THE FUTURE LIES WITHIN
Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men or any of the original Characters. I do own Heidi and any other characters that you don’t recognize so no snatching them up.
Prologue: The past and the present
Even at night the large Metropolis which was New York City remained forever on the go. The night life of the city was far different from that of the day; at night one might even say it was a bit dangerous, but always exciting. On the West side of Central Park stood several tall apartment buildings. One in particular had a great view of the park at night, and in that building lived a young woman trying to figure out her life.
Her apartment was not all that big, but cozy. Various shelves around the main room were filled with books and music of all sorts. A TV stand stood between two large picture frame windows which looked out onto the park. Off from the main room was a small kitchen, a room which was kept clean because there wasn’t any place for a mess. Across the room from the kitchen was the door leading to the bedroom, and at night that door always remained shut.
The bedroom was lit only by a small nightlight plugged into the outer wall. It was filled with shelves of trinkets of various sorts, mostly replicas of Egyptian Statues, and artifacts. In a large Canopy bed slept the occupant of the room; a woman in her mid twenties with long flowing, curly brown hair which fanned out across the pillow her head rested upon. As she slept Heidi dreamed, this night of her past, when she first began to realize that she could sometimes see things that other people around her could not.
'Her mom was upset and with every right too be. The evening before last when her parent’s had attended a party at a friend’s home, Heidi’s mom had lost her engagement ring. Even though her father, a man called Alex, had assured her mom that the ring wasn’t important, Heidi knew that his reassurances had gone unheard.
Wanting to give her mom her own support, Heidi put down her book and walked into the kitchen watching as her mom hung up the phone.
Megan set the phone in it’s cradled and turned around as her eight year old daughter walked over to where she was sitting at the kitchen table. “Did you finish your book?” she asked unwilling to worry her only child.
“Not yet. Daddy doesn’t seem to be angry about the ring,” Heidi began as she put her hand on her mom’s shoulder. Suddenly the image of her mother faded, replaced by another image. Heidi saw the party her parent’s had attended and watched as her mom took off her engagement ring, giving it to her father to put in his pocket before they started to swing dance.
Three times Megan had to call her daughter’s name, and just as she began to worry, Heidi seemed to snap out of what ever daydream she had just been in. “Are you alright my love?” asked Megan reaching out to touch her daughter’s cheek.
“Have you sent Daddy’s good pants to the Drycleaners?” Heidi asked hoping that she had not.
“I was going to do that today actually, Heidi what...” Before she could finish Heidi was pulling her out of the room. Megan followed her upstairs to the room she and Alex shared and watched as Heidi took her father’s dress pants off the back of the desk chair and reached into the pocket.
From the left pocket of her Daddy’s pants, Heidi pulled out the missing ring.
“How did you know?” Megan asked a bit concerned about how indeed her daughter knew where the ring had been.
Confused herself, Heidi wasn’t sure how to tell her mom how she knew about the ring. From that time on until she left home at eighteen years old, Heidi experienced times when she seemed to know things she should not. Her parents loved her but worried and frightened due to they discouraged her from ever speaking about her abilities with anyone. The only person who Heidi ever confided in was her grandmother, who had told Heidi that she also had clairvoyant dreams which pertained to the past rather than the future.'
As the dream came to an end, Heidi opened her eyes, looking out the window at the sky. It was just beginning to light up, and knowing that she wasn’t going to be able to sleep any longer, the tall graceful woman got out of bed, heading for a shower to help her wakeup
In downtown Manhattan, Heidi arrived in front of a tall building. At the door she was greeted by the security guard, Pete, and after telling him to have a nice day, she walked inside. She worked for a building firm owned by a wealthy man named Maxamillion Simons, a man three years her senior with a large ego. Her job there was to oversee the drafting department, those in charge of mapping out the architectural structure of a building before any worker was ever contracted to build it. Being highly organized, her skills came in handy, and she had caught the eye of the man in charge.
On the Fiftieth floor of the One Hundred floor building, Heidi arrived at her office without having to see Max. At her desk she logged into the office’s data base and looked over her jobs for the day. From what she saw it was going to be a busy day, and not one to waste time she made a call for the office mail clerk to bring her the day’s designs.
II
Elsewhere in New York State a Mansion stood on vast amounts of land. This was home for the X-men, and for young mutants trying to make a life for themselves in a world that didn’t want to accept them. It was night, and the full moon cast an eerie shadow over the several acres of land. The house was silent as everyone within slept, though for some sleep would not come.
A few weeks had gone by since her death, and though he knew he should sleep, Scott Summers found that once again he was plagued with what ifs. If he had paid more attention, he would have seen that Jean was changing, more than she would ever have let on. If he had only stayed with her on the plane, then maybe she wouldn’t have gotten off to save their lives. She died to save them, leaving his heart torn out. He sat up, and then he stood up, walking over to the window to look outside. He had resumed his classes yesterday, and teaching the students took his mind off of the sadness he was feeling, but only temporally. Needing to think about something else, Scott pulled on a pair of cotton sweatpants over his boxers. He pulled on a short sleeved cotton shirt as he walked out of his room, and started to walk down the hall toward the stairs. As he passed by the boys’ dorm, he heard soft laughter and for a moment he stood there wishing that he could share in their happiness. Knowing that they had classes tomorrow he knocked on the door before opening it.
“You all need to get some sleep,” he said as he stuck his head just inside the door. He scanned the room and realized that there was boy one missing. “Do any of you know where Bobby is?” even though he asked that question he knew the answer. Since their return from Alkali Lake Bobby and Rogue had grown very close, and it was quite often that he or another one of the adults had to find them and make sure they returned to their dorm so that they would get some sleep.
One of the younger boys finally spoke up, after they all realized that Scott wasn’t going to leave without an answer. “I think maybe they are sitting out in the garden,” Jake said as Scott turned out the lights. Jake was a ten year old boy who had come to the Mansion a week before Logan and Rogue arrived. He had telekinetic powers like Jean, and had been learning how to control them under her guidance.
As Scott turned to go down the hall he found Bobby on the way looking at the floor. The young man pushed past him as if he wasn’t there, and not wanting to pry, Scott shut the door behind him, continuing on his way to the garden to sit and try to deal with his own emotions.
Everyone was dealing with Jean’s loss in their own way. For Rogue it was her first experience with death, and at this time being in a serious relationship, even with someone as kind as Bobby was just too much. Tonight she had tried to tell him how she felt, but in the end there were hurt feelings and he left in an angry huff. As she entered the mansion through the garage, where their walk and talk had ended, she was too blinded by her tears to notice Logan and nearly bumped into him as he caught her.
Knowing that he was taking Jean’s death as hard as Scott, she swallowed the lump in her throat, and hoped in the darkness of the passage way that he wouldn’t notice her tears. “Sorry Logan, I was just on my way to bed,” she said not wanting to look at him.
Logan could smell the salt of her tears and reached out gently pulling on the stripe of white hair which developed when she was forced to use Magneto’s machine. When she looked up at him he asked, “Do you feel like talking?” Despite being sad, he wasn’t so into his own feelings that he couldn’t be there for her when she needed him. He made a promise to her that night on the train before Magneto took her away, telling her he would look out for her, and he wasn’t about to break that promise.
“I just need some sleep,” she said. He watched her walk away, wondering if he should follow her, but knew that she wasn’t likely going to open up to him. Once she was out of site, Logan went outside to begin his patrol of the grounds. He had been doing that every night since the attack, and being outside helped him deal with his feelings for Jean, and also helped him feel like he was doing something to protect his family.
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