A person long gone.
He shuddered again as her hand massaged his neck, then gripped him tighter.
“What is it?”
“I sensed something.”
He met her eyes and saw her look of anguish. This was hell for her. For everyone, but she must be tortured by so much more. To have so many questions, and she had been caught up in a world of mystery. From the death of her father, to the shrouded archives of the Smithsonian where she had worked and had been denied the truth over and over.
And then of course… to the man she loved, who just so happened right now to be carrying the one artifact that prevented her (or anyone) from glimpsing anything about him psychically. He hadn’t been sure what glimpses she had up until now, until Orlando handed over the sphere for their safekeeping and protection on their way out of the Masonic Building, but if she hadn’t already learned too many things he’d rather she didn’t know, then it was too late now.
The ancient sphere rested in a bag at his feet, along with a .45, a satellite radio, a couple of power protein bars and a bag of hostess donuts. Orlando’s habits had been rubbing off on him.
“The planetary shield,” she said, grimacing. “I see the component elements from the earth’s magnetic core. Exit points through ancient sites and ruins of lost cities.” Diana held her head with her free hand. “But, I can’t quite see… what was done before. I see there was a shield, ages ago. It was up, and the world was like now. People couldn’t handle it. They tried. Changed the frequency, using some sound-harmonic thing. I see it, an array, like at HAARP.”
She reached for Xavier, pulling him close like she had just lost something so dear and needed to cling to anyone, anything.
“Calm,” he said. “You must be asking the right questions, and damn you’re strong and focused, to see that far back. It must be… millennia.”
She shook her head, almost sobbing into his neck. “I don’t want to know. Not really, not when…” She groaned. “I can’t stop it, all the visions coming from questions I’ve had locked away my whole life. Boxes in a vault with its door ripped open.”
She backed up slightly, eyes fluttering back, and he watched, helpless but encouraging. She needed this, and just maybe it would clear her thoughts enough to focus on their main task at hand.
Because God knows I can’t focus.
All he could see was death and destruction.
She went on, speaking non-stop, breathlessly, about the locked finds in the Smithsonian hidden archives, about tearing open vault after vault and spilling relics that shouldn’t be, revealing things about the breath of the Phoenicians’ travels, about jackal-headed Egyptian envoys crossing the Americas, about Roman-style ships landing on the Caribbean isles; she raved about flying vessels glimpsed over Niagara Falls in some prehistoric era. She went on, unlocking and uncovering things, trying to veer back to the mission, trying to see the way to destroy the shield or stop the impending comet, but she couldn’t focus on either.
We’re quite the pair, he thought, struggling with his own onslaught of visionary Armageddon, interspersed with other equally heart-stopping visions:
A cascading series of fireballs streaking into the atmosphere, selecting targets and blasting into population centers or the oceans and causing massive tsunamis, darkening the skies, flattening the cities…
Another glimpse, of a different alternative, as the same remnants of Icarus slam into an invisible shield above the earth, shattering and disintegrating, while below…
A man in a crimson cloak with a samurai helmet sits upon of a throne of ebony on a mountain where skulls hang from chains on a long trek up the trail. A devastated earth, blasted by nuclear war, littered with corpses and bloated carrion birds, desolate cities and farms run by slaves, erecting monuments of grandeur and new cities of staggering, obscene beauty.
In yet another vision, there’s a frozen pyramid and a ramp leading toward a doorway in its midsection. Snowmobiles and Sno-Cats race toward the entrance, chasing another vehicle as grenades explode and the ice shreds from automatic weapon fire.
A final glimpse: a figure in a black hooded cloak with an emerald gem around his neck, floating before a dazzling golden tree whose branches and vines grow from his back, and he wields a power from his fingertips, spearing energy through countless rifts in space and time, absorbing (or corrupting) other universes, subjugating other races while whole worlds bend to the devastating truth of one who straddles realities.
The images shake, the universes spin and collide and merge and explode, and this hooded figure, fueled by the unlimited power of the One-Tree and the serpent winding around and around it, eyes sated with fulfilled purpose…
And that emerald gem around his neck, glittering, as the hood peels back.
“Let me see, let me see…”
Xavier willed it, commanded it like he’d never commanded any vision before, knowing full well that of all the visions he’d ever experienced in his life, all the life-saving glimpses to forestall his death, this was the one he would never avoid.
Never, unless he could see that face.
Unless he knew who it was that claimed the gem, who could bring about the destruction of everything, everywhere and send this whole house of cards cascading into oblivion, ending the game forever.
It wasn’t the man in red. This was someone else…
He gripped Diana’s hand, realizing more than ever, he didn’t want it to end. Not yet, not when he had something to live for.
“I can’t see it,” she moaned. “I can’t help. You have to…”
Xavier caressed her hand. Settled his breathing and tried to clear out the vision of the hooded man — and the near-glimpse of his face. It was so close, and he knew, just knew that the features would be familiar. He had to try again, but this was more pressing. They had to stop the immediate crisis or nothing else would even matter. Despite the looming threat he had just seen.
“I’m blind,” he said. “I can’t help, I’m just getting non-stop visions of the end of the freakin’ world.”
“You can swear around me,” Diana said, trying to force a laugh. “After all we’ve been through, your gentleman phase is a relic at this point.”
“Hey, I’m always a gentleman,” he countered. “Or aim to be, despite the shithole body I’m in.”
“That’s why I can’t stand to be without you, my dear.”
She gave him a smile as beautiful as any sight he’d ever witnessed in all his visions, all the more so because he knew how much she was suffering, and how magnificent the effort.
He sighed. “I can’t see anything else, you know. But I want to help you. Beyond deciding on what we can stop, comet or shield…”
“I thought we determined the shield is the priority.”
“Well, if that bitch Miriam wanted it up so bad, I want it down. But still…” He blinked and saw afterimages of the comet’s fury crashing into the earth.
“Something’s blocking me, though.” Diana said it calmly, and after touching Xavier’s cheek. She turned him to face her. She took a deep breath, moved in close, and gently pressed her lips to his.