Dragon's Claws #30

"Time will say nothing but I told you so,
Time only knows the price we have to pay;
If I could tell you I would let you know"
- W H Auden, 'If I Could Tell You'

"Why him?" Pen said as he looked at Kaine. "I know we're not exactly spoilt for choice, but Britannic's a few sandwiches short of a picnic."

"I'm standing right here," Britannic said.

"He's not that bad," Kaine said. "Yet. The last person to see Brian Braddock floating in the time stream was Kate Pryde-Rasputin, when she met him and was given instructions to form Excalibur, the team who fought Necrom. At that point he was still Brian Braddock, he just knew a lot of what was happening."

"Ok," said Pen. "I'll play along."

Jessica looked at Brian, standing there, tall and powerful. "So how did he go from Captain Britain to Britannic?"

"I didn't want to be controlled," Brian said. "Going from Captain Britain to King Britain… I felt I was being used, as I've always been used. I chose the name Britannic, because I'm proud of my heritage, but I don't want to be used again and I thought I could change things, be my own person, if only for a little while."

"You tried to change the future?" said Pen, concerned. "Why?"

"Because right now, I know what's going to happen to me," he replied. "And there's nothing I can do to stop it." Pen looked in to the man's eyes and he could see such sorrow, such despair. Whatever was going to happen to him was bad and Brian was his friend.

"Is there anything I can do?" he said, putting his hand on his shoulder and Britannic shook his head.

"Not for me, but you'll have to rebuild things, restore my true legacy. Promise me, Peter."

The use of his real name was a surprise, but it gave the request more strength. "I promise," Pen said.

"So now there's three of you," said Kaine. "Pen, Jessica, Britannic. Should be more than enough to rescue Rick and seal off the Martian future."

"How did we do it the last time?" said Pen. "In your past."

"You never said," Kaine replied, "but you did it anyway. All I can do is point you in the right direction."

"Take Valinor," said Damien. "He will take you to where you want to go."

"Valinor?" said Pen. "It can't be."

"Not the original no," said Damien. "He is his father's son, as I am the son of the Black Knight."

"You're Dane's son?" asked Jessica and Damien smiled.

"I never said Dane was the Black Knight to whom I referred."

"I hate Otherworld answers," Pen and Jessica said together. On the rampartsd of the castle, they climbed on board the horse, looking towards the direction Kaine had pointed them in, while Britannic simply lifted up off the ground.

"How are you doing that without the energy matrix?" Pen asked.

"My suit gathers power from the temporal energy matrix," Brian replied. "Shall we go?"

"Let's," said Pen and the three of them flew off to the fight as Kaine and the Black Knight watched.

"They've gone," said Lord Pen Dragon as he emerged from the shadows. "I hate lying to myself."

"It needed doing," Kaine answered. "It was the only way, Grandfather." Dragon stroked his goatee beard as he watched them go, then he shook his head and turned, his robes billowing in the breeze about him. It was never easy…

"You're not insane," said Pen as he looked at Britannic as he flew by them. "Kind of weird, but ok."

"Insane?" Brian said. "What do you mean, insane?"

"Well," Dragon started, looking for the words. "You're…" He was interrupted in his thoughts as he glanced at the horizon. There were two Martian cruisers coming towards them. "Later," he said as he nodded in their direction. "We've work to do."

Britannic nodded and shot off like a missile towards one of the vessels, ploughing in to and through the vessel, and then it exploded from the massive damage it had inflicted. The other ship tried shooting him out of the sky, but the big man flew with grace and style, avoiding the shots and keeping it occupied until Valinor got in range of the ship and Pen fired off his hot-knives. He could see from the grin on Brian's face that this was something he had missed, that being trapped in time, going from the distant past to any one of millions of possible futures and back again had been keeping him from what he was born to do - fight in defence of Otherworld.

"I could have done that," Jessica said, itching for a fight.

"You'll get your chance," said Pen, as they came towards a Martian mothership. It was landed and stationery, but there was a hefty amount of war machines down there.

"How the hell are we going to do this?" Jessica muttered.

"Do you trust me?" Pen asked, quietly.

"Of course I do," Jess replied.

"Then hold on tight," he said and he threw them off Valinor, and they plummeted towards the ground. Dragon's hot knives flared from his fingertips, hitting the floor below and slowing their descent with thermal updrafts and the hot knives as they embedded themselves in the ground and soon they were on the floor, with a very light impact as they landed, Britannic swooping in behind them. "This is the plan," said Pen. "Brian, you're on dismantling the war machines. Jess and I will infiltrate the base and find the time portal."

"How will you shut it down?" Brian asked and Pen smiled.

"Caliburn," he replied. "The magic of Otherworld and the Green, focused in one strike. Oh, Jess, pass me the sword." She did, looking at him in askance. "In case you change and we lose it. If I'm right, because I'm holding it, the sword won't disappear. It might if I drop it though."

"Don't drop it then," said Brian and Jessica in unison and Pen shook his head. He took the sword and pushed it through his trouser pocket, coming out of the leg and turning it in to a makeshift scabbard.

"Let's go," he said and they set off. It wasn't going to be easy, but between Brian's power, Dragon's hot knives and Jessica's bio-blasts, they would easily clear a path if the subtle and sneaky approach failed, and that was all they needed to do. It was a gamble that most of the forces were on Earth, but it was one they needed to take.

Britannic went to work with an almost reckless abandon, using the full power at his disposal. While he wasn't invulnerable, he could take punishment and he could certainly dish it out. He slammed through the legs of a Tripod, grabbing the third and used it as a mace to slam the others out of the way. The Martians had never seen this kind of assault on them, at least not here where they were supposedly safe from harm and Brian was providing the distraction the other two needed to break in to the complex.

"You think he'll be okay?" Jessica asked as they covertly made their entrance.

"Britannic? Oh hell yeah," Dragon said, glancing back. "Look at him, he's having fun." He nodded to her. "We've work to do."

Back at New Camelot, Elena Ivanova paced the floor, thinking she should have gone with them, no matter what the other members of the Axiom had said. She was one of the team, part of Dragon's Claws, and she should be helping her friends.

"I know what you're thinking," said Damien as he watched her pace, "that you should be with your colleagues, but history does not record you being there."

"History hasn't been made yet," Elena replied. She could feel it, that things were in flux. Her true nature had started to come through when they were on the Moon, and whatever had happened to her then was growing. Her awareness of truth was more than just an effect of her psionic power, her psionic power was an affect of her nature, the essence of truth throughout reality. For that to be maintained, she had a psionic connection with all things, so that there would be truth within them. Everyone knew their truths, but most chose to hide away from things that they did not like, and she knew that it was the way of things, and she knew that her sisters within the Axiom meant well, but what had happened to them had not happened yet. She needed to be out there and there was nothing in Truth that denied that, and she gathered up every ounce of KGB presence she had ever had in her lifetime and fixed her gaze on Damien.

"I'm going to join my friends," she said. "Either help me or get out of my way."

"This is easier than we thought," Pen said, as they moved around the base, almost undetected. "We'll sort this out…" They turned a corner and his face fell as they came across a battalion. "Oh crap."

Jessica reacted first, using her bio-blasts to strike out, flinging shots all over. The venom blasts effect on the aliens was still impressive and deep down Jessica enjoyed the way it made them explode like that. Whatever the High Evolutionary had done to her, he'd done it well. Pen took her lead on the issue and fired barrage after barrage of hot knives on the unsuspecting aliens, who reacted way too late to put up any solid kind of defense, but the damage was done - they knew they had been infiltrated. This was not going to be as easy as they'd hoped, they still didn't know where Rick was, and now the enemy were coming forward.

"This isn't good," Dragon said as the two of them were back to back.

"I know," Jessica answered. "If we screw up…"

"Then it's over," Pen replied, thinking of a way out of this. There had to be one. "This might sting a bit," he muttered. He closed his eyes, clasped his hands together and focused, willing up his inner energy, the way he had been taught on Otherworld, tapping in to every available resource he had. Merlyn's machinations had given him a lot more durability than he'd had before he'd died and this was something he could handle okay. A small ball of energy formed as heat rose around him, super heated plasma coalescing in to the energy ball. "Don't try this at home, kiddies," he muttered, sweat pouring off his brow, and then he felt something else, something other than his own energy. He was drawing power from Caliburn too. He spread his fingers wide, creating a massive funnel and the energy was unleashed in a wide dispersal, reducing the aliens to cinders. The smell of burnt flesh and bone wafted through the air, an unmistakeable scent of death, and Pen sank to his knees. "Dragon one, aliens nil," he said.

"What was that?" asked Jessica as she helped him up.

"I call it a soul flare," Pen said. "You tap in to your inner energy resources, add a bit of lifeforce and unleash it. Got a bit lucky, the sword gave me a hand, otherwise I'd have been dead on my feet right now."

"You're not far off," Jessica replied.

"It's worse than this," he said, looking in to her eyes and she could see it had cost him more than he was letting on. "We've a job to do, so come on."

"You didn't leave me any?" Britannic asked as he swooped in. His costume was more ragged than it had been when they last saw him, and his skin glistened with sweat and blood from various cuts.

"We need to find Rick Jones," said Pen, not bothering to trade quips. He wasn't in the mood.

"Either help me or get out of my way." They turned and Elena was standing there, just appearing as if from nowhere.

"Now there's something you don't see everyday," said Pen. "Thought you weren't joining us?" Elena blinked and looked around, confused as to where she was. "Elena?"

"I'm here?" she said, almost to herself. She closed her eyes and listened to the universe, hearing the truth. As she was Axiom, she was the Truth and the Truth was her. If her personal Truth was that she wanted to be somewhere, she was, and she explained it to the others.

"That's amazing," said Pen.

"You've more power than any of us ever realised," said Jessica. "Power you've had all along."

"Axiom," said Britannic. "Incredible."

"I've found Rick," she said, as she reached out with her psionics. "Follow me!" she set off, leaving the other three to look at each other for a moment, before setting off after her, Pen lagging behind slightly as he was still quite weary from his stunt a moment ago, and he wondered why she didn't just wish them all there like she had done before, unless it only worked on her. He chided himself, wondering why he ever tried to work out cosmic beings, aspects of reality and the like. That way only ended in madness.

"Come on, you old fool," he said to himself. "Get it together, they're depending on you." He hurried after them as best he could, hearing the sounds of violence ahead of him as the other three hit and bashed their way towards Rick Jones. It didn't take them long and Britannic broke down the door of the cell that he was in, only to receive a far greater surprise. Rick had a cell mate, and both of them were being held in some kind of stasis field.

"Wynter?!" said Pen in surprise and he shut the field down, releasing them. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"I got captured when the Martians attacked the UK," he said. "Was not expecting you, Dragon. We thought you were dead."

"We've not been gone that long," said Pen.

"Best part of six months since you headed off in to time to find Rick Jones," the wizard replied. "When I was brought here, I figured you'd failed." Pen, Jessica and Elena looked at each other. Something had gone horribly wrong somewhere. When they had arrived, it wasn't right and could it have been something in Limbo. They'd have to deal with that later, right now there was work to do.

"Brian," Jessica said as Elena and Pen briefed Rick on what was happening, "can you sense the time hole?" Brian focused, sensing things. His suit absorbed temporal energies and the strongest force at the moment seemed to be.

"Straight up," Wynter said. "I can feel it too."

"Wynter, I need you to keep Rick safe," Dragon said. "We're going to put an end to this alien invasion once and for all, and then we'll pick up the stragglers." Wynter nodded, knowing that had been the plan from the reports of the Claws who had made it home and were defending the Earth. "Brian, punch through!" Braddock lifted up and smashed through the decks of the ship until he reached the top. Pen fired his hot knives up and as they embedded themselves, he retracted them in, pulling himself and the girls up with him, and they stood before a glowing portal. "These people watch way too much Stargate," Pen muttered, as he drew Caliburn. Then he looked at Jessica. "We need to do this together," he said. "Elena, link us." Elena nodded and created a psionic rapport between them and they grabbed hold of the sword and thrust it in to the portal, Pen keeping the sword in the time zone, with Jessica using her birthright, calling on the magic within the blade. Temporal energy surged through the area and Brian was with them in a moment, absorbing the energy before it ripped the two of them apart.

Magic and science ripped in to the very heart of reality, and Elena doubled over in pain, as if the sword were stabbing through her. This was it, the death of Axiom and she was reclaimed by her sisters to the safe place, ready for Axiom to be reborn as soon as the current Axiom died.

In Limbo the inert systems did nothing but monitor the ruptures forming across time itself, Kate Pryde-Rasputin able to do nothing but watch, trapped as she was in the energy vortex placed around her by Ravonna. Limbo's towers began to shake and crumble, the mighty fortress unable to cope with the stresses being placed on time and it would soon collapse in on itself and Limbo would be forever sealed off, lost to all but the most powerful of beings. If Kate could have cried, she would have done so. From her point of view, it had all been for nothing.

"PULL OUT THE SWORD!" a voice shouted and the two of them heaved and wrenched Caliburn out of the portal, leaving a gaping wound within it, a wound that expanded around not only the portal but travelling to the origin point as well, where the sheering of temporal forces were destroying the Martian held world, leaving nothing but ruins and ashes of the planet, ending the future Martian threat once and for all. Brian was comatose, the energy absorbed too much for him. His body wasn't built to contain temporal energy, not like the mystical energy and Pen and Jessica watched as Caliburn faded away as her clothing changed to the same uniform she ahd worn at the start.

"We have to go!" Wynter said, helping them along with Rick Jones. "This place is being sucked back to it's point of origin and if we go back, we'll be trapped on a dead world."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Jessica and Wynter surrounded them in a mystical bubble and transported them away, the sheering temporal forces buffeting them all and as they departed the Null Point to enter the time stream, Wynter lost his focus and Britannic slipped away from them.

"Leave him!" said Pen, before Wynter tried to retrieve him. "This is as it was meant to be."

"I hope you're right," said Wynter and the spell ended and they were back, safe.

"Where are we?" asked Jessica.

"Otherworld," said Pen. "We're on Otherworld." Wynter nodded.

"Excuse me," said Rick, unsure of what was going on. "But what happens now?"

"We find out what we've missed and go from there," Pen said, a bad feeling coming over him. They'd been gone a long time, were they too late?