As if the X-men did not already have enough trouble with S.U.P.E.R. and other bigots, a rift had opened into a whole other universe.
Because of course.

After the initial shock and confusion, control was soon established. There were check points and policies and guards and whatnot; everyone treated the thing as if aliens were going to invade any minute. But there was also information seeping across slowly, about mutants on the other side, or people that looked like other people, and politics that had gone a different way in places that looked eerily similar to their world. Everyone was in a buzz, especially mutants; some claimed the Other Side was some kind of a safe haven, while others whispered it was all a trick by the government to blast mutants into another dimension. There was too much information from unreliable sources, too much confusion. Too much to figure out.

Jesse decided to scout the rift out himself. Originally, Becca was going to maintain radio contact as his backup, but they soon found that the comms did not connect across the portal. Hidden in an alley nearby Madison Square Park, Jesse appeared in a window pane, frowning a little as he saw his wife waiting. He had chosen a new face for scouting, just in case someone caught a glimpse of him.

"I could not hear you" he noted, tapping the comm on his ear "If we're gonna do this together, you have to come through too. Or I can go look alone."

There was a rip in reality.

In New York.

Because ****ing where else would something like that happen?

Impact was still on edge weeks after their laboratory mission. Every day she went out in public, she wondered how close the nearest SUPER agent might be. The revelation of a mutant-tracking and experimentation department in the government did little for her world view or her mood. The tension was affecting her interactions with almost everyone, and try as she might, Jesse was still taking the brunt of it.

But brooding about the state of the government would have to wait because a tear in the universe was a more pressing matter. They were listening in for any news gathered and released to the public, (or over any channel they could tap into,) but they needed intelligence of their own. Assuming other groups, possibly including SUPER, would be interested in the rip, they had to be quick to get a handle of the situation.

It was going to be Impact’s job to stay at base as a point of contact. The X-Men were monitoring the crowds and scouting out the brave new world. Someone had to take control from a distance to put together pieces and move the team accordingly.

Unfortunately, Mirage dropped out of contact the moment he moved across the tear, meaning comms would not carry over. Putting Doc in charge of communications, Impact was going to back her spouse up on a scouting mission.

Until they knew more about the “other earth” people were talking about, it made sense to play cautiously with her identity. No costumes; they could get across and be anonymous. (Well, she would. Jesse was naturally good at going unnoticed unless someone was checking their reflection.) She wore stretchy denim jeans and a sleeveless top, both meant to avoid restricting movement. She wore large sunglasses to hide her unique eyes, and her hair was pulled into a ponytail.

Jesse found her at the predetermined meeting spot in an alley near the park. Rebecca’s arms were folded until she saw her wife, who quickly explained the problem with the comms. It was as she expected.

The idea of Jesse going to the mystery world alone was tossed out and promptly laughed at and dismissed by Rebecca. ”Not a chance. I’m going to be your backup.” She did not care how unlikely it was someone would notice Jesse and have the time to smash her window. If there was any chance, she was coming around to keep an eye on the situation. ”I’m gonna get through while things are still crazy. Eventually the government should show up to claim the scene, so let’s move. I’ll see you on the other side.”

Rebecca emerged from the alley and started making her way toward the epicenter of panic gathering around the spatial anomaly.

His wife was wearing civilian clothes; it was less conspicuous than the X-uniform, but even with the glasses, Jesse doubted that she would go completely unnoticed. One, she was hot, and two, she still had a posture of confidence not many people could replicate in a chaotic situation like this. They had to get through before SUPER took complete control of the scene, or they could spot her from a mile away. Jesse wondered if he should just go alone...

>>”Not a chance. I’m going to be your backup. I’m gonna get through while things are still crazy. Eventually the government should show up to claim the scene, so let’s move. I’ll see you on the other side.”

"Okay" Jesse nodded, knowing it was no use to argue with his wife when she was in X-leader mode (which was most of the time) "Be careful, love."

Getting through in the mirrors was not hard. There was some strange, dizzy feeling between the last mirror on their side, and the first one... on the other side, but all in all, the mirrorworld was not much different. The other side was, but in small ways, rather than striking. Same sort of chaos, same sort of people. Jesse walked away a few paces, finding a good vantage point to see the rip, and make sure he saw his wife coming through. Hopefully, it would not take long.

Walking toward a tear in reality was a jarring experience. Something about the area was beyond logical comprehension, and it felt like Rebecca’s brain was in denial. It was hard to look at or acknowledge, but she knew what it was and forced herself to the threshold between worlds.

With a deep breath, Rebecca stepped into the rift. Suddenly, it felt like her body was convinced she was nowhere. She didn’t sense the air around her or the ground beneath her feet. Her stomach flipped and there was a moment of lightheadedness. Eventually, normalcy returned to her and she emerged in New York, but… it was uncanny. Everything was so close to the same, but there were small differences. People that were not around moments earlier. Businesses she had never heard of in her world.

She was breathing air in a new universe. It was a bizarre thought to process.

Rebecca pulled out the hand mirror she had stored in a backpack. It was her go-to because it was just large enough for Jesse’s face to appear in, keeping her from needing to constantly look for the closest reflective surface.

Looking around, things were similar to what they were dealing with on their end: panic and confusion from people worried that their family just disappeared or that the world was ending. She wished her team best of luck dealing with things on their end.

Once Jesse’s face popped into frame, Rebecca spoke. ”Welcome to New York-Two, I guess? This is… well, weird. Air is breathable, people look generally the same, and everyone is freaking out.” It was a small victory; they could have emerged into a world of monsters. Unless the people shouting and running around were all cannibals, things seemed promising.

”I wonder if anyone on this side knows what the hell happened…” Rips in space-time did not just “happen.” There was a cause, and no one knew who or what it was yet.

Jesse saw his wife emerge from the rip, apparently unharmed and without anyone pursuing her. So far, so good. He saw her move to the side and pull out the hand mirror that was big enough for him to appear in. Jesse stepped over into the little window, the shift of perspective jarring as he looked up at her.

>>”Welcome to New York-Two, I guess? This is… well, weird. Air is breathable, people look generally the same, and everyone is freaking out.”

"So far, so good." Jesse smirked. From what he had seen, the place did not look more dangerous than their New York, but then again, appearances could be deceiving. "The mirrors are pretty much the same on my side. I did not see anyone like our SUPER agents around. Lots of cops, though. And... some robots?..."

>>”I wonder if anyone on this side knows what the hell happened…”

"My guess is no, but we can check their news. They gotta have a news channel right? Do you think there is a bar nearby, or should I hop into some apartments?"

It was strange, thinking about being in a wold where basic things, normal everyday things, might or might not exist. He had already seen some businesses he had never seen before. But people looked pretty much the same. That was a small comfort.

Jesse was an amazing partner for surveying a scene. Being able to hop from mirror to mirror in a large area gave quick information that could help change the scope of a mission. Back when they were still two of the only members of the team, Rebecca liked to keep Jesse on her squad. It was entirely tactical and definitely had nothing to do with the feelings that were growing for the changeling since their first encounter at the Met.

SUPER presence was apparent on their side of the Rip, but thankfully not noticeable in the new world. With Rebecca’s growing resentment toward the secret government organization, it would be a relief to know she was not dealing with Bizarro SUPER.

What inspired less confidence was the idea of robots patrolling the area. ”Robots,” she repeated, perturbed. ”Not that I’ve ever seen one, but I don’t think I like robots.” People were terrible, but most had some concept of empathy. Unless the robots of the new universe were different than the fictional expectations of cold, calculating robots, she wanted to stick to dealing with humans.

”Okay. Go into apartments or wherever you can get to a TV. I cannot imagine anything is going on that would matter more than this.” If a tear in reality was not enough of a priority to beat out the weather and traffic reports. ”I’ll see if I can play the scared pedestrian and get someone to talk to me. We don’t know exactly how different this world is, so this could be a good chance to find that out.”

With the plan in order, Rebecca tucked away her mirror and looked for someone she could strike up a panicked conversation with, curious to see if New Yorkers even spoke English in New York-Two.

>> ”Robots. Not that I’ve ever seen one, but I don’t think I like robots.”

"They did not look very friendly." Jesse agreed. He had seen people giving them a wide berth, and look at them funny. They were either not liked, or very new, and either way, they would have to make sure to keep a healthy distance from them, in case they could identify people, read genetics, or some other nasty, likely trick. Luckily, there were not too many of them around.

>>”Okay. Go into apartments or wherever you can get to a TV. I cannot imagine anything is going on that would matter more than this. I’ll see if I can play the scared pedestrian and get someone to talk to me. We don’t know exactly how different this world is, so this could be a good chance to find that out.”

"Okay. I'll be right back. Stay safe." Jesse smiled a little at his wife before he disappeared. Hopping from surface to surface, he made his way to a nearby apartment building. The first couple of apartments were empty and silent, but then he managed to find one that had the TV turned on. No sign of people - living this close to the rip, they must have fled. Jesse found a surface he could see the TV from.

A few minutes later, the mirrorwalker returned to the street, looking around to see what his wife was up to.

Looking for someone to talk to was proving to be a disappointment, because information on the ground was tragically limited. Conveniently, New York (and she presumed America) still spoke English. Well, in most cases anyway. Civilians on the ground were as panicked as she was pretending to be, and police were so concerned with containing the chaos, they had little care to know what was causing it. They did hastily tell her to contact the MRC, and when pressed on the acronym, an annoyed officer spelled it out as the Mutant-Related Crimes Division. That actual answered a major question right out of the gate: did this new world have mutants? The answer was decidedly yes.

Of course, time would tell if the MRC was a legitimate branch of the police or just a more brazen alternate version of SUPER.

Rebecca walked toward a business woman when she was surprised by an imposing robot. The machines were surprisingly nimble, and it was in her face by the time she registered what was going on.

Did she… did she just talk to it? ”Um, I’m sorry, I was—”

”HALT!”

There was an awkward pause. ”…Okay, haltin—“

”Anomaly detected! Mutation detected! X-Man detected! X-Man undetected!”

Well, the series of events was quickly catching Rebecca’s attention. She was an anomaly and a mutant, and the robot seemed aware of both things. That made enough sense; it stood to reason that the thing that would spur humans to create robots would be the fear of mutants. She was starting to feel almost personally responsible for the technological boom of the new millennium.

The more interesting thing to note was that the machine was calling her an X-Man. How did it know? There was no way information made it across the rift that quickly. The only logical answer was… an alternate universe team of X-Men?

Her heart would be jumping for joy if she was not facing off against an angry robot.

”X-Man incorrectly detected! Error! Individual impersonating a deputized individual! Further questioning required! The robot moved closer as Rebecca took a cautious step backward. ”Comply!”

Rebecca was not yet sure what was happening, but the last thing she wanted to do was comply…

Jesse's stomach sank as he returned just in time to see his wife being approached by one of the threatening-looking robots. He moved from a sop window to a car window to get a better angle, but since they were standing in the park, he could not get much close, unless he wanted to be in Becca's hand mirror, which was stowed away. Jesse swore, watching the events unfold. Judging from Becca's posture, the robot was definitely not being friendly.

>>”X-Man incorrectly detected! Error! Individual impersonating a deputized individual! Further questioning required! Comply!”

"B... Impact!" Jesse called out, placing his hands on the glass. Once again, he felt helpless; he could not really help Becca in any way, other than sticking with her wherever she was taken. He looked around frantically, trying to find a solution, or someone to talk to. Who the hell was in charge of these robots here anyway?...

Rebecca was not looking to make a scene in a new universe, particularly when it would mean outing herself as a mutant within her first hour there. The jury was still out on how the new world felt about mutants, but the robo-gestapo did little to ease her concerns. It seemed keen on apprehending Rebecca for being an X-Man, (or something, it was hard to parse through the confused robot’s words,) and she could not afford to be brought in for questioning and potential detainment.

As the machine loomed over her, Rebecca’s eyes started to glow green and blue, respectively. She was not looking to make things worse, but she saw no other choice.

”Stop!”

Rebecca’s head turned on a swivel, and the robot’s focus turned to the Scottish accented-voice as well. There was another redhead, roughly the same height as Rebecca, wearing a spandex outfit and a mask as she approached the scene. It would seem absurd to most, but warning bells were already going off in Rebecca’s head: was she looking at a member of the X-Men?

The robot did not accost her like it did Rebecca, but it did seem to stall like it was processing an intimidating amount of data. ”Bzzt! X-Men Designation: Lodestone. Anomaly detected—Genetic—”

---

”Okay, enaw wi’ th’ speciesist pish! Override, disregard, Ah’m handlin’ thes frae haur.” Lodestone understood the role of the Metabots, but she did not trust them. The history they represented was troubling, as was their penchant for occasionally short-circuiting. She was on crowd-control duty near the “Rip,” as the news was calling it, when she found another Metabot harassing a woman who appeared to be doing nothing wrong. Occasionally, she wondered if they were just programmed to be suspicious of mutants. (Then she reminded herself that, yes, that was pretty much exactly what they were programmed to do.)

”Override not advised, dangerous anomaly present!”

That was just laughable. Rebecca made a sweeping gesture in the direction of the hole in space. ”Aye, nae sh**. Override,” she repeated sternly. The Metabot recognized her as a deputized authority with some level of clearance, so it left the scene in her command.

With that issue out of the way, she could turn her focus to the woman; a fellow redhead who had an uncanny familiar look to her. ”Ah’m sorry, the Metabots can be a wee bit… overzealous at times. Ah hope it didne gie ye much trooble?”

With the robot out of the picture, the woman folded her arms across her chest, looking defiantly at Becca, which seemed a little ungrateful given what she had just done. ”Trouble? Nah, it just threatened to detain me for no reason.” Her English accent was immediately noticeable, since Becca had recently spent two years in London, where it clearly originated.

---

Rebecca was not ready to trust her “savior” or assume she was a member of the X-Men. There was no rule saying the good guys were the only ones who could wear spandex. For all she knew, the black and green color scheme, (which she failed to notice was oddly reminiscent of her own uniform’s colors,) could have been the SUPER uniform of the new universe. ”You two seemed chummy. Were you just looking to take me in yourself?”

Behind the domino mask, “Lodestone” seemed flustered, like she was not expecting to get a hard time from Rebecca. ”Ah’m sorry, whit? Ah was jist tryin’ tae step in an’ stop it frae—”

”Coz I’m not coming quietly, love.” she interrupted. ”Why don’t you tell me who the hell you are and what the hell those things are?” Rebecca finally found someone who might have answers for her, so she was done playing the scared, timid tourist.

Jesse watched helplessly as the scene unfolded. The robot was not backing down, and neither was Becca. He sucked in air as his wife's eyes began to glow; if she started blowing things up, especially if the pile of junk was police property or something, they were in big trouble, not to mention their cover being blown... but before Becca could fire, another redhead made an appearance. In what looked like an X-men uniform. Jesse stared.

The robot stepped down after the woman ordered it to, in a stern Scottish accent.

Jesse stared some more.

>>”You two seemed chummy. Were you just looking to take me in yourself?”

>>”Ah’m sorry, whit? Ah was jist tryin’ tae step in an’ stop it frae—”

They obviously did not see it.
How did they not see it?...

"Ummm..."

Another police car moved in and parked nearby. The moment the officers got out, Jesse hopped into one of its reflecting windows to get closer to the arguing women.

>>”Coz I’m not coming quietly, love. Why don’t you tell me who the hell you are and what the hell those things are?”

Up close, it was even more obvious.

"... huh."

Jesse knocked on the glass with a knuckle.

"Umm... Becca?"

Something about the rude English redhead was riling Becca up. Being an X-Man could often be a thankless job in the big picture, but on an individual basis, most people usually appreciated her help. Coming across someone who was immediately defensive was unexpected and it was hard not to shoot back. ”Who am Ah? Ah’m an X-Man—an X-Man who kept ye frae being dragged away! Ah’m nae sayin’ that deserves a thenk ye,” which it did, ”But mebbe tone doon th’ attitude?”

Of course, she was not so lucky. ”So you are an X-Man! Then tell me why the X-Men here work with those buckets of bolts?”

It was a sore subject since Rebecca was not a fan of Metabots being in the field, especially if it meant people might associate her with them. ”It’s… it’s complicated!”

”I bet!”

The two women who were normally confident and composed were devolving into catty bickering until their argument was interrupted with a knock on a police car window. The man on the other side(?) of the glass was getting the attention of Becca and the other woman. She was still so frustrated, she did not initially question why a stranger was calling her by name.

”WHAT?!”
”WHAT?!”

---

The chaos of the nearby crowds suddenly became the only sound as Rebecca and the X-Man both quietly let the moment sink in. Jesse called to her and she was not the only one to respond. The woman across from her was evidently also a Rebecca.

When she finally looked closer, Rebecca realized it was more than that. She did not just share a name with the masked woman—she was the masked woman. There were small differences. It was hard to tell behind the mask, but the woman might have been a little younger. Still, it was undeniable that she was looking into a snapshot of her own past.

”Becca. Becca… Grey?”

---

Okay, Becca was not ready for that. The man in the window, (and he was in the window,) had called out to the other redhead. She was Becca. They were Becca. Objectively, when she looked over the woman, she started to see the truth. Behind the tattoos and resting ***** face and… well, more noticeable features, they were eerily similar.

”…Yes. Becca Grey. Rebecca Grey. And…?” she almost asked, unsure of how to phrase the question.

Luckily, the older Rebecca understood. ”Rebecca Grey. Of the X-Men.”

Yes, Becca was meeting some alternate version of herself from the “new world” they were hearing about. She wanted to be an eloquent, professional representative of the X-Men on her side of the Rip, but her brain was still struggling to grasp how the woman in front of her could be real. ”Woah…” she said softly.

”Yeah…” the other Rebecca replied, clearly feeling the same shock.

Becca needed to look away from her doppelganger for a moment, just to make sure her mind did not explode processing the new information. Taking a break from the redhead, she finally allowed the man in the window to register properly. It was crazy, but if there was a second Rebecca, she might have had some understanding of who he was. He did not look like the guy who was one of her closest friends, but she did not know the rules, so she had to ask anyway. ”And... Gawain?”

>>”WHAT?!”
>>”WHAT?!”

Well, that decided it. Gawain motioned mutely at the two of them; he really had no idea what to say about seeing two of his wife - one version younger and more... um, Scottish, but definitely two of the same. Especially the attitude. He hoped that their reaction would stop the bickering and point out the obvious, and it did. He watched as realization dawned on two very similar faces.

>>”Becca. Becca… Grey?”

>>”…Yes. Becca Grey. Rebecca Grey. And…?”

>>”Rebecca Grey. Of the X-Men.”

"Hoooooly sh*t." Jesse finally found his voice, but not really his eloquence. Apparently, in this other New York, it was not only the buildings that were similar... but also the people. People had other versions. His wife had another version. Jesse ran a hand through his hair as they all kind of stared at each other for a while. Finally, Other Becca turned to acknowledge him in the car window.

>>”And... Gawain?”

Okay, so... no, that wasn't right. Could another version have another name? How did this even work? How was one Becca younger than the other? So many questions... Jesse blinked, then shook his head.

"Umm... Jesse. Jesse Grey. I'm the husband." he added, nodding towards Becca. This was gonna get complicated...

Becca was unsure what she was expecting. It was hard to expect anything after the bomb that was just dropped on her. There were going to be huge implications for the world going forward. Nevermind the multiple worlds theories; those were facts now. All that was big picture, but it was having a very real effect on her life. She had a near copy of herself differentiated in small ways over the course of a lifetime. It stood to reason Gawain might have the same.

The man in the window shook his head. This was not Gawain. His name was Jesse. Jesse Grey.

Alternate-her was married. Sure, Becca might have a couple of years to go to reach Rebecca’s age, but she was still unsure how to feel about that.

”Okay. Richt. Sorry, sorry. Ah dinnae hoo thes works. Bit Ah hae this friend. Thes bloke—weel, kin’ ay a bloke. Sometimes they’re a lass. An’ nae loch in th’ ‘gender fluidity’ way, but loch… th’ mutant way.” Becca was rambling, because she was trying not to screw up any details, and it was delaying her eventual point.

---

While the younger Becca tried to over-explain herself, Rebecca watched incredulously as the girl’s message was beginning to make sense (through that thick Scottish coating.) She interrupted the other version of herself, cautiously asking, ”Do you mean… this friend of yours is a shapeshifter, too?” It was hard to believe in coincidences when she was talking to a mirror of her past.

Becca looked from Rebecca to Jesse and back, shocked. ”Well, kinda? They hae tois shapes. Gawain an’ Maya.”

Rebecca was starting to put the pieces together, but she could not bring herself to make assumptions. It would hurt too much to be wrong. Becca was fixated on Jesse, but Rebecca still nervously asked, ”And this friend… why did you think Jesse was your friend, Gawain?”

Becca’s eyes stayed locked on Jesse’s as she stumbled to her answer. ”Weel… coz, um… Gawain… he can mirrorwalk, too.”

>>”Okay. Richt. Sorry, sorry. Ah dinnae hoo thes works. Bit Ah hae this friend. Thes bloke—weel, kin’ ay a bloke. Sometimes they’re a lass. An’ nae loch in th’ ‘gender fluidity’ way, but loch… th’ mutant way.”

>>”Do you mean… this friend of yours is a shapeshifter, too?”

>>”Well, kinda? They hae tois shapes. Gawain an’ Maya.”

A shapeshifter with only two faces? How did nature even come up with that? What was that even good for? Jesse blinked, trying to process the information. The girl thought that he was this other guy, but not because he looked like him, but the other guy was also a shifter, and sometimes a girl... For a moment, Jesse tried to imagine what it would be like to be a shifter, but still have his... or her... own face, own identity. Strange. It did not sound like the other guy was his evil twin, at least. Jesse got so caught up in the whole evil twin theory, still staring at his wife and his Scottish-not-wife, that it was up to Becca in the end to ask the obvious question.

>>”And this friend… why did you think Jesse was your friend, Gawain?”

>>”Weel… coz, um… Gawain… he can mirrorwalk, too.”

The world turned over and reeled out of focus. It was more disorienting than going through the vortex. Jesse leaned forward, both hands on the window from the inside.

"What... what did you just say?"