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[It has taken him a couple of days to sort himself out, to wrap his head around the idea that there had been a duplicate version of himself here on the ship, a man who was now gone. To also wrap his head around the idea of there being two versions of Alex Summers aboard the ship, as well as Erik who did not have any of Charles' memories and of course, Raven.

Raven, whom he had not seen in over seven months. How, exactly, do you even begin to try to explain all of that, let alone wrap your head around a ship like Tranquility?

It was a hell of a learning curve, that was for certain but now it was time to get out there and get to work.

So he switched on the video, device pointed towards himself where he sat on his bed in the room he now shared with Erik. His smile was polite, perhaps a little more reserved than usual but hopefully welcoming enough.]

Ah, right then, hello.

Some of you may recognize me, as I have been informed that I have most recently been here up until the latest, 'jump' I believe it is known as. My name is Charles Xavier and I am, genetically speaking, the same man who was here before the jump.

However, in the same breath I am not that same man.

For example. [He sets the device back and then stands up from where he had been sitting on his bed. Taking a couple of steps, he turns around, obviously completely ambulatory before coming back to sit down on the bed.] There are also some other differences but those are not important at the moment.

What is important is that I am afraid I do not have any prior memories of this ship or what has occurred during the time my other self was here. [Though Erik had given him access to his communication device to catch up on prior events, though for now Charles kept that bit of information to himself.]

Raven? Alex, Angel and Havok? I know this must be rather confusing but if possible I would very much like a chance to talk with each of you. I am sharing a room with Erik, if you would like to speak face to face. I am uncertain about the level of privacy we can assume across these devices.

In a similar vein, if there is anyone else, who knew me before and would like to speak with me now, I am of course more than willing to make myself available. Though I understand that this might not be the most comfortable set of circumstances.

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[Alex is...going to just have to settle with that. And secretly, without telling anyone, he'll appreciate it. It's hard to give up part of yourself, even if it's the right thing to do. It's a sacrifice he is willing to make, even if it bothers him, at times.

He knows how to make those sort of things, now.]

Hey, when you see him, you'll get it.

[Alex had missed Hank, too. It fit.

Alex gets to the kitchen area first, putting out a plate of tuna for the gray kitten, who was currently gobbling it up happily. He sits on a counter while he waits, fingers absently rubbing on the scar on his head.]

[It takes perhaps a little longer than the promise of 'presently' for Charles to completely sort himself out and figure out where the ever loving hell he's going.

The Tranquility is definitely bigger than anything he traveled on while with the Republic!

Eventually and perhaps after asking for directions, he comes striding through the door.]

So help me this had better be ... [Glancing up from where he had been looking at directions of his device, Charles looks around and then blinks and smiles.] Ah, yes! Perfect.

[Another glance has him spotting Alex and with a wide smile, Charles tucks his device away and starts towards the younger man.]

Alex! How are you?

Charles um--

[Alex pauses, slipping off the counter, giving him a tight smile back.]

You really don't have to call me that. I'm okay with Havok.

[Bozo looks up from his food, giving out a soft mew at the new comer, but doesn't move from his food, pouring back into it presently.]

Sorry--I should have sent you a ping. This place can get kinda shifty, sometimes.

[Crossing over to the younger man, Charles reached out to grip his shoulder with a warm touch.]

I understand, Alex but you know I was rubbish at keeping the code names you kids came up with straight. Honestly, I do not know what Raven was thinking that night.

[Giving the shoulder another squeeze, he lowered his hand and looked over at the kitten.]

So, how did you come by your small friend here?

[Alex actually liked his code name, but that was another story.

At the touch, Alex stiffened then relaxed, slightly, giving the other man a more natural smile.

He hadn't talked to a Charles--any Charles--in two months. In that time he had grown, done what he had to do; there was still guilt over not being able to save his life months back--but that wasn't this Charles...it was a lifetime away, with people he would never see again.

At the question though, he presses his lips together into a thin line.]

I dunno know much the others have told you. But before coming here, I was stuck four months in a place called Promenade. I got the stray there. He somehow managed to come here, with me.

[It had seemed fitting, at the time. That him, an orphan, a stray in his own right, would adopt a kitten that had been as homeless as he had once been.]

[In some corner of his brain Charles was aware that the kids and possibly Erik were all right with the code names. For Charles himself, he liked their proper names, thank you.

Glancing from the kitten, back to Alex, Charles cocked his head thoughtfully to the side, his brows knitting slightly as he listened to the younger man's explanation of events.]

Ah. That sounds rather like something I have gone through, though it was seven months for me and it would seem that aside from a cloak I have arrived here completely on my own.

[Walking towards the kitten, Charles reached out to gently stroke the gray fur.]

Might I ask, where you were in events back home, before you were ... ah, relocated to Promenade?

--really?

[Alex's widen slightly, and he shakes his head.] I mean--you aren't Promenade Charles but...

...at least you get it, then. I swear the others think I'm half crazy.

[Alex flat out refused to believe him for a bit. He feels revlieved almost immediately. There are so many things he wants to say, so many things he wants to ask. But he'll be patient.

Bozo has finished eating and nuzzles into Charles's hand, padding up to his leg, mewing to be picked up; he remembers the smell of Charles, so excuse you, he wants more pets.]

Sure you already know the deal. Sean, Hank and I were just trying to adjust to a new mutant-angry world. Helping you get settled.

[Splitting his glance between Alex and then now demanding kitten, Charles bent down and picked up the baby feline, settling him into the crook of his arm and stroking along his chin and cheek.]

Well as you can tell, I have yet to actually live through that moment, when I become paralyzed, though I have been told of the events and what happens afterwards. With Erik, Raven and the others.

[Shifting to lean his hip against the counter, Charles continued his proper tribute to Bozo as he looked over at Alex.]

No, I was never anywhere called Promenade. My own experience involved space, hundreds of different species and an intergalactic war. Some other Outworlders and mutants who came from the future, said it was a place known as a fictional world in our time but that is a set of circumstances that my mind still refuses to completely comprehend.

[Bozo looks pleased as punch, now, purring up a storm as he settles in Charles's arms.

Alex remembers, then, the mention of tea, and moves to start searching for it, listening to Charles all the while.]

This is going to sound weird, but you weren't told that the whole 'space' thing was some sort of dream, were you?

[It's a shot in the dark, and probably wrong, but he's trying to settle things up.]

There are alternative universes everywhere, even where we are back home. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there is more than one strange kidnapping scenario for us.

[He finally finds a tin, and after determining that it's tea, sets about boiling some water.]

I have to ask--what mutants did you run into?

[Watching Alex closely, Charles eventually realizes what the younger man is up too and smiles gratefully before moving out of the way and taking a seat at a table with Bozo.]

Oh no, most certainly not a dream, though I did wonder for the first couple of days. No, it was made clear to us that we had been forcefully taken from our world of origin at the whim of, strangely enough, the man who was our enemy.

[Frowning a little, Charles gave his head a slight shake.]

It really is a very long and complicated series of events. To answer your question, however, while Erik and I were there we met a mutant named Ororo, Logan, Scott, Jean, Marie, Gambit, Emma came for a bit, John, yourself, Sean and Kurt.

Sean, yourself, Erik and Emma were all from the 1960s and shared the same experiences with Shaw and Cuba as myself. Ororo, Logan, Scott, Jean, John and Marie were all from about forty years in the future. Kurt was also from the future, though I believe his diverged from the others and Gambit I did not know well enough to learn exactly how he fit into everything.

Oh! [He reaches up and brushes his hair back.] I briefly knew a girl named Laura, who was also from a future time but she left not soon after I arrived, much like what happened with Ororo

Promenade was supposed to be a dream. Though you certainly could get hurt there.

[The scars that stayed on him here attested to that.

When Charles made mention of names though, Alex looked over from where he was watching the watching the kettle, eyes going wide.]

Scott-?

[Alex came over, closer, his face a tentative mix of emotions; hope, worry, expectation. He had known Jean--and how she had told him of his brother, but how she hadn't known him.

And how much that had made him worry over his future. At least--one future (Teddy told him he was alive and well where he came from, so that counted for something, at least).]

--you mean my brother?

[Charles was about to ask about this Promenade, when Alex honed in on Scott and was soon asking questions.]

Scott Summers, yes. To be perfectly honest, we never did determine the exact nature of your relationship, though given the similarities in your mutations, as well as last name, I suspected some level of familial kinship.

Are you saying that you know, now that he was your brother?

[Alex moves to sit down, the water not yet ready. Bozo sees that his master seems a bit distressed and wiggles from Charles's arms, bounding across the table to head but into the circular panel on his chest. Alex sighs, fingers tangling in fur.]

Yes--at least, in one universe, he is. I didn't know him--just Jean. She had never heard of me.

[Which had worried him, obviously.

Letting out a breath, he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.]

When I was in Promenade I met two young men--Teddy and Billy. Billy was Erik's grandson in a universe, and Teddy was his boyfriend. He was um--some sort of alien--I dunno.

[Alex realized he was rambling, but this was the first time he had been able to speak openly about this to anyone since arriving. It had been welling up at the sides, picking at him.]

Both of them said that Scott was my brother. That I had another brother, too--Gabriel. But he was a psychopath.

I haven't told Alex or Erik any of this--I didn't think it was my place.

You knew Jean?

[Charles asked, before his expression became a little shuttered but then easily smoothed out.]

So, Erik managed to have children and grandchildren did he? Well, good for him. I know family is important to him.

There seems to be a great deal of divergence and events in our world and also in other versions of our world. I got the impression that Kurt, in particular, lived with a very different version of history, than what happened with us on the beach in Cuba.

It is difficult to get your mind around so many, infinite possibilities of how things may work out.

I did. She wasn't around long, though...and I um--kinda flipped out on her.

[Alex snorted, shaking his head.]

Teddy and Billy had decided not to tell me about Scott, so when Jean started dumping all the information on me I kinda--screamed at her.

[It wasn't his finest moment. Alex shifts Bozo onto his shoulders before standing, moving to go check on the water; seeing it boiling, he moves to make them both cups, remembering how Charles likes it.]

Well, in one universe at least.

[He puts down a cup of tea in front of Charles before sitting down again, shrugging.]

It is. I mean--I figure we're both really used to it, by now. Waking up in this place, it was more of a feeling of 'not again', than the sheer panic others have.

Well, I must admit it was a bit more disorienting than that. [Charles explained, though he smiled behind the words and nodded.] However, now that I've had a chance to get my bearings, it is certainly not as unnerving as it would have been had I not been somewhere else before.

[Thanking Alex softly, Charles sat forward and took the tea, lifting it to his lips for a sip and then making a pleased noise.]

And they have decent tea here, splendid. Death and mayhem but also decent tea.

[He gave Alex a knowing look and then sat back, tea close at hand.]

I remember when some of what Kurt, in particular, told me would get overwhelming. Logan as well, had some rather sobering news about the future, it certainly is quite different from anything I had envisioned when we launched in the Blackbird that morning.

[Alex smirked over his own cup; at least he made it right.]

Well--who knows what our future is.

I've just...tried to take the good, and forget the bad.

Teddy told me that I end up leading my own team, in the future.

[Alex gave a slight shrug.]

Knowing that I could do something like that helped when...when you disappeared in Promenade.

[He tried to take control, and gathered up the remaining mutants, trying to stay a unified force against things.]

[Glancing up, Charles blinked but then smiled and gave a slight nod.]

It would not surprise me in the least that you come to lead your own team. [He said, pride in his tone and eyes.] You certainly have the skills for it, just need the confidence.

[He couldn't help thinking of back in the Republic, the flashes of responsibility Alex had shown. No, it would not surprise him in the least that the young man grew to be the leader of a team. It was entirely possible, Charles realized in the next breath, that with Erik and Raven gone and Charles himself no longer fit for the field, that if another situation like the one with Shaw came up ...]

Back home, I imagine you would be leading the team, if it was necessary.

Well, I'm getting there, I think.

[Alex smiled back, giving a slight shrug of his shoulders. He might never be completely comfortable with attention--even if he wanted it. It was a double edged sword for him, in some ways--for so many years the only attention he had received was negative--so now that he actually is getting positive attention, he doesn't always know if he wants it. Or how to deal with it. But he's trying. He really is.

At the other comment, his brow furrowed, slightly, and he nodded.]

I--I know. But I'm--we're not going to leave you behind.

We're a family aren't we?

[Because it's the only family he has--or ever had. Even if it fell apart, in some ways.]

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