuse me," Xavier said. "The police called."

"What happened?" Scott asked. "The link Jean made with my mind hasn't faded yet, I can feel that she's worried."

"I don't know. Jensen asked for myself and Moira."

"Can we go too?" Pietro asked.

"Let me find out what's going on," Xavier said.

Matt strode through the temporary police headquarters. His frown was from confusion as much as anything else.

Jensen had called Xavier several hours earlier and declared a moratorium on Lance's open visitation hours. It didn't make sense. After the specialists he'd contacted began their physical and mental evaluations of the teen it hadn't been feasible to have over a dozen kids camped out at the police station. Moira had set an upper limit of two visitors and sent the rest off to apply their gifts to Bayville's restoration. That should have resulted in a dramatic reduction of disturbances and strangeness for the police to deal with. According to the kids they'd been behaving themselves, nothing they'd done had precipitated their expulsion from the station.

That the police should suddenly develop an issue with the X-Men's presence just didn't add up. Not now, not after they'd tolerated over a dozen teenagers holding sleepovers in Lance's cell for the last two nights.

"Mr. Murdock," Jensen greeted Matt.

"Officer," Matt replied with a slight tilt of his head. "Is there a reason why you aren't permitting Lance's friends to stay with him?"

"It's against procedure," Jensen replied.

Matt listened as Jensen's heartbeat faltered. "That didn't stop you yesterday," he pointed out. "Your own psychiatrist said Lance was extremely unstable. Having his friends here helped to ground him in reality and it wasn't hurting anyone. What changed?"

Jensen sighed. "The fact that we were bending the rules with regards to Alvers made it look like the police were being forced into concessions because we couldn't cope with mutants. That doesn't sit well with people."

"What changed?" Matt repeated.

"We were being forced to change the rules for him but Dr. Shen of the FBI provided us with an alternative. A drug that blocks mutant powers," Jensen explained.

"I want to talk to him," Matt replied. "And I want Dr. MacTaggart to check him out immediately. There's no possible way that your drug has been adequately tested. Drugs don't pass FDA requirements in under a year."

"SHIELD knew about mutants long before the general public," Jensen argued as he led Matt back toward the holding cells. "I wouldn't put it past the FBI to withhold things from state cops. They've probably been working on this stuff for decades, just waiting for the chance to come in and show us all up."

Even before the door opened Matt could hear Lance's shallow, panicky breathing and his racing heartbeat. He could smell blood and vomit. Lance was huddled in the corner of his room. His body temperature was markedly low. "I think you'd better get Moira here right now," he told Jensen as he approached Lance. "Xavier too."

"He seemed fine a few hours ago," Jensen said defensively.

Matt pulled Lance away from the wall and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders. "He's not fine now," Matt's voice was quiet and cutting. "Shock, hyperventilation… Maybe next time you'll think twice before shooting someone up with an unknown substance."

Charles Xavier maneuvered his chair to pull it up beside Lance's bed. /Lance? Lance can you hear me?/ he called.

Moira stood in the door of the cell. She glared up at Officer Jensen. "Ye mean to tell me this Shen person dosed Lance with an experimental drug then just left?" her voice was thick with fury. "Ye donna have a clue as to what she gave him. Ye've no way to contact this person. Ye hand me a vial of some witch's brew and ask me if it could be responsible for this. What sort of fool's question is that?"

Jensen backed away as Moira's finger thumped against his chest. "I want this Shen's medical license revoked. Her drug is supposed to suppress Lance's powers? His powers, and the genetics that caused them are entirely unique to him, what kind of quack would think some untested, generalized concoction would work according to her half-baked theory?"

"Ma'am…"

"I'm beyond shocked that it accomplished what she claimed it would. Lord only knows what sort side effects it's causing!"

Xavier shut out the distractions and focused on Lance. Shock had left the teen's mind disjointed. Voids of blackness contrasted with eddies of memory as sharp and vivid as the day they'd happened… The hall was endless, grim and shadowed. It took Lance two steps and a hop to match one of the strides of the tall imposing stranger marching him down the hall.

A key turned in a lock and a heavy door swung open to reveal a barren room. It couldn't touch the bright hope in his heart. "When are my parents coming to take me home?"

The big man lifted him off the floor and set him on the edge of the sink. "Time for some reality kid. Your parents don't want you. No one in the world wants you. You're nothing but a drain on the system."

Lance felt a shiver snake down his spine as a huge hand wrapped around his throat. "Lemme go!" He wanted his voice to sound tough but it broke in the middle.

"I'd be doing everyone a favor if I snapped your neck right now."

He fought, for all the good it did. The hand around his throat never tightened, it never budged either. Lance's shoulders slumped. His head dropped as much as the hand allowed. He bit his lip to keep the sobs in but he couldn't stop the tears.

Xavier pulled them both free for the memories. /Lance, that happened long ago. You are eighteen, not eight. You're not alone, we haven't abandoned you./

For a brief second he found himself back in Lance's chaotic, splintered mindscape then they were swept into another memory.

The floor was gritty against Lance's cheek as he curled up with his arms wrapped around his head to protect himself from the blows raining down on him. His knuckles stung, they were split and bloody. He'd put everything he had into that punch.

The bigger boy was pulled away. Lance scrambled under the nearest table. The guards were yelling angrily for him to come out. He spotted a gleam of white and lunged for it. His hand closed on the bit of enamel even as he was dragged out from beneath the table.

The bigger boy was still fighting against the guard restraining him. Aaron had a split lip and a bloody nose.

Lance grinned smugly and poked his tongue through the new hole in his teeth then opened his hand to look at the tooth he'd retrieved. It had been loose for days. He probably should have pulled it but it was fun to play with. At least he'd found it. The Tooth Fairy wouldn't come here but he'd saved five of his baby teeth for when he was somewhere else.

At the edge of his perceptions Xavier sensed an alien presence and an unnatural order impressed on the chaos in Lance's mind. Black edges sharpened the memories into a sea of knives.

Moira believed Shen's drug was responsible for the current crisis, Xavier wasn't so sure. When he'd broken Lance out of Mastermind's delusions he hadn't had the time or leisure to truly examine the other mutant's handiwork and he'd believed that it was more important to preserve Lance's justifications for his actions. Now Xavier fought to slip past the shards of true memory to learn exactly had been done to Lance.

The walls weren't sound proof. The pillow wasn't thick enough to block it out. Cordley had gotten his hands on something and from the sound if it… it wasn't a good ride.

He couldn't image why anyone would want to do that to themselves. It was all Cordley could talk or think about. He was always wanting it. He was still less scary that than some of the other ones who liked talking about how to hurt people; less scary, but not as educational.

Somehow Cordley had gotten a hold of something and now he was shrieking in terror.

Lance pressed his hands over his ears and hummed to block out the sounds.

The next morning they took Cordley's body away.

Xavier freed them from the past and turned his attention back to Mastermind's work. The false memories had been ingrained through repetition and lacquered with a darkness that reminded Xavier of the evil he'd seen infecting Magneto's mind.

The tapestry had been linked to and interwoven with Lance's true memories. Mastermind had used them to cement the lies in place. Before Xavier had hesitated to remove the memories because they were the only justification for Lance's actions. Now that he didn't care about anything but erasing the damage he wasn't sure of the best way to do so. The heavily reinforced lies had replaced the natural links that gave Lance's memories structure; simply erasing them could add, exponentially, to the chaos in his mind.

Several of the older boys had started the riot. From the first Lance had thought the fight looked funny. As soon as the guards came to break it up the boys had jumped them and they'd won.

That had triggered the explosion of general violence.

A pocketknife spun through Lance's nimble fingers. He'd taken it off of a dead guard. His ribs were bruised up from an earlier confrontation but his head was up and he moved with confidence.

Lance wasn't old enough or big enough to win many fights…yet. He held himself as if he could though, it helped him avoid some fights. And he always made sure he did as much damage as possible, even when he did loose. That helped him avoid more fights and it made him feel better, less like a victim.

He'd never had a weapon to use before, Lance figured he'd probably have to use it. At first the guards had been the main targets then the people who came in to teach them then anyone who looked like an authority figure. Now it was anyone at all.

When the attack came it was over in an instant. Lance sensed footsteps behind him and turned. The other boy lunged. Lance lashed out with the knife. It caught, nearly pulled out of his hand so he grabbed it more tightly and shoved it forward. The other boy screamed. They were pressed together for a moment. The blood was warm, sticky. The other boy pulled away, his breath came in pained gasps as he retreated.

Lance scrubbed his hands on his pants to get rid of the blood. It made the knife slippery and he might need it again. The coldness of the thought shocked him. Maybe they were all right, maybe there was something wrong with him…

Xavier made sure Lance didn't pick up on how much the knifing had disturbed him. He reminded himself that Lance had been surrounded by violence, drugs and hatred for better than a year at that point. And that he'd been defending his life. Xavier projected reassurance to the teen.

Then he turned his attention back to the false memories. The dark taint was extremely disturbing. It overlaid Mastermind's tampering. After examining it for a few moments Xavier decided that removing it wouldn't further disarray Lance's mind. He didn't like leaving the lies in place but even a false structure was better than nothing at all. Lance wasn't Pietro, his thoughts didn't race at many times what was normal, there was no telling how long it could take him to restore a sense of order. Still he could safely free Lance from the taint.

The chaos was different in a public middle school. More open, more varied. Lance was only attuned to the darker currents. He'd been watching the copper haired eighth grader for five minutes before the kid approached him.

It felt surreal, stupid, silly. Copper-top had a problem with him, of course, acted like he was supposed to be scared. Copper-top's friends and various gawkers crowded around waiting for the show.

Lance smirked while he waited for Copper-top to get through the preliminaries. Copper-top made a point of towering over him, shoving him, yelling in his face. Lance couldn't believe how stupid it all was. Was he supposed to be scare? Was this idiot actual going to fight or did he just expect him to lay down and play dead. Lance met copper-top's eyes. "Made up your mind yet?" He asked then drove his fist into the older boy's solar plexus. "Does that help?"

Like always he put his full weight into the blow. Copper-top folded and stayed on the ground. Only fights never ended that easily, not in Lance's experience. Habit drove him to continue fighting. When he fought older, bigger boys as soon as he lost the initial advantage it was all over. Eventually it occurred to him that the other boy wasn't fighting back, he was just whimpering and that was what stopped him.

Xavier frowned, given the degree of shock Lance was experiencing the orderly progression of the memories they were being pulled into was decidedly odd.

He hadn't noticed it at first. He'd thought the flashbacks to the detention center made sense given Lance's current incarceration. Still it was too orderly. Xavier was beginning to feel like there was some purpose to what he was being shown. Something beyond simply distracting him from his goals.

Lance had always thought being bigger would solve most of his problems but this growth spurt sucked; three inches in not quite as many months. His joints hurt. He didn't quite know what to do with his arms and legs anymore. His head was too far from the ground. He constantly felt dizzy and being this clumsy was driving him out of his mind. Lance hadn't lost this many fights since he'd been ten years old and with the fights he was loosing friends. Well not really friends, people who hung around him because he protected them from bullies. They were sort of like friends but not really. They were more than halfway afraid of him and Lance didn't really like them that well. Still they were better than nothing. Actually going back to Jordan and Carol, to his foster parents' home was the only part of his day that was even vaguely enjoyable.

Lance knew the route he was taking to get back was going to put him in the middle of trouble he was just too stubborn to avoid it. He tugged on the fingerless gloves he's taken to wearing when freaking out teachers got boring. He'd been in so many fights that his knuckles were scarred. He'd split them on people's teeth, jaws, skulls… eventually the scars built up. It made adults nervous around him. At first he'd thought it was cool. After a while he got tired of everyone just assuming he'd been the one to start every fight.

As he'd expected there were three boys waiting for him. Lance walked right up to them. "Awww, you sat up for me."

"Don't you ever get tired of getting beat up Alvers?" The biggest of the three asked.

"How are your ribs feeling Lonny?" Lance shot back. "I heard I cracked a few. Wanna go for broke?"

Lance launched himself at Lonny and drove his shoulder into the other boy's gut. They both went down in a heap. A truck rumbled by making Lance's head spin. He scrambled toward the other two on all fours. He had to keep the upper hand, no matter how rotten he felt.

He grabbed the one on the left, Darks he thought, around the knees. When Darks hit the ground Lance punched him in the throat. While Darks was choking the last boy kicked him in the ribs.

Lance rolled once and smashed into a fire hydrant. While he was down the boy delivered another kick to his ribs. Then Lonny was on top of him. Lance hated being pinned. He knew maybe four ways to flip a person off him. It should have been easy to get loose, especially after Lonny started pounding on him only he wasn't as flexible as he had been before he started growing.

"Grab his hands, he's going to get loose." Lonny ordered. "Jon, you want a shot?"

The only reply was gagging. Lance only wished it were Lonny on the ground. "You think that's funny?" Lonny yelled in his face. Lonny's hands closed around his throat. "You think you're so great? You're nothing but white trash."

Lance snarled up at Lonny. Something fell into place in his head. The ground started shifting. It wasn't much but it startled the other two enough for him to break free. As he stood on the twitching sidewalk his head stopped spinning for the first time in months.

Jonathan Darks: a concussion and a bruised larynx. Lonny Raem: three broken ribs. Richard Meeks: a smashed hand. Xavier remembered them from when he'd looked into the source of the mutant signature Cerebro had picked up in Chicago three years ago.

"What is the point of this?" Xavier demanded of the darkness.

"You had your shot. You didn't want him."

Confusion, anger and hurt radiated through Lance's mind. Xavier wondered how he could explain. Cerebro had picked up the first manifestation of Lance's powers, Xavier had first located the teen when he'd been fifteen but in the end he had decided against offering Lance a place at the Institute.

It hadn't been a decision Xavier had made lightly but at the time… Six months earlier Xavier had been completely naïve about the difficulties in dealing with a troubled child. He'd known about Wanda for years but Xavier had told himself she was an exception, that it was because of what her father had done to her she was insane and that was why he hadn't been able to reach her. Ororo, Hank and Jean had all been healthy happy, well-adjusted individuals from loving homes, it had been difficult for them when their powers emerged, but those were problems he'd learned how to solve through hard won experience with his own abilities. Logan was an adult who'd long since developed his own coping mechanisms for his demons, but Scott… Scott had arrived at the Institute six months before Xaiver learned of Lance. He was sullen, withdrawn and bitter about his family's death on top of being scared to death of the destructive potential of his powers. To make matters worse Scott had taken the blame for the damage that had occurred when his optic blast uncontrollably manifested. He'd run away from his foster parents and spent four days living on the streets, afraid to risk opening his eyes, convinced that no one could or would help him.

Scott had refused to even test the visor for a month he'd been so certain it was some sort of trick to hurt him. One day Logan got fed up with it. He drug Scott down to the danger room, tied his hands behind his back, took away his blindfold, shoved the visor on him then left him like that until Scott gave in and opened his eyes. After that things had gotten better. Scott started following Logan around like a puppy, much to the older man's dismay... At least until Logan realized that Scott had a gift for tactics. Back then Charles hadn't really planned to form a group like the X-Men, he'd let Logan teach Scott to be a solider because it was what Logan knew. It was only later, as he watched Scott's aptitude grow with every lesson that the possibilities had started occurring to him. Still no matter how much the boy learned his powers remained as uncontrollable as when he'd arrived and Xavier was at his wit's end.

When he discovered Lance Xavier had convinced himself he didn't have the staff to take on another troubled child. Ororo was finishing up college, something that she'd delayed to join the Peace Corp, she'd been working in Africa when her powers had manifested. In their early stages the changes in her perceptions had led her to wander out into Serengeti, the tribe that had found her had worshiped her as a goddess for several years and she'd only recently returned to the states. Xavier felt it was important for her to interact with other people her own age to help her remember that she wasn't actually a deity. Hank desperately wanted a normal life. He'd been teaching for a year and was happier than he'd ever been before. Logan had his hands full with Scott. Jean's training was at a critical and delicate stage, Xavier had just turned over control of her telepathic shields to her. He'd been able to feel Lance's repressed rage from over a block away, there was no way Jean's untested shields could have handle it...

The truth was at the time he felt like he'd failed with Scott. If not for Logan the boy would probably have still been hiding in his room afraid to open his eyes. Xavier had looked at the list of emotional and behavioral problems that comprised of Lance's background and he couldn't even think where to begin in dealing with them. Social Services told him they were reluctant to move Lance since he finally seemed to be settling in with a foster family and Xavier had decided Lance's powers couldn't possibly be any harder to deal with than his personality. He'd almost forgotten the boy until Kitty's powers manifested years later.

"You had your chance to take him from me. You chose to let it slip by. Give up. This one is mine." A black fog swept across the astral plane. "This one will always belong to me."

"Who are you?" Xavier demanded.

"I am the Shadow King."

"Shadows disappear in the face of light." Xavier concentrated. Thought was reality on the astral plane. His powers blazed and pushed the sinister fog back. For a brief moment Xavier found himself confronting a vision of the Lance he knew: Eighteen years old, a few inches shy of six feet, dark hair falling into his eyes and a warm smile that softened the harshness in his face. Then shadows wrapped around the teen. As they thickened they gain form, talon-like hands rested on Lance's shoulders.

"Look at what he will become." The Shadow King commanded and the darkness drew back like a window opening.

There was nothing obviously sinister about Avalanche or the scene that was revealed. Lance was dressed in jeans and a black shirt, standing in the middle of a crowded square. There was nothing that set him apart from the people around him. His head was down. He seemed to be listening for something. Lance's breath escaped in a gentle sigh. Cracks started opening and closing in the ground around him. People screamed. They fell into the pits he opened and were ground to paste as the earth closed on them. Blood soaked up through the soil staining it crimson. There wasn't really much damage, nothing compared to what Lance would have done to Bayville if not for Amara's intervention. Only destruction wasn't his goal here, terror was.

Slowly Lance's head rose. He met Xavier's eyes and smiled. There was nothing human left about his eyes, they were cold and dead. Gambit had been called a demon for the color of his eyes. Lance wasn't using enough power to affect the physical appearance of his eyes, but the emptiness in them was more frightening then any mutation. A black lightening-like tattoo marked the right side of his face, it cut across his eye then split into forks across his cheek, the Shadow King's brand of ownership.

The vision ended and Xavier was looking at the Lance he knew again but the tattoo remained. The cadaverous shadow leaned down to whisper in Lance's ear. Lance's head dropped. He turned away. Xavier caught the sparkle of tears on his cheek. Lance's shoulders slumped and the shadows seemed to close around him.

"Lance!" Xavier cried. Hopelessly the teen stared up at him. Xavier smiled reassuringly and stretched out his hand to Lance. "I was scared of facing my own short-comings before, that is the only reason I ignored you. There is so much more to you than darkness. You aren't alone. No one is going to let you fall. No one is going to let you give up. Kitty, Todd, Fred, Pietro, they all need you. You can't give up."

Determination woke in Lance's eyes. He reached back for Xavier.

"Either he's mine or he's dead," the Shadow King said. "It was always my plan to see him dead… Until I realized how much potential for evil he truly possessed, but I can always go back to plan A." The Shadow King withdrew. With almost casual disdain he restored Lance's memories as he left, wiping away all trace of Mastermind's tampering.

Xavier returned to the physical world and became aware of all people crowded around himself and Lance. "Lance?" he asked.

"I'm back," Lance mumbled. "I don't know what happened… memories… real stuff… stuff you said didn't happen…. I couldn't stop it… couldn't get free."

"It's alright. We won't let it happen again," Xavier didn't mention that the Shadow King's brand still marked Lance's face. "Moira would you stay with him until some of the students can get here?"

/Don't object. We'll talk about it outside,/ Xavier projected into Jensen's mind.

Matt hesitated, torn between staying with Lance and following Xavier and Jensen. "Go on," Moira said. She sat down beside Lance and put an arm around his shoulders. "We'll yell if there's a need."