Time After Time: Last Goodbyes

[x-firestar.livejournal.com]

One last message, one last contact - a thank you.



With the sun setting in the distance, Angel figured she should probably get back inside. The staff were probably keeping an eye on her after everything had gone done but she didn't feel like going back into the mansion. She didn't know what she felt like. The last month had been incredibly weird and difficult for her but now that Ben was gone, she wasn't sure how to start to process all of it.

The thing that worried her the most, though, was wondering if he had even made it back home. The boost from Shiro and herself might have helped but she'd never really know.

A flicker of light from nearby trees caught her eye. It could have just been the sunlight off the lake - except that the lake was in the other direction.

"...you know, with all the weird things going on lately," Angel sighed as she shoved herself up, trotting in the direction of the light, “why does it have to be around me?” She was primed and ready to scream like a little girl in the telepathic direction of the Professor if something decided it wanted a BBQ for dinner.

She paused in the woods, slowing. That looked kind of like the portal but...not. "What?" she said, blinking. "What?"

The rift pulsed, almost as if it... noticed Angel. Slowly the colors changed from iridescent cascades into a solid glowing blue and the rift began to change shape, forming a translucent figure that was slowly gaining coherence.

"...we... star... buggerall, it's the... transmission... reverse the polarity..."

With a quick flash, the figure suddenly clarified into a flickering, mostly-transparent electric blue image of Benjamin Russell, glancing about and finally focusing on Angel. "There you are. Hello."

"Gah!" Angel yelped, back pedaling until she ran into a tree. She stared and then started forward again, ending up in the spot she'd just vacated rather quickly. "Ben? Is that...but...dude, do you know you're blue and I can see the tree behind you?" Angel raised an uncertain hand to poke at the image in front of her.

"Just a trans-spatial projection," Ben replied as Angel's hand passed through the image. "It worked, Angel. It all worked. You and Forge and Shiro got me home. The rift remained open, just barely enough for me to send this through." He smiled, the image fuzzing slightly out of focus briefly. "And... it worked, Angel. They're replicating the Neutralizer for medical technology all over the world. They're calling it a miracle."

"Just a trans-spatial projection...so says the man who happens to be trans-spatialing right before my very eyes." And then she reacted to the rest of the words, clapping her hands and squealing. Unsure of what her heat signature would do to the portal, she stayed grounded but it was a near thing. "Oh my god, that's awesome. And your Angelica, she's okay now?"

"Why don't you ask her?"

The image seemed to shrink as it spread out, showing a slender woman in a hospital gown next to Ben, looking rather tired but happy. Tentatively, she raised a hand in a small wave. "Hi."

Angel copied the movement before shyly putting it back down. This was weird. This was beyond weird. "Um, hi. Wow, I look like me but old." She blushed and rubbed the back of her head. "Man, that's kind of rude, even saying it to a future not-me self. I think. This stuff gives me a headache."

The other Angelica blinked and then laughed - it was tired, like she was, but it was the same laugh. "So you weren't making that up," she said to Ben, wrapping a hand around his before turning back to the younger version. "So different and yet, the same."

"So many things are," Ben agreed, looking from his wife to Angel. "I do hope that no ill came of my journey. Upon my return... well, not to put too fine a point on it, our government looked rather poorly upon my rash actions, using the stellar detonator, destroying an unmanned research station... they did have a rather long list. Needless to say, they are allowing me to serve out a probation by distributing the Neutralizer technology across the world. As well, I have been asked to destroy my research concerning dimensional breach theory... this is the last message we will be able to share, Angel. But..." he looked down at his wife and smiled. "It was worth it. Every moment."

Stupidly, Angel felt herself sadden at that. The day had been won, the girl saved - 'Oh man, I'm totally the white knight! Or at least the horse!' - but she'd grown to like Ben. As weird as he had been. "So basically you've been grounded by the government?" Angel said, her smile widening at Angelica's sudden snicker of amusement.

She stared at her 'copy'. She was thin but Angel figured that was from the sickness - red hair had been cut short but beyond that. It was her as she could be. And Angel wanted to give her one last thing before time ran out.

Angel shuffled back far enough so that when she lit herself on fire it didn't disturb the gate but close enough that Angelica was able to see. The older woman's eyes widened in absolute wonder as the pyro did a lazy loop in the air before landing again. "The could have's are, uh, kinda awesome, aren't they?" she asked the two. "Am I ever..." She pointed at Ben and frowned. "Is it stupid to even look?"

Ben shook his head. "It's never stupid, Angel. But trust me on this one thing, never forget the --"

And with a flicker of light and static, the image shrank to a point and faded away.

Angel stared. And then stomped her foot. "Never forget the what? The Alamo? The cookies? Oh my god, that's going to drive me insane forever!"

Then she started to smile wide enough that it hurt her face. It had worked - the machine, their crazy plan to boot him through the portal back home. It had all worked. It might be a bit bittersweet that she couldn't talk to them again or that she might never meet the version of him in her world; but at the end of the day, it didn't matter.

They'd done it.

Letting out a loud whoop, Angel shoot up into the air and somersaulted before blasting towards the mansion. She had to tell Forge.