When I came to, I was sitting down. An older television in front of me the gray screen stared back at me. Too far away to see my reflection all I did was stare at it. Looking at it but not seeing it as it took all of my view. The brown grain wood of the frame, the glass screen, the knob for a channel clicker, there was a remote somewhere, but I didn’t know-

Suddenly the remote appeared in front of me. Materializing out of nowhere. Rather than dropping to the ground like normal things should, it floated there as if frozen in place. Unsure what else to do I simply stared at it. My mind no longer able to process the fear anymore, I had given up on understanding it. 

“She did it again,” my mother practically yelled at me. 

“Goddammit,” my dad said. Shifting my eyes to stare at them my dad said, “How am I supposed to deal with this.” But he didn’t say the words. His mouth didn’t speak them. Rather they were his thoughts, something that I had slowly understood over the last few months as weird things happened to me. 

Though I knew it wouldn’t help, I shut my ears, but their thoughts persisted. Both praying to their God that their child would stop being possessed and weird things stopped causing them trouble. Even my cousins didn’t come around anymore after so long with these problems. All I could do was not think. Just turn my brain off until the weird stuff stopped happening. 

Tears running down my eyes. I didn't notice the man sitting in front of me for a long time. When I eventually looked up he was sitting a few feet away. Around my parents age he had a few wrinkles, but wasn’t too old. Confused why the noises stopped I noticed the remote control was no longer in front of me. Only the man who gave me a smile that said…I didn’t know the smile said because I couldn’t read his thoughts.

“Hello Jean, I’m Charles,” he said. His mouth moving as he spoke the words, and I let out a sigh of relief as more tears came to my eyes. 

—

“Shit,” I said, pushing away from the memory I could tell I was Weston, but was experiencing life as Jean. More myself this time I increased the Nen coating my body in a protective armor. The strength of the memories receding slightly, I forced my body to take a step. All the while my mind playing memories of Jean. 

Step by step, I moved through the years of the young girl. First as she tried to manage her powers, then had them suppressed slightly by the professor. But as time went on, she spent more and more time with the older man, until eventually her parents couldn’t hide their thoughts anymore. They were thankful when she was gone, as she now had a little brother. Daily they worried about her losing control. When she was away they didn’t lose sleep, or worry their new son would be psychically thrown against the wall during one of her fits. So she decided to stay away for good. 

For the first time she found a real home. The professor invited others like her to the-

I pushed the thoughts away slightly again. Trying not to see it all through her viewpoint, but my own. More a passenger than a driver as it all continued to play for me. 

Jean meeting the stoic and quiet Scott Summers, her first real friend they met and were inseparable. Doing everything together it was she, the professor, and Scott for a long time. The professor leaving now and then. He left the two of them to get in all types of trouble that never really went past handholding. 

“Dude,” I couldn’t help but think to Scott as even at 11 he had been too scared to play doctor. I could feel Jean was okay with this, but I felt bad that even her childhood felt mild. Like she had missed out on excitement that every kid should find. Climbing trees, exploring sewer drains, staying out past dark, none of this happened with Scott as her only companion. 

Eventually Hank McCoy joined them and more and more. Soon the school had over a dozen kids. Many I had never seen before. There was Banshee of course, older he was in his late teens as most all of them were still at the cusp of puberty. There was the quiet but punk rock looking Ororo Munroe, and even a much younger Alex Summers back when he treated the school like a summer camp. 

I found myself smiling as Jean’s joy only grew. Finally able to experience a normal childhood, none of them looked at her like the freak she was. No one knew of the accidents she caused, the weird events, the accidental deaths. 

I took another step. Still blind to what was around me. The visions took on a more orange glow as I watched Jean’s life get brighter and brighter. Then as her bad memories were no longer a constant worry, they began to get dark again. 

First it was sending nightmares to everyone. A black cloud that chased her everywhere. Formless and all knowing she cried and screamed as she ran, pulling everyone around her into the dream as well. The next day the professor warned her her powers were getting stronger again. The professor would limit them of course, it was nothing to worry about, but the fear grew. 

I watched it all, still pushing more nen to the outside of my body. Walking blindly in a space that felt far larger than it should. Always hoping to sense Delilah somewhere in the vision, but it was only me. 

“Aren’t you excited?” A voice asked. I turned-Jean turned to face them. It was Kelly, one of Jean’s best friends. They had giggled about boys the night before, too excited to sleep as their field trip was that day. Like Jean she had a power. Kelly’s made it so she glowed a bright light when her emotions were high. Not dangerous, but freakish enough to make her an outcast by her own family.

“Duh,” Jean said as she flung her hair back. Pushing fear of her powers away, she looked ahead. The bus was larger than she expected. The professor having bought it recently. The vehicle was being driven by Hank McCoy. Boys and girls practically bouncing up and down in excitement they were all on their way to the first ever school field trip. Everyone back from Christmas break, the professor decided they should try skiing.

Happy to be back to her real home, Christmas with her parents had been rather strained. Both adults trying to hide their deep dark thoughts, she was happy they had her little brother. He at least seemed normal compared to her. 

“Jean,” the professor warned. She looked to him with a blush. Professor X just like her, he could read minds as well. Her ever present protector, he did not like when her thoughts got dark.

“Sorry professor,” Jean said. He smiled and nodded, going back to his book. His wheelchair locked in place near the front she was fairly certain he only bought the bus because of the wheelchair accessibility. Wondering once again how he lost power in his legs she was caught off guard when she felt extreme fear coming from someone. 

Curious who could be so scared she realized the fear wasn’t coming from someone in the bus. It actually wasn’t even a person, but animal. Looking out the window she noticed a massive moose ahead. Running directly in the path of the bus she cried out, “Watch out!”

The professor perking up, Hank reacted too slowly. Turning the bus slightly the head of the moose hit the windshield in front of Hank, dying instantly. Kids screaming in fear, their thoughts became too much for Jean. Closing her eyes at the inrush of emotions it did nothing, but she was able to push through until the vehicle stopped and the chaos subsided. 

“Is everyone alright?” Hank asked. Jean felt his worry, and knew he was just as scared as them. While the kids felt better by his confidence, Jean knew it was a facade. “Sound off.”

“Here,” Scott said from the front seat. “Here,” someone else said and they went down the line. When it got to Jean she answered, and Hank got up. Unbuckling the professor he rolled over to the handicap access and the two men studied the damage. Instantly Jean knew something was wrong. 

More animals became terrified next to them. At the edge of the forest she could feel squirrels and even a few birds scatter in all directions next to them. As if some great beast was heading their way, she couldn’t feel anyone, but everything next to them either grew quiet or ran. 

“Something is-” She said but then noticed the invisible man. Not invisible to her eyes, but her mind. The first person she was able to see but not feel she stared at him fascinated for a moment. He had deep black hair, a lot of it. Long sideburns, he wore a sneer on his face as he stared at the front of the bus. Wearing camouflage she wondered if he was a hunter that scared the moose on accident, but didn’t see any weapons in his hand. 

Suddenly a large vehicle crested the hill. Going the opposite direction it was loud as it stopped right in front of the hairy man, blocking her view of him. Two men in the front there were another dozen in the rear. 

“The army!” One of the boys said excitedly. Others became more excited as well, standing up to stand near the front of the bus where the professors were looking at the damage. Someone jumped out from the back of the truck and a long line of camouflaged men followed.

“Are you alright?” One asked, and before Hank or Xavier could say anything, weapons were drawn and fired at the professor. 

Her friends screamed again. Jean’s eyes went wide as the professor’s mind disappeared from her own, and it all went black. 

—

She woke up to crying and screaming. Smoke in the air Jean wasn’t sure what was going on as she got up. A tire on fire next to her it began to roll down the hill behind her. The army vehicle in shambles she wasn’t sure why there was so much red and white. Her mind slowly working she stared down at what she guessed was a femur. Having seen a plastic one in science class a few weeks ago she picked it up only to realize it didn’t feel like plastic. 

A part of her mind realizing it might be real she dropped it from numb fingertips only to find more bones scattered around her. Blood and camouflage clothes as well. Blinking rapidly she tried not to put together what had happened, but to her it looked like the army men exploded outward. Bones stripped clean of flesh and clothes. 

“What did this?” She mumbled. Someone crying next to her she turned to see Kelly crying in a ball. 

“Kell-” Jean said, taking a step toward her. 

“Don’t touch me!” Kelly said, terror in her eyes as she backed up to the bus. Confused, Jean turned her head as she noticed the bus was just fine. Slowly putting together they were attacked she noticed the army vehicle was on fire and blown up. 

“Gotta help,” she said dumbly. The professor always said they had to use their powers to help people, and this was that time. Moving to the large truck she stopped as she noticed movement at the front. A set of bones covered in a shiny metal, pink muscles began to form around them. 

Watching with her eyes wide, muscles snaked up and down bones, rapidly adding mass to the skeleton until a very naked man was in front of her. It wasn’t until his dark hair and side burns reformed that she recognized him as the hunter that scared the moose. 

His mind still invisible to her, she walked over to find the professor sitting in his wheelchair at the front of the bus. Rather than finding him dead, she sensed his mind, dormant but there. Rushing to him, Jean noticed long darts protruding from his body. Pulling them out she began to reach into his mind. Hopeful that he would know what to do, maybe he could tell her what killed everyone. 

—

They were on a private plane. Just the professor, Jean, and a pilot. Not the ski trip she wanted to go on, she was still at least going somewhere. Flying across the ocean she stared down at the vast blue, excited to meet who the professor hinted could help her remember. His thoughts dark, he tried to keep them from her, but she could feel them there. Brooding and worried, she knew he had her best interests at heart. 

—

“I don’t know what to do,” the professor said. They were in a massive home. More a castle than anything Jean was barely holding her excitement in. Wanting to explore so badly, she waited for permission to get up. 

A deep voice answered the professor. High pitched but deep somehow, like a goose was talking. “Tell me what happened.” 

—

“Holy shit,” I mumbled as I watched it all. Mr. Sinister came into the room, not as flamboyant as the last time I had seen him, he still wore a skin tight leather vest and pants. Black hair down to his shoulders, there was no red gem on his forehead. His skin as pale as paper, he was obviously ageless. Only minor changes from the current version and the one in this vision. 

He talked to Jean for a while, then touched her head, putting her to sleep. I watched in rapt attention, furious the professor entrusted her to him, but also understanding. His fear and anguish was obvious, and I knew he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t have to be. Making a deal with the devil, the professor left, allowing Sinister to poke and prod an unconscious Jean. 

“At least he isn’t a sexual freak,” I mumbled as I watched. He never touched her inappropriately. But he did draw blood, use some weird scanners, and performed tests on her as she slept. All the while the pale ghost of a man dug through texts and old tomes until eventually he called the professor back. 

The professor sitting next to a naked and prone Jean, Sinister stared down at her on the other side of the stainless steel table she was on. “She has absorbed a Force,” Sinister admitted. My eyes shot up, unsure how he came to that conclusion. 

“What is that?” The Professor asked. 

“Power,” Sinister said, his voice grating to my ears as the deep voice cracked. “There are a few out there in the universe. Like winning the cosmic lottery, she is powerful because of it.”

“So there is no stopping it?” The professor asked. 

“No, but we can limit it’s power,” he said. Pulling out a black sheet, it looked like an X-ray with weird symbols written on it. “For some reason this Force has not fully manifested in her yet. Like a…soul, coming into a person piece by piece, the Force is seeking her from across the galaxy, but luckily all of it doesn’t know she is here.”

“So what are you suggesting?” Xavier asked. 

“We trick it,” he said, pulling scrolls out from under the table and laying them across Jean as if she were furniture. “If I can get it right, we can split the coming Force between Jean and someone else.”

“Who?” Xavier asked, not wanting to know the answer, but desperate enough to latch onto it. 

“A clone,” Sinister said. 

—

“Well that’s Madelyne Pryor,” I said. Remembering the woman that looked just like Jean. Part of the Hellfire Club she had been married to Sebastion Shaw last I saw. Unsure how the clone ended up there, I continued to watch as Sinister worked. But to my surprise, he didn’t make a clone. Rather he showed up one day with a girl that looked very much like Jean. 

—

“You’ll do,” Sinister said over the unconscious new girl. Drawing runes on her, he killed animals and poured blood on her form, her body actually changing bit by bit until she was very close to Jean. Sickened that this man was splitting her to-

“Finally some emotion from you,” Mr. Sinister said to no one as he worked over Jean and the now twin of her. Confused who he was talking to he looked up to me. His pitch black eyes locking with mine I actually got scared despite this being a vision. 

“For so many days I have wondered who was watching me,” he said, his face emotionless as his deep black eyes drew me in. Letting me know he could see me. “I knew this was significant. So significant that people would want to watch.” He began wiping blood off of the doppelganger of Jean. “So do you like what you see?”

I didn’t. He had stolen the life of some-

“This girl had no life,” Sinister answered. “She was in a car accident some months ago and has been in a coma. Though her face was healed, her mind didn’t. Only I can do that.” Sinister pulled a large magic tome from thin air and began to chant slowly. His other hand cutting a line into his arm, blood began to seep out. Picking up a quill he began to dip the tip in his blood as he drew on the doppelganger and Jean. 

“This is very significant,” he mumbled as he continued to chant. “She has changed everything.” I could almost feel the joy in his haki, but like the last time I met him, he was invisible to my Observation. “Xavier’s group is more important than I realized. I must engrain myself into them somehow. But my Madelyne,” He said caressing the cheek of the doppelganger. “She is meant for another.” 

When he finished the work he didn’t address me again, but continued whatever spell or science, or mix of both he was up to. As he finished a chant, a white light shown around Jean. The light a path straight up, it split into two, connecting into the doppelganger. The shining power now filling both, I understood a little more what was going on in my world of Marvel. 

“Fuck,” I said, watching as Jean was awoken and told a story. Her powers suppressed once more I continued to look through the orange haze until I came to a black wall.

“Fuckity fuck,” I said at the wall. Jean’s life still playing on in my mind, I reinforced the nen coating my body and stepped out of the orange orb into darkness.