AUTHOR'S NOTE: To Tenshi and Thanx4reading, you two have no idea how much
you entertain me. You're awesome. By the way, the reason nothing changes
will be explained in another couple of chapters, and the memory gaps I
spoke of earlier will come into play in another four or five.
241 timeline 04-11-2034 Manhattan, New York, United States
Rachel didn't cry as she held Logan's hand in her left and Ororo's in her right; she didn't have any more tears left in her body. But she was grieving just the same. Kate had curled up next to Piotr, and was sobbing heavily against the man's stomach. Rachel comforted her telepathically with soothing waves of relaxing endorphins, but they didn't ease the girl's suffering. After more than a half an hour, however, the tears became silent, and Kate Rasputin seemed to be in a peaceful slumber, despite the emotions raging through her.
"What do we do now?" she asked through a swallow of saliva.
"We give rebirth to the Dream," came Summers' reply. "It was Franklin's last wish, and it was what they all would have wanted."
"Yeah," Kate agreed.
Rachel couldn't help but think of the days, many years ago, as a carefree child, when she and Kitty had been the only children strong enough to play the "grown up games". Though they were both very proud of their prepubescent powers, it had earned them a lot of jealousy and spite from the other kids. ~How ironic,~ she thought to herself, ~that after all these years, we're still isolated together.~
Though each of their friends had fought bravely, the battle had outlasted the endurance of any mortal. Only Kate, who couldn't be touched due to her phasing abilities, and Rachel, whose TK shield kept her from harm, had survived. It would be another 8 days before they would be able to revenge their loved ones' deaths.
* * *
241 timeline 04-19-2034 Manhattan, New York, United States
Rachel's palms were sweating so bad that she had to carry a towel in her hands. At this point, she was beyond nervous. Her time-manipulating abilities had always been the weakest of her 3 powers as a child, partly because she had only used them 5 times in 17 years. This plan would either be a god-sent miracle or a suicide mission, and Kate didn't seem to care which it turned out to be. Rachel, on the other hand, had lost her parents, her grandpa, her closest friends, her godfather (twice), her surrogate aunt, and her own team of X-Men in less than 2 decades. She couldn't stand to lose her best friend again.
"You ready?" Kate called over her shoulder.
"Let's go over the plan one more-"
"Rachel, we've done this a thousand times!"
"One more time."
"Fine," she consented. "You're going to telepathically duplicate my consciousness. Then, you'll send my consciousness back to the year 2022, when I was 18. I will alert the X-Men of the situation in the future if Senator Kelly is assassinated and the MRA is passed. Then, we'll head to the Sentinels headquarters, where Kelly is killed, and make sure the man lives. After we save his life, the huge, commanding push for the MRA will be eliminated, because the American people won't have their bloody shirt to wave."
Rachel nodded. "It hasn't changed after re-planning for the fiftieth time, and I guess it won't change now. Are you ready for this?" Kate gave a single positive nod, and Summers motioned to a chair. "Sit down and get comfortable."
Kate relaxed considerably, and Rachel entered her mind, deep into the woman's subconscious. She felt alienated being in this strange place, where her whole viewpoint of life had changed to that of her friend, far more laidback and easygoing than her own. Yet, at the moment, the "take life as it comes to you" attitude was clouded with shadows of grief and vengeance.
She came out of Kate's psyche, and shuddered at the lifeless look her friend had taken, now that her body was living but devoid of a true mind. She centered her thoughts upon the time continuum, and stopped it altogether. She, slowly at first, began to digress, and watched the digital clock on the wall go from 0912 to 0910 to 0901, until things began to unravel around her. She went farther back, faster and faster, until months flew past her in seconds. People moved in and out of the room at a terrifying speed, not noticing her presence, and finally, somehow, she knew to stop. The clock read 0912 again.
She flew with her TK for a good 128 miles, to Westchester, where she soon found the only 2 buildings in the entire city: the Salem Center, where the scientific branch of the X-Men often produced inventions, cures for viruses, and hypothesis of research development, and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where the X-Men raised and protected a generation of young mutants.
She stopped time once more, quickly entered Kate Pryde's room on the third floor through her window, and fused her consciousness with that of her present body. Rachel flew back to the Baxter Building before she sped forward in time again. This time, when the clock had reached 0912, on May 19, 2034, she was alone, with a vacant body.
She waited for 6 minutes, and was beginning to wonder if Kate had problems finding their time-traveling friend Forge, who was supposed to lead her back, when she felt the time continuum being disrupted. She turned to her friend's body, to see emotion coming back into her eyes.
"How'd it go?" she finally asked.
"Great! Kelly's alive, and he actually becomes a mutant activist!" She ran to a wall of computer screens, camera monitors, and keyboards, and began punching the controls. 1 of the monitors came alive, displaying the picture of a news reporter.
"That's right folks," said the Asia woman, "I'm here at the South Bronx Mutant Internment Camp, where US Marshall Granger and his men still cannot find the cause of the escape that took place 8 days ago. They have estimated that some 2,000 mutants are now loose in New York, and it is advised that you stay locked inside your homes with your families. The famous Kate Pryde-Rasputin, who many of you know as the youngest X-Man-she joined the vigilante gang when she was 14-is said to be 1 of the 7 rebels who instigated the breakout. Officials have found and killed 5 of her companions, but are still searching for her and an unnamed mutant, a hound."
Kate groaned and slumped to the floor in aggravation. "Nothing changed? How? Kelly became a mutant *activist*; how could nothing change?!" She slammed her fist against the keyboard, and the monitor became blank.
"So we don't change the past," Rachel said, determined. "We'll change the future. They can't contain mutants if they can't capture them, and they can't capture them without Sentinels."
Kate looked up puzzled. "So how do we get rid of every Sentinel in the entire world? It's impossible."
"We don't. We get rid of every Sentinel that will be made from this point on. Then, those that are in circulation now will eventually malfunction or be destroyed, leaving the world devoid of Sentinels."
Kate's eyes were rapidly tracing some invisible lines in the air, calculating these words, and deciding. Finally, she stood defiantly, and said, "We're gonna need a hell a lot of fire power."
"And we're in just the right place to get it."
241 timeline 04-11-2034 Manhattan, New York, United States
Rachel didn't cry as she held Logan's hand in her left and Ororo's in her right; she didn't have any more tears left in her body. But she was grieving just the same. Kate had curled up next to Piotr, and was sobbing heavily against the man's stomach. Rachel comforted her telepathically with soothing waves of relaxing endorphins, but they didn't ease the girl's suffering. After more than a half an hour, however, the tears became silent, and Kate Rasputin seemed to be in a peaceful slumber, despite the emotions raging through her.
"What do we do now?" she asked through a swallow of saliva.
"We give rebirth to the Dream," came Summers' reply. "It was Franklin's last wish, and it was what they all would have wanted."
"Yeah," Kate agreed.
Rachel couldn't help but think of the days, many years ago, as a carefree child, when she and Kitty had been the only children strong enough to play the "grown up games". Though they were both very proud of their prepubescent powers, it had earned them a lot of jealousy and spite from the other kids. ~How ironic,~ she thought to herself, ~that after all these years, we're still isolated together.~
Though each of their friends had fought bravely, the battle had outlasted the endurance of any mortal. Only Kate, who couldn't be touched due to her phasing abilities, and Rachel, whose TK shield kept her from harm, had survived. It would be another 8 days before they would be able to revenge their loved ones' deaths.
* * *
241 timeline 04-19-2034 Manhattan, New York, United States
Rachel's palms were sweating so bad that she had to carry a towel in her hands. At this point, she was beyond nervous. Her time-manipulating abilities had always been the weakest of her 3 powers as a child, partly because she had only used them 5 times in 17 years. This plan would either be a god-sent miracle or a suicide mission, and Kate didn't seem to care which it turned out to be. Rachel, on the other hand, had lost her parents, her grandpa, her closest friends, her godfather (twice), her surrogate aunt, and her own team of X-Men in less than 2 decades. She couldn't stand to lose her best friend again.
"You ready?" Kate called over her shoulder.
"Let's go over the plan one more-"
"Rachel, we've done this a thousand times!"
"One more time."
"Fine," she consented. "You're going to telepathically duplicate my consciousness. Then, you'll send my consciousness back to the year 2022, when I was 18. I will alert the X-Men of the situation in the future if Senator Kelly is assassinated and the MRA is passed. Then, we'll head to the Sentinels headquarters, where Kelly is killed, and make sure the man lives. After we save his life, the huge, commanding push for the MRA will be eliminated, because the American people won't have their bloody shirt to wave."
Rachel nodded. "It hasn't changed after re-planning for the fiftieth time, and I guess it won't change now. Are you ready for this?" Kate gave a single positive nod, and Summers motioned to a chair. "Sit down and get comfortable."
Kate relaxed considerably, and Rachel entered her mind, deep into the woman's subconscious. She felt alienated being in this strange place, where her whole viewpoint of life had changed to that of her friend, far more laidback and easygoing than her own. Yet, at the moment, the "take life as it comes to you" attitude was clouded with shadows of grief and vengeance.
She came out of Kate's psyche, and shuddered at the lifeless look her friend had taken, now that her body was living but devoid of a true mind. She centered her thoughts upon the time continuum, and stopped it altogether. She, slowly at first, began to digress, and watched the digital clock on the wall go from 0912 to 0910 to 0901, until things began to unravel around her. She went farther back, faster and faster, until months flew past her in seconds. People moved in and out of the room at a terrifying speed, not noticing her presence, and finally, somehow, she knew to stop. The clock read 0912 again.
She flew with her TK for a good 128 miles, to Westchester, where she soon found the only 2 buildings in the entire city: the Salem Center, where the scientific branch of the X-Men often produced inventions, cures for viruses, and hypothesis of research development, and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, where the X-Men raised and protected a generation of young mutants.
She stopped time once more, quickly entered Kate Pryde's room on the third floor through her window, and fused her consciousness with that of her present body. Rachel flew back to the Baxter Building before she sped forward in time again. This time, when the clock had reached 0912, on May 19, 2034, she was alone, with a vacant body.
She waited for 6 minutes, and was beginning to wonder if Kate had problems finding their time-traveling friend Forge, who was supposed to lead her back, when she felt the time continuum being disrupted. She turned to her friend's body, to see emotion coming back into her eyes.
"How'd it go?" she finally asked.
"Great! Kelly's alive, and he actually becomes a mutant activist!" She ran to a wall of computer screens, camera monitors, and keyboards, and began punching the controls. 1 of the monitors came alive, displaying the picture of a news reporter.
"That's right folks," said the Asia woman, "I'm here at the South Bronx Mutant Internment Camp, where US Marshall Granger and his men still cannot find the cause of the escape that took place 8 days ago. They have estimated that some 2,000 mutants are now loose in New York, and it is advised that you stay locked inside your homes with your families. The famous Kate Pryde-Rasputin, who many of you know as the youngest X-Man-she joined the vigilante gang when she was 14-is said to be 1 of the 7 rebels who instigated the breakout. Officials have found and killed 5 of her companions, but are still searching for her and an unnamed mutant, a hound."
Kate groaned and slumped to the floor in aggravation. "Nothing changed? How? Kelly became a mutant *activist*; how could nothing change?!" She slammed her fist against the keyboard, and the monitor became blank.
"So we don't change the past," Rachel said, determined. "We'll change the future. They can't contain mutants if they can't capture them, and they can't capture them without Sentinels."
Kate looked up puzzled. "So how do we get rid of every Sentinel in the entire world? It's impossible."
"We don't. We get rid of every Sentinel that will be made from this point on. Then, those that are in circulation now will eventually malfunction or be destroyed, leaving the world devoid of Sentinels."
Kate's eyes were rapidly tracing some invisible lines in the air, calculating these words, and deciding. Finally, she stood defiantly, and said, "We're gonna need a hell a lot of fire power."
"And we're in just the right place to get it."