True Believers: Part Twenty-One
Telekinetically closing the balcony doors behind her, Madelyne lowered herself to the floor. "Well?" she asked Nate calmly. He hadn't said a word yet.
He stayed silent for a long moment, staring at her. Madelyne blinked, then studied him through narrowed eyes as a faint, gold radiance started to grow around him.
"Nate--"
"Go away," he said, cutting her off. His voice was absolutely calm, vastly at odds with the growing glow around him. "Now."
Smoothing her windblown hair, Madelyne went over and sat down in a nearby chair, careful to keep her shields up and her posture relaxed and unthreatening. "Did I come at a bad time?" she asked, surprised by how casual the question sounded. The sense of urgency that had driven her to seek him out was still there, but she could mask it, now. A good thing, too. She had to keep control of this situation--she couldn't let him see how badly she needed him.
"You're implying that there would be a GOOD time?" Nate grated. Madelyne raised an eyebrow, startled and a little amused, despite the seriousness of the situation, by his sudden resemblance to Cable. He wasn't projecting quite the right 'get-out-of-my-face-before-I-kick-your-teeth- in' attitude, but pretty close--
The thought of Nathan sobered her immediately. She was here for a reason. Every moment she wasted was one she would regret eventually, she suspected. "I could do this all night," she said coolly, "but that's not why I'm here."
"Then why are you here?" he hurled at her. Oddly enough, though there was real anger in his voice for the first time since she'd arrived, the glow around him was fading. She no longer got the impression that he was waiting for an excuse to attack her. "What do you want, Madelyne?"
"Your help."
"My HELP?" he said incredulously. "Oh, that's rich. You do remember what happened the last time we saw each other, right? We didn't exactly part on the best of terms!"
Madelyne gritted her teeth, fighting back a sudden surge of anger. She remembered all too clearly. The way Nate had sided with Jean against her--just like every other man who ever meant a damn to me--
"Dwelling in the past isn't healthy, kiddo," she said, keeping her voice light. It took an effort. "And I never said it was me who needed your help."
He made a derisive gesture. "Oh, really? Who, then?"
"Cable."
It shut him up. Madelyne couldn't quite suppress a thin smile at the mixture of concern and resentment suddenly coloring his thoughts.
"Cable," he repeated, sounding suspicious.
"Yes, you know--Cable?" Madelyne said, beginning to get exasperated. They didn't have TIME for this, damn it! "Tall, silver-haired, gun fetish, attitude that rivals yours sometimes--my son, the man who's saved your life, what, twice now?"
Nate's expression tightened. "He's not your son." He said it almost accusingly. "You're not the real Madelyne--"
"Do we have to go through this again?" she snarled, rising to her feet before she even realized she'd moved. He tensed, beginning to glow again, readying himself to lash out at her if she made an aggressive movement. She noted this, but didn't let it stop herself. It looked like pussy-footing around him wasn't going to work. "Even if I accepted for even a moment that you were right, my--template isn't around to complain, is she?" She moved towards him, slowly but steadily, and had the mild satisfaction of seeing him take a step back. "In any case, it's immaterial!" she continued scathingly. "I'm here, you're here--and we both felt the distortion wave, didn't we?"
He scowled at her, and held his ground. "On the astral plane? Yeah, so? What's that got to do with Cable?"
"Use your brain, Nate! Think for a minute, instead of just reacting!" she snapped. He flushed, but she didn't give him a chance to retort. "His temporal waves and the astral waves are the same thing. One--I don't know which--is a reflection of the other." Something occurred to her, and she gave him an intent look. "Did you feel the earlier temporal waves?"
His eyes dropped. "I wasn't exactly in a state to feel much of anything yesterday night," he muttered. Madelyne abruptly recalled the memory she'd seen in Nathan's mind, of facing a maddened, out-of-control Nate in some underground room. "I don't know--"
"What about this last one?" she persisted.
"I don't know, all right?" he snapped, making an angry gesture. "All I can remember before I blacked out is feeling the disruption on the astral plane. Damn it, Maddie, I don't even know what a 'temporal wave' feels like!"
She raised a hand, placatingly. "All right," she said calmly, feeling a flicker of glee at his use of the nickname. "You've got a point." Closing her eyes for a moment, she reached out to the astral plane, wincing at the feel of the continuing disruption there. It was infinitely worse than it had been before that last wave had hit, and causing her something very close to physical pain whenever she used her powers. Madelyne didn't want to think too much about what effect the disruption might be having on her own unique state of being. Besides, there were more important things to worry about. "I think we can track the disruption back to its point of origin," she continued, opening her eyes and staring at him intently, willing him to listen, to understand--and to agree to her plan. "If we can find out where this is coming from, maybe we can put a stop to it ourselves."
"You still haven't said what this has to do with Cable."
Madelyne flinched, remembering the scene on the astral plane as the Phoenix had unfolded its wings and literally swallowed Nathan's astral form. She'd called out to him, tried to warn him, but he hadn't even heard her. And that energy web he had created--it might have worked, anywhere but the psi-plane. There, it hadn't been grounded properly, ending up as just so much flotsam in the path of the wave. The backwash from its destruction would have smashed right through her shields, if she'd stayed to see it. Still, even knowing that she had no other choice if she wanted to save herself, the decision to leave Nathan there had been--wrenching.
At least he was still alive. She'd sensed that much, scanning for him once the wave had passed by in physical reality. The Phoenix-force must have buffered him, but the effects on a mind already so badly damaged--
"You were there, at the mansion," she said, keeping her tone deliberately harsh. "I saw it in Nathan's mind." Nate nodded, almost cautiously, and she continued, holding his eyes with her own, not letting him look away. "You saw what kind of shape he's in. He doesn't have the resources to deal with these waves--he doesn't have the strength left. Still, you and I both know that if he finds out where they're coming from, he's going to try."
There was a flicker of something unreadable in Nate's eyes. "And probably get himself killed in the process."
"Exactly," Madelyne said intently. "Unless we solve the problem before he gets to it." She managed a tight smile. "And if this is Apocalypse--it's your fight as much as Nathan's, isn't it?" Nate said nothing. Madelyne went on, determined to drive the point home. "Besides, like it or not, you owe him. In a lot of ways," she admitted readily, "so do I. Even if I'm not the 'real' Madelyne."
Nate muttered something under his breath, and glowered at her. "I don't trust you," he said warningly.
"No one said you had to," Madelyne pointed out, feeling her lips curve in a bitter smile. "Besides, the last time we met, wasn't it you who tried to kill me?" The shot hit home, as it was meant to, and Nate paled. "Never mind," she murmured.
They stood there in silence for a long moment. Nate spoke first.
"Where do we start?" he asked quietly, not meeting her eyes.
"Oh," Madelyne said casually, "I have a few ideas."
***
Domino gritted her teeth, trying to ignore the increasingly peculiar sensations and images she was getting from Nathan's end of the psi-link. But her vision kept blurring, oddly-colored lights and shapes dancing across her field of view. The mixture of emotions that accompanied them--burning anger and sharp-edged anxiety and a peculiar sort of shame--was making it next to impossible to concentrate on what was going on around her.
The fact that what she was feeling was scaring her shitless didn't help, either.
"--glad you ordered a lockdown, actually," Dunworthy was saying as she got up. Domino blinked, shaking her head doggedly and watched Nate follow Dunworthy over to a nearby console. And that was another concern, she thought, going over to Logan, who was still staring at Dunworthy, looking utterly shocked.
"You called her Carmen," Domino said to him quietly. Kitty was lurking nearby, obviously torn between following Wisdom, who'd trailed along behind Nate and Dunworthy, and checking to make sure Logan was all right. He did sort of look like someone had hit him upside the head with a two-by-four, Domino reflected with a brief flicker of amusement. "Not Carmen Suarez?"
Logan blinked and then gave her a wry look. "Yeah. Funny how these things turn out, ain't it?"
Domino almost snorted. 'Funny' didn't quite cover it. Eighteen ears ago, Carmen Suarez had been the second-in-command of a mercenary group led by an old friend of Logan's, Simone Vander--incidentally the same mercenary group that Logan had intended her to sign on with, before she'd upset his carefully-laid plans to hook up with the Pack. She'd met Vander, a few years later, but by then, Suarez had apparently 'dropped out' of the business. And come here, Domino thought almost grimly. She didn't believe in coincidences.
"You're glad I ordered a lockdown?" she heard Nathan say, flatly, as he leaned over the console. "I expected the 'don't order me around' lecture as soon as we landed--"
"Don't be stupid, Nathan," Dunworthy said almost dismissively. Nathan visibly bristled, and Domino got the peculiar impression that Dunworthy enjoyed seeing his reaction. "It was perfectly reasonable--I don't argue with you for fun, you know."
Domino started over to them, then froze as a sudden wave of distress washed down the link and nearly knocked her over. His face ashen, Nathan grabbed at the edge of the console for support. Rapid-fire images suddenly flashed in front of her eyes--too fast to identify, but curiously vivid nonetheless, laden with desperation and a strange kind of sick rage.
Then the images were gone, as quickly as they'd come, and she straightened, shaking her head again in an attempt to clear her vision. Everything was edged in an eerie blue glow for a moment, but it faded quickly. She looked swiftly at Nathan, who was still bent over the console, breathing rather rapidly from the look of it.
"Neena?" Logan asked, stopping beside her. She realized that all of it had happened in a moment, only long enough for Logan to catch up with her. No one else seemed to have noticed, and as she looked back at Nathan, she saw him straighten, color returning to his face, and shoot one curiously wary look in her direction before he turned back to whatever Dunworthy was pointing out on the console.
"I'm fine," she muttered when Logan continued to wait for her answer. A bit of a fib, but he doesn't need to know that-- No one needed to know. Not until she got Nate alone and shook some sense into him, if that was what it took.
WAS he hallucinating? she wondered uneasily as she, Logan, and Kitty joined the others gathered around the console. It felt much the same as his episode on the plane had--she hadn't been able to 'see' the images properly then, either. Only feel the emotions associated with them, and that had been bad enough. The strange lights and shapes--those had started when the weather had turned ugly. Maybe I'm seeing what he's seeing, she told herself, although it wasn't particularly reassuring. The effects of the temporal wave and all that-- Of course, she couldn't know for sure, could she? Not when the stubborn, rock-headed idiot wouldn't even TALK to her--
"We're reading fluctuations in the power core," Dunworthy was saying crisply. "I'm wondering if it isn't an instrumentation problem, though. I've got Stefan down there, monitoring the core," she gestured at the opening in the floor she'd emerged from, "and he's not sensing anything unusual."
"Stefan is a mutant," Nicholas said almost conversationally. "An energy-manipulator. As a result, he's very sensitive to variations in certain sorts of energy fields."
Dunworthy gave him an irritated look, as if she didn't think that he should be taking time for such niceties as keeping them informed. He stared right back at her, his expression bland, and it was she who broke eye contact first.
"I could--" Gwen started.
"No, Gwen," Dunworthy said bluntly. "Your implant isn't set up for our systems."
Gwen looked frustrated. "Then where the hell's Melinda?"
Dunworthy ignored her. "We're running on emergency systems until we're certain where the problem lies," she continued, as if there had been no interruption. "I don't intend to blow up my own station by accident."
"Let me guess," Nathan muttered. "You'd rather do it on purpose." Domino blinked at the intense dislike bleeding down from Nathan's end of the link. Directed at Dunworthy--that was another thing, Domino decided grimly. She was going to hear him explain why he hated the woman so much, and why he'd been so apprehensive about the idea of seeing her. She'd had a hard time separating herself from his anxiety for a while there, after they'd landed and Gwen had mentioned that Dunworthy would be waiting.
"Meanwhile the tactical net is still down," Nathan continued harshly, drawing himself up to his full height and glaring down at Dunworthy. Folding her arms across her chest, she met his gaze with an absolutely neutral expression. "Have you even tried to reestablish communications with the other stations?" He sounded almost accusing. Domino wondered if he realized it--probably not. From what she was sensing, he might as well just tattoo 'I am not in control of this situation' across his forehead and have done with it.
"What do you propose we do, Nathan?" Dunworthy asked, her voice so cold that the temperature in the room seemed to dip. "On auxiliary power, we can't reestablish any of the secure com-links. We start transmitting on unshielded frequencies, we risk the security of this installation--"
"Bright Lady forbid that we should ever do that," Nathan said rather nastily. "I keep forgetting that this installation is more important than the rest all put together. This is YOUR station, after all--"
Wisdom, on the other side of the console, groaned and closed his eyes. "Maybe we should go back out, come in, and start over again?" he asked in a long-suffering voice.
Dunworthy raised an eyebrow at him, but then turned back to Nathan and continued as if Wisdom hadn't interrupted. "Descending to personal insults already? You're in a fine mood. I'd venture to suggest that you'd gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but you don't look like you've slept in a week." Her tone was mildly chiding, but somehow indifferent at the same time, as if any concern she had for his health was a matter of duty that she'd prefer not to be bothered with.
"Maybe," Nathan said through gritted teeth, flushing. "But we're both avoiding the subject, Carmen." She stiffened as he used her first name. Almost as if he'd insulted her, Domino thought, puzzled. "I want--"
He trailed off, his expression suddenly uncertain. Domino almost gasped as a sudden chill gripped her, as if she'd just been dropped into sub-zero water. She blinked, and the air in the room was suddenly filled with gold-colored sparks of light, whole sheets of them that danced in regular patterns. Shaking her head angrily, she glared at Nathan.
Nate, would you MIND? she all but screamed across the psi-link. He jerked as if she'd slapped him, actually staggering backwards as he gave her a startled look. The sparks abruptly vanished.
Dunworthy took in Nathan's reaction with a calmly measuring look. "Would you like a chair?" she asked tranquilly. "You look a little shaky." When he didn't answer her, she glanced over at Domino with that same assessing look. Domino glared right back at her, her anger only mounting at the dismissive flicker in the other woman's guarded eyes.
Nathan rallied his composure with surprising speed. "We have to reestablish at least rudimentary communications with the rest of the stations," he said, his voice like iron. "Leaving things the way they are isn't an option."
Dunworthy turned back to him, shaking her head. "No," she said, quite firmly. "I admit that many of the other stations will be vulnerable with the tactical net down--"
"That's an understatement," Wisdom pointed out, frowning. "Bloody hell, Dunworthy--"
"Did I ask for your opinion, Wisdom?" Dunworthy snapped. Wisdom started to answer, but Dunworthy spoke first, sounding impatient. "I know, you just thought you'd volunteer it anyway--" She turned away, and Wisdom made a rude gesture at her back. Kitty, who'd looked rather indignant at Dunworthy's words, was hiding a smile behind her hand. "The simple fact is, I won't risk losing the Record," Dunworthy continued, giving Nathan a thin smile. "Nor will I risk your safety, now that you're here."
Domino barely registered Dunworthy's goad. Her mind had latched onto the comment about the 'Record', and wouldn't let go. She recalled Nicholas's words about 'Events' and 'ten-point variations'. Something tells me this is all connected, but how?
"Oh, that's rich," Nathan snarled. "Considering that you asked me here in the first place to help you deal with whatever's going on--"
"A decision I'm regretting, now that I see the shape you're in," Dunworthy said smoothly. She shot an irritated look at Wisdom over her shoulder. "You might have exercised your own judgement, Wisdom--"
"Bugger off, you witch," Wisdom muttered under his breath. Nicholas coughed, giving him a significant look, and Wisdom subsided.
"I do not understand this," Storm said suddenly. Domino wondered if being underground was bothering her--she looked tense. Then again, there's PLENTY of that to go around in this room-- "Would it be too much difficulty to explain to us what is going on?"
"Actually, yes, it would!" Dunworthy snapped. "I don't recall inviting you here--ANY of you except Pete and Nathan." She raked a gaze over them, lingering for a moment on Logan, before she returned her glare to Nathan. "What were you thinking?"
"What was I THINKING--" Nathan abruptly bit back whatever he'd been about to say. His left eye blazed, and Domino could almost see him trying to wrestle his temper back under control. "Enough of this!" he finally growled, scanning the room for a moment until his gaze fell on another console, this one rounded, almost a full-circle. "You don't want to set things in motion, then I will," he muttered, and moved to go around Dunworthy.
"Nathan," she said warningly, turning as he walked past, headed for the console. "Don't."
"Or what?" he shot over his shoulder.
"Use your imagination," she snapped. Several of the other black-clad station personnel, who had been working steadily throughout the conversation, utterly focused on their tasks, had now stopped, and were watching the brewing confrontation warily.
At Dunworthy's words, Nathan froze and turned around. The look on his face was just short of baleful. Domino shifted her weight, almost instinctively readying herself for action. I might be mad enough that part of me wants to beat the crap out of him personally, but no one else is laying a damned finger on him, not while I'm around--
"Don't make me laugh," he said icily, but Domino felt a tendril of real fear threading its way through the anger still dominant on the link. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Wisdom take a step forward, only to be stopped when Gwen reached out and grabbed his arm, physically holding him back.
It was Nicholas who finally broke the dangerous silence, though. "Stop blustering, both of you," he said in a surprisingly harsh voice. "You're acting like children!"
Not looking away from Dunworthy for a moment, Nathan smiled. It was that small, ironic smile that didn't touch his eyes, the smile that meant he was contemplating violence of some sort. It was such a refreshingly familiar expression, it was almost good to see. And how perverse is that? Domino thought in a moment of near-exasperation.
"Blustering? What gave you that impression?" he asked.
Dunworthy's eyes narrowed. "Likewise," she grated.
Domino would never be sure how far things might have gone. Fortunately, neither she nor anyone else there had to find out.
The lights came back on. Every inch of the cavernous command center was illuminated by bright, oddly natural-seeming light. The consoles that had been inactive apparently switched themselves back on, and the bank of terminals lit up, some screens showing views of the storm outside, others showing hallways and rooms, probably other parts of the underground complex. Many were simply showing snow, but even that was an improvement over a minute ago.
Part of the holographic unit in the center of the room detached and floated up into the air, clearly using an anti-grav system of some sort. It looked almost like a small metal bird, Domino noted bemusedly, wondering what the hell was going on.
The steel 'bird' floated over, hovering in the air between Nathan and Dunworthy. Something moved on its surface, and it started to project a very real-looking hologram of a blond girl, maybe Kitty's age, wearing a form-fitting blue jumpsuit.
The hologram looked from Nathan to Dunworthy and then back again, and visibly winced. "Something tells me my timing couldn't have been much better." The voice, a light soprano, came from a number of different speakers, setting up a curious echo effect.
Wisdom suddenly grinned from ear-to-ear. "Hi, love," he said--to the hologram? Kitty gave him a startled look, but the hologram smiled at him.
"Hey, Pete!" she said happily. "Back already? I'd give you a hug, if I could--"
"Rebecca!" Dunworthy snapped, looking absolutely incensed. "What do you think you're doing?"
"What?" the hologram asked innocently, giving Dunworthy a baffled look. "No one linked in to talk to me, so I went ahead and rebooted the system myself." She--it! Domino told herself--frowned, tilting her head in an odd manner. "I think I can get the tactical net back up, but I can't guarantee the com-links themselves--there's some kind of funky interference out there." She closed her eyes, an expression of concentration descending over her face. "Might take me a little while, I'm afraid."
"Just do the best you can, Rebecca," Nathan said almost dryly. 'Eyes' still closed, the hologram nodded and vanished. The projector returned to the holographic unit, and Nathan turned back to Dunworthy. "Well," he said, a definite mocking edge to his voice. "Looks like you got overruled."
Domino thought she could hear Dunworthy grinding her teeth. Laying it on a little thick, aren't you, Nate? she asked along the link. And exactly what--or who was that?
No answer. He was back to ignoring her, too. Fine, she sent harshly, hoping to provoke a response. You want to be childish, don't let me stop you.
Still, nothing. Nathan turned to Nicholas and asked him something, his voice too low for Domino to make out his words. Domino glared at him, frustration and anger mixing with real hurt. What the hell had she done, to make him shut her out like this?
"Darlin', if looks could kill--" Logan said softly, moving to stand beside her.
"I wouldn't be giving me any ideas, if I were you," she muttered savagely, and then closed her eyes as the whole room seemed to shiver and contract around her, everyone and everything edged briefly in a faint, greenish radiance. If he doesn't want to share what he's feeling, what's bothering him, Domino thought furiously, I'll be damned if I sit here and let him share his hallucinations, either!
She felt Logan's hand on her arm, and opened her eyes, relieved when the room appeared normal once more. "Neena, what's the matter?" he asked, studying her face intently.
"The psi-link." It was all she needed to say. Grim realization dawned in his eyes.
"You're picking up on something weird?" She nodded, mutely, and heard him growl, deep in his chest. "Neena, the two of you need to have a talk about this--"
"Tell him that."
"I just might," Logan muttered, looking over at Nathan, who was still talking to Nicholas. Domino winced at the anger on Logan's face, and began to wish she hadn't made the suggestion.
***
Jubilee was drowning. Not in water, but in mud. Thick, cold, smelly mud. Holding her breath, she thrashed desperately, but she couldn't tell which way was up, and already there were spots dancing in front of her tightly closed eyes.
Then, someone reached down and pulled her upright by the collar of her coat. Spitting mud, Jubilee coughed, grateful for the supporting arm that went around her waist.
"Are you all right?" a woman's voice said in her ear--shouted, rather, to be heard over the howl of the wind.
Jubilee nodded jerkily, not trusting her voice. Then her scattered thoughts reassembled themselves, and she gasped, remembering watching, as if in slow motion, the side of the hill breaking away. "G-Gina!" she said hoarsely, wiping mud from her face and pulling away.
"Your friend's perfectly all right, lass." Jubilee quickly glanced in the direction of her voice. Her rescuer was a tall, sturdy woman in a more bulky version of the black skinsuit Tally had been wearing. She was every bit as wet and mud-splattered as Jubilee herself was, but there was a faint green glow around her, enough light for Jubilee to see her warm smile. "See?" the woman said, gesturing over Jubilee's shoulder. "Kevin has her and young Tally both."
Jubilee gave the woman one suspicious look and started to turn, only to freeze with a yelp as she realized that she and her rescuer were standing on what seemed like a platform of hardened mud, rising above the muck below.
"Don't fall off, now," the woman said gently, taking hold of the collar of her coat again. Jubilee started to shrug off her grip, but then forgot about struggling as she saw three figures down the slope a little. Gina, Tally, and a tall, dark-haired man were, as far as she could tell, riding a flat-topped wave of mud up to where Jubilee and her rescuer were standing. Gina looked all right--she was holding to the man's arm a little tightly, but she didn't appear hurt--and Jubilee, somewhat reassured, turned to look at the woman standing behind her.
Taking a closer look, she noticed a couple things about the woman that she hadn't before. Her long hair, pulled back into a ponytail, was green--not bright green like Polaris's, but dark, so dark that Jubilee wondered if it wasn't a trick of the green light. She was also wearing a silver medallion, just like Tally's.
"Are you--are you doing that?" Jubilee asked hoarsely, gesturing at the mud-platform beneath them and the 'wave' bringing Gina and the others up here. The woman nodded with a smile.
"I'm a mutant," she said, and although she was still talking loudly, because of the wind, her voice was sweet and almost musical. If this was Wales, Jubilee reflected, a little dazed, she certainly sounded like she belonged her, much more than Tally. "Much like your friend Storm, only I control the earth instead of the weather."
"How--" Jubilee coughed, spitting out some more mud. Oh, this is gross-- "How come I'm up here, and Gina and Tally are--"
The woman's expression turned concerned. "You ran into a rock, lass--it stopped you from being carried along on the mudslide to the valley floor." She reached out and tilted Jubilee's face upwards with one hand. "Do you remember if you hit your head?"
Jubilee blinked. All she could remember was the world turning upside down. "Umm--no,"
"Well, we'll check you out once we're back at the station," the woman said reassuringly. "And get you into some dry clothes."
"Okay," Jubilee said, beginning to shiver. "S-Sounds really good to me."
The others soon reached them. "Jubilee, you all right?" Gina asked through chattering teeth. Jubilee nodded.
"Fine, Dreamy," she said.
"Sheer dumb luck, actually," the man said, distributing a disgusted look equally between the three girls. A lot taller than he'd looked in the distance, he had a scar across one cheek and the coldest blue eyes Jubilee had ever seen. "You and I are going to have a little talk about what a lockdown means, Scooter," he said, giving Tally's shoulder a little shake.
"Don't call me that," she muttered tiredly.
"Yes, don't be miserable now, Kevin," the woman said. "Now let's get back to the station before we all drown, shall we?"
Jubilee thought of saying something about Miriya, but Gina didn't volunteer anything, either. Besides, back at this station, they'd have better ways of looking for her than wandering around out here in the storm, wouldn't they?
***
Not far away, a rather dazed-looking Askani sat up, shivering. She registered the fact of the storm, and the part of her conditioned by life in an era where rain was deadly acid immediately threw up a telekinetic shield. Then, her memory implants kicked in and she felt rather foolish.
Instinct. It always came down to acting on instinct, in the end, Miriya thought disgustedly, getting slowly to her feet. Instinct was what had brought her to this time, following the half-understood imperative to cheat destiny and force a nexus point that had never been in the plans of the Sisterhood.
Almost instinctively, she scanned for the minds of her other sisters in this time period. They were all awake, aware--although the sister on the North American continent was radiating anger like the sun did light.
"Such children, they are," Miriya said to herself. Children playing with fire--especially Sanctity's young pupil, the one who called herself Hana.
But what, after all, was she herself doing? As she stood there, trying to orient herself, a wave of sourceless dread swept over her. Her prescient sense chattered madly, and she winced.
Oath, the young ones-- A moment's scanning told her how dangerous it would be to teleport--the interference from the passage of the anomaly was a thousand times worse than it had been--so she began walking, as quickly as she could despite the pounding pain in her head, in the direction that she sensed them heading.
She only hoped she'd get there in time.
to be continued...
[FOOTER]