A/N: this is a cross-over story from an AU X-Men 'verse set just after X2. The OC characters apart from a few are based on characters from an X-Men RP site (link on profile). I own nothing (except Linnie for now)! Oh, and if any of the words in Linnie's words seem odd, they're probably Geordie words as she is one.

Lindsay Ford stared at the darkened road ahead of her. She was heading for JFK airport and a flight first to Dubai, then London and then 'home' to Newcastle in North-Eastern England. The past few months had been exhausting and hectic and she'd finally managed to beg a few weeks holiday off Willow Brians, the new headmistress of Xavier's. Her mind flashed back over the awful train of events that had lead her and the others to this point.

First, the call from Xavier. It had come a few months back, shortly after her dishonourable discharge from the British army and she'd been at an all time low. The invitation to attend a meeting with him and several other mutants had been tendered. An invitation she'd accepted warily.

Second, the meeting itself, Xavier laying out his plans to form a safehouse for mutants and requesting their assistance as he took sips from his dratted china teacup. He sat their waiting for their choice, so damn impassive, no doubt reading their decisions from their minds. Linnie had decided to stay, once again with caution.

Third, Xavier's death. Linnie had seen people die before, but for some reason, Xavier's humiliating demise by poison had been burned into her memories forever. The convulsions that had wracked through his dying frame. The two announcements made by her new colleague Willow Brian: 'Dead' and 'Arsenic'.

Fourth, trying to run the school. There'd been so much to do. Things that needed fixing – the DR room for example. Rooms needed fixing up for the kids. Provisions for most eventualities needed to be brought in and made. Lessons needed to be taught.

Fifth, getting the DR up and running, running a sim, only to be nearly decapitated by a robot. The faint scar from that incident ran down her collar bone and was still visible in most lights. Linnie rubbed at it absently as she drove, eyes fixed on the road ahead of her, trying to stay awake.

Finally, only two short weeks ago the "official" funeral for Xavier. The disastrous funeral at which Ray Black had revealed his duplicity and the school had been attacked. The students were still recovering, and Linnie felt bad leaving but she needed some time away. She wasn't academic like the other teachers, she needed times where she could escape.

Ahead of her a red light appeared. Linnie blinked tiredly at it, not really registering its meaning. Another car appeared directly in front of her.

"Shit!" Linnie jerked completely awake, swerving the pick-up she was driving off the road and right into a tree.

She hissed as the seatbelt jerked tightly around her rib cage. For a moment she just sat there, hands on the steering wheel, staring at the tree that had tried to murder her. (Or rather, the tree she'd tried to murder with her car). Then, her startled mind settled into gear and she tried the door handle and seatbelt simultaneously. One out of two worked, but no the one she would've preferred. The seat belt she could have cut away, the door was a little harder to manoeuvre.

A sigh escaped Linnie's lips. She'd have to shift and try the back doors. She closed her eyes, summoning the image of her cobra form in her mind's eye. A few minutes later she reformed in the back seat, venom dripping from her still present fangs. She forced them to morph back into her human teeth. The door (thankfully) opened and she tumbled to the grass. Groaning, she pushed herself to her feet and stumbled over to the front of the pick-up. It took her all of three seconds to realize she wasn't getting to the airport any time soon.

Linnie pulled out her phone and hit speed-dial five as she wandered back towards the road.

"Hello, Xavier's Institute," the phone was answered. "How can I help you?"

"Get Wi- Miss Brians," Linnie corrected herself.

"Who?"

"Willow Brians. You know-"

"There's no-one of that name here."

"This is Xavier's Institute in Westchester right?"

"Correct," the voice was distinctly cold.

"She's the damn headmistress."

"No, that would be Professor Xavier."

Linnie laughed hollowly at that sick joke. "Very funny. I don't think. He's dead."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone in which Linnie could hear people talking quietly on the other end.

"Alright," the voice came back female, slight accent, was she African? "Where are you?"

"Um…" Linnie took a moment to digest the question before reeling out her position.

"Stay right there. We're coming to get you."

"Right. I'll be here."

She hung up.

"Where the hell am I going to go with a crashed pick-up?"

The lack of light was getting on her nerves. Sighing again she headed back to the pick-up to grab her stuff. She'd been driving in a thin wool jumper and was feeling particularly cold-blooded.

It was twenty minutes later when Linnie heard a car engine. She stepped up to the side of the road, one hand curling around the switchblade in her pocket. This didn't seem to be her world, she didn't know who these people were or what they were like.

Storm wasn't sure what she'd been expecting at the other end of the phone and she wasn't entirely sure that this was it. The dark-haired, tanned woman stood at the roadside in jeans and a combat jacket looked cautious as Storm and Logan stepped out of the car. Logan was clearly on the verge of unleashing his claws.

"Talk first, then fight," Storm hissed, on edge from this woman apparently from another world – after all, this woman thought Xavier was dead and he certainly wasn't. "And only if we have to."

"The 'Xavier Contingent' I presume?" the English accented voice from the woman called almost easily, there was a sound of careful vigilance in it.

"Indeed," Storm smiled, stepping forward in front of Logan. "I'm Ororo Munroe. This is Logan."

"Lindsay Ford," the woman introduced herself, pushing a strand of her hair back behind her ear, hand sliding out of her pocket.

"Can I ask what happened here?"

"I don't know. All I know is that one sec, I'm driving to JFK, absolutely wiped out, then I see this red light…it didn't register properly…then this car comes at me, I swerved to avoid it, right into that tree."

'Lindsay' jerked her head at the pick-up crashed into the tree.

"That's when I called…well you guys. I meant to call Willow, but I guess we're not in me own world anymore."

Linnie noted that she'd said 'me' as opposed to 'my' a bad habit that Willow had been trying to drill out of the Geordie woman.

"We think that you have been transported across worlds yes," Storm nodded. "You're welcome to come back to the mansion while we try to figure things out."

Lindsay considered that point. Then she nodded. "Yeah. That sounds like a plan."

Professor Charles Xavier was waiting impatiently for Storm and Logan to return. When Storm had told him what the woman on the other end of the phone had said he had instantly ordered her to go and pick the poor woman up. He had a feeling that she was going to be something else.

The door opened and Logan and Storm walked in with a dark-haired woman with unusual hazel-gold eyes. She stared at him, before taking a deep breath.

"Well…" she stated her voice just the calm side of panic. "This is a surprise. For a dead man you've got a definite aliveness."

"Welcome to Xavier's Miss Ford," Xavier greeted her.