Chapter Ten: Responsibility

Jubilee had reached 'that point'. Vaguely she recalled Wolverine speaking briefly about 'that point' but she couldn't recall what he had said.

He had said how guilt could eat you alive. How it can make you insane. How it clouds judgment and how, if a person lived right, unlike him, they could avoid guilt entirely.

Jubilee had taken that to heart. She tried not to hurt other people; she tried to be happy, and hoped to fall in love. But no where in that formula had she acquired the ability to cope with the guilt of living when others did not.

In some worlds, she came to know this guilt in passing as grief, ever assured that life went on and remained worthwhile.

In this world, life ground to a halt for Jubilation Lee. Nothing mattered. All her accomplishments were for her and her alone. And although she wanted one, she couldn't find a dog anywhere.

She could see the others all the time now. All she had to do was adjust her focus and she could see them.

Sometimes she saw people and things she recognized. Other times she did not.

She reached out with her essence and pushed.

Everything flashed in negative, like lightening, and she saw it, the mansion of Charles Xavier.

She saw Scott and Jean and Xavier himself. Then she saw herself. This is what I was waiting for! She told herself and she pushed again with all her might, somehow sure that if she pushed hard enough, when she saw herself there, in the picture, she could make it real.

On the station, the meter jumped to 99 percent for a nanosecond, and then fell to zero again, going completely unnoticed as Jubilee passed out, blood running from her nose, and leeching through her clothes as she lay in a lump on the ground.

Meanwhile, back on The Keepers Station, Lucas was asking the tough questions, like:

"What do you mean I cant send her back?" He demanded of the computer. He considered flexing his hands in to intimidating fists as this often had the effect of getting him exactly what he wanted, although he had never tried it with a computer.

"Subject Frost now constitutes a major threat to temporal continuity on her home world." The computer volunteered.

"Why?" Lucas prodded

"She now possesses an elemental understanding of dimensional mechanics and will attempt to use this knowledge to alter the timeline."

Something suddenly hit him like a thunderbolt. "How will she attempt to alter the timeline?"

"She will attempt to rewrite the murder of a close associate."

"Polite computer" Emma entered the room. "I hope you don't mind, I got tired of the view."

"Stupid view, giving Emma extra-dimensional insight..." Lucas grumbled inaudibly to himself. "No problem" He spoke up. "Just trying to..."

"To figure out what to do with me hunh?" She smiled at him almost genuinely. "The computers right, all I was thinking about was how to use what I just learned to my own advantage."

"You know I can't return you. Not until you decide not to meddle."

"Hmmm." She smiled sincerely "I may be here a while." She was tracing the contours of the table edge with an idle fingertip. "Can't we find some common ground? Use your technology, find a solution that suits us both?"

Lucas considered for a moment. "Computer, is it possible to circumvent the murder of Emma's... " The word escaped him for a moment "friend? Without harming the time line?"

"Transplantation of Subject Emma and a specially encoded token in to a world where their doubles are no longer viable to existence would result in creation of a branch reality capable of supporting the current scenario."

"That sounds promising." Lucas prompted.

"Does it?" Emma teased. "It's a little hard to tell."

"I tell you what Emma. I'll make you a deal."

She looked at him sideways for a moment, sure in her own mind that this was one of those situations where she was about to get the shaft in all the ways she didn't like. But after a moment she began to relax. And although she knew what a horrible mistake it could be, she began to trust Lucas.

Soon, a deal was reached and the computer began construction of the proper probability token for Emma's needs. The computer began to sweep the spectrum of worlds looking for a viable world to accept both her, and her now dead and avenged lover. The computer had warned them that this process could take up to three months.

And all she would have to do is assist in the daily maintenance of the station until then, and maintain any systems that need attendance while Lucas takes care of a personal task of his own.

That night, they retired to their separate rooms.

Emma could feel Lucas as he dropped off to sleep, and she knew how to stretch out her mind and touch his ever so gently, to keep him asleep. She could feel his powers, the powers of others that he had stolen, and healing factor.

Emma wondered silently what sex with a man who had a healing factor would be like. Would he ever climax? Would it only seem like forever?

She reached out and keyed the door to Lucas' room. It slid open with a whoosh that almost surprised her and almost made her lose her concentration. She reapplied the mental pressure and felt him drop further to sleep. When she was comfortable with the depth of his sleep she approached.

Emma crept over him as she had so many others in her day. She climbed right on top of him and straddled him, smiling. She ran her hands over his hairy broad chest. Now that she was touching him it was almost certain he couldn't wake up if he wanted to. Her influence was so great.

Emma leaned down and took his head in her hands. She pressed her lips to his and tasted him with a kiss. Suddenly she felt him stir and begin to kiss her back. A deep warm flush ran through her body like electricity. She focused all her discipline and eased him back in to the foggy realm of sleep.

Once she was certain that the threat had passed she retreated hastily. *What was I thinking? She wondered. What's wrong with me? I'm about to get everything I want, aren't I?*

She walked past the chip on the table. She eyed it for a moment silently. If she understood the process correctly, Kurt was encoded on that chip. What would Kurt think if he had seen her, stripped to her panties, straddling the stranger?

*Of course*, she thought, *I wouldn't have done that if Kurt were... *

And the truth of the reality began to sink in. ...*Alive*.

Kurt was gone and avenged. Did she have any real right to ask for more?