16423/Titans 3023: Consequentials

Titans 3023: Consequentials
Date of Scene:	27 November 2023
Location:	The Time Sphere
Synopsis:	A distraught future Caitlin eavesdrops on a tricksy future Lucky who is keeping the TVA at bay even as she set in motion just enough discord to give their younger selves a better life than they had. She hopes. Caitlin and Lucky have a heart to heart.
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Caitlin Fairchild

---

Jinx has posed:
The glow of the portal falls out the doorway just enough to suggest something out of the ordinary is going on in there. The stilted high pitched voice of the man Lucky is talking to did not board this ship with the rest of them. He would not be here were it not for the actions of the Titans.

"Lucky work with me here. It was barely 5 minutes ago for me you promised you'd have everything under control. Now look at this. This is not good," Mobius says his voice dripping with a combination of concern and consequences.

Lucky has dropped her glamour. The long white hair has returned as she looks at the device that Mobius has presented to her. His Tempadd showing wild divergences, several looping back on themselves.

"Everything is going exactly as it should," she replies to the TVA Agent with a playful nod of her head.

"No no no. It's like you're doing this deliberately. If the universe doesn't end then I don't even know what comes out of this mess if you keep going the way you're going. Lucky. I thought we had an understanding."

Lucky rests a hand on his shoulder. His suit is finely pressed as always. She dusts it even though it needs no cleaning. "Mobius when have I ever let you down. Do you remember the first time we met?"

Mobius huffs and shifts, "Of course I remember the diner incident."

"Then you know there are limits to what your TVA processors can understand." Lucky withdraws her hand.

Seeing this conversation is going to go no where he draws back too and cranes his neck just a little. "You're passing the threshold. The /other/ TVA is going to take notice even though this is a fixed point in time. They will send agents. You need to get a clamp on all these variant events Lucky. Tell your people to stop telling their younger selves secrets or.. I'll have to do a thing."

Lucky waggles an eyebrow, "Oh no. A thing. Mobius I promise you everything will play out as it should..."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin of 3023 is on her way back to her berth from the bridge area. It has been a dramatic few hours for the redheaded Amazon, between discovering her long-lost daughter Irie, to having very vocal arguments with her Troia and the younger versions of both of those women. There had been a lot of tension, emotions running high, and Future Caitlin had stormed off after saying and doing some things that she was already regretting.

The soft glow under Lucky's door catches Caitlin's eye. Reflexively she slows near the door and rests her ear against the wall. Little known to most people, her sense of hearing is incredibly sharp.

As Lucky starts out-maneuvering the TVA agent, Caitlin can't help but grin a little. Not a lot of people can stare down the TVA, but Lucky's innate grasp of probability mechanics made her a formidable opponent for them to wrangle against.

A touch to the door controls opens the portal and Caitlin steps inside. "Agent Mobius," she greets him with an over-polite conviviality. "How nice to see you again. Is that a reset bomb in your pocket, or are you just here for a friendly chat?" She folds her arms under her chest and rests a shoulder against the doorframe. The smirk on her face belies some deep pain in her green eyes, and the relaxed posture utterly fails to make her look less imposing.

Jinx has posed:
Lucky turns to look at her friend. There's something in her eyes. Happiness to see her but also ... guilt? it's possible she knew exactly what conversation had just been had on the bridge between the two Caitlin's and the two Troia's.

"Mobius still has the thermos you gave him."

"How.." he opens up his coat pocket to reveal the thermos, "..did you know that?"

"Why is it everybody forgets how good at magic you have to be to be Sorcerer Supreme hmm? HMM?" Lucky clicks her tongue playfully and points to the orange door behind him. "It is time for you to leave now Mobius. Everyone likes you but you cannot be here. This is a nexus level event."

Mobius is catching the drift. He has questions but the answers could be compromising and cause far too much paperwork. He holds up his hands in defense. "Alright already. I can take a hint. Lovely to see you Caitie. All my best to the children, both of your myriad of spawn."

Lucky smiles kindly to him again and watches as he steps back through his doorway. It draws in to a vertical line, then down to a dot, before it disappears.

"We're running out of time Caitlin. I do not want to be the one to harsh on your already bad vibe but you need to get it together." She turns back around and places a hand on her friends shoulder this time.

"I know how hard this has been. I know how much you want her back - but in every great tragedy a seed is planted. For something better, and Irie is from that seed. We planted that seed a thousand years ago. It's time for us to let it bloom." Oh great, the batty old Sorceress is talking in riddles.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin walks over to Lucky's bunk and sits down on it. It puts her closer to eye level with Lucky, and the redhead rests her face wearily in her palms.

"That's nice of you to say, Lucky, very mystic...-y," Caitlin mumbles through her fingers. She drags her palms down her face and lets them hang between her knees, giving Lucky a look that is equal parts anger, shame, and sorrow. "But Troia was being cryptic and I forced an explanation out of her. She said..." Her throat convulses with a dry swallow. "Troia said that I'll get to see Irie one last time before I die. And I won't get her back until--" she chokes back a sob, touching her fingers to her lips and blinking back tears. "I won't get her back until I'm dead and gone," she blurts out.

It's too much for Caitlin and she starts sobbing. Wracking, agonized crying that can only come from a parent losing a child. "Aft-- after everything, after all I've done and sacrificed and suffered." Her words come out wretched and choked with misery. "After /all of it/, I can't keep her here with me."

Jinx has posed:
Lucky wraps her arms about the sitting Caitlin and rests her sobbing head against her shoulder. "Ssh ssh. I know. Believe me I know. Nothing is ever fair for you Fairchild." She gently strokes her friend's hair and simply holds her for a while.

"Do you remember when I first accidentally made another reality. Through timey wimey events another reality came to life and was spun away from us. With a technomagical nudge it was pushed free of the weight of our timeline and could go on and live a happy independent life of its own."

"I made a mistake a long time ago. One that has rippled through the centuries. One I have kept myself alive to correct. When Kían triggered that time bandit's time device and ripped a pathway to our future he inadvertently made a way for me to fix that mistake."

"While we fret the end of the universe and everyone in it - I saw opportunity. An opportunity to splinter our past in to two new timelines. And so I sewed just the right amount of discord that given the chance when confronted with our past selves ... none of us could resist the urge to fix things in our past we regret. Not even Troia."

She has a habit of being incredibly honest with Caitlin. Shockingly so. At the worst possible times. "Enough ripples in a nexus event like the one approaching and what once was can be something different. Something better. Something where Irie gets to live with her mother and father. Something where Troia does not become stone. Something where Kían gets to say goodbye. Oh so many little ripples that make for a better reality."

She draws Caitlin's teary face back from her shoulder and looks in to her blurred eyes. "A timeline where our unnecessary suffering does not have to be theirs. Don't protest. It is done. Short of us failing to save the universe nothing can stop the temporal pulse I have started."

A slightly sad look is upon Lucky's face. "It's not enough to tell you that younger you will have a better life. I know that. But may be it is some small mercy to know that they will be out there - not becoming us."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
The comfort Lucky offers Caitlin is accepted gratefully. She accepts the hug and the support-- physical and emotional. When Lucky starts speaking she manages to stifle her sobs and listen to what she's being told.

It takes her a few seconds to process Lucky's explanation of things. Caitlin blinks in confusion when she talks about 'fixing mistakes', and once Lucky releases her shoulders she sits back with an expression of growing alarm on her face.

"Is-- this is that day?" she whispers, and covers her mouth. "No, it-- it can't be," she protests. Fingers curl around Lucky's arms, trembling a little. "No, this is... this can't be right," she protests. But her words ring hollow even to Caitlin's ears. The Titans of 3023 had experienced this same event, this same visit from their future selves, but already the chain of actions was unravelling in a different way than they had experienced. Irie being by far the most notable example.

"Oh please, I can't lose you too," she begs, eyes watering again. "Not you and Irie in the same day. I've already lost so many others." It's true; children, grand-children, friends old and new. Kian and Troia had both surrendered themselves to a high power, a higher calling. Lucky was the last of Caitlin's friends who had managed to maintain her humanity.

And it visibly breaks Caitlin's heart to realize that she's losing the friend who has been there with her for a thousand years.

Jinx has posed:
Lucky can't hold back her own tears as they fall down her withered and aged face. She lets her long white hair spill over her friend as she pulls her in to a hug once more. "This is the last loop. I promise you - no other Caitlin Fairchild will have to lose so much in one day. Can you imagine, that other future you realising her Lucky would be gone too. Over and over. Who knows how many times. It is Caitlin Unfairchild. I've fixed it."

She sits down next to Caitlin on the bed, "I don't know how long this new Lucky will live, or how this new Caitlin's life will be this time. But I do know they will never have to sit here in tears saying good byes."

She presses her lips together as they quiver. "I've lived a long long life Caitlin. Longer than I should have. So many times Death would whisper gently in to my ear... not yet. Not yet Lucky. A little longer Lucky. You can rest soon Lucky. Until the last time when she held me in her arms and said... this is it Lucky. You have made it. One small journey to go."

-- One day ago:

Lucky swirled her arms across the ship as the pirate vessel fired upon her. The blasts were ones of desperation. Those pirates knew this was their one and only chance left to escape the hidden planet alive.

Harpoons clattered in to the side of the ship as the pirates latched on to Lucky's vessel. "Oh bother..." Lucky said as she felt the cold spreading through her bones. Magic enveloped her as the atmosphere leaked out and she rushed to the escape pod.

The escape pod system jammed and she awkwardly motioned to the genesis device to unleash the power of Gaia upon this world - except not this world, this spaceship. Trees sprouted out and knocked the escape pod free. The ship was the pirates now - they needed it.

Lucky slumped in her comfy chair. The escape pod was a large room even with utilities for making tea. A long tree root has penetrated her through the chest. There's no healing from that one. She slumped and in her blurry vision saw a person she had seen many times before.

A woman with short black hair and a kind smile. Holding the dying old woman in her arms she whispered, "This is it Lucky. You've made it. Your friends will be here soon. Make them some tea. Just a short trip through time and you are finally done."

--

Back to now:

"I am too old to go on Caitlin. I am not immortal like the Amazons, like you. But there is still so much for you to do. I know it will hurt, each day, putting one foot in front of the other. But you will see Irie again. I saw your possible future Caitlin. Do you want to know it?"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin stares at the floor six feet in front of her boots, eyes focused at some imperceptible spot a thousand meters away. She looks numb. Fair features pale and drawn, the stress of the moment suggesting at age lines in her eyes that will never come in her endless-seeming lifetime. Caitlin has lived a thousand years as a hero in the eyes of millions. Known across all human civilization. Blessed by the greatest Powers in the universe.

And to Lucky's eye, she seems to have the fragility of youth and old age both written across her strong features.

When Lucky makes the oracular offer, Caitlin freezes. Her eyes dart sideways, and she imperceptibly shakes her head 'no'. A half-second passes and she looks sidelong at Lucky, then forces herself to sit up straight and fold her hands in her lap with her usual sense of proper posture.

"Just... tell me that sending Irie back to the past is what is best for her," she says, her voice a hoarse whisper. "That she will be happy and live her best life, even wi--" she swallows, eyes flickering, but does not let herself cry. "Even with that younger version of me as her mother."

Caitlin turns her head to look at Lucky. "Can you do that?" she begs.

Jinx has posed:
Lucky rests her head on Caitlin's shoulder and wipes at her own tears. A little sniffly she accepts the request of 'no'. Caitlin always makes the hard choice. But at least she can give her this one piece of mind. "She will. Caitlin my dearest friend when she was lost to you she was found again by you. Even though she did not have her mother she still had -you-."

She touches a hand to her heart, "When our little bean disappeared I felt my heart break too. She grew up with the Titans and she... finished growing up with the Titans. Look at her - she's a hero now. Facing off against a time paradox those youngsters couldn't possibly comprehend yet they do so with valour and bravery."

"...do you know who she learnt that from? - You. You need to keep going Caitlin because you are the mother of heroes. Always have been always will be. Even that young version of yourself will one day learn to hug the world with her big ol' goofy arms."

A gentle nudge in to Caitlin's side with an old nobly elbow. "Live for every lost hero who needs a family and a home. Our bean found one in alternative us. She is safe. She is loved. Their future is bright indeed."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
From anyone else, to anyone else, it would sound a little aggrandizing. 'Mother of heroes'. But it's far from incorrect. Children, grand-children, great-grand-childen... every century or so, a new relationship, a new family. Lucky was there for all of Caitlin's children, just as Caitlin was there for all of Lucky's. There was even some intermarriage down the line of descendents, making of the women familial both figuratively and literally.

Suffice that over the centuries, the two of them have come to love each other in ways no one else can really comprehend.

Caitlin turns to Lucky and wraps her arm around those slender shoulders. This time, she's lending her strength to Lucky, giving her the world's steadiest shoulder to cry on.

"I don't know what I'm going to do without you," she admits, and sighs in resignation. "...Probably start telling a lot of ribald stories that I've been sitting on for the past thousand years," she adds, and there is at last a little humor back in her voice.

Jinx has posed:
Lucky chuckles warmly at the suggestion of sus tales being spread about her after she's gone. "Mm. No doubt. But I have left you something to help you." Lucky never explained to anyone why she was going off spreading life to dead worlds. Something something Gaia's wishes. But there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it.

She reaches in to her pocket and pulls out a small data pad. She taps it in to the air and a hologram appears of the Milky Way. A curved line of systems is highlighted. Once dead worlds, each of them now teeming with life.

"All the forests are connected. From world to world. Through Gaia's will. Themyscira is but one island but I thought - what if you could do with a little bit more space. After all there are bound to be a lot of heroes and legacies to remember of them down the eons you may yet live."

She places the little datapad on to Caitlin's lap. "Did I ever tell you it was a mystical forest that lead me to Themyscira the first time? with Troia.. back when she was a person. If you wish to travel the forested world ways Caitlin, merely summon the white buck. It will show you the way."

More mystery. A white buck? traveling between worlds through mystical forests? Lucky surely has gone over the bend on this one. Except Caitlin knows she hasn't. "If only our Troia had had as much faith in us as she did in her Titan gods - after today Caitlin I want you to promise me you'll let go of her. You only hurt yourself by holding on to an idea that is dead."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin picks up the datapad and waves it near her left bracelet. A second holographic image appears above her wrist, and once she's satisfied it transferred to her Mother Box, she turns both off and sets the pad down between them.

But a pained expression crosses her face at Lucky's admonition and she looks away, then screws her eyes shut and sighs before facing forward again.

"I know. I /know/," she admits, quietly. "I know you're right. I've spent centuries trying to figure out how. As much as I hate her sometimes there's part of me that never stopped loving her. What we did together, what we had--" she swallows a choked sound back and deliberately tamps down her emotions. "I've spent so long angry at her, but I know if she came back to me right now, I'd welcome her without hesitating."

With a weary exhalation she leans her shoulders against the bulkhead behind her and props the heel of her foot against the bed, resting her arm on her knee. "I'll keep your mission going," she promises Lucky. "At least until Mother Gaia tells me she's appointed someone to take over as her Champion." Her head lolls sideways and she smiles at Lucky. "Whoever it is will have big shoes to fill."

Jinx has posed:
Lucky nods her head, "I know you will. The wait is not long. Their name is D'nesh." She lifts up her fingers and with a twist a wooden box shimmers in to existence before Caitlin. "And they will need this box." Her other hand dips in to her robe and pulls out a letter, "And this explanation."

She waggles an eyebrow. "As fate would have it," The puns never stopped. ".. D'nesh will find their way to you very soon. Assuming the universe doesn't end." She pats pats Caitlin on the belly playfully, "We'd better see to it that it doesn't."

Standing up with a small grunt, she restores her glamour. A younger more energetic looking Lucky stands before Caitlin once more. "Oh - and try to keep a lid on future secrets. Believe me, the younglings have heard -more- than enough." A taptap of a finger on the side of the nose.