Jean awoke to something soft tickling her face, she blearily lifted her eyelids and blew a handful of raven-black hair out of her face. Her brief annoyance at tasting another handful of hair was blown away as she saw the cutie as she slept with an arm over Jean's stomach.

 

She decided on letting the girl sleep a bit more and began to think back on yesterday's events. She flexed her powers a bit, spreading her senses around the hotel. It was so easy, she was still clumsy with it all and needed training. She couldn't differentiate thoughts based on source, emotions similarly blended the farther away they were from her. And sensing non-psychic things still took all of her concentration.

 

Compared to those her telekinesis and telepathy both caught up with her empathy. She was still far less experienced in those and would need expansive training to do more than throwing stuff at people and breaking people's minds by pushing a bit too hard.

 

Yet the difference was like night and day, close to her body she experienced the world through all three abilities, like they were her natural senses. Like Emilia, Jean was astonished at how easily and naturally these more passive aspects of psionics came to the girl when she shared her experiences yesterday.

 

She glanced down at her face and carefully removed a few locks of soft black hair from it. Her aura was dominated by comfort and serenity as she slept. Jean smiled affectionately.

 

The changes to her powers were great and all but the ones to her thinking and emotions felt far more impactful.

 

Previously muted emotions now felt raw and powerful. Dislike turned into hatred, slight irritation into anger, happiness into bliss and interest turned into passion.

 

The subject of one of her newborn roaring passion was still snoring cutely as she caressed her face.

 

She didn't know how much she changed with this as a person but she knew that compared to before, when she apathetically tumbled through life now she was intent on making her future. She wouldn't let the empty warnings of her teachers about the dangers of the outside world stop her from living. She wanted to travel, learn, have fun and overall Live.

 

Her gaze didn't leave Emilia while she thought about this. She wanted her cute saviour to be a part of that life.

 

 

Emilia woke up feeling a bit warm, why did the pillow she was hugging so warm? She adjusted her hold on it a bit, still unwilling to open her eyes and fully wake up.

 

"Good morning little koala," a soft voice entered her ears, sounding dangerously close.

 

Her eyes snapped open and met the teasing almond-shaped eyes of Jean.

 

Emilia only took a moment to realize she probably snuggled onto Jean like she tends to with pillows when sleeping alone. She felt her cheeks heating up and Jean's next comment only intensified it, "How cute."

 

Taking pity on her, "Let's wash up and find out where we can make some coffee in here, okay?"

 

Emilia nodded a few times and disentangled herself from Jean and her blanket, rolling out of the bed and making her way to the washroom.

After Jean also took a turn in the washroom they now stood in the small kitchen of the suite, it was only so they could make do when they didn't want to go to the cafeteria. Luckily it included a fairly good coffee machine, with real beans and all not premade capsules.

 

The girls settled into the kitchen chairs around the table, Emilia made a simple espresso with milk while Jean just duped a few sugar cubes into her espresso.

 

"This is good, " Jean spoke up.

 

"Yeah, we only had a small capsule in the dorms," Emilia said, prompting Jean's next question.

 

"You went to college already?" she asked, interest colouring her tone.

 

"The University in Vienna, yeah, I studied Computer Science," Emilia answered, she fully trusted Jean by now. She planned to tell her about her spotty knowledge of the future. She didn't intend to be the type of isekai protagonist that tried to hide this knowledge at all costs.

 

"Really? I took you more for the artistic type, " Jean said, taking a sip of her coffee before also adding a bit of milk. She seemed satisfied after the next sip.

 

"I uh, did digital painting and animation as a hobby, but I was also good at programming and software stuff so I focused on that as a career instead, " Emilia said regretfully.

 

"Oh, can you show me?" Jean asked, excited.

 

To her disappointment Emilia shook her head, "I lost both my phone and computer from before."

 

"Will you elaborate on that now?" Jean asked more seriously, she seemed intrigued by Emilia's weird backstory.

 

"Okay," Emilia shrugged before downing her coffee and taking a deep breath, she might as well share it with Jean now.

 

"Weird question first, do you know about the 'multiverse theory'?" Emilia asked.

 

"A bit..."Jean seemed to ponder, "...that there are infinite universes like ours?" she asked, unsure.

 

"Yeah, if there are infinite universes that means there are infinite universes just like ours too, that's the basis of theory," Emilia explained, taking a breath, " But there are also some that are very similar to ours but more or less different, there could be one where the meteor didn't hit the earth and dinosaurs are still the dominant species, in another the only difference might be that  you have brown hair instead of ginger."

 

Jean nodded, "I get it, but how does it connect to what we were talking about?"

 

Emilia glared at her without much heat behind it, "Patience, I'm getting there," she considered how to say it but decided to just speak her thoughts clearly, "I think I'm from another universe like that since no prior record of me exists here."

 

Jean looked at her weirdly, doubt clear both on her face and aura, but she must have felt Emilia's certainty as her doubt gave way to thoughtfulness.

 

"So I'm dating an alien?" she asked ponderously.

 

Emilia, baffled asked back, "Maybe? I think I'm human though."

 

"That's not the important part, where I'm from there were comic books and movies about a fictional Earth that was very similar to this," Emilia said.

 

"Aren't there movies about everything here too, what makes you think this is another universe?" Jean asked, she still had doubts about Emilia's clams it seemed.

 

"One of the movie trilogies was the X-men, focused on a group of young mutants led by Professor Charles Xavier," Emilia said, Jean reacted as she expected. She wasn't convinced still, thinking Emilia was pulling her leg but she would come around.

 

"He is one of the strongest telepaths on the planet, and is frenemies with the leader of the brotherhood of mutants, Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto," Jean's doubts were turning into astonishment now, even she only deduced that after years of living in the X mansion. She still wasn't sure of the exact relationship between the two old mutants but frenemies was an accurate description of what she knew.

 

"You could have learned that through telepathy too, " Jean countered, expectantly looking at Emilia.

 

Emilia was stumped on how to prove her idea, this was why she wanted to tell an edited story instead. In the end, she decided to be honest with Jean and trust that she would believe her. Well, she believed Emilia, it's just that she wasn't convinced she was right. By now neither was Emilia. Maybe all of her prior knowledge was implanted by someone. No, she had to prove it wasn't that.

 

"You were one of the main characters in those movies, well not you but a woman called also called Jean Grey with similar powers," Emilia said, Jean looked incredulous.

 

"One of the main events was the fictional Jean breaking the seal Xavier put on her out of fear of her powers. She went mad at the sudden influx of power and threatened to destroy the whole earth." Emilia said.

 

Jean felt Emilia's conviction and truthfulness through their link.

 

The last one was a low blow it seemed as Jean recoiled a bit, "What happened to her?" she asked.

 

Emilia closed her eyes and sent her memories of the scene where Logan ran his claws through Jean and killed her.

 

Emilia quickly stumbled to Jean's side and hugged her as the redhead had tears streaming down her face.

 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Emilia mumbled guiltily, already regretting not finding another way to convince Jean.

 

"I-it's a-alright, " Jean said, stuttering for the first time since they met.

 

She blew her nose before and cleaned her face before turning her gaze to the sullen Emilia.

 

"It's really fine, I overreacted, I'm still getting used to feeling emotions this intensely," Jean said after collecting herself, "Anything else I should know about?"

 

Emilia averted her eyes. Trying not to think of the flaming murderous bird-looking elephant in the room.

 

"Emilia, " Jean spoke up again, eyes narrowed, "I can feel your emotions, out with it, what are you so worried about?"

 

Emilia thought about changing the topic or escaping the situation but she made the mistake of making eye contact with Jean, she saw the gaze of a woman desperate to get her life back into her own hands. That only made it harder but she relented, feeling Jean would be hurt if she didn't hone now.

 

"So...you know, energy doesn't come from nowhere right?" she asked.

 

"Yes," Jean said impatiently, but her glare abated.

 

"So, where does the psychic energy come from?" Emilia asked the question, knowing Jean wouldn't know.

 

"Doesn't it come from our bodies, like stamina?" Jean asked.

 

"Unfortunately no, while I don't know where the energy for most mutants comes from, however,  if this universe matches my knowledge, I know where the psychic energy comes from," Emilia said, pausing to gather her thoughts, "It comes from an entity called the Phoenix Force," Emilia stopped, shivering a bit as she suddenly felt the attention of something enormous gaze at them from beyond the veil of reality.

 

Jean also stiffened, she felt it too but more clearly. She also felt its intention, it was merely curious.

 

"It seems like I was right," Emilia spoke up afteritss attention vaned, swallowing.

 

"It has near omnipotent power and symbolizes Destruction, Creation and Rebirth. Its goal is to end stagnation in the multiverse," Emilia said.

 

"Get to the point already," Jean said, impatient and shaken after the previous event.

 

"It rarely acts itself, it only acts through Avatars," she said, taking hold of the redhead's hand and squeezing it sympathetically, "in every universe, I know of, Jean Grey is the Avatar of the Phoenix Force."