Don't Close Your Eyes: Schism

[x-jeangrey.livejournal.com]

Back in the real world, Garrison and Vanessa wake up and tell Xavier and Haller who's behind everything.



"Isst christmas?" Garrison's head shot up off the floor suddenly, his eyes fogged from being jolted awake. With a groan he closed them and let his head sink back to the wood floor. It felt like a truck had driven directly over his brain. Weakly, he got his elbows under and levered himself up, trying to focus. "What. The. Fuck."

Jim jerked away from the beginnings of his next round of psychic intervention like a surgeon whipping back a scalpel a split-second before a nurse bumped his arm. Startled, he pulled his hand away from the next dreamer tethered to Hank and turned to stare at the man. "Garrison?" the telepath said, even as he looked askance at Charles. But he was tied to Jean. I thought she was going to be the last--

Not too far away Vanessa groaned unhappily. Her head hurt and her body ached. She ran her hands across her stomach to find she was dry but she still felt like she should be wet. "Never fucking tripping with you again," she grumbled in response to Garrison. Unlike the Canadian she rolled up in a fetal position then rolled over until she could push herself up with her hands. Her head did not appreciate that.

"Next time we'll stick with drinking." Kane said, struggling to stand. "Haller, what the hell is going on? If I didn't know better, I think I just spent a fun filled vacation inside Jean's mind."

"You did. Someone gave the mansion a package tour on psychic vacations. And Jean's was one of the more exclusive locales." Jim paused and sent a feeler towards the redhead's mind, but the psychic interference didn't seem to be lessening. If anything, the defenses were actually higher. He turned to Vanessa and Garrison with a frown. "Her brain is ground zero for the attack. How the hell did you get out?"

"If I'm not wrong, Jean herself is responsible." Charles had that far away look that signalled he was using his powers at a high level. "Rather than have you trapped and potentially injured with her, she took steps to remove you."

"Great." Kane groaned and shook his head. "There's a guy mucking around inside her head. Was impersonating Scott to get Jean to- I don't know. It's all confused."

Vanessa scratched the back of her head as if to stimulate her memory into moving. "If it wasn't a real dream then it's doing a brilliant job of mimicking one. You know how stuff sort of fades pretty quickly once you wake up? All I can remember is a bunch of water. Some kids toys. Why were there toys? She said a name, didn't she? Packer? Porter? Parker? Maybe Parker." She shook her head and looked at the two telepaths. "I dunno? You could try digging 'round in there and seeing if you can find anything useful." It wasn't an offer she tended to make but all of the unconscious people around her was hardly lost on Vanessa.

"Parker . . ." Jim's confusion suddenly drained, and with it all the color in his face. "Parker Matthews?"

Kane snapped his fingers. "Yeah, that was him. He had been using Jean's-" Garrison stopped dead, the realization finally hitting him. "Sorry. He was using her memories to manipulate her. You guys have to pull her out of there. He's had access to everything - memories, secrets, events. He could - wait, why are we doing this in the Danger Room?"

"What?" said the telepath, only half hearing the man's question. "Oh. Because it's where they put everyone, and it's secure. The mansion's been infiltrated. We have at least three intruders, maybe more. And there's a bomb somewhere on the premises." While objectively aware that he had just uttered several phrases that were worrying individually and alarming collectively, Jim was having some difficulty moving away from the previous subject. He turned to stare at the professor. "This doesn't make sense. I thought Matthews was a hypnotist. I thought he was in a coma. How could he be doing this?

"Bomb? Fucking hell. We need to get out there." He swayed alarmingly for a moment, trying to shake off the disorientation.

"There is no time." Charles indicated the room, full of sleeping bodies. "Even with your strength, Garrison, we couldn't get everyone out in time. Our hope lies here, with Sarah and Hank. We awaken them, they can disarm the device."

Vanessa was, of course, halfway out of the loop again. Apparently everyone knew the weirdo from Jean's brain but her. Pushing aside what she didn't know anything about, the metamorph chose to focus on what she likely could do something about. "What do we know about the intruders?" She felt surprisingly steady on her feet, which was nice. They'd taken the knife that usually hung on her belt and the one she'd had hidden up her sleeve. Further patting herself down revealed the ones on her legs still there. Just two knives. Well, it was better than nothing. "And do we know where they are?"

"Jubilee and Amara are providing a diversion and Doug is tracking them through the mansion's security system," Charles replied, even as the faint sound of fighting filtered in from the hallway outside. "I dare say they would appreciate some assistance."

"Jubilee and Amara? So, this involves blowing things up and burning them down in the hallways." Kane shook his head to clear it. "Alright, we're moving. Let us know if Jean wakes up. We could use her firepower in this."

As Garrison spoke Vanessa pulled up the leg of her pants and pulled out one of her stashed knives. It went into the empty sheath on her belt and she nodded to her friend. "Sounds like a party, mate."

Jim glanced after the two, then turned his attention to Jean. A cautious probe revealed the interference radiating from her mind had only intensified. It had been painful before; now, its sharp edges seethed. If Parker Matthews were indeed in there with her, this was not an encouraging sign.

Matthews. He'd never physically met the man, but he'd seen what he'd done to Jean -- and, by association, to Scott. He hadn't created the negative emotions that had manifested as Jane, but he'd provided them the outlet to express themselves. It was an act Jim liked to think the man had lived to regret, or would have had Jean not shredded all access to his powers and reduced him to a vegetative state. Or so they had believed.

"What the hell is going on here?" the telepath muttered.

"All manner of wrongdoing," Charles replied darkly. "And little time in which to act. We will have to trust that Jean knows what she is facing and that is why she removed Garrison and Vanessa from her mind. That particular battle is hers alone, for now." He turned back to the still forms of Sarah and Hank. "We have our own."