Chapter Four: Not Visiting Hours
"Alex!" Rogue's voice filtered through the Danger Room.
Her voice caught me off guard and I turned to look at the observation deck. The little boy I was sparring with took the advantage and punched me in the stomach, kicked me in the shin and ran.
I hissed, rubbing my leg. "I'm kinda busy, Rogue." I called back loudly.
She chuckled. "Hank wants ya, pronto. Says it's important!"
"Can it wait?"
"Did ya miss the part where ah said it was important?"
I sighed. "Class dismissed." I murmured, watching as the children sprang from the room.
I followed, but turned at the last hall and entered the lab. "What's up?" I asked. "Ended my class fifteen minutes early."
"My apologies." The blue mutant said, scanning a draw for a file. "I just received a call from Moira, requesting our presence at Muir Island."
I stiffened. "Is everything okay?"
"She says things are fine, but didn't go into any detail. She wanted to tell us in person and give us a few files; if we're discussing Genosha, the phone lines aren't a safe place to talk." He said, finding the file he was looking for.
"Okay...so when do you and Scott go?" I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, watching him.
"Actually, your brother's a bit busy, so it's you and me. Also, I suggest you get ready; we're leaving in half an hour."
I turned, speeding upstairs to my room. Showering, I threw on clothes, grasped my jacket and rushed back downstairs, shaking out my damp hair as I did so.
I met Hank at one of the smaller jets; he stood there, fully dressed and a bag that I guessed was full of files he had pulled.
"What's in the bag?" I asked once we were in the air.
"Lorna's files. If Moira found anything more I want to add on." He answered. "You can look if you want."
Having nothing else to do, I grasped the bag and pulled it onto my lap, unzipping it. Choosing one, I found the latest one he had written; her accident in Genosha. Almost the ends of every sentence held a dotted question mark- it meant nothing made sense.
I pulled another one, an identification file. Her description was written out, hair color, eye color, weight, height, even skin color and family relations. At the top, her photo was paper-clipped to the file.
"Why her description?" I asked.
"In case something about her changes." Hank said almost as if it were obvious.
"Like what, her hair goes pink?"
He snorted. "You can never be too prepared."
That's how we spent the trip, reading files. When we finally arrived, it was nighttime in Scotland. The white facility stood out, bright lights shining, machines moving, people talking.
"Hank, what kind of research facility is this...?" I asked as we started walking.
"A very good one." He answered.
At the doors, a small woman with short dark red hair stood there, seemingly waiting for someone.
"Doctor." Hank greeted, slowing to a stop in front of her.
"Hank!" She said, a smile erupting over her face. She gave him a large hug, one he was happy to return. When she pulled back, she looked at me. "We haven't met before." She said, extending her hand.
"No." I responded, grasping her hand tightly in a firm hand shake. "Alex Summers."
She looked from Hank to me. "Scott Summers?"
"Brother." I smiled, rubbing the back of my neck. "We get that a lot."
"Come in come in!" She waved us towards the door.
When we entered, it didn't look so much like a nuthouse as I expected it to look like. In fact, it looked like it was based off of the old version of Xavier's Mansion. Neat and old styled wallpaper coated the walls, polished wood furnishings lightening the dampened mood. Two staircases started on either side of us and twisted into opposite sides of the building.
"The staircase to my right leads into the east wing, where all of the patients' rooms are. The staircase to my left leads to the west wing, where all the offices and appointments are. The path straightforward is where the science and experiment labs and the infirmary are." She pointed as she explained each part, but led us off onto the left staircase. As we walked I tried to catch a glimpse of the east wing, but was blocked by the opposite staircase.
She led us into her office, neat and cleaned. I sat in a leather chair beside Hank.
"Is she alright?" Hank asked once he had settled. "What was so important that we had to come all the way over here?"
Moira looked at him, settled in her own seat at her desk. "Did you bring her files?"
"Yes, they're all here." He patted the bag on his lap.
"Good. Now, she's been here for the past few hundred days and she's made enormous progress. But in the copy of the file you gave me when she first got here...well, it was incorrect." Moira looked down at her desk, like something was wrong.
"Incorrect how?" Hank sat forward in his seat, truly interested.
"Well, I've broken through to Lorna Dane herself. She's well enough to walk and talk on her own. But those few other personalities you say she created...well, there aren't a few, and she didn't create them."
My eyes narrowed. "You're saying she managed to obtain the personas of other people?"
"I've actually managed to figure out what happened in Genosha." Moira pulled out her own file, opening it on the desk. "She doesn't know who sent the Sentinels, but she was with her father when they started nearing the palace. She said he was going to stop them and pushed her down a hole to prevent her from following him. When she fully woke up, she was here."
"That relates to the theory of how she got in the hatch in the first place...but it doesn't explain the voices." Hank said, rubbing his chin.
"I know. I got the samples of rock and you were right, one was more magnetized than the other. I asked Lorna about it and she said that as she was falling, she released a massive magnetic field in an attempt to protect the entire island."
Both Hank and I were silent at that. Genosha...well, Genosha was a massive landmass. I didn't even think Erik was able to do that.
"Is...is that entirely possible?" Hank asked, his voice shocked.
"Apparently. She gives off massive amounts of energy when her emotions spike negatively, like she's stressed or scared or anxious...in this case, terrified."
"Still...what does that have to do with the other voices in her head?" I asked, growing scared myself.
Moira looked at me sadly. "The dying people that were being covered by her shield...their ghosts were trapped in her mind due to her heavy concentration on the force field."
It felt like someone grabbed a brick and smacked me in the forehead with it.
"That's impossible." I said, leaning forward as well. "There were more than a million people on that island!"
"Her mind is very strong...I almost didn't believe it at first. But I started counting the ones we got rid of from day one and I can tell you it's way over a million."
My head ached for her. The entire population of Genosha, trapped in her mind.
"How many are left?" Hank asked, filling in my stunned silence.
"I'm hoping somewhere in the double digits. Maybe low forties or thirties."
Hank pulled her file across the table, looking it over. "What's this about depression?"
"According to her, her island was blown up, her father and brother and sister are missing, she shares her thinking space with very negative voices, and something about a space crash that killed her boyfriend before she went to Genosha."
My back went rigid as it suddenly dawned on me that I had last seen Lorna in the Starjammer's ship before Gabriel decided to throw me into a freaking star. She thought I was dead; nobody told her otherwise.
"Hank...?" I said, turning to look at him. "I thought you told her..."
"Uh...you see, when she returned from space, she went to live on Genosha. She cut off communications and we just happened to find you while she was there."
"You said she took a break!"
"She did...well not really, she was actually spying on her father."
I stood, needing air. "You sent her?"
"No! She went all by herself and we couldn't stop her! I didn't think anything of this sort would happen!"
"Could one of you explain what exactly is going on?" Moira asked, making me remember she was still there.
"I'm her dead boyfriend!" I said in a hushed yell.
Things get so much better, right?
Moira stared at me and then at Hank.
"We need to tell her!" I shifted uncomfortably now, eager to see her.
"No." They both said at the same time.
"What do you mean, 'no'?" I wanted to fling everything off of her desk.
"Her mind is still in a fragile state." Moira explained. "Seeing you might throw her back into an even bigger loop of confusion. I would suggest you wait until she gets everything else out of the way before revealing yourself to her."
Hank tapped the armrest of my chair, motioning for me to sit down again.
I groaned inwardly, flopping back down.
"When do you think she'll be well enough to come home?" Hank asked, tapping his fingers together thoughtfully.
"She's had amazing progress with outing the voices. When that's done, I want to do another mental screening to see where she is. If it's positive, I'll let her go within that week. If negative, then...we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get there." Moira adjusted her glasses on top of her head.
"How are her actions? Does she talk much? Have you noticed any habits?" Hank started flipping through his file bag again.
"When it comes to responding to other people, she's not all that friendly." The redhead flipped her book, seemingly of notes she took. "She's often sarcastic and rude, but does what she's told."
I couldn't help the smile that spread over my face, and cupped my hand under my nose to hide it from them.
"No habits that I've recorded; there's a gray knapsack in her room though. She hasn't touched it."
"Do you think you can get her to?" I asked. "Some of her old stuff is in there."
"Like what?"
"Her drawing pad is there; she liked to draw. A few of her parent's stuff and jewelry she always carried. Nothing big."
Moira nodded. "I'll get her nurse to persuade her somehow."
"Oh, one last thing," Hank said, sitting up. "can I see her?"
Moira pressed her lips together, thinking. "I don't know, Hank. She's sleepin' now."
"Of course. When she wakes, do you mind telling her that I stopped by?"
"No problem. Thank ya so much for seein' me, Hank." Moira stood, reaching over the desks to shake our hands.
"The pleasure is ours." He said, shaking her hand warmly.
"Nice to meet you." I said, taking her hand once again.
"Likewise."