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"Alex, I know it's depressing and we both miss Mama, but you have to eat something."
"Want Mama!" Alex yelled and shot a beam from his hands that I barely managed to dodge.
"Okay... that's a new one." I sighed and set the plate aside. "You're a year old... How are you already shooting at things?"
Alex's lower lip trembled, and his tiny fists balled up like he was trying to hold the whole world inside them. Energy sparked again around his fingers, soft, red-tinged.
Then he just... burst into tears.
"Come here," I whispered, scooping him up even as his powers flickered across my arm. "It's okay. I got you... Dad's got you, Lex."
Alex clung to me, his little body shaking with sobs that came from somewhere deeper than a baby should know. It wasn't just crying... it was grief. Real, raw grief. Like something inside him remembered. Missed her.
"Mama," he whimpered into my shoulder, his tiny fingers gripping the fabric of my shirt like letting go might make her disappear all over again.
"You're just a baby," I murmured into his hair. "You're not supposed to carry all this."
He hiccupped softly, his breath hitching.
"Want Mama."
I closed my eyes, holding him tighter.
"I know, buddy," I whispered. "I do too."
"Cyke, we've got news." Logan called out and frowned when he saw Alex crying. "Charles' in Cerebro... He found them."
I froze.
Everything inside me stopped moving except for my heart, which somehow started beating faster and slower at the same time.
"You what?" I asked, barely above a whisper.
"He found them. Not just energy readings, not just echoes. Them. Their minds. He said it was faint, like trying to hear someone screaming underwater from miles away, but they're alive."
"Where are they?"
"Closer than you think." He smirked and took Alex. "You want to see your Mama, don't you, bub?"
Alex sniffled and nodded into Logan's chest, rubbing his eyes with a tiny fist. The red energy had faded, but the warmth of it lingered in the air like a fading ember.
"Take me to her," I said, standing, already reaching for my visor adjustment.
"Storm's already prepping the Blackbird. Charles is locking in the coordinates."
"Coordinates?" I asked, confused. "If their minds are that faint, how—?"
Logan didn't answer right away. He looked down at Alex, then back at me, his voice lowering to a near-growl.
