FicWad

Three Years Later
Kitty scrolled Fictionpress.com, trying to find something to take her mind off current events. Apocalypse had risen from his sleep just last month. The Professor was searching for a solution, but so far none had been found. Idly staring over the summaries, she found one that caught her eye and clicked on it.
"My friend started this story several years ago, before her death. I recently found the notes she'd lent me, and continued it. Here is more in her story, Mutant's Rising."
Kitty blinked as she read through it. The entire first part was the same, but nearly ten chapters had been added. Standing up, she grabbed her laptop and ran up to the Professor's office.

Professor Xavier and Ororo drove down the street to McKenzie's house. The Professor's eyes were narrowed slightly, his brow furrowed in anger. They got out, ringing the bell and waiting several moments before it was pulled open. McKenzie stared down at them.
"Hello," she said shortly.
"Hello. May we come in?" the Professor asked. "Do you remember when we came three years ago?"
"Yes," McKenzie said as Ororo closed the door behind the Professor.
"Why did you lie to us? You have Alice's notes?"
She turned around, irritated. "Well, I'm so sorry for forgetting that I had those notes. See, there was that little thing of my best friend dying. Next time I won't let it get in the way," she pointed toward the door. "If you would please excuse me, I have chores to do."
"May we see the notes?"
McKenzie glared at the two of them for a moment before shrugging. "Take them and be gone. I've got them all on my computer anyway," she ran upstairs to retrieve them, coming back downstairs a moment later with a packet of folded and dog-eared papers.
"Thank you," Ororo said politely as she opened the door.
McKenzie watched them troop down the walk in silence. "You're not welcome," she muttered, slamming the door.

Irene sat back in her chair, sipping her tea calmly. "I saw her, yes," she told Professor Xavier. "I knew she had died in the fire. However, by the time I had seen it, it was too late to stop." She set down her cup of tea in the saucer. People died all the time, in her visions or out. She had seen her own death once. It could not be helped.
"But McKenzie's story? The one she wrote from Alice's notes?"
"It could be accurate, or it could not be. I don't know, Charles. If you're looking for a solution to how to fight Apocalypse... I don't know what to tell you. I have not seen anything you would find helpful."
Professor Xavier nodded, wheeling forward to go. "Thank you, Irene, for your help."
"Your welcome," she paused, reaching around in her drawer and withdrawing some old newspaper clippings, which she handed to him. "Here, take these."
"From the Obituary?"
"Yes."
There was a brief silence.
"Thank you, Irene."

Ororo shook her head sadly as she went over the notes one last time. The writing was small and loopy, but clearly legible. She could only imagine what the girl had been like. The girl in the fuzzy black and white obituary picture grinned up at her.
"She must have been lucky," Ororo spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully. "If she were that powerful of a precognitive, she could easily have seen her own death."
"She did," Professor Xavier said, turning toward Ororo, his eyebrows raised. Ororo merely blinked for a moment, shocked. "She misinterpreted the vision. It's the one thing in McKenzie's story that never came true," Xavier went on.
"The burning of the Brotherhood house," Ororo breathed.
"Yes," Xavier nodded. "That one event never happened. Her luck lay in that she did not interpret it correctly."
Ororo shook her head sadly. "Or curse."
"Neophyte's serendipity," Xavier informed her with a weary smile. "Beginner's luck. If she had realized what the vision meant - who knows, it might have driven her mad. Dreaming her own death, not knowing whether she was foretelling the future or not..."
"No, not neophyte's serendipity," Ororo objected. "Author's serendipity."