CH 76: Forgotten
New York was a strange place, strange enough that a man riding through its streets on the back of a Polar Bear Dog with a maid seated comfortably behind him somehow failed to cause the kind of commotion Lex might have expected. There were certainly a few people who stopped to stare, and more than one phone was raised to capture a photograph, but nobody screamed, called the police, or even seemed particularly surprised for more than a few seconds. New York had apparently reached the point where a giant white animal that looked like a polar bear crossed with an unusually fluffy dog was merely something interesting enough to photograph before everyone went back to whatever they had been doing.
Lex suspected Grayfia had something to do with that.
He could feel faint traces of Demonic Energy moving through the air around them, so subtle that an ordinary person would never have noticed it. Whatever magic Grayfia had cast was probably influencing how people perceived them without actually making them invisible, allowing their presence to simply slide into the background of people's attention. Lex didn't understand the technique well enough to identify exactly what she had done, but he had begun to understand the general principles behind Demonic Magic.
It was surprisingly creative.
Demonic Energy, as Lex understood it from Grayfia's explanations and his own experimentation, responded heavily to imagination, but imagination alone wasn't enough. A devil couldn't simply imagine something happening and expect reality to obey; they needed to understand the process behind the desired effect and use their Demonic Energy to reproduce that process. The more complicated the phenomenon, the more complicated the mental construction required to create it, and that was where knowledge, experience, and precision became just as important as raw power.
Raphael was naturally absurdly good at that part.
With Raphael's ability to process information, break phenomena down into individual components, and simulate possible methods of achieving an effect, Lex could technically be considered an above-average user of Demonic Energy despite having comparatively little practical experience. That assessment was somewhat misleading, however, because he only knew one person who actually used the energy regularly, and that person was Grayfia. Lex might have possessed a better imagination and Raphael might have been capable of calculating things Grayfia couldn't, but Grayfia's years of experience meant that her actual application was still considerably more refined.
In other words, Lex's potential with Demonic Magic was impressive.
His experience was not.
Fluffy seemed completely unconcerned with any of that.
The enormous Polar Bear Dog thundered through the streets with the enthusiasm of an animal experiencing freedom for the first time, his massive paws striking the pavement with enough force to make his heavy body bounce slightly with every stride. At his full size he was roughly as large as a polar bear, yet despite that intimidating bulk, he carried himself with the almost ridiculous enthusiasm of a friendly dog who had just been promised treats. His thick white fur rippled in the wind, his ears perked up at every unfamiliar sound, and his tail occasionally swung from side to side whenever something particularly interesting caught his attention.
It wasn't actually his first time being outside, of course.
Fluffy was taken on walks regularly, although Lex hadn't been the one doing most of them lately. Donna usually handled it when she was available, and when she wasn't, Grayfia had taken over. Lex had spent quite a lot of time away from Earth, after all, and while Fluffy certainly didn't seem resentful about it, Lex had realized that it had been far too long since he'd personally taken his oversized companion out.
What surprised him more was that Fluffy didn't need directions.
The Polar Bear Dog followed the route with complete confidence, turning down streets and navigating intersections without Lex having to tell him where to go. He seemed to remember the familiar paths perfectly, occasionally slowing down to sniff something before continuing on his way as though he had somewhere important to be.
“You remember the way better than I do,” Lex muttered, scratching the side of Fluffy's neck.
Fluffy responded by wagging his tail hard enough that it nearly hit Grayfia.
Grayfia caught it effortlessly and pushed it aside with a faint smile.
“I believe he simply remembers his walks better than you remember your own.”
“That's possible.”
At the same time, Lex's consciousness was doing something considerably stranger than simply enjoying a ride through New York.
Part of him was here.
Another part of his attention was elsewhere entirely, within the World's End Flower Garden.
The Garden had grown considerably since Lex had first received it, although calling it a garden was beginning to feel increasingly inaccurate. It was more like a world in the process of becoming a world. Vast stretches of rich, dark-brown soil extended farther than Lex could currently see, broken up by thousands upon thousands of ordinary plants that had already begun taking root. Some were little more than seedlings, while others had already grown into bushes and young trees, their leaves moving gently beneath a sky that looked remarkably similar to Earth's.
The similarity wasn't accidental.
The Garden possessed its own sky, complete with a sun, moon, stars, and the gradual transitions between daylight and darkness, yet everything remained synchronized with Earth's cycle. When morning came on Earth, morning came here. When the sun descended over New York, the same golden light eventually reached the distant horizon of the Garden, bathing the growing landscape in warm illumination.
And the Garden was enormous.
Even in its current unfinished state, its landmass was already large enough to contain multiple cities, with huge empty expanses separating the areas where vegetation had begun to spread. Yet Lex could sense that this wasn't even close to its final size. The Garden was still expanding, still developing, and according to the information available to him, there was nothing stopping it from eventually becoming something comparable to an entire planet.
For now, however, most of it remained untouched.
Lex decided to change that.
He first planted the V-Plant, carefully placing it into the fertile soil where its roots immediately began sinking deeper. Then came the Golden Razz Berry plant, followed by the Mario Mushroom plants. None of them produced any immediate dramatic transformation, and Lex wasn't expecting one. Plants needed time to grow, and even supernatural plants were apparently not exempt from the basic concept of development.
Still, the possibilities were promising.
If everything worked as intended, the Garden would eventually become a place containing resources from worlds and realities far beyond the Marvel universe. Lex had no idea how valuable the plants might become after being cultivated in an environment saturated with the World's End properties, but he was certainly looking forward to finding out.
Hopefully the Golden Razz Berry actually grows properly, he thought. I'd really hate to waste something like that.
His attention returned fully to the road as Fluffy finally approached the gates of the School for Gifted Youngsters.
The journey had taken longer than it would have in a car, mostly because Fluffy was, in fact, not a car. Lex could have simply flown there, teleported, or used several other methods of transportation, but Fluffy had apparently decided that this was his walk and therefore his responsibility to complete. Lex hadn't felt like arguing with a dog that was the size of a polar bear, so they had simply continued.
By the time they reached the school, it was already around midday.
The moment Lex crossed the gates, however, his relaxed mood disappeared.
Something was wrong.
A wave of psychic energy washed over him so suddenly that he immediately became aware of it, brushing against his mind like an invisible tide. It wasn't particularly strong by his standards, and the Essence of Transcend Self made it incapable of actually affecting him, but that wasn't what bothered him.
There was something else beneath it.
Another psychic wave followed.
This one was considerably stronger, but strength wasn't what made it different. The first wave had felt controlled, almost structured, while the second was chaotic, messy, and invasive, like someone had thrown open a door into a mind that had no idea how to control what was pouring through it.
Neither Lex nor Grayfia reacted.
Fluffy didn't even slow down.
The three of them were protected by the same fundamental blessing, making mental manipulation, psychic intrusion, and similar effects effectively meaningless against them. Even so, Lex's eyes narrowed as he looked around the school grounds.
Students were walking between buildings.
Teachers were talking.
Everything looked normal.
And somehow, that made it worse.
Lex was about to pull out his phone and call Jubilee when he spotted someone walking out of one of the buildings.
Bobby.
Lex raised a hand.
“Hi, Bobby.”
The young man looked toward him.
“Hello…” Bobby slowed, staring at Lex with obvious confusion. “Do I know you?”
Lex's eyebrows rose.
“I didn't expect to be forgotten, I suppose.”
There wasn't much emotional weight behind the thought. He and Bobby weren't close, after all, and they had only met once. Still, the fact that Bobby genuinely couldn't recognize him was strange enough to immediately put Lex on alert.
“No, really,” Bobby continued, looking him over. “We've met? I don't think I'd forget such a handsome face. Strange…”
“I'd have thought so too.” Lex gave him a mildly amused look before getting to the important part. “Do you know where Jubilee is?”
Bobby's expression became even more confused.
“Now you're just making things up. What's a Jubilee?”
That was enough.
Lex's previous suspicion hardened into certainty that something was seriously wrong.
It wasn't simply that Bobby had forgotten him. He had forgotten Jubilee entirely, despite the fact that Jubilee was a student of this school and someone who should have been part of his everyday life. More importantly, Bobby wasn't behaving like someone who was hiding something. His confusion looked genuine.
Lex could already feel the connection he possessed with Jubilee through the blessing he had given her, and when he reached through that connection, he found her presence still within the school.
She was here.
So why had Bobby forgotten her?
“Grayfia,” Lex said quietly, his tone becoming more serious. “I think there's something strange going on in the school. Go find Charles Xavier and tell him what's happening. If he asks about me, I'm going to Jubilee's room.”
Grayfia nodded immediately.
Lex then looked down at Fluffy.
“Can you go around the school and see if people outside of it are getting affected too? If they are, scare them away from the area.”
Fluffy gave a low, obedient sound and immediately began trotting off.
He might have been an animal, but being the animal sidekick apparently came with certain advantages. His understanding of human speech was easily comparable to that of an intelligent person, and he had long since demonstrated that he could understand far more than Lex expected from an ordinary creature.
Lex turned toward the building.
He hadn't gone more than a few steps when he encountered another familiar face.
Ororo.
Lex stopped.
“Oh, hi, handsome,” Ororo greeted him before he could speak. “I didn't know we had a new student.”
Lex stared at her.
Something was wrong.
It wasn't merely that she didn't recognize him. Her entire demeanor felt different. The way she carried herself, the tone of her voice, the subtle movement of her shoulders, even the clothes she wore seemed unlike the Ororo he knew. There was something much more openly flirtatious about her, something almost shameless in the way she looked him over.
“Hi,” Lex said cautiously. “So you don't remember me either?”
“Oh, I remember you.”
Her smile widened.
“Yes… why don't you come to my room? Maybe we can remember ourselves together.”
For perhaps half a second, Lex was genuinely tempted.
Then Jubilee's situation immediately pushed the thought aside.
“Ah, no thanks. I'm going to meet Jubilee first.”
He stepped past her before she could say anything else.
<It is theorized that the psychic energy is deeply affecting everyone within its influence, weakening their normal mental restraints. Their suppressed desires may consequently be becoming significantly more prominent.>
That would explain a lot.
Lex glanced back once.
Ororo was still watching him.
Whatever was happening here, it wasn't merely memory loss.
Thankfully, there were no further distractions between him and Jubilee's room.
The moment Lex opened the door, Jubilee looked up.
Her expression changed instantly.
She crossed the room so quickly that Lex barely had time to react before she threw herself into his arms.
“Please remember me,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “Please remember me.”
Tears were already streaming down her cheeks.
Lex's expression softened.
He wrapped his arms around her and held her firmly, one hand moving gently through her hair while the other rested against her back. He didn't ask questions immediately. Whatever had happened to her, she had clearly spent hours surrounded by people who looked at her without recognizing her, and the fear behind her desperate words was more important than an explanation.
“Shh… it's alright,” Lex murmured. “I'm here. I remember you.”
Jubilee's fingers tightened around his clothes.
For several moments, she simply stayed there.
Her breathing slowly became steadier, the tension gradually leaving her body as she finally allowed herself to believe that someone still knew who she was. Lex continued holding her without rushing her, letting her recover at her own pace before she eventually pulled back enough to look at him.
“Why weren't you picking up my calls?”
There was no anger in the question.
There was hurt.
“Sorry about that,” Lex said, his expression turning guilty. “I didn't know it was an emergency. I was doing something else, and then I figured I'd just come visit you anyway, so there was no point in calling back. I know that's my fault. I just didn't realize how bad things had gotten.”
Jubilee wiped at her eyes.
“It's okay. It only got this bad since this morning. At least yesterday they remembered me, although they'd already forgotten a lot of other things.”
She began explaining everything.
It had started roughly a week ago, with the strange dreams that had spread through the school. Students and teachers had dreamed of themselves burning, screaming, and begging for help, yet nobody could find a source for the phenomenon. Then the headaches began. After that, people started behaving differently, forgetting things they should have known, with the strangest part being that nobody except Jubilee seemed to realize anything was wrong.
She explained how even Anna had forgotten that her powers activated through touch, how Scott had apparently forgotten that he was no longer a student, and how everyone around them simply accepted these impossible changes as though they were perfectly normal.
Then came the strangest incident.
Time had gone backward.
Jubilee had experienced it herself, a sudden sensation of reality folding backward and returning to a point several minutes earlier. She hadn't understood what had happened, but she knew with absolute certainty that it had happened.
Lex listened quietly until she finished.
“Hmmm.”
His expression became thoughtful.
“The time thing is definitely different.”
Jubilee looked at him.
“I suppose I should tell you something. I have a power that I can give to other people too. It lets me regenerate, prevents me from aging, and gives me immunity to all kinds of things, including time manipulation, mind manipulation, and a bunch of other supernatural effects.”
Jubilee's eyes widened.
“You gave that to me?”
“Yeah.”
He kept the explanation simple, not bothering to go into the entire nature of the Essence behind it. There was no reason to dump that much information on her while she was already trying to process everything happening around her.
“That explains why I'm not being affected while everyone else is,” Jubilee whispered.
“Exactly.”
She looked down at her hands, then back at Lex.
“And the time reversal?”
“That was someone else. But because you're immune to that kind of temporal manipulation, you were able to actually perceive it happening.”
Jubilee's expression slowly changed.
For the first time since Lex had arrived, some of the fear disappeared from her eyes. She still didn't understand what was happening at the school, but she understood something far more important now.
Whatever was happening, it couldn't simply erase her.
And Lex remembered her.
“Thanks,” she whispered.
Before Lex could respond, Jubilee leaned forward and pressed a small kiss against his cheek.
It wasn't flirtatious or playful.
It was simply gratitude.
Relief.
The quiet affection of someone who had spent an entire day terrified that the world had forgotten she existed, only to finally find one person who still knew exactly who she was.