Reaching Alberta, a large city, it was already late into the night.

Logan didn't really care. He was on enough adrenaline to keep going all night with this search.

But of course...any city records hall would have been closed.

"Can we at least find an inn so I can call the house again?" Storm said.

Logan thought she looked tired.

"Yeah, sure," he said grumpily.

So they did.

Storm dialed the house, and they finally answered.

"Oh my gosh!" Rogue was the one who did. "Storm! I swear I outta skin ya alive. We've been tryin' to reach ya all day. Professor X even was goin' to try with Cerebro...but he's tuckered out now. he tried to find Jean and Scott first. But just what we thought--they ain't here."

"I'm sorry, what?" Storm said.

"Yeah, ya leave for one day and ya miss a ton, huh?" Rogue said. "Ya ain't never gonna believe what happened, Sugar..."

She explained briefly, and not very well.

"We should come home," Storm said. "Shouldn't we?"

"Everyone else is," Rogue said. "How's the...quest?"

"Well...so far we haven't found much," Storm said. "But that may change... We're in Alberta right now."

"That's a long way away... Look...can ya get Logan to come back?" Rogue said. "We're worried about both of ya."

"We're so close...he wouldn't, I think," Storm said. "Not till we have at least looked around... Is the situation dire? Or can you wait till tomorrow morning?"

"Well...since we can't predict nothin' about what'll happen next," Rogue said, "it's not that dire... Time might not make any difference, except that if ya disappear, we won't know. But no one else has so far... We just don't know... I think all of us are a little shocked about it. I can't quite believe it happened yet. The other Scott is...still kinda scared too--and Frost too... But we need y'all here."

"Still, this is important to Logan," Storm said. "He said some things... I just don't know if I have the heart to try to force him to go back until we've at least tried... I'm not sure what the right thing to do is."

"I of all people ought to know that runnin' off alone doesn't fix things," Rogue said. "But...maybe he needs ta figure it out for himself too. Whatever ya decide, Sugar, we'll just have to deal with it, but are ya sure you're okay with that?"

"It would be better than leaving him alone," Storm said. "I'm tempted to do so...if everyone else needed me, but...I don't know..."

"Y'know..." Rogue hesitated. "I think, Sugar, since no one's life is at risk...and they're ain't much ya can do to stop whatever's happenin', ya might as well try to finish this. Another 8 hours or so might not matter much. Means somethin' ta Logan though. That's what I think. It's okay if you're not takin' care of all of us for one day."

"Seems it fell apart as soon as we left," Storm said, humorously. "But if you're sure."

"Just so long as you're aware..." Rogue said. "The worst of this is we're not any safer no matter where we are, but we just want to keep track of everyone...but y'all can decide what ta risk."

"If you don't hear from me by the end of tomorrow, you can assume we disappeared," Storm said. "I will be sure to check in as soon as I can. You can leave a message with this number if you need to call us."

"Sure..." Rogue said.

Storm hung up and debated whether to pass on this information or not.

In the end, she decided Logan would be hurt if she kept it back, though she didn't expect it to change his opinion.

And it didn't, though he was as shocked as herself.

"Cyclops and Jean just disappeared," he said.

Storm thought he didn't seem any more upset about Jean than Cyclops, which was unusual...and then wondered why she was thinking of this at a moment like this.

"At least we have no reason to think they're dead," she said. "If the other Scott--that is so odd to say--but if he's here, safe. And Emma is not harmed."

"Frost isn't exactly not harmed," Logan said. "And how much is this goin' to happen? Even if they are just stuck in another world, we can't get to 'em."

"There must be some way to undo it," Storm said. "But...are you sure we should not just return?"

"You can, but I've come too far not to see this through... Doesn't sound like there's anythin' I can do about it." Logan had an aversion to the whole situation in another way: The other-dimensional stuff freaked him out.

Storm didn't care for it, but she had a higher tolerance for the mystical realm of things than he did, and it bothered her more how suddenly it had happened.

"I just find it strange that Jean's other self is not here," she said.

"Could be, just in a different location," Logan said. "She might be in trouble, like Frost. It's a lot to assume they all switched places in exactly the same way. Frost didn't."

"Technically, we don't know that. The other Frost could have been captured," Storm said. "Tracking down that Inner Circle is something we should revisit... This is why it would be better to be there, to know what to do next...but if you're going to see this through, I'll stay also."

"Not what I thought you'd say."

"You'd like me to go," Storm said, suddenly a bit warmly. "But Rogue said it was all right, and I still think this is not safe."

She frowned and shook her head. "I'm sorry I have been such a burden."

"It's not that," Logan said uncomfortably.

He looked like he was on the point of saying more, then he stopped. "Let's just talk about this tomorrow. I need to think."

He pulled out a cigar and headed to his room.

Storm went into hers but stood on the outside porch (it was on the first level).

She stared at the sky for some time, wondering where Jean and Scott were... Out there? Past the stars, past even the other galaxies, so much farther away than any of them could reach.

If not for knowing Shine, Wally, and now Morph had some way to cross it, she'd have despaired.

But as it was?

Storm was more moved to prayer than perhaps ever before in her life. What could one do except call on a higher power at such a time?

But still, in the back of her mind, she kept wondering about Logan's behavior. It was so strange...

Putting together all Shine's hints about it, and his own odd skittishness around her, she didn't know.... If it wasn't anger, then what was it?

She had a few theories of ways she could have displeased him in some way, but of course...she wouldn't have been a woman if she hadn't considered the OTHER possibility.

But she dismissed it as ridiculous.

Certainly, a few times the idea had crossed her mind, even lately, but she was fairly certain Logan was the sort to just come out and say it if he felt that way about someone. So, she put it down to her own imagining it.

Her own feelings on the subject had kind of been decided ages ago...she reflected.

She'd liked Logan, if not from the start, at least very early on in both their careers as X-men. But it was so clear that he liked Jean, that she'd not ever given the idea much more thought than that. And she wasn't the type to let that spoil a friendship which proved to be quite enriching on both sides.

And he seemed always ready to fixate on Jean for the rest of his time with the X-men...

And feelings, in some people, can be kept in check if they think they're pointless. Storm was the master of controlling her emotions. It was just one more way she had to do it, and she didn't resent it. She never thought of things as really fair or unfair...just as how they were. You can't force people to care.

There had been a few moments, especially in the last year, even before the DJs arrival, when a few things had made her second guess...but nothing ever came of it.

Storm didn't miss that Shine and Wally clearly both thought there was something, but she ignored it.

Still...

https://youtu.be/tnwZoCNHDlY

[How To Rest-- The Crane Wives]

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, before Rogue got a hold of Storm, chaos had been the name of the game for the whole afternoon.

Scott had been sat down in the living room once they got inside, and Emma had begun pacing, acting like a nervous wreck.

She kept muttering that it wasn't right and it didn't make sense.

Rogue tried to shake her out of it a little.

Morph tried to help Scott understand where he was.

Scott seemed able to grasp the idea of another dimension, but that it was a parallel one to his own...he just didn't understand how it was possible that the same people--or almost the same people--were living in it.

Shine and Wally stayed outside for longer than five minutes, as he'd said, and they were probably overwhelmed.

"We need Storm," Rogue complained, after looking out the window at them. "She has a calmin' effect on 'em."

"It's true that the rest of us tend to go to them for help," Kurt said. "But I vould help if I knew how. But I do not know anything about this."

Xavier was looking for Jean, Scott, and any other unusual activity, for some time. And he turned up nothing.

"They all are just gone," Hank told the others.

Scott seemed to have remembered a few things about the X-men after seeing the mansion and more of them around.

But he was still drawing a blank on what had happened to him.

Xavier tried to probe his mind.

"It's difficult," he said. "If the memory was there, I could access it, one would think. But whatever's blocking it is more like brain damage, some force I just can't understand... Given time, I might be able to help his mind heal from it. But according to Mrs. West, it should heal on its own, correct?"

"That is what she said." Mystique remained one of the only people not freaking out.

"You're cool as a cucumber, Momma," Rogue noted.

"Compared to what else has happened, this isn't that hard to swallow." Mystique shrugged.

"I keep feeling like I should know something about her..." Scott glanced at Mystique.

"The only thing to know about her is that her other self once hit me in the head while I was using Cerebro," Emma said. "And impersonated all of the X-men to steal information from us, no doubt."

"Oh, is that why you don't like me?" Mystique looked over at her coolly.

"Oh, no, I don't like you for more reasons than that," Emma said.

"The other me must be smart," Mystique said. "Saw you coming right off."

"Why, you--" Emma frowned at her. 

"Can you not start," Morph interrupted, "not now of all times... Well, Scott, I can't think of any other way to explain things...until you start remembering more... I can't believe you don't remember Jean though."

Emma cast him a strange look.

"There seems to be a direct correlation between who he remembers and who he sees," Hank mused. "If he saw her, he would remember...but, alas...she's not here... What are we going to do?"

"Yeah, that's the big problem," Rogue said. "We could handle another surprise guest, but this? We can't lose Scott and Jean like this...and we didn't even get to say goodbye..."

"They're not dead," Morph said. "Let's not start freaking out like they are." He looked kind of nervous.

"Gambit think we need de experts ta come figure out how ta find dem," Gambit said.

"After what you said?" Rogue said. "I think they're havin' a hard enough time as it is."

"This whole thing can be kind of stressful..." Morph said. "When missions didn't go well, some of my teammates used to sit and cry about it, or even just thinking about it."

"Cheerful," Mystique said.

"You not helpin'," Gambit said.

"Are you?" she shot back.

Gambit shut up.

Finally, Shine and Wally came in. Shine looked like she'd been stressed out more than they'd probably ever seen her, just from the look in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said. "The last time we dealt with a situation at all like this...it turned out to be something pretty bad. I hope it's only a bad science gone too far this time, but even so...I guess some things still bother even me."

"That's so humble sounding," Mystique said. "Everyone has their demons. Why should you be any different?"

She frowned at her. "But if they're enough to bother you. That tells me plenty."

"Are you trying to make us feel worse?" Scott looked at her strangely.

"No, she's not," Shine answered without hesitation. "Actually, it kind of helps not getting told it's strange to feel that way. Thank you, Raven."

Mystique gave her a weird look and shrugged.

"That is her thing," Morph commented, by way of lightening the mood. He only got a weird look also.

"Are you...uh, ready to talk about it?" Rogue asked.

Shine sat down, and Wally fidgeted a little nervously but stood behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm not that ready," Shine said. "But, I know, we cannot wait for that."

"Are ya all right, Wally?" Rogue asked.

"Uh, not as freaked out as she is," Wally said. "I don't stress that much...but I admit, I'm not looking forward to a repeat of last time, so I really hope that's not what's going on."

"Okay, what was last time?" Morph said.

"Oh...you know...most recently, some nut job wanting to remake the world into what he wanted and using dark powers and human sacrifice to do it," Wally said.

"That sounds like Apocalypse," Mystique said.

"Dial up the scariness factor by about 100," Shine said. "That person was the evil version of what we are. Every good job has its false copycat. That's just how evil works. Our pet name for them is Dark Walkers, just because it's easier to remember that. Though it really doesn't even begin to explain it. Or DW, as we've been calling them."

"Oh...that's what you meant by that," Morph said. "Wow..."

"An evil version of you?" Rogue said. "With...with the powers?"

"It's very rare," Shine said, "full on, like, a fallen DJ, one who knew what they were. It's hard for us to become so deluded when we walk in the light...but if it does happen, if some weakness in the DJ takes over, like a need to have control, which is a always our biggest temptation...then they fall farther than almost any other human being would. When you walk so close to the sun, and yet become blind to it, your blindness must be complete indeed, right?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Scott said. "But it sounds bad. Morph has been trying to tell me what you are... You travel dimensions?"

"Yes," Shine said.

"And, Morph...you travel time? And reality?" Scott said. "But not when you were with the...X-men? Which is how I know you. It's starting to come back a little, just bits and pieces."

"Actually, for this, that's pretty good recovery time," Shine smiled finally. "You'll probably remember the rest in just a few days at this rate."

Emma didn't look so excited about that idea.

"But what can we do?" she said tightly. "He's not supposed to be here."

"Neither are you," Wally pointed out.

"No...but I'm dead," she said, forgetting for a moment that Scott didn't know this--her mind truly was in a dither. "I won't be missed. Scott will be. They must be panicking right now."

"What do you mean you're dead?" Scott said.

Emma realized her mistake and winced.

Scott got an odd look, like suddenly he might be remembering something...

Then he shuddered and shook his head. "I remember now...shattering...but I don't remember why. That doesn't make sense. How can I remember the how and not the why?"

"It's possible you may not wish to remember the why," Shine said, a bit monochromatically for her. "It could be tied to other painful memories. It will probably still come back, just not as fast."

"But how are you alive?" Scott asked Emma.

He didn't seem averse to the idea of it. No one was sure why she was acting so uncomfortable about it.

Except Shine and Wally, who had a fairly good idea why.

"I don't know," Emma said, feebly. "We have been trying to solve that for weeks and came to a dead end. I was found at some secret base for some cult. But I was intact... The only sign of damage was some unusual memories, and I cannot seem to assume my diamond form. It's...broken."

"I guess that makes sense," Scott said. "But I seem to be fine...physically. But not in my mind.... Why is that?"

"From all we could glean," Shine said, "Emma survived because her diamond form retained its life, while in pieces, and could be put back together. Someone gathered it, somehow, and brought her here, we think. For some purpose we still don't know. So far, no one has found her here. Our presence here makes it a little more difficult for the dark forces of this sort of dimensional travel to trace someone else. But it won't last forever, we think. They'll figure out who took her. We hoped buying time until then would turn up some clues, but all we got were more questions."

"Some of that sounds oddly familiar," Scott said. "But why just the two of us...? What about these other people you keep mentioning...? Jean, and the rest of the X-men...why aren't they also swapped?"

"Well, they might be," Morph said, "eventually...but that's bad. You get that, right? You're supposed to be in your world."

"But you're here," Scott said.

"I have a special provision for this," Morph said. "Plus, I don't already exist here... You do. There can't be two Scott Summers--it's too much."

"Even if there could be," Shine said, "the other world needs its Cyclops back, and probably its Emma also."

"I don't know about that," Emma said. "Maybe I was supposed to die. Maybe this is all unnatural... Who knows?" She shook her head. "If we solve it, I may end up dead anyway."

"Is that why you haven't been in such a hurry over it?" Morph said. "That's...bleak."

"That's not true, is it?" Scott asked them, with concern.

"I see no reason why that would be true," Shine said. "Emma got off very lucky, I'd say. No one else could have survived what happened to her... The only reason to think she'd die again is if time was rewound to put her back together... I guess that's possible, but her symptoms tell me that's not how they did it. Emma, you shouldn't think such depressing things."

"The entire world could end, and my death is depressing?" Emma said dryly.

"We don't know that the world could end..." Wally said.

"Well...Mimic thought so," Morph said.

"Maybe it's time we tried harder to get him," Shine said. "Mimic is a him, right?"

"Yeah," Morph said. "But I told you...I can't reach him."

"You can't," Shine said, rubbing her chin. "Maybe if we helped you. Maybe you just need to strengthen your connection... We can't take you there, but if we enhance your power on its own...as long as they're not incompatible... It's not magic, is it?"

"I don't think so. I'm not sure what it is," Morph said.

"Not magic, that's good enough for me," Wally said.

"You could have tried this before?" Emma said suddenly, looking at him sharply. "You haven't really been trying to help me at all, have you?"

"Emma--" Shine said.

"It's because of what I told you, isn't it?" Emma frowned at her. "You didn't believe me, did you?"

"Emma, can you calm down?" Wally asked.

"I might have known." Emma wasn't listening.

"What is she talking about?" Scott asked.

"Whatever the thing that she feels guilty about is," Mystique said.

"Shut up!" Emma snapped at her.

Whether or not it was on purpose, some kind of psionic energy went out from her, and all of them felt it, but Mystique particularly got knocked off her feet.

"Hey!" Morph said. "Frost! Cut it out, that's going too far."

He didn't sound just annoyed this time.

Emma perhaps hadn't done it on purpose, because she looked just as freaked out by it as them.

"What's wrong with me?" she said suddenly, like a ghost.

Then she ran out of the room without any more warning.

The others looked at each other blankly.

"Should I go after her?" Wally asked.

"Yes...make sure she's not doing something stupid," Shine said faintly.

Wally ran out of the room and then the house.

Morph helped Mystique get up. She wasn't too steady after that.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Other than the massive headache she just gave me...I don't know," Mystique said.

"That's not like Emma," Scott said. "It must be a side effect. She's never done that before."

"It might be, Scott," Morph said. "Doesn't make it okay to do to everybody, though, not like that."

"She's the most spooked I ever saw her," Rogue said. She shook her head. "I better go check on the kids. We told 'em to wait upstairs..."

She flew.

Gambit left the room, with no explanation at all.

After a brief pause, Shine started to cry, without any warning whatsoever, and not very loudly.

"Mrs. West..." Xavier said, "whatever is the matter?"

No answer.

"I'm sorry..." Scott said, because he didn't know what else to say. "This is because of me... I wish I knew what happened."

Shine just cried harder.

"Guys, maybe just don't talk about it for minute," Morph said.

He went up to Shine. "Hey, Shine, it's okay." He gave her a hug.

Shine let him and sniffled miserably.

"This is weird..." Scott muttered to himself.

Mystique looked around uncertainly, then she grabbed some tissue and handed them to Shine resolutely.

"Thanks," Shine said in a small voice.

"I'm sure Frost didn't mean that," Morph said. 

"Yeah, she's a b----," Mystique said unceremoniously. 

"Raven!" Shine gasped, then laughed suddenly.

"I don't think we should call her that," Scott said.

"Fine, she acted like a b----," Mystique amended.

Morph choked on a laugh.

"Is that better?" Scott said.

"Just calling it like it is," Mystique said. "You've been more than fair to her. She's looking to cast blame, that's all there is to this."

"I know that," Shine said, slowly. "Just doesn't make it hurt less."

"Sure," Mystique said. "I just wouldn't take that lying down." Pointedly.

"Ah...coming down on her will only make it worse." Shine seemed to regain her composure.

"Sure?" Mystique said it like a question now. "Because we'd be more than happy to--"

"No, no." Shine sat up. "Thanks, Morph...but I'm okay. I just...you know, I need to go pray. Let's revisit this more after that. God will know what to do."

"Yeah, but will He tell you?" Morph said.

"He might tell anyone," Shine said. "Tag me if it's you first, huh? If and when Emma comes back, don't be too hard on her, okay? She doesn't really mean all this, I know, deep down. The woman clearly has no idea how to ask for help...that's all."

"See, this is why people take advantage of you," Mystique said. "It's that forgiving attitude of yours, such a pill."

"Oh, shut up," Shine tossed at her, walking about of the room.

Mystique smiled slightly.

"Wow." Morph was grinning. "How did you do that?"

"I think I know Shine pretty well by now." Mystique forgot that Xavier was listening to this. "If there's one thing I know, it's that she'll stay upset only as long as someone else isn't getting more upset. And she'll get angry up until someone else starts getting more angry. Every time."

"So...you literally made her calm down by pretending to get more angry than her?" Morph said. "Does that make sense?"

"It makes sense to Shine." Mystique shrugged. "Did you have a better idea?"

"No, just surprised at your thoughtfulness," Morph said.

Mystique smacked him.

"OW! And there you are," Morph winced.

"Impressive, Mystique," Xavier admitted. "It would seem we just don't know how to help Mrs. West very well.... She so rarely needs it."

"That's what you think," Mystique muttered. "She's got you all fooled."

"I don't think she's really faking it," Morph said. "She gives me that vibe of someone who only breaks down around their really close friends... Wait, does that make us close friends?" He smiled like that was a great thing.

"Same old Morph." Scott seemed relieved, actually. "At least one thing hasn't changed."

"Yeah, but while we're talking about change, you sure grew up," Morph said. "Last time I saw you, you must have been a high-schooler still."

"But you don't look any older than I remember," Scott said.

"Yeah, well...shape-shifter..." Morph said.

After a pause, Scott said, "Maybe I should check on Emma... It's...gotta be weird...being the only ones."

"As far as we know," Mystique muttered.

"Yeah, maybe..." Morph said.

He kind of thought Emma was acting nervous around this Scott.

But Scott left anyway.

"Still, I don't know, she didn't seem that glad to see him," Morph said. "I thought she said she was one of the X-men."

Mystique laughed, not very lightly, just one of those "you're so clueless" kind of laughs.

"Small wonder you're still single," she said.

"What? Them?" Morph said. "No way, come on. Even when I knew him, he was with that Jean."

"Who is not here." Mystique shrugged. "But what does that matter? I saw her eyes. I know that look. At least, it's either that, or she killed someone. People only look that guilty for two reasons."

"That is...impressively dark." Morph didn't sound like he meant that as a good thing. "Maybe there's another explanation, because that's just...sad."

"So it's sad." Mystique didn't care. "It's still true."

"You really think that...but...she..." Morph sputtered.

"Disappointed?" Mystique suddenly was on edge.

"Not the word I'd use," Morph said. "Just...puzzled. I don't see it."

"I hope that's not the case," Xavier said. They'd almost forgotten he was there. "That would be unfortunate."

"Maybe you should just suppress her memory of it so it's not a problem." Mystique was cutting.

Xavier stared at her.

"Madame, I assure you, I only intended to help Rogue. It had nothing to do with you."

"I know that." Mystique was still angry. "I know you never thought of me at all."

Silence.

"I apologize," Xavier shocked Morph by saying. "Perhaps there was a better way. But she did still know you...just...not at the first."

"Wow..." Morph never thought he'd hear Xavier apologize for his way of helping someone.

Mystique left the room without another word.

"I don't think she's ever going to forgive that," Xavier mused. "I wonder why I never gave her any thought in the matter before. It seemed a small part of Rogue's memory, to end up costing so much."

"Memory is tricky like that," Morph said. "Mystique still basically raised her. You took the bad, but I guess you took the good too, in a way. Gotta hand her one thing, she certainly tries hard to get something back if she wants it. But I didn't think you'd admit you did anything bad. It was a complicated situation."

"I wasn't going to say it," Xavier said. "But reading her mind just a little...she was thinking pretty loudly. And she thought that if someone took one of my charges and their memory of me, I would have been horrified and called it evil."

"She thought that but didn't say it?" Morph said.

"I think it was more of a less forward thought," Xavier said. "Mystique is a little like Wolverine.... Perhaps it comes with being older than other people--so many conflicting thoughts all the time. Maybe it's also why she is so effective at blocking out easy telepathy. It's a bit of a mystery. But I can't even argue with her spoken or unspoken point. That it was troubles me."

"It is kind of troubling," Morph said. "But Rogue was... I mean, we couldn't have just let her go crazy."

"Yes...it's hard to know what to do," Xavier said.

[And I, for one, never thought I'd hear him admit that... Guess this whole thing has been humbling for more than one person.]