Subject: [OTL]: (New Mutants 4) Dawn Breeze Conclusion (PG-13) Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 12:07:45 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Dawn Breeze Conclusion by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: The kids are mine. Their parents belong to their creators. Notes at end. ------------------------------------------------------ Everything was twisting again - #Oh. Perfect. I suppose this was all just a perverse joke played on me by an overactive cerebral cortex.# The sea air and the beach blanket were gone, as was the Long Island shoreline. Aislinn opened her eyes, through tears, and found herself standing in - - a featureless green room. "This isn't funny," the girl growled, looking down at herself. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with rather ordinary sneakers, and sitting in a recliner. "No, it's subjective. This is your mind trying to make sense of emerging from a temporally-created delusional state," an older voice called. Aislinn stood, trying not to panic or scream or do something that would anger the whatever had dragged her from her semi-familiar surroundings. "Relax. You're the victim here, as much as me," the voice - familiar after all, Aislinn realized - said. Its source - an elderly Caucasian woman in purple robes, with grey hair pulled back in a ponytail and haunting facial scars - appeared about a foot away from Aislinn with a sad smile. "Mother. Or an - ancient - version of you," Aislinn mumbled, trying not to cry. "Why - ?" "Sanctity," Rachel Summers growled, her anger directed at another from the tone of her voice. She looked at Aislinn, then smiled sadly again and began to speak. "There's a string of alternate futures that Sanctity's temporal mucking about has collapsed. You did stop her, in a manner of speaking, but you were ... damaged ... in the effort to hold her in the timestream," the Mother Askani said. "Am I - ?" Aislinn whispered, going ashen. "No. Just delusional at the moment. Once your neurotransmitter levels come back to normal, you'll wake up. The problem is that your particular future - whether guarded by the XSE or that weird variant of the Askani - is gone. Kaput," Rachel sighed. Aislinn went ashen, as Rachel continued, "I can't guarantee that you'll even exist now, because Stryfe doesn't exist any more. He was supposed to get Nathan out of Sinister's clutches ... if Nate remains under Sinister's control ..." "If I went back, would I continue to exist? I mean, I might be timelocked - stuck in the past - but at least that'd be better than this !" Aislinn pleaded. Rachel nodded grimly, then opened a portal. "Your ability to travel into the actual past of your timeline never existed. It was a temporal aberration because of the out-of-control multiplication of possible futures of 627," Rachel said. "I can send you back because you're a possibility. You haven't canceled your own existence because - well, let's just say that Sanctity's presence in the past is the reason why. I could use a lot of five-dollar words, but this place is coming apart fast. Try to get to Xavier's ... I can't guarantee that I can place you there specificially -" The room started to shatter, and Aislinn dove for the portal - ------------------------------------------------------ NOTES: ------------------------------------------------------ The number of future spinoffs from the Breeze Arc has gotten out of hand, and I apologize if anyone's been put out by this mess. That being "said," I'm focusing on Breeze and Summerswind. Lightwind and all the others are being shelved to give readers a break. The futures of the Summerswind and Breeze arcs will come soon enough, and Aislinn will be appearing in one of those sooner or later ... Phil H.