SEASON EIGHT

EPISODE 3: DESTINY
THE SECOND PHASE

By: X_C

 SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER. THESE ARE THE VOYAGES OF THE WWF TITANPRIZE. IT'S MISSION: TO EXPLORE AND ENTERTAIN NEW SOCIETIES AND NEW CIVILIZATIONS.  TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO WRESTLER HAS GONE BEFORE!

TITANPRIZE CREW:

Captain Vince McMahon
First Officer, Commander Shane McMahon
Chief Engineer, Commander Stephanie McMahon
Chief of Chiefs, Commander Linda McMahon
Chief of Security, Commander Kane
Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Taker
Diagnostics Officer, Lieutenant Commander Jericho
Tactical Officer, Lieutenant Commander Austin
Transporter Chief, Lieutenant Commander Debra McMichael
Communications Officer, Lieutenant Rock
Counselor Al Snow (assisted by H.E.A.D.)

... And many more!

FEDERATION SPACE-PLANET EARTH

    The cold slapped him in the face, bit through his synthetic skin. Titanium stiffened as polar winds tried to claw their way through insulated fabric.

    And he thought Kanata had been a frigid planet?

    Jericho took a minute to get his bearings in the stark blue and gray winterland that enveloped the crash site.  Wooded area, a mixture of sharply scented pine and spruce mingling with skeletal trees that had seen better days. Snowflakes as big and puffy as cotton balls dampened his blonde hair, forming drifts and swirling white eddies where they landed.

    "Ow." His positronic net stopped spitting out data as an ice-encrusted branch cut his skin like a razor blade.

    He ignored the blood that was freezing to his skin. The shuttlecraft, a Smackdown-class tactical vessel, did look a little worse for wear, but he'd managed to survive the impact just fine. Then again, he was a nearly indestructible android - human beings were a lot more fragile.

    Oh god.

    "Stephanie!" The shock of the landing wore off. "Steph!"

    The hatch had fused shut, melting into the steel hull from the superheated air outside the wormhole. Jericho  kicked it in. "Commander?"

    "Chris?" Stephanie was pulled to her feet, felt every nerve in her body snapped awake by arctic sleet hitting her skin like a rainshower of little needles. "It's so cold."

    "I know." He stood her against the shuttle. Stephanie's uniform was torn, ripped out at the knees, her pale cheek turning violet. Jericho touched the bruise lightly; he could feel her trembling from the terrible storm that had dropped the temperature to an unbearable low. "Are you-"

    "I'm fine." Stephanie's hand flew to her chest, her breath stolen by the wind. What if it had been dislodged? Damaged? That... thing in her heart could take her at any moment. What if the extreme cold triggered it?

    "Is it your breathing?" He had a tri-corder in his hand. Jericho was so worried, so genuinely afraid. The look in her eyes...it was a place beyond frightened. How could he be feeling this much?

    "God Chris - no!" Stephanie's spine went rigid. "Please don't! I'm alright!" He could never find out. Never.

    "You're right." Jericho frowned as he completed the scan. "Your respiratory system is functioning normally. Guess it's a panic attack over the crash."

    "I don't have panic attacks!" Stephanie said angrily. Her fingers reflexively reached for the scar. Smooth skin, innocent, untouched flesh. It was gone. "The others...?"

    "Speak of the devil." Chris allowed himself a very smug smile as the good Dr. Taker dragged the Olympic Zero through the snow by his shiny gold medals. "He makes a nice snow angel."

    "You're all heart." Stephanie said sarcastically. "Is there a problem, Doc?"

    "Sir, I really must protest at this brutality." Angle complained as he was dumped unceremoniously in a huge pile of frigid slush. "I was merely trying to seek some assistance as we seem to be in an unfortunate plight."

    "Protest this." Dr. Taker wasn't beneath making rude hand gestures. "Your sissy little ass was running away!"

    "Are you trying to tell me I'm Number One, sir?" Kurt asked innocently.

    "Where are we?" Stephanie demanded. Despite the insulated uniform, she was freezing her cute little butt off.

    Jericho was studying his modified tri-corder while a Level 3 diagnostic was initiated and routed through his subsystems. "There's good news and bad news. On a positive note, we are on Planet Earth within the same universe we originated from."

    "And?" Dr. Taker spat.

    "The bad news..." Jericho's voice trailed off. The bad news is that my original emotion chip has suddenly reappeared and I can't handle it. "The bad news is that we've traveled 200 years into the past."

    All four phasers cleared their respective holsters in less than a second as whispers and the sound of rustling metal radiated from the shuttle. Well, except for Ensign Angle, who had to fumble with his weapon before he pointed it towards the noise.

    "Bit inexperienced handling your equipment, Sunshine?" Jericho asked with a smirk.

    "No sir." Angle saluted him smartly.

    What a total dork, Stephanie thought.

    "Although perhaps I could brush up on my weapons training."

    "Who's there?" Taker demanded. "Get your stank little asses out here before the plasma starts to fly!"

    Stephanie's eyes were enormous. "Hunter?"

    "Sweetheart." He smiled faintly.

    Jericho sighed. "Well ain't this just cozy?"

WWF TITANPRIZE-ENGINEERING

    "You're an idiot."

    "Gee thanks Matt." Jeff was squinting at the warp core, the combination of a black eye and flaring blue plasma making it downright painful. "And if I had a credit for everytime someone said that to me, I'd be richer than Captain McMahon."

    "And you're proud of that?" Matt asked. "You know, if you didn't spend so much time goofing around and provoking pretty boy Kanatians to hit you over the head with chairs, you'd probably be in charge of Engineering while Jericho and Steph are away. But oh no." He shook his head. "We've got that creepy Benoit breathing down our necks!"

    "Actually, maybe I'd settle for enough credits to buy you a new sense of humor."

    "Fine Jeff. Be funny. You'll just never be a lieutenant again."

    "As long as Shane McMahon is alive, I'll never be a lieutenant again." Jeff shrugged. "So who cares?"

    "Maybe you should lay off Shane too." Matt couldn't believe the words were even coming out of his mouth. "Lita's gonna just up and walk away if you keep pushing it."

    "Ohhh I get it now." Jeff smirked. "Matty's just jealous cause little brother has a girlfriend and you've only got your computer to keep you warm at night."

    "That's it you little ingrate!" Matt spun around in his chair, no longer entertained by maximizing warp core efficiency. "All you can do is act like a stupid jerk after the sacrifices I've made for you? Dammit, I gave up Lita just so you could be happy and-"

    "You wish!" Big brother should've just slapped him across the face. "She wanted to be with me!"

    "Well I dumped her." Matt said smugly. "So I guess you won by default."

    "Oh well aren't you just so damn noble!" Jeff shot back. "Matthew of Aerialia, Patron Saint of Not Getting Any!"

    "That's it." Matt stood up.

    "You're right that's it." Jeff turned his back on his brother. He'd rather be blinded by the glow of the warp core than look the rotten, nasty, hurtful brat in the eyes. "Do you think I gave up my stars willingly? Did you ever ask yourself why I didn't fight Shane the Pain when he stripped me of my rank? No, you didn't!"

    Matt didn't say anything.

    "I did it to protect your precious career." Jeff said coldly. "Shane would've destroyed you if I hadn't taken the demotion like a good little soldier. Enjoy the guilt trip, big brother."

    "Lieutenant Benoit, you're relieved from Engineering until further notice."

    "What the hell have you done now?" Matt glared at his kid brother. It must have been the prank to end all pranks, because Shane and Vince both had phasers trained on the young Aerialians with Lieutenants Bradshaw and Farooq brandishing baseball bats right behind them.

    "Uhhhh...." Jeff smiled, although his charming grin rarely if ever spared him from revenge. "Geez Shane, I think you're probably overreacting a little here. I mean, those things in your shower are essentially harmless unless they bite you."

    "Don't worry about that, Ensign Hardy." Shane was smiling too. "Lita and I weren't bothered at all."

    "Is there a problem here?" Matt asked quickly. His brother's face was turning dangerously, murderously red.

    "Of course not." Captain McMahon said smoothly. "In fact, I'm giving you a very significant project. If you succeed, I'll promote you both to Lieutenant."

    "Gee, that's awfully kind of you Cap." Jeff said uneasily. "Considering the ugly vibe I'm getting about the whole thing. You're going to shoot us if we refuse aren't you?"

    "No wonder Stephanie thinks you two are so brilliant." Vince beamed. "Very good, Ensign Hardy. As you've probably also cleverly deduced, my daughter and her away team have failed to come back through the wormhole. Dr. Sarin was lying."

    "With all due respect, Captain, Dr. Sarin stated that he had to open the wormhole so you didn't blow up the universe seven days from the time we met him." Matt pointed out. "That means we still have three days before we give up hope on Steph."

    "Your girlfriend is gone, Romeo." Good lord, even Shane thought he was lovey-dovey with his Commander! "We're proceeding with the original plan."

    "Hello Shane!" Jeff waved at him. "Didn't you hear Dr. Sarin? It was your original plan that killed us all! You cannot build that quantum explosive!"

    "You're right Jeff. I can't!" Shane pointed his weapon at that completely loathesome rainbow head. "You and Matt can."

    "No." Matt said firmly. "I won't do it."

    "You don't have a choice!" Shane taunted him. "Do it or die!"

    "Commander McMahon-Helmsley said we should prevent it at all costs." Jeff knew he was betraying Stephanie by revealing her traitorous last order to them, but she'd been so passionate about it...."She believes its suicide to do what you're proposing."

    "Stephanie is not the captain of this ship. I am."

    Farooq and Bradshaw were already setting up a card table with a beer in one hand and a quality Cuban crunched between their teeth. "You know boys, it's awfully hard to work proper when you've got five pounds of boot leather in your-"

    "We know where, Bradshaw." Matt sighed. "We heard about Christian's surgery."

    "That was totally gross." Jeff frowned. "You guys are gonna lose a foot one of these days."

    "I'll keep an eye on them too, Pops." Shane was practically foaming at the mouth with excitement. All they had to do was breathe the wrong way and his itchy trigger finger would just squeeze....

    "Hey you little bitch!" Farooq snapped at the young McMahon. "Get your punk ass over here and open my beer!"

    "Er yes sir Mr. Farooq."

    Matt and Jeff looked at each other. They could not allow this to happen.

    "Your girlfriend's gonna be really mad when she finds out you're working on this." Jeff said. "Stephanie's not a woman you want to cross too often."

    "Jeff?"

    "Yeah Matt?"

    "You're an idiot."

FEDERATION SPACE-PLANET EARTH

    "I cannot believe you stowed away on my shuttle with your cheap blonde trollop!" Stephanie's eyes were blazing so hot that they could've kept them all warm in the frostbitten night. "What is wrong with you, Hunter?"

    "I already told you." The Game scowled. "It was an accident! I was teaching her how to fly - no forget that! Why is it okay for you to drag your little boyfriend along on an Away Mission but I can't even be friends with a beautiful woman?"

    "Jericho is NOT my boyfriend!" Stephanie was screaming at the top of her lungs. Like it mattered. They'd been left to fate in the middle of nowhere with a howling wind that swallowed their voices.

    "Jericho?" Hunter snorted. "That's just plain sick! I'm talking about Kurt Cute over there!"

    "Kurt?" Stephanie shook her head. "Ever hear of the word platonic, dearest? Ensign Angle has too much integrity to pursue a married woman! Which is more than I can say for that silicon doll over there!"

    "I can't believe this" Trish threw up her arms in disgust. Alas, they'd been able to find an insulated uniform for her to pour her voluptuous and, in Stephanie's opinion, nauseatingly fake body into. Oh well, it wasn't like watching someone die of hypothermia was that exciting. "He left you, Stephie! Get over it already!"

    "Oh I'll get over it!" Stephanie lunged. Jericho calmly hooked an arm around her waist while she wriggled and flailed helplessly.

    "I'm sensing a lack of team spirit here." Angle said with a frown.

    "You're about two seconds away from sensing a lack of teeth." Dr. Taker was glaring at him. Again. Stephanie marveled at the way the bitter, brutal cold had no affect on the dead man. She suspected that the blood in his veins surged at considerably less than room temperature to begin with.

    "As much as I'd love to partake in this charming marital spat-" Jericho said dryly. "I think you should all be informed that our wormhole has gone missing."

    "What?" Stephanie stopped struggling. "But - but how are we supposed to return to the Titanprize?"

    "My dear." That insufferably smug, melodic tone....plasma-blue eyes mocking them...Dr. Sarin was a bright splash of color against the bleak gray and brown trees, muscular body dressed up in an ultra-modern ski suit and a gleaming silver disruptor clenched in his gloved hand. "You will never return to your beloved Titanprize."

    Silence as he vaporized their shuttle with one punch on the trigger.

    Dr. Sarin smiled. "Welcome home boys and girls."

PLANET EARTH - NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

    "I can't accept this." Stephanie was staring through the ice and snow crystals that drizzled from the midnight sky. Her boots crunched the matted white precipitation beneath her, a reminder of how she wasn't used to gazing up at stars with her feet firmly on the ground. "I don't care if it is Earth. It's primitive and it sucks."

    Jericho rolled his eyes. Princess had been like this all day, since Dr. Sarin had abandoned them all in the city park with a change of clothes and some cash. Oh yes, and he'd generously added a smirky "Good luck" before prancing off to god knows where. "Wonder where Trip and Trish went."

    "Who cares?" she snapped, stretching out her cold, tired legs. They felt stiff as toothpicks from warming that damn park bench so long. And why wouldn't those stupid happy-go-lucky, free-spirited idiots skating on the frozen pond stop their laughing and carrying on? There was nothing funny or joyous about this whole situation! "What are you snickering about, jerky?"

    "You're almost not ugly when you're mad." Chris told her. God he was such a good liar. One of the perks of making her angry was watching her sweet brown eyes ignite like a new star being born.

    Damn, I really need to shut this thing off. Jericho took a deep breath. Just days ago he'd had to fabricate his sarcasm, his cruel, degrading insults towards Steph....she'd be heartbroken if she knew the emotion chip she and Matt had slaved over didn't function properly.  It's been so long since I felt anything, maybe I don't want to go back.

    "Who is this Sarin character anyways?" Stephanie ignored his crack. "He's obviously some sort of hotshot scientist with access to time travel. He's got his own development company downtown, that Sarin, Inc. If he's this huge, important, influential inventor of temporal technology, why isn't he a famous figure in Wrestlefleet history? And where's the branch of Wrestlefleet Academy that's supposed to be located across from this park?"

    "Goodness, you just used one of Kurt's 3 I's." Come to think of it, where were the dead man and the All-American Moron? "Intelligence. I don't know Steph."

    "We're not in a parallel universe." She sighed, watching a snowflake dissolve against the toe of her shoe, forming a perfect sparkling diamond of water before it disappeared. Stephanie couldn't remember the last time she'd even seen snow or appreciated how pretty it was. "Yet everything is slightly wrong, you know?  I don't see how being trapped here can prevent the universe from being destroyed!"

    "I think it's pretty obvious." Well maybe to him. He was, after all, a perfect, intelligent, gorgeous android. "One of us must cause the quantum explosive to detonate, wiping out all of existence."

    "But I didn't want Daddy to build it!" Stephanie protested. "I wouldn't have let him blow the whole damn universe apart! None of us would allow that!"

    "Let me search my memory banks, sweetie." Jericho didn't need her causing a scene. They were supposed to blend in, act natural, get on with their lives. He certainly didn't want to capture the attention of an ambitious scientist who might get funny ideas about cutting him into little pieces or something.

    Dr. Sarin hadn't been impressed at all. I've got top secret projects in my lab that make you look like scrap, Mr. Jericho!

    "Oh god we were all so stupid!" Stephanie buried her face in her hands. "So eager to get back to Federation space, we just blindly fly into this psycho's wormhole! We didn't even check his references for pete's sake!"

    Chris didn't say anything as he went through the motions of an internal scan. She was right. They'd been incredibly stupid and naive. There was only one mention of the name Sarin in Wrestlefleet history, a whisper of a footnote really....

    Good god. The gory details could never go past his positronic net. "He should've died a penniless, eccentric scientist who was notorious for his failure to "discover" inter-dimensional travel. He was a crank, a total nut."

    Stephanie mulled this over. "Then......as crazy as this sounds....if the past has been altered, then so has the future."

    "Dr. Sarin has changed the future." Jericho felt himself flinch. Like any good Wrestlefleet officer, he'd been programmed with the idea that you just didn't screw with the timeline or mess with the natural order of the universe. "He's lied to us about something."

    "Where's Dr. Taker?"

    "I don't think we want to know sweetie."

    "We should find a place to stay and-" Stephanie shot him a dirty look. "You're laughing that laugh again. What's your problem?"

    Jericho smiled. "Those earmuffs are adorable."

    Stephanie clapped her hands over the fuzzy pink muffs, her face flushing to match. "I didn't pick them out you know."

    "I guess Dr. Sarin noticed your big ears too. He got the extra-large size so you didn't get frostbite."

    "Suck plasma slimebot!" Stephanie was ready to stomp off. Wait....better yet....She giggled with mischievous delight as the snowball hit his nose with a satisfying SPLAT!

    "You brat!" But he was laughing too. "Revenge!"

    "Chris!" She gasped, suddenly realizing why you didn't pick snowball fights with robots that possessed superhuman strength. The ball of slush that left his hand nearly dislocated her delicate little shoulder.

    He stood over her. "You wuss."

    "Wuss?" She kicked his legs out from underneath him, savoring the pleasure of watching him land face-first in the snow. "Who's the wuss now, Chrissie?"

    "Nice drop toehold sweetie. I didn't even see that coming."

    "Matt taught me." Stephanie beamed with pride. "God, I miss him."

    "Hardy?" Jericho sat up and brushed the damp out of his long blonde hair. "So you guys were-"

    "No!" She shook her head. "God no. He's in love with Lita. It's just that he took me seriously you know, didn't hold back teaching me how to fight or treat me with kid gloves. We share something - never mind." Chrissie was not going to find out about her once-damaged heart. It didn't matter now.

    His eyes narrowed. Matt and Steph shared something? Something special and secret? How nice for them!

    "Hey." She wore an apology in her smile as she helped brush snow off his jacket. "I haven't had anything nourishing in hours. I say we forage for food and drink now."

    "Forage?" He grinned. "Geez Steph. It's Canada 200 years ago, not the era of the caveman."

    "Sorry." They were walking towards the wonderful, sweet scent of hot chocolate. "How quaint - they actually sell this stuff outside! I guess two centuries ago only the really wealthy had replicators. Hey."

    Stephanie was starting to accept her surroundings as reality....noticing the little details her eyes had stubbornly denied before. The playful laughter of couples on the pond, their skates whistling against the mirror-like ice, the lilting melody of old-fashioned Christmas carols, the majestic pines circling the park decked out in red ribbons and white lights....She felt like she was trapped in some sugary sweet holiday greeting card.

    "Hey Chris....I thought Canadians celebrated Boxing Day?"

    "Kanatians do." Jericho said. "And as you know, it was Canadian space explorers who first settled my home planet in the year-"

    "Cut the 'bot talk."

    "I got no idea why Canadians are celebrating Christmas, sweetie. Used to be a big deal in the galaxy until a century before you were born..." Jericho was carefully counting out some of the cash Sarin had seen fit to bless them with, glad his positronic net was capable of rapid calculations. He didn't need their cover blown cause he couldn't figure out the currency. "Guess it's all part of that altered past thing we're stuck in. Um, two hot chocolates please."

    "Little marshmellows for your girlfriend?"

    Stephanie's mouth fell open. Jericho just smirked. "Oh yeah. Sugar muffin loves those. And extra whipped cream to make it as sweet as her."

    "Stop calling me that!" she hissed, eyes ablaze as she punched him on the arm.

    "Having a spat, eh?" Cocoa Man was winking in a way that was about to earn him a black eye courtesy of Commander McMahon-Helmlsey's fist. "You just make sure and buy this one something nice for Christmas. Romantic gifts always win a girl over."

    "She's got me." Chris was actually winking back. Freaking men. "What more can a girl ask for?"

    "Oh I don't know." Stephanie smiled through clenched teeth. "The plague maybe?"

    "Ouch! Guess you're really in the doghouse!"

    "Thank-you!" Stephanie spilled half her whipped cream on the ice as she stood fuming at the edge of the skating rink. "God, you really enjoyed yourself over there didn't you Chrissie?"

    "Oh come on." Jericho tousled her hair. She flinched. "Made ya mad didn't I?"

    "Grow up." Stephanie hated him, she hated him sooo much. Pretending to be her boyfriend... it wasn't a game she wanted to play.

    "Whipped cream on your nose." Chris moved to brush it away.

    "Don't!" Her heated glare stopped him dead.

    "God you're such a wench." Jericho sighed. "Lighten up a little. It's the holiday season." She was still scowling. "You wanna skate?"

    "Don't know how." Stephanie said with a toss of her hair. It shimmered in the pale yellow light of the streetlamps, another one of those little gestures that stuck in his mind and took his breath away when he least expected it. "And besides...I'm very busy drinking my hot chocolate as you can see."

    Chris removed the mug from her hand. "If Matt Hardy can teach you how to do a drop toehold, I can sure as heck teach you how to skate."

    "I'd rather let Matt Hardy kick my ass than skate with you."

    "Greetings lovebirds." Jericho froze. So did Steph. They both knew what a cold phaser in the back felt like. "You are cordially invited to attend a ball honoring the latest scientific triumph of Dr. Sarin. I'll be your driver for the evening."

    "Sorry pal." Jericho caught the man's reflection in the ice - dressed in black from head to toe like a walking shadow. "We've made other plans."

    "I think this one would lose her pretty little head if you refused." Stephanie whimpered as she felt warm plasma against her neck. "I do hope you'll give the good doctor the pleasure of your company."

    "I wouldn't miss it for the world."

UNKNOWN TIME, UNKNOWN LOCATION

    A cold, dark place. Endless night. Behind one shadow was another and so on and so forth. Hiding places  for invisible monsters and demons and tortured souls, a million of their voices swirling together into one point of ominous black light and sound.

    They were afraid. Violently so.

    "The man was meant to die. He will destroy the timeline. He will destroy all time."

    Dr. Sarin smiled. The void grew colder. "The girl was meant to die. The future will be recreated in my image."

    "I must be spared." Stephanie was different now. Her eyes were hard and black and full of fire. "I will live. My life is your redemption. You will be forgiven for violating the timeline."

    "Wait just a damn minute!" Taker shook his head, wanting to clear the ghosts away. He remembered...."You lied to me! All of space-time will die because I allowed her to live. You told me that!"

    "We are not capable of lies. You have violated the timeline. You should be punished."

    "But I've got a second chance? Make up your damn minds!"

    "No!" Dr. Sarin cried. "The girl must die as she was meant to die the first time. It is destiny that I alter the future and change the past. Wrestlefleet must not exist. You must not exist!"

    "The man will destroy the Universe. He does not understand. We thought he could be changed. He has betrayed us and we will die."

    "You can't die!" Taker looked into the darkness and knew that darkness was immortal.

    "We have always existed. We have never existed. The future is being altered."

    "How?"

    "I am willing to die." Taker's head whipped around. Unbelievable. Ensign Hardy was stoic, unblinking. "You must never allow me to carry out Captain McMahon's orders."

    "That boy has nothing to do with this!"

    "That boy must not be sacrificed." Dr. Sarin's eyes were wild. He was slipping over edges that weren't there, falling away from reality.

    "Save Stephanie." Taker felt like young Jeffrey's stare deep inside him, the truth of it crawling over his soul. A soul that belonged to them. "Sacrifice me. There is no other way. The Captain does not understand what he's created."

    "The Captain is a fool!" Dr. Sarin addressed the boy. That wasn't right. The messengers never spoke to one another. The past and future were being altered and the Powers were losing control. "He can destroy all of existence until my time. Then I will recreate the future in my image!"

    "I cannot allow it." The ensign said. "Stephanie must be spared. She will kill me and the timeline will remain unchanged."

    "I-" Stephanie hesitated. No. The darkness became a thing, one of the demons. It started to suffocate, choke, deceive.....they were not supposed to question, to feel. It was wrong. "I won't kill you."

    You didn't refuse them. They were being defied, losing control.

    "You will." Jeff said quietly. "You must. You have."

    "The girl will be saved. We will be saved. You will be forgiven."

    "Do you remember me, Doctor?" Sarin had turned on him. "You will not stop me this time!"

    "I'll be damned!" Taker hadn't lost even a second of his own existence, not that this particularly memory was all that significant in the grand scheme of things. "You still messing with time, boy? You weren't good at it then, and you ain't much better at it now!"

    "I'll see you in hell!"

    He felt Dr. Sarin's hands around his throat, squeezing and twisting......

    The cold shocked him awake, his body buried in an premature tomb of ice and snow. Somebody was digging the frigid layers of slush away....

    "Are you alright, good doctor?"

    Taker shook the damp away from his new leather jacket. The son of a bitch was gonna suffer a little extra if it got ruined. "Not quite Angle."  He kicked the Olympic twit in the behind. "Now I do."

    "That was perhaps a bit too much intensity, sir." Kurt was limping now.

    Taker didn't answer. So....Sarin had left him an irritating phaser burn in his back and the hope that he'd just  freeze and rot out in the wooded fringe of the forest. Only one problem with that plan.

    Once something was dead, you didn't kill it again.

PLANET EARTH - NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

    "Ensign Angel certainly puts a big old smile on your face doesn't he?" Jericho had watched them together with eyes narrowed like a snake's, the feeling that burned inside just as predatory and poisonous. He hadn't been with real emotions in so long...he just needed time....time to learn how to control them again.

    What a lie. He was just jealous as hell.

    Everything else had melted away, the balloons and streamers, the glittering marble floor of the ballroom, the soft lights that danced among the pretty and rich...it all had blurred away, leaving one picture, one moment.

    Stephanie in her filmy white dress, laughing like a dark-haired angel in Kurt's arms. The All-American Zero scores.

    "Shove off slimebot." Sparkling champagne tingled at the back of her throat, softening the dull ache behind her eyes, making muscles tense and tight as piano wire fluid again. She sighed. "Kurt's a friend. He's a gentleman. he's a good listener. What he is not is my true love."

    "Right. Have a few more and maybe you'll believe that." Chris shot a look at the bartender that dared to him to just try and serve Steph another one.

    "You know what Chrissie?" Stephanie slammed her glass down on the bar, making a few of Sarin's well-dressed scientist buddies look their way. She didn't care. "This is ridiculous."

    "Hey!" Princess had yanked his neat blonde ponytail loose.

    "You look like an idiot with that thing." she muttered. "Did you get that little gem from Jeff, cause let me tell you Chrissie, he doesn't look that swift in it either."

    "I think he's cute."

    "I'll tell him that when we get back. You two would make the sweetest couple."

    "Steph..." He took his foot and twirled her barstool around so she had to face him. "I'm being a jerk alright? If you wanna date Kurt, fine. I mean, hey, it's quite obvious from the game of kissy face going on across the room that Trip has moved on."

    "Oh yeah." Stephanie exhaled sharply. "Trishy. So Hunter prefers scantily clad skanks. How nice for him."

    "Don't worry sweetie." Jericho smiled at her. "You'll always have the comfort of knowing he'll never find anyone as skanky as Stephanie McMahon. You'll always be the first skank in his life-"

    He expected a well-deserved slap across his gorgeous face.

    She laughed in that way that reached her eyes, made them shine. "Kurt, he just stands there and tells me how pretty I am, thinking it'll make me feel better. But you...you.....goodness you look just like a big blonde penguin."

    "You look like you should be out on the corner paying your pimp off."

    Stephanie grinned. "I need to tell you something Chris."

    "I thought we discussed that already." Jericho self-consciously straightened his red bow-tie. Did he really look that bad in a tux? "Even though I am an android, it's still physically impossible for me to perform that act on myself."

    "Listen to me." Stephanie closed her eyes, wishing the right words would magically appear. "I... don't hate you, Chris."

    Jericho forgot to breathe for a second. "Stephie....can I get that in writing?"

    "Have a good evening, Lt Commander." She threw enough money on the bar to cover both their drinks. Made her feel good, knowing he owed her a little something.

    "Don't you walk away from me." Chris said angrily, his fingers digging into her wrist until she whimpered. "Does it hurt Steph? Does it?"

    "No!" He could've broken her wrist for all she cared. He wasn't getting the satisfaction of a single tear.

    "Please." Chris flung her hand away. "Of course it does. It's exactly what you want, too. For some insane reason you've got this idea in your head that people will only pay attention to you if you act like a spoiled stupid brat! You think that if someone is abusing you it's better than nothing! I bet a part of you even gets off  everytime Hunter tries to murder you because hey, at least if he's got his hands around your throat, he's touching you!"

    "Psychoanalysis from a man with a silicon chip for a heart!" Stephanie laughed coldly.  "Delightful."

    "I don't hate you, Stephanie." Jericho said quietly. "But I don't think you know how to deal with that."

    "Attention people!" Dr. Sarin was clapping his hands as he made graceful strides across the enormous stage. The effect of his startling blue eyes so radiant with triumph beneath the theatrical lighting hypnotized the crowd into silence. "Today is a great today in the history of Sarin, Inc. It is also a great day in the history of Planet Earth!"

    The crowd cheered. There was something disconcerting about the feverish glow in some eyes; they were certainly carried away for a bunch of supposedly rational, clinical scientists.

    "In eight hours, our glorious revolution will finally see its ultimate reward. Wrestlefleet, perhaps the most cowardly, narrow-minded, insidious force this universe has ever seen, will finally be wiped from existence. They will know the price of trying to stop scientific advancement seconds before they die!"

    Stephanie clutched Jericho's hand.

    "In eight hours, destiny will finally be realized. As it always has been, two ingenious little Ensigns aboard the Titanprize will successfully complete the quantum explosive."

    "No." Steph shook her head. "Matt and Jeff - they wouldn't! I asked them not to! They know it's wrong!"

    "Well I'll bet they've got Shane breathing down their necks with a phaser set to kill in his hot little hands."

    "Daddy and Shane....no Chris. No. They can't be that stupid."

    "Theoretically, it can work." Jericho told her. "But obviously it doesn't. Look Steph, we didn't come back through the wormhole. They think there's no other way. Vince is desperate to get his crew home."

    "In his pathetic desperation to return his crew to Federation Space, Vincent Kennedy McMahon detonates this bomb inside an unstable black hole." Dr. Sarin was gloating. Stephanie wanted to murder him. "It's a beautiful explosion, just beautiful! Our sworn enemy creates a fatal cosmic event so massive it rips space and time apart until this very point in history. Ours becomes the only timeline, we create the future, and those who controlled the continuum before cease to exist!"

    "Nobody controls time." Jericho shook his head. Something was wrong...."One of us must stop the explosion! That's why he lured us into the wormhole and then sealed it shut. Sarin's attempted this before and one of us always stands in his way."

    "And once the future is gone, we never have the chance to prevent this again." Stephanie whispered "He's perfected his scheme."

    "It is impossible to stop fate now." Dr. Sarin smiled down at his followers, at the people who'd no doubt helped him construct this horror.  "My friends, prepare to embrace the end of their time and the beginning of ours!"

    "We should really find Dr. Taker!" Jericho had to shout to be heard over the mindless cries of loyalty. Brilliant scientists rejoicing in the fact they were about to send two hundred years of existence into oblivion....god he was going to be sick. "I think he knows more about this than he's - Steph? Stephanie?"

    She was gone.

    "You bastard!" Stephanie cut through the black-clad entourage of bodyguards and followers like a bolt of lightning. It took three muscular arms to restrain her and even then she fought like a wildcat. "Stop! You are gonna listen to every damn word I have to say!"

    "Ma'am-you need to back off!"

    "Wait." Dr. Sarin turned to face her. At the base of  the marble staircase hovered an onyx-colored stretch limo powered by visible plasma thrusters. Stephanie recognized it because Daddy had one just like it in his antique car collection back in Greenwich. Daddy.....

    "Mrs. McMahon-Helmsley." His smile was charming as cancer. "I'm very sorry for what must  happen to your family, your friends, but you must understand-"

    "Shove your apologies you egomaniacal, power-hungry slime!" Stephanie's face was red, the heat flushing her face intense enough to melt ice. "You're not sorry! How dare you! Do you know what it would do to my father if he knew about the people he was killing? You could stop this but you don't!"

    "Do you know how lucky you are, little girl?" Sarin's eyes glittered with rage. He was not often challenged, especially by impertinent children. "You and your friends will survive because of me!" He shook his head sadly. "You don't even realize do you? When you came through the wormhole, there was minor temporal flux, a shift of sorts. Aren't you even wondering where your... heart problem went?"

    "No, I'm really not."

    The smile returned. "There's always a time-shift when you come through a wormhole of a temporal nature. Technically, your moment of crossover into this time period occurred before the heart device was implanted. Just boggles the mind doesn't it?"

    "No!" Stephanie snapped. "I am an Engineer! I do know how wormholes work!"

    "Then you'll understand that returning to the future would also return your very deadly heart condition. You've been given a new lease on life, Mrs. McMahon-Helmsley. Enjoy."

    "Stephanie! What in god's name are you doing?" Jericho pulled her from the web of security she'd become ensnared in. "Are you crazy?"

    "I'm not the crazy one." She seethed as Dr. Sarin winked at her and escaped into his cozy little luxury craft.

    "Driver." Sarin removed his leather gloves and reached for a bottle of fiery amber liquid from the wet bar. Confrontation did make him so thirsty. "Once you've dropped me off, make certain the girl is killed. Do make it painful if you have the time." Ice - he needed ice. "She has a smart mouth on her."

    "Where to, Doc?" Cold, gray eyes and a smile so morbid it sent a shiver of fear through his bones.  The man laughed an evil laugh.

    Death had come for Sarin again.