Reunited and it Feels So Good - @goldtoxicity

[helpdesk_hero]

The idea of Krakoa hadn't called to David, when everything was said and all of the offerings made, David hadn't been tempted. It wasn't until one name in particular had been said that he had packed his things and made for the nearest gate. Because there weren't many things that would shift him back to mutant concerns.

Elixir was one of those few things.

So there it was, David heading through the gate, and into an amazing garden. Massive trees around him, vines, flowers, fruit. And so many mutants. David, back over his shoulder, looked around in awe of the place. There was so much going on here and he didn't know what to do about it. Or where to go.

"Uh," he says, approaching the first person that seemed like an authority figure, from how people were gathered around them. A figure in some sort of body suit. "Excuse me? What are new arrivals supposed to do? And do you know where I can find Josh Foley?"

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[goldtoxicity]

He can feel the pulse of Josh's power, even through the layer of clothing. Just as surely as Josh can feel every part of his body working in tandem.

"I'm kind of a secret," he confesses, his hand covering David's. They're a little ways away from the crowd now. He gives a little squeeze, lets some of his power start to flow. To start doing the work that needs to be done. "It's different here, dude. Not like Utopia, or Westchester. Really, really different."

The air around them is starting to glow faintly golden.

"We changed the game."

[helpdesk_hero]

There are questions, so many questions he wants to ask. Like why he can feel Josh's power growing. He wants to make a quip about how his eyes didn't need fixed again so soon, he had been taking better care of them. And that old aches and pains were things he could live with.

Instead... Instead it just feels good.

"Changed the game?" he parrots back, torn between marveling at Josh's power, and asking for clarification.

[goldtoxicity]

"Completely," Josh replies, hesitating on clarifying. He can say it, but the weight doesn't sink in until you see it. Until you look around and see forty-five previously missing faces. Until you look up and see Melody and Sofia soaring through the sky.

He lets go.

"I want to tell you - but you won't believe me, not really. It'll make sense when you see the housing district."

[helpdesk_hero]

The slow working of power like Josh's is an insidious thing. Must take a bit of time, to rewrite and repair a person's genetic code. That's probably for the best, because it means they can start walking again.

"Well then, if you have a great big show and tell project, show me. Tell me."

[goldtoxicity]

"I'm getting to that." He clicks his tongue and starts walking again, leading them through the forests.

"Everything I show you - and I mean it, man, everything - you can't tell anyone who isn't here."

[helpdesk_hero]

"You have my word. And you know I don't break that."

Well, no. He got really frustrated post Utopia and had told Speed maybe a touch more than he should have. But he still stood by his point, even as he walked by Josh's side.

"You seem... happy."

[goldtoxicity]

"I am." A sidelong glance. "I finally understand where I belong... what I was meant to do."

And this time it didn't involve hurting anyone. Only healing. Only giving back what was taken.

"You seem more at peace."

[helpdesk_hero]

That's... a very profound statement. And David resists being jealous. Not that the feeling isn't down there, curling in his gut.

"Peace would be... grossly inaccurate. Just better in control of myself and the imagine I present to the world. I have practice. Sooner or later all wounds scar over, and you soften the scar up into workable flesh. But, well, you know it well. The flesh doesn't have the same sensation of old, and it aches, no matter how carefully you treat it."

He's not at peace. He hurts every day. He's incomplete. But he's accepted more about himself.

[goldtoxicity]

"Yeah..."

A gentle elbow.

"Good thing you have an omega level biokinetic who specailises in scar tissue," he quips. As he does, the trees start to thin. The housing district for the "young" mutants spreads out before them. Someone's already blasting music, drinks are being passed around like they're going out of style.

But most importantly.

There's a shit ton more mutants than there really ought to be. After having their population decimated so many times, after losing so many friends - there are familiar faces in the crowd. Vying for drinks and laughing.

"Turns out all wounds do heal with time, s'long as you've got the right tools."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Some scars don't heal," David counters. He's trying not to be bitter in this happy place. But it's still there.

David... stumbles to a stop as he looks around. Looks around and doesn't believe. So many mutants his age, or near enough. No, it's more than that. He knows some of those faces.

"Josh, you might need to check me out. I think I'm having a stroke. Because I could swear I see Brian Cruz having drinks with Cessily and talking to Kevin. And that's..."

That's not possible.

[goldtoxicity]

"I told you," he says gently, his fingers curling gently around David's wrist. Steadying him, grounding him.

"We changed the game."

[helpdesk_hero]

There's no steadying him. Not in this moment. Not with tears of joy in his eyes. His friends, his classmates. Alive and whole and... and looking like the day he lost them.

"How is this even possible?"

[goldtoxicity]

"We brought them back. Me and my team." It hadn't been easy by any stretch of the imagination. Still wasn't. "We're averaging about a hundred mutants a day... And we're just getting faster as we go."

The Hellions laugh like they've never been apart.

"I'll get into it more when we get to Arbor Magna."

[helpdesk_hero]

The Hellions laugh like they never laughed before. It's different. Very different.

So this was the secret. This was why Krakoa was important. The secret that could never pass his lips when he left. That mutants were returning. That the people he loved were back.

"Wait... our team," he asks, unable to keep the desperation from his voice. Yes, the can go to whatever this Arbor Magna is. But just... Jay and Laurie. He had to know.

[goldtoxicity]

"Jay's with his family right now, y'know, not much of a partier. And Laurie and her mom're living in the more residential area... Nori's around here somewhere, but like I think she's waiting until you're settled to come say hi."

He clicks his tongue thoughtfully.

"And I think Sofia's out with the Marauders right now. We're all home."

[helpdesk_hero]

Noriko. They haven't talked in... well, forever. He pauses, though, looking to Josh.

Out with? That's... a weird statement.

"I'm glad you all have a home now. That they're all back. You're pretty amazing."

You all. They. Not communal terms that included David. Clearly his own opinion was that he was going to be a guest for a night or two. That he'd probably slip out.

[goldtoxicity]

His smile is pure mischief.

David hasn't put it together yet. Knowing something he doesn't is a thrill, however short-lived. He knows he'll never have this opportunity again.

"C'mon," he nods towards another path through the forest. "We can say hi later. There's more I wanna show you."

[helpdesk_hero]

Soon he'll figure it out, when the curl of Josh's power finishes. Too soon and the sudden influx of power, of knowledge would likely break him. No, slow was what his body needed. To slowly come to terms with it, like the months it had awoken over when he was a teen, eeked out into easier minutes. A gradual swell.

"The hellos will probably take hours," David agrees, ready to follow again. "Especially if Julian and I get into it."

[goldtoxicity]

A roll of his eyes.

"I think Brian's keeping him on a tight leash. He's gotten all soft again, so long, be nice to Brian and he has to behave."

It's a bit of a longer walk to the Resurrection Chambers. More than enough time to let David's system start to acclimate, to remember what it forgot.

"Oh, right. Uh, you asked about my team. So, uh - there's me. Hope, Proteus, Tempus, and Goldballs. But he's going by Egg now, for uh, obvious reasons. It took, like, six months of complaining but I got him to switch it."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Again?" David asks, incredulous. He'd never seen Julian soft before. But David and Brian had never had issues beyond the team rivalry.

They had both understood something few other mutants their age had. How to be a black mutant who was just desperate to keep the people they loved together. And then, later... what it was like to have it stripped away.

"Proteus? That is a complicated one there," David muses as he follows along. But the words are mumbled. Unfocused. There's... this weird tingling in his head that he can't explain. An awareness that is weird.

Annoyed by the sensation he reaches up to scratch the back of his head, but it's not a fully conscious motion.

"I met Eva once, in the briefest passing. She's good people."

[goldtoxicity]

"Yeah, uh, turns out once you give him a body that isn't agony to be in he's a really chill dude. Also cheats at Mario Kart."

A sidelong glance, then he looks ahead.

"She's good. They're all good..." He shakes his head. "When I met Hope, she was a little girl, and like, we had this connection I couldn't explain. It wasn't until we started doing this work that I got it... it's like, our powers were made to work together."

[helpdesk_hero]

"I forget, sometimes, that you didn't really know her like I did," David muses. He had interacted with the Lights on and off after all.

"That's why you're so happy. Because what you do with them. How you get to give the world something," David observes. He just feels like it's the right thing to say.

[goldtoxicity]

A shake of his head.

"I should've stayed," he admits, but that's a topic he doesn't want to get into. Why he ran. That can come later, when he feels like coming all the way clean.

The second part gets a smile.

"Exactly... I always healed people, but now, I'm actually healing our people."

[helpdesk_hero]

Healing them as a whole. The resurrection process. It's simple. The Five just...

All forward momentum for David stops. Well, no, there's still some. It takes time for him to stop. In that time he's off balance, both physically and mentally. And so he almost falls all over himself and to the ground. Which would be embarrassing of a man of his many talents. His many and suddenly more talents.

"Eggs, altered to viable. Add the DNA, encourage cell growth. Accelerate time, age to the proper point. Then upload the mind. Josh..."

It's just there. He knows it because Josh is so much a part of the process that Josh knows it on a deep level. A level David hasn't touched in any mind in years.

David looks down at his hands, and finds them shaking. But they're there. One pinches the other. He doesn't wake up.

"Tell me this is real."

[goldtoxicity]

There it is.

"It's real."

David stops and Josh stops with him. Watches realization dawn on his face. Those shaking hands are taken in both of Josh's own, held tight and squeezed gently.

He should've been able to do this from the start.

He understands now why he couldn't. That he was young, that he was in over his head, with impossible expectations crushing him. It doesn't take away the guilt of knowing he had the capacity for this.

"Welcome home, David."