Chapter 4

 

Renegade sniffed. “Oui, Renegade t’ink about it. Rather join a monastery.” He eyed the X-Men warily. “Dis force field is not necessary.”

 

Xavier sighed. “Can you guarantee that Feral, Nathaniel, or Wrath can’t get out?”

 

“Non, but if y’ keep us here, dere will be.. complications. We don’t like cages.” Renegade warned Xavier.

 

Jean frowned. “How did you keep the others in control?”

 

Renegade looked exasperated. “I didn’t. Remy is, he is de mirror of de adult core and can do t’ings dat we can’t. Remy running t’ings, now dat de barrier is gone, he won’t be back for a while. I’m here while they decide what to do.”

 

“What is this barrier that you are speaking off?” Jean asked. “What did the Professor have to do with it?”

 

“It kept de more dangerous personalities away from de rest of us and made sure dat dey wouldn’t get control of de body. Xavier gave us de energy and we provided de will. But after what happened in Antarctica, it weakened enough to give dem a chance to get out.” Renegade paced in behind the forcefield nervously. “After what happened with Onslaught, de Trio ain’t going t’ give y’ de controls again. Y’ be lucky dat Feral didn’t go after y’.”

 

“Maybe I can help.” Jean frowned. “I’m a high Alpha-class telepath.”

 

Xavier shook his head. “What I did before, I had the cooperation of several personalities. Remy was an Omega empath, Wrath is an Omega telepath, and there are others with Alpha-class telepathy and empathy. But without their consent, I or you can do nothing.”

 

Suddenly, Renegade retreated and red on black eyes appeared. For a second, Rogue thought it was Remy, but the body language was different, less confident, less arrogant. He said, “Hi . . . uh . . . I’m supposed to take over until they can . . . decide what to do. There are blocks around Nate n’ the others but they don’t know how long they will last.”

 

Jean sent a telepathic message to Xavier. :Should we trust this one?:

 

:I don’t know everyone in his mind, but he is telling the truth. Perhaps we should assign someone to look after them, someone who can sense when personalities shift and who is capable of taking him down.:

 

:I’ll ask Logan.: Jean turned to Logan. “Logan, are you willing to look after them until we can get things fixed?”

 

“No problem, Red.” Logan sniffed. “But I want to know who I’m talking to and what kind of powers they have.”

“I’m Ray and I’m an empath.” The kid said nervously. “Uh, you wanted to know about our powers? Okay..” He paused, trying to explain it in a way that everyone could understand. “Each personality is separate and some have different or similar powers from everyone else. For example, Renegade has the kinetic charge ability so does Nathaniel. But Nathaniel is a telepath whereas I’m an empath. Others don’t even have any powers, so it just depends on who is in control. I don’t know everyone’s power.”

 

“Fascinating, a mutant with the ability to have multiple powers.” Beast was already going over studies and theories. “The only other mutant like that was Legion who also had multiple personalities.”

 

“Unlike Legion, we know what’s going on.” Ray said confidently then asked, “Can I come out now. I promise not to kill anyone without asking.” He didn’t sound like he was joking.

 

The Professor deactivated the forcefield and the young man eyed everyone nervously. He stepped hesitantly towards the door.

 

“Do you know our names?” Storm asked gently. She had experience with memory loss and it was obvious that this young man had no idea where he was or who they were.

 

“Uh.. no.. Remy didn’t tell me. He was rather busy. All he said was “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’ What should I do?”

 

Obviously the X-Men felt a lot easier dealing with a confused young man than with a psychopathic killer. Storms took the lad by the arm and lead him out of the Danger Room, with Logan following closely behind.