Hello again, everyone, thank you very much for the kind words in your reviews, I am very glad you enjoyed the first little chapter, this is the second part of this story. All the things I hoped for the x-men saga to be and some I hope i will see in the future films from now on. Some themes might be disturbing so you have been warned.
Without further ado...
Enjoy...
Part Two - Revelation
Logan was in his study. It had been a few days since his return, he had hoped with each day, things would get smoother but they were only getting more complicated.
He was happy, that was for sure, but he was also certainly confused. Everyone was alive, the same yet so different and he knew he was making everyone feel awkward but he couldn't help it.
Storm was obviously in a relationship with him, which he didn't mind, he actually liked it. He was happy things had evolved in a better way. He was happy the whole world wasn't a post-apocalyptic crap with everyone enslaved. He was happy so many people were alive. What he didn't like was the whole confusion.
Charles had tried to show him so many things regarding him for starters, his and Rogue's arrival at the Institute was more or less the same as he knew it to be. Liberty Island with some different details like Jean controlling with her powers more efficiently. Alkali lake and Stryker creating chaos, the onslaught of the cure and his own journeys to find answers. Everything seemed unreal although it was strangely familiar with what he had experienced. Yet, there were so many questions, so many things he needed to see again to fully believe them.
He enjoyed his cigar with a sense of satisfaction. He had made it, he was still worried and confused, felt like a beast in a cage again. But at least, she, the professor and Scott were alive, the school functioned, Ororo was alive, Rogue was fine, everyone was more or less happy. That was the reason he tried back then, that was the reason he suffered through everything once again. And he was rewarded, Charles hadn't fallen in the same traps with his methods, Jean was there and happily alive, the mother of a child.
That was another hard-to-swallow part.
He recalled some of the things Charles had shown him. It had been a week and they were still at the first ten years, Charles wished to be very careful with all the projection but Logan allowed him to take his time. Magneto had done all the wrong choices as far as Logan was informed but he didn't expect better things from Lennsher.
Some things are fated to happen, Logan decided and glanced at the back of his hand. The claws, the experiments, the flash of a younger Jean helping him find his name came as a flash in his mind. He wasn't sure that was part of his memories or the ones Charles had shown him. Time is a very funny thing and when you have messed with it so badly, you can't ask for every detail explained after a point.
He took the beer he had brought with him. He wasn't supposed to be drinking alcohol nor smoke in school grounds, this reality or the other, but sod them, he had saved them all, he would do whatever he liked.
There was a knock on the door, he glanced at it, he knew who it was, sensed the presence, sniffed her familiar yet slightly different smell. He sighed and hit the cigar in the astray. He wouldn't have a lecture on stupid things, not from her, he decided upon answering, unable to face her disapproving eyes.
"Come in," he finally answered and the door opened to reveal a smiling Jean getting inside and closing the door behind her, dressed in a plain black blouse and jeans, her red mane free on her back.
"Hey Jean," he could only offer. When he had decided to go back in time, he hadn't thought what would happen if he actually made it. He had acted upon desperation, of what he had done to her, of what the world had become. Now that success had happened, he preferred to eat his cigar rather than smoke it before the woman he did all this for.
'I spoke with Charles,' Jean stated simply as she sat before Logan's desk. The room was minimal, what all the teachers had, he was the history teacher and the Danger Room coordinator for the team. He had no exams to correct as he had loaded Jean with all the homework for the past week, mostly he had been hiding in the office so he wouldn't smoke before the children or randomly in the mansion.
'Aha,' he decided to give again and he knew he was becoming pathetic. For a moment, he feared the rest of her words, was she angry for killing her back then? For him it was the past, for her it never happened but she would be right to be angry. He was capable of killing her. The feeling had sunk deep down a long time ago but the guilt resurfaced like a tidal wave.
'I don't know how to thank you, I'm alive and not Charles' or Scott's murderer thanks to you, let alone a mass murderer for that matter.' Jean kept up with the one sided conversation and Logan sighed. He preferred people to be enigmatic so he could shut them down with rudeness. Her honesty always made him uncomfortable until he opened up and became vulnerable before her.
'No need to thank me, Jean. The professor and Magneto did all the wrong choices with you and I ended the suffering the only way I knew how….' Logan finally spoke the truth, the plain truth. 'By killing you,' he added bitterly and Jean gave a small sigh.
'That's why I am here.' Jean ventured and Logan looked up at her eyes. 'I am here to show you; you didn't do just that.' Jean remarked and Logan kept looking at her. 'I am here to show you what I know to be real, from the years before your arrival at the mansion, from our actual meeting in the Alkali Lake up to the moment you woke up a few days ago back here. I am here to show you it was all worth it.' Jean elaborated and smiled at him with that sweet smile of hers. 'That is, if you allow me to, of course,' Jean concluded and he chuckled.
'Like I could ever resist you,' Logan was honest with her and she appreciated that.
'Charles told me you're still somewhere in the 80's so, I won't tire you with stupid parts, just the proof you didn't get through hell for no reason.' Jean explained and Logan looked at her and nodded, pointing his beer at her.
'Seeing you alive and happy is all the reason in the world for me.' Logan remained brutally honest and Jean smiled again, gratitude this time coloring her features. He stood up, moved to the couch he had across the desk and collapsed on it. He knew how telepaths liked to work, the victim had to be relaxed physically for what it was coming to them mentally. Jean took the hint, having found herself many times in the position Logan was now when she trained with Charles. She stood up, used her powers to levitate the chair she had sat on and moved it closer to the couch Logan was. She placed the chair on the floor and sat down so her hands could reach on the sides of his head. Right before she could start, he touched one of her hands close to his head with his and glanced up at her.
'Show me happy things too, for the contrast with what I remember,' Logan suggested and Jean smiled and nodded as he left her hand and took a deep breath, getting ready for her presence in her mind.
'Don't worry, I am not sloppy as you remember me in the astral,' she sent him telepathically and he smirked as she opened his mind carefully for him to receive.
Two little girls were playing in a park, one redhead, the other blond, playing with a volleyball and laughing. Their ball was thrown away and across the road and Annie, the little blond one ran to catch it. The car coming with speed didn't have time to hit the brakes. The girl was hit with a terrifying thud, blood was everywhere. Little Jean started screaming as people gathered. The redhead ran close to her friend in tears, the girl on the pavement was spasming through her last breaths. Jean held her friend in her arms, silent in her terror until her powers manifested, she screamed and screamed as she felt her friend's death, all the pain and the fear of the unknown. Little Jean fainted with her friend in her arms, her powers almost making her brain snap.
'She was like a sister to me,' Jean whispered and Logan nodded.
The memory was changing without Logan having coped with what he had seen. 'I can show happier things,' Jean's voice was heard in his mind and he turned around and saw the two of them were among the people around the girls. She was calm, considering what she was showing him. 'Show me what you got,' Logan answered and Jean nodded and closed her eyes.
'Welcome back, Jean. I am Charles Xavier.' A young Charles was leaning over a hospital bed where Jean was laying with countless cables and tubes connected with her body. 'It's been quite a while since you lost consciousness.' He added softly and Jean turned around to see her parents. 'Everything will be fine, my dear, I promise.' Her mother offered with a smile and tears in her eyes to see her daughter awake after so many months from the accident and the coma that followed.
'I saw…I saw the end of the world, I could feel… all this death' Another bed, this time in the mansion and her room shaken and slightly burned from her powers. An older Jean was panting on her bed in tears.
'It was, it was just a dream, Jean,' Charles tried to offer after the assault she had projected by accident on him.
'No…it felt real,' she said in desperation, the girl was trying to contain herself.
'I know…' Charles tried 'Your mind is the most powerful I've ever seen. It can convince itself –'
'No, no it's- it's not just the mind reading or the telekinesis, it's something else. Some dark power inside and it's growing… Like fire…. Like…' Jean whimpered. 'I thought I was getting better….'
'You are… You will…. You just have to be patient.' Charles tried calmly but Jean stopped him again.
'No! no, you don't know what it's like to be afraid to shut your eyes…To be trapped inside your own head!' Jean blamed him but Charles remained calm and only gave a sad chuckle.
'Oh I think I do… It wasn't long ago when I was hearing all their voices too, all their suffering… all their pain… their secrets.' Charles looked deep into her eyes in the semi darkness of her room.
'I am afraid one day I will hurt someone…' she stuttered in fear and Charles looked at her for a long moment. Both Jean and Logan knew very well why as they watched her memory unfold.
'Lay back,' Charles said after that moment and young Jean obeyed as he dragged his body to her bed so he could be closer to her. 'Everyone fears what they don't understand.' He touched her brow with affection. 'You will learn to control your powers and when you do, you have nothing to fear.' Charles reassured her before the memory could change again.
They were in the Alkali Lake base again, the two of them for the first time, only at this occasion, Jean was younger, and he was more lost than ever. She helped him take off the wretched device that pierced through his body, the helmet that drove him crazy with pain. She raised her hands on the sides of his head and searched his newly exploited mind, searching for something, anything, to help him. She found it. His name.
Logan
'Thank you for that,' Logan sent as they remained for a moment more to be looking at the scene before them with the three young mutants right before Logan could run outside that door into the snow.
'No problem,' Jean replied with a smile.
There was chaos around them, Apocalypse was approaching Charles who was comatose. Magneto postponed him for awhile by attacking him, most of the young X-Men were on the floor. Scott and Hank tried to help Magneto, Apocalypse fought harder against them as he tried to exterminate Charles within his head at the same time.
Logan could feel everyone's feelings and see in and out of Charles' head, thanks to Jean's powers of projection.
'Jean, help, me,' Charles whispered in desperation. The physical attack went on while Charles begged for help from within his mind.
'Jean! Help me!' he called again as young Jean tried to overcome her terror. Getting inside his mind, joining a battle like this…
'You are alone and I am not…'
Jean found her mentor, stood before the monster Apocalypse was.
'Let go,' Charles said. 'No fear,' Jean moved towards Apocalypse, both mentally and physically, maybe she was moving towards her death, maybe she was reaching her full potential. 'Unleash your power!' Charles screamed. 'Let go, Jean!'
'JEAN, LET GO!' Her attack was absolute. The force she unleased from her mind and body was astonishing. She destroyed him out of Charles head and physically everyone found the chance. Jean was engulfed in magnificent fire, a firebird forming around her with its winds spread where her opened arms were.
'It was the most liberating moment,' Jean observed with a smile on her face as she watched her younger self.
'All is revealed…' Apocalypse uttered before he could be annihilated as Jean was the last thing he saw.
'Wow,' Logan only commented as her powers were the same with his reality.
The memory changed once more and Jean and Scott along the rest were standing before tombstones.
Jean was holding Scott's hand as he remained by his brother's empty tomb.
'My team name will be Phoenix.' She finally announced to Scott.
'Mine will be Cyclops.' Scott said and looked at her behind his visor.
'I think they both suck.' Jean added before they could chuckle as they moved away from the stones.
'Lets go help them rebuild everything.' Scott offered and Jean nodded but not before he could stop her and steal a small kiss from her.
'Ouch,' Logan said dryly and Jean shook her head, smiling.
'You are a big guy, you can take some sugary memories. You asked for the good stuff too.' Jean commented and he shrugged as the memory dissolved from before their astral eyes.
'Charles, I told you I can't!' Jean screamed as she raised herself from the floor of the danger room.
'Yes you can! You did with Apocalypse, you can do it again and again.' Charles demanded back and gathered himself for another mental attack on his student.
'Wait, I need time,' Jean panted in exasperation but she was already falling on the floor as Charles was invading her mind again, retriggering her powers that tried to defend her mind at full force. This time, she pushed him out of her mind a little easier but holding a grip of her powers was so hard it left her in tears and a stolen breath. 'This is torture.' She mostly sent telepathically and Charles nodded.
'I know…' he replied in understanding before he could attack her again. This time she worked in instinct before the pain, pushed him out harder than she expected and retreated her powers almost at will, or simply exhaustion was making her powers weaker. 'Yes Jean, exactly like this, control it.' Charles was exclaiming in triumph as she was fainting on the floor of the danger room, this headache would last for days after.
Another scene, again in the danger room, the safest place to be when Jean's powers manifested. Only now it was programed to be a simple room, only with a table on which Jean was on, spasming as she fought for control, Charles' hands were on her head's sides, his eyes closed as he worked on her telepathy. Charles was grinding his teeth in effort before the two of them could open their eyes and Jean burst into tears as Charles held his head in pain. Jean struggled to stand up and collapsed before Charles' wheelchair as he hugged her tightly to him.
'Thank you,' she only whispered again and again as she remained in her mentor's arms.
'He fought every fear with me, every moment was torturous for the both of us. But he remained, he struggled with me, instead of locking up my powers, he taught me to use them no matter how far they stretched each time.' Jean commented and Logan nodded.
The next memory took them into the mansion's infirmary where a tearful Jean was leaning over Scott's form on a bed while Charles, Hank and Ororo were standing a little further back, all of them scared of what had happened.
'I didn't mean to…We were just having a quarrel and I - ' Jean was whimpering over Scott as Charles moved closer with the wheelchair.
'No one blames you, Jean,' Charles tried but Jean wouldn't have it.
'I blame myself! I could have killed him and you still refuse to put an end to my suffering! You refuse to help me hold them back.' Jean accused Charles before everyone and he sighed and took her hand in his.
'I know it's hard… I know but you need to learn to control your powers. Blocking them inside your head will only drive you mad, my dear Jean. Scott will be fin-' Charles tried with his calming voice but Jean yanked her hand free from his.
'You know nothing!' You don't understand! I am driven mad! I had told you I am afraid I will hurt someone and here he is, laying injured. What if I had killed him?!' Young Jean screamed with tears running down her cheeks. She rushed outside the hospital wing of the mansion as the rest remained behind. Ororo tried to move but Charles stopped her.
'I had no idea back then. I had no idea how much effort he was putting in all this. The balance he was struggling to keep for all of us, for me.' Jean admitted to Logan as they remained there for a moment more. Logan nodded, satisfied with the Professor and his will not to give in. Experience had taught him well not to make the same mistakes. Logan's warning had helped.
The scene was changing and this time a slightly older Jean and Scott were introducing themselves to a tall man with black hair and a massive built.
'I am Nathaniel Essex, It's great to finally meet you,' he was smiling warmly at the two young adults.
'This was the worst mistake of my life.' Jean said flatly as she and Logan watched the scene.
'Who's the bub?' Logan asked curiously, he didn't like him by the looks of him.
'Essex Corporation, the closest sponsor of William Stryker, worked with him on Weapon X for you, for Jason Stryker and some other experiments…' Jean sighed as she explained. 'I am sure Charles will show you more about him.' Jean added and Logan frowned. 'When Stryker couldn't capture us for experiments on bioweapons, Essex and his sinister ideas got in for the creation of these weapons. The best part? He's a mutant himself.' Jean added and Logan looked at her.
'What did he do to you?' he asked soberly and Jean looked at Logan with her eyes clouded in sorrow as she changed the scene around them.
'I ran to him for help, I thought Charles didn't want to help me with my powers. I spent years struggling with my powers and Scott had ended up in the hospital many times. I had just started at the university of Columbia. I believed I knew everything and I was out of the mansion for a few years. Joining the team only when necessary. Raven had introduced us to Essex, driven by Magneto, fed up with Charles on some matters as well. I thought Essex would help me, put an end to my misery. I had no idea.' Jean explained as the scene formed itself before their eyes.
Beast, Quicksilver, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Storm and Mystique remained blocked by Essex as they all stood inside a lab where Jean and Scott were trapped inside tanks filled with liquid. Tubes were connected all over their bodies. It was evident from the massive weight loss and the numerous injuries across their bodies that both Jean and Scott had suffered through aggressive experiments. Magneto was next to Sinister as the Professor was unconscious in a corner.
'Give me a reason…' Essex was hollering and Magneto tried to advance.
'This is not what we had agreed upon!' Magneto screamed at him and Essex laughed.
'Weapon Ω was what we had agreed upon, Lennsher,' He replied and telekinetically pressed two buttons.
'NO!' Magneto bellowed as poison moved through the tubes straight to Jean and Scott's bodies. The rest of the X-Men attacked, breaking some field holding them back as the scene descended into chaos.
'Omega Five has to be exterminated!' Essex hollered as Jean's eyes opened with fire in them within the tank. The glass shattered and she started destroying everything around her, protecting only her people, Magneto escaped but Essex had an awful fate as she murdered him like she had done with Apocalypse.
'After that we spent months in the hospital, the poisons he gave us would have been lethal for others but mutants are more resistant, at least we were more resistant, I saw many others die while I was imprisoned in his laboratories. I woke up in time for the lethal dose not to be given. My powers always let me suffer until I was a moment before death and then they were reaching new heights and I was struggling to control them all over again. I guess I was right to choose the Phoenix, only I usually found myself helplessly dealing with the ashes.' Jean explained with her voice dripping with bitterness as she destroyed the scene before them and Logan looked at her.
'You got rid of the bastard at least,' he said and Jean smiled with sadness etched across her features this time.
The scene changed again. It was some years later, Jean was taking her master degree; life was moving on in happier notes.
The mansion was beautifully decorated, the grounds full of people, mutants and humans, all dressed for the occasion. The beautiful bride was moving down the aisle, accompanied by Charles on his wheelchair as Scott waited for her with Hank by his side and Ororo as the maid of honor. The wedding was beautiful as the sunset colors bathed the grounds, amazing roses everywhere. Music and happiness. Logan turned and looked at Jean's smiling eyes this time. She was happy, she had been happy.
'That night, I and Scott developed a link we had first created during the experiments at the Weapon Ω project, we did something like exchanging small pieces of our minds with each other, establishing a bond that works between us even if Scott is not a telepath. Not many people know this, but I am trying to show you some things for my life.' Jean explained as she allowed the scene to fade away slowly, holding to it more than any other. Logan only nodded, waiting to see more. He wouldn't deny it wasn't hard to see her marrying Scott but so far there had been worse things she shown him.
The scene changed slightly with Jean and Scott getting ready for their honeymoon right after their wedding. The blue speed car left the mansion in the middle of the night but was soon stopped by a lone figure in the middle of the road. Erik was standing there as Scott stopped the car before him and the newlywed couple looked at the older mutant before them.
'He doesn't want to fight,' Jean whispered as the two came out of the car and looked at him. 'He's alone,' she added as she scanned the place around.
'I just wanted to congratulate you, I know you since you were kids,' Erik explained as Jean and Scott approached him.
'You helped Essex! You have the nerve to show up for congratulations?' Jean demanded and Erik truly looked remorseful.
'I had no idea he would put you through all this. I had no idea he had such sinister plans. He was a fellow mutant. All I had agreed with him was for you to get help with your powers and in the process I wished you would see my point of view. Both of you would join me in a fight that would at last give results.' Erik exclaimed and Jean wished she could read something else within his mind but no matter how deep she scanned it, she could only find these words to be true from him. 'There is not a day without regretting what you got through in his hands.' He added and Scott reached Jean and took her hand in his.
'What do you want from us?' he asked flatly as he had shared what Jean had seen through their link.
'There is a war coming, the Registration Act will only be the beginning. I want you to join me, Charles does not understand but you have seen in more than one occasions that the world is much harder than what Charles wishes to believe. Humans once created a holocaust for their own kind, just different nationality. We can only imagine what they will do to us, if we let them.' Erik's words stroke many nerves, Jean and Scott looked at each other.
'We belong with the X-Men.' Jean sent him telepathically after she agreed with Scott through the link. Erik sighed and nodded his head.
'Looking for hope in vain, just like him,' he commented as he levitated himself, disappointment all over his face.
'Give our love to Raven and Peter,' Jean sent in the last moment as he flew away.
'I will, my dear,' he only sent back before he could get away and leave the two mutants alone.
Logan didn't have time to ask her about Quicksilver and Mystique as the scene changed again.
Logan was assaulting her, holding her by the neck before he could jerk her body away and run outside to the corridor. 'Charles, he's awake,' she sent to the professor. The scene before them was familiar to him.
'Some things never change,' he whispered and Jean shrugged.
'Charming first meeting,' Jean admitted with humor and they both chuckled.
'Where is your room?'
'With Scott, down the hall,'
'That's your gift, putting up with that guy?'
Both Jean and Logan smiled, the scene identical in both realities. Rogue trying to adjust and failing, escaping the mansion. Cerebro being high jacked by Raven.
'After what happened with Stryker and Essex, Raven lost every hope in the coexistence of humans and mutants, and oddly enough, she chose to go back to Magneto. The man who tricked her into luring me to my suffering. These two were more alike than we all liked to admit. Peter followed in his desperation to be with his father, no matter the father…. Raven, Ororo and I had been best friends, deep down I naively choose to believe Raven simply couldn't look me in the eyes again after the experiments.' Jean said as they watched Charles falling on the floor of the cerebro room, after Mystique had contaminated it.
The rest of the events were almost the same to the ones Logan knew to have taken place. The mission on Liberty Island to save Rogue was very familiar only it had Nightcrawler and Beast there too. Taking onto Sabretooth with Beast seemed more fun as Jean was pushing Toad for Storm to finish and Cyclops with Wolverine tried to stop Raven while Jean turned against Peter and his speed. Magneto had obviously not abandoned his ideas of a Weapon X, trying to turn Rogue into one through the machine.
Logan was leaving the mansion for Alkali Lake with Scott's motorbike. 'He hated you for that,' Jean commented and Logan laughed.
Jean was with Storm, trying to track down Remy Lebeau in New Orleans as the scene changed with Scott and Charles visiting Magneto in his plastic prison for yet another time. Stryker attacking them, brainwashing Scott while Magneto escaped. Stryker attacking the mansion, taking children for experiments. The x-jet almost crushing after Jean destroyed two rockets coming at them.
'Logan, girls flirt the bad guy, they marry the good guy…' Jean was saying to him, exactly as he remembered it.
'I can be the good guy,' Logan was shrugging.
'The good guy sticks around,' Jean said before Logan could pull her closer and try kiss her. She stopped him before their lips could meet. 'No,' she said firmly and left. Not everything was as he remembered it.
'That night was when the line was drawn, we became the best of friends after that.' Jean explained and Logan looked at her and nodded, note taken, her tone left no space for argument.
They were in Alkali Lake base again, the team was split, Jean had fought with brainwashed Scott and the end of their quarrel had started the destruction of the dam, as Logan remembered.
Cerebro was targeting them and Jean knew Charles was in danger. They tried to approach the room he was trapped in but as they passed a corner they stopped as Jean glared at the door. With her powers she opened the massive door, setting off more alarms than already set across the base.
Large tanks again with more freak experiments within, human formed, hibernated, kept in liquid with tubes in their mouths providing the necessary to keep them alive.
Weapon Ω
Grey/Summers
Omega Five Project
Weapon Ω001 Nathaniel Grey Summers I #02Y5896. A young man that looked very much like Scott.
Weapon Ω002 Rachel Grey Summers I #5879N65. A young woman with red hair.
Weapon Ω003 Nathaniel Grey Summers II #47W8513. A baby in embryotic posture.
Weapon Ω004 Nathaniel Summers #02C1005. A small boy of around four years.
Weapon Ω005 Rachel Grey #55U8963. An embryo, not fully formed.
These were only some of the experiments inside the room with the tanks but both Jean and Scott knew. The bodies and faces seemed identical to theirs, the left eye of each experiment was different, slightly deformed and illuminated from under the eyelid. Numerically, the first experiments would be young teenagers under normal circumstances, matching the years passed by the time Jean and Scott had become lab rats.
'Bioweapons made of our DNA,' Jean whispered in terror. She looked at Scott's frown, he looked around them, more experiments, monsters created for destruction, there was at least a dozen of tanks filled with their clones and in vitro fertilization results. He was seething, his hands trembling. 'There are our children, Scott.' Jean whispered devastated, tears running down her eyes as her fingers touched one of the tanks with the baby boy labeled as Nathaniel Grey Summers inside.
'No,' Scott rasped out, he couldn't accept such thing. While they were subjects to Essex he knew they had been taken DNA samples but he had never expected to see this, under secret programs of the government with mad scientists and sinister millionaires who wished to see the world burn. 'We need to put an end to this.' Scott said in a cold voice and Jean shook her head.
'I can't… Scott, what if-?' Jean tried to reason as she allowed herself to collapse on her knees, her powers slipping from her grip, making the entire place shake with the tanks shaking but the contents remaining unfazed within. Scott rushed close to her and hugged her tightly before he could cup her face in his hands.
'Jean, I love you, listen to me,' he was trying to reason with her as she sobbed in his arms. 'This is abnormal, they will suffer like Jason Stryker, like Logan…. These are not our children; they are not us. We are here, we are here and I promise you, when we'll hold our first child in our hands, it will be a happy day, not a day like this. I swear,' Scott tried to reassure his tearful wife as she cried in his arms, his own face and posture betraying devastation.
'We had no choice but to destroy them all,' Jean whispered in her current form. 'I wondered what it would be if we had somehow saved them, at least the older ones... Essex was so mad he had named them all after himself and his wife, but I hoped that no matter the creator, they might have had a chance because of our DNA. Would they understand? Would they recognize us as something? Anything?' Jean wondered as she and Logan watched the desperate younger people before them destroying parts of their selves inside the tanks before Jean could set fire to the entire room.
'You spared them a lot of pain, experience talking here,' Logan only commented and touched her shoulder even if they were in astral form. Jean nodded as the scene dissolved.
Mystique had tricked Jason Stryker into forcing Charles target every human with cerebro. The dam was ready to collapse as Jason changed the course of his action at the last moment and targeted Jean who with Ororo were trying to break the link between him and the professor. Jason was more powerful than the professor and even if he wasn't as strong as Jean, he started manipulating her through Charles.
'Jean, all the pain you have felt, all the pain and all the fear. Unleash it Jean, find peace.' the voice was urging inside her head. She was confused, tired, stricken by the whole mission, her head hurt as Jason attacked like hot iron within her thoughts. The suffering she had fought to keep at bay from Essex's experiments and the guilt for jeopardizing everyone, betraying Charles, the clones, the children. Scott had been brainwashed, Charles was suffering, Stryker and this godforsaken place, Magneto and his firmness to destroy them all… Pain, she was doomed to feel only pain. Every power pocket she had formed inside her brain exploded, every exercise to control her powers seemed all in vain.
She lost all control over her powers. Allowing them to overwhelm her and her body, she levitated herself with ease as she unleased her powers that started to eliminate the place. The walls of the base started dissolving as she let go and soon the snowy wind was around them as tons of concrete were disintegrated. It was easier, unleashing the beast from inside, destroying the cage around the firebird, nothing to care about, no more pain, no emotion. Her powers lashed out as she disintegrated Jason in an instant after raising him from his wheelchair to be in eye level with her, a sick satisfaction was the aftermath inside her darkening soul as her body glowed in fire.
'JEAN NO, STOP THIS!' Scott bellowed from the ground.
'JEAN! NO!' Charles was cried out as he regained the control of his own mind. The X-Men saw one more of their own, turning against them, after Erik, Raven, Peter and John, now Jean was losing herself and their hope was going down with the most kind of them.
'Don't do this!' Scott was roaring, he was losing her, after all they had been through, he was losing her for good this time. The dam was breaking in the distance. All the captured children were saved inside the jet that wasn't working by Storm who was trying to save at least some of them.
'Jean!' Logan howled as Jean looked at them, her face expressionless.
'It is the only way,' Jean was musing in the numbness of her desperation, too drunk in the sheer energy. She was desperate not to be afraid or in charge, not to always take the blame. She was free like this, even if her powers were able to make her mind snap any minute. The jet was functioning again by her power radiated. It was a matter of seconds for either her mind or body to simply collapse by the exhaustion of her vital energy from which her powers fed.
'Jean!' Scott hollered.
'Stop!' Logan was screaming at the top of his lungs as Charles and Scott were mentally reaching for her.
'Dark days,' Jean recalled now as they watched from a distance the firebird getting brighter and stronger as that younger Jean was surrendering.
'Fight it, Jean, it's worth it, no matter what, there is always hope!' Charles was calling out before he could concentrate to help her find her way from inside her head.
'The rest is too complicated to project to you without driving you mad.' Jean explained as Logan watched Charles touching his brow and Scott falling on his knees by the professor's side. 'That day, Charles reached a part of my mind not even I could reach alone, but we reached it together, and my brain didn't snap for some reason. He showed me not only control but total domination of my mind and only then I found peace. And I didn't go mad myself because of the bond I shared with Scott.
' It was almost as that bond was the only thread holding me from completely destroying my brain because of the sheer power of it. Imagine… imagine like stepping in the caldera of an active volcano and coming out alive. Scott was the one who pulled me through while Charles helped me control the lava.' Jean explained as the scene unfolded with the firebird getting smaller and Jean falling unconscious before Nightcrawler could teleport her inside the jet that was taking off with everyone saved inside.
'After that, it took me months to dare use my powers. I spent days and nights pretending I wasn't a telekinetic telepath. Learning to control them didn't mean I was ready to touch them again. I drove you all crazy with my denial.' Jean said as the scene changed in one where she and Logan found themselves before each other.
'As your friend and the coordinator of the Danger Room, I need you to practice. You will get yourself killed without regular exercise of your powers.' Logan was commanding her and Jean was dismissing him.
'I am not ready, Logan,' Jean answered calmly, in a cold voice.
'You bet you are!' Logan retorted back and Jean huffed.
'You won't lecture me on control, no one will, I prefer to stop from the team than harm anyone, I need to adjust.' Jean called back and Logan growled.
'In what? You can control your powers; all I am asking you is bloody use them! It's been months since you even joined a simple track down mission. What example you are for the younger ones?' Logan was shouting now, making Jean join the fight.
'The example of the one who can kill them any moment by accident and she chooses not to!' Jean screamed back at him as he got even more frustrated with her.
'Jean, Cyclops and Storm are the captains of the team but I am not even asking you to join a battle, I am asking you to fucking practice!' Logan tried to reason for a moment with her, he never meant to get so angry at her but she could be so stubborn.
'The team will either have to wait for me or not have me at all in. I am not forcing myself into anything after what I've been through, make sure to tell the captains this!' Jean refused to calm down as she left the room, yanking open the door with her powers.
'Now you use your powers alright!' he screamed after her as the door was telekinetically slammed shut behind her.
'You actually made me use my powers again that day.' Jean explained as another scene was created before them where she was fainting in the middle of a Danger Room session with both Logan and Scott protecting her at the last moment from a sentinel designed to kill mutants made of flesh. Scott was picking her up and taking her out, Logan dismissed the session as Hank was rushing closer to help her medically the moment the doors were opening.
'I was in such denial to use my powers of telepathy that I didn't realize something was growing inside me…' Jean explained and Logan glanced at her. He knew she didn't mean her powers by that "something".
'It's a girl,' Jean was whispering to Scott as she was waking up in the hospital bed of the mansion's infirmary that was surrounded by flowers and chocolates from the students and friends of hers.
If Logan wanted to be honest with himself, he preferred her waking up like this, pregnant with Scott's child than the way she had woken up before him after Alkali…
'Rogue was considering the cure but never took it, Bobby persuaded her not to. Everyone was worried weapons would be made of it. Magneto was lashing out with the brotherhood bigger and stronger than ever in his desperate try to stop the humans after the registration act had actually passed. Everyone was possible subject to lose their powers. The mutant holding the secret to the cure was a boy residing at Alcatraz Island that Charles desperately wanted in the school and Magneto wished him dead.' Jean was explaining as she was showing him various scenes of her words.
'Jimmy,' Logan recalled and Jean nodded as she showed him Charles and Hank visiting the boy in a white room that felt like a cage.
A pregnant Jean with Storm and Scott were reaching her childhood home in the next scene and Logan looked at her in interest. She knew what had happened in that very home in his own reality so she gestured for Logan to move along the three X-Men before them.
Inside there was a ginger haired girl and a blond boy looking terrified at a woman who looked a lot like Jean but wasn't.
'Sara,' Jean smiled cautiously and Jean's older sister huffed as her eyes filled with tears the moment she saw her.
'First, my sister, now both my own children,' Sara exclaimed desperately as Jean tried to approach her. 'You knew the possibilities, you knew the risks and yet you're pregnant… Jeannie, just… take the cure, use it on Joey and Gailyn and lets start fresh as a family.' Sara begged with her younger sister as Jean sighed and only hugged Sara tightly.
'I will take good care of them.' Jean promised as she left her sister's arms and smiled at her niece and nephew. A blast was heard from the front wall and Juggernaut was smashing through the house. Jean raised a shield to protect her family as Scott and Storm advanced the moment Calisto also showed up.
'Scott was terrified of me using my powers during the pregnancy.' Jean commented as the scene evolved with Magneto showing up too. 'He didn't understand I had decided that Magneto would be gone by the time Hope was born. Charles knew but I was beyond the point of being considerate, he had protected his children and his school. I had to protect mine.' Jean added and Logan looked at her.
'My dear,' Magneto greeted her as his sidekicks distracted Scott and Ororo. 'I hoped your niece and nephew would be willing to choose the winning side of this war.'
'Stay away from them, Erik,' Jean ordered him and Magneto laughed as he tried to attack her with metallic shards from the hole Juggernaut created in the wall. They disintegrated as they reached the field she had raised around herself and her family. 'Impressive,' he observed as the entire house groaned under his command in everything metallic. Jean froze telepathically her family members and levitated them outside the house inside a field while she stayed behind.
'Always loved to use innocent people under your command.' Jean observed as her body started engulfing itself in fire, her powers singing to her to be used. Scott and Storm finished off Juggernaut and Storm advanced at Calisto as Scott reached for Jean. 'How's Raven?' she asked as she wrapped him in a handicap, she had learnt Raven had taken the cure for him and then was left abandoned.
'Better than traitors of our kind like yourself, my dear,' Magneto shuttered as he moved his finger with effort, a sheet of metal shot through the air and even if it lost speed the moment it entered the field she was protecting herself in, it had enough power to actually puncture her close to the stomach. Jean lost all focus on her enemy and Scott found the chance to attack Magneto but he magnetically knocked Scott's visor off, forcing him to close his eyes as Jean was covering her wound with her blooded hand.
'Possibly the most terrifying moment of my life. I believed he had really aimed for the baby, but he had spared her that day. His problem was me, not an innocent mutant.' Jean commented next to Logan as the scene changed again and they found themselves this time at Alcatraz Island. Right before the battle, the moment the bridge was collapsing itself under Magneto's command and thousands of mutants were reaching the team. 'Scott had given up after that to persuade me not to join the battle. I was there only for Magneto and my revenge.' Jean added as the team was before her and Logan.
Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Iceman, Colossus, Rogue, Storm, Shadowcat and Nightcrawler were there while Xavier and Phoenix remained in the jet. The battle begun with the telepaths helping everyone in stopping both humans and mutants from attacking the team as to rescue the boy before Magneto could find and kill him.
The scene before them was brutal, everyone was fighting to the death, Shadowcat and Colossus were reaching for Jimmy as Charles helped them through the prison. Everyone else covered them outside while Jean kept disintegrating darts filled with the cure fired at the team. She kept an extra eye on Scott through their link as he fought against Multiple Man and even if Magneto had given the order for his army to destroy the jet with the two telepaths, the rest of the team and Jean herself held their ground. The American army was only half helping as they were targeting everyone without exception.
It was after the place was piled with dead bodies of humans and mutants that Magneto himself showed up and joined the battle. Jean exited the x-jet at the same time to confront him.
'Come out, Charles. We have done this before. Your children have grown, but what about the rest? You keep destroying our chances for a better world.' He called out but stopped the moment he saw Jean. 'A better world where children won't be subject to monsters.' He added as he gestured at her and Jimmy who was reaching the jet in safety thanks to Shadowcat and Colossus. Rogue was approaching too with Iceman as the rest of the X-Men gathered around Magneto and Phoenix.
'The nerve you have, Erik… You're no better than Stryker.' Jean accused him as she raised her hand and a massive concrete wall broke into three pieces and trapped him so there could be only one way, that of hers coming closer to him. She could feel the rest of the team's thoughts, fury from Rogue, fear, from others, sorrow from Charles, worry from Scott.
'Jean…my dearest Jean, the potential wasted in you is heartbreaking. The moment you accepted Charles' point of view…' Magneto mused as he tried the same trick with another little piece of metal but this time Jean destroyed it before it could even begin its journey towards her. 'Your child will understand the monstrous world you bring it into, with a burned number on her forehead… instead of being the child of a Goddess, she will be the target of all of Charles' enemies…' Magneto shouted as Jean gripped him again in telekinetic vice grip.
'Enough,' she commanded him as she clenched her fist, making him groan in pain.
'You have made me suffer more than anyone else. You have been targeting me and my family for so long.' Jean spoke in a voice void of any emotion. 'You have made me kill,' she added as she pressed on more with her powers, Magneto seemed to suffocate under her powers. Logan watched as the rest of the X-Men watched, no one daring to get in her way, no one trying to make her have mercy…
Logan could see both Scott and Charles focused mentally on her. 'But death is too good for you, old man, too quick, too easy.' Jean decided as she forced five darts of the cure to fly from a weapon thrown nearby and puncture Magneto's neck, one after the other. 'For Rogue, for Raven, for Alkali Lake, for Logan, for the X-Men,' Jean counted as each dart broke through his skin and his eyes turned desperate as the cure filled his bloodstream. When she was certain she felt no power in him, only then she left him drop on the ground and she drew back her powers before she could center herself as the team gathered around her.
'Glad you didn't kill him, Jean,' Logan said and Jean nodded.
'The cure fainted in his system after about seven years but at least he's still in prison, this time no sidekicks ready to sacrifice everything for him. Alone, he is nothing.' Jean explained as the scene changed again and this time they were back in the mansion with Jean on the hospital bed and a pink bundle in her arms. Logan was entering the room while no one else was around, Jean looked up at him in surprise.
'I was about six days in the bed, the labor wasn't the easiest operation Hank had performed. A cesarean had been mandatory after Essex and his experiments on me, plus my powers during a normal delivery could be proven dangerous. Hope was born healthy but I had suffered blood loss and my powers had reacted unexpectedly at the separation of the baby from my body. Scott had driven you all mad with worry for those forty-eight critical hours after the labor. I recovered after that but you showed up a day before I could get out of the hospital wing.' Jean explain her younger self's surprise. Logan nodded, he didn't need to ask why he hadn't shown up, the sight of hers with Scott's child was painful now too.
'Hello, Logan' Jean spoke softly as he looked at her uncomfortably while he approached. He had made sure not to smoke for at least some hours before his visit as not to smell of smoke. Whiskey was another matter; it didn't smell that bad. He glanced at the baby in her arms and Jean moved for him to have a better look.
'Her name is Hope,' Jean introduced the newborn to the man before her and Logan couldn't help but give a small smile.
'She's very beautiful, like her mother,' he observed and Jean smiled at him sweetly. 'We're about to leave with Storm, I just dropped by to say goodbye.' He finally announced and Jean nodded smiling, Ororo had told her the other day. Life was finally restarting for everyone.
'I wish you the best, Logan. Come back when you are both ready.' Jean advised and Logan nodded and smiled again.
'We will, take care of yourself and the little one, Jeannie.' He smiled and Jean nodded and laid back on her bed as Logan started for the door. He stopped at the threshold and looked at the woman and child.
'Hope is a very lucky child to have you and Cyke as her family.' Logan observed and Jean nodded.
'She has all of us in here as her family, that makes her even luckier.' Jean replied and Logan smiled, nodded and left.
'You were gone for about a year and a half in Europe and Africa. Searching for answers for the both of you and enjoying life. When you came back you both had looked so happy.' Jean explained as the scene changed again into another one of herself moving down the hall in a plain black dress with a little redhead girl of about two years dressed in pink, by her hip, chewing at a cyclops toy. Scott was by her right and Charles by her left, moving down the hall of the ground floor.
'Momma will bring your milk and then we'll go for our nap, little Hope. Daddy, mommy and Grandpa Charles has a lot of homework to correct.' Jean was saying to her child as she leaned for a kiss on the girl's forehead.
'I like the nickname,' Charles stated as he smiled at the toddler who was reaching for him.
'it's very decent, compared to Aunt Roro, Storm got.' Scott commented and the three adults laughed as they moved on.
The three of them stopped on their tracks looked at the front door a moment before the bell could be rang, shared telepathy was something the trio was used to as Scott was included because of the bond with Jean. She passed Hope to Scott who held her close to him carefully and Jean reached for the door and opened it only to find Raven in her human disguise smiling up at her shyly, it had been years. The two old friends looked at each other for a long moment before they could both tearfully throw their arms around each other.
'Welcome home, Raven,' Jean hugged her friend tightly.
'I am so sorry, for everything, I am so sorry, Jean.' Raven was whispering while the two women broke the hug for Raven to face Charles and Scott after so long. They both knew why she was there almost four years after the cure, she was back home, a home that always accepted the ones who wandered lost.
'She's in better terms with us now, she gave out Magneto's location back then. She returned close to us but didn't join the X-Men, at least she doesn't accept the title, we consider her part of the team. Her mutation was restored little by little. She's actually on a mission to find a mutant who is obviously creating chaos in New York. She'll be back soon.' Jean explained as the scene dissolved little by little and soon they were back in Logan's office. For a moment they remained like this, him laid back on the couch, Jean on the chair.
Logan considered all the new things Jean had shown him, some things he knew from Charles but even they had seemed different as they were shown from a different angle, literally. Everything had changed, yet everything had fallen into place and somehow, more or less, they were all fine. Even Raven had found her way, even he had found peace by seeing Jean getting her happy ending.
'You project things much better than Charles.' He finally commented as Jean smiled at him. He felt a little dizzy but Jean seemed completely fine, she really had mastered her powers.
'No, I just showed you the interesting stuff, Charles told me he's showing to you everything.' Jean pointed out and Logan chuckled.
'Yep, he said it's mandatory so I can be the history teacher again,' he explained and Jean nodded and smiled.
'And you better get on with learning. You need to take back your working hours; I'm suffocating with all these extra work.' Jean complained but her smile reaching her eyes proved she was joking. Logan nodded as he sat up on the bed and looked at her.
'I am really happy you're… happy,' he finally said and Jean smiled at him and took his hand in hers.
'I'm really happy you helped everyone be like this, Logan.' Jean replied and Logan smiled. 'Many times I thought my life had been too hard on me, experiments, fights, clones, the cure… I had never imagine how much worse it could have gotten, but you lived through it all and in the past days I realized the gift you have given to all of us.' Jean talked calmly, the years that had passed for her gave her this wisdom, this contentment, she was not just happy, she was fulfilled.
Logan didn't have time to tell her something more as the door of the study pounded loudly before it could open. Jean was looking at it with a big smile on her face already as the youngest of the children of the school entered the room and looked at the two adults. She was wearing a green t-shirt with an X on it and jeans. Her hair was ginger like her mother's at that age, her eyes bright blue and happy as she rushed close to her mother who hugged her tightly in her arms.
'Mommy, uncle Logan, Aunt Storm says she needs you, mommy to use Cerebro for a girl in Florida. Grandpa is out with dad. Uncle Bobby asks if I can go with him and Aunt Marie for ice-cream.' Hope informed them about all the things happening around the mansion, at the mention of ice-cream, her eyes turned puppy-like at her mother. Jean smiled and pecked her daughter's cheek. She had been a good girl, Jean knew. Scott was out with Charles to visit Moira. Bobby and Marie had taken care of Hope as Jean had asked not to be interrupted and while she was finishing the projection of her memories to Logan, she had sent a message to the three of them it was ok to come to the office.
'I believe you were a very good girl and my powers verify that, so I am sure you can have a big scoop of ice-cream.' Jean decided and little Hope threw her arms in the air before she could stop and look at her mom.
'Maybe two?' she begged and Jean nodded.
'Two but no swimming pool after that with a full stomach. You choose.' Jean reasoned with her offspring and Hope pondered on the dilemma for a moment, then she broke into a huge smile. 'Two scoops and then PlayStation with Kitty and Jubilee!' the child decided everyone's schedule and Jean chuckled and nodded as the little one hugged her again. Jean grinned from behind her daughter's shoulder at Logan who was looking at them the entire time. The two redheads stood up from the chair and Hope took her mother's hand as she looked at Logan with her big eyes.
'Uncle Logan, feeling better?' she asked innocently, Jean had explained to her child that her uncle was spending some difficult days so Hope had kept her distance from her favorite uncle but now she was smiling at him in hope of him being in a better state.
Logan looked at the little girl for a moment more before he could answer. Hope looked so much like Jean, apart from the eyes maybe, but still. Hope was the personification of what he had fought for, no matter her mother or her father, Hope was the future of this school, of the team, of all of them, and he helped to achieve this future by going back and changing the past.
Charles had been right looking for hope. She was right there.
'I'm feeling great, kiddo,' Logan finally replied and Jean smiled at him as she had read his trail of thought. Hope beamed at him and looked at her mother who finally nodded.
'Come one, sweetheart, lets leave uncle Logan to his business. I am sure Bobby is only getting hungrier for ice-cream by the minute.' Jean stated at her child who nodded and laughed as the two started for the door. Jean looked at Logan who was watching them leave with a smile on his face.
'See you later, Logan,' Jean addressed Logan and he nodded.
'Sure,' he finally said as the door closed behind the redhead telepath and Logan allowed himself back in the pillows of his couch, fulfilment filling his heart and mind.
Life was good, he simply concluded.
thank you for reading, I know some of you might not like using Rachel and Nathan just as clones or experiments and giving Hope this role but I wanted a small twist, more about her and other characters will be revealed in the future, trying to borrow things from the entire timeline of films. Please le me know your opinion on my story :)
CP09