Jude used his code like normal to enter the pedestrian gate at the Mansion.

Nothing exploded. No one came running out to greet him. It was normal —like every time he’d done it 10,000 times already— except that this time Jude hadn’t been to the mansion in half a year, at least.

He’d walked away from Sam during a training mission in Canada. Jude refused to be sorry about that, especially since he was now supporting himself. He wasn’t a dirty, homeless beggar boy anymore. Jude was a functioning member of society. He could proudly show his face and middle fingers to any who asked.

It was surreal to walk through the front doors and see that life continued on here just like it always did. Had he gotten taller? Or had everyone else gotten shorter? He felt invisible, like a ghost, as he edged around children in order to jog up the stairs and find his old room.

Gwen must have been kicked out, he realized when he opened the furthest door to the furthest room on the boy’s hall. The air tasted stale. No one had been in here for a long while.

“How long has Jude been back?”

The offhand comment from a student in the kitchen caught Maya off guard as she was doing her best to help clean up after the breakfast rush. ”I-I’m sorry. What?”

“Jude? He’s in his room. I figured he was in hot water because you brought him back from wherever he ran off to, right?”

Maya didn’t even know where to start. She couldn’t finish cleaning either. The elemental dropped everything, ghosted, and was up the stairs, and through his door in the span of a few heavy hammering heartbeats.

”Jude?” She didn’t have to form up to see him, but because she needed to touch him, to ascertain that he was real for herself, Maya packed her body back together. Her bare toes made touchdown on the carpet and she sank down onto the soles of her feet as she pulled her weight together.

It looked… he seemed… okay. Was he taller than she was now? When had that happened?

”Jude!” Maya threw her arms out and launched a hug at him. She made contact, but like a smoke ring her body dissipated in a puff of vapor as soon as it hit the more solid object.

It was too weird to be back. He didn’t fit here any more. He legitimately didn’t fit in some of the clothes, either. Jude went through his drawers and belongings. Once everything was all said and done, there was a box to donate and a box and duffle bag of his things to take with him. The room was taking no time at all to clear out. He just didn’t care about most of the junk anymore.

> “Jude?”

Sh*t. He managed not to flinch. This was inevitable, he supposed, since he knew he’d have to talk to her eventually… The boy turned and gaped at his Ghost. She was in rough shape, like as bad as the end days in the future bad. Her clothes mismatched, she was thin, and when she said his name again and he tried to catch her, there was nothing solid to hold.

“Ghost.” He choked on her name.

“I’m okay.” He spun around with his arms out, but there was no Ghost to hold. Just a blubbering mess of fog rolling over his floor. What was he supposed to do with that!?

Sit. That’s what. Jude plopped himself down and puffs of Maya were unsettled as a result. “Hey. Shhh. It’s, uhm, look. It’s not okay, but nobody’s dead. I’m not even mad... at you.”

”You!?” She shoved him with air because her hands were not hands and he needed to be shoved for that. ”I’m mad! You ran away, Jude! You promised not to do that again. AGAIN. I can’t believe it’s not even the first time!”

He sputtered, but Maya had this moment all rehearsed in her head and a teenager wasn’t going to stop her now.

”You are grounded. Forever. And you’re going to have to make up the school work you missed, and you’ll need to apologize to Sam—”

“I’m moving out.”

His blurted statement of fact cut right through her speech.

”What?” Her tone was hurt, lost. After a beat she picked right back up with angry. ”What do you mean you’re moving out?”

“I don’t fit here, Ghost.”

”Mom.” She tried to correct him, but he was already shaking his head.

“We had a truce. You’re not my mom. I respect the hell out of you, and you might be the last person here to maintain that respect. Ro will always be my brother, but you’re not my mom. I’m a grown ass man.”

”You’re not acting like a man. You are certainly not acting like you respect me or the rules.”

“I know.” That was about as good of an apology as he was willing to provide. “I made a choice. I have to see that choice through.”

”What about school?”

“Didn’t have that much left. If this semester is salvageable, I’ll send it in remotely. Or just take the damn GED, already.” He’d had plenty of time to think through all possible objections on his several weeks long walk.

”What happened to getting the full experience and aging normally?”

“Do I look old to you?” He snipped and ran his fingers through his hair. “It was never about the experience, Ghost. I already have that experience. It was about having legal standing and to keep you out of trouble and so I could line up the right resume for college. I’m not doing volunteer work with you guys anymore and I’m not even sure college is for me.”

He felt lost about some things, but his conviction was clear. This was not his home.

”Wha-?” She sounded so lost. He knew on some level that this would be her reaction. He came back… only to turn around and leave again. ”W-will we ever see you again?”

This was hard without a face to look into, without a hand to hold for reassurance.

“We’ll see each other around. The community’s not that big and you’re freaking hard to hide from.”

”What are you doing that you have to hide it from me, Jude?”

“Nothing!” Jude scooped at the fog around him. “I can’t do anything here, can’t you see that!? I’m suffocating!”

The air stilled except for the smoky puffs of Ghost’s body that were displaced when Jude threw himself backwards to flop onto the floorboards. It wasn’t lost on her that he was acting like a certain 5 year old they both knew. He was practically throwing a tantrum and laying on the floor. It wouldn’t help to point out that he wasn’t acting his age. Jude rarely did.

She didn’t know what to say to make him stay. Ghost desperately wanted him to stay, but the raw emotion of his voice was making her question that drive. Above all else, she was questioning what was best for Jude. There were no clear cut answers here.

”I don't want to suffocate you, I want you to grow up happy and healthy. I want you to grow into the empathetic and intelligent man that I know you already are. I want you safe. Jude, I just don't know what it'll be like—”

“I figured out a way-” Jude’s voice cracked as he plowed over Ghost’s bumbling admission. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Ghost, I think I figured out a way to fix you.”

”I- That’s-” He was trying to distract her, she was sure, but the bait was too good to pass up. ”I’m already getting better. I’m getting regular infusions from Serena. It-it’s taking time, but I’m already more than I was before.”

“I mean 100% better. 100% you. Right now.”

She… she could… Maya tried to roll that around until it made sense. It just didn’t. Even if he could, there were more important… equally important things they needed to hash out.

”You're not bribing me into letting you go, Jude. I'm still your legal guardian.” She wasn't the pushover she once was.

She didn't take the bait. He was going to do it anyway. Just like he was going to leave anyway. He just would rather leave on good terms with one of the few people who he felt actually loved him despite everything.

"Ghost. Please."

"Where were you? Until just now?"

"I-" Didn't want to admit that. She would be really disappointed. "I took care of myself, Ghost. Look. I'm in once piece, showered, shaved." Now. He hadn't been before. Briefly he'd been a lobster monster, too. He would just skate past all that part.

"Heck, I even have a job. I'm old enough to legally hold one now. And I'm taking care of myself just fine."

Had a job. Technically, his stint posing as Ambrose Jaager was over. He'd been looking into that Honeycomb place for the move, but as long as they let him stay in Jaager's penthouse in the city, the better.

"Please, Ghost." He pleaded. Not even caring for his pride as a man anymore. "Please. Just let me go."

It was a tense, long moment before she answered. He was okay. Heck, when he ran away at age... what had he been then? 11, technically? When he prematurely aged himself up to his 20's, he'd done a fine job of fixing up the Iris Apartments and hosting renters and paying bills.

He was 17, almost 18, and going on 30.

"You'll come and visit." She had to raise her voice to be heard over Jude's cry of yessss. "You'll let me come see where you're living and meet your boss." That subdued him somewhat and increased her suspicions that the job he'd taken had been somewhat under the table.

Jude had a habit of skirting the rules or finding ways to bend them just up until the breaking point.

Maya set about forming her body together, slow and steady and careful.

"Tell me about this 'fix' you have."

And he did. It sounded like it might work, but DocProf and Cafas both would kill them if they tried it without supervision. So, once she'd gone as solid as she could, she squished his cheeks and gave him another smothering hug before she slipped her hand into Jude's and they both went down to the infirmary.

"I'm still not happy about you leaving." She grumped at him on the way there.

"I think I was always going to have to. Please help Sam get his **** together."

Maya pressed her lips together but didn't comment further. They'd made it to the infirmary and Jude realized that it was time to test his theory. Do or die time. He looked at Ghost, at where he held her hand and how she smiled and dismissed DocProf's surly and totally legit concerns about what they were about to try.

She trusted him.

With her life.

And this just might be a moment of her life in his hands. Jude gave Ghost's had a little squeeze as she hopped up onto the gurney behind the little curtained area. She had said that she was looking better already, but besides the future they'd shared, he'd never seen her looking worse.

DocProf hovered, taking vitals and showing concern. Jude slipped both hands around her cheeks and put his forehead against hers.

"Would it be weird if I called you Maya?"

Ghost moved to put her cheek against his. She felt cool to the touch and smelled like ozone or linen or sunshine... something indescribably clean and wholesome.

"Is mom so bad?" She asked, but her tone said that she knew full well that it was. She seemed so young to him sometimes.

"Ready when you are, son." DocProf stepped back at the ready.

Jude wasn't much for prayer. He wasn't sure that it ever went anywhere. But this was a moment for a lot of hope and a lot of healing.

He started by letting go of his power. Under normal mutant-filled circumstances like living in the Mansion, Jude kept his wandering power from roaming just anywhere. It liked to pick up things, especially physical mutations or by whatever metric his power determined strength. It liked strong powers. But it liked close powers more.

An invisible wind reached out to lick at Maya. He felt that part of his power like an invisible arm topped by an invisible hand and that hand reached inside of her to grab hold of whatever gave Maya the power over air.

That was normal, the usual circumstances for his copying.

What was abnormal was when he used that hand to pull.

Ghost must have felt it somehow. She made a small noise, but neither of them moved.

Jude pulled harder until some invisible bundle of cords pulled out of Ghost, held by the hand of Jude's power. Nothing was there in reality. It was just what his power translated to him as what it should look like, if there'd been anything to see.

Why wouldn't he just let her take care of him?

They embraced, cheek to cheek and for a moment everything was just as it should have been. He was here. He was safe. He was thinking and worrying about other people. She was so proud of him. Even despite everything.

Like all perfect moments, this too proved to be an illusion.

It felt like... like her soul was being pulled out of her sternum. Like her belly was falling forward and there was no floor and everything was heavy and she could feel the air, her clothes, the paper on the gurney, the scrape of his stubble against her cheek, and the blinding florescent lights.

Maya shoved at Jude ineffectively. He was much stronger than she was, even as a teen. A movement from DocProf beside them startled her.

"Ju-" Her voice sounded different. More resonant and full. Her hands were shaking as she pushed against him.

She pushed and her hands stayed firm.

She could see her hands. She could see a blush of pink at every knuckle and cuticle and the sliver of white at the tips of her chewed nails.

"I-I can see." She changed from pushing him away to hugging him close. Arms and legs and cheek and fingers. She could feel his clothes and a clammy sweat that'd broken out on his forehead.

"Jude?" She let him go enough to look at him, really look at the man he'd become.

He had her power. He had it in his hands. What would it be like to cut those invisible cords? Could he find a way? Could he take away someone's power forever? Maim it? What would happen to them? Would they fade away or could he... keep them?

Jude swallowed hard. He heard his name and let his power's strangling death grip relax on Ghost's power. He took a little step backwards and then another when he made his power let go of hers entirely.

It slipped invisibly back into her body and the elemental reacted with widened eyes and pink lips that formed a surprised o.

Wind rushed around the little space ruffling Jude's hair and the curtains.

Jude realized that before this moment, he'd never really seen Ghost. Her hair was brown, her eyes blue. Her skin was still alabaster, but pinked with blood flow and good health.

"Good." He might have been answering something, but he really meant that it was good. Ghost was whole. It had worked.

He felt a mild disgust with the thought that moment when he held her power in his hands and felt a little shell shocked that it'd actually happened and that it was actually done.

"Come on. Sit down for a little bit. Let's get you some juice or something, huh?"