The fog seemed to swallow up everything.
Lyndon didn't know how long he'd wandered, he didn't even know where he was, or how he had gotten there. He'd been in his room at the hospital, hadn't he? He'd been in his bed, like he'd been every day for the past few weeks, and then... and then...
Lyndon...
The voice was there, somewhere out in the fog. Calling to him.
Lyndon shook his head, trying to remember what he'd been thinking about just now. But he couldn't quite recal what it...
I'm here, Lyndon...
That voice, it seemed different now. Lighter, softer, it sounded like... like HER voice! But that was impossible, wasn't it? She was dead. Dead dead deadeadeaddead... They hadn't saved her, they'd let her die, left him all alone to slough through the endless days without her. She was gone, but he was still here. No matter how much he wished otherwise.
"Right here, Lyndon..."
Lyndon turned around, startled, the voice had come from right behind him this time. He focused, trying to see through the fog all around him. Just ahead of him, he could make out a figure of someone standing amid the green vapors, coming closer.
And then the mist parted
"I'll always be with you right here, Lyndon..."
She was so beautiful, just as he remembered her. Her dress torn and bloodied, her skin pale and lifeless, her head hanging to the side from her broken neck. A wide smile stretched across her face, showing jagged, sharp teeth through blood red lips as she spoke. "They have to pay, Lyndon. They have to pay for what they did to me. To us. Couldn't save me. Couldn't save you where it mattered. You'll make them pay, won't you Lyndon?"
Lyndon stumbled as he ran to her, taking her cold and bloodless hand in his own, pressing it to his forehead "Anything for you. Anything. Just don't leave me again. Please, never leave again, Ladybird..."
"Never leave you, Lyndon. I'll stay here with you forever. Forever and ever and ever..."
.....
"Okay, I'm still not sure exactly what you expect me to do about this. Or even why you want me doing it, I've never even MET this Nightmare guy! Thor fought him, I fought that creep in the burlap sack"
"While he despises Thor, Nightmare particularly blames you for foiling his plans to invade the real world on Halloween Night" Strange says. He's switched positions, hovering in the air in front of my bed, sitting in a lotus position as he speaks. "You defeated his servant and destroyed his mystical conduit, leaving him without any way of affecting the physical world, no way of channeling his power into it."
"So, what's the problem then? If he's stuck in that Dream place-"
Strange shakes his head solemnly "He simply lost his ability to affect the physical world, but in his own domain, he remains as powerful as ever. Nightmare is an embodiment of the sleeping minds of humanity, and while for the most part, he's limited to simply tormenting humanity with night terrors, under certain circumstances, he can gain direct access to the human mind. Minds that have been weakened by trauma and tragedy are especially susceptible to his control. And there is one such mind in particular he's set his sights on."
"...it's not me, is it? Because I'm fairly certain I'm not traumatized. Not more than usual anyway."
"No, but it's someone you have a connection to. One of the people you saved during the Dallas attack, Vice President Johnson. His body has begun to heal, but his mind was shattered by the attack and the loss of his wife, and now, Nightmare seeks to corrupt him for his own purposes..."
Fuck. A Vice-President with a brain full of magic nightmare visions. That's not good. "Okay yes, that does sound bad. But why do you need me? You're the damn Sorceror Supreme, I don't even know how to do a card trick, why are you even wasting time here?! Get the creeps grubby mitts out of Johnson's head!"
"Again, it's-"
"-not that simple" I finish his sentence with an annoyed sigh "I have a feeling I'll be hearing a lot of that. Fine, so for whatever mumbo jumbo reason, you need me to go in there and do your job for you, because, and I'm just guessing here, Nightmare has a particular hate-boner for me, so I'll make an effective spoiler in the dream world or whatever."
Strange merely stares at me, as morose as always "Crude, but somewhat accurate. Will you help?"
"What, like I'm going to say no? I can't exactly let Lyndon Johnson go back to work with Nightmare tugging on his strings, it's bad enough that he has to interact with J. Edgar Hoover. So, how we do this? Do I have to fall asleep again? Because this has been pretty stressfull, so it'd probably take a while."
"Unecessary. Simply gaze into the Mystical Eye of Agamotto" Strange runs his hand over the medallion around his neck, and the metal begins to glow, followed by the decorative eye in the middle suddenly sliding open! There's a flash of light, and then...
Things begin to...change... and the world melts away...
.....
He was in charge now, and everyone knew their place and did what they were told, and no one could ever hurt his family again.
President Johnson sat at his desk in the Oval Office, his beloved wife at his side as always. She really had been the best support a man of his position could ask for. It was a tough job, being in charge of the United States, he'd had to make hard decisions, things he'd never thought he would have to do, but she'd helped him through, made him realize that sometimes, you had to break a few eggs to get results.
Though, sometimes, it seemed strange, Ladybird had always been so opposed to violence, always telling him to look for other ways to solve a problem than through force, but now, sometimes it almost seemed like she relished in it. Like she enjoyed the pain it caused. But that couldn't... couldn't...
What had he been thinking about again?
"Mr. President, did you hear me?" Lyndon shook his head, turning his attention back to Director Hoover who was standing in front of his desk, where he had been the whole time of course.
"Sorry, Hoover, I was drifting, you were saying?"
"We've finished the investigation into Martin Luther King Jr, and my recommendation is that we proceed as planned, once he's been eliminated, my agency estimate that his supporters will quickly lose steam once their leader is gone. We can finally stamp down these damned agitators once and for all and have them learn their place! We just need your approval for the go-ahead!"
"I... I'm not sure-"
"Go ahead, Lyndon..." Ladybird said, her hand placed on his shoulder in support "It's for the best, don't you think? Sometimes, you have to terrible things for the greater good..."
"Sir..." McNamara was in front of the desk. Wait, where had Hoover gone? Wasn't he just here? "Bolivar Trask says the Sentinel program is ready to begin construction, we're just awaiting your budget approval. The Joint Chiefs of Staff have agreed that the direct extermination route is more cost-effective than the original detainment camps. Once the Sentinel fleet is completed, we estimate that it will take less than a year to permanently deal with America's mutant problem. We can get rid of the mutant threat and deal with any troublesome vigilantes in one move!"
"You know they deserve it, Lyndon" Ladybird was leanign closer now, her face right next to his, so close he could almost feel the coldness of her bloodless skin "Why should the masked freaks get to walk around among decent folks? Like they were better than anyone else? Like they were really heroes? They couldn't save me, could they? Couldn't save the one person you can't live without. They don't even deserve to be called heroes, nothing but liars and failures and a danger to the whole country! You can show them all, show them what happens to frauds in your America!"
Lyndon felt his doubts begin to fade away. She was right, of course she was right! She'd never steered him wrong before! Yes, it was time to be a real leader, to do the things that fucking commie Kennedy never had the balls to do! He'd do things right, set the whole country straight, show what happened when you stepped out of line, didn't know your place in society! No more silk gloves, they were done playing nice with all the traitors and punks who thought they knew better than the U.S government. It was time the world learned who really ran things! He'd-
"Seriously man, are you actually falling for this act? For gods sake dude, her head is on backwards!"
Lyndon looked up in surprise as he felt Ladybird recoil next to him. An inhuman voice spoke through her lips.
"YOU!!"
Leaning against the office door, which Lyndon was sure hadn't opened once as long as he'd been in the room, was Mr. Sunshine, looking the same as Lyndon remembered from their brief meeting in Dallas that fateful day.
"Mr. Vice-President. We only seem to meet under very unpleasant circumstances.