Part 2:
Hours later Illyana had just teleported Scott, Emma, the Cuckoos, and Angle to the new school. Just after the teleport Illyana had screamed in agony and the strange flames had reappeared around her. Again she fled to her room.
The Cuckoos looked at each other, mentally and physically, and took a mental look-see at Illyana. They were surprised to find that her shields were gone. Illyana's mental shields had always been the toughest ever encountered by any telepath. No telepath, not even Xavier, had ever come close to reading her mind unless she allowed it. Most mental shields are visualized as a stone or iron wall when viewed allegorically at certain mental visualizations. The strength of the wall being relative to the mental strength of the person attempting to shield their mind.
In the allegorical framework, a telepath trying to gain access would attempt to breach the wall by finding a crack, visualize a door in the wall, or just blast it down. Such approaches did not work with Illyana. Her allegorical wall, as it were, was a distant endless gray field of mist with no reference point. A telepath would find themselves hovering in air with the indistinct grey going on infinitely in all directions. No matter where the telepath tried create a reference point the grey was forever out of reach. An endless horizon; with no point of reference or indication of scale. You did not know if you were conceptually five feet from the surface or five million miles. No one knew how Illyana created such a complete and absolute block and Illyana never explained to any telepath who asked. Interestingly this block was active while both awake, asleep, and unconscious so the source of the block was likely partially magic related.
One rather nasty side affect, for a telepath, was that Illyana could completely vanish from a telepath's mental sight whenever she wished. This could be very disconcerting as all telepaths come to rely upon the sensing of mental emanation as a kind of second sight or sound. Having such ability allows you just know that somebody is in the living room before you walk into it. Many telepaths were frequency surprised to find Illyana in a room that they thought was empty as they over relied upon their mental sense.
This mental blind spot combined with the inability to read Illyana's mind made her unconformable to most telepaths. In addition, Illyana 2.0 always felt odd mentally when Illyana was not attempting to block the ability to sense her presence. With mental sensing alone a telepath would feel a large indistinct dark presence. Think of ominous music playing in a horror film. This presence tended to creep out most telepaths, as their eyes would show an attractive young woman while their mental sense would project an entity whose size was much larger but indistinct and hidden.
But at this moment all the shielding were gone. Illyana's mind was wide open.
The Cuckoos cautiously took a cursory look. The mental picture was one of Illyana sitting upon an endless field of gray dusty ground. The sky was a deep blue to black, almost dark. No sun is visible. Illyana's soul sword is on the ground in front of her. She is just staring at the ground looking somewhat sad and concerned. Circling in front of her, over her sword, are various spheres. The spheres represent various memories that she is examining.
One sphere shows a young girl playing on a farm.
One shows what had just happened on her initial fight with Dormmanu.
Another keeps changing as it shows various people and events from her past (Peter, Kitty, Lockheed, New Mutants).
The final one is shows two images replaying over and over; one side showing Illyana 1.0 death/suicide in closing limbo, the other showing her resurrection/creation/torture by Belasco.
The Cuckoos dipped into her thoughts. Illyana has two main two main thought streams going. The first was mostly just emotional. Raw fear and terror overlaid with an endless panicked chanting "OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap...". The other thought stream was Illyana trying to make sense of what was happening to her.
"That was not possible".
"I'm not possible".
"I should be dead, why am I not dead"?
"OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
"I was summoned , summoned like some enslaved demon".
"I was bound, he had me, then he killed me, but it didn't work".
"It's just like when Belasco created me".
"Did he create me"?
"Did he resurrect me without a soul or am I something totally different"?
"What am I, how am I"?
"OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
"Everything's different, what happened, why do I feel this way"?
"By the abyss I feel, feel so much, so scared".
"I want my brother, I want to just run and hide".
"Want my brother, want him want him want him".
"Not worthy of his love, not worthy, No No No, not worthy"!
"OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
"Limbos broken, how is that possible"?
"Crumbling, it's crumbling, just like me".
"Broken, I'm broken just like the others, my powers aren't working right".
"How is that even possible"?
"OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
'Not fair, not fair. I felt so good, first time ever, not fair not fair not fair ".
"A hell lord, everything he had, didn't work, what does that mean"?
"No one to help me, no one to care, what to do, what what WHAT"!
"All my friends gone. Oh Gods what have I been doing"?
"OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
"Dormmanu took limbo, summoned me, tried to kill me, did not work".
"What am I"?
"Yana"!
I'm Yana!. No I was Darkchilde. Was. Now I am me"?
"All. All that he had and it didn't work"!
"OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
"Then She was here, but she wasn't really,, it was still just me".
"Transcendent rage and hate fleshed in a burning form".
"What was that? What was I"?
"What am I"?
"Should have died, didn't die. There are worse things then dying, no No No NO"
"OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
"Felt so good to hurt him, sword was a burning icon of rage, felt good"
"Hate Him, hate him. Not again, no not again. Shards not that AGAIN"!
"Run run run run run, never stop running".
"No where to run, nowhere to hide. Alone".
OhCrap OhCrap OhCrap".
The Cuckoos retreated from the thought streams. Illyana was different, no longer just the Darkchilde aspect of Illyana 1.0 who had gained three fifths of the former Illyana's soul. Now just pure Illyana.
As the Cuckoos turned to answer Mrs. Frosts questions they thought "So that's what she looks like with all the lights on; don't think their ever going to turn off now".