Kela's Understanding
Two weeks passed by for Kela with much of the same routine. After her studies, Logan would take her to the danger room and taught her some basic maneuvers that kept Kela on her toes (or more likely) on her back. She would frequently come out of the room with several new bruises on her sides and (once) a split lip. Hank tried to draw the line, but she pleaded with him to let her continue the lessons.
At night, however, was a different story. She made the trip to the Shifter camp, much to the voice's apprehensions. She worked out the plans for invading the new headquarters, and then she would work with those in the sick tent, trying to get Maria to get enough strength to at least shift into an animal that Kela could help and get her to the mansion.
Her nighttime wanderings were starting to get to her. She would feel herself fall asleep, and then jerk awake in time for the end of class. After one particular time, she began to wander outside, hoping the cooler air would wake her up.
At least no one noticed. She thought, mostly to herself, though that was most certainly out of the question.
Not yet. You need to be more careful. Someone could be watching you.
Charles, I must have been careful. If not, they would have swarmed this place and taken me.
She heard a sigh, and then Charles retreated to the back of her mind, allowing Kela to be alone with her thoughts. There had been a few instances when he did this; Kela felt herself thinking on old thoughts, rather than devising a plan to help Maria.
The one question she would come back to is why her. The voice kept saying she was different, that she could help the X-Men in some way, but every time she began asking for an answer, he reminded her that some things she needed to figure out for herself. A slight breeze blew through the air, causing Kela to wrap the jacket closer around her. Kela took in the scenery around her, noticing she was in a part of the mansion she had never been before. She squinted and looked back at the school, noticing the balcony she had appeared on, looking at the sunrise when she first truly talked to Logan. It was at least two stories up, and it was covered in some type of ivy that seemed to defy gravity, reaching all the way up to the railing. She backed up, admiring the way the ivy shined in the afternoon light, when her heel tapped up against something hard.
She spun around, coming face-to-face with a small row of tombstones. She was staring at the farthest one of the three on the left side. She bent down to get a closer look. It was a simple dark grey stone, and inscribed was a large X surrounded by a circle. There was a name below it, one "Jean Grey".
Kela's brow furrowed with anger. This was the non-Shifter who caused all of the trouble with the MRA in the first place! Kela was glad the woman was died.
It's not wise to speak ill of the dead. Voiced Charles. Kela shook her head and went to the middle stone.
Who was "Scott Summers"? I haven't heard anything about him from Logan, or anyone. Kela went to look at the last stone, the largest of the three, a small bowl filled with fire that burned despite the wind picking up.
He was one of my first students. Kela, you should go, I have a feeling Storm might—
You're dead.
Kela was staring wide-eyed at the name inscribed beneath the profile of a man's head. Kela had placed a hand on the stone, and something flowed through her, like she had just plunged through the ice-cold river from her past.
Kela, I don't know what you saw, but if you just let me—
Get. Out. Of. My Head.
Kela, you don't understand—
"GET OUT!" She yelled, banging her fists against her temples. She felt her mind shutting him off, her mental scissors snapping the invisible thread that linked her mind to that of a dead man. The silence in her mind was deafening, and she fell to her knees, the shock of it all painfully coming in waves through her body, dry sobs wracking through her chest.
"Kela?" a familiar voice rang behind her. Kela got up and started to run, but she stumbled because her mind was elsewhere.
"Kela, what's going on? Kela? Kela!" Peter ran up to her, dropping next to her as she fell.
"He's in my head, and he's dead." She spat out, as if the very words pained her to speak them.
"Kela, who is dead? Look at me, who is dead?" Kela shook her head, attempting to move, but her body felt like a great weight had been placed upon it, pinning her body in place. Pete picked her up and ran inside.
He placed her on the couch, yelling for McCoy. He walked in, a device in his oversized hands, looking for something. He looked up and frowned.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, one minute, I hear this screaming, and I see her out by the graves trying to run. She keeps saying 'he is dead' but I have no idea what she's talking about. She won't even look at me, or does anything other than say those words. Her skin is freezing; I think she's in shock."
McCoy got down on his knees; one hand feeling for a pulse, but Kela just pushed his hand away.
"He was in my head, and he's dead." She began to shiver, violent tremors that seemed to shake the couch. Peter got a couple of blankets from the floor and wrapped them around her. Kela was wide-eyed, shivering but she still mumbled, "He's dead".
McCoy searched for her eyes, but she stared at the space above him, ever mumbling. He took his hands and held her face; forcing her to stare at him. The mumbling stopped.
"Who is dead?" he whispered, and Kela's mouth worked opened and closed, like a fish gasping for air above the water.
"I'm crazy, aren't I? He was in my head, telling me things, teaching me. I'm crazy?"
"You are not. Who is he?"
"It started when I came here. The voice. But I trusted him, he knew everything about this place and I never even doubted him. But I know now, he is dead, and the voice I knew was something I made up, or did I? He told me fantastic things, things I could do. He is dead, and Charles was in my head."
McCoy sat back, stunned.
"Charles…Charles Xavier? Kela, listen to me. Is he there now? Pete, get Logan and Storm and meet me in the Professor's study. Kela listen to me, you said he was in your head. What happened?" it seemed more like a demand. He laid a hand on Kela's arm and tucked it back under the blankets, her shivers slowing down.
"No, no, its all a lie, everything he told me was a lie. The tombstone said so, and so I told him to leave and he was gone. Its all lies!" she shoved Hank out of the way sitting straight up on the couch, rapidly speaking in some old language. The walls began to shake as she spoke quicker and quicker, her breath seemingly without end. As quick as it began, she gasped and a thin golden light trickled out of her mouth, and she fell back onto the couch. Her eyes fluttered open, and she seemed to focus on Hank for the first time.
"What's wrong with me?"
Kela opened to door to the study, Hank following behind her. She held one of the blankets around her shoulders, keeping her eyes to the ground to avoid the stares of those who were there to protect and help her. Hank guided her to a chair, and she sat down, eyes always on some spot other than the mutants in the room.
"Since I came her, a voice has been inside my head, and his name was Charles. He would tell me things about this place, and at night would teach me, helping me to control my powers. It wasn't until today that I found out he was dead."
Logan, leaning against the desk, frowned. "You couldn't have told us any of it?"
"He told me not to. Then I touched the tombstone, and I found out. I…I shut him out of my head, I can't find him anymore, and that scares me most of all, not the man in the vision, but—"
"Vision? What are you talking about? And what man?"
"The tombstone showed me something. I saw a man, rising from a golden chair, and markings glowed all over his chest. He spoke something, I couldn't understand it, but then he looked at me, and laughed. He touched my forehead, and it felt like an electric shock went through me. Suddenly, I knew." Kela stood up suddenly, and went over to the bookshelf. She picked a book on the middle shelf. It was roughly the size of a bible, covered in soft red leather and stamped with golden hieroglyphics. She flipped open to a page, writing on one side and a drawing on the other. She set it on the coffee table and pointed to the drawing.
"That's him." Logan, Hank, and Storm leaned over the picture, studying the man. He was covered in muscle, and seemed to lord over the subjects bowing at his floating feet. Hieroglyphics were tattooed across his body, and two eyes stared at the reader with the menace of ten thousand men. Kela recited the caption below it, as if she had read it a hundred times.
"Considered to be one of the most fearsome myths of ancient Egypt, Apocalypse was an ancient Pharaoh that many believe to be one of the first mutants. He started a reign of darkness that lasted nearly two thousand years. It was the secret dealings of an advisor and an Animal deity that created his demise, a prison made of Obsidian that would last for ten thousand years." Kela spoke, eyes closed in remembrance. Charles had told her about the book in the study, but she never had the courage to go inside and read it.
"Are you saying that this myth is real? You've got to be—"
"Seriously Logan, I think there may be some truth to this. I remember the Professor telling me about how mutants have gone back as far as the first civilizations, and how they were treated as gods. How does this connect with you, Kela, and why does he choose you, rather than one of us, or even a mutant in the school?"
Kela straightened her chin. "The Voice kept telling me that I would be needed, but he never said how or even when. Something to do with the deity and the advisor, I think." As Storm and McCoy talked about the matter at hand, Logan noticed something about Kela that seemed…different. She seemed to have a commanding presence in the room that made her sit a little taller, look at people in the eye, and speak with clarity that she had never done before. He was sitting to the side of her, and watched her tilt her head toward a window in the study. She frowned, and turned towards the window.
As she looked outside, Logan heard the same noise she did. His hands tightened into wrists and his claws snaked their way out of his knuckles.
"Logan, what's going on?" Storm was staring at him, a look of shock on his face. Kela made a yell of surprise, and ran out the door.
"Kid!" Logan stood up and ran after her, Storm and Hank on their heels.
Outside, Kela was running towards a small group of people, one of who was carrying some large thing behind him on a homemade sling. Many of them were bleeding and limping, the boy, barely able to walk while carrying the burden.
As he ran up along side her, Kela was kneeling on the ground, sobbing and holding the hand of a terrifyingly thin girl, not much older then Kela.
"What happened?" She asked.
The boy, Gerr, stared at Logan until Kela nodded him to proceed.
"We were ambushed."