[A/N]: It took me three whole days to write this massive chapter, so I had to break it in two. Hope you guys enjoy.
As the projection snapped into focus. Jay watched another version of himself stumbling through the same alley where he'd first awakened, but this Jay was making a completely different choice.
This other Jay clutched his head with both hands, face pale and exhausted. The Comic Book Nerd perk's knowledge download was hitting him like a sledgehammer.
"What the hell is happening to my head?" he groaned.
"Hey there, sugar. You, okay?"
Three familiar figures approached: Kitty Pryde, Jubilee, and Rogue. All looked genuinely concerned.
"You look like you've been hit by a truck," Jubilee said, her usual energy softened with worry.
Kitty stepped forward. "Are you hurt? Do you need help?"
This Jay looked up with bleary eyes. "I think I need aspirin. Lots of aspirin."
The three girls exchanged glances.
"Come on," Kitty said gently, taking his arm. "Let's get you back to the mansion. Beast can check you over."
"I don't think that's..." Another wave of pain cut him off.
"No arguments, sport," Jubilee said firmly. "You look awful."
Beast's examination was thorough but gentle. After several minutes, he stepped back with a rumbling chuckle.
"Well, I can solve at least one of his problems immediately. This young man is simply hungry. Spectacularly hungry."
"That's it?" Kitty sounded almost disappointed.
"Sometimes the simplest explanations are correct," Beast replied. "Though I suspect there's more to it. Young man, when did you last eat?"
"I don't remember," this Jay admitted weakly.
His stomach answered with another thunderous growl.
"Kitchen it is," Rogue decided.
What followed was legendary. Jay watched his alternate self systematically empty the mansion's industrial kitchen. Sandwiches vanished in seconds, entire pots of soup disappeared, and at one point he was eating cereal from the box with one hand while wielding a casserole-loaded spoon with the other.
"Holy shit," Jubilee whispered. "He's giving Piotr a run for his money."
Colossus had indeed appeared, watching with professional interest. "Is impressive. Though technique could use work... more efficient to focus on calorie-dense foods first."
Half the school had gathered to witness the spectacle by now.
"Where is it all going?" Scott asked in genuine bewilderment.
Finally, after thousands of calories, this Jay slowed down enough to taste what he was eating. The crushing headache had subsided, and color was returning to his cheeks.
"Better?" Jean asked kindly.
"Much better. Thank you. Sorry about... all this. I don't usually eat like a starving wolf."
"Don't worry about it, sugar," Rogue said warmly. "We've all been there."
Logan appeared in the doorway. "Kid's got the right idea. Always eat when you can. Never know when the next meal's coming."
"Speaking of which," Beast interjected, "might I ask where you've come from?"
This Jay looked around at all the expectant faces. This was the moment when everything changed. Before he could make something up, he blurted out the truth unconsciously.
"I'm not from this universe."
Dead silence.
"Come again?" Logan's casual demeanor shifted to alert suspicion.
"I said I'm not from this universe," this Jay repeated, looking like he immediately regretted the words. "I know how that sounds, but—"
The kitchen exploded into overlapping voices until Professor Xavier rolled in.
"What seems to be the commotion?"
"The kid claims he's not from this universe," Logan said bluntly.
Xavier's eyebrows rose. "That's quite a claim. Perhaps we should discuss this more privately?"
Before this Jay could respond, Xavier's expression grew puzzled. Jay could see the exact moment when the Professor's telepathic scan hit his Mind Shield perk.
"That's... interesting," Xavier murmured. "Jean?"
Jean's brow furrowed in concentration, then she shook her head. "Nothing. Like trying to read a blank wall."
"My mind can't be read," Jay said with weary resignation. "It's one of my abilities."
"Convenient power for someone claiming the impossible," Scott said.
Jay took a deep breath. "I can prove it. I know things about you that would only be in official records. Bobby, you're gay."
The kitchen went completely silent. Bobby's spoon clattered into his bowl.
"I'm... what?" Bobby stammered, his face cycling through five shades of red. "I mean, I'm not... I don't... Guys, I like girls! I've totally checked out Jean and Storm and... Rogue's got that whole mysterious thing going..."
"Bobby," Jay said gently, "you're overcompensating. In my universe, this becomes public knowledge eventually. You come out, find someone who loves you, and you're really happy about it."
Bobby's mouth opened and closed like a fish. "But I... I mean... there was that girl in high school..."
"Thinking someone's objectively attractive and being romantically attracted to them are different things."
The room remained silent. Bobby looked like he wanted to crawl under the table.
"Is it that obvious?" Bobby asked quietly.
"Only if you know what to look for," Jean said kindly.
Storm reached over and patted Bobby's shoulder. "There's nothing wrong with who you are, Bobby."
"Storm," Jay continued, "your real name is Ororo Munroe. You are going to be worshipped as a goddess in Kenya after leaving the X-Men. You have claustrophobia from being trapped under rubble as a child in Cairo."
Storm's composure cracked slightly. "Those are very specific details."
Jay took another breath, then began weaving a story that was part truth and part hope.
"My universe... it's similar to yours, but I come from 2050. Where I'm from, mutant discrimination is almost over." He saw hope flicker in several faces around the room. "It all changed after the Avengers defended New York against an alien invasion back in 2012, and mutants fought right alongside them on live TV. The whole world watched mutants fighting tooth and nail to save their neighborhoods. And you can't hate someone bleeding to save your community."
He paused, his expression growing darker. "Then Thanos came in 2018. He'd spent years collecting six artifacts called Infinity Stones, each one controlling a fundamental aspect of reality itself. The Power Stone could destroy planets with a thought. The Space Stone let him teleport anywhere in the universe instantly. The Reality Stone could rewrite the laws of physics. The Soul Stone gave him dominion over life and death. The Mind Stone let him control any consciousness. And the Time Stone... that one let him see every possible future and rewind any defeat."
Jay's voice dropped to a whisper. "With all six Stones embedded in a gauntlet, he snapped his fingers once. Just once. And half of all living beings in the universe turned to dust in seconds, gone like they never existed. Parents watched their children crumble away. Entire civilizations vanished mid-sentence."
The room was dead silent, everyone hanging on his words.
"It took the Avengers and X-Men ten brutal years to even figure out how to undo it. They had to steal the Stones from different points in time, bring everyone back, and thought they'd won. But Thanos had planned for that, too. A version of him from 2014 followed them through time. This younger, angrier Thanos arrived with his entire army and all six Stones again, ready to finish what his future self had started. Except this time, he wasn't just going to kill half the universe. He was going to destroy everything and rebuild it from scratch."
His voice grew quiet. "That's when Nate Grey and Franklin Richards stepped up. Two kids who reached into their own future potential and borrowed power they shouldn't have been able to handle. Nate pulled abilities from his future self and appeared as a kind of mutant shaman while Franklin tapped into his adult form, a being who creates pocket dimensions for fun."
He looked around the room. "They stood against six Infinity Stones with borrowed time and finally won! After everyone saw what mutant children did to save existence itself... well, it's hard to hate people whose kids literally saved your universe."
The room erupted in whispered conversations. Storm leaned forward with intense interest. As someone who'd seen her share of impossible forces, she seemed less skeptical than the others.
Logan grunted and said, "Can't just be a normal Tuesday."
Scott frowned, trying to process it all. "Avengers? Never heard of them. Is this about Stark and his armor?"
Jean looked genuinely puzzled. "Infinity Stones? I've never heard the D'Bari mention anything like that. And Thanos... that name doesn't ring any bells."
Bobby nudged Jay with his elbow, grinning trying to lighten the mood. "So in your timeline, do I still have the best hair in the X-Men, or did future me finally admit defeat?" The casual joke seemed to break some of the tension, and Jay found himself almost smiling back.
"Wait," Kitty said, phasing halfway through her chair in surprise. "Franklin Richards... as in Reed Richards? The guy whose space mission went wrong a few weeks back? He has a kid?"
Jean's brow furrowed deeper. "And Nate Grey... that name..." She touched her temple uncertainly. "It sounds familiar, but I can't place it. Could he be... some kind of distant relative? A Grey family member I've never met?"
"After that," Jay continued, ignoring their comments and getting into the story now, "everything changed. Word spread across the galaxy about a subspecies of humans, the homo superior, who could do all sorts of fantastical things with their inherent powers. The first contact wasn't with Earth's governments or military. It was with mutants."
He saw their eyes widen at the implications.
"Alien empires like Xandar, the Kree, even the Shi'ar Empire moved fast to form alliances with Earth, but they had one condition: they would only deal with mutants. Humans were considered the 'baseline species' while mutants were the 'evolved representatives' worth negotiating with. Overnight, every major galactic power wanted mutant ambassadors, mutant soldiers, mutant advisors."
Jay's voice grew more animated as he painted the picture. "We became celebrities, but not just on Earth. Across the galaxy. Mutants decided what was trendy on a dozen worlds, what people wore, what tech they developed, and what entertainment they consumed. The X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four weren't just heroes anymore. They were practically revered like gods on planets they'd never even visited."
Xavier leaned forward, hope flickering in his eyes despite himself.
"When mutants started joining or forming their own mercenary groups, some even working with the Inhumans, or others going solo & using their powers for specialized jobs across the galaxy, Earth's standing in the universe shot through the roof. We had mutants terraforming dead planets, others providing security for interstellar trade routes, some serving as mediators in alien conflicts. Earth went from a backwater planet to a galactic superpower in less than a decade."
Storm looked fascinated despite herself. "The implications for our people... for acceptance..."
"And after Thanos tried to wipe out half the universe and two mutant children saved existence itself..." Jay paused dramatically. "Well, that's when we went from celebrities to something else entirely. We became the most powerful political force in known space."
The room was dead silent now.
"But then came the problems," Jay added, his voice growing darker, drawing from memories of the caste system he'd witnessed back home. "Pride. Discrimination among our own kind. We created our own rigid hierarchy based on power levels and usefulness. Mutants were classified from Epsilon to Omega levels, but it went deeper than that."
His voice took on a bitter edge. "Epsilon mutants were those with minor abilities like changing their hair color or night vision. They became the untouchables. Banned from certain planets, couldn't get jobs above menial labor, couldn't marry above their class without special permits. They worked service jobs, grateful to even be acknowledged by higher-level mutants."
Scott's face had gone pale. "You mean mutants started discriminating against other mutants?"
"Delta-levels became enforcers and middle management," Jay continued, his voice growing more passionate. "They had just enough power to lord over the lower classes while desperately trying to curry favor with the Alphas and Betas. Gamma mutants ran businesses and minor government positions in the comfortable middle class of the new order."
Jean's hand flew to her mouth in horror. "That's... that's everything Charles taught us not to be."
"Beta mutants became the ruling class of most sectors: senators, CEOs, and military commanders. Alpha mutants were like royalty, ruling entire systems. And Omega-levels?" Jay's laugh was bitter. "They became god-emperors. Entire civilizations worshipped them. Storm ruled weather patterns across three solar systems. Iceman controlled the ice caps of a dozen worlds. Jean Grey... the Phoenix ruled over concepts of life and death itself."
Logan's claws extended slightly, his knuckles white. "You're saying we became the very thing we fought against."
"Not you," Jay said quietly, looking at each of them. "But your successors became worse. Because unlike humans, you had the actual power to enforce systematic oppression. Humans could only dream of the kind of controlled discrimination mutants wielded over each other."
He continued, his voice filled with the pain of imagined injustice. "When Epsilon-level mutants protested for equal rights, wanting basic things like the ability to travel freely between planets or get education beyond basic literacy, it was Omega-level X-Men who put them down 'for the greater good.' When Delta mutants formed their own schools because they weren't welcome in the elite academies, it was future X-Men who labeled them 'dangerous separatists' and had them shut down."
Xavier's expression was stricken. "We would never... the dream was always about equality..."
"But equality for whom?" Jay challenged. "When you can control the weather or read minds or manipulate matter itself, it's easy to forget that not everyone can do that. When entire planets bow to your power, when you can solve galactic conflicts with a thought, when you're literally worshipped by billions... how long before you start believing you're actually superior?"
The room fell into stunned silence, hope replaced by dawning horror at what their victory had cost them. The dream of acceptance had become a nightmare of supremacy, and the very people who'd fought for equality had created the most rigid caste system the galaxy had ever seen.
"What level were you?" Bobby asked, speaking up for the first time since his own revelation. "You said your powers were..."
"Bobby!" Jean immediately chided, her voice sharp with disapproval. "That's incredibly insensitive after everything he just told us about how that classification system destroyed his world."
Kitty nodded emphatically, phasing halfway through her chair in her agitation. "Like, totally! Did you not just hear how asking people about their 'levels' became this whole horrible discrimination thing?"
Bobby's face flushed red. "Oh God, I... I didn't think... Sorry, man. I guess I'm still processing all this."
This Jay held up a hand, giving Bobby a tired but understanding look. "It's okay. You couldn't have known."
Then Jay hesitated, and Jay could see him making another crucial decision.
"It's Power theft, that's my power", he said finally.
The reaction was immediate and dramatic. Several X-Men took unconscious steps backward, while others tensed as if preparing for a fight. Rogue's eyes went particularly wide, her gloved hands clenching involuntarily.
"What exactly does that mean?" Logan growled, his stance shifting subtly into a more defensive position.
"I can remove someone's powers and give them to myself, or even take the stolen powers and give them to others," this Jay said, his voice steady despite the obvious fear around him. "I honestly don't know what the limits are. I've never tested it fully."
"That's..." Scott started, then stopped, clearly struggling for words.
"Terrifying?" this Jay supplied with a bitter smile. "Yeah, I know. It's why I never used it back home. Hard to be a hero when everyone's afraid you'll steal their abilities."
"So how did you end up here?" Jean asked, though her voice was cautious now.
Jay's expression darkened. "There was a fight. A villain group led by the most terrifying and devastating threat our timeline had ever faced, The Giant-Wheel, along with his lieutenants, The-Wall and Stilt-Man, had gotten hold of the Infinity Gauntlet."
Jay delivered this with complete deadpan seriousness, as if Giant-Wheel truly was the most fearsome entity in existence.
Several of the X-Men blinked in confusion, clearly trying to process how someone named "Giant-Wheel" could be considered an existential-level threat.
Logan raised an eyebrow. "Giant... Wheel?"
"The most feared name in the galaxy," Jay replied with unwavering conviction. "You don't understand the sheer terror that strikes the hearts of heroes when they hear that designation."
Kitty looked like she was trying not to laugh. "Like, what does he do exactly?"
Jay maintained his serious expression. "The less said about Giant-Wheel's methods, the better. Some horrors are too great to describe in detail."
"Anyway," he continued, moving past the confused looks, "the gauntlet overloaded and started tearing holes between dimensions. I got caught in the shockwave and ended up flying through what felt like a broken kaleidoscope. Next thing I knew, I was in that alley outside."
The room fell quiet as everyone absorbed this information about their future, their acceptance and finally their loss from their ideals; though several X-Men were still clearly puzzled by the idea of Giant-Wheel as a universe-threatening menace.
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