Post MoM AU, general post

[use_everything]

And then one day, it was over.

The memory of how it happened was hazy. Perhaps it was as simple as being ported out, perhaps there was a great experiment, bringing together physicists, chemists, alchemists and scientists to get something WORKING. But like the memories of that time, that other dimension, singular events come and go, like a dream, or an age past.

From the very start, however, there were changes.

Comments

[jacksonian]

[ He looks down. ]

The Komarrans' safe-house was there. It's where I was taken after Jackson's Whole.

[dendarii]

[ Miles bobs his head thoughtfully at that. (And curses a bit mentally. Given Mark's age, remembering was unlikely ... and yet ... ) ]

I've been to Earth as well. But not the same one.

[jacksonian]

[ A beat. ]

What?

[dendarii]

Not the same Earth. You see, myself and several others from our Nexus were pulled into an alternate dimension. An alternate Earth.

Including you, Mark.

[jacksonian]

[ A little more choked. ]

What?

[dendarii]

Well, sort of. You haven't been yet. So you probably won't remember anything until you hit the point where you do go. It was like that for me.

[jacksonian]

[ A beat.



]

What?

[dendarii]

It pulled us from different places in the timeline. Da went twenty years ago. And he's been changing things ever since. I went when I was eight, sort of. That's when my powers came in.

[jacksonian]

That's insane.

[dendarii]

You're talking to a bird.

[jacksonian]

I'm insane.

[dendarii]

Or maybe there's something crazier at stake. I'm telling the truth.

[ He hops back a bit, if just because he needs a little space for this. In the next split second, he's sitting on the floor as a person again. ]

[jacksonian]

[ He flinches just a bit. Once Miles is a person again, he shakes his head and then covers his face with his hands. ]

I don't - understand.

[ A beat. ]

It just...feels...familiar.

[dendarii]

[ Somthing brightens in Miles' expression at that. ]

Yeah? Almost like a dream?

[jacksonian]

Yeah. Which means I'm crazy.

[dendarii]

No, it means you're close. You might even have remembered something.

[jacksonian]

No. I don't - I don't remember that. I don't remember anything.

[dendarii]

Nothing at all?

... Why Mark, then?

[jacksonian]

[ He looks down. And he shrugs. ]

I needed...some name. And they only ever called me Miles.

[dendarii]

Well, right. I understand that.

But I knew you as Mark on Earth too.

[jacksonian]

[ He draws away, swallows. He's alarmed. ]

[dendarii]

... I think it's possible to remember bits and pieces ahead of time. I occasionally had something pop back before everything did.

And you might have your powers already. Like I said, mine came in when I was eight.

[jacksonian]

I don't have any powers.

[ He swallows again. ]

I'm - I don't have - anything. I don't have any gifts.

[dendarii]

That's not true. Whether or not you have your superpowers or not. You ran financials for the whole family on Earth. Taught me a lot.

[jacksonian]

The whole family?

[ He looks up, uncertain. ]

For the...Vorkosigans?