001 - audio

[tactilelearner]

Okay.

[Deep breath. It's not that scary to talk to a book. Even if it's really weird and she hates this and wants to go home. She was supposed to actually have some time off. Be a slightly normal teenager.

That was the deal.

Save the world, get a week off.

Was it really that hard?!

So, early afternoon on the eleventh, after some exploring, she's sitting with her journal, posing her question.]

I jus' need t' ask y'all somethin'.

[Because this is important. Seriously important.]

Has anyone seen pyramids? Here. They might be stone or maybe metal. I just need t' know if there are any.

[If there are, maybe Apocalypse is still trapped, pulling them here to get his 'keys' again. To open whatever doors there are in this world.

Because that's who she suspects this 'Davy Jones' is. Just another name of Apocalypse for another place in space and time.

The last part, she says to herself, more as an after note. She doesn't quite know how these things work yet.]

Cracks of time, huh? Great. Really.

Comments

[voice]

[tactilelearner]

[She was afraid of hearing that. But Logan had said Jean and Scott and the Professor were gone. Not against this threat but against something else. Yet he hadn't known about Apocalypse.

...It didn't make any sense.

But one thing did.]

Sometimes y' have t' make a sacrifice.

[Her voice remained quiet. Because it was a grave risk. Still, the reward was worth it. Not like she had much of anybody who'd really miss her. Not who wouldn't move on. Better than Kitty or Jean or someone managing to do it.

Someone with a family.]

[voice]

[grizzly_tea]

[Perhaps if Maribelle had been able to tell her that it was the ones who had the most to live for, the most bonds with all those around them, the one who would be creating a black hole in the world for everyone around them with their absence, that had the best chance of surviving. Perhaps then she might have been able to tell Rogue that without this there would be no chance for her to survive it, that she would simply fade away. Perhaps because she felt she didn't have as many people to live for that was exactly why she'd feel it wouldn't be so bad a loss.]

Sometimes... yet when there's another way... any other way... perhaps you should take it, so that you can live, so that those who you never knew loved you so don't lose you. Sometimes... sometimes certain sacrifices are too great... and you'll never get to know what could have been because someone never had the courage to speak up when they should have.

[voice]

[tactilelearner]

Where I'm from--

We're trained t' help people. Even the ones who hate us. Even the ones who spit at us. Even the ones we'd like nothin' more than to kill ourselves. We're taught t' fight for 'em.

To face danger so they don' have to.

[She doesn't consider herself noble. But she was willing to stop Apocalypse once. Especially since he'd used her to rise again. It was her fault he was only locked away. That she hadn't been able to permanently stop him.

There's still a debt to be paid.]

If it means savin' the world? One life ain' too much t' pay.

[voice] 1/2

[grizzly_tea]

Don't say that!

[voice] 2/2

[grizzly_tea]

Please... I beg of you... please don't say that...

[voice]

[tactilelearner]

I don' know how many people are here or in your world, but mine? Billions.

Billions of lives.

[It's dangerous to say it. To voice this thought, but it's true.]

No one life is worth that.

If it meant endin' Apocalypse? I'd give up any of my team. Or me.

[voice]

[grizzly_tea]

I know... I know it's true it's just... I... we... lost someone very close to us to the very same fate I warned you of. Someone we all loved, someone we gladly would have laid our own lives on the line to protect in the blink of an eye... someone who could never truly be replaced. They sacrificed themselves for not only the sake of the billions of lives living in our world... but the trillions, and quadrillions and the infinite quantity of lives that may yet be lived without fear of living in Grima's shadow ever again.

Who can really say if one life is worth more than another? If the lives of a thousand are as worthy as one? They are the kinds of thoughts that have caused war and strife for eons, and to make those calls...

Just... please... before you consider doing such a thing... think about those you will leave behind, say the things you always feared to say... because never knowing... never knowing what could have been is nearly the worst part... please... I must... take my leave of you now.