There Are No X-Men

Following talking to Adrian, and a few other people, Nori figured it was time to head back to her own world. It's been a while, and she's not entirely sure she's ready to, but if she doesn't actually open the door she knows she probably won't ever. The idea of her world being stuck in limbo is more unnerving than relieving, actually, however much she would have thought it'd be a nice reprieve.

But so many things happen while she's away that she didn't even look for a door; they find more information on the infant they've been looking for, and Nori organizes them as best she can to infiltrate a Purifier church. It backfires horribly, and though they all survive the encounter with the Reavers and Deathstrike, Nori knows it's not because of her. It's because of Pixie and her quick thinking to teleport them all out. The school is attacked by the O.N.E Sentinels, and they don't lose anyone--Nori almost thinks thank god, but she can't bring herself to believe there is one to thank anymore.

Or not one worthy of it, anyway. As much as she hates Keller sometimes, she can't stand the idea that he was hurt because of her, but there's next to nothing she can do about it after the fact. Emma tells her the important thing is that they're surviving: Noriko wonders, just for a second, if it's worth it to survive when the cost is so high.

The next thing Nori remembers clearly is being faced with a beast she can't even identify, but one that's huge and has more teeth and claws than she wants to think about. She ordered the rest of the kids away without thinking, yelling at them to move before she lost her temper, already trying to focus the predator's attention on her alone. It worked, at least, though only for a while. And it didn't help that they got it away from the noncombatant children when they were all teleported to Muir Island in the middle of a bigger fight there. It took a lot to kill the animal--if you could really call it an animal. She recalls that much. But the thing that overshadows all of that, that overshadows everything, is the fight between Sinister, Exodus and the Marauders and the X-Men.

It could have gone worse, she supposes--no one's dead on her roster, anyway. She's hurt, and she's got scratches and blood and god only knows what else all over her, and the gauntlet on her right arm is dinged up pretty badly, but she's alive. She's alive to hear Cyclops say there are no more X-Men, and in hindsight that's a shock she's completely unequipped to deal with. Nori's devoted her life since she came to the Institute to being an X-Man, to fighting the good fight and making sure that the kids younger than her will have a future that isn't being pushed to the fringes of society. And now all that was gone too. It was like being kicked out of her home all over again.

But she makes it to Colorado with Dani, the only person she could think to trust long enough to stay with. She supposes the rest will be peaceful; she hopes it will be. Dani's got a lot to teach her, Nori knows that, she's just not sure if any of it will be any good to her. Whens he discovers the door to the linen closet leads to Milliways, it takes her less than a second to decide to step through. She feels bone tired, and while she's clean (moderately) of all the mess that was on her only a few hours ago from her perspective, from Muir Island, she's still taking care of the injuries. She finds a table only a few steps from the door, and drops onto it.