To sail beyond the sunset
"Um…" Kate Bishop managed after a very long moment of trying to speak. "That is not true."
As she fought for calm, Kate stared around, The small spacecraft hummed with power. She couldn't tell if they were moving or not, but she assumed they were. Probably fast if the insane beings chasing Kate were on their trails.
"Considering how many times I have seen time travel portrayed in stories about the Avengers…" Lynn replied, her calm forced. "...I would say it is."
Kate took a deep breath but was interrupted by the Magos. The red robed woman was still pretending to be human, all of her mechanical tendrils hidden under her robe. It was clear that everyone knew whats he was, since everyone was focused on her warily instead of Kate, who didn't have her bow or sword.
"Traveling in time by its very nature is impossible to quantify." The Magos said slowly. "I do not know these 'stories' that you speak of, but Kate Bishop is ill prepared to engage in any kind of clandestine mission as she is now."
"Let me guess." Kate said very slowly. "You want me to kill Elizabeth before she gains her power? Or her mother before she is born?" The Magos stared at Kate in shock, but Kate waved for her to be silent. Wonder of wonders, the Magos obeyed!
"Neither." Lynn was still calm! "Either one would create a temporal paradox, either wiping out the existing timeline in favor of a new one or branching the timeline off, leaving us stuck."
"Those are the most common outcomes, yes." Kate was utterly still now. "Neither of them would benefit you or me." Then again, she had seen the repercussions of such before. Kang the Conquerer had been a real pain to fight and everyone knew he would be back. Time travelers had been a pain in the butt for the Avengers many times before the megalomaniac had shown up. "What do you-" She broke off as Lynn stepped back and a small, golden object appeared on the floor. Kate stared at the object as it started to glow. "Let me guess? An Orokin time travel device?"
"Not Orokin, no. They never managed it." Lynn shook her head. "Which was good, all things considered. You need to go to Avalon, talk to the Empress before this all happened. Before she died. The good news is that it was less than a year ago in our time, so the disruptions can be minimal. I hope so anyway. The bad news is that we can only do this once and only for one person."
"No." The Magos snapped. "I am not leaving her side."
"You have to." Lynn retorted. "The portal is one way and she has to go alone. We can get her in past all the defenses, but no one else and certainly no one as augmented as you are, Magos. Avalon's security was state of the art. Many people tried to attack the Royal Family, for many reasons." The Magos drew herself up, but Lynn shook her head. "Kate Bishop will be in no physical danger. The Empress was not evil." Now Lynn looked at the floor. "At least, not then."
"If you have this ability, this tech, who don't you stop her?" Kate didn't move as the portal thing flashed.
"Several reasons." Lynn was sad now. "One, I am Tenno and forbidden to travel in time. Others have flouted Nyx's decree against such and paid a high price for their arrogance. Not always a price to themselves, either. Two? I am constrained to lead these." She waved a slow, transparent hand at the small group arrayed around the compartment. "I have responsibilities that I cannot just leave. If it comes down to it, that my going is the only way, then I would, but as it stands, it is not that dire yet."
"Being a leader has its perks, but also its burdens." Kate said very softly. Lynn looked at her and Kate shook her head. "I have talked with Cap a lot about leadership. I am reasonably sure he is grooming me for a team lead position, although I am not sure where."
"Such would likely be wise of him." Lynn smiled, but it was so sad. "Outside of books or other entertainment, such activities as you Avengers get up to are not safe. Decentralizing leadership is simple prudence in case of catastrophe." She heaved a sigh. "Kate Bishop, please. We have time, but our window to get you in is finite. Elizabeth always had plans. For anything and everything. Everyone thinks you are one such plan. They are wrong." At that, Kate and the Magos both went utterly still. "I am and this is it."
"This…" Kate stared at the device on the floor. "This is Elizabeth's plan?"
"This is the only part I can talk about." Lynn was all but begging. "Kate Bishop! Please!"
"Look, I want to." Kate said quickly. "But there are too many unknowns here! What if I mess up the jump? What if my un-sticking causes a some kind of time loop?"
"It does." Lynn said slowly. "That is all I can say!" She snapped as the Magos drew herself up. "Magos! You are needed here!"
"Wait a minute." Kate swallowed hard as the warframe started to close in on the Magos whose tendrils had reappeared now, each humming in readiness. Healer or no, she could fight and would! "Tenno! Magos! Wait!" She commanded and the warframe all stopped at her command! The Magos started to move, but Kate shook her head. "Don't! I… No…" She breathed. "Me?"
"Kate Bishop! Please!"" Lynn begged. "Vsedga veren!" She bowed her head.
"That is very bad Russian." Kate complained mildly as the Magos stared at her. Kate waved that away. "Don't ask. Me?" She asked.
"You." Lynn smiled. "She said you would figure it out." She bowed deeply. "We obey."
"Okay." Kate said very softly and before the Magos could do anything, took a step forward tot he glowing object.
As she stepped on it, the world shifted, but not like it had before in any of her previous jumps. This time, as her foot landed, she was somewhere else with no sense of transition. The room was huge, some kind of throne room and it was all familiar décor. Just like the Tower on Mars, golden was everywhere.
"You took your sweet time." A familiar voice sounded and Kate spun to see Elizabeth enter the room from a door on the far wall. The woman ignored her to step towards an ornate chair that was the sole furniture in the room. But this wasn't the mad one! She wore a beautiful golden gown and a crown that was glowing.
"I um… took the scenic route." Kate snarked more or less automatically.
"Yeah." Elizabeth heaved a sigh. "I guess, since you are here, I went bugnuts?" Kate nodded. "Well, shit!"
"One way to put it." Kate agreed.
"Damn him, them." Elizabeth heaved a sigh. "And you haven't been told jack shit have you?"
"No." Kate agreed.
"I am losing it, Kate Bishop." Elizabeth said very quietly. "Losing my mind. I was… There are a lot of reasons. Some were my fault and others were not, but that is neither here nor there. I am about to die. I hoped it would end there, but if you are here, it didn't."
"'Die'?" Kate asked.
"Yeah." Elizabeth sat on the throne heavily. "I um… I got my people away, to somewhere I pray is safe. I am the only one here and Erra will soon take the bait I have laid. He will attack, hoping to end the evil that was Orokin. Nothing can change that. I will die here. I wanted to make things better and all I ever seem to do is make them worse."
"That is not true." Kate tried for reassurance but it fell flat.
"If you are here, Kate Bishop, then the me you know is likely well on her way to destroying everything." Elizabeth shook her head. "This plan was a long shot, but you? You are such a long shot as to be invisible to the naked eye."
"Can I help?" Kate asked and Elizabeth stared at her. "Marksmanship is kinda my thing." She grinned and Elizabeth finally cracked a smile.
"Mine too." Elizabeth allowed and relaxed a little bit. "If the spetznatz sent you here, then my absolute worst fear has come to pass. I have gone nuts and there is no stopping someone like that. I know. I have tried on occasion to kill people like...well… me." She finished a bit lamely. "It doesn't work."
"You walk between realities." Kate said softly. "Naturally, not with tech like I started."
"The tech you confiscated and used to fight AIM jump-started an ability in you that is much like mine." Elizabeth warned. "It is not as powerful as mine, thank god, but it was there. You are human, but humans have always been adaptable. Maybe a psi power, maybe something odder, but the potential was there."
"Good to know." Kate shrugged. "So… What do I do? How do I stop you?" She asked.
"You can't." Elizabeth shrugged. "I am lucid, for the moment, but it won't last. I didn't mean to! I swear I didn't mean to!" She started to cry and Kate moved slowly to stand by the throne. "I didn't mean for this to happen! I just… I felt the intrusion and I had sworn! I had to act and then Jac just died and I-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Kate reached out with a slow hand to take Elizabeth's hand. Elizabeth stared at her and then at the throne but Kate just held her hand. "You are not alone."
"You can't do that." Elizabeth stared at the hand that Kate held. "I am on the throne. You can't touch me! The defenses…" She broke off and hissed. "Kate Bishop? May I touch you?"
So many snarky comments spun through Kate's mind, but she ignored them and spoke one word from her heart. "Yes."
The hand that Kate was not holding came up slowly, so slowly to touch Kate on the forehead where the orb had been. Elizabeth gasped and then she was sobbing. "Oh my God!"
"Ma'am?" Kate asked as Elizabeth's hand fell back to the arm rest of the throne and she seemed utterly flummoxed.
"You are compatible." Elizabeth said softly. "Why now of all times?" She asked in a monotone. Then she got angry but not at Kate! "I… No! No! I won't do it! Not to her!" She shook her head and jerked her hand from Kate's. "Not to you! Go."
"I can't." Kate didn't move even as an alarm started to blare. Elizabeth waved and the alarm faded. "The trip was one way."
"You… I…" Elizabeth stammered and then she bowed her head. "The plan. I… I see. You don't know. You can't."
"What can I do?" Kate all but begged. "I want to help."
"You can't help me." Elizabeth took a deep breath and sat up straight. "I am doomed either way. Mad or no, my judgment awaits. The Sentients are coming and when they get here, Avalon will die and so will I. But you…" She reached up to cup Kate's cheek in her hand. "So brave and so hurt. So many betrayals and so many awful memories. This will help, I think. It helped me deal with mine."
"I don't want to kill you." Kate pleaded. "If I even can."
"Killing is not always the answer." Elizabeth smiled as golden energy flared around Kate. "This worked for me the first time. Find Ric and Cecelia. They are family and will help you though this." She made a face. "Try to keep Jesse out of it if you can? That girl… I swear..."
"She hurt Cecelia." Kate managed as the energy flared around her brighter and brighter. Wait a minute! Why was it flashing more on her abdomen! "Elizabeth?"
"Violence only begets more violence." Elizabeth's voice was coming from far away now. "For taking the liberty, I apologize, but you did offer to help. So it is consensual. You will likely not remember this when you return home. It is for the best. Maybe this plan can work when so many others have failed? One can hope."
"ELIZABETH!" Kate screamed as the power seared into her and then she could only scream in agony. Agony that did not touch her abdomen! Kate fell out of agony onto a hard surface and then warmth surrounded her.
"Get her on the bed!" Lynn? "Kate Bishop, remain still!" That was a command as familiar feelings swept over Kate. Scans. "That hurt and we can deal with the pain, but we need to... be sure... that…" Lynn trailed off and then hissed in shock. "Oh my God!"
"Magos." Kate spoke as if through a dull dream or a fog. She opened her eyes, but everything was blurred with golden energy, so she shut them again. She felt okay and she knew what she had to do, somehow. A fond caress of her mind was the last vestige of the sane Empress and then, the last remnant of sane Elizabeth was gone for good.
"I am here, Kate Bishop." The Magos was subdued. When she spoke, it wasn't to Kate. "How is this possible?"
"It is not possible." Lynn said slowly. "But it is happening."
"Am I pregnant?" Kate asked into the utter silence around her.
"No." Lynn was quick to reassure her. "You have been altered at a genetic level and I have no idea why."
"This is what Lorinos does!" Another voice snapped form nearby. "Why would Elizabeth do this to her?"
"I don't know, Talia." Lynn allowed. "But Kate Bishop is alive and her body is intact, if altered."
"I don't want to know, do I?" Kate asked everybody and nobody.
"No, you don't!" Lynn growled. "I… We can undo it, but it will take time. Why?" She demanded. "Why did Elizabeth do this?"
"You do not have need to know." Kate felt shock as she said that. She hadn't meant to! "Plan C, spetznatz. Now." Where had that come from?
"Kate Bishop! No!" Lynn all but begged as movement sounded all around them. "We can-" Kate interrupted her.
"If she catches you, you are dead and you will be needed." Was that Kate talking? It didn't sound like her. "Any word on Cecelia?"
"No." Lynn sounded subdued now. "Elizabeth?" She asked, hope and fear warring in her tone.
"No, I am me." Kate said softly. "Just a bit more than me at the moment, if that makes any sense. She had to stay and I had to go. She said I was compatible."
"You." Lynn was beyond horror now, it seemed. "No… No, no, nonononononono!"
"What will be, will be, spetznatz." Kate felt something happen around her. She was moving, but it felt gentle. "Vsedga veren."
"I stay with you." The Magos declared.
"I would not have it any other way, Magos." Kate opened her eyes again and found herself in a small compartment that seemed like it was self contained. "What is coming will hurt a great deal, Magos. Do not resist."
"Part of the plan?" The Magos asked. "No! Do not tell me! If she can access my implants as easily as she did last time, anything I know, I will betray."
"We do not lie to her." Kate said as the compartment lurched. No, it was jettisoned. "We are trying to help. She cannot trust anyone at all, not even herself. Do not resist. You are here to help me. No more, no less. I do not know what just happened, but Elizabeth planned for this, so this one will know. She will know more than we do and she will not let us escape this time. Do not try." She warned.
"Putting ourselves back in her hands helps us, how?" The Magos asked as warm metal enfolded Kate's hand.
"It doesn't help us." Kate swallowed hard as golden power slammed into whatever they were in and a roar of rage sounded close at hand. "We are going to help her win."
She jerked as the world faded around her. Kate and the Magos were suddenly standing on the deck of a very different ship. The tech looked clunky, bulges and oversize bits everywhere. Several golden forms stood around the area or worked at consoles, but that all paled beside the woman who stood in front of them, her jaw dropped as she stared at Kate. The madwoman Elizabeth was stunned speechless.
"Hello, Elizabeth." Kate Bishop knew somehow that her clothing had altered. She had no idea how or why, but she knew she wore a golden suit that hugged her body in many places that felt wrong. "No lies now. No attack. No weapons." She held out her hands as if for binders.
"Do you know what you just did?" Elizabeth asked very softly.
"No." Kate replied. "But I did ask if I could help. She said this would."
"It...might." Elizabeth looked away for a moment. "I… Kate Bishop… I…"
"You do not need to apologize. You felt a threat and acted." Kate bowed from the neck, still holding out her hands. "I would have done the same. I have done the same in the past. You know why I did it. You know what I offered. I know what you need and I accept it. Just, don't hurt the Magos, please?"
"I…" Elizabeth bowed her head. "I won't."
With a flash of gold, they were elsewhere. Kate stood silently as Elizabeth started pacing, here and there. Her hands flashed with golden power and then dark power that just looked looked and felt wrong.
"This is wrong!" Elizabeth snapped. 'This is just so wrong! You… I can't do this to you!"
"I offered." Kate snapped. Inside, she quailed at her impertinence, but somehow, she knew that facing Elizabeth head-on was the only way to keep herself safe. "Do it."
"It will hurt you very badly!" Elizabeth warned, her old self coming to the fore for a moment.
"It will end this." Kate bowed her head. "Do it!"
Another flash of gold and Kate lay on a bed surrounded by warm bodies as Elizabeth appeared nearby, but this Elizabeth was very young the face was the same, but she couldn't have been more than seven or eight? From the flashing in her eyes, the older Elizabeth was aware and very angry. Then another voice spoke up from beside Kate as a long, delicate hand touched Kate's temple and soothing numbness swept through her. Lust followed the bliss and even as Kate fought the feelings, she was caught up in them and pulled away, but not entirely. She was are that she wasn't wearing anything, but the worry couldn't pierce the feelings that held her.
"You do know how to make a mess, don't you, Elizabeth?" Kate couldn't move as heavenly feelings swept through her. The hands touched her in places she wanted to forget, but that paled when Elizabeth flashed golden again.
"Hello, Mother."