Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to X-Men: Dark Horizons. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Door to the River; 5/24: Earlier than early (Rachel, Kitty)
Topic Started: Aug 16 2014, 06:47 PM (154 Views)
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Well, a thing like that deserved an answer, right?

So yeah, she did want to see that. She had, in fact, seen that. In case Ray hadn't figured that part out for herself. Which she probably had, but it wasn't like Kitty was going to really be embarrassed by that.

“What, no courtesy blindfold?” Rachel snuck in there practically asking for all the detailed head images the brunette was starting to be very, very tempted to supply her with. But her best friend might've had enough trauma for one night, so she'd try to restrain herself with just rolling her eyes and wrinkling her nose at the best friend in question. For now.

Ray was grinning a little and that was good to see. No reason to make that go away, it'd probably do that soon enough on it's own.

"No, but kinky. I'll save that for next time," Kitty replied as she went forth on the great quest for Pete's boxers. Which had to be around here somewhere. As long as she didn't have to listen to Pete singing Queen again, it was all good. And, well, her taste was a little predictable in some ways, she guessed.

Yeah, she knew that look on Rachel's face, too. Not that she had to see it to really know it was there, and know exactly what her friend was thinking. The leap from Peter to Pete looked kind of like a leap, didn't it? Even with Alistair and Alasdhair filling in the middle.

“Not exactly the adjective I’d have used. But you’re happy,” Ray told her, adding some light to the situation thank god. Because she couldn't tell pants from boxers from socks like this, “that’s all I need to know.”

Ah ha! One set of boxers located, over near the door. God knew how they got there, but it was probably better not to question it, really.

"I am," she confirmed with a smile back to her friend as she snatched up the underthings in question and marched them back toward the bathroom. "Okay, maybe my taste is unconventional," she allowed as the smiled turned toward a grin, "is that better? But yeah, it seems to be working pretty well so far."

Which probably just jinxed the entire thing, but she decided not to worry about it right now and shove her hand, and Pete's underwear, though the door instead. "Here, Pete," Kitty called through the door, solidifying her hand, and the boxers, inside the bathroom enough for him to take them. "Mind giving us a few minutes here?" she added as she felt him take the boxers out of her hand and pulled her arm back through the door.

Wasn't really a request, but she didn't think he'd care. He was good at making himself scarce when he needed to. Maybe she should've given him his pants, too, but if he wanted them they were also over near the door. He could grab them on the way by.

Annnnd, she probably should put something on herself, shouldn't she? Yeah, that might be good. The nearest thing being Pete's shirt, she grabbed that and shoved her arms through it, buttoning a couple of buttons to keep it closed.

"Okay, we've achieved somewhat dressed at least," she informed Ray as she went back over to plop down next to her. "It's a start."
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marvel Girl
Member Avatar
Needs her powers to dress herself
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Alright, she’d just do a little judicious self-memory editing there, and forget that she’d ever heard Kitty saying anything about plans for that hypothetical blindfold ‘next time’. Her fault, Rachel could admit, (or would have if she’d been willing to remember) for inventing it in the first place, but that didn’t mean she had to think about it.

It wasn’t long either till Kitty - best of best friends - was pulling out something else to sink her gentle friendly mocking teeth into, and hold off the less pleasant things for a bit more time. Not mental images of Pete singing Queen, which even Kitty seemed happy to do without dwelling on, but… oh… oh yeah. No way could she let that comment about taste go un-snerked. Her best friend wouldn’t even expect her to.

Because aside from a fondness for picking names in pairs, and arguably something about accents, predictable was not exactly the adjective she would have used to draw a line between her best friend’s dating track. The line might start and end with things that started and ended with P and r, but…

…well, teasing aside, it didn’t actually matter at all, and Rachel knew that too. Just from the look on Kitty’s face- or rather the one that just right this instant was in her mind, since between the lack of light she was only just remedying with a tap on the light switch, and the part where the brunette was busy searching through her strewn clothes over the side of the bed. Either way though, it was the look that said, without any kind of doubt at all, that Kitty was happy.

That was pretty much the sum total of everything she needed to know.

That though - that was the smile, the happy one, that she’d been thinking about. Kitty turned it back toward her for a moment, looking back from whatever it was she’d located on the floor. “I am," she confirmed snatching up something that was white and presumably boxer-fied from the floor and heading for the bathroom door. “Okay, maybe my taste is unconventional," she allowed as the smile turned toward a grin, "is that better? But yeah, it seems to be working pretty well so far.”

Yeah, well. She was still naked, the room was a pile of afterglow (Rachel was willing to swear that that kind of thing left telepathic residue that seeped into the walls, though she was also willing to admit that she’d just made that up right now). You’d have to hope that counted as ‘pretty well’. Smiling back without reservation, the telepath nodded. “Unconventional will do.”

Leaving Kitty to deliver the Boxers, and have whatever conversation she needed to in the relative privacy of whatever you could get from courtesy tuning out, Rachel settled herself a little more comfortably on the bed, twisting her butt till she was satisfied with the mini-burrow of bedclothes she’d hollowed out. Then she closed her eyes, dropped her head down onto the knees she’d drawn up close to her chest, and breathed out slowly. Once, and then again, drawing the air in, holding it, before releasing it again.

Trying to find the set of thoughts and emotions and gut feelings that she’d brought with her, and to spend a moment looking them in the eye, instead of keeping them at bay. The unity with them, like Kitty when she fought, balanced with every part of herself. Like the poise and harmony between emotions that Ororo and Amara both managed to keep for their powers, and the peace that Kurt could find hidden in moments.

She’d never been above trying to borrow her friend’s skills into something she could use for herself. Why stop now? Clarity, space, and a little time, and maybe she could make enough of copying those to find one of the shorter ways through this stuff too.

“Okay, we've achieved somewhat dressed at least,” Kitty informed her, calling her back to the moment, sliding back in beside her, a moment later “It’s a start.”

Sure enough, when Rachel looked up to her friend, she’d found one of Wisdom’s shirts - the ones that were either present in identical multitudes, or constantly reused, both of which were kinda a little horrifying as possibilities - to slip into. Glancing at it briefly, Rachel tipped one corner of her mouth into a lopsided smile. “Better than Emma Frost has ever managed,” she declared it, before another thought intervened. “Does she really wear those black stealthsuits here?” They’d seemed like some kind of universal uniform, but there was something about Emma that kind of defeated her ability to picture that, and… okay, this was nothing like the point of why she was here, killing the last part of Kitty’s night and temporarily shooing away her boyfriend, was it? “Sorry,” Rachel added, shaking her head. “Not important.”

Still very, very odd to try to picture, though.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Let's just call her taste...unconventional. Sure, she could go with unconventional if that suited Rachel. Otherwise, yeah, things were going surprisingly well so far.

Even thinking that might've jinxed it, but it was still true enough as she mounted the search for Pete's boxers. With a little timely help from Rachel's powers of light switch activation. That made the search a little easier and Pete would probably be ready to get out of the bathroom soon.

Ray smiled back, and that was good to see, adding a nod in for good measure. “Unconventional will do.” Approval achieved, the brunette also achieved boxer sign, snatching those up and delivering them to Pete, with a quiet word for him to maybe make himself scarce for a little bit, if he didn't mind.

It was Pete and he and Rachel seemed to have achieved some level of understanding over the wedding and pending utter disaster of a reception. She didn't really think he would. He'd get that this was a best friend thing, and a little bit of a shared head thing. He might not get that it was a transcending time and dimensions thing, but she'd explain that at some point, too. Explain about Kate, who was her and not her all at the same time.

At least, having met himself, Pete would have a frame of reference for that sort of thing now. Whether he'd ever wanted one or not.

Boxers delivered, the brunette took another second to glance around for something to put on herself. Convenience had her settling on Pete's discarded shirt. Kitty grabbed that up and slipped her arms through the sleeves, buttoning a button or two to keep it in place. That'd do.

Ray was curled up on the bed again, but not necessarily in a bad way, she didn't think. More in a...pulling in all the pieces way. Trying to settle things in her head way, and Kitty made her way back over to the bed and her best friend having achieved a basic level of dressed. It was at least a start.

The redhead shot her a lopsided smile. Yeah, well, what did she expect on short notice? Vogue? “Better than Emma Frost has ever managed,” she declared it, before another thought intervened. “Does she really wear those black stealthsuits here?” Kitty opened her mouth to answer, but Rachel seemed to think better of it before she got there. “Sorry,” Rachel added, shaking her head. “Not important.”

Smiling back a little unevenly herself, Kitty shook her head right back. "Yes she does," she told her anyway, "And yeah, it's just as weird to see as you think it is." All in all, she guessed even Emma had to let go of the white leather fetish if she didn't want to be targeted by every Sentinel in a ten mile radius, but still strange. Also definitely a question that needed answering, whether Rachel thought it was important or not.

How many times did you get to see something like that? From Emma? It was almost a shame theirs hadn't been 'ported over, too. They might be able to leave them with a matched set. Then again, she supposed this world had already suffered enough.

The bathroom door cracked open and Pete slipped out, complete with boxers. Kitty turned to smile his way, in both apology and a sort of unspoken thank you. He gave her a small one in return, turned a look on Rachel that she interpreted as Pete Wisdom's version of concern, then nodded and turned back toward the door. Grabbing his pants on the way out, he was through the door and out into the hall with no muss and no fuss.

"You want water or a soda or anything?" she asked as she turned back to Ray. "I think there's some in the mini-fridge. Or, if you've still got images of Emma Frost in a stealth suit in your head, I think there's some whiskey or something around here, too," Kitty tacked on with another little bit of a smile.

Though she was half surprised Pete hadn't took that with him, instead of his pants.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marvel Girl
Member Avatar
Needs her powers to dress herself
Excalibur 617 - Admin
More clothes than Emma Frost, that’s about all you could say for Pryde’s outfit right now. Though… in this world, come to think of it, maybe you couldn’t even say that. Because everyone wore those black stealthsuits here, didn’t they? Everyone. Well, maybe not Tigra, who she thought she’d seen yesterday, but she probably had a medical note. Or no one wanted to mess with someone who could have a bad hair day all over.

But… Emma Frost. In an all black, all-covering stealthsuit. Was that really something that happened?

That, when Rachel came to a halt, seemed nothing like something she needed to be thinking about right now. Or thinking out loud about to Kitty, who might be the best friend in the world to put up with bedroom invasion at this time of the morning and even kick out her new, ‘unconventional’ boyfriend along with it, but probably hadn’t done any of it to discuss things the White Queen did that could not fit in a brain.

Or, yeah. Maybe she did, actually, because she was smiling (kinda) and shaking her head already. “Yes she does,” sounding sincere, though that wasn’t always a guarantee, and right now, Rachel didn’t really want to look inside her head to double-check, in case the images broke her brain by stretching disbelief too far. ”And yeah, it's just as weird to see as you think it is.”

Tipping the corners of her mouth up in something pretty close to a smile, Rachel nodded. Yeah, so they wouldn’t be looking at that then. She’d had enough weird things she’d never expected to see for a week already.

That was the bathroom door though, and there was Wisdom himself, coming out of there in his boxers (yeah. Delivering those before he did that definitely had to be counted as an errand of mercy for everyone). Rachel met his gaze when he looked her way, letting him see her face and whatever he could read there in her expression, whatever that might be. Right now, she wasn’t sure she really knew.

He didn’t stay, though, or try to stay. That was a good thing. Whatever he’d seen in her head on Saturday at the reception… it… was something. It wouldn’t be enough to not have to explain this though, and she really, really didn’t think she could deal with explanations right now. So. He was good, and he’d taken his pants. Probably also a good thing, or god knew what kind of trouble the reputation his doppel-ganger here had made might get him into.

“You want water or a soda or anything?" she asked as she turned back to Ray. "I think there's some in the mini-fridge. Or, if you've still got images of Emma Frost in a stealth suit in your head, I think there's some whiskey or something around here, too.”

Another half a smile from her best friend. Rachel looked up to meet it with a weak one of her own. Trying for a light snort, but only really getting as far as wrinkling her nose and shaking her head. “No. No thanks.” Of course in less than twelve hours in this place, Wisdom would have already located a supply of alcohol for their room. Of course. “I filled my whisky quota for the week when I got your dragon drunk on Sunday night,” Rachel informed her friend, in the interests of disclosures she was pretty sure she’d made already, but probably needed to be admitted to again anyway. “And me drunk.” Afterthought. Oh. There was another one on top of that, too. “And maybe Baby!You a little drunk too.”

She hadn’t drunk all that much that Rachel could remember, but then she didn’t seem like she’d been making a habit of doing it either. Scotland was probably corrupting Kitty. Or possibly Wisdom was, but… yeah, it was probably Scotland. Scotland was the gateway drug for Wisdom. That almost maybe made sense.

That night, though, with Lockheed, and the whisky, and the appearance of Baby!Kitty. It had been a day and a half after the reception and the stupid blonde girl had stolen everyone. A day after another stupid idiot blonde girl had saved her Baby!Uncle and his friends and turned the entire world back home upside down. Right in the middle of all of it. So why did it feel like it had been the start of things?

Well, she knew the answer to that too. Because it was where she’d gone after, whisky in hand that had set her in motion to be here for tonight. “And three and a half days later… here I am,” Rachel said out loud, looking to her best friend. Not explaining the intervening thought processes, but she thought Kitty was probably used to that part by now. Or she could ask, if she needed. For now though, she’d just keep speaking. Thinking aloud, in the bits and pieces that would come, like assembling a jigsaw from the bits of edge that lined up into something, setting aside the wide swathes of monochrome sky for later.

“I got my baby sister out and through four years-… -at the Pens safely. That’s something,” Rachel mused, wrapping her arms a little tighter and pulling her knees in closer to her body. “That’s something.”

Not something that made not being able to do a damn thing for baby Christopher any better. But something, anyway.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Black stealth suited White Queen. It was every bit as weird to see as Rachel imagined it was. Kitty wouldn't, however, put images that odd in Rachel's head range right now. Even if she was smiling a little as she nodded to that. Her best friend had enough to deal with without adding any kind of Emma Frost to the mix.

Instead, attention went to the bathroom door as Pete emerged, in his boxers and with a look their way. One she recognized as concerned, but he didn't hang around to ask questions. He was good about that, figuring things out that way, when he needed to. Figuring out when he didn't need to ask the questions she knew he had. Just grabbed his pants (which was probably a good call) and slipped out the door into the hall.

Kitty watched him go, then turned her attention back to Ray. There was more. Nobody had to tell her that out loud. But while they were doing a little intermission, maybe Rachel wanted some water. Soda. Something harder, since she was pretty sure Pete had grabbed some whiskey or something on his way up from the Strip Club last night.

Leave it to Pete to make alcohol a priority, no matter where he was.

A little bit of a smile from Ray for that, too, but it was slightly anemic. Not that she really expected her to be in a humorous mood right now, so any smile at all was a bonus. It came complete with nose wrinkling and a shake of her head, too. “No. No thanks.” Well, it was around here if she changed her mind. On any of it. “I filled my whiskey quota for the week when I got your dragon drunk on Sunday night,” Rachel informed her friend and there went her own nose, wrinkling, too. She god Lockheed drunk. Oh god. “And me drunk.” Ray added, “And maybe Baby!You a little drunk too.”

Oh jeez, she didn't do it halfway, did she?

"At least tell me the hall carpet didn't end up on fire this time?" the brunette half-pleaded, because drunk, fire breathing dragon, even in miniature, was a proven disaster magnet. Brian had never forgot that little incident, either, even though it was partly his fault. He'd left the whiskey where Lockheed could find it.

Since Ray had apparently gotten a good look at the teen Kitty from here, she was tempted to ask what she'd thought about her? If she seemed as...lost (and sort of annoying) as she did to her, but that would just side track them and it wasn't important. Not right now.

Right now, it felt like there was still more, and not more about drunk alien dragons or broken other versions of herself. More that Ray had on her mind.

“And three and a half days later… here I am,” Rachel said out loud looking over at her. After a second, Kitty nodded. Yeah. It had been after that, handn't it? When she'd gone to Rory. After the night of finding out what the Professor had done, of a new and strange Kitty wandering around, all of it piled on top of what had happened at the reception. It had all ended with too much to drink, maybe, and going to Rory, and...where that had led.

Corners of her mouth turning down sympathetically, she reached over to Ray, again. Gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“I got my baby sister out and through four years-… -at the Pens safely. That’s something,” Rachel mused, wrapping her arms a little tighter and pulling her knees in closer to her body. “That’s something.” Sliding over closer, Kitty wrapped an arm around her best friend again, gave her a gentle, sideways hug as she exhaled slowly. So much, in just a few days. Do damned much.

"That's a lot. It's a lot to your mom," Kitty reminded her quietly. Because it would be, to at least some part of her mother. The part that was the Jean Grey from here, especially. "And I think to Hope, and to Calvin Rankin, it's probably even more than that. It's probably closer to everything."

It was more than probably anyone else could've managed, the brunette knew that. Just like she knew Ray would be thinking about what she hadn't been able to save. That little boy who'd have been her brother, and who'd died so completely senselessly. Maybe about the Jean from here that she couldn't save, either. Because that was Ray, and she wanted to save them all.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marvel Girl
Member Avatar
Needs her powers to dress herself
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Whisky? No. No, she’d pretty much filled her weekly quota on Sunday night, when she’d gotten Lockheed drunk. Or got drunk with Lockheed. And the other Kitty, kind of. Maybe. The teenager hadn’t drunk very much, but later events from that night did kind of seem consistent, if you wanted to go there.

“At least tell me the hall carpet didn't end up on fire this time?"

“Absolutely not,” Rachel was quick to assure her best friend, glad to have at least that front where she could mount a defense. Except. Well. Yeah. Okay. “Though I may not be able to give similar guarantees for how Layla Miller’s clothing survived that night,” she had to admit, in the interests of full disclosure. But maybe Kitty wouldn’t have quite the same concern about that. Personally, Rachel herself didn’t really, and that wasn’t even just because the Blonde Idiot Girl Zero (tm) seemed to have taken fashion advice straight from the pages of Pippi Longstocking.

Okay. Not the time to go there. Any more than it was the time to go there about Baby!Kitty, even though she could kind of feel Pryde next to her, wondering.

It had been that night. After the whisky - or, more strictly speaking, with what had been left of the whisky after she’d cut Lockheed off - when she’d gone up to find the Doc, and kicked off something that had ended up bring her here. Three and a half days later.

Yeah. The quick pressure on her shoulder said Kitty had gotten the leaps and twists there. That helped, even if Rachel couldn’t quite bring herself to lift her chin and turn to look at her best friend just yet. She was still busy thinking, pulling together the scraps and pieces of thought that she could maybe use here.

She’d gotten her baby sister out, though. That, with the tattooed man and the team he’d put together this morning, and then tonight. She’d made sure Hope would get through four years growing up under Him with less damage than anyone could have hoped for, because she knew Him. Knew how his mind worked. Even better than she’d realized, because now she knew… more, about Him, than she ever had.

So that was something.

Kitty had moved in by the time the thought was dry on the page, wrapping an arm around her shoulders that Rachel leaned into gratefully. Letting out the breath. Yeah. That was a good idea. She should do that too, probably.

“That’s a lot. It's a lot to your mom," Kitty reminded her quietly. "And I think to Hope, and to Calvin Rankin, it's probably even more than that. It's probably closer to everything.”

Rachel nodded. She knew that. She did know that. Somewhere. “Yeah,” she agreed. “So for half my family, I’m a miracle worker.” Only to the other half… not like they’d ever say it, or even think it, maybe, but still. As much power as anything in the Multiverse, and still she hadn’t been able to do anything for her baby brother, for her Dad’s son, but kiss him goodbye.

“You know what the worst part was?” Rachel asked, lifting her head up and placing her chin on top of her knees, where she could stare at nothing particular on the rumpled sheets in front of her, still hugging her knees. “Dad asked me if I could do anything for him. And I said - I had to say-“ she corrected, frowning hard, to keep her eyes from beading back into tears, “-No. I can’t. Not without collapsing the entire timeline, and everyone still in it.” It was exactly why there were people out there who existed to police timelines, and scrub out people like her. The universe couldn’t survive changes like that. She knew that. Only… that wasn’t the hardest part. That had come after.

“And then Dad just nodded,” Rachel told her friend, tilting her head over so she could see her. “He didn’t even try to argue.”

And he’d shut down too, though that part she didn’t know how to explain to someone who wasn’t a telepath, even someone who knew him pretty well. He’d put himself outside it, removing himself from the equation. Right there and then.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Oh god. Drunk Lockheed. A touchy situation at best. Lots of things on fire at worst. Hopefully the hall carpet at the mansion survived the experience. Braddock Manor hadn't been so lucky once upon a completely smashed alien dragon and Kitty was pretty sure Brian was still holding a minor grudge there.

Despite the fact that he'd been the one that left the alcohol out where Lockheed could find it in the first place.

“Absolutely not,” Rachel was quick to assure her, except that her best friend senses were tingling and telling her there was something else coming. God, she hoped he hadn't set anyone on fire this time. They wouldn't be lucky enough for it to be someone who'd like it. “Though I may not be able to give similar guarantees for how Layla Miller’s clothing survived that night,” Rachel admitted next and Kitty frowned thoughtfully.

Did she care about the wardrobe of the girl who'd started all this by not bothering to tell anyone what she was seeing or that she had Widget? Let's see: snatched mid-dance from a perfectly good wedding reception, flung into the Negative Zone into a secret high security prison, forced to fight evil robots in her formalwear and ruin an also perfectly good dress she'd actually liked, then a mini-'vacation' in a dimension that was more than halfway to self-destruct and all the way into full scale war. Not to mention all the other things that'd happened as a direct result of that, like all the stuff about the Professor and, in a way, the reason Ray was sitting here now. All falling like dominoes in a line this last week.

Nope. Not caring at all. Layla Miller was lucky it wasn't more than just her clothes.

"Not losing any sleep over that at all," Kitty decided without so much as a tiny twinge of conscience. "She dresses worse than I did at her age." Considering she'd thought gold lame, multicolored stripes, and roller skates were the height of fashion, that was saying something. She was still blaming Ali for most of that.

Layla Miller and her stupidity, however, fashion related and otherwise, wasn't a tangent worth bothering with. It was just the start of all this and what had, in the end, got Rachel right here, right now. He best friend didn't need to really fill in those details of how it'd all progressed from drunk Lockheed to her appearing in the room where the interdimensional teleporter was. Those details Kitty could fill in enough herself. And it wasn't the time to ask Ray about her thoughts on the Kitty from this dimension.

That would wait until some other time, when Rachel hadn't been through something like this. Tonight. When she'd gone to the Hound pens. To make sure Hope survived, and survived without the kind of damage Ahab could've done to her. To see the version of her mother from here. To see the little boy, Christopher, who'd been her little brother and who'd had such a short life.

She couldn't save him, but she'd saved Hope and that was more than just something, as she told her best friend, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and Ray leaned over against her. To her mom, it was a lot. To Hope and to Calvin Rankin, it was probably closer to everything. Even if Kitty knew it wouldn't have been everything Ray would've wanted to have done, if she could've. Because that was Rachel and how she thought. She'd want to save them all.

Ray nodded, though. Maybe acknowledging that, even if she also maybe didn't feel it right now. “Yeah,” she agreed. “So for half my family, I’m a miracle worker.” And for her dad, she hadn't been able to be (even if part of her couldn't help but wonder what, exactly, Scott Summers would've done if that little boy could've been saved) and Kitty gave her another squeeze. Lean her head over against Ray's for a second and nod.

Because, no, it wasn't fair. Or right. But it was how things worked and sometimes how things worked just sucked a lot.

“You know what the worst part was?” Rachel asked, lifting her head up and placing her chin on top of her knees, where she could stare at nothing particular on the rumpled sheets in front of her, still hugging her knees. “Dad asked me if I could do anything for him. And I said - I had to say-“ she corrected, frowning hard, to keep her eyes from beading back into tears, “-No. I can’t. Not without collapsing the entire timeline, and everyone still in it.”

Giving her another squeeze, Kitty let out a slow breath, nodded. They knew this timeline wasn't stable, yet. Hopefully it would be soon, but not yet. Yana hadn't helped that at all by yanking people out of the past, dragging them into their dimension, then hadn't helped it more by shoving one of them back into the present in this one (though thank god she hadn't tried to shove them back into the past like she'd seemed to want to). She could practically feel Saturnyne sitting over in Otherworld with her hand poised over the 'delete universe' button.

"He had to know you wouldn't really be able to, Ray," Kitty said quietly. "That he wouldn't even have to ask if it was something you could risk." He had to, and so he couldn't have really expected a different answer. Scott might be stubborn, and hard to deal with, but he wasn't stupid. She could even understand maybe why he'd ask, when he had to have also known Rachel, of all people, would've already done it if she could've.

“And then Dad just nodded,” Rachel told her friend, tilting her head over so she could see her and sort of confirming what she was thinking herself. Maybe. “He didn’t even try to argue.”

Just shut her out, Kitty guessed. Like he'd been shutting everyone out since they'd been here. Everyone except maybe Jean.

"It's been really hard for him here," Kitty acknowledged. He hadn't gone out of his way to make it easier, either, but she didn't say that. Ray knew her dad. "Dealing with everything the Scott Summers from here did. Trying to be this figurehead that they asked him to be. Just...dealing with this world. I don't think he's cut out for this kind of thing." After trying to deal with him herself this week, some part of her couldn't believe she was making excuses for him, even if they were mostly legitimate ones. "He...he doesn't really get it," she added, brow furrowed in thought, "but he has to know you would've saved him if you could've."

That she'd have saved all of them, if she could've. There was leeway, but only so much, and you had to be very careful with it, before the people in charge of everything in existence stepped in and made the choices to step in and clean up the mess for you. And that never ended in a way anyone wanted.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marvel Girl
Member Avatar
Needs her powers to dress herself
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Yes. Forget about Layla Miller, and her terrible fashion sense. Kitty was right about that. And for the moment at least, forget about the other Kitty, and all of that. There’d be time for that too, Rachel knew, somewhere in the back of her head that she didn’t seem to have the space to think about right now, because the front was filled up with what had come from the other part of that night. Her part. And with last night. The things she had and the things she hadn’t been able to do.

Hope, her sister- she’d been able to do something for. Nudge things into the way they’d gone, and keep her as safe as she could. Baby Chris though- he’d got a kiss hello, and goodbye, and that- had been all there was. So… 1 for 2, for the night. That was good in baseball.

Not so much in life.

But like Kitty said - and thank god for her best friend, who could still see these things even when she wasn’t sure that she wanted to - yes. What she had done, would be everything to Hope, and to her father. Or her fucker, as she apparently wanted to call it. And for Mom. For one side of her family, she was a miracle worker.

Kitty understood. She didn’t have to say anything to make that clear. Just moved a little, putting her head next to Rachel’s and rested it there for a moment, along with a quick tightening of the arm she’d wrapped around her. Silent, but that felt right. What could be said to that? They both knew it was true. They both knew her father, Uncle Alex, all of the Summers wouldn’t blame her. But that didn’t mean her baby brother hadn’t deserved to get a miracle too.

And the worst part? Wrapping her arms around her knees a little tighter, Rachel told her best friend that part too. When Dad had asked her if she could do anything for his son. And she’d had to tell him no. Say it out loud, in the room, while watching the little six-month old boy who was smiling in his crib, because he knew his father had come to see him. She couldn’t have saved him. Not without collapsing this timeline, and everyone in it.

No need to try to explain that to Kitty. She understood how that worked just as well - and maybe even better, from her physics brain - than Rachel did. Her best friend did what Dad hadn’t, and hugged her a little tighter again. That made it a little easier when she did the same thing he had done, which was to nod slowly. “He had to know you wouldn't really be able to, Ray," Kitty said quietly. "That he wouldn't even have to ask if it was something you could risk.”

Her turn to nod. He did know that. So why had he done it? As a test? Because he was in denial? No.. he hadn’t seemed angry. Or like he was refusing to believe that. He hadn’t been arguing, and he hadn’t even sounded like he was still hoping she’d tell him something different. That was the worst part of the worst part. He’d just nodded. He hadn’t tried to argue, even for his son’s life. He’d just shut himself away again, taking himself out of the equation.

“It’s been really hard for him here," Kitty acknowledged. Watching her best friend, both with her eyes and with the faint sense of her thoughts that never quite went away, Rachel caught the glimpses of what the brunette was thinking. Some she’d known since the conversation on Saturday. Some more, but no. No, it had been hard. All of everything that had happened here. “Dealing with everything the Scott Summers from here did. Trying to be this figurehead that they asked him to be. Just...dealing with this world. I don't think he's cut out for this kind of thing.”

This time, Rachel didn’t nod. Not immediately, though she kept her eyes on Kitty’s, watching her best friend’s words and the thought and honesty behind them. But… Dad? Dad wasn’t cut out for fighting against horrible odds, and leading people trying to save the world from people who wanted to see them wiped out? “He’s…” she started, trying to formulate a protest, but the words died on her tongue, or maybe even in her brain, when she found she couldn’t find a single thing to say that would really argue it. He’s not as good with ‘away’ games? Was that really all her brain could come up with?

“He…he doesn't really get it," [Kitty] added, brow furrowed in thought, "but he has to know you would've saved him if you could’ve.”

“Yeah,” Rachel agreed quickly, maybe just to try to make up for not having had an answer for the brunette’s last assessment. “He knows that. He does.” He wouldn’t think that of her. And he’d trusted her to know that, and so maybe that was why he hadn’t argued, because he’d trusted her. And.. she’d been right, she knew that too. There was no way around it, with Chris.

“With my brother, there wasn’t a way,” Rachel repeated out loud, slowly. Making herself listen to the words as she turned to her best friend again. Maybe keeping it slow was also a way to delay the thought that was coming a little longer, to try to make herself think through it, but if it that was, it didn’t work at all. The idea kept pushing through all of that, seeping its way back through to the front of her mind. “Pryde?” the telepath asked, pulling one hand off from where she’d had it wrapped around her knees, and reaching over to carefully take hold of her best friend’s. “I think I need you to do some of my thinking for me. Because I have this idea, and I… I think I’m too close to tell if it’s not a good one.”

She thought… maybe it was. But it was big enough that she knew she had to think about it before trying, and right now, this morning, after last night- she just couldn’t seem to do that at all.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Scott had to know, didn't he? He had to know that wasn't something he'd even need to ask Rachel. If there'd been a way to save little Christopher Summers, she'd have done it. Without waiting for anyone to ask, it would've already have happened. Just like it apparently happened with Hope.

He had to know that, if he knew Ray at all, but he'd asked anyway. Maybe because he felt like he had to. Maybe for his own peace of mind. Maybe for some reason Kitty couldn't understand or imagine because she'd never been in a position like that (possibly close, with Alaisdhair, but even then it hadn't been quite the same). Maybe just because it's how Scott was; cover all the bases, check and double check. Leave no stone unturned.

Or maybe he just didn't want to believe that the Omniverse actually worked that way. Or worked that way for him.

Kitty didn't say that, either, though. Just hugged Ray's shoulders as her best friend nodded and maybe tried to make sense of it herself. How her dad could ask her that, having to already know the answer, and then just stonewall her. Like he'd been doing to most everyone else here since they came, except for maybe Jean. God, she hoped not Jean, too, at least.

It'd been hard. Maybe especially for Scott, so it was possible she wasn't being exactly fair. To Excalibur, this was old hat. They'd spent weeks careening through the Omniverse, dealing with weirdness, when the team had barely formed. They'd dealt with plenty of alternate selves, good and bad. For them, it was just another part of what they did.

The X-Men, not nearly so much and this world, with everything the Scott Summers here had done and been part of, everything he'd helped cause, trying to be the figurehead now that the Resistance had asked him to be, dealing with it all in general...

She wasn't sure Scott was cut out for it, strange as that might sound. Not the fighting, but the way things could feel so personal. It wasn't a surprise when Ray seemed to hesitate, not say anything for a few seconds.

“He’s…” she started but then trailed off and Kitty thought she could feel the protest building, but it never came. Maybe it all just boiled down to Scott not really getting it. When it wasn't a reality you dealt with every day, the idea of the Omniverse and Saturnyne and the rules that came with all that wouldn't be as easy to get, she suspected. Still, it went back to, if nothing else, Scott knew Ray, or should. So he had to know if it would've been possible to save that little boy, Rachel would've done it without question.

“Yeah,” Rachel agreed quickly, this time. “He knows that. He does.” That should've made her feel a little better, because Rachel would have to know if anyone did. Somehow, though, it didn't and Kitty couldn't quite put her finger on why. What was it about the way Scott had handled that that still bugged her?

“With my brother, there wasn’t a way,” Rachel repeated out loud, slowly. Like she was absorbing them herself as Kitty nodded, rubbing Rachel's shoulder lightly as the redhead turned her way. “Pryde?” the telepath asked, pulling one hand off from where she’d had it wrapped around her knees, and reaching over to carefully take hold of her best friend’s. Brows drawing together, Kitty gave it a tight squeeze, wondering what was on Ray's mind. Something. Nagging at her. She could practically feel that, too. Or maybe she just saw it on her face, in her eyes. “I think I need you to do some of my thinking for me. Because I have this idea, and I… I think I’m too close to tell if it’s not a good one.”

Not such a hard request, Kitty didn't think, and one corner of her mouth quirked up a little as she nodded again. "I think I can handle that, if you want. I've probably still got some brain to spare," the brunette assured her, watching her friend with a mix of curiosity and concern. For whatever this was that was on Ray's mind to the point she wasn't sure she could be objective. "What are you thinking, Ray?" she asked softly, giving her best friend's hand another squeeze.

Whatever it was, they'd figure it out together. The way they always did.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marvel Girl
Member Avatar
Needs her powers to dress herself
Excalibur 617 - Admin

Dad… no, turned out she didn’t know how to have that conversation, even with her Person. Not right now - and anyway, Rachel knew, it wasn’t the conversation she wanted, or maybe needed to be having with Kitty. There wasn’t anything she could do for her baby brother. She knew that. Dad knew that, even if he’d felt like he had to ask anyway.

But she- gah, she really, really had needed that hand her best friend had put on her shoulder. Contact and at least the promise that understanding would be there, if she could only find the words and put them together right.

That felt like it involved taking hold of Kitty’s hand, so Rachel did that. The squeeze that came back from the brunette settled her a little, making it easier to find the words to explain. No, maybe this was just starting to explain. Setting the stage. She’d had an idea. An idea that might be a good one, except that the telepath already knew that she was much, much too close to no whether it was or not.

Upshot? She needed Kitty to do some of her thinking for her.

Kind of not the first time she’d asked that of her friend (even less close to the first time she should have asked that), so maybe that was why Kitty’s mouth was quirking up on one side. But she nodded, at least. “I think I can handle that, if you want. I've probably still got some brain to spare," the brunette assured her, hovering a little on that as though she was a little worried by this turn. Probably not without reason, either, but Rachel mustered a half-smile in answer all the same.

“Wisdom’s not doing his job, then,” she suggested. Not as casually as that obvious retort had kind of deserved, maybe, but she was trying, and Kitty would just have to forgive her a little forced-itude in her quips.

“What are you thinking, Ray?”

Soft-voiced question. Soft hand, squeezing hers tightly again, making it a little easier to piece words together into an answer. Rachel still hesitated though, taking one deep breath before she began her answer. “I can’t save my brother.” She’d said that already, but… starting point. That was where this started, and she felt like she needed to have that reasoning - the same reasoning her dad hadn’t asked for - out there, not just sitting inside her head. “He died in public; it sealed that spell. It changed everything.” If he hadn’t died- it would have been like that night in New York in their own world, right? Badness that disappeared like it had never happened the moment the sun came up.

She couldn’t do anything to change that without changing this entire world. “But I think…” Rachel continued, pausing over the word, and looking at Kitty. Then at the bedsheets. Then at who knew where, because she wasn’t sure she knew exactly where she could look and still think about this. She settled back on Kitty, eyes seeking seriously for her best friend’s. “I think I know how I might be able to save Scrapper. And the Powers,” she told her.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
If Ray needed her to help her with some thinking, or even do it for her, Kitty was pretty sure she could handle that. Even if she hadn't been, she'd have given it her best try anyway, but the brunette was pretty sure she still had some brain and coherence left to work with.

Curiosity. Concern. A few other things, they were all there as she watched her best friend, a half smile hovering on her face that didn't really reach her eyes. Right now, she'd take it all the same.

“Wisdom’s not doing his job, then,” she suggested and Kitty let out a soft snort of amusement. Even if she wasn't really feeling it, either. She'd have to remember to tell Pete he was falling down on the job later, all the same. Just to see the look on his face.

What she really wanted to know right now? What Ray was thinking? Or what she was thinking that made her wonder if she could trust her own judgement? Something to do with baby Christopher? Or Hope? Kitty knew how Ray thought, knew she'd be trying to think of ways to make things better, but the brunette wasn't sure there was a way this time. Not for her little brother, at least, no matter how much they wished it was different.

That seemed to be something Ray had more or less accepted, though, so then what? Whatever it was, Kitty gave her best friend's hand a squeeze and decided to just wait for Rachel to tell her.

There was a deep breath, before she said, “I can’t save my brother.” Kitty just nodded, not interrupting. They'd already covered that and Ray was going somewhere with it. “He died in public; it sealed that spell. It changed everything.”

In a horrible, horrible way and Kitty squeezed her hand again. "Yeah," she confirmed, because there wasn't much else to say to that. She'd read the old new stories herself, seen some of the footage, heard it from the mouths of people who had been there that day. But she hadn't been able to bring herself to look at any of that footage. What grainy bits there were of the terrible details of how that little boy had died.

And how his death had made all the awful things that had only been temporary in their world become permanent here.

“But I think…” Rachel continued, pausing over the word, and looking at Kitty. Then at the bedsheets as Kitty held onto her hand. “I think I know how I might be able to save Scrapper. And the Powers,” she told her and that was absolutely the last thing she'd have expected.

Save Franklin? And Alex, Julie, Jack, Katie?

"Oh, god," Kitty breathed, trying to process that. They'd been some of the first Sentinel casualties, before this had all blown up. How? How on earth could they be saved without changing everything as much as doing the same thing with little Christopher Summers would? "Rachel, how?" she asked, shaking her head, "How could you without destabilizing everything just as much?"

A better question maybe, even, would be: Even if she could, and not blow the timeline all to hell in the process, should she?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marvel Girl
Member Avatar
Needs her powers to dress herself
Excalibur 617 - Admin
“Yeah,” [Kitty] confirmed. Yeah, she couldn’t save her brother. They both knew that, even if saying it out loud, spelling out the outline of the reasons was another cold band of feeling gripping her chest.

But Rachel thought- and maybe she just wanted to think it, to be able to think about anything other than the uselessness that visiting her baby brother had left sitting like cold steel in her guts - that maybe, she could still save Scrapper and the Power Pack.

Maybe. It felt like a good idea. It was a good idea, wasn’t it? Saving five kids who should never have had to die either. Whose parents- how could she not, if she had the ability to do it?

But Pryde wasn’t exactly leaping on it, was she? “Oh, god,” she breathed instead. It kinda wasn’t exactly the same thing as enthusiasm. Neither were the thoughts she was having right now, which seemed to be racing through logistics. All the questions Rachel herself only had half-imagined answers for.

This was definitely why she needed her best friend to do her thinking for her right now, wasn’t it?

“Rachel, how?" she asked, shaking her head, "How could you without destabilizing everything just as much?”

Rachel took a moment before answering, biting her lip to maybe buy herself some time. Specifics? No, she didn’t have specifics yet. No sense in trying to pull them out of thin air and leave them for Kitty to punch the inevitable holes that would be open if she tried. But… generalities? She did know the basic key to all of it.

“Timing,” she declared, hearing a defensive edge sneak into her voice that she definitely hadn’t meant to put there, and intentionally ignoring its existence as she continued, tightening her arms back around her knees involuntarily. “They were ‘killed’ by Sentinels.” That was known. That was public. That was propaganda now, even. But she’d seen people killed by Sentinels too. With her own eyes, right in front of her, and she knew how that went too. “Unless you’re Logan, that doesn’t leave a body,” Rachel added, steeling herself to being matter-of-fact. Just a body outlined in the glow, vaporized in an instant. “Confirmation is disappearance of mutant lifesign.”

The telepath paused, pointedly lifting her eyebrows before she brought up the obvious here. “The same way Baby!You and my Baby!Uncle and his team were confirmed dead.” Not the first time it had been done. Not even the first time it had been done this week.

And yes, she’d bawled Magik out for that when it had happened. For the way it had happened. Irresponsibly. Unintentionally. Without any fucking thought about what could happen by messing with the timestream. But- what if it had been none of those things?

“If I did it right-” Rachel hurried on, trying not to leave Kitty enough time to tear it all apart before she’d she’d made that part clear, “-carefully. Adjusted a few sensors, a few memories…“ Details, and details, and details, and yes, she was her father’s daughter, and she did know those were the only things that would matter in the end, but how could they be insurmountable?

“…I could-” she hesitated, looking right at her best friend. Not even knowing what she was hoping she’d see there in Kitty’s brown eyes, but swallowing down that uncertainty all the same “-I could,” she repeated, more firmly.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
Save them. Franklin. The Power Pack. Undo one of the most horrible, senseless events connected to all of this. Bring those five kids forward, back to their parents, the people that loved them.

God. Rachel could do it. Of course she could. Doing it, reaching into the past and taking them before the Sentinels got the chance, that would be the easy part, wouldn't it? The bigger question was...how. How could she do it, without risking doing as much damage as she would've trying to save little Christopher Summers. Without destabilizing the timestream to a point that they could afford?

A point that might throw everything into flux, or risk wiping out the 'now'? A point that Saturnyne couldn't, and wouldn't, overlook? Was it possible to do that?

If it was, right now Kitty couldn't fit it into her head the way she needed to, watching Ray worry at her lip. No, no the bigger question, that wasn't how. It wasn't could she. It was 'should she?'.

“Timing,” she declared, with an edge of defensiveness that had Kitty giving her shoulders another squeeze as Ray wrapped her arms around her knees again. She didn't have to guess how much Ray wanted to do this. To be able to do this. Not when it was Franklin. A Franklin she might be able to save. “They were ‘killed’ by Sentinels.” Kitty nodded. They'd tried to hide it, the CSA, but the information had leaked. Spread. Doug had apparently been using it for propaganda for years now. “Unless you’re Logan, that doesn’t leave a body,” Rachel added, and Kitty winced involuntarily. Here, he hadn't done that, even. Just a metal coated skeleton. The Sentinels hadn't been able to disintegrate that. “Confirmation is disappearance of mutant lifesign.”

Like what had happened to the younger Kitty here, her own counterpart. Or what Illyana had made happen.

“The same way Baby!You and my Baby!Uncle and his team were confirmed dead.” Ray might've plucked that right out of her head, but more likely they were just thinking the same thing. What Yana had done, she'd done by accident. With a little help from Kitty herself, but still, unintentional. It could've been a disaster. They were very, very lucky it wasn't, since by the time anyone would've known it was it would've been way too late.

God, she didn't know what to think about this. What to feel, except...maybe she did. There was a feeling there, and the brunette wished she could say it was a good one. But it wasn't. It was vague and hovering at the bare edges, but she still knew it wasn't a good feeling.

“If I did it right-” Rachel hurried on, like she was trying to head that feeling off. Race it and beat it before she could voice it, “-carefully. Adjusted a few sensors, a few memories…“ That gut feeling clarified a little more, but Rachel was still talking, needing to get it all out. Probably needing to and Kitty didn't have the heart to interrupt her. Not yet, “…I could-” she hesitated, looking right at her best friend swallowing, not sure herself. Kitty nodded, lips pursed. “-I could,” Rachel insisted and that's what made it so hard. Not the insisting, but the knowing. She knew, too.

"I know," Kitty assured her, "I know you could, Ray. I'm just-" Breaking off, she drew in a breath through her nose. She wasn't going to want to hear this. It wasn't something she wanted to say, either. But how could she not? "I'm not sure you should. You know how much I'd like to say save Franklin, and the Power kids Ray. You know that." A pause, just to swallow and catch her breath. Try to meet her best friends eyes and say maybe one've the hardest things she'd ever had to say to anyone. But it felt like the right thing, all the same. "But I don't think that's the kind of call we should start making."

For so many reasons, not the least of which was: Where did it stop, when you started taking that into your own hands? If you could justify saving five kids, then you could justify maybe fifty more, or five hundred. Where did that kind of logic end, and what did it turn you into while you were taking those kinds of decisions into your hands?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marvel Girl
Member Avatar
Needs her powers to dress herself
Excalibur 617 - Admin
This was the reason she needed Kitty to do her thinking, right? To be smart. To make sure she thought through all the details ahead of time. Made it right. Made it foolproof. Didn’t they both knew it could be done? It had been done.

And she had the Force, and she was Scott Summers’ daughter, and Pryde was a certified freaking genius, and it was all just… details. Timing. The right plan, the right set of tweaks. Kitty had squeezed her around the shoulders- that meant she got it, right?

It had happened. Illyana hadn’t even known what she was doing, and it had happened. She, Rachel Summers, wouldn’t be doing it stupidly. She’d do it right. Carefully. Not rushing - oh, she was rushing now, words tripping up against each other as they tumbled out, and she knew she was rushing, but she wouldn’t do that on the real thing. She’d do it right.

And she could do it. She could. Why was it only her talking? Why was her best friend silent when she met her eyes, and only nodding, and slowly at that?

Rachel faltered, feeling the half-formed thoughts she’d gathered together in her ‘plan’ scattering away like a dandelion puff someone had blown on. Leaving what behind? A feeling she still didn’t want to look too closely at, in case she had to admit she knew what it was.

Yeah. Yeah… okay. This was the real reason she’d needed Pryde to do her thinking for her right now, wasn’t it?

But she could. “I know," Kitty assured her, "I know you could, Ray. I'm just-“ not finishing that sentence. Breathing in deep instead. She hated this too, but too late to keep her out of having to think about it now. Waiting for her best friend to say the thing they both knew she was going to, Rachel hugged her own knees tighter, bit down on the inside of her lower lip until it came. “I’m not sure you should. You know how much I'd like to say save Franklin, and the Power kids Ray. You know that.”

Kitty might have paused - she did stop speaking, in fact - but her brown eyes never lowered, so Rachel made her own stay fixed on them. The least she could do, after bringing this here and making her best friend be the one to have to say the thing. How different was that from what Dad had done, really?

“I do,” Rachel murmured. Or maybe mumbled. Slowly. Her voice felt thick again, like it belonged to someone else. “I’m sorry, Pryde.” To make you be the one to say the thing I can’t bring my own head around to thinking.

“But I don't think that's the kind of call we should start making.”

Holding her best friend’s gaze a moment longer, just in case there was some stupid mistake after all, and she’d misunderstood not only the words, but the expression, and the thoughts that went with it, Rachel waited until she knew had to stop. It didn’t take that long. She sighed, and made herself straighten up again out out the ball she’d made around her knees. “I guess I was hoping you weren’t gonna say that,” she said to her best friend, before it all caught up and she had to squeeze her eyes shut because it was better than biting her lip again.

“It feels so damn ‘right’ in my head.” Admission time. Everything she’d been trying not to admit, because it wasn’t logic, and it wasn’t the details, since they’d all flown away to who knew where, but it was still there in her mind. A feeling with no real thought shape to give it context, just conviction. “To finally be able to save him. One time,” Rachel said aloud, forcing her eyes open and the idea into real words, in case that might somehow make it easier to bear.

The first time, she hadn’t the Force, or the power to do anything but watch it happening in front of her, except hope that Kate would do what she’d planned and make sure none of it ever happened. Only it had. And then the second time- all the power in a universe, and it hadn’t mattered, and once again she hadn’t been able to do anything.

“I want it to be the call so much, Pryde.” That didn’t mean it was, and she knew that, but that didn’t stop every single cell in her body wanting it to be anyway.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Shadowcat
Member Avatar
Immaterial Girl
Excalibur 617 - Admin
It wasn't right.

Even when Kitty knew it was, it still felt that way. Knowing what the right thing was and trying to do that, sometimes it was a pain in the ass. Sometimes it hurt. Rachel had given up so much in her life, had so damned much taken away from her. This...it felt like one more thing.

She knew Rachel could do it, and she knew that she could do it more carefully and with a lot more thought than what Yana had done with the Proteans and the Kitty Pryde from here (of course, so could most any piece of furniture in the room since it wasn't exactly a high bar to hit, but it'd been an accident and the brunette was trying to remember that, however pissed off she was at Illyana at the moment). The problem was, she didn't think Ray should.

Ray knew it was coming, too, didn't she? The way she tensed up, hugged her knees tighter. Her best friend had to know how much she wished she could tell her this was a good idea, didn't she? Had to know how much she'd like to say it would be fine to save Franklin and the Power kids. She had to know that, because she did want to.

She wanted to so much. Wanted to bring those kids back and give them the life they hadn't got to have. To give Reed and Sue here a piece of their family back.

“I do,” Rachel murmured green eyes never leaving Kitty's own brown ones. Voice thick with all the things that were going on in her head. “I’m sorry, Pryde.”

Kitty shook her head, hugged her best friend tighter. "You never have to be sorry, Ray. This is me." It was what best friends were for. To say the hard things when they needed saying, even if neither of you liked it. Ray had done it for her more than once.

This time, Kitty wished so much that she could've had a better answer, or at least an easier one. But this? This wasn't the kind of call she thought any of them should start making. Once you started, where did you stop?

Her best friend's eyes stayed on hers another few seconds, then she sighed and straightened out of the little ball she'd curled into. “I guess I was hoping you weren’t gonna say that,” she said, eyes squeezing closed just after as Kitty let out a slow breath of her own and leaned her head over toward Ray's a little.

"Yeah, I wish I could've, Ray," she admitted. She didn't even have the powers for that and it was tempting. It would be so much more tempting if she did.

“It feels so damn ‘right’ in my head.” Kitty nodded to the admission, stroked her hand up and down over Ray's shoulder. That didn't feel like enough, not for this, but maybe it would do for now. “To finally be able to save him. One time,” Rachel said aloud, all the pain Kitty knew was lingering behind that. The times Ray hadn't been able to save him, and there'd been more than one.

No, it wasn't fair. Not at all. And god, she hated that so much.

“I want it to be the call so much, Pryde.” It was Kitty's turn to close her eyes, nod again. Sometimes you had to wonder if it was some kind of sick, cosmic joke. All the power - not just Rachel and the Phoenix Force, but all of them in some ways - the times it felt like they should be able to change things. All the times they wondered if maybe this wasn't why they had these powers. And still knowing it was something they shouldn't do, because there were things and decisions that they weren't supposed to take it on themselves to make.

"I know," Kitty said again, opening her eyes and looking back over at her best friend. "So do I, if that helps at all. And it makes me so...so frustrated that I know it can't be." For those kids, but for Rachel, too, and everything it would mean to her if she could. "That it's not okay to make those decisions, even if we can. It's too much, and too risky, but that doesn't mean I don't wish the answer could be different, too," she finished in quiet sympathy.

They'd seen the results of giving into that, too. Look what a mess the Professor had left them in when he thought he could rewrite the past. Look what a mess Yana had made, because she hadn't thought it would be a big deal. Yeah, she'd saved five people, but a lot of lives had been turned inside out because of it. She especially didn't want that to happen with Ray because, unlike Yana, she'd actually care.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create a free forum in seconds.
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Private Quarters · Next Topic »
Add Reply