So, I was ready for weird shit happening to me from the moment I got dropped in this Universe. I mean, weird shit did happen, but eh, it was quickly dealt with. What's happening, right now? Not so easy or quick. I can't just blast everything with power or something like that.
Gotta use my brain, and deal with a woman who has most likely been touch-straved for a while now.
And who most likely knows about me from her mother. Which is fun.
Speaking of.
"I'm gettin' nuthin'," Rogue repeated this phrase for a while now, each time sobbing and laughing at this.
Ororo is understandably confused, but seeing me not doing anything except comforting her made her stay her hand, even with Rogue's sudden action.
She came close to us and was approaching and slowly put her hand on Rogue's shoulder in comfort.
"It's all right, child. Whatever ails you, we shall help you overcome it."
***
A couple of minutes later, we found ourselves all sitting in our previous spot. The festival finished a while ago, so we were alone for now.
Even when Rogue calmed down, she still held my hand. I didn't mind that. Not at all.
"Can you explain to us why you came to find us?" Ororo started.
"I just came to find him," Rogue responded. Still a bit distracted.
" Why Gabriel specifically? And how did you come to know about him?"
"My Ma, she's a seer, and she said he was important for the future, and he can help me. So Ah came to see what the fuss was 'bout."
"Not that important. I'm just a normal-ish human that got caught in a big mess."
She shook her head at that." Nah Sugah, Ma said that you were the only hope for us mutants living well." I froze at that.
Fuck no. I wasn't taking some messiah role like Hope Summers or Nate Grey. Or Apocalypse or whatever.
"No, I'm not," I said firmly. "I can do a lot, but I'm not going to carry all of mutantkind on my back."
"Ah'm just tellin' ya what she said," Rogue replied, shrugging. "Doesn't matter much to me as long as my family is safe."
She reached for her jacket pocket. "Speakin' of... Irene told me to give ya these." She gave me two envelopes. One with 'Gabriel' on it and the other 'Ororo'.
Opening mine, I discovered that they were legal documents: birth certificates, passports, social numbers, etc. Both for me and Ororo.
The name used for mine is Gabriel Summers, with Christopher and Kathryne Summers as parents, and seeing those names made me feel a pang of something inside of me.
My– this body's– father is still alive. Maybe he already joined the Starjammers, or maybe he's still enslaved by the Sh'iar. My mom, though, is dead and gone.
I quickly passed Ororo's document to her and I went through the rest of mine. There were even bank accounts, and enough money to make my eyes bug out. There was an address to reach. But what drew me in was the country and 'town'. Muir Island, Scotland.
Why not the U.S, or well, everywhere else? And didn't she have a hate boner for Moira MacTaggert? What with her planning to neuter mutants to prevent their war with humans and machines?
I guess it makes sense if I wanted quick allies and all that, but again, why Moira? And why from the start?
As if the world was reading my mind, which honestly it might be doing, a letter fell from the documents.
It read;
Mr. Summers,
I know what you are — an Outsider displaced from another world. I do not know the reason, only that you had no choice in the matter.
Understand this: you are the single greatest hope that mutants have for a lasting peace.
You will refuse this role for now, but your nature will not allow you to turn away forever.
I leave my daughter in your care. You alone stand the best chance of helping her, and of granting her happiness.
I know you won't ever trust me or my wife, but you will have no problem with an alliance. Consider this my first step towards that goal.
A word of caution: do not approach Egypt. The Shadow King is more insidious than you are prepared for. Should you fall to him, you would doom this world as well as your own fate.
—Irene Adler.
I was conflicted now. I can't know for sure that this isn't a long con from Destiny. I can't know for sure that it isn't. God, I hate precogs. And I hate pragmatist precogs even more. And Irene is definitely that, with how she used Kurt Wagner at first. And how she is using this situation as a foundation for a partnership.
After reading the letter, it finally dawned on me why she would point me to this Island.
"Why Scotland?" I asked just to confirm. " You came from the United States, no?
Rogue just shrugged " Don't know. Destiny said that you would know why you should go there. Which is weird, the amount of shit that you should know with how cryptic she's been. Are you a precog too? Oh! Maybe a time-traveller?" She asked excitedly.
Ororo looked at her strangely, then turned a questioning gaze at me, while I froze up. Right. This was a long time coming, huh?
I shrugged while motioning to Ororo that I would tell her later.
"Anyway, you came here late." She finally said, talking to Rogue. "You must be tired, we shall discuss the rest in the morning. For now, I welcome you under my protection."
****
We returned to our room after Ororo gave Rogue her quarters for now. There was a slightly uncomfortable silence as we just lay in bed with her in my embrace.
"So you are a seer as well?" She asked, not accusingly.
I grimaced involuntarily at that.
"Not in the slightest. It's... complicated." I didn't really know how to explain this whole thing.
"Then you can keep it simple, dear. Or, if it's an uncomfortable secret, we can just not talk about it." She said calmly.
My brows rose up and my eyes widened in surprise.
"Just like that? Just not talk about a secret I was keeping from the start?" I asked.
She nodded and nestled deeper. " I told you, Gabriel, I trust you and will follow you on your journey, Bright Lady willing. And I know that you would not abuse the kind of power the visions bring you."
I stayed silent for a while at that.
"I just didn't know how to talk about it. It's genuinely complicated and it needs maybe hours to explain properly." I started, and I felt Ororo come to attention. "But the gist of it is that some powerful beings that want to preserve the world foresaw a certain threat. They knew it was coming, and with all their power, they couldn't prevent it because anything they do to stop it will do irrevocable damage to all of Reality."
Ororo looked alarmed at the scale of the story. It was kind of funny and I smiled widely at her expression.
"Now, they had a plan to deposit bombs of sorts in all worlds to destroy and re-create Reality, because if they do that there are good enough chances that the threat will have no chance to reappear. " Now she started to sit down and look at me with mild panic. "Well, one of them thought that it was too much. So they had another idea. 'Let's insert some poor shmuck that can deal with it for us and keep the Reality bomb as plan B'"
My attempt at a joke wasn't well-received.
"This is..." She started
"Hard to believe, heh? Like I told you it's complicated. Don't even get me started on their origin and their creators."
"Is that why you look so troubled sometimes? " She asked
I snorted at it. Only sometimes?
" Of course I'm troubled, concerned, terrified really. They picked someone at random and either gave him simulated memories of another life or merged him with someone else from a different world. I honestly can't tell. The thing it did was give the poor guy some snapshots of alternate futures and information on various people. The thing is, first of all, if even a fraction of the visions is true, then this world is a lot scarier than it seems. Second of all, a lot of the visions either contradict themselves or are annulled by someone who changes the past or something, making them a lot misleading."
"And the man they choose is you." She muttered.
"Choose is a strong word. I'm more of a random guy they stumbled upon and decided was good enough for their experiment. Because this is what it is for them. An experiment to see if this can work and use it as a reference if it doesn't." I said uncaringly.
Honestly, I made peace with my place on their board long ago. Even though that's just a lie to help me sleep better at night.
I'm scared as hell. I don't know if I took over the body of a kid, I reincarnated as him, or it was only him from the start and the Beyonders just implanted a simulated life in his/my mind.
In the end, I can't do anything about it for now. Or maybe ever. As much as I want to smack those Cosmic Pricks, it's a distant dream.
Ororo placed a hand on my cheek and brought my attention to her. She looked determined, and at this moment I saw hints of the Goddess and Hero she was destined to be.
"Thank you for telling me, Gabriel." She kissed me deeply for a moment. When she broke the kiss, her gaze was no less intense. "I will not let you shoulder such a burden again. We shall face the future together, always. I swear it by the Bright Lady."
I felt as if I could finally breathe. I smiled at her and kissed her back.
"I hope Oshtur likes me enough then."