Date: Sun, 24 Mar 1996 04:52:52 -0500 (EST) From: No one of Consequence Subject: Dusty Whispers: Introduction When I was little, my mother used to wrap me up in blankets and sit with me on the windowseat in my room and look up at the stars. She would sigh sadly as if wishing to visit them, but I knew she never would. My mother used to be a mutant, but she lost her powers before I was born. She never liked to talk about it, as are all small children, I was full of questions. My poor mother would just sigh sadly and answer them, and my young mind never realized the significance of what she said until it was too late to feel sympathy for her plight and for all that she had lost. Daddy knew, and he understood how much it bothered my mother to answer my questions, but perhaps it was to her credit and his both that neither cringed but instead answered them fully. I never knew until they were gone what I was truly worth to my mother. Years after my parent's deaths, the Professor would talk to me, when Franklin wasn't distracting me, and tell me of Mom and Dad as if to keep them alive in my heart. He would tell me of my mother's great sacrifice, and each time he did that, I felt worse and worse, like a person who didn't deserve to exist. I should never have been born. Years ago, the Empress Lilandra came to our planet and declared that my mother, my dear sweet mother, was a criminal and must be lobotomized. My father and the other members of the X-Men, both past and present, and at the time of the storytelling, then deceased, were summoned to fight the Emperess's guard to save my mother from her "fate." The fight was a long ordeal and the Professor said that Mom was holding herself back, but he never truly explained then what she was holding back... Years later, I would discovered for myself. Mom was the Phoenix. No, not Mom was a woman who was empowered and linked with the Phoenix, she _was_ the Phoenix. It took me a long time to realize this, to understand the many faces that my mother's gene patterns would take through fate across different timestreams and destinies. In my time, my mother was a cosmic life force and she was on overdrive. The records in this timestream's mansion show that she killed herself, but that isn't what happened in my time. Mom always told me that she knew I was going to be a powerful telepath even before I was born. She was constantly telling me at every moment that this was right or this was wrong or I should do this because or that because, or just not at all. Somewhere in this long series of do's and don't's, I was given a rigid set of moral codes which suprised me because the other kid's mothers didn't do this... Me, I was going to be a great mutant, so I had to know better. How did my mom know I was going to be a great telepath, I wondered as I grew into my abilities and developed the skills to block and thrust across the psionic plane with the professor as a teacher and my mother as an advisor. How could she know since she was not a mutant herself? I found out as I aged that she had given up her powers, and in some way, her life... for me. When Mom was on the moon with Daddy and the other X-Men, she found herself slipping back into what she called the "Dark Phoenix." Her thoughts shifted and her costume's molecules reordered and tossed around electrons until she was properly attired. She looked up at my father and said, "Scott, I love you!" and prepared to kill herself, yet.. in that moment, my mom said that something stopped her... It was me. Mom... My beautiful shining noble mother... She was going to kill herself to make the galaxy a safe place... She heard another set of thoughts... A shifting of concepts... She heard me. When I grew older, the Professor gave me Mom's diary and there was a huge section about how Mom and Dad had "pre-marital sex" near the one of Uncle Warren's homes. There were details about how suprised Dad was, how beautiful his eyes were, and how much Mom wanted to see them everyday of her life. When she gave up the Phoenix force... When it was cruelly ripped away from her, she was never able to see his eyes again. Now... I cannot even visit their graves to see how they are since I am in another timestream, but I hope that they are being well-tended. Now that Dad and... I suppose she is my mom... oh, how I want her to be... Now that they are married, I hope that one day they can have children to love and protect from the dangers of the world like their dopplegangers did in mine. God keep you, Scott and Jean. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ (to be continued in a different format) heather@gnu.ai.mit.edu (somebody please tell me that this arrived.)