A TIME TO HEAL

By Wesley Overhults

The Axis

“I guess now we know how you guys feel.”

Daredevil hefted the Tallus in his hand and clamped it to his other wrist, feeling the gauntlet automatically lock into place.  He looked at the rest of his teammates, even the new ones in Voght and Sean Madrox, and felt a little bit of sadness in his heart.  This was probably the last time they would ever be together like this.  They had grown on him, mostly because they were able to put up with his asinine behavior.  He would miss them but at the moment he had another, more pressing concern.  He didn’t plan on going home when he had the chance to find Nico instead.  The thought of seeing her again was what kept him going through all this madness and it was time for him to get his reward.

“You know the terms of your agreement with The Council,” said John.  “We unfortunately couldn’t roll the clock back to the moments you left.  Time has moved at its normal pace in your worlds so don’t be surprised if some things have changed while you were away.”

“I said this last time someone was leaving and it still stands,” said Sandman.  “It’s been good working with all of you.  Whatever happens, whatever you choose, I will never think any less of you for it.  God knows this decision is going to be hard enough for me to make myself.”

“I was never a part of your team but I echo the sentiment,” agreed Voght.  “Whatever happens, make the decisions that are right for you.”

“You’ve been a good leader, Will,” assured Goblin.  “We couldn’t have pulled through without you.”  Harry turned his attention to Pixie, noting that the young girl refused to look him in the eye.

“Kate says if she looks at you then she’s going to start crying,” mumbled Megan.  “We both hate crying in front of people.”

“Where will you be going?” asked Goblin.

“Home,” said Wasp, finally asserting herself over Megan’s body and looking up at him.  “Billy keeps in touch with Dr. Strange.  I figure if anyone knows how to fix me, then he does.”

“John told us that they were healing your body,” explained Goblin.  “He doesn’t know when it will be finished but they put it in a bubble of fast time or something.  I really don’t know all the crap they do here.”

“English major,” said Wasp, touching Harry’s cheek.  “I’ll miss you, Harry.  Give my best to Liz, alright?”

“I will,” assured Goblin with a nod.

“I think all of us are ready,” said Voght.  “Safe journeys, everyone.  We’ve already lost enough friends.”

All of the Exiles disappeared except for Daredevil.  He looked at the Tallus on his wrist and saw that it wasn’t glowing with any energy inside it.  He nodded and realized that the reason it didn’t power on was because it didn’t know where to go.  The Timebrokers had never put in a destination because he told them not to.  He was going to find Nico and then if he accomplished that, he would figure out everything else.  It was his trademark to always leap before looking and he didn’t plan on stopping now.

“Records is up on the third floor,” said John as he came into the room.  “I’ve scheduled you an appointment with a clerk.  Wherever he put Nico, that’s where we’ll take you once we find the right reality.  After that, it’s all up to you.”

“Better get going then,” decided Daredevil as he and John exited the room and made their way to the third floor.  “Are you going to kill him?  Jules I mean?”

“That’s for The Council to decide, but yes, we probably will,” answered John while they waited for the elevator.  “You sound as if you have some sort of objection to that.”

“Something happened to him,” said Daredevil.  “He lost someone important to him, didn’t he?”

“She was important to both of us,” said John.  “If you’re thinking that you’re somehow like him, you’re not.  You’re too human to be like him.”

Daredevil nodded as they stepped into the elevator and took it to the third floor.  Once they stepped out of it, John escorted him to the records room.  The clerk looked up from her paperwork and pushed her glasses up to the bridge of her nose from where they had fallen down.  Daredevil smiled at the Timebroker, who looked more like a twenty-something college student working the desk at the campus library than an inter-dimensional being.

“My name’s Lorus,” said the dark-haired clerk.  “You had an appointment to see about confirming a location?”

“Mr. Gallo has lost someone very important thanks to the meddling of our friend, Jules,” informed John.  “Nico Minoru of Earth-147.  We were informed that she was returned home.”

“I’ll confirm the location,” said Lorus, typing the name and designation into her computer.  Her eyebrow arched when a very undesirable response came up on her screen.  “I’m sorry but our records show that there’s no Nico Minoru of Earth-147.”

“Look again,” suggested Daredevil although it was more an order than a suggestion.  “You can’t just misplace someone.”

“No, she’s not there,” said Lorus once more.  “Wait…yeah I see the problem.  He really made a mess of this.”

“Mess of what?” asked Daredevil.

“I always hated Jules,” muttered Lorus, addressing her statement to John more than Daredevil.  “Seriously, do you know how much of a pain in our assess he was with all this crap?  Mr. Gallo, it seems that Jules has made a very large glitch in the timestream by requesting an unauthorized transference and retcon.  Gods above, he didn’t even bother to fill out the proper forms for such an act.”

“You need to make sense,” ordered Daredevil.

“Your friend Nico got put in the wrong reality and then got erased from her previous one,” said Lorus.  “Ugh, finding her is going to be a nightmare.  I don’t even know where to begin looking.”

“I do,” said Daredevil coldly as he turned to John.  “Take me to him.  He and I are going to have a talk.”

Earth-232

“What you’re telling me is unbelievable,” said Captain America as he looked at Sandman.  “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things in my lifetime, Will, but nothing like this.”

“All true,” assured Sandman.  “I’m sorry I was gone for so long.  Has it really been two years?”

“It has,” confirmed Cap.  “Trust me, I’ve been through bigger adjustments.  We’re glad to have you back, Will.  Tony had a hell of a time finding your replacement to lead our team out in California.  He had to give the job to Rhodey, but it’s yours again if you want it.”

“I’m not sure,” confessed Sandman.  “Steve, you’ve been at this a long time.  You’ve saved tons of lives both by yourself and with the rest of the Avengers.  You’re the hero all of us look up to and want to emulate so I guess you’re the only person I can really ask this question to.”

“Then shoot, soldier,” said Cap.

“If you had the chance to save a billion lives but it meant keeping yourself away from the people you love, would you take it or would you rather stay with them and save only a few hundred or maybe a thousand lives?” asked Sandman.

“War is never easy, Will,” noted Cap, resting his hand on Sandman’s shoulder.  “Back in my day, all of us understood the sacrifices we made by going overseas and leaving our families behind.  We knew there was a chance we wouldn’t make it back but we were good soldiers and we believed in what we were fighting for so we did it anyway.  It’s not that different from what you and I do now, we both know that.  If I were in your shoes, I would go back.  It would be extremely difficult but if you can help as many people as that then it’s worth it in the end.  You do what your heart tells you though.  You’ve proven that you have good instincts.  I trust you’ll make the right choice.”

“I think I already have,” admitted Sandman.  “It’s been good working with you, Steve, but I’m needed elsewhere.  There’s a bigger war out there to fight.”

“Then go where you’re needed most,” advised Cap.

Sandman nodded his thanks.  He would go back to lead the Exiles if there were any still left to lead.  First though, he wanted to spend his remaining time with the rest of the Avengers.  If he remembered anything about Iron Man, it was that Tony always made sure the bar in the mansion was fully stocked.  Right now, he could use a cold beer.

The Axis

Jules could barely hide the smile on his face as the security guards escorted him into the room and motioned for him to sit down in the chair across the table from Daredevil and John.  Similarly, Daredevil could barely hide the fact that he wanted to pummel Jules into pulp when he saw the Timebroker smile at his misfortune.

“Where did you put her?” asked Daredevil.

“I’m afraid I don’t know to whom you’re referring,” said Jules with mock innocence.

“Cut the crap and tell me where you put her,” ordered Daredevil, reaching towards Jules’s throat and being pushed back by the guards.  “What did you do with Nico?”

“I sent her to her new home,” answered Jules.  “She’s quite fine, Mr. Gallo.  Your people are the ones who butcher and slaughter, not mine.”

“You think this a damn game?” questioned Daredevil as he still tried to get at Jules.  “Why me?  Why specifically target me to screw with?”

“John didn’t tell you about me, did he?” inquired Jules, looking impassively at the hotheaded Exile across from him.  “There’s a key quality I see when I look at you, Mr. Gallo.  You have more me in you than either of us care to admit.  You can see that too can’t you, John?”

“There are a few similarities,” admitted John.

“So that was it then?” asked Daredevil.  “You hate yourself so much that you wanted to destroy me because I make you think of yourself?”

“I wanted to teach you a lesson,” corrected Jules.  “I was like you in the beginning.  I was cocky, reckless, thought I would be able to do anything and never get hurt.  I was a god after all and who can hurt a god?  Then I lost Eterna and nothing ever filled that void.  Nothing ever could fill that void.  I lost everything when they exiled me and when I returned, I saw you.  You were always flippant, always quick with your mouth, always reckless.  You had everything that I had once, everything that I wanted again.  So I decided to teach you a lesson, that life will take everything away from you when you least expect it and there’s nothing you can ever do about it.”

“Where did you put her?” repeated Daredevil.

“Earth-1413,” replied Jules casually.  “She doesn’t remember you, though.  I made sure that the retcon was complete.  She never existed in Earth-147 and she has always existed in Earth-1413.  Even when you find her, she won’t remember anything about you.”

“We’ll see about that,” said Daredevil as he left the room, intent on going back to the records department and programming his Tallus for Earth-1413.

“And here we are again, old friend,” mused Jules as he looked at John.  “I must admit you surprised me with your tenacity during our battle.  Then again, you were a mortal once.  I suppose those instincts never go away.”

“What was the point of all this, Jules?” questioned John.

“The point was to show The Council something,” explained Jules.  “Mortals are a race of liars, thieves, murderers, and barbarians.  Their ‘morality’ is only based on a sense of self-preservation.  I wanted The Council to see once and for all that they aren’t worthy of the jobs we’ve given them.”

“So you phrased all the missions so ambiguously and then waited to see what the Exiles would do,” realized John.  “You watched and waited for them to make the wrong decisions.”

“Except they didn’t,” admitted Jules.  “I decided I had to up the ante so I began giving them riskier missions, missions designed to fracture their moralities and break them down so they could better serve my own ends.  They never folded though.  I admit that I hadn’t counted on that.  It doesn’t matter though.  Things will work themselves out in the end.”

“You seem fairly calm for someone who will be dead soon,” said John.

“I will have plenty of company soon enough,” promised Jules.  “Really, John, did you think I was the end of it?”

Earth-815

He checked the newspaper upon arrival and was dismayed to learn that it had been two years since he had left.  It made him nervous but when he rose into the air and flew through the concrete canyons of New York City, it felt like home again.  This was the only home he had ever known, the only city that held everything in it he could ever want.  Harry Osborn had come home for the first time in two years and even though he technically wasn’t human anymore, he was just human enough to feel the joy and elation at being back in the Big Apple.

“There were so many times when I thought I would never make it,” he said to himself as he landed on the familiar ledge of his apartment window.

He couldn’t wait to see Liz, to tell her about all the amazing and terrible things that he had experienced while he was away.  He couldn’t wait to hold her in his arms and let her know that she was the thing that kept him going through everything.  Yet even that wasn’t the whole truth.  Over the missions and incidents that put them perilously close to death, Harry had grown quite fond of Wasp.  Liz wasn’t the only person who had helped drag him away from the abyss.  Kate had done her part as well.  Going back was out of the question though.  The sacrifices were too much to make.

Harry opened the window and stepped into the bedroom that he and Liz shared.  The first thing he noticed was that their picture wasn’t on the nightstand.  The second thing he noticed was that the closet was completely new and completely devoid of any secret compartments to house his equipment.  That didn’t concern him though.  He had no more use for equipment since his mutation.  He needed to see Liz, though.  From the looks of it, she had stripped the apartment clean of all his belongings.  He supposed it was necessary, but still it concerned him.

“Liz?” he called out to her and heard the hairdryer running in the bathroom.

“Well he better get that report to me by the end of the quarter, or I’m going to have his head,” said Liz into her headset once she finished drying her hair and slipped into her bathrobe.  “Yeah, I’ll be in the office in a few minutes.  Just have to make myself look presentable.”

Liz Allen came out of the bathroom and almost screamed.  She blinked furiously, trying to tell herself that what she saw was a mirage, a ghost.  It had been two years since the love of her life vanished before her eyes.  It took her days to come out of her apartment and most of them were spent in quiet solitude crying and surrounding herself with memories of Harry Osborn.  She had buried those feelings for him because there was work to be done.  She was the one who ran Oscorp now, the one who kept Harry’s company going even when it killed her inside.  She had scrubbed that company clean of anything with the Osborn name on it, much like she had done to their apartment and to her life.  Yet now here he was, staring at her behind that ghoulish mask he insisted on wearing.

“Take off that mask,” she ordered.

“I can’t,” he whispered quietly.  “Liz…God I don’t know what to say.  I don’t even know where to start because so much has happened.  This…this is what I am now.  It’s not a costume.  It’s me.”

“What happened?” demanded Liz.  “Where did you go?  What happened to you?  Why, Harry?  Why did you leave me?”

“It wasn’t my choice,” explained Goblin, trying to cry but not being human enough to do so.  “The important thing is that I’m back, okay?  I’m back and I promise I’m not going anywhere ever again.”

“Two years,” said Liz.  “I spent every day hoping and praying to God that you would come back.  I spent sleepless nights wondering about you, worrying about you.  Then one day I stopped wondering.  I’m sorry, Harry, but I can’t be a part of this again.  I won’t.  I won’t spend my life worrying about whether you’re coming home or not.  I won’t put myself through that pain again and I can’t even look at you when you have that face.”

“What’re you saying?” asked Goblin.  “Liz, you were the thing that kept me going.  I did everything I could to get back to you so that we could be together again.”

“I can’t,” said Liz tearfully.  “Please just leave, Harry.  I can’t do this again.  Please just leave me alone and let me live my life without you.  I’ll keep your company safe for you and I’ll never breathe a word about you being a superhero or whatever you are now.  Please respect me if you care as much about me as you say you do.”

“I understand,” said Goblin solemnly, biting back so many of the words he wanted to say.  “I never wanted this to happen, Liz.  I wanted a better life for both of us.”

“This isn’t just about the fact that you’ve been gone for two years,” clarified Liz.  “Things were wrong before then, Harry.  You have too much of your father in you and I can’t watch someone I love go down in flames like that.  I won’t put myself through that.”

He didn’t want to hear more of his shortcomings.  Harry had heard enough of them from his father.  Without another word, he turned away and left the same way he had entered the apartment.  He had been gone too long and he had changed too much in his time away.  The Holy Grail he had been chasing all this time turned out to be nothing more than a fantasy.  No one could love him, especially now when his outward appearance only confirmed what everyone thought of him.  He had too much of his father in him and that tainted blood had damned him to never live a normal life.  The specter of his father would always be haunting him and Harry wouldn’t allow his ghost to do the same to Liz.  His decision was made for him as it always was in his life.  It seemed that nothing he did would ever matter.

The Axis

“You were working for someone else?”

John had known Jules for a long time and had never known his friend to follow orders very well.  Therefore it wasn’t very conceivable that he could be working for anyone because his ego wouldn’t allow such a thing.  Jules had to be the center of attention, had to be the one pulling all the strings because that was how his mind worked.

“In part,” confessed Jules.  “I made new friends during my exile, John.  I heard a voice speak to me of a prophecy and my place in its grand design.  That voice promised that I would return to your fold and in exchange I would keep them privy to the movements of The Council.  It was all a means to my end though.”

“As everything always is,” said John.  “You’re completely delusional, Jules.  All that time in exile has warped and twisted your mind.  There was no voice and there was certainly no prophecy.  Nothing could reach across time and space and communicate with you without The Council’s knowledge.”

“You don’t know what’s out there any more than your precious Council does,” warned Jules.  “Have you ever looked up at a night’s sky and watched stars wink out, watched them go dark and seemingly disappear?  That’s what these people do to realities.  They destroy them, erase them.  They move across the multiverse as silent and unseen as shadows and the only survivors they leave in their wake are folded into their ranks.  There’s only been one person to have escaped from their reach.  Jonathan Ohn of Earth-1015 was recruited by them because of the knowledge he possessed regarding extradimensional transportation.  He managed to escape into another reality but I found him and I used the Exiles to make sure he wouldn’t be going anywhere when I caught up with him.  Does that name sound familiar to you, John?”

“He was a member of the team you sent to slaughter,” realized John.

“The sole survivor,” confirmed Jules.  “He escaped the apocalypse I sent my team into but he wound up in their hands before escaping them.  They charged me with rectifying that mistake.  They’re coming, old friend, and when they find what they’re looking for, all of creation will cease to exist.  Their prophecy will be fulfilled.  There will be order at last.”

“It’s sad to see what you’ve become,” admitted John as he got up from his chair.  “Goodbye, Jules.  I hope wherever you go when you die, you will finally find peace.”

“I hope you’ll join me so I can say I told you so,” retorted Jules with a grin.  “Be seeing you, John.  Just remember I tried to warn you.”

The guards carried Jules away but John followed.  The Council had granted him a special request that allowed him to be there for Jules’s execution.  He tried to understand what Jules said to him but it didn’t make any sense.  If a group like that existed then The Council would know about it and would have alerted all the handlers to look out for them.  Was Jules just insane or could he actually be right?  If so, who were these people and what did they want?

“Former Timebroker known as Jules,” said The Council’s head as the guards lead Jules into a room with a giant reality crack in it.  “It is the decision of this Council that your actions will be punishable by death.  This is the most heinous judgment our people are capable of passing and it is reserved for only the most heinous of crimes, which yours have been deemed as.  The Council shall permit you a brief moment for final words before sentencing shall commence.  What do you have to say for your actions?”

“There shall be only one world,” said Jules, reciting the words the voice had spoken to him a lifetime ago when he was in exile.  “It shall be called Paradise and from it shall stem a new race that shall bear great fruit.  Those who do not believe these prophecies shall be forever stricken from the face of creation.  There will be no chaos in Paradise, only order.  Order shall be maintained above all other virtues.  There will always be order.”

“End his time,” ordered The Council’s head.

The guards shoved Jules towards the crack and he spun on his heel to face it.  He saw it again, the same truth he saw so long ago the first time he had stared into the abyss that existed between realities.  He felt the crack envelop him and his body began to break apart as it became one with the energies of time and space itself.  There would be no reformation this time because this time he was mortal.  Hurling a mortal unprotected into the energies of the space-time continuum was condemning that person to a very violent and painful death.  He would truly be gone, having been erased from all of existence.  Yet as he faded into oblivion, a cruel smile forever graced his lips.  The Council knew nothing of what was coming despite his warnings.  They would soon meet their end and, in the end, order would prevail as it was meant to be.

Los Angeles, Earth-1413

Nico Minoru grumbled under her breath as she walked down the street towards her parents’ house, her bass guitar secure in the case slung over her shoulder.  Her parents were going to flip out on her for being late for dinner but band practice ran a little longer than she anticipated.  She felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her jeans and knew it was her mom calling again.  She took the cell phone out of her pocket and turned it off, making sure her mother couldn’t nag her until she got home.  She rolled her eyes at her mother’s overprotective streak and continued her silent march towards her house.  She wasn’t paying too much attention to where she was going and she felt herself carelessly bump into someone.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized as she looked at the stranger in the garish red costume.  “Do I know you or something?”

Nico had heard of superheroes but they didn’t come out to California very much.  She saw the logo on the man’s chest and remembered that his name was Daredevil.  What the hell was he doing all the way out here and why was he giving her that look?

“My name’s Johnny,” explained Daredevil as he took off his mask.  “You seriously don’t remember me, Nico?”

“Pretty sure I would’ve met somebody with fashion sense that bad,” said Nico.  “Look, you obviously have me confused with someone else and I’m already late enough in getting home.  Let’s just go our separate ways and pretend this never happened.”

“You were an Exile with me,” said Daredevil.  “We were superheroes.  We fought bad guys and saved worlds and we loved each other.”

“I don’t have any superpowers,” said Nico.  “I’ve got a magic guitar that’s going to go upside your head in two seconds if you don’t go away.”

Daredevil looked at her forlornly, searching her eyes for some trace of the girl she used to be.  There was nothing there though.  Jules was right.  The Nico Minoru he fell in love with was gone forever and there was nothing he could do about it.  He had won and Daredevil had lost.  It was as simple as that and there was no reason to continue hoping against hope that he could change things.

“You left me this,” said Johnny as he flicked the guitar pick at Nico.  “I’m sorry for bothering you.”

He turned his back on her and pulled his cowl back over his face, preferring its embrace.  Nico caught the guitar pick instinctively, stopping it from hitting her in the face.  She stared at it for a few moments as if it held some secret she once knew.  Something sparked in her eyes, a faint trace of the power she once possessed.  Memories surged through her mind, overwriting the ones in her brain like a computer saving over old files.  Her eyes rolled back into her head for a second before everything came back into focus.  This world, this life, none of it was hers.  It was so…normal, so average.  How could she have ever been happy with a life like this, a life where she couldn’t hang out with the Runaways or talk shop with Dr. Strange or…or be in love with him?

“Hey, cowboy,” said Nico with a grin and she watched Daredevil’s attention perk up as he turned to face her with hope etched into every feature of his face.  “I think this is the part where we’re supposed to kiss.”

He ran towards her and swept her up into his arms, kissing her with a passion that let her know exactly how much he had missed her.  It was cliché and horribly romantic and she didn’t care one damn bit because this was what she had missed ever since she was ripped away from him and the rest of the Exiles.

“How?” he questioned.

“This,” she answered as she held up the pick.  “After seeing what happened to the rest of my friends when we were in that one reality, I put a spell on this so I would never forget who I was as long as I kept it with me.  Looks like it worked.  Guess my magic’s a lot stronger than the Timebroker suspected.”

“You don’t belong here,” said Daredevil.  “I’ve come to take you home.  Everything is cleared with the Timebrokers.  They’ll have to undo the retcon so everyone remembers you but it won’t be that hard.  I just have to fill out a couple more forms and we should be okay.  They’re big sticklers on paperwork but I’ll make sure everything’s done right.”

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” said Nico.  “I don’t want to leave you again.  Can I…can I go to your world?”

She knew it was a gigantic favor to ask of him but she couldn’t go back to her old life if it meant saying goodbye to him again.  If she really didn’t exist in her old world then surely they could fix it to where she existed in his or do something so they could be together.  She didn’t know how powerful her magic could be against whatever power the Timebroker had but she was willing to try for him.  He had moved heaven and Earth to get back to her and she knew in her heart that she wouldn’t do any less for him.

“Lorus is going to kill me,” realized Daredevil with a grin.  “I think I’m her worst nightmare.”

Earth-112

Pixie looked at the Young Avengers’ headquarters and felt like she knew the building as home.  That was Wasp talking though.  In Pixie’s world, she had heard of the Young Avengers but never met them personally.  She didn’t think they would like her very much.  These days, she had enough problems getting her own classmates to like her or at least not be afraid of her.

“I don’t think this is such a good idea,” she mumbled to herself.

‘We had a deal,’ reminded Wasp.  ‘Trust me, they’re used to weird stuff by now.’

Kate could hardly believe it had been two years since she had disappeared.  She wished she could see her friends again with her own eyes, talk to them in her own voice.  There were so many things to tell them but she knew she had to talk to Billy the most.  It was going to be over between them.  It was already over between them but she held out some naive hope that they would be okay.  Things were different now.  She wasn’t the same girl she was before she had disappeared.

“Hi,” chirped Pixie after her knock on the door yielded an answer.  “Which one of you is Billy?  I need to talk to him.”

“I thought you and Tommy were out,” said Patriot.  “What’s with the new look, Meg?”

“I’m not your Megan,” explained Pixie.  “Look, I really want to get this over with so can you find Billy for me?  I’ve got something in me that’s…”

She felt the familiar shift of energy inside her that meant Wasp wanted to assume control.  Megan had already learned to stop fighting it so she just let it happen.  It was probably better that Kate talk to her friends anyway.  This whole trip was for her benefit after all.

“You’ve got what?” asked Patriot.

“Seriously, Eli,” said Pixie in Wasp’s voice.  “Get Billy.”

Wasp watched the shock etch itself onto Patriot’s face and he hurriedly moved to comply as she entered the headquarters.  Things hadn’t changed that much it seemed.  The headquarters was still the same as always.  Wasp flitted through the air as she followed Patriot down the hallways to reach Wiccan’s room.  The bat wings that Pixie used were different than the insect ones Kate was accustomed to.  She couldn’t say she particularly enjoyed using them.

“You need to see this,” said Patriot simply after Wiccan answered his door.

“Something wrong, Megan?” asked Wiccan.  “My idiot brother did something, didn’t he?”

“It’s good to see you again, Billy,” said Wasp.  “I know I probably look really different from the last time you saw me.  That’s why I need your help.”

“You’re trapped in Megan’s body,” confirmed Wiccan, sensing the magic that was at work.  “Moreover, this isn’t the Megan we know.”

“No, it’s not,” agreed Pixie, her own personality assuming control for the moment.  “And now I wanna know what your brother looks like.  Is he cute?”

“He seems to think so,” replied Wiccan sarcastically.  “We’re going to need Dr. Strange for this.  I’m not powerful enough to do it myself.  I’ll call him now.”

Pixie watched as Wiccan sat down inside of a symbol carved on the floor of the room, crossing his legs in the lotus position and closing his eyes.  His body began to glow with otherworldly energy as he stretched his consciousness across the city to interface with Strange’s.  Pixie and Wasp both watched intently so neither of them noticed that Billy shared his room with someone else.

“You’re calling him in the morning?” asked Teddy Altman as he came out of the shower and ran a towel through his blond locks.  “You know Strange barely sleeps at all.  You don’t think it’s kinda rude?”

“Desperate times,” said Wasp through Pixie.  “Uhm, Teddy…why are you using Billy’s shower?”

“Because it’s partly mine?” replied Hulkling.  “I thought you already knew, Meg.”

“That’s Kate,” said Wiccan after cracking his eyes open and completing his conference with the Sorcerer Supreme.  “I’m sure it’s a long story.”

“Not as long as the story about you and Teddy sharing a room,” countered Wasp.  “Billy, are you and Teddy…?

“Yep,” confirmed Hulkling with a grin that Wiccan removed from his lips by hitting him in the arm.

“I was going to tell you,” he admitted to Wasp.  “It’s something I’ve been struggling with and I’m sorry for not telling you about it.  I’m gay, Kate.  In the two years you’ve been gone, I’ve come to terms with that.  I’m sorry if I hurt you.  I did love you but it…it just wasn’t the kind of love you deserve.”

“It’s okay,” assured Wasp.  “You’re a great guy, Billy, and I’d rather you be who you are without me than be with me and be something you’re not.  I know you and Teddy will be happy together.  Now how about you work on getting me out of Megan’s body, okay?  I’m sure she’ll be glad to get rid of me.”

“Strange will be here in a few minutes,” confirmed Wiccan.  “Hang out with us until then?”

“Of course,” said Wasp.  “Let me know when he’s ready.  I’m gonna be in my room for a little bit.”

“For the record, Kate, I knew you’d find some way to come home again,” stated Wiccan.

“Yeah, just took me longer than I thought it would,” replied Wasp.

Wiccan nodded and Wasp made her way to her room.  She felt her control over Pixie’s body recede and she let Megan take the reins for a few moments.  Pixie stared around at the room that wasn’t hers.  She saw the posters on the wall, the largest of which depicting Kate’s idol Janet Van Dyne.  Megan moved through the room, her fingers running along the edge of the desk before opening one of its drawers.  Somehow she knew what was in there even as she pulled out the small notebook and opened it.  It was her…no it was Kate’sjournal.

“You deserve to be here in your own body,” whispered Pixie to herself as she skimmed through the pages and felt Wasp’s eyes lingering on them instead of hers.  “I’m sorry for what happened, Kate.  I wish I could go back and change it.”

‘You saved my life and I’m going to get my body back,’ reminded Wasp.  ‘I remember this was the journal I kept when I was in rehab.’

“You sound like me,” said Pixie to herself, reading some of the entries and understanding for the first time how screwed up her teammate used to be.  “You’re not like me though.  You’re a good girl, a nice girl.  You deserve a happy ending.”

‘Don’t you deserve one, too?’ asked Wasp.

“Strange is here,” spoke up Wiccan after lightly knocking on the open door.  “Are you ready to do this?”

“I think we are,” decided Pixie.

The Axis

“I’ve been having a very long day,” noted John as he stared at Bruiser.  “They told me you didn’t want to go back to your home reality.  May I ask why?”

“There’s nothing left for me there,” admitted the young girl.  “The Exiles caused the deaths of my friends but…they were already gone.  They died a long time ago and I just…I wanted to see them again, okay?”

“I understand how painful it can be to watch that happen to a friend,” sympathized John, nodding knowingly at her.  “Miss Hayes, you seem to be lacking a home and a family.  I can’t really promise you a home but I can promise you a family here with me and the rest of the Exiles.  Understand though that I am not Jules.  I have very different ways of doing things and I won’t let you get away with things that Jules would’ve allowed.  You will not kill anyone while you’re a member of the team.  That isn’t up for debate.”

“You know bad things happen when people treat me like a kid,” warned Bruiser.

“I will treat you like an adult when you show the necessary maturity to be afforded such courtesy,” stated John.  “Behave yourself, Miss Hayes.  I sense that you’re a good kid and I’d rather you be an ally than an enemy.”

“I’ll be a good girl,” promised Bruiser as she extended her hand.  “Shake?”

John took her hand and shook it.  She attempted to use her superhuman strength to crush his hand but she found his body to be remarkably resilient.  He simply grinned at her feeble attempt to intimidate him.  He wasn’t Jules, not by a long shot, but that didn’t mean he was going to continue being a pushover.  It was time for him to show more backbone if he was going to be the one handling this group of Exiles.

“The others will be returning shortly and they have business to settle,” he told her.  “I’ll send for you when the time is right.”

Sandman looked at John and then to Amelia Voght and Sean Madrox.  It wasn’t that he wasn’t pleased to see them.  He just wished that more of his teammates had decided to take the plunge with him.  He knew in his heart that this was the right decision.  He was a hero and this was where he was needed most.

“Sean and I already talked it over and we decided that we’ll be continuing on as a separate team,” confirmed Voght.  “There’s still work for the X-Men to do but John has informed us that he won’t be our handler.  He’s taking up the position left vacant by Jules.”

“I don’t know how many of the Exiles will be coming back,” admitted Sandman.  “You do good work, Amelia.  It would’ve been an honor to call you a teammate on a more permanent basis.”

“I trust you weren’t thinking of leaving us,” said Goblin as he materialized into view.  “I confess I hadn’t thought about returning.”

“Good to see you, Osborn,” noted Sandman.  “I didn’t think you would show.”

Goblin was about to say something when a puff of pixie dust appeared and Pixie stepped out of the cloud.  She carried something with her, a container of sorts.  In it was the soul of Kate Bishop, a soul that had been displaced from its body for far too long.  Pixie and Wasp had talked it over once Dr. Strange had separated the two girls.  Both of them came to the same agreement.  They had to return to this life because though both girls came from opposite walks of life, they both knew that this was the best place for them.

“Her body has fully healed,” confirmed John as he saw the glowing canister Pixie held in her hand.  He motioned to two other Timebrokers and they wheeled Wasp’s body into the room inside a bubble of energy.  “We kept her in time stasis to speed up the healing process then made sure to regress her to her rightful age.  It was a tedious process but we managed it.  All that’s left is to return her soul to where it belongs.”

Pixie nodded and opened the canister.  The energy trail arced out from it and struck Wasp’s lifeless body, infusing it with her essence once more.  As the time bubble dispersed, Wasp opened her eyes and put her feet on the ground.  It felt good to be in her own body once more.  She felt too uncomfortable sharing Pixie’s skin.

“Just the four of us then?” asked Sandman.

“Three,” corrected Pixie.  “I’m…I’m really sorry for what I did to you guys.  I want to keep doing this but I need to not do it with you.  Please don’t be mad about that.  You guys have been super nice to me and I’ll always remember that.”

“We’ll be happy to have you on the X-Men, Megan,” promised Voght.

“Go with them, kiddo,” urged Sandman.  “We’ll see you again some day.”

“Speaking of people you haven’t seen in a while,” spoke up Daredevil as he entered the room.  “I think there’s someone who’d like to say goodbye.”

Sandman, Goblin, and Wasp smiled as they saw their old teammate Sister Grimm and she smiled in return.  It was strange to think that this collection of misfits would ever hold such a place in her heart but she was tearing up as she hugged each of them and they hugged her in return.  She and Daredevil had worked out an arrangement with the Timebrokers.  Since she was never supposed to exist on Earth-1413, they would retcon her out of that existence to fix its corrupted timestream.  They then proceeded to undo the retcon on Earth-147, adding Nico’s existence back into that world.  However, she wouldn’t be staying there.  She would be going with Daredevil to his world, having already said her goodbyes to her friends on her old world.  Since Daredevil’s world had no Nico Minoru, her presence wouldn’t damage that world’s timestream provided there was no retcon to place her into that world retroactively.  It was an ordeal to sort out Jules’s mess but they finally got it finished.

“Take care of him,” advised Sandman to Nico once she had explained everything to them.  “He was a real pain in the ass when you were gone.”

“He’s always a pain in the ass,” she countered.  “Thank you for not giving up on him.  I wish we could go with you guys but we can’t.  We just want a life away from all this.”

“You deserve it,” assured Goblin.  “Be safe, you two.”

“Keep yourself out of trouble, Osborn,” said Daredevil.  “Lighten up while you’re at it, huh?”

The five friends shared one final moment together before Daredevil and Sister Grimm winked out of existence to return to his home world.  Sandman looked at the remnants of his team.  He didn’t know what the future held for any of them but he knew that their vacation was over.  It was time to get back to work and he looked to John to see what the Timebroker had planned for them.

“Guess it’s just us then,” said Wasp.  “Unless you’ve got some new teammates waiting for us?”

“I do,” admitted John.  “One of them is here right now.”

The three Exiles and the three X-Men displayed varying levels of shock as Bruiser appeared before them.  She didn’t expect anything less considering her past encounters with the Exiles.  Realistically though, she had no place to go and she knew it.  There was no way she could return to her world, not when her friends and family were all gone.  So if these people, these Exiles, could willingly do this job even at the cost of everything they loved then she could do it too because she had nothing to lose.

“She tried to kill us,” reminded Goblin.  “You can’t seriously expect her to be on our team.”

“She also helped you against Jules,” reminded John sternly.  “She and I already talked it over and she’s agreed to play by the rules.  She has nowhere else to go and she would like to atone for her previous error.  I think all of you can relate to that in one way or another.”

“He’s got a point,” admitted Sandman.  “Fine then, John.  We’ll try it your way.”

“Don’t expect me to get along with any of you,” warned Bruiser.  “Just don’t treat me like a little kid and we’ll see how it goes.”

“X-Men, you’ll be meeting with your new Timebroker over on the fourth floor,” said John.  “Exiles, you’re with me.  The rest of your new teammates will be there with you when you land and I think you’re going to find the reality a very familiar one.  Be careful out there though.  None of us really know what we’re going to run into.”

“Once more into the breach then,” said Goblin with a nod to Sandman and Wasp.

“It’s what we’re meant to do,” confirmed Sandman.  “C’mon, Exiles.  Time’s not waiting for any of us.”

Next Issue: Second Coming