Stumbling Along the Path

"Does it ever wake you in the middle of the night?" Erik asked, "The feeling that one day, they'll come for you? And your children?"

Xavier wheeled around, "I feel a great swell of pity for the poor soul who comes to my school looking for trouble."

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or universe. They belong to Marvel and FOX Studio.

Ororo woke up early and stepped onto the balcony off her and Kurt's room. She could see the island coming up, it would just be a matter of hours until she was back on land. She gave a silent thanks to Allah, because she had never been so sick in her life. In just a week, sea sickness had made her bed ridden.

She shut the door behind her and leaned against the rails. She also would be grateful for the break away from Magneto. She still felt very uncomfortable around him after Africa. She knew they both had been led on by Apocalypse but it was still just a reminder of her past when she saw him. How he and she had nearly toppled the entire world. It wasn't her best moment, and that was saying something as an ex-thief.

She was lucky though that Xavier had taken her in. It felt so weird and strange to her at first to have someone care about her. She appreciated it though, even if she wasn't always the best at showing it.

As they started to dock the ship, Ororo went back inside, closing the door quietly behind her as to not wake Kurt. She threw on her uniform, as asked by Magneto so that the citizens of Genosha would recognize who could help them and who could return home.

She left the room and went and tapped on Jean's door, gently.

"Pssst…." She said against the door, "You awake?"

"We're awake." Jean and Scott said unanimously, as Jean opened the door.

Jean and Scott were already in their uniforms. Jean had pulled her hair back into a pony tail, and even did her make up. Scott was lacing up the boots to his uniform whilst sitting on his bed.

"Kurt is still asleep. I did not want to wake him. " Ororo said, flopping down on Jean's nicely made bed.

"Good idea, he was up late last night chatting with some people, it was running through his head all night. So loud. He's happy about it, which is great, just too loud." Jean said, rubbing her temples.

"What did you all do last night?" Ororo asked, winking at Scott.

"We went over the plans for today." Scott said, shutting Ororo's assumption down.

"That sounds terribly boring." Ororo laughed, sitting up on the bed to look at Scott.

"Well I haven't gotten much sleep on the boat, so I wanted to make sure I know the protocols like the back of my hand. That way I don't panic and make things worse." Jean sighed, putting on her boots as she heard the horn of the boat to signal their arrival.

"Looks like it's time to wake Kurt." Scott said getting up.

As Scott was headed out the door, Kurt bamfed into the room, while struggling and hopping around trying to get his left boot on.

"I am not late, no?" Kurt said, with a half smile.

"No, thankfully. It's gonna be a busy day. Ororo you will be taking Kurt and looking for the mutants on the East side of the Island who were kidnapped and are going to be coming back with us. Kurt can teleport them to the dock. Jean and I will be taking the West side and Jean will be leading groups of ten back to the dock as we go. Sound good? Tomorrow will be a bit more at ease but it's going to be a busy day. Lots of mutants here don't speak English, so try to comfort them to the best of your ability while we try to sort things out. Everyone here is a bit on edge still since their liberation." Scott said, handing their communicators to everyone.

"Sounds good." Ororo said, taking hers and pinning it above her breast.

"Let's head out. That way we don't have to fight the flow of the other 2,000 sum people who will be trying to get off as well." Jean suggested, pinning her communicator as well.

"Also a good idea." Scott said, as he grabbed a backpack filled with supplies and they began to head out.

As they stepped out of the room they were greeted by Peter. He was in his uniform as well and adjusting his goggles.

"Dadneto said for us to stay put. He is going to let us go down in just a moment, he's trying to organize everyone so there's less chaos when we step off here." Peter said as he started to lean against the wall.

Everyone stood around really awkwardly. They felt a bit out of place in their uniforms, like soldiers but they didn't really have a clue what they were doing. Debriefing only made them know what they had to do, but they looked at each other feeling quite small in the midst of it all.

Scott had the urge to take Jean's hand in his, but didn't want to let his façade fall. He was afraid that if people didn't see him as a leader, they wouldn't listen to him, and it would ultimately be his failure and someone would get hurt. So he stood there, glancing at her slender hands.

Jean tried to hide her smirk as she could almost hear Scott's thoughts. She pushed her bangs out of her face and was just about to say something when she sensed Magneto approaching, his thoughts were loud and authoritative.

"We are ready. There is still a lot of confusion, Jean, how far can your telepathy reach?" Magneto asked, turning towards a timid Jean.

"Um… I don't know. I've never tried like Xavier. I don't know…" She stammered.

"I need you to reach all the inhabitants of the island and let them know what you all are doing here; this way it may be easier to find the ones going back to their homes versus those who are staying here in Genosha." He stated.

"I've never tried but I guess I can give it a go." Jean shrugged as Magneto put his arm around her and led her with him, motioning for the rest to follow.

Scott was nervous about this, he remembered the last time someone had told Jean to push her limits. It was frightening and amazing all in one, but it took a toll on her. It took her a month before she wasn't burning things she touched, it was as if she had taken apart the things she touched atom by atom. She had screamed every night for weeks. She was just starting to do better, he was afraid it would revert back to stage one if she pushed herself too hard again.

He looked over to Ororo and Kurt hoping maybe one of them would speak up about it, but they seemed to look oblivious, lost in their own trains of thought.

Ororo noticed Scott looking at her with his eyebrows raised, she pursed her lips and raised her eyebrows back, confused on what he was trying to signal.

They followed Magneto through the crowd and down to the last floor of the boat, after a quick scan by a mutant with special vision for security, they were led off the boat.

They looked around at the huge crowd in front of them past the docks, flooding the streets, all cheering and jumping around, but the second that Magneto raised his hand, silence fell upon them.

"I would like you to tell them all that those who wish to stay may return to their homes. Those who wish to go back to where they were taken from, need to stay up here along the coast and by the dock. We will gather their information and try to get them back to where they need to go." Magneto said, bending down a bit to be on Jean's level.

"I can try…" Jean said, taking a deep breath.

Jean closed her eyes and furrowed her brows. She thought to Xavier and put her fingers on her temple and concentrated on the thousands of people she could see, she could hear all their thoughts, there was so much fear, so much anger, she could see the island through the eyes of all the people. All at once.

"What are they doing?"

"I want to go home, mommy."

"Who are these people?"

"Seriously… more mutants?"

The thoughts began to overwhelm her. She found herself grasping her head tightly in her hands, her head throbbing. She pulled her hair out of her face and tried to find her words.

"Citizens of Genosha…" She thought as loud as she could, she opened her eyes and could sense a response, She saw Scott, Ororo and Kurt grab their heads as they heard her voice booming.

She turned around to say something to them but noticed her hand felt like it was burning.

"Oh no… not again." She thought, which echoed to the mutants.

"Jean, you gotta tone it down a bit." Peter yelled, squeezing the sides of his head hoping for it to help.

"What is she doing?"

"Who is she?"

"She can't even control her own powers."

The voices continued to flood Jean's thoughts.

"We're here to help!" She tried again, feeling faint as the voices continued to boom inside her head with an echo.

"You shouldn't have tried this…" Scott thought.

Jean looked and turned to Scott, her eyes wide and terrified.

"I can't do this. I can't. Too many voices. They're all scared. I'm making them more scared. I can't… I just can't…" She started to cry, but it only caused more problems.

As she dropped to her knees, She started to catch fire like a meteor… like in Africa. She started to rise up into the air, still clutching her head and panicking.

"Jean!" Scott shouted.

"Make it stop. Please stop the voices. I can't hear myself think. I can't focus." She thought, this time quieter, like she was shouting from inside a tunnel.

"Jean." Magneto said, as he floated up towards her and went to touch her. His hand began to burn and he pulled back.

"You are fine. You are in control." He said.

She looked up at him, her eyes no longer the emerald green but now replaced with embers.

"I am in control." A voice said, sounding not like her own.

"I am in control…" She said, her voice softer, her eyes began to roll back in her head a bit, everything got very dark and then she was out.

She started to fall back down to the ground, Scott rushing to grab her so she wouldn't hurt herself in the fall. He managed to catch her. Her skin felt cold to the touch, as if she hadn't just busted into flames twenty feet above them. He looked around. People were confused and scared. Magneto floated back down and made a motion for Scott to take Jean back to the ship for now.

"I knew I should have said something…" Scott murmured as he carried Jean back on board.

He dropped her off in the infirmary. He held her hand for a moment, before one of the mutants working in the infirmary ushered him out to leave and go back.

As he approached back out, he noticed Peter was gone, he looked over to Magneto.

"I should have known better. After what happened in Africa… she is so powerful. Xavier doesn't realize how much potential she has. She is stronger than us both. Yet he feels the need to cage the bird… I am sorry for what happened to her. Don't think otherwise. I just feel she would not have these bursts if he was teaching her to control it, rather than suppress it… "

"I sent Pietro to tell people about things. It may take a bit longer, but not much longer. Then you all may go and find the people you are taking with you. Again, Scott, I am sorry. I see how you look at her. I know you care deeply for her." Magneto said, sighing heavily, and patting Scott on the shoulder before turning and walking away towards the crowd to talk to people, and head to his sanctuary.

Soon Peter returned, he avoided making eye contact with the rest of the group.

"So… that was… uh…" He wanted to break the tension but everyone was on edge.

"Will Jean be alright?" Ororo asked, turning to Scott.

"Yeah… they're just gonna keep her in infirmary til she wakes up." He said, looking down at the ground.

He could only imagine what would happen if she woke up like she was before… and that voice… it was her voice, but definitely not the same. He looked at his team, and back out to the crowd. He could understand how it overwhelmed her. He felt overwhelmed just looking at them, he couldn't imagine what it was like to hear all their thoughts all at once.

"But we still have our orders. Kurt, Ororo, you guys take the East. Peter, you can come with me on the West. Anyone who wishes to come with us, just lead them to the dock and we can do the rest of it once we sort through people. Maybe by then, Jean will be up again and can join us." Scott said.

"How about I go with the blue guy, and she can go with you?" Peter said, switching places with Storm and putting his arm around Kurt.

"Fine. Just stick to Protocol. Find out names, country of origin, etc." Scott sighed as he started to walk down the board walk.

He looked back to the boat, then back to the crowd. They sure had their work cut out for them today…