Mockingbird and Raven got to the room to see that Static and Gear had left, and Jean was in there alone. They got closer and saw a black cat lying on Jean's chest. It took one look at Mockingbird and put its head back on its paws.
"Okay… since when did he have a cat?" Raven asked.
"He got him back in Dakota… but don't ask me where he's been lately.." Mockingbird replied as they took places on either side of Jean's bed.
"I get the feelin y'all don't need a cowboy hangin' around." Vigilante said starting towards the door.
"No but thank you for helping us." Mockingbird said.
"No problem, lil' lady… don't forget if ya need anythin, ol' Vigilante's here to help." He said tipping his hat again before leaving the room.
"Let's get to work." Raven said and the two started healing Jean.
They were almost finished when Aura gave a sharp meow and ran out of the room.
"What was that about?" Raven asked looking in the direction Aura ran off, meaning she didn't see Jean sit up. The next thing she knew an energy field hit her and she hit her head on the wall leaving her momentarily dazed.
Mockingbird scrambled to her feet. Raven took longer and shook her head in an attempt to get her ears to quit ringing. She then looked over to Mockingbird who shrugged in reply as if to say, 'Don't look at me'.
Batman and Mystic Sage saw what happened, and Mystic Sage looked at Batman.
"Get ready… but remember do not hurt him!"
Batman nodded then put out a general transmission that no league members were to engage Jean and only to interfere if he got into a dangerous situation.
Virgil and Richie look at each other as the general transmission goes out.
"This is why we shouldn't allow children on the watch tower." Orion muttered.
Virgil glared at him.
"Hey… lay off… the kid's had a bad day!" Virgil snapped.
"Yeah and comments like that… from people like you… doesn't help." Richie added.
Jean is running from room to room in the tower trying to figure out where he is and find his uncle. He then passed a window and realized that he was looking at Earth from space and his heart drops. He then hears someone heading his way and hides in a storage closet.
Suddenly the closet door opens and a teenage girl a bit bigger than he is sticks her head in.
"Stay away from me… or I'll sick Wolverine on you." Jean threatens.
"Who?" the girl asked quirking a brow.
"One of the teachers at my uncle's school." Jean replies.
"Crab baskets…" the girl muttered then turned around and at regular volume says "Raven, we have a serious problem."
Jean looked as another girl entered the room, he could only assume she was 'Raven'.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Who are you people? How did we get into outer space? Where is my uncle?" Jean asked.
"Okay… that is definitely a problem." Raven muttered.
Jean looks around realizing he is pretty much trapped in a closet.
"Jean… please… come out of there… we want to help you." The girl said reaching out a hand to him.
"How do you know my name?" Jean asked.
"Jean, you're my friend… we've known each other for years… don't you remember me… Amanda… your friend, Mandy?" she said taking the risk to remove her mask and reverting her hair to its natural blue-black color.
"I… I… I don't remember you… I'm scared."
"You don't need to be afraid… I won't hurt you" she said.
He looked at her hand then back up at her and hesitantly he took her hand.
"We have to get this fixed, fast." Raven says from nearby.
The girls look as a woman with wings entered the room.
"Is he okay?" she asked.
"He'll be fine, Shayera… he just has a bit of amnesia." Mockingbird explained.
"We need a place where we can get some uninterrupted privacy to help him." Raven added.
"Oh, I get it, we're in the future. How did I get here?" Jean said.
Shayera quirked a brow.
"Yeah, follow me… I know of a place you can get some peace and quiet." She said and turned to leave the room trusting the teenagers to follow her. It didn't take long for them to get to what looked like a private conference room.
"No one will bother you in here." Shayera said then left the room so they could have privacy to work.
Jean stood there patently waiting for something to happen.
"So, are you going to send me to my own time?" Jean asked.
"Jean, you're not in the future…" Mockingbird said.
"What was the last thing you remember?" Raven asked.
Jean thought for a moment.
"Celebrating my thirteenth birthday."
Raven bit down on her lip as Mockingbird started ranting. It started mundane enough in English, then switched to Filipino before somehow inexplicably switching to Tamaranean.
Jean backed up.
"I'm sorry…"
"No, it's not your fault you just forgot several years' worth of memories" Raven explained.
"What… what are you talking about?"
"You were electrocuted and apparently that caused some acute amnesia." Raven explained.
"Electrocuted… I don't remember being electrocuted."
Mockingbird stopped and turned to Jean.
"How do I know you're telling the truth… how do I know one of you isn't Mystique in disguise?" he demanded and received confused looks from Raven and Mockingbird.
"And you have no idea what… or who I'm talking about."
"Really, what was your first clue?" Amanda deadpanned.
"I'm sorry" Jean said meekly.
"Hey, don't be sorry… you have no more idea what we're talking about than we do what you're talking about." Amanda pointed out gently.
"Let's get started…" Raven says assuming her typical meditative lotus position.
"Okay… I get the feeling I'm just in the way so I'm going to go get some lunch." Amanda said reaching for the door.
"No… please, stay." Jean begged still sounding extremely meek and scared.
"Okay…" Amanda said releasing the doorknob "I'll stay". She grabbed one of the chairs and flipped it around so that she was sitting backwards in it resting her arms on what was supposed to be the back of the chair.
Raven looked to Jean who imitated her position floating about a meter off the floor.
"Okay… what do I need to do?" he asked in confusion.
"Just relax and open your mind." Raven instructed then began her mantra.
Suddenly they found themselves in what looked to be an empty room, but it was in the mental plane not the physical one.
"Where are we?" Jean asked trying not to sound terrified.
"Why am I here?" Amanda asked.
"We are inside your mind." Raven explained to Jean before turning to Amanda and adding "That question I cannot answer. I was wondering the same thing."
"What are we going to do?" Jean asked.
"We are going to go through you memories, find exactly where the breakoff point is and see if we can't bring back the ones you lost." Raven explained.
"Okay… so where do we begin?" he asked.
"At your earliest memories." Raven replied, "think about your uncle's school… the earliest memories you can find."
"Um… sorry to interrupt here guys I guess I'm along for the ride cause I can't get out." Amanda said awkwardly.
"It can't be helped so let's just move on… we will figure out your significance in this as we go." Raven replied.
"Don't be rude." Jean quipped.
"Jean… I've known her long enough to know when not to take it personally."
Jean closed his eyes and began to focus on the school trying to tease up the earliest weak memories of his childhood. Then suddenly they found themselves in a library as the doors opened and a toddler floated in. He was being chased by a feral looking man.
"Come here ya little pip-squeak!" the man said but the little boy only laughed and floated higher.
"Now that isn't fair… brat!" the man growled.
Raven quirked an eyebrow. "Now that's something you don't see every day." she muttered.
"I think that baby was me." Jean said.
"Aww… you were such a cute little butterball." Amanda cooed.
"Thanks…" Jean blushed as a bald man entered the room and baby Jean floated to him.
"Who is that?" Amanda asked looking at the man that had just entered the room.
"That's my uncle" Jean replied as a preschool girl came up behind the man.
The feral man looks at the man Jean identified as Charles.
"Did I mention I don't like kids?" the feral man said.
"Oh, the other one is Wolverine." Jean clarified.
"Yes… many times… but you seem to have taken an odd fancy to Kathy." Charles replied as the preschool girl ran past him to Wolverine who gave her a one-armed hug despite himself.
"Kathy… it's time for lunch." A woman said coming briefly into the room.
"Who is that?" Amanda asked.
"I'm not sure, I think that's Kathy's mother, Aunt Megan, but… but I don't really remember her, she died when I was still a baby."
Charles turned to Megan just in time for her to see Jean stick his finger up Charles's nose which sends her into a fit of laughter.
"Jean, come here baby… don't do that to Uncle Charles." She said fighting back the laughter enough to be able to speak. Jean then floats to Megan.
"Thank you, dear…" Charles says as the scene around the three teenagers changes.
Amanda looked to teenage Jean.
"So, you had powers from the time you were a baby." she said though it came out as more of a question than a statement.
"My uncle says I had them from the womb, but I don't know." Jean replied as the scene changed again.
They then found themselves outside in the yard at the front of the school looking at an eight-to-ten-year-old Kathy playing outside with a boy a little bit older than her who wore dark red glasses.
"That's Scott…" Modern Jean explained.
Then suddenly a man in red armor came barreling through the brick wall that made up the exterior fence of the mansion.
Scott immediately looked scared and took off running, he tried to grab Kathy to follow him, but she was rooted to her spot. Then the rampaging man stopped as if recognizing Kathy and gently lifted her, moving her from harm's way before continuing on his path.
"Who is he?" Amanda asked, "And why do I get the feeling nobody would have believed he did that?"
"Because they wouldn't…" Raven commented as Jean took after the red clad man saying something that sounded like 'dad'.
"Did he just call that man, 'dad'?" Amanda asked.
"Yes…" Raven replied as they followed him into the mansion. They got inside to see the man, sans helmet being brain blasted by memory Jean before he could attack Charles who had been knocked from his wheelchair.
"That is Juggernaut… he's my father." Modern Jean explained as memory Jean began to cry.
"So, you brain blasted your father." Amanda stated though it came out sounding like a question.
"I… I didn't mean to… I just didn't want my uncle to get hurt." Modern Jean said in fear.
"No… you did what you had to do… you didn't have a choice in the matter." Raven interjected. "If you hadn't your uncle… the man that acted as your father would have been injured or killed… Juggernaut might have created you but like me with Trigon he wasn't a father to you… in your case, your uncle was."
"He never even got the chance to be a father to me." Jean explained.
Raven nodded silently, her case and Jean's were different in that way. Trigon wanted her to be a mirror of himself and she bucked that notion, Juggernaut never had a chance to know he had a son much less decide how he wanted to handle fatherhood.
Things fly by and suddenly they cut to the parlor to see a ten- to twelve-year-old Jean standing in the entryway bouncing from foot to foot in excitement.
"This is when Kathy came home from her boarding school slash gymnastics training camp. This was actually really bad." Modern Jean explained.
"How was it bad?" Amanda asked.
"Just watch." Jean said as memory Jean's excitement grew.
A teenage blonde girl came in, she looked to be about fourteen, but it was clearly apparent she was too thin and very depressed.
"Who is that?" Raven asked.
"Kathy… now you see why I said it was bad?" modern Jean explained as his memory counterpart ran to his older cousin who barely reacted when him threw himself in her arms.
"Kathy" Memory Jean says in excitement "I'm so glad you're here for my birth… Kathy what's wrong?"
"Nothing… Jean… I'm fine." She lied but it was a blatantly obvious lie.
Modern Jean knows where this is going and decides to cut it off.
"Let's keep going." He says not wanting to relive the days after that when they had to fight to pull Kathy out of the dark pit of depression she had fallen into.
Memories fly by in a blur until they reach another stopping point. Memory Jean is standing with Charles Xavier and modern Jean realizes what is about to happen.
"This… this is when I left." He says over the dialogue between memory Jean and Charles.
"This is my bedroom in the mansion." Jean continued "and this is when I told my uncle I wanted to explore the multiverse to see if I could find someone to help me understand why my powers are what they are."
Memory Jean was putting together a backpack with what would be absolutely necessary for him to carry on his journey.
"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" Charles asked.
"Yes… but not want to do… need to do, uncle… nobody here can understand what I am… maybe out there…" he said making a grand gesture with his arm "I can find someone who can."
"Okay… we will miss you, Jean, but I will not stand in your way… you must do what you have to do in order to understand your gifts."
"Thank you, uncle."
"Don't forget… the door will always be open for you… this room will always be waiting for you as will I and as will Kathy."
"I know, Uncle…" memory Jean said giving his uncle a hug. "I love you."
"I love you, too." Charles said as the hug ended. He then picked up an item that had gone unnoticed in his lap.
"Take this… so you never forget where you came from… or the people who wait for you here." Charles explained handing him the item that was revealed to be Jean's treasured pocket watch.
Jean then hugged Charles again, this hug tighter than the first.
"I won't forget." Memory Jean said then parted ways and opened a portal into another dimension and left.
Modern Jean, Amanda and Raven soon find themselves in a new place that Raven seems to recognize.
"Um… is this…" Amanda trailed in confusion.
"Azerath…" Raven supplied as they follow Memory Jean who headed down a hallway looking lost and confused.
"I knew I should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque." Memory Jean stated.
Raven and Amanda looked at modern Jean in confusion.
"What I love cartoons" he shrugged which earned head shakes from the two girls who just saw him as weird.
They watched as he decided to test a strange door that was purposely made to blend into the wall around it. To everyone's shock it opened easily.
"That wasn't supposed to happen." Raven commented.
To Be Continued…