"Why am I here? To whom are you talking to?" Havok asked, his voice thick with confusion.
The familiar surroundings of the small-town diner, so close to the Xavier School, only deepened his disorientation. The vinyl seat creaked under him as he shifted, his scorched uniform a stark contrast to the cheerful, checkered tablecloths.
"Oh... they are two shy, beautiful ladies actually. You can't perceive them normally." My voice was light, conversational, as if discussing the weather.
As I spoke, they witnessed the impossible: the delicate, celadon-glazed cup rose from the table on its own, tilting slightly as if an invisible hand were guiding it. A faint, shimmering steam ~ the color of a dawn sky ~ curled from its rim.
"Ojciec?" Nina pointed at the floating cup, her small voice a whisper. It seemed Magneto had often amused her with magnetic tricks. The scent of mug filled the space between us, a starkly abnormal aroma that affected their souls in the midst of the surreal.
Magda followed, her voice trembling as she clutched her daughter. "Przepraszam, kim pan jest?" (Excuse me, who are you?)
I looked to Nina, her wide eyes full of innocent bewilderment. A part of me, the part that still remembered what it was to be human, softened ~ but not enough to break the charade.
"To ja przewożę wasze dusze do zaświatów. A tak przy okazji, mam na imię… jeszcze nie zdecydowałem. Może Nexus? Tak, wiem - to dziwne imię… jak na mnie." (I'm the one who carries your souls to the afterlife. By the way, my name is... I haven't decided yet. Maybe Nexus? Yes, I know ~ it's a strange name... for me.)
Even as the foreign accent and syllables left my lips, the meaning settled directly into their minds, bypassing their ears. Their faces shifted from confusion to pure, unadulterated terror. The kind man who had just ordered them coffee was now claiming to be their ferryman to the underworld.
Havok stared in shock, swiping a hand through the solid oak of the table ~ a neat trick of perception I'd woven around him. Magda began to cry, soft, helpless sobs, and Nina held her, confused but empathetic. I soothed their souls with a subtle pulse of energy, damping the sharp edges of their sorrow. I was, after all, just making up stories; I meant no real harm.
***
The waitress returned, the rubber soles of her shoes squeaking on the linoleum floor. She placed the three coffees and the hot chocolate on the table without a second glance at the levitating celadon cup. The clatter of ceramic was deafening in the tense silence.
Havok stared blankly at his mug, the only thing in this reality that felt solid to him. Magda instinctively pulled Nina closer, guiding the girl's small hands to warm around the hot chocolate under my calm invitation.
Ziyun and Ning'er, invisible, were already inhaling the aroma of the Heart-Soothing Nectar. Its scent was of mountain air and petrichor, a clean, sharp contrast to the diner's smells of grease and coffee grounds.
"Now," I said, leaning forward, my voice low as I wrapped my hands around my own mundane coffee, feeling its heat seep into my borrowed skin enjoying the new reality's taste. "Let's talk about you. Do you remember what happened before?"
"I saw fire," Havok muttered, his eyes distant, staring past the sugar shaker and napkin dispenser. "No... the X-Mansion. The children."
"Hmm, calm down. They are all alive and fine," I stated, my tone leaving no room for doubt. "Only you died. What about you?" I turned to Nina.
"Moja klatka piersiowa..." (My chest...) She looked down, a phantom pain echoing in her small frame. "Nina odczuwała ból." (Nina felt pain.)
They both remembered the arrows.
"So, drink your coffee first. After all, souls don't often get to do this after dying. Today is a special case..."
While they reeled in the surreal nature of their situation, yet somehow able to enjoy their drinks, I turned to the ladies, who were visibly enjoying the spectacle I had orchestrated. Sipping my coffee, the bitter liquid a familiar anchor, I spoke to them in our native tongue from Glory City.
"You see... humans are simple on their own. Together, they are chaos despite the benefits. I wish for us to live among them, but they have built so many social rules that deceiving them requires endless paperwork. That's too low for us, playing mind games and background checks."
I gestured vaguely at the world outside the diner's window, where a station wagon rolled slowly past. "So, this planet, anywhere on earth is a place for us anyway. You have seen this place through my senses. I am thinking of creating a place somewhere in the deep ocean to enjoy the vacation. How does that sound?"
I took a final sip, the bitter taste a pleasant anchor. "Anyway, any place is only a thought away."
"We still are unable to interact with people here. What do we do?" Ning asked, her spiritual form shimmering with curiosity.
"Well I have a solution for that, after we settle in place."
***
"And more importantly what about cultivation as we are in our prime. Can we afford to lose time? Oh and why don't you let others out?" Ziyun added, her tone pragmatic even in this strange context.
I sighed. The fluorescent light above us buzzed faintly. "Hey, I have to draw a line somewhere. Some are lovers, some are friends and some others are here with me out of sect courtesy. About your life span don't worry. You are now martial souls. Connected to me, you are in a sense eternal."
Seeing my explanation, Ziyun rolled her eyes. It seems more than immortality she noticed the first part. "Yeah right. Somehow it all happens to be women for some reason."
Ning softly said, "Let her out."
Looking at both of them tasting their heavenly drink after issuing an edict, I sighed again and gestured with my hands. It seems even with small window of time inside small world, some developments happened while I was out.
A small bubble of distorted air suddenly appeared beside me, and in its place was none other than Long Yuyin. She blinked, taking in the diner's mundane setting, the terrified mortals, and our invisible forms.
Seeing me, she paused but sensing the soul-deep connection in place, she called out heartily. "Master."
"Ooh ~ master ~" Ziyun repeated, raising her shoulders and snickering.
Well, some blame is on me.
"Call me Nexus. I adopted that name here. What about you three?" I had already sent them the linguistic tree and knowledge of English directly into their minds, a flood of grammar and vocabulary settling into place.
"We can have our names in private then: I am more of a Snow and Wind cultivator so... 'alba', 'snow', 'frost', 'isolde', 'crystal', 'winterborn', 'seraphim'... none seem right to me..." Ziyun mused aloud, her voice a soft murmur against the clatter of dishes from the kitchen.
"How about taking Sera from seraphim and Frost together? ~ Sera Frost!" I suggested, rather pleased with myself.
I saw her look at me in shock. Of course I would make the best names...
"That's terrible. I will just stick with Ziyun."
Of course. You can't expect any different. Hmm.
"What about you, Ning?"
"I liked her name," she said, pointing to Nina, who was cautiously sipping her hot chocolate. "It is similar to mine. But now that she has it, how about Xena?"
"Hey in that case I appeal to have name as Frost," Ziyun interjected. Long Yuyin was meanwhile given some more information ~ apart from the linguistic download ~ about where we were through our soul link. She answered before I could turn to her.
"Scarlet."
I looked at her. "I have red dragon blood. Scarlet seems fine," she replied, her tone characteristically direct.
"Hmm. Good then. Nexus, Frost, Xena, Scarlet ~ we can live with that."
***
I turned my attention to Nina, who was stealing glances at me speaking nonsense to the air or ghosts. She'd heard her name called out of nowhere.
"Is it tasty?" I asked her gently. She nodded, a small, hesitant motion. I turned my attention from my girlfriends back to our "guests."
Their expressions were a masterpiece of cognitive dissonance ~ a mixture of sheer terror and placid acceptance, their souls soothed into a strange calm despite the madness unfolding around them.
I broke the silence with a cheerful clap of my hands, the sound sharp in the cozy diner. "Congratulations are in order, by the way! Your arrival was a bit of a milestone. You three are officially the three one-hundred-billionth human souls to be processed through this particular terminal. Give or take one. It has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? One followed by eleven zeroes."
I snapped my fingers. A small, shimmering scroll of light, resembling a cheap "You Win!" carnival ticket, materialized and floated above the table. The text on it glowed with an unearthly script.
"Hmmh. Listen carefully: And as per corporate policy for such auspicious occasions, you are eligible for our 'Cosmic Recovery & Refinement' promotional package."
I leaned forward, my voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, the Formica tabletop cool beneath my elbows.
"The standard offer is this: You can be returned to life, exactly as you were, in a location of your choosing anywhere on Earth. A second chance. No strings attached."
Magda gasped, her hands tightening around Nina. Havok's eyes narrowed, the soldier in him deeply suspicious of a free lunch.
"What's the catch?" he ground out.
"No catch, Alex. Just policy. However..." I gestured, and the scroll unfurled further, revealing a second, more complex clause written in light. "...as valued milestone customers, you also have the option to include a Genetic Power Up."
I let the term hang in the air, watching it settle between the salt and pepper shakers.
"So, the choice is yours. Option One: A simple return. Back to your lives. Option Two: A return, but better. Stronger. Safer. The power you had, but perfected. The choice is, of course, entirely yours."
***
I leaned back, picking up my coffee mug as if I'd just explained a special on apple pie. Seeing them silent I continued.
"Think of it as... an upgrade. A tune-up for the soul's vehicle. For you, Alexander, it would mean your plasma channels wouldn't be so... volatile. You could control the blast more easily, from anywhere on your body in any proportion. Not just be a conduit for it. No more fear of expressing it."
Havok stared, his mind reeling at the possibility. I could see the war in his eyes ~ the desire for control battling against his core identity.
"(To Magda and Nina) And for you, Nina... the potential within your bloodline, the 'magic', one your father wielded, could be awakened. Not as a curse, but as a birthright. Refined. Controllable. No more fearing the metal around you. Instead, you would command it. Your primary mutation would stay the same, but you can have the magnetic resonance as a secondary mutation."
"What about it, child?"
She looked at her mother with a face that screamed yes.
"As for you, Magda, you are a baseline human. What would you need? Stay the same?"
"Will it harm Nina? Then no. For me..... No, I could have protected my child if I wasn't powerless. I pray, give me something that would never put me in such a situation again."
"Letting me decide? No worries. It will be as if you always had it. Hmm. I can work with that.... You could ensure no one could ever cage you, or your family, again. You will wake up to find your husband and father."
Tears welled in Magda's eyes, but they were not of sorrow this time. They were of a terrifying, impossible hope. As I said it, I waved my hand again. They slumped into a peaceful sleep, their forms dissolving from the booth and entering my spiritual custody, making it appear to Havok as if they had simply vanished into the sunlit air of the diner.
He turned to me, his face a mask of grim determination. "Yes. I choose to be brought back to Xavier's school as I was before."
"Are you sure?" I asked, a ghost of a smile playing on my lips. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime wish. Correction. Once in two lifetimes for you. A chance to take the mantle of leader. The power of an Omega with perfect control, no weakness. Do you truly mean it?"
"YES," Alex insisted, his voice firm, echoing slightly in the now nearly empty diner. "That wouldn't be my victory," he said, the words raw and honest.
" You'd just be handing me a solved problem. Besides, I still refuse to believe this is not a dream. Anyway I believe I will succeed on my own. I am an Omega level on my own. The mess, the fight, the getting back up... that's ours. It's what we do. If I take a shortcut around it, then the life I get back... it wouldn't feel like it is really mine anymore."
I leaned back, regarding him with a newfound sense of appreciation. The raw, unvarnished selflessness of it was almost archaic in its purity.
"Hmm. I like you, Havok. A noble, if foolish, choice," I said, my tone not unkind. "In a universe teeming with those who would seize godhood for a petty grudge... you are choosing your own story. A story you intend to finish writing yourself."
I gave a single, conceding nod. "Very well, Alexander Summers. You will have it. You will return, precisely as you were. But I will not be sending you to the past, but to the current X-Mansion."
With that, he too was asleep, his head lolling gently against the vinyl booth.
***
Ziyun ~ no, Frost ~ and Xena watched, utterly engrossed in the theater of it all.
"That's all for the show today," I said, standing up and stretching my new limbs. "Well, we can stroll around the city a bit. It will take at least 18 hours for the next act to begin."
"Hey, were you serious, or just fooling around with granting powers?" Xena asked suddenly, her spiritual form flickering with curiosity.
I looked back at her and said, "Hey, it's not that I have a god complex. But I did take a lot of information from their genetic makeup, how this 'mutant power' works. I could have prevented the disasters that fell on them in the first place. Even my own future plans need some of them to be studied.
Don't you girls need to have some corporeal body that works in here? So, you know, returning karma phala ~ karmic blessing, whatever. Yeah, something like that."
Obviously she wanted more explanation. "Fine. These people they were supposed to be dead. Part of collateral damage surrounding the events happening. Through the wish I am just applying my theory into practicality. I learned the stuff, I just wish to be sure, before applying on our own."
"That's more like you." Frost and Scarlet nodded in unison, a faint smile touching Scarlet's lips.
We rose. Even though we'd come in and had a massive, reality-altering conversation in the restaurant, no one seemed to notice.
The same cognitive filter made the people in the small restaurant forget we had arrived with three other people. The waitress was wiping down a distant counter, humming softly to the radio.
I went to the cashier, a young woman with tired eyes, and gave her four dollars more than the cost. The register dinged as it opened. "Thank you, miss. Keep the change."
Seeing her genuine, surprised smile, we left, the bell on the door chiming our exit. The afternoon sun was warm on our faces. Xiao Ning ~ Xena ~ immediately questioned: "Where did the money come from?"
"Oh, you won't believe it, these people just use these as money. A guarantee written on paper. These paper notes ~ a lot of them ~ were in some place called a bank. I just put them into circulation to help with the economics. You know."
"Why do I feel like you are speaking about stealing from the treasury of these people?"Ziyun ~ Frost ~ asked, one eyebrow arched.
"Don't worry about it... okay?" I said with a wink, leading my trio of newly named, otherworldly women out into the sunny, unsuspecting streets of 1983, where the biggest concern seemed to be the price of gasoline and just recently; mutant apocalypse.