TIMES OF CHANGE

Part I: Decisions

By Yannick Lamarre

Author’s Note: This story takes places after Uncanny X-Men #12.

Our Mother Of Mercy Hospital, in New York, was buzzing with activity that afternoon, but Katherine Pryde seemed unaware of it as she sat in one of its hallways on the second floor. In a room behind her, one of her new friends, Melissa Heartridge, was slowly recuperating from an encounter with a terrorist from a group known as Sigma, who preached white supremacy.

‘This is crazy,’ she thought as she took a look at her watch.

She had been here as long as visiting hours permitted, but she didn’t dare go in the room alone. Melissa’s parents had shown up and had dumped the blame entirely on Kitty, saying it was her fault their daughter had been at the dance club, saying it was her fault Melissa had decided to move out, and so on and so on. Kitty had just ignored the whole thing, losing herself into her own thoughts. Some of what they’d said was true. She’d been there herself, in the dance club, when the shooting started, and hadn’t been able to do a thing to protect Melissa. She had reacted slowly, taking the offensive only after Meli had been shot.

“I’m getting nowhere,” she finally said out loud, shaking her head.

The elevator at the end of the hall pinged and a small crowd came out, including four people she knew.

“Finally! It’s about time you guys got here! I’m killing myself here!” she said as she got up to meet the crew from Sam’s Electronics.

Michael Ramsey, Sam and Rachel Young, along with Jonathan Niles all rushed toward her, and suddenly Kitty was assaulted with thousands of questions.

“Guys, one at a time!” she finally said.

“Is Melissa all right?” Michael asked, worry in his face.

“The doctors said she’d been lucky in her bad luck, compared to others. The bullets went clean through without hitting any vital parts,” Kitty explained as she waved toward the door behind which Melissa rested.

“How about you?” Sam asked, eyeing her up and down, looking for injuries.

“I’m fine. Not a bruise. I got off lucky,” Kitty replied.

Jonathan chanced a look through the window of Melissa’s room. “Is she awake?” he asked distantly.

Kitty looked at Jonathan in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to show up, let alone show some concern.

“Well, her parents were in there barely ten minutes ago, so I guess she probably still is,” Kitty answered.

“Let’s go see her then,” Sam said, and Kitty nodded.

She led them inside silently, then looked back only to see that Jonathan wasn’t following.

“You’re not coming in?” she asked.

“No,” he simply answered. “I’ll wait here.”

“Fine.”

‘So much for progress on his personality,’ Kitty thought.

The room inside was dimly lit. Apparently Melissa wasn’t expecting anymore visitors today. She didn’t even open her eyes as they came in. Kitty guessed she thought it was a doctor or a nurse.

“Melissa?” she called out softly, hoping her friend hadn’t gone back to sleep.

“Kitty?” she answered with a weak voice, opening her eyes to look at her.

“Yeah, Meli, it’s me. Listen, the others from Sam’s are here. You feel up to seeing them?”

“You kidding?” Melissa answered, some of her natural good humor coming back to her voice. “It’s not like I’m dying here or anything!”

Kitty smiled, happy to see her friend obviously recuperating well, and motioned for the others to come on in. Melissa brought the lights back up, and slowly brought herself to sit up. Kitty was disapointed to see Jonathan still wasn’t coming in. And now Rachel wasn’t approaching too much, choosing instead to wait beside the door.

“Hey, Melissa girl, glad to see you’re still yourself!” Michael said, standing beside Melissa’s bed.

Sam sat down on a chair waiting beside Melissa’s bed, while Kitty stood beside Michael.

“So, how’s my favorite employee feeling?” Sam asked Melissa.

“In pain,” Rachel suddenly answered in Melissa’s stead, and they all stared at her.

Rachel blushed and looked away.

“I mean, she must be in pain… being shot and all…” she quickly explained before slipping out of the room to join Jonathan outside.

“I was about to say just fine, actually,” Melissa pointed out.

“What’s with her?” Michael asked Sam, who shrugged.

“She’s been uncomfortable around pain ever since she was little. I never understood it,” the older man explained.

“Maybe something to do with her mother?” Melissa asked, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth she regretted saying them, as a look of pain crossed Sam’s eyes. “Sorry…” she added regretfully.

“It’s okay, and I doubt it. Her mother’s death was so sudden, she felt no pain,” Sam explained. “Anyways, when will you be up and about?”

Nobody said anything about the sudden subject change. In fact Kitty was glad for it, the situation was becoming awkward.

“In a week or so… but even then, I’ll have to be in a wheelchair for a week or so, to make sure I don’t overstress my legs or something,” Melissa explained.

But Kitty remained thoughtful, even after hearing that Melissa’s recovery wouldn’t take long. The Sigma Organization had struck a bit too close for comfort. And she intended to do something about it.

“So, what do you think, Lockheed?” Kitty asked the small dragon as she walked through Central Park, about half an hour after leaving the hospital

The whole group had stayed about fifteen minutes with Melissa before being asked to leave to allow Meli to rest a little. They had all split up after that, and now here Kitty was, wondering what to do. Lockheed replied to her question with a question of his own, which Kitty considered for a second before answering.

“Well, I know I want to either take down that Sigma group, or at least find out more about them, but I can’t very well do that from Chicago now, can I?” she explained.

Lockheed, hidden in Kitty’s specially built handbag to contain the small dragon from view, roared in approval.

“And here I’ve got this little apartment, nicely positioned to get everywhere in Manhattan fast, roof accesible and just above where I’ll be working…” Kitty continued, sitting down on a bench and putting her bag beside her.

Lockheed growled something, and Kitty found herself nodding.

“You’re right. This decision’s as good as taken. I just wanted to be sure you were agreeing with me, because, we’d be partners in all this, you and I,” she said, looking down in her bag and smiling.

Lockheed did his best impression of a smile.

“Besides, it’ll allow me to look after Melissa while she’s recuperating. Now the only thing left to do is warn the others…”

She sighed and looked up into the sky. It wouldn’t be easy, breaking her links with the X-Men like this, but she had no choice. She had friends to protect, and a future on her own to look forward to.

Limbo. A dark realm between many worlds, stuck between now and then, between never and forever. It’s a world where demons roam the land, under the leadership of the most powerful magical force to be in the land at the given time. And up until now, at least, that role had fallen over Amanda Sefton, Nightcrawler’s sometime true love.

Amanda was looking out of her room balcony in the castle that served as her current headquarters in Limbo, looking out the vast plains surrounding it. There was something wrong with Limbo today. She could feel it in her bones.

“Char’gul?” she called, referring to the demon which served as her personal aide.

Usually, Char’gul appeared right away after being summoned. This time was not so. Silence was her only answer. Amanda frowned in concern. There was obviously something wrong here.

“Char’gul!” she called again, with more intensity to her command.

After a few seconds the demon finally appeared beside her, bowing in respect.

“You called, mistress?” it asked.

“Where were you? I had to call twice!” she said, speaking with an angry tone.

“I’m… sorry, mistress. I had not heard you the first time,” it explained.

“Make sure it doesn’t happen again, or I might need to get a new aide,” she said icily, and Char’gul nodded.

“Yes, mistress.”

“Now, how is the north tower reconstruction going?” she asked, changing subject.

The tower had been destroyed when one apprentice wizard had tried to gain the control of Limbo from her. He had met with a rather harsh opposition before being banished out of the realm.

“It should be complete soon,” Char’gul said. “The workers were distracted for a while, but I believe they’ve started work again.”

“Distracted? By what?”

“An outsider. But she’s been dealt with.”

“Fine. You may leave now.”

Char’gul waited no longer and vanished, leaving Amanda to consider his words. Something was upsetting the demons under her command. Something powerful, judging by the effect it was having on Char’gul, the one she trusted the most. Amanda looked out towards the plains again. Someone was out there. A ‘she’, apparently. And it wasn’t good news.

Five days later, Chicago.

Kitty stood in front of the rest of the X-Men who had made the move to Chicago, her two hands holding bags filled with most of her personal stuff, and Lockheed sitting on her shoulder.

“Well, this is it,” she said, looking at the others with a shy smile. “I’m leaving.”

“Are you sure about this? With Betsy gone, we could need you…” Scott started, but Kitty shook her head.

“No, I have to do this. But you can come and get me if you’ve got a BIG emergency on your hands. I’m only in New York, not in Japan or something. Plus, Alison’s here now, so…” she said, nodding towards Dazzler.

“We’ll manage to survive without you,” Cecilia said, smiling.

“Ah, the wonders of seeing the young leave the flock,” Hank said, and Kitty smiled.

“I’ve left once before, to form Excalibur, only now I’m leaving on my own.”

“You be careful, and I’ll be sure to call you when the babies are born,” Jean said, rubbing her hand on her stomach.

“You had BETTER! If there’s a girl in there, her and me have got a few things to talk about,” Kitty said, the memory of Rachel Summers’ departure from our era returning to her mind.

A car stopped in front of the estate, driven by Sam Young. Michael and Rachel were with him.

“Well, my ride’s here. Get in the bag, Lockheed!”

Lockheed flew off her shoulder and hid himself in the bag. Kitty said her last goodbyes to the X-Men, and walked outside, stepping down the stairs to reach the car, waving back one last time at her friends before stepping inside. She wished Piotr would have been there. They hadn’t been on the most friendly of terms lately…

“Well, this is it,” she told herself as she stepped into the car. “An all new adventure begins… and even I don’t know what’s waiting for me there…”

NEXT ISSUE: Times Of Change Part 2. Kitty has moved into her apartment just in time to welcome Melissa home after her stay in the hospital. And what better way to do that then by throwing a small homecoming bash? But trouble galores as Kitty’s newfound friends force Lockheed into hiding, something he’s not very happy about. And now she can finally begin her search for Sigma… in an all-new costume!