^Devil May Care^ Scott Summers

^what's happening to me?^

lovely: billie eilish

always in my headspace
but i know some day, i'll make it out of here
———

Scott carried Max's unconscious body in his arms as he ran down the halls of the school, hoping to find the Professor or Hank or just someone. Max had passed out unexpectedly in the music room as they were about to go back to theirs. But noticed something, her eyes were different, before they were just red but now they were red with orange around the pupil. Almost like Jeans.

Walking into one of the smaller kitchens, he saw Charles and Hank staring at each other very intensely but stopped when they heard Scott stand in the doorway. The panicked look on his face and scrunched eyebrows underneath his visor. And of course a passed out Max in his arms.

Hank stood up, giving Charles one more look before walking over to Scott with a worried look and asking, "What happened?"

"I-I don't know. We were in the music room and when we went to go back to our room, she passed out. She won't wake up." His voice was shakily at the thought of losing her. This last few days have been a roller coaster of emotions.

"Come on, let's get her to the labs."

***

Max stood with Jean as the redhead drew nearer to her, still not believing it was actually her. Tears came to her eyes as Jean placed both hands on her cheeks. Her skin underneath her hands glowed orange.

"I'm here...I'm real." With those words, Jean pulled her into a tight hug.

"What are you doing here?" The redhead asked as they pulled away a few minutes later.

"I..don't know. I don't think I'm actually here." Max said looking at her transparent hands. She looked back up at Jean who still had tear tracks on her cheeks and asked softly, "Jean, where are you? Why won't you just come home?"

The redhead shook her head wildly and said, "I-I can't, Max. You saw what I did to Raven. I didn't mean to! I never wanted to hurt a-anyone. I c-can't control what's happening..I-"

To the black haired woman, Jean reminded her a lot of her younger self. Before Charles found her her powers went out of wack and she couldn't control what was happening to her.

Maxine pulled her into another hug and said, "I know. It's scary not having control over your actions. But we're in this together. You're not the only one who was up in that spaceship. I'm here. Always will be."

***

Scott laid unconscious Max on one of the medical tables in Hanks lab. Her cheeks had started to glow orange when they were walking there and her body seemed to heat up unexpectedly.

Charles rolled behind them silently with a solemn look on his face, not saying anything. Hank hooked her up to the machines, connecting wires to her forehead and below her collarbone with sticky pads as everything started to turn on.

"This would have happened if she hadn't gone up there." The Professor said quietly to himself as he looked at Max with remorse.

"Yeah. Everybody seems to have forgotten that she was up there to, when the solar flare hit. The only reason that she isn't like Jean right now is because she was pushed out of the way!"Scott said as his voice got louder towards the end, everything he had been feeling over the last few days starting to bubble up. Charles' eyes widened with that last statement as he had seen through the dark girls eyes what happened.

"Yeah, she told me. I don't know what's happening to her because she doesn't even know! And I don't know how to help." Scott looked over to his unconscious girlfriend just as Hank spoke up.

"I know what's happening to her." Both of them looked over to the normally blue mutant.

"What?" Charles asked.

Hank breathed out before he started, "Maxine's body is constantly retaining small energy when she adjusts to her surroundings, just in case she needs to use her mutation quickly. When the solar flare hit, both her and Jean's body absorbed the energy of the solar flare, Jeans pushing Max out of the way so she took the brunt of it. But since Max's body is constantly taking small amounts of energy around her, the sudden added energy has completely thrown her body's natural defense system out of wack, unlike Jeans where as hers had never been through this kind of strain before. Because of both of their new found energy is coming from the same solar flare, their trying to find one another to become whole again."

"What are you trying to say, Hank?" The Professor inquired, still a little confused.

"Because of the solar flares energy being split between Jean and Max, it's trying to find the other half of its self. And because of the fact that both of them are close emotionally, they are now connected energy wise. That's why nothing Jeans has been doing has affected Max in the slightest and why Max has been able to see things around Jean, like right now. I think Max's subconscious, a part that the energy has affected, is trying to reach out to Jean since her emotions are going crazy at the moment. They're connected. That's why Max keeps pasting out and Jean keeps having Random bursts of energy that she can't control like at the party or..." Hanks voice trailed off as his face saddened as he remembered Ravens death. "I have to go. I'm sorry."

***

"Max, I need you to stay away." Jean said as she held their hands between them. Before Max could argue with her, the redhead cut her off, "Just until I can figure out what's happening to me, ok?"

Reluctantly, she nodded. I knew that Jean needed to do this by herself and she had been working on being less motherly. She was worried though. It was hard enough letting Jubilee go out into the world by herself but Jean. Jean had no control over her powers at the moment and there was no telling what could happen to her. But she still nodded.

Max looked down at her hands noticing that she was becoming more and more transparent.

"Hopefully I'll see you soon." She said with a hopeful smile.

Jean waved to her as she closed her eyes and there was a bright blinding light.

***

Maxine gasped as she sat up, looking around in alarm to see that she was in the labs. Scott quickly looked over to her to see her up and walked over to her. He cupped her face in his hands as he let out a breath he didn't know he had.

She smiled up at him as she pay the sides of his face for reassurance and gave him a quick kiss. "Hey, hey, it's ok. I'm here." Max said softly with a small chuckle.

"I was so worried." He breathed out as he hugged her before helping her stand up.

"I'm glad to see that you're ok, Maxine." Charles said as he rolled over to them. They made eye contact for a bit like they were communicated.

Max looked between the two of them and asked, "What's happening to me?"

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