Shadow King: Echoes

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Waiting for the telepaths to finish their work, Scott and Ororo are the first at the mansion to realize that something is very wrong.


Being told to go 'wait at a safe distance' had not sat at all well with Scott. Ororo either, if he judged by the glower she'd been wearing ever since they'd retreated to his office to let the telepaths do what they could for Cain.

It had been a very quiet wait. There wasn't much to be said, after all, and whatever the usual jokes about possession or mental invasion, they weren't really appropriate when one was in the middle of the situation. They were for later. Much later. For times when one's wife was not going into telepathic battle.

Scott had been in the middle of expressing just that to Ororo, in a much more bitter tone than he'd intended when something happened. What, he would never be entirely sure. All he knew was that shock and pain and chaotic impressions he couldn't even begin to sort out thundered down his link with Jean like a tidal wave, shattering the seal she'd put on it for the duration of the procedure, to protect him, and swamping any vestiges of conscious thought.

He wouldn't be sure, afterwards, just how long he'd been unconscious, either. The next thing he knew, Ororo was bending over him, shaking him lightly by the shoulders. His head was pounding obscenely, and he coughed, tasting blood at the back of his throat.

"What - the fuck-" was his completely inarticulate response.

"What happened?" Ororo realized a second later that it was a futile question, and that by the looks of it Scott had no idea what had just occurred, but she couldn't help it. Helping him to sit up, slowly, she glanced at the door to the office and then back at Scott worriedly. "Are you all right, Scott?"

"Something's wrong," Scott said raggedly. "Something's really, really wrong - help me up," he said, but swayed when she did. Charles! he shouted mentally.

Nothing.

"Shit, we've got to get in there," Scott said, taking advantage of the fact that Ororo hadn't let go of his arm to pull her towards the door with him. "Something happened with Cain - I can't sense Jean properly, and Charles isn't answering."

Ororo's steps were more hesitant, at first, but by the time they had made it to the hallway she was moving as quickly as Scott, still holding his elbow to keep him from veering into any tables or plants along the way.

They made it to the rec room faster than they had any right to, under the circumstances - if he'd tried to run, he would have landed right on his face - but even so, it took too long. Scott stopped at the doorway so fast that Ororo nearly ran into him.

Cain was still sitting on the couch, unmoving. Charles was slumped in his chair - and there was no sign of the other three. An overturned chair or two, where they had to have been sitting, but no Jean, Nathan, or Jim.

"...they are not here." Ororo blinked and looked around the nearly-empty office once again before turning a worried gaze on Scott. "There is no reason for them to have left without contacting us to say what happened... is there?" She really couldn't think of any, and that realization only made the feeling of dread - which had been hovering over them since the whole thing began - increase.

Scott moved to Charles, checking his pulse. Finding one, he shook the older man's shoulder gently. "Charles." Ordinarily he wouldn't disturb him, just in case he was in some sort of telepathic trance... but there was something very wrong here. "Charles."

Nothing. Scott looked around at Ororo. "We have to find them," he said, his voice low and tense. "We have to find them right now."