Chapter 67:
– Blake Himejima –
The elevator had carried us far enough beneath Xavier's manor that I was starting to wonder whether the mansion had been built on top of a secret government bunker.
When the doors opened, Professor Xavier led us into an enormous room made almost entirely of metal. Smooth silver panels covered the walls, floor, and ceiling. Recessed strips of white light ran between them, giving the chamber a sterile glow.
Our footsteps echoed as we crossed the empty floor. Well, everyone's except Professor Xavier's. His chair moved with a nearly silent electric hum.
Jean slowed beside me, her green eyes sweeping across the segmented walls. "This place brings back memories." There was something complicated in her voice. Nostalgia, certainly, but also grief.
It reminded me of someone returning to a childhood home after everyone who made it a home had already died.
Emma dragged one manicured fingernail along a seam in the wall and lifted one shoulder in a careless shrug that didn't fool me for a second. "I was never an X-Man myself. Jean invited me here a few times, though. I was always impressed by the technology…"
Jean glanced at her, and an entire silent conversation seemed to pass between them.
I was getting better at recognizing when they were speaking telepathically. Jean's expression usually softened, while Emma's eyebrows moved about half a millimeter. It wasn't much, but I'd spent enough time around them to notice.
Ororo studied the two women as she walked beside Professor Xavier. Her expression held genuine curiosity rather than suspicion, but her gaze lingered on the tension in their shoulders. "What is it like to carry memories of another future? What could have convinced both of you to attempt something as dangerous as traveling into the past to change it?"
Jean's lips pressed into a thin line.
Emma's face became perfectly blank.
That was answer enough.
I drew a breath, preparing to step in before either woman felt cornered, but Professor Xavier beat me to it.
Professor Xavier brought his wheelchair to a gentle stop and turned his attention toward Ororo. "Ororo, what is done is done. There is no reason to ask them to reopen wounds for the sake of our curiosity. The future they left behind was obviously not one I imagine was very happy."
Ororo's expression softened with immediate understanding. "I meant no judgment. Forgive me."
Jean rubbed her thumb against the side of her index finger, staring at a metal panel that probably looked identical to one from another lifetime. "Things turned out badly..." That was all she gave them.
Emma shifted closer until her shoulder brushed Jean's.
Professor Xavier inclined his head without pressing for more. "Then we shall leave it there."
Some of the tension left Jean's posture.
It was a small thing, but I noticed Emma watching the Professor more thoughtfully afterward.
She still didn't trust him. I doubted Emma Frost trusted anyone completely besides Jean, and maybe me on a particularly good day, but Xavier had just been handed an opportunity to pry into the future and deliberately refused it.
That earned him another point in my book.
Professor Xavier rotated his chair toward the center of the chamber and gestured around us. "This is the Danger Room. Mutants who voluntarily agree to join the X-Men use it to train against holographic enemies, environmental hazards, and simulated combat scenarios."
I glanced around the empty metal box again. "This is it?"
Ororo rested one hand against the back of Xavier's chair, faint amusement touching her face. "Do not judge it by its appearance."
Professor Xavier tapped several commands into his armrest. "The room is designed to become whatever its occupants require."
The room suddenly changed. One moment I was standing inside a sterile metal chamber beneath a mansion, and the next I was in the middle of a city street.
Skyscrapers rose on both sides of us. Sunlight reflected from thousands of glass windows. Yellow taxis crawled through traffic while pedestrians moved along crowded sidewalks. Somewhere nearby, someone was arguing with a street vendor about the price of a hot dog.
I could smell exhaust, asphalt, food, and hundreds of people.
Warm sunlight touched my face.
A taxi honked when a pedestrian stepped into the crosswalk too early.
I stared down at my feet. The smooth metal floor had become cracked concrete dotted with old pieces of chewing gum. I crouched and dragged my fingertips over it.
It felt real.
I pressed harder. The concrete scraped beneath my nails.
I stared at the grit left on my fingertips. "This isn't a hologram."
Professor Xavier smiled at my reaction. "Not in the conventional sense. The room combines holographic projection with force fields, gravitic manipulation, atmospheric control, and solid-light construction. It can reproduce most environments with remarkable accuracy."
I slowly stood and looked up at the artificial sun. It even hurt my eyes when I stared at it too long. "How? My stepdad, Tony, doesn't have anything like this."
Emma's lips curved with immediate amusement. "You sound personally offended on his behalf."
I rubbed the concrete dust between my fingers. "I'm thinking about what's going to happen when I tell him."
Jean tucked a strand of red hair behind her ear and looked toward the simulated skyline. "He'll lock himself in his workshop until he builds something better."
I grimaced as I imagined it. "That could take weeks. We'll have to slide food under the door."
Professor Xavier folded his hands in his lap, apparently enjoying my distress. "The technology was not developed on Earth. The X-Men once rescued a member of an alien race known as the Shi'ar. In gratitude, we were given the systems that eventually became this incarnation of the Danger Room."
I stared at him.
The bald man in the wheelchair had just casually mentioned aliens as though he were explaining where he bought a new refrigerator.
I pointed at him, momentarily forgetting every coherent sentence I'd ever learned. "You—aliens? Actual aliens gave you this!?"
Professor Xavier lifted an eyebrow. "Yes."
Ororo's lips twitched at the corners. "After encountering angels, devils, gods, ninja, and multiple realities, aliens are where you draw the line?"
I spread my hands helplessly. "Aliens are different."
Emma covered her smile with two fingers. "Naturally… That's just how a man's mind works."
Jean's green eyes glittered with amusement as she leaned against my shoulder. "You're adorable when your worldview breaks."
I scowled at both of them. "My worldview has been broken enough. There should be a mandatory waiting period between revelations."
Emma's amusement faded as she looked past me at one of the simulated buildings.
I followed her gaze, but there was nothing there besides a glass office tower and the fake reflection of a city that didn't exist. The thought of Scott's attack must have returned to her. Her jaw tightened, and cold anger settled behind her blue eyes.
Emma lifted her chin with the imperious dignity of a queen preparing to order an execution. "I'm still a bit pissed off about Cyclops attacking my boyfriend. Make the room give me something to hit."
White light raced across her skin. Warm flesh transformed into flawless diamond, spreading from her face down her throat and across the rest of her body in less than a heartbeat. Even her clothes changed with her, becoming faceted crystal that caught the artificial sunlight and fractured it into thousands of tiny rainbows.
No matter how many times I saw Emma's diamond form, it never became less incredible. Every sexy curve of her body looked carved from a single impossible jewel. She was beautiful as a woman, but as a living diamond, she looked like some priceless goddess-shaped weapon.
Professor Xavier gave me a sly smirk. "...Danger Room, initiate Alien invasion scenario. Difficulty level three."
A calm feminine voice rolled across the artificial city. "Scenario selected. Civilian evacuation beginning."
The pedestrians around us immediately started running.
Car doors opened. Drivers abandoned their vehicles. Sirens wailed between the buildings as the artificial sky darkened from blue to a threatening grey.
I stared up at the fake sky as flying saucers started to appear above us.
Around 15 minutes later.
…The ruined city dissolved around us.
I stood in the middle of the empty chamber with all eight wings spread behind me, the fading remains of a Lightspear still crackling between my fingers. Sweat trickled down the side of my face, and my shirt clung slightly to my back.
A stupidly wide grin stretched across my face.
It might have been an elaborate illusion, but fighting off an actual alien invasion had still been really fucking kick-ass.
The disembodied feminine voice of the Danger Room spoke from every direction at once. "Scenario complete. All hostile forces neutralized. Civilian survival rate: ninety-eight point seven percent…"
That last one point three percent probably came from the office building Emma had thrown an alien tank through.
In her defense, the simulation had claimed the building was already evacuated. Mostly.
Emma stood a few feet away in her diamond form, surrounded by the dissolving remains of three alien soldiers she had ripped apart with her bare hands. She looked completely untouched except for a shallow scratch across one crystalline shoulder and a coating of simulated green blood that vanished along with the rest of the scenario.
White light swept over her body as she returned to flesh. Her platinum-blonde hair spilled over her shoulders, perfectly arranged despite the fact that she had spent the last fifteen minutes punching aliens through walls.
Some women were simply favored by the universe.
Jean drifted down from where she had been hovering near the artificial skyline. The red-gold aura around her faded as her shoes touched the metal floor, and the last embers burning through her hair winked out.
She had supposedly joined the fight halfway through because Emma and I were being reckless.
That excuse had lasted until Jean telekinetically folded an alien troop carrier in half and used it to flatten two dozen invaders.
After that, she had been smiling just as much as I was.
I turned toward the observation area.
Professor Xavier and Ororo were staring at the three of us.
Neither seemed to realize they were doing it.
Ororo's eyes moved from Emma, to Jean, and finally to the faint lightning still crawling across my wings. Her lips parted, but several seconds passed before she found her voice. "That was… very impressive." She sounded like someone who had thought she understood the scale we operated on and had just realized she needed to redraw the chart.
Emma lifted her chin and brushed an imaginary speck of dust from the front of her blouse. "I did ask for something to hit, I suppose it was decent for some light cardiovascular exercise."
Jean looked at the shallow cut in Emma's crystalline clothing as it finished disappearing. "You threw a tank through an occupied building…"
Emma gave Jean a perfectly innocent look. "The computer said it was mostly evacuated."
Jean's eyebrows climbed. "Mostly?"
Emma waved one dismissive hand. "The important civilians survived."
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from laughing.
Professor Xavier stared at Emma for another beat before slowly directing his attention toward me. "The X-Men have run that particular scenario several times. I do not believe any team has ever completed it so quickly."
Emma glanced toward the seamless metal wall where the final alien command ship had disappeared. "Perhaps you should increase the difficulty."
Ororo gave Emma a long, thoughtful look. "Perhaps we should reinforce the room first."
Emma's lips curved into a satisfied smile.
Professor Xavier exhaled through his nose, looking almost amused despite himself. "It is a shame that none of you are attending my school—or willing to consider joining the X-Men. Your abilities would make you extraordinary additions to the team."
Emma's eyes rolled immediately. "Your star pupil tried to blast Blake through a limousine less than an hour ago. You will forgive me if your recruitment pitch requires some work."
Professor Xavier's expression tightened with regret. "Scott's actions were inexcusable, regardless of the outside influence exerted upon him. I will not attempt to minimize what happened."
Jean stared down at the floor, rubbing her thumb against the side of her index finger. "After what happened with Scott, it's probably better if we don't stay for too long for this first visit."
Professor Xavier turned his full attention toward her without interrupting.
Jean looked around the empty chamber, and something old moved behind her green eyes. "I know this place. Not this exact room, maybe, but what it becomes. The missions, the emergencies, the arguments, the people leaving and coming back, the funerals that never seem to stay permanent…"
Emma stepped closer until their shoulders touched.
Jean leaned subtly into the contact. "Those memories helped make me who I am. I wouldn't erase all of them even if I could. There were wonderful moments too. People I loved. People who became family." Her voice caught on the last word.
I moved to her other side and slipped my fingers through hers. Jean squeezed hard enough that an ordinary person probably would have complained.
I wasn't ordinary, so I squeezed back.
Jean drew a slow breath. "But that life is over. I don't want to spend this one trying to force myself back into the shape of the woman I used to be. I like SIT. I like engineering. I like going to class with Blake and Emma and deciding what I want to build instead of waiting for the next disaster to decide who I need to become."
Emma's expression softened as she looked at Jean.
Emma reached across the small space between them and took Jean's free hand. "We have spent enough time living for a dead future."
Jean turned her head toward Emma, and something silent passed between them.
This time, neither tried to hide it from me.
Professor Xavier studied the two women for several seconds. Whatever disappointment he felt never became pressure or manipulation.
Professor Xavier inclined his head. "I understand. My own university years were among the happiest and most formative of my life. Every young person deserves the opportunity to discover who they are outside the expectations of teachers, family, and old battles."
Jean's shoulders relaxed.
Professor Xavier rested one hand on the control panel built into his armrest. "The existence of this school does not obligate every mutant who enters it to become an X-Man. A sanctuary should never become a barracks."
Emma's eyebrows lifted by approximately half a millimeter. For her, that was practically a standing ovation.
Professor Xavier rotated his chair toward the exit. "I am going to check on Scott and determine how deeply that monster Nathaniel Essex's conditioning has—taken root. The three of you are welcome to explore the mansion and its grounds in the meantime." He paused before the metal doors. Professor Xavier looked back at us. "Whether or not you attend this school, and whether or not you ever join the X-Men, mutants will always have a home in this sanctuary. That includes all three of you." His gaze lingered on me during the last sentence.
Xavier didn't seem to care that I hadn't grown up in mutant society or that I had enough other supernatural nonsense attached to my soul to make the label complicated.
As far as he was concerned, the door remained open.
Professor Xavier tapped his controls, and the doors slid apart with a quiet hiss. He wheeled through them, disappearing into the corridor beyond.
I waited until his chair's electric hum faded before turning toward Jean and Emma.
I rubbed the back of my neck. "You know, that professor dude is actually pretty chill."
Ororo made a strangled sound. The beautiful weather goddess stared at me as though I had just referred to the Pope as some bald guy with a funny hat.
Ororo pressed one fist to her mouth, but a laugh escaped anyway. "...Professor dude?"
I lifted one shoulder. "Would you prefer Baldy McMindreader?"
Jean closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Blake..."
Emma's lips twitched violently as she fought a losing battle against her amusement. "No, let him continue. I would like to hear the full list."
Ororo shook her head as she began walking toward the exit. "I have a history class to teach in ten minutes, so I will leave the three of you to explore." She reached the doorway and stopped. Her gaze shifted toward the corridor outside.
A cluster of heads immediately vanished from sight.
Ororo's mouth curved into an unmistakably knowing smile. "Although I suspect you all slipping out the back unseen may no longer be possible. Most of the school has been waiting impatiently to continue hounding you."
Jean's eyes brightened with quiet amusement. "She's right."
Emma placed one hand on her hip. "They are not particularly subtle."
I leaned sideways until I could see past the edge of the doorway.
At least twelve students had pressed themselves against the corridor walls in what might have been the worst ambush formation I had ever witnessed. A blue-skinned girl crouched near the front. A fuzzy teenager with pointed ears had somehow ended up halfway up the wall. Three younger children were stacked behind a potted plant that concealed none of them.
Several of the older students were there too, including the brunette with the white streak who had tried to stop Scott from firing at us earlier.
Every one of them was staring at me, Jean, or Emma.
The instant they realized I could see them, the entire group froze.
I raised one hand and wiggled my fingers. "Hi."
The blue-skinned girl's eyes went comically wide. She whispered much louder than she probably intended. "He saw us!"
The fuzzy teenager glanced down at her from his place on the wall. "You said that out loud."
The blue-skinned girl covered her mouth with both hands.
Ororo stepped into the corridor and gave the gathered students a patient teacherly look. "If you wish to talk some more with our guests, you may do so without hiding behind the architecture."
The brunette with the white streak straightened first. Embarrassment flickered across her face, but she squared her shoulders and stepped into the open. The brunette gestured awkwardly toward the Danger Room behind us. "Did y'all really finish that alien scenario in fifteen minutes!?"
Emma's posture became just a little more regal. "Fourteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds."
Jean glanced sideways at her. "You checked?"
Emma brushed her hair behind one shoulder. "Of course I checked."
A dark-haired boy near the back craned his neck, trying to see around the others. "Is it true he has eight wings?"
One of the younger children bounced onto his toes. He stared at me. "Can you really make portals?"
A girl beside him nearly vibrated with excitement. "Can the portals go anywhere?"
The blue-skinned girl lowered her hands from her mouth and stared at Emma. "Can I touch your diamond arm?"
Emma blinked.
The questions began coming faster.
Jean looked at the rapidly approaching crowd, then at me. Her smile became wider and more genuine than it had been since we arrived.
…A couple of hours later, Xavier's estate disappeared behind us as Emma's limousine carried us back toward Manhattan.
It was a different limousine from the one we had arrived in…
Emma's people had apparently arranged a replacement before we even finished touring the school. The ruined vehicle was being hauled away by a tow truck while three of Emma's lawyers argued with Xavier's insurance company over who technically counted as responsible when a psychically conditioned mutant destroyed a billionaire's car.
At this point, I was becoming a statistically significant threat to Frost International's limousine fleet.
I ran my fingers over the polished black leather beneath me. "You know, you might want to stop letting me into your limos. They don't seem to survive the experience."
Emma crossed one long leg over the other and examined her nails. "Frost International owns dozens of limousines, Blake. You will have to try considerably harder before this becomes a financial concern."
Jean's mouth curved as she settled against my left side. "You were screaming about the upholstery when you saw what Scott did."
Emma's blue eyes narrowed faintly. "That was before I remembered the vehicle was fully insured."
I snorted and looked out through the tinted window.
Trees and expensive houses rolled past as we left Westchester behind. Xavier's mansion vanished beyond the hills, taking its alien training room, mutant students, and deeply traumatized eye-laser boy with it.
Strangely, I wasn't angry with Scott.
I probably should have been. He had insulted Emma, tried to claim Jean like she was a prize someone had promised him, and blasted me through a limousine when she rejected him. Any one of those things would normally have earned someone a permanent position on my shit list.
But Scott hadn't been acting entirely under his own power.
Nathaniel Essex had crawled into his head somehow. He had planted dreams, manufactured feelings, and twisted whatever normal attraction Scott might have developed into an obsession strong enough to override reason. Scott was still responsible for the choices he had made, but someone else had poisoned the ground those choices grew from.
I knew what it was like to have another person reach into my mind and decide which parts of me I was allowed to keep.
Some ancient asshole had stolen my childhood memories, sealed away half my soul, and left me wandering through almost half my life without knowing my own name. Orochimaru had tried to plant part of himself inside me. Selene had attempted to tear through my mental defenses and reshape me into a devoted pet.
I fucking hated mind control.
Once Professor Xavier dug Essex's poison out of Scott's head, I thought there was a chance we might actually get along. Maybe not immediately. He would probably be mortified when he understood what he had done, and Emma might need to be physically restrained from turning every apology into psychological torture, but I wasn't opposed to seeing the guy again.
I wouldn't have minded spending more time with the other X-Men either.
Kurt had challenged me to a teleportation race between the kitchen and the mansion's roof. Kitty had declared that both of us were cheating before phasing through three floors and beating us there. The two of them had then spent twenty minutes arguing about whether walking through solid matter was fundamentally different from teleporting around it.
Kitty was a riot. Kurt was pretty great too. He looked like a blue demon, spoke like someone from an old European adventure movie, and had somehow become one of the most cheerful people in a mansion full of traumatized mutants.
Even Logan had warmed up to me slightly after deciding I didn't smell like I intended to murder anyone. That was a weird thing to figure out by scent but that was what he'd said…
Jean shifted closer beside me. Her red hair brushed beneath my chin as she rested her head on my shoulder. One of her hands curled around my arm, and her thumb began tracing slow lines over my sleeve.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Emma sat pressed against my other side, pretending to read something on her phone. The privacy partition separated us from the driver, and the muted sound of tires rolling over the highway filled the quiet space.
Jean's fingers tightened gently around my arm. "Thank you for today."
I glanced down at the top of her head. "For getting shot through Emma's limo?"
Jean's shoulder shook with a soft laugh. "Not specifically."
Jean lifted her head and turned until her green eyes met mine. The amusement in them slowly gave way to something softer and more vulnerable. "I meant thank you for bringing me there."
I studied her face. "You were the one who arranged the visit."
Jean's fingers slid down my arm until they found my hand. "I arranged it because you kept asking about that part of me. I probably would have canceled if you hadn't been expecting to go."
I threaded my fingers through hers. "You never told me you wanted to cancel."
Jean looked down at our joined hands. "I didn't want to admit how frightened I was."
The answer caught me off guard.
It was easy to forget that fear didn't care how powerful someone was.
Jean rubbed her thumb over my knuckles. "I've spent months avoiding the school. Emma and I told ourselves it was because approaching the X-Men would complicate this timeline. Some of the people we knew aren't there yet. Some of them are still children. Some may never become the people we remember."
Emma's phone went dark in her hand.
Jean's throat moved as she swallowed. "Those were all real concerns, but they weren't the whole truth…" Her fingers tightened around mine.
I nodded slowly.
Jean raised her free hand and placed it against my cheek.
I leaned into the warmth of her palm. "You did the hard part."
Jean's thumb moved beneath my eye. "I'm not sure I could have done it without you."
I opened my mouth to answer.
Jean leaned in first.
Her lips touched the corner of mine, so softly that for half a second I wasn't sure whether she intended it as a kiss on the cheek or something more. My breath caught, and my mouth opened slightly in surprise.
Jean adjusted her head.
Her lips covered mine properly, and the tip of her tongue slipped between them.
Every coherent thought in my head promptly died.
I turned toward her as much as the back seat allowed. My hand left hers and settled against the curve of her waist. Jean made a quiet sound against my mouth as her fingers slid into my hair.
The kiss started soft. It didn't stay that way.
Jean's tongue stroked mine with slow, searching movements. Her body pressed closer, the warmth of her chest settling against my side.
I kissed her back until I forgot about Westchester, Scott, Essex, and everything else beyond the limousine.
Emma's fingernails began tapping against the dark screen of her phone. The tapping became progressively louder. Emma's mouth tightened into a thin, jealous line as Jean and I continued kissing. "I am sitting right here!"
Jean smiled against my lips but didn't immediately pull away.
I probably should have shown more restraint.
Instead, my hand tightened around Jean's waist, and I kissed her for another few seconds before we finally separated.
Jean's cheeks were flushed. Her green eyes looked brighter than they had all day, and her lips were slightly swollen.
I didn't get a chance to admire the result for long.
Emma set her phone aside with regal deliberation. Her hand caught my chin, and she turned my head toward her beautiful face.
Emma's blue eyes dragged over my mouth. "If expressions of gratitude are being distributed, I refuse to be excluded."
I barely managed to inhale before she kissed me.
Where Jean's kiss had begun tenderly and grown heated, Emma's started with complete confidence. Emma kissed like she did everything else—with the absolute conviction that she knew what I wanted before I did.
Unfortunately for my dignity, she was usually right.
Her fingers slid from my chin to the back of my neck. She tilted my head to the angle she wanted and deepened the kiss, her tongue gliding over mine with deliberate sensuality.
My hand found her hip.
Emma made a satisfied sound and pressed closer.
My cock hardened inside my pants.
There was no hiding it. Not with Emma's thigh touching mine and certainly not with two telepaths sitting on either side of me.
The thoughts in my head became loud enough that neither woman needed to violate a single boundary to catch them.
Red hair spread across black leather.
Platinum-blonde hair tangled between my fingers.
Jean straddling one of my thighs while Emma climbed onto the other. Four soft hands moving over me. Both of their mouths finding mine while the limousine's privacy partition stayed firmly closed.
Jean's breath hitched beside me.
Emma smiled into our kiss.
I groaned internally, which only made the images worse.
Emma drew back just far enough for her lips to brush mine when she spoke. Her eyes glittered with wicked satisfaction. "Your imagination remains remarkably healthy."
Heat climbed into my face. "You two could try not listening."
Jean's cheeks darkened another shade of pink as she glanced toward the obvious bulge in my pants. "We weren't searching. Some thoughts are louder than others."
Emma's fingers idly stroked the hair at the back of my neck. "Those were practically being projected onto a cinema screen."
I looked toward the tinted window and tried to think about anything else.
Physics equations.
Konoha tax policy.
Riser freezing in Antarctica.
The last one almost worked.
Jean's hand settled against my chest before Emma could pull me into another kiss. Her expression shifted, the lingering desire in her eyes giving way to quiet determination.
Jean drew a steadying breath. "As much as I am enjoying this, there is something important we need to discuss."
Emma's hand remained curled behind my neck. "Your timing could use improvement."
Jean gave Emma an apologetic look. "If I wait, I might lose my nerve."
That erased the irritation from Emma's face.
I turned toward Jean, although Emma's body remained warm against my other side. "What is it?"
Jean watched me for several seconds. Her fingers spread over my chest, directly above my heart. Jean's voice became soft. "You helped me face something I had been avoiding. I want to help you do the same."
I frowned slightly. "...I've got a pretty long list."
Jean's gaze didn't leave mine. "I mean Konan."
Everything inside me stopped. The muted sound of the highway suddenly seemed very far away.
My half-hard cock became the least important thing in the world.
I stared at Jean. "What did you say?"
Jean's hand curled slightly against my shirt. "I want to help you rescue Konan."
Emma's fingers slipped away from my neck, but she didn't retreat. Instead, she took my other hand and held it firmly between both of hers. Emma's expression became cold and serious. "We discussed it before coming to Westchester."
I looked from one woman to the other. "You discussed rescuing Konan?"
Jean nodded slowly. "Natasha was right about us trying to make you fit the life we remembered. If we want to be part of your life now, that means helping with the things that matter to you now."
Guilt twisted inside me. I looked down at our joined hands. "I haven't forgotten her!"
Jean's thumb rubbed over my chest. "I know."
I forced the words past the tightness in my throat. "Her clone told me not to come. She said Pain and the masked guy were too powerful. She said I needed to get stronger before I tried. She told me that Pain had the Rinnegan and was more powerful than all the Kages combined. I can't even beat Tsunade if she's going all out…"
Even with me becoming an Adventurer, Tsunade was still a bit stronger than me at this point—with a lot more experience as well.
And a guy that could potentially beat 5 of her at once? And then there was the masked ninja as well…
Jean, however, smiled gently at me. "I've never really shown you just how powerful I am… have I?"
…My mother was pouting at me from across the dining table.
Shuri Himejima somehow made pouting look elegant. Her long black hair spilled over one shoulder, her violet eyes narrowed accusingly, and her chopsticks tapped against the edge of her bowl with the steady rhythm of someone trying very hard not to throw them at her son.
The empty chair beside her belonged to Tony.
Family dinners in the Stark penthouse were still rare. Everyone had spent the past several weeks being pulled in different directions by college classes, corporate disasters, S.H.I.E.L.D. emergencies, interdimensional travel, and whatever qualified as normal in our lives.
With Tony and Pepper finally settled in New York, their schedules had started becoming slightly less insane. Slightly.
Tonight was supposed to have been one of our first proper dinners as a family.
Then I told Tony about the Danger Room.
That had been my first mistake.
Tony's fork had frozen halfway to his mouth when I described the simulated alien invasion. "They have an underground training room that can create SOLID HOLOGRAPHIC CITIES?"
I had spread my hands and tried to explain the technology without making it sound too impressive. "Holograms, force fields, gravity manipulation, atmospheric control, solid light—"
Tony's eyes had widened with every item on the list. "And the bald telepath has had this beneath his house the entire time?"
I had nodded reluctantly. "Apparently aliens gave them the original technology."
Tony had placed his fork down with terrifying care. "Aliens…?"
Pepper had closed her eyes in immediate resignation. "Tony, don't…"
Tony had already pushed away from the table. "No one gives Professor Chrome Dome better toys than Tony Stark!"
Shuri had pointed one chopstick at his abandoned plate. "Sit back down and finish your dinner!"
Tony had kissed her cheek while continuing toward the private elevator. "Keep it warm for me, beautiful. I have to defend the family's technological honor!"
The elevator doors had closed behind him before Shuri could decide which weapon to throw.
That had been twenty minutes ago.
My mother's pout deepened every time she glanced at Tony's cooling dinner.
Shuri tapped her chopsticks against her bowl one final time. "You could have waited until dessert to tell him."
I lifted both hands defensively. "I didn't know he was going to abandon dinner."
Pepper gave me a dry look from the chair beside mine. "You told Tony Stark that another genius possessed alien technology more advanced than his own. What exactly did you expect him to do?"
I considered that.
I lowered my hands. "That's fair."
Akeno covered her smile with her fingertips. "Perhaps our new stepfather will remember that he requires food sometime before sunrise."
Rias swirled the red wine in her glass and glanced toward the ceiling as though she could see through several floors of reinforced concrete. "Does Tony usually become this competitive over technology?"
Pepper delicately cut another piece from her chicken. "Tony becomes competitive when another person owns a toaster he didn't design."
JARVIS's calm voice emerged from the ceiling. "For the record, Miss Potts, Sir has redesigned four separate toasters."
Pepper's expression remained perfectly neutral. "Thank you for that riveting information, JARVIS..."
Shuri let out a long-suffering sigh before turning her attention toward Akeno and Rias. "How have your classes been going?"
Akeno's face brightened immediately. "American literature has been interesting. The professor spent most of friday explaining symbolism in a novel, and then half the class argued that he had invented all of it."
Rias leaned forward with an animated expression. "The professor was absolutely inventing some of it. He claimed the curtains being blue represented the death of optimism under industrial capitalism."
Akeno tilted her head thoughtfully. "Perhaps the curtains were simply blue."
Rias pointed toward Akeno in vindication. "Exactly!"
Shuri's eyes softened as she watched her daughter talk.
Even after all the reunions, portals, and shared meals, I sometimes caught Mom staring at Akeno or me like she was afraid one of us might disappear if she looked away. She had lost ten years with both of us. No amount of happiness in the present could give those years back.
Mom never said it aloud. She didn't need to.
I looked away before she caught me watching and turned toward the other end of the table.
Asia sat beside Natasha as she carefully separated the vegetables on her plate into different groups. She had apparently decided carrots belonged beside potatoes but absolutely could not be allowed to touch broccoli.
I rested my forearms against the table. "How did tutoring go today, Asia?"
Asia's entire expression lit up when I addressed her. "It went very well! We worked on fractions in the morning, and then I learned about cells."
The Church had done a terrible job educating her...
Calling it a terrible job was probably too generous. They had taught Asia enough to read scripture, follow orders, and use her healing power whenever they demanded it. Everything else had been treated as unnecessary.
She had spent most of her life being praised as a Holy Maiden while being denied the basic education needed to live independently.
Now she wanted to become a doctor. She had years of learning to catch up before she could even think about medical school, but Asia attacked every lesson with the same bright determination she brought to everything else.
Asia clasped her hands together beneath her chin. "Did you know every person has trillions of cells? I thought there might only be hundreds."
I smiled at her excitement. "Trillions sounds more impressive."
Asia nodded enthusiastically. "It is very impressive!"
Natasha's usual guarded expression softened as she looked at her adopted daughter. "She finished two weeks of assigned biology material in four days."
Asia's cheeks turned pink. "Mother Natasha helped me."
Natasha reached over and tucked a strand of blonde hair behind Asia's ear. "I explained a few words. You did the work."
Asia leaned into Natasha's hand with a contented smile.
Watching Natasha shift from one of the deadliest assassins on the planet into a gentle, affectionate mother would never stop being surreal.
It suited her, though.
Asia had given Natasha something worth protecting that wasn't a government, mission, or intelligence agency. Natasha had given Asia the one thing the Church never had.
Someone who loved her without requiring anything in return.
Natasha's eyes flicked toward my untouched plate. Her maternal warmth didn't vanish, exactly. It folded itself away behind the clinical attention of a spy who had spent decades learning to recognize danger before it became obvious.
Natasha set her fork down. "What's wrong?"
Every conversation at the table stopped.
I glanced toward her. "Nothing…"
Natasha leaned back slightly and studied me. "You have the same expression you wear before walking into a fight you know might go badly."
Pepper's hand immediately settled on my thigh beneath the table. Her fingers tightened through the fabric of my pants. Pepper turned toward me with worry already gathering in her eyes. "Blake, are you all right?"
The concern in her voice made guilt twist through me.
Pepper was the most normal woman I was involved with. That didn't mean she was weak—Pepper Potts could terrify corporate boards, government officials, and Tony Stark with equal efficiency—but she couldn't punch apart mountains, transform into diamond, or incinerate armies with her mind.
Every supernatural problem in my life forced her to stand beside people who could survive things she couldn't. She worried because worrying was sometimes all I left her able to do.
Shuri's violet eyes narrowed as she set down her chopsticks. "Who do we have to kill?"
Akeno's pleasant smile became something far more dangerous. "Who do we have to kill?"
Mother and daughter had spoken at exactly the same time.
Rias looked between them with open disbelief. "You two are much too synchronized."
Shuri and Akeno tilted their heads in the same direction.
Their smiles became identical.
Shuri's voice took on a musical note. "Ara ara."
Akeno's voice matched hers perfectly. "Ara ara."
Rias slowly placed her wineglass on the table. "That is genuinely disturbing…"
I exhaled and looked down at Pepper's hand on my thigh.
I couldn't keep avoiding the subject.
I placed my fork beside my plate. "Jean and Emma offered to help me rescue Konan."
The penthouse became completely silent. Even the soft music playing from hidden speakers seemed to recede into the background.
For months, Konan had existed like a splinter buried too deep to remove. I could go days without consciously thinking about her, but she was always there beneath everything else. Every time I laughed with Akeno, kissed Pepper, visited Tsunade and Shizune, or sat beside Hestia in front of the hearth she had always dreamed of, a small part of me remembered that Konan had been stolen away before she could share any of it.
I had built the life I always wanted while she remained trapped with the people who had taken her.
"You don't talk about Konan maybe as much as you should." Pepper's fingers tightened around my thigh. "How long has Konan been missing?"
I stared at the food cooling on my plate. "Several months..."
Pepper's lips parted in disbelief.
I dragged one hand through my hair. "I know how that sounds."
Natasha rested her forearms against the table. "It sounds like there's a reason you haven't attempted a rescue."
I looked toward her, grateful that she had asked the question without putting judgment behind it. "There are several. Konan left behind a paper clone before they captured her. The clone told me not to come after her until I was stronger. Strong enough to stand at the top of the ninja world… The clone knew the real Konan had been taken by Pain and a masked man claiming to be Madara Uchiha. It thought they would force her back into their organization and erase everything she remembered about me."
Asia raised both hands to her mouth. "They took away her memories?"
I swallowed against the pressure building in my throat. "They might have…"
Asia's green eyes filled with immediate sorrow. "That is horrible!"
Natasha placed one hand over Asia's wrist, grounding her without looking away from me. "What do we know about the captors?"
I leaned back in my chair and tried to organize information I had spent months deliberately not organizing. "Pain controls the Hidden Rain Village. He possesses something called the Rinnegan. According to the stories in the Elemental Nations, those eyes belonged to the Sage of Six Paths—the closest thing the ninja world has to a creator god. The Sage literally used them to create their world's moon."
"A WHOLE MOON!?" Pepper went very still beside me. "THE EYES OF A GOD? YOU WANT TO FIGHT THIS GUY!?"
I gave her a humorless smile. "Jean said she would fight this guy. I will be rescuing Konan…"
Akeno's violet eyes narrowed. "What about the masked man?"
I let out a slow breath. "I know even less about him. He has a Sharingan and can apparently use it to control people. Konan's clone called him Madara Uchiha, but Madara should have been dead for decades. Whoever he really is, he helped take Konan without leaving enough of a fight for anyone nearby to notice."
Natasha's expression hardened. "Meaning he can bypass conventional defenses, conceal an extraction, and compromise minds."
I nodded reluctantly. "That's the short version…"
Shuri's expression softened. "Blake…"
I shook my head before she could reassure me too quickly. "Konan protected me when she didn't have to. She turned against Pain because she believed I could help her find a better path for her world." A weak laugh escaped me at the memory. I looked around the table, but the laugh died almost immediately. "She called me her angel. She followed me into a place where everyone she once knew would consider her a traitor. She was like a big sister to me, and I left her there."
Akeno's face immediately scrunched into a pout. "You already have a big sister."
I stared at her.
Of all the reactions I had expected, jealous sibling pouting hadn't made the list.
I lifted both hands. "I said she was like a big sister."
Akeno narrowed her violet eyes. "That distinction sounded suspiciously unimportant."
Rias covered her mouth with one hand, but the movement didn't hide her smile.
Akeno maintained her pout for several more seconds before her expression slowly softened. "Although… Perhaps this Konan woman could be a big sister to both of us."
The unexpected offer warmed something in my chest.
I leaned toward Akeno. "Konan loves angels. She'd probably love you before you finished introducing yourself!"
Akeno's pout vanished. A faint blush spread across her cheeks as her gaze dropped toward the table. For a moment, her fingers curled against her upper arms where the base of her wings would emerge.
Akeno had accepted her fallen-angel blood. She no longer sealed away half her power or treated our father's lightning like a disease. Breaking that seal had elevated her into Ultimate class and allowed her to save my life.
Acceptance didn't mean every wound had vanished. There were still moments when someone mentioned her wings and shame flickered through her eyes before she could hide it. I was usually the only person who could talk about that part of her and make her smile instead of flinch.
Akeno tucked a strand of black hair behind her ear. "She truly likes fallen angels?"
I smiled at the shy hope in her voice. "Konan met me once, decided I was a real angel, and reorganized her entire religion around that conclusion."
Rias stared at me. "That sounds somewhat concerning…"
I considered it for a second. "It was concerning. But it was also very nice."
Akeno's blush deepened, but a small, genuine smile touched her lips. "I think I would like to meet her."
Shuri's expression became calm in the way that usually meant someone was about to have a very bad day. "I will help rescue her."
Akeno unfolded her arms and sat straighter. "I will help too."
Rias placed her wineglass down beside her plate. "As will I! After everything you've done for me, of course I will help!"
I closed my eyes. This was exactly what I had been afraid of. I pressed my fingertips against my forehead. "You see, this is why I didn't want to tell everyone until there was already a plan."
Pepper's grip tightened around my wrist.
Akeno's eyebrows drew together. "You were afraid we would help you?"
I leaned forward, frustration pushing through the guilt. "I was afraid all of you would volunteer before I finished explaining how dangerous this is."
Shuri's violet eyes narrowed. "You explained. We heard it, and that is that."
I shook my head. "Knowing that Pain is supposedly stronger than five Kage doesn't mean you understand what fighting him will look like. I don't understand what fighting him will look like."
My voice grew rougher as months of buried fear finally pushed their way out.
I gestured around the table. "I just got this. I just got all of you. I found Mom again. I found Akeno. Pepper somehow decided that dating me was worth the supernatural disasters. Rias escaped the man who wanted to own her. Asia has a real family. Natasha has someone she loves more than her missions."
Natasha's hand tightened protectively around Asia's wrist.
I swallowed and forced myself to continue. "Tsunade and Shizune are waiting for me in Konoha. Hestia and Bell are building a Familia in Orario. Jean and Emma finally stopped trying to live in a future that doesn't exist. For the first time in my life, I have everything I used to think people only got in movies."
Pepper's expression softened, but the fear remained in her eyes.
I looked directly at my mother and sister. "I can't take all of you into another world to fight a man with the eyes of a god and someone who can erase your mind. I can't finally get my family back and then lead them into a battle that could take them away again."
Akeno flinched. The reaction hurt more than if she had shouted at me.
Shuri studied me for a long moment. The hard calm in her expression gave way to something gentler, but no less firm. "Let me ask you something, Blake."
I lowered my hand from my forehead and met her violet eyes.
Shuri's gaze traveled briefly around the table, touching Akeno, Pepper, Rias, Natasha, and Asia before returning to me. "What would happen if someone came after one of us?"
I frowned slightly.
Shuri's expression remained patient. "What would you do if someone tried to hurt your family?"
The answer came so easily that I didn't need to think about it. "I would stop them."
Shuri tilted her head. "And if they succeeded?"
Something inside my chest went still.