[OP: "Ignite"-- Skillet]

By some stroke of luck, all of the group actually made it to the room without being stopped.

Or it was a trap.

Jury was still out.

Wally found Morph, Mystique, and Kurt along the way, and then found Rogue and Gambit after them.

Which was a happy reunion on all sides--though a bit cautious on Gambit's...with some reason.

Mystique was surprised when Rogue grabbed her and actually hugged her before saying she was stupid for turning herself in. And did she know how worried they all were?

Rogue would have hugged Kurt also, if she could have. But he protested on account of his ribs.

"But still, you're a sight fer sore eyes," she said. "We were afraid we'd never see ya agin."

"I vas afraid of that also," Kurt said.

"Good to have you back, man," Wally told Gambit.

"If I am back," Gambit said.

Wally nodded. "I got that..."

After this they ran into the kids, and all of them headed the rest of the way together, trying to follow the directions.

Kitty was more glad to see Mystique than Mystique expected. They all told her they'd been super worried.

Mystique had never had anyone worry about her in her life, let alone a whole group of people, and she was not knowing how to handle it--which Morph thought was funny.

He was glad to see the kids were all okay though.

And everyone was relieved to find Kurt in one piece--if a little banged up.

And Jubilee hugged Gambit, which was cute.

But all their reactions were mild compared to Shine's when they all finally walked into the room.

She jumped up from where she'd been sitting and burst into tears before anyone could even say anything.

Emma put her hands down and sighed.

"Kids!" Shine dashed at them.

Half of them ran at her and hugged her back.

Shine was embracing them, and she even kissed the ones who'd let her on the forehead. "I'm so glad you guys are okay..." she said tearfully. "You are okay, right?"

"Most of us..." Kitty said.

Shine nodded. "I'm so sorry, Kitty... If there was anything we could have done...or done differently...I would have."

Kitty nodded somberly.

"But we can reset it, right?" Jubilee said.

"We can try," Shine said. "But the rest of you are..."

She looked up. "Oh, Raven! Oh my gosh!"

She charged her.

"OW!" Mystique said--she was still sore--but at least she didn't push her off. "For crying out loud, didn't Frost tell you we were coming?"

"Well, yeah, but I almost didn't really believe it," Shine said. "You had me worried sick! You don't know--but--and Kurt!"

"Hullo," Kurt said weakly.

"Well, there's the elf," Logan said.

"I miss our Kurt," Forge remarked.

"Who is this?" Kurt looked at him and Domino and the other Rogue with confusion. "He looks familiar.... From the tunnel, right? But not them."

"Name's Domino." Domino waved lacklusterly. "I'm lucky."

"I'm...just the other version of her." Alt Rogue gestured at Rogue.

"Oh," Kurt said.

"Don't stand too close to her, by the way," Shine warned. "Here...it could be the work of a second to slip."

Both Rogues put some distance between them.

"Who is this, though?" Domino pointed at Gambit.

"This is Gambit," Rogue said. "My--uh...boyfriend."

Gambit shot her a startled look.

"Oh, did that finally come out?" Emma said.

"Yeah, and here ya got yer power back," Rogue said. "Well, good for you, Sugar. And ya ain't dyin' no more?"

"Well, that remains to be seen." Emma gestured at the doorway. "It comes down to it... Why is no one stopping us from going in?"

"They want us to," Logan said. "Ya can bet all of 'em are waiting' on the other side of that door."

"But we have no choice," Storm said.

"That's right, we don't," Shine said. "But can I just have a little longer with everyone?"

"Is this the time fer sentiment?" Logan said.

"Hey, Wolvie...I missed you," Jubilee said.

Logan looked choked up. "Glad you're still alive, kid."

"Ah, it was no big...for me," Jubilee said. "Just, uh...everyone else."

"Some of it was kind of impressive," Quicksilver said. "But yeah...mostly, ugh."

"I clocked the other Quicksilver on the way here," Wally added. "So...he might be around. He's a wimp though."

"Ah, you beat me to it," Domino said.

"But all our group is back together," Shine said, "plus Gambit... This is something to be thankful for."

"Yeah, but you might get around to me, you know," Wally said.

"I take it as a given that you'll survive anything if I can," Shine said, putting her arms around his neck. "But I'm still glad to see you."

"Ah, please don't do that in front of us," Ryan said.

"You're makin' me sick," Logan said.

"Quiet," Storm said. "I think they've earned it... Also, all of you will be interested to know, Shine already fought both Apocalypse and Sinister since we all parted ways."

"Both of them?" the kids said.

"Boy, Honey, you didn't waste any time," Wally said.

"On the contrary, it was a huge waste of time," Shine said. "But it got everyone in. And they're nice and pissed off now, so perhaps we'll be spared the tedious 'why don't you join us in controlling the universe?' speech."

"You get those?" Morph said.

"All the time." Shine rolled her eyes. "It's so insulting when people think you'd stoop as low as them. I mean, I have my faults, but megalomania and sociopathy aren't two of them, I'd like to think."

"Well, don't we all want to say that," Emma said dryly. "I know we're all glad to see each other, but is there time for this?"

"I see your edge is back," Mystique said to her. "Too much to hope for that you'd be softened by all this."

"I could say the same thing about you," Emma said. "Torture wasn't enough to curb your attitude?"

"Hey--" Morph said.

"Oh, that's fine," Mystique said. "Having a literal other person in her head hasn't seemed to curb hers, so who's she to talk?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Same old same old."

Mystique shrugged.

Then both of them laughed dryly.

"I actually missed you, for some strange reason," Emma admitted. "Must be one of those lesser-of-two-evils things."

"And for some reason, I'm inclined to prefer you to the other one," Mystique said. "Same reason, I suspect."

"You two should really just admit you love each other," Wally said.

"Ew," Emma said.

"Never say that again." Mystique cut her eyes at him.

"Cute," Domino said. "Are you all done hugging it out yet?"

"Jealous?" Quicksilver said.

"Don't touch me." She held up her gun.

"I wasn't gonna," he said, rolling his eyes.

"We're all going to talk about this later," Shine said. "Much, much later...but yeah, they're right...we can't wait. Can't you all feel the pulse in this room?"

Now that she mentioned it...they could feel something off...something deep down inside their being.

"Dizzy," Ryan said.

"So this is it?" Trinity was looking at the door. "This is where all this is?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Shine said. "But, Morph, there's something we have to talk about before we go in there. I saw The Time Broker...in one of the scenes from the past or present. He was speaking to Apocalypse."

Silence.

Everyone who didn't know was shocked or confused about what she was talking about.

The others who did know were just shaking their heads.

"What?" Morph said finally. "How is that possible? You're sure it was him?"

"Short, balding, 1800s sort of guy?" Shine asked.

"Yeah..." Morph said.

"Then it was him," Shine said. "I'm sorry...but it looks as though he lied."

"And this thing?" Forge held up the Talis. "It's totally not working because of some weird reason, right? But didn't he give this to you?"

"Yeah...to all of us who got one," Morph said.

He looked pale. "But...he...he couldn't have..."

"That slimy, little rat!" Mystique said. "He set us up, didn't he? What about her?" She pointed at Emma. "Was that also a set up?"

"Not on purpose, on my part," Emma said.

"Duh, I know that. You think I think you'd pick that on purpose?" Mystique scoffed. "But he could have."

"When she puts it that way, it does seem obvious," Forge said.

"We all were fooled," Alt Rogue grumbled.

"But why would he be any part of this?" Morph said. "Maybe he wasn't talking to them for that reason?"

"Maybe, Morph, but it doesn't look good," Shine said. "I thought you should know before we tried to go in."

Morph sank down. "I...but...we trusted him."

No one knew what to say.

"This sucks," Kitty summed it up.

Mystique shook her head and tentatively put a hand on Morph's shoulder. "It's just one more disappointment," she said. "But we still have to stop it."

Logan and Storm exchanged a look.

She knew what he was thinking.

Mystique never seemed like the reassuring or nurturing type, even on her best day. It was strange to see her even try.

Maybe she wasn't as bad for Morph as Logan had thought... At least, she seemed to care.

Logan wasn't ever going to understand how that happened.

[And neither does anyone else.]

The others weren't sure what was comforting about saying it was another disappointment, but it seemed to make sense to Morph.

"Gee...if that's true, I really have turned into you," he said. "Even my boss can't be trusted."

"First mistake was assuming that," Mystique said.

Kitty didn't get this.

"Why are they being mean to each other?" Kevin asked Trinity.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe it's like their code or something?"

"Isn't this a big problem?" Wally said. "Just...offhandedly. Old Apocalypse and Sinister we could handle, but we don't know anything about this guy's powers."

"Funny how that all worked out," Shine said. "Now...are we all ready? Because I think this is it."

Morph got up. "I guess I'm as ready as I can be," he said slowly. "If it's true...I just rethought a lot of things." He shook his head. "But there's no time.... I guess there never is time to process this stuff."

"At home," Wally said. "I guess that's what we all tell ourselves, huh? Better be true this time around."

"Better be," Morph said. He took Mystique by the hand. "But...at least we're all going into this eyes open...so there's that."

"I'm suddenly more nervous about going in there," Kitty said.

"Only just now?" Ryan said.

All of them linked hands with someone.

Wally and Shine looked at each other. 

"Well, this is it," he said.

"Yeah," she said. "I guess it's the end of the line."

She held her sword out and poked it into the doorway.

The darkness turned into a shimmering wall of purple and gold light.

"Okay..." Emma said oddly. "Not what I expected."

"I learned this trick today," Shine said. "A door within a door. I can hack the coordinates, sort of, but apply my grace so it doesn't hurt as much...not a great idea, but beats letting the enemy throw you around. This may take a lot out of me."

Wally tapped the door also. It added red to the other colors. "Well...it's not sucking us in.... That's weird right there. I guess we'll go first."

"Together," Storm said.

They all gathered in close and began to step through.

https://youtu.be/DXNWPsc9CUU

Once the first person's foot was in, all of them were drawn in after it very quickly.

There was a feeling of being zapped, and then a disoriented feeling like they'd gone weightless.

And there was no ground.

There was no up. No down. No left, no right.

The kids screamed, but no sound came.

Emma was the only one somewhat used to this.

She used her mind to navigate. She began to make sense of their surroundings.

She recognized this feeling... It was like being exposed to the astral plane.

But not quite... She was still in her body...which was the problem... It was like mind and body were not in unison here.

But struggling to master herself, she felt around...kicking, and her feet touched something solid.

Standing up on it, her natural eyes began to make out something like a bridge...all many different colors and not looking entirely tangible.

The others were all around her, not quite standing on it.

Emma grabbed them and pulled them down.

The feeling of nothingness ceased.

All of them gasped, looking around.

"What was that?" Jubilee sputtered.

"We almost didn't make it," Emma said. "That was ethereal...but I don't understand this." She looked up. "This looks like a place in the Astral Realm...but human bodies are not meant to be here. Why is there a bridge?"

"This looks like the mythical bridge that connects Asgard to Midgard," Shine commented. "Norse mythology. The ability to world travel was explained by such... Asgard is sort of like Heaven, I suppose...so, same difference."

"And you always have an explanation," Wally said. "Gosh, I love you."

"That was just weird," Kitty said. "It was worse than phasing is."

"But we're here now," Scott said. "So...why is this where it leads?"

Emma looked around. "I sense other presences here... It's quite loud now, actually...the other telepaths... I just don't know where they are. This is empty space--we should see anyone who's here."

"No, Emma." Shine took her arm. "It's not empty. Darkness is a cover for what is really there."

It was true that it was so dark all around them it looked like outer space, without even stars.

Shine held up her sword and flashed it.

The light was so bright it literally felt like it almost pierced all of their minds just looking at it. Everyone fell back.

"Whoa...Shine...little too much juice there," Wally said.

"Sorry...I wasn't going for that..." Shine struggled to control it. "What...? It's almost like I can't turn it down..."

She lowered it a little. "It's heavy too... But...I don't feel tired... I don't feel tired at all now."

"Me neither," Wally said.

"Huh." Kurt suddenly stood up on his own. "I don't feel sore anymore."

Everyone else quickly realized that they didn't either.

"Outside of time, perhaps," Emma mused. "Our physical injuries don't matter as much."

"No, this place is full of energy," Shine said. "Can't you tell?"

She put her hand out like she could touch the darkness. "Life and Death, Light and Dark...we just can't see the half of it, but I can feel it."

Suddenly under her hand the darkness exploded into colors. The colors swam out from it like some animation in the old Fantasia movie, in shades of the colors that the others almost couldn't discern.

The light engulfed Shine so much she almost looked like a picture of an angel.

Some of them gasped, not sure what this was.

"Whoa..." Shine said. "That was...a buzz..."

She fell to her knees. "It's almost too much for me..."

"Shine...what's going on?" Wally said. "I feel different too...like I could run a hundred thousand miles and not feel it...but the last time I felt like that, I almost slipped into the Speed Zone for good, so..."

"I kind of feel revved up too," Morph said. "But it's scary somehow. I don't hate it, but it's scaring me."

"I don't feel anything," Domino said.

"No...they're right," Kurt said. "It's intense..."

Trinity poked the darkness herself, and the same thing happened... It looked a little different for her, but light spread out from her hand, and seemed to encase her also.

https://youtu.be/3nasgnf1su8

Shine looked at her hands.

"Oh..." she said. "I think I see what this is.... This little place between worlds...this union of them...of course...it all makes sense. We've already talked about how Ultimate Reality is what unites all worlds.... The only way to Merge them would be to somehow tap into that...to use it. But too much...to unite the people from both, in here, it would symbolically be like uniting the worlds, and the symbol becomes real.... Oh wow..." She looked up. "And we feel charged up because we're connected to that already. But...we're still frail humans. We're not meant to be exposed to this for long periods of time in these forms. This is dangerous for us--too much, and we might just leap out of our bodies altogether."

"What?" Kitty looked aghast

Shine stood up, a dreamy look in her eyes. "Not that it wouldn't be tempting. After all, we long for it our whole lives...to be caught up into that and to be translated from one plane to another..."

"Shine?" Logan said. "Snap out of it." He shook her.

Shine looked at him. "Right...of course, this is not the way it should happen. Forgive me, but I can't help but be drawn to it."

"If this place was made by Apocalypse and Sinister, then it's a trap," Emma said.

"Oh...so they hoped," Shine said. "But as usual, they can't fully understand what they were messing with. They foolishly assumed we'd be torn apart by this sensation...and so we might be, but we also bring power with us, at the same time. This fight may be over already.... It will just be moderation that's the trick. In the material world, God puts certain things in place so that we cannot be overwhelmed...and even then, one look at His Face would kill us, and too much of His glory would cause us to faint or become mush in His presence... People have seen these places in visions, but this bridge here is some kind of unnatural compromise between the natural and supernatural world, I think.... You see, the Norse people were onto something, but in one way they missed the point. You don't just travel from Earth to Heaven for amusement. It's a serious matter."

"Are you saying this is heaven?" Ryan said.

"No," Shine said. "But, even this close to something like that, it's still...a lot to handle. We had better be careful what we touch here. Think of it as the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin. We came for one thing."

"I guess it does look like a cave," the ever literal Scott said.

Emma shot him a look that was half amazement as his simplicity and half gratitude, because it did break things down to smaller proportions.

"Well..." Colossus said, "we go now?"

"Go where?" Storm asked.

"This is spooky," Rogue said.

"I guess we just pick a direction?" Wally said. "Unless Emma has a bead on them."

"The air is so full...it's like they're everywhere," Emma said, "so nowhere... But perhaps I could pick out one specifically if I tried... Xavier is the most likely, or Jean. They're the strongest."

She focused.

Her head filled with voices and images.... It made her dizzy.

But now she could push back against it, try to sort it out. No splitting headache followed this effort.

And now she saw why the evil people had not wanted her to be able to do this: She could have picked all this out a long time ago, even out of the Tears...might have been able to follow it, even here...

It was getting too loud.

She turned into diamond abruptly to cut it off.

"Ya all right there?" Older Rogue asked her.

"Yes." Emma steadied herself. "I believe I have something more useful...this way." She set off to the right.... It might have been forward from the doorway, but none of them could sense it now. It was gone.

Or it was hidden.

Walking along that bridge didn't feel secure to anyone; there was a constant feeling they'd slip right off of it.

They stuck close to the center, and each other, linking arms or hands in some cases.

"This sure is trippy," Morph joked.

"I can't smell nobody," Logan said. "I don't like it."

Emma had difficulty staying focused on the line of psionic energy she was following. It seemed to become fainter and stronger by turns.

And the longer they were in here, the longer she was thinking Shine was right--the Darkness was not a void, it was full of things they couldn't see clearly, like the Dark Zone of the Ocean might have been.

She sensed movement, however. And whether it was malevolent, benevolent, or indifferent, she couldn't tell.

Eventually, even the others began to sense it too.

Trinity, looking up, thought she saw something like a huge beast move overhead, but she couldn't make out what it was.

"This is starting to seem like the walkway in one of those walled to floor aquariums," Jubilee said in a hushed tone.

"Before, when I was in an out of time plane, it always seemed so empty," Morph commented to the DJs and Mystique. "No life at all, all quiet. Not like this."

"The universe is full of life, in some form," Shine mused. "Just not always like we can see and hear. We're surrounded all the time by beings that aren't physical--that's what we believe. And some we don't even know what they are, but the Bible describes them. I suspect only a limited number of God's creations have earthly bodies. Who knows what heaven is full of."

"And yet so many people feel alone," Mystique said. "Even with all that."

"Why, Raven, loneliness is not a feeling you get because no one is around you physically," Shine said. "It's inside. All of us feel alone inside, especially in our pain. Happiness always draws other people to it, on purpose or by their own wish to be there, but pain is isolating. We feel alone when we feel things are not the way they should be. Man was not made to be alone, and that's a fact. That's why it's so remarkable that God always promises us never to leave us. You won't find that all over most religions. But He knows what we need to hear."

"And would you say you feel close to God here?" Mystique asked warily.

"I don't always feel it," Shine said. "More like I know it. Like if you ever have one person who you know will listen to you no matter what mood they are in, or how they feel, or what they're doing. You stop thinking of it as them actively doing it--it's just who they are. After a while, it became like that with God. I just take it as a given that He's there and listening...not always answering, not the answers I want, but there. I don't know, I just started to think of it like with anyone else. I won't agree with them all the time, and I won't always like what they do, but it's not necessarily that they're wrong, we're just different. God and I must be pretty different, but I don't assume He's wrong for that either."

"I've never had that," Mystique said.

She glanced at Morph sideways. "I might be able to imagine it," she added, still to Shine. "I suppose you're right about it being internal, loneliness. Explains a lot."

"Sometimes you feel alone even when you're around a bunch of people," Wally said. "I used to be lonely, even with all my friends. I think it's about how you feel people don't really understand you. And you want them to, really, deep down."

"I think women want that even more," Shine said. "Or we just know we want it more. I think men settle for not having it, even though they get super lonely so easily. For me, I think it was even if I was understood, there was still that wish for it to be special. We all want to be cherished, enjoyed. I found that in God first, and then in you." With a shy smile.

"Aw..." Wally said. "Yeah...that's kind of what I thought too.... Long term, committed relationship turned out to be different than I thought. But way better.... I mean now, who'd want to go back to that one off dating thing? It's so...superficial."

"I like how you guys kind of both said the same thing," Morph said. "That's what I want. Though in the past, maybe I wouldn't have said that, but you know...after all this time, maybe I think it's tough to be with someone, through all the thick and thin of life, and I've had a hard time dealing with stuff myself. I'd be more grateful now for that."

Mystique looked down.

"You agree?" Shine asked her.

She shrugged. "I gave up on committed relationships a long time ago--trying it out again hasn't felt like the most natural thing, if we're all being frank about it. But in one way, I've come to agree with Morph.... It's tough. Even if you like someone fine, it's tough to handle the difficulty and have to think of others, not just yourself. I see why people avoid commitment. But watching you two has made me question if it's wiser in the long run to just face things. Maybe there's more to it than I ever learned, since I never tried."

"That's a really nice compliment to us," Shine said. "We didn't know what we were doing when we started, we just...dove in and did our best. But a lot of good advice along the way and serious conversation and we kind of figured it out.... I'm sure years down the road, there will be more surprises, and there's no formula for success in marriage, I think. But I do think there's an attitude you can have to make it easier. Always approach things with the mindset that there is a solution, and that you can find it, and that it's worth it. If both people do that, nothing can stop you. It's when one gives up that it gets hard."

"Have you ever had a really ugly fight?" Morph asked.

They shook their heads.

"Ugly moment, maybe, but I tend not to let things sit for long," Shine said.

"And I tend to not go that hard when I argue," Wally said. "Always made me kind of feel weird when people did that. Like, not needing to be a total jerk about what you're upset about."

"Not that everyone is like us," Shine said. "But I don't tend to ugly fight with most people, so I think it's just...character and personality sometimes."

"If it happens though," Wally said, "my friends would all never let me just quit on it. So it's nice to have back up."

"It's funny this is what we're talking about right now of all times," Morph said.

"It might be smart," Shine said. "Focusing on this place is only going to loosen our grip on our reality. Keeping our minds off it is likely for the best. Maybe just go with your gut, Morph."

"Careful saying that to me," Morph warned. "I might really take you up on it."

"Go crazy, man," Wally said. "This place gives me the willies anyway."

Morph started singing jauntily:

https://youtu.be/nyK0DhJLn4c

"Can't stop thinking about if and when I'd die

"For now I see that 'if' and 'when' are truly different cries
For 'if' is purely panic, and 'when' is solemn sorrow
And one invades today, while the other spies tomorrow.

"We're surrounded, and we're hounded
There's no 'above, ' or 'under' or 'around' it
For 'above' is blind belief, and 'under' is sword to sleeve
And 'around' is scientific miracle. Let's pick 'above' and see
For if and when we go 'above,' the question still remains:

"Are we still in love, and is it possible we feel the same?
And that's when going 'under' starts to take my wonder
But until that time, I'll try to sing this...

"If I keep moving, they won't know
I'll morph to someone else
What they throw at me's too slow
I'll morph to someone else
I'm just a ghost
I'll morph to someone else
Defense mechanism mode

"He'll always try to stop me, that Nicolas Bourbaki
He's got no friends close, but those who know him most know
He goes by Nico
He told me I'm a copy
When I'd hear him mock me, that's almost stopped me.

"Well, we're surrounded, and we're hounded
There's no above or a secret door
What are we here for
If not to run straight through all our tormentors?
But until that time I'll try and sing this...
Lights they blink to me, transmitting things to me
Ones and zeroes, ergo this symphony
Anybody listening? Ones and zeroes
Count to infinity, ones and zeroes. I'm surrounded, and I'm hounded."

[Note: This song mentions Nicholas Bourbaki, and one of the fans who left a comment under it explained why. Nicholas Bourbaki was the name of a group of mathematicians who tried to prove the existence of God and the Devil using mathematics. This group consisted of 7 men. 

Fun what you can learn from other fans, isn't it? The whole song is about doubt, and belief, and how to decide, both for your own life and for God. I think the point is that, while science is miraculous, it won't make you believe in God unless you are willing to do so.]

Just as Morph was stopping his ironically named song, Emma stopped in front of them and looked straight ahead.

Somehow they had come to the end of the bridge while they were not paying attention to it.