Common Bonds
Posted on Mon Jul 22nd, 2024 @ 1:52am by Charles Xavier & Scott Summers & Aurora Summers & Jean Grey
Mission:
Episode 5: Days of Fortune Past
Location: X-Mansion | Xavier’s Office
Timeline: October 10th, 1990
The meeting with Xavier and Jean had arrived now that the house meeting had finished. Aurora hadn’t slept very well the night before knowing she’d have to face Jean again. Her feelings towards both Jean and Scott were raw; she was hurt and she was angry, but she needed to know more about her origins and what happened to her mother. Taking a minute to herself after the revelations of the house meeting, Aurora stood looking in the mirror as she brushed her hair. She’d made the choice to lighten her natural color to distinguish herself from Jean. No longer would she look like the woman who’d cost her the man she had loved. Her feelings towards Scott were no more, she’d let him go, from now on her love would focus on her son. His growth was continuing as rapidly as it had begun, she just hoped it would resume a more normal rate once he was born.
Making her way to Charles’ office, she paused outside the door, knowing she wouldn’t need to knock. He’d no doubt know she was already there.
There was a murmur of conversation followed by a brief titter of laughter that occurred behind the closed doors of Xavier’s office. Scott, Jean, and Charles were already present and discussing something that made them… happy. Upon Aurora's arrival the conversation ceased followed by a momentary pause.
“Please come in, Aurora,” Jean’s bright voice welcomed her to enter rather than the Professor.
Aurora found Xavier in his usual location, seated behind his desk, while Scott and Jean sat together on the leather couch by the window. Shoulder to shoulder they sat, their fingers interlaced as they held hands. That same united presence between them as before radiated throughout the room.
“Thank you for joining us, Aurora.” Jean surveyed her change in appearance but didn’t provide comment about it. She too was grateful for the change, an additional feature that helped separate them. “Please have a seat,” Jean continued, the well crafted and overstuffed chairs across from Xavier’s desk remained vacant. The seats most commonly occupied when meeting with The Professor. “How is the baby doing?”
Aurora took the offered seat with no outward sign of emotion towards Jean or Scott, the latter whom she ignored totally. “My son is fine, thank you.” Her tone of voice was flat almost business like no hint of warmth at all. “The Professor said you might be able to provide me with more information about my mother?”
~Our son~ The thought came unbidden from Scott but he made no apology for it. In a room full of telepaths, he let the correction stand without verbalizing it. There was no need. Everyone knew the pointed tone of his thoughts without his having to speak them aloud.
"That is correct," said the Professor. He intended to sit by and moderate the interaction. These were delicate matters best handled by the parties involved. He had no doubt everyone in the room could hold their own, so he wasn't coming to anyone's defense. His role was to redirect and remind everyone they were all on the same side. "Since I am the common factor, allow me to go first."
Clearing his voice, the Professor concentrated upon the face he had seen inside the minds of both Aurora and Jean. It was a ghastly, pale man with dark, almost necrotic facial features dominated by eyes with a red shine and a crimson diamond emblem embedded in his forehead. The image was projected toward one and all.
"From what has been shown to me, it is possible that everyone in this room has a family history with this individual." Xavier opened his eyes and looked at his students. "Who would care to go first?"
Like a caged and beaten animal, Jean cowered at just the mental picture of the man that Xavier had shared with all of them. Cold fear moved through her that caused her whole body to cringe and recoil. She remained withdrawn and silent while Xavier spoke, momentarily too scared to move or comment.
Aurora looked a little confused at that juicy piece of information, but she spoke up first. “I don’t know anything about him except that my mother fled for her life to get me away from him. It seems he has a family history with the women in my family. I don’t know any more than that.”
Offering support for Aurora and context for the others, the Professor clarified. "Late last month, Aurora had a dream of a spotted recollection of her birth mother. We delved beyond her subconscious into her unconscious where a telepathic imprint was triggered. By that I have concluded Aurora's mother was almost certainly a telepath. The warning she gave was related to dreams. Either this sinister individual is telepathic as well or possesses some other means of mental manipulation, perhaps akin to the psychological torture and trauma based conditioning such as that conducted by Josef Mengele of the Third Reich."
"Mad science is nothing new," Scott offered, "nor nothing to sneeze at." What he'd seen with his own eyes and through Jean's in their shared psychic bond was pure horror at its worst. "Jean?" He gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. It was her turn.
Just seeing Scott’s loving attitude towards Jean made Aurora want to scream, but she held back the emotion not wanting to ruin the chance to learn more. She could scream and cry once Scott was gone, but for now she needed to maintain control. She looked towards Jean waiting to see what she would say.
“That man was my captor,” Jean finally said out loud. “He oversaw all of the tests performed on me.” She closed her eyes and shook her head over the realization that this wasn’t just a single, horrible event related to her in particular. That her abduction was part of something far bigger and far more evil than she had originally thought. “He tortured me, my psyche was murdered over and over again in the pursuit of something called the Phoenix Force. He’s a monster.” Jean paused for a moment as a wave of emotions overwhelmed her. Hopeless terror, brutal pain, dread and despair flooded her mind and she struggled with the desire to flee the room, to run from the haunted memories as if they might catch her if she remained still.
Then she felt Scott’s presence in the shared space of their minds, his reassurance that she was safe, that these were only memories that could no longer harm her. It was through him that Jean was capable of enduring the nightmares that plagued her. After a moment’s time, her composure returned and she was finally capable of continuing.
“I know I have more interactions with that man, more than just the routine torture he put me through, but they’re blocked. Whatever happened, my mind is trying to protect me from seeing it again. But if there are more clues, more information that can be gathered from those events, we need to access them.”
Jean looked over at The Professor and he saw how scared she was to do this. But she would have to be brave if they wanted answers. Answers that could save lives and stop this generational horror.
“Will you help me access those repressed memories?”
Aurora looked towards Xavier. “What if we all linked together? Maybe the combined strength of all of us could break through, and then we can learn what this...Sinister man wants together?”
"I am willing if everyone is amenable," said the Professor. He cast a weather eye at Scott and Jean.
Though he nodded in agreement, Scott turned to look at Jean and gave her hand another squeeze. This was her trauma and ultimately her decision.
Jean nodded her head in agreement, they needed to do this. But the idea of doing it together was a small comfort. Facing this alone would have been unbearable.
“Yes, I want to do this.” She squared her shoulders and let out a long sigh. “You’ll all see it, we’ll do it together.”
Jean closed her eyes and felt Xavier’s telepathic presence, he was as vast as the sky in their shared mental space. An endless brilliant blue that was liberating and awe inspiring. He walked with her as they began to skim the days, weeks and months when she had been abducted. A sudden black patch was found and Jean dared to step into it.
Bright lights jarred Jean back into consciousness, their harsh yellow light caused her to blink like a newborn lamb. She wasn’t shackled to her hospital bed or in the metal chair for today’s experiments, instead she was restrained on a cold, steel surgical table. The room around her was painted a stark white and dotted with medical equipment. Half a dozen men wandered the space, they weren’t the goons dressed in black that she was accustomed to, these were professionals. All working together and focused on preparing machines and instruments for the execution of some sort of elaborate medical procedure. The scene confused Jean, she had yet to be in a room like this since her arrival.
She honed in on a conversation that was occurring behind her and Jean attempted to listen in hopes of better understanding what was about to happen.
“Patients are usually placed under mild anesthesia for this procedure. Egg harvesting can be painful. The anesthesia helps keep them calm and still, and prevents them from remembering the event,” a rather meek voice from the far side of the room dared comment.
“She’s collared and drugged, that’s more than enough to keep her ‘calm and still’,” A booming and familiar voice sneered in response. “Besides, you aren’t taking advantage of all potential possibilities that way…”
The sound of heavy steps and the same black boots she had seen before filled her vision. The sight of them alone caused Jean to whimper.
“We’ve tried the same tactics over and over again and she will not summon the Phoenix Force for me. Maybe conventional pain will be enough?” A hand reached out for her lulled and heavy head, turning it upwards for further examination.
Jean’s eyes slowly focused and that same terrible, ghoulish face from their earlier conversation came into view. That same sinister man that had taken her and imprisoned her.
“It’s in her.” The man looked down at Jean, his red eyes gazed deeply, longingly into hers. “I saw it the day her friend died and again when she burned Krakoa. It’s only in moments of near death that she will summon it. So I will find new ways to take her to that place…”
Jean tried to fight his grip, to pull away from his firm and cold hand, but she was already so weak from the month of torture. The best she could muster was a souring of her face as he peered down at her.
“In the meantime, we’ll take what we can from her.” He sighed in defeat. “That way if she dies, the bloodline will stay intact. And I can spend more time perfecting the genome.”
The click of metal stirrups moving into places made the surgical table beneath her shudder and Jean finally realized what was going to happen. That fear caused her thighs to clamp shut in protest.
“You know, I used to do this through the traditional methods.” He spoke to no one and everyone as he effortlessly parted her thighs and placed both of Jean’s feet each into a stirrup. Her legs were immediately restrained, bound and trapped in that exposed and vulnerable position.
“But the results were unpredictable and usually undesirable.” He ran a cold hand across her bare thigh before parting her hospital gown and exposing more of her body to the open air.
“So I’ve had to resort to more scientific methods. Which is a shame at times.” He ran a hand down her bare stomach and between her legs, examining her naked body like a meal.
Jean bucked and thrash from his touch, a desperate attempt to escape him that went nowhere thanks to her physical and chemical restraints. The feeling of helpless violation made her begin to sob, the only emotion she was capable of showing since arriving here.
“But procedures like this are expensive.” He continued, immune to her outburst. “So I had to sell your friends, your fellow X-Men. Auctioned off to the highest bidder so I could fund this work.”
His hand left her inner thigh and slowly traveled up her body, resting on her collared throat. He smiled at her with those jagged, pointed teeth. “Don’t you see? I did this all for you. This lab, the tests, the destruction of your teammates, it was all for you and that beautiful connection that resides inside of you...”
His smile turned into a frown and that rage that she was more accustomed to returned. He placed a bit of pressure on her throat until Jean began to choke and cough under his grasp. A mirthless smirk played at his lips, belying his wrath. “And yet you waste it! The important work that needs to be done and we must waste our time on this!”
Jean cowered from his anger as she struggled to breath, knowing that terrible things always happened when he became this angry. Her stomach and thighs began to tremble and he watched as fear filled her eyes. This response pleased him enough to release his hold on her throat.
“Begin the egg harvesting, no more anesthesia or sedatives. The pain will be good for the cause.” The man walked away, disgusted by her and the lack of progress. “And who knows, the next generation may be more cooperative.”
The timid man from before nodded in agreement, the array of tools he needed spread out on the tray beside him. With a snap of latex gloves he took his position at the end of the surgical table Jean was splayed out upon and then the sharp invasive pain began.
Jean remained awake and screamed for the entire procedure.
Jean snapped back to reality as the memories of that excruciating pain ripped through her. The remembered shrieks from the operating room became real as the books and knickknacks that lined Xavier’s office all shook and rattled from the blast of telekinetic energy that Jean discharged. A physical reaction to the horrible event they had just uncovered. The screams of pain turned into deep sobs of remorse and horror as she curled in on herself and buried head in her hands.
"Jean...be still..." Charles held out his hand and his mind to comfort her amidst the onslaught of painful reverie.
Xavier’s words had a universally soothing effect on Jean. They grounded her enough to stop her unintentional attack from continuing, he kept her from retreating in that small space in her mind she would have hidden in as a child. He reminded that she had the choice to live and continue forward.
Scott did what he could to restrain her. His strong arms held her tightly. Quiet whispers fell into her ear. Once she had calmed, a malaise took over the room.
Jean clung to Scott as her wailing turned into breathless silent sobs. The tight hold he had on her, the warmth of his body, his soft words, and most importantly the steadfast presence of his mind. She would have torn herself to pieces without him.
"Oh my lands..." Xavier was aghast at the unconscionable scenario that had played out before his mind's eye. It was the stuff of nightmares, like the manifesto of a psychopath coming to life. For it to have been inflicted on a stranger would have been hard enough to watch. That it had been Jean to suffer as she broke Xavier's heart.
Lowering his head, he allowed himself one quiet cry into his chest. It contorted his face in twists of grief and sorrow. But it only lasted a moment.
Charles cleared his throat, dabbed his eyes and nose with a handkerchief, and looked straight up again. His eyes were alight with righteous fury. "Jean... I swear to you we will make this right. On all that is good and holy, I swear it."
“I burned the whole place down when I was rescued.” Jean remained in Scott’s arms as her voice grew remorseful. “I killed everyone that was there. What if he’s gone already?”
That question made the Professor sigh in despair. "Would that it could be so, Jean, but I doubt it." He opened his desk drawer and opened a leatherbound book that was wrapped in strands. It appeared to be very old. "This is the journal of Dr. James Xavier, my father's grandfather from Whitechapel, east of London."
After flipping through a few pages, he began to read.
"5 January, 1891 — My patient Rebecca fares better today. The remarkable turnaround has been heralded as a miracle by her father, the Lord Grey." Xavier looked up from his reading to see if anyone caught that name.
"As optimistic as I was, I must confess to my own marveling at the speed of the patient's recovery. She had been utterly unresponsive for the better part of three months, only for her pallor to return within the fortnight. My professional ethics struggle to take credit for what I cannot explain. Rebecca credits the work of her husband, Dr. Nathaniel Essex, though even making such a claim is scandalous beyond all reason. No physician worth his salt would intrude on the ministrations of another."
Stopping there, Charles flipped forward a few entries.
"30 January, 1891 — Rebecca is well but matters have gone from bad to worse. Lord Grey has discharged my services as physician but retained my service for private investigation into his daughter's husband. Nathaniel Essex, a man to which I refuse to grant the distinguished title of doctor, is guilty of abominations that are too ghastly to recount outside of a criminal court. Suffice it to say that he has conducted experimentation on living human beings. I went to confront the man in his own keep, at which point he attempted to murder me in cold blood. Our struggle was embroiled. Essex is truly mad. After I made my escape, Scotland Yard had already tracked down one of Essex's laboratories in Whitehall. A number of his test subjects were barely recognizable as human, by police reports."
Flipping to the end of the journal, Xavier finished the last.
18 July, 1913 — The nurse has received word that my son will not be coming, for his wife has entered unexpected labor. I fear that I may pass from this life without looking upon my son or grandson, but I do not regret the boon they are to me. Nay, I regret but that my life's mission will be unfulfilled. Nathaniel Essex disappeared twenty-two years ago and I have been no closer to locating him and exposing his abominable misdeeds than I was when he went to ground on Valentine's Day of all days. Would that the Grey family forgive me!"
There may have been more, but the Professor closed the journal, reverently wound its strings, and replaced it in his drawer.
"James Xavier searched far and wide with the limited resources of his era. What I can say is that the extensive notes he left behind created a broken puzzle of a worldwide conspiracy by a madman who comes straight out of the horror novels of his time. Moreover, I have found references to an Essex Company from nearly a century ago that appears to have been little more than a holding company for a startling large number of international investments. Among them was a Panchrest Trust. I knew I recognized that name but I could not recall from where, at least not at first."
This time, Xavier typed a few keys on his desktop computer and turned the bulky CRT monitor around for everyone else to see.
"The Panchrest Trust was the primary donor behind Nebraska's State Home for Foundlings."
Scott's mouth fell agape. He tried to speak but words wouldn't come out. Hand to forehead, he started sweating as his breathing turned shallow. "That... that..." Scott fought for words and failed to speak them.
"I know, Scott," said the Professor. "That was your orphanage."
Aurora had been a mere passenger along for the ride watching the events unfurl as Xavier had helped Jean unlock them. She couldn’t help but feel pity for Jean and the torture she’d endured. “Wait...you said Rebecca Grey? And this Nathaniel Essex, is he the man my mother was running from?” She looked at Xavier. “What does all this mean for my mother? For me?” She glanced towards Scott then back to Xavier. “And for our son?”
Jean let go of Scott and slumped into the leather couch, for a moment she thought she was going to be sick. The connections between them all were far too many to just be mere coincidences. This mutant, Nathaniel Essex, had been intervening and manipulating with their bloodlines for much longer than anyone had anticipated. It was only in current affairs that the dots all started to connect together to create a comprehensive and heinous picture. “It means that Nathaniel Essex, our Mr. Sinister, is interested in the X-genes that exist in all of us. They are mutations that he has either personally manipulated or that he has extreme interest in.”
Jean sat up as she continued to process the results of everything that had learned. The fidgety nature of her behavior was a side effect of how uncomfortable all of this was making her. “That means your baby could be in very real danger. That Essex has personal interest in his genome and you have to be careful.” Jean looked down at her own hands that she had neatly folded into her lap. She examined the ring finger on her left hand. The delicate ring of rose gold and its brilliant green diamond, a proposal and promised future that Scott had given her. “We all have to be very careful.”
“Being careful is something I’ve always had to do, until I came here anyway.” Aurora sighed. “I was hoping for more, to know more about...me.” Her palms both glowed with small dancing fires. “We more or less know my mother was a telepath, but what about my powers? Is this Nathaniel Essex, or whatever name he’s now known as, is he my father? Is he just a mad scientist who chose my mother for an experiment? Hell did he somehow arrange all of this? My meeting Scott, our son!?” She was grabbing at invisible straws for answers and she knew it.
This was going to be delicate. Xavier took a breath. "Jean was held by an Essex Corporation. Nathaniel Essex was to be wed to Rebecca Grey once she was recovered from her malady. James Xavier kept careful sketches in his journal. I've made photocopies."
Two laminate sheets of paper laid on the desk. "Your mother, Aurora, at least as represented by the telepathic imprint in your mind..."
Charles lifted the first paper which featured a hand-drawn portrait of a woman with a fashionable upbraid, though notes were jotted in the margin. "She bore a striking resemblance to this woman, did she not? And the man she warned you of..."
The second sheet came up, revealing a sketch of a fiendish inhuman face with cruel eyes and fangs marked by a diamond over the forehead. "This was Nathaniel Essex as James Xavier last remembered him, after he went on the run."
After a pregnant pause to allow Aurora to process the revelations, the Professor put the pieces together. "I would need to perform a genetic test to be certain, Aurora, but you may descend from Rebecca Grey."
Scott let his face fall into his hands. This was all too much all at once. He looked up at the Professor. "Does that mean..."
"Yes, Scott," said the Professor in a gentle but firm tone. "Aurora and Jean may be connected to this sinister man by a common progeny."
Aurora was speechless, looking towards Jean, then looking back at Xavier, before looking back at Jean again. “Then we could be...sisters!?” She was astounded by this revelation, no wonder Scott had found her to be so much like Jean. “That day I connected to you through Cerebro, when you touched my mind, it was like something changed. I felt a sense of...freedom that I’ve never felt before, like a switch had somehow been flicked in my mind. I’m sorry I can’t explain it any better than that.” She looked back at Xavier. “Do whatever genetic tests you need to do, Professor, I want to know the truth, and what my...father wants with all of us.”
“I don’t think the relationship is as close as sisters,” Jean commented on the massive conclusions Aurora was jumping to. “My father is a history professor and family genealogy is a hobby of his. He has records for our family going back rather far and there are no missing branches. If there is a connection it would be through Rebecca Grey who would be a distant relative to my direct family.” Part of Jean felt bad for Aurora, she seemed so desperate to find a connection to someone or something that she was willing to connect any dots that helped her create a narrative. There was no proof that Sinister sired her and their relation was only speculation at this point in time.
“I’ll provide a sample for genetic testing because I want to see the markers that Essex has been looking for, or has created, between the two of us.” The latest revelation over what she had endured during her abduction was still a fresh and hemorrhaging wound inside of Jean. The idea that Aurora found their brief connection to be a liberating experience when it had been a waking nightmare for Jean, it sickened her all over again. Scott and Xavier both felt that rise of bile in the back of Jean’s throat and the heat of anger that was placing Aurora on thin ice with her. “I did not experience any changes in my psyche when you heard my telepathic cries for help. I wish I had known that someone had actually heard me that day, it may have altered the course of the torture I endured.”
Aurora felt and saw the change in Jean at her leap trying to join the dots, maybe she had been too quick to leap to it. “I thought you reached out to me? It was brief but it was you...I think. Maybe it wasn’t you, maybe it was one of your clones I honestly don’t know.” She sighed. “I’m sorry, I’m obviously not helping matters here, maybe I should just go and let the three of you talk.”
“Clones!?” Jean’s whole body bristled and tensed from the mention of the word. The fact that she had been cloned was a well-guarded secret that had only been known to a very small circle of people. It was one of the many violations that Jean was still processing. Her body and her mind, her very DNA, all had been raped by Essex. It was a level of assault that Jean had kept very private due to the pain and fear it created inside of her. “What do you know about clones?!”
Aurora gave Jean a surprised look. “Only what we just saw in your mind, what they took from you was to recreate you, to experiment with, at least that’s how it seemed. Am I wrong?” She looked towards Jean, seeing the fear it created within. “I’m not trying to hurt anyone, not anymore.”
“Eggs and clones are different. Ovum are gamete cells with only half...” Jean trailed off and pinched the bridge of her in a fashion that greatly resembled Xavier. “Never mind. I don’t know what Essex has planned and I can only hope that I burned every part of me that he took.”
"Perhaps we should all take a moment to recenter ourselves," the Professor interjected. "No single revelation from the past few moments is minor. Let's remember we're committed to working together."
"The Professor is right," Scott agreed. "If we're dealing with a mutant who has been playing Doctor Frankenstein for the past hundred years, then we're going to have to work together and have each other's backs. It was stupid luck that I managed to pull Jean out of the fire. That could've been part of Essex's plan all along for all we know. Anything could happen from here on out. We're either in this together or we're not." He looked right at Aurora. "But we decide now. No more going back and forth."
Aurora nodded. “This puts things way past us, this affects our son as well. Count me in.”
Jean sighed deeply as the weight of everything started to sink in, not just from a personal perspective but in regards to the bigger picture. She suddenly looked very tired. “He sold them. The missing First Class were each sold to the highest bidder to fund his research. That means Alex and Warren are out there. Pietro is looking for Wanda. What’s next? How do we find them? How do we stop him?” She thought about her questions for moment longer before she continued. “Should I try to find him with Cerebro?”
"We could try that," the Professor said. "But my instinct is a cautious one. There is a reason that nobody but you can remember the events surrounding that terrible day, Jean. I don't know how someone could counteract Cerebro but we cannot rule out that possibility. We can't rule out anything as yet."
Jean nodded her head in agreement. Cerebro hadn’t been able to find her before and the security system that took Telford Porter’s life was like nothing they had seen before. “You’re right. I just feel so helpless that I’m desperate.”
Jean’s jaw feathered as she considered any new angle they might approach but in the end she returned to an old tactic that had served them well. Still raw and unsettled by her repressed memory, Jean didn’t really want to rehash this particular discovery but they had to. “Did you see anything? In my memory,” she said with hesitation in her eyes while looking at Scott. His role as leader to the X-Men made him incredibly observant, his ability to survey a scene and catch all its details in a matter of seconds was unequaled. It has been a priceless tool in documenting and discovering other important details in her other memories.
Aurora looked towards Scott waiting to see if he had seen anything that both she and Jean might have missed in the mass of memories they’d just been through.
Delving back into the hellish memory was the last thing Scott wanted to do. But as the only non-telepath to have witnessed it, maybe he would be most resilient without it penetrating his mind to the same extent as the others. Eyes closed, Scott nodded and steeled himself for the replay.
Bright lights. Stark white walls. Harsh reflections. Steel surgical table. Jean in restraints. The pain and anger of the sight made it easy for Scott to deflect his attention away from viewing that scene from Jean's perspective. The most difficult part was not jumping out of the memory altogether. Mind scanning every surface, Scott looked for any detail from Jean's periphery that might mean something.
Medical equipment. Most of it seemed irrelevant to that day's procedure. What might have been carelessly left in sight? After several moments, Scott was about to give up. Just before he did, the memory of who they suspected to be Nathaniel Essex stepped side. Cryogenic dewars were set behind him on the table. Each one had a label slapped onto them. Only one was visible from Jean's vantage point.
"Hassenstadt." Scott's voice was distant but focused. "One of the containers was marked with Hassenstadt." After getting the only bit of information that he felt he was going to find, Scott let out the breath he'd been holding. His eyes fluttered open, though nobody could see the gesture. "What could that mean?"
While Scott recovered from his intensive concentration, Professor Xavier was already searching the mansion's database. "Hassenstadt is a medium sized city in Eastern Europe, the capital of Latveria, a small republic located there." He rubbed his chin. "It's not much to go on, admittedly, but at least it places a mark on the map."
“From the South Pacific to Eastern Europe, with a mutant who has potentially been alive since the 1800s. Who has some of the most advanced science and security systems we’ve ever seen, all while having a borderline obsession with our DNA for reasons unknown.” Jean was sardonic with her delivery as dropped her head into her hands.
This all felt so terribly overwhelming and dangerous. As always, Xavier was correct in his assessment about how careful they would need to be. Jean was not the type of person to retreat into the indulgence of comfort foods but crawling into bed with a pint of ice cream sounded incredibly inviting right now.
“So we dig in and figure out who Essex was… is. We figure out what this Phoenix Force is. We run some tests to better understand our own genomes.” Jean lifted her head up from her hands and placed a hand on Scott’s knee, the touch serving as a calming presence for both of them. “Any other items to add to the list?”
"Not that I can think of off hand." Aurora shook her head, for now her questions had been answered, although it had raised more questions as well. "Let's see where the tests lead us."
"I can take some samples immediately," the Professor said. He his doctorate was in Genetics, after all. "But the results may take time. I'll promptly notify everyone if I discover anything of note." He paused for a minute and smiled at his students. "Thank you all for being here. This wasn't an easy undertaking for anyone. You've all done me proud today."
Scott just nodded without a word, but appreciation and mutual respect emanated from him like a light bulb.
Aurora offered Xavier a nod and a smile. “If you don’t mind, Professor, I’d like to go now?”
"You were here on invitation, not a requirement," said Xavier. "You may stay or go as pleases you, Aurora."
Aurora nodded and stood, ready to leave. “Thank you all for trying to help. I just hope we all find the answers we’re looking for.” With that she headed out of the room, grateful to not have to watch the display of affection between Scott and Jean any longer.”
"What she said." Scott let out a hard sigh after Aurora left. "I don't know what I expected, Professor, but this is almost too much. Without jumping to conclusions, what if all these things pan out to be true? This is more than Factor Three or the Brotherhood or Project Wideawake. The X-Men might not be enough."
With Aurora gone, Professor Xavier spoke a little more candidly. "The X-Men may not be enough. If this enemy is as relentless as he appears, then he will not stop at anything. But he may have made a mistake to our advantage." Xavier smiled at them both. "He let you all slip through his fingers. We are growing stronger, Scott. The work you and Jean are doing will bring us more allies. Wars are not won on battlefields but in hearts and minds. Guard your own above all else. We will prevail as we always have... together."
Looking back at the door that had closed in Aurora's passing, Scott let out a sigh. "I hope you're right, Professor. I just hope you're right."
