"What are you doing here – following me."
The air was full of testosterone, his, and oestrogen, her. Kent was keenly aware of these things especially at this point in his life. He smelled Scott Summers on her clothes.
"I don't know." Jean said. Looking confused, Kent read her micro expressions, there was something unspoken going on in her own subconscious. It shocked him, a eureka moment, a cascade of previously unconnected thoughts, memories and emotions fell into place, a compelling narrative – a story, one he could imagine splashed across the front page of a Newspaper.
Had this been why he'd been avoiding the new intake? To wrapped up in his sense of difference had Kent been blind to the similarities?
What was the Professor's purpose behind his method? What was he doing, what had he done?
Feeling confused was something he loathed, not having a sense of who he was and where he was betrayed the memory of Uncle James. He had to exist in the present, conscious of the now.
He frowned angry. Kent wasn't sure how Jean Grey had found him. He hadn't been trying to be seen – and for Kent Logan to be seen, he had to want it.
Kent found he could disappear at will, it wasn't sorcery, he didn't whisper a mystical word and become invisible, but it was a kind of magic, at least related to the stage kind. Building on the skills he had learned with Uncle 'Jimmy' Logan as they had crossed the North American Continent, Kent had honed his already incredible super senses; he listened, watched, and waited. He had long ago come to understand, even way back as Reilly Kent, that he not only moved more quickly than other people but he thought more quickly too. It wasn't just his native speed that made him so different, but the range of information his senses processed at that speed.
What he perceived was above and beyond human normal. He saw things other people couldn't – the invisible spectrum wasn't, it was visible to him, and recently he had begun to see the background hum of modern communications – radio waves. While the world around him moved slowly, he was assimilating all these extra physical sensory inputs at a speed congruent with his evolving physiology. Human thought processes occurred over seconds, humans experienced their sensory world second by second. His moments were measured in milliseconds; it allowed him to act in a controlled way at ever increasing speeds, while processing all the data his super-senses accumulated, millisecond by millisecond. With practise he was getting better at it too.
When the world around you is made of paper and cardboard it helps that everything moves at a snail's pace, and slipping between the cracks of human perception had become second nature to Kent. A little step to the left, a shift in position, take advantage of the blind-spot, find the natural cover afforded by the landscape, the vegetation, the hustle and bustle of the urban jungle, wherever and whenever, Kent could disappear. It was a trick, a magician's sleight of hand, and it usually worked.
Not today, not in the Mansion's grounds, which usually made the business of being alone easy, with their many shaded paths and concealed gardens, hidden corners designed to surprise; but Jean Grey had found him.
Kent didn't say it. It wasn't his place; Grey was more than a telekinetic.
"What is it with you?" She asked. "I know Hank's story, and C.W.'s, I've even talked to Miss Darkholme, about how she got here. I know the Professor chose his mother's maiden name over his fathers..." Jean Grey stopped talking. Her brow narrowed as she focused her thoughts. "That's it isn't it. I can tell. I can see it in your face. It's Luthor Corp, the Professor's father; it's all connected somehow."
"Do you think my story is any happier than any of yours?" Kent asked.
"You can't have destroyed your school like Scott?" Jean said. Kent had heard how summers optic blasts had nearly levelled his home-town High when his powers had kicked in.
"Did your parents disown you like Bobby's?" Jean persisted.
"My dad was murdered, and I can't see my mom because if I were to contact her then the Professor's Father would be able to locate me."
"And that would be bad because?"
"He'd stop at nothing to get hold of me."
"Nothing?" Jean asked, but filling in the blanks any way she said. "You mean he'd hurt people around you to get to you."
"Just like he did to my dad" Kent answered.
"Okay that's grim." Jean tossed her auburn hair backwards into the light; it shone red, each fibre glowing like a fiery string vibrating in the brilliance. Behind her the sun was filtered through the tree canopy, diffusing across the ornamental flowering shrubs below them, plants that lined the winding path. In close chloroplasts were excited by the vital energy, insects teemed in incredible numbers in each square foot of ground space. Life happened.
"Life happens. People die." Kent said.
"That's it?" Jean asked. "Don't you want to make the world a better place?"
Kent was lost for words, a long time and thoughts didn't form, it was like he was walking along following a path of thought, and then a stumble, a misstep, a miss-thought, he was trying to regain his balance, but it wasn't happening."
"Of course" He said.
Jonathan Kent had said as much. "When the time is right son you must use your incredible strength to help humanity."
Jean was still talking, seconds were passing. "That's why the Professor founded our school, if we can show the rest of the world the good we can do..."
"They'll accept us?" Kent asked, and before he could stop himself, he found the words tripping off his tongue, it was a slow motion car wreck of conversation already, and he'd only made it worse. "But what about the monsters Jean?" He asked. He spoke slowly, he always did, that's how he'd learned to talk, and to take time over the words, second by second so he'd be understood, so he'd fit in, so he'd be one of them. With so much time he should have stopped himself, taken control.
"Monsters?" Grey looked shocked. "Who are you calling a monster?" Her eyes widened in misplaced anger, blood pressure raised, pulse quickened skin flushed. "Me, Bobby, Angel, Hank?" She jabbed him, it hurt her finger to do so, she winced with the pain. "You!" She shouted deflecting her pain, and vocalising her anger. "Are you a monster Kent?"
Kent felt the pain wash through is head as if a damn had burst. He saw James Logan's bone claws bursting from his fists, followed by images of mud coloured monsters clothed in white born horns pounding, hurting, shaking the very world. Images that threatened to overwhelm him. His eyes both glowed red misted white as tears were turned to steam by localised heat. With one hand he covered his alien face and extended his other slowly, so slowly – or so he imagined. He didn't touch Jean, he didn't have to, the concussive blast of his hand moving through the air at super human speed created a wind strong enough to knock the young woman off her feet and propel Grey into the bushes across the other side of the path. At the same time Kent kicked down hard, the ground shook, the compacted gravel beneath his boots exploded outwards, raining down like hail on the garden shrubs and trees. In that second leaves were torn away along with smaller branches. Kent disappeared upwards in a gravity defying leap, all around the grounds the foliage vibrated with the sound of his agonised cry.
"What happened Professor?" Jean asked as she awoke. Looking around she saw the concerned faces of her fellow students. She lay in the mansions day room which had been arranged in a more homely fashion that the formal reception rooms, but like them it ran off the main hall which was central space in the main voice which extended into the roof space. She had no memory of her journey from the gardens to here, but the most direct route would have been through the main door and entrance hall.
"Where is Kent?" She asked.
"We don't know." Scott answered without any regret in his voice. Jean saw he was glad Kent was gone, angry that anyone would think otherwise.
'Jean,' Xavier spoke directly into her mind. 'Please, don't be alarmed, there is something I must tell you, things I must explain. Please would you mind resting your eyes for a moment, while we share our thoughts, so I can decipher what happened to you.'
Jean understood the Professor's request because it was more than words given shape in her mind, they were like an icing on cake of an idea, the concept was richer, deeper and more layered. In simple terms she was to play possum, to act out a role while they spoke without speaking.
'Professor?' She spoke into the self-imposed darkness, taking a chance, making an informed guess.
'I can hear you Jean' Colours began swirl behind her closed eye-lids.
'Since when have I been telepathic?' Colours that began to take shape and form.
'You were always telepathic.' Xavier responded, and Jean was seeing herself moving across the landscape of her own memories hand in hand with the professor in what was a waking dream. It was like watching a television set, the images were inserted into the normal background of her the real world but displaying something else. Watching her conversation with Kent, and the moment he disappeared.
'It was necessary to divert your energies into telekinesis to prevent you from suffering a mental overload.'
Jean realised what Xavier meant. He had suppressed her telepathic gift – saying it was for her own good.
She felt both puzzled and indignant.
'Where are we?' Jean asked pushing through the emotional clouds.
'We're inside your head, your memories.' The Professor answered as they came to rest on top of a great castle like tower. 'This is your mind-scape. Your memories laid out as terrain.'
'You're doing this?'
'I am influencing your imagination.'
'So my memories are mapped out, like a landscape?'
'It is a common archetype, one I use rather than create.'
'And this tower?'
'Represents your consciousness, your sense of self. Another Archetype.'
'A safe place, but from what Professor. Why would I need this.' She realised how tall the construct was, how far away the distant hills and valleys seemed, how small it all was.
'Yes Jean, there are memories that could hurt you.'
As if prompted by this statement, Jean's attention fixed on a dark forest on the distant horizon, it seemed to change shape spilling over the fields, getting closer, bigger, more oppressive, growing changing like time speeded up the trees seeding, sprouting, spreading, the dark forest expanding.
'Jean! Come back'
Jean skipped onwards down a familiar path, lost into a waking dream. She carried a basket, and wore a red hooded cloak borrowed from a fairy-tale; she was a little girl again. Jean felt herself drawn into the trees, and into the shadows.
She was with Kent as they looked at other in the shaded woodland path of the Mansions Grounds, and he was smiling in a wolfish way, she was talking, telling him things about herself, about the time in the living room at home with her Parents, showing them how she could levitate a pencil, how she could make the pencil dance in the air with the power of her mind. Then in the trees behind Kent, behind her he saw the dark shadows move with a life of their own, Kent growled something, Kent bared his teeth. She saw her parent's faces, she saw their fear, their loathing of what she was."
'Jean'
"Jean" Raven Darkholme said, her hand brushing her hair, tender, concerned. "Are you okay?"
Jean pulled herself upright; she saw that her Classmates had left the day-room. She knew Hank had taken them away; she had memories of both her outward and inward experience. Jean realised she hadn't been faking sleep, she had been hypnotised by Xavier into some kind of heightened unconsciousness.
Jean knew who to blame, and at once she stared at the Professor she said.
"I understand now – what you did to me."
"Jean, what do you mean?" Raven asked, her hair was auburn right now, mirroring Jeans natural colour exactly, a message of solidarity.
"You should take this slowly." Darkholme added, taking her hand, sitting next to her.
Grey took to her feet. "I'm fine." She said releasing herself from Raven's touch and at the same time firmly placing her feet on the polished wooden floor. To her left a tea cup rattled in its saucer on the side table. Her telekinesis solidified her stance, and rippled of force bled from her. She had practised this, standing still and firm.
Xavier would understand, even if Raven didn't. The time had come to make a stand.
"I think I understand what Kent was talking about, about the monsters." Jean explained. "They're inside of us – all of us, human and mutant alike. They are dark thoughts, dark emotions, anger, hate, all those things, inside our minds they have shape and form. If we let them, we can become them. Become someone like your father."
"Monsters from the Id" The Professor nodded. "It's dangerous enough when human beings embrace their dark desires, re-imagine their dark memories as darker still, feed them and become them; but for those with special abilities the dangers are greater still. Some of us can make those monsters real."
"What about Kent?" Grey asked. "You suppressed dark memories for him, just as you did for me." She turned to Raven Darkhome. "You see Miss, my parent's thoughts – I read their minds when I told them what I was, when I came out as a Mutant – and they didn't like it, they didn't like me."
"I know Jean." Raven replied. "They were afraid of you; I know I've been there."
"But I didn't just guess at their reaction." Jean replied.
"We understand." Xavier stated. "Your experience of their rejection, you saw it telepathically – every thought and emotion was laid bare for you. Nothing was hidden."
"I... I... hurt them." Jean gasped.
"Jean they're okay now." Raven told her. "The Professor fixed your parents minds. You must realise none of this is your fault, your anguish at their rejection; well it created a kind of psychic backlash. You had no idea that such a thing could happen, never mind how to control your power."
"I didn't remember." Jean shook her head.
"Because you didn't want too" Xavier responded. "There are still mental blocks in place Jean. Some are yours. Some are mine." He lent forward in his chair. "I promise you Jean, in time you will grow to understand and accept both your memories – and your telepathic abilities."
"With our help" Raven added. "It's why the school is here."
Jean frowned. "This is a big deal." She shook her head, feeling anger and confusion. "Professor you're inside my head, arranging my memories, playing with my powers – and with Kent?
"Did you do this to him too?" Jean asked, adding. "What about the rest of us, Hank? C.W? Bobby? Scott?"
Xavier sighed he placed his hand to his temple and stroked his brow.
He seemed to think for a moment, and then he committed to a reply.
"With Kent - Yes and no, the truth is Jean I repaired a mental barrier that was already in place, one that had been created to protect him. The barrier was not my doing. Not in his case."
"If not by you – who then"
"Kent's father"
"The man who was murdered?"
"No. It was Kent's natural, not adoptive father." The Professor answered. "Although he too died"
"Jean." Raven interrupted casting a glance in the direction of Xavier that looked like a warning, perhaps even a rebuke.
Jean read it to mean Darkholme thought Xavier was sharing too much information.
"You're a smart kid, but you are still a child." Raven told her. "You can frown at us all you like, and act offended because someone has been poking in your head. Well hell yeah, that's fair enough, but the thing is the Professor acted in your best interest, and Kent's too."
"Says you" Grey snapped back.
"He has a complicated past, to say the least." Raven replied her voice calm. Jean stepped back from her anger; remembering her parents, the possible consequences, and listened.
"Like you – and me, in time Kent will learn how to deal with all that has happened to him, and those he loved, but for now – this is why this schools exist, to help people like us."
"Mutants"
"Yes Mutants." Raven agreed. "Help us deal with being different. The Professor and I learned the hard way, and we're just trying to pass on that experience, the things we learned, so that all of you can have a better experience, a better life."
"I get it Miss Darkholme." Jean answered. "But messing around in my head, it's like messing with my room without asking, and I thought mom reading my diary was an invasion of my privacy."
'I asked your permission Jean.' The Professor told her. She remembered coming to the School now, how empty she felt, shut down, almost comatose herself, she felt the guilt gnawing at her, the image of her parents fallen over in their chairs, saliva dripping from gaping mouths, empty shark eyes staring into nothingness." 'You begged me to do this.' The Professor explained.
Tears flowed from her eyes as Jean remembered the sense of relief when Xavier had lifted her grief and welcomed her into the school.
For a long moment no one said anything at all. Jean collected her thoughts. "Okay I understand that now." She admitted, forcing back the tears. "But what happened to Kent – where did he go?" Jean asked.
Raven looked at Xavier. Jean guessed an unspoken exchange was going on. She waited, for the Professor to answer.
"I believe, based on what you told me, that there has been a breach in the mental barrier placed in his consciousness by his biological parents."
"The one that was fractured when his adoptive father was murdered?" Jean asked.
The Professor nodded. "I repaired this when Kent first came to the school seeking a solution for his nightmares, over several months of work I managed to stem that breach, the psychic repair I made must have..." Xavier paused as he picked his words,.. "failed"
"But..." Jean almost said how did that happen, yet as she articulated the question a realisation came to her consciousness, whelming up from her subconscious mind.
She looked at her teachers.
"It was me, wasn't it?" Jean asked.
Raven sighed reluctant to agree.
Xavier said. "Yes, but Jean it was of course not in any way your fault.
"If anything it was mine, for not anticipating this, but your latent telepathic powers were triggered by your concern for his wellbeing, and probably a good deal of adolescent curiosity and err other things, which in turn sparked a reaction in him." Xavier replied.
"Oh God" Jean gasped. Falling back down onto the couch "I screwed it all up." She hugged herself. "I just wanted us to be friends, I mean all of us, Scott, Kent, everybody."
Raven sat down beside her, and placed an arm around her. Their Auburn hair met in tussle of emotions.
"We'll fix this." Raven replied. "It's what we do?"
"How?" Jean asked. Turning to Xavier "What if your father learns where he is and gets to Kent first?"
"It's too soon." Xavier said his eyes looked out of focus, as if his mind was elsewhere. "Much sooner than I hoped" He added. His face wrinkled with a frown of determination. "But necessity is the mother of invention." The Professor stated, then both thinking telepathically and speaking the words as the Professor placed his fingers to his temple Xavier said.
"My X-Men to me"