Subject: [OTL]: (Aaron Wisdom/Buffy/New Mutants II) Breeze Book Minus One Conclusion (PG- Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2002 20:59:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Breeze Arc: Book Minus One Conclusion by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Everyone here belongs to Marvel, except for Aaron, who's mine, and Buffy and related characters, who belong to Joss Whedon (at least, they should ...). No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. -------------------------------------------------------- 9/1/2002: Xavier Institute for Paragenetic Studies, Salem Center, NY: 23:45 hrs EDT: -------------------------------------------------------- Aaron's jaw worked, while he struggled to his feet and met Buffy's gaze. "OK," the timeshifted phasing mutant said, finally finding his voice and setting aside the blanket Buffy had covered him with. "This is just not possible. You're a fictional character in the past of my timeline - and you were NEVER a daughter of mutant superheroes." Buffy raised a single blond eyebrow at Aaron, then asked, "Do you have chroniton particle poisoning? Because you're definitely acting impaired, here -" Then the alarms went off, and Aaron darted for the door, pulling Buffy behind him. "I'll explain on the way! Just trust me, please?" Aaron asked, glancing over his shoulder as he and Buffy headed for the backyard. Buffy gave him a doubting expression, but reluctantly followed. -------------------------------------------------------- A few miles south of the mansion, peals of thunder pierced the taped symphony playing in a black Rolls-Royce. Its driver was a rather nondescript Caucasian man in his mid-40s, with glasses, graying hair and a slight scowl. He wore a tweed vest, impeccably-pressed pants, a white dress shirt and a pocketwatch. The contents of his briefcase, however, were not nearly as bland. The driver glanced at the holographic map being projected by the dashboard, then turned right and started to accelerate on Greymalkin Lane. He had a very specific destination in mind, and couldn't afford to be late. Midnight was closing fast. -------------------------------------------------------- Meanwhile ... -------------------------------------------------------- "OK," Buffy asked as she leaned against the railing of the X-Mansion's back porch, "I'm supposed to be the latest recipient of supernatural powers intended to make me some kind of guardian against supernatural evil?" "That's probably why you don't have an x-factor like Ray or Nate," Aaron said in a distracted tone. "I don't know all the details - 'BTVS' WAS a fictional show in the late 1990s and early 21st century, and I wasn't born until 2007. Where're the latest New Mutants?" "Most of them don't get here until tomorrow," Buffy said, starting to frown. "Who are you looking for, anyway? I mean, the whole 'X-traitor' thing played out when the Professor went psycho back in '96 and became Onslaught." Aaron shook his head and looked at Buffy intently. "I'm not saying any of the New Mutants betray the others on purpose," he said, starting to slump a little. "I'm saying that maybe one of them'll have a power accident tonight and accidentally kill the others. And if it's something that affects the timestreams -" His eyes widened, and he asked, "Illyana Rasputin. How old is she in this timeline?" "Now? 14 - she's a New Mutant," Buffy said. She raised her eyebrows and added, "She's a crossdimensional teleporter with chronovariance ..." "Time travel. Giant teleportals. And teenage angst," Aaron groaned. "It all makes sense - Buffy, we gotta MOVE!" -------------------------------------------------------- crackle "Mmm. Moonlight." "You're being hopelessly romantic, Ray," the blonde girl sitting across the campfire laughed, looking into the night sky. Illyana Rasputin shook blonde locks out of her face, then glanced around the circle of other young teens and smiled. The object of her riposte - the red-haired Rachel Summers, Buffy's fraternal twin - just snickered, leaning her head against the shoulder of her longtime friend and short-time boyfriend, Frank Richards. The taller, blond boy blushed a bit, but wrapped an arm around Rachel's shoulders and held a marshmallow-carrying twig near the fire. "I hope I get this right," the reality-warping mutant son of Reed and Susan Richards - two of the founders of the Fantastic Four - murmurred. To their right, a younger, blonde girl looked into the flames with an awestruck expression. Luna Maximoff, the weather-manipulating daughter of Pietro and Crystal Maximoff and a friend of the older teens, blinked, and looked sheepishly to her right at Illyana. "It's just a campfire, Lun," the Siberian-born teleporter laughed kindly. "I know. Maybe it's the moonlight - I think I get a little spacy in the moonlight," Luna said shyly. "You're fine, cous," one of the pair of identical brown-haired boys sitting to Illyana's right said kindly. Tom Maximoff - the elder son of Luna's father's sister, Wanda Maximoff, and the synthezoid Vision - winked at Luna, but sighed once more as he added, "I miss the glow of a CDT screen ..." "Tech-addict," Tom's twin brother, Bill, snorted. The entropy-manipulating, leather-jacket-wearing boy chuckled at his cyberkinetic brother's glare, and asked the girl to his right, "You ever see such a stiff, Sarah?" The pink-haired girl looked back at Bill, then shrugged. "You want stiff, Maximoff, you should see my bones," Sarah McCoy muttered. She rubbed one of the bone horns jutting from her brow, and sniffed when she was offered a marshmallow by her logmate. "It's cooling," the pink-skinned, bald, white-on-white eyed Artie Maddicks said. The holopsionic boy nodded as Sarah carefully accepted the stick, and she mumbled her thanks as she nibbled the delicacy. "Better than fried rat, at least," Sarah said. "Thanks, Art. You seen my 'brother'?" The underbrush rustled, admitting two more figures to sit on the last empty log, between Frank and Artie. "Leech HATES insects," Sarah's brother - a green-skinned, bald, white-on-white eyed boy without a discernable nose - grumbled. "Scoot OVER, Leech. I can't even generate a glow with you so close," the brown-haired Caucasian boy beside Leech groused. Charles Xavier Lehnsherr sank down on the log, grunting approval when he started to generate a faint bluish glow. "Showoff," Bill taunted, grinning at his uncle. Chuck just raised an eyebrow, and gave Bill an appraising look. "I could shift the color and give Tom some comfort - a garish green, maybe?" Chuck offered. Chuckles broke out around the circle, but Tom just rolled his eyes and sighed. "Philistines," the cyberkinetic grumbled. He looked around, then squinted over his shoulder and said, "I'm picking up two incoming infrared signatures - one's Buffy, the other is - an unknown." "We've been camping out here for most of the day. Maybe she's bringing out one of the new kids," Frank suggested. "Whatever. I'm going for a walk," Illyana huffed. She stood, then headed into a thicket as Rachel watched her leave with a concerned expression. "Trouble?" Frank asked, meeting Rachel's glance. "'Yana's always been uptight around Buffy for some reason. I don't know what it is," Rachel said, frowning. "They don't fight, but they're both on pins and needles around each other. It's like they're opposite poles or something - here comes Buffy." The underbrush seperated, permitting Buffy and a Caucasian boy none of the New Mutants recognized to walk into the clearing. "Guys, Aaron Wisdom, mutant time-traveler," Buffy said, nodding at the black-skinsuit-clad newcomer. "Aaron Wisdom, the second New Mutants, or at least a few of them." "'Wisdom'!?" Chuck, Frank, Rachel, Artie, Leech and Sarah blurted, leaping to their feet. "Oh. My. God," Aaron breathed, looking at the equally-stunned expressions on the faces of the New Mutants. #They're all so - YOUNG,# he realized, seeing the contours of older, familiar faces in the visages before him. #And - he's here -# Aaron locked eyes with Chuck for a long moment, then drew a deep breath and forced himself to look directly at Frank and Rachel. "We've got to find Illyana - or, I do," he began. "She's going to do something really terrible, on accident, and none of you can be around when I stop her." -------------------------------------------------------- The Rolls-Royce finally pulled up to the curb of the mansion, and its driver rolled down his window to depress the intercom button. "Xavier's," a somewhat-English-sounding male voice replied. "I'm sorry, but our hours are -" "Charles?" the driver interrupted. "It's Rupert. I must see you on a matter of the utmost urgency. Diana's... passed on. And the new... candidate... is among your younger residents." A moment of silence filled the air, until the intercom crackled again. "Dear God, Rupert. One of the students? A - A Slayer?" Charles Xavier replied. "No, not one of the mutant children," Rupert Giles said. "I need to see Scott and Jean Summers immediately." -------------------------------------------------------- She strode, drawn by - something - towards a clearing in the deepest part of the mansion's woods. Illyana had dreams - terrible dreams - and had had them for years, ever since that awful night eight years earlier when she'd been pulled to safety from some kind of armor in Manhattan. #Demon dreams,# the teleporter thought, shivering. #Red eyes, a sword, screams and laughter.# #That tingly feeling I get is back...# Illyana turned, to look at the crumbled remains of a stone obilisk, as the moonlight poured down upon it. And she wanted to use her power. #But Piotr's begged me not to use my power recklessly,# Illyana thought, fighting the sudden urge to open a stepping disc - one of her teleportals - before the obilisk. #But why not...?# -------------------------------------------------------- "You," Chuck told Aaron with a scowl, "ARE nuts." Aaron glanced, somewhat fearfully, at the magnakinetic son of Erik Magnus Lehnsherr and Marie LaVonne, before replying, "If I'm wrong, how come Frank and Rachel's daughter didn't just warn them herself?" "He's got a point," Rachel interjected. She shook her head, then glanced at Frank with a blush and added, "You and me - married? Parents?" Frank turned an even deeper shade of red and breathed, "We've barely even started to date..." Aaron slapped his face and groaned, then blurted, "I'm NOT here to play matchmaker! I'm trying to save you guys from certain death and maybe the entire timestream too! Now where would Illyana go to -" The New Mutants pointed, almost as one, towards the direction Illyana had headed - northeast. And Aaron went pale. "The N'Garai cairn. The old touchstone to their dimension," the boy whispered. "Illyana's a crossdimensional teleporter." "And the N'Garai are ... demons," Rachel said, comprehension filling her expression. "Oh, crap." "Worse," Aaron breathed, looking at Buffy with a new and more intensely fearful gaze. "Slayer. Interdimensional demon portal... oh, no..." "WHAT?" Buffy began - until the underbrush rattled again, admitting Charles Xavier and three other adults. The first was a Caucasian man with red glasses and a concerned expression - Rachel and Buffy's father Scott, AKA the X-Man Cyclops. The second was Scott's red-haired, green-eyed wife Jean, AKA the X-Man Phoenix. The third was Xavier himself, floating in a telekinetic "chair" Jean had generated, while the fourth - "Giles!?" Aaron blurted, looking at the glasses-wearing, tweed-clad Englishman. Rupert Giles stared back at Aaron, and said, "Excuse me, young man, but have we met?" "Not exactly - Buffy, meet your Watcher," Aaron said, shoving Buffy towards Giles. "And come on - we've gotta stop Illyana!" -------------------------------------------------------- She stood, trembling in her T-shirt and jeans, as the obilisk called to her - - and Illyana hit her knees, sobbing. #I can't...# The whispering in her mind grew louder, even as she started to lose her grasp over the mental trigger for her teleportational power. And the whispering grew louder. -------------------------------------------------------- "...in essence, the Slayer is a young woman - in your case, a rather young teenage girl - who is born with genes enabling her to manifest potent physical and less-potent mental abilities with which she can combat supernatural evils menacing the globe," Giles said to Buffy. "If I'm so young, then why come for me now?" Buffy asked, walking with Giles around the campfire as Xavier and the other mutants listened. "Your predecessor, Diana McAbernathy, met her end due to a pernicious vampire in Glasgow last week. The Council of Watchers - a group of white mages dedicated to training and supporting the Slayer - sent me to begin your training," Giles said. "Charles and I are old friends - we met years ago during an unfortunate incident in Bangladesh involving a squeegee demon and a Slayer under a washing spell -" Then the thunder broke, and Buffy turned back towards where Illyana had walked off. "Something's coming," the girl breathed. She knelt down without looking, picked up a particularly strong broken branch, and walked after the Siberian teleporter. "This is - I'm not letting my daughter go off and fight demons!" Scott yelled, walking over to face Giles. "Mister Summers, your daughter may be our only hope of defeating whatever Miss Rasputin is about to release upon the Earth," Giles replied calmly. "If it's any comfort, she's obviously inherited your courage and strength. Now please... let me do what I must, and help her." -------------------------------------------------------- #It's kind of like a compass - 'here be evil,'# Buffy thought, pushing branches out of the way as she approached the N'Garai cairn's clearing. And lightning shot past her, as a glow filled the air. "Well, I gotta give Aaron credit. He got the problem right on the first try," Buffy admitted, taking in the scene before her: Illyana, seemingly unaware of what was going on, on her knees about three feet from the cairn. A giant, vertical, glowing disc, admitting something misshapen and drooling. The cairn itself, restored to its unsettlingly unnatural "wholeness." "OK, 'Yana, what've we told you about good environmentalism and bad environmentalism?" Buffy tried to joke. She looked at the N'garai monster which stepped past Illyana, and shook her head, adding, "Foreign species just aren't a good idea." The leather-skinned, triangle-headed biped screech-hissed at the Slayer, an unholy light filling its eyes as it lunged - - and found only air. Buffy completed her somersault over the demon, then spun around and threw her sharp branch. #Hell-O, javelin team,# the girl thought, seeing the projectile strike the monster's forehead - - and a green flash of light and an unearthly scream were all that was left. "Hmm. Now if I could only do that at darts with Remy," Buffy quipped. She turned, fighting down nausea at the smell coming from the general direction of the N'garai's dust, and looked at Illyana. The Siberian girl looked dazed, and Buffy shook her head. "OK, nobody's home, comrade," the Slayer growled. "Sorry, 'Yana, but this isn't personal ..." CRACK The thunder quit, the portal collapsed, and Buffy walked out of the clearing with an unconsious Illyana in her arms. -------------------------------------------------------- "Mmmm..." "OK, next time you order take-out, make sure it's cooked first?" "Buffy," Illyana moaned. She sat up, holding her head, and looked up at the gathered mutants and Giles. "Who's the stuffy English guy?" "My extra-curricular teacher," Buffy deadpanned, smirking at Giles. "I still don't quite believe this 'Slayer' riff, but I'm willing to work on it." "Then we'll start tomorrow," Giles said, offering Buffy his hand. "Charles, might I impose upon you for a room?" "I think we can arrange that," Xavier said, smiling. He looked at Scott and Jean, who glared back at him until Buffy walked over and hugged them. "OK, it's not brain surgery. But it does involve saving the world - maybe," Buffy said, looking at her parents. "It's not like I'm leaving home, you know. Trust me, here?" Scott sighed, and Jean slowly nodded. "My little girl, a demon-fighting heroine," Phoenix said, smiling sadly. "Just..." "I know," Buffy said, hugging them again. She turned to Rachel, who bear-hugged her twin, and stood back to look Buffy in the eyes. "I 'hear' you," Buffy replied, grinning. "But you've got your own issues, you know." "Yeah, yeah," Rachel snickered. The sisters giggled, then turned to look at Aaron, who was looking around with a bewildered expression on his face. "No ride?" Illyana said, standing shakily. "No," Aaron said, looking at Illyana with guilt. "I'm sorry, Aunt 'Yana. In my future, you're a powerful white sorceress - and you never were deaged after Inferno." "'Inferno'?" Illyana asked, her eyebrows dropping. Aaron blanched, but breathed a sigh of relief when a greenish glow filled the clearing. Frank and Rachel's jaws dropped as a girl about Aaron's age, with cropped red hair, green eyes and a VERY familiar face, walked out of the light clad in a black skinsuit. She smiled at them shyly, then looked at Aaron with a sad expression. "Ace...? ACE!!!" Aaron cheered, running to hug the girl - - and passing through her, his face turning to a mask of horror. "I'm sorry, Aar," Aislinn Richards said, tears welling up. "You've saved us. But you're part of this timeline now. All the visions I've seen are clear - you've got to stay here, in Earth 627's past, with the second New Mutants." Aaron trembled, struggling to his feet, and went ashen as Aislinn vanished with the green light. "I..." he began, looking over his shoulder at the other mutants, Buffy and Giles. Rachel walked to Aaron, then took his hands in hers and met his still-stunned gaze. "Stay," she asked. "You do belong here. We owe you our lives - and you're as much an X-person as any of us." Aaron looked at Rachel, then saw the other New Mutants nodding. The phaser met the elder Summerses' glances, and saw Xavier smile. The boy looked back at Rachel, smiled faintly, and said, "OK." Then, he shook, and let the tears come. -------------------------------------------------------- to be continued in Breeze Book 0 and Breeze: Summerswind --------------------------------------------------------