Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men. Ilehana Xavier belongs to Corrinth. All other characters belong to me.
A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers out there; you really are all stars.
Scene 15Xavier pulled on the Cerebro helmet resolutely, hearing the doors to the large, round room sluicing shut behind him. His fingers tapped the console in front of him briefly, before he concentrated. Suddenly, like an explosion of galaxies, the room was gone and replaced with the twinkling lights of all the lives on the planet. Red and white, mutant and human, all so temptingly close for him to just reach out and brush with his consciousness, learn their secrets, learn who they were...
He pulled himself back from the brink, from the longing to throw himself into the current of his power and forget everything but the joy of telepathy. And he longed, stood on that brink as he was, for just once, one of the dancing lights in front of him to recognise that he stood there, to show him just the faintest signs of recognition. But they never did, he was a witness only, watching them come and go in their tangled lives.
Who was he looking for? A young woman, twenty-seven years old, a mutant who used the name Mercury, her real name was Eloise Finnegan. Each time he thought, more of the lights died away, drifting out of his reckoning. When only a small handful of twenty-seven year old mutant women stood before him, he searched her out. He could recognise her by sight, from the images he'd been given by Blaze and Gambit, though the different ways each of his X-Men saw her intrigued Xavier.
Gambit remembered the girl he'd dated; long, curvaceous form, sleek hair, and full lips. Blaze saw someone older than herself, not just in years but also in knowledge and experience. Blaze remembered the sad, knowing glint in Mercury's eyes of someone who had been in the criminal world too long. Xavier wondered if Blaze had realised she occasionally wore that same look herself? So, the Professor realised with a little shock, someone Blaze had not only liked, but also looked up to, almost a surrogate sister as the teenaged English girl had begun her career as a thief under Gambit's tuition, before Gambit even met Mercury...
Suddenly all the other women disappeared, leaving one stood alone. Steely grey eyes looked right at him from behind long grey-black hair. He reached out to Mercury, ever so gently, tugged at by the emotions and stresses she was feeling. He'd never reach her with his barriers so high. They fell away, his defences, and instantly he was inside of Mercury's mind, looking out at the world as she saw it.
He gasped with the pain, the madness, tugged off the Cerebro helmet and reached out to the only one he knew would hear him.
#ILEHANA! #
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The doors had slid open as Vixen skidded around the corner of the corridor and flung herself towards her father. Gambit and Kurt weren't far behind, then suddenly the teleporter had Vixen by the arm, and they were stood right by Xavier. His head lolled slightly, his eyes open but unseeing until Ilehana put a hand to his shoulder and he sat bolt upright.
"Get away from me! What do you want! Who are you people! Arrrgh!"
#Dad. # Ilehana called to him inside his head, #Dad, its okay, its alright... #
"Thank you..." Xavier stumbled over his reply, eyes focusing once again. "Thank you..." His gratefulness worried Ilehana, but she wouldn't mention it as she crouched down to meet his eyes.
"What did you see?" She asked gently, seeing the shudder gush through his body as he thought about it.
"Not much... It was more what I felt. Fear, hatred and all consuming paranoia. One thing is certain; Mercury is not sane... And neither is she far away."
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"We're up Logan." Ilehana appeared in the kitchen to find the most beautifully tempting bacon sandwich she had ever seen about to be devoured completely by a bored looking Logan. Vixen winced as he paused, the sandwich millimetres from his open mouth, one rasher slipping out of the bread to slap back onto the plate. What a waste. Sheesh, she was starting to sound like Blaze!
"What do you mean, we're up?" Logan asked, putting the sandwich down. "What am I missing?"
"A fight if you don't get a move on." Vixen didn't think she'd ever seen Wolverine move so fast.
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Kurt nodded sombrely to Ilehana, and smiled to let her know the Professor would be well cared for. Ilehana nodded and climbed aboard her motorbike. Gambit and Logan had already started their engines, a rough chorus of power Vixen was only too happy to join in. Jamming the helmet over her blonde ponytail, she raised her gloved hand to signal it was time to move out...
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Blaze was instantly suspicious when she heard the bikes roaring down the drive. A mission? With no briefing? And today, with all of this going on? Something about this was fishy...
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The docks were busy, but behind the collection of warehouses and equipment, away from the sea front, a stillness and mist had settled. Ilehana wished she'd brought Storm, the clammy sea fog distorting her usually keen senses, set against a backdrop of the setting sun. They grounded the bikes, abandoning them to continue on foot. Nobody said anything, Logan sniffing the sea air to try and get a hint to their quarry. Ilehana quested with her telepathy, and had a little more success.
#This way. # She told her teammates telepathically, taking the lead. Logan let Gambit follow first, taking the time to allow his claws to slip through his gloves. The metal alloy glinted in the misty light.
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"They've gone where!" Blaze was outraged that the X-Men were fighting her battles for her. Eyes smouldering she turned her back on Kurt and the Professor, headed straight for the garage and her car.
"I can't let you go Blaze, you are too involved." Xavier cautioned, his voice weak with exhaustion and sick with worry.
"No?" She turned back to him briefly, her firepower dancing around her. "You let Gambit go."
"He's not been ill, Blaze..." Kurt pointed out, pleading.
"Neither have I." Blaze was adamant, turning her back on her friends again. "And if fighting my own battles is going to cost me my place with the X-Men, then so be it."
She slammed the office door loudly, making Nightcrawler flinch. Xavier sighed deeply, head drooping, emotionally, mentally and physiologically exhausted.
"Professor?" Kurt asked gently, putting a three-fingered hand on Xavier's sagging shoulder. "Are you all right?"
"I think..." Professor Xavier began, "I think I need to go to the infirmary..."
Kurt's eyes bulged with shock; he gaped with worry as Xavier floated past him into an exhausted unconsciousness...