Chapter 8

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"You're different."

"In some ways." Jean gave him a sideways glance and a smile. "Mostly just the hair."

"I don't like it." She laughed merrily.

"No, you wouldn't. Scott likes my hair this way, so of course you would hate it."

"It just doesn't seem like you."

"But I'm not the same as I once was. You said that yourself."

"And you said it was just the hair."

"We're talking in circles, Logan," she said in annoyance, finally looking away. They were crouched atop an abandoned building in East New York, way out in Brooklyn. Down on the ground below them people were slowly milling into a vacant lot; the lot was surrounded on three sides by derelict buildings and was overgrown with pale grass and weeds; piles of junk had amassed and deteriorated over time, leaving the space filthy and unattractive. All in all, it was not a bad spot to do illicit things.

That's what brought them there, of course. Professor Xavier had sent him and Jean to follow a couple of petty mutant criminals who he suspected were working for some big-shot. It was a generic do-gooder job, keeping an eye on the kinds of people Logan used to live among. The kind of person he used to be, actually. He wasn't sure he liked this new, reformed version of himself.

Jean looked more badass than he did, now. He definitely didn't like that, and it was easier to give her a hard time than to come down on himself.

"You're supposed to be all-powerful now, right?"

"No, not even close! It's just—"

"So why don't you know who this big-shot is? Can't you just sense it or something?"

"I should be able to. The fact that I can't is part of the reason the professor is so worried about this. He also thinks—and I have to agree with him—that this person might be connected to whoever kidnapped Kurt. The ability to evade psionic detection is a rare mutant power, and it's an even rarer technology."

"In other words, this guy could be a big problem." Jean nodded. Logan looked down on the ever-growing crowd, which now numbered over 100 people. The criminals mostly wore hoods and big jackets, despite the warm weather, which made it hard to gauge what kind of mutants they could be dealing with here. They were mostly quiet; only a soft thread of whispers wove its way among the group. They all seemed controlled by their anticipation, earnestly eager to see their leader. They didn't have long to wait.

Logan saw it first, the red-cloaked figure floating down from the clouds, as if he had just teleported in. Logan nudged Jean and pointed, and as the figure descended—like he thought he was Jesus returning to Earth—the people in the crowd began to point. They fell totally silent, watching in reverence as the man landed on top of an over-turned dumpster on one side of the lot. They watched the hooded mutant reach out to the crowd.

"My friends," he said in a deep, rich voice that carried well. "It is good of you to welcome me back." With elegant, deliberate movements, he pushed back his hood.

"Holy shit."

"It's Magneto."

"And he can fly. I guess he found a way to get his powers back."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. But we're going to have to find out."

"At least we know how he was able to block my psionic powers."

"Yeah, he's still got that pretty little helmet of his."

"We should go and tell the Professor right away. He needs to know that Magneto is back and in power."

"I want to hear what he has to say first."

"Logan—"

"You go, if you want," he said, not looking at her. As a rule he didn't like saying no to Jean, but he had to see this through.

"I thought you finally understood the 'team' concept, Logan."

"I do. Stay with me, then. We need to find out what Magneto's up to, and how he got his powers back." He wondered how Marie would react when she found out. Making the decision once had been hard enough for her. On the other hand, she was so happy these days with her blasted boyfriend that she probably wouldn't even be tempted.

"You all know that our attack on the upstate military base was a success. The human forces there were rendered totally helpless and we secured a huge supply of weapons, which I am keeping in a safe location. And best of all, they have no idea the attack was carried out by mutants. Well done, my friends!" He raised his arms and the silent crowd erupted in cheers. They fell quiet again as soon as he lowered his arms.

Magneto went on for a while longer about the importance of mutant solidarity, the way humans had oppressed them for so long; the same old crap he'd spewed a year ago. Logan half tuned out until Magneto caught his attention again.

"Be off, my friends! Find all the weapons you can, and take them by any means necessary. Leave the humans defenseless! They will fall before our assault on the city council. We will make New York City a Mutant City!" They cheered louder than ever at that, so loud that Logan wondered why they had bothered with all the secrecy. "But remember—minimize the use of your powers until our day arrives. We want to take the humans by surprise, give them no idea that another mutant uprising is imminent. They think they neutered our community with their so-called 'cure.' In one week, they will learn better.

"I and many of you are proof that being a mutant is not a disease, that you cannot suppress our true natures, and that any 'cure' they come up with can only be temporary. They robbed us of our powers but our genes were stronger than their medicine. Our powers are coming back, as strong as they ever were. They cannot stop the mutants! They cannot put us down! We will rise again, greater than before, and we will make this city our own!" More cheers, and on this high note Magneto lifted his hood and crossed his arms. He floated up towards the sky on his tiny metal platform, rising higher and higher until he vanished from sight. As he went, the crowd chanted "Mutant Power!" in unison, their fists pounding the air.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Logan finally muttered to Jean. She flew them—because she could fly, now—ten blocks away to the car, and Logan drove them towards I-678.

"The attacks are beginning now. I can see them," Jean said, sounding worried.

"We'll be back soon enough."

"Too late to save some."

"Can't you do anything about it from here?"

"No, I…. Yes. I can." She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. Logan watched her closely, neglecting the road more than he probably should. Jean was mostly still but he could see her eyes moving beneath the lids, as if she were dreaming. Her skin was changing, too—it glowed a little, and seemed to be moving or crawling or something, her veins popping in and out of sight. Her hair, too, escaped from its ponytail and gyrated in the air.

Something was happening inside of her, that was clear, but he could not follow. She didn't need his help anyway.

It was several minutes before she opened her eyes and sat up. Logan watched her skin turn smooth and pale again. When she looked at him he was surprised that her irises had gone black and were slowly returning to their normal blue. She smiled at him, and Logan tried not to feel gutted. He couldn't help smiling back, but tightened his mouth as soon as he could. He never smiled.

"Catch any bad guys?"

"Yes. There were two groups of mutants that hurried off right after the gathering. One of them tried to hold up a shooting range, but I scattered them. The other—"

"You scattered them? What does that mean?"

"I literally scattered them. I flung the mutants in different directions halfway across the borough. There'll be some injuries, but they'll survive." Logan actually laughed. This new Jean was something else.

"And the other group?"

"They had picked up a stock of weapons and were on their way to attack a police station. A police station. I set the police officers inside and outside of the station, guns drawn and ready for the mutants. They captured them easily. Especially once the mutants began clumsily dropping their guns."

"I can't believe you can do that. The police didn't find it strange when you were picking them up and moving them around?"

"Oh, I didn't move them physically. I just suggested to all of them that there might be an attack coming, and they might want to be ready for it."

"Whoa." That was serious mind control. She could easily do the same to him, and he'd never even know it. Good thing he trusted her. Jean Grey was probably the only person in the world he would trust with that much power.

Then again, they'd never settled the question of whether she was still Jean Grey.

"Why don't you just find everyone who was at that rally and lock them up somewhere? Wouldn't that solve all our problems?"

"I bet I could find most of them—the ones that haven't gotten too far from the lot yet. But I don't know if Professor Xavier would like me doing that."

"Because they haven't done anything wrong yet?"

"They may not be planning to do anything at all. We were at that rally, after all. Maybe there were others there just keeping an eye on things."

"Couldn't you just read their minds and find out?"

"Maybe. But maybe there are mutants who are planning to commit a crime but won't end up doing it. How can we know? It isn't right to preemptively detain anyone. And then, the professor might also disapprove of the invasion of privacy inherent in reading someone's mind."

"How would you feel about doing it?"

"I don't think of it the same way he does. It's hard for me not to read minds. I know how you think and feel right now, and that's how it is for anyone I talk to. To me it's the same as looking at someone, or hearing them speak—is that an invasion of privacy?"

"But if you read the minds of those other mutants, you'd be doing it on purpose. Going out of your way to do it."

"I suppose. Professor Xavier sees it that way. And I need his guidance in all of this; it's all still so new to me." They drove in silence after that, though Logan couldn't help but think about how it wasn't silent for her—she heard all of his thoughts.

Knowing that was enough to send his mind in all sorts of directions, and he struggled to keep his thoughts from going to bad, sexy places. Don't think it, don't think it, don't think it.

Jean giggled. In all his life Logan had never once blushed, but he felt his face grow warm.

"Go ahead and think it, Logan. You won't offend me."

"I might offend my own ego."

"Yes. But I—I do know how you feel. It's not going to shock me." He needed to change the subject, and fast.

"Doesn't it get to be too much? Knowing everything, hearing everything? Don't you ever just want quiet?"

"But it's never quiet. Not for me, but not for anyone else either. Even before I got the Phoenix's powers, it was never perfectly quiet. There's always a car driving by or crickets chirping or children playing in the street. Your thoughts, everyone's thoughts, are the same for me. Background noise. They don't disturb."

Nothing had ever made him feel as insignificant as he did in that moment. He focused on the road, his hands tightening on the wheel.

"Logan, I'm sorry. Please don't take it that way. I just meant to explain that I'm not sitting here eavesdropping on your thoughts and judging you. You're just there, the same way I'm just here for you." But it wasn't that way for him at all.

"Is Scott just background noise to you?" The question slipped out before he could help it, but there was no point in keeping it in, anyway.

"Not exactly. It's hard for me to tune Scott out. But that's partly because he doesn't ask me to. He doesn't want me to. He's OK with my hearing him. He's not used to being the Man of Mystery like you." She smiled at him again, and Logan relaxed a little. She could always disarm him.

"I'm not mysterious."

"I can read your mind and you're still a mystery to me, Logan. I'll never know what to expect from you, although I can predict most people. And I like you that way."

He had no idea what to say to that, so he said nothing. They drove the rest of the way in companionable silence. Or companionable background noise.

Whatever.

The X-Men gathered in Professor Xavier's office while Jean filled the rest of the team in on what they'd learned. Logan was having a hard time focusing.

"Why are Marie and Gambit not here?" he finally burst out, interrupting the debriefing. Everyone turned to stare at him, and he felt like an idiot. He knew where they were. They were in room 200, like always. "Did they have more important things to do?"

"Marie and Remy went out for the evening," the Professor said in his mild, soothing voice. Scott, on the other hand, was smirking at him. "I decided they could be filled in tomorrow. The four of you can handle what needs to be done tonight."

"She's going to want to know that her powers are coming back," he muttered unhappily.

"Precisely why I want to give her this last night off. Now here is what I need from the four of you." He went on with their assignments, and Logan forced himself to listen. He wanted to head off on his own, find Marie, punch Gambit, and warn his girl of what was going to happen. But he didn't do the solo act anymore. What the professor said was law.

That's the kind of person he was now. He wondered if Jean had noticed.