Dreamweaver: Part Seventeen
Somehow, he was back in the main laboratory of Camp Hayden, where X-Force had fought Nimrod. But this time, he was alone. Domino and X-Force were dead. And the Sentinel had Bastion's face. It chased him, laughing.
"You never did figure it out," it said mockingly. "You still don't know why you lived, do you? Fate defined by simple mathematics, Dayspring. From the one came the twelve, and from the twelve came the one."
A volley of plasma bursts blew apart the ground behind him, and he had no time to consider the robot's enigmatic words. The shock of the explosion threw him towards the wall, but instead of slamming into it, he passed right through it and fell heavily to the ground on the other side.
Struggling to his feet, he looked around wildly. He stood just inside Stryfe's energy dome on the moon. A short distance away, he saw Scott and Jean lying on the ground, their hands joined. They were dead.
"Too late, Nathan," said the figure in silver armor that stood over them. "Always too late. Tardiness is something of a disease with you, isn't it?" Stryfe spread his arms wide. "Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor of introducing the late Nathan Summers!"
Nathan looked back at his parents, but they weren't there anymore. Instead, Aliya lay at Stryfe's feet. Mortally wounded, she reached out to him imploringly. He started towards her, but Stryfe laughed and batted him away telekinetically as if he were nothing more than a fly.
He hit the ground again, but this time it was smooth and cold, rather than rough. Pulling himself to his feet, Nathan realized he was in the mansion's medlab. The room was silent and empty, lit by an eerie, sourceless blue light. On one of the biobeds was a still, shrouded form. Fighting the urge to turn and run from the room, Nathan walked slowly over to the bed. His heart racing, he pulled back the sheet.
Tyler sat up. "Why, Father?" he asked, his dead eyes accusing. Nathan stumbled backwards, too stricken to reply. "Why, Father?" his dead son repeated. Blood oozed sluggishly from the terrible wounds made by Logan's claws. "Why did you let me die?"
"No," Nathan begged, almost in tears. "Tyler, please--"
"You failed me, Father. You could have saved me, but you didn't try hard enough. You failed Mother. You broke your promise to her--"
"NO!" Nathan cried. The medlab went dark around him, but he could still see Tyler's eyes, burning in the shadows like two red coals. He whirled, trying to find the exit, to get away from the corpse he could hear following him, its shambling footsteps deafeningly loud in the silence.
There was another light in the darkness, a warm, welcoming light. Nathan ran towards it, and it grew brighter, larger, until it enveloped him completely--
***
Nathan opened his eyes. Light streamed down from above, blindingly bright. He tried to move, but couldn't. His whole body ached, and the noise--it sounded like thousands of people were shouting at him, babbling and arguing and screaming.
"He's coming around," Nathan heard. The words were perfectly audible--because they were spoken aloud, he realized dimly. The noise he heard must be telepathic, then. He tried to block it out, but as he tried to raise his shields, pain blossomed inside his head. Instantly, he stopped trying.
"The fever's broken," the voice continued, and Nathan, still dazed, realized it was Hank McCoy. That meant he was back at the mansion, but how? Maybe it was the telepathic din, but he was having a lot of trouble remembering anything after seeing Logan and Bishop in the diner. "Nathan? Nathan, can you hear me?" A blue-colored shape partially blocked the light and Nathan blinked, trying to clear his vision. Hank didn't come into focus, but something else did. Abruptly, he could distinguish Han's thoughts from the rest of the noise. They were orderly and very articulate--unmistakable to anyone who knew Hank McCoy.
He seems terribly disoriented, he heard Hank think worriedly. I'm concerned about the effects of the fever. Perhaps I should have Dana attempt another healing--no, that would be unwise, I think, until he regains some strength. We don't want a repeat of what happened the last time.
Dana? Nathan thought, confused. He'd thought she was still on Muir Island. Fighting past the pain, he reached out, trying to find her thoughts.
Only to realize she was not the only unexpected presence in the room.
"Dom?" he tried to say. It came out as a barely audible croak. But she was at his side instantly, her presence rising above the rest like a flute soaring over the dull roar of a tuning orchestra.
"I'm right here, Nate," she said softly. His vision still didn't seem to be clearing, which irritated him just a bit. More than anything, he wanted to be able to see her face. "How are you feeling?"
He didn't trust his voice right then, so instead, he reached out along their psi-link. Not with words--he didn't think he could manage that--but just to be able to touch her, to know she was really there. She gave a soft gasp.
"Jean, I think you'd better get over here," she said quickly, and another indistinct shape appeared. He heard Jean curse, and then, the noise was dampened somewhat as she threw her own shields around him. It was still almost more than he could stand, though. Despite how weak he felt, part of him wanted badly to run shrieking from the room. He understood now why the Gamesmaster, unable to block anyone's thoughts, had resorted to his vicious game with the Upstarts as a distraction.
"What's wrong?" came Scott's voice.
"I told you earlier," Jean said harshly, sounding almost angry. "His shields were knocked out in the backlash. He's probably hearing stray thoughts from the other side of the planet." The shields she had put around him seemed to flutter for a moment, and Nathan flinched. He felt someone take his hand and squeeze it. Domino, he realized. Jean didn't have a grip like that.
"Can you shield him?" That was Dana, and the sound of her voice was almost as welcome as when he'd realized that Domino were there. "The two of you shielded me, before--"
"I can shield him, but not for long, and not completely," Jean said. By her tone, she was trying very hard not to snap at Dana. "The situation's not the same, Dana. You're a powerful empath, especially since you've been training with Meggan, but he's an alpha-level telepath at least, and a fair bit stronger than me. We've got to find another way."
"What about the psi-shielded chamber the Professor used to prepare for the Z'nox?" Scott asked. His voice sounded closer, and Nathan saw a gleam of red above him.
"Absolutely not!" Hank said sharply. "Move him into the cold and damp like that? It would be irresponsible, not to mention dangerous! The fever might have been psychically caused, but it's still weakened him significantly."
"We have to do something," Domino said. Nathan was obscurely touched by the obvious distress in her voice. But then Jean's shield fluttered again, for longer this time, and he was incapable of doing anything but fight to keep his own thoughts from being drowned by the renewed tide of telepathic babble.
He felt a slight pressure on his upper arm, accompanied by a brief hissing sound. "I'm just giving you a sedative, Nathan," he heard Hank say. "Since there's no way to inhibit your telepathy without affecting your telekinesis--which we would like to avoid, needless to say--this will have to do until we can devise more effective shielding."
The words seemed to come from a great distance. Nathan could feel himself starting to lose his grip on consciousness as the roaring in his head started to fade. But a lingering anxiety gnawed at him, and he fought the drug's effects stubbornly. Part of him was terrified that he'd awaken to find that Dom's presence here had been only a hallucination. He didn't think he could bear that.
The soft laugh he heard then reassured him instantly. "Try not to be any more of an idiot than absolutely neccessary, Nate," she said gently. "I'm not going anywhere." The grip on his hand tightened reassuringly.
The darkness reached up and enveloped him once more. This time, though, there were no nightmares waiting for him.
***
An indeterminate amount of time later, he opened his eyes again. For one horrific moment, he thought he was still blind. But as his vision adjusted to the dark, he could make out the dim outlines of furniture. His heartbeat slowed to something approaching its normal rate, and he wondered where he was. Whatever this room was, it had to be psi-shielded. A muted buzzing noise, almost like static, was all that was left of the telepathic clamor that had tormented him before. His head was still throbbing, though, and something warned him against trying to reach out with his mind. He listened for a moment longer, and realized there was someone else in the room.
"Dom?" he whispered, his voice still rough, as if he hadn't spoken in years. He heard movement, and a small light was switched on next to the bed. His eyes watering, Nathan blinked up at Domino as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
"It's the middle of the night," she said softly, a strangely tender expression on her face. "You should go back to sleep." He raised an eyebrow, and she chuckled. "Okay, forget I suggested it."
"I think--" His voice broke, and he coughed to clear his throat. "I think I've slept enough."
"Mmm," she said, one of those monosyllabic utterances of hers that spoke volumes. "How are you feeling?"
Nathan thought about it for a moment. "Better," he said. "My head still hurts." He looked away from her for a moment, trying to identify the room. Even the slight movement was an enormous effort, making him feel dizzy. She noticed, of course, and scowled at him disapprovingly. "Where--" he started.
"Jean's old room, actually. According to the computer, the Professor had it psi-shielded when he first took her in as a patient. She moved to another one, eventually, and forgot all about it. She was cursing herself for not remembering earlier." Domino looked almost amused. "Watching her the last couple of days--she may not actually be your mother, Nate, but she's certainly taken over the role wholeheartedly."
"Old habits are hard to break," he said tiredly. A peculiar lassitude was creeping over him, making it difficult to focus on her words.
"Well, you scared the hell out of her and Scott. And me, you big oaf." She snorted. "And you used to lecture ME about the dangers of acting on instinct."
Nathan frowned. Even without the distraction of countless minds screaming in his head, he still couldn't clearly remember what had happened in Alberta. Everything after the diner was--confused.
"I--can't remember," he whispered. Her violet eyes darkened with worry. "Why can't I remember?"
"Jean didn't say anything about memory loss," she said slowly, "but considering the circumstances, I suppose it makes sense." She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "All right. Do you remember the girl? Regina?"
He thought hard. He could remember Logan telling him about her--and as he did, a face appeared out of the blur. A fine-boned, serious face, topped by red hair.
The rest fell into place rather quickly after that.
Domino watched him silently, the relieved look in her eyes telling him that she had sensed his memories returning through their psi-link. "I figured that would jog your memory," she said. "Especially after what Logan told me about how strongly you reacted to her." She sighed. "Sometimes I think the universe is out to get us, the way the same sort of situations keep repeating over and over."
By this point, his head was spinning. "Scott--Sam?" he asked, remembering the battle with the Marauders. She gave him a curiously ironic smile.
"They're fine. Although if your father doesn't stop moping around and blaming himself for what happened to you, I wouldn't vouch for his continued health. Jean's slept about as little as I have in the last four days, and her temper is MUCH worse than mine."
His headache was getting worse. Nathan winced, closing his eyes for a moment. But the Askani pain-control techniques required a level of concentration that was totally beyond him at the moment. Hearing Domino sigh, he looked back up at her. His vision was going and out of focus, but he could still see the stern expression on her face.
"I'm turning off the light now," she said in a no-nonsense voice, standing up. "And you, mister, are going back to sleep. The last thing I need is a lecture from Cecilia, who's due to be checking up on you any minute now." She chuckled. "Now there's a doctor with a bedside manner I like."
She reached towards the light, and he fought back a sudden surge of fear at the idea of being plunged back into darkness. Domino turned back towards him, looking puzzled for only a moment before understanding dawned in her eyes.
"I see," she said softly, and promptly got that challenging look that he knew all too well. "I suppose I could leave the light on. If you really wanted me to."
There was no ridicule in her voice, not even the faintest hint of amusement. She was merely giving him the chance to conquer a fear that would have embarassed him under normal circumstances. Nathan managed a weak smile.
"Turn it off," he said.
She did, but came back to the bed instead of returning to wherever she'd been sitting. "Shift over a bit," she instructed him. He did, and she stretched out on the bed beside him with a sigh. "Oh, that's better. I was started to get a little cramped, sitting in that chair. Xavier sure has classy taste in furniture, but it's all so damned uncomfortable." She fell silent for a moment. Then, he heard what sounded suspiciously like a giggle coming from her direction. Can't be, he thought dazedly. I must be hearing things. "You know," she said slyly, "if you'd prefer a stuffed animal instead of me, I'm sure I could dig one up--"
If he hadn't been so tired, he would have laughed. Instead, he just smiled. "M-maybe. At least I wouldn't have to worry about a stuffed animal stealing all the covers in the middle of the night." He felt her shaking with silent laughter, and he waited patiently until she'd gotten control of herself. "I missed you," he whispered.
"I missed you too, Nate. Now go to sleep."
***
A door slammed, and Domino woke up instantly. She peered around blearily, momentarily disoriented until she remembered where she was. Bedroom--right. Sitting up, she yawned, and then looked down at Nathan where he lay beside her. Still asleep, he had a faintly perplexed expression, as if he'd heard the sound of the door and was wondering about it too, even if it hadn't woken him up.
That did it, Domino thought decisively. Whoever had been in here was going to get a piece of her mind. "I'll be right back," she whispered to Nathan, and he seemed to slip back into a deeper sleep, losing that worried look. Sliding off the bed, she was across the room in three angry steps, but took care to close the door quietly behind her.
Looking up and down the corridor, she saw Storm, of all people, just about to vanish around a corner. There was no one else in sight.
"Ororo?" Domino called. Storm stopped dead in her tracks, and turned slowly to face Domino as she caught up. "What's the matter?" Domino asked, bewildered by the glacial stare she was getting. Slowly, it started to dawn on her what must have happened.
"What is the matter?" Storm repeated slowly, as if Domino had just asked a particularly stupid question. "You are the matter, Domino."
Oh, shit. Domino groaned inwardly, realizing what was going on. Jean had promised to have a 'little chat' with Ororo, but apparently she either hadn't gotten around to it yet or it hadn't been too successful. My fault, I suppose, for weaseling out of the responsibility in the first place. She tried to think of how she could salvage this situation. According to Jean, nothing had ever actually happened between Nathan and Ororo, but Jean had also made it fairly clear that Ororo felt like something should. And then she walked in on that cozy little scene a minute ago--ah, hell.
Storm's expression had grown progressively colder. "You do not even have the grace to be ashamed of yourself, I see. I suppose I should not be surprised."
"Excuse me?" Domino nearly snarled, astonished by her temerity. I'm trying to be sensitive here, and she's making snap judgments? She modulated her voice at the fury she saw in Storm's blue eyes. Screaming at each other is not productive, she told herself sternly. "Would you care to explain that?" she asked, folding her arms across her chest and waiting. Damn you for getting me into this, Nathan, she thought balefully, but knew that she couldn't lay all the blame on him. If she'd spoken up when she had the perfect opportunity, after they'd kissed each other in the Negev at what they'd thought was the end of the world, this problem wouldn't exist.
Storm didn't let her wait long. "You are taking advantage of Nathan," she said. "It is disgusting and unscrupulous, and you will stop it!" There was real anger in her voice. Quite clearly, she believed every word of what she was saying.
Domino was absolutely floored. Her first instinct was to remind Storm rather forcibly that she had no right to be giving orders, but she reminded herself to be diplomatic. "Look, Ororo," she said placatingly. "We really need to talk about this--"
"There is nothing to talk about!" The temperature in the hall dropped noticeably, and Domino's eyes narrowed.
"You do not want to be bringing powers into this, windrider," she warned Storm quite sincerely. She forced herself to relax out of the instinctive defensive posture she'd fallen into.
Storm's answering laugh was contemptuous. "Spare me your idle threats, Domino. I have honed my mutant powers for years. Your particular 'talents' pose no obstacle to me."
Good Lord, she's arrogant, Domino thought in amazement, startled by this rarely-seen side of the usually serene X-Man. She wished she were a telepath, or at the very least an empath like Dana, so she could see what all this bluster was covering up. But Storm wasn't finished yet, and as she continued, Domino felt her grip on civility slip.
"You are nothing but a mercenary," Storm almost hissed. "You have no real ties to the X-Men, no committment to the Professor's dream. You do not belong here, and you certainly do not belong with Nathan!"
"Who the HELL do you think you are, Munroe?" Domino growled, starting forward with the intent of wiping that supercilious sneer off those perfect features.
"Stop it, both of you!" came Cecilia's indignant voice from down the hall. Her abrupt arrival distracted them both for long enough to let the young doctor put herself between them. Domino backed off. As much as she'd like to get at Ororo, she liked Cecilia too much to go through her to do it. Besides, there was a part of her that just shuddered at the idea of being caught fighting over a man, even Nathan. "What do you think you're doing?" Cecilia demanded. "That psi-shielding wasn't designed for him! Do you have any idea what could happen if it fails?"
She was right. Domino forced herself to take a deep breath, and backed off a few steps. "That's better," Cecilia said more calmly, and then looked at Ororo. "Storm?"
"Leave, Cecilia. This is none of your concern," Storm said, giving her a dismissive look before turning her attention back to Domino. "I believe you were about to do something foolish," she said, her lip curling. "You have no self-control, Domino. You care only about your own desires, not about Nathan. What was it that made you return? Did you realize what you had lost when you abandoned him two months ago?"
Before Domino could form a response, before she could take that first fatal step that would inevitably lead to someone getting hurt--and not neccessarily her, despite Storm's arrogant assumption--they were interrupted.
"Stop, please," Nathan said weakly. Domino whirled, horrified to see him on his feet. In the hallway. Outside the safety of the psi-shielding. His face ashen, he looked like he was about to fall over any moment now. He was clearly in agony. Cecilia cursed and gave both Storm and Domino a classic 'look-what-you've-done-now' look.
Immediately, Domino locked down every bit of the anger and resentment she'd felt towards Storm. "As far as I'm concerned, this is over," she said, giving Storm a warning look. Especially since I'm not sure why it started in the first place. But Ororo glared back at her coldly, not giving an inch.
"Ororo, I'm sorry," Nathan said, leaning heavily against the wall. He was trembling, and Domino moved instinctively to support him, not really caring what Ororo's reaction would be. "If I said anything--if I did anything to hurt you--" Ororo glared at him and he groaned, collapsing against the wall. Domino tried desperately to keep him on his feet, but had to settle for making his descent a little more controlled.
"OUT!" Cecilia shouted at Ororo, her cheeks blazing with angry color. "And until you can control yourself better, this entire wing of the house is off-limits to you, Storm!" Storm looked ready to protest, and Cecilia gave a near-feral growl that would have made Logan proud. "Get out NOW, or I'm going right to Jean and you can deal with her!"
That last threat worked. Ororo whirled and stalked away like some large, angry predatory cat. Cecilia seemed to forget about her as soon as she was out of sight.
"I see you're going to be one of those patients I'm going to have to tie to his bed," she said in a remarkably mild voice, coming to Nathan's side.
Tears of pain were trickling down Nathan's cheeks. "What's wrong with me?" he asked in a lost-sounding voice. "Why can't I shield?" Domino had never heard him sound so frightened.
"It'll be all right," she said soothingly, a lump in her throat. "We'll figure it out, Nate, but for now, let's get you back to bed."
Between her and Cecilia, they managed to get him on his feet and back into the room. As soon as he was within the psi-shielding again, the pain on his face visibly eased.
"I'm such a flonqing idiot," he said weakly as they helped him back into bed. Domino didn't like the waves of self-loathing she felt coming from him. She started to wonder what he thought he'd done. Then again, she thought with a flash of sad amusement, he never did like to pass up an opportunity to kick himself in the ass, deservedly or not. "I never even thought--" he continued miserably. "Typical of me, I guess--"
"Don't worry about Ororo," Domino said almost fiercely. "Just concentrate on getting better. She and I'll sort things out." Even if I do have to bring Jean into it, God help me--
Cecilia had finished rummaging in the medkit Hank had left on the dresser. She came back over to the bed and Domino frowned as she saw the hypospray in the young doctor's hands. But she didn't argue as Cecilia set it for what seemed like an awfully high dosage and injected Nathan with it.
She waited quite calmly as he drifted off into unconsciousness. Then, she walked very carefully out of the room. Cecilia followed her, closing the door. Only then did Domino start to curse. Cecilia let her go on for perhaps five minutes, intervening only when, in the midst of stalking around in a fury, Domino went as far as to punch the wall.
"If you break your hand, I'm not setting it for you," Cecilia warned her. Domino took a deep breath, telling herself to calm down. Like Cecilia had said, they weren't sure about how effective the psi-shielding was.
"I should have turned around and left as soon as she started in on me," Domino growled. "But I just never expected--I mean, she was deliberately trying to goad me!"
Cecilia sighed. "I know. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know Ororo very well, but that didn't seem like characteristic behaviour." She shook her head. "At the very least, I always saw her as the reasonable type. But directing that kind of--focused anger at him when she knew he couldn't block it out was just--"
"Malicious," Domino finished stonily, and Cecilia nodded. She cursed under her breath. "I have to figure this out. Something like this won't just go away--I have to decide what to do." For a moment she wondered uneasily if Jean had been mistaken about Nathan and Ororo's relationship--no, she told herself firmly. Like she told me, Jean had every reason to pay very close attention to what the two of them were doing. "I think I'm going to need some help."
She didn't like the idea, but she couldn't see another option. Ororo had amply demonstrated that there was no way Domino could reason with her. Someone else had to intervene, someone Ororo respected--who understood the situation. Jean seemed like the logical choice--"Wait," Domino said, a sudden, brilliant idea dawning on her. She gave Cecilia a wide grin, and the younger woman looked puzzled. "Not Jean. Logan."
to be continued...
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