this part originally didn't exist. and then my hands wrote some bonding time for Wade and Eight-ball. *shrug*

warnings: Earth-339. sci-fi. post-apocalyptic (not to be confused with post-Apocalypse, because he doesn't show up for another few hundred years). OCs: Juliet is Laura's daughter. reference to multiple and future character deaths. language: pg-13 (primetime tv plus f*** and s***).

pairing: none/gen (background Laura/Julian, implied one-sided Nate/Wade elsewhere in the multiverse).

timeline: 2065; after ten years of uneasy peace, war broke out again, and now the fleet is reduced to three crippled ships.

disclaimer: i doesn't owns the movies, comics, or characters. or the assorted objects of pop culture reference.

notes: 1) the title is a reference to the Pat Benatar song "Invincible." all the titles from the End of Dreaming sequence will be. 2) Eight-ball's third definition of pain is a reference to One Spark and Firework, a pair of Fateverse Side Stories about the Savant. 3) on a bunk, a "jump bar" is a medium-duty bar installed to make getting in and out of the bunk faster and easier. it's an especially important component of a capsule-style bunk (like the ones on the airline shuttle in Fifth Element), which you'd otherwise have to crawl laboriously into and out of. i think there's another term for it, too, but i forget what that term is. 4) "dreadnought" is a generalized term for a large ship that is basically all guns. 5) the flagship of a fleet is the ship of the fleet's commander. more commonly, it's a temporary designation of whatever ship the admiral is on. 6) "en route" is a French phrase commonly used in English. it means "on the way." 7) when Steve Rogers was assassinated at the beginning of the Flotilla War (the three-year war that kicked off in (No) Sacrifice), Tony renamed the Avenger in Steve's honor. when Tony vanished less than a year later, Pepper Hogan took charge. when the Skywar began in 2063, Dani suggested an interesting tactic and Pepper happily passed command to her. 8) FDF = Fleet Defense Force. 9) "Year Zero" is the theoretical year of Hope's landing. Juliet and the civilians have been told that they're going to be setting up camp at Hope's landing point and waiting for her. they're actually setting up camp to make a resistance cell when Apocalypse takes over. SHHHHH, don't spoil the surprise for them. 10) "Let's do this shit" is actually a reference to A Glass Darkly from Blood & Tears.


This Sudden Darkness

Wade stares at the new wall. That is, the wall's not really new, but he calls it the 'new' wall because he ran out of space on the 'old' wall, the wall where he started carving forty-some years ago when Kate called in with 'one casualty.'

The big name on the new wall is Frank Richards. Not as big as the first name, but pretty big. Pretty deep, too, because when he starts to feel stumped, he carves Frank's name and wonders what the whiz-kid would do.

"Where the fuck are all the geniuses when you need 'em?" he mutters to himself.

~Juliet is on the Dayspring. Most of the others are dead.~

"It was rhetorical. And you know that's not what I meant. She's not the same kinda smart. Stark would have a way outta this."

~His way out of this would be exactly the way you're going to take. And then he'd be dead, since he doesn't have a healing factor. And then, in another few thousand years, the human race would be doomed for lack of Tony Stark's brain. I do actually know what I'm doing.~

Wade knows Eight-ball is right. Eight-ball is always right. That's very annoying. He expresses his annoyance with Eight-ball's always being right by shoving the thing carelessly onto the floor and watching it bounce and roll.

~That,~ it says sourly, ~was completely uncalled for.~

Wade wonders if the Node actually feels pain. He understands that vibration can disrupt their 'thought' processes, and Eight-ball says things like 'ow' when someone drops or throws it.

Him?

It.

Whatever.

"Do you know what pain is?" Wade asks.

~Pain is a range of electrical signals passed along nerves to special interpretive neurons in the brain.~

"That's not what I meant."

~Pain is a message from the body to the brain warning of injury, whether temporary or lasting. In that sense, I can feel pain. I'm sure that's why you were asking. A hard enough impact could cause me permanent damage, so I receive an alarm signal on a very basic level, something that doesn't go through interpretive data channels. It's more than just a number, it's more than just 'oh, four Newtons, whatever.' I feel panic, I experience an analog to adrenal response, my thought processes are disrupted.~

"Huh," Wade says, watching the Node roll to a gentle stop in a corner of the room.

~Pain is watching someone you love suffer and thinking you're doing everything you can to stop it, only he doesn't want you to. And what can you do? You can't just stop. If you just stop, if you just accept it, then he's going to suffer, and he's going to die, and nothing will mean anything anymore. So even though helping might make him angry, or sad, you have to do something, because Wade never lets anyone help him, that's part of who he is. So you just keep going, because you're a Summers, and you can be stubborn, too, and this is the only way you know to be.~

Wade's hands are trembling on his knees.

~Yes, Wade, I know what pain is.~

"So you…" Wade says slowly. "You used to be a Nate?"

There's a long pause. ~No. And yes.~

"What does that even mean? No and yes?"

~I, the sentient artificial intelligence known as Eight-ball, was written piecemeal as a heuristic copy of a computerized human consciousness and put into a vessel that already bore a heavy resonance signature. I've never had a body, and never had life experiences, but over time, I've been gaining memories of two people I've never been. It's complicated, and it involves a lot of resonance theory. But anyway, no and yes.~

"Two people."

~Two people.~

"Care to elaborate?"

~No. You're being nosy, and it's none of your fuckin' business. It should be enough to know that I do genuinely understand guilt and sorrow.~

It should.

It is.

Wade nods. "Yeah. Sorry 'bout that." He gets up and fetches Eight-ball back. "Couldya hit the lights? I need some shut-eye before the big push."

The lights go out, and it's just Eight-ball twinkling in the darkness, like Christmas lights from far away.

Wade dreams of Christmases past. Of Neena's laughter and Bob's bad sweaters and kisses under the mistletoe. X-Force Christmases and X-Men Christmases. Avengers Christmases because Billy figured out that Tommy wouldn't go unless Hope made him. SHIELD charity balls, where Tony always let Val and Dani pick the tree, and it was always huge and covered with lights. Hope loved the lights.

~Wade.~

Wade snaps awake and nearly brains himself on the jump bar of his bunk. "I'm up! We under attack?"

~This is it.~

"What's it? This is what?" Wade asks, still muzzy and disoriented. He frowns and reaches for the glint of lights in darkness. Eight-ball is warm to the touch, like he's been calculating while Wade was asleep.

~Dreadnought Excalibur is bearing down on us, and flagship Madeen is en route. I've outlined the optimum solution.~

"Of course you have," sighs Wade. "Well, we already knew the Dayspring was gonna be our lifeboat. I assume you started evacuations."

~Yes. Nearly 90% of all civilians have been successfully relocated to the Dayspring, and shuttles are still in the air. Military staff is being redistributed so that the Steve Rogers will be fully manned for maximum firepower. Working matter synths have been redistributed as well, one each provisionally on Providence and the Steve Rogers, and the remainder on the Dayspring.~

"Good. Call up the FDF. Daken and Bullseye are still our team?"

~Yes. In fact, the chances of success have risen by 2% since last week. Nobody else will work. It has to be them. And the Steve Rogers will go down—we're up to 88.5% on that.~

"Shit. I owe Dani better than that."

~She isn't doing it for you. This is how she wants to go. Literally nothing would make her prouder than to have you put her name on your wall. She's doing it for the eighteen thousand, six hundred and seventy-one civilians who'll be running for the landing point.~

Wade rubs his eyes. "And Juliet knows what to do?"

~I've given her the landing coordinates. She assumes that's where they need to wait for Year Zero. Correcting her would've been needlessly confusing, time-consuming and counter-productive.~

"Ah, right. Same reason you don't tell me everything," Wade says bitterly.

~I've learned that telling you everything makes you waste time,~ Eight-ball retorts in a sharp tone. ~I walk a delicate line, trading lives for lives. Let the right thousand people die now, fifty thousand more might live later on, but I still do the math to see if they're going to be enslaved or something before I make the call. If you don't believe in that, then throw me out the fucking airlock and do this your damn self.~

He sighs. "No, I…I get it, I really do. It's just frustrating. It's…everyone I've ever known is going to die, but I can't."

The room goes black, and Wade sees the shooting-star-spark that means Eight-ball's actually being sympathetic.

~No, you can't yet. I'm sorry. Hope needs you. It's all come down to this. You have to be strong today—don't waste the lives we've already paid.~

Wade looks at the faint gleam along the letters on his walls and shakes his head. "No. I know. If we don't get them out of here, there'll be no one left. And if I don't make it to the fortieth century, Stryfe gets Hope."

~And kills Nate, pruning 25% of the branches with highest stability.~

"And that's bad."

~Very. As per your Plan—capital letter and all, yes, I remember—I've called an emergency meeting of the FDF, and all seven members will be aboard within the next fifteen minutes. The Excalibur will be in range in twenty, the Madeen arrives in forty.~

Wade grabs a knife from the space between mattress and wall. "Groovy. Let's do this shit."

~I'd like to take this opportunity to express my complete and utter disgust with this particular aspect of the Plan.~

"Duly noted."

.End.