Title: "When It Rains It Pours Pt. 2"
Author: Rebecca Bradstreet
Rated: PG
Archive: Sure.
Summary: Darien discovers an old friend.
Warning: Dark memories.
Disclaimer/Notes: I don't own most of these characters. They belong to Naoko Takeuchi or Marvel Comics. Of course the universe is my cobbled together mess, with some original characters in it so it will be different. I am using // as thoughts, and ** as emphasis. It's not beta'd so all mistakes are my own. ;)
"When It Rains It Pours Pt. 2"
Rebecca Bradstreet (c) 1999"Remy!" Erik let out in a long broken scream. He curled in on himself rocking in the blankets on the sofa muttering over and over, "I don't want to remember, I don't want to remember."
He had remembered too much, too much at once. He remembered Remy and Rogue leaving him to follow their hearts.
"We gotta go *for* you mon ami," Remy said giving Erik a hug, and then a parting salute from the doorway.
He remembered them coming back to help him save the world.
"It's always a crisis dat brings us together no?" Remy said with that rogue's grin of his.
And Erik remembered watching them die buying him a few more precious seconds to save the world. He could see the blood on Rogue's lips, in Remy's hair. The world had ended, but Erik wasn't dead just trapped in his memories.
Darien stood silently in the doorway. He'd been coming to ask Erik what he wanted for breakfast. He knew a nightmare when he saw one. He'd gotten four *more* hours of sleep since they'd gotten back. They'd hurt just as much as the first four.
"Darien?! Darien help me!!" Amber had called as she was struck down with a black Negaforce bolt by Beryl *that* nightmare haunted him all the time. That moment, and the one that followed. He shook his head.
//That's the past. I'm here now. She has to be here somewhere too,// Darien thought as he began to edge toward Erik.
He moved forward slowly, cautiously, and spoke softly, "Erik?"
Erik lashed out, grabbing Darien's wrist, and growling at him in some foreign language. Darien was afraid, the grip hurt, and all the color had bled out of Erik's eyes.
"Erik? Erik! It's me Darien. Your safe let me go," Darien told Erik with a cool he didn't feel.
"Darien?" Erik asked looking confused. He let go of Darien's arm, blinked, and the color returned to his eyes.
"Erik it was just a bad dream. You're fine. Your clothes are even dry," Darien said offering Erik his dry clothes.
"I...I thank you...Darien. It was...it was just a bad dream," Erik told Darien even as they both thought, //Or a worse memory.//
"So what do you want for breakfast?" Darien asked moving the subject away from bad dreams.
"I...when are we going out?" Erik said unable to remember what he liked for breakfast.
"After breakfast," Darien told him going back into the kitchen.
*****
//Shopping. Well, he had asked Darien when they were going. He wanted to see more of this world, and to have the clothes to fit into it,// Erik watched Darien negotiate the store, watched him make polite conversation with the clerks, and wondered how he would ever fit into a world that still had shopping malls and cute little store clerks.
"The fitting rooms are over here," Darien said grabbing Erik's arm, and leading him through the racks of clothing to the rooms where one was supposed to try the clothes on.
"Now here's everything you said you wanted to try on. You just take the clothes into one of the little rooms and try them on," Darien said as if he was explaining it to a child.
Erik laughed, "I'm not totally from another planet Darien. I can do this."
Erik went into the dressing room and began trying on the different clothes he and Darien had picked out for him. Darien stood around outside wondering where Erik was from, and how much time it would take him to find some place in this world. Then he saw a blond head that seemed familiar.
//No, it can't be! Can it?// Darien thought following the young man he'd seen. The young man looked like Jadeite. The young man (Jadeite?) spoke to one of the clerks Darien had been talking to earlier. She screamed and then fainted.
"No!" Darien yelled changing into Tuxedo Mask as he moved to help the girl.
"No? Who thinks they can object?!" The blond laughed dropping the unconscious clerk on the floor and turning to the objection.
"I! Jadeite?!" Darien said stopping dead in his tracks as his eyes met the young man's. It was Jadeite. A Jadeite that looked no different then he had 10,000 years ago. A Jadeite who had done something to the little store clerk, and laughed at any objections.
"Jadeite? How do you know my name?! Never mind. It doesn't matter. You won't live long enough to share it with anyone!!" Jadeite screamed shooting crystal shards at Darien.
//I can't move. I can't! I'm going to die shredded by an old friend,// Darien thought closing his eyes to his fate. Erik flew out of the dressing rooms garbed once more in his full battle armor. He landed in front of Darien, put up some kind of field between them and the shards, and tossed a clothes' rack at Jadeite using the same power.
"Magneto Master of Magnetism protects his own. If you would face this one you must face me as well," Erik yelled defiantly to the stranger that had mysteriously frozen Darien in place.
"Oh? Then perhaps we should finish this another time," Jadeite smirked at Darien before he disappeared in an energy flash.
"Darien what's going on? Who was that?" Erik asked, turning his attentions from their fled attacker to the man he owed his life to.
"Erik...let's get your clothes and get out of here," Darien said sounding tired and defeated even to his own ears.
*****
Darien had talked to the store clerks -- the police; he'd gotten them both out with talk. Then he had gone completely silent the whole ride home.
//Home? Funny. I haven't been in this world, much less this apartment more than a day, and yet it feels like home if I know what that word means,// Erik thought as he set his purchases down on the sofa, on the blankets still on the sofa. Darien had come in silently, gotten a drink silently, and sat silently on his bed. Erik wasn't sure how much more silence he could take.
"Darien? Darien what happened at the store? What really happened?" Erik asked hoping to get something more than the explanation Darien had given the police out of Darien.
"Erik you know how I've mentioned the Silver Millennium? You remember my saying I've been looking for someone? Well there are clearly a number of people who have survived the Silver Millennium and not all of them have been freed in the intervening 10,000 years," Darien said laying back on his bed and covering his eyes with one arm.
Erik stood quietly in the doorway for a long moment then he asked Darien a new question, "Jadeite wasn't using some power to hold you motionless was he? He's a friend in trouble isn't he?"
Darien lifted his arm to look at Erik in the doorway. This is why Darien had let Erik stay. Erik understood him very well for a stranger.
"Before the Fall of the Silver Millennium he was a very good friend. An evil sorceress captured him and forced him to help her tear the Silver Millennium down," Darien said feeling kind of foolish talking to someone about an evil sorceress in the 21st century. There just wasn't any other word for Beryl. Erik nodded. He didn't look fazed by "evil sorceress". What was he going to say?
"There is evil all over Darien. Jadeite is a friend who needs rescuing, a friend you didn't know needed rescuing before, but do now. If you'll let me I'll help you save him and find your other missing friends," Erik said coming into the room and standing in front of Darien.
"Look Erik just because I've been helping you out in this world doesn't mean you have to help me deal with my old one," Darien told Erik warily.
Erik smiled and shook his head, "Darien I'm not offering out of a sense of obligation, or because I was a hero in my own world and I see that your in need. I'm offering because you've been a friend and I want to be one to you. Darien *please* let me help you?"
Darien sat stunned. He didn't know Erik very well, but somehow he knew the *please* had been a very rare thing. He stood up and took the hand Erik had offered with the please.
"All right Erik, all right. Jadeite would have killed me today if you hadn't been there. Together we'll find Amber and save Jadeite from Beryl. Thank you Erik for offering to help me," Darien said shaking Erik's hand then after a moment impulsively adding a hug.
"Your welcome Darien," Erik said hugging Darien back.