A Brave New World

Disclaimer: All characters recognisably Marvels belong to them, the story to me.

Brian's head felt like it was surging with electricity, like he'd been

jolted with several million volts of it, to be exact! He vaguely

remembered something or another about feeling severe distress thru the

bond he shared with his telepathic twin sister. And then finding her,

only for her to outright attack him with powers she never had before.

He opened his eyes, and heard soft voices in the next room...two that

sounded oddly familiar, and those of a young man, and a teenage girl.

He rose to his feet and staggered toward the door. What ever that blade

was, it sure had some nasty side-effects; the feeling he had the mother

of all hangovers, or a serious migraine came to mind...

When he looked into the sitting room, Brian did a doubletake. Meghan,

his ex-girlfriend, and the blonde man who fired the kinetic blasts. He

stopped and stared at "Betts"--it was as though he were seeing the

Otherworlder Warrior Cast side of her, seperated from the gentile and

sophisticated aristocrat he had once known. But, then she'd "died" in

Dallas some months ago, sacrificing herself with the X-Forces to seal

away the creature known only as the Advesary...

Then she'd shown up with a fellow teammate, and a Chinese girl called

Jubilee. She'd been so very different, a tantalizingly erotic--almost

sadistic--Oriental woman, with a serious chip on her shoulder. A woman

with whom he'd found he shared no psychic rapport like he shared with

this Elspeth. He felt helpless in the face of this Otherworlder's

confidence and knowledge of herself.

The blonde man, he beleately recogised as one of the Otherworlders

Roma had sent to join the X-Forces... Lochlan? No, it had to be Feran..

the shorttemptered. But she'd called him Bren, which further served to

escalate his confusion, or was it just another aftereffect of being

swatted with that 'blade'? He ran a nervous finger through his blonde

hair, and tentativly reached for the door frame as his world began to

spin yet again...

"Betts?? What happened?", he asked, "Wait a bloody minute, you're not

my sister, even though you look like her...Would somebody please tell

me what's going on around here??"

Elspeth raised her eyebrows and shrugged, "We've been discussing that

Mister Braddock. I honestly have no idea why, and neither Meghan nor

Bren, nor House have any suggestions, either. I woke up from one of those

bloody migraines of mine, in this house, and in this body, almost two

weeks ago. Not that I mind being here, telepathic or whatever sort of

alien I am. Know how would be nice, but why would be even better.

Any suggestions, since I seeme to be related to you? And Meghan feels

that I'm probably "magical" like she is..."

Brian shook his head, trying to clear the rest of the fog from his mind,

"What?? You're the one who attacked me? And Meggy, what're you doing

here? I thought you were trying to find your parents..."

Meghan smiled and shrugged, "I'm empathic, Brian. I can feel your

emotions as easily as Elle can. I felt what happened between the two of

you, and after Bett's death in Dallas? I'd thought to come up and see

what was happening..."

He moved to Meghan and hugged her tight, "You're alright? You look

rather tired..."

The voluptous blonde kissed him on the cheek, I flew all day to get

here, 'cause I was up in the Lowlands. I'll be alright--Elle and Bren

made me stop worrying long enough to eat something. Don't worry..."

Elle looked at Meghan and Bren, I don't know what happened in the past,

but if this clod wants to fly back to where-ever, and be a Happy, Shiny

SuperDude, that's fine with me! The last thing I need is more problems

especially that pompous blonde bozo! Reminds me of some of the posturing

pro-wrestlers I've seen on Saturday AM tele! Goddess, spare me....

She shook her darl lavender hair out of her face, Bren, why don't we

let them have their little reunion in private? I'm starving, and House

can whip up a mean pizza in no time... What say we ajourn to the kitchen

and have a lemonade?

Bren squeezed her hand, and slipped an arm around her shoulders, "You

two need to talk. We're going to set about making dinner, so we'll

holler when pizza's ready..."

Brian nodded, wondering just how much Elspeth had been able to read his

mood, "Thank you..."

He watched in wonder as Meghan's body flowed, changing shape from his

dream girl, to soemthing of a family resemblence to Elle: long, lean

and superbly muscled, with fine, strong features and the same insufferbly

proud carriage.

After the two Otherworlders vanished to the kitchen, Meghan pulled

Brian down onto the sofa with her, "Look, Bri; if what she said is

true, about just waking up here, then maybe that Oriental "Psylocke"

figures in here somewhere? I think we need to work with her and this

Bren of hers to see if we can't find "Psylocke"..."

Britannic looked at Meghan, with a dumbstruck expression, "What do you

mean, that Oriental bimbo claiming to be Betts might be anywhere on

Earth? And how could she be Otherworlder?? Roma told me that our

father, Baron/Sir James Braddock was Otherworlder, adn that as his

kids, we're half Otherworlder, half human..."

Meghan, for all that she wasn't sophisticated and worldly, sometimes

could see things that the jaded couldn't. Her innocence mad her special

in that way. She seemed to retreat into herself for a bit, and when she

emerged, her face was bright with inspiration... "Well, Elspeth is an

"Otherworlder". Like Roma. Like me... What if things seperated Betts'

two halves and made them each a whole person? Some mind would have to

take up the half that didn't have a mind in it to make it live...And

Betts alwasy wished that she could be either an ordinary human telepath

or a "real" Warrior Caste Otherworlder. She really hated being--oh,

how did she put it? "Diluted." "

Brian was amazed at how simple it seemed when the empathic metamorph

explained things that would boggle even the most expert parapsychologist.

He scratched his head, "But how would Elspth wind up here?"

"Because she wanted very badly to be somewhere other than where she was.

I don't know why--because she was a psychic where she was? And her mind

would withstand being a true telepath, and she'd had so many bad things

happen to her, and maybe the Lady Above decided that she deserved a

chance to make a new life, maybe?" Meghan replied, as if she were

explaining why the sky was blue to a silly child.

Brian shook his head, "I don't get it Meggy. I remember when Lady Jean

Grey was mindraped by Psylocke, that they said there was something "not

right" about the way she'd been chasing Scott Summers... ou went out

there, to help Jean, and I remember soemting about Scott and Psylocke

disappearing right after episode, right?"

Meghan nodded slowly, "I'd almost forgotten about that, Bri. It seems

that Betts appeared in their Holodeck right after that, and gave Psylocke

a taste of her own medicine. But after the confusion of confronting

Psylocke, and then dealing with Betts' appearance, Jean's trauma and

all that stuff...well, Psylocke and Scott just disappeared. Betts was

Betts, just angrier and she'd said something about Psylocke being an

imposter. I remember, I was there to get Prof. X to help me with my

empathic abilities; and when I was around Psylocke--they said I 'changed'

--you know, playing mindgames with the guys, and trying to seduce Gambit

and Archangel..." she related with a blush staining her fair cheeks.

"Anyway, I was myself around Betts, like I always was. And when Dr.McCoy

came over to check on Jean's condition, he ran a series of tests on

Betts. She had the Legacy Virus that everybody been working so hard on.

But it was being really wierd on Betts, 'cause she wasn't a mutant. Dr

Moira said it was making her more alien than human..."

Brian's eyes widened as he realised jus what might have actually happened

to his twin sister, after all, "So what else... I wans't exactly in

the state of mind to deal with it all at the time, with my trip thru

time and all..."

Meghan rolled her eyes as she looked at him, 'Well, Betts stayed at the

Xavier Institute in New York for several weeks, before she got so sick

that her psychic abilities made her a stronger telepath than Prof X

himself... She helped the Prof and me with Jean, and Jean said it was

like the bad part of Betts was inside Psylocke, and the good part of

the woman Psylocke used to be was inside Betts... I heard that Betts

was in London before she apparently 'died' in Maldan. Every psychic

sensative the X-Forces knows Felt her die in a flash of telepathic

agony..."

Brian nodded, as he sipped his tea. He even remembered that part, it was

part of what had brought him out of his coma. But, he'd had flashes from

his own newly awakened psychic powers--of his sister being somewhere

really different. And Roma had been with her, much in the way Roma'd

helped him in the past. Somehow, he could swear, that Roma was now his

twin's mother...