The flight to New York too three hours. Kate was beginning to wake up by the time they landed. She still was confused and not speaking English. Xavier caught a few words as she was wheeled to the medical unit and understood them. She was speaking Aramaic. He was amazed. Aramaic was known to biblical scholars but to few others. The language was not in general use. This was going to be interesting.
Beast met them in the medical unit. Storm had performed a field examination, quick and dirty. Hank did a more in depth exam. Scans showed a small skull fracture that had Logan raging around the unit.
"I promised her she'd be safe," he yelled when Beast and Storm informed him of the injury. "This shouldn't have happened. They shouldn't have been able to track us. How did they keep finding us so quickly?"
"Logan," Beast interrupted the rant. "I found a bio chip in her brain. I haven't ascertained it's function as of yet but I'm sure one of them is a locator. They went to a lot of trouble to place it in an area of the brain that, in some people, it where telepathy is centered."
"But she's not telepathic, she's precognitive."
"Is she?" Beast asked. "Is she awake or asleep when she has these visions?"
"Both."
"I need to run a few tests but I think someone is generating the visions. They are using her sleep cycles to control the visions."
"She had one while she was awake. All the others have been while she was asleep."
"The one during her awake time may have been real," Beast said. "The others may have been sent by parties unknown,"
"Logan," a weak voice came from the bed.
'Kate," he rushed over to her. "How are you feeling."
"Killer headache," she said. "I heard what Hank said. Who wants to control me?"
"I don't know darlin."
"Katherine," Beast said as he came into view. "Do you remember me?"
Kate looked up at him confused.
"I remember your voice but since when are you blue?"
"Long story," he said. "I'll tell you later. Tell me more about the visions."
"I've had visions since I was 13." she told him.
"Awake or asleep," he asked.
"Awake until this year. The sleeping visions started in May."
"Just before you left BioGen?" Logan asked.
"Yeah," She said.
"Well, that's the connection." Logan said. "What the hell do you know that has them so nervous?"
"Let her sleep Logan," Beast ordered. "We can find out when she feels better."
"No Dr. McCoy," Kate said. "I don't have a lot of time. It's going to take me a while to explain. I need a computer and the disc."
Xavier joined them to hear the explanation. It took her three hours just to go over the basics. The silence was deafening.
"Are you sure about you data?" Beast asked incredulously.
"Positive," she replied. "I was shocked when I ran the first set of numbers. I kept running them over and over. The test was developed by my mother to look for X factor. She was concerned about the number of children who grew up with no idea what to expect of how to control their powers. It was well before I was born. She presented the test as a way of detecting several fatal genetic abnormalities."
"And they went for this?" Storm asked.
"You don't understand. These conditions destroy families. Mother's younger brother died from one of them."
"When did the change occur?" Xavier asked.
"There were more initial positive tests than she expected. About ten years ago the data changed. There has not been a negative test in the past seven years. Every child born in the past seven years is X factor positive. That is why we're seeing such a huge increase in the number of mutants. In the next five years, it's going to get much worse. There aren't enough experienced people out there to help the next generation with controlling their powers. This could be a disaster of tremendous proportions. Without understanding and support, the world will self destruct in about two generations."
The stunned silence lasted too long. Logan became uncomfortable.
"How did you keep this out of the news?" he asked.
"There is only one lab that does the test." she explained. "I own it. When the positive tests outnumbered the negative, I altered the results. The parents got false results. I got the true ones. I kept an eye on the kids. If any of them showed signs of active powers, I contacted them. I put them in contact with another mutant with similar powers. I even wrote a program to track them. All of them were contacted around their thirteenth birthday. All were told what they were and who to contact to get help."
"You lied," he said flatly.
"I didn't want to Logan. If the political climate were different, I would have acted differently. I had to protect these kids. When BioGen hired me, I thought they could help them." tears began to trace their way down her cheeks. "I gave them the names. I sent those children to their deaths."
"Yes," he said. "You did."
"I need to come forward, tell the public what I did. I need to let the public know what will happen. I want to try and stop the destruction of our civilization. If that means I go to jail for the rest of my life, fine. I'll pay any price."
"How is that going to help?" Logan yelled. "The damage is already done. There hasn't been a human born for seven years."
"People have a biased impression of mutants. Less than one percent ever develop active powers. Most of those are very minor powers. The chance of any given child developing active powers is slim."
"We know that Kate," Xavier said. "We weren't aware that any one else knew. We need to discuss what you have told us. I'm not sure how much you should tell the public at this time."
He turned his chair around and headed for the door.
"We'll discuss this again when you are feeling better."
With that, he left, followed by Jean, Storm and Scott.
"Don't be too long Logan," Beast told him. "She needs rest." He turned to go to his office.
Logan sat on the side of the bed and took her hand. "Darlin, you know how to drop a bomb."
"I can't keep this back Logan. I had a vision last year that showed what was coming. There was a way to reduce the trauma but only if I acted quickly. The goons from BioGen had nothing to do with this. They just wanted to stop me from reporting the testing they were doing on mutants."
"You realize that you will become a target for every crackpot hate group in the world."
"I know."
I'm not sure I can protect you from all of them. You may be killed because of this."
She pulled him down to her lips and kissed him deeply.
"Stay with me until I fall asleep?" she asked
He curled up on the bed and pulled her to him. She sighed and tucked herself into his arms and fell asleep.
His mind kept going over what she had said. He had been dealing with bigotry for most of his life and he knew the mindset of the population today. Her news could ignite and inferno that could burn for decades. He caught the difference she described between the active and inactive powers. The world will have a very small group of very advantaged people that will probably try to rule the others. Civil war will follow. It's no longer human against mutant. Now it's power against power and the nonpowered will be caught between them.
Bamf.
"Wolverine," Nightcrawler called softly. "Professor Xavier wants to see all of us in the war room."
Logan nodded and slipped out of Kate's embrace. He kissed her softly on the forehead and left the unit, heading for the war room.