Title: Escape From the Abyss

Author: Zannna aka Lizzie on roswellfanatics . net

Pairing: Liz/Logan

Rating: Mature: Language, violence, and mild smoochies.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Roswell belongs to Jason Katims et al. X-Men belongs to Marvel et al. I don't even own the idea for this fic as it is a challenge: Crossover Challenge # 16 by Jezebel Jinx on roswellfanatics . net. Any and all medical tests, words, and techniques are not guaranteed to be in any way accurate. I'm not a doctor: Do not try this at home! I do not own iPad, Apple or have any affiliation with them. Although if I ever spontaneously go back in time to the nineties, I would sell everything I owned, and buy as much Apple stock as possible! Lol But not in this lifetime.

Additional Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. ß I like this one because it thoroughly covers my ass.

AN: Timeline: As far as X-Men goes we are between the first and the second movie. When Logan shows up we will be approximately at the beginning of the second movie, but he is going to hang around for awhile before anything from the movie happens. Also, I'm having serious detail problems. I have a writing handicap, that I try really hard to avoid, but it keeps coming back. I get bogged down in the details, and the story suffers for it. I'm working on it, so please try to bear with me. I have another 3,000 words or so written that I will be posting within the next week or two, and hopefully it will be less detail and more story oriented. Cheers!

Chapter Four: Metamorphosis

The next three days I hobbled around the mansion like a lame Donkey. I felt like a lame Donkey. My aches were getting worse instead of better, and I felt like my energy was being sucked out of me.

The weird dreams kept up, and it seemed I grew more exhausted with every one that I had. It was like when I had these dreams, it was the same as being awake. I only felt rested when I didn't dream, or when I dreamed of normal things. The dreams only lasted half an hour tops when I had them, but it was hard to get back to sleep after them, and it was all adding up to make me exhausted.

The Green Lightning was still an issue, but it was happening less often and it was less painful. As long as I didn't think about him, the GL was fairly tolerable.

Ms. Monroe, or 'Storm' as everyone else called her, set me up with classes. School was interesting to say the least. 'Goofing off' took on a whole new dimension when you factored in mutant powers. The classes were good, and the teachers very knowledgeable. I took a special liking to Mr. Summers and Storm and I had a feeling we could be good friends.

Mr. Summers was always willing to talk, and to help out with school work. Storm checked in with me a couple times a day and helped me with anything I needed.

Rogue and I were getting along famously. She enjoyed having a roommate to talk with, and hang out with, and so did I. We were able to talk about things we never told anyone else, and I had an instinctual feeling that I could trust her. I didn't tell her anything abyss related, but we talked a lot about our powers. We even tried out mediating together one night.

I was determined to help her learn to control her powers. Just having someone with you to talk to, and help out makes a huge difference. I knew this because I had Grandma Claudia to help me. It wasn't the same, for one thing Rogue had complete access to me, and for another we didn't have to hide. I was hoping my experience would help Rogue move along faster in her progress.

We decided to try some physical forms of mediation as well. Rogue was sure either Storm or Mr. Summers could help us learn Ti Chi, and combining this with the mental mediation would help Rogue learn more about her body, and how it worked. I was hoping Ti Chi would be a start in conditioning my body for some Martial Arts training. I was sick of huddling defenseless while the bad guys wreaked havoc. I was going to train my body to be able to defend myself, or run if need be. Of course I would have to shake off the effects of the medical tests first.

The other students were curious about me, and I talked to many of them, and so far we all got along well enough. Well except with Pyro. He had some crazy notion in his head that since our roommates were dating, that we should date too. I tried to dissuade him from this ridiculous idea, but he was always hitting on me. And I was always shutting him down. I was nowhere near the place I needed to be to start dating again, and even if I was I wouldn't date Pyro. He was cute enough, but there was something off about him that I hadn't put my finger on yet.

I was sitting in the cafeteria at lunch on the third day, pretending to eat my food, and ignoring Pyro's blatant flirting, when I started to get really bad GL again. The cutting twisting sensation was back. Then suddenly I blacked out. I came to in the infirmary with Dr. Grey bustling about me like an angry bee. She was whispering to herself as she thought out loud. As soon as she saw that I was awake, she started shining an unholy light in my eyes and asking me questions.

"How are you feeling? How long have you been feeling ill? Why didn't you come to me sooner?" she said quickly.

"I feel like crap, it's been getting worse since the tests, and I thought you said I would hurt for a few days, and then it would go away?" I slurred.

"Yes, but not this bad!" Dr. Grey exclaimed, slightly hysterical. "It should have been getting better, not worse! How long have you had a fever?"

"I have a fever?" I asked intelligently.

"Your temperature is 106° Fahrenheit! You should be dead by now!" she cried. I had a feeling Dr. Grey wasn't usually so caught off guard. She seemed to be the put together, cool, calm, collected sort. Funny, I didn't feel lucky, or privileged to see her so out of control.

And my temp was 106? Geez, even I knew that was really bad. I was surprised that I hadn't had any febrile seizures yet, even if I was way out of the normal age range when they occur. My last though was 'IDIOT!' before I started seizing violently.

*Dr. Grey pov*

I was beyond confused at this situation. I used sterile procedure for all of the invasive tests. Nothing had happened that would indicate a risk of infection. Yet all the tests I had run since Liz was brought down from lunch indicated a severe infection, maybe even sepsis.

How had I not seen this? I saw her several times a day, I should have noticed something! She had been hobbling around, but I just figured it was normal pain after having both a Spinal Tap, and Bone Marrow Extraction. I had told her to come to me if she was having too much pain, and I thought she would.

What a fool I was! Since when have any of the children in this school voluntarily admitted to being sick, or hurt? They all saw having to come to me, or the Professor, for pain or illness as weakness. I couldn't blame them. Not after everything they have seen, and experienced. They thought this world didn't want them, and they had to remain strong to survive. Almost all of the students had severe trust issues, and I couldn't blame them. The world was a cruel place for people like us.

I had been working on analyzing Liz's tests during every free moment I could find, and thinking about them when I couldn't find time to work with the data directly. Whatever was happening to Liz was strange, and unprecedented as far as I knew. It wasn't like there was a medical journal for mutants that I could look at, and compare notes with. I had been so caught up with my research, and analyzing, that I hadn't noticed how sick Liz was.

Then she fainted during lunch, and it became all too apparent that she was severely ill. Her white blood cell count was sky high, meaning she had a severe infection. Her red cell count, and hematocrit, were high as well, and this baffled me. She had sweat rolling off her, and her temperature was rising rapidly. When she came in 20 minutes ago it was 104, distressing enough, but it just kept getting higher. On top of everything that damned Green Lighting was flashing all over her, and making muted zapping noises.

I took her blood pressure again, and it was dangerously low. I increased the flow of her IV fluids to help bring it up. I saw her eyelids begin to flutter, and the they opened. I shined a pen light in her eyes to check her pupil reaction.

"How are you feeling? How long have you been feeling ill? Why didn't you come to me sooner?" I asked breathlessly. Her heart rate was so fast it was almost tachycardic at this point.

I tried to get more information out of Liz, but she seemed clueless. Drunk and clueless, and if I didn't know for a fact that she had zero alcohol or drugs in her veins I would be worried about that too.

Liz's temperature was now 106° Fahrenheit, and I was close to panicking. I heard the door to the Infirmary whoosh open, and in rolled the Professor followed by Storm. I quickly gave the Professor all of my notes, and the test results, and as he looked them over Liz began seizing violently.

I grabbed her shoulders to hold her down. "Storm 10cc's of Ativan stat!" I cried.

Storm rushed to the crash cart, rolled it over, and grabbed the requested drug out of the top drawer. It was in pre-filled syringes, so Storm just had to open the package and inject it into Liz's IV. It took nearly 15 seconds for her to stop seizing. Her heart rate was still too high, and she was burning up.

Scott came rushing in next asking what he could do. While Storm and I continued to work on Liz I told him to get as many ice packs as he could and place them on Liz's pulse points. If her temperature didn't come down it would cause permanent brain damage, and if her heart didn't slow down she was going to have a heart attack.

I told Storm to get another bolus of saline, and I put another large bore IV into Liz. I put it in the arm opposite the one that already had an IV, and started the saline flow as fast as it could safely go. Scott had gotten the ice, and Liz had bags of it nestled around her neck, her armpits, her inner thighs, and behind her knees. I then had Scott just tuck some more in around her, and told him to replace the bags as they melted.

"Let's start her on IV Antibiotics Jean," said Professor Xavier. "The strongest we've got. And lets give her banana bags for her next boluses when the saline runs out, I think she could use the electrolytes."

"Yes, Professor," I said. I was feeling a lot better now that he was here with us. With his strength in the room with me, I was able to pull myself together, and start working the problem out.

"I wonder," Professor Xavier whispered. "Ororo, let's set her up for an EEG. I have a feeling some of this is originating in her brain."

I was pretty much out of ideas, so we set up the scan quickly. The readings were phenomenal. I had never seen anything like this. Her brain was functioning at nearly 30%, three times the norm. Neurons were firing frantically, and randomly. It's like her brain was in overload.

Her seizures continued on and off for the next several hours, and her heart rate and temperature slowly began to fall. The GL became less bright, and the sounds stopped. We administered a strong sedative to try and block some of the over activity in her brain, and gave her massive doses of potassium and electrolytes, as she was burning through them faster than her body or the rest of us could replenish them with saline or banana bags.

Her whole system was on overdrive. We just had to do our best to counter the harmful effects on her body, and wait until it stopped.

It took 9 hours for Liz to stabilize. I took turns with the Professor overseeing her care, and getting a bit of rest. Finally, about an hour after I had gotten back to the infirmary from getting a nap, food, and a shower, Liz stabilized. Her temp was 99°, her heart rate 102, and her blood pressure was back in normal parameters.

Liz woke up 90 minuets later.

(Liz pov)

It was dark where I was. It was hot, and I was dizzy. My whole being throbbed with pain. I tried to pull away from it. The pain, and the nausea. I concentrated on that place I went to when I meditated.

I found myself floating in the black expanse of my mind. I was sitting in the lotus position, with my legs crossed, and my hands on my knees. I had pulled my whole consciousness away from my body, and into this little black void. I would wait here, until I felt it was safe enough to return.

I don't remember what happened that had caused me to come here. I didn't know what was happening to me. I would wait here, and rest. Think for a while. It was nice and quite here.

What seemed like hours later, though it could have been seconds or days: I had lost all perception of time, I heard a quite voice start chanting in the distance. It was musical, and beautiful. Not English. What was it? The voice was female. Young. Around my age most likely. Soft, and lyrical. Familiar. It slowly started to get louder.

I began to recognize some of the words.

… 'Earth'…

… 'Goddess'…

… 'warrior'…

… 'three'…

...'destruction' or maybe 'the ending'…

… 'Mate'… ?

… 'Destiny'…

Oh, hell no! Lets just stop right there! I don't do 'Destiny' or 'Fate.' I left that shit behind in Roswell! And 'Mate'? Whatever! Not gonna happen!

"You hear that brain!" I shouted into the darkness. "Next channel please! No more of this cryptic 'Destiny' crap!" I continued. I put a special emphasis on 'Destiny' just to get my point across.

I blinked. Well that wasn't good. You know what they say: "You don't have to worry about talking to yourself, it's when you start answering back that you have a problem." Or something similar. What does arguing with yourself mean?

I felt myself being pulled toward something. An image in my mind. It was blurry, and too bright.

I began to smell something. It smelled like pine. Tree sap. Spices. Sandalwood. I began to hear voices, laughing. I blinked, and it was like my eyes came into focus, and I was slammed back into my body again. But this wasn't my body. A body. But it was familiar. I felt like I was in one of those weird dreams again. But more. Closer.

I was running through thick woods. I was so happy. My breath puffed out in white clouds around me, as I dodged through the trees. I knew I wouldn't get away. I never did.

All of the sudden I was tackled to the ground. We wrestled in the bracken for a minute until I was finally pinned beneath a masculine body.

I noticed that I had a rip in my jeans. "James," I called joyfully, unable to control my giggles. "We've ruined another pair of my jeans!"

"We haven't even started to ruin your jeans yet, darlin'" drawled a husky voice. There was a loud 'RIIIIP' and now it seemed my jeans really were ruined. He started to kiss me hungrily, and everything slowly started to fade out again.

I came back to myself slowly. My mouth felt cracked and dry. I had a killer headache. I felt a hard surface beneath me. I smelled alcohol and other sterile cleaners.

I heard a voice. "Liz," it said softly. "Wake up, sweetie. It's Dr. Grey."

I hhmmmd in annoyance. The lights were too bright, they hurt my head, and I was thirsty. Through my eyelids I saw the lights dim, and I felt the head of my bed go up.

"Liz," that sounded like Storm. "Open your eyes, and take a drink of this ice water."

Ice water? Yes please! With extreme effort I blinked open my eyes. Storm was there on my left holding a cup with a straw sticking out of the top. I tried to sit up, or move my arms to hold the cup, but I was just too exhausted to move much at all. All I could muster was a small pursing of my lips, a lip pucker aimed at the straw as if to close the distance.

Storm let out a light laugh, and brought the straw to my lips. I sucked, and sweet merciful heavens! That was the stuff. The ice cold water flowed down my throat, and soothed the burning and scratchy feeling.

"What happened?" I whispered softly. My throat felt like I had swallowed glass, and it hurt to talk.

"We're not sure yet," came the voice of Dr. Grey to my right. I tried to move my head so I could see her. It took way more effort that it should have. "Professor Xavier and I are working on trying to piece together what happened. Until we have more information on your condition, I'm going to have you stay here in the infirmary. I want you to rest and get your strength back okay Liz?"

I swallowed, "I don't want to be here." I whispered. There was too much pleading and weakness in my voice for my tastes.

"I know sweetie," came Storms voice from the other side of the bed. "We'll get you out of here as soon as possible."

Dr. Grey picked up an iPad, and started making notations with a stylus. "Is there anything you can think to tell me Liz? Anything different in the last couple of weeks that you failed to mention?"

I thought on that. The only thing I could come up with was the dreams. "I've been having really weird dreams," I murmured. "They're really realistic, and very tiring. I have a hard time sleeping as it is, but these dreams interfere with my rest more than they logically should."

"Hmm," said Dr. Grey. "I don't know if that helps, but I'll put a note in your file all the same." Dr. Grey scribbled some more on her iPad. I narrowed my eyes at the computer. Dr. Grey saw this and explained hurriedly. "This iPad is set aside for your records only. It's not internet capable, we don't hook it up to anything, it's not networked, and it has extensive security and fire walls as well as a self destruct program built in. No one will get the information on here, other than me and the Professor." Dr. Grey said confidently.

I nodded. My eyes began to droop. "Here, Liz," said Storm. "Have another drink, and then I'll lower the bed and you can rest."

She brought the straw back to my lips, and I took several small sips. She then lowered the bed. Dr. Grey had left the room murmuring to the iPad as she worked. I looked at Storm with scared eyes. "Will you stay with me?" I pleaded.

Storm smiled softly at me. "Of coarse, dear."

I closed my eyes, and drifted off again.