Undercloak: Part Eleven

by queenB

"Nothing's as immediate as it was... We might have died then, after all, and gone on as Ghosts. Haunting this place, waiting to materialize, -- perhaps just at the moment of the Transit, the moment the Planet herself becomes Solid..."

Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon

As Ororo Monroe steps regally into the Danger Room's control booth, the doors swish shut behind her. After talking with Logan earlier in the morning, she thought it would be best if she stayed away from Betsy's afternoon training session. But as the hours wore on and she kept reflecting on Warren's phone call from the night before, she found that she could not resist the temptation to check on her teammate's, her friend's, progress. She plans to visit for only a moment, just long enough to assuage her worries or to affirm them. She knows Betsy wouldn't want her intruding on her personal crisis and realizes that the fact that she is even at the Xavier Institute is an encroachment on her privacy. So she vows to the Goddess that she will stay only a moment and visit Betsy only if she requests her presence.

She stands quietly behind Logan as he says, "I was wonderin' when ya'd show up."

Letting her hands rest on the back of his chair, she smiles as she says, "I tried very hard to stay away, old friend. But I find I cannot help but worry about her."

Jean sits silently, nodding a hello and monitoring a blinking panel in front of her as Logan adds, "We're all worried 'bout her, 'Ro."

Stepping forward a bit, Ororo looks out at the dappled floor of the Danger Room and asks, "So how is Elizabeth doing?"

Sighing somewhat wearily, Jean is obviously drained from dividing her attention between so many tasks during Betsy's exercise and comments to Ororo distractedly, "She's doing well. It seems she is completely free of the Crimson Dawn's mind-altering influences and is only a little out of shape. I'd say she's doing spectacularly considering what she's been through over the last few months."

Patting her friend reassuringly on the shoulder, Ororo asks, "And how are you doing, Jean?"

Smiling weakly, Jean says, "Oh, I'm hanging in there. It's just compartmentalizing my mind like this is so tiring. It's sort of like having three conversations at once."

Ororo nods, understanding how difficult keeping telepathic tabs on Betsy while physically monitoring the control readouts in front of her and participating in any dialogue taking place within the booth would be. Jean's years of familiarity with her own thought patterns make the feat possible, but her brand of mental multi-tasking is very exhausting. So she leaves Jean to her duties and searches for Betsy on the floor of the Danger Room as she asks Logan, "Where is Betsy?"

"I think she was shooting for the boat house."

"Teleporting I assume?"

"Yep. We've got her poppin' up places all over the Estate. I'm surprised she hasn't paid ya a visit, yet."

Making eye contact with Logan and resisting the urge to examine Betsy's progress on the playback panel, Ororo muses, "Now that I think upon the subject... I had the distinct feeling that there was a presence with me in the attic as I was tending to my plants."

Logan nods as he continues, "With her telepathy it's easier for her to find people instead of places. Nearly scared the stuffin' out of us when she showed up in the control booth. But right now we're trying to get her to focus on landmarks to separate her telepathy from her teleportation... though they work real well together. She can 'port to a person's position like second nature. Jean's in constant contact with her. We're gonna test the range of her jumps next."

Looking over her shoulder at the door, Ororo suggests, "Perhaps I should leave now?"

Logan touches her arm and says, "Nah. Ya can stay. You're not gettin' in the way at all, plus I don't think Betsy'd mind considering how worried ya are 'bout her."

Taking a seat in the corner of the room, Ororo says, "Thank you Logan. I promise to keep quiet."

Ororo observes the real-time view panel at her station in amazement as Betsy emerges from the shadows on the Danger Room floor. As she has only had the privilege of witnessing Betsy's newest and strangest talent once before, she is awe-struck as she watches darkness spill off Betsy's form like thick, black oil. As Psylocke's image steps into the light and she resumes her more familiar appearance, Ororo can't help but contemplate how much her friend has changed over the years. While she knows that Psylocke has become more powerful with each incarnation, power being a trait she always longed for, she also knows each form has taken it's toll and exacted a price from her soul. She prays this latest manifestation does not reflect any darkness which may have penetrated her deepest self, that it is as easy for her mind to step into the light as her body.

Putting such deliberations on hold for the time being, Ororo hears Jean say over the comm system, "You ready to go father, Betsy?"

"I think I am." Psylocke's response sounds odd to Ororo over the intercom, as if she were very far away. Though she knows Betsy is only a few feet away, the echoes of the Danger Room make it seem much farther.

Logan then speaks into the microphone, "How about we shoot for yer place in Soho first? Stay just long enough to get yer bearings and come right back, okay?"

After performing a mock-salute and saying playfully, "Roger! Will do," Betsy disappears into a pool of shadow. Eyes fixed on the monitor, Ororo holds her breath as her friend departs. Yet before her lungs even have the opportunity to demand more oxygen, she sees Betsy re-emerge from the same shadow.

Addressing Jean apprehensively, Psylocke says aloud, foregoing telepathic communication, "I ran into some trouble. The apartment was so empty... it didn't call out to me at all. I felt like I was getting lost. I couldn't make the jump the entire way."

Logan says into the microphone, "Coming right back was the right thing to do, darlin'. No need to take unnecessary risks."

Jean massages her temples with her fingers in an attempt to focus her concentration as she says, "Why don't you try to hone in on something familiar, comfortable? A favorite chair, a place with a happy memory. Something you can visualize before you even begin to teleport."

Betsy nods in agreement before she vanishes into the darkness. Again Ororo tenses at the disappearance of her teammate. She bites nervously on her bottom lip as the seconds tick by and stares unblinkingly at the place on the floor Psylocke should emerge from at any time. As the seconds turn into an agonizing minute, she anxiously looks around the room. Though Wolverine hasn't said a word, the tension radiating from him is almost palpable. However, the worry etched on his face isn't nearly as frightening as the horror radiating from Jean's.

A halo of psionic energy forms around her head as she grits her teeth and furrows her brow in frustrated concentration. Though struggling and stubborn to the last, Jean finally collapses in her chair, the pink glow of her telepathic power dissipating as she cries out to Logan, "She's gone! I've lost her!"

Scrambling to Jean's side, Logan says urgently, "What do you mean you've lost her? Jean, where'd she go?!"

Closing her eyes and shaking her head slowly, she says, "I... I don't know. She's not in Soho and nowhere on the grounds. She's nowhere on the damned Eastern Seaboard as far as I can tell!"

Her eyes open wide in shock, Ororo stands uneasily and says to no one in particular, "By the Goddess... we have lost her. Lost her to the darkness."

His heart thumping loudly in his ears, Warren races down the narrow halls leading to the Danger Room. Panicked by the telepathic call he received only moments before from Jean, his hands shake nervously as he taps in his entrance code to the de-briefing room's door. As the door opens, he sees Wolverine anxiously pacing the room and Ororo and Jean sitting uneasily on the room's long sofa, all in obvious states of worry and consternation.

Before he gives any of them a chance to speak, he exclaims, "Where's Betsy?! Jean! Where is she?! What have you done with her?"

Jean closes her eyes and shakes her head, still obviously tired from the afternoon exercise and now fueled by a large amount of self-blame. As Warren stands near the room's door, impatiently waiting for an answer from Jean, Logan decides to step in and puts a hand on his chest, ready to physically restrain the winged X-Man if need-be. Logan then says, "Now, hold on a minute! We don't need ya blamin' people for somethin' ya don't know anything about, yet. Just calm down."

Incensed by Wolverine's action and tone, Warren flinches under his grip as he seethes, "Calm down?! Calm down! I'm supposed to be calm after I get a telepathic message from Jean telling me that Betsy has disappeared and no one knows where she is? And then I come in here and see the looks on all of your faces?! It's obviously bad. Maybe worse than bad! And I'm supposed to be calm?!"

Jean looks over at Logan and says, "He's right Logan... let him vent. We're all friends here. Let him go."

Tentatively, Logan backs away from Warren, though his teeth are bared in a slight snarl. Warren glares at him disdainfully as he says, "So what the hell is going on!?"

After being greeted again with silence by Jean, Warren looks uneasily at Storm, pleading, "Storm? Please?"

Lines of worry etched deeply across her forehead, Ororo says quietly to him, "I do not know. She is gone. Lost."

Angrily, Warren balls his hands into fists and keeps them clenched tightly at his sides. He turns to look at Logan who is glaring straight ahead at the room's wall-sized monitor which is replaying the last moments of Betsy's time in the Danger Room. Finally, Jean rises out of her seat and approaches Warren. His anger and accusation subsiding due to the lamentable look on her face, he reaches out and touches her shoulder, saying quietly, "What is it Jean? Tell me, please."

Jean looks down at the floor as she says, "We were testing her teleporting abilities... I was in telepathic contact with her the whole time. After many successful short-range jumps, we wanted to try longer ranges. She had some trouble the first time... but she had been doing so well all day."

Taking a deep breath, Jean makes eye contact with Warren for the first time since he's entered the room and almost turns away from him as she sees the tears welling in his blue eyes. He's now gripped both of her shoulders with his hands and is hanging on every word she speaks, so she continues, "So we... I got her to try it again. And then I lost telepathic contact with her... I scanned as far as I could for her... Warren, she's just gone."

Warren stammers, "Wh-what about Cerebro?"

Behind him, Logan volunteers, "Out of commission since Onslaught. Been reduced to a piece of slag."

As Warren collapses to his knees on the floor, his eyes dart wildly around the room as he says quietly, "I should have been there... I should have been there for her."

He then tries to think of the next step, the next option, but his logic becomes impaired by the fears surfacing in his mind. All he can think of is Betsy being lost and alone, possibly not even self-aware anymore, floating in some cold, lifeless gate between realities. Defeatedly, he drops his head and covers his face with his hands as he fights the urge to scream, cry or mutilate anyone in the vicinity. Just as his anxiety is about to completely take over his rational mind, he feels Jean's arms around him. She attempts to soothe him, saying softly, "I'm so sorry, Warren. I'm so sorry."

As Logan starts to focus his own self-composure, he turns to look at Warren and Jean, kneeling together on the floor. He begins to get more of a handle on the situation and then looks over at Ororo who returns his gaze and nods her head, obviously ready to take a part in any plan for Betsy's recovery. Suddenly feeling sympathy for the man he always viewed with a large amount of disdain, he places a hand on Warren's shoulder as he says, "Don't ya worry, Wings. We'll do everything we can to get her back."

Warren sniffles quietly as Jean pulls away from him and stands to her feet. Looking up at Wolverine, he suddenly forgets all the animosity he felt toward him only seconds earlier and says, "Thank you, Logan. Thanks."

Helping Warren get to his feet, Logan says with a empathetic smile, "Then let's get to it, then."

Minutes later, the four X-Men are joined by Scott and Hank in the War Room. As Scott, invited to this impromptu meeting because of his outside perspective and his level-headedness, scrolls earnestly through the read-outs from Betsy's Danger Room session, he asks the group assembled in front of him, "So what are the options so far? I want to hear any scenario, any hypothesis for what might have caused this or where she might be."

As Warren stares bleary-eyed off into space and Jean shakes her head in frustration, Scott volunteers, "We need to pull it together, people. I know it's hard, but just treat it like another mission, another problem to solve. Psylocke needs us professional. She needs us to be X-Men. Wolverine?"

Logan approaches the room's long table and places both of his hands on the cold, smooth surface. Tilting his head down for a moment while he gathers his thoughts, he says, "She could be in the dimension of the Crimson Dawn. I don't trust Gomurr. Trust this Tar guy even less. He could have broken his promise to leave her alone until her challenge tomorrow night. That's my first guess at where she is."

Scott puts a reassuring hand on his wife's shoulder as he asks, "Jean?"

Jean props an elbow on the table and supports her head with her hand as she says cautiously, "Logan's theory could be an option. My telepathy might not be able to penetrate that reality. But I didn't feel any outside influences tugging at Betsy. She simply just vanished."

Casting a quick glance at Warren, who is shifting uneasily in his chair, Scott tries his best to scrutinize Jean's perspective closer, figuring that her contact with Betsy is their best lead. So he asks, "What did you get from her before she disappeared?"

Looking at Warren, she responds, "My link with her was very superficial at the time. She had done so well before and I thought that she didn't need me as her crutch... I..."

Squeezing her shoulder gently, Scott says tenderly, "We need you in the here and now, Jean."

Nodding slowly, Jean says as she gathers her thoughts, "You're right, Scott. You're right." Sitting up straight in her chair, she takes a deep breath as her demeanor changes, shifting into the veteran perspective her teammates know and rely on. "Before I lost contact with Psylocke, I told her to concentrate on something familiar, something comfortable in our target area which was her and Archangel's apartment in Soho. She had difficulties on her first attempt, so I thought this suggestion was the best direction."

Folding his arms over his chest, Scott says, "Good. That's a great place to start. Familiar? She might have just re-materialized someplace she's familiar with. The broken psi-link might just be a side-effect of longer distance jumps." Looking around the room at his teammates, he asks, "Options?"

Jean volunteers, "Warren is our best lead. He and Betsy have developed a psychic rapport. By their nature, rapports are much more sturdy than a mind link. They are fairly permanent. It could lead us right to her... though there may be complications." She glances at Warren as she says, "When I was in contact with Betsy, I noticed that the link was partially blocked."

Warren shakes his head in affirmation, trying his best to distance himself emotionally from his response as he says, "We had a fight. I might have pushed her away."

Reaching over to him and gently patting his hand before she speaks, Jean says, "Actually it was blocked on her end of the link." Brow furrowed in confusion, Warren listens to Jean as she continues, "I did notice that it wasn't severed, though. Also, Warren would be able to tell us if it has been."

Nodding as he begins to understand where Jean is taking the conversation, Warren offers, "No... it hasn't been terminated. There isn't much coming through... no emotions or thoughts what- so-ever. But there is a presence. It's very odd. The link was severed yesterday and it was agonizing. This is different. I'm definitely alone in my head... but I don't feel cut-off like I did yesterday." Finally finding a bit of hope to cling to, Warren says more optimistically, "It feels like she could re-initiate full contact at any time."

Frowning slightly, aware that her words may dash her friend's hopes, Jean offers to the discussion, "But with the current state of your link, a complete severance might have gone unnoticed."

Fighting Jean's constructively-critical stance, Warren blurts out, "But I feel her, Jean! She's not dead!"

Squinting his eyes and glaring at Warren, Logan says, "Nobody's saying she is."

Warren slams a fist on the table's surface as he says, "No, but that's what you're all thinking! You're thinking she's dead or disembodied or... or brain-washed in some nether-dimension!"

Ororo sits silently in the corner of the room, keeping her fears to herself as Hank scratches his furry chin and says, "Warren has a point. As X-Men, we are so accustomed to the unusual being commonplace that we are not properly attuned to more pragmatic happenstance."

Tapping an agitated foot on the floor, Logan growls, "In English, Beast."

"Perhaps she's just somewhere," Hank clears his throat before he finishes his sentence, "... hanging out. Jean did say she was to aim for the familiar. Perhaps a favorite haunt?"

If Betsy Braddock were a scientist, she might think that she's stuck in a worm-hole. If she were a philosopher, she might think that she's experiencing the complete melding of space, time, matter and thought. But she's a super-hero, so it's most likely she's thinking that she took a wrong turn in inter-dimensional limbo. The truth of the matter is that she's nowhere and she needs to get somewhere before her body and her self completely discorporate and end up everywhere.

So garnering the last bit of her concentration, she remembers Jean's last words of advice and focuses on something familiar, something beloved. Almost instaneously, she lands with a thud on a dew-drenched lawn. As she examines her surroundings, she notices that the sky above her is sprinkled with bright stars. She thinks to herself, 'Now that's odd... I didn't know so much time could pass.'

As she rises to her feet, she hits her head on an object hanging from a bough of a tree. Rubbing her tender forehead, she looks at the object and notices that it is nothing less than a wooden swing. Slowly, Betsy begins to recognize her surroundings and she says audibly, "It can't be."

In the distance, she hears a familiar Verdi opera and the soft tinkle of silver on china. As she walks toward the sounds, she sees light spilling out on a terrace she knows very, very well. When she approaches the patio through the manicured garden, she observes a form she knows even better, conducting an imaginary orchestra and sipping his evening coffee.

Quietly, she emerges from a shadowy path and steps into the artificial light illuminating part of the garden which is annexed to the large house. Smiling broadly, she then says, "Long time no see."

Dropping his cup and saucer in a loud crash, Brian Braddock quickly stands to his feet, mouth agape and eyes open wide in shock, before he collects himself enough to articulate, "Betsy?! Is that really you?"

Wrapping her arms around her brother in a warm, heart-felt embrace, Betsy squeezes him tightly as she says, "In the flesh."

As he returns the gesture enthusiastically, giving her a tremendous bear-hug and lifting her off her feet for a moment as she giggles in delight, Brian says, "Oh, how I've missed you!"

"Me too, Brian. Me too."

[next part]

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