[Dreams of the Waking Man: Twenty-Third Dream] The Traveler
and now Nathan gets to deal with having a smart, Nate-hating Wade around (however temporarily). turns out, it could be kinda handy.
warnings: giant collision of Earth-339 AU and my Fateverse. brandishing of weapons. language: pg-13 (primetime tv plus f*** and s***).
pairing: Nate/Herald!Wade, Logan/Traveler!Wade.
timeline: June 2012.
disclaimer: i doesn't owns the movies, comics, or characters. or the assorted objects of pop culture reference.
notes: 1) Wade and Logan arrived in Alive, a Dark Avengers fic with mature content. 2) yes, Nate and Wade keep a plasma rifle next to the front door. you never know, right? 3) Logan 'overreacting' to Wade's flying was back in Learn to Fly. 4) Eight-Ball arrived in the past in Frozen Effigies. 5) the WM bundle is probably a red branch. hence, Traveler!Wade is careful to limit his interference with Eight-Ball's work. 6) in Central Park, just north of the water conservatory (where they like to hold miniature sailboat races, btw) is a big bronze statue of Alice sitting on a huge mushroom with the March Hare, the Mad Hatter, the Dormouse, Dinah, and the Cheshire Cat.
visit The Fateverse Glossary for terms, concepts, Nodes, and important people.
The Traveler
Nathan was angry when he caught a glimpse of Bullseye (and Wolverine’s son) slinking into Wade’s apartment building.
He thought he played it off well, telling Wade and the girls to go on toward the park without him. Expecting a confrontation, he paused by the front door to retrieve the plasma rifle stashed in the heavy armoire that served as a coat closet.
Nathan was downright furious when he saw that not only were Bullseye and Daken poking around in the bedroom, but two more uninvited guests were present, too.
He certainly didn’t like the fact that these strangers were dangerous enough to have a pair of psychotic mercenaries at their mercy.
And then the one with the swords started babbling about inter-dimensional travel (Nathan got a very firm sense of Wade-ness the moment the man opened his mouth), and Nathan decided that his day was officially ruined.
Now Daken and Bullseye are gone, and Nathan is standing in the doorway of Wade’s bedroom, holding a plasma rifle on a sheepish killer and his exasperated partner.
The stranger (Nathan doesn’t want to think of him as Wade-he’s too different, too pretty in a nasty, superficial way that reminds Nathan uncomfortably of the whole Façade mess) shuffles his feet awkwardly. He glances at his hands, seems to realize for the first time that there are still swords protruding from his knuckles. “Oh, uh…sorry,” he mumbles, and flexes his arms so that the blades slide in.
Nathan spares a moment to wonder about the mechanics of arm-length pieces of metal and the mobility of elbows-then he dismisses it, deciding that a world with the technology to support inter-dimensional travel could have collapsible blades (the Askani had certainly had access to similar things). “I’m waiting for an explanation,” he says evenly. “Who are you, and what are you doing in Wade’s room?”
“I can tell you’re gonna be exceptionally grumpy about this,” the stranger sighs. “So let’s start with nice, calm, gunfire-free introductions. Hi, Nate. I’m Wade Wilson, but since that could lead to some confusion, you can call me the Traveler. Yes, with a capital letter, it’s weird, but I’m kinda stuck with it, long story to do with accidentally bouncing between a few hundred alternate universes. I’m waffling on whether I should capitalize the ‘the’ in front, but then it would feel kinda like a band name.”
“And your companion?”
“Jamie.”
“Logan,” the other man grunts in annoyed correction.
“As for why we’re here, we didn’t have any particular intention to arrive in your Wade’s room,” the Traveler goes on. “We’re here for the cute little empty snowglobe he has stashed next to the porn.”
Nathan’s eyes dart downward before he can help himself-he almost shoots the Traveler when the man suddenly bends to pick up the crystal sphere. “What is that?” he asks.
The Traveler winces.
The expression translates itself in Nathan’s brain automatically as Wade-speak for ‘the explanation is long and detailed and likely to get me yelled at.’
And then Wade suddenly leans around Nathan’s elbow and says, “Oh, this is why you came back.”
Startled, Nathan flinches. “I wish you wouldn’t do that, Wade.”
“Dude, why are people always so shocked and dismayed to find that I can do the stealth thing?” Wade mutters.
“I know, right?” agrees the Traveler. “Do they let you drive? Because they don’t let me drive.”
“No; they don’t let me fly, either. I don’t get it, man-you’ve flown one aircraft, you’ve pretty much sorta-kinda flown ‘em all, right? If Murdock from A-Team can do it, it can’t be that hard.”
“Exactly!” The Traveler nudges Logan with his elbow. “See, Jamie, I told you you were overreacting. Flying that over-computerized hunk of junk with my brain? Complete cakewalk compared to figuring out how to fly an Apache.”
“I’m never riding in anything you’re flying, Wade,” Logan growls.
Pouting, the Traveler looks away. “What if it was a choice between a helicopter and a nuclear explosion?”
Logan raises his eyebrows. “Wade, you can teleport. You can teleport with a passenger.”
“I’ll have a good comeback for that later.”
Wade holds up his hands in a ‘time out’ signal. “Since you’re me, you know I hate to interrupt adorable boyfriend-on-boyfriend bickering, but can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?”
The Traveler holds up the crystal ball again. “This thing. It probably showed up all on its own at some point, maybe in a flicker of blue light. Right?”
“Like a timeslide,” Wade confirms. “Yeah, back in December.”
Nathan frowns over the fact Wade never mentioned this before.
“Well, its name is Eight-Ball, and it’s a photonic-resonance-based sentient computer. I don’t actually know how much I’m allowed to tell you guys-”
Nathan bristles and starts to argue, but the Traveler holds up his free hand and keeps talking.
“-because traveling through the timestream, especially laterally, can cause all kinds of weird shit to happen and we don’t want your timeline to destabilize and collapse. Anyway, this doohicky is supposed to help you save the world. I’ll teach you how to use it later. For now, you just hold onto it and go play while the time-travelly-types have a talk.”
“I resent the condescension, other-me,” Wade complains, but holds out his hand and takes the crystal.
“Hold onto that,” the Traveler says again. “You’ve probably been having trouble with mercs and villains lately, right? Ninety percent chance it’s because of that. Make sure they don’t get it.”
“Righty-oh, Gandalf,” Wade replies with a lazy salute. “Secret, safe, got it. I’ll leave you three jerks to yap about the space-time continuum, because I’m late for a very imporant date.”
“Be careful,” Nathan tells him, still keeping his eyes (and plasma rifle) on their ‘guests.’
When he hears the front door click shut, he backs out of the bedroom doorway and nods toward the living room.
The Traveler thoughtfully closes Wade’s sock (and porn) drawer with his foot on his way out. “Quick question-just a formality, since I recently had a bad experience with an Evil Nate-what are your thoughts on ruling the world?”
Nathan watches the pair prowl to the couch and sit. “That anyone who thinks he can or should is probably insane.”
“I like that. ‘Or should.’ That’s a good addendum. Gets rid of that little loophole you usually leave yourself.”
“Well, I’ve been told more than once that I don’t understand enough about people or human nature to properly lead more than about six at a time.”
“God, it’s a bona fide fuckin’ miracle,” laughs the Traveler. “You may be the most sensible Nate Dayspring I have ever met.”
“Summers,” Nathan mutters under his breath.
The Traveler blinks at him placidly and reaches into a cargo pocket. He draws out another crystal ball, this one slightly milky in color. “Hey, Effcee-you still awake?”
~Yeah,~ the thing says in a synthesized voice. ~But being awake in a pocket’s kinda boring.~
“Which Nate is this?”
~Nathan Dayspring WM339-Gamma.~
The Traveler gestures. “There you have it,” he says. “According to the Network, and therefore most of the multiverse, it’s Dayspring.”
Sighing, Nathan shoulders his rifle. “All right, fine. Now explain to me what this ‘Network’ is, and what those crystal computers are.”
After a moment of staring in silence, the Traveler closes both hands over the sphere and sets it down on the coffee table. “Since Wade recognized the signs of a timeslide, I’m gonna assume you’ve done the time-travel thing. I’ll assume that means it’s safe to go ahead and give you the Cliff Notes on the timestream and the Network.”
Nathan raises an eyebrow and waits.
“Time doesn’t flow in just one direction or speed, and it deals in possibilities. With me so far?”
“It’s the driving principle of timestream theory and timesliding, yes,” Nathan says impatiently.
The Traveler holds up a finger. “My God, you are being really, really bitchy. Is it because of your whole ‘I’d rather talk to your face instead of the projector’ thing? Because I hate to do it, but you’re one of the only people who’s never made a big deal outta my looks, so I’ll turn the thing off if it makes you less pissy.”
He considers it. Now that it’s come up, he doesn’t know why he assumed the handsome face was real. “It would certainly go a long way toward assuring your honesty.”
When the false face flickers out of existence, they sit in silence for several seconds.
It’s more obvious that the marring of this Wade’s face was done by a surgeon’s hand, and that sets off a curl of anger in Nathan’s gut. “Was it Killebrew?” he finds himself asking.
“No. Didn’t get a Killebrew. To make up for it, Cornelius was a little less sane, and tried to stick a lot more mutant powers in me. And a demented-ass Speak-and-Spell in my brain. Apparently, that makes me suitable for saving universes.”
Nathan nods.
The Traveler makes a face. “Okay, moving away from that unhappy little almost-flashback… When I say ‘the Network,’ I mean ‘the Fate Timestream Maintenance Network,’ a huge-ass neural network that keeps the timestream stable. The crystal balls are nodes of that big ol’ neural network, so they’re called ‘Fate Nodes.’ I dunno why the names are so dorky, I didn’t come up with ‘em. Q said ‘Fate’ is spelled out ‘F-473,’ y’know, all leet and junk, so I’m sure it’s supposed to stand for something technical. Anyway, the Nodes can do all kinds of cool shit, including lateral timeslides-slides between alternate universes-and timeline extrapolation-predicting the future. We-me ‘n Jamie,” he clarifies by gesturing to the two of them with his thumb, “-came to your universe to switch on Eight-Ball and add a few security features before we run off to make a certain dimension-hopping baby-killer very dead.”
Nathan frowns. “And why are you doing it?”
“To save the multiverse,” the Traveler replies in a bored tone. “And yeah, because Forecaster promised to take me to meet Bea Arthur when we get done.”
With another nod, Nathan finally relaxes. “I believe you.”
“Oh, thanks, Priscilla, means a lot t’ me…” snorts the Traveler, getting to his feet and picking the Node back up.
Logan looks from one of them to the other. “Jeez, you really have a hell of a love-hate thing with this guy. And he’s seriously your usual boyfriend?”
“Yep. Through most of the multiverse. If a Wade Wilson has a steady man, it’s always a Nate. Now you know why I wanna get this shit over with and go home to our nice no-Nate world.”
Nathan grimaces. “I’ll help. But on one condition.”
The Traveler gives him a deeply suspicious glare. “Well?”
He gathers his courage. “Wade’s mind…isn’t exactly in perfect working order.”
“You say that like it’s news,” grunts Logan, earning a nasty kick to the shin in retaliation.
“I want you to fix it, if it can be fixed.”
After a moment of silence, the Traveler only laughs derisively.
“Please,” Nathan says, gripping the Traveler’s arm tightly.
“Watch the goods, pal,” Logan growls, standing up.
Nathan spares him a glance. “Please, Wade, I don’t beg, but I’m begging you. You know how it is with me-everything I try to fix ends up worse than when I started. He wants to be able to trust himself with Hope. You’ve been to places with technology beyond anything I’ve ever seen…” he says, gesturing toward the Node. “You must have some idea how to fix this.”
Slowly, the Traveler shrugs off Nathan’s hand (bruises of desperation fade from his pale skin like condensation evaporating). “Okay, jeez. Don’t get all weepy on me, Priscilla, you know what your schmoop does to my overall sense of self-worth.” His hand flies over the glass sphere in his hand, tapping and turning and flipping it on his fingers, lighting little symbols all over its surface.
~Really?~ the thing says reproachfully. ~You put me to sleep for all of three minutes?~
“I didn’t feel like dealing with interruptions, Effcee,” snorts the Traveler. “Is there a way to fix whatever’s wrong with WM339’s brain?”
~Clarify WM339,~ it retorts snidely.
“Wade Wilson, you smartass,” the Traveler says, and bounces the thing off the floor with a bell-like chime.
~Ouch, ouch! Violence is not the answer, Wade.~
“Always worked pretty damn well for me. Answer the question, or I’ll chuck you again.”
~Hmph. There’s more than one way to ‘fix’ a brain. Do you want it to work the way it should? Do you want it to work the way it used to? Do you want it to work reeeeeally well?~
“Well?” the Traveler asks Nathan. “Do you want Dumb Wade, Smart Wade, or Evil Genius Wade?”
“I’m not convinced you got the order right,” Nathan huffs. “Can we get it working the way it should?”
The surface of the sphere flashes with lights for a moment.
“Hey, I don’t like that thoughtful pause,” Logan says. “You better not be planning one of yer ‘evasive responses.’”
~For your information, Grumpy Bear, I had to scan Keeper 176’s brain in order to formulate the most accurate response. So nyah. It looks doable. We’ll need the Node. And somebody with laser refractors and particle accelerators and stuff. Y’know, physics-y things. Do you have a moral preference between Tony Stark and Reed Richards?~
“How about neither?” the Traveler grunts.
~You’re being unreasonable, Wade! We need one or the other, so pick one.~
“Tony’s probably busy,” Nathan puts in. “But I think Reed said he had the week freed up for pet projects and family time.”
“Family time,” scoffs the Traveler. “With his parenting skills, there’s not much difference to him being there or not.”
Nathan doesn’t agree, but he knows how futile it is to argue with a Wade who isn’t hostile to him, let alone one that is.
The Traveler points a finger dramatically into the air and flips on his image inducer (or holographic projector or whatever he’s calling it). “To the Baxter Building!”
“To the park,” Nathan corrects.
“Unless you were maybe plannin’ on fixin’ the guy’s brain without him?” Logan adds.
“Beam it out, fix it, beam it back?” the Traveler tries with a shrug. “Like he’d miss it?”
Nathan folds his arms over his chest. “Hope would miss it.”
“Oh, sure, play the adorable-adopted-kid card…” Sulking, the Traveler leads the way out of the building. “Y’know, even the evil versions of her are cute. She does snarky very well. You, you’re just an asshole when you’re evil. Not that Bloodthirsty-BDSM-My-Name-Is-War-But-You-Can-Call-Me-Master Nate from one of the Apocalypse dimensions wasn’t also completely hot…but Nates manage ‘annoying prick’ and ‘sexiest man alive’ simultaneously all over the multiverse.”
“Excuse you, darlin’,” mutters Logan.
But the Traveler just laughs and nudges his companion. “Don’t sweat it, Jamie. You rate at least ‘sexy sturdy fetish toy.’ And you have the added bonus of being less than half the obnoxious jerk Nate is.”
“I apologize for my very existence,” Nathan says with heavy sarcasm.
The Traveler stops and jabs a finger into the flesh side of Nathan’s torso (it’s undoubtedly going to bruise, and Wade is sure to ask odd questions). “You are more officious and interfering than the worst mother-in-law, you are constitutionally incapable of admitting when you’re wrong, you have all the romantic sensibilities of a concussed llama, you’re a boring father and a lousy rescuer, and almost every multiverse incarnation of you that I can think of would only lose the title of ‘world’s worst boyfriend’ to a drunk crackhead polygamist who beat his girlfriends. And you already mentioned your compulsive attempts to fix shit that always end in shit being more fucked up than ever.”
The words sting-even moreso because, from what the Traveler has said, the multiverse doesn’t really give Wade many other options for a lasting relationship. “I don’t think I’m actually that bad,” Nathan protests. “As far as being a bad boyfriend, anyway. I was always a good husband. I’m certainly getting better at the boyfriend part.”
Snorting, the Traveler turns and continues down the sidewalk. “As for the rest of it, there’s a reason none of the Keepers are Nates.”
~Ooh, we used to have one,~ says the crystal ball. ~The one who built the Database.~
“And he constitutes what percentage of total Nates? Go ahead and count all the subject designations separately.”
~Querying the Database…~ the thing says, and twinkles blue. ~Approximately .01%. Yeah, most versions of Nathan Summers, Nathan Dayspring, and Nate Grey have unacceptably high levels of chronometric entropy. Prone to changing their minds and instigating fresh subject diversions.~
“Yes, thank you, whatever-your-name-was,” Nathan sighs.
~I know the introductions were hurried, Nate, but I can’t believe you don’t even remember my name! I’m hurt, I really am. I am Forecaster, a sentient node of the F-473 Timestream Maintenance Network. If it makes you feel better, at least you’re not the version of Nathan Dayspring that made sure Wade died a lonely, pathetic loser by precipitating the near-extinction of the human race.~
“It really doesn’t,” Nathan huffs. “The fact that there is a version of me that would do something like that is very distressing.”
~Well, you made world-saving-endeavors possible by letting your Wade babysit Hope. Yay, the odds of the survival of the human race in this timestream bundle are 31% higher than in neighboring branches!~
“Hey, no spoilers, Effcee,” the Traveler says, shaking the thing slightly. “Don’t need him trying anything dumb…er than usual.”
While they wait for a crosswalk, Nathan draws a deep breath. “So…you’re very knowledgeable when it comes to timestream travel?”
The Traveler glances at him. “Yeah. I’ve heard a lot of lectures about timestream theory. Some from you, some from Forge, some from Hope-and she oughtta know, since apparently timestream theory is all about resonance. Rule number one-a timeline can only be erased by having its resonance phase leveled. In most cases, that means destroying the world or everyone in it. So if you go back in time to try and save the world, it’s a wasted effort, because the world’s already been saved.”
“That doesn’t make a lick o’ sense,” Logan says.
“Jamie, shut up, the future-tech people are talking. Rule number two-exerting a conscious effort to change a known event will actually create a resonance with the event, and tends to cause the event. That’s a reduced-entropy-paradox-thingy, I forget the right term.”
By trying to end Apocalypse’s reign prematurely, Nathan may have somehow ensured it in some timeline. “Wonderful,” he sighs.
“And rule three,” the Traveler says, as the signal changes, “is that stable time loops only matter to people alive on both ends. They happen every day in places with time travel, and the timestream barely even hiccups. Hell, most of the time only the Database Administrator can tell the difference between a subject that’s in a loop and one that’s not.”
“And because of the second rule, he’d only be able to get out of the loop if he had no idea he was in it in the first place?” Nathan guesses.
“Pretty much,” the Traveler confirms. “So when he asks you if he’s in one, the only sensible answer is ‘no.’”
Nathan doesn’t like the sound of that. “Is he?”
“Yes and no. He can’t timeslide. Wades don’t timeslide.”
“You clearly do.”
“I’m defective. It’s a standing rule-it has to do with our construction on the chronometric level, something about stream-spanning limited omniscience, multi-media empires, fanworks, and invisible walls. We’re pretty much all the same resonance, so if we timeslide, we get mixed up with each other. If we want to travel through time or dimensions, we have to use something besides sliding tech. Since he can’t timeslide and I’m pretty sure that’s the only non-magical time travel this place will come up with for a while, he gets to sit still while the timestream loops around him.”
“Oh, no,” Nathan breathes, and he suddenly realizes he’s contributing to the futures he saw.
“Oh, yes. That loop is crucial to the work of Wade’s Node, apparently. It’s fixing a really nasty problem caused by some Bishop besides the one we’re after, and that’ll only happen if it’s here now, in the past, even though it won’t get built for another couple thousand years.”
“There’s no way around it?” Nathan asks, even as the Traveler hurries toward Wade and Hope and Inez (they’re sitting at Alice’s statue with a picnic lunch spread out around her on the mushroom table).
“If there were, and I told you, it’d defeat the purpose,” the Traveler retorts, and knocks on Wade’s skull. “Message for Wade’s Brain: you’re off to see the Wizard.”
“But I don’t like Kansas,” Wade says.
“Borin’ as hell,” says Inez. “Flatter ‘n a coyote on the Interstate.”
“What’s a kai-oat?” asks Hope.
“Like a dog, but dumber.”
But it seems the Traveler is no longer in a patient mood. He sets a hand down heavily on Wade’s shoulder. “Look, pal, that shiny crystal ball is gonna get these nice ladies killed unless we get it locked down ay-sap, and somebody begged me to get your brain fixed first. Let’s go.”
.End.
merianmoriarty has my formal permission to pimp my fics on various comms (if/when i ever abandon deviantART, i'll go ahead and join the comms myself and take care of getting things posted in the right places). no one has permission to re-post this ANYWHERE, but feel free to share or link.
« [Dark Avengers] Alive ●
« [Blood & Tears: 35] Leaving Now ●
« [Dream 22] Airplanes ● Dreams Side Story: Bedtime Story by silvarbelle ● [Dream 24] The Emerald City »