DREAM DIMENSION.

Didn't sound too minacious, right?

Wrong.

The brunette let out the breath she was holding for a bit. To be honest, Eleanor wasn't expecting the mind fuckery to begin this early.

Because really, she thought the realm would only be about dreams, hopes, and one's greatest desires in life. That it would only consist of the mythical creatures she saw earlier and continuously have its Wizard of Oz type of scenery. But, of course, it's obvious Morgana will make sure she will not leave this realms alive or as a whole.

Still staring apprehensively at her grown-up daughter Erica and her son with Charles, Nathaniel Xavier, Eleanor took a step back. Both of them looked very much in the flesh. They weren't in their astral form nor were they spirits. Could it be that they were indeed real and not just a figment of her imagination?

No, it's a trick. Eleanor thought to herself. For how could they exist in the flesh, right? Erica died and this version of Nathaniel wasn't even born.

She took her time with observing them. They remained standing over their places, smiling brightly as if they were expecting to see her.

Erica, her supposed firstborn, was the same as she last saw her in her dream with chocolate-brown hair and curious blue eyes. She was smiling kindly paired with a gleam of excitement in her gaze. Nathaniel, on the other hand, had thick eyebrows and sparkling blue eyes, somehow resembling Charles and her father, Matthew. She narrowed her eyes, making a mental note to give him a nickname so she won't confuse her real son from this illusion.

"Illusions." mumbled the brunette, pursing her lips. "Just mere illusions, nothing more." And with that, she spun on her heel, not entertaining the phantasm the realm had conjured to drive her mad.

"Hey, mom! Wait up!"

She turned around, smiling coldly. "No, you stay there." Building up a glowing scarlet orb above her palm, she used it to push away the two individuals approaching her. "I don't want to hurt you two, but I will if I have to."

"We're not illusions! We're real!" contended her supposed firstborn, fighting against the force Eleanor was exerting upon her. "We exist! But, just... in these realms."

"I don't believe you."

"Of course, you won't, mom." muttered Nathaniel. Tilting his head towards Erica, he argued, "I told you we shouldn't have done this!"

"I just wanted to see mom again!"

"Mom currently thinks we're illusions, Erica. That we're here to drive her crazy. At this point, we're just making this all complicated for her."

"Natty, just shut up, will you? Let me handle this." asserted Erica. "Mom, I need you to please listen to us, okay? We're not spirits or astral projections. We're real! You can touch us!"

Eleanor pursed her lips, slightly lowering the level of psionic energy she conjured above her palm. At this, Erica and Nathaniel, stood up straighter, no longer being telekinetically pushed away. They ran up to her and almost instantly, Erica grabbed her hand. A loud gasp escaped the brunette's lips as she felt the warm skin and she jerked away, shocked.

"You're-you're real."

"Yes, we are."

"How-how is that possible? Are you both from another universe or timeline?" She questioned. "I-I mean, because Erica is supposed to be..." She swallowed, slightly shaken up by her presence. Shaking her head, she turned to Nathaniel, grabbing his wrist to see if he was real as well. "and you... you're not supposed to be here in the flesh. Like you're supposed to be in my ovary..." She rambled. "You're an egg cell that wasn't fertilized because Charles and I -- "

Nathaniel cringed. "Mom, st-stop. God, you're making it weird."

Erica slapped his shoulder, harshly. "We exist in this realms because the universe allowed us to. Natty and I here have complimenting powers. He can control the darkness while I can control people's dreams."

Eleanor nodded, fully comprehending what she said. It was true. Her supposed firstborn daughter had the ability to appear in dreams in any age she desires and had complete control over people's visions. She haven't heard about the mutation of this version of Nathaniel, but basing on what her daughter said, he had control over the darkness. Umbrakinesis.

"But, how do I know you're not illusionary figures?"

"Your magic should have already dissolved us earlier when you pushed us away or when you touched us."

"Alright." Eleanor then turned her gaze to Nathaniel. So, this was her son from the past timeline. She let her hand graze his cheek, her breath hitching at how warm he was. He was very much alive just like Erica. "You look..."

"Like shit? Yeah, I know." He brushed his hair back. "The hotels here aren't exactly five star."

His retort sounded very much prepared like it had some context behind it. Eleanor looked at him, slightly confused and wishing that she knew what he meant by it. Nathaniel chuckled. "Of course." He shook his head. "That's what you first told me when we met again in 2023."

"Oh, I see." She nodded. "Can I call you Natty too? I mean, I heard Erica call you that. I just..."

"Mom, you're the one who gave me that nickname." He apprised, grinning. "You love giving everyone nicknames that ended with y. Please tell me, you're calling Scott as Scotty? And Ororo as Stormy?"

"Yes, I do." Eleanor smiled. "I even call Peter as Quicky."

"Very you, mother. Very you."

Eleanor embraced Erica tightly in her arms like it was the last time she will ever see her again. It had been a very long time since she had last seen her and she looked very much the same. Even while she was still in Eleanor's womb, Erica would visit her in dreams and talk to her until she wakes up.

"I missed you very much."

"I missed you too, mom. How's dad? Is he being stupid again?"

"No, he's doing great."

"He's not causing chaos?" Nathaniel asked, sounding confused and surprised.

"No."

"That's a first."

Eleanor raised her eyebrow, amused.

"I'm sorry." he shrugged. "It's just that... in the past timeline, Erik's like the bane of our existence. Always causing trouble left and right."

"Oh," breathed out Eleanor. "Well, he's changed now... a bit."

Nathaniel nodded, looking relieved. He gestured with his hands as he spoke again. "Uh, is it okay if I hug you, mom? I mean, yeah, I know you don't know me, but uh, I just missed you very much and I..."

Eleanor pulled him close to her and wrapped her arms around him. "Of course, you can. I've always wanted to meet you or just see you. Now, I have, and I'm very happy." She patted his back. The tow stayed close to one another, just relishing the moment. The mother held both of their hands. "God know I am very, very happy to see the two of you." She placed her hands on their cheeks then. "I love you two."

"We love you, mom."

Nathaniel sniffed. "This is so dramatic." he commented, causing all of them to laugh. "Anyway, uh, we're here to help you get out of these crazy realms. Erica here has some control over the dream realm and I have too in the nightmare, the next one you'll enter in. So, we'll help you escape here faster."

At this, Erica nodded before swiping her hand to the side. A white portal opened in the air, showing a red brick wall on the other side of it. "We can take this shortcut here." She informed as she stepped inside, beckoning them all to follow her.

Nathaniel easily followed Erica inside and looked back to Eleanor who was hesitating. She still wasn't believing everything she was seeing, but she went along with it. If they were indeed going to harm her, then she will destroy them in a blink of an eye. Releasing a breath of apprehension, she stepped inside and immediately faced the red brick wall, the exit point of the realm.

Erica was the first to move from them all. She reached out to the wall, but her hand didn't pass through and instead, blocked her. "That's weird."

Eleanor furrowed her eyebrows as the same event happened to her. "Yeah, I mean, shouldn't I have just passed through? That's what happened to me in the exit point of the Purgatory."

"Yeah, that's how we -- oh, shit!"

"What is it, Erica?" Eleanor spun on her heel only to be met by red grotesque creatures with six arms, two legs, and scaled skin. They seemed to look like a gargoyle, but not as well. Their snarls were loud enough to be heard from where they were. "What the fuck is that?" She screeched, horrified.

"Demons."

"Demons?" She gawked, turning to Nathan. "In the dream dimension? That's not possible, right?"

"Oh, mom. You have no idea what is possible."

And with that, Nathaniel fired a bolt of dark energy at one of them, dissolving the creature into a puddle. "More incoming!" He yelled, tilting his body to the right and firing another blast at a charging demon. "We have to kill them all before we can pass through!"

Erica nodded and sent multiple bursts of white light against the demons. She conjured a white, scintillating spear and fought the creatures left and right while Nathan and attacked them all as well with his dark energy. Though they were now thrown in a pandemonium, Eleanor was able to gather her wits and defend herself, sending blast after blast at the incoming demons. They all soon turned to dust and puddles of water on the road. Eleanor felt her instincts kick in rapidly and she let her mind and body work together instead of against each other.

She sent multiple shockwaves of plasma energy towards her enemies. However, they were fast and many too. One of them had gotten near and almost clawed her face. Pissed off by this, she threw her hand forward and a long red rope appeared. Using it as a whip, she struck them all easily, causing them to yell in pain before they melt into puddles. Eleanor moved her body along the efficiently and gracefully across the fight, her anger consuming her.

She was mad, really mad. She was angry at the Phoenix force, at Morgana, and everything that was going on. Yelling, she stomped her foot on the road and suddenly, red tendrils of wild energy cracked the road and pierced the demons.

"It's never a good idea to piss me off, you ugly motherfuckers! You should know that!" She wrapped the rope at one of the demons' necks and ripped his head off from its body. A bright red glimmer started to spread on her irises and a ferocious red mist began to surround her. The feeling of power and rage mixed together gave her an exhilarating feeling.

With a clap of her hands, she released a powerful wave of magical energy, throwing all of the creatures away from them. Levitating in the air, she glared at each of them and weaved her hands together, building a large scarlet sphere between her palms. "Go back to hell where you belong, you fuckers."

She hurled the orb at them and it bursted into a mist, tendrils spreading across the fight, each stabbing the creatures. Her power immediately eliminated them all, turning them into nothing, but puddles and dust.

"You could've done that earlier, mom!" panted Nathaniel as he wiped the sweat off his head. "Erica, you still alive over there?"

"Of course, I am, you jerk!"

"Come on, let's pass through. That's just the first wave of fuckers we'll fight against."

"Mom, are you okay?" Erica asked her, concerned. "It's okay if you want to rest first. We can stay here for awhile."

"No, no, we have to go now. I'm ready. I'm fucking ready to leave this place." A new feeling of courage and anger coursed through her veins. She was ready to face whatever and whoever was going to stop her from leaving this realms because no matter what, she was going to return to her family.

Come hell or high water.

━━━━━━━━

ANASTASIA LISTENED to the loud beeping of the heart monitors outside of the recovery room. Her mind was heavily occupied by the events that happened days ago. The young woman crossed her arms, her fingers gently gripping her skin.

Just an hour ago, she was approached by one of the mutants from the island, genuinely asking her about the new ability she gained. Anastasia explained carefully about the cosmic force she obtained from space.

She knew all about it for the force had spoken to her in a dream, introduced itself as the Phoenix, the fire and life incarnate. That it is the mutable manifestation of the prime universal force of life. It seemed to be a malevolent entity, but also not at the same time. The force had amplified her powers beyond their limits. She could now crush any object by forcing it to close in on itself. There was still so much more, but she had little time to explore them.

The only thing that confused her about it was how and why it was corrupting Jean, but not her. It could be because that the force within her was just a fragment, but Anastasia knew there was a more definite explanation for that.

It had been four days ever since her mother's incident and their whole family was restless especially her dad. Anastasia sighed. She was still kind of getting used to calling him that since for the longest time, she had only addressed him as Erik. She had only started to grow closer to him even when he had devoted all his time and care to her and her brothers.

As she peeked inside the recovery room, she saw her older twin brother stand beside their father, hands inside his pockets and jaws clenched. She knew Nathan was concealing his emotions at that moment and to be honest, he was doing great at it. They were all worried for their mother's safety since the doctor had just recently updated that her vitals went unstable.

On the other side of the room was their older brother, Peter, who's in a coma as well since Jean injured him badly when they first attempted to restrain her. Upon knowing about what happened, their father immediately requested for him to be transferred to the hospital where they were in.

She and Nathan had also recently attended their Aunt Raven's funeral. They still couldn't believe their aunt and mentor was gone and there was a possibility her mother could follow.

"Dad," She soon heard Nathan softly call their father. She and Nathan had discussed that they will still acknowledge Charles as their father as he raised them both. "It's been four days. You've never left mom's side ever since. You haven't slept and eaten properly. You need to rest and take care of yourself."

"I'm not leaving your mother's side." affirmed her dad. "Never again."

Anastasia felt the strain and emotions flowing through those two words. He had always shown how sorry he was for leaving her mother because he thought he was doing the right thing.

"Dad, please. I can look after mom and Alex. Just go rest first and eat." pleaded Nathan, placing his hand on Erik's shoulder. "It's important that you're healthy and well too when mom wakes up."

At this, Erik slowly nodded and stood up from his chair. Nathaniel immediately occupied it to prevent their father from sitting back down. "Go, dad. I can look after mom. Alex and I will take turns."

Defeated, Erik sighed and proceeded to leave the recovery room. Anastasia stepped aside from the door and meekly greeted him as he went out. "Hey, dad."

"Anastasia." he acknowledged. "Are you okay?"

"Are you?"

"No, I am not."

"It's going to be okay, dad." She reached out to him, suddenly becoming overwhelmed with his emotions. His heart was heavy with anxiety and sadness, but he was mostly terrified. "We're getting through this all together." She squeezed his hand, comfortingly.

"I know."

She smiled. "I love you, dad." She said as she looked down. "I know this is like the first time I have ever said it, and I..." Anastasia swallowed as tears began to form in her eyes. "regret that it took me a very long time to say it. But, I do love you, dad." Her voice wavered. "I do."

"I'm sorry for making you feel that I do not care about what you're doing. God, I've been so stupid. I know you're-you're trying your best to reach out to me and Nathan and until now, you're still making up for the lost time." She wiped her tears away. "I just want to say that I appreciate all of it and I'm s-sorry if I've been so harsh at you. I really am." Anastasia couldn't stop herself from crying. "C-can you forgive me, dad?"

Erik pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. "Of course, I do." he said. "You're my daughter. You, your brothers, and your mother are very important to me. I know I'm not the best father, but I'm trying."

"And that's enough, dad. That's more than enough."

The two then spent time together in the hospital's cafeteria, eating and playing chess. Anastasia knew the board game would distract her father a little and it did for a little while. Chess was the game they often played when she was still a child. It was their way of bonding. She would play the game with either Charles or Erik and they both taught her defensive and offensive strategies.

When Anastasia lost the game for the second time, her father shook his head and tsked. "You always seem to forget to protect your powerful pieces, Ana. If your pieces are spread across the chessboard without any protection, it is easier for your opponent to create tactical threats, which means more analysis to do on your side, and higher risk to blunder a piece."

Anastasia tilted her head to the side. "I was trying to create a distraction or diversion tactic to unleash a secondary attack, but I seem to fail every time I do it." She admitted.

"That's because I have my pieces guarded and defended well. Find a way to remove the defenders of the pieces especially this King's." He explained, picking up his black king chess piece. "Without his defensive forces, this King right here will be in serious trouble and it will lead to immediate checkmate." Erik finished, knocking over her white king chess piece.

"Alright, got it."

"Very good. Now, always remember, in chess..."

"The pawns always go first." Both of them simultaneously recited, smiling.

"Go ahead and see your brother upstairs. I'll follow you shortly."

Anastasia nodded, getting up from her seat, but not before arranging the whole chessboard and pieces. Leaving her father in the cafeteria, she made her way back to the recovery room and just about she was to go inside, another citizen of the island approached her and told her about the current situation of the island.

"Oh, alright, I'll go tell father and my brother everything you said." Anastasia kindly replied to the male mutant. "Is there anything else?"

"Yes, but it's just a question." he nodded. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but that thing we saw in you and that X-Men girl, what was that?"

The young woman bit her lip and once again, explained the whole cosmic force. That Jean is slowly being corrupted by it, but not her.

"Oh, this Phoenix is not influencing you?"

"No, I don't know why it isn't, but I'm thankful that it doesn't." She said.

"Well, you seem to have better control over it. Maybe you should just take whatever that power is to yourself." The Genoshan shrugged, catching Anastasia's attention. "She did kill Raven and your mother's life right now is hanging by a thread. The more she is out there, the more people's lives are in danger."

Anastasia was caught off-guard for a bit because she realized her fellow mutant wasn't wrong. She swallowed before nodding. "Yeah, I-I think so too. Uh, look, I'll go ahead inside now. Thank you very much for that."

She entered the recovery room, quite hastily. The Genoshan's words repeating itself inside her head. She did feel proud that she wasn't influenced by the Phoenix force and had better control over it. Sighing, Anastasia pulled up a chair from the side and sat on it. Nathan was on the couch, sleeping. He was still in his military uniform and looked very tired. Possibly from searching for Jean. Her younger brother Alex was not around and she had no idea where he was.

As Anastasia sat on her chair for another hour, her mind began to run with thoughts and ideas about what the Genoshan had just said to her. She couldn't deny that he wasn't wrong. Jean was now growing more volatile and uncontrollable. She might hurt another person again. Currently, the human government became hostile towards mutants again because of Jean's actions. The world was seeing them as threats again.

And with that, Anastasia came to a decision.

Walking over to her mother's side, her mind began to be clouded with anger. Jean had done this to her and her older brother. Revenge was filling her mind along with saving the world from the current threat. "I have to take her down, mom." She whispered.

"I know you're going to mad at me for this and I could be wrong in what I am going to do, but Jean did this to you and Peter. I have to take her down before she hurts someone else again. I have to do this." She looked down at her mother's hand. "Even if I'll be seen as the enemy."

Letting off a breath that seemed to remove the burden from her chest, she walked out of the room and outside of the hospital.

"Ana! Ana! Where are you going?"

Anastasia spun around immediately at the sound of hee younger brother's voice. "Alex! What are you doing here? Get back inside!"

"No, I heard you talk with mom earlier." He made known. "I'm coming with you. If you're planning to fight against Jean, I'm in."

The young woman huffed, clearly against her brother's decision. She should've been quiet earlier. "Alex -- "

"Jean hurt mom, Ana." Alex emphasized, his tone thick with rage and vengeance. "I'm angry and I want to hurt her back."

"You're just a kid. You don't know what you're saying."

"I know what I'm saying, Ana. I'm not a kid anymore." He shook his head, stubborn. "I want to help you fight against Jean and you're not going to stop me from coming with you."

"Fine," Anastasia relented. "but you're only going to fight when I say so. Got it?"

Alex opened his mouth to protest, but Anastasia cut him off. "That's the condition, Alex, or you're staying here."

"Fine."

"Let's go."

And with that, the two siblings headed off with vengeance in their heads. Anastasia still had no idea how she was going to defeat Jean exactly, but she was sure that it's going to rain hell in New York tonight.