Ties
That Bind
Rating: R for f/f relationship pondered and semi-explicit m/f sex.
Summary: Mother Askani reflects on her past-and the relationship she had with
one, very special girl.
Disclaimer: No one in this fic belongs to me. Blaquesmith, Kitty 'Shadowcat'
Pryde, Nathan 'Cable' Summers, Kurt 'Nightcrawler' Wagner, Meggan, Brian
'Captain Britain' Braddock, Lockheed, Pete Wisdom, Tanya 'Sanctity' Trask and
Rachel 'Mother Askani/Phoenix' Summers belong to Marvel. I'm making no money on
this, no copyright infringement intended.
Author's Note: This could tie into either of my story arcs. It's not necessary
to read those, but this could stand alone or be read as an addition. it started
out as a very short story-but grew into something more.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Mother Askani stretched. Sweeping her
telepathic probes lightly across the Askani perimeter and base, she was
surprised and relieved to find no trouble. Most were sleeping-as she had been
until a few moments ago. It was the middle of the night, after all.
'So what woke you up, Ray?' she asked
herself. The use of the nickname 'Ray' stung for a second-she still missed
Jean, Scott, Nathan, and her Excalibur friends a lot-especially one Excalibur
member.
'I wonder if it's her?....' Rachel's
thought trailed off. 'There's no reason to assume it *is* her, Rachel Anne
Summers. You should know better. You're separated by centuries. Still....'
She mentally cursed as she rolled out of
bed. 'No use trying to go to sleep now,' the Mother Askani thought to herself
in disgust. 'Not going to.'
"Mother?" the quiet voice asked.
She turned around, unsurprised, to find Blaquesmith sticking his head through
the door.
She smiled faintly. Ever since the day she,
now a middle-aged woman, had found the tiny boy scavenging in the cities of
Apocalypse and his lapdogs about twenty years ago, she had felt a connection to
him and had raised and trained him. She knew him well, and vice versa. 'He is
ever my loyal retainer,' she thought fondly, then grew sad. 'But he deserves so
much more than what he has.'
"How many times have I told you,
'Smith, to call me Rachel or Ray?" she asked, smiling lightly to take any
possible sting out of her words.
He flushed slightly. "I apologize,
Mo-er, Rachel. I am simply not sue to-"
"It's all right, 'Smith. Go back to
sleep-or guarding my door," she amended, noticing the slightly sheepish
expression that had been on his face. "Although," she teased,
"even ultra-loyal warriors and friends need to sleep."
She noticed the slight flush those words
provoked and internally grieved. She had suspected that he had had a slight
crush on her for a while, but knew it was never to be.
"Go, my friend," she said,
reaching out and gently touching his arm. Suddenly, she felt a flash of....
FLASH!
"blaquesmithineedsomethingthatwillpreventtheUndyingfrommoving,"
'Cable?' she managed to think hazily. FLASH! "helpme!helpme!"
'Blaquesmith? Why is he there?' "helpyourself,dayspring.ifyoucannotdothisthanyoucannotpossiblyhopetodefeatStryfe."
FLASH! "forever?forever." FLASH!
"idonotapproveofthisdomino,dayspring.sheisaliabilitytoyourmission,andyoucannot
affordtocareabotusomeoneasyoucaredfor-""iwilljudgethosethings,oldman.dominowillcomeandbeintroducedtoyou,andyouwillact
civilly." FLASH!
"iamsosorryMotherAskani-Rachel-ifailedyouandimsorrybutiwilltraintheboy,hurthimifnecessary,foryourdreambecauseitisallanditisnecessary-"
RACHEL! Blaquesmith's horrified
mental call dragged the Mother Askani back to the present. Choking, she let go
of Blaquesmith. "Rachel?" he asked, this time verbally. "I'm
fine, 'Smith."
"Anything I can do to help?" he
asked hopefully. But Rachel remembered the chilling visions she had had of him
and some deep instinct recoiled at the thought of being near him now.
"Go," she said, not realizing how
harsh it sounded. "Just...go."
His shoulders slumped. He turned to go.
"'Smith?" He turned back. "When I am gone, don't let it eat at
you. Don't let that inner goodness burn out."
"I shall try, Mother Askani," the
formality of his tone hurt, but she knew he had good reason to be snippy-he was
hurt by her not explaining to him her mysterious vision. He walked out and the
door boomed behind him.
'I'm sure that symbolizes something,' Rachel
thought bitterly. 'But what *was* that? I've never been a precog, and that
looked to be something of a precognitive vision, at least from what I'm told.'
'Well,' she reasoned, 'what is, is.
Everything will sort itself out in time.' Now, back to her rude awakening and
the object of her thoughts-and more, if she was honest with herself.
Rachel wondered if Kitty had known the
extent of her feelings for the girl. Rachel had grown to be best friends with
Kitty-but it had developed, at least on her side, into something more.
And *that* was why she couldn't care about
Blaquesmith in *that* way. That was why her few bed partners since coming to
this time had been casual affairs, more often than not one-night stands.
Because she couldn't love someone when she was in love with someone else.
'Tanya asked that,' she remembered,
thinking of her estranged, twisted friend half a world and an entire galaxy
away. 'She asked me why it couldn't be more-why it couldn't be real,' Rachel
remembered the encounter, the start of the estranging and distancing between
the formerly close women and sighed. 'I think she knew it was someone
else...and perhaps it's why she is both my biggest mainstay in the Askani and
my most radical political opponent. The Trasks were ever volatile and arrogant,
and none take rejection well.'
'But Kitty...' Rachel sighed. She had been
head over heels for Kitty-discreetly, of course-when she had switched places
with Captain Britain. 'That's why I always fended men off-the camps had put me
off men, and I was in love with Kitty.'
'I wonder who knew?' she considered for a
moment. 'Meggan, probably She always made it a point to try and make Kitty and
I do something together. Kurt was always giving us sideways looks-perhaps he
suspected, but then again, he knew it was our business.'
'I wonder if Kitty suspected? We were
always careful to be "just friends"...but there were a couple of
times, when we were alone, I would have sworn that she was holding something
back.'
'Kitty...' her mind wandered off on a
tangent. She got up and pulled out a drawer of her dresser. Inside were three
faded photos. One was off Scott and Jean in her timeline. One was her adopted
timeline's Scott and Jean on their wedding day. And the third was of the
original members of Excalibur in their costumes-she, Nightcrawler, Lockheed,
Captain Britain, Meggan, and Shadowcat.
'Oh, Kitty...' her eyes traveled up the
flight boots, over the loose pants draped around muscular legs, up the vest and
shirt concealing a strong set of ab muscles, the vest billowing out at the
breasts, up to Kitty's face. Brown eyes and brown hair the exact same shade
were set on a pale face and red lips, which were smiling exuberantly. 'We could
have been so much more....' Rachel thought wistfully. 'She was beautiful (even
is she didn't think so!), smart, intelligent, witty, caring, sexy. God, I loved
her. I wanted to pick her up, fly her to a remote wood, take her, make love to
her, love her, be with her for the rest of our mutual lives, share her with no
one else. It was selfish, I knew. But after the close calls she had, I almost
*did* make her forcibly retire.'
'You've seen others with those
attributes-Tanya, among others. What makes her so special, and why can't you
let her go?' Rachel asked herself. As always, she came up with the same answer.
'Because she's...Kitty.'
Blaquesmith rapped on her door.
"Mother Askani?" he called tentatively. Rachel put the picture back
in the dresser drawer, shut it, and answered. "Yes?"
"Your standing orders are to wake you
up at this time of day," he returned. Rachel sent one, last loving thought
of Kitty up to the heavens, then banished her former life from her mind.
"Quite. Just let me get dressed, old friend...."
*********
Pete Wisdom was kissing her in a *very*
nice way, Kitty realized smugly. 'And we're about to do it, and I *want* it.'
And events kept going. And even after they
had told each other of their mutual love and devotion, and as Pete eased himself
into her, capturing her virginity and breaking her maidenhead, causing her to
delight-
Even then, at that critical moment?
Kitty saw Rachel.
