Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 412 CLONE

I carried the girl up the long stairs. Wrapped in a blanket, the other three X-Men were in front of me. The paralysis they were put under by Mr. Sinister had worn off after I was able to hide the girl. She breathed softly in my arms. Her face covered. I hadn't let any of them look at her yet. All of them working through some unknown history with Sinister, they hadn’t been too inquisitive yet. 

Wind from the tunnel above caused the blanket to stir, revealing her face slightly. I frowned, putting it back. Around my age she had dark red hair, freckles on her cheeks, some bust, and no scratches or scars on her body. She was the spitting image of a young Jean Grey. It wasn’t until I saw her that I realized how much Madelyne Pryor, Sebastian Shaw’s wife, looked like the red headed teacher as well. But Madelyne was an older copy somehow. Slight differences between their faces had thrown me off, but I knew for sure now. All three women were copies of one another. Or two of them were copies of Jean, which was probably the most likely. 

With that knowledge I was starting to remember one arc in the comic books. The shy and weak Jean Grey was supposedly the strongest mutant in the world, and someone, I guessed Mr. Sinister, cloned her or something. Since the X-Men comic was basically a super powered soap opera, of course clones, evil twins, amnesia, enemies becoming friends, and friends becoming enemies was a thing. 

I couldn’t remember exactly why Jean was cloned. Maybe it had something to do with her death in canon, or some drama to spice up the comic sales. Either way I was fairly certain Jean was the original. I just couldn’t remember if there was a younger version of her in the comics. 

As we got to the upper level of the basement we were met with some military black ops. Yelena was part of the group; she didn’t talk or say anything. Simply escorted us out. 

“Sinister left some computers down there,” Scott reported as we got to the surface. “He escaped heading that way through some underground passage.”

“The code to the door is 256925,” I said to one of them. It had been easy to watch with my Haki. Still numb from my own revelations I wasn’t exactly sure what to do there.

“Is she an accomplice?” One of the men asked, looking at the girl in my arms.

“No, it-she I think she was a hostage,” I said. “Is there a medic?” 

“That way,” the man said. I nodded and lugged her away. I began to chew my lip, trying to think about what to do. If I recognized her as a young Jean, the others would as well. Jean was already on a tightrope for her sanity. Having awoken some of her power in Limbo, then lost it again she had been a cascade of emotions as of late. I didn’t want her to start questioning if she was a clone as well. I needed…

-Professor- I thought as loud as I could. 

He at least had the decency to wait a moment before he answered. -Yes, Weston?- He asked psychically.

-I think I have some recent memories you need to look at.- I admitted. -If I let you…I want answers-

-...What kind of answers?- He asked.

-Answers about Jean- I thought. 

-Those are her answers to-

-Don’t give me that shit- I said. -I want a fucking pinky promise cross my eyes hope to lose my mutant powers kind of promise. Something big happened downstairs and you need to see it. But not if you’re going to start wiping memories without a good reason-

He could tell by the seriousness in my voice that I was being honest. -Let me see- Was all he said. I nodded and opened my mind. Focusing on just the last hour I felt him rifle through my brain. Sticking to where I guessed my short term memory was he was in and out of my mind in a few minutes. I thought of porn to make sure he didn’t stray. 

-I am on my way to you- He thought. I nodded and made it to a military grade ambulance. It was a humvee with a red cross on the side. I dropped the girl down on a gurney as I explained her condition to the medics. Though her Spiritual Energy was there, it was weak. I was sure she was simply unconscious, but Sinister left her for a reason. Did the man have some sort of plan for her, and giving her to us was part of it? 

My run-in with the freak of a mutant had left me a little shaken. Not only because of how strong he felt, but how he seemed to be related to the strongest mutants around. I needed to figure out what the hell was going on. 

It wasn’t long until I heard the whir of the wheelchair. He parked next to me, his Haki all over the place as he studied the clone’s face. When the medics gave her the all clear they strapped her down and drove her away to the nearest hospital.  

“You did the right thing,” Xavier said.

“And everyone’s oh so surprised when I do,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he said. He wasn’t lying at least. Not fully anyway. I let him think for a short time. His face grim, he wasn’t happy about this. 

“Super pinky promise,” I reminded him when I felt like he had enough time.

Xavier exhaled and looked up at me out of the corner of his eye. Spinning the wheelchair around he looked down to Jean and Scott sitting on some rubble of the castle. “Have you ever seen true power?”

“What kind?” I asked. 

“The kind that reminds you that there is a reason people believe in gods,” he said. I shook my head. I tried to think back to the strongest person I had met. All-for-One maybe. He had an indifference about him, and strength. Akatsuki not so much. They were all tips and tricks. If I had had to fight Madara that probably would have changed, but I got lucky in that story. Probably the strongest being I ever faced was a human named Mikhail. 

“I’ve heard stories of a great and ancient power that traveled from host to host. Taking root in those few that had the power to wield it,” Xavier said. I nodded, fairly certain I remembered that about the Phoenix Force. I frowned, what the hell was a Force? Wasn’t there one that Carol Danvers had? Maybe a few others. What made them different? I pushed the thought away as X continued. 

“These people are either corrupted or consumed by that power. I believe Jean is one such individual,” he said. “I met her when she was young. Very young. Her parents were trying to exorcize the demon in her that was making everything levitate.” He smirked. “That was probably the first time I used my telepathy to make people forget.”

“How?” I mumbled.

“I made them forget her,” he said. “Only for a few days as I studied her. I was younger then. More full of myself…back before I lost.” He looked down to his legs. “Anyway I thought I could handle her. But she kept growing stronger.” 

“How strong?” I asked, starting to get scared at what he was implying. 

“The first day of my “training” with her. I had her lift what she could with her telekinesis. It was a person. A few days later it was a car. Days went by and she only gained more control of the power.” He looked up at me again. “If you start with a penny, and doubled it every day, how long would it take you to get to $1,000,000?” 

“Not many,” I said.

“27 days,” he said. “She was doubling her power in days. I had her for two months before she became too powerful. And it wasn’t just ripping buildings out of the ground. If she had a nightmare, everyone in the state had a nightmare.” 

“Is this that legend of everyone in Colorado dreaming about a rabbit that tried to kill them?” I had heard about it, but always thought it was bull. Another urban legend from when I was a kid in this world.

“The same,” the Professor said. “That was the final straw. I had a million peoples' minds screaming in terror all at once because of her. I needed to do something.”

“So you make her forget?” I asked.

“No, I could never make her do that,” he said. “She knew how dangerous she was back then. Her memories may have faded, but a part of her still knows to be wary. I simply blocked that part of her mind that accessed her power.”

“Blocked?” I asked.

“Restricted,” he clarified. “By the time I was done she could barely hear a whisper of a thought, or lift a pencil. A few days later her power doubled again, and again. Until eventually she became as strong as she is now.” He continued to stare at Jean as she held her head in her hands far away from us. “I made the right call, Weston. She would have had the strength to destroy the world.”

“I… get it,” I said with a sigh. “But she is an adult now. Back in Limbo…she changed.”

“Changed?” He asked, concern in his voice. I slowly told him how she acted after her head was struck. 

“I thought there was something different,” Xavier said. “I had hoped…” 

“What?” I asked. 

“Hoped that she was finally breaking through the barrier,” he admitted. 

“Really?” I asked.

“Of course, it was merely a stop-gap before. I am surprised it has lasted so long. She was always supposed to awaken to her true potential.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling a little relieved. 

“What?”

“I don’t know. Just thought with great power comes great responsibility and all that bullshit. I thought you would try to keep it from her,” I said.

“Weston, despite what you have imagined. I am not a monster. I have raised Jean since she was a little girl. Always watched her when she moved back in with her parents. Of all the people in the world, I would trust her with godly powers.”

I opened my mouth and shut it. I hadn’t told him about her personality shift with her powers. A little surprised that he wasn’t stifling her, I decided to keep it to myself. “Thanks,” I said. “I will…try to be better about trusting you.”

“I will…try to not wipe everyone’s memories,” he said slowly. 

“Deal, and invite me on missions more too,” I reminded. 

“We will see on that,” he said. With that he rolled down the hill. I considered grabbing the handles of the wheelchair and shoving him down, but decided against it. We had our own moment there, and I would hate to ruin it. 

“Race you!” I yelled as I started running down the hill. I beat him easily. “Were you even trying there? Man, you need a better wheelchair. Maybe one with mountain bike towers. No wait, a floating all-terrain one.”