Subject: [OTL]: (Lightwind Arc; New Mutants 4) Last-Stitch Efforts (PG-13) Date: Mon, 5 May 2003 19:09:27 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Hartman will1@earthling.net Lightwind Arc: Last-Stitch Efforts by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: The kids are mine. Their parents and the others belong to their owners. Etc. NOTE: Sequel to Dawn Breeze; I couldn't just let it hang there ... -------------------------------------------------------- 1/22/2003: Earth 627: -------------------------------------------------------- She'd done it. And she was paying the price. #At least Stryfe is gone,# Tanya Trask thought, allowing herself a dark smile as she sat illuminated by the blue glow of her cell's energy bars. The former second-in-command of a version of the Askani Sisterhood was enjoying herself. She'd traveled back in time, to an alternate past, to try and found an Askani order based on her beliefs, instead of the human-coddling attitudes of her mentor Rachel Summers. #Of course, I have to get out of Sinister's clutches first,# Sanctity thought, flicking brown hair out of her dark blue eyes. #But I got rid of this timeline's potential version of Stryfe.# Sanctity had invaded Sinister's latest lair about a week earlier, foreseeing that if he cloned Nathan Summers, the clone would pose an unacceptable risk to her own plans for reshaping this timeline. Sanctity had destroyed the cloning project Sinister had been working on, and had become the geneticist's "guest." #The price I pay for such forthright action. Nevertheless, Sinister can be ... worked with,# Sanctity thought, allowing herself a smile. It faded when a greenish portal opened, dropping an girl with red hair and glowing green eyes in front of Tanya. "YOU," the girl hissed, coiling herself to spring. "Aislinn Richards. I thought your timeline had collapsed," Tanya snickered cruelly. #Any time I can twist the knife a little deeper into one of Rachel's brats, the better,# Sanctity thought - - before her mind erupted in pain. "You're wearing an inhibitor collar, and you've angered a telepath," Aislinn said coldly. The 11-year-old ignored the tears she was crying, then grabbed Sanctity by her skinsuit collar and stepped towards the portal. "You're INSANE ! Hurling us into the timestream will only worsen the instability !" Sanctity pleaded. "You caused it by coming here. If we're gone, maybe the timeline will return to something like it should have been," Aislinn spat, pushing Sanctity into the portal and leaping after her. It collapsed, just as Sinister teleported to the cell door with a curious expression. #That was an interesting exchange. But I have what I wanted from Ms. Trask,# the geneticist thought as he walked away. #Besides, the present has greater need of me than the future.# -------------------------------------------------------- Two sparks entered a pitch-black void. One broke free, guttering out with a wordless scream as it faced the truth. The other blazed, becoming an inferno, as tear-like sparks dripped from it in joy. And emerald fire lit the torch anew - -------------------------------------------------------- ~ACE !?~ She sat bolt-upright; the nightmare had been so REAL - "Ace, talk to me, please ! I wouldn't've come in, but your dream was getting freaky !" Aislinn looked around her bedroom - at the X-Mansion, like she'd dreamed it - and realized she was in a T-shirt and boxer shorts in her bed. "Aidan ... ?" Aislinn breathed, looking at the source of the fear and telepathic call she'd "heard" an instant before. Her 11-year-old twin brother sat at the foot of her bed, a robe thrown on over his boxer-short-clad frame, and looked at Aislinn with calming green eyes. "You really scared me, Ace," the boy said, running a hand through his sleep-tousled short (not cropped, Aislinn noticed) red hair. "I didn't want to go in your mind, but you were dreaming something awful -" Aidan nearly choked as Aislinn hugged him tight. "It's gone. You're OK - it was just a nightmare, or something - Aid, I'm swearing off time travel," Aislinn laugh-sobbed, clinging to her brother. "Home is complicated enough." -------------------------------------------------------- tbc ... --------------------------------------------------------