It was a lot of work to try to explain how Emma Frost was not, in fact, the cold-hearted Frost the X-men all remembered a little too well from the Phoenix incident.

Jean especially had no fond memories of her telepathic attacks.

But perhaps it helped that this Emma Frost looked so different. Her clothes and makeup and hair style all said "future" all over them.

And the accent...

So before too long, they all believed she was not the one they knew...but, of course, they all wanted to know how she got there, and the fact that she couldn't tell them only made half of them suspicious.

But Xavier probed her mind a little, as much as she allowed.

"Well, she is telling the truth about her memory loss," he said. "Or perhaps she was simply unconscious and no memories were formed. But what is this you are keeping from me, Frost?"

Emma gave him a cold stare. "I just met you. Pardon me if I don't spill all my secrets. Provided you know I am telling the truth, what's it to you what else I've seen? As I understand it, we have no relationship whatsoever in this world, so my actions cannot possibly matter to you. I'd just like to get home so I can keep living my own life. Anyway, from what I've gleaned while we've been talking, the Emma Frost you know is not the nicest person, so we can't have any reason to want to spend more time together than strictly necessary."

"You're very blunt," Storm noted.

"She reminds me of Shine when they first arrived," Jubilee said. "So...straightforward."

Shine shot her an odd look. "I don't think I was rude...though I suppose what she is saying is true, and we shouldn't pry into her mind. Besides, it can be unwise to do so. Our dimensions are distinct for a reason. I've known people who became paranoid because they found out there were parallel events. Remember Question, honey?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to see a repeat of that," Wally winced. "And I'm not dead, so it's not like we really know."

"I'm sorry, you have dealt with this before?" Storm said.

"Of course," Shine said. "Quite often, for Wally. I suppose I must defer to his experience on this one."

"Just because I experienced it doesn't mean I understand it. You're the guru." Wally shrugged. "I try not to think too hard about this kind of thing. It's a headache."

"You mean the two of you have some prior experience with this?" Emma looked so relieved it was almost sad. "Then tell me--how could this have happened?"

"Well, I was kidnapped," Wally said. "These guys, they were like other versions of us--my friends, I mean. Like you're another version of Frost here. And they were dark, you know, scary. They thought we were doing a bad job protecting our universe, so they came in to fix it."

"I'm inclined to agree that your base needed better security," Shine spoke. "Luthor once almost blew it up, after all. But everything else they did wasn't pragmatic--it was a moral statement. Almost wrecked the League's reputation."

"But I thought you said they were right that bad guys need stricter punishments?" Wally said.

"I said that I thought they should be punished more, yes," Shine said. "But it is not for me to tell people they should violate their conscience. DJs are not supposed to do that. Those fools were stepping way outside the bounds of other-worldly interference that's permissible."

"Do I even want to know?" Emma said.

"No," Gambit replied.

"The end of it was we had to stop them by force," Wally said. "But then there was that other time, with the Teen Titans. Shine was there that time, wasn't a mission exactly, but some chian reacting effects from people messing with things in my world and the parallel one." [See Worldcrossed, specifically Section 3.]

"Fun times," Shine commented with half a wistful and half a wry look.

 "So that's one reason someone might kidnap you. You're part of a hero team, right?" Flash looked at Emma.

"I was," Emma said slowly. "But...they'd think I'm dead. What use is there in kidnapping a dead person?"

"I was dead too," Wally said. "I mean, the version of me they knew. That's why they went to the dark side."

"You dat important?" Gambit was amused.

Shine gave him a warning look. "Yes, he is. Everyone else takes themselves too seriously. Without someone who lightens things up, people just can't remember healthy boundaries. It's different now--there's hundreds of members, so the pressure is off--but back then, I'd say they couldn't have done it without Flash."

Wally squeezed her hand. "Thanks, honey."

"I suppose we all have reason to think our team would be incomplete without any one of us," Storm mused. "Could your absence be causing a huge problem, Miss Frost?"

Emma looked...guilty? Or was it just scared? "I highly doubt it. I was only a member for a few months. Short career, really."

"If it's not too much to ask someone to evaluate themselves, can you tell us how important you were in that time?" Xavier said.

"I suppose I helped them find some people," Emma said warily. "And save Storm from the Shadow King."

"Oh..." Storm shuddered. "I feel sorry for the other version of me...though it is still hard to believe there is one."

"That is important," Shine mused. "But if it already happened, it's far more likely they would be trying to prevent future events. Which indicates someone who can see the future or else travel time. Which means either a regular time traveler, like Cable or Bishop or whoever, or..."

She paused.

"Or another one of the people who tamper with dimensions," Wally said. "And you don't have to be a genius to figure out that the second one is more likely, since she's not from our timeline at all."

"Since you two are the clear experts on this--" Xavier put his hands together. "--what do you propose we do about this? Miss Frost certainly should get home...but I fear we would send her into danger if we do not first find the cause of their problem. Perhaps they would only take her again, and next time we may not know where to find her."

"That is exactly what I have been thinking," Shine said. "And, Morph, you concur?"

"Yeah, unfortunately," Morph said. "I think we have to keep her with us. That was...uh, the suggestion from my tip off."

"Which ya won't explain how ya got." Rogue frowned. "Seems to me they might know somethin'."

"I told you--they got cut off, so we can't ask them," Morph said. "I keep trying. Nothing."

"But why dey contact you?" Gambit said. "Why not Xavier?"

"It's an old friend of mine," Morph said vaguely. "From before you knew me, that is... A long story."

They frowned.

"Are you all implying I have to stay here?" Emma said. "With you? Until we solve this? Which...could take how long?"

"Days to weeks," Shine said. "If we get a lead."

"And if you don't?"

"I have no idea how long, then," Shine said. "This is new to me. But we can be sure whoever it was will come looking for you. You don't want them to find you on your own, believe me. No one should face this sort of thing alone. And we can shield you better than anyone else can, so what better offer will you get? You know no one here, and anyone who recognizes you will assume you are the evil Emma Frost. We are the only people in the world who would believe your story--just the ones in this house."

Emma looked around the room and seemed to realize Shine's words were undeniably true.

"But what do I do, then?" she asked. "You have no need of my services, so my existence here is moot."

"But you need help," Xavier said. "And we certainly cannot hold a grudge for your other self's actions against us, given what we know so far. So why should it be any different than anyone else?"

"I don't really consider myself a victim," Emma said. "Not my style."

"That's good," Shine said. "We will not treat you like one, then. Don't expect to get any pity from us. We will help you, but you will have to cooperate. Is that fair enough?"

"And you get nothing out of this?" Emma said.

"Protectin' our world from whoever is invadin' yours seems like a good enough reward," Logan said. "I don't really like the idea of you being around, lady, but if you're story checks out, there's no way we can not help you. Why are ya tryin' to avoid it?"

"I'm not avoiding it," Emma said. "It's just there is usually some kind of trade off at such times."

"Trading off for bailing someone out of being kidnapped?" Wally said. "Wow, what kind of heroes are you working with?"

Emma finally cracked a small smile. "I suppose that's a fair point. I forgot--this is the X-men... though, not like the ones I know. Your thoughts are different...I can't quite explain how.... Nothing about this place feels familiar. You'd think it would. It looks somewhat similar to the X Mansion I've seen, but...somehow it's all different...."

"That's normal," Shine said. "I suppose the lag is catching up with you. You may feel a little disoriented for a few days. I'd be happy to give you my list of tips for adjusting."

"Dere's a list?" Gambit said.

"Yes," Shine said. "One is to be curious. When you focus your mind on learning, homesickness and confusion are harder to fall into. Learning is an important part of keeping a good attitude. Remember how we went around the first few days? That's why. Even if you feel tired, you should learn a much as you can."

"Oh, I like her," Emma said. "That's exactly how I think of it myself...not with this, of course." She shrugged. "But with any new situation in life."

"Well, it seems she'll fit in well with our other other-worldly guests," Storm said. "I never imagined we'd have so many at once."

She had no idea, Morph thought.

He saw Mystique shoot him a dirty look. She must have been thinking the exact same thing.

Oh...crud, she wasn't going to let this go, was she?

[Nope.]

But then, she hadn't said a word to out him this whole time, so at least she wasn't that petty.

"We still have free rooms," Xavier was saying to Emma. "Feel free to pick one. We hope your stay will be brief for your sake, but if it turns out to be long, and you need anything, let us know. We all share our resources here."

"You have a lot of students..." Emma said. "I'm...surprised."

"Do we not in...? Oh, I guess not," Rogue said.

"Not only that, the Rogue I knew was much younger than you," Emma said.

"Huh," Rogue said. "That's weird."

"I wouldn't keep telling her things," Shine warned Emma. "They have little to no bearing on their lives, and it's more likely to scare them than anything else. I must say, you're lucky this happened after they met us. We got them used to all this other-worldly stuff."

"I can see that," Emma said. "I never would have believed you'd all accept this so easily. I wouldn't if I were you...except I could have read your minds...but other than that."

"Even so, it's hard to know what to believe. People can be deceived," Xavier said. "But we have seen the truth of these matters, thanks to our DJ friends. I almost can't believe how easy it is to accept this situation. A year ago it would have sounded mad."

"Just one more person to help now," Storm said.

"I suppose," Scott said warily. "But something about this is off still. No offense--" Addressing Frost. "--but I just can't understand why you escaped so easily. Doesn't seem like whoever did this was very concerned about losing their target."

"I continue to be amazed by your astuteness," Shine said. "That is a good point...but the simple answer could be it wouldn't matter where she went--she can't get home. They might be able to find her anywhere...but our presence might mask her a little. Dimensional powers tend not to mix well. It is fortunate we found her first."

Emma herself thought it was fortunate that she knew they were not lying about this. She'd never have believed her good fortune otherwise...Even so, she had her doubts.

* * *

Morph was hoping to avoid the 3rd degree until he'd had more time, but Wally, Shine, and Mystique all only waited till the others had gone to help Emma get settled and inform the Morlocks not to freak out about her, to demand an explanation of him.

"I know we said we wouldn't ask," Shine said, "but we're in danger now. That changes things. I insist you give us at least enough information to know what we could be up against. That's only fair. We'd never withhold that kind of information from you."

"That's not entirely true," Morph said. "You never told us there were evil versions of you, did you?"

They stared at him.

"I think we did," Wally said.

"Okay, but you didn't mention that they might track you down," Morph said.

"And how do you know that, then?" Shine asked. "If we did not mention it?"

"I know that because if someone could track Frost down, they could track you down," Morph said. "You must have enemies, like the ones Wally was talking about. So what gives? Why didn't you ever tell us that?"

"That is not fair, Kevin," Shine said severely. "As far as we knew, you could do nothing to prevent it, so why tell you something that would only cause anxiety? But you knew from the start what we were and that we were from another world. We didn't hide that. Telling us would have made sense."

"She's right, you know." Mystique was sitting on the arm of a chair moodily. "It's different when you know someone has experience."

"I didn't ask for your help," Morph said to her.

"No," she said icily. "You didn't ask for anyone's help."

Silence.

"I can't believe I'm agreeing with her on an issue of teamwork, but yeah, seriously, man," Wally said. "How could you not tell us you were like us?"

"I'm not, not exactly." Morph rubbed his head. "What you do is something I've never seen. It's a lot bigger than what I do... I'm more like a clean up guy. You're the people who build houses...but there's some things we have in common--like, not a lot of people know about us, and we can do things like move through time and dimensions. We...uh, we call ourselves Reality Travelers."

Shine's mouth dropped open. "But that's just another word for DJ... Morph? Are you freaking kidding me?!"

She jumped up and shook him. "You were a DJ?"

"Well, hang on." Morph tried to pull free. "Not exactly... I mean, I'm kind of retired...sort of..."

He glanced at Mystique. "You know, it might be okay if you guys knew, but really..."

"She's smart enough to put it together," Shine said. "She knows what we are."

Mystique was silent, oddly.

"Yeah, but I don't make the rules here..." Morph said. "My friend mentioned knowing about you two..."

"Oh..." Wally said. "Huh..."

"Raven, could you give us a moment?" Shine asked. "Sounds like this may be personal after all. Not that I do not trust you, but there's no real point putting our problems on someone who is not one of us. It's a lot to process."

Mystique left the room without a word.

"But he didn't know that much about you." Morph rubbed his head. "But I have to ask...could you guys endanger the timeline?"

"Do you travel both ways?" Shine asked. "Past and future?"

"Depends on which dimension we're talking about," Morph said.

"I see," Shine said slowly. "We only travel one way. We enter at one point, and we keep going, like kayaking down a river. And then we put out, and when we come back, we put back in, but always follow the current. We don't paddle every which way. It is so we can only solve problems the way other people can, or we'd be basically gods...and even God, so far as I know, allows time to progress as it will in order to give us choice. Or we'd have no choice. Time is His creation, after all. Time travel is something we don't like, as a general rule."

"Well...we tend to stick to only certain events," Morph said, "when other people compromise time.... It happens a lot. You know about Apocalypse already. There're others... So when they do, we stop it. Undo it. That's all. We're not supposed to make changes ourselves. It doesn't end well."

He shook his head. "But it got to be too much, you know? For me.... I liked the Exiles...that's what we called ourselves. But...I needed to recenter, I guess."

"I get it," Shine said. "But now they have called you back."

"I think if it wasn't that I was already here, maybe not," Morph said. "But why send someone else who'd cause even more of a time disturbance, if I'm already here? But that's just why the others probably shouldn't know about this...I think. They'd start to wonder... Only, Frost being here is bound to make them ask... Should I just tell them? You guys tell people who you are."

"Doing that from the start leaves little confusion," Shine said. "I used to wait, but it always backfired...so now we do it as soon as we can, if they are ready. My honest opinion is that you should tell them. Ten to one, if this situation lasts longer than a day or so, they'll find out anyway. Better to come from you. They'll understand why you didn't tell them, perhaps."

"I agree. You shouldn't have secrets like this from your closest friends," Wally said. "Especially if you don't have a family, really, because someone has to keep you grounded. Geez, no wonder you went off the deep end, carrying a secret like this around."

"I didn't really think that was the reason," Morph said. "But I'm worried--what if Sinister knew? I didn't think he could have....There are mental blocks put in our minds to keep people from just reading this stuff. Otherwise, you know, it'd be crazy to just hop into worlds with telepaths. Can you imagine?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Shine said.

"Yeah, too well," Wally winced.

"So that is why Emma can't read your history," Shine said.

"Yeah," Morph said. "But she might figure it out soon... I hope Sinister wouldn't have been able to either."

"He'd never have risked sending you back to your friends if he could," Shine said, "trust me--or risk killing you. He thinks you're just a shape-shifter."

Morph looked relieved. "And you guys will keep this to yourselves?"

"What part?" Wally asked.

"The part about time," Morph said. "I might have to tell them the rest, but...they can't be trying to change stuff before it happens. Until we have an event, it's really stupid to try to do that. Getting Emma is an example of what we do--or stopping people from getting killed--but you guys probably know--"

"--More than that is insanity," Shine finished. "Yes. We know, but they won't.... It's possible they might listen if we tell them that, but why set them up for such temptation? All of us have learned to curb our instinct to play God, from practice, but I don't think all of them have. Even if they succeeded, there's just no reason to. But what about Raven?"

"Yeah...I kind of didn't want her to find out..." Morph said. "Boy, did you see the way she looked at me?" He laughed nervously. "Like I evolved into something else... Sometimes people have that reaction..."

"Does that sting or what?" Wally said. "Though I've gotten used to it."

But Shine was shaking her head. "She's not thinking that, Morph. Don't be silly. She is thinking you lied to her...or, at the very least, hid something quite important. Think, we know her secrets because she has been exposed...and she admits them rather easily herself. Only ones we don't know are probably not worth knowing. Raven has never been able to hold out long as a spy, oddly enough. I think she wants to be caught. So someone will stop her, when she lacks the resolve to do it herself. But clearly you don't have this problem. In a strange way, you have not been honest with us all. I can forgive this, because I understand why, but...well, some loss of trust is inevitable until people can come to terms with it. I think you can get it back, once they let it sink in, but her reaction will not be the last negative one."

"It's not that I really thought she could use it against me," Morph said. "I'm retired, but there's just no reason to freak people out. Plus...there is one other thing."

"She's been responsible for problems in time before," Shine said immediately.

"How on earth would you have guessed that?" Morph said. "Or did you know?"

"We know enough about her, and Apocalypse, to figure it out," Shine said. "But I can vouch for her ignorance on this point. All she knows is what he told her. She's selfish, but she wouldn't doom the entire world on purpose. She has to live here, after all."

"Well, they never think they are;" Morph shrugged. "I feel sorry for the people sometimes. Usually they're trying to do some shorter-term thing, and it turns into a disaster. The X-men stopped her here, and I'm glad. I was down for the count, but Bishop took care of that one. I know she wouldn't on purpose...but that's just it--she tends to do what she's told. But you guys have changed that a little. But can you see where that might be a little awkward to explain?"

"I can see why she'd probably freak out," Wally said. "But...uh, what if she figures it out?"

"I hope she doesn't," Morph said.

"Well, you don't kill people, right?" Shine said.

"Uh...sometimes," Morph said. "When we could, we just stopped them. Usually a conversation or two is all it takes, after we use force. Shut down the time schism, and you're good. Of course here it was more like Apocalypse who was causing the problem. She's just his pawn. But he's out of the picture, so she's not a threat any more than any other person, as long as no else hires her to do something like that. And Psylocke kind of took care of that, so we're good."

"I'm glad you're not blaming her too much," Wally said. "I feel bad for her, kind of. I mean, she should have known better, but it's not like any of us think our actions are going to change history."

"Magneto is worse," Shine said darkly. "He did it deliberately to cause problems. Apocalypse just picked out Raven because she's useful and is too afraid to defy him. And why wouldn't she be? Who would help her if she asked them to? I can't stand that abomination--he targets people who no one will go after. Warren, the Morlocks (since their friends can't leave the sewer to hunt them down). It has nothing to do with how powerful they are. He's a coward. He doesn't want to get caught because they could ruin his plans."

"I never thought of that," Morph said. "But you're right. But Mystique is kind of the worst kind of person to fall into the hands of someone like that--she's too useful. I wish we could talk her out of it."

"Is that why you tried?" Wally asked.

"Well, I didn't think she was a threat," Morph said. "Not anymore, but I did kind of hope she'd realize how close it came to that and be smarter in the future...no luck there, though. She's so stubborn."

He shrugged. "Though not all bad..."

"We have to try to be patient," Shine said. "Her idea of her own importance is not very accurate, I think. I'm not sure if telling her this would be better or worse. She might finally realize she should stop, but...if she were filled with more fear over it...that seems too cruel. All of us should only have to deal with the responsibility for what we do now, in the moment, not the future.... That's all that matters, after all. We can say it was her fault, but didn't people have to react that way? Don't thousands or millions of choices go into it? You remove one trigger, you may set up a hundred more. That's why often it ends in a worse future than before you altered it. Playing God is stupid. I think you Exiles are right to stop people from interfering, but beyond that, our way is the only way, to act as regular citizens. God Himself did that when He walked the earth as Jesus, and I think we should not aspire to more."

"That's what I needed to hear," Morph said. "I thought you guys were okay... I can tell Mimic that. But I'd think if you were going to do something crazy you would have already. And really I wasn't watching you. I never thought of it, till he put the idea in my head...but I had to make sure."

"It's fair enough," Shine said. "And I believe you...but be careful with the others. They may not understand how we're human, and we really don't always think of these things ahead of time. We're just doing our jobs."

"You don't have to tell me people will not get it," Morph sighed. "But...uh, what do we tell Mystique?"

"Had better just tell her as much of the truth as she can handle." Shine shrugged. "And omit anything that might cause her to do something stupid. Or that someone could get out of her and use against you, and I count telepathy as that. I doubt she'd sell this info so easily--it could put her at risk too. But we just can't be sure about force."

"Another reason not to tell people stuff," Morph said. "I trust them, but not telepaths."

"Speaking of which...do you know any more about Emma?" Shine asked.

"No," Morph said. "That's the scary part. Mimic didn't get a chance to tell me. He was saying something about abilities. I assume he was going to say she was a telepath...but he got cut off.... You can't just hang these things up, either." He held up his comm. "So I don't know. If I could get to the Crystal Palace (that's our rendezvous place), I might find out, but I've not opened that door in so long, it's kind of fuzzy."

"You have a palace?" Shine said. "I have a hallway... It links me to each world, and them to each other...by memory, so I can go and come."

"I think mine is attached to the Speed Force," Wally said. "I can kind of sense it, but I've never really been in it like a physical place. Maybe I'm just moving too fast all the time."

"It's kinda nice to talk about this finally," Morph said. "And to have people get it. Takes me back to the old days."

"We will have to find out more about Emma," Shine said. "I can call upon some friends of mine to do research...but this sounds so unfamiliar.... I just don't know."

"If Mimic is not responding," Morph said, "I don't know if anyone else is going to come for me.... Also, I'm worried about him...but he's pretty hard to kill.... Probably he just got cut off."

"If we knew him, we might be able to connect you," Shine said. "I can't help but wish all this had come out sooner, but no use crying over spilt milk. But we three need to work together on this. Emma's situation is our business too. Dimensional corruption always is. It's not just the timeline anymore."

"Yeah, I think I might need your expertise with it," Morph said. "I've never understood it intuitively the way you do, I just followed instructions.... You guys have something I haven't seen before...this assurance about it.... I always thought it was different. I wish I had that."

"You might get it," Shine said. "But you have to relinquish your belief that you know best for the world."

"I'm not sure I ever had that belief," Morph said.

"Well, then, just tune into God, and you're all set," Shine said, amused.

[I made up a few things here just for clarity, but here's what is factual to canon:

Mystique did indeed cause problems, but not this version of her. However, tying Apocalypse into this made perfect sense as he was trying to affect the future. But the other version of Mystique actually did time travel, I think while this one didn't--at least at this point--though she is, in other comics, used by people. Usually, she is not fully aware of what she's actually going to cause and is deceived. As per usual.

Morph didn't actually retire, I think. It's kind of unclear, due to the comic line being cancelled pretty soon after it was first released.

Also, how the Talis works exactly is something I had to improvise or tweak. I'm not sure the comics explained it themselves. It's just the plot device to make things happen. My best guess is it works like the DJ's Insight does, but less extensive and detailed. After reading some Exiles comics, that guess was pretty close. Also it's more forceful and it lacks mercy, unlike Shine and Wally's Divine Guide.

I highly doubt anyone will care that I combined it with my DJ stuff.

But funnily enough, I already had the idea for a central place outside time, a guide, and the rules in place to keep things in check, all on my own. I only just found out about the similarities in the last month or so, and it's wild to me how similar the comic writers and I thought about it. I guess we world-travel fiction authors all have things in common.

Later...]