Disclaimer: I do not in any way, shape, or form own X-Men, X-Men: Evolution, or their characters; all of it belongs to Marvel Comics and their individual creators. The characters of Stacey Lofton, Cole McBride, and Vicki Byrne belong to Stacey Lofton. Aliana LeBeau belongs to Aliana LeBeau. Mithra Gale belongs to stormelle. Everybody else belongs to me, as do the rights to this fic and its storyline.

A/n: Okay, I lied, I'm not almost done. I figured out where I want the rest of this fic to go, so I know the whole plot now! I was mostly making it up as I went along before, that's why it's so confusing and full of holes. But I've got it all figured out now! And sorry about the lateness of this chapter, I was writing it and had to stop and then came back and had forgotten everything. It took me 3 weeks to figure out what to do with it, and I still don't remember what I wanted to write before. All I know is that this is better. I'll stop now and let you read.

Confessions of a Future Past

Chapter 15: Pieces of the Puzzle

2015

Jamie led Lelia into a small Italian bistro, their favourite. But they didn't just like it for the food, it was a mutant-owned restaurant, which meant they could be themselves without persecution. They sat across from each other at a table in the back, away from most of the crowd. After ordering and waiting until the waitress was out of ear shot, the two started to try to figure out what was going on.

"Life of an x-man."

"What?" the red-head asked.

"It's just that we never seem to get a moment's peace, you know? Trouble just seems to follow us around and there's always a super villain out there we're supposed to vanquish," Jamie explained.

"Guess you never really adjust to life out of the service of the X-Men. It's almost like I never left," she said, causing an awkward silence in their conversation.

After a moment's pause, and a drink of water, Jamie asked his first question. "Why'd you have to ask Caliban what your powers were? Couldn't you just do that yourself?"

"Yes and no. Like I said before, my powers, and Caliban's too, attract the signals of every other mutant around us. It's like a giant mutant magnet; that's how I can sense my powers and where he is. But at the same time it's different, I don't really sense my own powers, I just know what they are somehow. I can sense every person in this room, but I can't sense myself, so I had to ask Caliban what he sensed."

"Interesting," was all he could say before the waitress came and set their plates down on the table. He hoped she hadn't heard any of their conversation and wondered how she had appeared so suddenly with out his knowing.

"Pretty cool power ya got there," she said looking at Lelia. She had heard. "So, if you can sense mutations, what's mine?"

"Speed," the winged woman answered with a smile.

"Okay, well, that was pretty obvious I guess. What about that guy sitting by the window? I haven't been able to figure out his yet," the brunette waitress asked, indicating a man in the corner who was staring at them over his paper. When they looked at him he quickly pretended to read the paper.

Lelia smiled knowingly and answered without hesitation, "He's not a mutant at all." She laughed and continued "but from the way he keeps watching you I'd say he's in here to ask you out."

"I was wondering why he'd been coming so much lately. Thanks, I guess. Um, enjoy the food," the woman said, trying to hide a chuckle, then walked away back towards the kitchen.

"Anyways, as I was saying, if Replic is back and she's handing out powers, then she's probably got something planned."

Lelia interrupted him, "Okay, truth time."

"What?" Jamie asked thoroughly confused.

"That was a lie. Well, a half-lie anyway," she confessed. "He's not a mutant, but he's not exactly human either. I think he's a replica mutant."

"So that guy has half-powers, powers like you?" he asked in as low a whisper he could manage. She nodded and he continued. "What're his powers?"

"I think he has invisibility, but I'm positive he also has a healing power."

"You're sure?"

"Jamie! You should know by now, these mutation senses know more than you think they do," she chastised. "Besides, he reeks of Carlita."

"Okay, she's your mom, what're we going to do?"

"First off, Carlita DeToma may have given birth to me, but she is not my mum. Secondly, I have absolutely no idea. If I know her she's probably secretly creating an army, but she'll keep them in the reserves. In other words, she won't have any contact with him until she's ready to attack. So we really can't trail him or anything."

Jamie thought about this for a moment as he ate his spaghetti. Leila decided to let the information process and wait until he said something, not wanting to cut off any thoughts. They were both silent for a moment, thinking over their possible solutions and eating their dinner that had barely been touched so far.

"Okay, what if it was like a disease?" Jamie asked.

"Define." It was Leila's turn to be confused now, but hoped Jamie could define his solution better than she explained her powers.

"Well, it starts out somewhere, ground zero if you will, and spreads out from there. So maybe there's a hotspot where she started, where she might still be. We just need to find where there's the most replicas and start our search from there."

"How'd you think up something like that? It's brilliant."

"Not all of us spent our class time thinking of new programs to create for the danger room; some of us actually paid attention."

"You had a dupe take notes while you slept, that's not exactly paying attention."

"Well, one of me was."

"Whatever, but remember, those sessions came in handy too. Okay, figuring out ground zero is easy: Mutant Town. It's the best place to hide a replica and Carlita's a huge supporter of mutant supremacy, so she would try and keep herself away from humans and stay surrounded by mutants. And after the tragedies in Genosha, Mutant Town is the biggest population of mutants. How could I miss something so bloody obvious?"

"Well, for one, we thought she was gone," Jamie said, trying to stop her from mentally abusing herself.

"Can't she just stay gone next time, or call before she shows up again? No matter, let's go look for that hotspot," Leila said, ready to go find Replic right away, even if it meant skipping the majority of her late dinner.

"First thing in the morning, it's Saturday so we'll have all day. Besides, we should bring in some others just in case she knows we're coming," Jamie said, pulling Leila back down into her chair before she ran out the door in search of a villian.

"You know I'd rather not make this a big x-mission," she answered with a hint of resentment.

"I was thinking more along the lines of Stacey, Aliana, and Bobby," he explained, putting a smile on her face.

"First thing in the morning it is; I'll ask Stace and Ali when I get home."

"And I'll swing by the institute on my way home and talk to Bobby," Jamie promised.

"Wait, I still want to talk to Mrs. Lenoir, and you said you'd go with me to check that out in the morning."

"We can go there first, maybe we'll get an idea of where exactly to start looking from talking to her."

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"Of coarse I'll help," Aliana said when asked to join Leila and Jamie's trip around Mutant Town. "We might as well figure this mess out before it comes back to bite us."

"Thanks Aliana. Stace, what about you?" Leila turned hopefully to the tired reporter.

"I can't, sorry. Sue didn't like my take on the fiasco earlier and she's bugging me to revise it or add to it or something," Stacey appologised. She was speaking of her editor, Sue Kracken, who constantly made her rewrite her articles so they weren't as pro-mutant.

"What if I could get you and Cole in to talk to Mrs. Lenoir personally? And the other directors too," the red-head bargained.

"If you can do that, I'll come."

"Good, we leave at 9 tomorrow morning then."

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2029- 1 hour until Kelly's speech

Christopher looked at the skies where the Futurian's ship loomed behind the dark clouds. There were a lot of them, he didn't know exactly how many, but he knew that much. This was going to be a tough job, but they could do it. At the foot of the hill he now stood on he had set up everyone they could get to volunteer, and some students from the Institute. He looked down at everyone, then off into the distance where Kelly's speech was being set up and a crowd was gathering. Then he looked over and saw someone approaching, Multiple Man.

"We're outnumbered," Jamie said, also surveying the skies.

Christopher looked over at him annoyed, he didn't need anyone second guessing him. He was the only real X-Man here, everyone else was either a student or a member of an older x-team. "Then make more," he snapped and hit Jamie on the shoulder.

"I can't; I'm a duplicate," he explained when nothing happened, nothing except maybe the formation of a bruise.

"Then find Jamie Prime or something!" Meltdown said angrily.

"If he makes any more duplicates he'll loose control over us. We need back-up."

"We are not calling for reinforcements, now get back to your post!"

"That boy needs to be smacked upside the head," Aliana commented when the duplicate relayed the message to Jamie and herself.

"Forget Meltman!" the original Jamie said. "I'm calling the others."

"What if they're not done? You would bow their cover," the duplicate reminded him.

"It's okay, Ghost has everyone switch to a different frequency for stuff like this."

"Then what'll we do if we can't reach her?" Aliana asked, hoping such a situation wouldn't arise.

"We'll call the X-Men. You go out there now, I'll get someone to help us," Jamie said and sent his duplicate to join the rest of his multiples.

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A/n: Okay, I originally had this better, but I had to cut it into two chapters, so I'll post the next one sometime in the next few days, I won't make you wait long. It should all start to make sense soon. In the next chapter you will get some investigating at the museum, the introductions of Cole and Jason, and the rescue of the captives. And a thousand thanks to my new beta, Aliana LeBeau! I owe you more Robert for helping me out!

Also, for anyone interested in my planning process/behind the scenes stuff for this, I've posted it in my writing journal http/jezstone.