Disclaimer: The characters belong to Marvel. The story is the continuation of 'Redemption'. The poem 'Yesterday Is Gone' was written by a dear friend by the name of Reggie. It was his way of explaining the reasons behind his suicide.

itallics thought

bold itallics telepathy


Yesterday Is Gone


Yesterday is gone now

and the blank history

slowly unfolds

telling the stories that went untold

the pain and the sadness

will not go away

the voices must be heard

but I know not what to say

a scorned soul

never seems to heal

this pain I must conceal

in the pale moonlight I sit and write

a living lie

never seems to die

but yesterday is gone now

and so am I.


Dreams

"It's strange how things come to you in your dreams and the truth is revealed"
-Elaine 'Nascha' Erickson 1996

Jean sighed in her tormented sleep, images of Gambit falling to the hands of Sinister plaguing her. For the fourth time she bolts up, a scream dying on her lips, a sheen of sweat matting her firey hair to her face. Instantly she realizes she is not in her bed in the boathouse but on a matress in a small, wet, stone room with a large stone door open little more than a foot. In the dim shaft of light coming through the doorway she can barely see well enough to make out the form of another person, a small child. As the child turns to her realization strikes, This is a tomb, with Remy! The shock of the revelation jolts her awake. Glancing at Scott she finds he too is caught yo in some kind of nightmare, and to her horror she cannot touch his mind.

Scott Summers, my name is Scott Summers, and this is not real. He thinks desperately as the pain in his chest intesifies. Oh Got, I'm dying.. He clutches the wound as he stumbles down the unfamilliar alley, blood spilling from his fingers. Trying to remember how he got into this horrible place he begins to panic. Sliding down the wall next to a stinking dumpster he hears the sounds of the boys who had shot him running past the alley. "Fin' de lil' monster!" the leader yells. What is happening? Where... his thought dies as his brain barely registers the reflection staring at him from the dark window of the abandoned building across from him. It's a boy, no more than seven, demonic eyes wide in shock. Gam.... he bolts upright grasping Jean's arm painfully, "bit?!?"

Looking around wildly he focuses on his wife in confusion. Scanning the mansion Jean realizes that Logan is wide awake in the kitchen, Ororo is rocking wildly in her bed, and Rogue is still lost in a nightmare. Jubilee's agonising scream fills the mansion, echoing through the halls.


Revelations

"There is no greater shock than to realize the truths someone was afraid to tell."
-Kriz Boudreaux 1996

Gathered together in the kitchen those affected by these strange dreams try to comfort each other and figure this out. Jean stutters a sigh, the dream's grip still on her. "I was in a tomb or something, sleeping there. It was cold and dark, I could feel the loneliness and hunger. It was Remy, I know it. He was there, only he was a child, couldn't have been more than five or six. He was living in that place."

Scott slips his arms around her shoulders as she shudders at the thought. "I dreamed I had been shot. There was a gang I think, I'm not real sure, it was confusing. They were chasing me, I wanted to fight but I was so afraid to. They had cornered me when the one shot me. The others must not have known that was the plan because they backed off and I got away. I thought I was dying. I finally got to a safer place and as I was passing out in the dream I saw my reflection." After a moment's pause he finishes, "I was Gambit, a year or so older than in Jean's dream."

Logan nods slightly, "I was bein' beaten, couldn't do anything 'bout it either. Felt helpless, an' after what seemed like a good ten minutes I started wishin' they'd just kill me an' get it over with." He takes a long pull from his cigar, still trying to settle his nerves. "All of a sudden they just stopped an' I was layin' there. I think th' only things on m'body not broken was m'neck an' back. There was some yellin', couldn' understan' a work of it though. Then this guy was leanin' over me, talkin' t'me, tellin' me I was guna be a'right. When he rolled me over I realised he was a priest an' I thought 'Thank God'. Then he started backin' away from me crossin' himself an' talin' 'bout how I was th'devil's child. It didn't take much t'figure out I was dreamin' I was th'kid after I woke up, but damn.. bein' shunned by a priest like that scared th'hell out'a me. An' they all jus' left me layin' there in a gutter like trash. Wonder if anyone actually helped th'kid."

Ororo looks at them, still rocking slightly, tears still streaming down her cheeks. "He used to sit in windows watching families. Fantasizing that he had one until they would chase him away. That is what I was doing, I was starving and it seemed to be Thanksgiving. Everyone was eating a lot of food, I could not help it, the hunger went away some when I imagined I was sitting at one of those table with family. One man he me across the back with a baseball bat. Not even the church would let me come in and it was so cold and wet. I finally killed a sewer rat."

She closes her eyes tightly for a moment, "I pretended I was eating a nice hot dinner in a warm house with a family that loved me when in reality I was eating a raw rat in a dark, wet dumpster with an old alley cat."

They all sit for a moment in stunned silence as Rogue begins crying again. "Ah thought Ah cried all ah could a'ready." She chuckles slightly taking a deep breath, "Ah was freezin'. People were starin' at me an' Ah was tryin' tah beg f'food but Ah didn' know how tah talk much. Ah was so frustrated an' alone. There was mammas with their chidr'n an' Ah wondered what my mamma looked like an' Ah wanted t'know why she left me out all by myself. He didn' even know who he was, didn' know his name, birthday, or nothin'. Ah guess it wasn' as bad as ya'll but, it hurt somuch an' he couldn' have been more than three or four years old. If Ah hadn' of been there, Ah don' think Ah eveh could'a imagined what that would'a been like. Not knowin'."

Hank nods his head slowly, "My dream was of a simillar nature, being young, along, and very, very frightened. Wandering the streets."

Jubilee stares at them all, her face pale and drawn, her eyes wide, her mind still rejecting the events of her dream. "I can't, you guys had it easy. I can't relive that."

Logan starts to go to her side and she practically leaps away from him, "Don't touch me! Don't anyone ever touch me again!"

She screams in obvious fear, her eyes glued to his hands as she curls up in the corner. Jean edges closer to the girl, her voice soothing as the others stare in shock. "Jubilee, honey. Nothing happened to you, it was a dream about someone else."

The girl's hands clench into fists as she shouts, "It doesn't matter! I felt it, ME! I felt them touching me! Pinning me down! I felt thier.." She sobs brokenly and curls into a tight ball.