2014.08.18 - Don't Spoil My Happy Ending

Rachel Summers steps out of the taxi that's brought her back to Westchester from the airport and takes a look at the imposing form of the Xavier Mansion, a small smile on her face. She's sure she'd have heard if anything serious had happened to the place - even in Alaska - but it's still reassuring to see the building still standing strong, rather than the bombed-out ruin that still lurks in her memories. Spirits lifting, she shakes herself out of her thoughts and pays the taxi driver, giving him a wave as he drives off, then hitching her bag over her shoulder and starting her trek toward the main doors.
Stepping inside, Rachel closes the door behind her and pauses, reaching out with her mind to check who's in residence. A slightly surprised look touches her features as she feels a familiar, though not usually resident, mental presence in the lounge. She glances once towards the stairs, but the thought of a shower and her room loses out almost immediately. Instead, she turns and heads for the lounge. Her presence - if it hasn't already been picked up telepathically - is announced by the thud of her bag hitting the floor next to the door, and then the tall redhead is flopping down onto one of the couches. She grins across at the other occupant of the lounge. "So, little brother. What brings you here?"
It is a slow Sunday at the school and this being August, it means few students are around. Which means Nate took advantage of the outdoors swimming pool for a couple hours. Now he is in the lounge, with a sandwich, talking long-range telepathy with someone else. So concentrated he didn't notice Rachel's arrival.
But the 'thud' makes him watch and he grins. "Ray, good to have you back. Did you go to space again?"
 
Rachel leans back on the couch, enjoying the well stuffed - if slightly saggy - cushions. It beats cheap airline seats and the back of the taxi by a mile, and she's happy to have room to stretch out, too. She didn't figure she'd have to wait too long for Nate to notice her, not after dropping her bag to get his attention, and she's right on that score. Even so, at his question, a slightly guilty look flits across her features, almost too quick to follow. "Once or twice." She says, so casually that her guilty look is just reinforced. She shouldn't have been sneaking off to Knowhere when she was supposed to be on vacation with Scott's grandparents, after all - but sometimes the unreality of it, not to mention the quiet and, if she's honest, the peace, did get to her a little. "But /most/ of the time I've been in Alaska." She pauses for a second, eyes on her not-quite-brother. "I finally got to meet Scott's grandparents. It was..." She struggles for the right words, and in the end all she can come up with is, "...nice."
Nate is vaguely aware he has 'grandparents' but... now it is definitely a bad moment for him to meet them. Thoughtful, he eyes Rachel's bag. "Hey, why did you use a commercial plane for the trip? Can't you just fly all the way with telekinesis?" And she took a cab. Seriously, the laziness!
 
Rachel's gaze was definitely a little more intent for a moment there, while she waited for Nate to react to her news. When he really doesn't, Rachel relaxes once more, and a faint, self-deprecating smile settles on her lips. That Nate is far more together than she is when it comes to the idea of people who aren't really their family - but could be - really isn't news. Rachel herself had enough trouble getting used to living under the same roof as Scott and Jean to begin with.
Rachel shakes her head in amusement at Nate's pointed questions. "I was on vacation! I was trying out life as a normal person." A normal person who snuck off to outer space once or twice, her conscience reminds her. She smirks anyway. "It's not as much fun as I thought it'd be. Normal people don't get enough leg-room on planes." Stretching out her legs as if for emphasis, she crosses her booted feet and asks, "So what have I missed, back here?"
"Normal is boring!" Nate stands up, finishing his sandwich. "You gotta try to be extra-ordinary even without powers. There is no reason not to, life is too short." What has happened, oh. Damn. "Er... well, Halo Towers got blown up, so I am living with Rose. Sometimes here. Hmm, Roberto got back from Brazil. Do you know him? Rich, super-strong, likes soccer for some reason. And I lost my telekinesis, and man, I need to learn to drive."
 
Rachel snorts at Nate's pronouncement, not even his abrupt move to stand making her take his words particularly seriously. "You mean I'm not extra-ordinary enough as I am?" She teases him lightly, clearly in an uncommonly good mood. She looks a little bit startled by the news about Halo Towers, but a truly wicked grin arrives on her lips at his next words. "Could be worse, then?" She says quietly, as if to herself, but /just/ loud enough for him to easily hear. She looks slightly disappointed that Nate moves on so quickly, but makes a mental note to follow up on that particular detail later. She shakes her head, a slight frown marring her expression. Her memories aren't the mess they once were, but still... "I don't think so..."
And then Nate drops the most important piece of information casually into the conversation, and that good mood that Rachel was in is punctured. She goes from comfortable slouch to sitting bolt upright on the couch as instantly as if she'd just been electrocuted. "You lost your telekinesis? And you didn't mention that FIRST?!" Rachel stands up, as if she expects Nate to make for the door. "What happened?" She asks him, her eyes narrowing as she looks him over, as if she could tell what's up just by looking at him. "Are you OK?"
If he tosses a bunch of random bits of information the important one might go undetected, right? The Halo Towers part was possibly more interesting. Look, big battle with super-villains!
Happens Rachel was too alert, though. Nate flops back down to a couch and sighs. "Actually... no. This is part of a problem I have with genetic tampering before my... ah hell. I unlocked some memories when we got that plague back in Genosha. I don't think I was really Jean's child, Ray. I think I was created in a lab by Sinister, and born from a machine incubator or something like that. He tampered with my powers. That is why I am stronger than I should us being siblings genetically. But the tampering includes a failsafe. Sinister didn't want me alive for long."
 
Big battle with super-villians? Pfft. Nate's alive, property damage is secondary to Nate moving in with Rose, as far as Rachel's concerned. If he'd wanted to distract her, he should have emphasised that bit!
Even then, it might not have been enough to keep Rachel from picking up on the really bad news. She's pretty much hard-wired to expect bad things to happen, so she tends to pick up on things like that. As Nate flops back onto the couch, Rachel remains standing and folds her arms. She's the very picture of someone who's waiting for the full story. She relaxes a fraction when Nate gives up on being evasive, but her hands tighten on her arms when he admits that he's not OK. She does him the courtesy of keeping quiet while he talks, though, even though it's clear she has questions. But when she finally gets her chance... where to start?
Rachel hesitates for a moment, her eyes dark with anger, then forces herself to breathe out and perches on the arm of the couch next to Nate. "Then he's going to be disappointed." She says darkly, before her tone lightens and she reaches out to give Nate's shoulder a quick squeeze. "Time jumps, other dimensions, genetic tampering... none of it matters. You're my brother, Nate. What can I do to help?"
Nate looks up at Rachel and grins. "Well... the problem is my power will burn my body... my brain mostly. So it is either genetic engineering or some way to dampen the psychic output. Of course no one knows how to rewrite the genetic code of a mutant, and I burn out all technological dampers in minutes. Even the Kheran tech ones. Besides, that kind of technology has a lot of nasty secondary effects. Cable offered to teach me some of his mental exercises, Askani stuff, but he vanished a month ago in a mission somewhen. No idea how you can help, Ray."
 
If Nate was sunk into a deep depression, Rachel would probably be trying to cheer him up, but instead... he's GRINNING. And she can't help feeling irritated that he's so chipper, when right now she wants to do something about the danger her 'little brother' is in. Preferably by hitting something. She grits her teeth and pushes the irrational anger back down. By the time she trusts herself to speak again he's just gotten finished telling her she can't help, and that almost makes her temper flare up again. "OK, so no tech." She smiles a bit grimly. "There are worse things than burning out inhibitors, let me tell you." There are times she'd have traded her own future for that talent, but she drags herself away from her own memories and back into the here and now. "All right. I don't know any of Cable's Askani stuff, and honestly anything I can do Jean could do better, but..." She shrugs, frustration evident in the jerkiness of the movement. "What if you let me inside your head? Does it have to be something physical? I could... put in some blocks." She forces a smile. "Keep you from turning it up to eleven." The smile dies, and she actually looks ill. "I've seen it done, with drugs and... other things." She taps her temple. "In here. I'll do it if you ask me to, if you think it would help." She really does look like she's going to throw up, and hastily changes the subject, trying to forget what she just offered, forcing another smile, forcing her tone to lighten again. "Or we could find Sinister and kick the snot out of him until he fixes you. Just say the word."
Nate had some weeks to get used to the idea. But he is not exactly happy. After all for the first time in his life he had something to live for. "Don't get angy, Ray. Scott and Magneto killed Sinister. Besides, the Sinister in this world wasn't the same one that manipulated my powers." He stands up and pats the redhead on the shoulder. "Look, I never expected to make it to 20. I had already lost all fear to death back home. I was crazy lucky when I got displace to this world. But I still decided to keep fighting, and I knew I would die sooner or later; we won't get old being the first line against super-powered maniacs. These past couple years have been great, and much more I expected."
Rachel has to concede that Nate's just pointed out a fairly substantial flaw in her backup plan. It doesn't really help her not to feel angry, though. "I know he wasn't but...!" She begins, but then Nate is patting her on the shoulder. PATTING her on the SHOULDER. As if everything would be OK if she just calmed down. It's also vaguely reminiscent of how her handlers treated her when she'd done well on a hunt, and gives her the absurd urge to bite Nate's comforting hand off.
Instead, she runs both hands back through her hair, mussing it in her agitation. "Nate, I know I should be saying that it's great you're dealing with this so well and... all that stuff. But I'm NOT OK with this. Not with losing you. I know nothing's guaranteed, I know we're asking to get cut down every time we go on a mission, but damn it, considering where I grew up, this is my happy ending." Her head comes up and she locks eyes with Nate. "And I've seen enough flashes of your world to know it's the same for you, too. So I'm not ready to let you be OK about this!" Rachel's silent for a couple of seconds, still looking right at Nate. "OK that didn't even make sense in my head." She admits, a bit a a smile tugging at her lips even though she's fighting it. "God, what a mess. Sorry." She shakes her head. "Can we start again? I'll tell you about Alaska, you tell me about moving in with Rose... y'know. The good bits." She smirks. "Like normal people. We can go back to being extra-ordinary people with the worst luck ever tomorrow. What do you say?"
Nate lets the hand go. His empathy is still working well. In fact, his telepathy is working better than ever (which is not as good as it should, he still needs a lot of training). "You know what, I will beat this... so don't worry. Just don't count on me to take you flying anywhere for a bit. Looks like my mind put some blocks by itself. We can try some psychic surgery, though." But it won't hold for long, because his power burns mind-blocks to restrain his powers almost as fast as technological power dampers.
"I like your plan, though. Let me improve it: lets go to Salem for pizza or something, and you can tell me while we have dinner."
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