DISCLAIMER:
This story features characters which are trademarks of Marvel Comics. This story is an unauthorized work done purely for my personal enjoyment, and is not intended to infringe on any of their rights in or profits from these characters. But this story is copyright to me.
BRIEF EXPLANATION:
This obviously takes place sometime between Excalibur #100 and Excalibur #102. I'd rather Ellis had had a chance to write this, but since he didn't...
If you want to comment, send email to LubaKmetyk@worldnet.att.net
Excalibur: TIME GOES BY
Luba Kmetyk
Alistaire Stuart was wandering the hallways of the Muir Island Research Station, trying to get used to the idea that he didn't have to worry anymore about Black Air being after him, didn't have to keep running, didn't have to keep looking over his shoulder for the next attack, the next ambush.
As the feeling of relief slowly penetrated and his tense muscles unwound, he was becoming more aware of his surroundings than he'd been at any time since his recent, precipitous arrival. He heard music coming from one of the labs he was passing. Pausing to look in through the doorway, he saw Kitty sitting at one of the many lab computers. He stood in the doorway silently, watching. After a few minutes, she seemed to feel his gaze, because she looked up suddenly in surprise, then gestured in welcome. "Alistaire! Hi, don't just stand there, come on in..."
Alistaire went in and asked, "What are you working on? Anything I can help with? I can still do some technical work, I think, although it has been a while...", remembering times in the past when they'd worked together.
Kitty smiled up at him, shaking her head at his offer. "I was just archiving those files we downloaded from the computers in the Black Air Acquisition Station, to free up some local disk space. We didn't have a lot of time to organize the files at the time... Nothing much for you to do, but you could keep me company while I'm waiting for the backup to be completed. Want some coffee, or a soda?"
At his nod and mumbled "Coffee would be nice..." she got up and went over to the coffee pot in the corner, while he pulled up a chair next to the computer table where she was working. Lockheed woofled a welcome at him from where the small dragon lay stretched out lazily on top of the computer monitor. Kitty came back and handed him a mug, saying "I think I remembered how you like it... and don't worry, it's Rory's coffee, not Moira's..." At his puzzled look, she chuckled. "That's right, you didn't have to cope with Moira's coffee much before, we were still based in the lighthouse then, or Brian's manorhouse. Anyway, it's a running joke around here -- Moira makes the worst coffee you could imagine, and drinks it, too..."
Kitty reseated herself, with a quick glance at the monitor screen to check that the file backup was still proceeding smoothing. "So, it sounds like you want to get back into technical work? I guess running WHO didn't turn out to be quite what you expected..."
Alistaire nodded slowly at that question, "When I agreed to step down as resident scientist and take over as head administrator after Alysande was killed, I accepted the job to make sure Alysande's name was cleared of that espionage frameup and because I was afraid that, if someone else got appointed, someone from outside, they'd start changing priorities and procedures and personnel. I wanted to be able to help the Warpies, and keep some other important projects going. I didn't realize quite how much politics went into the job, how important having personal contacts and networking skills and friends in the right places to trade favors with would turn out to be... or not having them, in my case... I wasn't very good at that side of things and, while I was floundering around, Black Air just came in and took over before I realized what was happening... and then, even after I knew things were going horribly wrong, there didn't seem to be anything I could do about it, nobody believed me when I tried to tell them, I had no proof..."
Alistaire fell silent for a moment as he brooded over his string of mistakes and bad decisions, while Kitty watched in quiet sympathy, then he changed the subject abruptly. "So what happened to Rachel? Where is she now? She'd just come back from space when I left to go work with the RCX and the Warpies. I'm sorry I didn't think to ask sooner..."
Kitty smiled to herself. Everyone in Excalibur, and Alysande and Dai Thomas also, had known all about Alistaire's unrequited infatuation with Rachel, who had liked Alistaire as a friend and treated him more gently than she did most men who harbored such thoughts of her. Kitty's smile twisted into a self-mocking grimace as she remembered how everybody had also known all about Kitty's equally hopeless crush on Alistaire, well, everybody except Alistaire himself, apparently.
"She's in the future, I mean she will be in the future... no, I think I was right the first time..." The rules for grammatically correct verb tenses for time travel seemed a little unclear. "Brian went missing in the time stream when we were coming back from the future, another future, not the same one, and then Rachel took his place so he could come back home to Meggan... Anyway, Scott and Jean, you remember them, you were with them at the mansion, they said they saw Rachel 2000 years in the future, where she'd been creating the Askani sisterhood to prepare for her brother's arrival..." She chuckled at the look of incredulity on Alistaire's face.
"I've obviously missed a lot. Did you really go into the future? I remember Rachel talking about wanting to go back to her future the last time I saw her, to try to fix things. How did you get there? Somebody's powers, or special equipment? What was it like? What happened? What do you mean, they saw Rachel in the future? How did they get 2000 years into the future? But I thought Rachel came from just a few years from now, and I didn't know she had a brother..." Alistaire's questions were a jumbled medley of scientific curiosity and personal concern.
Kitty really didn't want to tell Alistaire that in one of those futures, where they'd gone with Rachel and come back without Brian, they'd found Nigel Orpington-Smythe a hero, a leader of the resistance fighting against Sentinels taking over, since he'd been the one who framed Alysande just before she was killed. She concentrated on answering some of his other questions instead, ones that she didn't think would touch on any sore or sensitive areas.
"Cable, you must know of him even if you haven't met him yet... He's Scott's son from this time, his mother was Jean's clone Madelyne, but he was taken and raised in the future, the far future, before he came back to the present all grown-up, while Rachel is Scott's and Jean's daughter from the future, the near future or at least one possible future... anyway, they consider themselves brother and sister, sort of, even though it is a bit confused..." Kitty had a sudden sense of deja vu. This reminded her very strongly of all the X-history lessons she'd been giving Pete lately.
Alistaire didn't remember all that much about his flight to the Westchester mansion, either, but he vividly recalled the spectacular redhead who'd let him in the gate. "Yes, I noticed how much Jean Grey looks like Rachel, I guess that's why being around her made me feel better, safer... you know, I keep forgetting about Rachel being from a different time... So they consider themselves a family, then? I remember how Rachel always wanted that, wanted to belong..."
"Well, it was hard in the beginning, for Jean especially, she'd already had trouble accepting the whole situation with Scott and Madelyne and their baby, but things between her and Rachel were getting better just before Rachel... left... Rachel was so thrilled when her parents finally got married in this time, I'm just glad she got to be there to see it." Kitty grinned as she told him about Rachel throwing Moira's hovercraft around like a frisbie, and Rory's reaction when she almost dropped it on top of him.
"You miss her." Alistaire stated, rather than asked, since the answer was so obvious.
Kitty nodded her head emphatically. "Of course I do. But, you know, Rachel's gone missing at least twice before, once when we were still with the X-men, when we thought Wolverine killed her, and then she turned up in London months later, and another time she was injured fighting Necrom and the Phoenix took her off into space to heal and then she came back -- you know about that, you were there that time -- so you never know... I'm still hoping she'll just come flying back someday, like before..."
Alistaire saw Kitty getting upset thinking about the absent Rachel, and tried to change the subject. Unfortunately, his next topic of choice wasn't a great success, either. "How's Dr. MacTaggart doing? I saw on the news a report that she was the first and only human infected with the Legacy virus. Is that true? Does it mean the rest of you are in danger of infection?"
He saw Kitty flinch, and began to explain apologetically, "I want to know, to find out if there's any way I can help, with the research, with anything else she needs, you see, and I really don't want to approach her directly. I mean, what if it weren't true and I said something to her about the story, what would she think? So I thought I'd ask you first..."
"Oh, yes, it's true, all right." Kitty said, in a bleak voice. "There's no reason for you not to know, and I think Moira would talk to you about her condition as part of telling you about her research. And, no, I don't think the rest of us are in any danger, we don't know anything about how the disease spreads to indicate we might be... But I doubt there's much you can do to help..."
Alistaire realized his second topic hadn't succeeded in restoring their earlier comfortable camaraderie as he'd hoped. Casting around for yet another subject, he thought about who else he'd seen since his arrival at Moira's research station. "The big Russian, Colossus, he was with you and Kurt in the X-men, wasn't he?" Alistaire suddenly asked. "I remember him in your files, but I thought he had stayed with the X-men..."
He had trouble interpreting the odd look flitting over Kitty's face. "Colossus, Peter, is an old friend who has lost family recently, his little sister to the Legacy virus and his parents to government troops. He's had some other problems, also, and is at Muir trying to work them out with some help from his friends..."
Kitty kept waiting for Alistaire to ask about Pete but he didn't. He hadn't really noticed Wisdom that much except as an ex-agent from Black Air, as a possible ally who knew his enemies and could help defeat them, or maybe a possible enemy who would betray him the same way the rest of Black Air had. Somehow, not unexpectedly, he'd unconsciously separated the newer members of Excalibur, Douglock, Rahne, Colossus and Wisdom, from the core group of original members he'd known and worked with in the past.
Still trying to find a reasonably neutral topic of conversation, Alistaire asked Kitty about Douglock, who looked like something new Alistaire was very curious to learn more about. He got himself another cup of coffee and sat back to listen to the long and complicated story of Warlock, Doug Ramsey and the Phalanx, which led to Douglock's creation. Kitty didn't particularly enjoy talking about Doug's death and how much of Doug remained in Douglock, but Alistaire kept interjecting questions about the underlying techno-organic phenomena, some of which Kitty could answer, some of which she couldn't. He wanted to hear all about the Phalanx entity and Kitty didn't mind describing and speculating about the Phalanx as long as the discussion remained safely hypothetical.
Alistaire was looking at Kitty curiously as they sat and chatted, thinking about those earlier times with the original Excalibur. In his mind he had a picture of a skinny tomboy in baggy, oversized clothes, with unruly hair and big glasses, going around her nose usually buried in a book or a computer. What he saw in front of him instead was a slim, vibrant, confident young woman, with rippling waves of glossy brown hair and enormous soft brown eyes he could easily get lost in. He wondered if just taking off a pair of glasses could really make that big a difference in a person, or if his memory could possibly be that faulty.
Strange thoughts were running through Alistaire's mind in his giddy relief at having the Black Air threat ended, seductive daydreams of someone to share his life with, instead of being alone and on his own as he had been since his sister's death, tempting visions of someone with whom he could share his technical pursuits as well as more personal interests. He saw a strength of will, a strength of character, in Kitty that reminded him poignantly of his sister, whom he had admired and loved wholeheartedly.
Having exhausted her limited knowledge of how techno-organics might work, he asked Kitty abruptly, "So, do any of you get down to London much now that Excalibur is based up here in the wilds instead of living at the lighthouse as before?"
"Yes, actually, you know, I've been getting down there a lot more now than when we first moved to Muir." Kitty answered, smiling to herself as she fondly recalled Pete's determined efforts to get back to his beloved air pollution as often as possible.
Alistaire misunderstood the reason for her smile. He was just about to suggest going out to dinner together next time she was in London when Pete's voice could be heard out in the hallway. "Where are you, Pryde?"
Her smile widened as she called out, "In here, Pete...", amused at how he seemed to show up in response to her thinking of him.
Wisdom came into the lab and over to Kitty. He bent over to hug her and give her a quick kiss before looking over and nodding at Alistaire, acknowledging his presence with a suspicious scowl. "It's getting late -- you gonna stay and play with that soddin' computer all night, or you gonna come play with me instead?" he asked her with a suggestive leer. Lockheed snorted a tiny tongue of flame at Pete from atop the computer monitor, and got a dirty look and some softly muttered profanity in return.
"Lockheed, stop that!" Kitty exclaimed. "Give me just a moment here to logoff, the backup's finished, we just got to talking and I didn't notice..." She started the computer through its shutdown sequence, then leaned back to rest her head against Pete's chest. Wisdom stood behind her, running his hands through her hair, stroking her cheek, sliding a hand down her neck and inside the collar of her sweater, then wrapping his arms around her to hold her to him tightly.
Pete's proprietary attitude was obvious as he pulled Kitty up and out of her chair as soon as she shut the machine off, as obvious as the glow on Kitty's face. Alistaire suddenly remembered a number of instances since his arrival at Muir when Kitty and Pete had been close, had been together, which he hadn't registered consciously at the time through the cloud of fear he'd been trapped in.
As they left the room, she paused to look back over her shoulder at Alistaire, still sitting frozen in place. "It was nice talking to you, Alistaire, I'm glad we had this chance to catch up. Maybe we can talk again before you decide where to go, what to do next."
Alistaire watched them walk out together, Pete's arm around her shoulders and Kitty's arm around his waist, realizing with a pang that he'd missed his opportunity at something wonderful.
Comments are welcome, email to LubaKmetyk@worldnet.att.net, but be nice, my ego is a fragile thing.