There Will Be Peace...: Act 1- Scene 4- "You're Not Coming With"

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Julian runs into Dori and Nico and spills the beans, the young squirrel girl tries to persuade Julian to let her come along.


"And I'm saying, that's why the tenth doctor is obviously the best one," Doreen said seriously to Nico.

Nico just nodded, completely lost and confused. She still felt like she was missing something important regarding the different doctors being the same, but Not The Same, and it was driving her insane. Which was good and welcomed, considering the alternative of really going insane if she spared a single second to think what had happened with her parents. "I...see. I think. Explain me again how the same person is not the same person?" They could stay there for hours, really.

"Well, it's really easy, you see Time Lords regenerate, so after you kill one they can be reborn where they're the same but some things will be different and some doctors are vastly superior to other doctors," Dori mused.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaand they all are the same guy, with the same memories? Or they, I don't know, remember just parts of their pasts?" And she was even tempted to ask if it even mattered, but they were so into the conversation there was no point wondering anyway. "I say...they really put a lot of thought on that."

"They have the same memories, and they are the same guy, but they have different personalities and ways of doing things. Like they're all different manifestations of what his original personality was," Doreen explained, "Trust me; I've written fanfiction."

"Hey, I trust you." You just don't doubt someone who has written fanfiction. "Huh, it sounds sort of interesting...but I don't know if I have what it takes to see all the...eleven guys with God knows how many seasons just to understand what is going on right now."

It was at that moment that Julian rounded the corner with a grave expression on his face and purpose in his steps, he took hold of Nico's wrist, not bothering to stop and nodded for her to follow him, "You need to come with me."

"Hey!" Doreen squeaked, "Julian, I was talking to her! Where are you dragging her off to?"

Nico followed suit, although she was no less confused than Doreen. "Yeah, where are you dragging me off?"

Julian scowled as Nico pulled away from her, "Fine, I'll just tell you this here." He looked around the empty hallway and leaned in closer to the two teenage girls. "I'm leaving tonight, Angel and I are going to L.A. to...take care of some old business."

"What?! And you were just going to take Nico and not me?! What are you going to be doing?" Doreen squeaked.

The Goth was a bit busy trying not to start feeling suddenly jealous at the idea of Angel and Julian, far away taking care of business. She had accepted the fact they were still somewhat close a long time ago, but still..."You were going to take me, right?"

"No," he said simply. At her glare he held up his hands, "Look it's not what you think, I-"

"So", said as she took a step closer. "I just have to accept that you and another girl, one that you have history with, go on a trip to do God knows what that you two are into just like that?" She hadn't even rose her voice, but her gaze had suddenly hardened, and she was close enough to probably force him to lean backwards. "I think you might want to elaborate what business are taking you and Angel to LA."

Julian slapped his palm against his forehead, "Look- it wasn't my idea to bring Angel, I was going to go alone and..." he looked around the still empty hallway. "Look, what I'm going to tell you, you can't tell anyone...you can't even think it- because if Jean finds out...." He moved closer to the still icy Nico. "My family has been kidnapped by...an old business associate, and unless I go meet with him, he's going to kill them." He gave it a moment to sink in.

Nico's response came in the volume and tone of someone who is trying really hard to understand, but can't cope with the fact the information she is receiving. That meant she was talking in a high pitched, fast and yet not loud at all tone, a hand massaging her temple. "Are you telling me your family is in danger and you don't want to tell anyone!?!? And you want me not to do a thing? Seriously?!

"Ohmigod," Doreen said in a hushed tone, "Nico, we better go get a change of clothes or something, we're going with him!"

"The hell you are!" Julian whispered loudly, pulling the girls by their hands into an empty room. Shutting the door, Julian looked Nico in the eyes, "You remember those guys we ran into the last time we were out West? The guy I'm going to see is their boss...he's dangerous and if you're out there, I might not- no, I won't be able to protect you." He shifted to Dori's pleading gaze, "And I mean it. You're not coming with."

She knew that tone, it was the 'I'm-being-serious-now' tone. She didn't like that tone. It was the Serious Business Tone. It was a bad, baaad tone. "Then you have to tell someone, Julian!", said as her tone moved from angry to very worried. "You and Angel aren't doing much by yourselves." Really worried.

Julian shook his head and took a few steps toward Nico, attempting to give her a hug. "I can't...if the X-Men and SHIELD get involved, there's no way to assure anyone that my family is going to be okay. I need to do this myself- don't worry...I will have Angel with me and the two of us aren't exactly defenseless."

"Yeah, but Angel doesn't know L.A. Not like Nico and I know L.A. And face it," Dori crossed her arms over her chest, "I'm coming with you. You know you can't stop me." She was stubborn about a lot of things, and this was one of them, "You're my best friend, right? You honestly don't think I'm going to hear that and wave and be all like 'totally go and have a great time kicking butt without me!'?"

He locked eyes with his best friend, "You don't have a choice, Dori. And you really don't think I can stop you from going if I need to?" Julian then glanced over at Nico, "Keep an eye on her," he said, starting for the door, "turn her into a frog if you have to."

"What are you going to do to stop me? Tell one of the adults?" Doreen returned. No one could stop the Squirrel Girl! She was invincible! ...Well, not really, but she wasn't going to let Julian go alone.

Nico sighed and crossed her arms around her chest in a defensive gesture. "You better know what you are doing, and you better let someone know if you get in trouble", said as she looked up at Julian. She wasn't okay with it, but she didn't know what else to do. And Dori was saying pretty much everything.

Julian stopped at the door, "Of course I do..." he hoped he did, "I'll be fine. Don't worry, okay?" With that he walked out the door, using his telekinesis to hold it shut behind him.

Doreen looked at Nico, "Come on, we're going out the window. You can make us invisible or something when we follow them, right?"

"He probably has a car", pointed Nico, but she didn't try to fight with Dori. A part of her wanted to stay there and be safe, and the other wanted to chase Julian. The inner struggle was probably visible. "And Angel is like, almost an X-Man and they both have this cool powers..." And she didn't care, she wanted to be there. "This is when it sucks I can't cast more than one teleporting spell."

Doreen bit her lip, "Well, we have to do something," she thought, chewing on her bottom lip and then she lit up, "A portal!" she said, jumping up, "You can't teleport more than once, right? What about making a portal and we just walk through? Like in Portal or like mages in WoW do!"

"A...portal?" Wasn't that complicated? Although she didn't have to do much besides casting it and decided where they wanted to go, Nico supposed. "It could work...but where to? We only have one shot at this. We can't end up in the wrong place, because then we will probably lose too much time." And they might need to prepare themselves, if they were really going to leave the mansion.

"Well, he's likely going somewhere that's not his parents main home, so the beach house maybe? It's in Malibu," Doreen said thinking about it.

The Malibu house. Long shot, but the only one they had, too. "Okay", said at least as she walked towards Doreen, stopping in front of her, hands on her hips. "We use a portal and end up there, and let's say that's the place where Julian and Angel are going. Then what? This isn't some sort of game, we are risking ourselves. And I wonder how is Xavier going to react to all this..." And she hoped he wasn't listening at the moment.