Future Shock

[summersspawn]

I.

They'd always said she took after her father, but in the end... here... Sara was her mother's daughter.

Since the accident happened - and it was a silly accident, who knew that some minor, wannabe mad scientist could stumble across a power cell capable of producing that much radiation? She lost herself for a while, body, mind, soul, and she was easily led by those who'd use her as a weapon. When she remembered who she was, she tried being a hero again - it was all she ever wanted, after all - but there was no one left who remembered who she'd once been. Only what she'd become. She played at being a guardian angel to the heroes who came after, a ghost of pure energy there to turn the tide and save the day.

No matter how much power you have, you can never save everyone. Not every time.

The Sun gave life to the planet called Earth, and now, the Sun takes it away, swallowing its children up to feed its own death throes. She's the last "native" to see it happen. And remember.

Maybe she'll go find her mother now.



II.

"When you said you were 'moving on', I didn't think you meant this."

"It's not like I planned it, Rachel..."

"Were you trying to get back at Dad?"

"No. I was just... I don't know."

"I mean, he was twice your age, known for hitting on anything female, has a ton of baggage with the X-Men... you might as well have picked Deadpool."

"Ohmigod! Eww!"

"Seriously, Sara, Gambit?"

"You could just help me by holding one while I change the other one's diaper."



III.

Nobody in the platoon assigned as a temporary honor guard understood the wry almost smile she had at seeing a statue of Magneto in "Xavier Plaza". Here, close to the border, the lines were blurred in more ways than one. Even back in Mutantopolis you sometimes saw odd juxtapositions like that. Almost all of the people she'd grown up with had things named for them now. Almost no one remembered what the people behind those names were really like, or what the Dream had been.

The crowd outside the carrier milled and surged, trying to catch a glimpse, some flying up to see over the heads of others, some stretching and craning their limbs in impossible ways to see around. The carrier was getting close to the stand prepared for the dedication of the new plaza. She shuffled the papers in her lap. Sara always thought she'd be an X-Man, she could have even been a soldier, in some realities. But she never thought she'd be a figurehead.



IV.

"Shi'ar freighter dead ahead, Captain."

"Have they spotted us?"

"Not yet."

"Then let's take them. Zuna?" She addressed the blue-skinned pilot. "Target their engines. Mr+aiii? Prepare the magnetic grapplers."

The crewmember perched on the back of the Captain's chair chirped, in what she thought was an assent. Mr+aiii had been a part of her crew for years, but she still didn't completely understand the Lupoid's language. The small, white-furred being scurried off towards the back of the ship.

"And I'll take out their communications with a microwave pulse. Let's hope the cargo is as fat as the ship."



V.

The world was purified, scourged to the bone with holy fire, and remade in His image. It was a time of rejoicing, or perhaps mourning, for those in the Pits and the Cores.

She did neither. She couldn't.

She stood at the left hand of the throne, gazing impassively at the Legions of the Strong gathered before the temple to praise His name. Did she still have a place in this world, now that her work was done? It didn't occur to her to wonder.

The world was perfect. They'd won, as if there was ever any question that they would. But Famine didn't care.

She was still hungry.



VI.

It hadn't been easy. Technology was fairly simple to affect, it all ran on electrical pulses, and those were trivial for her. Nobody knew how good she really was at that, she'd been practicing, for years, behind their backs.

Rule One: Always make them underestimate you.

Technology was easy, magic bonded with technology was not. Sara hated magic, it didn't make sense. But the little charm she'd obtained, plus a well-timed pulse had worked, and she'd stayed when the others did not. It had been even harder to pretend to be the other one, but she didn't try to keep up the ruse. Just long enough to kill them all in their sleep.

She wondered how long her "good" doppelganger had lasted back home.



VII.

The sun still made her whole body tingle, even after all these years. She used the fingertip controls on the right arm of her hoverchair to adjust her position so she could catch more of the rays on her face, and idly wished for a moment that she was still spry enough to climb into the cooling tank of the reactor core for a nice soak. Those quantum reactors didn't put out many rads anymore, but she bet she could find an old plutonium core somewhere. Maybe in a museum. That would sure soothe the aches in her bones.

She heard a buzz of excited chatter behind her. The children of her great-grandchildren, and those of her friends and teammates were getting out of school for the day, spilling out onto the lawn. They spotted her, and ran up, gathering around.

"Grandma Sara! Grandma Sara! Tell us a story!"

She chuckled. "All right. How about the time the X-Men fought Galactus?"