Guinevere Stark, Folly Valeska, and Dean Kesseli
Location: Blackbird ---> Roof of Stark Tower
Dean blushed slightly as Carolina offered him a hand. She was beautiful, compassionate, and dangerous - the complete package. He hoped that he didn't look too obviously attracted to her or anything, but he made a mental note to see about spending more time with Carolina, see if he caught feelings for her. Sure, she was pretty, but he did want more than just a pretty face for any sort of relationship. Maybe, if prom still happened, she'd go with him? His mind was getting way ahead of itself and although Dean was unaware of this, it was a coping mechanism. Planning for a situation that may not even happen was far preferable to the crisis facing them - of systematic extinction and enslavement and pretty much everything done during the Holocaust, happening just to mutants this time. No one had really given them specifics, but it seemed about right to him.
"Sure, that'd be fun," Dean said with a grin.
"Do you think Iron Man and Hulk would sign my..." he paused, seeing what he still had on him,
"...Cold Stone Gift Card?" he asked, taking it out.
"Or do you think they'd rather deface government property?" he then asked, taking out a bit of cash he had on him. He didn't really have a clean sheet of paper for a proper autograph, though part of him wondered if Iron Man would just have a stack of signed photos lying around his house or something.
Part of him wondered if Guin Stark got a different autograph from her father each year for her birthday - maybe she had a collection of them somewhere or something? He then couldn't help but wonder if Thor would be at Stark Tower as well. Or maybe Black Widow or Hawkeye! Or Captain America! His mind was completely focussed on girls and Avengers, rather than the deadly robots that the United States government had sent to kill them all. He gave Carolina a grin, before he got off the plane with her once all of those with injuries were loaded off.
Folly got off of the plane as well, going over to Thalia. She gave Tony a bit of a funny look - she was used to seeing the man with salt and pepper hair. He was about sixty years old in her time, about to become a grandfather as well. And sure, he wasn't a spry spring chicken here, but he was an Avenger and still in fantastic shape for someone in their early 50's. She stared at him for a moment, wondering if he'd share the secret he was keeping from his daughter earlier in this timeline - or perhaps even later or not at all. She imagined Palla Latchi was having a difficult time keeping it from her.
"O.M.E.N. might still target them there," Folly whispered to Mary. If they were lucky, O.M.E.N. would focus on the team rather than the students - but the idea made her nervous. They obeyed sovereign borders, at least at first. In their timeline, they actually ended up spending a fair amount of time in Serbia hiding from O.M.E.N., as the mutant laws were looser there. She was almost certain something similar would happen and that O.M.E.N. would know the Avengers were hiding the students.
"Getting them out of the country might be for the best...Don't you have a property in Canada?" Folly suggested. They had hidden in a fair share of Stark houses and facilities over the years.
"I think that landing would've earned a solid six out of ten..." Guin mused, seeing the injured get off of the plane. She then looked at the two speedsters, wondering if they were going to let go of her so she could get off of the plane. She was trying not to think too much about it, and when Cassandra mentioned she needed to go talk to Guin's father, Guin nodded. And then she paled. She had freaked out finding out she married Pietro in the future - she was
still freaking out - but how was her father going to react? He already had problems with her dating Pietro in the first place.
Future Pietro was silent, but he walked off the plane, leaving his younger counterpart with Guin. Pietro took her hand and led her off the plane, saying nothing else. Once off of the plane, Guin smiled slightly when she saw her dad, though she was still internally screaming. She wasn't even convinced that the future really could be changed. It was entirely possible that this wasn't a ripple - just a momentary diversion from the path but that the course of time would correct itself. There was an entire theory in quantum physics that supported that.
"....What are we gonna do, Piet?" Guin mumbled.
"I don't know... We'll just have to see what happens..." he replied.
Guin nodded, glancing at Future Pietro. She stared at him for a moment, noticing how muscular he had gotten.
Apparently Pietro starts working out... she mused to herself, before she reached out and touched Future Pietro's abs, clearly impressed by her facial expression.
"...Huh...Nice work, Muscles." "Hey!" the younger one said.
"Uh... Thanks I think..." Future Pietro replied. Guin raised an eyebrow, staring at her boyfriend, but she poked Future Pietro in the muscles again, before she felt his biceps.
"Are you really getting jealous of yourself, Piet?" "Uh... Maybe? And he isn't me, I'm me!" he responded.
"He's you though - from the future and apparently after joining a body building club," Guin pointed out.
"But would you feel better if I felt your muscles too?" "No, he isn't me! Especially if somehow the timeline does change or something, I might never be him!" Guin stared at Pietro again, thinking it through. Did he mean physically? If so, the idea of Pietro dying made her feel sick to her stomach and incredibly stressed. But if he meant emotionally - wasn't that the idea? To prevent an apocalyptic future and change how their lives turned out?
"...It's not likely that the timeline can change...Maybe it will a little, but the course will correct itself...There's an entire theory in quantum physics about it..." "Yeah? You do realize we have done small jumps before, on occasion anyway, to test to see if this was even worth attempting, so screw the theory, it is wrong," Future Pietro said, shaking his head.
"How big were the changes you made? Because if they're small ones, then that doesn't disprove the theory - and a theory isn't just something scientists threw out and thought sounded good, it's been agreed upon and has backing by piles of evidence...This shitty future is probably still going to happen, no matter what we do..." "That's what you think, but we did test it out, once the Sentinels found our hideout, killed everyone except for me and Thalia, we went back in time, and got the base to move and get hidden before the Sentinels attacked, don't think that was small." Guin fell silent. She was glad to hear that the theory was incorrect - since she had been feeling skeptical about this plan. But then again, even that could have been a small change. If they died that week versus the next, it wasn't a large difference in the grand scheme of things. However, something else was bothering her now - and she knew she shouldn't ask it but she was going to anyways.
"In that...test...How did I die?" she asked.
"Sentinel, also those scientists who made that theory have never met a temporal dragon... Doubt they've met a dragon at all..." "...That's not how theories are formed but okay...How many times have I died and you've done that time trick?" "Only the once." "If we're married....What was that like for you?" Guin then asked, wondering how much that had contributed to the haunted sadness that seemed to linger behind Future Pietro's expression.
"What was what like?" "Me dying." "...End of the world, contemplated running into a Sentinel on purpose if Thalia hadn't stopped me..." Guin stared at Future Pietro in shock.
"Why would you do that?!" "...Because by then I would have had nothing else to live for..." She nodded, trying not to hyperventilate from getting overwhelmed with all of this information. The knowledge that if she died, Pietro would try to kill himself...She couldn't help but wonder if her Pietro would act similarly.
"...Y-you wouldn't freak out like that, right?" she asked the younger one.
"...I honestly don't know Guina..." Guin bit her lip. She wanted to hear him say that he wouldn't do that - it would have helped her to calm down slightly.
"Don't ever die for me or because of me, okay?" she requested, looking at Future Pietro for a moment before her gaze settled on her Pietro. She loved him and didn't want to be the reason that he died.
"...Alright, if you say so." "I do say so," Guin said softly.
"I'm not worth dying for." "...Alright..." Guin nodded, calming down slightly. If he didn't risk his life for her, then he wouldn't be in danger. It also helped her try to not think about the fact that she could ask Muscles any question and find out her entire future. She could find out if body swapping really was the extent of her powers or if she could do something more. He probably knew if her hair looked better shorter or longer, as well as who won the Noble Prize in Chemistry in the next three years. He'd know if Maddie ever left her alone or if she was still hounding her, trying to use her for fame and fortune.
"That goes for you too, Muscles." "Okay okay, I've already gotten that lecture..." he said, shaking his head.
"...Why do I get the impression you ignored it?" "What makes you think that?" Guin hesitated, frowning. Truthfully, she couldn't explain where that conclusion came from. It was like in the back of her mind, she just knew it. It was as if a tiny voice was whispering that to her and she had no idea where it came from.
"....I don't know, call it my Spidey Sense or something...Just know you did...Somehow..." "I have listened to it!" he protested with a laugh.
Guin's eyebrows furrowed, as she started to get a slight headache.
"You did but....you...you disagreed with it." "Well that's just common sense, why would I agree with it?" She stared at him and her headache seemed to worsen, as she put a hand to her head.
"Whatever, Muscles..." She figured it was just caused by stress or dehydration, but it did hurt. The pressure seemed to be localized towards the back of her head as well.
Future Pietro gave her a smile, saying nothing else.
