The X-Men characters featured in this
story are property of Marvel Inc and used without permission.
No profit is made from these works.
AJ Rovner/Unicorn was created by Abby
Rovner and is used with permission.
Ziska Xavier is my own creation.
The story takes place after Legion Quest
The arrangements where made months ago. There was a time when AJ thought it was just a dream, so for a while she didn’t take her plane ticket out of her pocketbook for a week.
AJ Rover
will be a teacher, in an exclusive private school just outside
The driver seems weary as he quietly opens the door to the back seat for her. She watches as he takes her few bags and stows them in the trunk.
“It’s a few miles to the school ma’am; we should be there in about half an hour.” He calls back politely.
God she hates being called “ma’am.” But it’s the only thing he says all the way to their destination.
She pulls out her envelope with information. Included are her new employee ID card, her room keys and basic information about the school. Even now, she still isn’t sure what surprised her more. The fact that it took her so long to get a job, or the fact that this job hired her for the very reason others have declined her.
AJ is a mutant.
******************************************
The last few weeks have been quiet; too quiet, unfortunately. Understandably, the Professor still isn’t back to being himself. How could he be?
In his “absence”, Scott has taken over the daily running of the school. Was it really time for a new school year already? And now with several new students, anyone in their right mind could see that the teaching staff was stretched a bit thin. The new recruit will arrive any time now.
Ororo sits at a side table going over her lesson plans as Scott enters the sitting room. She notices Scott holding the notes about the new teacher’s orientation. “What are you going to do?”
“Be as honest as I can be.” He takes a deep breath and thinks for a moment. “Jean said she already told Miss Rovner about our other activities. I hope she can handle it.”
She gathers her supplies and sits down next to Scott. “Do you think Professor Xavier will greet her?”
Scott doesn’t want to think about it really. “I’m more worried about what will happen when he finally breaks down.”
“We all are.” Jean chimes in from the doorway.
“I know. That doesn’t make it any easier though.” Scott replies. “Have you gotten a hold of your parents?”
Jean nods. “They’d like us to come visit them soon. But they understand it won’t be very soon. Have you heard from Alex?”
“Yes, he’s doing alright I guess. He’s going to talk to Grandpa, and I’ll try to get a hold of Dad. Maybe we all can get together some time…a little family get-together.”
All three heads turn as the intercom buzzes. Someone is at the front gate, letting themselves in.
******************************************
Chares wishes he could go back in time and change everything. But that is what started all the problems, wasn’t it? David’s intentions were good… but the outcome was a nightmare. Before leaving for home, Gabrielle gave Charles what will be his most treasure possession; pictures of David’s childhood. He had been a happy child once. Unfortunately, Charles knows all too well why that changed. He wonders if it would have made a difference if their paths would have crossed sooner. How different would both their lives have been? Charles himself never had a normal family life. Perhaps it is too late to start one now.
He is interrupted when his computer starts to beep, alerting him the main gate is opening. To his knowledge, all staff and students are accounted for. A few taps on the keyboard tells him everything he needs to know. The new teacher has arrived.
Scott can handle it.
******************************************
They’ve been called many things in their endless existence. Usually it’s some rendition of the word “fate.” As their old masters vanished into myth and history, they kept working, although not voluntarily. Their enslavement to time made them angry, anger lead to carelessness, thus they didn’t tend to their work with the same vigilance as they had in centuries past. After all, if people had the “free choice” of destroying their world, let them. Maybe the fates could finally get some rest.
The “loom,” as people tend to think of their handling of time, is now enormous, well beyond a number a mortal can comprehend. Without the ability to create more of their own kind, only a few are able to tend to the ever expanding realities. Sometimes, a reality has to be culled from the heard, so to speak, for better or for worse. Does it really make a difference for very trivial things?
But recently, something they thought impossible had happened. A strand folded back onto itself and unraveled, only to re-spin itself in knots that will have catastrophic consequences for all moments that followed. That reality was supposed to keep going “as is”, as well as it’s various off shoots. Now, as well as this original timeline, the fates have several new ones to content with.
Before the loom could be pruned, that reality somewhat fixed itself… but the manner in which it was fixed still resulted in thousands of timelines lost as a result of a single moment in history not happening as planned. There would be no need for culling any time soon.
Irech, the “youngest” of their group, who always thought tending to time and reality should be fun, was assigned the daunting task to see what went wrong. And found the answer in David Haller. How long had it been since she viewed a reality as part of that reality? Eons? Irech watched with zeal as the timeline unfolds, unravels then reweaves itself. The details didn’t matter to her personally that much and she found herself bored before seeing the worst of David’s young life. Nothing can retie the knots in the same way, and although the time line was restored, it was not even close to the original.
David already paid his price. In having the damage undone, he died. And he changed his own life in this time line just enough to no longer be synchronized here, so she cannot simply undo the step where he died. Irech did not look forward to having to undo the whole loom again and start over, trying to restore the lost realities as well. No, she will simply have to add something to this reality that would compensate for what David had done.
Or perhaps, would it be easier to just replace David himself? The others wouldn’t mind her tending to the situation by herself. And after all, 616 and its offshoots are notoriously difficult to deal with.
******************************************
Breathe. Just breathe. AJ tells herself. She can’t see the school. The fence is lined with a beautiful forest, concealing the house from the street. Of course, she had known that ahead of time. People have said many things about her habits, but AJ prides herself for her attention to detail. It couldn’t hurt knowing a bit about where you are applying for a job, and the school does have a web site. She knows what most of the staff looks like and their names. And in the two months since she was hired, she made sure she knew as much as she could.
When the initially call about her resume came, AJ was startled when she found out her interviewer would actually come meet her at home rather than do the interview over the phone or even expect her to come to the school. Mrs. Jean Grey-Summers was very specific about her questions and it didn’t take AJ long to figure out that she was skirting around a detail; Mutation. She thought she lost out on another job, so AJ stands to lead the way back to the door, yet was quick to point out that her mutation was her own business and it shouldn’t stop her from being a good candidate for the position.
“Actually, it makes you a perfect candidate.” Jean replied.
Stunned, AJ sat back down. “I…. I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
Jean sat back a bit, finally relaxing. “Being a mutant yourself, I imagine you’ll get a long a lot better with the students.”
Over the course of the next two hours, Jean told AJ more about what her position would require, and perhaps more importantly what the rest of the staff does when they are not in the class room.
After she took it all in, AJ leaned forward. “So, what’s the requirement to make the team?”
******************************************
It has been four weeks, three days and two hours since David was laid to rest. Hank hates walking on eggshells, but he wasn’t going to be the one to make a bad situation worse. Time might yet heal these wounds. If anyone would live long enough to see that happen would be a very different question.
For now,
there is a new teacher to greet. With
the students out and about, the staff gathers in the sitting room, realizing
Miss Rover would be in shortly. So far,
the group isn’t large. Ororo, Jean and
Scott are present and
“Is that all?” Hank asks.
“Afraid
so. Remy and Rogue are chaperoning the
field trip. Jubilee has volunteered to
‘represent the student body.’”
As if on cue, Jubilee comes bounding down the stairs. “I’m not late; I’m not late I’mnotlateimnotlate...”
“Not yet
anyway.”
Finally, the door bell rings.
Here goes nothing Jean tells herself.
******************************************
What’s the occasion? Irech wonders. Ah, of course, AJ Rovner’s introduction to the X-Men. She was supposed to also be greeted by David right now.
Irech sighs as she realizes what was supposed to happen, but now won’t. David’s powers are supposed to be completely spent, and, while he is sane, he is practically nothing more than a human. He and Charles Xavier are supposed to have a lot of fights, and Scott and AJ are supposed to be caught in the middle a lot. After all, in Scott Summers, Charles Xavier practically has a son, so David feels he has no place in the pecking order. On top of that, having the new person, teacher or not, upstage him was going to push him over the edge again.
Perhaps it
is better this reality changed. At least, now they get to choose someone more
fitting with the group.
******************************************
It is not what AJ expected. She can feel he tension in the air as the group of teachers sit with her in a sun room. They don’t get new teachers often. There are the usual introductions, who teacher what and so on so fourth. AJ quickly realizes she is at quite a disadvantage, as most of the teachers at some point were students.
Trying to make small talk, Scott mentions. “I understand that Jean filled you in about pretty much everyone here being a mutant.”
AJ nods in agreement. “I’ve heard. It’s kinda nice to not have to be on guard all the time.”
“What kind of powers do you have?” Jubilee blurts out.
AJ starts to smile. “A lot of variations on the same basics really. My main power is to transform into various animals, including their other special abilities. I have gotten so used to bat sonar that I have it on all the time. I also have limited telepathy with animals.”
“Would that not also mean you have telepathy for people?” Ororo chimes in.
“Sort of, I guess.” AJ thinks it over. “I can’t read thoughts exactly. It’s more basic than that, more like instinct and intent and so on. I never really tried.”
“Works
great if you need info fast, rather than the whole mess of garbled thoughts
you’d have to sift through to get what you need.”
“I take it then the Professor is away on business?” AJ asks.
She watches as several of the group share a glance, not sure how to respond. AJ wondered why no one showed her into that first double door while on her tour.
“It’s… a complicated situation. I apologize for being cryptic, but I’m wouldn’t know where to begin.” Dr. McCoy responds.
What have I gotten myself into? AJ wonders
“It’s nothing you need to worry about, Miss Rovner.” A voice quietly says behind her.
The rest of the staff quickly gets to their feet, which AJ only a second behind them. Professor Xavier had snuck into the room and even AJ didn’t hear him. She’ll have to pay more attention. That contraption he was sitting in didn’t help either.
He looks so exhausted. Jean thinks. Charles’s face is gaunt. He hasn’t eaten well these past few weeks. And she doubts he’s slept for more than an hour or so a day. If it were anyone else, he’d tell them that they need to take time off and rest. But who tells off the Professor?
******************************************
Irech considers for a moment. Alright, that’s enough. With a flick of her wrist, she takes all of the people in her sight to where she intended to take them.
AJ practically jumps as the seat behind her disintegrates. With a flash of light, she finds herself in a completely different room, but the others are still with her. “What just happened?”
“Not sure,
not liking it though.”
“Now now,
put those away.” Irech exclaims. As she waves her hand in
AJ stands aside as she watches the team ready itself. Ororo Munro has lightning flash from her fingertips. Scott Summers reaches for his glasses; his wife starts to float up, and so on and so forth. Every instinct tells AJ to get out of the way.
“Don’t start kids, we don’t want a mess.” Irech commands. “I have a proposition for you.”
“It would have been too complicated a task to merely pose the request?” Hank responds.
“Oh, you don’t actually have a choice in what you’re doing. You get too choose who though.”
“‘Who’ for what now?” Jubilee asks, increasing the sparks coming from her hand.
Irech starts to grin. “You are about to choose to replace David in your world, that’s who and what and who… or whatever.”
Scott is sure that Professor Xavier is about to faint. “Replace David? How?”
Irech sighs. “Oh very well, I’ll explain.” She snaps her fingers and the group hears a scratch against the wall as a door carves itself out of the room. “This is all oversimplified for you little people to understand, so I’ll only have to explain it once, right? Right, of course. David left quite a mess with his time traveling, and since you know how much trouble your other teammates have caused in doing so, I’m tired of cleaning up after you. So, this time, you’ll do the work. Outside that door, you’ll find a city, populated with alternate versions of David, taken from other abandoned timelines. Pick anyone of them to replace your David. Have fun now.”
“You can’t possibly expect anyone here to do this.” Charles says quietly.
Irech leans down, at eye level to the Professor. “I’m sure you’ll come through in the end. You always worry about the greater good, after all.” With another snap of her finger, Irech vanishes.
******************************************
AJ watches as Professor Xavier practically cracks the casing of the contraption by gripping the arm rest too tightly; if he clenches his jaw any more tightly he’ll probably crack a tooth. She’s not sure she wants to know what’s going on, but there’s no going back now.
Finally, Charles straightens up, and looks outside. “Split into groups, and have a look around. We’ll meet back here in an hour.” Without looking up, he glides out the door. Scott, Jean and Ororo follow him.
Jubilee tries to break the tension. “Guess we’re team two then. Anyone have a watch?”
AJ tries to keep her cool. “Okay… I’ll repeat. What just happened?”
“It’s a very long story. I’m not quite sure where to start.” Hank begins.
She’s becoming frustrated. “Maybe someone could explain to me who David is?”
“He was the Professor’s son. He tried to change time to make things better for us, but thing just got worse. We fixed things… at least we thought we did. She obviously disagrees.” Knowing that this wouldn’t nearly be enough, Hank leaves it alone for now.
“Two thirty. And it’s AJ, if you don’t mind.”
“Welcome to the X-Men, AJ.” He replies, and the four of them walk out into this strange city.
To be continued…