The X-Project

A new universe begins...



It was cold and wet. That was their first sensation as they awoke on the ground. Kane raised his head from the cold, snowy ground and looked at the mansion. It was whole, standing above him like it had for years. All around him were other mutants, slowly staggering to their feet as they view the site. There was no trace of the devastation from a few moments ago.

After Gabriel hopped to his feet – ignoring the throbbing pain in his head that he had to assume came from a reality shift – he started counting. While his compatriots stared at the newly viscera-free grounds and a mansion that looked as impregnable as it once seemed, he was scanning their faces, assigning them each numbers in his head.

This stitched-together world was quiet. Muted, and fresh. There was no sign of the hell they'd all been through. And all Gabriel could think to do was count.

"Hey," he said, mostly to himself at first. A puzzled expression crossed his face. "Hey," Gabriel said louder, looking around him. His heart started pounding, racing. "Clint." His eyes got big, and he started looking around more frantically. No. No, no, no. "Xorn forgot Clint." A pit was growing in his stomach, and he repeated himself, as if saying it again would change the inevitable, obvious answer; as if all it took to change this new reality was a few words and a hand gesture. "He — where's Clint?"

Artie, mentally numb and exhausted but still in better shape than most of the others, caught Gabriel's arm. He shook his head, expression grave and saying everything that needed to be said, tears burning behind his eyes. He wouldn't, couldn't cry here and now.

With Artie's touch, Gabriel fell silent. He faced the other man, staring blankly at him for a minute. A tear he hadn't noticed fell down his cheek, dropping off his face and into the snow. "No," he rasped. "No." Gabriel shoved the man's hand off him and, following the instinct he'd had for much of the day, bolted away from the mansion.

Laurie had awoken much as the others had, curled on her side in the snow but as this new reality sunk in, she realized that not all of her had made it over the divide between old and new, although it had been healed. She struggled for a moment and then simply rolled onto her stomach in order to use her remaining hand to push herself up onto her knees and in turn onto her feet.

"We should get everyone inside before we all die of exposure."

"Yes," Cecilia croaked. She'd been uncharacteristically silent for some time, staring at the mansion (and then Gabriel) in disbelief, but Laurie's voice had broken her stupor. "She's right." Cecilia glanced at the girl for a second, the reality of the situation slowly setting in. "Medlab," she said. "Xorn or no X—" She paused, wondering if saying the man's name allowed would rupture the delicate world he'd pieced together. "Everyone needs to be checked out." Unable to stand being still for any longer, she started walking toward the building.

"It's just snow," Adrienne retorted with a roll of her eyes. "And if we die, apparently we'll just be 'filled in' with people from other fucking universes anyway." She turned to look after Gabriel before her eyes drifted back to the ground. "Clint's dead. Just like Tandy. Most of the students are dead," she spat out bitterly. Only Hope and Topaz were left. The other six were gone.

"If it's all the same to you, I'd rather just sleep in the snow." Amanda groaned as she opened her eyes, light stabbing directly into her brain, or so it felt. But she heaved herself upright, turning to offer a hand to Marie-Ange. "C'mon, Frenchie. If no-one minds, we can rest up here before heading back to the Brownstone."

Marie-Ange's eyes were bloodshot and dark, and she took Amanda's hand before wobbling to her feet. "We can rest, yes." She stumbled once, and bit down on the inside of her cheek as the flashing lights of a migraine poured down over her vision. "There is too much to puzzle piece back together in the snow. Wet snow warps all the pieces."

"Yeah, that is does." Amanda snorted despite herself as she hauled her friend upright. "Oi, Doug, give us a hand here," she called to her other teammate. Focusing on who was here, that was the thing. "Angie's in la-la migraine land."

"She's not the only one," Doug grumbled as he levered himself up. He'd gotten approximately an entire universe's worth of information dumped into his head, and his power was trying to parse it all and file it away even as bits and pieces slipped away from him like water through a sieve. It was just too much.

But Amanda and Marie-Ange needed him. He slowly sat up and brushed himself off. "Godlike Chinese wanker stitches together an entire universe and can't be bothered to put us inside where it's warm." He hoisted Marie-Ange in his arms, staggered to his feet, and began plodding toward the mansion with Amanda.

Wade listened to the voices as they went back and forth. Did the Brownstone even exist in this new universe? Was it worth pointing out that it might not? Did he care? The sunlight was bright. The snow was cold. North had just gotten up from his spot on the ground near Wade and... was definitely on his way out. On his slow way out - if that wasn't the most sedate walk the mercenary had ever seen. Still, that wasn't a bad idea. He pushed himself up, gave Doug and Marie-Ange short nods, and then turned to walk away as well - in the opposite direction of North.

Scott's eye's tracked Wade's back for second before he turned back to observe the others gathered around with worry as he levered himself up off the ground. Cecilia's right," he told them, "no use in waiting around out here, "Lets get inside, a warm meal and drink and bed is what most of us need. We can do check ups and figure out what's going on in this world tomorrow." For tonight, they all just needed to rest and recover, himself included Scott noted as he put actions to his words and started towards the mansion after Cecilia.


Angelo wasn't moving, having spent more of what little energy he had on watching and listening to the others, and now being hit by everything he'd been bottling up while they tried to keep their world together - and who wasn't there with them, expected or otherwise, like Rachel. He turned his face into the snow to hide - and maybe try to put out - the growing burn behind his eyes.

A prod came to Angelo's ribs, just where it would be the most annoying and impossible to ignore. "I refuse to allow you to succumb to frostbite," Jean-Phillipe said sternly, but tenderly at the same time. "Come inside with me," he implored his boyfriend. "We are both still here, we can address everything else from there."

That was one of the few voices he couldn't ignore. Angelo rolled over to peer up at him, eyes red-rimmed.

"...Okay. Help me up?"

Marius was counting to himself, the act unwilling, like picking at a scab. There was Jennie, there was Kyle . . . The relief he felt was mingled with dread. "We're missing more than the students," he said, blunt even for him.

Scott turned back to look at the Australian, his eyes blank, almost deadlike, "Like Adrienne said, a lot of people are gone." he told the Australian in a unnaturally calm voice.

Her leg wasn't broken.

It was possibly the stupidest thing Angel could have zeroed in on, but it was the first thing she noticed when she picked herself up, examining the snowy, bleak surroundings, just watching the others go for a moment, staying behind to help the others who had yet to move. The mansion was just ahead. Home.

Sort of.

Topaz didn't get any further than pushing herself into a sitting position before the migraine and the unending string of panicconfusionuncertaintyfearanger slammed into her mind and it took everything she had in her not to fall back over. Instead she leaned forward, cradling her head in her hands. She really didn't care about the cold right then.

An arm slipped around her shoulders, a familiar voice murmuring: "C'mon kiddo, let's get you inside." Leaving Marie-Ange with Doug, Amanda helped her student - her last surviving student, the thought brought a sudden blurring of tears to her eyes - to her feet and began the slow stumble towards the mansion - and the Box.

Adrienne got shakily to her feet. Despite chiding Cecelia and Laurie about the weather, self-preservation dictated that she get up out of the snow. But she had no intention of blindly following Scott. How could he be so damned pragmatic? Warm meal and drink and bed? Really? Like this was some camping trip and they'd been lost in the snow for a couple hours before being picked up by some rangers and taken back to the lodge? Fuck him. His fucking wife was dead and he was just going to go have some hot chocolate and marshmallows and go to sleep? She considered following the statement made by North and Wade of just walking away, or even just decking Summers for not freaking the fuck out that Jean was dead, but felt Emma's mental signature in her head helping to calm the turbulent emotions within her. So she went to Kane and offered him a hand up instead.

A sharp call cut through any remaining mired introspection from the mansion entrance.

"Hey guys, you really should come in here." Arthur peeked his head out from the old mansion's entrance, cupping his hands around his mouth. He had chosen to explore upon being one of the first to wake up. "I say this as both our trusted resource in outdoor survival, but also because it looks like there were renovations."

He did not wait for a reply, and left the door wide open before disappearing from view.

Hope remained kneeling in the snow for a bit as she watched the people go by, either making their way into the mansion or checking for others... Dori and Mr. Gybney together, a woman she didn't know with a green arm, Mr. Keller looking around him searchingly, Mr. Allerdyce and Ms. Qadir... whom she mostly remembered from the Red X gala (she wondered if it still had occurred in this world) Mr. Keller looking around him and finally Korvus and Meggan standing together. So many people she didn't see... One tear slowly slid down her cheek as she climbed to her feet, dropping into the snow.

Kurt had headed for the kitchen, wanting to get in from the cold and knowing of all the possible places, Jubilee would probably go there first.

Jubilee was indeed in the kitchen, she'd headed there the moment she'd woken, a ravenous hunger driving her onward despite the need to also find her people.

She sat now, surrounded with various foods, tucking into a bowl of reheated chicken salad.

"Hey."

He went to her without delay, wrapping his arms around her and resting his head on the top of hers.

"Hey."

The mansion was the same, and yet it was not. The foyer and stairs were still there, the carpet was as it had been last week, though some of the faded patches and stains were different. One of the paintings was new, and some photographs... they were familiar and yet-- it was like someone was overlaying a transparency over their memories, as this world righted itself and grounded. Everything was as it should have been in this world at least, but Jennie was finding she had two sets of memories. Jennie rubbed her arms, pulling her kimono over her bandaged chest, which still bore bloodstains of wounds that had healed.

"Hello?" she called out. "Professor?" she turned. "Where is the Professor?"

The answer to that question was in the medlab. Cecilia passed by her desk (recognizably hers, even as it was nestled between cabinets she didn't recognize and devoid of some of the knick-knacks she'd collected), taking stock of a medlab that hadn't been blown to bits. Everything was there. Familiar, yet displaced. Sort of like Cecilia herself: Here, but not here. Belonging but not belonging.

Still, no time for thoughts or feelings. Doctor mode was what was keeping her going. And so she rounded the corner into another room and nearly jumped at the sight of Charles Xavier on a bed. "Jesus Christ, Charles." His chest rose and fell, but he didn't stir. At the end of his bed sat a chart - another thing she assumed to be out of place. Perhaps Xorn wasn't perfect after all.

Not wanting to wake him, she picked up the chart and started scanning it. As she read, her eyes widened. "Holy hell," she murmured. Charles Xavier had suffered a stroke.

Laurie had entered behind Cecilia, and now moved further into the Medlab as she noticed Wolverine in another bed. Her eyes tracked his vitals on a monitor above and they seemed steady.

"CeCe, do you think these are ours, or...?"

"Who ever they belong to, they're ours to care for now," Clarice replied, reaching for the box of gloves to pass around and pulled a set on for herself. She immediately went to check Rogue's vitals, running through a series of simple tests. "How're the others?" she asked. "Scott will want a report."

***

Charles' office seemed unchanged, the chair and the desk, the entire feel of the room one of of comfort and stability. He was glad that this room at least had remained the same. He could still see Charles sitting in his chair lecturing the class on history or steepling his hands when he was disappointed in something one of the things his students had done. Scott let his fingers trail along the edge of the desk as he slowly walked around it to stand behind the desk and flipped through the pages stacked neatly on the desk. If there was anywhere in the mansion that would tell them what was going on it was here in the office, perhaps more the nerve center of the operation. The desk was covered in letters, names he recognized, had just woken up outside with, asking them to come back to the mansion. There there was the sheet he was looking for, a list of letters Charles had sent out asking people to return to the mansion so they could restarting the X-men and other teams in the face of the new problems facing the world. Scott lowered himself into a nearby chair and started paging though the notes Charles had made.

There was a brief knock on the door before Marius showed himself in. His yellow eyes tracked the office, clearly disquieted by the normalcy of his surroundings. He dealt with the discomfort by violently rejecting it.

"Just came to update you," the Australian said. "Rogue and Wolverine are stable. Seems they were present when Xavier had his . . . stroke. Anyway, best guess is they took some manner of psychic damage. Dr. Reyes and Blink are still getting things in order." He tilted his head at the paperwork in front of Scott. "Surely you're not filing an incident report . . ."

Scott looked up and gave the younger man a wry look, "I'm just reading through Charles' papers, it looks like Charles was expecting an influx of people to the mansion and was thinking about relaunching the X-men," he explained nodding at the papers in his hands.

"Wasn't aware we'd been decommissioned. It would explain the frankly excessive living arrangements, however. In addition to a rather daunting number of fully outfitted rooms it seems those from Snow Valley in particular have found several suspiciously appointed suites. It appears that Xorn character thought it best to economize." Marius paused, shifting uncomfortably. He could really think of only one more question. "So . . . what now?"

"What we always do: Survive."