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Xavier Institute
Rachel Grey's POV
"So what do you think of your new Jeannie roommate?" Kitty asked as she plopped down on the chair on the other side of the cafeteria table.
It'd been a couple of days since she'd moved into the boathouse with Alexia Harris, she'd gotten the look-a-like of her mother's last name during the course of the evening, but all in all it'd been pretty good. The girl was a bit odd and sometimes acted like she hadn't touched the usual toiletries in her life but aside from that was a pretty good person.
"She's okay, well as okay as a teenager who looks like my mom can be, and she's picking up what I'm teaching her quick enough." She replied remembering the lessons they'd had, "Whatever…changed her has given her a copy of my mom's subconscious control over her powers so she doesn't have to worry about keeping other peoples' thoughts out or accidentally lifting something telekinetically. I'm still putting her through the usual training lessons though because I figured it'd be best if she knew how to consciously shield her mind and keep her TK under control."
"Makes sense. When Ogun dumped all that ninja know how into my head I still needed to train my body in order to make the most of it." Kitty said nodding in understanding, "Implanted info might give you a leg up on people learning things the old fashioned way but they can quickly overtake you if you get too cocky."
Indeed.
It was all too easy to use moves and skills taken from someone else and think they're your own. When she'd been host for the Phoenix Force and used its power she hadn't thought of it as using someone else's power but rather as her using what belonged to her. When she'd lost the Phoenix powers though and was left with just her own natural mutant gifts she'd found herself forced to adjust quickly and it'd been humbling to grasp the differences in power level. She'd been forced to relearn a lot of the lessons she'd taken for granted or outright ignored because she'd had the power of the Phoenix to fall back on. She was getting there, day by day, but she still wasn't good enough to school Frost like she wanted to. It'd probably take another couple of years and a degree of focus on training that she wasn't sure she'd be able to manage given how hectic the life of an X-Man tended to be. Still her dad had made it mandatory for all X-Men teams to train in the Danger Room to keep their skills sharp and when possible improve so progress would be made albeit slower than she'd like.
"So how long do you figure it'll be before she's at the same level as the students on the teams Cyclops has created?" Kitty asked as curious as her codename, "Do you think he might stick her on one of them eventually?"
"It'll take a couple weeks before she's that far along." She replied after a moment's thought, "There's learning the basics of control and then I'll have to teach her some of the basics of telepathic and telekinetic combat. Until she's mastered all that it wouldn't be fair to put her with the more experienced students."
"True. Everything should go fine so long as Frost doesn't try anything." Kitty said sharing her opinion of the co-headmistress of the Institute.
"She won't. I'm keeping an eye on Alexia right now and on Frost." She stated firmly with a temporary look of resolve, "If she tries anything telepathically I'll know."
"Even though she came out on top when you guys went up against the new Hellfire Club?" Kitty asked with some hesitation about broaching the sore subject.
"She got lucky. Nothing more." She replied with a bit more of an edge than she'd intended.
"Damn straight!" Kitty declared with a smile to lighten the mood back up, "She's getting older and you're still in your prime. Sooner or later she'll go senile and then it'll be all over for her!"
They both shared a light chuckle at that both because it amused them to imagine the plastic surgery perfect form of Emma Frost as a wrinkled old hag and because if the older woman was listening in they could imagine the annoyed look on her face. Neither of them liked the superior attitude and bitchy behavior that her father's temptress always wore like a cloak wherever she went. She personally didn't like the way Frost took advantage of her father's problems following his separation from Apocalypse to seduce him away from his wife. The woman might claim to have turned over a new leaf and have chosen to fight on the side of the angels now but she wasn't convinced quite yet. For all they knew this was just another of the White Queen's plans albeit more long term than the woman was usually known for.
Still until Frost did something she could take before Cyclops to convince him that the bitch was up to no good she had no choice but to TRY to stay professional around her.
Hearing the level of gossip talking in the cafeteria go up she looked about to see what the cause was and quickly found out it was Alexia obviously coming in for a bite to eat. Some were subtle about it, others not quite as much and some were being blatantly obvious about looking at the newcomer that to them was a teenager version of one of their deceased instructors. Alexia definitely knew she was getting stared at but still tried to go about what she wanted to do without letting the fact that she was the center of attention get to her. She was wearing more of her spare clothes and that made her decide that she had to take the girl out shopping soon so she'd have a wardrobe of her own.
Maybe after Logan's training session in the Danger Room today. She thought remembering the lesson in non-powered combat was scheduled for later on, She looks like she's just a little different from Meggan's measurements so it should be easy enough to pick a few things out. I'll just charge it to my Institute credit card.
An eyebrow went up when it looked like Alexia was having a bit of an issue choosing what she wanted to eat. The girl would reach for something but then it looked like a thought caused her to change her mind before looking at what was left. It puzzled her for a minute but then an epiphany hit her: Alexia was trying to watch what she ate but since none of the plates or bowls of food had signs to show how many calories were involved it was making it difficult for the teenager to choose.
Deciding to take action before the others in the line started getting annoyed she got up from her seat and walked over to Alexia stopping just shy of the railing that framed the outside of the line.
"Personally I'd go with a whole grain bread sandwich, orange or apple juice and a pear just to get some fruit into you." She said causing Alexia to start a bit before half turning towards her, "You know you don't have to be that careful about what you eat. So long as you're willing to burn off whatever you put on it's all good."
"I know it's just…before coming here I wasn't exactly part of the popular crowd. Didn't have the looks for it or the fashion sense." Alexia said before quickly putting the suggested foods onto her tray, "Now I find myself in a body most girls my age would kill to have and I don't want to blimp out."
"I understand but don't stress out about it." She said as the two of them moved along with the line-up, "Lots of girls go weight nuts at your age and only wind up hurting themselves. Just Google 'ideal weight' online and put in the info it asks for. As long as you don't go more than ten or so pounds over that you'll be good."
"I will. Thanks." Alexia said with a small grin of gratitude.
Walking back to her table where Kitty was still waiting for her she couldn't shake the feeling bizzareness that came with the fact that she'd just given health advice to someone who'd been transformed into a teenage version of her mom. Still with everything Alexia had been through helping her settle in and get used to a world she'd only before seen in comics or cartoons was the least she could do was help out where she could.
It's also kinda fun teaching someone how to control their powers. She thought as a small smile formed on her face, Maybe if it works out well with Alexia I'll see about rotating into the Institute teaching staff.
It was an idle thought at the moment rather than one that usually defined one's future but it lingered long after she left the cafeteria.
Summers Family Boathouse
Xander/Alexia Harris' POV
I know I should be mingling more but it just feels…safer…to stick to the boathouse. She thought as she flipped through the channels on the flat screen television, Sure living in a place where everyone has mutant powers looked normal when I saw it on TV or read about it in the comics but actually LIVING here at the school…BIG DIFFERENCE!
If it'd just been the X-Men or one of the members of the other X-teams it wouldn't have been so bad because she'd practically memorized their powers so she'd know what to expect from them. However there were a LOT of students here with powers that she knew next to nothing about unless they were blatantly obvious she'd have no clue about what she might be giving away.
Near as she could tell so far no one seemed to suspect the truth about her, that she used to be a guy, but that was probably more due to the fact that her current and future body was the top gossip topic at the moment. It'd been a couple of days but apparently nothing else too exciting had happened to push her out of the number one spot of things to point and whisper about. About the only good thing she could say about the current state of affairs was the fact that because of her resemblance to the departed Jean Grey-Summers none of the guys in the student body had tried to make a pass at her.
Probably because they know that if they did try something it'd bring Cyclops, Wolverine and Beast down on their heads or at least earn them extra detentions especially if they didn't get a hint after she told them she wasn't interested for the umpteenth time.
She knew it was only a matter of time before she became the target of pick up lines and catcalls from guys because with a body and a face like she had right now they'd have to be dead or blind not to find her hot. That didn't mean of course that she was into guys anymore than when she'd been Xander Harris so if any of them tried to pick her up she'd tell them point blank that she was into girls not guys. Hopefully by the time any of them got aggressive about their advances she'd know enough about telepathy or telekinesis to send them packing.
Rachel had gone off on a mission with some other X-Men about half a day ago and as was usually the case with hero missions there was no estimated time of return. According to what the former Phoenix host had told her it'd been arranged that if it looked like she'd be away from the school for longer than a day a set of triplet girls referred to as the Cuckoos would sub for her telepathy lessons.
She'd spotted the blonde trio one time in the cafeteria and while they weren't doing the whole creepy 'dress exactly alike and have identical haircuts' thing she definitely noticed a level of synchronicity that was just plain spooky. Sure she knew that the trio wouldn't have been assigned as her substitute teachers if they didn't have the chops for it but he still hoped that Rae got back before the terror triplets got a crack at her. She'd heard how they'd been referred to as 'Emma's girls' and if that meant that the three had inherited the White Queen's point of view on the important stuff then she'd prefer to avoid them like she avoided their mentor. Her initial opinion formed from the comics had only been further supported by the scuttlebutt that'd been tossed about the hallways so unless the modesty lacking woman did something truly out of character to prove herself bitch of the negotiable morals she'd stay.
Nothing on. She thought as she put down the remote control on the science fiction channel, I was sure I'd find at least a few shows here like the ones back home but it's all different. Nothing that really grabs the attention is on at the moment.
She was just about to go over to the computer to resume studying on 'how to be a convincing teenage girl' when she heard sounds just outside the boathouse door. By the time she turned towards said door it was half open then revealed a sight that made her wonder how long it'd be before she had her first wardrobe malfunction. Standing in the doorway wearing a bikini top and serious miniskirt, both made out of fur trimmed animal hide was one Rachel Summers carrying two leather bags in her arms.
"I'm back!" Rachel declared with a smile on her face, "And I brought presents!"
"I can see that." She said with a half grin, "So…soiled or shredded?"
"What?" Rachel asked clearly not having connected the dots.
"Your usual green and yellow uniform." She replied explaining her earlier inquiry a bit, "Did it get so dirty you couldn't wear it or did it get shredded to the point where you couldn't wear it?"
"Neither. After fixing things with some evolved dinosaurs we encountered I decided to try out some of the local fashions." Rachel replied with only a little incredulity, "What made you think of those two scenarios?"
"The comic books from back home mostly." She replied honestly as her fellow redhead plunked herself down on the couch next to her, "In them whenever a character went all John or Jane of the Jungle it usually meant their outfit got unwearable somehow. My guess was either dirty beyond the telling of it or shredded to the point where it'd break several decency laws."
"You know that real life isn't like the comic books right?" Rachel asked sounding a bit amused by what she'd heard.
"If we were back in my home reality I'd say no but here we're in a world where there are super powers aplenty and freaky stuff happens every other day someplace on the planet." She replied with a grin and a shrug, "That means that I'm leaving my mind open to the possibilities until I get a better grip on where the limits of freakiness are in this reality."
It looked like Rachel was about to try and downplay how crazy things could get in the Marvel-verse but then remembered her own past before admitting to herself that it was more true than false.
"So anything exciting happen while I was away with the team?" Rachel asked before taking on a more relaxed posture.
She did her best NOT to let it show how attractive this posture made her look in her current Tarzana outfit.
"Not really. Just the usual mutant school stuff." She replied after thinking about the last couple of hours, "Glad you made it back before the twenty-four hour deadline though. Not looking forward to my first class with Frost's teenaged triplets."
"They're not that bad. Surprisingly enough they probably have the same opinion of Emma Frost that we do." Rachel said in defense of the trio, "In their mind two of their sisters got killed because of Frost's screw ups. Probably the only reason they haven't rejected her completely is because they still need someone to teach them how to get the most out of their telepathy."
She supposed the X-Man had a point.
She should know better than most how people sometimes turned out to be different from their reputations if you actually took the time to get to know them. After all back around Sunnydale High School she'd had the reputation for being a loser and the son of the town drunks who'd probably grow up to be the same. She'd definitely managed to avoid that fate but even back in her native reality she'd worked hard to make sure that she'd never grow up to be like Tony Harris. If the Cuckoo triplets were similarly trying to distance themselves from Frost and only went to her telepathy lessons because they had no choice then MAYBE he could test the waters with a lesson from them.
"FINE. If I need to learn telepathy from them someday I'll try to give them the benefit of a doubt." She said albeit with some reluctance, "But the second they start acting like Frost I am OUTTA there!"
"Fair enough but if you go more than five lessons without them trying anything you stop being so suspicious of them. Deal?" Rachel asked sounding somewhat serious.
"Make it a lucky seven lessons and you've got a deal." She replied with a bit of humor figuring if the trio didn't try something within seven lessons they weren't likely to.
"Deal! So anything worth watching on the idiot box?" Rachel asked turning her gaze to the still active TV.
"Nothing really. I thought some of my favorite shows would have counterparts here but no such luck." She replied with a bit of disappointment, "Almost makes me want to write up a pitch for a few of them and hand'em over to Archangel to see if he can get'em on the air."
"Not a bad idea." Rachel said actually considering the idea, "Assuming they're different enough from what's already on the air that you won't get sued for copyright infringement it'd give you a steady flow of cash to draw from."
"I was joking." She said not really serious about trying to pitch TV and movie ideas to Worthington for his backing.
"I wasn't. If the shows are as good as you think they are then they might actually get picked up by one of the studios. You make sure you own the rights to them or at least get part of the profits and you won't have to worry about money." Rachel said proving that she was serious about considering the idea, "It'd beat working a minimum wage job wouldn't it?"
She had a point.
Things were still in the works to get her the proper paperwork and database entries so she'd be considered an actual USA citizen but after that she'd be on the same playing field as everyone else trying to get a job as well as get by. She'd probably need to take a GED test before she could get hired for anything or start taking classes with the other students at the Institute. Aside from teaching how to control mutant powers as well as 'The Dream' as she had heard it called the place also provided the equivalent of a high school education. Still she wasn't sure he wanted to stick around the Institute long enough to earn a high school diploma the old fashioned way. No matter where he went in the Institute people just saw him as a mini-Jean Grey complete with Phoenix Force in his body and that included both the staff as well as the students. Some people might say that'd never change if she left for parts unknown and considering all the stuff that probably got left out of the comics she'd probably trip over trouble before she got very far.
She'd stick around until she had decent chops with telepathy and telekinesis at the very least.
"Definitely. As long as I don't have to sit through boring meetings and have someone I can trust to keep the sharks off me it'd be great." She replied with a nod at the possibility, "I even have the first idea ready for writing."
"What is it?" Rachel asked out of curiosity.
"A famous writer once said: write what you know." She replied with her new trademarked lopsided smile, "I think the first TV show I'll pitch will be called 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'."
Headmaster/mistress' Office
Xavier Institute
Rachel's POV
"Have you managed to learn anything more about her Rachel?" Scott asked as he looked across his desk at her.
It was just past the two week mark since the not-clone of her mother had started living with her at the mansion and during that time she'd been fortunate that she hadn't gotten called on as many missions as she'd feared she would. Whether that was a spot of good luck or Cyclops specifically ensuring that her team didn't get any assignments or just that he kept her out of circulation she didn't know. Personally she'd like to believe that they'd just hit a lull period but her time as a member of Excalibur and then the X-Men had taught her that lulls were often a double edged blade. True they gave you time to relax, recover and remember the good things about life but they were also the universe's way of warning them that something else was coming their way.
Something that they'd need all their strength to overcome.
In any case the lull had given her the time she'd needed to focus more on Alexia's lessons in telepathy and telekinesis. As a result the girl was making some pretty decent progress and seemed to lack some of the mental roadblocks that needed to be 'unlearned' by most newfound psionics. It was as if her mind had already revised what it considered to be possible or impossible and so when asked to do something most people would consider crazy the reflex to question it wasn't as strong.
She'd finished teaching the basic techniques for erecting and maintaining telepathic shields not to mention keeping Alexia from accidentally tapping into her telekinesis without meaning to. With accidental usage under respectable control she'd started the girl on the next stage of her training and that was to learn how to utilize both powers. From lifting various objects and moving them from point A to point B without a wobble to learning how to deliberately reach out telepathically to make contact with a specific person's mind. They'd only gone through three lessons so far but she was pleased with Alexia's progress thus far and didn't see any reason to change the approach she'd been using.
"Well she's definitely a sci-fi geek. Whatever we watch on TV always has a sci-fi theme to it and if not sci-fi then fantasy." She replied knowing what Scott really wanted but not wanting to give it to him, "I get the impression she was something of an ugly duckling back in her native reality. I've caught her looking at herself in the mirror a couple of times and preening a bit. Still the progress we've made in her lessons has gone a long way towards her getting comfortable with her circumstances and improving her self-image."
"While it's nice to know she's settling in I think you know what I want." he said in a firm yet peaceful way, "Has she told you any of the particulars about how she was changed? Anything more than what she's already told us?"
"No but then I haven't asked her any direct questions in that regard." She replied with a slight narrowing of her eyes, "She's said a few things offhand, bits and pieces, but nothing that we don't already know. What's going on?"
"Somehow word has gotten out that we've got a copy of Jean complete with Phoenix Force on the premises." He replied sounding like he might have his own suspicions about how that'd happened, "Now I have S.H.I.E.L.D, the Fantastic Four and just about every other organization whose ever had a decent idea of what the Phoenix is capable of asking questions."
Not good.
Due to the X-Men's personal connection with the Phoenix Force they had the most information on what it was, how it was connected to its host and what it was capable of. But with all the spook agencies like S.H.I.E.L.D and other people with the ability to pick up cosmic energy it was only natural that they'd know something of the Phoenix. Problem with that though was that something wasn't as good as everything but it was enough to make them afraid as well as panicky. She now realized that unless those people got some satisfactory answers they'd likely take it upon themselves to get them even if it meant taking Alexia 'into protective custody'.
"How long do you think you can keep them out of the Institute?" she asked wondering just how much breathing room they had.
"The calls started three days ago and I assured all of them that we were looking into the specifics." He replied sounding like he was really doing his best, "Nevertheless I give us a week, maybe less, before they stop listening to my assurances."
Damn.
That wasn't enough time in her opinion for her to just ask for the details and it was likely that to get everything she'd need to telepathically enter Alexia's mind to dig all of them out. That was straying dangerously close to the line that she'd always been told that no Institute trained telepath was permitted to pass save in life or death situations. While things were certainly going to be tense she didn't quite believe that things had gotten that bad yet that she could justify invading the girl's privacy.
"Any specific questions they want answered?" she asked hoping that the inquiries would give her a little wiggle room.
"What does she know about magic? Could the process be replicated? Is it really the Phoenix or just some copy? Is there a way to neutralize both host and cosmic being if Alexia loses control?" he replied with a series of questions, "Those were the broad strokes. Basically they want to know if they should send in the troops, could groups like Hydra or the Hand start making their own Phoenixes and how to deal with Alexia if she starts developing a taste for suns."
"Gee, they don't ask for much DO they?" she asked sarcastically when she considered how likely it was that any of those questions would be answered.
"Maybe but I can't help but share their concern." He replied turning to look out the window of his office, "Don't get me wrong you've been making good progress helping her to get a handle on her powers but it still doesn't explain why she hasn't manifested the Phoenix Force again. If her control over it is the same as her control over her psionics we should've seen some sign of it before now. I don't like it."
"I'll admit that there're a few things that're a bit off about her but I don't think she's up to anything." She said defending her 'student' without thinking, "I definitely don't think that she'd keeping the Phoneix bottled up in preparation for some big play."
"For what it's worth I don't think so either." He said sounding honest, "Still it doesn't change the fact that we need those answers if we're going to keep others from coming to the Institute with their crosshairs on Alexia."
"I'll…I'll try to get her to let me do a telepathic scan for the period from one hour prior to her arrival here to when the Avengers first showed up." She said reluctantly not feeling quite at peace with what she'd be doing, "No more than that."
"That'll be good enough." He said with a reassuring smile, "I know this isn't easy for you Rachel but it has to be done."
I hope I don't wind up regretting this. She thought as her 'father' and her finished up their meetings before parting company.
Summers Family Boathouse
Alexia/Xander's POV
"You want to do WHAT?" she asked after hearing Rachel state the next part of her training.
"Telepathically enter your mind in order to practice fighting someone mind-to-mind." Rachel replied automatically but with a hint of anxiety, "I've shown you how to make mental shields. Normally I'd focus on teaching you how to make them do more than keep casual thoughts from getting out or in before moving on to telepathic combat but we live in interesting times. Because of that teaching you how to fight telepathically has gotten moved up the list of priorities."
Didn't that sound ominous and foreboding?
Up until now the two of them had been taking an official yet casual approach to her lessons and it'd been fairly logical in its progression. Now to jump to learning mind-fu when it would've been more logical to teach her how to erect defenses against psi-attacks rather than go straight to pitting mind against mind. The only reason she could think of for such a change in the structure of the lessons was if something was forcing Rachel to alter them in order to better fit the new circumstances. That being the case she had one question that needed answering before she'd agree to that level of contact.
"What's happened?" she asked with wariness looking Marvel Girl right in the eye, "Something's happened and you're putting a rush on things. What is it?"
She could see the anxiety in the young woman spike at her question and she knew she was right on the money. Still she didn't say or do anything since if she went on the offensive too strong Rachel might lock up and refuse to say anything. It was basic X-Men strategy to either defend or attack when coming under fire but never to surrender unless they had no other choice. She needed to make sure that Marvel Girl didn't treat this as a verbal combat situation.
"Scott's…been getting calls from a lot of different groups, POWERFUL groups, that know you're here and know you have the Phoenix Force inside of you." Rachel replied her honesty winning out over a likely urge to bullshit her, "Considering the Phoenix's reputation in the past they've got questions that they want answered. Scott's doing his best to keep them back but he's afraid that if he doesn't get them their answers they'll come take them. I…I told him I'd try to get him the answers he needs. Just from the hour before the spell hit you until you first ran into the Avengers. Scott said that'd be enough to get S.H.I.E.L.D and the other groups off your back."
Shit.
"How'd they find out? Only the X-Men and the Avengers know I'm here." She said as she tried to deal with this new development.
"S.H.I.E.L.D and groups on the same level have people everywhere. If they wanted to they could probably find out what I ate for breakfast my second day as a member of Excalibur." Rachel replied a bit ruefully implying that she'd heard just that from one of Fury's agents before, "And that's not accounting for any scientist with equipment capable of detecting the cosmic energy the Phoenix Force gives off."
Made sense.
She'd read no shortage of comic books where every federal agency on the planet, every noteworthy terrorist organization and every hero team had a way of keeping an eye out for the strange as well as the bizarre. Mix a dimensional breach along with the power of a cosmic being and it was a no brainer that every monitoring system on the look out for such things would be screaming bloody murder. As for how those people traced her to the Institute she could only presume that the X-Jet must have gotten its picture taken by one spy satellite or another. From there even a rookie fresh from boot camp could've figured out where the X-Men would've taken her.
Silently she considered her options as well as what it'd cost her if she went through with what Rachel had in mind. If she let the X-Man into her head she'd find out what she used to be a he and that'd make things rather awkward between the two of them as well as anyone she told. After all it was one thing walking around with a towel wrapped around your middle when the only other person in the room was what you believed was another woman. It'd be another thing entirely to find out that it was a guy in a girl's body especially considering the eyeful she got that first night they spent in the boathouse with Kitty Pryde. While she wouldn't call the young woman her friend yet she'd also rather not have to change residences again or deal with the 'what is she thinking' looks she'd get.
Still…he knew well from the comics how important the Institute was to mutantkind and how little the people with guns would care about collateral damage if it meant getting their hands on the Phoenix Force.
She couldn't sacrifice innocent students just to keep her own secrets.
"Okay. But JUST for the time period you mentioned and not a second more." She said firmly even as the butterflies in her stomach started acting up, "I've got some things I'd rather you not see."
"No problem." Rachel said with a look on her face that made it clear she could be trusted.
"Then let's get this done before I start having second AND third thoughts." She said as she turned fully towards the X-Man, "What do I have to do?"
"Just stay calm and lower the mental barriers. I'll do the rest." Rachel said turning to face her as well.
Waiting for something to happen she was a little disappointed with how there was no energy crackling around Rachel or any other visual clue that she was using her telepathy. Maybe there was some trick to seeing it or maybe you needed some sort of tech toy to do it or maybe the artists for the comic books just put the energy fields in to make it easier to understand what was going on. Still it made him a little antsy not being able to see signs of when Rachel was going to jump inside his head. Nevertheless she did as requested and lowered the mental barriers she'd been taught how to erect in order to keep her thoughts her own and everyone else's thoughts their own.
What happened next didn't have any transition period like going down a drain or an oily wave cascade before things changed but rather a snap change of environment.
One second she was looking at Rachel in the boathouse and the next she was floating in some sort of limbo area with Rachel doing the same across from her.
She didn't need to even ask if her mental self looked different from her physical self.
Rachel's look said it all.
"Surprise?" she said with her lopsided smile noting that her mental self had her old male voice in place rather than her current female one.
Looking down he confirmed that the mental self was in the form of her old male body but it was bittersweet because she knew even this would be lost to her eventually.
"What…the…FUCK!?" Rachel exclaimed in utter shock looking her mental self over from top to bottom and back again.
"Yeah…I kinda omitted some facts back in the forest." She said like a kid who'd been caught red handed by their mother, "Like the fact I used to be a guy."
"How the hell does that work?!" Rachel asked sounding like she considered an omission to be dangerously close to being a lie.
"Well…um…ah HELL!" she replied unable to think of a good way to say it, "Look back two hours before the spell hit and you should get your answers."
"I'd better!" Rachel said firmly before the mental limbo around them shifted to when she was heading for Principal Snyder's office.
She didn't say anything as the memories went by for Rachel to view because truth be told she didn't want to dwell on how she'd been blackmailed by a person in a position she should've been able to trust. If she'd had a chance to do it all over again she honestly couldn't say she'd have done it any different even if it'd meant she'd still be a he. A switch of gender and dimensional displacement was a small price to pay for keeping his friends out of the crosshairs long enough for them to turn the tables on Snyder.
"How the hell did this…this…CAVEMAN…ever get to be a high school principal?!" Rachel asked clearly angry with what Snyder had done.
"Your guess is as good as mine." She replied with a shrug of her mental self's shoulders, "I can only guess that whoever was in charge of hiring Principal Flutie's replacement either never met the man or met him and didn't care how he'd treat the students he was in charge of."
From there things progressed to how her friends had chosen to dress up as X-Men as well to ease the discomfort of having to dress up as the Dark Phoenix. Rachel seemed to find their time in Ethan's Costume Shop amusing as well as how they all looked in costume once they'd all put their outfits. From there things went pretty much as he recalled without anything deviating but when they finally arrived at the moment when the spell kicked in pain swam over her consciousness like a school of Piranhas. Then like a hiccup they jumped from the pain to her first memory of arriving in the Marvel-verse followed by her efforts to escape the forest along with the civilians that'd been trapped by the fire.
"What was that?" she asked referring to the memory hiccup.
"Your mind must be suppressing the missing memories due to the pain." Rachel replied while moving her hands about like they were operating invisible keyboards, "I can probably find the missing memories and dull most of the pain but it'll still hurt."
"Do it. Pain and I are old friends." She said before bracing herself for what was to come.
Whatever it was couldn't be any worse than Tony Harris during one of his more vicious moments.
When the memories began to rewind she was almost staggered by the pain but she gripped her resolve hard and endured so that Rachel could get the information Cyclops needed to persuade the paranoids to back off. As the lost memories went by though new sensory information began to stride forward on her perceptions that didn't make up the five basic ones or her emotions.
"It's telepathy. This must be the point where your body was altered enough to gain that power and its acting the way it usually does on its initial manifestation." Rachel explained even as the number of thoughts, of minds, began to increase at a rapid pace.
It was beautiful in a way and the fact that Rachel seemed to be using her powers to keep the minds at a distance was much appreciated since she didn't think she could keep them back on top of deal with the numbed pain. Before long she imagined that the thoughts of every citizen of Sunnydale surrounded her being held back by Marvel Girl's telepathy. She couldn't make out specific voices or thoughts, they were overlapping each other too much for that, but truth be told she didn't mind that since she was pretty sure she was better off NOT knowing.
Then without warning…minds began vanish and the only thing that hinted at the cause were screams of terror that were suddenly silenced without warning. With every second that passed between more screams came forth only to be silenced and before long there was no longer the brief silence between the screams but instead a single unending symphony of suffering. It was horrible, more horrible than anything she'd ever heard since learning about the truth, and it was only getting harder for her to hear with every moment that passed.
"What's happening!?" she asked with horror as more than half the minds vanished from existence.
"My god…it's killing them…FEEDING off of them…" Rachel gasped looking and sounding like she could scarcely believe what she was discovering.
"What's killing them!?" she asked wanting more than anything at the moment to understand what was going on.
"The…Phoenix Force…what's inside you right now isn't the Phoenix Force from this reality." Rachel replied as three quarters of the minds were now gone, "Somehow…some way…the spell that changed you CREATED an entity patterned after it and then…and then something happened and it started feeding off of everyone within range. It…KILLED them…devoured their life energy…their souls…to make itself stronger…it's almost as if the magic that made it couldn't keep it alive so it went after the closest substitute…"
No…nononononononononononoNO! She thought as she shoved aside with a thought Rachel's efforts to keep the disappearing minds back from her.
By instinct more than conscious thought she sought out the minds of those precious to her in an effort to find some kind of proof that they were safe. Buffy, Willow, Giles, Miss Calendar and Cordy took priority over everything else as she tried to find their minds by the thoughts going through their head. She knew peripherally that this was just a memory and that she'd only be able to find what little her mind had been able to put into memory at the time but that mattered little at the moment.
As the number of minds continued to decrease her search became ever more frantic but in the end the horrible truth was laid out before her.
Two minds that could only belong to Giles and Miss Calendar for she heard their voices in them.
However no sooner did she find them then they did scream out in fear before vanishing into nothingness as the newborn Phoenix consumed all that they were and ever could be in order to stay alive. In that moment the truth became all too clear to her: if Giles and Jenny were consumed by the flames of the Phoenix then the others who'd been much closer had to have been devoured as well.
His…her…friends were dead…and she'd chosen the form of their destruction.
She was responsible!
Rational thought slipped beyond her grasp leaving only unequalled pain, grief and sorrow.
For the young woman who was once the young man Alexander LaVelle Harris his friends were his true family and it was due to the bonds she had with them that she could walk away from the path Tony Harris walked.
Now they were gone, their blood on his hands, and there was only one response to this that her soul would accept.
She screamed and let out the suffering of her soul for all to hear.
Rachel's POV
Now I know what a baseball feels like. She thought to herself with a groan as she mentally released the protective telekinetic field she'd thrown up around her body the second she'd realized what was going to happen.
SSHHRRRAAAAAA!
Looking up at the bird of dark fire that towered over what was left of the boathouse she could feel waves of sorrow, grief, guilt and pain flowing away from it. Not that she could blame him…her…whatever…considering what they'd just found out but just the same she couldn't let this outburst continue no matter how justified it might be. Not only would it cause anyone monitoring the Institute to panic and assume the worst but the feelings it was sending out would frighten the younger students who hadn't been taught how to put strong psi-shields into place. With that in mind she telepathically reached out to Alexia's mind in the hopes that she could get through and talk the teenage girl down. She soon found out though that with all the power that the fake Phoenix was putting out getting to the host's mind was like trying to swim against a strong current. While her progress wasn't pitiful it would still take her time to make it all the way through and even then she'd have to split her attention between maintaining the connection and talking Alexia down.
Hopefully it wouldn't take more than a few minutes to calm the young woman down or else she might have to ask Frost to tag in while she recovered her strength.
It seemed to take forever but in reality it just took a little over five minutes but she eventually managed to make contact with Alexia's mind. The connection was almost immediately shattered though for while the emotions being emitted by the Phoenix were potent from the outside being in direct contact with the source was ten times worse. In response she threw up three of her strongest psi-shields in addition to the one she'd gone in with so as to ensure that she didn't wind up getting swept away by the swift rapids of sorrow.
"Alexia! Alexia you must stop this!" she said telepathically as she tried to cut through the emotions to get at the rational mind beneath, "I know it was horrible, I know you're hurting, but you have too much power to lose control like this! Please! Calm down!"
She didn't sense much of a response to her telepathic message and that would not do because even through the storm of psionic energy she could tell Frost and the other X-Men were quickly approaching. She knew that if Frost got involved in the 'conversation' it would either result in cowing Alexia quickly or provoking the young woman into actually making things worse out of sheer spite. The woman was terrible with children no matter what the white wearing woman said in her own defense and generally used her authority to get them to do what she wanted. Add to that the fact that Alexia's resemblance to her mother might cause Frost to pull her metaphorical punches less and it was a recipe for disaster.
"Xander! I know what it's like to lose everyone you care about!" she said mentally as she tried to hook the teenager's attention, "I lost them all to the Sentinels in my time! I was there when most of them died! I saw them DIE! It was hard but I had people who helped me get through it like my teammates in Excalibur! I know you're new here but that doesn't mean there aren't people willing to help you cope! XANDER!"
This did a little better than her first statement as she sensed a fluctuation in the flow of emotions pouring from Alexia's mind and that was a promising start. Still she needed something more, something that would snap things into place, and after a short period of thinking she figured out what it had to be. She'd seen it when she'd looked through his memories of those hours before the spell hit and changed everything and it was a pretty solid indicator of what the boy turned girl admired if she liked superhero stuff.
"XANDER! YOU NEED TO STOP RIGHT NOW OR YOU'RE GOING TO HURT SOMEONE!" she said telepathically as loudly as she could to cut through the emotions, "YOU'RE GOING TO HURT SOMEONE LIKE THE PEOPLE OF SUNNYDALE! DO YOU WANT THAT?!"
Now THAT had an affect since almost immediately she could feel a strong will marshaling itself against the emotions that opposed it. Like trying to balance a large stack of books in your arms while you walk up a flight of stairs Alexia aka Xander worked to get her emotions back under control as well as reign in the flames of the Phoenix. It wasn't steady and there were more than a few times that it looked as though a metaphorical book was about to slide off the stack but nothing happened. As she sensed that things were about to end she withdrew from Aleixa's mind and when she opened her eyes she watched as the last of the Phoenix fire vanished into nothingness.
The boathouse was a complete mess and would probably take a couple of weeks to restore to its former livability and it was a given that at least some of her things had been reduced to so much trash. While she wasn't exactly happy about it she'd more or less gotten used to it over the years since having your home trashed was pretty much a given when you were a superhero or more specifically a member of an X-team. Fortunately Kitty had copies of most of the photos and any of the truly irreplaceable things she'd had foresight enough to put into storage for safekeeping. Still it meant that both her and Lexia were going to have to find someplace new to sleep because without a roof the boathouse just would not do the trick.
"Rachel! What happened?!" Scott asked definitely as leader of the X-Men rather than her father.
"You asked me to find out how she got turned into Dark Phoenix and I did." She replied as she began to make her way to the boathouse to see how Alexia was doing, "It was…horrible…but I can say with certainty that Phoenix Force inside of her isn't from our reality. In fact before the spell that changed her it didn't even exist."
"WHAT!?" Kitty exclaimed from her position in the mobile group, "How the hell does that happen?!"
"Someone cast a spell to turn people into their Halloween costumes. When the spell reached Alexia it did more than just change her physically into a copy of mom." She replied as she reached the door to the boathouse and used her TK to shove the debris to the side, "It literally tried to create a Phoenix Force. I don't know specifically what happened after that but I know that whatever power source was fueling the change severed its connection to her. It should've stopped everything but it'd gone too far. The being inside her was aware enough to know that it needed more power if it was going to live."
"I'm guessing something bad happened." Beast said with a bit of humor that made it clear he understood he was making quite a large understatement at the moment.
"You could say that." Rachel said as she navigated what remained of the boathouse to where she'd last seen Alexia, "The new Phoenix Force…it killed every living thing in Alexia's hometown and devoured their life energy. All her friends, family and even people she might've just known from seeing them walk down the street. All killed so that this new Phoenix Force could keep itself alive. Alexia didn't take this well."
"Really? I hadn't noticed." Frost stated with her usual sarcastic wit.
It was less than a minute later that they found ground zero for the manifestation of the Phoenix fire raptor and when she saw Alexia sitting on the floor, knees pulled up to her chest with her arms around them, with a haunted look on her face…on mom's face…she didn't even think. She immediately walked over to the crying girl, got down on her knees and wrapped her arms around Alexia to deliver the most comforting hug she could manage. It didn't stop the crying but she seriously hoped that it let the teenage girl know she wasn't alone in this new reality that was now her home.
She might've started out just being a teacher and new roommate with Alexia but after what she'd seen and felt…it was impossible to go back to that.
While there were differences between what Alexia had gone through and what she'd gone through there were enough similarities that she felt an emotional connection with her. She remembered how she felt those first few days when she arrived in the past, how she felt believing that Kate had died while she'd lived, and more than anything else what'd gotten her through it was friendship.
Friendship and family helped her get over her losses as well as a place she could call home.
She could definitely offer the first to the young woman and as for the latter…HELL…why not? She had the looks for it as well as the DNA according to the Hank and it wasn't like the government was going to let her get away with just a first name.
Besides it was about time the Grey family went up by one.
Emma and Scott's Office
The Xavier Institute
Cyclops' POV
"Well that was a lovely vid-conference." Emma said in perfect deadpan English accent and all, "You know what's going to happen next don't you?"
"I know what MIGHT happen next but I'm going to do what I can to make sure it won't." he said determined not to let S.H.I.E.L.D or anyone else walk off with Alexia, "I'll call in whatever favors I'm owed to set up enough roadblocks that it'll be more trouble than it's worth to try and get Alexia."
He could tell from the look on her face that she suspected that the real reason he was willing to go so far with this was because Alexia looked like Jean. While he'd be lying if he said that the resemblance wasn't influencing his choices at all he had perfectly good other reasons for keeping other organizations from getting ahold of a teenage girl merged with a proto-Phoenix Force.
For one thing it wasn't completely beyond the realm of possibility that the proto-Phoenix inside of Alexia might get stronger as more time passes or someone might try to make it stronger for reasons unknown. Considering what the Phoenix Force native to this reality was capable of it was far too risky to allow anyone to try to tamper with its alternate reality 'hatchling'.
A point in Alexia's favor was that she experienced a trauma that had it happened to Jean when she was in full possession of the Phoenix Force would've done serious damage to the Institute yet only the boathouse was destroyed. On a subconscious level Alexia kept the power of her Proto-Phoenix in check enough that no one got hurt. This to him was reason enough to do what he could to keep more problems from being added to the girl's plate.
"You know those 'roadblocks' of yours are only going to be effective against those who wish to 'acquire' our little Dark Phoenix through legal channels all neat and proper." Emma pointed out sounding like she was skeptical of the effectiveness of the obstructions, "There are some who will think that they don't have to play nice with us or that they can ignore the law in the belief that because we're mutants anyone we complain to will only feign to be on our side."
"They'll at least cut down on the number of people who'll be coming and the ones who're left will have a tough time defending their actions after we kick their asses." He said making it clear that anyone who came to the Institute looking for a fight would get one.
A BIG one.
"Before you begin formulating battle strategies for fending off multiple sources of intrusion might I suggest an alternative?" Emma asked rhetorically before laying out her idea, "Rather than endanger our students by placing them in the middle of a potential firefight I suggest covertly relocating our little Dark Phoenix to another location. Someplace close by so we could fly to the rescue should her new place of residence be discovered but also far enough from the Institute to ensure the safety of the students."
"I assume you have a place in mind." He said knowing full well she wouldn't be saying anything if she didn't.
You know me too well darling. She thought at him before saying, "I recommend relocating her to the Massachusetts Academy. Despite closing it down as a school I've still had the buildings as well as the equipment maintained with a cleaning service brought in once a month to keep things respectable. Executed properly no one will ever know she's left the premises and one person living on such a large property will be hard to detect unless Alexia draws attention to herself with something appropriately spectacular like a manifestation of the fire raptor."
"Rachel would have to go with her. She was the one who got Alexia to calm down and the girl still needs to be taught how to harness her powers." He said considering the viability of the option.
"Then place her on the reserve list for now until she's completed her lessons with Alexia. She's hardly critical enough to be sent on EVERY mission and I dare say she feels a certain kinship to the girl." She said as though the solution was obvious, "If something were to occur that specifically required her presence she would only be a little over two hours away by car and much less by X-Jet."
"And will the same arrangement with the Cuckoos apply with these new circumstances?" he asked just to make sure everything was laid out, "If there's a missions that SPECIFICALLY requires Rachel's involvement will they be relocated to the Massachusetts Academy for the duration of the mission?"
At that question a moment of…hurt…manifested for a second on Emma's face before the usual White Queen poise returned almost making him think he imagined the whole thing.
Almost.
"The Cuckoos…have become somewhat displeased with me as of late." She explained sounding as cold as ever, "I had thought we were getting better after the battle in New York involving Xorn but it appears that all that is needed to sour their dispositions is the anniversary of Sophie's death and the idea that my behavior contributed to Esme's betrayal. It should be fairly easy to request that they relocate to the Massachusetts Academy as well since it will enable to them to get away from…me."
Contrary to what Emma thought it was relatively easy to figure out when something was bothering her since she usually overemphasized her superior attitude or Ice Queen approach to cover up what was really going on inside her head. Despite this superior attitude he'd been able to tell from the beginning that she was fond of the Cuckoos and that their hostile attitude hurt her emotionally. Still maybe some time away from each other will give both parties time to heal and reassess their viewpoints enough that the relationship could still be salvaged.
Personally he blamed Quire and whoever came up with Kick for Sophie's death. As for Esme's demise…that was a three way blame involving Kick, the girl's own choices and Xorn. Could they have been avoided if Emma had or had not done something? Honestly he couldn't say. You could spend a lifetime going over past mistakes, past decisions, wondering if things would've turned out differently if you'd gone down a different path but since changing the past wasn't advisable you had no choice but to move forward.
Precisely why I try not to dwell on such things. Emma thought into his mind telepathically, Now it's late and we will have a busy day tomorrow. Let's go to bed.
While a part of him thought he should really try to get a little more work done he had to concede that figuring out a way to covertly sneak Alexia, Rachel and the Cuckoos over to the Massachusetts Academy was going to be hard work. He'd need to be on top of his game, especially if the operation went FUBAR at some point, in order to deal with it in the correct manner. So with only a half second of hesitation he turned off the vid-screen, the computer built into his desk and followed Emma out turning the lights off before closing the door.
As he pushed the last thoughts of work away he recalled the one thing that Rachel had telepathically asked of him before they'd gone their separate way. It'd been a simple request but at the same time he found it an oddly appropriate one. It'd take about a week for it to get done but that was okay and then he could hand deliver the package himself assuming he wasn't on a mission at the time.
It'd be amusing to see the look on Alexia's face once she saw what was inside.
Flying Through the Air
Alexis/Xander's POV
Sitting in the chair near the rear of the X-Jet she didn't say anything, barely acknowledged her surroundings and just waited to be told that they'd reached their destination.
Even if it'd been over twelve hours since…since she'd learned the truth she still felt emotionally numb and couldn't work up the slightest motivation to do much of anything. What was the point? Maybe she'd feel differently in a few weeks but for the time being she just couldn't bring herself to care about anything. How could she? She'd killed everyone she'd ever cared for. Oh Rachel had tried to convince her that there was no way she could've known what'd happen Halloween night but she didn't know the Hellmouth. The weird, the bizarre and the freaky happened atop the Hellmouth every day of every week of every month of every year and it jumped on people tempting fate like she'd pounce on a crate filled with unopened packages of Twinkies. She should've known that dressing up as the Dark Phoenix, one of the most infamous villains of the Marvel Universe, on Halloween was just BEGGING Murphy, the Hellmouth and the old Harris luck to pull something.
Now they were all dead.
The Scoobies were dead and it was because of a choice she'd made.
She didn't blame the proto-Phoenix Force inside of him despite the fact that it'd been what'd killed the Scoobies along with hundreds of other Sunnydale residents. It'd just been trying to stay alive, to survive, on an instinctive level most primal and she very much doubted that even a speck of sentient thought had been involved. You don't blame a wolf for killing its meal because that's what it has to do in order to survive. If a predator gets into a populated area and starts killing that doesn't make it evil because the majority of animals only go into towns or cities when its food supply in the wilderness is tapped out or stretched thin. If there'd been a sentient mind, if there'd been an actual choice to kill others for their life energy and if there'd been no justifiable reason for the act then perhaps she could hate it but that wasn't what happened.
So in the end the only person she could really blame was herself.
Snyder gave her a choice to and she chose to dress up as Dark Phoenix.
She'd made that choice knowing full well what happened on the Hellmouth and had foolishly believed Buffy when she'd told them that according to Giles the paranormal stayed indoors on Halloween. While choosing to tell Snyder to go stuff himself would've led to legal trouble for the Scoobies at least they'd be alive to try and dig themselves out of it. Now…now they didn't have bodies to even dig with. They didn't have anything.
THEY weren't anything anymore.
"We're coming up on the Academy." Cyclops said from the pilot's chair of the X-Jet, "Everyone into position!"
Unbuckling her seatbelt she moved to the part of the cockpit outlined in tape to join Rachel, Kitty and the Cuckoos taking only a moment to pick up her backpack in order to put it on. The plan was a simple one: once they were close enough to the Academy Kitty would phase the lot of them through the hull of the X-Jet and then Rachel would use her TK in concert with hers to ease them down to the ground. It wouldn't be easy because just as the comics had described it back home Kitty going intangible didn't take away from the speed their bodies were travelling at along with the rest of the jet. When they dropped through the jet their speed of movement would begin to drop but not fast enough to allow them to survive the drop to the ground. Rachel had spent several of the last few hours drilling her on her TK especially when it came to manipulating a living thing like a person so that she wouldn't accidentally hurt anyone.
It'd given her something to distract her mind with…keep her from…from remembering…so she'd thrown herself into it with all the passion she could muster.
She actually managed to get better at it than Rachel had been expecting.
Enough daydreaming. She thought as everyone either grabbed one of Kitty's hands or put their hands on the brunette's shoulders, Focus on the task at hand.
"Entering the drop zone in five…four…three…two…one…NOW!" Cyclops yells from the cockpit and immediately her perspective changes.
It's a tingly feeling become intangible but that feeling gets shoved to the side as they begin to drop from the standard cruising altitude for a jet down towards the Academy grounds below. After all they're not wearing parachutes and Cyclops couldn't afford to fly any lower without making unfriendly eyes suspicious but still it gets the old adrenaline pumping. In order for the plan to work Kitty has to hold them all phased until they're at the minimum safe distance for telekinetic deceleration so that they can slip past any electronic eyes. Looking at Shadowcat she can tell that keeping six people phased at one time for so long is putting a bit of a strain on her but like a true X-Man she's soldiering through it.
When she felt the vibrating of the device attached to her belt she knew that they'd reached the right height and like clockwork the tingling vanished. Immediately she linked up telepathically with Rachel and the two of them enveloped the group with a TK field before gradually reducing their speed to something that wouldn't turn them into a greasy smear on the front step of the main Academy building. It was different from what they'd tried just jumping off the rooftop of the Institute's main building both in terms of the speed they were going and the distance they fell but it didn't really matter. The basic steps were the same and just like the device on her waist vibrated to let her know when to use her TK it also monitored their rate of descent. If they tried to decelerate too quickly, to the point where their bodies were at risk, it vibrated and if they didn't decelerate quickly enough it vibrated.
She was quick to get a handle on where she needed to keep things.
A few minutes later they touched down just a few feet from the front steps none the worse for wear except maybe for the need for some of them to put a comb through their hair.
"Well that was a rush." She said with feigned amusement, "Who wants to do it again?"
"Not us." The Cuckoos replied in perfect sync with each other, "Now if you don't mind we'd like to settle in our room."
"Killjoys." She said before she walked up to the front door and used the key she'd been given to unlock it.
Opening the door she found the place pretty much like she expected it to be: expensive looking, high class to the hilt and definitely more space than five people needed. Typing in the code Frosty had given her she deactivated the security system so they wouldn't have every cop in range driving up to the front gate. Most of them headed upstairs to where the bedrooms were but Kitty went downstairs so she could turn the utilities back on as well as some of the more exotic hardware that hadn't been removed since Frosty shut the Academy down. Walking down the hallway she tried to figure out which room would appeal to her more and which she didn't particularly care for but one looked to be just as good as the others…right up until she hit the room that was OBVIOUSLY the master bedroom. True it had none of the usual amenities that showed a person actually slept there, nothing that belonged to Frosty, but the fact that it used to belong to the woman was enough for her to make her choice.
Tossing the backpack next to the bed she took a running leap before landing on the four poster bed and taking a moment to enjoy the feel of the bed sheets.
She hadn't chosen this room because she LIKED Emma Frost but rather because she'd gotten the idea that if she played her cards right then she'd get to see a 'WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE TO MY ROOM!?' look on the blonde bitch's face the next time she visited. She knew it'd happen sooner or later since Frosty owned the property and was co-headmaster of the Institute so she wanted to make a 'good' first impression. The only problem was that she didn't quite know what'd push Frosty's buttons to the point where she'd lose her composure without causing her to use her telepathy to extract payback.
Maybe the Cuckoos have a few ideas. She thought idly before rolling onto her back, They were the woman's prized pupils at one time so they have to know her better than anyone save Cyclops.
Give us a few days and we'll have a few ideas for you. Came the thoughts of the Cuckoos into her head.
She was a bit miffed both because they'd made it past her psi-shields and because they'd entered her mind without permission but decided that if they were willing to help her knock Frosty for a mental loop she'd let it slide.
THIS time.
FYI we're only reading your surface thoughts. Unlike Miss Frost we respect the privacy of others more than she does. The Cuckoos thought into her mind, Plus your shields might be good for a beginner but we've been at this a lot longer than you.
Point.
Don't suppose you have any pointers to toss my way? She thought telepathically at the part of the building she sensed they were in.
Psi-shields tend to get weaker whenever you're emotional or under stress of some kind. The Cuckoos replied after a brief pause, We recommend using the variation of the Danger Room out back to create such situations so you'll be able to keep people out no matter what happens.
Good to know. She thought back telepathically before sitting up on the bed, Thanks!
You're…welcome. The Cuckoos thought back in reply before she felt their connection vanish.
"Weird. You'd think no one ever thanked them for helping out before." She muttered before she stood up to put the few things she had away in their proper places.
The Danger Dome
Rachel's POV
"You've gotta keep moving 'Xia!" she said as she chased after her student through the Danger Dome, "Your opponent isn't going to let you stop so you can center yourself and psi-blast them."
"I know, I know! Back in Sunnyhell though running took priority over fighting." Alexia said as she tried to fire off another psi-bolt while not breaking her stride, "Sure that was because all I'd usually get for fighting was bruises and broken bones but my brain's having a little trouble getting out of the flight gear and into the fight gear."
"You were doing fine when you were throwing down with the Avengers outside of Cooperstown." She said even as the incoming psi-bolt splashed against her shields.
"That wasn't thinking! That was me going with my gut and doing whatever seemed like a good idea at the time." Alexia explained before telekinetically lifting herself over a log before touching down and resuming the running, "Huh…maybe that's what I'm doing wrong: thinking about it too much."
"Overthinking might be part of it but you still need control." She said as she closed the gap between the two of them, "We have the power to kill people with a thought, to cripple their minds, and we can't afford to be careless with that kind of power."
"I know! 'With great power there must always come great responsibility'." Alexia said with a bit of a bite before using her telekinesis to propel some rocks in her direction.
It was a breach of the terms of the test they'd set out at the beginning, that this'd be purely a telepathic match, but that didn't mean she disapproved of the tactic the girl had just used. She actually applauded it since using TK in that manner to break an enemy telepath's concentration was often a good tactic since it created an opening for a psi-bolt. In this case though, with an opponent like her, it would be better to propel boulders rather than a shovel full of gravel since for someone like her putting up a TK barrier of her own wasn't too difficult. Lining up and firing off a psi-bolt of her own at her student she watched as it ALMOST hit but was parried off to the side by a bolt of slightly greater power. She didn't believe it was thought out or preplanned though so while nice she'd still have to teach him how to consciously block or parry a psi-bolt.
For the next hour straight they continued to run about the Danger Dome as she pushed her student to learn how to use her telepathy on the go rather than stay in one place. Eventually though they both got tired and sat down where they'd put some bottled water and sandwiches at the beginning of their training session.
"Okay we'll take an hour break and then go at it for another two hours." She said after swallowing the first bite of her sandwich, "After that the rest of the day is yours."
"Sounds good to me." Alexia said after taking a gulp of water to wash down her latest mouthful of sandwich.
It'd been about a week since they'd arrived at the Academy and already all of them had pretty much settled into their respective routines. Their belongings, the Cuckoos and what was left of hers after the boathouse had been destroyed, had arrived two days afterward and they finished unpacking by sunset. The Cuckoos mostly kept to themselves and they only crossed paths in the kitchen or the living room but even then barely a word was spoke that didn't absolutely need to be said. As much as the trio might not like Frost at the moment they weren't overly fond of her mother or an alternate timeline daughter of Jean and Scott Summers. She didn't have a clue why since she couldn't recall a single thing she or her mother had done to be worth the cold shoulder. Still she wasn't particularly interested in becoming friends with them so as long as they didn't provoke her in some way she'd stay polite towards them.
"Hey Rachel…you mind checking something for me?" Alexia asked sounding somewhat hesitant to speak of what was on her mind.
"Sure. What do you want to know?" she asked both curious and clueless about what she wanted checked.
"Ever since I arrived here I've been wondering just how closely the comic books from my reality matched what really happened here in this reality." Alexia said as she put down her bottle of water, "Are the comics I've read perfect records of what happened here or are they complete fiction? So I was wondering if you'd take a peek inside my head, look through a couple issues of 'Excalibur' and tell me how close they are to what happened here."
It was an interesting proposition.
She had to admit that ever since first meeting Alexia in the forest outside of Cooperstown she'd been curious about the comics and cartoons based on her world. She'd heard of many realities that were mirror images of her own but never had she visited a reality where she and all she knew were but fiction. Her curiosity was piqued and since she'd be looking with Alexia's consent it wouldn't be a breach of the rules her mother and Professor Xavier had taught her.
"Sure but I'll need you to lead the way." She said as she set aside her meal and drink, "I could look for the memories by myself but I'll get there quicker with help."
"No problem." Alexia said crossing her legs Indian style before wiggling around to face her.
Strictly speaking that wasn't necessary but it was how they'd always done anything telepathic in the lessons thus far so it was par for the course. With a thought she brought her telepathy forward and with another she stretched forth with her mind to make contact with Alexia's causing her perceptions to change causing her to 'see' the former guy's mindscape. Looking at the mental image now she could see that changes were beginning to occur and to be perfectly honest they were a bit freaky but thankfully they'd only be around probably for another few months. Where before she'd seen a typical teenage guy with dark hair, brown eyes wearing a horrendous Hawaiian shirt there was now a guy with red hair and green eyes. Based on what'd happened to transform Xander's physical body it was only a matter of time before his mental self became her mental self and matched how she looked in the physical world. Something similar happened to her when her team ran into those evolved dinos but switched around.
"Now I'm a little new to navigating my own mind like this but I'm pretty sure the comic book department is this way." Xander said and as the words left his mouth the mindscape changed to show a long hallway with doors lining either side every fifteen to twenty feet.
As they walked down the mental hallway she glanced every once in awhile at the doors they passed and the black lettered words painted on them. Department of Snacks and Sodas, Manly Fashion division, Middle Class Accounting and various others were passed by until they finally reached the one that said 'Comic Book Department'. Following Xander inside she found boxes and boxes filled to capacity with comic books and a mustached old man with glasses on going about like a librarian filing issues away while taking the odd note.
"Stan Lee?!" Xander said in surprise before turning to her, "Why do I have a Stan Lee walking around inside my head?"
"Everyone's mindscape is different and parts of their minds manifest in different ways." She replied while 'Stan Lee' continued to go about his business, "Usually it's all done subconsciously without any thought on the person's part but other times they burn such strong labels into certain people that it's reflected in their minds. In this case your subconscious associates comic books mostly with this Stan Lee guy."
"Huh. Ya learn something new everyday." Xander said before walking towards 'Stan', "Hey! Can you bring out all the 'Excalibur' comics? We'd like to go through'em."
"Sure thing True Believer!" Stan declared with a smile before going over to the right side of the room, "Just have to dust'em off a little. Been awhile since anyone's read some of them."
"Guess that means it's been awhile since I thought about'em." Xander said offhand as he waited with her, "Not sure whether it was the change in artist assigned to the title or the fact that you left the Excalibur line up that did it. 'Excalibur' just didn't seem as interesting the last few years."
Well…don't know exactly how to take that so I'll go with compliment me and move on. She thought as she watched Stan bring over a fairly large rectangular box filled with comics all of which were in protective baggies for some reason.
Taking the first one out she sees on the cover the five original members of the team and immediately felt a little thrown at seeing herself as a comic book character. As she flipped through the pages and read the dialogue it took a bit of willpower not to lose focus and do what Xander had asked of her. She chuckled when she picked up the next issue and looked at the cover because it was decidedly less…serious…than the previous one and definitely more comedic. Hooked on the comics she began to read one after another since it not only gave her a peek into what the others were doing while she'd been someplace else but also because it was bizarre how close they matched her memories. Sure there were a few parts she was pretty sure the writers of the comic just put them in for laughs or angst or something but it was looking that upwards of eighty five percent or more of what was in the comic books was accurate. It was only after going through issue twenty-three that she decided that she'd seen enough to give Xander an answer.
"Well I've got to say I'm impressed with how accurately you remember all these issues." She said putting the twenty-third issue back in its baggie before putting it in its assigned box, "Only a few 'yadda-yadda's and just one blah in the text bubbles."
"What can I say? I had only two friends and there wasn't much to do in Sunnydale." Xander said with a shrug as he let his eyes wander about the room, "SO…how close to reality are the comics? One hundred percent accurate or pure fiction?"
"I'd say they're close to eighty-eight percent accurate. The writers and artists definitely took some liberties in certain spots but most of what happened in these issues is exactly how I remember it." She replied before she began to ease them back into the real world telepathically.
Checking her watch she found that only about an hour had passed since she'd entered Alexia's mind and that was pretty much what she'd expected. When it came to talking mind-to-mind time didn't have quite the same meaning since you could have a five hour battle royal telepathically but have only five minutes take place in the real world. Perception of time was mental after all and when a fight is being carried out at the speed of thought it's easy for a telepath to lose track of how long they've been at it.
"Cool. A little freaky but still cool." Alexia said as she got to her feet and stretched a bit.
"Is there a reason you wanted to know if everything matched up?" she asked curiously as she did the same as her student.
"Not really. I've read all the X-Team titles, Spider-Man titles and Avengers titles up until just after the Operation: Zero Tolerance story arc." Alexia replied as she finished her stretching, "I don't need to be a genius to look around and figure out that that happened a good few years ago so most of my info is out of date and completely unhelpful. I was just curious mostly."
For a moment she thought that there might be something Alexia wasn't telling her but with nothing but a vague notion to go on she lets it go. Knowing nothing past Operation: Zero Tolerance did limit what could be used and likely unless someone was looking for some secret fact from the past that MIGHT have been recorded in one of Alexia's comic books. Assuming that the number of issues her student had committed to memory matched the number of boxes in the room she'd visited within her mind there would be quite a bit of information.
Once the combat telepathy classes are out of the way I'll have to teach her a few tricks on how to hide vital info from nosy telepaths. She thought as she finished her own stretching, Just because she thinks she doesn't know anything valuable doesn't mean that that's actually the case.