Xaviers!

Natalie's eyes were closed, her eyes rapidly moving behind her eyelids and it would be easy to assume she was asleep in her chair in the XUB if she weren't occasionally talking. Her cellphone was resting in her lap, the screen indicating a call was in progress but no sound was emerging and Natalie wasn't wearing any sort of headset.

"No, no, I totally understand. I've had to deal with systems she's been in. I have backups of those files. I'll send them to you."

"Yes, I just submitted authorization to the med center to release my current records to you."

"There's a what?"

"Weird. You quarantined that system right?"

"Well, maybe it isn't one of hers. That was my old chassis. Could be something got left behind when I left."

"Hard to say. I'd say ship it here, but, well, this isn't the best place for something like that to be right now."

"I'll see if I can arrange a visit when the school year is over."

"Yes, I will. Thank you, Doctor Zhou. You take care too."

The call on the phone ended, but Natalie's eyes didn't open. Their movement slowed down considerably though.

((Open))

Tosh, in an effort to get his head straight after seriously damaging his friendship with Will, was trying to get out of the lab more. Currently having a drink in the XUB, he overheard Natalie and realized that he hadn't talked to her in a while. He should fix that.

"Cyberspace is keeping you busy, I see," he said as he approached.

"When you're aware of something's constant presence, it has a habit of consuming your life, yes," Natalie says, opening her eyes. "How are you doing, Tosh?"

"Aside from thinking Will might hate me now? Getting better."

Natalie raises an eyebrow, "Why would Will hate you?"

"Well, maybe not hate but he certainly isn't happy with me or Sam," he said before explaining how they had put him in Muir against his will because of what happened after the mission. He included the weird thing they fought and its connection to MGH.

"That certainly sounds like a lot," she says, "But I can see how he'd at least be upset with you."

"Honestly, after what happened to me you'd think I'd think harder before doing that. I just hope I can earn back his trust somehow."

"Not that you asked for my advice, but I wouldn't rush it. Can't really earn trust like that back quickly."

"I know," he sighed.

"But enough about me. What have you been up to lately?"

"Trying to wrap up the school year. Trying to figure out what to do about next year."

"What do you mean 'about next year'?"

"Debating taking a year off so I can work on some projects I want to work on without people looking over my shoulder."

"And by 'people', do you mean the headmaster?"

"He's high on the list," she admits.

"I can't say I completely trust him either. Despite him giving me an opportunity designing a Jaguar for the London Motor Show. I don't exactly know why. Maybe I wouldn't like any replacement for Miss Minamida."

The mention of Ashlie makes Natalie look at her phone, "Yeah, there may be some of that. She was something special."

"I know I wouldn't be the same if I hadn't met her. She believed in me in a way not very many have."

"To think, I didn't trust her at first either," he said, blinking at what he just said clicked into place. It was an uncomfortable realization.

"We had our disagreements, but... that's... well, there's not much point to dwelling on it now that she's gone."

Tosh stayed quiet for a long moment before saying, in an awkward shift of subject, "I officially met Acala. It took actually talking to it to stop blaming it for what happened while it was malfunctioning."

"Acala is a unique collection of individuals. I haven't seen as much of her lately. Is she doing alright?"

"She's got a new mystery to put her processing power into. She's fine," he smirked.

"It seems mutant powers might just be more than genetics. The energy animating that golem appears to be responsible for the MGH Will absorbed."

"That's an interesting theory. Are you saying the MGH is a byproduct?"

"Acala suggested that powers are. That the X-Gene and MGH just allow us to respond to this extra-dimensional energy; for it to manifest through us."

"It's an interesting theory. It would have to be a substantially complex energy source to explain the variety of powers. Of course, 'extra-dimensional' is already hellishly complex."

"The energy we encountered seemed pretty specific, powerwise. Although that could just be because it was influencing rock at the time, that wouldn't explain its possible effect on me. It might be in the normal range of my powers, but I gained another form during the fight and its made of stone and that would be a big coincidence."

"So potentially a side effect due to interaction. Which would mean pushing a bunch of mutants together into a single location could be a recipe for refactoring the energy's expression."

"An interesting theory but wouldn't we have seen evidence of that already? It could just be exposure to a more direct source."

"Maybe direct source exposure causes more distinctive changes, but maybe simple proximity stimulates more 'minor' variations. Ennio, for example, or my machine possession."

"The problem is that there's no way of knowing whether those were already part of our power potential."

"True. Hard to say whether it's a change in the energy or a refinement of the lens the energy is being projected through. That's assuming the base theory is correct."

"Unless Acala is gaslighting us, the compound that resulted from the energy crossing our level of reality was aligned to a higher-dimensional manifold and she couldn't fully calculate any further."

"Even stranger, Sam felt the residual energy contained memories. And not ancient ones. Which correlates to Acala dating the material resulting from the energy incursion being only a couple of years ago; buried in bedrock like it just appeared there, which is the observation that started us down the rabbit hole."

"Memories? Really?" She shakes her head, "I'll never understand the telepathic stuff."

"Memories of mutants, no less. But without a mind. It must have absorbed them from those it connected to."

"So are you thinking this energy is sentient? I mean if it's absorbing memories..."

"Not according to Sam. More storage than processing."

"Weird," Natalie says, "Of course, storage does imply collection, though not necessarily curation."

"I plan to ask her for more details. They could shed light on what we're dealing with."

"Sam or Acala?"

"Both, I suppose. But mostly Sam."