True Believers: Part Three
Askani cursed as she saw Wisdom struck down. Fool! she raged at herself. She should have known the boy would find her. Whatever can go wrong, will, as the Mother Askani so often said.
#I mean you no harm!# she projected as forcefully as she could. But all she touched was the hard, cold blankness of an impenetrable shield. He was determined not to give her the slightest opportunity.
"You all hate me," he said wildly, an almost lost look in his eyes. "You think I'm some kind of mistake, that I'm not supposed to exist!" He hovered there, staring down at her accusingly. "What gives you the right?"
She considered his question very carefully, knowing that a great deal depended on how she answered, and how he reacted. "Knowledge," she finally said, and felt a strength beyond her own fill her, swelling up like an unstoppable force. The collective consciousness of the Sisterhood spoke through her, and her apprehension melted away as if it had never been. "I have seen the future, Nate Grey. Potential timelines where you become the destroyer of our hope--"
"Stop speaking in riddles, witch!" he snarled, drifting down to the floor. She kept her defenses up, knowing he was still hovering at the verge of violence. "I'm not Cable! You don't have me brainwashed into mindless obedience to your crazy religion--"
Askani couldn't help but laugh. "Linking Dayspring with the concept of mindless obedience just shows how little you know him, boy." She frowned, detecting a great deal of resentment and envy from him. Directed at Dayspring? How very odd--and possibly useful.
"Stop trying to analyse me!" he hissed, apparently reading her thoughts. "Why are you after me? You tried to get Cable to kill me--did you finally get tired of using him to do your dirty work?"
What? Askani stared at him, appalled. "I know nothing about that. You must be mistaken. Dayspring would never--"
"Liar!" he bellowed, and lashed out with his telekinesis. She deflected it off her own shield, but the impact staggered her. "I heard Blaquesmith with my own ears! He wanted Cable to kill me, kept hammering at him to do it--"
"Blaquesmith," Askani muttered distractedly. "No, it cannot be--" But it could, she realized in horror. Blaquesmith had always been one of the fundamentalists at heart, more inclined to Sanctity's way of thinking despite his close emotional bond to the Mother Askani. But to involve Dayspring in such a business Bright Lady, the risk! Askani thought in disbelief. How had Blaquesmith dared to jeopardize his mission in such a way?
"I did not come here for you," she finally said, putting aside all extraneous thoughts. Nevertheless, there would be a reckoning when she returned to the Sisterhood, that was certain. The Mother Askani would not long tolerate such behaviour. "I ended up in your home by accident, boy, you must believe me! I came to help Dayspring--"
"I don't believe you!" he snarled, lashing out again. This time her shield didn't hold. Fortunately, even in collapse, it slowed the attack, giving her time to get out of range. Breathing heavily, she hid behind a pile of crates, fighting to get back her composure. But she was getting steadily angrier at the boy with every passing moment. His current mental state was no excuse for this sort of behavior. Did he have no self-control at all? She had offered him no threat, and yet he was treating her like the deadliest of enemies.
"Truthfully, your belief matters little to me personally, boy," she said harshly. "But will you take the chance that I speak the truth? If I do not help him, he will certainly die." She felt a flicker of uncertainty from him, and pressed her advantage ruthlessly. "This is but one in a long series of trials he must face. And it is not one he can survive without my assistance."
"You mean without you manipulating him!" Nate Grey suddenly exploded. "God forbid he should ever be free to live his life as he chooses! That would really screw up your master plan, wouldn't it?"
Askani reached down into one of the pouches on her belt. "Your words could almost fool me into thinking you care about Dayspring," she said through gritted teeth. "How very ironic, considering what you end up doing to him in a myriad of different timelines. Maybe even this one, if you continue on this reckless, self-destructive path." She couldn't help the half-hysterical laugh that burst from her then, as she consciously chose to break her Sisterhood's most central law and reveal future events to one who would play a central role in shaping them. But she saw no alternative--there was no way she could defeat him in psi-combat. Her only chance was to distract him. "Tell me, boy, do you think you will weep for him when he dies at your hands?"
"SHUT UP!" he screamed, and Askani hit the ground again as the crates she was leaning against exploded. But she'd found what she needed in her belt pouch, and as she rolled back to her feet and saw the boy hurtling towards her, glowing with an energy nimbus that rivaled the Phoenix effect, she pulled the pin on the neural-concussion grenade and threw it at him.
It flashed, brighter even than the energy surrounding the boy, and he fell from the air like a stone. Askani sighed, falling to her knees. She watched the boy's sprawled body for a moment, but he didn't move. Even for such as him, the effects of the grenade should last about an hour.
Time enough to let her and Wisdom get where they needed to be. She rose to her feet, and went over to check on Wisdom. He was still unconscious, but as she mind-touched him lightly, she gave another sigh, this time of relief, as she realized he was not badly hurt.
Praise the Lady. For whatever he claims, he is of the Clan, just as much as I am. Coming on his memories of Dayspring, she smiled in startled pleasure. It is good to see that Dayspring was not without compassion, even in his dark years. Another thing to throw in Sanctity's face when I return.
Askani closed her eyes, arranging the image of the Source in her mind yet again. This time she wanted to make absolutely sure of her destination. She'd lost enough time already.
#Take the boy as well,# she heard a familiar voice say in her mind. Askani's eyes flew open, and she looked around wildly.
"Mother?" she inquired, shaken. "You had said you would not speak to me once I had made the passage."
#Rules were meant to be broken, child.# The Mother Askani's voice was strangely ironic. # Ask Nathan about it, when you see him. He's become quite an expert at constructive anarchy. Sometimes, I must admit, I do see Sanctity's point.#
"But why must I take the boy? Surely it is dangerous, to bring them into such close contact--"
#Understanding is not required,# the Mother Askani said severely. # Then again, I don't train you and your sisters to take orders blindly. Put simply, we have a branch point, here. If you leave the boy, you'll miss an opportunity to head off the sequence of events you taunted him with. Which would be a good set of timelines to eliminate, I think we can all agree--#
Askani shuddered. "Truly, I hope it may be so, Mother."
#As do I, daughter. G'journey.# The Mother Askani's voice was gone from her mind, as quickly as it had appeared. Askani sighed, and rose slowly to her feet. She suddenly felt weak, unsteady. Even in the hours she'd spent waiting for Wisdom, she hadn't managed to get any rest, being too concerned with screening herself from Apocalypse's minions. The passage itself had been more than wearying, and all this teleporting and fighting on top of it--
Telling herself sternly to stop whining, Askani teleported, taking both Wisdom and Nate Grey with her.
***
Logan looked down at the unmistakable signs of a hurried passage across the clearing. "Very sloppy, doc," he said dryly. "I'm disappointed in you."
He could smell Cecilia's fear. It was mingled with a good deal of indignation, too. She'd been furious at him for insisting on this little exercise, but it was time she learned that there was more to being an X-Man than immuring herself in the medlab. She was getting to be as bad as Hank that way.
Logan had to admit that some of his motives were selfish ones, too. He was worried about this new problem with Cable, and he needed to distract himself, at least until the Blackbird got back from Alaska. Unlike Scott and Jean, he'd never considered that these temporal waves might not be real; he didn't have that luxury, after witnessing such a potent demonstration of Nate's chronal-variant powers in Alberta. Bishop had nearly let the whole thing slip last night, trying to explain why he thought that Nate would be more sensitive to chronal energy. Logan had covered quickly with a glib comment about Nate being a 'frequent flier', and even Jean had been fooled.
He sighed. One had to wonder if the decision he and Bishop had made, to conceal the visions of the future they'd seen in Alberta, had really been wise. But explaining them would have meant revealing what Rachel had told him about his own future. He cringed at the idea. How would he tell Scott and Jean that their daughter had informed him that he was 'fated' to sacrifice his life for their son in some way or another? Not to mention how Nate, who started frothing at the mouth whenever anyone spoke the word 'destiny' around him, was liable to react. Shit, he was having more than a little trouble dealing with the idea himself!
Forcing his thoughts away from that particular subject, he concentrated on tracking Cecilia. She was moving pretty fast, he noticed with some approval. Then again, he'd known she was in good shape. Most young doctors had to be, to survive their profession.
Moving too fast, maybe. She was leaving a trail that practically screaming 'This way!' Logan grinned and continued to stalk her.
Getting close, he thought after a moment. Hope she doesn't take it too badly
Light flashed ahead of him, so brilliant that it overloaded his enhanced vision for a moment. He cursed, reeling backwards and instinctively popping his claws.
No one attacked him, though, and as his vision cleared, his jaw nearly hit the ground in surprise. Two people were lying on the ground a short distance away, unconscious. One was Nate Grey. The other he had only ever seen in the pictures Kitty had sent him just after New Year's. He'd figured that his first meeting with Pete Wisdom would be interesting, but he hadn't thought that the kid would end up unconscious before they'd had their little talk.
The third new arrival was a young woman he'd never met before. But even without the Phoenix tattoo on her forehead, he would have recognized the uniform she wore instantly. It was nearly identical to what Rachel had worn in the vision of Ebonshire he, Bishop, and Sinister had seen in Alberta. He wondered for a moment what had brought another Askani back through time--and wondered even more why she was in this particular company. But he put such questions aside, noticing with concern that she was ghost-pale and swaying visibly on her feet.
"Hey there, darlin'," he said hesitantly. "You all right?" She stared at him for a moment, her expression blank, as if she didn't understand what he was saying.
Then her knees buckled, and she started to collapse. He lept forward and caught her before she could hit the ground. She was so light, it was like holding a ghost in his arms.
She stared up at him, a plea in both eyes, the real and the artificial. "Please!" she gasped out. "The--boy--"
"Nate?"
"Y-yes." Her eyes closed, and for a moment he thought she'd passed out. But then she seemed to gather her strength, and looked back up at him urgently. "You h-have to restrain him--somehow. He is--not well--a danger to himself and us--"
Logan raised an eyebrow. "What else is new?" he asked almost ironically. "Kid's a walking natural disaster. But don't worry about it now, just rest." For some reason, he was suddenly feeling very protective towards this slip of a girl. All his instincts were telling him that she could be trusted.
She smiled at him almost hesitantly, a smile of such sweetness that his heart skipped a beat. Then she gave a sigh and closed her eyes. He laid her carefully on the ground, then stood up and bellowed Cecilia's name.
It wasn't long before the young doctor appeared. "Giving up?" she asked sarcastically, then gasped as she saw that Logan had company. "Good Lord! What happened?" she asked, hurrying over.
"Not sure," he growled as he watched her take the Askani girl's pulse. "They teleported in--"
"Logan! Dr. Reyes!"
"Over here, Guthrie!" Logan bellowed. Sam must have spotted the flash from the teleport. In moments, Cannonball was blasting towards them through the woods. Logan winced as he saw that Sam was carrying both Kitty and Dana. Dana's presence was welcome, but he wasn't sure how Kitty was going to react.
"Pete!" Kitty gasped, running over to Wisdom's side as soon as Sam sat her down. "My God, Logan, what happened?" Seeing Nate, she went even paler. "Where did they come from?"
Logan was gratified to see that Dana kept her cool. She gave all three unconscious new arrivals a measuring look, and then knelt down beside Wisdom, her hands already glowing as she reached out and touched his face.
"He'll be all right," she said to Kitty after a moment. The glow from her hands faded. "He'll wake up with a headache, but that'll just make him a little crankier than usual." She looked up at Cecilia, frowning. "There doesn't seem to be anything physically wrong with the other two--" She suddenly blinked, and looked more closely at Nate Grey. "Holy shit! Who the hell is this?"
"Another long story, darlin'," Logan growled.
"He looks like Cable!"
"He is, Dana," Sam said. "In a way, ah mean--"
Logan growled. He didn't like Nate Grey, and he didn't particularly feel like discussing him at the moment. "Sam, take the kid and lock him in the Z'nox chamber."
"Sir?"
"Don't argue with me, boy!" Logan said sharply. Sam gave him a look like a puppy who'd just been kicked, and Logan sighed. He would have said more, but Pete Wisdom suddenly groaned, and everyone's attention switched to him.
"What the hell--" Wisdom muttered in a slurred voice, and then noticed Kitty leaning over him. "Pryde?" He was obviously dazed, but the sudden light in his eyes as he looked up at her made Logan feel more than a little kindly towards him. Kitty smiled down at Wisdom, tears on her cheeks.
"Take it easy, Pete," Dana said softly. "It's a good thing you've got a hard head."
"Stuff it, Hawkes," Pete grumbled, but gave her a grateful smile as Kitty helped him sit up. Dana acknowledged it with a nod. He looked around, clearly more than a little disoriented. Then he saw Nate Grey lying beside him. "Gaah!"
"Easy, Pete!" Kitty said sharply, reaching out to support him as he tried to back away.
"Easy? Bloody hell, Pryde, the kid was trying to kill me and--" He suddenly grabbed her arm. "Askani!" he said frantically. "What happened to Askani?"
"She's right here, Wisdom," Logan growled. Wisdom looked over at him, and turned a shade paler. Logan grunted in amusement. "Don't look at me that way, kid. Contrary to popular belief, I don't eat Kitty's boyfriends."
Wisdom didn't look particularly reassured. Muttering something under his breath, he crawled over to Askani's side. "I don't know what happened between the two of them, but it must've been too much for her," he said, sounding so worried that Logan gave him a sharp look, reassessing him. "She was looking pretty wan earlier--"
"Hold on a minute, Wisdom," Logan said gruffly. "Guthrie? Do I need to repeat myself? The kid. The Z'nox chamber. Now."
"Yes, sir!" Sam said quickly, hauling Nate Grey up off the ground and blasting back towards the mansion. Logan turned back to Wisdom.
"All right, spill it. According to what Kitty told me, you used to work for Black Air. I may be an old cynic, but that makes you about the last person I'd expect to find hanging out with an Askani."
Logan was amused to see anger flash in Wisdom's eyes. "I don't owe you any explanations, old man." Kitty gasped, and Pete gave her a brief, repentant look. "Sorry, Kitty, but I can't explain right now. Not until I clear it with--" He cut himself off, giving Logan a hard look, and Logan almost laughed, starting to understand what was going on.
Kid's got guts--good. "Clear it with who, Wisdom?" he asked, although he had a pretty good idea already.
Dana shook her head quizzically. "Guys, I hate to break up this--fascinating conversation, but shouldn't we get--ah, Askani inside?" She blinked. "Doesn't she have a name?"
"Not that she'd tell me," Wisdom growled. "Secretive, cryptic--bloody woman's a female version of--" He abruptly shut his mouth, and Logan almost laughed, positive now that he knew who Wisdom was involved with. Wisdom gave him a sharp look. "I should just have my mouth sewn shut," he grumbled. He tried to get up, but lost his balance almost instantly. "Bloody hell," he muttered. "Give me a hand, Kitty? I feel like my head's about to fall off."
***
"You did WHAT?" Jean exclaimed. Domino met her eyes without the slightest hesitation.
"I think you heard what I said, Jean."
Appalled, Jean glanced sideways at Scott and Bishop as they disembarked from the Blackbird and joined her. They'd landed only a minute or two earlier, to find Domino and Deborah waiting out here for them. Domino's explanation of what had happened since they'd last spoke had been terse and to the point, but Jean still thought there was something a little too surreal about this whole situation. She took a deep breath--and a couple more for good measure.
"And why, precisely, did you find it neccessary to knock him out and drug him?" Jean sighed, rubbing at her temples. She could feel another headache starting already. "When I told you to keep him here, I didn't think you'd go to the length of actually assaulting him."
The corner of Domino's mouth twitched in a humorless half-smile. "I didn't plan it, Jean. Just about broke my damned hand doing it, too. But to me, it looked like he was right on the verge of another Phoenix manifestation."
"What?" Bishop said sharply. Scott merely gaped. "Are you sure, Domino?"
"Logan described what happened in Alberta in detail, Bishop. I wasn't positive, but I didn't think I should take any chances." She looked at Jean. "The temporal waves are real, Jean. Deborah and I both saw it. Nate constructed this--energy web, and as soon as the wave hit it, it became visible." She shuddered. "It was horrible. More powerful than you could imagine. Even with the Phoenix-energy to draw on, he couldn't hold it off for more than a minute or so."
Jean shook her head. "From the sounds of it, a psi-scan would definitely be in order." She let Domino and Deborah lead them inside. Nathan was lying on the couch in the central room of the house, blissfully oblivious to the world.
She winced, and looked over at Domino. "Do you have any idea how furious he's going to be with you?" Just thinking about it was enough to make her wish herself on the other side of the galaxy. Maybe Lilandra wouldn't mind if I stopped in for a visit
Scott, who had been speaking quietly with his grandfather, suddenly appeared at her side. "Jean?" he asked. "I think you need to know how Nate was acting before this all happened." She glanced sideways at him, and he offered the information through their psi-link. Jean's eyes widened.
"Phillip," she said to the older Summers, "ordinarily I wouldn't ask this, but would you let me--"
"Of course," Phillip said quickly, before she could even finish her sentence. A smile spread slowly across his face. "I trust you, Jean."
Jean smiled at him, and then went over and gave him a careful hug. "And I love you, Phillip Summers." As gently as she could, she reached into his mind and searched for the memories of that recent conversation.
She saw Nathan's confused, irrational behaviour, and shared Phillip's insight. It touched off a rage she personally had never felt. Cold, relentless, it was an emotion more popular with both of the alternate selves whose memories she carried.
"Damn them!" she spat, afraid she knew exactly what had caused Nathan's behaviour. Everyone seemed taken aback by her rage. Scott took a step towards her, but she gave him a warning look and he backed off. Cursing to herself, she stalked back over the couch and stared down at Nathan. His shields were down to almost nothing again, so it was simplicity itself to scan his mind deeply. And at such a level, the compulsion was clearly visible.
Compulsions, plural! Jean's senses reeled at what she was seeing. Layer upon layer of conditioning, so deeply set that they had to have been there for years, decades even! They were so complex, she couldn't even tell what their purposes were. Only the one that had been activated by the temporal waves. She suspected that the only reason she could see any of this was because that compulsion was still active. She focused in on it, and everything started to make sense.
Respond to all temporal disturbances, a silky voice said, with an insistence that Jean could only resist because it wasn't directed at her. Eliminate the threat.
Sanctity, she thought savagely. It was you. It was YOU, all along
"Jean?" she heard Domino say in concern. Jean didn't answer.
How had Sanctity done it? She sorted through his memories, finding the first days in Ebonshire, his initial encounter with the madwoman who was the last fully-trained Askani. The Canaanite attack that had followed, the destruction of the sanctuary. Fleeing into the forest to begin the Clan rebellion with Tetherblood and Aliya--
Aliya. Who had been Sanctity's student. Horror nearly shattered her link with Nathan's unconscious. Please, God, no- Rachel's possible invovlement was bad enough. If Aliya had ANYTHING to do with this, anything at all--it would kill him. I can't ever tell him, she realized. Not ever.
Steeling herself, she destroyed the active compulsion with a single telepathic blow. She could do nothing about the rest right now, maybe not ever. The conditioning reached into every part of his mind, its malignant fingers so deeply rooted that to try and remove it all would undoubtedly damage his mind. Remembering what Domino had said, she scanned for Phoenix-energy, finding little more than traces of it. At least one disaster appears to have been averted, then, she thought without much enthusiasm.
Jean withdrew, forcing herself to give everyone a reassuring smile. "Looks like you were right, Domino. But you seem to have headed it off before it went anywhere." The dry note that entered her voice then was entirely unfeigned. "Although I still wouldn't reccommend your methods--"
"And the way he was acting?" Scott asked. Jean held her smile on by sheer force of will.
"Instinct, I think," she said smoothly. "It was probably part of the Askani training, to respond to any temporal disturbance." True enough.
"That makes sense," Bishop said, loyally if unknowingly supporting her. "I remember when Sinsear infiltrated Cable's Time Displacement Core. Cable was ready to throw himself into the core to shut it down--"
"Good example," Jean said briskly, deciding to cut off this discussion before it went any further. She saw Scott raise an eyebrow, and considered telling him later. She could shield the information deeply enough in his mind that there'd be no chance of Nathan finding it without a deep scan. "Domino, how much sedative did you give him?"
"Ah--a whole hypospray."
"Good grief," Jean breathed, closing her eyes. "Better just to let him sleep it off on the way back home, then." She gave Deborah a quick, rueful look. "This is rude of us, to be running off like this--"
"You don't need to apologize, dear," Deborah said with a dry chuckle. "Don't forget, I saw that wave with my own eyes. I don't pretend to know what it means, but I know it has to be stopped." She sighed, suddenly looking very tired. "Just promise me, all of you, that you'll be careful?"
***
"Clumsy fool!"
Ripper couldn't help flinching as he saw Vandal heading towards the poor boy who had just dropped and broken a piece of machinery. The towering mutant shrieked curses down at the boy, punctuating his words with blows. He had clearly lost his always-tenuous hold on his temper, which didn't overly surprise Ripper. The work had been going very slow this morning, and Ripper had figured that the Horseman would snap, given half the chance.
He was going to kill the boy, Ripper realized, sickened as he watched the assault continue. Another murder was taking place right in front of his eyes, and he couldn't do a thing. Blinking back tears, Ripper turned back to his work, taking apart the innards of power cells that bore a superficial resemblance to the technology in the safehouses.
Damn you for getting me into this, Dunworthy, he thought. But it wasn't Dunworthy's fault. He had been the one who'd maintained his old contacts with the street community, who had insisted upon investigating when his runners started to disappear one by one. Sure, people died all the time on the streets, from drugs, violence, and countless other causes, but usually, there were bodies.
He hadn't expected the search for answers to lead him here. But then again, Dunworthy always said that every evil in the world could be traced back to Apocalypse if one looked hard enough. Ripper scowled. Dunworthy could be a pedantic tyrant at times, but the attitude wasn't entirely unjustified.
Thank God you did check it out, Ripper told himself. To think of this going on, unheard and unseen beneath London's streets--he shuddered. He hadn't managed to figure out exactly why Apocalypse was having strategic equipment from his base here dismantled and shipped to an unknown location--the motivations of En Sabah Nur were a little beyond a former street rat. But he'd done all he could. All he could do now was wait. Soon, now, Dayspring would show up and the fecal material would hit the rotary oscillator in a BIG way for Vandal and his merry band of murderers.
As he had every hour or so for the last three weeks, Ripper said a brief, savage prayer that he would survive to see it.
to be continued...
[FOOTER]