Chapter 9 - Wiccan's Return

The latest Weapon X stronghold was hidden away in the old remnants of Donald Pierce's Reavers compound in the Australian outback, and the four-person team was getting more frustrated as they went.

That wasn't to say that they weren't doing things. They were going through compounds like they were paper — crumpling metal, blasting through walls, leaving psychic fire in their wake. It was an impressive, nearly surgical strike on the people who had defiled their home and kidnapped several members of the team... but that still hadn't addressed their last missing team member.

Though it was definitely helping Lorna and Rachel to work off some of their anger over the whole thing, even if Erik just seemed to be getting angrier. After all, that many compounds meant that much more to see, that much more equipment, and that many more cells, even empty ones. And with this particular compound ... that many more Sentinels.

"Oh. Great," Rachel muttered when she saw the first of the Sentinels that Weapon X had repurposed from the old Pierce compound. For the moment, it was just her and Erik — since Alex hung back with Lorna until the two of them had cleared any possible dampeners so Lorna could go through with a solid shield and not risk anything. That was the deal to let her come along.

This plan, of course, also freed up Rachel and Erik to simply let loose — and to an outside observer, it would have been hard to tell who was the one to watch between them. Rachel's attacks all burned, but Magneto was in full force, crumpling entire wings once Rachel had determined no mutants were there. They were trying to be a bit more careful after Scott had called them last time to tell them that they'd found a couple 'projects' that had been psychically shielded.

Scott wasn't happy with either of them, but Rachel had told him to hold off on the yelling until they at least got Billy back. She wasn't expecting him to keep his tongue, of course, but they had been getting along better, and she sort of had to hope he'd at least cut her some slack.

So when her comm went off in the middle of tearing apart a pair of Sentinels alongside Erik, she ignored it.

It went off again as they were going through the base room by room, destroying everything in their path, and she ignored it again.

It went off again as Erik brought down the entire infrastructure that supported the Sentinels' creation and maintenance, and she finally let out a breath. Erik clearly had this anyway.

"What?"

But it wasn't Scott on the other side telling them they were causing international incidents. It was Storm, who got straight to the point: "We found Billy."

Rachel stopped and glanced toward Erik as he finished what he was doing, floating high above the ground as he'd done since they left. "Where?"

"Teddy found him on the lawn."

"Is he alright?"

"He hasn't woken up yet, but Henry says he seems to be just fine."

All of Rachel's breath came out at once. "Thanks. I'll… let everyone know," she said, pocketing the comm. She waited until after Erik had finished what he was doing before she called out to him, though. "They found Billy."

"Where was he?" Erik asked with a relieved look in his eyes, though the fury was only partly reined back.

"On the mansion lawn, apparently," Rachel said. She shook her head. "I'm sure there's a story there."

"And Scott wants us to … pause our progress?"

"I'm sure he does, but that was Storm," Rachel said with half a smirk. "She just wanted to let us know." She looked around the half-destroyed base. "I mean, I still have a half dozen of these in me…"

"Is he alive?"

"Hank gave him a clean bill of health... except ... apparently, he's still unconscious," Rachel admitted. She paused as she watched Erik take in a breath and seem to relax a little more. "Apparently, he just showed up on the east lawn."

"We may not get this opportunity again," Erik said darkly.

"I know," Rachel said. "They're going deeper into hiding; it's in all of their minds." She watched Erik carefully. "If you want to keep going, we can send Lorna and Alex back. I think Lorna would like to see Magda and check on Billy and Tommy. But I'll stay with you."

"Send them," he said with a nod. "We set out to finish this. I for one will not stop until it is done."

Rachel nodded in response and then paused as she quickly sent out the psychic message to Lorna and Alex to let them know what was happening. Take her home. Go take care of your nephews and your baby girl.

You gonna be okay? Alex asked.

Worry about the people in our way, she replied before she turned Erik's way. "We need to find someone higher up so I can pull another location from their minds," she said. "So far, the only men we've found have known next to nothing."

Erik nodded, and the two of them advanced on a more central location that Rachel had gotten from one of the head guards, leaving Alex and Lorna to return to Westchester alone.

Teddy had been staying at the mansion ever since Billy went missing, and there was no shortage of people looking out for him. America, for one, was pacing almost as much as he was, and Annie was making sure he slept and ate.

But there were some times that he just wanted to get away from everyone else so he didn't have to put up with the looks of pity and "understanding." He knew that people didn't mean them, and he'd had to endure the same thing when the adoption fell through, but sometimes, he just wanted to leave.

So he hit the east lawn, skirting around what looked like an intense game of advanced tag between Leslie Ann and Jana, with Leslie Ann trying to snare Jana with grass or trees and Jana doing her best to keep moving and out of her reach. He also slipped past the Wagner girls as they tore across the lawn screaming with delight playing in the sprinklers with the bamfs.

He thought he'd finally found a good quiet spot almost to the treeline when he noticed something red further out. It wasn't a naturally-occurring kind of color, so he went a little further out... until he realized it was a cape... and then he picked up his pace.

By the time he got to where Billy was laid out in the middle of the lawn, his heart was in his throat as he dropped down beside his husband … and then let out all his breath in pure relief when he saw that Billy was at least breathing.

He looked fine, if incredibly dirty, with tears in his cape and clothes and… was that sand? In his hair?

Teddy was sure there was a story there, but he didn't care. Not right then. He just scooped Billy up and held him to his chest for a long moment, crying in relief.

When he finally got his emotional feet back underneath him, he pulled Billy up and rushed back toward the mansion — and got his voice back somewhere around the doorway as he called out, "I found him!"

He was still not close enough for anyone to catch it except for those who were already outside, but it did catch the attention of the two girls outside playing. Both of them rushed his way, and when they saw what was happening, Jana reversed course almost immediately to run inside and alert everyone else inside the mansion, while Leslie Ann, hand over her mouth, ran the last few yards to catch up to Teddy.

"What happened?" she asked.

"I… I don't know," Teddy said hoarsely. "He just showed up."

Leslie Ann stared at him for a moment before she, too, took off running — so that by the time Teddy got to the entryway with Billy in his arms, Storm was there holding the door open for him and looking both relieved and concerned, somehow at the same time.

"Henry will be glad to see him," Storm said.

"I'm glad to see him," Teddy said, holding Billy that much closer. He could already see and hear other people in the mansion headed their way to see what was going on, but he wasn't really interested in sharing at the moment.

Storm had a hand on his shoulder all the way down to where Hank was waiting for them, and though Teddy didn't realize it at the time, she was also giving an imperious look to anyone who looked like they might try to approach Billy and Teddy, giving them the much-needed space they were after without a word spoken.

She got the two young men all the way to the lab before she left them to their privacy — though she didn't go far, taking a seat on the far end of the lab so she could help where needed and bat away interested parties until Teddy stopped looking like he might fall apart at the slightest provocation.

All of which Teddy was grateful for. He felt more tired than he ever had — especially when Hank came back with a clean bill of health for Billy, except, of course, for the fact that he was unconscious. Hank was gracious enough to ignore Teddy as he rested his head on the edge of Billy's bed and just let go in pure relief — and he waited until Teddy was with it enough to really understand what was going on before he gave him the rundown: Billy was fine, just completely exhausted, running on fumes.

"It's a wonder he was able to get here at all," Hank said, frowning at the unconscious Wiccan over the top of his glasses.

"But he's alright, isn't he?" Teddy asked, half holding his breath. "I mean, he will be ... but he's alright?"

"As far as I can see, he'll be just fine," Hank assured him. "And I'm sure once he rejoins us, he'll be able to tell us more."

Teddy nodded at that and reached over to grab Billy's hand. He wasn't going anywhere until that happened.

Billy woke up slowly, not for any real reason other than the fact that sleeping was just so much nicer than anything else he could have been doing — right up until he remembered that he'd been trying to get back to his own timeline and his own dimension, and then he woke up all at once, sitting bolt upright and looking around what looked like a familiar lab. Teddy was asleep next to him… Tommy was asleep in a bed nearby….

Wait. Tommy?

Billy pulled his legs out from underneath the covers and had every intention of going to his brother, but Hank got there first before he could unhook his IV — when did he get an IV?

"Please relax," Hank said, frowning slightly at Billy as he rested one hand on Billy's shoulder. "You've been through a lot, I'm sure."

"You don't know the half of it," Billy said, shaking his head, though he let Hank push him back. "This… this is going to be a weird question, but… everyone's still here, right? We didn't lose any Hawkeyes, and there's still three Summers kids, and….?"

"It's my understanding that only your grandfather and Rachel are still out decimating Weapon X. Everyone else has been accounted for," Hank replied. "Have you been dimension jumping?" He turned Billy's head slightly with a frown. "What happened to your eyes?"

Billy bit his lip. "It's … it's a really long story. I think it's permanent, though. Does it look that bad?"

Hank tipped his head toward him and raised one eyebrow. "Do you think I have any room to judge on appearances?"

Billy laughed quietly. "Well, at least tell me the silver looks good. I kind of like it," he said, brushing back his hair.

"Dashing, of course," Hank replied with a warm smile. "Can you see properly?"

Billy nodded. "Yeah, I can… I mean, I have to focus not to see too much at once, but I can see you and Teddy and — okay, I have to ask about Tommy? Because in the dimension I left, he was dead, but I'm still working on separating dimensions I'm in and dimensions I'm seeing, so…"

"Tommy is here," Hank said. "He's not as spry as he usually is, but he's here."

Billy nodded at that and closed his eyes as he tried to get his bearings, though it was harder to see with his eyes closed when that just seemed to open the gates to a whole host of dimensional possibilities and timelines…. "This is going to take some getting used to," he grumbled, rubbing his forehead before he glanced up again. "When did you … I mean, did Tyler get Tommy back or… it can't have been that long ago, since I just left right after the raid. I think."

"While we did lose a rhythm for a moment, we never lost him."

Billy let out all his breath. "That… almost doesn't make me feel any better," he admitted. "I mean, no. That sounds horrible." He held up both hands. "I'm really, really glad he's okay and that he didn't die. I just… the whole thing started when I was trying to find a way to save him."

Hank patted his arm. "My dear boy, I do believe that overly emotional reactions run in the family." He leaned toward him for a moment just before he stood up. "You get it from your mother's side."

"Yeah, you should have seen Erik where I…" Billy trailed off as something seemed to be tugging at the edge of his vision. It felt weird, like someone was trying to wave at him to get his attention and he couldn't quite focus on it. "Hang on… where did you say Erik was, again?"

"Levelling every Weapon X installation he can find," Hank said.

That answer seemed to click the final pieces into place for Billy, and he could finally see what it was just beyond his vision. In the span of a second, he was gasping as a whole timeline's worth of possibilities flashed in front of him, and he didn't realize he was getting up again until he'd started. "Oh, no. No, he can't do that," Billy said, the galaxies in his eyes a little brighter while he was focused on something no one else could see. "We have to stop him."

"I'm not sure how we can do that," Hank said honestly. "He and Rachel …"

"No," Billy said again. "No, we have to stop them." He got to his feet, in a manner of speaking, though they weren't touching the ground.

"You should rest," Hank said, stepping back in spite of his words. After all, a floating member of the Maximoff family was never a good thing. "Nothing good has ever come from being hasty in a time like this."

"You don't understand; I can see where this is going." Billy gestured to his eyes as the IV simply disappeared, though he hadn't consciously cast a spell to get rid of it. "We have to stop them or they're going to end up sparking another war." He paused and glanced at Teddy, who was starting to stir, but before Teddy could wake up all the way, he seemed to make up his mind on the matter. With a quickly muttered Asgardian word, he disappeared in a blink of light.

Teddy picked his head up and narrowed his eyes at the empty bed before he glanced to a fairly befuddled Hank. "Where's…?" he asked, trying to wake up faster.

"I'm not entirely sure," Hank replied. "He just ... disappeared in a flash of light."

"Again?" Teddy asked, looking distressed. "We just got him back!"

"I think he went after Erik."

"Erik? Why?" Teddy climbed to his feet, clearly ready to go after Billy as well.

"He said he could see where it was going," Hank said. "But he didn't explain."

"Well, he's got to have a good reason," Teddy reasoned. "He's Billy."

"Yes, well, all things considered, perhaps it's time we spoke with Cyclops about this."

Teddy let his shoulders slump. "Yeah, alright." He paused. "Was he okay? I mean, did you get to talk to him? Find out what happened? Is he alright?"

"He didn't say much, but he seemed fine, more or less. He was worn out." Hank paused.
And his … eyes had changed."

Teddy tried to crack a joking smile. "Well dang. That's my favorite part of him."

"Then I hope you like stargazing," Hank said with a pointed look.

Teddy paused. "...Really?"

"Really." Hank frowned. "Does that mean something to you?"

"It… might," Teddy admitted. "The first time we found out about Billy's Demiurge powers, we found his literal face in the stars. It seems like his powers sort of… like the vastness of space, I guess? It's hard to explain if you haven't experienced it." He looked around the room. "But we'd know if he had gone full Demiurge, right? It would have been pretty explosive. He did it once, just a little bit when we were teenagers…"

Hank looked thoughtful for a moment and then took a seat on the bed that Billy had vacated. "He asked if everyone was here. Apparently, there was some concern that we'd lost many of our number."

"Well... Tommy," Teddy said.

"But also the Summers — or some of them — and Kate … among others."

Teddy frowned, trying to sort it all out. "You're right," he said at last. "I think we should definitely talk to Cyclops."

Hank looked across the med bay to where Noh and Jubilee were resting — the new twin girls sleeping quietly. "Off we go then," Hank said. "Before something else happens that we can't explain."

It took a couple tries, because Billy was still getting used to this new power that let him see everything at once, and it was hard to pinpoint specifics, but he finally managed to transport himself to the base that Erik and Rachel were headed for. Not the ones they'd already hit — or the ones that they'd hit next. That was the hard part: nailing it down when apparently his vision didn't quite work in the present all the time.

But he did it, and the Erik and Rachel in front of him didn't shimmer at the edges — which meant they must have been solid and in the present and real time — so he called out to both of them. "Stop!" he shouted, flinging both hands forward with the force of a spell that was powerful enough to stop them in their tracks.

In an instant, he had floated over to the two of them, and he waved a hand to release them from the frozen spell so they could talk, though his heart was in his throat thinking of how close they were to the base behind them. Another few minutes… "You can't go barging in there."

Rachel frowned at him. "What do you know?" she asked with a tone of suspicion.

"I know if you go in there now, it doesn't end with Weapon X wiped off the map," he said, rising a little higher in the air as he said it. "It ends up with a dead diplomat, a dozen kids killed in the line of fire, and a war on mutants that only fuels the Weapon X program back from the ashes you're leaving it in."

"How do you know this?"

Billy scrubbed a hand over his face. "It's a long story. And I'd be happy to tell you the whole thing, but right now, just… please trust me on this. I can see what happens, and …" He gestured around the place. "I can already see the devastation and the bodies and the investigation and the outcry and it hasn't even happened yet."

Rachel concentrated, and it didn't take much to see what Billy was projecting. "Then let's go before it gets worse," she agreed as she rested one hand on Erik's arm. "He's not wrong. I don't think."

"There's still kids in there," Billy said softly. "But you can't charge in… and you can't be seen by the American diplomat in there."

"I can cover us," Rachel offered. "But why is there a diplomat in a place like this?"

"Oh, that'll come out later," Billy said, waving his hand. "He's getting arrested in a few days anyway for espionage."

"Rachel," Erik said, "can you find where they are, the little ones?" His anger was simmering right at the surface, and it was incredibly easy to see.

"Of course," Rachel replied. "But we should be quick."

"And quiet," Billy said again, looking entirely serious.

"No one will hear us," Rachel said. "I'll make sure it's more than hard to focus on us. I'll just alter the way their minds process us. You could shout and they won't know."

"Then …" Billy paused, looking around the place and trying to see where this path would lead. He wasn't positive, but it seemed safe… "Okay. But if I tell you we need to leave, I mean it."

Rachel looked up at Erik, who frowned but finally nodded. "I expect a full explanation," Erik said.

"And you'll get it," Billy promised, falling into step with the two of them and shaking his head a bit at the overload of input he was still trying to process. "I still don't understand a lot of it myself, but what I do get is yours."

The three of them made their way much more stealthily into the base — not the door-busting, gung-ho approach that Rachel and Erik had been using until that point but a nearly silent, slow approach. Rachel led the way, feeling her way toward where she could sense the youngest minds, though it was clear once they arrived that Erik's temper was in danger of boiling over when he saw the dozen or so children, the youngest of which were a pair of dark-haired twins barely past walking age.

"Most of them know who they are," Rachel said quietly. "The technicians have files on where they came from. But those two ... " She paused and shook her head. "I think … they were born here."

Billy glanced toward Erik and put a hand on his shoulder. "I can carry one of them if you take the other," he said. "We can carry a lot of them by powers, but I saw this somewhere else... " He paused. "Probably better if they had human contact."

"You saw this ... " Erik looked furious. "Where did you see this?"

"A different dimension," Billy said quickly. "Not… not here."

Erik leveled a more serious look at his grandson. "All of it," he said. "I want to know."

"As soon as we get them out," Billy swore, bending down to scoop up the little dark-haired girl, who watched him carefully with her head tipped to the side. He very gently pressed her into Erik's hands without waiting for Erik to actually find a twin, and he scooped up the little boy just after that as he glanced around the room and held his breath. "We need to get out of here before we get caught," he said.

"We won't get caught," Rachel said, her eyes glowing slightly with the larger group she was hiding.

Billy frowned her way. "Just… alright, just follow me," he said, already headed down the hallway. "If you can't hold it, tell me, and I think I can get us the rest of the way out."

"I can hold it," she said. "I've been getting a lot better."

"Good, because I'm wiped out," Billy said with a little noise of relief as the whole group of them rushed through the facility, a small army of children in their wake.

It had taken a lot of work and finagling to get the children who had a place to go to where they were supposed to be, and Billy simply hadn't been up to it, so he waited with the two smallest twins in the jet that Erik and Rachel had commandeered at some point in all their rampaging — which was actually a big help to the rampaging, since it was Weapon X designated, and the program wouldn't immediately shoot them out of the sky.

He had fallen asleep — and so had both of the little ones — before Erik and Rachel returned, though he did startle awake on their arrival, since he hadn't actually meant to fall asleep.

These new powers were really taking it out of him. He was going to have to figure out how not to let them run him dry like this.

When Rachel returned, she took one look at Billy and brought him a couple of candy bars from the cabinet in the jet. "We keep these for Jubilee, but you look like you need the help."

"Thanks," he said with a half-smile. "I guess I'm still a little wiped out." He unwrapped one of the candy bars, looking properly sheepish."

"I'll save you from repeating yourself and just wait until we get back to ask what happened to you."

"I appreciate that, honestly," he said, leaning a little further back. "It's… not something I want to repeat. Ever. Though I'm pretty sure it was a one-time crazy train."

"Why don't you nap on the way back?" Rachel suggested. "I'm as much of a speed demon as my father is. We'll be back before you know it."

At the suggestion, Billy was already nodding, leaning over in his seat. "Just wake me up when we get there. I haven't seen my husband in a few days, and I'm sure he's mad I ran out as soon as I got back," he muttered as he made himself more comfortable.

"I'm sure he'll just be happy to see you safe and sound," Rachel pointed out as she started flipping switches on both sides of the cockpit and the engines fired up.

As Rachel had promised, they got to the mansion in practically no time, and none of the occupants of the plane were surprised to find that they had a small group already waiting for them: Scott, Storm, and Hank, as well as Teddy, though Teddy seemed to stand apart from the more anxious-looking adults and just wanted to see Billy again.

When the two of them spotted each other, there wasn't the full running embrace it was clear Teddy was headed for, though, since Billy was carrying one of the sleeping little ones — Erik had the other. So instead, Teddy hugged him as best he could and then just started to shake his head. "What is going on?"

"All things considered," Rachel said tiredly, "I think we better wait for him to explain rather than patching our own ideas together."

Billy nodded and then looked toward Scott. "Alright… is it okay if I find a place to put these two in our room first?" he asked, motioning to the two dark-haired babies. "I can magic a crib and everything, but I think they'd be more comfortable not spending the night in a briefing?"

The look on Scott's face made it clear he just didn't even know where to start with the three of them, but he had to nod at Billy's request. "And then the War Room, I think," he said in the same kind of tired tone Rachel had used before.

"Great, thanks," Billy said, kissing Teddy quickly before he disappeared in a flash of light with Erik and the twins to call up a pair of cribs from thin air and gently set them down.

They were down in the War Room before the others, too, because of the instant travel, and Billy sank down into the nearest seat and pulled one out for his grandfather with one foot. "Thanks," he said, leaning forward to rub his temples and very nearly jumping out of his skin when he saw that they weren't, in fact, the only ones in the room.

Strange was there sitting across from them.

"You didn't think that I would miss ...that, did you?" Dr. Strange asked with a more severe expression than he usually wore.

Billy swallowed and looked properly abashed. "Ah… not really, but I kinda hoped…" he admitted. Then, trying for a little teasing smile, he added, "But the hair's nice, right? I wasn't trying to steal your look, but I think I'll keep it."

"It's not my look that I'm concerned with," Strange replied in a sigh. "It's that you're not ready."

"It's a little bit late for 'not ready'," Billy admitted, looking up as the rest of the X-Men arrived at last. "It's not like I can take it back."

"I think you better just tell us what happened," Scott said. "And how."

Billy took in a deep breath. "Right, well... I've been trying to figure out where to start," he admitted. "I guess… a few years back, my team and I were dimension hopping in Noh's ship and then with America and Loki, and I sort of accidentally discovered that sometime in the future, I was supposed to become … well. This." He gestured at his changed face. "Dimensional … god, sort of kind of. For like, five minutes. Now I just have the residual power after I sort of poured my power into the fabric of reality?" He rubbed the back of his neck and then let out all his breath. "This is really, really hard to explain. It was all sort of intuitive, so putting words to it is just…" He gestured with both hands openly.

"We've got time," Scott said, arms crossed.

"Right." Billy sighed again, and Teddy put a hand on his shoulder. "So… after Tommy died, I thought…" He glanced at Strange. "I was going to make a very, very stupid decision and try to give him five more minutes by messing with time. Just a little bit." When the severe look from Strange seemed to grow into something almost terrifying, Billy looked down at his hands. "I didn't do it, though."

When he peeked up at Strange, the look hadn't gone away, and he quickly looked back down at his hands. "My friend David ... he used to be a Young Avenger, and now he's sort of a cosmic drifter," he tried to explain. "And he showed up to tell me what a spectacularly stupid decision I was making. I argued with him, and to prove a point about consequences, he sent me back in time… except he sent me back a few years instead of five minutes, and when I came back, all this..." He gestured around him. "...it was all gone. The mansion… the X-Men… all of it."

"Gone how?" Teddy prompted when Billy seemed to pause.

"It…" He glanced around the room at the faces that hadn't been there in particular. "The whole thing was leveled." He paused again. "There was a big, white monument instead."

All of the older X-Men seemed to get it at the same time, and their entire body language shifted as they realized what he meant.

"See, when I'd gone back in time, I didn't mean to, but I had accidentally caused a whole chain of events that led to ... well, you remember that bill a few years ago? The tracking one?" When a few of the others in the room nodded, watching him closely, he let out a sigh. "So… see… I was in the past for thirty minutes and got pickpocketed by a bad guy. He found my Avengers ID, and that scared off the Weapon X people that Kate and Clint and Wade were after… and you guys never got the proof you needed, and Weapon X just kept getting more and more government backing until they were basically sorta SHIELD, but a whole lot more evil."

"And I'm telling you, it was the worst place ever," Billy added emphatically. "Anyone with powers ... they were threats if they didn't work for Weapon X. And if you weren't dead, chances were…." He paused. "I mean, they had Cassie and Jana working for them, not to mention the fact that Logan and K were their front lines, and I'd have been mincemeat from the first second I got there if Kurt hadn't rescued me and taken me up to the New Avalon." At that, he glanced at Erik. "It was actually pretty nice up there. You and Kurt were running flat-out trying to rescue stupid kids like me and keep everyone safe, which really didn't work out too well when I got myself captured again."

The room was totally silent, and Billy found that he couldn't look at anything but his hands. "I… I don't know how long it took them to find me, but I do know I was causing problems. There was some kind of setup ... hallucinations or something, I don't know how it worked. I thought …" He clenched his hands. "I thought I was being attacked, that the last of the X-Men were coming for me, and by the time they did get me out of there, I was just barely holding onto my powers that Weapon X was trying to get me to use to wipe anyone left from existence itself," he said in a quieter tone.

"When K got me out, I was already on the verge of losing it, so she told me … she said she trusted me, and the next thing I knew, I was miles away from the facility, and then I left reality itself." He looked toward Strange in particular. "I don't really know how to describe what happened from there. It was like I could see everything. Ever. I still can if I look hard enough, but it gives me a headache and wears me out," he added, gesturing to his newly acquired galaxies. "But… the point is, I was able to restore this reality, but only by fracturing it and creating a new one. So that horrible reality still exists, and in fracturing reality, I ended up pouring so much power into it that I may have maybe created several pocket universes and rewritten reality across several more." He looked properly sheepish. "That's, ah, that's where America comes from, by the way. One of those realities I created. It's kind of confusing, I know."

"Is that where some of those tears were coming from that just... disappeared?" Hank asked. "Noh-Varr was investigating some not long ago."

"Maybe," Billy admitted. "I still don't really know all of what I did…" He closed his eyes to concentrate as he thought it over. "It feels like that was mostly a temporal problem with the displaced X-Men, but yeah… I think I formed and fixed a few of those too. When I was everywhen at once." He shook his head. "That's weird to think about."

"Maybe … we should just sleep on it for now," Scott said slowly, after a long, silent stretch. "Take stock of the damage in the morning."

"Oh, no, don't worry — no damage," Billy assured him quickly. "I mean, nothing major and earth-shattering and war-inducing…"

"If it's all the same to you, I'll believe it when I see it," Scott said with a raised eyebrow and an exceedingly dry tone.

"Alright," Billy said, nodding to himself before he looked over at Strange. "I… I'm sorry," he muttered. "I didn't think I could control it any longer. I tried. I swear."

Strange looked more severe than Billy had ever seen him as he frowned at the former Young Avenger. "We will need to take stock of your new powers before you drain your own life force into oblivion," he said in a tone that was oddly calm but stung all the same. "And you will listen to me this time."

For just a moment, Billy was struck with the odd desire to laugh, since, well, he had seen literally all of reality. Multiple realities. There was a real argument to be made that he knew plenty.

But he couldn't, especially because he still didn't know how to hold onto that knowledge. It was too much for him now that he was back on Planet Earth, so unless he was looking at something specific, it was just… not there. He knew he knew it, but he didn't know what he knew until he had to know it.

Which was so, so confusing.

"Right," he said at last as he got to his feet. "Well. Right. I ... I promised Erik I'd tell him the whole story… if you have any… if there's any finer details you want to know or if you just want all of them or…"

"I think it's safe to say that none of us are going anywhere until you're done," Storm told him evenly. "But if you need to rest, or to eat, we'll work around that."

"No — well — yes, but — maybe it would be better to get it all at once," Billy stumbled out.

"Relax, Billy," Storm said, doing her best to be encouraging. "We all just want to know what happened."

Billy nodded and sat back down, still with his gaze on his hands as he launched into a few more details — like just who had been there, and how they'd ultimately left things in that universe, and how when he'd come back, he had just known how things might or might not turn out… the whole nine.