30.
The Present
Chapter Theme Song: Insertion - Hans Zimmer (Dark Phoenix Soundtrack)
Being weakened by his injuries didn't help, and he couldn't hang on to her. She phased her wrist through his hand and fell, he only able to watch.
As she plunged downward, the shadows swarmed her, consuming her. Soon, the purple energy light she was giving off was snuffed out. The darkness engulfed her and she was gone.
"No - Mom, NO!" Hope screamed, and tried to charge forward, but Domino held her back. Hope thrashed against her hold, but it was no use.
His daughter's screams were like knives in his chest, cutting his heart to shreds.
Angel swooped down to try and catch Nina before she fell, but was quickly overwhelmed by the shadows himself and unable to reach her.
"Angel!" Kurt managed to teleport himself to his friend's aid, and get them both to safety.
But Nina was gone.
Wade was now standing over Nathan. "Nathan, come on, let me help you up."
"No-"
"Nathan, come on, give me your god damn hand."
Hesitantly, he took Wade's hand, allowing the other man to help him to his feet.
Wade put a supportive arm around him. "I'm sorry."
But Nathan barely heard him. How could he let this happen? Again?
He didn't want to turn around out of fear of what he would see - rather what he wouldn't see.
"N-Nate." Future Nina, his wife Nina, stumbled, losing her footing. Her younger self was gone, which meant she had sealed the fate of her future self as well, and that of her future daughter.
"Neen-" He wrapped her up in a near-crushing hug, the best he could with his one arm, supporting her from falling. "Oh Darling - I'm so sorry." He pulled Hope in close as well and just held them both, as tightly as he could, never wanting to let go. "No, no, oh God, please no-" The best he could, Nathan clung to them both, prepared to never let go. With the younger self of his wife dead, that meant both his wife and his daughter would soon be gone as well.
His hold around them tightened, dreading the moment he would feel them start to fade away, from him, and from existence.
He had come here to save them from such a fate, and he had only made it worse. He had changed nothing.
"Nate-"
"No, no, I can't lose you again."
"Nathan-"
"No, please, no, don't go, don't leave me-"
"Nate."
"Dad."
He pulled away slightly. Nina was looking at him, unchanged. "I'm fine - we're both fine."
Looking at them himself, he saw no sign of them departing from this reality.
But how was that possible? He stared at them in disbelief. Surely they would have faded away from existence by now - right?
But what did this mean? Could it mean-
Slowly, hesitantly almost, he turned back to the cliffside, peering over the edge.
Erik was already working to create a staircase of sorts from pieces of metal scattered about. This allowed the team to descend safely down the cliff to the base of it where Nina had fallen.
Nathan, Future Nina, and Hope led the way. As the dust cleared, they all saw her-
Nina.
Present Nina. She was lying where she had fallen, still and silent, unmoving. The shadows that had surrounded and engulfed her were gone, though black and purple crackles of energy now swirled across her skin. Her hair was no longer red and instead a deep purple.
Hope rushed forward, holding a hand above her future mother's head. "She's alive! She's alive - barely, but..." She laughed in disbelief.
"What did you do?" Nathan asked his wife.
"I-I don't know," she admitted. "But we're fine. We're here - we're alive. We're fine."
Erik now crouched beside the fallen Nina as well. "She's unconscious. We must get her some medical attention."
Hope returned to her parents' sides. Nathan pulled them both close again, this time out of relief. He pressed a kiss to Nina's head, then Hope's "Come on, Let's go home."
Turning around, however, they were reminded that they stood in the remains of the mansion.
"Oh, right..."
"It's okay." Jean stepped forward. "We've fixed it once before, we can do it again. Let's all go home."
In a joined effort between Charles, Erik, Future Nina, Hope, and Jean, they were able to piece the mansion back together piece by piece, and restore the grounds of the estate to their usual glory, as though nothing had happened.
"See, I told you the house blows up every few years," said Ellie.
Once the mansion was fully restored, everyone received the medical attention they needed. Present Nina was taken to the medical wing where she lay, still and silence, for three days.
When those few days had passed, her eyes finally fluttered open. And when they did, they were a sharp, bright purple.
"Oh god-" The first thing her new purple eyes fell upon was her older, future self in the arms of Nathan, both standing over her cot in the medical wing. "That is so weird on so many levels..."
Both chuckled. "See, you are funny," said Nathan.
"So you say. Nate, could I have a moment with myself, please?"
"Of course." Nathan left them - left her. She sat and faced her younger self.
Both Nina's just sat there, staring at each other for a long, silent moment.
"How are you feeling?" Future Nina finally asked.
"Different..."
"A good different?"
"Not sure about that yet." Another pause before she said, "What happened? What did I do?"
"You absorbed the Dark Dimension."
"So it worked, then."
"Yes. Essentially you tethered it to yourself, so it's your life force now."
Present Nina nodded distantly. "You said we'd figure the future out-" She held up her hands. "And now this?"
"We'll figure it out. We have lots of time. And we're not alone in this. It might not turn out to be as much of a curse as it seems now."
"Maybe not. So what happens now?"
"That's for you to decide."
Again, she nodded somewhat distantly. "I bet you're happy to be reunited with him."
Her future self smiled warmly. "Yes, I am, very much."
"I don't love him right now - not yet."
"And that's okay, he's not asking you to right now. He's not even in your life yet, technically."
"All this time travel really messes with things."
"It sure does." Future Nina stood. "I'll go get Charles. He wanted to see you."
A few minutes later, Charles replaced her future self at her bedside.
"You gave us all quite the scare back there," he told her.
"It seemed that the shadows were protecting me, trying to connect with me, so I had to try. But I wasn't sure what was going to happen," she admitted. "And just because I absorbed it willingly doesn't mean I'm not still afraid of it."
"Of course, and now you can focus on becoming more comfortable with it. And you have all of us here to support you." Charles reached out and placed his hand over hers. She gave his a squeeze. "Before, you were accessing the darkness within the atmosphere. Now, you have absorbed it and, from what we can tell, it has stopped spreading. You've contained it. Now, as far as we can tell, you have unlimited access to it." He sighed. "I was wrong to keep telling you to fight it. You were always meant to embrace it, it's a part of you."
"I don't fault you, Charles. Please, don't feel bad." He gave her a thankful smile. She squeezed his hand again. "I know you said I have support here, and I know I do, but I think that I should take some time away. At least until I figure this new power out and get some handle on it. I don't want to cause harm to anyone in the meantime."
"If that is what you feel is best."
She looked very torn, but determined as well, "It's one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, but yes, I do."
Yay, she's okay! ;) I do love a happy ending!
The scene with Nina absorbing the Dark Dimension was inspired by Carol absorbing the Tesseract's energy in 'Captain Marvel'!
Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)
