where you're safe from all that hunts you down [bobby + john]

[sharklighter]

but the world has gone, where you belong
and it feels to late so you're moving on
can you find your way back home

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[sharklighter]

Look, it's not like John meant to break the timeline. (If he'd known that was possible he almost certainly would have tried for funsies, but that's neither here nor there.) It just happened! It's not his fault!

He'd been innocently about to burn down a government laboratory that had been doing research into how to suppress certain mutant powers, he'd been flicking his lighter and everything, and then all of a sudden a bunch of sci-fi looking assholes had poured out intangible doorways and had hauled him through to the universe's worst office building, where the sanctity of the timeline had been explained to him. If you burn down that building, some dipshit named Mr. Infinity had condescendingly explained, then a certain two people never meet, never fall in love, never produce a child, and that child never goes on to prop up your entire timeline.

Like I give a shit, John had drawled, which had apparently thrown a wrench into their plan, aka, Convince John Not To Ruin The Timeline And Then Send Him Back. He'd been so spectacularly uncooperative that he'd gotten the boot right into a whole new dimension.

It hadn't taken him long to find people. There'd been an endless cornfield, and then a desert, and he'd gotten rounded up by raiders straight out the latest Mad Max. Who, by the way, had a not insignificant number of Magneto's people, including Sabertooth and Toad from different timelines, so. John kinda figures he's meant to be here. Kismet, or whatever the fuck those self-help books talk about. The woman who looks uncannily like Xavier sticks her fingers in his head, Sabertooth growls at him (just like old times!), and just like that, he's a member of the team.

That was a month ago.

Since then, John has leveled the fuck up. His jeans and t-shirt weren't exactly cutting it in the desert. Now he looks suitably like a raider; knee-padded pants with way more pockets than a guy could ever need, long jacket, hood, scarf-mask, everything to keep the sand out. The only problem is, this shit isn't nearly as satisfying as actually fighting for mutant rights, since all they're doing is consolidating power under Cassandra. Eh, it's a job, though, right? He has food and shelter and time to figure out how the fuck to get back home.

He'd never imagined he'd see anyone more familiar than Sabertooth and Toad. Definitely not any of Xavier's lot. Because they're probably too good and pure to corrupt the timeline, but apparently not, because a day and a month after he gets shoved into the void, John comes across a very fucking familiar figure at the edge of the desert. It's a hot day, the sun baking everything in range, scorpions skittering under any rock they can find. The Avenger's helicarrier isn't far, putting off even more heat from the reflection of its metal exterior.

"Holy shit," he chuckles, thumbs in his pant pockets, boots dug into the sand as he surveys a clearly disoriented Bobby Drake. "Look what the fucking office nerds dragged in."

so sorry for the late 😭

[bobsicle]

Bobby's disoriented, alright. One minute he's in the TVA, then the next he's here. He was just about to protest, that he wasn't the one responsible for the inevitable shift in the timeline and that this is a false accusation when they just zapped him here, into this desert.

"Hey wait-!" He calls out, but nothing. He's now just suddenly stuck here in the middle of nowhere. And in a desert, no less, where his powers are usually the weakest. Bobby calls out once, twice, for anyone who can find him, anyone who knows him. His outfit isn't built for a desert either - just a button down and jeans.

"Hey, you got the wrong guy!"

Well, that didn't work. Not a single soul in sight.

As he tries to walk to wherever he can go in this vast desert, minutes ticked by. And after what seemed like a few hours of aimless walking, he's becoming more and more disoriented and tired from the heat. He does keep himself cool, though, at least, so he doesn't have to sweat so much. Controlling his body temperature right now is the only thing he can do so he won't exert too much effort in this dry heat.

After a while, though, he hears someone approaching, and it's almost as if he's seeing a mirage of someone in all black with the face of -

"John?"

DON'T EVEN WORRY ABOUT IT

[sharklighter]

The truth about John's world is this: he could be a cool lone wolf right about now, striking out on his own, probably living in some shack that used to be some movie studio sign. But while he's always had a complicated relationship with authority, the reality is that he tends to fall in line when that authority praises him -- and Cassandra had cooed at him while she stuck her fingers in his brain, called him a good soldier and you could burn down the world if you wanted. He knows this about himself only in the haziest, most unacknowledged of ways, and so he's doomed to never admit it or change the better.

So, he's forced to contemplate the idea of bringing Bobby to Cassandra.

"Yep. Hi again," he drawls, and doesn't spare any time introducing Bobby to the concept of the multiverse and all the shit that entails. "Looks like you either fucked up the timeline or were about to. Third option is that you were just pruned because you're useless."

(He doesn't think the third option is the right one. Bobby's many things, but useless he is not.)

John pulls down his face-scarf, revealing an amused little smirk. "Congrats, popsicle. Maybe you've got more rebel in you than I thought."