I don't own G.I. Joe, Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, Captain America, X-Men Evolution or anything else that might be involved or mentioned in this story beyond my own original characters and situations. I have to dedicate this one to my fiancee, who has always been an inspiration and has been Athena's real-life counterpart since the character was created, even when we were not even friends. While it's not neccessary to have read the original "Magnus" story, it's advised to have a better understanding of some references and situations in this one.
"Magnus 2: 'Possibilities and Alternatives'"
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"
Most of the time when someone is watching their kids play, they're not leaning against a quanoset hut when they do it. The kids are not as old as the parents. Nor do either parents or children have weapons or high-tech armor...
Of course, most families aren't part of Special Anti-Terrorist Task Unit Delta, affectionately (by our friends), disgustedly (by our enemies), and simply called by most 'G.I. Joe.'
I'm the father, depending on whether you're talking to a Joe, an Agent of SHIELD, members of the superhero community, or those who only know me as a civilian or regular military, I'm known as Turbo, Dragon, Johnny Freedom (Something that I still hit Steve upside the head for at times), or just plain old John Thomas Magnus, Major, United States Special Forces.
Of course, most of the troops under my command as G.I. Joe's Executive Officer don't know about me being their father... Actually, only those under my direct command in the sub-unit known as "Frontline" know that... It's hard to keep secrets in a close-knit small group that spent two years fighting, bleeding and dying together. When you've got fifteen soldiers who fight against hundreds, you have to KNOW what your teammates are gonna do, so it gets to the point where you can see changes in them before they do at times.
The differences in those two are funny at times...
Skywarp, that is, John Robert Magnus, named for the Kennedy brothers, is his mother's son... Sure, he looks like me, with her hair and eyes though, but he's got her "Calm before the storm" type personality. Like his sister he wears a suit of armor from his time, however, it looks like it's from the future like he is...
His sister, however, is a different story, in a way it seems like some lunatic sitting at a computer drinking soft drinks and listening to country music while imagining himself as a hero is behind it all, since she's the opposite of her brother, she's got my eyes and hair and her mother's looks, my "When I'm calm, you're dead" personality, and where her brother's armor is futuristic, her's looks like it was worn by an eigth century Japanese samurai... if the samurai was female. Saoirse (pronounced SEER-sha) Kathleen Magnus, codename Artemis... I almost pity whoever she ends up dating...
They've been here almost four years, but I've only really been married to their mother for two years. I never really paid any attention to this until recently.
The reason they're the same age as their mother and I is because they came back in time to fix time using a device known as a Dimensional Tuner...
Ask any of the Joes, I LOVE to mess around with stuff and learn by doing, I might be twenty-three years old, but I'm still a kid at heart, I guess...
Even things about twenty years beyond my own knowledge.
Yeah, I just HAD to go messing with the Dimensional Tuner, didn"t I?
Either way, I did...
The Dimensional Tuner, for those that don't know, is a device shaped like a ping-pong paddle with a spike sticking up from the flat part. Even after what I went through, I'm still not clear on the details, but appearantly it works like this: the Tuner causes the molecules in the bodies of anyone holding or touching it to vibrate at a different frequency so that they pass through whatever universe or time period they're in and into one where the molecules of native matter vibrate at the same frequency as the Tuner is.
It's also made out of a metal that either doesn't exist yet or that we haven't discovered yet.
I was taking it apart to try and get a sample for Airtight and the other scientists to analyse completely, something they couldn't do with it intact without damaging the Tuner. I wanted to know what it was and if we could duplicate it.
Thinking back, I think my big mistake was not putting out a sign or something to keep others out of the workshop. Normally what gets done in there is just fabrication for parts to repair our vehicles and weapons, occasionally a project of one of the Joes, but rarely any work on anything that's live -yeah, the Tuner was live, I mean, it was switched off, but there was still power in it, there was no way to eliminate that, it had a self-replenishing power source- so we don't really have to worry about keeping others out.
What happened next, I don't know, probably never will. It's like a car accident, you can remember what you did before impact, you can remember after the impact, but the impact itself and anything you were thinking when it happened are unrecallable. I know, I've been in a few wrecks myself, and not all of them have been Joe-issue vehicles...
Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the middle of the Pit's Parade Grounds with Beachhead, Law, Shockwave, and some guy I didn't recognize in green pants, a tan shirt, and black flak jacket with grey armor pads and black full-face helmet pointing guns at me and Sergeant Major Jessica Parker, known to all as "Athena", known to some as Jessica Magnus, my wife, and the Joe team's CSM, who had opened the door just before everything went to shit and was now still unconscious and laying beside me.
"Now I know how 'Warp and them felt..." I muttered, only half-conscious myself.
"Who the hell is Warp?" The voice I heard speak jolted me to full awakeness, because it was MY voice...
The fourth figure pulled off his helmet to reveal my own face, it was lacking the scar over my right eye that I had received from Devastator in one of our confrontations, the cheeks were a little thinner, but it was definately me.
And there was only one thing I could say, "...oooh, boy..."
And standing above me, my doppelganger looked down and commented, "No shit, Sam."
Beside me, a voice muttered, "Even when you're not you, you're still a smart-ass..."
Throughout this, Beachhead and the other two Joes had been looking on in confusion until Law finally broke their silence, "Mi dios, if it were anyone other than Turbo, I'd have a hard time believing it..."
"So... no brothers?"
"Nope."
"Father's not military, in fact he's a jackass?"
"Yep."
"Never a 'Frontline' team?"
"Never."
"No sweetheart?"
"From what you told me, girls named Erin Townsend are the same, no matter what reality you're in."
"And you're a Steel Brigade Commander, Staff Sergeant?"
"Not exactly. I guess our Brigade is different from your's. Technically, I'm not even regular military. Basically I'm a G.I. Joe Reservist, except the rules are a little bent in my case since I'm on the base most of the time. The only reason I even HAVE a rank is because of something Hawk and Beachhead pulled a while back."
"Doesn't that cause trouble?"
"Not really, I usually wind up pulling shifts of whatever to free up other Joes, not that I don't see combat, I'm the primary operator of the 'Arma-deuce', after all, but, well, Joes look after our own, what else is there to say?"
"Not a thing."
We sat in silence for a moment, neither of us knowing what to say.
"So who's the dame?"
"Huh?"
"The redhead."
I paused for a minute to gather my thoughts, I mean, how do you tell yourself, except he's a you that hasn't entirely gotten over his past, that you're married to a teammate's daughter who's also a teammate herself and directly under you in the Chain of Command to boot?
Lifeline's voice crackled over the other Turbo's Gauntlet, "Lifeline to Turbo, could you please come to the Infirmary? ...BOTH Turbos, now, or else."
I shook my head and looked over at my counterpart, "Doctors are all the same, aren't they?"
"You're a pain to check out too, then?"
"I'm the executive officer... There's only one Joe in my world that's a bigger one than me, and that's the Tomahawk."
"Lifeline to Turbo, now means NOW!"
We looked at each other when Lifeline's voice sounded again, speaking in unison, "How do doctors DO that?"
General Hawk had that look on his face that I'd seen Tomahawk get when he had no clue what was going on and knew it was probably better that way...
Mainframe, for that matter, was wondering what he was doing there.
"Turbo... or rather Major Turbo, you check out fine, you have several genetic traits different from our Staff Sergeant Turbo, but you said that they're normal for you, so that doesn't bother me... But do you know what I found when I ran tests on a blood sample from Athena?" Lifeline asked, one of those questions where they know the answer but they want you to make them say it.
I didn't make him say it, "You found, Lifeline, someone who has traces of mutated DNA similar to my own, but the important thing you found is the DNA passed on from Athena's parents... Sgt. Blaine Parker, codename: 'Mainframe'," and here I paused to glance over at Mainframe, the look in his eyes had me wondering about whether there was a Jessica Parker in this universe, "and the Dreadnok Zarana."
Mainframe looked at me for a minute, then looked at Athena, then back at me, "You were the one working on the Dimensional Tuner?"
Looking back, I should have know I was in trouble by how calm he was... but my brains were addled from the trip, so I guess I had an excuse for what I said.
I said, "Yeah..."
Mainframe stepped back and punched me, knocking me to the ground before storming out of the Infirmary...
In a voice barely above a whisper, General Hawk said, "His daughter's dead..."
The two sergeants and I looked at each other, then Sergeant Turbo replied to our unasked question, "Come with me, I'll fill you in..."
Cobra had never been defeated, so Zandar and Zarana had never abandoned the Dreadnoks. Zarana had never abandoned the Dreadnoks, so her and Mainframe's daughter went on living with Mainframe's parents.
G.I. Joe had never been disbanded, so Frontline had never been formed, so Daniel Maxwell went on as a civilian until Zanya came along...
And Zanya still seduced him to the Dreadnoks...
But here, he killed Jessica after he was done with her.
You know, it doesn't matter if you don't get along well, or in this case they're in a different reality, family is family and I'm from an OLD school when it comes to family...
Mess with me all you like, but go near my family and I'll come down on you like the hammer of God.
Interesting thing about being outnumbered more than thirty to one for six years, you learn how to both enjoy those odds and emerge victorious, and for what I was thinking, I needed me, myself, and Athena on one side, possibly Zarana and Mainframe, and on the other would be Zanya and Devastator...
The odds actually being in our favor for a change, if it wasn't personal, I'd almost feel sorry for them.
But I was too busy feeling pissed instead.
"Johnnie... In the four years that I've known you, you've come up with some absolutely screwy plots, but this goes beyond anything that you've come up with before," Athena commented, dressed in civilian clothes of the same kind as the night... the night... well, I'm pretty sure you can guess what I mean... or for this reality, the night her counterpart was killed.
"I don't know," Mainframe muttered, garbed like me and Sergeant Turbo in black pants and a black flak jacket, "The Sergeant's come up with some that would give this a run for its money, like the time he, Roadblock, and Gung-Ho went to Japan to challenge the Iron Chefs..."
I shook my head and looked at my enlisted self, "He's right, you have come up with crazier stunts than I have... Besides," I looked at each of them in turn, "Any of you know a better way to scare a couple of Dreads than for two of a guy that there should only be one and someone who's 'dead' to be kicking their asses?"
Sergeant Turbo blinked, "...You're psychotic."
"Thank you."
"So, let me get this straight... You called my mother, or rather, this reality's Zarana," Athena corrected herself, "and Zandar to tell them that you knew what had happened to me, the other me, and for them to bring Devastator and Zanya to a certain place near Phoenix - the same place that Devastator killed the other me - and you plan to have me act like I'm this Jessica and I didn't die to get them to admit that they plotted to..."
I rested a hand on her shoulder, "You don't have to say it."
"...and then what? Arrest them? ...You've got that look on your face again..."
'That look' is something that everyone tells me they see when I'm about to do something crazy, personally, I've never seen it in a mirror or anything and I HAVE looked for it, so I don't know...
"I was actually wanting to see how Zanya's beloved aunt and uncle would react to that information, what do you all think?"
Sergeant Turbo gave a look that I think might be what others are always talking about and smiled, "Let me get a cam-cube from Scoop."
The four of us were using an ancient technique known as 'Shut up and don't move'... ancient as in WWII, at the least, my great-uncle's the one who taught it to me, to remain hidden in the darkness. The outfits us three males wore made it easy, Athena, however, had to wear a cloak draped over her more visible outfit.
"So, why'd you bring us all the way out here, Auntie Z?"
Zanya.
I nodded for Athena to go ahead, she stood up, dropping the cloak, and stepped out of the woods. At the same time, Sergeant Turbo and I moved around quietly to flank them.
"Actually... cousin... that would be me."
"You! It can't be!"
It's almost scary how well you can predict people sometimes, I knew SOMEONE was going to say that, in fact, it was the cue for Sergeant Turbo and I to make our own move. Unlike Athena, we didn't say a word. Like her, however, we stepped out of the woods, boxing Zanya and Devastator in...
Dark beings with death on our faces stepping out of the shadows...
For the moment, Athena was ignoring Zanya. Shit may roll downhill, but in this case we were going with chop off the legs and the head will fall.
"What has it been, Daniel? Three years? How have you been living with yourself all this time? I need to know. How can you go on knowing that you raped and killed me? And now... now you're sleeping with my cousin..."
Now for Zanya...
"But of course, she IS the one that told you to do that, now isn't she? So it obviously doesn't bother her in the least."
Zarana was still in shock from the sight of her dead daughter standing there before her, but I could see Zandar's eyes narrow as he quietly slipped two of his knives out of their sheaths.
"Is this true?" He asked in a dangerous whisper.
"Look, I don't know what kind of trick this is," Devastator yelled, "but-"
"BUT! This is no trick, this is JUDGEMENT, Maxwell," I said in the booming voice that back in my own reality was normally associated with my shield-slinging, blue flak-vest with the big white target on it wearing alter ego of Johnny Freedom. It got the attention of the four people in the center of the overlook, "For the crimes of Rape and Murder. And for you, Zanya, the crimes of Conspiracy to Commit both Rape and Murder."
"Look, I don't know who you think you are-"
Sergeant Turbo did pretty good for his first time using that voice, "BE SILENT... or be silenced..."
Though I still wish I knew where I had heard that before...
Mainframe stepped out of the woods now, further disturbing the victims. Before we left, I HAD to get a copy of the cam-cube recording of this from Sergeant Turbo...
"They say," I began, "'His judgement cometh', but not what form it will take: Daniel Maxwell, Zanya, daughter of Zartan, this is yours, and your judges shall be those you have wronged the worst; a girl cut down before her time, parents who lost their only child, a young man denied the chance to ever love again," I pointed at Athena, Mainframe and Zarana, and Sergeant Turbo in turn. "THESE shall be your judges and jury."
My finger moved to Zandar, "And when it is reached, he will carry out the sentence..."
"Then what does that make you, Bastard?" Zanya snapped.
Technically, I am a bastard, but that's none of her business, "I may believe in God, but tonight my help comes from the Devil. After all, who better than the Great Accuser to help me... as your prosecuter."
Devastator looked around, "This is illegal, you can't do this!"
Athena leveled a look at him that I've seen make hardened drill sergeants flinch. I might not have gotten along with her well when the team had been fully reinstated, but there was one thing I did know, and that was that I wanted her as the Top Sergeant for a reason: She was pissed and she had a personal reason to kick Cobra and the Dreadnoks' asses all across the world, and I couldn't think of anything better to have in our highest ranking enlisted member.
The words she spoke were calm, and she takes after her father in that area, remember what happened to me when he said something calmly?
"And Rape, Murder, and Conspiracy are?"
I nodded, "Perhaps we CAN'T..." I slid one hand up the other forearm, pulling back my jacket sleeve and drawing a knife from the sheath under it, "Perhaps you'd rather we go straight to having you DISEMBOWELED...?" I lowered the blade and pointed it at him, giving an idea of where I'd start. Here's a hint, Gilbert and Sullivan once wrote a song called 'Let The Punishment Fit The Crime', "Now get over there," I motioned with my other hand to where Zanya was standing. As Devastator moved at knifepoint, I overheard the whisper of Zarana to Mainframe, asking what was going on and his response for her to just watch. With the two guilty parties surrounded, I looked around, meeting the eyes of each person in the clearing in turn, lingering on Athena's a second longer than the others, then I began my statement.
"Terrorism, which no one gathered here is a fool, we all know that the core Dreadnoks are little more than terrorists like the organization they work for, is a crime, yes, but it's minor compared to another crime that was committed on this very spot five years ago. Yes, rape, murder, even terrorism can all be considered small crimes when weighed against Betrayal. Even in the Dreadnoks, scum if I know any - and I know lawyers and politicians personally - have a code of which part is not betraying a fellow Dreadnok... But that obviously doesn't apply to blood relations, does it, Zanya?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"They never do, so sterotypical. What's the other half of the exchange? Oh, yes, 'Then let me refresh your memory.' Jessica was older than you by nine months, which meant that even though she was just Zarana's daughter while you were Zartan's, if she ever chose to join the Dreadnoks you'd suddenly lose your position as their future leader. The two of you were raised differently, so even though she had no intention of joining the Dreadnoks, you still wanted to make sure that no one could stand in your way."
I shifted to Devastator for my next blow, "All the training in the world means nothing if it goes against the person inside. In an otherworld I have seen you trained as one of my own, Daniel Maxwell. You were Sabre, a Frontliner, a member of the best team of G.I. Joes in small-unit operations, a fighter for the side of good..."
Mutters from almost everyone except the other three Joes rippled through the clearing.
"...But I've also see that inside you are nothing but evil to the core. An evil person can have all the training for good that exists, but they will always show what they really are eventually. That evil person needs very little convincing to do evil things."
I changed targets again, "What did it take, Zanya? Money? Power? A promise of a leadership position in the Dreadnoks? Your own body? What did it take to convince him to join you in this? "
"HAH! Very little, actually! I was the one who asked HER to let me help!"
"YOU DID!"
With Athena's enraged shout, several things happened in quick sucession, a knife found it's way into her hand, she threw it, I ran forward, taking the knife in my arm, then grabbed her wrist to keep her from throwing another one.
"Truaill an inonga, piscín. Gheobhaidh sé a gan mhoill go leor" I said in Celtic Gaelic, 'Sheath the claws, kitten. He'll get his soon enough.'
Her response came in the same language, "Cén fáth do rinn stadann tú me?" 'Why did you stop me?'
"Muid ta nior as seo domhan. A bas riachtanas tar o duine éigin... ce is... go bi tráthúil," I answered, 'We are not of this world. His death must come from someone... who is... to be appropriate.'
Then I heard a nearby comment, "His arm..."
I looked down and saw the knife still in my arm, "Oh." I took hold of the grip of the knife with the hand that wasn't holding Athena's wrist and pulled it out with a half-yell of discomfort. Just because I heal quickly doesn't mean things don't hurt. I handed the knife back to Athena with a joking, "I believe this is yours'" before I walked back to where Devastator stood.
Leaning close enough for him to hear my whisper, I commented, "That was your freebie. Next time you antagonize her, I won't be saving your pitiful life... I'll be helping her take it."
This was something I didn't know. I had always assumed that Zanya had seduced Devastator to her side, but the thought that he had intentions of this sort for Athe- No, at the time she was still just Jessica, the entire time... It made me mad, not even 'in a rage' mad, but 'in full control of my facilities and if I could just direct my anger through the air itself I could destroy something very big' mad.
I knew myself well enough to know that I wouldn't be able to keep myself under control if I didn't end this now, "I don't think I need to say more. The prosecution rests."
I could see in the eyes of everyone present, excluding the two surrounded, what was in my own eyes, that death was the verdict. And Zanya and Devastator might have been idiots, but they weren't suicidal, they tried to escape.
Mainframe, the Sergeant, and I all went for our guns, Zandar, Zarana, and Athena went for their knives...
And Zartan pulled the same trick the Sergeant and I had pulled earlier, stepping out of the shadows, pulled his own knife from the sheath on his chest, and let Devastator run right into it, impaling himself. Then as quickly as he had appeared, he pulled it out of Devastator and slashed his own daughter's throat.
Okay, so I was expecting Zandar to be the one to take their lives, I didn't even know Zartan was there, I'm good, but I'm not perfect.
"'Blood,'" Zartan whispered, "'Cries out for blood.'"
"Huh," Sergeant Turbo commented, "I never figured you to be one for the classics, Zartan."
"There's a lot of things you'd never realize, Turbo," He turned to go.
"Wait, no fight, no demands, no nothing?" Sergeant Turbo asked.
Zartan paused, "You want a demand? Ok... Brother, Sister, do not return to the Dreadnoks," He turned to Mainframe, "I won't stand between the two of you any longer," then he turned to Zandar, "And I know that you would choose to go with her, Brother."
He turned around and walked away.
"So, you're gone?"
I nodded at my counterpart, "Yeah, I just hope I can figure this thing out before we get killed."
"Aw, come on, Major, that's half the fun of the job; risking life and limb for no pay, just the chance to blow shit up."
We shared a chuckle, "I'm gonna have to remember that one when I get home."
He looked over to where Mainframe and Zarana were both hugging Athena goodbye, "It must be hard for them to lose their daughter a second time, especially after seeing how well she's turned out."
"Maybe not."
I don't think Pietro Maximoff, a mutant I met during a visit to the Xavier Institute who had super-speed, could have turned his head any faster, "What?"
I reached into my shirt, my military dog tags might have been hanging below my bandanna in plain view, despite regulations, but more important to me was what was on the second chain that hung out of sight. I pulled out a medallion with an American flag emblazoned on it and a small clear tube containing several strands of fire-red hair. Unfastening the chain, I slipped the tube off and handed it to the Sergeant before refastening and replacing the chain under my shirt.
"The teammates that know me well often joke that I'm a sentimental, romantic fool... they're right... I collect these from Athena's pillow every morning after she leaves to go back to her own quarters," I had already explained earlier how we slipped back and forth between each others' quarters while the other Joes were asleep so they wouldn't learn about our relationship. Since the rules are usually lax in G.I. Joe, I really doubted they'd care, but we didn't want to push it, "You said that Destro is on your Joes' side. He might be able to use this to recreate her... If luck and God are with you, it should bring your world's Jessica back to life."
He tried to hand the tube back to me, "These are your's, we can't-"
I closed his hand around the tube, stopping him, "There'll always be more strands on her pillow, J.T.," I referred to him by his real name instead of his codename to further reinforce my point, "The three of you don't have to use them, but you'll at least have the option open."
The Sergeant pulled his hand, "Three of us?"
I nodded and pointed to Mainframe and Zarana, "Her mother, her father," then my finger traveled around to poke him in the chest, right between the twin chest holsters, "And if you're really me, her lover."
The tube made its way into one of the pouches of his belt, "I don't know if I can be you, we're nothing alike except in name."
"If you're willing to give up that easily, you're right. It's one thing to be sad, cry, then let the fire back in your eyes to dry things up, but if all you're planning on doing is blubbering like a certain soldier I knew during the Sicily campaign, I'm gonna do the same thing to you as I did him..."
"What, slap me?"
"Damn right, and this time there's no doctors and nurses around to stop me from pulling out my sidearm..." After a moment, I shook my head, "Look, I'm sorry, I forgot that your Erin probably dumped you differently than mi- than the one I was involved with did me."
"How?"
I closed my eyes and recalled what, at that time, had been considered the worst moment of my life; before Devastator's betrayal, before the Reunion, before people that I had served with died and were wounded like they were shields for me and my damned X-Gene powered self, before I nearly lost Athena...
Before I learned what life as a member of G.I. Joe was REALLY like, in other words...
If you sat the R.A.M. II and a R.A.M. I together in a room, it might take you a few minutes, but you'd start to see how the low-riding black one evolved from the larger less-compact green one. The seating area hadn't changed in shape much, the exhaust pipes still flanked the rear wheel on both sides, but the R.A.M. II was smaller, more compact, with more modern technology used in it's creation...
And it was my 'command vehicle'.
One of the other similarities between the two versions was that the side-mounted gun could be removed.
That's how it was then, being driven by me in my black and grey "G.I. Joe" dress uniform, there was a lull in the hidden war against Cobra and I was planning to take advantage of it. It was less than a week before my birthday and I hadn't had more than a 48 Hour Pass in the year I had been in, so I was putting my position as CO to good use and finagled myself a fourteen day leave... and I planned to spend it with my girlfriend. Our relationship had been strained since the day I accepted General Colton's offer without consulting her, which, truthfully, I never thought I had to do; we were dating, not engaged or married, my life was still mine.
Not that I didn't want to share it with her someday, well, at the time I did, at least. At the time, I wanted to see her, to make up for being there a little over twelve days in as many months.
What I found was that I had left her to serve my country, but I was the one who had been left.
"To make a long story short, I dropped my high school ring with our names on it into her hand and left without saying anything," I sighed, "I changed. I had nothing to tie me to civilian life, so I threw myself into the military, in a matter of three months I undertook almost a year's worth of training; Marine Boot, Flight School, Field Medic, all of the things I had been working as without any training for a year. I even trained as a ninja under the Aleph of the Naitotsurukusa clan... of course, most of my teammates just know I trained as a ninja and commando, not how good I really am... I let the fighting, the anger at everything that was wrong in this world, with Cobra being a focal point, consume me... And I can't say I regreted it at the time, I loved it."
"There's more to the story that you haven't told me, now or before."
"You have a partner, Sarge?"
"I work alone, can't find anyone willing to put up with me all the time."
"Neither could I, but Athena and I were... assigned... together by General Tomahawk, which, I think, was just Jim Flagg's way of shovelling most of the running of the team off on the two of us... I can't say I blame him, he once told me that he'd rather be back in First Armored, but they gave him Joe because Lawerence Flagg was his father."
"Ah, love at first fight."
"Hell no, more fights to come at first fight. ...And I hate my great-uncle for being right..."
"About what?"
"We did wind up together. We were stuck as partners, we got used to each other, we wound up on a long-term mission that I THINK I had a little too much to drink and said something I probably shouldn't have."
"Insulted her?"
"I wish, I told her that I could almost love her if it wasn't for what we were: soldiers."
"Let me guess, judging by what I've seen in the past twenty-four hours I'm going to say she hit you."
"Got it in one. Then she kissed me for worrying about her, something that I don't usually do. I loved her that night, in more ways than one..."
"But..."
"But I didn't realize just how much I loved her until I found that I was willing to kill to protect her... Part of the mission went pear-shaped and we wound up surrounded by a squad of Iron Grenadiers. One of them shot her and I ended up killing them all..." I could tell by his eyes that the sergeant could see there was more to the story than I was telling... and he saw right. With Blaze boosting my power, or with an extreme emotional state doing it, my healing factor can extend beyond it's usual me and those close to me to people I have no connection with... I was angry, I was scared for Athena, and I wanted her safe... I somehow inverted my powers, I ended up draining the life from the Grenadiers... I don't like to remember it because it scares me still, and makes me wonder, 'what could happen if I lost control?'
I continued, "But you know what the best moment I experienced has been?"
"I'm sure you're gonna tell me."
"It was the night I met Erin again, looked into her eyes, and felt nothing but love... for Athena."
A pair of arms looped around my neck from behind, "Talking about me, mo leannan?"
"And if we were?" I teased.
"I'd have to beat on you until you told me what was said. According to the techs the Tuner's recharged and we can try to go home."
I took hold of Athena's wrists so she wouldn't fall, then swung her back and forth a couple times before letting go, "I'll be over in a minute."
She tossed an "Okay, but make it quick, Major," over her shoulder as she walked back to where Mainframe and Zarana were.
"Well," I turned back to the Sergeant, "Guess this is it."
"Yeah... Listen, I'll think about... you know," he tapped the pouch where the tube was, then reached into another and pulled out a minidisc, "Here."
I took the minidisc and looked at it, "What's this?"
"Plans for Project Mjolnir; you know, the Armadillo Two and it's control helmet. You might find a use for them at some point."
I flipped it over and took another look at it before slipping it into my vest pocket, "Thanks. So, I guess we'll probably never meet again."
The two of us were walking over to the others when he commented back, "With Magnus Luck? I wouldn't run a board on it."
Zarana looked at us, "'Magnus Luck'?"
Four voices sounded in unison, "Never works out the way you'd expect."
Sergeant Turbo looked at me and Athena, "You've said it yourselves."
"Yeah," I nodded, taking the Dimensional Tuner from the table it was laying on. I held out my hand and Athena took it.
"Well," I muttered, "Here's hoping..."
I flipped the switch...