It Was All A Dream
AN. Merry Christmas! And along with Christmas comes Christmas break. *cheers.* FF.net hasn't had to many B/R authors, so I am going to submit this final entry so I stop getting death threats, and then I will make it my duty to update all my stories ASAP! Keep up the great work on the reviews!
Love you all and have a happy new year!
Bry
sumerstormes@aol.com
For my non Christian readers Happy Hanukkah, Ramadan *I know that was a month or 2 ago*, and Kwanza….Or happy holidays!
Epilogue
A Choice
The distant future
His head was bent over the antique desk. Sun filtered into the huge glass windows. One hand ruffled through his thick blond hair as he went over the papers on his desk. The full out terrorist attacks against the major cities in California the month before raised the voices regarding the Mutant Registration Act. It was that piece of legislature was keeping this newly elected president into seclusion until the following day.
He had all the facts spread out before him. Passing the Act into law would barely subdue the voices, but it would be a grand start. It left a bitter taste in his mouth to consider the possibility of contentment facilities for the mutants. He flipped through a file looking over the initial plans Congress had sent for his approval. The print began to blur before his eyes. He looked up and saw the pictures displayed in front of him. Burning buildings, dead figures, and twisted figures were all that was in the national papers. Headlines like "Survival of the Fittest?" and "The Fall of the Human Empire." stared back at him.
President Steven O'Brien sat back in his chair and stared at the oval ceiling. People said this job was easy. He almost laughed at the thought. With this one choice, he decided whether mutants were dealt with in a human manner, or with dealt not so nicely by his opponents in the next election. This decision made Presidents or broke them.
He reached out to grab the additional research about the camps to prepare for his next decision when a hand closed around his wrist.
"What the..." Steven's face looked up and went pale.
"Good afternoon Mr. President."
The woman in front of him was covered completely in black leather. Her dark hair was cut bluntly around her face with a distinctive white strip framing her face. The leather gloves burned against his wrist.
"Who are you…? Securi.."
In a split second the woman leapt over the desk and had her hand across his mouth. "I am not here to hurt you, Mr. President." Her voice was full of the south. "I am here to have a talk with you. And right now all your security personal are frozen so it won't matter what you do." Slowly she let go.
"Who are you?" He asked again. Something about her seemed familiar, but he couldn't place her.
"I am an American." She sent him a look. "But you would like to know that yes I am a mutant. A mutant with the possibility to kill you with a touch. No, don't look scared. I won't hurt you because I am a mutant. It takes more to kill someone then their genes. So to answer your question, I am a human, just like you."
He looked shocked. "But you're nothing like me."
"True, I am not a man." She smiled. "But that is beside the point." She sat down on the oak desk. The woman picked up the piece of legislature he had just put down. "The point is, if you do what you are planning on doing, many will die and not for just reasons." Her eyes narrowed. She dropped the papers across the desk and watched them scatter. "I am not prepared for that loss, and I don't think you are either. Your choice is a difficult choice to choose."
"Leaders make difficult choices." he said shortly.
She tilted her head. "Yes they do." She stood up from the desk and started walking around. "You know this isn't my first time in this room. Oh, well you wouldn't. President McKenna wasn't one to brag about it. Gosh, that was almost 9 years ago. He had a tough choice to make too. Telling the people not to bare their right of arms when they all tasted the gun metal of death is a difficult choice. Historians even say that was why he lost his re-election. Howells didn't have to worry about the mutant problem because of the overseas problems… And now there is you. If you continue what McKenna did 8 years ago…? But if you lead this nation to the deaths of many, what will that leave on your soul? You are just fooling yourself when you think that it would just be containment centers. Soon there will be testing facilities to "cure" us." She paused and her face filled with pain. "Then you won't bother with the pretense, and we will all be dead. So you are correct, leaders make difficult decisions. True leaders don't follow what the voters want to hear, or what your party would back. True leaders do what the nation needs, and what is right for EVERY citizen."
"What I don't do, someone will finish!" He slammed his hands against his desk. "I must be strong for my nation! People have died from your so-called innocents! Get out of here before you push me too far. I am a good leader." The last part he whispered to himself.
"Steve, how could you turn to this?" The woman whispered. "How can you send so many to their deaths?"
"Marie, so others can have life." He stopped. His face went from a fiery red to a ghostly pale. "Marie?"
She nodded. "I almost doubted if you had the dreams. Oh, Steve do you remember me?"
He remained frozen in his seat. "How can this be…how can you be a mutant?"
"I am not the only one." Her voice was soft now. She knelt down next to him. "John and Julie were. Kurt and Kitty." She looked up into his eyes. "And Bobby. He is one too. And he will die if you pass this law."
The President's eyes looked far off as if he was back in the dream. "How can you be real? How can this happen?" Suspicion entered his eyes. "Did you do this too me?"
"No!" She stood up. "I don't have that kind of power. But even if I did, not all mutants use their powers to take advantage of each other. Think Steve. Think of what you are doing!"
"I am a good leader." He whispered. "I don't allow emotions cloud my judgment, no matter what you might have meant to me in a dream."
"Then you aren't the boy who was in that dream. Emotions make us human!"
He stood up tall. "You will find out my decision like the rest of them. Leave please, before you take up any more of my time."
Marie closed her eyes. She thought the reason she had the complicated dream so she could protect the ones she loved. She felt the ring around her finger. Everything about the predicted future was coming true, but when she recognized the older version of Steve from her dream, she thought she could help change the future. Marie turned around, ready to go face reality when she heard a small voice behind her.
"Thanks."
And she smiled.
AN. Yep, that's it. What do you think? Do what you do best and review!
Love you all!
Bry
sumerstormes@aol.com
PS: Contact me anytime, or read another one of my stories!