AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks, Koneko Tenshi, for the review. Sorry if this
chapter is slightly boring, but I had to explain a few things. Oh, and
just so you know, the Watchers are a super-race of beings that are all-
knowing and all-powerful, sorta like the Marvel universe's gods. But,
unlike the Phoenix Force, they very seldom interfere (thus the name; they
just watch).
Timestream
Rachel's head was a blur of intensely bright light and voices screaming into her ears. It was as if she was having a terrible hangover. She peeled her eyelids open and looked around her to find that she was in some sort of a laboratory, made entirely of a clear, indestructible metal, and she herself was lying upon an examining table. As she groaned in pain, a midget came waddling toward her. His disproportionately large head wobbled from side to side for balance. Rachel's instincts told her to kill the midget silently and swiftly, and try to escape the lab through stealth, but the thought soon disseminated, and she felt inexplicably secure in his presence.
"Where the hell am I?" she asked him, her voice groggy, as if she hadn't used it in years.
~There is no such thing as geography here,~ he responded with a humming voice, though she noticed his lips hadn't moved. He was telepathic.
~Okaaay,~ she drawled. ~How long was I asleep?~
~There is no such thing as time here.~
~And 'here' is, what, Hell? Am I dead?~
~There is no such thing as death for the Phoenix. Nor life, really.~
"You're in the time-stream, and you've been in a catatonic state for 3 weeks," came a booming voice from behind her. She swung around to see a 6'1" man walking toward her, wearing skintight, black jeans and a gray tank top. Rachel immediately distrusted the man, as he looked like a cross between a trained serial killer and a ridiculous professional wrestler.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Na-" he stammered for a second. "-er-Cable. I'm an X-Man from the future."
"Hate to break it to you, 'Naercable', but the X-Men don't exist anymore."
"Well, not in your timeline, no."
"What?"
"Look, that's not why you're here. Focus, with me kid, okay?"
"Don't call me a kid. I've probably seen more than you have."
"In another few hundred years or so, yeah, but, as of right now, I've still got the lead on you."
"What the fuck are you on?!"
* * *
Cable turned out to be a decent person, who seemed to genuinely want to help her. Though the thought of a person being sincerely kind to her, without wanting any kind of payment, made her very nervous, this was the first time in 11 years that she could remember not searching for an escape route every minute or so. Still, Rachel found it hard to believe a word he was saying.
"Okay, okay," she tried to recap. "After the Phoenix inhabited me, I blew the Kennels into pieces and tore Ahab limb from limb."
"Yeah."
"I then destroyed the entire universe and tore myself up limb from limb."
"Right."
"And the Phoenix Force kept me alive-somehow-and the Watchers, freaky little people with huge heads, called me here to be judged."
"Just remember that those freaky little people *allow* you to exist, if nothing else for pure entertainment."
"So," she said apprehensively, half-afraid of the answer to the question boring through her head, "I'm being judged on the lives I took as a Hound." Cable nodded solemnly. "What happens if they find me guilty?"
"Wow," he stated, blinking. "The million-dollar question. Honestly, I don't know. I wish I could put it more gently, but the fact of the matter is I don't. I seriously doubt the Watchers would kill you. Of course, they don't quite understand that sometimes their punishments are worse than death, but..." He trailed, suddenly realizing how uncomforting his words must have been. "Sorry."
Rachel smiled meekly. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
His eyes watered slightly before he blinked the beginnings of tears away. "Nothing I could ever do would be even the tiniest payment to what you've done for me."
"I've never even met you!" She pulled away shortly, feeling very uncomfortable with his irrational emotional connection.
"Have Mom and Dad ever spoken to you about time travel?"
"Whose mom and dad? Wait, time travel? Like, in Star Trek or something?"
"Oh, boy." He wiped his face in preparation. "I'm gonna try to explain this, but it's very confusing. Just try to stick with me, okay?" She raised her eyebrows, prepared herself, and nodded quickly. He put out an enormous forearm, as thick as her head. "Imagine this as a timeline of the world the way it's supposed to turn out."
She interrupted. "'Supposed to turn out', according to whom?"
"No one's really sure, but I suspect the Watchers, or some other high celestial beings. Anyway, time travel is invented and people go back in time to change things according to their will. Well, not every change is a good one, and, when a change takes place that goes against the big scheme of things, a new timeline is created, from the moment that event occurs." He put his other hand upon his forearm, stemming out of its midpoint. "After hundreds of years of time travel, you soon have a web of timelines that all coexist together. This is called the time-stream. The physical embodiment of this reality is what you now see."
Rachel looked around. She was in a room, with hundreds of big-headed midgets, that looked out upon a view of hundreds of stars.
"Looks like outer space to me," she said blankly.
"Yes, but those lights you see aren't galaxies but timelines. See that really bright one, way over there?" She nodded, spotting a large, jade green star that had several tiny planet-like masses revolving around it. "That's the 616 timeline, also called Mainstream Earth. It's the central core of how the universe is supposed to exist. You come from the 241 timeline, right there." Her gaze followed his pointed finger to a much smaller, bright pink light, with many gold, swirling ribbons encasing it.
~Rachel Summers.~ She turned to the source of the commanding voice, a Watcher with a purple robe that indicated he was of higher stature than those around him, who wore white. He turned and walked to a gigantic door that opened upon his silent command. She followed sheepishly.
* * *
Rachel knelt upon the ground, beneath a bright spotlight, looking out upon a board of Watchers in violet robes. The 9 sat, staring intently at her for nearly an hour, saying nothing, though they were obviously communicating with means she couldn't detect. Finally, the Watcher in the center rose, waving for her to stand as well.
~Your life will be omitted from the 241 timeline,~ he told her, with an utterly emotionless voice. ~From this point on, you have no past; no one will remember you, for you will not have ever passed into existence. You will, however, return to your timeline, and continue to live in a world devoid of your mass murder. We will be monitoring your progress...or lack there of.~
She didn't quite understand how she could live if she had never been born, but she did know that she was looking at a lifetime of loneliness and rejection. Her heart slumped, but she made a slight bow to the Watchers to thank them for their time and just ruling. She tried to grasp the depth of her judge's words. "You will not have passed into existence." She was now nothing more than a figment of her own imagination, but she had been given a second chance to make a life for herself.
Suddenly, the fiery embodiment of the Phoenix burst through the door, encompassing her, and flew out of the compound. Rachel didn't have time to say goodbye to Cable, whom she hoped to meet again someday. She soared straight through the thick, clear metal of the lobby and into the pink light of the 241 timeline. She felt strangely dizzy and disoriented, and she soon passed out.
Timestream
Rachel's head was a blur of intensely bright light and voices screaming into her ears. It was as if she was having a terrible hangover. She peeled her eyelids open and looked around her to find that she was in some sort of a laboratory, made entirely of a clear, indestructible metal, and she herself was lying upon an examining table. As she groaned in pain, a midget came waddling toward her. His disproportionately large head wobbled from side to side for balance. Rachel's instincts told her to kill the midget silently and swiftly, and try to escape the lab through stealth, but the thought soon disseminated, and she felt inexplicably secure in his presence.
"Where the hell am I?" she asked him, her voice groggy, as if she hadn't used it in years.
~There is no such thing as geography here,~ he responded with a humming voice, though she noticed his lips hadn't moved. He was telepathic.
~Okaaay,~ she drawled. ~How long was I asleep?~
~There is no such thing as time here.~
~And 'here' is, what, Hell? Am I dead?~
~There is no such thing as death for the Phoenix. Nor life, really.~
"You're in the time-stream, and you've been in a catatonic state for 3 weeks," came a booming voice from behind her. She swung around to see a 6'1" man walking toward her, wearing skintight, black jeans and a gray tank top. Rachel immediately distrusted the man, as he looked like a cross between a trained serial killer and a ridiculous professional wrestler.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Na-" he stammered for a second. "-er-Cable. I'm an X-Man from the future."
"Hate to break it to you, 'Naercable', but the X-Men don't exist anymore."
"Well, not in your timeline, no."
"What?"
"Look, that's not why you're here. Focus, with me kid, okay?"
"Don't call me a kid. I've probably seen more than you have."
"In another few hundred years or so, yeah, but, as of right now, I've still got the lead on you."
"What the fuck are you on?!"
* * *
Cable turned out to be a decent person, who seemed to genuinely want to help her. Though the thought of a person being sincerely kind to her, without wanting any kind of payment, made her very nervous, this was the first time in 11 years that she could remember not searching for an escape route every minute or so. Still, Rachel found it hard to believe a word he was saying.
"Okay, okay," she tried to recap. "After the Phoenix inhabited me, I blew the Kennels into pieces and tore Ahab limb from limb."
"Yeah."
"I then destroyed the entire universe and tore myself up limb from limb."
"Right."
"And the Phoenix Force kept me alive-somehow-and the Watchers, freaky little people with huge heads, called me here to be judged."
"Just remember that those freaky little people *allow* you to exist, if nothing else for pure entertainment."
"So," she said apprehensively, half-afraid of the answer to the question boring through her head, "I'm being judged on the lives I took as a Hound." Cable nodded solemnly. "What happens if they find me guilty?"
"Wow," he stated, blinking. "The million-dollar question. Honestly, I don't know. I wish I could put it more gently, but the fact of the matter is I don't. I seriously doubt the Watchers would kill you. Of course, they don't quite understand that sometimes their punishments are worse than death, but..." He trailed, suddenly realizing how uncomforting his words must have been. "Sorry."
Rachel smiled meekly. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
His eyes watered slightly before he blinked the beginnings of tears away. "Nothing I could ever do would be even the tiniest payment to what you've done for me."
"I've never even met you!" She pulled away shortly, feeling very uncomfortable with his irrational emotional connection.
"Have Mom and Dad ever spoken to you about time travel?"
"Whose mom and dad? Wait, time travel? Like, in Star Trek or something?"
"Oh, boy." He wiped his face in preparation. "I'm gonna try to explain this, but it's very confusing. Just try to stick with me, okay?" She raised her eyebrows, prepared herself, and nodded quickly. He put out an enormous forearm, as thick as her head. "Imagine this as a timeline of the world the way it's supposed to turn out."
She interrupted. "'Supposed to turn out', according to whom?"
"No one's really sure, but I suspect the Watchers, or some other high celestial beings. Anyway, time travel is invented and people go back in time to change things according to their will. Well, not every change is a good one, and, when a change takes place that goes against the big scheme of things, a new timeline is created, from the moment that event occurs." He put his other hand upon his forearm, stemming out of its midpoint. "After hundreds of years of time travel, you soon have a web of timelines that all coexist together. This is called the time-stream. The physical embodiment of this reality is what you now see."
Rachel looked around. She was in a room, with hundreds of big-headed midgets, that looked out upon a view of hundreds of stars.
"Looks like outer space to me," she said blankly.
"Yes, but those lights you see aren't galaxies but timelines. See that really bright one, way over there?" She nodded, spotting a large, jade green star that had several tiny planet-like masses revolving around it. "That's the 616 timeline, also called Mainstream Earth. It's the central core of how the universe is supposed to exist. You come from the 241 timeline, right there." Her gaze followed his pointed finger to a much smaller, bright pink light, with many gold, swirling ribbons encasing it.
~Rachel Summers.~ She turned to the source of the commanding voice, a Watcher with a purple robe that indicated he was of higher stature than those around him, who wore white. He turned and walked to a gigantic door that opened upon his silent command. She followed sheepishly.
* * *
Rachel knelt upon the ground, beneath a bright spotlight, looking out upon a board of Watchers in violet robes. The 9 sat, staring intently at her for nearly an hour, saying nothing, though they were obviously communicating with means she couldn't detect. Finally, the Watcher in the center rose, waving for her to stand as well.
~Your life will be omitted from the 241 timeline,~ he told her, with an utterly emotionless voice. ~From this point on, you have no past; no one will remember you, for you will not have ever passed into existence. You will, however, return to your timeline, and continue to live in a world devoid of your mass murder. We will be monitoring your progress...or lack there of.~
She didn't quite understand how she could live if she had never been born, but she did know that she was looking at a lifetime of loneliness and rejection. Her heart slumped, but she made a slight bow to the Watchers to thank them for their time and just ruling. She tried to grasp the depth of her judge's words. "You will not have passed into existence." She was now nothing more than a figment of her own imagination, but she had been given a second chance to make a life for herself.
Suddenly, the fiery embodiment of the Phoenix burst through the door, encompassing her, and flew out of the compound. Rachel didn't have time to say goodbye to Cable, whom she hoped to meet again someday. She soared straight through the thick, clear metal of the lobby and into the pink light of the 241 timeline. She felt strangely dizzy and disoriented, and she soon passed out.