In front of Colin and Autumn sat Professor Xavier. He was just beginning to stop rambling and get to the point. Colin started to pay attention.
"So," Professor Xavier said, "Would you care to tell me why you broke into my school in the dead of the night?"
Colin and Autumn exchanged worried glances, and Colin read her thoughts easily enough without his telepathy. Both of them were undecided on whether to tell the truth. "Well... Um..." Colin glanced at Autumn, who gave a barely perceptible nod. Colin looked back at the Professor. "Well, it happened like this..."
An hour later, Professor Xavier sat looking at Colin and Autumn with the same neutral expression. Colin could tell that he wanted to believe them, but couldn't. And Colin could sympathize. Even he wouldn't have believed the story they told. Alternate realities, a world where all humanity was destroyed... dear God, the man must think them crazy.
Professor Xavier nodded. "Alright. Who did you say your parents were?"
Colin and Autumn exchanged glances again. He cleared his throat. "Uh, Jean Grey and Scott Summers."
As Professor Xavier's eyes widened, Autumn answered. "Scott Summers and Betsy Braddock." The Professor's eyes grew wider still.
"Come now, children..." he began.
Colin cut him off. "If you don't believe us, read our minds. Magneto always said..."
Just then, Scott Summers, the mutant known as Cyclops, opened the door. In his hand, he clutched the piece of the M'Kraan Crystal that Apocalypse had been using to attempt... whatever he'd been trying to attempt. Colin gasped as Scott said, "Just what the heck is this? Hank doesn't have a clue. We found it in the girl's jacket pocket."
Professor Xavier looked at Colin and Autumn for an explanation and was surprised at their reaction. They were both staring at Scott like he was the most evil, repulsive thing they'd ever seen.
Finally, Colin dragged his gaze away from Scott's face and saw what he held in his hand. Colin's eyes widened in an expression of something almost like... fear?
"That's it!" he cried. "That's the crystal we were telling you about, the M'Kraan Crystal!"
The Professor looked at Cyclops for conformation. Scott shrugged, looked awkward. "I don't know," he said, "It could be a painted icicle for all I know. Bobby's idea of a joke. Only, Hank says it has a lot of power."
At this Colin made a frustrated gesture with his hand. "Y'see? Even he agrees."
Scott looked at the two of them. "I didn't say anything of the sort. I simply said we don't know what it is."
Colin sighed. "You're not listening."
"Yeah," agreed Autumn, stretching her wings, "We know what it is. But you're not paying attention to us."
"I already told you what the M'Kraan Crystal was," said Colin, picking up perfectly where Autumn had left off. "Weren't you listening? It's the nexus of all possiblities, the thing that let Bishop come here and save you!"
"And if," Autumn added, "You doubt us, read our minds, or have that Hank person check the crystal to see if it's what we say it is. We have nothing to hide from you." Both children fell silent. They stared at Scott and the Professor, daring them to speak.
Eventually, the Professor, startled at the outburst, ventured, "Well, if you don't mind me taking a peek at your intentions, we can do that." He turned to Cyclops. "You. Take that to Hank. Tell him what they told us. Have him run more tests." Scott nodded and left the room.
The Professor put his hands to his temples and concetrated. Colin felt his mind being probed and had to force himself to relax and let it happen. When it was over, he saw Autumn tense, and knew she was going through the same thing.
Eventually, he stopped. "Why," Xavier asked, "Do you hate him?"
Colin looked taken aback, then seemed to understand. Colin gestured after Scott. "Him?" When Xavier nodded, Colin continued. "We don't. Not him anyway. The Scott Summers in our reality was a bastard, that's all."
Xavier looked disbelieving. "What did he do?"
"He worked for Apocalypse." Both Colin and Autumn spoke at the same time, with great conviction.
The awkward silence that followed was broken when Beast opened the door and came in. Colin's eyes widened and he reached over and dug his nails into Autumn's arm. "Ow, Colin st-" She looked up and saw what had made him freeze up. "...Oh."
Both children stared wide-eyed at the man who, in their reality had been called the Beast because of the unspeakable genetic experiments he performed on mutants. A puzzled expression crossed Hank's face. "Is there something wrong with my appearance?" he asked.
Colin glanced briefly at Autumn, heart hammering with fear. He had gotten over most things that had happened to him while he was in the pens, had managed to forget, but the Beast was still frightening to him. It's not really him, Colin thought. It can't be him. Well, it might be him, but not the one I know.
"No," he managed, "Nothing wrong." God, he thought, I think I'm gonna pass out. He pinched his arm and shook his head, suddenly wishing that he had the use of his powers. His hand strayed to the collar on his neck again.
Gradually, he became aware that the Beast (Hank, as Professor Xavier called him) was talking. "...has great power," he was saying. "It can transport it's holder to any of a number of different possibilities. Different worlds, different dimensions, even, I believe, different realities."
Wonderful thought Colin, In a place I've never been, surrounded by people I (technically) don't know, and the only one taking our side is the Beast. "So," Professor Xavier said, "You were telling the truth. Then what happened to your world?"
"Well," said Colin, "If it worked, and if this really is the world that Bishop created by saving you, the world that should have been, than our world... never existed."
"But, Colin," Autumn began, "We remember it. We know it really was. I mean..."
"Of course we remember it," Colin said. "Of course that's the past we think existed, even though it didn't. Because, don't you see, we don't belong here. The Scott Summers and Jean Grey and Betsy Braddock here don't know us. Because here, in this place, in this reality that should have been, we were never born."
The silence that filled the room after that statement was the silence that comes after one has been given a profound statement to mull over. Only it isn't, Colin thought, It's just the truth.
Autumn shifted uncomfortably and Hank looked at the floor. "Well," began Professor Xavier, "That doesn't answer one question."
"What?" Colin and Autumn asked at exactly the same time. Then they exchanged glances, on her face a smile, on his a crooked grin. Apparently, they weren't yet old enough to stop being amazed by such simple wonders, wonders caused merely by coincidence.
"We've yet to find you a place to stay," the Professor announced, smiling slightly at their amusement.
Once again, Colin and Autumn glanced at each other; the expression on their faces could be read clearly enough. It was a look of worry that said simply, 'what're we gonna do?'
The Professor only smiled and continued. "And since I believe I am right when I say you have nowhere to go, I'd like to say, you're free to stay here."
Smiles lit both childrens' faces as they stuttered for an appropriate way to answer. "Thank you... so much."
About an hour later, Colin lay on the bed in the room that was to be his. Rather than trouble his mind with thoughts of the future, which, starting now, could be anything, he thought backwards in time. And although these thoughts were more disturbing than thoughts of the future, they gave him a certain amount of comfort, a feeling of familiarity at thinking of things he knew.
He'd been born in the pens; Colin was Jean Grey's unwanted child, the product of a rape commited by Scott Summers, Apocalypse's goon. When Jean had been rescued by Weapon-X, Colin was left behind. He grew up in the pens, and grew up hating his father. Oddly enough, it was Colin's father who had told him who his parents were. That was the only thing Scott Summers had ever done that Colin considered worth while, and like it or not, Colin had to give him grudging respect for that.
Autumn's mother, Betsy Braddock, had met her adopted father Warren Worthington III when he went on a business trip to Eurasia. They fell in love, and she returned to America to help him run his nightclub, Heaven. One night Scott Summers visited Heaven, saw Besty Braddock, and was completely taken by her beauty. Being a man of high rank among Apocalypse's men, and seeing as Heaven was in the middle of Apocalypse's stronghold, and since Scott almost always got what he wanted, Scott and Betsy were together for several nights. She told Angel that she had business across the contry and had to leave immediately. She got pregnant with Scott's child and told Warren it was his.
When Colin was about nine, his abilities began to show. For two years he practiced with them, his powers somehow undetected by Apocalypse's psichics, and when he turned eleven, he finally had enough power to break out. He ran as far as he could before his legs gave out, and was found by Autumn, who took him to the nightclub run by her parents, or rather, the part in the back in which they lived.
Several months later, Betsy told them both about their relationship of half-siblings, and since then, their already noticible bond was even stronger. Eventually, Autumn and Colin had left Manhattan and joined the rebel mutants known as the Amazing X-Men. Betsy was killed when suspected as having connections with the 'rebels.' Warren Worthington III sacrificed himself to give the X-Men a chance at success. As far as Colin knew, he died believing Autumn was his daughter.
As his thoughts traced years long gone, the feeling of emptiness came back again, distracting him from his train of thoughts. It was like something was, well, missing. Then all at once, he realized what it was. The psichic link he had with every member of the Amazing X-Men, had insisted upon having, that link that allowed him to hear their thoughts and feel their emotions was gone. Completely and utterly gone. The only one left was the link he shared with Autumn. And the only way a link like that could be broken was by... death.
Colin sat up. Death? That didn't make sense. Well, it did a little, but all of them? Everyone? Surely not. They couldn't all be dead. He searched again, looking for even the remnants of the links, the faint feelings that he knew from experience were what emotions felt like from a great distance, but found nothing. Gone. Disappeared. Dead. Leaving a great gaping hole inside him.
He felt tears prickle in his eyes and blinked rapidly. All dead. Everyone.
Magneto was gone; he'd never preach about how Xavier had died in his arms again. In this world he wasn't even for the dream. Rogue would never see little Charles grow up. Ororo and Pietro would never express the love that Colin knew they shared; they couldn't anymore. Clarice would never smile her special smile again, the one that made her look so young and innocent, even though she didn't realize it. Bobby would never meet his dream girl and settle down like he always wanted to. Gambit would never have another chance to try to win Rogue's love. And he'd never see his mother again.
A tear trickled down his cheek. He unconciously drew his knees to his chest and hugged them tightly. All gone.
He began to sob softly, despite his best efforts not to. Quietly, the door to his room opened, and once inside Autumn shut it gently behind her.
"Colin?" she asked, sitting down beside him on the bed, putting an arm around his shoulders, "What's wrong?"
"Thay're all dead," he murmured. The words on Autumn's lips were, 'Who is?' but she didn't say them. Because she already knew and, had she said those words, they would have been the stupidist thing she'd ever spoken. So instead of saying anything, offering words of false comfort, false hope, instead of saying the words dreaded by anyone for whom anything has ever not been okay, instead of saying 'It's okay,' (for it wasn't) or anything equally as stupid she just put her other arm around her brother and sat with him until the tears subsided.
Although he'd never guess it, as he cried, she fought tears as well. Because Autumn knew him, knew him well, had read the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes and had known that Colin wasn't lying. Eventually, he stopped crying and wiped the tears roughly away. Colin had a thing with people seeing him cry. Of course, he'd spent most of his life in the pens, so she was just glad he wasn't messed up physically as well. That none of the experiments were permanent. She'd seen some of the monstrosities the pens had bred. Had seen them just yesterday as they fought Apoclypse in his stronghold in Manhattan.
For now though, they just sat in silence and remembered.
Not very much later, Autumn heard the door open and looked up. Standing inthe doorway was Rogue.
"Hi, sugah. Ah came to see if ya'll want a tour of the place."
Someone pushed past her and into the room. He grinned a devil-may-care grin. "C'mon. It won't be nothin' but fun."
Autumn looked at her brother. He shrugged slightly. She glanced back at Rogue and Gambit and nodded. "That would be wonderful," she said, and climbed to her feet. Colin followed shortly.
During the next hour or so, Autumn and Colin got the complete tour, and met antone they hadn't met, and re-met whoever they had. They ended up at Professor Xavier's room.
"De tour's over, boy's an' girls. Now de Prof. wants t' talk at you for awhile."
"Yeah," added Rogue, "Ya'll be good. If ya survive the lecture." She smiled and took Gambit by the arm. "C'mon, sugah. Let's go."
As they left down the hall, Colin and Autumn entered Professor Xavier's room. He was sitting facing the door; he'd been expecting them.
"Colin," he said, "and Autumn. We must have a discussion.. First, although you had the best of intentions, you should not have broken into the school. And second, you," he pointed at Colin, "Must learn not to invade other peoples' minds without permission. I know," he continued before Colin could protest, "That in your world, it was necessary for survival but now you must learn to restrain yourself."
As Colin and Autumn muttered apologies, and the Professor continued. "However, I believe that since only the two of you know the danger that will befall our world if anything goes amiss... you should keep this." He pulled from a pocket in his suit the piece of M'Kraan Crystal and held it out to the children.
They only stared at him until Autumn nudged her brother and whispered, "Take it."
He took it and put it in the pocket of his jacket, which he had gotten back from Autumn.
Xavier looked them in the eyes, first one, then the other. "That will be all." They left and went back to their rooms.
Half an hour later, Colin was bored. Not able to think of any way to immediately cause mischief, he decided to go see Autumn.
He opened her door and found her asleep on the bed. He crept up on her, until his mouth was a fourth of an inch from her ear. "Boo!" he whispered, and she jumped.
Seeing that it was him, she grabbed the pillow and smacked him with it.
"Hey!" he said, "What was that for?"
"For scaring me. What do you want?" Autumn asked.
"Nothing," he said, "I'm just..." He stopped in the middle of the sentence.
"Colin?" Autumn ventured.
"Shhh!" Colin cocked his head, as though listening. "Colin?" Autumn asked, concerned, "What is it?"
"They're talking about us," he said, and then, "Shhhh. I need to concentrate. My powers are all funny."
She let him concentrate and contemplated the last thing he'd said. 'My powers are all funny.' Was it the same thing that had happened to her? She could see normally now, but before it had been like her power was... warped somehow. It was as though it were somehow... shifting, moving somehow, twisting so that she couldn't quite get a hold on it.
Colin spoke, interupting her train of thoughts. "They're... going somewhere. They're going to fight... Apocalypse." By the way he spoke, hesitantly and unsure, she could tell he was having problems making his powers do what he wanted them to as well. "They don't want to take us. A few don't trust us and the rest think we're too young. They're... um, taking the Blackbird." He looked up at Autumn. "You know what this means, right?" She shook her head no. "It means that since they're not going to take us, we get to sneak along."
She shook her head violently. It was a stupid idea. "Colin, no. Look at how you're last plan that had to do with sneaking turned out."
He looked offended. "It got us here, didn't it? Besides, the Apocalypse here should be less powerful; he doesn't have all the world's mutants to fight for him." He paused. "Come on, if we hurry we can beat them to the plane."
"Colin," she protested as he pulled her to her feet through the use of her arm. "If they don't want us to go..." He interupted, finishing the sentence the way he wanted it to end. "...then that's the perfect reason for us to go. Besides, just because you're here, don't tell me you're going to stop fighting for the dream."
That silenced the argument on her lips and he led her without protest into the hall and towards the hangar where the Blackbird was kept.
They climbed into the Blackbird, and found a suitable hiding place; it was a small closet-like thing in which was stored Hank's equiptment, Cyclop's spare visor, a disused uniform or two, and a half-eaten jam sandwich. The latter Colin threw disgustedly in a corner as he began to concentrate on his powers. He wrestled with his powers- and eventually won, although it took him five tries. He reached out to Weapon X's mind. He was careful, gentle; he knew that Weapon X had good mental defenses. He planted a suggestion in Logan's mind, planted it so deeply that only his subconcious would recognize it. But that was all that was neccessary. Because as long as Logan's concious didn't register that his mind had been tampered with, it didn't matter. The suggestion was this: 'Until we reveal ourselves on the plane, you can't smell us.'
"Alright," he whispered to Autumn, "We're safe."
She nodded and they pulled the closet door closed. Only moments later, they heard the first of the X-Men begin to board the plane. Autumn sat with her knees drawn up to her chin, leathery wings folded tightly behind her back. She still thought this was a stupid idea, but Colin was right. God must have had some reason for having them live when everyone else had died. And she thought she knew what it was. As far as Autumn knew, they were supposed to protect the dream here as well. Besides, even if it wasn't somehow intertwined in the great scheme of things, she thought it was a good idea anyway.
She knew they wouldn't get caught on the plane. One of Colin's powers was a type of shield which blinded telepaths to him and those around him. And, apparently, he'd taken care of whatever else needed doing.
They heard the plane take off, heard nervous conversation. Autumn dozed slightly, dreamed of the end of the world and lost friends. She awoke when the engines turned off.
Autumn opened her eyes blearily and looked around. Colin was slumped against the wall sleeping peacefully. Great, she thought, We both fell asleep on the way to our first mission. She reached over to shake Colin. He opened his eyes and grinned at her.
"You're wrong," he said, still grinning, "Not both of us fell asleep."
She frowned at Colin. "I wish you'd stop doing that," Autumn said, although not really expecting him to listen.
He used the wall to pull himself to his feet, then offered his hand to Autumn. She took it and he pulled her up, careful not to damage Hank's equiptment in the process. Then they opened the door to the closet and stepped out.
The X-Men, at the front of the plane, trying to get a look out the window before they left the Blackbird, turned to look at the two children. "Um, hi," Autumn said, still thinking that it was a stupid idea, and now relatively sure that everyone but Colin thought so as well.
The hum of many voices talking at once filled the air. Then Scott said, loudly to be heard over the rackett, "What on Earth are you doing here?"
Colin looked at him defiantly. "You weren't going to bring us with you." It was a statement. Actually, it was more than a statement, almost an accusation.
"Oh my," muttered Hank, "What shall we do now?"
"We bring them back," said Scott, "Right now."
Before Colin or Autumn could open their mouths to protest, Jean spoke up. "Scott," she said, putting a hand on his arm, "We can't go back. We're needed now." Jean looked at the children and sighed. From the looks on their faces, that was what they'd been counting on. "Besides," she whispered into his ear, "According to them, they've had plenty of experience."
"But they're children!" he whispered sharply, "Neither of them could be a day over fifteen."
"I don't think they should be here either," she said, "But right now there's nothing we can do about it."
Colin's expression brightened, sensing Scott's determination give way to be replaced by reluctance. Colin's smile broadened when he saw Scott's hesitant nod. We get to stay, he thought.
"Fine," Scott finally relented, "They can come."
Shortly after, the X-Men left the plane. It had landed outside a building at least five stories tall and entirely made of metal. The building was surrounded by by steep, grassy hills on all sides and must have had some cover on the top to keep from arousing suspicion. It was in a general dome shape, with smaller domes adding to it around the edges. It wasn't very hard to get in; Rogue grabbed a door and twisted it until it came open.
Once inside, Autumn looked around; it didn't do much since she was seeing in heat outlines again. She saw the X-Men standing around her, could basically tell who was who by the outlines, but that was about all. She kept a hand on Colin's arm to keep from running into any walls. When they rounded the first corner, she realized that perhaps this wouldn't be as easy as she had originally believed. Rogue had simply torn the door off. Here, however, was an obvious trap.
Just above the floor in front of where Cyclops was standing was a complex grid of lasers, the kind which are used as a security system; you step in them, you get trouble. She could see them perfectly because of the heat they gave off.
"Stop!" Autumn called. Everyone turned to look at her. Scott opened his mouth to comment on the fact that this was supposed to be a surprise attack, but Autumn quickly explained herself. "There're lasers. The kind that mean trouble."
"An alarm system?" Storm raised an eyebrow. "Then we shall see it." She raised her arms and mist flooded into the room. The lasers which Autumn had already seen appeared now to everybody else as red lines, made visible by Storm's mist.
"Ah'll take care of it," Sam announced, and blasted upwards, over the lasers and to the other side of them. When he got there, he began feeling along the wall for some kind of control box. He was rewarded shortly and flipped it open. "Uh, Hank? What do ah do now?"
Sighing, Hank replied, "You simply find the control which affects the beams that block our path and manipulate them, therefore allowing us to pass."
Sam stood, motionless, and looked at Beast, waiting for clearer instructions. Hank cleared his throat. "Press buttons until the lasers turn off."
Sam nodded and followed instructions. The lasers faded and then disappeared.
"A wonderful job, young Samuel," Hank complemented as he passed Sam.
"Thanks... ah think."
They continued on for what seemed like forever; to Autumn the scenary never changed. It was always the same. A black world with red figures, their heat making them visable to her.
Occasionally she would see the telltale signs of the floor lasers and tell them to stop. She could tell they were getting closer to the center (or wherever they were going) because the conversation had been slowly dying; now the silence was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
Suddenly, Autumn heard a click and a grinding noise. "What's that?" she whispered, almost afraid to break the silence.
"The room!" Scott shouted, "It's closing!"
Autumn sincerely hoped that Scott meant the doors were closing, rather than the entire room. It was clear, however, that he did indeed mean that the room was closing when the X-Men positioned themselves around the room, trying to hold the walls out. The only one who wasn't doing anything was Ororo, who was standing in the center of the room, hands to head, apparently battling her claustrophobia. Autumn joined the rest of the X-Men in fighting a losing battle against the walls. Not even Rogue or Sam seemed to be doing much. When they were all in the center of the room, with no more than a half-inch between each of them, and the tallest having to duck, the floor opened up underneath them, and they fell downwards with a collective scream of surprise.
They landed hard, those of them who couldn't fly (Autumn just managed to spread her wings in time to catch herself) and found themselves in front of Apocalypse.
Chaos broke out around her. Apocalypse had apparently constructed some kind of robots; she couldn't see what people were fighting.
Then, a feeling of dread settled over Autumn. A feeling she often got while she was around Colin. It usually signified something bad was going to happen. In short, she knew Colin was going to do something stupid moments before he actually did.
She glanced around and quickly picked him out from everyone else; she was used to his heat outline. What he did shocked her. He ran straight for Apocalypse. She could feel his anger through the telepathic link they shared, and it frightened her.
Needless to say, determined as he was, angry as he was, when he attacked Apocalypse, it was futile. Autumn saw him fly across the room and hit the wall. Hard.
"Colin!" she heard herself scream, but no one else heard her. They were all too busy fighting for their lives, and as powerful as the X-Men were, losing.
"X-Men, retreat!" Autumn heard the words and began making her way towards Colin. She wasn't going to leave him. At least, she didn't plan on it. However, seconds later, something smashed into her head.
She flailed at it with an arm, burning it with the heat that was one of her powers and it sizzled beneath her burning grasp. She didn't hold on to it for long, though, because consciousness was fading fast.
It's a robot, she thought, I can't see it, so it hit me. Vaguely, she realized that it must have hit her hard, because that thought had been exceedingly obvious. She felt someone catch her, opened her eyes halfway and somehow recognized Sam's outline.
Autumn's world was going dark, and she didn't want it to. Her last thought before losing conciousness was, I need to go back... Colin...
