They were almost to the crystal now. As they reached it, Colin turned to look back. Destiny was talking to Illyana and Bishop; her voice was soft in the background although she was speaking loudly so that they could hear her. Autumn stood beside him, wringing her hands, the recent stress finally begining to show. Her glowing red eyes met his for an instant and he gave her a shaky smile, hoping to God that it looked more sure than he felt.
"Colin?" she whispered suddenly, inexplicably, and he glanced at her, only to see that she was looking at Apocalypse's newest horseman, Pain.
Then he felt something out of place. Apocalypse was trying something. Amidst the pain and fear, Colin sensed... something from Apocalypse. Triumph? Yes. He saw something in Apocalypse's hand. It was a piece of the M'Kraan Crystal.
He felt a surge of panic, fought it down. What can he do with that?, Colin thought frantically, What does he know that I don't?
The crystal Apocalypse held in his hand began to glow. The light was brilliant yet calm. To Apocalypse's right stood the horseman, Pain; to his left stood Dr. Neilsen, a skilled brain surgeon who seemed to be perfectly suited to the heartless operations Apocalypse had her perform. Dressed in an outfit of black and red, sharply contrasting, Pain only looked on as his master played his final, desperate gamble.
Behind Colin and Autumn, Bishop, Illyana, and Destiny had entered the M'Kraan Crystal. In front of them, the piece of crystal glowed ever brighter. Suddenly, the horseman known as Pain looked up from his master's side.
As Colin looked on, confused, Pain grabbed his master's neck and... something passed between them. It was raw emotion, so strong that Colin could hardly acknowledge it without being consumed. It was the emotions that Colin always sensed coming from Apocalypse's newest horseman, the emotions which Colin could only assume was Pain's namesake. Apocalypse cried out, fell to his knees. The glowing crystal fell just as the air around it was beginning to blur, open somehow. Then the piece of crystal fell, dissappeared in mid-air. There was a blinding light, so bright Colin winced, turned away. He felt heat on his cheeks and heard Autumn cry out beside him. Her eyes, which could at times see only the outlines of forms through the heat they produced, must have been seared painfully.
Suddenly, he felt a solid thump in the dead center of his chest. It didn't particulary hurt, but it was enough to send him flailing his arms wildly. He reached out blindly and grabbed Autumn's wrist, trying to right himself. However, that didn't go as planned; he ended up jerking her backwards with him. He heard the leathery flap of her wings as she tried to remain upright and then they fell.
He flinched, waiting for the impact that never came. Instead he felt himself falling for much longer than he should have. When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by shimmering images of a world not his own. Magneto standing in front of four mutants; Bobby, Angel, Colin's parents, and another young man in blue and yellow outfits; Charles Xavier, alive and standing by Colin's mother and father. The pinkish shards twinkled and fell all around him and then the realization hit him. We're in the M'Kraan Crystal, he thought, We fell into it.
"Colin?" Autumn's voice echoed slightly, making it seem scared and fragile. "What's going on?" He felt a pang of pity for her. She was still seeing only in heat patterns. She had no clue what was going on.
"Um..." Colin searched for something intelligent to say, something to put her at ease. Not thinking of any way to explain it to her that wouldn't get her panicked, he said, "It'll be okay."
Glancing at him briefly with wide, red eyes, she opened her mouth to say something, ask again, but then she shut it again. He sensed her fear, her confusion. She was trying to spread her wings but seemed to have lost control of them. That was when he felt himself losing control of his powers.
He felt Autumn's emotions get much stronger in his perspective. His telepathy slipped out of his control as well. He read her thoughts without trying. Fear, confusion, and a feeling of hope which she knew was useless but clung to anyway.
And then, they stopped falling. They landed in the middle of an alley, on a pile of garbage overflowing from a trash can. Autumn's wings were splayed out beneath her as she lay on her back. The smell of rotten food and discarded odds and ends filled the air.
Suddenly, it hit him. A dozen emotions (pain)(joy)(fear) and even more thoughts. (Mommy, can we please get a doggie?)(anger)(Oh God. There's someone in the house.)(depression)(shame) (Stupid bitch!!! I'll kill her!) He groaned and put a hand to his head, attempting to stop the torrent of thoughts and emotions that weren't his own. He struggled to get a hold of himself. Finally, he managed to restrain them to a bearable level.
Hand still to his head, Colin finally had enough control of his powers to look around. They were in an alley; Autumn was crouched next to him, red eyes darting madly, brown leathery wings wrapped around her.
"Autumn?" he asked.
"What?"
"You still can't see?"
She confirmed his fears as she nodded and agreed, "Only you."
He sighed. That was good. At least there was nothing alive in the alley. She'd have seen the heat it gave off if there was.
"Colin?" she asked cautiously.
"Hmmm?" he spoke distractedly, trying to figure out where they were and control his powers at the same time.
"Where are we?"
"We're in an alley."
"Oh." Autumn thought for a moment. "Um, Colin?"
"Huh?"
"Why are we in an alley?"
He looked at her. Even through the other emotions, her confusion was plain. He had to tell her. "We fell into the M'Kraan Crystal."
Autumn gasped. "So where are we? Do you know?"
Colin sensed fear in her emotions and disorder in her thoughts. She was going to panic unless he did something. Quickly.
He went over to her, but his hands on her shoulders, calming and restraining at the same time. "Calm down," he said. "We can go find out in a minute. Here, put this on." He took off the long brown jacket he wore over his clothes and gave it to her. "We don't know where we are, or how people will react to us." He thought for a moment. "And when we go out, keep your eyes on the ground. You can't see anyway. I'll be your eyes, just like before, okay?" She nodded, remembering the times in battle where he had seen things she couldn't with her heat vision and warned her.
He gave her his jacket and she took it hesitantly. Colin could tell she was still afraid, but trying very hard not to show it. it. Yeah, he thought with a smile, Hide your emotions from an empath.
Now that his coat was gone, he hardly noticed the cold any more than he had before, even though it was a chilly night. Under the jacket, he'd had on clothing made of a thick, rough, dark material. It was rather worn away now, which showed how long he'd had it. If nothing else, his clothes were made to last.
He helped her fold her wings and slid the coat over them. He regarded her for a moment, then nodded. Good, he thought, then, Well, not good but better at least.
"Alright," he said, "Let's go."
They emerged cautiously from the alley, Autumn keeping her eyes pointedly downwards. Colin kept a hand resting on her arm to guide her, but counted it wise not to let her touch him. With their powers out of control, her ability to burn at a touch might have hurt him badly if her hand contacted him.
The sight that greeted him was a shock. People crowded the streets. Buildings made of sheets of seemingly endless glass towered above them, reflecting the stars and cresant moon. The strangest thing was, that to the people around them, the sight wasn't the least bit strange. His mouth fell open slightly.
"Oh..." He heard himself say, in awe. "Oh my... my God!"
"What?" Autumn asked, "Colin, what is it? What's wrong? Why is there so much heat, so many outlines?" Panic began to creep into the edges of her mind.
"People," he whispered, "Lots of people. Like everyone said there was in Eurasia." Her eyes grew wide and she temporarily forget to look at the ground.
"That many people?" Autumn whispered. He gently tilted her head downwards and murmured confirmation.
As they wound their way through the streets, still crowded even in the hours of darkness, they remained mostly unnoticed. Like most people that live in large cities, the passer-bys learned to automatically ignore things that might cause trouble for them.
After walking along for what seemed like only moments in this strange new place, holding lightly onto Autumn's arm to steer her, he came to a small blue machine. Inside was a newspaper. He'd seen one once, though he'd had no need for it. This time however, he read the large words on the top.
September 12, 1998
That was as far as Colin got. Professor Xavier was alive. The man who's death had created the hell that was their world was still alive. Colin's heart thudded painfully in his chest. He glanced again at the small, neatly typed words and memorized the address. 1407 Graymalkin Lane.
"Colin?" Autumn asked, "What is it?"
"Professor Xavier is still alive."
Shock registered on Autumn's face, then surprise, then joy. "So Bishop did it! He saved him!" she exclaimed.
Colin shook his head slowly. "Don't get your hopes up. We fell through the M'Kraan crystal. If it really is the 'nexus of all possibilities' like Destiny said, we could be anywhere. Well, not anywhere, but we could be in another alternate reality, another place that shouldn't be."
Autumn paused, thinking. Then, "Well, how do we find out?"
"We go see him. We have to. How else are we going to get anything done?"
"Go see Charles Xavier? Are you crazy, Colin?"
Colin shook his head. "No. Think. If this is the world that Bishop fixed, Charles Xavier isn't a legend. As far as everyone here is concerned, he's just a guy struggling for a dream that won't happen."
Autumn's red eyes narrowed. "Don't you say that about..."
He cut her off. "I wasn't. I was simply saying that's how people here see him.
She sighed, crossed her arms. "Well how would we go about finding him anyhow?"
"Well, there was a newspaper and it had an address. 1407 Graymalkin Lane. We can go there."
She nodded and they started walking again. After getting hopelessly lost and wandering for over an hour, Colin finally admitted he was lost and asked directions. Shortly after, they arrived at Graymalkin Lane. He turned to ask her to keep an eye out for the address, then bit his tongue. If she was still seeing heat outlines, there wasn't any way in hell she could read addresses. Finally he found what he was looking for. 1407.
As he looked up at the big building, he realized he'd seen it before. In his reality, crumbling and abandoned. He decided immediately that he liked it better this way.
As they started for the gates, Colin felt a pang of lonliness, emptiness, a kind of void inside him.. It was an uncomfortable feeling, and was glad when his own excitement and Autumn's drowned it out.
They reached the gates and climbed over quickly and nimbly, Autumn's wings still concealed beneath Colin's jacket. A path led up to the mansion and to either side were well-kept trees and grass. They stopped at the door. He lifted his hand to knock.
"Wait," she said, as if sensing what he was about to do. "What if it's not really him? Or if it's the wrong place? Or if... if..." She trailed off and looked towards him with red eyes temporarily unable to pick out details because of her power.
"Alright then, now what? What do we do now? You don't want to knock, I'm not waiting till morning, and we can't just..." He stopped for a moment, a mischievious half-smile on his face. Had Autumn been able to see it, she'd have recognized it as the expression he usually had before he got them into trouble.
"That's it!" he exclaimed.
"What's it?" Autumn asked uncertainly.
"We'll slip in through a window." He continued quickly before she could open her mouth to protest. "We'll see if it's the right place, and if it is we'll slip right back out and wait at the gates till morning. If not, we'll just be on our way. We can't loose."
"Colin, I don't know. What if we get caught?"
"We won't. Just in and out. We've had enough practice. It won't take more than ten minutes."
Slowly, she nodded. "I guess so. Maybe...""
"Of course!" he said. Colin grabbed her arm and led her off the porch to the nearest window. He glanced at it briefly.
In the inside of the window a small wire ran across the sill. His powers were still out of control, but he easily got his telepathy to move the two halves of the wire in separate directions, breaking the wire. He gripped the wood of the window and hefted it up. It slid open easily, and he smiled. He hadn't lost his touch.
"Come on," he said, "Up you go." He made a step with his hand and boosted her in. He climbed in quickly after her and looked around. Expensive furniture decorated a large plushly carpeted room.
"See what I told you. Piece of cake," he said. "Come on."
They started walking down the hallway. They crept slowly up the stairs, Colin in the lead, Autumn trailing behind with a hand on his back to guide her. When they reached the first door, he held his hand out in front of her, bringing her to an abrupt halt. Colin opened it slowly, peering inside. A young a man lay sprawled out on the bed, brown hair tousled, tangled in the sheets.
Colin smiled a little as he looked on one of the men who'd made up the team he and Autumn belonged to. Bobby Drake. Iceman. Practical joker, endlessly hopeless with romance. Again Colin felt a numbing emptiness inside him, seeming to be in a place where there had been so much not so long ago. He shoved the feeling to the back of his mind and closed the door softly, the smile fading from his face.
"Not in that one," he whispered. They moved on.
Colin opened the next door just as quietly. Inside a bald man lay sleeping, a wheelchair near the side of the bed. Colin tapped Autumn lightly on the shoulder. He slipped into the room with her close behind. "He looks just like Magneto always said he did." Colin's voice was a whisper, but it carried great weight.
Eventually, she tapped him on the back and he nodded. They left the room as quietly as they had come; in other words, they made no sound at all.
They walked softly down the hall, until they came to a large metal door that he had noticed on the way in, but had been too nervous to stop.
This time, however, he stopped and took a good look at it. It was large and metal and beside it was a small panel of buttons. At the top, metal letters about the size of Colin's hand labeled it simply, "Danger Room."
Autumn kept walking but Colin stoppped to look. He put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. "Just a minute." He looked at the door again. "What's the 'Danger Room'?"
"She shrugged. "How should I know? Come on, let's go." He shook his head and remained planted firmly in front of the door.
Lookin for a handle, he was surprised to find none. He ran his hand over the panel of buttons. They were small and square, and cold to the touch. This must take the place of a normal lock and key, he thought, and then, on impulse, he pressed a few buttons at random.
'Access code incorrect. Watch center notified' "Colin, what did you do?" Autumn asked, at the same time Colin said, "Watch center?"
Just then a shrill high pitched sound began. Colin looked at her. "Window," he commanded, and they both bolted down the hall.
Behind them, Colin heard doors being flung open. Someone asked sleepily, "What's going on?" The immediate reply was, "Intruders." Shortly following, footsteps began to fall, coming quickly in their direction.
He ran faster, giving Autumn a gentle nudge to speed her up. Seconds later, he realized they'd never outrun them when a short man in a black and yellow outfit caught up to them. Six-inch metal claws protruded from the man's hands. Weapon-X, Colin thought. And then, There's no way we can get out. Not without them stopping us first. Not if anyone can fly. And definately not if anyone has above average athletic abilities. So what then? Fight? Colin shook his head slowly. He couldn't for the life of him figure out how things had gone wrong so quickly.
He sensed the emotions of the man running next to him. Curiousity as to why these two children had broken in and anger at having their place of relative safety invaded. His thoughts were angered as well, filled with what he would do when he caught them. Colin felt him tense to pounce.
Suddenly, Colin stopped running, grabbed Autumn by the arm, and stuck out his foot all in one motion. Weapon-X, unbalanced by the attempted attack was unable to stop himself in time. He tripped and fell, slamming into a wall. Colin grabbed Autumn's arm again and kept running.
Then a woman with firey red hair broken only by a white stripe down the middle came flying down the hall after them, wearing only an over-sized t-shirt, which Colin assumed served as her bed clothes. He smiled at the fact that Rogue had obviously come as soon as she had woken up.
He drew from his belt a knife, and stopped, once again stopping Autumn with him. He whispered to her, "It's too far. We have to fight." He hesitated, then, "Just pretend it's training." She nodded and looked at Rogue, who was getting fairly near. Colin glanced down at the knife he had. Rusty and dull, he supposed it was better than nothing, which was what Autumn had.
Autumn quickly shedded Colin's jacket, and spread her wings, hoping to be able to use them if they gained anymore room.
Rogue reached them and grabbed at Autumn. Colin looked away, unconcerned. Autumn could take care of herself. He heard searing shirt and sizzling flesh and Rogue cried out. Autumn had burnt her with a touch, as was another of her powers.
Colin looked back down the hall and saw a man in a blue and yellow uniform running at him. He had short brown hair and wore a visor. It was his father.
Colin felt a familiar rage boiling in him as he gathered his telepathic ability, then released it suddenly, sending Scott Summers stumbling backwards with a bloody nose. Colin gathered the power and released it again, and this time the telepathic blow was strong enough to knock him out. Behind him, he heard Autumn still struggling against Rogue (and losing). In front of him, the rest of the members of what he could only assume were this world's X-Men had arrived.
Storm was there, her hair much longer, giving her a majestic air that she'd always lacked before. Betsy was there, looking the same as she always had, standing by Angel, who was... blue!? His mother was there; her hair, too, was longer, and she lacked the red tatoo over her eye. Bobby stood on an ice slide, hands on hips, more annoyed than anything. And last but not least, Gambit was coming up behind the group just then.
Colin glanced back at Autumn, who was still trying to deal with Rogue. Seeing her fighting a losing battle, Colin reached back and held his hand a half-inch above Rogue's skin. He called to the surface the fear he'd felt when he'd spent time in the pens, and created a temporary psychic link between them. Rogue suddenly started screaming. She screamed and screamed and flew up with fists in front of her. She went out of the ceiling and screaming into the night. Colin saw Betsy tap Angel on the shoulder, to which he only nodded, spread his wings, and flew after Rogue.
Behind Colin Autumn screamed. It was shrill and piercing, and he could feel her panic, had to struggle not to let it overwhelm him as well. He turned to see Bobby with one hand around her waist, the other pinning her arms. Her wings were also pinned behind her back. She screamed again, struggled ineffectually. Colin realized why she was so afraid. She couldn't see Bobby in his ice form. To her, some invisible monster had grabbed ahold of her.
Just as Colin moved to do something about it, he felt a blow to his back. He whirled halfway, but then found himself unable to move, a faint blue light glowing around him. He looked to see his mother with her hands to her temples, concentrating on holding him in place.
Jean Grey only broke her concentration for a fraction of a second when Professor Xavier entered the room in a gold-colored hover-chair, and it wasn't long enough for him to do anything. Angel was landing through the hole in the roof, holding onto Rogue, though being careful not to touch her bare skin. She was unconcious. Behind him, Autumn's screams had died to whimpers as Bobby stubbornly clung to her. Storm was shaking Scott and Weapon-X had long since gotten to his feet.
As Professor Xavier hovered in front of him, Colin couldn't help but feel out of place. Before him, living, breathing, stood (actually sat) the man whose death had created their world. The feeling of emptiness settled over him again as he looked again at the men and woman around him, realizing for the first time that they weren't the people he knew. They were from this world, this place that was meant to be, while he and his sister were from a world that never should have been.
